The High Court of Admiralty in Relation to National History, Commerce and the Colonisation of America.— A.D. 1550–1650

Extract

The High or Principal Court of the Admiralty of England was erected probably about the beginning of the fifteenth century, and for half a century before this courts were held by the Admirals of the North, South, and West within their respective districts. But the business of these early Admiralty Courts was trifling, and they have left scarcely any records. There are upon the Patent Rolls and elsewhere a few meagre references to their proceedings, but these are of little interest, and need not delay us to-night. It was Henry VIII. who first raised the Court to something like the importance of the King's Courts at Westminster, and its records may be said to begin with his reign. But for many years they are scanty in bulk, and it is not until about the year 1550 that they begin to be of any general interest. From this date onwards they are very voluminous; and in order to give a general idea of their character as a whole it will be necessary for me to-night to deal with those of a limited period only. I select those which belong to the latter half of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century, because they are the earliest, and also because, this being the period of the Court's greatest activity, they are the most interesting. The history of England is to a great extent the history of her ships and seamen, and this is notably the case during the century with which I propose to deal.