STANNARY, from the Latin &annum., "tin." This term some times denotes a tin-mine, sometimes the collective tin-mines of a dis trict, sometimes the royal rights in respect of tin-mines within such district. But it is more commonly used as including, by one general designation, the tin-mines within a particular district, the tinners employed in working them, and the customs and privileges attached to the mines, and to those employed in digging and purifying the ore.
The great stannaries of England are those of Devon and Cornwall, of which the stannary of Cornwall is the more important. The stan nary of Cornwall, and also that of Devon, were granted by Edward III. to the Black Prince, upon the creation of the duchy of Cornwall, and are perpetually incorporated with that duchy. Both stannaries are under one duchy-officer, called the lord warden of the stannaries, with a separate vice-warden for each county.
All tin in Cornwall and Devon, whoever might be the owner of the land, appears to have formerly belonged to the king, by a usage pecu liar to these counties. King John, in 1201, granted a charter to his tinners in Cornwall and Devonshire, authorising them to dig tin and turves to melt the tin anywhere in the moors and in the fees of bishops, abbots, and earls, as they had been used and accustomed. (Medea, Exch.,' 279 t, 283 1.) This charter was confirmed by Edward I.,
Richard II., and Henry IV.
In Cornwall the right of digging in other men's laud is now regulated by a peculiar usage, called the custom of bounding. This custom attaches only to such land as now is or anciently was wastrel, that is, land open or uninclosed. By this mode the bound-owner acquires a right to search for and take all the tin he can find, paying the lord of the soil one-fifteenth, or to permit others to do so ; and to resist all who attempt to interrupt him. The bounds must be renewed annually, by a bounder employed on behalf of the bound-owner, or the lord may re-enter.
As part of the stannary rights, the duke of Cornwall, as grantee of the crown, has or had the pre-emption of tin throughout the county, a privilege supposed to have been reserved to the crown out of an original right of property in tin-mines, but which in modern times is never exercised.
The stannary courts were remodelled by the 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 106. The duties payable to the duke of Cornwall on the stamping or coinage of tin were abolished by 1 & 2 Vict. c. 120; and further regulations for these courts were introduced by 2 & 3 Vict. c. 58; and the juris dictionwas extended, and the procedure amended and improved by the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 32.