Enclosure (or Inclosure) Acts
Enclosure (or Inclosure) Acts were passed by Parliament between the years 1760 - 1830. These laws caused Common land to be divided up and fenced.
For Brampton parish the list of landowners shows that quite a large number of people owned land in the parish. The top twelve landowners are listed below, information taken from the Enclosure Award Survey of 1831.
[Royal Assent, 7 June 1815]
| This is some information copied from the above Act, giving names of the principle landowners in the Old Brampton and Cutthorpe areas in 1815. |
"Whereas there are within the Manor and Parish of Free Chapelry of Brampton in the county of Derby, certain Commons, Waste Lands, Moors, Open Pastures and Fields, Mesne Inclosures, and other Uninclosed Lands, containing by estimation three thousand acres, or thereabouts:
And whereas the Most Noble William Spencer Duke of Devonshire is Lord of the Manor of Brampton aforesaid:
And whereas the said William Spencer Duke of Devonshire, the Right Honourable Walter Earl of Ormonde and Ossory and the Right Honourable Anna Maria Catherine Countess of Ormonde and Ossory his Wife, and also Sir George Sitwell Baronet, Sir Thomas Windsor Hunloke Baronet, Cornelius Heathcote Rodes, John Gorell Barnes, Thomas Barker, Bernard Lucas, Anthony Lax Maynard, Robert Waller, Adam Barker Slater, Stephen Melland, John Dixon, Esquires, Mark Hewitt, John Rooth, James Shemwell and several other persons, are respectively Owners and Proprietors of or otherwise interested in the said Commons, Waste Lands, Moors, Open Pastures and Fields, Mesne Inclosures, and other Uninclosed Lands:
And whereas an Act was passed in the Forty-first year of the reign of His present Majesty, intituled, "An Act for consolidating in one Act, certain Provisions usually inserted in Acts of Inclosure, and for facilitating the mode of proving the several Facts usually required on the passing of such Acts":
And whereas it would be for the advantage of the said Owners and Proprietors, and other Persons interested as aforesaid, if the said Commons, Waste Lands, Moors, Open Pastures and Fields, Mesne Inclosures, and other Uninclosed Lands, were divided and inclosed, and specific Allotments made to the several Persons interested therein, according to their respective Properties Rights and Interests: BUT as the above Purposes cannot be effected without the Authority of Parliament;
That it may be Enacted; And be it Enacted by the KING's Most Excellent MAJESTY, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, in this present Parliament assemabled, and by the Authority of the same, THAT the said Commons, Waste Lands, Moors, Open Pastures and Fields, Mesne Inclosures, and other Uninclosed Lands, shall be divided, allotted, and inclosed, in manner herinafter mentioned; and thea James Dowland of Cuckney, in the County of Nottingham, John Nuttall, of Matlock, in the said County of Derby, and Francis Calvert of Houndhill, in the County of Stafford, Gentlemen, and their Successors to be elected in manner hereinafter mentioned, shall be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners for the Purposes aforesaid, and for carrying this and the said recited Act into execution; subject to the Rules Orders and Directions contained in the said recited Act, except in cases where the same are hereby varied or altered."
This is an item titled: "Brampton Enclosure Map 1831" which consists of a map showing fields and blocks of land in the Brampton (includes Old Brampton and Cutthorpe area) parish and a list of landowners with the amount of land owned, the name of the land occupier/s and the value of the land holding and the rent charge payable as tithes.
| Land Owner | Value (approx) |
| Duke of Devonshire | £1660 |
| Sir G. Sitwell | £687 |
| Richard Arkwright Esq | £634 |
| Duke of Portland | £521 |
| Bernard Lucas Esq | £258 |
| Revd. Peach | £208 |
| Heathcote Reiston Rodes | £191 |
| John Watkinson | £167 |
| William Watkinson | £164 |
| Charles Claughton | £155 |
| John Gorell Barnes Esq | £118 |
| Joseph Bradshaw | £101 |
More information should be added to this section in the future.