Note 41a — SECTION III. OF THE FISHERIES AND MANUFACTORY AT LOWESTOFT.

But, notwithstanding, the bailiffs of the cinque ports, in consequence of the composition not being paid by the burgesses of Yarmouth, discontinued to frequent, as usual, the Yarmouth herring fair. Yet those fishermen called the west countrymen still continued coming to these parts till the year 1756, but after that time they declined coming any longer. These vessels from the western part of England, as it was called, i.e. from the coast of Kent, etc., used to frequent these coasts during the herring season, and sell the fish which they caught to the merchants of Lowestoft and Yarmouth. Also vessels called north country cobles used to attend and dispose of their fish in the same manner. These vessels used to engage themselves to some owner here for the fishing season, which was called being bosted: but this mode of practice is also now almost wholly discontinued. It was not the custom formerly for the merchants of Lowestoft to catch all the fish they wanted with their own boats, but were supplied with a considerable part of it from the vessels above mentioned: but now the merchants from increasing the number of their own boats, are able to furnish themselves with a sufficient quantity of herrings without the assistance of either of the west country boats, or those from the north. This new mode will appear very evident, if we compare the number of boats employed by Lowestoft in the year 1670, with the number employed in the year 1775; in the former they were only twenty-five, in the latter they amounted to forty-eight.