18 Fishers and Smugglers. 



That at a comparatively early time there were boats and 

 fisheries of some consequence at Leigh the subjoined document 

 verifies, and points out that the London headquarters had an 

 eye to their doings. 



" A true copy* of a notice to the Craft owners in Leigh, 



" Mr. Win. Pateridge." " You are hereby 



" required to be and appear at a Court of Assistants of the 

 " Company of Free Fishermen of the Eiver of Thames on 

 " Thursday being the 17th Day of Feby. 1725 by Ten of the 

 " Clock in the George Office the George in Lee, to bind your 

 " Servants, pay your Quarteridge, number your Craft, and 

 " qualify yourself in every respect, As the Act of Parliament 

 " and Bye-Laws of the said Company direct. Or in default 

 " thereof you will be prosecuted according to Law." 



" St. John Gates, CL" 



The same Company about this period in a petition to 

 Parliament urge that : " The fishery of the River Thames, 

 especially for salmon fish, hath been in times past justly 

 reputed the best and most plentifully stocked of any fishery in 

 Europe, but the same is now wholly destroyed." That this 

 could not be quite the truth is known, inasmuch as 50 years 

 after the salmon fishing was in force on the Thames, even at 

 London itself. 



Smugglers and Coastguard. That Leigh should have had 

 its smugglers' roost is not to be wondered at, seeing that every 

 creek, &c., on the whole coast of Essex was the resort of boats 

 devoted to little else. 



On the old " Peter Boat " public-house, High Street, Leigh 

 (dating beyond 1695), being burnt down in 1892, a large un- 

 suspected underground room with waterside entrance WHS 

 discovered, and relics of its contraband use brought to light. 

 This adjoined the Alley Dock, and a narrow path once upon a 

 time led thence up hill and across country, a branch running 

 towards Dawes Heath. This last place was a notorious ren- 



* This is in possession of a Leigh fisherman (Abraham Wilder), to 

 whom we are indebted for the use hereof. 



