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Norfolk archaeology
Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society
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MISCELLANEOUS TRAGI'S
aiLATINQ TO TRH
ANTIQUITIES OF THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK,
PUBLISHBD BT THR
NORFOLK AND NORWICH
ARCHiEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Netcio quA natale solum dulcedinc captoa Ducit, et immemorei non sinit esse sui.
CHARLES MUSKETT, OLD HAYMARKET. 1849.
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NORFOLK AND NORWICH
ARCH^OLOGICAL SOCIETY.
9tt»ititnt :
THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH, F.R.S.
Thb Right Honovrablb thb £a.bl of Robbbb&y.
Thb Rioht Hokovrablb thb Lo&d Sondbs.
Thb Right Honoubablb thb Lord Walsingham.
Thb Right Honov&ablb and Rbybhbnd thb Lo&d Batning.
Thb Right Honouhablb thb Lobd Colbobkb.
Thb Honoubablb and Ybbt Rbvbbbnd thb Dban of Norwich.
Sir William J. H. B. Ffolkeb, Bart.
Sir J. P. BoiLEAU, Bart., F.R.S.
Major-Gbneral Sir Robbrt John Hartby, C.B.
Thb Ybnebablb thb Archdbacon of Norwich.
Hudson Gitrnbt, Esq., F.R.S., V.P.S.A.
Daniel Gu&nby, Esq., F.S.A.
Dawson Turner, Esq., F.R.S., F.A.S.
807097
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^( CommitUt :
Thb Rkv. Chakles Boutsll Daumham.
Thomas Bbightwell, Esq., F.R.S Norwich.
The Ret. James Bulwbr Aybham,
Edwabd Copeman, Esq., M.D Norwich,
The Rev. F. Cubitt Fritton.
W. C. EwiNO, Esq Norwich.
Robert Fitoh, Esq Norwich,
The Rev. John Gunn Intead.
R. B. HuMPBET, Esq Wroxham,
GoDDA&D Johnson, Esq Norwich,
C. W. Maesham, Esq Hemnffham,
Charles J. Palmer, Esq., F.S.A Yarmouth,
S. W. Stevenson, Esq., F.S.A Norwich.
E. H. St. Quintin, Esq Thorpe Hamlet.
The Rev. Bowter Vaux Yarmouth.
Richard Ward, Esq Saihowe Hall,
J. WODDERSPOON, EsQ NOTWich.
The Rev. E. T. Yates Ayltham.
treasurer : Captain Blakiston, R.N., Thorpe Hall,
1$onorarp SecrctarUB :
Henry Harrod, Esq., Norwich. The Rev. Richard EUrt, Cotton.
Xocal SetrctarU* :
Thomas Barton, Esq., Threxton. The Ret. J. H. Bloom, Castle Acre. G. A. Carthew, Esq., Eaat Dereham. James Copeman, Esq., Loddon, Joseph Davet, Esq., Yarmouth. Gboroe Fitt, Esq., Ftikenham. Thb Ret. A. M. Hopper, Startton. The Rev. E. J. Howman, Bexwell, S. W. Rix, Esq., Beeclee. A. H. SwATMAN, Esq., Lynn,
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CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
Remarks on the Boundary of the City and Hamlets of Norwich. — W. C, Etoing, Esq 1
Account of the Quildhall at Diss, with a few cursory Remarks on the Town.— S. W. RiXy Esq. 11
Extracts from a MS. Diary of Peter Le Neve, Esq., Norroy King of Arms, entitled **Memorand* in Heraldry/* of such entries as relate to the County of Norfolk.— G. A. Carthno, Esq. . . 23, 111, 369
On the Crowmer Monument, Yarmouth Church. — F, Worship, Esq, , 35
Letter from Sir Philip Stapleton to Oliver Cromwell, and four Letters from Oliver Cromwell himself. — D, TumeTf Esq. .... 43
Autographs of Sir Miles Hobart and Anthony Hobart, with some Par- ticulars respecting their Loddon Property, and Extracts from the Town-books there — James Copenum, Esq, 61
Challenge of Oliver Neve, Esq. to Sir Henry Hobart.— iltfo. R. Hart . 70
On an ancient Door in St. Clement's, Norwich. — Mr, W. Enfield, Jun. 73
Speech of Sir Robert Baldock, Recorder of Yarmouth, to King Charles the Second, upon the occasion of his Visit to Norfolk, 1671. — Joseph Davey, Esq 75
Observations on a Facsimile and Transcript of a Letter from Queen Elizabeth to Lady Paget, upon the Death of her Daughter, Lady CrompUm.— 'Communicated by P. N. ScoU, Esq. .81
On the Font at Aylsham, Norfolk.— iitfi?. E. T. Yates ... 83
On a Figure of the Law in York Cathedral, and an ancient Stone Coffin Lid and Column at Durham. — D. Turner, Esq. ... 87
Letter from Secretary Walsingharo to the Lord Treasurer, desiring him to promote the erecting of a House of Reformation in Norfolk for Vagabonds and others, with a Bill enclosed. (From the Lansdowne MSS.)— CommtmtVa^erf by Sir Henry EUis 93
Extracts from Wills preserved at Stowe Bardolph.— iZ^v. G. ff. Dashu)ood 97
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Pag9
Sepulchral Brass of the Rey. Henry Martyn, Yaxham, Norfolk. — Rsv, C. Boutdl 110
Notes on the Parish and Church of Wimbotsham.~i{0o. G. H, Dash- wood and Bev, C, BouteU 127
Remarks on some Ancient Shields in the Ceiling of the South Aisle of St. Nicholas' Church, Great Yarmouth.— T^m. Wm» King, Esq., York Herald 149
Extracts from the Chamberlain's Book of Accounts, 14 Henry IV., in the possession of the Corporation of Lynn Regis. — Rev. O. JJ. Dashwood 183
Copies and Translations of two Deeds in the possession of the Corpora- tion of Lynn.-— jD. Turner, Esq 193
Some Particulars, accompanied with a Figure, of the Eastern Window of St. John's Maddermarket Church, Norwich.— W. C Etoing, Esq. 198
Cursory Notices of the Rey. Francis Blomefield, the Norfolk Topo- grapher.—S. W. Rix, Esq 201
Will of Sir John Fastolf, touching the Establishment of hia College at Caister.— Z>. Turner, Esq, 225
On Misereres ; with an especial Reference to those of Norwich Ca- thedral.—IZtfo. R. Hart 234
Extracts from the Coroners' Rolls, and other Documents, in the Record- room of the Corporation of Norwich. — Henry Harrod, Esq. . . 253
Remarks on a Figure represented on the Rood-loft Screens of Gateley and Cawston Churches, Norfolk. — Rev. James Bulicer . 280
Proyerbs, Adages, and Popular Superstitions, still preserred in the Parish of Irstead.— iZtfO. John Gunn 291
Thirteen unpublished Letters from Sir Is. Newton to John Coyell, D.D. — D. Turner, Esq 309
Note of all the Priyy Seals receiyed by Sir Charles Comwallis, Knight, Collector for Norfolk, 160^.— Communicated by R. Ward, Esq, . . 339
Mural Paintings in Crostwight Church, Norfolk. — D. Turner, Esq. . 352
On the Ruined Lodge at Drayton.— ET. Harrod, Esq 363
Appendix 397
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
Map of the Boundary of the County of the City of Norwich . . 1 Diss—
Ancient Arms of the Town 11
Carving on Oak Post, Guildhall 12
Guildhall Grammar School 16
A Diss Farthing 19
Arms of the Town 19
Cock Street Bridge 20
Heywood Hall 20
Caryed Panels, Heywood Hall 21
Autograph of Robert Burrough 21
Angle Post 21
Angle Post, Market Place . ... . . .22
Crowmer Monument, Yarmouth Church 35
Ditto, Table and Panel 88
Autograph of Oliyer Cromwell 49
Autographs of Sir Miles Hobart and Anthony Hobart . . .61
Ancient Door, St. Clement's, Norwich 73
Facsimile of Letter of Queen Elizabeth to Lady Paget ... 81
Font at Aylsham Church, Norfolk 83
Details of ditto 85
Ancient Fresco Painting, York Cathedral 87
Topof a Stone Coffin, Durham Cathedral 89
Fragment of Column, formerly at the East End of the Chapter-House,
Durham Cathedral 91
Brass of Henry Martyn, Rector of Yaxham, 1435 .110
Wimbotsham Church —
Corbel Table 129
Nonnan Door, South side 131
Interior, looking South-East 132
Boss, Roof of Nave 134
Six Bosses, ditto 134
Bench End 135
Poppy Head 136
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vm.
Page Ancient Shielcb in the Ceiling of the South Aisle, Great Yannouth
Church 151—180
East Window, St. John's Maddermarket Church, Norwich . . 198
Persfield Rectory, Blomefield's Residence ...... 203
Blomefield's Birth-place, Fersfield 204
Facsimile of entry in Fersfield Register by Rey. Francis Blomefield . 204 Misereres in Noiwich Cathedral —
South Side of Choir 248
North Side of Choir 249—261
Brass Escutcheon, formerly on the South Door, St. Gregory's Church,
Norwich .269
Figure from Rood-loft Screen, Gateley Church • .... 280
Facsmule of Inscription on ditto 282
Figure from Rood-loft Screen, Cawston Church 282
Facsimile of a Letter of Sir Isaac Newton 309
Crostwight Church- North Wall, with general View of Mural Paintings . .352
Mural Painting, Seven Deadly Sins 852
Murol Painting oyer North Door 353
Drayton Lodge . 363
Ditto, Ground Plan . . . . ; 364
Antiquities discoTered at Saham Toney ^400
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crincleford Bridges
Cringleford
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REMARK'S.'
ON THE »••
COMMUNICATED BY W. C. EWING, ESQ.
IN A LRTTBB
TO HENKY HARROD, ESQ. Honorary Secretary to the J\^orfolk emd J^orteich Archaciogical Society.
My dear Sir,
I have lately met with a Map of the Boundary of the City of Norwich and its Hamlets, together with a Description of the Boundary Line, at the time of Philip and Mary. The map appears to have been made by Mr. Kirk- patrick, and was probably copied from an old one. The description nearly resembles that in Blomefield; but, from having references to the plan, it may be better understood.
If the Committee of the Norfolk Archaeological Society should think it of sufficient interest for publication, I shall be happy to offer as many lithographed copies of the map, upon a reduced scale, as may be required for their Journal.
I have likewise sent another Description, of an earlier date ; probably of the preceding reign, as in the preamble the Protector Somerset is mentioned. It is curious, and I think interesting, from the many Crosses noticed as being placed where a public way intersected the line of boundary. Of all these crosses only two remain, namely, Hardley Cross, which is in a perfect state, and White Cross, now called " Mile Cross ; " the latter at present lying prostrate, but I remember when a considerable portion of its shaft was standing.
VOL. II. B
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The spot marked on the map as the site of the small Chapel dedicated to St. William in the Wood, is now scarcely distin- guishable from the surrounding heath, save by very slight traces of its fbimd^tiptt.rand a small patch of short smooth grass,* amongst" wiifck'^^ the wild thyme grows,'* but free from: fol29ef9ntf Jfhe dojurser :plants which flourish all around. About twelve m'ontii' since, having never seen the spot, I went in search of it; but being without any clue to the place, and seeing no ruined walls as I expected, to indicate its locality, I despaired of finding it. I inquired of an old shepherd who was tending his flock, though with little hope that he could tell me aught of the Chapel of St. William in the Wood; and was surprised to learn from him that I was very near it, and if I followed that sheep-track for about an hundred yards, I should come to it. I asked how I should know the place : his answer was, " You can't mistake it ; the grass is short and fine : 'tis holy ground ; and no weeds will grow upon it."
Magdalen Chapel is now used as a bam, and is in a very dilapidated condition ; but several interesting remains of its Norman architecture are still visible. Near the chapel was the mustering-place of the city trained-bands, the shooting- ground, and wrestling-place. To this place, on St. Mary Magdalen's-day, in the reign of Henry VIII., the Mayor and Corporation repaired with great pomp, for the purpose of ** setting the watch" for the approaching winter; and at that time the watchmen attended with their harness or ar- mour fresh scoured, and made a gallant show.
Thorp Wood was cut down and destroyed by the rebels under Kett in 1549. One of its trees, a large branching one, became celebrated as the " Oak of Reformation :" under its shade the arch-rebel and his compeers sat in judgment upon the citizens and gentlemen whom they had taken prisoners.
I have still farther sent a Description of the ancient Boun- dary of the Precincts of the Cathedral, as claimed by the
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Prior and Monks ; and an Account of a View taken in the tenth of Henry VIII. of certain lands in Lakenham and Eaton, for the purpose of settling the disputes between the Prior and Citizens, touching the right of commonage, shack- age, &c. in those hamlets.
If you will have the kindness to introduce these papers to the notice of the Committee, I hope they will print any or none of them, as they may think proper. I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
Wm. C. Ewing.
Boundary of the City and Hamlets of Nortoich. Temp. Philip and Mary.
1. From the river Wenson, by the exterior part of the rivulet called Trowys Eye, to the bridge of Trowys.
2. From the bridge of Trowys, by the exterior part of the bank of the same rivulet, to the bridge of Lakenham.
3. From Lakenham Bridge, by the same outward bank, to the bridge called Hartford Bridge.
4. From Hartford Bridge, by the outward bank of the same rivulet, to Cringleford Bridge.
5. And from thence, by the outer part of the same rivu- let, to the bridge of Erelham.
6. And from the same bridge of Erlham, by the outward and Western part of the village of Erlham, direct to the King's Bank, called the King's Bank of Heilesden.
7. And from the same bank to the bridge called Heiles- den Bridge.
8. And from the same bridge to the water of the late water-mill of Heilesden, called the Old Mille Dam.
9. And from the same water, by the common way leading through the middle of the village of Heilesden, direct by the
b2
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common lane leading on the Eastern part of an inclosure called Heilesden Wood.
10 * And from the North end of the same lane, by a certain green way leading directly to a certain parcel of land upon which a certain cross called the Whyte Crosse was formerly built, being in the King's way leading from the said City to Horsham Sancte Fidis.
11. t And from the same parcel of land directly to the North part of an inclosure called Little Mushold, and by the North part of the same inclosure.
12. And from thence directly to the North part of a sort of inclosure called Wrenne Park, and from thence to the junction of two ways North and East of the foresaid inclo- sure. Of which two ways, one leads to the City of Norwich, and the other to the Chapel of the blessed Maxy Magdalene.
13. And from the foresaid junction of the said ways di- rectly to an inclostire lately called the Safferne Close, leaving the said inclosure on the part of the North.
14. And so from the said inclosure upon a green way directly leading to the wood called Saint William's Woode, and including the said wood.
15. Then by a certain green way lying on the North part of the aforesaid wood, directly to the East end of the wood called Thorp Wood.
16. And so to the high way leading from the said City of Norwich to the village of Thorpe.
17. And by the same way in a Western direction to the North end of a common way.
18. Leading from the said high way to the river of Wen- son, near the Manor of Newton, called Newton Hall.
19. And by the same river, in an Eastern direction, by the whole length of the same river to a certain cross called Hardley Crosse. And so returning, including the whole
« At this spot the lower portion of a stone Cross still remains, t Idem.
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breadth of the aforesaid river of Wenson, to the exterior part of the bank called Trowys Eye.
Boundary of the Oity and Hamlets of Norwich. Temp. Edw. VL
Viz. From the abovementioned water of the Wenson, by the outward bank of the rivulet called Trowes Eye, to the bridge of Trowes ; and from the aforesaid bridge of Trowce, by the exterior part of the bank, to the bridge of Lakenham ; and from the said bridge of Lakenham, by the same bank, to the bridges of Hertford Briggs; and from the two bridges called Hertford Briggs, by the same bank, to the bridge at Cryngilford ; and from thence, by the same bank, to the bridge of Erleham ; and from the same bridge of Erleham, by the exterior part of the village of Upper Erleham and Nether Erleham, by the said water of Wenson, including the same water of Wenson, to a certain Cross situate in the King's way towards Heylisdon, from the gates of the said City called Coslanygatis;* and from thence, by a circuit by a certain Cross towards Horsham St. Faith's called the White Crosse ; and from thence, by a circuit to a certain Cross standing in the King's way towards Catton; and from thence, by a circuit to a certain Cross standing in the King's way towards Sprowston, to the North of the Chapel of the Hos- pital of St. Marie Magdalene ; and from thence by a circuit to the outside of the wood of St. William ; and from thence to a certain Cross standing near the wood called Thorp Wood, in a certain way leading from Norwich to Possewik, upon the hill called Seynt Lennard's Hill ; and from thence to the said water of Wenson towards Newton Hall, including the said water of Wenson ; and by the same water of Wenson from the said Newton Hall to a certain Cross called Hardeley Crosse.
« Now St. Martin's at Oak.
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Description of the Ancient Boundary of the Precincts of the Cathedral.
This is the precincts of the libertes and firanncheses of the Cathedrall Chirch of the holy Trinite of Norwich, like as it is shewed and takyn by kyng's chartours writyngs, and tried of late by records of Jugements on the kyng's laws ; that is for to sey, from a place called Lovell stathe/ abuttyng upon the rever towards the Est, directly ascendyng onto the common wey called ovyr Consford wey, oncludyng a certeyn grownde sumptyme onhabite parcell of the parissh of the Chirch of merssh, and sumptyme called Soka Epc, wych is nowe onwalled to the grey ffryers, which inclosyng puttith us nowe on to a streighter precincte, that is for to sey, to cume abought the seid Grey flryers walls northward on to a wey under the Awmners graneris right up ascendyng thurgh a lytill lane sumptyme called Newgate, betwyn the Chirch yerd of Seynt Cuthbert and forsayde grey ffiyers, like as it apperith by evident tokens, onto the forsayd over Consford wey ; and from thense by the mydde wey of the same strete northwardes, levyng Erie Bigottes palayce which is nowe the fflour Delyce, the Popyngaye, and Ratonrowe,t and the Crosse of Seynt Mychell upon Tumelond on the ryght hand, by the mydde wey a fore the modre Chirch gret gates a bowght the Chamell wall ; and from thense by the mydde way ledyng up to the mydde brigge called Seynt Marteyns brigge;^ and from thens down Estward by the mydde Water to the Cite Wall be twyn the firyers Carmelits and Poke- thorp medows ; then from that wall downe Estward, havyng
* Adjoining south to Sandling's Feiry.
t The South end of Tombland was called ** Batton-row ;" and the comer house next King Street, or Conisford Street, was a noted tayem, called the •* Popingjay ."
X St. Martin's Bridge, now Whitefriars Bridge.
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lete, scruteny, and puneshment, as well upon the lond bothe sydes of the water^ tumyng a bought to the forsayd lovell stathe.
Also the precincts of Seynt Powles hospitall, into the mydde wey a bowght the Parissh of Seynt Powle.
More ovyr Almanner ryghts of the flfayers from the Son ryse on the vigill of Pentecost yerly onto the Son be down the Tuesday after the octaves of Pentecost, as wel wythin the Cite and every parte theroff as wyth owte a leuge a bowght the sayd Cite. §
The Vewe taken of the bounds yn varyans for the Oomyn betwene the Maire and Cominaltie of the Cite of Norwich, and the Prior and Convent of Norwich, by the right honorable Thomas Erie of Surry, and by Sir Humfry Conyngesby, knyght, and John Caryll, Justices of Assises, by the specyall commandment of the right reverend ffader yn God Thomas lorde Car- dynall, legate of the see of Rome, Archbisshop of Yorke, Chaunceler and prymate of England, takyng to them for assystans and Counsell Sir Thomas Wynd*- ham, knyght, one of the kyngs Councelers, the xxvj day of March the x yere of the reign of kyng Henry the viij*^.
In primis the seid Erie, Humfrey, John, and Sir Thomas, wythin the seid day and yere, takyng with them the seid
{ Blomefield says that in 1524, by means of the Cardmal (WoUey), a composition and final agreement was sealed between the Prior and City, by which the City resigned all jurisdiction within the walls of the Priory, and the Church resigned all jurisdiction without their walls, and within the walls of the City, to the said City, yiz. Torobland, with the fairs kept thereon, and all things belonging to the fairs, Holme Street, Spitelond, and Baton-rowe, with full power to join and hold them with the other city leets.
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Prior . and dyvers of his brether and his Counsell : And in like wise the Maire of the seid Cite with dyvers Aldermen of the same and the Counsell of the seid Cite, went out all to geders at Nedeham gates* of the said Cite southward toward Lakenham, and as they went yn the hye wey ledyng from the seid Cite to a brygge called Hertford brygge there lyeth on the East syde of the seid wey, dyvers lends beyng all arable betwene the Town dych of the seid Cite on the North syde of a vylage in Lakenham afforeseid, on the South syde of which lends, that is to sey, all the lends from the Towne Dyche to a Crosse standying yn the seid hye wey to Lakenham belong to dyvers Citizens and inhabitants of the seid Cite, and to dyvers other persons : And the residue therof, that is to sey, from the seid Crosse to the seid village belong to the seid Prior and Convent. In all which lends betwene the seid dych and village it is witnessed by dyvers olde men of the seid Cite and also by dyvers tenants of the Prior, that the Citizens of the seid Cite have had in shak tyme, after the Corne caryed awey, comyn for there bestes. Item, there be oder lends lyeng on the South syde of the seid village betwene the same village and the watter rynnyng by Hertford brygge, of which lends parte lyeth in tillage and parte lyeth in pasture. In all which lends the seid Cite claymeth lyke comyn, that is to sey, yn the pasture grounds all the tymes of the yere, and yn the arable grounds yn shak tyme; nevertheless they broiight not sufficient proves to have eny Comyn yn that ground. And on the contrarie parte the seid Prior brought yn witnesses that the Catell of the seid Cite were dystreyned when they come within the seid bounds, and within the seid bounds lyeth the vij acres of londe which the Citizens of the seid Cite relessed all there right by fyne to the predicessorys of the seid Prior yn the tyme of kyng John.
And on the West syde of the seid wey, ledyng from the
♦ Nedeham Gates, now St. Stephen's Gates.
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seid Cite to the seid brygge, lyeth next to the Towne dych dyvers arable londs. And on the South parte of the same arable londs lyeth a grete pasture to ward the seid brygge unto a hill distendyng downe unto the same brygge and lyeth betwene the same hye wey on the East parte and the Town of Eyton, and extendeth unto the same Towne and yn to the same Towne on the West parte. In all which pasture it is proved by witnes and also aggreed by both par- ties that the Citizens of the seid Cite have alweys have had Comyn yn the seid Comyn pastures for there bestes all the tyme of the yere. In which pastures lyeth dyvers parcels of londs that have ben occupied with tillage. And the seid Prior claymeth dyvers parcels of the londs within the seid bounds to be his severall, to eyre * and sawe, at his pleasure. And the seid Citizens to have no Comyn theryn but onely yn shak tyme ; and for the proof of the seid severall londs^ the seid Prior brought yn dyvers witnesses that dyd see the same parcels both eyred and sowen, some of them xl yers past and more, and some of them syth that tyme. Never- theles dyvers olde men of the seid Cite depose that they have knowen the seid londs this Ix yers and more, and that the Citizens of the seid Cite have used there Comyn theryn aswell as yn odjrr places. And that by all the same tyme they never sawe the seid parcels ered ne sowen, &c.
Item, there is another grounde betwene the seid hill dis- cendyng to the seid brygge and the Ryver comyng by the same brygge, and extendeth from the seid hye Wey unto the Town of Eyton, grete part of which is arable and lyeth to tillage, and parte thereof is medowe and more, in which me- dowe and more, the seid Citizens clame Comyn of pasture all the tymes of ther yere, and yn the seid arable grounde yn shak tyme. As for this article it is shewed by witnes that grete parte of the seid medowe belong to the seid Prior, and parte to the Abbot of Sejmt Benetts, and parte to dyvers
♦ Eyre, to plough.
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oder persons^ and they have ever used to mowe the same^ and that the Citizens nor none oder used to have Comyn there but yn shak tyme when the corne and hey were caryed awey. And then to Comyn aswell yn the seid more, as yn the seid medowe and londs^ unto our Lady day in March.
Iteniy where my lorde Cardynall ordred that the seid Prior shuld ley out to the Comyn xl acres of londe^ which the seid Maire and Citizens seyid that it was the xl acres specyfied yn the seid fyne, and seyd that they wold shewe where xxxiiij of the seid xl acres lyeth. The seid Commyssyoners have herd and seyn all that ever they can sey or shewe theryn, and as yet they can neyther fynde ne have eny contente therof.
Iteniy the seid Commyssyoners vewed and sawe a pasture grounde lyeng by the wode syde on the Est parte^ and at the wode end at the North parte yn Eyton afforeseid. In which grounde it is aggreed by both partibs that the seid Citizens have ever used to have Comyn^ and also in the arable grounde lyeng therto in shak tyme. And it is shewed unto the seid Commyssyoners by the seid Maire and Aldermen, that the grounde where as the seid wode groweth was taken out of the seid Comyn, and sett with accomes and nowe is a wode. And for the proff therof, one Walter Colls of Eyton affore- seid, deposeth that he sawe his ffader ere the seid grounde and set it with accomes aboute 1. yers paste and more, and that he helped to geder the accoms to sett the grounde withall, &c. t
t Blomefield says that, about 1524, the City resigned to the Church all right and prescription of commonage in Eaton and Lakenham, and the Prior's lands in those towns ; and the King, to settle it firmly, licensed the City to receive, and the Prior and Convent to convey to the City for ever, eighty acres of ground and pasture, parcel of the said Common, now called the Tovnt Cloae^ in lieu of such right of commonage.
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ACCOTJNT OF THE
GUILDHALL AT DISS;
TOOBTHBR WITH
A FEW CURSOEY BEMABKS ON THE TOWN.
COMHUNIOATSD BT
MR. SAMUEL WILTON RIX.
BlomeiYeld has placed Diss at the commencement of his Norfolk History. That town, situated within a few miles from the secluded rectory of Fersfield, his residence, pos- sessed for him a special charm : it was the scene of his early youth. In the pedigree he gives of his family, it is stated that he "was educated first at Diss." Most probably he attended the Grammar-School, carried on in the house known as the Guildhall. This building he identifies as having been used in common by the two gilds of St. Nicholas and Corpus Christi, and subsequently " granted to the inhabitants." * It has now been totally swept away. A slight notice of its history and successive occupants may be thought worthy of preservation.
The opulence to which the gilds at Diss had advanced, affords some countenance to the opinion that the Guildhall might be as old as the reign of Henry VII. Unfortunately, • Blomefield's Norfolk, 8yo. edition, Vol. I., p. 33.
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at the time when alone the writer had the opportunity of knowing it, successive repairs had been allowed to obliterate almost every trace of its ancient appearance. The only proof of its antiquity, a massive oak post, remained at the south- west comer, having on its upper part the rude carving of which an etching is subjoined.
Through the kindness of Mr. Dawson Turner an extract has been obtained, from Sir Francis Palgrave, srSwing that the letters patent of 18th June, 27 Eliz. (1584), quoted by Blomefield as a grant of St. Nicholas Chapel to William Croft and John Hallyet, also included the Guildhall, by the following description :
" And also all that, the house in Dysse aforesaid (called in English a Gwylde-hall), with the appurtenances now or late in the tenure of Thomas Burton, and late parcel of the possessions of a certain fraternity or society of divers persons in Dysse aforesaid."
Croft and Hallyet probably obtained the grant as trustees for the various persons to whom the property embraced therein was intended to be conveyed. This was a common practice to save expense. It would seem, however, that the Guildhall had already come into the possession of the inhab- itants; for Blomefield notices that, "in 1575, here were kept the standard scales and weights for the market;" and he
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gives a list of utensils which " then were left to the use of the town in this house." t
The earliest existing deed relating to the Guildhall^ ac- cording to the Charity Commissioners' Report, bears date 10th September, 1596, whereby the property was enfeoffed by Robert Cooper and others to Richard Leacke and others. This deed refers to a conveyance, dated 7th September then instant, made to the feoffors by Richard Fisher and others. No trusts were declared. But in the next feoffment, dated 18th April, 16S3, and on subsequent similar occasions, the premises were conveyed to the use and benefit of the inhab- itants of Diss.
Speed i mentions '' one Cleber, a schoolmaster, some tyme at Dys in Norfolke," who, in 1556, read publicly a traitorous proclamation, and persuaded the people to take arms against Queen Mary ; and who was executed at the following assizes at Bury. Whether he had swayed the ferule in the Guild- hall is uncertain ; though the dissolving statute of 1 Edward VI., cap. 14, under which the building was seized, expressly contemplates the " erecting of grammar-schools to the edu- cation of youth in virtue and godliness." The earliest evi- dence the writer has met with of its being applied to such a purpose, occurs in 1692, when a charge is made in the " Disse Towne Booke," § of 10^. for *' glazing the School- house."
In a list of " rents yearly growing due to the towne," made in 1693, are the following :
£. «. d. " Rob* Towell for pte of y« Guildhall ... 08 10 00 M' Edw. Easterby, ten' to the Guildhall
Chamber, at 01 10 00"
At Easter, 1706, these disbursements occur :
t Vol. I., p. 88. t Page 854 (104.)
§ I am indebted to the courtesy of the Churchwarden, Mr. Farrow, for an inspection of this record.
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£. s. d.
" Sweeping the Schoole 00 00 09
Paid George Tyrrold for glazeing the Schoole-
^ house 01 02 06
For a chaire for the Schoole house ... 00 02 06 "
The payment by the parish of a salary of £10. a year,* is first recorded in the churchwarden's account at Easter^ 1706.
" Paid to Mr. Uoyd for halfe a yeare's sallary . 05 00 00 "
Another entry calls him "the Schoolmaster;" and in 1707 the disbursement is :
*' Paid M' Lloyd for his sallary and a bill for
burying poor people 11«. 6<^. . . . . 10 11 06"
which shows that Mr. Lloyd was in holy orders.
In 1710, The Bev. John Bryars, M.A., Rector of Billing- ford, undertook the mastership. Accordingly, at the follow- ing Easter the parish officers take credit for
" Pd M' Bryers a year's sallary for y* scool . . 10 00 00 "
This gentleman was active in promoting the success of a charity-school established in the adjacent village of Palgrave, and preached and published a sermon at the first meeting of its patrons. The dedication of this sermon is dated ^' Bil- lingford, May 15, 1711." And it would seem that he did not remove to Diss before 1713, when he was presented to the living of that parish. A second dedication prefixed to the same sermon is addressed, among others, to " RoV Bur- roughs, Gent, Francis Guybon, M.D., William Coggeshall, Gent., Samuel Manning, Gent., and John Moulton, Gent., [all] of Diss." Two years after its establishment, the Pal- grave Charity-School was transferred to the Guildhall at Diss. There it was still carried on when Blomefield wrote (1736) ; the master having his dwelling in one part of the Guildhall, and keeping school in another part.f
* See Blomefield, Vol. I., p. 37. t Vol. I., p. 37.
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The entries in the parish accounts, after 1713, do not show how long Mr. Bryars retained the Grammar School; but Tinder him, there can scarcely be a doubt, the Norfolk His- torian received the rudiments of his education.
In 1721, appears,
£. t. d, " Received of Andrew Webster for the Quild-
haU Chamber 01 10 00 "
The death of Mr. Bryars occurred in 1728 ; and the edu- cational zeal of his parishioners appears then to have some- what abated. The churchwarden's accounts for 1730 contain these items :
" March 27. To Mr, RandaU for two yeares' sallery for schoole keeping, due at a Lady
last past 10 00 00
April 12, 1729. Received by bills, one
pound for four yeares* rente of parte of the Guildhall Chamber due att a Lady day last past."
Another name appears in 1732, when we find,
" Decemb. 19. Paid Mr, Blyth for keeping the
gramar schoole as ^^ agreement . . . 10 00 00"
From Blomefield { we learn that, while the Charity-School occupied a part of the ground-floor, the Grammar-School, in his time, was " kept above, in the same house," where also the master had lodgings. This earlier institution had, no doubt, appropriated the principal apartment, which, as usual in half-timbered houses, was in the more spacious upper story. The succession of masters is not always ascertainable from the " Towne Booke ; " the payments being often entered merely as made to " the Grammar-schoole master." But the individual to whom Blomefield refers, was Mr. Chappehw, It was he who received the parochial salary of £10. for the + Vol. I., p. 37.
\
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years ending Michaelmas 1733 and 1735 ; and in April 1737, there are several items of expenses " for worke in M' Chapolow's school."
By a memorandum made about 1751, it appears that the ^* Guildhall or School-house" was then "occupied by Mr, John Barnard y on a lease for twenty years, bearing date 1738. Also the chambers that were lately used for a Latin School, at a yearly rent of thirty shillings." So that the Grammar- School had now taken the place of its humbler companion on the ground floor; and there it was always kept afterward. Mr. Barnard resided in the house nearly forty years, and died there, at an advanced age, in the year 1777. He is said to have been a person of respectability, and of some taste, especially as a florist.
The next occupier was Mr, George Gilbert^ whom the oldest inhabitants still remember, as a man of excellent talents, social disposition, and superior penmanship. Ex- tensive repairs were done at this period; and the building assumed the appearance shown in the annexed sketch.
Mr. Gilbert having removed to Hackney, about 1787 the school fell into the .hands of Mr. James Whiter by whom it was soon relinquished in favour of the JRev. Simon Westby. The latter gentleman was a native of Holt, where he was educated at the school founded by Sir Thomas Gresham. In the year 1775 he became an assistant in the boarding-school established at Palgrave, in the house formerly occupied by Tom Martin the antiquary ; and where Lord Denman, Gell, Dr. Frank Sayers, and his biographer, William Taylor, were among the juvenile charge ; men whose subsequent eminence has contributed to shed great lustre around the name of Barbauld. In 1781, Mr. Westby entered at Gonville and Caius CoUege, Cambridge, as a "ten year man;" and he accordingly took the degree of B.D. His position in so- ciety as a clergyman, added to his talents, acquirements, and energy, together with the adoption of certain books and
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plans of teaching which had been used at Palgraye^ ensured him success as an instructor of youth. The course of study pursued under his care was elementary rather than extensive or ornamental ; including, however, such an Acquaintance with classical learning as might throw light upon the struc- ture and etymology of the mother-tongue, and might lay the foundation for higher attainments at college, or for the not less valuable process of self-improvement.
In 1812, Mr. Westby tested the powers of his pupils by inviting them to attempt some English and Latin composi- tions in verse. The result was a brochure^ of which a limited number of copies were privately printed, under the title of '^ Prize Distichs on a Dead Nightingale, in Latin and Eng- lish, and other Pieces, written by the Pupils of Diss School." Skelton, the laureated Rector of Diss, had written what Cole- ridge styles "an exquisite and original poem,*** on the death of a sparrow killed by a cat; and, alluding to the sneer of a rival poet, had lightly said,
" But what of that?— hard 'tis to please all men,— Who list amende it, let hym set to his penne." f
At length, after the lapse of three centuries, the challenge was accepted — by "unfledged poets,*' but certainly with the advantages of a more promising theme and in more polished times. The comparison is curious between the quaint style, ludicrous extravagance, and coarse imprecations of the lau- reate, and the flowing, plaintive, and not inappropriate lines of the Guildhall boys.
Mr. Westby carried on the school with vigour until his death, which occurred on the 4th May, 1820. He was in- terred in the church at Kenninghall, of which parish he had
* Coleridge's Bmnaint, Vol. II., p. 163 ; Skelton's Poetical Works, by Dyce, Vol. I., p. xlix. t Skelton's Poetical Works, by Dyce, Vol. I., pp. xrxy., 412, VOL. II. C
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been Vicar thirteen years. With him terminated the Gram- mar-School in the Guildhall.
The room^ in which it had been long conducted^ was after- wards occupied as a Charity-School for Girls. At length the site of the old house was required for the purpose of en- larging the churchyard. On the 9th September^ 1846, the buildings were sold by auction, " to be taken down and re- moved on or before the 10th October," — a sentence which has been carried into complete effect.
SOMB
FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS RELATING TO DISS.
It is at the suggestion of Mr. Dawson Turner jthat I ven- ture to add, to the foregoing account of the Guildhall at Diss, three or four unconnected etchings (very humble amateur performances) relating to the same parish. This is a needful, and will be considered a sufficient, apology.
The town is somewhat removed from the beaten track of intercourse between the chief towns of East Anglia, and was formerly so little frequented by travellers, that it became a proverb at Cambridge, to express indifference respecting tri- vial matters, ''He knows nothing about Diss.'* According to Blomefield * there were in 17S6, " near 240 families and near 3000 souls." His own interleaved copy of the portion of the Norfolk History relating to the Hundred of Diss, which afterwards belonged to Honest Tom Martin and was presented by Mr. Wilkin to the Norwifch Literary Institu- tion, contains the following memorandum, probably in the handwriting of an intermediate owner.
" Number of inhabitants in the parish of Diss, taken June 5th and 6th, 1770:—
• VoL L, p. 38.
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PxesbyteriaiiB Jews . . Quakers Catholics . Anabaptists Methodists . Church . .
Total
6 2
4 1924
2003
The number above 16
years 1221
Under 16 yean ... 782
Souls
Houses . Families
. 2003
. . 296
In 1841^ the population had increased to 3205; and a railway, diverting the traffic from the noble inn built at Scole in 1655, promises to add still further to the import- ance of the town.
The characteristic feature of its topography is the Mere, to which the town probably owes its existence as well as its name. Hence the shield wavy adopted as a device upon the Diss Farthing,t coined, in defiance of laws and proclamations, during the scarcity of money, and especially of small change, in the reign of Charles II. A similar shield, somewhat modified, is still used as the local symbol.
t Blomefield. Vol. I., p. 38.
C2
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Towards the souths at no great distance^ the boundary line of the parish and of the county is drawn by the river "Wa- veney, here only five miles from its source. " Hie limen Norfolciae/* writes Sir Henry Spelman^ " tuetur Lopham^ e cujus latere^ velut ab eodem alvo, enascentes discordes firatres, Isis minor et Waveney fluvii, contrariis alveis, hie per Dille," [Disse] " in oriente Garienem petit, ille per Thetforde, in occidente Lennvm Regis; suo ambitu totum Norfolcise aus- trale hemisphaerium complectentes.*' J It appears that, in the thirteenth century, it was one of the services of the lord and tenants of the Manor of Dickleburgh Rectory, to carry part of the abbot's wine from Norwich or Yarmouth to Palgrave Bridge. II This was a foot-bridge, or, at most, one adapted to a bridle-way only. The road from Diss, through Palgrave to Bury, crossed the river by a ford, seldom impassable. Within the last twenty years the bridge, a sketch of which is annexed, was removed, and an arch for carriages erected. The Report of the Charity Commissioners has recorded several sums contributed by the parish of Diss to this im- provement.
At the northern extremity of the parish, near the termina- tion of the "Heywood," formerly a chase-way or strip of common, but inclosed with the other waste grounds in 1814, stands Heywood HaU, caUed by Blomefield " Diss Hall." §
Before the present century, alterations were made in the house which despoiled it of much of its original character ; and many very old trees have since been cut down. But the corbie-stepped gable, the chimney, and certain traces of moats and gardens, still mark the site of " the capital Manor House."
To the reign of Charles II., or perhaps a somewhat later date, may be assigned the carved panels which remain in
X " Icenia," Po$thumouM Works, folio, p. 15S.
II Blomefield, Vol. I., p. 191, note,
i Vol. I., p. 16.
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one of the upper rooms^ having, no doubt, been removed from their original situation. Their subject is a duck-hunt — a pastime which Strutt* justly describes as ^^ barbarous/' and which is now happily obsolete.
Blomefield mentions an almshouse of brick, built on the east side of the churchyard at Diss, by Mr. Robert Bur- roughs,t who was Lord of the Manor of Roydon Hall with Tufts, and Patron of the Advowson of Roydon. J He wrote his name
This almshouse was pulled down some years ago, and the site laid into the churchyard. In the Charity Commissioners' Report, it appears to be confounded with the house built in 1610, pursuant to the will of Richard Fisher, but which last, Blomefield says, was down in 1736. ||
Besides that upon the angle-post of the Guildhall, some other similar carvings have been suflfered to reach the present times. One of these will be found on the house in the occupation of Mr. Charles Alger, near the an- cient site of St. Nicholas Chapel. This capital is in nearly perfect preservation. It is more deeply and boldly carved than the an- nexed etching would indicate. The subject on the north side is the Birth of Christ; that on the
* Sports and Piutimes, Hone's edition, p. 284.
t Vol. I., p. 37. t Vol. I., pp. 40, 46.
II Vol. I., p. 36.
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east, I suppose to be the Purification of the Virgin.
Another instance oc- curs on the north-west comer of a house in the Market Place, occupied by Mr. E. E. Abbott.
These desultory no- tices are offered to the Society with diflGidence, and are closed with the hope that other individuals, far more competent than the writer, may be found to collect and preserve, . in the spirit and with the industry of Blomefield, the archaeological re- mains of Bhmefidd^a ovm district.
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EXTRACTS FROM A
MS. DIAKY OF PETER LE NEVE, ESQ.
fioxxoxi Iting of IKrmB,
BNTITLBD
"MEMORANDA IN HERALDRY,"
OP SUCH ENTEI^ AS RELATE TO THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK.
OOMMUKICATBD BT
GEO. A. CARTHEW, ESQ.
My dear Sirs,
Classed with ^' other matters usually comprised under the head of Archaeology," in the Prospectus of the objects of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, are " Descent and Oenealogy,^* — a branch which hitherto has not occupied much of our attention. I am induced to think that the accompanying memoranda, which it is in my power to contribute, are not foreign to the subject. It may perhaps be objected, that the period of the events recorded is too recent, and that the events themselves are of too trifling im- portance, being little more than a chronicle of births, deaths, and marriages : and truly. But when I consider that there is scarcely a family, of any pretensions to antiquity of descent, connected with this county, of which some memorial may not be found in the following extracts, I hope the records of a Norfolk Topographical Society will not be deemed an improper place of deposit for them. And to the genealogist, I trust they will be foimd of some interest — it may be of utility — for purposes of reference.
As it is my intention to accompany these notes with a brief memoir of the industrious but eccentric Herald by
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whom they were originally written, and of the family from which he derived his descent, I have now merely to intro- duce them to our members, by stating that the MSS. from which they are extracted, appear to have been the rough notes, or journals, in which Peter Le Neve entered the mat- ter, afterwards posted to his MS. Pedigrees, and they contain, besides, many observations which I believe have never been transcribed. After his death, they came, vrith his other pa- pers, into the hands of his executor, the Historian of Thet- ford, so well known as " Honest Tom Martin," who married his widow, and who appears to have had them bound. By him they were given to my grandfather, the Eev. Thomas Carthew, F.S.A., of Woodbridge Abbey in Suffolk. Some extracts of more general interest have already appeared in the pages of the venerable Sylvanus Urban. Those sub- joined, it will be seen, are confined to our own locality.
Believe me.
Dear Sirs, Yours very faithfully,
Geo. a. Carthew.
East Dereham, Dec. 2nd, 1847. The Bey. Richard Hart. )
Henry Hairod, Esq. )
EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY.*
1695.
Barney, Redham, dead. S' James Edw^% High Sheriff Norff. 1695, hath Saham.^
* Words supplied subsequent to the dates of the original entries are inclosed in brackets [ ].
1 Upon the sale of the estates of Richard Bemey, Esq. of Reedham, Sir James Edwards, Bart, became the purchaser of Reedham, and resided there when he filled the office of High Sheriff. Saham Toney was part of the Bemey possessions, but not included in Sir James Edwards' purchase.
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H£VSNiNOUAM> Lady Mary,^ dyed Sunday 19 Januar. 1695^ at her house in Jermyn Street : to be buried at Ketring- ham. — Left her estate in money to her grand-daur Carey Newton,' and her grd-d' Hevingham.* — Had the Manor of Kettringham, Norff. — ^Her trustees, L** Leicester, M' Felham, S' Henr. Monson. — Remainder to Abigail He- veningham, except 500 to L'* Hunsdon, 500 to Hen. Heveningham. And 70^^ a year estate to be bought at Ketringham for an hospital there for 6 poor widdows and 10" each, and 10** for repairs. — Hath given 120** to 12 poor widdows, and as much for 12 boys of the Man- nor of Ketringham.
6 February, 1695. Munday night I saw Lady Mary Heveningham lay in state at her house in Jermyn Street. She was, the 5 instant, carryed out of town in state, between 12 and 1, thro' the city towards Keteringham, Norff. M' Devenish saw y® procession, m* with penons, escocheons, &c., 4 banner rolls ; tho' her husband was attainted, being one of the regicides. Will, Hevening- ham, esq', and never restored.
Pratt, S' Roger's* lady remar^ to Sigismond Trafford, of
Line, of Walthamstow — no child — ^had one by
S' Roger : dead. Lives at Ryston, Norff.
8 Daughter and heir of John Carey, Baron of Hunadon and Earl of Dover, and second wife of WiUiam Heveningham. There is a monument, with the effigies of herself and husband, in Ketteringham church. — See Blomefield, Y. 94.
3 The lady whose marriage to Edward Ck>ke, Esq. is mentioned in a subsequent extract.
4 Abigail, only daughter and heir of Sir William Heveningham, the eldest son and heir of Lady Mary. She inherited Ketteringham, which she brought in marriage to Henry Heron, Esq., who, in 1717, sold it to Mr. Atkyns.
5 Sir Boger Pratt, Knt, gave valuable assistance to Sir Christopher Wren in rebuilding London after the great fire. His lady was Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Monyns, Bart., of Kent.
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1696.
Coke, Edward, Esq', son, — only child, — of Robert Coke, of Holkham, NorfF., by Anne his wife, d' of Thomas Os- borne, Duke of Leeds, was marryed * Thursday, 4 May, 1696, to Cary, d' of John Newton, esq'., of Hather, Line, (son of S*" John Newton, Bar*) by Abigail, his first wife, d' of WiU. Heveningham, esq'., of Hevening- ham, Suff. and Keteringham in Norf., by Lady Mary, d' and sole heiress of John Carey, Earle of Dover.
Le Neve, James,*^ Comander of a French Privateer called the Swallow, of S* Males, taken by Capt° Rowce, co- mander of a Privateer of Guamsey, the Prosperous. — Gazette, N. 8229 of October 22*, 1696.
In M' Kingman's house, York Buildings, a picture of S' James Hobart, kneeling before the altar, in his coat armor and surcoat of Hobart. Over his head, O Jesu misericordia p crucem et passionem. Over against him his lady, kneeling, in a surcoat of Hobart and sab. 3 martlets arg.® Over her head: Nobis p peccatis des veniam et remitionem. In the middle, bet. the 2 alters, Hobart's arms in a compartment, with a cressent. Over that, the arms of England and France q'terly, and an aulic crown. This picture was taken out • of the East window of the chancell of Loddon church in NorflF.
6 The issue of this maniage was Thomas Coke, Baron LoYel and Earl of Leicester (the only Earl of that creation), and Mrs. Roberts, the grandmother of the late Thomas William Coke, Earl of Leicester, of Holkham.
7 This James Le Neve was perhaps one of the same family as our Herald, who had followed the fortunes of King James; but this is not shown by the accompan3ruig Pedigree.
8 The arms of Naunton. She was daughter of Peter Naimton, of Letheringham, Esq.
9 Meaning, I presume, copied from the window. I have heard say, there were a few years since three or four copies of this picture in existence. One, supposed to have been taken from Walsham Hall in Mendham, Suffolk, a seat of a branch of the Hobart family, was hanging at the Pye Inn in that
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[Here is a rude sketch of Loddon church and St. Olave's bridge, of both which Sir James was the founder.]
^^ Orate p anima Jacobi Hobart^ militis et atomati diii Regis qui banc eclesiam a prime fundamento condidit in tribus annis cum suis priis bonis^ anno Reg. Regis Henr. septimi vndecimo."
1696-7. Knights made and unaccounted to the office, IS March, 1697. [Naming among others] S' Lambert Blackwell.^® S' Charles Turner.^
1697.
Neve, Captain, of , Ireland, Parliament-man: what
his father and mother's names ? Writt to M' Blount — ^if not descended from Firmian, my father's brother,* son of Firmian and Alice Cory ? Parliament-man for the bo- rough of Tulske, in the county of Roscomon, in Ireland. Pari* began at Dublyn 27 Aug. 1695.
1698.
Warner, Lee, esq', of Kensington, dyed 6 Febr. 1698.
Dan. Bedingfeld for Certificate. Lee Warner, esq', in Kensington Square — 2 hatchments,
both the same ; one for him, one for his lady, thus :
parish, and was purchased by the late Mr. Copeman, of Ajlsham, for the Cknmtess of Backinghamshue, and was exhibited by the Dowager Lady Suffield, of Blickling, in the temporary Museum formed during the late meeting of the Ardueological Institate at Norwich. There is one also now h#-ngin£r in Loddon church. 10 Afterwards created a Baronet of Sprowston.
1 Afterwards created a Baronet of Warham. He was eldest son of William Turner, of North Ehnham, Attorney at Law. This date must mean that the fees on knighthood up to that time, had not been paid to the office, as Sir Charles Turner was knighted 22nd Match, 1695-6.
2 It is remarkable that so keen a genealogist as Peter Le Neye should haye been ignorant of the descendants of his father's brother : whether he ever obtained the information required in this minute I know not : it is not in my power to supply it.
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4 coats; Lee 6; a fess componee or and azure bet.
8 billetts ar. 2^ Warner of Norff. q'terly p bend
indented arg. and sab. in 2^ and 4^ q'ter blew a flor de lis or. S^^y. Vert a cross engrailed arg. ; the 4*** as first ; impaled with Hanipson, arg. 3 calltrapps sab. Crest^ a squirrell sejant bet. 2 oak branches fructed and leav^ pper. M*. the one hatchm^ is false ;. for Warner's coat is p bend engrailed instead of indented.^
1699.
Bedingfeld^ Lady/ dyed at Darsham, Suff., Wednesday, 19 of July, 1699 : buried there, Saturday 22 following : being 96 years old.
TowNSEND, Lady,*^ brought to bed of a son, (Horace,) on Sunday, IS August, 1699, at their lodgings in York Building.
Payton, S' Sewster, baronet, killed M"^ Tho. King, son of Tho. King, esq', of Thirlow, in Suff., in a duell, in No- vember, 1699, at Atilborow, Norff.
Fountain,* Andrew, junior, of Narford, Com. Norffolk, esq', knighted 30 December, at Hampton Court, Midds.
3 The third quatering is that of Whetenhall, iirhich belonged to the Wazners of Besthoipe, but has been assuzned by all the fioniliea of that name. The gentleman whose death is here recorded, was probably Colonel Henry Lee Warner, ancestor of the family now seated at Walsingham Abbey, by Dorothy Howe his wife ; and the arms of Hampson, impaled on the hatchment, may be those of a second wife. The arms of Lee, Warner, and Whetenhall are borne by this £unily, marshalled in the same order as upon the hatchments ; but for Warner they use per paie indented, and not per bend, I have neyer seen the bearing engraUed.
4 Relict of Sir Thomas Bedingfeld, Knt., late one of the Judges of the Common Pleas. She was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles Hoskins.
5 Mary, daughter of Sir Joseph Ashe, Bart., and second lady of the first Viscount. Horace was her third son.
6 Sir Andrew Fountaine was an accomplished scholar and antiquary. He was the collector of the library, pictures, &c., at Narford Hall.
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1700.
Walpolb,'' M'. mar^ to Lady Philips' grdd' , d' of Jolin
Shorter, esq', son and heir of S' Jo. Shorter, ILK The old Collonell dead in Novemb. 1700, beginning of the month.
Holland, S' John, of Quidenham, baronet, dyed day
of January, 1700,® at Quidenham. Buried there
day of His grandson, S' John, succeeds.
WooDHOTJSE, S' John, of Kimberley Hall. His lady's name
was Benson,* d' of Benson, attorney at York: she
dyed first January, a.d. 1700 : buried at Kimberley.
1701.
NoRFF. Duke Henry dyed suddenly at his house in S^ James's Square, on Tuesday, 2^ of Aprill, 1701, of a lethergy, in the morning: buried on Tuesday evening, the 8 of the same month, in the church of Arundell, Sussex.
Serjeant Neve, Philip, married to daughter and co- heir of S' Nicolas Stoughton, 29 of May, 1701. [She dyed 6 October, 1704.]
Albemarle ) Joust Van Kepell, Earle of Albemarle, maried
Earle. ) in the english Churche at the Hague, to
Scravanmore, daur and heir of the Seur Van Scraven- more, June, 1701.
7 This was the great Btatesmaa, afterwards Sir Bobert Walpole. His lady's Chiistian name was Catherine. By the old Colonel is supposed to be meant Robert Walpole, of Houghton, Esq., his father.
8 A subsequent entry giyes the 19th Jan. 1701, new style, as the day of his death : his age 98.
9 Elizabeth, first wife of Sir John Wodehouse, had no issue. Her bro- ther, Robert Benson, was afterwards created Lord Bingley.
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Wallis, Edmund^ of Fersfeld in Norff. Anne, his daughter
and coheir, was maried to Thomas Frere.^^ HoBART, Lady/ dead of consumption, Aug. 1701.
nog.
Catelyn, S' Nevill, of Karby Caime, Norff., K*. dyed
day of July, 1702, at his house there. [His lady remar.
to S' Charles Turner, K*.] Lestrangb, Roger, Esq'.* Under his picture, done by
White : '' jEtatis suae 68, A. Diii, 1684." MoUoy '' Vos
non vobis."
1703.
Davy, Rob*. Esq'. Recorder of Norwich and Member of Pari* for the City, dyed October, 1708.
Drury, Lady, killed by the storm, 27*^ of November, at Riddlesworth : wife of S' Rob*. D. of Riddlesworth, Norff., Bart.»
10 Thomas Frere, of Occold, Suffolk, citizen and skinner of London. He was half-brother of Tobias Frere, of Harleston, a zealous Puritan, and one of the members for Norfolk in Barebone's Parliament.
1 Helict of Sir Henry Hobart of Bliokling, who was killed in a duel by Oliver Le Neve.
8 This must refer to Sir Roger Lestrange, the well-known author and translator, who, bom at Hunstanton, Dec. 17, 1616, after suffering many misfortunes, and incurring various hazards of life, for the sake of the Boyal cause in the great rebellion, died on the 11th Dec. 1704, without leaving issue. Mr. Thorns, in a note to his Introduction to the "Anecdotes and Traditions " of Sir Nicholas Lestrange, published by the Camden Society, says, that an original portrait of Sir Koger, by Elneller, which he believed had never been engraved, was in the possession of Bichard Frankum, Esq. Bobert White, however, was an engraver, and an eminent one In his time, particularly for his portraits ; so that the picture referred to by Le Neve may have been an engraving of Kneller's portrait. Qii. Is this the same as that mentioned by Mr. Ewing in his Norfolk Lists i
3 Dame Elinor, second wife of Sir Robert Dnury, and another lady, were both killed in bed by the fall of a stack of chimneys. See Blomefield, who
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Britifpe, Charles, of Cley, Norff., son of Clem*. Britiffe, dyed November, 1703 : buried at Cley Tuesday after.
1704.
Brown, Edward, Doctor of Phisick, son and heir of S' Tho- mas Brown,* of Norwich, chosen President of the Col- ledge of Phisitians, in the room of S' Thomas Millington, K^ deceased, day of January, 170|.
Brown, , wife of Dr. Thomas,* son and heir of Edward
Brown, D^ of Phishick, dyed 26 March, 170| : buried at Hirst in Berks : dr. of Fairfax, of Hurst.
Hare, Hugh, son and heir of Henry, Baron of Coleraine : his wife Lydia, daiir and coheir of Math. Carleton, of
, in Surrey. She dyed day of May, 1704,
and was buried on Munday, 22 instant, at Tottenham, Midds. ; as was, some little time before, Catherine (she died 29 Apr. 1704) widdowe of Hugh Hare, of Docking in Norff., esq'., daur of John Holt, of Salisbury, Wylts, and was bur* on Thursday, 4 of May, 1704, at Toten- ham aforesaid.
Lb Neve, Jane, daur of S' John Knivet, K*. of bath, 2^ wife of Oliver Le Neve, of Witchingh™, my brother, dyed 19 June, 1704, at Witchingham : bur** in Wych : chancell.
Neve, Serjeant Philip: his 2* wife daughter of S'
Stoughton, dead without issue, 4 day of October, 1704.
re£erB to Le Neye aa his authority. She was daughter to Samuel Harsnet, Esq., of Great Fransham, and had been pzeviously wife to Wm. Marsham, Esq., of Stratton Strawless.
4 Of the learned author of ReUgio Medici it would be superfluous to say a word. Dr. Edward Browne, his only surriving son, married Henrietta Susanna, daughter of Dr. Teme. Their son. Dr. Thomas Browne, married his cousin Alathea, youngest daughter and coheir of Henry Fair&x, of Bridlington in Yorkshire, and Hurst in Berks, by Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Browne, whose death is recorded in the next extract A pedigree of the famUy, from a MS. in the collections of Le Neye, is printed in Wilkin's edition of Browne's works.
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Bedingfeild, Sr Henry, Bar^ dyed at Oxburgh, of the gout, 14 of Sept. 1704.
Bedingfeild, Daniell,* Recorder of Lynne, dyed 14 day of Sept. 1704, at Lynne Regis.
West NewtoTiy | Stephen Beaumont, Rector, dyed there, 8^^ Norff. / of November, 1705 : buried in that church
the 9 of the same month.
Norff. D. 1704. Dec. 7. The right noble prince Thomas, Duke of NorflF. came of age that day, as M'. Mawson, Chester, declared to us.
Lestrange, S' Roger, dyed in Holbom, at his house, on Munday night the 11, or Tuesday morning the 12, of December, 1704 : buried Thursday, 21»*, at S*. Gyles in the feilds.
M^. Sr Cloudsley Shovell sworn day of December,
1704, of the Councell to Prince George, Lord High Admirall, [and made, 5 January, rear Admiral of Eng- land.]
1705.
January 16. Sr Cloudsley Shovel, reer Admiral of England, appoynted Admirall and Comander in Cheif of her Ma- jesties fleet.
Jernegan, John, son and heir of S' Henry Jemegan, of Costesy in NorflT., married to Margaret, daughter of S' Henry Bedingfeld, deceased, about febr. 1705.
Haversham, Lady, wife of John Thompson, Baron Haver- sham, relict of Windham, of Cromer in Norff. and
daughter of Arthur, Earle of Anglesea,* dyed day
of March, 1704-5, and buried at Haversham in Bucks.
5 He was third son of Humphry Bedingfield, of Wighton, of the Oxburgh family: leaving no issue, Christopher Bedingfield, of Wighton, his nephew, was his heir. The coinddenee of his death on the same day as the second baronet of the family is remarkable. The Astleys are the representatiyes of this branch.
6 Lady Frances Annesley had been fourth wife of John Windham, Esq.
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Kemp, S' Eobcrt, baronet,'^ of Finchingfeld or Spa3ntie8 hall,
Essex, married d' of Miller, of Oxenheath, Kent.
2^ d' of Kemp of Norff. 3. Eliz. d' of Tho.
Stewart, of Barton mills ; remaried to Bobt. King, of Thirlow in Essex, E8q^® S' Eob*. had by her 1 son,
Rob*, and one d' mar. to Tebell, of
qre. if Robert's widdow did not marry S' Tho. Gardiner after.
Paston, M'.^ , son of Robert, Earle of Yarmouth, dyed
Wednesday after 1 of Aug. at 3 in the morning, at his
house in Street, Albemarle Ground: buried the
Sunday following in S*. James' Church. His wife, d' and coheir of Philip Harbord, Esq. of Besthorp in NorflF., survived him.
Calthorp, Xtofer, son and heir of S' Xtofer Calthorp, K*. of bath, of Barsham in NorflF., married to Hannah Maria de Grey at Darsham, SuflT., 21 of May, 1704, d' of Will.
de Grey, esq', of Merton, in Norff. %nd sister of de
Grey, now liveing.
Coke, Edward, esq', and Cary Newton, their children : Tho- mas, Cary, d'., Anne,^® Edward, Robert, (Mary, dead.)
Bacon, S' Robert, primier baronett of England, dyed at his house at Garboldesham in Norff., 31 of Jan. 1704-5 : buried at
Hare, of Stow bardolf, Norff., S' Ralf : one of his sisters married to Leigh, son of Lee, of Staff.^
7 Should have been Khiffht.
8 Elizabeth Steward, Sir Robert's widow, had by her second husband, Robert King, of Ghreat Thurlow in Suffolk (not Essex), a daughter, Letitia, who married Sir Robert Kemp of TJbbeston, Bart.
9 This was the Hon. Robert Paston, the second son.
10 From Anne Coke, the second daughter of this marriage, who became the wife of Major Philip Roberts, is descended the present family of Coke of Holkham, duplicate Earls of Leicester.
1 Mary, one of the daughters of Sir Thomas Hare, Bart., by her husband, Thomas Leigh, was progcnetrix of the Baronets (Hare) of Stowbardolph, of the present creation.
VOL. II. D
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Bedingfeld, S' Rob*, of London, Alderman, his 2 wifes : 1«* Eliz. d' of Martin Hervey, esq', of Weston Flavell,
Com. North*ton. 2^. w. Anne, d' and coheir of
Strode, of Newhouse by Coventry, Warr. !■' wife dyed Sept. 1688: buried at Ditchingham, Norflf.^
1706.
WooDHOUSE, S' John, of Kimberley in Norff., bart., married
to his 2^ wife in 1705, to Mary, daur of S' William
Fermor, bar*, baron of Leominster, by his 2^ wife, Cath- erine, d' of John Lord Paulet.
FowKES, Martin, of Greys Inne, barrister at lawe, dyed Sunday morning, 17 febry, 1705 : buried at Hillington, NorflF. about 28 of the same month.
Howard, , 2^ son of Henry Howard, Earle of Suffolk,
married to daughter of S' Henry Hobart, and sister
of S' John Hobart, bart, of Blickling, Norff.^
Berney, S' Richard, of Kirby by Norwich, dyed day
of May, 1706.
Drury, S' Robert, mar^ to M" Diana Violett, August, 1706.
2 He ^as fifth son of John Bedingfeld, of Halesworth in Suffolk, Esq., who was of the Ditchingham branch. His second wife, daughter of Wm. Strode, was the widow of a merchant named Renaidson.
8 Anne Hobart, wife of the Hon. Charles Howard.
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•- • .•- : .-
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CROWMER MONTJMBUT. YARMOUTH CHURCH.
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CROWMEK MONUMENT, LETTER FROM FRANCIS WORSHIP, ESQ.
TO
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V. P.
Great Yarmouth, October, 1847.
My dear Sir,
In the course of the repairs now going on in our fine old Church many curious things haye come to light. If the ancient glories of the edifice have passed away, and be now beyond the recal of imagination, the long-hidden Sedilia prove how large was the staff of priests in this town at a time when the population was not a third of its present amount. The Almeries and other closets for the deposit of sacred utensils confirm the statements of old topographical historians, that oiir Church abounded in chapels and altars. The faint remains of a Fresco-painting in one of the Sedilia in tlie south aisle of the chancel display considerable ele- gance of design. Fastolf 's mutilated tomb attests alike the wealth of a benefactor, and the architectural genius of the age he lived in: while the gorgeous Bosses, profusely scat- tered over the roof of the nave and its aisles, carry us at once to the time of their being placed there — that of the best period of Edward III. — and among them may be seen the coats of that monarch, and of all his sons in their order of birth, as well as the coats of Bishop Spencer and of other contemporary ecclesiastical and lay benefactors — the last being mingled with devices of the most various shapes, either em- blems of religious faith or the evidences of playful fancy.
d2
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One recent discovery alone must ever be a subject of per- sonal gratification to yourself. At the late annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute, Professor Willis delivered a spirited lecture within the walls of our Church, on its age and architecture ; and, among the theories which he was compelled to have resort to, was one that no part of the ori- ginal edifice of Herbert de Losinga now existed. Certainly the Professor's lecture did not come within the limits of strict criticism ; for his means of inspection had been small, and were of a distant date. I must ever feel grateful for being allowed to be one of his hearers ; and I have often wished that, in the present fever-heat for Church-restoration, a little of his true taste and genius could be widely distributed. But to resume. The energy of our friend and your relative, Mr. Gunn, caused him to examine the Tower with perse- vering care ; and from a slight beginning came the gratifying detection of a series of pure Norman Arches, which at once established the antiquity of, at least, a portion of the Church, and carried it to the time of Herbert de Losinga, the first founder.
Another discovery has recently been made, much inferior to the last, but still of considerable interest. It might be better for me to call it a restoration ; but it is both a restora- tion and a discovery ; and, as it relates to the history of our town, and brings one of our old Burgesses out of the seeming oblivion into which he had long fallen, I think I shall be pardoned for acquainting the Norfolk Archaeological Society, through yourself, with what I have made out concerning it.
Until very lately oiir Church was split into three distinct parts, of which the chancel and its aisles formed one — while a division of the nave and its aisles into portions of unequal size constituted the two others. These divisions were all made in the time of the Parliament; and, from that period to the end of the Protectorate, each of them formed the place of assembly for a distinct congregation. The chancel portion
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was entered by two doorways — one in the north aisle^ and the other in the south. The latter was of the most common kind : a portion of the wall had been removed to make it, and there was neither architectural design nor decoration. The northern doorway led into the churchyard, under a canopy of considerable beauty, having in its centre a shield, on which an engrailed chevroriy wavy or und^e, between three birds could be distinctly traced. The canopy had all the appearance of being the remains of a mural monument. If so, its desecration or partial destruction must have been ef- fected in the time of the Parliament, for the sake of entrance into the chancel. To support this idea, there are on the wooden posterns of the door, as you come from the church- yard, certain initials, and the town's arms, and the figures 1650. But, after all, nothing was known of the history of this handsome doorway ; and yet it had the benefit of a faint tradition, and went by the name of ''Crowmer's Monument."
The style of this canopy and doorway is of the latter part of Henry the Seventh's or the beginning of the following reign. But I need not enter upon description, as my sister has been so good as to make an etching of it as it appeared from the chancel ; and she kindly permits me to express a hope that the Society will consider the plate not unworthy of their acceptance.
I must now take your attention to an accidental disclosure, recently made in another and a distant part of the Church, and which, as singularly as completely, not only establishes the tradition I have referred to, but enables our Church- committee to restore the Crowmer Monument to its original state, and, almost entirely, with the original materials.
In the north-west comer of the north aisle stood the vestry ; and over the entrance-door was a stone tablet, mark- ing the date of its erection (1650) together with the names of the Bailifis and Churchwardens of that time. This tablet was an object of general interest. Our town had sided vehe-
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mently with the Parliament and the two Protectors ; and as vehemently it hailed the Restoration. History does not allow what is done to be undone ; but the public monuments are within reach of a powerful majority, and, as Bailiff William Burton continued guilty of old opinions, his obstinacy was punished by the erasure of his name from the tablet. The end in view, like many others of equal wisdom, foiled alto- gether ; and I believe I may say that William Burton's name is better known for its absence from the tablet, than are those of the others for being there.
On the recent demolition of the vestry, and the removal of this stone inscription from the place it had occupied for nearly two centuries, a singular piece of sculpture came to light. Some panel-work was visible at the ba6k of the tablet; and, on clearing away the dirt and mortar, two quatrefoils appeared in all their original sharpness. Within one of them was a shield bearing a chetron engraUed^ beiwedn three birds, and impaling j9^ chevron^ with eight crosses famine in chief, while the shield in the other quatrefoil held a merchant's mark.
I am again under obligations to my sister, whose zeal en- ables me to present to the Society a second plate she has etched of, first, the tablet as it stood over the vestry-door, and, next, the panel-work and shields just mentioned.
There is no trace of colours on either the shield in the centre of the canopy or that within the quatrefoil ; but, as the former differed from the latter only in having the engrailed chevron und^e, or wavy, there was at least much resemblance between the two, and a reasonable ground for making in- quiry.
First, the name of Crowmer, and the birds (probably crows) in both shields, appeared to support the tradition that the right title had been given to the monument. The date of 1650 on the postern of the south chancel doorway, and on that side of the tablet which held the Bailiffs' names, afforded fair presumptive evidence both of the time when the tomb
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^
(
TABLETS PANEL. CROVTMER MONUMENT OT YARMOTTTH
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was desecrated; and of the use made of part of its materials. On referring to good books of heraldry, the man*s coat on the panel became clear enough, for it appeared that the arms of Crowmer or Cromer of Kent (the name is spelt both ways) are argent, a chevron engrailed, between three crows, sable. Saving that colours were wanting, a more complete identity with a name could not be found. The wife's arms looked like those of Wilshire — ^but upon that subject I will add a few words presently. On measuring the length of this panel with the width of the tomb, it appeared that one more quatre- foil of the same size would exactly supply all that was needed to restore the monument. So far, therefore, so good.
Then, as to the shield in the canopy. At first there was some difficulty about it ; but at length it appeared, on search- ing at the Herald's College, that on 24th April, 1494, the following arms were granted and confirmed to ''Robert Cromer of Yermouthe, in the Counte of Norflfolke, to hold to him and his posterity," viz. gold, a chevron engrailed, unded silver and azure, betwixt three crows sable, with, for a crest, a crow standing on a wreath, silver. The truth of the tradition attending the monument was thus placed beyond a doubt.
The family of Crowmer, or Cromer, was an old and im- portant one in the County of Kent. One of them. Sir Wil- liam Crowmer, was Lord Mayor of London in 1423. * His son William married the only daughter of Lord Saye and Sele, the Lord Treasurer, and was SheriflF of Kent in 1460, when the rebellion headed by Jack Cade broke out. The Sheriff and his father-in-law were tried and convicted of treason by the rebels, and then executed ; and their heads were cut off, and fixed on poles, and finally set up on London Bridge, having first been made " to kiss one the other at every street-comer." t Another of the Cromers married a daughter
* Stow'B Chrcnicte, p. 619.
t Stow's CAronicfo, p. 660. WeeTer* b Funeral Mbnwnentatp, 279. Grafton, p. 612. Shakspeare'B Henry VL Cade instituted a commission of Oyer et
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of Sir John Guilford, " the Controller to the House to King Edward IV." J John Crowmer, Esq. and Jone his wife, lie buried at Sittingbourne, under the date 1539. § The daughter of Sir John Cromer was interred at Tunstall in Kent. || Weever, in his work on Funeral Monuments, spells the name Crowmer or Cromer indifferently, and on the same page. In one place, xinder the head of the Diocese of Can- terbury, he styles the family as " of prime and principal note in these parts ;" * and in another, as being ** of knightly de- scent, and of ample revenues." f How our Robert Crowmer came to Yarmouth, there are now no means of ascertaining : his name does not appear in our town records before his own time. That he was of this Kentish family, and had the heraldic benefits of their pedigree and connections, there can be little doubt. Probably he was a younger son, and it might be needful for him to be the maker of his own fortune. Per- haps he came hither in the intercourse between this town and the Cinque Ports, which in his time was important and inces- sant. That he was a prosperous man, his tomb bears ample testimony : that he was a Surgess of great worth, is shown by the fact that he was nine times Bailiff, H viz. in 1470, 1471, 1479, 1481, 1482, 1488, 1489, 1490, and 1497. He might fairly regard himself as the founder of a new family; and thus I am inclined to explain the variation in the blazon of his arms, while it will be observed, that the fashion of the paternal coat (which he would seem to have preserved on the
Terminer^ under which Lord Saye and Sele was tried at Guildhall, and ex- ecuted. Ritson belieyes that the Sheriff Crowmer was also tried under the same commission; but it seexns probable that he was killed at Mile-end without trial the day after Lord Saye's execution.
t Weever, p. 236.
§ Ibid. p. 279.
11 Ibid. p. 279.
♦ Ibid. p. 235.
t Ibid. p. 279.
ir Swinden's Hisioiy of Yarmouth, pp. 933, 934, and 935.
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quatrefoil for the sake of old family connexion) is strictly adhered to. In the absence of dates, it becomes possible that the canopy arms were granted, not only after Robert Crow- mer's marriage, but while he was a widower.
Now as to the wife's arms impaled on the panel-shield. On referring again to heraldic books, the arms of Wilshire of Stone in Kent are given as per chevron azure and argent^ in chief eight crosses fomUe or. Colours, as I have said, are wanting; but, in their absence, words cannot describe the coat in question more correctly than these words do. To complete the description and identify the whole, Weever gives the names of certain persons buried in Yarmouth church for whose souls prayers were made, and among them appears ^* Jone, the daughter of John Wilshire, wife to Robert Cromer." *
The Wilshires must have been people of much note in Kent. I shall only trouble you by stating that Sir John Wilshire was Controller of the town and marches of Calais in Henry the Seventh's reign, and that he was buried in a chapel of his own foundation within Stone Church in 15^6. He resided at Stone Castle; and his only daughter and heiress, Bridget Wilshire, married Sir Richard Wingfield, K.G., Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Ambassador from Henry VIII. to Spain, where he died, f Failing all family pedigree, I may venture to deem it possible that Jone Crowmer of Sittingboume was the only child of our Robert Crowmer and Jone Wilshire his wife, and that she married a Kentish cousin, and so carried her name back again to the county from whence I consider both her father and mother to have sprung.
I regret extremely that no trace of our Bailiff's will is to be found either at Doctors' Commons, or in the Ecclesiastical Courts at Norwich. Farther inquiries must be made. His
• Weever, p. 863. t Ibid. p. 334.
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name seems to have been spelt as irregularly as that of his family was. In the grant of arms he is called Cromer, while in our Corporation lists he is always called Crowmer.
And now, my dear Sir, my long letter has come to a close. For the sake of our antiquarian friends living far away, I have thought right to tell my story at length, rather than to tell it briefly. I have described the confusion and uncer- tainty in which the subject first presented itself. I have narrated the little things which, step by step, and one by one, came to light. The name of Crowmer disappears from our Town Records after 1497. In the sad absence of every kind of local information respecting our Bailiff and his lady, I have told all that I could learn of their families ; and I have now only to hope, that the monument of Robert Crowmer and Jone his wife will be speedily restored in good taste, and be never desecrated or mutilated more.
With an anxious hope that our Church itself may be treated as well as this monument can easily be, and that the means may not be wanting to treat it as justly,
I remain.
Ever truly yours,
Francis Worship.
To Dawson Turner, Esq.
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LETTER
FBOM
SIR PHILIP STAPLETON TO OLIYER CEOMWELL,
AMD
JFt^t UttUx^ (torn iBlibtx iSvomtoeU ftivxBtlt
m
COMHUHIOATSD BY
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V. P.
The letters, which I have here the pleasure of submittmg to the Norfolk Archseological Society, passed into my hands upon the purchase of the manuscripts of Dr. Cox Macro, which included those of our great Norfolk antiquary. Sir Henry Spelman, and of his sons. But whether these letters formed part of the latter collection, or had been obtained by Dr. Macro, who was himself indefatigable, from any other quarter, is a point that it would be, most probably, now impossible to ascertain; nor could the determining of it be of any im- portance, further than as it might be supposed to tend to establish their originality, of which they bear too strong in- ternal evidence to leave room for doubt. None of them, to the best of my knowledge, have ever been published. The first, from Sir Philip Stapleton, was written two days after that from Cromwell to Mr. Barnard, upon altogether a diflferent subject, printed by Mr. Carlyle, I. p. 158. Its address puts an end to a doubt, expressed by that gentle- man, how far the subsequent Lord Protector held the rank of captain or colonel on the 23rd of January 1642-8. The very able editor states that he finds him on the 14th of the preceding September, in a ** List of the Army, under the command of the Earl of Essex, Lord General for King and
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Parliament/' enumerated as " Captain in troop sixty-seven," while on the second of the following March his name appears with the higher grade. But it seems certain that he was not raised to the latter till hard upon the date last mentioned. He was at the same time Member for Cambridge. Materials for Cromwell's biography are very scanty in 1642; and nothing appears to be left us which may throw light, either upon the person said by Sir Philip Stapleton to have been sent into Norfolk, or upon the contents of the letter of which he was the bearer. The Gaudye, more particularly pointed out in it as an object of suspicion, was, most probably, Framlingham Gawdy, Esq., of West Herling, Member for Thetford in the Parliament of 1640, and one of those secluded by the Army immediately before the trial of the King. He died in 1654 ; and his son. Sir William Gawdy, was created a baronet nine years afterwards. By Benefeild, I apprehend is to be under- stood Sir Henry Bedingfield, of Oxburgh, Knight, who, upon the breaking out of the civil war, flew to the Royal Standard, with his two sons, Thomas and Henry, and rendered himself conspicuous for his conduct and courage, till he was made prisoner and committed to the Tower ; shortly after his release from which he died, Nov. 22, 1656, at the age of 70. Of Sir Philip Stapleton himself, we read in Collins' Baronetagey III. p. 53, that he was a younger branch of the Wighill family, and purchased Warter in the Wolds, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The same author goes on to say — "He was one of the five Members of Parliament whom the King went to the House of Commons to demand, and was very eminent for his personal valour. His extraordinary mettle and boldness of spirit may be conjectured by his attempt to cope singly with Prince Rupert ; but afterwards, discerning Cromwell's influence upon the army, he so resolutely opposed their designs, that he was one of eleven members against whom charges were exhibited ; and my Lord Clarendon men- tions them as men of parts, interest, and signal courage, who
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heartily abhorred the intentions which they discerned the army to have. He afterwards went beyond sea, and, dying at Calais, in August, 1647, was denied burial, upon imagination that he was infected with the plague." "We are further told respectmg him, by Clarendon, (II. p. 462, Oxford, 1807,) '"He was a proper man, of a fair extraction; but, being a branch of a younger family, inherited but a moderate estate, about five hundred pounds a-year, in Yorkshire ; and, according to the custom of that country, had spent much time in those delights which horses and dogs administer. Being returned to serve in Parliament, he concurred with his neighbours, Hotham and Cholmondley, being much younger than they and go- verned by them in the prosecution of the Earl of Strafford ; and so was easily received into the company and familiarity of that whole party which took that work to heart ; and, in a short time, appeared a man of vigour in body and mind, and to be rather without good breeding, than not capable of it ; and so he quickly outgrew his friends and countrymen in the confidence of those who governed ; they looking upon him as worth the getting entirely to them and not averse from being gotten, and so joined him with Mr. Hambden in this their first employment (and the first that ever a Parliament had of that kind) to be initiated under so great a master, whose instruction he was very capable of."
ffor my noble freind Captayne Oliver Cromwell at Cambridge or else where^
these. Worthy S',
There is one gonne into Norfolke, described to you in this inclosed paper. He carries a letter thither from Oxford, to encourage the Papists, generally, to take up armes. It would be of greate advantage to us, if wee could take this man and his letter. He is to goe through Cambridge,
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where we hope you may have him ; but, if he be gonne into Norfolke, you axe desired to use what meanes you can that the good partye in that Countye doe seaze upon Gaudye and Benefeild, upon this just ground, that they intend to take armes : they may be likewise searched for this letter, which we would gladly have. S', I have a particular
suite to you for myselfe. I have lost one of my horses lately. If, amongst the horses you take up for this service, you light upon any large, strong, stond horse, that is nimble and full of mettall, I entreate you will send him to me. I shall be ready to pay what you please for him, and shall putt this courtesy upon the account with those many other I have received from you. I pray God for a prosperous successe upon all your employments, restinge.
Your most faithfuU Windsor, Jan. 25**» freiend and servant,
1642. Ph: Stapilton.
Indorsed,— '' K lett' ffrom S*" Philip Stapleton to Capt° Cromwell."
So carefully has the name been erased from the address to the subjoined letter, that it is impossible to offer even a conjec- ture on the subject. Considered conjointly with the following, and with a third, published by Mr. Carlyle, I., p. 182, and also dated from Huntingdon, July 31, the reader is put into full details of the memorable exploit, whereby Gainsborough was relieved, though ineffectually, and *^ Colonel Cromwell, in giving assistance to the Lord Willoughby, and performing gallant service against the Earl of Newcastle's forces, made a beginning of his great fortune, and now began to appear in the world." The interest of the three letters is increased by
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their being all addressed to different persons. Mr. Carlyle's is written to the Committee of the Association sitting at Cambridge.
To my noble friend 8^ John *****, Knight and Baronett^ ment these,
S',
The perticidar respects I have receaved att your hands doe much oblige me, but the great affection you beare to the publike much more : for that cause^ I am bould to acquaint you with some late passages wherein it hath pleased God to favor us, w^**, I am assured, wilbee welcome to you. After Burlye house was taken, wee went towards Gaynsbrowe, to a generall rendevouze, where mett us Lin- colnesheire troopes, soe that we were nineteene or twentye troopes, when wee were together, of horse, and about three or foure troupes of dragooners : wee marched with this force to Gainsbrowe : upon firyday morninge, being the 28th day of July, wee mett with a forlome hope of y® enimie, and w*** our men brak it in : wee marched onn to the townes end, the enimie beinge upon the top of a very steepe hill over our heads, some of our men attemted to march up that hill : the enimie oposed : our men drove them up, and forced their passage : by that tyme wee came up, wee saw the enimie well sett in two bodyes ; the former a large fayre body, the other a reserve, consisting of six or seaven brave troopes : before wee could gett our force into order, the great body of the enimie advanced : they were w*** in muskett shott of us when wee came to the pitch of y* hill : wee advanced likewise towards them; and both charged, each upon other: thus advancinge, wee came to pistoll and sword's point both in that dosse order, that it was disputed very strongly whoe should breake the other ; but, o\ir men pressinge a little heavilye upon them, they begun to give backe, w*^^ our men perceavinge, instantly
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forced them, brake that whole body; some of them flyinge on this side, some on the other side of the reserve : our men pursuinge them in great disorder had the execution about 4 or, some say, 6 miles with much a doe: this donn, and all their force beinge goun, not one man standinge, but all beaten out of the field, wee drew up our body together, and kept the field ; the half of our men beinge well wome in the chase of the enimie. Upon this wee indeavored the businesse wee came for, which was the releife of the towne w^** ammunition: wee sent in some powder, which was the great want of y^ towne ; W^^ doun, word was brought us that the enimie had about 6 troupes of horse and 300 foote a little onn the other side of the towne : upon this we drew some musketteers out of the towne, and with our body of horse marched towards them : wee saw two troupes towards the mill, w*** my men drove downe into a little village att the bottom of the hill : when wee came w*^ our horse to the top of that hill, wee sawe, in the bottom, a whole regiment of foote, after that, another and another ; and, as some counted, about 50 colours of foote, w*** a great body of horse, w*^^* indeed was my Lord Newcastle's Armie, w*** which hee now beseiges Gainsbrowe. My Lord Willoghby com'anded mee to bringe off the foote and horse, w*^** I endeavoured ; but the foote (the enimie pressinge onn w*** the armie) retreated in some disorder into the towne, beinge of that garrison : our horse, also beinge wearied, and unexpectedly pressed by this new force, soe great, gave ofi^, not beinge able to brave the charge; but w^^ some difficulty wee gott our horse into a body, and w^** them faced the enimie, and retraited in such order, that, though the enimie followed hard, yett they were not able to disorder us, but wee gott them off safe to Lincolne from this fresh force, and lost not one man : the honor of this retraite, sequal to any of late tymes, is due to Maior "Whalye and Captaine Ascough, next under God : this relation I ofier you for the honor of God, to whome be all the praise; as also to lett you know you have some servants
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faythfuU to you^ to incite to action. I beseech you^ lett this good successe quicken your ciintainien* to this ingagement : its great evidence of God's favor : lett not yonr businesse be starved. I know if all bee of your minde we shall have an honorable return : its your owne businesse : a reasonable strength; now raised speedilie^ may doe that w*^^ much more will not doe after sometime. Undoubtedly, if they succeed heere, you will see them in the bowells of your Association. For the tyme, you will have itt from your noble kinesman and Colonell Falgrave : if wee bee not able in ten days to releive Gainsbrowe, a noble Lord wilbe lost, many good foote, and a considerable passe over trent into theise parts: the Lord prosper your indeavors and ours. I beseech you psent my humble service to the High hon**^® Lady. S', I am
^<MA^ j^lJ^ftJt^
July 80*^ 1648.
P. S. — I stayed two of my owne troupes, and my maior stayed his, in all three: there were in the front of the enimies reserve three or four of the Lincolne troupes yett unbroken : the enimie charged those troupes, utterly broake and chased them \ soe that none of the troupes on our part stood but my three: whilst the enimie was foUowinge our fljringe troupes, I charged him on the reere with my three troupes, drove him downe the hill, brake him all to peices, forced Leiuetenant General Cavendish into a bogg, whoe fought in this reserve :
* Ita. oontinuinff, VOL. II. K
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one officer cutt him on the head ; and^ as hee lay^ my Cap^ Leiuetennant Berry thrust him into the short ribbs, of w^^ hee dyed about two hours after in Gainsbrowe.
Looking in order to the " four noble friends" to whom the ensuing letter is addressed, I must commence with stating, that I have found nothing farther recorded of Sir Edmund Bacon, than that he was the eldest son of Sir Nicholas, the first baronet, and succeeded him in his honors, and died 1649. The part he took in the civU wars I nowhere see mentioned. Sir William Springe, of Pakenham, Suffi)lk, was created Baronet by Charles I. in 1641, only two years antecedently to the writing of this letter, from which it cannot but be inferred that he had ceased to be of the Royal party. And yet the same sovereign had previously conferred upon him the honor of knighthood. He was, though not of Norfolk himself, a man closely connected with our county, having married the daughter of Sir Hamond L*Estrange, of Hunstanton, by whom he had two daughters ; one, the wife of John Palgrave, Esq., particularly mentioned in the foregoing letter ; the other, of Sir Christopher Calthorpe, of East Barsham, K.B. A farther tie to Norfolk was afforded by three of his sisters, whose respective husbands were Sir Thos. Gaudy, of Gaudy Hall, Knight ; James Hobart, of Langley, Esq. ; and John Sidley, of Morley, Esq. Sir Thomas Barnardiston was of Cetton, Suffolk, where the family, an old and distinguished one, had long resided. He succeeded a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all of the same name and all knights ; and he was himself succeeded by the more eminent Sir Na- thaniel, who was five times Knight of the Shire for Suffolk, and once for Sudbury. I have nothing to report of him per-
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sonally ; nor of Mr. Maurice Barrow, save that the latter re- presented the borough of Eye in the parliament of 1640, and was one of the Members excluded by the army in 1648. This letter is of even greater interest than either of the other two of the same date and subject; so clear are its details, so graphic its style, and so strong the light it throws on the cha- racter of the writer.
To my noble friends 8'' Edmon Bacon^ JBT' and Barron t, 8'' Wilt^ Springe^ Enight and Baronett, 8'' Thomas Bemardiston^ -BG/, and Maurice Bar- rowe^ Esq.y p^ent theise.
Gentlemen,
Noe man desires more to present you with incoragment then my selfe, because of the forward- nesse I finde in you (to your honor bee it spoken) to promote this great cause ; and truly God foUowes you w**^ incorag- ments, whoe is the God of blessings ; and I beseech you lett him not loose his blessings upon us : they come in season, and with all the advantages of hartninge. As if God should say, " Up and be doeinge, and I will helpe you, and stand by you :" there is nothinge to bee feared, but our owne sinn and sloath.
It hath pleased the Lord to give your servant and souldiers a notable victorie now att Gainsbrowe. I marched after the takinge of Burlye house upon Wedensday to Grantham, where mett mee about SOO horse and dragoones of Noting- ham : with theise by agreement with the Linconers wee mett att North Scarle, w*^*^ is about teen miles from Gainsbrowe, upon Thursday in the eveninge, where wee tarried untill two of the clocke in the mominge, and then, with our whole body, advanced towards Gainsbrowe. About a mile and halfe from y® towne wee mett a forlorne hope of y® enimie of neere 100
b2
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horse : our dragoones laboured to beate them backe ; but^ not alightinge off their horses^ the enimie charged them^ and beate some 4 or five of them off their horses : our horse charged them^ and made them retyre unto their maine body : wee advanced and came to the bottom of a steepe hiU^ upon w*^^ the enimie stood : wee could not well gett up but by some tracts^ w*'^ our men assayinge to doe, a body of the enimie indeavoured to hinder, wherein wee prevailed and gott the top of the hill : this was doun by the Linconers, whoe had the vantguard : when wee all recovered the top of the hill, wee saw a great body of the enimies horse facinge of us att about muskitt shott or lesse distance, and a' good re- serve of a full regiment of horse behinde itt : wee indea- voiured to putt our men into as good order as wee could ; the enemie in the meane tyme advanccing towards us to take us att disadvantage. But in such order as wee were, wee charged their great body ; I havinge the right wiuge : wee came up horse to horse, where wee disputed itt with our swords and pistoles a pretty tyme ; all keepinge close order, soe that one could not breake the other : att last, they a little shrinkinge, our men perceaving itt, pressed inn upon them, and imediately routed this whole body ; some flyinge on one side, others on the other of the enimies reserve ; and our men pursuinge them had chase and execution about 5 or 6 miles. I, per- ceavinge this body w°** was the reserve standinge still un- broken, kept backe my maior Whaley from the chase, and with my owne troupe and one other of my regiment, in all beinge 3 troupes, wee gott into a body. In this reserve stood Generall Cavendish, whoe one while faced mee, another while faced 4 of the Lincolne troupes, w^^ were all of ours that stood upon the place, the rest beinge ingaged in the chase : att last the Generall charged the Linconers, and routed them. I imediately fell on his reere with my three troupes, w^^ did soe astonish him, that hee gave over the chase, and would fayne have delivered himselfe from mee :
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but I, pressiDge onn, forced them downe a hill, havinge good execution of them, and belowe the hill drove the generall w*** some of his souldiers into a quagmire, where my Cap* Leuietenant slew him with a thrust under his short ribbs : the rest of the body was wholly routed, not one man stayinge upon the place. Wee then, after this defeat, w°^ was soe totall, relieved the towne w^ such powder and provisions as wee brought, w*^^ donn, wee had notice that there were 6 troupes of horse and 300 foote on the other side of the towne, about a mile off us : we desired some foote of my Lord Willoghby, about 400, and with our horse, and theise foote, marched towards them : when wee came towards the place where theire horse stood, wee beate backe with my troupes about 2 or 3 troupes of the enimie, whoe retyred into a small village att the bottom of the hill. When wee recovered the hill wee sawe in the bottom, about a quarter of a mile from us, a regi- ment of foote; after that, another; after that Newcastle's owne regiment, consistinge in all of about 50 foote colours, and a great body of horse, w*'^ indeed was Newcastle's armie, w''** cominge soe unexpectedlye putt us to new consultations : my Lord Willoghby and I, beinge in the towne, agreed to call off our foote : I went to bringe them off, but before I re- turned diverse of the foote were engaged: the enimie ad- vancinge with his whole body, our foote retraited in some disorder, and with some losse gott the towne, where now they are. Our horse also came off w*^ some trouble, beinge wearied w*^ this longe fight and theire horses tyred, yett faced the enimies fresh horses, and by severall removes gott off, without the losse of one man ; the enimie foUowinge in the reere with a great body. The honor of this retrait is due to God, as alsoe all the rest : maior Whaley did in this carry himselfe with all gallantrie becominge a gentleman and a Christian. Thus have you this new relation, as short as I could : what you are to doe upon it is next to bee considered. If I could speake words to peirce your harts with the sense of our and
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your condition I would ; if you will raise 2000 foote, att the present, to encounter this armie of Newcastle's, to raise the seige, and to inable us to fight him, wee doubt not by the grace of God but that wee shalbe able to releive the town, and beate the enemie on the other side Trent : whereas, if somewhat bee not donn in this, you will see Newcastle's armie march up into your bowells ; beinge now, as it is, on this side Trent. I know it will be difficult to raise thus many in soe short tyme ; but let mee assure you its necessarie, and therfore to bee donn : att least, doe what you may, with aU possible expedition : I would I had the happiness to speake w*** one of you : truly I cannott come over, but must attend my charge : our enimie is vigilant : the Lord direct you what to doe.
Gendemen, I am.
Your faythfull servant,
Oliver Cromwell.
July 81, 1643.
Huntingdon.
P. S, — Give this gentleman credence ; hee is worthy to bee trusted ; hee knowes the urgency of our affaires better than myselfe : if hee give you intelligence in point of tyme of hast to be made, believe him : hee will advise for your good*
It will be observed that, in the subjoined and following let- ter, Cromwell only addresses Sir W. Springe and Mr. Barrowe. His reasons for so doing must, perhaps, always remain in obscurity. There can be littie doubt but that these gende- men were a committee, or a part of a committee, of some kind or other; but when or where, with what object, and with what powers, no books that I have access to in so out-of-the-way a
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place as Yarmouth enable me to say. It is extremely to be regretted that the writers who profess to furnish us with lists of the high offices and officers of state^ usually pass over the time of the Commonwealth^ where information is peculiarly needed^ sub silentio; as do the churchwardens and clergy in their town>books and parish-registers^ apparently fearing lest their loyalty to Church and State, or, in plain English, to Episcopacy and Monarchy, should otherwise be called in question. E-ushworth is very brief in his account of what was passing in the Eastern Counties at this period, except as regards the sieges of Hull and Lynn ; and Mr. Carlyle, after a short letter of Cromwell's, dated from Boston, Sep. 11, 1643, has met with no other till Jan. 10, 1643-4. The latter, which consists of but a few lines, is written at Ely, and addressed to a clergyman there, desiring him to discontinue the choir- service, " as unedifying and offensive," and advising him to read and expound the Scriptures to the people, and to make his sermons more frequent. It touches on no other topic whatever. The following letter is therefore the more inter- esting. It is the only account we have of Sir Thomas Fairfax's escape from Hull; and it brings down the narrative of events, under Cromwell's own hand, to within a fortnight of the Winceby fight. What he says regarding the seizing of horses I am not aware is to be found elsewhere.
To his honoured friends 8"" Will^ Springe Sf M''
Barrow^
these prsent
Gentlemen,
It hath pleased God to bring of S'^ Thomas ffairfax his horse over the river from Hull, being about one and twenty troopes of horse and dragoones : the Lincolneshire horse laboured to hinder this worke, being about thirty foure coullours of horse and dragoones : we marched up to their
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landing place^ and the Lincolneshire horse retreated : after they were come over, we all marched towards Holland ; and when we came to o'^ last quarter upon the edge of Holland, the enemy quartered w^^in foure miles of us, and kept the field all night with his whole body : his intendment, as we conceive, was to fight us, or hopeing to interpose betwixt us and our retreate; haveing received to his 34 coulours of horse twenty fresh troopes, ten companies of * * * and about a thousand foote, being Generall King's own regiment. W^ these he attempted our guards and our quarters, and, if God had not beene mercifiill, had ruined us before we had knowne of it, the five troopes we set to keepe the watch faileing much of their duty: but we got to horse and retreated in good order w*^ the safety of all o'* horse of the Association, not looseing foure of them that I heare of, and we got five of theirs ; and for this we are exceedingly bound to the goodnes of God, who brought o*^ troopes of w*^ soe little losse. I write unto you to acquaint you w*** this; the rather that God may be acknowledged, and that you may help forward in sending such force away unto us as lye unprofittably in yo' countrey, and especially that troope of Cap* Margerie's, w*'^ surely would not be wantinge now we soe much neede it : the enemy may teach us that wisedome, who is not wanting to himselfe in makeing up his best strength for the accomplishm* of his designes. I heare there hath beene much exception taken to Cap* Margery and his officers for taking of horses. I am sorry you should discountenaunce those, who (not to make benefitt to themselves but to serve their countrey) are willing to venture their lives and to purchase to themselves the dis- pleasure of bad men that they may doe a publique benefitt. I undertake not to justify all Captaine Margerie's actions; but his owne conscience knowes whether he hath taken the horses of any but malignants ; and it were somewhat too hard to put it upon the consciences of y°' fellow deputy-lieftnnts whether they have not freed the horses of knowne malignants, a fault
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not lesse, considering the sad estate of this kingdome^ then to take a horse from a knowne honest man ; the offence'^being against the publique, w*'^ is a considerable aggravation. I know not the measure every one takes of malignant^. I thinke it is not fitt Cap^ Margery should be the judge ; but if he in this takeing of horses hath observed the plain cha- racter of a malignant^ and cannot be charged for one horse otherwise taken^ it had been better that some of the bittemes wherewith he and his have been followed had been spared. The horses that his coronett^ Boallry^ tooke^ he will put him- selfe upon that issue for them all : if these men be accounted troublesome to the countrey, I shalbe glad you would send them all to me. He bid them welcome, and, when they have fought for you, and indured some other difficulties of warre ^ch yQt honester men will hardly beare, I prayou then let them goe for honest men. I pteste unto you many of those men w"** are of yo' countrey*s chooseinge under Cap* Johnson, are so farre from serving you, that, were it not that I have honest troopes to maister them, although they be well payd, yet they are soe mutinous that I may justly feare they would cut my throate. Gentlemen, it may be it provokes some spiritts to see such plaine men made captaines of horse : it had beene well that men of honour and birth had entred into those imployments, but why doe they not appeare? who would have hindered them ? but, seeing it was necessary the worke must goe on, better plaine men then none ; but best to have men patient of wants, faithfull, and conscientious in the imploym*; and such I hope these will approve themselves to be. Let them therefore, if I be thought worthy of any favoure, leave yo^ countrey with yo' good wishes and a blessing. I am confident they wilbe well bestowed; and I believe before it be longe you wilbe in their debte ; and then it will not be hard to quit scores. What armes you can furnish them w*^all, I beseech you doe it. I have hitherto found yo' kindnes great to me. I know not what I have done
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to loose it. I love it soe well^ and price it soe highe^ that I woulit doe my best to gain more: you have the assured affection of
To' most humble & faithfuU servant^
Oliver Cromwell. 28"^ Sept. 1643.
P.S. — I understood there were some exceptions taken at a horse that was sent to me, w*'*' was ceized out of the hands of one Mr. Goldsmith of Wilby : if he be not by you judged a malignant, and that you doe not approve of my haveing of the horse, I shall as willingly returne him againe as you shall desire; and therefore I prayou signify yo' pleasure to me herein under yo' hands : not that I would for ten thousand horses have the horse to my owne private benefitt, saving to make use of him for the publique ; for I will most gladly returne the valine of him to the state, if the gentleman stand cleere in yo' judgments. I beg it as a speciall favour, that, if the gent, be freely willinge to let me have him for my money, let him set his owne price. I shall very justly returne him the money ; or, if he be unwilling to pt w*** him, but kcepes him for his pleasure, be pleased to send me an ans- weare thereof. I shall instantly returne him his horse, and doe it w**" a great deale more satisfaction to myselfe then keepe him : therefore I beg it of you to satisfy my desire in this last request ; it shall exceedingly oblige me to you : if you do it not, I shall rest very unsatisfied, and the horse wilbe a burthen to me so long as I shall keep him.
I have placed the subjoined letter, as being without a date, at the end of the series ; but I conceive that it ought to pre- cede the foregoing one, and was probably written about the
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first of September; for in it Cromwell speaks only hy hearsay of the £8000 assigned him out of the Association; whereas in that of the Hth of September from Boston, published by Mr. Carlyle, (see p. 46) he writes, " of the £8000 allotted me, I cannot get the Norfolk part nor the Hertfordshire : it was given away before I had it." Mr. Carlyle's remark, touching the state of things in the associated coimties at the end of August and beginning of September, is quite con- firmed by this letter. " Matters go not well : nobody to put on: nobody to push: cash, too, is and remains defective." He adds, '* Here, however," (in the letter of Sep. 11) ''is a glimpse of the Ironsides, the first specific glimpse, which is something." May we infer that *' Mr. Margery's honest men to follow him " are of that number ? Who shall an- swer this question ? and who shall tell us who Mr. Margery, so prominent in this letter and in the last, was ?
To my noble friends /S*" Willm. Springe^ knight and Barronett^ and Maurice Barrowe, Esq. etc. present theise.
Gentlemen,
I have beene nowe two dayes att Cambridge in expectation to heere the fruite of your indeavors in Sufifolke towards the pubUke assistance : believe itt, you will heer of a storme in few dayes: you have no infantrie att all con- siderable. Hasten your horses: a few howers may undoo you neglected. I beseech you bee carefull what captaines of horse you choose, what men be mounted: a few honest men are better then numbers : some tyme they must have for exercise. If you choose godly honest men to bee captaines of horse, honest men will followe them ; and they wiU be careful to mount such : the Kinge is exceedinge strong in the west. If you bee able to foyle a force att the first cominge of itt, you will have reputation ; and that is of
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great advantage in our affaires. God hath given itt to our handfull : lett us indeavor to keepe itt. I had rather have a plaine russett-coated captaine^ that knowes what Hee fights for, and loves what Hee knowes, then that w*^** you call a gentleman and is nothing else. I honor a gentleman that is soe indeed. I understand Mr. Margery hath honest men will foUowe him : if soe, bee pleased to make use of him : it much concemes your good, to have conscientious men; I understand that there is an order for mee to have SOOOlb out of the Association; and Essex hath sent theire part or neere itt. I assure you wee neede exceedinglye. I hope to finde your favor and respect: I protest if it were for my selfe I would not move you : this is all from Your faythfull Servant
Olivee Ceomwell.
P.S. — ^If you send such men as Essex hath sent, it will be to little purpose : bee pleased to take care of theire march, and that such may come along w*^ them as wilbe able to bringe them to the mayne body ; and then I doubt not but wee shall keepe them, and make good use of them, I be- seech you give coimtenance to M' Margery : helpe him in raisinge this troupe : lett him nott want your favor in what- soever is needfiill for promoting this worke, and comand your servant : if he can raise the horses from malignants, lett him have your warrant : it wilbe of speciall service.
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ov
SIR MILES HOBART AND ANTHONY HOBART,
WITH
SOME PARTICULABS EESPECTING THOSE INDIVIDUALS;
IN
A LETTER FROM JAMES COPEMAN, ESa, OF LODDON,
ICocal SttrttSTQ,
TO DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V.P.
Loddon, 10th June, 1847.
My deab Sir,
When I had the pleasure to meet you at Tarmouth, a few days since, I told you that I had the autographs of Sir Miles Hobart and of his relative, Anthony Hobart ; and I have now the pleasure of sending them. They may pos- sibly inter- est some of the Society, who may be disposed to draw infer- ences from hand - writ- ing as to cha- racter : in- ferences that
may hold good in a general point of view, as those of the phrenologist deduced from the expansive forehead, or of the
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physiognomist from the open countenance. The residence of the latter was at Hales Hall^ adjoining Loddon. They were both Norfolk Justices^ and in that character signed the enclosed apprenticeship document^ dated 1st July, 1628, for the binding of James Shrecffe, till the twenty-fourth year of his age, to Thomas Codd. Miles Hobart is the celebrated personage mentioned in chapter li., by Hume, who does not so precisely relate the particulars of the memorable occur- rence in the House of Commons on the 2nd March, 1628, as is done in Baker's Chronicle. " They locked the doors of the House, and gave the keys to Sir Miles Hobarte, one of their Members, to keep, and refused to admit the Usher of the Black Rod." Anthony was the son of Henry Hobart, by Margaret daughter of Thomas Rous, of Henham, Esq. (Blomefield, VIII., p. 19, Hales Parish.)
The third bell of Loddon Church has the following in- scription around it : " Anthony Hobart, Esquyre, Church- warden, Anno dni 1616." You are aware that his ancestor erected this beautiful building. An inscription on stained glass in one of its windows, of which I recovered some frag- ments, contained the following : " Orate pro aia Jaci Hobart militis & attornati dni regis, qui banc ecclesiam a primis fun- damentis condidit in tribus annis cum suis propriis bonis, anno regis Henrici septimi undecimo."
The stables (now a farm-house) formerly of Hales Hall, once the seat of Sir James Hobart, are standing; and the foundation of the outer walls of the mansion were lately pointed out to me in the present stackyard. He died 26th December, 1526, Lord Chief Justice of the Coiirt of Com- mon Pleas. His grandson. Sir Henry Hobart, Kiiight and Baronet, became also Chief Judge of the same court, and Chancellor to Henry and Charles, Princes of Wales. The Burial Register of Loddon records : ^^ Henry Hoberte, Es- quier, deceased this lief at Norwich the xxx daie of Aprill, and was buried at this our towne of Loddon the xx day of
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May^ Anno dni 1561." His tomb in the chancel has^ on brass^ "Of your Charitie praye for y*' Soule of Henry Hoberte, Esqtder."
Lady Dionis Williamson^ who gave £2001 towards the re- building of St. Paul's^ occupied the mansion^ and died at the age of seventy-four on the 24th day of January^ 1684. Her monument is on the north side of the chancel. On the south side^ within the rails^ is another tomb^ thus inscribed on brass : " Here lyeth the body of James Hobart, £sq.^ and Frances his wife, daught unto Sir Willia Drury, of Hausted^ in y® Coun? of Suff., K^, who lived together 60 years, and had issue 8 Sones and 6 daught. She depted this life y° 12 of June, 1609 ; and he depted the 6 day of Februay, 1615. His age 91.
"For virtue and hospitality
Deo HOMINIBUSQ. CARl."
Several of the Hobarts, even females, were, immediately after the bold affair at the House of Commons, excommuni- cated, as I find by a memorandum in the Parish Sook of Loddon. " Audery Hobart, Frances Hobart, Roger, Miles, &c. These parties were excommunicate the 22 July, 1629, by virtue of a Warrant of the Lord's Grace of Canterbury, his Official, They were presented in the Visitation holden upon the death of the Rev*. John Jegon, last Bishop of Norwich, but did not appeare. Therefore upon contumacy.*' The Warrant is dated " 7« die Junii, Anno 1629, Sub Sigillo Archyepisc."
The Hobart Estate passed, with several Manors extending into Loddon and Hales, from. James, the Son of Anthony Hobart, 12 Car. I. (See Blomefield, Hales Parish^ to Henry Humberston, Esquire, who had, with an amorous delinquent, tmhappily incurred the displeasure of the churchwardens; or rather, the Ecclesiastical Law enjoined the official per- formance of an act which was not always done from the purest motives, but often to gratify private malignity.
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"27«Aprit, 1620.
" Loddon. The veredicte of Tho. Codd & Tho. Pecke, Churchwardens, William Smith, Rob*. Davy, and Henry Symond, Sydemen, sworn and examined the dale & yere aboyesaid, in the ordinary Visitation of Samuell Lord Bishopp of Norwich, as followeth :
*^ They present Hen. Homerstone, GeS., and his Wife, for not receivinge the Holy Communion at Easter last past.
" Ede Browne sefi W eadm.
" They say their Minister is a M' of artes.
" They psent Ede Browne, ju^ for liveinge incontinently with one Eliz. ♦ * * , his late Servante, as the comon fame goeth."
I have drawn your attention to Loddon Church. Its font
was once distinguished by the beauty of its sculpture ; and,
on turning to the books of the churchwardens (regularly
kept from 1 Phil, and Mary 1554, to the present time), I find
(a.d. 1642) on the same page which mentions the " League
and Covenant " of the Cromwellian era, also the name of the
barbarian employed to deface the font, and the price of his
execrable labours.
£. #. rf. '^ Laide out to Rochester^ the glaser, defasinge
of the Images in the Church . . .060
Thomas Randandall for writinge Covenant .010"
These books relate to every subject which busied the heads and hands, and agitated the feelings of the inhabitants ; in- cluding subsidies, tasks, aids, benevolences, rents, wages, corn, food, materials, burthens, visitations, afiUctions, re- joicings, &c. during the long period of nearly three cen- turies; but no complaint appears about Church Rates; for there were none, as the revenue of the Town Farm, left, it is believed, by the Hobarts, and augmented by Lady Williamson, rendered a tax of that description unnecessary.
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I transcribe a few of the entries of an early date.
" Hereafter followythe all suche somes of money as John Coppyng & John Felld, Churche wardens, have payed & layd owt syns the last accownte beyng the x*** day of March, in anno Regnorum Philippi et Mariae Regis et Reginae prime & secundo.
Itm. to \Vyll™. Abbottes for wayshing of xiij surples and two toweUs
Itm. payd to the Wydow Dawson for hyr husbonds wagys & for washyng & skoryng . viij*.
Itm. for ij. gyrdyUs for the vestments
Itm. payd to the goodwyfe gorbowUd for the vysyters costes ....
Itm. payd for v^^ waxe . . . iiij*.
Itm. payd to the myller for gryndyng of corn agaynste the drynkyng
Itm. payd to tomer for makyng of the roode . vj*. viij
Itm. payd for tymber for the roode . . xij
Itm. payd to Plafords wyffe for bere . . iij".
Itm. payd to the goodman Coppyng for j buyshelle of Whete against the gaudayes . ij". viij**
Itm. payd to John Fellds Wyffe for the wayshyng of one awter clothe & one towelle . iij
Itm. to John Nockes for Kellers for the roode xiij*".
Itm. payd for drynk for the ryngers at Whyt- suntyde ..... xiij**."
vuj^
iij*.
X11J».
ij^-
ix°.
id
id
id
A.D. 1566.
" Itm. for a man to helpe the cloke maker a daye & for mete & drynke
Itm. for menddyng of the seppoulker
Itm. payd to the baelye of the hundreth for marcyament of the town boottes
Itm. payd to the baelye of the hundreth for the marcyament of the prevy breche
VOL. II. F
viij**. iiijd.
iiijd.
iij*.
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66
Itm. payde for wyppc corde for y* waylle . ij**.
Itm. for wyppe corde for the rode lofte . ij^.
Itm. payd to Hethfelld for makyng of the
Sepulker tymber and bord . . . vj*. vj**.
Itm. payd for the Pyckes (Pyx) . . v*. iiij**.
Itm. payd at Norwyche for bookes . . xx».
Itm. payd for iiij*^ waxe . . . iij". iiij^.
Itm. payd for the makyng of the waxe . viij'*-
Itm. to the tynkker for 1 Claspe for the byble ij**.
Itm. payde to Plafors Wyfe for ij ferkyns of
bere for y® Chancele for y® gaudayse . . ij*. iiij^.
Itm. payde to John Felldes Wyffe for making
of ij Botchetes ..... iiij*. vj**."
As the Roman Catholic Service and Ritual were then re- stored^ we may account for several of these payments by referring them to the usages of that church, in accordance with which the parishioners were to provide at their own charge, amongst other matters, a Pyx, three towels (two to be laid upon the altar, and the third for wiping the hands), three surplices for the use of the priest, deacon, and sub- deacon ; and a rochet.
The '* byble," for which the " clasp " was charged, was, I suppose, " the bible of the largest volume," ordered by the 80th Canon, directed by the second of Lord Cromwell's in- junctions under Henry VIII., and enforced by proclamation in the SSrd of his reign, under a penalty of 405. (Vide Bum's Ecclesiastical Law.)
In the account rendered 20th January, 5 Phil. & Mary, appear charges in regard to the altar.
"Itm. payd to Rivett for the makyng of the hyghe aulter & pavyng .... xvj^.
Itm. to Gylberd for servynge of hyme . . iij<*.
Itm. to Dawsons sonne for the lyke . . iij<*.
Itm. for Bordyng of them, in all teime dayes . ij«."
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67 Under 4th May, 1614 :
" Imprimis, laide out for the aide due to the Kings Moste Excellent Ma^« for the Marriage of the noble Ladie Eliza- beth, tenne shillings."
Baker's Chranidey after mentioning that " on the 14*»» Feb- ruary (1618)„ being Shrore Sunday, this happy marriage was solemnized in the Chapel at White Hall," gravely informs us, *' that the Bride was led to Church by two Bachelors (her Brother Prince Charles and the Earl of Northampton, Lord Privy Seal), attired all in White, having a rich Crown of gold upon her head, her hair hanging down at length, curiously beset with Pearls and precious stones, her train supported by 12 young ladies in White Garments," &c.
With regard to the "aide," you need not be informed that it was recognized by 25 Edw. 3, c. 11, as the existing law, thus :
"It is assented that reasonable aid, to make the King's eldest son a Knight, and to marry his eldest daughter, shall be demanded and levied after the form of the Statute thereof made; that is to say, of every Knight's fee holden of the King xx\, and of every xx^ of Land holden of the King in socage xz^, and no more."
In 1614:
"Itm. for three quarters of hoUane, for the
Commimion Copp, & to carry the bread to Church xv*^.
Itm. the 22** of April, six pynts and bread . iij*. ij**.
Itm. the 24 of April, eight pynts and bread . iiij*. iij**.
Itm. for eight pynts of wyne and bread, 27 of
ApriU ...... iiij*. ij'^.
Itm. the 2 May, nyne pynts . iij*. iij*."
As the population of Loddon at that time wafi inconsider- able, the quantity of wine (thirty-one pints), from the 22nd
f2
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April to the 2nd May (ten days), could not, I imagine, be wholly used for a sacramental purpose, but on some festive occasion. Indeed, the parish officers appear to have been frequently lavish of good cheer.
€<'
£. 9. d.
^7 EUz. Itm. layed out for wyne for the marriage of Robert Gryemes.
" Payd this 24** of Aprell, 1661, for 2 barrell of the best beere and 1***. of tobaco to give the Cap- taine and his souldgers, on the appointment of M'. Homerston and M'. Lawes . . . 1 12 6"
In 1627 there is an entry relative to Yarmouth.
" Itm. laid out to Kempe the Constable upon a Warrant that cam from the lefetenant for the making of mounts at Yarmouth . .14 0"
You will know to what this refers. A Copy of the War- rant of the Deputy Lieutenant, dated from the Maid's Head, Norwich, 6th April, 1626, is given in Swinden*s History, p. 119, addressed to the Chief Constables of every Hundred in Norfolk, for a " Contribution towards the repairs of the Town of Yarmouth, and the walls, bulwarks, and forts there, in this time of danger, against attempts of the enemy ; and it is to be presumed that there is no man that carrieth a true heart to his sovereign and to his country, but for the honor of the one, and the security of the other, he will willingly contribute."
In conclusion of this rambling, and, I fear, already un- conscionably long letter, I will venture to subjoin, what I hope may be new to most of our members, as taken from a book of great rarity, (Stevenson's Norfolk Drollery y London, 12mo. 1678), and may be interesting, as illustrative of the character of the man, and of the style of the poetry of the
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times, the following " Elegy upon Miles Hobart, Esq., who dy'd the Friday before Good Friday."
** What time we thought ouxfcuting almost doncy Another LetU our mourning has begun. A Lent two Fridays hath, both dy'd in blood : Ah me (sweet MUet) the bad forestalls the good. And yet, please you, we'l both good Fridayt call, His for himself, our Saviour's for us all. He left no Widow to bedew his Hearse, With fruitless, if not hypocritick teares. But, as an Angel of a nobler sphear. He was in this, as all things, singulear. Such was his lofty and prodigious wit, No Jacob^i staff could take the height of it. And such his candour, TV^-like, he sent None from his presence sad or discontent. So just, so generous, so gentile was he. No man can say, h' as lost an Enemy. Coaches and numerous horsemen have wel prov'd,. How much lamented, and how much beloy'd ; Who thought it not enuff at home to moume, But many Miles rid weeping to his ITm« Where neither Brass nor Marble need be spent, Name but MxUb Hobart, 'tis a Monument.'*
I am.
My dear Sir,
Your truly obliged,
James Copeman.
To Dawson Turner, Esq.
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70
CHALLENGE
OLIVER NEVE, ESQ. TO SIR HENRY HOBART.
OOXICUiriCATltD
BY THE KEY. BICHARD HART, A LETTER TO DAWSON TURNER, ESa, V. P.
Mt DEAR Sib,
As I understand that our forthcoming number will contain some extremely valuable documents connected with the Hobart and ihe Le Neve families, in which* mention is made of the unhappy duel which cost the life of an illustrious member of the former, I venture to hope that a Copy of the Original Challenge may prove generally acceptable to our readers.
That original is now in the possession of my friend and relative, S. H. L. N. Gilman, Esq., the representative of that branch of the Le Neve family from which I am descended. He kindly allowed me to make a transcript, with a view to its publication by our Society.
Believe me, my dear Sir,
Yours very sincerely,
Richard Hart.
* See p. 30 {Note).
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Original Challenge of OUeer Neve, which led to the fatal Duel on the Heath at Gawston WoodrotOy 20 Atig. 1698, in which Sir Henry Hobart * lost his life.
Honored S',
I am very sorry I was not at Beif ham yesterday, when you gave yo'self the trouble of appearing there, that I might not only have further justified the Truth of my not saying what is reported I did, but that I might have told you that I wrote not that Letter to avoid fighting you ; but that, if the credit of yo'^ author has confirm^ you in the belief of it, I am ready & desirous to meet you when & where you please to assign. If otherwise, I expect your Author's name in return to this, that I may take my satisfaction
* " Sii Henry Hobart, who was the fourth baronet, was elected a Burgess for King's Lynn in the Parliament that met at Oxford in 1681, and sat with his father, who served then as Knight of the Shire for Norfolk. He was a Tery great friend to, and promoter of, the Revolution; and in the Convention Parliament (being then Knight of the Shire for Norfolk) he declared for the vacancy of the throne. Afterwards, he was Gentleman of the Horse to King WUliam, and attended him at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. In 1695 he was again elected to serve in parliament for the county, and always behaved like a man of honour in that post ; but, being disappointed of his election in 1698, and resenting some words said to be spoken by Oliver Le Neve, Esq. (which Le Neve denied under his hand), a challenge was given, and a duel ensued, in which Sir Henry passed his sword through Le Neve's arm, and Le Neve ran his into Sir Henry's belly, of which wound he died the next day, being Sunday, 21st August, 1698, and was interred in the vault at Blickling. He married the eldest daughter and coheir of Joseph Maynard, Esq., son and heir of Sir John Maynard, Knight, one of the Com- missioners of the Great Seal in the reign of King William. She died his widow 22nd August, 1701, and is in the vault with him: they had three daughters." (Blomefleld, History of Norfolk^ second edition, YI., p. 402.) A monumental stone, surmoimted by a broken urn, still marks the spot on Cawston Heath where Sir Henry fell.
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there; or else conclude the Imputaffin sprung from Blickling, & send you a time & place ; for the matter shall not rest as it is^ tho' it cost the life of
Yo' Serv*,
Olivee Neve. Aug. y« 20^\ 98.
Endorsed: — "A letter sent from Oliver Neve, Esq'*, to S*^ Henry Hobart, the consequence of which was a duel upon Cawston Heath, in which Sir Henry was killed."
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lJir,-fr.\ ^:-Ach«i.hv ?.Hw\-"xrr.
i:r CLEMKNT3 -N Cl^WlCH.
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78
ENGRAVING OF AN ANCIENT DOOR
IN
&t (Slmmt% BoxW^.
COXXmdCATBD BY
MR. WILLIAM ENFIELD, JUN.
The Priors of Ixwortli had a residence in St. Clement at Fyebridge, Norwich, the extent of which, when, or by whom it was founded, cannot be ascertained ; but from the inscrip- tion on the door, there is no doubt William Lowth was either the Founder, or the Prior when the building must have undergone material alterations.. The exact place it originally occupied cannot be satisfactorily stated ; it is much older than either the doorway or building to which it is now attached, they being only of the sixteenth century.
Kirkpatrick wrote : ^^ Saint Clement at Fyebridge, in the south-west corner of the churchyard are certain houses, which anciently belonged to the Priory of Ixworth, and extend southward to the rirer."
Blomefield states : '^ Those houses, and all from thence to Colegate Street, belonged to the Prior of Ixworth, and at the Dissolution were granted by Henry VIII. to Eic. Ca- dington, who had license to sell them to Cecily Suffield, and
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her heirs, who divided them into several parts, and settled this on divers trustees to the use of the parish.
'* Another part, which is now owned by Alderman Harvey, hath this inscription on the door which entered into the Prior's Hall, the whole court being in those days the city house of the Priors of Ixworth in Suffolk.
'^ Maria plene Gracie Mater misbrecordie Bemembtr Wyllyam Lowth Prior MVC VIIJ/'
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SPEECH OF SIR ROBERT BALDOCK,
BECOBDES OF YABHOUTH.
UPON THB
OCCASION OF HIB VISIT TO NOEFOLK, IGH. COMMUNICATED BY JOSEPH DAVEY, ESQ.
IN
A LETTER TO DAWSON TUBNER, ESQ., V. P.
Dear Sir^
The interest excited by the graphic account, furnished by you to this Society, of the Visit of His Majesty Charles II. to our native County, must still be fresh in the memory of such of its members as were fortunate enough to receive a copy of it ; and all must feel obliged to you for the anxiety you have evinced to promote the usefulness, and to extend the operations of a society, which owes you much of its stability, and of the information it has been privileged to rescue from oblivion.
The disappointment you expressed at your inability to discover the details of that portion of the Royal Progress more immediately relating to Yarmouth, lefl no room to doubt the industry of your research in quest of the docu- ments alluded to in the Order of Assembly, dated October 10, 1671, and given by you at the foot of page 7 of your
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Narrative. It is, indeed, scarcely to be questioned that, in compliance with that order, the " account of the manner of his Ma^®* recepcon," was actually prepared, and " a copy of his speech, which he made to the King," was furnished by the Recorder. These papers, however, unfortunately failed to be ^' incerted '* in the book of the Assembly ; and were but too naturally supposed to be irrecoverably lost. I have therefore the greater pleasure in finding myself able to pre- sent to the Society, through yourself, a copy of one of them, the Speech of the Recorder, transcribed from a MS. obviously written at the time, and apparently the very one supplied by him as directed.
In looking over the history of the period which imme- diately preceded the King's Progress, one cannot but be struck with the astounding change that must have come over the Yarmouth Corporation on the restoration of the monarchy after the brief but brilliant interregnum of the Protector ; and it is difficult to conceive how, with any degree of sincerity, that body which could sanction the humiliating address to Richard Cromwell, printed by Swin- den, should so speedily forego their republican principles, as to adopt the sycophantic adulations of royalty with which the Speech abounds. Neither is it less difficult to conceive how Charles himself could be a patient listener.
Perhaps, however, it will be averred by some, that a monarch who could subject himself to the charge of having become "the base and ignoble pensioner of France," and of having descended to the sale of Dunkirk to satisfy the rapacity of his mistresses, might easily consent to swallow flattery presented with " 4 herrings in gold, with a chayne " of the like precious metal. By such it will also be said, that, devoid of sincerity himself, he could well affi)rd to bear with a dissembled loyalty wrapped in a gilded bait, and listen with patience to the professions of subjects who could accompany those professions with sterling gold.
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77 But, to return to my purpose, allow me to present to you
" Robert Baldocke, Esq'., his speech delivered to the Kinge att Yarmouth, September the 27**», 1671.
*^ May it please yo' Ma**% " This nation through diuine puidence euen beyound the time whereof noe memorie or record is to the memory, hath been founded & settled, continued, (and notwithstandinge the late violent & too longe opposition,) peserved vnder the best of gouerments. Monarchy; And our flForefathers, wisely consideringe the meanes & methods of the gouerment of the world imder that greate monarch of heaven and earth as the most sure & naturall foundation of all temporall Eule, have attributed to the Kings of this Realme perogatiues in resemblance by way of analogy with his essential Souaringty ouer the whole, even the Ideas & Images of those very eccellencies which are in God himselfe. It is he alone who makes & peserves all naturall beings : it is by the power of Soueraigne Princes only that corporations & bodies Politick are created, formed, fashioned, & continued. And in this sence (Greate Sir) wee are your ofspringe, your creatures, in y* by you wee th\xs line, thus moue, and haue this beinge. The Charters of your Royall Ancestors made vs: you & they haue peserued vs hitherto: from them and you wee have had diuerse pevileages, imunities, & f&ee gifls, ffor our better subsistance, as wee are; wittness those pticulars (amongst many others) which wee are bound to comemorate with our greatest thanks, your gratious renewinge & con- firminge to vs those our Charters & donatiues since your happy restauration. And, as a further addition to our meanes of tradinge & livelyhood, yor loyall assent to a late Act of Parliament for the repayer & maintenance of our Peers & Haven.
"And, as this perogative of power, soe is there by the
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LaweB.of this Bealme attributed to your Sacred pson Ybi- quity & infinitenesse after a sort; as beinge pesent in all your Courts of Justice, as if one should say euery where, &, though not actually with ys, yett eminently ouer and with vs all.
" There are also by the same Lawes attributed to you those other ppties & eccellencies of justice, mercy, truth, pffection, flowing insepable from yo^ imperiall Crowne, incommiitatiue with the subject, not to be invaded by the populaicy, nor to be lessened by any other way or meanes whatsoeuer. Such arts as would abridge them beinge meere contradic- tions to the nature, essence, effects, & consequences of su- preame gouerment, & therefore void of themselves.
** Another attribute there is wherein Soueraigne Princes doe beare in resemblance with the diuine nature, that is, imortality: it is a maxime in your Lawes that the Kinge neuer dyes; which, though it be meant of the imediate succession of Kingship in an instant, exclusiue of anarchy & inter-regnums, soe as there is noe moment of time be- tweene the death of the one & the Reigne of the other; the branches of Soueraignty in that sense beinge like those of the Golden Tree amongst the Poets —
« Uno avulso, non deficit alter « Aureus, et simili frondescit virgo metallo.
" Yett (dread Sir) for your sake, for their own sakes, & for the sake of those who are to come, your loyall subjects could wish the same were to be really, psonally, and in your- selfe ; and, since that cannot be, it remaines only that they pray for what you have given them, frequent pious & noble instances, not to doubt, that, when, ftdl of dayes & honour, you shall demise these your earthly scepters to your suc- cessor, you may be possessed of one truely & for ever glo- rious. And may leaue such fame & renowne behind you of your Princely vertues, indowments, & successe, that pos-
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terity may be in doubt whether the happinesse of your life, or that of your memorie be the greater.
^^ In a word (Bojrall Sir) prayers are butt the attributes of men : it is felicity that is the gift of God ; & to him aboue, and to Soueraigne Princes on earth, belongs for- giuenesse : wee therefore, of this Corporation, your denoted leige men, doe most humbly implore that of you, which is your honor to giue, & will be your hapinesse, that which you haue hitherto afforded to your subjects euen beyoimd theire hopes or meritt, & by which you are the greatest conqueror, & triumph ouer the affections of your people — your Ma^^ firee & gracious pardon of what wee doe. And that you would be pleased to accept of these and of what other you shall find there, the weake expresses of our joy- some thanks ffor this your royall psonall favor towards vs. "Wee assure you (great Sir) wee doe our vttmost, and yett (like those who discribe the world in a mapp) with noe small detriment to your greatenesse: though accordinge to the truth and the reallity of our hearts."
I yenture still further to hope that the following extract from the *' Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Right Honor- able Robert, Earl and Viscount Yarmouth, Baron of Fasten, and Lord Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk, by his Chaplain, the Rev. John Hildeyard, briefly descriptive of his Majesty's visit to Oxnead," will not be deemed an in- appropriate conclusion to this letter.
''He (Sir Robert Fasten) entertained the King, Queen, and Duke, and aU their nobles and servants in attendance, a night at Oxnead Hall, where was prepared a most sumptuous sup- per, which cost him three times more than Earls* daughters had heretofore unto their portions. Frovisions were super-
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abundantly plentiful^ and all accommodations answerable. Tbus^ as it is said Araunah did to Dayid^ did be as a king give unto tbe King. Nor can I omit to remark^ from his own mouthy that the King had no sooner put himself under his roof but he told this Honourable Baronet^ ' that he was now safe in the house of his friend.' The tables being spread^ and sideboards being richly adorned with plate, the King took notice of some more remarkable pieces, which gave occasion to Sir Robert to tell him, that his house was once better furnished, and he coidd have welcomed his Majesty with greater plenty of it, had not a blew Ribbon^ that attended on his Majesty with a white staff, plundered it from his father by trunksful. Here the King diverted himself with a delight- ful view of the house, and its situation, and what he found therein ; left many gracious acknowledgments of kindness from his host, and next day took his leave."
With great respect, I have the honor to be.
Dear Sir, Your obliged and obedient Servant,
Joseph Davby.
Yarmouth, Nov. 30, 1847.
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OF A
LEnER FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH TO LADY PAGET,
UPON THE DEATH OF HEB DAUGHTEB. LADY CBOMPTON. OOXMUNICATBD BY
PAGE NICOL SCOTT, ESQ.
In printing the following letter, the Committee are aware that they are deviating from their prescribed line, it having already appeared in Nichols' Progresses of Queen ElizabeUiy III. p. 497. They at the same time flatter themselves that they shall not only obtain the pardon but the thanks of the Society, who can scarcely do otherwise than share the gratifi- cation they feel at finding themselves enabled, by the libe- rality of their respected member mentioned above, to insert in their pages a facsimile of a letter from so illustrious a sovereign. The person addressed by Her Majesty was Catherine, daughter of Henry Knevett, of Old Buckenham, in Norfolk, Esq. ; married, first, to Henry, second Lord Paget, who died 1668, leaving only an infant daughter, the survivor of her father for three years ; and secondly, to Sir Edw. Gary, of Aldenham, Herts.. By the latter she had two sons and three daughters, the loss of the youngest of whom, Meriall, the wife of Sir Thos. Crompton, of Driffield, Yorkshire, called forth this effusion of her royal mistress* affection. Lady Crompton's death happened on the 15th May 1600, when the Queen was in her 67th year ; and this
VOL. II. G
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circumstance may account for her handwriting no longer re- taining the strength so remarkable in it in her younger days. The epitaph upon Lady Crompton's mural monument in Aldenham Church styles her '^ virtuosam et lectissimam faeminam^'' and designates her memory as ^^laudabilem et dignissimam." The letter is now in the possession of Mrs. Hansell^ the widow of the Rev. Peter Hansell, who received it from Mr. Partridge, the writer of the accompanying transcript and note. The Lord Lyttleton, by whom it was given to Mr. Champion, was fourth in descent from Lady Crompton, and consequently, fifth from her mother. Lady Paget, both of whom he indifferently calls his grandmother.
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ST. MICHAEL'S, AYL8HAM, NORFOLK.
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FIGURE AND DESCRIPTION OF THE FONT 9t astetant.
COHHUNICATBD
BY THE REV. E. T. YATES.
In the Preface to the first volume of Original Papers published by the Society, the parish church of Aylsham is mentioned as worthy of notice, in connexion with the more beautiful structures (but of later date) of Cawston and Salle. It is not, however, to the church, but to the Font contained in it, that I would on the present occasion draw the attention of the members of our Society.
Fonts are always interesting, not more from the pleasing reminiscences which they suggest, than from their use in pointing out the dates of the several churches in which they are found. This is particularly the case with reference to the Font, a sketch of which accompanies this paper. True, it is not so in all instances, as may be seen by the circular Font at Heydon, and the very interesting, but little known, ones at Great Hautbois and Belaugh; but, generally speak- ing, they are of the same date as the churches in which they are placed. That at Aylsham is early perpendicular, octa- gonal, and bears upon its pedestal the arms of the renowned John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. This patron of Wick- cliffe, whether from religious or political motives I will leave the student of history to decide, is generally 8Ui>posed to
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have built the church (Aylsham is within the Duchy of Lan- caster) ; and it was probably as a memorial to posterity of his munificence, that we find his arms engraved either by himself or some other benefactor upon the Font. For, in addition to these arms, which occupy the front panel of the shafty there are also those of Morley, a lion rampant crowned ; of Bouchier (?) three water bougets; and on the fourth shield the monogram I. H. S., miscalled by Blomefield either '* the arms of St. George or a cross flor^."
"Whether the families of Morley or Bouchier had any and what connection with the church, as Lords of the Manor, donors of the Font, or benefactors, has not been ascertained ; but fi"om their arms being found in this position, we may conclude that they had some such claim to that particular distinction. In reference to this subject the following re- marks, extracted from the introduction to Mr. Paley*s work on Fonts^ may be acceptable :
"The correct taste generally shewn by the mediaeval ar- tists in ecclesiastical devices, probably made them feel the unfitness of heraldry in this position. Certain it is, that in an age which gloried in that science, and when every church wall and window exhibited some badge of chivalrous dis- tinction, comparatively few such devices were allowed to have place on Fonts. Admitting that heraldic bearings are unsuitable to such purposes as this, we doubt whether the custom, sparingly as it certainly was adopted, deserves the strong reprobation it has sometimes met with. Certainly, heraldry is the least objectionable way of commemorating a person without the parade of a name : and whether founder, benefactor, or donor of the Font, Bishop of the Diocese, or Lord of the Manor, the compliment was a harmless one, and not necessarily dictated by a love of worldly pride or family distinction."
The instruments of the Passion and a Crucifix occupy four of the panels of the bowl alternately with the emblems of the
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Evangelists. Three of these are seen in the drawing : the fourth, containing the pillar, cords, and crown of thorns, is shown in fig. 1. The fifth contains the eagle of St. John, fi^. 2. The sixth, a Crucifix somewhat mutilated, fiff. S. The seventh, the winged bull of St. Luke, fig, 4 : and the eighth, the spear, sponge and vessel for the vinegar, very perfect,^. 6.
Fig. 1. Fig. 8.
Fig.S.
Fig.i.
Fig.b.
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The ornaments of the lower portion of the bowl are angels with expanded wings^ altei-nating with a winged heart, from which issues a little stem bearing a quatrefoil.
The height of the Font, as shown by the engraving, is three feet six inches, the shaft being one foot ten inches ; the panels are each one foot wide. The interior bowl is twenty inches in diameter and fifteen deep. The original drain re- mains, and still serves as an outlet for the water used at baptisms. Although the ornaments are somewhat mutilated, the devices upon them are plainly distinguishable, and fur- nish as satisfactory materials as any from which to infer their date. The design, though not of unfrequent occurrence in the County, is not to be met with in any other church in the Hundred of South Erpingham or the Deanery of Ingworth.
The Aylsham Font probably occupies its original site at the West end of the Church, to the left of the centre aisle. In the early part of the seventeenth century a Baptistery, or canopy of heavy and costly workmanship, was erected over it — by whom we know not — and still exists. The steps of the Font have been reduced so as to form a square block of masonry, the surface of which is level with the floor of this cumbrous structure, — an arrangement which completely de- stroys the effect of the proportions of the Font.
It is recorded that the roof and screens of the Church were much adorned with painting and elaborate work, about the year 1507, by John Jannys and Thomas Wymer, the latter of whom is buried in the chancel ; but no earlier certain notices now exist of the fabric, and we can only con- jecture the dates of the different parts of it, from the style, and the brasses and scattered memorials of the various bene- factors.
Aylsham, December, 1847.
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ALl4 SAINTS' CHURCH,
BELTON, SUFFOLK.
The Church in the Parish of Belton, near Great Yarmouth, may be sufficiently described for the purposes of this Circular, by a brief Extract from " Memorials of the Antiquities of the County of Buffolh^^ (vol. i, p. 304) now in the course of pub- lication by the Rev. A. Suckling : —
'' It comprises a nave and chancel only : a circular Tower at the west end having been long ruinated. It is a fine well-proportioned building^ con^ structed of cut flints^ and in good condition.^'
Nothing whatever is known by tradition or otherwise concerning the Ruins of this Tower ^ which contrast strangely with the "good condition" of the rest of the present edifice. Its foundations, however, are entire ; and enough remains to show, that it was one of the circular Towers by no means unconmion in Norfolk and Suffolk ; enough to determine also its circumference and thickness of the walls.
In many Parishes, the restoration of such a Tower might be easily effected, its original style being fortunately the least expensive of any : but in the Parish of Belton, there are no resident Landowners (excepting a few of very humble means), while even the Occupiers are, with very few exceptions, of a class too humble to admit of their contributing anything effective. The " Society for Building^ .Repairing, and Enlarging Churches and Chapels " have, it is only reasonable to suppose, too many demands on them in cases where the more important objects of new Churches, or additional Church Accommodation is required, to enable them with any
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justice to contribute to the simple restoration of a Tower. This valuable source of assistance then, being unavailable, it has been thought that an Appeal may not be made in vain, either to the Members of the several Societies now existing for the especial purpose of promoting the study of Church Architecture and encouraging Church Restorations in a pure and proper style, or to other persons interested in those pursuits and improve- ments ; while no small encouragement has already been given to the hope, that some of those who reside in the vicinity, though wholly unconnected with the parish, may be willing to assist in restoring an ornamental and conspicuous feature in the Landscape. In this respect it possesses the greater public interest from the peculiarly prominent position of the Church, commanding a view of a circumference of more than forty-five miles.
It will be observed, that this Appeal is only made in the absence of all other sufficient means of effecting the object in view. It will necessarily find its way to the hands of many unable or unwilling to listen to it : but it may be hoped that it will also find its way to the hands of some equally blest with the means and the inclination to contribute towards the resto- tion of the Tower of a Churchy beautiful otherwise in its style and archi- tectural proportions.
As some guarantee (satisfactory to distant Subscribers) for the erection of a Tower in correct taste and style, the circular Tower of a Church of the same date, in a parish immediately adjoining, justly regarded as a very perfect specimen of that description, will be made the pattern and strictly followed throughout.
The entire Estimaie of the Expenoe (including the removal of a wooden Belfry^ which is at present erected over and greatly disfigures the South Porch) is £360. If the sum collected should exceed this amount, the excess will be employed, in the first place, to supply iwo more Beils (there being at present one onfy) and thus make up the usual complement of a Village Ohtrch Belfry; and, in the next, to other Restorations in the same Church. In any case, a Circular will in due time be sent to the SuhecriberSf containing a Liet of their Names with the amount of their Suheeripiionst and an Account in detail of the Expenditure, audited by the Rural Dean of the District in which tiie Church is situate ; a copy of which on parchment will also be deposited with the other Parish Records. In the mean time, every Donation will be specially and immediately acknowledged.
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PRESENT SUBSCRIBERS.
The Lord Bishop of Nobwich (witii whose knowledge
and sanction this Appeal is made) Rev. T. G. F. Howes, Rector of Belton Lord Boston
Rer. F. Salt, P. C. of St. Mary's, Southtown Thomas Morse, Esq., Blundeston Charles Cory, Esq., Burgh Castle Richard Ferrier, Esq., Burgh Castle Rev. J. H. North, Incumbent of Trinity Chordi, Qreenwich John Baker, Esq., Browston HaU Robert Hansell, Esq., Close, Norwich ... S. M. Peto, Esq., M.P., Somerleyton Hall Benjamin Dowson, Esq. Rev. H. Howes, Rector of Barton, Stokefeiry Joseph Harper, Esq. G. W. Foley, Esq., Boxted Hall Magdalen College, Oxford Mr. Charles Sloman, Yarmouth Rev. Charles Howes, Dulwich College ... Rev. 6. C. Smith, Rector of Denver Mrs. Nesbitt, North Quay, Gt. Yarmouth Dawson Turner, Esq., f.b.s., f.s.a., &c. &c. Rev. J. F. Cleaver, Great Coxwell, Farringdon
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SuBSCBiPTiONS may be paid to any of the under- mentioned Gentlemen, who have most kindly consented to receive any Sums with which they may be entrusted in behalf of the object of this Circular, viz. : —
LONDON Thos. Amyot, Esq., f.s.a., &c., 13, James Street, St.
James's Park. Edwabd Howes, Esq., 21, Lincoln's Inn, Old Square;
and 17, York Street, Portman Square. Rev. Chables Howes, Fellow of Dulwich College.
OXFORD Ret. E. H. Hansell, b.d.. Fellow of Magdalen College.
Rev. C. p. Eden, m.a.. Fellow of Oriel College. CAMBRIDGE Rev. G. Maddison, Vicar of All Saints.
Ret. R. a. Rackham, Fellow of Jesus College. NORWICH... Rev. Righabd Habt, m.a., Vicar \ Secretaries to
of Catton, and | the Norfolk ^ Norwich
Henby Habeod, Esq., the Close,/ Archaolo^ical Society. R. G. P. MiNTY, Esq., St. Giles's Street. Robebt Hansell, Esq., Lower Close. YARMOUTH Dawson Tubneb, Esq., p.b.s., f.s.a., &c., &c.
Chables Coby, Esq., Solicitor, Gaol Street; and Burgh
Castle. John Bakeb, Esq. Solicitor, Queen Street; andBrowston HaU, Belton.
Also, Ret. C. Gbben, Rural Dean, Rector of Burgh Castle, Great Yarmouth. Ret. F. Salt, Perpetual Curate of St. Mary's, South, town. Great Yarmouth, &c.
Or hy Orders on the Post-Office at Great Yarmouth, payahle to the Rev, Francis Howes,
^ Copies of this Circular (with an Etching), enclosed in Postage En- velopes, requiring only to be sealed and directed, will be gladly forwarded, free of postage, (on application to the Ret. F. Howes, Belton Rectory, Oreat Yarmouth) to any who may feel themselTCs able and disposed, by their Circulation, to promote the object in view.
0HABLB8 MUBKETT, FBIKTBR, OLD HAYKABKBT, NOBWICB.
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FIGURE OF THE LAW
FROM YORK CATHEDRAL,
AND
ANCIENT STONE COFFIN.LD AND COIUMN FROM DUEHAM.
COMMUNICATBO BT
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V.P.
Our honorary member. Sir Francis Palgrave, in his no less amusing than instructive volume, the Merchant and Friar y tells us that some five hundred years ago, during the reign of Henry III., the council-chamber of the Palace of West- minster was richly decorated with sculpture and paintings^ " many of them symbolical or allegorical, and belonging to a class which sometimes strangely perplexes the antiquary, until he learns to read the mystic lore displayed to every observer, and yet concealed. Here might be seen the Law under the semblance of a Queen, her crown falling from her tresses: a thick veil covers her downcast eyes: the broken tables drop from her grasp. Opposite, is the emblem of the Gospel, a maiden brightly looking heavenwards, her head endiademed, the budding lily in her hand. These occur in the deep recesses of the windows : the wall between them displays the legendary tale of Solomon and Marcolphus, a fiction possibly rabbinical in its origin, and recounting the trials which the wisdom of the monarch ^juslair^^d from the rude mother-wit of Syrian husbandmcji. '^' Ovor- ihe* iferbiie! reserved for the king was a representj^ti^l. bf the^ Day. of Judgment. But the portal opening intb tlie chapiel had ik)^ other ornament, exceptbg a vine springing from the impost
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of the door, spread around, richly filling and most grace- fully entwining every moulding and columnette with its flowing branches, its tendrils, its fruit, and its leaves. Each of these embeUishmeats taught a lesson connected with the purposes to which the building was applied. It was the custom of the mediaeval architects thus to appeal to the imagination, sometimes to the conscience, in the decoration of their edifices, by which they gave a degree of sentiment to their structures which the modems cannot attain. Allegory constitutes the intellectuality of the aesthetic arts ; but it is wholly alien to the multitude in our own age. We have no means whereby it can be vernacular. None of the forms, none of the graphic symbols which we can beg or borrow, ever become naturalised. We may be clever mocking-birds, but we have no song of our own."
I have transcribed the passage at length, sure that such of our members as are unacquainted with the original will be glad to have it set before them ; and equally sure that those who are diflferently situated will be thankful that it should be recalled to their memory. " Indocti discant et ament memi- nisse periti." For the present purpose it would have sufficed to have confined myself to the first of the figures which he mentions, and which, in another part of his book, p. 12, he states to have been among the ornaments of the cloisters of Norwich, as well as of the Cathedrals at York and Rochester, the Lieb-Frau Kirche at Treves, and the Stadt-house at Nimeguen. In our own county, I fear, it is no longer to be seen ; but the fact of its having ever been there made me re- cognize the same subject with great pleasure at York, in the course of a journey to the North with my daughter, Mrs. Gunp,. l^st Aug^uJ:/ ••It was painted on a board, then lying bu'*dw:gsovmd ; having* in consequence of recent alterations, b^e^^torn ftpiilt^epdace it previously occupied in the ceiling m IKat remar]^able*btiilding, the Chapter House, which bears upon its door the merited eulogium, " ut rosa fios florum, sic
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est domus ista domorum." The slight sketch I enclose may, therefore, I trust be acceptable. It will serve for a memorial of what we could once show in Norfolk; and I shall be happy if the Society should think it on this account deserving of a place in their volumes.
On. the following day we met with the stone Coffin-lid and Column, of which I also send outline sketches, and, I own, with the same hope. The former of these occurred to us in the burial-ground of Durham Cathedral, among many of an inter- esting character ; and it is, if my memory be correct, unlike any of the great variety figured in the Sepulchral Monuments. The Cow at the foot of the Cross at once attracted our notice ; so obvious appeared the inference that the sculpture could scarcely fail to refer to the legend which assigned its present locality to the sacred building. Dogs, lions, and different animals, emblematical of fidelity, strength, courage, &c., we know to be commonly found in a sinylar position ; but how, except by such reference, could we account for a cow? The curious tradition is detailed at much length in Hutchinson's History of Durham; and Davies, in his edition of the Anttent Bites and Monuments of the Cathedral^ relates it with more terseness and naivete. From this latter, there- fore, are mainly gathered the following particulars, requisite to throw light upon the sculpture. When the Danes in the ninth century ravaged Holy Island and destroyed the church of Lindisfam, the depository of the remains of St. Cuthbert, Eardulph, the bishop, attended by many of the monks and inhabitants, fled southward, carrying with them this their most precious possession. They wandered and wandered, till, finding no rest for the soles of their feet, they determined to cross the sea, hoping to meet with that repose and safety in Ireland, which seemed denied them at home. But storms and tempests, accompanied with fearful portents, forbade their passage; and they returned, disheartened and irresolute what course to take, till, by a fresh interposition from above,
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"a red horse came running towards them, and did oflfer himself to be bridled, and to ease their pains by carrying the chest wherein St. Cuthbert's body was laid." Thus aided and comforted, they transported their charge to Craike near Easingwold, and, after a residence there of four months, proceeded to Chester-le-Street, where King Guthred built them a Cathedral. Here they remained 111 years ; at the expiration of which time another incursion of their former enemies occasioned another flight, and they sought refuge in Bipon. The war soon ceasing, they thought to return to Chester, but had proceeded no further than Wardlaw in their way thither, when on a sudden the body became immoveable : it was wedded, as it were, to its mother earth, and all human efforts were powerless towards effecting a removal. It were injustice to my author not to allow him to relate the sub- sequent part of the^ story in his own words : '* This strange and unexpected accident," he says, " wrought great admira- tion in the hearts of the Bishop's monks and their associates ; and, ergo, they fasted and prayed three days with great reverence and devotion, desiring to know by revelation what they should do with the holy body of St. Cuthbert : which thing was granted unto them, and therein they were directed to carry him to Dunholme. But being distressed because they were ignorant where Dunholme was, see their good fortune ! As they were going, a woman that lacked her cow, did call aloud to her companion to know if she had not seen it, who answered with a loud voice that her cow was in Dunholme, a happy and heavenly echo to the distressed monks, who by that means were at the end of their journey; for there they should find a resting-place for the body of their honored saint." At Dunholme accordingly they in- terred him, nothing reluctant; and over his grave they erected first a small church, and subsequently a splendid cathedral. The historian proceeds to relate, how, in the construction of the latter, Aldwinus, the then bishop, and
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Bronulpli Flambard^ in conformity with the instructions of William Carliphe, the founder, placed '^ the portraiture of a milkmaid milking her cow on the outside of the north-west turret of the Nine Altars, in thankful remembrance of that maid, who so fortunately, in their great perplexity, directed them to the appointed spot, where the body of their great saint was to rest until the jesurrection ; and this monument, though defaced by the weather, is there to be seen to the present day." There too the same is to be seen in our own day ; but not in the defaced and mutilated state in which it is described by the editor of the Mites and MonumhntSy and is figured by Hutchinson ; for the zeal and piety of the nine- teenth century have replaced it with modem sculpture.
The Column is an object that seems to call for no other observation than that it is remarkable for the obvious anti- quity displayed in the sculpture as well of the capital as of the shaft, and is deserving of notice as one of three, the only specimens now left of the architecture of the Chapter House, denominated by Carter, in the Gentleman* s Magazine for 1809, p. S3, as "a relic of superb Saxon workmanship," and by the learned historian of North Durham, in his Brief Account of Durham Cathedral, p. 108, as '* unique in its architecture, venerable for its age, and associated with the history of the See more than any other part of the Cathedral." But these are points upon which it would be out of place here to offer any remarks ; and still more so would it be to touch upon the former glories of the building, upon the much interesting matter connected with it, as recorded in the book of the Rites and Monuments, or upon the motives and details of its destruction. The last was an " abomination of desolation," which, far as Durham is removed from Norfolk, all the mem- bers of our Society will join in lamenting; and of the first some slight, very slight, idea may be formed by what is here offered to their notice.
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LETTER FROM SECRETARY WALSINGHAM Co tl&e 2.ort Crea0ttt:et,
DBSI&INO HIK TO PROKOTB TBB BEBOTIMO OF
A HOUSE OF REFORMATION IN NORFOLK FOR VAGABONDS AND OTHERS; WITH A BILL ENCLOSED :
From the Lansdoume Mantueripts in the British Muacum, No. 18, art. 97.
COMMUNICATED BY
SIR HENRY ELUS, K.H. ^rinci))al Xibtarian of ^t l^xitisii J^itsetiin.
The following very curious document affords a remarkable exemplification of the ethos of the Elizabethan age, being one of the experiments made during the establishment of the existing system of the Poor Laws. From the first concoction of that system, the legislature seemed unable to discriminate between poverty and crime ; and every measure intended for the relief of the poor was envenomed by harshness. The system, however, was embodied in the reign of Edward VI. by the conversion of the Royal Palace of Bridewell, which had been the residence of several of the English monarchs, even as early as King John, into a place of correction for vagabonds of each sex and all denominations. The building had fallen into decay; and the citizens of London accordingly petitioned the King's Council, in 1552, praying that it might be ** granted to them as a house of occupations, wherein, as well the child when he is brought up and grown to years, and found unapt to learning, neither any honest person desireth or would have his service, may there be exercised and
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occupied ; as also the sore and sick when they be cured, who shall not be suffered to wander as vagabonds in the commonwealth, as they have been accustomed, but shall there be exercised. And unto this shall be brought the sturdy and idle ; and likewise such prisoners as are quit at the sessions, that there they may be set to labour." The citizens at the same time more particularly detail the use they hoped to derive from the establishment, stating their intention, that, " in this house shall be erected sundry occupa- tions, wherein shall be trained all the former sorts of people, and those occupations shall be such as may be profitable to all the King's Majesty's subjects, and hurtful to none : as the making of caps, which shall be made as good, as well dressed and died, and more substantial than any are made in France ; and yet shall be afforded at as low a price, or lower, than the French caps are, for there shall scarcely so much gain or profit be taken of their labours as shall countervail their charges and expenses. Also the weaker sort of people, that is to say, such as are lame of legs and whole of hands, shall be occupied in making feather-bed ticks, wool-cards, drawing of wire, spinning, carding, knitting, and winding of silk, and other profitable devices; and the stubborn and fouler sort shall be exercised in making of nails and other iron work, even such sorts as are not made within any part of this realm." Bridewell hence became the model prison through- out England ; and the establishment of it was followed by the Act 18 Eliz. cap. S (1575-6), whereby the justices were empowered to establish houses of correction, in which the poor and the rogue, both being invariably associated by Elizabeth's legislation, were set to work ; and the House of Reformation at Acle seems to have been a voluntary establish- ment, in anticipation of those which were shortly afterwards sanctioned by Parliament. Crafty Walsingham observes, that the house was opposed by those who disliked that any good work should be done in the time of the Gospel; and it is
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therefore obvious that one object intended to be effected, was the discouragement of the feelings in favour of '* Papistry," which so long lurked and lingered in Norfolk ; and that the austere relief afforded by the House of Reformation was to compensate for the former charities of the monasteries. The monthly meetings of the Governors constituted a species of irregular petty sessions, — jovial, social, legal and illegal, — tending very much to consolidate the interests of the higher classes, by bringing the gentry and substantial yeomanry into contact. The most amusing portion, perhaps, is the scene after dinner, the offenders brought up by the constable as the dessert. A document somewhat analogous has been printed by Sir F. M. Eden, in his History of the Poor^ (III. App. No. XXX.) being the Regulations of the House of Correc- tion at Bury.
** My verry good Lord, I sende your Lordship hereinclosed the note delyvered unto me touching the house of reforma- tyon lately erected at Acle in Norfolke ; as also a coppye of a letter drawen to that purpose, that sooche as are favorers of this good worke desyre to be sent from my Lords to the cheffe of that shire ; for I founde of them whoe mysleeke that any good woorke shoold be don in the tyme of the Gospell, do secretly spume at yt. Yt were great pyttye that an act, so necessarye and so full of pyetye, shoold lacke any furtherance or contenaimce that may be gyven yt. Oure dayes brynge foorthe fewe of them : yt were therefor great •pyttie that thos fewe shoold quayle for lacke of the counte- naunce of thos whoes authoryte is bounde to maynteyne all Christyan and honest actyons. Yt may pleash' your Lord- ship therefor (after some necessarye correctyon given to the inclosed draught) to yeald youre favorable fortheraunce unto
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the same. And so^ leayyng forther to troble your Lordship^ I most humbly take my leave. At Batterseye, the xxv*** of Decembre, 1674.
" Y' L. to command^
*^Fra. Walsyngham.
*' To the right honorable and my verie good lord the L. Threasurer."
The Cawses and Mannor of the Metinge at Acle in Norff,
First ther is bought a howse at the chardges of the lymitts adjoyning^ wher, after the manner of a Bridewell, ther is ap- pointed bothe worke and ponnishment for such idle laborers, stubbome servants, vagabond roges, and other disordered people, as were wonte to annoye those partes.
Upon the Wednesday, beinge market day ther, the Bys- shoppe, with certan gentlemen and chief yomen therabouts, do mete once in thre wekes or a moneth, at ix of the clocke, when they firste repare to the church ther and spend one howre in prayer and preachinge, the chief effect wherrof is to perswade love, obedience, amitie, concorde, &c.
That done, they returne to ther inne, wher they dyne together at ther own charges, observinge the lawe for Wed- nesday: in the meane while, betweene sermone ended and dynner, they go to the said howse of Bridwell to consider and examyne howe all things ther ar provided and ordered ; as well for ther due punisshment and reasonable worke, as. for ther meate and necessaryes, without which often sight and overseinge the said howse and orders wold come quicklie to nothing.
After dynner, if any chief constable ther prove of any
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disorder or misdemenor within ther hundreds, redresse wherof belongeth to the Justices of Peace, which els wold require the said constables fiirther travile to some justice's howse, if he will complaine of it ther, the offender is eyther openly punished, or other order taken as the cawse requircth. And if, besides all this, ther be anye private controversies betwene pore neighbours, whereof the hundred courte had wonte to be full, they bestowe the rest of the day in intreat- inge them to peace one with another, by accorde between themselves, or by arbytrament of ther neareste neighbours. So that nowe in some hole hundreds ther is scarcely one of those unneighbourly quarrclls and suetes founde.
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iSxtxattfi ftom Wiillfi,
PRB8BRTBD
IN THE MUNIMENT ROOM AT STOWE BARDOLPH.
COXXUICXCATBD BT
THE REV. GEORGE HENRY BASHWOOD, FA.S.
3n a %itUt
TO DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V.P.
My dear Sir,
The interesting extracts from Norfolk Wills given in our first yolome indaced me to look over a number of Wills preserved among the muniments at Stowe ; and I have now the pleasure of sending some Extracts from them for the inspection of the Committee, and with the hope that they may deem them worthy of being printed.
Our able secretary, Mr. Harrod, hasso judiciously prefaced his similar Extracts as to l^ave little to be said on the present occasion; since, in their general features, the Wills here transcribed accord with those already printed: nevertheless they differ in some respects, and many expressions in them do not occur in Mr. Harrod's series.
To the genealogist, WiUs are of the utmost service, and the source of the most authentic information ; the statements of our county historians, and even of the " Heralds' Visita- tions," not being always to be depended upon. With this view, therefore, the mention of relatives in many cases has been noted. The Wills are generally accompanied by their
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probates ; but in some instances they are only office-copies. They appear to have come into the possession of the Hare family with the title-deeds of various purchased lands.
I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
G. H. Dashwood.
Ralph de KetiisUme. a.d. 1321.
Corpus meum ad sepeliendum inter firatres prsedicatores Lennse. Item, lego summo altari ecclesise Sanctse Margaretae Lennse pro decimis meis oblitis xxx5. Item, fabricse ejusdem ecclesiae iJ5. Item, Carnario* ejusdem ecclesise iJ5. Item, lego fabrics ecclesiae Sancti Nicholai Lennse iJ5. Item, &bric8e ecclesiae Sancti Jacobi Lennse ij«., &c.
Makes bequests to the Friars Preachers, Minors, Carmelites, and Augustines of Lynn . . to the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen at Lynn. To the fabric of the church and the poor of Ketlistone.
Mentions his brother John, and his (John's) children by his first wife. His own sisters Amicia, Beatrix, Matilda, and Cecilia, . . GeofiEry, son of John de Ketlistone and Margaret his sister, to whom he gives xx5. and one silver cup with a foot, &c. . . Item, lego ad expensum die sepultursB mese l". Item, lego ad ij annuales celebrandas pro anima mea in viUa Lennse, secundum ordinacionem executorum meorum, uti melius viderint expedire, vj". Item, lego ThomsB filio meo iiij libras. Item, Agneti de Westacre iij^ et cameram meam integram cum j pecia argenti.
Thomas and Agnes, residuary legatees; Thomas to be under the care of his executors till of age.
* Carnarimn, Coemeterium.
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£xecutors : Thomas de Melcheboume, Geoffry de Mmnby, and Agnes de Westacre.
Datum apud Lennam Episcopi Anno Domini m®ccc® vicesimo primo.
[The K'etlistones were wealthy burgesses of Lynn. Ralf de Ketlistone held the Manor of Bumham Hall, in Fincham and Stradset ; Agnes, his widow, had a life-interest in it, and, in the 20th Edw. III., granted the same unto John, son of Adam de Fincham. By Indenture dated 22 Edw. III. John de Fincham grants and demises the said manor to Agnes and Thomas de Ket- listone for the term of their lives ; and, soon after, it was alto- gether in John de Fincham.]
Gilbert Haultoft, a.d. 1457.
Ego, Gilbertus Haultoft de Outwell, sance, &c. . . et corpus meum ad sepeliendum infra sacrum locum, ubi Deo placuerit. Item, volo quod Margareta, uxor mea, habeat, durante vita, omnia maneria, terras, tenementa, &c., quae habeo, &c., in villa de Outwell, Upwell, Elme, Wisebeche, Leverington et Emneth, tarn in comitatu Cant : quam in com. Norf : si ipsa sola sine marito manserit, &c. . . ita quod ipsa honeste custodiret Aliciam et Alienoram, filias mcas, et ipsas maritaverit, et invencrit unum capellanum idoneum, annuatim, per x™ annos proxime sequentes mortem meam, ad celebrandum divina in ecclesia sancti dementis in Outwell pro anima mea, et animabus Roberti Hakebeche mUitis, et Johannis Mitron, et omnium benefactorum meorum. . . . Volo quod Alicia, filia mea, habeat post mortem dictsB MargaretoB, uxoris mese, manerium de Budbech, Vernonns et Cristofts, &c. (failing issue) remaneant AlienorsB filiae, &c. Et si omnes filiarum mearum praedictarum sine haeredibus dfe corporibus suis obierint, tunc prsedicta maneria, &c. . . . remaneant Elizabethae, uxori Thomae Bennet de Pinchebecke, et haeredibus, &c. . . Item,>olo quod Margareta, filia
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mea^ uxor ThomsB K6ryill> habeat^ &c.^ manerium de Rich- mond et omnia^ &c. . . (in a special case) £xecutore8 debent cum dictis proficiis invenire annuatim^ durantibus 8^. annis^ unum capelianum idoneum decima in ecclesia parochiali de Outwell celebrare pro anima mea et pro animabns Eoberti Hakebeche militis^ Johannis Mitron^ et omnium benefactorum meorum ; ac annuatim custodire diem anniversarium obitds mei in ecclesia parochiali praedicta^ distribuendo annuatim dicto die x' in exequiis^ missis^ atque pauperibus ibidem exist- entibus. . . Item^ lego quadraginta marcas ad reparationem Ecclesise de Emneth pro anima Eoberti Hakebeche militis ; et lego pro anima ejusdem Koberti cuilibet capellano generali ordinum fratrum Mendicantium de Lynne, scilicet, fratribus predicatorum et minorum quinque marcas, eidem per Testa- mentum dicti Boberti legatas, cum litera fraternitatis inde penes me remanente apud Wellis. Item, volo quod ex- ecutores mei faciant de novo the roof of Christofer Chappie in Outwell [sic], et exaltent muros ejusdem CapellsB melius quam nunc est, &c. Item, ordino, &c., executores meos, scilicet W"' Haultoft senior, W° Breewode de Ely, W°^ Clay Rector EcclesisB de Outwell, et Cristofer Halon de eadem; ac rogo Rogerum Bucke de London, esse Supervisorem, &c.
[Proved in the House of the Friars Carmelites of Aylesford, 7 Oct. A.D. 1458.
Gilbert Haltoft, second Baron of the Exchequer, died seized of the manors of Budbech in Outwell, Christophers in Upwell, Vemons in Elme, Lovells in Emneth, and Richmond in Wisbech and Leverington. Of his three daughters and coheirs, Margaret married Thomas Kervill, Esq. ; Alicia, Thomas Derham, Esq. (by whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth, married to John Fin- cham, Esq.) ; and Alianor, Walpole, Esq.]
Eleanor Wells, of Shuldham. a.d. 1459.
Be it remembrid yat y" is y* last wille of Elynoor Wellys, of Shuldham. Yat her lond in y* townys of Stratesettc and
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Crympilsam be 30wyn and sewyrly coiiBA&fd/to y? iiowse and cowent of Seynt Kateryns of^ BlaEebergli,, ufldyr. Jh^ forme yat folowyth. Yat is for to^ey/.^het iB* yt lyii^'tJfi f^- life of y« forseyde Elynoor, alle y" profite of y® seyde londys sal remayne to y<* use and disposisyon of y** seyde Elynoor. And aftyr her disses yane y* seyde lends w* alle y* profits to remayne to Ales "Welles, nowne of Blakebergli forseyde, and to y® cowent of y® same place : yat is for to sey, halff to y* seyde Ales, and halff to y" cowent duryn^ y^ lyfe of y* seyde Ales. And oflyr her disses to remayne holy to y® cowent. Mor^ ov yJ* is y® wille, y* yf y* p*oress or any of her succes- sowrs, or any y* hav rewle in y® same house wol alyon y® seyde lends to ony odyr ewse but onely to y* cowent forseyde for ther clothyng and oy^ thyngs nedefull to ther propyr use, yane sche well y* y* seyde lends ben sold be the executour and tourneys of y® seyde Elyenoor, and y® mony ther of comyng be 30wyn among freyers to sin^ and p*y for y® sowle of y* seyde Elyenoor and her good doerys.
Wretyn at Schold^m y® Sext day of the monthe of Feverer, the yere of owre Lord, a thowsand fowre hudryd and fifty and nyne.
[The will is indented, with small seal appended, bearing certain
letters ; apparently the letter T, and above it the letters i. h, c]
John Hare^ of Poringland Magna, a.d. 1460.
Ego, Johannes Haar de Poringland Magna, &c. Condo testamentum meum, &c. . . Corpusque meum ad sepe- liendum in ecclesia parochiali de Poringland prsedicta, juxta tumulum Margerise uxoris mese, &c. . . Executores ordino facio et constituo Eobertum Haar clericum, Rectorem ecclesise parochialis de Kirkebicane, Nicholaum Haar filios meos, &c.
[This John Haar was ancestor of the family of Hare, of Stowe Bardolf ; and also» I am strongly inclined to believe, Irom papers found in the Muniment Room at Stowe, of the Listowell family.]
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• • • • ••
.*. : ; .• ."Ifdf kolas O^ton^ of Fyncham. a.d. 1477. • •••••.. - .• : :..:/.•.../
. . Ego, Nicholas Geyton, &c. . . Condo testamentum
meum, &c. . . Corpusque meum ad sepeliendum in medio ecclesise Sanctd Martini de Fyncham. . . Item, lego summo altari ibidem iJ5. . . emendacioni sive reparacioni ejusdem vj«. viijrf. . . ecclesisB cathedrali Sanctae Trinitatis Norwici yjef. . . emendacioni ecclesiae Sanctee Mariae Magdalcnse de Wigenhale iiJ5. iiijrf. . . Katerinae et Agnetse, filiis meis, utrique earum, y. Marcas, &c. . . Elizabeths, filiae meae xx«. . .
' Residuum vero bonorum, &c. . . Thomse, filio meo, quem constituo executorem meum ad debita mea solvenda, legata mea perimplenda, necnon omnia alia pro anima mea et animabus omnium benefactorum meorum facienda, prout ipsi videbitur melius Deo placere et animae meae prodesse.
Haec est ultima voluntas mei, praefati Nicholai Geyton, &c. . . . Volo quod Thomas filius mens habeat totum Mane- rium meum, vocatum Littlewelle halle [in Fincham] cum, &c. . . . volo quod idem Thomas habeat unam vaccam . . . Katcrina filia mea habeat unam ollam eneam continentem per estimationem duos gallones. . . Agnes filia mea habeat unam parvam ollam eneam continentem per estimationem unum gallonem. . . Item, volo quod omnia vasa mea de peutre equaliter dividantur inter praefatos Thomam, Katerinam, et Agnetam.
. . . Eadem Agnes habeat unam juvencam rubeam; Katerina habeat unum blodium * bedcloth de set/ f [sic] unum bodex et duo lintheanima. Item, volo quod praedicta Agnes habeat unum coopertorium rubrum cum albis trayfullis J
• Blood Red.
t A kind of serge, a cloth principally or entirely of wool. X Trayfullis, pro trifoliis ? Treffa trifolium (Ducange) rpc^vXXov, trifo- liuin ; Powdered with white trefoil.
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unum bodex § et duo lintheanima. Item^ volo quod eadem Agnes habeat unum pelvem || de peutre.
Item, &c. unam cistam pictam. . . Item, volo quod praedictus Thomas filius mens habeat omnia alia necessaria et utensilia hospicii mei.
[Proved at Downham before the official of the Archdeacon of Norfolk, Dec. 12, 1478.
Official seal appended : imder a canopy St. Michael smiting the dragon; below, a monk in the act of prayer. Legend nearly defaced.]
Michael Haar^ of Ditchingham. a.d. 1487.
I, Michael Haar, of Dechingha, &c. . . make my will and testaiS in this wise, &c. . . My body to be buried in the church of o^ Lady in Dechingha. It. I bequeth to the high Au? for my tythes forgotten vJ5. viijrf. It. for broking y« groud for my grave xx5. It. for y^ repa% & sostentaco of y« same church xiiij m*rc. It. to Mawte my wiff my Ten*, in Dechingham w*** all the apputenances till W°* Haar my sone be xviij, &c.
Yf y* said W" die w"*out issue of his body, lawfully begott, then I will y* Johanne my daughter shall have and enjoye the saide Ten*, &c. . . [Failing issue of both William and Johanne, the tenement, &c. to be sold by the executors] and the money there of comyng to be disposed by them in messis, singing, and in almes deeds to y« most plesure of Almighty ^ God, helth and salvation of my soule and all my friends soules.
It. I will y* y® waie be made fro my place unto y*' stile callyd Sardill on myn owen pp costis.
[Brother of Nicholas, (whose will, dated 1492, follows) men- tioned in the will of John Haar. His great grand-daughter
§ Bodez qu. Bodice, or a mistake for lodiz, a sheet or blanket. II Pelyis, mensura aridorum. Pelves, flaggons, covered pitchers for wine. {Teatammta VeHuta.)
I
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Etheldieda, eventual heiress of this branch, married Thomas Hobart of Plumstead, whence descended the Earls of Bucking- hamshire.]
John KnappBy of Shouldham* a.d. 1488.
My body to be buried in the cemetry of the Church of Saint Margaret the Virgin,* of Shouldham. . . I give to the high altar of the said church, for tythes and oblations forgotten, xijrf. . . for the repair of the said church yj«. viijrf.
I will that Juliana my wife have my capital messuage in which I dwell, with all lands, &c. . . (remainder) to John my son and his heirs, on condition that he pay to his brothers Hugh and Thomas, to each of them, five pounds of money of England, &c.
[Proved at Stow before the oiEcial of the Archdeacon of Nor- folk, June 10, A.D. 1488.]
Nicholas Hare^ of Homersjield. a.d. 1492.
. . Corpusque meum sepeliendum in cimetereo ecclesiae beatae MarisB viginis de Homersfeld.
Item, do et lego summo altari ecclesise parochialis de Ho- mersfeld prcedicta pro decimis oblitis vj«. viijc?. Item, do et lego summo altari ecclesiee parochialis Sancti Georgii dc Sundercrofte pro decimis oblitis xxef. Item, do et lego fabricse et reparation! ejusdem ecclesise de Sundercrofle iij^. iiijef. et iiij modios brasii et duos modios frumenti. Similar bequests to the following churches : St. Peter, St. Mary of Flixton, St. Margaret, St. Nicholas, St. Michael, All Saints,
• The site of St. Margaret's, ^hich in Blomefield's time was unknown, has lately been discoyered in lowering a hiU in a field adjoining the present church. The foundations of the west end and north side were nearly perfect. The remains of yery many bodies from the south side have been removed and buried in the churchyard of AU Saints.
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and St James, all in South Elmham, and also to the churches of Poringland Magna, Ditchingham, and Kirbycane.
Item, do et lego cuilibet curatorum divina celebrantium in omnibus prsedictis ecclesiis, et omnibus capellanis celebrantibus divina in dictis ecclesiis, quatuor denarios ad celebrandum et dicendum in die tricennali pro anima mea et pro animabus omnium pro quibus orare teneor.
To Nicholas Blythe, my grandson, son of William Blythe, of Norwich, vj«. viijrf. or one cow. *
To Margaret my wife, and Katharine my daughter, a share of my household goods, except unico le fetherbed quod qui- dem do et lego Margaretse uxori mese ad terminum vit« suae, post cujus mortem volo quod prsedictus le fetherbed remaneat penes Johannem Hare ad usum suum proprium. Item, do et lego Katherinse filiae mese unam oUam aeneam, imicam le shetill, t et unicam patulam. Item, do et lego Margaretse uxori mese duas ollas aeneas et duas le shetills et duas patulas, &c. . . omnia vasa et discos de le pewter et latyn, i &c.
To Margerie Carion, my granddaughter, Margaret Blythe, and Agnes Boroughe, my daughters. Item, do et lego pic- turse summi altaris et tabemacidi beats Marise Virginis in ecclesia de Homersfeld quinque libras.
To Thomas Hare, my son. Bachelor of Laws. . . To Margeria, my daughter. . . William Hare, my brother.
* From this, as well as various other instances, the price of a cow in the fifteenth century seems to have averaged about six shillings.
t This word I do not remember to have met ;with elsewhere. From the prefixed fe, as in the above instance of le fetherbed, I take it to be an English term, for the corresponding Latin of which the writer was at a loss. It is probably derived from the Latin scutella, patina in modum eavitatie sctUi, and may be a kind of saucer.
X Latyn, latten, or laton, a mixed metal resembling brass, hard and durable, and formerly used for engraved plates of sepulchral memorials. But the word was also used for the plates of iron covered with tin, now commonly called tin, of which mugs, &c. are made, and in this sense is here to be taken.
I 2
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Thomas Foston, of Garboysthorp, a.d. 1493.
To be beryd in the Chjrrclie of owyr Lady of Garboysthorp. Item^ I bequeth to the hey auter of the same chyrche yj«. yiijrf. Item, I bequeth to the said chyrche xij lifer for to bye a holle sowte of vestments with alle, by the advyse of myn executors, ther for to serve to the honor of God and ower blyssid lady and alle the holy company of Hevyn every festfull day in the yer as long as it may in devyr (jendure). . . Item. I woU that the Image of owyr lady in the seyd cherche of Thorp be newe gylted, &c. . . to the repacyon of the wallys of the seyd cherche yerde xb. . . to the makyng of the newe vestryhowsse vj«. viijef. . . to the gylde of our lady of Garboysthorp vj«. viijrf. . . to the mendyng of the gylde of Sent John ther vj>. viije/. . . to the mendyng of the gylde of Oim Scoa ther vj«. viijrf.
To the cherche of Sent Margyt in Schuldham xiij*. iiijrf. . . . to the cherche of Thorpeland iiJ5. iiijc?.
Item, I woll pryncipaly befor alle other thyngs that my debts be payed and myn injuries and wrongys devly pvyd {dtdy proved) be restoreyd, yeve {if) ony ther be. . . I wol that Ser John Grosse syng for my sowle in the cherche of Garboysthorp . . to the Parish Gierke of Thorp for the dirige ijrf. . . to the Renggarrys (ringers) iiijc?. for brede and ale, &c.
[Proved at Norwich, 14th July, 1495.]
WiUiam Haar^ of Kirkebicane. a.d. 1499.
My body to be buried in the church of All Saints of Kirkebicane, near the altar of St. John the Baptist, on the south part of the same altar. . . To the said altar for tythes forgotten 6^. %d. For the repair of the said church 13^. 4rf., of which 12 shillings to be expent in reed. . . To the church of Gillingham 4 bushells of malt and 4 bushells of
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wheat, . . similar bequests to the churches of Geldeston, Hales, and several others.
I will that five masses of the five wounds of Christ be celebrated after my death, in the church of Kirkebicane, for the health of my soul, and of the souls of my friends and benefactors, and of all the faithful defunct.
I give to John Penchebek clerk vj«. viijrf. " ad dicend. Missam ad Stacoem voc. Scala Celi in Civitate Romana pro anima mea." . . I will to have a fit Priest to sing in the church of Kirkebicane aforesaid, before the altar of St John aforesaid for the space of six years next following my death, for my soul and the souls of all for whom I am bound to pray; he to have for his stipend each year viij marks.
To Johanne my wife, all my household goods, till Thomas and John my sons reach the age of xxij years.
To Thomas my son, all my messuages, lands, tenements, and rents in Beccles and Endgate in the hundred of Wang- ford.
To John my son, all my messuages, lands, and tenements in Gillingham, Windall, Winderton, Hales, and Geldeston.
To Johanne my wife, all my messuages, lands, &c., in Kirkebicane and Elingham for the term of her life.
Directs that messuages in Northhales, co. Suff., a close in Homersfield, and land in Stockton, be sold by his executors for the performance of his last will. [Proved a.d. 1500.]
Nicholas Fyncham, a.d. 1508.
"I, Nicholas Fyncham, Preste, of hole mynd, &c. . . My bodye to be beryed in the vestiary of Sent Martyns chirche in Fyncham. . . to dame Margery my nece, a nunc at Blak- burgh, vj«. viijrf. ... I wyll that myn executors pforme & fynyshe up the vestiary that I have begune, as ferforth as my goods wyll extend a cordyng as I have shewyd on to them by
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my mouth afore tyme. Itm. I wyll & pray, exorte & desyre all my feoffes wych ben enfefiyd now in my mees & xxx acres of lond in Fyncham to my use, that they wyll suflFyr myn executors & the chyrche wardens of Sent Martyns churche in Fyncham now being yn the seyd office, yerly to take the yssues, pfetts, & revenues of the seyd mees & lond. Also in lyke wyse to sufiyr all othir chyrche wardens for the tyme beyng wych shall be chosyn ther to after in tyme comyng, as long as yt may plese God that the world shall indure, to take the seyd yssues & yerly pfytts, upon this condicon folowyng, that ys to sey that the seyd chirch wardens for the tyme beyng w^ thadvyce & assent of suche pson or psonis as shall be ryght hejrrs and inherytours of Fyncham Manl in Fyncham, shall hyer yerly an abyll and a convenient clerk to sve & to helpe to do divine servyce yn the same churche of Sent Marten in Fyncham, and to pley at the organs, and to teche chyldern, wherby that God's ?vyce may be betr mayntened & susteyned, and they to gyve hym a marke yerly of the seyd yssues and pfytts, to be payd at iiij termes yn the yer, that ys to sey at evy quaix xl^., and that the seyde marke shall be no pcell of his hyer that he takyth of the pyshe, &c. The chyrche wardens, &c. shall fynde v. tapyrs of wax in the bason that hangyth afom our ladye, evy tapyr of half a pownd wax unto the sum of vs. by the yer, to be takyn also of the seyd yssues and pfytts, yerly to bren evy dobyll fes? ij of the seyd v. tapyrs, and evy pryncypall fes? to bren all v. tapyrs, and espescially at the salve in Lent e9y daye shall breii all V. tapyrs, &c. . . yf yt happen ony curat for non cunyg of song to wythdrawe the kepyng of devine servyce by note or by ony othyr evyll occasyon, so that th^ divine svyce of God ys not mayntenyd nor sustenyd, but by the seyd curat mynyshyd & hurt, &c." then the said mark to be given to the poor yearly on Good Friday, as long as they shall be without an ** able and convenient clerk to ocupye & excersye as jrt is above rehersyd."
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Executors of thys my testement & last wyll I ordeyn & make mast Symeon Fyncham pson of Watlington, John Fyncham of Well,* & Symeon Bachecroft, my neves & cosyn.
Thomas Harpley, of Garbeysthorp. a.d. 1557.
Item, to Richerd Harpley my son, my bepte fetherbedde, a great hotche f callyd an arke, my beste ambry, my best brasse pott, my best brasse panne, the best table, y® best chayer, one hangynge laver of lattyne. Item, I give to Robert Harpley my Sonne, a cownter J y* was sometyme Richard Myddiltone's, a brasse pott next the thirde, &c.
* John Fyncham, of Well, or John, Junior, was the younger brother of John Fyncham, of Fyncham, whose testament, dated 1499, proves this, no less than a deed of John the younger, conveying lands to his eldest brother, John Fyncham.
t Hotche, Hitiehe, Hoohe^ cista. (PrompUriwn Parv,)
X Probably a counting board, or abacus, on which calculations were made with jettons or counters, sometimes called Nuremberg Tokens, of which a great variety are figured in Snelling's ** Origin, Nature, and Use of Jettons or Counters.*' Those of the most common type are sometimes called Abbey Pieces, from being frequently foimd on the site of monastic buildings, and from having been used by the monks in their reckoning.
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IPlate of tt)e S^ultfiral 1Sxm»
TO THE MEMORY OF THE REV. HENRY MARTYN.
COMMUNIOATBD BT
THE REV. CHARLES BOUTELL.
The Rectory, Downham Market,
February 2lBt, 1848.
My dear Sir,
There are several highly interesting specimens of Monumental Brasses yet remaining in various Churches in this County, which are not noticed in Cotman's work. Should the Committee consider it to be desirable that plates of these Brasses should from time to time appear in the publications of our Society, I shall have much pleasure in] placing at their disposal the necessary number of impres- sions from such engravings of them as I may possess.
The cut which accompanies this is from a Brass now lying in the pavement, within the rails, in the chancel of Upwell Church : it is the memorial of Henry Martjm, some time Rector of Yaxham, and consists of an effigy, with a legend at foot.
The deceased is represented as habited in the amice, alb, stole, and cope ; and accordingly the adjustment of the stole is thus exemplified.
The effigy in the original measures 2 feet 6 inches.
I am, my dear Sir,
Most faithfully yours,
Charles Boutell.
DawBon Turner, Esq., F.R.S. & S.A.
V. P. of the Norfolk and Norwich Archseol. Soc.
&c. &c. &c.
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(It jiofliain (p oW j» Die iw
A D. MM. ISth Hetuty TV. HENRY MARTIN. RECTOR OF TAXHAM,
UPWBUi CHURCH, NORFOLK.
This efflfty exempllflas the ^^juBtraoot of the atole.
Height of the effl^y in the original Brua, 3 ftet 8 inches.
lhi> Braaa now lis on the pavement of the Chaaoel, within the rails.
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EXTRACTS FROM A
MS. DIARY OF PETER LE NEVE, ESQ.
i^rro? %lng of IBirms,
BNTITLBD
"MEMORANDA IN HERALDRY," OF SUCH ENTRIES AS KEUTE TO THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK.
COXMUNIOATBO BY
GEO. A. CARTHEW, ESQ.
{OonUnuedfnm p. 84.)
1706.
SoAMEs, Edmund, Esq', of Dereham Grange in Norff., Collo- nell of a Regiment of foot, dyed whilst his regiment lay
at Torbay, Sept. 1706 : buried at in Norff.
His sister and heir, widdow of Green, to whom he
left 600^^ p ann.i
Dashwood, Geo.* Esq'. 4*^ son of Alderman Dashwood, who married Algernona, sister of S' Sewster Peyton, of Dod- ington in the Isle of Ely, baronet, dyed at Torbay,
1 See in Blomefield the inscription on the monument of this gentleman (of the family of Soame, Baronets of Little Thurlow, Suffolk), buried at West Dereham, 26th Sept. 1706 ; where, also, lies his only sister, Margaret, relict of Giles Green, Esq. Colonel Soame left an illegitimate daughter, named Mary, who married the eminent Soame Jenyns, her cousin in blood, to whom she brought the principal portion of her father's fortune, but afterwards eloped from him.
2 From the elder grandson of this gentleman, is descended the family which now bears the name of Peyton, created Baronets in 1776. From the younger, is derived the Rev. George Henry Dashwood, of Stow Bardolph, F.S.A.'; to whom the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society is in- debted for many most valuable and interesting communications.
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Devonshire, day of Sept. 1706, — left many chil- dren : buried at in NorfT. day of the same
month.
Brown, Thomas, of Elsing and Wesenham in Norff., esq', lived at Wesenham All Saints, and dyed there of the
small pox, in the year of his age. He fell sick on
the conceit of having them only ; dyed Munday, 14 Sept. 1706: buried the day of the same month.'
Colston, Lady, of Pudding Norton in Norff., dyed 12 of October, 1706 : buried in Lynton church in Cambridge- shire, day of : born at Ingaldesthorp in Norff.
day of 1621, so was in the 85*** year of her
age. She was the d' of Cockett,* of Norff.,
and widdow of S' Joseph Colston, K*. a phisitian.
1707.
Brograve, S' Thomas, dyed Saturday, 5*** of July, 1707, at
Hamell:^ buried there day of the same month —
his lady remarried to a soldier.
Lb Neve, Oliver, of Great Wichingham in Norff., Esq'., my brother ; mar^ 31 of Jvly, 1707, at St. James' church in Midds., to Elizabeth, eldest daughter and coheir of Robert Sheffield, Esq', of Kensington in Midds.^
[She dyed the 8 November following, without issue.]
3 This gentleman, as great-great-grandson of Anne, elder daughter and coheir of Sir Hugh Hastings, Knt., was a coheir of that ancient Barony. From his daughter, Philippa, married to John Bemey, Esq., of Lynn, descend the present Brownes of Elsing, who waived their claim to the Barony in favour of Sir Jacob Astley.
4 Anne, daughter and heir of Thomas Cocket, Esq., of Broomsthozpe. ^er first husband was John Parry, Esq., of Pudding Norton, and of Little Linton in Cambridgeshire.
3 Hemel Hempstead, in Herts. The late Sir George Bemey Brograve, Bart., was of the same family. 6 She was his third wife.
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Cook, M"., widdow of Edward Coke, Esq', of Holkham in Norff., dyed at Earles Court, in the parish of Chelsea in the county of Midds.: she was daughter of S' John New- ton, of Hather in Lincolnshire, bar*., by his 1st wife, daughter of William Heveningham, esq'., and dyed Munday, 4 of August, 1707 : buried by her husband
at Godwick in Norff. the day of the said month,
privatly.
Le Neve, Sister, dyed at Wichingham the 8*** instant No- vember, being Saturday, about 12 of the clock at night, suddenly ; said to be of an apoplexy.
WiCH, S' Cirrill, K*., of Wilton, Geywood, and Hockwold, in Norff., lived in S*. James's Square ; dyed at his house there 28th day of December, 1707 : left a vast estate in money and land ; 100,000^ to his son and heir, Jermyn Wich, Esq'. : buried day of
1708.
Neve, Philip, Seijeant at Lawe, Judge Cheif of Pembroke,
Cardegan, and Carmarthen Shires, dyed day of
Aprill, 1708.
CoLERAiNE. Henry, Baron of Colraine,"'^ dyed at his house at Tottenham in Midds., Sunday night at 12, 4*^» of
July, 1708: buried day of the same month, at
■ Tottenham, in the vaidt at the east end of the church.
Maesham, S' Robert, married 19 of August, on the thanks- giving-day,® to daughter and coheir of S' Cloudsley
ShoveU, K^
7 Henry, the second Baron, who was of the family of Hare of Docking, and was an eminent antiquary and medallist. He was succeeded by his grandson Henry, son of Hugh Hare, whose death is mentioned in a previous extract.
8 Thanksgiving for the victory at Oudenarde, gained 1st August this year. Sir Robert Marsham, I apprehend, was the same person who was afterwards created Baron Bomncy.
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Brown, Edward, M.D., President of the College of Phisit.^ dyed at his house at Northfleet in Kent, Friday, 26th August, 1708.
Preston, S' Isaac, of Beeston S^ Laurence in the county of Norfolk, Knight, dyed there the 9th day of December, 1708: bur*^ there day of the same month.
1709.
Gaudy, S' John, of West Herling in Norffi, bar*., dyed
day of January, 1708, at West Herling: buried
day of the same mo. Cook, S' William, of Brome in Norff., baronet, dyed
day of Jan. or February, 1708-9 : buried at ^®
Leicester, Countess Dowager, and coheir of S^ Robert Reve,
of Thwayt in Suff., bar*., remar. May, 1709, to
Sheppard, esq'., of Suff. *
TowNSHEND, Collonell, brother of the Viscount T., dyed at
London, unmar**. May, 1709, on Sunday 22^ of May :
buried at Reynham in Norffolk, on the day
of June following. Wyndham, Ash,2 married to daughter and heir of
Dobbyns, the Councelor at Lawe. M** about the Grant. Hare, Ralf, of Harpham in Norff., Esq', and Justice of the
Peace, Counsellor at Lawe, dyed at his house there, 16
9 Son of the learned Knight of Norwich. In the Pedigree before referred to, his death is given Aug. 28th : he is said to have been buried at North- flete Ist Sept., and the year is mis-printed 1703.
10 He was buried at Cranworth. Dying without issue male, the title be- came extinct : he left fire daughters.
1 Anne Reye was wife first to Philip Sydney, fifth Earl of Leicester of that family, and afterwards to John Sheppard, Esq., of Campsey Ash in Suffolk.
« Ash Windham, of Felbrigg, Esq., M.P. for Norfolk 1708, eldest son of Wm. Windham, Esq. by Catherine, his wife, daughter of Sir Joseph Ash of Twickenham.
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day of October,^ 1709: buried there the day of
the same month. Left issue, Thomas, Half, John, and
5 daurs Hare, his father, dyed there 15^** of
Nov. 1689. Ralf mar«» daur. of S' Thomas Willis,
of Fenditton, Cambr., bar*. : she survived her husband ; and he made her executrix.
1710.
FiNCHAM, John, Esq'., son of John Fincham, of Outwell, Midds.,* who dyed about Xtmas., when Coll. Oxburgh likewise dyed; but Jo. Fincham, of Outwell, the son,
mar. January 1709, to datir of relict of
of Hants, both Roman Catholicks.
Brown, Tho., D'. of Phisick,* son and heir of Edw<^. Brown, esq'.. Doctor of Phisick, of London, son and heir of
S' Thomas Brown, of Norwich, K^, dyed day of
July, 1710, without issue : buried at Northflete, in Kent, day of : M'. Brigstoke administrator.
Robinson, S' Thomas, baronet, married about the first [sc.
June] to ^ sister of S' Thomas Hare, baronet, of
Stow bardolf, in Norff. S' T. R. was late of Kentwell halP in Suff., which he sold for ready money to pay debts, and an annuity for life.
3 The inscription upon his monument at Harpham says, I6ih November ; and Blomefield adds, that he was buried there 18th same month. (Vol. I., 416.) His father, Nicholas ; his wife, Ann. (76.)
4 An error for Norfolk. This entry is very obscurely worded. It pro- bably intended to note the marriage of John Fincham, the son, about Jan. 1709-10. The father died 24th March previously. (Blomefield, VII., 473.)
5 <* An ingenious gentleman ; but he afterwards gave himself up to drink- ing so much, that he died from a fidl off his horse, going from Qravesend to his house at Southflete in Kent, being drunk, and having sate up all night, 1710 : left no children behind him." [Pedigree drawn up by Le Neve, and printed in Wilkin's edition of Browne's works.] Owen Brigstock, of Me- rionethshire, was the husband of Anne, his sister.
6 Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Hare, the second Baronet, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of George Dashwood, Esq.
7 Kentwell Hall in Long Melford.
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Harbord^ John^ ® Collonell, 4 son of S' Charles Harbord, K*, surveyor general^ dyed by a fall from his horse, Thursday, 28 of September, 1710 : buried at
1711.
Amy, d^ of Firmyn Neve and Mary, christened at Ringland, 6 of March, 1616 : 94 yrs. old.
Bedingfeld, S' Robert, K* and Alderman of Dowgate Ward,
London, Sheriff, a.d , Lord Mayor, anno Dni ,
dyed suddenly in his bed, 2** of May, haveing [been] sick for sometime before, but pretty well recovered, and in
his shop the day before, aged years: buried
day of the same month. ®
TowNSEND, Viscountess, dyed friday 11 instant [May] at my
Lord's house in Sohoe Square : buried day of May
at Beynham in Norffolk : carried out of town privatly.
Lb Neve, John, son and heir of Oliver Le Neve, of Great Wichingham in Norff., esq', dyed at his father's logeings in Henrietta Streat in Convent Garden, Midds., on Tues- day the 10*** of July, 1711, just before 4 of the clock in the afternoon, aged just 20 yrs. from the day of his birth, which was 10*** of July, 1691 : buried in Covent Garden church, Thursday, 12*** day of the same month, unmarried, in the north-east comer of the churchyard by the tree just within the rails. ^®
Potts, S' Roger, of Manington, in Norff., baronet, dyed at EUingham, 14 day of October, 1711: buried day
8 By his will, dated 21st Ang. 1700^ he left the Gunton estate to his nephew, WiUiam Harbord Cropley, son of his sister Catherine, wife of Wm. Cropley, Esq., of SteUand Hall, Suffolk, who, in pursuance of the directions therein contained, took the name of Harbord. He was father of the first Lord Suffield.
9 He was Lord Mayor 1707. (See previous note, supra p. 34.)
10 With this young man, who was the only son of Oliver, Peter's brother, expired the hope of continuing the Witchingham estate in the family. (See Postcript.)
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of the same months at His lady dyed the 8^ day
of March 1701-2, the same hour and minute that King William dyed : buried at EUingham, I suppose.
Lb Nbvb, Oliver, of Great Wichingham in the county of Norffolk, Esq', was taken with a fitt of an appoplexy at the house of S' Bassingbome Gaudy, ^ bar*, at West Herling in Norff. on Wednesday, 21"* of November, 1711, and dyed thereof about 2 of the clock in the morn- ing on Friday following, being the 23«* instant, aged 49, and was buried in the chancell of Great Wichingham church in the county aforesaid, on Munday the 26* day of the same month.
Sydley, of Morley, John, esq', son and heir of Sydley
of Morley, comonly called S' John Sydley, baronet, but
without any truth, dyed day of 1711 : buried
at
Turner, Charles, of Lynne, attorney and merchant : ^ dyed day of Dec. 1711 : buried at
1712.
Weld, Joseph, Esq'. Serjeant at Lawe, and Member of Pari*, for Bury S* Edmund in Suff., dyed on Friday, 18*^ of Januar. at his chambers in Serjeants Inne, Fleet Street : buried at Bury S*. Edm'*. in S*. Mary's church, in the chamell house, 26 day of January, Saturday. No will.^ His sister and his other sister's daughter (heirs) ; Mary,
1 Sir Bassingbome Gawdy was his brother-in-law. See Pedigree.
2 He was uncle to Sir Charles Turner, and was buried in St. Nicholas' Chapel, Lynn.
3 Serjeant Weld was only son of Qascoigne Weld, of Bracon Ash, Esq., by Anne, his wife, daughter of Bishop Hall. It was Mary, their eldest daughter, who married Wm. Starkly, Rector of Pulham, and had an only child, Mary, who became wife of John Jenny, of Bayfield, Esq. The other daughter, Elizabeth Weld, was wife of Richard Rutter, Esq., of Kingsley, Cheshire. (Blomefield, V., 87.)
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mar**, to Rutter ; mar**, to Starkey of
Pulham, hath daur. Walpolb, M"., of Houghton, relict of Coll. Rob*. Walpole,
the father, dyed 15^ of March, 1711-12, at : buried
day of the same month at Houghton Walpole, in
the burial place of the family.* Royal Society. Memorand., that on Thursday, the £7^ of
March, 1712, 1 was sworn a member thereof, or on the
Thursday, the 20^^ of that month. Seaman, Peter, Alderman of Norwich, came up with the
address about the peace, which was presented Sunday,
6 of July, at S\, James, and was there knighted by the
Queen: son of Peter (qre.) Seaman, brewer, of Norwich.
2000 paid. Wyndham, Clere, Gent., formerly of Stokesby, in Norjffblk,
dyed in Holland, in July or August, 1712.
1713.
Knyvet, Lady Mary, daur of S' Thomas Bedingfeld, of Darsham in Suff., Knight, widdow of S' John Knyvet, of Ashwellthorp in Norff., K*. of the bath, dyed at Weston in Suffolk, at the house of her d' M". Boken- ham,5 the 18 day of Aprill, 1713 : buried the 20"^ day of Aprill, at Ashwellthorp, in the eightieth year of her age. Md., my brother Oliver Le Neve married Jane, one other daughter.
Bacon, S' Edmund, of Gillingham, Bart., married to his
2*^ wife, Mary, daughter and heir of Castell, of
Raveningharo, Esq' day of , 1713, [whom he
left a widow.]
4 She was Mary, daughter and heir of Sir Jeffrey Burwell of Bougham, Suffolk, and mother of the great statesman. Hex epitaph at Houghton fetates, she died 14th March, 1711, aged 85.
5 Catherine, wife of Richard Bokenham, Esq., of Market Weston, after- wards Baroness Bemers.
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Freakb, S' Ralf, of West Bylney in Norff., and of ,« in
Ireland^ esq'., created baronet by Pa*, dat. 25 day of
May, 1713. PiYTON, Colby, son of John Payton, of Grimston in Norff.,
esq', and Elizabeth Bladwell his wife, drowned at Lynne,
Tuesday or Wednesday, 9 or 10 of June, 1713 : buried
at Swanington, Thursday, 11*** of June, 1713. TowNSHEND, Lord Viscount, married on munday the 6*** of
July, 1718, at Houghton Walpole, Norff., to Dorothy,
his ^^ wife, d'. of Rob*, and sister of Rob*. Walpole, of
Houghton, Norff., Esq^'^ Calthorp, Xtofer, Esq'., son and heir of S' Xtofer Calthorp,
K*. of the bath, — ^he lived at Fulmodeston, — dyed
day of August: buried in Fakenham churchyard, in
Norff., 9^ of August, 1718.« Wych, John, (son of S' Cyrill Wych,) envoy extraordinary
to the Princes of Mecklenburgh and Holstein and the
Hans-towns of the Lower Saxony, dyed October,
1713: buried at
Spelman William, Esq'., of Wickmere, dyed of July,
1718. Wright, Aunt, dead® of December, 1718: buried
at
1714.
Richardson, Lord, married Shrove Tuesday, 9*^ day of February, 1713-14, to Elizab. daughter and heir of
6 Of Castle Freke, co. Cork. The present Lord Carbery is the descen- dant of Sir Ralph's only daughter.
1 This, I think, is the lady whose ghost, a few years since, was said to have appeared at Rainham.
8 Where is an altar-tomb inscribed to his memory.
9 Le Neve's mother was daughter of Peter Wright, of London, merchant ; but I do not think he was of the Norfolk family.
K
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Daniel^ of Norwich, goldsmith. [His lady brought to
bed in nine months after of a son and heir, named
William Richardson.] GuiBON, Will., son of S' Francis, marr^ day of ,
Knapp, of Wells, a shopkeeper's daur.^^
Fkeake, M"., mother of S' Ralf Freake, baronet, of West
Bylney, Norff., dyed day of Aprill, 1714.
Peckham, Doctor, of Sporle, Norff., dyed day of
March, 1714. Brown, of Scarning, Captain, his wife, d' of
Mordant, of Congham; she dyed of the stone, day
May, 1714: bur^ at ^
Herne, Lionel], son of Heme of Ambringhall in Norff.,
and one of the deputy Tellers of the excheq'"., dyed of
the Gout: buried
Heron, M" , d'. and heir of Heron^ of Ketering-
ham in Norff., esq'.: married, against father's and
mother's consent, to Frampton, son and heir of
Frampton, of , a comet in the guards.
Bokenham, Walsingham, ^ of Hetherset, in Norff., Gent.,
son of Bokenham of H., by his wife, d'. of
Flowerdew of Hetherset, dyed without issue, un-
mar**. of the small pox, Sunday the 8*** day of August,
1714 : buried at
Oaths taken to King George by me, Peter Le Neve, 28^** of
October, 1718, before Baron Bury, at his chambers in
Serjeants' Inn, in Chancery lane.
10 Wm. Guybon, of Thuxsford, Esq. : his wife was Sarah Knapp.
1 Barbara, the wife of Jno. Browne, Gent., and daughter of Lestrange Mordaunt, of Congham, Esq., died on the 9th, and was buried in Seaming church on the 12th May, 1714. The Brownes of Seaming were of the same family as those of Fulmodeston.
2 Henry Heron, who married Abigail Heveningham, see p. 26, note 4.
3 See Blomefield, Y. 31.
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1715.
Serjeants, call of, 28 Jan. 1714-15.
(Amongst the names of the Serjeants then called J Mr. Branthwait, Will™., brother of Arthur of Norwich.^ Mr. ( WUliam) Earle.
Calthorp, Dorothy,* wife of S'. Christofer Calthorp, of East Barsham in Norff., K*. of the Bath : dyed there 7'^ day of February, 1714-15 : buried at Fakenham, in churchyard, the 8^^ day of the same month.
Wyndham, Thomas, esq.. Standard-bearer, brother of Ash "Wyndham, esq'.
Hare, Thomas, brother of S'. Ralf Hare, bart., late under Secretary to the Viscount Bollingbroke, and with him in France, went down to his scate at in Leicester- shire, where he resides.
Bedell, George, of Woodrising in Norffolk, esq*., son and heir of Bedell, of the same place, dyed of a com- plication of distempers, day of August, 1715:
buried at same month, unmarried.* [One of his
sisters and heirs dyed soon after him.]
4 Arthur Branthwayt, Steward of Norwieh, and Serjeant Branthwayt, were sons of William Branthwayt, of Hethell, Esq.
5 See Blomefield, VII. 96.
6 The Bedells of Woodrising were Boman Catholics. George Bedell was son of Edward Bedell, Esq. by Isabella, his wife, daughter of Geoi^e Porter, Esq., and brother and heir of John Bedell, Esq., on whose death in 1708, he succeeded to the estates. The trustees and executors of his will, dated a few days before his death, were John Marsh and John Amyas (the latter an attorney residing at Hingham) to whom he devised the manor of Woodrising, &c., as Trustees, for the benefit of ** Robert, son of John Mal- lom," and gave an annuity of £150 to ** his sister ^ Elizabeth, the wife of John Mallom." He htul a sister named Elizabeth who, at the time of his death, or shortly afterwards, was the wife of John Bringloe, by whom she was the mother of the late Capel Bringloe, of Hingham^ attomey-at-law. He also mentions in his will his sisters, Isabella and Mary. The latter, (Mary AppoUonia Bedell) married a Mr. Burgess, and had issue two daughters, who, in 1755, joined Mrs. Bringloe in conveying the Woodrising and Scoulton estates to John Weyland, Esq.
K 2
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1716.
Seman, S'. Peter, of Norwich, Knight and Alderman, dyed
at Norwich 9^** day of January, 1716; and buried
same month at
Norwich, Bishop, his Lady, daur. of Talbot, bishop of Salis- bury, dyed day of February, 1715-16. [Clark of
the Closet to the King.]
Leigh, Wolley Leigh, gent.,'' son of Leigh of Adding-
ton in Kent, liveing at Heveningham in Norff., (dyed)
day of , 1715: buried there: left 2 daurs. and
coheirs.
Shawe, Charles,® of Besthorp in Norff., dyed day
of Aprill, 1716: buried at Besthorp, Munday, day
of the same month.
Rogers, John, esq', of Darsingham in Norff., high sheriff of
the county, dyed day of July 1716: buried at
day of the same month. His son constituted high
sheriffe for the rest of the year, John BrOgers, esq'. ^
7 Son of Sir ThoB. Leigh, Kt. He married Mary, daughter of Edmund Hunt, of Marsham, Esq., who survived him, and remarried the following year Mr. James Smyth of Blickling. Mary Leigh, the elder daughter, married Mr. John Bennet of Aylsham.
8 See Blomefleld, I. 500. Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of Charles Shaw, Esq., younger son and ultimately heir of the gentleman whose death is here recorded, married William, fifth Lord Byron, who was tried by his peers for killing WUliam Chaworth, Esq. in a duel in 1765.
9 The Christian name of both father and son was Thonuu, not John. Besides the eldest son, who succeeded his father in the manors of Dersing- ham and Little Dunham, Mr. Rogers, Sen., left two others, Robert Rogers, of Norwich, and William, of Bacton, and four daughters, of whom, Eliza- beth, became wife of James Bamham, of Norwich, attomey-at-law, and
Susan, married Nasmith, of Norwich, by whom she had a son, the
Rev. James Nasmith, D.D., Editor of Tanners "Notitia Monastica," &c. Dr. Nasmith was bom at Norwich (says Coxe, the Cambridge Antiquary, who speaks of him as his particular friend) of dissenting parents, his father having been a considerable carrier from Norwich to London. He published, besides the NotUia and Itineraries of Symon eon of Simeon^ and of William of Worcester, a Catalogue of the MSS. bequeathed to his College (Corp.
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Wyvill, Marmaduke^ son and heir of S'. Marmaduke Wy vill, mar^. M'. Coke of Norfolk's daughter, Dec. 1716.
Potts, S^ Algernon of Mannington in Norff., baronet, dyed without issue 16 day of December ; and his lady dyed
day of before him: both without issue:
buried at Mannington.
1717.
Calthorp, James, esq', of Whissingset in Norff., dyed at East Barsham in Norff., 19*^ day of January, 1716-17 : buried at Barsham the 20*^ day of January.
NoRRis, John, esq'., of Witton in Norff., broke his neck from his horse about noontime, rideing home &om North Walsham, where he had been taking a cup, on Wednes- day day of January, 1716-17: buried at
[Note : his elder bro. dyed of melancholy ; his younger brother was murdered.] *^
Le Neve, Henrietta, came of age, 21 years old, 11 of Feb- ruary, 1716-17, [M.^. born the 9th] and the birth day kept at Wychingham, in great splendor, whilst I and M". Neve absent, and drank me out one hogshead of nog.i
Chr. Camb.) by Archbp. Parker ; a work, it has been observed, which does much credit to his learning, and has been the means of bringing to notice several curious MSS., and which ^greatly facilitates the researches of those who have had occasion to consult this valuable collection. — See Master's History of Corp. Chr, Coll, continued by Dr, Lamb, (W.G.)
10 This gentleman was son of John Norris, of Witton, Esq., who out- witted our firiend, Peter, in the purchase of the reversion of the Le Neve estates, as will be mentioned in a subsequent page ; and by him these ca- tastrophes were doubtless considered as a judgment of Providence. Thomas Norris, the elder brother, a barrister-at-law, died in his father's lifetime. A broad sheet, with an account of '* the barbarous and bloody murther com- mitted on the body of Coronet Norris " has been laid upon the table at one of our meetings during the past year.
I Youngest daughter of Oliver, by Anne Gaudy, his first wife : see Pedi- gree. This entire memorandum is erased by the pen.
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Richardson, M". Angelica, daughter of Thomas Lord Bich-
ardson, dyed unmarried day of February, 1716-17,
at Ringland in Norffolk.
Norwich, Prebendary, D'. Broadrep, dyed : succeeded
by D'. Shirlock, Dean of Chichester, Master of Cath. Hall in Cambr. The late Queen, by letters patent, dated 26 of Aprill, in the 13* of her reign, granted the Canonship or Prebend in the Cath. church of Norwich that should first happen to be void and in the gift of the Crown, to the Master of that Hall for the time being and his successors for their better support for ever, which was confirmed the next year by Act of Pari*.
Claxton, M". Lucia, daughter of Hamon Claxton, of Branston in Norfi"., and Booton, Esq'., and sister of
Claxton, of the same. Captain, married to
Johnston, Esq"^., late Secretary of Scotland, liveing at Twickenham in Midds., day of 1716.
MiCKKLTHW^AYTE, Joseph, Esq'^., appointed Secretary to James Stanhope, Esq'., as Chancelor of the Excheqr., in the room of John Turner, Esq^, son and heir of S' Charles Turner, K*., of Warham in Norfi".
Prideaux,"' , son and heir of Prideaux, Dean of
Norwich, married day of 1717, to , daur
of Nathaniel "Wrench, Doctor of Phisick in Norwich.
Helwis,® , wife of Nicholas Helwys, of Morton ais
Helmingham in Norfiblk, Esq'., and daughter of ,
dyed Tuesday ZS^ of July, 1717 : buried there the day after, in the evening.
Lubbock, Richard, of Norwich, mayor, dyed there 27*** of July, about 11. Sheriff*, 1715; alderman, 1716; lived mayor 5 weeks 4 days.
7 Edmund Prideaux, son of the Dean (Humphrey), married Hannah, daughter of Sir Ber^amin (not Nathaniel) Wrench, M.D.
8 Catherine, wife of Nicholas Helwys, was daughter of Robert Rust, and sister and heir of Jno. Rust, gentleman.
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Earl, Erasmus, [2*^ son of Coll. Erasmus Earl of Salic, but heirj married S\ James' Day, 25*** of July, 1717, to
M". Hannah Maria Calthorp, daughter of de Grey
J of Merton, Norff., Esq'., sister of Thomas de Grey, of the same place, and relict of James Calthorp,^ Esq'., son and heir of S'. Christofer Calthorp, K*. of bath, who dyed before his father, and left one son by him, Xtofer Calthorp, Esq'., about 11 years old.
De Grey, M". Elizabeth, dyed at London of the small-pox,
of August, 1717: buried at Merton in Norflfolk, the
day of , unmarried: d'. of de Grey of
Merton, Esq'., and eldest sister of Thomas. Her execu- tors, her brother, D'. James de Grey ats Bedin^feld, L.L.D., and Erasmus Earl, her brother-in-lawe.
Leveridge, Thomas, my kinsman and botiler, dyed Tuesday the 10*^ of September, 1717 : biuried in Wichingham churchyard the day after, Wednesday, 11^** instant.
Walpole, Coll. Robert, of Houghton's, Lady brought to bed of a son.
Katherine, daur of S'. Xtofer Calthorp, K*. of bath, dyed
at Barsham East, the day of Sept., 1717 : buried
there unmarried.
Branthwatt, Arthur, (son of Henry ,^^ Esq'., of Hethill,) and Councellor-at-Law, formerly Steward of Norwich, dyed of the gout at his house in Norwich, Sunday, 29^** of September, 1717 : buried at Hethill, Wedsday, the 2<* day of October, — his wife survived him.
Horatio Walpole,^ Esq'., of Broomsthorp in NorflF., dyed Thursday, the 17"» of October, 1717: buried Sunday, the 20"* day of the same month, at Houghton Walpole, in
9 Should have been Christopher Calthorpe, Esq., (vide supra, p. 33.) James Calthorpe, the eldest son of Sir Christopher, died under age, and iinmarried, in 1696.
10 Should have been Williatn, (vide supra, p. 121, note 4 ; also Blomefield, v., 113.)
1 Uncle to Sir Robert Walpole, and commonly called the Black Colonel.
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Norff., without children : married Lady Anne^ d'. of
Thomas^ late Duke of Leeds^ and relict of Coke,
Esq'., of Holkham. Supters of Pall : S' Jo. Woodhouse, S'. Nic. Strange, S'. Sewster Payton, barts.; M'. North, of Rougham, .... Dashwood, Esq., Xtofer Bedingfeild, Esq'.
Starkey,* , Rector of both Pulhams in Norff., dyed
there day of Oct. 1717: buried Wedsday, the 16,
in that church; married , daughter of Amias,
sister of the Doctor of Phisick of Norwich. His mother one of the heirs of Joseph Weld.
HoBART, S'. John, baronet, of Blickling in Norff., married on Sunday, 8 of November, 1717, at Thorp market church,
to Judith, daughter and coheir expectant of
Britiffe, of Norwich, Councelor-at-lawe, by , his
wife, daughter and coheir of S'. William Brant of Thorp mercate aforesaid.^ M^. Britiffe hath no right to arms, to my knowlege ; Peter Le Neve, Norroy.
Payton, S'. Sewster, baronet, dyed Saturday night, 28 of Dec. 1717, in his chaise, on the road to his house at Stanhow.
C To be continued. J
3 Wm. Starkey, M.A., (Blomefield, Y., 392.) Jane, his widow, daughter of John Amyas of Hingham, waa his second wife. It was his first wife, not his mother, who was sister and coheir of Joseph Weld, Esq., of Braconash.
3 Robert Britiffe, Esq., Recorder and some time M.F. for Norwich, where he practised the law with great success, and acquired a large fortune, had by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Rant, two daughters, of whom the elder married Sir John Hobart, as above mentioned ; the other, Jane, married William Morden, Esq., of Suffield, who took the name of Harbord, and was afterwards a baronet and K.B., and whose son was created Baron Suffield, (see note 8, p. 116, supra.) Robert Britiffe, aged more than fourscore years, died September 21st, 1749 : he had married for his second wife, Elizabeth, relict of Bishop Tanner, the celebrated antiquary. Sir John Hobart was afterwards Earl of Buckinghamshire. I embrace this opportunity of correcting an error, into which I had fallen from carelessness, in my note on the marriage of Sir John's sister, (vide supra, p. 34.) That lady's name was not Anne, but Henrietta Hobart, who afterwards, when Countess of Suffolk, became too well known to need any comment.
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127 NOTES
ON
THE PARISH AND CHDECH OF WIMBOTSHAM.
COUMUMICATBD
BY THE REV. G. H. DASHWOOD, M.A., F.S.A.
AMD THB
REV. C. BOTJTELL, M.A.
WiMBOTSHAM, in the Hundred of Clackclose, and Deanery of Fincham, is a Rectory commuted at the gross rent-charge of £379, including the glebe ; Stowe, with which it is con- solidated, being £158 1«. In a MS. Valor EcclesiasticitSf of the time of Elizabeth, it is thus set down : —
John Wimbotesham valor v". vj'. viij^. primitie nulle : Tompson, decima x'. viij^. : Synod, ij". : pcur. xvj^. :
B. patron; Radulphus Hare Miles.
The Rectory has been at different times held together with the Vicarage of Stowe Bardolph ; but in the year 1769, on the petition of Dr. Thomas Moore, rector and patron,* was regularly consolidated with Stowe.f Dr. Moore died July
• Dr. Moore, grandson of Henry, third Earl of Drogheda, married Elizabeth, eldest daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas Hare, Bart., in whose right he became patron.
t The parishes of Stowe and Wimbotsham are singularly intermixed. The boundary line between the two is sufficiently distinct and known ; but there are divers parcels of insulated land, not merely within the bounds, but in the very heart, and some in the main street, of Wimbotsham, which belong to Stowe, and are known by the name of Stowe Ward in Wimbotsham. On these lands there are upwards of five and twenty tenements, the
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SSth^ 1779, aged sixty-three, and was buried in the Cathedral Church of Norwich, where is a monument to him on the north side of the chancel. The Rev. Philip Bell, A.M., was, on the presentation of Mrs. Moore, instituted to the rectory of Wimbotsham and vicarage of Stowe Bardolph, on the 26th of August, 1779. On the death of Mr. Bell, in 1834, the Rev. John Clavering * was instituted, on the presentation of Sir Thos. Hare, Bart. ; and he is the present incumbent.
The Church.
The Church of Wimbotsham, situated at the distance of about a mile and a half to the north-west of Downham Mar- ket, and closely adjoining the high-road from Ely to Lynn, comprises a chancel, nave, western tower, and north porch. The entire edifice is constructed of rubble, dressed with ashlar; the material employed being chiefly the rag-stone of the locality. The walls, which are very massive, are apparently those of the original Norman edifice. The roofs have a high pitch, and are thatched with reeds.
EXTERIOR.
The eastern gable of the chancel is pierced by a three- light window, having its head filled with net-tracery : above, is a recess in the wall, now presenting the appearance of a large niche, but which probably was originally a single-light
inhabitants of which pay rates to Stowe, and are considered as belonging to it. About the year 1650, the inhabitants of Stowe Ward made complaint that they were forced to keep ** watch and ward ** for both Wimbotsham and Stowe; and on this occasion it was determined that they were bound to keep the watch for Stowe, and not for Wimbotsham. Stowe Ward is mentioned in old deeds as far back, if I am not mistaken, as the time of Edward III., if not earlier.
* Grandson of Robert, Lord Bishop of Peterborough, and descended, through the Claveriiigs of Tilmouth, co. Durham, from Robert Pitz Roger, Shciiff of Norfolk, 2, 3, 4, 5, C, and 10, Ric. I., and agam temp. John.
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window. Beneath the east window the masonry is worked in the form of an arch ; while above this window, toward the south, are evident remains of the original Norman apse-arch* Toward the north, the chancel is lighted by a small, single- light, Norman window, placed at a considerable height from the ground : the glazing of this window is now almost flush with the outer face of the wall, but in the original design there does not appear to have been any arrangement for the introduction of glass, the aperture either remaining entirely open or being closed by a shutter.
The south wall of the chancel contains two Early English lancet-windows, of considerable size : both are placed in the western moiety of the chancel ; and the more westerly of the two is trefoiled in the head, and is brought down much nearer to the ground than its companion, in which the arch- head is plain.t Above these windows yet remains the original Norman Corbel-table : this member consists of a series of small semi- circular arches springing from corbel-blocks, which are for the most part worked in the form of shields, while some few of them are rude heads: the arches themselves are encircled with zig-zag, embattled, and cable- twist moldings, rudely
* On opening the ground immediately to the eastward of the present edifice, the foundations of the Norman apse, which once formed the eastern termination of the chancel, were discovered. These foundations describe a semicircle, and appear to have been undisturbed from the time that the apse was destroyed.
t The lower part of this window was probably separated &om the upper.
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executed. A similar corbel-table is also preserved on the north side of the chancel ; but here are no heads, and less variety in the ornaments of the small arches. The skew- table of the chancel-gable rises considerably higher than the ridge of the present roof, which itself descends below the perpendicular masonry at the angle of the gable, thus pre- serving the pitch with the skew-table itself. This same arrangement appears in the gable and the roof of the nave. The nave itself is lighted, towards the north, by two square- headed windows of the Perpendicular Gothic period; that which has the more easterly position being of two lights, while the other contains a third light, and is throughout upon a larger scale. Above these windows there appears to have been a corbel-table of the same character as that of the chancel ; but of this member no actual remains now exist. Further to the west, a porch of considerable size is set at right angles to the nave, and covers a fine Norman doorway, opening into the Church. The arch of this doorway is molded with the twisted-cable and the double-billet mold- ings, and a bold, plain, annular roll : it rests on either side upon a cylindrical shaft, with cap and base. The doorway itself is square-headed, and the tympanum above is plain. The porch is of the transition period between Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic : it has a good square-headed win- dow to the east, and a corresponding one to the west : the porch-arch is of two orders of moldings ; the sub-arch being a roll with three fillets, upon which, towards the exterior, a series of square and circular roses is worked with a rich eflFect : this sub-arch is shafted. The porch is supported by angle-buttresses ; and a small niche under a label-drip is introduced above the outer arch in the gable.
On its south side also the nave is entered by a Norman doorway, which, like the north door, is spacious and lofty.
to fonn a '*low side window," in connection with the altar. The entire opening is now without any division^ and is glazed throughout.
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The arch is of two orders^ both shafted: the outer shafts are twisted, and the inner are covered with zig- zag work, and are octagonal in their sec- tion. ITie arch-molds are rich specimens of zig-zag, billet, and twisted-cable work ; and the door, which is square-headed, and placed beneath a tym- panum,— now devoid of any ornament, — re- tains some good iron-work. * A perpendicular three-light window adjoins this doorway, while further eastward are two other windows of an earlier period, of which, one is a most interesting specimen of the first combination of two lights within a single window-arch; and the other is a single lancet, trefoiled at the head : this last-named lancet is placed very low in the wall, and now is partially closed up.f Above, a modern square window has been opened, apparently with the view of aflfording additional light to the present pulpit. The two-light window has its lights covered by a continuous drip-stone, delicately molded, and springing externally from twisted corbels : above the lights the masonry is pierced by
* This doorway is figured in Cotman's Etchingi,
t The portion of this window, which now is closed up, originally formed a **low side window," and serred as an adjunct or accessory to the chantry-altar placed at the south-east angle of the nave. That these singular openings were confessionals, appears the most probable of the many theories and conjectures which have been advanced respecting them ; though this opinion at present is far from being altogether conclusive. (See the Archaological Journal, Vol. IV., pp. 314—826.)
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a quati'e-foiled circle, surrounded by an undercut molding raised above the wall-face. The ^vindow-arch itself is quite plain, consisting of a single order, chamfered, and altogether devoid of drip-stone.*
The tower is very massive, low, and plain : it is strength- ened by angle-buttresses set diagonally, those toward the west being of four stages : these buttresses all terminate below the parapet-string, in the centre of which, on the north, west, and south faces of the tower, is a large gurgoyle head.f The parapet is quite plain, with a single battlement rising at each angle: there appear, however, to have been pinnacles at the angles, fragments of which are now built into the wall of the churchyard. The belfry contains in each fece of the tower a two-light window beneath a label-drip ; and, to the west, a three-light Perpendicular Gothic window is placed immediately above the basement; and above this window a very small pointed lancet is now blocked with masonry. A stair-turret abuts upon the tower at its south-eastern angle : this turret rises but little above the crest of the adjoining wall of the nave, and there terminates in a capping, which slopes to the tower-wall. J
INTERIOR.
Entering the church through the north porch, immediately to the east of the doorway, within the building, is a small
* The lights in this window may be regarded as two distinct lancet- windows placed in immediate juxtaposition ; and the masonry which divides them has rather the appearance of a very narrow strip of wall, than of a mullion properly so called. The quatre-foiled circle above is altogether distinct from the two lancets ; a portion of the masonry of the wall inter- vening between the drip-moldings of the three members : the cusplng of this circle is also of the earliest character. In the circle, and in the heads of the two lancet-lights, some of the original glass remains. (See the very valuable treatise on " Windows,'* in Brandon's Analysis of Gothic Archi- tecture, pp. 18—23.)
t These, vrith the buttresses to the north porch, arc the only buttresses attached to the edifice.
X The belfry contains three bells.
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WII-JBOrSHAM CHURCH, NORFOLK. luOtriot. I'X/kin^ uj tli.- wuth east.
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cinq-foiled niche. Between the north and south doors now stands the font, a plain octangular block of stone, resting on a shaft of similar form : it is lined with lead, and has a drain. To the westward, a pointed tower-arch of two orders, plainly chamfered, and continuous throughout from the bases, opens into the tower. Here also the turret-stair is reached by a low doorway, of ogee form, placed to the south of the tower- arch.
The walls of the nave are quite plain, with the excep- tion, on the south side, of a beautiful and still perfect Early English piscina, standing immediately below the two-light window, which is best described by the accompanying sketch;* while, to the north, are remains of the rood-stair, and of the archway leading to the rood-loft.f The two-light window presents precisely the same architectural arrangement with its exterior face, and, in common with all the other win- dows of the church, has its arch widely splayed. The wall to the south of the chancel-arch was pierced ; thus affording a view to the principal altar from the altar originally placed below the opening itself. J
The chancel-arch is Norman, of two shafted orders on its western face, with plain roll moldings : towards the east this arch is entirely without ornament; the sweep of the arch-head being merely distinguished from the perpendicular lines of the jambs by plain impost-blocks.
To the left of the altar is a niched piscina, with a single quatre-foUed drain : the customary shelf is gone, but the
• See view of the Interior of the Church.
t Above the chancel-arch, facing westwards, there appear to have been two small niches, which are now filled up.
X A view of the high-altar could also be obtained through this aperture, or squint, from the "low-side window" before mentioned. See an inter- esting article on "Some Perforations in the Walls of Churches," in the ArcJueotogiccU Journal, Vol. III., p. 299. To the examples there specified, may be added a very remarkable specimen of a " Squint," in the noble church of Long Melford, Suffolk.
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grooves upon which it rested are distinctly marked in the sides of the niche.
The^chancel is now covered by a modern ceiling :* the roof of the nave, however, presents a good specimen of a ceiling with flat wood-work formed into panels. Here seven flat spaces or cants are employed ; and the whole surface is divided into square panels by molded fillets, having a rich boss placed at every point of their inter- section. These bosses are well carved, and retain much of their original colour and gilding: they comprise a variety of beautiful foliage, so arranged as to form a square, upon which rises a lozenge, carved with other fo- liage, or with various devices, all carefully adapted to the lozenge outline of every composition. Amongst these devices may be specified two half figures of angels holding scrolls ; the heads of a king, and a bishop or abbot ; several other heads, some of them grotesque ; two mitres ; and three roses, coloured red and white.f
In both chancel and nave there remains a considerable por- tion of the benching, which was in all probability executed
* Above the present east window are traces of an arch which probably may indicate the sweep of the original ceiling of the chancel. This arch is of a greater span than the remains of the arch visible on the outer face of this east wall : the springing of the latter, were it complete, would coincide with the points in which the semicircular foundations abut upon the east wall ; thus imparting, at least, a considerable degree of probability to the conjecture, that this is a portion of the original apse-arch.
t See plate of bosses.
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WIMBOISHAM CHURCH NORFOLK, Six UaK P-.-.sses <.n the Jic<,f of the Nav<-
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at the same time with the ceiling of the nave : various figures formed the elbow-pieces of these benches^ and their poppies for the most part consisted of foliage : some few of the elbow-pieces remain^ from one of which the annexed engraving has been sketched.*
* Among the other elbow-pieces which remain in a tolerable state of preservation are, a muzzled bear, a cockatrice, (?) a chained antelope, and two lions.
L
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The two birds forming the poppie- head is a device of singular elegance. One other poppie-head also demands to be especially noticed: it now is situated on the south side of the chancel^ and consists of the upper part of a human figure supporting a shield of arms : * the figure is habited as an ecclesiastic, and the shield bears^ cut in relief^ the armorial insignia of Spelman impaling Bhke.
The St. Christopher, which appears in the sketch of the interior of the church on the south wall of the nave, has been again covered with white-wash. In the porch are two flat coflin-slabs, sloping on one side only; and in the church itself, three slabs, firom which legends and shields of arms in brass have been torn away, together
* Immediately above this Bhield are apparently the letters P. B. and C. S. the latter surmounting the coat of Spelman, and the fonner that of Blake. Blomefield (Yol. YII., p. 518) gives the arms of Blake, as borne on this shield, "Ermine, on a pile indented sable, bezanty, between two Uons' gambs erect and erased, gtilet, and an oile of escalops of the second, a bendlet over all, vert,** This coat is thus emblazoned by Edmonson, — « Blake, (of Wimbotsham,) Erm. a pile battely counter-battely, sa. bezant^e, bet-ween two lions' paws erect and erased, gu. over all a bend, vert." Here is no mention of the "orle of escalops;" nor, indeed, does this charge elsewheie appear as being borne by Blake of Wimbotsham. Blomefield probably mistook the ermine spots for escalops : they certainly do somewhat resemble them in form ; but, from their position in the field, it is impossible that they should have been designed for an orle. The pile here appears to be indented rather than embattled ; or, strictly speaking, as here given, the pile is partly indented and partly engrailed. The ** bend " may possibly be figured as a "bendlet," in consequence of the multiplicity of charges accumulated upon the field. The arms of Spelman are, sable, plat^e, between two flaunches, argent. In this shield the flaunches are diapered, the diaper being cut in high relief.
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with one perfectly plain slab, constitute the only sepulchral stones worthy of note.
The church of Wimbotsham is dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary.
The advowson of the Church, in the time of Hen. III., was in John de Ingolvesthorp, and appears afterwards to have passed with the manor of Ingoldesthorp in Wim- botsham. This manor extended into Downham, Roxham, Fordham, Dereham, and Bexwell. In the reign of Hen. III., Roger de Welle held it, as appears from an ancient Roll in the muniment-room at Stowe,* from which the following is extracted.
II Rogei? de Welle tenet maSium suu de Winebodesh"m cu Ube tenl villanis suis ^ cotai^ ad illd maSSiii ptinentib} de comit Warenn p svic q*rte ptis luii^ scuti T: com de &nb x^ in capite, p quale syiciii nescim. £t iit in eod maSlio unu mes T: una carucata teri? arabi) T: xiiij acras pHi in dnico unu molend ad vent libum taiu? T; verre eid maSio ptin T: facit secta ad cui? de Castelacr^ de rb} sepHs in tres sepEas. Et capit amciamta pisto^ T; braciatoru T; hoc sine waranto ut crediiS. Et clamat hre warenn p carta diii i^.
II Johs Kyng tenet unu meS T; viij acr*s terr^ arabit di acr*m p*ti in villena§ de eod Ro^o p ?vic xxiij^. ob. p anii T: dat quol} anno una gallina % dat scuta^ ^ h ad voluntate dni % Rog tenet de comil? % com de dno r^.
II Wydo de Ingolsthorp tenet ij mes % ij acr*s di T; una roda rre arabit lifee de Ro^o de Well p ?vic xxij<*. p annii T; dat ad scuta§ j^. T; Rog tenet de comit T; com de dno r^ p qd nescim. &c. f
* A survey by jury, of the Unds and tenants in Wimbotsham, undated ; but, from internal evidence, to be attributed to the early part of Henry the Third's reign. Parkin mentions a carucate of land here conveyed to Roger de Frevil, 13 Hen. III., the same no doubt with the above Roger de Welle.
t The services of the different tenants of this manor, to the number of forty-five, bond and free, are recorded in similar terms.
l2
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188 On the same Roll, the Church Property is thus entered :
II Johs de Yngolsthorp est pt**nus ecctie de Wynebodesh^m, ad q*m eccSm ptinet xxx acre terr^ arabit 'I iij acre p*ti q*s psona ejusd ecce tenet.
II Cecil fit Emme tenet una acr*m % una roda terr^ arabii libe de ecctia de Wynebodesh p svic ij^. ob. p annu.
II Allex* de Newenh*m tenet una di acr*m terre arabit libe de ead ecctia p ^vic uni^ ob. p anna
II Gocelin^ le Ray ?tia pte uni^ meS 'X ij acr*s una rod T; di teri^ arabitin villenag^ de ead ecctia p ?vic x**. p annu % metet p unu die T: di.
II Lenore tenet unu mes 'X iij rod teri? arabit in villena§ de ead ecctia p ^yic x^. p annii T; metet p iiij dies in autupno.
II Witt Soloman T; Ida Bercai^ tenet unu cotag in villenag de ead ecca p ^vic iiij^. ob. p annu ^ metet p iij dies in autupno.
II Rob Bercai? tenet iij acr*s tre arabit in villena§ de ead ecca p ?vic iij*. p annu % metet p unu die 'I di in autupno.
The manor passed from Roger de Welle to the Ingoldes- thorps (whose name it has retained) in Henry the Third's reign, when Thomas de Ingoldesthorp held the fourth part of a fee of the Earl of Warren. {Test, de NeoiU, p. 287.) It was afterwards held by Isabella, his widow, and by John de Ingoldesthorp, as mentioned by Parkin.
In 24 Edw. I. and 19 Edw. II. Thomas de Ingoldesthorp held his court there : he died 1 Edw. III. In 3 Edw. III. Beatrix, his widow, held her court there, and continued till 27 Edw. III., when Dns Roger, parson of the church of Reynham, John, parson of the church of Mylham, and Wil- liam, parson of the church of Clenchwarton, held their first court " post mortem Beatricis."
Sir William de Ingaldesthorp, grandson and heir of Beatrix, succeeded : he died 46 Edw. III. (Inquis* post morf.) One of the Court Rolls of 37 Edw. III. is, however, headed.
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" Prima Curia DncB Eleanorce de Ingaldesthorp ;" and various successive courts were held in the names of Richard Walkfare and his associates, Edmund Noon and his associates. The Lady Eleanor was wife of Sir William ; and these courts were probably held in his absence from the country.
In 7 Eic. II. we find, "Prima CwP Thom^ de Middil- ton;" and the name of Eleanor, as Lady of the Manor, occurs again at dijSerent times as late as 17 Eic. II. Sir John de Ingaldesthorp, son and heir of Sir William and the Lady Eleanor, held his first court in 7 Hen. V. He died the fol- lowing year: his will is dated a. n. 1419. {Test. Vestusta, p. 202.) He was succeeded by his son Thomas, who died A. D. 1422, leaving Edmund his son and heir. Edmund marrying Joan, daughter of Sir John Tiptoft, by Joyce, daughter and coheir of Edward Lord Powys, left a daughter and heir, through whom this manor eventually came to the family of Huddleston.* In 9 Hen. VIII. John Huddilston, Esq., held his court here. It was afterwards in the Towns- hend family. In 6 Edw. VI. we have, "Cur^ Prima Petri Sentyell arm* et Katerinse ux^ suae nup us? Eicardi Townes- hend arm^ defuncti." And in 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary, "Prima cur^ Xtopheri Heydon, Fermai? Dni Eegis et Eeginae durante minore aetate Eici Towneshend arm^." In the 16 Elizabeth it was sold by Eoger Towneshend of East Eain- ham to Su- Nicholas Hare, Kt, who held his first court in that year.
A Compotus of Eichard West, propositus of Sir Thomas
* In Enfield church, Middlesex, the very fine monumental brass of Joyce, Lady Tiptoft, is yet preserved : in the legend which forms a part of this memorial, the lady is spoken of as " Jocosa, quondam filia et una hered. Caroli dni Powes', ac eciam filia et una hered. honorabilissime dne Marie, &c." The word "Caroli" here has reference to Edward Charlton, Lord Powis, who married Eleanor widow of Roger Mortimer, Earl of Marche. Lady Tiptoft died ▲. d. 1446. Sir Edmund Liglethorpe died ▲. d. 1466 ; and his widow subsequently married Thomas, son of John Lord Grey of Ruthyn. (See Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, Vol. II., p. 136.) .
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de Ingaldesthorp in his manor of Wynebotesham, 29 Edw. I., is thus summed up : —
" Sm* tot recepr cu arr) compi pcedent xliiij^^ xvij'. xj**. Sm* tot expens cu libat xxviij^. xvij'. ix**. ob. Et sic debentur Dno p dcm comp xyj^*. j**. ob."
Abbot of Iiamsey*8 Manor, — In the survey before referred to, the rights of the Abbot are thus set down : —
Atfcs de Rames tenet mafiium suu de "Wynebosh^m cu. lib ten villanis suis ^ cotar' ad illud ma&ium ptin, hundm di de Clak^ "X foru de Dunh*m cu tumberett z coUistrig^ de Dno i? in capite p qd sviciu nesciiS. Et ht in eod ma&io unu meg
ix". acr^ ten? arabit ix acr*s p*ti pistai? ij gurgitu
libum tauru % verre, Warenii, GoalaT; ........ ptiii eid manlio
p Carta Dni Eegis. Et tenet ptm namii vetiti* in eod hundr T; capit passagiu apud Dunh*m T; Fordh*m sine waranto ut credim et capit amciam piston % braciatorti % p^prestura^ ^ oim alio]^ quee ad leta ptinet 1; clamat hre infangenethef wayf stray % wreecu rip© % capit de redditu assiso leta^ de eod hundr p annu ij m"r. j^. "X capit de eod hundr ad aux™ vie % ^poiti p annu vj m*r.
At the conclusion of the Roll the following presentments are made : —
II Dicut Jul? de Wynebodesh*m qd Witts Bardolf capit injuste pissa^ in regali aq^ libtas cui^ aquae ptinet solumodo AtlSi RameS p cartas regu Angt "X capit illd pissa^ de hoib^ de Dunh*m, Winebodesh*m \ Stowe vid} de quovis hole ducete una q*rentena turba} vj**. T; di q*rentena iij^. T: ad plus, plus, "X ad mini min^ "X hoc a tempe Gwerrae % sine waranto.
II Dicut 1 qd idm Witts facit attach in regali aq* vid} a
* NavMum vetiHtm, the takixig of another person's cattle unjustly, and remoTing them to an unlawful place, on the pretence of damage done by them ; when the owner may demand satisfiaction for the injury, which is called placUum de namio vetito.
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Stapelwere usq} ad Dunhale hytht quae attach ptinet dco Atfci per cartas regu Angt eid cocessas % hoc a tempe gwerrsB % sine waranto.
II Dicut qd Nichus de Eipton p* eccte de Dunham fecit p^prestura in coi de Wynebodeehhn, Dunh*m T; Stowe fa- ciendo in ea una fovea latitudne fovee xij pedu T; longit foveas jv xodsLf. % hoc ad maximu nocumtu pdca^ villa^ % hoc p unu dimid annu T; plus.
The Abbot of Ramsey's manor was, in 36 Hen. VIII. granted by letters patent to Robert Myller, gentleman, and Ellen, his wife, vrith the advowson of Downham and the market and tolls there. By Myller it was alienated to John Walpole, Esq., who held his first court there on the Wednes- day next before Easter, in the Ist of Queen Mary.
In 4 Elizabeth, the executors of John Walpole held their first court; William Walpole, son and heir of John, being a minor. In 16 Eliz,, Wm. Walpole sold it to Francis Gawdy, Esq., Elizabeth his wife, and Elizabeth their daughter. Passing, by marriage, as mentioned by Parkin, through Sir W. Hatton and Sir Robert Rich, it was in the 9th Jas. I., purchased by Sir Ralph Hare, for the sum of £2,600.
Tontoett or TunweU Manor. — In 1 Ric. II., I find John de Tunwelle holding lands in Wimbotsham. In 7 Ric. II. Robert de Mushill conveys to John de Tunwelle 20 acres of land in Wimbotsham and Stowe. In 22 Ric. II. he occurs as Lord of this Manor. In 9 Hen. IV. he grants it to Nicholas, his son. In 8 Hen. V., Emma, wife* of Nicholas, held her first court here. Nicholas and Emma his wife occur in a deed dated 11 Hen. VI., by which Henry Barton and others release to them four messuages and 264 acres of land
* A second inatance of a Court being held in the name of the wife during the life of the husband ; which shows the necessity of being guarded, in taking for granted the death of the husband from the name of the wife heading a single court-roll.
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in Wimbotsham, &c. In another, dated 18 Hen. VI., Emma occurs as the widow of Nicholas. The manor after- wards passed to the Blakes. Peter Blake, gentleman, held his first court 9 Edw. IV. Jasper Blake held his fi^jst court
17 Hen. VIII. Beatrice, widow of Peter Blake (son of Jasper), held her first court 14 Eliz. In 17 Eliz., Margaret, widow of Richard Badgcroft (and mother of Beatrix Blake), and Thomas their son, held their first court. In 30 Eliz., the site of the Manor of Tujiwells was settled in jointure, on the contemplated marriage of Jasper Blake with Anne, daughter of Thomas Amyas, of Depham, gentleman. In
18 Jac. I., Jasper Blake and Frances his wife sold the manor to Roger Pratt, gentleman, who in 1654 sold it to Sir Ralph Hare, for the sum of £2,667. In the Hare family it has, with the other manors, to this time continued.
Roger Pratt was the third son of Gregory Pratt of Ryston, to which property he, Gregory, succeeded by the will of his uncle William, of Ryston.
The Pratts were, however, originally of Wimbotsham, and descended from Richard Pratt, of whom I find mention first made in a deed dated 23 Hen. VII., by which Robert Bathcom conveys a piece of land in Stowe to Richard Pratt and GeoSrj Pratt.
The annexed pedigree is clearly deduced from deeds, court-rolls, and wills, by which it will appear that Parkin is incorrect.
William Pratt, of Rainham, purchased the Manors of Ryston and Walpole Hall in Roxham, of Gillor or Gylour, in 19 Hen. VIII., and held his first court there the same year. He died without issue, and left Ryston to Gregory of Hockwold, with the following successive remainders : to Edward Pratt, — ^to Pawle Pratt, — ^to John Pratt, son of my brother John, — to John, son of my brother Richard, — to Richard, son of my brother Richard, — ^to Jasper Pratt.
From an old survey of lands, " late Richard Pratt's," made
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37 Hen. VIII., it appears that Richard Pratt the elder, of Wimbotsham, had in the towns of Stowe, Wimbotsham, Watlington, and Downham, about 850 acres of land. These lands, at the time the survey was made, were the property of Christopher Conyngsby, Esq., and afterwards passed by sale to John Hare, of London, Esq., brother of Sir Nicholas Hare, Kt.
EXTRACTS FROM THE PARISH REGISTER. The Register commences with the year 1562, 4/A of Mizaheth.
4 Eliz. Tho. Cosyne and Johan Plett, y® daughter of James Plett of Stradsett, was maried by Sir George Longe, vicar of Stowbardolff, the last day of September.
6 Eliz. Francis Blake, y® son of Peter Blake, gent., and Beatrixe his wife, was christened y« xix*^ day of December.
1670. Margaret Bexwell, buried the xij*** of Auguste.
Peter Blake, 2- buried eod die, (24*^ October.)
1571. Richard Killingworthe, £. and M". Beatrice Blake, maried the xviij*** of January.
1574. John Tryndle, Clarke, pson of Wymbotesham, was buried the xij**" of August.
1575. Hoc anno Georgius Longe, in artib3 M*^, institutioem huius ecclie accep*.
Grace filia Tho. Drury et Anne, ux^ suae, bapt. primo
Martii.
1577. Thom*8 Longe filius Georgii, clici et Rectoi? huius
ecctie, et Graciee ux^ ejusdem sepult. fidt xviij® die
februai?. 1589. Suzanna Thompson, y« daughter of John Thompson,
clerk, and psonne of Wimbotesham, was baptised y«
ix**" daie of November.
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159S. Jasp Blake, sonne of Jasp Blake, §. baptised y« xxvij*^ of September.
William Fincham and Alee Forster maried.
1594. Elsabeth Thompson, daughter of John Thompson, clerk, buried y* second of April.
Bettris Blake, daughter of Jasp Blake, bapt vij"* of
October.
1597. Anne Blake, daugh? of Jasp Blake, §. bap? xxiij^^ of October.
Bettris Killingworth, wid. and gent, buried y® xxxj***
of May.
Anne Blake,* wief of Jasp Blake, §. buried y* iij of
January.
1598. John Thompson, the sonne of John Thompson, clrk., baptised the 25 of December.
Susanna Thompson, the daughter of John Thompson,
clrk., buried the 8 of October.
1599. Anne, the daughter of John Thompson, clrk., buried y® 25 of December.
Alee Thompson, y® wif of John Thompson, clrk.,
buried y* 3 of January.
1601. Alee, the wif of Willyam Fyncham, buried the 18 of
September. 1606. M'. John Thompson, pson of W^botsham, was
buried the xj*^ of May. 1611. Helena Raye sepelitur octavo die Januarii. 1614. Jasper Blake, geSosus, sepelitur vicesimo quinto die
Martii, Ao. 1614.
(Ao. 1616, Thomas Willis, Rector.) 1625. Gregorie, the son of Roger Prat and Ellen his wife,
was baptized the xij*^ day of April.
George Willis, the elder, was buried the xxix*^ day of
November.
* She was the daughter of Thomas Amyaa, gent.
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Roger^ the sonne of Roger Prat, esq', and Eflen his wif, was baptised the 80"* daie of March.
1627. Elizabeth, the daughter of Roger Prat and Ellanor his wif, was baptised the 29*^ daie of November.
1628. John, the sonne of Roger Pratt and Ellanor his wif, was baptised the 12*** daie of December.
1680. EUenor, the daughter of Rog' Pratt, esq', and EUenor
his wif, was baptised the viij*** daie of September. 1634. Gilbert,* the sonne of Roger Prat, esq'., was buried
the ix*^ daie of June. 1686. Mary, the diaughter of Roger Pratt, esq', and Eleanor
his wife, was baptised the 29*^ day of March. 1648. James Bradley, dar^, and M'» Ann Pratt, were married
June 17"*.
1646. Mathew Steede, gnt., and M'* Ann Pratt, maried
Feb. 4^\ 1648. John Lacockef was buryed the twentieth daye of
June.
• By a former wife, probably.
t On a subsequent page is the following :
"A Coppie of a gift or Legacy of
John Lacocke of Wimbotaham to
the poors of thitp'ishf ^for aftmeraU
annual Sermon on the dag of
his burial for Ttosniie gears.
'* Item, I doe appoint M' Caatleton, the Minister of HUlington in the County aforesd, to preach my funerall sermon ; and for his paines I bequeath him the sume of tenne shillings : and fuither, I desire that the sd M^ Castleton, if hee please, should preach a sermon upon j* same day that my funeraU sermon shall happen to bee, unles it bee the Sabbeth daye, for the space of Twentie yeares to come, in the p'ishe church of Wimbotsham aforesd ; for w<^ paines I give him the sume of tenne shillings for every sermon. And, in case the sd M' Castleton shall refuse soe to doe, I leaye the choice of some other to the discretion of my supyisor. And, further, I giye and bequeath unto soe many of the poore of the p'ish of Wimbotsham aforesd as shal come to hear the sd sermon during the terme aforesd, the sume of tenne
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1650. Eleanor Pratt, gent., was buried the 5^^ day of November.
M^ Thomas Willis, cler., was buried y® fourth day of
Februarie.
1654. WiUiam Beun, gentleman, and Susan Sparrowe, the daughter of Robert Sparrowe, of Watlington in this county, clerke, were, with the consent of the said Robert Sparrowe, maryed by Gregory Gawsell, of Watlington aforesaid, Esq., Justice of the Peace, on the Sixe and twentieth day of January, in the pre- sence of Mr. Edmund Hudson, Alderman of Lynne, and John Wastell of the same towne, and Robert Reade of Watlington aforesd; the Bannes of such mar- riage havinge beene before the solemnization thereof
shiUings, to be equally diyided amongst them upon every sermon daye. And, further, my will and my meaning is, that for the tnie pformance of this charitable worke, the aforesaid Diana, my wife, for the term of her life, and also John Lamj^son and Margaret his wife, and likewise Elizabeth Lampson, the daughter, or any of them in whose hands the sd two houses shall happen to bee for the space of twenty yeares next after my* death, that they or any of them shall paye out of the sd two houses the sume of twentie shillings upon the same day that shall happen for the pformance of the same gifts for the Minister and the Foore as is before specified, according to my true intent and meaninge herein."
After the year 1653, on a spare page, is this :
*' Thomas TaUor of Runcton made his will the twoe and twentie daic of Maij, Anno Dni. 1621 ; and he gave to the poore of Downham, Wimbotsham, Stow, Watlington, Fincham, Shouldham, Stradset, Wormgay, Tottenhill, & Outwell, & to eyerie of them, the sume of Tenn pownds, to be paid unto the churchwardens for the time then being, w^*^ three yeares next after his decease to the use of the poore.
"This Legacie of Thomas Taylor was paid by Henry Doleman, executo' of the last Will and Testam^ of the aforenamed Thomas Tailor."
On the opposite page, is a memorandum, that, upon the Ist January, 1653, John Benn, M.A. and Incumbent of Wimbotsham, was sworn in as "ParUhe Register^** before Ghregory Gawsell, J.P. John Benn is not noticed by Parkin in the list of Rectors ; but he succeeded Willis, a. d. 1650.
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published in the parish church of Wimbotsham three several Lord's days, viz. January 8***, the 15"*, and the 22^*
1656. M^ John Ben, sometime Rector of this parish, was buried at Watlington, about November 1656. From March y« seaventh, 1656, untill May 1658, the Re- gister was wholy neglected, and then, and not before, it came to the hands of me,
Tho». Stephens,
the present Incumbent.
1659. M'. Rob¥. Cremer, of Cambridge, was married to M". Anne Bell, the fift day of Januarye, 1659.
August 5, 1660. Collected in Wimbotsham towards the reliefe of y* inhabitants of Fakenham w*^ suffired by fire, foure shillings and seven pence.
Th. Stephens, Rector, ibid.
Th.Wiffen, 1 Churchwardens. Ismaell Reeve, / January the 6**, 1660. Collected att Wymbotsham towards the reliefe of the inhabitants of Little Melton in Norff., sustained by fire. Two shillings and fitc pence. Th. Stephens, Minister, ibid. Tho. Wiflhi, \ Churchwardens and Ismael Reeve, ) Overseers. 1674. Waters Drury, Rector de Wimbotsham. f 1678. M". Elizabeth Grey, widow, was buried October y*
25"*. 1708. Joseph Cooper of Linne, and Elizabeth Fuller J of Stow-Bardolph, were married March the 8"*.
* In the years 1654, 65, and 56, there were nine of these civil contracts solemnized before Gregory Gawsell, Esq., Thomas Sheriffe, Esq., William life, Esq., and Thomas Drury, Esq., Justices of the Peace.
t He so signs, and not Walter, as given by Parkin.
t Elizabeth Fuller, daughter and coheiress of Kobert Fuller of Ipswich : she died 16th Not. 1714, and was buried in St. Nicholas Chapel, Lynn. Joseph Cooper, of Lynn, was bom at Burford in Oxfordshire ; being son
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1772. Baptism. Clement, son of S'. Clement TraflFord and
Isabel Bouillon, Jan^. 23/ 1777. Burial. John Howlet (aged 108 years) March 15*^. 1745. Marriage. Rev*^. Love Shipley, Clerk, and Penelope
Clarges, Apr. 23.
Burials.
1794. Elizabeth, the wife of James Cape (in the chancel)
Dec. \T\ 1803. William Money, Gent**, in the chancel, Nov^ 29^. 1818. Elizabeth Bell, wife of Philip Bell, Clerk, Rector, and
only daug'. of the late John Collison, merch?. of
Thomham, aged 50, Aug"*. 5*\ 1884. Philip Bell, clerk, 55 years Rector of this parish and
Vicar of Stow Bardolph, died May 8^, aged 88: bur**.
May 9*^. 1840. Lucy Elizabeth Allen, 2<» daug'. of the Rev*. P. Bell,
and wife of the Rev^. W. M. AUen, ob. April 9*^, set.
51 : bur*. Api. 16. 1846. Algerina Bell, eld. daug'. of the late Rev«^. Philip
Bell, 8Bt. 58 years, Dec'. 2'*.
of Joseph Cooper, by his wife, Hester Paget, of Chipping Norton, co. Oxon. An old pedigree makes Joseph Cooper to be the seventh in descent from William Cooper and Cicely his iirife, to whom the Priory of Thurgarton in Nottinghamshire was granted, 30 Hen. VlJl. ; which William is stated to be the descendant of William, a second ton of William, fourth Lord Bardolph, of Wormegay, who, in consequence of being bom at Coopar in Fifeshire, and having honours there granted to him, did, on the attainder of his elder brother, Thomas Lord Bardolph, assume the name, de Cooper. Of this William, second son of William Lord Bardolph, I find no mention in Dugdale, or in Banks ; nor have I met with any authority for the state- ment. The arms attributed to Joseph Cooper in the pedigree, are, Az., on a chevron arg. between three cinquefoils or, two lions combatant, sa. : on an escutcheon of pretence, arg., three bars and a canton gules, for FuUer. He married, secondly, Mary, daughter of Stephen Allen of Darsingham.
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REMAEKS ON SOME ANCIENT SHIELDS
IN THB
(SetUng of t^e 5ottt$ Ainu of Zt jSttcj^olaui' dt'^wtff,
GREAT YARMOUTH.
OOXXUNICATBD
BY THOMAS WILLIAM KING, ESQ., F.S.A.
In April last^ I had the pleasure of visiting Yarmouth^ when the preparations were in progress towards the restora- tion of its noble church to a state worthy of its antiquity and importance ; by rendering its architectural beauties more pro- minent^ than when disfigured^ as they had been^ by modern and tasteless innovations. A series of shields in the south aisle^ inserted in bosses at the intersections of the ribs of the ceilings claimed my attention ; but, from the length of time they had been placed there, the colours of the arms depicted upon them had become, in some instances, much obliterated ; and in others, the heraldic charges were completely lost to the naked eye, and were not discernible even by the aid of a telescope. Happily, however, those charges were incised in the shields where this difficulty arose ; so that no question, as to what they originally had been, occurred, on a closer in- spection of them when taken down.
The Committee, under whose directions the works of res- toration are proceeding, did me the honour of confiding to my care and supervision the re-emblazonment of these in- teresting heraldic remains ; and for this purpose the shields were transmitted to me in London. Before I placed them
M
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in the hands of the artist^ I took accurate drawings from the originals themselves^ and noted erery peculiarity attending them.
From the causes which I have mentioned, it was impossible to distinguish the heraldic distinctions upon the royal coats ; and I was led to conclude, when I saw them previously to their removal, that they were the arms of BLing Edward the Third and his five sons ; enough being distinguishable to show that six shields contained the arms of France ancient and England quarterly, and that one was in a bordure. Upon closer inspection, however, my supposition proved to be er- roneous; and I have now to shew to whom those shields respectively belonged. I should not have deemed it neces- sary to advert to a previous conjecture, which remained open to proof and correction, had not a statement gone abroad, and been made in the provincial papers, and since echoed in a periodical magazine, that those shields consisted of the arms of King Edward the Third and his sons, " in the order of their birth."
The entire number of shields which were discovered upon preparing the ceiling for restoration, was thirty-two, thirty of which were original, and composed of oak ; each shield, and the boss to which it was attached, forming one piece. The remaining two were blank shields of fir, clumsily nailed on the original bosses, and daubed in imitation of qtuirterly coats of three bends, Sfc.y giving a scenic efiect to represent coats of arms. I merely mention this circumstance, as such taste- less and improper introductions may have led to their being noted as original arms ; the fraud not being distinguishable, in consequence of the great height at which they were placed, as well as from the causes which rendered the genuine coats so uncertain in their details, as before observed.*
* These two shields have been replaced by two others in oak ; one em- blazoned with the ancient arms of the town, prior to the dimidiation as now borne ; the other, with the arms of Gumey, argent, a ero$t enprailed gulet.
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The first shield which presents itself for consideration or descrip- tion, is that containing The Emblem OF THE Holy Trinity. This shield scarcely admits of an heraldic expla- nation: the colours had suflFered very little from age or other casualty ; the letters were perfectly distinct, and hare now been re-inserted in their original character. It cannot be con- sidered in the light of an armorial ensign, as it is not appro- priate either to individuals or nations; though it appears to have been borne by the " Priour of Christ Church in London," with the field azure ;* but none can be more significant than the design here represented, to exhibit, in a concentrated form, the doctrines which so eminently and so truthfully constitute the essence of the Christian Faith, in acknowledging the Holy Trinity. The same emblem was sculptured in stone in the north porch of Dedham church in Essex, and also on the font.f
No. 2.
Or, an eagle with two heads displayed sable.
Immediately following the shield just mentioned, is that containing the arms of the Emperor — or, an eagle with two heads displayed sable. Much doubt exists as to the period when this bearing first formed the armorial ensigns of the Emperors of the West. Some have considered the adoption of the double-headed eagle to have been as early as the fourth
♦ Vincent's MSS. in Coll. Arm., No. 187, folio 60.
t Symonds' MSS., Vol. I., 39), in Coll. Arm. (being a valuable collection of Church Notes for Essex, in three vols.)
M 2
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century, when Constantine the Great remoyed the seat of the Roman government to Byzantium, and the empire was divided into Eastern and Western. It appears difficult to prove whether the ensign of the Roman power ever became what is now represented in the armorial shield; but it is not improbable, that, when heraldry was generally intro- duced into Europe, the Emperors soon carried the double- headed eagle on their escutcheons ; and many opinions have been formed upon this question. The truth of its origin will most likely ever remain in obscurity ; but, to adopt the language of Nisbet,* the opinion most entitled to considera- tion is, that the Emperors of the East — ^but long after the division of the empire — carried the eagle with two heads, which practice was subsequently followed by the Western Emperors upon the decline of the Eastern Empire ; and that from the time of Sigismund it was borne by his successors.
Although Nisbet fixes so late a date as the reign of Sigismund, as the period when the use of this armorial en- sign was first regularly adopted by the Emperors of the West, there is no doubt that it was considered as the imperial bearing antecedently to Sigismund's time. It occurs on rolls of arms of the thirteenth century with the arms of other foreign states, and with those of the sovereigns and princes of the blood royal of England; copies of these rolls re- maining in this College, t The imperial ensign (the double- headed eagle) is also on the tomb of Edmond of Langley, hereafter noticed, who died in 140S ; and Sigismund was not elected Emperor till 1411.
The shield immediately under consideration follows that of the Trinity, as before observed, and precedes that of King Edward the Third ; a position which this imperial coat always possesses in point of precedency with the arms of European sovereigns, whenever, upon rolls of arms or
• Niflbet'§ Heraldry, Vol. I., p. 844. t L. 14, pp. 26, 63, 63. Vincent, No. 165, fol. 181.
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elsewhere^ it is tx) be found amongst them. It had not suffered any injury during the lengthened period in which it had occupied its place in the ceiling. There was no appearance of a glory, or of a nimbus, about or over the heads of the eagle, as in later periods was sometimes the case in the arms of the Emperors, nor were there any regalia de- noting the powers of the Emperor; but the arms were simply as here delineated, and in accordance with the authorities from the ancient rolls to which I have alluded.
From the suggestions that have very recently been offered in the OenUeman^s Magazine,* tending to show that the double-headed eagle, which embellishes the church of East Dereham in Norfolk, St. Giles's Hospital in Norwich, and other places, is a religious emblem, I beg respectfully to differ. There can be no question as to its being an armorial ensign, and intended, wherever it may be found imder circumstances similar to the present, to designate the alliance which this country had with the Emperors as temporal princes, and not as an emblem of the church. A strong instance in favour of its being purely an heraldic ensign, appropriated personally to the Emperor, is, that in the north windows of the chancel of All-Hallows in the Wall, at Colchester, the shield con- taining these arms was ensigned toith the imperial crown, f The same arms were also in St. James's, Colchester, *' in the south window aloft the church." { In a manuscript of the date of 1602, in this College, § are sketched many shields which were then in Norwich cathedral ; amongst which, the same coat appears for " the Emperor," with the shields of arms of Castile and Leon, Arragon, and Thomas of Brother- ton, and other royal coats, together with Scales and Bardolf, as existing in that cathedral ; the three last-mentioned being also in Yarmouth church. But it does not appear whether those shields were in windows or sculptured in the building.
• Owt. Mag., Not. 1847, p. 480. t Symonds, I., 421. % ^^^' !•» ^^3. { Vincent, No. 423.
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The arms of the Emperor were likewise to be seen in a north window of the nave of York cathedral ; as were also ^ose of England^ France ancient, Castile and Leon, Jerusalem, and others * Amongst the numerous instances which might be adduced of the arms in question appearing in churches, (and that they were only to be considered as those of a temporal prince,) one occurs in which the double-headed eagle has a crown imperial about its neck, in the windows of Bramford church, near Ipswich.t In St. Mary Key, Ipswich, the arms of the Emperor were also to be found. J
The alliance between this country and the Emperor in the early periods of English history is too generally known to need repetition; nor is it necessary to dwell on the connection in blood or affinity which subsisted between the two powers, otherwise than briefly to recal to our recollection, that Maud, daughter of Henry I., married the Emperor Henry V. in 1114; and though by him she had no issue, she subsequently became the ancestress of the House of Plantagenet. We need not, therefore, be surprised, nor ask the question, *' What had the Emperor to do in churches where his arms are to be found ?"§ when this affinity is evidently com- memorated wherever we see the imperial coat with those of the Flantagenets ; and it is to be found with the shields of that royal race in almost every instance in which the royal arms of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries decorate our churches. This will account also for its occurrence on the tomb of Edmond of Langley. Again, the marriage of Richard II. in 1382, with Anne of Bohemia, who was the
* This window is beautifully delineated in a manuscript in Coll. Ana., by Dugdale, amongst his "Yorkshire Arms,'' fol. 96, 97. Vide also Drake's Eboracum, p. 527.
t Tillotson MS. Soc. Antiq. (being a collection of Church Notes about the end of the serenteenth century ; principally of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex) p. 609.
t Tillotson, 626.
§ Vide Gent. Mag., Nov. 1847, p. 480, and Dec. 1847, p. 597.
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daughter of the Emperor Charles IV., may also hare con- tributed to its introduction in the same way. *
Another incident may equally have afforded an opportu- nity to introduce the arms of the Emperor into churches with those of our own sovereigns, and is, perhaps, more im- mediately connected with the subject of these remarks. It is well known that on the occasion of the siege of Calais, 20 Edw. III., Yarmouth furnished 43 "shippes" and 1088 " marriners ; " Ipswich, on the same occasion, 12 ships and 289 mariners; Colchester, 5 ships and 90 mariners; while London only sent 25 ships and 662 mariners, and York only 1 ship and 9 mariners. The Emperor was likewise engaged in this memorable and successful enterprise, which reflected such renown upon the English monarch; and the manu- script from which I have selected the foregoing data also records, amongst the names of ^^ diuers lords straungers w^holden in the King's retjmnwe," that of "the Emperor of Bomaine to him delyvered in prest at dyvers tymes for his wages and men, thes somes, 8227^. xij^. " f Here we seem to have, at least, some coincident reasons for attributing a motive for placing the Emperor's shield in the churches to which I have particularly referred.
The Emperor Charles IV., to whom allusion has been made, was elected Emperor in 1346, and died in 1877 ; and was, consequently, the sovereign of Germany at the time of the siege of Calais, which event, if not in itself sufficient to induce the English to place his arms in their churches, might, from his continued alliance with our country, have led to the imperial arms finding a place with those of the English monarch.
* Maud, the eldest daughter of King Henry the Second, married Henry the lion, Duke of Saxony, in 1167 or 1168 ; and by him had issue (inter alia) Otho, who was elected Emperor in 1198. Vide Anderson's Genealogies, p. 516.
t Vincent, No. 92, pp. 634 — 683 ; which gives the names and arms of the principal persons engaged in that afOur, and other curious and interesting matter.
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The alliance of this country with the Emperor was of that intimate character in 1416^ as to occasion an imperial visit, in the person of Sigismund,* (who had been chosen Emperor in 1411,) to England. He was thereupon elected a Knight of the Garter by our King Henry V. ; and left England in August of the same year. Sigismund died in 1437.
The facts to which I have briefly alluded, indicate, at all events, the good feeling which subsisted between the Emperors of Germany and this country; and, I submit, clearly prove that the arms, or, an eagle toith two heads dis- played sable, in Yarmouth church and other places, were intended to designate and honour the Emperor as a temporal princey in the same manner as the arms of France, of Castile and Leon,t Arragon, and those of other states appear, in the instances here cited, to reflect some honour on the princes of those dominions.
No. 3. Quarterly. — First and fourth, azure, sem^ of fleurs de lU, or ; France ancient: Second and third, gules, three lions passant gardant, in pale, or ; England.
This shield follows that of the Emperor : the fleurs de lis in the arms of France, and the lions of England, were incised^ as well as the quarterly line. The colours had undergone but little change ; and the charges were not subjected to much artistic shadowing, which in modem times is so usually intro- duced, and is so distasteful to the true lovers of heraldry. J
• Son of the Emperor Charles FV.
t John of Gaunt and Edmond of Langley married daughters of Feter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon ; and the former assumed the style of King of Castile and Leon.
X The same ancient style of emblazoning the arms was observed through- out all the original shields in the ceiling ; and, therefore, in describing them in these remarks, this f&ct will require no further notice.
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Every one at all acquainted with English history will readily .recollect that Edward III. was the first English sovereign who introduced the arms of France into the royal shield ; that those arms were " semi of fleurs de lis," in the first instance ; and that the reduction of the number of the fleurs de lis to three only, did not take place till a later reign. Edward III. succeeded to the crown of England in 1327; and on his first great seal bore the arms of England only; as his predecessors, commencing with king Richard the First, had done.* He afterwards assumed the royal arms of France, to shew his claim to the sovereignty of that kingdom ; and caused his great seal to be made, first introducing the French arms, in the first quarter with those of England, upon it, in the year 1340. He died 21st June, 1377. The arms of France ancient and England, quarterly, were also borne by his suc- cessors, Richard II. and Henry IV., on their great seals.
No. 4. Quarterly, — France ancient and England, a label of three points argent.
Edward, Prince of Wales, com- monly called the Black Prince, bore the same arms as his father, with the diflference of the label as above described. The arms on this shield were simply emblazoned, as none of the bearings appeared to be incised ; and it was not clearly distinguishable whether the quarterly line was, or not ; the label was only painted.
The Black Prince was the eldest son of King Edward III. and Queen PhDippa, and was bom 15th June, 1330. He was created Duke of Cornwall 11 Edw. III., and Prince of Wales
♦ Vide Sandford, ed. 1677. these remarks.
This edition is the one referred to throughout
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17 Edw. III., 1343. In the British Museum are drawings of two seals of this prince ; one in the 28 Edw. III., both haying the same arms and distinction as the shield in Yar- mouth church. * On another seal of his to an Inspeximus, dated at Chester, 20th September, 34 Edw. III., '' sub sigillo Scaccarii nri ibm," relating to the town of Flint, the shield contains only the arms of England differenced by a label of Jive points, t This seal was probably for the Earldom of Chester. In Brooke's Aspilogia, fol. 5, in Coll. Arm., is an engraving of a similar seal, having a counter-seal, with the arms of France ancient and England quarterly, and a label of three points. On his seal to a deed, dated at Macclesfield 41 Edw. III., the arms of England only, and a label oi Jive points, again occur ;j; and to an instrument dated at London 28th November, 45 Edw. III., the seal attached thereto is delineated in a manuscript in this College, § with France ancient and England, and the label of three points. The use of the label having three or five points appears to have been indiscriminate, as will also be shewn hereafter.
This prince was one of the founders of the Order of the Garter, instituted by his illustrious father ; and the well- known badge of the ostrich feathers was first borne by him, respecting which some very curious particulars have lately come to light, confirming its origin to have arisen from the memorable exploit at the battle of Cressy.
The stall-plate of the Black Prince is not extant amongst those of the Knights of the Garter in the Royal Chapel of St, George at Windsor. He died the 8th June, 1376 ; and on his tomb in Canterbury cathedral the arms described at the head of this article still remain.
• Cott. MS. Jul. cvii. \6%\ 182^.
t Harl. MS., 2099. 448^. J 1 D. 14, 188, Coll. Ann.
{ Vincent, 88, fol. 88.
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No. 5, Quarterly,— ¥101106 ancient and England, a label of three points ermine.
The royal arms, thus differenced by the ermine label, were borne by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster ; and the shield here presented to our notice, was, like that of the Black Prince, merely emblazoned; but the quarterly line was incised. The label presents a peculiarity, which also occurs in those hereafter to be des- cribed, in having ttoo charges only, instead of three on each point ; thus we find on this label only two ermine spots on the files or points.
This celebrated prince was the fourth son* of King Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault, and was bom at Gaunt in Flanders, in 1340. He appears, according to Sandford, to have used several seals; the arms upon them having the filial distinction of a label ermine. On one of his seals he bore the arms of Castile and Leon, on the dexter side, impaled with the royal arms, differenced by his own label, and the legend, " Johan Roy de Castel et de Leon, due de Lancastre." He was elected Knight of the Garter in 1360 ; no plate, however, remains in St. George's Chapel ; and he was created Duke of Lancaster 37 Edw. III. He died 3rd February, 1399, and was buried in St. Paul's cathedral.
* The two sons bom between the Black Prince and John of Gaunt were William of Hatfield, who died young, and Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence. There was also another William, bom next to Edmond of Lang- ley, who died young.
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No. 6. Quarterly, — France ancient and England, a label of three points argent, each charged with two torteauxes.
This shield was executed in the same style as those preceding it ; the quarterly line being denoted by incision. The points on the label contain only two torteauxes, the usual number being threey and thus borne by Edmond of Langley, Duke of York, fifth son of Edward III. and Philippa. He was bom in 1341, at King's Langley in Hert- fordshire, where the remains of an ancient palace still exist. In the 50 Edw. III. he was constituted Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports.
Amongst the invaluable collections of tracings and im- pressions from the stall-plates of the Knights of the Garter, preserved in this College,* upon which I had the honour of submitting some observations to the Society of Antiqua- ries, in 1844, t there is a tracing from that of this prince, having the modem coat of France. It is quite clear, how- ever, that in his lifetime he used the ancient arms of that kingdom, which are also to be found on his tomb in the church at Langley. In a manuscript in this College, j: his seal is exhibited as attached to a treaty (before he was cre- ated Duke of York) between England and France, having his arms quarterly France ancient and England, a label of three points each charged with as many torteauxes.
It is also worthy of notice, that on his tomb may be seen the arms of the Emperor ; those of the Black Prince ; of Lionel of Antwerp (third son of Edward III.); his own arms impaling Castile and Leon ; his own arms single ; those
• Leake's Garter- Plates, 3 vols, in Coll. Arm. t Archaioloffia, Vol. XXXI., pp. 164—181. J Vincent, 97.
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of Thomas of Woodstock ; and of John, Duke of Bedford, (his great nephew). * The arms of France, in all the in- stances in which they appear on this tomb, are semi of fleurs de lis.
He was elected Knight of the Garter 34 Edw. III., and created Earl of Cambridge in the 86th of that sovereign's reign. In 9 Rich. II. he was created Duke of York, and from his garter-plate at Windsor being inscribed " le Duk de York Edmod," it is clear that it was not put up in his stall until after he had been advanced to that dukedom. But, as it is very doubtful whether any of the garter-plates now extant were placed in the chapel at Windsor before the reign of Henry the Sixth, the circumstance of the modem arms of France attributed to Edmond, Duke of York, is accounted for.t
He died August 1, 1402, 3 Hen. IV., and was buried in the priory at Langley. Upon the dissolution, the tomb was removed into Langley church.
No. 7. Quarterly, — France ancient and England ; a bordure argent.
Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, was the seventh and youngest son of Edward III. and Philippa of Hainaidt : he was bom at Woodstock in 1355-6. His shield in Yarmouth church was embla- zoned in the same style as the others; but the quarterly incised line passed through the bordure. He was created Earl of Bucking- ham, 1 Rich. II., and Duke of Gloucester in the 9th year of that king's reign ; was elected Knight of the Garter in
♦ Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, Vol. I., 436, and Sandford, 359. t Vide Leake's Oarter^ Plates.
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1380; and was murdered at Calais in September 1397, 21 Rich. II.
The present Lord Stafford is said to be heir general, and sole representative of this prince.* His seals, given by Sandford and other authorities, are all with the bordure as his filial distinction. There is no plate of him as Knight of the Garter remaining at "Windsor.
No. 8. Quarterly, — France ancient and England, a label of five points ; the first three each charged with two ermine spots, the remaining two points azure, each charged with two fleurs de lis.
This shield I have no hesitation in ascribing to John Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, third son of King Henry the Fourth ; though the first instance in which I find the royal arms differenced by a label similar to that above-described occurs in a sketch of the seal of '^ Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Hereford, and Northampton," to a charter dated 18 Rich. II. ;t the filial distinction being composed from the ermine label of his father, John of Gaunt, and that of his maternal grandfather, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who bore his label azure, each point charged with three fleurs de lis. The seal just mentioned was in the same regnal year in which Henry succeeded his father as Duke of Lancaster (who died in February 1399): in the October following, he assumed the crown of England as Henry the Fourth.
The shield immediately under consideration differs in no respect from those preceding in style of execution, except that the label was incised in this case, as well as the quarterly
* Beltz's Memorials of the Garter^ p. 274. t MS. in CoU. Arm. Glov. Stem. Vin., 33, fol. 96.
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line ; and each point of the label contained only two charges instead of the ordinary number of three ; as may be seen in the accompanying sketch. John^ Duke of Bedford^ bore the same filial distinction as his father had done before he became sovereign.*
At whatever period the arms were first placed in Yarmouth church, I think it may be safely conjectured that it was ante- cedent to the death of Sir John Fastolf ; and the Duke of Bedford having, most probably, adopted his label upon his father's usurpation of the crown in 1399, or upon his own election into the Order of the Garter on the death of Edmond of Langley, in 1402, no doubt can exist that the arms in question are intended for his ; particularly as he died with- out issue in 1435, when the distinguishing filial cadency he had borne consequently ceased.
His garter-plate has France modern, and is inscribed "John Fitz de Roy due de Bedford." f He was created Duke of Bedford 2 Hen. V. for life ; and, 11 Hen. VI., the same dignity was regranted to him and the heirs male of his body. J It is not improbable that his garter-plate was co- temporary with him. Sandford (p. 306) gives an engraving of a brass upon his tomb, on which his arms appear to have been encircled by the Garter ; one of the earliest instances of that honourable ensign surrounding the shield of a Knight of that order. § It was not till the reign of Henry the Seventh
* The filial distinction borne by Henry of Monmouth, as Prince of Wales, and eldest son of Henry IV., was the label of three pointi argejit, now known as the Prince of Wales's label ; and that of his next brother, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, was erminef on each point a canton ffulet, being composed from his grandfather's (John of Gaunt) and his great uncle's (Lionel, Duke of Clarence.) It is remarkable that John, Duke of Bedford, who was the third son, should take his father's label : what he used prior to his father's acces- sion to the crown, I haye not discovered.
t Leake's Garter- Plates, % Sandford, 304.
} The arms of Thomas, Lord Camoys, K.G., who died fai 1419, are on his tomb in Trotton church, in Sussex, surrounded by the Garter. A copy
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that some of the Knights Companions first surrounded their arms with the Garter on their stall-plates ; and not till the following reign that the practice became universal with the knights to do so : Henry VIII. was the first who so bore the royal arms on his great seal.
This shield is also, perhaps^ the most interesting of any of the series ; as throwing some light upon the period when the ceiling of the south aisle of Yarmouth church was erected^ from the change which took place in the arms of France about this time, by reducing the number of fleurs de lis to three. It is quite clear, from the tomb of Edmond of Lang- ley, that in 1402 they had not been altered ; as the arms of the Duke of Bedford, with his label as before described, are there to be seen, (Henry, Earl of Derby and Duke of Lancaster, having become King of England,) with the arms of France ancient
If the Duke of Bedford's plate was actually placed in his stall at the time of his creation as Duke of Bedford, in 2 Hen. v., it would only go to prove that the alteration in the arms of France took place as early as that year; that change having been usually attributed to Henry the Fifth, probably from the fact of his great seal being the first great seal which had upon it the arms of France with three fleurs de lis only. But no reliance can be placed upon the evidence of the garter-plate in this matter, as it was not only not put up at the time of his installation as a Knight of the Garter, but not till after he had been created Duke of Bedford.
The principal evidence by which a tolerably exact period may be arrived at, (the earliest, I believe, known,) when the arms of France became changed or altered in the armo- rial achievement of our sovereigns and princes of the blood royal, is a seal of Henry of Monmouth, when Prince of
made by me of the brass on this tomb was received in evidence at the bar of the House of Lordt, in the Camoys Peerage case, in 1838. An engraving is also given in DaUaway's Sussex.
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Wales, in the siacth year of the reign of his father. King Henry the Fourth.* Sandford also cites indentures, 8 Hen. IV., on the seal to which only three fleurs de lis appear ;t and another instance of the arms of France having the re- duced number of fleurs de lis also occurs on a seal, 12 Hen. IV., to a charter of Henry, Prince of Wales, being a charter of pardon to certain tenants of Colshull, in the county of Flint, t
The garter-plate of Henry of Monmouth exhibits the mo- dem coat of France; though that circumstance, firom reasons already given, has little to do with the present question. §
The arms of the Duke of Bedford, in Yarmouth church, may be considered as one of the latest instances in which the ancient arms of France could have been borne by the princes of the royal house ; and, if we may indulge in the conjecture, that when Henry, Prince of Wales, in the sixth year of his father's reign, a.d. 1404 or 1405, had assumed the three fleurs de lis only, his royal brothers simultaneously followed his example, and that the Duke of Bedford's shield was placed in the church while he was living, the date of the ceiling may be fixed between 1399 and 1405. But it must be confessed that some uncertainty exists, not only as to the period when those shields first decorated Yarmouth church, but also as regards the motives which led to their having been placed in it. There is one fact, however, strongly confirmatory of the hypothesis I have ventured to offer upon the date of the ceiling, namely, that the arms of Bishop Spencer, who became Bishop of Norwich in 1370, and died in 1406, are also to be seen amongst the original shields.
• Sandford, 239, 270. Jul., ctu. 182^.
t Sandford, 270. t Hail. MS., 2099, p. 445.
§ Leake's Garter-Platet,
VOL. II.
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No. 9. England, with a label of five points, argent.
This shield was next in order : the style of its emblazonment pre- sents nothing remarkable^ excepting that the charges were not incised, as some of those on the other royal shields were. The arms are those of Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Nor- folk, fifth son of King Edward the First. He died without issue male in 1338. His seal, as giyen in Sandford,* and the arms ascribed to him in Norwich cathe- dral, as also on a seal in the time of Edward III. f have the label of three points only. But the variation in the number of points to these marks of cadency for the sons of the sovereign does not appear to have been of any importance. Thus, Edward, eldest son of Henry the Third (aflberwai'ds Edward I.) used labels having respectively three and^t?^ points.} Edward, the eldest son of Edward the Second (afterwards Edward III.) bore the labels botli ways on the same seal ; § as also did Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, eldest son of Edmund Crouchback, and grandson of Henry III. %
Thomas of Brotherton died without issue male, leaving two daughters, the eldest of whom,' Margaret, was created Duchess of Norfolk for Hfe. She was married first to John, Lord Seagrave, through whom she became the ancestress of the Mowbrays and Howards, Dukes of Norfolk. On her seal, the arms of England, jure patris, had a label oi jite points : the arms of Seagrave, and those of Sir Walter Manny, ICnight of the Garter, her second husband, were also upon the same seal.H
* Sandford, 121, 205. f Vincent, No. 42S; and Vincent, fo. 29.
X Sandford, 120, 127. } Sandford, 157.
% Sandford, 102, 107. i| Sandford, 122, 107.
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Of Edwaxd the Third^s eons who arrived at maturity^ the shield only of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, the third son, is wanting. He bore the same arms as his father, with a label of three points argent, each point charged with a canton gules. He died in 1368, leaving Philippa his daughter and heir, who married Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March; by whom she had issue Roger Mortimer, also Earl of March. This Roger Mortimer was declared by Richard II,, in parliament, heir-presumptive to the crown, in preference to John of Gaunt, the fourth son of Edward the Third. It is not improbable, from this circumstance, and from the House of Lancaster having obtained the ascendancy in the person of Henry IV., that the shield of Lionel was omitted in the roof of the church. If so, the omission is corroborative of the date which I have ventured to offer as to the erection of the ceiling : — ^between 1899 and 1405.
The practice of placing the arms of the sovereign and his family in our churches, appears, in the middle ages, to have been in great measure uniform ; as similar series of the royal arms to that in Yarmouth church are to be found in many others; either embellishing the roofs, sculptured upon corbels, fonts, and other objects, for decoration; or in windows, emblazoned in stained glass; and frequently with the armorial insignia of their foreign alliances. Such became a prominent feature in church-ornament soon after the establishment of heraldry as a system; and the heraldic shield was almost a sine qud non in architectural decoration, from the Early English to the Tudor style of architecture.
These considerations suggest, that the modern exhibition of the royal achievement in churches had its origin in the practice to which I have just alluded. Upon the decline of Gothic architecture, the beauty and sublimity of which began to fade soon after the introduction of the Tudor style, shields of arms ceased to be an embellishing principle in the decora- tion of churches ; and when the gorgeous architecture of the
n2
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Decorated and Perpendicular styles had passed away, and the auxiliary splendour of heraldry only maintained its posi- tion during the Tudor age, the loyalty of the people seemed to have survived the decline of all that was beautiful in our ecclesiastical architecture, and retained the arms of the sove- reign as a sacred part of church-ornament — too important to be dispensed with. I have ventured, however, to throw out these observations, more with the intention of eKciting remarks from others, than to offer an opinion of my own on this subject.
Twelve of the remaining shields to be noticed in this essay presented to the naked eye the appearance of being entirely sable. Fortunately, time and the action of the atmosphere had not effaced the incisions in which most of the heraldic bearings had been delineated ; but on those shields on which "argenV^ was emblazoned in silvery the metal had become quite black, which gave the effect of blank shields.
No. 10. Quarterly, — Argent and gules; the second and third quarters firettj, or ; over all a bend sable ; a bordure azure, charged with fifteen mitres, or: Spenceb.
This shield contains the arms of Henry le Spencer, Bishop of Nor- wich. The heraldic charges, except the mitres, were incised, Henry le Spencer was consecrated Bishop of Norwich in 1870, and died in 1406. It seems to be extremely probable, from his arms being in the ceiling, that he was living at .the time it was erected. If so, and such fact be taken conjunctively with those already referred to, as regards the arms of the Duke of Bedford and the omission of the shield of the Duke of Clarence, we have a further confirmation as to the exact
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date of the ceiling. The Bishop was grandson of Hugh le Despencer, Earl of Gloucester, by Eleanor, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and Joan de Acres his wife, who was daughter of King Edward the First. It seems to have been a common practice with the bishops at this period to distinguish their arms by some portions of their episcopal insignia.
No. 11. Argent; a lion rampant sable, crowned, or : Mo&let.
This shield was one of those that had the appearance of being solely black; but, upon close examina- tion, the lion was distinctly visible, and the tinctures clearly discern- ible. There can be no hesitation in ascribing it to the family of Morley, Barons Morley; six of whom had stimmons to Parliament, from the time of Edw. I. to 20 Hen. VI* Robert, the last Baron Morley of that name, having died in 1442, his sole daugh- ter and heir brought the barony to her husband, "William Level, Baron Morley; from whom the Parkers, Barons Morley, derived that dignity.
The arms now under consideration, following my hypothesis of the date of the ceiling, would be those of Sir Thomas de Morley, K.G., Baron Morley, who was summoned to Parlia- ment from 6 Rich. II. to 4 Hen. V., and who died in 1416.* He was the son of "William de Morley, Baron Morley, by Cecily his wife, daughter of Thomas, Lord Bardolf ; and grandson of Sir Robert de Morley, Baron Morley, who was at the siege of Calais with King Edward the Third. He is said by Blomefield to have married Joan, supposed to be of the Goumay family.f His first wife, according to the
* Beltz's Memoriais, p. clyiii. t Blomefield's Norfolk, H., 436—441.
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pedigrees in this College, was Anne, daughter of Edward, Lord Spencer, and widow of Sir Hugh Hastings, through whom his successors descended: a second wife is also as- cribed to him, who is merely called "Anne," no paternity being mentioned.
The first arms of Morley were argent, a lion rampant sable uncroionedy till the dispute about the arms of Burnell.*
No. 12. Gules ; seven escallops, three, three, and one, argent : Scales.
Robert, Lord Scales, to whom this shield may be appropriated, not only from the circumstance of his being contemporary with the distin- guished personages who floiudshed in the reigns of Henry the Fourth and his successor, but also from his having married Elizabeth, the daughter of William, Lord Bardolf, a family whose connection with the neighbouring village of Caistorf is so well known, was summoned to Parliament from 20 Rich. II. to 3 Hen. IV. ; and died in 1402. His aunt Margaret, who was the daughter of Robert, Lord Scales, by Katherine, the sister and coheir of William Ufford, Earl of SuflFolk, became (ultimately in her descendants) a coheir of the Barony of Scales ; and married Sir Robert Howard, ancestor of the Dukes of Norfolk. I have thus briefly adverted to these particulars, as the same arms appear to have been in Norwich cathedral, j: with those of Ufford, Bardolf, and many others ; and indicate the con- nections of those once opulent and powerful families with our county.
* Vincent, B. 2, 214^. f Caistor next Yarmouth.
X Vincent, 428, 10.
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No. 13. Quarterly, ^Oi and azure ; on a bend gules, three crosses boton£e, or : Fastolf, K.G.
The quarterly line and the bend were incised^ the crosses laid on in gold. This, together with the other shields upon which the arms of the family of Fastolf were found de- picted, would form a subject too ex- tensive for my present inquiry. The numerous scattered collections and authorities, and insulated pedigrees of Fastolf, with such documentary evidence as is extant, would furnish subject-matter for an exclusive essay. But it is greatly to be regretted that, with so much concerning this highly honoured family, there does not exist any full pedigree of the Fastolfs, by which the descent or connexions of Sir John Fastolf can be clearly discovered. Those pedigrees which do exist are so varied in their ac- counts, that none can with safety be relied upon. As regards the arms also of the valiant knight, the best evidences are conflicting ; but I think that most agree in assigning to him those at the head of this present section, — ^namely, with the crosses, and not the escallops, on the bend. The best contem- porary evidence of his bearing the crosses was the chimney- piece formerly at Caistor Castle, of which Anstis, in his History of the Order of the Garter, has given an engraving. His arms were there impaled with those of his wife, Milicent^ daughter of Sir Robert Tiptoft, supported by angels ; and on another shield, his arms, singly, surrounded by the garter, over which was his helmet and crest, supported also by angels. I think it highly probable that the crosses were borne by him only, and that the famiUes of Norfolk and Suffolk were not distinguished from each other by the crosses or escallops re- spectively. Indeed, the Suffolk branch seems to have borne
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simply, quarterly, or and azure, * and resided at Pettaugh. It may^ at the same time, be questionable at what period he adopted the crosses ; as his arms, with those of other Knights of the Garter, are extant in a MS. in this College of about the time of Henry VIII., f having the escallops ; and Vin- cent, in his Collections of Knights of the Oarter, gives the same coat; in which account he is followed by Ajshmole. In Caistor church the arms of Sir John Fastolf were " quar- terly, or and azure, on a bend gules three crosses fych^s, or," X which I would take as good evidence of the fact. It is to be regretted that no garter-plate remains in St. George's Chapel at Windsor to throw light upon this subject ; nor am I aware that any seal exists by which a definite conclusion coidd be drawn as to the coat which the Norfolk hero of the fifteenth century bore. The MS. in this College to which I have referred, and which seems to be a record concerning the Stalls of the Knights of the Most Noble Order, states, " S'. John FastollflT (to have been) a riche knyght, a grete bilder : he bilded Caster Hall in Northfolk, and a roial place in South- werk, a nother in Yarmouthe ; a special good mayster to the officiers of armes, and was most triumphantly brought in erthe that I have hard of any of his degree." Richard, Duke of York, grandson of Edmond of Langley, granted £S0 per annum to Sir John Fastolf for his services, by deed dated at London 12 May, 19 Hen. VI. § A copy of Sir John Fastolf's will is given in the additional MS. 8208, with nu- merous and valuable extracts from documentary evidences respecting the family of Fastolf. Anstis, in his History of the Garter, has given a memoir of the valiant knight, in which much curious matter may be seen; and here I should not
• Vincent, 144, 86. t Stalls of K. G.
{ Harl. MS., 901, 81. Whether those arms are still to be seen in Caistor chinch, I have not at present the means of knoTmig. § Sandford, 368.
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be doing justice to our hero, did I not refer to my excellent friend Mr. Dawson Turner's History of Caistor Castle, in which may also be read with great interest his account of the family, and of the remains of a mansion of almost regal splendour — the residence of Sir John Fastolf, shedding so much lustre on the annals of our natiye county.
No. 14. Quarterly. — Or and azure ; on a bend gules, three escallops, argent : Fastolf, of Norfolk.
I found this shield, as far as re- gards the mode of emblazonment, similar to that last described; the escallops being the only heraldic bearings not subjected to incision. From the several members of the Fastolf family connected with Yar- mouth^ it would be difficult to assign this escutcheon to any particular in- dividual. Upon reference to Swin- den, it will be seen that from the latter part of the thirteenth century to the close of the fourteenth, many of the Fastolfs were among the chief magistrates of Yarmouth, and that some of them represented that borough in parliament at the earliest period when it had the honour of sending members to the deliberative councils of the sovereign. Swinden (p. 804) recites the will of Richard Fastolf of Great Yarmouth, dated the 28th May, 1356, in which he desires to be buried in St. Katherine's chapel in St. Nicholas' church there, and gives certain rents to St, Mary's Hospital. He devises to his wife his capital messuage at Caistor; and, in accord- ance to the practice of the times, gives certain legacies for the support of lights in the church at Yarmouth. John, the son of Aleiiander Fastolf, also makes his will, dated 28 Sept., 1388, in which he desires to be buried in the
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cemetery of the church of St. Nicholas at Yarmouth. This will was proved at Norwich 25th Oct., in the same year.* These circumstances are rendered still more interesting, from the discovery of the ancient tomb in the south aisle of Yar- mouth church (on the ceiling of which these heraldic memo- rials, the subject of this paper, have been so long preserved). The remains of the arms of Fastolf were just visible in a qua- trefoil in the ogee arch of the tomb, though too far decayed to ascertain the precise bearings. The architecture of this tomb would correspond with the date of the wills alluded to. There is no question that the family of Fastolf was at one time extensively connected with Norfolk; and I have no hesitation in saying that the arms with the escallops were always borne by them. The same coat is quartered by seve- ral Norfolk femilies — by the Wodehouses, from the match of John Wodehouse of Kimberley (temp. Hen. IV.) with Mar- garet, the daughter and heir of Thomas Fastolf: f by the family of Jenney, apparently brought in through Wiching- ham, by a match with Katherine, daughter and coheir of Robert Boys, and Joan, daughter and coheir of Edmund Wichingham : J also quartered by the Southwells ,• Eichard Southwell marrying Amy, the daughter and coheir of Edmund Wichingham and Alice, his wife, who was the daughter and coheir of John Fastolf. § This coat of Fastolf also appears on two other shields in the ceiling, impaled with other arms to be hereafter noticed.
• Additonal MS., 8408, p. 15^.
t Vincent, 123, 59. t Vincent, 123, 82.
{ 2 D., 14, 157, Coll. Arm.
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No. 15. — Azure ; three cinquefoilSf or : Babdolf.
The armorial ensigns of so im- portant and influential a family as that of Bardolf, would, it might be expected, be found amongst those embellishing such a structure as Yarmouth church, from the prox- imity which the Bardolfs had re- lative to the town. Thomas, Lord Bardolf, for whom the shield now under consideration was probably placed with the others, was attainted in the early part of the reign of Henry IV., and died in 1404. Elizabeth, his sister, married Robert, Lord Scales, before-mentioned ; which may account, in some measure, for the arms of Scales being with them, as already observed. I do not find that the Bardolfs had much interest in Yarmouth. Swinden (p. 92) tells us that in 12 Edw. III. commissions were issued to the Lords Bardolf and Morley for the custody of the town of Yar- mouth. The Lord Bardolf last-mentioned was John, Lord Bardolf, the great-grandson of William, Lord Bardolf, who married Julian, the daughter and heir of Hugh de Gournay; who brought the manor of Caistor Bardolf to her husband's family, and died in 23 Edw. I.
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Nos. 16 to 22. Sable ; three ban gemels, and a canton argent : Bdckton.
These arms were depicted upon five several shields ; the silvering of which, in all, had become quite black: upon close inspection, how- ever^ and the bars and canton being incised, the arms were easily dis- cerned. It is only by inference that I am enabled to suggest the name of the family for whom this shield occurs in the ceiling. It is amongst the quarterings of Cornwallis of Brome, in the county of SuflFolk; John Cornwallis, about the time of Edw. III., having married Philippa, the daughter and coheir of Robert Buckton of that place. The Cornwallis family also quartered the arms of Braham and Tey, which were likewise amongst the quarterings of FastoH of Pettaugh; and, from both fami- lies intermarrying with that of Tyrrell, little doubt exists that the Fastolfs of Suffolk and the Bucktons were connected; and thus occasioned these arms to be placed in Yarmouth church. They also impale Fastolf in another shield in this series. There is no pedigree of the family of Buckton ; nor any match of that name in the few scattered ones of Fastolf; but, as this coat answers the description of the one ajscribed to Buckton in the Cornwallis quarterings, it may in this instance be intended for some member of the Buckton family.
In 1348, John de Buketon was presented to Little Yar- mouth, on the nomination of the Bishop and the Prior of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield.* He was succeeded by Wil- liam Warrener in 1372.
The circumstance just noticed would give some probable connection with Yarmouth and the Buckton family. John
* Norria MS.
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de Buketon above-mentioned, however, seems to have held the living of Husbum, * in the diocese of Winchester ; but the greater probability of these arms really appertaining to a Yarmouth family, will follow from some observations which I shall offer in connection with Fastolf and Thorpe, before closing these remarks.
No. 21. Sable ; three bars gemels, and a canton argent : Bucktok :— im- paling, Quarterlj/t or and azure; on a bend gules, three escallops argent: Fastolf.
The same description respecting the entirely sable appearance of the Buckton arms, when up in the ceil- ing, is applicable here, as regards the dexter side of this shield : all the outlines of the bearings upon it, with the exception of the es- callops, were also incised.
Nob. 22 to 26. Sable, guttle d'eau ; a Catherine-wheel argent
There were also five shields con- taining these remarkable arms in the ceiling of the south aisle, as was the case with those containing the single coat of Buckton; and, until they were taken down, they had, like them, the appearance of being blank shields entirely sable. An immediate inspection of them, how- ever, at once disclosed that all the charges were incised upon
* There are two yicarages in the diocese of Winchester, called Hurst- bourne Priors and Hurstboume Tarrant, one of which is probably that here referred to.
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them with great precision ; but I am quite unable^ from the researches I have made^ to discover to what family these arms belonged. A similar coat (sable^ a wheel argent be- tween three gutties d'eau) appears in a collection of arms^ said to have been taken from some Rolls of Arms^ probably about the time of Edward l,y as being those of '^ Jo. de Boys;"* but, beyond this, the coat immediately in question remains in obscurity.
Nob. 27, 2S. Two shields, on whicli are emblazoned the same coat as that last described ; one impaling checqny or and gules ; on a fess sable, three martlets argent : Thobpe :— the other impaling Fastolf.
The dexter sides of both these shields appeared perfectly black when up in the ceiling: the martlets and escallops were merely painted, the rest having been subject to incision. The family of Thorpe seems to have been of Norfolk in the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; but there is no pedigree of them to throw any light upon the subject of these inquiries. It must suffice, therefore, simply to observe, that "Sir George de Thorpe" was a knight in the time of Edw. I.,t and that there is an instance of the arms of Thorpe being impaled by Felbrigg, another ancient Norfolk family. J The colours of
• Vincent 164, 201^. t Vincent, 165, 18.
t L. 7, 61^ Coll. Arm.
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the fess and martlets in the various arms of Thorpe are found to vary from each other.
Ko. 29. Qoarter/y.— First and fourth ; sable, guttte d^eau ; a Catherine- wheel argent: second and third, Buckton.
This shield was one of those which presented to the spectator the deceptive appearance of being entirely sable, without any heraldic charges. From the observations which have already been made upon the arms which this escutcheon contains, the subject may be dis- missed, by remarking merely that the frequency in which the names of de Boys, Buckton, Thorpe, and Fastolf occur in the annals of Yarmouth, leads to a conclusion that these arms were those of individuals intimately connected with the town. I am not prepared to say that the first coat in this shield belonged to the family of de Boys ; though that name has been suggested by the circumstance already adverted to, — of a similar coat attached to that name. It has also been suggested that the name of Buckton might originally have been Beketoriy or de BeketaUy by an easy transition in pronunciation ; names which constantly occur in Swinden, amongst those of the chief magistrates of Yarmouth in the fourteenth century; and in one instance, mentioned in Druery's history of that town, as a Burgess to Parliament in 1S50. The impalementi of the Catherine-wheel coat with Fastolf and Thorpe respec- tively, and quartering Buckton, evidently denote family connections; but in the absence of any pedigree, it is impossible to arrive at any genealogical conclusion upon these highly interesting heraldic remains. The fact also, that the name of Thorpe is constantly associated with that of Beketon in affairs relating to Yarmouth, and that the
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Thorpes were frequently bailiffs of that town contempora- neously with the Beketons^ indicates that those families possessed great interest in the town. The first occurrence of the name of Beketon as one of the bailiffs of Yarmouth was in 1338^ when Eichard de Beketon and Bartholomew de Thorp were two of the bailiffs ; and the last occurrence was in 1403^ upon John Beketon being one of the fotir bailiffs that year. The Thorpes held that office first in 1319, when Bartholomew de Thorpe was one of the bailiffs; and as late as 1460 Thomas Thorp was one of the two baUiffs of Yarmouth. It is also curious to find that in 1342, Richard Beketon, Adam Beketon, and John Thorpe were owners of ships in the Yar- mouth fleet in the expedition to Brittany. *
No. 30. The arms of England, (gules, three lions passant guardant, in pale, or) ; dimidiated with azure, three fishes f naiant in pale argent, finned gold ; also dimidiated : X Town of Yarmouth.
These may be called the modem arms of the town of Yarmouth ; and it is one of those extraor- dinary instances in early times, when it became the fashion to represent two coats in one shield by dtmidiation/ or to halve some- times only one, and sometimes both coats. The practice of dimi- diating coats of arms preceded that of impaling them when intended to denote marriage ; though on seals, marriages, after the introduction of dimidiation and impalement, were very frequendy indicated by other means.
* Swinden, 925.
t Query: herrings?
X In the Yisitation-Book of Norfolk, A^. 1563, they stand as '*the vsuall armes of the towne of Greate Yermouth at this psent." The burgesses' seal is there represented as three fishes naiant in pale. — G. I, 105, Coll. Arm.
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Dimidiation originated as early as in the thirteenth century; but for many obvious reasons the practice was not of very long continuance ; though it was protracted to a later period in other countries. The ancient coat of Yarmouth, perhaps assumed at the time of receiving its first charter from the hands of King John, was, parted per fess, in chief the royal arms of England, and in base azure three fishes naianty two and one, argent:* it is therefore probable that the present coat was adopted as early as the time of Edward the First. The town received this high mark of royal favour, of incorporating the arms of England with those which they had adopted to denote their staple article of commerce, probably from the interest which our early sovereigns appeared personally to take in their prosperity. The arms of the city of Chester will afford support to an hypothesis of this nature, being composed of the royal arms of England and those of the old Earls of Chester ;t both coats dimidiated, so that the dexter half of the shield shows the three demi lions passant, and the sinister side one garb and a half of the arms of the Earls of Chester. The arms of. the Cinque Ports give another instance of dimidiation ; and there are also several arms of towns com- posed of impalements. Of this latter class, though not as the arms of any particular town, but somewhat connected with this subject, is a remarkable instance of impaling municipal arms. In a collection of ancient arms, apparently executed about the early part of the sixteenth century, now in this College,} there is a painting of the arms of Calais, (harry nebulee of six, argent and sable; on a chief gules, a lion passant guardant or,) impaling those of the Cinque Forts. I need not point out the intimate connection of this country with France, and that Calais was once a favourite and import- ant possession of the English crown ; but why the armorial
• These arms were registered at the Visitation of Norfolk, A°. 1663, as "the oulde and auncient armes of GreateYarmouthe.'*— G. 1, 105, Coll. Arm. t Azure, three garbs, two and one, or. J M. 10, 129»».
VOL. U, O
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insignia of Calais should impale those of the Cinque Ports must remain an open question^ unless any commercial associa- tions led to uniting the arms of those important towns, on each side of the channel.
In conclusion, I have only to add that the shields which have been the subject of this essay have again been restored to the ceiling of the south aisle of Yarmouth church ; and it is gratifying also to observe that, under the judicious and tasteful proceedings of the Committee entrusted with the restorations in that sacred edifice, the ceiling and its decora- tions have given the highest satisfaction. In order to com- plete the whole heraldic design of the ceiling, in consequence of the removal of a modem cornice, sixteen other shields of arms have been added ; being those chiefly of individuals immediately connected with the town in former days, or otherwise with the royal and illustrious persons mentioned in these remarks.
Thos. Wm. King,
Rouge Dragon.
COLLBQB OF AbMB, Lom>ON,
26th February, 1848.
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EXTRACTS
PSOM TBB
CHAMBERLAIN'S BOOK OF ACCOUNTS,
14 HEN. IV.
ni TBS POMMUOM Or TRB
OTorporatuin of ilsnn ISegtsas*
COMBIUNICATED BY THE REV. G. H. DASHWOOD,
IN A LBTTEB
TO DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V. P.
My dear Sir,
I had lately put into my hands by one of our members, Mr. A. H. Swatman, a book of the Chamberlain's Accounts, belonging to the Corporation of Lynn Kegis ; and he called my attention to an account of the expenses of a journey to London, in the time of King Henry the Fourth, which I think might prove interesting to some of the members of our Society. Should you agree with me in this view, I shall be obliged by your submitting the follo'v^g notice to the Committee.
Yours, very sincerely,
G. H. Dashwood.
In the reign of King Henry the Fourth, it appears there had been *' divers dissensions and discords" between the Burgesses and Commonalty of Lynn, concerning the election
o 2
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of a mayor. In the 13th of that king, several writs were sent down, requiring the presence of certain persons, and the production of certain writings, at Westminster, for the deter- mination of the dispute.
The writs are entered in the Chamberlain's Book ; and the names of the persons riding up to London on this account are given. Each person is attended by his servant, with the exception of John Bucworth and William Walden,* who have one servant between them; also John Meryell and Thomas Midilton, with one servant between them; and William Cook and John Denver, who do not appear to have had any. The whole number of persons, including servants, was twenty-two : a goodly cavalcade.
The route was the same as that formerly travelled by the old coaches, before the more direct low road by Ely and Cambridge was used; namely, by Stoke Ferry, Brandon^ and Barton Mills to Newmarket, whence they edged off to the right, taking the line through Babraham, Barkway, Ware, and Waltham-Cross, to London.
The time occupied in the journey forms a striking contrast to the railroad-speed of the present day. The first halt of the company was at Brandon Ferry, 24 miles from Lynn, where we may conclude they dined ; and the expenses there were 7*. Srf. Continuing their journey, they reached New- market, 17^ miles, the same night; at which place their expenses were \\s. 9Jrf. The next morning they proceeded to Badburgham, {Babraham^ a little out of the present road, and about 12 miles from Newmarket, to breakfast; expending there 4^. 4rf. Thence to Barkway, about 16 miles, where they had dinner, at the cost of Is. 2d. Taking horse after dinner, they reached Ware, 13 J miles, the second night; at which place their expenses were 10*. ejrf. Proceeding thence on the third morning, they baited at Waltham,
* W. Walden'a servant appears to hare followed afterwards ; as in a later part of the account his expenses are charged.
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(Waltham-Crosst probably, as the town of Waltham lies a mile and a half out of the direct road,) expending Ss.; and continuing their journey to London, they expended 68. 2d. for cookery there the same day.
Various charges then follow, for provisions and wine, the latter especially, when they appear to have treated their counsel learned in the law; for their passage by water to Westminster ; for fees paid to counsel ; and subsequently for expenses on their return home.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CHAMBERLAIN'S BOOK.
NoTa psona]^ equitan? Londofi virtute feriin pdco]^, p ^cep? maioris ex consensu % assensu coitar, noiataj^ et electa]^ in Gilda Aula Lennse pdcae p consensum coitat ibm congi?, tent iftm die lunae px^ post festu scae Fidis Virginis, Anno R^ Heni^ quarti xiiij, ppt negocia villaB Lennae pdcae, — videlic Barthus Petipas cu famulo suo, Johes Bilneye cu famulo suo, Wittus Baret cu famulo suo, Wittus Hallyate cu famulo suo, Johes Tilneye junior cu famulo suo, Jacob} Nichasson cu famulo suo, Johes Bucworth, Wifius Walden cu uno famulo, Johes Meryell T; Thorns Midiltone cu uno famulo, Wittus Palmer cu famulo suo, Wittus Cook ^ Johes Denver.
Maiore T; coitate concordant T; pmittent fen et fidelit solue oines T: singtas expn ^dca^ psonaj^ p dcos maiore T; coitar, ut pmittit*^, London missa]^ fact seu faciend ut p3 manib} congr^, pdict penultio penett in fine Rotuli inf*.
t Waltham-Cross is one of the twelve crosses erected by King Edward the First to the memory of his Queen, Eleanor of Castile, at the places where the body rested, on its conveyance to Westminster. She died at Herdby, in Lincolnshire, a.d. 1290. The sites of the crosses were, Lincoln, Gtrantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony-Stratford, Wobum, Duistable, St. Alban's, Waltham, West-Cheape, and Charing. The only three now remaining crosses are at Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham.
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Comp Witti Walden % Johis Bucworth, caiSai? villas Lennae de Anno R^.Henr^ quarti xiiij.
8 Recept ex consensu maioris *! solucoib} \ p negociis villae de Lenna . • f « — . —m
8 i>artno. Fetypas ex pte maioris ptis i xviij psonaj^^ l2. . . . /
Item. Recep? de Johe Maseye CaiSai^ p negociis ^dcis .... iij^*. xij". xj*^.
Sm* to^ Re^. xxxiiij". vj«. iij^.
(Tranalation.)
Names of the penons riding to London, (in consequence of the aforesaid "Writs), by precept of the Mayor, with consent and assent of the Corporation, nominated and elected in the Guildhall of Lynn aforesaid, by the consent of the common court there assembled, held on the Monday next after the feast of St. Faith the Virgin, in the year of the reign of King Henry the Fourth, the fourteenth, touching the afiaiis of the town of Lynn aforesaid : namely, Bartholomew Petipas with his servant, John Bilneye with his ser- Tant, William Baret with his seirant, William Hallyate with his servant, John Tilneye, junior, -with his senrant, James Nichassone with his servant, John Bucworth and William Walden with one servant, John MeryeU and Thomas Midilton vrith one servant, William Palmer with his servant, William Cook and John Denver.
The Mayor and Corporation agreeing and promising well and faithfully to pay all and singular of the aforesaid persons (by the said Mayor and Corporation, as is spoken of before, sent to London) the outlay incurred or to be incurred, as is made manifest in the acts of the aforesaid assembly (inscribed) in last schedule but one, at the end of the Roll below.
The account of William Walden and John Bucworth, Chamberlains of the town of Lynn, in the year of the reign of Henry the Fourth, the fotirteenth.
£. «. d.
Sum received by consent of the Mayor and Corporation, and \ for the payments touching the affairs of the town of Lynn . . r oa i o a
Sum, from Bartholomew Petipas, on the part of eighteen i persons on the Mayor's side, &c. . . /
Also received of John Maseye, Chamberlain, for the aforesaid matters . . . . 3 12 11
Sum total of Receipts, £34. 6«. 3<2.
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Inde comp solut in expn London p manus Joliis Bucworth T: Witti Walden CaiSai? villae Lennse pdcae p causa coitar hoc anno xiiij^ ut patet pcelt sequ.
Item comp in expn vsus London xxij ho- minu et equo]^ suoj^ solur apud Brandon fery quo^ noia patent sup* ^c. . . . vij'. iiij^.
Item in expii solut apud nov mercatum eadcm nocte .... xj^ ix*. ob.
Item in expn solut apud Badburgh*m ad Jentactm . . . . . iiij*. iiij^.
Item in expn solu? eodm die apud Berk- waye in p*ndio .... vij*. ij**.
Item in expn solut eadm nocte apud Ware x®. vj^. ob.
Item in expn solut baytyng apud Waltham iij".
Item in expn solut apud London die ven^is in coquina ..... vj*. ij**.
Item in expn solut die SabH px) sequ in coquina ..... v'. x**.
Item solut navigand p aqua ad Westm ij dieb} ..... xii**.
Item solut p vino empt hoib} nf is T; legis pito^ de consilio nro . . . iij*. ij**.
Item in expn apud London die dihca px) sequ in coquina .... vij*. v^.
Item solut eodm die p pocill^ gallinis cu salciam, candett, aqua, pipiro, croco, *! pulue gyngeb} empt ....
Item in expn solut die lunse px] sequ in coquina % batilla§ ad Westm
Item solu? p j pixide emp? p evident custody .....
Item in expn solut cu batilla^ ad lambhithe 1 Westm) ac vino empt
Item solut p scriptur) copiaj^ divsaj^ evidenc
|
viij'. xi |
*. ob. |
|
iiij». |
viij^, |
|
iiij** |
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Item in expn solur die Sabti sequ in pane coquina oystres *! casco empt . . vj'. ij*^.
Item in expii xxij hoim ix dieb3 in pane 9 yis *! ligno focat . . . . xxxiij". ij*. ob.
Item in expn apud London ix dieb} xxij equoj^ T; lectis cu candett . . . iiij**. v*.
Item comp in Elemosina dat paupib3 p via T; London ..... vij''.
Item solar Jofai Deny p coi causa equitand ad London ..... vj". viij^.
Item in expn xiij hoim die dnica in coquina viij*. iij**.
Item in expn eodm die ad coDna *\ in vino . ij*. viij**.
Item in pipiro poudr^ croco *! pulve gyngefer ij*. j**. ob.
Item in expn die mcui? sequ apud Westm) ad jentachn cu consilio nro in pane^ vino, ^ coquina ac Batilla^ ad Lambhithe T; Westm) viij*. v<*. ob.
Item in expii vini dulcis ^ Batillag ad WestiS ..... ij«.j^.
Item in expn solu? p ij casiis *l whetbred * p oystres ..... xiiij^.
Item solur in expn unius equi stanr apud Ware xvij dieb} .... iij".
&c., &c.
* Wheat-bread. In the Forme of Cttry, compiled in the previous reign, is given the following mode of dressing oysters : — ** Take oysters, paiboile hem in her own broth. Make a lyor (a mixture) of crustes of brede, and drawe it up with the broth and vinegar. Mynce oynons, and do thereto with herbes, and cast the oysters thereinne. Boile it; and do thereto powdor fort and salt, and messe it forth."
Another mode, given in a cotemporary Roll, is this: — <<For to make oystryn in bruet. — ^They shall be schallyd, and ysod in clene water ; grynd peper, and safron, bred, and ale, and temper it wyth broth ; do the oystryn ther'ynne, and boyle it, and salt it, and serve it forth.*'
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189
{Translation.)
Account of paymentfl for expenses to London, by the hand of John Bucworth and William Walden, Chamberlains of Lynn aforesaid, for the cause of the Corporation this year, tbe fourteenth, as appears by the fol- lowing particulars : —
£ «. d. Item account of expenses up to London, of twenty-two men
and their horses, paid at Brandon Perry, whose names appear
aboye, &c. .......
Item expenses paid at Newmarket the same night
Item expenses paid at Badburgham, for breakfast
Item expenses paid the same day at Berkwaye, at dinner
Item expenses paid the same night at Ware
Item expenses paid, baiting at Waltham
Item expenses paid at London, on the Friday, for food f
Item expenses paid the Saturday next ensidng, for food
Item paid in going by water to Westminster, two days .
Item paid for wine bought for our men and for those of the learned in the law of our counsel . . . . .032
Item in expenses at London on the Sunday next following^ for food cooked . . . . . . . .076
Item paid the same day, for little cups, hens (pcuUUJt , sauces, % candles, water, pepper, saffiron, and powdered ginger bought 0 8 llj
Item in expenses paid the Monday next following, for boat-hire to Westminster and food there * . . . . .048
Item paid for a chest bought for the safe keeping of the evidences . . . . . . . .004
Item in expenses paid for boat-hire to Lambeth-hythe and Westminster, and for wine bought . . . . .024
Item paid for the writing of copies of different eyidences .034
Item in expenses paid on the Saturday following, for bread, cooked food, oysters, and cheese bought . . . .062
Item for expenses of twenty-two men, nine days, in bread, beer, and firewood . . . . . . . 1 13 2§
Item for expenses in London nine days, twenty-two horses, and beds, and candles . . . . . .405
Item account of money expended in charity, given to poor men by the way, and in London . . . . .007
Item paid John Denver for riding to London for the common cause . . . . . . .068
t Coquina, Cibaria Coacta. X Salciamentum, pro Salsamentum, Condimentum,
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Item in expenses for thirteen men, the Sunday, for food
Item in expenses the same day at supper, and in wine .
Item in ground pepper, saffron, and powdered ginger .
Item in expenses on the Wednesday following at Westminster, at breakfast with our counsel, in bread, wine, and cooked food .
Item in expenses for sweet wine, and boat-hire to Westminster
Item in expenses paid for two cheeses, and wheat-bread (or white-bread) for oysters ......
Item for the expense of one horse standing at Ware seventeen days .........
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Dona T; solucoes facta legis pitis terrae retent de consilio maioris coitat p divsas vices ut p3 in pcell sub} scriptis.
Item solut Rico Norton * sergeant . xx".
Item solut Johi Burton sergeant
Item solut Wittmo Skrene sgeant
Item solut Wiftm Lodyngtonf
Item solut Martino
Item solut Wittmo Cheyne J
Item solut Johi Babyngton §
Item solut Johi Conyngeston
Item solut Wittmo Gascoigne || juniori
Item solu? Avay de Manston
xx^
xiij*. iiij^. xiij^. iiij*^. xiij*. iiij**. xiij^. iiij^. xiij*. iiij**. xiij*. iiij^. xiij". iiij**.
* Richard Norton was constituted Chief Justice of the court of King's Bench Ao. 1 H. 6.
t Sergeant at Law 1 H. 5. Justice of the King's Bench 3 H. 5. He died Ao. 1419, and was buried at Grimsby, in Lincolnshire ; where is a handsome brass, bearing his effigies under a canopy, to his memory.
t Justice of the King's Bench 3 U. 5. Chief Justice of the Pleas 2 H. 6.
{ Attorney General 1 H. 5. Chief Justice of the Exchequer 7 H. 5. Justice of King's Bench 1 H. 6.
Ij The son, probably, of the famous Sir William Gascoyne, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who committed to prison Prince Henry, afterwards King Henry V. The Chief Justice died Ao. 1412, leaving, by his first wife, one son, William Gascoygne, of Gawthorp, Esq.
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Item solur Wittmo Champeneys
Item solur Kobto Faston
Item solur Jofei Fraiike If
Item solu? Galfi^ Walsh»m
Item solur Johi Aldirford
Item solur Jolii Crosse de Lenne &c., some of the same names occurring to a second payment. The amount of these lawyers' fees being xv". and the whole is thus summed up : —
Sm*. to*, xxxv^^ xij«. v^. Et sic debent"^. Wittmo Walden T; Johi Buckworth Camefl xx-vj*. ij**.
xiij^ iiij^. xiij". iiij**. xiij». iiij**.
vj». viij*^.
vj«. viij^.
yj^ viij**-
This is the account of the expenditure of the moneys received in advance ; viz., xxxiiij^. vj**. iij^.
But their suit appears by a continuation of the accounts to have cost them more than double the above sum. Among the subsequent entries are the following items : —
Item p cquita? Witti Hallyate 1 famuli sui a London usq} Norwicu et a Norwico usq} LenSS et ad civitate London irato
Item in vino dulci consilii nri apud Westm T; in coi ifem ....
Item p gduccone uni^ equi famulo Wifli Hallyate p xiij dieb} T; p stipend dci famuli p vij Septus T; iiij dieb}
Item da? 'Rido Secreta3 dni Cancellar]
Item da? ciico Rotulo^ in Cancellar)
Item solur p sigilla? exemplificacois
Item solur p scriptui? ejusdm exemplifica- cois "^ recordo ejusdm
xiiij'. ij''. ob.
viij*. X''
vj^ viij'^
vj». viij*^.
xP.
xxiij^
Ixxiij*. iiij**.
f Master of the Rolls 2 H. 6. Chancellor, Keeper of the Great Seal, 11 H. 6,
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(^Trantlation.)
Gifts and payments made to those of the land learned in the law, retained as counsel for the Mayor and Corpoxation at diyers times, as appears in the underwritten particulars.
£. «. d. Item paid to Richard Norton, sergeant . . .10 0
[The names of the other legal men employed are not given here in the translation, as it would only be a repetition of the original.]
Item for the riding of William HaUyate and his serrant from London to Norwich, and firom Norwich to Lynn, and again to the city of London . . . . . . . 0 14 2^
Item in sweet wine for our counsel at Westminster, and in common wine there . . . . . . . 0 8 10
Item for the hire of one horse, by the serrant of William Hal- lyate, for thirteen days, and for the pay of the said servant for seyen weeks and four days . . . . .068
Item given to Richard, Secretary of the Lord Chancellor 0 6*8
Item given to the Clerk of the Rolls in Parliament . .200
Item paid for the sealing of the Exemplification . .13 0
Item paid for the writing of the same Exemplification, and for the record of the same . . . . . . 3 13 4
We have here a burgess and his servant performing a journey from London to Norwich, thence to Lynn, and thence back again to London, at the expense of only 14«. 2 id. By a comparison of the general charges with those of the legal, it seems that even in those days law was rather an expensive pastime.
G. H. D.
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dtopm an)i Ctanelationis of CtDO Mtt'tKf
IN THB P088B8SION OP
THE CORPORATION OF LYNN.
COMMTJNICATED BY DAWSON TUBNBR, ESQ.. V.P.
I TRUST it will be admitted that the following documents, nowhere, I believe, yet published, may be considered as having a claim upon the notice of a Norfolk Archaeological Society; the one from its general, thei other &om its local interest.
The former allows us one of those peeps into monastic life, which, at the same time that they are of little real mo- ment, are both entertaining and instructive. It shows us how close were the bargains the monks made with their de- pendents, the amount they used to pay them and the manner of payment, the quantity of food they allowed them, the strict conditions they imposed, the provisions made in case of illness and age, and the custom, which what is expressed rather than said can leave no doubt then prevailed, of smuggling victuals out of the convent and selling them.
The latter instrument is without a date ; but the presence of John de Freyton and Eobert de Scales among the attesting parties shows that it must have been of about the year 1270 ; inasmuch as their names occur in Blomefield's History of NorfolkfYoh IV., pp. 478, 646, attached to documents dated the 49th and 64th years of King Henry III. This deed derives its chief interest from referring to the lands held by the Abbot of Wardon, a Bedfordshire monastery, in Lynn,
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where neither Dugdale, Blomefield, nor Tanner mentions his having had any possessions ; and from the allusion to the Bretach, or Wooden Tower, constructed there by the Bishop of Norwich, a circumstance likewise unnoticed, as far as I have been able to find, by historians.
Hcec indentura, facta xxvi die Februarii, MCCCLXXVIII, inter Priorem et Conventum Ordinis Fratrum Heremitarum Sancti Augustini, Lennse, ex un4 parte, et Galfridum de Gad- grave, servientem eorundem, ex altera parte, testatur. Quod prsedictus Galfridus manebit cum prsedictis Priore et Con- ventu, prsBsentibus et successuris, ad terminum vitse suae, et eis bene et fideliter, pro posse suo, deserviet, in officiis ad pistrinam et molendinum pertinentibus ; et ea quae ad repa- rationem officiorum praedictorum pertinent, pro modo suo et ingenio, faciet ; ad expensas tamen conventds, materiel com- petenti ordinate,. £t antedictus Galfridus recipiet annuatim, de Priore et Conventu antedictis, pro stipendio laboris sui, quamdiu indictis officiis commode potuerit laborare, xxx soli- dos usualis monetae, ad quatuor terminos anni consuetos, aequalibus portionibus sine dilatione solvendos. Et si con- tingat praedictum Galfridum infirmitate affici sive senectute, quo minus in officiis antedictis ulterius valuerit laborare, stipendium annuale non recipiet, scd stabit in mens& Con- ventiis ut prius solebat; et prout fratribus assolet in victu- alibus deservietur eidem. Praeterea, si saepe dictus Galfridus tam gravi senectute seu infirmitate oppressus fuerit, qu6d ad mensam conventualem nequierit convenire, tunc recipiet ad cameram suam, quam Conventus sibi teneatur ordinare, sin- gulis septimanis viii panes conventuales et vii potellos cerevisiee et pietanciam sicut unico fratri in Conventu tunc temporis ftierit ministrandum ; ita tamen qu6d prsefatus Galfridus prac- dicta victualia ad proprios usus habeat; sed ea vendere
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nullo modo licebit eidem. Et ad istas conventiones fideliter perficiendas, tarn Prior et Conventus prcedicti, ex parte suft, et supradictus GalMdus^ ex parte sua, fideliter compromi- serunt. In cujus rei testimonium sigillum dicti Gal&idi ad partem indenturarum prsesentium penes praedictos Priorem et Conventum remanentem est appensum. Datum in loco nostro capitulari Lennse, die et anno supradictis.
{Trarulation.)
This Indenture, made February 26, 1378, between the Prior and Convent of the Hermit Friars of the Order of St. Augustine at Lynn, on the one side, and Geofirey de Gadgrave, their seryant, on the other side, testifies ; That the said GeofiErey shall remain with the said Piior and Friars, as well present as future, to the end of his life, and shall well and faithfully serve them, ac- cording to his power, in all matters appertaining to the bakehouse and mill, and shall, according to his ability and talents, do whatever is required for the reparation of the said offices ; but at the expense of the Convent, they finding the necessary materials. And the aforesaid GeofiErey shall receive annually from the aforesaid Prior and Convent in reward for his labour, as long as he shall be able properly to work at the aforesaid duties, thirty shil- lings in current coin, at the four usual seasons of the year, in equal sums, without delay. And if it should so happen, that the aforesaid Geofirey bhould, by reason of debility or old age, be prevented from continuing to work in the aforesaid offices, he shall no longer receive his annual stipend but shall be admitted, as before, to the table of the Convent ; and the same portion of victuals, as is usually allotted to each Friar, shall be served to him. Moreover, if the repeatedly-mentioned Geof&ey should labour under such a weight of old age and infirmity as shall disable him from attending at the Conventual table, he shall then receive weekly in his own chamber (which chamber the Convent is bound to keep for him), eight convent-loaves, and seven bottles of ale, and such allowance of food as may at that time be given to every Friar in the Convent. Upon this condition, however ; that the aforesaid Geoffi:ey shall apply the before-mentioned victuals exclusively to his own use, and shall in no case be allowed to sell them. And as well the before-mentioned Prior and Convent on their part, as the before-men- tioned Geofi&ey on his, have faithfully pledged themselves to the faithful performance of this agreement.
In testimony of this, the seal of the said Geoffirey has been attached to the copy of the present indentures, remaining with the aforesaid Prior and Convent. Given in our Chapter-House at Lynn, on the day and year afore- said.
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Sciant preeentes et futuri, qu6d ego, Willelmus Howard, dedi, concessi, et h&c prsesenti cart& mek confirmavi Alder- manno et &atribus Magnse Gildae LennsB, pro quddam sum- m& pecunise quam mihi dederunt, quandam yacuam placeam terrse in Burgo LennaB, jacentem inter communem gutturam juxta terrain Abbatis de Wardon versus Austnim et Bretachiam Norvicencis Episcopi versus Aquilonem, juxta portum de Lenn&, salvo Domino Norvicensi Episcopo et successoribus suis cHemino in latitudine decern pedum inter prsedictam placeam et Bretachiam priedictam eundo circa eandem Bretachiam ; et extendit se ilia placea versus Ori- ^ entem quantiim se extendit messuagium quod fuit Nicholai de Bretham ex alter& parte ejusdem Bretachiae, quod habuit de dono Domini Willelmi, quondam Episcopi Norvicensis, et usque ad aquam versus Occidentem, cum toto solo sabuli quod eidem places accrescitur, seu per chayas per dictos Aldermannum et fratres ejusdem Gildse et assignatos suos levandum accrescere poterit ; tenendam et habendam dictam placeam cum pertinentiis suis et cum incremento soli et sabuli adjacentis, usque ad aquam preedictam, dictis Alder- manno et fratribus dictse Gildae et assignatis suis de Episcopo Norvicensi et successoribus suis libere et hereditarie in per- petuum ; reddendo inde annuatim dicto Episcopo et suc- cessoribus suis duos solidos argenti de censu, videlicet ad festum Sancti Michaelis duodecim denarios et ad Fascha duodecim denarios pro omnibus serviciis. In cujus rei tes- timonium sigillum meum apposui : his testibus ; Johanne de Freyton, Johanne Le Botiler de Babbinslee, Broberto de Scalis, Fhilippo de Fenne, Boberto de Rungeton et Willelmo filio ejus, Roberto Costin, Willelmo Hamond, et aliis.
{Traiulation.)
Be it known to all, as well present as future, that I, William Howard, haye given and granted, and, by this present deed of mine, have confirmed to the Alderman and Brethren of the Qreat Quild at Lynn, for a certain sum of money paid by them to me, a certain vacant plot of ground in the
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town of Lynn, by the Haven, adjoining the common sewer, near the land of the Abbot of Wardon towards the South, and the Bretach of the Bishop of Norwich towards the North ; reserving to the Lord Bishop of Norwich and his successors a road ten feet in width, encircling the said Bretach, be^ tween the said plot of ground and the said Bretach. And that plot of ground stretches towards the East the full extent of the messuage originally belonging to Nicholas de Bretham, on the one side of the said Bretach, which messuage he held of the gift of William, formerly Lord Bishop of Norwich ; and towards the west, as £ELr as the water, with all the soil and sand which accrue to the same plot, or which may accrue by the quays, and which the said Alderman and Brethren of the said Guild and their assigns shall Itaye a right to take away. The said plot of groimd, together with its appurtenances, and with the increase of the adjacent soil and sand, extend- ing to the aforesaid water, to be had and held by the aforesaid Alder- man and Brethren of the aforesaid GuUd and their assigns, of the Bishop of Norwich, freely and hereditarily, for ever; the Alderman and Brethren paying annually to the said Bishop and his successors two shillings, silver, as tax ; that ia to say, at the Feast of Saint Michael, twelve pence, and at Easter, twelve pence, in lieu of all services. In testimony of which I have set my seal, in the presence of the following witnesses, John de Freyton, John le Botiler de Babbinslee, Robert de Scales, Philip de Fenne, Kobert de Rungeton, and William his son, Robert Gostin, William Hamond, and others.
^^
VOL. II.
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%omt ^articnlars, accompanktr toitl^ a JFigare,
OF THB
EASTERN WINDOW
OV THB ^^
CHUKCH OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST,
IN THE MADDEBMABKET. AT NOBWICH.
COMMUNIOATBD
BY W. C. EWING, ESQ.
As a resident in the parish of Saint John Maddermarket, I feel anxious to give what publicity may be in my power to the fine East window of our Church ; and with this view I beg to submit to my brethren of the Norfolk Archaeological Society the accompanying drawing, kindly supplied me by Mrs. Gunn, to whose talented pencil our volumes are al- ready greatly indebted. The window in question is much earlier than any other in the Church, and of a highly de- corated character, surpassing in this respect all others in the city. Mr. J. H. Parker, of Oxford, no mean judge, thinks that a chancel formerly stood across the street, pro- bably spanning it with an arch, in the same way as is now done by the Western tower, and by the chancel of Saint Gregory's Church in the adjoining parish; and under this supposition he believes, that on the removal of the chancel, its East window was inserted at the end of the nave, as it at present appears.
In one of the Corporation books is the following entry, bearing date June 24th, 20th of Eliz., 1578 : —'' The wall
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in S* John's Churche Yarde to be cleane taken downe for the wydenyng of the strete ; and, so far as the parishioners will bestowe the coste, so as it may be done and reedcfyed ageyne before the Quene's Mat" commyng, they shall have allowed and payed oute of the treasury, v^*."
It will be observed that this order refers exclusively to the churchyard, and that no directions are given in it for the alteration of the Church itself to increase the width of the street, which runs at the East end of it ; neither am I aware that there is any record elsewhere extant to that eflFect.
As regards the Church in general, I find the following notices in the hand-writing of that indefatigable antiquary, Mr. John Kirkpatrick, who died in 1728 :
" It appears by the Coroner's Roll of 48 Hen. 8, that one Tho : Pratt, who had feloniously smote John the son of Will: de Hedersete and gave him 2 wounds on his head, did thereupon put himself into this Church. It was ordered that he should be watched there ; but he made his escape, so that the Baillives were to answer. — Hot Coronat, in GUdhaUr
Again : " A. D. 1504, Tho. Bowde, Clerk, willed to be buried within y® Churchyerde of this Chirche, in y« Alley at y* Weste ende of y* Stepille ther. — Reg. Popye, f. 554.'*
" N. B. y® Alley now runs under an arch directly beneath y® Steeple. Qu. therefore, if y« present Steeple were not built since a.d. 1604."
And again, in confirmation of my quotation from the Town books, Mr. Kirkpatrick writes : " Formerly, y® Churchyard came further Eastward than now, so y* y® street was too narrow there. But, a.d. 1677, against y* Queen's coming to Norwich, p* of it was taken away, by order of y® City, for inlarging y« street, and a new wall made as now : y* City p* p* of y° charge. — Vide Cur. 8 June^ 19 Eliz"
In its interior, the Church is fall of interest : the heads that
p2
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support the corbel-table in the North aisle are both grace - ful and uncommon; an angel holding a book^ in a similar situation in the nave^ is singularly elegant ; and those painted on the ceilings of the chapels^ in both the North and South aisle, bearing scrolls with portions of the Te Deum between crowns of thorns encircled with flowers, are at once most uncommon in design and costume, and far from ordinary in execution. The whole building was truly the work of no inferior hands. The monuments in it to Layer and Sother- ton, together with several sepulchral brasses, — among them the remarkable one to John Terry, — still remain uninjured. The palace of the Dukes of Norfolk, now quite destroyed, stood in this parish.
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CURSORY NOTICES
OF
THE RET. FRANCIS BLOMEFIELD,
chiifLt bxtkaotbd FROM HIS PARISH REGISTER-BOOK AKD FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE,
1733-7.
OOMMUmCATBD BT
S. WILTON RIX, ESQ.,
IN
A LETTER TO DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V.P.
My dear Sib,
On a former occasion I ventured to express the hope that some competent member of our Society would collect and communicate the unrecorded antiquities of Blome- field's own district ; pursuing the inquiry with his perse- vering diligence and singleness of purpose. It affords me much pleasure to be enabled now to offer some particulars bearing upon the incidents of his life, and calculated to illustrate the value of his example.
All that relates to the father of Norfolk Topography, however imperfectly told, must be in some degree interest- ing to our members. To yourself, especially, I may appeal for a favourable reception of these notices. You will be prepared, not only to admire his industry and zeal, but to store up every incidental touch of his personal character: you will contemplate, with something akin to veneration.
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the scenes of liis birth and of his labours; and you will lament afresh his too early removal^ and bring a vdlling ^arland to adorn his tomb.
Having occasion^ some time ago, professionally to exa- mine the "Old Register" of Fersfield parish, extending from 1565 to 1741, I was kindly permitted by the Rev. Benedict Pering, the rector, to make the extracts from that record which I now propose to lay before you.
But these, characteristic as they are of the careful anti- quary, will be rendered far more acceptable in conjunction with other materials derived from Blomefield's Autograph Letter-Book, in your own library. This volume, you are aware, is described by Mr. Thomas Barber, of the Customs at Yarmouth, who was its possessor in 1772, as "itier, trium annorum commerctum epistolare Mev. Fran, Bhmefidd com- plectena.^^ Commencing in the year 1733, it relates to the busy period when he was preparing to publish, and during which a portion of his work was ushered into the world. This record appears to have subsequently passed through the hands of Tom Martin and of Mr. Ives. Here, Blome- field's ruling passion, his plans and projects and the sug- gestions of his friends, his discouragements, his undaunted energy and his cheering success — appear in detail and vivid reality.
Should it be objected, that such a picture is but in- directly connected with the chief design of our Society, I would reply, that the men who, more than a century ago, embarked in the pursuit of Archeeology, may be almost said to have become part and parcel of its objects. Moreover, the Society is intended not only to investigate antiquities, but to extend the knowledge and promote the study of them. All will admit the value of Blomefield's aid in the former province. In the latter, his example will be found not unworthy of regard.
I heartily wish that these gatherings could have been
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selected and arranged by yourself; but if, amidst your nu- merous avocations, I had waited for this, I should have been disregarding one of the first lessons of Archieology — a lesson sufficient to redeem it from the common charge of useless- ness and folly — "Dp something ; do it." I remain, my dear Sir,
Faithfully yours,
Sam"-- Wilton Rix.
BeccleB, 2l8t July, IS48.
NOTICES OF BLOMBPIELD, &c.
Th6 student of Norfolk Archseology should make a pil- grimage to Fersfield. In the most remote part of that se- cluded village, there yet remains the ancient residence of the Blomefield family. Humbly tenanted, now, and, as to its exterior, in picturesque decay, the building is profusely timbered, and retains the thick-mullioned projecting windows and some of the pargetting and other ornaments which we associate with the residence of a wealthy yeoman in the olden time. One of the apartments, sadly mutilated and disman- tled, is shown as having been formerly the dining-room. " And through there " (said my informant, pointing to a recess roughly bricked up) " was once another room : that was the Rev. Mr. Blomefield's study, where he wrote the History of Norfolk." At first, there seemed reason to doubt whether there could be any foundation of truth for this statement. For, not to mention that the alleged dining-room is on the Jirst floor y Blomefield was instituted to the Rectory in 1729, nearly seven years before he published the first part of his "Essay;" and his father lived till 1732. But it should be recollected that he began to collect materials for his History as early as 1720, when he was but fifteen
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years of age.* The tradition, that he had a study in his father's house, is confirmed by a letter which he wrote in January 1786, to an engraver (who will be mentioned after- wards), proposing to find him employment at Fersfield: in this he says, "I have a tenant that lives within a small mile of me, where I reserve some rooms to myself, and whither I walk every day ; and there you shall have a room of mine."
Francis Blomefield was bom in this house on the 23rd July, 1705 — "y^ sonne of Henry Blomfield and Alice his wife," — ^and was baptized on the 7th August following, t
The course of the Baptismal Register is interrupted by memoranda of his institution and induction to the benefice ; from the notice of the former of which the annexed fac- simile of his hand writing is copied.
The burial of his predecessor, the Rev. John Barker, furnishes occasion for a more lengthened account of the same occurrences, and of the devolution of the preferment.^ But this I pass by, rather submitting to the Society two or three extracts, which, at the same time that they prove the minute accuracy of the writer, are honourable as testimonies to his character and to the goodness of his heart.
In the place of the usual brief entry of the burial of his maternal grandmother, he gives the following tribute to her memory — entered, as are several similar memorials, entirely in a bold Roman character.
• He charges himself with haying expended £175. 16«. from 1720 to 1733, in <* txayelling to collect the churches, in paper, &c., and some few MSB. purchased for the work." The Norfolk Tour giyes a much later date — ** as soon as he was settled at Fersfield."
t A careful inspection of the Parish-register would furnish various details omitted in the Blomefield pedigree, as compiled and printed by the topographer himself in his Hiatortf of Norfolk, Vol. I., p. 101.
X Blomefield's fiather had purchased the next presentation of Lord Roch- ford, who was patron of the advowson ; not the Duke of Norfolk, as stated in the Norfolk Tour, Vol. II., p. 1166.
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" M" Elizabeth Batch,* widdow and relict of M' Henry Batch of King's Lynn, in the County of Norff:, one of the daughters of M'^ Thomas Bacon of Bungey and Fran- ces his wife, was here buried, December the fifth. An" Domini one thousand seven hundred twenty and nine. She died on Tuesday the second day about ten at night, and was buried in the aisle of the Church of St. Andrew the Apostle in. Fersfield, right against the poor's box. A® -Statis SU8B 81°. E septem liberis unicam reliquit filiam, Aliciam, mod6 uxorem Henrici Blomefield hujus parochiae Gener"^ Quoad x^paicriyp, hoc sufficiat, qu6d vitam semper instituit suam, ita ut, cursu peracto, mori non timuit. In cujus piam gratamque memoriam, Franciscus Blomefield, hujus Ecclesice Rector et e fili& nepos, tantee benefactricis memor, hoc inseruit."
With similar minuteness, and still more tenderly, he has recorded the death and embalmed the memory of his mother,t who was " here buried, on Thursday, the 19th of March, 1729. [O.S.]
'* She died on Tuesday, y® seventeenth day, between four and five of y® clock in y« morning, and was buried in y® south isle of y* parish church of St. Andrew the Apostle, in Fersfield, right against the vestry door; anno eetatis suse 52do.
" Sex peperit liberos, e quibus quinque supersunt, sc. Franciscus, Petrus, Johannes, Elizabetha et Hester.
" Fflemina Deo, ecclesise, et conjugi, omni quo debuit ob- sequio ex animo devota, quae, si vitaB integritas, si afiectus conjugalis, si mens, paucis non contenta mod6, sed suae sortis amantissima, si pauperum commiseratio, si mores denique omni fuco, fastu omni carentes miniis valuissent, seriAs ad superos rediisset. Sed matura virtute (heu nimium properante fato !) Deo rationem redditura discessit. In cujus memoriam, gra- titudinis pietatisque memor, Franciscus Blomefield, filius natA
♦ Blom. Norf.t Vol. I., p. 111. t Ibid.
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maximus, hujus ecclesiee Rector, hoc memoriale mandl proprilL inseruit."
An interval of little more than two years brings us to the following memorandum :
** Henry Blomefield* of this parish, Gent, died June the first, [1782] between the hours of five and six in the morn, of the small-pox, and was buried at three of the clock in the mom, June y® 2°^, in the south aisle, at the south door.
" He was a man of strict probity and integrity, of great piety towards God and love to his family, who practised what he declared, and declared what he practised, giving an example of goodness to those that knew him, by whom he died much lamented; but by none more than by me, Francis Blomefield, Priest, Bector of this parish, his eldest son."
The will of Henry Blomefield is dated 27 May, 1732. It contains a particular distribution among his children of divers " Christening Spoons," and other plate.f He charges his son Francis with a debt of more than £300 which the testator had borrowed and lent him at the time of his taking the degree of B.A., or had paid for the purchase of the turn in Fersfield living, and otherwise laid out for him.
Just three months after the death of his father, Mr. Blomefield married Mary Womack, daughter of the Rev. Laurence Womack. Her family had been very long con- nected with the parish of Fersfield; three of its members in succession having officiated in the church for a period of ninety years. J
• Blom. Norf., Vol. I., p. HI.
t See Brand's Christening Customs,
% Besides the two children of the historian named in the published pedigree, the register mentions a third, named Alice, bom the 18th May, 1738, who suryiyed him many years. Peter Blomefield, his brother, was married 6th October, 1738, to Frances Womack, his wife's sister. They had issue, Francis, Katherine, Frances, and Mary, which last died an infant in
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Settled in his ecclesiastical and domestic relations^ Blome- field applied himself with renewed energy to the preparation of the work by which his name is known to the world, and is more especially endeared to our Society. Some years ear- lier, " Honest Tom Martin " had come to reside at Palgrave, within five miles ; and his '^ large and valuable collection of antiquities," including those of his deceased friend, Peter Le Neve, Norroy, became more easily accessible than before to the topographer; circumstances which could not fail to stimulate as well as to aid his efforts. He was accustomed in summer to make excursions at once in search of materials for his History, and to test the accuracy of the information he had otherwise obtained. It was afler such " a collating ramble of six weeks," that he finally determined to issue proposals for printing what he modestly termed his " Topo- graphical Essay."
On the appearance of these, meeting with unexpected en- couragement on all hands, he looked around for a suitable printing establishment. At Diss, no press was then to be found, nor was there until many years after his death ; and the following extract from a letter he wrote "to Mr. Chase, Printer, in Norwich," on the Ist of July, 1738, affords no very flattering picture of the state of the art even in our great Eastern metropolis.
"I have endeavoured to procure a set of Saxon types, but find I can*t do it. And, upon looking over my book, find a good number of Greek inscriptions, some Hebrew words, and some Gothic. So that I must print it in London ; it being impossible to have those types any where in the country [!]...! wish heartily I could have done it with you; for, I liked your terms, and could have been glad to
1746, and was buried at Buxton. EliBabeth, sister of the topographer, was manried, in 1737, to the Rev. Edward Chappelow, Rector and Patron of Roydon, and Vicar of Marham : Leonard, Edward, Christopher, Elizabeth, and Mary, are mentioned as their children.
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have corrected the press myself, which then I could easily have done."
In the autumn of the same year, Mr. Blomefield *^ fell ill on his rounds;" not the least inconvenience of which was, that he lost an interview with his friend. Dr. Tanner, who, after having been successively Chancellor and Archdeacon of Norfolk, had then recently been promoted to the See of St. Asaph. To this prelate our antiquary applied by letter, requesting the loan of his Lordship's '^Book of the Collation of the Registers in the Office at Norwich, if it was not lost." The Bishop replied :
"Christ Church, Oxford, Oct. 22, 1788. " Good Sir,
" I had the favour of your letter and proposal in
Wales I was glad to find the History of Norfolk in
such forwardness; and, when closely followed by one of your youth and abilities, I may hope to live to see good part of it published. And tho' I must now for ever bid adieu to Norfolk, yet I must ever wish well to whatever may tend to the honour of a county I so long lived happily in. Of this nature I take your design to be, and shall there- fore readily subscribe for six copies, and perhaps may give you a plate of some ancient venerable ruins. Several of my papers about Norfolk were lost in my shipwreck,* and others are so mislaid that I can't tell where to find them at present; and my collections out of the Registers having several other things in the same volume, which are of almost daily use, I can't tell how to spare them. But, if you will please to transmit your copy or any part of it to me, I will supply and improve it with any thing my collections will
* It is mentioned in the Biographia BrUanniea, that, as the Bishop was remoying his collections by water, *' some of the boxes in which they were enclosed happened, imfortunatcly, to fall into the Thames, whereby some of the books were damaged."
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afford. I am very glad you have the use of Mr. Le Neve's and Mr. Martin's collections. Pray my service to Mr. Martin. .... I am concerned that the trust King Peter was pleased to repose in us, should be delayed or evaded.* I heartily wish you success, and am, sir, your very faithful friend and brother,
" Thom. Asaph."
Again, on the 4th January, 1734, his Lordship writes :
" I shall, upon any proper occasion, encourage your work ; giving you a plate of a good prospect of ruins, church, or other buildings. The decaying fine parochial church of Cro- mer, with the ruins of a most noble chancel, suffered to fall down within memory, used to strike me with the greatest concern."
Among the most effectual methods adopted by the Norfolk Historian in furtherance of his object, was the distribution of " Queries," on the principle of the valuable " Heads of Local Information," published by the Right Reverend Pre- sident of our Society. t Addressing Mr. Beaupr^ Bell, J Blomefield says :
*' I would beg the favour of you to collate for me every thing, antique and modem, in the churches following : Wis- bitch, Emneth, Hacbech, Outwell, Walsoken, Terrington, and Eslington, and in their churchyards ; and in the method
* HiB Lordship and Mr. Martin, it -will be recollected, were jointly en- trusted with Le Neve's collections. Martin's position with regard to them was, no doubt, modified by his somewhat precipitate marriage with the widow of Le Neye. But Bishop Tanner, Blomefield, and Parkin, giye their united testimony to the fact, that Martin held the MSS., &c., as a trustee. (See Blomefield's Norfolk, Vol. L, Introduction, p. xv. ; Vol. VI., Preface, p. ii.) A curious anecdote, respecting Martin's second marriage, is inserted in the Rev. A. Suckling's Hiatory of Suffolk, Vol. II., p. 206, note,
t See also Gentleman' e Magazine, Vol. LV., p. 167.
} June 26th, 1733.
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following. Whether square or round tower ; five or six bells; spire or not; dock or not; chimes or not; nave leaded^ thatched^ or tiled; aisles^ south and north, whether thatched, leaded, &c. ; south and nortli porch (the same); diancel (sanae) ; whether there be any cross aisles or chapels at upper end of the aisles ; whether the inscriptions are on brass or not; mural or altar monuments, or flat-stones, and in what place; whether the letters be capitals, old text, or modem Roman; the present lords and rectors. I shall be exceedingly obliged for such an account of the abovenamed places, they lying so much out of my way."
At a somewhat later period he observes to Mr. Norris :
" It is impossible to tell you what great helps have come in by my queries ; sometimes having twenty or thirty sheets, besides books, letters, records, and papers, for a single Hundred."
Having recovered, in the spring of 1785, from a '* violent fever," he obtained access to the evidence-room of the de- ceased Earl of Yarmouth, at Oxnead.* There he ^'boarded a fortnight," and employed himself among the Paston ar- chives, sorting the voluminous contents of *' between thirty and forty chests of antique curiosities and evidences of Nor- folk only.*' His letter to Major Weldon, dated 18th May, 1785, gives the following account of his labours.
" There are ten boxes of court-rolls, surveys, extent-books, deeds, and other things material to the several manors ; and, though « great number of them are very ancient, they may be of service, and therefore I cautiously preserved them all. There are three trunks and chests full of the ancient and present title-deeds to the manors and estates, all which I carefully put together. There are two boxes of old leases
* The Eev. Laurence Womack, Blomefield's fiatlier-in-Iaw, had held the Rectory of Oxnead by Bequeetaration. (See Blom. Nor/,, Vol. VI., p. 496.)
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only, which I laid by, not knowing but they might be of some service. According to your order, I put all the chi- micall papers into a box by themselves, and gave them to Mrs. Amyas to preserve for you. There is another box full of the pardons, grants, and old deeds, freedoms, &c. be- longing to the Fasten family only, which I laid by them- selves, for fear you should think them proper to be preserved with the family : they don't relate to any estates. In ano- ther large chest I placed those antiquities that I made use of, and that are of no manner of service to the title (always placing those that were among the useful evidences): they are chiefly ancient deeds, account-rolls, muster-rolls, and many other things of that nature in relation to the county. I looked over every loose paper and what letters were his- torical : as to such that related to the surrender of Norwich and Yarmouth charters, &c., I took them out and carried them home with me ; as I did the History of Yarmouth,* and some other things which were too tedious to extract there: all which I entered in a note, which I left for you with Mrs. Amyas. There are innumerable letters of good con- sequence in history f still lying among the loose papers, all which I laid up in a corner of the room on a heap, which contains several sacks full ; but as they seemed to have some family affairs of one nature or other intermixed in them, I did not offer to touch any of them, but have left them to
* This is the MS. recently edited by C. J. Palmer, Esq., "which "was in the possession of Mr. Ives in 1774, as appears by his memorandum in the margin of Blomefield's Entry-Book, In another letter he describes it as *' a £Edr noble folio MS., judiciously compiled in King James I.'s time." The intelligent editor supposed that the MS. had been given by Le Neve ("who died in 1724) to Blomefield. (Fonndacion and AntiquUye of Grecite TermotUhe, Preface, p. xi.)
t Are these the same of whidi Sir John Fenn, in his Introduction to the Patton Lettere, states, that on the death of the Earl of Yarmouth they became the property of Le Neve, and from him devoWed to Mr. Martin } If not, what was the fate of these letters }
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your consideration^ whether, when I go to that part of the country, I shall separate and preserve them, or whether you will have them burnt, though I must own 'tis pity they should; except it be those (of which there are many) that relate to nothing but family affairs only. I have placed everything so, that, now, the good and bad are distinguished, and preserved from the weather. A great number have perished entirely. I shall be ready to return those things that I have, when you please to command me."
Blomefield now decided upon printing his work upon his own premises, a task at once singular, arduous, and costly.* Having engaged a good workman, named Nicholas Hussey, at £40 a year, he proceeded to fit up a printing-office and furnish it with all requisite materials, including a press bought of a person in London, who subscribes himself *' Doctor Gaylard," at the price of £7. Writing to the Bishop of St. Asaph on these arrangements, he says :
*'l shall have the oversight of the press myself; which, though it be a great charge at first, yet will be a continual satisfaction to me ; for, by this means, I shall be certain that neither myself nor subscribers can be imposed upon by stolen copies, which is too often the case in such sub- scriptions I design, God willing, to begin the work
with the new year, the 1'^ of January, to be published in the middle of February."
Some further delay occurred ; for there is a memorandum, that " Mr. Hussey began to work regularly," 16th February
* He appeazB to have had some doubt as to the lawfuhiess of such a proceeding. Among memoranda of information he had obtained on various points is this : " No law against the press : Craftsman conquered the whole company, at law." On this subject see Blackstone's Comm,, Vol. lY., p. 162 ; Stephen's Cowm., Vol. IV., p. 284.
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1736.* And in the succeeding month of May, elated with success, our author wrote to Dr. Briggs of Holt, ^' I should be extreme glad of the honour of your company at Fersfield to see my presses at work."
While the seclusion of his residence, however, invited study and saved him from many interruptions, it was not easy to guard against the inconveniences of a situation not only re- mote from the metropolis and provincial cities, but no other- wise to be approached from the nearest market-town than through four miles of road scarcely passable in winter.
At that time, distance and difficulty of intercourse made any want of punctuality most annoying; and the plan of printing at home involved the necessity of a great variety of type and other materials. Meanwhile, type-founders, paper-makers, stationers, and engravers were but too much given to weary him with delay, or to disgust him with fraud. Beginning a correspondence with frankness and civility, we find him afterwards urging and reiterating entreaties of attention — alternately coaxing compliance with "half-a- piece " to drink his health and success to his work, or with ** promise of making amends," or a " fowl at Christmas," — and then arousing himself to earnest complaint and remon- strance ; or rebuking with a reluctant severity, which, after all, seems the result of his devotedness to his object, not of bitterness against those who thwarted him in its accom- plishment.
In January 1736, when Blomefield was full of anxiety to commence operations, Francis Hoffinan, an engraver, was introduced to him, as an individual ^' something low in circumstances, but a man well-bred," — one who might *' ro- mance a little in conversation," but would " cut and design
• In the Letters from the Bodleian Library, Vol. II., p. 103, it b stated that Blomefield *' began to print his History in 1739." This is the date given in the title-page ; the first volume of the folio edition having been completed Dec. 25th, 1739, as appears by the author's note at p. 771 of that volume.
VOL. II. Q
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finely.'* " I will " (said he, addressing our author with abundant self-confidence) " put you in a way to print your whole work better and more beautiful than was ever yet
published, I wiU engrave the cuts and perfect the
draughts where necessary, and do you, in this affair, many other services, perhaps beyond your expectations."
Three days afterward he wrote again :
*'As I have engraved for most of the printers in Europe^ in the space of twenty years, from place to place abroad, and for every printer in our own dominions, and often sell letter between printer and printer, and print my own cuts better than any printer living can do, I must know and be able to do more than any of them; for there are many ways of printing abroad which our printers know nothing of. ... . If you will be at the expence of my journey to you, I will come to you, and give you a perfect light into the under- taking you are about, which no man can meddle with to advantage and satisfaction but from right advice of such as have had long and thorough experience."
Blomefield was no artist ; and although he had, doubtless, much assistance from Mr. Martin, whom he calls '^as good a drawer as any in England," he complains that he had " great difficulty in finding friends to draw " for him. On this and on other accounts he was caught by Hoffman's representations, and lost sight of the significant hint, that he would " romance a little." That individual, having been applied to for his terms and specimens of his work, an- swered in the same strain as before; observing, with refer- ence to some heraldic engravings which should have been sent as samples of his talent, that, " Not being satisfied what the birds are, and the colours not being expressed, and there being no number nor reference, ct quia qui dubitat in erro- rem irreparabilem incidat, (at least it would be mere lucky
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accident to hit right,) I thought it better to postpone, till by mutual consultation every thing may be ascertained and done rightly/*
In allusion to the rooms it was proposed he should occupy at Fersfield, he adds :
'^As to an apartment, I dont care how mean it is, so it be warm, safe, retired, and the bedding and light good. I covet no conversation but the most learned, free, and best tempered : to such I am an ' omnium horarum homo.' I live in the appearance of the greatest poverty and meanness, yet have undermined sorrow and sickness, and even necessity itself, almost to the utter eradication."
Mr. Blomefield's rejoinder displays somewhat of the buoy- ancy of his new correspondent.
'' Fersfield, Jan. 21, 1785. " Good Sir,
" I received yours, which I shall answer in every
particular. And first, as to the public taste of printing, &c.,
I dont care one farthing, if 1 print my work in a manner
to my own liking. I don't care twopence for all the world
except my subscribers, most of which are gentlemen in my
own way, whom I don't at all fear but I shall please. You
must understand I don't print (I thank God for it) for my
bread, having a comfortable subsistence independent of all
men, and therefore fear no loss of reputation. And as to
the management of my letter, press, &c., have committed
it to my printer only, with my own inspection. So that I
want nothing that way; being a man, to speak truly, that
am determined in all things to please myself; though I
heartily thank you for your advice as to that matter
Take particular care to make no alteration from the common
shield;* all new nick-nacks to me are nothing. I am to
* See the fanciful shield containing the arms of Fitzwalter, Blom. Norf,t Vol. I., p. 7, (which were engraved by Hoffinan,) as compared with the plain shieldB at p. 107 and elsewhere.
q2
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represent things as I find them: good or bad, 'tis all one. All that I ask, in your way, is only to cut well, but exactly in the method of the draught before you."
The result was, that Blomefield sent for this facetious artist to Fersfield, where, having paid him for his journey, he found him a house, and supplied him with money ; and that Hoffinan remained there about three weeks, " agreed for a large parcel of work, and cut several of the things, all which Ae ran away tdth.^*
Other vexations sprang out of the very patronage and as- sistance most valued by our author. To the learned prelate before mentioned, he wrote on the 5th of April, 1785, with the manuscript of the ^' Hundred of Diss," for his Lordship's perusal : through some strange negligence, neither the letter nor the parcel by which it was accompanied reached his Lord- ship's hands until several months had elapsed, — months of suspense and anxiety to Blomefield. The 7th of November had arrived before he had the happiness to enter the sub- joined memorandum :
" Rec**. my collections of Diss Hundred back again from my Lord of St. Asaph, with his approbation, alteration, and additions to every town, in his own hand."
In the letter which announced the transmission of the MSS., the Bishop said he had perused them ''with great satisfaction," and observed : —
"The respect I have for you, and my love to Norfolk, and any design which may be for the credit of that county, induce me to submit to what I have refused many others — your dedicating it to me, if upon further thoughts you shall not find it to your prejudice, and not think of a better
patron Is there no compassing a map of every
h,undred, or, as your hundreds are but small, of one, two, or three put into a sheet together, with the roads, dis-
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tinctions of parish-churches^ townships and hamlets^ and other ciyil and ecclesiastical divisions? I am told there is a very exact man, this way, who lives about Wickham Market, and is now about a map of Suffolk." *
This welcome communication was acknowledged as fol- lows :
" Fersfield, Nov. 17, 1785.
"My Lord,
"I received your kind letter and my Diss Hundred papers very safe, with your notes, for which I am not capable of returning sujBEicient thanks; but shall endea- vour to do it in the best manner I can, which is in exactly following them in all points, which your Lordship may de- pend upon. I can't express the satisfaction it is to me that your Lordship is so kind as to permit me to dedicate it to you; and so far am I from thinking of any other patron, that I look upon it as my great happiness to have one that I should choose above all mankind. ... I would get a map of each Hundred if I could, but find the expense will be so much to have them actually surveyed, that I dare not undertake it, having ventured a very large sum upon the undertaking already. But hope, that if I should live to finish it, I may prevail upon him that hath done Suffolk, to do Norfolk in the same way ; Suffolk being the most exact
thing I ever saw The Image of Hypocrisy is an
original MS. of Skelton's own hand, which Mr. Martin tells me he hath now by him at Falgrave, and came out of the Ashwell Thorpe library, f .... I did once transcribe the
* John Kirby, author of the <' Sufiblk Traveller," father of John Joshua Kiiby, and grandfitther of the well-known Mrs. Trimmer. The son painted the famous sign of the White Hart, at Scole, in 1740. (See GerU, Mag,, 1807, p. 499 ; Page's Supplement to Kirby's Suffolk Traveller, p. 189.)
t See Blom. Norf,, Vol. I., p. 82 : '* The Image of Ipocrysy " is appended to the Rev. A. Dyce's edition of Skelton's Works, from Lansdowne MSS., 794. The editor remarks : ** The original has very considerable alterations
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parcel of lands belonging to Thetford, but suppose before my study was burnt. * Should be glad of a copy, if it be not too much trouble." ....
With the above^ Blomefield sent for the Bishop's perusal the MS. History of several parishes in Guiltcross Hundred^ little anticipating the calamity which awaited him. The remainder of the page, on which the last letter was tran- scribed, is occupied by the following note.
" The 14"* day of December, being the third Sunday after Advent, at three o'clock in the afternoon, died Thomas Tanner, LL.D., Bishop of St. Asaph and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, late Chancellor of Norwich, Archdeacon of Norfolk, and Rector of Thorpe by Norwich, my great friend and dear patron; whose loss to me is very great, as well as to the Church in general, to the discipline of which he was a strict adherer, and to its poor of unlimited charity.
** Heu ! lachrymanduB obiit. " Cffitera, quae desunt, narrabit iama superstes. t
*' Fra. Blomefield, Cl."
Blomefield's gratitude was not stained by selfishness, nor was his intercourse with others hindered by any want of
and additions by a different hand : the ftret page is, here and there, illegible, partly from the paleness of the ink, and partly from the notes which Peter Lo Neve (the possessor of the MS. in 1724) has unmercifully scribbled over it. Heame and others have attributed this remarkable production to Skel- ton." Mr. Dyce, however, is of opinion that the poem contains dedsive evidence that Skelton was not its author. (Dyce's Work$ of SkeUon, Vol. II., p. 418.)
* The mortifying occurrence here alluded to, evidently took place before the printing of the Norfolk History was begun, pie Entry-Book, so often quoted, does not, I think, contain any other notice of it ; nor mention the fire which (according to the Norfolk Towr) consumed *'not only aU the numbers printed off, but press and printing-house, when he had scarcely got through the first volume." (JVor/. Tcmr, Vol. 11., p. 1166.)
t See Blom. Norf, Vol. III., p. 636.
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transparency in his own character. His advice and assistance were given to men of congenial spirit, with a readiness and candour very worthy of imitation.
Benjamin Mackerell, known as the author of a History of Lynn, having introduced himself to him as '^ a lover of Antiquity," he wrote in reply :
" Fersfield, Nov. 4, 1785. " Good Sir,
" I received your kind letter, for which I thank you; and shall make bold to call on you some afternoon at my next coming to Norwich, which I expect will be very soon. Mr. Parkyn, who is now with me, gives his service to you; and no longer ago than last week, Mr. Martin mentioned you to me, and wondered I had not been acquainted with you. I am glad to learn we have another brother in the county ; for there are but few of us.
" I am, your most humble servant,
"F. B."
Soon afterwards we find him communicating his views, at the request of the same individual, as to a projected work on Coins.* The following passage is characteristic :
" I am not acquainted with a pewter-engraver, though there are numbers in London, and I will find you one out. Mr. Pennock is my wood-cutter. He lives in Lewin Street, in Aldersgate Street. But, to deal fireely with you, as is always my way with all mankind, I would not have you send him any specimens as yet ; for he hath near 150 plates of mine under his hands now, and I am afraid it might stop him in carrying them on speedily."
* See Norfolk Topogr<y^her*s Manual, p. 89. Mr. Beaupr6 Bell appears to lia.ye entertained the design of publishing on the same subject. Blomefield, in a note of a letter he addressed to that gentleman, says, "He hath a cata- logue of what I have, any of which are at his service ' Let me know
what forwardness your work is in : if you have not agreed for all your plates, perhaps I may be serviceable that way.' "
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If Mr. Blomefield had departed from the resolution he had often expressed, that, to the memory of Bishop Tanner alone, he would dedicate his book,* it would have been that he might haye had the honour to lay it at the feet of royalty. In June 1737, we meet with him corresponding on this subject with WiUiam Winde, Esq., who had been on a visit at Fersfield.
'* Since your departure, a thought has occurred to me which I would have your opinion upon ; and, if it be not too presumptuous, would willingly dedicate my book to his Broyal Highness the Prince of Wales, who, as I am in- formed, is a great encourager of arts and sciences. And, if I should be so happy as to have the approbation of his Royal Highness, would humbly crave a copper-plate of any pic- ture which he shall judge most like himself, to perpetuate it to posterity, by placing it as a frontispiece to my work; there being so few of the effigies of the preceding Princes of Wales now extant. This would add lustre to the under- taking, to have so noble a person appear at the head of so many Princes of the royal blood, that have anciently been great benefactors to this county, and especially the renowned Black Prince, who, as well as his Boyal Highness, was the darling and delight of the people. And I am fully per- suaded that the nobility and gentry of the county would think it a great honour, to find themselves and their ancestors under the protection of so noble a patron. I leave this en- tirely to your consideration, and shall do in it as you shall direct. As there are already several numbers published, I have sent a set, which I desire (if you think it right) may be presented to his Boyal Highness, that he may see my method, and what sort of work it is, before I dare be so
bold as to ask his approbation
" I am, your most obliged humble servant,
" Francis Blomefield."
* See his Introduction, p. i.
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In another letter to the same gentleman^ our author draws attention to the strong language he had employed in his "Introduction," where he certainly appears to haye pre- cluded himself from seeking a new patron, however exalted* "I must manage/' he observes, "so as to turn the compli- ment consentaneous to that," — a difficulty which, no doubt, he found to be insuperable.
As regards the amount of success that followed his ex- ertions, he had abundant reason to be satisfied with it. The Introduction is dated 25th March, 1736; and before the end of the following month he wrote to Mr. Thurlboum, his Cambridge bookseller :
"I have met with encouragement far above my expecta- tion; and tho' I printed a good number above my subscri- bers that I was aware of, wanted some hundreds, so that I have been forced to reprint it."
Again, in the middle of May he writes to Mr. Carlos of Norwich :
** I have had such a nin, that I have only eight of those of the first number that I printed off the second time, in the whole world, and must reprint it again; but by degrees, because it would retard my going on for a month, if I did it at once, which I am resolved not to do."
And again, addressing Dr. Briggs, 2l8t May :
" You are not sensible with what pleasure I find, by your and the rest of my friends' encouragement, the work goes on briskly, having had such a run of subscribers that, in one fortnight after the publishing of my first number, I got as many new subscribers as I had in the whole before, which occasioned me to reprint it. And then also mistook my number; for I have had such an increase that they are all gone ; and now I am forced to print promissory notes that I will deliver No. 1 before the first volume is finished."
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Neither of Blomefield's parents had lived to reach what the Psalmist designates as the full term of human life ; and he was himself cut oS, in the midst of his labours^ before his years had numbered half a century. The Parish-register, in which he had delighted to do honour to members of his family less eminent than himself, supplies no more than the following cold record of this eyent :
** Francis Blomefield, Reef of this parish, departed this life on Thursday, the 16^** day of January, 1762, and was buried in the chancel, on the south side of the altar, on Saturday evening, Jan. y« W\ 1752."
A black marble slab covers his grave, bearing the sub- joined inscription :
** Beneath this stone are deposited
the remains of Francis Blohbfibld,
formerly of Caius Ck>llege, Cambridge,
late Rector of Fersfield and Brockdish
in this County,
and Author of the History of Norfolk,
A work which, had he lived to have completed it,
would have conveyed a lasting obligation
on his native Coimty,
and on himself the merit of
extensive powers successfully exerted.
To the grief of his family and Friends,
and the regret of learning,
he was snatched away
in the midst of his labours
at the age of 47,
on the 16^ of January, 1752."
** In the same vault also are consigned
the remains of Mary his wife
Daiighter of Arthur* Womack,
Rector of Buxton f and Oxnead,
and Caster next Yarmouth.
She died much lamented for
Her tenderness, piety, and virtue,
* Sic : should be Laurence. t Buxton is a Vicarage.
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January 12^, 1796, aged 89,
leaying two daughters — Elizabeth
married to William Mason, Eaq^.
of Necton in this County,
and Alice who still remains unmarried."
As regards the Le Neve Collectanea, Blomefield writes to Bishop Tanner^ " Mr. Martin desires me to acquaint you, that he takes care of Mr. Le Neve's collections, till I have finished ;^^ and this he probably did, though it is a well- known fact that he sold them in his lifetime, and sold them avowedly as having been the property of King Peter. They had been " freely communicated " as the History of Norfolk had progressed ; and the author, in return, had publicly avowed an intention that his own collections should be joined to those of Mr. Le Neve, so that being together y they might be consulted at all times. * Melancholy sentences these, pointing at unfulfilled projects and vain hopes ! A portion, indeed, of the antiquarian stores from Fersfield fell into the hands of Martin. And, truly, his must have been a noble accumulation of materials. But his death, it is well known, led to their total dispersion, in which we, of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, have so far reason to rejoice, as that by means of this dispersion our worthy member, Mr. Carthew, has materially enriched our volumes ; and this very paper is indebted to that circumstance for much of the little interest it may be allowed to possess.
Still &rther, let it not be forgotten, that, from the same cause, those collections may have become the more exten- sively available and useful. Contributing to enrich nume- rous libraries, and finding their way, by degrees, into many
* Blom. Norf,t Introduction^ p. xii. By his will, executed but a few days before his death, Blomefield directed a general couTersion of his personalty into money, to be applied towards the payment of his debts. Administra* tion was granted on the renunciation of the executors to two principal creditort.
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a publication^ over how broad a siirface have they spread the light of other days ! In how many minds have they assisted to cherish that sober taste for antiquities which, in some measure, supersedes the more frivolous literature of the present age ! — Who can calculate their influence in scat- tering pleasures intellectual and pure, in affording occasions for that interchange of friendly offices which, like the quality of mercy, " is twice blessed," and in multiplying the " few " allies of Archaeology into a goodly host ?
Almost innumerable manuscripts, not deemed to be of such *' good consequence in history " as to have been offered for sale, remained with the Martin family. A large mass of these was buried in the earth by the late Mr. Robert Martin, Sen., of Bressingham. Surely there were, among them, some which the descendant of an antiquary might have spared so ignominious a fate ? It would be delightful to know that any documents of general interest had escaped : much more, that they were destined to do service to an Association which aims to cultivate and extend the territory, traversed, in a by-gone age, by the laborious but cheerful footsteps of Tanner and Blomefield, Martin and Le Neve.
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WnX OF SIR JOM FASTOLF,
TOUOBINO
Ei^t #i8tatU£(t)inent of ^in OtDUege at Catister.
OOMMUNICATBD BT
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ.,
YICI-PKB8IDBNT.
So entirely different^ as well in the nature as the extent of its bequests^ is the following Testamentary Disposition from that quoted by Gough in his Notes to Oldys' " Life of Fastolf/' in the BiograpMa BrUannica, that I cannot but feel gratified at the opportunity of communicating to the Norfolk Archaeological Society^ a hitherto unpublished do- cument; which not only forms part and parcel of the history of one of the most distinguished worthies of the county^ but more especially illustrates the two brightest traits of his character — lus piety and his charity. It bears date the Saturday after the Feast of All Saints, 1459; and, conse- quently, the day immediately prior to the other Will just referred to, which was executed on the following Sunday. Both of them are incomplete in themselves, as making no mention of the Knight's principal bequests, those to his cousin Faston, to the Universities, &c. Both may therefore reasonably be supposed to have been intended merely as codicils to one or several others, which he had caused to be drawn up at different stages of his declining course. The second, however copious, appears to be nothing further than
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a more enlarged and minute disposal of the less important portions of his property. What Mr. Gough has printed of it, is a " translation or abstract in English from a fair copy, not very correct, of the Latin original," now no longer forth- coming. The copy is without doubt the same as is referred to by our learned member, Mr. Amyot, in his excellent Paper printed in the ArchtBologia, Vol. XXI. p. 282, headed ^* Transcripts of two Rolls, containing an Inventory of Effects of Sir John Fastolf.'* It is preserved, together with the Bolls, in the rich storehouse of treasures of learning and art, at Narford, the seat of Andrew Fountaine, Esq. Of its contents, a brief summary is inserted in the Historical Sketch of Caister Castle^ Sfc, p. 55 ; and I hope I shall not be con- sidered as unreasonably intruding upon the indulgence of the Society, in begging leave here to transcribe this summary ; inasmuch as it will enable our members not only to form an idea of the Knight*8 diversified property, but also of his public spirit, and the general good feeling that guided his actions. It is to be observed, however, that it makes no mention of his ninety-four manors, of his proportionably ex- tensive church-patronage, of his seat at Caister, of his three magnificent town-residences, and of the long list of parishes wherein he held possessions of difiTerent kinds ; compre- hending almost every one in the east and south of Norfolk, as well as in the adjoining portions of Suffolk.
"It commences by commending the soul of the testator to God, to the blessed Virgin, and all the Saints ; and then, having given directions for the interment of his body, it proceeds to distribute his worldly goods among purposes of piety, benevolence, and public utility. The college or chapel, with its various occupants, is primarily remembered. To the repair and support of the harbour of the neigh- bouring town of Great Yarmouth, and to the maintenance of its walls, he then bequeaths one hundred marcs ; annexing the customaiy condition, that the inhabitants shall pray for
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the repose of his soul. To procure himself a similar return, he devotes a sufficient sum, at the discretion of his executors, to all the religious Orders, both in Yarmouth and Norwich ; and upon the parish church of each village or town, where he had either a seat, or a manor, or lands and tenements, he bestows a silk gown, in which the priest, arrayed, shall celebrate mass, and offer prayers for his departed spirit. His tenants and menial attendants are to receive a com- petent reward for their services, to the sum of three hundred marcs, according to their several conditions and merits ; so, however, that the gentlemen and valets should have, each of them, double the rest ; especially those who had attended him in all perils and dangers, in sickness and in health. The public roads and bridges, both in Norfolk and Suffolk, are not forgotten ; neither is the repair of the parochial churches ; and, when all debts, legacies, and expenses shall have been duly discharged, the residue is placed at the disposal of his executors, to be distributed in furtherance of the salvation of his soul — for this was the object he constantly had in view — among the poor, infirm, lame, blind, and bed-ridden; still always with a preference for his own relations, neighbours, or tenants. Within twenty-four hours after these pious and benevolent desires were expressed, the heart that prompted, and the tongue that dictated them, were cold in death.
^^ The execution of the Will was consigned to no fewer than seven individuals, — William of Waynfleete; John, Lord Beauchamp ; Nicolas, Abbot of Langley ; Friar John Brack- ley ; Sir William Yelverton ; John Paston ; Thomas Howys; and William Worcester. Two only of the number, how- ever, were to be acting executors, John Paston, the heir and nearest of kin, and Thomas Howys, who had custo- marily ministered to his spiritual necessities. The duty of the others was confined to assisting the latter with their counsel, or supplying the place of either which by death was vacant. It is worthy of remark, that, amidst all the
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testamentary injunctions^ one only had reference to the pride or posthumous fame of the deceased : that item is the com- mand, that in every church whose restry he enriched with a silk robe, his atchievement should be hung up, embroidered at the discretion of his executors, and such as should be most convenient or becoming to those churches."
Having premised thus much, I subjoin the transcript of the Will first alluded to ; merely observing, that I am in- debted for the possession of it to Sir Francis Falgrave, who is of opinion that it is unquestionably an instrument of the date it bears, and is, as he believes, an original probate copy.
Anno Domini miUesimo quadringentesimo quinquagesimo, nono Mensis Novembris, videlicet die Sabbati pp post Fes- tum Omnium Sanctorum, Johannes Fastolff, Miles, de Com. Northfolck, Norvicen. dioc. in Manerio suo de Castre, dicte dioc", quoad bona sua imobilia, suam ultimam declaravit voluntatem, prout sequitur. John Fastolff, knyght, the secunde and ye thirde day of ye moneth of Novembr, the yere of the reigne of King Henry the sexte, after the conquest, xxxviij yers, being of longe tyme, as he said, in purpos and wiUe to founde and stablish w^ne the gret Mansion at Castre, by hym late edified, a College of vij Religious men, Menkes, or seculer prests, and vij pore folke, to pray for his soule, and ye soulys of his wife, his fadir, and modir, and other yat he was beholde to in ppe- tuite. And forasmuch as he had, as he rehercid, a very truste and love to his Cosyn, John Fasten, and desired the pfo'myng of the purpos and wille forsad to be accomplyshed. And that the said Sir John shulde not be movid ne stered in his own psone for ye said accomplyshing of ye said
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purpoos and wille, ne with noon other worldly maters^ but at his owne request and plesire, wold, ganted and ordeyned, that the said John Faston shalle w^ynne resonable tyme after ye dysese of ye said Sir John, doo, founde, and stablysh, in ye said mansion, a College of yij monks or prests, and vij porefolke, for to pray for ye soulys abouesaid in ppetuite. So that one of the said monks or prests be master, and haue x" yerely. And ich oyir Monke or Preste x marc yerely. And ich of the porefolke xl» yerely. And yat the said John Faston shalle make sure to the said CoUegions a sufficient Eomme, and a competent and an esy duelling- place in the said mansion, the said Collegions nor ther Successours bering no charge of Reparacion thereof; for which, and for other charge and labours, yat ye said John Faston hath doon and taken vppon hym to ye eas and pfite of ye said John Fastolf, and for other consideracions by hym rehercid, the said Sir John Fastolff wolde, ganted, and ordeyned, that ye said John Faston shalle haue alle ye maners, lands, and tenements, in North, Southfolk, and Norwich, in which the said John Faston or any other are or were enfefPed, or have title to ye use of the said Sir John Fastolff. And yat alle ye feffees infeffed in ye said maners, londs, and tenements, shalle make and deliuer a state of ye said maners, lands, and tenements, to such psones, at such tymes and in such forme, as ye said John Faston, his heirs, and his assignes, shalle requiere thaym or any of thayme. And that the said John Faston shalle pay to othir of the said Sir John's executours, iiij°* marc of laufuUe money of England in ye feme yat foloweth; that is to say, where ye said Sir John hadde apointed and assigned that his executours shalle, ye firste yere aftir his disses, dispoos for his.soule, and pfo'myng his wille a iiij" marc, or a iij"^ of money. And yerely after, viij® mrc, tille ye goods be disposed, the said John Faston shalle pay iche othir yere ye said sume of viij* marc tille ye sume of iiij"
VOL. II. R
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marc be paid. So that ye said mevall goods shall ye lenger endure to be disposed, by y*avise of his executor for ye said soulys. And also ye said Sir John said^ forasmuch as it was the very wille and entent of ye said Sir John yat the said John Faston shidde be thus arauntaged, and in no wise hurte of his pp' goods^ therefore ye said Sir John wolde & ganted^ that^ if the said John Faston^ after the dissese of the said Sir John^ by occasion and vnlaufuUe trouble in yis reame, or by maynteince, or myght of lords, or for defaute of justice, or by vnreasonable exaccions, axid of hym for ye licence of ye said fundacion, w*oute coyeyne or firaude of hymselue, be lettid or taried of ye making or stablesshing of ye making, of ye said fundacon, that thanne he fynde or doo finde, yerely aftir ye first yere of this dissese of the said Sir John, vij prests to pray for ye said soulys in ye said mansion, if he can pyey so many ; or els, for as many^ prests as faile, geve yerely aftir ye said first yere by y'auise of his executours to bedredmen and other nedy true pepille, asmuch money in almose for the said sowlys as the salary or findyng of the prests so faillyng is worthe or amoimteth to, vnto the tyme he may laufully and peasably founde the said College. And doo his true devir for the said ftindacon in the meane tyme. And the said Sir John Fastolff wolde, ganted, and desired faithfully alle the resedewe of his Executours and fefiees to shewe the said John Faston fauor in the said payments and dues, and help hym for the kings intereste and the eschetours, and further hym in that thay may in alle othir thyngs, as they wolde doo to hym selue. And not vex ne inquiette hym for the said fundacon in the meane tyme. Ande where the said Sir John fastolflf made his wille and testament the xiiij day of June in Somer last passed. He wolde, ganted, and ordeyned, that this his wille touching thes premissez, as welle as the said wiUe made the said xiiij day, except and Toided oute of his said wille made the said xiiij day, alle
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that concerneth or pteyneth to the fundacon of a College, Priory, or Chauntry, or of any Beligious psones. And alle that concerneth the sale or disposing of the said maners, landsy and teneinents, whereof this is the very declaracon of his full wille, stand and be joyntly his very enteir and last wille, and annexed and proued togedir. Also the said Sir John Fastolff, knyght, the tuysday next before the fest of alle Saints, and in ye moneth of Septembr, the said yere, and the iij day of Nouembr, and diuse other tymes at Castre aforesaid, wolde, ordenyd, and declared his wille touching the making of the said College, aswelle as the gante of the said maners, lands, and tenements, in Nor£^, Su£^, and Norwich, in fourme, manere, and substance aforeseid. Also the said Sir John wolde and ordeyned, that if the said John Paston, by force or myght of any other desiring to haue the said mansion, were letted to founde the said College in the said mansion, that thanne the said John Paston shulde doo poule doun the said man- sion, and euy stone and stikke thereof. And do founde iij of the said vij ^tes or monks at Saincte Benetts, and one at Yermuth, one at Attilbrugh, and one at Sainte Oleves church in Southwerke. Also the said Sir John Fastolff, the iij and the iiij daies of the moneth of Nouember aforesaid, desired his said wille in writyng, touching the fiindacion of the said College and the gante of the said maners, lands, and tenements, to the said John Paston, to be redde ynto the said S' John. And, that same wille redde and declared vnto hym articulerly, the said Sir John Fastolffe wolde, ordeyned, and ganted, that the said John Paston shulde be discharged, of the payment of the said iiij°^ markes, and nought pay thereof, in case he did execute the rememte of the said wille. Also the said Sir John Fastolff, knyght, aboute the tjrme of hervest, the yere of ye reigne of king Henry the sexte xxxv*** yere, at Castr, feste by Mikel Yer- muth, in the shire of Norfi^, in ^sence of dius psones that
r2
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tyme called to by ye said Sir Schn, did make a state and feffement and liuery of the seisin of the maner of Castre aforesaid^ and other maners^ lands, and tenements^ in Norff^^ to John Paston, Squier, and other; and at that lyuerey of seisin thereof deliued^ as welle by the hande of the said Sir John as by other^ the said Sir John Fastolfe, by his own mouth, declared his wille and entente of that feffement and livery of seisin, made to the yse of the said Sir John affor daring his live onely. And aftir his decese to the yse of the said John Paston and his heirs. And also the said Sir John said and declared that ye said John Paston was the best frende, and helper, and supporter, to the said Sir John. And that was his wille, that the said John Paston shulde haue and enheritte the same manors, lands, and tene- ments, and other after his decese. And ther to dueUe and abide and kepe householde. And desired Davy Wiltm Bo- enlim, priour of Yermouth, and Raufe Lampet, squier, Baillyk of Yermouth, that tyme present, to recorde the same. Also the said Sir John Fastolf, the yj day of July next after the tyme of the sealing of his wille, made the xiiij day of June, the XXXV of king henry the sexte ; and after in y' presence of Davy Wiltm Bokenhm, that tyme prioure of Yermouth, and other, wolde, ordeyned, and declared his wille, that the said John Paston shulde haue alle things as the said Sir John had ganted and declared to the said Prioure and other at the tyme of the said ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ and fefemement, made to the said John Fasten, the said xxxv yere of king henry the vj*** ; the said Sir John seying that he was of the same wille and ppoos as he was and declared at the tyme of the said astate takyng. Also the said Sir John wolde that John Paston and Thomas Howes and noon other of his executours shulde selle alle maners, lands, and tenements, in whiche any psones were enfeffed to the vse of the said Sir John, excepte the said maners, lands, and tenements in Nor£^, Suff^, and Norwich; and the same John Paston and Thomas Howes
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shalle take and receyve the profites ysshinge and emoluments comTng of the said maners, lands^ and tenements^ excepte before excepte, tille thay may resonably be soldo. And that the said John Faston and Thomas^ the money comyng of the same sale^ aswelle of the said proufitte ysshinge and emolu- ments^ shulde dispoos in dedys of almose for the soule of the said Sir John and the soulys aforesaid, and in executyng of his wille and testament. And also the said Sir John wolde that alle the feffees enfeffed in the said manors, lands, and tenements, assigned to be soldo whanne thay be ^required by the said John Faston and Thomas Howes, shalle make a state to psone or persons as the said John Faston and Thomas shalle selle to, the said manors, lands, and tenements, or any part therof. And that noon other feffe nor the executos of the said Sir John shall make any feffement, relece, ne qui- tance, of any lends befor assigned to be soldo, yat wer at any tyme longing to the said Sir John, withoute y^ assente of the said John Faston and Thomas Howes. Dat. Anno Domini, mense die et loco supradict.
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ON MISERERES;
WITH
Sin especial Heference to tj^oise in Nortotej^ (tat^tixal,
AND A BRIKP DBSCBIPTION OF EACH.
GOMMUNICATBD BY
THj; REV. MCHARD HART, Hon. Secretary, Sn a Xttta
TO THE HON. AND VEBY REV. THE DEAN OF NORWICH.
Very Rev. and dear Sir.
I venture to address you on the present occasion, weU knowing the interest which you take in the fine old Cathedral over which you preside.
The quaint devices carved upon the SubseUia under the stall-canopies scarcely ever receive the attention which they unquestionably deserve. Visitors being, generally speaking, in too great a hurry to remove so many cushions, turn up the seats upon their hinges, and view them in succession : — yet are they almost the solitary representatives of ancient Church furniture, now in the sacred building !
The term, "Misererey^ by which antiquaries of the present day designate these curious hinged seats, nowhere occurs, so far as I am aware, in Du Cange's Glossary or its Supplement ; and the few Ritual works which I possess are altogether silent upon the subject. Nevertheless, ^^mutato nominey^ there wiU be no difficulty in explaining and establishing their ori- ginal use.
The following are the words of Du Cange, together with his principal authorities :
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" MISERICORDIiE, — sellul©, erectis formarum subselliis apposite^ quibus^ stantibus senibus vel infirmis^ per miseri" cordiam insidere conceditur, dum alii stant. % Vetbkes coNsuBTUDiNES Flobiacensis C(enobii. ^ Conventus, erec- tis subselliis^ misericordm assidebit.' If Statuta ordinis DB Sbmpbbingham. (p. 721.) ' FactA oratione super fonnas, aut miaericordiasy si tale tempus fuerit^ signantes se incliuent^
et post resideant super misericordiaa.* If Statuta
OBDiNis Cartusibnsis. ^ In festis xij lectionum ad Miaeri- cordias inclinamus: omni yer6 alio tempore procumbimus super formulas.' " '^
Let the reader go into one of the stalls and lift up the square seat upon its hinges. He will observe^ underneath, a narrow ledge, on which, as an indt4lffence, the aged monk might support himself, (half sitting, half leaning,) when the Bubric directs the congregation to stand. The lower part is decorated with carving, and supported on each side by a boss, sometimes consisting of one or more figures, but gene- rally of foliage, flowers, or shields.
These carvings and their supporters will form the subject of my paper.
Though of course unequal in point of merit, nearly all the Misereres in our Cathedral are valuable, either from the skill of their execution, or the curiosity of their design. More than one-ffth of the whole number may be pronounced even excellent: — they exhibit a marvellous variety of subject: their grouping is generally good ; and the story is told with an heraldic simplicity which modem artists would do well to imitate.
They are not indeed reducible to a series^-'ivL which many parts are subservient to one general plan; but the human mind is capable of analysis, and even here we may achieve something in the way of classification; the motive being sufficiently intelligible, however wide a scope the artist may have given to his imagination.
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My colleague^ Mr. Harrod^ has kindly lent me a Paper upon this subject, which was read before the ArcJueologuxd Aaaociatiany at the late meeting held in the city of Wor- cester; and I shall now, as briefly as possible, explain the author's theory.
Mr. Wright, who is a zealous and accomplished antiquary, begins by telling us, that these carvings range from the thirteenth century to the Reformation ; that they are found on the Continent as well as in this country ; and that ** the general character of the subjects is so uniform, that we might almost suppose that the carvers throughout Europe possessed one regular and acknowledged series of working patterns.''
He imagines that these mediaeval artists copied the designs, in most instances, from illuminations in books which were then exceedingly popular, viz. :
(1.) From the Bestiaria, or works on the Natural His- tory of Beasts, &c. ; at that period including mermaids, unicorns, dragons, &c., which, although still retained by the Herald, have been since utterly discarded by the Zoologist. He particularly notices the legend, that the unicorn could only be entrapped by a beautiful maiden of spotless purity, in whose lap he fearlessly reposed, and thus became an easy prey to the huntsman. It is noticed in^his place as having been carved upon one of the Misereres in the church of St. Peter Per-Mountergate in this city.
(2.) From the collections of Fables (called Ysoprets and AtynetSy in compliment to the great fabidists, ^sop and Avienus) ; and of these the author gives a few examples.
(3.) From the Calendars (or Ecclesiastical Almanacks), in which the domestic and agricultural pursuits of each month used to be depicted on the top or margin of the page.
(40 From the popular Bomances of the day (called " Bo- mans de Oeste^^); and of this class also the author cites a few examples.
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(6.) Mere Grotesques, Practtical Jokes, and so forth, may (he thinks) have originated in the fancy of the artists employed.
He warmly repudiates the notion, that these carvings had any reference to the ill-feeling which anciently subsisted be- tween the regular and secular clergy ; but in this respect I cannot agree with him. Our early historians distinctly record the fact of these jealousies and dissensions. That Misereres were sometimes employed as the yehicles of ridicule is un- deniable ; and these satirical allusions exactly tally with the ancient destination of the church. It may be yery true, as Mr. Wright suggests, that these carvings were neither de- signed nor executed by the clergy or the monks; but the artist inoariahly ctcts under the direction of his employer^ and no man would have tolerated the ridicule of his own Order in a building under his own control.* Thus, in our Cathedral, the stalls of which used to be occupied by Benedictine monks, the cowl has been respected ; but there is a carving over one of the lavatories representing a fox, dressed like a secular priest, standing in a pidpit and holding up a goose to his audience. On the other hand, there used to be ia the church of St. Peter Per-Mountergate (Norwich) a series of carvings ridiculing the monks ; that church having been connected vnth a college of secular priests, adjacent to the North-east comer of the cemetery. It contained twenty-four stalls ; and our County Historian has described fifteen of the Misereres, not one of which now remains I As Misereres, in general, form the subject of this paper, the whole series shall be inserted in this place (from the folio edition of Blomefield, Vol. II., p. 557) ; though all do not bear upon the point.
* Tlie case would not be altered, were we to admit the auppoeition that the satire was borrowed from the literature of the day. Our author entirely overloohs the fact, that many of the mediaeyal fables and romances contain sly allusions to the vices of the monastic orders.
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(1.) A woman playing on a harp, and a monk transfixing the head of a unicorn reclining in her lap.
(@.) Two cockatrices and three monks ; one holding three arrows : another had a staff in his hand, a bag fastened to his girdle, and a cowl at his back; and the third held a sword in his hand.
(3.) Two monkeys, in full monastic costume, playing on the bagpipes.
(4.) A monk thrusting out his stomach and blowing a horn ; his hinder part being a lion.
(5.) Two hares eating a bunch of grapes.
(6.) A fox, dressed like a monk, with a pilgrim's staff in his hand, enticing chickens to him and then seizing them.
(7.) A monk with a rosary, issuing out of a welk-shell, and holding a cart-saddle ; between two sea monsters.
(8.) A merman holding a bason and comb.
(9.) Two dolphins, and a mermaid suckling a merboy.
(10.) Hercules, armed with a dub, holding a chained lion.
(11.) A lion seizing a dragon.
(12.) An eagle fighting an armed monk and seizing his shield.
(13.) Three dragons.
(14.) The heads of two aged men with a castle between them, and a watchman at the top holding a spear ; and also a shield having a castle incised upon it.
(15.) A castle surmounted by a watchman ; a lion entering the gate beneath, but caught by the fall of the portcuUis.f
t At the West end of St. Andrew's Chnroh, Norwich, are several Misereres^ one of which, at least, is deserring of attention. There are also a few in 8t Swithin's Choroh, Norwich; and, doubtless, many other churches in the city and diocese would contribute towards the illustration of my sulject
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I am inclined to agree with Mr. Wright in supposing that these artists may have^ in many instances, borrowed their subjects from the Bestiaries, Fables, and Calendars, and the Bomances then most popidar; but that they were mere copyists in the treatment of those subjects I cannot easily beUeve. In different churches they tell the very same tale in a totally different way. With his intractable materials, and his limited space, — tied down even to one particular shape, and dependant for his effects upon outline and re- lief, without the aid of colour, or light and shade, — the wood-carver would have acted very unwisely in choosing the illuminist for his model, who had no such difficulties to contend with; and, besides, Mr. Wright speaks generally, without mentioning even one particular instance in which he has traced the sculptured copy to its illuminated original. Still is he deserving of our thanks, for a very valuable sug- gestion which may be of great use to us hereafter.
The extraordinary variety which I shall soon have oc- casion to exemplify, leads me to suppose, that, in the choice and treatment of their subjects, these artists were totally un- fettered by rule. They might copy, or they might invent, exactly as they pleased. They might tell a story in their own way; or they might adopt the grouping of an illumi- nation which happened to please their fancy. The similarity of treatment, which we sometimes observe, both in England and on the Continent, almost necessarily arose from the identity of shape and material. A skilful artist would, in ^ probability, have been employed in the decoration of various chtirches, carrying his mannerism along with him; while those who possessed merely a manual skill, without originality, must have found it convenient to imitate his most successful achievements.
I shall now endeavour to classify these designs, according to the obvious intention of their artists, varying as they did ** From graye to gay, from lively to fleyere."
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I. Obnamental^ in which the simple object was to decorate the wood-work^ and turn the small space allotted to the best possible account. In this class, I would include not merely flowers and foliage (of which No. 5 in the Ca- talogue is a most beauti^ example) but all ornamental patterns whatsoeyer.
II. Pictorial, where the artist chose a subject simply with a view to picturesque effect, (such as a hunting scene) and without any ulterior design.
III. Scriptural or Legendary. Subjects of this nature were evidently unsuitable to such a position (on the lower part of a seat) ; and this may perhaps account for their rarity. Still they are occasionally to be met with ; and on the Mise- reres of Norwich Cathedral, we observe the emblems of three of the Evangelists, an effigy of the Blessed Virgin, the History of Sampson, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, (?) St. Michael the Archangel, and the Legend of St.. George; thus including about one-eighth of the whole number.
IV. Fabulous, Romantic, or Historical. This class would comprise all those instances in which the subjects were derived from the Ysoprets and Avyneta, or from the Ro- mances most popular in the middle ages ; and for this section, I acknowledge myself indebted to Mr. Wright.
V. Complimentary. In this class, I include all those cases in which the armorial bearings of benefactors have been introduced as supporters to Misereres. That such was their object, is materially strengthened by a fact, pointed out to me by my friend, Mr. Ewing, viz. that several of these shields are also sculptured upon the stone-work of the Cathedral.
VI. Satirical, of which I hav^ already spoken, at per- haps too great a length.
VII. Humorous; a class which bears a very large pro- portion to the whole number. We cannot always understand the allusions ; but we see plainly enough that mirth was their
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object^ and may assure ourselves that they were perfectly in- telligible four centuries ago. Their humour appears to have been of a very broad and homely character ; sometimes (as in Ely Cathedral) grievously overstepping the boundaries of decorum^ but rarely, if ever, rising to thelevel of wit.
VIII. Grotbsqub, including what heralds call " chymer figures!^ such as mermaids, wyverns, centaurs, &c., (some of which were, however, then included in works on Natural History.)
Tradition has constantly ascribed the wood-work, as well as the other furniture of the Choir at Norwich, to the mu- nificence of Bishop Goldwell, who held the see firom 1472 to 1499 ; and a few of the Misereres supply corroborative evidence of the fact, the costume being that which prevailed in this country during the reign of Edward IV. I parti- cularly refer to those marked 18, 50, and 57 in my Catalogue, (the last two of which have been engraved) ; but the reader is also recommended to study the armour in numbers 19, 27, 38, 41, 45, and 47 ; the miscellaneous costume in num- bers 14, 17, 24, 37, 39, and 52 ; and, especially, the female head-dress in number 66. Several of these may indicate the date at which they were carved.
When we reflect upon " the furious sacrilege " that was perpetrated in Norwich during the year 1643, and **what clattering of glasses, and beating down of walls ; what tearing down of monuments and pulling up of seats ; what wresting out of iron and brass from the windows and graves; what defacing of arms, and demolishing of curious stone-work," then took place throughout the city, \inder the authority of the Parliamentary Commissioners; and, that on the Guild- day of that year, " the Cathedral was filled with Musketeers, drinking and tobaccoing as freely as if it had turned ale- house,"* it is really most wonderful that the wood- work of the choir should have escaped with so little damage ! The - • Hall'B Bwd MeoiUf,
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original foundation included a Prior, Sub-prior, and sixty Monks; and sixty-one Misereres still remain almost unin- jured!!! Time has been lenient; and there are very few traces of wilful mutilation.
There are altogether twenty-two shields carved upon the wood-work of the choir, (or eighteen, if we deduct those which I imagine to be duplicates), and, as they have not been noticed either by Blomefield or Sir Thomas Browne, I have been advised to describe them separately, as they occur in the order of my Catalogue. Mr. Ewing has kindly enabled me to appropriate several of these shields ; and spaces shall be left for the insertion of the tinctures and family-names of the rest by future discoverers. The Roman numeral denotes the order of the shield ; the Arabic numeral (within brackets) the Miserere to which it belongs; and, when it is carved upon the elbow between two stalls, their respective numbers shall be joined together by a line : e. g, (9 — 10) would sig- nify its position between the ninth and tenth Misereres.
Before I conclude, I would point out to those who may wish to study the subject more generally, the best sources of information.
When " the Norfolk Topographer^ s ManuaV^ was published in 1841, Mr. Dawson Turner possessed numerous drawings of Misereres found in various parts of the county, and in that work the reader will find them verbally described, (pp. 4, 14, 17, dXidi passim.) Such, however, are the accumulative energies of our esteemed Vice-President, that no account of his collection, as it was seven years ago^ could adequately explain its present value.
In Taylor's *^ Antiquities of Lynn,* published in 1844, there are three plates of the Misereres in St. Margaret's Church and St. Nicholas' Chapel, (opposite pages 87 and 72); and among these will be found some extremely beautiful specimens of foliage and scroll-work ; especially plate i. fig. 1, 3, and 5, and plate ii. fig. 7.
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Plate i. fig. 7. A male head^ crowned and supported by escutcheons^ was doubtless intended as a compliment to Ed* ward the Black Prince ; and has a peculiar interest, from the circumstance of his having been at one time a prisoner at Castle Eising in the neighbourhood. On the dexter shield are three ostrich feathers enscroUed, the sinister shield being frett^e, with six ermine spots pile-wise.
Plate i. fig. 8. A youthful head, mitred, and supported by shields ; viz. that of the See of Norwich on the dexter side, and that of Bishop Spencer on the other ; but without the bordure of mitres. This affords another valuable clue to the date of the wood-work.
Plate ii. fig. 5, is remarkable from the rare circumstance of its having a shield in the centre^ on which are incised the arms of Robert de Scales, a liberal benefactor of the church ; viz., six escalop shells pile- wise.
Those in St. Nicholas' Chapel, represented in the plate opposite p. 72, are much more curious. An undoubted merchant's mark is introduced among the supporters of fig. S; and there is probably another in connection with fig. 2. Fig. 5 represents a wood-carver actually at work, and sur- rounded by portions of a screen ; and the same chapel con- tains, I believe, other illustrations of trade which are not less curious.
In Carter's work on " Ancient Painting and SeulptureP about thirty-six Misereres have been engraved, from Wor- cester and Ely Cathedrals, the Church of Great Malvern, and St. Catherine's Chapel, near the Tower of London. (See Vol. I. opposite p. 52, and Vol. II. opposite pages 5, 18, and 22.) A majority of these may be pronounced extremely valuable, as studies of manners and costume ; but I can only particularise a very few of the subjects most remarkable.
A Tournament. One of the knights is nearly unhorsed, and prostrates a drummer in his fall.
A girl devoted by her Royal parents to a monastic life.
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The daughter of Herodias tumbling before King Herod at his birthday feast, and the decollation of St. John the Baptist.
The Prophet Moses, with horns according to the Vulgate, fcomutusj and Aaron, and the Golden Calf on a pedestal between them.
The forms of the ancient crowth (or fiddle), the dulcimer, drum, and other musical instruments, may be seen among these engravings.
Other plates in the same work enable us to trace the analogy which Mr. Wright has pointed out between Mise- reres, and the corbels, bosses, and capitals, of the same period; both as to the similarity of the devices and their mode of treatment.
For foreign examples, I can only refer the reader gene- rally to the second volume of Millin's splendid work, " An- tiques Natianales / " but during a late excursion into Bel- gium, my friend, Mr. Harrod, very kindly copied, with a view to my information as regards this paper, several remark- able Misereres which he observed in one of the churches, and which he will, I have no doubt, be happy to exhibit at some future meeting of our Society.
The " ArchBologia " and the " Oentleman*8 Magazine " supply a multitude of examples, and a great deal of valu- able information on the subject.
My grateful acknowledgments are especially due to Mr. Dawson Turner for his kindness and liberality in supplying three copper-plates for the illustration of this paper. The Misereres thius illustrated, and the three of which engravings have been provided at the expense of our Society, (numbers 1, 25, S8, 39, 50, and 57,) are distinguished in: the Catalogue by an asterisk (*) prefixed to the numeral. I remain, Very Rev. and dear Sir,
Faithfully yours,
EiCHARD Hart.
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SHIBLDS AND IMPALEMENTS ON THE WOOD-WORK OF THE CHOIB.
I. (5 — 6.) Arg. a lion ramp. sab. crowned or. Morley.
II. (6.) Arg. on a fess az. three eagles displayed or. Clerb.
III. (6.) Erm. on a chief sab. three crosses pat^e or.
WlTCHINGHAM.
IV. (10.) Quarterly arg. and sab. (a label for diflference.) Hoo.
V. (10.) Gul. two lions passant arg. Le Strange.
VI. (10.) Az. a fess between six cross-crosslets or. St. Omer.
VII. (10 — 11.) Vert, an escutcheon and orle of martlets arg. Erfingham.
VIII. (11 — 12.) Arg. a saltire ingrailed gul. Tiftoft.
IX. (12.) The same as No. III. Witchingham.
X. (12.) The same as No. 11. Clere.
XI. (12 — 18.) Per pale gul. and az. a cross ingrailed erm. (a crescent in the first quarter for dif.) Berney.
XII. (13 — 14.) Gul. a chev. between three fleur de lys or. Haville, or Haywell.
XIII. (14 — 15.) Az. a fess between three leopards' faces or. De la Pole.
XIV. (37.) a cross ingrailed quarterly, a bendlet sinister in the second and third quarters.
XV. (37.) sem^e of estoils two lions passant.
XVI. (38.) Quarterly and
XVII. (38.) two lions passant
XVIII. (38.) Quarterly arg. and gul. a cross ingrailed counterchanged, a bendlet dexter in first and fourth quarters. Heydon. (?)
XIX. (38.) two lions passant
XX. (38.) Erm. three cheyronells
VOL. II. s
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XXI. (40.) Arg. on a bend gul. between two cottisses sab. three hawk-lures^ or wings conjoined of the first Wing- field.
XXII. (40.) Quarterly or and sab. Bovillb, or Bo vile.
CATALOGUE OF TUB MISERERES IN NORWICH CATHEDRAL.
% In the Chapel of our Lady of Pityy under the Organ,
*1. (South side.) A wild hairy man with a club in his hand, (a Wodehouse.) Supported by eagles.
2. (North side.) The half-length figure of a canon regular, issuing out of a shell (?). He wears a mozzetta, the cowl of which is drawn oyer his head, and, underneath, a eoutan buttoned down the front. A sword in his right hand he holds, and a book in his left. Supported by dragons.
fj;^ Qtuere, does not this represent St. Dominic ?
i[ In the Choir, commencing at the South-west,
3. The Dean's staU has no Miserere.
4. A lion and a dragon biting each other; the grouping being extremely spirited. Supported by foliage.
5. A rose-tree, beautifully carved and under-cut; the branches being intertwined, but the flowers somewhat formal. Supported on each side by a large rose.
0:3^ On a shield at the comer are carved the Morley arms ; viz., a lion rampant, crowned.
6. Two human figures, male and female, standing on a dog. Supported by shields ; viz..
Dexter : On a fess, three eagles displayed. Sinister : Erm. on a chief, three crosses pat^e.
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7. A griffin. Supported bj lions' heads with their tongUSfs/ . .'. I • •
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8. A monk^ having the cowl (or an amess) drawn oWv. \
his head, seated and reading a book held in his lap. Sup^** ported by, , /• • •
Dexter : A shepherd tending his flock. Sinister: A group of small human figures, not*- easily described. Some have books before them ; and one, in the background, is opening a covered basket.
9. Two Wodehouses (or wild hairy men), one of whom is armed with a club. Supported by foliage.
10. A man on horseback. Supported by shields ; viz..
Dexter : Quarterly, with a label of two points in chief, impaling two lions passant.
Sinister : A fess between six cross-crosslets.
©:5» On the elbow between the stalls, a small plain shield within a bordure of martlets.
11. Two bears. Supported by squirrels.
{^ On a shield at the elbow, a saltire ingrailed.
12. Two monks, (both now headless,) each being provided with a rosary. Supported by shields ; viz..
Dexter : Erm. on a chief, three crosses pat^e. Sinister : On a fess, three eagles displayed. ft^ On a shield at the elbow, a cross ingrailed erm. A crescent in the first quarter.
13. A man, armed with a club, attacked by lions. Sup- ported by.
Dexter : A man with a dog. Sinister : Two lambs.
^j;^ A shield at the elbow ; viz., a chev. between three fleur de lys.
14. A large crowned head, beautifully carved. Supported by foliage.
03^ On a shield at the elbow, a fess between three leopards' faces.
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11^*15. An eagle^ with a small bird in his right claw, pecking y^lamb. Supported on each side by a human head, wreathed. :'.'"•• 16. A wyyem. Supported by small wyvems. •••\17. A king (half-length) with a scroll. Supported by ' ••Cjrowned angels.
•'•.^ 18. Two male figures, one of whom holds the other by •*lhe collar; but whether the design represents the appre- hension of an evil-doer, a struggle, or an embrace, I am not prepared to say. It is extremely well executed ; and there are other figures in the background, one of which illustrates the costume of the period. Supported, Dexter : By a pig.
Sinister: By a swan, double-headed^ and crowned at the neck. 19. A lion attacked by two knights. Supported by wyvems. 30. 1 The Misereres belonging to these stalls have been 21.) removed.
S2. A male figure, apparently an ecclesiastic, with a cowl, or a biretum, on his head, seated, and tearing asunder the hinder legs of a dog; other dogs being around him. Sup- ported on each side by a chained monkey.
% In the Corporation PeWy SotUh of the Choir, beginning at the West
28. The emblem of St. Matthew the Evangelist; viz., an angel bearing a scroll. Supported by foliage.
24. The head of a bishop in a low gemmed mitre, the cusps of which are to the right and left above the face. Supported by birds.
*25. A large human head, the hair and beard being cu- riously floriated at the ends. Supported by foliage.
26. A large owl surrounded by a group of smaller birds (being possibly an allusion to some fable in which the birds
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elected the owl for their king). Supported on each side by two birds pecking each other.
27. A knight fighting a dragon (St. George ?). Supported by lions' heads.
28. The emblem of St. Mark the Eyangelist; viz., a winged lion with a scroll. Supported by roses.
29. The emblem of St. Luke the Evangelist; viz., a winged ox with a scroll. Supported by human heads.
SO. A schoolmaster^ — evidently an ecclesiastic, for he wears a callotte (or scull-cap), and also a mozzetta. He is in the act of scourging a child, and is surrounded by other children learning their lessons. Supported on each side by a child, seated, and having a book or scroll in his lap.
31. An ox, boldly carved. Supported by foliage.
82. The Prodigal Son feeding swine. (?) Supported by foliage.
S3. A man, armed with a club, attacking a lion. Supported by small lions.
34. A lion. Supported by foliage.
% North side of tfie Choir, beginning at the West
35. ) The Misereres belonging to the Prebendal stall, and
36. J that immediately adjacent, have been removed.
37. The blessed Virgin and Child. An angel is holding a crown over her head. Supported by shields ; viz..
Dexter : A cross, ingrailed quarterly, with a bendlet sinister, carried through the second and third quarters. Sinister : Sem^e of estoils, two lions passant. (U3^ At the corner is a crowned male head, boldly carved. *38. A knight in armour, bearing a shield of a remark- able shape, on which is incised, ermine, two chevronels; the helmet being suspended over his head. Supported by shields; viz..
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Dexter : Quarterly. Impaling two lions passant. Sinister : A cross^ ingrailed quarterly^ (as in num- ber 37, but with the bendlet dexter-wise in first and fourth quarters.) Impaling two lions passant. N.B. I apprehend that the shield last-mentioned includes both those which support number 37 ; and, if so, these ar- tists must have been very careless in their heraldry, (omitting the estoils in one case, and in the other changing the bendlet from sinister to dexter) : if not, the coincidence is very re- markable.
*39. A huntsman, sounding a bugle horn, with a stag on each side of him, and with dogs at his feet. Supported by greyhounds.
40. Monsters devouring a man. Supported by foliage.
41. A knight and a lady, each standing on a grotesque head. Supported by shields ; viz..
Dexter : On a bend, three pairs of wings conjoined. Sinister: Quarterly.
42. An angel bearing a crown. Supported by angels. N.B. These three figures (now headless) are very ill
carved.
43. A mermaid, with a lion (or some monster) who is biting her right breast. Supported on each side by a dolphin, having a small fish in his mouth, the tail of which protrudes.*
44. An eagle. Supported by bearded male heads, one of which is crowned.
45. St. Michael the Archangel, armed with a sword and shield, trampling on the dragon. Supported by foliage.
46. A pelican vulning herself. Supported by small pelicans.
47. Sampson (?) in armour, slaying the lion; — a composition
* The Heraldic Dolphin, thus represented swallowing a fish, is the armo- rial bearing of the Symonds family, to which these supporters may refer : or they may possibly be intended to display some emblems of Christianity, as they occur in the very interesting bier-doth in St. Gregory's Church. .
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of extraordinary vigour^ from the muscular force with which he is wrenching open the lion's mouth. Supported dexter by some bird, sinister by an owl.
48. A monkey on a camel's back. Supported by small monkeys.
49. A dragon, very badly executed. The supporters lost.
*50. A man riding on a boar ; his high-crowned, bell- shaped hat, and the epaulets, or pinking, on his shoulders being the best illustrations of costume in the whole series. Supported by foliage.
51. A large owl. Supported by birds.
52. A man riding on a boar, and drinking. A curious subject, of average merit. Supported on each side by a mermaid having a club in her hand.
58. A wyvern. Supported by foliage.
1[ Corporation Pew on the North side of the Choir, beginning at the West.
54. A man with a club in his hand, hunting wild animals, represented in the carving. Supported by foliage.
55. An antelope. Supported by foliage.
56. A wyvern. Supported by human heads.
*57. A man in a high-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, turned up in front, and wearing a curiously reticulated coat. He is riding on a stag. Supported on each side by a man with a dagger.
58. A non-descript monster, very badly carved. The supporters have been lost.
59. A lion. Supported by roses.
60. A large male head, with foliage instead of hair, but very inferior in point of execution to Number 25. Sup- ported by flowers.
61. A wyvern. Supported by foliage.
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62. A castle^ domed, embattled, and consistmg of two stories, with a portcullis over the gateway (a fine piece of carving). Supported by foliage.
63. Monkeys, apparently fighting. One of them holds a rod : another is in a wheelbarrow ; the whole group being extremely curious. Supported by wyverns with human heads.
64. A head with two faces under one cap, like that of Janus. Supported by two frightfully ugly human heads.
65. Two dogs fighting with each other. Supported by flowers.
66. A female head, crowned ; the hair being arranged on each side of the face in a caul (to which I would direct the reader's attention as a valuable indication of the date at which it was executed). Supported by flowers. A re- markably fine specimen.
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€xtrart0 frnm \^ €mmm* MI0,
AND OTHER DOCUMENTS, IN THB
BECORD-EOOM OF THE CORPORATION OF NORWICH.
OOKXTTlflOATSD BT
HENRY HARROD, ESQ.,
HON. fBCBBTABT.
From among the many curious documents to wluch the liberality of the Corporation 1 of Norwich has enabled me to have access^ for the purposes of the Society^ I select^ on this occasion^ three early RoUs, illustrative of the state of the City in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I.
Two of these are the returns of the City Coroners, of Inquisitions made by them, and of "Placita Coronae," ex- tending from the 48th Henry III. to the 18th Edward I. " They are accounts of the robberies and street-frays which occurred here in the period named. Their perusal intro- duces us at once, as it were, into the presence of the citi- zens who were living more than five hundred years ago; and they further show the state of the police, the direction of the streets, and the nature of the functions of the local officers at that period." *
The first statute ** touching the Office of Coroners," is in the 4th Edward I. ; and, although of later date than many
* Coroners' Rolls of Leicester, Winchester Tolume, Archsologicftl Asso- ciation, p. 71.
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of the entries in these RoUs^ appears to be merely a de- claratory act^ passed because Coroners were exceeding their authority; enunciating what were the proper duties of the Coroner^ but placing no new duties upon him. It opens with stating^
'* A Coroner ought to enquire these things^ if he be cer- tified by the King's Bailiffs, or other honest men of the countrei. First, he shal go to the places where any be slaine, or sodenly dead, or wounded, or where treasour is said to be founde ; and shal forthwith comaunde four of the next townes, or five, or six, to appear before him in such a place ; and, when they are comen thither, the Coroner, upon the oath of them, shall enquire in this manner. That is to witte, if thei knowe where the person was fyrst slayne, whether it were in any house, feld, bed, &c. &c. . . . Upon appeals of woundes, specially if the woudes be mortal, the parties appealed shalbe taken imediately and kept until it be knowen perfitely whether he that is hurte shal re- cover or not. And, if he die, the defendant shalbe kept. And, if he recover helthe, thei shalbe attached by four or six pledges after, as the wounde is greate or smal. If it be for a maime, he shal find no less the four pledges : if it
be a smal woud or a maime, two pledges shal suffice
Also al wounds ought to be viewed the length, bredth, and depenes, and with what wepones, and in what part of the body the wound or hurt is, and how many be culpable, and how many wounds there be, and who gave the wouinds : al which things must be enrolled in the Boll of the Coroners.*^
The other document I propose to notice, consists of four pieces of parchment of various sizes, stitched together at the top; the first piece headed, " Hec sunt secreta, Norwic." Various articles of inquiry follow, or rather, the first few words of them : — ^^ De hiis qui fecnt distcoes in civitatib^ burg, &c." " De Vic. et aliis minis ts R^, &c." "Do Clicis Justic Eschaetor et Inquisitor, &c. Et de iilis, &c.," — much
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in the same maimer as in the " Hundred Rolls." And an- swers to every article are given, I presume, by a jury : to many^ " Nichil sciunt" is the only reply.
It bears no date ; but, from internal evidence, it must have been made between the 6th and the 14th of Edw. I., as Henry Sampson is named as the then Dean of Norwich, to which office he succeeded in 1278; and the Roll names several returned fugitives who had fled in consequence of having been concerned in the attack on the Cathedral, who are stated in a return made in the 14th year of the same king to be then dead.
One subject which cannot fail to arrest attention in going over these Rolls, is the extraordinary confrision and uncer- tainty in the designations of persons. In a very few instan- ces I have found them described by their Christian name, surname, and trade: Henry Scot, le Cordwaner; William Hacun, Pellipar;* Wm. Neville, Allictar; Robert Faber, Locsmit; Richard Child le Wymplere; Simon le Mun, Tailleur; Geofl5y de Kaxleton, Faber, &c. ; but even with these there is some uncertainty. I find, for instance, *' Roger le Leyner, Clerk," figuring immediately after as "Roger Clerk le Leyner." Some are described by their own and their father's or mother's Christian name — Richard, the son of Godesman ; Thomas, the son of Ralph ; Robert, the son of Anabilia; John, the son of Magote, &c. A large number are named from some town or village — William de London; Thomas de Catton, &c. Others axe distinguished by sur- names, among which the Saxon Thurkild and Edric may be detected ; but by far the greater number are indicated by the trades or occupations they followed, or by some personal de- scription or nick-name. Of the former class, Peter le Porter, Thomas le Corveyser, Robert le Cupper, Agnes la Bred- mongere, Ralph le Chalimer, John le Somenour, Emma la Peyntresse, Thomas le Prechur, Philip le Chanter, Reginald * Qui pelles parant.— Duoange.
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Sutor, Moyses Tanator, Gervase Tinctor, Henry Tixtor, Ray Lister, Peter Pictor, may serve as specimens. To the latter, Wm. Goscip, Simon le Longe, Stephen le Blnnd, Richard le PoTire, William Sot, Black Beatrice, Simon Blaber, John Cripel, &c., appear to belong.
Sir Francis Palgrave, in his observations on this subject, in the Introduction to the first volume of the Parliamentary Writs, has so ably stated the difficulties involved in the investigation of the nomenclature of this period, that I shall do myself the pleasure to extract them.
** Although the use of surnames was established in the reign of Edward I., still the variations which they exhibit are sufficiendy numerous to occasion considerable ambiguity. In some families, such as the family of Fitzwalter of Daventry, it is hardly possible to decide whether the individuals who belong to it, were distinguished by their patronymic or by their local designation. Either surname was equally good in law. Thus, at a later period, a defendant pleaded in abatement to a Formedon, * La chaxtre prove le remainder d Adam le fitz Richard, et le brief voet que les tenementz remainent k Adam de Urmeston, issint ne prove my la chaxtre le remainder estre comprise en le brief. Juggement du brief.* But the plea was overruled by the coiirt in the fol- lowing manner : ' Coment qu'il soit mesme la person k qui le remainder fuist taille, assez est le brief bon. Per quei, respondes.' {Pasch. 8 Ed. III., 19 b.) Surnames, originally derived from places, and ascribed to the family of the par- ties, were occasionally dropped for others derived from resi- dence; or, in other words, the surname was merged in the local description. With respect to the ' by-names ' of persons belonging to the inferior classes, they axe subjected to very perplexing changes. The clerks by whom the records were written, either translated them into Latin or French, or re- tained them in the vernacular dialect, at their pleasure, and without being guided by any fixed rule. Thus, the ^Thomas
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de la Gruttere* of one year^ appears as 'Thomas atte Shete* in the next return. Personal descriptions, for they can scarcely be called surnames, derived firom trades, ofBces, or occupa- tions, were shifted or exchanged for local descriptions, with an equal disregard of any regular system.
** To these sources of confusion must be added the obscu- rities arising from the fluctuating and unsettled orthography ; and, in very many instances, from the difficulty of discovering the true reading of the record. Some letters, such as t and c, n and w, are written precisely in the same manner : f and 8, hy I and i, A and Z>, E and jB, &c., are nearly alike ; and the casual obliteration of a hair-stroke will destroy the distinguishing feature. The dot of the i is generally omit- ted \ and in the combination of the letters formed by parallel strokes, such as m, n, Uy i , the eye is uinable to develop the elements of which the group is composed.
" In familiar and weU-known names, the true reading is obtained by the previous knowledge of the word ; but by fsx the most numerous names belong to families long since extinct, or to persons of obscure and unknown lineage. Thus a name which may be either Hanvil or Hauvil, has also been read as Haunily Hannily and Hamul ; Gouiz as Goniz ; Haudlo as Handh ; and it is probable that the name of the baronial family of Novant ought to be read Nonant ; though the first orthography has been adopted (by Sir Francis), on the authority of Dugdale and his successors. Occasionally, the employment of a letter of equivalent sound affords a satis- factory solution. Thus the name Gamz being sometimes, though rarely, spelled Gowtz, the true sound is ascertained.'' To return to the RoU before me, I find,
" Katherina, the wife of Stephen Justice, accused Ralph, son of Robert Andrew the Gaoler, William Virly, Gaunter, WilKam Crede, Walter de Dereham, John, ser- vant of Nicholas de Ingham, Nicholas, sometime servant of Nicholas de Lopham, and Nicholas le Gayver, that.
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when she was at peace with God and the King, in the house of Stephen Justice her husband, on the Thursday night after the Feast of King Edmund, in the 48th year of the reign of King Henry, the son of King John (1263), they came in the town of Norwich, in Fybriggate, in S* Clement's, and broke the oaken gates, and the hooks and hinges of iron, with hatchets, bars, wedges, swords, knives, and maces, and flung them down into the court, and felo- niously entered : that they then broke the pine-wood doors of the hall, and the hinges and iron-work of them, and the chains, bolts, and oaken boards of the windows. Af- terwards, they entered the door of the hall chamber, towards the South, and robbed that chamber of two swords, value 3'. 6^. ; one ivory-handled anlace, value 12*^. ; one iron head-piece, value 10*.; an iron staflF, value 4^.; one cow-leather quirre (cuiraas), with iron plates, value half a mark ; and one Wambeis : * and coming thence into the hall, they burnt the body of her husband, as it there lay upon a bier, together with a blanket of ^ reyns,* value 3'.; and took away with them a linen cloth, value 18*. The said Katherine immediately raised hue and cry, from street to street, from parish to parish, and from house to house, imtil she came into the presence of the Bailifis and Coroners.
" They also stole a linen cloth of the value of 5"., and one hood of pers (Persian?) with squirrels' ftir, value 10*." t
* A body gannent, stuffed with wool, cotton, or tow." — (Halliwell's DieU(mary,) The garment called a Wambeia, is named in an Act of Parlia- ment, 27th Henry 11., (1181), which enacts that all burgesses and freemen shall keep a wambeis, a chaplet of iron, and a lance. Stephen Justice was, no doubt, a burgess of Norwich.
t Some time subsequent to the meeting at which I read the above extract, a friend brought me a translation, by Kirkpatrick, of this entry, with the fol- lowing memorandum at foot: "This House was on the west side of the street, now called Magdalen Street, near the place where Capt. Black dwells."
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The above xjurious description of a citizen's house in 1263^ is worthy careftd examination ; the materials for a history of the domestic buildings^ especially in towns, during the thir- teenth century, being so small. A learned writer had re- course, in an article on the subject in the ArchcBological Journal for 1844, (p. 212), to the Fabliaux, or popular metrical tales of the thirteenth century, written in French and Anglo-Norman. I subjoin his description of a house, gathered from those sources, for the purpose of comparison. He says :
" At this period the houses of the people had, in general, no more than a ground floor, o£ which the principal apart- ment was the aire, aitre, or hall (atrium), into which the principal door opened, and which was the room for cooking, eating, receiving visitors, and the other ordinary uses of do- mestic life. Adjacent to this was the chamber (chambre), which was by day the private apartment and resort of the female portion of the household, and by night the bed-room.
Strangers and visitors generally slept in the hall;
beds being apparently made for them on the floor
A stable was also frequently adjacent to the hall, probably on the side opposite to the chamber or bed-room."
" M**. That Henry Turnecurt & Stephen de Walsham, were kiUed in Norwich, in the parish of S* George, before the Gates of The Holy Trinity, S* Philip aud James's day, in the year aforesaid. The Coroners and Bailiffs went and made inquisition. Inquisition then made was set forth in a certain schedule. Afterwards came Master Marc de Bunhale, clerk, and Ealph Knict, with many others, threat- ening the Coroners to cut them to pieces, unless the Sche- dule was given up; and then they took Roger the Coroner, and by force led him to his own house, with swords and axes, until the said Roger took the Schedule from his chest; and they then took him with the Schedule to S^
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Peter of Mannecroft church, and there the aforesaid Ralph tore away the Schedule from the hands of Eoger, and bore it away, and before his companions, in the manner of fools, cut it into small pieces; and with much ado, Roger the Coroner escaped from their hands in great fear and tremor. The Coroners say, they cannot make inquisition by reason of the imminence of the war."
The disturbances thus referred to, were the consequence of the deplorable dissensions between the King and the Barons, which plunged the country in civil war, and deluged it with blood. Here, as elsewhere, there were various factions, some siding with the King, others with the Barons.
'* Parishes of S* Peter de Parmenterigate,* S* Vedast, S* Martin de Ballia, S* Michael de Cunesford, sworn, say upon their oaths. That William le Alblaster of the Castle threatened John le Lindrap to burn him, and John de Bendlesham, and Thomas le Despenser of the Castle also, before these, viz., Henry Punel, Simon le Longe, and Wil- liam Bouehay; and that William le Alblaster set fire to the gate, between the said John le Lindrap and John de Belaya, whence the house of the said John de Belaya was burnt, in the night of Tuesday after Pentecost, in the 48th
* The pariah, now called St. Peter per Mountergate, Norwich. The fre- quent recurrence of the name in these Rolls invariably as it appears aboye, induced me to inyestigate the matter. It may be remembered, that Blome- field states the singular name by which it- has for some centuries been known, was derived from a gate near the churchyard, at the foot of a mount or hill. It is true, there is a hill, but no gate ; nor can I discover that there ever was one. Narrow lanes leading frx)m King street up the hill on the west side, are called Skeyffote, Bollgate or Hollwent. 1 feel no doubt, there- fore, in the conclusion, that <* Per Mountergate " is a corruption of Parmenter- gate, the Parmenier»\ or Clothiers' way. — *' Parmmtarius, ex paramentarius, qui Testes parat, id est omat, nostris olim paramentiert qid hodie taiUeur tThabitt. In Regesto Ambianensis urbis, anno 1265, parmender 4r taitteur de drapn" — Dvoanob.
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year of King Henry. And that the said William went from the liouse of Robert Faber, locsmit^ and returned to it after the above felony. They say also, that the aforesaid stole the keys (baterett?) of the bells of the church of S* Peter de Farmenterigate, and cut the ropes of the bells of the churches of S* Vedast and S^ Cuthbert, lest any should come to extinguish the fire. And they say, that William le Neve, who had frequent access to the house of Richard Childe le Wymplere,* in the parish of S* Julian's, was at the same deed. Frecept issued to ap- prehend the malefactors."
I have seen an inventory, made about a hundred years after this date (1368), of the goods of nearly all the parish- churches in Norwich. The entries are made in the order given in the constitutions of Archbishop Winchelsea, as quoted in Lindwood, with very slight variation; and in a letter of the then Archbishop Simon, appended to the book, bells are expressly required to be included in the returns; but, strange to say, only ten of the city churches are re- corded as possessing anything but hand-bells (used for ring- ing before the sacrament when carried to the sick): these are,
St, Peter Mancrofty which had two great, two smaller
bells, and a little bell. St Saviour (with All Saints and St. Mary annexed) had
three. St, Oeorge Colegate, St. Michael at Pleay and St, Oiles,
had two each. St Augustine^ St. Mary Coslany, St, Edmund, St. George at the Gates, St. Michael Coslany, had but one each. The three churches mentioned in the above extract, do not appear to have had any bells at the time this inventory was made.
• " A wimple was a kind of cap or tippet."— Halliwbll. T
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** Inquisition made of the fire raised in the Jewry. * They say that Simon Quitloc placed the fire ; Bobert Scoth broke open a chest in the house ; Scot, servant of Herbert Sutor, carried o£f part of the goods there found; Beginald Winbaldn, Fistor, broke into the aforesaid house. They say also that Stephen Ghiken was the companion of Simon Quitloc at the fire raising. They also say the William Hodis and Ralph Muddok broke into the house of a Jew where fire had not been placed. Precept to apprehend the aforesaid felons."
In elucidation of the above extract, so expressly referring to the Jewry, it may be well to quote what we read in the Pictorial History of England, I., p. 685., that, " In various parts of the kingdom, the royalists robbed and murdered the Jews imder pretext of their being Mends to the Barons; and the Barona' party did the like, alleging that they were allied with the King, and kept Greek fire in their houses, in order to destroy the friends of liberty."
*^ In the time of John Scoth, Boger de Swerdeston, and William Picot, Bailifl&. ^^ Memorandum. That Bichard Fichet, of Fomesete, and Boger de Ling were taken in the bakehouse of Henry de Heylesdon, in the night of S* Martin, in the year aforesaid, (48 H. III.) by whom a certain chest, with the contents, in a pit to the same bakehouse belonging, was pulled out and robbed.
" William Wysse, then servant of the Bailiffi, had cus- tody of them. How they escaped from him we know not."
• The present Qentlemen's Walk, from the Savings Bank to White lion Street, was the " Yicus de Judaismo,*' or Jewry.
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^^ In the time of William de Dtmewic, Adam de Toftes^ Nicholas de Ely^ and Roger de Swathing^ Bailiffi.
'^ Parishes of St. Augustine, All Saints, St. Botolph, St. Margaret in Fybridge, present and say on oath, That a certain woman, name unknown, was killed the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, in the year 50, in the house of Agatha Ded, in the parish of St. Augustine, and had a wound in the right flank, which a man named Reginald, a Mend of the deceased, gave her with his dagger, of the value of one hat^enny, as it is said. They say that all who were present fled when she died,* namely^ Agatha Ded, Thomas Kydelom, her brother, Johanna, his mistress, Julia a Kech, Black Beatrice, Wulmina Belleward, Massa Trant^ John le Ouverur and his wife, Sara Deythef.
" Ralf de Hemenhal found her first, for whom Warin de Houton, Thomas de Hemenhale, are pledges, (or sure- ties.)
^^ Neighbours attached : "William le Fulere, &c.
'*The house in which she was killed was appraised at 2'. 6^. * John Herman to answer. Chattels of the fugi- tives, 2*. ; Roger the Coroner to answer. Thomas Kyde- lom fled to the Church of the Holy Trinity : Ordered to be watched."
" Parishes of St. Peter de Mannecroft, St. Stephen's, St. Cross, St. John of Maddermarket, present and say on
* The 4th Edward I. says, "If any be found culpable of the murther, the Coroner shall go unto his house, and shaU enquire what goods he hath.
And when they shall have enquired upon every thing, they shall
cause all the land and goods to be valued in like manner as if they shoidd be sold incontinently ; and thereupon they shall be delivered to the whole township, who shall be answerable before the Justices for the same; and likewise of his freehold, how much it is worth yearly, over and above the service due to the lord of the fee."
t2
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oath, That Robert Ic Paumer came, on Monday in the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, in the year aforesaid, into Cordwainer Row, * Norwich, and to a certain shop, within which Richard, the son of Goodesman was ; and the said Robert struck the said Richard on the back with liis sword. Whereupon he raised hue and cry ; and immediately Wil- liam de Kymbule and Miles de Lopham took him, held him, and sorely abused him ; whilst Thomas, the son of Ralph, Chaplain of Ameringhall, came and gave him a heavy blow on the head with a certain great staflF, from whence he died, as they say. Emma la Peyntresse found him first : William Wiseman, Robert de Foxle, pledges. " Neighbours attached : " Walter Hamelyn ; pledges, John Raven, Richard de
Wurlingward. " GeoSrj de Kirkeby ; Roger de Tasburgh, William de
Bradefend. " Richard Papenjay; Simon Brid, and John Raven. "William de Ballia, who had the custody of the sword and shoes of the said Richard, deceased, found pledges; GeoStj de Elirkeby, Emald de Weston, Umfrey de Beuton, and Roger de Meuton."
The above gives a most gloomy picture of the state of the city at the time : one man attacked in his shop by four others, (one a priest) and killed in the most public place in the city.
" Parishes of Saint Stephen, St. Peter de Mannecroft, St. John de Maddcrmarket, All Saints of Swinemarkct, sworn, present, and say on their oaths. That Eva, wife of
* Cardteaineria, the South i)ortion of the Eastern side of the Market- place, now called the " Gentlemen's Walk."
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Richard Meymund, died of gutta caduca,* Thursday next before Pentecost, in the aforesaid year, in her own house. No one accused of her death. Richard Meymund, her husband, found her first, for whom William Nevile, Al- lictar, and Roger de Hederset, textor, are pledges. " Neighbours attached : " Robert, son of Anabilia, &c."
" Parishes of St. Clement, St. Saviour, Blessed Mary Combusta, and St. Botolph, present and say on oath. That on Thursday next before the Feast of the Translation of the Blessed Thomas the Martyr, in the year 60, Nicholas Spigurnel, then Sheriff of Norfolk, came to his Inn in the parish of the Blessed Mary Combusta,t and a contention was going on between Thomas, brother of the aforesaid Nicholas, Constable,^ and John, son of Simon le Lin- drap ; hearing which, the said Nicholas went forth without his gates, and there was then a dispute between the said Nicholas and the said John, and he attacked the said John, who flying, the said Nicholas with his right foot desired to strike him, and failing in his blow, fell upon his left leg,§
* *' (httta Cadiva, Caduca, Epileptici dicuntur, qui Guttam habent Cadi-
Tam [Rob^^ de Tumbaleniil in Epistola ad Monachos S. Mich, de
Monte apud Mabill. to. 6 Annal. Benedict., p. 669, Col. I. : * Hug^ Tocatns frater qnidam .... subito iUft molestiA arripitur, quam Medici Epilepsiam Tocabulo Gtsbco diciint, Tel Sacrum Morbum, eo qu6d sacras hominis partes, ut est caput, ct mentem occupet ; nos yero vulgaritd Quttam eaducamt ez eo qu6d cadere faciat, Tocamus.' "] — Ducanob.
t This church was in Magdalen Street, opposite St. Saviour's church, or nearly so. The lane, now called « Golden Dog Lane," ran through the churchyard.
% He was also Constable of the Castle in the succeeding reign.
§ Oambam pro ea parte, qus est inter genu et pedcm, occurit in Stat. Cadubr. lib. 3, cap. 63. — Ducange,
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the small bone of which was broken in two pieces, and his foot was put out of joint, from which he died the Monday following in the Castle of Norwich. And they say no one was to blame, but that it was misfortune. " Neighbours attached : " John le Parchimn^ &c."
Nicholas Spigumel, whose death is here mentioned, seems to have been of a Nottinghamshire family. The Hundred Holls contain many complaints of his extortions, (in common apparently with all the men in authority in those times); for instance, the town of Elmham, Suffolk, presented in the Srd Edward I., that, '^ Nicholas Spigumel, while he was Sheriff, had the custody of a certain prisoner, whom he made to accuse five men of Elmham, and took from them 50 shillings ; and on his death, Boger de Colville, Sheriff next after him, again took them, and obtained from them five marks for the same cause.''
His brother Thomas is also named in the Hundred Bolls, in the presentment from the Hundreds of Humil- yard, Henstede, &c. ^' Item, Thomas Spigumel, Constable of the Castle in the time of Nicholas Espigumel, Sheriff, made a prisoner accuse Bichard le Moyne of Swerdeston, whereupon the said Bichard gave the said Thomas a hun- dred shillings, that he should dismiss him in peace.*'
'^Parishes of St. Stephen, St. Peter de Mannecroft, St. John de Bergstrete, and All Saints Swjnaemarket, sworn, present and say on their oaths. That, Thomas de Karleton being Constable of the Peace, there came a clamor thro the midst of the City of Norwich, that the
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disinherited Barons* approached the City to seize and bum it, the Tuesday next before Pentecost in the year 51,t the said Thomas directed Walter de Sterston, a Ser- jeant of the aforesaid town, that he should summon the Citizens; he resisting, the said Thomas reprimanded him on account of his ill conduct; and the said Walter an- swering him in a disgraceful manner, the said Thomas haying his naked sword swinging in his hand, gaye him a wound in the breast, whence he died. They say he had his death by the misfortune before-named, and not from felony.
^' Neighbours attached : ^' Geoffry de Wichingham, &c.
*' Chattels of the said Thomas appraised, and found of the yalue of two marks and a half, 3 shillings and 8 pence. Alexander de Weston, William le Rus, Walter de Weston, and Soger Bertelmen, to answer."
" William Sot, of Hemstede near Hapesburg, placed himself in the church of St. Gregory, the Monday before St. Bartholomew's day, in the year 51. The Coroners and Baili£i went and interrogated him why he placed him- self there ; and he confessed before them that he did so because of certain robberies he had committed, namely, on account of certain cloths he had stolen at Hemstede ; and he was taken at Yarmouth and there incarcerated, from whence he escaped, and therefore placed himself in
• In the Dieium de KewOworth^ which bean date the day before the Kalends of NoTember, 1266, the arbitrators refer to the insurgent Banms as " certain persons disherited."
t They had attacked and burnt the city in the middle of December in the same year (1266.)
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sanctuary. And he abjured the realm, and had protection to Sandwyz."
The privilege of sanctuary appears to have been introduced into England at a very early date. Ina, King of the West Saxons, in a code of laws promulgated in 693, expressly re- cognized it : by the laws of Alfred the Great, a. d. 887, the privilege is given for three nights to any flying to a church ; and William the Conqueror, in his fourth year, made express laws protecting the privilege. ,
" Under a due administration of justice," says Mr. Hal- lam,* " this privilege would have been simply and constantly mischievous ; as we properly consider it to be in those coun- tries where it still subsists. But in the rapine and tumult of the middle ages, the right of sanctuary might as often be a shield to innocence, as an impunity to crime. We can hardly regret, in reflecting on the desolating violence which pre- vailed, that there should have been some green spots in the wilderness, where the feeble and the persecuted could find refuge. How must this right have enhanced the veneration for religious institutions ! How gladly must the victims of internal warfare have turned their eyes from the baronial castle, the dread and scourge of the neighbourhood, to those venerable walls, within which not even the clamour of arms could be heard, to disturb the chaunt of holy men and the sacred service of the altar ! "
The church of St. Gregory, Norwich, appears to have been a more frequent place of reftige at this time, than any other in the city, with the exception of the Cathedral. And I in- cline to believe it continued to be so; for the present church, which is of a later (the Perpendicular) period, has large porches both to the north and south, with lofty chambers over them, probably for the accommodation of fugitives or of men placed there to admit them. On the belfry door is • Middle Age$, Chap. IX., Part 1, Vol. III., p. 361.
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• •- • •
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^Z^'^tty
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(/^ 1/ ^ot^c^Y^ ^yv^^^^cv^^
i// C/l^i>€^'-v C-^f. .
1.1... .U\i.r\'\. J 1;, ,i i,M,.^,,
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now fixed the relic figured in the annexed engraving ; but firom the traces upon the door of the south porch, it was there originally attached : the ring of the knocker is gone. This escutcheon is believed to be of the fourteenth century, and is exceedingly like one on the north door of All Saints, Pavement, York, figured in the Architectural Notes, in the York volume of the Archaeological Institute, page 7. It also bears a great resemblance to one on the nordi door of Durham Cathedral,* which is believed to have been used for the pur- pose of gaining admission to sanctuary. '^There were two chambers over the north door, (at Durham,) in which men slept, for the purpose of admitting fugitives at any hour of the night. As soon as any one was so admitted, the Galilee beU was immediately tolled, to give notice that some one had taken sanctuary."
At page SO of the same curious volume, f the ceremony of abjuration of the realm is described with unusual minuteness. " A man from Wolsingham is committed to prison for theft. He escapes, and seeks refuge in the Cathedral. He takes his stand before the shrine of St. Cuthbert, and begs for a coroner. John Baket, the coroner of Chester Ward, goes to him and hears his confession. The culprit, in the presence of the sacrist, sheriflT, tmder-sheriff, and others, by a solemn oath, renounces the kingdom. He then strips himself to his shirt, and gives up his clothing to the sacrist, as his fee. The sacrist restores the clothing : a white cross of wood is put into his hand ; and he is consigned to the under-sherifif, who commits him to the care of the nearest constable, who hands him over to the next ; and he to the next, in the direc- tion of the coast. The last constable puts him into a ship ; and he bids an eternal farewell to his country." J
The privilege of sanctuary was materially altered and re- stricted by various Acts of Henry VIII. : it was still further
♦ Sanctttarium Dunelmensef Preface, pp. xvi. and xxiv. t Sane, Dun. J' Sane. Dun., Notes, p. 218.
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abridged by an Act, 1 James I., c. 25, and finally suppressed by the 21st James I., c. 28, *
'^Parishes of St. Simon and Jude, St. Edmund, St Martin before the Gates of the Bishop, and St Peter de Hundegate, parishes of St. Michael at Plea, St. George before the Gates of St Trinity, St Clement, St Mary Parya, St. Yedast, St. Peter de Parmenterigate, St Mary in the Mar8h,t and St. Cuthbert, sworn, present and say on their oaths. That a certain man named Henry, son of Alan le Mercer, was found dead in the river at Norwich, with his neck twisted, the day of St Lucy the Virgin, [Dec. 13,] in the year 52. They also present and say on their oaths, that the said Henry came in the Vigil of St Edmund,:^ in the year aforesaid, to the house of Master William de London, || and there supped with the aforesaid Master William, Geoffiry Listeserdhing, and William son of Balph Gery, and after supper left them and went towards his own home, and, being a little intoxicated, fell from the bridge into the water, and was there exposed, as they say. And they say he was last at the house of Master William. Therefore order was given to attach Master William, Geoffirey Listeserdhing, attached by James Butiot, William Ladde, John de Couteshall, and Balph, Us brother.
'* William, son of Kalph de Gery, of Hockering, at- tached by William de Beauton, Rich' de Goutorp, William de Lopham, and Bichard de Wymundham.
* SofM. Dim., Preface, pp. zzii., zxiii.
t Here the City Coroner appears to haTe summoned men from the exempt Jurisdiction of the Prior, and to hare been obeyed without demur. t NoTember 19th. St. Edmund's day is on the 20th NoTember. II This house was in Fishergate Street, near St. Edmund's church.
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^' And it was said at the same time^ that he aad in his hand two black woollen mittens at the time he left the house of Master William^ and they were afterwards found in the hands of Geoffiry de Karleton, Faber. Therefore same Geoflry is attached, by Eobert de Ley, William de Atleburg, Bobert de Dunwich, and Hugo Stute.
''And that • • ♦ le Virly, the man-servant of the said Henry, and having the care of his house during all this time, failed to give notice either to Coroners or Bailiffs of his master's death ; and therefore he was ordered to be apprehended upon suspicion. Bailiffs to answer.
Simon, son of Simon Lindrap, found him first, for whom Herve le Mercer and John le Lindrap, brother of Simon, are pledges.
'' Neighbours attached are, " Goscelin le Specer, &c."
No less than twelve parishes are on this inquest. It is interesting to note the mode adopted to trace the perpetrators of the crime. Black woollen mittens seem to hare been ra- rities at the time.
''Parishes of St. Peter Hundegate, St Mary Panra^ St. Cuthbert, St. Peter de Parmenterigate, sworn, say. That a certain man named William de Bunham, Chaplain, placed himself in the Church of Saint Cuthbert, for a certain homicide perpetrated at Torp, as they say. The Baili& placed him in the custody of the aforesaid pa- rishioners, and he escaped without view of Coroners ; and this was in the Feast of Easter, in the year 52."
The watching of felons in sanctuary must have been a great burden and expense to the city. Blomefield records.
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(III., 176,) that " in 1491, the hurgesses in Parliament ac- quainted the assembly that they had been at great expense in getting an ordinance of Parliament, to authorize them in a quiet manner to take John Estgate out of the sanctuary ; the said John having entered the church and churchyard of St. Simon and Jude, and remained there for a long time past ; during which time, the city, being forced to keep watch over him day and night lest he should escape, was at great charge and trouble; upon which the expense was allowed. And, the ordinance being passed, John Pynchamour, one of the burgesses, went to the sanctuary, and asked Estgate whe- ther he would come out and submit to the law or no ; and, upon his answering he would not, he in a quiet manner went to him, led him to the Guildhall, and committed him to prison."
" Eliza, the daughter of Hamon Wotte, accused Ralph Muddock, pistor, Peter Cory, Geoflfry, servant of Laurence de Fomsete, Ralph Crabbe, Umfrey Hodis, Kay, servant of Adam le Blund, That iniquitously, and against the peace of our Lord the King, and feloniously, they killed Ralph, her brother, servant of William Payn, on Thursday next after the feast of St. Lucie, in the year 51, and stole from him seventeen pounds sterling. This accusation was made in full court at Norwich, the Tuesday after the close of Easter, in the year 52 ; and she brought pledges to prosecute; Hamon Wotte, her father, and Geof- fry de Horsted."
Endorsed on the roll, at the back of the above entry, is the following.
" John Popinel, John de Weston, Robert de Burghle, Robert Lax, David de Okie, John Sweting, William
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Herse^ John le Viner, Walter Woke, say on their oaths, that Ralph, servant of William Payn, was killed by the Barons, and that no one of the city could be accused of it."*
" In the year 56, it happened that John Casmus was found slain on the Tuesday t next after the feast of St. Laurence, by William de Brunham, Prior of Norwich, at the Gates of St. Trinity, on the eastern side. The said Prior having struck him with a certain *fauchone* on the head, from which blow he instantly died. The Co- roners are unable to make inquisition, from fear of a felonious assault." t
There is no doubt that this Prior, by his violent conduct, contributed materially to the unhappy disturbances which ended in the destruction of the Priory and very serious injury to the Cathedral. He was installed in 1260; and, being much blamed for the intemperance of his conduct during these disorders, resigned the Priory into the Bishop's hands, on the 28th September, 1272, the day after the King left the city. Blomefield says he was then infirm, and died February ISth, 1273; but the author of the Liber de An- tiquis Leg%bu8% attributes his death to another cause than
* The aboYO entries give the positive date of the attatk on the city by the Barons; viz., Thursday, the 17th December* 1266. Balph Wotte is the only name which has come down to us, of those who fell on that occasion.
t The 16th of August. The attack on the Cathedral commenced on Tues- day, the 9th of August.
X It seems very probable, from the temper of the Prior, that they would haye been attacked if they had ventured to make inquisition. At the same time, they must have very weU known, they were claiming jurisdiction where they had none — y\z. on the eoHem side of the gate.
{ The *' Book of Ancient Laws," belonging to the Corporation of London, contains lists of the Mayors and Sherifb of London, and a chronicle of
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infirmity : " Fostea^ infra dimidium annum proximo sequen- tem^ divina ultiane superveniente, ut credo, ille nequissimus miserabiliter mortuus est/'
He was succeeded by William de Kirkby.
'^ In the same year, it happened that a certain Gunilda, daughter of Thomas Campsy, was found killed the Tues- day next before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (this was on Wednesday, September 14th). Simon, the son of Thomas de Hoggeston, of Hockeringe, struck her with a certain arrow, which pierced her heart, whence she in- stantly died. He fled immediately after the felony (and had no chattels), and was afterwards taken and imprisoned in Norwich. He afterwards, by writ de odio et (itia, was liberated, but, having then committed a theft, was hung at Dereham."
The writ de odio et €Uia, after many attempts to preyent its abuse, was finally abolished by the S8th Edward III., c. 9. It appears to have been a writ issuing out of Chan- cery, to inquire whether a man killed another by misfortune or not.
The sheriffs and other influential men made large sums from the power this kind of writ placed in their hands. The aboye party probably made interest with the then sherifi*, who obtained the writ, and summoned a favourable jury. I find in the Abbrevtatio Placitorum* one return from SheriflTs to this writ, and one only: it is Rot. 11 of Pleas at Westminster
zemarkable oeeuirenoes from 1188 to 1274, apparently written at, oz shortly after, the time of the events recorded. The Camden Society has printed it ; and there is an admirable notice of it in the Journal of the Institnte for September, 1847. • Vol I., p. 64.
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in the reign of John^ and is made by the Sheriffs of Essex : *' The sheriffs signify^ &c., that the appeal that Matilda^ the daughter of Geoffiry^ made against William Bedell is (x^ia et per odium fern "
** In the 13th year of the reign of King Edward, in the time of Roger de Wilby, Adam le Clerk, James Nade, and William de Burwood, Bailiffs, It happened that Walter Eye was condemned in the Court of Norwich, and hung^ and appeared to be dead, but was afterwards discovered to be alive by WiUiam, the son of Thomas Stannard ; and the said Walter was carried in a coffin to the Church of Saint George before the Gates of St. Trinity, where he recovered in fifteen days, and then fled from that Church to the Church of the Holy Trinity, and there was until the King, upon his suit, pardoned him.'* *
* It was formerly a preyalent idea, that felons could only be suspended ibr a certain time ; and we hare all heard of the yarious derices of criminals to saTe themselYes : a sUver pipe, put down the trachea, was a common ex* pedient in schoolboy stories of highwaymen and murderers. It, howerer, never was so : the mode of authorising the Sheriff to do execution, was for the Judge to write opposite the name of the criminal, <* Let him be hanged by the neck ;" or, in the days of Latin and abbreviations, " sua. per coll. " fat iUMpmdaiur per eottum; and in Hale's Phaa of the Crown^ IL, 412, we read : *' In case a man condemned to die come to life after he is hanged, as the judgment is not executed tiUheia dead, he ought to be hung up again."
I can meet with but two well-authenticated instances of criminals coming to life after execution. They will be found in Caulfield*s Remarkable Peraona, Vol. m. Anne Green, executed at Oxford, in 1650, for child-murder, hung half an hoiur ; and yery violent means were resorted to by her friends to shorten her sufferings. After all, when the surgeons came to prepare for dissecting the body, they perceived some rattling in her throat, and used proper means for her recovery. In fourteen hours she began to speak, and the next day talked and prayed heartily. They then obtained a pardon for her, and seeured the life their skill had restored.
WiUiam DeweU, executed at Tyburn in 1740, after hanging the customary time, was cut down and carried to Surgeonei' Hall for disseetion. When the
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The other Boll, although containing miscellaneous returns, is chiefly occupied with a subject which bears a prominent place in the later entries of the Bolls I have just closed — ^the attack on the Cathedral. To the article, "De utlagatis et fugitivis, et si quis redierit post utlag sine waranto," ** They say that of outlaws they know nothing, nor of fugitives re- turned. They say that John Buttesmuch, a fugitive, fled for the burning and robbery in the Church of the Holy Trinity ; Bartholomew de Thaseburgh, Tanner, Walter, his brother, . . Bobert de Thaseburgh (who is dead), William le Blund, Clerk," * &c. [twenty-six are enumerated.] " All these were indicted before G. de Preston and his companions, and after- wards returned ; when the said Gilbert made proclamation, that all who desired to come in peace were to be permitted to do so, finding surety, f And Bobert de Akle, Clerk, Wariii, Chaplain of the parish of St. Olave, William le Cha- loner," &c. [fifiy-six are enumerated] " were indicted for the
attendants were washing the body, signs of life were observed, and, the breath coming quicker and quicker, several ounces of blood were taken from him ; and in about two hours he was able to sit up, though speechless, and appa- rently in great agony. He was conveyed back to Newgate, and the next day was quite recovered. The extraordinary circumstances of the case operated so far in mitigation of his former sentence, that it was commuted to trans- portation for life.
* As I before said, many of the above parties were dead in the 14th of £dw. I. ; and the survivors appear then to have relied on the King's Charter, restoring the privileges to the city, in the thirteenth year of his reign. The justices, however, remanded them to prison, and directed the sheriff to account to the king for their chattels.
t I find no other record of this Proclamation.
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same crime, and fled, and never returned." Although, how- ever, at the time this presentment was made they had not returned, they seem shortly afterwards to have done so ; for the fourth menabrane contains a list of nearly all of them, together with the value of their chattels, and the names of the persons in whose custody they then were. Of the par- ties included in the list, no less than thirteen are described as "Chaplains" or *^ Clerks;" confinning Cotton*s account, that many of the city and country clergy were on the citi- zens' side.
The chroniclers of this event are divided into two parties ; one throwing all the blame on the citizens, the other on the negligence of the men placed by the Prior in the steeple to "vex" the citizens. The "Liber de Antiquis Legibus," before referred to, has a long circumstantial account of the latter ^character ; and it adds to our previous knowledge the important fact, that the Prior conveyed a large body of men from Yarmotdh* by water, into the monastery, to assist him in his schemes. This curious account of the transaction was brought to the notice of the members of the Archeeological Institute, at their Norwich meeting, by Mr, Hudson Turner, one of their secretaries. It was not, however, then known that two copies of this very account existed in the Norwich Kecord Boom. The " Liber Albus " contains one ; and the other is on a paper roll. Both give the name of the book from which the extract was made, and the folio at which it would be met with.
It will be observed, that the above presentment expressly states the parties to have been concerned in the burning and robbery of the Cathedral, and that this is a return made by
* The disputes of the Norwich citizens with the men of Yannouth about river jurisdiction, were second only in frequency and acrimony to those with the Priors. The Priors had a cell, too, at Yarmouth. VOL. II. U
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the citizens themselves. They would hardly have stated this, if it had not been a well-known fact ; or, if they had been compelled to make a false presentment, they would have taken care to destroy it, as soon as the purpose it was in- tended to serve, was answered. Both parties, no doubt, were greatly to blame.
The farther entries show, moreover, that, notwithstanding the dread^l events that had just taken place, after so much blood had been shed,* so many public buildings and private dwellings demolished, and such a fearful waste of treasure had been occasioned by these paltry bickerings about juris- diction, the parties could not, even for a time, abstain from advancing afresh their pretensions, — ^from again renewing the strife which had already cost them so dear.f It woidd scarcely be credited, were it not upon record, that these contentions, beginning nearly a century before the events above referred to, continued down to the dissolution of the monasteries, — that for a period of above three centuries these disgraceful quarrels were almost continually going on. i
Yet so it was ; and so, it is to be feared, that, " mutatis mutandis," it will ever be. Generation afler generation have
• In addition to the many liyes lost during the fight, upwards of thirty people were executed when the king was in the city ; hundreds of others fled» some returning after fourteen years, only to be remanded to a prison.
t ** They present that the Prior claims yiew of frankpledge in Newgate." '*The same Prior claims view of frankpledge in Holm Street."
X From among many of similar character I take the following incident, A Sergeant at Mace arrested a felon on Pahn Sunday, 1507, on Tombland, on the ** disputed territory," and was taking him off to the Guildhall prison : the Prior, Bronde, (afterwards Wolsey's successor at St. Alban's) with many of the monks, attempted a rescue. The citizens, and subsequently the sheriff, joined in the fight. The sheriff had just succeeded in laying hold of the prisoner, when one of the monks drew the sheriff's gown tight behind, pulled >>iwi down backward, and held him, whilst others got the prisoner from his dutch, and led him off to sanctuary in the Cathedral.
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passed away, and the " view of frankpledge," and the other exciting causes of turmoil, have long been numbered with the things that were ; but, despite these changes in laws and customs and individuals, human nature remains the same, and we of the nineteenth century are no less prone than were our forefathers in the thirteenth, to strain after some fancied privilege, — to ** snap at the shadow and leave the substance."
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^tmwck» on a jFigute
REPBESENTED ON THE ROOD-LOFT SCREENS
OP .
OATELEY AND OAWSTON CHURCHES, BY THE REV. JUJOES BULWER.
The attention of the Society was lately called to a re- markable figure on one of the panels of the Screen in the church of the village of Gateley. This Saint — for such his situation^ as well as the glory round his head^ shows him to be — holds in his left hand a boot, in which may be seen the semblance of an imp or devil ; whether in the act of ascend- ing or descending, may be doubtful. The legend, to be pre- sently noticed, would lead us to suppose the latter. The right arm of the Saint is extended, and the thumb and two first fingers of his hand raised towards the boot.*
* As regards this poeition of the hand and fingers, some discussion took place at our Quarterly Meeting in October, 1847 ; and two letters shortly after appeared in the Norwich papers, in one of which the writer contended, that the gesture was admonitory ; while Mr. Hart, the author of the other, gave several reasons for his supposing it to be benedictional. Without entering upon the subject at any length, one point may be mentioned as haying escaped both correspondents ; namely, that the gesture is not, as
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FIGURE ON THE GATELY SCFUCEN.
jr Sa »j^
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When this painting was first noticed, the lower part of the panel was hidden by the stairs of the pulpit ; but letters of
thej have assumed it to be, the same in the subjects of the two paint- ings. In the Cawston figure, as will be seen by the annexed outline, the thumb and fore-finger only are extended, the rest being contracted into the palm : in that at Gateley, the thumb and first ttoo fingers are elevated. Undoubtedly the position of the hand in the former would denote admoni- tion ; an idea which would be conveyed by its use in oratory, or in common conversation ; and that is its signification in chirology, on reference to the curious work published in 1644, by John Bulwer, entitled, " Chirologia, or the Katurall Language of the Hand." The explanation given to a drawing of a hand in this posture is, ** terrorem incutio." The holding up of the fore-finger, says he, is a gesture of threatening or upbraiding. Hence this finger is called minaz or minitans, by the Latines : *'quod eo minas inferimus et in exprobrando utimur." Whether the screen-pamters and medieval artists adopted this interpretation in their works, I know not. It would appear from the authorities cited by Mr. Hart, that in making the sign of the cross, whether as an accompaniment to a blessing, or in the performance of a miracle (for there seems no reason why the gesture in the one case should difier from that in the other) the thumb and two fingers were ex- tended, as expressive of the Trinity. It may, perhaps, be hypereriticism to distinguish between the two representations of Johannes Schorn, and to suppose that the artists intended to represent dijSerent actions by the two attitudes : but if not, it is possible that in the painting at Gateley, the Saint may be in the act of performing the miracle, as Mr. Hart suggests, through the efficacy of the sign of the cross ; whUe in that at Cawston, he is holding up the finger in admonition, or ** terrorem incutiens,'' after having performed it. The artist, in the latter case, might think, in speculating upon what would be the probable conduct of the Saint, that he would not be disinclined, under the circumstances, to upbraid tlie captive fiend; or that, being certain of his auditor, he might be loth to lose so good an oppor^- tunity of enforcing a little wholesome advice ; or that he might even have recourse to threats to restrain his captive's efforts to regain his liberty, as the artist could have no reason for supposing that the fiend would be alto- gether satisfied with the accommodation provided for him in *< the bote ; ^* especially as the legend does not say how long Master Schorn kept him there. I fear, however, " C. T." will scarcely accept this suggestion, as he is of opinion that elevating two fingers is an admonitory gesture also. I do not tmderstand Mr. Hart to maintain that the artist intended it to be benedictional in one sense : to convey the idea that the saint was blessing the tenant of the boot in the same spirit as that in which the benevolent Scotch pastor, at the end of his Sunday's discourse, used to '*pray for
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an early form being clearly marked on the pedestals of otter figures not concealed by the stairs or pews, it was suggested that a name might possibly stiill be legible at the base of this panel also. An interest was thus created about it, which was strengthened by the recollection, that a similar figure on the screen at Cawston had baffled all the ingenious guesses f of our ecclesiologists. Inquiries were made ; and a member of the Committee, acquainted with the parish of Gateley, un- dertook the temporary removal of the obstructions. This energy was rewarded by his distinctly reading on the label.
mjsTpRmmmom
Thus far curiosity was gratified ; but a question, and one which has proved difficult to solve, presented itself to the Society, — Who was Master John Schom?
With the hope that I may assist in answering this question, I have collected, for the pages of our Archaeological Journal,
the poor deil ;" but that we are to suppose that the Samt has made, or is making, the sign of the cross while performing a miracle. There can be no doubt but that in either picture the same feat — to wit, "the conjuring the devil into the boot" — is meant to be represented; and piobably the artists, without any great particularity as to whether the Saint should be holding up one finger or two, also meant to represent the same gesture. If so, and the question be whether the Saint is exercising power through the efficacy of the sacred symbol; or whether, having exercised it, his gesture is one of admonition, adhuc sub judice lis est: unless, indeed, the sign of the cross was never made either with one finger extended or with two, and the artist was so weU versed in each particular posture adopted in his church, as not to have made the mistake. Mr. Hart's theory, suggested at a time when no particulars of Johan Schom*s history were known, was certainly very far from improbable ; and it is very materially supported by the legend which has since been brought to our notice, and particularly by that account of the imaffe at Marston given by Dr. London, t One of these was, Boot-elf: St. Botolph.
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PIGIJR^ ON THE GAWBTON SCREEN.
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such scattered notices as are within my reach^ and have added^ as illustrations^ two outline drawings of the remark- able paintings.
It is clear, from inspection, that both are intended to re- present the same personage. The caps, cloaks, and hoods are of similar form and colour — the dress of a Doctor of Divinity ; and the same cast of features is, I think, observ- able in both. The imp in the Cawston painting differs firom the same object in that at Gateley, but is equally significant of the Spirit of Evil, over which the Saint appears to be displaying his power.
The first glimpse of information about this unknown sub- ject came, as is frequently the case in matters of research, through the correspondence of our active and learned Vice- President, Mr. Turner, who had been referred to the Histo- ries of St. George's Chapel at Windsor, for an account o^ the Shrine of Sir John Schom. This shrine^ Bishop Beau- champ, who was appointed Dean of the College of Wiadsor March 4, 1478, placed in the chapel at the East comer of the South aisle, having obtained a license from the Pope to remove it from North Marston whithersoever he pleased; and it existed at Windsor for about a century. Afterwards, its site was occupied by the moniunent of Edward, Earl of Lincoln, Lord High Admiral in the time of Elizabeth ; in honor of whom the chapel was thenceforth called the Lincoln Chapel.
In Sir Jeffirey Wyatville's History of the CcMtle, Sfc., are given some details of expenses from the Fabric Soils * of the College, which point to this removal of the shrine. In the 19th and 20th of Edward TV., the expenditure on account of the works at the chapel amounted to £1249. 18^. 5jrf. ; and there are among the items, "for making and carving
* ** Compotos noYS ffidificationxs," in the Exchequer.
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thirty feet of crests y * thirty feet of trayles, f eight ItTUels for the enterclose of the chapel of Master John Schome : " and again^ " for thirty-one feet of trayles in the same chapel." This was in 1481, soon after the living of North Marston had come into the possession of the College.
The value of this shrine is gleaned £rom Elias Ashmole, who, in his ** List of Seizures and Surrenders and Losses of the Lands of the CoUege of Windsor," says, " And lastly, the College lost at least 1000 marks per annum upon the Reformation of Religion, in the profit made by St. Anthony's Pigs, which the appropriation of the Hospital of St. An- thony's, London, had brought to it ; and 7W less than £500. per annum, the offerings of Sir John Scheme's shrine at North Marston in Buckinghamshire, — a very devout man, of great veneration with the people, and some time Rector there."
This veneration of the people is accidentally confirmed by a passage in the Preface to Gerard Leigh's Accedence of Armorte, first printed in 1662. Speaking of a class whom he termed "neyther gentle-ungentle, or imgentle-gentile, but verie stubble cxirres," he says, " One of them was called to worshippe J in a Citie within the province of Middlesex, unto whom the Herehaught came, and him saluted with joy of his new office, requesting of him to see his cote; who called unto him his mayde, commanding her to fetch his cote; which beeing brought, was of cloth, garded with a burgunian garde of bare velvet, well bawdefied on the halfe-placard, and squalioted in the fore-quarters. * Lo ! ' quoth the man to the Herehaught, * here it is : if ye wiU buy it, ye shall have time of payment, as first to pay halfe in hand, and the rest
* CreaU : cornices, running battlements, or any crowned moulding.
t Trayles : open-work, trellis.
} Honour : pro\)ably to be Mayor or Sheriff.
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by-and-by.* And, with much boste, he sayde, ' he ware not the same since he came last from Sir* John Schom.^ "
What this " very stubble curre " alluded to, iu his boast of not wearing his "bawdefied cote," since his last visit to Sir John Schom, — whether he means that he was cured of his pride and vanity in such things, or that he had not been cured of his "agow" or his *'gowt," and so was unable to wear it, does not very distinctly appear; nor whether his pilgrimage had been to the image of his benefactor, or to the well which he had blessed. The Herehaught concludes with wishing aU such "evermore to be infected with the gowt." Marston being iu the adjoining county to that in which the pilgrim had been *^ called to worship," he would have no great distance to go for his remedy. There appears to have been a chalybeate spring in the parish, which would testify to the Saint's sagacity, perhaps more than to the effi- cacy of his benediction.
Among the Letters relating to the Suppression of Monas- teries, printed for the Camden Society, is one (No. 106) dated August Slst, (1538,) from Dr. London, one of the commissioners for pulling down superstitious pictures, orna- ments, &c., to Lord Cromwell, in which mention is made of an image of the same saint, as follows: — " At Merston, M'. Johan Schom stondeth blessing a bote, whereunto they do say he conveyed the devil. He ys moch sowgt for the agow. If it be your lordeschips pleasur, I schaU sett that botyd ymage in a nother place, and so do with other in other parties where lyke seking ys." And again, writing to Sir Richard Rich, on the 17th of September, among other spoils which he enumerates as in his custody, and which he is about to send
• Ecclesiastics were thus designated. See Ttoelfth Night, Act lYr, Scene 2.
** Nay, I pr'ythee put on this gown and this beard ; Make him believe thou art Sir Topas the Curate."
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away, he says, " and thys wek following I will send uppe M^ Johan Schom, and so as many as I find."
This Saint also appears to have been in repute at Canter- bury, and an object of veneration to pilgrims, as appears from the Play of The Four P^Sy by John Heywood,* — ^^ A very merry Enterlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Poticary, a Peddar." The dialogue is opened by the Palmer, who, after apologizing for his rudeness, says —
*' I am a Palmer, as you see,
Whiche of my life muche part have spent
In many a far and fair countrie,
As pilgrims doc of good intent.
At Jerusalem have I been,
Before Christe's blessed sepulture :
The mount of Calvary I hare seen —
A holy place ye may be sure."
And so on, enumerating a long catalogue of places he had visited ; among which, he had been
" At Waltam, and at Walsingham ; And at the good rood of Dagnam ; At Saint Comelies ; at Saint James in Gales ; And at Saint Winefred's WeU in Wales ; At our Lady of Boston ; at St. Edmimd's Bury ; And streight to Saint Patrick's purgatory ; At Ridibone, and at the blood of Hailes, Where pilgrims' paines right muche availes ; At Saint Dayies, and at Saint Denice ; At Saint Mathew, and Saint Mark in Venice ; At Maister John Shome in Canterbury, The great God of Kateward, at King Henry." &c., &c.
• John Heywood lived in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. When Elizabeth came to the throne, he fled to Mechlin in Brabant, on account of his religion, and died there about 1566. His works were printed in quarto (black letter) in 1666 ; and this play is re* printed in the first volume of Dodsley*s collection.
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The Pardoner gives him little consolation for his pains; for he says, —
*« And when ye have gone as far as you can, For all your labour and ghostely intent, Ye will come home ia wise as ye went."
The Historians of Buckinghamshire, repeating after each other, give the following authentic particulars of Schom's reputation : —
Lysons, in his Buckinghamshire, pp. 603, 4, writes, that North Marston " Church is a handsome Gothic structure. There is a tradition, that the chancel was built with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Scheme, a very devout man, of great veneration with the people, who was rector of North Marston about the year 1290 ; and it is said, that the place became populous and flourishing in consequence of the great resort of persons to a well which he had blessed. This story stands upon a better foimdation than most vulgar traditions : the great tithes of North Marston are still appro- priated to the Dean and Canons of Windsor ; who, before the Reformation, might, without difficulty, have rebuilt the chancel, as very probably they did, with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Schorne ; for we are told, that they were so productive, that, on an average, they amounted to £500. per annum, (equal at least to £5000. according to the present value of money). Sir John Scheme, therefore, although his name is not to be found, appears to have been a Saint of no small reputation. The common people in the neighbourhood still keep up his memory by many traditional stories. Browne Willis says, that in his time there were people who remem- bered a direction-post standing, which pointed the way to Sir John Scheme's shrine."
And Lipscomb, who closes these accounts, says, " John Scheme was a pious Rector of North Marston in Bucldng-
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hamshirc, about the year 1290, held in great veneration for his virtues, which his benediction had imparted to a holy well in his parish, and for his miracles ; one of which, the feat on conjuring the devil into a boot, was considered so remarkable, that it was represented in the East window of his church."
The advowson of the church of North Marston was ap- propriated to the DeaQ and Canons of Windsor in 1480, by the Prior and Convent of Dunstaple ; (the licence * of Edw. IV. having been obtained for that purpose,) in exchange for the advowson of the church of Wedenbeck in Northampton- shire. And we must now, therefore, turn to the records of another foundation for our information ; and here the notices are so scanty that little can at present be ascertained as cer- tain, although something may be reasonably conjectured about this venerable Rector.
In the Annates Prioratus de Dunstaple, I find, ''Anno Domini 1233. Mortuo Roberto, Rectore Ecclesiaj de Mer- stona ad presentationem nostram substitutus Alanus, reddi- turus nobis annuatim quinque libras, de quibus solvemus Hospitali quatuor marcas." t
This and other entries show, that the presentation to the rectory of Marston was at this early time in the Prior and Convent of Dunstaple; and it is reasonable to infer, that as they elected one of their own monks in 1233 to the va- cancy, in 1290 one also might be rector; and hence Johannes Schom would be an Augustine monk at Dunstaple. And although his name may not be enumerated in any authorized catalogue of Saints, his reputation as one might be well es- tablished. Were it necessary to cite an instance in support
• See Fat. 19, Edw. IV., p. 1, m. 13, de Eccles. de K. Merstone, Bucks, approp. et danda capell® S. Georgii, Windsor. The licence is dated 16th NoTcmber.
t ** Hospitolis Jerusalem in Anglia," at ClerkenwcU.
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of so very obvious a fact, Henry VI., who is represented on a panel of this same screen at Gateley as a Saint, was never canonized; the ceremony, though contemplated, and the preparatory steps commenced, never having actually taken. place. (Wilkins' Condliay Vol. III., p. 640; where the petition of Henry VII. to the Pope is printed.) And although it appears that there was a painting on glass, an image, and a shrine of this Saint in North Marston Church, and another at Canterbury, still at what period Master Schorn's claims to veneration were established, in what year he was canonized, if at all, or how his reputation reached the remote villages of Norfolk, are points in his history which, at present, cannot be satisfactorily explained.
N.B. Gateley was in the gift of the Abbey of Creak, a society of Austin Canons like that at Dunstaple. Perhaps occasional interchanges of good offices passed between them, and the merits of the Saint might have travelled from Dun- staple to Creak ; but I cannot trace any connection between the patrons of Cawston and the Augustines. The figure at Cawston is executed on paper ; and this and three adjoining subjects have been fixed over others of earlier date and ruder execution : the date of this screen is about 1460.
The figures at Cawston are twenty in number. On the right-hand side, facing East, are St. James the Less, St. Bartholomew, St. Philip, St. Simon, St. Jude, St. Matthew, St. Matthias, John Schorn.
On the left, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Andrew, St. James the Greater, St. John, St. Thomas, St. Helena, St. Agnes.
And on the doors are the four doctors of the church : St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, and St. Augustine.
At Gateley the doors no longer exist ; and the figures are eight. The four on the right hand are a Pope, Henry VI., a Bishop, and John Schorn. On the left, four females :
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S*\ Adria, S^*. Elizabeth, S". Maria, and S«*. Puella* Ridi- bown ; and all are of inferior merit to those at Cawston.
* This Saint was probably named after the same Ridibone mentioned in the yerses of Hejwood ; but the precise locality can only be a matter of conjecture, there being four places in England of a similar name, — Radboum, Warwickshire; Radboume, Derbyshire ; Redboum, Herts; and Redboume, Lincolnshire.
Redboum, in Hertfordshire, was a place of extraordinary sanctity, the alleged reliques of St. Amphibalus (St. Alban's instructor) having been fotmd there in the year 1178. Before they teere translated to St, Albania, seyeral wonderful miracles are said to haye been wrought. A girl (puella J, for instance, of fifteen years of age, who had been a cripple from her birth, was at once restored to health and activity. — {Matthia Paris, Hist. M<yor, Edit. Wats, p. 135.)
At a much later period, — viz. in the year 1344, — it is said that a damsel (puella) falling into a mill-stream near this place, passed under the wheel, and was taken out lifeless ; yet, having none of her bones broken, she was, according to the legend, restored to life through the instrumentality of St. Alban, invoked by her disconsolate parents in their distress. —(TTa^tn^Aam, Edit. Francofurti, 1603, p. 164.)
That one of the damsels, thus miraculously restored, may haye subse- quently deyoted herself to a religious life, and acquired a place in the local calendar, as " Sancta Puella lUdiboton,** is at least by no means impossible ; and this is the best conjecture that I haye to offer, in the absence of any positive evidence. The objects of miraculous interference were, in the middle ages, not unfrequently raised to the dignity of Saints, St. Lazarus and St. Longinus being two examples which occur to my recollection.
At Redboum, Herts, was a cell of Benedictine monks (connected with the mitred Abbey of St. Aiban's) ; and the Priory church was richly furnished with reliques, as may be seen by a reference to Dugdale's Monasticon.
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$ro\)ert)fii«
ADAGES AND POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS,
STILL F&ESEBYED
IN THE PARISH OF IRSTEAD.
OOKKUHICATBD BT
THE EEVEKEND JOHN GUNN, l&cctor of ^ ^artol^.
After the luminous and comprehensive dissertation upon the Superstitions, Old Customs, Saws, and Proverbs of East Anglia, subjoined by Mr. Forby to his Vocabulary , a fear may be justly entertained lest any attempt to add to his labours should be considered unnecessary, if not presumptuous.
But it must be observed that what is now offered to our Society is, if not of a different description, yet altogether upon a different scale. The traditions of a single Parish^ retained in the memory of a single individual^ are all that I tender; yet even these may deserve to be recorded. It is not only that, as the earth is composed of atoms and the sea of drops, so likewise, in matters of a most dissimilar nature, a whole can only be formed by the collection of detailed minutiae ; but what is here attempted to be preserved is of a nature peculiarly liable to be lost. And it is singular that very few of the Proverbs, &c., derived from Mrs. Lubbock, (which for brevity's sake I will call " her Sayings,") are in Mr. Forby's East Anglian Collection, — a smaller proportion than is to be found in other CoUections made in distant
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places. I venture therefore to send them ; in the hope that, although they be only the dicta of an old washerwoman, they may contribute to the amusement of the Members of our Society.
They have been faithfully committed to writing from time to time, just as they fell from her mouth, as nearly as possible in her own racy language ; and, though now known to few besides herself, they are strictly traditional, having been handed down from generation to generation. When asked how she came by them, she replied that she learned them, when a child, of her father, who was very fond of old proverbs.
From their traditional origin, and still more from their being founded on observation, and from the universality of the subjects they apply to, it was reasonable to suppose that they were not confined to this neighbourhood, but circulated in other places. And such, as already hinted, is the case: their range is in many instances very wide ; for not only are several of them, — among others, that relating to the moult- ing of the cock and hen, — embodied among the Adages and Proverbs corrected and arranged by Mr. Ainslabie Denham, privately printed at Newcastle ; but, what would less be an- ticipated, some of the sayings of the Irstead washerwoman are to be seen in a foreign publication, entitled L^ Annie de PAncienne Belgique, par le Docteur Goremans.*
The prophecy of the man with three thumbs, Mr. Ewing recognised as one of Nixon's ; with this variation, that he should hold the horses of three kings in the battle, (for which the singular conformation of hand is clearly designed,) instead of one only, as mentioned by Mrs. Lubbock.
The prophecies attributed to Mother Shipton are most widely diffused. Yorkshire is reputed to have been her native county; but there is scarcely a place in which her
* For this mterestmg infonnation I am indebted to Miss Qumey, of Kortlurepps Cottage. The work was published at Brussels, 1S42.
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vaticinations are not known ; and generally they have refer- ence^ as is the case with those about Bromholm Priory ^ &c.y to the immediate locality in which they are current. Mother Shipton, if indeed she had a real existence, must either have been gifted with ubiquity and superhuman powers of locomo- tion ; or else she may be considered " a very Hercules of sayings;" for her name has served as a hook to hang them on; just as that of the demigod formed a nucleus for the collection of marvellous exploits.
Some, also, of Mrs. Lubbock's proverbs are printed by Fuller and Ray. The propriety of republishing these may be questioned; but I hope the Society will agree with the foUowing remarks of Sir Francis Palgrave, in a letter to Mr. Dawson Turner : — ^^'Mrs. Lubbock makes her saws Nor- folk, because she is Norfolk; and it would be a thousand pities to lose them. Never mind that spirit of refinement which would reject them. If they are similar to any already published, that makes no difference. They are historical monuments of the subsistence of an ancient Ethos with a single individual."
It has been suggested to me, tjiat it would be desirable to add, by way of introduction, some particulars of her history. It is comprised in the Parish Register-Books of births, marriages, and deaths, where,
** To be bom and die, Of rich and poor makes aU the history."
Education she had none ; but, as is usual, her memory and imagination have been exercised the more on that account. In the year 1813 she was left a widow, with several children; and she has since maintained herself by carrying on the humble occupation already mentioned. That employment she still continues, in her eightieth year ; declaring that she would ^* rather die in a ditch than go into the workhouse ; " and such is her spirit of independence, that she manifested
VOL. II. X
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some unwillingness to receive even out-door relief, till com- pelled by the severe winter of 1846, which, she observed, made her sick for crumbs, like the birds. Her very retentive memory she preserves, at her advanced age. She is *^ full of wise saws and modern instances ;" and can repeat numerous anecdotes and poems of considerable length, with good emphasis, as well as great accuracy. Her intellect is still vigorous and powerful. I will not, however, add more by way of preface ; but will beg leave to append in a postscript a few remarks, which the perusal of her Sayings suggests.
SAINTS' DAYS, &c.
Candlemaa.
** Candlemas Day, the good housewife's goose lay, Yalentme Day,* youn and mine may."
** If Candlemas Day be fair and clear, The shepherd would rather see his wife on a bier."
<< As far as the sun shines into the cottage on Candlemas Day, So far will the snow blow in, afore Old May."
" The former should have on Candlemas Day Half his turnips and half his hay."
« You should, on Candlemas Day, Throw candle and candlestick away."
** At least," says Mrs. Lubbock, " all good housewives do ;
for 'tis a shame to burn a candle after Candlemas Day."
" At Candlemas The cold comes to us."
** When Candlemas Day is come and gone. The snow won't lie on a hot stone."
• « Valentine's Day," (Mrs. Lubbock says,) ** used in old times, and ought still, to be held on the 13th, and not on the 14th of February."
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St. Matthias' Day.
" If the bushes hang of a drop before sunrise, it will be a dropping season. If the bushes be dry, we may look for a dry summer. In 1845, the bushes hung of a drop ; and it was a very rainy summer. In 1846, the bushes were quite dry ; and the summer was unusually so." *
" St. Matthias' Day is called the Farmer's Day."
'* So many frosts in March, So many frosts in May."
Saint Mark's Eve.
" The Brakes now drop their seed at midnight. The top rolls up quite close, and the seed falls."
She maintaiiis that there are three plants which never flower, — the Brake, the smooth Burdock, and the rank Nettle.
Robert Stafl^, who formerly kept the Maid's Head Inn at Stalham, opposite to the church, told Mrs. Lubbock that he and two other men had been able to tell who were going to die or to be married in the course of the year. They watched the church porch, opposite to the house, on St. Mark's Eve. Those who were to die went into the church singly, and stayed there ; and those who were to be married went in in couples, and came out again ; and this Staff had seen. Mrs. Lubbock has often heard him say so; but he would never tell anybody who were to die or to be married, *^for he did not watch with that intent."
Thus we read in V Annie de FAncienne Belgique, — " On dit que celui qui va, la nuit de St. Marc, sur le portail d'une ^glise, entre minuit et une heure, voit les esprits de ceux qui, en son endroit, devront mourir pendant I'ann^e."
• This rule has held true, to her knowledge, for the last twenty-fiye years.
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Good Friday.
^^ If work be done on that day, it will be so unlucky that it will all have to be done over again."
Christmas Day,
" On Christmas Eve, at midnight, the cows and cattle rise and turn to the east; and the horses in the stable, as far as their halters will permit them. A horse will always rise with his forepart first; a cow with her hindpart first. On Christmas Eve the horse will, on rising, stay some time on his knees, and move his head about, and blow over the manger." (Here she imitated the movement of the horse's head to and fro, and the noise the animal makes on the oc- casion.)
She says that Mr. Robert Edrich, of Irstead, farmer, once when she was present, on observing this reverent demeanour of his horses, exclaimed, *^ Ah ! they have more wit than we."
She laments that the change firom the old to the new style, and "the want of the former days being observed at the present time, makes the old ones wear out."
When she lived with Mr. Bourne at Briggate, about 1781, her master kept new Christmas Day, according to the law of the land ; but on old Christmas Day, nobody ever worked ; and the labouring men, women, and children, had a dinner given them.
"Once," she says, "she recollects there being much ar- gimient about which was the real Christmas Day, — the old or the new; and in order to settle the point, some men at Forster's public-house in Homing, where they were holding a purse-club dinner, on the former of these days, agreed to decide which it was, by observing the flowering of the Rose- mary. Three of them went out and gathered a bimch at eleven o'clock at night. It was then in bud. They threw
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it upon the table in another room^ and did not look at it until after midnight, when they went in, and found the blooms just dropping off." The Rosemary, she has heard her mother say, used to flower on old Christmas Day.
The Weather^ 8fc.
"When a sundog comes on the South side of the sun, there will be fair weather ; when on the North side, there will be foul. The sun then fares to be right muddled, and crammed down by the dog."*
'* Saturday's new and Sunday's full Never was good, and never wuU.**
" If you see the old moon with the new, there will be stormy weather."
" If it rains on a Sunday before Mass, It rains all the week, more or less."
" If it rains on a Sunday before the church doors are open, it will rain all the week, more or less ; or else we shall have three rainy Sundays."
" If it rains the first Thursday after the moon comes in, it will rain, more or less, all the while the moon lasts; especially on Thursdays."
*^If there be bad weather, and the sun does not shine all the week, it will always show forth some time on the Satui-day."
" This will not be," said Mrs. Lubbock, in October, 1846, *^ a hard winter ; because it has been a good year only for the squirrel and the hedgehog : no hips nor haws ; nothing but acorns."
"If Noah's ark sJiow many days together, there will be foul weather. It shew last February, forty days ; and, after that, the weather was very bad, wet, and stormy."
* The Dog consists of two black spots, which, Mrs. Lubbock says, can be seen with the naked eye ; but it hurts her's to look at them.
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" On three nights of the year, it never lightens'* (t.e, clears up) " anywhere ; and if a man could know those nights, he would not turn a dog out."
Mrs. Lubbock is in the habit of making inquiries about the signs of the weather and of the times ; and the other day, as her own sight would not allow her to ascertain the fact, she asked a person whether there were any ash-keys ; adding, that when they failed, there would be a change in the Go- yernment, and great disturbances; and that there had not been a failure of them for sixty years. (N.B. There are very few this year, 1848.)
She inquired also of Mr. Edrich, if his cock had moulted, and requested him to make out whether the cock or the hen moulted first; with reference to which she repeated the following lines :
" If the hen moult before the cock, We get a winter as hard as a rock. If the cock moult before the hen, We get a winter like a spiing."
** We shall have a severe winter," she said, October 19th, 1848, '* because the swallow and the martin took such pains to learn their young ones to fly. They are going a long journey, to get away from the cold that is coming. 'Tis singular that they should know this ; but they do."
" The weather will be fine," she says, " while the rooks play pitch-halfpenny." "Nonsense! Mrs. Lubbock," a person observed, " they have not a halfpenny among them." " 'Tis all the same," (she rejoined) : " 'tis their intrust ;" (interest, i, e. gain.) " They were flying in flocks, and some of them would stoop down and pick up worms, imitating the action of a boy playing pitch-halfpenny; and this picking up the worms is their interest."
In August, 1846, she prophesied there would be a severe winter and deep snow, because of the large " snow banks " (t. €, white fleecy clouds) " which hung about the sky." In
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1845, she knew there would be a failure in some crop, "be- cause the evening star rode so low. The leading star (e. e. the last star in the Bear's Tail) was above it all the summer." She feared the failure would have been in the wheat, till she saw the man^s face in it; and then she was comfortable, and did not think of any other crop; but afterwards she found that the potatoes were blighted. She is of opinion that the potatoe-blight was caused by lightning, because the turf burnt so sulphur otisly. "The lightning," she says, " carries a burr round the moon, and makes the roke rise in the marshes, and smell strong."
On one occasion, when a complaint was made to her that the linen which she sent home, after washing it, was damp; or, from the sensation it caused the wearer, rather clammy ; she maintaiacd, she was "sure it was wholesome; for she put plenty of salt in, to keep the thunder out." There is reason to believe, from some hints which she let fall as to "bad things being about," that the salt was employed by her to avert foul spirits, as well as to counteract the ill effects of the atmosphere. This anecdote might, therefore, with propriety, have been placed under the head which next follows.
Jack 0* Lantern and Evil Spirits.
" Before the Irstead Enclosure in 1810, Jack o' Lantern was frequently seen here on a roky night, and almqst always at a place called Heard's Holde, in Alder Carr Fen Broad, on the Neatishead side, where a man of that name, who was guilty of some unmentionable crimes, was drowned.* I have often seen it there, rising up and falling, and twistering about, and then up again. It looked exactly like a candle in a lantern."
She evidently connected the " ignis fatuus " in that spot with the unhappy man's spirit, as if it were stiU hovering about; and Jack o' Lantern was, in her apprehension, endued
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with volition and intelligence; for she affirms^ that ^4f any one were walking along the road with a lantern, at the time when he appeared, and did not put out the light imme- diately. Jack would come against it and dash it to pieces ; and that a gentleman, who made a mock of him and called him Will of the Wisp, was riding on horseback one evening in the adjoining parish of Horning, when he came at him and knocked him off his horse."
She remembers, when a child, hearing her father say, that "he was returning home from a large" (largess) "money- spending at the finishing of harvest, in company with an old man, who whistled and jeered at Jack; but he followed them all the way home, and when they entered the house he torched up at the windows."
"The Neatishead people were desirous to lay Heard's spirit, so annoyed were they by it; for it came at certain times and to certain places which he frequented when alive. Three gentlemen" (she could not tell who or what they were, she supposed they were learned) "attempted to lay the ghost, by reading verses of Scripture. But he always kept a verse ahead of them. And they could do nothing, till a boy brought a couple of pigeons, and laid them down before him. He looked at them an^ lost his verse ; and then they bound his spirit."
" — Finch, of Neatishead, was walking in the road after dark, and saw a dog, which he thought was Dick AUard's, that had snapped and snarled at him several times. Thinks he, * you have upset me two or three times ; I will upset you now. You will not turn out of the road for me ; and I will not turn out of the road for you.' Along came the dog, straight in the middle of the road, and Finch kicked at him ; and his foot went through him, as through a sheet of paper : he could compare it to nothing else. He was quite as- tounded, and nearly fell backwards from the force of the kick:"
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Mrs. Lubbock has beard that the spirits of the dead haunt the places where treasures were hid by them when in the body ; and that those of the Roman Catholics still frequent the spots where their remains were disturbed^ and their graves and monuments destroyed.
2%c Cuckoo.
There will be a fine harvest this year," (1847,) she says, "because the cuckoo, on the last week before he left, was topping the oaks, a chattering and a cuckooing about. That is a sure sign of good ; and I like to see him do so : when bad is coming, he sings low among the bushes, and can scarcely get his cuckoo out. In the last week before he leaves, he always tells all that will happen in the course of the year, till he comes again, — all the shipwrecks, storms, accidents, and everything."
" If any one be about to die suddenly, or to lose a rela- tion, he will light upon touchwood, or a rotten bough, and cuckoo. He foretold Mr. Ward's fire at Irstead, in 1844." Mrs. Lubbock at that time knew there would be a fire some- where, and looked for it; but she did not know where it was to take place, till after the event.
"The cuckoo," she adds, " is always here three months, to a day. He stands to the very day, and sings all the while. The first of April is the proper time for his coming; and when he comes then, there is sure to be a good and an early harvest. If he does not come till May, then the harvest is into October. If he sings long after Midsummer, there will be a Michaelmas harvest." (t. e. one that lasts till Michael- mas.)
" If any one hears the cuckoo's first note, when in bed, there is sure to be illness or death to him or one of his famUy."
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At the suggestion of a member of our Society, some ques- tions were put to Mrs. Lubbock about crowing hens and howling dogs ; and the following answers and remarks were elicited.
The Crowing Hen.
Q, " Do you know any old sa3dngs about a crowing hen ?" A. "Oh! yes:—
*' Them that ever mind the world to win, Must hare a black cat, a howling dog, and a crowing hen."
Q. " Is a crowing hen a sign that a death will take place in the family ?'*•
A. '* No, I never heard that it was. My own hen crows : I don't like lo hear her, and I throw something at her when she docs; for I think the cock ought to crow, and not the hen : but I don't know that there is any harm in it."
The Howling Dog,
With reference to the howling dog, she says, "Pull off your left-foot shoe, and turn it ; and it will quiet him. I always used to do so when I was at service. I hated to hear the dogs howl. There was no tax then, and the farmers kept a heap of them."
Q. " Did you quiet them by turning the shoe ?"
A, " Yes ! They won't howl three times after. I am much troubled," (she added,) " by the Rev. Mr. Dix's dog, howling in the night, across the water, in the parish of Nea- tishead."
Q. " What do you do when you are in bed, and have no shoe on?"
♦ Such is a prevalent notion in many parts of England. In Ireland, a friend informs me, a crowing hen is doomed to instant death, as ominous of evil.
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A. " I turn the shoe upside down, by the bed's side ; and that stops the dog."
The gende reader must here presume, (as Mrs. Lubbock's veracity is unimpeachable,) either that dogs are so quieted, or that she herself is composed to sleep before the third howl ; or else that her faith in the remedy is so strong as to render her insensible to its failure.
Thrift
The other day, on my settling an account with her, and
paying her the balance of a few pence, she observed that she
well remembered hearing her father say,
'* If youth could know what age do crave, Sights of pennies youth would save."
On another occasion, she remarked,
" They that wive Between sickle and scythe Shall never thrive."
" John Knight and Elizabeth Palmer, were married about forty years ago, in the harvest-time. He came into the har- vest-field on that day ; and they never thrived."
The Prophecies of Mother Shipton, and of Mother Bunchy her sister y (who was bom on St. Anthony* s Day,) as remembered and repeated by Mrs. Lubbock,
" They prophecied from the beginning of the world, what should hold to the end."
" Mrs. Shipton foretold that the time should come when ships should go without sails, and carriages without horses ; and the sun should shine upon hills that never see the sun
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before." All which is fulfiUed^ Mrs. Lubbock thinks^ by steamers^ railways, and cuttings through hills^ which let in upon them the light of the sun.
'^Mrs. Shipton also foretold that we should know the summer from the winter only by the green leaves : it should be so cold." Again,—
**That Chischick Chuich should be a bam, And Biomholm Priory a fiEurm ;
"And, about threescore years ago, the barn, which was formerly (Chischick, i.e.) Keswick Church, was pulled down. Bromholm Priory is now a farm."
^' That the Roman Catholics shall have this country again, and make England a nice place once more. But, as for these folks, they neither know how to build a church nor yet a steeple."
" That England shall be won and lost three times in one day; and that, principally, through an embargo to be laid upon vessels."
"That there is to come a man who shall have three thumbs on one hand, who is to hold the king's horse in the battle. He is to be born in London, and to be a miller by business. The battle is to be fought at Backheath-Stone Hill, on the Norwich road. Ravens shall carry the blood away, it will be so clotted."
" That the men are to be killed ; so that one man shall be left to seven women. And the daughters shall come home, and say to their mothers, 'Lawk, mother, I have seen a man!' The women shall have to finish the harvest."
" That the town of Yarmouth shall become a nettle-bush. That the bridges shall be puUed up ; and small vessels sail to Irstead and Barton Broads."
" That blessed are they that live near Potter Heigham, and double-blessed them that live in it." (That parish seems destined to be the scene of some great and glorious events.)
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Fairies.
" There used," Mrs. Lubbocks says, " to be Fairies in old times. There are no such things now."
^' In the parish of Dilham there is a deep hole, called ^ Seagar-ma-hole.' This was held to be a Fairies' Bay. A church, which stood upon the spot, is said to have been sunk in it; and several oxen, which ventured upon it when the rushes began to grow over its surface, were swallowed up."
Historical.
" King John cleared the crown of leather money. First, he ixsed it when there was not money enough to carry on business with ; and then he cried it down when he hadj^got a supply of proper money. The people considered him rather silly; but he had sense enough to do that." She remembers, when a child, playing with King John's leather money. It was stamped, like gingerbread; and of the shape of gun- wadding.
" A saying about King John was, that he had two apples ; and he ate one, and kept the other for himself."
The superstitious infirmities, to which, apparently, Mrs. Lubbock is subject, may possibly lead some persons to question whether she is possessed of the degree of intellect for which I have given her credit. In answer, it may be observed, that such notions as she appears to entertain con- tinue prevalent in East Norfolk to a greater extent than is generally supposed. Among other things, the number of horse-sho^ still attached to doors and wells, and almost in- variably to fishing-boats, attest the correctness of this state-
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ment. I say East Norfolk, because that is the limited field of my* observation ; but probably it is the same in other parts of England ; for Mr. Joseph Hunter, in the course of an in- teresting discussion of such topics, at the late meeting of the Archffiological Institute at Norwich, informed me that, in an excursion made by some antiquaries in the environs of London, no fewer than thirty-six horseshoes were counted in one day.
In this neighbourhood, my own experience enables me to state that the popular belief in spirits and witches is far from extinct.
To mention a few instances in proof of this assertion. The marvellous account of a carriage drawn by headless horses at the seat of the Fastolfs, Caistor Castle, is not yet utterly discarded. Near Northrepps, I am credibly informed, that a sound, sea- worthy fishing-boat was lately burnt, " stick and stem," solely because it was held to be bewitched. A com- plaint was recently lodged before the bench of magistrates at Cromer, by a poor woman who was employed in carrying a letter-bag along the coast, against some boys who pelted her with stones, and were not satisfied till they had " drawn blood," as they said, *^from the old witch." This was alleged to be necessary, in order to free those whom she had be- witched from her spell, and to prevent her doing further mischief. Applications have often been made to me for advice, by persons feeling themselves aggrieved by the im- putation of sorcery. In one instance, a labourer asked me what steps he should take to protect his wife from being called a witch. I persuaded him to let her treat the matter with contempt, and he resolved to do so ; but, a few days after, he came to me in great agitation of mind, and declared that he could bear it no longer, for the people called his children " devilings." I have also known a farmer to complain of an old woman's having an evil eye, and of her having fatally
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bewitched some of his horses and pigs, as they passed her on the road.
The ordinary form which spirits are said to assume in East Norfolk, is that of the Phantom-Dog, stated by Mrs. Lub- bock to be a headless dog, with saucer eyes, who is said to pass nightly over Coltishall Bridge ; while another, " Old Shuck" by name, travels between Beeston and Overstrand, the terror of the neighbourhood. A lane in the latter parish is called, after him, '^ Shuck's Lane." Such is the usual form in which spirits are embodied ; but they occasionally appear in other shapes ; and I have heard a person say, that he had seen what he was unable to describe — "a very ugly picture."
I mention these particulars, to show that my venerable washerwoman is by no means solitary in her opinions on such subjects.
Her observations of the signs of the weather are usually to be relied upon; and, in some instances, they have been singularly verified. The approach of the terrific hail-storm in 1843 was foreseen by her; and she previously gathered some of her children and grandchildren together, and they remained in her cottage during the night.
Her upright carriage and general air, might suggest a portrait of *'Noma of the Fitful Head;" and her long- stored observations realize that honoured state described by Milton,
** When old experience doth attain To something like prophetic strain."
But her venerable lore is not without its inconveniences and drawbacks. It has exposed her to the suspicion of witch- craft ; and also to annoyances of a practical nature. As she has given out that she can tell when storms are coming, by the rattling of her window-shutters, roguish boys, on passing, not unfrequently give them a shake; and thus she is de- prived of that repose, which is usually allowed to the decline
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of life and of personal attraction ; for it cannot be said in her
case^ as in that of the neglected Lydia^ that
« Parci(ks junctas quatiunt fenestras Ictibtts crebiis juYenes protervi."
These remarks, and the statements with which they are accompanied, may be regarded as trifling, and unworthy of a place in the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society: the writer can vouch only for their accuracy.
But, again, can the recording of the sayings of Mrs. Lub- bock be considered useless? Be it remembered that, frivolous and superstitious as they may appear, they in reality exhibit phases of the human mind, which are as much within the province of philosophical inquiry as the deductions of exact science. And similar prophecies to those which she details, though they may seem to be absurd, have, in times past, even operated as engines of revolutionary changes ; as exemplified in the ** Confession of Richard Bishop and Robert Seaman,'* printed in Vol. I., p. 209, of the " Original Papers " of this Society.
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FKOH
SIR ISAAC NEWTON TO JOHN COYEL, D.D.
O0MMT7NI0ATBD BY
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ.,
VIOB-FKWIDEIIT.
In the division of the Macro Manuscripts,* purchased conjointly by Mr. Hudson Gumey and myself in 1820, not the least interesting part of what fell to my share was two folio volumes, containing about five hundred letters, the literary correspondence of Dr. John Covel, the learned author of the History of the Greek Church, Dr. Covel was a native of Horningheath, in Suffolk, a village adjoining Bury Saint Edmund's ; and in the school of that village he received his early education : this he completed at Christ's College, Cam- bridge, where he graduated A.M. in 1661, at the age of 23. He shortly afterwards obtained a fellowship, but quitted the University and England in 1670, to accompany Sir Daniel Harvey in his embassy to Constantinople. Dr. Covel's resi- dence in the East, as chaplain to Sir Daniel and his successor. Sir John Finch, embraced a term of seven years; in the course of which he visited various districts of Greece and Asia Minor. The note-books he kept on these journeys are in my library, and are, I regret to say, unpublished. Copious,
* Respectiiig the Rev. Dr. Cox Macro, see NicholB* Library Anecdotes, IX pp. 359 — 365. His own correspondence and his Album are also in my hands. VOL. II. Y
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and apparently accurate^ and full of details and learning, they coidd scarcely fail to throw valuable light upon Archseology; as they would bear indisputable testimony to the zeal of their author, in tracing and investigating and drawing and describ- ing what was then left in those regions. Upon his return to England he repaired to his college, of which he w^ elected master in 1688. The office he held till his death in 1722, almost wholly devoting himself to tl^e discharge of the con- sequent duties. The rectories of Littlebury and Kegsworth, together with the Chancellorship of York, and the office of Lady Margaret's Preacher in Cambridge, had been previously conferred upon him ; and hence, he himself tells us, in the Dedication to his History, he has been compelled to lead a kind of itinerant life, in York, and Holland, and elsewhere. But how often, and on what occasions, he visited the Conti- nent, his Correspondence affords no means of ascertaining ; and I regret this the more, as it is clear, from some hints in the course of it, that during his abode in the Low Countries he unfortunately fell under the displeasure of the Sovereign. Thus much may safely be said of him, that, wherever stationed, he cultivated the society of men of literature, and subsequently maintained a correspondence with them, and carefully pre- served their letters to him, together with transcripts of his own in reply. With such stores in my possession,! the publication of
t The following may be enumerated among Dr. Coyel's moat diatingniahed correapondenta : —
Archbiahopa Bancroft, Teniaon, and Hutton, of Canterbury ; and Sharp, of York ; The Duke of Somerset ; the Ducheaa of Grafton ; Harley, Earl of Oxford ; Yiacount Bulkeley ; and Lords Arlington and Henrey ; Dr. Sher- lock, Biahop of London ; Dr. Moore, of Norwich ; and Dr. Nicholson, of Carlisle.
Sir Isaac Newton ; Sir Eliab and Lady Harrey ; Sir John Finch ; the Bev. Sir George Wheler; Sir Paul Kicaut; Sir Andrew Fountaine; Sir Thomas Barnes ; and Sir James Porter.
Dn. Balph Cudworth, George Hickea, Daniel Waterland, John Wood-
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rather a copious selection from them was naturally at one time among my favourite day-dreams. The eminence of the writers, and in many cases the interest of the subject, made me anticipate a favourable reception ; and, now that age has proved the real unsubstantiality of the visionary castle, I flatter myself that the mention of my design may cause it to be hereafter realized. In one single instance, however, I . have determined to take the task upon myself, by publishing the following thirteen letters from Sir Isaac Newton. Care- fully and zealously as ** every hole and comer" has been ransacked, to detect whatever came from the pen of our great philosopher, or might illustrate his history or his studies, these letters, I have every reason to believe, have hitherto escaped the search. I am equally mistaken and misinformed, if they are not the only records left us of his senatorial life, and if they do not derive from that circumstance a consider* able additional interest* Their date ranges from Dec. 15, 1688, to the same day of the following May. It was in the January of 1688-9, that Sir Isaac, then Mr. Newton, first entered Parliament, having been returned as representative of the University of Cambridge, in conjunction with Sir
ward, Hamphrey Gower, John Luke, John Spencer, Henry James, and JohnMiU.
Men of Learning.— John Locke, Homfrey Wanley, Jacob Spon, Paul Herman, Drelincourt, Justel, Philip Stosch, Martin Eagle, Thomas Petiver, Charles Daubuz, Thomas Ford, Jerome Salter, Samuel Dale, Peter Allix, Isaac Abendana, Thomas Baker, and W. T. Grelot.
Distinguished Foreigners. — Archbishop of Philippopolis, Marquis de Noin- tel. Count Zolyma, Baron Lempster, Ezekiel Spanheim, E. Benzelius, and T. B. Menkenius.
* I may also be aUowed to state, what would give them a still greater interest in the eyes of a considerable body of collectors, that I: belieye they are the only letters known that are franked by him. Some of them also preserve his seal, — the shin-bones in saltire, of his heraldic shield. — Of a letter with such a seal, and also with a frank, I have annexed a facsimile, which wiU be found at the end of this Paper.
Y 2
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Robert Sawyer.* For so high a distinctioa he appears to have been greatly indebted to the part he had taken shortly before in opposition to the wishes of the Court, then intent upon bringing the Church of England once* more under sub- jection to that of Rome. The King had sent his mandamus to the University, commanding them to confer the degree of Master of Arts upon Father Francis, a Benedictine monk, and to annex the accompanying privileges, without requiring him to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. Obedience was re&sed, and the monarch was enraged : he repeated his commands, and accompanied them with threats, which were met with undaunted firmness; and ''high words to words succeeding still," the Vice-Chancellor was summoned before
* Sir Robert was at this time probably a popular character ; haying been dismissed in December, 16S7, £rom the office of Attorney-General, a post he had held nearly eight years, for refusing to *' support the dispensing power." I quote the words of Burnet, who, in stating the £EU$t, adds, " he had for many years served the ends of the Court in a most abject and obsequious manner ;" and who, in speaking of him on a previous occasion, had called him "a dull, hot nxan, and forward to serve all the designs of Court." Granger, on the other hand, gives him a widely dijfferent character; and this it seems only fiedr to quote, that the reader may thus have the bane and antidote at once before him. ** Sir Robert Sawyer, one of the ablest of his contemporaries in his profession, formed himself after the Lord Chief Baron Hale, under whom he practised, and of whom he was a just admirer. He, like that excellent person, was a man of general learning, and of an integrity that nothing could corrupt. His reputation in the Court of Exchequer, the business of which he perfectly understood, was superior to that of any other counsel. He was Attorney-General, from the year 1681 to 1687; during which period he approved himself, in some very deHcate points, and upon many important occasions, a most judicious and expert lawyer, and a no less useful man. He was continued in his office by James, but was soon set aside by that prince, who presently perceived that he could not be prevailed with to mould the laws to such purposes as were never intended by the legislature. He has been justly censured for his harsh treatment of Lord Russell on his trial. Pemberton, on the contrary, treated him with a gen- tleness and candour that did him much honour. He died at Highcleer, in Hampshire, 1692. His only daughter married the Earl of Pembroke. She died the 17th November, 1706."
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the Ecclesiastical Commission^ to answer for this act of con- tempt. He accordingly appeared, attended by nine delegates, of whom Newton was one : the question was argued in the High Court ; and the King abandoned his pretensions.
Notwithstanding, however, the popularity thus acquired, and that derived from his wide-spread feme, it was only by a majority of five votes that the philosopher carried his elec- tion.* Most short, too, was his legislative career ; for on the dissolution of the Convention Parliament, in the March of the succeeding year, both he and his colleague were ejected. f
* The other candidateB were Sir Robert Sawyer and Mr. Finch ; and the votes stood thus : —
Sir Bobert Sawyer 126
Mr. Newton . 122
Mr. Finch . .* 117
I am quoting here from Sir Dayid Brewster's interesting Lift of Sir Isaac Newton, to which I have been greatly indebted for partictdars touching the struggle between the King and the TJniYersity.
t Who were the candidates, and what the votes upon the occasion, I am ignorant : I only see by the Lists of the Members of the Bouse of Commons, that Edward Finch and Henry Boyle were then returned ; that in the King's third Parliament, it was George Oxendon and Henry Boyle ; in his fourth and fifth, Henry Boyle and Anthony Hammond ; but that, in his sixth and last, in December 1701, Newton was re-instated ; the candidates and their respective votes being, as I also learn from Sir David Brewster, Mr. Henry Boyle (afterwards Lord Carleton) . ISO
Mr. Newton 161
Mr. Hammond 64
On the same authority I state, that on the close of Queen Anne's- first Par- liament, which had assembled in 1702, and was dissolved in 1705, Newton, then knighted, and made Master of the Mint and President of the Boyal Society, once more ventured upon a contest, though he had not been re* turned in 1702, and was defeated by a great majority ; the numbers being, for
The Hon. Arthur Annesley 182
The Hon. Dixie Windsor 170
Mr. Godolphin 162
Sir Isaac Newton 117
It may be objected to me, and perhaps with some justice, that in speaking of Newton's Parliamentary career, I have not noticed the ten months of his last seat. I do not defend myself, by saying that of these I know nothing.
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During the fourteen months that he held his seat^ we find no mention of him in the Parliamentary History ^ as taking a share in the debates or in the business of the House. Here, too, his very able biographer is wholly silent. The more fortunate may be regarded the existence of these letters, as testimonies to his political character, and to his attention to the discharge of his duties. They are all written in his character of Member of Parliament, and are aU consequently addressed to Dr. Covel, who, as Vice-Chancellor, was the organ of similar commimications. Their object was not a little delicate; it being to persuade the members of the UniYersity, who had so lately sworn allegiance to Eling James, to silence all scruples of conscience, while they vowed the same fidelity to his hostile successor. It may perhaps be regarded as extraordinary, that Newton's colleague should have taken no part in the correspondence ; indeed that his name should appear only in a single instance, and then merely as a signature to an official document. But this may be ac- counted for from the fact, that he entered warmly into the debates; and, possibly, the cloud, which burst in January, 1689-90, and caused his expulsion, may then have been gath- ering over his head, and " concentered him all in self." *
and that here also history is silent regarding his name : it is enough for me to observe that my object is confined to elucidating these letters. The task of being his biographer happily rests in far abler hands ; and *' tractent fabrilia fabri."
* The expulsion of Sir Robert Sawyer from the House of Commons, upon which such of his biographers as I am acquainted with are silent, is recorded at length in the ParliamerUary History. It was carried, January 20, 1689-90, by a minority of 131 oyer 71. His crime was the part he had taken, as Attorney- Qeneral, in the trial and subsequent execution and attainder of Sir Thomas Armstrong ; in which he appears to have lent himself sadly to Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys. In the course of the debate, which was long, Mrs. Matthews, Sir Thomas' daughter, was called in, and asked what she knew of the prosecution against her &ther, and who were the prosecutors. She replied, " The judges were Jeffreys, Wythens, Holloway, and Walcott ; Sawyer, Burton, and Graham, prosecutors. I was with Sawyer for a writ of
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To turn from men to things, — ^these letters, I cannot but feel, have a twofold interest. They have the primary one already mentioned, derived from their iUustrions author; and they have another, not trifling, which they owe to the subject- matter and the times. The history of Britain scarcely em- braces a more eventftJ epoch, than when the throne, just deserted by the lineal monarch, was occupied by his daughter, and by her husband, his nephew. Not only must the tide of party, in the common acceptation of the word, have then run unusually high, but other considerations and feelings must have conspired to give it a character of its own. The sym- pathy of the courtiers and their friends with the deposed sovereign cannot but have been inexpressibly augmented by pity for the general misfortunes of the family ; and, above all, when united with the reflection that the exile was the son of him, who, in his decapitation, had undergone what they re- garded as martyrdom in defence of their privileges. They had learned, too, from their parents what they themselves had witnessed at the commencement of the century; and they naturally dreaded a repetition of similar horrors at its close. On the other hand, their opponents were blind to every consideration but what they regarded as a systematic attack upon their liberty and their consciences. They had fearfully
error : He said, < Your father must die, he must die, he is an iU man.' My mother was ready to pay him all his due fees ; but he said * he must die, he must die.' When my father was brought to the bar, the Chief Justice asked Sawyer, What he had to say? Sawyer prayed an award of execution, which was done. My father desired that the Statute of Outlawries might be read. He said, ' He thought it was plain that he was come in within a year, &c.' Said Sawyer, * Sir Thomas Armstrong will not find anything in the statute to his purpose : possibly he will say, he surrendered himself to your lordship ; but, Sir Thomas, you should have surrendered yourself before you went out of England ;' and he alledged HoUoway's case. Said the Chief Justice, * We haye enough against him.' Said Sawyer, < The King did indulge in HoUoway's case ; but Armstrong was active in the fire at Newmarket, and he has received dangerous letters ;' whereas, they were no more than a recommendation to the Duke of Brandenbourg."
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committed themselves; and they not only hated the tyrant and
dreaded his return^ but the question at issue involved in their
eyes no less a stake than the very existence of the Freedom of
England^ the Constitution^ and the Heformed Religion. No
thought of half-measures could be entertained, while, in the
expressive language of my late excellent friend, Mr. Roscoe,
<<The welfare of millioDS now hung in the scale, And the balance yet trembled with &te."
Such, in few words, was the character of the times. To the nature of the contents of the letters allusion has already been made; but it must be added, that they tend likewise to throw light upon the feeling and conduct of the University at that momentous epoch. It may even be allowable to advance a «tep further, and to point out one of them as of peculiar in- trinsic value. The bias of Newton's political opinions was not indeed to be questioned, after the part he had taken against the fugitive monarch while apparently firm upon his throne; but the decided expression of these opinions, and the mathe- matical precision with which he lays down his theorem, traces and ramifies his arguments, and draws his inference no less accurately in morals than in physics, must be regarded as a fresh and desirable evidence of the structure of his mind. Had, however, the whole series of the letters been destitute of these claims to attention, I am not prepared to say that I should therefore have abstained firom printing them. Let it be admitted that whatever can be collected, even by tradition, touching him who was the glory of his country and his age, deserves to be recorded; and it cannot but follow that the same necessarily holds good, with increased force, when what it is proposed to preserve are actually sparks firom his mind and lines from his pen. Impossible is it too to pronounce how far an incident, in itself apparently immaterial, may not, by " touching some wheel or verging to some goal," disclose motives for actions, or bring to light actions themselves, pre- viously unknown and imsuspected. Neither were it less
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absurd than it would be false to deny that I feel a pride^ that I hope is honesty in the opportunity thus afforded me of associating my name in any manner^ however humble, with Newton's. Sir Joshua Eeynolds wrote his upon the folds of the drapery in his glorious portrait of Mrs. Siddons; and when asked the cause for what was so unusual^ replied that he shoidd be content to go down to posterity upon the hem of her garment. In the present case, the pretensions and hopes are far more lowly; not better founded, it is feared, than those ascribed to his congregation by John Wesley, when, with his characteristic shrewdness, he told them, "You are, all of you, I know, expecting to go up with me to heaven, one by catching hold of my cassock and another of my coat ; but, depend upon it, you will be left behind ; for it is only in a jacket, and that a very tight-buttoned one, that I shall ascend on high."
Dawson Tukner.
For the more complete understanding of the following letters, without the necessity of referring to other books, it has been thought desirable to prefix to them the few accom- panying documents, as placed by Dr. Covel himself in his Correspondence.
To aU Maisters and Heads of Colleges, John Covel, Vice- Chancellor of y* University of Cambridge, sendeth greeting.
Gentlemen,
Whereas, in this disorder many Schollerft^ are now in armes, and the effects thereof are to be feared as very dangerous to the whole University, as well as destructive to all good manners, I do humbly conceive our best course
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to reduce them would be to convene them in some publick place of your Coll. to-morrow morning, if they retume ; and grauely, but cahnly, advise them to all civil behaviour, be- lieueing all severity at this juncture might rather tend to exasperate them more, and bring the unruly people's fury upon us all.
Your Servant,
JoH. CovEL, Procan. Bocember 15, 1688.
Letter from ihe Prince of Orange to (ke University of Cam" bridge y and accompanying Notice from the Vice- Chancellor.
Whereas the Lords Spual and tepral, ye Kghts, Citizens, and Burgesses, heretofore members of ye Comons House of Pari"** during y* Reign of K. Charles y* 2*, residing in and about y« City of London, together with y« Aldermen and divers of the Comon council of the said City, in this extra- ordinary conjuncture, at our request, severally assembled, to advise us the best manner how to attain the ends of our de- claration, in calling a free Parliam* for the preservation of the Protestant Religion, and restoring the Bights and Libertyes of the Kingdom, and settling the same that they may not be in danger of being again subverted, have advised and desired us to cause our letters to be written and directed for the Counties to the Coroners of the respective Counties, or any one of them ; and in default of the Coroners, to y* Clerks of y* Peace of the respective Counties; and for the Universities, to the respective Vicechancellors ; and for the Cityes, Bo- roughs, and Cinque-ports, to the chief magistrates of each respective city, borough, and cinque-port, containing direc- tions for the choosing in all such countyes, cities, universityes, boroughs, and cinque-ports, w^in ten days after the receipt of the said respective letters, such a number of persons to
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represent them^ as from every such place is or are of right to be sent to Parliament ; of which Elections^ and times and places thereof, the respective Officers shall give notice. The notice for the intended Election in the Counties to be pub- lished in the Market-towns w*4n the respective Counties, by the space of five dayes at the leajst before the said Election ; and for the Universityes, Cities, Boroughs, and Cinque-ports in every of them respectively by the space of three days at the least before the said Election; the said letters and y* execution thereof to be returned by such officer and officers, who shall execute the same, to the Clerke of the Crowne in the Court of Chancery, so as the persons to be chosen may meet and set at Westminster, the two and twentieth day of January next.
"We, heartily desiring ye performance of w* we have in our s^ Declaration expressed, in pursuance of the said advice and desire, have caused this our letter to be written to you, to the intent that you, truely and uprightly, w***out favour or affection to any person, or indirect practice or proceeding, do and execute what of your part ought to be done, according to the said advice for the due execution thereof. The Elections to be made by such persons only, as, according to the antient laws and customes, of right ought to choose Members for Parliament ; and that you cause a retume to be made by certificate, under your seal, of the names of the persons elected, annexed to this our letter to the said Clerk of the Crowne, before the said two and twentyeth day of January.
Given at S^ James's the nine and twentieth day of De- cember, in the year of Our Lord 1688.
G. Prince d'Orange.
To the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
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In pursuance of his Higlinesse tbe Prince of Orange his letter hereunto annexed^ the Chancellor^ Masters^ and Schol- lars, of the University of Cambridge, have w^ one assent and consent chosen S*^ Bob^ Sawyer, Eoiight, and M' Isaac Newton, M.A., and Mathematick Professor, representatives for the aforesaid University, to meet and sit at Westminster the two and twentyeth day of this instant January. Giving and granting in this extraordinary juncture to the aforesaid representatives full and sufficient power for the Body of the said University to doe and consent to those things, which then and there shall be determined by the Lords Spirituall and Temporall, and the Commons assembled, for the pre- servation of the Protestant Religion and settling the Rights and Libertys of this Kingdome. In witnesse whereof, I, the Vicechancellor of the said University, have hereunto put this seal of my Office, the seventeenth day of January, Anno Dni. 1688-9.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Coveh Rev. Sik,
The King and Queen being proclaimed here yesterday, I presume you will soon receive an order for proclaiming them at Cambridge. I have enclosed the form of the Proclamation. I coidd wish heartily that the University would so compose themselves as to perform y® solemnity with a seasonable decorum ; because I take it to be their interest to set y® best face upon things they can, after y® example of y® London divines. I am of opinion that Degrees be not given till you are authorized to administer the new Oaths. Whether that will be speedily done by authority of their Ma^«" and y* Convention, or after y* Convention is turned to a Parliament, I cannot yet resolve you. The Oath of Supremacy, as you administer it imperfectly in Latin,
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ought to be omitted, and both y* new Oaths administered in English. You will see these Oaths in y' end of the declaration I have enclosed this post in a letter to Dr. Beaumont.
S% I am Yo' most humble Servant,
Is. Newton.
London, Feb. 12, 16S8.9.
The Manner of the Proclaiming of King William and Queen Mary, at White-haUy and in the City of London, Feb. 13, 1688-9.
About half an hour past Ten in the Morning, the Lords and Commons came from "Westminster to White-hall in their coaches, and alighting at the Gate, went up into the Banquetting-house, when they presented the Prince and Princess of Orange with an Instrument in Writing, for declaring their Highnesses King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging; desiring them to accept the Crown pursuant to the said Declaration; which their Highnesses accepting accordingly, the said Lords and Commons came down again to White-hall-gate, preceded by the Speakers of their respectire Houses, each attended with a Sergeant at Arms, where they found the Heralds of Arms, the Ser- geants at Arms, the Trumpets, and other officers, all in readiness, being assembled by orders from the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of England. And Sir Thomas St. George, Knight, Garter Principal King of Arms, having received a Proclamation, and an Order from the Lords* House to the Bang's Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms, for Publishing or Proclaiming the same forthwith, the persons concem'd disposed themselves in order before the
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Court-gate^ for making the said Proclamation. And the Trumpets having sounded a call three several times^ the last of which was answer'd by a great shout of the vast Multitudes of People there assembled^ the noise ceasing^ the said Garter King of Arms^ read the said Proclamation by short sentences or periods, which was thereupon pro- claimed aloud by Robert Devenish, Esq., York Herald, being the Senior Herald, in these words :
" Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, in his great mercy to this Kingdom," &c.
Which being ended, and the trumpets sounding a flourish, was answered by several repeated shouts of the people. And directions being given to proclaim the same within Temple- bar, in Cheapside, and at the Royal Exchange, the Pro- ceeding marched in this manner :
First, the several Beadles of the Liberties of Westminster; next, the Constables of the said Liberties, all on foot, with the High Constable on horseback; after them, the Head Sailiff of Westminster, and his men, all with white staves, to clear the way, on horseback ; then the Knight-Marshall's Men, also on horseback; next to these, a class of trumpets, nine in all, viz., 2, 2, 2, and 8, followed by the Serjeant- Trumpeter, carrjdng his Mace on his shoulder, all likewise on horseback; then a Pursuivant of Arms, single; then a Pursuivant and a Serjeant-at-Arms ; another Pursuivant and a Serjeant-at-Arms ; then four Heralds of Arms, one after another, each with a Serjeant-at-Arms on his left hand, the Heralds and Pursuivants being all in their rich coats of the Royal Arms, and the Serjeants-at-Arms, each carrying his mace on his shoulder, and all on horseback; then Garter King-of-Axms in his rich Coat of Arms, carrying the Pro- clamation, accompanied by Sir Tho. Duppa, Kt., Gentleman- Usher of the Black Rod, in his crimson mantle of the Order of the Garter, and his Black Rod of office, likewise on horse- back.
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These immediately preceded the Marquess of Halifax^ who executed the place of Speaker in the House of Lords, in his coach, attended hy Sir Roger Harsnet, eldest Serjeant-at- Arms, with his mace. Then followed Henry Powle, Esq., Speaker of the House of Commons, in his coach, attended by John Topham, Esq., Serjeant-at-Arms to the said House, with his mace. After the two Speakers of the Houses, followed the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, and Frimier Duke of England, in his coach, with his Marshal's Staff in his hand. And next to him, all the Peers in order in their coaches ; and, last of all, the Members of the House of Com- mons in their coaches. In this order they proceeded towards Temple-bar ; and, being come as far as the Maypole in the Strand, two of the Officers of Arms, with a Sergeant-at-Arms and two trumpets, went before to Temple-bar ; and the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and SherifEs, being by this time arrived there, and, having ordered the Grates to be shut, the Herald- at-Arms knocked thereat, whereupon the Sheriffs, being on horseback, came to the gate ; and the said Herald acquaint- ing them. That he came by order of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal assembled at Westminster, to demand entrance into that famous City, for the Proclaiming of William and Mary, King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging; and there- fore required their speedy Answer. The said Sheriffs or- dered the gates to be opened. Whereupon, leaving the Head-Bayliff, Constables, and Beadles of Westminster with- out the Barr, the rest of the proceeding entred, where they found the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Recorder, and Sheriffs, aU in their formalities^ and on horseback, except the Lord Mayor, who was in his coach, attended by the Sword-bearer and other of his officers, who joyfully receiving them, they made a stand between the two Temple Gates, and Proclaimed ther Majesties a second time. From whence they marched towards Cheap-side ; a class of the City Trumpets, and the
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Lord Mayor's livery-men leading the way, and the said Aldermen and Lord Mayor falling into the proceeding ; and near "Wood-street end (the place where Cheap-side Cross formerly stood) they made another stand, and Proclaimed their Majesties a third time. And arriving at the Boyal Exchange ahout two of the clock, they Proclaimed them a fourth time ; and at each Proclamation the vast multitudes of spectators who thronged the streets, balconies, and windows^ fiUed the air with loud and repeated shouts and expressions of joy. Within Temple-bar, and all along Fleet-street, the Orange Regiment of the City Militia lined both sides of the way; as did the Green Regiment within Ludgate and St. Paul's Church-yard ; the Blew Regiment in Cheapside ; and the White in Comhil.
Proclamation by the Vice-chancellor and Heads of Houses.
Whereas, it hath pleased Almighty God, in his great mercy to this Kingdome, to vouchsafe us a miraculous deliverance from Popery and arbitrary power, and that our preservation is due, next under God, to the resolution and conduct of His Highnesse, the Prince of Orange, whome God hath chosen to be the glorious instrument of such an inestimable happinesse to us and our posterity ; and being highly sensible and fully persuaded of the great and eminent virtues of Her Highnesse, the Princess of Orange, whose zeal for the Protestant religion wiU no doubt bring a blessing along with her upon this nation, and whereas the L** and Comons now assembled at West- minster have made a Declaration, and presented the same to the said Prince and Princesse of Orange, and therein desir'd them to accept the Crowne, — ^who have accepted the same accordingly, — ^We, therefore, the Vice-Chancellor, Heades of Colleges, Doctors, Maisters, and Schollars of this University
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of Cambridge, do, w^^ a full consent, publish and proclaim according to the said Declaration, William and Mary, Prince and Princesse of Orange, to be King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, w*** all the Dominions and Territoryes thereunto belonging. And we do own, deem, accept, and take them accordingly, and shall henceforward acknowledge and pay unto them all Faith and true Allegiance, beseeching God, by whome kings reign, to blesse King William and Queen Mary w*^ long and happy yeares to reign over us.
God save King William and Queen Mary.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Covel.
s%
I have had an account of the solemnity of the Pro- clamation ; and I am glad to understand it was performed w*^ so much decence by the wiser and more considerable part of y* university, and generosity on yo' part. The next thing is a book of verses. If you do it at all, y® sooner y* better. Concerning y® new Oaths w*** you are to administer, I need not give instructions to you about their legality. But because many persons of less understanding (whom it may be difficult to persuade) will scruple at them, I will add my thoughts to yours, that you may have the Mler argument for convincing them, if I can add anything to what you have not thought of; flFor, seeing these Oaths are the main thing that y« dissatisfied part of y* University scruple, I think I cannot do the Uni- versity better service at present than by removing the scruples of as many as have sense enough to be convinced w*^ reason. The argument I lay down in the following propositions : —
1. Fidelity and Allegiance sworn to y* King is only such a fidelity and obedience as is due to him by y* law of y<^ land ; ffor were that ffaith and allegiance more than what the law
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requires, we should swear ourselves slaves, and y« King absolute ; whereas, by the law, we are ffiree men, notwith- standing those Oaths.
2. When, therefore, the obligation by the law to fidelity and allegiance ceases, that by the Oath also ceases; ffor might allegiance be due by the oath to one person, whilst by the law it ceases to him and becomes due to another, the oath might oblige men to transgress the law and become rebells or traitors; whereas the oath is a part of the law, and therefore ought to be so interpreted as may consist w*** it.
8. Fidelity and Allegiance are due by y* law to King WiUiam, and not to TTing James. For the Statute of 25 Edw. S, w^*' defined all treasons against y** King, and is y** only statute to that purpose, by the king understands not only a king de jure and de facto, but also a king de facto, though not de jure, against whom those treasons lye. Whence the L* Chief Justice Hales, in his Pleas of the Crown, page IJ^, discoursing of that statute, tells us that a king de facto and not de jure, is a king within that Act, and that treason against him is punishable, tho^ the right heir get the crown. And that this has been the constant sense of the law, S' Rob*. Sawyer also, upon my asking him about it, has assure.d me. And accordingly, by another statute in the first of Hen. 7, 'tis declared treason to be in arms against a king de facto, (such as was Bichard the Third,) tho' it be in behalf of a king de jure. So then by y* law of y« land all. things are treason against King William w^^ have been treason against former kings ; and therefore the same fidelity, obedience, and alle- giance w®^ was due to them is due to him, and by consequence may be sworn to him by y* law of y« land. Allegiance and protection are always mutuall ; and, therefore, when K. James ceased to protect us, we ceased to owe him allegiance by y* law of y* land. And, when King W. began to protect us, we begun to owe allegiance to him.
These considerations are in my opinion sufficient to remove
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y® grand scruple about the oaths. If y* dissatisfied party accuse the Convention for maldng y© P. of Orange King, 'tis not my duty to judge those above me ; and therefore I shall only say that, if they have done ill, ^^ Quod fieri non debuit, factu valet." And those at Cambridge ought not to judge and censure their superiors, but to obey and honour them according to the law and the doctrine of passive obedience.
Yesterday a bill for declaring the Convention a Parliament was read y* 2^ time and committed. The Committee have not yet finished their amendments of it. There is no doubt but it will pass. I am in haste,
Yo'^ most humble Servant,
Is. Newton.
London, Feb. 21, 1688-9.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Oovel.
WeBtminBter,Feb. 28, 1688-9.
Because you cannot administer the new Oaths w%ut being authorized by an Act of Parliam*, I have spoke to the gentleman who is to bring in a Bill for imposing those Oaths, that he woidd hasten the bringing it in. I pray, send me word what is y* latest day you may (by virtue of the Uni- versity statutes) administer them to the Commencers ; that if the Bill cannot be dispatcht and passed time enough, a clause may be inserted for empouring you to give the Inceptors their degrees afterwards, or some other care taken that they lose not their year. I have spoke to M'. Bridgman for y* Statute-Book, who refuses to deliver it w^out an order from y* Secretaries' office. I have got my Lord of Shrewsbury spoke to for an order ; and he has promised it shall be done. But I have not yet his order, as I hope to have w^'^in a few days. You may go on with your Courts as formerly. The
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only question is about causes depending, whether they may proceed as if they had not been interrupted. A Bill is passing here for the continuing of such causes in y* Courts of West- minster, w***out putting men to y* charge of beginning anew. If there be any depending in your Court, they may (for preventing disputes) begin anew, unless y* persons con- cerned had rather deferr till they be further advised. But, for such causes as are to begin anew, you need make no scruple. Some of o' members w*''* ack* me about yo' letter I acquainted w*^ y* contents thereof, to y* sense w*^ you set down in yo'^ last.
Yesterday we voted to stand by y* King w"* o' lives and fortunes in his . . .* against France, and for composing things at home and reducing Ireland ; and to day we voted y* King
a land-tax of 68,820^^. the month for six months. 6
412,920
I am
Yo' most humble servant.
Is. Newton.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Govel.
WeBtminster, March 2^, 1688-9.
S',
The Bill for imposing the oaths is drawn, and I hope will pass time enough for the Inceptors. If proceedings in yo'^ Court do not run in the Eling's name, (as I presume they do not) you may precede not only in new causes, (as I wrote you word in my last) but abo in those w^ began in the late King's reign, w^ut putting men to the charge and trouble of beginning again; but if processes in yo' Court run in y^ Eling's name, then all causes begun before y^ reign must begin again. And all Leases, Indentures^ Bonds, and
• Tom.
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Buch like writings, muBt be dated the first year of K. William and Q. Mary, w^^out expecting an Act of Parliament for that purpose. Yesterday the King of his own accord sent to the House of Commons, that he was willing the Hearth-money tax should be taken away. And a Bill was drawn up and read twice for suspending y* Habeas CorpuB Act for about two months, or lill the first day of the next term. To day y« Houses of L*** and Com* took y* new Oaths and Test; none in town scrupling them, that I have heard of.
I am, S% Yo' most humble Servant,
Is. Newton.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Cavel.
s%
I find some unwilling here to clog y* Act w*** a clause for enabling you to give degrees after y* time lapst by yo' Statutes; because if you cannot do it by y* Authority of yo'^ Senate alone, the King may empower you by his Letters. But if you can do by yo'^ Senate's Authority, (as Dr. Cook seems to believe), it will be much better. I find o'^ Cambridge firiends here are much inclined to my L** of Dorset for a Chancellour;* and if you be not yet otherwise determined^ I believe you will do a grateful act to those above in favoring y« Election of that honourable person. I am in hast,
S% Yo' most humble Servant,
Is. Newton.
WefltminBter, March 6th, 1688-9.
* The Chancellor actually appointed was the Duke of Somerset. Dr. Coyel's Correspondence contains much upon the subject.
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Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Coed.
S',
I hare y* Statutes of y* University from M'
Bridgman. But not having yet y* Act of 13 Eliz. made
in confinnation of o' former Charters, I know not what
judgment to make of things. I hope to have that Act
in a few days. S' Tho. Clarges tells me he thinks it will
be proper to confirm only y* originall Charters granted for
founding of Colleges, and to leave y' Statutes to y* King's
pleasure as before. I must leave it to you and the Heads
and fellows of y* severall Colleges to consider what's fit and
proper to be confirmed, and what not. When the heat of
business is a little more over, the House will be moved for
giving leave to bring in a bill for confirming the Charters of
y* two Universityes; and then what shall be convenient to
be confirmed may come into y" bill, or as much of it as can
conveniently be brought in. Yesterday and to-day a grand
Committee of o' House has past some votes about imposing
y* new oaths, w*^^ I had rather you should have from another
hand. They out-voted us yesterday by about 50 votes. I
acquainted S' Rob* Sawyer w*^ y* case of y* proctors you
sent me ; and! he suspends his judgm* till he can get sight of
the late King's generaU pardon, w^^ he tells me he cannot
yet meet w*^. I am,
Yo' most humble Servant,
Is. Nevtfon. London, Mar. 6, 1688-9.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Cavel.
London, Mar. 16, 1688-9.
S',
The Bill for imposing the new oaths has been thrice read in o' House, and is ordered to be ingross'd. I perused
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it a week before it was brought into the House^ {that is three weeks ago) and found nothing in it for imposing y* new oaths on all persons in preferments^ but only on those who take new preferments. Being acquainted w*^ y* Gendeman who drew it up, I discoursed him about y' designe of it before he drew it up, to understand how he would draw it; and after he had drawn it up he shewed me y* draught, to satisfy me y* it was not for imposing y* new oaths on all in preferm^^ but only on such as ought to have taken y' old ones, according to Y laws heretofore made. This I acquaint you with par- ticularly, because I would have y* Universitye satisfied that these new oaths are not designed to be imposed on them all ; as I am told they still believe, tho' I wrote formerly to remove this their prejudice. So soon as y* Act comes out, I will send you a copy of it. I have, by reason of some indisposition, kept my chamber for a few days, and so cannot give you a distinct account of what has lately been done in o' House. That w^*^ I can tell you is, that yesterday y* House voted to repay y" Dutch 600,0(W^*, and to-day y* Bong made a speech in y* House of Lords about y* Test for excluding Papists from offices.
S% I am, Yo' most humble servant.
Is. Newton.
/SkV IsacLc Newton to Dr. Covel.
S',
The Latine clause of the oath which you sent me in one of your letters I conceive ought to be omitted, and both the new oaths administered in English, so soon as y' Bill for administring them shall come out. The case you sent me in yo' last I take to be very plain for y* proctors ; but I will send you a ftirther answer when I have advised about
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it. There is a Bill designed for confirming the Statutes of both Uniyersities^ and those also of the sererall Colleges. I desire you would procure me a copy of y* Statute w«^ past in Q. Elizabeth's reign for that purpose. And if there be any other ancient Acts of Parliam* of that kind in your Statute- books^ you would oblige me w*^ copies of them. I believe it would be convenient that y" University should cause their Statute-books to be reviewed, and such chapters to be noted as they would have confirmed. And, if they would have any thing added or altered, that should also be noted, that it may be considered here. Such notes may be made in a distinct paper tackt to y end of y* book. And I could wish that the same thing were done by every College for their College Statute-book, that their books may be ready against y* drawing up of a Bill for their confirmation. Yo'^ rights of y* press and University Preachers ought also to be stated, how they are or should be ; and if there be any thing els, as y* wine-licenses or y* foundations of professorships, w®^ needs confirmation. I have not yet seen y* ancient Acts of Pari, made in confirmation of y* University Statutes, and therefore know not what form will be observed in this new one, nor whether all that I speak of will be taken in ; but it's good to have all in readiness, and for that end I give you as timely notice as I can. The Bill about the new oaths sent up from o' House to y* Lords was there laid aside, and a new one more severe sent down from them to us. This has been read twice in o' House and is conmiitted. In the Comittee I believe it will be mollified.
S% I am, Yo' most humble Servant,
Is. Newton.
London, March 29, 16S9.
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Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Covel.
This day, upon a motion ms^de by S' Tho. Clarges, for Oxford, and by me for Cambridge, the House of Commons gave leave to bring in a Bill to settle the Charters and Privi- leges of y* Universities.
They have resolved at Oxford what to have done, and sent up the form of a Bill to S' Tho. Clarges. If you at Cam- bridge neglect yo' advantage, as you seem to do, I will take y* best care I can of it. But I think it may deserve a little of yo' care. And if, at that distance you are from hence, you cannot communicate your advice so easily as might be desired, you may perhaps do well to send up one or two intelligent persons (with such instructions as you shall think fit) for us to consult with here in drawing y* Bill. But if you send up any body, pray let him be moderate as well as intelligent; and let 'em be sent as soon as may be. In hopes to heare from you about this matter, I rest
Yo' most humble servant.
Is. Newton.
London, Ap. 30th, 1689.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Covel. S',
Since I can heare nothing from you about y« Uni- versity concern w*^ is now upon y* board, we intend to do it as well as we can w^**out you. That w''^ I would now desire of you is, to procure me a copy of y* Letters Patents dated
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y« 18*** of August, in y" SI** year of Queen Elizabeth. In hast, I am,
Yo' most humble serrant.
Is. Newton.
May 5^, 1689.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Covel.
London, May 7th, 1689.
3',
I received yo" of May y* 4*^, wherein you mention two former letters w«** I received not, w^^ I am troubled at, because you tell me that you therein gave me the result of all your thoughts about the business in hand. I thank you for what you add to them in this I have received. My copy of the Bill w*^ came from Oxford, is at p'^sent in S' Bpob'. Sawyer's hands. But the Summ of it is this — ^ffirst, the body of the Statute of 18 Eliz. for incorporating the Universities, and confirming their Charters and privileges, is recited. Then the Letters Patents of Queen Eliz., dated August y* 13*^, in the 31** year of her reign, to o' University, and other Letters Patents of Charles y* Second granted to Oxford, and all other Letters Patents and Charters granted to either University, at any time either since or before y* 13*?* of Q. Eliz., are con- firmed ; and so are all the privileges and properties of both Universities. Then y' Letters Patents and Charters for founding y* severall colleges, or for confirming their founda- tions, possessions, and privileges, are ratified. Then follows a clause, empowering the visitors, two divinity professors and master of every college, to revise y* Statutes of that college, and strike out what ever favours Popery, and instead thereof, to insert other precepts agreable to y* reformed religion.
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This is y* summ of y* Bill as it came from Oxferd. Toge- ther w*^ a copy of this Bill, I gave S' Rob*. Sawyer a paper of some other heads, for inhibiting mandates, regulating visitations, entituling Professors to livings annexed to their professorships, granting one book of every printed copy to ye publick library of either University for ever, and restoring the right of University preachers.
I should be glad of your further directions about any other matters of moment, not too particular to be inserted in a gen- eral Bill. I sent you y* BiU concerning y oaths on Satxirday was se'night; and, since it came not to yo*^ hands, I have in this letter inclosed another copy of that Bill.
S% I am, Yo' most humble servant.
Is. Newton.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Oovel,
Honoured S',
Being confined to my chamber by a cold and bastard pleurisy, I shall have no opportunity of conferring w*^ S' Bob* Sawyer so soon as you desire, and therefore have sent you an answer apart, and sent your letter to him to an- swer it as soon as he can. The Declaration to be subscribed is not y* latter part of y* second new oath, but y* Declaration mentioned pag. 195 in y* New Act for imposing these Oaths, and conteined at large in y* Act of y* 30*^ of K. Charles -y* 2*. This is to be understood of those who take Degrees, and come into new preferments of Mastership, ffellowship, and Scholarships; ffor those already preferred are only to
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take y* two new oatKs w*^out making and subscribing y» Dedaration. By repeating j* Declaration is meant repeat- ing it after y officer who readeth it. These words, *' that I will conform to y« Liturgy of y Church of England, as it is now by law established," are still in force, and must be sub- scribed as before. I would advise you to admit no more swearing by proxy. For it is not swearing in y* sense of that law w®*^ imposes y* oaths, and by which you must be judged. Nor is the law to be broken for y* convenience of commencers ; especially sincQ it may prove as much to your inconvenience, should you be called to account for breaking it, as to theirs for you to keep it.
I am, S% Yo' most humble servant.
Is. Newton.
May 10, 16S9.
Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. CoveL
May 16«k, i689.
s^
I communicated yo' letter of quaeres to S' Rob*. Sawyer, and have enclosed o' common answer to them. The law requires that y* Declaration be subscribed only ; but we are of opinion, that, for preventing questions about men's having sworn or not sworn, a record of that also be made and kept ; w*** may be done by an order of y* Senate and of every College apart. I thank you heartily for yo' care and pains in getting y' catalogue of y* 15 heads to be inserted into y« Bill we are bringing in. The confirming of your statutes w*^ such a reserve as you propose, S^ Bob*, and I had been considering before, and agreed it was not advisable, because it would not be to confirm to you a privilege, but to give you a new one, and to take away an undoubted and indisputable right of
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y* Crown. What concerns y* College of Physitdans I com- municated to one of y* College^ and find it will not be admitted w^out engaging y* House in a hazzardous debate. 1 have seen y* form of a petition for an explication of true allegiance^ and am told it goes up and down amongst you for hands. I can neither perswade nor diswade any man from subscribing it ; but yet I think it my duty to acquaint you that I have endeavoured much to feel y* puis of y* House about such an explication of allegiance^ and find such an averseness from it^ that I am of opinion y* petition can do no good^ but may do much hurt if ill-resented by y* Houses. When you write by y* carrier, direct yo' letter to me at M'. More's house, in the broad Century, at y* West end of Westminster Abby.
S', I am, Yo' most humble and faithfull servant.
Is. Newton.
Dedaration hy Sir Robert Sawyer and Sir Isaac Newton.
Honored S%
In answer to the Questions you desire satisfaction in. Wee are of opinion, and soe the course and practise is, that the Oaths are not to be subscribed, only the Declaration being faire writ in a parchment roll or booke, and after the persons have audibly repeated it, they subscribe their names. It is fit as a Memoriall of theire takcing the Oaths and of theire repeating the Declaration, that a memorandum bee entered upon the roll or booke of the subscribers takeing the Oaths and repeating the Declaration, with the time when. And this, for your self, and the Masters of Colledges and Halls, Proctors, and Beadles, is to be done publickly in Convocation, before the Senior Masters there present. All
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Commencers are to take the Oaths and subscribe the Decla- ratiou before your selfe in the Congregation House; and persons abready promoted to any degree within the Univer- sity, w^^ are neither Fellows or Scholars of any Hall or Col- ledge, are to do it before the Vicechancellor in the Congre- gation-House. The Fellows and Scholars of any Hall or Colledge, under the degree of a Baron, before the Master or FroYost of the Hall and Colledge; where likewise the sub- scription is onely to the Declaration, but fit to make the like memorandum upon the booke or roll to bee kept by the respective CoUedges and Halls. The law to w^^ the late Act refers to is 7 Jac. cap. 6, not S Jac., as you are pleased to mention. We are of opinion that, where persons are allready under severall capacityes, once takeing of the Oaths in the place of theire aboads and subscribing the Declaration before 1 Aug. is sufficient to exempt them out of the penaltyes of the Act. You are no wayes obliged to cite the Heads; for both you and they are to take the Oaths before the Senior Masters in Convocation, which word the Statute useth, but I suppose with you is called Congregation ; and it will bee incumbent on the Heads to attend some Congregation before the first of August ; but, to prevent all exception, it may not bee amiss to hold a Congregation a day or two before the first of August.
R. Sawybk.
Is. Newton.
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NOTE OF AIL HIS MAJESTTS PBIYTE SEAIES
XICBTTBD BT
SIR CHARLES CORNWALUS, KNIGHTE,
AFPOINTBO
dttAUmx Ux tfie (Sountfi of Jtorf^Iit, ULnm Sommt 1604.
OOMKUNIOATBD BT
RICHARD WARD, OF SALHOUSE, ESQ.
In the remarks prefixed to the Letter of Privy Seal, printed by this Society, Vol. L, p. 123, it was observed that much and valuable light would be thrown upon the history of Norfolk and its state at any given period, when it should be found possible to ascertain the quantity of money which it was proposed to raise throughout the county by similar Letters, and to find to whom they were addressed, and what was the sum required from each sepa- rate person. It was at the same time admitted, that this was a kind of information which there were small hopes of obtaining. And such continued to be the feeling, previ- ously to the discovery of the document quoted above, which is preserved in the University Library at Cambridge, marked D. d. viii. 40; and which, being completely to the point, has now removed the obstacle that it was then feared would prove insuperable. Of this Manuscript the following is a* copy. It is not, indeed, of precisely the same date as the
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Privy Seal addressed to Mr. Ward. But that very discre- pancy gives it additional interest; for it naturally leads to the question^ whether applications of this sort were made at stated periods^ and, if so, whether the intervals between these periods were fixed by precedent, or rendered regular by custom ; as also, whether, although the present list seems to infer a general call throughout the county, particular calls may not, for certain reasons, have been made upon individuals at other times, as was apparently the case with Mr. Ward. The number of those here applied to is 730 : the total sum proposed to be raised is £16,430, — ^a strong indication this of the wealth of Norfolk at that juncture; as the several demands may reasonably be considered to denote the standing and the supposed relative opulence of the party. But how far any inference may also fairly be drawn as to his loyalty, and how far a larger sum may have been asked by way of compliment from those who were regarded as most disposed to contribute, or may have been demanded by way of fine from the disafifected, it were now perhaps impossible to determine. By such documents, however, — and especially if drawn up as the present is, with the residence of most of the persons, — we do assuredly see who were the leading men of the time in our several pa- rishes; and we may gratify not only our natural curiosity, but a better feeling, by tracing in what cases — few these indeed — their posterity are still to be found in the same locality and station, or who are now their successors, and how often the estate or manor which conferred importance or privilege,
** Kunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc sorte supremi, Mutavit dominos, et cessit in altera jura."
Digitized by VjOOQIC
341
jFot ti)e €itie of i^ortoicf).
|
U. |
K. |
||
|
Aldritch Michaell |
. 20 |
. 20 |
|
|
Aanguishe Thomas |
. 20 |
Jermye John |
. 20 |
|
Aldrithe Augustine |
. 20 |
Johnson Willm. |
. 20 |
|
Aldrithe John |
. 20 |
Eitohingman Clement |
. 20 |
|
Browne Richard |
. 30 |
Loueda Richard |
. 20 |
|
Beest Henxye |
(sol. 20U.) 30 |
Layer Thomas . |
. 20 |
|
BlosBt Thomas |
. 20 |
Lynnett John |
. 10 |
|
Bussty Willm. |
. 20 |
Lawes Lewsion |
. 20 |
|
Bretayn Willm. |
. 20 |
Mathewe Robte. |
. 20 |
|
Brumell Danyell |
. 20 |
Mower Robte. . |
. 20 |
|
Barman Dtor., (? Doctor) . 40 |
Mingaie John |
. 20 |
|
|
Barrett Christopher |
. 20 |
Marker Anthonye |
. 20 |
|
Baiter James |
. 20 |
Maxes Leonard |
. 30 |
|
Bryerton Cuthbert |
, 20 |
Norris Titus |
. 20 |
|
Branthwayto Wm.» |
. 20 |
Korris John |
. 20 |
|
Comewalies Charles, Knight . 80 |
Korsforthe Thomas |
. 20 |
|
|
Cooke Robte., senior |
. 20 |
Newehouse Gregorye |
. 20 |
|
Catlyn Thomas . |
. 30 |
Kuttinge Edward |
. 30 |
|
Cullyer Josua |
. 30 |
Peters William |
. 30 |
|
Drake William . |
. 20 |
Pie Thomas |
. 30 |
|
Dibney Roberto |
(sol. 20^.) 40 |
Pettus Thomas |
. 20 |
|
Davye Henrye |
. 20 |
Peterson Spenser |
. 20 |
|
Danyell John |
. 10 |
Parker Michaell |
. 20 |
|
De Wild Peter |
. 30 |
Palmer Nicholas |
. 20 |
|
De Henne James |
. 30 |
Potter Robte. |
. 20 |
|
Elmye Henrye |
. 30 |
Pettus John |
. 50 |
|
£mmes Nicholas |
. 20 |
Payne John |
. 20 |
|
Ferro' Richard |
. 20 |
Powell Charles . |
. 20 |
|
Garsett Robert . |
. 30 |
Robinson Regester |
. 20 |
|
Gaywood Roger |
. 20 |
Hugg Francis |
. 20 |
|
Gleane Peter |
. 40 |
Read John |
. 20 |
|
Gibson Robte. |
. 20 |
Russell John |
. 20 |
|
Galyard Henrye |
. 20 |
Ritchardson Thomas |
. 30 |
|
Grene Robte. |
. 20 |
Sidner x>f Cairowe |
. 10 |
|
Garsett Robte., junior |
. 20 |
Stokes Thomas |
. 20 |
|
Hyme Thomas, Hayoi |
. 30 |
Sotherton Thomas |
. 30 |
|
Hemynge Thomas |
. 20 |
Sotherton Mathewe . |
. 20 |
|
Hall Thomas |
. 30 |
Seaman Willm. |
. 20 |
|
Hoaringe Thomas |
. 20 |
Symonds John |
. 20 |
|
Hoamseye Robte. |
. 20 |
Smalepeice Francis |
. 20 |
|
Hanham Wm., Procto |
r . .20 |
Smythe Jerrerd |
. 20 |
|
Hall Walter |
. 20 |
Smythe Randoll |
. 20 |
|
Hall George |
. 20 |
Some Ellis |
. 20 |
|
• By ft later h« |
Dd. |
Sadler Richard |
. 20 |
2a
Digitized by
342
Stile Anthonye Silver John Tesxnonde John Tompson John . Tesmonde Thomas Thunton Alexander
|
u. |
|
|
. 20 |
Witfeilde John |
|
. 20 |
Watte Lawrence |
|
. 40 |
Weld Roger |
|
. 20 |
Wattes George |
|
. 30 |
Yaxley Henrye |
|
. 80 |
li. 20 20 20 20 80
<!Rreate fSaxmout^t.
Bennett John Crowland John Cooper Isack Cowland John Cowper Beniamyn Oraie WlUm. Hnm'erston • • • Ponyett Jefferye Stevenson John Scarthe Nicholas
|
. 20 |
Stanton WUlm. |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Scarthe Robte. |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Throwarde John |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Tompson Thomas |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Walleis Bichazd |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Weld Charles |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Watson Edward |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Wheeler John |
. 20 |
|
. 20 |
Yonges William |
. 20 |
ILsnn Xlegiss.
|
Athowe Thomas |
. 30 |
Oxborowe Thomas |
. 30 |
|
Butler John |
. 20 |
a |
|
|
Bacon John |
. 20 |
diferent hand.) |
|
|
Baker Thomas |
. 30 |
SendaU Thomas |
. 30 |
|
Claybome Thomas |
. 20 |
Yiolett Henrye . |
. 20 |
|
aarke Mathewe |
. 20 |
Statton Hellen |
. 20 |
|
Carewe Symond |
. 20 |
Piggott Alice, wedowe |
. 20 |
|
Cartwright Peter |
. 80 |
Reave John |
. 20 |
|
Graue Katherine, wid. |
100 |
Pell John, of Dessingh'm |
. 30 |
|
Guibone Thomas |
. 40 |
Wayte Henrye |
. 20 |
|
Gibson Thomas |
. 20 |
Walleis Edmonde, gen. |
. 20 |
|
Hoode Willm. |
. 20 |
Blmes Bdmonde |
. 60 |
|
Kircher John |
. 20 |
Fenn Willm. |
. 40 |
|
Lawson Roger |
. 20 |
Ct)e <Etountie of i^otfollt.
|
Andleye Katheiine, wid. |
. 30 |
Amyas Christopher |
. 20 |
|
Astie Robte., senio' . |
. 20 |
Anguishe Edmond |
. 20 |
|
Astyne Richard |
. 30 |
Athill John, of Geistwicke |
. 20 |
|
Alden Nicholas |
. 20 |
Atdame John |
. 20 |
|
Armiger William, gen. |
. 30 |
Awpe Edward |
. 20 |
|
Amyas Thomas |
. 10 |
Aldame John |
. 20 |
Digitized by VjOOQIC
343
|
u. |
u. |
|
|
20 |
Atmer Robte., of Rocklonde |
. 20 |
|
20 |
Bameye Richard |
. 20 |
|
20 |
Banham Wm. |
. 20 |
|
20 |
Bagge • • • |
. 20 |
|
20 |
Blackbome Robte. |
. 20 |
|
20 |
Bishopp of Norwich • |
. 60 |
|
30 |
Banham Thomas |
. 20 |
AntleWm.
Aldridge Austen
Astie Thomas, of Est Derham .
Aimer Richard, of Northold
Amyas Richard, of Dunham
Acres Wm., of Sedgeforde
Allen Thomas, of Wilthingh'm .
• It can scarcely fail to be considered remarkable, that, while the Bishop is here called upon to contribute so large a sum, not a single member of the nobility of the county aboye the rank of Knight appears upon the list, nor an individual among the beneficed clergy : indeed, that of the clergy alto- gether the names are yery <* few and far between." This may possibly haye arisen from the &ct, that the clergy were taxed in Convocation, not in Par- liament, and that separate commissions were always issued for levying benevolences upon them and upon the laity. It is even possible that Letters of Privy Seal may have been sent to the Bishops, commanding them to apply to those of their respective dioceses ; so that the small number in this List may have been called upon in their quality of prominent land- holders or men of property. What it is to be feared is more probable is, that the solution of the question is rather to be sought in the degraded state of the profession at that period. This is most graphically described by Mr. Macaulay in his History of England, the following extract from which, as given in the limes of Dec. 26, headed by the short observations of that able journal, is so apposite on the present occasion, that it cannot but be acceptable to the reader.
** Perhaps none of Mr. Macaulay's sketches will create more surprise in the hitherto careless reader than the character drawn of the clergy of these times. The ecclesiastical revolution under King Henry Vill. had robbed the church of the endowments and influence which attracted the inclinations of the nobles. * During the century which followed the accession of Eliza- beth scarcely a single person of noble descent took orders.' The support derived from tithe was then barely one-seventh of what it now is ; so that rectors and vicars stood in very different relations from the present towards their secular neighbours. For the especial benefit of young Oxford deacons just entering, with the prestige of Baliol or Brasenose, upon their social position, we transcribe, in its full dimensions, the following portrait of the fortunes and prospects of their predecessors :—
** *A young Levite — such was the phrase then in use— might be had for his board, a small garret, and £10. a-year, and might not only perform his own professional functions, might not only be the most patient of butts and of listeners, might not only always be ready in fine weather for bowls, and in rainy weather for shovelboard, but might also save the expense of a gardener or a groom. Sometimes the reverend man nailed up the apricots, and sometimes he curried the coach-horses. He cast up the farriers' bills. He walked ten miles with a message or a parcel. If he was permitted to
2a2
Digitized by
344
|
Bameje Thomas, Knighte |
60 |
Backster Thomas |
. 30 |
|
Baker Edward |
20 |
BeU Edmund, Knighte |
. 20 |
|
Bunting, wid. |
60 |
Barkam Thomas |
. 20 |
|
Buxton Francis |
20 |
Barkam Bobte. |
. 20 |
|
Bamewell Stephen |
30 |
Barnard Edmonde |
. 20 |
|
Browne Anthonje, Knighte |
20 |
Bucke Raphe |
. 20 |
|
Bedingfeild Thomas (sol. 20".) |
40 |
Blomefild James |
. 10 |
|
Bateman John |
30 |
Bedingfild Nicholas |
. 20 |
|
Barlo Wm. |
20 |
Betts John |
. 20 |
|
Breese Edward |
20 |
Blake Jasper |
. 20 |
dine with the family he was expected to content himself with the plainest fiure. He might fill himself with the corned beef and the carrots, but as soon as the tarts and cheesecakes made their appearance he quitted his seat and stood aloof till he was summoned to return thanks for the repast, from a great part of which he had been excluded.
*< ' Perhaps after some years' service he was presented to a living sufficient to support him ; but he often found it necessary to purchase his preferment by a species of simony, which furnished an inexhaustible subject of plea- santry to three or four generations of scoffers. With his cure he was ex- pected to take a wife. The wife had ordinarily been in the patron's service ; and it was well if she was not suspected of standing too high in the patron's fiivour. Indeed, the nature of the matrimonial connexions which the clergymen of that age were in the habit of forming is the most certain indication of the place which the order held in the social system. An Oxonian, writing a few months after the death of Charles II., complained bitterly not only that the country attorney and the country apothecary looked down with disdain on the country clergyman, but that one of the lessons most earnestly inculcated on every girl of honourable family was to give no encouragement to a lover in orders, and that if any young lady forgot this precept, she was almost as much disgraced as by an illicit amour. Clarendon, who assuredly bore no ill will to the church, mentions it as a sign of the confusion of ranks which the great Bebellion had produced, that some damsels of noble families had bestowed themselves on divines. A waiting- woman was generally considered as the most suitable helpmate for a parson. Queen Elizabeth, as head of the church, had given what seemed to be a formal sanction to this prejudice, by issuing special orders that no clergyman should presume to marry a servant girl without the consent of her master or mistress. During several generations, accordingly, the rela- tions between piiests and handmaidens was a theme for endless jest ; nor would it be easy to find in the comedy of the seventeenth century a single instance of a clergyman who wins a spouse above the rank of a cook. Even BO late as the time of George II., the keenest of all observers of life and manners, himself a priest, remarked, that in a great household the chaplain was the resource of a lady's-maid whose character had been blown upon, and who was therefore forced to give up hopes of catching the steward.' '*
Digitized by VjOOQIC
S45
u. Badgetroste Richard . 20
Bradleye Henrye . . 20
Bale Edmond, of TVldLlewoode . 10 Bonde Lawrence . * .20
Browne Nicholas . . 20
Barnard Robte, of Langh'm . 20 BealesJohn . 20
Boisepoole Richarde . * 20
BellWm. . . 20
Bearie Henrye, Cleric. . . 80 BenweU Nicholas (sol. 20^.) 30 Buxton R'bte. . . 40
Benington John (sol. 10".) 20
Bacon Nathaniell, Knighte . 50 Barker Henrye (sol. 25^,) 80
Barnes John (sol. 10^^.) 20
Beckland Richard . 20
Buller Roger, of Oeistwicke. 40
(sol. 20W.) Bromald Thomas . . 20
Blomfild John, of Albye . 20
Browne Richard, of * .20
(sol. 18" 6« 8<».) Browne Robte., of Walton . 20 Beavis Richard, of Stomston . 10 Blomefild John, of Estderham . 20 Badleye Thomas, of Porlande . 80 Browne Richard, of Tacolneston 20 Blomefild Wm. of Disse . . 20 Bartrame John, of Melton, Cleric. 20 Bateman Robte. . . 20
Baisepoole Robte. . . 20
Barnes Wm. . . 20
Barker Richard . . 20
Baisepoole Richard . . 20
Barnard Robte., of Langdame . 40 Brend, wid. . . 20
Bull Stephen . 20
Bateman Thomas, of Flizton . 20 Beeston Thomas . . 20
Benslie John, of Upton . . 20 Branthwaite Henrye . . 30
Browne Phillippe . . 20
Boulte Henry, of Welles . 20
Bullock Thomas, of Walsingh'm 20
• Illegible.
Bramton Henrye, of Blowe
Norton 20
Baxter Nicholas . . 20
Buxton Thomas, of Tibbenham 20 Bransbye Rbte. . . 20
Billament John . . 20
Brett Andrewe . . 20
Blackbome Henrye, of Windham 20 Browne Robte., of Sonthwalsh'm 20 Boddam Robte., of Swafham . 20 Branthwaite Miles . 80
Burgeis Richard, of Brisley . 20 Basepoole John, of Barton . 20 Beane Henrye, of Gresham,
Cleric. . . 20
Bartlett Edward, Esq. . 20
Berye of Wurlingh'm . 20
Blackforde Richarde . . 20
Corbett Miles, Knight . 30
Conesbie Jhane, wid. . . 20
Crowe Christopher . 80
Campe Robte. . . 20
Clifton Henrye . • 20
Cullyer Philippe . . 20
Carman Wm., of Bamhamthorpe 20 Caster Christopher, of Wooddau-
linge . . 20
Cobb Wm., of Nayton . . 80 Cockett Thomas, Esq. . 20
Croake John, of Southwalsham . 20 Carrile Henrye, Esq. . 20
Carr Andrew, Cleric. . . 20
Colton Barth., of Starstone . 20 Cocke Rbte. . . 20
Cony Thomas . . .80
Cuttinge Wm., of Hoston . 10
Clarke Andrewe, of Wroxham,
gen. . . . 20
CaryeThomas, of PulhamMarye 10 CoUes Martyn, of Hendringh'm 20 Cobbes Edmond, of Snetdsh'm . 20 Chamberlyn Reignold, of Bidg-
h'm (sol. 20U) 30
Chapman Pawle, of Titshall . 20 CuUyn Phillippe, of Beeily . 20
(sol. 10") Clere Edward, Knighte . . 50
Digitized by
846
It.
Cony Rbt* (sol. 10".) 20
Cooke Richard, of BamingVm . 20 Cooke Wm., de eadem . . 30 Clarke Edm., of BriBsingh'm . 20 Coop Stephen, of Backon . . 20 dare Henrye, Knighte . 20
Collyer Richard, of Windh'm,
sen. . . 20
Crane Robte, de eadem . 20
Capes Wm., of Stratton . 20
Cooke Thomas, of Sisleade . 20 Cobbe Rbte., of Becklea . 30
Cooke Wm., of Walcote . . 20 Coote John, of greate Snoringe . 20 CursonHenrye . 30
Cooke Edward, Enighte 200
Colbye Thomas, of Banham . 80 Cocke Rbte. . 20
Carye Wymond, Enighte . . 60 Canam Symonde . . 20
CanamAbrye . . 20
Cobbe Wm., of Geyton . 30
Chabnore Rbt., of Swaf ham . 30 Cobbe Wm., Enighte . 40
Doilye Edmond, Esq. . . 60 Doughtye Wm., of Hanworthe . 20 Deye Rbte., of Stoneton . . 20 Dusgate, vid., of Cleye . 20
Drewrye Anthonye, Esq. . . 20 Durrant John, of Yaxham . 20 Deye Robte., of Windham . 20 Dove Richard, of Wellingh'm . 20 Deathie Anthonye, Esq. . . 30 Doughtie Thomas, of Aleshame 20 Dusegate John, of Cocklie Cleye 20 Deye Nicholas, of Heigham . 20 Doods, of Hoston . 20
Duke Edward . . 20
DikeHaghe . . 20
Daye Thomas, Enighte . . 20 Dennyes Thomas (sol. 20^^.) 20 Doughtie Rbte., of Hanworthe . 20 Downehill Peter, of Thornton . 20 Dayyo Wm., of Saufeilde . . 20 Davye Robte, of Fransh'm . 20 Deye John, of Walsingh'm . 20 • Oifiercnt hand.
Dade Ellis, of Eennynghall . 20 Dayye John, de eadem . 20
Dacke Thomas, of Brandestone . 20 Drake John, of HcTerlonde . 20 Dowe John, of Attleburroughe . 20 Drewrye Robte, of Dookinge . 20 Drewrye Thomas, of Fmcham . 20 Doylie Edward . . 30
Deane John, of Felbzigge • . 20 Drewrle Drewe, Enighte . 20
DeTeraxe Walter, Enighte . 30 Elwine Peter . . 20
ElwyneHenrye . . 20
Ellis Nicholas . • 20
Emerstone Henrye, of lioddon . 20 Elyyn George, of Caster . 20
Edmonds Wm., of Sazthorpe . 20 Elgar John, of Sedgeforde . 20
Frestone Richard, Esq. . 30
Futter Rbte., of Tompestone . 20 Feake George, Qer, . . 20
Fisher Edwarde . . 20
Fowler George,of Brandon Fezrye 20 Finnarye, of Aleshame, Cler. . 20 Flowardewe Tho., of Hethersett 20 Fletcher Rbt., of Hindringh'm . 10 Foyster Rbte., of EennynghaU . 30 Fendd Roger, of Saxlingh'm . 10 Fiske Alin, wid. • . 20
Freeman Edward, of Wacton . 20 Foulzier Robte., of Disse, sen. . 20 Fountayne John, gen. . . 20 Foulzier Thomas, of Disse . 20 Feltame Thomas . . 20
Framyngh'm Richard, of Hin- dringh'm . . . 20 FramyngVm Edward, of Warren 50 Fitt Richard, of Larringsett . 20 Fryer Richard, of Harlestone . 20
(An iiddiiion, which ii iUsffibU,) Fimstone Thomas, of Windham 10 Fisher Richard, of Disse . 20
GodfreyRichard, of Hindringh'm 20 Gouche John, of Carlton . 20
Gawdie Francis, Enight 100
Gouge Edward, of .... f .20
f Place ertwod.
Digitized by
347
u.
20 20 20 40 20 100 20 30 80 20 20 40 20 20 20
20 20 20 50
Gibson Wm., of Kettlestone Gryme George, gen. Gryme Wm., of Gymmyngham Gresham Richard, Knighte Gawdie, wid.
GunBtone, of Fincham, Cler. Gawdie Henrye, Knighte Grene Rbte., of Fonuett Godbolt Richard, of Fincham . Gnmeye Henrye, Esq. Grene Thomas Grene John, of Wells Gawdie Bassingbome, Knighte . Giles Edward, of Paulinge Gaye Phillippe, of Matlaske Galsee Rbte., of Riston, Esq. . Grene Edward, of Ormesbye Gawdie Clissbye, Knighte Gooche George, of Disse Gaye Thomas, of Wickmer Gryme Robte., of H. . . .rynge f Grosse Thomas, Esq. Gymmyngh'm Robte., of Upton 20 Gwyne Richard, of Fakenham,
Esq. . . .20
Gasselye John, of Bamham
Thorpe . .20
Gabyn Roger, of Danlinge . 20 Gnybone Wm., of Finch'm . 20 Gnybone Ellenor, of Castarre,wid. 20 Gh>odwyn Roger, of Pulham
Marye . .20
Grandye John, of Greate Cres-
singh'm Gosling Robte., of Topcrofte Howes Thomas, of Barrowe Howes Robte., of Besthorpe Howman John, of Stanhawe Hoberte Henrye, Knighte Hunte, of Bnrstone, dcor. Hoberte James, of Hales hall Houghton Sergiant Houldiche Henrye, Esq. HoTildiche, wid. Hewer Thomas, of Emney, Esq. 30 Hoe Clemente, of Bamham, gen. 30 i Torn.
20 20 20 20 20 80 20 20 20 10 20
Home Nicholas, of Ameringhall
Havers Thomas, of Sheltone
Holland John, of Kenninghall, Esq.
Hovell Richard, of Hillingtone .
Hoberte Wm., of Meltone
Hungate, gen. .
Hoberte John, gen. .
Heeringe George
Heyingh'm Arthure, Knighte .
Hoberte Thomas, gen.
Harris John, of Haseborrowe
Hare Raphe, Knighte
Hmite Wm., gent.
Hudsone Edmonde, of Castaire .
Hay ewarde Richard, of Stokesbie
Heithe John, of Walsingh'm .
Home Em'e, of Alesham, wid. .
Hamond Richard, of Ellingh'm .
Hasting Tho., of Hindringh'm .
Hemsterlie Robt., of Fakenham
Heme Wm., of Drayton
Hamonde Edmonde, of Cawstone
Howlett Tho., of North Tudden- ham
Hnsbond Tho., of Honynge
HillJ....,tof Halles
Hattersley Wm., of Shipdom .
Hnssett Sir Edward $
Hatfidd Wm., of Wilbye, Cleric.
Holte John, of Stokesbie, Cleric.
Hamond John, of Sparham
Harbye Tho., of Brissingh'm •
HoberteRoger, ofMorley, gen. .
Home Nicholas, of Tibenham .
Hery Roger, of Bradishe
Hayers John, of Winfarthlnge .
Howes Wm., of Tofte
Hickling John, Cleric.
Hunte Edmund, of Hempestead
Heathe Richard, of Little Dun- ham
Hooe Richard, of Seaming
Hey ward Rich., of Cardestone .
Habnan Robte., of Swafham .
Hogan Thomas, Knighte
t Torn. \ Later hand.
20 20
20 10 40 10 20 40 20 10 50 20 20 20 20 20
20 20
20 20 50 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 80 30 20
20 20 20 20 20
Digitized by VjOOQIC
348
Hunstone Thomas, Esq. . 20
Howard John, of Bradishe . 20 Howman Tho., of Shefford • . 20 Hamock Edwaide . . 20
Harvell Tho., of Bridgeham . 20 Hobbes Thomas, of Windham . 20 Hampton Elizabeth, wid. . 20
Jenkenson Richard, Esq. . 30
Jaye John, of Holstone, Esq. . 20 Jaye John, of Eaishame . 20
Itos John, of Samstone . 20
Jemegan Henrye, Esq. . 50
Jeckler Thomas, of AshiU . 20
Jenny e Henrye, of Cressingh'm . 10 Joyner Thomas, of Binham . 20 JoUoppe Robte., of Tompeson . 20 Jennys Thomas, of Afihmynhawe 20 Kynge Rbte., of Holkham . 20
Kynge John, of Wiston . 20
Kett Loye, (». e. Eligius) . 10
Kempe John, Esq. . 30
Kytson, of Wotton, Cler. . 20
Keyberd John, of Brooke . 20
Kendall John, of Dickleborowe . 20 Kempe Thomas, of Heydon . 20 Kynge Wm., of Hemsteade . 20 Kynge Richard, of Styberde . 20 Kendall Henrye, .... uckinham* 20
Kynge Richard, of f '20
Loudl Phillippe, of Weste Dere- ham . .10 Lovell Thomas, Knighte 100 Lingwood Thomas, of Ovington 20 Locke, of Tibenham, Cleric. . 20 Legwoode John, of Hemnall . 20 Lawson Richard, of Laveringett 20 Lombe Edward, of Cawston . 20 LaveringtonWm.,ofWalsingh*m 20 linforde Thomas, gen. . 30 Laverocke Robte., of Ringlonde 20 Layre Christopher, Esq. . 20 Leake Wm., of Disse . 20 Leake Richard, de eadem . 20 Lambert Clement, of Binham . 20 Leaman Robte., of Linge . 30 Leaman John, of Bawling . 20 • Torn. + Torn.
Linsteade Tho., of Edingthorpe 20 Lee Wm., of Lezham . 20
Ling Lawrence, of Alese'm . 20 Linstead Robte., of Catfeild . 20 Leyerton Cutbert, gen. . 20
Lincolne, wid. { . .20
Linsbye John, of Creak, Cleric. . 20 Lawson Thomas, of Holkam . 20 Leadall, of Stanhowe, Cleric. . 20 Litton Robte., of Kennenghall . 20
Lawson Wm., of («c.) . 20
Lawson Roger, of ... . (sic.) . 20 Mansell Robte., Knighte . 30
Maye Giles, of Hindringh'm . 20 Mason Powle, of Necton . 20
Mingaye John, of Ameringall . 20 Montfort Edmond, Knighte . 40 Mileham Gregorie . . 20
Matchett, Cleric. . . 20
More Wm., of Fomsett . 20
Methold, of Langford . 20
Maysters Robte., of Cleric.
(sic.) . . . 20
Mihill Edward, of Sutton . 10
Mordant Lestrange, Esq. . 50
Mayes Thomas, of Gurston . 20 Miller Robte., of Matlaske . 20 More Thomas, of Hingh*m . 20 Monye.... of Wells § . 20
Montforde Edmonde, of Stewkye 20 Mapes Thom's, of Walsingh'm . 20 Mallen Dudleye, of Hopton, gen. 20 Meke John, of Barrowe . 20
Man Edmond, of Homyngtofte . 20 Morrise Edwarde, of Smalbur-
rowe II . . . 20
Nuttall Edward . . 30
Norris Edmond, of Congham . 20 Nunn George, of Pickenham . 30
(sol. 20«.) Norris Dcor. . . 30
Naiahe Tho., of Swaynesthorpe 20 Neave Firmyn, of Wood-dawling 20 Kunne Robte., of Tofte . 20
Norris Tho., of Congham . 20
t Correction by a later hand. \ Tom. II By a later hand.
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li. Neave John, of Dereham . 20
Oder Isack, of Buckenham . 20 Paston Willm., Knighte 100
Pratt Gregorye, Esq. . . 20
Paston Edward, Esq. . 50
Paston, of Oxned, wid. . 40
Pagrave John, Esq. . .20
Pander Robte. . . 20
Parker Henrye, of Downham . 20 Pitcher Robte., of Co wlinge . 20 Pecock Symonde, Cleric. . 20
Pudding Thomas, de Wacton . 20 Parker Thomas, of Stalham . 20 Prentise John, sen., de Pulham
M'kett . . .20
Phillips Wm., of Crostwicke . 20 Parker Gilbert, of Alborrowe . 20 Playforthe Nicholas, of North- repps . . .20 Payne John, of Calton . 20 Pecke Wm., of Freknam . 50 Pecke, wid. . . . 30 Pilte Thomas . . 20 Perrye Wm., of Dilham . 20 Pye John, of .... • . .20 Pratt Edward, of .... t .20 Pleasante Thomas, of Brandon-
Ferrye . . .30
Parke Wm., of Holme . 20
Platefoote John, of Norboirowe 20 Platefoote Richard, of Waltham 20 Pope, of Buckenham . 20
Preston Jacobb, de eadem . 20
Prentise John, of Pulham . 20
Parlett Francis, of Stredgitt . 20 Risinge Francis, of Hockeing . 20 Rugg Wm. , of Fehnyngh*m, Esq. 40 Reppes John, of Walton, Esq. . 20
Russell Phillipp, of (sic.) . 30
Russell Henrye, of (aic.) . 20
Romeford Edward, of (wc.) 20
Richers John, of Stalham, Cleric. 20 Rose Steven, of Scorusson . 20
Ruste John, of Farsfield . 20
Rolfe Clement, of Tuttington . 20 Rase Robte., of Saxlingh'm . 10 • Tom. + Tom.
VOL. II. 2
Roll Rich., of Newton St. Faithes 10 Raynde James, of Ellingh'm . 20 Reade Christopher, gen. . . 20 Reynold John, of Frethorpe . 20 Riches John, al's Glover . . 30 Randall Wm., of Pulham . 20
Randall Rbte., de eadem . . 20 Ringwoode Margarett, of Wind- ham . . . 20 Rudland John, de eadem . 20
Rogers Robte., of (nc.) . 20
Rayners John, of Hevingham . 20 Raymes Wm., of Oxtrond . 20
Robinson Robte., of Saxlingh*m,
Cleric. . . 20
RandoU John, of Topcrofte . 20 Rownse James, of Southwalsh'm 20 Remand Robart, of Northolde . 20
Richardson , of Mulbarton,
Cleric, (tic,) . . 20
Reade Roberte, of Ringstead . 20 Russell Thomas, of Blownorton 20 Rose Robte, of Weston . . 20 Rame Raphe, of Houlton . 20
Reave Raphe, of Cressingh'm . 20 Ralie John, of Cleye . . 20
Rushenier Daniell, of Matshall 20 Shering John, of Thetford . 20
Spilman Henrye, Knighte . . 20 Smythe Tho., of Walsoken . 20 Smythe Randall, of Reedham,
aerie. . . 20
Suckling Johane, wid. . . 20 Sowthwell Tho., of Morton, Esq. 20 Sayre Rich., of Pulham . . 20 Smythe Rich., of Snetterton . 20 Shaxon Thomas, of ... . (sic,) . 20 Stubb Richard, Esq. . . 30
Seckar Wm., of Scamyng . 20
Smythe Robte, of Burlingh'm,
Cleric. . . . 20
Sherlowe Anthonye . . 20
Sturdivant Mathewe, of ... . (sic) 20 Steward John, gen. . . 20
Sayre Tho., of (sic,) . . 20
Smythe Tho • . .20
• Place erased.
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Scotte John, of Wooddauling . 20 Sponce Tho., of Seething . 20
Smythe Adryam, of (ate,) . 10
Stone Barth., of Wicklewood . 10 Spenlowe Robte., of Scottowe . 20 Sheilocke Robtc, of Brampton 20 Scryme John, of Snetsh'm . 30
Scott Edward, of West Kudham 20 Sherman Tymothie, of Wacton . 20 Sidleye Martyn, of Morlie . 20
Sidneye Henrye, Knyghte . 40
Scambler James, Esq. (sol. 16^^) 30 Spilman Clement, Knight . 50
(sol. Z0\) Shilling Francis, of Hoston . 20 Scott Thomas, of Methwold f . 20
(sol. 10".) Sholdam Tho., of Windham . 20 Smythe Thomas, of Earsh'm . 20 Shackford Kaynold, of Dicle-
boroue . . . 20
Symonds Francis, of Suifeild . 20 Sheringh'm Edm., of Norton . 20 Stone Kobte., of Clayeringe . 20 Suckling John, of Sprowston . 20 Steward John, of Thwaite . 20
Smythe John, of Gaverston . 30 Scarlett Arthnre, of Est dereh'm 20 Stone Hichard, of Snetterton . 20 Salisburye Roger, of Croxton . 30 Stileman Robt., of Feild dauling 20 Stone Richard, of Holme . 20
Strange Hamond, Knighte . 20
Spicer John, of J . .20
Shaxon Leonard, of { .20
Seaman Austyne, of ham|| . 20
Sparke Robte, of Kennengall . 20 St. John Oliver, of Hockring . 20 Shackle Tho., of Wichingham . 20 Scarlett John, of Howe, Esq. . 30 Shilling Wm., of Hoston . 20
Sturdevant , of newe Back-
enha* (sic,) , . 20
Skipp Robte, of Stunstead . 20 Staple Henrye, of west Ludham 20
t By a later hand. X Tom. { Torn. |] Torn.
Sherlooc, nighe aboute Kennen- gall . 20 Symonds John, of Wyndham . 20 Toll Tho., of Fakenham . 20 Towlie Rich., of Kyrbio . . 20 Thurton John, of Brome . 30
TympeTho,,of . . 20
Tuttle John, of Saxlingh'm . 20 Thornton Robte., Esq. . . 30 Townesend Qeorge, gen. . 30
Thimblethorpe Edmond, Knight 20 Thetford Francis, of Witshing-
h'm . 20
Thursbie Tho., Esq. . . 50
Tilnye Richard, gen. (sol. 20»*.) 30 Thorrold Richard, of Mileham . 20 Tyncker Christopher, of Eding-
thorpe . . 20
TyddWm., of Wells . .20
Tabott Thomas, Esq. . 20
Thetford Thomas, gen. . . 20 Thexon Leonard, of Trunche,
Cleric. . . . 20
Thacker Richard, of Hockringe 20 Tilneye Henrye . . . . • . .20 Tavemde James . . 20
TyndaU Richard, of Banham . 20 Tompson Thomas, of Norton . 20 Vyncent Tho., of Easton . 20
Vyme Richard, of Stratton . 10 TJiaett John, of Somerlie . . 20 TJtbert Thomas, of Croxon . 20
XTtbert Bamarde, of (sic.) . 30
Walgraue Charles, Esq. . 20
Whipple Wm., of Dicleborowe . 20 Wrighte Tho., of KyWerston . 30 Ward Tho., of Postwick, gen. . 20 Wilton Rich., of Topcrafte . 20 West Doctor . . 20
Walpoole Callibut, Esq. . . 60 Woodhowse Phillip, Knight . 60 Wrighte Rbt, of Hingh'm . 20 Ward Jeffireye, gen. . . 20
West Tho., of Kennengall . 20
Woode Robte, of Thurston, Esq. 20 Whitefoot Mihils, of Hapten . 20 • Tom.
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u.
WalneyTho., of Shelton, Cleric. 20 Worth Wm., of Bacton . . 20 Withe John, of Brodishe . 10
Warde Henrye, of Horstead, Esq. 30 Whall Auatyn, gen. . 20
Wrighte, of Walpoole . . 20 Wynde Robte, Knighte . 60
(sol. 30".) Worth Ambrose, of Kaynham . 20
(sol. 10".) Wilson Tho., of Buxton . 20
Wrongreye John, of f .20
Warner B^bte, of t • -20
Wiggett Roger, of Bailing .... § Withers Richard, of
+ Effaced. t Effaced.
\ Nearly half of the last leaf of the MS. it wanting.
Wood Thomas, of Pulh. . Whipple Thomas, of D... Wrongreye Nicholas, of .
Warner Francis,
Whall Richard, of North Wormlye John, of ... . Waterman Tho., of ... . Williamson George, of
Watte Thomas, of
Walpoole George, of . , . WrottWm., oi Jntw... WrighteRobte, of E.. Wrighte John, sen. Whiteman Richard, of Webster Thomas, of . . Yelverton .... YoUopp John, of . . .
2 b2
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DRAWINGS BY MRS. GUNN
Ifttiral ^aintingB iti CrnHtmigjrt Clmrtjj.
COMMUNICAnD BT
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ.,
VICB-PKI8IDINT.
Remarkable^ and even uniqae, as I have always been led to regard the Tree of the Deadly Sins in Catfield Church,* it will readily be imagined^ that it was with no less sxirprise than pleasure that I heard of a painting, similar in subject and very analogous in design, having lately been brought to light in the neighbouring church of Crostwight. The dis- covery we owe to the active, persevering industry of Mr. Gunn, to whom we were greatly indebted in the former in- stance. He was told that some traces of colour had been detected in scraping the walls, preparatory to their receiving a fresh layer of whitewash : his experience taught him what most probably was concealed beneath; and he applied himself personally to the task of removing the former coats. The consequence was, that he had soon the satisfaction of seeing the North wall of the nave exhibit the appearance represented in the first of the accompanying plates. On the opposite side, it is probable, he would have been equally successful; but the order given to the masons allowed of their going no further, except to the narrow projections which confine the * See the figure of this in Norfolk Archtdolo^t I., p. 133.
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rood-loft screen. On the Western face of the Southernmost of these he found a really graceful and very perfect figure of St. Michael, trampling upon and transfixing the prostrate fiend: the execution good; the face, beautiful. The whole body and thighs of the Archangel are covered with the same long silvery feathers that compose his flapping wings : on his breast he bears his argent shield, charged with the sanguine cross. The rebel spirit is similarly feathered and winged : his form is that of a fabulous monster of the deep. I have indulged in this description, not recollecting to have seen elsewhere the heavenly warrior and his antagonist delineated in a similar manner. At the same time, I have hardly re- garded the deviations from what may be considered the standiag type, as of sufficient importance to justify the intro- duction of an additional plate ; and I have therefore confined the engravings to the general view abeady noticed and to the two most Western subjects. These, by far the most inter- esting of the series, are likewise the n»st perfect. Scarcely more perfect are they, however, than the adjoining St. Christopher, represented, as usual, of colossal stature, and supporting himself with his enormous stafi*, while traversing the river, which, full of fish, is seen behind him nearly upon a level with his knees ; whereas, in front of him, there is not even a drop of water to moisten the soles of his feet. Great inconsistencies these ; but '^ nought uncommon nor held strange in the old painters' day." They, men of genius, but untaught, not unfrequently united in their works much that is to be admired, particularly in composition and expression, with absurdities altogether unaccountable. Our Society can scarcely fail to wish that our countryman, Hogarth, had been a Norfolk archaeologist and had studied these performances ; so delighted would he have been, not only to have drawn from this source fresh illustrations to his treatise on False Perspective, but most probably to have added to it a pendant upon unlooked-for contrarieties. A fourth picture, consider-
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ably perfect except as regards the accusing Jews, is that of our Saviour before Pilate, in which both the attitude and the face of the Divine Redeemer are deserving of praise. So, likewise, the Crucifixion, placed immediately over the last- mentioned one, is in a state of fair preservation, and has portions of much merit. The rest are too seriously injured, and in parts effaced, for it to be possible even to decide upon their subjects with any certainty.
To return to those of my plates, it will at once be seen how much the demon-tree in the second has in common with the scarcely more extraordinary one at Catfield. They both originate from the jaws of hell, within which their roots are fixed : both have seven branches, equal in number to the deadly sins ; and, in both, these branches are formed of fiends, whose gaping mouths hold an unfortunate transgres- sor, the votary and victim of one of these fatal passions. The same idea, in fact, pervades alike the one and the other; but the resemblance foes no further. In passing from gene- ralities to details, there is a discrepancy throughout ; and of such a nature as to render it highly improbable that we see in the two the workmanship of the same hand, or the ema- nations of the same mind. What I suppose intended for the gaping mouth, " per che si va nell' etemo dolore," takes at Crostwight so much the form of a boat, that, but for the tree, the observer might fancy it designed for the infernal ferry-boat, conveying sinners, among flames, to their final doom.* Here, too, the tree is more grand in size and more
* Nor woiUd it be at all extraordinary to meet in our churcheB with such a mixture of heathen and Christian mysteries in those times, as would allow of Charon himself being introduced on this occasion. We have him by name in Dante, who, ''in common with many fathers of the church, imder the supposition, that paganism, in the persons of its infernal gods, represented the evil angels, made no scruple to adopt its fables. He thus blended with the terrors of the Catholic faith all the brilliant colouring of the Greek mythology, and all the force of poetical association. Michael Angelo, too, in his picture of the Last Judgment, represents Charon carrying over the
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graceful in its proportions than at Catfield ; and its branches, instead of maintaining stiff, straight right-angles with the stem, rise in a pleasing curve, accompanied by smaller shoots, that end in what may equally be taken for leaf, flower, or fruit.* The poor heedless victim is, at Catfield, attended by an evil spirit, seated by his side and watching an op- portunity to engulph him in the monster's bowels ; but, at Crostwight, — except in a single instance where the personifi- cation of lust required an associate, — the culprit sits solitary; the half of his body only seen rising from the mouth of the fiend, which is not large enough for the reception of more. Again, the two Catfield demons, more burlesque than terrific, who, on either side the gulf, are tugging with aU their might and main to drag down the criminals as they emerge from their incarceration, are replaced at Crostwight by a single, unmistakeable, gigantic devil, duly homed and hoofed, and grasping what may be a rod — may be a portion of a chain. The picture is, in this part, unfortunately, so injured, that little can be pronounced with positiveness respecting him, or respecting the wheel by his feet, — ^a probably symbolical ad- junct. The same observation, touching the imperfect state of the painting below, is equally applicable to the upper por- tion, where there are now no traces of an angel blowing the last trumpet ; though it is not by any means therefore certain that none ever stood there. StiU farther, the names of the
condemned souls ; and, forgetting that he is introduced, not as an infernal god, but as the evil spirit of the stream, it has been objected to the painter of the Sistine Chapel that he has confounded the two religions, when, in fact, he has not transgressed the strict rule of the church." — Sismondi, on the Literature of the South of Europe, I., p. 248.
* In describing what I have just mentioned as shoots, a friend, to whose opinion I am always disposed to pay deference, considers me mistaken, and believes them to be the multipartite, sting-pointed tails of the ramiform demons. The idea is at all events ingenious, and perhaps just: in the words of the Italian proverb, " se non t vcro 6 ben trovato ; "—but who shall solve or cut the knot?
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deadly sins are all now ^aced^ with the exception of So- cardia,* here personified by a female^ supporting her chin
* I recollect no other graphic representation of the Deadly Sins, save Fisher's engraving (t. 19) of the painting on the walls of the Chapel of the Trinity at Stratford-upon-Avon. There, too, their names were attached ; and five of them still remain. No needless precaution this ; for very inferior is the performance in every respect to those at Catfield and Crostwight ; and in none more so, than in the evident inability of the artist justly to conceive what he has undertaken to pourtray. Remove, therefore, but the inscrip- tions, and his intention disappears. He has given no one of the culprits an attribute ; nor has he marked the peculiar sin by any corresponding form or action. AvariHa is designated by a group of sixteen individuals, whom a demon is dragging along, encircled by a chain : Ira, by five others, en- tering "la Citt& dolente ;" itself all red with flames, within and without : its portal, an enormous gaping mouth. Superbia Lb mounted on the neck of a devil in the form of a goat. Intidia is suspended from the waU, by a rope tied round the waist, so that head and feet hang equaUy low ; and Gula is fastened against the same wall, both of them smarting under the lashes of a demon who stands beneath them. Soeardia and Libido there are no means of appropriating. Other devils, scattered about the picture, are variously tormenting other siimers, most of whom, as at Crostwight, are females. How would this have been, had Uant been painters ? On the dexter side of the piece the case is very different. There all is beatitude ; and Popes, Prelates, and Monks, are seen rising from their tombs in extacy, or wel- comed by St. Peter at the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Before dismissing the subject, let me observe that thanks would be due to any English antiquary, who, on visiting the continent, would use the opportunity that I let slip, and observe how far similar representations of the infernal regions are to be found elsewhere, and particularly in Italy. Seronx d'Agincourt, in hia engravings of many hundred early paintings, chiefly from that country, furnishes none such. Cisalpine art, to judge from his work, is confined to the sacred and classical ; or, if hagiology is occasionally admitted, it is restricted to what may be considered its legiti- mate bounds; except where, as in Orcagna's noble fresco in the church of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence, admiration and consequent imitation of Dante has led to deviations. It might so be possible to ascertain, whether these pictures of the mouth of hell, with its attendant horrors, weU described and illustrated by my late friend, Mr. Sharp, in his Coventry Mysteries, originated in England or Denmark, the fruit of the fearful tradi- tions of the religion of Odin ; whether they equally occur in Germany and France, where the Macaber Dance, and the legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead, and other similar legends are often painted ; or whether.
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with her right hand. There is no difficulty, however, in referring a second female, grasping a bag of money, to Avarttia; or a third, who is lifting a goblet to her mouth, to Gula; or the couple noticed above, to Libido, Invidia, Iruy and Superbia it were difficult to appropriate, unless we consider the lowest figure on the sinister side intended for the last-mentioned. His sex, his size — double that of the rest — and his bright green tunic, would seem to justify such a conclusion. Much care too has evidently been bestowed upon his beard; which, in the absence of all architectural ornaments and costume, is the only object I can see to help us to date the painting. Judging from it, we must regard the work as a production of the fourteenth century, when the effigy of Edward II. was placed in Gloucester cathedral, with a beard of the same form, and parted and curled in the same manner. This, as is well observed by Mr. Fairholt, in his very useful publication upon Costume in Englandy p. 428, " forcibly brings to mind the King's foppery, and the cruel manner in which it was rebuked after his fall by Maltravers, one of his keepers, who, upon a certain occasion, while on a journey, ordered him to be shaved with cold water from a ditch ; whereupon the unfortunate monarch exclaimed, biirst- ing into indignant tears, ' Here is at least warm water upon my cheeks, whether you wiU or not.' "
Admitting the justice of these data, the paintings in the interior of the churches of Catfield and Crostwight are brought to the same, or nearly the same, period; and it may be observed, en passant, that we have here a fresh ex- emplification of the fact more particularly proved by our rood-loft screens, that, however little is known of the history
of Italian birth, they haTe come to us through those regions, gradually assuming more and more of a barbaric character in their northward course — as the Romanesque architecture Taried in like manner in the same transit — till, safely housed in our ecclesiastical edifices, it rioted uncontrolled in all the exuberancies of Norman arches and shafts and capitals.
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of British art in the days of the Plantagenets and their im- mediate successors, — however the obscurity of those dark ages may have enveloped and overshadowed the country, — there cannot but have been several painters, and those no ordinary men, at that time in Norfolk. Whether they were natives of the county or otherwise, and whether there was any school or guild to train an^ to connect them, will most probably long remain open questions. Our town-books, which would be most likely to decide these points, are silent. I am not aware that they in any case go sufficiently far back to state the fact of works of this description being anywhere in hand. It is, at all events, higlily improbable that the artists should have been imported from abroad, like the greater number of those enumerated by Horace Walpole or Vertue. Such may have been generally the case for im- portant works or buildings ; though even there it was not always * so ; but is it to be supposed that the churchwarden of a remote village would cast his eyes far and wide for foreign art, or that the 'squire would untie his purse-strings for the purpose ? There are at the same time grounds for believing, that a considerable number, perhaps the greater proportion, of the churches in the county were painted.f The
* Thus, in the singularly beautiful and curious account of the Painted Chamber, published by Mr. Gage Rokcwode in the Vetuata Monumenta, although the painter first mentioned vas a Spaniard, Peter de Hispania, whose name occurs in 1255, we find him succeeded, before the close of that century, by Thomas of Westminster and William of Sudbury, who, there can be no doubt, were of this country. So, likewise, in Lord Bray- brooke's interesting Tolume descriptive of Audley End, the extracts from the parish-books of Walden give us in 1440 the name of Robert Stystcde, as having painted a linen cloth for the Holy Sepulchre; and again, in 1460, that of William Grene, as painter of the tabernacle of the Blessed Virgin ; and they must have been Englishmen ; and England must have had native artists, q. e. d,
t Among those known to have been so, is that of Potter Heigham, where, as I was informed, in 1822, by the Rev. James Layton, then curate of the parish, ** the fall of the plastering from the wall of the South aisle
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spirit called forth by this Society has already succeeded in proving the fact with many ; and it cannot be doubted but that others will soon follow. Nor will the pictures now be treated as of yore, — ww-covered, only to be re-covered, and perhaps permanently; — for, however the enlarged piety and good taste of the present age may forbid their remaining long exposed, the fact of their existence will be made known, and at the same time their sid)jects, and whatever is re- markable in connection with them. Indeed, all that may tend to instruction, will assuredly be perpetuated by de- scriptions and drawings, now that the widely-extended in- fluence of the schoolmaster is rapidly causing the white lions and blue boars and two-necked swans to descend each after each from our sign-posts, and that to read and to write is gradually becoming universal, and the book of God is an inmate of nearly every cottage. Far, very far, was it from being so at the time of those paintings, when pictures were the books of the multitude, the only ones they could read ; for "letter or line knew they never a one ; '* and right well has it been observed in a recently published work of equal elegance and instructiveness,* that " the first object to which reviving art was destined, was to render the Christian places of worship a theatre of instruction and improvement
brought to light four paintings between the two Eastern windows. They were about two feet square, each, and had been executed in the latter part of the fourteenth century. Their subjects were works of Piety and Mercy, exercised by a female. In one, she is receiving the consecrated wafer from the hand of a priest. In another, she is administering medicine, with a spoon, to a sick man. In a third, she is inyiting, or rather leading, a tra- veller into a house ; and in the fourth, is giving money to a prisoner, seated upon straw, whose hands are encumbered with an iron bar, and his feet are in the stocks. The former windows were evidently smaller than the present, as a part of these paintings has been cut away.*' I insert this statement, in the hope that some of the members of our Society will exert themselves, and cause them again to become visible. * Sacred and Legendary Art, by Mrs. Jameson, I., xx.
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for the people, to attract and to interest them by represent- ations of scenes, events and personages, already so familiar as to require no explanation, appealing at once to their intelligence and their sympathies; embodying in beautiful shapes (beautiful at least in their eyes) associations and feelings and memories deep rooted in their very hearts, and which had influenced in no slight degree the progress of civilization, — the developmettt of mind."
But, it will fairly be asked, do the foregoing remarks equally apply to the one as to the other of the drawings here submitted to the Society? To the first there is no doubt of their fitness. The tree of sin, whose fruit is death, is an allegory clear to the dullest comprehension ; and, when pourtrayed with those appalling accompaniments — the de- mon's jaw, the widely distended mouth of hell, the sinners in flames, and Satan himself by their side prepared to drag down others to the same doom, — the conscious culprit could not but shudder with aflBright, however speedily afterwards he might
** forget and smile, His quick returning folly canc*ling all ; As the tide rushing rases what is writ On yielding sands, and smooths the letter*d shore."
Here then we have a book, whose lessons are printed in a type and conveyed in a language that he who runs can read, — a lesson that every living man can feel and under- stand, and may apply to himself. The other picture can only be supposed to have been generally intelligible, under the belief that its story was intimately connected with the popular traditions of the times, traditions not sufficiently important to have been preserved to an after period; so that, however the subject may have been clear and im- pressive and instructive in its day, the case is altogether the contrary at present. It appears to me to have reference to the state of the soul after death, as shown by a yotmg
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female, recently deceased, here brought to the bar — for a bar there evidently is — and recommended by her patron saint or attendant spirit to a couple of angels, who have taken her under their protection ; while the demon, balked of his prey, stands sidkily aloof, and views the scene with unmistakeable disappointment and dissatisfaction. Admit- ting this explanation to be correct, the picture affords no bad contrast to its more painful neighbour.
The paintings, my principal object, being thus disposed of, I will beg indulgence for a few remarks upon the Church itself; and the rather, as what is said of the one may pos- sibly tend to throw light upon the other. This is most simple and unpretending, in due accord with the village it sanctifies, — small, low, built of rubble, thatched with reed, entered by a porch to the South, and to the West termi- nating in a short, unomamented, square tower, the receptacle of three bells. Its date, to judge from the East window, now in great measure closed, is that of the Decorated style ; but the fragments of tracery left in the windows of the nave, and, still more, the form of another window long since blocked up, might justify us in referring it to the preceding century, and so more reconcile it to the time of the pic- tures. The font too, with each of the sides of its octan- gular basin occupied by a couple of shallow Early English arches, indicates the latter sera. On the other hand, the wooden rood-loft screen, elegant in workmanship and de- sign, cannot be placed earlier than the reign of Edward III. Its spandrils yet retain the winged heart, and goblin, and other fantastic ornaments ; but all traces of painting are obliterated. Not so in the windows, in which are still to be seen two busts of angels playing upon guitars, and a' third bearing a scroll, inscribed " Date gloriam Deo;" all of them executed with care and knowledge. On the bosses of the roof are the heads of a King and Queen, more than usu- ally good ; and on the entrance-door are some not inelegant
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specimens of iron work. To conclude this long story, — ^when my daughter made her drawings of the mural paintings in 1847, she found in the church two broken enamelled bricks^ with designs I never saw elsewhere ; the one, a rose, with four lance-shaped points — might they be rays? — projecting from it; the other, a central fleur de lys with a trefoil at each comer; the surface pale yellow, the designs green. In the pavement are two stone coffin-lids, with crosses of different, not uncommon shapes, and a brass plate not men- tioned by Blomefield, bearing '^ Hie jacet Thomas Cressenym armiger, filius et heres in parte Johis Cressenm militis, cuj» aie ppicietur Deus.*' In the churchyard is a remarkable stone of considerable thickness, in the shape of a cross, about six feet long, on whose surface was originally sculptured another cross, now well-nigh effaced. I know nothing like it in Norfolk; nor indeed elsewhere, except the support to the monumental effigy of Strongbow at Dublin.
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LETTER TO DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V.P.
OM
THE RUINED LODGE AT DRAYTON.
BY
HENRY HARROD, ESQ.
" Sometimes [William Taylor] extended his walk to the adjacent village of Drayton, where, on a gentle eminence^ stood the mouldering walls of an ancient structure, on whose origin even tradition has no fable, and which is now only known by the name of Drayton Lodge. These ruins sug- gested to him the foUoT^ing imitation of an Italian sonnet : —
" I asked of Time, — * Who reared yon towery hall, Which thou art leTelling with its native soil ? ' He answered not, but spumed the crumbling wall, And sprang on sounding wing to fVirther spoil. I asked of Fame, — * Thou who canst tell of all That man atchieyes by wit, or force or toil : ' . She too stands mute, th' unpointing fingers fall, From the yain search her wandered eyes recoil. I entered. In the vault Oblivion stood, Stopping with weeds the rifts where sunbeams shine ; From stone to stone the giant spectre strode. ' Canst thou reveal,' I asked, ' with what design — ' A voice of thunder fills the dim abode, — * Whose it has been I care not, — ^now 'tis mine.' *'
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My dear Sir,
The recent discoveries of Romano-British urns at Drayton having again drawn public attention to the old ruin in the vicinity, I visited it a few days since, in company with some of our Committee, with the view of endeavouring to pierce the mystery which envelopes its history.
I need hardly tell you, when you look at the accom- panying drawing, that there is no connection between this structure and the sepulchral remains lately discovered be- yond vicinage ; and I have prefaced my letter with the ex- tract from Taylor's Lifey to which your friend, Mr. Borrow, drew our attention the other day at your house, because it expresses in forcible language the state of public information respecting it.
My curiosity was considerably stimulated by the very difierent, irreconcileable, conclusions arrived at by those who had seen it; some claiming for it a venerable antiquity, whilst others stoutly maintained that it was a thing of yes- terday— a modem antique.
It stands a short distance to the left of the road leading from St. Martin's gates to Fakenham, about three miles and a half from the city, and half a mile from the village of Drayton, on what was, until recently, open heath; and, placed almost at the edge of the hill overlooking the valley of the Wensum, it forms a striking object in the view for a considerable distance.
It is built entirely of a yellowish brick of a rather large size, (10 in. by 5 in., and 2 in. thick) in the Old English mode of a course of "headers" and a course of "stretchers." Its form is oblong, 22 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft. 3 in., with a large round tower of twenty-two feet in circumference, at each comer. The entrance is by a large depressed arch in the South front, to the left of which a small narrow aperture seems
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to have aflforded all the light to be had in the lower room^ when the door was closed : the South-western tower appears to have had a staircase. Holes remain in the internal walls, in which the beams of an upper floor were inserted. A capacious flue in the West wall shows the position of the fire-place in the lower apartment; whilst the East wall has a similar convenience for the upper room.
Almost all architectural details are destroyed, and not a fragment of stone or timber is to be found. The arch of entrance is so mutilated as to be made out with difficulty; and on a first glance you would be led to believe the brick- work was of so tender a description, that it must have crumbled to pieces. The contrary, however, is the case : the bricks I examined were extremely hard * and the mortar good; and such care has been exercised in strengthening it in various parts, that the idea of its having been erected for show or pastime will, on a careful examination of it, be at once dispelled.
What then is it ? — what its history ?
The people in the neighbourhood will tell you it has always been called the "Lodge:" it is shown in Ogilby's Book of Roads as "Drayton Lodge;" and the editors of the History of Norfolk^ Booth, 1781, say of it, " the Lodge, now ruinous, is a conspicuous object " on the Norwich side of Drayton.
The yellowish tone of the bricks — the springing of arches in the staircase tower, evidently of a depressed form — a mas- sive arch strengthening the North-eastern tower, and a loop in the Western wall — reminded me strongly of portions of the buildings at Caister by Yarmouth.
I found on my return that Fastolf held Hellesdon and
* I have been informed, since my yisit, that the external brick- work has been a good deal acted upon by the frost: the bricks I examined were probably from the interior.
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Drayton in the time of Henry VI., and that the Pastons succeeded him ; and this naturally led me to refer to those valuable records, the Paston Letters.
From these, it appears that, in 1465, a violent attack had been made by the Duke of Suffolk, with some 300 men, on Heliesdon, where the Pastons then had a residence, and very considerable damage was done by him and his followers. Margaret Paston, writing to her husband, John Paston, Esq., Sunday, 27th October, 1466, says :
" I was at Heliesdon upon Thursday last past, and saw the place there, [their house,] and in good faith there will no creature think how foully and horribly it is arrayed but if [unless] they saw it; there cometh much people daily to wonder thereupon, both of Norwich and of other places, and they speak shamefully thereof: the Duke had by better than a thousand poxmd that it had never been done, .... and they made your tenants at Heliesdon and Drayton, with other, to help to break down the walls of the Place and the Lodge both, God knoweth full evil against their
wills, but that they durst none otherwise do for fear
If it might be, I would some men of worship might be sent from the King, to see how it is, both there and €U the Lodge, ere than any snows come, that they may make report of the truth, else it shall not more be seen so plainly as it may now "
Nothing appears to have been done in accordance with her wishes at that time, and in 1466 her husband died in London, the King (Edward lY.) having shortly before seized his estates.
In 1469 the King was at Norwich ; and John Paston the younger, writing to his brother. Sir John Paston, Knight, (who had taken possession of his father's estates in 1466, by a warrant from the King) says :
" Item, the King rode through Heliesdon Warren towards Walstngham ; and Thomas Wingfield promised me, that he
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would find the means that my Lord of Gloucester and him- self both should shew the King the Lodge that was broken down, and also that they would tell him of the breaking down of the place. Contrary to these matters, and all the comfort that I had of my Lord Scales, Sir John Wydville, and Thomas Wingfield, my uncle William saith, that the King told him [with] his own mouth, when he had ridden forth hy the Lodge in Hdlesdon Warren, that he supposed as well that it might fall down by the self, as be plucked down; for if it had been plucked down, he said that we might have put in our bilb of it, when his judges sat on the Oyer and Determiner in Norwich, he being there:" and the King persisted in leaving the affair to be settled at law, and went on his way.
If it be asked how I can connect the Lodge referred to in the above extracts with Drayton Lodge, I would reply, that the road past this ruin was the Old Wdlsingham Way ; and from the city to Drayton, even so late as the last cen- tury, the land on each side of the road was one continuous open heath and warren ; that no other trace of a ruin is to be found elsewhere on this line of road ; that the Paston's Place at Hellesdon was in the vaUey at the foot of the hill on which the ruins stand, and could not be seen from this road, but would have been in frill view of the King on the Lower or Hellesdon road, had he chosen to take that circuitous and unfrequented route ; and on that road no ^^ Lodge " was to be seen except this; and that the most serious damages are on the North-eastern tower and North wall, and there- fore the points most clearly seen from the Walsingham road.
With a residence in a valley, a building like this — at a short distance, of some strength, commanding from its bat- tlements a view of the country in every direction for many miles, within bow-shot too of one of the leading roads to Norwich — was no mean addition to the secunW ®^^ coiXiJoxV.
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of the proprietors in the troubled times of Fastolf and the Pastons^ to the period of whose possession of the estate I am inclined to assign the erection of the building.
A ruin it probably remained for centuries, until, at some comparatively recent period, it was patched up and made the residence of a warrener : for many years it has however been again abandoned to neglect and decay ; and so entirely have all traces of its history faded from the memories of those who have lived around it, that, in the words of Mr. Bob- berds, " even tradition has no fable of its origin."
I am. My dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,
Henry Habrod.
Bank Street, Norwich, Jan. 17th, 1849.
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EXTRACTS FROM A
MS. DIARY OF PETER LE NEVE, ESQ.
i^nofi IKing of IBLxmHy
BMTITLBD
"MEMORANDA IN HERALDRY,"
OF SUCH ENTRIES AS BELATE TO THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK.
COMMUMICATBD BY
GEO. A. CARTHEW, ESQ.
(Qmtifwedfromp, 186.)
1718.
Le Neve, Anne, 2'^ daughter and coheir of Oliver Le Neve, of Great Wichingham in Norff., esq'., married on Shrove Sunday to John Rogers, of Stamford in Line, apothecary.
Mills, , attomey-at-law, formerly high bailiff of West- minster, dyed day of February, 1717: married
daur of Wilton, of Wilby in Norffolk, esq'.^
He was formerly dark to Will. Petit, esq'.
Keteringham hall in Norff., sold by Henry Heron, esqT. to
Atkjms, esq'., son and heir of S' Edward Atkyns,
formerly Lord Chief Baron of the excheq', January, 1717.
^ Francis Mills, Gent, and Alethea, one of the daughters and coheirs of Nicholas Wilton, Esq., then deceased, were married in Dec. 1701. Hex sisters were Eliza, wife of Walter Hastings, and Thomasine Wilton, who died single. Mr. Mills left his wife surviving, and two children, Francis and Marianne.
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Morris^ Bacon, esq'., son of a d' and coheir of S' Edmund,^
by , appointed Leiftenant Governor of Lantgard
fort in SuflFolk, in room of Gwyn Vaughan, esq'. (May.)
Lb Neve, Edward, only son of Edward Le Neve of Soho Square, one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for Midds. county, married to M". Henrietta Le Neve, one of the daughters (m^. 3^ d'.) and coheirs of Oliver Le Neve, late of Great Wychingham in the county of Norff., esq'., younger brother of Peter Le Neve, Norroy King of Arms, on Thursday, the 3^ day of July, 1718, at the Cathedral church of S*. Paul's in London.
GuRDON, M"., wife of Gurdon, of Letton, esq'., dyed
day of July, 1718.3
Wright, M'., of Wangford in SuflF.,* — John, — Lord of the Manor of Brandon, and of the Hundreds of "Weyland and Grimshow, in Norff., dyed on Wedsday, 2S^ of July, 1718 : buried at
WooDHOUSE, John, esq'.,^ of Watton, in right of his wife,
[half mad,] , daughter of , dyed at Malvern,
in Worcestershire, day of July, 1718 :
buried there in the church. He lived at Malvern with
his sister, , relict of Savage, of Malvern. [See
the History of Malvern Priory for the inscription.]
Burrows, Philip, M'. of Arts, Petty Canon of Norwich
2 Susanna, one of the four daughters and coheirs of Sir Edmund Bacon, the 4th Baronet of B«dgraye, married Charles Morris, of Loddington in Leicestershire, Esq., and was the mother of Bacon Morris.
' Madam Eliza Gurdon, widow, was buried at Cranworth, July 28, 1718 ; but I do not know whose widow she was. Elizabeth, wife of Brampton Gurdon, of Letton, Esq., and daughter of Col. Thomhagh, died on the 28th of the following October ; and Elizabeth, wife of Thomhagh Gurdon, Esq., one of the daughters and coheirs of Sir William Cooke, of Brome, Bart., did not die till 1745.
* He was Vicar of Stepney in Middlesex, and was buried at Wangford.
^ Third son of Sir Philip Wodehouse, of Kimberley. His wife, who was the relict of Wm. Samwell, Esq., surviyed him. {Bhmefield, II., 315.)
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Cathedrall, Rector of Lakenham, Vicar of Catton, fell from his horse, Friday y« 16 of Sept., dyed Miinday 19*^
De La Noy, S' Timothy, of Hammersmith, K*., dyed at
Ebsom in Stirrey, day of Sept. 1718: buried at
: 40,000^ and 1600^ p ann. M'. Newman, of Ba-
consthorp,* married the eldest d'.
RooKwooD, Henry, of Tyes Hall in Weston, by Wych- ingham Magna, in Norff., Gent., dyed there, Saturday,
11'^ of October, 1718: buried day of the same
month in the same parish church.
Paston, Lord, son and heir of the Earl of Yarmouth, dyed at Gravesend, 22"^ day of December, 1718. [L'*. Paston
married Elizabeth, d^ of Pitt, a porter, whose wife
was an apple-woman by Wills Coffee-house in Convent Garden : by her he had Elizabeth, only child, Hyeing at his death, 20 years old.]''
1719.
Rogers, John, of Stamford in Lincolnshire, Apothecary, who married Anne, 2** daughter and coheir of Oliver Le Neve, Esq'', late of gr'. Wychingham in Norff., my younger brother : his wife, Anne, my niece, brought to
bed of a daughter, Anne, day of December, 1718.
Xtened Thursday, day of Jan. instant there. 2
Godfathers — John, Earl of Exon, by S'. Tho. Mack- worth, bar^, S'. Bass. Gaudy, of West herling, baronet.
^ Wm. Newman, Esq., of BaconBthorpe, High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1701-2.
'' Charles and William, successively Lords Paston, both of whom died in the lifetime of their father, the last Earl of Yarmouth, are supposed to hayc died unmarried and without issue ; and it is so stated in the Pedigree of the fiunily, annexed to Enight*s edition of the Paston Letters and inserted in Mr. Dawson Turner*s ezccUcnt History of Caistor CasUe*
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her mother's brother, by Wingfeild, of esq'.
2 Godmothers — M". Prudence Le Neve, her aunt, the wife of me, Peter Le Neve, esq'., Norroy King of Arms, by the Lady Oldfeild ; and M". Brown, wife of Will. Browne of Elsing, in Norff., esq'., by M". Wingfeild, wife of the said M'. Wingfeild — the child's name Anne.
Wright, M". Anne Eade, widdow of Charles Wright, D.D. professor of Arabick in the university of Cambridge, dyed at Edmunton in Midds., Tuesd., 10*^ day of Febr., 1718-19 : buried at Lynton, in the north side, in Cam- bridgeshire, by her husband, Munday, 16^** day of the same month. [D'. of Eob*. Eade, D'. of Phisick, of Cambridge, from Norff.®]
Lb Neve, Edward, Junior, of Soho Square in Midds., who married Henrietta, daughter and coheir of Oliver Le Neve, esq'., my brother, — ^his wife was brought to bed of a son, Saturday morning, between 8 and 4 of the clock, on S*. Mark's day, April 25, a.d. 1719; christened Saturday the 9*^ day of May, 1719, in S' Anne's parish, Westminster. Godfathers — Peter Le Neve, Norroy, Edward Le Neve the elder, of Soho, father of Edw^. ; and M" Welby, of Denton in Line, Godmother.
Bedinofeld, Charles, of in Suffolk,® by Buddsdale,
dyed at his house there, on Munday, 7 of June, 1719:
buried at : left 8 sons ; 3 daurs., Eliz., Mary,
Letitia: he max^ d'. and coheir of S'. Will. Cook,
of Broomhall in Norfolk.
B The wife of Dr. Eade was Anne, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Chester, of Koyston, Knt. : she married, secondly, Henry Hoogan, M.D. of Lynn Kegis. Her half-brother, Edward Chester, Esq., married Judith, daughter and heiress of Edward Wright, Esq., of Finley, Notts, who probably was of the same family as the Professor.
* Charles Bedingfeld, of Swatshaugh, in the parish of Gislingham, Suffolk, was one of the sons of Philip Bedingfeld, of Ditchingham, Esq. His wife was Agatha, or Agnita, one of the five daughters and coheirs of Sir William Cooke, Bart.
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Violet, Mrs. Cecilia, or Celia, sister of the Lady Drury, and
of M'. Wright of Kilverston's Lady,*® dyed at
day of June, 1719 : huried at Gateshend in
Norfolk.
Le Neve, Edward, of Soho Square in Midds., esq'., one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for that County, dyed at his said house, Munday, the 24*^ of August, 1719, of a lethargy : buried in a vault built by him in S* Anne's church in Westm', Sunday night, the 30*^ of the same month.
Brown, Thomas, son and heir of William Brown, of Elsing, esq'., in Norff., married at Belaugh church to Mary, d'. of Edward, and sister of Roger Pratt, of West Buston in Norff., esq'., Thursday, the 3** day of September, 1719.
Keck, Robert, Gent., only son of Anthony Keck, citizen and scrivener in Fleet Street, London, fellow of the Royall Society, aged about 33, and of the Inner Temple, dyed at Paris, 10 [or 16^^] of Sept., 1719, in his travells : kinsman to S'. Anthony Keck.^ [Buried in the Temple Church, 13 November.]
Godfrey, Rich^., of Hindringham in Norff., sworn one of the Masters of the High Court of Chancery in October, 1719, in the room of S'. Thomas Gery, K*.
1720.
Neve, Henrietta, wife of Edward Neve of Soho, was brought to bed of a daughter, Munday, 14 of March, 1719-20,
and it was christened on Munday, 21 inst*.: Mansel,
son and heir of Thomas Lord Mansel (^Godfather); M".
»o Diana, lady of Sir Robert Drury, of Riddlesworth, Bart., and Anne, "wife of Charles Wright, of Kilverstone, Esq., were two of the daughters and coheirs of George Vilett, Esq., of Pinckney Hall, in the parish of Tatteniett or Gatesend.
1 The Kecks had an estate at Oately, called ** Overmore.*'
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Welby of Denton, Linc^ and her aunt, my wife, god- mothers.
Wrench, Benjamin, of Norwich, Doctor of Phisick, knighted at SK James, Sunday, 10«» day of Aprill, 1720.
Nevb, William, of Wymondham in Norff., Gent., a brewer
there formerly, dyed day of , 1720: buried
there , by his 2 wifes: left by !•* wife its; by
2^ wife, Francis and 2 drs.*
Walpole, Horatio, esq'.,' brother of Robert Walpole, Secre- tary to the Duke of Grafton as Lord Leif. of Ireland,
married day of August, to daur and coheir
of Peter Lombard, Staymaker, formerly French refugee. 50,000^ fortune.
Blackborne, Edmund, of [Burfolds Manor House] in Wymondham, Gent., dyed Friday, 9^^ of Sept. 1720: buried at Wymondham, Munday 12: left one d'. un- married, about 16 years old.
Stmonds, ,* Aid. of Yarm., dyed day of Sep'.,
1720; left many legacys to charitys: of the Ormesby family, unmarr.
Sacheverell, , widdow of James Sacheverell, Clerk,
Vicar of Great and Rector of Little Wychingham in Norff., dyed at Norwich, Friday or Saturday, 23 or 24 of September: buried at S^ Mich, in Coslany church Munday after, 26 of Sept.
' ThiB gentleman was of the Aslacton branch of the Le Neve family. (See accompanying Pedigree.) From Hester, daughter of Alice Burrell, the second wife, who married Samuel Oilman, of Hingham, is descended Samuel Heyhoe Le Neve Oilman, Esq., now of Hingham; and also our worthy Secretary, the Hev. Bichard Hart.
' Afterwards created Baron Walpole of Wolterton: progenitor of the Earl of Orford of the present creation. Miss Lombaid*s name was Mary Magdalen.
* Nathaniel Symonds. (Sec SepulchnU Beminuceiicea of Great Yamwuth^ by Dawson Turner, Esq., p. 82, in the Appendix to which is given an Abstract of the Will, p. 146.)
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Berney, , of Westwyk^ in NorflF., Geut, brother, elder,
of Steward Bemey, married to his 2** wife on day
of July, 1720, at S* in London, d'. and
coheir of Maurice Kendall, of New Bokenham and
North Walsham, councelor at lawe, dec^., by his
2^ wife, daughter of S'. John Ashfeild, of in Sus- sex, by , his 2^ wife, d'. of , and relict of
Berney, Thomas, of Swardeston® in Norff., esq', dyed
day of October, 1720: bur*' there, day of same
month.
Calthorp, Xtofer, esq'., son and heir of Xtofer C, esq'., son and heir of S'. Christofer, dyed at the School at Bury, the 6*^ day of November, young, aged 18 yrs., and buried at Fakenham the 9*** of the same month."^
Cressenor, Henry, dark. Rector of West Herling in Norff., dyed 19'^ day of October, 1720 : buried at West Her- ling, 22*», Saturday, [by] M'. Whaley, Rector of Rid- dleB[warth]. [Eliz. Cressenor, d'. and heir, had 2 sons ; both dyed before him : her mother dyed before her father.]
Herne, Rob^, of Tybenham, dyed day of , with- out issue : left his estate to Buxton of Chamels.®
9 John Bemey, of West wick, Esq., eldest son and heir of John Bemey of that place, Esq., (third son of Sir Bichard, of Redeham, Bart.,) married, first, Bridget, daughter of William Branthwaite, of Hethel, Esq., by whom he had two daughters and coheirs; Julian, the elder, wife of Thomas Brograve, Esq., and Elizabeth the younger, wife of — Petre, Esq. By his second wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Maurice Kendall, he had no issue.
^ The 'wife of this Thomas Bemey, (who was great grandfather of the present Thomas Trench Bemey, Esq., of Morton,) was Anne, second daughter of Robert Suckling, of Woodton, Esq.
'' With this youth ended the male line of the house of Calthorpe of Barsham.
B Robert Heme, Esq., died 12th Aug., 1720, and was buried at Tibenham. John Buxton, of Channonz Hall in that parish, Gent., had married Ann, daughter and heir of Clement Gooch, of Earsham, £sq. by Saxah, his wi£e, who was daughter of Robert Heme, Gent., and sistc^ i tHe subject oC this notice.
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Elwyn, , esq'., of Tuttington in Norff, high Sheriff
1719, dyed after his Shrivalty, day of , 1720.«
1721.
Le Neve, Thomas, Shoemaker, dyed 11"^ of May, 1721: lived, dyed, and buried in Criplegate parish : left a
widdow, , daughter of , of Norwich, and thre
children, — Deborah, Mary, and Thomas, bom about 12 of April, 1721. M^. I have pmised the widdow to pay for her child 2*. 6**. p month for nursing it.^®
Gray, , of Wolterton in Norff., heir of Scambler,
dyed of high feavor, day of , 1721.^
Seaman, , wife of Thomas Seaman, esq'., of Norwich,
dyed [in childbed of a boy, which lived] day of
May, 1721 : buried at Her husband took out
letters of administration to her. May 1721.
Bacok, Sir Edmund, of Gillingham, Norff., bart., dyed Munday, 10*^ day of July, 1721 : succeeded by his 1"* son, Edmund Bacon, esq'., on whom the estate settled. 17,000^^ debt : left 10 children by his 2 wifes.
Nall, ,* Alderman of Norwich, dyed day of ,
1721 : succeeded by Fromantell, an attorney.
Pagrave, John, of Lctheringset, dark, and of Salle, in Norff.,3dyed at , day of May, 1721: buried at
» Peter Elwin, Esq. died 6th Feb. 1721 : buried at Tuttington. 1^ How tliifl Thomaa was connected with Peter, I have no means of shewing.
1 James Gray, Esq., of Wolterton, who died 8th April, 1721, was son of the Key. Thomas Gray, Hector of Carendish, in Suffolk, by Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of James Seamier, Esq., who was grandson of Edmund, Bishop of Norwich.
2 Matthew Nall, an attorney : see post, p. 383.
' He was the only son of the Rev. Nath. Palgrave, who was rector of Lctheringset and Hackford, and was the son of Sir John Palgrave, the first Baronet, by his third wife, Anne, daughter of Sir WiUiam de Grey, and widow of Cotton Gascoigne, Esq. His only sister, to whom he left his property, was named Mary ; and she also died unmarried.
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Bamingham : left most of his estate to his sister : un- married.
Hall, Thomas, son and heir of Alderman Hall, dyed of a
feavor, day of July, : called Captain HaU,
and the governor of Norwich: buried at , before
his father.*
Edward Le Neve's daughter, by my niece Henrietta Le
Neve, dyed of the small-pox, day of August, 1721 :
buried at ; and my niece was brought to bed of
another daughter, Wedsday the 23*^ day of August in- stant. [Elizabeth.]
Howes, , son and heir of Howes, of Moming-
thorpe in Norff, late High Sheriflf: married 2 years
since to M" Sydnor, d'. of Sydnor, M'. of
Arts, Rector of Hokering in Norff. ^ [I think no right to arms.]
Fetherstonhagh, {Oeorge), died suddenly on the road, of his horse, Tuesday night, 26 of Sept., 1721 : buried at Folsham, Thursday 28^*^ : Rector of Folsham and Byntrie, in Norff.®
Frampton M"., wife of CoUonell Frampton, and daughter and heir of M'. Heron, late of Keteringham in Norff, by his wife, d'. and heir of S'. Will. Heveningham, dyed day of Sept., 1721 : buried at Cressy in Line.
Neve, M". Anne, of Ringlaiid, widdow of Cozen Francis
Neve, dyed at R. the 7*^ of November: buried
day of the same month at *She was daughter of
Edmund Blackbome, of Windham in Norff., gent.
« According to Blomefield, (IV., p. 470») Thomas Hall, son of John Hall, Esq., died in 1715, and Captain WiHiam Hall, another son, died July I6th^ 1721 : both lie buried in the church of St. George of Colegate.
5 Barbara, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Sydnor "wob -wife oi 3ohiv Howes, son of John Howes, Esq.
« His wife was Martha, daughter of Edward Coop^ q[ "^i^^^^^, <^cxA-
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Shaw, [John,] of Besthorp in NorfF., as I am told, shot him- self thro' the head, 16^** day of Novemb. instant, being melancholy: a sub-brigadier in the horse-guards: buried at Besthorp.
Lestbange, Thomas, son and heir of S'. Nicholas Lestrange, bart., of Hunstanton, was married at Hunstanton, Thurs- day 27'^ of July, 1721, to M". Ann Calthorp, aunt and coheir of Xtofer Calthorp, of Eastbarsham, in Norff., esq., son and heir of Xtofer Calthorp, son and heir of S^ Xtofer, K^ of Bath.
Seaman, Lady Joane, (daughter of Framingham,"^ a
baker at Lenne, who purchased Frenge), widdow of S'. Peter Seaman, K^ of Norwich, dyed of the small-pox, day of December, 1721 : buried by her husb**.
1722.
RooKWOOD, , of Tyeshall in Weston, in NorfF., gent:
married daur. of Wyke, of Hethersete in NorflF.,
yeoman, Wednesday, day of February, 1721.
Jermy, , councelor of Norwich, married day of
Febr. (Shrove Tuesday), 1721, to « d'. of S'. Ben- jamin Wrench, D'. Phis. : his 3^ wife.
Seabright, Richard, esq'., of Croxton, NorfF., dyed at ,
Febr. 19 or 20^^, 1722, s. pie. : left estate to his nephew,
Sebright, younger bro. of S^ Tho. [who was after
assassinated in France.]
Earl, John, gent., son and heir apparent of Erasmus Earl, of Salle in Norffolk, esq'., dyed at Norwich, 21 day of February, 1721-2, much in debt (1800^ at Norwich,
above 2000^* in Lond.) : buried at Hey don, day of
[before his father.]
7 See Blomofield, X., 305.
* This was Mary Wrench : she survived her husband, Mr. Jenny, and died his widow in 1775.
Digitized by
879
Eabl^ Erasmus, esq^., of Heydon in Norff., dyed there 6'^ of March, 1721-2 : buried in the church there.
Le Neve, John, Rector of Thornton in the More, in Lin- conshire : pr'sented by Bp. of Ely.
Thoresby, William, gent., son and heir of Thoresby, for- merly of Gaywood in Norff., killed by a fall from his horse, on day of July, 1722.
Walpole, Lady Anne, d'. of the first Duke of Leeds, widdow, first, of Robert Coke, of Holkham in Norff., esq'. ; 2^^^., of Horatio Walpole, younger son of S'. Edward Walpole, of Houghton in Norff., K*. of Bath, dec**.; dyed at her house in Ormund street, Saturday even or Sunday, 5 of Aug., 1722: had issue only by Coke : lay in state, Jerusalem Chamber : buried at Westm'. Abbey.
Layer, Xtofer, of Booton formerly, sent to the Tower : made discovery of Plott.
Richardson, Baroness, relict of Thomas or Will. Lord
Richardson, baron of Cramond in Scotl^., d'. of ,
Goldsmith of Norwich, dyed at Southacre in Norffolk,
on or about the day of July or August, 1722:
buried there :* left one son and d'., I think.
Layer, Christopher, formerly of Booton in Norff., tryed for high treason at the King's Bench bar, Wedsday, 21 of Nov., 1722; condemned 27: his unkle Christofer still living — ^his father, a laceman — born in Henrietta street, 12 Nov. 1688, bapt. 22^ Nov. foil, [reprieved till 19 of January next.]
1723. Blackwell, S'. Lambert, late one of the Directors of South Sea Company, dyed in London, Sunday, 4*^ day of February, 1722-3 : buried at
^ Elizabeth, second lady of William Lord Richardson, and daughter and heir of James Daniel, of Norwich, died, according to Blomefield, December 8, 1722, and was buried at East Walton.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
380
Layer, Xtofer, an Attorney, then a Councelor at Lawe,
[Traytor^ lived at Aylsham, in Norff., son of
Layer,^" executed for high treason at Tyburn, Friday, 17^^ of May, 1723.
Jernegan, Henry, Goldsmith and Banker, younger son of S'. Francis Jernegan, of Cossey in Norff., Baronet, de- clared a bankrupt, July
Pettus, Thomas, esq., son and heir of S'. Horatio Pettus, bar*., dyed at Rackheath or Norwich of the smaU-pox, in the life of S'. Horace his father, unmarried : buried at Rackheath, day of October, 1723.
Wych, Lady, relict of S^ Cyrill Wych, K'., of Hockwold in Norff., daughter of Geo.^ Evelyn of Wotton, Surr., dyed
day of Dec, 1723, in Dover street : buried at
Wotton in the vault of the family there, friday, 29 of December, 1723.
Le Neve, Henrietta, wife of Edward Le Neve, brought to bed of a boy, Munday, 16 of Decemb., 1723, christened Robert.
Robinson, John, Rector of Repham cum Kerdiston, dyed 25 day of August, 1723, about 12 at night : buried y' : succeeded by Francis S*. John, son of Tho. S*. John, of Tudenham ; inducted Thursday, 26 of Sept., into that liveing.
Seabright, M'., Croxton, neer Thetford, to whom his unkle left that estate, was murdered by 6 ruffians on the high- way goeing from Calais towards Paris, 7 miles of Calais, for 300 guineys, which they changed; with one M'.
10 Christopher, son of John Layer, of London, of a family long seated at Booton, was the principal agent in a conspiracy for a general insurrection in favour of the Pretender, the correspondence relating to which was seized in his chambers in Southampton buildings. He was several times reprieved in hopes of obtaining evidence implicating persons of higher rank. His wife was Mary, daughter of Peter Elwin, of Tuttington, Esq.
1 (f) He was brother to John Evelyn. Her mother, his first wife, was daughter and coheiress of Daniel Caldwell, of Homdon, Essex, Esq.
Digitized by
381
Davis and M'. Munpesson. All their bodys brought over into Engl*^. So the estate here comes to his elder brother, S'. Thomas, of Bechewood, Hertf., bart.
Houghton, ,* esq^, Clark of the Peace, dyed Saturday,
28'^ of Sept., at Norwich, aged 70.
Repps, ,3 unkle, [qre. if not aunt] to Justice Repps of
Matsal, dyed day of Sept., 172S.
Repps, John, of Mateshale, one of the Justices of the Peace for the County, dyed at the Popinjay Inne, in Norwich, Tuesday, the 8 of October, 1723 : buried at Salle, in Norff., day of the same month.
GuiBON, Lady, widdow of S'. Francis Guibon, of Thursford, [Sarah or Isabell, d'. of Joachim Mathews, of Great Gobious in Havering p'ish, by Rumford in Essex, and sister of S^ PhUip Mathews, Bart.] dyed at Norwich, day of October, 1723: buried at Thursford, Sun- day, 6 of that month.
Gaudy, S'. Bassingborne, of West Herling, bart., dyed, un- married, of a bruise, occasioned by his horse's tumbling into a coney-burrow at coursing, haveing had a rupture for 14 years past, and never sought for cure thereof: on Wedsday, 9^** of Octob., the misfortune happened; and the mortification killed him on Thursday morning 10^^ ; was wrapt in sere cloth and put in a leaden coffin ; that in a woden one : buried in West Herling church in the chappel there, Thursday, 17^ of Oct. : he left his 3 nieces his heirs.^
The title of bart. extinct in him, tho' Bassingborne
2 Houghton John, of Bramerton HaU. (Blomef. Y., 474.)
3 Clement Repps, Gent., uncle to John B^pps, Esq., of Mattishall, was buried at Yaxham, 10th Sept., 1723.
^ In another note, Le Neye says, '* his heirs were the daughters of his only sister, Anne, the wife of Oliyer Le Neve, Esq., of Great Witchingham, both deceased ; Isabel, unmarried ; Anne, wife of John Rogers, of Stamford, licentiate in Fhisick, late an apothecary ; and Henrietta, wife of Edward Le Neve, of Soho Square in Midds."
Digitized by
S82
Gaudy, esq*^., of the same place is his heir male, videct. son of Charles Gaudy, son and heir of Charles, 2^ son of Framlingham Gaudy, father of S'. Will. Gaudy, — created hart., — father of S'. John, father of the dec'd. S'. Bass., the said fBassinglomeJ haveing one brother, (Charles, I think,) an apprentice ; but he left them nothing, for he dyed without a will.
BLAD^VELL, Philippa, daur. of Will. Bladwell,^ of Swan-
ington, esq'., and sister of Gyles, widdow of Ward,
after of Bradbury, dyed at Swanington, day of
December, 1728: buried on Munday, SO*^ of that month.
Keene, Edmund, late of Melton M. in Norflf., one of the South Sea Directors, dyed at Bath, Tuesday, 21 of January, 1728.
Makarell, , Alderman of Norwich, dyed, aged 85, at
Norwich, ,* left two sons; , the elder, re- ceiver generall for the county of Norff., who married
; Benjamin Makerell, 2*^ son, married , and
hath severall children — ^both liveing in Norwich. M**. the father had a grant of arms.
1724.
Walpolb, Lord Robert, Clerk of Pells in y^ Excheq', son and heir of Bx)bert Walpole, csq^., of Houghton in Norff., married to Margaret, d'. and heir of CoU. Rolls,''
' She was probably daoghter of William Bladwell, by his wife Philippa, eldest daughter of Thomas Browne, of Elsing, Esq.
' John Mackarell, according to Blomefield, died 16th March, 1723, and lies buried in the chuich of St. Peter at Mancroft. Charles, the elder son, married Mary, only daughter and heir of James Demee, of Norwich, Gent., by Frances his wife, daughter of Martin Earle, Esq. of Heydon : Benjamin, the younger, was the Historian of Lynn.
^ This lady was daughter and sole heiress of Samuel Rolle, Esq. of Haynton, oo. Devon, and eyentoaUy succeeded to the Barony of CUnton : she aunrivcd her husband, (who was second Earl of Orford of that creation^) and married, secondly, the Hon. Sewallis Shirley.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
388
^ worth 160,000", Thursday 26^ of March, 1724 : mar. by Baker, Bp. of Bangor.
1725.
Bedingfeild, Lady, of Kew Green in Surrey, relict of S'. Henry Bedingfeild, K*., Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of King James 2**, d'. of S'. Rob*. B., K*., Lord Maior of Lond., a.i>. 17...., dyed there, Saturd. 25 of Aprill: buried at
Lombard, Peter, staymaker to Kath. Queen Dowager, dyed
at Westm'., Wed'sday, 6 of May, 1726 : buried at :
left 2 d". and coheirs: 1 , mar**, to Leheup,
of Bond street, Midds. ; 2 ,® mar*, to Horace
Walpole, Ambassador in France, brother of Robert, of Wickmere in Norff.
Wyndham, James, younger brother of Ash Wyndham, of Felbrigge in Norff., Comander of the King's ship called y* Diamond, dyed at sea, March or Aprill, 1725 : buried in the sea : unmarried.
CoLEPEPEK, Cheyney, Lord, zealous for present government, but would not take the abjuration oath in time of King Charles 2*.; left the world upon disgust; retired to
Hoveton Sci. John's in Norff. : dyed there day of
June, 1726, aged 83. 3*. son of the 1«* Ld.
Watid, , marr' to d'. and heir of Naul, Aid.
of Norwich, an attorney, about March : he died 8 months after; she carried him down to be buried, left him with his friends to be put into the ground, and drove away to Norwich.®
^ See supra, p. 874, n. 3.
' Rebecca, only daughter and heir of Matthew Nail and Kebccca, his wife, daughter and coheir of Francis Annyson, was, through her mother, possessed of the manors of Kerdiston Keepham and Kerdeston Calthorpes, and the advowson of the church of Kerdeston cum Keepham : she married Thomas Ward, of Norwich, Esq., whom she thus buried, and died, herself, in 1766.
2d2
Digitized by
384
Davy, , esq'., of Ditchingham in Norff., dyed without
issue, day of Sept., 1725: buried at , Sunday,
4^** of October.
BuLWER, Edward, of Dalling Wood, esq'., dyed there
day of October, 1725 : buried there.
Tylney, Frederick, esq'., of Tylney Hall, in Rotherwick, in
Hants., and of East Tudenham in Norff., dyed at ,
Sunday, 3** of October, 1725 : buried day of Oct.,
at : left one d'. and h'., Anne or Eliz., mar. to the
Sight Honorable William Lord Craven.
Hawtrey, Ralf, of Rislip in Midds., esq'., who mar**, long
since , d'. and coheir of S'. Will, de Grey,^® of Mer-
ton in Norff., K*.: she dying about 80 years of age,
day of , 17....; he survived her and dyed
there, on 5*^ day of December, 1725, aged 100 years : was deaf for some time, but drank his bottle of wine. He had 2 sons in my remembrance : , eldest, mar- ried, but left no child; 2. Ralf, as I think, died im-
married, both before their father; and 3 d".: , mar.
to S'. Tho. Frankland, of Pinner, Midds., bar*., relict of
Clithero, of Lond.; 2^ ,i wife of S'. Charles
Blois, of Cockfield hall, in Yoxford, in Suff., bart., by
whom a son ; 3^ , mar^. to Sitwell, of Lond.,
merch*., one of the bridgemasters for the City of Lond.
1726.
Branthwait, Henry, killed in a duel in Hide Park, by his
kinsman, Brograve, who had made severall very
severe reflections on Branthwait, which he could not bear:* buried at
1^ Barbara, daughter and coheir of Sir Bobert de Grey, not Sir WilliaiD, was wife to Ralf Hawtrey, Esq.
^ Ann Hawtrey was second wife to Sir C. Blois.
2 The Branthwaits and Brograves were connected by more than one tie ; but I take the consanguinity between these parties to have been thus :
Digitized by
386
Long, , of Spixworth in Noi-fF., son of Long, of
Sp , married March , 1725-6, to Elizabeth,
daur. of Clement Currance, esq'., of in Suff.,
formerly burgess for Orford in Suff.^
Jennings, S'. Roger, of , Cambridgeshire, K^: his son
and h'., Jennings, esq'.,* married day of May,
to , only d'. of Soames, of Dereham Grange
in Norff. : 10,000^ portion.
M ANSEL, M".* daughter of S'. Cloudsley Shovell, and coheir,
and relict of Mansel, son and heir of Thomas L*.
Mansel, mother of Lord Mansel, an infant : re- married 28*^ day of July, to John Blackwood, son and heir of S'. Rob'. Blackwood, said to be a Knight — q, if any such—West Indian merchant. [A Scotchman, and no Knight.]
Layer, Christofer, (unkle to Xtofer Layer^ beheaded,) dyed at Holkham in Norff., Wedsday, 13 of August, 1726 : buried there, Thursday, 14'^.
Walpole, Galfridus, 2** bro. to S'. Rob*., K*., one of the
Postmasters, dyed at Grenwich, August, 1726 :
buried at Houghton in Norff., same month: without child : left 16,0001^ to wife for life; after, to S'. Rob\
Herne, Thomas, of Heverland, esq'., eldest son and heir of Clement Herne, of the same place, both Justices of the
Henry Branthwait was grandson of William Branthwait, of Ilethel, Esq., whose granddaughter, Julian, the wife of John Bemey, of Westwick, Esq., and Henry's first cousin, (vide supra, p. 375, n. 6) was wife of Thomas Brograve, of Baddow in Essex, Esq.
' Israel Long, of DuMtxm^ Esq., (a distinct family from the Longes of Spixworth,) married Elizabeth, daughter of Clement Corrance, of Parham, Suffolk.
* Soame Jennings. (See note 1, p. 111.)
^ Anne, second daughter of Sir Cloudesly, married, first, Kobcrt, eldest son of Lord Mansel, and secondly, John Blackwood, of Charlton in Kent.
Digitized by
Peace, dyed Sunday night, 30**» of Octob. : buiied there, Wedsday night, first of November; his eldest son, Paston Heme, esq'., being then at Paris : 8 others ; no daughters. •
MoRDEN, , of Southfeild in Norff., esq.,"' dyed day
of October, 1726: buried there day of November
following: his son and heir, Morden, Capt. in
Cards, Esq. to K^ of Bath, S'. Rob. Walpole.
1727.
Prideatjx, M'., son of the late Dean of Norwich : his wife,®
d'. of S' , K*. and Phisitian of Norwich, dyed
of a feavor in childbed, Thursday, 2^ of febr., 1726.
Freak, Ralf, of Midle Temple, dyed day of March,
1726-7 : brother of S'. Percy Freake, bart., of Bilney in Norff.
* Thomas Heme, son of Clement, by Frances, his wife, daughter of Henry Lord Fairfax, married Lady Charlotte Fas ton, daughter of William, Earl of Yarmouth, by whom he had issue seven sons ; but all of them appear to have died unmarried. Paston Heme, the eldest son, who succeeded his £ather, died in 1761, leaving illegitimate daughters ; on one of whom, Ann, he, by his will, entailed the estates. She had, unknown to him, married in his lifetime Everard Buckworth, Esq., who afterwards took the name of Heme, but in 1776 sold the property to Wm. Fellowes, Esq.
^ This Mr. Morden, who was son of John Morden, of Oreat Bradley in Suffolk, Esq., had by Louisa, his wife, daughter and sole heir of Harbotrd Harbord, of Gunton, Esq., two sons ; the eldest of whom, taking the name of Harbord, became afterwards a Baronet and K. B. ; and from his marriage with Elizabeth, (not Jane, as erroneously stated in my note, supra p. 126,) daughter and coheir of Robert Britiffe, is descended the present Baron Suffield. The other son, the Rev. Thomas Morden, Rector of Cantley in Norfolk, who resided at Weston in Suffolk, had only daughters, through one of whom he is now represented by Lieut. -Col. Morden Carthew, of Wood- bridge Abbey, in the latter county.
" Hannah, daughter of Sir B. Wrench. (See supra, p. 124.)
Digitized by
387
Turner, S'. Charles, of Warham in Norff., baronet, 2 May — ^garete teste ^ 27 of Aprill, 1727 — with remainder to William Turner, of Crostweyt in Norff. — No gent.,^® — with remainder to John Turner, of Lynne, and their heirs male.
Le Neve, Peter, Norroy King of Arms, married at Sparham church on Sunday morning, 26 of July, 1727, by M'. Hunt, Rector, by licence — his wife and Sam. Knolles present — ^to Frances, daughter of Bobert Beeston, miller, of Wychingham.
WooDHOUSE, Coll"., of East Lexham, Norff., esq.,^ dyed there, Hay of Sept., 1727.
Peyton, Eliz., widdow of Peyton,* of Grimston in
Norff., esq., dyed at Watlington in N day of
Sep^, 1727 : buried at Swanington with her family, being daur of Will. Bladwell, esq., of that place. She was mother of S'. Yelverton Peyton, now bar*.
BiRKiN, Thomas, Comptroller of the Customs of Lynne Regis and of in Norff., dyed day of November,
Heriot, M'., Goldsmith in Fleetstreat, son of Heriot,
Goldsmith, brother of D'. Heriot, L. L. D., lord of the manor of North Wotton in Norff., dyed 14 of Dec, 1727.
• Date of writ.
1^ Meaning that he was not entitled to arms. In another MS. of Le Neve's, preserred in the Harleian Collection, he says, speaking of Sir John Turner, the uncle of Sir Charles, knighted in 1684: "the arms which they use are that of the fEunily of Turner of Halberton, Devon, to which, for all that I find yet, they have no right." Sir Charles was eldest son of WiUiam Turner, of North Elmham, attorney at law : William and John were second and third sons. On the death of Sir Charles, leaving no issue male, the latter brother succeeded to the title ; William also having died without issue.
1 Edmimd Wodehouse, Esq., second son of Sir Philip. (Blom., IT., 657.)
» Supra, p. 119 : but she was widow of Charles Peyton, not John.
Digitized by
388
1728.
Fleetwood, diaries, [called CoUonel] of Newington in Midds., dyed 27 day of February, 1727-8 : buried at Newington. [The estate at Ambringhall descended to his 4 sisters and heirs.] ^
Garrard, S'. Nicolas, Bart, of Langford, Norff., and of Eastham in Essex, dyed at Eastham, 11*** day of March, 1727-8 : buried at Langford.
"Wrench, S'. Benjamin, of Norwich, M.D. : his wife ,
dyed at Norwich, day of March, 1728.
Freake, S'. Percy, of in Ireland,'^ baronet, and of
West Bylney in Norff., dyed at his seat in Ireland,
day of , 1728.
Ryley, Philip, senior, of Hockham in Norff., formerly ser- geant at arms to the Lord Treasurer. Q. if he or his
son, kted. at , 1728.
No fee would pay because a serj*. at arms.
[Jult/] M'. Hardy, a steward to S'. Robert Walpole, at his house in Norfolk, haveing shewn the Duke of Kent the curiosities of the house, going afterwards to shew his Grace a well there, the board on w^^ he stood slipt or broke under him, so that he fell in and was so much bruised that he died y« next day.
Norwich, Octo. 19, died, Charles Mackerel, Esq'., Gen'rall Receiver of the Land-tax for this City.
Wyndham, Thomas, of Cromer in Norff., marr^. 29"* of No- vember, 1728, to daughter of Elwyn, of
' These ladies were Frances, Elizabeth, Caroline, and Jane Fleetwood, all of whom died iinmarried — the last in 1764. Two other sisters — Mary, wife of the Bev. Abraham Coveney, of Oulton, Norfolk, and Anne, wife of William Gogney— had both pre-deceased Ck)l. Fleetwood, without issue. But Le Xeve is wrong in calling the sisters his heirs ; as his niece, Elizabeth, only child of his brother, Smith Fleetwood, of Winston and Wood Bailing, and wife of Fountain Elwin, of Thuming, was then living, although her issue ultimately failed.
Digitized by
1729.
Hall, John, Justice, Alderman for Fybrigge ward, beyond y« water. Sheriff, Norwich, 1693 ; Mayor, P* time, 1701, 2^ time, a. 1715 ; an honor which none else hath en- joyed in Norwich since 1644.
Clarke, Dr. S. Last Saturday night, died at his house in Piccadilly, y** Rev. D'. Sam. Clarke, Rector of S*. James's, Westminster, a Norwich man.
FouKTAiN, [Briffff,] of Sail in Norff., esq'., dyed at the
Popingay in Norwich, day of April, 1729: left his
estate to his sister, widdow of Repps,* or wife : gave
S'. Andr. Fountain, K^ 2001^ legacy: buried day
of May, at
Leheup, : on Tuesday last, was married at Ealing in
Middlesex, (by y® Reverend D'. Mangay,) Michael Leheup, of y* Inner Temple, Esq., to Miss Gery, eldest daughter of y® late S'. Thomas Gery, K*., one of the Masters in Chancery; a lady of £10,000. fortune.
* Dorothy, widow of John Repps, of Mattishall, Esq., by her will, gave SaUe to her granddaughter, Virtue, wife of Edward Hase, of Great Melton, Esq., whose eldest daughter and coheir. Virtue Hase, brought it to Richard Paul Jodrell, Esq.
EaOATA AND ADDENDA.
p. 28. Lee Warner, of Kensington, Esq., was eldest son of Dr. John (Lee) Warner, Archdeacon of Rochester. His wife was Catherine, daughter of Henry Hampson, Esq. Col. Henry Lee, of the Donjon, near Canterbury, from whom the Norfolk Lee- Warners derive descent, was the younger son of the Archdeacon.
p. 34, note 3, last line, dele Anne, lege Henrietta.
p. 116, note 8, dele " he was father of thejirat Lord Suffield/'
p. 117. John Sydley, of Morley, Esq., son of William Sydley, or Sedley, died 5th November, 1711 : buried at Morley St. Peter the 7th of the same month.
p. 126, note 3, line 5, dele Jane, lege Elizabeth,
Digitized by
S90
Index of Names mentioned in the foregoing Extracts.
Atkyns, 369
Bacon, 83, 118, 370, 876
Beaumont, 32
BedeU, 121
Bedingfeld, 28, 32, 34, 116, 372, 383
Bemey, 24, 34, 375, 384
Birkin, 887
Blackborne, 374, 377
Blackwell, 27, 379, 387
BladweU, 382
Bokenham, 120
Branthwait, 121, 125, 375, 384
Britiffe, 31, 126, 386
Brogiave, 112, 375, 384
Browne, of Norwich, 31, 114, 115
Browne, of Elsing, 112, 373
Browne, of Seaming, 120
Bulwer, 384
Burrows, 370
Buxton, 375
Calthorpe, 33, 119, 121, 123, 125,
375, 378 Catlyn, 30 Clarke, 389 Claxton, 124 Cockett, 112
Coke, 26, 33, 113, 123, 379 Colepeper, 383 Colston, 112 Cooke, 114 Cressenor, 375
Dashwood, 111 Davy, 30, 384 De Grey, tet Grey Drury, 30, 34, 373
Bade, 372
Earle, 121, 125, 378, 379 Edwards, 24 Elwyn, 376, 388
Fetherstonliagh, 377
Fincham, 115
Fleetwood, 388
Folkes, 34
Fountaine, 28, 389
Framingham, 378
Frampton, 377
Freake, 119, 120, 385, 386, 388
Frere, 30
Garrard, 388 Gawdy, 114, 381 Godfrey, 373 Gray, 376
Grey, De, 33, 125, 384 Guibon, 120, 381 Gurdon, 370
Hall, 377, 389
Harbord, 33, 116, 386
Hardy, 388
Hare, 31, 33, 113, 114, 115, 121
Hawtrey, 384
Helwys, 124
Heriot, 387
Heme, 120, 375, 385, 386
Heron, 120, 377
Heveningham, 25, 26, 120, 377
Hobart, 26, 30, 34, 126
Holland, 29
Houghton, 381
Howes, 377
Jennings, 385 Jenny, 378 Jemegan, 32, 380
Digitized by
891
Keck, 373 Keene, 382 Kempe, 33 Keppel, 29 King, 33 Knyvett, 118
Layer. 379, 380, 386 Leheup, 383, 389 Leigh, 33, 122 Le Neve, se9 Neve Lee, 9ee Warner Leetrange, 30, 32, 378 Leveridge, 126 Long, 386 Lubbock, 124
Mackarell, 382, 388 Mills. 369 Morden, 126, 386 Morris, 370
Nail, 376, 383
Neve, Le, 26, 27, 29, 31, 112, 113, 116, 117, 123, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 374, 876, 377, 379, 380, 381
Neve, Peter Le (Norroy) 118, 120, 387
Newman, 371
Norfolk, Duke of, 29, 32
Norris, 123
Palgrave, 376 Fasten, 33, 371 Pettus, 380
Peyton, 28, 119, 126, 387 Potts, 116, 123 Pratt, 25 Preston, 114 Prideaux, 124, 386 .
Rant, 126 Kepps, 381, 389
Reve, 114
Richardson, 119, 124, 379 Rogers, 122, 371 Rookwood, 371, 378 Ryley, 388
Sacheverell, 374
Seaman, 118, 122, 376, 378
Sebright, 380
Sedley, 117, 389
Scambler, 376
Shawe, 122, 378
Sherlock, 124
Shovell, 32, 113, 386
Soame, 111, 386
Spelman, 119
St. John, 380
SUrkey, 117, 126
Sydnor, 377
Symonds, 374
Thoresby, 379
Tilney, 384
Townsend, 28, 114, 116, 119
Trafford, 26
Turner, 27, 30, 117, 124, 387
Vilett, 373
WaUis, 30
Walpole, 29, 118, 119, 126, 874,
379, 382, 383, 386 Ward, 383
Warner, Lee, 27, 389 Weld, 117 Wilton, 369
Wodehouse, 29, 34, 370, 387 Wrench, 374, 878, 388 Wright, 119, 370, 372, 373 Wych, 113, 119, 380 Wyndham, 32, 114, 118, 121, 383,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
392
The Extracts from Le Neve's Genealogical Memoranda (the last entry in which refers to an event of the 30th of August, 1729, about three weeks before his death) having been brought to a close, I trust it may not be impertinent to this communication, if I conclude it with a Pedigree of the old Norfolk family, to which this herald — characterized by Noble as an honour to the College of Arms — ^belonged ; pre- facing it with a few words conccmiug himself.
Peter Le Neve was, as he describes himself in his will, *^son and heir of Francis Neve, alias Le Neve, citizen and draper of London, son of Permian Neve, alias Le Neve, of Ringland in the county of Norfolk, gentleman," — a collateral branch of the same family which had already given a King at Arms in the person of Sir William Le Neve, Clarenceux, in imitation of whom it is supposed he adopted or resumed the prefix Le. He was born January 21, 1661-2, and was appointed Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, January 17, 1688-9; and, after the death of Devenish, was on the 25th of May, 1704, created Norroy King at Arms. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1712 ; and upon the revival of the Society of Antiquaries in 1717, became its President, which office he resigned in 1724.
Peter Le Neve was learned in heraldry and genealogy; *' a study," according to a quotation which he himself enters in his journal, " that only loads the memory without im- proving the understanding." I need not eay that he was not an educated man, as that is evidenced by the wording of the foregoing extracts, which are transcribed literatim ; and the grossness of the language he has used in more than one instance has compelled me to omit some curious matter re- lating to some of our county families. That his character was marked with a considerable degree of eccentricity, is
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shown by some of the entries in the Journal, as well as by his will, dated May 5, 1729 ; wherein he directs that his pu- trid carcase should be buried in the chancel of Great Wy- chingham church, and that it should be carried down thither in a hearse, attended by his coach and one other coach. He desires that no rings should be given to any one ; forbids any room to be hung with black, " or any undertaker of funerals, alias cold cooks* to be employed ; and desires to have no up- holder's company, nor Smith in Cocky lane in Norwich, to be suffered to intermeddle in the direction or management of his funeral." But he wished to have some escocheons on silk upon the pall, of the arms of his office, without the crown, impaled with the arms of his family, quartering those of Corey and Wright. He also forbad any funeral oration, or any other monument than a plain marble stone, which he ordered should be set up in the church wall on the inside, opposite his grave, signifying that his body lay thereabouts. Even this modest request was, I believe, never complied with. The dispersion of his MSS., collected with much care and industry, is more to be deplored. The omission and commission may both in some measure be accounted for by the pecuniary embarrassments of Martin, the executor of his will, and the speedy consoler of his widow.f
The singular manner in which the family estates of Le Neve fell into the hands of the Norris family, after the death of Peter, appeal's worthy of notice.
Oliver Neve, of Great Witchingham, Esq., having no child or near relation, by deeds dated 7th and 8th Feb., 1674,
* In Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, -wherein the extract from the will is expressed to be derived from Noble, these words are rendered old rooks.
t Mr. Suckling, in his History of Suffolk, Vol. I., p. 206, has given a ctirious account of the manner in which this offer was made and accepted, copied from a memorandum recorded in a volume of Martin's own Church Notes, in the possession of Sir Thomas CuUum.
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settled his estates, which were of considerable yalue, in Norfolk and London, after the decease of himself and wife^ to uses for the benefit of Oliver Le Neye, second son of Francis Neye, and his issue in tail male ; remainder to uses for the benefit of Peter Le Neve, (afterwards Norroy,) the eldest son of Francis, and his issue in tail male; with re- mainder to Francis Neve, son of Henry Neve, and his issue male; with the ultimate remainder, in default of male issue of these several persons, to his own right heirs. This settle- ment was prepared by John Norris, Esq., a barrister-at-law, who was afterwards Recorder of Norwich, and the first of that name who resided at Witton. This gentleman was counsel for the Neve family, and had the full confidence of Oliver, the settlor, of whose will, prepared and signed at the same time, he was appointed executor and trustee. Mr. Neve died in Jan. 1678, and Mr. Norris thereupon acted imder the trusts of the settlement and will; and whilst so doing, found up the heir at law, who was one John Neve, a blacksmith, in London, and agreed with him in Aug., 1679, for the purchase of the reversion in fee, after all the interme- diate estates, for £80. ; having, at the time, every reason to expect the events which ultimately happened. This trans- action, it appears, was concealed from the family ; and Peter did not find up the heir at law till some time afterwards, in 1688, when he himself purchased the reversionary interest of the blacksmith for £10., with the hope, probably, of set- ting aside Norris's previous purchase.
Oliver Le Neve, the first tenant for life under the settle- ment, died on the 26th Nov. 1711, without issue male; his only son having, as was expected from his delicate state of health, pre-deceased him, under age, and unmarried. Peter followed on the 1st Oct., or, according to Noble, 24th Sept., 1729, without any issue; having by his will devised the estates, of which he assumed to have purchased the reversion, to his three nieces and coheiresses, the daughters of his bro-
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ther Oliver ; and Francis, the last person in succession named in the settlement, having also died without male issue, the estates were thereupon claimed by the then Mr. Norris, of Witton, the grandson of the first purchaser ; upwards of fifty years having elapsed since the speculation was entered into. This claim was attempted to be resisted by the coheirs of the Le Neves, on the ground of fraud and breach of trust, on the part of the elder Norris ; but after a long liti- gation in Chancery, and appeal to the house of Lords, the title of Mr. Norris was, in 1744, confirmed.* Had any de- scendants of the blacksmith been then in existence, or in a situation to have preferred their rights, how far the trans- action might have been impeached by them, for want of adequate consideration, might have been a question ; but they, it seems, were all extinct ; and it is a fact, that Mr. Norris, for £30., secured to his descendants an estate of some thousands per annum.
The accompanying Pedigree is taken partly from one pur- porting to have been transcribed in 1744 by Rd. Mawson, Portcullis, from the London Visitation Booky CXXIV., fo. 146, (Comhill Ward), authenticated by the signature of Robert Le Neve about 1634; partly from Norris's MS. Pedigrees ; and partly from my own Church Notes.
It is a connected one as far as it goes; but I cannot vouch for its accuracy in every respect, and it is imperfect in some branches. I shall be very thankfril to receive corrections and additions.
• Atkyns'B Eeports, Vol. III. ; Brown's Cases in Chancery^ Vol. IV.
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Names of Persons of this FamUy, tohich I have met with, but which do not occur either in the Pedigree or in Peter Le Neve^s Memoranda.
1616. John Neve, of East Dereham, esq., and Judith, his wife, sole daughter and heir of John Scarlett, of East Dereham, deceased. Scarlett Neve, son and heir apparent of the said John and Judith. 1649. KoBERT Neve, Rector of Yaxham.
Robert Le Neve, Rector of Whinbergh, and buried
there, 1676.
1673. Richard Le Neve, Esq., a sea commander in Dutch
Wars, temp. Car. II.: killed 11 Aug. that year, aged
27, Monument in North aisle, Westminster Abbey.
1701. William Neve, of Yaxham, and Rose, his wife.
Oliver Neve, of East Dereham, grocer, son of . Oliver Neve, late of Tuddenham. 1727. James Le Neve, alias Neve, some time of East Dere- ham, and afterwards of Hindringham, gent. 1739. James Le Neve, of East Dereham, grocer, brother and heir of Oliver Le Neve, grocer. John Le Neve, author of the Monumenta AngKcana, was only child of John Le Neve, of Great Russell street. Blooms- bury, by Mary, his wife, second daughter of John Bent, of Paternoster row, mercer. He was bom 27th December, 1679, and died about 1722; having had by Frances, his wife, second daughter of Thomas Boughton, of King's Cliflfe, Northamptonshire, Gent., eight children ; John, Amy, Eliz- abeth, Richard, Peter, Elizabeth, Frances, and Catherine.
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APPENDIX.
BxtracU from (he Proceedings of the Committee,
March Srdy 1847. Mr. Harrod communicated a letter firom the Rev. C. B. Cooper, of Morley St. Botolph, re- specting a quantity of Roman Coidb found in his parish ; from which letter the following is an extract : —
*'A labourer was digging an under-drain, and a number of coins fell out of the soil, about a foot below the present surface : many of these axe now in my possession. They are Brass Roman Coins, most of Constantino, some of Licinius, and others in which nothing can be deciphered. Indeed they were in such a state of decomposition, that many crumbled into dust in the act of removing. Nothing but a very black earth could be discovered near them, as if wood had been decayed there ; which leads to the supposition that they were inclosed in a wooden and not an earthen vessel. I find from an old labourer, that a moimd is recollected on the spot, which extended for some considerable distance, until cut through by the turnpike-road ; and that it was laid flat at the time of the enclosure of the parish in 1816."
A letter from Mr. J. A. Repton to Mr. D. Turner was read, explaining a Tracing that accompanied it from a portion of some ancient Tapestry in his possession, covered with figures in the costume of the time of Henry VIII. This Tapestry has been used for the adornment of a church in
VOL. II. 2 E
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Norwich prior to the Reformation. Of the Tracing, it is hoped that a reduced copy and description may appear in an early number of the Society's publications.
April 8^A, 1847. Mk. Harbod read a lette* from Mr. C. R. Manning, of Diss, sending the impression of a Seal found near that town, representing St. John, with a palm-tree on one side of him, and, on the other, the lamb and banner ele- vated upon a small circular prominence, with the legend, '* Ecce Agnus Dei." Mr. Manning conjectures the Seal to have been that of a private individual, and not of a religious house, and its date to be not later than the fourteenth, pos- sibly of the thirteenth, century.
Thb Rev. E. Blencowe, of Lynn, described a drawing of the Altar-cloth at Great Bircham,* and exhibited copies of several of the figures, worked on velvet, in their proper colours, by Miss Blencowe.
Mb. Robebt Blake presented a Deed of Manumission of three bondsmen in the manor of Fulham, by the Bishop of Ely, the Prior and convent of Ely ratifying and confirming the same ; the date, 1491 : also a deed of the 4th year of Elizabeth, with the Great Seal attached, in good preservation.
The Rev. W. H. Gbigson presented to the Society a collection of bronze Antiquities from Saham. These he had received from a labourer, by whom they were found in the parish some years since ; but, unfortunately, Mr. Grigson had forgotten the spot and circumstances, and the man was since dead, so that nothing beyond the bare fact of their having been discovered there, can now be ascertained.
So interesting are they, that the Committee could not but think it right that they should be particularly recorded in the annexed engraving. At the same time it must be mentioned, that similar ones have been found in at least three other loca- lities in Britain; and that more occur in Roman places of • See Vol. I., p. 866.
♦
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sepulture in Rhenish Germany, as stated in the Transactions of the Arch€Bological Institute.* The universal belief is, that they are a portion of horse-trappings; and it is generally supposed that they are of Roman workmanship. The latter opinion appears to be placed almost beyond a doubt, by what has just been mentioned ; and it is unhesitatingly affirmed by Mr. Harford, in his very interesting Paper on the Antiquities found at Polden Hill, near Bridgewater, printed in the ArchcB-* oloffia, XIV., p. 90. The second and third of the plates that accooptipany this Paper, give representations of objects nearly the same as ours; and the author concludes by ob- serving, " the metal is of the same composition as that in the Roman instruments, and very different from that of which celts, swords, and other British antiquities are composed. Still farther, as most of the moulds above-mentioned are of the Lower Empire, it seems not unreasonable to conjecture that these ornaments belonged to some British chief in the Roman service." Again, in the sixteenth volume of the same work, p. 348, t. 60, we have a couple of relics, described and figured by Mr. Ebenezer King, so like those from Saham as to have been obviously intended for the same purpose; and, like them, exceedingly valuable as specimens of early enamel. These latter were discovered in a field at Hagboum Hill, Berkshire ^ and, with them, coins of the Lower Empire, both silver and gold ; but likewise a British metal celt. So, too, at Saham, much Roman pottery has been dug up and communicated to our Society ; and so at Annandale, it was near the Roman camp at Middleby, that ^^ other antiquities of the same peculiar fashion and workmanship were found in 1783, including the furniture of three bridles." f This last discovery goes far to establish both their destination and origin, the former of which is yet more corroborated by " large iron hoops, conjectured to have been the tires of
• York Volmne, ** Catalogue of Antiquities," p. 11. t TransMtione of Arehttologicdl InsHttUe^ 1. c.
2e2
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carriage wheels," having been buried in a spot adjacent the extensive entrenchments at Stanwick, Yorkshire, where was detected a copious deposit of ancient relics of the highest interest, a large collection of which, including several like those here figured, was submitted to the Institute at their York Meeting ; and many of them were described, with ac- companying figures, in the volume published on that occasion. But at Stanwick neither Eoma^ coins nor pottei*y have been seen within the earth-works.
The ornament, of which figures 1 and 2 represent the front and back, retains traces of a bright blue enamel upon it, and appears to have been further adorned with an elabo- rate pattern, at this time nearly obliterated.
The pendant ornament, 3, is much injured, and no enamel remains : it is more rude in its form and pattern than any of the other articles.
Some traces of enamel are left on the shield-like ornaments of the small rings, 4 and 6, the front of one of which is shown in the centre of the plate : the oval figure upon it is of a green colour, the rest red; the projecting portion at the top and bottom bearing traces of having been gilt.
Figure 6 particularly resembles one of the rings from the Polden Hills, engraved in the Archaeologia, Vol. XIV. ; ex- cept that the groove of the bottom bar is here outside, and not inside, as in the Polden Hill specimen : on this and on figure 8 the cells only for the enamel remain.
The ring, 7, although broken across the bar and other- wise injured, is less corroded, and retains most of the enamel upon it. The pattern is somewhat diflferent, as will be seen on reference to the plate: the outer edge, which is flat all round in the rings, 6 and 8, is flat only between the three circular ornaments; the thicker portions of the ring being round.
Figure 8 appears to have had a buckle on the outer part of the flat bar.
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0(JWEIJ^^ AKASTAH.' ^'}\'^>-. PSWICH:
n-tyA^i^xJijU r/t^c^n^t^^U cjU^l^^^AarfVK/cnztY'^^
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Mr. Dawson Turner read two letters, dated 1671, ad- dressed to Sir Edward Byshe, illustrative of the proceedings at the Heralds* Visitations, as also of the form of Summons, &c. ; and showing the very extensive powers then entrusted to these officers. One of them is from a person of the name of HoUey, who five years before had entered a "Skutchin" at Lynn, induced by certain of Sir Edward's servants, to whom he had paid 278. on the occasion. But it had afterwards turned out, that the arms so entered were those of ** HoU ; '* and Sir Edward threatened that he should be posted at Lynn, and also summoned before the Lords Commissioners at London. In reply, Mr. Holley declares that what he did was by the persuasion of a Mr. No well, who had furnished him with the *'Skutchin," and of Sir Edward's retainers; himself " intending prejudice to noe man." The letter con- cludes with saying, "I hope y*, being thus drawne into a snare by yo' servants against my express directions, you will thinke my lose of 27". to be a sufficient punishment for my folly, and not p'secute noe more. I am very willing to acknowledge and crave pardon for my faulte, if itt be soe ; it being altogether impossible for me, if I had right, to make it out as is desired; and therefore must cast myselfe to yo' mercy, not qu'stioning but, upon the grounde afores^, I shall find you more kind and fayre then yo' selfe have declared ; upon which hopes I subscribe myselfe," &c. *
Mr. Stevenson exhibited four pieces of Vellum, por- tions of an ancient MS., which had been pasted on boards. They appeared to be part of a work of the fifteenth cen- tury, descriptive of the Military Arrangements of the Ro- mans. Mr. Harrod stated that he had lately seen some other portions of apparently the same MS. in the possession of Mr. Lee Warner, of Walsingham, and that they were
* Blomefield states that the Holls and HoUeys were the same family. Vol. III., folio; 2nd edition, Vol. IV., p. 607.
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thought to be fragments of a book originally belonging to the Abbey there.
Mr. Lee Warner has since forwarded the latter to the Committee^ and with them another portion which he had borrowed from a cottager in the neighbourhood. He at the same time stated that^ from subsequent inquiry^ his impression was, that they were taken about 100 years ago from HoUgh- ton Hall; and he supposes them to be illustrations of the Notitia Imperii, They all, like Mr. Stevenson's, had been mounted on boards.
Mr. Carthew exhibited a small vellum manuscript Book of " Hours," with illuminated capitals, found imbedded in the brick-work of the chimney of the parsonage at Bes- thorpe. It is bound in wood, covered with leather, and apparently of the time of Henry VI.
September 2nd, 1847. Mr. D. Turner read an autograph letter from Charles I., of the 2l6t January, 1642, to Sir John Spelman, Knight, (the son of Sir Henry) directing him not to quit Norfolk or suffer himself to be carried thence; his personal services and residence there being especially needed.
Mr. D. Turner also exhibited a MS., the property of Mr. Pratt, of Ryston, containing the Certificate and Verdict of certain Commissioners, appointed in the 4th year of Philip and Mary to make return of the quantity of com and grain in the Clackclose hundred, with other particulars relating to the consumption and supply of food in that district: upon this it is confidently hoped that a Paper will be furnished by Mr. Copeman, of Loddon, for the next volume of the Trans- actions of the Society.
Mr. Gunn explained the particulars of a recent discovery in Saint Nicholas* church. Great Yarmouth, and exhibited several drawings in illustration. It appeared that, during the repairs of the tower, portions of a Norman arcade and
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other traces of what Mr. Gmin belieyed to be Herbert de Losinga's church were disclosed; so that there can be little doubt^ that, at the time of the rebuilding of the church during the Early English period, and also in its subsequent alterations, the tower was saved, and that and the foundations and probably other portions were made available in the new arrangement.
The Rev. W. H. Grigson presented to the Society a Romano-British Urn, elegant in form and singularly embel- lished, found at Saham. At the distance of about an inch from each other are perpendicular stripes, formed of five lines of round bits of clay, each somewhat smaller than a pea, stuck on whilst the material was wet.
Mr. D. Turner exhibited a MS., the property of Sir Thomas Hare, Bart., containing a list of the Livings at- tached to the Diocese of Norwich, arranged alphabetically under their respective Archdeaconries and Deanries, with the value of each, and the amount of its first-fruits, tenths, &c. ; as also with the names of the Patrons and Incumbents in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., at which time the water- mark of the paper shows it to have been written. Gamaliel Townson, Notary Public, who wrote the whole, has signed it at the end, and has added notes here and there. It is in a state to be printed.
Mr. Hudson Gurnet exhibited a MS. History of Nor- wich, in two volumes quarto, by Benjamin Mackerell, author of the History of Lynn ; and Mr. Turner, an octavo MS. volume by the same author, entitled ''A brief historical Account of the Church of Saint Peter of Mancroft, in the City of Norwich, of its Antiquity and Name, with Draughts of all the Monuments, with every Inscription on them and on each Grravestone and brass Plate in the whole Church ; with all the Effigies and Coats of Arms, and whatever else is worthy of observation therein." — ^A volume similar to the
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last-mentioned appears to be in the British Museum^ where are likewise two duodecimo volumes relating to Norfolk and Norwich Churches by the same laborious author. (See Nor- folk Topographer^s Manualy p. 250, note.)
Mb. D. Turner also read a letter from the Rev. James Elwin Millard, of Magdalen College, Oxford, enclosing a fragment of a Pedigree of the Fastolf family, copied from manuscripts (temp. EUz.) in the possession of the President of the College.
Sir J. P. BoiLEAU presented to the Society, on the part of the Vicar and Churchwardens of Wymondham, a small leaden coffin, dug up in the ruins of the abbey there ; the same as is described by the late Mr. Woodward in his Account of some Discoveries made in excavating the Foundations of Wymondham Abbey y and printed in the Archaeologia, Vol. XXVI., pp. 287—299. The opinion of tbe author was, that the female skeleton, found in the similar coffin of larger size which lay adjoining this, was, most probably, ''judging from the state of the interment, the spot, and its evident antiquity," some relative of the founder, Wil- liam de Albini, who died in the year, 1156; and that her infant offspring was entombed beside her.
Mr. D. Turner exhibited drawings by Mrs. Gunn of the curious Mural Paintings lately discovered at Crostwight, re- presenting a Tree of the Deadly Sins, St. Christopher, St, Michael, and other subjects ; a description with engravings of three of which will be found in this volume.
February 5th, 1848. A letter was received from Mr. Barton, of Threxton, stating that the operations in hand for the removal of the Eoman Camp at that place had been dis- continued, and inviting the members of the Committee to meet him there for the inspection of several barrows, &c., in the neighbourhood.
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The Rev. Wm. Scudamore exhibited drawings of Mural Paintings, lately discovered on the North wall of Ditch- ingham Church, representing the legend of " les trois vifs et les trois morts,"* and the Besnrrection ; the latter very rude and much defaced. The custom of placing these two sub- jects, so naturally connected, adjoining each other and imme- diately preceding the Burial Service, is mentioned by Douce, as observable in numerous manuscript copies of HortB, Other paintings of the same legend have been discovered in the churches of the Eastern Counties. One, much more spirited in design and execution, was lately brought to light over the North door of that at Belton, Suffolk; and we read in the Paper in the ArchtBologia, just quoted, (p. 290, note,) of a third, on the South side of Wymondham Chiurch, in one of the closed arches of the triforium, near the West end : of the last, there has, unfortunately, been no drawing preserved.
The Rev. Henry Mackenzie presented some small models of ancient stone coffins, lately discovered in Saint Nicholas' Chiurch, Great Yarmouth.
May Wthy 1848. Mr. Carthew brought under the notice of the Committee some extracts from a Roll of the Customs of the Manor of Mileham, particularly respecting the duties of the " Messor," or Lord's Bailiff, and promised a further commtmication on the subject.
The Rev. R. Hart informed the Committee, that a Scot- tish gold coin, dated 1590, had been found on the beach at Caister, a few days since. Five or six others, of a date nine years later, and as perfect as if they had then come from the mint, were washed up in the same place about three years ago, and exhibited by Mr. D. Turner.
* This has since been engraved and described in the Journal of the Institute.
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Auffuat 10th, 1848. Mr. D. Turner read a letter from Mr. Fitt, Local Secretary at Fakenham^ forwarding drawings of a Barn attached to the Hall at East Barsham ; in the walls of which are inserted many large fragments of carved stone^ one among them charged with the Arms of England. The Rev. F. Cubitt observed that he believed them to have been brought from an old Hall at Houghton-in-the-Dale^ which had been pulled down; and he promised to make further inquiry on the subject.
Mr. D. Turner read several Notices, extracted by Mr. Daniel Gumey from the Chamberlain's Accounts and other Docimients belonging to the Corporation of Lynn, of high interest as connected with the imprisonment of Queen Isa- bella at Castle Rising. Among them were some ancient Wills, dated as early as 1307, which had been proved before the Mayor of Lynn.
September ZUt, 1848. Mr. F. Worship read an elaborate Paper on the Bosses of the roof of St. Nicholas' Church, Great Yarmouth, in which he, among other things, combated Mr. King's conclusion, that the Double-headed Eagle on one of the shields was intended to represent the Arms of the Emperor ; and contended that it was a type of the Papacy, and denoted the supremacy of the see of Rome.
October I2tk, 1848. The Rev. Richard Haut commu- nicated a Paper, also on the subject of the Double-headed Eagle, supporting, with much historical evidence, the opinion that it was meant for the Arms of the Emperor.
Mr. D. Turner read a letter from Mr. Brightwell, stating that, on consulting the old legal authorities, he had come to the conclusion, which the Lynn Wills, he thought, confirmed, that the Civil Courts had jurisdiction of Wills at the be- ginning of the fourteenth century. On the other hand, Mr. Harrod inferred, from the internal evidence afforded
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by the Probate-Acts accompanying such Wills^ and from the ancient laws aad customs of the cities and boroughs in England, that the mayors of Lynn had jurisdiction in the instances quoted by Mr. Giurney, only in consequence of tenements, or rents arising from tenements, within the borough, being disposed of in them; and that no Wills, disposing solely of goods and chattels, could have been proved before the mayor alone ; but that these Wills had undoubtedly been proved before the Ordinary, previously to the proof before the civil magistrate.
November Srd, 1848. Mr. Fitch exhibited a personal Seal, of brass, found at Long Stratton, with the legend, " Crede Ferenti."
December 7th, 1848. Mr. Fitch exhibited a very elegant gold ring, found in a cutting of the Eastern Union Railway, at Markshall, near Norwich : the legend, chased round the exterior of the ring, is " A vous mon tri." *
The Committee much regret that the limited space set apart for this abstract of their proceedings on behalf of the Society, forbids their including the details of the Quarterly General Meetings, — a bare list of all the objects exhibited at which, would alone occupy many pages. Of such objects, printed catalogues have been circulated among the members
* So, at least, it appears ; but as no authority has been found for the word trif it has been suggested -whether it was not originaUy ami, now changed by time or design ; or, may iri be derived from the substantiye, triage, a choice, and so the inscription read, **To you, my chosen one ? "
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present; and full reports of what passed hare appeared in the local newspapers. The Committee therefore hope the members will consider that they are not wanting in their estimate of the value of such assistance^ when they confine their acknowledgments to simply thanking those gentlemen who have seconded their efforts with so much kindness and zeal.
Page 81. It is erroneously stated, as weU in the heading of this Paper as in the course of it, that the Facsimile of Queen Elizabeth's Letter is accompanied by a Transcript and Note, neither of which is inserted ; the former having been left out intentionally, as not required ; the latter omitted by an oversight. The note is—*' * A letter of Queen Elizabeth to my Orand- mother, Paget, upon the death of my Grandmother, Cromnton Lyttleton.' — N.B. This was given to Anthony Champion, Esq., by William Henry Lyttleton, created Baron Lyttleton, 1794 ; and was found among Mr. Cham- pion's papers at the Middle Temple, at his decease, 1800.
<<ROBBBT PaBTBIDOB."
"Norwich, Nov. 6, 1812."
Page 294, line 8, for tick, read m«A.
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INDEX TO VOL. n.
Aecountf, Chamberlain*!, of Lyxm BegU, Ex- tracts from. 183
Adages, Superstitioas, and Proverte, still pre- serted at Irstead, 891
Ancient MS., fragments of the JioHHa /iNpcnt, 401
Stone Coffin- lid and Column, Durham
Cathedral. 87
Antiquities found at Saham Toney, 996
Arms on Boof of the South Aisle of St. Ni- cholas' Church, Great Yarmouth, 149
Autograph of Queen Elizabeth, 81
-^- of OliTer Cromwell, 49
of Bobert Buirough, 81
of Francis Blomefield, 804
of Sir Isaac Newton, 309
of Sir Miles Hobart and Anthonj Ho-
bart, and Particulars respecting them, 61
Aylsham, Figure and Description of Font at, 83
Baldook Sir Bobt., Becorder of Yarmouth, his Speech on the Occasion of the Visit of King Charles II. to Yarmouth in 1671, 75
Barsham, East, Bam at, containing many frag- ments of carved Stone, 408
Besthorpe Parsonage, MS. found there, 401
Blomefield Bev. F , the Norfolk Topographer, Cursory Notices of, 801
Inscription over his Grave, 888
his Birthplace, Notice of, 804
Boutell Bev. C, his Description of Brass of Bev. Henry Martyn, in Upwell Church. HO
and Bev. O. H. Dashwood^ their Notes
on Parish and Church of Wimbotsham, 187
Brass. Sepulchral, of Bev< Henry Martyn, Up- well Church. 110
Bulwer Bev. James, his Bemarks on a Figure represented on the Bood-loft Screens at Gateley and Cawston Churches, 880
Byshe Sir Edward, Letters addressed to, illus- trative of Proceedings at the Heralds' Visi- Utions, 401
Caister. Will of Sir John Fastolf, touching the Establishment of his College at, 885
^^-~— Beach, Scottish Gold Coins found on, 405
Camp, Boman, at Threxton, its Bemoval pre- vented, 404
Carthew G. A., his Extracts from the Diary of Peter Le Neve, 83, 111, 369
Cathedral, Norwich, Boundary of Prednts of, 8
— Misereres in, 834
Cawston, Duel at, between Oliver Neve and Sir Miles Hobart, 70
Church, Bemarks on a Figure on
Bood-loft Screen, 880
Certificate as to Com and Grain in Clackdoee Hundred, temp. Philip and Mary, 408
Chamberlain's Accounts of Lynn Begis, Ex- tracts from, 183
Chapel of St. William in the Wood, Site of. 9
Charles I., Letter from, to Sir John Spelman, Knight, 408
Charles II., his Visit to Yarmouth, 1671, some Incidents at, 75
Church and Parish of Wimbotsham, Notes on, 187
Clackclose Hundred, Com and Grain in, temp, Philip and Mary, 408
City and Hamlets of Norwich, Boundary of, temp. Philip and Mary, 1
temp. Edward VI., 5
Coffin, Leaden, found at Wymondham, 404
Stone, at Gt. Yarmouth Church, 405
Coins, Boman, found at Morley St. Botolph. 397
Scottish, found at Caister and Yar- mouth, 405
College at Caister, Will of Sir John Fastolf, touching Establishment of, 885
Committee, Proceedings of, 397
Common, at Norwich, View of the Bounds in variance between the City and Convent, 7
Copeman James, Autographs of Sir MUes Ho- bart and Anthony Hobart, and Particulart respecting them, 61
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410
INDEX.
Cora and Grain. Certilieate of« in daekekMe
Hiuidjr«d. tamp. Phil, and Maiy. 4<tt Corooers' Bolls, Norwich, Extracts from, 253 Correspondence of Blomefield, the Norfolk To- pographer, ExtraeU from, 901 Corel John, D.D., Thirteen Letters addressed
to him from Sir Isaac Newton, 309 Cromwell Oliver, Four Letters from him, 43
Letter addressed to him by Sir P. Sta^
pleton, 43 Crostwight Church, Mural Paintings at, de- scribed, 358
ditto. Drawings of, exhibited, 404
Crowmer Monument, Yarmouth Church, 35 Customs of the Manor of MUeham, 400
Dashwood Ber. G. H^ Extracts from Wills in Muniment-Boom at Stowe Bardolph, 97
— — ^ and BeT. C. Boutell, their Notes on the Parish and Church of Wimbotsham, 187
— — Extracts from Chamberlain's Accounts
of Lynn Begis, 183 Davey Joseph, Speech of Sir Bobert Baldock,
Beeoirder of Yarmouth, to King Chas II , 75 Deeds, Copies and Translations of two, in the
possession of the Corporation of Lynn, 193 — — of Manumission of Bondsmen, 1491.
398 Diary of Peter Le Neve, Extracts from, 23,
111.369 Diocese of Norwich, MS. Book of Livings, ftc.
in, 403 Diss, Account of Guildhall at, and eursory Be-
marks on the Town, 11 ; Farthing, 19; Arms
of the Town, 19 ; Heywood Hall, 90 ; Cock
Street Bridge, 20 Ditchingham Church, Mural Painting in, 405 Door, Ancient, St. Clement's, Norwich, 73 Double-headed Eagle, question as to its eigui-
flcation, 151,406 Drayton Lodge, Buins of, 363 Durham, Coffin-lid and Column at, 87
Elizabeth, Queen. Letter to Lady Paget on the death of her daughter. Lady Crompton.Sl
Great Seal of. 996
Ellis Sir H. , Transcript of Letter from Secretary Walsingfaaro to the Lord Treasurer, 92
Enfield William, Jun., on an Ancient Door in St. Clement's Norwich, 73
Ewing W. C, Bemarks on the Boundary of the City and Hamlets of Nornich, 1
on East Window, St. John's Madder- market Church. Norwich, 198
Fastolf Sir John, his Will, 225 Fastolf. fragment of Pedigree of the Family, at Magdalen College, Oxford. 404
Fersfield Bectory, Deterlption at, 203 Font at Aylsbam, Description ot, 83
Gateley Church, Bemarks on a Figure on the Bood-loft Screen, 280
Gold Bing found at Markshall. 407
Grigson Bev. W. H., Collection of Branxe An- tiquities found at Saham, presented by him, 398
• Bomano-British Urn found at Saham,
presented by him, 403
Guildhall at Diss, Account of, 11
Gunn, Bev. John, Proverbs, Adages, and Super- stitions, stiU preserved at Irstead, 291
Harrod Henry, Extracts lirom Coroners* Bolla
and other Documents in the Norwich Be-
cord-Boom, 253 -"-^ on the Buine of Drayton Lodge, 363 Hart Bev. Bichard, on Oliver Neve's Challenge
to Sir Miles Hobart. 70 — — on Misereres, with especial reference
to those in Norwich Cathedral. 234 Heraldr}', Memorandums in, by Peter LeNere,
23, 111, 369 Heralds' Visitations, Letters illustrative of, 401 Heywood Hall, Diss, Account of. 20
Carved Panels at, 21
Hobart Sir MUes and Anthony, their Auto- graphs, and Particulars respecting them, 61
— Miles, Esq., Elegy on, 69
— — Sir Henry, CheUcnge to him from
Oliver Neve, Esq., 70 -~— — ditto, some Account of, 71 Horse Furniture, Portion of, found at Saham*
Hours, MS. Book of; found at Besthorpe, 402
Irstead, Proverbs, Adages, and Bnperttitiims StiU preserved at, 291
King Thomas Wm., York Herald, his Account of Shields in the Ceiling of the South Aisle of St. Nicholas' Church, Great Yarmouth, 149
Leaden Co^n found at Wymondharo, 404 Le Neve Peter, ExtraeU from his Diary, 23.
Ill, 309
Memoir of, 390
Le NoTe, Pedigree of the FamUy, 394 Livings in the Diocese of Norwich, MS. Book
of, in the Beign of Elisabeth and James 1.,
403 Loddon, Extracts from Church-books of. 64 Long Stratton. Brass Seal found at, 407
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INDEX.
411
Lowth Wm., Prior of Ixworth, Inscription
coDcernin^ him on a Door in St. Clement's,
Norwich, 74 Lynn Begis, Extracts from Chamberlain's
Accounto, 183, 406 Lynn Bpegis, Copies and Translations of two
Deeds belon^ng to, 193 Wills, Bemarks on, 406
Mackerell Benjamin, Author of Hutory qf
Lynnt MS. volomes compiled by, 403 Magdalen Chapel, its present State, and Frag-
menta of Norman Axchiteatare still existing
there, 8 Manning C. B,., Diss, Description by him of a
Seal found there, 898 Manumission of Bondsmen in Pulham Manor,
Deed of, 398 Markshall, Gold Bing found at, 407 Memorandums on Heraldry, by Peter Le Neve,
83, 111, 360 Messor, or Lord's Bailiff, 406 Mileham, Customs of Manor of, 405 Misereres, in Norwich Cathedral, described, 834 — — formerly in the Church of St. Peter
per Mountergate, Norwich, 238 Morley St Botolph, Boman Coins found at, 397
NeTe Oliver, his Challenge to Sir Miles Hobart,
70 Newton Sir Isaac, Thirteen Letters of; to John
Covel, D.D., 309 Norfolk, House for Beformation of Vagabonds,
Letter as to It, from Secretary WaUingham
to the Lord Treasurer, 98 — ^— Note of all Privy Seals received by
Sir C. Comwallis, Kt., 339 Norman Arcade, St. Nicholas* Church, Great
Yarmouth, 408 Norwich, Boundary of the City and Hamlets,
temp. Phil, and Mary, I
ditto of the Precincts of Cathedral, 6
ditto of Common, in variance between
the City and Convent, temp. Henry VIIL, 7 Chapel of St. William in the Wood,
Site of, 8
Ancient Door, St. Clement's, 73
East Window of the Church of St.
John Maddermarket, 198
Cathedral, Misereres in, 934
Magdalen Chapel, its Bemains and
present State, 8 Misereres formerly in St. Peter per
Mountergate Church, 838
Mackereli's History of, 403
Mackereli's Account of Saint Peter
Mancroft Church. 403 — — Diocese, Particulars of Livings in, in
the Beigns of Eliz. and James I., 403
Norwich, Extracts from the Coronen' Bolls, and other Documents, in the Corporation Becord-room. 853
Brass Escutcheon from the South
Door of St. Gregory's Church, 868
AoA'/ta Imperii, Fragments of a MS. of, 401
Paget Lady, Queen Elisabeth's Letter to, on
Lady Crompton's Death, 81 Pariah and Church of Wimbotsham, Notes on,
187 Pedigree of the Pratts of Wimbotsham. 148
of the Le Neves, 394
Pratts, of Wimbotsham, Pedigree of, 148 Precincts of Norwich Cathedral, Ancient
Boundary of, 6 Privye Seals, Notes of all received by Sir Chas.
Cornwallis, Kt, Beceiver for Norfolk, 1604,
339 Proceedings of Committee, 397 Pulham Manor, Manumission of Bondsmen, 398
Bepton J. A., Ancient Tapestry in his posses- sion, 397
Bing, Gold, found at Markshall, 407
Bix Samuel W., his Account of the Guildhall at Diss. 11
his Cursory Notices of the Bev. F.
Blomefield, the Norfolk Topographer, 801
Boman Coins found at Morley, 397
Bomano-British Urn found at Saham, 403
Buins of Drayton Lodge, 363
Saham Toney, Antiquities found at, 398, 403 Schorne Sir John, represented on Bood-loft Screens at Gateley & Cawston Churches, 880 Scottish Gold Coins, found on the Beach at
Caister and Yarmouth, 405 Screens at Gateley and Cawston Churches,
Bemarks on a Figure represented on, 880 Seal, Great, of Queen Elizabeth, 398
found at Diss, 398
— ^— found at Long Stretton, 407 Sepulchral Brass of Bev. Hen. Martyn, 110 Spelman Sir John, Letter from Chas. I. to. 408 St. John's Maddermarket, Norwich, East Win- dow of Church, 198 St. Gregory's Church, Norwich, Brass Escut- cheon from South Door, 868 St. Peter's Mancroft, Norwich, Mackereli's Ac- count of, 403 St. Nicholas' Church, Gt. Yarmouth— Crowmer Monument, 35; Shields in the Ceiling of South Aisle, 149, 406 ; Norman Arcade dis- covered, 408 ; Stone Coffins, 405 Stapleton Sir Philip, Letter from, to Oliver
Cromwell, 43 Stowe Bardolpb, Extracts ftom Wills at, 97
Digitized by VjOOQIC
412
INDEX.
Tapestry in postession of J. A. Bepton, 997
Threxton, Boman Camp at, 404
Trrasurer, the Lord, Letter from Secretary
WaUingham to him, touching a House for
Reformation of Vagabonds in Norfolk, 99 Turner Dawson, Letters from Sir P. Stapleton
to Oliver Cromwell, and four Letters from
Olirer Cromwell himself, 43 — on the Figure of the Law in York
Cathedral, and an Ancient CofBn-lid and
Column at Durham, 87
- Copies and Translations of two Deeds
belonging to the Corporation of Lynn, 193 - Will of Sir John Fastolf, touching the
Establishment of his College at Caister, 225 Unpublished Letters of Sir Isaac
Newton to John Covel, D.D., 309 ^— ~— on the Mural Paintings in Crostwight
Church, 358
Upwell Church, Sepulchral Brass of Bev. H.
Martyn, HO Urn, Bomano-British, found at Saham, 403
Walsingham, Secretary, his Letter to the Lord Treasurer as to a House for Beformation of Vagabonds in Norfolk, 92
Ward Bichard, Note of all Privy Seals received by Sir Charles Comwallis, Kt., 1604, 339
Will of Sir John FastolA 2«5
Wills, Extracts from, in the Munimant-ioom
at Stowe Bardolph, 97 Wills proved before the Mayor of Lynn, 406 Wimbotsham, Notes on the Parish and Church,
127; Exterior of the Church, 128; Corbel
Table, 129; Norman Door. 181; Interior,
132; Bosses on the Boof of Nave, 134;
Bench End, 135; Poppy*head, 136; Extracts
from the Parish Begister, 143 Window, Eastern, of the Church of St. John
Maddermarket, Norwich, 198 Worship Francis, his Letter on the Crowmer
Monument, Yarmouth Church, 35 Wyraondham Church, Leaden Coffin found at,
404 -~— Mural Paiuting formerly in, 405
Yarmouth. King Charles II/s Visit to, 75
Church, Crowmer Monument, 35
^ ditto. Arms on the Ceiling of the Aisle of, 149, 406 ditto, Norman Arcade discovered in.
- ditto. Stone Coffins found at, 405
■ Bobert, Earl and Viscount, Extract
from Funeral Sermon on the Death of, 79 Yates Bev. E. T., on the Font at Aylsham, 83 York Cathedral, Figure of the Law in. 87
END OF VOL. II.
CnARt.KS MU9KBTT, PKINTER, OLO HAYMAKKBT, MOBWICH.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOEFOLK AND NORWICH
Urctjaeological ^ocietp
THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH, F.R.S.
The Right Honourable the Earl of Rosbbert.
The Right Honourable the Lord Sondes.
The Right Honourable the Lord Walsingham.
The Right Honourable and Reverend the Lord Batning.
The Right Honourable the Lord Colborne.
The Honourable and Vert Reverend the Dean of Norwich.
Sir William J. H. B. Ffolkes, Bart.
Sir J. P. Boileau, Bart., F.R.S.
The Venerable the Archdeacon of Norwich.
Hudson Gurnet, Esq.,* F.R.S., V.P.S.A.
Daniel Gurnet, Esq., F.S.A.
Dawson Turner, Esq., F.R.S., F.A.S.
Digitized by
Cije (Committee.
Rev. C. Boutbll Doumham,
Thokas BaioHTWBLL, Esq., F.R.S Nortoich,
Rby. Jameb Bulweb Ayhham,
Rbv. F. Cubitt Fritton,
W. C. BwiNO, Esq Norvneh,
Robert Fitch, Esq., F.G.S Norwich,
Hat Oubnbt, Esq Nortnch.
Ret. John Qunn Irstead.
R. Blake Hukfabt, Esq. ...:... Norwich,
QoDDA&D Johnson, Esq. . Norwich.
Ret. H. MACKENZtB Yarmouth.
Chableb J. Palmbb, Esq., F.S.A Yarmouth,
E. H. St. Quintxn, Esq Thorpe Hamlet.
S. W. Stevenson, Esq., F.S.A Norwich.
Richard Ward, Esq Salhouae Hall.
Francis Worship, Esq Yarmouth,
Ret. E. T. Yates Aylsham.
Captain Blaxiston, R.N., Thorpe Hall.
Henrt Harrod, Esq., Norwich, Rey. Richard Hart, Cattofi.
Ret. J. H Bloom Caetleaere.
Thomas Barton, Esq Threzton,
G. A. Carthbw, Esq East Dereham.
James Copbman, Esq Loddon.
Joseph Datey, Esq - . Yarmouth.
George Ftxt, Esq Fakenham.
Rev. a. M. Hopper Startton.
Ret. E. J. Howman . . % BexweU.
S. W. Riz, Esq Becclet.
A. H. Swatman, Esq King'a Lynn.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Jleigulatt0n0»
1. That the Society shall be called '* The Nobvolk: and Nobwich Abch^ological Sooiett."
2. That the object of the Society shall be to collect the best informa- tion on the Arts and Monuments of the County, including Primeval Antiquities ; Numismatics ; Architecture, Civil and Ecclesiastical ; Sculpture; Painting on Walls, Wood, or Glass; Civil History, and Antiquities ; comprising Manors, Manorial Rights, Privileges and Cus- toms; Descent; Genealogy; Ecclesiastical History or Endowments, and Charitable Foundations ; Records, &c., and all other matters usu- ally comprised under the head of Archaeology.
3. That all information thus received shall be entered in books kept for the purpose, which shall be open to the inspection of the Members of the Society, to be kept in the custody of the Secretaries.
4. That the Society shall consist of a President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Secretaries, and a Committee of eighteen, of whom at least three shall be chosen from Norwich, three from Yarmouth, and three from Lynn.
6. That all such Antiquities as shall be given to the Society, shall be presented to the Norwich Museum.
6. That six of the Committee shall go out annually in rotation, but with the power of being re-elected ; and also that the Committee shall supply any vacancy that may occur in their number during the year.
7. That the President and Vice-Presidents shall be elected for life, and shall also, with the Treasurer and Secretaries, be ex-officio mem- bers of the Committee.
8. That any person desirous to become a Member of this Society, shall be proposed by at least two of its Members, at either a General or Committee Meeting.
9. That every Member shall pay the Annual Subscription of Five Shillings, to be due, in advance, on the first of January.
10. That distinguished Antiquaries, not connected with thd County, may be elected as Honorary Members, at any of the General or Com- mittee Meetings of the Society, on being proposed by two of the Members.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
11. That Four General Meetings shall be held in the year, and that the time of such Meetings shall be the Thursday of the week in which the General Quarter Sessions for the County are held.
12. That such short papers shall be read at the meetings, as the Committee shall previously approve of, and that the meetings shall conclude with the exhibition of, and discussion on, such subjects of interest or curiosity as Members may produce.
13. That the Committee may, on such occasions as they shall think necessary, call Special Meetings by advertisement.
14. That the Accounts shall be audited by two of the Committee, and a statement of the affairs of the Society shall be given, at the first General Meeting in the Year.
15. That the Committee shall meet the first Wednesday in every month, at Twelve o'clock, to receive such information, and make such arrangements as may be necessary, preparatory to the General Meetings. That three shall be a quorum, and that the Chairman shall have a casting vote.
16. That a short Annual Report of the proceedings of the Society shall be printed and delivered to all the Members.
17. That all papers deposited in the archives of this Society, shall be considered the property of the Society ; but that it shall be optional with the Committee to receive communications from Members, who are writing with other objects in view, and to return the same, after pe- rusal, to the Author.
18. That the Committee shall have the power of making Bye Laws, which shall remain in force till the next General Meeting.
19. That the Committee shall have the power of publishing such papers and engravings, at the Society's expense, as may be deemed worthy of being printed; that each Subscriber shall be entitled to a copy of such publications, either gratis or at such price as the funds of the Society will admit, from the time of his admission, and to such further copies, and previous publications (if any there be in hand), at a price to be fixed by the Committee ; that the author of such pub- lished papers shall be entitled to fifteen copies, gratis; and that the Committee shall have the power to make such arrangements for re- printing any of the parts of the Society's papers when out of print, as they may deem most conducive to the interests of the Society.
20. That the Society in its pursuits shall be confined to the County of Norfolk.
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Thb Ma&quxs of No&thamfton, President of the Royal Society. |
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LoBD Mahon, President of the Society of AnHquariet, |
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j John Bbttton, Esq. Sut Hbm&t Ellis. |
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Hbnbt Hallau, Esq Edward Hawkins. Esq. :! |
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j Sib Fbancis Palobayb. |
A. W. Puqin, Esq. } |
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Bircham, William, Jun., Esq. Beepham Birkbeck, Henry, Esq. Keswick j |
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; Aldred. C. C. Esq. Great Yarmouth |
Birkbeck, Henry, jun., Esq. Ditto Blakely, Mr. Edward Norwich \ |
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:. Amis, Capt. . . . Catfield 1 Amyot, TliomaM, Esq., f.s.a. London |
Blakiston, Capt., b.n. . Thorpe ' |
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\ Anson, Rev. T. A. . BiXlingford |
Blencowe, Miss . . Lynn \ |
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Blofeld, Bey. T. J. Drayton |
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Blofeld, Bey. T. C. Hoveton House |
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BoUeau, J. F., Esq. . DUto |
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Barber, Henry, Esq. . Ditto \ Barlow, Key. W. . Bintry |
Borrett, James, Esq., m.d. Gt. Yarmouth |
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Bouyerie, Bey. W. A. . Denton |
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Brackenbury, Bey. J. M. Marlborough |
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Barnwell, Key. C. B. MUeham Hall |
Bradnack, Mr. J. B. Great Yarmouth |
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■• Barnwell, C. F., Esq. London |
Brandon, J. A., Esq. . London " |
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i Barton, Thomas, Esq. Jhrexton |
Brereton, Bey. B. B. Stifkey |
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Bridgeman, W. K., Esq. Norwich Brightwell, Thomas, Esq. Ditto ^ |
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Honinyham HaU |
Brightwen, Thomas, Esq., Gt, Yarmouth |
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; Beare, Samuel S., Esq. Norwich |
Brightwen, John, Esq. Ditto ] |
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Beauchamp, Bey. T. Buckenham |
Brooks, William, Esq. Norwich j Brown, John, Esq. . . Ditto i Browne, W. J. TJtten, Esq. Ditto \ |
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Bulwer, Bey. James . Aylsham \ |
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Bulwer, Bev. A. E. . Cawston |
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1 Bemey, Bey. T. Hockering |
Bulwer, W.E.Lytton, Esq. HeydonHaU Bulwer, J. B., Esq. London |
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Burroughes, B. E., Esq. Norwich |
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i Bidwell, Mrs. H. Norwich |
Burroughcs, W. N., Esq. Gt, YarmotUh |
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1 Bignold, Samuel, Esq. DUto • |
Burrowes, Bey. H. N. Becclcs |
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Calvert, Rey. Thomas Norwich
Campbell, R., Esq. Fakenham
Carter, Rev. Geone Nortoieh
Carthew, G. A., Esq. Beat Dereham Carthew, George, Esq. Harletton
Chapman, Rev. Charles Acriee, Kent Chapman, Gardiner, Esq. Nortoieh
Chester, Greville Geo., Esq. Swaffham Clarke, E. P., Esq. Wymondham
Clitherow, Miss London
Clowes, Rev. Thomas . Cotton
Cobb, Rev. Robert . ElUngham
Cobb, James, Esq. Great Yarmouth
Colbome, Lord Weet Barling Hall
Cole, R. , Esq. Upper Norton St. , London
CoUyer, Colonel Collyson, Rev. H. Cooke, Henry, Esq. Coope, Octavius, Esq. Cooper, Mr. William Cooper, Rev. C. B. Copeman, Edward, Esq., k.d. Copeman» James, Esq. Cory, Charles, Esq. Cory, S. B., Esq. . Cream, Rev. Clement Crosse, J. G., Esq. Crowfoot, W. H., Esq. Cubitt, Rev. Frank Cubitt, Henry, Esq. Cullyer, Mr. P. Cunningham, Peter, Esq. Curtis, Rev. J. Curtis, Mr. C. J. M.
Norwich
BUney
Cotton
London
Lynn
Morley
Norwich
Loddon
Great Yarmouth
Ditto
Doumham
Norwich
Beceles
Fritton
. Cotton
Norwich
Kensington
East Dereham
Pakefield
Dalrymple, Arthur, Esq. Norwich
Dalrymple, Archibald, Esq. Ditto
Dangerfield, E. T., Esq.
Bank of England, London Darby, Rev. M. B. Bingham
Dashwood, Mrs. Caistor next Norwich Dash wood, Rev. Geo. H., Stow Bardolph Dashwood, Rev. Augustus Thornage Dashwood, Mrs. Davey, Henry, Esq Davey, Joseph, Esq. Davie, Rev. W. C. Davie, C, Esq. Deacle, Rev. Thomas Drake, Rev. William Druery, J. H., Esq. Dunn, John, Esq., m.d. Dunster, Rev. H.
Edwards, Rev. B. Edwards, Rev. E. Edwards, Rev. J. F. Enfield, Mr. Wm., jun. Evans, Rev. Henry Evans, Rev. J. P. Evans, T. R., Esq. Evcrard, Rev. Daniel Ewing, W. C, Esq.
Ditto
Beceles
Great Yarmouth
Ditto
Ditto
Bethersett
Coventry
Norwich
Great Yarmouth
Woodbastwick
AshiU
King's Lynn
Bolme Bale
Norwich
Swanton
Swajj^am
Coltishall
Burnham Thorpe
Norwich
Farrer, Mr. Thomas Diss
Fellowes, W. M., Esq. Ormesby
FeUowes, Rev. T. L. Lingwood
Ferrier, R., jun., Esq. Great Yarmouth Ffolkes, Sir W. J. H. B., Bart
HiilingtonBaU
Field, Rev. F. Field, Rev. S. P. Finch, Peter, Esq. Fisher, James, Esq. Fisher, J. G., Esq. Fisher, Rev. Charles Fitch, W. S., Esq. Fitch, Robert, Esq., f.o.b. Fitch, Mrs. Fitt, Mr. George Flavell, Rev. John W. Flowers, John Wickham, Esq.
Foster, Sampson, Esq. Foster, Wm., Esq. Fox, W. L.,Esq. Francis, Henry, Esq. Franks, A. W., Esq. Freeman, Rev. John French, Josiah, Esq. Profit, Rev. W. Fryer, J. R., Esq. Fyson, Mr. James
Beepham
High Beech, Essex
Norwich
Ditto
Great Yarmouth
Bethel
Ipsvnch
Norwich
Ditto
Fakenham
RidUngton
Croydon
Norwich
DUto
Barleston
Norwich
Trin, CoU,, Comb.
Ashwicken
Windsor
Thorpe
Denver
Wymondham
Gilman, C. S., Esq. Girling, Barry, Esq. Girlmg, J. B., Esq. Glover, the Yen. Archdn. Goggs, Rev. H. Goodwin, Charles, Esq. Goodwin, Rev. F. Goodwm, C. W., Esq. Gordon, John, Esq. Green, Rev. Charles Green, Miss Grigson, Rev. W. H. Gunn, Rev. John Gumey, Hudson, Esq. Gumey, Daniel, Esq. Gumey^ J. H., Esq. Gumey, Hay, Esq. Gumey, Miss
Norwich
East Dereham
Bingham
Northrepps
South Creaks
Norwich
Thurlton
Cambridge
Saxlingham
Burgh Castle
Bey don Ball
Whinburgh
Irstead
Keswick
North Buncton
Boston Lodge
Norwich
Northrepps
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Hilling, George, Esq. Hodgson, D;, Esq.
SuHi^ffham
London
Great Yarmouth
Aylsham
Norwich
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Ca^ld
Yarrow
Thorpe
Taverham
Norwich
The Tou>er, London
Norwich
Great Yarmouth Norwich
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Taylor, Mr. William |
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Thurlow, Rev. E. |
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Townshend, Lord Charles |
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Tucker, Charles, Esq. |
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Turner, Miss |
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Scott, Samuel, Esq. London |
Tifrner, Francis, Esq. |
Weetmtneter j |
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Sedgwick, Rev. Professor Norwich |
Turner, Rev. S. B. |
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Turner, T. Hudson, Esq. |
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Upcher, Henry, Esq. |
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Sloman, Mr. C. Great Yarmouth |
Vaux, Rev. Bowyer Great Yarmouth \ |
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WoUerton |
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Merton |
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Cambridge |
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Honingham |
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Litcham ; |
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1 Taylor, Rev. A. . MarUngford |
Buxton 1 |
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CHARLES MUSUnr, PRINTER, OLD HATICARKET, NORWICH |
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.eB\OD\CALS
U.C. BERKELEY UBRARIES
COOblSSSll
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RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT T0«^ 202 Main Library |
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LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE |
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ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECAUEO AFTER 7 DAYS |
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DUE AS STAMPED BELOW |
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MAR 03 198$ |
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unoommi |
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II iM 2 4 1Q93 |
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AUIODISl'C'lkl' |
MAK^4'93 |
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FORM NO. DD6
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BERKELEY, CAg4,7|q^G0C^Ie