|
enmity involved.99 In 1580, a general
certificate of all the footmen in the county of Kent, except the cities
of Canterbury and Rochester, and the Five Ports,1 shows that their
total number was 12,131 men, consisting of pikemen, gunners, archers,
billmen, pioneers, carpenters, smiths, masons and wheelwrights. A note
of the men composing the select and general bands in the Cinque Ports,
etc., in 1572 2 gives the numbers for Dover as 117 and 235; for
Sandwich, 154 and 255; Folkestone, 55 and 80; Romney, 56 and 72
and 4 horses ; Lydd, 64 and 175 and 10 horses; Tenterden, 100 and 148 and
4 horses; Faversham, 110 and 91; St. John, St. Peter’s
and Birching, 170 and 204. A note of 20 February 1585-6 3 by
Lord Cobham states that ‘there are trained in the county 2,500 men,
and put under captains, to which his lordship hath added 700 more, with
the good liking of the country: that 300 horse are put in readiness
under captains; to each captain, 50, with a lieutenant, trumpet and
cornet, all in suitable cassocks; that there are appointed to each
company of 300 trained men 50 pioneers, to every company of 200 men 39
pioneers, furnished under the leading of the head constables of the
place where they are levied, and to every company two carts. The
justices of the peace will see 300 shot mounted upon ordinary nags, for
firing of the beacons, out of every Lathe 50. The justices of quorum and
the other justices have agreed to find petronells, but such of them as
have the leading either of horse or foot desire to be eased thereof, in
respect they are otherwise employed.’
In 1570,4 steps were taken to ‘increase the means of defence at
Sandwich, at the three castles between that place and Dover, and at
Dover Castle itself.’ Works were begun at Dover Haven in 1582 5
and
in 1583, when all the castles and forts on the sea coasts were surveyed,
Lord Cobham was directed to prepare an estimate of all repairs necessary
to those within the Cinque Ports.6 In 1586, he, as Lord
Lieutenant, received further instructions that ‘as touching watch and
ward, which in ancient times was wont to be kept towards the Isle of
Shepie, Rumney Marsh, and other places upon the sea coast, and of late
years discontinued, we like well of such orders as by the records and
precedents remaining with Sir Thomas Scott and Mr. Lambarde appear to
have been used in former times should be renewed and put in practice . .
. If any person oppugn the same, appoint him to appear before us.’7
In 1587, he was directed as Lord Warden to admonish the Cinque
Ports, ‘who have pretended to have such large privileges above the
rest of our subjects in this realm,’ that they will no longer be
suffered to enjoy these privileges,‘ unless they shall make
offer and provision to employ themselves hereafter for the defence of
the said coasts,’8 and to give them to understand ‘how
hardly we conceive of their lack of care and remissness.’ The Cinque
Ports were called upon to furnish 12 ships for the defence of the
Narrow Seas in this year.9
99 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. V, App. 137, 138. Letters of the Council
concerning the levy of men in the county for service in the Low
Countries under the Earl of Leicester, 8 June 1588; and commanding the
county to get ready 1,000 men to go to the aid of the French king, 8
Sept. 1589. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1591-4, p.277. Note of armour,
etc., furnished in Kent, for 2,279 soldiers sent to foreign service
between 1585 and 1592. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. (Hatfield MSS.),
iv, 565. Note of 300 men to be levied in Kent and shipped to
Brittany, 1594.
1 Cal.
S.P. Dom. 1547-80, 662.
2 Ibid. 1566-79, Adddenda, p. 437.
3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. XV, App. v,
16. 4
Cal. S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 389.
5 Ibid. 1581-90, p. 47.
6 Ibid. 124.
7 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. XV, App. v,
18.
8 Ibid. 24, 25.
9 Ibid. Rep. V, App. 570. |