The first Lizard Light was installed by Sir John Killigrew, (died 1632) under a patent from James I., "which he preserved largely at his own expense for five years, notwithstanding the hostility of the Trinity Board, and Cornish inhabitants of the neighbourhood who complained he was taking away 'God's grace' from them!" It is certain they regarded a wreck as a windfall, and were not desirous of preventing its occurrence. Sir John pleaded his cause and answered objections with good sense and ingenuity, but the matter gave him a good deal of vexation and trouble." In 1631, Sir William Killigrew, his kinsman, wrote from "Pendenisse Castle," asking for a fresh patent and to renew the light, urging that "every year many shippes are wreckt for want of it, " but many years passed and several others pleaded in vain before this useful and benevolent project was crowned with success. [Susan Gay, in her 1903 publication entitled Old Falmouth, (p.15) says that Mr. Howard Fox published extracts of the correspondence from the Record Office, in Vol.XXII of the journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. I possess reports 21-23 (1839, 1840 and 1841) and, unfortunately, cannot find these extracts]

The 1688-1850 packet era saw the western approaches largely bereft of lighthouses. The following illustrate those lights which feature in the packet history story, hopefully giving some idea, when cuttings of vessel losses are reviewed, of how well packet captains and crew managed under difficult circumstances. Please bear in mind that a reliable method of calculating Longitude was not available until 1767, and then by using Maskelyn's Nautical Almanac [Published in December 1766, it provided the first practical method for determining longitude using chronometers.]

In 1796, John Harrison died. He, with his patent chronometer, eventually won the prize awarded by the Board of Navigation, who seemed more inclined towards the lunar distance method. (Having sent Maskelyne on a voyage to St. Helena on Prince Henry, , in 1761). His award goes back to Acts to reward the finder of Longitude; Act 12, of Queen Anne (1714), and Act 5, of George III (1765).

Up to 1767, seamen expressed their longitude in leagues (degrees and minutes) east or west of their departure point, or of their destination. The almanac was based on the Greenwich Meridian - i.e degrees east or west of Greenwich. Map and chart publishers began to provide longitudinal graduations based on Greenwich. "By 1767 a Hadley quadrant could be purchased for 3 Guineas, or a brass sextant for about 12 Guineas. Trigonometrical Tables at 10s., and the Almanac and Tables Requisite at 12s. the pair."]

Finally, on navigation:"Chronometers are only as good and useful as the charts that go with them. A reciprocal dynamic: once there were better charts, the usefulness of the chronometer was correspondingly enhanced." [qf. The Quest for Longitude, by J.H. Andrews. Harvard Uni. 1996, Finding the Point at Sea, by David S.Landes, (p.29) ]

To quote Trinity House; "Following the loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovel's squadron of the British Fleet in 1703 in which 2,000 men died. The Elder Brethren of Trinity House decided that the lighting of the Scilly Isles, which at that time consisted of only the old lighthouse at St. Agnes, was inadequate, and resolved to build a lighthouse on the most westerly danger, the Bishop Rock."

1847: It was decided to erect a screw-pile lighthouse at a cost of £12,000. Work was suspended at the end of 1849. Before it could be completed the following season, a heavy gale swept away the whole structure on the evening of 5th February 1850.

Sir John Killigrew was granted a patent for a light on Lizard Point with a proviso that the light should be extinguished at the approach of an enemy. He agreed to erect the lighthouse at his own expense, for a rent of "twenty nobles by the year", for a term of thirty years. He intended to fund the project by collecting from ships that passed the point any voluntary contributions that the owners might offer him. The tower was finished by Christmas 11619, and proved a great benefit to mariners. However, shipowners offered nothing for it's upkeep. Despite opposition from Trinity House, James I set a fee of one halfpenny a ton on all vessels passing the light. The resultant complaints from shipowners caused the patent to be withdrawn, the light extinguished and the tower demolished.

It was not until 1746 that Trinity House supported an attempt by Thomas Fonnereau to erect a lighthouse. The building was completed in 1751, and consisted of two towers, with a cottage built between them, in which an overlooked lay on a sort of couch, with a window on either side commanding a view of the lanterns. "When the bellows-blowers relaxed their efforts and the fires dimmed, he would remind them of their duties by a blast of a cow horn." Trinity House assumed responsibility in 1771. Structural alterations were made in 1812, which left the station much as it is today. The tower stands 19 metres (60 ft) high, with the light 70 metres ( 230 ft) above mean low water.

The Autumn of 1703 was memorable for a fearful storm in and around England - the widow of the ill-fated Henry Winstanley, who built the Lighthouse known as Winstanley's Tower in 1698, and was swept away in it, having expended £5,000 in the erection. She supplanted the Royal bounty and obtained £200 at the end of 1707, and £100 per annum from Lady-day 1708.

A Captain Lovett, by an Act of Parliament, was allowed to charge all ships passing a toll of 1d per ton, both inward and outward. His designer was a man named John Rudyerd, a silk mercer. who came up with a design based on a cone instead of Winstanley's octagonal shape. 13 miles south west of Plymouth (and 40 miles east of Falmouth), Rudyard's Tower survived until 1755. Trinity House placed a light vessel to guard the position until a permanent light could be built. [See 1759]

"Built on Little Brewster Island. A teenage Ben Franklin wrote a "doggeral ditty" about the death by drowning of the first keeper, George Worthlake. The lighthouse suffered damage during the Revolutionary War from both the Americans and the British, and required an extensive rebuilding in 1783. [Click Boston Light or click on Lighthouse Getaway, William A. Britten's well illustrated site.]

On this day, Canada's first lighthouse was lit for the first time in Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The funds for the construction and operation of this lighthouse came from the government of France. The illumination was produced by a circle of oil-fed wicks placed in a glazed wooden chamber on top of a 20-metre stone tower. The danger of fire was always present in such an arrangement and, when the inevitable happened, a masonry top was substituted in 1737. This structure lasted until the second siege of Louisburg in 1758 when it was damaged and subsequently fell into decay. [The National Post, 1 April 1999 & The National Post, 1 April 2000]

"The Manager of the Light House is just come up. He lately went down to put it up; and has fixed it, with every thing that is convenient for Shipping: It was lighted the 23rd Instant; and as it is of Service to the Publick, to our Vessels as well as others, you will make it publick by publishing it in your Paper. It is situated one League S.W. of the Harbour, on Sambra Island. I thought it a new Thing, and of Service; so I have taken the Pains to give you Information of it."

In 1752 – only three years after Halifax was founded – the Governor tried to raise money through a lottery to build a lighthouse to warn vessels away from what were known as the Sambro Ledges or Shoals at the mouth of Halifax harbour. But the lottery flopped and the ticket money had to be refunded. In 1758, the Nova Scotia General Assembly passed an act to authorize the building of a lighthouse financed by "duties paid on spirituous liquors," and in 1759 the 13-metre 44-foot structure, built with granite stones in the British style , was completed. As Captain James Cook noted in 1762, the Sambro light watched Admiral James Wolfe lead the British fleet out of Halifax harbour, to the battle of Quebec in 1759. In 1895, adventurer Joshua Slocum set out to become the first person to sail alone around the world with a final glance back at the Sambro light. He wrote: "I watched light after light sink astern as I sailed into the unbounded sea, 'til Sambro was below the horizon."

John Smeaton decided to construct a tower made of stone rather than wood and he invented a quick drying cement, the formula for which is still used today. Smeaton's Tower was first lit by 24 candles on 16 October 1759. In the 1870's cracks appeared in the rock upon which Smeaton's lighthouse had stood for 120 years, so the top half of the tower was dismantled and re-erected on Plymouth Hoe as a monument to the builder. The remaining stump still stands on the Eddystone Rock.

On Monday Evening last, the NEW YORK LIGHTHOUSE, erected at Sandy Hook, was lighted for the first Time. The House is of an Octagon Figure, having eight equal Sides; the Diameter at the Base, 29 Feet; and at the Top of the Wall, 15 Feet. The Lanthorn is 7 Feet high; the Circumference 33 Feet. The whole Construction of the Lanthorn is Iron; the Top covered with Copper. There are 48 Oil Blazes. The Building from the Surface is Nine Stories; the whole from Bottom to Top 103 Feet. This Structure, was undertaken by Mr. Isaac Conro, of this City, and was carried on with all the Expedition that the Difficulty attending to and fro on the Occasion could possibly admit of; and is judged to be masterly finished.

Trinity House gave a lease to Lieutenant Henry Smith by which he would erect a lighthouse on the Longships, one mile west of Land's End. It was designed by Trinity House architect Samuel Wyatt, elevated 24 metres (80 ft) above the waves, and was first lit in September, 1795. The lantern was so often under water that the character of a fixed light could not be determined with certainty. Wyatt's Tower was replaced by the present circular tower of grey granite built by Sir James Douglass, Trinity House engineer, in 1875. [Qf. www.trinityhouse.co.uk]

A 1799 Reference to the light at Corunna: "We made the land, passed by the entrance to the great naval arsenal of Spain, Ferrol, and soon entered the harbour of Corunna, the French band on board playing "The Marseillaise," then the Republican air, and the batteries of Corunna saluting a ship that had sent in so many prizes for condemnation and sale at its port....We landed at the fine quay in the harbour, and were marched through the lower town - there being an upper one on an elevated site, strongly fortified; and we observed Fort Anthony protecting the harbour, and the Iron Tower of Hercules, nearly 100 feet high, independently of the elevated site on which it stands, forming a lighthouse which is said to be visible at the great distance of twenty leagues at sea - our English lighthouses being rarely visible more than a third of that distance, or twenty miles....

Henry VIII granted a charter to the already existing Trinity House, London to ensure the safe regulation of shipping on the River Thames on 20 May 1514. Prior to that Trinity House had been an Association of Shipmen and Mariners of a semi-religious character and with benevolent objectives. [Freemasons?]

The building was painted white, and the light was about 90 feet 27 metres above the sea. It was equipped with a "revolving light of a superior description, visible one minute and invisible half a minute." A good boat was "always kept at the establishment to render assistance to vessels in distress," and a gun was placed there "to answer signals."

Two light houses had been built "on the north and south extremes of the Island of St. Paul's." The one on the north end was put in operation on 1st December 1839. This light showed "a very brilliant fixed light," and was elevated about 150 feet 46 metres above the sea. The light on the south end of St. Paul's Island was "expected to go into operation a short time" later.

The new light house "on the S E end of Cross Island, at the entrance of Lunenburg Harbour, in latitude 44 22 N, longitude 64 6 W," was put into operation on 1st December 1839. This light was "distinguished from Sambro and Liverpool lights, by exhibiting two lights, one 30 feet 9.1 metres above the other," the lower one being a fixed light, and the upper one flashed or was darkened "at intervals of one minute," and could "be distinguished from the gradual motion of a revolving light, by the quickness of its motion or change from light to dark." The building was "painted red, to distinguish it in the day time from Sambro and Liverpool lights" which were painted white; "and as a further mark of distinction, Cross Island is a low island, near a mile in extent and thickly covered with trees, whereas Sambro is a high bluff rock, without trees of any description."