I've been using your freemen register database but wondered where I would find the originals or how I could access them?

Also wondered why someone would register especially if they were in another profession.

Thanks for your help...I'm from the US so can't easily pop over to get them. Bonnie

The originals are deposited with Gloucestershire Archives who provide a Digital Copying Service.
Difficult to answer your question regarding profession without more detail such as name of the person you refer to but would add that to qualify he would have worked in a mine for at least one year and a day and be born in the Forest of Dean.

Mike

Hi Bonnie,
the main advantage of being a Freeminer is to gain the ancient and legal right "to mine for coal anywhere in that location "without tax or hindrance".
ie what iron ore, coal, ochre etc you can extract is yours to keep or sell for personal gain.

I'm NO expert or miner, but this is my interpretation of why a man would want or need to become a Freeminer. I'm more than happy to be corrected by anyone "in the know", thanks.

Since Norman times the Forest was owned and strictly-guarded by the Crown to provide good hunting grounds for Royalty and their privileged Barons, guests, etc. With the coming of foreign trade and eventually Empire so the Forest became an essential supply of quality timber to build the Country's war and merchant ships. This timber had to be carefully managed as hardwoods such as oak take many decades to grow to the required size.
At the same time iron-mining hence working increased in the Forest, the mines needed wood for headgear and props, many furnaces were wood-fired and consumed huge amounts of timber, as did the associated charcoal-making; those people also needed to clear forestry land to build their cabin homes, so further increasing demand for wood while reducing the area to grow it. This all led to friction between the Crown's keepers, protecting the timber, making it difficult for normal people to settle within the area without Crown permission, who severely penalised anyone caught encroaching or taking the timber. Hence a Freeminer was a privileged and probably envied person in the area on a social level as well as purely from a livelihood standpoint. Since these times (late 1600s), the Freeminers were effectively a commune to assist each other, agree & regulate working practices and relations with the Crown, and so forth. They even all paid dues into a central fund, to help any of them unable to work thro' injurys at work.

As the Industrial Revolution really took-off, so the area's coal and iron-ore deposits became more important, it was high quality coal ideal for the increasing numbers of (iron)steam engines in factories around the UK. This demand further increased with railway fever and steam-driven ships. If your ancestors were Freeminers in the early 1800s they were well-set to succeed.
In more recent times in reality the advantages of Registering as a Freeminer were reduced, as most of the "good" plots to sink a pit had already been found and exploited by another Freeminer, if not worked-out altogether. By the 20th Century it may have largely been a source of personal pride, tradition, altho it maybe was also akin to becoming a member of the local "Trade Union" ? By this time most of the minerals and ores that were still left to be extracted were deep = costly to extract, beyond the scope of the old style Freeminer without "foreign" or Crown backing.

These will also help with your understanding, http://www.minersadvice.co.uk/free_miners_forest_of_dean.htm
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=8362
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeminer
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/the-forest-of-dean/about-the-forest

This book is essential reading wrt the dealings and rights of the Freeminers.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/ebooks/gutenberg/24505/24505-h.htm

especially, the section from page 45
"on the 18th of March (1663), the earliest session of a local but very significant court, that of “the Mine Law,” whose date and proceedings have been preserved. It was held at Clearwell before Sir Baynham Throgmorton, deputy constable of St. Briavel’s Castle, and a jury of forty-eight free miners, and shows that the Forest Miners of that day were a body of men engaged in carrying on their works according to rule, so as to avoid disputes or unequal dealing."
etc

Thanks! I did wonder why someone would register for this. In my family of the Voyce, the father Thomas Voyce was a miner as were several of his sons though they immigrated to the US. One son Ben, was managing several pubs (Bird in Hand) and yet he also registered as a freeminer and that's why I wondered why he would do so. He did work in some US mines before returning to Forest of Dean. Thomas Voyce's family lived on broadwell lane in Coleford and I was told there was a mine at the end of the road when we visited a few years ago.

Hi Bonnie,
you're very welcome of course. Apologies for not twigging sooner just who you were until today's post, despite your username ringing bells in my wooden head ! I now clearly recall my enjoyable chat with Derrick Kear about Thomas Voyce and his belief he lived next to the Bird in hand, can hardly believe that chat and your visit was nearly 3 years back, wow !

In the unlikely event you haven't found it, here's a great page about the Bird in Hand pub. Sadly it doesn't record Voyces as landlords, altho I'm sure they would happily include any info you might care to supply. http://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/AllGlosPubsDatabase/RAIGConnection.php?pubid1=1230

Re the pits in the Broadwell area, in case you haven't seen them, these sites will hopefully help illustrate your family's history.

Mining History around Coleford;

"The exploitation of Coleford's mineral resources began long before 1397 when its first known miner was recorded. Ancient surface iron mines known locally as scowles gave the name to the limestone outcrop in the west of the tithing. Generations of Newland parishioners also quarried stone at Scowles, which in the mid 18th century was riddled with abandoned workings. Coal was presumably dug on the higher ground in the east part of Coleford by the late 16th century, when a miner acquired a lease of land bordering the royal Forest at Broadwell. Six miners were listed in Coleford in 1608.

By the late 17th century iron-ore mining had been abandoned in favour of the digging up of cinders left by early ironworks. The owners of the Highmeadow estate exploited cinder deposits by the Staunton road and in the 1720s supplied cinders to the Redbrook furnace. Cinders were also quarried at Cinder Hill and, in the 1760s, in the town and at Whitecliff. The building of the Whitecliff ironworks stimulated ore prospecting in the early 19th century, notably by David Mushet who in 1809 developed Boxbush mine near the town centre. In 1835 ore was mined north of Scowles, between Whitecliff and High Nash, and at Perrygrove. In the early 1870s Scowles pit, by the CrosswaysHighmeadow road, sent ore to the Parkend ironworks, and Crowsnest pit, to the north, supplied ironworks in South Wales. Crowsnest mine later yielded a quantity of yellow ochre. In 1873 two pits were opened at Crossways but they and several new iron-ore mines at High Nash were abandoned not long afterwards. Two drift mines at Whitecliff extracted small amounts of ore in the later 1890s.

Coal mining continued in the north and east parts of Coleford from the 17th century. In the east a mine, known in 1735 as Gentlemen Colliers, included a working pit at Littledean Lane End near Broadwell in 1835. At that time there were also working coal mines in the Poolway and Berry Hill areas, some of the pits north of Poolway belonging to Cross Knave colliery. Although coal mining declined in Coleford after 1850, when new pits were opened within the Forest, there were several pits and levels on the east side of the tithing in the later 19th century and mining continued at Poolway until the 1960s. The principal colliery owner there employed 45 men in the early 1940s. Coal was also mined north of the town in the 1940s and the opencast method was used to extract coal at the Gorse and at Edenwall in the 1960s."
The map accompanying this webpage text shows more pits in the Broadwell area,
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol5/pp117-138

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On this map, look east of Coleford to find the likes of Hawkers and Bixlade etc
http://lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/Staunton.html
itself part of this overall FoD map, from 1894, so abt the time Thomas was working; http://lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/Overviewmap.html

All thanks to Ian Pope's great Lightmoor site, individual pit histories here;
http://lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/CoalCoalwayHill.html
http://lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/CoalEdenwall.html
http://lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/CoalBixslade.html
http://lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/CoalHawkins.html

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Right on the very topleft edge of this 1878 O.S. map is the Broadwell area, this excellent mapsite allows zooming-in to give great detail of even the smallest pits.
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101453661

Also see http://www.pdmhs.com/1896%20Lists/1896-66.htm

Finally, I was remiss in not mentioning this highly-recommended site on my earlier post, particularly this Freeminer page
http://way-mark.co.uk/foresthaven/historic/gfrmnrs1.htm#

Hope this helps, thanks for posting, J.