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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
Under the conviction that every research which tends to fix the date of an improvement in Science, is useful to the promotion of that correct knowledge of our country which is one of the chief objects of the Society of Antiquaries, I beg to offer, through you, the following remarks on the Origin of the Lock Canal of Exeter, which I believe to be the earliest of that description of works in England.
page 7 note a Trans. Inst. Civil Engineers, “ Introduction.” Rees's Cyclop, and the Encycl. Metropol. art. “Canal.” In the edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, now publishing, the article “Inland Navigation,” which appeared last year, gives the following particulars of the Exe River and Exeter Canal. “The estuary of the Exe is navigable for eight miles, from Exeter up to the town of Topsham, and a little above this a canal proceeds from the river, running full three miles up its west side. It is said that the first lock constructed in England was on this navigation, in 1675. But in 1829 an Act was passed for making the canal enter the estuary at the Turf, two miles lower down, which will increase its length to five miles, with a depth of fifteen feet.” This account admits of correction: for “eight miles,” read, six miles; for “from Exeter,” read, from Exmouth; for “ a little above,” read, rather less than two miles below; for “1675,” read 1566; and for “three miles,” read, five miles; and if to these little alterations it be added, in explanation, that the canal was already extended to Turf, and deepened to the extent of fifteen feet, in 1829, and that the Act was passed to remove some legal difficulty regarding the tolls, a fair apprehension of the facts of the case may be obtained.
page 8 note b I am not prepared to maintain that it was the first pound-lock canal ever constructed, though I think it highly probable. It has been said by La Lande, whose work I have not seen, that true locks were set up in the Brenta in 1488, and in the Milan canals shortly after. Unless his statement be supported be strong evidence, I should entertain great doubts; for, had this been the case, it is strange that the canal of Briare, which was not commenced until many years after that of Exeter was completed, abould have been the first in Prance to which so important an invention was applied. The term Lock was, until a recent period, used in this country for a sluice formed of two gates. In an Act passed in the “12 Edw. IV. A. D. 1472,” we read of “lokkez,” which no one will imagine were pound-locks. Indeed it is worth observing, that neither in the reign of Elizabeth, nor of William the Third, were the Locks at Exeter called Locks, but “pooles between two gates,” or “a pere of sluces:” and the “double Lock,” formed at the latter period, has evidently been so called because it was a real pound-lock, having Gates at each end.
page 13 note c From a MS. in the handwriting of Hoker, belonging to the Town Council of Exeter. It commences, “Here folowe the names of all and everie of the Kinges of England from the tyme of Kinge John who died yn October Ao. 1216 untyll the tyme of the reigne of Quene Elizabeth, and of her yeres and the names of the mayres & hedd officers yu everie of the sayd severall Kinges tymes, together wh a Copie of all the Recordes of the Citie for and duringe those Kinges Regnes as be extant and remayninge And here understaunde yt from the tyme of the Conqueste untyll the xiiij yere of Kinge Edward the first there is extant one Roll of Recorde makinge a shorte mencion of the three yeres yn the tyme of Kynge Henry the Third, viz. the xlviij, xlix and 1 yeres of his Reigne, that is to say, for xxxvij yeres no Recordes remayninge but only one MS. whether it [were] by the iniquitye of the tyme, the uncertentie of the government, cyvill warres, intestine rebellyons, or neglygence of Officers, I referr yt to others to thyncke what they lyst; ffurther, yn the ende of everye p'ticuler mayers yere there is subnected and wrytten a breeffe abstracte of some suche things as were donne yn that yere and especially yn these West partes.”
page 16 note d From a MS. belonging to the Town Council of Exeter, entitled, “An Abstracte of all the Orders & ordynances extant, made, enacted, & ordayned by the Maiors & Co'mon Councell of the Citie of Excester for the tyme beinge for the good government of the sayde Citie & Cōmōwelthe of the same, By John Vowell al's Hooker & Chamberlayne of the same—Ao, ix Edw. IV. Jo. Hamlyn.”
page 16 note e Hoker's “Abstracte, Haven 1.”
page 16 note f Statutes of the Realm.
page 17 note g Act Book, No. I. f. 54 a.
page 17 note h Itinerary, f. 64. vol. i.
page 17 note i Act Book, No. I. f. 115.
page 17 note k Act Book, No. I. f. 117. Hoker's “Abstracte, Haven 3.”
page 17 note l Haven of Exe.
page 17 note m Act Book, No. II. f. 42.
page 17 note n Ibid. f. 45.
page 17 note o Ibid.
page 18 note p Act Book, No. II. f. 139.
page 18 note q “ Sr John Sentleiger knight together wth Robert Yeo Esquier & John Trew for the said John Trew do stunde bounden yn the some of fyve hundreth pounds to the maior, bayliffs & coʼialtie of the citie of Exceter for the perfectinge of the new worke.” Act Book, No. III. f. 197, 198.
page 18 note r Hoker's “Abstracte, Haven 4.”
page 18 note s “Order & processe of the convenʼnts, &c.” Act Book, No. II. f. 139.
page 19 note t Act Book, No. II.
page 19 note u Ibid. f. 139.
page 19 note x The term Pyll is still used, and means a Creek subject to the tide. The pylls are the channels through which the drainings of the marshes enter the river. The pyll iii which our canal terminated was a little estuary to Matford Brook.
page 19 note y Countess-wear was opposite Mount-wear, and about a hundred yards above the present bridge. Some of its ponderous timber is still visible at low water.
page 19 note z In the MS “Case of an Act of Parliament relating to the waterworks,” A. D. 1699, it is said that “Botes and Lighters did with merchandize on Spring Tides only passe and repasse.”
page 20 note a In this map a second pair of gates is represented, introduced, it would appear, to shew the bridge by which the canal was crossed. The Act Books inform us that this bridge was at Bole pool, which does not come within the limits of the map. Such license was common in old plans. There appears to have been an attempt at washing out this second pair of gates, which is not so strongly shewn in the copy as in the original.
page 20 note b Act Book, No. II. f. 195.
page 20 note c This has always been a single lock. A single pair of gates was formerly called a lock or sluice, and this, which possessed two pair, was therefore called “Double Lock.”
page 20 note d The land of Arundel, and that of Loveys and Penrudocke, having been divided amongst many tenants, who claimed compensation, a detailed description of the property was required. But the land of Floyer, where the upper lock was situated, being in his own occupation, such a description only is given as would determine the portion to be purchased. The same was the case with Hullonde's property.
page 21 note e Land purchased for the Canal.
page 22 note f Braunii Civitates Orbis Terrarum.
page 22 note g Act Book, No. II. f. 140.
page 22 note h Act Book, No. III. f. 299. My disappointment on finding these measurements incomplete may be conceived. The carelessness of the clerk was the more remarkable, and the more provoking, because the minutes of even unimportant proceedings were usually entered very carefully.
page 23 note i Act Book, No. II. f. 140.
page 23 note k The following item from an estimate for the enlargement of the canal in 1699 confirms this view: “For digging a poole between the said two gates which must be 300 foot in length at least & about 80 foot in breadth on the topp or surface of the water & 50 foot broad att the bottom & ffor walling the same on both sides, for the convenient & necessary passing of shipps one by thother.”
page 23 note l Floyer's Conveyance.
page 23 note m Act Book, No. II. f. 139.
page 24 note n Lansdowne MSS. No. 28. article 12.
page 24 note o Act Book, No. III. f. 160.
page 24 note p Act Book, No. III. f. 169.
page 24 note q Ibid. f. 190.
page 24 note r Ibid. 191.
page 24 note s Ibid. No. II.
page 26 note t Haven of Exe, f. 51.
page 26 note u Since the above Paper was read to the Society i have been kindly referred by J. H. Merivale, Esq. for additional information to MS. Lansd. 107, art. 73. It is addressed to Lord Burleigh, and relates to his suit against the Chamber of Exeter. The first passage coutains a melancholy picture of the state to which he was reduced. “The varyablenes of men, and the great injury done unto me, brought me in such case that I wyshed my credetours sattisfyd and I away from earth: what becom may of my poor wyf & children, who lye in great mysery, for that I have spent all.” He afterwards recounts “the things whear in God hath gyven (him) exsperyance.” They relate to mining operations, and various branches of Civil and even Military Engineering.
It may, however, be satisfactory to state, that in 1573 this harassing suit was brought to a conclusion. I have seen Trew's release to the Corporation, “in concideration of an Annuitie or yearly rente of Thirty Pounds, and the some of Two hundred and twenty four pounds.” There is a reciprocal release on the part of the Chamber of the same date, saving “harmles the said John Trewe, against the owners of the grounde,” &c.
In MS. Lansd xxxi. art. 74, are “Reasons against the proceedings of John Trew in the works of Dover haven, 1581.” It appears from Lyon's History of Dover, that he was engaged at 10s. a day, but they thought he was inclined to protract the work, and so dismissed him.
I believe nothing is known of him after this.
page 26 note x These Locks are masterpieces of scientific construction. The Turf Lock is built on piles driven through a fluid bog into the subjacent rock, twenty feet beneath the inverted arch. It is 131 feet in length, and 30 feet 3 inches in breadth. Its lower sill is two inches under Exmouth bar, with 16 feet water on the upper sill. Vessels of great burden pass through this Lock in three minutes. The whole canal, which was carried on in the face of great natural difficulties, is finely executed. The Engineer was James Green, Esq. of Exeter A plan has been engraved, under the auspices of the Corporation, of the Canal, with his extensions and improvements.
page 26 note y Nine hundred feet long, and gradually increasing from 90 to 120 feet in width. It is deeper than the canal: so that if the water were lowered in the latter several feet, the vessels in the wet dock would continue to float.