I took the liberty of posting your request to a couple of
maritime related mailing lists. The following two replies
suggesting Bristol to be the most likely port were provided
by members of the MARHST-L maritime history list.

Paul
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Paul R. Mitchell
New Rochelle, NY

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Bristol would probably claim to be the largest, busiest and
wealthiest port on the West coast of the UK around this time
(the second largest in the UK according to my 19th Century
gazetteer) - but since a great many south and west coast
ports could have coped with the size of vessel used in those
days it would be hard to generalise.  Because of its status
and position, presence of guilds etc,  ISTR reading that
vessels leaving Bristol charged more for their services than
vessels leaving some of the smaller south and west coast
ports and, on occasion, where funds were at a premium
alternatives were often used, although this wouldn't have
been the main reason.   At the same time, vessels were also
leaving from London, but contrary winds in the Channel could
hold them up for weeks.

So in summary Bristol would probably be the main port
(Liverpool being a late arrival on the scene), with London
and some of the South Coast ports such as Southampton, Poole,
Weymouth, Lyme Regis (despite its small size, was said to be
very busy at this time), Dartmouth, Falmouth, Plymouth and
others being possibilities.

Paul
50.33.50N  02.26.70W

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Only if one regards a slightly marked off island's end with
structures as a "city" was there a "New York" during most of
the 17th Century; until Britain took over the entirety of the
Dutch holding that in theory included much of the entire
present state, it was merely the small Dutch settlement of
Nieuw Amsterdam. Not until about the 1720s did the settlers
on Manhattan Island begin to really get to creating a proper
town, and it was not certifiably a city until some years
after the Revolutionary War.

By and large, from 1497 onward Bristol was the major port for
westward departure to North America up until around 1840. One
can still walk through the decorated medieval City Gate --
the only one remaining -- through which the Cabots went to
board their ship of rediscovery, moored at the wharf just
beyond it at the time.  Isambard Kingdom Brunel's GREAT
EASTERN, built well up the west coast in Liverpool, finished
off any pretenses to heavy ships coming into the city's
Floating and Inner Harbours. The length of that huge iron
ship demanded far more manoeuvering room than anything
Bristol, an upriver city with a huge tide and only the narrow
Avon river to use, could offer. GREAT EASTERN, though she had
numerous problems and was hardly a success, nonetheless
proved that truly big iron ships could be built and sailed
out of there, rapidly bringing further seafaring interest and
activity to Liverpool even as the Port of London and
Southampton were getting new and heavy attention. As it was,
Brunel's prior GREAT BRITAIN (now preserved in Bristol in her
original graving dock) had to be moved downstream at the peak
of a very high seasonal tide, and even so was within inches
of being too long to get down the Avon -- which has the
curves of a snake, and was the main reason why Avonmouth,
that city's subsequent ocean dockage community and facilities
at the entrance to the river off the Bristol Channel, was
built under city auspices, hopefully to retain its emininent
position in shipping. (Brunel extended his Great Western
Railway (the famed BWR) up to Liverpool initially to provide
logistics support for building his GREAT EASTERN, and
subsequently laid a short line from the city down to
Avonmouth, running along the Somerset side of the river.

Up through the 1970s, Bristol still retained the distinct
style of a port town, but the vessels were coasters and small
North Sea/Baltic-type freighters, none longer than about 250
feet, most of them carrying raw wood for the city's paper
mills. Today, even they are gone, replaced by yachts. If U.S.
yachtsmen (or any other tourists for that matter) ever
really "discover" Bristol, they are in for a pleasant
surprise: this old port has far more American connections,
direct and indirect, real and alliterative, than anyplace
else on that side of the Pond.

FRANK PIERCE YOUNG
Annapolis, MD                [log in to unmask]

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