[35b] It was from this hill that the royal yacht was first discovered, which brought to England her serene highness, the princess Charlotte, of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, the intended queen of his present majesty, King George III. Lord Anson, vice-admiral of Great Britain, was appointed to convey her highness, with a squadron of men-of-war to the British shore. After a voyage of ten days, occasioned by boisterous and contrary winds, Lord Anson, with his squadron—which was damaged—and the royal yacht, appeared off this place, on Saturday, the 5th September, 1761, about two o’clock in the afternoon, and anchored in Harwich road about three in the afternoon the day following. Her highness landed at Harwich on the 7th., in the afternoon, and from thence was escorted to London. Had not the wind suddenly changed, her highness would have landed at Lowestoft, as was the case of his majesty, King George II. who landed at this town on his return from Hanover, January 14th, 1736–7. His majesty had been a considerable time on his voyage from Helvoetfluys to England, occasioned by stormy and contrary winds, and had been also exposed to the most imminent danger. When the royal barge, with his majesty, the countess of Yarmouth, and his lords, approached the shore, a body of sailors belonging to Lowestoft, uniformly dressed in seamen’s jackets, waded into the sea, and meeting the barge took it on their shoulders, with the king and all the nobility, and carried it to the beach, without suffering it to strike the ground. His majesty was met at the sea-shore by John Jex, Esq., of this town, with his carriage, who conducted his majesty to his house; himself having the honour of being coachman. His Majesty landed about twelve at noon, and about two hours after set off for London. His majesty died in 1760, and his present majesty, George III. was proclaimed at Lowestoft by Mr. Robert Reeve to whom the author acknowledges himself much indebted for many favours, and particularly for his great assiduity in promoting the publishing of this work. John Adams, Esq., the first ambassador from America to England, landed at Lowestoft, the 6th August, 1784.
[36a] This light-house is composed of timber, and hangings in a frame of the same materials; the upper part of it next the sea is sashed, and the light is produced from three lamps placed inside. In the year 1779, the timber was found to be in so decayed a state, that the building was obliged to be wholly taken down, and replaced by another, made of the same materials, and upon the same construction.
[36b] In the year 1778, the Stanford channel bore S.S.E. from the upper light-house. The depth of water in the middle of the roads opposite to the Ness, was between seven and eight fathoms at low water. In the middle of the roads opposite to the south part of the town, and about 120 fathoms from the shore, is a shoal, where there is not above nine feet of water at ebb tide; and another shoal lies about three quarters of a mile from the shore, on which is about sixteen feet at low water. In 1788 the roads appeared to grow narrower, from the sea losing against the town, especially at the ness, where the distance from the Holm sand was not more than a mile and a quarter from the shore; this sand still continues to increase, which with the sea receding from the shore, accounts for the roads growing narrower.
Trinity House, London, January 19th, 1782. This corporation having lately caused a survey to be taken of the Stanford, in which was found only three fathoms, in the best of the channel, at high water; it is recommended to all masters and pilots to be very cautious in navigating ships of a great draught through that channel.
To give one instance of the fluctuating nature of the sands off Lowestoft; it is observed, that that part of the sands where the church and chapel bore on each other the fishing boats, a few years ago, used to sail over, at their going out to sea and returning again into the roads: this part of the sand is now become perfectly dry; and at low water, when the weather is fine, extends to a considerable distance; and may, possibly, afterwards become the foundation of a new town.
[39] In the reign of James I. the Dutch paid an acknowledgement for leave of fishing on our coasts, which being withdrawn, his son, Charles I. in the year 1636, issued a proclamation, declaring that he should maintain such a fleet at sea as would protect his coasts from the insults of the Dutch. And soon after sent a fleet, under the command of the Earl of Northumberland, to disperse them, and obliged them to pay 30,000 florins for leave to continue their fishing that season. And thus it has frequently happened since; the Dutch, by infringing on our liberties, and having had complaints alledged against them, have paid considerable sums to appease our resentment; and sometimes, when they have proved unsuccessful in these methods, have been severely chastised: but all to no purpose; for to this day they continue practising the same depredations on our coasts and we every year experience the usual inconveniences which attend them. About the year 1636 great progress was made in this fishery by the Dutch; and the wealth procured it to the republic, caused, as I have just observed, much jealousy in the English nation. In 1601, eighty thousand tons of herrings were caught, which being worth eight hundred gilders per ton, brought to the republic sixty-four millions of gilders. It increased so much from that time that Sir Walter Raleigh assures us, that in 1610 the inhabitants of the united provinces employed in this fishery, upon the coasts of England, three thousand busses, manned with fifty thousand hands. Such a prodigious gain occasioned the English that year to renew their ancient pretensions to the property of the seas which surround their island, and to exact of the Dutch fishermen the tenth herring as a sort of duty. About the year 1600 the Dutch, the French, the citizens of Embden, Hamburgh, and Bremen, got out of our seas, upon a medium, to the value of between six and seven millions sterling annually. Another inconvenience which the British nation experienced from foreigners being permitted to usurp so large a share of the herring fishery, was the great increase of their seamen. This was very evident from the wars with the Dutch which happened in the reign of Charles II., when they were able to supply with able seamen a fleet of upwards of one hundred sail of line of battle ships. It may be worth observing, that the ground work of the regulations pursued by the Dutch in their herring fishery, is taken from the sagacious institutions laid down by Edward III., in the famous statute of herrings passed in that reign.
[40a] It is probable, that Lowestoft, as a fishing town, was in a flourishing state some ages before this period: for though the herring is a northern fish, and but few of them are seen in the Mediterranean; yet it is a fish that was known to the Romans, who, probably, acquired the knowledge of it from their having a station in the vicinity of Lowestoft, viz., Burgh Castle.
[40b] “Prescription is a title acquired by use and time, and allowed by law: as when a man claims anything because he, his ancestors, or they whose estate he hath, have had or used it all the time whereof no memory is to the contrary.”
[41a] But, notwithstanding, the bailiffs of the cinque ports, in consequence of the composition not being paid by the burgesses of Yarmouth, discontinued to frequent, as usual, the Yarmouth herring fair. Yet those fishermen called the west countrymen still continued coming to these parts till the year 1756, but after that time they declined coming any longer. These vessels from the western part of England, as it was called, i.e. from the coast of Kent, etc., used to frequent these coasts during the herring season, and sell the fish which they caught to the merchants of Lowestoft and Yarmouth. Also vessels called north country cobles used to attend and dispose of their fish in the same manner. These vessels used to engage themselves to some owner here for the fishing season, which was called being bosted: but this mode of practice is also now almost wholly discontinued. It was not the custom formerly for the merchants of Lowestoft to catch all the fish they wanted with their own boats, but were supplied with a considerable part of it from the vessels above mentioned: but now the merchants from increasing the number of their own boats, are able to furnish themselves with a sufficient quantity of herrings without the assistance of either of the west country boats, or those from the north. This new mode will appear very evident, if we compare the number of boats employed by Lowestoft in the year 1670, with the number employed in the year 1775; in the former they were only twenty-five, in the latter they amounted to forty-eight.
[41b] This abbey was of the Premonstratensian order. It was founded by Randulph de Glanvill, A.D. 1182. At the dissolution, the annual revenues were estimated at the sum of £180 17s. 1d., and the site, with the greatest part of the manors, rectories, and lands, were granted 28 Henry VIII. to the above Duke of Suffolk; afterwards it became the property of Daniel Hervey; next it was vested in the honourable Elizabeth, relict of Killand Courtney, Esq., daughter of the Viscountess Hinchinbroke, and grand-daughter of the right-honourable lady, Ann Harvey; afterwards it belonged to Sir Joshua Van Neck, of Putney, in Surrey, Bart.; and now to Sir Gerrard Van Neck, of Hevingham, in this county.