Definition
In English law, cavers were persons who stole ore from the mines of Derbyshire. The term also referred, in a secondary sense, to officers attached to those same mines. Both the offenders and the officers were subject to the jurisdiction of the Berghmote (also spelled Berghmoot or Bergmote), the specialized miners' court that governed mining disputes and offenses in the Derbyshire lead-mining district.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of "caver" — persons who explore caves as a recreational or scientific activity.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not attested as a distinct entry; "caver" as a common English word in this sense was not yet established.
Editorial note: The modern common meaning of "caver" — a cave explorer — has no connection to the historical legal term. A researcher encountering "cavers" in a historical legal document relating to Derbyshire mining should not import the modern recreational sense. The legal term is a term of art belonging entirely to the law of the English mining courts.
Common Confusion
The two senses recorded in Black's 2nd edition — ore thieves and mine officers — are distinct and nearly opposite roles. Historical sources do not always clarify which sense is intended. Rapalje & Lawrence, following Jacob's Law Dictionary, treats cavers primarily as offenders. Black's 2nd edition is the more complete authority, adding the officer sense explicitly. Researchers should not assume that every use of "cavers" in Berghmote records refers to a criminal actor.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is of narrow but specific historical significance. It surfaces almost exclusively in sources touching on the customary law of the Derbyshire lead mines, a body of law administered through the Berghmote and governed by ancient custom rather than common law courts. Researchers will encounter it primarily in:
— English legal dictionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries (Jacob, Wharton, Spelman), which are the chain of authority all three source dictionaries draw on.
— Historical records of the Berghmote court, which operated under mining customs codified in documents such as the Miner's Standard and related Derbyshire mining customs.
— Secondary treatments of English customary mining law, where the Berghmote jurisdiction is contrasted with ordinary common law jurisdiction over theft.
The term does not appear in American legal materials. Its presence in Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence reflects the tradition of English legal dictionaries comprehensively cataloguing obsolete and local terms, not any expectation of American usage. A researcher who encounters "cavers" outside a Derbyshire mining context should treat it with suspicion — it is unlikely to be this term.
Note also the textual proximity hazard in the historical sources: the Rapalje & Lawrence entry runs directly into CEAP, CEAPGILD, and CEASE without clear separation in some editions. Researchers working from older reprints or OCR-processed texts may find these entries run together or misattributed.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core definition: cavers are persons stealing ore from Derbyshire mines, punishable in the Berghmote or miners' court. Black's 1st edition is the most compressed, giving only the offender sense. Rapalje & Lawrence follows Jacob's Law Dictionary closely and likewise treats cavers as offenders. Black's 2nd edition is the most complete, adding the officer sense drawn from Wharton's Law Lexicon, and is the preferred authority where the distinction matters.
None of the source dictionaries provide substantive discussion of the Berghmote's procedure, the nature of the punishment, or the scope of the officer role. For those questions, researchers must go behind the dictionaries to the historical mining customs literature directly. The dictionaries function here as finding aids, not as complete treatments of the subject.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to Derbyshire, England, and its customary mining law. It has no recognized application in any American jurisdiction and no equivalent in Scots, Irish, or other common law mining traditions. Its legal context ceased to operate in its original form following the consolidation of English mining law in the 19th century.