The Duchy of Cornwall is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch obtains possession of the duchy and the title of Duke of Cornwall at birth or when his parent succeeds to the throne, but may not sell assets for personal benefit and has limited rights and income while a minor.
Stannary law is the body of English law that governs tin mining in Cornwall and Devon; although no longer of much practical relevance, the stannary law remains part of the law of the United Kingdom and is arguably the oldest law incorporated into the English legal system.
The constitutional status of Cornwall has been a matter of debate and dispute. Cornwall is an administrative county of England.
A stannary was an administrative division established under stannary law in the English counties of Cornwall and Devon to manage the collection of tin coinage, which was the duty payable on the metal tin smelted from the ore cassiterite mined in the region. In Cornwall, the duty was passed to the Duchy of Cornwall; in Devon to the Crown.
The Cornish Stannary Parliament was the representative body of the Cornish stannaries, which were chartered in 1201 by King John. In spite of the name, the Parliament was not a Cornish national assembly, instead representing the interests of the tin industry; however, due to the significant proportion of Cornwall's population involved in the tin trade, it wielded considerable power.
The Lord Warden of the Stannaries used to exercise judicial and military functions in Cornwall, England, UK, and is still the official who, upon the commission of the monarch or Duke of Cornwall for the time being, has the function of calling a stannary parliament of tinners. The last such parliament sat in 1753.
In Devon and Cornwall, tin coinage was a tax on refined tin, payable to the Duchy of Cornwall and administered in the Stannary Towns. The oldest surviving records of coinage show that it was collected in 1156. It was abolished by the Tin Duties Act 1838.
Crockern Tor is a tor in Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England. Composed of two large outcrops of rock, it is 396 metres above sea level. The lower outcrop was the open-air meeting place of the Stannary Convocation of Devon from the early 14th century until the first half of the 18th century. On Parliament Rock, pictured here, the Lord Warden of the Great Court of the Devon Tinners supposedly sat during meetings of the Court. The location of the tor is just to the NE of Two Bridges.
Lydford Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lydford, Devon, England. The first castle in Lydford, sometimes termed the Norman fort, was a small ringwork built in a corner of the Anglo-Saxon fortified burh in the years after the Norman conquest of England. It was intended to help control Devon following the widespread revolt against Norman rule in 1068. The Norman fort had been abandoned by the middle of the 12th century.
Thomas Pitt, of Boconnoc, Cornwall, was a British landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1727 and 1761. He was Lord Warden of the Stannaries from 1742 to 1751.
The Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, was a pressure group which claimed to be a revival of the historic Cornish Stannary Parliament last held in 1753. It was established in 1974 and campaigned, up until 2008, against the government of the United Kingdom's position on the constitutional status of Cornwall.
The Stannary Palace, also known as the Duchy Palace, was a complex of buildings operated by the Dukes of Cornwall as the centre of their administration. The surviving exchequer hall is a Grade I listed building.
Richard Gurney (1790–1843) was an English judge in the Stannary Courts of Devon. His corrupt practices were exposed during the trial of Mary Ann Tocker in 1818. Following the trial, he wrote a pamphlet expounding the Law of Libel at the time and attempting to defend his actions.
Currency, in the form of coins, has been issued in Cornwall periodically since at least the 10th century AD, while banknotes were issued into the 19th century.
Sir Edward Smirke was an English lawyer and antiquary.
Hannibal Vyvyan was an English politician and Member of Parliament (MP). His surname is sometimes spelt Vivian.
John Mohun, 1st Baron Mohun of Okehampton was an English politician.
William Coryton (1580–1651) of West Newton Ferrers, St Mellion, Cornwall, was a Cornish gentleman who served as MP for Cornwall in 1624, 1626 and 1628, for Liskeard in 1625, for Grampound in 1640 and for Launceston 1640–41. He was expelled from Parliament for falsifying returns.
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt was an English politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1796 to 1812.
The Stannary Convocation of Devon, also known as the Great Parliament of the Tinners or as the Devon Stannary Parliament, was an assembly in the English county of Devon, with the power to amend and expand the stannary law in the county. Initially assembled in the Middle Ages by the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, the Stannary Convocation developed out of the predecessor to the judicial Courts of the Vice-Warden of the Stannaries but was established as an institution in its own right by the sixteenth century, with the power to both proclaim the existing customs as English law and to legislate regarding the laws by which tinners, who were exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary English courts until 1896, conducted their business.
