SWAN. In England the swan is said to be a bird royal, in which when at large in a public river or creek, no subject can have property, except by grant from the crown. In creating this privilege the crown grants a swan-mark (eygninota), for a game of swans, called in law Latin deductus (a pastime, un adult) cygnonun, sometimes volatus cygnoruni. (7 Coke's Rep.,' 17.) In the reign of Elizabeth, upwards of 900 corporations and individuals had their distinct swan-marks, some of which may be seen in Yarrell's 'British Birds,' vol. iii., 121, &c.
Sometimes, though rarely, the crown, instead of granting a swan mark, confers the still greater privilege of enjoying the prerogative right (within a certain district) of seizing white swans not marked. Thus the abbot of Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire had a game of wild swaus in the estuary formed by the Isle of Portland and the Chesil Bank. The swannery at Abbotsbury is the largest in the kingdom ; though formerly considerably more extensive, it still numbers many hundreds of these birds. It is now vested in the earl of Ilehester, to whose ancestor it was granted on the dissolution of the monasteries. (7 Co. Rep.,' 17; Hutchins, Dorset,' i. 538.) The privilege of having a swan-mark, or game of swans, is a free hold of inheritance, and may be granted over. But by 22 Edw. IV., c. 6, no person, other than the king's sons, shall have a swan-mark, or game of swans, unless he have freehold lands or tenements of the clear yearly value of five marks (3/. 6s. 8d.), on pain of forfeiture of the swans, one moiety to the king, and the other to any qualified person who makes the seizure. In the first year of Richard III. the inhabi tants of Crowland in Lincolnshire were exempted from the operation of this act upon their petition setting forth that their town stood " all in marsh and fen," and that they had great games of swans, " by which the greatest part of their relief and living had been sustained." (6 Rot. Pub,' 260.) Two of the London Companies have games of swans, the Dyers' and the Vintners' Company, and are, with the crown, the principal owners of swans in the Thames. The swan-mark of the Dyers' Company is a notch, called a "nick," on one side of the beak. The swans of the Vintners' Company, being notched or nicked on each side of the beak, are called "swans with two nicks," whence by corruption the term which has been long used as a sign by one of the large inns in London, "swan with two ueeks."
On the first Monday in August in every year the swan-markers of the crown and the two Companies of the city of London used to go up the river for the purpose of inspecting and taking an account of the swans belonging to their respective employers, and marking the young birds. In ancient documents this annual expedition is called swan upping, and the persons employed are denominated swan-uppers. These are still the designations used amongst the initiated, though popularly corrupted into swan-hopping and swan-hoppers.
The king had formerly a swanherd (magister deductus cygnortn, Rot. Pail,' 16 R. II. ; 4 Inst.' 280) not only on the Thames (6' Rot. Paul.; 1 H. VII., fo. 3591, but in several other parts of the kingdom (' Abb. Rot. Original.,' 266 b; Cal. Rot. Pat.,' 174 a).
Stealing swans marked and pinioned, or unmarked, if kept in a mote, pond, or private river, and reduced to tameness, is felony. (Hale, Pleas of the Crown,' 68.) Stealing swans not so marked or so kept, or so pursued, is merely a trespass or misdemeanor. (Dalton's 'Justice,' c. 156.) Under the 11 Henry VII., e. 17, stealing the eggs of swans out of their nests was punished by imprisonment for a year, and a fine at the king's pleasure. But this enactment was superseded by the 1 Jac. 1., c. 27, § 2, which declares that every person taking eggs of swans out of their nests, or wilfully breaking or spoiling them, may upon conviction before two justices be committed to jail for three months, unless lie Pay to the churchwardens for the use of the poor 20s. for every egg; or, after one month of his commitment, become bound, with two sureties in 20/. a-piece, never to offend again in like manner. And see Calend. Rot. Pat.,' 153 b, 165 b, 166 a, 168 a.
The 2 Henry IV., c. 21, which directs that no lord shall give any livery or sign to any knight, esquire, or yeoman, contains a proviso, that the prince may give his honourable livery of the Swan to his lords, and to gentlemen his menials. (3 Rot. Parl.,' 478 a.) (See Blomfield's Norfak ; Kemp's Losely MSS.; Areherologia, vol. xvi.; Colonel Hawker.)