Quinque Portuum._ The limbs are first mentioned in the Red-Book
of the Exchequer, a miscellaneous collection of treatises, written
before and after the Conquest, and collected together by Alexander
de Swereford, Archdeacon of Shrewsbury, an officer of the Exchequer,
who died in 1246: and also in the Domesday of the Ports, an ancient
manuscript, formerly kept in Dover castle, but now unfortunately lost;
but they do not occur in any charter till that of Edward IV. By what
means or for what purpose these limbs became united to the five head
ports, is now matter of speculation.

The duties which the Ports were bound to perform were incessant and of
the most arduous character, particularly during the early years of the
institution, when the narrow seas were constantly infested by numerous
hordes of fierce, adventurous, and reckless pirates. Exonerated from all
other services, they were bound to exert their own naval force for the
protection of the realm, for the maintenance of the free navigation of
the Channel, for the prevention of piracies, and all impediments and
interruptions whatsoever. Effectually to perform these services,
dangerous and difficult it must be allowed, they were obliged to furnish
among them fifty-seven ships, each manned with twenty men and one boy,
at their own cost, for fifteen days, and for as long a period afterwards
as the king pleased to appoint; but they were then entitled to receive
pay for their services. The sums granted to them by the crown were by no
means a remuneration for the expenses attendant on the large naval force
they wore obliged to keep up at all times for the service of the
kingdom, and often did not cover a third part of the necessary
expenditure. The ships of the Cinque Ports, therefore, were the navy of
the realm, and in almost every reign the pages of history show with how
great honour and reputation the Ports discharged the sacred trust
reposed in their valour, skill and bravery, by their confiding country.