MARITIME HISTORY 



expedition was more immediately occasioned by European politics than by the sufferings of James's 

 subjects. No place in Cornwall was summoned to aid directly, but Plymouth was assessed at 

 1,000, of which two-thirds was to be furnished by Cornwall ; and of this two-thirds 300 were 

 to be by Truro, described as one of the wealthiest ports of the west. On 20 June, 1620, the 

 mayor of Plymouth complained that only 100 could be raised in the county, and of this only 

 10 from Truro, where all but two of the inhabitants had refused to subscribe, and that Penryn was 

 equally reluctant. 1 The Privy Council commented on this that the western ports had lamented the 

 loudest about their sufferings from the Algerines, and that they were now more backward than other 

 parts of the country that had suffered less. On their side the Truro burgesses declared that only 

 one 2O-ton vessel was owned in the town and no fishing boats ; eventually, after many attempts at 

 evasion, Truro was obliged to give substantial assistance. There were many armed merchantmen 

 and transports in the Cadiz fleet of 1625 and the succeeding ones of 16278, but only in the 

 earl of Lindsey's voyage in 1628 for the relief of Rochelle do we find a vessel of Falmouth and 

 another of Looe. 



In 1626 Charles, on the brink of war with France, resolved to follow the precedents of 

 Elizabeth's reign, and called upon the maritime shires for fifty-six ships to join the royal fleets, each 

 ship to be of 200 tons and victualled and fitted for three months' service. Falmouth ' with that 

 part of Cornwall ' was required to equip one ship, and Plymouth and its members two. 2 The 

 time had not yet come for refusal, but nearly all the coast towns protested loudly and did their best 

 to shift the burden to their neighbours. The burgesses of Falmouth asserted their inability because 

 all their shipping was embargoed in France, 3 and those of Truro wrote indignantly that only 

 Penryn and Penzance had acceded to their application for assistance ; * they added that all the 

 ports were poor, which may have been true, and that there was no vessel of more than 50 tons 

 owned in the county, which we know was not true. The government recognized that the cost 

 of equipping proper fighting ships was now too heavy to be borne alone by the coast towns, or even 

 by the coast counties, and in 1628 Charles, instead effacing Parliament, attempted a general ship- 

 money levy over all England. Startled by the feeling aroused, and less pressed by necessity than 

 in later years, he withdrew from the first trial. On 20 October, 1634, there was an issue of writs, 

 but only to seaports or towns connected with the sea ; Saltash, East and West Looe, Truro, 

 Penryn, and Padstow, were required to provide a 4OO-ton ship, victualled, manned, armed, and 

 stored complete for a service of twenty-six weeks. As the ships ordered were larger than any 

 possessed by most of the ports it was provided that an equivalent in money might be paid to the 

 Treasury to be applied to the equipment of a king's ship, and the Cornish towns were therefore 

 given the option of paying ^2,2O4. 6 The writs of 4 August, 1635, were general to the whole 

 country, and Cornwall was assessed at one ship of 650 tons with 260 men; 6 in October, 1636, 

 it was called upon for a vessel of 550 tons or j5,5OO. 7 The third writ was of 9 October, 1636, 

 and was similar to its predecessor; the next writ, of January, 1639, was for a much smaller amount, 

 and very little of it was collected ; the highest assessments were for Truro and Padstow of 70 

 each, and 40 for Saltash. 8 There was more or less opposition, active or passive, in all the 

 counties, and the discontent showed itself in Cornwall. In 1637 the magistrates reported to the 

 Council that every obstacle was being put in their way, 9 and by 1639 even the parish constables 

 had become refractory, ' although threatened that they would have to make good the rates of their 

 parishes.' 10 



During the seventeenth century it became almost a profession in certain families to petition 

 for a licence to erect a lighthouse, with the right to exact tolls to be collected by the customs 

 officers. With the growth of commerce huge sums of money were levied under these patents, and 

 very indifferent service was rendered in return. Probably the earliest Cornish light was that in a 

 cresset on one of the turrets of the house at St. Michael's Mount, for the maintenance of which 

 Sir John Arundel bequeathed 131. 4^. in I433. 11 The Killigrews, who had much of the instinct 

 of the modern financial magnate, were among the first to appreciate the possibilities of the new 

 speculation, and as early as 1570 Sir John Killigrew obtained a patent from the Lord Admiral 

 authorizing him to erect a lighthouse on the Lizard. 12 Nothing came of this, and by 1619, choice 

 of occupation having become restricted, the then Sir John, bethinking himself of a new source of 

 income, remembered the scheme. Philanthropy was the avowed motive in erecting a lighthouse, 

 towards the support of which he only asked voluntary contributions, but the real intention was to 



1 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, cxiii, 63 ; cxv, 97 ; Trans. Devon Asm. xx, 314. 



' S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xxx, 8 1 . The ' members ' of Plymouth consisted of all the ports of Cornwall 

 (Ibid. Ixi, 28 ; xliii, 41), so that the county, or part of it, was taxed twice over by this demand. 

 3 Ibid, liii, 26. 4 Ibid. Ixi, 28 



6 Ibid, cclxxvi, I, 64 ; Rushworth (ed. 1708), ii, 257. 6 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, ccxcvi, 69. 



7 Ibid, cccxxxiii, 61. 8 Ibid, cccci, 37. 9 Ibid, cccxlvi, 88. 



10 Ibid, ccccxxiv, 43. " Western Antiquary, iv, 252. ll Admir. Ct. Misc. 1,130. 



i 497 6 3 



