would give their
ears to know now-a-days.

Fire--which has probably been the cause of more destruction and
confusion than all of the other elements put together--was the cause of
the difficulty that now exists in tracing this ancient Corporation to
its origin, as will be seen from the following quotation from a little
"Memoir, drawn up the present Deputy-Master, and printed for private
distribution," which was kindly lent to us by the present secretary of
the House, and from which most of our information has been derived.

"The printed information hitherto extant [in regard to the Corporation
of Trinity House] is limited to the charter of confirmation granted by
James the Second (with the minor concession, by Charles the Second, of
Thames Ballastage) and a compilation from the records of the Corporation
down to 1746, by its then secretary, Mr Whormby, supplemented by a
memoir drawn up, in 1822, by Captain Joseph Cotton, then Deputy-master.
But the _data_ of these latter are necessarily imperfect, as the
destruction by fire, in 1714, of the house in Water Lane had already
involved a disastrous loss of documentary evidence, leaving much to be
inferentially traced from collateral records of Admiralty and Navy
Boards. These, however, sufficiently attest administrative powers and
protective influence scarcely inferior to the scope of those
departments."

More than a hundred years before the date of its original charter (1514)
the Corporation existed in the form of a voluntary association of the
"shipmen and mariners of England," to which reference is made in the
charter as being an influential body of long standing even at that time,
which protected maritime interests, and relieved the aged and indigent
among the seafaring community, for which latter purpose they had erected
an almshouse at Deptford, in Kent, where also were their headquarters.
This society had inspired confidence and acquired authority to establish
regulations for the navigation of ships and the government of seamen,
which, by general consent, had been adopted throughout the service. It
was, therefore, of tested and approved capacity, which at length
resulted in the granting to it of a charter by Henry VIII in 1514.

From this date the history proper of the Corporation of Trinity House of
Deptford Strond begins. In the charter referred to it is first so
named, and is described as "The Guild or Fraternity of the most glorious
and undividable Trinity o