A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



wooden ones, as the castle was ' daily consumed and decayed, and not like to be occupied unto the 

 king's majesty's use.' l As the chartered ' service ' of the Ports fell out of use it was obvious that 

 they would have to assist the crown in some other way during the transition stage which preceded 

 their absorption into the system applied to the rest of the country, and the natural alternative was 

 the provision of men for the royal fleets. Respect was still paid to their privileges ; in 1552, when 

 they had to supply 250 men, the Lord Admiral's officers had to obtain the Lord Warden's 'letters of 

 attendance ' before they could begin their impress.* Technically the Ports were, of course, still 

 liable for their ' service,' especially when it was a question of conveying any of the royal family to 

 and fro. In 1556 they were called upon for 380 men when Philip was returning to the Continent 

 and Charles V going to Spain, in consideration of which levy they were to be spared as many ships 

 ' that the said Ports ought to set forth ' as that number of men would man. 8 As a matter of fact 

 only men-of-war were now employed in the transport of royal personages, and every one understood 

 that the reference to the 'service' was a mere form, nor would such vessels as the Ports could send 

 have suited the luxurious ideas of the age. 



Philip II drew England into war with France in 1557, and under the exigency of haste press 

 warrants were sent direct to the Lord Warden without the intervention of the Lord Admiral. 4 He 

 was ordered ' not to stay upon any scruple of words in his commission, but to go forward in all 

 haste ' ; therefore we may suppose that few seamen escaped the pressmasters, but notwithstanding 

 this the Ports were also required to send ships, although only as tenders and victuallers. The 

 promptitude of the mayor and jurats of Rye in providing 10 vessels drew a letter of thanks from 

 the Privy Council and a promise that, in reward, the queen would forbear any contribution from 

 them to the forced loan then in collection ; Hastings also received the same thanks and promise.' 

 They may have thought that if their charters were still worth anything they were exempt in any 

 case. In July, 1557, permission was given to all subjects to fit out privateers, the captors being 

 permitted to enjoy all prizes without paying any share to the crown or to the Lord Admiral.' The 

 offer was found tempting, and at least 1 6 Sussex ships, 1 1 of them coming from Rye, were at sea 

 in consequence of it. 7 There is independent evidence of the success of the Rye privateers. It 

 appears that in May, 1558, the Sussex people, for some not very obvious reason, were in fear of 

 invasion, and, according to Lord Montague, the lord-lieutenant, were ready to abandon their homes 

 on the coast and fly inland. He succeeded in reassuring them, and in his letter to the queen dwelt 

 on the value of Rye, ' which is such a scourge to France as the like is not in this realm.' 8 But 

 he seized the occasion to call Mary's attention to the urgent necessity of taking steps to save 

 the haven, ' in sore decay,' which if not speedily remedied would be the ruin of the town. Except 

 as affecting the maritime history the story of the deterioration of the harbours, and the efforts to 

 improve them, does not belong to this section of the county history ; it seems, however, that the 

 process of decay was especially noticeable about this time, for in 1573 the mayor and jurats wrote 

 that the Camber was ' past recovery,' and referred despairingly to ' the puddle and creek of 

 Rye.' 9 The barons of Winchelsea, in asking for help to make a new harbour, produced a 

 poetically worded picture of the situation and possibilities of the town, in which they so far drew 

 upon imagination as to say that it had been, within living memory, ' a prosperous place with much 

 traffic.' 10 Pevensey was described as a port in 1596, a ship having been driven in there ; u Saxton's 

 map of 1575 shows the port as formed by an eastern and a western stream uniting to make the 

 haven. 



A list of ships of 100 tons and upwards 'decayed ' between 15445 and 1553 includes one of 

 Winchelsea, of 100 tons, out of twenty-two belonging to various ports, and Winchelsea is the only 

 Sussex town mentioned. 12 The bounty system inaugurated by Henry VII, by which an occasional 

 tonnage allowance was made to the builders of new merchant ships suitable for use in war, had, 

 under Elizabeth, settled into a grant of five shillings a ton on all vessels of 100 tons and upwards. 

 This stimulated shipbuilding in places where there was a deep-sea trade to employ such vessels, but 

 had little effect in a county like Sussex, where maritime traffic was dead or dying. 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, and these returns were required still more often as the bounty system took 

 firmer hold. Most of the earlier ones are lost, but many, complete or fragmentary, remain for the 

 Elizabethan period ; usually the details only relate to vessels of 100 tons and upwards, as smaller ones 

 were not considered useful for fighting purposes. War with France and Scotland existed in 1560, 

 which was the cause of the first Elizabethan list of that year. 13 There were no loo-ton ships in 



1 S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, vii, 20. ' Acts ofP.C. 18 Mar. 1551-2. 



'Ibid. 31 Aug. 1556. 'Ibid. 5 Jan. 1557-8. 



'Ibid. 14 Jan., 7 Feb. 1557-8. 'S.P. Dom, Mary, xii, 24. 

 'Admir. Ct. Exemp. v, 288. The list is probably incomplete. 'S.P. Dom. Mary, xiii, 7. 



S.P. Dom. Eliz. xciii, 22. "Ibid. Ixxv, 70. " Admir. Ct. Acts, xxiii, 3 Dec. 1526. 



u S.P. Dom. Mary, i, 23. " Ibid. Eliz. xi, 27. 



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