Clovelly Entries in Padstow Coastal Port Books (1602-1719)

Extracted from the National Archive E 190 Records

In an effort to supplement the limited amount of documentary material about 16th - 18th Century Clovelly (many of whose village records, other than the parish registers, were lost in a fire in 1789) I have systematically searched the Port Books (now held by the National Archives) relating to the near-by Port of Padstow in Cornwall looking for entries relating to Clovelly-based ships involved in coastal trading. Quoting from C.T. & M.J. Watts' book My Ancestor was a Merchant Seaman: How can I find out more about him (Society of Genealogists, 1991):

"Since the time of Edward I (1272) central government has exerted a measure of control over shipping for tax purposes. The records that resulted from this include Receipts of duty paid on import and export, Information on the examination of cargoes in the coasting trade and the Issuing of bonds for unloading in ports of the realm. These documents normally mention the Merchants involved and the name of the Master of the ship. Typically the information they will contain will be Name of ship, and its Master, Description of goods, Duty paid (if import or export) and Places to/from which shipment is made."

Further information is available in the National Archives' leaflet on the subject.

The earliest surviving port book for Padstow is dated 1565, but the early books are very dificult to decipher. Details of the Clovelly entries I have found in all the extant coastal books from 1602 onwards are listed below, in what is better regarded as a detailed index to this information, rather than a transcription, although I have attempted to record names (of masters and of ships) exactly as given, and the full details of ships' cargoes, where these are readily legible. Entries are listed in the order of their appearance, though some books were filled in from both ends. For convenience I have used upper case for ships' names. (I have included a few entries for vessels listed as belonging to ports other than Clovelly, when I have reason to assume that the master is from Clovelly, and the port book entry might be in error.)

Port books varied with regard to the provision of dates during the period covered here - some provided one date per entry (typically centred immediately above the entry), others had up to three dates per entry, through also using the left and right hand margins of the page. In only a few port books is any indication given of the meaning of these dates, but in these the left hand margin is headed "Date of Coquett", and the right hand margin "Return fylled" or "Return Granted". Nowhere is there any explanation of the dates that are centred above each entry, but these dates (which are not given in all port books) would appear to indicate when each entry was added. The date given in the index below is the centred date, when this exists, otherwise a margin date is given. (It would seem that entries were often added in groups, so that one sometimes finds repeated entries for the same vessel bearing the same date - thus it is not practicable to use these dates to determine exactly when voyages occurred.)

Here is a transcription of a complete entry from a port book which gives three dates:

(The "Idem. ind." indicates that the named master is also the merchant, and is "indigenous", rather than foreign. "London" refers to a quantity measure used in the coal trade.)

Though every effort has been made to produce a reasonably accurate and complete index, I have performed only a limited amount of checking of this index against the photographs I have obtained of the pages of the port books - thus readers who are interested in particular entries, as opposed to the general picture of trade provided by the entries as a whole, are advised to check the original entries for themselves.

A number of archaic terms are used in these port books:

• Chalder, chaldron - an obsolete form of cauldron, used as a measure
• Coquet, coquett, cocket - receipt
• Cribb - a crate or measure of glass
• Firkin - a small cask
• Lanthord - lantern
• Manchesterware - linen
• Metheglin, metheglyn - a spiced or medicated variety of mead
• Mundick - iron pyrites
• Red herring - smoked herring
• Roundlet, rundlet - a small cask
• Saltery - goods dealt in by salt merchants
• Strong-waters - any form of alcoholic spirits used as a beverage

An Analysis of the Port Books extracts.