MARITIME HISTORY 



Suffolk, like other counties, was depleted of seamen and fishermen to man the royal fleets during 

 this war ; as a consequence certain hundreds were allotted to Lord Wentworth in 1545 for the 

 defence of the coast in the absence of the maritime population. 1 In February, I 547, Sir Andrew 

 Dudley was in command of a fleet then lying in Orwell Haven, ordered to intercept the supplies 

 passing from France to Scotland, but it does not appear that he had any merchantmen with him. 

 His flagship, the Pauncye, afterwards took the Lion, a Scotch man-of-war, but the prize was lost in 

 Harwich harbour ' by negligence,' says Edward VI in his Journal. 2 



The question of piracy and wrecking becomes more noticeable during the reign of Henry VIII, 

 not because the offences were more prevalent — there were probably fewer cases than during 

 preceding centuries — but because suppression was taken in hand more seriously. Henry was 

 determined to make his kingship feared and respected at sea as he made it feared and respected 

 on land. No single life could have been long enough to see complete success, but the steps he 

 took mark a great advance in the organization of repressive measures and only the application 

 or extension of them was left to his successors. It had been found that the existing system 

 of trial for piracy was nearly useless, the offender having to confess before he could be sentenced, 

 or his guilt having to be proved by disinterested witnesses, who naturally could seldom be present 

 at sea. By two statutes, 27 Hen. VIII, cap. 4, and 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 15, such crimes were in 

 future to be tried according to the forms of the common and not as hitherto of the civil law. 

 Probably for the better administration of these statutes and for other reasons — namely the exe- 

 cution of a treaty with France of 1525 concerning maritime depredations, the strict protection of 

 the king's and Lord Admiral's rights in wrecks and other matters, the registration of ships and men 

 available and the levy of seamen, the inspection and certification of ships going to sea touching their 

 armed strength and the peaceful nature of the voyage, the exaction of bonds from captains and 

 owners as security for good conduct and the safe-keeping of prizes and prize goods — it was 

 deemed advisable to have round the coast permanent representatives of the Lord Admiral, who 

 should be of higher social standing and armed with greater authority than were the deputies who 

 had hitherto visited each county or district collecting the Lord Admiral's profits or maintaining his 

 rights. The officers in question, the vice-admirals of the counties, were, in their civil functions, the 

 successors historically of the keepers of the coast and the conservators of truces of the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries, and there is not one of the duties of the vice-admirals which cannot be 

 paralleled among those performed by the earlier officials. We have seen that there had been 

 occasional appointments for Norfolk and Suffolk of officers who held posts very similar to those of 

 the vice-admirals, 3 but now, instead of acting temporarily and only in one or two districts, they 

 became a band of crown officials stationed round the whole coast, backed by the power of the Tudor 

 despotism and continued without any interruption during which their authority might diminish by 

 intermission. 4 



The scheme did not come into operation simultaneously over all England, but developed out of 

 necessity and according to opportunity. The first nomination known by precise date is that for 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, but Cornwall may have even been earlier, and in view of the long established 

 reputation of the southern county for the lawless practices customary on its coast there is some 

 significance in the fact that the East Anglian appointment is of about the same date, although the 

 exact reasons are unknown to us. The first vice-admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk, appointed by the 

 then Lord Admiral, Sir William Fitzwilliam, by patent for life 20 August, 1536, was William 

 Gonson, long connected with the naval administration ; he is styled ' our commissary, vice-admiral, 

 and deputy in the office of the vice-admiralty.' 6 Gonson was well known to Henry and it is 

 likely that the nomination was the king's rather than Fitzwilliam's ; it may also be due to Henry's 

 favour that, unlike his successors, he was granted all fees and profits free from any account to the 

 Lord Admiral. Very shortly after the general institution of the vice-admirals the perquisites were shared 

 with the Lord Admiral, and they had to give bond to render their accounts half-yearly. This duty 

 was often ignored, and about 1553 ordinances were drawn up by which they were to regulate their 

 conduct and that of their subordinate officers. 6 The post was usually held by country gentlemen 

 for whom it was a source of dignity and profit ; in Suffolk, as elsewhere, all the best-known countv 

 names appear in the lists. Norfolk and Suffolk were not divided into separate vice-admiralties until 

 late in the reign of Elizabeth, and until the separation the office was almost an appanage of the 

 Wodehouse and Southwell families. 



' Acts of P. C. 12 May, 1545. • Cott. MSS. Nero C. x. * Ante, p. 202. 



4 The patents of appointment were from the Lord Admiral, sometimes for life and sometimes during 

 pleasure. 



4 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. Ser. II, 224. I am indebted to Mr. R. G. Marsden, to whose learned researches 

 the history of the evolution of the office of vice-admiral is mainly due, for bringing Gonson's appointment to 

 my notice. Mr. Marsden has also given generous help in the legal and local history of the coast. 



' Admir. Ct. Inq. i. 



213 



