Dartmoor Vermin Bounties

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'A halfpenny for a rook,

A penny for a jay ;

A noble for a fox,

And twelve pence for a grey.'

Above is a little ditty once heard on Dartmoor and although it refers to nothing that could be considered momentous in the annals of Dartmoor tradition it is nonetheless quaint and deserving of some explanation.

Whenever man comes into contact with nature there has always been a conflict and no more so when the growing of crops or the rearing of livestock is concerned. This is especially true when these activities take place in the very heart of the countryside where the native wildlife live in close proximity to domestic animals or crops. In centuries past the very food people put on their table only came from what they could grow or rear, in many cases the family income was such that home produced food was all they could afford. A late night visit from a moorland fox or an early morning call from a flock of birds may well result in a bare table or a drastic reduction in valuable income. In this light it was not surprising that such vermin were regarded as an enemy that had to be exterminated at all costs. This is precisely what the above rhyme alludes to, in many cases the local parish church used to reward folk for killing the myriad of beastly marauders who had the audacity to steal food from the local's mouths.

Today we can find plenty of evidence for the rewards paid out to the latter day pest controllers in the various church wardens accounts.  It can be assumed from the rhyme that by far the biggest villain was the moorland fox who commanded a reward of one noble which over the centuries varied from six shillings and eight pence to eight shillings and four pence. This has to be reflective of the carnage caused when a fox went on a killing spree in the hen house. In this day and age it seems unthinkable that for killing a badger (a grey) one could earn some coin. However, there was/is a moorland tradition that the fox will often share the spoils of his raids with the badger in return for the occasional use of its setts, thus effectively placing them as 'comrades in arms'. There does seem to be a variation in the bounties paid around the parishes of Dartmoor, possibly explained by the differing wealth of the villages.

In the Tavistock church warden's accounts of 1566 the sum of ten shillings was paid to William Gaye 'for takyng of ffoxes' on two occasions in that year. By using the 2008 retail price index ten shillings would equate out in current value to £9.41p, by using the average wage index it would be worth £131.91p. Twenty years later the sum had decreased considerably as in 1588-9 the sum of eight shillings was paid to William Gaye for, 'kyllynge of Eighte ffoxes this yere'. In 1673 the good folk of Tavistock raised the fox bounty as another entry reads; 'This day, it was agreed by the masters and inhabitants of the towne and parish of Tavystoke, that whosoever shall kill any ffox within the said parish, shall receive for his or their paynes in so doing, the sum of three shillings and four pence.' An entry for 1684 an entry simply stated, 'paid for killing of farments (vermin) 5s'.

About 14 miles up the road and 60 years down the line a veritable fortune could be earned for fox slaying in the parish of Holne, here, in 1736 they were paying ten shillings and six pence. In 1738 things were not so lucrative in the parish as an entry in the accounts show that the bounty, 'Expended for killing of two foxes, £1.' In 1741 there appears to be an age scale as the sum of six shillings was paid for two young foxes. If one was adverse to vulpicide then money could even be earned for running foxes out of the Holne parish for in 1782 the sum of three shillings and four pence was paid for, 'running a fox to Okehampton'. Buckfastleigh is the next parish to Holne and it was clear that they were either less affluent or not as troubled by foxes, here they paid one John Howel the meagre sum of three shilling for killing a vixen and four cubs.

But by no means has the 'bounty list' ended with foxes, badgers, jays and rooks, one can add to that list hedgehogs, polecats, martens and a whole array of bird life. It seems ironic that today with birds like bullfinches we spend an absolute fortune attracting them to our gardens when at one time the parish of Buckfastleigh was paying Peter Hambly eighteen pence for destroying 40 of them. Back in the affluent parish of Holne they were paying fourteen pence for a single bullfinch in 1790 along with various amounts for unnamed birds.

Having forked out for the various bounties the folk of the parish obviously wanted some kind of proof that something had been killed, it was therefore often the practice that the dead animals were placed in the local churchyard for all to see. In some cases they would have been nailed to a nearby tree, often as not a yew which acted as a 'keepers gibbet'.

How things have changed, imagine the parish church now opening its coffers to pay someone to kill some bullfinches which were plaguing the parishioners gardens. I would imagine that most people would be only too pleased to see a flock of bullfinches pecking away at the blossom on their fruit tree - that's unless they were cider apple trees.