The coppie of Sir VVilliam Erskin and Iohn Medrum, their letters patents for the lights at Winterton

The coppie of Sir VVilliam Erskin and Iohn Medrum, their letters patents for the lights at Winterton

Table of contents

Title page

THE COPPIE OF SIR William Erskin and Iohn Meldrum, their Letters Patents for the Lights at Winterton.

[Page]

[Page]

THE COPPIE OF SIR William Erskin and Iohn Meldrum, their Letters Patents for the Lights at Winterton.

IAMES by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland Defender of the faith &c.

To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas wee haue bin lately informed, that the Seas neere and about the parts of Wintertonnesse in our County of Norffolke are of great danger and perill for passing of Ships sayling vnto the North Coast in darke and foule nights, by reason of a Sand lying in length from the maine land two furlongs or there abouts, vpō the which of late yeares many great losses haue happened to our Subiects sayling neere the same Coast, aswell by the lamentable wracke of diuers Ships there as by the losse of many of our subiects their liues and goods, which haue beene occasioned by the want of Light howses and lights that might haue beene prouided and set vp, at or as neere the [Page] said Nesse for direction of Saylers trading or passing to and fro those parts which by the helpe of such Light-houses and lights might haue well bin saued and preuented. And that for the scaping and preuenting of the dangers of those parts for the time to come, it is very conuenient and necessarie that light-howses should be there erected with lights therein continually burning, and maintained in the night time, for the direction and safe conduct of Shippes passing by or alongst the said coast in the night time in darke and fowle nights, and that almost all the masters and owners of Shippinge, trading to our Towne of Newcastle for Coales, Fishermen and other Maisters and Owners of other shipping, tratrading vppon the said North coast, haue heretofore greatly desired the erection of light-houses & lights there to be set vp and maintayned, and haue offered to contribute for, and towards the erection and continual maintenance of the same, as by an inquisition or certificate taken at the Cittie of Norwich in the Coūty of Norffolke the eight day of Ianuarie last past before Iohn Corbett, Iohn Smith, Owen Sheppard, and Roger Godsalue, Esquires: our Commissioners by vertue of Our Commission vnder our great seale of England, baring date at Westminster the sixteenth day of December last past, vnto them and others directed by the oathes of sundry good & lawfull men of our Townes of great Yarmouth and Winterton in the said County, and returned into and remaining of record in our Court of Chancery: amongst other things more at large it doth and may more appeare. Wee therefore out of our princely [Page] office and care intending heereafter to prouide for as well the safety of the liues and goods of our subiects & others as of the shipping of our Kingdomes, (being a principall honour & strength of the same) and vnwilling that our louing subiects and others passing by the said North Coast should vndergoe & continue still vnder the danger and hazard of the said perilous Sands whereunto by woefull experience they haue heretofore beene too much subiect. And hauing beene enformed by our learned Counsell that the erection and mayntenance of such Light-houses and Lights in places needfull for the safetie of our subiects, is a right and power remaining in vs, notwithstanding the power or authoritie heretofore giuen by the statute made in the eight yeare of the Raigne of our late decre Sister Queene Elizabeth to the Maister, Wardens, and Assistants of the Trinitie-house of Debtford Strond for erecting of Beacons, Signes, and Sea markes, haue thought fit and necessarie, and by these presents wee doe for vs, our Heirs & successors, will ordaine and appoynt that some one or more conuenient Lighthouse or Lighthouses shall be erected made and set vp, at or neere such fit and conuenient place or places at or within the space of two miles of Winterton aforesaid as by the persons heereafter by vs named & authorised in that behalfe their Executors, Administrators or Assignes their substitute or substitutes or some or one of them shall be thought meete and necessarie from time to time and that continually in the night season in darke & foule nights sufficient lights shall therein by the persons hereafter named their Executors or Assignes, [Page] substitute or substitutes, or some or one of them and at their proper costs and charges from time to time be kept and maintained for the direction, condition, and preseruation of Ships, Hoyes, Barkes, Fishermen or other vessells whatsoeuer which shall saile or passe by or alongst the said North Coast, and that as well the said Lighthouse or Lighthouses which sha I hereafter be by them so built and erected, shall or may from time to time by the said persons hereafter by vs named and appoynted their Executors, Administrators, or Assignes, substitute or substitutes bee altered, renewed, remoued, and changed as by the accidents and mooueables, and channels at or neere Wintertonesse aforesaid shal or may require for the safer conduction & guiding of Saylers ships, Fisher-barkes, and other vessells whatsoeuer, passing or repassing from Port to Port, by or alongst the said Coast as well by night as by day.

And for asmuch as the erection, reparation, remoouing, changing, and continuall maynteyning of the said Light-houses and Lights in the same there Will from time to time require a great and continuall charge for the supportation and maintenance of the same. Wee will, ordaine, and appoynt for vs our Heyres and successors that there shall be collected and taken of an for euery Shippe, Hoy, Barke, Fisherman, or other vessell whatsoeuer that shall passe from porte to porte by or alongst the said North Coast a duty or payment of one penny vppon the Tunne according to the burthen of the said shippe, Hoy, Barke or vessell, in the whole voyage [Page] outward and inward, (that is to saye) one halfe penny vpon euery Tuune for the said whole voyage outward and inward of and from the Masters or owners of such shippes, Barkes, Hoyes, and vessells & one other halfe penny vpon euery Tunne as aforesaid of and from the Marchants or owners of the goods in the said Shippes, Barkes, Hoyes or vessells for the time being, which said dutie or payment of one penny to be paied vpon euery Tunne as aforesaide wee will shall bee deliuered and payed to the hands of such officer and officers or other person or persons as the persons hereafter named, or either of either of them, their, or eyther of their executors Administrators or assignes or any of them shall nominate, depute and appoynt in any our custome-houses, to receiue and take the same by the Masters and owners of the Shippes, Hoyes, Barkes or vessells, for the time being, who shall and may lawfully demaund, receiue, and take the moyetie, or one halfe thereof, according to the true meaning of this our graunt, of, and from the Marchants & owners of the goods in the Ships, Hoyes, Barkes and vessells, from time to time, according to the quantitie of the goods & Marchandizes wherewith the said Shippes, Hoyes, Barkes or vessells shall be fraught or laden.

And that the said persons hereafter named, their or either of their executors, Administrators or Assignes, substitute or substitutes one or more of them shall or may likewise lawfully demaund, receiue & take of euery Shippe, Hoye, Barke, Fishermen or vessell being the Shippe, Hoye, Barke or vessell of [Page] any Aliene, Denizen or stranger, not being our naturall borne subiects, that shall happen to sayle, or passe from port to port, by or alongst the sayd North coast, the like dutie of one pennie vpon the Tunne, in the voyage outward and inward, as aforesaid, which we will and ordaine, for vs, our Heires, and Successors, shalbe collected and taken by the persons hereafter named, their Executors, Administrators, Deputies, or Assignes, at or in the Port, Harbor, Creeke, or Roade within in any part of our Dominions where the said Ships, Hoyes, Barkes or vessels of any such stranger, shall harbor or put in although the same shippe, or vessel shall not be there vnloaded or dischardged of any the goods or Marchandizes, wherewith it shall be fraught or laden.

And that the same dutie of one pennie vpon the Tunne as aforesaid being once paide, and the receipt thereof being testified by those who shall be appoynted to receiue the same, the saide Masters and owners of shipps aud other vessells, aswell our naturall borne subiects as strangers, shall be then freed and discharged of and from the payment of the saide dutie, in euery or any Port or Ports in which the saide Shippes or uessells, shall or may happen or come in euery or any such voyage as aforesaid.

KNOW YEE therefore that wee as well in consideration of the premises, as for diuers other good causes & considerations vs hereunto mouing of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motions, haue giuen and graunted and by these presents for vs, our Heires and Successors, wee doe giue and graunt vnto our trustie and welbeloued [Page] seruants, Sir William Erskine knight, & Iohn Meldrum Esquire, their Executors, Administrators and Assignes, as well in regard of the true, faithfull, and acceptable seruice by the said Sir William Erskine & Iohn Meldrum to vs heeretofore done, and as being the first suters vnto vs for the erecting & setting vp of Lighthouses at or neere Winterton aforesaide as also for other good causes and considerations vs thereunto mouing free libertie, licence, power and authoritie, that they or any of them shall and may lawfully make, builde, erect set vp, remoue, & maintaine, or cause to be made, builded, erected, set vp, remoued and maintained in all such place and places of the said North Coast within the compasse of two miles of the Towne of Winterton in our County of Norfolke as to them shall seeme most fit, needfull and requisite, such & so many conuenient Lighthowses, with continuall Lights to be burning in them during all the night time, whereby the said Seafaring men may take notice and be warned of the dangers thereabouts and so be the more able to auoide and escape them, and the said ships and vessells may the better ariue and come into their Ports and Harbors without perill, as to them the said Sir William Erskine and Iohn Meldrum, their Executors, Administrators and Assignes or any of them shall be thought fit, requisite and needfull.

And for the great and continuall charges to be from time susteyned & borne in and about the erecting and maintaining of the said Lights and Lighthowses, we doe for vs, our Heires and Successors, will ordaine, giue and graunt to the said Sir William [Page]Erskine and Iohn Meldrum their Executors, Administrators, Deputies and Assignes full power and authoritie, that they & euery of them shall and may lawfully demande, receiue, haue and take of, and from the Maisters and Owners of Ships, Hoyes, Barkes, Fishermen, and other Vessells passing or sayling by or alongst the said North Coast one pennie vppon the Tunne according to the burthen of the same Ships or vessels for euery whole voyage inward & outward as aforesaid, to be from time to time answered & payd either in such Port or places where the same Ship or Vessell shall be fraught or laden, or else in such Port or place where the same Ship or Vessell shall be discharged and vnladen as aforesaid. Neuerthe lesse our will and pleasure is that for the erection, reparation renewing, remouing and continuall mayntenance of all or any such Lighthouse or Lighthouses heretofore erected and set vp or which hereafter shall or may be erected, renued, altered, remoued and mayntained, at or as neere Winterton or within two miles compasse of the same as aforesaid, no other or further dutie or payment to be demaunded or taken of our subiects or others, then the aforesaid dutie or payment of one penny in the Voyage vpon the Tunne outward and inward as aforesaid.

AND WE doe further of our speciall grace, certaine knowledg, & meere motion for vs, our Heires, and successors, giue and grant vnto the said Sir William Erskine & Iohn Meldrum, their Executors, Administrators, and Assignes, full power and authoritie that they and euery of them at their wills and [Page] pleasures shall or may lawfully erect, set vp alter, change, renue and remoue by or at their proper costs and charges, and by and with the aduise and direction of expert and skillfull Seafaring men dwelling or trading vpon the aforesaid Coast, such and so many Lights and Lighthouses, at or as neere Winterton aforesaid; or within the compasse of two miles thereof as aforesaid as shall be thought fit & as iust occasion or necessitie shail require. To haue, hould, exercise and enioy the said liberties, licences powers & authorities & the said dutie or payment of one pennie vpon the Tunne as aforesaid before by these presents giuen and granted and euerie of them vnto the said Sir William Erskine and Iohn Meldrum their Executors, Administrators and Assignes, for and during the full end and tearme of fiftie yeares from the date of these presents fully to be compleate and ended.

AND for asmuch as any other order or course cannot well be taken for the due leauiyng of the said dutie or payment of one pennie vpon the Tunne in the Voyage outward and inward as aforesaid for and towards the effecting & continuance of this so good and necessarie a worke, then by appoynting the payment and collection of the same, to be had and made within the Ports, Harbors, Roades and Creekes, vnto the which the said Ships, Barkes, and Vessells shall or doe come and abide, we doe by these presnts for vs, our Heires and Successors, will ordaine and appoynte & also straightly charge commande, and authorise all and euery the Customers, Collectors, Controulers, Receiuers of entries [Page] of ships, Water-baylife and all other the officers whatsoeuer of and concerning the Customes to vs, our Heires & Successors, and al other the Wardens or keepers of any our Hauens and Ports now being, and which from the time hereafter shall be as well in our seuerall Ports of London & New-castle, as in all & euery other the Ports, Harbors, Creekes, Roades, and places within our Realem of England, to whome it shall or may appertaine, that they or some of them being first lawfully deputed & appoynted by the said persons herein before named their Executors, Administrators or Assignes or some of them for the leuying and receiuing the said dutie of one pennie vpon the Tunne as afore said from time to time & at al times hereafter during the said terme of fiftie yeares before such time as they or any of thē shall or may giue any Cocket or other discharge whatsoeuer, or before they shall receiue or take any entry respectiuely of or for any Sip, Barke or Vessell which hereafter shall passe or repasse by or alongst the North Coast aforesaid shall demaund, collect and receiue the said dutie and allowance of one pennie vpon the Tonne in the voyage, outward & inward herein before specified, respectiuely of and for all and euery such Ship, Hoy, Barke, or Vessell, belonging to any Merchant, Fishermen, or other person or persons our naturall borne Subiects Denizens and Strangers as shall sayle and trade from Port to Port by or along the Coast aforesaide, except the Maister or Owner of the same Shippe Barke or Vessell shall produce and shew forth a receipt or acquittance of and for the payment of the [Page] said dutie vnder the hand and seale of such officer or officers as shall be deputed and appoynted by the said persons herein before named, their Executors, Administrators or Assignes in euery or any such Customehouse or place from whence the said Ship or Vessell shall come testifiing the payment and receipt thereof to be there duly had and made.

And that all and euery such Customer, collector, or other officer in our said Custome-houses to be appoynted and deputed as aforesaid, shall yeald and make iust and true accomptes and payments, of all and every such collectors, sume & somes of money, as by him, them, or any of them, shall be collected or receiued from time to time, vnto the said Sir William Erskine Knight, and Iohn Meldrum, their Executors Administrators or Assignes, to be by them either or any of them, receiued and reteyned to their owne proper vse and behoofe, for and in respect of their great and continuall charges, to be susteyned and borne, in erecting, renewing, altering remouing and continuall maynteyning of the said light-houses and lights, in the night season as aforesaid, without any accompt or other thing therefore, or for any parte thereof by them to be made or giuen for the same, other then the yearely rent hereby to vs our Heyre & Successors reseeued, yealding, and paying therefore vnto vs our Heires & Successors, the yearely rent or somme of six pounds therteene shillings & foure pence of lawfull money of England, at the receipt of our Exchequer at Westminster, or to our Receiuor or Receiuors, of our Countie of Norffolke for the time being, at the feast of the Annunciation of the blessed [Page] virgine Mary, and at S. Michaell the Arch-Angell, by even & equall proportion, during the said terme, or within thyrty dayes next after eyther of the sayd feastes.

And to the end, that the said S. William Erskine and Iohn Mildrum, their Executors, Administrators and Assignes, shall and may the better haue & enioye the full force benifit and effect of this our present graunt. And to the intent and purpose, that the Master Wardens and Assistances of the Trinitie House of Debtford Strond aforesaid, and all others whosoeuer, may be restrayned during the terme of Fiftie yeares aforesaid, from continuing, reparing, renuing remouing & maynteyning, any Light-house or Light-houses all ready erected and set vp, since March last, within the space of two Miles of the Towne of Winterton aforesaid, and from errecting, & setting vp during the said terme, any other new Light-house or Light-houses, at or neere the sayd Towne, or within two miles thereof, and of & from the receiuing, hauing or taking, by any wayes, meanes, or pretences whatsoeuer, any collection, contribution, some or sommes of money, whatsoeuer for the same, during the sayd Terme of Fiftie yeares before specified, notwithstanding any former course, taken or had, by, or for the said Master Wardens and assistances of the Trinitie house of Debtford Strond aforesaid, for the Light-houses since March last by them ecected, at or neere Wintetton aforesayd.

Wee doe by these presence, for vs, our Heires aud Successors, authorizice, the Lords of our Priuie [Page] Councell for the time being, & we doe also straightly charge, require and command all Mayors Sheriffs, Iustices of peace, Captaines of our Castles, & Forts, Bayliffs and other Officers and Ministers whatsoeuer, of vs, our Heires and Successors to whom it doth & shall appertaine, that they and euery of them bee from time to time hereafter ayding & assisting vnto the said William Erskin Knight & Iohn Meldrum, their and either of their Executors, Administrators and Assignes, substitures, factors and seruants, and euery of them, in and concerning the premises vpon euery complaint to be made touching or concerning the same, according as Iustice shall be by them or any of them desired and requested in that behalfe, and these presents or the inrolement thereof shall be vnto them & euery of them a sufficient warrant and discharge for the doing, performing and executing the same.

AND lastly we doe hereby signifie and declare our expresse will and pleasure to be, and we doe for vs, our Heires & Successors, straightly charge and command the said Maister, Wardens, and Assistants of the Trinitie house of Debtford Strond and their successors, that they and euerie of them, their factors and seruants appoynted by them shall and doe immediately from henceforth surcease & desist aswell of and from erecting or setting vpp of any Light-house or Light-houses at Winterton aforesaid or within two miles compasse thereof as aforesaid as of and from the continuing or maintainig of any Light or Lights burning in any Lighthouse or Lighthouses since March last by them there erected or set [Page] vp, and that they and euery of them shall forbear from henceforth to demaunde, receiue or take any dutie, payment allowance, or benifit of or from any our subiects or others trading or passing by or alongst the said Coast for or in respect of the same Light-house or Light-houses by or vnder any coulour pretence or pretext whatsoeuer, any Act, Statute, Ordinance, Prouision, Charter and Graunt, heretofore had made, enacted, or prouided, or any other cause, consideration, matter, or thing, to the contrarie thereof in any wise, notwithstanding, and that vpon the paine and perill of incurring our high and heauie displeasuere for their contempt or neglect of this our royall will and commandement herein so expresly declared in this behalfe, although expresse mention of the true yearely valew or certainty of the premises or of any of them, or of any other gift or graunt by vs or any of our Progenitors or Pred [...]cessors to the aforesaid Sir William Erskine & Iohn Meldrum or either of them before these times made in these presents, is not made, or any Statute, Act, Ordinance, Prouision, Proclamation or Restraint heretofore had made, set forth, ordeyned or prouided or any other matter, cause or thing whatsoeuer to the contrarie in any wise notwithstanding.

In witnesse whereof we haue caused these our Letters to be made Pattents, witnes our selfe at Westminster the 18 day of Feb. in our 15 yeare of our Raigne of England, and of Scotland the 51.

[Page]

§

§

[Page]

[Page]

THE COPPIE OF SIR VVILLIAM Erskin and Iohn Meldrum, their Letters Patents for the Lights at Winterton.

HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE

LONDON, Printed by William Iones dwelling in Red-crosse-streete. 1618.

Information about this book

Title statement

The coppie of Sir VVilliam Erskin and Iohn Medrum, their letters patents for the lights at Winterton

Erskine, William, Sir, fl. 1618.

Edition statement

1618

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A22149

ID [STC]

STC 8559.5

ID [STC]

ESTC S120659

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

99855854

ID [PROQUEST]

99855854

ID [VID]

21361

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A22149)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 21361)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 771:05)

Source

— The coppie of Sir VVilliam Erskin and Iohn Medrum, their letters patents for the lights at Winterton, Erskine, William, Sir, fl. 1618., Meldrum, John, Sir, d. 1645. aut.

Extent

[2], 14 p.

Imprinted by William Iones dwelling in Red-crosse streete,. London :: 1618.. ("50-year patent to levy fees on shipping for the erection and maintenance of a lighthouse. 18 Feb. 1617 (o.s.)."--STC.) (Formerly STC 10528.) (Identified as STC 10528 on UMI microfilm reel 771.) (Reproduction of the original in the Folger Shakespeare Library.)

Creation

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.

EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).

The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.

Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.

Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.

Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.

The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.