Leith.] GROWTH OF THE PORT. 27.5
the sirpleth of woll and skin, because sho is fraughtit
in and furth, and the better chaip inwart becaus
sho fraucht swa deir furthwart; and this frauchtbg
is maid in the form of the statutes of the Toune
and Act ,of Parliament, the port oppin and the
nychtbouris firs seruit?
In 1519 the Provost and Council ordained the
water bailie of Leith to await the entry of all ships
at the port, and to see that no wine, timber, 01
other portions of the cargo be sold till duly entered
and paid for, the king?s grace and the city
first served ; and if any goods were sold or tapped,
they should be arrested.
The numerous rules and laws which were enacted
in those days with reference to shipping,
navigation, and foreign commerce, evince that the
attention of the Scottish legislature was particularly
directed to maritime affairs. There was an
enactment which ordained that ships and fishingboats
of not less than twenty tons should be built
and equipped with appropriate nets and tackling
by all burghs and seaport towns.
By an Act passed in the second Parliament of
James III., in 1466, no ship from Leith or any
other port could be freighted without a charterparty,
whereof the points were: ? What the master
of the ship shall furnish to the merchant, that in
case of debate betwixt them, they underly the law
of the burgh whereto the ship ,is fraughted. That
the goods be not spilt by ill-stalling ; that no goods
be shown or stricken up ; that the master have no
goods in his over-loft, or if he do, these goods pay
no fraught. That every ship exceeding five lasts
of goods pay to the chaplain of the nation a sack
fraught, and if within five lasts, the half of it, under
pain of five pounds; and that no drink-silver be
taken by the master and his doers, under the same
pain. And homeward, a tun fraught to the kirkwork
of the town they are fraughted to.??
In 1488 it was ordained that all ships, Scottish
or foreign, should arrive only at free burghs, and
the prohibition of navigation between All Saints
Day and Candlemas was renewed; and in -1535
it was ordered that ships should be ?freighted to
Flanders only twice yearly, to the Easter market,
and that held on the 3rd of May. The exportation
of all tallow was strictly forbidden, as the
realm only furnished a sufficient quantity for home
consumption.
By an Act of James VI., no ship could sail without
the king?s consent, under pain of being arrested
by the conservator.
In March, 1567, there was a frightful tempest of
wind, which, says Birrel, ?blew a very grate shippe
out of the Rode of Leith.? He records that in
.-
1596, between July and August, sixty-six ships
arrived in the harbour laden with victual
In 1616 the same monarch grauted a patent of
the whale fishery for thirty-five years to Sir George
Hay and Mr. Thomas Murray, who fitted out two
ships for that purpose. Nicol mentions that, in
1652 ?there canie into the very Brig of Leith?
a whale, which rendered much profit to the English
garrison there.
In September, 1641, a Bill was brought before
the Parliament at Edinburgh by John, Earl of
Rothes, Sir George Hamilton of Blackburn,
Andrew Eusley, and George h o t , merchants, to
enforce restitution from the Hamburgers to the
value of 300,000 merks, taken from them in shipping
and goods, and to grant Letters of Marque against
the said Hamburgers; and in the ensuing November
Letters of Reprisal by sea and land were
granted under the Great Seal.
In 1651 an English ship, bound for Leith was
captured by the captain of the Bass, and her
crew made prisoners, some being placed on the
isle and others sent to Tantallon, She had on
board 10,000 pairs of shoes, 6,000 pairs of boots,
5,000 saddles and sets of horse furniture, ten tons
of London beeire and als muche bisquett as should
have served Cromwell for a month,? says Sir James
Balfour. Her cargo was handed over to Sir John
Smith, Commissary-General of the Scottish army.
In the May of the same year Captain Murray,
commander of a Scottish frigate, took another English
ship, laden with provisions, which he handed
over to the army, but retained the vessel as the prize
of himself and crew.
In 1656 Leith possessed only three vessels of
250 tons, and eleven of 20 tons each.
In 1661 the Scottish Parliament passed an Act
for the encouragement of shipping and navigation,
ordaining that all goods be transported in Scottish ?
ships ?from the original places, whence they are
in use first to be transported.? That all Scottish
ships should be navigated by a Scottish master,
and that at least three-parts of his crew should be
Scotsmen. The Act contains an order for verifying
a ship to be Scottish, and getting a certificate
thereof; and that no customer ?allow the benefit
of a Scot?s skipper to any ship until the same be
so verified, under pain of deprivation.? This Act
was not to extend to imports from Asia, Africa,
America, Muscovy, or Italy.
The Iirst return of tonnage for Leith, preserved
in the ?Archives of the Royal Burghs,? is dated
1692, when the port could only boast of twentynine
ships, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,702
tons, the estimated value of which was ;G7,1oo
.
sterling. The largest ship was only 150 tons, and
the highest valued was 8,000 pounds Scots, or
A666 13s. 4d. sterling. In the list of masters?
names appear Brown, Barr, and Bartain (the old
historic Barton), names, says Robertson, prominent
in the maritime records of Leith, doubtless descendants
of the respective families.
In 1692 the shore dues were only A466 13s. 4d.
Scots, equivalent to A38 17s. gid. of the money
of the present day.
LEITH ROADS, 1824. (Aftera DruwiBg by/. Gul&?tCtry.)
times,? says h o t , ?we mustreflect that the prices
paid formerly were simply the rates at which commodities
could be furnished, almost without any
duty to Government; whereas now, in many instances,
the taxes levied by Government exceed
the value of the articles upon which they are im
posed.?
Tea was imported about the end of the seventeenth
century, and there is still preserved a
receipt from the East India Company to an Edin-
Yet generally the connection of Scotland as regards
trade was far from inconsiderable at that period
with Denmark, the Baltic, Holland, and France.
Her ships frequently made voyages from Leith to
Tangiers and other ports on the Mediterranean ;
and from Leith were exported wool, woollen-cloth,
druggets, and stuffs of all kinds, and, to a large
extent, both linen and corn.
The imports to Leith were linen and fine woollen
manufactures, wood in the form of logs and staves,
wines of various kinds, and small quantities of
sugar and miscellaneous articles of every-day use,
from Rotterdam and Amsterdam. ?? In comparing
the prices of a gallon of wine or ale, a pound of
candles, or a pair of shoes in ancient and modem
burgh merchant for a chest of Bohea at 15s. per
pound, which came to the value of A225 15s.
In 1705 green tea was 16s. per pound, and
Bohea had risen to 30s.
In 1740 the shipping of Leith amounted to fortyseven
sail, with a total of 2,628 tonnage. The
names of these vessels were quaint-the Charming
Befty, Pair Susanna, and .Ha@y Janet, may be
given as samples.
In the following year, Walter Scott, Bailie of
Leith, issued a proclamation on the 8th August to
this effect :-
?Whereas the separate commanders of the five
East India ships, lying in the Roads of Leith,
have signified that the said ships are to sail early
