Mining setts were a legal arrangement used historically in the counties of
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
and
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
in South West England to manage the exploitation of land for the extraction of
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
. The term was also used on the
Isle of Man
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in Europe ...
.
[''Manx Sun'', Saturday, February 25, 1871; Page: 9]
They were a form of licence by the holder of a set of
tin bounds
Tin bounds were an ancient legal arrangement used in the counties of Devon and Cornwall in South West England to encourage the exploitation of land for the extraction of tin.
Tin bounds were created by the miner (or 'bounder') pitching stones or ...
(or bounder) to allow a miner or group of miners (known as adventurers) to work the ground within the bounds for tin. Setts were usually granted subject to conditions, such as the requirement to actually work the ground and were also often limited to a specified depth of ground.
In return for the grant of a sett, the adventurers were required to pay a portion of the tin extracted to the bounders. This portion was known as
farm tin
Farm tin or the tin dues was one of a number of payments required of tin miners in Devon and Cornwall. The holder of a mining sett was required to pay a portion of the black tin extracted to the holder of the tin bounds
Tin bounds were an ancie ...
. Its payment was in addition to the requirement to pay
toll tin
Toll tin was a term historically used in tin mining in Devon and Cornwall. The holder of a set of tin bounds was required to pay the freeholder of the land on which the bounds had been pitched a portion, called toll tin, of the tin ore (or blac ...
to the freeholder of the land and
tin coinage
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 Du ...
duty on the refined tin before it could legally be sold.
See also
*
Dartmoor tin-mining
The tin mining industry on Dartmoor, Devon, England, is thought to have originated in pre-Roman times, and continued right through to the 20th century, when the last commercially worked mine (Golden Dagger Mine) closed in November 1930 (though it ...
References
{{Reflist
Tin mines in England
Mining law and governance
Mining in Cornwall
English law