A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Winchelsea was one of the ports of concentration. 1 The ' port ' of Winchelsea comprised the 

 Camber of Rye and extended to Bodiam a ; the exact extent of the Camber is itself a matter of 

 doubt, for it may have reached from Lydd to Winchelsea. 3 Another large fleet was collected for the 

 campaign of 1417, but out of 217 vessels of which we have details 117 belonged to Holland and 

 Zealand. 4 ,Many of the English ports were unrepresented, and it may be surmised that for 

 political reasons the king preferred to hire foreign ships as transports rather than disturb English 

 trade. No Sussex ship appears in this list, but from another source we know that the Cinque Ports 

 were called upon for their service. 6 Shoreham, like Hastings, Winchelsea, and Rye, was in its 

 period of decline ; in 1 42 1 the inhabitants petitioned for a reduction in the tenths on account of the 

 damage done by the sea, and Rottingdean as well begged a reduction of taxation because lately 

 burnt and also in great part destroyed by the sea. 6 



An important branch of English maritime traffic in the fifteenth century was the transport of 

 pilgrims to enable them to perform their devotions at the shrine of St. James of Compostella. They 

 could only be carried in licensed ships, and nobles and merchants seem to have been equally eager to 

 obtain a share in what must have been a profitable trade. Most of the ships engaged in the traffic 

 belonged to the southern ports, but those of Sussex took no great part in it, although vessels from 

 Winchelsea, Shoreham, and Chichester were occasionally licensed. The tonnage is not usually 

 stated in the licence, but the ships hailing from the western ports, now rapidly growing in wealth 

 and energy, were larger and in every way more suitable than those from the eastern Channel. 

 There is a contemporary song on the miseries suffered by the pilgrims at sea, 7 and in this song 

 Winchelsea is coupled with Sandwich and Bristol as a leading port for their embarkation, but that 

 may be due to the exigencies of rhyme. 



After the death of Henry V one of the first measures taken by the Regency was to sell off the 

 Royal Navy by auction, but the loss was not at once felt because there was no French navy to 

 contest the mastery of the sea. There were arrests of shipping in 1428 and 1430, but there was 

 now a general feeling that in this method ' the long coming together of the ships is the destruction 

 of the country.' 8 Vessels were still impressed for the transport of troops, but the military service 

 was handed over to contractors who undertook to keep the sea with a certain number of ships and 

 men for a specified time. No doubt the contractors desired to obtain as much money and go to as 

 little expense as possible, and in 1442 Parliament, dissatisfied with the results, prepared a scheme by 

 which a squadron was to be made up of ships from various ports. 9 Sussex did not supply any of the 

 large ships, but among the barges two were selected from Winchelsea, and among the pinnaces 

 one from Hastings. William Morfote was the owner of one of the Winchelsea barges, and it 

 appears that in 1435 he had been at sea with IOO men on his own account 'to do the king 

 service' Angllce, privateering. Some similar service previously had led him into Dover Castle, from 

 which he ' came out as well as he might,' in other words, escaped. Then he was compelled to 

 keep at sea with his IOO men while suing for pardon, which, at the especial request of the Commons, 

 was granted for a small fine, probably much to the advantage of peaceful traders. 10 The owner of 

 the other barge was one Pratte, and he, or someone of his name, was stigmatized as a pirate in 

 1464." There are in existence several lists of ships taken up for the transport of troops in 1439, 

 1440, 1443, 1447, and 1452. 12 Seeing that they represent only a portion, large or small, of the 

 merchant marine they show that notwithstanding war and weak government it was still flourishing 

 both in number and tonnage, some of the vessels being of 300 and 400 tons. The Sussex contri- 

 bution, however, was insignificant, only three ships of Winchelsea, of which the largest was of 

 130 tons, one of Rye of 70 tons, and one of Pevensey of 20 tons, being named. Compared with 

 the many vessels from other coast towns, and taken in conjunction with the small number of ships 

 employed in the transport of pilgrims, this is convincing evidence of the decay of the Sussex ports. 

 Seaford obtained a licence in 1422 to wall and ditch the town, 13 but this was never done ; there 

 must have been many small French raids not recorded, but which explain the nervousness of the 

 dwellers on the coast, judging from a petition of 1445 from the men of Tarring in which they 

 refer to divers attacks by the French. 14 



1 FoeJera, ix, 218. The Cinque Ports fishermen were ordered to go over and fish on the Norman coast, 

 during the siege of Harfleur, to supply the army (Devon, Issues of the Exchequer, 341). 



8 Pat. i Hen. IV, pt. viii, m. 39^. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. 517. 



4 Roe. Norman (ed. Hardy, 1835), pp. 320-9. 6 Close, 5 Hen. V, m. 17. 



* Rot. Par/, iv, 159, 1 60. ' Wright and Halliwell, Rel. Antlquae, pt. I 



8 Pnc. o/P.C. (ist Ser.), v, 102. * Rot. Par/, v, 59. 



10 Ibid, iv, 489. Morfote had been member for Winchelsea in 1428 and 1429. 



" Pat. 4 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. \6d. 



" Exch. Accts. K.R. bdle. 53, Nos. 23, 24, 25, 39 ; bdle. 54, Nos. 10, 14. 



18 Pat. i Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 30^. 



14 Dallaway, Hist, of Western Sussex, ii, pt. ii, p. 2. 



142 



