Although the first act of parliament relating to this navigation was passed in the 22nd and 23rd Charles II. A. D. 1671, yet we learn from the preamble that this river had long been used as a navigation. The preamble runs thus- "Whereas there hath been for some hundred of yeares a good navigacion betwixt the burrough of Boston and the river of Trent by and through the citty of Lincolne, and thereby a great trade mannaged to the benefitt of those parts of Lincolneshire, and some parts of Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire, which afforded an honest employment and livelyhood to great numbers of people. But at present the said navigacion is much obstructed and in great decay by reason that the rivers or auntient channells of Witham and Fosdyke, which runn betwixt Boston and Trent are much silted and landed up and thereby not passable with boats and lyters as formerly, to the great decay of the trade and intercourse of the said citty and all market and other towns neare any of the said rivers, which hath producet in them much poverty and depopulation. For remedy whereof and for improvement of the said navigacion, may it please your most excellent Majestie that it may bee enacted, &c."
It has been thought that the Witham, previous to the Norman Conquest, was a tideway navigation for ships to Lincoln; and that it was navigable at a very early period, may be inferred from the circumstance that the Fossdike Canal, 'an ancient Roman Work,' was scoured out by Henry I. in the year 1121, for the purpose of opening a navigable communication between the Trent and the Witham at the city of Lincoln, so that that place, which was then in a very flourishing state and enjoying an extensive Foreign trade, might reap all the advantages of a more ready communication with the interior.
The precise period at which the channel of the Witham ceased to be useful for navigation purposes is uncertain; but we learn that in the 9th of Edward III. a commission issued, directed to Adam de Lymberg, Geffery de Edenham, and others, to enquire into the state of the navigation, &c. who effected some improvements. In the 39th of the same reign, parliament was petitioned by the merchants and tradesmen of Lincoln, complaining of the total insufficiency of the navigation. Up to the 49th of
