A HISTORY OF DORSET 



brought much odium upon their master. In Dorset the crown had, from 

 very early times, granted away much of its right of wreck ; we find from the 

 Hundred Rolls that in 1275 the abbey of St. Edward had such rights in the 

 manor of Studland, the abbey of Cerne at Bridport, the abbey of Bindon at 

 Waddon, the priory of Christchurch at Fleet, and, besides other private 

 owners, the earl of Gloucester in the manors of Wyke, Weymouth, Portland, 

 and Holwell. 



In the reign of Edward II the abbey of Milton took wreck at ' Frome- 

 mouth,' Osmington, Holworth, and Ower." The reference to Fromemouth 

 is interesting because the corporation of Poole claimed to have enjoyed 

 admiralty rights, in a wide form, from time immemorial, although the legal 

 recognition of them was comparatively late. Wreck on Brownsea Island was 

 granted to the abbey of Cerne in 1 1 54,"° and at the dissolution this passed 

 to the earl of Oxford. In 1364 the Poole burgesses obtained a certificate 

 from the mayor and barons of Winchelsea on which they pretended to rely 

 in support of their claims, but the certificate only defines the extent of Poole 

 harbour, and in any case would have no more value as evidence about 

 admiralty rights than one from the town crier. The real recognition of 

 their freedom from the Lord Admiral's inquisition is contained in an in- 

 speximus of 4 September, 1526, by Viscount Lisle, on behalf of the Lord 

 Admiral, which placed their claim on a firm basis by confirming their 

 exemptions. This inspeximus does refer to early exemptions which may 

 have been exercised by prescription, and if such exercise had been tacitly 

 allowed it is evidence of the maritime importance of Poole, for the crown 

 only granted such rights by way of reward, or permitted them to be practised 

 when the ports were able to render services of value to the state. But the 

 Lord Admiral's deputies continued to act in Brownsea, possibly by succession 

 from the earl of Oxford, and the conflict of authority gave rise to much 

 friction."^ The Weymouth people insisted at one time that their admiralty 

 rights were held in virtue of a grant from King Ethelred,"' but it is more 

 likely that, as in the case of Poole, they had been permitted when Weymouth 

 and Melcombe seemed growing into first-rate ports. The Ethelred basis was 

 never admitted by the Lord Admiral, and there were frequent disputes between 

 his officers and those of the town during the reign of Elizabeth ; "' the 

 charter of i July, 161 6, at last gave Weymouth and Melcombe freedom from 

 the Lord Admiral's visitations. 



With the reign of Henry VIII the era of arrests and impressment of 

 shipping may be said to have terminated. The port towns were still some- 

 times to be called upon to provide ships, but such towns were usually 

 associated in order to lessen the expense and, eventually, the county as a 

 whole contributed to the cost. Improvements in building and armament 

 were now differentiating the man-of-war from the merchantman ; the latter 

 was of little use in fleets except, as an Elizabethan seaman said, ' to make a 

 show,' and to have required the ports to furnish real men-of-war would have 

 ruined them. It was one of the purposes of Henry's life to create a national 

 navy, and there was not a year of his reign that did not witness some accre- 

 tion to its strength. Such merchantmen as he required were hired without 



" Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 17. '" Sydenham, Hist, of Poole, 385. 



"' Post, p. 198. "" Add. MSS. 12505, fol. 392. "» See tost, p. 198. 



194 



