que Ports, is stated by Hasted, in his very elaborate History of Kent,[1] to have been in the reign of King Henry III., when they were incorporated with them in a participation of all their privileges; as were, at different times, several other places, which were, therefore, called members, or limbs, of the Ports.
The Cinque Ports, from their earliest establishment, have continued, and still continue, to be governed by their own exclusive laws; having and exercising a jurisdiction like that of a county palatine, or principality ; distinct, separate, and independent of all the other courts of law , both civil and criminal, of the kingdom ; taking cognizance themselves of all criminal offences, to the highest ones, with the power even over life and death .
For the better conducting of their proceedings; for the holding of pleas, and their great assemblies, they were concentrated in one grand court, held, in early times, at a place called Shepway Cross, near Hythe, and where the Lord Warden received his oath at his first entry into office; and here it was that King Edward I., before he came to the crown, anno 1265, when he was Lord-Warden , exacted of the Barons of the Ports their oath of fidelity to his father, King Henry III., against the maintainers of the barons' war. On this occasion, however, it seems that the Barons of the Cinque Ports shewed themselves adverse to the royal cause, by siding with the refractory barons, whom they joined, and sent out their fleet to guard the coast, and to prevent any foreign troops from landing to assist the king ; and on this they justified their conduct by saying, that "whatever was for the good of the nation , must, also, be so " for the sovereign."
In this court the general business relating to the whole community was transacted before the Warden, as chief and principal over the whole. But this court was not restrained to be held at Shepway Cross only, but might be kept else where, within the Ports or their Members, at the Lord-'
- ↑ 'Hasted's " History of Kent, " vol. 4, page 77.
