HISTORY OP BRIDPORT. 129 



trade of Bridport being well known at the date of the book being 

 written. 



Bridport Harbour is an important feature in connection with the 

 town, but nothing that I am aware of is known as to when 

 Bridport became a port, and when a harbour was first constructed 

 here. It is not named among the ports of the country in the 

 roll with regard to the Siege of Calais in 1347. It would rather 

 seem as if there were no port before the time of Richard II., as in 

 the 16th year of that reign a grant of customs was made to the 

 bailiffs of the town, in the preamble of which it is stated " whereas 

 it is on your part supplicated that since you have begun anew to 

 build a certain port at the aforesaid town, where a port did not 

 formerly exist." Four years earlier, 12 Kichard II., one John 

 Huderesfeld had obtained a grant from the King for carrying on the 

 work of forming a port, for which he was to receive certain tolls, 

 but this he may not have accomplished. There is an earlier record 

 that 8 Edward I., the vill of Bridport claims to have toll 

 (de tlielonio culagii) in the maritime places of Bridport. Mr. 

 Riley, in the Appendix of the 6th Report of the Historical 

 Manuscripts Commission, explains Culagiuni as "keelage, an 

 exaction for vessels touching ground with the keel" and this may 

 not imply a regularly constructed harbour. In later times we find 

 indulgences used as means of raising money for the work ; in 

 22 Henry VI. one such was granted, it appears, by the Bishop of 

 Sarum, " for building and repairing a new port of Brydeport, called 

 Brydeport Haven," and in 1446 another of 40 days by the Bishop of 

 Sarum and other Bishops " to those who contributed to the repara- 

 tion and sustenance of the haven." There are various interesting 

 entries in the Corporation documents with reference to persons 

 appointed to various offices in connection with the work and the 

 collection of alms therefor. The 3rd Edition of Hutchins gives in 

 extenso curious documents relating to indulgences and the like 

 which were issued to urge forward the work ; one in 22 Henry VI. 

 by certain ecclesiastical authorities of the town engaging to 

 celebrate and offer worship " for the good and healthy state of all 



