CINQUE PORTS. The Cinque Ports, or Five Ports, is the name of an ancient jurisdiction in the south of England, which is still maintained with considerable modifications and diminished authority. As the name implies, the original members of the body were only five in number —Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich; but to these were afterwards added the “Ancient Towns” of Winchelsea and Rye with the same privileges, and a good many other places, both corporate and non-corporate, which, with the title of Limb or Member,held a subordinate position. To Hastings were attached the corporate members of Pevensey and Seaford, and the non-corporate members of Bulverheeth, Petit Iham, Hidney, Beaksbourne, and Grange; to Romney, Lydd, and Old Romney, Dengemarsh, and Oswardstone; to Dover, Folkstone and Feversham, and. Margate, St John’s, Goresend, Burchington Wood, St Peter’s, Kingsdowne, and Ringwold; to Sandwich, Fordwich, and Deale, Walmer, Ramsgate, Stoner, Sarr, and Brightlingsea. The jurisdiction thus extends along the coast from Seaford in Sussex to Burghington near Margate in Kent; and it also includes a number of inland districts, at a considerable distance from the ports with which they are connected. The non-incorporated members are within the municipal jurisdiction of the ports to which they are attached; but the corporate members are as free within their own liberties as the individual ports themselves. The incorporation of the Cinque Ports had its origin in the necessity for some means of defence along the southern seaboard of England, and in the lack of any regular navy. Up to the reign of Henry VII. they had to furnish the Crown with nearly all the ships and men that were needful for the state; and for a long time after they were required to give ...