INDUSTRIES 



bestowed upon his collegiate church in the castle 

 of Hastings 2,000 herrings yearly and other cus- 

 tomary renders of fish. 3 



The customs of the Sussex fishermen are of 

 great interest and antiquity. By an agreement 

 made in the twelfth century between the abbot 

 of Fecamp and the men of Rye, the latter 



swear that they will cause the abbot to have his shares 

 and all other his rights .... and will suffer no one 

 dwelling in the town to fish unless he shall give shares 

 as follows. From all fishing, whoever is engaged in 

 it, these shares shall be rendered : from all ships of 

 26 oars they shall give two and a half shares ; from 

 ships of 22 or 20, two ; from ships of 1 8 and 16, 

 one and a half; from ships of 14 or 12 or 10, one ; 

 and from all with fewer oars a whole share, however 

 few may row in them except those called heccheres* 

 which shall pay as follows : if 8 men row in them or 

 9, or 10, or II, or 12, one share. If there be fewer 

 than 8 they shall give half a share, however few 

 they be. 6 



Mr. Round has pointed out that this is the 

 first recorded occurrence of the ' shares (sarae),' 

 which occur again in the ' Book of all the Ancient 

 Customs ' of the Brighton fishermen drawn up 

 in 1580." 



In it we find the catch of fish divided into 'shares,' 

 which went respectively to the men engaged, to the 

 boat, to the owners of the nets, and to the parish 

 church. Thus the mackerel boats, according to their 

 tonnage, were divided into three classes, which 

 respectively gave the owner of the boat 2, 2^, and 3 

 'shares' ; the herring boats being larger, gave him 3, 

 3^, and 4 'shares,' according to their class ; while the 

 little 'cock' boats only gave I or l share, according 

 as they had or had not a mast and sail. 



In the accounts of the bailiff of Rye for 1343' 

 are several entries of payments of 15;. and 181. 

 made in April and December ' for a custom of 

 the ships and boats fishing at sea called " scharz." ' 

 In 1284 the bailiff accounted for sums received 

 from the boats engaged on different classes of 

 fishery, 50;. being received from the shares of 

 herrings, i8s. g^d. from the shares of plaice, lOf. 

 from those of mackerel, and 2s. 8^. from the 

 shares of smelts (sperlingorum). 8 As the smelt is 

 at the present time not caught off the Sussex 

 coast it is probable that the last reference is to 

 fishing in the Yarmouth waters, where this fish 

 is found. A reference to the Yarmouth fisheries 

 occurs in 1266, when the bailiff of Winchelsea 



3 Anct. D., D. 1073. 



1 Boats using the heak or heck net (Suss. Arch. Coll. 

 xlii, 79). Holloway (Hist, of Rye, 360) mentions 

 payments made by fishing boats in 1448 for 'hooking' 

 and ' hooking with nose nets ' ; this should probably 

 read ' necking.' William Tuppin of Rottingdean in 

 1576 left 'toAnnis Tuppin my daughter a heake 

 net ' (Lewes Wills, A 7). 



5 Cal. Doc. France, 43. 



6 Suss. Arch. Coll. xlii, 79. 



7 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1028, No. II. 



8 Ibid. No. 10. 



entered the names of fourteen persons paying 

 sums ranging from 3*. ^d. up to 2is. 6d. for the 

 shares of Yarmouth (de scar' Gernemute). At the 

 same time he accounted for ,15 lls - 6f^., 'for 

 the shares of the town collected weekly from 

 small boats.' 9 Further details of the method in 

 which shares were allotted may be obtained from 

 the ' auncient customs ' of Brighton : 



Every man hath used to take for his bodye in this 

 voyage a share ; the boate and netts and neces- 

 saries thereto belonging four shares ; and besyde 

 one other share hathe been used to be made, whereof 

 halfe is due to the viccar, a quarter to the master, and 

 the other quarter to the churchwardens to the use of 

 the towne . . . whiche quarter share the church- 

 wardens have used to employe especiallye uppon 

 buildinge of fortes and walls towardes the sea, for the 

 defence of the saide towne . . . and maynteinance 

 of the parishe churche. 10 



This latter share appears to correspond to the 

 'Christ share' which is found in one or two 

 places. In 1353 the vicar of Eastbourne 

 received from the fishermen ' a certain custom 

 called Crystshare, which is worth 2O marks 

 yearly,' in return for which he had to find a 

 chaplain to celebrate three days in the week in 

 the chapel of St. Gregory. 11 The accounts of 

 the bailiff of Rye for I363 12 include the col- 

 lection of the ' Cristschar,' 30;. being received at 

 St. Andrew's tide (30 November) from various 

 'flewers,' i.e. boats using 'flue' nets, and 

 'tramelers' or trawlers, 45. at Christmas from 

 four ' tachous,' and 405. \d. at Easter from 

 ' tramelers,' ' herbews,' and ' tachous.' Besides 

 the share thus set aside for the church we find 

 mention of fish as being tithable. In 1341" at 

 Climping the value of the tithes of sea and fresh- 

 water fish were worth 20*., and the same at 

 Hove ; at New Shoreham the rector had 2 

 marks from the fishery and the vicar i mark ; 

 at Seaford the tithes of the fishermen were 

 estimated at 13*. 4</., at Felpham 2s., and at 

 Islesham 405. 



The division of the fishing year into ' fares ' 

 or voyages is given by the Brighton ' Customs ' 

 and was probably of early origin. 14 'Tucknett 

 fare ' lasted from February to April, small boats 

 called ' tuckners ' of about 3 tons plying during 

 that season for plaice. For ' Shotnett fare,' 

 from April to June, ' shelters ' of from 6 to 

 26 tons were employed fishing the deep seas for 

 mackerel, while for ' Drawnett fare ' small boats 

 of about 3 tons were employed in May and June 

 ' to draw mackell by the shoare.' ' Harbour 

 fare ' was also during the summer, boats of about 

 8 tons ' goeing to the sea in somer with harbour 



9 Ibid. bdle. 1031, No. 19. 



10 Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 45. 

 " Assize R. 941, m. 1 1. 



11 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1028, No. 15. 

 13 Inj. Nonarum (Rec. Com.). 



" Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 43-4. 



265 34 



