INDUSTRIES 



all such profit and duties as might arise from the 

 following sources : The herring-fishing dole, 

 the sperling-fare dole, and the duties on the 

 Iceland voyages, namely 3;. $d. a voyage. 



In 1609 the butter and cheese trade had risen 

 to such a height of prosperity at Walberswick 

 as to threaten seriously to interfere with the 

 fishing. An order was therefore made at Beccles 

 Sessions, 2 October, 1609, 



that none but the old men, who had spent their former 

 days in fishing -fare, should occupy the coasting busi- 

 ness for butter, etc., and that the young men should 

 diligently attend the fishing-craft, 



alleging, that the neglect of the fishery was ' the 

 means tending to the destruction of a nursery 

 that bred up fit and able masters of ships and 

 skilful pilots for the service of the nation.' l 



By a certificate of the church sent to Crom- 

 well, 30 May, 1654," it is evident that the town 

 was greatly decayed. This decay had set in as 

 far back as 1628, when a warrant had been 

 granted for the relief of its poor. In 1652 'a 

 private relation ' speaks of Walberswick as 'our 

 poor town.' 3 



It may not be altogether without interest to 

 make a brief survey at this point of the various 

 modes and measures which have been in vogue 

 from time to time in the Suffolk fishing trade 

 with regard to the handling of the fish caught 

 along this coast. The most ancient fo r m of 

 packing was by the cade,* which contained 600 

 herrings. The frame in which the herrings 

 were packed was called a cr.de-bow, and was 

 made of withs, with two hinges top and bottom. 

 Straw was used to line this receptacle, enclosing 

 the fish, and the whole was secured with small 

 rope-yarn. Seven cade of full red herrings sold 

 at market in 1596 for 3 los. and two cade 

 were bought by John Mounceye for i PJ. The 

 barrel took the place of the cade under the 

 Tudors. Every barrel by statute 5 was to con- 

 tain 1,000 herrings. Complaints of fraud in 

 the counting and packing of the fish soon began to 

 come to the ears of the council. The mayors and 

 bailiffs were therefore empowered, in every fishing- 

 town, to ' choose able and discreet persons to search 

 and faithfully gauge all packing.' The herrings 

 were to be 



of one time, taking, and salting, well and justly 

 couched, and packed in the middest, every end and 

 part thereof, upon forfeiture and fine for the offence 

 three and fourpence. 6 



The fees of the gauger, packer, and searcher 

 were to be one barrel 2d., and so in proportion. 



1 Gardner, Hist. Dunwick, 151-2. 

 Ibid. 167. 'Ibid. 176. 



4 Cade = old measure for herrings. Sea Words and 

 Phrases, 4. 



6 Stat. Hen. VII, c. 23, and 13 Eliz. c. 1 1. 

 6 Gardner, Hist. Dunu'ich, 19. 



By the Elizabethan statute, referred to above, 

 the assize of herring-barrels was settled at thirty- 

 two gallons wine measure, which was about 

 twenty-eight old standard. 



The swill and the mand 7 succeeded the barrel, 

 to be in turn replaced by the ped, 8 which was in 

 general use in the eighteenth century, these 

 three kinds of baskets being principally em- 

 ployed in bringing the fish ashore from the 

 boats. 



The Scotch invasion of the Suffolk fishing- 

 grounds was responsible for the introduction of 

 the cran, Scotland reaping thereby a yearly har- 

 vest of from ,800 to 1,000 for supplying the 

 English market with these baskets, which might, 

 it has frequently been pointed out, open up a 

 fresh industry to the osier-growers and basket- 

 makers of Suffolk instead. At a meeting of the 

 Lowestoft Town Council in 1 904, it was agreed 



that the system of counting herrings hitherto in 

 use in the fish markets is cumbrous and unsuited to 

 modern conditions, and to the magnitude of the 

 fishing trade, and that His Majesty's Government 

 should be urged to take immediate steps to make the 

 use of the cran measure legal and binding in all 

 transactions for the sale of herrings in England. 9 



In order to assist the fishermen to a discovery 

 of the direction taken by the herring-shoals, 

 conders 10 were erected at various points along 

 the shores of the fishing-towns. Upon these 

 eminences men were stationed to signal with 

 boughs, which they carried in their hands, which 

 way the shoals were travelling. In William de 

 Rothing's Account of the Issues of the Town of 

 Dunwich from Michaelmas, 1287,10 27 Novem- 

 ber, 1288, there appears an entry 4 i6s. 3^. 

 for beacons and conder, 11 and again in 1451, the 

 Walberswick Account Book contains entries for 

 the ' conde ' and nails for the same. 



The dole and the mortuary figure largely in 

 ancient records of fishing transactions. The 

 former was an agreed value, deducted from 

 the whole catch, placed upon the boats, nets, &c. 

 At the close of the season, after his outlay had 

 been repaid to the owner, the produce was 

 divided into two shares. The ' town's half-dole ' 

 was generally applied to the repair of the pier 

 and havens, the other, called ' Christ's half-dole ' 

 being devoted to the service of the church. 

 Thus, the vicarage of Lowestoft was originally 

 endowed with a tithe of fish ' of every fisher- 



7 A mand of sprats, 1 ,000. East Anglian N. and Q. 

 1869. 



8 Ped = an osier basket with lid, containing 125 

 herrings and upwards. Gillingwater, Hist. Lowestoft, 

 464. 



' Fish. Trades Gaz. 28 May, 1904, p. 19. 



10 Conder = an eminence where persons were 

 stationed to give notice to the fishers which way the 

 herring shoals go. Halliwell, Diet. Archaic Words. 



11 Gardner, Hist. Duntvich, 27. 



291 



