FOUNDING OF YARMOUTH. 57 



from many parts of England, Flanders, and Nor- 

 mandy, on account of the vast quantity of lenten pro- 

 vision manufactured here annually ; it pleased King 

 Henry the First, in the ninth year of his reign, to 

 invest with authority a proper magistrate, called in 

 Latin prcepositus, but in the dialect of those times 

 Le Provost. . . . Under this regimen, Yarmouth 

 flourished about one hundred years; till the reign of 

 King John," who granted the burgesses a charter 

 creating this ancient burgh into a free burgh, with 

 many immunities and privileges ; the town to pay 

 him and his heirs an annual rent of .55 for ever, 

 which amount was taken out of the customs of the 

 port, the town not being allowed to take any custom 

 of goods bought or sold in the market upon land. 



The liberties formerly held by the barons, inter- 

 fering with those newly granted to the burgesses of 

 Yarmouth, "occasioned such horrid discords, war, 

 and confusion as the like perhaps never happened 

 for so long a time between any two places in the 

 British dominion, the whole nation being sometimes 

 alarmed with their debates, riots, and depredations 

 on each other." 



To such an extent was this carried, that when 

 King Edward the First went to assist the Earl of 

 Flanders against the French, " the men of the ports 

 and Yarmouth, through an old grudge long depend- 

 ing between them, fell together and fought on the sea 

 with such fury, that notwithstanding the king's com- 

 mandment to the contrary, twenty-five ships of Yar- 

 mouth and their partakers were burnt." 



