by reason the said fishermen are diversly charged and burdened with service of her majesty in sizes, sessions, and other courts and other services, and with musters and setting forth of soldiers, besides their service by sea, properly appertaining unto them, and especially by reason of the great scarcity and dearth of timber and wood now of late years, by means of iron furnaces placed near the Downs, risen from three shillings and four pence a ton, to thirteen shillings and four pence; from two shillings and sixpence a load of wood to seven shillings; and from six shillings and eight pence a load of coal to fourteen shillings; and of billet or tall wood, from two shillings and sixpence the hundred to eight shillings the hundred; and ship board from fifteen shillings the hundred to forty shillings the hundred.”—“_Item_. If any owner or lessor of any house within _Brighthelmston_, shall admit any tenant or tenants, under tenant or under tenants, into his said house, except the said tenant or tenants shall, by the opinion of the constable and the churchwardens in writing first to be set down, be thought of sufficient ability to maintain himself and his family without burdening the town, then the said owner or lessor shall forfeit for every month that any such tenant, not being estimated as aforesaid, shall inhabit or dwell in his said house, to the poor man’s box, three shillings and four pence.”—“_Item_. If any questions, doubt, or ambiguity, shall hereafter happen to arise about any of the said orders, or the pains therein contained, then the same to be expounded and interpreted by the said commissioners, or any of them. “Signed “T. BUCKHURST, RICHARD SHELLEY.” The signatures of some of the principal inhabitants follow on the next page; but it will be seen by the signs, or characters, affixed to those who could not inscribe their names, that education had made but little progress amongst them, John Slater, Bartholomew Bowredge, Stephen Pyper, William Wollay, Christopher Ingelard, Deryk Carver, and J. Duconde, the younger, being the only persons who could sign their names, and their writing even, is of a most inferior description. The figures in parenthesis correspond with those annexed to the signs as here shown, which are the “his marks” made by the persons signing. The names are:—