280 IIAKBorilS AND LIGHTHOUSES. PART IV. 



time. In Richard II.'s reign, one Philpot hired a thousand 

 men and sent them to sea, where they captured fifteen 

 rich Spanish vessels. 1 Harry Page, of Poole, ravaged 

 the coasts of Spain, France, and Flanders, bringing 

 home the plunder of many churches, numerous prisoners, 

 and prizes laden with rich cargoes. But the piratical 

 propensity was not only displayed against our conti- 

 nental neighbours, but by the seagoing population of 

 one town against those of another. In 1342 Yarmouth 

 and Hull sent out a piratical fleet against London and 

 Bristol ; and ports as near each other as Lyme and 

 Dartmouth, in the adjoining counties of Dorset and 

 Devon, waged deadly feud and strove to capture eacli 

 other's vessels. 2 The sailors of the Cinque Ports were 

 at war with those of Yarmouth, and in Edward I.'s 

 reign regular safe conducts were granted to certain 

 Cinque Ports vessels requiring to visit that port, as if it 

 were an enemy's. The Yarmouth men were even at 

 war with those of Lowestoft, Camden relating of them 

 that " they often engaged their neighbours, the Lestof- 

 fenses, or men of Lowestoff, in sea-fights, witli great 

 slaughter on both sides." Robert de Battayle, of Win- 

 chelsea, plundered a passing ship belonging to some 

 merchants of Sherborne ; but the feat must have been 

 regarded as creditable, as a few years later his townsmen 

 chose him for their mayor. At the end of the sixteenth 

 century three noted pirates Hamilton, Twittie, and 

 Purser ravaged the coast of the south-western coun- 

 ties. In 1582 Purser attacked the ships, both English 

 and French, riding in Weymouth harbour, and carried off 

 a Rochelle ship of sixty tons. But Weymouth itself sent 

 out piratical vessels, which picked up many rich prizes. 

 Down even to the middle of the seventeenth century 

 piracy was quite common along the Devonshire coast, as 



Roberta's ' Social History of the Southern Counties of 

 2 Ibid., p. 74. 



