A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



In 1547 the total cost of the Essex fortifications, in which Landguard was always included, 

 was nearly ^800 a year. 1 In 1551 the Privy Council decided that there was 'a number of 

 bulwarks and other fortresses upon the sea coast and otherwheres within this realm which stood the 

 king's majesty in very great charges and in no service at all nor could serve at any time to any 

 purpose ; ' 3 therefore it was resolved to disestablish some and reduce others. In pursuance of this 

 resolution Landguard was partially or entirely dismantled in June, 1553, and the ordnance sent up 

 to the Tower. 3 The end of the Henry VIII defences may perhaps be read in the confession of 

 John Jenyns before the Privy Council that he " pulled down two bulwarks at Langer in Suffolk side 

 beside Harwich.' 4 Dr. Lingard thought that the disarmament of the coast forts was only a device 

 of Northumberland's to supply himself with guns and other necessaries for the dynastic revolution 

 he was plotting. In July, 1553, tne duke's fleet watched at Orwell Haven and along the coast to 

 prevent Mary's escape, had that course entered her mind. The county was not called upon for 

 much service during the queen's reign, but in 1557 we were once more at war with France and 

 Scotland. Sir John Clere was in command of a squadron in the North Sea, but as it was doubted 

 whether he was strong enough to protect the Iceland fishing fleet a reinforcement of armed mer- 

 chantmen was ordered for him, for which Ipswich, Lowestoft, and Aldeburgh had each to provide 

 one vessel, and Dunwich and Southwold together, one. 6 With the Lord Admiral, in the Channel, 

 were two small Lowestoft vessels as tenders. 



The reign of Mary sent many of the outlawed and discontented to the refuge of the sea, and 

 the more or less continuous warfare existing in western Europe during the reign of Elizabeth 

 tempted many such men to continue their vocation. Therefore the plague of piracy, and its first 

 cousin privateering, was virulent during the latter reign, although a number of cases which the 

 sufferers called piracy were really seizures of enemy's goods in neutral ships, and were justly 

 questions for the judge of the Admiralty Court. The east coast was less guilty than the south 

 in supporting pirates and purchasing their plunder ; it also suffered less from their depredations, but 

 it was by no means free from either class of circumstance. The peace of 1564 and the protests of 

 neighbouring powers forced Elizabeth to take more energetic action, and a circular letter to the 

 vice-admirals of counties called their attention to the suggestive fact that although many pirates had 

 been taken not one had been executed. 6 In August, 1565, a letter was addressed to the vice- 

 admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk, exhorting him to increased vigilance and to search the villages on 

 the coast for goods recently landed. 7 In November of the same year commissioners were nominated 

 for each county with large powers, and they were to appoint deputies at every creek and landing 

 place. 8 As the pirates had friends, agents, partners, and informants in nearly every port the 

 proceedings of the commissioners were not of much avail ; as an example, we find Robert Arnold 

 of Walberswick ordered to appear before the duke of Norfolk, at Kenninghall, for using abusive 

 language about them, 9 and there were no doubt many others who thought like Arnold but escaped 

 punishment. The business became further complicated when the prince of Orange issued letters 

 of marque, many of which were taken out by Englishmen, and many of his ships had Englishmen 

 on board. The Orange privateers were an element of la haute politique, and Elizabeth did not hold 

 it advisable entirely to crush them even if it had been in her power to do so. Subsequently the 

 Spanish Netherlands followed the precedent of the Dutch and sent out privateers, the beginning of 

 the affliction of ' Dunkirkers,' which plagued the coast for more than a century, while Englishmen 

 also obtained letters of marque from the Huguenot leaders in France. Pirates and privateersmen 

 used the English ports, secretly or openly, with an almost complete indifference to the commis- 

 sioners ; in 1569 Martin Frobisher, the famous seaman, was arrested for a prize brought in to 

 Aldeburgh and sent to the Marshalsea prison. 10 Frobisher's light-hearted proceedings at sea, which 

 were often nearly or wholly piratical, several times brought him under arrest, and in this aspect he 

 presents himself in connexion with more than one of the counties, but he always escaped unscathed. 



In the spring of 1577 there was an especial outburst of piratical energy on the east coast, from 

 which Norfolk and Suffolk suffered severely, and the queen ordered ships to be sent to protect the 

 coasting trade. 11 In September new commissioners were appointed and still more stringent methods 



l S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, i, 22. 'Acts o/P.C. 26 Feb. 1550-1. 



3 Ibid. 11 June, I 553 ; S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, Add. iv, 45. 



'Jets o/P.C. 4 June, I 5 38. Jenyns seems to have had a legal claim of some kind (ibid. 29 April). 



5 S.P. Dom. Mary xi, 38 ; Acts o/P.C. 13 July, 1557. 



'Jets o/P.C. 23 Dec. 1 564. ' Ibid, vii, 244. 



8 Ibid. 8 Nov. 1565; S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxxvii, 71, i. The commissioners for Suffolk were Sir Owen 

 Hopton, Sir Robert Wingfield, Edward Grimston, and John Blennerhassett. The state paper gives a full list 

 of the ports, creeks, and landing places of the county ; the ports were Gorleston, Lowestoft, Easton, South- 

 wold, Walberswick, Dunwich, Aldeburgh, Orford, and Ipswich. In 1597 the Lowestoft men objected that 

 the place was not a port nor a member of any port (see post, p. 223). 



9 Acts o/P.C. 1 1 Dec. 1 565. '" R. G. Marsden, Engl. Hist. Ret: xxi, 538 et. seq. 

 "Cecil MSS. 11 May, 1577. 



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