Cornish Foreshore Case

The Cornish Foreshore Case was an arbitration case held between 1854 and 1858 to resolve a formal dispute between the British Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall over the ownership of the foreshore of the county of Cornwall in the southwest of England.^[1][2] Officers of the Duchy successfully argued that the Duchy enjoyed many of the rights and prerogatives of a county palatine and that although the Duke of Cornwall was not granted Royal jurisdiction, he was considered to be quasi-sovereign within the Duchy of Cornwall. The arbitration was based on legal argument and documentation which led to the Cornwall Submarine Mines Act 1858.^[3] Sir John Patteson served as arbitrator, while the Rt. Hon. Thomas Pemberton Leigh, Baron Kingsdown represented the Duchy.

The issue

The problem which gave rise to the dispute was explained by the Solicitor-General during Parliamentary debates on the Cornwall Submarine Mines Bill, on 19 July 1858:

"very large grants were made of the soil and shore to the Prince of Wales in the time of Edward III. by charters, and great difficulty had always arisen with regard to the construction of those charters. That doubt had been further increased by innumerable dealings which had since taken place between the Crown and the Prince of Wales in the shape of statutes, other charters, and deeds of various kinds. In consequence it had in recent times become matter of extreme uncertainty whether, as regarded the soil between high and low-water mark, and even below low-water mark, in the Duchy of Cornwall, the rights to minerals was in the Crown or the Duchy. In the year 1856 it was considered desirable that these doubts should be resolved, for it was found that the existence of doubts had had the effect of putting an end to various kinds of improvement, and checking mining operations."^[4]

The Duchy submission

1. That Cornwall, like Wales, was at the time of the Conquest, and was subsequently treated in many respects as distinct from England.
2. That it was held by the Earls of Cornwall with the rights and prerogative of a county palatine, as far as regarded the seigneury or territorial dominion.
3. That the Dukes of Cornwall have from the creation of the Duchy enjoyed the rights and prerogatives of a County Palatine, as far as regarded seigneury or territorial dominion, and that to a great extent by Earls.
4. That when the earldom was augmented into a duchy, the circumstances attending to its creation, as well as the language of the Duchy Charter, not only support and confirm natural presumption, that the new and higher title was to be accompanied with at least as great dignity, power, and prerogative as the Earls enjoyed, but also afforded evidence that the Duchy was to be invested with still more extensive rights and privileges.
5. The Duchy Charters have always been construed and treated, not merley by the Courts of Judicature, but also by the Legislature of the Country, as having vested in the Dukes of Cornwall the whole territorial interest and dominion of the Crown in and over the entire County of Cornwall.

The Cornwall Foreshore Dispute culminated in the "Articles of Agreement" between the Crown and the Duchy in the Cornwall Submarine Mines Act 1858, which states: "All mines and minerals within Cornwall under the seashore, estuaries and tidal rivers and other places (below high-water mark) are part of the soil and 'territorial possessions' of the Duchy".^[5]

See also

• Constitutional status of Cornwall
• Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament
• Cornish nationalism
• Timeline of Cornish history

References

1. ^ Duchy of Cornwall history relating to the Cornish Foreshore Case
2. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
3. ^ Official text of section 8 of the Cornwall Submarine Mines Act 1858 as amended and in force today within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database
4. ^ House of Commons Hansard (1858-07-19) Col. 1752
5. ^ Cornwall Submarine Mines Act 1858

External links

• Tyr Gwyr Gweryn - The Cornish Foreshore Case
• Cornish Stannary Parliament
• Duchy of Cornwall history