MARITIME HISTORY 



sea touching their armed strength and the peaceful nature of the voyage, the exaction of bonds from 

 captains and owners as security for good conduct, and the safe keeping of prizes and prize goods it 

 was deemed advisable to have permanent representatives of the Lord Admiral round the coast who 

 should be of higher social standing than the deputies who had hitherto acted for the Lord Admiral in 

 each county or district. The officers in question, the vice-admirals of the counties, were in some of 

 their functions the successors, historically, of the keepers of the coast and the conservators of truces of 

 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and there are traces of intermediate occasional appointments of 

 the same character, but they now became an organized band of crown officials l backed by the power 

 of the Tudor despotism, and continued without any interruption, during which their authority might 

 diminish by intermission. The scheme did not come into operation simultaneously over all England, 

 but developed out of necessity and according to opportunity. The earliest nomination known by 

 precise date is for Norfolk and Suffolk, but Cornwall followed closely, and may even be earlier, for 

 Thomas Carew was acting in or before 1536 as vice-admiral for Devon and Cornwall. 2 The post 

 was usually held by nobles or country gentlemen, for whom it was a source of influence and profit ; 

 the chief gains were from the produce of wreck and salvage, usually shared with the Lord Admiral, 

 or from less lawful receipts. 3 They had to give bonds to render their accounts half-yearly, but this 

 duty was often ignored, and about 1553 ordinances were drawn up by which they were to regulate 

 their conduct and that of their subordinate officers. Cornwall and Devon were soon severed 

 into separate vice-admiralties, and the former was one of the richest in the gift of the Lord 

 Admiral. It excluded the Scillies, which were leased by the Godolphins, and finders of cargo were, 

 there and elsewhere, entitled to half the value if no claim was made, a custom that had existed 

 ' time out of mind,' and that perhaps sometimes ensured that no claim would be made. Yet, 

 notwithstanding these deductions, the vice-admirals' accounts occasionally reached thousands of 

 pounds, and it was probably these large amounts that decided the Lord Admiral in 1601 to 

 subdivide the county permanently into north and south vice-admiralties, 4 the southern district 

 extending from the Rame Head to the Land's End, thence inland to St. Erth Bridge, Camborne, 

 Horsebridge on the Tamar, and down to the Rame Head again. 



Although the perquisites were so valuable, the vice-admirals were, as Carew insinuates, sometimes 

 more than suspected of illicit practices, especially in their relations with pirates. In 1563 there was 

 a general order that they should only act in conjunction with the commissioners for the suppression 

 of piracy, in order to avoid any appearance of connivance ' of which complaints have been made.' 5 

 In 1570 William Lower ignored an order of the Privy Council to restore certain goods taken by 

 John Michell of Truro, which ' they impute unto him bearing with the said Michell ' ; as Lower 

 remained recalcitrant he was finally directed to present himself before the Council. 6 Six years later 

 he was again before the Council for illegally detaining cargoes, 7 and he rounded off his procedure in 

 1579, though then no longer vice-admiral, by being at last fined for transactions with pirates. 8 But 

 a month after he was fined, John Arundel, the then vice-admiral, was called upon to explain 

 his dealings with a pirate who took a Scotch ship from Torbay to Helford River, and sold the 

 cargo to Arundel and others. 9 It was during these years that Helford earned its second name of 

 ' Stealford River,' being favoured by pirates because it was unfortified and was under the juris- 

 diction of the Killigrews. John Killigrew, one of this family, always an extremely irregular 

 one in its proclivities, was the most extraordinary vice-admiral that even Cornwall produced. 

 In November, 1588, he was marching about the county with an armed retinue, and the sheriff was 

 directed to levy a sufficient force to capture him, and to storm Pendennis if necessary. When the 

 detailed story of his proceedings filtered through it was found to be made up of ' outrages, disorders, 

 and riots,' and the Council requested the Lord Admiral to remove him from his office. 10 In 1580 a 

 commission was issued to inquire into the conduct of the then vice-admiral, by whose negligence or 

 connivance a pirate named Husson and most of his crew had escaped from Falmouth. 11 Yet 

 another vice-admiral, Edward Seymour, was so far under suspicion in 1587 as to be ordered to 

 appear before the Council if he could not, or would not, produce a subordinate who had bought 

 goods from pirates in the Helford River. 



1 The patents of appointment were from the Lord Admiral, sometimes for life, and sometimes during 

 pleasure. 



' I am greatly indebted to Mr. R. G. Marsden, to whose learned researches the history of the evolution 

 of the office of the vice-admiral is mainly due, and who has given generous help in questions of legal and local 

 history. 



3 Carew (Survey, ed. 1769, p. 87), in his praise of the then vice-admiral, Charles Trevanion, as being free 

 from greed or dishonesty and careful of his reputation, hints very plainly at the methods of some others. 



' Admir. Ct. Misc. Bdles. ser. ii, 240. Nottingham to Judge of Admiralty Court. 



6 Hist. MSS. Com. (Cecil MSS.) i, 286. 6 Acts of P. C. 24 May, 18 June, 1570. 



: Ibid. 30 Aug. 1576. 8 Ibid. 1 1 Feb. 1578-9. 9 Ibid. 29 Mar. 1579. 



10 Ibid. 20 Nov. 1588 ; 20 April, 1589. See also/w/, p. 490. " Ibid. 15 July, 1580. 



487 



