Pages from Volume One, Palmer's Perlustration, Chapter 5- Rows 53-63 UNPDF

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pretence of purchasing goods, and while being served these villains

struck her a fatal blow on the head, robbed the till, and made their escape

by running up the opposite row. For this crime three men named Royal,

Hall, and Mapes were tried and acquitted; but Samuel Yarham 1 , who

had been the principal witness against them, was himself subsequently

convicted of this crime and hanged at Norwich in 1845. The cost of these

prosecutions was £542, 8s. 6d.

Row, No. 53, from the Quay to Howard Street, called Bank Paved

Row and Turner’s Row. At the north-west corner is a house depicted in

Butcher’s View as having a cut-ﬂint front similar to that of the Duke’s

Head, to which it adjoins. It was in the last century the property of

John Gillain, and in 1807 was purchased for the use of a Gentleman’s

Club. The old front was then removed and a modern one of white brick

erected and brought out close to the pavement. This building was for

many years called The Coffee Rooms, although in fact no coffee was ever

drank there; * 2 but subsequently the Subscription Rooms. The number of

members was limited to 90, elected by ballot; and admission, was sought

for and difﬁcult of attainment. In time, however, the number of members

fell off, and in 1840 the club was dissolved. From that time until 1871

the premises were occupied by government as a Post Ofﬁce.

At the south-west corner, fronting the Quay and extending to Row. No.

55, is the bank of Messrs. Gurney and Co. This building was erected in

1854 from a design by Salvia. In the 17th century the site was occupied

by an Elizabethan house, which is depicted in Corbridge’s Map. It had

a large porch with a room over it; and was enclosed by high wooden

palisades. f Early in the last century this old house was in the possession

of Joshua Smith, Esq., son of John Smith of Great

* Following the old name used in London, where clubs were originally formed at

coffee-houses. The ﬁrst coffee-house in London was opened about the year 1652.

“After dinner I went to the coffee-house,” says Dean Davies in 1690, and there are

several similar entries in his diary. Sylas Neville also mentions going to the Yarmouth

coffee-house “ to hear the news.”

f Some remains of the original building were discovered when the present house was

erected, particularly a very ﬁne Elizabethan window of sixteen lights in a frame of

oak, the woodwork of the central division being richly carved. There is a drawing of

it by Winter.

1 In 1986 ther was practising in Yarmouth, a Dr Yarham, descended of this family. see

Revised History of Yarmouth.

2 This prompts me to note that in 1998 when there was passed a bylaw that prohibited

the drinking of alcoholic drinks in the park and in public places, it was noticeable that

the well known alcoholics and drug addicts suddenly sported branded bottles of soft

drinks, which if tested would have undoubtedly contained the banned substance, but

no police or ofﬁcial was seen to make a challenge.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

Yarmouth, and grandson of Thomas Smith of Runton in Norfolk. John

Smith is said to have “raised a great estate by the exportation of malt to

Holland,” and in 1710 he purchased the Lordship of Thrigby in Norfolk

of Robert Castell, Esq.* In 1722 Joshua Smith had a grant of arms to be

used by all the descendants of John Smith: gu., on a chev. org., between

three handfuls of barley each containing ﬁve ears or., as many bees prop.

Crest—an eagle regardant, wings elevated prop., beaked and membered,

and crowned with a naval, crown, and reposing his dexter foot upon a

quadrant or, the string and plummets az . This coat is an example of what

may be called “wild heraldry.” It appears on his tomb in St. Nicholas’

church. He married Judith, daughter of Richard Ferrier, Esq., and upon

coming to the town in 1726 for the ﬁrst time after his marriage, “the

inhabitants made great preparations to receive him with marks of the

utmost honor and respect. A great many ﬂags and banners were set out

along the quay from the bridge to the south gate; the ships in the river

had all their colours out the whole day, and their guns charged to salute

him; and a great many of the inhabitants and other gentlemen went out

to meet him. Between 7 and 8 o’clock in the evening they entered the

town, the cavalcade consisting of about 300 horse, which marched two

and two in good order along the quay from the bridge to Major Ferrier’s

house; after the horse followed a considerable number of chaises and

chariots, and his own closed the procession which was very ﬁne and

gave great satisfaction to several thousands of spectators which were

assembled to behold it; and the ringing of bells, ﬁring of guns, and the

loud acclamations of the people sufﬁciently demonstrated, what great

and just esteem and respect they had for so generous and worthy a

gentleman.” f — Norwich Mercury.

* Blomeﬁeld, vol. xi. p. 253. Joshua Smith was lord in 1740.

f The issue of this marriage was one son and two daughters. Joshua, the son, died in

1754, unmarried, and was buried at Thrigby. Judith, the eldest daughter, died unmarried

in 1804 ; and Elizabeth, the other daughter, married Peter Baret, of Itteringham and

Horstead in Norfolk, and died in 1808, leaving an only child Lydia, who died unmarried

in 1845, Among the possessions of this latter lady was Burgh Castle in Suffolk, the

GARIANIONUM of the Romans, one of the most perfect specimens of a Roman Camp

in the kingdom. After Miss Baret’s decease it was purchased of her devisees by Sir

John Peter Boileau, Bart., of Ketteringham in Norfolk.

Mr. Richard Ferrier, of the Manor House, Boughton, Cheshire, has a small

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The old house above mentioned, belonging to Joshua Smith, was pulled

down in the last century, and a loftier and more stately one erected by

Thomas Adkin, Esq., a man of property, who for many years was in the

Commission of the Peace for Norfolk. He died in 1794, aged 77. It was

then purchased by Messrs. Gurney and Co., * who converted the whole

of the ground ﬂoor, fronting the quay, to the purposes of their business

as bankers, f A central door in front opened into the apartment in which

to the right was the counter, and behind were the desks of the clerks.

An inner door on the left communicated with the “sweating room.” The

former apartment was lined with ﬁre buckets; and ﬁrearms were placed

over the chimney piece in the latter.

The ﬁrst regular bank at Norwich was opened by the Messrs. Gurney 1

exactly a century since, and was one of the ﬁrst established in the kingdom.

Subsequently (in 1780) they opened a branch bank at. Yarmouth; and

James Turner, Esq., the second son of the Rev. Francis Turner, was

admitted a partner. The business was conducted in an old house on the

quay opposite the crane, now taken down and a modern house (No. 24)

erected on the site . t On the death of Mr.

silver-gilt mace, which had been in the possession of Joshua Smith, and is said to have

been originally used as a symbol of manorial authority. From him it descended to his

granddaughter, Lydia Baret, from whom it came to the Ferriers. Judith Smith, the

daughter of Major Ferrier, died in 1779, and was buried at Thrigby.

* Mention has been made of the Gurney family, ante, p. 91.

f There is a drawing of this, house by Winter as it then appeared.

X In the last year of the last century, as we learn from the journal of Mrs. Trench, the

mother of the present Archbishop of Dublin, Mr. Hudson Gurney, afterwards, for many

years, a member of the House of Commons, and distinguished for his great ability,

and the patronage which his large fortune enabled him to extend to literary men, was

ﬁlling a subordinate position in the Yarmouth bank. Mrs. Trench, then Mrs. St. George,

alike distinguished, by her wit and beauty, brought an introductory letter to the bankers

in which she was merely described as a person “ travelling alone for her health” who

might require their assistance, as she was on her way to the Continent. The seniors in

the bank, supposing the traveller to be some decrepit old lady, “told off” Mr. Hudson

Gurney, then a young man of two-and-twenty, to do the honors. The expression of his

surprise at beholding so fascinating a creature “was conceived,” says the lady, “ in a very

good strain of ﬂattery”. She thus describes him. “He understands several languages,

seems to delight in books, and to be uncommonly well in

1 Palmer’s Addenda: Messrs. Gurney - The founders of the Norwich Bank were John

and Henry Gurney, sons of John Gurney, they commenced business in 1775 in Pitt

Street, and thence went to Magdalen Street, ﬁnally in 1779 to Bank Plain, when the

business was transferred to Bartlett Gurney (son of Henry Gurney) with his Uncle,

John Gurney. The former dying in 1803, the business was transferrred to his cousins,

Richard and Joseph Gurney. John Gurney resided at Earlham Hall, Richard Gurney

at Keswick, and Joseph Gurney at Lakenham. Subsequent changes occurred and

Hudson Gurney, Richard Hanbury Gurney, James John Gurney, and Henry Birbeck

and Simon Martin became from time to time, partners. The present ﬁrm consists of

Gurneys, Birbeck, Barclay, Orde and Buxtons. See RRH, Vol 4, 19 Hall Quay.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

James Turner, his son the late Mr. Dawson Turner became the resident

partner, and the business having been removed to the present site, the

whole of the upper part of this spacious house was occupied by him as

a residence.

The T URNERS of Yarmouth * trace their descent from a family of that

name who were franklins or small landowners at Keningham, a village

in Norfolk, now united with Mulbarton. f

Francis Turner, who was bred to the law, settled in Yarmouth, where he

married Martha, the daughter of Thomas Godfrey, the town clerk, by

Elizabeth his wife, one of the daughters and coheirs of Major Wilde of

Lowestoft. Godfrey dying in 1704, John Carlow was appointed to succeed

him as town clerk, and the latter dying in 1710 Mr. Francis Turner was

elected to that ofﬁce, and he became the founder of a highly-distinguished

family. t He died in 1719 at the

“formed.” She adds, “ I have been detained here since last Friday waiting for a fair

wind; and my imprisonment would have been comfortless enough had it not been for

his attentions. He lies already devoted to me one evening and two mornings, assisted

me in money matters, lent me books, and enlivened my conﬁnement to a wretched Inn

by his pleasant conversation.” Mr. Hudson Gurney is said to have made his escape

from Paris at the time of the French Revolution, in a singular manner. General John

Money, the then possessor of the Crown Point estate at Norwich, happening to be in

France at the period alluded to, was in a position to demand a passport to England for

himself and servant. Dismissing his French valet, the General permitted Mr. Gurney

to assume for a time the place of an attendant, and by this means Mr. Gurney escaped

the detention which many of his countrymen had to suffer. General John Money was

the son of William Money, of Witchingham, who purchased the Trowse estate, and

died in 1772. It was named Crown Point because the General was at the capture of the

township so called on Lake Champlain.

* The arms borne by this family sre set,., a chev. erm. between 3 milronds or. On a

chief arg., a lion passant gu ., and for a crest a lion pass, gu., holding in his dexter pa,w

a milrond or. ; being, with a slight difference in the crest, the same arms as those borne

by the Turners of Warham.

f The Manor of Keningham was. in the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk until Queen

Elizabeth’s time, when it was sold to Sir Thomas Gresham, and joined to Mulbarton,

“though the demeans were sold again by Sir Thomas in 1570, to Mr. Turner, and still

continue in that family,” says Blomeﬁeld (vol. v. p. 74), writing in 1736; as they do, it

may be added, to this day.

t There had previously been a family of this name in Yarmouth, of whom was the Rev.

John Turner, who died in 1399, and lies buried in St. Nicholas’ church, under

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305

early age of 38, leaving a son the Rev. Francis Turner, who by Sarah his

wife, daughter of James Dawson, was the father of four sons—Francis

a surgeon, Joseph who became Dean of Norwich, Richard who became

minister of the parish (all of whom we shall hereafter have occasion to

mention), and James who married Elizabeth, daughter of John Cotman,

Esq., and was, as we have seen, admitted a partner into the house of

Messrs. Gurney and Co. when they established a bank at Yarmouth, and

he became the resident manager. He ﬁlled the ofﬁce of mayor in 1779,

and died in 1794, aged 50, leaving a widow who survived until 1819,

when she died, aged 76. Two sons were the issue of the above marriage,

namely D AWSON T URNER , Esq., who succeeded his father as managing

partner in the business of the bank, and resided for many years in the

house above mentioned, and James Turner, Esq., who married a daughter

of James Sayers, Esq., and died in 1820, leaving an only son James

Sayers Turner, who died in 1837. Dawson Turner was born in 1775,

somewhat prematurely, at No. 40, Middlegate Street, while his mother

was paying; a visit at the house of her husband’s uncle. He received the

earliest rudiments of education at the North Walsham Grammar School,

then conducted by the Rev. Joseph Hepworth, whence he was removed

to Barton, and placed under the private tuition of the Rev. Robert Forby. *

In 1793 he was entered at Pembroke College, Cambridge, of which

his uncle, the Rev. Joseph Turner, Dean of Norwich, was master; but

in consequence of the death of his father in the following year, he was

compelled to leave the University

a slab, bearing tbis shield of arms. John Turner, of Yarmouth, in 1714, voted at the

Norfolk election for Sir Ralph Hare and Erasmus Earle, in respect of freehold property

in Yarmouth.

* This eminent scholar, a Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, was born at Stoke Ferry,

Norfolk, and educated under the Rev. Dr. Lloyd, at the Free School, Lynn. Having

resigned his fellowship to undertake the education of the sons of Sir John Berney, he

received from that baronet the living of Horningtoft in Norfolk, and died Rector of

Fincham, Norfolk, in 1825. In 1830 was published his Vocabulary of East Anglia,

which, says the title page, was “an attempt to record the vulgar tongue of the twin-sister

counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.” His portrait is engraved by Mrs. Turner.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

(where he subsequently took the degree of M.A.) and apply himself

to the less congenial occupation of banking. The charms of literature

were, however, irresistible, and during a long life Mr. Turner devoted

every minute that could be spared from business, with insatiable ardour,

to the pursuit of his favorite studies, among which the ﬁrst was botany.

In 1797 he was elected Fellow of the Linnaean Society; in 1802 he

published A Synopsis of the British Fuci; in 1804 Muscologies Hibernicae

Spicilegiun; in 1805 the Botanist’s Guide through England and Wales,

and in 1808 Historia Fucorum, a splendid work in four quarto volumes,

with coloured plates. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in

1802, of the Society of Antiquaries in 1803, of the Dublin Society and

Eoyal Irish Academy in 1804, and of the Royal Society of Literature

in 1824. The foreign literary honors conferred upon Mr. Turner were

extremely numerous. In 1820 he published his Tour in Normandy ’, chieﬂy

undertaken with a view of investigating the Architectural Antiquities

of that Duchy ; and he wrote the letter press for Cotman’s Etchings of

Architectural Antiquities in Normandy, in two folio volumes. In 1831 Mr.

Dawson Turner did good service to the antiquarian world by publishing’

the Correspondence of John Pinkerton from the originals in his own

possession; and in 1835 he edited and printed at Yarmouth the History of

the Religious Orders and Communities and of the Hospitals and Castle

of Norwich, written about the year 1725 by John Kirkpatrick. In 1839 he

printed, for private circulation only, a Catalogue of the Works of Art in the

possession of Sir Peter Paul Rubens at the time of his decease, together

with two Letters from Sir Balthazar Gerbier; and in 1847 appeared his

Sepulchral Reminiscences as afforded by a list of the interments within

the walls of the Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, collected

chieﬂy from monuments and gravestones still remaining in June, 1845.

The book is dedicated to the Rev. Henry Mackenzie, then Minister of

the Parish, and now Bishop Suffragan of Nottingham, whose church had

supplied the “memoranda of the dead,” and “whose precept and example

afforded alike instruction and comfort to the survivors.” Mr. Turner also

printed, for private distribution, Outlines in Lithography, being drawings

on stone by several of the members of his talented family, of pictures

then in his possession. He was

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307

instrumental in establishing the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological

Society, of which he became the ﬁrst vice-president; wrote the preface

to the Norfolk Archaeologia, and was a frequent contributor to its pages.

No person of any literary pretensions ever visited. Yarmouth without

being invited to the table of Mr. Dawson Turner, where he was sure to

meet with an intellectual treat. * The walls of his rooms were adorned

with pictures by celebrated masters, f and he had in the course of years

collected a very extensive and valuable library, many of the works being

plentifully illustrated. The most remarkable work of this description in

Mr. Turner’s library was his Blomeﬁeld’s History of Norfolk, t the eleven

volumes of which were swelled into seventy by the introduction of MSS.,

printed matter, drawings, and engravings. Of original drawings alone

there are about four thousand, mostly by Cotman and the members of

Mr. Turner’s family who had been his pupils. These volumes present the

ﬁnest illustrated county history ever formed. They were purchased for

the nation at the price of £460, and are now in the library of the British.

Museum. His collection of autographs was one of the largest and most

valuable ever made. Among the historical documents was the Conventual

Register and Chartulary of Glastonbury, written on vellum circa 1307,

which brought at the sale £141. Dr. Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph, when

a student at Christ’s church, Oxford, sending one evening to a grocer’s

shop for some tobacco,

* A constant and welcome guest was the Rev. James Layton, for many years ornate of

Catﬁeld. He wrote the letter press for Cotman’s Norfolk Brasses. There is a portrait of

him by Eddis, which has been engraved. Another honored guest was Francis Douce,

the learned antiquary, who died in 1834, aged 72. Crome, Cotman, Phillips, and other

distinguished artists frequently met at Mr. Turner’s table. Crabb Robinson, after

describing a visit paid by him, says, “ This house is the most agreeable I ever visited.

No stay would be unpleasantly long there.” Diary, vol. ii. p. 369.

f Among these may be mentioned Bellini’s Virgin with the infant on her knee, attended

by saints, which sold for 360 guineas; Titian’s Rape of Europa (a ﬁnished sketch), £288

; and a landscape by Hobbima, which passed into the Scarisbrick Collection for £252,

and was resold in 1861 for 440 guineas.

X Mr. Turner had in his collection, Notes upon Blomeﬁeld’s History, by the Rev.

George Ashby, Rector of Barrow in Suffolk, one of the ablest antiquarians that county

has produced. He was president of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and died in 1808,

aged 84.

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had the “weed” sent to him In a leaf from this very book, the inspection

of which so exited Tanner’s curiosity that he went the next morning

and rescued from destruction what remained of the MS. Mr. Turner had

also valuable documents illustrative of the period, rule, and personal

history of Queen Elizabeth; and four original Letters of Oliver Cromwell

which sold for upwards of £150. He passed the last few years of his

life at Brompton, where he died in 1858, aged 83. When he quitted

Yarmouth the Turner family became extinct there. * He married (in

1796) Mary, second daughter of William Palgrave, Esq., a lady of rare

taste and accomplishments, who died in 1850, aged 76 , f and by her he

had a numerous family. Of the daughters, Maria, the eldest, married Sir

William Jackson Hooker, K.H.; t Elizabeth, the second daughter, married

Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H. § Harriet, the fourth daughter

* There is a portrait of him, when a young man, engraved from a picture by Sharpe.

There is also a portrait of him, in middle age, etched by Mrs. Turner.

f There is an excellent likeness of Mrs. Turner, engraved on stone, by Lane, from a

drawing by Eddis. Also a portrait engraved by Edwards.

J He was the only surviving son of Joseph Hooker, Esq., of Exeter. Born in 1785, he

resided for several years at Halesworth 1 . In 1809 he made a voyage to Iceland, and on

hia way back narrowly escaped destruction, his ship being on ﬁre, and the only possible

means of escape being a passing vessel. His Tour in Iceland was printed at Yarmouth

by Keymer, in 1811, but was not published until 1813, when it was brought out by

Longmans. In 1820 he was appointed Regius Professor of Botany at the University of

Glasgow, where he received the degree of L.L.D. He was knighted in 1836, and appointed

director of the Royal Gardens at Kew. His portrait was engraved by Mrs. Turner. There

is also an engraved portrait of Lady Hooker from the same skilful hand.

§ He died in 1861, aged 72. From an early period he devoted himself with great ardour

to literary and antiquarian pursuits, and in 1818 he edited a collection of Anglo Saxon

Chansons, which has now become extremely rare. In 1821 he directed his attention

to the public records and proposed a plan to government for their publication, which

was adopted. He was for a long period a contributor to the Edinburgh and Quarterly

Reviews, and his writings, both with and without his name, are very numerous; one

of the most esteemed being the Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth. In

1827 he was called to the bar, and for several years was frequently engaged in pedigree

cases before the House of Lords. In 1838, on the reconstruction of the Record Service,

he was appointed deputy keeper; which ofﬁce he retained ‘till his death. For his public

services he was nominated a K.H., and he was a member of the Royal and Antiquarian

Societies. Of Lady Palgrave it was said by Crabb Robinson, in his Diary, that she had

“more beauty, elegance, sense and taste united, than he had seen for many a long time.”

Vol. ii. p. 272.

1 Hookers house at Halesworth still stands. It was converted to a nursing home in

1987 (see The Revised History of Great Yarmouth.)

2 Palmer’s Addenda: Miss Mary Ann Turner, the third, and only unmarried daughter

of Dawson Turner, died at Great Yarmouth, 29th September 1874, aged 72. She

bequeathed £100 to the Yarmouth Hospital (equivalent to at least £10,000, these

days)

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309

(who died in 1869), married the Rev. John Gunn, Rector of Irstead, one

of the most profound of English Geologists; and Eleanor, the sixth and

youngest daughter, married Dr. Jacobson, now Bishop of Chester.

The ﬁrst occupant of the above-mentioned house after being rebuilt was

Thomas Brightwen, Esq., * the resident partner, who married Hannah,

ﬁfth daughter of Dawson Turner, Esq. It is now the residence of Henry

E. Buxton, Esq., the succeeding partner . f

At the south-east corner of Row, No. 53, and occupying the space between

it and Row, No. 55, is an old ﬂint-built house, facing Howard street (No.

58), having some ornamental ironwork on its front.

Row, No. 54, from Howard, Street to the Market place, called Almshouse

Row, there having been in it on the south side a number of almshouses

which were sold in 1842 by the guardians, with the approbation of the

Poor Law Commissioners. On the north side is a very old doorway leading

to what, probably, at one time was a house of some importance.

Row, No. 55, from the Quay to Howard Street, called Gurney’s Bank Row.

The house at the south-west corner was occupied for many generations

as a bookseller’s, shop. In the early part of the last century it was in the

possession of William Eaton, who, in 1728, published A Rudimental

Examination previous to Grammar, for the use of the Grammar School

at Yarmouth. After his death the house above mentioned passed into the

possession of Messrs. Downes and March, who, in 1784, had leave “to

box out the whole length of their shop 5 feet 7 inches.” March, as we

have seen, went to seek his fortune in the United States.

* He was born at Power’s Hall, “Witham, in 1812, and entered Messrs. Gurney’s banking

house in Great Yarmouth, at an early age. He was a Magistrate for the borough and a

deputy-lieutenant for Norfolk, Treasurer of the Borough Fund, Chairman of the Gas

Company, a Charity Trustee, a director of several public companies, and connectedwith

most of the public institutions in the town. He died greatly respected and regretted in

1870, aged 57 .

with most of the public institutions in the town. He died greatly respected and regretted

in 1870, aged 57.

t Arms— Arg. a lion ramp., tail elevated and turned over the head, sit. betw. two mullets

of the second; and for a crest, a buck’s head, couped gu., attired or., gorged with a collar

of the last, therefrom pendent an escutcheon org., charged with an African’s head sa.

The different families of Buxton probably derive the name from places so called, of

which one is in Derbyshire, another in Herefordshire, and a third in Norfolk. By some

it is supposed to be the same as Buckton.

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John Dawson Downes, the senior partner, a man of great intelligence, was

the second son of the Rev. James Downes, Hector of Stratton Strawless,

by Mary his wife, sister of Gibson Lucas, Esq., of Filby 1 . Several books

issued from Downes’ press; among others A Manual of Materia Medica,

written by Dr. Aikin during his residence in Yarmouth. When Downes

retired from business to enjoy during the evening of life those rural

recreations in which he so much delighted, * he was succeeded by Mr,

John Beart, who conducted the business until his death in 1819, at the

age of 46. He was followed successively by Mr. George Meggy, j : Mr.

Frederick Skill (who died in 1865), Mr. Charles Barber Mr. Louis Alfred

Meall, § and Messrs. Cobb; and on the retirement of the latter this shop

* Downes was a man of singular skill in the breeding of domestic animals, the cultivation

of fruit trees, and the training of birds. On retiring from business he took up his residence

at Gunton Old Hall, near Lowestoft, where he was most earnest in his endeavour to

revive the once favorite pastime of hawking 2 . Here he was visited by Lord Rivers,

Col. Wilson Sir John Sebright, Mr. Brigg Fountains of Harford, and other gentlemen,

who took an interest in the same pursuit. In his walks he was usually attended by a

tame heron. He proved satisfactorily that the same swallows revisited the same places

annually, and usually on or about the same days. Downes was an open, plain-speaking

matter of fact man, ﬁrmly attached to the Protestant faith, and a ﬁne specimen of what

was then called a “Church and king” man. He possessed a good library, containing,

among other rare books, some curious old treatises on Hawking. He had also a few

good paintings, one being by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The whole were sold by auction

after his death, which occurred at Lowestoft in 1829, at the age of 71.

f On leaving Yarmouth he took up his abode at Chelmsford, where he became the chief

proprietor and publisher of the Ch elmsford Chronicle and Essex Herald, and at his death

left the business to his son Mr. George Meggy, who died in 1866, aged 59.

X His son Mr. O. B. Barber., a pupil of Landseer, was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy

in 1871.

§ His grandfather resided in Yarmouth; and his father, when in the merchant service,

was captured by the French in 1809, and conﬁned as a prisoner of war at Arras, where

he married a French lady. Louis Alfred Meall 3 died, at an early age, in 1859, of a rapid

consumption 4 , having in the previous year lost his wife (Anna, daughter of David

Hogarth, postmaster) of the same fatal disease. Had he lived his talents and energy

were calculated to have advanced him to a high position in his business. He published a

new edition of Mowbray’s Treatise on Poultry; undertook the publication of Manship’s

History of Yarmouth in 1854, and in 1856 published the Continuation of that History 3 .

His attachment to archaeological pursuits, in which he had acquired considerable

knowledge, enabled him to render the

1 The Lucas family resided at Filby House, now more pretentiously called Filby Hall.

2 Palmer’s Addenda: Dibdin in his Tour , p. 388, says “At Yarmouth, for the ﬁrst time

in my life, I saw the diversion of hawking, which he then describes at considerable

length and in a most graphic manner.Lord Orford’s Falconer, he says, attended with a

cast and a half.”

C.B.Barber exhibited in 1874, Glen Callater ; In 1875 he painted one Queen Victoria’s

Collies, “ Noble ” and also: “ Misty Morning; a Stag Roaring”.

3 He also published a map of Great Yarmouth, 1855, compiled from Laing’s surveys.

4 Tuberculosis.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

311

ceased to be that of a bookseller. The present house was erected by

Messrs. Gurney and Co. from a design by Salvin.

The next house, No. 15, has for upwards of a century been a grocer’s shop.

It was so occupied by Mr. Draper, on whose death it was purchased by

Mr. Eli Williams Morgan, who had been his apprentice, and who in 1787

had leave “ to box out his shop front” as his neighbour had done, Morgan

was for many years a common councilman, and died in 1833, aged 72.

This house and shop are now in the occupation of Mr. John Clowes. *

Row, No. 56 from Howard Street to the Market Place, called Excise

Ofﬁce Row, because the house at the north-west corner was long occupied

by the ofﬁcers of the excise. f It was subsequently purchased by the

trustees of the savings bank, the business of which was transacted here

until removed to the Market place; and is now the property of Mr. J. W.

Diboll. J At the south-east corner, fronting the Market place and

editor much valuable assistance. He was a warm politician, and attached

himself thoroughly to the Liberal party; to which the facility he possessed

of expressing himself with vigour enabled him to render essential

service.

* Clowes, or Clough, means, cliff, so that John atte Clough would be John living by

the cliff. A family of the name has been long resident in the town.

f The excise at the present time forms in productiveness the second branch of revenue,

amounting to upwards of £20,000,000 a year. Cromwell saw the advantages of a tax

of this description and endeavoured to introduce it, but the opposition at that time was

too great, and the measure had to be abandoned”. It required all the inﬂuence and tact

of Sir Robert Walpole to carry an excise bill in 1733. Great pressure was put upon

members; and Col. Townshend, one of the borough representatives, was compelled to

vote against the measure, while his colleague Edward Walpole supported it. Some idea

of the opposition may be gathered from the following anecdotes:— Joseph Kells of

Woodbridge, who had been sent to London “to solicit against the excise,” was seized

in the Court of Requests for hissing Sir Robert Walpole. He was admitted to bail for

£500. No opportunity was omitted to evince the public dislike. During the performance

of a play at the Haymarket Theatre, one of the comedians took the liberty of throwing

out some reﬂections on the Prime Minister and the excise, which were not designed

by the author. One of the Walpoles, who was in the house, immediately went behind

the scenes and demanded of the prompter whether such words were in the play, and

upon being answered in the negative, he severely corrected the witty player with his

own hands.

t This name, varied also to Diball, is probably Danish.

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extending to the next Row, No. 58, is a public house which for upwards

of a century has been known as the Elephant and Castle, and was rebuilt

in 1831. *

There were formerly some good houses in this row, standing back and

fronting south, showing that the rows in former times were pleasanter

places to dwell in than they are at present.

Row, No. 57, from the Quay to Howard Street, called Carpenters’

Anns Row. At the north-west corner stands a house now the property

and residence of Lady Elizabeth Orde. f Early in the last century there

stood on this site a house which is depicted in Corbridge’s Map. It had

a balustrade at the top adorned with three large ﬁgures of hay-makers;

and belonged to Richard Ferrier, Esq., who resided at Hemsby, and was

then in the occupation of Samuel Artis, Esq., merchant and postmaster

of Yarmouth, who died in 1748 . t There were four

* Shakspere, in Twelfth Night, mentions the sign of the Elephant. “ At the south

suburbs,—at the Elephant, “ Is best to lodge; I will bespeak our diet.” The ﬁrst elephant

in England, after the prehistoric times, is probably that which Henry III. kept at the

tower. The Castle was added when our intercourse with India ﬁrst made the public

familiar with that symbol of Eastern magniﬁcence.

f Second daughter of Henry Charles, sixth Duke of Beaufort, K.G., and widow ﬁrst

of Captain. Lord Edward O’Brien, R.N. (who died in 1824), and secondly of General

James Orde, who commanded the 99th Regiment at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1812. He

married ﬁrst Margaret, eldest daughter of William Beckford, Esq., the celebrated owner

of Fonthill Abbey, by the Lady Margaret his wife, daughter of the Earl of Aboyne.

General Orde died in 1850.

t He was the son of James Artis, Esq., who died in 1724. He “ brought home his lady

from London,” says Ives, writing in 1736, “where he was married. She is next August

ﬁfteen years of age and he is sixty-six.” This must have been his second wife. He

left his manor of Bacons in Gorleston, and all his estates in Gorleston, Bradwell and

Southtown, to his daughter Mary, the widow of the Rev. John Prattant (who had been

one of the ministers of St. George’s Chapel), for her life, with remainder to her daughter

Mary, who married Francis Larwood, Esq., of Norwich, barrister-at-law, who died in

1750. When George II landed at Lowestoft in 1737, Mr. Artis hastened to Lowestoft

and offered his majesty the loan of four carriage horses, which was accepted, and being

added to Mr. Jex’s chaise and pair, they drew his majesty to Saxmundham, “where he

was accommodated with a set of horses by the Lord Strafford.” Ives, in his journal,

says, “At about eight “ o’clock in the morning (Jan. 13th) saw ﬁfteen vessels riding

at anchor off the

GREAT YARMOUTH.

313

trees in front of this house close to where the pavement now is, with a

stone “mounting step.” This house was rebuilt by Mr. Thos. Cotton,

“Holme, and heard several guns ﬁre. At ten o’clock made them out to

be the king’s yachts with the Royal Standard ﬂying on hoard the Caro-

lina. At about twelve o’clock they weighed, and half an hour later the

king landed at Lowestoft. Forty sailors in white shirts went into the

sea up to their chins, and as soon as the boat conveying his majesty

came to them, they took it out of the sea and carried it safe on shore

on their shoulders”. “His majesty,” says Ives, “was driven up to “Mr.

Jex’s house, where he refreshed himself for an hour. About ﬁve hun-

dred horsemen accompanied him to Mutford bridge. The people stood

on the hill and ﬁlled the air with their shouts of long live King George.

His majesty returned his loving subjects many thanks for all their care

towards him, and then proceeded on to London.”

The following verses were written on his majesty’s safe land-

ing at Lowestoft, January 14th, 1736, having escaped a dangerous

storm at sea.

The sons of loyalty with candour read

These humble verses from a loyal maid ;

Poetick errors she is free to own,

But hopes her zeal will want of skill attone.

In all my country’s joy I claim a share,

My king and country are for ever dear.

Oh ! may these lines my faithful ardour show

’Tis almost treason to be silent now.

Great George in safety is return’d again

From all the dangers of the raging main;

Blest be the day, be none distinguish’d more

Than that which brought him to the Suffolk shore.

Methinks I see the glad expectant crowd,

Which on the sandy beach impatient stood,

Twice twenty sailors, rob’d in decent white,

Survey the distant pinnace with delight;

And e’er the royal boat can reach the land,

Plunge in the waves and bear it to the strand.

The joyful multitudes, with loud acclaim,

Surround the king and shout his much-loved name,

The much-lov’d name from shore to shore resounds,

The surging deep re-echoes back the sounds ;

O let the united nation grateful meet,

And strive who best their welcome lord shall greet;

Tune every instrument of joy, and sing

How bounteous Heav’n preserved the gracious king;

When storms and waves their mutual horrors joined,

With winds and seas their strongest force combin’d,

Bright ministerial angels then were near,

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an eminent merchant, for his own residence. In the early part of the present

century it was occupied by Mr. John Shalders, a celebrated bookbinder,

who died at Norwich in 1866, suddenly whilst sitting in his chair, in

the 88th year of his age. The front of the house erected by Mr. Cotton

was rebuilt by John Brightwen, Esq., who resided here for many years,

during which he was an active partner in the Yarmouth Bank of Messrs.

Gurney and Co. Latterly he resided at Thorpe by Norwich, where he

died in 1864, aged 82 s.p. *

This row (No. 57) is called Star and Garter Row from a public house with

that sign at the south-west corner. It is an old house and had a smooth,

and squared-ﬂint front with stone dressings, and upon the former two

ﬁgures of the date 15— remained until the old front was cased with white

bricks in 1854. There is a drawing of it, in its former state, by Winter.

This house was originally called the Crown and Thistle, a sign which

came into vogue on the accession of James I. f In the early part of the

last century it belonged to a family named Haslope. At the south-east

corner and occupying the space between this row and row No. 59 there

is an old house, fronting Howard street, in which are some unpainted

wainscotted rooms. It is now called the Carpenters’ Arms. j In a house

on the north side of this row (the ﬁfth door from the

George and Great Britain had their guardian care ;

O’er him their sacred wings extended wide,

Check’d the rude winds and stemmed the swelling tide ;

May these mean lays some happy bard inspire,

“Whose raptur’d bosom glows with native ﬁre;

And let this theme by him, be nobly drest—

A monarch, serv’d and three great nations blest.

* He married Miss Aggs; and they were both long distinguished for their active

benevolence and extensive charities. By his will he bequeathed £200 to the Yarmouth

Hospital, and £100 to the Sailors’ Home.

f The annexed designs of “The Rose and Crown” and the “Crown and Thistle” are from

a Proclamation of James I.

t The Carpenters were incorporated in 1477, but had existed as a guild or fraternity in

London from an earlier period; their “arms” — arg., a chev. eng. betw. three compasses

set., having been conferred in 1466.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

315

quay) there lived for many years, during the ﬁrst part of the present

century, in a hired room, and procuring a scanty and uncertain main-

tenance as a sempstress, that remarkable woman S ARAH M ARTIN , whose

active and self-denying philanthropy will render her name renowned and

respected for generations to come. Some account of her good deeds will

be found in the Continuation to Manship, p. 255. She died in 1848, aged

52, and lies buried at Caister. In the same house, in 1868, died Susannah

Swanton, widow, aged 93.

Row, No. 58, from Howard Street to the Market Place.

Row, No. 59., from the Quay to Howard Street. At the north-west

corner is the bank of Sir E. K. Lacon 1 , Bart., Lacons, Youell, & Co.,

which has a modern white-brick front, from a design by Mr. Phipson, It

occupies the site of an old Elizabethan house, in which all the principal

rooms were panelled with oak. In two of them were carved-oak chimney

pieces reaching from the ﬂoor to the ceiling, bearing the date 1598. Both

are preserved in the present building. That which is now in the private

room of the bank bears, in the freize, the initials R.W. being those of

Ralph Woolhouse, bailiff in 1558, 1567, 1579, and 1590, and a man

of considerable inﬂuence in his day, Mr. Le Grice, then Member for

Yarmouth, writing to the bailiffs in 1586, thus speaks of him. “I have

known him a long time, by good experience, to be both “wise, honest,

and discrete; and as good a townsman as any among “you (without

offence to any man be it spoken). I fear you have but “few such among

you. I would you had many in wisdom, government, “and experience

to match him.”

In 1567 there was a state lottery for the encouragement of public works,

in which it was determined to take tickets, and apply the prizes, if any,

towards the reparation of the haven. Each ticket was represented by a

“posey.”—£15 of the town’s money was applied, to this purpose, and sent

with the following couplet in the name of Mr. Ralph Woolhouse—

“ Yarmouth haven — God send thee speed,

“ The Lord he knowyth thy great neede.”

The following signiﬁcant “posey for the ladies “ was

sent in the name of Mrs. Margaret Woolhouse, the bailiff’s wife—

“ A small stocke — with good successe,

“ May shortly grows to greate encrease.’’

1 Palmer’s Addenda: Lacon’s and Co ., 15th January 1791, a new bank opened at Yarmouth today under

the name of Edmund Lacon, William Fisher, John Lacon and William Fisher (Youell’s Diary).

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“What success these adventures had I nowhere ﬁnd,” saith Swinden. *

During Mr. Woolhouse’s year of ofﬁce (1580) a singular incident occurred.

Scroby sand, then about a mile in length and three miles distant from the

town, became perfectly dry and herbage grew upon it; so that it seemed

determined to follow the example of the sand upon which Yarmouth is

built, and, in the language of Nash, “ to live no-more under the yoke of

the sea, or have its head washed with his bubbly spurn, but clearly to

quit, disterminate and regulate itself “from his inﬂated capriciousness of

playing dictator over it.” Seeing this Mr. Bailiff Woolhouse “being careful

to beneﬁt the town to the utmost of his power,” determined to “annex”

it. Accordingly one ﬁne morning in August the bailiff, accompanied by

about a dozen knights and gentlemen from the county, and attended by

the recorder, sub-steward, town clerk, and “certain of the wisest and most

discrete burgesses,” put to sea and landed upon Scroby sand, of which,

in due form, his worship took, possession on behalf of the town, naming

it “Yarmouth Island,” and declaring it to be part of the borough. For its

better preservation he then caused the upper end to be fenced by a hedge,

thereby encouraging the accumulation of sand. After dinner many loyal

and patriotic toasts were drank, the company then played at bowls, and

in the evening the bailiff and his retinue returned on shore, well satisﬁed

with their day’s work, f Not so the Lord of the

* P. 422. Public lotteries were abolished in 1826. Mr. Dawson Turner made a collection

of handbills (now in the Library of the British Museum) issued by lottery ofﬁce keepers,

which affords a curious illustration of the various, means adopted by them to induce

the public to part with their money.

f By the “careful skilfulness and skilful carefulness” of Jeffery Whitney, the town

clerk, an account of this taking possession by the bailiff was entered upon the borough

roll with the names of all who attended on the bailiff’s invitation. A facsimile of this

entry was published by the Rev. Henry Green, in his edition of Whitney’s Emblems.

Among the knights present on the above occasion was Sir Ralph Shelton, of a very

old Norfolk family.

The Shelton coat both fair and ancient was; In azure ﬁeld is

set a golden cross,

His witty but improvident descendant, Sir Robert Shelton, sold his manor of Great

Snoring in Norfolk to Chief Justice Richardson; for said he, “Thank God, I can

GREAT YARMOUTH.

317

Manor of Scratby, Sir Edward Clere, who denounced the whole proceeding

as illegal, and having satisﬁed himself that the island belonged to him

as parcel of his manor of Scratby, to which it was directly opposite, he

also took possession and retained it by building on the sand a house of

timber. The island having become covered by marram, sea-fowl built

their nests there; and it was resorted to by the inhabitants of Yarmouth,

who took thither their wives and families, and having “feasted” they

played at bowls “and used other pastimes.” The goods of shipwrecked

vessels were occasionally east upon it, especially in 1582 when “sundry

silks, wax, and such like rich commodities were there found, and by

the town taken, carried away, and enjoyed; although Sir Edward Clere

greatly contended thereabouts;” but shortly afterwards the whole island

was reclaimed by the sea, “whereby the knight and Yarmouth were

equally wholly dispossessed.” * In the latter part of the last century the

above-mentioned house was in the occupation, of Peter Upcher, Esq.,

who married one of the two daughters and co-heirs of John Ramey, Esq.

f It was subsequently

sleep without Snoring.” Another of these knights was Sir Arthur Haveningham, who was

High Sheriff of Norfolk in the following year, and in 1596 he and Sir John Peyton were

entertained at the town’s charge at Bailiff Ponyet’s house. In 1615 the corporation sent

“two double Jacobuses to the marriage of two of the servants of Sir John Haveningham

(the son and successor of Sir Arthur), who by his letters re-quested the goodwill of

the town therein.” The Haveninghams bore quarterly or. and gu., a bordure eng. sa.

charged with eight escallops arg. Among the guests was Thomas Tasburgh, Esq. He was

of a Suffolk family, settled at Flixton, who bore arg., a chev. sa. betw. three palmer’s

staves with scips sa., gar. or. Robert Tasburgh ﬁlled the ofﬁce of bailiff in 1498 and

1504. Another guest was Ichingham Everard, Esq. Families of this name have long

ﬂourished in Norfolk and Suffolk, and especially at Lynn and Lowestoft. They bore

arg., a fesse wavy betw. three estoils gu.

* The sandbanks which form Yarmouth Roads and act as a natural breakwater, are

constantly changing their shapes and positions. Captain William Hewett, R.N., found

in 1836 abroad channel sixty-ﬁve feet deep, where there had only been a depth of four

feet when surveyed in 1822. It is called Hewett’s channel, and through it the largest

ship in her Majesty’s navy can pass. Capt. Hewett was a, distinguished hydrographer,

and was employed for twenty years on this service in the Protector and the Fairy. He

was lost, with all hands, in the latter vessel, on the 13th of November, 1841. See Lyells

Geology, vol. ii., p. 54.

f Son of Robert Upcher, Esq., of Sudbury, who died at Ormesby in 1787. Of the above

marriage there was issue three sons,—Ramey and Robert, the two eldest

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divided and occupied by Miss Susan Mitchell and Miss Harriet Mitchell,

each of whom, conducted a school.

Between Row No., 59 and Row No. 61 stood several very old houses

fronting the quay, of which some slight vestiges still remain. *

This property in the last century belonged to the Fuller family, and

afterwards to the Manclarkes. The central house was an old tavern called

the Mitre, and afterwards the Sun. It had a painted sign exhibiting that

luminary in all its glory, and beneath were the words “the best beer,” so

thai it might be read “the best beer under the sun.” In 1811 this house was

partially taken down and enlarged, the front was cased with white bricks

and the ground ﬂoor brought out to the pavement. It was then called the

Crown and Anchor, f and was ﬁrst tenanted by Mr. George Wicks, who

had originally been a jockey at Newmarket. t

In the house to the north, now occupied with the tavern, there was at the

commencement of the present century a fruiterer’s and pastry-cook’s

shop, having an open unglazed front, and being one of the last specimens

of that kind of shop then remaining. It was kept by an old woman well

known as “Mother Pomona.” She had been drummed

died in their youth, the ﬁrst by a fall from a horse whilst at school at North Walsham;

and the second of a fever. The family fortunes then devolved on Abbott Upcher, the

youngest son, who married Charlotte, daughter of Henry Lord Berners; and died in

1819, aged 31. In 1807, when just of age he was nominated as a candidate for the

representation of the town in parliament, but this was a pleasantry of his friends, as

only twenty-one votes were recorded in his favor. Soon after this event Mr. Upcher

retired from Yarmouth, and resided for the rest of his life at Sherringham in Norfolk.

See ante, p. 255.

* On the south side of Row No. 59 may be seen an ancient ﬂint wall in which can be

traced the head of an arch now ﬁlled up. There is also an Elizabethan square-headed

doorway of stone with carved spandrils.

f In 1870 this house was purchased by Mr. John Franklin, who had previously been

the tenant. A franklin in the reign of Edward III. was a substantial house-holder or a

yeoman having a small landed estate.

t He had also been a servant to Miss Church of King street, and afterwards kept the Black

Lion in Queen street. Whilst there, Samuel Adams the tapster had to carry some porter

on board a vessel at the quay. The landlord’s son, a boy of eight years, accompanied

him, and on going on board ship fell into the river. Adams endeavoured to save him,

and they were both drowned.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

319

out of Hopton camp 1 by order of the Earl of Orford ; and when twitted

with, this unpleasant reminiscence by audacious boys, she would, in her

rage, ﬂing her apples at them to their intense delight. A fast young man of

the period one day, for a wager, seized upon her glass stand of custards

and syllabubs and ran with it on his head round the quay, but soon came

to grief. Over this shop was a panelled room which still remains, having

a carved mantel piece with the date 1591.

Next the row was a barber’s shop, over which in 1800 lodged the Rev.

Sir Herbert Croft, Bart., who when there wrote a letter, which he printed,

addressed to Southey, containing bitter remarks on what the latter had

published in the Monthly Magazine, relative to the baronet’s conduct to

the family of Chatterton the poet. Croft had obtained possession from

Mrs. Newton of all her brother’s MSS. under the promise, as she said, of

their speedy return; but after keeping them some months Croft published

a selection in a pamphlet entitled Love and Madness. Southey, who was

a Bristol man, warmly espoused the cause of Mrs. Newton; and being

unable to obtain any redress from Sir Herbert Croft, he, after detailing

the case in the Monthly Magazine, published a new edition of the poetical

works of the “Marvellous Boy,” and by that means had the satisfaction

of paying over to Mrs. Newton and her daughter a sum exceeding £300,

which sufﬁced to rescue them from great poverty and distress. *

At the north-west corner of Row, No. 61, there is a house with its gable

towards the quay (as may be seen in Butcher’s Picture), now masked by a

modern front, f It was anciently called The Coalmeters, being frequented

by that body of men. t The sign was changed to that

* Sir Herbert Croft, who was the author of a great variety of publications, died at Paris,

where he had resided for some years, in 1816, aged 65, s.p.m.

f The house is a very old one, but has now been almost entirely rebuilt from time to

time. In 1865 the south wall being in a ruinous state was pulled down, and then a large

pointed arch and two smaller ones of very ancient date were discovered,

t The corporation had the privilege of the metage or measurage of coals. To perform

this duty they appointed a limited number of coal meters, and when one of them died

they were accustomed to sell the place to the highest bidder, sometimes obtaining as

much as £600. At that time there was a government duty of 6s. per ton on all coals

imported, and a local tax under the Church and Chapel Acts. All

1 Hopton Camp was where the Gorleston Golf course is in 2006. This is the new

course that replaced the one laid out by James Braid in 1905 on the Marine Parade

from Park Road to Links Road.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

of the Earl St. Vincent, when that title was conferred on Sir John Jervis,

and the house was then much used by the ofﬁcers and seamen of the ﬂeet.

E ARL S T , V INCENT was long a popular naval hero at Yarmouth, but until

chosen, when Sir John Jervis, its representative in parliament was totally

unconnected with the place. The coalition in 1783 between North and Fox,

after years of virulent opposition, excited great discontent among many

of their respective followers who considered themselves betrayed for the

sake of power and place. When in the following year Pitt received the seals

of ofﬁce, the freemen determined to give expression to their feelings by

refusing to re-elect the Hon. Richard Walpole and Mr. Charles Townshend

(afterwards Lord Bayning), who were both coalitionists. Searching for a

candidate they selected Sir John Jervis, who had, when in command of

the Foudroyant, recently made himself famous by capturing the French,

man-of-war Pagase of 74 guns and 700 men. With him they associated

Mr. Henry Beaufoy, a stranger to the town but an effective speaker,

advocating liberal principles;* and such was the popular enthusiasm that

their election was carried by acclamation, the Walpole and Townshend

party being so discouraged that they dared not go to a poll. f The earl

was accustomed in his latter years to declare

these duties are now abolished, as are the meters places; but there are still

a few coal meters living who enjoy pensions. The meters employed gangs

of coalheavers who were accustomed, when waiting for an engagement,

to sit about on the pavement outside this house in summer, like Lazzaroni

at Naples.

* An election song had this refrain—

“ That coin is the best which has got least alloy, So we cannot do better than vote for

Beaufoy.”

f Paley, in his History of Boroughs, cites this election to prove that although “the families

of Townshend and Walpole had some interest here, yet it was not in such a degree as to

be called an inﬂuence” Although Mr. Townshend did not on this occasion go to a poll,

his candidature cost him a considerable sum, and the items in his bill of expenses are

curious. The sum of £61 14s. 2d. was expended in “breakfasting” the freemen at three

taverns. £119. 1s. 0d. for wine at the hall;— £16. 5s. 7d. for grocery (including “lemons

and sugar for punch.”)—£93. 3s. 8d. for “cockades,” seventeen persons having been

employed in their manufacture, chieﬂy ladies. The sum of £466. 7s. 9d. was paid to

“freemen,” and £158. 9s. 11d. for “ incidents,” every item being particularized down to

10s. 6d. for “a ﬁdler.” This account, amounting to £915. 2s. Id., was duly vouched, and

certiﬁed as correct by Mr. William Fisher and four other supporters of Mr. Townshend.

In explanation

GREAT YARMOUTH.

321

that three of the most important events of his life occurred within two

years, (viz.) his knighthood, marriage, and return to parliament. At the

dissolution in 1790 being then in active service he was not a candidate;

and Mr. Townshend regained his seat. In 1796, on the occasion of a

vacancy, Sir John Jervis was requested to stand, but being then employed

in the blockade of Toulon, he declined. Very soon, afterwards, however,

both seats became vacant, and Sir John was put in nomination and went

to the poll; but the Townshend party had again become dominant, and

he was defeated. In the following year Sir John

of the sum paid to freemen, it is to be observed that early in the 18th century the

leaders of the political parties in the borough, instead of bidding against each other

for votes, the end of which they knew must be ruinous, agreed to pay each, freeman

who claimed it the sum of two guineas “for loss of time,” whether the candidate was

successful or not; and for the long period during which this custom prevailed down to

the passing of the Reform Act, it is believed that no other direct payments of money

ever took place; and although declared by a committee of the House of Commons in

1834 to be bribery, it was never looked upon in that light. In 1790, when the “House

of Rainham” determined to regain their inﬂuence in the borough, the sum of £1400.

11s. 4d. was expended by Mr. Townshend. The account was kept by Mr. James Fisher,

Jun., and by it we ﬁnd that no less a sum than £384. Is. 9d. was expended in “wine,

&c,” the bill at the Wrestlers amounting to £158. 17s. 6d. The sum of £171. 9s. 7d. was

laid out in cockades, and it seems to have been the custom for the ladies of the party

to employ themselves in the manufacture of them, being paid the cost of the riband.

The sum of £413 was paid to freemen for votes divided with Mr. Beaufoy, who paid

the like sum, and £134 for votes divided with Mr. Sandys, who paid the same, and the

“ incidents “ amounted to £298, including £34. 18s. 9d. for “deﬁciences at monthly

clubs held at the Wrestlers in 1788, 1789, and 1790.” This account is signed by six of

Mr. Townshend’s supporters. A supplemental bill of £241. 16s. 7d. was divided between

the successful candidates Townshend and Beaufoy. This included £109. 16s. 8d. paid

to the town clerk “for freedoms.” It was the practice among the poorer classes entitled

to their freedom not to “take it up,” which was attended with expense, until the time of

an election, when either candidate would readily pay the costs to secure the vote, and

thus at election time the mayor and town clerk reaped a harvest of fees. With regard

to the colours formerly so much used at elections, that almost every man, woman, and

child in the place was more or less decorated, the electors almost invariably wearing

a cockade, it may be mentioned that orange or red was originally adopted by the party

who supported Dutch William and the Hanoverian succession, whilst blue was used

by the Jacobites; but in the course of years the politics of parties changed so much that

in Yarmouth red became the colour of the Tories and blue that of the Whigs, but it is

the reverse in Suffolk.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

Jervis fought the famous battle off Cape St. Vincent. When offered

an earldom, he selected Yarmouth for his title; but that having been

previously bestowed on the Marquis of Hertford, he took the title of

St, Vincent instead. For a motto he adopted the word Thus, which is an

expression used on board men-of-war sailing by a wind or in chase of

an enemy. When the captain or master says, in giving directions to the

helmsman, “thus,” he means that the ship’s head is to be kept directed

to an indicated point of the compass. A long correspondence took place

in 1800 between Lord St. Vincent and General Loftus, with the view of

dividing the representation of the borough, but the partizans on either

side were not to be restrained, and the negotiation failed. In 1801 Earl

St. Vincent became ﬁrst lord of the admiralty; and at the general election

in 1802, Thomas Jervis, Esq., a barrister and ﬁrst cousin to the earl, was

returned to parliament for Yarmouth with Sir Thomas Trowbridge. Mr.

Jervis represented the borough till 1806, when a new combination of

parties took place. He was Recorder of Lichﬁeld, a Bencher of the Middle

Temple, Chief Justice of Chester, a Q . C., and when his noble relative was

ﬁrst lord he acted as counsel to the admiralty, and took a leading part in

conducting the legal business of the navy in the house of commons. He

died in 1838, aged 69. His son, Sir John Jervis, became Chief Justice of

the Common Pleas, and died in 1856. Earl St. Vincent was always partial

to Yarmouth and ready to do for his friends there any service in his power.

He offered to take the father of the editor of this work as a midshipman on

board his own ship, promising to make a thorough seaman of him; for said

he “an ofﬁcer should, come in at the hawse hole and go out by the cabin

window.” On the 19th of September, 1802, being then ﬁrst lord, he wrote

to Mr. Hurry, informing him that there was then room for one hundred

young men as caulkers in the Chatham and Sheerness dockyards, and

intimating that “any young men of good character who had served their

apprenticeships regularly in Yarmouth might proﬁt by the circumstance.”

The earl mentions that these men would receive “chipmoney,” which

was a payment to be made to them instead of the privilege of collecting

chips in the dockyards, which had grown to such an abuse that the men

were accustomed to leave off work half an hour

GREAT YARMOUTH.

323

before the appointed times in order to gather chips, good and service-able

spars being frequently cut up in order to make them; and copper bolts

and other articles being often concealed in the bundles.* At the contested

election in 1818, when every vote was eagerly sought for, the earl then

in his 84th year, was asked to use his inﬂuence over a distant voter. “I

will let ﬂy at him,” replied the veteran, “as soon as I know where to ﬁnd

him.” He died at his seat the Rochetts near Brentwood (now the residence

of Octavius E. Coope, Esq.) in 1823, aged 88.

Row No. 60, from Howard Street to the Market Place. At the south-

east corner is a liquor shop called the Oxford, formerly the White Horse;

which in 1757 was described as “abutting upon the Dene,” there being

then no houses eastward. This row was called Deneside Austin Row,

because it led from the Denes or Deneside to a building belonging to

the Augustine Friars, to whose convent, on the conﬁnes of Southtown

and Gorleston, this was a cell. f Some remains are still to be seen facing

Howard street, having a cut-ﬂint front, with stone dressings; the whole

now disﬁgured by whitewash. An arched doorway, with a square heading

having quartrefoils in the spandrils, all of Caen stone, led to an apartment

admeasuring sixty-ﬁve feet from north to south, and eighteen feet from

east to west, with several splayed windows towards

* At the commencement of the present century the discipline of the navy was in so

relaxed a state, notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of Earl St. “Vincent, as to appear

at the present time almost incredible. The coast of Norfolk was in 1801 defended by gun

brigs, under the command of lieutenants, who frequently hauled them up for months in

creeks and snug corners, where the commanders had their cabbage gardens and pigsties.

A gun brig, under the command of a near relative of Lord Nelson, thus remained for

a long time at Blakeney, notwithstanding repeated orders from the admiralty for her

to proceed to the Nore; until the nuisance she occasioned to a tenant of the Marquis

Townshend was so great as to cause his lordship to write to Earl St. Vincent on the

subject, which led to a peremptory order for her removal.

f The arms of the cell were m., three cross keys, two and one, arg., and on a chief gu.,

three dolphins, embowed ppr. John Pulham, described as a learned friar of this house,

died in 1304, Herman Pulham was bailiff in 1450 and 1459. In the time of Ives, the

antiquary, there was a coat of arms in stained glass remaining in one of the windows.

324

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

the west, all of which are now bricked up. The upper part of this doorway,

of which an engraving is here given, may be seen from Howard street,

but the ﬂoor of the apartment is now some feet below the external level.

The walls remain intact, but, as to the lower part, are bare internally.

The upper part of this building has been formed into a chamber by a

boarded ﬂoor placed on cross beams a few feet above the level of the

street, and the room thus obtained, which is now approached by some

stairs on the east side, has been for nearly two centuries used as a place

of meeting by the Society of Friends; and hence the adjoining row is

called Quaker’s row.

George Fox, the founder of the Society, ﬁrst believed himself to be

divinely commissioned to become a teacher of others about the year

1645, * and we ﬁnd in his journal under date 1655 the following entry.

“So we came to Yarmouth and there stayed awhile, where “there was a

friend one Thomas Bond in prison for the truth of Christ. There we had

some service for the Lord, and some were turned to the Lord in that town.

Bond, with more zeal than discretion, had gone into the meeting house of

the Independents, and had there created a great disturbance by insisting

upon addressing the congregation. In a book entitled An Abstract of the

People called Quakers, written by one of themselves, there are details of

their sufferings “for testifying the truth in steeple houses, markets, and

other places;” for they then considered it their duty to enter churches “and

exhort the people after the priest had done;” and also “to ask questions

of the priests in the steeple houses after sermons,” or as they sometimes

styled it “after the priest had ended his performances.” Such proceedings

could not be tolerated, for they were altogether contrary to religious

freedom; but the Quakers had just reason to complain of the then state

of the law which allowed distraints to be made

* The name of Quakers was ﬁrst applied in 1650, because Fox admonished his followers

“to tremble at the word of the Lord.”

GREAT YARMOUTH.

325

on their goods for refusing to pay church rates. They not infrequently

courted persecution, and in the times of which we are speaking were

intolerant of other sects. * In 1661 the Quakers were accused of circulating

in Yarmouth some papers against the oath of allegiance, printed in

Holland. Thomas Tracey and three others who had brought them over,

were had up before the privy council, but pleading ignorance of the

contents were discharged (State Papers, p. 583). In 1694 the quakers

in Yarmouth had so much increased in number that they purchased of

Richard Robbins, f grocer, what then remained of the Augustine Cell, and

the Society have ever since occupied these premises. No two religious

bodies succeeding each other could be more dissimilar ; the one relying

greatly on external symbols and ceremonies; the other solely on spiritual

grace. In 1807 their place of meeting was enlarged and ﬁtted as we now

ﬁnd it. J In 1820 the number of Friends resident in Yarmouth, including

children, was sixty-two. They are now not one-third of that number.

In a house in Row No. 60 resided for some years Mr. J OSIAH F RENCH ,

who was born at Norwich, where his parents were dissenters, and in

a very humble position. He was apprenticed to a stocking weaver, an

employment so repugnant to his feelings that when he had served his time

he vowed he would never touch a stocking again except to put it on. His

ﬁne voice, a mellow base, attracted the attention of Mr. William Palgrave,

then Collector of Customs, who induced young French to take up his

residence in Yarmouth, by procuring for him a clerkship in the Custom

house, and he soon became known at all musical meetings both

* See Smith’s Catalogue of Quaker Literature, Fergusson’s Sketches of Early Members

of the Society of Friends, and Clarkson’s Portraiture.

f In 1709 Samuel Robhina was admitted a freeman on his afﬁrmation, being probably

the ﬁrst quaker enfranchised; and in 1763 Mr. Peckover, grocer, “was married to Sarah

Sharpe at the Quakers’ Meeting house, being the ﬁrst marriage ever celebrated there.

t In the room above mentioned the late Joseph John Gurney, whose name will long

be held in affectionate remembrance by the society, occasionally addressed the

congregation. The simplicity of his style, the ease and gracefulness of his manner, the

appropriateness of his illustrations, the telling words which he introduced, and the deep

and honest interest which he always manifested, rendered him a very attractive and

persuasive preacher and speaker. He died at Norwich in consequence of a fall from

his horse in 1817, aged 50.

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THE PERLUSTRATION OF

In town and country. In 1821 French was appointed a lay clerk in the choir

of St.Georges’ Chapel a chapel, Windsor, and master of the choristers’

school; and to the hour of his death was zealous and punctual in the

discharge of his ofﬁcial duties. At Windsor he cultivated his love of

pictures, which had commenced during his residence at Yarmouth. His

collection was continually changing; his taste and knowledge always

giving him the advantage in a bargain. His rage for autographs, acquired

from his intimacy with Mr. Dawson Turner, was unbounded, and the

facility with which he obtained them was a marvel to his friends. “I have

got it,” said he to an acquiantance who had met him hurrying from Windsor

Castle. “What have you got?” was enquired. “The king’s autograph to

be sure” cried French, exhibiting a letter of the King of Prussia who had

nort arrived above an hour. A volume of his, he presented to the Prince

Consort, by whom French was much noticed. He died suddenly of heart

disease in 1850, aged 53, unmarried, and was buried in the cemetery of

St. George’s. There is an engraved portrait of him by Dawe.

On the south side of Dene Austin Row there was early in the

last

shop,” possessed by a family named Theobald.* Priscilla Theobald,

widow, married (prior to l778) Samuel Jay, shipmaster.

Row No. 61, from the Quay to Howard Street, called the Quay

Austin Row, because it led to the above-mentioned cell of the Augustine

Friars. At the south-west corner is a house now occupied by the National

Provincial Bank. It stands upon ground which, as to the front part, was

occupied by a house having a cut-ﬂint front, like those which still adjoin

the present building to the south. This house was early in the last century

a tavern called The Popinjay 1 , but was afterwards a private residence in

the possession of John Onley, Esq., who died in1740, aged 54. It was

subsequently occupied by his widow, Judith,

* of the same family as the Theobalds of Norwich, well-known

glovers.

f The popinjay or parrot is an old sign long out of fashion. It meant the

ﬁgure of a bird decorated with gaudy feathers, suspended from a pole,

at which marksmen practised as described in Old Mortality . There was

a public house with this sign at the south-west corner of Tombland,

Norwich, the last tenant of which, named Copley, is said to have been

1 Palmer’s Addenda: Popingay - see an old poem on a turnspit dog employed in the

Popingay at Norwich, printed from Norfolk Drollery in the Norwich Magasine,

vol.1., p. 86.

Fisher - the widow of James Fisher died in 1840, aged 75. She and her husband were

both buried at Lound, where there is a memorial in the church. (still on the south

wall, 2008)

GREAT YARMOUTH.

327

The daughter of Samuel Wakeman, Esq. (who died in 1737), by Judith

his wife, a daughter of Thomas Godfrey (bailiff in 1683 and 1688, and

many years town clerk, who died in 1704, aged 63), until her death in

1789, aged 84, when it was sold by her only son and heir, the Rev. Charles

Onley, to George Gooch, a highly-popular tradesman, who converted the

ground ﬂoor into a boot and shoemaker’s shop, and let the ﬁrst ﬂoor as

lodgings. f The back part of the present premises

He removed to Stisted in Essex, where he died unmarried, and with him this branch

of the Onley family became extinct. He left one sister, who married Robert Harvey

of Norwich.

Their third son, Charles Harvey, inherited his maternal Uncle’s large fortune and took

the name of Savile-Onley. He sat in Parliament for Norwich, and died in 1843, aged

87. The arms of Onley - per pale or. and arg., three piles meeting in point counter

changed on a canton. Arg., a mullet pierced sa: and for a crest, out of a crown valary

or. an eagle’s head issuing from ﬂames ppr., impaling Wakeman - are on the slab in

St. Nicholas’ Church. The arms of Savile are arg., on a bend sa. Cotised gu. Three

owls of the ﬁeld.The name of Onley had previously existed in Yarmouth. In 1641 a

blacksmith took possession of the house belonging to Miles Onley then a prisoner at

Algiers, whereupon the corporation turned him out and took the rents on behalf of the

poor captive until some course could be taken for his redemption.

One day his son, an intelligent-looking lad, was standing on the quay by the water

side watching the unloading of a pleasure boat. Mr. Kerrich of Geldestone, to whom it

belonged, wanting some assistance, asked the lad to come on board “with his quickness

and usefulness that he invited amusement on the river”. Still more pleased with his

youthful acquaintance, Mr. Kerrich obtained for him a berth on board an East Indiaman,

where he displayed so much steadiness and ability as at length to obtain the command.

He made a large fortune in the East India trade, and married Mr. Kerrich’s daughter.

Captain Gooch (as he was called) was one of the elder bretheren of the Trinity House,

and in this capacity attracted the notice of King William IV who was, when Duke of

Clarence, master of that ancient corporation. When invited to the palace, Gooch went

in his ofﬁcial dress; and on one occasion, the King, with that observance of costume

for which the royal brothers were remarkable, noticed that his dress was incorrect, for

said his majesty good humouredly “you wear black straps instead of white ones.” Mr.

Kerrich who thus gave young Gooch his “ﬁrst steps on the ladder,” was of a family

of considerable antiquity in the county of Suffolk, John Kerrich having represented

Dunwich in parliament in the2nd Edw.II. The Rev. Kerrich, Principal Librarian, of the

University Cambridge, Prebendary of Lincoln, and Vicar of Dersingham, who died

in 1728, aged 81, made large archaeological collections which are now in the British

Museum.

This family bore sa., on a pile in point arg., a caltrap of the ﬁeld, granted in 1630

to Captain Kerrich, a distinguished diplomatist in the reign of Charles I. John

Kerrich Esq., of Geldeston, who died in 1871 aged 73, was for many years a Haven

Commissioner.

328

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

occupy the site of another public house which was called the Rope

Dancers, and afterwards (in 1784) the Blue Anchor. In 1808 the houses

both front and back were purchased by Edward Symonds Ommanney,

Esq., who took down all the old buildings and erected the present

house on the site, with a handsome verandah and balcony in front,

now removed. * He married Henrietta Maria, daughter of Sir Edmund

Lacon, Knt. and Bart., and died at Bedford in 1848, aged 68. f In 1832

the above-mentioned house was purchased by Samuel Palmer, Esq., who

was Mayor of Yarmouth in 1840, 1842, and 1845. He married Augusta,

youngest daughter of Thomas Burton, Esq., and died in 1850, s.p. (from

the effects of an accident, having been thrown out of his carriage on the

Southtown

* For the convenience of the business of the bank, the ground ﬂoor has been brought

out to the pavement.

t He was a son of Rear-Admiral Cornthwaite Ommanney (by his marriage with Miss

Maniton), who died in 1801, aged 64, “sincerely lamented by all his acquaintance.” Mr.

B. S. Ommanney’s eldest brother, Admiral Sir John Ackworth Ommanney, K.O.B., died

in 1855, aged 82. In 1793, the latter then a lieutenant, accompanied Lord Macartney’s

expedition to China. In 1797, when in command of the Busy, 18, on the Yarmouth station,

he intercepted a large ﬂeet of merchantmen under the convoy of a Swedish frigate, and

sent the whole to the Downs. He was at the battle of Navarino, where he commanded

the Albion, 74. His last appointment was that of commander-in-chief at Devonport.

Another brother, Sir Francis Molyneoux Ommanney, was for some years M.P. for

Barnstaple. A third brother was Admiral Henry Ommanney. Sir F. M. Ommanney

died in 1840, leaving (with other issue) two sons, the present Vice-Admiral Erasmus

Ommanney and Maniton Collingwood Ommanney, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Service

and Judicial Commissioner of Oude. The latter, with his wife and two daughters, was

shut up in Lucknow by the rebels. Sitting in his room, soon after the commencement

of the siege, with Sergeant-Major Watson, he was killed by a cannon ball which struck

him on the head. The sergeant-major died almost immediately, although it did not

appear that the ball had touched him. The wife and daughters were rescued by Lord

Clyde. (See Bees’ Personal Narrative.) Mr. E. S. Ommanney’s eldest son, the present

General Ommanney, was born in this house, as was also another son, Lieut-Colonel

Francis Maxwell Montagu Ommanney of the Royal Artillery, who married his cousin,

Harriot Ellen, daughter of J. M. Lacon, Esq.; and another son, Lieut. George Willes

Ommanney, who died of cholera in 1846 at Neuktul, on his march to Poonah. Mrs.

Ommanney, their mother, died at Southsea 1 in 1868, aged 79, from the effects of an

accident. This family bore per pale arg, and sa., three chev. betw. as many cinquefoils

coumterchanged; and for a crest, a cubit arm erect per pale arg. and sa., cuff of the ﬁrst,

the hand holding a battle axe on bend sinister ppr. There is a pedigree of Ommanney

dating from the 16th century in the possession of Mr. Francis Ommanney.

1 Southsea is a suburb of Portsmouth, in the main, a Victorian seaside holiday venue,

with some pleasant hotels. The hovercraft service to the Isle of Wight operates from

GREAT YARMOUTH.

329

road), aged 40 1 , and was buried in Loddon church. It was during: Mr.

Samuel Palmer’s occupation of this house, that in 1837, principally through

his instrumentality, Mr. William Wilshere of Hitchin in Hertfordshire

was induced to offer himself as a candidate for the representation of the

borough in the place of Col. Anson, who had secured a seat for South

Staffordshire. Mr. Wilshere was returned with Mr. Rumbold after a close

contest; but a petition haying been presented a compromise took place, and

Mr. Wilshere gave up his seat. It was expected that Mr. Thomas Baring,

who had been defeated at the previous election, would now be returned

without opposition; but some of Mr. Wilshere’s supporters put him again

in nomination, and he was re-elected by a majority of thirty-three votes. As

this was considered contrary to the honorable understanding between the

parties, the question was referred to the Marquis of Tavistock and. Mr. C.

B. Greville who decided that, if required by Mr. Baring, it was incumbent

on Mr. Wilshere to resign his seat, and that he was not at liberty to oppose

Mr. Baring at any future election; but Mr. Baring did not call upon him to

do so, and Mr. Wilshere retained his seat until 1841, when after a contest

he was again returned. At the next general election in 1847, Mr. Wilshere

declined to offer himself, and never afterwards entered the House of Com-

mons. During his visits to Yarmouth, Mr. Wilshere was frequently a guest

at the above-mentioned house. He died at Paris in 1867.

Row, No. 62, from the Quay to Howard Street. At the north-west corner

is an old house with a squared and smooth cut-ﬂint front, having stone

dressings to the windows. It has but one storey, with dormer windows in

the roof, and presents a good specimen of a style prevalent in the latter

part of the 17th century. The rooms are low and panelled with wainscot,

which in the hall and dining room retains its rich, dark hue uncontaminated

by paint. The hall door is still adorned by the ponderous brass knocker

common at the period when this house was erected, but now rarely to be

found. * This house extended over the

* In cases of sickness it had to be mufﬂed into silence; and especially when the mistress

was in travail (labour). In Holland an accouchment (birth) was announced by ﬁxing on

such a knocker a little, pellet of silk (klopper), which when red denoted a boy, and when

white a girl.

1 In about 1983, when there was still only one bridge over the river, the trafﬁc had built up to a

degree of considerable congestion, causing a lot of congestion, with all of the heavy lorries as well

as cars, motor cycles and so on. Some of the trafﬁc then passed down Suffolk and Stafford Roads as

a diversion from the Southtown Road, but this did not relieve the problem, since there was only one

bridge. At peak times, it took a full hour from the Beccles Road to get over the bridge to Yarmouth.

There was at that time a terrible accident on the Southtown Road, when one of the nursing sisters

from the newly opened James Paget Hospital, travelling to work, was knocked off her motor scooter

and died. In another tragic accident at the lowering of the bridge, the wire then used to close it,

had not been raised, and a young man rode his motor cycle into the wire, which cut his neck, and

no-one realising the severity, or not knowing what to do, he bled to death on the bridge.

330

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

row and also occupied the space between it and the Star Hotel, the front

being of the same character throughout. The whole of this site, with a

previous house thereon, was the property of Henry Church, who served

the ofﬁce of bailiff in 1670, and died in 1676. There is an epitaph to his

memory preserved by Le Neve 1 , in which he is styled senator, but this

must be taken in a local sense, as he was not in Parliament. He left an

only son, Henry Church, who died s.p., and ultimately the ﬁve daughters

of his sister, Mrs. Mary Mew, became his co-heirs, and by them this

property was sold to Anthony Ellys, Esq., by whom the present house was

probably erected, as his initials with the date 1694 may still be seen on a

leaden water spout. He was bailiff in 1699 and mayor in 1708, and died

in 1709, aged 75. * This family of E LLYS was quite distinct from that of

Ellis mentioned ante p. 105. Anthony Ellys was descended from Thomas

Ellys, who, by Mary his wife, had a son, Thomas Ellys of Somerleyton

in Suffolk, who died in 1646, and was buried at Ashby 2 , and who, by

Sarah his wife, had issue six sons. Thomas, the eldest, resided at Lound

in Suffolk. He married a Colville, and had issue. John, the second son,

settled at Frostenden in Suffolk. He married Mary, daughter of one Barre

of Syleham, attorney of the Court of Wards, and by her had a son, Sir

John Ellis, M.D., Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,

Vice-Chancellor of that University, commonly called the Devil of Keys,

f Sir John had a brother,

* The following inscription was on his gravestone :—” Exuvias : Anthony Ellys, “

Armigeri : Desiderium domissum sni: Respicientes: hie humo mandaverunt: “supexstitis

• Vicessimo nono die : Octobris: Anno salutis: 1709: set. suae 76.”

t Queen Anne being at Newmarket in 1705, Dr. Ellys, as vice-chancellor, attended by

the principal members of the university “in their formalities” waited upon her majesty;

and wag, introduced by the Duke of Somerset, then chancellor. The doctor made a

speech, full of expression of duty to her majesty and zeal for her government, to which

the queen gave a gracious answer. The deputation then kissed hands, and the doctor

solicited her majesty to honor the university with her presence at dinner, which invitation

she was pleased to accept. The doctor and the other members of the deputation then

waited upon the Prince of Hanover, and paid their compliments in a similar manner to

his royal highness (afterwards King George II.); and after being entertained at dinner

by the ofﬁcers of the Board of Green Cloth, returned to the university “extremely well

pleased.” Her majesty dined in the Hall at Trinity College, and it was there that she

conferred the honor of knighthood upon the vice-chancellor. On Michaelmas day in

the same year,

1 Regarding Peter Le Neve, see 133 King Street, Revised History of Grat Yarmouth.

2 The village of Ashby was completely removed in the 19th.C. clearances to promote

efﬁcient agriculture, but the church, with its thatched roof remains. There is a

notable memorial on the west boundary wall to record an American aircraft that

crashed there with no survivors in the 2nd World War

GREAT YARMOUTH.

331

Thomas Ellys, who settled in Yarmouth, where he married Katherine,

daughter of John Fuller. * Another brother was the Anthony Ellys above

named. They are both mentioned by Dean Davies, who says “28th Dec,

1689. In the afternoon I visited Mr. Thomas Ellys; and hence coming

home I waited upon Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Hannah Ellys to their brother

Anthony’s, where we supped and spent the evening at cards.” Anthony

Ellys held lands copyhold of the manor of Burgh Castle, which were

devised by his son to the daughter of the latter, Hannah, who married

William Copping of Lowestoft. This family of Ellys bore for their arms

org,, a mermaid gu., with hair comb and mirror or.; and for a crest, a

mermaid as before, f The ﬁrst-named Anthony Ellys left a son, Anthony

Ellys, who was mayor in 1705 and again in 1719. He is probably the

“Justice Ellys” mentioned by Warburton as among the “men of note in

Yarmouth.” t He died in 1736, leaving a son,

When Sir John Ellys went to swear in the Mayor of Cambridge, he claimed precedency

in the joint seat at the upper end of the guildhall. This the mayor refused to concede,

whereupon Sir John obtained an university grace discommuning his worship; the result

being that.the mayor had to apologize to the vice-chancellor, and to promise never to

be guilty of the like offence, but “to give him precedence in all places whatsoever as

of right he ought to have,” upon which the sentence of discommoning was recalled.

Cooper’s Annals, v. 4, p. 70.

* This Thomas Ellys had a house on the South Quay. Dean Davies says— “ 28 Dec,

1690. I went to church, and on my return I called at the stationer’s and “ bought The

Whole Duty of Man to bestow on Mrs. Mary Ellys; the Advice to a Daughter for her

sister Hannah; and the Countess of Morton’s Devotions for Mrs. Patty; all which cost

me £1. 5s.” Feb.6th 1690. After dinner meeting Mr. Thomas Ellys, I went with him to

his house, and there sat some time with Mrs. Fuller.” He left three daughters, Elizabeth

married, to William Pacey (merchant), Ruth married to James Ward, and Mary.

f A family of Ellis bore the extraordinay crest of a nude woman erect and regardant

with hair dishevelled, all proper. It is surmised that this crest may have been adopted at

a very early period in admiration of an antique gem with the ﬁgure of Venus engraved

thereon. As early as the reign of Edward XII. it was the crest of the Ellises of Kiddall,

a branch of which family is believed to have settled in Norfolk about the year 1300.

t He voted at the Norfolk Election in 1714 in favor of Astley and De Grey.

332

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

Dr, A NTHONY E LLYS , Bishop of St. David’s, who was a native of Yarmouth.

This prelate graduated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and having taken

holy orders was, through the inﬂuence of his father, appointed one

of the Ministers of St. George’s Chapel (for then there were two) in

1720. This preferment he resigned in the following year, “ by reason

of the provision made for him by the lord chancellor,” which was the

Rectory of St. Olave, Old Jewry, London. He became a Prebendary of

Gloucester, and in 1752 was made Bishop of St. David’s. He also held

the Vicarage of Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire, and was Chaplain to

Lord Chancellor Macclesﬁeld. He died at Gloucester in 1761, and was

buried in the cathedral of that city, where there is a tomb to his memory

bearing his shield of arms. He was considered a man of ﬁne parts, with

extensive knowledge and sound judgment, and endowed with a most

christian temper. By Anne his wife, daughter of Sir Stephen Anderson,

Bart., he left an only child, Elizabeth Frances Ellys. The bishop sold the

above house to Nathaniel Symonds, Esq., a member of a family who at

that time held large possessions in Yarmouth and its neighbour-hood. He

probably erected the lofty iron entrance gate; as it is still surmounted

by the Symonds’ crest, a dolphin naiant embowed devouring a ﬁsh. The

Yarmouth family of S YMONDS 1 descended from an ancient one of that

name long resident in Norfolk, whose pedigree is to be found in the

visitations of the county deposited in the College of Arms brought down

to 1664, from which period the descent of the Yarmouth family is fully

established. * John Symonds of Great Yarmouth who died in

* The shield anciently borne by this family was per fess sa. and arg., a pale and six

trefoils slipped and countercharged, but was afterwards changed to as., three tre-foils

slipped or. ; and again changed to sa., a dolphin naiant emb. devouring a ﬁsh ppr.; and

these coats have since been constantly borne quarterly, sometimes the ancient coat in

the ﬁrst quarter, sometimes the dolphin. These arms appeared on numerous hatchments

in Ormesby Church, and also upon the sepulchral slabs of the family in St. Nicholas’

Church. Their crest has been mentioned, and in allusion to it their motto was Rectus

in curvo.

1 Palmer’s Addenda: Symonds - there is a pedigree of Symonds compiled by Rev. W.

Grigson in the papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, vol viii,

p.417.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

333

1657, aged 59, * married, ﬁrst, Mary, daughter of Robert Stevenson

(bailiff in 1621), and by her had an only surviving son, James Symonds,

f who married Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Sheppard of Saxmundham.

t He purchased of Sir James Calthorpe, Sir Algernon May, and Sir

William Paston, lands at Ormesby, and enlarged the old mansion

there which became his country seat. He died in 1687, leaving a, son,

Jonathan Symonds of Ormesby, who married Mary, daughter of William

Cotton, Esq., third son of Sir Thomas Cotton, Bart., of Connington in

Huntingdonshire, eldest son of Sir Robert Cotton, Bart., the collector of

the Cottonian Library and founder of the British Museum. He died in

1726, aged 75, leaving an only son, Cotton Symonds, Esq., who married

Elizabeth Cotman. He resided at Ormesby, and rebuilt the south front of

the hall there. In 1734 he offered himself as; a candidate for parliamentary

honors in opposition to the Walpole and Townshend interest, but suffered

a signal defeat; the numbers being for Townshend 500, Walpole 422,

Symonds 113. He ﬁlled the ofﬁce of High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1754,

and died in 1761, aged 57 s.p., having devised his estates to his relative,

the above-named Nathaniel Symonds, son of Nathaniel Symonds of

Browston hall, Suffolk, who died in 1727, aged 33. The latter was the

son of Nathaniel Symonds of Yarmouth, who ﬁlled the ofﬁce of bailiff in

1682 and 1693, was a justice of the peace named in the charter of Queen

Anne, and died in 1708. The ﬁrst named Nathaniel Symonds married

Anne, only child and heir of Thomas Symonds, Esq., of Browston hall.

He ﬁlled the ofﬁce of mayor in 1777, and died in 1785, aged 62, §

* He was an alderman and one of the elders ; and contributed both money and plate

for the use of parliament on the breaking out of the civil war. A house belonging to

him at the south end of the town was made a. store for powder, he being then bailiff;

and in 1648 he signed, the Solemn League and Covenant, and was one of those sent

to Col. Scrope to entreat him to forbear putting a garrison in the town. His hatchment

still remains in the Parish Church.

t He signed the address to Richard Cromwell, and was bailiff in 1660.

J The Sheppards were a numerous and highly-respectable family in Suffolk, who bore

sa., a fess betw. three talbots pass. arg.

§ By his will he left a legacy to his old coachman, “Jonathan;” and directed that his

coach horses should be well cared for as long as they lived; and they

334

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

leaving an only child, James Symonds, Esq.,* of Ormesby and Great

Yarmouth, who was a magistrate for Norfolk, He married Hannah,

daughter of John Spurgeon, Esq., town clerk; and died at Ormesby in

1821, aged 65, leaving two sons, the Rev. James Symonds who married

Janet, sole child, of John Fish, Esq., of Great Yarmouth, and died in 1846;

and Charles Symonds, Esq., who, for his ﬁrst wife, married Mary Eaton, f

sole child of the Rev. Eli Morgan Price, D.D., Vicar of Runham and

Griston in Norfolk., With them this family which had been so numerous

and wealthy became extinct in Yarmouth; and what remained of their

once large possessions was dispersed.

John Symonds, with whom the above pedigree commences, married, for

his second wife, Mary, daughter of Daniel Sheppard of Saxmundham

(who died in 1691, aged 77), and by her had an only child, N ATHANIEL

S YMONDS . He graduated at Emmanuel college, Cambridge, the chapel

of which he “repaired and beautiﬁed,” and enriched the library with a

collection of medals. Inheriting a considerable patrimony, he bethought

him of the saying of the wise men of Syrack that it was “better to give

alms than to lay up gold.” Among his good deeds may be mentioned

poor debtors discharged from vile conﬁnement, a gaol delivery purchased

to the unspeakable joy of many distressed persons—widows annually

supplied with sums to enable them to subsist during the tedious months

of winter. Charity children clothed and educated—

attained (one in particular—a ﬁne black horse, with docked tail and ears, as the fashion

then was) to a great age. Old Jonathan, straight as a dart, might be seen for many years,

dressed in his long coachman’s coat, with large ﬂapped-side pockets, a wig and three-

cornered cocked hat, looking after his charge.

* There is an engraved portrait of him.

f She died at Runham in 1827, where Mr. Charles Symonds had an estate, which had

previously been the property of John Worship, Esq., and of his son, John Lucas Worship,

Esq., and which estate after the death of Mr. Symonds was purchased by the late Thomas

Brightwen, Esq., who greatly improved the hall, where he occasionally resided, and

restored the Parish church. Mr. Charles Symonds wag a Deputy-Lieutenant for Norfolk.

Riding one day on the box of a carriage which gave way, he was precipitated to the

ground, by which accident his leg was broken and he became lame for life. By his ﬁrst

marriage he had a son, Cotton Symonds, who in 1840 was presented with a gold medal

by Louis Philippe, King of the French, for saving, when in command of the Plumpstead

the lives of seven men belonging to the Tropigne of Bordeaux.

1 Palmer’s Addenda: James Symonds, 27th May 1772, Mr James Symonds, married

to Miss Sally Spurgeon; it is computed that on the death of his father he will be

worth £30,000 to £40,000 (Youell’s Diary).

GREAT YARMOUTH.

335

“Lowestoft vicarage augmented—a celebrated hospital in Germany

relieved by large remittances, and the propogation of christian knowledge

in the east encouraged.” By his will he gave £200 towards erecting a

place of public worship—£40 a year for ninety-nine years to the widows

of poor clergymen of the diocese—£40 a year for the same term to four

daughters of aldermen or common-councilmen of Great Yarmouth, they

being 40 years of age and single * —£5 a year for ﬁfteen years to be laid

out in the purchase of religious books for the poor in the the parishes of

Belton, Ormesby, Burgh, Lowestoft, and Bedingham. He died in 1720,

aged 72 s.p., and was buried in the north aisle of the Parish church, and

a funeral sermon from Matthew xxv., v. 34, 35, and 36, was preached

by the Rev. Barry Love, and published.

Before this house passed from the Symonds’ family, it was for some

years occupied by the Rev. William Lucas, who was the only child of

Gibson Lucas, Esq. (of whom hereafter), by his second wife, Charlotte,

daughter of Bartholomew Nelson of Lynn, merchant. He was Rector of

Fleggburgh and Billockby, and married Louisa, only daughter of John

Fisher, Esq., and died in 1850, aged 74, leaving two sons, one of whom

only survives, and two daughters.

The next possessor of the above-mentioned house was B ENJAMIN D OWSON ,

Esq. He was the eldest son of Benjamin Utting Dowson of Geldestone,

Norfolk, corn merchant, who died in 1843, aged 79. The latter was the son

of Benjamin Dowson of Great Yarmouth, and of Mutford, Suffolk, who

died in 1799, and who was the eldest son and heir-at-law of Benjamin

Gibson Dowson of Great Yarmouth. Mr. Benjamin Dowson for many

years conducted an extensive business as a maltster for the London

brewers (Messrs. Combe, Delaﬁeld, and Co.), and as a corn merchant

with much ability and success. Benevolent, liberal, and charitable, he

was ever ready to assist in any good work. He was Chairman of the

Victoria Building Company, and took great interest in that undertaking;

and was a generous friend to the Sailors Home and the Hospital 1 . He was

a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Norfolk. He died here in 1865,

aged 77, and was buried in the churchyard at Burgh Castle. There is a

portrait of him by Eddis.

* “Symonds’ Old Maids” as they were termed in the corporation books.

1 In 2006, the former sailor’s home and hospital on Marine Parade has been converted

from a museum, into the information services for visitors to the town.

336

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

During the many years Mr. Rumbold represented the “borough in

parliament, he frequently, especially during contested elections, resided

in this house as the guest of Mr. Dowson. Charles Edmund Rumbold,

the second son of Sir Thomas Rumbold, Bart.,* was seated at Preston

Candover in Hampshire. He was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge,

where he took his degree of M.A. in 1814. He early evinced a taste

for literature; and he was not only a ripe scholar, but master of several

modern languages. He attained his majority at the time the French were

retreating from Moscow, and he at once made his way to the rear of the

Russian army, and continued to follow them during the whole of the

ensuing campaign. He witnessed the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, and

arrived in Leipzic a few hours after the capture of that city by the allies.

Having seen enough of the horrors of war he returned to England and

landed at Great Yarmouth. In after life he was accustomed to give graphic

and most interesting descriptions to his friends of the terrible scenes he

had witnessed on the ﬁelds of battle. He stood for Yarmouth in 1818 as

a whig and gained his election. In 1820 he was again returned after a

contest; again in 1826; again in 1830; again in 1831; and again in 1832,

after the passing of the Reform Bill; each election having been contested.

In 1834 he was for the ﬁrst time defeated. In 1887 he regained his seat

after a severe contest; and was re-elected in 1841, also after a contest.

In 1847 he was defeated, but his opponents were unseated. At the next

election Mr. Rumbold was again returned, and in 1852 he was for the

ninth time elected, having

* Sir Thomas Rumbold, the father of the member, was born in 1736 at Laytonstone in

Essex, and was descended from a family anciently of that county, and in later times

settled at Farnham. At an early age he was appointed a writer at Fort St. George 1 ; but

for a time changed the civil for the military service. He was at the seige of Trichinopoly

and at the re-taking of Calcutta in 1756, and acted as aide-de-camp to Lord Olive at the

battle of Plassy. Returning to the civil service he became a member of the council far

Bengal, and succeeded Warren Hastings as Governor General in 1773. He returned to

England in 1780, and immediately became the object of much political animosity. A

bill of pains and penalties was brought in against him; but the charges were disproved

and the bill was dropped. Sir Thomas Rumbold remained in parliament until his death.

He married Johanna, youngest daughter of Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle. A vindication

of his character and administration, written by his daughter, Elizabeth Anne Rumbold,

was published in 1868.

1 fort St George is well preserved in 2006, worthy of a visit, lying about 6 miles east

of Inverness.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

337

for his colleague Sir E. H. K. Lacon, Bart.; and he continued to represent

the borough until 1857, when after a service of nearly forty years he

ﬁnally retired from public life. He died the same year, aged 68.

The house at the south-west corner of Row, No. 62, already mentioned

as having formed part of the house on the other side, was for many years

in the occupation of the Rev. John Homfray, who married Hetty, only

daughter of James Symonds, Esq. of Ormesby.*

The above-mentioned house was subsequently occupied by Hannah, the

widow of John Parr (p. 221), who died here in 1839, aged 80. The Parrs

of Beccles and North Core, Suffolk, bore gu ., a saltier or. betw.

* The name of Homfray is derived from the words Homme vrai. This family hore gu.,

a cross hottomy erm.; and for a crest an otter ppr. wounded in the shoulder, with the

motto L’homme vrai aime son pais. The Rev. John Homfray was the only child of Mr.

John Homfray of Derby, who died in 1804, by Sarah his wife, daughter of Mr. John

Parr of the same place. He graduated at Merton college, Oxford, and having settled in

Yarmouth became curate to the Rev. Richard Turner, then Minister of the Parish. In 1821

he was appointed by the corporation one of the Ministers of St. George’s chapel, which

preferment he vacated in 1839 on being instituted to the Rectory of Sutton in Norfolk

on the presentation of the Earl of Abergavenny. He died at the rectory house there,

which he had just completed, in 1842, aged 74, and his widow died ten days afterwards

in London, aged 65 . He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and took great

interest in heraldic and genealogical pursuits, in which he was assisted by his friend,

Mr. Townsend, rouge dragon, who was occasionally a guest at the above house. Mr.

Homfray issued a prospectus for publishing a new edition of Browne Willis’s History

of Mitred Abbeys, but went no further. He was an enthusiastic lover of pictures and

contrived to obtain a considerable collection, and also to form a library containing many

valuable topographical and heraldic works, the whole of which were sold by auction in

1827. His love of art was, however, so strong that he soon began another collection. He

had three sons. (1) Thomas Parr, who died vita patris; (2) Henry Revell of Stradshall

park, Suffolk, who died in 1870; and (3) Samuel Francis Wingﬁeld Clarke, Rector of

Bintry in Norfolk, who died in 1871; and several daughters. A portrait of Miss Juliana

Homfray was painted by Lane, and engraved in mezzotinto by Samuel Cousins, at the

expense of the Rev. Fred. H. Turner Barnwell, who wrote a long epitaph to her memory

in latin, which he placed in Trinity church, Marylebone. There are also portraits of Miss

Catharine Mary Homfray and Miss Janet Homfray, engraved by Harvey from portraits

by Lane. The Homfrays were distinguished amongst the soldiers of the cross, and were

eminent in the early wars of the Plantagenet kings. The annexed engraving of John

Homfray, a gallant knight in 1390, is from a painting in the British Museum. The horse

is trapped with the ancient arms of Homfray— sa., four pales erm.

338

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

four ﬂeur de lis of the second. John Farr of Beccles, who died in 1723,

was the grandfather of John Farr who purchased the North Cove estate,

and died in 1795, aged 72. * John Farr, his son, a Magistrate and Deputy-

Lieutenant for Suffolk, died in 1824, aged 67, leaving the widow above

named; f and an elder son, the late John Lee Farr, Esq.

Row No. 63, from Howard Street to the Market Place, long known as

Post-Ofﬁce Row, because a house on the north side, towards the east

end (the property of the Seaman family), was used as a post ofﬁce for

many years previous to the removal of the business to the quay in 1840.

The rise and progress of the P OST is very curious. During the middle

ages messengers were attached to the royal household, whose special

duty it was to convey letters to different parts of the kingdom, in the

same way as “queen’s messengers” now convey government dispatches

abroad. Private persons made interest to have their letters included in

the royal bag; and powerful nobles had also their special messengers,

and took charge of the letters of their friends and dependants. At ﬁrst

the horses of the king or his nobles were alone employed to make the

required journey; but Edward I. found it more convenient to hire horses

placed at ﬁxed posts along the route to be traversed, and hence the name.

After a while it was found more expeditious to change the rider, who

at some appointed distance should deliver his letters to the next post-

man. Edward IV. established posts twenty miles apart along the great

north road. The letters of the privy council addressed to the Bailiffs of

Yarmouth during Kett’s rebellion were marked on the outside— Haste

! post, haste ! — haste for your life ! — haste! The conveyance of letters

by the royal posts was at ﬁrst a favor acknowledged by a gratuity, but

when correspondence increased a ﬁxed rate of payment was made, and

then the previlege became aright. In

* Lorina his wife, whose maiden name was Fuller, predeceased him in 1794, aged 66.

She gave her name to her grandson mentioned at p. 269.

f Her maiden name was Lee; the arms borne by which family were az., two bars or.,

over all a bend counter compone gu. and ermoinois; and for a crest a grifﬁn’s head

erased arg., the neck charged with three hurts. Thomas Farr of Beccles died in 1850,

aged 87; surviving his wife, Georgiana, youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Gooch of

Benacre 1 , who died in 1828, aged 56. All were buried at North Cove.

1 The Gooch family resided at Benacre Hall still during the 1980’s and 90’s. In 1999 the

incumbent dying, the family sold the great collection of artefacts with a local sale by

Sothebys in the hall. The house was then subdivided into apartments, and the family

lives elsewhere. Victoria Gooch, daughter of the baronet, was educated at St.Felix

school, Southwold.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

339

1556 Richard Mynsterley, “one of the messengers of the Queen’s

Majesty’s Chamber,” rode from London to Yarmouth with letters for

Sir Thomas Woodhouse; and in 1563 Richard Richman “an ordinary

messenger of the Queen’s Majesty’s Chamber was entrusted with

numerous letters to be delivered at different parts of Norfolk, including

one to John Millicent,* customer 1 of the Port of Yarmouth. Private persons

were then found willing to compete with government for the conveyance

of letters, to prevent which a proclamation was issued in 1591 directing

merchants not to send their letters by “disavowed persons,” but up to the

time of Charles I. the conveyance of letters was not attended with any

proﬁt to the state. In 1631 the post master at Ipswich received twenty

shillings a quarter for forwarding the Yarmouth letters to London, paid

out of the corporation purse; which allowance was however reduced

in 1633 one half. When political events in 1644 had created a desire

for more frequent communication with London, an arrangement was

made under which letters to and from Yarmouth and London were

to be conveyed weekly; but “special messengers” were occasionally

employed when the matter was urgent; and in any case post horses were

used. In 1648 the town being alarmed by a demonstration made by the

royalist ﬂeet, Richard Bigbell was sent to London at an expense of £3.

12s. 6d., with letters for the council of state; and there are many entries

in the corporation books of the payment of special messengers for the

conveyance of letters. f Jason Grover, according to his own account in a

petition to Secretary Nicholas, was the ﬁrst to establish “posts” between

London and Yarmouth in 1620,

* He was one of the deputation who in 1530 waited upon Sir Thomas Wodehouse to

request the Mayor of Norwich and his brethren and “the worshipful of the county’’

to extend their benevolence towards the expense of forming a new haven. In 1549

George Millicent was sent up to the king in council to report the proceedings of the

rebels under Kett. Swinden p.p. 414, 937.

f In 1659 John Hill published a book entitled A Penny post, which asserted the right of

every Englishman to carry hither men’s, letters; but nearly two hundred years elapsed

before Sir Rowland Hill established the penny post (1840). At a public meeting held in

the previous year at the Town hall, petitions to both houses of parliament were adopted

in favor of the measure. Lord John Russell, by his secretary, Mr. Phillips, acknowledged

the receipt of a petition to the queen signed by “ a numerous body of females of Great

Yarmouth, connected with the seamen sailing from that port.”

1 I wonder whether Palmer meant “customs master” (Master of the Customs)?

340

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

and enjoyed the place of post master (which included Ipswich and

Norwich) for forty years (though conﬁned by the “usurping powers”

to Ipswich); and in 1660 he complains that he was required to send

the mail three times a week instead of twice. * For some years after

the restoration the rate of travelling by the mail was only three and a

half miles per hour; and even this was subject to frequent stoppages

and long delays. In July, 1666, the mail occupied sixty-six hours in

the journey to London; and upon another occasion it left Yarmouth

on Friday at ten o’clock p.m., and did not reach London till Sunday at

four o’clock p.m., when, says the report of Secretary Williamson, “it

might easily have come sixteen hours earlier;” and ofﬁcial patience

being exhausted a warrant was issued “to bring up the Yarmouth post

master in safe custody.” Among the State Papers there is a letter from

Thomas Greenwood of Yarmouth to Thomas Eaymond at Westminster,

dated 17 March, 1661, in which he complains of the frequent miscar-

riage of letters, refers to private money affairs, and mentions the dam-

age sustained on the coast during a late storm.

The ﬁrst post ofﬁce in Yarmouth was in Row No. 107; and in

1696 a great effort was made to expedite the transmission of letters,

as will be seen by the following letter addressed by the Members for

the Borough to the bailiffs.

“ G ENTLEMEN , “ November y e 10th, 1696.

This night orders will be sent to the post ofﬁce at Yar-

mouth from the great one here, that the mail shall not goe away till

10 of the clock in the morning at soonest, and to stay till 11 if occa-

sion require; w h wee suppose is an effectual and satisfactory answer

to what is desired. Y r other comands shall not slip the

memory of

* State Papers, p. 97. In 1660 Katharine de Luke, widow, peti-

tioned the Crown for a lease of waste ground between Caister rails

and the pier head, on the ground that she had served Charles I. in

carrying letters when none else durst hazard it, for which she had

been sent to bridewell, whipped every other day, burnt with lighted

matches, and. cruelly tormented, but would not betray her trust.

S . P., p. 292.

Y r faithful and humble Sev ts ,

GEORGE ENGLAND

“SAMUEL FULLER.”

GREAT YARMOUTH.

341

The post having become a means for the transmission of money, the

cupidity of “highway-men” was excited, especially when coaches were

substituted for saddle bags, and larger amounts in coin were conveyed.

In 1698 the post from Yarmouth was robbed near London of about £500

worth of exchequer bills, and at subsequent periods it was frequently

stopped and robbed; nor were the letters transmitted by it considered

safe from inspection especially in times of political excitement. In 1703

the “Independent church’’ at Yarmouth, desiring to write a letter to

their friends at Wrentham, sent their communication by a messenger to

“Laystoft and soe forward, not thinking it safe to goe by post.” * In 1741

the postmaster general, “for the beneﬁt of trade, thought proper to put

in practice a scheme for dispatching letters to Yarmouth daily (Sundays

excepted), instead of three times a week as theretofore;” but the post

still travelled in peril, for in 1749 “the Yarmouth bag was taken away

by two footpads between Ingatestone and Rumford.” When coaches

were established “the guard “ was in fact what the name implied, and he

always went armed and had frequently occasion to defend himself and

the bags under his charge, f In the early part

* Little reliance was then placed upon the security of the post. Mr. Thornhaugh Gurdon,

writing from Norwich to his brother, the Rev. Brampton Gurdon, at Cambridge in

1711, says “ Last Thursday I had two letters from Col. Wodehouse of the same date,

for fear one might miscarry, and both brought the same news, viz., that Sir John

Wodehouse and he had prevailed on the Lords of the Treasury to promise me the

General Receiver’s place.” He obtained this lucrative ofﬁce for the county of Norfolk,

but was deprived of it, and also struck out of the commission of the peace, on the

accession of the House of Hanover. The Gurdons take their name from Gourdon near

Cahors in France, and came into England with the Conqueror. Robert Gurdon (who died

in 1577), son of John Gurdon of Dedham in Essex, purchased the Assington estate in

Suffolk of Sir Miles Corbet, Knt. John Gurdon, his-grandson, represented Suffolk in the

Long Parliament, and was named one of the committee appointed to sit in judgment on

Charles I., but did not attend the trial. Assington hall is still possessed by his descendants.

The Gurdons acquired the Letton estate, in Norfolk, by the marriage of John Gurdon

(High Sheriff in 1385), son of Robert Gurdon of Assington, with Amy, daughter and

heir of William Brampton, Esq., who was of an ancient Norfolk family. The Gurdons

bear sa., three leopards’ faces jessant ﬂeura de lys or. The name of Thornhaugh was

acquired by the marriage of Brampton Gurdon, Esq., with Elizabeth, daughter of Francis

Thornhaugh of Fenton in Nottinghamshire.

f In 1775 the Norwich coach was attacked in Epping Forest by seven highwaymen,

three of whom the guard shot dead on the spot; but his ammunition failing he

342

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

of the present century the mail from London did not arrive until late in

the afternoon, the up mail having left the Duke’s Head at 2 o’clock p.m.

In 1807 complaints were made to the postmaster general that letters were

Beldom ready for delivery till near four o’clock p.m., while owing to

some dispute among the coach proprietors the time for posting letters

was limited to 12.30 instead of 2 p.m. as theretofore. Some improvement

afterwards took place, but for many years letters could either not be

answered the same day or merchants and traders had but scant time in

which to do it, the in and out coaches, especially in winter, often passing

each other on the road. In 1819 the Yarmouth bag began to be

“conveyed by a patent mail coach, which,” the announcement said, “will

travel so much quicker than the usual mode of conveyance as to enable

the inhabitants to answer letters one day earlier than heretofore”. The

mail leaving London at the usual time will arrive in Yarmouth at ll h.

40m. the next morning, and depart at in the afternoon. Yarmouth being

distant 124 miles from London, will be the only town in the kingdom

at so great a distance enjoying such an “accommodation.” At that time,

and for many years afterwards, the letter carrier for the southern half of

the town was an old woman named Ann Garter, who, fortiﬁed by a glass

of gin and with “ spectacles on nose,” slowly trudged from door to door

delivering her letters, and depositing in a capacious pocket in front of

her white apron the exhorbitant rates then demanded; postage stamps

being unknown. *

The ofﬁce of postmaster was for many years held by the Seaman family.

Samuel Seaman died in 1783, aged 76. Thomas Seaman, his son, ma.rried

a daughter of John Aldham, solicitor, Norwich, and dying in 1793, was

succeeded by his son, Thomas Seaman, who married Deborah, daughter

of Samuel Lewis, C. C, and died in 1823, aged 65. The duties of the

ofﬁce were afterwards discharged by his daughters until the removal of

the business to the quay.

himself was shot and the bags stolen. Guards were subject also to other perils, for in

1811, J. King, guard to the Yarmouth mail coach, was taken before the lord mayor upon

the singular charge of having purchased guineas at 25s. 6 d. each; the giving more than

21s. being then illegal, and the offence punishable by ﬁne and imprisonment. This

was to prevent the exportation of gold.

* The postage from Yarmouth to Norwich was then 6d., to London 10d., to

GREAT YARMOUTH.

343

At the west end of Row No. 63, at the back of the house and liquor shop,

fronting Howard street, rebuilt by Mr. Joseph Tomlinson, who died in

1867, aged 72, there was a house fronting east towards a large garden,

long the residence of Robert Woolmer, solicitor, who died unmarried

in 1807, aged 96, leaving a considerable fortune to the Cory family, to

whom he was not related. * It was afterwards occupied by Mrs. Ruxby,

widow of Thomas Ruxby, wine merchant, who died in 1796. In 1851

some malthouses were erected here; and in digging the foundation there

was found at the depth of six feet a portion of a very massive wall running

north and south, with some remains of stone and wood work and some

fragments of pottery. A drawing was made on the spot by Winter, and

the dimensions ascertained.

At the north-east corner of this row is a house and shop which in the early

part of the last century was the property of William Carpenter of Aldeby,

Norfolk. After having been subsequently for many years in the Seaman

family, these premises were purchased in 1808 by William Absolon, who

died in 1815, aged 64. About the year 1790 he established

Edinburgh 1s. 2d. The above “messenger of weal and woe” died in the

workhouse in 1835, aged 77, having performed the duties of her ofﬁce

until a few years of her decease.

* He was fourth in descent from Wm. Woolmer of Earsham, who died in 1664; and

was the only son of Robert Woolmer, by Mary his wife, daughter of R. Ward of Bixley.

Robert Woolmer of Yarmouth appears by an old seal, remaining in the possession of Mr.

S. B. Cory, to have borne on a ﬁeld three masons or lozenges voided; and for a crest,

the sun in splendour. Mr. Dawson Turner used to relate that he once heard Woolmer

declare that; he had asked Mrs. Bendish, Cromwell’s grand-daughter, whether she had

ever been at court; to which her reply was “ Never, since I was waited upon there on

the knee!” This might be true, as Woolmer was 27 years of age at the death of Mrs.

Bendish. After the breaking out of the French revolution, when severe enactments were

passed to prevent the spread of sedition, “old cocky Woolmer,” as he was called, used

to console himself by saying “Well, they can’t hang a man for thinking.” A family of

this name ﬂourished at Stratford-on-Avon in the 18th century, and bore gu., a chev.

betw. three escallop shells arg, ; and for a crest, a dexter arm grasping a sword point

upwards, environed by a serpent ppr. Thomas Woolmer, who was for ﬁfty years Town

Clerk of Stratford, placed these quaint professional lines on the monument to his wife,

who died in 1704 :—

“Mirrour of curtesie—adieu !

“Belov’d by all,—by all bewail’d ;—

“Till the last trump thy life renew;

“O that our tears might thee have bail’d.”

1 Palmer’s Addenda: Lawyer’s epitaphs - an unusual epitaph at Swanton Morley for

Thomas Fleming, born 1615, died 1657:

Weep widows orphans, all your late support;

Himself is summoned to a higher court;

Living, he pleaded yours, but with this clause:

That Christ, at death, should only plead his cause.

344

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

a pottery in Yarmouth, at a place long called “The Ovens.” The ware

manufactured resembled the queen’s ware of Wedgewood, and some

specimens may be found in the cabinets of collectors exhibiting ﬂowers

and fruit on a cream-coloured ground. * The above-mentioned premises

were afterwards for many years occupied by Mr. Bond, druggist, f

The adjoining house to the north (No. 184) was in the early part of the last

century called the Star; and was occupied in 1808 by William Presant,

as a butcher’s shop. At the south-east corner of the same row is a shop

now occupied by Mr.George Nall, t bookseller and printer, where early in

the present century

Mr.Charles Sloman

established and

carried on the same

business. The latter

was an excellent

typographer, and

was employed by

Mr.Dawson Turner

for the production

of most of his works.

Having disposed

of his business in

1857, he retired to

Southtown, where

he died in 1866,

aged 82.§

f Here died in 1868

Millison, relict of

Barnabas Bond of

Pulham St. Mary,

Norfolk, aged 91.

Charles George Cock, one of the sequestrators in the time of the commonwealth, and

who was Recorder of Yarmouth from 1655 to 1660, married Ann, daughter and heir

of Richard Bond. Cock bore quarterly gu. and arg. ; and Bond arg. on a chev. three

bezants. See P. C, p. 344.

t The name was not unknown in Yarmouth. John Nail was admitted a freeman in 1682.

Meddowe Nall (son of Meddowe Nall) voted at a Yarmouth election in 1754, and William

Nall in 1777; after which time the name disappears from the borough roll.

§ Mr. W. P. Sloman, of the house of Schroder and Sloman, Crutched Friars, died at

Yarmouth in 1811. A member of this family also established a large commercial house

at Hamburg, where he died a few years ago.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

345

The house adjoining to the south (No. 181) was long known as the

Shakspear Tavern, the license for which has been removed, and it is

now occupied as a shop. Early in the last century, and for many years

afterwards, it was known as the Scotch Arms.

The next house to the south (No. 180) was long occupied by “William

Alexander, bookseller, who died in 1858, aged 95. * This house was

rebuilt for Mr. W. D . Burton, bookseller and printer; but the halo which

played round the old and inconvenient shop departed from the new and

spacious one, and the business was relinquished. The sites of all these

houses, with the ground at their back extending a considerable way

westward, were in 1672 purchased by Sir James Johnson, Knt., of the

England, family, having previously been the property of Joshua Smith

and William Cosh (brewer). In 1730 Thomas Godfrey, wine cooper,

purchased the Scotch Arms, and he was also possessed of the adjoining

property to the south.

Row No. 63 1/2 leads from Howard Street towards the Market Place,

and is called Turnpike Row, probably from there having been at the end

of it a pike to prevent the passage of carts. f

into No. 64, from King Street to Theatre Plain, being the ﬁrst row south

of the Market place, to which we must now return. In 1713 a C HARITY

S CHOOL 1 was established for teaching poor boys or poor girls or poor

children to read—and instructing them in the knowledge and practice of

the christian religion as professed and taught in the Church

* He was a Unitarian in religion, and a radical in politics. For forty years in succession

he petitioned the House of Commons to abolish the punishment of death. He kept a diary

which probably contains many matters of interest, if it be in existence. Ruth, his ﬁrst

wife, dying in 1827, aged 75, he married, secondly, his shopwoman, a most respectable

person, long a favorite with the public under the name of “Betty.” She died in 1866, aged

88; and they are both buried in the Rosary at Norwich. The rival booksellers were as

unlike in personal appearance as they were in politics. Sloman was tall, thin, erect, and

sedate as became the exponent of the church and tory party; while Alexander, who was

short and rotund, with a large bald head, restless eyes and quick manner, represented

the dissenting and liberal party. Both were good citizens.

f In 1663 Capt. Johnson, having as was alleged encroached upon the Turnpike Row, a

committee of ten persons was appointed to view the premises and report thereon.

1 The Blue Coat School : see Market Place, volume 2, The Revised History of Great

Yarmouth for a detailed History of this school.

346

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

of England; and such other things as are suitable to their condition

and capacity;” and in 1723 the corporation granted a piece of ground

at the south-east corner of the Market place, described as “a piece of”

waste ground near the main guard, between houses of John Dodgein,

the butcher, north, and a certain place called Bolt’s corner, south, upon

which the schoolrooms now standing were erected 1 . In 1749 a deed

of settlement was drawn tip, the trustees being the Incumbent of the

Parish and the Ministers of St. George’s Chapel, with some of the then

principal inhabitants. In 1785 the corporation granted an additional site

to the north, upon which the master’s house was erected. Two ﬁgures,

in niches, on the front of this building were removed from the old vestry

in St. Nicholas’ Church, when the same was demolished in 1848. See

Vignette ante. p. 165.

In 1678 the site of the houses now at the south end of the Market Place,

and lying between King Street and the Theatre Plain, was open ground,

and was in that year granted by the corporation to Mitchell Mew, a man

of considerable property, whose name we shall again have occasion to

mention. He in 1681 sold the ground to Roger Tompson, oatmeal maker,

who in 1683 conveyed it to Robert Boult (miller) and Benjamin Boult

(carpenter and millwright), at which time it is described as “ waste ground

lying on the Dene side,” and abutting north upon “the Market place or

waste ground of the Bailiffs, Aldermen, Burgesses, and Commonalty of

the Town of Great Yarmouth,” and which ground was then enclosed by a

“ fence of posts and bords.” It appears by this deed that the street to the

west was then called “the King’s Street.” Four houses were erected upon

this ground, which in 1750 were conveyed to Thomas Woods, stationer,

and passed into the possession of Thomas Leath, surgeon, by whom in

1781 the property was sold to John Scales, Philip Pullyn, Samuel Mason,*

and John Sims, who made great alterations and ﬁtted up the houses as a

bank, but soon afterwards the partnership was dissolved, and the banking

business was carried on by Messrs. Mason and, Woods, who were also

corn merchants, and in

* Mason had an estate at Belton and Bradwell, Suffolk (ultimately possessed by the

Fowlers), which on his marriage with Mary, the daughter of James Clifton, was brought

into settlement in 1756, John Cotman and Thomas Adkin being the trustees. She died

in 1757, aged 30.

1 This is again a very good example of where Palmer has, as a solicitor, access to the

deeds of many properties anround the town, and here has quoted directly from such

a deed.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

347

1783 they became bankrupts. In 1797 this property was purchased by

Thomas Bateman, Esq., M.D., and in 1821 it was conveyed by him to

his son, George Bateman, Esq., M.D., who had previously occupied the

same. * In 1859 the premises were conveyed to the Trustees of the Great

Yarmouth Savings Bank, for the purposes of which institution the property

has been adapted with a new front elevation. The houses adjoining to the

west of the Savings Bank, and fronting north on the Market place and

to the west on King street, were in 1729 in the possession of Charles

Gray (bookseller) and John Boswell (butcher), the latter having married

the widow of Benjamin Boult. In 1797 the house fronting the Market

place was in the occupation of William Taylor, surgeon, who afterwards

resided on the west side of the Market place, as already mentioned, but

eventually returned to this house where he died. The house fronting

King street was at the commencement of the present century occupied

by James Black, bookseller, printer, and stationer, who in 1805 sold

the business to Mr. Pexall Forster of Ipswich, who had in 1793 married

Miss Smith of Yarmouth. It was subsequently occupied by Mr. Keymer,

already mentioned ( ante. p. 275). f The ground south of Row No. 64

was ﬁrst enclosed in

* This name has already been mentioned (p. 126). It belonged to an old family at

Norwich, many of whose members ﬁlled the ofﬁce of bailiff in that city from an early

period. They had an estate at Flixton in Suffolk. (Add. M.S. 5524). In 1665 the bailiffs

received a letter from the king, in which, after lamenting the sickness in the town and

the sufferings of the people, recommended them to dispense with such formalities as

could not well be observed, and elect William Bateman and Robert Michelson as bailiffs

for the ensuing year, which was done. Thomas Bateman, Esq., M.D., married a Cubitt

of Honing. He held an estate at Ludham under lease from the Bishop of Norwich, the

occupants of which see had been accustomed in former times to make the hall one of

their country seats. He ﬁlled the ofﬁce of mayor in 1819, and died in 1834. George

Bateman, his eldest son, practised for many years as a surgeon at Yarmouth, and on

retiring obtained the degree of M.D. He married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Mr.

Ridge, surgeon, by whom he had an only child, a daughter, Louisa Eliza, who married

Joseph Bright, Esq., but died shortly afterwards at Naples in 1850, s.p. Dr. George

Bateman died at Leamington in 1857, aged 69. Charlotte, youngest daughter of Dr.

Thomas Bateman, and widow of Nathan Gray, died at No. 55, North Quay, August

10th, 1370, aged 77, and was the last of this family in Yarmouth.

f He printed an edition of the Bible in 4to., a copy of which was in the Duke of Sussex’s

collection.

348

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

1678, was also granted to Mitchel Mew. The house at the north-west

corner was erected by Mr. John Pritchard, surgeon, who died in 1850. The

house to the south of this row was the property of Mary Buell, widow,

who in 1761 devised it to her mother, Elizabeth Thompson, widow, whose

heir-at-law, Richard Harley, joined in conveying the same to Robert

Smith, who sold the house to George Thompson, merchant. In 1785 this

house was conveyed to James Lucas Worship, Esq., who died in 1790.

In 1808 the property was purchased by Press Turner, pastry cook, who

immediately conveyed it to Pexall Forster 1 , bookseller, who the next

year became bankrupt. * The house was then sold to Robert Marston

of Martham, farmer ; and was for many years afterwards known as a

lodging house. In this vicinity was a stationer’s shop sometime occupied

by Mr. Fortunatus R. T. Crisp, who afterwards settled in London, where

he became the proprietor and editor of the Farmers’ Journal and the

Agricultural Magazine, and died in 1869, aged 62.

Row No. 65 from King Street to Theatre Plain. At the south-west

corner, now divided into two occupations, No. 7 and 8, there is a large

house, formerly occupied by Mr. Dakin, brazier, f Further south is a row

unnumbered and impassable for carts, leading from King Street to Theatre

Plain., At the north-west corner is a tavern called the Rose; t and still

farther south, at the north-west corner of the opening leading to Regent

road, there was an old liquor shop which, in the latter part

* After this misfortune he was appointed Librarian at the Public Library, which ofﬁce

he ﬁlled for some years. Pexall Forster, Precentor of Norwich Cathedral and Doctor of

Music, was “taken thence into the Heavenly Choir,” as his epitaph informs us, in 1719,

aged 26. He bore arg., a chev. betw. three bugle horns sa. Pexall Forster, who died in

1764, was a common councilman and searcher of the customs.

f Whether he was entitled with the late Lord Mayor of London to bear the family motto

of Strike, Dakin, strike ; the devil’s in the hemp, cannot be asserted. See Denham’s

Slogans of the North of England.

J This national emblem is one of the oldest of signs. It was adopted by the vintners.

During the contest between the factions of York and Lancaster, the Rose at public

houses became red or white as either party prevailed. The Rose in the middle ages had

also a religious meaning, and was an emblem of the Virgin. In the 16th century there

was a suit to establish the right of Titus Marcan “to an Inn called the Rose” which had

been the estate of Nicholas Marcan his father. This name is, extinct but there is a good

Norfolk family named Marcon*

1 Palmer’s Addenda: Pexall Forster - whose shop afforded a convenient lounge to

members of the Army and Navy, being nearly opposite the row in which the post

ofﬁce was then situated. In 1806, Pexall Forster published An Historical Guide to

Great Yarmouth , probably the ﬁrst publication of its kind. A third edition was printed

by J Barnes bookseller, King Street, 1821.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

349

of the last century, was in the occupation of Mr. Hallmarke, who might

be seen standing at his door attired in a long white apron, as was the

habit with wine and liquor merchants in those days. * He was succeeded

by Mr. Diver; and the latter by his son, Mr. W. H. Diver 1 , who died in

1871, aged 86, by whom the house next King street was rebuilt.

The Plain upon which the three last mentioned rows opened extended

from what had formerly been the Main Guard to the town gate, leading

to St. George’s Denes, and was bounded towards the east by the town

wall, which had been “rampired” almost to the top. A narrow street,

now called Fish Street, leads from the Market Gate to Bolt’s Corner ;

and passing what had been the Main Guard divided it from the Charity

School. Part of the premises, formerly the Main Guard, was for many

years occupied as a chandlery. f In Fish street there is a chapel belonging

to the Countess of Huntingdon’s connection. t

The above open space acquired the name of Theatre Plain in 1778, when

a T HEATRE was erected in the centre of it.

The ﬁrst trace of dramatic representations in England is to be found in

what were called “Miracle” or “Mystery plays.” They were introduced

by the ecclesiastics in the 12th century, and were performed in churches;

and in the 14th century they became very general and popular. They were

intended to present to the people a vivid representation of the principal

events in scripture, and were produced at all the great festivals of the

church. Christmas was a favorite time for mummers and players; and

we ﬁnd from the Yarmouth church accounts, quoted by Swinden, that in

1493 the churchwardens received

* Mr. Hallmarke married Elizabeth, only child of Thomas Hammond. There is a portrait

of him, by F. Vandermyn, in the possession of Francis Worship, Esq.

f The making of candles, like all other trades, was subject to special regulations. The

price was ﬁxed by the corporation at 2d. per lb. in 1552, and butchers were in the same

year compelled to sell their tallow to the chandlers, and not to make candles themseles

as they had previously done. In 1805 the building, “ formerly used as a chandling

ofﬁce, situate near the Main Guard,” was granted to Levi Barlow Clarke and Richard

Millison Boardman, Deacons of the Independent Meeting, commonly called the Soap

Ofﬁce Meeting.

t Of this chapel the Rev. John Meffen was for upwards of ﬁfty years minister. He died

in 1870, aged 93.

1 Diver’s wine merchants was in King Street, on the north-east corner of Regent Road,

where in 2006 stands Farmer’s shoe shop. A public house called “Divers” has for many

years stood on the West side of King Street.

350

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

xvs. xd. for “a game” played on that day in St. Nicholas’ Church. * Before

the Epiphany the old “star” had to be “scowered” or a new star made, a

balk ﬁxed up and two lines prepared, one “a nine-thread” and the other a

“six-thread,” which were employed “to lead the star.” These were used on

“the Feast of the Star” as it was called. The magi were represented by two

priests, who entering the church at the great west door proceeded up the

nave until, on approaching the chancel, they perceived the star hanging

before the great cruciﬁx on the rood loft, which moving back by means

of lines and pulleys conducted them to the high altar, where, on putting

aside a curtain, a living child was discovered representing the infant

Jesus. At the same time three priests dressed as kings met from different

directions before the altar, attended by servants bearing presents. During

all this time an appro-priate dialogue was kept up. Offerings having been

made, f the kings and the magi engaged in prayer, until a boy, representing

an angel, informed them that “all things had been fulﬁlled,” when the

festival concluded with chanting. On Easter day there was always a grand

spectacle, and the stage properties were numerous. Then “a sepulchre

had to be fetched in on Easter eve, and set up in the chancel, guarded by

an angel which occasionally required “mending.” In Passover week the

“Paschal” was displayed, to signify the new ﬁre or doctrine of Christ,

and there are charges for “setting up the Paschal”—purchasing “a new

forelock” — “making a wheel” — “painting the Paschal,” hanging it up

and taking it down again. t

* “The Creation” and “Adam and Eve” in paradise were performed in a gross manner;

and the birth of the Saviour was represented as taking place on the stage.

f The well-known twelfth cakes represent these offerings.

t Akin to these dramatic representations is the Passionsspied still performed every ten

years by the peasants of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Tyrol 1 . See Blackburn’s Art in

the Mountains. In connection with representations of this kind the following anecdote

may be mentioned. Many years ago an Italian vessel was lying at Yarmouth quay.

Suddenly there was a great commotion on board. Apparently an old Jew was dragged

from below, and when on deck was buffetted, spit upon, derided, and most unmercifully

beaten. Preparations were then made for hanging him at the yard arm ; a rope was rove,

the noose passed over his neck, and he was run up. This was too much for the people

who had collected on shore; they rushed on board, drove

1 One hundred and thirty two years later, the Passion Play at Oberamergau is a very

famous event, a sell-out, that needs booking years in advance to have any chance of

attendance.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

351

The festival on Corpus Christi day usually surpassed the others

in pageantry; and was intended to signify the mystical doctrine of

transubstantiation. In 1489 we ﬁnd by the churchwardens’ accounts that

there was a proﬁt of II lb. xs. on “the play that was made at Bartlemewtide,

all charges paid.” Sometimes the stage “properties” were lent to other

places, for in the churchwardens’ accounts for Bungay Holy Trinity is

this entry— “P d to Will m Holbruck for rydyng to Yarmouth for ye game

gere, xij” On Shrove Tuesday, in many parts of the country, a man rode

about to represent Lent, clad in white and red herring skins, with his horse

trapped with oyster shells. A favorite performance in many churches was

the Miracle of St. Nicholas; but how the children were cut in pieces and

joined together again is not clearly shown. At the reformation, when

religious dramas ceased to be performed in the church, the corporation

set apart a portion of the garden of the priory “adjoining the town wall

near Pooden gate” (the site of the present Primitive Methodist Chapel),

upon which they erected “a game house;” and in 1538, when they granted

a lease of these premises to Robert Copping, they stipulated that he

should “permit and suffer all such players and their audience to have the

pleasure and use of the s d house and game place, at all such times as any

interludes or plays should be ministered or played at any time; without

any proﬁt thereof to him or his assigns to be taken.” Players were then

considered legally as “vagrants,” and could only escape being treated

as such by attaching themselves to some great nobleman, whose livery

they sometimes wore, and they were (partly at least) supported by his

bounty, and could only perform with his permission. When this was not

the case, they were the servants of the crown, and performed in places

duly licensed; thus all public Theatres are styled Theatres Royal, and

actors are to this day called “Her Majesty’s servants.”* In 1695 the

corporation made an order

off the crew, and cut the rope, when down, came a stuffed ﬁgure intended to represent

Judas Iscariot; the proceedings of the crew being intended to typify the detestation in

which the betrayer was held; the day being Good Friday.

* Bishops had the privilege of licensing both players and surgeons in the reigns of

Henry VII, and Henry VIII.

352

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

that no plays should be performed without the “town music!” Was this

done to cultivate a correct taste; or to provide funds for the musicians?

Benjamin Grifﬁn, an actor of considerable eminence in low comedy,

especially in representing testy old men, was born at Yarmouth in 1680.

He was the son of the Rev. B. Grifﬁn, Rector of Buxton and Oxnead, and

Chaplain to the Earl of Yarmouth, who died in 1694, aged 37, leaving a

wife and three children unprovided for. The son received some education

at the North Walsham Grammar School, but on his father’s death was

apprenticed to a glazier at Norwich. Having a brisk genius, and active

spirit and becoming acquainted with a strolling company of players

who frequented that city, he ran away from his master and became an

actor, and in 1714 he was engaged at the new Theatre in Lincoln’s Inn

Fields, and ultimately performed at Drury Lane. He was the author of

several plays and farces, including Injured Innocence, Love in a Sack,

the Humours of Purgatory, the Masquerade, and Whig and Tory. He died

in 1740, aged 59. There is an engraved portrait of him from a picture by

Peter Van Bleech.

At Norwich a company of comedians was formed who occupied

apartments at the Swan Inn. Subsequently a building in the Swan yard

was ﬁtted up for their performances; and the Theatre still exists in this

locality. William West, a member of this company, died in 1733, aged

32. * Henrietta Maria Bray, a popular actress, died in 1737, aged 60. f

Another actress was Anne Roberts t , who died in 1743, aged 30. The

Norwich company made periodical visits to Yarmouth, and a warehouse,

which occupied part of the site of Middlegate Chapel

* He was buried in the neighbouring churchyard of St. Peter’s Mancroft,

and the headstone had the following inscription :—

“ To me ‘i was given to die; to thee ‘t is giv’n “ To live : alas ! one moment sets us

ev’n, “ Mark how impartial is the will of heaven.” f She was also buried at St. Peter’s

Mancroft, with this epitaph :— “ Here, reader, you may plainly see, “ That wit nor

humour cannot be “ A proof against mortality.”

t Likewise buried at St. Peter’s Mancroft, with this inscription :—

“ The world’s a stage — at birth our play’s begun,

“ And all ﬁnd exits when their parts are done.”

GREAT YARMOUTH.

353

lately erected, was in 1710 ﬁtted up for their accommodation. When they

were dispossessed to make room for the New Meeting 1 , the corporation

in 1736 caused the town chamber, previously used as a Dutch, chapel

and afterwards as a place for morning prayer, to be ﬁtted as a Theatre

“for the use of the comedians.”* The arrival of “the players” was looked

forward to with great interest by the inhabitants. When the fashionable

dinner hour was at two or three o’clock, the performance commenced

at ﬁve. Sylas Neville mentions in his journal being frequently present,

f “Our players are just come,” writes Ives, Jun., in November, 1770. “I

was there on Friday evening. We have got some new ones, but they are

poor wretches. Indeed I think the company is at the lowest I ever knew.

Chalmers is here, t but is not suffered to appear on the stage. Elated with

the thought of preferment in London, the last night he played at Norwich

he spoke an epilogue riding upon an ass; and in very plain terms bid

the audience do a very unmannerly thing. Quarrelling afterwards with

Foote, he threw up his London engagement, came down to Norwich

and offered to make satisfaction for his public affront which was not

accepted, and he was forbid the stage. § His wife however was allowed

to appear. As public taste for the stage increased, the Norwich company

rapidly improved until the Theatre became too small for the

* It was opened on the 13th of December with The Spanish Friar, or The Double

Discovery.

f When residing in London and Edinburgh he was a constant frequenter of the Theatres,

and has left his opinion of all the principal actors and actresses of that period. “

Prevented getting into the pit of Drury Lane till ﬁve o’clock,” he says in 1767, and

was so squeezed could scarcely use my glass.” He frequently went at four o’clock

to secure a good place, taking a book with him. “Nov.11,1767, dined at Terry’s. At

four went into the pit at Drury Lane to see the tragedy of Zara — “Susegnan by Mr.

Garrick with his usual excellence.” On another occasion, “ altho’ I got into the pit

ﬁfteen minutes past four, obliged to stand in the well— “Archer by Garrick.” So great

was the attraction of Garrick, that on another time he says “ at forty-ﬁve minutes past

three o’clock went to Drury Lane Theatre, and though I was there before the doors

were opened, got into the pit with the greatest difﬁculty and stood against a pillar in

a very disagreeable position.”

t James Chalmers. There is an engraved portrait of him.

§ From an autograph letter penes R . Fitch, Esq., of Norwich.

1 There are pictures and plans of the New Meeting House in Middlegate in The Revised

History of Great Yarmouth.

354

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

audience, and greater accommodation was required. Application was

made to the corporation for leave to build a new one on the above-

mentioned plain; and in 1778 the corporation granted a lease to Gibson

Lucas, Esq., and ten other gentlemen for a term of 99 years, * of the

ground upon which the present building was erected; and on the 1st of

December in that year the new Theatre was opened by the performance

of “The English Merchant.” From this period the Norwich company

acquired considerable reputation for the abundance of theatrical talent

which they brought forth, and with which the London Theatres were from

time to time supplied. Charles Murray was a noted actor herein 1783.

He was the father of Mrs. Henry Siddons, who was born at Norwich in

that year. She died in 1844. To Richard Grifﬁth, when manager of the

Norwich company, Mrs. Inchbald (whose maiden name was Simpson,

and who was born at Stanningﬁeld, near Bury St. Edmund’s, in 1753)

applied for a theatrical engagement, when she left her widowed mother’s

house and commenced her extraordinary career; and for some time she

appeared on the Norwich and Yarmouth boards. In 1785 the Theatre was

under the management of George Leonard Barrett, f who among other

means of acquiring popularity, devoted part of the receipts to the relief

of incarcerated debtors. He brought out Mrs. Belﬁlle, upon whose ﬁrst

appearance the hour of commencement was delayed till six o’clock; and

she appears to have created a great sensation. Barrett was succeeded by

John Brunton, during whose management the Norwich company attained

to the greatest popularity and success. Louisa his daughter married in

1807 the Earl of Graven, and by him was mother of William, eighth

baron and second Earl of Graven. t Brunton was an admirable judge of

theatrical talent, and in 1793 he engaged Blanchard, who remained with

the Norwich company until his great reputation attracted the attention of

the London managers, and he went to Covent Garden. § John Powell

also, for forty years an actor at Drury

* This lease was renewed in 1815 to Mr. William Wilkins for 99 years, he undertaking;

to expend £1,500 in the improvement of the Theatre.

f He died in 1795. There is an engraved portrait of him.

t Elizabeth, another of Brunton’s daughters, an actress of merit, married Mr. Merry.

There are engraved portraits of both sisters.

§ He died in 1835. There is an engraved portrait of him.

GREAT YARMOUTH.

355

Lane, commenced his career on the Norwich stage. * In 1794 a play was

performed at the Yarmouth Theatre for the beneﬁt of the widows and

orphans of the men killed In Lord Howe’s victory on “the glorious ﬁrst

of June.” In the early part of the present century Mr. J. C. Hindes became

the manager. He was succeeded by Mr. Smith, well known in Yarmouth

for many years. Dressed in a well-brushed tight-ﬁtting coat, black knee-

breeches, and silk stockings, with a white cravat, over which appeared

his rubicund clean-shaved face, surmounted by a brown-scratch wig, Mr.

Smith might be seen standing daily, during the season, near the box-ofﬁce

of the Theatre, at the hours when tickets could be taken and seats secured,

f He was a man of good manners; and annually dined by invitation with

the mayor, as the custom, then was t Bellamy, an actor of considerable

merit in genteel comedy, was afterwards associated with Smith in the

management. § Among others who were from time to time attached

to the Norwich company, and who performed at Yarmouth, were Mrs.

Webb, Mrs. Faucitt, and Miss Greville, who all went to Covent Garden

Theatre. || Also Robert Jerrold, whose nom-de-guerre was Fitzgerald. He

was uncle to the well-known Douglas Jerrold 1 . Miss Goward, a native

of Ipswich, made her ﬁrst appearance on the Yarmouth stage, at the age

of 16, in the character of “Lucy Bartram.” p John Purdy Beacham, a

respectable actor and a

* He died in 1836 at Zorra in Upper Canada, aged 82. There is an engraved portrait

of him.

f Mr. Hunt, the popular boxkeeper, and his annual beneﬁt must be in the recollection

of many persons still living.

t Fitzgerald tells us that in Garrick’s time, the manager of Drury Lane Theatre was

expected to appear at court; and in Ireland, down to a very recent period, the lord

lieutenant was accustomed to include the manager of the Dublin Theatre among his

dinner guests.

§ He subsequently became lessee of the Upper Assembly Rooms at Bath. There is an

engraved portrait of him.

|| Mrs. Webb died in 1793. There are portraits of all three actresses.

p Here she met Keeley, then a favorite actor, who married her, and took her to London,

where he soon made his way up the theatrical ladder, his wife being equally a favorite

with the public. After forty years of popularity, Keeley died in 1869, leaving a widow

and two daughters, one of whom married Albert Smith, for some years a popular

entertainer of the public; and the other, Mr. Montagu Williams.

1 Douglas Jerrold was an author of some (to us now) very strange moralistic

Victorian works, including his “Christmas Candle Curtain Lectures 2 ”. See Row

21, Revised History of Great Yarmouth; Lolly Ruffold, a man of the street and pub

raconteur used to relate Jerrold’s works to earn a crust.

2 A copy is in the reserved collection at UEA library.

356

THE PERLUSTRATION OF

worthy man, was a member of the Norwich company for ﬁfty years. He

died in 1840, aged 70. In more recent times the names of Vining, Wallack,

and many others will occur to the recollection of all play goers. Latterly

the Theatre has met with small encouragement, and the consequences

are manifest. *

Behind the Theatre and adjoining the town wall was a C AGE or lockup,

now discontinued; cells being provided at the Station house on the quay.

f On the east side of this plain resided Mr. Joseph Norman, who died in

1846, aged 91; and Mr. John Norman, who died in 1868, aged 80.

Row No. 66, from Howard Street to the Market Place. In this row was

a place called Crown Court; and here in 1818 the Yarmouth Savings

Bank was ﬁrst established at the house of Mr. James Parker, the ﬁrst

manager. In the house at the north-east corner of this row, long occupied

as a grocer’s shop, was born Edmund Girling, an amateur artist of very

considerable merit. Many of his etchings, especially from pictures by

Rembrandt, evince a talent which had it been cultivated for professional

purposes would have given him high rank. He commenced life as a clerk

in the bank of Messrs. Gurneys and Turner, being one of those numerous

young men who owed much to Mr. Dawson Turner’s patronage, and

removed to London in 1833 to commence business in Mark Lane. He

died at 23, Clifton road, London, in 1871, aged 75. The etchings of his

brother, Richard Girling, are done with much poetic feeling.

* In 1856 Thomas Russell, a comedian, while performing here in the “Hunch-back,”

was taken suddenly ill and died in ten minutes. On the 27th of December, 1860, during

the performance of a pantomime, the clown (Thomas Algar)—

“ Got touched upon the sleeve familiarly”

“ By death himself ,”

and expired in the arms of harlequin. Insufﬁciency of food and the severity of the

weather are supposed to have accelerated the death of the poor fellow.

f In 1834 “a fast young man,” who had been “in durance vile” for riotous conduct,

was brought before the mayor, when he complained vehemently of the foulness of the

cage, assuring his worship that it was the worst of its kind in the kingdom. Ludicrous

as such a complaint may at ﬁrst appear, yet it was not only true but just; and this was

a few years afterwards acknowledged by the authorities when they erected clean, well

ventilated, and separate cells for nocturnal offenders.

1 Palmer’s Addenda: death of actors - in 1748, Cashel, an actor, while playing Frankly

in the Suspicious Husband , at Norwich was smitten by apoplexy, (a stroke) and died

in a few hours.