SHEERNESS.
THE VILLE OF SHEERNESS lies at the western part
of the parish of Minster, at the north-west point of
the Isle of Shepey. It was once esteemed as part of
that parish, but it has been long since created a ville of
itself, and is entirely Separate from it as to its civil ju
risdiction, though as to its ecclesiastical jurisdiction it
still continues part of it.
This part of the Island of Shepey, in the reign of
king Charles I. was no more than a watry swamp or
morass, on the point of which, after the restoration of
king Charles II. there was mounted a small fort of
twelve guns to defend the passage up the river Medway. In which situation it remained till the Dutch war
broke out in that reign, when the general discourse of
the whole kingdom turned on the importance of this
place, and the erecting a royal fort on it, which might
preserve the navy, and at the same time be a great security to the river.
The king took this charge upon himself, and in the
beginning of the year 1667, made two journeys hither
in the depth of winter, taking an engineer and some
officers of the ordnance with him, and having seen the
work begun, he left at it his chief engineer Sir Martin
Beckman, whom he designed for governor of the fort,
and committed the overlooking of the whole, that every
expedition might be used, to one of the commissioners
of the ordnance; notwithstanding which, very little or
nothing had been done towards it, when the Dutch,
that year, made their memorable attempt upon the
royal navy in the river Medway, which was then in a
most defenceless state, there being at that time, besides
the twelve guns here as before mentioned, only four
that could be used at Upnor, and scarce so many at
Gillingham, for the defence of it.
There was a company or two of soldiers indeed
here, under excellent officers, but the fortifications were
so weak and unfinished, and all other provisions so entirely wanting, that though the best defence was made,
yet the Dutch fleet no sooner appeared within distance,
but with their cannon they beat the works flat, and
drove the men from their ground, and then with their
boats landed their men, as if they had resolved to fortify and keep it; after which, sailing up the river, they
broke through every means made use of to oppose
them, and having done considerable damage to the
shipping, (a full account of which has already been
given in a former part of this history (fn. 1) ) they fell down
the river again without any further molestation, and
having taken away all their men from Sheerness, they
failed away for the coasts of Essex and Suffolk.
This bold attempt gave such an alarm to the nation, as well for the safety of the royal docks and magazines at Chatham, as for the navy itself, from the
defenceless state of the river Medway, and the easy
access of the enemy to it, that this fort of Sheerness
was immediately afterwards increased to a regular fortification, and became a royal fort, having a line of
large and heavy cannon mounted on it. Besides
which, there were other smaller forts built on each
side of the river, higher up, for the future defence of
it. Great improvements have been made from time
to time to the fort of Sheerness, and of late years elpecially, it has been greatly augmented and strengthened,
insomuch that no fleet, however formidable, can in future attempt to pass it, without the hazard of being
torn to pieces, and left any danger might in future
happen to it, in 1782 an act passed for the more effectually securing of it.
The fort and garrison of Sheerness is under the
command of a governor, a lieutenant governor, a
fort-major, and other inferior officers. The present
governor is general Francis Craig, the lieutenant-governor Sir James Malcolm. The salary of the former
is 300l. per annum, and of the latter 182l. 10s.
Some years since the building of a fort here, a royal
dock has been made adjoining to it, intended chiefly
for the repairing of ships which may have met with
any sudden accident, and for the building of smaller
ships of war, such as 5th and 6th rates, small frigates,
yachts, and such like vessels, though sometimes ships
of a larger size have been built here, but this has not
been often. This yard, in time of peace, is under the
inspection of the commissioner of the navy residing
at Chatham, who has a clerk of the cheque and a
storekeeper resident here under him. But in time
of war, from the great increase of business, an extra
commissioner is always appointed, who constantly
resides here; and the office of ordnance has a branch
likewise established here.
The numbers of persons necessarily attendant both
on the fort and dock-yard, has occasioned the building
of a town of several streets in and near it, which is exceedingly populous, many of the buildings being
crouded with several families together in one house;
but the great scarcity of fresh water had always been
most severely felt by the inhabitants of this place, this
induced government in 1782 to try if it could not be
procured by the sinking of a well here; their trial at
the neighbouring one of Queenborough some years
before, giving them hopes of equal success here, nor
were they disappointed, for when the workmen under
the direction of Sir T. Hyde Page, of the corps of engineers, had dug to about the depth of twenty feet,
the augur dropt in, and the water instantly flew up,
and quickly rose to two hundred and sixty-five feet,
which was within sixty-three feet of the top of the
well. From the first, the taste of the water was soft
and pleasant, and though at first very thick, yet it
soon became clear and fit for use, and still continues
so, affording, jointly with that of Queenborough, a
constant and plentiful supply, not for only the inhabitants, but for the shipping, and various departments
of government here, the former before trusting mostly
to their savings of rain water, and the latter, (the well
at Queenborough not being fully sufficient for the
supply of the shipping) having it fetched weekly, at a
very heavy expence to government, in vessels from
Chatham for that purpose.
The old ships of war stationed here are termed
break-waters from their breaking the violence of
the tides, the hulls are occupied by 60 or 70 families,
and chimnies of brick are raised from the lower gun
decks, which give them the odd appearance of a
floating town.
There is a chapel erected here at the expence of government, for the use of the garrison, &c. but all
christenings, marriages, burials, and other ecclesiastical rites, are performed at the mother church of Minster, which has the entire ecclesiastical jurisdiction over
this ville. The chaplain is appointed by government
to the cure of this chapel.
A market is held at Sheerness weekly on a Saturday.