From Essex Countryside Vol. 12 No. 83 December 1963

A member of the Cinque Ports, Brightlingsea`s full title is The Cinque Port Liberty of Brightlingsea, Limb of Sandwich. The chief Cinque Ports were Sandwich, Hastings, Dover, Romney and Hythe, and date back to very early days. Brightlingsea does not appear in any of the early existing documents of the ports and is not mentioned in the Domesday survey of the ports (1229), and it is not known when she was first made a member, but it is known that she asked for and obtained a charter of confirmation in 1442, part of which runs as follows:

"Be it remembered that on the 24th day of July in the 20th year 1442 of the reign of King Henry VI of England it was agreed that all Residents and Inhabitants in the town of Brygthlyngssey in the County of Essex which town from ancient times has been a member of the Cinque Ports and that the town of Sandwich make them a record of the same under the sea of office of mayorality there..."

The seal on the charter of confirmation in 1442 of Brightlingsea's being a member of the Cinque Ports

The ports and members provided fifty - seven ships for the king's service for fifteen days each year at their own cost and each port had to pay certain dues. In return certain privileges were granted, one of which gave "exemption from attendance at shire and hundred courts". This right was first challenged in 1825 when the Tendring hundred magistrates ordered the overseers to prepare a jury list. Legal advice was taken, exemption was claimed and this was allowed.

This exemption continued until 1926, when efforts were made by the county authorities to have a jury list made. Brightlingsea had felt for some time that if the exemption was seriously challenged it could not be maintained and so gave in.

In 1554 Thomas Beriffe, John Assheley and John Webbe, of Brightlingsea, solicitors, went to Sandwich to pay the contribution money for eight years at 10/- a year. The following year we first hear of a deputy for Brightlingsea. On May 31, 1561, Sandwich decided that the mayor should "ride into Brightlingsey". They arrived in June. All the inhabitants appeared before them and a deputy was chosen, and Thomas Berriffe and twelve good men were impanelled as assistants. Apparently this custom of choosing a deputy died out about 1804 and was not revived until Canon Pertwee had collected much information on the subject and given advice as to the proposed revival.

Meetings were held in 1887. Mr. John Batemen, then lord of the manor, was elected and, holding the office for five years, put it on a firm basis. In 1893, he presented the chain of alternate links of oyster shells and crossed sprats in solid silver, and the badge of a large opal carved to represent a inscription Ubs Brictriceseiae ex dono Johannis Bateman ( The town of Brightlingsea by the gift of John Bateman).

Later the correct number of assistants were elected and a keeper of the records was appointed.

The election - Choosing Day - now takes place each year on the first Monday in December in the tower of the parish church of All Saints.

Only freemen of Brightlingsea may vote. A freeman is one who was born in Brightlingsea or has resided there for a year and a day. He is called upon at Choosing Day to take the oath of loyalty to the sovereign, the town and port of Sandwich and members thereof. He then pays tribute of eleven pennies. The freeman then choose the deputy, assistants and officers, who take a similar oath.

All Saints, Brightlingsea, as it was in 1801 before the clerestory fell in 1814 and was not replaced. This is as it probably appeared in the fifteenth century. The Choosing Day ceremony takes place in the tower belfry on the first Monday in December. This illustration is from a painting in the possession of Mr and Mrs F. Pannell.

Today Dover and Brightlingsea share the distinction of being the only towns to keep the old characteristics of the Cinque Ports.
The rest are no longer distinguished as maritime ports, having become fashionable watering places.

A photograph taken in 1926, when some forty smacks were still fishing and sprats were so abundant that they were sold at 1/- and 1/6 a bushel for manure.

Brightlingsea men still go to sea in yachts, and serve in the Royal Navy and Customs and in the fishing and oyster industries.

Ships have always played an important part in the history of Brightlingsea, though the earliest record dates from 1233.

The earliest vessels were clinker - built and undecked and some were as large as fifty tons.

The bow was raised and sometimes ended in the form of the head and neck of a best. Built to beach easily, the mast carried a single square sail on a yard. Oars were used as well and they were steered by a paddle on the starboard side. By the fourteenth century they became more conventional in shape, and rudders replace the paddle.

In Scottish War.

In 1325 four Brightlingsea ships were employed by the king for the Scottish war. In 1342 when Sir Walter Mauny was sent to Brittany there were four Brightlingsea ships in his fleet: James, Seintemariobt, Johnette and Swallowe.

The Countess of Hennebon, besieged in that town, was on the point of surrendering when the fleet was seen. The enemy were routed and the countess, coming down from her castle, kissed Sir Walter and his companions two or three times. Some of the fleet deserted after a time, but none of those from Brightlingsea.

In 1346 Brightlingsea was ordered to send all ships of thirty tons and over to Portsmouth for the Crecy campaign, and the following year she sent five ships and fifty - one men for the siege of Calais. Altogether fifty - four ships and 283 men served Edward III in these wars.

In the period 1512 - 3 a ship of 160 tons called Barbara of Bryklsey, and sometimes the "Lesser Barbara" to distinguish her from the "Great Barbara", appears several times in the Navy list. She was not a hired ship but was described as a king`s ship. She would appear to have been bought in 1512 and belonged to a Brightlingsea man, and was probably built there. She was one of eighteen ships forming Sir Edward Howard`s fleet called together in 1512 in consequence of wars threatening the holy Roman Church.
In 1544 the Mary Fortune, 140 tons, owned by William Beriffe, of the well - known family of Jacobe`s Hall, transported troops to Scotland.

Brightlingsea also had a share in building, maintaining and manning Henry VIII's navy.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Brightlingsea was one of the wool ports of Essex and many of her ships were engaged in carrying wool. The William, manned and equipped by Brightlingsea men, was a transport with the fleet opposing the Spanish Armada in 1588.

In 1620 Capt. John Seaman sailed from Brightlingsea in his own ship for the New World and took possession of a great part of Long Island, which was granted to him by Charles I. But Brightlingsea maritime history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is almost entirely fishing, with smuggling as a profitable sideline, though the penalties were severe, for vessels caught smuggling in 1795 were practically destroyed, masts and all interior parts removed and keels cut into four portions. The most ingenious ways were adopted to evade the customs officers. One was to have two metal cases fitted inside a pair of thigh - length waterboots, in which the contents of a cask of brandy were carried to a safe hiding place, the cask meantime being hidden under a pile of nets.

Convicted smugglers were often made to serve in the Navy. A Brightlingsea man so sentenced was serving on a frigate anchored in the Downs, where it came on to blow a gale. The anchor cable parted and they had to set sail and get clear, but the difficulty was to navigate the dangerous sandbanks of the Thames estuary. Word was passed round asking if anyone aboard knew the waters. The Brightlingsea man came forward and brought the ship safely through, and as a reward was given a rise in rank.

During the Napoleonic wars there was difficulty in getting recruits from Brightlingsea, so many men being engaged in fishing with crews of only two men, or a man and a boy.

Many of the men, too, objected to going on the revenue cutters to take them to a man - of - war for training, as they were afraid they would be retained for regular service in the Navy after the war. However, there were twenty volunteers in August 1801 and many more at a later date.

In 1801, a river barge carrying four guns was anchored in the mouth of the River Colne. Naval vessels were built in a yard owned by Matthew Warren. From 1804 - 7 twelve ships wee built. They were to be finished in a specified time, and all but two were well within time, but these two, Sharp - shooter and Protector, were some time over - due and incurred a penalty of £300 each.

Naval base

Brightlingsea became a naval base during World War I, and the shipyards were busy with Admiralty building and repairing orders, as they were again in World War II, Yachting, fishing, oyster dredging and boat building have been the principal activities of the little seaport, with a few home farms, and a windmill, dismantled in 1910, did much of the corn grinding for the local farmers.

Many sailors crewed on yachts in the summer months and went fishing, scalloping and oyster dredging at other times of the year, but of recent years fishing has nearly died out. Sixty years ago Brightlingsea boasted over 100 fishing vessels, but fewer than half a dozen fishing smacks are now working.

The scalloper, CK2, and smacks on Brightlingsea Hard, photographed in 1926

The oyster has had a knack of causing outbreaks of violence.

In the time of King Edward III a fisherman was killed in a fight between Mersea and Tollesbury men and those of Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe.

In 1808 some thirty - five smacks from Brightlingsea and other ports on the Colne sailed up the Crouch to strip oyster layings there. Their retreat was cut off by H.M gun brig Turbulent and a number of the crews were taken off for naval service.

The oyster - dredging smacks and the picturesque paddle steamer Pyefleet haver long since gone, and now only a large smack converted to power and half a dozen or so men do all the work.

Brightlingsea began her long and successful connection with yachting in the 1840s. The smacksmen, used to handling the cutter - rigged smacks, took naturally to fore - and - aft - rigged yachts. They also had a wide knowledge of the Thames estuary, the Channel and nearby waters. The creeks made good mud berths for laying up the yachts and there were shipyards with skilled men for building and repairs. The first record of a large yacht at Brightlingsea is of- Romulus, owned by Ford Wharncliffe.

Many famous and well - known people have in the past made Brightlingsea the home port for their yachts. One was Arnold Bennett and another was the Duke of Westminster, whose beautiful four - masted schooner Flying Cloud (1,087 tons) was completely overhauled by Aldous`s yard and caused much interest as she lay in the Colne with her high ornamental stern and lovely figurehead, as also did the famous Cap Pilar when she was up in Aldous`s yard just before the last war. This once - lovely ship now lies a wreck up at Wivenhoe.

The famous CAP PILAR photographed when she was up in Aldous's yard in 1939. This once-lovely ship now lies a wreck up at Wivenhoe."

Figureheads were a feature of the old - time steam yachts, but are rarely seen nowadays. The schooner Tamesis was often seen sailing in the estuary, and Miss M.B. Carstairs raced her eight - metre Sonia here with Mikado, Sposa, Andrum, Dewdrop and other eight - metres, and what a grand picture they made with their gaff rig and great jack - yarders (topsails), the boom of the mainsail extending far over the stern, and often long bowsprits very different from the bermuda rig of today, with all sails well inboard.

The schooner TAMESIS - a lovely craft. Note the ornamental overhaning bow. Mersea Island in the background.

Steam yachts lay at anchor in the river during the summer and could be seen up eastward in their mud berths during the laying - up season. There was plenty of work for the shipyards in the spring when over - hauls and fitting out took places.

But after the 1920s the larger yachts gradually left and since then the little port has developed into a rapidly growing yachting centre for smaller yachts and sailing boats.

The last of the steam yachts lying in the River Colne in the late 1920s - VITA and MEDEA

Transcribed August 2022 by Joe Vince