Luminarium Encyclopedia: Cinque Ports.

CINQUE PORTS. The five great ports on the coast of Kent and Sussex lying opposite to France — Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney, and Hastings — were of considerable importance during the Anglo-Saxon period; and in a charter of Edward I we find reference to a previous document granted them by Edward the Confessor. But it was subsequent to the battle of Hastings that the Conqueror, in order that he might wield the resources of the seaports with greater vigour, constituted this whole line of coast into a jurisdiction entirely separate from the counties of Kent and Sussex, and erected it into a sort of county palatine, under a warden or guardian, the seat of whose administration was in Dover Castle.

The warden, whose office corresponded to that of the ancient Count of the Saxon coast (Comes littoris Saxonici), exercised jurisdiction, civil, military, and naval, uniting in his single person the functions of sheriff, custos rotulorum, lord-lieutenant, and admiral. Privileges equal to those originally bestowed on the Cinque Ports were subsequently extended to the so-called ancient towns of Winchelsea and Rye; and all the seven municipal towns except Winchelsea had subordinate ports and towns attached to them, which were called limbs or members. In place of the Saxon terms of aldermen and freemen, those of jurats and barons were introduced, and the latter term has always been applied to the representatives of the Cinque Ports in parliament.

Their chief function in early times was to furnish such shipping as was required for the purposes of the state, the crown having possessed no permanent navy previous to the reign of Henry VII. In the time of Edward I they were bound to provide no less than fifty-seven ships, fully equipped and manned at their own cost; though the weight of this heavy burden was somewhat lessened by the provision that the period of gratuitous service should be limited to fifteen days. The ports, moreover, enjoyed in return for their services many privileges, such as exemption from tax and tallage [a royal tax abolished in 1312], the right to make their own bylaws, &c. In consequence of the warlike navy which they were thus compelled to maintain, the Cinque Ports became so confident and audacious as not only to undertake piratical expeditions, but even to make war and form confederacies as independent states.

Previous to the Revolution of 1688, the lord-wardens nominated one and sometimes both of the parliamentary representatives for each of the Cinque Ports; but in 1689 an act was passed to 'declare the right and freedom of election of members to serve in parliament for the Cinque Ports.' The Acts of 1832 and 1885 reduced the number of members sent to parliament by the Cinque Ports from sixteen to three, and the Municipal Reform Act has broken up the ancient organisation of the ports, and assimilated their internal arrangements to those of other English municipalities.

Text source:

Chambers's Encyclopædia. Vol III.
London: William & Robert Chambers, Ltd., 1901. 257.

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