A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



subsequently lie must have bought the remaining shares, for the Margaret appears in the lists as a 

 king's ship. There were several arrests of ships in 1475 for the French war ; one of them — from 

 Newcastle to Bristol — must be almost, if not quite, the last example of the general arrest affecting 

 the whole country. The growth of the fishery is shown by the struggle for the profitable privilege 

 of supplying convoys for the fishing fleets. In 1472 a vessel at anchor in Orwell haven was 

 carried off by a Sandwich ship hired by the people of the east coast for the protection of the 

 fishermen during the season; but that seems to have been an exceptional incident. 1 In 1482 the 

 convoyers were appointed by the king, and the persons designated were authorized to arrest and 

 imprison any others who ventured to undertake similar work. 2 In the same year commissioners 

 were nominated to examine the accounts of the convoyers of 148 I, collecting rough statistics of 

 the state of the trade and the number of men employed in it ; 3 and in 1484 the accounts of the 

 convoyers of 1482 were similarly supervised. 4 There are several commissions for convoy of the 

 same character during the reign of Henry VII, 5 but the custom soon fell out of use as the Navy 

 grew larger, and men-of-war were more often in the North Sea. Some sailing directions assigned 

 to the reign of Edward IV show that the principal sands, channels, and landmarks for navigation 

 along the coast of East Anglia were much the same as now. 6 



There must have been many wrecks upon the dangerous Suffolk coast during these centuries, 

 but few of such casualties appear in the records perhaps because the Crown had granted away most 

 of its rights along the coast. The right of wreck was coveted by manorial lords and corporations 

 both for profit and, incidentally, as evidence of exemption from the inquisition of the High Admiral. 

 Legally, if man, dog, or cat escaped alive from a ship it was no wreck, but if the cargo once came 

 into the hands of those ashore there was small chance of recovery. Every corporation used what 

 influence it possessed to obtain local jurisdiction in admiralty matters, not only as a question or 

 dignity and profit, but even more in order to escape the arbitrary and expensive proceedings of the 

 Lord Admiral's deputies, who brought much odium upon their master. Ipswich obtained admiralty 

 jurisdiction by the charter of 28 March, 1446 ; 7 in 1536 it was found by inquisition that the bailiffs 

 of Ipswich were exercising jurisdiction at Walton and fining people for non-appearance. The wives 

 of fishermen were 'attached in Ipswich with their horses and take their fish from them.' 8 The 

 burgesses of Dunwich claimed that their rights had been granted to them by John, and an 

 inquisition of 21 Henry III found that they were then exercising right of wreck. 9 The same inquisi- 

 tion tells us that Orford was enjoying similar powers, and at Aldeburgh, Thorpe, and several other 

 places the right to wreck of the sea was then in private hands. Very little of the Suffolk coast 

 remained subject to the pecuniary profit of the High Admiral; the fact that the duke of Gloucester, 

 afterwards Richard III, held this office during his brother's reign may explain why there was some 

 inquiry in 1465 into the powers under which individuals and corporations in Norfolk and Suffolk 

 were acting to the injury of the duke's emoluments. 10 Any results concerning Suffolk that may 

 have followed are unknown, and no evidence has been found of similar disputes for more than a 

 century. Southwold acquired its like immunities in the reign of Henry VII. 11 



In 1481 a squadron was equipped to act against Scotland, and the Carve/ of Ipswich, Captain 

 Thos. Coke, was one of the five merchantmen selected to join the king's ships. 12 The reign of 

 Henry VII is almost barren of maritime incident, but some Suffolk ships were used as transports 

 when the earl of Surrey invaded Scotland in 1497. Three came from Walberswick, two from 

 Aldeburgh, two from Dunwich, and one each from Southwold, Orford, Easton, and Sizewell. 13 



With the reign of Henry VIII the era of arrests and impressment of shipping may be said to 

 have terminated. The port towns were sometimes to be called upon to provide ships, but such 

 towns were usually associated in order to lessen the expense and eventually the county as a whole 

 contributed to the cost. Improvements in building and armament had now differentiated the man- 

 of-war from the merchantman ; the latter was of little use in fleets except ' to make a show,' and 

 to have required the ports to furnish real men-of-war would have ruined them. It was one of the 

 purposes of Henry's life to create a national Navy, and there was not a year of his reign that did 

 not witness some accretion to its strength. Such merchantmen as he required were hired without 

 the exercise of the prerogative. It is not until the reign of Elizabeth that we find in force the further 

 development of the right of impressment, the demand for fully armed ships at the cost of the ports 

 and counties, the principle upon which the ship-money levies were based. The first war with France 



1 Pat. 11 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. nd. s Ibid. 22 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 2. 



J Ibid. m. jd. ' Ibid. 2 Rich. Ill, pt. I, m. 2. 

 6 Campbell, Materials for a History of . . . Henry Vll. 



6 Sailing Directions . . . from a Fifteenth Century MS. (Hale. Soc), 1889. For Orwell Haven see 

 V. C. H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.' 



' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 231. 8 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 831. 

 9 Gardner, Hist. Account of Dunwich, 1 14. 



10 Lansd. MSS. 171, fol. 186. "Pat. 10 June, 1505. 



" Rymer, Foedera, xii, 139. u Chap. Ho. Bks. vii, fol. 60 et. seq. 



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