STANNARIES, tin mines (late Lat. stannum, Cornish, stean, tin). Stannary courts exercised a jurisdiction peculiar to Corn wall and Devon. By ancient charters, the tinners of Cornwall were exempt from all other jurisdiction than that of the stannary courts, except in cases affecting land, life and limb. Tin-mining in Cornwall, from the very earliest times was always prosecuted in accordance with a particular code of customs; the earliest charter which embodies them is that of Edmund, earl of Cornwall, but it is impossible to say how far these customs go back.
Twenty-four stannators were returned for the whole of Corn wall. Their meeting was termed a parliament, and when they assembled they chose a speaker. In earlier times the combined tinners of Devon and Cornwall assembled on Hingston down, a tract of highland on the Cornish side of the Tamar. After the charter of Earl Edmund, the Cornish stannators met (apparently) at Truro; those of Devon at Crockern Tor on Dartmoor. An officer was appointed by the duke of Cornwall or the Crown, who was lord warden of the stannaries. The last Cornish stannary
parliament was held at Truro in 1752. A committee was appointed to report on the subject, and an act of parliament was (1836) passed, suppressing the law courts of the stewards of the different stannaries and giving to the vice-warden their jurisdiction. By the Stannaries Act 1855 the respective parliaments or stannaries courts of Cornwall and Devon were consolidated. By the Stan naries Courts Abolition Act 1896 the jurisdiction was transferred to the county courts. The most important customs were: (a) "free tinners" had the right to work upon rendering the "toll-tin," usually one-fifteenth of the produce, to the owner or lord of the soil; (b) the right of "tin-bounding," that is, the right of bound ing waste lands, subject to tin-toll.