184 BRIDPORT HARBOUR. 



burgesses would have been engaged in watching the fortunes 

 of the civil war. There is, however, one subsequent echo of 

 the discontent w r hich gave rise to the law suit under James I. 

 and Charles I. The Domestic State Papers of the latter 

 king (140, 47) contain a letter dated 1629 from a certain John 

 Raymond of our town, the writer of which should, I think, 

 be identified with a witness in the proceedings who held and 

 expressed very strong views thereon. He tells his corres- 

 pondent, who is addressed as " Right Honble," that the magis- 

 trates, by their " neglect of this great business of the harbour," 

 had caused the undertaking to be " left hopeless," and that the 

 town was "miserably distressed." This gloomy picture was no 

 doubt partly attributable to a second visitation of the Plague, 

 which had moved the authorities to ask for a postponement 

 of taxation, but, even so, there was not an entire suspension 

 of sea-borne trade, because I find that in 1630 Richard Nossiter 

 was the master of a " little barke " called the Amity, of Brid- 

 port, and was then engaged in carrying merchandise to and 

 from Channel ports ; there are also other, but indefinite, 

 references to shipping about that date. 



After the Restoration the clouds lighten, and the borough 

 receives a more or less specific grant of land upon which to 

 rebuild. Charles II., in response to a petition from Sir Roger 

 Cuttance on behalf of the Bailiffs, referred the question to 

 the farmers of the customs to enquire whether the head port 

 of Poole Avould suffer in revenue if the prayer was complied 

 with and the haven promoted to be a technical " port." The 

 farmers replied favourably in June, 1670, whereupon formal 

 permission to repair, etc., was given, by warrant of the Attor- 

 ney General, in these words : 



" Augt. 1670. His Maj. graciously pleased to graunt unto the 

 " Bayliffes Burgesses and Comonalty of the burrough of 

 " Bridport in the county of Dorsett and theire successors, full 

 " power to repair e the antient harbour, walls, peeres and sluces 

 " thereunto belonging, as shalbee found convenient for the 

 " recov'ing the said antient harbour, or for erecting such a new 

 " harbour att, in or before the said burrough of Bridport as may 



