by which each party might know their own birds. The subject,
in all its details, is so extensive that I can afford space
for little more than an outline, but this will be sufficient to
show the degree of value and importance attached to the possession
of the bird, and the authorised power to protect it,v
In the twenty-second year of the Reign of Edward the
Fourth, 1488, it was ordered that i no person who did not
possess a freehold of the clear yearly value of five" marks
should be permitted to keep any Swans.
In the eleventh year of the Reign of Henry the Seventh,
1496, it was ordered that stealing, or taking a Swan’s egg
should have a year’s imprisonment, and make fine at the
king’s will. Stealing, setting nets or snares for, or driving,
Grey or White Swans, was punished still more severely.
In Archaeologia, or miscellaneous tracts relating to anti-
quity, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London,
vol. 16. 1812, Ordinances respecting Swans on the River
Witham, in the county of Lincoln; together with an original
roll of ninety-seven Swan marks, appertaining to the proprietors
on the said stream, were communicated by the Right
Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B; P.R.S. and F.S.A.
“ These are the Ordinances made the 24th day of May,
1524, in the fifteenth year of the reign of our Sovereigii
Lord King Henry the Eighth, by the Lord Sir Christopher
Willuby, Sir Edward Dimock, and others, Justices of Peace
and Commissioners, appointed by our Sovereign Lord the
King, for the confirmation and preservation of His Highness
game of Swans, and signets, of his stream of Witham, within
his county of Lincoln, &c. from a Breges, called Boston
Breges, unto the head of the said stream.”
A true copy of the Parchment Roll being too long, a few
only of the particulars are here inserted.
No persons having Swans could appoint a new swanherd
without the king’s swanherd’s license.
Every swanherd on the stream was bound to attend upon
the king’s swanherd upon warning, .or suffer fine.
The king’s swanherd was bound to keep a book of swan
marks, and no new marks were permitted to interfere with
old ones.
Owners of Swans and their swanherds were registered in
the king’s swanherd’s book.
The marking of the cygnets was generally performed in the
presence of all the swanherds. on that stream, and on a particular
day or days, of which all had notice. Cygnets received
the' mark found on the parent birds, but if the old
Swans bore no mark, the whole were seized for. the king, and
marked accordingly. No swanherd to affix' a mark but in
the presence of the king’s swanherd or his deputy.
Formerly, when a Swan made her nest on the banks of the
river, rather than on the islands, one young bird was given
to the owner of the soil, who protected the nest, and this
was called 1 the ground bird.’ A money consideration, instead
of a young bird, is still given.
The swan .mark, called by Sir Edward Coke, cigninota,
was cut in the skin on the beak of the Swan with a sharp
knife or other instrument. These marks consisted of annulets,
chevrons, crescents, crosses, initial letters, and other devices,
some of which had reference to the heraldic arms of, or the
office borne by, the swan owner.
The representations inserted overleaf are swan marks supposed
to be cut on the upper surface of the upper mandible.
Nos. 1 and 2 were the royal swan marks of Henry the
Eighth. No. 3 was the swan mark of the Abbey of Swin-
stede, on the Witham in Lincolnshire; and I may notice
that the crosier, or crook, is borne by the divine, the shepherd,
the swanherd, and the gooseherd, as emblematic of a
pastoral life and the care of a flock;
No. 4 was the swan mark of Sir Edward Dimock of Lin