LOWESTOFT AND YARMOUTH.
The following extract from the town book, taken from Camden, is given in Gillingwater’s History and transferred to our pages, as containing valuable information on our present subject.
“About the year of our Lord 1100, about 500 years past,” (i.e. about A.D. 600) “it pleased God to lay the first foundation of the east town of Yarmouth into firm land, even out of the main sea. Which place was then called and known by the name of Sardike sand, and Sardike shore; and in a short time it proved to be a fit and commodious place for a town to be built, meet for sea-faring men to inhabit in. And by the permission of many noble kings in this land, his majesties progenitors, many did resort thither, and began to build the same, and to enclose it with a stone wall on the east side of the town (the haven being on the west side), insomuch, that, within a short time the same grew populous.”
“And long before Yarmouth town was incorporated, the barons of the five ports did yearly hold a free fair in the three towns of Yarmouth (that is to say) Easton, Weston, and Southton, beginning the said fair on the feast of St. Michael, and so continued forty days together.”
“And by the authority of the king, they did then use to make their repair thither, on purpose for the governing of the said fair. And in those days there was yearly sent from the brotherhood of the five ports, and the ancient towns, nine or ten bailiffs who governed the fair. And it is to be noted that long before any liberties were granted to Yarmouth, the towns of Lowestoft and Kirkley, in the County of Suffolk, were built, and populously inhabited; and the then town of Kirkley being the greatest town of account, and the most ancient upon the coast, and being a haven town before that Yarmouth was Yarmouth, and thereupon the whole fishing seas upon the confines of Suffolk and Norfolk, take the name of Kirkley seas.”
“And to this day the seas upon those coasts are called or known by the French fishermen coming there to fish, by the name of Kirkley seas. And long since, before Yarmouth was incorporated there was such trading and merchandizing of herrings at Lowestoft, and the same was by the Yarmouth men so much envied, that civil wars subsisted for a long time between them, with much bloodshed, until it pleased God to take the matter into his own hands, who ended the strife with such a great mortality of people, that there died of the plague in Yarmouth, 7000 persons, and then the war ceased.”
The sand on which Yarmouth was founded, was dry in the year 495 when Cerdick the Saxon first landed there, and shortly after Yarmouth began to be erected by the Saxons.
In process of time Yarmouth obtained a charter, and after a while the Yarmouthians attempted so to explain that charter, as to exclude the merchants of Lowestoft from purchasing herrings in the seas near their own town. A violent rupture between the two towns ensued, and so far did their resentments go, that they fitted out armed vessels, commenced hostilities on each other’s property, and even committed bloodshed. The case was in the end brought before the house of Lords and finally determined in favour of Lowestoft. [14]
All history gives a higher antiquity to Lowestoft than to Yarmouth, and on this point the townsmen have been not a little jealous: the controversy with its junior neighbour, nevertheless, was not a controversy for pre-eminence, but for an independent existence; this it has secured, and now, though long repressed, Lowestoft seems girding itself anew to run the race of honorable competition with its more fortunate rival.
LOWESTOFT AND THE CIVIL WARS.
Probably the fact that, in these wars, Yarmouth was Parliamentarian, had no small influence in determining the men of Lowestoft to be so decidedly Royalist. We will not, however, deny them the praise, such as it is, of being devotedly attached to the cause of the mis-guided Charles. Lion-hearted, noble minded Oliver, whose character has been blackened by the accumulated injustice of two hundred years, here, in the early part of his career, performed essential service for the Parliament. Hearing that Sir John Pettus and others entertained a design of forming a counter-association, to oppose that into which the Eastern counties had entered on the part of the Parliament, he marched with the utmost expedition to Lowestoft, surprised them and frustrated their purpose.
Whilst here, at least two honest men met together, who, whilst they differed, could sympathise with, and understand each other. Cromwell sent for Sir John Pettus, and interrogated him respecting the design of the counter-association; at the same time he requested that he (Sir John) would inform him to which party he would adhere; Sir John replied that he should act for the King. Oliver highly applauded his frankness and sincerity, and dismissed him with the remark, that he wished every other man in the kingdom would be as open and sincere in declaring his real sentiments and intentions. [16]
Cromwell, as was natural under the circumstances, took possession of guns and ammunition to a considerable extent, and made several of the principal inhabitants prisoners of war: the town also suffered from the license given to the soldiers, who lived at free quarters and plundered the inhabitants.
Yarmouth and Lowestoft having espoused opposite sides in this contest, each party fitted out armed vessels for the annoyance of the other. Lowestoft seemed at first to have the advantage, but Yarmouth, having received assistance from Parliament, recovered its position. In January, 1648, Captain Allen boldly sailed into Yarmouth harbour, avowedly to destroy the town, but, from some cause or other, determined on sailing away again without attempting to accomplish his object. This story puts us very much in mind of the feat, so pleasantly and graphically described in the well known lines,—
The King of France, with twice ten thousand men,
Marched up the hill, and then marched down again.
Discretion is confessedly the better part of valour, and possibly the Captain, in this instance, without prejudice to his character for bravery, shewed that he was not destitute of prudence, a quality indispensable in a good commander.