Lesson plan

Mining sett

Mining setts were a legal arrangement used historically in the counties of Devon and Cornwall in South West England to manage the exploitation of land for the extraction of tin. The term was also used on the Isle of Man. They were a form of licence by the holder of a set of tin bounds (or bounder) to allow a miner or group of miners (known as adventurers) to work the ground within the bounds for tin. Setts were usually granted subject to conditions, such as the requirement to actually work the ground and were also often limited to a specified depth of ground. In return for the grant of a sett, the adventurers were required to pay a portion of the tin extracted to the bounders. This portion was known as farm tin. Its payment was in addition to the requirement to pay toll tin to the freeholder of the land and tin coinage duty on the refined tin before it could legally be sold.

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Article summary

Mining setts were a legal arrangement used historically in the counties of Devon and Cornwall in South West England to manage the exploitation of land for the extraction of tin. The term was also used on the Isle of Man. They were a form of licence by the holder of a set of tin bounds (or bounder) to allow a miner or group of miners (known as adventurers) to work the ground within the bounds for tin. Setts were usually granted subject to conditions, such as the requirement to actually work the ground and were also often limited to a specified depth of ground. In return for the grant of a sett, the adventurers were required to pay a portion of the tin extracted to the bounders. This portion was known as farm tin. Its payment was in addition to the requirement to pay toll tin to the freeholder of the land and tin coinage duty on the refined tin before it could legally be sold.

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.