A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



recurred with every war. In 1779 a combined French and Spanish fleet was in command of the 

 Channel for some weeks, and, although its real objective was known to be the south coast, the 

 Admiralty were prepared, as a measure of precaution, to extinguish the Orfordness among other 

 lights. The American war produced a press-gang incident at Ipswich, ordinary enough in its 

 details except that it ended in murder. On 12 December, 1778, a press party from Harwich 

 searched the ' Green Man,' an Ipswich public-house ; the townsmen came to the rescue, there was 

 a fight, and the proprietor of the public-house died from his injuries in a few hours. The coroner's 

 jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against Lieut. Fairlie, the officer in command, and 

 sixteen of his men, a verdict repeated when they were tried at the Sessions. The Admiralty, of 

 course, exerted every means to save them, and brought the case up to the King's Bench on a 

 technical point, which was won, and the Ipswich verdict quashed. 1 During the war of American 

 Independence there was a strong party in England in sympathy with the colonists. Perhaps the 

 antipathy they aroused rendered the loyalists still more loyal, and was the reason that the Suffolk 

 supporters of the government desired to prove their ardour by presenting the country with a 

 74-gun ship. A meeting was held at Stowmarket on 5 August, 1782, and a circular sent out, 

 signed by the sheriff, inviting subscriptions. Admiral Lord Keppel, who was a Suffolk seaman in 

 so far as he possessed a seat in the county, subscribed £300, and at first promises came in quickly. 

 But the cost of a 74-gun ship ready for sea was nearly £100,000, and the enthusiasm of the county 

 was not exchangeable for such an amount. Clarke 2 is responsible for the statement that there 

 was no intention of proceeding with the gift unless twelve other counties followed the example 

 of Suffolk, but there is no suggestion of such a condition in the original circular ; 3 so far from 

 that, the undertaking was held up as one which was to serve as a model for the rest of the 

 kingdom. In the result, only some £20,000 was promised, and the peace of I 783 was a welcome 

 reason to drop the scheme. 



A plan of Aldeburgh in 1779 shows four batteries and a redoubt, but their general 

 condition in 1 78 1 was criticized very unfavourably. 4 It was a very critical period of the 

 war ; the fleets and armies were acting at the periphery of the empire and the centre was 

 only defended by militia. Regiments or companies of this force were stationed at Ipswich, 

 Woodbridge, Landguard, Aldeburgh, Southwold, and Lowestoft. Gorleston and Corton were added 

 after the Dutch declared war in 1780 when there was a still more instant expectation of invasion. 

 It is said that the government had information of an intended descent in 1782 ; consequently the 

 coast was patrolled by cavalry during the summer nights and a system of alarm by rockets was tried 

 on 1 8 July. 6 After some experiments an alarm was conveyed from Bawdsey to Caister, a distance 

 of fifty miles in eleven minutes. 



When the Revolutionary War broke out the great need was for men. Years of ever-widening 

 commerce and of naval victory had their effect eventually in atttracting thousands of men to the sea, 

 but at first the supply of sailors was altogether insufficient to man the royal and merchant navies. 

 Therefore besides the impress system, always working, and a suspension of certain sections of the 

 Navigation Acts, Parliament sanctioned in 1795 and 1796, an experiment analogous to the ship- 

 money project of Charles I by requiring the counties each to obtain a certain number of men for the 

 Navy who were to be attracted by a bounty to be raised by an assessment charged in every parish like 

 other local rates. 6 In 1795 the county was called upon for 263, and in 1796 for 341 men, com- 

 paring with 244 and 316 for Essex, and 460 and 337 for Norfolk. The ports also were required to 

 procure men, an embargo being placed upon all British shipping until they were obtained. 

 Aldeburgh was assessed for nineteen men, Ipswich fifty-eight, Southwold twenty-one, and 

 Woodbridge eighteen. In 1798 the need for men was greater than ever; Ireland was in revolt, 

 the discontent which had flamed into the mutinies of 1797 was still smouldering in the fleets, the 

 French armies were terrorizing the continent, and the battle of the Nile was not won until August. 

 In Suffolk preparations were made to meet invasion ; on alarm being given by means of red flags, all 

 stock was to be driven inland, wheeled vehicles removed, and gangs of labourers set to break up the 

 roads and barricade them with trees. There was an evening of enthusiasm at Ipswich in October, 

 when on the 1 6th, a ball was given to celebrate the victory of the Nile, Lady Nelson, who was 

 received by Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, a distinguished veteran of the American war, being present. 



In view of the persistent fear of invasion and the want of men, all protections from the press 

 for fishermen and others were suspended in May, 1798, and by an Order in Council of the 14th of 

 that month a new force, the Sea Fencibles, was created. It was raised with the intention of meeting 

 an invading flotilla by another of the same character and for the purpose of manning the coast 

 batteries ; it was to be composed of fishermen and boatmen as well as the semi-seafaring dwellers of 



1 Clarke, Hist, of Ipswich, 109 ; Admir. Sec. Min. Ixxxvi, 15 December, 1 778 ; Ann. Register, June, 1779. 

 ' Hist, of Ipswich, 1 10. ' B. M. Suffolk Newspaper Cuttings, 1 304 m., fol. 34. 



4 Add. MSS. 15533 ; W. O. Misc. Var. §£• s Gillingwater, op. cit. 432. 



6 35 Geo. Ill, c. 5 ; 37 Geo. Ill, c. 4. 



240 



