This success of the western adventurers greatly alarmed the merchants at Lowestoft. The great quantity of fish which they caught, the proficiency they discovered in curing them, together with the greatest success they had met withal at market, exhibited but a melancholy prospect to the inhabitants of Lowestoft.
It was computed that in the year 1776, six thousand barrels of herrings were cured only at the Isle of Man; and in 1777 there were sent from the same place four thousand barrels to the London market only, exclusive of those that were sent to the other places. There were also sent to market that year twenty thousand barrels from Liverpool, and a considerable quantity from Scotland. These prodigious quantities of fish, offered also to the public at the reduced price which those merchants could afford them at (namely, Lowestoft herrings at £15 10s. per last, and herrings from Liverpool at £11 per last) so extremely distressed the Lowestoft merchants, that they were obliged to export the greater part of their herrings at Leghorn, and other ports in the Mediterranean on a venture. But even here also they found that ships from Liverpool, with herrings, had arrived there before them; and in consequence thereof were obliged to deposit their herrings in warehouses till the following year, when they were sold at a great loss. The Lowestoft merchants were also in the same predicament respecting the herrings that remained unsold at the London market; and therefore a meeting of merchants was held at Lowestoft, in order to consult about the most eligible methods of disposing of those herrings, and it was agreed to lodge them also in warehouses there till the succeeding year, which resolution was attended with the same misfortune as that respecting the herrings at the Italian ports to the great injury of the Lowestoft merchants.
Notwithstanding the great success which had hitherto attended these competitors with Lowestoft for the herring fishery, yet it was but of short continuance; for the large size of their herrings, and the fat and oily quality they possessed, though perhaps in a lesser degree than those caught on the coast of Scotland, were such great obstacles to their being properly cured, as could not be surmounted, and evidently proved that they were wholly unfit for exportation, and could only be sent to our English markets, and were not saleable even there, unless they were brought for immediate consumption; and consequently the herring fishery established at Liverpool and the Isle of Man experienced the same ill success as attended that at Dunbar and Caithness, that of being totally abolished, at least so far as respected the curing or making red herrings.
The attempts of these new adventurers have evidently demonstrated that the herrings caught on the eastern coast are the only ones that are capable of being properly cured for red herrings; the colour and flavour of these herrings are superior to those from any other place, and they retain their excellent qualities to a longer period and are preferable to any others either for a foreign or home consumption.
The second cause, which, about the year 1777, greatly retarded the success of the herring fishery at Lowestoft, as well as embarrassed the merchants was the war with France and Spain. By this event the intercourse which the English merchants had formerly maintained with the different ports in the Mediterranean was greatly interrupted, and particularly at the time when the siege of Gibraltar by the Spaniards was turned into a blockade. The usual methods formerly made use of by the merchants at Lowestoft in exporting herrings to the Italian and other ports in the Mediterranean, when we were engaged in a war with France or Spain, was, to convey them to those ports in foreign bottoms; particularly in ships from Holland; but the Dutch, at this time being suspected of carrying English property, were more narrowly watched than formerly as they passed the Straights of Gibraltar and consequently were in the most imminent danger of being captured. But in the year 1780 this difficulty was in a great measure, removed by the treaty of “The Armed Neutrality.” This treaty was entered into by most of the commercial powers on the Continent, in order to protect any ships belonging to those powers from the interruptions and depredations they had lately been exposed to, under the pretence of carrying warlike stores, etc. By this treaty foreign vessels were permitted to pass the Straights of Gibraltar without being searched, or suffering any other interruption, but unhappily for the Lowestoft merchants, they not being apprized of the treaty being ratified before the usual time of selling their herrings, and consequently were apprehensive of being liable to the same dangers and inconveniences they had before been exposed to, they at the beginning of the season, sold the greater part of the fish which they should catch this year to the fishmongers in London, whereby they sustained a very considerable loss.
The herring fishery at Lowestoft appears at this time to be established on the most lasting and permanent foundation; such as promises not only to be advantageous to the inhabitants, and beneficial to the public, but also, as a nursery for seamen, very useful to Government. In fact it is a wise policy of all great maritime powers to establish and encourage, as much as possible, fisheries of every denomination; they being not only of the greatest benefit to individuals, but of the utmost utility to every naval power; for not only the English, but also the Dutch, French, and other foreign nations, from the encouragement of their fisheries, have given evident demonstrations of the truth of this assertion. For this reason the British Legislature has always encouraged and protected its fisheries as much as possible; and the herring fishery has been particularly favoured, but in former reigns as well as the present, with signal instances of its indulgence and protection; as is manifest, not only from the many wise laws, interpositions and regulations of preceding kings, but also from the Act passed in the 26th year of his Majesty King George III., for granting a bounty on herrings, under certain restrictions therein mentioned.
SECTION XI.
The Rev. Alfred Suckling, L.L.B., in his “History and Antiquities of the Hundreds of Blyth and part of Lothingland,” writes:—“There being no parsonage-house at Lowestoft, in consequence of the fire in 1606, the Rev. John Tanner, who died in 1759, left by his will £100 towards purchasing a residence for that at purpose: on condition, however, that his successors advanced another £100, and the purchase was made within a limited time. But Mr. Arrow, who succeeded Mr. Tanner, not complying with the terms of the will, the legacy became void; and Mr. Arrow, in 1762, purchased a very handsome and commodious house on his own account, towards the north end of the town, on the east side, in which he resided during the residue of his life. Mr. Arrow died in 1789, and was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Potter, upon whose institution, Dr. Bagot, the then Bishop of Norwich, and patron of this vicarage, revived the idea of purchasing a parsonage-house; and Mr. Potter and the inhabitants approving the measure, and Mr. Arrow’s house, then on sale, being thought a proper residence for the vicar, it was accordingly purchased for the purpose, in 1789, for the sum of £550. To accomplish the purchase, the trustees of certain charity lands in Lowestoft, the rents whereof are applicable for matters appertaining to the church, advanced £100; Dr. Bagot was pleased to give £20; and £430, the residue, was borrowed by the vicar, under the authority of the Act of Parliament to enable rectors and vicars to build or purchase parsonage-houses in those parishes where there are none. It was also thought desirable, that a garden, the property of the late Mr. Arrow, and not far distant from the house, should be purchased; the purchase-money for which was £120, but included in the £550 given. The deeds of conveyance executed on this occasion are in the possession of the vicar.”
In 1831, the Rev. F. Cunningham purchased part of a garden and right of way, which cost £77 7s. 3d., which he presented to the vicarage, and likewise put the vicarage-house into a thorough state of repair.
The river Waveney in ancient days sought its junction with the Ocean through Lake Lothing, between Lowestoft and Kirkley. Its channel, which is proved to have been shallow, by the discovery of fossil elephants’ teeth, as already related, was open in Camden’s time, who calls Kirkley a haven town. Reyce, who wrote his account of Suffolk a few years after, describes it as still navigable, for he says, “and then Leystoffe, until you come to that part of Yarmouth which is on the south side of the river Hiere, do finish the number of our havens.” The sea, however, aided by the fury of the eastern gales, gradually raised a barrier of sand and shingle about a quarter-of-a-mile wide, by which all navigation was finally interrupted. Still, whenever a violent storm arose from the north-west in conjunction with a spring tide, the sea would flow into Lake Lothing with great rapidity, and threaten the adjacent low grounds with inundation. To guard against these irruptions, and prevent the consequent damages, a break-water was formed on the sandy isthmus, between Lowestoft and Kirkley, as a security for the marshes which lay contiguous to the river. It is not, however, apparent when this embankment was first complete; for, in a Commission of Sewers, held in February, 1652, a levy was made to repair the breaches effected by the ocean in this bank or walls. These operations must have been imperfectly conducted, for even so late as 1712, a shallow channel was still maintained between the sea and Lake Lothing; for it was then customary for a man to stand there with boots on, to carry children through the water, who went from Lowestoft to Pakefield fair. Subsequently, the barrier was so greatly strengthened, that all apprehension of damage from the ocean had vanished, when, on the 14th of December, 1717; the sea forced its way over the beach with such irresistible violence, as to carry away Mutford Bridge at the distance of two miles from the shore. The writer has been led to assert, in his introduction to the Hundred of Lothingland, from false information, that this was the last attempt of the ocean to regain its ancient passage to the lake. Such, however, is not the fact, for on the 2nd of February, 1791, a remarkable high tide once more burst over the isthmus of sand, and again carried away the bridge at Mutford, built in 1760. On this occasion the salt water flowed over every surrounding barrier, and forced the fishes into the adjoining fields, where they were found, weeks afterwards, sticking in the hedges.