In the year 1659 we find, that the former disputes between Yarmouth and Lowestoft respecting Kirkley road and the admeasurement of the seven miles, the boundary of the liberties of Yarmouth, were again revived. During the further prosecution of this affair, the burgesses of Yarmouth traversed the same ground as they had done before; and insisted that Kirkley road, which was united to their haven by the statute of the 46th of Edward III. was opposite to the town of Kirkley, and consequently to the south of Lowestoft; and that the seven miles which circumscribed their liberties were not to be measured from the Crane quay, but from the haven’s mouth; and the better to obviate every objection that might be alleged against them, and that their new pretensions might carry the greater appearance of justice, they had provided, that in the recital of the statute of the 46th of Edward III, in the renewal of their charter in the reign of James I. to have the situation of Kirkley road described as opposite to the town of Kirkley, notwithstanding it is represented in the original statute as being contiguous to the haven’s mouth; and having thus removed the greatest obstacle to a successful renewal of their pretensions, they only waited for a favourable opportunity of carrying their designs into execution. In the year 1659, this desirable and much-wished-for opportunity presented itself. A time when the inhabitants of Lowestoft were overwhelmed with the greatest misfortunes; when their unshaken loyalty, during the late rebellion, had exposed them to all the distresses which soldiers living in free quarters could involve them in; when their principal inhabitants (whom they wanted to defend their rights) were employed as commanders of the royal navy, and their sailors were absent in manning the fleet; when they were reduced to the greatest poverty and distress by a terrible fire, which consumed in the town, houses and merchandise to the amount of £10,000; whilst they were thus struggling under the accumulated miseries of war, fire, and oppression, and sinking under the insupportable burden of those grievous calamities, then it was that the Yarmouth men, imagining that the happy period had arrived when they might renew their pretensions without opposition, and pursue them with success, contrary to all legal authority, renewed their unjust and unreasonable claims, and attacked the almost-ruined and defenceless town of Lowestoft with an armed vessel, which was termed a man-of-war. In this unhappy situation, when almost every avenue to redress was shut against them, and nothing but the ghastly spectres of poverty and ruin were continually presenting themselves to their alarmed imaginations, no other remedy was left but to implore the assistance of the legislative powers of their country, and to lay before them a true representation of their unfortunate state, which was done in the following complaint, shortly after presented to the lords of the privy council.