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Notices against trespassing on lands at Dyrham (D1799/E150)

Poaching was an ever present annoyance to the landed gentry. Estates would issue private ‘Notices against trespassing on lands’ to those suspected of poaching, warning them that they would be prosecuted if caught on estate land. This example is from 1796 and was issued by the Dyrham estate and names Moses Higgs as the offender, forbidding him from entering estate lands ‘on foot, horseback and with or without or a dog or dogs for the purpose of hunting, coursing, setting or shooting or for any other purpose’ under threat of prosecution if caught.