AFTER THE CONQUEST, TO 1513.
It is highly probable, from the surnames of some of the most ancient
families in the town of Brighthelmston, the phrases, and the
pronunciation of the old natives, and some peculiar customs of the
people, that the town had, at some distant period, received a colony of
Flemings. This might have happened soon after the conquest, as a great
inundation of the sea took place in Flanders about that period; and such
of the unfortunate inhabitants of the deluged country as wanted new
habitations, could not have anywhere applied with a greater likelihood of
success than in England, as Matilda, queen of William the Conqueror, was
their countrywoman, being daughter of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders.
Being thus settled in Brighthelmston, the Flemings were led by habits and
situation, to direct their chief attention to the fishery of the Channel.
Besides obtaining a plentiful supply of fresh fish of the best kind and
quality for themselves and their inland neighbours, they, every season,
cured a great number of herrings, and exported them to various parts of
the continent, where the abstinence of Lent, the vigils, and other meagre
days, insured them a constant market. There is no doubt, but, from time
to time, additions were made to this foreign colony, from Spain, France,
and Holland, as the names of some of the oldest families of the town
verify; namely, Mighell (Miguel), Gunn (Juan), Jasper (Gaspard), Jeffery
(Geoffrey), Gillam (Guillaume), &c.
The inhabitants were now classed into landsmen and seamen, or mariners,
and they profited respectively by the advantages of their situation. The
former, whose dwellings were on the cliff and part of the gentle
acclivity behind it, drew health and competence from the fertile soil;
while the latter, who resided in two streets beneath the cliff, found a
bountiful source of subsistence and profit at the bottom of the sea. In
process of time, the mariners and their families, principally descendants
from the new comers, the Flemings, had increased in numbers so far as to
compose more than two-thirds of the population of the town, and they had
a proportionate share of the offices and internal regulation of the
parish.
The Flemish, on their arrival, though received in all probability as
vassals, found their condition an improvement on the general
state-_villeinage_; and the indulgence shown to foreigners was eventually
extended to the natives; and the disfranchised landholders gradually
emerged from the most abject state of feudal dependence, to one less
precarious, that of tenants by copy of court roll. Once registered on
the rolls of a manor, with the consent of the lord or his steward, their
title became indefeasible and descendible to their heirs, except in case
of neglect or violation of the definite and recorded duties of their
tenure. Thus settled, the husbandmen of Brighthelmston had every
inducement to marriage, and they toiled with pleasure in their
patrimonial field. The mariner also, freed from feudal caprice, braved
the dangers of the deep, not only for his subsistence, but as a future
provision for his family; and transmitted to his posterity, controlled by
manorial custom, his ship or boat, his cottage, his capstan and garden,
and other monuments of his paternal solicitude and industry. The town
being, as now, a member of the port of Shoreham,--all boats of the town
register at Shoreham,--was obliged to furnish some seamen for the royal
navy; and no other tax or service was imposed upon the inhabitants, till
the levying of a poll-tax in the reign of Edward III.
In 1313 Brighthelmston had become so considerable as to need the public
accommodation of a market; and John, the eighth and last Earl de Warren,
obtained a charter of Edward III. for holding a market every Thursday.
The mariners about this time, in the Lower Town, or under Cliff,
increasing in number and property, extended their habitations to the
Upper Town, and began two streets westward of the Stein, named from their
situations, East Street and West Street, forming the inhabited limits of
the town in those directions. After East Street and West street had been
continued some considerable way towards the north, the landsmen, who were
also becoming numerous, found it necessary to build intermediate streets,
parallel to those already constructed; and the proprietor of the north
_laines_, finding it more convenient to have their barns, and finally,
their own dwellings and the cottages for their workmen, at that extremity
of the town, formed North Street.
Most of the ground now occupied by Black Lion street and Ship street, and
the intermediate space, are, in all the Court Rolls, called the
Hempshares; and were, even after East street and West street were built,
plots or gardens for the production of hemp, for the use of the fishermen
of the town. The name of the ropemaker who constructed all the cordage
for the supply of the fishery, was Anthony Smith, who, in 1670 suffered
great persecution from Captain Nicholas Tattersal, a personage who
assumed great power when basking in the smiles of royalty, consequent
upon his effecting the escape of Charles II. to France. Smith was more
especially the object of his malignity, from having been the occupier of
the house, in West street, where the king sojourned preparatory to his
flight; he happening to recognise His Majesty, yet having too much
loyalty to betray him. Jealousy actuated him; as he was desirous of
claiming all the honour in the royal escape. He in consequence kept all
the merits, which were really due to Smith, in the background, and took
all the honour to himself, and the reward to. In process of time, as the
population increased, and the sea made encroachments on the lower town,
two streets were erected on the site of the hemp-shares or gardens. In
the most eastern street of these, with one front to the High street,--that
which passed along the verge of the Cliff,--stood an Inn, with a Black
Lion for its sign; and in the other there was an Inn, with a Ship for its
sign. The two streets of the hemp-shares were soon distinguished by the
two signs, and are the present Black-Lion street and Ship street. The
Black-Lion Inn on the east side of the street, was converted into a
private residence about the beginning of the present century. The Ship,
the oldest tavern in the town, is now, and has been since 1650, known as
the Old Ship, to distinguish it from the New Ship, a more recent
erection. Besides the hemp-shares, the ground to the west of the town,
which was afterwards brick-yards, and is now termed the Brunswick Square
and Terrace district, was devoted to the growing of flax for the use of
the fishermen.
The prosperity of the town received a check about the middle of the
fourteenth century, from the ambitious projects of Edward III. against
France, which exposed this and other fishing towns of the southern coast
to the occasional retaliation of that kingdom. The inhabitants' boats
were taken, and their fishery frequently interrupted. In 1377 the French
burnt and plundered most of the towns from Portsmouth to Hastings; but no
particular injury to the town is recorded of Brighton, at that period.
When, however, there was the least appearance of danger, the coast Watch
and Ward, called in the king's mandate _Vigili minut_, were called into
service. Their duties were nocturnal, and seldom exacted, unless an
immediate descent was apprehended. The watch consisted of men at arms,
and _hobilers_ or _hoblers_, who were a sort of light cavalry that were
bound to perform the service by the nature of their tenure. They were
dressed in jackets called hobils, and were mounted on swift horses. The
bold stand made against the French, in 1377, when they landed at
Rottingdean, was principally by the watch and ward-keepers of the coast,
which had been divided into districts, entrusted to the care of some
baron, or religious house, by certain commissioners, called Rectores
Commitatus. In the annals of the Prior of Lewes, and the Abbot of
Battle, we find that those personages were several times placed at the
head of an armed power, to oppose actual or threatened invasion. Certain
borough hundreds were also obliged, under pain of forfeiture or other
penalty, to keep the beacons in proper condition, and to fire them at the
approach of an enemy, in order to alarm and assemble the inhabitants in
the Weald.
From the constant alarm of the people and the ruin of war, Brighthelmston
generally experienced a considerable share of the public distress; as,
besides contributing some of its best mariners for manning the royal
fleet, the town was deprived of its trade and fishery. In 1512, in
consequence of war being declared by Henry VIII. against Louis XII., all
the maritime industry of Brighthelmston suffered, and its buildings were
threatened with plunder and conflagration. At this time, Sir Edward
Howard, the English Admiral, having made several successful attempts on
the coast of Brittany, and being joined by a squadron of ships commanded
by Sir Thomas Knivet, went in pursuit of the French fleet, under the
command of Admiral Primauget, Knight of Rhodes; the real intention being
to destroy the town of Brest. The French fleet, consisting of
thirty-nine ships, was in the harbour of Brest. Howard, having been
misled by the information and advice of a Spanish Knight, named Caroz, as
to the strength of Primauget's force, entered the bay under the fire of
two strong batteries, which commanded the entrance, with only a barge and
three galleys, and took possession himself, of the French Admiral's. But
the French soon recovered from their panic, the two fleets met, and a
furious engagement ensued. At length Primauget's ship was set on fire,
and determining not to perish alone, he bore down upon the English
Admiral's, and, grappling with her, both ships soon became involved in
the same inevitable destruction. This dreadful scene suspended the
action between the other ships; but after some time, the French ship blew
up, and in its explosion destroyed the English ship. While the conflict
was at its height, and the deck was streaming with the blood of his brave
companions, Sir Edward was thrust with a half-pike into the sea and
perished.
After this misfortune, the English fleet returned home; and Primauget's
being reinforced from Brest, and being animated with his recent success,
he sailed for the coast of Sussex, to wreak that vengeance on the
inhabitants which was due to Henry alone. He accordingly, in the night
time, landed some men, who plundered it of everything valuable that they
could remove, set many houses on fire, and wantonly slew many of the
inhabitants. The rest flying in terror and confusion different ways, the
country became alarmed as far as Lewes and the Weald. {20} The French
re-embarked the next morning, with their booty, before the country people
could assemble in any force to annoy them. Sir Thomas Howard, brother of
Sir Edward, whom he succeeded, soon after, with Sir John Wallop, made a
descent on the coast of Normandy, and desolated no less than twenty-one
towns and villages, inhabited by people who never did, and perhaps never
wished to do, any injury to their fellow men on this wide the Channel.
Such is the fortune, and such are the advantages and distinctions of the
royal game of war.
Holinshead mentions an attack upon the town by the French, about this
time; and there is the probability that he refers to the same invasion,
as he terms it a nocturnal visit from some French ships, but commanded by
Prior Jehan, the high admiral. He says: "but when the people began to
gather, by firing the beacons, Prior Jehan sounded his trumpet to call
his men aboard, and by that time it was day. The certain archers that
kept the watch followed Prior Jehan to the sea, and shot so fast that
they beat the galley men from the shore, and wounded many in the fleet:
to which Prior Jehan was constrained to wade, and was shot in the face
with an arrow, so that he lost one of his eyes, and was like to have died
of the hurt, and therefore he offered his image of wax before our Lady at
Bullogne, with the English arrow in the face, for a miracle."
According to the Burrell MSS., {21} in 1589, strict orders were given for
maintaining beacons in all accustomed places, with orders to the
watchmen, that if the number of invading ships did not exceed two, they
were not to fire the beacons, but to cause larums to be rung from church
to church as far as the skirts of the hill reached from the sea shore,
and no further; and to send a post to the nearest justices: but if the
ships exceeded two, they were to fire both their beacons, which were to
be duly answered by the corresponding ones, and thus rouse the "force of
the shire." Five discreet householders in the neighbourhood, were
assigned to each beacon, one to keep watch constantly. In 1590, the
beacon watches were ordered to be discharged till further orders.