A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



was already in commission, at a preliminary outlay of ^590, they had not been able to obtain more 

 than ^40 from Orford, Dunwich, Southwold, Walbcrswick, and Woodbridge, the places appointed 

 to help them. 1 The Privy Council answered that the towns ought to contribute at the rates to 

 which they were assessed for the subsidies, and that those who persisted in not paying were to be 

 sent up to them. These difficulties were not peculiar to Suffolk ; they occurred nearly everywhere, 

 but they throw a cold sidelight on the enthusiasm for battle which most historians and all poets 

 describe as inspiring England in 1588. The truth is that, while the ports were no less patriotic 

 than the shires, the demand for ships now bore on them with an unfair severity for several reasons, 

 and as open refusal was as yet impossible evasion or cavils were their only resource. 



Of the three vessels assessed on Ipswich and Harwich the first town sent two, the JFilliam, 

 140 tons, Captain Barnaby Lowe, and the Katherine, 125 tons, Captain Thomas Grymble ; Akle- 

 burgh sent the Marygoll, 150 tons, Captain Francis Johnson, and Lowestoft the Mathew, 35 tons, 

 Captain Richard Mitchell. The Marygold was dismissed for want of provisions, on 13 June, and 

 the Matbew, contemptuously, on the same date as not worth keeping. 2 Three other Aldeburgh 

 vessels, and a 90-ton Lowestoft bark, the Elizabeth, joined the fleet as volunteers in the queen's pay, 

 presumably in the hope of picking up some plunder. The Elizabeth was one of the vessels used as 

 fireships on the night of 28-29 J u ' v > tne crucial moment of the campaign. 3 All the Suffolk ships 

 were attached to Lord Henry Seymour's division, watching the Flemish ports, which joined the main 

 fleet off Calais on 27 July, and they were no doubt in the subsequent battle off Gravelines, but, like 

 the rest of the merchantmen, did no useful service. On I August, Seymour's division anchored in 

 the Rolling Grounds, where the Lord Admiral, Howard, also arrived on the 7th, after chasing the 

 Armada past the Firth of Forth. 



After the Armada crisis many of the corporations and counties showed no desire to liquidate 

 the liabilities incurred, but only a ready ingenuity in finding reasons why the responsibility should be 

 shifted to their neighbours' shoulders. In most cases the ships had been sent to sea before the money 

 for their equipment was collected, the credit of the town or district being pledged to some of the 

 more wealthy inhabitants for the necessary advance of money. In the case of Ipswich and Harwich 

 the vessels were with Seymour in May, while the Ipswich bailiffs were making the before-noticed 

 complaints to Walsingham, and that this was done was owing to two burgesses of Ipswich, John Tye 

 and John Barber, to whom the IVilliam and the Katberine belonged. 4 In December, 1588, the 

 Council were informed by the Ipswich authorities, speaking for Harwich as well as for themselves, 

 that they had levied four whole subsidies and had borrowed money, but yet had £s°° more to pay 

 which they were unable to find, especially as some of the places formerly directed to assist them had 

 been excused by the Council and others made their own excuses. 6 The Council directed that the 

 hundreds adjoining the coast were to make up the deficiency. This plan does not seem to have 

 been successful for, in the following January, Tye and Barber themselves addressed the Council, 

 saying that, notwithstanding these orders, they could not get paid. 



In 1589 Norreys and Drake led a fleet and army to Portugal to place Don Antonio, the 

 pretender to the crown, on the throne and thus dismember the Spanish empire and end the war. 

 Although the queen gave assistance the expedition was a private adventure on the part of the 

 leaders and their associates ; consequently the ports were not called upon for ships, but upwards of 

 eighty were hired on the usual terms of two shillings a ton per month. The port of origin of many 

 of the ships is not given, but at least seven were from Suffolk, including both the William and the 

 Katberine, commissioned in the previous year. The failure of this enterprise deterred Elizabeth 

 from further undertakings on a large scale until 1596, when the attack on Cadiz took place. The 

 first sign of preparation was on 14 December, I 595, when the county was required to find provisions. 

 A week later, on 2 1 December, 6 a circular letter asked for two ships, manned, armed, and victualled 

 at local charge for five months. By this time the unfairness of placing the whole charge on the ports 

 was recognized, and of the ,£1,800 the vessels were expected to cost the Council expected half to 

 be raised on the coast and the other half from the county. 7 The original assessment was intended 

 to be ^3,000, therefore the Council had cut down the cost considerably in response to protests, 

 and they further decided that no person should be charged who was not rated at a certain amount of 

 subsidy. 8 Eventually the Costly and the fames, each of 200 tons and twenty guns, and both Ipswich 

 ships, sailed with the fleet as transports at a cost of ^1,896, but the troubles of the Suffolk authorities 

 were by no means over. Many people refused to pay and, in November, 1596, three burgesses of 

 Woodbridge appeared before the Council to answer for their contumacy. It had not been uncommon 

 for occasional cases of recalcitrancy to occur in the ports, but a more dangerous spirit is indicated 

 when persons of the position of Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sir Robert Jermyn were ' giving particular 

 advice contrary to our direction aggravating the matter' against the Privy Council, who had written 



1 Acts of P. C. 28 May, 1588. * S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccxii, 34, i. 



8 Ibid, ccxvi, 74. The owner was Thomas Meldrum. * Ibid, ccxxii, I. 



4 Acts of P. C. 17 Dec. 1588. 6 Ibid. ' Ibid, xxv, 315. 8 Ibid. 9 Feb. 1395-6. 



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