A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



In 1626 a petition for payment of money owing by the Crown stated that for the past thirty 

 years twelve ships a year had been built at Ipswich, but that ' that trade is now stopped.' 1 Probably 

 this assertion was not literally true, and the situation marked a check rather than a decline. In 

 1634 Sir Richard Brooke applied for permission to build a quay and dry dock at Downham Bridge, 

 or Reach, as the cheapness of timber in Suffolk made shipbuilding, he said, easy and profitable ; he 

 enclosed a certificate from some shipmasters testifying that Downham was a suitable place, and that 

 the great increase of the Ipswich building trade rendered additional dock and quay accommodation 

 necessary. 8 There is other striking evidence of the volume of the shipbuilding industry at Ipswich 

 about this time. A list exists of some 380 ships, built mostly for London owners between 1625 

 and 1638, the certificate of building being necessary to obtain a licence for ordnance. 3 Of these 

 fifty-nine were built at Ipswich for owners, in one or two instances, as far apart as Newcastle and 

 Sandwich ; the builders were Zephonias and Saphire Ford, Robert and Jeremiah Cole, Henry Leaver, 

 and Thomas Wright. Other Suffolk towns shared for a time in the good fortune born of Suffolk 

 oak. Fourteen ships came from Aldeburgh during the same years, and eleven from Woodbridge. 

 The builders belonging to the former town were Henry Dancke, Mathew Friggott, and Benjamin 

 Hooker ; to the latter Thomas Browning and William Gary. The largest vessel of all, the Levant 

 Merchant of 400 tons, was launched at Woodbridge. 



From this period the especial production of ships of the ocean-going class declined. Perhaps 

 timber was becoming scarcer and dearer, and the extended establishment of the Thames yards 

 commenced a dangerous competition. The demand for men-of-war caused by the wars of the 

 Commonwealth brought a new form of the old industry into Suffolk, but it was very limited in 

 extent and did not compensate for the loss of merchant ship construction which became more 

 local. The severest individual blow to Ipswich building was dealt by a Suffolk family, the Johnsons 

 of Aldeburgh. In the middle of the seventeenth century Henry Johnson founded the Blackwall 

 Yard, now the Thames Ironworks Company ; he not only pursued the business of shipbuilding on 

 a very large scale, but his and his sons' success encouraged others to establish yards on the Thames, 

 and Suffolk ceased to build for London. The Johnsons became important personages in relation 

 to the Navy; a son, another Henry Johnson, was knighted on 6 March, 1679-80, when 

 Charles II and the duke of York dined with him at the Blackwall Yard. 



In 1542 a statute (33 Hen. VIII, c. 2) forbade any subject to buy fresh fish at sea or abroad 

 except in Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, the Orkneys, and Newfoundland. Whether due to legislation 

 or a general tendency of the age, the sea fisheries were pursued with a new energy in the sixteenth 

 century and were henceforward carefully watched and nurtured. The success of the Newfoundland 

 fishery from the western counties may have had some influence by encouraging the employment of 

 capital in those nearer home. How keen the competition was becoming in home waters is shown 

 by a French request about the end of September, 1543, for a safe-conduct for nearly 1,000 boats. 

 This could only have been for the herrings, which are due along the shores of Norfolk, Suffolk, and 

 Essex in October, and if we remember also the presence of the Dutch the local fishermen may well 

 have been pleased at Henry's refusal. 4 One of the articles of accusation against Lord Seymour of 

 Sudeley, the Lord Admiral, was that he had extorted ' great sums of money ' from the owners of the 

 Iceland ships, which shows that the business was profitable enough to bear large expenses. 5 There 

 was some decline under the unsettled conditions existing during the middle of the century. An 

 undated paper of the reign of Edward VI 6 tells us that in 1528-9 there were 140 vessels sailing 

 to Iceland, 7 but now when the paper was written only 43 ; and that, instead of 220 North Sea 

 boats, there were only 80. 8 This falling off did not continue long; a petition of 1568 says that 

 the Norfolk and Suffolk fisheries were a fifth greater than when the statute of 5 Eliz. to which the 

 improvement was attributed, was passed, and probably the petitioners, asking for more, did not 

 over-estimate the growth. 9 There is a general reference in 1580 to the Iceland fishery of Suffolk, 10 

 and in 1581 we have a Trinity House certificate of the increase of fishing boats since the last 

 Parliament that is of 1576." Orford was the only place in the county which used more boats ; 

 Dunwich with 28, Aldeburgh with 25, Southwold with 8, and Walberswick with 6, were 

 stationary. The year 1584 gives us a petition from John Beycombe of Southwold for himself and 

 other fishermen from Shields to Brightlingsea, a claim which implies some sort of organization, 



1 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xxxiv, 85, 86. 



* Ibid, cclxv, 40. The Trinity House, to whom the petition was referred, approved (ibid, cclxvi, 59). 

 1 Ibid, xvi, xvii. 



* L. and P. Hen. VIII, xviii, pt. 2, 259. It was not unusual to agree not to molest fishermen in time of 

 war. The number is that stated by Henry to the Emperor's ambassador and probably an exaggeration. 



" Acts of P. C, 23 Feb. I 548-9. 6 S. P. Dom. Add. Edw, VI, iv, 56. 7 cf, ante, 2 1 1. 



8 Of course the 220 boats sailed from the whole coast, and not from any particular county. 

 ' S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlviii, 83. "> Acts of P. C. 23 Feb. 1579-80. 



" S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxlvii, 21. In fishing boats the crews were averaged at eight men and a boy to every 

 twenty tons (ibid.). 



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