A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Walter Cooke and William Ewins were sent to design two new lighthouses, the high, which was 

 intended to be fixed, while the low lighthouse, being a small timber structure, could be moved 

 to follow the alterations in the Stanford Channel, the two lights leading in line over it. 1 



In 1663 there is a reference to the negligence of the lightkeeper, 2 and in 1676 the high light- 

 house was rebuilt. 3 According to Gillingwater it was not reinstated in quite the same position, but 

 replaced a beacon formerly on the site it now occupies. Colonel Baskerville, travelling in the 

 eastern counties in 1 68 1, noticed that at Lowestoft ' we rode along by two watch, or light, houses 

 one for candle, and in the other a great fire made with coal.' 4 As the Lowestoft lights were 

 always under the control of the Trinity House they escaped the fierce criticism levelled against 

 the private lights by the parliamentary committees of the first half of the nineteenth century. The 

 low light was converted to oil in 1730, 6 and the high light in I 796.° In 1815 the Stanford light- 

 ship, at the north end of the Newcome Sand was established, and the three lights were producing 

 about /3,30c) a year net revenue in 1822, under the patent of 1 81 5, by which they were then 

 held. 7 In 1832 the low lighthouse was rebuilt as a timber lantern on a brick foundation ; in 1866 it 

 was replaced by an iron structure, and the high lighthouse was rebuilt in 1873. 



Towards the end of 1627 the bailiffs of Aldeburgh petitioned for a lighthouse ; 8 if they meant 

 one for the town they were destined to be disappointed, but if Orfordness was near enough to satisfy 

 them they were not to have long to wait. There had been a suggestion of Orfordness in 161 8, 9 

 but the proposal was not taken up although the Aldeburgh burgesses may have kept it in mind. 

 The exact date of the establishment of the light is doubtful. In February, 1634-5, the king was 

 petitioned to authorize a lighthouse at Orfordness. 10 In April Sir John Meldrum, a large speculator 

 in lighthouses, who was in constant litigation with the Trinity House about them, writes of Orfordness 

 as erected ; u a possible explanation is that a patent had been promised, but not having passed he had 

 put up a temporary light to ensure possession. The patent is dated 13 April, 1637; 12 it recites that 

 Sir John Meldrum and Sir William Erskine had erected lighthouses at Winterton under a patent of 

 James I, that Erskine's interest had passed to Gerard Gore of London, that Meldrum had built two 

 at Orfordness, and now petitioned the king to grant the proprietorship in them and in Winterton 

 to Gore, with whom, presumably, Meldrum had come to some pecuniary arrangement. Gore's 

 lease was for fifty years at a rental of ^20 a year ; he was entitled to charge id. a ton, outward 

 and inward, on merchantmen, but only \d. on colliers and fishing boats. In 1 64 1 the Hull 

 seamen trading to the Baltic protested against being compelled to pay the dues for Orfordness ; u 

 in 1663 Gore was called upon to appear before the Trinity House for neglecting the lights, 14 and 

 this is practically all that is known of his period of possession. By a patent of I 5 October, 166 1, 16 

 a new lease was granted to Sir Edward Turner for sixty years if Gore's concession was void, but 

 only for thirty-three years if the first grant ran to its natural termination. In all the patents there 

 was a restriction that no other lights were to be put up within two miles of Orfordness or Winterton, 

 the two stations always going together. By a patent of 30 January, 1695, William III, in consider- 

 tion of a fine of £jS° and the usual yearly payment of ^20, granted to Richard Neville and George 

 Davenant, as trustees and executors of Ralph, Lord Grey, a term of sixty years from the end of 

 Gore's patent if Turner's was void ; if Turner's was not void it was to run for thirty-five years 

 from 13 April, 1720. A comparison of these dates shows that Gore's term ran to the end, that 

 then Turner, or his representatives, held the lights until 1 720, and that they came into the 

 possession of Henry Grey of Billingbear as residuary legatee of Lord Grey. 16 Henry Grey, in view 

 of his expenditure of ^2,000 in reconstructing and repairing — one of the buildings having been 

 washed away by the sea in October, 1730 — prayed for a longer term. 17 An affidavit from the collector 

 of the dues certified the truth of Grey's statement, and added that the lighthouses had been left in a 

 ruinous condition by the former proprietor. No doubt Grey had influence, for he obtained without 

 difficulty a further grant of thirty-six years from 1755 at a rental of ^20 a year. 



Shortly afterwards the ownership passed by marriage into the Aldworth-Neville (Lords 

 Braybrooke) family. They obtained a further extension by patent of 6 November, 1765, and this 



1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 243. * Ibid. 252. 3 Ibid. 256 ; Pari. Papers (l86l),xxv, 404. 



4 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, Portland MSS. ii, 267. The low light used candles. 



6 Pari. Papers (1861), xxv, 404. - 6 Ann. Reg. 



7 Pat. 1 June, 55 Geo. Ill, pt. 9 ; Pari. Papers (1822), xxi, 497. 



s Coke MSS. i, 335. Thirty-two vessels were lost off the port on the night ot 28 October, 1627. 

 9 Lansd. MSS. 162, fol. 255. w Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 245. 



11 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxxvi, 28. 



12 Pat. 13 Chas. I, pt. 15. It mentions that Orfordness was increasing by deposit from the sea. 



13 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. 76. 



14 Ibid, vii, App. i, 252. By a misprint, or an error in transcription, he is called Alderman Grove. 

 Few of the Trinity House MSS. are original documents. 



15 Pat. 13 Chas. II, pt. 25. " Treas. Bd. Papers, cclxxv, 13. 

 17 Treas. Papers and Bks. 8 Jan. 1730-1. 



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