CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HEERING-FISHERY. 163 



the inhabitants ; but his garrison was also destroyed, and 

 the fishery was again abandoned.* 



Some four months after Charles II.'s restoration, and in 

 1661, he wrote a letter to the Lord Mayor of London, re- 

 commending the city of London to fit out busses for 

 fishing herring ; and on the 23d of August, a commission 

 was issued under the Great Seal, by King Charles II., 

 appointing his Eoyal Highness James Duke of York, 

 Lord Clarendon, and several others, to be a Council of the 

 Koyal Fishery of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which 

 society, thus encouraged by the sovereign, endeavoured to 

 renew the herring-fishery in the north of Scotland, and 

 raised funds by way of lottery, and by public collections ; 

 and Dutch families were invited to Stornoway as settlers. 



In this year also King Charles II. renewed the prohi- 

 bition as to foreigners fishing in the British seas, and it is 

 stated that the Dutch agreed to pay L. 10,000 per annum 

 for this privilege. 



On the 1st January, in the year 1661, the Scottish 

 Parliament, on the suggestion of Charles II., passed an 

 Act for the purpose of encouraging the establishment of 

 fishery companies ; it is entitled, " Act for fishing, and 

 erecting of companies, for promoting of the same." The 

 preamble proves the high anticipations of the promoters 

 of it. The Act begins thus : " Our Sovereign Lord, con- 

 sidering the best and readiest means for improving the 

 benefit and advantages which properly belong unto him by 

 the fishes which are, or may be, taken within the seas, 

 channels, firths, and lochs adjacent, and surrounding this 

 his ancient kingdom, and perceiving the same may be of 

 great advantage many ways, especially in that the said 

 trade will not only be a nursery for seafaring men, and a 



* Knox's Observations on the Northern Fisheries, p. 18. 



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