47 



By the Statute of 21st Jac. I. c. 32. s. 3. for 

 making the Thames navigable from Bercott to 

 Oxford, it is said, " the River Thames for many 

 miles beyond the City of Oxford, westward, is 

 already navigable, and from London to the vil- 

 lage of Bercott." 



The Statute of 1st Jac. I. c. 16. entitled " an 

 Act concerning wherrymen and watermen," re- 

 cites that " persons passing by water between 

 Windsor and Gravesend, had been put to ha- 

 zard and danger ;" and declares " that no water- 

 men shall take apprentices, but he that hath 

 served a time to it, (except western barges, 

 mill-boats, and other vessels, serving for other 

 uses than carrying passengers." 



M. was fined 2001. for diverting part of the 

 River Thames, by which means he weakened 

 the current to carry barges towards London. 

 That river is a highway. Noy's Reports, 103. 



In 1579, John Bishop complained to the Lord 

 Treasurer (Burleigh) of the locks, weirs, and 

 flood-gates, on the Thames between Maiden- 

 head and Oxford, and showed that by these 

 stoppages several persons have been drowned, 

 who all belonged to barges that used the river. 



