Hobhouse. The first light on the island of Flat Holm was a simple brazier mounted on a wooden frame, which stood on the high eastern part of the island. In 1733 the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol found the brazier to be unreliable and petitioned the general lighthouse authority, Trinity House, for an actual lighthouse, but the petition failed. In 1735 Mr. William Crispe of Bristol submitted a proposal to build a lighthouse at his own expense. This initial proposal also failed but negotiations resumed in 1736 when 60 soldiers drowned after their vessel crashed on the Wolves rocks near Flat Holm. Following this disaster, the Society of Merchant Venturers supported William Crispe's proposal. Crispe agreed to pay £800 (£110,552, $220,241 in 2008) for the construction of the tower as well as the fees permits. The construction of the tower finished in 1737 and it began operating on 25 March 1738. The costs of the construction of Bristol's Floating Harbour, completed in 1809, were far beyond the limited resources of the society and necessitated the setting up of the Bristol Docks Company. Although the society was represented on the board, it ceded its role in the management of the port of Bristol, which had dominated its activities throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the 19th century the society helped to fund the building of Clifton Suspension Bridge and members of the society helped to establish the Great Western Railway. In the 1860s the society acted with the Bristol Corporation to put Clifton Down and the adjoining Durdham Down under the control of a single Downs Committee. The society's members wanted to protect the land from future development and ensure that it remained available to the people of the city. The creation of the Downs Act in 1861 brought together Clifton Down with Durdham Down, setting out a long-term partnership to protect this open green space. Representatives from Bristol City Council and members of the society form the Downs Committee which meets regularly to ensure that the Downs is maintained and improved for the long term. Alderman Proctor's Drinking Fountain on Clifton Down was built in 1872 by G. and H. Godwin in a Gothic Revival style to commemorate the society's presentation in 1861 of "certain rights over Clifton Down made to the citizens" of Bristol. The society contributed a total sum of £26 towards the construction of the