INDUSTRIES 



fish-days throughout the kingdom. The main- 

 tenance of ' the old course of fishing' was to be 

 ' for policy's sake ; so that the sea coasts shall be 

 strong with men and habitations, and the fleet 

 flourish more than ever.' 1 In more than one 

 parish in the county, bequests of nets and fishing 

 tackle are frequent in the reign. At Easton 

 Bavent, John Franke bequeaths 'my Schyppe, 

 and my boats and nets.' 2 In I 569, the fishing at 

 Ipswich was certainly in a condition of great pros- 

 perity. The chamberlain's book of accounts and 

 receipts records the fact that ' the charges ' were 

 'growing by reason of the great fishes taken in 

 the Haven.' 'A Londoner,' we learn, was 

 brought down to give advice as to the fishes at a 

 fee of 36*. yd., probably one of the earliest in- 

 stances of the ichthyological expert to be found 

 in the marine history of the British coasts. The 

 carriage of fish from the quay to the Red Cliff 

 was 135. 7,d., whilst several men found employ- 

 ment in carrying away ' the garbage, tails, fins, 

 &c.' 3 



In 1 56 1, it was enacted that 



it shall be lawful for every ' pcdder ' to buy of 

 every Southwold boat, being on ground at the sea- 

 side within the sand or at the quay of Yarmouth, 

 herrings to serve his own use or his country, without 

 let or interruption of any merchant of Yarmouth 

 aforesaid.' 



In 1568 the poor inhabitants of Southwold 

 petitioned for a renewal of their privilege, under 

 Stat. 5 Eliz., allowing them to export their fish 

 duty free. 8 



In 1 58 1 we find the fishermen of Lowestoft 

 paying deanage to the bailiff of Lothingland for 

 the use of the lord of the manor, for the privi- 

 lege of drying their nets on the Denes (a strip of 

 land between the sea and the cliffs), of every 

 stranger's ship, lSd., of every English ship, Sd., 

 of every small boat, \d. The inference may be 

 drawn that at this date Lowestoft was frequented 

 for fishing purposes not only by native, but by 

 foreign fishermen. 6 



Orford Haven in 1584 was beginning to 

 show signs of its ultimate decay, an Act being 

 passed in that year for the maintenance of the 

 haven, and of a branch of the same called the 

 Gull, and for the preservation of the fry of fish 

 therein. 7 



Twenty ships and 200 fishermen represented 

 the industry in 1526 at Lowestoft. 



Before passing on to consider the later history 

 of the minor fishing-ports of the county, it may 

 be as well to glance briefly at the prolonged and 

 persistent disputes between the burgesses of 



1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 165. 



' Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 258. 



3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 249. 



' Ibid. App. i, 308. 



6 Cal. S. P. Dom. Efiz. 1547-80, p. 325. 



6 Suckling, Hist. Stiff, ii, 3. 



' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iii, 5. 



Yarmouth and the men of Lowestoft, which 

 must have imparted a certain flavour of excite- 

 ment to the routine of municipal life in borough 

 and town during the centuries through which it 

 lasted. There can be little doubt that the 

 covetous eye which Yarmouth cast at a very 

 early date upon the herring fishery as regarded 

 the share of Lowestoft in its benefits, was a 

 prime factor in the many ' Longe and Charge- 

 able Sutes ' in which the two opposing parties 

 found themselves continually involved. The 

 general claim of Yarmouth, with this end in 

 view, varied but little in its essentials with the 

 flourishing of the antagonism through the reigns 

 of Tudor, Stuart, and Georgian sovereigns. 

 In order to monopolize the fishery, the Yarmouth 

 burgesses sought to have it enacted that no 

 herrings should be sold and bought, by way of 

 merchandize, at any town or place upon the 

 coasts of the sea, roads or shores of the same, 

 within the compass of 14 leagues about the said 

 town of Yarmouth, that is to say, between 

 Winterton Ness in Norfolk and Easton Ness in 

 Suffolk, nor within 7 leagues from all and 

 singular the shores of the same, during the time 

 of the fair of herrings, yearly kept at Yarmouth 

 for forty days from St. Michael to St. Martin, 

 but only at the town and haven of the same. 

 And that they are to have the punishing of all 

 forestalling within the said compass. And 

 further they claimed that no ship, nor any boat, 

 should charge or discharge at any town or place 

 within the compass of seven leagues about the 

 said town, but only at the said town, or in the 

 haven of the same, or else in Kirkley Road, 

 upon pain of forfeiture of ship and goods. 8 



To these excessive claims the Lowestoft men 

 had but one retort, which they made as often as 

 ever the attack upon their liberties was renewed 

 by Yarmouth. The latter port contended that 

 such powers as were invoked by their burgesses 

 were in strict accordance with the provisions of 

 the famous Statute of Herrings. 9 Lowestoft 

 retaliated by declaring that this Statute, far from 

 conferring any such right as that so defined by 

 Yarmouth, was expressly framed, not only to 

 prevent forestalling, and for the better govern- 

 ment of the Free Fair, but for the purpose of 

 confirming every fishing-town in its own separate 

 rights. It had been the inalienable privilege, 

 moreover, they maintained, time out of mind, 

 for all fishermen of the realm to ' utter and sell 

 their herrings for their best advantage as wind 

 and weather would permit them.' 



Fortunately for the commercial growth of the 

 two towns there were occasional periods of truce in 

 the long warfare. Such a period came in 1400, 

 when an accord or compromise was entered into 

 between the belligerents whereby the Lowestoft 

 merchants were allowed to buy fish from all 



6 Suckling, Hist. Suff. ii, 76. 

 * 31 Edw. Ill, cap. 2. 



293 



