the quorum, and so is his deputy in the Mayor’s absence. There is a Recorder, but no mention of such office in the charter. There are upwards of sixty freemen, who have voices at public meetings in making bye-laws for the town [some of whom abstained from voting on some occasions – in 1735 to wit, three years before the above account was written, when 43 voted for the usual scot for the Mayor’s expenses, and 3 against, whilst some did not vote either way]. There are two Serjeants-at-Mace, who attend the Mayor in liveries on public occasions and carry large silver maces on their shoulders, which maces were a present to the Corporation by the late Earl of Ashburnham. The Mayor and Jurats have every Saturday fortnight , a Court of Record, where they hold pleas for any sums, and have power to try felons for capital offences. (The old way of executing felons was by tying them hand and foot and throwing them off a high cliff and dash them to pieces on the rocks, before Edward IV gave liberty to erect a gallows.
Note by Browne Willis. – The town consists of two streets, both reaching to the sea-side or beach, from south-west to north-east. These streets are about half a mile long, and are couched between two hills. there runs through [between] each street a little canal of excellent water, called the Bourne; but for the want of pipes and being covered over, and with the filth of the town running into the same, the lower part is but indifferently supplied.
There are 420 houses in the town [120 more than before stated] and 1700 inhabitants; no meeting-house, and only two Dissenters – one a Presbyterian and the other a quaker, and both poor. There are no manufacturers [except he should have said, the industries of ship-building, rope-making, mast and block-making, lime-burning, net braiding, osier-growing, basket-making, pipe-making, corn-grinding and iron-casting], the support of the town being the fishery. Here are about 30 fishing vessels which trade to Yarmouth, and bring herrings up and down the coast. There are also a few merchant vessels, which carry corn [hops] and iron to London, and bring back grozery(sic) and other goods. There is no harbour for the safeguard of ships, though as there is a rivulet [the Priory water] about half a mile west of the town, a very great expense might make one. There was at the west-end of the town a large wooden pier, but it is quite ruined. [The west end of the town at this time was the west end of George street; known as Suburb Street and Pump street] A brief was granted in Queen Elizabeth’s time when it [the pier] was destroyed by a violent hurricane, and some repairs -
