Item, in all the commissions of Sewers, that in anye aige or tyme have been awarded, theis Mylls, Locks and Weares were never thought to be within the precyncts of anye Lawes or in anye respecte meete to be reformed.
Item, that the said Mylles, Lockes and Weares are the inherytaunce some of the Queenes Highnes, and others of dyvers personaiges, wherein, if any disorder were, the same is to be reformed by the ordinarye proceedinge of the Queenes Maties. Lawes and not otherwise.
In Lansdowne MS., xxx, 16 and 20, are preserved two petitions which are entered as if in the same year, but which can be seen, from slight differences among general resemblances, not to be exactly contemporary. The one was probably written by John Bishop, the other certainly was so. “To Sir William Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer,” the first complaint is presented of the dangers, and a list is given of “the holders of the locks and wears, and of the Keepers of the same, which sell the Queenes Majesties watter in the same river.”
The number of locks given is twenty-five between Maidenhead and Abingdon, and the paper is indorsed by another hand “Sept. 6, 1580.” The second is addressed to “Sir William Cecill, Lorde High Treasurer,” and more forcibly brings forward the danger and losses of property and life of the Queen’s subjects; being signed by “John Bishop, 1580.” The list varies in number, as there are thirty-six mentioned; and there are several slight variations in facts, and many in detail. The parish of each is given, and the names of the owners have a genealogical interest. Rea Locke belonged to Harry Merrye, a yeoman of the Queen’s Chamber; Hedgeworth Wear to Hugh Cotterell. Marlowe Locke, belonging to Thomas Farmer, gent., is by all reckoned to be the most dangerous.
Temple Locke belonged to John Brinkys, gent., and Newe Locke to Mr. Bowde and Mr. Lovelace; Mr. Scroope’s Locke at Hambledon was “kept by Thomas Bulter, a seller of water”; Fraunces Stonor, gent., at the Marsh, held one locke, and Robert Wolley, yeoman, another; Bowney Weare (Mr. Anthony Elmes), Waregroves Weare, Shiplacke Weare followed; Sunning Locke, belonging to Mr. Richard Blunte, was kept by two sellers of water. Then came Cawsam Locke, Chansey Weare; Mapledurham Locke, said to belong to Mr. William Blunte in one petition, and to Mr. Michael Blunt in the other; Whitchurch, to Harry Knappes in both; Harte Lock, Goringe Lock, and another, owners unnamed. Cleve Locke was the Earl of Derby’s; of South Mill Weare the owner is unnamed; North Stock Weare and Wallingford Lock belonged to Raphe Pollington, another locke and Benson Locke belonging to Robert George (one of the keepers being named Jacob Buishoppe). At Little Witenham, a locke and two weares, one owned by Edmund Fettiplace, the other by Mr. William Dunshe; a weare at Long Witenham, belonging to Widow Sanger; Thomas Trullock’s Lock of Appleforde; an old, ruinous wear belonging to Clement Dabnet; two locks and one weare, called Sutton Weare; Collombe Weare, belonging to Edward Wilmott, gent.; Abingdon Locke, “being Mr. William Blackmanne’s Locke”; three locks, at Newnam, Samford Locke, and “Ifle Lock, being kept by one Mrs. Pitte.” “Every one of these being most perillous for all passengers, and the Kepers of every locke making sale of the water, keping the same severall which ought to be comon to all her Matⁱᵉˢ subjects, and whereunto in truth they have noe right.”
The petitioner then goes on to state, and mentions witnesses ready to prove, that fifteen men had been drowned within four years, and all their goods lost, and begs his lordship’s earnest attention to this serious state of affairs. Neither of these petitions seems to have been very successful. Local interests had outweighed travelling necessities.
But Bishop was not crushed. He designed a more elaborate composition on a larger sheet of paper, and addressed it directly to Queen Elizabeth herself. Believing in her poetic sympathies, he wrote it in verse, which, though nearly as bad as it could be, was full of earnest feeling and a certain original quaintness. He spoke movingly of the “exceeding loss and spoil” of the goods and commodities of poor men, of £300 a year spent by them in buying water, of the “murthers” of Her Majesty’s loving subjects, and of the sorrows of many woeful widows and fatherless children. Twenty men had been drowned during the last seven years. The great wrongs he had seen had moved his heart to write. He had previously complained to many and found no remedy, though good laws had been made by many kings “against the mills, wears, and locks that doe annoy this worthie streame.” Some men neither care for laws nor for drowning men, and have no fear of hell before their eyes. The worst of these is Thomas Farmer, who is as great a persecutor as Pharaoh. To the widow of one drowned at his lock he had given, in lieu of life, the sum of 5s. Another man had been cast into prison by him for complaining, but had been drowned in his lock at last. Farmer’s Lock at Marlow alone has cost the poor bargemen a thousand pounds and more. The water falls so high it often sinks ships and men, and it is a wonder any escape. Four City aldermen had come to view it, and Bishop refers to them in proof of his words. He is willing to die if they be proved false. He had complained four years or more before to the Lord Treasurer in vain, and since then seven men had been drowned. For his interference Farmer had tried to work him mischief, and had complained of him to his captain, whom he loved much, but who had apparently dismissed him. Bishop was well acquainted with the perils of the river. He brings them before the notice of the Queen because he was her faithful subject born; and the murder of her people, and loss of their goods, was her loss. He was sure that if she knew the truth her merciful heart would find means to help, and that she would command the Lords that understood the Laws of Parliament to look into the matter before more blood was spent.
He then gives a list of the men that had been drowned, and another of his witnesses. This is signed by him, and is endorsed 13th October 1585.
I have been able to find out nothing more about Bishop than what he himself relates. If really born a subject of Elizabeth’s, as he states, he could not have been more than twenty-seven years old; he was evidently a bargeman, and Farmer had undone him by complaining of him to his “captain.” The lock-keeper at Benson is Jacob Bishop, and may have been a connection. About Fermor more may be known. The Archæological Institute of Oxford in 1850 published “The expenses of the Fermor family on the death of Thomas Fermor or Farmer of Somerton, County Oxford, who died Aug. 8, 1580.” If he was the “Pharaoh” above alluded to, there is some discrepancy in the dates assigned to the petitions. An official answer sent up to this petition is preserved in Lansdowne MS., xliv, f. 40, but it is in such an imperfect condition that I could only understand it by collating it with the paper of 1574, already referred to, “Reasons alleged for the maintenance of the Locks, Wears, etc., on the River Thames, 1584.” They are of as great antiquity as any town or village; that many of the inhabitants of the villages between Maidenhead and Oxford would not know where to grind their corn without them; that the water is preserved for the passage of barges; that, notwithstanding divers laws made for the advantage of ships and barges, “yet were the milles, lockes, and weares never impeached as things repugnant to lawe or offensive to the Commonwealth before one Busshop begonne outragious attempt therein.” That, though they number in all about seventy, they are in part the Queen’s royal inheritance; that the residue are the inheritance of others of the subjects of the Queen, having only a way for the passage of herself and her people through the said Locks. Touching Marlow Lock, that it was as well maintained as it had been in any age past. This lock had been obtained from the Queen in the tenth year of her reign, and had been as carefully used as it ever had been, as may be proved by depositions taken before the Commissioners of Sewers, and preserved in the Star Chamber. The Causes that the passage of this Lock has become so much more perilous are, that the Barges are laden with greater burdens than formerly, sometimes nearly double. They used to carry eight or ten loads, now they carry twenty loads; they lade and unlade with little care; and are often up and down so late and so early that they cannot see where they are going. “They commonly observe neyther Sabbath dayes nor other dayes, besides many evil demeanours too long to narrate”; the number of barges has increased from ten or twelve to about forty.
The statements of Bishop about the men drowned are criticized, and opinions brought on the other side. The accidents were often caused by neglect of the watermen’s duties, and the lock-keepers often helped them in ways that could not otherwise be provided for.