Authorities.—Green, Encyclopaedia of Scots Law (Edinburgh, 1896); Stewart, Law of Fishing in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1869); Woolrych, Waters (London, 1851); Paterson, Fishery Laws of the United Kingdom (London and Cambridge, 1863); Stuart Moore, Foreshore (London, 1888); Phillimore, International Law (3rd ed., London, 1879); Martens, Causes célèbres du droit des gens (Leipzig, 1827); Selwyn, Nisi Prius, Fishery (London, 1869).
(G. G. P.*)
FISHGUARD (Abergwaun), a market town, urban district, contributory parliamentary borough and seaport of Pembrokeshire, Wales, near the mouth of the river Gwaun, which here flows into Fishguard Bay of St George’s Channel. Pop. (1901) 2002. Its railway station, which is the chief terminus of the South Wales system of the Great Western railway, is at the hamlet of Goodwick across the bay, a mile distant to the south-west. Fishguard Bay is deep and well sheltered from all winds save those of the N. and N.E., and its immense commercial value has long been recognized. After many years of labour and at a great expenditure of money the Great Western railway has constructed a fine breakwater and railway pier at Goodwick across the lower end of the bay, and an important passenger and goods traffic with Rosslare on the opposite Irish coast was inaugurated in 1906.
The importance of Fishguard is due to the local fisheries and the excellence of its harbour, and its early history is obscure. The chief historical interest of the town centres round the so-called “Fishguard Invasion” of 1797, in which year on the 22nd of February three French men-of-war with troops on board, under the command of General Tate, an Irish-American adventurer, appeared off Carreg Gwastad Point in the adjoining parish of Llanwnda. To the great alarm of the inhabitants a body of about 1400 men disembarked, but it quickly capitulated, practically without striking a blow, to a combined force of the local militias under Sir Richard Philipps, Lord Milford and John Campbell, Lord Cawdor; the French frigates meanwhile sailing away towards Ireland. For many years the castles and prisons of Haverfordwest and Pembroke were filled to overflowing with French prisoners of war. Close to the banks of the Gwaun is the pretty estate of Glyn-y-mel, for many years the residence of Richard Fenton (1746-1821), the celebrated antiquary and historian of Pembrokeshire.
FISHKILL LANDING, or Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, a village of Fishkill township, Dutchess county, New York, U.S.A., about 58 m. N. of New York City, on the E. bank of the Hudson river, opposite Newburgh. Pop. (1890) 3617; (1900) 3673, of whom 540 were foreign-born; (1905) 3939; (1910) 3902, of Fishkill township (1890) 11,840; (1900) 13,016; (1905) 13,183; (1910) 13,858. In the township are also the villages of Matteawan (q.v.), Fishkill and Glenham. Fishkill Landing is served by the New York Central & Hudson River and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways; by railway ferry and passenger ferries to Newburgh, connecting with the West Shore railway; by river steamboats and by electric railway to Matteawan. Four miles farther N. on Fishkill Creek is the village of Fishkill (incorporated in 1899), pop. (1905) 579. In this village are two notable old churches, Trinity (1769), and the First Dutch Reformed (1731), in which the New York Provincial Congress met in August and September 1776. At the old Verplanck mansion in Fishkill Landing the Society of the Cincinnati was organized in 1783. Among the manufactures of Fishkill Landing are rubber-goods, engines (Corliss) and other machinery, hats, silks, woollens, and brick and tile. The village of Fishkill Landing was incorporated in 1864. The first settlement in the township was made about 1690. The township of Fishkill was, like Newburgh, an important military post during the War of Independence, and was a supply depot for the northern Continental Army.
FISK, JAMES (1834-1872), American financier, was born at Bennington, Vermont, on the 1st of April 1834. After a brief period in school he ran away and joined a circus. Later he became a hotel waiter, and finally adopted the business of his father, a pedlar. He then became a salesman for a Boston dry goods firm, his aptitude and energy eventually winning for him a share in the business. By his shrewd dealing in army contracts during the Civil War, and it is said by engaging in cotton smuggling, he accumulated a considerable capital which he soon lost in speculation. In 1864 he became a stockbroker in New York and was employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in his war against Vanderbilt for the control of the Erie railway, and as a result of the compromise that was reached he and Jay Gould became members of the Erie directorate. The association with Gould thus began continued until his death. Subsequently by a well-planned “raid,” Fisk and Gould obtained control of the road. They carried financial “buccaneering” to extremes, their programme including open alliance with the Tweed “ring,” the wholesale bribery of legislatures and the buying of judges. Their attempt to corner the gold market culminated in the fateful Black Friday of the 24th of September 1869. Fisk was shot and killed in New York City by E.S. Stokes, a former business associate, on the 6th of January 1872.