A HISTORY OF DORSET 



remain in the island after the period of their servitude 

 had elapsed, and of their descendants born in New- 

 foundland. These persons, denominated planters, 

 procured supplies of all the necessaries of life and 

 implements for the fishery from the merchants, engag- 

 ing to pay for the same in fish and oil.*' 



The quarrel between these two classes arose 

 from their different views as to the government 

 of Newfoundland, and was complicated by trade 

 disputes. The merchants or adventurers wished 

 to treat Newfoundland as a ' great ship moored 

 to England ' ; and pointed out how an industry 

 organized on the original lines was an excellent 

 preparatory school for the Royal Navy, how two 

 or more 'green men' (i.e. men who had not pre- 

 viously sailed to Newfoundland) were trained on 

 every ship, and how the industry fulfilled every 

 condition required by the patriotism and political 

 economy of the eighteenth century, besides 

 incidentally being very profitable to themselves. 

 Every requisite of life and labour was sent from 

 England, and was paid for by fish, &c., or by 

 foreign gold from the Mediterranean. 



The planters clamoured for peace, justice, and 

 security in the long winter months when the riff- 

 raff on the island did what was right in its own 

 eyes, and the respectable people were powerless, 

 since the fishing admirals were in England and 

 the governors, usually naval officers, were in 

 winter quarters. The adventurers thought good 

 government too expensive a luxury, and were 

 bitterly jealous of any rights acquired by the 

 planters, and of any steps which tended to 

 make colonization of the island normal. Their 

 commercial instinct was right ; the planters 

 were necessarily their most dangerous rivals. 



Though long delayed by the strenuous opposi- 

 tion of the men of Dorset and Devonshire, a 

 Supreme Court of Justice was established in 

 Newfoundland in 1793, and the first resident 

 governor was appointed in 18 16.'" 



After England became mistress of the sea the 

 fish-markets of the world were in her hands. 

 But with the end of the French war the Dorset 

 industry flagged. The merchants who petitioned 

 for relief in 1817 explained that most of 

 their fish had been sold in Spain and on the 

 coasts of the Mediterranean, at the close of the 

 war the price of fish had fallen, and both 

 France and the United States paid considerable 

 bounties on the fish caught, which still further 

 lowered the price.'" Despite the merchants' 

 appeal to the precedent of the help given by 

 Mr. Pitt, the government decided to ignore 

 their petition, and England was to a large extent 

 driven from the industry. But the stimulus 

 given by the bounties of France and the United 

 States was not sufficient to keep the fishing out 



" Rep. Select Com. ^Newfoundland Trade (1 8 1 7), 4, 

 " Harvey, H'ut. of Newfoundland, 49. 

 Ref. Select Com. N eufoundland Trade (1817), 39- 



40. 



of the hands of the planters, whose advantageous 

 position placed them beyond the reach of arti- 

 ficial competition, so that what England lost, her 

 colony gained. The connexion with Dorset is 

 still maintained, and the fish, no longer caught by 

 Dorset men, are still in many cases captured in 

 Dorset nets. 



There are two oyster fisheries on the Dorset 

 coast; one known as the Fleet Oyster Fishery at 

 Wyke Regis, the operations of the company 

 being almost exclusively concerned with the 

 fattening of ovsters in the waters of the Fleet, 

 quantities of French oysters being laid down for 

 this purpose. '' 



The fame of Poole oysters, now chiefly culled 

 by the Poole Oyster Fishery Company, Ham- 

 side, Poole,'- was already established by the 

 seventeenth century, when an order was issued 

 by the corporation that the shells, formerly 

 thrown into the sea after the oysters were opened 

 for pickling, should be piled up on the strand.'* 

 So extensive was the bank thus formed that at 

 the present time many warehouses on the har- 

 bour are built upon a foundation of oyster shells.'* 

 In 1720 Poole oysters were 'of great esteem in 

 all places where they could be had,' " whilst 

 Defoe's testimony is to the effect that — 



this place is famous for the best and biggest oysters in 

 all this part of England which the people of Poole 

 pretend to be famous for pickling, and they are bar- 

 relled up here and sent not only to London, but to 

 the West Indies and to Spain and Italy and to other 

 parts." 



Poole oysters, moreover, were reputed to contain 

 the largest pearls found in English waters." In 

 1802 forty sloops and boats were engaged in the 

 oyster industry,'** bringing in an income of from 

 ;^6,ooo to j^7,ooo per annum. '^ According to 

 a long-standing regulation in this fishery the last 

 day's catch was thrown into the channels in the 

 harbour, where the oysters were left to fatten 

 during the winter.^" Owing to the want of 

 proper regulation of the fishery the beds became 

 gradually exhausted,*' although in 1849 Poole 

 oysters were still maintaining their good 

 name.*^ It was not until 1885 that authority 

 was given to the corporation to oversee the 

 fishery, 200 acres being granted in 1887 to a 

 local company in Wareham Channel,*^ the beds 

 once more becoming productive.^'' The cor- 



" Local Govt. Bd. Ref. 1896, p. 62. 

 " Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 320. 

 " Hutchins, Hist. Poole, 41. 

 " Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 140. 

 " Cox, Magna Brit. 557. 

 ' Defoe, Tour through Great Brit, i, 318. 

 " Ibid. '* Hutchins, Hist. Poole, 81. 



" Brayley and Britton, Beauties of Engl, and Wales, 

 iv, 413. 



'■"' Ibid. «■ Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 140. 



" Handbook Travel Southern Counties, 296. 



" Kelly, Dir. 1903, p. 140. «* Ibid. 



358 



