Pages from Volume One, Palmer's Perlustration, Chapter 5, rows 1-17 UNPDF

CHAPTER V.

“ I know each lane

“And ancient neighbourhood.” —C RABBE ,

EFORE taking the reader up and down the Rows of Y ARMOUTH ,

let us see what White says when describing the approach to the

town from the North river in his Eastern England: — “One might

fancy the Bure reluctant to enter the sea, so many windings does

it make below Stokesby; and it is somewhat puzzling to identify your position

where the objects on shore appear to be continually changing place. More

than once did we appear to be running straight for Yarmouth, when a sudden

bend would take us away seemingly a mile or more in the opposite direction.

As we descend the signs multiply of the struggle between land and water, and

instead of pumps worked by wind we see here and there a small engine-house

with stumpy chimney, and a scoop-wheel driven by steam discharging a rapid

stream from the drains. Let that busy clank and splash and rumbling plunge

cease to be heard for awhile, and water would soon assert its supremacy in

these lower levels. Runham Swim and Mautby Swim, places where cattle

swim across for want of bridges, are left behind and wherries become more

numerous. Another mile and the banks are protected by a slope of large ﬂints,

on which the tide has left traces, and there is a ﬁrm continuous path on each

side. At last we do get near the town; and the appearance becomes more and

more like a Dutch landscape; there are houses with quaint gables and dormer

windows, and long lines of trees, and masts of ships rising among roofs and

between gaps in the

B

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trees and buildings. Some of these masts belong to vessels at anchor in

the sea, and while looking at them your eye is attracted by the sand-hills

glistening in places against the sun, and the high-perched look-out, a

kind of crow’s nest, at Caister. Then we pass a noisome place where

wherries take in ‘keel-muck.’ Then gardens and orchards, and boats,

and punts, and more wherries, and an ancient round tower with conical

roof on the left bank, then under the bridge, past Vauxhall gardens, and

the Wherrymen’s church, and we make fast to a wharf where the Bure

ﬂows into Breydon water.

The ﬁrst Row, beginning at the north end of the town, leads from North

Quay to the North Gate. It is the longest row; extending from east to west,

about three hundred yards, and is commonly called Ramp Row, doubtless

a contraction or corruption of Rampart Row, as being immediately behind

or within the town wall or rampart; and Swinden appears to have been of

this opinion, for on the map prepared by him it is so designated. In some

old deeds it is occasionally called the Common Ramp. The T OWN W ALL

extending from the N.W. Tower on the east bank of the River Bure to the

North Gate, forms the north boundary of this row; and may still be seen

with a ruined tower about midway. “Pass along Ramp Row,” says White,

“and you see how the wall is supported within by arched recesses seven

feet in depth; a ﬁrm base for the superstructure.” Above these arches was

a walk for the garrison, running from tower to tower. Houses of a very

mean description have been built; against this wall, originally without

any authority; for in 1641 a committee was appointed to view them, and

enquire by whom such houses in Ramp Row had been built. They have

long been occupied as alms houses, and are vested in the churchwardens

and overseers, but the town council are the owners of the soil. “ The poor

people who inhabit them,” says White, “use these recesses as bedrooms,”

and for other purposes. He adds “as the herring is popularly spoken of as

“Ramp-row goose,” you will be able to sympathise with the inhabitants

as regards their diet.”* Some of

* A red herring— ” one of the “best of edibles,” says Moor, was also called a Yarmouth

capon. Moor’s Words and Phrases, p. 500.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

139

these houses have been cleared away; and it is to be hoped that the

whole will soon disappear, and that more suitable habitations will be

provided for the poor elsewhere. * This row will then be wide enough

for the passage of carriages, and will be a convenient thoroughfare from

Caister Road to North Quay. On the south, side near the east end until

very recently there was a very old wall, with a low arch, which seemed

coeval with the fortiﬁcations. At the east end, in continuation of the town

wall, stood the North Gate, which was the only exit on this side of the

town, At the south-east corner, fronting North Gate Road, was a public

house formerly called the Plough, afterwards the Jolly Farmers, the site

of which is now occupied by a granary, f To the south of the above is

another public house formerly called the Bird in Hand, afterwards the

Black Horse, t and now the East and West Flegg. Still further south is

another public house, called the Huntsman and Horn. § At the west end

of this row there is a public house, fronting the south, called the White

Swan; || another public house, fronting west, now

* In this row died in 1869 Maria Bowles, aged 91.

f It was a custom which continued to be observed long after the commencement of the

present century, for the labourers of the neighbouring farmers, after harvest to come

into the town, and apply to those with whom their employers were acquainted, for a

gratuity. If their request was acceded to they offered to “ halloo largess.” The men

and boys formed a circle outside the house, by taking hold of each others hands, and

upon a signal given they all shouted largess as long and as loud as their lungs would

permit, three several times, elevating their hands with each shout as high as they could,

still keeping hold. (Meo periculo. See Hone’s Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 1167.) The

money obtained was all spent in drink, which led to disorders ; and the custom no

longer prevails.

t The Black Horse was bestrood “by Odin, the God of war, and king of the other deities”

in Scandinavian mythology. Sayers thus addresses him in the Descent of Frea: —

“ Chief of warriors, King of Night,

“ Charging on thy sable steed,

“ Dashing thro’ the gory ﬁght,

“ Thou smild’st when thousands bleed.”

§ Hounds appear to have been kept at or in the immediate neighbourhood in the 18th

century, for Ives, sen., writing in 1736, says, “Father and I out hunting with the Gorleston

hounds; and put up a lesh of hares,”

|| The White Swan was a badge of the House of Lancaster, derived from, the De Bohuns,

who received it from the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex. They, and also the Nevills, had

a common ancestor in Adam Fitz Swan (perhaps corrupted from Sweyn), who had

large estates in England at the time of the Conqueror. There is an old legend of three

brothers having been transferred into swans.

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called the Lord Collingwood tavern, was formerly known as the Wherry,

and afterwards as the “Dog and Duck”. Another public house to the east

was known as the “Pack Horse” * . These latter houses were principally

for the accommodation of wherrymen, bringing grain down the river Bure

to the North Quay, which here was called the North Chains f .

Row,No. 2, from N orth Quay to North Gate Street; which latter leads

from the North Gate to the north end of White Horse Plain ; and is so

designated in Armstrong’s map. This row was called Black Horse Row,

from the public house at the east end, already mentioned. It is nearly of

the same length as row, No. 1, but is divided into two parts by a very

narrow Cross Row, which runs from the town wall north and south. On

the east side of North Gate Street, near the churchyard, is an ancient

hostelrie called the King’s Arms, a sign which is to be found in every

town. Here there is a Steel Yard. In the 17th century this house was the

property of Sir Thomas Medowe; and prior to 1772 it belonged to John

Vout, liquor merchant, who also possessed the houses adjoining to the

north, which abut eastward on the town wall. The royal arms, carved in

the tympanum of the pediment, over the gateway leading into the Inn

yard have been lately removed. Dean Davies, in his journal, writing in

1690, says, “Feb. 13.—Being the day of their Majesties’ accession to the

crown, the bailiffs and aldermen went to

* This is an old sign now going out of use, but common at the commencement of the

last century, when pack horses afforded the only means of conveying goods from one

town to another. Pack horses went in long strings, one following the other, pretty much

as in the present day mules traverse Spain; in England in 1353, as in Spain in 1867 1 ,

the leading beast, the most remarkable for sagacity, bearing a bell or a collar of bells

wherewith to guide aright those that followed.

f Anthony Wyn had a house near the North Chains. He resigned his seat in the council

on “going over sea into Holland there to dwell;” but in 1639, having returned, he was

restored to his former place, and thenceforth took an active part in local affairs. In

1645 he had liberty “to set up a blubber oil pan 1 ” out of the North Gate, and to make

use thereof “ for boiling of ﬁsh livers.” In 1643 the store of gunpowder for the 6th

battery was kept at his house. In 1648 he signed the Solemn League and Covenant.

Nine freemen of the name of Winn voted at the election in 1754 principally for Fuller

and Browne. Sampson Winn, who was then Parish clerk, endeavoured to please both

parties by voting for Walpole and Fuller.

1 This item must have been added in late revision for the work, since it was printed in

1872, and must have taken 20 years or so to compile. I can imagine all sorts of extra

notes scrawled on the working pages.

2 It would be interesting to research the economics of this industry. Fish guts were plentiful

and no doubt almost free. Oil for lamps had to be obtained from ﬁsh or whales.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

141

church in their scarlet gowns, and returned in solemn procession. “As

they passed by, all the guns in the East Fort were ﬁred. I dined at Mr.

Bailiff England’s in much company. After dinner I went to the coffee

house, where I spent some time with Mr. Benjamin England and Mr.

Fowle. Thence with Capt. Robins and Dr. Cotton to the King’s Arms;

where they treated me with wine and oysters.” In 1695 the town clerk

was instructed by the corporation to inform the haven commissioners

that the accounts were ready for inspection; and the chamberlains were

directed to make provision at the King’s Arms of six dishes of meat for

supper on. Monday night; and six dishes of meat for dinner on Tuesday

and Wednesday, ﬁt to be set before gentlemen; so that attending a meeting

of the commissioners then occupied three days, and was an expensive

affair. * At the north-west corner of the church yard there was formerly

a style, leading into it; and also some alms houses which were pulled

down in 1729. One of these was the gift of Thomas Mortimer in 1636,

“for the use of the poor” f Between Row No. 1 and Row No. 8 there are

two openings towards the west. The ﬁrst (from the north) being called

Laughing Image Corner, and the other Rainbow Corner. The former

is so named from the “ images” of two children within niches, which

still appear on the front of a house facing south 1 . x The second opening

took its name from an adjoining public house. § The space between was

unoccupied until the commencement of the present century, when the

corporation granted a lease of it for building purposes, and these houses

are now freehold with a slight exception 2 .

* The commissioners at that time were—for Norfolk, Sir Isaac Preston, knt., and John

Houghton, esq.; for Suffolk, Sir John Playters, bart., and Sir Thomas Allen, bart.;

for Norwich, Francis Gardiner, esq., and John Ward, esq.; and for Yarmouth, George

England, esq., and Samuel Fuller, esq.

t He ﬁlled the ofﬁce of bailiff in 1593 and 1605. John Mortimer was named as an

alderman in the charter of James I.

X The tradition is that they were placed there by the proprietor in remembrance of his

two children, whose early deaths he deplored; but why they should be called “laughing”

is not explained. They were there as far back as the commencement, of the present

century.

§ The Rainbow is an old sign. In 1657 James Fair, who kept the Rainbow in Fleet street,

London, was prosecuted “ for making and selling a certain liquor called coffee, to the

nuisance and prejudice of the neighbourhood.”

1 This house stood until 1971. The early 70’s saw the destruction of this area of the town

for the new road. See The Revised History of Great Yarmouth, vol.1, p.166.

2 Another piece of evidence of the use of deeds in compiling this work.

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Row, No. 3, leads from the north part of Laughing Image Corner to

North Gate Street. It was called Boulter’s Row, from a baker’s shop at

the north-east corner long kept by a family of that name”.* Some years

since in sinking a well in this row, the workmen, at the distance of about

ﬁfteen feet from the surface, came upon sand in which were embedded

the remains of a boat of rude construction, which must have been buried

there for many centuries 1 . The house which had stood on this spot and

was then pulled down, was a very old one. At the south-east corner of

this row is a public house now called the Horse and Groom, belonging

in 1738 to Andrew Chambers of Honing.

The above being the ﬁrst baker’s shop we have arrived at, let us pause to

consider the regulations which were formerly enforced. Bread being the

staff of life, the trade of a baker was from a very early period the subject

of municipal regulation. The old ordinances in Yarmouth respecting

bakers are curious. In 1555 the corporation decreed that no baker should

bake in the town unless appointed by the bailiffs. They had previously

been prohibited from making “ship bread,” but this order was repealed.

In 1595, in consequence of the scarcity of wheat, bread and biscuits were

ordered to be made of rye, and two persons were appointed inspectors

to report to the bailiffs all who disobeyed; and in the following year the

sale of bread and beer to the Scotch ﬁshermen was altogether prohibited.

From the time of King John their proﬁts were limited, and yearly an

“assize of bread” was determined by the bailiffs. In 1603 the price of a

quarter of wheat was ﬁxed at 22s., and they were allowed 6s. per quarter

for baking ; and twopenny wheaten bread and halfpenny white bread

were to be of a ﬁxed weight, or the bakers were liable to a ﬁne. All bread

seized on account

* Boulter’s rusks had a very extensive reputation. The last proprietor, Mr. Henry Boulter,

was an alderman, and for many years a member of the town council for the North or

St. Nicholas’ ward. He died in 1865, unmarried, and was buried in the ground attached

to the chapel of the Society of Friends in Row No. 63, of which community he was a

member. His uncle, Daniel Boulter, formed an extensive museum, of which we shall

have occasion to speak. The name is derived from the boulting or sifting of ﬂour. In

1787 Joseph Boulter, confectioner, was the owner of two houses near the west end of

the Market Row. A Norfolk family named Bolter bore vert, a bend betw. two birdbolts

bendways or. point downward.

1 This is of great interest, since 15 feet down is the level of the post-glacial land surface,

and this could be just an old boat but could be very ancient indeed, since an iron age

boat was recently discovered and excavated in Dover, and an upturned Viking ship

still lies at the same level across King Street. There also were signs of a boat when the

Magistrates court was built, and again one in the pipe trench on South Quay. All of

these remain to be excavated. See The Revised History of Great Yarmouth.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

143

of not being full weight was applied to the maintenance of prisoners. By

an ordinance made in the reign of Elizabeth, bakers (were) to sell four

loaves for a penny, two loaves for a penny, and one loaf for a penney,

according to the prescribed weights; and every baker was to put his proper

seal or sign on his own bread, for the better identiﬁcation of the same.

Bakers to this day mark their bread; - so long do old customs linger. The

origin of the term “bakers dozen” is this. It was an ancient custom for

bakers to give the retailer “thirteen articles for twelve”, and instead of

paying him for his trouble in money, he had the privilege of retaining

the thirteenth loaf 1 . Bakers of white bread were on no account to make

brown bread; which regulation was intended to prevent a common fraud

of having bread of good quality outside, and coarse within.

The public house on the North Quay, commonly called the Horse

Shoes ,* was in 1721 the property of George Wells, and remained in his

family for many years.

Row, No. 4, from the south side of Laughing Image Corner to North

Gate Street. In this row there is an old house with round windows, locally

called “ Cowmouths 2 ” f There was also a large half-timbered house,

converted into a place of call for cadgers or tramps 3 .

Row, No. 5, from Cross Row to White Horse Plain, this row was called

Split-Gutter Row, because of a large open gutter which formerly ran down

the middle of it. There are several old houses still remaining in this row;

and it is said that William Butcher, Esq., resided in it when he ﬁlled the

ofﬁce of mayor in 1753. He died in 1779, aged 82. On the occasion of

the election of his successor an incident

* This is a very old sign derived from an ancient superstition, that a horse shoe

accidentally found and nailed on the threshold of a door hindered witches from entering

a house.

“Hang up horse shoes, hence, to scare,”

“The hags that ride the midnight air.”

A horse shoe was also considered efﬁcacious in bringing “good luck ;” and down to the

present day it is frequently found nailed to the door or lintel. Nelson, the undaunted, had

great faith in the horse shoe; and caused one to be nailed to the mast of the Victory.

1 This appears an effective form of tax evasion.

2 see 43 King Street, Row 115, also the west face of the Mariner’s tavern for good

examples of surviving cowmouth windows in 2006.

3 Leake’s lodgings in Howard Street in the 1920’s and 30’s was a similar place where

tramps could obtain a dry resting place at night. There was no bed, they sat shoulder

to shoulder round the room, on the ﬂoor, back against the wall. What they paid for the

priviledge is not known. The alternative of the work house was evidently worse!

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occurred which led to litigation. At the Grand Assembly on the Feast day

of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist; Benjamin Lane, one of the

common council being then dead, it was proposed to proceed in ﬁlling

up the vacancy, but the mayor ruled that the Assembly must proceed to

the election of a mayor. Upon the inquest chosen in the manner already

described, were Thomas Browne, Brightin Wakeman, and David Mason,

who when the inquest had agreed, threw up the windows of the guildhall,

and declared the result to the populace, and the door being then unlocked,

the latter rushed into the hall. The gentlemen above named went home

to refresh themselves; and on their return Mason was locked out. “ In

this corporation,” says a case submitted to counsel, “the members are

divided into parties, and the mayor thus chosen (Richard Baker, Esq.)

espouses one party, and endeavour’s all he can to distress the other.” It

was endeavoured to upset the election by reason of the non-presence of

Mason at the formal announcement of the verdict by the mayor, but the

objection was held to be insufﬁcient.

All open spaces within the town were called Plains; and there are several.

White Horse Plain is in shape an irregular triangle; the road leading from

North Gate Street to its south-east corner forming the longest side. This

road divides the plain from the churchyard, which was formerly bounded

by a low brick wall with a stone coping; and immediately opposite the

great west door of the church there was a brick arched gateway of the

17th century. Between the road and the church wall there was a row of

poplars. “Wall, gateway, and poplars have all disappeared.

Row,”No. 6, from Cross Row to White Horse Plain, called (1766)

Browne’s Row, afterwards Rackham’s Row; and latterly Snatchbody

Row, because when the stealing of dead bodies from their graves in

the churchyard for the beneﬁt of students in anatomy prevailed, the

“Resurrectionists,” as these men were called, concealed their booty in

some old houses in this row, which have since been pulled down and

warehouses erected on their site. Before the passing of the “Anatomy

Act” the necessity of obtaining “subjects” by unlawful means rendered

GREAT YARMOUTH.

145

the trade a very lucrative one to all who were brutal and daring enough

to engage in it. Among the most noted Resurrectionists were Vaughan

and Murphy. The former, originally a stone mason’s labourer, was a

fellow of dissolute and drunken habits. After committing depredations

in various parts of the kingdom, he came down to Yarmouth, and taking

a house in the above row, abstracted at least ten bodies before he was

discovered; and his proceedings might never have been found out had

he not behaved ill to a young woman, to whom he passed himself off as

a bachelor. This was in 1827; and great excitement prevailed in the town

when Vaughan was apprehended and committed to gaol. The London

surgeons sent down a person to act on Vaughan’s behalf, at an expence of

£14; and they allowed Vaughan ten shillings a week during the twenty-

six weeks he was in conﬁnement here. Murphy, an Irishman, tall, stout,

and strong, was considered the most expert of the gang. He was paid

£12 12s. each for four subjects obtained at Yarmouth; but he also got

into trouble, and the expences attending his liberation, provided by the

London surgeons, amounted to £160. Murphy died in his bed, leaving

his family well provided for; but Vaughan was ultimately transported.

The stealing of a dead body was merely a misdemeanour, punished by a

short imprisonment; but appropriating, at Plymouth, some of the clothes

in which a dead body had been wrapped, he was prosecuted for felony

and sent out of the country. In his evidence before a committee of the

House of Commons, Sir Astley Cooper declared that “there was no

person, whatever his situation in life might be, whose body after death,

if so disposed, he could not obtain.” * To prevent these grave proceedings

for the future, lofty palisadoes (iron railings) were erected along the west

side of the churchyard instead of the low brick wall already mentioned.

This row is immediately opposite the west end of St. Nicholas’ church,

and by standing a little within the row, a ﬁne view of the west end of

the nave is obtained. At the north-east corner of this row, fronting White

Horse Plain, is a large house (now divided into two

* A person in Dundee, some years since, when burying a relative, caused an apparatus to

be afﬁxed to the lid of the cofﬁn, which communicated by wires with some gunpowder,

so that upon any pressure the whole would explode.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

houses with shops, No. 4 and 5), which in 1766 was described as a “capital

messuage” in the possession of John Burton, Esq., water bailiff. * In 1771

the above-mentioned house, and the extensive malt-houses on the north

side of this row, which had also belonged to Burton, were conveyed to

Christopher Eaton. The house was sold, in 1773, to John Daniel, jun.,

grocer ; and the malthouses, which are extremely old, were at the same

time purchased by Edmund Lacon, Esq., and are now attached to the

brewery, f

Row, No. 7, from Rainbow Corner to White Horse Plain, called White

Horse Row, On the south side of this row, fronting the plain, is the old

hostelrie called the White Horse . t Portions of the north wall of this house,

built of ﬂint with stone dressings, exhibit marks of great antiquity. At the

north-east corner of this row, and occupying the space between it and

Row, No. 6, stands a large house, now divided into two occupations, No.

6 and 7, which in the 17th century was the property of Robert Harward,

and afterwards of his son, Titus Harward,

* He was appointed in 1765, and held that ofﬁce until his death in 1789, when he was

80 years of age. He married Mary Ferrier, who died in 1785, aged 70. The trustees of

her settlement were Robert Ferrier, Esq., of Starston in Norfolk, and Leonard Mapes,

Esq., of Rollesby. Robert Ferrier Burton, the son of this marriage, married Edne (who

died in 1793, aged 47), daughter of John Barber, and died in 1774, aged 57. Sarah, the

daughter of John and Mary Burton, married in 1791 Daniel Durrant Scott of Ingham.

f The making of malt has been a considerable trade in Yarmouth for centuries, the soil

in many parts of Norfolk being very favourable to the production of barley. Mention is

made in old deeds and wills of malthouses in different parts of the town 1 . In the 16th

century it was usual for the corporation to purchase malt, and keep it “for the town’s

use,” in anticipation of seasons of scarcity.

t This is a very ancient sign, the white horse having been a favorite device of the Saxons.

Hengist and Horsa (both names signifying a horse, they according to the practice of the

pagan Germans taking the name of a beast) bore a leaping white horse on a red ﬁeld. It

again came into vogue on the accession of the House of Hanover; a white horse saliant

occupying a conspicuous place in the shield of the electorate. The White Horse, Fetter

lane, was a favorite London Inn for Yarmouth people in the days of coaches, before

the introduction of railways. In the reign of Elizabeth the principal Inn at Boston was

the White Horse.

1 Here, a further reference to the old property deeds, but the best indicator now for the

sites of the huge number of malt houses in the town is probably the 1870 ordinance

survey plan.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

147

from whom it passed to Thomas Ellys, who died in 1761, aged 63, having

devised it to Thomas Ellys, the only survivor of nineteen children, who

married Mary, widow of Samuel Hartley; * and by him the house was

sold. In 1802 it was purchased by Dr. John Jones, who here kept a school.

f Dr. Browne, M.D., was a pupil.

Row, No. 8, from North Quay to White Horse Plain, called Ferry Boat

Row, because it was immediately opposite an ancient ferry over the Bure,

connecting Yarmouth with the marshes on the west side of the river. At

the south-west corner of this row there was a cottage for the ferryman,

in which he resided until 1829 when the ferry was discontinued in

consequence of the erection of a bridge. This cottage was on the ground

ﬂoor, but now has a storey added to it. On the south side is a tenement

which in 1777 was purchased by Luke Warner, a carter, who died in

1823, aged 103, retaining his faculties but slightly impaired to the last . J

On the north side there is a very old tenement at present uninhabited, for

which no owner can be found; and in 1866, being then in a dangerous

state, it was partially pulled down by order of the authorities. Near

the west end of this row on the north side, the ﬁrst Wesleyan meeting

house was erected. Wesley himself preached the opening sermon, and

obtained more than £100 towards the expences. Adam Clarke, one of the

most eminent of the Wesleyan ministers who was then on the Norwich

Methodist circuit, was present.

* “N OV . 22, 1735. News came of Capt. Hartley’s death. The carpenter and boatswain

conspired to kill him. They ran away with the ship, but went on shore for water, when

the two cabin boys informed the governor of the place, who sent guards down and

secured them.”—Ives’ M.S. Journal.

t He printed a few pages of a History of Great Yarmouth in 8vo, but it went no

further.

x Other instances of longevity (not otherwise mentioned in these pages) may be here

recorded. Mary Cobb died in 1792, aged 96; Elizabeth Hunter in 1810, aged 102; in

1838 Serjeant John Wright, aged 110; in 1832 Jane Grey, aged 113 ; Eleanor Hannant,

in 1854, aged 102; in 1865 Susannah Clarke, aged 96; in 1866 Mary Fuller, aged

90; Elizabeth Giles, 92; Elizabeth Frosdick, 91; Edmund Clarke, 94; John Downing,

93; Mary Hose, 90; Mary Barker, 96; in 1867 Susannah Bowles, 96; in 1868 Judith

Lawrence, 98; Elizabeth Scott, 92; J. Archer, 90; S. Crockett, 99 ; E. Trinham, 93; J.

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Mr. Lee, a corn merchant in the town,gave the site and a quantity of bricks.

The cost was £350. This building is now converted into two dwelling

houses, but the original circular headed windows remain, as also a stone,

recording the date 1783, inserted in front.

Methodism was introduced into Yarmouth by Thomas Olivers who informs

us that in 1754, he and one companion visited the town one sabbath day.

On their arrival they went to the parish church, and after services there,

Olivers attempted to preach in the market place, but a tumult arising, he

had to retreat into a row. When he left the house in which he had taken

refuge, he found women ranged at the doors holding basins, the contents

of which, not very clean, were dashed at him as he passed. Emerging from

the row, Olivers and his companion were pelted in the streets until they

had mounted their horses and ridden out of the town. In 1760, Howell

Harris, a gentleman of eminent piety in the principality, (Wales) who had

for some years preached methodism, made an offer to the government to

raise men for the defence of the nation, which was accepted. A regiment

of Welsh fusiliers was formed, in which Harris was made a Captain, and

so it happened that he and his men were sent to Yarmouth. On his arrival

he enquired as to what had been done to introduce methodism, and was

informed of the ill-treatment which Olivers had received. Harris adopted

the following dedvice to effect a hearing. He employed the town crier

to give notice that at a particular hour a methodist would preach in the

market place. At the time named, a savage mob assembled, armed with

bludgeons and brick bats 1 , who swore that if the preacher appeared he

should never leave the town alive. Harris who was then exercising his

men a short distance, after dismissing them, mingled with the crowd and

enquired the reason for such an assemblage. He was told that a methodist

preacher had been expected, and that it was as well that he had not come,

as he would certainly have been killed. Harris told them that by their

leave he would address them himself, and a table having been procured,

he mounted upon it, attired as he was in his regimentals (army uniform),

and so astonished his hearers by the novelty of the exhibition, and so

softened them by his eloquence, that they were induced to listen and he

was allowed to ﬁnish his discourse without

1 Brick bats were like a heavy “ping-pong” bat, made of wood, used to

hand make bricks. The availability of these shows that a number of men

worked at the brick kilns at Somerleyton. I suggest that they were carted

there and back in rather the same manner that Bernard Matthews’ bus

collects workers daily to work in the turkey factory.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

149

molestation. After this he frequently preached to the people, and thereby,

says Wesley, a seed was sown of which there was great need, for Yarmouth

was then “a large and populous town, as eminent for wickedness and

ignorance as any sea port in England.” In the following year Wesley

himself came to Yarmouth, when “instead of the tumult which had

been expected, all was quiet.” The house in which he held forth was, he

informs us, “more than ﬁlled,” and his words left such an impression that

a society was formed, whose numbers so increased as soon to require two

regular preachers. This growth was too rapid for solidity, and divisions

arose among the members. The right of private judgment was exercised

to its fullest extent. Some of the most inﬂuential members fell away

into Socinianism, Calvinism, and Antinomianism, while others became

Anabaptists, so that when Wesley revisited the town in 1767 he found that

“the society had come to nothing.” * On subsequent visits Wesley says he

“found Yarmouth a cold, dull place;” and in 1774 he enters in his journal

that “confusion was worse confounded;” and that “division after division

had torn this once ﬂourishing society to pieces.” Still he did not despair,

and in 1776 he again came to the town, where he obtained the use of the

old Dutch church 1 , and there he preached to crowded congregations; but

his eloquence was unavailing, the society diminished in numbers until it

was reduced to eight persons, and all preaching was then discontinued.

Samuel King, a brazier, “an upright and sensible man,” was the means

of restoring Methodism to Yarmouth, f He invited all

* In 1762 Whitﬁeld came to Yarmouth, being then on his way to Rotterdam, and took

occasion to preach in the open air on Priory Plain, from Romans xiii. 14. The populace

behaved attentively and decently, “an indulgence not often shown” he says, “ to any

one before on a like occasion in this town.” There being at the time a gentle shower,

the preacher improved the occasion by praying that “God would water the souls of his

hearers with grace, as he was then watering the earth with rain.”

f King, in 1789, published An impartial inquiry into the present state of Religion in

England, recommended to the serious consideration of Christians of all denominations,

in which he says “ the greater part of the clergy neither preach nor live the gospel.”

“Nay,” he adds, “it is to be feared that this was never the design, either of themselves,

or of those who set them apart for what is called Holy Orders.” “How striking is the

contrast between the old pastors and the modern! Who now visits from house to house,

unless it be for tithes and offerings? not to enquire how

1 The Dutch church was on the site of the Customs House, South Quay. See The Revised

History of Great Yarmouth .

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who would attend to assemble in his kitchen on Sunday evenings, where

he addressed them; and in 1780 a house was hired near Fuller’s hill, where

itinerant preachers (among others James Ward of Bristol) occasionally

held forth. Again a “schism’’ was formed “in the body,’’ and great efforts

were made to eject King from the pulpit. Wesley was called in to settle

these disputes, and by his exertions he was able to record that “the

combatants had laid down their arms, and had solemnly promised to live

in peace.” This however was only effected by King leaving the society,

taking with him the most ardent of his adherents, to whom he once more

preached in his own house, and there administered the Sacrament of the

Lord’s Supper. After a time, ﬁnding his followers dwindling away, he

returned to the main body, but was never again allowed to preach; and

when Wesley visited Yarmouth for the last time, in 1790, he was able

to say that “at length he had found the society at peace.” Wesley died

in 1791, aged 87. At the time the above chapel was built, Wesley, as he

informs us “abhorred the thought of separation from the church; liking

the old ways best.” In a letter to Mr. Tripp of Lowestoft, written in 1789,

he says that “there never were any meetings of the Methodists, either at

Yarmouth or Norwich, by his advice or approbation, in church hours.”*

Robert Carr Brackenbury of Raithby hall, Lincolnshire, a man of property,

a county magistrate, and an ardent follower of Wesley, visited, Yarmouth

in 1782, and attempted to preach in the open air, but a mob surrounded

and greatly annoyed him, and a press-gang threatened to take him on

board a tender. For his personal safety the constables conducted him to

the residence of the mayor, who treated him with

“ precious souls prosper, and whether the fear and-worship of God is kept up in their

families. Alas! there is no time for this; cards, plays, assemblies, and general visits (if

not hunting and racing), leave no room—unhappy men! Having reviewed the “ National

Church,” which he asserted afforded “ a sad spectacle of the state of religion in her;” he

“turned his eyes to the several denominations of dissenters,” and criticised them in turn

with much severity, and as regards the Methodists he says (curiously enough considering

his own career), “as the example and vigilance of St. Paul were not sufﬁcient to restrain

the preachers of his day; so neither have the example and care of Mr. Wesley;—which

is evident from their impatience of restraint from him, and their restless endeavours to

get congregations to themselves.”

* Wesley’s Journal, Watmough’s History, Southey’s Life, &c.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

151

courtesy, and detained him till he could be got privately to his lodgings.

Much useful help to Methodism was obtained from Richard Thompson,

who settled in Yarmouth. He was born in 1739 when his father was

serving as a common soldier, and his early years were spent in camps

and barracks while the army was employed in the German wars. When

old enough he joined the marines and became drum-major; and when

quartered at Chatham, his wife was the only woman allowed by General

Mackenzie to open a shop for supplying the soldiers with such articles as

they needed and by these means he accumulated money at a rapid rate,

until one day the thought struck him, “What will it proﬁt me if I gain the

whole world and lose my own soul ?” From that time deep and serious

thoughts took possession of him. In 1786 he obtained his discharge, and

embraced Methodism. After passing some years in Scotland he visited

Norwich, and impelled as he believed by a dream he came to Yarmouth,

where ﬁnding the chapel trustees in need of money he advanced them

£350 for an annuity of £28, and having settled in Yarmouth, died there

in 1804, aged 64. The divisions which had distracted the society ceasing,

the number of members rapidly increased, so that towards the close of the

last century the above-named chapel became too small 1 , and another in a

more public and central position was erected, as we shall have occasion

to record.

Row, No. 9. This is a short row leading from the North Quay to Fuller’s

Hill, and is called Bessey’s Half-Row, because it adjoined a house at the

south-west corner long the residence of a family of that name. The open

space of ground lying between this house and the buildings which are on

a line with the south side of Row, No. 11, was long known as Bessey’s

Piece. It is now occupied by the church and school of St. Andrew, designed

by Mr. C. E. Giles, and erected principally through the exertions of the

Rev. John Gott, * (who became the ﬁrst incumbent) assisted by the late

Rev. Wm. Lucas of Flegg Burgh, for the beneﬁt of the wherrymen and

water-side population. The

* Descended from Benjamin Gott, who in the last century established himself at

Leeds, and became the recognized head of the woollen trade in Yorkshire. He and his

descendants have long been distinguished for their unostentatious philanthropy.

1 Evidently the house reverted to ordinary residential use somewhere around 1795, but

the house remained standing until that notorious year, 1971, when it was demolished,

having survived even the second world war.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

church was consecrated by Dr. Pelham, Bishop of Norwich, on the 9th

October, 1860. * It was built to seat 400 persons. The organ was given by

Miss Burdett Coutts, who also contributed largely to the building fund.

Before the necessary amount could be obtained for the erection of this

church, divine service was performed in a sail loft on the west side of

the road, lent for the purpose by Richard Hammond, Esq. A sketch of

this building is below.

a point where N orth Gate Road, having crossed White

Horse Plain, enters upon Church Plain. It is the highest

part of Yarmouth and was therefore, as we have seen,

the spot selected by the ﬁrst inhabitants whereon to erect their houses. At what period the name

was acquired does not appear; but it has existed for centuries, and an old family called Fuller pos-

sessed property there until very recently. t

* Ministers—

Rev. John Gott, 1860; Rev. A. P. Holme, 1864; Rev. John W. Colvin, 1870 1 .

t A member of the family was called Scholastica, a name sometimes assumed by those

who enter religious houses.

1 Palmer’s Addenda: The Rev J.W.Colvin was succeeded in 1874 bythe Rev. J.B.W.

Woolnough, who resigned in 1875, on accepting the Vicarage of Chute Forest, Wiltshire,

and was followed by the Rev. R.E. Adams.

F uller’s Hill leads from

GREAT YARMOUTH.

153

Down to the seventeenth century persons of opulence resided on Fuller’s

hill. Sir T HOMAS M EDOWE had a house there, which he rebuilt in 1642;

and obtained leave to extend the walls so far as the former buttresses

projected, and to enclose a piece of ground to the west 1 . As Sir Thomas

Medowe played a conspicuous part in municipal affairs during a most

eventful period, it may not be uninteresting to give some account of

his career. The family from which he descended lived in the vale of

Wytnesham in Suffolk, where from the time of the Conqueror down to a

very recent period they had a landed estate, of which Peter de Medowe,

living in 1188, died seized. William Medowe of Coddenham who died

in 1637, aged 78, added Wytnesham hall to his other possessions by

marrying Grisell, daughter and heir of William Mynter, Esq. Their son,

Thomas Medowe of Coddenham, married Elizabeth, daughter of John

Lea, and settled in Yarmouth.* Charles I., being “well informed of his

ability,” sent a letter to the corporation recommending them to elect

Medowe to the ofﬁce of bailiff, which they did in 1617, and again in

1629 and 1638. His son, afterwards Sir Thomas Medowe, also entered

the corporation where, however, he soon allied himself with the party

opposed to the proceedings of the crown. In 1684 he took an active part

in resisting the obnoxious imposition of ship-money; and was sent both

to Norwich and London to organize a resistance to it. Nevertheless he

was named in the royal warrant as a commissioner for its levy; and in

this capacity he attended the high sheriff, Sir John Wentworth 2 , at the

King’s Head at Norwich, j in April, 1635, and paid over to him £1,000

in part of the rate made upon the inhabitants of Yarmouth.

On the breaking out of the civil war in 1642 the town declared for the

Parliament, and active measures were taken by the inhabitants to defend

themselves. In that year the Earl of Warwick, then Lord High Admiral,

came to Yarmouth, and was entertained by the corporation.

* These particulars are taken from, a very full pedigree of the family, “corroborated by

original documents,” in the possession of the Rev. John Freeman, Rector of Ashwicken,

Norfolk, and published in his Life of the Rev. Wm. Kirby, p. 14.

f The King’s Head stood fronting the Market Place where Davey place now is. In the

last century Sir Roger Kerrison had a house there.

1 Meadowe also had a manor at Hopton, and a farmhouse and barn at Herringﬂeet.

There is a record book from the manor in the Public Record Ofﬁce, Norwich, relating

to events when Meadowe was Lord there.

2 Wentworth lived at Somerleyton, and had formal gardens laid out, including the

creation of a series of lakes, which now lie buried in shrubbery to the south of Home

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

In the following year Lord Grey of Werk addressed a letter to the bailiffs

requesting to have eighty dragoons sent immediately to Cambridge, as

that place was threatened by the king’s forces; but Medowe and others

waited upon his lordship at Norwich, and pointed out that the inhabitants

being mostly ﬁshermen would cut but a sorry ﬁgure on horseback;

whereupon Lord Grey commuted his demand for a money payment.

Later in the same year the inhabitants learned with dismay that the

Earl of Manchester, who commanded in the associated counties, had

appointed Colonel Russell to be military governor of the town. Urgent

remonstrances were at once made against what they considered a breach

of their ancient privileges, but nevertheless it was determined to give

the colonel a courteous and hospitable reception, and Medowe’s house

on Fuller’s hill was appropriated to his use; and there Col. Russell and

his retinue continued for the space of ten days, at the end of which time

an arrangement was made under which he withdrew. In 1645 further

measures were taken for the defence of the town, and in that year the

Earl of Lauderdale came down and was “elegantly entertained.” In 1648

Medowe was elected to serve on a standing committee appointed to meet

together to consider the best means to be adopted for the safety of the

town; and he and many others then “openly declared that they would

stand for the king and parliament according to the National Covenant’’ It

being reported that Col. Fleetwood was coming to the town as governor,

the bailiffs and justices waited upon him and courteously desired to see

his commission. They then informed him that they would not admit

any great company of soldiers into the town, nor allow any drum to be

beaten, nor suffer him to exercise any power or authority whatsoever, so

jealous were the inhabitants of their liberties; and Mr. Johnson, was sent

to London “about clearing the towne of Collonell Fleetwood’s power

of being governor.” In July of that year Medowe was sent to Bradwell

to meet Col. Scroope, who held a commission for raising six hundred

foot and ﬁfty horse for the defence of the town; and although Medowe

could not prevent Scroope from entering the place, where he also was

“elegantly entertained,” yet the colonel was prevailed upon not to execute

his commission; the inhabitants undertaking to defend themselves. In

August following, Medowe

GREAT YARMOUTH.

155

was deputed to wait upon Commissary General Ireton (Cromwell’s

son-in-law), then a guest of Sir Thomas Wentworth at Somerleyton,

and confer with him as to an avowed intention to “ingarrison the town”

against the wishes of the inhabitants. He could not prevail, and when

Ireton decided upon coming hither, Medowe and many of the leading

men rode out to meet him and escort him in. Endeavours were made to

keep order in the town, in which Lieut.-Col. Cobbett commanding the

troops was invited to concur. On every sabbath the constables of each

ward with twelve or fourteen men and a patrol of soldiers traversed the

town and entered all inns, alehouses, taverns, and tipling houses j and

“all persons found therein or about the town absenting themselves from

the service of God,” were brought before the bailiffs for punishment. The

soldiers took possession of the towers, and all other means of defence; but

the billetting them upon the inhabitants and the levying a rate to pay the

expenses proved very burthensome. All this had to be borne or the soldiers

would have taken free quarters; and the ofﬁcers requiring a place where

they could meet and “sit together as a counsel of war,” the Tolhouse hall

was assigned to them for that purpose. On the 9th of September, 1648,

Lord Fairfax entered the town with a large retinue and was well received;

and on the 12th of the same month Colonel Birkstead’s regiment was

admitted to garrison the town.* On the day of the Decollation of St. John

the Baptist (29th August) in that year, Medowe had been selected to ﬁll

the ofﬁce of prime bailiff, and on Michaelmas day he was sworn in. On

the 31st of January following he received the astounding news that the

king had been beheaded at Whitehall; and on the 6th of February, 1649,

Medowe acquainted the corporation that he had received advices from

Miles Corbet in “ forbidding them to proclaim Charles Stuart, Prince of

Wales, or any other to be king;” and also an Act for altering the style of

the court. As Medowe did not resign ofﬁce, we may conclude that he

acquiesced in the new order of things. Disappointed, however, with the

results of the revolution, and

* In after years the military governorship of North Yarmouth became a recognised

sinecure. On the death of the Hon. Gerald Russell, in 1744, who then held this post, it

was bestowed on Captain the Hon. Roger Townshend. Subsequently it was ﬁlled by Sir

William Draper, so well known by his correspondence with Junius. The last governor

was General Brooke.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

disgusted with the parties in power, he sometime afterwards retired from

the corporation, and we hear no more of him till the restoration, when

he “tacked ship,” as the sailors say, and became an ardent royalist. He

again entered the corporation, and headed a deputation to Charles II.,

carrying with them, as a propitiatory offering, the arrears of the fee farm

rent payable to the Crown, which the republicans had appropriated to

other, purposes. His zealous services were rewarded with knighthood ;

and he was named for the then intended new order of the Royal Oak ;

which order was, however, never constituted. In the following year he was

chosen High Sheriff of Norfolk; and at this time his estate was estimated

at £2,000 a year; a large sum in those days. It cannot be supposed that

this “ basking in the sunshine of royal favour “ would be agreeable to

his former associates who were now “out in the cold.” Accordingly we

ﬁnd that one James Smith, a butcher, was ﬁned £10 for calling the knight

“a fool,” and asserting that “he had killed many a bull of 30s. price with

more brains than Sir Thomas had.” In 1662 Sir Thomas Medowe was

selected to ﬁll the ofﬁce of bailiff. Among the ﬁrst acts of the triumphant

royalists was the disownment of the Lord Henry Cromwell as high

steward, and the election in his place of Hyde, who had been created Earl

of Clarendon and Lord Chancellor. There was an ancient salary attached

to the ofﬁce which the corporation had neglected to pay, at which the

chancellor had signiﬁed his displeasure, whereupon to conciliate the

great man, Medowe this year dispatched Aldermen Bateman and Dunn to

wait upon his lordship and present him not with the arrears only but with

“a tun of claret” and “such other thing as a present,” that the aldermen

after consulting the borough members, should think ﬁt.* Before his year

of ofﬁce expired a ship arrived from Scotland ﬁlled with sick soldiers,

the master bringing a letter from the Marquis of Hamilton requesting

that they might be provided for until they could be sent to their homes;

whereupon Medowe called “an assistance f at the Tolhouse hall, and it

was arranged that

* The Lord Chancellor also claimed and received his “ Lenten provision,” namely half

a hundred good lyngs two “barrels of wine and two barrels of red herrings.

f It was customary yearly to appoint a committee who should act as assistants, and

advise the bailiffs or mayor on any emergency.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

157

such as were then alive (for many had died on board) should be landed and

lodged in some houses out of the North gate; and women were appointed

to attend them. There was no system of billets in those days.* 1 The privy

council in 1665 appointed Robert Clifton and Richard Bowers to seize

upon all goods at Yarmouth embezzled from his majesty’s navy; and in the

same year they employed Sir Edmund Pooley to dispose of the prizes then

lying at Yarmouth, and to examine the accounts of Sir Thomas Medowe

who had required to be reimbursed for what he had expended, but in spite

of whose care great embezzlements were suspected; and Sir Edmund

was required to report “upon whom they do most rest;” and ultimately

a prize agent was appointed. f In 1671 Sir Thomas Medowe again ﬁlled

the ofﬁce of bailiff. In the following September he, at the request of the

corporation, wrote a letter to the Earl of Arlington, complaining of the

“ insolencies” committed by the Scotch soldiers then quartered in the

town, for which no redress could be got from their commanders. While

then in ofﬁce he entertained the Bishop of Norwich, Lord Townshend,

Lord Richardson, J Sir William D’Oyley, and the Dean of Norwich, who

all came to Yarmouth to endeavour to arrange the differences between

the corporation

* Shortly after more soldiers were sent from Holy Island by Sir Henry Vane, and

Medowe was compelled to advance the money necessary to send them to their places

of abode.

f Harleian M.S.S. Four persons were arrested and taken to London to answer for eight

packs of wool and other goods.

J Thomas, Lord Richardson, Baron of Cramond In Scotland, died in 1674. He was the

grandson of Sir Thomas Richardson, who when Speaker of the House of Commons

was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas by Charles I. Elizabeth, granddaughter

of the above lord (only sister and heir of William, the last Lord Richardson, who died

at Catton in 1735, in his 21st year, s,p.), “a ﬁne young lady, then about eighteen years

of age,” as described in the Norwich Gazette, married “ Young Counseller Jenny,” only

son of John Jenny of Bayﬁeld in Norfolk. The Lords Richardson possessed extensive

estates in Norfolk. That at Honingham, in the church of which parish many of them

are buried, passed by purchase to Charles Townshend, afterwards Lord Bayning, for

many years member for Yarmouth, and he resided at the hall there. The dean at that

time was Dr. Herbert Astley, a kinsman of Sir Jacob Astley and Sir Isaac Astley, both

distinguished royalists. He married Barbara, daughter and heir of John Hobart of

Weybread in Suffolk, only son of Sir John Hobart of Hales.

1 In the second world war the soldiers were billetted in the seafront hotels.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

tion and the dean and chapter as to the appointment of a minister of

the parish.* Sir Thomas Medowe also provided an “entertainment

extraordinary” for Sir Edward Turner, Speaker of the House of Commons,

for which he was allowed £35. In 1682 Sir Thomas Medowe was once

more elected bailiff, and when so in ofﬁce he had personally to attend the

king in council on the affairs of the town. Before quitting ofﬁce he had

the honor of receiving as a guest at his house on Fuller’s hill the Earl of

Yarmouth, when the latter came to the town to be sworn in as lord high

steward, f The charter granted by Charles II. having altered the form of

government to a mayor instead of two bailiffs, Sir Thomas Medowe was

called upon to ﬁll that ofﬁce in 1684, in succession to George Ward (see p.

73). Notwithstanding all these public services, James II. in 1687 arbitrarily

dismissed Sir Thomas Medowe from his alderman’s place; and he had

the honor of being at the head of the seventeen corporators who were

so disposed of by the king. He died in the following year, and with him

the family for a time became extinct in Yarmouth. Besides considerable

house property in different parts of the town, Sir Thomas left large estates

at Somerleyton, Herringﬂeet, Blundeston, and other places in Suffolk;

and dying without male issue his large wealth devolved upon his two

daughters and co-heirs; of whom Anne, died in 1708 unmarried, and was

buried in Bradwell church, Suffolk; and Frances, the other daughter and

sole executrix of her

* For the particulars and adjustment of this dispute, see P. C, p. 173.

f During his year of ofﬁce a squabble took place between Sir Thomas Medowe as

prime bailiff and his colleague Nathaniel Symonds the junior bailiff, which eventually

occupied the attention of the king in council. One of the evils of having two persons

to execute the same ofﬁce was the impossibility of their exercising equal power, the

result being that the bailiff who was ﬁrst named customarily had the principal direction

of affairs. Symonds however thought it should be otherwise for it appears that he “in a

violent manner seized and forced his majesty’s seal of the admiralty out of the hands of

Thomas Bradford, Esq., the person entrusted with the custody thereof by Sir Thomas

Medowe, who of right had the keeping of the same ; and did swear George England

GREAT YARMOUTH.

159

father’s will, married Thomas Hayes of Cradﬁeld in Suf-

folk.* Although

entitled to bear arms, Sir Thomas Medowe

frequently sealed with a merchant’s mark

combined with his initials. He bore

bendy of six or. and az. on a chief of the

second, two crosses pattee of the ﬁrst

(which were not the ancient arms of his

family); and for a crest a cross pattee or.

entwined b y a serpent ppr. f

On the south side of Fuller’s Hill and adjoining Conge Street towards

the west, Sir Thomas Medowe had a brewery which he purchased of

Augustine Blomeﬁeld, t and this was probably the

oldest brewery in the town. In 1698 this property was

conveyed to Christopher Brightin, beer brewer, who

realized a considerable fortune. It does not appear

that he bore arms; as he sealed with the device of an

anchor piercing a heart. §

* Sir William Cooke of Bromehall, Norfolk, Bart., and W.

Randall of Beccles, were named by Six Thomas Medowe as supervisors of his will. This

was a common practice in the seventeenth century. The supervisors were “ to keep an

eye upon the executors,” and afford the latter the beneﬁt of counsel and advice without

incurring any responsibility; and for this the supervisors usually had a legacy.

t Topographer and Genealogist, vol. i, p. 281.

J He was son and heir of John Blomeﬁeld of East Dereham.

§ He was the son of Richard Brightin already mentioned (p. 125). At the Norfolk election

in 1714, Richard Brightin and Christopher Brightin both voted for Sir Ralph Hare and

Erasmus Earle. Christopher Brightin in 1721 ﬁlled the ofﬁce of mayor, when a curious

incident occurred. His worship wrote as usual to the admiralty to send down a vessel of

war to guard the ﬁshing boats when at sea; and accordingly the sloop H awke, Captain

Lloyd, arrived in Yarmouth Roads. The mayor requested her commander to come on

shore, which he did and went to the Crane s tavern, “but would not wait upon Mr.

Mayor though by him again requested”, which “ill conduct” was complained of to the

admiralty, and the members for the borough were requested to obtain redress. In 1734

Brightin subscribed £21 towards the purchase of the gold chain which is still worn by

the Mayors of Yarmouth. He died in 1747, leaving two daughters his co-heirs. Virtue the

elder married Barry Love, Esq.; and Elizabeth the younger married Samuel Wakeman,

Esq., and died in 1743, aged 39, leaving a son named Brightin Wakeman.

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The people of Yarmouth appear from, an early period to have been

addicted to beer; a taste derived from their Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and

Norman ancestors. The ale consumed by them was however brewed

without hops, and although some other bitters were used, it was not

calculated to keep long. The hop is an indigenous plant; but its use was

considered injurious. In 1425 an information was exhibited against a

man “for putting an unwholesome kind of weed called an hopp into

his brewing.” * In the reign of Henry VI. a petition was presented to

Parliament against “ that wicked weed called hops, which preserved beer,

but destroyed those who drank it.” f Rastell, in his Collection of Entries,

states that an aleman brought an action against his brewer “for spoiling

his ale, by putting therein a certain weed called a hop,” and recovered

damages. Even bluff King Hal in 1530 gave an injunction to his brewers

“not to put any hops or brimstone into his ale;” but it was, however,

in his reign that the virtue of hops became known and appreciated. In

1555 the corporation made an order that none should brew in the town

unless by their appointment. In 1572 brewers were ordered to burn coal

instead of wood; and in 1589 no victualler or innkeeper was allowed to

sell any “strange beer” (as London porter had it existed would have been

termed), and thus the “native article” was effectually “protected.” At the

same time great pains were taken that Yarmouth ale should be of “good

stuff” and “wholesome for man’s body.” For this purpose “Tasters” were

appointed by the corporation, without whose ﬁat ﬁrst obtained no beer

could be sold. The corporation also regulated the price according to the

quality, and offenders against the ordinances were adjudged to the pillory

on three market days. In the 14th century women were alone employed

to brew; and hence the term “Alewives.” If they failed to keep the assize

they were threatened with the “tumbril, trebucket, or castigatory.” Before

the use of hops in this country they had been extensively used in the

Low Countries, whence we derive the word leer, which originally meant

a liquor which had been hopped, in distinction to ale which was then

unhopped; and from this period the trade of

* Marl. M.S.S., No. 980, fo. 279.

f Fuller’s Worthies,

GREAT YARMOUTH.

161

brewing appears to have greatly ﬂourished, for we are told that at the

commencement of the 16th century there were thirty-four breweries in

Yarmouth. In 1630 John Harbottle endeavoured to “incorporate” all the

breweries, for which he got a summary dismissal from the corporation,

who a few years afterwards entertained the idea of taking the trade into

their own hands and supplying the inhabitants with beer, as some town

council’s now supply water and gas; but the brewers were too strong

for them.

The road over Fuller’s Hill has from time to time been much lowered

for the convenience of trafﬁc, so that the houses on the south side, some

of which are of considerable antiquity, are now elevated above it. It has

already been mentioned that the oldest street in the town commenced from

the crown of this hill and ran south, while immediately opposite, on the

north side, there was a continuation of it until a junction was formed with

White Horse Plain. This is now called Fuller’s Passage. At the foot of

the hill at the west end there was an old public house called the Sawyers

Arms, which was destroyed by ﬁre in 1841, and the new house erected

on the site and now called the Albion, was set back eight feet in order

to widen the road, which at that end was then very narrow. In a modern

house on the north side (No. 3) Dr. Alfred Impey commenced practice in

Yarmouth as a physician, and attained considerable eminence. He died in

1852 at Cove Hall, Suffolk, the residence of his father-in-law, William

Everett, Esq., at the early age of 38. There is a mural monument to his

memory in the south aisle of St. Nicholas’ church, with an inscription on

brass; erected “by friends who appreciated his worth and abilities.” At the

south-east corner stood an old house which in 1751 was the property of

John Hurry, and was occupied by Martha Palmer, widow. It was rebuilt

as two dwelling houses in 1777 by John Vout, liquor merchant, and they

have now been partially pulled down in order to widen the approach to

Fuller’s Hill. Adjoining to the south, fronting Church Plain, is a house

and shop formerly of Benjamin Sherrington, ironmonger, and afterwards

of his son, James Norton Sherrington, who here made a collection of the

works of the elder Crome, which after his death were

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

dispersed, and brought large prices. * He died at an early age. There is

a portrait of him on stone from a drawing by Lane.

Fuller’s Hill leads to Church Plain, an open space of ground forming

an irregular square, bounded by the churchyard on the north side. North

Gate Road runs across this plain from White Horse Plain to the Market

Place. The houses which now adjoin the churchyard were originally

merely stalls set up for the sale of goods and eatables on church festivals,

and such-like occasions. t Gradually these stalls became

* John Crome, the Norfolk Hobbima, now better known as Old Crome, was the son

of a poor weaver, and was born in a small and disreputable public house at Norwich

in 1769. At ﬁrst he was an errand boy to a doctor, but soon changed this uncongenial

employment; for, having thus early exhibited the bias of his mind, he was apprenticed

to a house and sign painter. He lodged with another apprentice who had also a rude taste

for art, and the two lads drew and painted together; and the progress made by Crome

was such as to attract the notice of Sir William Beechy, R.A., who was kind to him.

Marrying early in life, Crome became so poor that in order to gain a livelihood he was

compelled to paint sugar ornaments for confectioners, to clip his cat’s tail to make his

brushes, and to use pieces of bed-tick and old aprons instead of canvas. An order for a

public-house signboard was at this time eagerly accepted and speedily executed. One

of these “The two Brewers,” painted in 1790, remains to this day, carefully preserved

at the Pockthorpe brewery in Norwich. But poverty cannot suppress a man of genius;

Crome became a master of his art; and learned how to show the beauty of the simplest

objects in nature. A few old trees, some broken ground, a leafy dell, the brink of a

clay pit, a dilapidated cottage, or a sketch of heath were his favorite subjects. These he

clung to through life; and never made the fatal mistake of changing his natural for a

grander or more imposing style. Founding the Norwich School of Artists, he became its

president, and it did good service by originating in 1805 the ﬁrst provincial exhibition

of pictures in England. Crome died in 1821, aged only 62, and in the same year one

hundred and eleven of his paintings were exhibited, beginning with “The Sawyers,”

down to a ﬁne wood scene painted within a month of his departure. Since his death

his pictures have steadily and latterly enormously increased in price, a sure proof of

the merit of the painter. Personally Crome was much esteemed. “ H is works remain

the gems of art, “ His worth engraved on many a heart.” For a considerable part of

his life, Crome, for the purpose of giving drawing lessons (which, with shame be it

spoken, formed his principal means of support), made a weekly journey to Yarmouth,

where he was gladly received by all who had any taste for art, and was a constant and

welcome guest at the tables of Mr. Dawson Turner, Mr. Paget, and Mr. Bracey. There

is an engraved portrait of him.

t The inhabitants of these booths or houses originally took their name from the locality.

Thus we ﬁnd that in 1292 John atte Churchyard (that is residing by the

GREAT YARMOUTH.

163

wooden booths; ultimately houses encroaching upon the churchyard, from

which they were not divided by any wall until 1811, and upon the plain

in front, the owners occasionally obtaining leave from the corporation to

bring out their frontages. * The second house at the west end is a public

house called the Saracen’s Head, f formerly the Cart and Horse.

row without a number leading from the Church Trees to Priory Plain,

formed part of the south boundary of the Priory. Extending from this row

to the churchyard is the P ARSONAGE H OUSE , which was erected in 1718

by the corporation, partly upon the site of an old and dilapidated house

then pulled down, which had been the residence of the Minister of the

Parish after the reformation, and was connected with the old guildhall

and the priory. The new building is depicted on Corbridge’s map and

is there called “ the corporation’s house for the curate.” Late in the last

century, during the incumbency of Dr. Cooper, some large rooms were

added at the north end of the original house. In 1848 the town council

passed a resolution to sell the Parsonage house, and apply the proceeds

to municipal purposes; but in consequence of a strong remonstrance on

the part of many of the principal inhabitants, the consent of the lords of

the treasury was withheld. A subscription was then entered into by means

of which the house was purchased of the town council and annexed to

the living. After the reformation, when the duty of providing for the

spiritual

churchyard) complained of William de Walsyngham that he had sold him. a false caul

for 6d. of silver, and he was adjudged “to have the pillory for his falseness.” This is an

instance of the superstitious belief which then prevailed in the virtues of a child’s caul,

which was supposed to protect the possessor from drowning, and many other evils. It

still exists in the remote parts of Ireland. See Carleton’s Tales.

* All these houses ought to be purchased and removed, and the view of the church

thrown open 1 .

f The Saracen’s Head is an old (and was at one time a favorite) sign. It originated

with the conﬂicts with the Saracens, once a matter of great national interest. When

our countrymen came home from these wars they depicted the Saracens with huge

and terrible faces; and the “Saracen’s Head” was set up as a sign. Osborne, writing in

1701, says that—

“ At the Saracen’s Head 2 they pour’d in ale and wine, “ ‘Till their faces were made to

resemble the sign.”

1 This is interesting, here is Palmer making suggestions for town planning; in fact this

is one of the few frontages to remain much the same to this day.

2 Although there is no Saracen’s Head in Yarmouth at this time, there is an excellent

hostelry of that name just opposite to the residence of Lord Walpole at Wolterton near

Aylsham. Much to be recommended, a table or room needs to be booked in advance.

Do not make a chance visit, or you will certainly be disappointed!

164

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

wants of the parish devolved upon the dean and chapter, they appointed

a “ Minister of the Parish,” who was in fact their perpetual curate.*

This privilege, we have seen, they allowed to be exercised by a layman;

and at a subsequent period the corporation obtained from the dean and

chapter the power of appointing ministers, hence the duty of providing

a residence. Probably there is no house in Yarmouth in which so much

hospitality has been continuously exercised as at the parsonage. Its ﬁrst

occupant was the Rev. Thomas Macro, D.D., fellow of Caius’ college,

Cambridge, and Rector of Hockwold-cum-Wilston in Suffolk. On his

induction the corporation provided him with two scarlet hoods, two

black hoods, and a new surplice. He was a learned man and a popular

preacher; and several of his sermons were published. He possessed an

extensive library, especially rich in divinity, and comprising a large

number of early printed books (many in black letter), from the presses

of Paris, Basel, Cologne, Antwerp, Geneva, Lyons, Frankfort, Borne,

Metz, Zurich, Venice, Amsterdam, and other places, many of which he

presented to St. Nicholas’ church. f There had always been, from the

earliest times, a collection of books preserved in the church for the use of

the clergy. Thomas Cobald in 1379 bequeathed a missal, two vestments,

and a chalice to St. Mary’s altar in St. Nicholas’ church, so that Martin

Wodesyde, the chaplain, might keep them in his aumbry “ to celebrate

at the said altar “ during his life. J Those in existence at the time of the

reformation being chieﬂy missals and works on divinity, were for the most

part destroyed. Another collection was formed; for Dean Davis, writing

in 1689, frequently mentions in his journal that he passed the day in the

vestry, which probably he would not have done

* By the 31 and 32 Vic. c. 117, the name of perpetual curate was abolished and that

of vicar substituted.

f He had also a valuable collection of autographs, most of which became the property

of the late Dawson Turner, Esq., and are now in the British museum. The Spelman

M.S.S., comprising more than one hundred volumes, were in the collection of Dr. Macro.

They were purchased by the late Hudson Gurney, Esq., and are now at Keswick. The

Bardolf pedigree mentioned at p. 91, is in No. 121, p. 8.

J He also gave to the high altar “a wey of salt” and his “best holiday vestment,” there

to be used as long as it would last. He was bailiff in 1349. The name is probably the

same as Cobbold.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

165

had there not been books there. This vestry was a room having a ﬁre-place

in it, at the north-west corner of the north aisle, and was not removed until

1846. In 1708 an Act of Parliament was passed for the encouragement of

church libraries, which recites that “in many places the provision of the

clergy is so mean that the necessary expense of books for prosecution of

their studies, cannot be defrayed by them.” The present collection, for

the most part, was presented by Dr. Macro. Swinden, writing in 1772,

enumerates 175 works then “in the library of St. Nicholas’ church.” The

oldest printed book was Pet. Martyr

in Romanos, 1468 and the latest,

Goulartii Apophthegmatum Sacrorum

Loci Communes. 1692. Amongst the

books is a copy of Cranmer’s Bible,

black letter, 1641, which, no doubt,

was sent to St. Nicholas’ church in

compliance with the order of Henry

VIII., that every parish should have a

copy of the scriptures; and a Roman

missal, in excellent; preservation, printed

at Venice in 1547 ; there is also the Book

of Esther, beautifully written in Hebrew

upon a long roll of vellum, with pictorial

illustrations of the principal events in the

history recorded. These books were kept

in the vestry above mentioned, which was approached by stairs, as seen

in the annexed engraving.*Dr. Macro was the son of Thomas Macro,

who resided in Cupola house, Bury St. Edmund’s, f where he acquired

a large fortune as a grocer and died in 1737, aged 88, having married

Susan, only daughter of the Rev. John Cox, Rector of Risby, descended

from Dr. Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, tutor to Edward VI. He possessed

a share in Will’s coffee house in Cornhill, London, where Dryden and

* “When the editor 1 ﬁlled, the ofﬁce of churchwarden in. 1829, ﬁnding these books in

a sad state, he caused them to he repaired, and a book-case made for their reception,

in which they are still preserved. Subsequently a new catalogue was compiled by the

Rev. Bowyer Vaux when Mr. F. Worship was churchwarden.

1 Editor C.J.Palmer.

f The house was so called because at the top of it he erected a cupola in 1693.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

the wits of his day were accustomed to assemble. Nichol, in his Literary

Recollections, says that the minister’s brother, Dr. Cox Macro, an eminent

physician in London, applied to a friend for an appropriate motto, who

suggested Cocks may crow, which is nearly as good as that of Quid rides

suggested to a tobacconist who had set up his carriage. Nichol doubts

whether this family were entitled to arms, but it is certain that the doctor

bore them, for a shield—charged with two bars wavy and in chief a lion’s

head crowned, is sculptured on the slab which covers

his remains in St. Nicholas’ church. The crest ia a

lion’s head crowned; and the arms of Macro impale

arg. a chev. az. between three talbots’ heads set. and

on a chief az., three mullets pierced arg. for Hall;

the doctor having married Maria Hall, who died in

1724, aged 33, in giving birth to an only son, Thomas

Macro, who graduated at Caius’ college, Cambridge,

but died in 1746, aged 23, unmarried. Dr. Macro

died in 1743, aged 69, and with his son * the name

became extinct in Yarmouth . The Latin epitaphs to the memory of Dr.

Macro and his wife are printed by Swinden, p. 869. There is a portrait

of him in his robes as a Doctor of Divinity in the possession of the Love

family, who are descended from his daughter. Dr. Macro was succeeded

by the Rev. Kenwick Prescott, D.D., Prebendary of Norwich, Master of

Catharine hall, Cambridge, and Rector of Balsham in Cambridgeshire;

but the presentation having been made by the dean and chapter contrary

to the wishes of the corporation, the latter testiﬁed their dissatisfaction by

withholding the customary yearly gratuity of a guinea for a new hat; and

what was of more importance refused, at ﬁrst, to allow the incumbent to

occupy the parsonage. He consoled himself by marrying, in 1744, Mary,

daughter of Robert Appleyard, who at that time kept the Wrestlers’ Inn,

on the Church plain 1 . He resigned the living in 1750; died in 1779, and

was buried at

* Alderman Macro purchased an estate at Norton in Suffolk, which he left to his son, Cox

Macro, “who died in 1767, leaving a daughter Mary, who married William Staneforth,

Esq., who died in 1786; and the heiress of this family married John Patteson, Esq.,

sometime M,P. for Norwich, and was the mother of the late John Staneforth Patteson.,

Esq., of Norwich, who died in 1823, aged 49.

1 Presumaby the vicar and his wife lived over the wrestlers for the whole of his

incumbency.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

167

Cambridge.* He was followed by the Rev. Samuel Salter, D.D., a son of

the Rev. Samuel Salter, D.D., Prebendary of Norwich and Archdeacon of

Norfolk. f He resigned on being appointed Master of the Charter house

in 1751, and was succeeded by the Rev. John Butler, D.D, who became

successively Bishop of Oxford and Hereford. The suavity of his manners

had such a charming effect in producing harmony among his parishioners,

that the corporation presented him with the freedom of the borough, and

repaid all the money which the doctor had expended in repairing and

beautifying the Parsonage house.

Dr. Butler was succeeded by the Rev. John Manclarke, who was at ﬁrst

permitted to reside in the Parsonage house, but had soon notice to quit

in consequence of a dispute between him and the corporation. The latter

having the right of appointing the parish clerk 1 , claimed also the custody

of the parish registers. This was resisted by the incumbent, and a case

having been submitted to Sir Fletcher Norton and Mr. Dunning they

decided in his favor; and the corporation then allowed Mr. Manclarke to

occupy the house until his death in 1770, at the early age of 38, leaving

two infant sons.§

* He bore sa., a chev. betw. three owles arg. His grandson, the Rev. Charles Kenwick

Prescott, born 1786, was Rector of Stockport.

t He died in 1756. There were six prebendal stalls in Norwich cathedral. The third

from the archdeacon’s on the north side of the choir was called the Yarmouth stall

(Prebenda Yarmouth). When incumbent he published a volume of Moral and Religious

Aphorisms.

X He is said to have earned his elevation by his services to the whigs (see P. C, p.

183), and during the ﬁrst American war his writings in support of the crown, under the

signature of Vindex, attracted the favorable attention of Lord North. He married for his

second wife, a sister and one of the co-heirs of Six Charles Vernon. He died in 1802;

and in the Gentleman’s Magazine., vol. 76, there is an engraving of his monument on

which are his arms— gu. a bend betw. three covered cups or. He published a volume

of Select Sermons. There is an engraved portrait of him.

§ The name had been of long continuance in Yarmouth. Henry Manclarke was admitted a

freeman in 1627 on producing his father’s burgess letter. In 1647 the Widow Manclarke

had permission to set out a porch with a pale in front of her house in the Market place.

Thomas Manclarke, who died in 1727, aged 64, married Sarah Manning, daughter of

William Coulson of Swanton Abbots (who died in

1 Palmer’s Addenda: the ofﬁce of Parish Clerk, was on account of its easy duties and

sure emoluments, eagerly sought for by those who had not been successful in their

worldly concerns. The appointment was, and remains, in the gift of the corporation,

who provided a house. Among his priviledges, it was customary to receive an

invitation to the “Mayor’s feast”.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

In 1771 Dr. Smyth, Prebendary of Norwich, was appointed; and although

the corporation allowed him to occupy the Parsonage house, they withheld

the customary guinea for a hat for ten years, and then paid the money in

a lump (sum). He resigned the living in 1781, and was succeeded by the

Rev. Samuel Cooper, D.D.,* during whose incumbency

1704, aged 33), and by her had three sons. Thomas the eldest died in 1763 leaving an

only child, Robert Manclarke, who died intestate and s. p. He appears to have been a

considerable merchant. Ives, sen., has these entries in his journal. “27 Nov. 1735. Blew

very hard at south last night. A ﬂeet of Hollanders sailed ; and this morning it blew

a very hard gale of wind, and they put back. William Allman coming for the harbour

stroke upon the bar and was drove on the north ham, and lost both ship and cargo. He

was laden with malt by Mr. Thomas Manclarke.” “ Dec. 1. I walked down to the haven’s

mouth to see Mr. Allman’s ship.” “ Jan. 10, 1736. Daniel Holdridge’s ship put up for

sale, and was bought by Mr. Manclarke for £210,” “March 27, 1737. Blew a gale of

wind at S.E. A messenger came from Horsey, and brought word that Henry Mayes and

nine sail of ships were drove ashore about Winterton with very rich cargoes.” “ 30 th .

Rode down to Waxham “to see the ships that were ashore.” “April 4. Mr. Mayes’ ship

condemned and cried (advertised by the town cryer) to be sold to-morrow by way of

auction.” “April 5. Mayes’ ship was sold to Thomas Manclarke for £29 10s.” Column

Manclarke the second son, who ﬁlled the ofﬁce of mayor in 1770, died in 1790, aged

71, also intestate and s. p. The above-named John Manclarke was the third and youngest

son. He married Catharine, daughter of Austin Palgrave of Pulham St. Mary Magdalene.

Thomas, their eldest son, was Registrar of the Admiralty court at Great Yarmouth, from

1757 to 1783. He died in 1789 and was buried at Pulham. Austin Palgrave Manclarke,

their second son, who became heir general of the family, married Mrs. Cook of

Rockland, and left two sons, the Rev, William Palgrave Manclarke of Pulham, whose

son, William Palgrave Manclarke, is now representative of the family, and Richard

Beatniffe Manclarke 1 , Esq., of Malvern. The Rev. Richard Palgrave Manclarke, Vicar

of S. James’, Barrow-in-Furness, is eldest son of the latter. The Manclarkes represent

the Palgraves of Pulham, who claimed to be the nearest in blood. to the Palgraves of

Norwood Berningham in Suffolk. Thomas Palgrave of Pulham was sheriff of Norwich,

and represented that city in Parliament; and died in 1726, aged 84, and was buried

at Pulham. They bore m. a lion ramp, arg., with a crescent for difference. Augustine

Palgrave of Norwood Berningham was knighted by Charles I.; and John, his son, was

created a baronet in 1641. He however went over to the republicans, and having been

made a freeman of Yarmouth was returned to Parliament for the borough in 1660 by the

adherents of Cromwell in the corporation, but the election was set aside. Upon the death

of Sir Richard Palgrave at Norwich in 1732, unmarried, the title became extinct.

* We shall have occasion in a future part of this work to give some account of the Cooper

family, and of their descent from and alliances with the Nauntons, Pastons, Bransbys,

Redes, Lovicks, and other families,

1 Palmer’s Addenda: The Rev. Richard Beatniffe Manclarke died at Malvern in 1874,

aged 77.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

169

the parsonage was the scene of great hospitality, especially to literary men.

Lord Chedworth, during his annual visits to Yarmouth, was a frequent

guest. Writing in 1790 he says “I was quite charmed with Dr. Cooper

during my last visit to Yarmouth. He is, as I believe, a thoroughly good-

hearted man.” Dr. Parr was also a frequent guest. Meeting one day Mr.

Robert Bransby Cooper at the table of the Duke of Sussex, the doctor said

to him, “I knew your father well, Sir. “He was one of the most hospitable

of men, and many a time have I visited him at Yarmouth where he almost

kept open house. He thought himself a scholar;—but that he was not.”

This might have been true as compared with the scholarship of Parr;

yet Cooper had been ﬁrst wrangler (the foremost debater) of his year.

Among other distinguished visitors, Dr. Cooper had on one occasion the

honor of entertaining George Canning, who visited Yarmouth with his

uncle, Dr. Leigh. Lord Chedworth was of the party; and although Mr.

Canning had not commenced his political career, he had acquired so high

a literary fame that all were eager to hear him converse. Unfortunately

the discipline of a Hundred-house of Industry* became the uncongenial

subject of conversation, but enough was said by Canning to induce Lord

Chedworth, with more than ordinary enthusiasm, to declare that he was a

wonderful young man.” During the incumbency of Dr. Cooper, his son,

who became so celebrated as Sir Astley Cooper, then a very young man,

was accustomed to pass his vacations at the parsonage, and to take part

in the discussions at his father’s table; saying things of the most irritating

nature, in order to excite the ire (rage) of contending parties. Dr. Cooper

died in 1800, aged 60. The Rev. E. M. Price and the Rev. C. Spurgeon

were “assistants” to Dr. Cooper in 1781.

The next occupant of the Parsonage house was the Rev. Richard Turner,

B.D., of whom we shall have occasion to speak further on. His society

was much courted by literary men; among whom may be mentioned Dr.

Parr, Lord Chedworth, Dr. Watson, Bishop of Landaff,

* Dr. Cooper was a county magistrate, and had taken great interest in establishing the

Heckingham house of Industry; and like other good conversationalists he was inclined

to exact a larger share of attention than was at all times agreeable to his hearers. He

published a book on the Poor Laws.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

Dr. Paley, the Rev. Wm. Leigh, Dean of Hereford (then residing at

Plumpstead), the Rev. Norton Nicholls, * and many others. Crabbe, the

poet, submitted his earliest works to Mr.Turner to whom he was curate at

Swefﬂing in Suffolk), and had always implicit reliance on his judgment,

f On the resignation of Mr. Turner in 1835, the Hon. and Rev. Edward

Pellew was appointed to succeed him. Mr. Pellew was the fourth and

youngest son of Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth, and brother of the

Dean of Norwich. J

* This accomplished scholar was for more than forty years Rector of Lound and Bradwell,

but resided at Blundeston 1 , at a spot remarkable for its beauty, where he was frequently

visited by Gray the poet, whose favorite haunts were long known as “ Gray’s seat” and

“ Gray’s oak.” There, in 1799, Mr. Nicholls entertained Lord Duncan and the ofﬁcers

of the ﬂeet, immediately after the battle of Camperdown; on which occasion the trees

on an island at the extremity of the lake were decorated with variegated lamps, and a

brilliant display of ﬁreworks took place. He died in 1809, aged 67. Blundeston house,

sometime called Sydnors from the ancient proprietors, was subsequently occupied by

Nicholas Bacon, Esq., next brother to Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart.; of whom it was in

1831 purchased by the late Charles Steward, Esq. Page’s Suffolk, p. 306 ; and Gent.

Mag., 1810, part ii., p. 346.

f Crabbe was born at Aldborough in Suffolk (where his father was a custom-house

ofﬁcer), and was intended by his parents for the dissenting ministry, but preferring

surgery he was apprenticed to Mr. Page of Woodbridge, whose daughter married

Alderman Wood, and became the mother of Lord Chancellor Hatherley. Having by his

poetical talents attracted the attention of Burke, he was enabled to study for the church,

and was ordained by Dr. Yonge, Bishop of Norwich, in 1781, and soon afterwards was

appointed by the Rev. Richard Turner to be his curate at Swefﬂing. Although presented

by Lord Chancellor Thurlow with two small livings in Dorsetshire, he did not reside

upon either, nor at Swefﬂing, but successively at Parham and Glemham in Suffolk;

non-residence being too much the practice among the clergy in those days. One week

in every year, while Crabbe held the curacy of Swefﬂing, Mr. Turner paid him a visit;

and this was always a period of peculiar enjoyment to the poet, who fully appreciated

the taste and judgment of his Rector, and was wont on those occasions to submit to him

the productions of his pen. “ He considered his judgment,” says Crabbe’s biographer, “

a sure safeguard and reliance in all cases practical and literary,” “ The Parish Register,”

with some other pieces, were submitted to Fox, and were the last compositions of their

kind that engaged the attention of that great man. In the preface to them, in 1807, Crabbe

acknowledged the obligations he was under to Mr. Turner, “a critic,” says he, “ for

whom every poet should devoutly wish.” Upon his best known poem, “ The Borough,”

Crabbe obtained Mr. Turner’s opinion, which “on the whole was highly favorable,” and

it was published in 1810. Grabbe died at Trowbridge in 1832, aged 77.

t He had been Vicar of Christowe, in Devonshire where the Pellews are seated. He

married in 1826 Marianna, eldest daughter of John “Winthrop, Esq., M.D., by

1 The parishes of Lound and Blundeston are today combined with those of Ashby and

Somerleyton. Bradwell is not too close and is the seat of a different vicar. I wonder

whether Palmer was mistaken on this point.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

171

The living again becoming vacant by resignation in 1844, the Rev.

Henry Mackenzie was appointed. He married Antoinette, daughter of

Sir James Henry Turing, Bart., by Antoinette his wife, daughter of Sir

Alexander Ferrier, K.G.H., British Consul at the Hague.* In 1846 Mr.

Mackenzie resigned the incumbency on being presented to the Vicarage

of St. Martin’s in the Fields, vacated by the Rev. Sir Henry Duckinﬁeld,

Bart. f

The living was next conferred on the Rev. George Hills, who became

the ﬁrst Bishop of British Columbia in 1859, J when the

Mary Horton his wife, daughter of Gamaliel Lloyd, Esq., who was Mayor of Leeds

in 1779. On resigning the incumbency of Yarmouth, Mr. Pellew went to reside at

Bury St. Edmund’s, and died at Crow hall, Mansﬁeld, in 1869, having preached two

sermons on the previous Sunday. The admiral, his father, ﬁlled the ofﬁce of High

Steward of Yarmouth for about a year before his own death. His son and successor,

the second viscount, visited Yarmouth in the same year, and proceeded in his yacht to

St. Petersburgh, being accompanied by his brother, the incumbent.

* Sir J. H. Turing succeeded to the baronetcy in 1832 on the death of Sir Robert Turing,

who for many years resided at the castle of Banff. In 1848 Mr. Mackenzie published,

for private distribution, The Lay of the Turings, a Sketch of Family History. The arms

of Turing are—or. on a bend gu., three boars’ heads of the ﬁrst; and for a crest, a hand

ppr. holding a helmet with the visor up.

f He was the last of his race, although the ﬁrst baronet, who was the eldest son of the

celebrated colonel in the Parliamentary army, was the father of twenty-four children,

of whom nine were sons. Mr. Mackenzie resigned the Vicarage, of

St. Martin’s on being presented to the Rectory of Tydd St. Mary in

Lincolnshire, which he exchanged for that of South Collingham, in

Nottinghamshire, and the Sub-Deanery of Lincoln. In 1858 he was

made Prebendary of Leighton Ecclesia in Lincoln cathedral, being

the same stall which had been held by the celebrated George Herbert,

and in 1869 he was consecrated Bishop Suffragan of Nottingham,

being the ﬁrst after the lapse of two hundred years, that order having

been created by the 26 Henry VIII., c. 14, and revived by the I of

Elizabeth, which remains unrepealed.

x The colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver’s Island were constituted a bishop’s

see on the 12th January, 1859. Dr. Hills is the eldest son of Rear-Admiral Hills of Ashen

hall, Essex (by Diana his wife, third daughter of Thos. Hammersley, Esq., of Pall Mall),

172

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

Rev. Henry Ralph Nevill, the present vicar was appointed. He is an

Honorary Canon of Norwich cathedral. *

At the south-west corner of Priory row is a house vested in the corporation,

and appropriated as a residence for the parish clerk, the municipal body

having had, since the reformation, the right of appointing to that ofﬁce,

which, was formerly usually ﬁlled by someone who had previously been

a member of the corporation, f Until 1827 the

son of Lieut. William Hills, R.N., of Buckland, 1 Kent, who

perished when in command of the Mutine, and grandson of

Admiral John Barker, and nephew of Capt. John Hills, R.N.,

who died at Jamaica, while commanding the H ermione, in

1794. The arms of Hills are arg., a chev. between three martlets

sa.; and the arms assumed for the see of British Columbia are

arg., a St. Cuthbert’s cross gu., in chief quarterly 1st and 4th a

stag’s head erased within a bordure embattled gu. (for Coutts),

and 2nd and 3rd or., three bars az. (for Burdett), the arms in

chief being introduced in honour of the founder of the bishopric,

Miss Burdett Coutts. There is something appropriate, remarks

Bishop Hills, “in the connection of the cross with the head and

antlers of the noblest of the wild animals which abound in the

hunting grounds of the North American Indians, to whom the

Gospel was sent.” * The principal emoluments of the living

arise from the offerings of the parishioners, which anciently

were collected at Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and the Feast

of the Dedication; but by the 2 and 3 Ed. VI., c. 13, all were to be paid at Easter only ;

and in the 16th and 17th centuries the constables went round to collect 2d. from every

person who had not made an offering. It was formerly the custom for the minister to sit

in the vestry daily during Easter week, “in his canonicals,” for the purpose of receiving

the offerings of the parishioners 2 . Since the removal of the vestry, already mentioned,

the minister has sat in the Parsonage house for the purpose.

The ancient decorations mentioned at p. 44 as having been recently discovered in St.

Nicholas’ church, have been faithfully lithographed in colour by Kell Brothers, London,

for the Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and it is by their kind

permission that the plate is allowed to appear in this work.

f John Holden, a common councilman, was appointed in 1719; John Nash, a common

councilman, in 1760, and resigned in 1785, being then 87 years of age, and on account

of his inﬁrmities he was allowed to occupy the clerk’s house for the remainder of his

life. He was succeeded by Richard Pitt, son of Thomas Pitt, Esq., who had been mayor.

When Richard Miller, an alderman, was appointed he resigned his gown. David Absolon,

a common councilman, was elected in 1811. The parish clerk had apartments in the old

guildhall until it was demolished in 1717.

1 Buckland, is a suburb of Dover, where Wiggins Teape had a large paper mill in the

1950’s, 60’s., once powered by the water from the river Dower.

2 Palmer’s Addenda: Easter offerings- In 1611 the constables were sent round to

collect 2d from every communicant for their Easter offering. In 1643 the parish

clerk was ordered to perform this duty. In 1663 the incumbent endeavoured to take

advantage of the times by raising the Easter offering to 4d, but the corporation ruled

that there was no need for the alteration. Assembly Books.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

173

corporation paid an annual salary to the parish cleric; but in that year great

reductions were made in consequence of the debt incurred in opposing

the Lowestoft Navigation Bill, and it was then abolished.

Adjoining and to the south of the east end of the Priory hall is a new

building, erected in 1853, for the purposes of a Parochial library, Reading

room, and Museum. *

Between the precincts of the Priory and the Fisherman’s hospital is an

open place called Priory Plain. Here it has been customary every Saturday

to hold a market for the sale of cattle and live stock, and hence it has

been vulgarly called Hog Hill. The upper, or eastern part, was formerly

called Pudding Yard; and on the north side, adjoining the boundary wall

of the priory, there were some wretched alms houses now demolished.

Formerly, adjoining the plain on the north side, there was a public house

called the Maid’s Head, f It was subsequently called the Neptune, and was

purchased in 1757 by Mr. William Browne of William Fodder, maltster.

There is now only a small beer shop called the Pig and Whistle. t

* From a design of Mr. J. H. Hakewill, by whom the Priory hall was restored. Many

of the objects of interest in this museum were duplicates sent from the United Service

collection, through the inﬂuence of W. Stirling Lacon, Esq,

f The Maid’s Head or the Maidenhead is an old sign. The family of Parr assumed as a

badge a maiden’s head couped below the breasts, vested in ermine and gold, the hair

and temples encircled with a wreath of red and white roses. Queen Catherine Parr used

this device, issuing out of a Tudor rose. An heraldic maid’s head was the crest of Parr,

Lord Northampton, who was sent to Norwich to suppress the rebellion under Kett. His

success made him popular, and it is probable that the large and once fashionable hotel

at Norwich, the Maid’s Head, 1 took his crest as a sign.

X Pig and Wassail— the latter being the name of the bowl used at drinking bouts.

Some persons claim for this sign a Danish origin, and contend that it is derived from

P ige-washail— our lady’s salutation; but piga, in Anglo-Saxon, means a girl (hence

Peggy, a little girl), so that more probably it really means the sailor’s favorite toast of

“ a lass and a glass.” “Pigs may whistle,” says an old Scotch proverb, “but they hae

an ill mouth for it;” applied to any one attempting to do that for which nature has not

adapted him. “Please the pigs,” says Southey, is merely a corruption of “please the

pigs,” a silver vessel, the holiest of utensils in the Roman Catholic church, or another

way of saying D.V.

1 Evidently the Maids Head in Norwich was run down in the 1870’s. If so it is much

improved and revived, since in the period 1980-2007 it has been an excellent hotel,

to be recommended.

174

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

In the house now occupied by Mr. O. S. D. Steward on Priory plain,

General Garth resided in 1794.

The adjoining house to the east was long the residence of Mr. John Freame

Ranney, solicitor, clerk to the magistrates for the Hundred of East Flegg, *

who died in 1844, aged 67. He left a valuable collection of engravings,

f He married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. W. Roberts of Earl’s Colne,

by Sarah his wife (born Clarke), widow of William Jacobson, by whom

she was the mother of the present Bishop of Chester. Mrs. Ranney died

in 1851; her sisters, Elizabeth and Susannah, resided in Southtown, and

died unmarried at the respective ages of 89 and 90.

William Roberts was Steward of the Corporation in 1560 . J Margaret,

his sister and sole heir, married Simon Smyth of Winston in Norfolk,

grandson of Sir Thurston Smyth of Cratﬁeld in Suffolk, who married

Willoughby, daughter of Edward Brews, fourth son of Sir John de Brews

of Wenham in Suffolk. Mr. Roberts held the Manor of Burgh Castle and

considerable estates in Norfolk and Suffolk, which by the above marriage

passed to the Smyths, and were enjoyed by William Roberts Smyth, the

grand nephew of William Roberts. Smyth bore barry, wavy of eight, arg.

and az. on a chief gu., three barnacles or. Brews bore erm., a lion ramp.

gu. Sir Owen Smyth was Lord of tbe Manor of Burgh Castle in 1630;

and in 1652 it was in the hands of

* This Hundred comprises the parishes of Caister, Mautby, Runham, Stokesby with

Herringby, Filby, Thrigby, Scratby, and Ormesby, containing upwards of 13,000 acres,

the magistrates for which division hold their petty sessions at Yarmouth. The annexed

engraving of the Seal of the Hundred is taken from the brass matrix, which was in the

possession of the late W. M. Fellows, Esq., of Ormesby.

f Ra nny is a local name for a ﬁeld mouse— mus araneus. In Mr. Ranney’s ofﬁce his

wife’s nephew, Mr. Henry Roberts, commenced his legal education. In 1836 he was

called to the bar, and in 1840 was appointed Chairman of Quarter Sessions and Chief

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas at Jamaica; and a Commissioner of Education

for that island in 1845. He resigned these appointments in. 1853, and in the same year

became private secretary to the Duke of Newcastle. In 1854, during the the Crimean

campaign, be was appointed Under Secretary of State for War. He resigned in 1855, and

was appointed a Commissioner of Inland Revenue. The arms long used by his family

are the same as those borne by the ancient family of Roberts of Cornwall— az. three

estoyles and a chief wavy or. See Fuller’s Worthies, i., p. 225,

j Filling the same position as recorder, which ofﬁce was not created till 1608.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

175

General Fleetwood and Bridget his wife, daughter of General Ireton,

and granddaughter of the Lord Protector. M. , pp. 202, 239, 423 ; P. C ,

p. 337. Page’s Suffolk, p. 220.

On the east side of Priory plain the Primitive Methodists have erected a

large meeting house with schools adjoining (the “Temple”, demolished

1971).

Row, No. 10. This row, leading from George Street to Church Plain, is

named North Row in Armstrong’s map. It was called Horn Row * at a very

early period, and is probably one of the oldest rows in the town, as it runs

behind the houses erected on the south side of Fuller’s Hill, east of George

Street. Several very old houses still remain in it. At the north-east corner

is a house having its gable end towards Church Plain, formerly a common

arrangement, of which there are now very few examples remaining in

Yarmouth. On the south side were houses belonging to the Hospital of

the Blessed Virgin. On the same side, extending into the next row, there

was in the last century a chandlery established in 1760 by John Brown,

tallow chandler, who died in 1800, aged 68. He devised the property

to his nephew, John Brown, who placed a tablet to his uncle’s memory

upon a pillar in the nave of St. Nicholas’ church, where it still remains;

and upon it is the representation of a candle, covered by an extinguisher,

with the words “Death extinguishes all.” f

Row, No. 11, from St. Andrew’s Church to George Street, called

North Garden Row, because it adjoined an extensive garden which had

probably belonged to the Carmelites, but which afterwards came into

the possession of the churchwardens, on behalf of the Parish church. On

the north side of this row were several alms houses which, in 1842, were

sold by the Guardians of the Poor, with the approbation of the Poor Law

Board. There is an old house still standing in it.

* Probably named from a tavern so called. A horn was used anciently as a receptacle of

“the ﬂowing mead,” and was provided with feet, so that emptying it at a single draught

was not an act of necessity. See Strong’s Frithiofs Saga, p. 81, Drinking horns are still

used in the harvest ﬁeld.

t John Brown, jun., married Miss Richmond of Lowestoft in 1790.

176

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

Row, No. 12, from George Street to

Church Plain; called George and Dragon

Row from the sign of a public house at the

north-east corner. * On the south side are

some very old houses overhanging the row,

and exhibiting in front a good specimen of

“herring-bone work,” of which there are,

according to Hart, but two other examples

to be found in Norfolk. This row is in part

only 3 feet 4 inches wide.

* As St. George was the patron saint of England, this was one of our most ancient and

popular signs, and is probably to be found in every old town in the kingdom. The

following epigram was written by a Norfolk man some centuries since-

“ To save a maid, St. George the Dragon slew,

“ A pretty tale, if all that’s told be true ;

“ Some say there was no dragon; and ’tis said

“ There was no knight,—Let’s hope there was a maid.”

According to an old ballad this dragon did on

“ every day, “ Untimely crop some virgin ﬂower,

“ Till all the maids were worn away,

“ And none were left him to devour,

“ Saving the king’s fair daughter bright,

“ Her father’s only heart’s delight.”

One of a later date, gives this lament:—

“ As I went past the Dragon bar,

“ I heard the housemaid, Susan Farr,

“ Behind the taproom sighing ;

“ Oh me ! I lead a weary life,

“ With all this noise and drunken strife,

“ Men singing, romping, lying ;

“ This is no place for me; I pine

“ Midst pewter pot and ﬂagon ;

“I should be better, I should shine

“ As maid beneath the Angel sign,

“ Instead of George and Dragon.”

Francisci Costeri by S. Baring Gould. The Turks (who pay great respect to St. George,

under the name of Cheter Eliuz), point out a well in the territory of the Druses, near

to which they state that our saint slew the dragon which was hastening to devour the

daughter of the King of Beyrout. One of the earliest records of this famous achievement

is contained in a

GREAT YARMOUTH.

177

Row, No. 13 , from North Quay to George Street, called South Garden

Row, because it adjoined the garden already mentioned, whieh in the

early part of the last century was in the occupation of Robert Ward, Esq.,

from whom it passed to John Lacon, Esq., who erected a malthouse upon

it, and this row was then called Lacon’s Row. On the south side there

was an open space long known as The Green Yard,. There were several

old houses in this row inhabited by families named Abbot, Edridge, and

T HIRKETTLE . The last is a Danish name, spelt also Thirkle and Thurketel.

A general, named Turketel, employed by Canute, expelled the English

Earl Ulfketel; and, among other possessions, obtained the keeping of the

camp at Caistor near Norwich, a part of which he gave to the Monastery

of St. Bennet at Holme, and by an exchange the whole became vested

in the Abbot of Bury St. Edmund’s. Robert Thurkyld of Yarmouth was,

in 1242, appointed captain of one of the king’s ships, sworn before the

privy council, and sent to convey troops to the king then in Gascony. He

held a messuage and a marsh at Thurton, which passed to the Prior of

Yarmouth. Thomas Thurkyld was bailiff in 1269, and William Thurkyld

in 1316; and he also represented the borough in the ﬁrst Parliament of

Edward III. Francis Thirkle was clerk of the assembly in the 16th century.

Francis, his son, called Thirkettle, married in 1675 Martha, daughter

of Richard Brightin, and by her, who died in 1721, aged 67, had a son,

Robert Thirkettle, who married in 1712 Mary Anne Black, and by her,

who died in 1737, aged 42, he had a son, Brightin Thirkettle, who married

in 1742 Margaret Sayer, and a daughter, Mary, who married Samuel

Tolver, and died in 1752, aged 37. Henry Thirkettle of Yarmouth voted

at the Norfolk election in 1714 for

very ancient composition, entitled Horae Beatae Virginis secundum usum Sarum,

which was sung in Salisbury cathedral till the Reformation of Missals and Breviaries

by Pope Clement VII. Tradition says that St. George was born Lydda in “the land of

the Philistines,” and there Richard Coeur de Lion built a, noble church to his honor,

the ruins of which now form the chief attraction of Ludd. The walls and part of the

groined roof of the chancel, says a modern writer, still remain, and also one lofty-pointed

arch, with its massive-clustered columns and white marble capitals, rich in carving

and fretwork. Porter’s Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 188. The present Master of the Mint

has re-introduced upon the reverse of a new coinage of sovereigns the device of St.

George; for in his character as Chancellor of the Exchequer he has to face the dragon

of increased expenditure brought forth by the demon of war.

178

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

Sir Ralph Hare and Erasmus Earle. * Robert Thirkettle of Flegg Burgh

married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Tolver, by Martha Dalling his

wife; and Elizabeth, their daughter, who died in 1805, aged 57, married

William Palgrave, Esq. The family is now extinct.

At a house next but one to the south-west corner resided for many

years Mr. L ILLY W IGG . For upwards of half a century he was engaged

in the continual investigation of the plants peculiar to this district. The

Fucus discovered by and named after him forms, says Paget, one of

the greatest gems in the Herbarium. He was born on Christmas day,

1749, at Smallburgh in Norfolk, where his father was a shoemaker.

Endowed by nature with more than ordinary talents he despised this

humble occupation, and having migrated to Yarmouth, opened a school

in Fighting-Cock Row. His fondness for botany and his eager pursuit

of its study, attracted the attention of Mr. Dawson Turner, who in 1801

enabled him to exchange the drudgery of a school for a clerkship in the

Bank of Gurneys and Turner, which situation he held till the close of his

life. Occupied all day long at the bank, he nevertheless contrived by great

perseverance to acquire a competent knowledge of the Latin language;

and also made himself acquainted in some degree with French and

Greek. In the higher branches of arithmetic he was well skilled; and his

handwriting was of extreme beauty and neatness. He became acquainted

with Dr. Aikin, the Hon. T. Wenman, Mr. Woodward, Sir James Smith,

the Rev. Norton Nicholls, and other residents and visitors who liked the

man and took an interest in his pursuits. Wigg was an ardent student of

natural history, and bestowed great attention upon the birds and ﬁshes

of this neighbourhood. He was for many years a Fellow of the Linnean

Society. He collected materials for a history of esculent plants, which he

never published; and left behind him a large accumulation of valuable

notes on botany

* As we shall have frequent occasion to refer to this election as a test of political

feeling, it may lie here stated that the candidates were Sir Jacob Astley, Bart., of Melton

Constable, and Thomas de Grey, Esq., of Merton, who supported the “principles of

the glorious revolution of 1688” and the Hanoverian succession; being opposed by Sir

Ralph Hare, Bart., of Stow Bardolf, and Erasmus Earle, Esq., of Heydon, who stood

forward for the old royalists and the adherents of the House of Stuart. The two former

were returned.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

179

and natural history, which are lost to the world. In politics he was a

republican, and in religion a baptist; but for more than thirty years he

never entered a place of worship. He died in 1828, aged 79.

Row, No. 14 and No. 15, lead from George Street to Church Plain.

Between them stood a meeting house belonging to the Particular or

Calvinistical Baptists, who established themselves in this part of the town

in the eighteenth century. At ﬁrst they hired a house in which to assemble

for divine worship, and they appear to have possessed no property until

1783, when William Jolly by his will gave them two houses, one of which

abutted upon George street (then called Middlegate street), which in

1697 had been the property of William Lovell;* and they subsequently

obtained other houses in the same locality, which enabled them to erect

a meeting house, the trusts of which were declared by a deed enrolled

in 1789. f This chapel was dismantled in 1870, and the site added to the

adjoining brewery.

Row, No. 16, which led from George Street to Church Plain, was

absorbed by the adjacent brewery.

Row, No. 17, from North Quay to George Street. The open space

between this row and the next (No. 18), is called Say’s Corner; and this

row is called North Say’s Corner Row. The dwelling house at the north-

west corner, fronting the quay (an old house faced with white brick)

was, in the 17th century, the residence of Brightin Wakeman, Esq., and

in the latter part of the last and beginning of the present century it was

the property and residence of T HOMAS G IRDLESTON E, Esq., an eminent

physician. He was born at Holt in Norfolk in 1758, and entering the army

in a medical capacity, served for some time under the command

* A William Lovell was one of the Cinque-port bailiffs in 1658. Thomas Lovell, named

in the charter of Charles II, ﬁlled the ofﬁce of mayor in l692, and died on the 28th of

March,1699, aged 61, ‘that same day’ as his epitaph in the churchyard informed us.

f Mr. Jabez Brown was Minister of the New Baptist Meeting house in 1781. He drew

up a Declaration of Faith and Practice, which was published by his successor, Mr. Ed.

Goymour, in 1806. From the latter this “building was long called Goymour’s meeting.

The Rev. W. W. Home, another minister, published The Faith of the Gospel vindicated,

being the substance of two sermons preached at the Baptist meeting.

180

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

of Colonel the Hon. Sir Charles Stuart, Governor of Minorca, K.B.

(fourth son of the Earl of Bute, who died in 1801), to whose friendship he

attributed his success in life. After passing some years with the army in

India he settled in Yarmouth, where he succeeded Dr. Aikin, and practised

with great success for thirty-seven years. His experience of the efﬁcacy

of calomel in the east, led to his rather profuse use of it in this country.

He was the beau ideal of the physician of the last century. Tall, slender,

and upright, scrupulously dressed in black with silk stockings and half

gaiters, a white cravat, an ample shirt frill, powdered head and pigtail 1 , he

might be seen daily perambulating the town with his gold-headed cane.

He was the author of several medical works, and contributed largely to the

professional journals. He also wrote an essay to prove that General Lee

was the author of Junius; and published several views of ancient buildings,

including the Church of St. Peter in Wolverhampton, Dudley Castle, and

the Abbeys of Lilleshall, Haughmond, and Buildwas in Shropshire, with

short descriptions appended to each. His residence in Yarmouth led him

to compare the translation of Anacreon by the Rev. Mr. Urquhart, then

residing at Hobland hall, with the original; and in 1803 Dr. Girdlestone

published his own translation of those odes, which he dedicated to Charles

Stuart,. Esq., and Capt. John Stuart, E.N., sons of his former patron,

after having “ kept it from the press nearly eleven years.”* In 1805 Dr.

Girdlestone published an address to the inhabitants, strongly urging the

advantages of vaccination, and rebutting all the arguments then brought

against it, which latter after a lapse of more than sixty years have been

revived 2 . A cast was taken from his head aftor his death, which occurred

very suddenly in 1822, caused by aneurism of the heart. While walking

on the quay he was observed to stagger and fall; and his body was taken

into the nearest house (No. 2), but life was extinct. He bore gu, a cross

engrailed org. He possessed a good library, principally of medical

* Dr. Girdlestone concludes the preface to his translation of Anacreon with the following

“words of wisdom:— If the duration of pleasure he the wish of the Epicurean, how

can that wish be so certainly attained as by preserving the integrity of his mind and the

duration of his health, by that forbearance which moderates his immediate pleasure?

The practical physician has many more opportunities than the theologian of seeing the

miserable effects of an ill-spent life.”

1 When I started in General Practice in Yarmouth in 1997, it was still de rigour for the

GP to wear a suit and tie. The patient also would be in “Sunday best” or as I would

have said, “dolled up to the nines”. In 2006, everyone is casual, even scruffy when

they attend.

2 Vaccination against smallpox eventually eradicated the disease worldwide, so

that by about 1976, vaccination (with vaccinia , or a modiﬁed cowpox virus)was

unnecessary.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

181

works, which was sold by auction soon after his

decease. By his marriage with the widow of the Rev.

John Close, and daughter of Robert Lawton, Esq.,

of Ipswich* (who died in 1817), he had an only son,

Charles Stuart Girdlestone, an ardent ornithologist,

who formed a large collection of birds, principally

shot by his own gun in the neighbourhood of

Yarmouth. He died in 1831, aged 33, unmarried.

The doctor had also an only daughter (who became his sole heir), Emma

Grace, who married John Baker, Esq., who ﬁlled the ofﬁce of mayor in

1832, and also resided for a time at the above house. She died at Brighton

in 1867, without issue. John Close, son of the Rev. John Close, died at

Yarmouth, in 1821. The grandmother of Mrs. Girdlestone was a Blois,

and she and many of her family, were buried at Wangford 1 . Miss Anna

Lawton, a sister of Mrs. Girdlestone, died at Yarmouth in 1839, aged

73.

In this house afterwards resided the Rev. John Thomas Davies, for a few

years “the excellent and exemplary” curate of the Rev. Richard Turner,

“who whilst living was much esteemed, and when dead was greatly

lamented,” as his epitaph in St. Nicholas’ church informs us. He died

19th Feb. 1827, aged 29, and his remains were followed to the grave by a

large concourse of people. f He was of St. Mary’s hall, Oxford, M. A.

Row, No. 17, from Say’s Corner to George Street. To the south is an old

half-timbered house.

* Lawton “bore arg. on a fess betw. three cross crossleta ﬁtchee, sa, as many cinquefoils

of the ﬁeld.

f “ My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart,” (J OB

xvii. 11) was the text of his funeral sermon.

t How this name was acquired does not appear; probably from some family who

had property near. Robert Say, eldest son of Robert Say of

Downham, and an Alderman of King’s Lynn, died in 1723, aged

36. “Being newly appointed,” says his very singular epitaph

in St. Nicholas’ chapel, Lynn,

“ one of the Receivers for this County

“—O ! unfortunate advancement!—receiving his ﬁrst tax in his

very ﬁrst round at Yarmouth, where then raged a contagious

fever—he, alas!—also received the infection, and being scarce

returned home ended the last round of his life, and the ﬁrst round of his collection

together, and himself paid

“ nature’s last debt, lamented by all” He bore gu., a fess.