The Stannary Parliaments and Stannary Courts were legislative and legal institutions in Cornwall and in Devon in the Dartmoor area. A member of a stannary parliament was known as a Stannator. The Stannary Courts administered equity for the region's tin-miners and tin mining interests, and they were also courts of record for the towns dependent on the mines. Executive authority in stannary areas was exercised by the Lord Warden of the Stannaries.

The separate and powerful government institutions available to the tin miners reflected the enormous importance of the tin industry to the English economy during the Middle Ages. Special laws for tin miners predate written legal codes in Britain, and ancient traditions exempted everyone connected with tin mining in Cornwall and Devon from any jursdiction other than the Stannary Courts in all but the most exceptional circumstances.

King John granted a charter to the tin miners of Cornwall and Devon in 1201, confirming their "just and ancient customs and liberties". The tin miners of both areas originally met together at Hingston Down and referred to themselves as a parliament. Edward I of England split the stannary institutions between Cornwall and Devon, establishing parliaments and courts for the two counties separately. The jurisdiction of the Cornwall stannary institutions covered the whole of the county, while those of Devon were more limited in geography and scope - restricted primarily to mining questions and to the stannary towns.

As the tin mines of Cornwall and Devon lost their economic importance during the 18th and 19th centuries, their political institutions also waned in power and ultimately faded away, until recent efforts to restore them.

Devon Stannary Parliament

King Edward I's 1305 Stannary Charter established Tavistock, Ashburton and Chagford as Devon's stannary towns, with a monopoly on all tin mining in Devon, a right to representation in the Stannary Parliament and a right to the jurisdiction of the Stannary Courts. Plympton became the fourth Devon stannary town in 1307. The Devon Stannary Parliament usually met in an open air forum at Crockern Tor , but was reputed to meet in the nearest pub whenever it rained. The last convocation of the Devon Parliament was in 1748, but as late as the 1980s, an honourary Stannator would be named whenever a new tin mine was opened. [1]

Cornish Stannary Parliament

The jurisdiction of the Cornish Stannary Parliament covered the four Cornish stannary towns: Truro, Lostwithiel, Launceston and Helston. Since these four boroughs covered the whole of Cornwall, the Cornish Stannary Parliament acted as a legislative body for the whole county.

The Cornish Stannaries were suspended as a consequence of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. [2] Henry VII restored them in return for a payment from the tin miners of the, at the time, enormous sum of £1000, to support his war on Scotland. In addition to restoring the Stannaries and pardoning the people who participated in the rebellion, Henry's Charter of Pardon of 1508 expanded the power of the Cornish Stannary Parliament by granting it the authority to block royal acts from coming into force in Cornwall. This gave it the power to veto any laws from the Parliament at Westminster.

The Cornish Stannary Parliament was suspended in 1752 by Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc , Lord Warden of the Stannaries of Cornwall.

In 1977, Plaid Cymru MP Dafydd Wigley on behalf of Mebyon Kernow asked in Parliament the Attorney General for England and Wales if he would provide the date upon which enactments of the Charter of Pardon were rescinded. The reply, received on 14th May 1977, stated that a Stannator's right to veto Westminster legislation had never been formally withdrawn.

Stannary Courts

The Devon Stannary Courts met in Lydford and operated a prison there, while the Cornwall Stannary Courts met primarily in Truro. The Devon and Cornwall Stannary Courts were merged following the Stannaries Act of 1855 , but their powers were later transferred to county authorities by the Stannaries Courts Abolition Act of 1896 . [3]

Recent Revival

Some Cornish political activists claim to have revived the Stannary Parliament since 1974, along with the right to veto British legislation. This claim to legal authority is controversial, and is bound up with the disputed constitutional status of Cornwall. On 12 December 1974 the Home Office replied to letters from the members of this revived Parliament, saying that the Home Office could only accept elections by the stannary towns as constitutive of a valid Stannary Parliament. The revived Cornish Stannary Parliament is driven primarily by Cornish nationalism and demands for greater local autonomy. Unlike its predecessors, it claims no special relationship to the mining industry.

External links

• Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament