fifty-seven. When the fifteen days of their due service had expired, the wages of officers and men were paid by the king. Gervase Alard, the admiral, received 2s.; the four captains of the ports, 1s.; the chaplain, Robert of Sandwich, and the masters and constables, each 6d.; and the sailors, each 3d. a day; the masters also received 20s. each for pilotage (lodmannagium) for the whole coasts of Scotland and Ireland. It appears to have been not unusual for officers and seamen of the period, after a campaign, to be given passage money to carry them home from their ports; for before returning to England the king gave Alard twenty shillings for this purpose; to each of three of the captains of the ports one mark; and to sailors, amounts varying from five shillings to one mark. There are also notices of other out-of-pocket expenses, incurred on service, having been repaid.[1]
The services rendered by the Cinque Ports in the Welsh expedition of 1278 gained them a new charter, dated the 17th of June of that year. This charter confirmed all their former liberties and grants, and set forth their privileges; which included exemptions from tolls and wreck; the right of buying, selling and rebuying, throughout the king's dominions; "den" (right of drying and mending nets on certain marsh lands at Great Yarmouth); "strond" (right of landing freely with their fish at the same place); "findais," or findings, on sea and land; and their honours in the king's courts. It was forbidden to disturb them in their mercantile operations, on penalty of ten pounds. In return, they were to render yearly their full service of fifty-seven ships, at their own cost, for fifteen days, when summoned by the king. The chief additional concessions were: "utfangtheff" (right of punishing a thief, no matter the domicile, or the scene of the offence, if taken within the fee); that they should not be put on any assize, juries, or recognitions, against their will; that of their own wines for which they traded they should be quit of the king's duty or "prise," to the extent of one tun of wine before the mast, and of another abaft the mast; and that they should be exempted from the Crown's right of wardships and marriages in respect of land within the ports.[2]
Edward I. granted two other charters to the Cinque Ports, both dated April 28th, 1298. One exempted the hulls and rigging of their ships from taxes of all kinds, provided that no man, without their consent, should be a partner or sharer in any goods which
