n in Essex to Redcliff, near Seaford, in Sussex; and with
regard to salvage, they comprise all the sea between Seaford in Sussex
to a point five miles off Cape Grisnez on the coast of France, and the
coast of Essex. An older inquisition of 1526 is given by R.G. Marsden in
his _Select Pleas of the Court of Admiralty_, II. xxx. The court is an
ancient one. The judge sits as the official and commissary of the lord
warden, just as the judge of the high court of admiralty sat as the
official and commissary of the lord high admiral. And, as the office of
lord warden is more ancient than the office of lord high admiral (_The
Lord Warden_ v. _King in his office of Admiralty_, 1831, 2 Hagg. Admy.
Rep. 438), it is probable that the Cinque Ports court is the more
ancient of the two.

The jurisdiction of the court has been, except in one matter of mere
antiquarian curiosity, unaffected by statute. It exercises only,
therefore, such jurisdiction as the high court of admiralty exercised,
apart from restraining statutes of 1389 and 1391 and enabling statutes
of 1840 and 1861. Cases of collision have been tried in it (the "Vivid,"
1 _Asp. Maritime Law Cases_, 601). But salvage cases (the "Clarisse,"
_Swabey_, 129; the "Marie," _Law. Rep. 7 P.D._ 203) are the principal
cases now tried. It has no prize jurisdiction. The one case in which
jurisdiction has been given to it by statute is to enforce forfeitures
under the statute of 1538.

Dr (afterwards the Right Hon. Robert Joseph) Phillimore succeeded his
father as judge of the court from 1855 to 1875, being succeeded by Mr
Arthur Cohen, K.C. As Sir R. Phillimore was also the last judge of the
high court of admiralty, from 1867 (the date of his appointment to the
high court) to 1875, the two offices were, probably for the first time
in history, held by the same person. Dr Phillimore's patent had a grant
of the "place or office of judge official and commissary of the court of
admiralty of the Cinque Ports, and their members and appurtenances, and
to be assistant to my lieutenant of Dover castle in all such affairs and
business concerning the said court of admiralty wherein yourself and
assistance shall be requisite and necessary." Of old the court sat
sometimes at Sandwich, sometimes at other ports. But the regular place
for the sitting of the court has for a long time been, and still is, the
aisle of St James's church, Dover. For convenience the judge often sits
at the royal courts of jus