MARITIME HISTORY 



latter body was largely due to the influence of the Lord Admiral, himself 

 a member of it. There is no doubt that the privileges of the exempted 

 towns were distinctly prejudicial to good government ; in the case of 

 Weymouth the notoriety attained by the joint towns in the matter of their 

 dealings with pirates may be ascribed, in great measure, to a civic execu- 

 tive always weak and often not disinterested. 



In the reign of Charles I the earl of Suffolk, another Howard, was 

 vice-admiral both for Dorset and for the town and county of Poole ; there- 

 after the two districts were often under the same head. Stricter legislation, 

 the decline of piracy, and the increase of the navy, changed for the better 

 after the Civil War and the Restoration the conditions that had made the 

 vice-admirals useful, and their positions tended to become more and more 

 honorary. During the eighteenth century the Paulets, either as marquises of 

 Winchester or dukes of Bolton, with an occasional Trenchard or Strangeways, 

 held the titular rank of vice-admiral of Dorset. 



There is a reference in 1550 to certain ' bulwarks in Purbeck,' probably 

 earthworks thrown up at Swanage and Studland to meet a temporary neces- 

 sity. By 1552 the Privy Council had decided to reduce or disestablish a 

 number of the permanent fortifications ' which stood the king's majesty in 

 very great charges and in no service at all ; ' among them were Sandsfoot 

 and Portland, of which the garrisons were reduced."' The uneasy political 

 conditions at home and abroad soon forced the important Dorset fortresses 

 into prominence again. In May, 1557, information was obtained that the 

 French were meditating an attack on Portland ; the care of the county 

 was entrusted to Lord St. John, who was told to watch especially Poole, 

 Weymouth, and Portland, soldiers being sent to the latter and the inhabitants 

 mustered and organized."^ Philip II had dragged England into war with 

 France, and it was necessary to reinforce the queen's fleets by hired merchant- 

 men. There was none from Dorset with the Lord Admiral in the Channel, 

 but there were two from Poole and Weymouth under Sir John Clere in the 

 North Sea."^ In 1558 many of the ports, encouraged by advantages offered 

 by the crown, sent privateers to sea, six sailing from Dorset as compared 

 with 22 from Devon."' 



The reign of Mary sent many of the outlawed and the discontented to 

 the refuge of the sea, and the political unrest tempted others who were 

 criminals by opportunity to seek fortune there. Both classes were called 

 pirates, and after the failure of Wyatt's rising in February, 1554, the former 

 are frequently in evidence in the Council minutes. In August the lords of 

 the Council ordered the execution of certain pirates in Dorset, but there is 

 little doubt that they were rebels."" Henry Strangeways, belonging to the 

 well-known Dorset family, seems to have begun his career as a pirate without 

 such excuse of conscience, for in February, 1552-3, he was plying his trade 

 in Irish waters with such success that two men-of-war were prepared at 

 Portsmouth to seek him."^ Strangeways worked with the Cornish Killi- 

 grews, arch-pirates themselves,"^ and was on sufficiently good terms with 



'" Acts ofP.C. 26 Feb., 4 May, 1552. 



'" S.P. Foreign, II May, 1557 ; ibid. Dom. Mary, x, Nos. 61, 62. 



•'' Ibid, xi, No. 38. "» Admir. Ct. Exemp. v, 288. 



"» Act! ofP.C. 9, 13 Aug. 1554. •" Ibid. 21 Feb. 6 March, 1552-3. 



"' See V.C.H. Cornwall, i, 488 et seq. 



199 



