Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/274

248 was decided to alter the wording of the paragraph in future circulars to avoid the possible misconception.

The present vicar, the Rev. J. E. Rogers, to whom I wrote, was unable to give me any information, but kindly asked the parish clerk to write me, and the latter tells me that nothing is now paid.

In Statistics of the Fisheries of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, by George Nail, 1866, the witness Hammond, previously mentioned, stated:

"We pay tithe on both herring and mackerel. The clergymen value the herring at so much per last, according to their number. Persons go round and ascertain the number each boat has caught, value them, and deduct a certain proportion for the boat's expense; the remainder is divided into eighty shares" (termed "doles;" the statutes and ordinances of the town regulated these from very early times) "of which he takes one. It amounts to between £2 and £3 each boat. The Yorkshire boats pay nothing."

With reference to the adjoining parish of Gorleston, Dr. J. Bately has kindly sent me a copy of a Terrier dated 1827 which says:

"Southtown is consolidated to Gorleston with Westtown where all the Tythes both great and small belong solely to the vicar of Gorleston and are constantly paid to him or his tenants in kind or compounded for. Tythe of fish taken of the sea is by custom due to the vicar, viz., for every boat occupied or employed in the herring fishery and the owners whereof live within the parish 10s. 6d., and for boats employed in the mackerel fishery a consideration likewise hath always been paid to the vicar in proportion to the quantity taken."

This customary payment has also long ceased, Dr. Bately tells me. It was probably discontinued at the same time as at Yarmouth.

The vicar of Lowestoft, the Rev. W. J. Lawrance, has