SHIPPING OF THE CINQUE PORTS 



M. Willaim Lambert in his Perambulation of 

 Kent, out of the most ancient Records of 

 England. 



A.D. 



1070. 



1070. 



Finde in the booke of the generall survey The antlquitie 

 of the Realme, which William the Con- 'f'^'' P'^'^'- 

 querour caused to bee made in the fourth 

 yeere of his reigne, and to be called 

 Domesday, because (as Matthew Parise 

 saith) it spared no man but judged all 

 men indifferently, as the Lord in that great 

 day wil do, that Dover, Sandwich, and Rumney, were in 

 the time of K. Edward the Confessour, discharged almost 

 of all maner of imposicions and burdens (which other 

 townes did beare) in consideration of such service to bee 

 done by them upon the Sea, as in their special titles shall 

 hereafter appeare. 



Whereupon, although I might ground reasonable con- 

 jecture, that the immunitie of the haven Townes (which 

 we nowe call by a certaine number, the Cinque Ports) 

 might take their beginning from the same Edward : yet 

 for as much as I read in the Chartre of K. Edward the 

 first after the conquest (which is reported in our booke of 

 Entries) A recitall of the graunts of sundry kings to the 

 Five Ports, the same reaching no higher then to William 

 the Conquerour, I will leave my conjecture, and leane to his 

 Chartre : contenting my selfe to yeelde to the Conquerour, 

 the thankes of other mens benefits, seeing those which 

 were benefited, were wisely contented (as the case then 

 stood) to like better of his confirmation (or second gift) 

 then of K. Edwards first graunt, and endowment. 



And to the ende that I may proceed in some maner of 

 array, I will first shewe, which Townes were at the begin- 

 ning taken for the Five Ports, and what others be now 

 reputed in the same number : secondly, what service they 

 ought, and did in times passed : and lastly, what privi- 

 ledges they have therefore, and by what persons they have 

 bene governed. 



+3 



