[In 13th c. sink pors repr. OF. cink porz, Latin quinque portus, five ports.]
A group of sea-ports (originally five, whence the name) situated on the south-east coast of England, and having jurisdiction along the coast continuously from Seaford in Sussex, to Birchington near Margate, including also Faversham, which have existed as an incorporation from an early period of English history.
The five ‘Ports’ are in order of precedence Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney, Hithe, to which were added in very early times the ‘Ancient Towns’ of Rye and Winchelsea, with all the privileges of ‘Ports.’ Several of these have detached ‘Members,’ of which Seaford, Pevensea, Fordwich, Folkstone, Faversham, Lydd, Tenterden, Deal, and Margate, are ‘Corporate Towns’ with the same jurisdiction and municipal functions as the parent Ports.
In ancient times the Cinque Ports furnished the chief part of the English navy, in return for which they had many important privileges and franchises. These were mostly abolished by the Reform Act of 1832 and the Corporation Act of 1835. The Lord Wardenship is now chiefly an honorary dignity, and is usually conjoined with that of Governor of Dover Castle. See Vol. I of the Census Returns for 1871, and M. Burrows, Cinque Ports.
1191. Carta, 27 March, an. 2 Rich. I., in Cooper, Winchelsea (1850), 64. Non … aliter quam Barones de Hastingiis et de quinque portibus placitant.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 515. Sir Huber de Boru … & the sink pors scarseliche mid ssipes eiȝtetene, & geue hom bataile in the se.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 18. Which … at the first gaue … to all the residue the name of Cinque Ports.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. i. 49. They that beare The Cloath of Honour ouer her, are foure Barons Of the Cinque Ports.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 216. In Matthew Paris … it is reported that the Barons of the Cinqueports carried the Canopie ouer the King, as their ancient right is.
1640–4. Open. Parl., in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 1. Such Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, and Barons of the Cinque-Ports, as were return’d.
1858. Longf., Birds of Pass. (1865), 261. As if to summon from his sleep the Warden And Lord of the Cinque Ports.
1873. J. Lewis, Digest Census of 1871, 24. The Court of Shepway, the Supreme Court of the Cinque Ports, is so named from the place near Hythe where … it was generally held.
b. Used for ‘barons of the Cinque Ports.’
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. i. 20. The Order of the Coronation…. 8 A Canopy, borne by foure of the Cinque-Ports, vnder it the Queene in her Robe.
† 2. fig. Applied to the five senses. Obs.
1633. D. R[ogers], Treat. Sacraments, ii. 7. She [conscience] … keeps the cinque ports, the out-lets and in-lets of the heart and life.
1676. W. Hubbard, Happiness of People, 12. The Cinque-ports of the senses in and about the head.
† b. ? The gates or outlets of a town. Obs.–1
c. 1600. Timon. I walked through the byewayes of the towne, The Schooles, the Cinqueports, the markett places.
† 3. Cinque-port: a kind of fishing net (see quots.). Also Cinque-port net. Obs.
1707. Phillips, Cinque Port, a sort of Fishing Net, so call’d from the fiue Entrances into it.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Net, Cinque-port Net, in fishery, a name given to a sort of square net, resembling a cage, and having five entrances into it.
4. attrib. (in form Cinque-port).
1795. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 9/2. He sat in parliament as a Cinque port baron.
1888. M. Burrows, Cinque Ports, iii. 59. Inconsistent with his [Edw. the Confessor’s] Cinque Port policy. Ibid., iv. 62. The Charter of 6 Edward I. (1278) is the palladium of the Cinque Port liberties.
