The act of hunting for fish or game illegally, or trespassing for the purpose of taking fish or game illegally.
Since the time of the earliest agricultural settlements, farmers have supplemented their diet by trapping and hunting the beasts of the field. The Normans introduced the rabbit as a welcome source of fresh winter meat when the only method of preserving meat was to salt it and salt, in any case, was an expensive commodity. Having introduced the rodent, the landowners were keen to protect it for their own use. The Norman kings also declared vast areas of the country such as Savernake in Wiltshire and the New Forest in Hampshire as royal forests protected by draconian laws.
Restrictions on hunting rabbits and harsh punishments were one of the grievances which caused the The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 - a rabbit on a pole was one of the emblems of the rebels.
|
Game was defined legally as hare, partridge, pheasant, black game (black grouse), red grouse, and bustard.
A law of 1671 restricting the right to hunt game to people with a freehold of �1,000 a year or more, or a leasehold of at least �150 � the gentry and the aristocracy. The law remained in force until 1831.
|
The peasants could still supplement their meagre diets with the beasts caught on the common land but they were deprived of this by the enclosures and resorted to poaching.
Before the 18th century it was impossible to hit a flying target but as flintlocks were refined and the shotgun inroduced, the landed gentry took to pheasant shooting and poachers were eager enough to follow their masters.
In an age where poaching a rabbit or a pheasant could lead to transportation to the colonies, landowners employed various means to protect their game.
One was the man trap or 'gin trap' which was named after the custom of the time of calling any mechanical device an 'engine'. Landowners realised that the small traps use to catch animals could be made larger and, with the jaws armed with teeth, chained to a tree, used to catch the poacher. Regardless of the legal niceties, the unfortunate wretch so caught was often doomed to die from gangrene.
The gin or man trap could weigh as much as eighty-eight pounds and was armed with teeth 1� inches long.
Historical records abound with incidents involving gin traps. Drunks taking short-cuts, boys looking for fallen branches to make walking sticks and even children collecting flowers fell victim to these devices. Even landowners sometimes forgot where the traps had been placed and were caught in them.
Poachers were considered no different to any other vermin. The 'spring gun' was another device set to maim the poacher although it often killed him. Effectively a miniature canon, the spring gun was spiked to a tree with a trip wire across a rabbit or deer run triggering it. A 'refinement' was a swivelling spring gun pixed to a spike which could be placed into a hole in a log or post driven into the ground for the purpose. Swivelling on the spike, several trip wries could be attached to it to pull it in the direction of the victim before triggering the mechanism.
Both gin traps and spring guns could be used completely legally until 1827. On the subject of spring guns, Lord Ellenborough observed that;-
|
The object of setting spring-guns was not personal injury to any one, but to deter the commission of theft; and that object was as completely obtained by hitting an innocent man as a guilty one.
|
A law of 1671 restricting the right to hunt game to people with a freehold of �1,000 a year or more, or a leasehold of at least �150 � the gentry and the aristocracy. The law remained in force until 1831.
The penalty for poaching was a huge fine of five punds or three months' imprisonment. Harsh treatment at the hands of the gamekeepers ensured that poachers set about the task mob-handed - being caught poaching at night in a party of three or more and the presence of a weapon rendered all the poachers liable to be sentenced to hard labour or transportation to the King's colonies in Australia for between seven and fourteen years.
|
Possession or the sale of dead game was also illegal for those who did not met the property requirements of the 1671 Act.
The poaching laws were enforced ruthlessly my the justices of the peace who were of the the land-owning gentry on whose property the poaching took place.
|
Between 1827 and 1830, one out of every seven people found guilty of any crime was convicted for violating the game laws (1830 was the year in which the rural Swing Riots came to a head and rural crime had increased by thirty per cent since 1824).
|
Report from the Select Committee on Game Laws: with the proceedings of the Committee July 1873
There are many objections to the existing game laws as being against agricultural interests; oppressive with excessive punishments and administered by those in favour of conviction. In most agricultural holdings in the UK game and rabbits are the preserve of the landlords but often tenants have freedom to kill rabbits. Increasingly, especially in Scotland, landlords are letting out shooting rights and damage is being caused to farmland by hunters and by excessive game reared for hunting. click here for more
|
The diminishing area of common land through enclosures and industrialisation led many country folk to supplement their diet or income by poaching. Game was a delicacy because of its rarity and the discerning preferred poached game because it was caught silently by means of snares and did not cotain shot.
A widespread black market in game developed, particularly to serve the London market. Many poachers would pass their game to the coachmen plying throughout England from the capital who would smuggle it to London where it was sold by less than scrupilous poulterers.
| 1381.May | | The Peasants Revolt, provoked by the poll tax and the manner in which it was collected, per capita irrespective of wealth or poverty
The Rebels started marching from Brentwood in Essex | | BAAAGDJC BAAAGBXD | | 1495 | | English statute decrees a �10 fine for poaching pheasants and partridges on royal land | | BAAAGDGC | | 1671 | | Law restricts the right to hunt game (-1831) those with a freehold of �1,000 p.a., or a leasehold of at least �150
see also poaching | | | | 1827 | | Use of gin traps and spring guns made illegal | | | | 1831 | | Repeal of the 1671 laws restricting hunting to the aristocracy and gentry | | | | 1873.Jul | | Report from the Select Committee on Game Laws | | |
|
| | | Links to Other Pages on This Site
|
| |
| | |
|
| | | Links to Other Sites
|
| |
| | |
|
| | | Links to Other Pages on this Site
|
| |
| | |
Recommend a Book for this Page
Hits on this page since December 6th| Jan | | |  | | Feb | | | | | Mar | | | | | Apr | | | | | May | | | | | Jun | | | | | Jul | | | | | Aug | | | | | Sep | | | | | Oct | | | | | Nov | | | | | Dec | | |  |
| current year: | | previous year: |
No messages posted on this page Only Members of the Site can post messages in this section. Signing in is easy from our Home Page. DISCLAIMER: Whilst we endeavour to ensure the content of this site is correct, we cannot undertake that information you find here, is, or will remain accurate and complete. We do not warrant that any information contained on this site is fit for any purpose. If you wish to place reliance on any such information you must check its accuracy by some other means before doing so. MEMBERS get aditional features on our pages and will soon be able to interact with the site and add their views and informastion. Sign up, from the Home-Page, is simple and involves typing in your email address and a password of your choice. If you are in any way connected with any location or interested in the subject mentioned on this page and have an hour or two a month to spare, we would welcome you as a local moderator - please email the webmaster by CLICKING HERE. Privacy Policy
|
| 
