l6o DAGENHAM BREACH. 



Impartial Account of the Frauds and Abuses at Dagenham Breach," 

 etc., pubHshed in 1717, we learn that "When it first happed, the 

 Society of the Trinity House at Deptford, fearing that the work 

 might bring a charge on them, took care to free themselves by 

 delivering a formal judgment to the House of Commons, that the 

 breach was not any obstruction to navigation," so that the matter 

 rested entirely with the landowners and the Commissioners of Sewers. 



So the landowners set to work in their own interest, but in a 

 poor and halfhearted way. First they employed John Motte and John 

 Cole, who worked by the day, but were soon obliged to desist. 

 Then James Harvey took it up, and was paid twenty shillings a day, 

 and made some little progress. 



Afterwards a contract was entered into by William Jackson for 

 the sum of ;^6,ooo on completion of the work ; and after a few 

 months he was joined by John Ward, of Hackney, and then by 

 Colonel Bennet, Mr. Lethieullier, and others. They spent altogether 

 some ;^28,ooo, and at last stopped the breach ; but on the first 

 boisterous tide the work gave way. 



The means chiefly employed up to this time had been the 

 driving of rows of large piles and sinking of earth and stone in 

 enormous quantities ; old ships laden with chalk and stones were 

 brought into the gap and then scuttled. An old government ship. 

 The Lion, was given, which they filled, and then scuttled in the 

 breach ; but the next high tide flowed in with such force that the 

 vessel was broken up, and the channel was found deeper than it had 

 been before, l^eing fifty feet. 



Thus the owners had spent more than the value of the land, and 

 after nearly seven years, having gained no advantage by the outlay, 

 deemed their lands to be lost." 



Then the navigation of the river became a pressing matter, for 

 the bank of material washed out by the tide was increasing. The 

 question was taken up by the House of Commons, and in 17 14 

 (Anno 12 Annte c. 17) "An Act for the speedy and effectual Preserv- 

 ing the Navigation of the River of Thames by stopping the Breach in 

 the Levels of Havering and Dagenham in the County of Essex and 

 for ascertaining the Coal Measure " was passed. In the Preamble it 

 is stated to be " of the utmost importance as well to the city of 



II " Reasons demonstrating that the Breach in the Levels of Havering and P.-igenham 

 hath already done . . . damage to the navigation of the Thames." — S. sheet, fol. 1714. 



" The Case of the Land owners of the le veils of Havering and Dagnam " (sic). — S. sheet, fol. 

 i7i5(?). 



