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To

A Controversy Touching Ship-Money in the Reign of James I

Trans. Devon. Assoc. 1888, Vol XX, pp.312-331.

by

R. N. Worth, F.G.S.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The paper was read at the Association’s July 1888 Exeter meeting. To various degrees all the maritime counties of England suffered by the depredations of Moorish corsairs, with whom the Stuart kings proved themselves wholly unable to grapple. The chief brunt of the perennial slave trader attacks was felt by the West of England. The present paper refers to the operations undertaken against the “Algerines” by James I., long neglected among the muniments of Truro’s Corporation, and preserved only by accident. Documents consist of a series of letters between the Mayor of Plymouth and the Mayor of Truro, arising out of the refusal of the inhabitants of the latter town to pay their quota of an assessment of £1000, made upon Plymouth and its members, to fit out an expedition; with copies of letters from the Privy Council. No similar documents were preserved at Plymouth; but the character of the correspondence, and the weight of the duties thrown by the Privy Council upon the Mayor of Plymouth (and mayors generally were far more important personages once than they are now), together with the very imperfect account of this individual transaction preserved in the papers at the Record Office, afford some clue to the greatness of the historical loss sustained, in a national sense, by the wholesale destruction of the Plymouth archives. The correspondence does great credit to the diplomatic ability of the Mayor of Plymouth, Thomas Fownes, whose original letters are preserved. The Mayor of Truro is clever at evasions, but cuts an undignified figure by comparison. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.