HISTORY OP BRIDPORT. 127 



imported from other countries the cultivation of the plant has been 

 abandoned, but the trade continues the main occupation of the 

 place. It was in the 13th of King John that "the sheriff 

 accounts for 3,000 weighs of hempen thread according to Bridport 

 weight (secundum pondus de Brideport) for making ships' cables ; 

 and 39s. for the expenses of Robert Fisher whilst he stayed at 

 Brideport to procure his nets," which evidently, I take it, points to 

 the fact that the trade of making nets was also then in existence 

 here, as well as that of spinning the thread. Hutchins' 3rd. Edit, 

 gives, too, a letter dated two years after this, 1213, from King 

 John to the sheriffs of Dorset and Somerset, wherein occurs a very 

 interesting clause in connection with the trade : " Also cause to be 

 made at Bridport, night and day, as many ropes for ships, both 

 large and small, and as many cables as you can, and twisted yarns 

 for cordage for balistae." It was just about this time that the fleet 

 of John conquered the French fleet on the coast of Flanders in the 

 first naval battle between England and France. In Southey's 

 Naval History we read with reference to this engagement, which 

 was fought at Damme, then the port of Bruges, that " the English 

 landed, the Earl of Flanders joined them, and they proceeded to 

 attack the place," in the harbour of which there remained a 

 great part of the enemy's fleet ; and if it were not previous 

 to this battle that the cordage was made that was ordered in the 

 letter I have mentioned, yet we may well imagine from this letter 

 that they were Bridport ropes with which the battering engines 

 were worked if any such were used for the assault. King John, 

 I may remark in passing, was not himself unacquainted with 

 Bridport, as he appears to have been here in 1201 on his way from 

 Cranborne to Exeter, and in 1 205 he was at Poorstock, whence he 

 may easily have visited Bridport. In the 5th of Edwd. I. we 

 find mention of the trade of the town in a curious document 

 among those in the possession of the Corporation addressed to the 

 Bailiffs of Bridepord from the Bailiffs of Plymptone, making com- 

 plaint against certain individuals that they had not delivered cords 

 for which it would appear they had received yarn. In the probate 



