. . .Anchor-185">[185] After this the mines were let to private adventurers from time to time; but such records as we have do not suggest that many fortunes were made from them: in 1426 the yield for the previous two and a half years had been 39 ounces of silver,[186] for the year 1442 it was £17,[187] but for the six years, 1445-51, the average output rose to 4000 ounces.[188] At the beginning of the boom, in 1295, it was found necessary to recruit labour from the older lead-mining districts, and commissioners were appointed to select miners for Devon from Cheshire, Earl Warenne's liberty of Bromfield in Shropshire, the Peak, Gloucester, Somerset, and Dorset.[189] The ordinances of 1297 stipulated for 150 miners from the Peak, and an equal number of local men from Devon and Cornwall, though the accounts show that there were that year 384 miners from the Peak, and 35 [58]from Wales.[190] On the other hand, in 1296, while we have over 300 miners coming from the Pea. . . Read More