Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T09:18:48.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The English Fishing Industry in the Sixteenth Century: The Case of Great Yarmouth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Robert Tittler
Get access

Extract

For all the pride which it engendered among contemporaries, who saw in the Tudor fisheries a nursery for English seamen and even a hallmark for the national identity, the fishing industry in the sixteenth century has received scant attention from English historians. This neglect has been doubly unfortunate. On the one hand, it leaves us in general ignorance of the industry itself: its organization, personnel, productivity, and economic importance in both national and regional terms. On the other, it has denied us the opportunity to observe a tradition-bound industry of considerable antiquity as it faced the political, economic, and technological changes of the post-medieval era.

The format of an essay cannot reasonably encompass a detailed study of a major industry, but the selection of a particular case for study can at least present a helpful paradigm for the whole, and fill part of the void in the existing literature. The fishing industry of Great Yarmouth seems an appropriate choice. The fact that herring collected off the mouth of the River Yare each September for as far back as man can remember has made the association of Yarmouth and fishing as old as it is logical. Fishermen plied those grounds from at least the sixth century, making the town one of the earliest recorded fishing centres of Northern Europe, and well before the Conquest townsmen had dedicated their parish church to St. Nicholas, patron of fishermen. Throughout the Middle Ages Yarmouth stood alone as the chief supplier of herring, a dietary staple to the English market, and ranked near the top of the European fishing industry.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 40 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* The research for this paper was facilitated by a Canada Council Research Fellowship and a sabbatical year awarded by Concordia University. I am indebted to both institutions for their support, and to Dr. Julian Gwynn, Mr. David Hebb, and the members of Dr. Jeremy Goring's seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, Spring 1976, for their critical appraisal of earlier drafts of this paper.

1 Hitchcock, Robert, A Political Plat for the Honour of the Prince, (1580; reprinted in Edward Arber, An English Garner [1907], II: 156–7).Google Scholar

2 Borough of Yarmouth Audit Books, kept at the Norfolk and Norwich Record Office, [hereafter N.N.R.O.]. MS. C27/1, passim.

3 Hitchcock, , A Political Plat, pp 157–8Google Scholar; Smith, Simon, The Herring Busse Trade … (1641), pp 6–7.Google Scholar

4 Public Record Office [P.R.O.], S.P. 12/38, fols. 39v-40r.

5 Dade, Ernest, “The Cobles,” Mariner's Mirror, XX (1934): 199–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 P.R.O., S.P. 12/38, fols. 39v-40r.

7 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Various Collections, IV (1907), p. 301.Google Scholar

8 Rowse, A.L., “The Dispute Concerning the Plymouth Pilchard Fishery, 1584-1591,” Economic History [a supplement to The Economic Journal], II (1932): 461–72.Google Scholar

9 A good example of the charter party may be found in the published records of the Court of Admiralty for 1531. In this instance a shipowner named John Gilberd, whose home port is not identified, chartered his ship to a London cap merchant named John Maynard. For his part, Gilberd agreed to fit out his ship in its entirety, and to provide a master and an able bodied crew. Maynard agreed to spend several weeks fishing with the ship off the coast of Ireland, and then to sail for Bordeaux to trade his catch, possibly along with other cargo, for 57 tons of wine. The owner was to receive 22s. per ton of the wine, while the merchant-fisherman kept the remainder. Marsden, R.G., ed. Select Pleas in the Court of Admiralty, (Selden Society, VI, 1894), pp. 35–8.Google Scholar

10 By the standards of measurement employed in the English fishing industry at this time, 1 barrel = 32 gallons; 1 last = 12 barrels or between 10,000 and 13,200 herring.

11 N.N.R.O., Yarmouth Borough Archives, Miscellaneous Correspondence, MS. C 36/11.

12 Rutledge, Paul, ed., “Great Yarmouth Assembly Minutes, 1538-1545,” (Norfolk Record Society Publication, XXXIX, 1970), p. 9.Google Scholar

13 E.S. [name unknown], Britaines Busse, or a Computation of the Charge of a Busse or Herring Fishing Ship, (1615), unpaginated.

14 Of the 81 Yarmouth fishing craft reported as active in the survey of 1565, no less than 50 were listed at 10 tons, and only four were as large as 24 tons; P.R.O., SP 12/38, fos. 17v-18r. John Keymer's 1601 assertion that Dutch herring busses ran up to 200 tons must be treated as an exaggeration, but 70-100 tons seems not to have been unusual. Keymer, , Observations Made upon the Dutch Fishery about the Year 1601, (1664), p. 2Google Scholar. A more balanced assessment is provided in Jenkins, J.T., The Herring and the Herring Fisheries, (1927), pp. 70–1, and 77.Google Scholar

15 Scammell, G. V., “Ship Owning in England, c. 1450-1550,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser. XII (1962): 108.Google Scholar

16 Acts of the Privy Council, new series, IV: 374.Google Scholar

17 P.R.O., SP 12/38, fos. 17v-18r.

18 N.N.R.O., Consistory Court of Norwich Wills, 35 Ponder, 1568.

19 P.R.O., SO 12/38, fos. 17v-18r.

20 Price, M. G., “English Borough Representation, 1509-1558,” D. Phil, thesis, Oxford, 1959, p. 336.Google Scholar

21 Le Strange, Hamon, Norfolk Official Lists, (Norwich, 1890), p. 159Google Scholar; P.R.O., Exchequer King's Remembrancer Customs Accounts, E122/155, items 3, 6, 12-3, 15, and 17.

22 P.R.O., Prob. 11/46/24.

23 See Pound, John, “The Social and Trade Structure of Norwich, 1525-1579,” Past and Present, XXXIV (July, 1966): 61.Google Scholar

24 P.R.O., SP 12/38, fos. 15v-16r. It is instructive to note that in the totals recorded in this survey of all 22 ports, havens, and creeks of Norfolk, Yarmouth accounted for 45.5% of the mariners and 38.1% of the fishermen.

25 A Calendar of Freemen of Great Yarmouth, 1429-1800, (Norwich, 1910), passimGoogle Scholar. For a comparison with the port of Ipswich in neighbouring Suffolk, see Webb, John, “Apprenticeship in the Maritime Occupations at Ipswich, 1596-1691,” Mariner's Mirror, XLVI, i (1960): 29–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 P.R.O., SP 12/156, fo. 107; Calendar of Freemen, passim.

27 Scammell, G. V., “Manning the English Merchant Service in the Sixteenth Century,” Mariner's Mirror, LVI(1970): 141–3.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., p. 143.

29 Cooper, E. R., “The Dunwich Iceland Ships,” Mariner's Mirror, XXV (1939): 170–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Brooks, F. W., “A Wage Scale for Seamen, 1546,” English Historical Review, LX (1945): 244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Scammell, , “Manning the English Merchant Service,” p. 141.Google Scholar

32 Brooks, , “A Wage Scale for Seamen,” p. 241.Google Scholar

33 Williams, N. J., “The Maritime Trade of the East Anglian Ports, 1550-1590,” D. Phil, thesis, Oxford, 1952, pp. 102–3Google Scholar; Taylor, E.G.R., ed., The Original Writings and Correspondence of the Two Richard Hakluyts, (Hakluyt Society, 2 volumes, 1935), II: 429Google Scholar, cited in Scammell, , “Manning the English Merchant Service,” p. 131.Google Scholar

34 Collins, John, Salt and Fishery, a Discourse Thereof …, (London, 1682), pp. 106–7Google Scholar; Smith, , Herring Busse Trade, pp. 8–10.Google Scholar

35 These disputes are best described in Swindon, H., The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Borough of Great Yarmouth, (Norwich, 1772), chapters 8-12 and 18Google Scholar; see also N.N.R.O., MSS C36/3; C36/7; C18/1, fos. 38-39; C45/1; and Brooks, F. W., “The Cinq Ports' Feud with Yarmouth in the Thirteenth Century,” Mariner's Mirror, XIX, i (Jan. 1933): 27–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 A share of the profit resulting from the difference between the wholesale and retail price of the herring.

37 Half-doles and heynings together brought close to £50 per annum on the average to the borough treasury in the 1530s and ‘40s; Rutledge, “Yarmouth Assembly Minutes,” pp. 8-9. See also the Yarmouth Borough Ordinances of 1491, printed in Swindon, , History of Great Yarmouth, pp. 491–500Google Scholar, and N.N.R.O., C 18/6, fo. 4.

38 N.N.R.O., C 18/6, fo. 291.

39 Smith, , Herring Busse Trade, pp. 7–8Google Scholar; Collins, , Salt and Fishery, pp. 65–6Google Scholar; Nash, Thomas, Lenten Stuff, (London, 1599).Google Scholar

40 Collins, , Salt and Fishery, pp. 63–5Google Scholar; Bridbury, A. R., England and the Salt Trade in the Later Middle Ages, (Oxford, 1955), pp. 7–9, and chapters 3-4Google Scholar, passim; Smith, , Herring Busse Trade, p. 7.Google Scholar

41 N.N.R.O., MS C 18/6, fos. 297-v-302, and MS C18/2, fo. 5.

42 N.N.R.O., MS C 18/6, fos. 297v-302.

43 N.N.R.O., MS C 18/1, especially fos. 51v-2v; see also Swindon, , History of Great Yarmouth, p. 498, clause 23.Google Scholar

44 Williams, , “The Maritime Trade of East Anglian Ports, 1555-1590,” p. 196.Google Scholar

45 Smith, , Herring Buss Trade, p. 13.Google Scholar

46 Even in 1557, when herring prices on the French market should have reflected the scarcity which one would expect during Anglo-French hostilities, the Dutch herring sold at £24 20s. the last to £20 12s. for Yarmouth's. By contrast with these two leaders, however, Scottish and Irish herring could be had for £18 and £11 respectively, with the vast difference seeming to derive from reputation and relative quality of the preservation; Hitchcock, , Herring Busse Trade, p. 164.Google Scholar

47 Williams, , “The Maritime Trade of East Anglian Ports,” p. 197.Google Scholar

48 This very shortcoming is one of the major themes of Dr. Williams' thesis, cited above.

49 This was certainly the conclusion of a presumably objective survey of the port carried out on warrant from the Court of Exchequer by non-resident commissioners; P.R.O., E159/350/337, dated 21 May, 1565.

50 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, II, ii, p. 292Google Scholar; Dyer, F. E., “Reprisals in the Sixteenth Century,” Mariner's Mirror, XXI (1935): 187–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 Receipts for expenditure on arrows for “The Mary James” and other wafting ships are found in Letters and Papers, I, ii, p. 1192.Google Scholar

52 Letters and Papers, I, i, p. 642.Google Scholar

53 E.g., N.N.R.O., MS C 27/1, fo. 73 and C 18/6, fo. 43v; Historical MSS. Commission, Various Collections, IV, (1907), pp. 289–299.Google Scholar

54 Swindon, , History of Great Yarmouth, pp. 373–476Google Scholar; A. W., and Ecclestone, J. L., The Rise of Great Yarmouth, (Great Yarmouth, 1959), pp. 92–8Google Scholar, and especially the map, p. 93.

55 The problems of silting, erosion, and other natural forces which changed the configuration of the English coastline were both serious and common in many ports of the realm right up until the development of modern technological remedies. Cf. Steers, J. A., The Coastline of England and Wales, (Cambridge, 1946).Google Scholar

56 Letters and Papers, XX, i, p. 505, 24 June, 1545.Google Scholar

57 Swindon, , History of Great Yarmouth, pp. 395–401.Google Scholar

58 Rutledge, , “Yarmouth Assembly Minutes,” p. 9.Google Scholar

59 Swindon, , History of Great Yarmouth, pp. 373–411.Google Scholar

60 Ibid., pp. 392-401.

61 N.N.R.O., MS C 28/1, fo. 265; Swindon, , History of Great Yarmouth, p. 413.Google Scholar

62 Swindon, , History of Great Yarmouth, pp. 403–7Google Scholar; Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1547-1580, pp. 111, 114, 291; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, III: 219–20.Google Scholar

63 N.N.R.O., MS C 28/1, fo. 265.

64 Cunningham, W., The Growth of English Industry and Commerce, (2 volumes, Cambridge, 1903), II: 68–73Google Scholar; Rowse, , “The Plymouth Pilchard Fishery,” p. 461.Google Scholar

65 Hughes, Edward, Studies in Administration and Finance, 1558-1825, (Manchester, 1935), pp. 20–8Google Scholar; Bridbury, , England and the Salt Trade, pp. 16–7, 37–9.Google Scholar

66 Hughes, E., “England's Monopoly of Salt, 1563-1571,” English Historical Review, XL (1925): 234–5Google Scholar; Bridbury, Salt Trade, chapters III-IV, passim; Williams, , “Maritime Trade of East Anglian Ports,” pp. 80–1. 135–6Google Scholar. So desperate was the English salt market that a petition of c. 1570 even asked that no ship carrying corn to Spain or Portugal be permitted to return with any commodity but salt; C.S.P. Dom., 1547-1580, p. 399.

67 P.R.O., SP 12/26, fo. 51.

68 B. L., Lansdowne MS. 53, fos. 152-153.

69 Williams, , “Maritime Trade of East Anglian Ports,” pp. 93–4Google Scholar; Collins, , Salt and Fishery, p. 65Google Scholar; Hughes, , Studies in Administration and Finance, p. 49.Google Scholar

70 P.R.O., C.66/1222, m. 13-4. I am indebted to Mr. Gregor Duncan of Clare College, Cambridge, for this reference. Cf. also Williams, , “Maritime Trade,” p. 204.Google Scholar

71 Hughes, Studies in Administration and Finance, chapter II, passim, and especially p. 36.

72 Ibid., p. 10.

73 The best account in English of the Dutch fisheries in this period is Beaujon, Antoine, History of the Dutch Sea Fisheries, (Fisheries Exhibition Literature, IX, London, 1884)Google Scholar. Unfortunately, its usefulness is compromised by its remarkable scarcity.

74 Jenkins, , The Herring, pp. 70–7.Google Scholar

75 Bridbury, , Salt Trade, p. 99Google Scholar; Jenkins, , The Herring, p. 68.Google Scholar

76 Jenkins, , The Herring, pp. 68–75Google Scholar; Lipson, E., Economic History of England, (2nd ed., 1934), III: 147–150.Google Scholar

77 E. g., Dee, John, General and Rare Memorials Pertaining to the Art of Navigation, (1577; reprinted in Arber, An English Garner, II, 1907, pp. 61–70)Google Scholar; Hitchcock, A Political Plat; and Keymer, Observations Upon Dutch Fishery; Gentleman, Tobias, “England's Way to Win Wealth,” (1614; reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, III [1809]): 395–408.Google Scholar

78 Dee, , General and Rare Memorials, pp. 64–70Google Scholar; Keymer, , Observations Upon the Dutch Fishery, pp. 1–6.Google Scholar

79 Jenkins, , The Herring, p. 72.Google Scholar

80 N.N.R.O., MS. C 18/6, fos. 46v-49v.

81 E. S., Britaines Busse, (unpaginated).

82 The story of Stuart policy vis-à-vis the Dutch fishing industry is well told in Elder, J.R., The Royal Fishery Company of the 17th Century, (Aberdeen, 1912).Google Scholar

83 See the standard work by Innis, Harold A., The Cod Fisheries, the History of an International Economy, (New Haven and Toronto, 1940), especially pp. 30–8.Google Scholar