In 1744 a battery of six pieces of cannon, eighteen pounders, was erected at the south end of the town, for protecting ships in the south roads, and guarding the passage of the Stanford. The cannon were given by Government, but the ammunition was furnished by the town. On the 14th October, 1745, in consequence of the rebellion in Scotland, a subscription was opened in Lowestoft for the defence of his Majesty’s person, the support of the Government and the peace and security of the county; when the sum of £200 was subscribed, advice was received of the victory obtained over the rebels, 16th April, 1746, by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, only £20 of the subscription was paid. In 1756 a battery of two pieces of canon, eighteen pounders, was erected upon the beach at the north end of the town, near the ness. These pieces were taken from the battery at the south end of the town. They were never of any great service to the town, for vessels belonging to the enemy seldom approach so near to the coast as to come within reach of the guns. On the 7th of April, 1778, Lord Amherst, accompanied by his brother, came to Lowestoft and examined the forts in consequence of the survey they were making by order of the Government, of the state of all the fortifications on the coast. In 1782, when England was involved in a war with France, Spain, Holland, and America at the same time, was under apprehension that the British Navy was unable to maintain its superiority as mistress of the sea, when threatened by such numerous and powerful enemies, the county of Suffolk held a general meeting at Stowmarket, where it was agreed to open a subscription throughout the county, in order to raise a sum sufficient for building a man-of-war of the line, of seventy-four guns, to be presented to the Government. The town of Lowestoft subscribed £38 6s. 6d. The sum proposed to be raised was £30,000. The utmost efforts were exerted to obtain the money, and weekly accounts were published in the papers of the success that attended it in the several parts of the county; but it appearing, at the close of the year, that the whole subscription amounted to only about £20,000, it was apprehended that the zeal of the county was nearly exhausted, and that the subscription had arrived at almost its utmost limits. In the beginning of the year 1783, the war being terminated in a general peace, a further subscription became unnecessary, and consequently the subscribers were not called on for their subscriptions.