Thames Watermen Act 1698

XIII. Reasons for this Enactment.

Rulers, Overseers, &c. to appoint Watermen to ply on Sundays, between Vanxhall and Limehouse; Rates for crossing the River; Watermen so employed, to pay Money received to the Overseers, &c. who are to pay the Watermen for their Labour; Overplus employed for poor Members; Watermen not so paying Money received; Penalty 40s.

And whereas great Numbers of idle and loose Watermen and Boyes doe worke on the Lords Day commonly called Sunday and exact large [X1 Prices] from Passengers whose necessary Occasions oblige them to passe and repasse the River of Thames and generally spend such their Gaines in Drunkennesse and Prophanenesse the succeeding Weeke For Prevention whereof and to the end that what shall be gott thereby may be applied to the charitable Releife of such aged and maimed Watermen and Lightermen their Widows and Children whose Circumstances want Assistance Be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid That from and after the First Day of June next it shall and may be lawfull to and for the said Rulers and Overseers Auditors and Assistants of the said Society and Company for the time being or the major Part of them on their respective Court Dayes to appoint any Number of Watermen not exceeding Fourty to ply and worke on every Lords Day betweene Vaux Hall above London Bridge and Lime-house below the same Bridge at such common Staires or Places of plying as to the Rulers and Overseers Auditors and Assistants or the major Part of them shall seeme most convenient for the carrying and recarrying of Passengers crosse the said River betweene the Limmitts aforesaid at One Penny each Person soe to be carried And all the Watermen soe to be appointed on every the Daies aforesaid shall on every Munday Morning respectively pay unto the Order of the said Overseers and Rulers Auditors and Assistants all such Summ and Summs of Money as by them respectively shall be received for conveying Passengers on the Lords Day as aforesaid And the said Overseers and Rulers Auditors and Assistants or the major Part of them or their Order shall pay to each respective Waterman working as aforesaid for his Daies Labour soe much as they shall agree for and the Overplus shall from time to time be applied to the Use of the poor aged decayed and maimed Watermen and Lightermen of the said Society and Company and their Widows And if any Person appointed to worke as aforesaid shall neglect to pay on every Munday to the Order aforesaid the full Summ of Money that he shall have earned and received on the Lords Day next before he shall for every such Omission or short Payment forfeite and pay to the Order of the said Overseers and Rulers Auditors and Assistants or the major Part of them the Summ of Forty Shillings to be recovered as aforesaid

Editorial Information

X1 Variant reading of the text noted in The Statutes of the Realm as follows: Prizes O. [O. refers to a collection in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge]