Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION NINE.
SOCIAL HISTORY.
VI. THE PILOTS.

The Dover Pilots — first Cinque Ports, and now Trinity
Pilots — have long formed an important element in the social
life of Dover. They were called Cinque Ports Pilots,
because, for nearly four centuries, their organisation was
controlled by the Court of Lodemanage of the Cinque Ports,
over which the Lord Warden presided.

The piloting of merchant ships to the Thames and
across the Channel to the Dutch ports became a regular
occupation before the Reign of Henry VIII. Dover mariners
took up that business on their own account ; but the Lord
Warden found it to be necessary to regulate the organisation,
so as to ensure that the pilots were properly qualified and
that they made uniform charges for their services. In 1526,
Sir Edward Guildeford, the Lord Warden, established the
Trinity House of the Cinque Ports, about the same time
that the Trinity Houses of Deptford, Hull and Newcastle
were formed ; but there was no need for the Trinity House
of the Cinque Ports to have a charter, because it was
authorised under their general charter. In course of time
the term, Trinity House of the Cinque Ports, dropped out
of general use, because the pilots' affairs were regulated by
the ancient Court of Lodemanage, which continued to
control the Cinque Ports Pilots until the death of the Duke
of Wellington.

The Court of I-odemanage was first regularly organised
for the control of the Pilots in the year 1526, and the first
enrolment of Pilois was made on the 26th February in that
year, when fourteen candidates from the Port of Dover were
licensed, one from Deal, and two from Margate. Most of
the Dover pilots were Jurats of the Corporation, and some
had filled the office of Mayor of Dover. More lodesmen
were from time to time licensed, and the Court ordered that
four substantial men should be wardens. Sir Edward Guilde-
ford, the Lord \\'arden, and the four wardens formed the
Court, and framed the bye-laws for the regulation of the
fellowship. Their successors in oflfice made many other



SOCIAL HISTORY 423

regulations, forming a continuous series from 1526 to 1724.
At the latter date the substance of the various regulations
was embodied in a code, which was authorised by Act of
Parliament. One of the regulations was that the fines
inflicted on the Pilots were to be used, half for the repair
of Dover Castle and half for the repair of St. Martin's Mill;
and, after the Reformation, the second half was for the
repair of the old Wike. In 1590, it was decreed that once
a year the Lodesmen should take a boat and examine the
Channel from the South Foreland to the Nore, and report
alterations in depth and other changes. These records of
soundings were afterwards made annually. One of the bye-
laws formed under the new Act of Parliament required that
a certain number of the Pilots should be always cruising at
sea, except in very bad weather; but, in 1730, a Look-Out
House for Pilots was erected on Cheeseman's Head (where
the Admiralty Pier now leaves the shore), and that, instead
of cruising, the Pilots next on turn should watch for ships
there. In 1735, ^^ ^^^ further ordered that, in addition to
the Dover Look-Out House, the Pilots should regularly
cruises in three sections — the Dover Pilots as far west as the
Red Fall, near Folkestone ; the Deal Pilots as far west as
the South Foreland ; and the Thanet Pilots in their own
bays as far as the North Foreland, the whole of the sections
being controlled by the Court of Lodemanage at Dover.

The Pilots resident at Dover fonned by far the larger
proportion of the fellowship, and they had a separate fund,
to which they contributed to provide themselves with sick
pay and superannuation allowances as early as the year 1648.
At that time they invested ^180 in purchasing a small estate
at Hesling Wood, Napchester; but in 1689 they sold it to
the owner of Waldershare, and bought half an acre of land
under the cliff above Snargate Street, where they built a
look-out, from which they had a good view, and a short
cut to the Harbour. The early Pilots were supposed to be
all Churchmen, for it was ordered, in 1682, that all
Lodesmen, Wardens or Pilots found at a conventicle or a
dissenters' place of worship should be suspended. In 1700,
the Dover Pilots built a gallery for their own use across the
west end of St. Mary's Church, and paid ^2c for a faculty
authorising the structure.

The Court of Lodemanage, as re-constructed by an
ordnance of William III., consisted of the Lord Warden,



424 ANNALS OF DOVER

the Lieutenant of Dover Castle, the Mayors of Dover and
Sandwich, and the Captains of Deal, Walmer and Sandown
Castles, but the regulations which permitted the Pilots to
elect their Master and Wardens was revoked by George I.
The last Court of Lodemanage was held by the Duke of
Wellington, Lord Warden, on the 21st October, 1851, at
St. James's Church, Dover. Before the time for the next
annual Court Day the great Lord Warden was dead ; and
within two years the Pilots of the ancient Cincfue Ports
Trinity House had been re-organised under the Master and
Brethren of Trinity House, Deptford. All the Pilots who
were licensed by the Court of Lodemanage are now dead;
but the Cinque Ports' Pilots, although now called Trinity
Pilots, are still treated as a separate body under the Deptford
Trinity House, their number being now about one hundred.
The Pilots, since 1891, have cruised in steam cutters, and
they have their officers and pilot houses as of yore. At
Dover the Pilots have long formed an important section of
the community ; and if in the larger Dover of to-day they
are not so conspicuous as in ages past, as long as compulsory
pilotage continues they will be an interesting element in the
maritime fraternity of this ancient Cinque Port.



SOCIAL HISTORY 425