312 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the bekyn ther and bringing iiij tymys” he had the munificent 
sum of 4d. However he was paid better as time went on: In 
1511-12 eighteenpence was delivered to the parson of Rame for 
him ; and in the next year he not only had 2s. for his “ yeares 
wages,” but 4d. for a reward “to come and yeve warnying of 
shipps at sea.” In 1522-3 he had actually 4s. for his yearly wage, 
and 1s. for his labour in coming to Plymouth sundry times. Lucky 
man; but he must have thought himself luckier still when in 
1543-4 he received 8d. for “‘comyng hether by nyght when the 
new founde lande men came yn.” The “waccheman of Rame,” 
however, had to be supplemented in 1537-8 by two others, who 
watched ‘‘the water syde for pyratts.” The Spaniards said there 
were no other kind of folk to be found at Plymouth ! 
What is rather amusing, considering the use the guns were to 
be put to, is that ordnance were bought in Spain. In 1504-5 two 
great guns were “bought out of Spaine,” and paid for by 22 dozen 
of “whytts,” worth £7 11s. 8d. This cloth was packed in canvas 
and sent to Saltash to be forwarded. There had been an agreement 
drawn up with the gunmakers, and three “chesys” worth 10d. 
were included in the bargain. The ordnance of the town were then 
rather scanty. There was a “brazen gon,” and the end of the 
great gon (which a “ portyngal” not long before had been mulcted 
in some wine for damaging) was caulked with oakum! while a 
piece of iron was nailed over the mouth to “kepe hym close.” In 
1509-10 two other guns were bought out of Spain, and they were 
paid for partly in hake. Subsequently, I fancy, some of the 
leading inhabitants must have armed the town. The mention of 
William Randell’s and John Ilcombe’s, Mr. Pollard’s and Stephen 
Pers’s guns seem to imply as much. In 1528-9 William Hawkyns 
sold two brass guns to the town, and was paid in instalments of £8. 
A few years later other guns were bought in Flanders. And then 
there was continual expense on the bulwarks, and on the “gun 
slyngs” and “chambers” and the like, so that it is no wonder the 
town got into difficulties. The Crown does not seem to have 
rendered any help until 1544-5, when the King gave ‘two brass 
cannon. At length, however, the preparations for defence became 
so extensive and costly that money was collected in the district to 
aid the Plymouth folk in their heavy undertaking. Their charges 
were increased in 1547-8 by the fortifying of Drake’s Island, 
about which Sir Francis Fleming came down, and subsequently 
