The history of the Stannary System and why it matters for our future peace and happiness

In a recent interview hosted by Ana Isabel - The Stannary System - with John Gilbert, Community Peace Constable of the Community Assembly of the British Isles (CABI), John explains the true history of the Stannary System and how the Stannary Parliament is helping us to establish our parallel society and future peace and happiness.

To understand the full extent of the Cornish Stannary System and its areas of jurisdiction requires us to go back in history to when King Æthelstan or Athelstan ruled the Anglo-Saxons in Wessex from 924 to 937AD.

In historical times, Kernow was much bigger than it is today. It was the home of the Cornovi and Dumnoni Tribes covering Kernow, Devon, and parts of Somerset and Avon. The Dumnoni were a race that spoke a language called the Brythonic which is where the name Britain first originated from.

The word England, originates from the Old English language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. It stands for land or territory in Engla Land, meaning The Land of the Angles.

The first King of England

In 936AD, King Athelstan, great grandson of Alfred the Great, created Wessex which absorbed part of the Dumnoni Tribes. Wessex incorporated Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Berkshire, Avon and Mercia (an area bounded by the frontiers of Wales, the River Humber, East Anglia and the River Thames).

King Athelstan was regarded as one of the greatest kings of the Anglo-Saxon age in Britain. He was regarded as a distinguished and courageous soldier who pushed the boundaries of the kingdom to the furthest extent they had yet reached.

This was when he pushed the unruly tribes of Dumnoni beyond the Tamar to the southern-most part of Britain thus separating Kernow from the rest of the country. This created a geo-political entity which preserved much of Kernow's heritage and culture, giving space for its own language to continue for centuries more.

The Stannary Parliament

The Stannary Parliament (first known as The Convocation of the Tinners of Cornwall) was the representative body of the Cornish Stannaries which was recognised by King John of England in 1201. This separate and powerful government institution reflected the enormous importance of the tin industry to the British economy during the Middle Ages.

Special laws for tin miners pre-date written legal codes in Britain and ancient traditions exempted everyone connected with tin mining in Kernow and Devon from any jurisdiction other than the Stannary Courts in all but the most exceptional circumstances.

The Stannary Parliament continued long after 936AD with the last session convened in Truro in 1752 and adjourned in September 1753. However, as the Stannary Charters have never been revoked, the powers and rights of the Stannary Parliaments are still extant.

This means that it has every right to be reinstated and on 2nd March 2024 in Kernow, the Stannary Parliament was brought back into play.

The Treaty of Pardon 1508

As mentioned above, The Treaty of Pardon 1508, has never been withdrawn and in 1977 the question was raised in the House of Commons by the Welsh MP, Daffyd Wigley. He was told categorically that the treaty still runs today suggesting that the charter was still law and that the Cornish Stannary Parliament could one day meet again.

On 20 May 1974, a pressure group assembled in Lostwithiel in Kernow in a bid to reinstate the Stannary Parliament. They (rightly) claimed that they had the power to veto all laws made in Westminster. The Home Office responded by saying they could only accept elections by the Stannary Towns as constitutive of a valid Stannary Parliament but no elections have ever taken place.

Today, we have been led to believe that the Duchy of Cornwall has control over Kernow but when the Duke of Cornwall was asked to reinstate the Stannary Parliament, he simply could not do so as it has to be done by the people of Kernow.

This means that anyone who deems to run Kernow (including MPs and other government bodies) cannot answer where their authority comes from as they have no authority in this regard.

Creating our parallel society

All our volunteer Stannators are members of CABI which means they have agreed to abide by Natural Law. This means we cannot cause any harm so if Cornish people accept Westminster as their ruler and choose to live under that regime using its associated services, they have the absolute right to do so.

As CABI is not in a position to end the Westminster regime and would not do so as it may cause harm to those dependent on the system, all we can do is start our own parallel society which we are creating through our Community Assembly network.

We are gradually gaining strength with 5 wordwide assemblies and 81 assemblies in the British Isles including 22 in Kernow at the time of writing. We have also put in place our Community Peace Service with fully trained Community Peace Keepers and Community Peace Constables together with our own Holistic Health Service with our own Doctors, Dentists and Healers (Community Heath Initiative).

The only thing we lack is our own food service which we are currently working on to get local farmers on board. There is much work going on behind the scenes to establish parallel services for all our members so that we can agree our own contracts for utilities and other services, separate from those provided by (or not provided by) Westminster at this time.

The idea of creating a parallel society is so that others can cross over if they wish. Key to note is that people must use their own free will and make their own choices in terms of joining CABI and being actively involved.

Giving away our rights

CABI and our parallel network Assemblies of the World (AOW) are organised as a Private Members' Association whereby members can trade independently with each other while also contracting with external public and private organisations.

In terms of Council Tax in particular, costs for councils used to come from central government but this was handed over to individual councils to collect the money from residents as an additional tax. The irony being that this extra money is sent directly to central government to spend on whatever they wish. Very often, the money sent back to councils is a fraction of the money collected for local services which is why they are in such disarray.

Unknowingly, we have accepted this without question even thought such legislation has no legal standing whatsoever with little benefit to local people for whom the money is intended. When repeatedly asked, local councils are unable to tell us where our money goes and this deception continues with Council Taxes rising to amounts we can ill-afford.

In 1703, a foundational case in UK Constitutional Law and English Tort Law - Ashley v White - ruled that no man can have a law thrust upon him without consent. However, when you vote for an MP,  you give Westminster consent to make regulations on your behalf. It begs the question that if the MP you voted for lost, does your consent then pass on to someone else?

Stepping out of the system

If you have registered to vote, you do give your consent to whoever gets elected. However, anyone can step out of the system by withdrawing their name from the voting register. This is not well advertised as you can imagine but councils provide the following information for those leaving a property without informing you that you can do this at any time:

If you or someone has moved out of your property, you can contact us to remove them from the register. We need two sources of information to remove someone from the register. We may contact the person being removed if we can't confirm the sources.

In addition, in 1704, the House of Lords looked at the summing up of the Ashby v White case and stated that the part about giving away your consent to a duly elected representative was incorrect. This means in actual fact that you cannot give your consent without your knowledge making the idea of joinders being created unknowlingly irrelevant.

Our parallel network

For those of us who choose to step out of the system, we can use CABI and AOW to our advantage. This is because we are working with assemblies in America, New Zealand, Australia, British Isles and now Malta to create international agreements on how we run our Community Peace Service and Stannary Courts making it a worldwide endeavour.

The starting point in creating our own courts is to use the Stannary System to bring together 300 people to form our first court in Kernow. We need to prove we have this many people standing shoulder to shoulder who agree to abide by Natural Law. This is done through our sign-up mechanism to become a member of CABI whereby all our members agree to abide by Natural Law and are therefore in agreement to uphold the four tenets which are: Do No Harm, Cause No Loss, Commit No Fraud and Keep The Peace.

Stannary Courts operate under Stannary Law which means as a Stannary Parliament we can create our own laws if we wish to. However, agreeing to abide by Natural Law is enough and we do not need to do anything more. This is because we are not a governing organisation, all our members operate under their own free will.

As agreed internationally, our Community Peace Service provides support whereby Community Peace Keepers and Community Peace Constables are fully trained in arbitration so that they can liaise directly with people in the community to achieve remedies for disputes.

Very often a remedy can be agreed through arbitration before a case needs to be brought to court which is the intention. If a dispute cannot be resolved in this way, Community Peace Constables can recommend that the dispute goes to court.

Calling Kernow Members and Residents of Kernow

Currently, our Community Peace Service is available to CABI members in need of advice or support when dealing with public officials or anyone purporting to have authority over them.

To resolve issues directly with Westminster, MPs, local councils or local authorities, our Stannary Court System needs to be put it place.

This is why we need 300 CABI members who were born in Kernow or who now reside in Kernow to stand shoulder to shoulder so that we can form our first court. This will be for the benefit of all as when this happens as Kernow will be able to charter other enlisted Community Assemblies with 300 CABI members to set up their own courts as well.

Signing up to join CABI is therefore something extremely worthwhile and necessary in our bid to create our own parallel society consisting of independent communities joined together as a network of like-minded souls.

We have 190 CABI members in Kernow at the time of writing so we are over half way there. Please help us to spread the word to encourage those born in Kernow and those residing there to join us. This will be for the benefit of all our members representing a seminal step forward in creating our own parallel society for our future peace and happiness.

Thank you for reading and for sharing far and wide! 

Written by John Gilbert and Sue Cartwright

On behalf of the Community Assembly of the British Isles and Assemblies of the World

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