After the conclusion of this agreement, the several parties maintained a more peaceable and friendly correspondence with each other than had subsisted for many years before; and persevered in this amicable intercourse until the year 1662, when the annual composition of three pounds and ten shilling being either refused or neglected to be paid by the burgesses of Yarmouth to the bailiffs of the ports, the said bailiffs never repaired to Yarmouth any more in a public capacity. {41a} The town of Yarmouth having thus driven away the bailiffs of the cinque ports, that place became the general rendezvous of all such vessels as were employed in the herring fishery; and thereby monopolised, in a great measure, the whole fishery to themselves, by confining to the narrow limits of their own haven, the purchasing of all such herrings as were not caught by the boats belonging to the neighbouring towns, and where they were compelled to pay the custom demanded by the town of Yarmouth: for the town of Lowestoft, and all other towns on the coast, an indisputable right to fit out what number of vessels they pleased from their own towns, for the purpose of catching herrings, without being subject to any customs payable to Yarmouth, and also to purchase herrings at sea from certain vessels called ketchmen; but if they could not be sufficiently supplied with herrings by these means, they were then under the necessity of repairing to Kirkley road or Yarmouth haven, where they became subject to the customs due to the town of Yarmouth; for the right of the burgesses of Yarmouth to levy these customs was confined solely to the haven and Kirkley road; and therefore the ketchmen, who sold herrings at sea, thereby evaded the customs and injured the town of Yarmouth; which formerly had occasioned many disputes, particularly in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and probably was the principal motive which induced the burgesses of Yarmouth to force away the portsmen. The town of Yarmouth, not being satisfied with their late acquisitions, began to extend their views much farther, even so far as to endeavour to exclude the town of Lowestoft from having any share in the herring fishery; and in order to give their designs the greater appearance of justice, they pleaded the Charter, 46 Edward III., for uniting Kirkley road to Yarmouth haven; and pretended that the seven leuks, inserted in that charter as the boundary of their liberties, were not miles, but leagues; and also, that the said leuks were not to be measured from the key of Yarmouth, but from the mouth of the haven which at this time had extended far to the south, and formerly as far as Corton; thereby expecting to extend their liberties beyond the roads of Lowestoft, and consequently wholly to exclude the merchants of that place from a privilege which they had enjoyed from time immemorial, viz., that of purchasing herrings near their own town.