on, the Charter of the Cinque Ports, states the old town of Hastings to have been a great deal to the south of the present town ; from the encroachments of the sea on the Sussex coast , it doubtless shared the same fate with other neighbouring towns on the coast, by being swallowed up and buried in the sea.
The first period of the enfranchisement of the Cinque Ports was in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Henry I. confirmed to them all the mercantile privileges of buying and selling every description of merchandise, without the intervention of custom, as conceded to them (as the charter states )[1] by his father and predecessor William Rufus. They were still further confirmed and extended by Edward I., in consequence of the great services rendered to his kingdom by their fleets and armies. This charter gave them privileges beyond those enjoyed even by the City of London, by allowing them a free traffic, in every species of merchandise, not only exempted from the payment of all duties, but, also, from the agency of brokers ; a privilege which the Capital itself did not possess until nearly a century afterwards.
The services which the barons of the Cinque Ports acknowledged to the king, were to have jointly, at a summons of forty days, fifty-seven ships ready, and furnished for fifteen days at their own cost ; the expenses of a longer period to be disbursed by the crown . Out of this number of ships, the quota to be found by Hastings, and its subordinate members, was twenty -one; viz. Hastings three, Winchelsea ten, Rye five, Seaford and Pevensey one, Bulnorheath and Petit Hiam one, and Hidney , Grange, and Beakesbourn one, forming, inclusively, the required number of twenty-one.
The following copy of the original summons issued by Edward I. to the Ports, will more particularly exemplify the nature and extent of their services, and may not be wholly uninteresting to those who are fond of the perusal of these ancient records.
- " Edward, by the Grace of GOD, &c., greeting. We have seen a certain Certificate before us, into the Chancery -
- ↑ Barrell MSS
