And for the better execution of the premises, we will and command to all and singular our Justices, Barons of our Exchequer, and to our Serjeants-at-Law, Attorney and Solicitors-General, and to all other our ministers and officers whatsoever, that the said Governors, Assistants and Society, and all and every person and persons being of the same Society, or being any factor or agent of their or any of their business, shall have and enjoy all the benefit of these Presents from and after the said seventeenth day of September, in the said seventh year of the reign of the said late Queen, and that our said Justices, Barons, Serjeants, Attorney, Solicitor and other our Officers or Ministers aforesaid, or any of them, do not receive, allow, or suffer to be prosecuted in any of our Courts, any action, information, suit or process against the said Governors, Assistants or Society, or any other the person or persons aforesaid, and their factors or agents aforesaid, or any of them, for or touching any matter or thing in or by these Presents granted, any act or law, statutes or ordinances aforesaid whatsoever, to the contrary hereof notwithstanding, and as they tender the performance of our good pleasure in this behalf, and will answer for the contrary at their peril, although express mention, &c. In witness whereof, &c. *Tradition gives the Site of these important Works to the banks of the River Neath, and after much enquiry and local examination I have come to the conclusion that the premises east and near the present Neath Abbey Railway Station, now occupied by the Mines Royal Works, are on the identical spot *In Lord Dynevor's private Act, 1st Vict., cap. xxvi., "The Mines Royal" taking is thus described in the schedule:-" Cadoxtan j. Neath, Mines Royal Copper Works and Lands, comprising several parcels of arable, pasture, and wood lands and gardens and cottages, together with sundry lands, part of which are in the hamlet of Duffryn, Clydach. 82a. Or. 30p.-£300, in Duffryn, Clydach, 16. 3. 16.”—G. G. F. where those works were first planted by Customer Smyth and partners, and to which his loving servant Ulrick Frosse wended his way in the autumn of the year 1584. On examining the premises under the kind auspices of Mr. William Edmond, the manager, he pointed out to me where, during some alterations of the works, he discovered the foundations of small ancient furnaces full three feet under the floor of the present works; further he pointed out the old House of the Managers still standing in the very centre of the smoke and exhalations from the works; though but a poor small residence as it would now be thought, it was evidently pretentious in its day, the jambs of the door and windows being enriched with "blockings" in the plaster work. This residence is reported to have been built for the first of the Places (who were for three generations its resident managers) about 17? In various walls of the works are dates cast in slagg or cut in native stone slabs, and I quote the following from sketches taken from the originals when examining the premises in 1865.-M.R. 1759-M.R.Co. 1799 — M.R.C. 1800-M.R.C. 1805. These important Companies were from the first patronized by Royalty and the nobility; William and the two Phillips (Father and Son) Earls of Pembroke, having been Governors; they were followed by Prince Rupert* and the Lord Ashley Cooper, who were succeeded by the Marquis of Halifax, who died in the year 1700. The Deputy Governors appear to have been chiefly taken from the rank of Knights, amongst whom many celebrated names appear, but few more interesting can be selected than that of Sir John Pettus, Kt., * It was this Governor who presented the interesting Portrait of the Foundress (Queen Elizabeth) by Zucchero, which so long adorned the board-room. It has recently been given to the National Portrait Gallery, in South Kensington Museum, where I have myself seen it.-G. G. F, who distinguished himself by several important metallurgical works, and particularly by his translation of that of the German Metallurgist, Erckern, of whose character the following excerpts will give a fair impression and some knowledge. In 1683, Sir John Pettus, of Suffolk, Knight, and for 30 years previous, a Deputy Governor of the Mines Royal Company, in his translation of the Assays of Lazarus Erckern, Chief Prover, or Assay Master of the Empire of Germany, dedicates his book to the Right Honourable George Marquess, Earl, Viscount Halifax, Baron of Eland, Lord Privy Seal, and Governor of the Society of the Mines Royal and Battery Works, and writes, "That the Government of Mines was a trust of great concern; for, from antient records, I find that Edward the IV. made Richard Earl of Warwick, and John Earl of Northumberland; and King Henry the VII. made Jasper, Duke of Bedford, and other Lords, Guardians and Governors jointly, of all His Mines in England, adding Wales; and Queen Elizabeth, in the 10th of Her reign, did form the Government thereof into Societies by the names of Governors, Deputy Governors and Assistants for the Mines Royal and Battery Works, and made Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper, and other eminent persons her Governors for England and Wales (adding those within the English Pale in Ireland), which Government did continue successfully to the Earls of Pembroke, and others for some years, and after His late Highness Prince Rupert was made a Governor, and your Lordship to our contentment doth succeed." Sir John gave as one reason for publishing Erckern's work, "That we may not punish ourselves by fixing and disputing on the views of antient writers, and thereby making things to be diabolical which are only Divine favours shown us by natural agents, so as, for want of knowing the true practicks and experiments, they are divulged either by umbraging sophistications, or concealed under the name of philosophical secrets, which, no doubt but God intends for publick and common good, and therefore it shall be my study to unfold the metaphysical notions of this science by practicks, especially about the Philosopher's Stone, which study I value only for its fine pursuits and products of experiments." He unhappily was at this time confined in the Fleet prison and dedicates his work "To my worthy friend Richard Manlove, Esq., Warden of the Fleet, in which I am here a confined person, for my being too good to others and too unjust to myself; those that think themselves prisoners to you are much mistaken, for they are prisoners to the Law, a guardianship very needfull for the people as a completion of Justice in point of restraints, for they are good for cooling the animosity between creditors and debtors, and between the Laws and contemnors of them; and for curing the sullen and contemptuous disposition of them to their superiors, for I can truly say that by my patient submission to them, and my misfortunes (being prepared by my 14 months' imprisonment in Windsor Castle under the late usurped power,) I do now, with more satisfaction to myself, undergo this under a legal power, and hereby affirm that no gentleman hath received greater receipts from you than myself, and therefore take the occasion to make my publick acknowledgments that I must acknowledge to my honoured subscribers and others, that had it not been for your incouragement and particular assistance with your purse, I could not have published this book." It has generally been understood that the operation of the powers granted to these two Companies so far from promoting National interests, as was the declared object in their preambles, had an exactly opposite effect by crippling the free right of searching for and extracting ores from the various mining districts; and moreover, introducing a series of expensive lawsuits, which produced decisions sometimes in favour, and sometimes against the Company, until in the reign of William and Mary two Acts* were passed to settle the doubts and questions which had arisen consequent on the previous grants of Elizabeth and James. The translation of Lazarus Erckern's book explains the art and nature in knowing, judging, assaying, firing, refining, and inlarging the bodies of confined Metals, and gives the various ways of extracting gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, antimony, and quicksilver from their ores, proving iron from steel, the making of saltpetre and allum from allum ore-and gives essays explaining † metallick words, and describes where the various mines are situated, and that the Mines-Royal' and 'Battery-Works' Societies held Royal mines in the various counties of England and Wales, in Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Kent, Lancanshire. Monmouthshire, Nottinghamshire, Northumberland, Rutlandshire, Shropshire, Somersetshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, Warwickshire, Westmorland, Wor cestershire, Yorkshire, and in all the twelve Counties of Wales. We have government of them all both in England and Wales and part of Ireland, except the Lead Mines of Donegany, in Derbyshire, and at Mendyp, in Somersetshire. Of copper, Keswick Copper Mine, in Cumberland, caused a great suit between Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Northumberland, concerning her right to it on account of "Royal Mines," which case is reported by Ploudon, whereby the Society for the Mines Royal have had, and still have the care * In the 1st and 5th years of those monarchs. + Query is "Calcator" given in it, I wonder-no.-G. G. F, |