A HISTORY OF DORSET 



for protection against the same gangs who haunted Studland Bay ' to the 

 utter undoing ' of their trade, and who threatened to pull down the prisons 

 and burn the town.^*^ Another noted pirate, Thomas Purser, was simul- 

 taneously threatening to burn Weymouth.'^" In 1582 the jurisdiction of the 

 privileged towns in matters of piracy was suspended for three years, in order 

 to avoid the conflict of authority with the piracy commissioners which 

 occurred in such places ; and also, perhaps, because in some cases private 

 interests interfered with the execution of justice. The latter cause was not 

 likely to be an impediment at Poole. The outbreak of formal war with Spain 

 in 1585 legalized much of the mischievous activity of the sea-rovers; and 

 thenceforward, although there were many complaints from neutrals, there were 

 fewer domestic outcries about piracy. Towards the end of the reign the 

 * Dunkirkers,' which name included the privateers from all the ports of 

 Flanders, took the place of the English pirates. 



The bounty system, inaugurated by Henry VII, by which an occasional 

 tonnage allowance was made to the builders of new ships suitable for service in 

 war, had under Elizabeth settled into a grant of 5J. a ton on all vessels of 100 

 tons and upwards. The expansion of trade and the attractions of privateering 

 stimulated shipbuilding in all places where there was any maritime commerce, 

 while the bounty conduced to an increase of size in new vessels. Dorset was 

 never one of the leading maritime counties, but towards the end of the six- 

 teenth century there began a new era of prosperity for it based on its share in 

 the great Newfoundland fishery, and that prosperity was reflected in the capital 

 sunk in shipping, and the number of seamen the shipping employed. We 

 have seen that from at least the reign of John it had been usual to call upon 

 the officials of the ports for returns of the ships and men available for service ; 

 most of the earlier ones are lost, but several, complete or fragmentary, remain 

 for the Elizabethan period. Usually the details only deal with vessels of 

 100 tons and upwards, as smaller ones were not considered useful for fighting 

 purposes, but there is evidence that Dorset was fairly supplied with ships of 

 under 100 tons of a size sufficient for the sea traffic particular to the county. 

 War with France and Scotland existed in 1560, which was the cause of the 

 first Elizabethan list of that year. It was a return of vessels of 100 tons and 

 upwards, but there is none for Dorset ; of ' mariners and sailors ' there were 

 255, but this is evidently only the number of men at home at the moment. '°^ 

 The piracy commissioners of 1565 remarked, in their report on Dorset, that 

 there was no harbour at Charmouth, but that, ' as at Bridport,' vessels were 

 drawn up on the shore.^^'' Part of this paper is missing ; but belonging to 

 Charmouth, Chideock, and the neighbourhood there were only ten vessels, 

 used for fishing and coasting, of which the largest was of 18 tons. Poole 

 possessed two vessels of 50 tons each and other smaller ones ; at Wey- 

 mouth and Melcombe one of 80 tons was the largest, and at Lyme one of 

 24 tons. By 1568 there was an improvement, for Poole then possessed two 

 ships of 100 tons and Lyme one.'^°^ 



"' C(d/ MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), ii, 538. They found the existence of gallows at Studland in bad 

 taste, and cut them down no doubt amid much good fellowship (Moule, Charters ofH'eymoutk, 154). 



'^° Moule, op. cit. 154. 



'" S.P. Dom. Eliz. xi, No. 27. The distinction between mariners and sailors is obscure and unnecessary 

 to discuss here. 



'" Ibid, xxxviii, 9, 9 (i). Leland notices that the harbour at Bridport had ceased to exist when he visited 

 the county {Itin. iii, 60). '"" Harl. MSS. 1 68, fol. 248. 



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