Lighthouses

Lighthouses.

V. 24. Copy of an Order from certain Lords of the Council, to whom the subject had been referred by the King, addressed to the Lord Mayor of the City of London, to the officers of the Custom House there, and of Newcastle and the other out ports, with all officers of havens and wharves where the shipping liable to the payment of the duty for the lights of Winterton resort and unlade, reciting that, by an Order of Council of the 5th January, 1618, it was referred to Lord Zouch, Mr. Comptroller, and the Master of the Rolls, to deal between Sir William Erskine, Knight, and John Meldrum, Esq., of the one part (Patentees for the erection of a Lighthouse at Winterton (fn. 1) ), and the Trinity House, (fn. 2) together with certain Coastmen, of the other part, and to mediate a friendly composition, but the Patentees, finding some delays and backwardness on the part of the Trinity House and the Coastmen to yield to an agreement propounded by the Lords, and being unable longer to undergo the charge of maintaining the Lighthouses without the allowance granted for that purpose, had petitioned the King that they might enjoy the benefit of their grant until the Lords should settle it by consent of both parties. The Council, therefore, require the Lord Mayor and other officers above mentioned to aid and assist the Patentees in the execution of their grant until the agreement shall be settled, or further order given to the contrary.
York House, 14th May, 1619.

V. 109. Letter from Mr. Secretary Calvert to the Lord Mayor, stating that the King had been informed he had given directions to the officers of the Port of London to stay the collection and payment of moneys due to the Patentees for keeping the Lighthouses at Dungeness and Wintertonness, under colour, as His Majesty understood, of an order, supposed to have been made for that purpose by the House of Commons, signified by some of the members of that House. As His Majesty understood the order, a copy of which he had seen, this course was never intended by the House, and consequently the Lord Mayor's directions were grounded upon a mistake. His Majesty desired the Lord Mayor forthwith to give a new direction and remove the restraint, leaving the Patentees in the same state as before; and further to certify who required him to make the stay by virtue of the aforesaid order.
From the Court at Greenwich, 11th June, 1621.

V. 110. Answer of the Lord Mayor to the preceding letter, stating that on the 7th inst., three (as they said) Burgesses of Parliament, whose names he did not know, came to him and delivered two Orders of the House of Commons, copies of which he enclosed, and desired him, in conformity therewith, to give order for the passing of Bills in the Port of London, by Colliers trading to Newcastle, without paying any money, as formerly, to the Patentees for maintaining Lights at Dungeness and Wintertonness; to which he had replied that they should show the orders to those authorized to collect the duties, that he might receive certificate from them, but he made no restraint, and gave no order to pass Bills without the accustomed certificate.
12th June, 1621.