180 BRIDPORT HARBOUR. 



certificate which followed the enquiry bears witness that " at 

 a place called Byrtporte there is taken ropes an*d other stuff 

 made of hempe to be carried by water into Devonshire and 

 Cornwall." (Memoranda Roll 350 m. 340. Exch. QR). This 

 Customs document further helps us with a scrap of negative 

 evidence. The commissioners were instructed to certify 

 if any of the ports were " decayed," to which they reply by 

 naming Wareham, Lyme, and Weymouth as being in need of 

 repair. Accordingly the inference can be drawn, I think, 

 that in 1565 our haven was in good and serviceable working 

 condition, even if the engineering and the appliances were of 

 somewhat early types. 



I am able to add to the above list of ships the names of 

 three others which are derived from Exch. accounts of 1586. 



George, of Birport, 10 tons, William Singleman, master. 

 The cargo was peas, rope, hemp and " 20 couples of balches," 

 for Falmouth. 



John, of Birport, 18 tons, William Peach, master. John 

 Tigane, owner. To Fowey. 



Mary, of Birport, 10 tons. Robert Bokler, master. Peas 

 and beans. 



Although the haven did not equip any vessel to take part 

 in resisting the threatened attack by the Spanish armada 

 (for the sufficient reason that no ships of less than 60 tons 

 were requisitioned by the Privy Council) the military pre- 

 parations against invasion must have caused anxiety in the 

 town. Again I am able to draw upon the report of yet another 

 commission sent down in 1588 to survey the Dorset coast line 

 with a view to the defence of such bays and creeks as possessed 

 anchorages or other facilities which might encourage raiding 

 by the Spaniards. On the 20th April in that year Sir John 

 Norris, Sir Henry Ashlie.and George Trenchard started east- 

 wards from Lyme on their Staff ride, as I may call it, and finish- 

 ed at Poole on the 24th. Having reached the " entry to 

 Bridporte " they describe it as being " verie comodious for 

 landinge," a remark which would have been rather disturbing 

 to the inhabitants had it reached their ears. The words 



