The Trinity House and British Lighthouse Policy

A conflict soon arose between the Crown, the Trinity House, and private lighthouse builders concerning the right to establish lighthouses and collect tolls^[1]. The Trinity House asserted that this right was vested in them by various charters and Acts of Parliament^[1]. Wealthy shipowners and colliery owners became alarmed by the number of lighthouse projects, preferring the risk of losing a ship or two to paying regular charges for navigation safety^[1]. This view was shared by the Trinity House Board^[1].

Debates in Parliament and discussions in the Privy Council ensued, with the general impression that the Trinity House was charged with the erection and maintenance of coast lights but could not impose rates without a special patent or license from the Crown^[1]. The Crown could give this license to the Trinity House or any private individual^[1]. Private lighthouse schemes were opposed with ruthless vigor by the Trinity House, which was in pleasant contrast to the corporation's present watchful care, perfect system, and public spirit^[1]. Schemes for lighting locations such as the Lizard, St. Catherine's, the Forelands, the Goodwins, Dungeness, the Spurn, and the Farne Islands were condemned as needless, useless, dangerous, a burden, and a hindrance to navigation^[1].

Despite the opposition, lighthouses were built in considerable numbers, with rates being gathered, and, by the first half of the seventeenth century, signals to mariners broke forth from many dangerous headlands^[1]. These were not in positions requiring great engineering skill, and reefs and shoals far out at sea remained unmarked until recent times^[1]. The Eddystone lighthouse, fourteen miles from shore, was the first great engineering triumph, and Winstanley deserves credit for erecting a lighthouse there^[1].

Floating lights, or lightships, were projected as early as 1623, with another proposal, as a novelty, half a century later at the Nore^[1]. The Trinity House laughed at the suggestion, and the Nore remained without a light until around 1730, when the first lightship was anchored there^[1]. The utility of the corporation was manifested in many other ways, despite its 'lighthouse policy' being bad and illiberal^[1]. The corporation dissuaded the king from building a 'big ship' merely for show because no existing port could take such a ship and no anchor or cable would hold her^[1].

During the struggle between the King and Parliament, the board was loyal to the former and was superseded in its authority by a committee^[1]. With the restoration of Charles II came a restoration of the ancient privileges of the Trinity House, watched over by General Monk as master^[1]. Other famous men presided over the corporation somewhat later, including Samuel Pepys^[1]. Throughout this time, the corporation's charities were not forgotten, enlarging almshouses and organizing means for the relief of aged seamen^[1].

A little more than a century later, the lighthouse policy of the Trinity House had entirely changed^[1]. The board no longer thwarted lighthouse proposals but was proposing them itself, helping sailors by demanding good and steady lights from private owners for the dues they paid and furthering projects for improving lighthouse luminants^[1]. The corporation was viewed as a public-spirited institution laboring in the interests of navigation^[1].

The result was inevitable^[1]. In 1836, privately maintained lights were extinguished, and the entire control of the lighthouse system was handed over to the corporation^[1]. The corporation's only desire for the entire control of English lighthouses was that the very best should be done in regard to their management^[1].