Cinque Ports

Old Winchelsea, one of the ancient towns added to the original Cinque Ports, was destroyed by the sea in the thirteenth century and rebuilt on a nearby hill. Although the new town enjoyed a brief period of prosperity based on the wine trade, it fell into decay in the fifteenth century as its haven gradually silted up. By the middle of Elizabeth’s reign there were reportedly not ‘above sixty households standing, and those, for the most part, poorly peopled’. W.D. Cooper, Winchelsea, 107; VCH Suss. ix.

Hythe received its first charter in 1156, and in 1575 became the first Cinque Port to be formally incorporated, under a mayor, nine jurats, and an undefined common council in whom the franchise was vested. By the early seventeenth century the obstruction of the haven by shingle had reduced the town, described in 1613 by the mayor and jurats as ‘much decayed’, to a mere fishing port. E. Hasted, Kent, viii. 236-7; HCA 30/4, unnumb. item, 19 Apr.

Rye had obtained charters from its overlords, the Norman abbots of Fécamp, in the twelfth century, and by the reign of Henry III it had been added to the original Cinque Ports. L.A. Vidler, New Hist. of Rye, 4, 6; VCH Suss. ix. 50. The only major natural harbour between Portsmouth and the Thames, it reached the zenith of its commercial prosperity in the mid-sixteenth century, when it emerged as ‘the most important urban economy in eastern Sussex’. S. Hipkin, ‘Closing Ranks’, Urban Hist. xxii. 321; S.

New Romney lost its access to the sea after the violent storm of 1286, and dwindled into a mere market town, often at odds with its ‘limb’ of Lydd. It nevertheless served as the meeting place of the Cinque Ports’ two representative assemblies, the Brotherhood and the Guestling, received a charter in 1352, and in 1563 was incorporated under a governing body consisting of a mayor and a maximum of 12 jurats. E. Hasted, Kent, viii. 447; W. Holloway, Romney Marsh, 81; CPR, 1560-3, p. 499; M. Teichman Derville, Annals of New Romney, 5, 10; K.M.E.

Dover was a port ‘of considerable consequence’ situated in east Kent, 72 miles from London and 21 from Calais, to where (and Boulogne) there was a daily steam packet service. Dominated by ‘stupendous [white] cliffs’ and its castle, it had docks, warehouses, a custom house and barracks. There was paper manufacturing in the neighbouring villages of Buckland, Charlton and River. Dover’s marine promenade housed a number of medicinal baths for fashionable hypochondriacs. Pigot’s Commercial Dir.

Hythe, a decayed port, was ‘pleasantly situated’ on the Kent coast. It did ‘considerable business’ in corn and hops.Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1823-4), 397. After the turbulence of seven contested elections in 17 years the borough enjoyed a tranquil interlude until 1830. Once the preserve of local country gentlemen, it had fallen prey by 1812 to wealthy strangers from the London commercial world.

Winchelsea, a decayed port, was in this period ‘a mere village’, situated on a hill a mile and a half inland from the east Sussex coast. Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1823-4), 523; VCH Suss. ix. 523. It was part of the electoral empire of the Whig 3rd earl of Darlington, who had bought control of both seats in 1804. Freemen were admitted purely with reference to the parliamentary interest and their number ‘kept as low as would secure the existence of the corporation’, which consisted nominally of a mayor and 12 jurats. Oldfield, Key (1820), 249-52; W. D.

In the words of the 1831 boundary commissioners, Sandwich, situated on the River Stour on the east Kent coast, was ‘a dull, deserted town, with little prospect of improving its decayed condition’; and George Agar Ellis*, a visitor in 1832, described it as ‘a deserted looking town in a swamp’.PP (1831-2), xxxix. 15-16; Northants. RO, Agar Ellis diary, 24 July [1832]. The harbour had long ago silted up, and by the end of the eighteenth century catered only for a limited coastal trade.Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1823-4), 411; H.C. Bentwich, Hist.

New Romney was ‘an interesting, clean, and highly respectable ... town’, a mile inland from the west Kent coast, about ten miles east of Rye.Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1823-4), 410. Its harbour had long ago been swallowed by the encroaching sea, and it had no maritime trade. PP (1835), xxiii. 361. The borough remained, as it had been since 1761, under the control of the Dering family of Surrenden Dering, who owned estates at nearby Waldershare.

Hastings, the premier Cinque Port, was situated in the Bourne valley on the east Sussex coast. A thriving and expanding town with a mild climate, it had ‘long been in high repute as a watering place’ and was frequented by ‘numerous and fashionable visitors’. Neighbouring St. Leonards, to the west, was founded in 1828 but not developed until after 1832. Fishing and shipbuilding were the staple industries, but the most lucrative activity was smuggling.Pigot’s Commercial Dir (1823-4), 511; VCH Suss. ix.