The Forest Bureaucracy
There is no record of the establishment of the legal Forest, although Epping as part of Waltham Forest
is thought to have been established early in the 12th century. Presumably the Crown would have
appointed certain Commissioners to view the ground intended for the future Forest and subsequently
defined the boundaries. The King would then proclaim the land afforested, prohibiting anyone but
himself from hunting there and that the land was governed by the laws of the Forest. A bureaucracy
would also have needed to have been appointed with Forest courts established to administer the Forest
law. There is a general belief that barbaric surgical penalties were meted out for contravention of the
Forest law. By the time of Richard I in the last decade of the 12th century the physical mutilation of
offenders was abolished and there is no record of any such penalties ever having been meted out in
any of the Essex Forests. A Forest had its own separate and distinctive legal system. There were three
levels of courts dealing with offences against the Forest law: the Justice Seat, the Swainmote and the
Court of Attachments, or Forty-day Court. The Justice Seat presided over by the Chief Justice in Eyre
was the highest of the courts and was held with a minimum interval of three years. The court would
give judgement on convictions made at the Swainmote and levy fines and imprison offenders. The
Swainmote could be held three times a year and would enquire of offences and convict.
The Court of Attachments was held about every forty days (latterly it was held at the King's Head,
Chigwell) until its demise in 1848. This court was presided over by the verderers. The task of the
court was to enquire of offences that were alleged to have taken place. It also dealt with the day to
day running of the Forest and through the court record the roll of the Court of Attachments (the
attachment roll) we can obtain a detailed view of the regulation of all manner of activities in the Forest.
The court could issue licences of various types, once the activity in question had been sanctioned by
the Lord Chief Justice of the Forest. Licences were required for many purposes - to permit an
enclosure, to allow the cutting of coppiced woodland or for individuals to 'hunt, hawk, course, set
and shoot' on the Forest. The court could order individuals to cease illegal enclosure and it had the
power to regulate the grazing of uncommonable beasts on the Forest. It could order the keepers to
confiscate weapons suspected of being used by deer poachers. The verderers could also order
individuals to desist from the digging of gravel, sand and clay, or the unlicensed cutting of turves and
bushes. One of its important tasks was to register the numbers of deer and cattle and other commonable
beasts on the Forest. Latterly it was also able to issue licences for ale-houses. It was stipulated in the
licence to 'William Simmons of the Warren house in Fair Mead Bottom to use the occupation of an
Ale-House Keeper in his house the sign of the Rayne Deer... provided that the said William Simmons
do not at any time ... entertain, harbour or Abett any person or persons commonly known reputed or
suspected to be Deer Stealers ... ' (CA I p.186). During the latter part of its existence the Court of
Attachments was heavily preoccupied with illegal enclosures on the Forest. In the absence of the
Justice Seat it had been granted authority to deal with such matters.
There are no extant records for the early Court of Attachments. Some survive from the time of
Queen Elizabeth I, some from the 17th century and there is a complete set dating from 1713 to 1848,
the entries of which were transcribed by the Corporation of London in 1873 into four volumes to
support their case before the Epping Forest Commissioners with regard to enclosures in the Forest.
The roll of the Court of Attachments of the Royal Forest of Waltham contains entries that relate to
what we know as Epping. Hainault and Wintry Forests. All three are referred to sometimes as separate
Forests, but they were recognised as a single unit, Waltham Forest in the court roll (although Waltham
Forest was sometimes taken to mean just the area we know as Epping Forest today).
There are only a few records of Swainmotes for Epping Forest. The earliest known was held at
Bukkershyl (Buckhurst Hill) in 1495 and there are records of a number of Swainmotes held in the
middle of the 17th century between 1630 and 1670 (Fisher, 1887). Probably they were much more
frequent, but the records have since been lost.
The Justice Seat passed judgement and sentence where required on all serious matters relating to
Forest law that came before the courts. It would also deal with more mundane matters such as the
state (often ruinous) of repair of bridges, roads and fords within the legal Forest. At the Justice Seat
at Stratford in 1634 Attorney-General Finch made his notorious declaration reinstating the pre-1301
boundaries of the Forest to cover most of Essex. The last Justice Seat appears to have been held in
1670.
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