whipjackes

Gammerstang commented on the word whipjackes

Feast Day of St. Cuthbert, who was invoked to ward of nautical misfortune. Thomas Harman's A Caveat or Warening for Commen Cursetors (1567) told readers of "freshwater mariners" known as "whipjackes"--phony beggars whose vessels were, as Harman explained it, wrecked far inland at the "Playne of Salisbery." He cautioned, "These kynde of caterpillers counterfet great losses on the sea. These wyll runne about the country wyth a counterfet lycence, fayning either shypwracke or spoyle by pyrates neare the coaste of Cornwall or Devonshyre, and lande at some haven towne there, having a large and formall wrytinge with the names and seales of suche men of worshyppe, at the least foure or five, as dwelleth neare the place where they fayne their landinge. And neare to those shires wyll they not begge untyll they come into Wylshyre, Hamshyre, Barkeshyre, Oxfordshyre, Middelsex, and so to London, and downe by the ryver to seeke for their shyppe and goods that they never hade; then passe they into Kent, demaunding almes to bring them home."

April 22, 2018