New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-28
TRINITY HOUSE.
A QUEER OLD INSTITUTION WHICH AID
MINISTER'S ENGLAND'S LIGHT
HOUSE SYSTEM


both sides OF the Atlantic to ascribe the strand
ing Of the Paris on Sunday as also the loss Of
the Mohegan last autumn, to the neglect of
Trinity House to provide for the proper lighting
and buoying OF the most dangerous portion &C the
Cornish coast, a good many inquiries arc being
made as to what the Trinity House really is.
1t is In response TO these demands for informa-
ton on the subject and for the benefit OF lands
men that the following brief sketch is given of
ali institution the name of which for at least
two hundred years has been familiar 10 every
seafaring man.
Trinity House is one of the oldest of those de-
partments Of the British Government which are
virtually Independent both Of the National
Treasury and of the Crown. and which manage
their finances without the interference super
vision OF Parliament. AS the College of Her
aids is permitted to maintain itself in existence
by means OF charging heavy fees for the regis
uation OF titles, for the grants OF armorial bear
ings, for genealogical researches and for the
management Of state functions, SO has the
Trinity House been allowed during more than
three centuries to raise an enormous revenue by
levying pilotage and lighthouse dues on all yes
sells entering British ports In return for this
Trinity House has undertaken. ever since its
foundation. to maintain and erect lighthouses,
to place buoys and to furnish efficient pilots in
all British ports and British waters, whether at
home abroad.
FOUNDED BY HENRY VIII
The origin of Trinity House must be ascribed
to King Henry VIII True there are traditions
TO show that the institution was in existence
before his day under a different name out IL
was he who first granted the charter OF moor
poration to what was then a guild OF piiots' sea-
men and mariners at Deptford Strond' IN the
County of Kent. The deed of Incorporation re-
cites that it was granted by Henry VIII in sign
of "the sincere and entire love. ana likewise ue-
votiop. which we bear and have towards the
most glorious and undiyidable Trinity' anu DIS
a further sign Of his royal favor the monarch
,oood under the direct control of the guild all
tbo' royal backwards and national arsenals then
in existence The corporation narrowly escaped
dissolution during the two successive reigns' OUT
developed when Elizabeth came to the THRONE
the powers of the corporation being cohsiue'"ois
enlarged by the Virgin Queen
Ito inheritance may be gathered from the fact
that it undertook In the early part or the sew
enteenth century to put down piracy "hile IL
was intrusted with the direction or the con-
struction and designing OF ships as well as
with the responsibility of surveying them "heh
built hired or purchased by the government
II determined the size and equipment Of every
of an historian of those days, mot gum not
charge of powder nor a round OF shot was placed
ON board any vessel. whether belonging to the
Government or not. without Trinity House
certificate" .
Incidentally II may be mentioned that in l6l'
a vessel called the Mayfower was offered 1or
sale to the Government. but was rejected as
unfit for the public service by direction ana on
the report of the brethren of the Trinity House.
While there is nothing positively known on the
subject vet there is much circumstantial evil
dence to show that it was this very same snip
TINS rejected by the Crown which subsequently
brought the Pilgrim Fathers to this country.
In those days Trinity House likewise mad
charge Of the victualling of the navy. mad con-
troll of The naval stores at Depford, its brethren
SAT "a Judges in all admiralty cases, and the
corporaton as such even had the right OIL DEAL
ing directly with foreign rulers in the appoint
rnent of consuls at seaports.
1t was during the reign of Queen Bess that
Trinity House first undertook the lighting or
the British coast the earliest lighthouse which
II built being that at Castor in Norfolk. The
lighthouses and beacons which had existed I'M
ill that time owed their existence and main
tenance to private munificence. the majority or
them having been kept up by great mobiles, alb
beys situated along the coast. and by the
municipalities of seaport towns. In fact, 1t was
not until 1S36-that is. just year before Queen
Victoria came to the throne-that Trinity House
was authorized by Parliament to effect CON-
pulsory purchase Of all the lighthouses on Brit
ish coasts, 1t being rightly held that private
ownership of these beacons was detrimental to
efficient service. and that the control of the en-