The Lowestoft people were so pleased with the King’s expression of sympathy with their cause, that they submitted a second petition to him asking him to preside in person at the hearing of the case, and “to put an end to all differences according to the rights and justice of their cause.”
The King did attend the hearing of the case, but he did not gratify the expectations of our old townspeople by deciding it in their favour at once.
The case was heard by the Privy Council on several days before the King, the Duke of York, and many great officers of state and noblemen. As when the case was brought before the Star Chamber in Elizabeth’s time, the Privy Council attempted to get the matter settled by referring it to the law authorities. But these learned persons found themselves equally unable to settle the dispute on legal grounds, and it was accordingly referred to the House of Lords. After the suit had been for upwards of two years under discussion by these various authorities, the House of Lords gave their decision, which was simply a repetition of the decision of the judges in Elizabeth’s time, but it was supplemented by an order to the Sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk, to measure the distance of seven miles from the “Crane Key” at Yarmouth, along the shore towards Lowestoft, and to place there a new post to mark the limits, “within which the Bailiffs and Corporation of Yarmouth are to enjoy their full privileges and immunities, as the said statute of the 31st, Edward III., and their charter do afford them, and no further.”
PROCEEDINGS AT YARMOUTH ABOUT THE MEASUREMENT OF THE SEVEN MILES.
The 27th of May 1662, was agreed upon by the Sheriffs for making the measurement in pursuance of the order of the House of Lords, and at 9 o’clock in the morning of the appointed day, a number of Suffolk gentlemen, including seven Justices of the Peace, living near Lowestoft, and accompanied by the Under Sheriff of Suffolk, appeared at Yarmouth. Neither the Sheriff of Norfolk, Sir Richard Bacon, nor the Under Sheriff, Mr. Roger Smith, of Norwich, had arrived; but at 11 o’clock Mr. Roger Smith put in an appearance, and excused the absence of the High Sheriff on the ground that he was at his house about 30 miles away, and not in health.
