“I do humbly beg your Lordships’ pardon, and express very hearty sorrow for not executing your Lordships’ order, and for any unadvised words uttered by me, which might have any reflection on your Lordships’ judgement and order concerning the matter in difference between the towns of Lowestoft and Yarmouth.”
It was further ordered that he should make the same humble submission before the people on the “Crane Key” at Yarmouth. On these conditions he was released. Doubtless both acts of penance were duly performed.
Although the ghost of the old charter was not finally laid by the result of the contest, it was the last time that the expensive process of an appeal to the Crown, or to Parliament, was resorted to for settling the disputes which it gave rise to between the two towns. The expenses of this protracted suit, defrayed by Lowestoft, amounted to £600, not a very large sum compared with modern experiences.
In order to prevent the question being again raised by Yarmouth as to the distance to which their privileges extended, when Charles II. gave the town a new charter in 1684, a special proviso was inserted in it—
“That the word leuca mentioned in divers former charters signifies an English mile and no more, as declared by the House of Lords in the 15th year of our reign.” { 99}
Thus the town was compelled to accept a construction of the provisions of their old charter which excluded Lowestoft from the area of their application.
The spot where the 7 miles, measured from the Crane Quay at Yarmouth, was found to terminate, was in Gunton Denes about 150 yards this side of the Corton boundary. The post set up in 1663 was washed down a few years afterwards. It had been placed too near the sea, which at that period was advancing on the land at this part of the coast; and in 1676 another post was fixed, a few yards further inland, in the presence of a number of leading men representing the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. This post has been also replaced more than once since, but it is still represented by the post known as the “Corton Pole.” The present post, and one or two of its predecessors, have been used by the Corton Coast Guard for practising their life saving apparatus, and its interesting connection with the history of our old town is not generally known. Old men however still remember this post being known as a boundary mark beyond which Lowestoft people might not land fish. As Gillingwater does not mention any further replacing of the post before he wrote his history, it may be inferred that the post set up in 1676 was standing in his time. From what I have learnt as to the replacing of the posts in later years by the Coast Guard, it would appear that the present post is nearly in the same position as the posts of 1676, and 1596.