BOROUGH OF SOUTHAMPTON 



and the office of pesage there, and its possession was 

 in the family for some generations.* 04 The office of 

 pesage in the town was the more important in the 

 Middle Ages, since by an injunction m of Edward II in 

 1320 Southampton was one of the ports from which 

 alone wool could be shipped, and under the statute of 

 the staples 30 ' in 1353, staple goods from Winchester 

 had to be weighed a second time at Southampton, 

 wools also after 1465 were to be shipped only from 

 Southampton and such other places where the king's 

 beam was kept. 308 



The Venetian trade is untowardly introduced by 

 the notice of an affray between the mariners of five 

 Venetian galleys on the one side and the townspeople 

 on the other in April, 1323. Blood was shed and 

 property destroyed, but by desire of Edward II the 

 mayor and community forbore from pressing the 

 quarrel with these wealth-bearing strangers, and the 

 matter was patched up by a money compensation. 309 

 The prosperity of the port increased, and eventually, 

 it seems, incurred the jealousy of the London mer- 

 chants. 310 In 1378 special inducement was held out 

 to the Levant trade by Act of Parliament," 1 which 

 gave Genoese, Venetian, Catalonian, and other mer- 

 chants a privilege of freely trading at ' Hampton,' or 

 elsewhere, provided they paid the dues they would pay 

 at the staple of Calais ; provided also they carried their 

 exports of wool, woolfells, &c., westward to their own 

 countries and no farther eastward than to Calais ' if 

 they desired to go there.' As a matter of fact the offer 

 of these advantages, and of a shortened voyage, brought 

 the ships to ' Hampton ' ; and from the date of the 

 above grant they came with the regularity of the 

 seasons for the next 150 years, from three to five 

 galleys being commissioned by the Doge each season, 

 and the port remained the centre of the Venetian 

 trade in the kingdom ; but the hindrance to the 

 foreign purchase of wool towards the middle of the 

 sixteenth century 31 * soon involved the loss of the 

 galleys, though the town books note the presence of 

 some few Venetian ships very occasionally as late as 

 I 5 6 9 ." 3 



In the reign of Henry V much shipbuilding was 

 carried on at Southampton. Here he built his famous 

 ships, the Holy Ghost in 1414 and the Grace Dieu nt 

 in 1417. The trade had never been unknown here, 

 and was occasionally revived, as in the reign of Eliza- 

 beth, and rather conspicuously in the time of George III, 

 and though no ships of war are now built here, the 

 building and repair trade of a smaller class is carried on; 



and on the Woolston side of the Itchen the important 

 works of Messrs. Thornycroft & Co. are established 

 in succession to those of Messrs. Moody, Casney & 

 Co. In the fifteenth century Southampton was also 

 the great emporium for tin. In 1453 it was all 

 arrested and required to be sold towards the cost of 

 the army to be sent into Guienne. The tin-house is 

 mentioned in the ordinances of 1478 and subse- 

 quently. 314 



A tailors' petition of 1474, direful enough in itself, 

 bears witness to the constant presence in the port of 

 ' carracks, galleys and ships ' of Spain, Portugal, Ger- 

 many, Flanders, Zealand, and others, which all, of 

 course, brought their treasures and would carry away 

 wool and other goods from Southampton. 316 



In spite then of shipping detentions, hindrances 

 from war and invasion, piracies, and the other mis- 

 haps which waited on mediaeval commerce, Southamp- 

 ton prospered in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 

 It was a brisk centre still for its old trades, and a staple 

 for metals 3I7 (1492) ; it could advance heavy loans on 

 national requirements or become security for them. 318 

 But by the end of the first quarter of the sixteenth 

 century we find the townspeople complaining of ill 

 times, as they had never done before excepting possibly 

 when suing for some fresh charter privilege. 319 Trade 

 was falling off; and the bishop of Bangor" writes 

 to Wolsey on his elevation by the king to Winchester, 

 thereby becoming earl of Southampton, that the 

 townspeople were expecting great things from him 

 in their now smaller resort of shipping. 381 In 1533 

 the carracks and galleys were not coming as they 

 used. 3 " But in truth, from whatever cause, decay 

 had been slowly creeping over the port. It is re- 

 ferred to in an Act of I49S, S>3 again in 1523, while 

 in 1531 the loss of trade was successfully alleged in 

 abatement of the fee-farm. 3 " At the middle of the 

 century (1551) the expediency of establishing a free 

 mart in England for cloth and tin was debated, and 

 the experiment was to be tried at Southampton. 

 Nothing came of this, but shortly after the town 

 obtained a monopoly in the landing of sweet wines, 315 

 a privilege at least partially confirmed by Elizabeth in 

 1563, and worth at least 200 marks a year. The 

 settlement of foreign refugees in 1567 did something 

 in the long run for trade, though the town was loth 

 to own it. Twenty years later Southampton is classed 

 with Bristol and other best towns as falling to decay. 3 ' 6 

 In the year of the Armada (1588) the mayor was 

 unable to furnish the two ships and pinnace re- 



sos s ee the several ref. in Davies, op. 

 cit. 250. 



806 Anderson, Hist, of Commerce (1787), 



', 231- 



W Stat. 27 Edw. Ill, 2, cap. I. 



808 Stat. of Realm, 4 Edw. IV, cap. 2. 

 So in 1554 wools to the Levant were 

 only to be shipped at Southampton. Hist. 

 MSS. Com. Rep. xi, App. iii, 49. 



809 Cat. S.P. Venetian, IO April, 1323. 

 Such frictions were of constant occur- 

 rence ; e.g. see Davies, op. cit. 475. 



810 See above. 



811 Stat. 2 Ric. II, I cap. 3 (1378). 



81a See e.g. Stat. 22 Hen. VIII, cap. I 

 (153-') i 37 Hen - VIII P- '5 

 ('545). 



313 See Dr. Speed in Davies, op. cit. 251. 

 It is to be presumed the ' ships ' were not 

 considered * galleys,' or their visits might 

 have been scarcely agreeable as endanger- 

 ing the reduction of the town's fee- 



farm. (See above under Fee Farm and 

 Charters.) 



814 The name at least was continued. 

 The Grace Dieu was stationed at South- 

 ampton in 1460 when the master re- 

 ceived from the mayor 31 lot. io</. In 

 September, 1461, he was paid 68 51. ICK/. 

 for victualling and safe custody of the 

 ship for a whole year. In 1470 and subse- 

 quently Edward IV by sign manual directs 

 payment to the purser and his three fel- 

 lows for keeping the ship. They were 

 also allowed a house on shore l>ee Hist. 

 MSS. Com. Ref. xi, App. iii, 185, 95, 

 &c.). The name was probably not un- 

 common. There had been a Grace Dieu 

 in 1337 (ibid. 219). 



816 The Tin-office was next to Holy 

 Rood Church (See Davies, op. cit. 255, 

 261-2). The tin-house or warehouse or 

 cellar was in Westgate Street on the north 

 side near the gate, where are * premises 



52, 



still bearing the name of the Linen-hall 

 and Tin-cellar'; Englefield, Walk through 

 Southampton (ed. Buller), 38. 



" Liber Niger (Corp. MSS), fol. 13. 

 For similar petition of 1468 see Hist. 

 MSS. Com, Rep. xi, App. iii, 87. 



"" See Letters of Ric. Ill and Hen. Vtl. 

 (Rolls Ser.), ii, 373. 



818 Davies, op. cit. 256, &c. 



819 Cf. Charters, 1445, 1461. 



890 Thomas Skevington ; he was also 

 abbot of Beaulieu, and was admitted bur- 

 gess of Southampton in 1514. 



8 <n L. and P. Hen. fill, iv (z), 4927. 



8M Ibid. The Town of Southampton to 

 Cromwell, Sept. 1533. 



823 1 1 Hen. VII, cap. 5. 



834 See above under Fee Farm. 



886 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi, App. iii, 

 49, ?o. 



8M Cal. or S.P. Dam. 1581-90, p. 

 402. 



66 



