136 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 



By information obtained from different authorities we 

 learn that the Prussians had commenced fishing herrings 

 on their coast in 1259.* 



In 1108 Henry I. erected Yarmouth into a burgh, the 

 annual payment for this privilege being " ten milliers of 

 herrings ;"t and in 1199, King John erected Dunwick 

 in Norfolk into a free burgh on payment of L.120, one 

 mark of silver, and 2400 herrings annually. J 



The Book of Meaux states, that in the year 1240, Wil- 

 liam de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle, granted to the monks 

 of Meaux half-an-acre of land in the borough of Odd (in 

 burgode Odde juxta Bavenser) for the erection of store- 

 houses for their herrings and other fish.§ 



So early as the time of Edward the First, 1270 (Long- 

 shanks), the herring fair at Yarmouth was held forty days, 

 at which the Barons of the Cinque Ports had deputies for 

 the iDurpose of keeping the peace. 



The following is an extract of the dite or edict by Ed- 

 ward I. for the government of the fair in 1277: " Et 

 aussi voillouns que ceux de la vile de Gernemue voydent 

 den et stronde, des voilles nyefs et de meryne, la ou ils 

 deynont ariver et leur reitz seedier, ce ces n'est des- 

 nyefs que sonnt en fesaunt et mastes sur que on les pent 

 secher," — namely, " And also we will, that they of the 

 city of Yarmouth void den and strand of old ships and 

 timber, where they should arrive and dry their nets, so 

 that it be not of ships which are in building, and masts 

 for drying,"!! 



We learn from Blowit's " Fragmenta Antiquitatis," that 

 herrings were early a royal dish in England, for in 1286 



* Noel, de la Moriniere. f Tliorkelin, Diplom. Adv. Magn. ii. 155. 



X Anderson's Hist, of Commerce, vol. i 98. § Lib. Mel.se, fol. 135. 



II Swinden's History and Antiquities of Great Yarmouth, 184, 194. 



