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CHRONICLES
OF THEBERTON
A SUFFOLK VILLAGE
BY
HENRY MONTAGU DOUGHTY
Author of " Frieslatid Meres, " ^'c.
With an Introduction and Notes by
The Rev. W. W. SKEAT, Litt.D., &c.
Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1910
TN this book we have the history of a Suffolk parish written
by one who knows its traditions and loves its soil. Com-
mencing with the Norman Conquest, when its serfs were still
sold like its cattle and when it was called by a corruption of the
older Saxon name, Thewardetuna, we are led carefully down, step
by step, to the recent date of 1850. The parish has changed very
little, and that slowly, since the days it was mentioned in the
Paston Letters. The old tower which was standing in 1066 is
still part of the Church, and on its outskirts a portion of another
venerable building (and both of these are included in the illustra-
tions of this book), the Abbey of Leiston, exists also. Of this Abbey
we are told much here, for, until the Dissolution, it possessed
the advowson of Theberton which adjoined it, having acquired it
in 1373 from Margaret Countess of Norfolk, and it occasionally
upheld its rights vi et armis. The author puts the whole life of
the parish in the different centuries before us, giving us details of
the Church, the incumbents and their difficulties during the Tudor
and Stuart times, the parish government, the folklore, and even the
inns. He has much to say of the land owners, and the residents,
one of whom in remembrance of his happy youth at Theberton
carried the name of the parish to a suburb of Adelaide in South
I Australia. He gives moreover extracts from the registers (which
' date from 1 548) showing the names of the parishioners, and
indicates by the prices and valuations which he quotes the gradual
progress of luxury and comfort. When records of the parish have
been wanting the writer has, from his local knowledge, been
enabled to fill up the lacuncBhy illustrations from the history of the
adjoining parishes, and this book, originally intended as the history
of a small Suffolk community, will be found to be of special interest
not only to East Anglians, but to all, far and wide, who wish to
know how their forefathers have fared and carried on parish life
from the time of the Norman Invasion.
EXTRACT FROM INTRODUCTION
By the Rev. PROFESSOR SKEAT
The law of progress has always involved great and important
changes. Many of these, especially as regards the pronunciation
of our language and the history of our spelling, have been so slight
and imperceptible at the time as to have usually escaped much
observation ; but constant flux and steady movement produce
important differences at last. One difficulty of watching events
consists in the perpetual change of time and place ; and it is for this
reason that it is a partial gain — because it affords us a steadier
view — to eliminate one of these elements by making the place
invariable. This is why it is often of much assistance to peruse
the annals of a single parish, such as that of Theberton, in order to
understand how it is fully subject to the general law, changing from
day to day for the most part imperceptibly, yet not unfrequently
even violently affected by the shocks of great events. It is extremely
interesting to note, in the following pages, several instances in
which even a quiet parish has passed through its trials. See, for
example, the remark at p. 8, that "from that act of a pope, who
died seven centuries ago, our rectors have still to suffer ! " The
"first prosecution of a poacher" goes back to 1299 (p. 10). In
1 131 there was "a deadly pest amongst the animals, such as had
never been in memory of man"' (p. 11). And it was ascribed
to the appearance in the sky of an exceptionally beautiful exhi-
bition of the aurora borealis. Much interest attaches to the prices
of wheat and bullocks in 1281 and 1288 (p. 22). A pheasant cost
as much as a goose. In 1348-9 came the terrible Black Death,
when " harvests rotted upon the ground " (p. 24). Few of us realise,
even in a slight degree, the many comforts of life which we moderns
enjoy. Even the peasant may now protect his windows with glass ;
but the medieval noble, who knew but little privacy, often had to
dine in hall, protected only by a clumsy hood, or not at all, from
the horrible draughts pouring through apertures in the cold stone
wall. " How women got on without pins is hard to imagine "
(p. 30). There is a strange story about the arrest of the rector of
Theberton in his own church, whilst he was celebrating divine
service, on Ascension Day, 1445 (p. 55). In 1528, we have the
trials of two " wise women," who pretended to effect cures (p. 63) ;
and somewhat later, of a wizard who practised divination by help
of a sieve and a pair of shears (p. 65). In 1514, the new hand-
guns were challenging the use of the bow ; but the parliament
decided in favour of the latter (p. 69).
These are a few specimens of the multifarious kinds of inform-
ation to be here found ; all within the first 70 pages. It would be
easy to multiply them largely ; but I hope enough has been said
to recommend to the reader a careful perusal of the whole volume.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Old Round Tower, Theberton Church.
Church of St. Mary de Insula.
A Survivor of the Old Deer Park.
Framlingham Castle.
'The Font, Theberton Church.
Leiston Abbey in 1781.
The Church Farm.
"The Stone to sitt upon."
George Doughty Esquire.
Norman Door, Theberton Church.
Theberton Hall.
MAPS.
Tylers Green.
Winters Heath.
The Commons of Theberton in 1824.
London: MACMILLAN AND CO, Ltd.
-riKi:
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/chroniclesofthebOOdougiala
CHRONICLES OF THEBERTON
Thk Old Round Tower, IHkbkkton Church.
CHRONICLES
OF THEBERTON
A SUFFOLK VILLAGE
BY
HENRY MONTAGU DOUGHTY
Author of ^^ Friesland Meres" &'c.
With an Introduction and Notes by
The Rev. W. W. SKEAT, Litt.D., &c.
Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1910
Richard Clav and Sons, Limited,
bread street hill, r.c, and
bungav, suffolk.
DA
TO MY FRIENDS IN THEBERTON
Theberton Hall,
April, 1 9 10.
825854
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction xiii
Chapter I i /
Theberton in Doomsday — Aspect of the Country — Our Round
Tower — Death of William the Conqueror — The First Leiston
Abbey — Slaves in Theberton — Forgotten Sites — Monastic Land- J
owners in Theberton — Our Earliest Poacher — Superstition and
Cattle Plague — Customs of the Manor — The Great House of Bigod
— Edward II. Patron of the Benefice — Early Rectors — Devolution
of the Advowson.
Chapter II 17
The Black Death— A XlVth Century Assessment— Theberton
Jurors in 1341 — The Parish in the XlVth Century — Earnings and
Cost of Living — Wages and Prices — Great Fluctuations in Prices —
Suffolk Farming — Standards of Comfort — Homes of the Period —
Has our Manhood Degenerated? — Mediaeval Manners — Domestic
Industries — Home Defence — Ancient Local Place Names.
Chapter III 33
The Jenney Family — ^Word Pictures from Chaucer — Nature's
Gentlemen — The Old Theberton Deer Park — Deer for Food and
Sport — The Modern Park Tithe Free — Venison from Framlinghani
Castle — A Park Keeper's Diary— The Frenche Quene and the
Cardinal — Heveningham Park — Concerning Appropriations. ^
Chapter IV 45 . J ^^ .
The Theberton Appropriation— The Pope's Usurped Power— Wb^^l}''^
The King presents Rectors — The Appropriation Invalid — How
Invalidated? — Successive Rectors — Presentation of John Doonwych
— Proceedings against Doonwych — An Affray in Theberton Church
— Holy Thursday a.d. 1445 — Fifteenth Century Fashions — An " p
Outrageous Abbot. ^^ hMLCti 4l^^A
Chapter V . . .'TT?. 58
Theberton Wills — A Church Ale and a Trental —Visitations of
Leiston Abbey — Local Names of Leiston Monks — Courts Christian
and Apparitors — "Wise Women" in the XVIth Century^
Drynkynges — A Clerical Wizard — A Monkish Conspiracy — The'
Conspiracy Fails — A Rector's Testament — The Religious Renais-
sance— Longbow versus Caliver.
1^
viii CONTENTS
Chapter VI 71
" Tithes Forgotten "—Theberton in the Star Chamber— Abbot's
"Assault and Grievous Affray" — Taxable Men of Theberton —
A Great Change Impending — "Poverty their Captain" — After
the Dissolution — ^John Grene the Hermit — The Paraphrase of
Erasmus — Walking the Perambulation — The Soke of Leyston —
Tenants of the Soke versus Browne — Claim for Common Rights.
Chapter VII 85
A Martyrdom at Yoxford — Our Earliest Parish Register — An
Old Theberton Lawsuit — Concerning Theberton Hall — Parish
Topography — The Ingham Family — Communicants and Recusants
— Agricultural Prosperity — An Elizabethan Farmer's Belongings —
The Church Farm — State of Highways A. D. 1 555 — The Eastbridge
Inn A.D. 1589 — Our Old Church Bells.
Chapter VIII 99
Christmas Festivities — Holloaing Largesse— Suffolk Fair Maids —
Theberton Christian Names — Old Theberton Surnames — Eliza-
bethan Magistrates — Poachers and Game Preservation — Payment of
Members of Parliament — A Theberton Parson's Will — Presentation
of William Fenn — Troublous Times.
Chapter IX in
The Book of Sports— Bull-Baiting— Betwixt the Two Bundles of
Hay — The Great Protestation — The Eastern Association — The
Solemn League and Covenant — Scandalous Ministers — Parson Fenn
Summoned — Sequestration of the Rectory — Fenn's Case Considered
— Death of Parson Fenn — Commissioners Sitting at Eastbridge —
A Wreck off " The Sluice"— Fenn's " Herbi^e Book"— The
Rectory in 1635 — A Flood of Superstition,
Chapter X 127
Witches Hanged at Aldborough — Superstition at Theberton — A
Digression about Weasels — The Directory — The Engagement —
Profanity Expensive — The Rolls of the Manor — Marriage by
Magistrates — Our Parish Soldier — Theberton Parish Accounts —
The Plague Year — Bartholomew Confessors — Hue and Cry at
Theberton.
Chapter XI 141
Our Man-of-War Parson — The Battle of Sole Bay — Noise of
Battle at Theberton — Oboli and Quadrantes — Customs of Tithing —
Attending the Generals — The View of Frank Pledge — The " Stone
to Sitt Upon " — Contents of a XVIIth Century Cottage — Edmund
Bohun of Westhall— Labourers' Wages in 1682— The " Pariter."
fyit Chapter XII 154
\^^
^
Repairs to the Church — Fees for Chirurgioning — Assessment for
Poll Tax — The Archdeacon's Prandium — Tyler's Green — A Tax on
Bachelors — The Last Jenney of Theberton — Parish Apprentices —
"Noyful Fowells and Vermyn" — Concerning Briefs — The Moll
House.
CONTENTS ix
Chapter XIII i66
Primitias or First Fruits — Coronation Festivity — Linen Weaving
— Parish Republics — Duties of Parish Constables — Phaba Booth's
Penance — Appointment of a Parish Clerk — Phaba Married —
Influence of Justices — Fuel for the Poor — Peat from the Common
Fen — Herbs for Physic.
Chapter XIV 179
Dipping for Lameness — Purchase of a "Dog Wipe" — Pluralist
Parsons — The Complaint of " Orthodoxus " — A Parish Doctor's
Bill — Repairing the Tombs — The Bear Way — Hall and Park
House— A Potash Office — The Bell Brook — Vitality of Whin Seeds
— Crofts and Tofts — Incorporation of Blything Union — Riot at
Bulcamp Workhouse — Theberton Rioters.
Chapter XV 195
A Forgotten Sport — Setting Partridges — How it was Done —
0
\ \h
Shooting, Old Style and New — Suffolk in India — The Brick House ft> \V V
— A Theberton Empire Builder — An Australian Theberton — \lry v
r
Balloting for the Militia — Hard Times— Parish Topography — Con-
templated Enclosure of Commons — Theberton Enclosure Act —
Concerning Parish Rights — Tylers Green and Winters Heath —
More's the Pity.
Chapter XVI 212
"Legalised Spoliation" — New Parish Roads — Who were Bene-
fited?— Minsmere Level — Church Plate in 1801 — The Company of
Singers — Our Last Parish Clerk — The Church of the People — Old
Gravestones — Theberton House — Rules for a Holy Life — A
Theberton Statesman.
Chapter XVII 225
The Last Parish Perambulation — A Parish Emigrant — Education
Past and Present — Commutation of Tithes — Value of Theberton
Tithes — Untrustworthy Terriers — A Poet Rector — The Church
Restored— The Gleaning Bell— The End of the Story.
Notes by the Rev. Professor Skeat 241
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Old Round Tower, Theberton Church Frontispiece
Church of St. Mary de Insula .
A Survivor of the Old Deer Park
Framlingham Castle .
The Font, Theberton Church
Leiston Abbey in 178 i
The Church Farm
"The Stone to sitt upon"
George Doughty Esquire .
Norman Door, Theberton Church
Theberton Hall
MAPS.
Tylers Green .....
Winters Heath
The Commons of Theberton in 1824
To face
page
6
11
11
38
tt
»
42
»»
»
56
j>
5>
78
5>
5>
96
»
»
148
y>
)>
196
»
5>
2l8
j>
»
232
Toface
page
208
»
210
214
ERRATA
Page 26, line 6 from foot, for " Bedingfield " read "Beding-
feld."
Page 28, lines 2 and 4, transpose the words " hall " and
•• bower."
INTRODUCTION
By the Rev. PROFESSOR SKEAT
Our history is full of great events, and extends, since
the time of Caesar, over more than nineteen hundred
years ; but the more important part of it, considered as
it affects us at present, is comprised within the modern
period. Students of the history of our language usually
consider this as beginning, for practical purposes, with
the accession of Henry VII.; and it was near the
beginning of the eighth year of his reign that Columbus
discovered San Salvador. The events of the last four
hundred years concern us therefore most nearly ; but
there is also much that we cannot rightly appreciate
without some acquaintance with the laws, manners, and
customs of medieval times.
The law of progress has always involved great and
important changes. Many of these, especially as regards
the pronunciation of our language and the history of
our spelling, have been so slight and imperceptible at
the time as to have usually escaped much observation ;
but constant flux and steady movement produce import-
ant differences at last. One difficulty of watching events
consists in the perpetual change of time and place ; and
it is for this reason that it is a partial gain — because it
xiv INTRODUCTION
affords us a steadier view — to eliminate one of these
elements by making the place invariable. This is why
it is often of much assistance to peruse the annals of a
single parish, such as that of Theberton, in order to
understand how it is fully subject to the general law,
changing from day to day for the most part impercept-
ibly, yet not unfrequently even violently affected by the
shocks of great events. It is extremely interesting to
note, in the following pages, several instances in which
even a quiet parish has passed through its trials. See,
for example, the remark at p. 8, that " from that act of
a pope, who died seven centuries ago, our rectors have
still to suffer ! " The " first prosecution of a poacher "
goes back to 1299 (p. 10). In 1 131 there was "a deadly
pest amongst the animals, such as had never been in
memory of man" (p. 11). And it was ascribed to the
appearance in the sky of an exceptionally beautiful
exhibition of the aurora borealis. Much interest attaches
to the prices of wheat and bullocks in 1281 and 1288
(p. 22), A pheasant cost as much as a goose. In
1 348-9 came the terrible Black Death, when " harvests
rotted on the ground " (p. 24). Few of us realise, even
in a slight degree, the many comforts of life which we
moderns enjoy. Even the peasant may now protect his
windows with glass ; but the medieval noble, who knew
but little privacy, often had to dine in hall, protected
only by a clumsy hood, or not at all, from the horrible
draughts pouring through apertures in the cold stone
wall. " How women got on without pins is hard to
imagine" (p. 30). There is a strange story about the
arrest of the rector of Theberton in his own church,
INTRODUCTION xv
whilst he was celebrating divine service, on Ascension
Day, 1445 (p. 55). In 1528, we have the trials of two
'* wise women," who pretended to effect cures (p. 63) ;
and somewhat later, of a wizard who practised divination
by help of a sieve and a pair of shears (p. 65). In 15 14,
the new hand-guns were challenging the use of the bow ;
but the parliament decided in favour of the latter
(p. 69).
These are a few specimens of the multifarious kinds
of information to be here found ; all within the first
70 pages. It would be easy to multiply them largely ;
but I hope enough has been said to recommend to the
reader a careful perusal of the whole volume.
WALTER W. SKEAT.
V
CHRONICLES OF THEBERTON
CHAPTER I
It seems a far cry back to the days of William the
Conqueror ; but thus deep must we delve to find the
earliest notice of Theberton.
When William felt himself secure in his saddle, the
thought came to his mind to have a survey made of his
new dominion. We learn from the most ancient book
in the English language — the " Saxon Chronicle " — how
the king spoke very gravely to his Witan, and that he
sent scribes throughout England, to write what every
man possessed in land and in cattle, and how much
money it was worth ; " no single hide, no rood even of
land, no ox, nor cow, nor pig, was omitted." All these
accounts were collected, and together form what we call
the " Doomsday Book."
This old book — eight hundred years old — is still
preserved ; and in it are entries relating to this our parish
which the Normans called " Thewardetuna," The Saxon
name had been Theod-beorhtes-tun, the " tun " or farm
of Theod-beorht, whence Thebbert's-tun, and dropping
the s Thebbert-ton. Theod-beorht was pronounced
Tibert by the Normans, whence another form, Tibberton.
B
2 THEBERTON IN DOOMSDAY
That corruption fell off, and Theberton, as now written,
faithfully preserves the name of the " tun " as Thebbert "
himself pronounced it a thousand years ago. ^
Mentioned too, in " Doomsday," is the manor, which is
still in being. It was old even then, having come down
perhaps from Theod-beorht. At the time of the survey,
a man named Hubert held it under the great Robert
Malet, of whom we shall read later on. In the days of
Edward the Confessor, there had been one free man in
Theberton, whose name was Suart Hoga, who held sixty
acres under one Ulf, son of Maning Suart ; and there
had been one plough, and two acres of meadow land put
at £i a year ; but William's surveyor found the
plough no longer ; .the land had dropped out of cultiva-
tion, and the value had fallen to but los. a year.
The plough, I think, implied as much " earable " land
as a team of eight oxen and one plough could work in a
twelve-month, which might perhaps be one hundred
acres. The present area of Theberton, probably much
the same as in the Conqueror's time, is something under
two thousand acres ; so we must picture some nineteen
hundred acres of natural country — wild heath, fen and
forest, with, in the midst of it, about one hundred acres
of clearing.
And as was this, so were the adjacent manors ; each
for the most part waste ; and the wastes together formed
a vast wilderness, dotted with oases, cultivated like
ours of Theberton. Good harbour was there for wild
game — red, fallow,^ and roe deer, wolves, and wild boars,
beavers, and perhaps bears. Herds of tame swine also,
in the charge of Saxon swineherds like Gurth of Ivanhoe,
' This on the high authority of Professor Skeat, for whose kind
help I am greatly indebted.
2 Fallow deer are supposed to have been introduced by the
Romans.
ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY 3
battened on beech-mast and acorns, as swine do to this
day, during the pannage months, in what was then in
fact as well as name the New Forest. Rude huts there
must have been for herdsmen and ploughmen ; and no
doubt near the sea, and on the shores of the estuary
now the Minsmere Level, were other cots for fishermen,
who, in wicker hide-covered coracles, used to go fishing
for herrings.
Poor cabins all such dwellings then, though maybe
neither cold, nor, judged by the barbarous standard of
those days, quite comfortless. Bits of garden, yards
they called them — we Suffolk folk call them yards still
— were about them, and sheds, too, for cow or pony.
Men built their own dwellings and sheds. Material was
plentiful and nigh to hand, wood out of the forest for
" house bote " and " hedge bote," clay under foot fit for
daubing, and reeds from the nigh fen for their thatch-
ing. No roads worthy the name then existed, only rutty
tracks here and there, worn by solid cart wheels, and
paths, mere forest trails, for foot people.
There doubtless stood a church in our clearing, built
by some Saxon lord of the manor, of rough logs prob-
ably, and thatched with reeds ; and near it, perhaps even
touching it, stood an ancient tower.
Such towers were many in East Anglia, mostly
placed either near the sea ; or by those first highways of
an uncleared country the courses of rivers ; or near the
great high roads, which the Romans during four
centuries had driven through all obstacles. No quarri-
able stone is found in these parts for corners, so copying
Roman work such as the half-round bastions of Burgh
Castle, our Saxon ancestors picked flints from off the
land, bedded them in concrete, and built their towers
round. " Rounde maad in compas " were they, like the
B 2
4 OUR ROUND TOWER
" Tower of Jelousie," the mortar perhaps compounded
like Chaucer's prescription :
". . . Of licour wonder dere
Of quykke lyme persant and egre
The which was tempred with vynegre."
At all events, one finds the mortar now as hard nearly
as the flint stones. These round towers must have been
the work of able craftsmen, so many of them still, after the
storm and stress of centuries, standing strong as ever.
Like most of its compeers, our round tower of Theber-
ton stands on a conspicuous site, put there to serve
not only for a stronghold against sea rovers, but as a
landmark too, and a lighthouse to guide wayfarers
through an intricate forest. Afterwards, when men
needed a church for worship, and to serve as a store-
house for treasures, they built it close to their tower, in
which they then hung bells. Our Suffolk towers thus
came to resemble in their usefulness the noble Irish
Round Towers.
Just when the primitive log church gave place to a
better we cannot tell with certainty, but that the nave
and the westernmost half of the present chancel were
built not long after the Conqueror's time is probable ; the
north door is a fine piece of Norman, and an accomplished
architect, my late friend Mr. St. Aubyn, showed me
good Norman work as far east as to half the length of
the chancel.
A church at Theberton, dedicated to St. Peter, was
taken note of in "Doomsday " ; and there was then a house
for the parson, and glebe, perhaps the selfsame fields as
now, computed at fifteen acres ; acres were then uncertain
quantities, there are twelve statute acres at the present
day ; the benefice was put at 40 marks or ;^26. 13^. ^d-
a considerable income at the then value of money.
11
DEATH OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 5
A year after his great survey, King William died in
Normandy. In those days news travelled slowly, few of
the laity could even read ; so our forbears in Theberton
may have heard nought of the king's death till their n
priest from the steps of the altar — there were no pulpits /
then — announced to them that his son had been crowned /
"aFWestminster, and that he had given sixty pennies to
Theberton and every other country church, for his soul's
sake.
A masterful lord had been William, " mild " indeed
" to those good men who loved God, severe beyond
measure to those who withstood himself." " In his
time," says the contemporary chronicler, " any man who
was himself aught, might travel through the kingdom
with a bosom-full of gold unmolested, and no man durst
kill another, however grievous the injury he might have
suffered."
It helps to bring home to one how different an England
our far-away ancestors lived in, and how different they
were from ourselves, when one recalls that even the
language they spoke would at this day sound foreign to
our ears. English has been so changed in the course
of long centuries that we have to learn the old words —
Anglo-Saxon we call them now — as one learns Dutch,
by the help of dictionary. The parish priest of Theberton
was no doubt a Saxon— an Englishman — and made his
announcement in good English to English folk, but we
moderns could not have understood a word of it.
One thing that old time priest, whose name even is
forgotten, had in common with our modern parsons ; he
was not forbidden to have a wife and family. Not long
after it was ordered by William of Corboyl Archbishop
of Canterbury and all the bishops of England, that
priests should abandon their wives ; but the chronicler
6 THE FIRST LEISTON ABBEY
adds that they all kept their wives just as before, and
that by the King's permission.
Towards the close of Henry H's reign, in 1182, a
house of religion made its first appearance on the
borders of our parish among the swamps of the river
Myssemeare. Now, the swamp is laid dry, but the walls
of the Abbey church still stand upon an eminence rising
above the green level as if still an island. Tidal waters
did indeed ebb and flow round the desolate spot, when
by a deed yet existing, William de Valleines gave land
to the Church by the name of the " Church of St. Mary
de insulel." The Abbey was founded by a Suffolk worthy,
Sir Ranulph de Glanvil, a great lawyer to whom our
earliest law book is attributed, a knightly warrior, captor
of King William the Lion of Scotland, Justiciary, Regent
of the Kingdom, one of King Henry H's executors.
His supposed birth-place is the parish of Stratford near
our market town, Saxmundham. He died doing his
devoir under Cceur de Lion at Acre.
By the twelfth century, the monastic virtues were
mayhap declining, but Ranulph introduced a new order
of special sanctity, a late graft upon the primitive stock
of that father of monks St. Benedict. St. Norbert,
founder of the new order, was Archbishop of Magdeburg,
where travellers should visit his convent, spared by even
Tilly. He settled his community first in the forest of
Coucy, where a site was shown him by an angel, the
pratum monstratum, from which, or from the Norman
pr^montr^, comes the designation of his order. His
Premonstratensian or Premontratensian monks who wore
a white habit, were also known as white canons.
This house, the first Leyston Abbey, and its two
successors on a different site, all stood close upon the
borders of our parish. I have tried to tell their story
< <
SLAVES IN THEBERTON 7
elsewhere, but it is so interwoven with the story of
Theberton, that I shall have to repeat a little ; and some
further gleanings from its archives will, I hope, add
interest to this narrative.
In the barbarous days of old, we know our country
was cursed with the blight of slavery. In our now free
England, as in Russia but yesterday, and the day before
yesterday in Mecklenburg, Christian men, women and
children could be bought and sold like cattle. One
class, the " villeins regardant," only indeed was attached
to the soil, so that when land was sold they passed as
part of it ; a lower class " villeins in gross " being
saleable independently, like any other merchandise.
Now for one document from the Abbey Chartulary.
It is a deed whereby one Saer de Biskele granted to the
church of St. Mary of Leeston ^ and the canons of the
Premontratensian order serving there, two little woods
in the parish of Theberton, and together with them one
Roger the Carter with all his following — Roger and all
his family, as " villeins regardant," thus passing with the
land, like any other live stock upon it.
Take another charter, whereby the same man, Saer de
Biskele, granted to the same abbot and canons a house
in Theberton, and certain lands, of which some were
held by Bernard Herell, together with Bernard himself
and his following.
These charters give the names of the two little woods,
and of the house of Saer de Biskele. The woods were
called Uphalheg and Chiltre, and the house was known
as Kaldham. And other charters deal with other lands,
called Mikel Appeltun, and a wood Wimundesheg.
^ Professor Skeat is of opinion that this place-name is derived
from an A. S. form Leastun — "the meadows farm." Hence-
forward, the several spellings of the name found in the several
authorities for the time under consideration are used in the text.
8
FORGOTTEN SITES
Would we could identify them ; I have found a wood
called "Childer wood," in a royal grant of 1557, but
it is exasperating that this, as well as the other old
names, have now dropped out of memory. We read also
in the charters, of land then lying " in mord" and of one
acre described as "one very poor acre," in Theberton.
Can it be that this moor of Theberton was the "dry
common " of more recent times ? As to the " very poor
acre," of such acres ploughable by two rabbits and a
knife, there are too many still on the east side of the
parish.
The chief landlords in Theberton about this period
were : — the famous house of Bigod, one William always
referred to as the son of Alan, our friend Saer de
Biskele, and lastly the Abbey and Convent of Leystone.
In the year 1200, we find that Roger le Bigod
conveyed to William the son of Alan half a knight's
fee — equal to six plough lands (otherwise hides or
carucates) for the life of William.
In 1224, the Abbot of Leystone held lands in the
parish, and, on an inquisition held in 1 274, his holding
then seems to have been thirty acres.
For Leystone Abbey lands no tithe was payable, as
the estates of the Premontratensians had been then lately
exempted by Innocent III ; and from that act of a
Pope, who died seven centuries ago, our rectors still have
to suffer! A statute of Henry VIII, having provided
that persons who at the Dissolution should come into
possession of dissolved Abbeys' lands should hold them as
free of tithes as their old monastic owners had held them,
has had this consequence : that 108 acres, 2 roods, and
17 perches in the parish of Theberton, formerly property
of the Abbey of Leystone, are now held tithe free by the
present lay owners. There are yet other lands besides,
vV^/J
t;r!, rr, '}
MONASTIC LANDOWNERS IN THEBERTON 9
in the parish, exempt for quite other reasons as we shall
see later, from which our parson draws no tithe rent
charge.
At that time, the law permitted religious communities
to hold land, and estates had long been accumulating
in their hands. The mischief of it was, that areas vast
in the aggregate, became inalienable, a dead hand it was
said laid upon them, which was against the interests
both of the feudal lords and of the Crown. At last,
the evil increasing, that great legislator Edward I
determined to apply a remedy. A Parliament,
summoned by him for that object in 1279, enacted
that thenceforth none should sell, give, bequeath , ^"^
or exchange lands to any religious body without the \ 2^ f yt
King's licence. This Act, the famous Statute of I
Mortmain, however obnoxious to their cupidity, the
monks had not dared oppose, lest some worse thing
should befall them ; the mendicant orders had favoured
it ; and on all his subjects, both lay and clerical, had
fallen a great awe of the resolute King. This illustra-
tion is historical : — When pressing on a further Act,
it came to the King's ears that ominous murmurs were
heard in the Monks' Hall at Westminster. Edward
would brook no murmurers. A knight, one Sir John
Havering, sent by the King, marched into the Hall,
and thus spoke he : " Reverend Fathers, if any of you
dare to contradict the King's command, let him stand
forth that his person may be taken note of, as a known
peace breaker of the kingdom." Silence fell upon all ;
only one man, William Montfort, Dean of St. Paul's,
so greatly dared as respectfully to request an audience.
It was granted, but, entering Edward's awful presence,
such terror overcame the dean that he fell dead, so the
record tells us, at the grim monarch's feet.
/>
10 OUR EARLIEST POACHER
Soon, occasion arose in this little parish of ours
to put the law in force. In 1289, one John de Livermere
and his wife Matilda desired to grant a messuage and
thirty acres of land in Theberton to Nicholas the Abbot
and the Canons of Leystone, and for this they had to
obtain, and did in fact obtain, a licence from the King.
Again, in 13 12, we find that the same John and Matilda,
having, together with other persons, conveyed some
lands to the Abbey without the King's licence, the royal
pardon had to be sued for, and was, probably for weighty
reasons, granted.
In 1299, occurred the first prosecution of a poacher
I have found recorded. The Abbot of Leyston im-
pleaded a certain man John, for trespassing and driving
off the hares from his manor — the manor of Leyston.
That same John afterwards farmed Abbey lands in
Theberton. Since John's time such " dampnacionis filii
spiritu diabolico seducti" — as, ages afterwards. Bishop
Rede called poachers, have never been wanting in
Theberton.
That abbot's successor, John de Glemham, acquired
from John le Bigod de Stockton the right of free warren
in the parish of Theberton, which enabled him and his
monks, " lovers of venerye," to hunt beasts and fowls
of warren — hares, rabbits, pheasants, partridges — over
lands which did not belong to them.
Parliament, by the Statute of Mortmain had thought
to bind the religious orders ; but the fetters it forged, the
monks snapped like pack thread. However strong the
law, their ingenuity found means to evade it. Quite
regardless of the Statute, they went on adding field
to field, taking conveyances, not to themselves direct,
but into the names of trustees for them. We are
not without instances. In 1300 and 1305, one John
SUPERSTITION AND CATTLE PLAGUE 11
de Leystone, whose name we shall meet later, became
such a Trustee (pro Abbate) of lands in our parish.
And in 1345, Richard de Bunstede, and in 1357, William Cgt)
Scarlett and others, became respectively trustees in like \a r i
manner for the Abbey. At last Parliament put an end " [
to the practice by an Act of 1391.
One often hears it said what good times our fore-
fathers had in these early Middle Ages. It is an idle
tale, inspired by ignorance. The truth is that oppression
and cruelty raged ; battle, murder, and sudden death
were too awfully familiar; agriculture was in its
rudiments ; no grain for food was imported ; sanitation
was not even thought of; and spectral shapes of
famine, plague, and pestilence stalked through the land.
Men lived in the darkness of ignorance, fear, and
superstition ; they imagined baleful portents in the
heavens, and real calamities too frequently followed.
This by way of illustration : One night after Christ-
mas 1 131, people were awakened from sleep by a
portentous spectacle — the northern half of the heavens
lit up with burning flame ! That same year brought
a deadly pest amongst the animals, such as had never
been in memory of man. It fell on cattle and on
swine chiefly, so that in a township where ten or
twelve ploughs had been kept (ploughing then was
done by oxen), not one survived ; and a man who had
owned two or three hundred swine, had not one left.
After that, the hens died, and flesh meat became scarce,
and cheese too, and butter. The whole country
suffered ; Theberton cannot have escaped. " God mend
the state of things when such shall be His will," prayed
the devout old chronicler, a monk of the great Abbey
of Peterborough. Simple, superstitious old monk !
Celestial aurora borealis, bright and beautiful " Merry
1« CUSTOMS OF THE MANOR
Dancers " — how could he have regarded them as
portents of calamity ? I have met with no earlier
case of swine fever and cattle plague.
Those were the dark ages indeed ; yet through the
mirk of them, and despite their distance, the concen-
trated lights of history enable us to discern a slow process
of development. True, there were constant reactions,
waves advanced, receded, but the tide was rising.
The status of the serfs was, from one cause and
another, by degrees improving. The "villeins re-
gardant " were commuting personal service for money.
Their payments were recorded on the rolls of the
manor, and, at last, copies of the rolls grew to be
title deeds. One generation gained a bit, and the next
a bit more. At first, the lord could at pleasure oust a
villein who held, in the lawyers' quaint Norman French,
" solonque la volonte le seigniour " — absolutely at will.
But in time there came to be added, qualifying that
formula, this other term, " according to the custom of the
manor." The customs of the manor crystallised, pre-
cedent followed precedent, till in the end, the copyholder
could eject even his lord, if he trespassed on his holding.
The " villein in gross " too, slipped more and more out
of the yoke of slavery, and stood at last on his own feet
as a free labourer.
To each generation in our quiet village, change was, we
may suppose, hardly perceptible ; things would seem to
go on much as usual. There were the two time-out-of
mind authorities, manorial and religious. There never
failed to be a lord of the manor ; and one " person of the
parish " succeeded another.
The manor courts were held, no doubt, regularly by
the steward ; for seldom would the lord himself preside ;
the suitors would know only the steward. A non-resi-
THE GREAT HOUSE OF BIGOD 13
dent lord would be little more than a name. Of our
manor the lord was non-resident and a foreigner to
boot, but he — Robert Malet, Robert the Hammer, the
Norman who had buried Harold by the sea-shore — was
such a famous warrior, and so vast were his possessions,
that when he tumbled from his high estate, his fall must
have shaken the ground even of remote Theberton,
Two hundred and twenty-one manors had he in
Suffolk. A defeated rebel, he lost them all, they were
forfeited to the King.
How long this manor of Theberton continued in royal
hands I do not know, but not later than King John's
time ; for in his reign, and through the reigns of suc-
ceeding Plantagenets, on to King Henry V's time, we
know it was held by Bigods.
They too, for a long period, were owners of the
advowson. Probably, they held it as appendant to their
manor ; but, on such evidence as is available, I cannot
trace its devolutions in their hands before the fourteenth
century.
The earliest dealing with the advowson that I have
found, was effected by an ancient charter, which is pre-
served in our great treasure house the British Museum.
By this charter the same William son of Alan whom
we have met before, granted to the Leyston canons the
church of St. Peter of Theberton, which was then in his
fee. Charters in those days bore no dates, but Mr.
Jeayes, of the MSS. Department of the Museum, tells me
that the names of the witnesses (Hubert, bishop of
Sarum, and Radulf archdeacon of Colchester) prove
that the deed was made between 1189 and 1194. The
words of William's grant would seem sufficient to have
passed the entire advowson, but I conjecture that, in
fact, it passed only some lesser interest, perhaps a next
14 EDWARD II. PATRON OF THE BENEFICE
presentation. If the grant had vested the advowson in
the Abbey, what more unlikely than that monks would,
unless under compulsion, divest themselves of it ; yet,
though unluckily, there is a gap just here in our records,
it is in evidence, that, not a century after the grant, the
advowson of Theberton was in the hands of the Bigods.
We know that in 1305, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk,
presented one Richard de Dodyngtone to the Theberton
Rectory; and from the inquisition, held in 1306 after
the death of Earl Roger Bigod, it appeared he had held,
besides half a knight's fee in the parish, "the church
of Theberton."
In 1307, the advowson was in King Edward II, who
had it, so we learn, by reason that the estates late of
Earl Roger were in his hands.
The question arises — how they got into the King's
hands. And this opens a window, out of our little parish
into the world.
The facts are these, Edward the First had called
upon Roger Bigod, his Earl Marshal, to lead troops out
to Gascony. He would go cheerfully, he said, if the King
was himself going, and would march in the van as was
his right by birth ; but if the King went not, he was not
bound to serve in arms beyond the limits of England.
"No! I am not so bound," the Earl hardily insisted,
" and I will not go without you."
" By God, Sir Earl, you either go or hang."
" By God, Sir King, I neither go nor hang."
The King did not hang him, but so heavy had been
the cost of the quarrel, that it crippled the Earl ; and in
the end wrought disaster for the house of Bigod,
Exhaustion of his resources drove Roger to borrow ; he
borrowed from his rich brother and heir presumptive,
John Bigod. Whether the gossip is reliable that he
planned to spite John for asking repayment we cannot
EARLY RECTORS 15
tell. But the fact is certain that the Earl did con-
trive this compact with the King : the Earl would
surrender to the King, as his feudal lord, all his
castles, manors, and lands, and also his titles and
dignities, upon this condition : that the King should
defray his debts ; should provide him for life with a com-
petent revenue — i,ooo marks ; should re-grant to him and
the heirs of his body the titles and dignities of Earl and
Marshal ; and, further, should re-grant all the castles,
manors, and lands to the Earl and Countess Alice his
wife, and their issue, with remainder to the King himself
and his heirs. Roger and Alice never had any children,
so the compact worked out, that when Earl Roger died,
the dignities of Earl and of Marshal lapsed to the King ;
and the castles, manors, and lands vested absolutely in
the King also, subject only to a life estate in Countess
Alice. The final result being that, not only was John
disinherited, but the House of Bigod was stripped for
ever, and beyond recovery, of all their great estates and
dignities.
Soon after Roger the Earl's death. King Edward I
died, and his son Edward II reigned in his stead.
In 1 306, one " Lebygod " was, it seems, presented to
Theberton. I guess that this name should be le Bigod,
and that Countess Alice as tenant for life of the advowson
presented some member of her late husband's family.
The benefice was soon vacant again, for in 1307, one
John de Framlingham was presented, the patron now
being Edward II, who again in 13 12 presented Laurence
de Rustene.
It must be presumed that not long after her husband's
death Countess Alice had surrendered her life estate in
the advowson to the King.
Between de Framlingham and de Rustene, an
incumbency intervened of John de Trydian a Cornish
16 DEVOLUTION OF THE ADVOWSON
man. I suppose that the King presented him, I
cannot say.
The rector who succeeded de RuStene was William
de Neupert, who, in 1316, was presented by Thomas
called de Brotherton, the then Earl of Norfolk.
This Thomas, a brother of King Edward II, derived
his surname of de Brotherton from his birthplace, a
village in Yorkshire. The King had created him both
Earl of Norfolk and Marshal of England, and endowed
him with the estates, which had been surrendered, as we
have seen, by Earl Roger Bigod,
Thomas de Brotherton died in 1338, and was buried
at Bury St. Edmunds ; and, his only son having died
before him, his estates, which included the Theberton
advowson, descended to his daughters Margaret and
Alice, co-heiresses, subject however to the dower of their
mother Countess Maria, part of which was half of a
knight's fee in Theberton. Ultimately, these estates
became the sole property of the eldest daughter Margaret,
who married firstly John Lord Segrave, and secondly
the famous Sir Walter Manny. Her seal bears the style
" Margareta Marischalla, Comitissa Norfolciae."
All this, I fear, is of the order dryasdust, but the
facts have to be stated, to introduce personages who,
Margaret of Norfolk in particular, will take leading parts
later on in our story.
It is on record that in 1339 an order passed, to deliver
the advowson of Theberton to Lord Segrave and his
wife Margaret the Countess of Norfolk. Lord Segrave
exercised his rights, by presenting Bartholomew de
Salle in 1349 and Roger de Eccleshall in 1351 to the
Rectory of Theberton.
Sir Walter Manny presented Robert de Iselham to
the same Rectory in 1361.
CHAPTER II
In 1363, Robert Earl of Suffolk, then patron of
Leyston Abbey, built for the monks a new convent on a
site more healthful than their island of the Myssemeare
— an undertaking which doubtless brought work and
welcome wages to the men of Theberton. That structure
only stood twenty-six years, being burned down in
1389 ; and strong arms and deft hands from Theberton
helped to erect, on the same site, a third Abbey,
whose ruins we admire still.
In the meantime, had occurred an event noteworthy
for our parish — the passing of the advowson of Theberton
into the hands of the conventual house of Leyston. It
came to happen in this wise : —
In 1372, Margaret Lady Segrave, Countess of Norfolk,
then owner of the advowson, made a grant of it to the
abbot and canons, in exchange for an annual rent of
40J. to be paid to her and her heirs ; it being further
provided that the Abbey should supply two chaplains to
celebrate daily mass in the church of Theberton.
These terms were varied ten years afterwards, by
another charter, whereby the Countess re-granted to the
Abbey the 40s. rent, and released them from providing
one of the two chaplains ; in consideration of which, the
Abbey on their part granted another advowson, that of
17 Q
18 THE BLACK DEATH
Kirkley, to the Countess in tail, with ultimate remainder
to the King in fee simple.
From another charter of the same year, we learn the
pious object of the lady's grant to the Abbey. Done
into English the charter runs thus : — The Lady
Margaret the Countess of Norfolk has given to the
Monastery of Leyston in Suffolk the advowson of the
church of Theberton ... for the souls of Thomas de
Brotherton, late Earl of Norfolk g^d Marshal of England,
and of Lady Alice formerly his consort — father and
mother of the said Lady Margaret, and for the souls of
the Lords John de Segrave, and Walter Manny — and so
forth.
The name of one rector I have omitted hitherto,
I know not who presented him. This man, one
Robert de Warham, became rector in 1330, and his
next successor was instituted in 1 349 ; so it may be that
de Warham died a victim to the Great Pestilence of
1 348 — that awful plague known to after generations as
the Black Death. In this one diocese alone there
perished two thousand clergy ; two out of every three
parishes lost their incumbents ; one- third, some say one-
half, of the population of the kingdom was swept away.
In London, no less than fifty thousand corpses were
buried, in thirteen acres of ground called Spittle
or Spital Croft, dedicated for that purpose by Sir
Walter Manny.^ How poor Theberton fared, no record
' Site afterwards of the Charter House. " John Stow saith that
he had read this Inscription fixed on a stone cross some time
standing in the Charter House churchyard: 'Anno Domini
MCCC. XL. IX. Regnante magna pestilentia, consecratum fuit
hoc cemiterium in quo et infra septa presentis monasterii sepulta
fuerunt mortuorum corpora plus quam quinquaginta millia praeter
aha multa abhinc ad presens quorum animabus propitietur Deus.
Amen.' " (Weever).
A XIVth century ASSESSMENT 19
remains to tell us ; we know that many villages
were depopulated.
The year 1341 presents us with a record of much local
interest.
Parliament, at the King's request, had granted him a
tax of the ninth sheaf and fleece and lamb throughout
England. It was firstly arranged, that the ninths to be
paid by each parish, should be taken to be equivalent to
the value of the tithe paid to the Church ; and secondly
(perhaps to avoid another assessment), that the assess-
ment which had been made in 1293, the taxatio of
Pope Nicholas IV, should be deemed the then value of
the tithes ; except where cause should be shewn why it
ought to be more or less.
The taxatio of 1 293 had put the value of the tithes of
Theberton at the figure they stood at in Doomsday, viz.
40 marks. The ninths due from Theberton would
therefore be £26. 1 3^. 4«a?. ; but assessors would have to
make inquisition, to find what ought to be either added
or deducted. All this is premised, to make clear what
next follows : —
" On Thursday, next before the feast of S.S. Perpetua
and Felicitas, in the 15th. year of King Edward III
from the Conquest," an Inquisition was taken at Dunwich
before the Abbot of Leyston and his companions,
assessors and collectors. Among the jurors we find
local names, such as Payne de Halesworth, John de
Donkwyk (query Dunwich), Jacob de Chediston, Richard
de Denham, Alan de Henstede, John de Wangford, John
de Thorpe; and witnesses to the Return were four
parishioners of Theberton, whose names were : Richard
Austyn, William Noble, William del Field and Robert
Poer. The document, Englished, runs on : — " The
C 2
90 THEBERTON JURORS IN 1341
jurors say upon their oaths that the ninths of
sheaves, fleeces and lambs of the Church (Ecclesie) ^
of Theberton are worth ;^io no more; because
there are in that place {items of clerical income
which y not being tithes of sheaves^ fleeces or lambs ought to
be deducted, viz.) 13 acres of land of the endowment
of the Church, which are worth 13 shillings, at the rate
of 12 pence per acre; also half an acre of meadow,
which is worth 12 pence {this I take to represent the
glebe) ; also oblations for the three great days, with
other small tithes, which are worth £\ ; also tithe of hay
worth ^os. ; also tithe of reed and rushes worth 66j. ; also
tithe of milk and calves worth ^os. ; also tithe of flax
and hemp worth 26s. 8d. ; also rent Ss. ; also gallin
de apport {query hens paid as rent) worth i6s. ; also
tithe of turbary {turf and peat) worth i6s. ^d.; also
two hundred acres of arable land in the same town
which used to be cultivated, submerged by the sea,
whence a ninth is worth 20s." These items added
together come to £16. i^s., which deducted from
£26. i^s. 4d. leaves £g. i6s. 4^., the difference between that
sum and the ;^io being due probably to some clerical error.
Does not this old Return, apart from its intrinsic
interest, help us to raise the veil drawn by time over
fourteenth-century Theberton.
Then, the Abbot of Leyston was evidently a respected
personage, not only within, but without the walls of his
Abbey. The rectory of Theberton was then, as now,
a fairly good living ; for though £26. 1 35. 4^. at first
strikes one as absurdly inadequate, yet when one
* So it is written, but my own opinion, confirmed by good
authority, is that the word Ecclesie was a slip of the scribe's pen,
and that villae was really meant. The word " town " is used
in the record of a similar Inquisition for Framlingham, also taken
before the abbot of Leyston and others. Hawe's Framlingham.
THE PARISH IN THE XIVth CENTURY 21
remembers that £i then, would purchase as much as
£1$ or ;^20 now,^ it is plain that the parson of 1341
received much the same in value, as the rent charge
fixed for his modern successor at the commutation in
1838. A 14th century parson had " no incumbrances,"
and an income equivalent to ;^400 at least, besides a
rent-free rectory, would suffice for his needs, with a
margin over for works of charity and hospitality.
Judging from the arable portion of the glebe, the
arable land in our parish was worth about the same as
now, 1 5 J. to 20s. the acre ; enough hay was grown to
yield a tithe of ;^30 ; reeds and rushes yielded more than
half as much tithe again as hay — there were then great
tracts of reed beds and marshes ; there must have been a
good head of cattle to produce £$y. los. in tithes of milk
and calves ; enough flax and hemp was then grown in
the parish to produce ^20 in tithe ; poultry was kept
as it is now — perhaps, as now, it was the women's
perquisite ; peat and turf were used for fuel then and
long afterwards ; I suppose our marsh lands were always
liable to floods ; but two hundred acres of drowned
arable land implies an unusual irruption of the sea.
So much we learn from this one local document.
Let us try for a wider view of those far away times.
Conditions widely prevailing may be safely applied to
our particular parish.
Five or six hundred years ago, men had of course,
as they have now, to earn their bread either by labour,
or by handicrafts, or trade, and what margin they
realized between earnings and expenses was the measure
^ Authorities differ perplexingly as to the purchasing power of,
say, a fourteenth-century penny. Henceforward, modem money
equivalents, arrived at, following Professor Skeat, by multiplying
the ancient figures by 15, will always be used.
IV
^ EARNINGS AND COST OF LIVING
of their comfort. We have therefore to look what
wages were current, and what the prices were of the
prime necessity, food.
Readers will be surprised to find such variations,
as are well nigh incredible, between districts, between
successive years and even months, and between one
harvest and another. Factors, strange to us now,
governed both wages and prices at that far distant time.
We moderns have telegraphs, newspapers, good roads,
railways, steamers ; labour and merchandise can seek
for and find markets at great distances ; communications
are easy, and transport cheap. Quite otherwise were
fourteenth-century conditions ; labour and products of
labour were rooted to one spot, and there, any surplus
was dammed up, and could not flow to supplement
shortage in another locality. Another factor to be
reckoned with was the system, then moribund but not
yet dead, of villeinage, which kept workmen at home ;
and their predial services affecting the price of labour.
The following figures I offer for what they may be
worth : —
In 1 28 1, the price of wheat was 63.?. ^d. the quarter,
of barley 53J. i\d., of peas, 355'. ^\d.\ a bullock sold
for 63.?. 9^., the price of a quarter of wheat. Wages
ruled as follows : for threshing wheat per quarter 3^. 9^^.,
barley \s. \o\d., peas half a crown, for cutting fire wood
— coals were not in use then — the pay was half a crown.
Land let as follows : arable land 5^. to lOi-., meadow
or mowing land at the enormous rent relatively of
;^3 the acre.
Seven years afterwards, in 1288 — 1289, we find corn
was cheaper, wheat 50^. the quarter — this in London ;
in other parts — a good illustration of how difficult was
transport — 25.?., 20J., 1$^., los. Barley was ys. 6d., and
WAGES AND PRICES 28
oats 5^-. the quarter. Prices of poultry and of game are
remarkable ; a fat cock or two pullets fetched is. lo^d., a
goose Sj-., a partridge is. lO^d, a pheasant — no artificially
reared pheasants then, there are too many now — was 5^.,
a heron — thought not eatable now — fetched ys. 6d., a
swan — a state dish for banquets — no less than 45^., a
crane — one sees them in Germany but they are
extinct here — i$s., two woodcocks is. lo^d. These
game birds were all got by the sport of hawking, caught
in ingenious nets, or now and then, perhaps, brought
down by an archer's " bird bolt." ^ Early lambs were
reckoned delicacies, for between Christmas and Shrove-
tide a fat lamb fetched £1, but only 5j. at other times.
Natural variations of seasons — bad seasons not
mitigated by any skill of husbandry — wrought violent
cruel fluctuations in the price of wheat. Happily for
poor folk, mixtures of oats, tares, peas, rye and barley
— bulmong, meslin and dragel, and not wheat, formed
the chief part of their diet. In 131 5, 131 6, and 13 17,
wheat sold for £1$, £24, £^i, the quarter ! In the last
of those years when it stood at £2,Zi we read "wheat
was excessive scarce " — It must have been !
In 1336, harvests were abundant, and as the King,
Edward III, was then commandeering all the cash he
could squeeze from his subjects, to pay for his wai:s in
France and Scotland, buyers of wheat were few, and
prices fell ; the grain sold in London at 30J. the quarter.
That year, men bought a fat ox for £$, a fat sheep for
ys. 6d. or los. at the highest, a fat goose for 2s. 6d.^ and
a pig (weight not stated) for fifteen pence !
1 347 saw corn first imported into England.
^ The earliest notice I have found of guns used for fowling with
small shot is a Bill to regulate shooting with " hand guns and hail
shot," passed in 1 548. Shooting flying was not practised, I think,
before the first quarter of the 1 8th century.
24 GREAT FLUCTUATIONS IN PRICES
In 1348, there occurred, so we read, "such a conjunc-
tion of Saturn with the other planets as could not be
more than once in a thousand years — a prodigy
portentous of calamity ; it actually was followed by the
horror of the Black Death. During that dreadful year,
a general panic prevailed ; the business of the world
fell out of gear ; labourers would not work ; employers
would not, could not pay ; villeins of both classes
deserted their manors, and turned tramps and vagrants ;
robbery and violence were rampant ; landlords were
forced to abate half their rents. Things were sold
for next to nothing, a horse worth £10 for but
;^5, a good fat ox £'^, a cow 15^., a heifer or steer
ys. 6d., a fat sheep 5^,, a ewe 3^. gd., a lamb 2s. 6d.
Wool, principal produce of the kingdom, fell to i is. id.
the stone ; it was thought that it carried infection,
" men were not only afraid of the cattle dying but of
their own deaths, for otherwise wool need not have been
so cheap." Harvests rotted upon the ground, and sheep
and cattle, Mr. Green tells us, strayed through the
standing corn, and there were none left to drive them.
Next year, the pestilence and panic were declining,
and we read that corn and other provisions were already
plentiful ; wheat again sold, as in the good year of 1336,
at 30J. the quarter.
Ten years later, 1359, the price per quarter rose
to ;^20.
In 1 36 1 when :
" Beches and brode okas were blowen to the grounde "
And " tomed upward ther tallies,"
and the spire of Norwich Cathedral was blown down,
and the second great pestilence smote the country, wheat
fell again to los. the quarter.
SUFFOLK FARMING 26
In 1369, there was so great a dearth that the grain
sold at ^18 (another chronicler says ;^IS), barley at
£12. <,s., and oats at £^ the quarter.
For 1379, we find wheat at ;^3, a price which now
would make both farmers and landlords happy. It was
then thought so cheap, that the low price was urged by
the Commons as a good argument for refusing Supply.
Barley that year was 30^'. the quarter and peas i '^s.
In 1389, wheat was quoted the same, but barley
dearer at £2. 55-. the quarter, and oats were worth 305-.
To show what Suffolk farming was like in the 14th
century, Sir John CuUum's researches prove that in the
years 1 386-1 388, upon a farm cultivated as well or better
than the average, sixty-one acres sown with wheat pro-
duced no more than seventy quarters ; how would that
suit our modern agriculturists .-' The cost of threshing
then, was for wheat 55-., and for other grain 2s. 6d. the
quarter. The harvest wage of a reaper was $s. a day ;
cutting and tying three acres of wheat cost ^i. Ss. gd., "per
taskam" — by piece work. Meadows, in 1389, were
mown for ys. 6d. the acre, and people weeding corn
earned half a crown a day.
1390 again was a year of great scarcity. At Hawsted,
Sir John Cullum says, the yield for an acre was less than
six bushels of wheat, twelve bushels of barley, the same
of peas, and five bushels of oats. Prices rose, wheat
fetched ;^io, barley £^. 2s. 6d., oats £$, peas £6 the
quarter. Wool fetched 45^., 305-., and down to 2$s. the
stone ; this, it is true, compares well with the Black
Death year ; but the price was considered low, and the
law blamed, by which exportation was forbidden. And
we find these wages quoted : — for carters and ploughmen
£j. los. a year, shepherds $s. more.
Those of us who have passed say their half century,
«6 STANDARDS OF COMFORT
have seen the standard raised both of human comfort,
and also, one regrets to note, of self-indulgent luxury.
The change in one's own lifetime is quite apparent.
Great then must be the difference between our standard
now, and that of men removed so far from us as by
twenty generations. What seems to us no more than
ordinary comfort, would have been to our forefathers
and foremothers of that old time unheard of luxury.
To speak first of houses, and first of all, the houses
of great folk. Before the 13th century, these were built
of rubble, flints bedded in mortar. Some — the strong
houses of the Jews, and others it is said copied from them
— were of hewn stone ; the house of Aaron of Lincoln is a
surviving example. After that, the fashion came in for
timber-framed houses, and not until the 14th century
did builders from the Continent initiate us into the art,
forgotten since the Roman times, of brick building.^
In England, the first case of brick building
I have read of was a wall which, Stowe says, Ralph
Stratford Bishop of London built round that grave-
yard which, as we have seen. Sir Walter Manny
gave for the victims of the Black Death. Oxburgh
Hall in the neighbour shire of Norfolk, ancient seat
of the ancient family of Bedingfield, was built of brick
in Henry the Fourth's reign. At our east country
University, we first hear of brick building in 1449.
Roof tiles Indeed are mentioned so far back as 11 89,
when Henry Fitzalwayne, the mayor of London, ordered
that houses within the city should be roofed with " brent
* It had been practised earlier on the Baltic shores of North
Germany, where there is no quarriable stone. For instances : the
Dom of Liibeck dates from the twelfth century ; that age-worn
house, the Alte Schule at Wismar, from 1300 ; the strange gates of
Neu Brandenburg from 1306 ; and the art was known also in the
Netherlands.
HOMES OF THE PERIOD 27
tyle," instead of straw or reeds. In country places
however, few, even great, houses, whether of stone, rubble,
or timber-framed, or of the early brick building, had
other covering than thatch.
In even great houses " chambers with chymneyes "
were still uncommon ; " then we had none but reredosses,
and our heads did never ake." The rooms were dark,
cold, and draughty. In place of clean carpets, floors
were littered with straw, or with rushes seldom removed,
covering miscellaneous nastiness, spilled grease, and
half-gnawed bones and scraps. Few, even good, houses
could boast of inside staircases ; upper floors were reached
by an outside step-ladder, protected only by a pent-house
roof. The beds and the bedrooms of the lower middle
classes were beneath the standard of our modern prisons.
Harrison wrote generations later, in the civilized days of
great Elizabeth ; his words may often need a grain of
salt with them, but we cannot be very wrong in applying
his description to the earlier ruder times that we are
dealing with. " People," he says, slept on rough straw
pallets, or " mats covered onlie with a sheet, under cover-
lets of dogswain or hopharlots, a good round log under
their heads instead of a bolster .... as for servants, if
they had anie sheet above them it was well, for seldom
had they anie under their bodies, to keep them from the
pricking straws that ran through the canvas of the pallet
and rased their hardened hides."
The homes of poor folk were deplorable, damp and
dark huts, the floors of earth, the walls of clay daubing,
no upper rooms, oranches in the rough for rafters, roofs
thatched with straw or with rushes, unglazed holes for
windows — glass was too costly for any but rich houses.
Chaucer — of East Anglian extraction — describes such a
home from his own observation. It was divided into,
28 HAS OUR MANHOOD DEGENERATED ?
what with poet's licence, he calls " a hall " and " a bower."
In the hall lived and slept a mother and her two
daughters, and pigs and poultry made themselves happy
in the bower. It disgraces our times that human lairs
like that are yet found in remote corners — the cabins of
Gal way, and the " but and ben " cots of the Western
Islands, for example.
Writers of mediaeval romances paint ideal pictures of
mail-clad knights and men at arms, to whom they
attribute not only a fanciful code of chivalry, but like-
wise huge bodily strength and heroic stature. Fighting
men, trained from youth upward in feats of arms and
horsemanship, were doubtless both strong and agile ;
they may have leaped, as it is said, to their saddles,
sheathed in weighty armour, without putting foot in
stirrup. A man of gentle birth would have lost caste, if
not adept at such knightly exercises. To-day, of course,
personal prowess is not essential, we are not trained for
hand to hand fighting, and so, some people think the man-
hood of our time has degenerated. My humble opinion
however, is that the physique of Englishmen, except those
born and bred in urban slums, is as good as ever. I once
asked the hall-keeper at Penshurst, an ex-soldier of rather
below average stature, if he could wear the old armour,
and I have put the like question to a beefeater at the
Tower. " No ! " was the answer in both these cases ;
hardly any suit of armour was big enough.
There was a barbarous show of magnificence, as
witness old Froissart's delightful descriptions, but it is
undeniable that domestic habits even of nobles and
gentles were gross, and that manners, albeit ceremonious,
were coarse. A man of the upper classes would take
his own knife in a sheath to a dinner party, sit there
MEDIAEVAL MANNERS f^
with his hat on, use his fingers for fork,^ and dip his
unwashed spoon for each mouthful into a common dish.
The diet of even wealthy people was unwholesome, too
much salt meat, not vegetables enough ; while the food
of our poorer folk was both bad and insufficient, and
leprosy and scurvy were rife among them.
The dress of the mediaeval rich was extravagant.
Long beards heartless,
Painted hoods witless,
Gay coats graceless,
Make England thriftless.
was contemporary satire. The middle and lower classes
were fretted by harsh sumptuary laws ; no working
woman, for instance, dared to be seen at church wearing
other headgear than a hideous cap of wool, on pain of
her husband forfeiting half his week's wages.
Society had not attained that stage of development
which results in elaborate organisation and division of
labour and function. A family did not then depend for
its daily needs on purveyors, such as the butcher and
baker, nor even on tailors or dressmakers ; each house-
hold was, far more than now, self-sufficing, independent
of outsiders.
For the lord of the manor's house, his folds, and farm-
yards, and gardens, furnished a plain table ; and deer
park, dove house, and warren more delicate dishes ;
fish ponds provided for fast days ; while woods, fen and
heath lands supplied kindling, billets, peat, and turf for
fuel. The farmer again, and his men made their own
implements, and their wives and daughters baked bread,
^ That forks had not come into general use even in the
17th century, all who have seen a great picture in the Ryks
Museum at Amsterdam have evidence. In the " Schutters
maaltyd" (Civic guard banquet), painted in 1648 by Bartholomew
van der Heist, the officers are shown eating without the aid of forks.
80 DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES
brewed beer, spun wool, wove cloth, made, not only their
own garments, but also the smock frocks (worn from
King John's days to our own) for their men folk. How
women got on without pins is hard to imagine. They
only had skewers of wood, bone, or silver, and tied their
clothes with tags and laces. When pins came in, they
were so much thought of, that a wife's allowance was
called her pin-money. In Henry the Eighth's time " an
acte for the true making of pynnes " ordained that the
price of pins should not exceed 6s. Sd a thousand —
more than a penny of our money for each pin.
Our paid professional army relieves civilians now from
personal service, but had we lived in the thirteen
hundreds we should often have seen a man impressed
from Theberton.
In 13 15, Parliament granted to the King, in aid for
his war in Scotland, from every village in England one
stout foot-man. These men were armed with swords,
bows and arrows, slings and lances, and every village
had to pay for its own man's armour, and also for his
expenses of getting to his rendezvous and of food for
sixty days thereafter, at the wage of 4ti., or in modern
money $s. a day. War in Scotland was then of course
foreign service.
For home defence, adequate means had long before
been provided ; even the far distant 12th century show-
ing, in that respect, a beacon, an example, to ourselves.
By the Assize of Arms of 1181, all Englishmen of an
age fit for war, were bound to serve in defence of home
and country. Such vital matters were not then the
shuttlecocks of partisan politicians.
In the thirteen hundreds, surnames were slowly coming
into common use ; it was a natural process, thus Jack
the Smith, developed into John Smith, and the sons of
HOME DEFENCE 31
other Johns came to be called Johnsons, Welshmen
concocting English names either prefixed a P, for ap —
son of, as P-richard son of Richard, or affixed s for son, as
Jone-s son of John, Evan-s of Evan. Our women
workers too were the mothers of names ; a female
brewer for instance was then called a brewster, a female
weaver a webster, whence those surnames yet among us.
A local example occurs from the rolls of the adjacent
manor Fordley ; the grant of a house in 1354 from one
Robert le Coupere to Geoffrey le Draper — Cooper and
Draper are common names now.
Though our language has altered much in the course
of ages — not so much in Suffolk however as elsewhere —
place-names of quite obscure localities have suffered
little change. For instance the Packway, a narrow lane
in Fordley, worn deep by the traffic of countless
generations, bore the same name certainly in the 15th
century, probably for centuries earlier. The Fordley
manor rolls which are perfect, and in perfect preservation,
from the thirteen hundreds, record that Robert Grosse,
weaver by trade, held in the twenty-first year of Edward IV
a piece of land called Fordeland, lying by " le Packewaye"
in the same place, leading from Kelsale to Dunwich. Only
one stretch of this old " pedders ^ way " is left, though it
might perhaps still be traced along a " via chasea," a
cattle driving way — we call them drift ways in Suffolk
— which leads from the Fen Farm in Middleton to the
marshes, and probably once crossed the old river, and
led on over Westleton walks to Dunwich.
My neighbours may perhaps identify other places in
Middleton-Fordley, such as the Chapel Croft ; Magg's
Bridge, seemingly not far from Stone Hill ; Slade Mere,
1 Weever says, but his derivation is doubtful, that pedders ways
were so-called '* quod pedes iter conficiunt."
set ANCIENT LOCAL PLACE NAMES
a parish boundary ; Ton Mere (Town Mere) another
parish boundary on the Theberton side. The " pinfold
domini," lord's pound, was probably on the same site
as the pound I remember on Middleton Moor. The
king's highway, " via regia,'" afterwards the turnpike
between Theberton and Yoxford, was in 1367 known as
Medow Lane. It traversed meadows then ; and its
grassy margins must then have been wider, as, after
the statute of Winchester of 1285, no brushwood was
allowed to grow within two hundred feet on either side
of roads , for fear of sheltering robbers. The lord of the
manor had a park in Fordley, referred to on the rolls as
" le parke " and as " parous domini." Upon the present
Dovehouse Farm, perhaps, stood the manorial dovecote,
whence the lord's tame pigeons were privileged to raid
other men's crops.
CHAPTER III
For even slight parish sketches, we sorely need fore-
ground figures. Without figures, almost any picture
lacks interest, and for historical subjects they are not
less than essential. Houses, habits, manners, language,
all help us with, as it were, a background ; but we want
life ; we want to see men and women, the " him and her,"
who, twenty generations back, lived, walked, and talked
in this village of Theberton. This I could never have
supplied, but happily, a word-smith, a poet, himself
an eye-witness, has left us his masterpieces of
.description.
Geoffrey Chaucer, father of English Poetry, we are
proud to claim for Suffolk, as descended from an
Ipswich family ^ ; and it is very probable that his im-
mortal characters, so fresh, so vivid in colour, so obviously
likenesses, were drawn from Suffolk friends and relations.
They may well stand at all events for types of such
people as he might have met, any day at Theberton.
In the days we are describing, no figures were more
familiar in our parish, than the monks of Leyston.
Theberton folk assisted at their choral services, and
1 See " The Chaucers of Suffolk," an article by Mr. V. B. Red-
stone in Memorials of Old Suffolk^ edited by him. I have to thank
Mr. Redstone for friendly help.
84 THE JENNEY FAMILY
admired their frequent processions, saw work-a-day
brothers labouring at harvest, and, now and then, perhaps
a gay abbot, riding with hawk on wrist, or following
hounds, over the unfenced open fields, privileged by
his right of free warren.
A canon of the church indeed, forbade clerics to hunt
with hawk or hound ^^voluptatis causd" but — fine the
distinction — it was permitted them if " recreationis aut
valetudinis gratid" a bit of subtlety which monks would
delight in, and not fail to take full advantage of.
The neighbourhood was not without gentle families.
In 1437, an Inquisition was held at Benhall, a
neighbouring parish, after — and a strangely long time
after — the death of one William Leyston, who had died
in 1365.
William Leyston had had a daughter Margery, married
to John Bokele. They had a son William, whose son
again was John Bokele. This younger John had a
daughter named Maud. Maud Bokele married John
Jenney,^ and they had a son named William.
j^SJljIi The Inquisition found that William Leyston had
died seised in tail of the Manor of Wadehalle, with its
,1 f , appurtenances in Leyston, Theberton, Middleton,
V x/f^ K*^ Fordley, Aldringham, Knoddishall, Buxlow ^ and Friston,
by the gift of his father John de Leyston, who was I
think the man who had acted as a trustee for the
Abbey ; and it was further found that one of his next
heirs was the above-named William Jenney ; son of Maud
and John Jenney.
* In Knoddishall Church near Leiston, Weever noted this
inscription : "John Jenney Esquyer, Matylda (Maud) daughter of
John Bokele Esquyer and Margery his wyves which John dyed
Mcccclx."
* Slight remains of the round tower of Buxlow Church may be
found in the garden of a cottage near Knoddishall Red House.
WORD PICTURES FROM CHAUCER 36
Thus it appears that William Jenney inherited estates
in Theberton from William Leyston, and through him
from John de Leyston, who had been born in Edward I.'s
time.^
The Bokeles we shall meet again later. For many
years I shot with friends through a wood in Leiston
called Buckles Wood, by which perhaps the ancient
name is commemorated.
Among the Leystones, the Bokeles, and the Jenneys,
might doubtless have been found models for Chaucer's
" perfight gentil knight " or for the jolly :
. . househaldere and that a gret was he
It snewed ^ in his hous of mete and drynk
Of alle deyntees that men cowde thynke
His table dormant in his halle alway
Stood redy covered al the longe day.
Some younger brother might have stood for the stout
yeoman
. . . clad in coote and hood of grene
A shef of pocock arwes bright and kene
Under his belte he bar ful thriftily
His arwes drowpud nought with fetheres lowe
And in his hond he bar a mighty bowe
Upon his arme he bar a gay bracer
And by his side a swerd and a bokeler
And on the other side a gay daggere.
Chaucer's art, like Rembrandt's, delights in strong
contrasts of light and shade. Monks under rule, and
priests out in the world, he paints as he saw them,
always at enmity with each other. His typical regular
* Among the Paston Letters is a letter from William Jenney
to John Paston Esqr. written from Theberton. The date is
uncertain, but is believed to be in the reign of Henry VI.
2 We still say " it snewed " in Suffolk.
D 2
86 NATURE'S GENTLEMEN
. . , loved venerye
Greyhoundes he hadde as swifte as fowel in flight
Of prikyng and of huntyng for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.
How different his specimen of the secular priest, the
beautiful original of many a later poet's description.
Though but a poor country parson,
. . , riche he was of holy thought and werk
He was also a lemed man, a clerk
That Cristes gospel gladly wolde preche :
His parischens devoutly wolde he teche.
Benigne he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversite ful pacient
Wyd was his parisch, and houses fer asondur
But he ne lafte not for reyne ne thondur
In siknesse ne in meschief to visite
The ferrest in his parissche. . . .
This humble priest had a brother, good and worthy as
himself, in another calling. He was a poor ploughman.
A trewe swynker and a good was hee,
Lyvynge in pees and parfight charitee.
God loved he best with al his trewe herte
At alle tymes, though him gained or smerte,
And thanne his neighebour right as himselve.
He wolde threisshe and therto dyke and delve
For Cristes sake, with every pore wight
Withouten huyre if it laye in liis might.
I have in Theberton known just such Christian
gentlemen of the ploughman's calling, and truly and
well has it been written that " humble thoughts which
smoake from a poore man's cottage, are as sweet a
sacrifice unto the Lord as the costly perfumes of the
prince's pallace."
It is deplorable that the old manor rolls of Theberton
are not available, we might have quarried out of them
material of interest; but those we have only date from
THE OLD THEBERTON DEER PARK 37
1 64 1, Exhaustive searches have been made for the
old rolls, but " non sunt inventi " — gone, it may be,
stolen. Lawyers delight in precedents : — " Whereas "
I quote from the city books of Lincoln, date 1520, divers
documents " pertaining to the Gild Hall be embezzled
and withdrawn if no person will acknowledge
the having of them, then a monition shall proceed of
mrsing against all such persons as keep any such books
rolls or other writings." To follow this good
precedent would afford the present writer, as their
monition doubtless afforded the city fathers of Lincoln,
a glow of real satisfaction.
There was in ancient days a park in Theberton of
about 1 88 acres. It seems to have been a long narrowstrip,
extending east and west between the two water-courses
which flow to the eastward, of which one bounds the
parish of Theberton on the north, and the other, after
running through the Church farm, passes the Wash
Cottage, and crosses the road by the rectory corner.
From the westward, the park seems to have stretched
from within the next parish of Kelsale beyond the
Ashen Spring Covert, to the marshes on the Hall farm,
comprising such part of the now Hall park, as lies in
Theberton. The whole of this area, however, could not
have been included, as it covers more ground than
188 acres, but we have no material for more accurate
description.
At what date the old park was formed there is no
evidence ; ^ it may have been at any time between the
thirteenth and the end of the seventeenth century.
So many parks were made about the thirteenth century,
that licences to impark brought considerable revenue to
^ Doomsday enumerates thirty-one parks in all England, of
which the Castle Park at Eye was the only one in Suffolk.
88 DEER FOR FOOD AND SPORT
the Crown ; for the law was that no man could
make a park which was '■' quodam modo to appro-
priate those creatures which are ferce natures and
nullius in bonis to himself, and to restrain them of
their natural liberty," without the king's permission.
In Henry III.'s time the statute of Merton, and in
Edward I.'s time the statute of Westminster, authorised
lords of manors to impark, by enclosing portions of the
common pasture, so as the rights of commoners were
not interfered with.
I think practical needs dictated the growing fashion
for making parks. Fat venison is excellent meat, but,
though there were both fallow and red deer in the
wastes and forests, their nature is to wander far, and
they could not be brought to hand always just when
wanted ; landowners therefore found their advantage in
making enclosures, into which the deer could be collected,
and kept in good condition for the table. Venison
was salted then for the winter. In the late Mr. E. P.
Shirley's delightful ** Deer and Deer Parks " is found a
record of 1298 which, put into English, is as follows : —
" The King to the guardians of the bishoprick of Ely
(the See was then vacant) we command that one hundred,
fallow deer now in season in the episcopal park be
salted, and dried, (smoked }) and so salted and dried be
stored in tubs," &c. Sport also in a mediaeval sense,
was promoted by imparking. The mode then was to
drive the deer past fixed stands, " stable stands," whence
sportsmen shot them with arrows; just as, with rifles in
the place of bows, is done to-day by German potentates.
An enclosed park was thus, in an old writer's words,
" always ready to furnish you with those animals (deer)
either for use or for pleasure."
So the fashion of imparking grew, and more and more
A SURVIVOK OK THE OlD DeKR PaRK.
THE MODERN PARK TITHE FREE 39
parks were enclosed, till the latter part of the sixteenth
century, when Harrison estimated that no less than one
twentieth part of the kingdom was used for deer and for
conies.
The beginning of the seventeenth century saw the tide
of imparking turn. Parks brought " no maner of gaine or
profit to the owners sith they comonlye give awaye their
fleshe, never taking penny for the same, because venission
in England is neither bought nor soulde by the right
owner." And desirous of some profit, gentlemen threw
down their park palings, and, as it was then quaintly
said, made the deer leap over, to give place to bullocks.
There is no evidence when the Theberton deer park
was disparked ; only, we know it must have been after
1 60 1, for which year Davy records this extract from the
lost manor rolls : " Curia generalis cum leta tenia
5 Aug. 43, Eliz. Juratores presentant quod parens
dominihujus manerii fraetus est,sed per quern incognitum
est'* The jurors present that the park of the lord of
this manor was broken into, but by whom it is not
known.
It may be noted here, that the modern Hall park with
some adjacent land, all part of the old enclosure,
perhaps the original nucleus of it, is at this day tithe
free, subject only to a trifling modus. It was never
Abbey land. Can it be that deer, being wild animals or
in legal phrase feres natures^ the ancient park, which
produced nothing else, was never titheable, and was
subjected, instead of tithes, to the modus .^ A case in point
may be cited for this. Mote Park in Kent contains
480 acres, of which 140 are free of tithe ; this is believed
to be because those 140 acres represent the original deer
park.
There probably were deer in the park at Theberton of
40 VENISON FROM FRAMLINGHAM CASTLE
Sir Edmund Jenney, who had been knighted at the
marriage of Prince Arthur with Katharine of Arragon ;
but he accepted, as did other gentlemen in the like case,
presents of venison. In " Deer and Deer Parks," are
printed the accounts from 1515 to 1518 of the Duke
of Norfolk's " parker " at Framlingham Castle. Among
persons to whom the Duke sent venison are named
both Sir Edmund, and his eldest son William who died
before him, " one buk " each. The park keeper's ortho-
graphy is strange, he seems to have been a north-
country man, we Suffolkers never misplace H's.
His list of names comprised, besides the two Jenneys,
most of the prominent folk of the neighbourhood.
Among them are " my lord (the bishop) of Norwich " ;
"my lord Wylleby" (Willoughby of Parham) ; "the
abbot of Sypton" (Sibton) ; "Sir Wm. Rows" (an
ancestor of the Earl of Stradbroke) ; " The Abbas
(abbess) of Brusyzard" (Bruisyard a convent of Poor
Clares) ; " the Master of Metyngham " (Mettingham
College) ; " Johan Henyham " (whose family, dating
from the reign of Canute, ended with William
Heveningham the regicide) ; " Sir Arthur Hopton "
(who sold Henham to the Rouses) ; " The Prior of Hey
(Eye), and the Scoell Mastyr " ; " The balys (bailiffs)
of Ypswyche"; "the Abbot of Bery" (Bury); "the
Prior of Butley " ; " the Prior of Seynt Petyrs " ; " the
Prior of Woodbrege " ; " the Parson of framlyngham for
tythe " (a voluntary gift in lieu of tithe not claimable >) ;
" Sr. Richard Wentforthe" (Wentworth of Nettlestead) ;
♦• Sr. Anthony Wingfield " (of Wingfield Castle) ; " Sir
Richard Cawndysche" (Cavendish); "Sir Johan
Glemham " (of Benhall, pronounced now as written
in 9 Elizabeth, Benall) ; " the Priories (prioress) of
Campsey (whose house was owner of the advowson of
A PARK KEEPER'S DIARY 41
Carlton by Kelsale) ; " the Parson of Orford " ; " the
Prior of Thelforthe " (? Thetford); "Sr. Thomas Tyrell"
(of Gipping, one of whose family is said to have
murdered the princes in the Tower).
Convents of monks and nuns were obviously plentiful
as blackberries, or as squires' houses now ; strangely
enough, the abbot of Leyston is not mentioned among
the favoured heads of religious houses, to each of whom
was sent " one buk." Of the family of Glemham, was
later "that most famous and venterous gentleman,
Edward Glemham of Benhall in Suffolk," whose " honor-
able actions .... latelie obtained against the Spaniards
and the Holy League in four sundrie fights," were
published in 1591 "for an ^encouragement to our
English Adventurers (gentlemen sailars and soldiars)
that serve against the enemies of God and our
country." ^
I cannot keep from my readers some quaint further
extracts from the " parker's " accounts, which, though
not directly concerning Theberton, are yet of interest,
throwing light just where we want it, on the common-
places of our forbears' life in the neighbourhood ;
such for instance as : —
" Balling of Laxfield Merser (Mercer) ij doggis of hys
came in and kyllyd a doo and a fawne."
" On holy rood evyn I found in the parke Sr. lohan
^ H. R. wrote " in commendation of the right worshipful! and
valiant Generall, Edward Glemham, Esquire " : —
Brave men at Armes, England's Cheueleers,
Let Glemham's honors, 'mongst you be of name
Whose conquests gainde, 'gamst Spanish Cauiliers
With goulden Trumpe, eternised is by fame :
Tutkie, Spaine, and France reports the same,
To England's honor Glemham gaines renowne
In spite of those which at his weale dothe frowne.
The little book from which these lines are extracted was reprinted
in 1820.
42 THE FRENCHE QUENE AND THE CARDINAL
bowse parysch pryst of tanyston (Tannington parish.
Priests being graduates were then called Sir) with hys
bow bent and an arrow in yt, betyng (making ready
to shoot) at the herd."
" Item — Johan pulsham (Foulsham a Theberton
family name) thelder (the elder) cam rydyng be the wey,
and fowned a do without, and hys doge kyllyd hym —
and he hyng hys dog ! "
In 1 5 19, was killed "for Sr. lohan Rows, for syngynge
of his first Messe (Mass), one bucke."
" Item the Mundaye afore Mychaelmes daye, cam
in a dogge of Johnsons of denyngtone the schoe maker,
and kyllyd ij dooes, and then the dogge was take up,
and I sende to hym to wete (know) wether he wold have
the dogge agayne, and he send me word naye, and then
I hynge him upon a tre."
I transcribe a few entries more, which relate to
historical persons in our county.
Among the bucks killed, the "parker" accounts
for : — " the frenche quene one buk, item ij fawnys item
she sent to me for a fawne, item the quene cam
agayne and kyllyd iiij bukkys." This was Mary Tudor,
the young widow of Louis XII. She married "that
martiall pompous gentilman," Charles Brandon, the
Duke of Suffolk, of whom it is related that, at a grand
tournament on the occasion of their wedding, he
tilted with his horse in trappings half cloth of gold and
half frieze, with these lines on them.
Cloth of gold do not despise
Though thou art matched with cloth of frieze
Cloth of frieze be not too bold
Though thou art matched with cloth of gold. •
Again — " for the comyng of my lord Cardenall, one
* He was interred at Bury St. Edmund's.
Framungham Castle.
HEVENINGHAM PARK 48
buk. Item he cam trow the parke and kyllyd one buk
and a do, item on the next day I was sygned to kyll
for him xij bukkys." This was of course the " top
proud cardinal " son of a grazier of Ipswich — Thomas
Wolsey.
Again — "to Wyndferdying (Winfarthing, near Diss, .
where was an ancient park one mile in circumference) ^
was sent for my lord of Surrey 121 quyke (live) deer
taken at seven different times." This was Thomas, V^*
Earl of Surrey, afterwards third Duke of Norfolk, who '\/0^^'^^
In those days, gentlemen did not sell their venison ; P^\ a IWI
and licence to kill deer in another man's park ^4-W*'. . -
married Anne, daughter of King Edward IV. f^ *^ J^^
was a prized privilege to be granted in solemn 1\Jm^
form of law. The Sir John Heveningham above men- ^
tioned had a great park at Heveningham, where, at a
later date. Queen Bess is said to have slain a fat buck
with her own hand. Among his neighbours was Nicholas
Bohun Esquire, of Westhall ; and in 1533, a Deed Poll
was executed under the hands and seal of Sir John,
Dame Alice his wife, and Anthony his son and heir
apparent, whereby, Sir John, with consent of his wife and
son, "graunted to Nicholas a yerly fee of oon buk in
somer and oon doo in wynter, to be taken of my gifte
within my parke at Heveyngham, in seasonable and
convenyent tymes in the yer : to have and enjoye the
said fee of oon buk and oon doo yerly, to be taken in
such tyme and place as is aforesaid, to the said Nicholas
and his assyns during his life naturall " : and it was pro-
vided that it should "be lefull to the same Nicholas, at
his own plesure, to kille yerly the said buk and doo in
convenyent tymes of the yer, with hys houndys, grey
houndys, or long bowe ; soo always the same Nicholas
be there present in his own person ; and so that the said
44 CONCERNING APPROPRIATIONS
Nicholas do gif convenyent knowledge to the keper of
the seid parke for the tyme being of his comyng their
to hunte and kyll as is aforesaid ; or ellys the same buk
and doo to be killed by the same keper, and delivered
to the seid Nicholas or his assigns at the seid park."
CHAPTER IV
We have already traced the advowson of Theberton . i^
into the hands of the monks of Leyston, who, after 1372, ^-^MAJH (Itt
had the right of presenting rectors to the benefice. Cui /- c^-^
They had not to wait long for their first opportunity.
In 1374, they presented a priest, one Robert de Dersham
(query Darsham) " confrater et concanonicus," to the
then vacant church of Theberton ; and their presentation
was followed, in due course, by the canonical institution
of the same monk by Henry de Spencer, " the fighting
bishop of Norwich," who was then residing at his
episcopal house at Hoxne.
This done, the canons set to work to gain a further
step by squeezing out of Theberton advantages for
the future, more tangible than their bare right of
patronage. The law then permitted a process, known
by an euphemism as " appropriation," whereby parish
priests were plundered to aggrandize religious houses.
When a spiritual corporation, a monastery for instance,
was patron of a rectory, it could, upon a vacancy, make
itself also the rector, and entitle itself in that capacity to ,
take the tithes of the parish. The cure of souls could be 7)ff
vicariously served by a clerk, may-be a monk in priest's
orders of their own house, as their vicar or deputy, who
would be in the position of a modern curate — the rector
%
46 THE THEBERTON APPROPRIATION
house taking the tithes, and paying the vicar-curate a
stipend for his services.
Monkish apologists raked in the ashes of antiquity
for a justification of such robberies. Tithes, they main-
tained, were originally divided into four equal parts —
one part for the bishop, one for reparations of the church
and priest's manse, one for the poor and for the exercise
of hospitality, leaving only one fourth for the support of
the parson. And why, if one fourth had then sufficed for
that purpose, should it not suffice still. And as to the
three-fourths — the bishop needing his fourth no longer —
how could the money be applied more piously than to
support the professed religious, holy devoted men such
as themselves }
This hypocritical iniquity, practised now for genera-
tions, had become a great and crying scandal. It
resulted that Rectorial hospitality was neglected,
churches and rectory houses fell into disrepair, some-
times not even any minister was provided. Monks kept
"parsonages in their own hands, dealt but a twentieth
part to the poor, and preached but once in the yeare to
them that paid the tithes." Even a Pope, Alexander
IV., had in the thirteenth century stigmatized the
system, as " the bane of religion, the destruction of
the church, and a poison that infected the whole
nation." ^
Let us see how an appropriation was effiscted at
Theberton.
There is preserved in the Register of the Sacrist of
Norwich, a document which gives a full account of it.
The deed bears date, " The Chapter House of Leyston
* Hooker wrote centuries afterwards of : " that which hath been
taken from the church in appropriations known to amount to the
value of ;^i 26,000 yearly." This, it will be remembered,
represents a vastly larger figure according to the present value
of money.
THE POPE'S USURPED POWER 47
Abbey, 15 April, 1381." From it, we learn that Henry
Despencer the bishop of Norwich, had, with the consent
of the Chapter of Norwich, " annexed and united and
appropriated " (the actual appropriation was it seems
effected in the previous year) the church of Theberton
to the convent of Leyston ; and that the Abbot and
Convent agreed to pay, during the appropriation, an
annual pension of 4^. to the Sacrist, at the Michaelmas
and Easter synods of the church.
At that date, 1381, Robert de Dersham was still the
Rector of Theberton ; and, till he vacated the benefice,
the monks had not an opportunity to take advantage of
the appropriation. He died, it would seem, in 1391. In
the January following, one John, like his predecessor
surnamed de Dersham and like him a monk of Leyston,
was, in the capacity of a lawfully constituted " proctor
of the religious men the Abbot and convent, instituted
by the said father (the bishop) into the parish church of
Theberton then vacant." The document effecting this
is interesting enough to set out. It runs thus, translated
from the Latin and omitting the merely formal parts :
Henry by divine permission Bishop of Norwich to our
beloved sons the Abbot and Convent of the monastery
of the blessed Mary of Leystone of the Premonstraten-
sian order in our diocese, who now are or at all future
times shall be, salutation grace and benediction. As
regards the parish church of Theberton in our Diocese
now vacant by the death of brother Robert de Dersham
the last rector there, of which you have obtained the
right of patronage ; we, by the authority of our
ordinary (jurisdiction) and by virtue of the privilege of
the Apostolic See by Pope Celestine of blessed memory
of old granted to you and your monastery ,1 do canoni-
^ Referred to by Hooker as "the Pope's usurped power of
appropriating ecclesiastical livings unto Monks."
48 THE KING PRESENTS RECTORS
cally unite annex and incorporate and appropriate it to
your proper use for ever. And we grant the same, in
the person of brother John de Dersham member and
canon of the said monastery and your proctor legally
constituted, according to the form and effect of our
letters to you, as to the union annexation incorporation
and appropriation aforesaid, made and sealed with our
seal and the seal of the chapter of our Cathedral Church.
And we admit and canonically institute you Rectors in
the same. Saving to us and to our successors and to
our Cathedral Church and also to the Archdeacon of
Suffolk all rights, etc., etc. — as in the said letters of
appropriation are more fully set out.
Thus, the community of the Abbot and Canons of
Leyston, hitherto only the patrons, were now constituted
the incumbent rectors also, of Theberton.
During the next few years, I suppose that the Abbey
served the cure of Theberton by a stipendiary " vicar."
In 1401, we find that King Henry IV. presented one
Richard Herman priest to the "parish church of
Theberton," to which he was in due course lawfully
instituted. The words " the parish church " meant, of
course, the Rectory.
How the King obtained this presentation does not
appear.
Besides the evidence of the form of presentation, the
fact that Richard Herman was in as rector, is shown
aliunde. We have it, that, in the second year of his
incumbency, one Mary daughter of Thomas Power of
Theberton granted to him, together with other persons,
certain lands situate in Theberton, describing him as
" Richard rector of Theberton."
In 1404, we find it recorded that the Sacrist of Norwich
Cathedral had, for that year, received nothing in respect
THE APPROPRIATION INVALID 49
of his pension of 4s. from the Abbot of Leyston on /^nr^ it
account of the church of Theberton, " by reason it is ^ *Gs./HA;.
said that the church was then in the hands of seculars." f^L jtbA (^
Richard Herman seems to have been a secular priest. I ' ^^h A
In 1408, the Abbot and Convent again presented 1 ^ yf/f (
to the parish church (rectory) a monk of their house ^""'^^
the parish church (rectory)
one brother John Pethagh, who was instituted accord-
ingly.
Pethagh's incumbency was short ; and in 1409 the
King again presented one Henry Leycestre who perhaps
had Court interest. He was not even in Holy Orders :
"primam habuit tonsuram clericalem " ; yet he was
instituted the same year " in ecdesie parochiali " to the
parish church. Perhaps this was not in canonical order,
for another institution of the same man is recorded in the
year following, by which time he had attained sub-
deacon's orders. Now, there can be no room for doubt
as to the rectorial status of Leycestre ; for when one
Hugo Sprot — I think also a secular — from St. Andrew's
Holborn, " a suburb of London " (how oddly it sounds
now), exchanged livings with him, Sprot's institution was
expressed to be on the resignation of Henry Leycestre
" late rector " of Theberton.
We have seen that the King had presented one
turn, then the Abbot and Convent presented, and
then the King again for the alternate turn, and that
all the presentees were canon ically instituted to the
rectory.
Clearly, these facts do not consist with the validity of
the appropriation. Had it been and remained valid, a
Rector could not have been legally instituted ; for by the
appropriation (to which moreover the King had con-
sented) the Rectory had been "annexed incorporated and
united " with the advowson, and thereby the Abbot and
E
\S
50 HOW INVALIDATED?
Convent of Leystone had become for ever the incumbent
Rectors — " parsons imparsonees," to use the quaint old
phrase — of Theberton. The Rectory was full, there was
no vacancy to be presented to, either by King or by
Abbey, yet the King did in fact, and so did the Abbey,
present clerks to the Rectory, and their presentations held
good, for their presentees were in due form instituted by
the bishop of the diocese.
But what had invalidated the appropriation ? How
came the monks to lose such a highly prized spiritual
possession ? Of course, for some reason we do not know,
it may have been invalid ab initio ; or, if that could be,
have been surrendered ; or again, this conjecture may be
worth considering, it may possibly be that, having parted
by grant to the King with a part of the organism of their
advowson — a next or perhaps next alternate right of
presentation to the rectory — and rectors having by
virtue thereof been presented and instituted, the union
^%5 , between rectory and advowson had been severed, and
9/' >. ^iX being once severed, they could never be re-united ; and
thus, the benefice had been irrevocably disappropriated.
Or — there is another more likely alternative ; the monks
may have concluded that it was their interest, not to
appoint vicars, having regard to the restrictions of a
statute passed in 1402. That Act provided that all vicars
shojild be seculars, not members of any religious house,
that they should be perpetual, not removable at the
caprice of monasteries, be canonically instituted and
inducted, and be sufficiently endowed at the discretion
of the ordinary. This made it impossible for the Convent
to provide pleasant berths for its monks, as vicars ; or by
appointing them in rapid rotation, to arrange refreshing
holidays. May it not be then, that they thought to
evade the obnoxious act by an expedient } They might,
SUCCESSIVE RECTORS
51
as patrons, regardless of the appropriation, present a
monk to the rectory — the statute referred only to vicars
— and might they not extort from him being under vows
of obedience by the rule of their order, security for the
payment to them of the bulk of his tithes, and, make
him sign a bond besides, conditioned that he should
resign after a prescribed period, or on demand of the
community. Probably this had been devised — these men
of religion were very sharp practitioners — when they
presented brother John Pethagh.
The invalidity or loss of this Theberton appropriation
is the more remarkable, seeing that had there been
many instances, no great number of vicarages would
now be in existence ; whereas the fact is, that (as
appears by the Diocesan Calendar for 1908) out of three
hundred and fifty-five benefices in the Archdeaconry of
Suffolk, no less than one hundred and forty-two are
vicarages, nearly the whole number of which originated
from appropriations and the Act of 1402.
Sprot, after a four years' incumbency, was succeeded
by a Leyston canon, Clement surnamed of Blythburgh.
He was presented by his House ^ which of course was
still the patron, and was in due course instituted to the
rectory of Theberton,
This monk retained the benefice for eighteen years,
resigning it to become abbot of Leyston, which dignity
he held till 1445.
In his time it was, that the revolt in men's minds
against monastic greed found striking expression in
Parliament. The House of Commons petitioned the
King " that all parsonages appropriated to some religious
house not endowing vicars, might within six months be
* In the bishop's register it is written that he was presented by
the Abbot of Sibton, but this was evidently a clerical error.
E 2
l^lolxCvU
V -r^
.§
-^
i^
^v.
/
Fs:
v
v/
52 PRESENTATION OF JOHN DOONWYCH
/ unappropriated." No legislation seems to have followed
{ in the sense of the petition : luckily for Leyston Abbey,
for the monks held other appropriate churches, and
there is evidence that they worked them in flagrant
defiance of law ; even as late as 1478, they had to make
this return to Bishop Redman their visitor : " quinque
habent ecclesias canonici, sunt airati in quibusdam^
sed non perpetui."
When Clement resigned Theberton, the Abbot and
Convent presented Nicholas Craton, another member of
their brotherhood, and he again was instituted to " the
parish church."
To him after less than two years, succeeded another
monk John Geyst, or Geyse ; he died after one year —
in October, 1438.
Then in November following, the Abbot and Convent
presented John Doonwych, another member of their
House, who was duly instituted. This was an eventful
presentation. The monks' crafty expedient to evade the
statute of 1402 was to have its seaworthiness tested.
A time came, when for some reason, the Abbot desired
to remove this monk from the rectory of Theberton.
Possibly, having bound himself to hand part of his
rectorial tithes over to his patrons, he may have failed
in his payments. At all events the Abbot determined
to eject him. Doonwych, beatus possidens^ refused to
budge. He probably was a cunning unscrupulous
fellow ; the convent had sailed near the wind, why should
not he ? True, he may have agreed to resign on demand,
but the unjust compact, designed to evade a plain Act of
Parliament, had been forced upon him while under
monastic duress. True, he had vowed vows, but what
were vows to him, now that he was no longer an inmate
of the cloister?
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST DOONWYCH 53
The Abbey had, on their part, a strong champion ;
Clement the abbot was not a man to be trifled with.
What the event was will be unfolded.
It must be premised that the visitors of the Premon-
tratensian order were, at this time, Thomas Abbot of
Begham, and William Abbot of Radegunde, with joint
and several powers.
They made this petition to the High Court of
Chancery ; I venture slightly to modernise the archaic
spelling.
" Right Mekely besecheth Thomas Abbot of Begham
and William Abbot of Radegunde, visitors jointly and
severally and by thair Commissaries, of the Premonstra-
tensian order within the Roialme (realm) of Engeland,
to have correccion, and duely to punisshe eny of this
same ordre defectif or rebyll to it, within the said
Roialme. But, gracious lord, for as muche as one John
Doonwiche, one of the said ordre, and of the house of
Leyston, was noised defectif and not rueled after the
fourme of his said ordre, the forsaid Thomas committed
power to Clement Abbot of Leyston, to cite and calle
the said John to come afore hym, to answere after the
forme of his seid ordre ; and so John, by the said Clement
was lawfully cited, and it disobeyd, so that by due
process he standeth accursed. Whereuppon the forseid
Clement beyng Commissarie, came to Theberton a
parissh belongyng to the said Abbey of Leyston, whare
the said John was abiding against the will of his ordre,
kepyng there the cure ; and there, required the Constable
of the same Parissh, after the forme of our said souvrain
lordes letters, to succour and support hym, in reforma-
cion and correccion of the said John, to whiche the said
Constable agreed and obeyd; but gracious lord, the
forsaid John, of grete malice contrarie to his order, by
54 AN AFFRAY IN THEBERTON CHURCH
the grete supportacion of John Curteys and John Sturmy
of Theberton, disobeid the said Clement and his correc-
cion, and yit doth. Whereuppon, if hit please your
gracious lordship to consider the rebellion of the seid
John Doonwiche to his order, and howe that he, standyng
accursid, kepith the cure of the said Parissh, ministryng
there the sacraments of holy church, by the supportacion
of the forseid John Curteys and John Sturmy, there-
uppon of your good grace, to grant writtes subpena,
direct to the forseid John, John, and John, to appere
byfore you in the Chauncerie, uppon a cartain day, to
be examined uppon the matter aforseid, for the love of
God and in weyrk of charete."
Compliant with this petition, a writ dated 28th June,
1445 was granted out of Chancery, directing examina-
tions to be taken.
Accordingly, we read that on Tuesday the Feast of
St. Bartholomew the Apostle, in the twenty-third year
of Henry VI. (1445), John Doonwych, with John Curteys
and John Sturmyn, appeared at Halesworth before Sir
John Heveningham acting on a writ out of Chancery,
and they, and twelve other persons, among whom were
John Feld, Geoffrey Ulff, Ralph Cotyngham and William
Andrewe, all of Theberton, deposed on their oathes as
follows :
They swore that Clement Abbot of Leyston had
presented the said John Donewyche to the church of
Theberton, to which church he was admitted by the
ordinary, and lawfully instituted ; and by reason of
being thus under obedience to the said ordinary, the
said John was exempt from his order, and absolved from
his oath ; and that he administered the cure of Theberton
well and honestly. Also, that the said Abbot Clement,
HOLY THURSDAY A.D. 1445 55
with one William Fraunceys and many others to the
number of twenty persons arrayed in warlike manner,
came on Ascension Day last past, to the church of
Theberton, and made an assault on the said John
Doonwych while he was celebrating service there, and
arrested him, and wanted to take him with them.
Whereupon the said John Curteys and John Sturmey
and other parishioners of Theberton, went and spoke to
the said abbot and those who came with him, with
civil and honest words, and induced the said abbot to
release the said Doonwych.
How strange this seems to us, here now in modern
Theberton. The background of the picture we can
easily bring before us. Our age- worn church, with its
old round tower and long ridge of thatched roof, cannot
be much altered, though whether the octagon top had
then been added to the round tower we do not know.
Again those crumbling walls, on the borders of our
parish, suggest the then noble Abbey on the new site, to
which, a century before, the monks had migrated, as
" bees, which having first built in the ground and hollow
trees, get them hives in gardens ; and leaving the deserts,
gain them princely houses in pleasant places " ; their
church was now cathedral-like, with choir and nave,
aisles and transepts ; and a refectory, abbot's lodgings
with other conventual buildings, covered a great space
of ground. Between our church and the Abbey, the way
was then a grassy track, a mile or more, through un-
fenced woodland and pasture.
Even the interior of our church we can well imagine.
A rood screen then separated chancel from nave : perhaps
the monastic patrons had already added to the chancel
to afford space for showy ceremonial : our font looking
56 FIFTEENTH CENTURY FASHIONS
so ancient now, probably had not then taken the place
of one yet more ancient ; ^ the roof was unceiled then,
the thatch probably showing between the rafters.
And now, let us try to picture the rustic congregation
on that Holy Thursday 1445. The lord of the manor
may have been there. Imagine him in a long gown of
rich material, his hair falling down below his shoulders,
purse and dagger hanging from his girdle :
" An anlas and a gipser al of silk
Heng at his gerdul whit as morne mylk,"
The toe points of his shoes, pikes ^ or beaks they were
called, ridiculously long, and tied up to his knees with
silver chains ; we may see the costume in kings and
knaves upon our playing cards. And perhaps his lady
was there also, dressed in the fashion of card queens,
let the Queen of Hearts serve for her model ; and a crowd
of more humble folk, the men with hair cropped close,
clad in short coats with leather belts, worsted hose and
broad shoes ; and on the opposite side of the church,
their wives and daughters, in hoods entirely enveloping
their hair, the older ones with " barbs " of pleated linen
covering the chin like linen beards ; all the women in
voluminous petticoats, and not deformed by then un-
thought of stays — they were first worn in the time of
Elizabeth.
A hushed devout congregation we may not doubt ;
kneeling on the bare earthen floor, perhaps for that great
day strewn with rushes, there were no fixed seats then.
The parish priest stood to celebrate mass at the altar.
But what was that ? A hubbub, a sudden clatter of
arms. From their places among the worshippers, two
* The present font, I am told, dates from about 15 10.
^ These pikes or beaks were some years afterwards, by 4 Ed. IV.
c. 7, curtailed to two inches, under a penalty both to the shoemaker
and the wearer.
The Font, Theberton Church,
AN OUTRAGEOUS ABBOT 57
reputable men, John Curteys, and John Sturmyn a land-
owner in the parish, rise from their knees ; to meet at
the porch door a familiar figure ; it was their old rector,
now father Abbot of Leystone, in very angry mood, and
with him a menie of a score men " arrayed in warlike
guise ; " who marched into the church and seized the
priest ! Curteys and Sturmyn at last prevailed with the
abbot to let the parson go ; and he concluded the
service.
Whatever may have been the offence of Doonwych,
can the conduct of Clement the Abbot be judged to
have been less than outrageous ?
How the legal issue was decided I cannot say, but
the fact is, that brother John Doonwych, only a few
weeks after that scandalous scene, resigned the
benefice of Theberton, exchanging it apparently for
another living.
His successor was one John Hert, I believe a secular
priest, presented by the monastery, whose institution
is described, as upon the resignation of John Doonwych
" the late rector."
CHAPTER V -
It is not without interest to find the mere names of
men who lived in our parish nearly five hundred years
ago, but we are fortunate in knowing more than the
mere names of some of them.
We know that William Fraunceys, who supported
the abbot, died in 1459 ; and his will is before me
as I write. He dwelt in Theberton, a man it seems
of some substance, and was, according to the standard
of those days, a good churchman. He left to the
high altar of our church one mark, and half a noble
more for reparation of the church ; to the light of the
Blessed Virgin in the monastery of Leyston half
a noble; to the friars minor of Dunwich half a noble
(these were Franciscans or Grey Friars, whose old wall
pierced by two fine gates, yet surrounds the remains
of their conventual buildings). To the Friars Preachers
of Dunwich he gave 6s. 2>d. (these were Dominican or
Black Friars ; their convent was long ago washed away,
with their church which contained the bodies of
" Richard Bokyl of Leston, and Alice, and Alice,
his wives," together with other benefactors) ; to John
Curteys of Theberton (defender of Doonwych), he
bequeathed one noble. For a secular chaplain to
celebrate (in the parish church, no doubt) for two years
for his soul, he made due provision. And he provided
for a potation, that curious mediaeval blend of festivity
religion and charity called a " cherche-ale ; " and
58
THEBERTON WILLS 59
Curteys (defender of Doonwych) was appointed one
of his executors.
John Sturmyn, the other defender of Doonwych, we
find again as executor of the wills of two more inhabitants
of Theberton. One testator was William Andrews —
from whose estate he had to contribute : to make the
tabernacle of St. Peter of Theberton, for a secular
priest to celebrate in the church of Theberton for two
years and more, and for the repair of a way at
" Estbrugge " — Eastbridge ; this will was proved at
Theberton on the 14th July, 1464. The other testator
was Thomas Hervey, who bequeathed one quarter of
barley to the altar of our church, and left to his son
Thomas three acres of land called Jonefields (perhaps
Johns' fields, but not now identifiable) when he should
arrive at full age ; if he should die, then to his wife
Alice, who seems to have been a Middleton woman.
Hervey died on the 6th day of February, 1474.
Geoffrey Ulff, another witness against Abbot Clement,
was evidently a man of great trust ; we find him as
executor for no less than six Theberton people, Ulff
was in the 15th century a common name in Theberton,
Kelsale, and Middleton.
Of the will of John Feld or Field, another of the
witnesses. Master William Jenney and Edmund his son,
were supervisors. Field died on St. Mark's Day 147 1,
leaving a widow Agnes. She died in 1476, and I quote
shortly from her will. " To Joan Townysende of
Knodishale an 'Almarye'" (I think an Armoire or
cupboard ^) ; " to Godson William Townysende, if he
^ In 1601, Sir Francis Hastings, in a speech in the House of
Commons spoke of certain persons as worthy to be locked up in an
"Ambery." Specific bequests of furniture were common; such
things were then of greater relative value than in these days of
machinery.
60 A CHURCH ALE AND A TRENTAL
wishes to be priested, 13 J. 4a?. and a sheep. ... I leave
to the Rector of Theberton my green cloak for his
trouble." That rector, with John Herberd, and Geoffrey
Ulff were Widow Field's executors.
We have also the testament of Ralph Cotyngham
or Codyngham, which dealt with his house in Theberton,
and lands in "Theberton, Medilton, Fordele and
Westlylton," and provided, as did that of Fraunceys,
for a " cherchale," — probably partaken of in the church
itself, and also for a trental — thirty masses daily for
thirty days — for his soul.
For 1461, we have in a business letter from Richard
Calle to John Paston, an interesting statement of prices
which helps to gauge the real value of legacies that at
first sight seem so trifling : — " They will not give a
noble (6s. Sd.) nor even 6s. for a cow, . . . wheat i2d.
a coomb, barley Sd., malt gd. and lod."
The lord of the manor whose presence on that
Thursday I have suggested, would have been the William
Jenney who, with his son Edmund, was supervisor
of John Field's will. He was afterwards M.P. for
Dunwich, and then, as Sir William, one of the Justices
of the King's Bench ; and having seen the Wars of the
Roses, and those dark days for England of Jack Cade's
rising, died in 1483.
In Weever's time there remained in our church this
inscription : — " Htc jacet Willelmus Jermey miles unus
Justiciar Domini Regis de Banco suo et Elizabeth uxor
eius, quiguidem Willelmus obiit xxiii die Decembris Anno
Domini mcccclxxxiij. Quorum animabus propitietur Deus
Amen" Jermey is evidently a clerical error for Jenney.
The inscription has disappeared, no person knows what
has become of it.
The only bit of ancient brass now remaining is
VISITATIONS OF LEISTON ABBEY 61
a small plate let into a sepulchral slab in the floor of the
nave inscribed in black letters " Orate pro anima
K uterine Pays cujus Anime propicietur Deus. — Amen."
No more is known of Katerine than that she died and
was buried. The date of the brass is thought to be
about 1500.1
Dowsing, the ruthless destroyer of all ^^ orate pro
animd " inscriptions, seems not to have come in person
to Theberton, but to have sent one Francis Verden as
his deputy. We of this "sweet and civil county of
Suffolk," where it was his lot to be born, do not pride
ourselves on Dowsing.
We have, in duty bound, had to advert upon the
craft of the monks of Leystone ; but they were no worse
than were mediaeval monks in general. Indeed, there
is good evidence which redounds much to their credit.
At three years intervals, for many years, Bishop
Richard Redman, on behalf of the Mother House of
Pr^montre, made triennial visitations of the Abbey. And
on every occasion this eminent bishop (successively of
St. Asaph of Exeter and of Ely) speaks well of it.
In 1482, he thanked God that, after diligent enquiry, he
found everything well, and charity well observed. In
1485, there seems to have been no visitation, it was a
year of great dying — the Sudor Anglicus, the terrible
Sweating Sickness. In 1488, the house was in an excellent
state, and the church services were carried on in a better
way than in any other house ; and to that, the bishop
attributed the prosperity of Leyston in temporals and
spirituals. In 1491, the bishop testified to the excellent
rule of the abbot, and the state of the monastery, which
^ At Dennington, in 1662, 51 J lbs. weight of brass "which had
formerly been taken off the gravestones in the church and chancel,"
was found hidden in the vestry.
62 LOCAL NAMES OF I^ISTON MONKS
agreed, he said, with the belief of all, clergy and laity
— only the canons wore too large tonsures. In 1494, the
highest possible praise was accorded to the administra-
tion of the abbot, the bishop found nothing to correct.
In 1497, the excellent state of the house and the
administration of the abbot was commended. Only at
the last of the visitations in 1 500, do we find any word
of blame : one of the canons had committed the pro-
digious offence of going out of the enclosure — meaning
no doubt without the abbot's leave. The bishop added
the grave admonition that " the canons were to use their
hoods over their cloaks when out, and never tassels ! "
Many of the canons seem to have been drawn from the
neighbourhood. Among the names are John Yoxford,
William Woodbridge, John Leystone, John Halesworth,
John Beccles.
When there was but one form of religion in the
country, and all admitted the supremacy of the Roman
Pontiff, Church discipline for lay people, as well as for
clerics, was a very real thing. In some ways, it worked
good, touching a class of offences against morality, of
which the common law did not take cognizance ; but on
the other hand, the canon law, administered by " Officials
of Ordinaries " and their Apparitors, was a foreign thing,
which affronted the English sense of justice. Our
English laws regard an accused man as innocent till
proved guilty. The canon law took the contrary view,
and the Church courts were as much prosecutors as
judges. On mere common report, or on the word of an
Apparitor, they would summon a man to appear before
them, and, assuming his guilt, put him on his oath to
admit or to deny it.
The Apparitor acted as a social spy and common
COURTS CHRISTIAN AND APPARITORS 65
informer. His office was not only to execute the Church
Courts' mandates and citations, but also to smell out
offences among his own neighbours. Fees, it is needless
to say, were exacted at each stage of the proceedings.
The whole system was repugnant to our national tradi-
tions, and lent itself to gratification of spite, to bribery,
and all manner of abuses.
Archdeacon Hale, in 1847 collected a series of cases
heard by certain Courts Christian as they were called,
from 1475 and, continuing after the Reformation, to
1640.
We may perhaps mention a few of the lighter sort,
such as : — In 1497, a man was brought up for wearing
the garb of a hermit, not having been professed a hermit ;
a monk for wearing the vestments of a secular priest ; a
rector for using arts of sorcery to defame his neighbours ;
a layman for violating a bishop's park, by practising
archery and playing games ; an aquae bajulus — a parish
clerk — for defaming his priest with " Goo forth fole and
set a cockes combe on thi crowne." All these were in
Henry VII.'s time.
In the next reign, 1528, we find the trials of two
" wise women " — a race by no means extinct, even yet
to my knowledge, in our homely Suffolk. One, Margaret
Hunt, was put on her oath to defend herself, and
confessed enormous iniquities : she " knelys downe " —
these were her words — " and prays the blessed Trinite to
save them (her patients) and hele them from all ther
weked enemys ; and then she techeth them ix nights for
to sey V paternosters, v aves, and a crede, and iii pater-
nosters iii aves and credes in the worshyp of Seynte
Spyrite ; and when they take ther chamber and go to
bedde at night, to sey one pater, one ave, and one crede,
in the worshypp of Seynte Ive, to save them from all
64 " WISE WOMEN'' IN THE XVIth CENTURY
envy. And then for them that lye seke of the ague, she
techeth them to gether herbe-grace, peneryall, redde sage,
redde fenell, and the barre rote, before the son downe,
so that it be the last dryncke that the syke drincketh
at night. And for them that hath ony sorys on ther
bodys, she techeth them to gether herbe-grace, dyll,
verveye, marygoldes, put a lyttill holy water to them,
and sey sume prayers ; and when she stampethe to sey
iii paternosters, iii aves, and a crede, in the worshyp of
our Lady, yf it be a woman that stampeth ; and if it be
a man he must sey iii paternosters, iii aves, and a crede,
in the worshypp of Jesus." And this in Latin ; that she
had learned the aforesaid doctrine in Wales, from a
certain woman called mother Emet. The punishment
of this poor creature is not recorded.
The other wise woman, Elizabeth Fotman, practised
upon horses as well as men. She was forced to confess
that " she toke the mense rodd and put it to the horse
bely that was syke of the botts, and made crosses on a
caryers horse bely, and the horse rose up by and by ;
and that the seid rodde did grow besyde the Rhodes " ;
also, she said " she used to hele men of the tothe-ache,
and the worms in chylders belys, and getheryng of
herbs, yauyng over them."
The following reminds us of a custom now long
forgotten. So late as 1543, two men barely escaped
excommunication, upon their own extorted confession,
" that y* haith not maid ii mo torches, nor yet kepede
the drynkynge in the parishe, accordynge the laudable
use and custome of the same parishe. Whereupon, the
judge decreed yt y* shall make ii sufficient torches, be-
twyxt this dale and the feast of Saint John Baptiste next
ensuynge, and delyver them unto the churchwardens,
accordynge to the laudable usage and custome of the same
DRYNKYNGES— A CLERICAL WIZARD 65
parishe." With regard to torches, ever since " the 3rd
century, when besides adopting other pagan ceremonies,
they also h'ghted torches to the martyrs in the day-time
as the heathens did to their gods, this use of torches and
tapers in churches, both by day and night, has prevailed
in Catholic worship." The decree did not deal with the
"drynkynges." What a " drynkynge " was, is well shown
by a will of 1527, of one John Cole of Thelnetham
in our county. He left the rent of three acres of land
" to fynde yearelie a busshell and halfife of malte to be
browne (brewed), and a busshell of whete to be baked to
fynde a drinkinge upon Ascension Even, everlastinge
for ye prisshe of Thelnetham."
Yet later again, in the second year of Mary's reign,
occurred the case of a wizard, William Hasylwood
clerk, accused of using art magic " wytchecraft or
sorcery with a seve and a payre of sheeres," confessed :
" that, in July was twelve mony ths last past, he the same
Hasylwood, having then lost his purse with xiiii grootes
(4J-. Sd.) in the same, and thereupon remembryng that
he, being a chylde, dyd hear his mother declare that
when any man hadd lost anny thing, then they wold
use a syve and a payre of sheeres to bring to knowledge
who hadd the thing lost ; and so, this examinante upon
occasion thereof, dyd take a seve and a payre of sheeres,
and hanged the seve by the poynte of the sheeres, and
sayed thees wordes — by Peter and Paule he hath yt,
namyng the partye whom he, in that behalf suspected :
which thing he never used but ones, and also declared yt
to one of his acqueyntaunce." Poor Hasylwoode had to
do penance thereupon.
Later, we shall meet with local apparitors, and with
public penance suffered in our own parish church of
Theberton.
F
66 A MONKISH CONSPIRACY
John Hert was the last rector we have named. To him
succeeded Thomas Joye in 1450. He was a secular,
presented to our parish church by the abbey ; the monks
we may suspect had taken fright at the escapade of
brother John Doonwych. Plainly, it was not safe to
arm one of their brotherhood with weapons he might
turn against his own community.
How they must have lamented the loss of the
Theberton appropriation. From their other parishes
still appropriate, the tithes, subject to a fixed allowance
for the vicar, belonged to themselves as rectors by
absolute legal title ; whereas from a rector of this parish
of Theberton, were he a secular they had no claim ; and
even were he of their own religious family, no hold,
except perhaps upon paper possibly invalid, securities.
There were, we may be sure, anxious debates in the
chapter house of Leyston Abbey. Could only some
ingenious plan be hit upon, might they not even yet
recover their rectorial position, arid be able again to
appoint a vicar to Theberton. They would be too
glad to embrace the provisions, which they once thought
so odious, of the Act of 1402.
Now for the outcome of their deliberations ; we have
a significant document which slightly abbreviated runs
thus : —
" On the penultimate day of October 1452, before
Master John Selott, Chancellor of the bishop (Walter
Leyhart) of Norwich, the vicarage of the parish church of
Theberton then vacant was taxed at 40i'. for first fruits
of the same vicarage, on all future vacancies to be paid
to the bishop and his successors." The Chancellor
proceeded to decree "the said vicarage to consist of
altarages of the church (offerings and perhaps small
tithes) reserving to the bisJiop and his successors power
THE CONSPIRACY FAILS 67
to augment the poi'tion of the vicar ; and an enquiry
was directed as to the value of the altarages ; and Sir
John Marche priest was personally instituted by the
Chancellor, into the vicarage, on the presentation of the
religious men the abbot and convent of Leyston, being
the true patrons."
The living hadbeen a rectory — certainly since 1408 ; and
yet forsooth, in 1452, the monks hoped by help of the
Chancellor — by what arguments persuaded we can only
surmise — to recover their former rectorial rights ; and in
future to present vicars, not rectors, to Theberton !
Audacity succeeds sometimes, but this silly attempt
was too barefaced. John Marche could not be, and in
fact was never, instituted. Neither he nor any person
could lawfully have been made, or recognised as vicar
of Theberton.
1456 saw a fresh hand at the helm of Leyston. The
new abbot was John Sprotling ; and in the first year of
his abbacy, the Abbot and Convent presented one John
Herberd or Herbert presbiter, to, of course, " the parish
church — rectory, not vicarage, of Theberton."
This was the rector to whom Agnes Field had
bequeathed the green cloak. He died in 1488. By his
will, written in Latin, he describes himself as rector of
" Thebyrton " and thus proceeds : —
" I leave my soul to God Almighty, the blessed Mary,
and all the Saints, and my body to be buried in the
church or chancel of Thebyrton. I leave to the aforesaid
church, a missal, a vestment, a psalter, a processionary,
and a surplice, upon this condition, that the parish shall
find a secular priest to celebrate in the said church for half
a year, and he to have for his salary five marks. I leave
to Sir Thomas Grene a portifory,^ on condition that he
* " Portiforium," a service book — breviary.
F 2
68 A RECTOR'S TESTAMENT
shall celebrate in the said church for a quarter of a year,
for my soul and for the souls of my benefactors. I leave
to the said Thomas my best cloak. I give to Robert Man
of Thebyrton a gown, and to Isabell his wife another
gown. The residue not disposed of I leave to the disposi-
tion of Edmund Jenney Esqre, and Sir Robert Rowc, to
dispose as may best please God and my soul's health."
In 1488, Henricus Guerdon, or Everdon, was, by the
same patrons, presented to the rectory, and was there-
after canonically instituted to the parish church. In this
case, special care was taken to leave no crevice for doubt,
for besides the words " to the parish church," the word
" Rector " was used ; moreover, the vacancy was described
as upon the death of John Herberd " last rector."
The next rector was Thomas Went, priest, and canon
of the abbey. He was admitted in 1504, by the some-
what notorious Bishop Nix of Norwich, to the parochial
church of Theberton, and the words of this institution
again were nc, te Rectorem in eadem canonice insti-
tuimus. Thomas Went died rector of Theberton.
He, and those he ministered to, lived in a splendid
period — the time of the awakening of a new world. Some
rumours of the fame of it must have reached even Theber-
ton, for one of the prophets of the religious renaissance
was Colet, then rector of Dennington a parish but twelve
miles distant, who was a friend of Erasmus. He after-
wards became Dean of St. Paul's, and founded a great
grammar school hard by his cathedral, which is St. Paul's
School still. Dean Colet's plans must have fluttered the
Pharisees, seeming to them. Sir Thomas More told
the Dean, " like the wooden horse in which armed Greeks
were hid for the ruin of barbarous Troy"; for his design
was nothing less, than to teach boys rational religion and
sound learning, and to discard the scholastic logic.
THE RELIGIOUS RENAISSANCE 69
Brother Thomas can hardly have failed to imbibe the
narrow prejudices of the cloister ; but then again, his
later life as rector of Theberton may have opened
his mind to the true beauty of the new teaching. Colet
had placed over the master's chair in St. Paul's school,
an image of the Child Jesus, with the words " Hear ye
Him." Pleasant it is, to imagine our parson preach-
ing from that text to his flock at Theberton.
It was indeed a time of wondrous growth and change ;
and that not only in religious life. All works of
man : literature, discovery, arts, handicrafts, sprang at
a bound into maturity.
Perhaps, our simple country folk would feel no inno-
vation more nearly than the threatened revolution in
their weapons. The bow, from immemorial time, had
been the tried and trusted arm of Englishmen : now the
talk was, that smoking gunpowder and leaden balls
would supersede good yeomanly bows and arrows. The
change was to arrive later, but as yet, it was an open
question whether, the clumsy caliver would really be
more effective in war, than the English long bow. Lord
Herbert thus stated the relative merits of the two
arms : — " When he that carries the caleever goes unarmed
(without defensive armour) the arrow will have the same
effect within its distance as the bullet, and can again
for one shot return two. Besides, as they use halberts
with the bow, (a man armed with a caliver could carry
no weapon besides) they could fall to, to execute on the
enemy with great advantage, I cannot deny but against
the pike they were of less force than the caleevers."
In 1 5 14, Parliament gave judgment, for the bow
and against the caliver. It made perpetual an old
statute concerning archery, and forbad the use of " hand
guns " to all men who had not five hundred marks a
70 LONGBOW VERSUS CALIVER
year, an income considerable at that time, equivalent to
more than ;C300 now.^ All men under forty, were by law
to possess bows and arrows and to practise shooting,
and butts were to be erected in every village.
So there must have been butts at Theberton, at which
men used to practise archery. If every young man
now possessed a magazine rifle, and with it practised
marksmanship, we should be freed from the degrading
fear of invasion.
* The qualification was reduced to ;^ioo the next year.
CHAPTER VI
To Thomas Went, succeeded as rector of Theberton
" Robert Folkelynge capellanus," chaplain perhaps of
some forgotten guild, it might be that of St. John at
Kelshall. He was presented in 1518 by the Abbot and
Convent of Leyston, and instituted as before.
This rector's name appears in the last will dated in
1523, of one of his parishioners. John Kylham willed
that his body should lie in the churchyard of St. Peter
of Theberton, he further willed "that Robert Folklyn
have XXd. to pray for me and for my friends V masses
of the wounds of our Lord."
Probably John was a kinsman of another Kylham —
Richard, who by his will of the same date, left '* XXd, to
the High Altar of our church, for tithe negligently
forgotten." Did he hope that this might save his soul
from the evil smells of purgatory } Turchill, an Essex
husbandman, had in a vision seen the entrance into hell,
whence was exhaled a smoke of most foul stench ;
which arose from tithes unjustly detained and crops
unjustly tithed.
Richard Kylham also bequeathed " a peyer of shalleys "
to our church. Whether the church ever received the
Chalices, or what has become of them, I have found no
record ; they may have been sold since for parochial
purposes.
7*
7« "TITHES FORGOTTEN"
Church plate we know was sold from Middleton : for
under date 1 547, we have the " true certificate " of four
churchwardens there, that they, " with consent of the
town, hathe solde ij peyer of silver sensors, ij peyer of
Chalys, and i pax — price xill". Vll^" (say ;^I30 of
our money) ; and that they bought with the proceeds
" grownde for to enlarge the weys in the town," and paid
for " kepyng of a pore chylde," and also for " settyng
forth of certen soldgers," and further for " mendyng
Medylton Brigge," (where was this bridge ?), and lastly
for "mendyng a lane ledyng from Yoxforth to Theberton"
— the " meadow lane " before alluded to. The sale was
prudent and well-timed, for only six years after, in
1553, churchwardens had to produce to commissioners
then sitting at Ipswich, all their church plate and orna-
ments and church bells, "grete belles and saunce
(sanctus) belles in the steples, only excepte " ; to be sold
" for God's glory and the king's honour " ; only the
commissioners had authority to leave one or two chalices
at their discretion.
Robert Folkelynge held the benefice for twelve
years, resigning it in 1530 in favour of another Robert
Folkelynge, described as junior, who paid a yearly
pension of 40s. to Robert Folkelynge senior for the
remainder of his life. Farmers sometimes cheated this
Robert the younger as they had his elder namesake ; one
James Maihewe, in 1539, left Xlld. to the High Altar of
Theberton for " tithes forgotten " ; and the same testator
evidently a farmer, also gave three bushels of wheat and
five bushels of malt for reparation of our church ; and
after bequeathing live stock — " cows, stirks, and colts,
neate, and cattell, calfe, and lamb," besides money, for
benefit of his wife and children, directed " a combe of
wheate to be baken, and the brede thereof to be distry-
THEBERTON IN THE STAR CHAMBER 73
butyde among the most needy persons in the parish of
Theberton." " Robert Folkelyn parson of Theberton
and Robert Gosse of the same town " were witnesses.
This Robert Folkelyn was a frequent witness to the
wills of his parishioners. In 1545, we find him, described
as parson of Theberton, witness to the will of John
Alyn of Theberton ; in 155 1, as witness to the will of
John Carsey also of Theberton, whereby that testator
directed that, failing bequests for his children, his
property be disposed of " in dedes of charity to the most
honour of God and comfort to his soul."
In Robert Folkelyn junior's time, dispute arose con-
cerning lands in Theberton, between two bodies of
persons with both of whom he had intimate relations.
On one side, a number of his parishioners, and on the
other side, a religious house, who were influential neigh-
bours and patrons of his benefice.
In the Star Chamber proceedings of the reign of
Henry VIII, we find the following: —
To the King our Sovereign lord. Humbly complain
unto your Highness your true liege men : John Grosse
of Kelsale, John Ulffe of the same town, William Ulffe
of Feberton (Theberton), Thomas Mannock of the
same town, John Fryer, George Deer, John Grosse of
Febyrton, Alexander Norman, Roberte Elmeham,
Thomas Fraunceys, Richard Pecok, John Grey, John
Byrde, John Gierke, and other inhabitants dwelling in
the town and village of Theberton : that whereas they
and their neighbours are seised of their several lands
and tenements in Feberton aforesaid, and by reason
thereof they and their ancestors have had free common
of pasture appendant thereunto, in four several marsh
land and hard land grounds, called the Fryth, and in
other lands, marsh and heath, amounting to 700 acres
74 ABBOTS "ASSAULT AND GRIEVOUS AFFRAY "
or thereabouts in Leyston and Feberton aforesaid, for
pasture of their cattle and for mowing of " thakes " ^ and
rysshes for the covering of their said tenements and
houses; that this so continued till 21 July 25 Henry
VIII (1533-4) when John Fereby clerk, Robert Fyske
of Leyston clerk, being a white canon, Thomas Browne
of Feberton yeoman, William Okey of Leyston, Henry
Kechyn, William Symson of the same town, William
Trusse of Pesenale cooper, Thomas Pryce of Leyston
barber, Robert Shanke of Aldryngham husbandman,
William Cuthbert of Leyston white canon, William
Crispe of Leyston labourer, George Kendall of Leyston
white canon, Robert Dawys of Medylton labourer,
Robert Wyllet of the same town labourer, William
Gylberde of Leyston butcher, James Morce of Leyston
labourer, William Cache of Leyston carpenter, with
other evil disposed persons to the number of twenty-
three, servants to George Carleton Abbot of Leyston,
with swords and bucklers daggers and quarter staves,
assembled at Therberton, and then and there, in riotous
manner, did enter into all the said common pasture, and
thereof wrongfully disseise your complainants to the use
of the said Abbot ; and did make assault and grievous
affray on the said John Ulff and others, and carried off
two loads of rushes, the goods of the said Thomas
Fraunceys and Thomas Pawston. That of this riot, all
the said misdoers, except the said abbot, are lawfully
judged by the verdict of twelve true men within the
county of Suffolk. And, because the said misdoers
are the said abbot's servants, and by his " extorte power "
are very like shortly and untruly to be acquitted, unless
the king's favour be shewn in that behalf, the com-
* Thatch and thatchers are still "thak" and "thakkers" in Suffolk
speech.
TAXABLE MEN OF THEBERTON 75
plainants beg a writ of subpcena to be directed to
the Justices of the Peace in the county of Suffolk,
commanding them to send up to the Star Chamber all
the said indictments against the said misdoers ; and to
summon the said Abbot, Thomas Browne, Thomas Perce
(Pryce), Robert Fyske, and William Crispe, to appear
there and answer in person.
The abbot, by his answer, denied the truth of the
complaint, and said that such matter would be determin-
able at common law. Moreover, that he and his
predecessors, time out of mind, had been seised of the
marshes and grounds named in the bill, in right of their
monastery, and that the complainants never had rights
of common there.
Concerning the merits of this dispute we cannot form
an opinion, there is no evidence ; but it does not seem
probable that costly proceedings would ever have been
promoted on behalf of these poor people, unless upon
advice that they had a case good enough to give hope
of success.
Mischievous was the precedent set by Abbot Clement
for this his latest successor. George Carleton's chair
was shaking under him, yet he could not refrain from
violence. To make an " assault and grievous affray,"
with a force of twenty-three men — three tonsured canons
among them — armed with swords and bucklers, daggers,
and quarter staves, could not be deemed seemly for a
father of religious.
It is not without interest to trace the social position
of the men who took part for and against Abbot
Carleton. A subsidy return, which had been made in
1524, enables us in that respect ; for each parish, it gives
the names of all taxable men, and the amounts of their
incomes, in either land or goods, whichever was highest.
76 A GREAT CHANGE IMPENDING
All those to be mentioned were taxed for goods :
Among the Abbot's men Henry Kechyn of Leyston had
;^3 a year, Robert Shanke of Aldringham £6, Robert
Wyllet of Middleton £6, and William Trusse of
Peasenale £2. The petitioners, against the Abbot,
John Byrd, John Grosse, Thomas Fraunceys, John Fryer,
Richard Pecok, John Gierke, had from £\, to, in one
case that of Fryer, ;^4 a year, Alexander Norman,
William Ulfif, Thomas Pauston, and John Grey earned
£\ a year in wages. All these belonged to Theberton.
Another John Grosse was richest of all with £\2 of
income ; he belonged to Kelsale.
Some indication of their relative positions is afforded
by comparing these incomes with that of "John
Jenney Esquyer " set down in the Return at £26. 13J. 4^.
" in goods."
I wish we had better knowledge of the topography.
I confess I cannot, with accurate finger, point out the
four marsh land and hard land grounds then called the
Fryth — the name is unknown now — nor can I describe
the 7CX) acres.
The decrees of the court of Star Chamber are all
missing, and we could never have known what was
decided, but for a later suit in Edward VI.'s time, with
which we shall deal later on.
Abbot Carleton had been defending his claims by
armed force. Only three years were to elapse, before
his power, himself, and his abbey, were to be over-
whelmed together by a final catastrophe. The great house,
a thing of always, rooted in men's imagination as an
immemorial oak, was to be uprooted.
A revolutionary change for Theberton ! The familiar
figures of the canons would be seen no longer about the
lanes and paths of the parish ; the abbey church would
"POVERTY THEIR CAPTAIN" 77
no more re-echo their chants and litanies ; the poor
and needy would lose the brethren's never-failing alms ;
the sick would no more benefit by the medical skill
and chanty of monkish leeches ; children would no
longer be taught ; and tenants would lose their good
old landlords, who had so often stood " between poor
men and the devil " — it always had been " good living
under the crook." There was ground for fear that their
lay successors would raise the rents of farms, even of
cottages.
True it is, that the fate of the monasteries v/as
inevitable — envied owners of one-fifth to one-third, so
say the authorities, of all the land of the country, and
patrons, appropriators, of countless rectories.
Langland, in Piers Plowman, had in the fourteenth
century foretold the fall of religious houses at the
hand of a king ; and Erasmus seeing the shrine of St.
Thomas a Becket, had declared that those who had
heaped up such a mass of treasure, would one day be
plundered. The air had long been full of mutterings
presaging storms to come. Moreover, with this tempting
wealth under his feet, Henry VHI. was now in sore
straits for money ; his wars with both France and
Scotland, and his reckless extravagance, had exhausted
the hoards his thrifty father had laid up for him.
He had had already to resort to unpopular expedients ;
in 1524, all men worth ^40 had been required to pay
in one lump sum a subsidy properly spread over four
years ; which had proved so insupportable, Speed says,
" to the poorer sort of subjects, that payment was, with
weepings and cursings, utterly denied to collectors,
almost provoking open rebellion." Suffolk indeed had
taken arms, making "poverty their captain." In 1526
again, when commissioners were sent to levy the sixth
78 AFTER THE DISSOLUTION
part of the goods of all laymen, and the fourth part of
the clergy's, the discontent was so great, that the king
had to disavow the tax, and despatch letters through
England, that he would ask nothing but by way of
benevolence.
The blow no doubt had long been impending ; yet it
can hardly be, that so fell an outrage upon the rights of
property did not come like an earthquake shock at last.
Royal commissioners, Sir Thomas Russhe, Richard
Southwell, and Thomas Myldemay, had made an
inventory of the plate and other valuables used for
religious services, together with the household goods
and farming stock — all the movable property — of the
House of Leyston ; and had delivered these goods to the
keeping of the abbot, for use and behoof of " the lord
the King." That " advocate and kinsman of the poor "
did not get very much. Only goods appraised (we have
the inventory) at £^2. \6s. 3</., equivalent to say ;^420
of our money, was secured for His Majesty from the
clutches of lesser robbers.
The first result of the Dissolution in country parishes
was an outbreak of lawless violence. The honoured
fabrics were given up to pillage. The King's command
was, in all cases, to " pull down to the ground the walls
of the churches, steeples, cloisters, frateries, dorters,
(common sleeping rooms), chapter houses, and all other
houses, saving those necessary for farmers ; " and faith-
fully, too faithfully, alas, was it obeyed. I have no
evidence concerning Leiston in particular, but we read
that, throughout England, the mean folk gathered
greedily about their prey, and that, so long as " door
window iron or glass or lead, remained to be plundered,
raingeing rabblements of rascals " could hardly be
driven away. One can imagine the spoilers tearing up
JOHN GRENE THE HERMIT 79
" the seats in the choir, and melting the lead therewithal!,
till all things of value were spoiled, carried away and
defaced to the uttermost."
The poor rector of Theberton, Robert Folkelyn had
good reason, we cannot doubt, to blush with shame for
his parishioners.
Not much of either the original abbey which Glanvil
built, nor of the third abbey, seems to have been thought
" necessary for farmers," for little was preserved.
Glanvil's old house, before (not long before) the Suppres-
sion had been deserted by the brethren ; it only sheltered
a hermit, a former abbot of Leyston, John Grene, who
in 1 53 1 "of his own will relinquishing his Abbacy, was
consecrated a hermit at the chapel of St. Mary in the
old convent near the sea," And there tradition says he
died and was buried. And of the third abbey little was
saved, besides its walls, which for generations after
served as a mine for highway surveyors.
Of the later life of Robert Folkelyn we know little.
In 1549, I find that he held land of the manor of
Middleton-Fordley. In 1553, the year of Mary's acces-
sion, a mandate was issued for the induction of one
William Stephenson. Stephenson ought to have been first
instituted, but I cannot find that he ever was, in fact, either
instituted or inducted. Folkelyn seems to have resigned
his living, or, possibly having married under the Act
of 1548 was ejected in 1553 or 1554. In the Diocesan
Registry of Visitations, marked in pencil " 1 554-1 566"
we find his name with the description "presbiter,"
under that of his successor Johannes Maysteman de-
scribed as " Rector," Perhaps, after vacating his living
he stayed on at Theberton, as I find his name as a land-
owner of the parish in 1561. This is the last we know
of him, his death is not recorded in the register.
80 THE PARAPHRASE OF ERASMUS
Great alterations in churches and church worship were
brought about during the brief reign of Edward VI.
Henry VHI. had prohibited all under the degree of
gentleman and gentlewoman from reading the Scrip-
tures. Edward VI. ordered the bible of the largest
volume in English, and the Paraphrase of Erasmus
upon the gospels — in translating which it is noteworthy
that both Queen Katharine and the Lady Mary had
assisted — to be placed in churches, so that the parishioners
might resort thither and read them. Happily our
church's copy of the Paraphrase is preserved still.
From time beyond men's memories there had stood a
stone altar at the east end of Theberton Church ; no
doubt the order to demolish it had been obeyed, and a
wooden table, which the communicants sat round, was
placed in the middle of the nave. All images were
defaced under an Act of Parliament. The use of the
Protestant liturgy, and attendance at the new services,
were enforced by law. The holy Sacrament was to
be ministered to the people in both kinds, bread and
wine ; this " being more comformable," as the Act ex-
pressed it, " to the common use and practice of the
Apostles and primitive church by the space of five
hundred years after Christ's Ascension."
Confusion and irregularities were general for a long
time, of which parishes adjacent to Theberton supply
some evidence. In 1597, one Deyntery the curate of
Leyston, not appearing at a bishop's visitation, was
excommunicated, because "he weareth not the surplis,
he doth not catechize the youth, he hath not walked the
perambulations." In the same year, at Middleton, a
" meere laye-man readcth Divine service." At Kelshall
(now corruptly called Kelsale), they "had not moneth
(month) sermondes," The rector — Brood by name —
WALKING THE PERAMBULATION 81
" doth not catechize the yowth, he went not the peram-
bulations." Brood said he was ready to catechize, " but
for that they come not to him " ; he was warned to
amend his faults. At Westleton, Elizabeth Bedingfield
widow and Master Francis Bedingfield, not having
received the communion there for twelve months, were
excommunicated ; and may be were prosecuted afterwards
as recusants.
It was then a parson's duty to " walk the perambu-
lation." The Rogation Day's processions, with banners,
bells, lights and so forth, had been discontinued at the
Reformation, but parish perambulations were now
required by law. Elizabeth had enjoined the people,
once in the year, with the curate to walk round their
parish as they were accustomed, and at their return to the
church, to make there their common prayers. And the
curate was, at certain convenient places, to admonish the
people, and give thanks to God, as they beheld His bene-
fits, and for the increase and abundance of the fruits of
the earth. The 104th Psalm had to be said, and the
minister was to inculcate such sentences as : " Cursed be he
which translateth the bounds and dolles of his neighbour."
1554, John Masterman, or Maysteman, or Mayster-
man, was instituted to the Rectory of Theberton ;
Robert Browne, described as one of the barons of the
Lady Queen, having presented him. How Browne
acquired the right is rather interesting. It seems that
George Carleton last abbot of Leyston had granted his
next presentation to one John Compton ; Compton had
died leaving Thomas Whight his executor, and Browne
had acquired this presentation from Whight. It may
be that with the break up of his House in prospect,
Carleton, during the last years of his abbacy, had made
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, and sold the
82 THE SOKE OF LEYSTON
next presentation to John Compton, and that the crown
had recognised that sale, and was content to take subject
to it. At all events, the title, neither of Browne nor of
Masterman, was ever, so far as we know, brought in
question. Browne was a lessee from the Crown of the
site of the ancient abbey by the sea, of a warren of
conies of two miles' compass, and of five hundred acres
of marsh land, all late the property of the community ;
and he was also owner, as purchaser from the Crown,
of the site and the demesne lands of the great third
abbey.
It was against this Robert Browne, lessee from the
Crown and owner of Abbey lands, that certain " poor
tenants of the soke of Leyston " commenced in Edward
VI.'s time, the later suit that has been referred to.
The soke of Leiston ! " Manor and lordship " are
familiar expressions, but not so familiar now is the word
"soke." Until its forced surrender to the Crown, the
abbots had been lords of the manor or lordship of
Leyston, and their jurisdiction, for a long time — at all
events from 1327 when it was rated for a subsidy under
that name — had been known also as a soke. There
were and are other Ecclesiastical jurisdictions called
sokes : great sokes for example of Peterborough and
Southwell, and of the Bishops of Winchester and
London, and nearer home there was one at Thetford.
Peterborough was under no county Lord Lieutenant,
but had its own Custos Rotulorum and separate Com-
mission of the Peace. To the soke of Southwell twenty
" touns " were subject, and the Archbishops of York
appointed both its Custos Rotulorum and justices.
Thetford had, I think, its own magistracy distinct from
the county.
I know of no such special privileges of this soke of
TENANTS OF THE SOKE VERSUS BROWNE 83
Leyston. The abbot as lord of the soke, had his own
court in which his bailiff presided, and his own constable,
his own stocks and prison, and his own gallows. He
would, independently of the Hundred Court of Blything,
appoint in his Court Leet an ale-taster, who would see
that the ale sold in his Liberty was " fit for man's body,"
and likewise that the bread was of good weight. All
freeholders within the soke were bound to attend the
Courts Leet held once a year, and so also were all
persons who, the term was, were " commorant," — usually
sleeping — therein
The soke comprised one hundred and ninety-one
tenants and tenantries, besides the " hanborowes " ^ who
had been accustomed to come to the manorial courts ;
and it extended into our parish, in which there are still
many tenements holden of the Leyston manor. Some
of the " certain poor tenants " therefore must have been
parishioners of Theberton. Among the matters of
complaint were alleged acts of waste in woods of the
lordship described as within a mile of the sea, out of
which, in the six or seven years last past, it was said that
over four hundred oaks meet for ship timber had been
taken. The complainants then referred to the former
suit in the Star Chamber, concerning rights of pasture,
over, it was now said, five hundred acres. They stated
that it had pleased the late King Henry VHI. to appoint
certain gentlemen to sit in commission, to set an indif-
ferent end upon the matter in variance ; that the com-
mission sat accordingly, and that it was agreed that the
inhabitants of " Feverton " should have the use of sixty
* This curious word " hanborowes " is, as Professor Skeat has
kindly pointed out to me, a variant of " handborowes " ; fully
explained in the New English Dictionary, which has : " lit. hand-
pledge or security, a name for one (or each) of the nine sureties
associated with the ' head-borow ' in a frank-pledge."
G 2
84 CLAIM FOR COMMON RIGHTS
acres only, whereas from time immemorial they had
enjoyed a moiety of the said five hundred acres, the
tenants of Layston enjoying the other moiety. That
now, the tenants of Layston and Feverton enjoyed
between them only about one hundred and forty to one
hundred and sixty acres, and that the said Robert
Browne kept the residue in his own hands.
The answer of the defendant Robert Browne was
that : — As for the claim of the tenants of Theberton to
pasture over five hundred acres of what had been the
demesne of the Monastery ; as far as he could learn they
had no title in law, nor had ever had any right. In the
abbot's time, the tenants were allowed to send certain
of their cattle on to the soft or marsh grounds belonging
to the Abbey, and to take rushes from the marshes for
their thatch. If any of the inhabitants' beasts happened
to feed on the hard lands of the Abbey, the abbot used
to distrain for damage. Browne further stated that the
Commissioners, Sir John Jerningham knight, and
Edmund Rous Esqre., had examined both the ground
and the witnesses, and, by agreement, set stakes and
marks where the inhabitants should make a ditch in the
said marsh, thereby enclosing a parcel thereof to them-
selves.
Of what happened further in this matter we have no
knowledge ; but it will be seen later on that the poor
folk of Theberton exercised common rights in a large
area of marsh and fen down to a recent period.
CHAPTER VII
In 1606, there was a tragedy in the Browne family.
Agnes the wife of John Browne son or grandson of
Robert Browne, murdered her husband ; and, Suckling
says that one Peter their servant was gibbeted for the
crime. What happened to Agnes we do not know ; we
have depositions, taken upon an enquiry as to the King's
right to her goods, which shows that she had been con-
demned as a felon. The gibbet on which Peter was
executed was the manorial gibbet of the manor of
Leiston, the site of which according to a perambulation
of that manor, made in 1620, may be found : — by follow-
ing " the brook between Thorpe and Haslewood manors,
until you come unto Friday Market Heath, and then,
leaving the water-course, following the hedge south-west
until you come next a green way," which will be
"beyond the gibbet." I hope this may make the
position clear to my local readers. It is not at all clear
to me.
John Masterman lived all through Mary's reign, that
bloody time of inhuman persecution in the desecrated
name of our holy religion. It was in the first year
of his incumbency that, most likely he as well as others
from Theberton, trudged the three miles along the
" meadow lane," to see the martyrdom of Roger Coo,
85
86 A MARTYRDOM AT YOXFORD
who, " an aged father," was " cruelly committed to the
fire at Yoxford where he most blessedly ended his years
in 1555."
Conceive it, now in these good days of religious
equality when all Englishmen are free to obey their
consciences, that Christian folk could have stood tamely
by, to see an innocent old man burned to death at the
stake, with horrible torments ; only because he refused
to admit the doctrine of the Real Presence.
Whether Masterman was at heart a " bitter Papist,"
we do not know, but we know this, that he read
the Liturgy in the vulgar tongue, did not oppose the
again taking down of images, and when the oath
of supremacy was in the first year of Queen Elizabeth
tendered to him, he did not refuse to take it. De-
privation would have followed refusal ; the fact is,
however, that he held the living until his death, for in
1570, we find the institution of his successor, Robert
Page clerk, per mortem ultimi Rectoris sive Inaimbentis.
Why the last words sive Incumbetttis were used, I am
not able to expain.
It was during Masterman's time, that in a letter
to Archbishop Parker, signed by " Robert Wingfield,
Wyllyam Caundysh, Wym. Hopton, Thomas Colbyn
of Beckles (who built Roos Hall) and Thomas Playter,"
all persons of eminence in Suffolk, it was alleged that
there was not one preacher (query licensed preacher)
in a great circuit, viz, : from Blythburgh to Ipswich which
is twenty miles distant and ten miles in breadth along
the sea coast !
Thomas Cromwell well-named malleus monachorum,
a blacksmith's son, had succeeded the Ipswich grazier's
son, and was now the King's Vicar General. In 1538,
he commanded that all parishes should keep registers
OUR EARLIEST PARISH REGISTER 87
of christenings, marriages, and burials ; but not till
ten years after was this done at Theberton. Our first
register dates from 1548. In 1597, registers having
been kept carelessly, Convocation issued an injunction
confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, that copies into new
books should be made of the existing registers, and
that each page of the new books should be attested
by the signatures of incumbents and of churchwardens.
The first book of our register, which is a copy made
pursuant to the injunction, begins thus : — " M"" y* this
Register Book was maid in the yeare of our Lord God
i598,and y* Conteyneth the Christeninges, marriages, and
burialles from the yeare of our Lord God 1548, which
were in this toune of Theberton in the Countie of Suff."
And the subsequent pages were duly signed at foot by
the then incumbent " Reighnald Plumer as minister
or parson there," who will be referred to later.
I have myself, with help for the oldest and most
crabbed hand-writings, read all our parish registers, but
cannot ask readers to follow me through tedious lists
of names, to which no possible interest attaches. There
are a few such entries as : —
In 1559, "a certaine travellinge man which died
at Eastbridge," was buried.
In 1563 " Robert Adams, son of Nycholas was drouned
in a pit and hurried."
The original book had indeed been negligently kept.
For some years no entries at all were made ; and in the
copy is now and again written : — Such a year " is
wantynge in the ould Regester booke."
In 1574, occurs the first entry relating to the Jenney
family : — " M"^ Anne Jenney, the doughterof Arthur
Jenney Esquier, bapt. 18 Aprill." Arthur Jenney was
to inherit the manor of Theberton, and to hold his first
88 AN OLD THEBERTON LAWSUIT
court in 1 590. He had been preceded by ancestors of
whom some have made their appearance already. Sir
William, of Doonwych's time, a judge of the King's
Bench, and Sir Edmund the donee of " one buk " from
Framlingham, will be remembered.
Arthur Jenney was buried here in 1604, and Christopher
his younger brother in 1609, but no monuments of
either remain. The family continued to hold the manor
till the last years of the seventeenth century.
At this time, the Jenneys were an unhappy family.
In 1584, when Arthur Jenney was living at Theberton,
his father Francis Jenney of Knoddishall a parish three
miles off, was an old man of seventy-four. Against
him and one Thomas Okeley as co-defendant, Arthur
instituted a suit in Chancery. He stated that his father
was tenant for life, with remainder to himself, of a certain
park and grounds adjoining, called Theberton Park, with
divers other lands and tenements ; that his father being
very aged, and the house and buildings at Theberton
very ruinous and in great decay, his father induced him
to take the premises on lease ; and that he, upon hope
of the fatherly good-will and liking of his father, had
upon entreaty been content to remove his dwelling from
Norfolk, and to take the said park and lands on lease for
twenty-one years should his father so long live, at a rent
of ;{^220, the lease being dated in 1 566. Arthur, and one
John Jernegan (his wife's name had been Elye Jernegan)
had become bound in ;C400 for payment of the rent.
Francis Jenney the father, by his answer, said that all
Arthur's statements were most false and untrue, devised
only to vex and trouble him, and thereby to shorten his
days if that were possible ; that Arthur advised by the
Duchess of Suffolk and other friends, had solicited the
lease ; and that, though dissuaded by his own friends
CONCERNING THEBERTON HALL 89
as it would be committing the greatest part of his living
into his son's hands, he did in fact make the lease as
stated ; that his son did not pay the rent ; that he had
gently sought to obtain it, but would not put the matter
in controversy in his old age ; and further, that the
surety Jernegan had fallen into great decay, and was not
of ability to satisfy his bond.
The other defendant Thomas Okely in his answer
alleged that the suit had been devised by Arthur and
his father on purpose to put him to vexation ; and that
they also had " set towards him Christopher Jenney," the
younger brother, " a very malicious person."
Arthur filed a replication, stating that for eleven or
twelve years he had endeavoured to get the matter
peaceably settled by reference to friends ; that he had,
since his years of discretion, always been as dutiful to his
father as any son he had — which was not saying much, for
he added that the extremities he endured at the hands
of his father came not of his father himself, but by evil
counsel, lewd advice, and practices, of Christopher his
own younger brother.
I find other references of about the same date to the
old park, and mention of the hall, of Theberton. In a
Particular of the Manor, is described " the Seate of the
Manor called Thebarton Halle with the Parke lying in
Theberton and Fordlye,^ beinge well builded, with a
gardine, orchard, meadowes, pastures, and earable (arable)
lands, woods, timbers, and underwoods." Besides the
" halle " there is mentioned, among other lands occupied
by the lord of the manor on the farm then called Park
Closes, " one close called Whinney Close containing 20
* Can this be the park in Fordley, before referred to as described
on the rolls of that Manor ? There is presumptive evidence that
at this time the Theberton park contained no deer, but was under
tillage.
90 PARISH TOPOGRAPHY
acres," also " one Mansion House with a brickell (brick
kiln) and house, with the close called More Close." The
road now the " hall road," was then known as More or
Moor Lane. It is probable that the wood now called
the " Whin covert " occupies part of Whinney Close, and
that the " Mansion House with a brickell " stood on
the site of the wood now " Kiln or Kell Grove." The
Particular bears no date, but it refers to the reign of
Mary as seemingly recent, and to acts as lord of the
manor, of Francis Jenney, who I take it was the Francis
of Knodishall defendant in the Chancery suit.
We read also of a " Park House " in Theberton.
There is this entry in our Register for 1587: "John
Neele, which was slaine by ye cavinge of the grounde
in Mr. Jenney's well at the parck house in theberton,
was buried the 21 Dale of Auguste." This Mr. Jenney
must have been Arthur, who was living upon the property
demised to him by his father.
The Moor lane or Hall road had then wider grassy
margins than now, for " the several feadings of the
Highways leading from Theberton Hall to the Kelshall
closes and meadows " appertaining to the manor, were
put at five acres.
The " rents of assize free or bond of the manor, with
daies works, rente henns, and other services by the
yeare " were set at £^. is. lod. The present lord of
the manor has never received either the days' works,
rent hens, or other services, or any part of the ;^3. is. lod.^
and fears that they are gone beyond recovery.
In 1574, Robert Page then rector, quaintly described
as "old parson of Theberton," and Margaret Hooe were
married the last day of March. Page's successor Reignald
Plummer, the copyist of this part of the register, must
lie under suspicion of having added the " old."
THE INGHAM FAMILY 91
In 1578, we find the first mention of the Inghams —
inhabitants of Theberton for centuries — " Katharaine
Ingam the doughter of Thomas was baptized ye 2nd
of March." In later years, both this name and the old
name of Jenney recurs in the register too often to be
repeated.
In 1584, "Thomas Smith curate of Theberton was
buried." Either he was a curate of Robert Page, or,
which I think more probable, was, on the death of Page,
the date of which I do not know, serving the cure pend-
ing a new appointment to the Rectory.
In 1585, Reignald orReighnald or Reginald Plummer,
M.A., was instituted to the parish church, vacant by the
death of the last rector.
About this incumbent I have gleaned a few notices.
At the Easter visitation of 1597, the outgoing wardens,
whose names are in the register, Robert Beare and
Roger Clemence, presented that " the parsonage howses
are somewhat decayed " adding, however, that " he
(Plummer) preacheth everye Sondaye." Plummer ap-
peared, and objected that the houses had been repaired
in part, adding, rather superfluously, one might think,
that he was a master of arts ! ^ One Thwayte swore
that all the " decayes " had been repaired by him, but
there had been some " decayes " since, by reason of a
" tempest and bigg wynde."
The churchwardens were themselves presented, for
^ He evidently desired to make it clear that he was not what
Fuller called a " mean minister." Mr. Ditchfield, in his " Old
Time Parson," says that in the Archdeaconry of St. Alban's,
ministers not preachers (I think he means licensed preachers) or
masters of arts, had to be examined periodically as to their
competence by the archdeacon, or the judge of his Court. One
.vicar was dull and " not competent," but he afterwards improved,
obtained a licence, and was reported to be preaching " painfully
and diligently in his parish."
n COMMUNICANTS AND RECUSANTS
that a silver cover for the communion cup was a-wanting ;
and they, not appearing, were then and there excom-
municated. Beare appeared afterwards, and was ordered
to provide a cover before Christmas, and that was done.
The church still possesses a chalice, said to date from
1574-
In 1603, the Bishop (Jegon) of Norwich, in pursuance
of directions from the Archbishop, required a return
from each parish in his diocese, of the number of com-
municants, the number of recusants and non-receivers of
communion, and as to any other benefice held by the
incumbent. According to Plummer's return, there were
one hundred and twenty communicants, no recusants,
no non-receivers of communion in Theberton ; and he
added that he served an impropriation — another cure, at
the stipend of ;Cio a-year.
As communion was compulsory, the return proves
that one hundred and twenty was then about the adult
population of our parish.
It was the impropriate church of Middleton that
Plummer, certainly from 1603 to 1606, and I think
during other years, was serving as curate. In 1606, he
was presented for baptizing the child of a woman, a
stranger in that parish, which he denied (why should not
he have baptized it), and was warned for not " catechizing
on Sondaye."
Good Parson Plummer need not have indulged in
sarcasm on his predecessor for marrying — Reighnold
himself and his wife Issabel had seventeen children
whose names are in the register. Fortunately for them
agriculture and all the country trades which feed upon and
are fed by that great mother of industries, were just then
prosperous ; for though out of the seventeen only seven
survived, those seven had to be clothed and educated
AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY 93
and put out in the world. Thomas Tusser, who farmed
for a time at Cattawade on the Essex edge of our county,
though a professor of detail, and as a Solomon to teach
others, and careful and prudent withal, found that his
own sad lot was as he wrote
In Suffolk soil
For hope of pelf like worldly elf
To moil and toil
To cark and care and even bare
With loss of pain to little gain.
He failed — perhaps too much the gentleman, but the
home-bred farmers, sons of the soil, were generally-
prosperous. It is the fact that rents had risen ; but
still Harrison says that whereas " they were scarce
able in former times to live and pay their rent without
selling of a cow or a horse or more," now, although " four
pound of old rent be improved to forty or fifty pound,
yet will the farmer think his gain very small toward the
midst of his term, if he have not six or seven years rent
lying by him therewith to purchase a new lease."
Striking too was the improvement about this date in
the standard of living. " So common," we read, " were
all sorts of treene (wooden) vessels in old time, that a
man should hardly find four pieces of pewter in a good
farmer's house"; whereas, in this his own time, Harrison
tells us, the farmer would have " a fair garnish of pewter
on his cowboard (cupboard), three or four feather beds,
so many coverlets and carpets of tapestry, a silver salte,
a bowle for wine — if not a whole nest — and a dosen of
spoons, to furnish up the sute."
Here is an actual list of all the belongings — furniture
implements and stock — left by a small farmer of our
parish of Theberton in 1582, with the value set upon
every article.
94 AN ELIZABETHAN FARMER'S BELONGINGS
"AnSDml 1582
" An Invetorye of the goods and chattals of Wyllam
Geads of ffeaberton in the Countye of Suff. husbondman deciseassed,
made the thirde daye of november in the yere of the Raigne of our
Soveraigne Ladye Elyzabethe Queene of Inglond ffraunce and
Irelond Defendor of the faythe &c, 24th. prised by us Thomas
Syer, Robertt ffrenche, Robert Baker, Henry Hill, and Thomas
Base.
In primis his aprell
I tin one payer of tongs, two cobirons, a gridiron, a
fierpane, and two hayles (a)
Itfh fower chaiers, one dresser and forme, and a little
stole
Itra one table planke (i>)
I tin m pewter 15 peces, fyve saults, one morter and a
pestle, two canstacks (c) and a grater
Itiri 6 chossens {d)
Itiii in brase 7 kettles, one pott, towe skelletts (e) a frien
pane, a skomer (e) and a spiett (e)
Itin one flock bed as it stand ther, one covering with
hangings therto
Itiri two ould Koffers
Itin another flockbed as it stand w*** a coveringe and
hangings therto
Itfn 6 pillows
Itiii 2 Koffers
Itin in ale vessells thre, two potts, treninge (/) dysshes,
treninge spones, and treninge platters, and
trenchers 20
Itin one featherbed as it stand in the chamber, wth the
hangings therto belonging and two coverings . . 25 8
Itin in chese thre qrters 20 o
Itin 14 payer of shetts 6 pillowberes (;?•), fower table
clothes, fower table napkings, wth the rest of the
other Linninge 40 o
Itin half a come (A) of Wheat 40
Itin 40 pound wole 50
Itin 8 li. hempe o 16
(a) An iron contrivance to hang a pot over the fire, from the
Dan. ^le originally a tail — see Eng. Dialect Dictionary.
(d) For trestles.
(c) Candlesticks.
(d) Cushions.
(e) Small kettles or boilers. Skimmer. Spit.
(/) \yooden.
(V) Pillow cases.
(n) Coomb.
s.
d.
13
4
3
0
2
0
2
0
10
0
0
20
26
0
10
0
2
0
10
0
6
8
2
6
THE CHURCH FARM 95
s. d.
Itm 2 potts of buttur 20
Itm in mathocks, sides, pick forks, hoks, hatchetts,
and wimbles (/), wth other iron 6 8
Itm one chese prese, 9 bowles, 4 kelers {j), one charne
{k), thre fatts, and a tube 20 o
Itm two fanes, two skepes 30
Itin a payer of querns, one towcome (/), a passhell im)
and thre payles , 3 4
Itm in gysse, duxe and henes 80
Itm the corne in the Barne, with the Haye ther ... 10 o o
Itin one haye stake 134
Itin the wheat one the ground 30 o
Itm one cartte, one plough e, the carte trayse {n) wth
counters and sheres therto, collers and Dudfens {o\
two panejls, one cart sadle, one bridle, and a payer
ofharrous 20 o
Itiri the hempe unpilled 50
Itrn two sythes, one iron Rake 40
Itiri thre of the best mylche neat (/), the w'^'' are gyven
to the children 500
Itiri fyve other mylche neat 613 8
Itiri two buds {q) • 30 o
Itin one kalf 50
Itin thre mares 400
Itin thre Lambs 7 o
Itin two hogs, one sowe, and sijxe Shotts (r) . • , . 33 4
li. s. d.
Some totalis 44 126.
Possibly Wyllyam Geads lived at the Church Farm
house, the greater part of which certainly dates from
Tudor days. The old messuage is yet little altered, nor
can there be much alteration in its surroundings. It stands
just off the road ; and from its windows, perhaps in Geads'
(?) Augers.
{j) Shallow wooden tubs for washing up. A word still used in
Suffolk.
{k) Churn. Spelling characteristic of Suffolk pronunciation.
(/) For combing or dressing tow.
\m) Query pestle.
{n) Cart harness, the expression still used.
\d) Cart-horse bridle, word still in use.
\p) Milch cows. A cow stable is still called a neat-house.
{q) Young bullocks about a year old.
(r) Young pigs.
96 STATE OF HIGHWAYS a.d. 1555
time latticed with thin strips of wood like dairy windows
now, or filled with oiled linen, for glass was expensive,
overlooks the three cottages across the road, as old
possibly as itself; and is looked down upon by the
ancient round tower of the church.
The now good road from Leiston to Yoxford, was
then a " wikkede wey," deserving the statement in the
Act of 1555 whereby the first surveyors had been
appointed, that highways generally were "both very
noisome, tedious to travel, and dangerous to passengers
and carriages."
By carriages, of course was meant wheeled vehicles of
every kind, farm carts for example ; private carriages
had but just come into use, and there were few of them.
The Earl of Arundell is said to have owned the first coach
two years before Geads' death in 1580.
In the village street southward of the church, no very old
houses remain. Most prominent is the modern inn, the
Lion. I find no record of an older inn on the same site ;
but the register for 1589 mentions an Eastbridge inn :
— " Duncane Agnisse, a saylor of Southold which died
at Eastbridge Inne, was buried the 22 of Marche."
As this was the year following the Spanish Armada,
and as Southwold had fitted out thirteen armed ships to
fight the invaders, it is not unlikely that poor Duncane
Agnisse had fought for his country in one of them.
With our parish accounts, as with our manor rolls, we
are unfortunate. Had early accounts ^ been preserved,
we should have found, no doubt, entries of charges for
food and clothes and arms for soldiers ; even with-
out evidence, however, we may assume that men were
* All the parish accounts, not lost stolen or strayed, have lately
been sorted, repaired, and bound in books, and are now in custody
of the Parish Council.
THE EASTBRIDGE INN, a.d. 1589 97
trained here, as we know they were in neighbouring
villages. Suffolk did what it could. One hundred and
thirty-one Suffolk gentlemen contributed ;^3625. From
Kelsale, one Lambert Nolloth subscribed £2$, and
Thomas Rivett of Brockford, an ancestor of mine, gave a
like sum. No money was, so far as we know, sent from
Theberton ; but when, some years later, 1599, " authority
called footmen and horsemen out of the shire into the
parts of Essex near London for defence of the court
against secret purposes intended," we find our acquain-
tance Arthur Jenney contributing one horse for service
of Her Majesty.
I wonder whether the old Eastbridge inn displayed a
sign in the fifteen hundreds ; and, if so, how the painter
depicted a thing so strange as an eel's foot, which
the present beer-house is named after. In those days,
when an inn-holder brewed the liquor he sold, surely
the sign of an eel's foot in it would have been too
significant of adulteration.
To adulterate the Englishman's barley wine — the
" ryght goode ale which God sent us, a myghty drynke
for the commune people," has always been held as sinful
as sacrilege ; and has ever been punished by publicity.
At the present day, an offender's name, upon a second
conviction, is printed in the newspapers. In mediaeval
times, publicity was secured by means as effectual and
more nasty. A brewer who tampered with ale, we
had no hops then and no beer, was made a shameful
spectacle — driven about public places in a dung cart.
So far back as the thirteenth century this had been the
practice, and it followed a yet more ancient precedent.
The law was in the Conqueror's time, that Malam
cerevisiam faciens ift cathedrd ponebatur stercoris.
The earliest but one of our former church bells was
H
98 OUR OLD CHURCH BELLS
dated 1594, and bore the arms of France and of
England, the royal initials E. R., and the words nos
sumus instructi ad laudem Domifii. The late Dr. Raven
told me that there had been an earlier bell dated 1553 ;
and he records the dates of three others, two of 1614 and
one 1663 by John Darbie.
CHAPTER VIII
Good old Tusser, who got no pelf from his Suffolk
farming, has yet left us debtors for the treasures of his
experience. His notable old saws, in doggerel rhyme to
hold the memory, afford a life-like view of Elizabethan
husbandry and housewifery. We see not only the year's
work of such a husbandman as Wyllyam Geads, but
also the wise indoor management of such a housewife
as we may believe was Mistress Geads. Let me refer
my readers to the book itself — the famous " Five
Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," of which the
best edition is the reprint of 1812. A few slight
quotations must suffice here.
Among the goods in Geads' inventory, as in most in-
ventories of the time, was a parcel of hemp. In 1533, it
had been enacted by Parliament, that all persons occu-
pying sixty acres of arable land, should grow a quarter
acre of hemp or flax every year. Under this Act, to all
the larger holdings were attached " hemp lands " ; and
the word survives still as a field name, though its origin
is almost, if not quite, forgotten, v
Flax was harvested in July, for which month Tusser
advises :
Now pluck up the flax for the maidens to spin ; *
^ According to Brother Bartholomew, who wrote in the twelfth
or thirteenth century, there was much and "divers work and
99 H 2
100 CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES
And the " fimble " or female hemp at the same time :
Wife pluck fro' thy seed hemp, the fimble hemp clean,
This looketh more yellow, the other more green,
Use t'one for thy spinning, leave Michell the t'other,
For shoe thread, and halter, for rope, and such other.
The " carle " or male hemp was not harvested till
Michell (Michaelmas), when we are told : —
Now pluck up thy hemp, and go beat out the seed,
And afterward water it as ye see need ;
But not in the river where cattle should drink,
For poisoning them and the people with stink.
With the last lines, no person who has tied up his
boat in a Friesch canal, to leeward of retting hemp, can
fail to sympathise.
Often, a Suffolk field bears the name " camping close,"
from a rough kind of football once played there — a
game quite obsolete now in these parts. The more
grass is trampled in winter the better. Tusser accord-
ingly advised :
Get campers a ball
To camp therewithal.
And,
In meadow and pasture — to grow the more fine,
Let campers be camping in any of thine.
How such people as Master Geads and his jolly neigh-
bours feasted at Christmastide is told with great gusto ;
those old-fashioned yeomen did indeed enjoy high
feeding :
Good bread and good drink, a good fire in the hall,
Brawn pudding and souse, and good mustard withall,
Beef, mutton, and pork, shred (mince) pies of the best.
Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well drest.
Cheese, apples, and nuts, joly carols to hear,
As then in the country is counted good cheer.
travail," before the flax reached the maidens' hands. After being
taken out of the water and dried in the sun, it was " knocked,
beaten, and brayed and carfled, rodded, and gnodded, ribbed and
heckled — and at the last spun."
HOLLOAING LARGESSE KH
The roasting spit was then turned by a dog, a turn-
spit or turnbroche,
Good diligent turnbroche and trusty withall
Is sometimes as needful! as some in the hall.
Field sports for farmers, Tusser, rather to one's
surprise, did not approve of; fowling-pieces had not
been invented, and hawking was a sport considered meet
only for " gentlemen and persons of quality." Our
sage's reflection is : —
Though some have a pleasure with hawk upon hand,
Good husbands get treasure to purchase their land.
And though we read elsewhere that, about that time,
"the cheife sport of the yeomanry most delightful for
their chace " was hare hunting, Tusser does not allude
to it.
Saffron, used for bleaching linen, and for cooking, was
commonly grown in Suffolk, particularly in the Wood-
bridge district. In August :
When harvest is gone,
Then saffron comes on ;
A little of ground
Brings saffron a pound.
We still, in remote places, call the leading man in
the harvest field, the " lord " ; and the ancient custom of
" holloaing largesse " is not yet forgotten ; I have heard
it myself It was the same in Tusser's time, as Tusser
himself witnesses :
Grant harvest-lord more by a penny or two,
To call on his fellows the better to do,
Give gloves to thy reapers a largess to cry.
And daily to loiterers have a good eye.
The wonderful machines, which are the reapers now,
do not need gloves.
Turnips and mangold were then unknown in England,
102 SUFFOLK FAIR MAIDS
and when hay ran short in winter, there were hard times
for sheep and for cattle :
If snow do continue, sheep hardly that fare
Crave mistle and ivy for them for to spare.
Young people now have found more interesting uses
for mistletoe. Were not the maids of Suffolk always
fair ? Old Fuller certainly thought so, when he wrote
" The God of Nature hath been bountiful, in giving them
beautiful complexions."
For cattle, the old farmers cut down boughs of
trees :
From every tree, the superfluous boughs
Now prune for thy neat, thereupon to go browse.
Suffolk has always been famous for its butter, which,
as Fuller again oddly observed, was half our Saviour's
fare in infancy — " butter and honey shall He eat " ; and
likewise for its cheese, which Camden accounted good
as that of Parma ; but which, made by more modern
methods, of skimmed-milk, has been ofttimes flung into
the hog trough, and there, our Suffolk ploughboy poet
says, it long remained, defying even the pigs' teeth :
in perfect spite
Too big to swallow and too hard to bite.
Tusser says that "Good dairy doth pleasure"; can
we not fancy our smiling " fair maids " in the dairy,
their faces bright with health and happiness ; or again,
with their sleeves turned up, their dimpled arms in
the wash tub, singing his quaint old rhyme :
Dry Sun Dry Wind
Safe Bind Safe Find.
Go wash well saith Summer, with Sun I will dry.
Go wring well saith Winter, with Wind so shall I.
THEBERTON CHRISTIAN NAMES 103
Ewes were milked in those days for the dairy, as they
milk them now in Holland, and it seems, produced more
for the grass they consumed than cows.
Five ewes to a cow, make a proof by a score.
Shall double thy dairy or trust me no more.
Davy gives another extract from the lost Manor Rolls
of Theberton, which must have been lost therefore since
his time. It bears date in the 42nd year of Queen
Elizabeth. I venture to transcribe the clerk's jumbled
Latin : Curia cum leta tenia 14 Oct. 42 Eliz. capitales
plegii super sacramentum dicunt quod Inhabitantes ville
Theberton non utunt piliis — Anglice doe not were
capps — secundum forman statuti in hujusmodi casu
provisi. Ideo villata de Theberton penatur ad 6d. ad
reformandum.
This, perhaps, purported to be under a statute of 1 3
Elizabeth, which provided that all persons above the
age of seven years (some of worship and quality excepted)
should wear upon Sabbaths and holidays caps of wool,
knit thicked and dressed in England, upon pain to forfeit
ten groats for the omission thereof.^ The instance is
remarkable, of a Manor Court retaining its magisterial
jurisdiction down to so late a date.
Returning to our i6th century registers ; there is little
more worth quoting : but some old Christian names may
be available for future Theberton babies. Parents, tired
of Gladys, Phyllis, and such like, might do worse than
^ The clerk was probably not aware that the Act had, in fact,
been repealed three years before, in 39 Elizabeth. The industry,
designed to be protected thereby and by the previous Acts of
Edward IV. and Henry VIII., was of importance, maintaining
before the invention of fulling mills, fifteen distinct callings of
handicraftsmen. The best caps were made at Monmouth.
" Wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps," said Fluellen of the
Welshmen, in K. Henry V.
104 OLD THEBERTON SURNAMES
call their girls — Beteriss, Damaris, Annice, Amyce,
Ancilla, Faith, Fyonet, Mirable, Sythe, Finet, Apphia,
Tryphena or Jeronomye — names all borne by their
female predecessors in our parish.
Among the surnames in the register, few are familiar
now, — Syle, Smyle, Slith, Sylbarte, Semicraft, Hellouse,
Erys, Boutatout, Wagylgoose, are among them. Bouta-
tout reads like a Huguenot name. One comes across it,
too, in naval history. John "Buteturt" was by King
Edward II. appointed "Admiral captain of sailors and
marines " (of the East coast) and also " of our knights and
other faithful subjects who are about to proceed with the
same John against our Scottish enemies and rebels " —
this in 131 5. Some of the late surnames are pretty,
Marjoram we have still, and there was Flowerdew.
Early in the 17th century, matters of social interest to
country folk seem to have been much in the air. In
Queen Elizabeth's last Parliament we find such subjects
debated in both houses. In 1601, a bill was brought
into the Commons House against profane swearing ; it
never matured into an Act ; but it interests us, because,
in the course of debate one member took occasion to in-
veigh against holders of the office of Justice of the Peace,
which even then was respectable for antiquity. So far
back as 1332, it was, that the "lords and great men"
had advised King Edward III. "that he should ordain
Justices in every County for the conservation of the
peace, with power to repress and punish offenders."
The member, one Mr. Glascocke, related to the House
this tale about a Justice whom he knew : — A poor neigh-
bour coming to him, said.
Sir, I am very highly rated in the Subsidy Book.
I know thee not, said the Justice.
Not me Sir, quoth the country man, why your worship
ELIZABETHAN MAGISTRATES 105
had my team and my oxen such a day, and I have ever
been at your worship's service.
Have you so Sir, quoth the Justice, I never remem-
bered I had any such matter, no, not a sheep's tail :
" So," continued Mr. Glascocke, " unless you offer
sacrifice of sheep and oxen to the idol Justices they
know you not " — and so forth.
In defence of the Justices, Sir Francis Hastings said :
" I never in my life heard Justices of the Peace taxed
before in this sort. For aught I know. Justices of the
Peace be men of quality, honesty, experience, and
justice." And again, another speaker : — " I much marvel
that men will dare accuse Justices of the Peace, Ministers
to Her Majesty, without whom the Commonwealth
cannot be."
There were about this time, particularly in parts of
London, numbers of corrupt magistrates, for whom no
good word can be said. Glascocke, later, pretended by
way of apology, that his diatribes had been aimed
against that class alone, men then commonly known as
Basket Justices.
Parliament had always been anxious that Justices of
the Peace should be above suspicion. In 1439, it had
been enacted that County Justices must possess land
worth ;£'20 a year — equivalent to some ;^300 now ; and
the reason assigned was that some persons had been
appointed, who, "on account of their meanness and
incapacity could not govern or direct the people."
There can be no doubt that independent position, a
liberal education, and some enabling acquaintance with
law, must be more solid grounds for confidence in the
dispensers of justice, than the wearing of badges of
political parties, whatever their colour.
In the same Parliament, the House of Lords also had
106 POACHERS AND GAME PRESERVATION
social legislation before them. They passed a bill
intituled " Against Drunkards and common haunters of
Alehouses and Taverns." Drunkenness was then
prevalent, as it always had been, the statements of
Camden and of Fuller notwithstanding. Camden's
opinion was that the vice had recently been brought
to England out of the Netherlands; that before 1581,
of all Northern nations, the English had been the most
moderate, and were much commended for their sobriety;
and that our soldiery had only learned in the recent
Dutch wars " to drown themselves in strong liquors, and
by drinking others' healths to impair their own." Fuller
quotes Camden and asserts that "before the midst of the
reign of Elizabeth there was neither general practice nor
legal punishment of that vice in this kingdom," and goes
on to say : — " We must sadly confess that since that time,
many English souls have taken a cup too much of Belgic
wine, whereby their heads have not only grown dizzy in
matters of less moment, but their whole bodies stagger
in the fundamentals of their religion."
A bill was also introduced into the Lords which
attained a second reading, for preservation of pheasants
and partridges. It was, in due course, referred to a
special committee, on which sat very grave and reverend
Signiors : — an archbishop, four bishops, three learned
judges.
Poaching had for centuries been a subject of legisla-
tion. More than two hundred years before, in 1389, a
statute had made illegal the use of " rabbit nets, heyes
and hare pipes." In 1536, a proclamation was made by
Henry VHI. prohibiting the slaughter of partridges,
pheasants, and herons, from — how strange it sounds
now — the Palace of Westminster to St. Giles' in the
Fields, and thence to Islington, Hampstead and Hornsey
PAYMENT OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 107
Park. I think, however, that this debate in the House
of Lords was the first time that not only poaching, but
actual preservation was under discussion in Parliament.
That pheasants, so "fair in feather and dainty in the
flesh," were, not long after this, even hand-reared, I infer
from Fuller, who writes, " whether these tame, be as good
as the wild pheasants, I leave palate men to decide,"
In those days, constituencies paid their Parliament-
men, whose " wages," since Edward I., had been levied
by the sheriffs on the counties. The " wages " of
knights of the shire were 4s. a day — equivalent to, say,
jC^ now — and of the burgesses, borough members, half
that at least ; with besides, in both cases, charges of going
and coming, fees for writs, and so forth. And to make
sure of fair work for fair pay, it was ordered that, when
absent without the Speaker's leave, the legislators should
lose their wages.
Plummer's work, in his later years, seems to have been
many sided. We know he preached " everye Sondaye "
at Theberton, and that he also served the cure of
Middleton ; and, besides this ministerial work, an Act of
Parliament had thrust other strange duties upon him :
he was to be present to aid the constable when rogues
were whipped, and register the same, on pain of five
shillings for every default ; he had also to register the
testimonials of servants leaving their places, for which
last duty, a munificent two pence was to be allowed
him.
The two old bells, impressed with the date 1614, were
hung it is likely in Plummer's time.
1625 saw the close of our parson's life. That year, the
register records " Reighnald Plummer minister of this
Towne was buryed the 30th of Aug."
108 A THEBERTON PARSON'S WILL
Plummer had lost his first wife Issabel in 1617, and
had married again. During his last illness, he made his
will which is not without interest, as suggesting the
plenishing of a country parsonage of the period.
After bequests to the poor of Leiston, Westleton,
Middleton and Fordley (the parishes of Middleton and
Fordley were not united till 1657) of Ss. to each parish,
he gave " his loving wife Ann ;^20, a bedstead 2 bolsters
2 pillowes 2 blanketts i coverlett, as it standeth in the
parlour (beds stood in parlours then of even great houses^)
with the cartings, and sixe payre of sheetes the best att
her choyce, all her apparell lynnyng and wollen, all her
ridinge geare with her syde sadle and other furniture
(Ann seems to have been an equestrienne) one letherein
trunck, one joyned box, another little painted boxe, one
dossend (dozen) of table napkins, all the hempe, towe,
and (illegible), her gould rings, her bible, her boxe of
banketting dishes, my bearinge clothe, fower greate
peaces of pewther the best att her choyce, sixe pewther
porringers, one bosen (basin), one joyned chayre, her
lookinge glasse." Also he gave her £6 i^s. ^d., on
condition she should make no claim to thirds in his
free lands, but should release, "according to lawe in
that case provided, att the chardges in Lawe of John
Ingham of Theberton yeoman, soe as she bee not driven
to travell further then the cittie of Norwich." To the
said John Ingham and his heirs, he left all his free lands
in Theberton (he had bought lands of Robert Barnes in
1610, and had sold lands called Harts to John Ingham
for ;^230 but had not conveyed the freehold portion of
them), but — the will continued — if his wife should refuse
to release her dower in them, then he gave the said
1 Vide inventory of Sir John Rous, at Henham, 1603, set out
in Suckling's Suffolk.
PRESENTATION OF WILLIAM FENN 109
£6 I3i-. 4^. to said John Ingham, towards the com-
pounding with her for her thirds. To Mary his daughter
;^20, Dorithie his daughter £i^, Ambrose his son ;^20,
WilHam his son ;£^20, Elizabeth his daughter ;^20, Jaine
his daughter ;£"20, at 2i. All residue of goods and
chattels he gave unto Tymothie and John his two sons
towards payment of their portions, and he appointed
them his executors. The will was witnessed by Zacharie
Starke and Robert Beare.
Neither in church nor in churchyard is found any
memorial of this worthy rector ; for three hundred
years his name has been forgotten. That these words,
written during his lifetime, may be applied to him,
it will not hurt us to believe : — " The Lord hath vouch-
safed many singular benefitts, as proper to this country
(Suffolk), among which this one is nott the least, the
great number of religious, grave, reverend, and learned
ministers of God's Holy Word, which are planted in this
shire, travelling (travailing) in the Lord's harvest,
with sound doctrine and upright life."
The good man was succeeded by one William Fenn,
who was presented by Charles I., one of the earliest acts
of his reign. Our register has this entry: — "1626,
memoranda that Wille ffenn Gierke, uppon the
seconde day of Aprill, in the yere of our Lorde 1626,
beinge lately inducted into the church of Theberton in
Suff., did then and there in the tyme of Divine service
openly reade the forty articles ^ intituled Articles
agreed Upon by the Archbishops and Byshops in the
Convocacon holden at London, Anno Domini 1562,
without eyther addinge or detractinge, and with the
declaracon of his unfeined assent and consent unto
^ An evident mistake. The real number of articles was the same
then as now — thirty-nine.
110 TROUBLOUS TIMES
the same and every of them, in the presence of us whose
names be here under written : — Thomas London, John
Ingame, Thos. Bradstreet, Edmond Whincopp, Robert
Backler, Robert Beare, Godfrey Trelonde, Robert
Coding, John (illegible), and many others.
CHAPTER IX
Fenn's tenure of his benefice nearly coincided with
his royal patron's tenure of the kingdom ; and no time
more troublous and distracted has ever been known in
England.
It is not for a local chronicler to launch out from
his backwater into tempestuous seas ; the nation's
history too high for him, he does not dare to touch
in these pages, save, when needs must, to explain the
story of his parish. Differences had long agitated the
minds of Englishmen, and clefts were opening now in
many directions ; firstly, in the domain of religion ;
and secondly, in the realm of society and politics. In
religion it was, that the earthquake was most severely
felt in our little community. There were, no doubt, both
Puritan and Roman Catholic sympathizers in Theberton.
The restoration of Communion Tables to the east end
of churches, the calling them altars, indeed all the
church ceremonial and discipline inculcated by Laud,
had scandalized the Puritans ; while, on the other hand,
to the eyes of high church people, the Puritans were
hypocritical bigots, dour and sour themselves, and set
upon denying enjoyment to all others, Sundays,
formerly happy holy days, were to be as Jewish
112 THE BOOK OF SPORTS— BULL-BAITING
sabbaths. " The vanityes of the Gentiles, which were
comprehended in a Maypole, were to be battered down,"
and indeed, all recreations, however innocent, were
reprobated, and if possible repressed.
James I. saw that the common people clung to the
old, more cheerful religion ; and turned his astute
mind to win their affections for the reformed Church
of England. He issued the Declaration we call the
Book of Sports, and thereby notified his pleasure to
his good people, that after the end of Divine Service
they should not be letted from any such lawful recrea-
tions as dancing either men or women, archery, leaping,
vaulting, nor from having May games, Whitsun ales and
Morris dances, and the setting up of Maypoles ; and
that women should have leave to carry rushes for the
" decoring " of churches according to their old custom.^
And the professor of kingcraft laid a bait for noncon-
formists by providing that to those only who attended
church were the sports to be permitted.
His Majesty's efforts notwithstanding, religious bicker-
ings and civil dissensions raged throughout Fenn's
incumbency.
Our churchwardens were presented in 1627, because
they had not, as the law required, " Bishopp Jewell's
Apologie " ; Mr. Bradstreet, a witness to Fenn's
reading in, appeared, and promised to supply the
' The ancient sport of bull-baiting was expressly excepted from
the king's list of lawful Sunday recreations. The brutal amuse-
ment had been enjoyed by Queen Elizabeth ; during Puritan times
it was prohibited altogether, but it revived with the Restoration ;
Pepys says of the good sport he saw at the Paris garden : " the
bulls tossed the dogs into the very boxes." Long afterwards in
William III.'s reign, it was still a fashionable amusement, as a
French witness M. Misson wrote, indulged in by "butchers and
gentlemen." In 1802, a Parliamentary majority refused to put
it down : and not till 1835 was a law enacted to make it illegal.
BETWIXT THE TWO BUNDLES OF HAY 113
same. The Bradstreet family had for some time been
resident in the parish ; the name occurring in the
register in 1594. It may be, that the Rev William
Bradstreet, our rector from 1865 to 188 1, descended from
this old Theberton stock.
In 1633, the Book of Sports not having been widely
promulgated, Charles I. had it republished ; and strictly
commanded that it should be read in churches by the
clergy. Parson Fenn, we shall see, read it in his
Theberton church, and no doubt with unction, as
also without doubt, to the disgust of Puritans in his con-
gregation.
Some parsons, like Buridan's ass, halted betwixt
two opinions ; one minister of a church in London,
after reading the King's Declaration, immediately went
on with the Ten Commandments, adding : — " Dearly
Beloved, you have heard the Commandments of God,
and of man, now obey which you please."
The bulk of the people of Theberton must, I think,
have been Puritans, detesting the high church and
royalist proclivities of Fenn, and bitterly opposed to
any such changes as should " put on their church the
shape and face of Popery."
In 1639-40, writs had come down into Suffolk to
collect " ship money " ; and the overseers and the con-
stable had to assess the charge upon the ratepayers of
Theberton. Throughout Suffolk, feeling against this
fateful tax rose very high, "people abounding," so we
read, ** in remissness and obstinacy." " Innumerable
groans and sighs," the sheriff reported, " were daily
returns, instead of payment." It is significant of the
remissness and obstinacy of our stiff-necked parish,
that, though neighbouring " towns," Middleton and
Kelsale, were certainly rated, and we must suppose
I
114 THE GREAT PROTESTATION
paid their rates, no return was obtained from
Theberton.
The folk of Theberton, as those of other parishes, had
in 1 64 1 to become parties to the great Protestation.
The form was : —
" I, A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God,
promise, vow, and protest, to maintain and defend as
far as lawfully I may, the true reformed Protestant
religion expressed in the doctrines of the Church of
England, against all Popery and Popish innovations
within this realm."
It seems that this was not signed in each separate
village. From Bennington for example, the minister
and churchwardens and constable went to Laxfield
to sign.
Fenn still clung to his rectory, although his position
must have been perplexing to say the least of it. One
day, parsons were commanded by Parliament to read
certain Proclamations to their people. Next came a
King's Proclamation, enjoining them on their allegiance,
not to read the proclamations issued by Parliament
And then again, from Parliament came injunctions,
forbidding them to read what had been sent them by
the King.
In 1642, under two Acts of Parliament a sum of
£20y6og. 17s. was charged upon Suffolk, of which Theber-
ton was assessed at ;^20. 8j. 4d. We have, for our parish,
the names of all the persons charged, with the amount
each had to pay : the list contains sixty-nine names,
some of which are mentioned later.
In December of the same year, the Commons passed
an Ordinance, to set on foot the famous Eastern
Association. Suffolk and the other eastern counties
THE EASTERN ASSOCIATION 115
accepted it warmly. At first, contributions poured in of
arms and of money ; but before long, free gifts having
been exhausted, loans had to be asked for, to be
secured by the " Propositions for the defence of Parlia-
ment," and bearing interest at the abnormal rate of ten
per cent. How Theberton took up the loan we have no
evidence. In Bennington, we find that two inhabitants,
Bartholomew and Edward Rafe, lent ;^io "upon the
Propositions." Cratfield contributed money and plate
and also two nags and a mare, and these were sent in
for collection to Yoxford, as probably were any loans
from Theberton.
Happily brother had not to fight with brother here
in Suffolk ; but such entries as these in the Bennington
books, help us to realise how civil war afflicted other
districts of England :
" 26 Jan. 1643, Given to a poor distressed man and his wife and
children, being plundered by the King's forces of all their estate
5/-."
" 1644 Laid out to young Lionel Nickolls being maimed in the
Parliament's service 17/-."
" Given by consent of the town to two maimed souldiers, the one
having his leg shot off, and the other shot in the arm, 4/-."
In 1643 again, an Ordinance was made by Parliament,
directing, among other things, that altar rails were to be
taken down, and communion tables moved from the
east ends into the bodies of churches. Under this
Ordinance, crucifixes, images, and pictures of saints, and
superstitious inscriptions, were also to be removed and
done away with ; and from it originated the commission
of the iconoclast Bowsing.
In some venerable German churches — Hildesheim may
serve for an example — not only the fabrics themselves
in their integrity, but likewise the ancient church
I 2
116 THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT
furnishings, and precious objects treasured in their
sacristies, have been preserved, as witnesses from age to
age of a hoary antiquity. In England, on the other
hand. Dowsing or barbarous soldiers, ignorant incum-
bents or modern architects, have worked their wicked
wills, and stripped most of our churches bare of things
historical, and vulgarized others with machine-made
sham Gothic ornaments.
In our own parish church, almost nothing remains to
carry our minds back to past ages. True, the old walls
yet stand ; but there is little else, to suggest the scenes
which, within those walls, have during long ages
succeeded each other.
Not the least striking of such scenes was enacted in
1643 or 1644. Members having themselves sub-
scribed the Solemn League and Covenant, Parliament
directed it to be sent to the Justices of the Peace and
other men of influence in all parishes of England, and to
be taken in churches by all congregations. The
minister was, upon a Sunday, to read the entire Covenant
from the pulpit ; and during the reading, the congrega-
tion were to uncover (men wore their hats then in
churches); and, at the end of the reading, all were to
stand, and, holding up their bare right hands, to promise
that they would sincerely, really, and constantly, through
the grace of God, endeavour in their several places and
callings the preservation of the reformed religion.
-Afterwards, all had to subscribe the Covenant, by affix-
ing their names or marks to a roll of parchment, which
was to be preserved as a record in the parish.
No parchment roll has been preserved in our parish
of Theberton ; but probably, most of the residents
named in the assessment list of 1642 signed it, for
instance: Sir Arthur Jenney, "Mr. Claxton," Thomas
SCANDALOUS MINISTERS 117
Ingham, Daniel Hygate, Robert Beare, and John
London. Parson Fenn too, described as " William Fenne
Curate for tithes and Glebe," appears in the assessment
list. He was still the parson of Theberton ; but
whether he obeyed the Parliament by reading and
signing the Covenant, or obeyed his own conscience
and refused, thereby giving his enemies cause to blas-
pheme, we have no evidence.
Just at that time. Parliament was passing an Ordinance,
whereby, after reciting that complaints had been made
by the well-affected inhabitants of Suffolk among other
counties, that the service of Parliament was retarded,
the enemy strengthened, peoples' souls starved, and
their minds diverted from the care of God's cause, by
their idle ill-affected and scandalous clergy ; it was
ordained that the Earl of Manchester should appoint
county committees ; of whom any five members were to
sit in any place selected by the Earl, and were to call
before them ministers that were scandalous in their
lives, ill-affected to the Parliament, or fomenters of the
unnatural war then raging, or that should wilfully refuse
to obey the Ordinances of Parliament, with power to
send for witnesses and examine them upon oath.
A Suffolk committee was appointed pursuant to this
Ordinance comprising : Alexander Bence M.P., and
Squire Bence, William Bloyse M.P., Francis Brewster.
Robert Brewster of Wrentham M.P. for Dunwich, Sir
Edward Duke, William Heveningham, Sir William
Playter, Edward Read, William Rivet, and Sir John
Rous, each of whom was paid 5^. per diem for his
services.
The Ordinance was soon to be applied to our parish.
On Christmas Day 1644, a warrant was issued directed
to the inhabitants of the town of Theberton, or any two
118 PARSON FENN SUMMONED
of them, requiring them to summon William Fenn
parson of the parish, and three witnesses who were
named in the warrant, to appear at Beccles on
Wednesday the 17th day of January, "att the signe
of the Kings Heade," to make proof of the articles
exhibited against the said minister ; . . . . and that the
said Mr. Fenn should be given notice, that he should
come prepared to give in his answer in writing, and to
produce any witnesses who might conduce to the clearing
of himself, on the dismal charge of the witnesses that
should testify against him. This warrant was signed
by a sub-committee of five : Sir Robert Brooke, knight,
William Hyningeham and Robert Brewster, esquires,
and Edward Reade and Francis Brewster, gents, who
described themselves as Deputy Lieutenants and Com-
mittee of Parliament.
The case was heard by the sub-committee, and, in the
result, the Articles were held proved. The evidence for
the prosecution was to the effect, among other things :
that Fenn was a common frequenter of alehouses as a
common drunkard, that he was a common swearer, that
he was grossly and shamelessly immoral, that he had
given out in speeches that he had a licence from the
devil to send souls to hell, and power to save whom he
would, and that he had threatened to murder one of the
witnesses. And furthermore, it was in evidence: that he
was a great enemy against the proceedings of Parliament,
and had frequently drunk healths to Prince Rupert,
and rejoiced that the great parliament-man Sir William
Waller had been routed, that he did not observe Sabbaths
and Fast days as commanded by Parliament, that he had
frequently bowed towards the font and communion table,
and had read the books of liberty for Recreation on the
Sabbath day — meaning the Book of Sports.
SEQUESTRATION OF THE RECTORY 119
Among the witnesses to prove the articles were
the three who had been summoned, viz., Daniell Hygate
gent, Gabriell Battman and Richard Worledge, and also
thirty-three others, all of Theberton, thirteen of whose
names appear in the assessment list of 1642 ; among
them, Robert Beare and his wife, John London, and
William Dowseing.
In February 1644, the report of the sub-committee
having been sent up to the Commons' Committee of
Plundered Ministers ; that Committee ordered that the
Rectory of Theberton be forthwith sequestered from
William Fenn for great misdemeanours, and that some
godly and orthodox divine be recommended to the
Assembly of Divines, to examine his fitness to have the
said sequestration ; and that John London, Thomas
Ingham, Robert Beare, and one John Fasset whose
name I do not find elsewhere, were to take care and
provide for the service of the said cure, till this Committee
should take further order in the premises, and the said
William Fenn was thereby commanded to forbear to cut,
fell, or carry away, any of the timber or other trees, or
wood, standing, or growing upon the glebe of the
Rectory. ^
What judgment should be passed by us on parson
Fenn. It is notorious that the judicial honesty of
the Plundered Ministers' Committee, and likewise
of county committees, is open to the gravest suspi-
cion. The bias of the class which supplied their
members, is betrayed by the use of such epithets as
" scandalous," " malignant," " delinquent," to designate
men, whose greatest offence, perhaps, was disagreement
with the views political and religious of the faction in
^ This information was taken by Mr. Davy from papers which
were in the possession of my grandfather in 1810.
120 FENVS CASE CONSIDERED
power. " White's Century " written by a member of
Parliament was a much esteemed work ; " Scandalous
Malignant Priests" were among the first words of its
lengthy title. The County Committees in general were
thus described by an eye and ear witness cited in
Walker's " Sufferings of the Clergy " : — " Mine ears still
tingle at the loud clamours and shoutings there made
.... in derision of grave and reverend divines, by that
rabble of sectaries, which daily flocked thither to see
their new pastime ; where the committee members, out
of their vast privilege to abuse any men though their
betters, without control, have been pleased to call the
ministers of Christ brought before them by jailors and
pursuivants and placed like heinous malefactors without
the bar, saucy jacks, base fellows, brazen-faced fellows "
— and so forth. Walker says that so notorious were the
dealings of these committees, that it long remained a
common saying in Suffolk, that Mr. Playters of
Uggeshall was deprived for " eating custard after a
scandalous manner," he being known to keep a good
table.
Moreover, in favour of Fenn, one cannot but observe
how many of the charges against him bore a political
colour ; such as being an enemy to proceedings of
Parliament ; rejoicing at Waller's defeat ; not observing
Sabbaths and fasts as commanded by Parliament ; read-
ing the Book of Sports — it had been his plain duty to
read it, in obedience to a lawful government — and the
like.
We have not before us the evidence — if any was
adduced — for Fenn's defence. Whether he put in a
written answer, or tendered witnesses, we do not know.
It is possible that answer and evidence have been
suppressed. And there is this further observation : —
DEATH OF PARSON FENN 121
out of five hundred beneficed clergy in Suffolk, it is
stated, and I do not doubt the statement, that one
hundred and twenty-nine were at this same time
sequestered. Is it at all likely that of ministers of
religion so large a proportion, more than one-fourth,
could have been guilty of such moral or ecclesiastical
offences, as merited this severe punishment ?
Against Fenn on the other hand, it is to be noted that
his judges were not ignorant men, of a low class such as,
according to Walker, composed the committees in general,
but on the contrary, that they bore names highly respected
in Suffolk ; and there is the testimony concerning
his moral conduct, of no less than thirty-six witnesses
out of his own parish, to the effect that Fenn was not fit
to live with decent people, and was a disgrace to his
sacred profession. Whether their evidence was tested
by cross-examination we do not know — probably not.
One of Fenn's last ministerial acts, was to baptize
" Elizabeth Jenney daughter of Sir Robert Jenney and
Elizabeth his lady, on 25 January 1644."
After his deprivation, Fenn does not seem to have left
Theberton ; for there is an entry in the parish register :
165 1, "Willyam Fenne, Minister of Theberton, deceased
this liffe Apelle the 28." Some friend of Fenn's, the parish
clerk perhaps, not willing to admit his successor's title,
may have thus described him. In point of fact, John
Gary was the minister of Theberton in actual possession
of the benefice.
Even our " rusticals " must have heard of that star of
the first magnitude, George Villiers then Marquess of
Buckingham. He was now to become of special interest
to our parish and neighbourhood. That grotesque
sovereign, his dear " Dad and Gossip," had been loading
the "dogge Steenie" with extravagant gifts. One of
122 COMMISSIONERS SITTING AT EASTBRIDGE
them was the lordship of Leyston manor, then valued at
£114. ys. I i{d. a year.i
In 1620, the Marquess held his first court for Leyston
at which, on the homage, sat Robert Beare and Thomas
London both of Theberton.
Also, a perambulation was made of the manor, which
marches on one side with the manor of Theberton. By
words alone without a map, the boundary can hardly be
followed, and no ancient map is in existence. My
readers, however, may recognise a few place names, such
as "the West House," and "the Harrow" — whence I
suppose comes Harrow Lane ; and possibly Higbones,
Heme's Grove, and Hangman's Close, might be identified.
Buckingham sold the manor to Richard Miller a
mercer in Cheapside ; and, in 1633, we find an action in
the court of Exchequer commenced between Miller and
others co-plaintiffs, and John Claxton, Esqr., whose
name we know, as defendant.
The court sent down commissioners ; and they —
Henry Coke, and Edmund Harvey Esquires and John
Cary and Francis Burwell, gents, sat at Eastbridge, may
be at the redoubtable Eel's Foot, to take the evidence.
Claxton was a copyhold tenant of Leyston manor, and
traced his title on the rolls, from a surrender made in
Edward IV.'s reign, by John Sturmyn. This John
Sturmyn was probably the man, or a like-named son
of the man, who in 1445, as will be remembered,
withstood the irruption of the Abbot Clement,
The question now litigated was the right, whose it
was, to fell timber upon the copyholds. Among the
witnesses were John I ngam( Ingham) who ten years before
had witnessed the reading in of parson Fenn, Henry
^ In the Lords Journals, Proceeding on the impeachment of
Buckingham in 1626, Leyston is spelt Lagston.
A WRECK OFF "THE SLUICE'' 123
Rackham, and John Baker of Theberton, Sir Hurstone
Smith a knight of Huntingfield, and William Buckenham
who had once been bailiff of the manor of Theberton.
The land, on which grew the trees in controversy, was
thirty-five acres, described as situate in Moorfield.
Claxton owned other copyholds also, among them eight
acres in Theberton, and also freehold land adjacent to
lands of Arthur Jenney. The timber was valued at £i 50
or thereabouts.
In the same year 1633 we meet with Miller's name
again, this time more closely associated with that of
John Ingham of Theberton. A small craft, called
a "pink," had been wrecked off the mouth of the
Minsmere river near what we call the Sluice ; and,
while on a sand bank, where only boats could get
to her, had been seized for the King. It seems, she
afterwards drove up on the foreshore, and cargo
was there taken out of her, and laid upon the beach.
Miller then claimed the property, in his capacity of
the lord of Leyston manor, and owner of the soil on
which the wreck and the goods lay. Ingham was the
bailiff of the manor, and was zealous to enforce Miller's
rights. No doubt swarms of would-be wreckers had
been attracted to the beach, Leyston copyhold tenants
among them, and it was said that at Ingham's instiga-
tion, the tenants would not suffer the Admiralty Marshal
to see the goods. Thereupon, complaint against Ingham
was made to Mr. Secretary Coke, and a warrant was
issued from the Admiralty, to bring him up from
Theberton, to answer in London such matters as should
be objected against him on behalf of his Majesty.
Our present pulpit was erected in Fenn's time — 1628,
The sermons preached by him are, perhaps happily,
unremembered ; and thousands more emitted from the
124 FENNPS "HERBIDGE BOOK''
same platform of eloquence — some good seed, fruit of
reverent study, to grow in the hearts of devout congre-
gations ; some pithless thistledown, listlessly blown
about, while sleep crept round from pew to pew — are
all alike utterly forgotten,
Fenn kept what he was pleased to call a " herbidge
book" — tithe book, in which, in 1634, he entered "the
customes belonging to the Towne of Theberton." They
are not too long to transcribe :
Meadowe the acre 4</.
Cow with calf. Lactage 3</.
Cow calfe paid Lactage 2d.
Agastbeast \d.
A cohs fall id.
So many odd lambs — so many id.
So many odd geese — so many id.
or to be accompted next yeare.
So many odd piggs — so many , . . id.
or to be reckoned the next fall.
We have also: "Anno 1635, a terrier contayning the
Edifices and Lands belonging to the Church and Rectory
of Theberton, made by the Rector and Churchwardens
there."
There was then : — " Imprimis, a Mansion House
contayneing a Hall, Parlor, and Kitching, with a
Backehouse, a Barne, stable, and Gate house " ; which
was, I take it, the rectory house, much as it was
before the modern addition in Mr. Bradstreet's time.
Then, there was : — " One oartch yarde (orchard), two
gardens with other yards enclosed, and one Hempland
conteyneing by estimation half an acre." This is repre-
sented by the lawn and garden between the house and
the high road. " Item one peece of land an acre and a
halfe lyeing between the lands of Mr. Jermyn (Query
Jenney) towards the north, and ye way leading from
Theberton church into Moor Lane towards ye S."
THE RECTORY IN 1635 125
This is evidently the field between the shrubbery
called the church walk appertaining to the Hall, and the
Hall road, then called Moor Lane.
A description of the rest of the glebe follows, but
there is no further matter of interest. It seems to
have been assumed that there were loa. 2r. 6p. in all,
besides the site of the " mansion " orchard, yards,
and gardens. The terrier is signed by Willm. Fenn,
rector, and Thomas Whitcock, and Wm. Dowseing,
the churchwardens.
Once more, we find John Ingham's name ; and upon
the same document, that of a member of the Jenney
family. They both were witnesses of the will, made
in 1636, of Jeromomye Ingham who died in 1639. This
Christian name seems to have been a favourite one in the
Ingham family ; a daughter and a grand-daughter bore
the name after her.
John Ingham died in 1639, at the age of fifty-seven.
By his will, he devised to his son Thomas, "the
messuage in which he dwelt, being on the north west
part of the common way leading from the parsonage
of Theberton towards a place or hill called Stone Hill,
and all his barns and stables on the south east part."
This dwelling was the present Hall Farm house, of which
the plastered walls and long thatched roof now look,
I think, much as they looked then. The farm buildings
are more modern ; Ingham's barn and stables stood on
the opposite side of the lane, in the meadow now known
as the paddock.
Fenn's living had been sequestered, as we have
seen, in February 1644. Messrs. London, Ingham,
Beare, and Fasset, had to find casual preachers ;
till, in the month of May, 1645, John Cary or
Carey, B.A., was referred to the " committee of Divines
126 A FLOOD OF SUPERSTITION
for the ordination of ministers," and was by them duly-
ordained, as a godly and orthodox divine, to the living
of Theberton. Fenn had been twice married ; his first
wife's name was Dorithie, and the second Elizabeth,
Elizabeth had died before the ejection of her husband,
so Gary came into possession of the benefice, free from
the deduction of one-fifth of the profits, which the wives
of sequestered ministers could claim. He was the
incumbent, in whose time, notice was entered upon the
register of the death of ex-parson Fenn, by the
strange description " minister of Theberton."
John Gary held the benefice all through, and beyond,
the Gommonwealth period. It is recorded in our
registers that on "13 Feb. 1666, John Garey the
rector of ffebruarie (sic) was buried."
CHAPTER X
I WONDER whether Gary allowed bells to ring
or the passing or soul bell to be tolled, during his
time. In some places we know they were silenced.
At Newcastle, for example, it was ordered by the
Vestry in 1655, that the church bells be used again,
" we having had," the vestry minuted, " the judgment
of our minister concerning any superstition that might
be in it " — by " it " meaning the passing bell.
It is strange as true, that the high tide of Puritan
ascendency brought with it an access of gross supersti-
tion. Trials and killings for witchcraft had grown
frequent and more frequent, during James I.'s reign :
till at length, a frenzy of injustice and cruelty swept
through the land. It was not doubted by ministers,
or even judges, that witches committed crimes by help
of Satan. Could then beings so depraved be suffered
to live among mankind ? It followed that hundreds,
aye thousands, of forlorn creatures were done to death
under sanction of religion and law.
Persons put to death for witchcraft in the one year
1645, were more numerous than the Protestants
martyred in any year of the bloody reign of Mary.
As I have said elsewhere all that I had to say on this
127
128 WITCHES HANGED AT ALDBOROUGH
subject,^ I now only transcribe, with the compiler's
permission,^ an account culled from the books of our
neighbour town of Aldborough : —
l 5. d.
1645. To Goody Phillips for her pains in searching out
witches 100
„ To Widow Phillips the search woman for giving
evidence i 50
„ To John Paine for hanging seven witches ... no
„ To William Dannell for the gallows and setting
them up • 100
„ For a post to set by the grave of the dead bodies
that were hanged and for burying of them . 6 o
„ Received of Mr. Newgate in part for trying a
witch 400
„ Received of Mr. Richard Browne by the hands
of Mr. Bailiff Johnson in part for trying a
witch 400
„ To Mr. Hopkyns in the town for finding out
witches 200
This Hopkyns or Hopkins, a sordid wretch, was the
self-appointed " witch finder general," who it is said, I
hope with truth, was at last swum himself, having, as
related in Hudribras : —
Proved himself at length a witch
And made a rod for his own breech.
It was in the same year 1645, that the magistrates of
the adjoining county of Essex, sentenced eighteen
women "poore mellencholie, envious, mischevous, ill
disposed, ill dieted, atrabilus constitutions," to be hanged
for witchcraft.
Superstition is not wholly extinct even now in
our neighbourhood.
A medical man of eminence in Suffolk has told me
* " Witchcraft and Christianity," Blackwood^s Magazine^
March, 1898.
* I have here again, and for much besides, to thank Mr, Red-
stone.
SUPERSTITION AT THEBERTON 129
that patients often ask him to " take it off them." A
farmer's wife, about ten years ago, said she knew who the
woman was, who had put it on herself and her son.
They had heard, when in bed, a " whiff, whiff, whiff,"
above them, and then it was being put on. My friend
always told his patients that though he could not take
witches' spells off, he could no doubt put them through
them — with a dose of medicine. Such superstitions, he
believes, are much more common than we know, ignorant
people being ashamed to disclose them.
I have myself come across, in our own parish, a more
than commonly interesting superstition. The wife of a
labouring man had a child ill. She consulted
a wise woman, who advised her to put milk into a
saucer, and " stand it out abroad " at night. Should a
weasel drink of the milk, she was to give what it left as
medicine to the child.
The interest is that weasel superstitions derive from
remote antiquity ; and are found to this day with
few variations in countries far removed from each
other, indeed wherever almost in the world there
are weasels. The matter, I hope, justifies a moment's
digression.
To go back to antiquity : — The Romans thought
it was unlucky to meet a weasel, and had a common
expression Mustelam habes — you have a weasel in
your house, applicable to an unfortunate, whom luck
seemed always to pass by.
In the time of Constantius, it is clear that there were
poor folk to whom the cry of a weasel presaged evil ; we
know that such persons were hunted down, and con-
demned for holding heathen superstitions.
In a Penitential of Theodore : "If food had been
contaminated by a mouse or a weasel having been
K
130 A DIGRESSION ABOUT WEASELS
drowned in it ; should there be a small quantity, it
must be thrown away ; but if there be much, it would be
enough to sprinkle it with Holy Water."
And by a Confessional of Egbert whoever should
give to another liquor in which a mouse or a weasel
had been drowned was, if a secular, to fast three days,
if a monk, to chant three hundred psalms.
In mediaeval days, "the weasel which constantly
changes its place," was taken for "a type of the man,
estranged from the word of God, who findeth no rest."
And it was also associated with that mythical serpent,
hatched from a cock's egg — the cockatrice. Brother
Bartholomew described the cockatrice, as "of so great
venom and perilous, that he slayeth and wasteth him
that nigheth him without tarrying ; and yet the weasel
overcometh him, for the biting of the weasel is death
to the cockatrice."
And now, for the present day, in lands widely parted
" by shadows of mountains, and roaring of the sea."
Lady Wilde says of the west of Ireland, that weasels
are held to be spiteful and malignant, and that old
witches sometimes take this form. It is extremely
unlucky to meet a weasel the first thing in the morning:
still it would be hazardous to kill it, for it might be a
witch and take revenge.
In the north-east of Ireland, whitteritts, as weasels
are called, are considered eerie.
In modern Greece, the legend is that the weasel, once
on a time was a bride, and is now envious of brides,
showing her envy by making havoc among wedding
gifts and provisions. Therefore, sweetmeats and honey,
called "the necesssary spoonfuls," are put out to appease
her, and a song is sung, inviting the weasel to partake
and to spare the wedding array.
THE DIRECTORY 131
In North America, an aboriginal legend relates how
two sister demons commonly take the forms of two
weasels.
In the central parts of Asia — the forbidden land of
Thibet — we read of a temple where, amongst the images
behind the grating, the yellow king of the genii of riches
carries a weasel in his hand.
Yet farther east, the Manchus regard a stoat or weasel
as a mischievous elf, but yet of great power of healing ;
and with the Jupitatze tribe who are fond of the chase,
three spirits — of the stag, the fox, and the weasel, stand
highest in public estimation.
And lastly, in the farthest East, the Japanese have a
demon called the Sickle Weasel. When a man's clogs
slip from under his feet, and he falls and cuts his face
upon the gravel, the wound is referred to the malignant
invisible weasel, and his sharp sickle.
I fear digression has been tedious ; let us settle on
our line again :
In 1645, appeared under the title of " Directory for
the Public Worship of God " directions for the conduct
of Divine Service, together with an Ordinance of Parlia-
ment for the taking away the Book of Common Prayer.
And later in the year, a second Ordinance making the
use of the Prayer Book by clergy or by laity penal.
First and second offences were punishable by fine ; for
the third, one whole year's imprisonment without bail
or mainprize ; all prayer books had to be delivered up ;
and a fine was imposed on persons writing or preaching
against the Directory, of which a copy was supplied to
every parish constable.
In 1646, there was ordered to be set up in all parish
churches, " A Declaration of the Commons of England
K 2
132 THE ENGAGEMENT
assembled in Parliament, of their true intentions
concerning the antient and Fundamental Government
of the Kingdom; the Government of the church ; the
Present Peace ; Securing the People against all
Arbitrary Government."
No doubt it was set up in our own church by the then
churchwardens, but so long and verbose was it, that per-
haps few, even of those able to read, ever got to the end
of it
In 1649, after that direful tragedy the execution of
the King, parson Carey received notice of an order of
Parliament, which he could no doubt conscientiously
obey : He was not to preach or to pray against the
Parliament. In preaching or praying, he was not to
make mention of Charles Stuart or of James Stuart
the sons of the late King, otherwise than as enemies
of the Commonwealth. He was to observe the days
of public humiliation or thanksgiving appointed by
Parliament, and publish the Acts, Orders, and Declara-
tions thereof. All this, on pain of being adjudged a
delinquent within the orders and acts touching sequestra-
tion of benefices and stipends.
A statute of the same year enacted that all men over
eighteen years were to take and subscribe " The
Engagement " : — " I do declare and promise that I
will be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of
England as it is now established without a King
or a House of Lords." The Act was repealed in
1653.
In 1650, the King's arms, which had adorned our
church, were taken down, and the State's arms
substituted.
Parliament set its austere face against profane swear-
ing ; and made the habit expensive, by enacting in
PROFANITY EXPENSIVE 133
1650, that every person styling himself Duke, Marquis,
Earl, Viscount, or Baron, should for the first offence
forfeit 30J'.; a Baronet or Knight 20s.; an Esquire 10s.; a
Gentleman 6s. 8d.; and all inferior persons 3^-. 4^. A
double fine was payable for every succeeding offence up
to the ninth ; and for the tenth, offenders were to be
bound to good behaviour. One is forced to infer
that ladies were suspected of swearing ; for the Act
provided, that wives and widows were to pay according
to the quality of their husbands, single women of
their fathers. Penalties were to be recovered by distress ;
and, in default thereof the party if above twelve years
of age, to be set in the stocks, or if under that age to be
publicly whipped. And the Act was to be published, on
the first market day in every market town after receipt
thereof Broad, no doubt, were the grins of our jolly
farmers as they read this precious statute at Saxmund-
ham market.
A name, now connected by property with Theberton,
occurs about this period. One Edmund Peckover, from
1646 to 1655 served as a " solger " in a troop of Colonel
Fleetwood's regiment ; and after his nine years' service,
" during which he behaved himselve fathfulley and
honesly as becoms a solger," went into retail trade. His
descendants, now represented by Lord Peckover, have
long owned the Grange farm in our parish.
The rolls we have of the manor of Theberton begin
in 1 64 1, with the first Court Baron of Sir Arthur
Jenney. Among the homage are familiar names :
Robert Beare, John Backler, Thomas Ingham, George
London and Gabriel Reve. One, Thomas Cory,
is described as Esquire — Armiger ; and three, John
Bishopp, George Fermor and Thomas Screvenor, as
Gentlemen.
134 THE ROLLS OF THE MANOR
The customs of the manor are stated: — The youngest
son is heir ; the eldest brother is heir — inheritance thus
following in the case of sons, but not of brothers, the
custom of Borough English, of which the very name
bespeaks Saxon antiquity. Widows, are entitled by the
custom, to one-third for dower.
Out of the manor books little of present interest is to
be gleaned. A few place-names which I cannot
identify, others may recognise, such as " Cottingham
Field " ; " Cottingham Green " — these somewhere near
Stonehill ; " Overwakers " ; " Harveys att Fen " ; " Leff
Fen " ; " Church Meer " — meer in the sense of boundary ;
** a certain stagnum called Hartes Pond."
I find in 165 1 the first mention of a windmill in
our parish. In that year, Richard Usher made his will,
entered upon the rolls, whereby he disposed of his lands
in Theberton, and his " windmill, and the stones, going
gare (gear), furniture, and appurtenances whatsoever
thereto belonging."
In August 1653, was passed an Act of Parliament
concerning marriages. A " Register," whose office was
created by the Act, had to publish at the close of
the morning exercise in church, or, should the
parties so desire, in the next market place, on three
successive market days, the names and places of abode
of both parties, and of their parents or guardians or
overseers. The parties next had to present themselves
to a " Justice of Peace," and the ceremony was to pro-
ceed thus : The man, taking the woman by the hand,
should distinctly pronounce these words :
" I, A. B. do here in the presence of God the
searcher of all hearts, take thee (C. D.) for my
wedded wife ; and do also in the presence of God,
MARRIAGE BY MAGISTRATES 135
and before these witnesses, promise to be unto
thee a loving and faithful husband."
And then, the woman taking the man by the hand,
should also distinctly pronounce these words :
" I, C. D. do here in the presence of God the
searcher of all hearts, take thee (A. B.) for my
wedded husband ; and do also in the presence of
God and before these witnesses, promise to be unto
thee a loving faithful and obedient wife."
And thereupon, the Justice was to declare them to be
husband and wife. The Act moreover provided that
no other form of marriage should be valid.
Pursuant to this Act, in October 1653, "Thomas
Ingham was chosen Register for ye towne of Theberton,
and sworn in before Justices R. Brewster and Sam.
ffa wether."
Little more than a year after, it became the duty of
Thomas Ingham to publish a marriage between Henry
Burford of Theberton " singill man," and Mirable Ingham
of the same place *' singillwoman." It was published
" ye 26 daye of November, and on the third and tenth
dayes of December 1654, by and with the consent off
Margery the wiffe of Wm. Hadenham (who had been the
widow of John Ingham) mother of her ye sad Mirabell
and overseere for her the said Mirabell. And the said
Henery and Mirabell weare married by and with the
consent of the aforesaid Margery, on the one and
twentieth day of December aforesaid, by Samewell
ffaierwether Esquire."
In another case, the publication of an intended
marriage was " att Halesworth markett."
In 1657, the mode of publication remaining the same,
136 OUR PARISH SOLDIER
marriages were no longer solemnised by Justices of
Peace ; but, for instance in Theberton, by John Gary
" rector of the parish."
I know nothing of Mr. Fairwether, whose signature
docs not suggest clerkly accomplishments ; but his
brother Justice, Robert Brewster, came of a well-known
Suffolk family the Brewsters of Wrentham. Robert,
and likewise a brother of his, Francis, were, we have seen,
of the committee which sequestered parson Fenn. In
1654, Robert was elected a member of the Convention
for Dunwich, He was member for the county (and
Francis member for Dunwich) in Cromwell's second
Parliament of 1656, when he voted for making the Lord
Protector a King ; and in the Parliament of 1658 he
represented Dunwich, We shall often meet with the
name again.
Our Theberton parish accounts speak from 1661 — two
hundred years later than those of some neighbouring
parishes, of Walberswick for example, which begin in
145 1. The first rate recorded for Theberton was made in
September 1662 — a churchwardens' rate for ;^4i. 14s.
Certain purchases by the churchwardens indicate that,
since the Restoration, the Puritan end of the religious
see-saw had come lowest. We find : " For the
service book 10/-," and " To Master Maswell for the
Booke called Jewell's appolligie i/-" — a High Church
publication disapproved of by the Puritans. Again, " a
booke for the keeping the King's birthday."
We had a parish soldier in those days ; Gabriel London
underwent "severall daies Traynings," for which the
parish paid him ys. Sd., with allowance for " pouder " 4s.,
and " tinning of the head peece " 2s.
The repair of the Church must of late have been
THEBERTON PARISH ACCOUNTS 137
neglected, for needful work that year cost ;^33. is. 2d. ;
and "ye said London" was paid £\. 17s. " for serving
the thatcher, plumer, and carpenter," besides some-
thing more for " pulling the yvye of the steeple,"
The account is signed by "John Gary clerk" and
others.
In 1664, the overseers credit themselves with lOi-, "of
Daniel Newson for suffering men's servants to tipple in
his house contrary to the statute," They had to lay out
on account of a poor boy : " For a new Suite, Dublett,
Brittches, westcote, cap, linings, (linen underclothes),
Pocketts, claspes, eyes, and Buttons, and the making
and mendinge of all his clothes ;^i, 2, 11," And the
town house (poor house) had to be thatched. This house
has disappeared ; but old men can remember it, upon
the east side of the road between Gipsy Lodge and
Leiston, opposite Buckles Wood. John Gary clerk
and John Ingham signed this account and it was
allowed by two Justices Thomas Scrivener and John
Bedingfeild. The name of Scrivener survives in the
person of Commander Levett-Scrivener of Sibton Abbey ;
Mr. John Bedingfeild, of a younger branch of an ancient
family, then lived in an old mansion in Halesworth,
of which the curious interior decorations are described in
Suckling's "Suffolk."
In 1664, we learn from the Archidiaconal Act Book
that the sound windows of the steeple were decayed, for
which the churchwardens were presented. Also two
persons were presented for absence from church, and one
for not having received the communion at the previous
Easter.
And not only the steeple but the bells hung in it, now
needed reparation ; ;^I2. 15^. had to be expended for
138 THE PLAGUE YEAR
"riming of the bell," and mending the "boule" of the
bell. The bell was sent to Darbie of Ipswich (a famous
name of bell founders) ; and the " worke and tymber for
the fframe of the bells " was supplied by John Fenn
son of the deprived parson Fenn, who was a wheel-
wright in Theberton. John Fenn signed the account
together with John Gary and Thomas Ingham.
This was the direful year of the Plague of London.
It attacked Ipswich and Yarmouth ; there is no record
of its having come to Theberton, but in a neighbouring
parish " A Book and Proclamation to keep a fast to
stay the Plague," was purchased and paid for.
How Gary contrived to keep his living after the Act
of Uniformity we cannot say. Under that Act, passed
in 1662, the thirteenth year of Gharles II. — his reign was
officially reckoned, not as from his restoration but from
his father's death — it became law that the then lately
revised Book of Gommon Prayer should be substituted
for the Directory in all parish churches ; that no person
should thenceforth be capable of holding any ecclesiasti-
cal promotion or of administering the Sacrament until he
should be ordained priest by episcopal ordination ; and,
with respect to ministers who then held any benefice,
that they, within a prescribed period, should openly read
morning and evening service according to the Prayer
Book, and declare before the congregation their unfeigned
assent and consent to the use of all things therein con-
tained, on pain of being ipso-facto deprived of their
spiritual promotions. The Act was to come into force
on the 24th of August, the day of St. Bartholomew.
Gary may already have been an ordained priest — we
find him described " clerk," and he was as we know a
University graduate. I suppose that he must have used
the Prayer Book ; but the presumption is, as no record
BARTHOLOMEW CONFESSORS 139
of it is entered in the register, that he never made the
Declaration the Act required. No less than two thousand
beneficed ministers were driven to resign, or else were
ejected, for conscience' sake.^ Cary, however, did not
march in that army of "Bartholomew Confessors,"
The then Bishop of Norwich was the good and wise
Dr. Reynolds, who had himself professed Presbyterian
views ; and it may be, that holding Cary to be a worthy
pastor, he shrank from taking extreme measures against
him.
Up to this time, the Puritans had been able to continue
within the fold of the Church of England ; this maleficent
Act drove them (now to be styled Nonconformists), out
of the Church ; and there, unhappily, remain their
successors.
In 1665, a rate of £2. 2s. lod. was collected in
Theberton towards the payment of inferior oflficers, and
for furnishing and other necessaries, for the use of the
Militia. Thomas and Gabriel Ingham's share was
gd. lob. \qr.
In 1668, one Underwood, in office as an overseer that
year, had to pay £\ to the churchwardens, " for drawinge
of beere without licence " ; and the fine was distributed
among the poor. The overseers' account was allowed
by Sir Robert Kemp. Sir Robert was then living at
Ubbeston Hall, the home of his second wife Mary, nee
Sone, whose daughter Mary married Sir Charles Blois of
Cockfield Hall.
For " carryinge (the orders for) three hewinge
cryes" the churchwardens paid 18^. This hutesium
et clamor^ to use the old law term, was the ancient
1 Theberton was perhaps fortunate in retaining its minister.
In the Middleton registers, I find that in 1665, one Harry
Dummett had to be buried without a minister, by his wife and
son.
140 HUE AND CRY AT THEBERTON
process of pursuing felons with horn and voice. Any
person joining a hue and cry, could apprehend the
fugitive without warrant, and even break open a door,
should he have run into a house.
From John Gary's death till his successor was
inducted, the living was under sequestration, as is shown
by 4s. having been collected " of the Rector or Seques-
trator, for six months' collection ended at Our Lady,
1668."
CHAPTER XI
In 1668, one John Racket clerk, petitioned the King,
that he might be presented to the Rectory of Theberton.
He had, he said, served during the late wars, as chaplain
in the Yarmouth^ and in other ships. He stated that
the true value of the benefice was not above £70
a year.
His petition was successful, for in December 1668,
we find that he was instituted to the Rectory, " on the
death of John Gary clerk last incumbent."
In January following, he complied with the Act of
Uniformity ; there is this entry in our register : —
" Memorando that John Hacket clerke. Rector of the
church and Parish of Theberton, being inducted into
the same church and Rectorie, the fiveteenth day of
Januarie anno Dom. 1668 (it was 1668 till Easter
1669) on Sunday declared his unfeigned assent and
consent &c., and produced a certificate, under the hand
and seal of the Lord Bishopp of Norwitch, by which
it appeared that, before his institution into the said
Rectorie, he had subscribed to the declaration ....
that it is not lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever
to take armes against the King."
On Sunday the 14th of February, Hacket read the
141
142 OUR MAN-OF-WAR PARSON
thirty-nine Articles agreed upon by Convocation
in 1562, and declared his assent and consent to the
same ; and on the next Sunday, in the church at the
time of prayers, he declared his assent and consent
to the use of all things in the Book of Common
Prayer.
In 1668, was proved the will of Sir Arthur Jenney,
by which he disposed of the manor of Theberton, with
the mansion house called " the Parke House."
I find in 1669 the first mention of "Tylers Green," a
property then evidently belonging to the parish ; the
churchwardens received ioj. rent for it.
This year, a " Regester of Breiffs " is first noticed.
One brief, on which money was collected in Theberton,
was "toward the ransome of captives in Algier and
Sally," the nests of wasps known as Sallee Rovers,
whose existence then disgraced Christian Europe.
In 1670, fen reeves were appointed. About these
parish officers we shall have more to say later.
And that year, for a girl, two yards and three quarters
of red cotton had to be bought, " for to apparrell her,"
and " a payre of uppbodyes " whatever they might have
been, were added.
In 1672, it may be that Hacket, rector of Theberton,
was for a time serving again as a naval chaplain ; for
against his name at the Easter Visitation that year, we
find in the Archdeacon's book, the note, " apud mare "
— at sea ; and it is not improbable that he took part in
the great fight of May 28th. Hume gives a good account
of the battle, which from the shore may have been seen
by many folk of Theberton. Two great fleets lay at
anchor in Sole (Southwold) Bay, the French under the
Mareschal d'Etr^es, the English under H.R.H. the Duke
of York and the Earl of Sandwich.
THE BATTLE OF SOLE BAY 143
They were lying in a negligent formation, and a
great Dutch fleet commanded by the gallant de
Ruyter, and with Cornelius de Wit on board, had come
out to seek them. Sandwich warned the Duke of the
danger of his position, but received a reply which he
deemed a reflection upon his courage. Leading the van,
he sailed out of the bay to meet the enemy. The
Hollands Admiral, Baron van Gendt, was killed,^ his
flagship beaten off, another ship which had ventured to
lay Sandwich aboard was sunk, and also three Dutch fire-
ships. Though his own ship was torn in pieces with shot,
and out of a thousand men near six hundred were laid
dead on the deck, Sandwich continued still to thunder
with his artillery in the midst of the enemy. Another fire-
ship laid hold on him, and the end was imminent ; but,
though warned by his flag captain Sir Edward Haddock,
he refused to escape, and bravely embraced death as a
shelter from that ignominy which the rash expression of
the Duke had, he thought, thrown upon him. De Ruyter
attacked the Duke of York, and engaged him with
such fury for about two hours, that, of two and thirty
actions in which he had been engaged, he declared
this combat to be the most obstinately disputed. The
Duke's ^ship was so shattered that he was obliged to
shift his flag to another. In the event, the action
having continued till night, the Dutch retired. The
French our nominal allies, had sailed away, having
taken small part in this great sea battle.
The thunder of great guns must have set all windows
* His monument I have seen in the cathedral of Utrecht. An
effigy in complete armour lies on a sarcophagus ; in front below,
a sea fight is carved in full relief; and a long Latin inscription
commemorates this : "Vir strenuus prudens invictus Hostium mari
terraque tremor et terror celeberrima in Thamesin expeditione per
totam Europam."
144 NOISE OF BATTLE AT THEBERTON
shaking at Theberton, and made many timid hearts
quail.
There h'es now before me a time-stained document
written with faded ink, in a cramped and difficult hand
— probably of John Fenn. It is endorsed " A rate to
make rates by, at the highest proportion or valuation "
. . . rate made at ob : qr. in the £. and 2d. in the score ;
and it is headed " Theberton, a rate made the 13th. day
of April 1672 by John Fenn Churchwarden " etc. I
subjoin a few lines to show the form of it : —
Evidently
rental value.
£, s. d. s. d. ob. qr.
600 Mr. Hall's or Hull's manor 00 00
60 o o John Hackett for Rectory 00 00
60 o o Richard Hall Esqre. for Park House
farm 39 00
24 o o Benn Jenney Gent for Gardiner's farm 16 00
600 John Fenn for his farm 04 ob. o
70 o o Thos Bellward 4 4 ob. o
26 o o Thos Ingham's two farms 17 ob. o
700 John Bedingfeild 05 o qr.
300 Zachary Fella 02 o qr.
Out-dwellers.
8 o o Sir Daniel Harvey Knt. for Bushy
grove 06 00
Underneath is written : —
Value of the town at this valuation is ;^i022, besides the
Parsonage and Mr. Hall's manor, which are to be added.
The rate aforesaid is \d. in the £, which comes unto altogether
£,1. 13J. bd. ob. qr.
i s. d.
at \d. in the £, it comes unto 311 4.
z.x\d. in the 2 » » » i I5 8.
at \d. m the £, „ „ „ 17 10.
It will be noticed that a Mr. Hall, not a Jenney,
was then rated for the manor. Sir Arthur Jenney
had died in 1667, leaving widowed his fourth wife,
OBOLI AND QUADRANTES 145
whose maiden name had been Hall, It will be noticed
too, that at that time Mr. Hall occupied " the Park
House Farm."
Sir Daniel Harvey then lord of Leiston manor, was
the person referred to by John Evelyn, who in June
1666 wrote in his Diary: "Came Sir Dan Harvey from
the generall, and related the dreadfull encounter, on
which His Majesty commanded me to dispatch an extra-
ordinary physitian and more chirugeons." This was
the great four days' battle with the Dutch fleet, when
the event was " rather deliverance than triumph," in the
Straits of Dover.
The four columns of figures in the rate account wear
an odd appearance, shillings^ pence^ oboliy and quadrantes.
As late as 1707, I find the accounts of rates drawn in
this fashion, oboli and quadrantes associated with Arabic
numerals. After 1707, fractional parts of a penny are
written half pence and farthings, in the way we are
now accustomed to.
We find that in 1672, the overseers paid Francis
Connop £1. ^s. " for setting Robert Thompson's bones,"
— had he broken many .? — and 18 pecks of rye were
given to Thompson. Rye seems to have been largely
grown, rye bread is good for food, and rye straw the
best for thatching. There had been so much rye and so
much buckwheat too produced in 1627 and 1634, that
the farmers about Woodbridge petitioned for leave to
export both grains.
At the Archdeacon's visitation (known as the
" Generals ") of 1673, at which John Hacket attended,
much fault was found with the repair of both the chancel
and the body of the church. It was required to " repaire
the roofe of the chancell ; to playster and white the
same ; to repaire the seates in chancell ; to provide a
L
146 CUSTOMS OP TITHING
white cloth for the communion table ; to mende the
butteries (buttresses) about the church ; to destroyc the
Ivy about the church steeple ; to lyne the pulpit and
reading deske; to mende the seates about the churche; to
mende the chancell doore ; to remove the rubbish out of the
church yardc. These to be certified at the next Generals."
At the Generals in 1674, Hacket appeared, but John
Fenn and Robert Usher the churchwardens were ex-
communicated for non-appearance. The court required
that these things among others should be done : " to
provide a hoode ^ ; to repaire the chancell in ye thatch-
ing ; to white the same where it is decayed ; to provide
locks and keys for the great church chest ; to white the
south ile of the church."
In that year 1674, an agreement was made between
John Hacket the Rector, and his parishoners, that the
customs should be settled as under :
" For every acre of mowing meadow being made into hay or
mowen, ^d.
For the lactage of every cowe by the yeare, 2d.
For every gast (barren) beast, and every yearling bud (calf), and
foal falling, id.
For every gast cow giving milk yearly, 2d.
For calves and lambes under seven, id. Then to have a tenth
calf or lamb, id.
Every tenth or seventh pig.
For scumming (roughly mowing) of pasture grounds, 2d. yearly.
If any crop of turnips shall be drawn to sell or to feed fat
cattle, tithe in kind ; but if spent only in feeding milch cows,
nothing."
This very early mention of turnip culture as a farm
crop is noteworthy. It has been said by good authority,
that the root was first used for winter sheep feed, ten
years later.
* Now, I suppose graduate clergy themselves supply the hoods
proper to their degree and University ; and Literates their fancy
tippets.
ATTENDING THE GENERALS 147
We have the names of the parishioners who were
assessed for hearth tax in 1674. The largest payers
were William Mitchells for thirteen hearths, a " Mr.
Tompson " for ten hearths ; Thomas Ingham had four,
Gabriel Ingham five, and John Fenn only three. In
which houses these persons lived, we have no means now
of ascertaining.
In 1675, for a poor funeral, a cheerful charge was
made " for beer, cakes, and a winding sheet, ^s."
That year, both Racket and his churchwardens were
again admonished ; the ivy about the steeple was to be
forthwith cut ; the Bible had two or three leaves loose ;
the register book was to be kept in the church chest ;
the chancel thatch was exceedingly decayed, in so much
that it lay open to the weather in a great part thereof,
and the vermin thereby got in and very much " annoyed
the church and chancel " ; and the walls thereof were
exceeding green and foul ; the seats were decayed ; the
windows were decayed ; there was a linen communion
cloth, but, it was added, Mr. Hackett kept it from the
churchwardens.
Racket did not attend the Generals in 1676. The
monitions of the year before had not been obeyed yet ;
they were now repeated with additions, among which was
an order to " cleere ye churchyard of bryers, brakes,
and thornes, and to certifie the Court after Christmas."
In 1677, a rate was made at Theberton, under an
Act of Parliament, for the building of thirty ships of war
for the defence and honour of His Majesty and his
kingdom. In that year too, a fee was paid to Mr.
Bedingfeild for advice about a pauper, " Mr. Beding-
feild's Worship's " home was at Benhall.
On the 9th of October 1677, two men were chosen
for constables, "at Ris Matis Courte Leete kept for the
L 2
148 THE VIEW OF FRANK PLEDGE
Soake of Laiston for the yeare to end at St. Michael
1678." We have seen that a yearly Court Leet had
been held by the Abbots as lords of the Soke ; but
these old English tribunals date back to ages before
abbots or abbey. Another name of the same ancient
Court was the " View of Frank Pledge " ; it being
its province to view the Frank Pledges, that is the
freemen of a Liberty, who under the Laws of Alfred
the Great were pledges for each other's behaviour.
From the parish of Theberton, a " soake fee " has been
paid down to quite recent times. It ceased however
before living memory ; the present steward of Leiston
manor knows nothing about it.
In 1666, an Act had been passed which, with a view
to encourage the manufacture of woollen, enacted that
all dead bodies should be wrapped in woollen only ; and
by a later Act of 1678, the clergy were required to enter
in the register the receipt by them of affidavits that the
law had been complied with.
The first entry we find under the latter Act is as
follows : — For the year 1678 : " John ffenne wheele-
wright was buryed 24 Octobris in woollen in Theberton
Churchyard. Jane Thompson widdow, and Margaret
the wife of Henrie Bruce being both of the Parish of
Theberton, on the 29th day of October, made affidavitt
thereof before Thomas Eliot Esquire Justice of Peace
for Suff, two witnesses being then present, which by the
said Justice was then accordingly certified."
John Fenn seems to have been well respected in
Theberton, having served all the parish offices : church-
warden, overseer, surveyor, and fen reeve ; he was buried
by the great porch door of the church, where, over his
brick tomb a flat covering stone bears this quaint
inscription : —
THE "STONE TO SITT UPON" 149
" HERE IS A STONE TO SITT VPON
VNDER WHICH LIES IN HOPES TO RISE
TO YE DAY OF BLISSE AND HAPPINESSE
HONEST JOHN FENN THE SONN
OF WILLIAM FENN CLARKE AND
LATE RECTOR OF THIS PARISH
BEING TURNED OUT OF THIS
LIVEING AND SEQVESTRED FOR
HIS LOYALTY TO THE LATE
KING CHARLES THE FIRST
HEE DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE
22 DAY OF OCTOBER ANNO DOM.
1678."
When we had fair congregations at Theberton, one
might, any Sunday, see men sitting upon the stone,
before the afternoon service.
One wonders who composed the inscription — perhaps
John Fenn himself in his lifetime — a loyal son desirous
of clearing his father's memory.
Rates were made in 1680, for "ye disbanding the
Army," — that army which, three years before, had been
raised on pretence of war with our contemptible King's
secret patron, Louis XIV. of France.
The overseers had, in 168 1, to pay the widow Hansell
IS. 6d. a week for keeping the " Moather London,"
elsewhere called " London's girle." Suffolk folk still
call a girl a " mawther."
By an inventory of " goods wich weare the widow
Tompson's" — Mrs. Tompson having died indebted
to the parish — we gain a peep into a poor Theberton
cottage of the seventeenth century.
"A Invtory of the goods wich weare the widow Tompson's who
departed this life the 15 day of June, Ano Dominij 1681."
l.s. d.
Imprimis one bed and bedsteds mat and line ten
bousters 3 pilowes and a Couvlet and a blanckett . i 16 6
Ite one cubert and a keepe 060
Ite fouer tabels and 2 formes o 10 6
Ite fouer befott stewls 020
150 CONTENTS OF A XVIIth CENTURY COTTAGE
£ s. d.
Ite 3 Chayrs and 3 cushens and 2 other stewls .... 018
Ite 4 peauter dishes 3 sausers and 2 poringers one
Candilstick and a saltsiler 029
Ite Scales and waights o i 6
Ite 2 Citels 4 skilets ^ 2 Brasen candelsticks and a fring
pan and a warming pan and a laten dripping pan - o 12 4
Ite 2 larne pots poot hoocks and leds (lids) o 10 6
Ite a pair of cobandoms and a gridiom and a fire pan
and tongs and a pesell and a ould Chafing Dish
and 2 hacks a smelkost a box iron o 3 10
Ite 3 treving platers and 11 dishes and one dusen of
trenchers o 1 2
Ite 2 Earthing pans and a earthing sauser 004
Ite 2 Cuppes and a tunell (funnel) 002
Ite one Chist and a Cofer and a desk and trunck and
2 ould boxes 070
Ite one spise boxe and a pesell and morter 007
Ite for seurall Boocks 020
Ite 2 wescots 2 petcots and a hatte 090
Ite 4 napckins one bord cloth 034
Ite for 3 shetts and 4 pilowbers o 17 o
Ite for 2 saupans 022
Ite for ij neck hanckirs 060
Ite fouer piners with the rest of hir wearing lining . . 040
Ite one scarfe and 3 hoods 030
Ite for 3 ould Cors sheets one shifning 2 pilowbers . . 040
Ite one loocking glase 003
Ite one bed more bedsteds and line on o
Ite 2 ould Gofers and one ould desk 016
Ite one Courlett belong to this bed 020
Sum of Totis £t ii 1
Thes things weare prised by Thomas Belward and Thomas
Weller.
How the " sum of totis " was dealt with we have
no record, perhaps nought remained after reimbursing
the parish. In another account, a surplus was applied
in " redeeming a poore townesman out of prison."
The accounts that year were allowed by Justices
John Bedingfeild and Edmund Bohun.
Edmund Bohun of Westhall Hall is an interesting
^ Small kettles or boilers.
EDMUND BOHUN OF WESTHALL 151
study. "Bred a dissenter from the religion," which
was established in the Church of England ; he grew to
be a royalist of royalists, a church-man of church-men.
The Bohuns were an old family, but Edmund's fortune
did not match his birth. An ambitious, honest, clever,
contentious man ; sometimes a magistrate delivering
charges at quarter sessions ; twice if not thrice, left out
of the commission ; a treasurer for maimed soldiers ; a
learned and rather voluminous author ; licenser of the
press ; persecuted by political enemies ; brought to the
bar of the House of Commons ; a friend, then not a
friend, of the non-juring Archbishop Bancroft who was
born and died in the near parish of Fressingfield. His
life passed in eventful times ; and in 1699 he died,
aged 56, "the upright and free spoken, but persecuted
and unfortunate. Chief Justice" of South Caro-
lina.
To his diary, edited with accurate notes, by the late
Mr. Rix of Beccles, I am much indebted. In May
1677, he jots down, " I went to our nearest gaol — at
Blythborough — to give bail for Mr. John Hacket,
a clergyman long and wretchedly oppressed " ; and the
following month he wrote, " with some astonishment, I
have seen and watched the horrible and base conduct of
G. E. towards Mr. John Hacket clerk." Who G. E.
was we do not know. Probably John Hacket was our
parson of Theberton. If so, why he was in prison
we have now no means of ascertaining. There is
ground for surmise that he was impecunious, and
he certainly was engaged in litigation. The 1675
parish accounts state that the churchwardens paid " for
ten journeys, to Yoxford court and Halesworth, about
Mr. Hackett's suits, &c., 14$"."; and again in 1683, we
find : " Paid to discharge the charges of suit commenced
152 LABOURERS' WAGES IN 1682
by John Racket against severall of the parishioners
£2. 15^. ody
But even were he by his own fault wretchedly
oppressed, yet, if he served in that good fight, the battle
of Sole Bay, we surely may take pride in our one
man-of-war parson of Theberton.
Having mentioned for earlier times, the wages of
servants in husbandry, it may be useful, for purpose
of comparison, to state them for the time now under
consideration.
Sir John Cullum tells us what the Bury quarter sessions
(acting under a statute of Elizabeth) settled in West
Suffolk for 1682, Wages for East Suffolk were no doubt
much the same.
The West Suffolk wages were as follows: —
By the year: —
I s. d
A bailiff in husbandry 600
A chief husbandman or carter 500
A second hind or husbandman a common servant
above 18 3 10 o
A fourth under 18 2 10 o
A dairymaid or cook 2 10 o
The best hired servant with meat and drink for harvest 120
An ordinary harvest man • 180
Wages by the day : —
A man hay maker with meat and drink 5
A woman hay maker 3
A man reaper in harvest 10
A woman reaper 6
A common labourer at other times : —
In summer 6
In winter 5
Women and such persons weeders 3
Without meat and drink their wages were doubled.
In our parish accounts, an ordinary annual charge is
for " Bill indented." Bills indented were copies of the
register for a year past, handed in at the "Generals."
THE "PARITER" 153
Another item occurring regularly is Christmas box for
the " pariter " — apparitor. In the days of power of
Courts-Christian, apparitors — "so called because their
duty was to summon persons to appear," their older
title having been sompnours or summoners — had been
substantial nuisances ; they were now little better than
shadows, seldom becoming visible, unless in the sun of
Christmas boxes.
CHAPTER XII
The exact date of Racket's death I do not know;
as in our register there is no entry of his burial, I
presume that he did not die at Theberton ; it may have
been at sea ; I hope not in the gaol at Blythburgh.
In 1683, came his successor Robert Witchingham or
Wychingham, presented to the benefice by the King.
The year after, we see that the new rector attended
the " Generals ; " when the Court, finding that its former
monitions had not been effective, ordered that "the
wholes in the roofe of the chancell " be stopped ; a new
" cushing board " for the pulpit be provided ; that a hood
be provided ; that the pulpit and reading desk be lined ;
that a green cloth be provided for the communion table ;
and that the churchyard be fenced.
And two years after that, the churchwardens were
further admonished to get a new cushion for the
pulpit ; and to " stopp the hole out of the steeple
into the church, to keepe the doves from annoying
the church."!
* We read in the third Homily of the second Book, published at
the accession of Elizabeth " On the repairing and keeping clean
of Churches," that " Churches were formerly defiled with sinful
and superstitious filthiness, but though they had been scoured
and swept clean from that, they were then defiled with rain and
weather, with dung of doves and owls, stares, and choughs, and
other filthiness, as it was foul and lamentable to behold."
154
REPAIRS TO THE CHURCH 155
Wychingham and the churchwardens were evidently in
the mind to be obedient. The monitions of 1684 had
been in some part obeyed already ; some needful repairs
had been done ; the lift gate, by which the churchyard
was then entered, had been put to rights ; the pulpit had
been heightened ; and both pulpit and reading desk
been bound and fringed. Now, the poor pulpit of good
oak was coloured ; the thatch of the church was mended
with straw ; and the whole church whitened inside — this
at a cost of £2. 5^. od. ; a new cushion was bought for the
pulpit at ^i. 4.y. od. ; and the hole was stopped up in the
steeple.
In 1686, we had another valuation of the town of
Theberton. The whole rental value was set at ;^920.
The rectory was now again assessed at £(x^ ; Edmund
Jenney had regained possession of the manor, and for it
was set down at £(> a year ; Thomas Ingham for
Theberton Hall at £60 per annum. The Eastbridge
inn must then have been a better hostelry than the
present cottage, for its value was set down at ;^30 a
year.
For 1686 also, we find a deed of settlement of the
Jenney estate in Theberton ; in which it is stated that
Edmund Jenney was then seised in fee of the manor or
lordship of Theberton, and of the capital messuage,
Theberton Hall.
In 1687, the overseers had to pay, on behalf of a
poor person, a charge for " hearthmoney." This tax,
imposed in Charles II.'s time, has come down to
our day in the unwelcome form of Inhabited House
Duty.
A Justice who allowed the overseers' rate for this
year was — Leman. The Christian name is not legible in
his signature, but he was Thomas Leman of Wenhaston
156 FEES FOR CHIRURGIONING
whom Bohun describes in his diary. Bohun says that in
1677 he was "a young man of very great promise, and
of ample patrimony, fond of learning and already imbued
with it, sedate and courteous." There is a gracefully
worded inscription to his memory in Wenhaston Church.
Our churchyard was paled round in 1688, at a total
cost of £2. I4J'. 6d.
There is no more to tell about our parish for that
year, but the year was memorable in the annals of the
kingdom. On December nth, King James II. fled;
and a few days after, our Suffolk diarist, Bohun, was
present in London, when the Prince of Orange was met,
he says, " with such transports of joy as I have never
seen."
In 1689, the Rectory was assessed at one-third of the
valuation of three years before, viz : ^^20.
That year, Sir John Playters of Sotterley allowed the
overseers' rate. In this account, occur charges for beer
and cake at a poor woman's funeral ; two racks of veal
for a widow ; and ys. lod. to one Mr. Thorne " for
chirurgioning a man's sore legs." Butchers do not cut
racks of veal now in Suffolk, but they are common joints
still in Ireland.
In 1690, the church thatch had again to be mended;
a " hurry " of thatch, broaches and binding, were charged
\\s. A "hurry" is, or was, a local expression for a
small load.
In 1 69 1, Thomas Ingham was rated for the Hall, and
paid ^. 4d. churchwarden's rate.
One William Raine agreed, that year, with the
parishioners of Theberton, that he would " keep Robert
Heasell with meat drinck apparrell lodgeing and
washing a yeare," at 30J. f The Justices who signed
that year were " J Rous " and " Thomas Neale." The first
ASSESSMENT FOR POLL TAX 157
was Sir John Rous of Henham, a neighbour and friend
of Bohun the diarist ; and the second, Thomas Neale of
Bramfield, the same, I think, who dying in 1701, left
money to build Almshouses still occupied in that village.
He was one of the first trustees of the old Dissenting
Chapel founded at Lowestoft in 1695.
Thomas Ingham was again, in 1692, rated for "Ye
Hall." When, that year, a warrant was issued to assess
a poll tax, there was in it this direction: "you are hereby
further required to give notice to all such persons as are
assessed as gentlemen within yr town, that they come
before some of the Commissioners before the Generall
day of Appeals be out, and take the oathes to their
present Majesties (William and Mary), or otherwise they
must be assessed double according to the Act." Thomas
Ingham was not too proud to describe himself as
" malster."
At an archdeacon's visitation in 1693, Wychingham
being incumbent of Theberton, we learn that, of church
plate there was a silver cup and patten, with a pewter
flagon ; that the church then wanted thatching ; the ivy
to be cut ; and the chancel to be paved. The valuation
of the town was stated to be ;6^5oo per annum, the
Rectory being put at ;^30 per annum communibus annis,
one year with another. There was only one service each
Sunday, so it seems probable that Wychingham had
another living, and had his residence elsewhere. He
was, later at all events, the rector also of Buxlow.
That whoever lived at our Rectory was not given to
hospitality, the Archdeacon's itinerary bears witness.
On the fourth day of his visitation, the 3rd. of August,
1693, his earliest visit was arranged for Knoddishall ;
thence on to Aldringham, Leiston, Theberton, Middleton
Darsham, Westleton, Dunwich, ending with Walbers-
158 THE ARCHDEACON'S PRANDIUM
wick. A good day's work ! The hours fixed for
Theberton were lo o'clock to noon ; and there the
dignitary looked for his dinner ; for opposite that
appointment, had been written " ad prandium " ; but
that the prandium was not to his liking, is shown by a
later note against Theberton " not to dine next time."
In 1694, the warrant for Poll Tax to be sent up from
Theberton, was signed " C. Blois, Geo. Fleetwood, Jo.
Rabett." Sir Charles Blois was the first baronet, and
the first of his family to possess Cockfield Hall ; Geo.
Fleetwood was of Chediston, a younger son of the Lord
Deputy of Ireland ; and John Rabett was, I take it, a
member of an ancient family, the Rabetts of Bramfield.
Towards a poor rate in 1695, I find " Hangman's
Acre " was assessed at an obolus. Where this ill-omened
acre was, or who had been hanged there, is not known
to this deponent.
The silver coinage having been robbed by clipping, it
became necessary in 1696, to provide for a new coinage
by Act of Parliament. Under that Act we find that
Thos. Wright and Thos. Foulsham had to assess the
parish of Theberton, for duties " for making good the
deficiency of cliped money." This involved a statement
of the taxed windows of every house in the parish.
Not a house, it appeared, had more lights than the
rectory, which had twenty. Of seven other houses
one, that of Edmund Jenney, had twenty also ; and of
six remaining, I suppose farm houses, one had nineteen,
one sixteen, three had ten, one nine.
We get a rough idea of the state of education in
Theberton from a list made that year of men who took
the oath to King William III. The list contains fifty-
five names of male inhabitants of the parish ; twenty-
nine were marksmen, and among these illiterates were
persons holding lands valued at ;^43, ;^24, and .^20 a year.
TYLER^S GREEN 169
On Easter Monday 1697, the townsmen let to Richard
Cheston "Tylers Green," The page of the account is
very imperfect, one can only make out that the rent
was lOi'., and that the said Cheston was to clear the
green of bushes.
In 1698, the rateable value of the parish including
rectory and manor was £478. los.
Another assessment was made in 1702, for grants to
Her Majesty by dues and subsidies and a land tax.
The point of interest to us is the insight it gives into
the domesticities of some of the persons of our story.
We find that parson Wychingham had a wife and
three children and two servants ; Edmund Jenney
gent, a wife and likewise three children, with three
servants ; Thomas Ford, I think a farmer, the same ;
John Foulsham the same family and number of servants
as the rector ; and Thomas Ingham " malster " had a
wife, four children and three servants. Personal property
was then assessed, as in justice it should be still, for the
tax misleadingly called land tax.
I find a curious account concerning a parish pauper.
The goods of one John Haggudday were sold for
}C^. ys. \\d.\ with which the overseers credit themselves,
and add the produce of forty weeks' collection £,4.
Against this are set these items of charge :
£ s. d.
Paid to Dr. Peake for cutting of John Haggiidday's leg 500
To John Thome for healing it 5 5 °
Item — for removing of his goods twice 50
Item — for his nurse 12 o
Item — for beere for his doctor and the tounesmen at
2 severall times 5 ^
Item — for a quart of butter for him ....•...: 10
Item — bread for him 23
Item — For wooding legg for him 7 o
Item — His half years rent 13 o
The balance was of course a charge upon the rates.
John Thorne is in the accounts described as apothecary ;
160 A TAX ON BACHELORS
but in the manor book, I find a devise by one Philip
Thorne of land in the parish, to John Thorne of
Theberton " chirurgion,"
When Dutch William was on the throne, his Parlia-
ment spread such a net for taxation, that no man
escaped its meshes. We all have to be born, to die,
and then to be buried, and all men living are either
bachelors, or married, or widowers. An ingenious act
swept them all in. A tax was imposed upon bachelors
and widowers, on marriages and births ; dead men had
to pay too, for there was a tax upon burials. The rate
was on a sliding scale in proportion to rank — from is. to
;^I2 a year for bachelors and widowers, from 2s. 6d to
;^5o on marriages, from 2s. to £$o on births, and one
could not be buried under is. rising to ;^I2. los. In the
1705 accounts, I find "For duty for Brissingham's burial
4s. 6d." The tax only lasted five years. When women
get their votes, will bachelors and widowers have to
suffer again ?
The 19th of January 1704 was at Theberton and
throughout all England, observed, in obedience to
Queen Anne's proclamation, as a day of public fast and
humiliation, for " the terrible and dreadful storms of
wind " of 26th and 27th of November 1703, when it was
computed that eight thousand persons perished. The
loss in London was said to have been more serious than
that caused by the Great Fire of 1666. " Houses were
mostly stripped and appeared like so many skeletons ;
the lead which covered one hundred churches, and many
public buildings, was rolled up and hurled in prodigious
quantities, to distances almost incredible." In Kent
alone, one observer numbered seventeen thousand trees,
all torn up by the roots. Most of our men-of-war were
safe at sea ; but fifteen or sixteen were cast away, and
THE LAST JENNEY OF THEBERTON 161
more than two thousand seamen perished. A squadron
under Rear Admiral Beaumont was then lying in the
Downs ; the flagship and several other ships were wrecked
on Goodwin Sands. Eddystone Lighthouse was des-
troyed ; and the architect Winstanley, who was in it,
perished. Fortunately for shipping at sea off our East
Coast the gale was from the westward ; the effects on
the opposite coast of Holland were disastrous. No note
remains of damage done at Theberton.
For 1706, the overseer's rate was allowed by John
Bence, Esqre, owner from 1700 to 17 19, of the Heven-
ingham Hall of that day. Mr. Bence served in his time,
as member for Dunwich, and for Ipswich.
Now was severed the ancient connection of the
Jenneys with Theberton. Edmund Jenney in 1704,
had sold the manor and the Theberton Hall estate
to John Fuller. Mr. Fuller held his first court in 1705.
In the record, we find mention of two place names, Lott
fen, and Golibau fen, which I cannot identify.
The Ingham of the time was the Thomas Ingham
whose mural monument is in the chancel of our church.
Like others of his family, he seems to have been an
active and thriving man. He was steward of the manor
of Theberton. In 1703, he hired the rectorial rights of
Aldringham. He was also bailiff of the Leiston Abbey
estate, in which capacity his accounts show that he
"paid for seven dayes workes of three men to take
down part of the tower and cleane the bricke." Among
our church plate a flagon bears the words " ex dono
Thome Ingham!' The mural monument is thus in-
scribed : —
" In the church yard, near this place, lye interred the
bodies of Thomas Ingham gentleman late of this parish,
and Milicent his wife. The said Thomas departed this
M
162 PARISH APPRENTICES
life the 19th day of March 1720, in the seventieth year
of his age, and the said MiHcent departed this life the
ninth day of June 1708, in the fifty-sixth of her age."
Upon it is emblazoned the arms of Ingham, impaled
with those of his wife.
There are three stones outside the south aisle door
one inscribed " Thomas Ingham and Milicent his wife "
on another can just be deciphered " William Ingham "
of the third the inscription is weathered away, and is now
undecipherable. William is described in the manor
book as William Ingham of Theberton "gentleman."
We have the will of Thomas Ingham. He seems to
have lent money on mortgage, and foreclosed mortgages,
and picked up land whenever the price suited him. He
devised land in ten parishes besides Theberton, and
bequeathed nearly ;{J^4000 in legacies, some to pay
expenses for schools and for universities and apprentice-
ships for his grandchildren.
In 1705, clothing was purchased by the overseers for
apprenticing a "town boy." Persons to whom parish
apprentices were allotted, were compellable to take
them, often an unwelcome duty. A few years later,
John Foulsham paid £$ to our parish rather than take
an apprentice. Such bargains were formally recorded.
For example this from the town book of an adjoining
parish — ** Whereas the parish of Middleton with Fordley
have allotted Ann Courtnell as an apprentice to me, I
hereby promise to pay to ye overseer of the Poor of ye
said parish two pounds ten shillings per year for four
years, at four quarterly payments yearly and every year,
the said parish excuseing me an apprentice, till the said
child be twenty one years of age — witness my hand,
Charles Ingham."
Posts and pales were, as they are now, an expensive
"NOYFUL POWELLS AND VERMYN" 163
sort of fencing — boys will be boys. A new fence of
that kind round the churchyard, cost £8 in 1705.
Foxes were at this time common in our district. In
1708, was paid 6s. for six foxes' heads, and such pay-
ments for vermin become more common later.
It had been enacted in the reign of Elizabeth, that
two honest and substantial persons in each parish, should
be named " dystributors of the provision for the destruc-
tyon of noyful fowells and vermyn," and they were
authorised to pay :
For three crows, choughs, pies, or rooks heads id.
For every six eggs or young birds id.
For every twelve starlings eggs . • id.
For the heads of other ravenous byrds and vermyn as or
hereafter in this acte mentioned that is to say : —
For everye head of martyn, hawke, furskett, mold kytte,
busard, schagge, cormorant, ryngtayle 2d.
For every two eggs of theirs id.
For everye yron (erne) or ospre^s head ^d.
For the head of every woodwall,^ pye, jay, raven, or kytte . id.
For the head of everye byrd which is called the kyngfisher . id.
For the head of everye bulfynche, or other byrd that devour-
ythe the blowthe or frute id.
For the head of every fox or gray (badger) 12 d.
And for the head of everye fytchene, polcatte, wesell, stott,
fayrebode, or wylde catte id.
For the head of everye otter, or hedgehogg 2d.
And, for the heads of three ratts, or twelve myse id.
A small payment was also to be made for heads of
moles.
All owners of lands and tithes were chargeable for
these payments : they were made by the churchwardens
^ The editor of Be/Ps Chaucer says that the " woodewale " is the
oriole or golden ousle, a bird of the thrush kind ; and quotes from
the ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbome : " The woodweele
sang and wolde not cease, sitting upon the spraye." Chaucer him-
self writes of " Alpes fynches and wodewales " — we call bullfinches
" alpes " in Suffolk. Could it have been such a harmless bird as
this which was doomed to destruction as a " noyful fowell,"
associated with pies, jays, ravens, and kites ?
M 2
164 CONCERNING BRIEFS
out of their rate. The scale appears to have been
punctiliously adhered to.
In 1708, an abstract of an Act about Briefs was paid
for by the parish. What we of Suffolk now know as a
brief, is a private appeal for help, to compensate some
poor person for a disabling loss. These statutory briefs
were very different. Under the Act, to a person desirous
of raising money, called the undertaker, a brief was
issued out of Chancery. Copies were printed by the
Queen's printers. The undertaker got these stamped,
and distributed to ministers and churchwardens.
Ministers read the brief to their congregations next
before the sermon. The money collected was handed
with the briefs to the undertaker, who had to render an
account to the master in Chancery.
How expensive this cumbrous machinery was, may be
seen from this account concerning another county :
For the parish church of Ravenstondale : —
£: s. d.
Lodging the certificate . . . • . 076
Fiat and signing 19 4 2
Letters Patent 21 18 2
Printing and paper 1600
Teller and porter ....... 050
Stamping 13 12 6
Copy of the brief 050
Portage to and from the stampers 050
Matts &c. for packing 040
Portage to the waggons .... 040
Carriage to the undertakers at
Stafford in 6
Postage of letters and certificate . 048
Clerk's fees 220
76 3 6
Salary for 9986 briefs at bd. each 249 13 o
Additional salary for London . . 500
ilio 16 6
THE MOLL HOUSE 165
Collected on 9986 briefs 614 12 9
Charges 330 16 6
Clear collection 283 16 3
Collections 9986
Blanks 503
Total 10489
It is evident that more than half the receipts were
devoured by unconscionable fees and piled up expenses.
A house called the Moll House was assessed for
window duty in 1710. If it exists, the house is known
by that name no longer.
In 171 2, Robert Wychingham was rated for twenty-
nine windows in his rectory. One other house in the
parish had twenty-nine also, and two were rated for
thirty. That year the church was paved with brick, the
bushes were stubbed up in the churchyard — they con-
stantly had to be stubbed — and a new *' surpliss " was
purchased for the parson. The year after, the church-
wardens paid £4. 10s. for the Queen's arms, Lord's
Prayer, and Commandments.
CHAPTER XIII
Queen Anne's reign lasted but little longer, she died
in 1714 ; and then, our first King " George, in pudding
time came o'er " from Hanover.
That year, the churchwardens' account charged the
parish with a proclamation to alter ye service book on
the death of the Princess Sophia 6d. ; another pro-
clamation on the death of Queen Anne ^d. ; and three
others for the Prince of Wales, the Princess and Royal
Family, and for the clergy 6d. each ; and the ringing on
ye Thanksgiving, 2s. ; and a proclamation to prevent
profaneness.
In the fifth year of Queen Anne's reign, an Act had
been passed at her instance, which conferred a great
boon upon the Church in general, and on our Rectory in
particular.
An oppressive burden upon benefices had been the
imposition known as First Fruits, of old payable to the
Pope, and since the Reformation to the Crown. Its
origin was in this wise : By ancient feudal law, a superior
lord was, on the death of a tenant-in-chivalry, entitled to
" primer seisin " : that is to enter into seisin or possession
of the tenant's land, and to enjoy its profits, till the heir
should, within a year and a day, appear to claim investi-
ture. Analogously, the Popes claiming to be feudal
lords of the church, had extorted in that usurped
166
PRIMITI^ OR FIRST FRUITS 167
capacity from English incumbents a year's profits of
their livings, as primiticB or First Fruits. Now, by this
generous Act of the Queen, poor livings under ;^5o a
year were exempted and discharged from First Fruits ;
the bishops were to inform themselves, by the oaths of
witnesses or other lawful means, of the value of all
livings whereof the clear proved annual value did not
exceed ;^5o, and were to certify the same into the
exchequer.
The Archbishop of the Province, as guardian of the
Spiritualities of the See of Norwich then vacant,
appointed commissioners to take evidence. Mr. Wyching-
ham had to appear before them, with two or more
credible witnesses, and with his "terrars," books of
account, and other needful documents. The com-
missioners gave notice that voluntary gifts and contribu-
tions would not be reckoned, but only such things as
were perpetually annexed to the living, and which an
incumbent could legally demand ; and on the other
hand that taxes, poor rates, repairs, charge of curate,
would not be allowed. In the result, the clear
improved yearly value of the living of Theberton was
returned at ;^3i. 13^". 4^. ; and it was accordingly dis-
charged from first fruits.
In 1715, occurred an outbreak of smallpox, and
charges for poor sufferers swelled the overseers' rate. It
was a deadly disease then, when not even such protec-
tion as inoculation could afford, was available.
The rate of 17 16 was allowed by Thomas Betts, Esquire,
of Yoxford ; he was son of the " Justice Betts " often
referred to in our parish books, who possessed property
in Theberton, and to whose memory there is a handsome
monument in Yoxford church. He came of a junior
branch of an old Suffolk family — Betts of Wortham.
168 CORONATION FESTIVITY
Miss Hannah Fuller, upon whom the manor of
Theberton had devolved, held her first Court in 17 19.
In 1720, the v;ay from Theberton church to " le
common de Theberton " is mentioned in the manor
book.
The rate of 172 1 was allowed by Robert Jenney, Esquire,
born like so many of his ancestors in Theberton, but then
described as of Leiston. Of Knoddishall would have
been his proper description.
In 1722, William Bradley held his first Court as lord
of the manor ; he had married Hannah Fuller. In the
overseers' bill that year, an entry of 5j. for " 2 Duble
Cats " puzzled this investigator, till at last it dawned
upon him that " 2 duplicates " of some document, must
have been intended.
In 1723, Thomas Carthew, Esquire, allowed the rate ;
he was, I think, owner of Benacre Hall and Woodbridge
Abbey, but seems to have been then resident at Leiston.
Robert Wychingham having resigned the living, his
son and namesake was presented and instituted to succeed
him in 1724. This younger Robert Wychingham had,
in 1718 or 1 7 19, married Elizabeth daughter of the
Thomas Ingham before mentioned, who left her land
which he had purchased from Daniel Harvey Esqr. and
a legacy of ;^ioo.
Foxes' heads were still brought in, and paid for,
weasels too, and " poulcatts " and " roks " ; one item of
payment was for sixty five "roks." In 1725, a man
who had had his tongue cut out by the Turks got 2s.
from the parish ; and, at the bishop's visitation at
Beccles that year, the churchwardens paid " to ye Bishop
gs. to ye Minister $s. and to ye Apparitor is."
In 1728, the parish officers " spent at the Coronation
the sum of one guinnie." Cannot one see the convivial
LINEN WEAVING 169
old fellows in those " bushes of vanity " their wigs, broad
skirted coats, big-flapped waistcoats, their stockings
rolled above the knee, sitting round a table in the cosy-
parlour of the Lion, having hung their three-cornered
hats on pegs about the walls, drinking King George's
health, with all the more gusto that they had not to pay
for the liquor. Wychingham may have been of the party ;
but there was difference betv/een him and the overseers
— see this entry!in their account : " lost by ye rate which
Mr. Whittingham (Wychingham) paid short 4^". 4^."
A poor man's goods inventoried that year, included
three spinning-wheels, and " i Lomb " meaning I think a
loom. The man's settlement was in Theberton, but he
had been living in Norfolk where the woollen manu-
facture had its principal home. He may, however, have
been a linen weaver, for this was an industry of our
neighbourhood. The reputation of Halesworth market
ten miles from Theberton, was in 1720, due chiefly to
" its plenty of linen yarn which the women spun, partly
for the use of families and partly for sale, which being
readily bought was esteemed a good commodity for
trade." 1
In 1729, a new church window was paid for, £^. ^s. ; it
was no doubt inserted in one of the ancient openings.
In that year's overseers' account, charges occur which
at first glance do not explain themselves : —
£ s. d.
" For a lycence and marrying Tho. Scarlett 170
Two orders and his examination 60
Eating and drinking at my house 186
Expenses and carrying away 46
Going to ye Justices about ye orders ... 10"
^ We find a man described as a " linnen weaver " on the rolls of
the Manor of Middleton Chickering in 1779. In another inventory
is noted a powdering tub.
170 PARISH REPUBLICS
Scarlett, not belonging to Theberton, was persuaded
to wed a pauper girl, and so take a burden off the parish ;
and paupers could not be removed without a justice's
order. The parish was the poor man's Providence ; in
this case, it provided Scarlett with a wife ; and in
another we find it paying a heavy doctor's bill
— " Doctor Manning's bill for ye cure of John Clarke
Parishes were then indeed small republics, not as
now mere geographical expressions ; they made and
levied their own rates, and expended their own monies,
they maintained the one church in which all the people
worshipped, they relieved their own poor and provided
their own poor house, repaired their roads, managed
their common lands. The " occupiers " served each
parish office in its turn ; of churchwarden place of most
dignity, of overseer the " father-in-law of the parish," of
surveyor, of constable, and, in Theberton, of fen-reeve.
The duties of these officers were more important than is
often recognised, and were wholly unpaid. But they
brought humble men into relations with social superiors,
the bishop, archdeacon, parson and justices ; trained them
in independence of thought and of action ; and initiated
them into, at least the elements, of municipal law and of
public business. The system had of course many draw-
backs, which writers have held up to ridicule ; but I
venture to think that in these bureaucratic days of
Boards and paid clerks and paid inspectors, we do not
hear enough of its advantages.
At Easter town meetings, discussion would perhaps
wax warm on occasion ; but, adjourning to the Lion,
merry-go-downs of sparkling ale would cool heated
tempers. In 1731, I find a coomb of malt was "brewed
against Easter," costing the parish los. That year
perhaps, a good object justified the extravagance, for
DUTIES OF PARISH CONSTABLES 171
the health of a new rector had to be properly
honoured.
Robert Wychi'ngham the younger, after a short
incumbency, had died in 1730, and Robert Hacon now
reigned in his stead, having become also vicar of
Westleton. There had been an interregnum, when the
" Rev. Mr. Revett " carried on the duty, and the living
was under sequestration, for we find that Mr. Peter
Ingham paid ys. 6d. to the Chancellor "in 1730, for ye
sequestration of Theberton." The Chancellor then was
Dr. Tanner, author of "Notitia Monastica" and after-
wards Bishop of St. Asaph, who presented his great
collection of MSS. — how obtained no one knows — to
the Bodleian Library.
Mr. Hacon lost no time before beginning at his own
expense alterations to his rectorial property. What
" the ancient gate house belonging to the parish of
Theberton " was like, I cannot tell, but he converted it
into a threshing floor, and also enlarged the tithe barn —
this in his first year of office ; and, the next year he put
in a new chancel door, and beautified and adorned his
chancel with sentences ; also he laid reed on part of the
roof, and repaired the walls of the chancel. Both the
gatehouse and barn had been mentioned in the terrier
of 1635, which has been already referred to.
We now find the first notice of a " warrant to watch
and ward," for which \s. was paid to the constable.
Blackstone tells us that men refusing to keep watch by
night and ward by day, to apprehend robbers and rioters
on the highways when ordered by the constable, might
be presented at Quarter Sessions.
The presentment of constables to a court of Quarter
Sessions in 1736, shows the various duties of such officers
succinctly : — " The poor are provided for, the stocks and
whipping post in good repair, hues and cries duly
172 PHABA BOOTH'S PENANCE
pursued, highways and bridges in repair, warrants
executed, watch and ward duly kept, and all things
belonging to my office are in good order, to the best of
my knowledge."
We have also an item of charge for " Marshall money,"
properly Marshalsea money, a statutory tax then levied
upon parishes by High Constables of Hundreds, for relief
of the poor prisoners in the Marshalsea. Bridge money
was also among the constables' charges.
Much has been made of parish officers expending
public money on private festivities. I have not found a
trace of dishonest expenditure in Theberton. The
brewing of a coomb of malt on a rare occasion has been
noticed ; only one other case I think of like extravagance
appears in the parish accounts ; it was then for a
perambulation.
In 1732, a sum of Ss. was paid for " Phaba Booth's
pennance," and also a payment to "the Spiritual Court,
for charges and citations in order for Penance and for
sending Penance."
In an interesting account of Wenhaston, a parish a few
miles from Theberton, we find the schedule of a like
penance suffered in this same year by one Priscilla.
I quote a part of the schedule :
" The said Priscilla. . . . shall be present in the
parish church of Wenhaston on some Sunday before
the first day of December, standing penitently in the
middle alley before the minister's seat or pulpit,
clothed in a white sheet, holding a white rod or
wand in her hand, having a paper pinned upon her
breast describing her fault or sin ; and then and
there, in such sort, to continue during the whole
time of divine service and sermon j and at the end
APPOINTMENT OP A PARISH CLERK 175
of the same, before the congregation is dismissed
and the blessing given, shall upon her knees make
her humble confession, repeating every word after
the minister as followeth " :
I need go no further.
Poor Phaba Booth ! Like Priscilla's, no doubt, was the
penance she underwent at Theberton. How cruel and
how pitiful ; heads craning from each pew to stare at
her a figure of degradation in her white sheet trying to
hide her face in her long hair. And this in our own
familiar church, less than two hundred years ago. On a
like occasion in another parish, it is upon record that the
cries of a poor penitent girl melted the hearts of the
congregation, and raised so great a storm, as to put an
end, once for all, to such inhuman spectacles.
In 1732, I find the earliest notice of a name yet
surviving among us — " Thomas Bailey for a weesell 3^."
In 1733, a new parish clerk and sexton had to be
appointed. In Roman Catholic times, this inferior
minister used often to be a clerk in orders, who " aquae-
bajulus " as he was called, ministered to the priest with
the holy water ; and still he was an official of parish
consequence ; useful, and capable as Doctor Johnson
said, " to make a will, or write a letter for anybody,"
and a universal father to give away the brides, and
stand godfather to new born bantlings.
In the parish books I find this memorandum :
"Aug. ye 21, 1733, Agreed then at a general
Towne Meeting, holden in ye parish Church of
Theberton (public notice being first given thereof
in ye said Church on ye Sunday foregoing) that
Thomas Pask, Housholder in ye said parish, shall
174 PHABA MARRIED
succeed John Turner deceased in ye office of parish
clerk and sexton, till cause be shewed and reason
given to the contrary, and that he the said Thomas
Pask shall have and receive ye usual fifees belonging
to the said office according to ye custom of ye said
parish, and further yt he the said Thomas shall be
paid twenty shillings per annum by ye church-
warden of ye parish aforesaid for ye time being.
' R. Hacon, Rector.
John Foulsom, Church-
warden,
above written, I Richard Blomfeild,
I Overseer."
Witness our hands
the day and year
Mr. Hacon always added after his signature a very
complicated monogram.
Poor Pask, or Pasque, got later into low water, and
had to accept aid from the parish.
In 1735, ;^22. 9^. 5^, was laid out for new lead for the
roof of the aisle ; and a year after we have it that the
south side of the porch was " new cast."
Phaba Booth was married in 1735, and Mr. Hacon
charged the parish i8s. for tying the knot. Neither his
infliction of the penance, nor his taking a fee, even from
the parish, for marrying the poor girl, inclines one to
credit this cleric with the grace of charity.
Hacon did not enjoy his living long. Upon his
death, Benjamin Taylor was, in 1737, instituted to
Theberton Rectory, and at the same time to the
vicarage of Darsham.
A family of the name of Hacon, maybe the parson's
relations, were settled in our neighbourhood : a James
Hacon in 1760, Thomas in 1764, Philip in 1766, John
in 1798, Susan in 1803, are registered as having been
INFLUENCE OF JUSTICES 175
buried at Theberton. In Middleton were buried an
Elizabeth Hacon in 1766, a Thomas Hacon innholder
in 1768, a William Hacon farmer in 1774, and in 1775
no less than five Hacons who died probably during an
outbreak of smallpox.
In 1738 Charles Long, Esquire, of Hurts Hall signed
an act for removing a pauper out of our parish.
" Paid for varman " is still quite a common entry. A
certain Danbrook, an apparitor, seems to have trapped
animal as well as human vermin. In 1739, his bag
was one fox, seven polecats, one weasel. Polecats have
not survived modern game preserving, and foxes are
nearly extinct now in this district of Suffolk.
In 1740, the overseers journeyed twice to Justice
Purvis for an order to remove a pauper. The Purvis
family sold their Darsham estate in my recollection.
Justices in old times had more personal power than
our modern magistrates ; for instance a single justice
could, on his own view, fine any person for using pro-
fane oaths, or being drunk in an alehouse, and commit
him to gaol in default of payment, or order him to be
put in the stocks ; and could impose fines on persons
not attending their parish church, or attending a bull
baiting. Much of the comfort of a neighbourhood
depended on his personal disposition. An ignorant
tyrannical Justice would have been a curse to any parish ;
while, on the other hand, such a parish king as Black-
stone tells of " maintaining good order by punishing the
dissolute and the idle, protecting the peaceable and
industrious, and above all, healing petty differences and
preventing vexatious prosecutions," would have been a
blessing to a village.
The rector, as chairman by right of the Easter vestry
of 1741, signed a minute that persons "convected" of
176 FUEL FOR THE POOR
wood stealing, or fowl stealing, or any other act of theft
whatsoever should be prosecuted at the cost of the
town.
That year, the churchwardens gave 2d. each " to six
men who had been taken by the Spainyards," and the
next year \s. " to ten men that had been taken by ye
Turks." Plausible liars it is likely every one of them.
A poor girl, in 1742 had a gown, two shifts, an
apron, and a pair of pattens provided for her. A village
damsel of to-day would turn up her nose at pattens.
This probably was her outfit for service. A paper in
the parish chest shows how such a girl could be relieved
from service, by order of a magistrate :
To be remembered December ye 16 1734. John Fulsham of
Theberton master, and Priscilla Kit servant, came before me
desiring they might be discharged from each other. The master
complained she was not fit for his service. I allowed of ye cause
and do discharge ye said Priscilla Kitt from his said service
Robert Jenney.
Another poor girl was provided with a " stumitcher."
In 1743, "blocks" were carted by the parish from
Tyler's Green, this was billet wood for firing ; also
loads of whin (furze), heath and broom were provided
for poor people. A yearly gift likewise was " flags."
In 1744, for example, twenty loads of "flaggs" were
carted for the poor. For these, groundage 6d. per load
was paid — I take it to the lord of the manor. The flags
were surface parings from the heath, such as are set out
for commoners now, in the New Forest. We find that
a " flagg shodd " was built by the parish.
Turf also was distributed. This year we have : —
i s. d.
To John Chapman for cutting twenty loads of Turf i 10
Turning the turf 3
Carrying the turf i^ days to the poor 12
Landing the turf one day's work . 16
No groundage seems to have been paid for turf. The
PEAT FROM THE COMMON FEN 177
turf or peat was " graved " (dug) as from Irish bogs ; a
plantation upon the Lower Abbey farm is now known
as Tuffpits, an evident corruption — according with
Suffolk pronunciation — of turf pits. Both flags and
turf came from the commons of heather and fen, then
managed by fen reeves for our parish.
In 1745, 6s. 4d. was laid out "for stoping the burds
out of the church " — perhaps sparrows, not doves, this
time. Sparrows had become a nuisance — they make
havoc of thatch — and the thatched roof of the church
had no doubt suffered. In three successive years, sixty-
six dozen, fifty-four dozen, and eighty dozen, of the
mischievous birds were paid for by the church-
wardens.
On Coldfair Green, a fair under a franchise of the
abbots of Leiston used to be held in cold weather, whence
the place name ; and that business was done there in the
1 8th century, is shown by this entry in the overseers' bill
for 1 748 : — " Laid out at Colfayer for Hubbard and the
girl Turner 5^, Sd." On the Grange farm in Theberton,
is a field called the market field, scene probably of the
ancient market held under a grant of 13 12 to the Abbey.
Among receipts for 1748, is "rent of Winter's Heath
£1. igs., and for timber sold £1. iSs." That year John
Puttock or Putthawke (buzzard) was churchwarden ;
another Theberton name was Sparhawke or Sparrahawke.
Beneath the Communion Table in our church is a flat
stone inscribed : —
The Revnd. Benjamin Taylor
Rector of this parish
died June 19 1748
aged 54 years
On the North side
The remains of EHzabeth
his wife died Jan. 9
1747 aged 43
Also of his mother
Aged 8 .
N
178 HERBS FOR PHYSIC
To Benjamin Taylor succeeded James Benet, M.A.,
instituted to Theberton in 1748, and at the same time
to the living of Aldborough.
"To gathering herbs, and a lb. raisons for Edney's
child" was an item of charge in 1749; sad to say, the
herbs and raisins failed of success; the next entries
are : " to a pint of brandy and winding for ye child
2s. of ^.," " for laying her forth and cakes 2s." and " to
Pask for burying ye child."
There is a reference, that year, to Yew-tree house.
A hundred years later, this cottage was burned down ; I
remember being taken as a small child to see the
spectacle of its burning.
CHAPTER XIV
The manor book of Theberton has this entry : " This
book was thus far transcribed from the old book in the
year 1750, being same year that John Ingham gent
purchased this manor and the estate thereto belonging,
of William Bradley Esqre."
John Ingham held his first court in 175 1.
This entry for 1752 reminds us of the improvement
effected by the alteration of the calendar — " N.S. (new
style) year begins i Jan." The words of the Act by which
the alteration was made read quaintly now. After recit-
ing ** that the legal supputation of the year . . . according
to which the year beginneth on the 25 day of March,
had been found by experience to be attended with
divers inconveniences, it was enacted that the said
supputation should not be made use of from and after
the last day of December 175 1, and that from thence-
forth the first day of January every year should be
reckoned the first day of the year." One can now
hardly realise that the year used to begin on March 25,
so that New Year's Day and Lady Day were the same.
At the Easter meeting in 1753, it was agreed that
Elizabeth the daughter of William Newson should be
"cloathed with a pair of shoes, a shift, a jacket, and a
179 N 2
180 DIPPING FOR LAMENESS
petty coat." Happily for Elizabeth summer was coming
on.
An odd minute occurs in the minute book for
13 November of that year 1753 :
" It was agreed that James Goleby the overseer, provide
a place to dip Ann Clark in order to recover her of her
lameness ; and that he provide her with such necessaries
as are needfull during the time of diping ; and that he
give an account of the success thereof to the Parishioners
as soon as occasion require."
I suppose that occasion did not require, for there
is no account of the success or non-success of the
"diping."
In August 1754, it was agreed that an "article"
(presumably a lease) be made to Henry Newson the
elder and Henry Newson the younger, for Tyler's Green,
and Winter's Heath with the green near thereto — which
was, I think, known as the Little Green — for nine years
from Michaelmas then next at a rent of £^ a year.
And in the following December, *' that a load of top
wood be cut on Tyler's Green for the widow Randal."
As to the Common Fen, fen reeves were elected each
year to manage it, just as were other parish officers.
Here is a minute of April 21st, 1755 : Agreed "that
notice be given on Sunday next for the commoners to
turn (their cattle) into the Common Fenn at eight o'clock
on Monday morning next . . . the poor to be allowed
flaggs as last year." Again 1757, " that we turn into the
common ffen the 30th instant."
One other entry from the minute book is too charac-
teristic to be omitted. Observe how we in Suffolk
conjugate our verbs, and the vestry-like turn of thought
and expression. ..." The said overseer also inform the
PURCHASE OF A « DOG WIPE " 181
said Parishioners that Robert Lion labourer have made
complaint for relief; but we, being sensible that he and
his wife have had their health as well as any of the Poor,
and that he have not lost a days work by illness for a
year past, and his wages being equal with other labourers,
and that his wife has no other illness than her lying in
which is no otherwise than common, . . . and that we
do adjudge it neither charity nor reasonable to allow him
anything."
That it is the custom of Theberton, for the parish —
not the rector — to appoint the clerk and sexton, is proved
by the election already mentioned of Thomas Pask in
1733, and by this minute of the town meeting held at
Easter, 1754 : "Thomas Pask was appointed sexton and
dark for this parish in the room of his father late
deceased until further order of the parish " — signed by
three principal parishioners.
That year, a " dog wipe " was purchased at the price
of 4</., perhaps for Thomas Pask to use, or possibly the
duty of whipping stray dogs out of the church may have
been put upon the " parriter."
A new rector again in 1756, when John Whittington,
A.M., was instituted to the rectory of Theberton upon
the death of James Benet, and contemporaneously to the
cures of Sudbourn and Orford.
These were the halcyon days of clerical apathy and
do-nothingness, when, moreover, clergymen were either
pluralists or very poor. This pluralist rector evidently
lived elsewhere ; and his curate at Theberton had to
make both ends meet, on a pittance which could not
enable him to appear like a gentleman, or to afford
charity to the poor and needy.
Once maybe, there had been some excuse for the
bad system of pluralities. In the fifteen hundreds there
182 PLURALIST PARSONS
was a sad scarcity of clergy. In 1560, the Bishop of
London was driven to ordain "artificers," until forbidden
by the Archbishop " as those persons had not behaved
themselves to the credit of the Gospel " ; and thirty years
later, Convocation advocated the system, on the ground
that out of 8800 and more benefices, there were not 600
which were sufficient for learned men, and that were
they all sufficient, not a third of that number of men
could be found to supply them.
But it worked wrong and injustice. The land of each
parish was subject to a heavy charge for tithe. In the case
of a rectory the entire tithe, or of a vicarage such portion
of the tithe as former robbery had left, was due to provide
a resident incumbent. Could it be right for that provi-
sion to be diverted into the pocket of some unsympathetic
stranger whose only interest in the parish was the income
he drew from it, which he would spend elsewhere.
The system happily has been put an end to. It was
as immoral, dishonest, and harmful to the interests of
religion, as the old conventual appropriations.
On the brown paper lining to the back cover of the
volume of registers from 1748 to 1782, the following
strange lines have been written. The ink is much
faded and some words have been inked over with blacker
ink.i
"Theberton"
viz.
"Hie quondam vixit curatus quidam pa[uper] q[ui] per certos
annos (propterea quod Evangelium predicavit, ad quod comissus
est a Steph[ano] Weston [Exoniense] episc[opo] apud S".
Michaelis 1734 & 1736) neque jent[aculumj nee prandium nee
caenam, nisi suis impensis per totara paroehiam eomedit
Orthodoxus
* Davy has a version of it, eopied, he says, " from a paper inter
cartas Revd. G. Doughty 1810." The words or letters in square
braekets [ ] are suppUed from Davy's version.
THE COMPLAINT OF "ORTHODOXUS" 183
Vah (Davy has Vale) CEvum
Quseris an Jussus ? OvSe Tev Non equidem N.B. Quorum
per spatium duorum Rectoream inhabitavit domum Pauperum o
Finistrarum census baud parvos taxatus minas prasterea quinque
atque solidos totidem pro inhabita[tione] reddens per annum Cui
stipendium ibi minae 20 haud decimas decimarum."
I find that " John Taylor curate " signed our register
for 1760, so he was probably the Rev. Mr. Taylor who
Davy says wrote this in 1762. We learn, by the way,
from " Orthodoxus " that the benefice of Theberton
was worth more than ;^200 a year in the time of his
curacy.
Our parish constable must have wielded a gorgeous
staff. In 1758, ys. was laid out for adorning it.
Funerals were quite festive occasions ; in a bill of
Thos. Watling a charge is made for " 5 gallons of
beer at Ann Hollis' burial." Poor Ann, in her lifetime,
had caused expense to the parish: —
s. d.
" For things Bout for Ann Holey
to cloth For Five shiffings .... 50
to a par of stocksons 2
to the Dockters Bleeden of har . . 6"
Payment is acknowledged : " Receved the Hool
Contents of This Bill By me
John Willson."
In 1759, a medical man named Manning practised at
Middleton, and attended poor folk in our parish. In the
parish chest is a "Theberton town bill" of his, "for
looking after John Hurrard."
s. d.
To a bleeding and a blister for his neck i o
Journey and a half pint mixture against
convulsions 3 o
Box of nervous pills i 6
184 A PARISH DOCTOR'S BILL
s. d.
Glass of cordial drops 6
A journey and a vomit i 6
Bleeding him twice 6
A small glass of smelling drops for his
wife 4
Poor "goodmen" and "goodies" could not allow time
for the treatment of those best of physicians, Dr. Diet,
Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merriman ; and parish practitioners,
one suspects, inclined to follow the practice of that
medical eccentric, Dr. I. Lettsom : —
" When patients come to I,
I physicks bleeds and sweats 'em.
Then if they choose to die,
What's that to I,
I Letts 'em."
The rental of the parish was assessed at ;^889 in
1763. That year, either the lead roof of the aisle, or
else the church windows, or both, needed repair ; for
;^20. 14J, \\\d. was paid to a plumber — Threedkin
Cable by name — with 13^'. 5</. for board, and %s. gd.
for beer. The carpenter's work cost £2. iSj. iid.;
and Mr. Foulsham got "a mattros for his seat," paid
for out of the rates.
The "clarjiman's" dinners at the "Generals" each
year were always paid for — from 2s. to 3^.
In 1766, the "dog wipe" had perhaps worn out, and
other means became needful to keep curs from conse-
crated places ; we find a bill for communion rails
£7. gs. 8d. The ancient rails had probably been pulled
down and destroyed during Puritan times. Those now
supplied were, probably, the same balusters I can
remember, set quite close together so that the dogs
could not get through to the Holy Table. The rector
contributed a part of the cost — "Received from
REPAIRING THE TOMBS 185
Mr. Whittington towards communion rails last year,
£2. 2s." is an entry for 1767.
The parish realised £'^. 6s. 8d. by sale of trees on
Tyler's Green.
An outlay we find made with pious regularity is
" repairing the tombs " — a lesson for after generations.
Repairs were constantly needed in the church and
churchyard. In 1767, ;^io. 5^. 6d. was expended, part
of it for whitening the church. In 1769 again, the
churchyard had to be re-paled, with wood brought
from Yoxford, costing £6. ^s. iid. In 1772, "brick-
layers, mending end of church" earned ;^io. Ss. ^d. ;
and Thomas and Robert Bailey — whose descendants
still live in the same house and are still the parish
blacksmiths, had £1. ^s. 6d. for mending the bells. Next
year, thatching came to ;^I2. 9^. lod.
In those days, good in that respect, such charges
levied by a legal rate, fell equitably upon all. Now,
when asked for a voluntary rate. " No ! " grumbles
Mr. So-and-so, " Mr. Somebody else won't pay, why
should I.?"
During the last half of the eighteenth century, not
only the name of Bailey, but many other names now
familiar in this and the adjacent parishes, appear upon
the register, e.£:, Rouse, Lumpkin, Ford, Todd, Canham,
Brown, Block, Free, Gilbert, Mayhew, Marjoram,
Shepherd, King, Paul, Legget, Folkard. Naturally
some have dropped out — Ide, Alp, and Goose, among
others.
In 1754, Mr. John Ingham had a " survey or particular "
made and written in a book, of his manor and estate of
Theberton Hall. The book refers to a " mapp " drawn
on parchment now sadly mutilated. In the margin is
a rough coloured drawing of "the east prospect; of
186 THE BEAR WAY
Theberton Hall " ; it represents a small Tudor house of
E shape, in appearance much like a house of about
the same period, now a farm house, the present Leiston
Hall.
I think Mr. Ingham must have altered the house ; for
into the fly-leaf of his book of survey, under an emblazon-
ment of his arms, I find pasted another rough sketch on
paper, which shows a house apparently the same
building, only both the gables and the attic windows are
hidden by a parapet, and the red brick is painted white.
A porch looking like a front door appears in both
drawings ; but as the parchment drawing is entitled
" east prospect," and as the front of the old Hall, in fact,
looked down the avenue ^ towards the south, it must be, if
both the drawings represent the same house, that either
it had two fronts, east and south, and two front doors,
or that the legend "east prospect" is wrong. I think
the last alternative is probable, for to the artist on
parchment no error is too bad to be attributed ; he
gives us a sketch also of the church, obviously from a
tracing, but he must have used the back of the tracing
for his copy, with the result that the tower appears
at the east end, and the whole picture is reversed.
The several farms are described by the survey in
detail. First, comes the Pike Hill now the Peak Hill
farm. The house and four acres of land then abutted
on " the park gates " towards the east ; which is of
interest, as the western boundary of the ancient park of
Theberton is thus indicated. The strange place-name,
" Bear Way," is referred to ; and, as the boundary
between the parishes of Theberton and Kelsale also
divides the Hundreds of Blything and Hoxne, the line
* Not many of the old elms are left. They used to be crowded
with rooks' nests.
HALL AND PARK HOUSE 187
of division was described as the Hundred Mere. The
watercourse below the Peak Hill cottages, was called
the Marfard brook, a name now forgotten.
Next, Theberton Hall farm. — It consisted of " the
capital messuage of Theberton Hall," with outbuildings
and " 1 88a. 3r. ip. of land and marsh, being the demesnes
of the manor of Theberton " ; which " lands were all, or
the greater part of them, an enclosed park, and are all
freehold ; and 77a. o*". 37p, part thereof, and which was
formerly part of the said park, are tythe ffree, paying
only a yearly modus of ten shillings to the rector of
Theberton in lieu of all tythes." This farm was then
let at ;^8o per annum, which, as the surveyor remarked,
was only eight shillings and sixpence per acre.
It would thus seem that in 1754 the Hall was occupied
as a farm house, and that part of the ancient park went
with it as a farm under tillage.
Where, and what, was the house we have read of called
Park House } At one time, I thought that it was the
" mansion with the brickell " ; but further research has
led to another conclusion. What I have satisfied myself
of, is that the Hall was sometimes called the Park House,
and that these were merely two names for the same
house. We have already seen that Sir Arthur Jenney,
by his will of 1668, devised with the manor of Theberton,
the mansion he called the Park House ; and that at the
date of a settlement some eighteen years later, Edmund
Jenney was seised in fee of the manor, with the capital
messuage called Theberton Hall. Both will and settle-
ment were plainly intended to pass all that testator and
settlor had to dispose of. Neither purports to deal with
more than one mansion or capital messuage, which each
mentions in connection with the manor.
In 1750, it is clear from the careful description of the
188 A POTASH OFFICE
manor and estate in the survey, that there was then
only one mansion or capital messuage — which at that
time was called the Hall.
It will be remembered also, that in 1672, Richard
Hall, lord pro tempore of the manor, was assessed for
the " Park House farm " ; and that in 1750, John
Ingham bought the " Theberton Hall farm." That
these two names referred to one and the same farm, I
am convinced. Some of the Jenney family may have
preferred the name " Park House," as commemorating
the old deer park, to the more ancient name of the
" immemorial seat of the manor " — the Hall.
It is a strange thing, that the "mansion with the
brickell" has vanished from sight and even tradition; not
a trace of it can be discovered, unless some pits and
trenches in Kiln Grove — from which it is more likely
that clay for the brick kiln was digged out — may in
fact indicate its foundations.
The Church farm consisted of a messuage, a malting
office, two barns, stables, and a "potash office," with
ninety-one acres and thirty-one perches of land. The
malting office stood on the green between the farm house
and the high road. What the use was of a "potash
office " I am not sure ; but the name recalls an old
industry. More than a century before, a patent had
been granted for a then new method of making saltpetre.
All persons were required to save liquid material, which
in these cleaner days we are too glad to get rid of, for the
use of the patentees. The patentees too, were, till pro-
hibited by Act of Parliament in 1656, empowered to mine
under other folk's dove houses, stables, and cattle sheds,
for soil saturated with precious filth ; and to this sweet
compost, wood ashes were applied in order to produce
potash. Whether this "potash office" was still a
THE BELI BROOK 189
receptacle for wood ashes, or whether the manufacture
of saltpetre had been carried on there, I do not know —
nor indeed do I think it worth knowing.
The cottages now called the Ivy Cottages, were
•* letten with this farm " ; they were then in two tene-
ments, and in that farthest from the church, there was a
grocer's shop. The run of water from the Wash Cottage
was then called the Beli or Belis brook. For the farm
and the cottages the rent was £80.
The Common farm, it is stated, was so-called because
it bordered on Theberton Common. Since being used as
a home farm by my great grandfather, it has been known
as the Hall farm. There was a messuage or farm house —
the same no doubt as stands there now, a bake house, a
stable, and four small barns. From a marginal note, we
learn that one barn was taken down in 1756, and two
others in 1767 when a large barn was built. The
cottage called the Yew Tree house — which has been
before referred to — went with the farm. There were of
land and marsh, 135a. ir.
A piece of glebe belonging to the rectory of
Theberton, containing i rood and 20 perches, lay in a
field, not now to be identified, belonging to this farm ;
it was then marked " with posts or dooles." The tenant
of the farm was John Foulsham, and the rent ;^8o.
The survey tells us how many " topp oaks " each en-
closure contained : on Pike Hill farm were forty-three
in all — eleven of which stood close about the Ivy cottage
at the Peak Hill ; the other two cottages had not then
been built.
On Theberton Hall farm, were four hundred and ten
" topp oaks " — two hundred and thirty-seven upon the
site of the Great Wood, seventy-three in the Kiln Grove
and the small meadow north of it, and twenty-nine in
190 VITALITY OF WHIN SEEDS
an enclosure which the imperfect map does not enable
me to identify.
On the Church farm, and on the Common farm,
were thirty, and sixteen "topp oaks " respectively. The
Whin Covert does not seem to have been planted ; the
site probably was then over-grown with whin ; for a few
years ago a crop of seedling whin came up in spring
upon bare spots where woodmen's fires had been. How
long must the seeds lying in the ground have retained
their vitality !
The survey book sets out the then existing customs
of tithing, which had hardly altered since 1674. They
were:
For a milch cow, in lieu of milk 2d.
For every calf, lamb, pig, and goose, above the number of
ten, and under seven 2d.
For every acre of meadow, being mowed in lieu of hay . . . ^d.
For every acre of pasture, being mowed 2d.
For every gast beast and budd * pastured there id.
For the fall of every colt id.
All other tithes were payable in kind.
Part of the land being situate in Kelsale, the customs
of tithing for that parish are set out too. Items perhaps
worth noticing are :
For fruit . • ^d.
An hearth hen, in lieu of wood as well sold as burnt ....
Tyth eggs on Good Friday, in lieu of chickens ducks and
turkeys
For a peck of hempseed sowing -. id.
And, among tithes in kind are hops, which have long
ceased to be cultivated in this part of Suffolk.
The rector of Kelsale, fortunate man, was also entitled
to " offerings at Easter and to Mortuaries according to
law."
* A young bullock about a year old.
CROFTS AND TOFTS 191
The survey book supplies details of all the various
purchases, which that acquisitive race the Inghams had
made between 1615 and 1720. They number thirty-
five, lying in Theberton or just over the parish boundary
— small plots mostly, of from half an acre to two or
three acres, on some of which stood cottages. Most of
these must have been old cottages dating from before the
time of Elizabeth ; for, under an Act of her reign until it
was repealed in 1775, no new cottage could have been
built with less than four acres of ground, and few of
these had as much. There had been many petty land-
owners, and these purchases are examples of how in-
evitably, small properties gravitate to, and are absorbed
by greater.
From cottage to cottage, from small holding to small
holding, the country was, in days of old, intersected
by many communes vice most of which, in the course
of time, have been done away with. One of such ways
led from the rectory towards Stone Hill ; its course
being from the high road just north of what is now the
garden plantation, past the Common farmhouse ; and
on this way some of the holdings abutted. Years ago I
found in the garden plantation, an ancient well, lined
with rubble, which no doubt appertained to one of the
cottages described as " since wasted," or " since taken
down." Most of the crofts and tofts, as held by John
Ingham of the manor of Theberton, became, when he
bought the manor in 1750, ipso-facto freehold. Some
however, holden by copy of other manors, retained
their copyhold status. One of these — a cottage with
six acres and a few perches of land was holden of
Leiston manor, " by service, and three and sevenpence ;
with twenty pence thereof and six days work in harvest
to be paid in money " — interesting as showing the ancient
192 INCORPORATION OP BLYTHING UNION
villein tenure, and how, in later times, the old services
had been commuted.
One last quotation from the survey book, of words
copied therein from an earlier source : " The lords have
always had a right to a royalty and of taking game
extending over the whole parish of Theberton." This
need not arouse alarm among my neighbours.
In the year 1764-5 and for many years afterwards,
one John Thompson was churchwarden of Theberton.
It seems he was tenant of the Church farm ; for on the
inner side of a window in the farm house is scratched
with a diamond :
" John Thompson
Mary Thompson
Came to Theberton Oct : 1 764."
On the outer side of another window pane are scratched
these lines of doggerel :
" O that I was war I would be
Then should I be ware
But ware I am theare must I be
Because weare I came "
The rest of the last line is covered by the lead in which
the pane is set, and the charm of the poetry has not
tempted me to uncover it.
In 1764, the existing system of poor relief was
inaugurated in our district ; by the incorporation of all
the parishes within the Hundred of Blything, except
Dunwich, for the maintenance of the poor in a House of
Industry at Bulcamp. At the first meeting at Hales-
worth of the Directors and Guardians, Mr. John Ingham
attended as an acting guardian. The House was not
opened till the autumn of 1766, when fifty-six paupers
were admitted.
A cause of the delay had been, that the partly built
RIOT AT BULCAMP WORKHOUSE 193
house and the collected building material, had been
greatly damaged by a riotous mob. The old Ipswich
Journal, in its number of loth of August 1765, inserted
this extract from a letter of a Halesworth correspondent
dated the previous day :
" You may depend upon the truth of the following
account of what happened in our neighbourhood last
Monday. About 5 o'clock in the evening, the
rioters to the no. of about 200, went through this
town to Bulcamp, where the workhouse was building,
about 5 miles from hence. A few of them mounted
the works, and climbed to the top of the poles of the
scaffold, waved their hats and huzza'd : In about
I hour there was a much greater number of people
and by 9 o'clock at night the whole building was
levelled to the ground. The joists of the chamber
floor were laid, and the whole damage is computed at
;^20oo. After doing this mischief they went to Sir
John Rous' house at Henham, where upon their
demand for refreshment they had plenty of beer and
victuals given them ; from hence they went to Geo.
Goldings Esqre. at Thorington, who was not at home,
but they called up the steward who was obliged to
give them what provision the house afforded. They
went off very quietly from thence to the Rev. Mr.
Buxton's at Darsham, so through Yoxford to John
Scrivener's Esqre. at Sibton, and demanded further
refreshment, and then returned to Yoxford, and
desired to speak with Mr. Ingham of that place, who
was not at home. They began to pull down his
house, but were prevailed on by some people present
to desist — What these rash people will attempt further
time will discover."
O
194 THEBERTON RIOTERS
We cannot acquit Theberton of participation in this
riot. The next weekly number of the Journal has this
further information.
" Yesterday Dan : Manning and Benjamin Preston
of Theberton labourers, and James Strowger of
Westleton carter, were brought to our gaol by a small
party of light horse, charged with having been feloni-
ously concerned in pulling down a building at Bulcamp
called a House for the Poor. The excuse offered by
the mob was that the poor should have been allowed
to work in the fields. The soldiers had been obliged
to use force in quelling the riot and one man was
killed."
No mention of the House occurs in our parish papers
till 1 78 1, when we find a receipt by the Treasurer for
a quarter's assessment ;^i6. I2s. g\d. from the parish
of Theberton.
The register for 1769 records the baptisms of six
children of John and Martha Lord. This note must
surely have been written by an Irishman: "These six
children were born quakers and christened afterwards " !
In 1 77 1, on the death of John Whittington, a second
James Benet became rector of Theberton : he was also
vicar of Aldborough, and for four years rector of
Bennington. He seems to have kept house at
Aldborough, and there he was buried.
CHAPTER XV
In 1775, John Ingham made his will, directing his
executor Richard Crowfoot to sell his property at
Theberton ; and in 1776, the testator having died,
Mr. Crowfoot sold the estate and the manor to George
Doughty Esquire.
The purchaser pulled down the ancient Hall, and
nearly on the site of it, built the oldest part of the
present house, with very hard white bricks made upon
the estate. He was one of the earliest officers of the
Loyal Suffolk Yeomanry. We have a jug of earthen-
ware, which must have once belonged to the Yeomanry
mess. Pictured on it is a Yeoman in the old uniform,
holding his sword at the carry, with the legends :
" Loyal Suffolk Yeomanry," and " God save the King,"
and at the back, the names :
Sir John Rous, Captain.
Lieut : Geo : Doughty, 'i ^
Cornet, John Clayton, J
I think Mr. Doughty resigned his commission in 1793
at the time he became High Sheriff. When I was a small
boy, an old man one Bridges of Middleton told me he
had served as one of his javelin men, and described him
»95 o 2
196 A FORGOTTEN SPORT
as " a fine gentleman on a black horse." We have a
good pastel picture of him in the shooting dress of the
period, just about to shoot a woodcock put up by a spaniel.
He had perhaps bought the spaniel from a neighbour,
the Rev. Barnabas Symonds, who had a school at Kelsale,
after 1758 was rector of Thorington, and who was famous
for his kennel of sporting dogs. Symonds was the
author of " The Suffolk Sportsman," which went to a
third edition. The quaint little treatise purports to
show " the nature of the various kinds of dogs in use for
gun and net, with the most rational method of training
and breaking them . . . also other matters of great
nicety and utility in the sporting way."
Perhaps, the most interesting of the contents are
scattered references to the old sport of setting partridges,
which in Mr. Symonds' time, and for years afterwards,
was a common and daily rural diversion. Not more
than seventy years have passed, since on any day after
harvest, sportsmen with nets over their arms and setting
dogs at heel, might have been seen about our fields in
Theberton ; and it is strange and surprising, how in so
short a time, the sport can have been absolutely
forgotten.
The book opens with a dissertation on setting dogs.
To the setter it was, that our forbears were indebted
for what Symonds thought " the neatest and genteelest
diversion of the field," which moreover, could be "pursued
with that easy and polite attention unknown to votaries
of the severer exercises."
Setting, our writer tells us, is of ancient extraction.
He dates it back at least as far as Solomon : — " Surely
in vain the net is spread in sight of any bird." And
even at that remote time, it must have been, he points
out, not a new, but a "usual practice that every one
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SETTING PARTRIDGES 197
was well acquainted with, and might receive an instruc-
tive lesson and admonition from." It may indeed, have
helped to amuse the poor sage's seven hundred wives,
for among its advantages, our sporting parson claims
that it has " this singular pride that it can entertain "
ladies.
He had — sly old parson — " known a sporting female
spread a net not in vain .... No noise was to be
made, yet not such peremptory silence was enjoined, but
that soft things might be said tete-a-tete."
Solomon and his menagerie we may leave with
Mr. Symonds. The history of setting in Christian
England goes quite far enough back for us. To begin
only at James I.'s accession — we might begin centuries
earlier: — In 1604, by an Act of Parliament, which dealt
with " those vulgar sort of men who make a living by
breaking the laws in regard to the taking of game by
means of ... . nets, .... and other instruments," it
was provided that persons with £\q per annum freehold,
or ;^200 personalty, might take "pheasants and
partridges in the day time with nets " on their own lands,
"betv/ixt the Feaste of Sainte Michael the Archangel
and the Feaste of the Birthe of our Lorde God."
Five years later, his verbose Majesty, in a speech of
preposterous length to both Houses of Parliament,
delivered himself thus : — " As for partridges and
pheasants, I do not deny that gentlemen should have
their sports, and specially on their own ground, but I do
not think such games and pleasures should be free to
the base people. And I could even wish that gentlemen
should use it in a gentlemanlike fashion, and not with
nets or guns." James, lover of hunting, the sport of kings,
did not approve of such inferior pastimes as setting and
shooting.
198 HOW IT WAS DONE
In Dutch King William's time, society was no longer,
if it had ever been, of Scotch King James' opinion ; at
least if we may judge by what was popular upon the
stage. " What is a gentleman ? " was a question asked
in a comedy written by George Powell, and acted at
Dorset Gardens in 1694. " What is a gentleman without
his recreations. . . . Hawks, hounds, and setting dogs,
and cocks, are the true marks of country gentlemen."
Symonds naturally assumed that his readers would be
familiar with the sport, and so does not describe how
taking partridges with setting dogs was actually effected.
An earlier book however, " The Gentleman's Recreations,"
aptly supplies the want. The article on the subject is
short, and a pleasant antique flavour hangs about it.
"There is no art of taking partridges so excellent
and pleasant as by the help of a Setting-Dog. You
are to understand that a Setting Dog is a certain lusty
Land Spaniel,^ taught by nature to hunt the partridge
more than any chace whatever, running the fields over
with such alacrity and nimbleness as if there was no
limit to his fury and desire ; and yet by art under
such excellent command, that in the very height of his
career by a Hem ! or sound of his master's voice, he
shall stand, gaze about him, look in his master's face
and observe his directions, whether to proceed, stand
still, or retire. Nay, when he is even just upon his
prey that he may even take it up in his mouth, yet his
obedience is so framed by art, that presently he shall
either stand still, or fall down flat on his belly, without
daring either to make any noise or motion, till his
master comes to him, and then he will proceed in all
things to follow his directions. Having a dog thus
' In Symonds' opinion none had a just claim to the appellation
but the English spaniel.
SHOOTING, OLD STYLE AND NEW 199
qualified by art and nature, take him with you where
partridges do haunt ; there cast off your dog, and
by some word of encouragement with which he is
acquainted engage him to range, but never too far
from you, and see that he beat his ground justly and
even. ... If in your dog's ranging, you perceive him to
stop on the sudden or stand still, you must then make
in to him (for without doubt he hath set the partridge),
and as soon as you come to him, command him to go
nearer him : but if he goes not, but either lies still, or
stand shaking his tail as who would say here they are
under my nose, and withal now and then looks back,
then cease from urging him further, and take your
circumference, walking fast, with a careless eye look-
ing straight before the nose of the dog, and thereby see
how the covey lie whether close or straggling. Then
command the dog to lie still, draw forth your net,
prick one end to the ground, and spread your net all
open and so cover as many of the partridges as you
can ; which done, make in with a noise, and spring up
the partridges, which shall no sooner rise but they will
be entangled in the net. And if you shall let go the
old cock and hen, it will not only be an act like a
gentleman, but a means to increase your pastime."
One can hardly look at the portrait of my great grand-
father, his eye on the woodcock his gun ready to
leap to his shoulder at the exact moment, without
drawing comparisons between sport in his days and in
ours. A great change has come even in my time, due
mainly to changes in environing conditions. Stubbles
are sheared off by reaping machines, and modern farming
is intolerant of weedy fields and good cover. Birds
which in his day would lie close, to be netted, will not
200 SUFFOLK IN INDIA
suffer approach within even the long range of modern
weapons. Hence the necessity of driving partridges, and
of resorting to driving early in the season. Shooters
moreover are now vastly more numerous and more
plutocratic, whence the rearing of enormous numbers of
tame pheasants, and our monster battues. Our old
sportsman and his friends enjoyed their quiet wood
shooting over spaniels ; but could they see our great
hosts of beaters, our three guns each, and our loaders,
our shooting stools, and our luncheons, our massacres
of hand reared birds, what would they think of it }
Mr. Symonds wrote: — "Gentlemen it must be presumed
shoot for diversion and exercise, not for the sake of
abundance of game, or the reputation of destroying it."
Would that this were so now : yet, after all, in these
decadent days of shoots rivalling shoots, and keepers
competing with keepers for fame of slaughter, there are
some good men left, who in their heart of hearts despise
artificial caricatures of sport.
George Doughty was a man of worthy memory —
trustee for many friends, guardian of their children.
Among his early intimates was one whose name is con-
nected with Theberton. Francis Light had founded
the colony of Penang or Prince of Wales' Island, and
become its first Governor ; and loving his home land
as all Suffolk men do, had given to a tract of ground,
which has been described as " the most beautiful spot of
the kind in India," the name of Suffolk.
Captain Light wrote to his friend from Prince of
Wales' Island, under date ii Sept. 1792:
" Dear George — Trusting to the sincerity of our
loving friendship, and your genuine goodness of heart,
without waiting for permission, I have consigned one of
THE BRICK HOUSE 201
my children to your care and authority. . . . He is now
six years of age. ... I shall take care to send you
supplies of cash as well for the boy's maintenance, as the
purchase of Goldsberry Farm. Wall says it is so con-
tiguous, that I have a longing desire to become the owner
of it, so make sure of it, I shall then think of returning
in good earnest. . . ."
Next year, another warm letter : " I have consigned
my son William to your care." The writer further
explained that he had not been able to send the money
for the purchase of Goldsbury's farm, the expenses of
his Governorship being twice the amount of his salary.
"Dear George" he concluded "give ten thousand wishes
to your wife, daughter and sisters, and tell them I am
never so happy as when I am thinking of them. Adieu
my dear friend, continue to plough your fields it is a
thousand times preferable to governing." Captain Light
died in 1794.
The farm house on " Goldsbury's Farm," afterwards
known as the " Brick House," was the property of a Mr.
Goldsbury, who later sold it to Mr. Wootton as we shall
see.
William Light's youth was spent at Theberton Hall
and at Martlesham Hall an estate of Mrs. Doughty, " a
most amiable lady," who after her husband's death in
1798 acted as guardian of the boy. His after life was
a romance.^
His career, like his father's before him, began in the
navy, as a midshipman, in H.M. Frigate Clyde. He was
taken prisoner by the French. Then, leaving the naval
^ The lives of Francis and William Light are written in The
Founders of Penang and Adelaide, by Mr. A. F. Steuart, a great-
great-grandson of Francis, from which, by its author's kind per-
mission, the few facts given here have been gathered.
202 A THEBERTON EMPIRE BUILDER
service, he became a cornet in the 4th Light Dragoons,
and served with high distinction throughout the Peninsu-
lar Campaign, as an aide-de-camp to Lord Wellesley,
fighting in no less than forty-three actions without even
a scratch. -The war over, he published an account of
his travels in France and Italy, illustrated from his own
sketches by Peter de Wint. Later, a colonel in the
Spanish constitutional army under General Sir Robert
Wilson, he was severely wounded, and found himself
stranded without means at Corunna, but " through the
timely assistance of his old friend and guardian Mrs.
Doughty," he was enabled to come home. He married
in England, and having become a member of the Royal
Yacht Club, cruised with his wife for some years about
the Mediterranean, travelling much in southern Europe
and in Egypt. On the establishment as a British
Province of South Australia, Sir Charles Napier who
had refused the Governorship, proposed that the appoint-
ment be offered to his friend Colonel Light. " I advise
you," he wrote to the Colonial Secretary, " to try and
get Colonel Light appointed Governor ; whether he
would accept it or not I cannot say, but his great
accomplishments and his character being so generally
known, not only for »his distinguished services in the
Peninsula under the Duke of Wellington, but also in
Spain at the time Sir Robert Wilson was there, would
give an iclat to the appointment, which might be useful
to the colony, and at the same time secure an able man
for the work."
But the office of Governor had been filled up, and
Colonel Light was offered and accepted the appointment
of Surveyor General, As an old sailor, he himself took
command of the ship in which he and his staff sailed to
Australia.
AN AUSTRALIAN THEBERTON 203
Having arrived in South Australia, he proceeded in
the face of much opposition to select the site and to lay
out the ground plan of the city of Adelaide. And
there he died in 1838 — founder, " father of Adelaide " as
its grateful citizens have since styled him. Light
Passage, Light County, and the River Light bear his
name ; and in Light Square, a statue of him has lately
been placed to commemorate his services. At each
election of a new mayor of Adelaide, takes place a
picturesque ceremony. A silver loving cup filled with
colonial wine is handed round, and " The Memory of
Colonel Light" is solemnly toasted. Colonel Light
deserves to be remembered in Theberton. A man he
was of " extraordinary accomplishments, soldier, seaman,
artist, and good in all," ^ " a gentleman, a brave soldier,
and a man of learning." ^ That he on his part never
lost affection for his early home is quite certain. His
house in Adelaide he christened " Thebarton," spelling
the name after an old fashion, and a suburb of the
Queen City of the South now bears the name of our
little parish.
In the last quarter of the eighteenth, and in the
early years of the nineteenth century, though the value
of land was abnormally high, times were hard for
labouring men. There were more hands than were
needed, wages therefore were low, while at the same
time wheat and other prime necessaries were exorbi-
tantly high. The stress of poverty was great, and work
had to be found somehow for the poor folk, if they were
to be kept from the workhouse.
It then came to be remembered that the high road
north of Theberton Rectory had two sharp bends in it
* Life of Sir Charles Napier^ by Sir William Napier.
=* Bulletin, July i6th, 1820, of General Sir Robert Wilson.
204 BALLOTING FOR THE MILITIA
like the curves of the letter S, and that to straighten
them would be a public advantage, and at the same
time provide some much needed employment. The
business was taken in hand accordingly ; and, among
our parish archives, we find a document dated
24th February 1769, under the hand and seal of George
Doughty, whereby, in consideration of the old highway
when stopped up and enclosed being vested in him and
becoming his property, he consented to the making of a
new highway through land of his (as shown in a plan
annexed to the document) ; and to give the parish of
Theberton as much land, as would suffice to make a
new road twenty feet wide between the fences. This
document was attested by one Robert Flamwell ; and
the alteration, having been approved by the Justices,
was duly carried out.
The old road, of which the soil became Mr. Doughty's
property, lay west of the present highway ; its course
was from the Rectory corner, over and along the strip of
land now a plantation, between the Rectory lawn and the
present road, on across the church walk, and making
a sharp curve towards the west through the Hall park,
it joined the line of the new road, near the north end of
the garden plantation. The improvement effected was
slight, but one may hope that it brought help to a few
needy families.
At that time. Militia-men were balloted for, and wives
of men serving had to be supported by their parish.
Parishes sometimes bought substitutes ; we read of £^,
;^9, ;^io, ;^I2, ;^I4, having been paid. I find a letter
dated 1781, from the overseers of Bungay to the
Theberton churchwardens and overseers, requesting the
reimbursement of forty-two weeks' pay at is. 'j\d. per
week for Robert Farrow's family. The Theberton
HARD TIMES 205
people are reminded that " Farrow served as a substitute
for a person balloted for by lot in your parish." Service
in the Militia was unpopular ; no less than £$0 was paid
by one farmer for exemption.
In 1795 and 1801, scarcity almost amounted to famine
all over England. A remedy thought of, was to limit
the consumption of wheat ; and in some counties, magis-
trates summoned meetings of officers and principal
inhabitants of parishes, to discuss the expediency of
restricting the use of wheat flour. The times were
bitterly hard for poor people. Prices of other necessaries
besides wheat-flour had been forced up by taxation.
The petition of Cobbett's labourers cannot be greatly
overdrawn ; they stated that more than half their wages
was taken from them by taxes ; that owing to taxes,
they had to pay 6d. for a pot of worse beer than they
could brew for a penny ; that they paid ten shillings for
a pair of shoes which would have cost but five shillings ;
sevenpence for a pound of soap or candles which would
have been threepence ; sevenpence for a pound of sugar
they could have had for threepence ; six shillings for a
pound of tea which would have cost two shillings ; and
that the prices of both bread and meat had been doubled.
Many an aged labourer has said to me that young
working people have no notion what their parents and
grand-parents had to suffer. Perhaps, it may be that
these survivors were the pick of their own generation ;
but this I know, that the old men I remember, born to
self-denial and nurtured in hardness, strong, gentle and
patient, have compelled my sincere respect — exemplars
of an admirable strain of Englishmen. Cannot those of
us who have known intimately Suffolk labourers of
the old type, agree with him who wrote : " many times,
wee see there lyeth more worth under a threadbare
ft06 PARISH TOPOGRAPHY
cloake and within a thatched cottage, than the richest
robe or the stateliest palace."
Lord Huntingfield has a rough map, or " Eye Sketch "
as it styles itself, made about this same date which he
kindly lent me. It shows, with other lands in Theberton
the then farm of " Mr. Flemwell " who I think was the
witness (R. Flamwell) to Mr. Doughty's signature.
The site is shown also of the house then called the
Brick House, and occupied by " Mr. Goldsbury." ^ From
opposite the end of the road continued from Potters
Street, the way is shown from the highway to Tyler's
Green ; and on the west side of the same highway,
opposite Fishpond Hill, stood a barn described " Mr.
Peckover's," the earliest mention of land of that family
that I have found in our parish records. Honour Lane is
shown on the map. It is an ancient way but nine feet
wide in many parts, winding, and deep below the level of
the fields ; there was then a gate across it. Flash Gate
west of the corner now called Flash Corner. The marsh
between the cottage now known as Frog Hall, and the
road called Dark Trees, was then a part of Theberton
Common ; the land, as well now as at the date of the
map called New England, had at an earlier period
been known as Wrens Park and Hospital Lands, place
names whose origin I cannot discover ; and the lane
from Flash Corner to Eastbridge then ran through a
piece of open common.
During the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth
centuries, the aspect of rural England underwent great
changes. A prominent feature of the country had
been its unenclosed wastes and commons. Now, the
In the assessment of 1799, "Mr. Goldsbury" was set at
£2- ^i'. S^d. per quarter. The only larger payer was " George
Doughty Esquire," at £,4. 17s. 8d. per quarter. "Mr. Pickover"
was third, at £2. y- 9^d- per quarter.
CONTEMPLATED ENCLOSURE OF COMMONS 207
high price of corn stimulated a rage for enclosing.
Hundreds of thousands of acres were taken in, as well
it was supposed, to the advantage of owners of land, as
of the state ; but whether justice was in general done to
the peasantry is very open to question.
In Theberton and Leiston the commons were exten-
sive— about four hundred and fifty acres ; and the
question of enclosure began to be agitated in those two
parishes.
In 1 79 1, we find that a meeting took place in
Theberton, not of parishioners according to ancient
custom, but of the copyhold tenants, whether of the
manor of Theberton, or of that of Leiston, or of both the
manors, does not appear. Those present purported to
elect unanimously two men, Thomas Wigg and Henry
Cabbald, to be fen reeves for the year then next ensuing.
Never before, so far as our records tell us, had any such
proceeding by copyhold tenants been attempted. Fen
reeves for Theberton, had for time out of memory been
appointed by town meetings of the parishioners. It
certainly looks like a scheme, in contemplation of an
enclosure, to oust the rights of parishioners, and to lay
a foundation for claims by copyhold tenants.
The regular preliminaries were no doubt in due course
complied with. A meeting of all persons interested in
rights of commons had to be held ; a majority of two-
thirds, or of three-fourths in value, had to be obtained ;
and notice had to be affixed to the church door, that ap-
plication would be made to Parliament for a private Act
appointing commissioners to make the division. Such the
preparatory nest building. In 1810, the egg was laid in
the shape of a private Act of Parliament, " for enclosing
lands within the parishes of Leiston and Theberton in
the county of Suffolk," which is before me as I write.
208 THEBERTON ENCLOSURE ACT
The Preamble states among other things :
" That there were within the parishes of Leiston and
Theberton, divers common fens and marshes and other
commonable and waste lands " ; those in Theberton
being known as Theberton Bogs, Theberton Dry
Common, Little Green, Stone Hill, Tylers Green, and
part of the common called Wynters Heath (in all
156a. or. 2 1 p.)
That Joshua Lord Huntingfield was lord of the
manor of Leiston, and as such, claimed the soil of the
said commonable and waste lands.
That Anne Doughty (widow of George Doughty who
had died in 1798) was lady of the manor of Theberton,
and as such, claimed the soil of such of the said com-
monable and waste lands as lay within the parish of
Theberton.
That the said Joshua Lord Huntingfield, Anne
Doughty, and divers other persons, owners of certain
ancient commonable messuages and cottages, and tofts
being the sites of ancient commonable messuages and
cottages with the lands thereto belonging, claimed in
respect thereof to be entitled to the whole depasturage
and produce of the said common fens and marshes
and other commonable and waste lands.
And, that the said commonable and waste lands
in their then open and uncultivated state yielded very
little profit, but if divided and allotted unto and
amongst the several persons having rights of common
thereon, might be inclosed cultivated and improved ;
and that such division inclosure and improvement
could not be efifected without the aid of Parlia-
ment.
Of any claims on behalf of the parishioners of
Theberton no mention is made in the Preamble.
TYLERS GREEN
From the Enclosure Award Map of 1824
sto»
ftbbey
SamArdi Gv>g>£rtdbf£<mdi
Lomidinx: MacanUlan. & Co. Ltd..
CONCERNING PARISH RIGHTS 209
The great egg took no less than fourteen years
to hatch. The duty of incubation was entrusted to
three local commissioners who made their award in
1824.
The claim of Anne Doughty, in her capacity of the
lady of the manor of Theberton, though it had been
admitted as a claim by the Parliamentary committee,
was silently ignored by the award.
If any claims were argued before the Commissioners
for the parishioners of Theberton they are not recorded.
Points of law were involved which only trained con-
veyancers would be competent to deal with ; yet no
counsel were members of this Commission. A solicitor
was, it is true, a Commissioner, but the solicitor branch
of the legal profession do not profess to be masters of
abstruse law.
The points of law which may or might have been
raised, for or against our poor folk are too technical to
be discussed here ; but a few words may perhaps be of
interest. Our records set out in former pages, show
that time out of memory the Theberton parishioners had
enjoyed rights of common of pasture over the common
and waste lands. Fen reeves had been elected every year
by " town meetings " to regulate the exercise of those
same rights — fixing the period for turning in the cattle
and so forth. It will further have been noticed that the
award itself treated the fen called " the Theberton Com-
mon Fen " though situate in another parish, as belonging
to Theberton. All this goes to found a case on custom
or prescription.
The lord of Leiston Manor may have relied upon
documentary evidence. In the old complaint to the
Star Chamber, the complainants claimed "common
appendant." Strictly that would exclude claims as
P
210 TYLERS GREEN AND WINTERS HEATH
parishioners, inasmuch as " common appendant " could
only attach to lands of tenants of the manor."
For the parishioners, it may have been replied, that
" appendant " might have been used by some careless
draftsman, in mistake for " appurtenant " ; and that
" common appurtenant " might consist with their claims,
as it is capable of attaching to lands outside of a
manor.
It may have been pointed out against Theberton that
the Chancery suit in Edward VI.'s time was instituted,
not by parishioners, only by tenants of the soke
of Leyston. But any objection that the parishioners
had not been parties to the suit could have been
disposed of I think without difficulty.
As to the two commons, Tylers Green and Winters
Heath, it is indeed astonishing that no mention at all
is made of them by the award. We have seen that the
parish officers had exercised not mere rights of common,
but actual ownership in both cases, granting leases, re-
ceiving rents, selling timber and underwood, without, so
far as we can find, any trace of opposition by lords of
the manor or any one whomsoever. An objection might
possibly have been thought of ; that parish officers, or a
mere assemblage of individuals such as parishioners, not
incorporated, were not capable to be landowners ; but
the point is so purely technical, that doubtless means
would have been found to avoid doing injustice.
With respect to the turf digging, it must be admitted
that the poor folk might have had a hard fight ; the
conclusion of law that a right of common of turbary,
can only exist as appurtenant to a house in which the
turf is burned, might have been difficult to get over.
Enough has now been said to show that our parish
had claims at least good enough to argue, and as to
LITTLE GREEN and WINTERS HEATH
From the Enclosure Award Map of 1824
StamArdi BtogyZnaJb^L^nijm.
MORE'S THE PITY! 211
some of them with reasonable chances of success.
But we cannot get behind the award by any means.
More's the pity ! Common rights are not only a boon
to labouring men but they are also of value to the
community, tending to attach men born and bred on
the land, skilful in all branches of a difficult craft, to
their native parish.
P 2
CHAPTER XVI
Whether the labourers of that generation were sensible
of any loss by the award, may be doubted ; work then
was slack and wages low, and a long spell of employ-
ment on drainage and enclosure works must have been
alluring. But when the works came to an end as they
were bound to do some day, the position must have
come home to them — common rights irrecoverably gone,
and gone too their accustomed employment.
Clearly, the poor generally have lost by enclosures.
Half a century after the Theberton enclosure, when
moving for leave to bring in a General Inclosure Bill,
the Earl of Lincoln said : " This I know, that in nineteen
cases out of twenty, Committees of this House sitting
on private enclosure bills, neglected the right of the
poor. I do not say wilfully neglected their rights — far
from it. But this I affirm, that they were neglected,
because of the Committee being permitted to remain in
ignorance of the claims of the poor man, because by
means of his poverty, he is unable to come up to London
to fee counsel, to produce witnesses, &c."
John Stuart Mill spoke of enclosures as " legalised
spoliations."
Such legalised spoliations had come to be epidemic, but
"LEGALISED SPOLIATION'' 213
from times long before, there had been sporadic cases ;
we have this story from James I.'s time.
The king riding through a certain village, noticed a
fellow in the stocks, who, seeing the royal party, kept
shouting Hosanna ! His Majesty asked what it meant,
and learned that he had been put in the stocks because
he had stolen geese from off the common, " I beseech
your Majesty," said the prisoner, " which is the greater
thief, I for stealing the geese from the common, or his
worship for stealing the common from the geese."
King James, who loved a pleasant wit, exercised his
royal prerogative — by not only releasing the man from
the stocks, but by commanding that the common be
restored to the poor people.^
As no rights of theirs had been admitted, there could
be no compensation for our poor folk. We know,
however, that some parishes, which had good friends
perhaps to fight for them, were given fair compensa-
tion. In one case, the commissioners for enclosure
were directed by a clause in their private Act, to set
out land to be known as "the poor estate," to be
vested in the lord of the manor (whose influence had
procured the clause) the rector and the churchwardens
and overseers, as trustees, to let it by auction, and apply
the rents in providing fuel for the cottagers. For another
parish, a clause in their Act gave to every cottager,
without regard to common rights, half an acre of
land. In other parishes again, recreation grounds were
provided.
1 In days of yore, and for long centuries, no village was without
its " pair of stocks," and, in fact, after an Act of 1405 no town or
village was permitted to dispense with them ; yet I have found no
note nor any trace of the repressive instrument in our parish.
Perhaps the first pair rotted uselessly, and may we assume that
in " happy Theberton " no need arose to replace them.
214 NEW PARISH ROADS
But enough of what the award did not do. What it
did was : — First to set out new public roads over the
lands enclosed. Such roads set out in Theberton were:
The road marked No. i in the map opposite
"beginning at the South- West corner of Theberton
Dry Common, and proceeding along the then present
track in nearly a North-East direction over the said
Dry Common, towards East Bridge."
Another road marked No. 2 in the same map
" branching out of the last described Road opposite a
Cottage then belonging to Zachariah Kett, and pro-
ceeding in nearly N.W. and W, directions over the
said Dry Common, and the Common called the Bogs,
passing over Tun-bridge (Town bridge) towards
Theberton Church."
Another road marked No. 3 in the same map,
" branching out of the last described Road at about
the distance of one hundred and twenty yards East
of the said Bridge called Tunbridge, and proceeding in
nearly a South direction towards Potters Street."
Another road marked No 4 in the same map,
"being the present Road leading from East Bridge
over the Common called the Flash towards Theberton
Church."
Another road marked No, 5 in the map facing
page 210, "being the present Road leading over
Tylers Green along the South Side thereof from
Leiston Abbey to Saxmundham."
And one other road marked No. 6 in the last
mentioned map, " branching out of the last described
road and proceeding in nearly a North direction
over Tylers Green to Theberton Church."
That part of road No. i which runs north and south
Map OF Plan
cftU \
m Fen Grounds and^^i&ste
tiTj, the Par^Kof
BE IH, T © H
the Conunarv caJLed.
irton Common Fen
f in. <1A^ Parceh cf
; E S T OM
t <l^ County ^
JEast Biidje.
Jhe.
Map or Plan
Commons , Commcai Fen Grounds and^Vkste Lands
within, the Pocr^K^
Thebeetoh
(tnd^ the CommoTv caJled
Theberton Common Fen
fyin^ in, the Parish of
Ll 2 S T 0N
in, tha CourUy ^
Us referred &> iy our (brarvi ------
Lon<doii: JVfacoaadnaii. & Co.Lt^
StanArdi (nagyZnabf-l
WHO WERE BENEFITED ? «16
has since been stopped, by what authority I do not know ;
it could not have been of much use to the public. Tylers
Green had been a haunt of gipsies, whence no doubt the
name Gipsy Lodge of now adjacent cottages.
The award then proceeded to make allotments. It
would be tedious to particularise them here.
The only allotment made, with any colour of com-
pensation to the parish, was the gravel pit at Eastbridge.
This scrap of land, 2r. 6p. in extent, upon which the
chapel has since been built, was given to the parish
surveyor, for "the use and convenience of the proprietors
of lands and estates within the parish ... for the improve-
ment of their lands and grounds " ; it was also to serve
" for the formation and repairs of roads belonging to the
parish."
Thinking of this Theberton Enclosure, one cannot but
be curious as to whom it benefited.
It may be admitted, that as enclosed and drained land
is capable of carrying a greater head of stock than boggy
unenclosed commons, the nation gained by an increase
of food supply ; but we, concerned only with our par-
ticular parish, would like to know whether any and
which of our parishioners were the better.
The Act contemplated an allotment to the rector of
Theberton in lieu of tithes. No allotment was made
to him, with the result that all the lands enclosed became
subject to tithe. The rector was thus a gainer. Who
else was in that happy position ? Of allottees of plots
by virtue of land ownership one may take my ancestot
as a fair sample. Before the award was promulgated,
Mrs. Anne Doughty died, and to her son the Rev.
George Clarke Doughty it was, that an allotment was
in due course made. Well, how stands his account }
On one side, let us credit him with the plots he acquired
216 MINSMERE LEVEL
— i6a. 3r. 38p. in all. On the other side, debit him
with his share of the costs and expenses. These came
to ;^I45. i2s. 6d. The result was that he had to pay
for his allotment at the rate of £>%. \os. the acre ; and
this for land in the condition of wet bog, which — a
portion of the Minsmere Level — was saddled with a
further charge for embanking and draining, by another
Act of Parliament.
Had not land been — in fact it was just then — at a
quite abnormal value, the operation could not have
advantaged him. As it was, I suspect that his allotment
cost him quite as much as it was worth. And so no
doubt with other allottees. The only persons, besides
the rector, to whom clearly enclosure brought profit were
professional men, who had no part or lot in Theberton
— commissioners, surveyors, and lawyers. The three
commissioners, during the fourteen years' incubation of
their award, were paid three guineas each for every
meeting ; there were surveyors' fees ; and the legal
charges for procuring the private Act, drawing up the
award, and much besides, were of necessity heavy.
Outsiders enjoyed the oyster ; shells only were left
for the persons entitled to allotments ; not even shells,
for either the lord of the Theberton manor in his
capacity of lord, or for the parish and parishioners.
The other Act of Parliament above mentioned was a
private Act of like date with the Enclosure Act : " For
embanking and draining the level of marsh and fen
land called Minsmere Level." This level included all
the wet land in Theberton affected by the enclosure.
The assessment made by the valuers — one of whom was
also an enclosure commissioner — was delivered in 1813.
The drainage scheme was no doubt a necessity ; before
the cuts — ditches — were made, men had to jump, I have
CHURCH PLATE IN 1801 217
been told, from tussock to tussock, it was a veritable
swamp.
A terrier of 1801 describes the Rectory, as it was
during Mr. Wyatt's time : " one messuage with a back
house adjoining under the same roof, built of timber
and plastered, covered with thatch, in length sixty feet
in breadth fourteen feet. A barn built of timber boarded
and covered with a thatch, in length forty-five feet
and in breadth eighteen feet. One stable and malt-
house under one roof, built of timber, and partly clayed
partly boarded, covered with thatch, in length twenty
feet and in breadth thirteen feet." The Rectory lawn
was then " one piece of land surrounding the aforesaid
messuage and barn, situate between the lands of Anne
Doughty late George Doughty Esq. on the part of the
north, and the common way leading from Theberton
towards Kelsale on the part to the south."
The terrier contains a list of the church plate : " one
silver cup, one chalice weighing about nine ounces, one
silver platter weighing about one ounce and a half, and
one silver flagon." In 1706 there had been, according to
that year's terrier, one flagon and that of pewter; in
1725 and 1729 one flagon described as of silver ; in 1735
the flagon was said to be pewter, and in 1740 to be of
silver one pound in weight.
One can never rely upon a terrier ; sometimes they
were just transcribed from their forerunners. In one,
made in the eighteenth century, a book is entered under
the name of " Jewish Apology " ; an obviously careless
mistake for " Jewell's Apologie " ; the mistake is
continued in several later terriers.
How the church looked about that time, the Davy
MSS. tell us. In 1806, the pulpit stood under a sound-
218 THE COMPANY OF SINGERS
board in the south-east angle of the nave. It was the
same pulpit that we have now, made of oak in 1628,
but it was then painted yellow. The communion table
was encompassed with a rail and "banister." The
church "was very irregularly seated and pewed with
deal and oak." The floors were chiefly of white brick,
except the raised part in front of the communion rails,
which was of small square tiles formerly glazed black
and yellow. The beautiful Romanesque north doorway
is referred to as " a very handsome ornamental Saxon
arch." This door was stopped up in 1826; and, since
then, a vestry has been stuck on outside, and the fine
mouldings of the arch coloured jaundice yellow. The
roof, both of church and chancel were then unceiled.
I think that at that time, there was a raised platform
or so-called gallery, where the organ now stands, which
was used by the singers and " musicianers," and that the
various implements used in the church and churchyard
were kept under it.
I find a bill of 18 18 for "a new door to gallery,"
which probably was to shut in the space beneath the
platform ; and for the next year, a bill " self and lads
matting up gallery," and " splines for hanging up hats in
gallery " ; and examples of other bills are, for 1818 again,
"strings for viol"; for 1819, "candles for singers";
for 1824, "G. Garrod for one years singing bill" ; and
for another year, the same Garrod for " attending at the
church for the purpose of singing," and " with the
company of singers." So far back as 181 3, there is a bill
for making and fixing a shelf for use of psalm-singers.
The old metrical psalms were sung, of some the words
noble, of others it might be almost grotesque, I think
they were more often noble than grotesque.
There is a bill of 1815, for "psalms written," which, I
Norman Door, Theberton Church.
OUR LAST PARISH CLERK 219
take it, means copies of scores for instruments as well as
for voices. There were nine books written. John Pipe
seems to have been leader and conductor. His book
contained twelve tunes, besides an Easter hymn a
Christmas hymn and an anthem ; John Brown, Thomas
Nunn, Thos. Pipe, A. Ayton, Wm. Smith, James Brown,
Thomas Manning, and Wm. Brown had each a book,
with from four to nine tunes in each.
Next year, two books less were charged for ; John
Pipe had but six tunes, and his son William Pipe now
takes his place with the greatest number eight tunes,
besides an Easter ode and an anthem.
William Pipe was then twenty-two years old. He
became parish clerk in 1823 in succession to his father,
and held the office till his death — a grand specimen he
was of a parish clerk, of fine presence, with a musical
voice, skilled in music and in bell ringing. He, like
his father before him, carried on the trade of a shoe-
maker, and with many other avocations, was a farmer
in a small way, hiring some scattered fields, doing
most of the work himself, even his own harvest
the last year of his life, at the age of eighty-nine. A
tall, thin, active man, the best pedestrian in the district ;
I remember his telling me, how, having walked to
Ipswich on business, and having intended to come back
in the old Blue Coach, as far as Saxmundham, the coach
overtook him soon after he had left Ipswich, but " No,
thought he, he might as well walk on, and save the fare."
He did walk home. Even then he had attained middle
age ; his feet had carried him fifty-four miles, and the
walk did not at all fatigue him he told me.
Upon his Jubilee, the completion of half a century in
the clerkship, we presented him as a token of our
respect, with a marble clock for his chimney-piece, an
220 THE CHURCH OF THE PEOPLE
inscription on it recording that for fifty years he had not
once been absent from a church service ; he was for
sixty-nine years parish clerk, and died in 1892 at the
age of ninety. These words are inscribed upon his
gravestone : " This stone has been erected to his memory
by his friends and fellow parishioners as a mark of respect
for his worth."
Our old friend's grave is near his father's. On John
Pipe's stone, it is inscribed that he died in 1823, having
served as clerk and sexton more than twenty-five years.
Thus, father and son together held the office of clerk in
our parish nearly a century.
The music of the self-taught company of singers may
not have been of the highest order, but it is worth
considering that the musicians and their friends, with
their and their friends' families, were led to take an
interest in the services.
Now, churches in too many country villages are
ceasing to be what they ought to be, churches of the
people ; the humbler classes do not feel at home in
them ; parsons treat congregations as merely passive
buckets to be pumped into, and then wonder that they
drift away into non-conformity. To chapel a welcome
is given them, and they are encouraged to take an
interest in chapel government. Some people seem to
think our church exists only for well-to-do people ;
whereas, in truth, it is the birthright of all Englishmen ;
and all of us both small and great are entitled to a
voice in its ordering. It is, moreover, the plain duty
of its ministers to minister to all alike, in sacred things
— to be neither "working men's parsons," nor, as a
clergyman put it, " ecclesiastical butlers " of their richer
parishioners.
Our own parish church, like many others, is all
too large for our attenuated, steadily diminishing
OLD GRAVESTONES 221
congregations. East Anglia was once both populous and
prosperous, and means were forthcoming in abundance
for building great churches. Now, many of those
churches stand almost empty ; alms bags go round in-
cessantly, but the yield is scanty, and the burden of
maintenance on incumbents and impoverished land-
owners, is unduly heavy.
The register for 1 803 records the burial of four young
sailor men from a Danish West Indiaman, wrecked upon
Sizewell beach ; Hans Hansen, Christen Christensen,
Olla Petersen, and Julius Lehus, No pious hand was
found to place in God's acre any memorial to these
poor seafarers.
It has, no doubt, surprised many persons that there
are so few old gravestones in our Suffolk churchyards.
In other parts one finds much older incised inscriptions ;
in the Scottish Highlands for example ; but there they
have imperishable slate ; whereas we use a softer
stone from which the lettering is soon weathered
away.
I think the earliest gravestones in our own churchyard,
on which inscriptions can be read, besides Fenn's " stone
to sitt upon," are to the memory of: Ann wife of
Charles Foulsham 1761, Thomas Broom 1770, Elizabeth
Watling 1779, Thomas Watling 1780, Mary Wilson
1780, John Bidwell 1784, John Wilson 1785, John
Robertson 1788, Ann Dickerson 1794 and Phillis
Canham 1797. I put these on record as the inscriptions
will soon have become illegible.
But indeed, gravestones anywhere are not very ancient.
According to Weever " it was the use and custome of
reverend antiquitie, to interre persons of the rusticke or
plebeian sort in Christian buriall, without any further
remembrance of them either by tombe, gravestone, or
epitaph."
222 THEBERTON HOUSE
In 1805, the "Brick House," and some two hundred
acres of land with sundry cottages, were put up and
sold by auction, the purchaser being Mr. Thomas
Whiting Wootton. Among the items referred to in the
particulars, I find the " Mount, or Prospect House."
The mount or mound remains, but the prospect or
summer-house, which then stood upon it has disap-
peared. The origin of the little mound is unknown ;
but parish wiseacres " know it for sure " that from it
Cromwell bombarded Leiston Abbey ! The house was
sold by Mr. Goldsbury as has been said, but had
belonged to the Jesups, an old Theberton name.^ It
was quite a small place till about 1834, when Mr.
Wootton built to it and made the present house, to
which he gave the name Theberton House, and from
two fields, Backhouse Field and Brick-kiln Piece or
Brick-kiln Walk, he formed the present park. Another
field was called " Honours," from the name perhaps of
some old proprietor, after whom Honour Lane also
may have been called.
Our next rector was John Carleton, D.D., Chaplain-in-
Ordinary to the King, instituted in 18 14 on the death
of Mr. Wyatt. Dr. Carleton did not reign long, his
passing bell was tolled in 1819, and the ringers had
three shillings for tolling it. Two bells are used for
passing bells in Theberton ; for the greater is charged
eighteenpence for an hour, and for the smaller, one
shilling. For a rector, it seems to have been the custom
to toll the greater bell for two hours.
In 1832 died the Rev. George Clarke Doughty of
Theberton Hall ; he had long survived his wife
* A tomb in the churchyard near the chancel door is inscribed
to the memory of Samuel Jesup, who died in 1788 aged 23, and of
William, son of Daniel Jesup, wlio died in 1796 aged 19.
RULES FOR A HOLY LIFE 223
Catherine heiress of the Brockford branch of the old
family of Revett ; he was vicar of Hoxne and Denham,
rector of Martlesham. This is extracted from a con-
temporary Norwich newspaper: "On Monday last the
remains of the Rev. George Clarke Doughty were
interred in the chancel of Hoxne Church. His loss
will be long lamented by his numerous friends and
connexions, to whom he was in the strictest sense the
sincere friend, the good landlord, the kind patron of
the poor, and the most philanthropic of men. The
parish of Hoxne will long remember their old Pastor
who acted as the friend, the brother and the adviser,
of every inhabitant of the Parish."
George Clarke Doughty 's great-grandfather, another
George born in 1655, had also been rector of Martles-
ham. His quaint " Rules for a holy life " are in my
possession, and it is evident from his letters that his own
life was ruled by them.
These are the lines ; —
Apparel sober, neat, comely.
Conversation little, honest, heavenly.
Diet temperate, convenient, frugal.
Manners grave, courteous, cheerful.
Prayers short, devout, frequent.
Recreations lawful, brief, seldom.
Sleep moderate, quiet, seasonable
Thoughts divine, awful, useful.
Will constant, ready, obedient.
Works profitable, holy, useful.
George Clarke Doughty inherited the estate of
Martlesham Hall and the advowson of Martlesham
rectory from his mother, heiress of the Goodwins of
Martlesham.
The Rev. Thomas Strong M.A. was instituted to
the Rectory of Theberton in 18 19 on the death of
Dr. Carleton.
2S4 A THEBERTON STATESMAN
About this time, we first find the name, Thomas
Gibson, in our parish documents. The step-son of Mr.
Wootton who died in 1844, he inherited Theberton
House, and entered political life as Tory member for
Ipswich. Later, having assumed the additional surname
of Milner and joined the Liberal party, he became a
member of Lord Palmerston's Cabinet of 1859 as Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade. Of Mr. Milner-Gibson, who
was a good neighbour and a kind friend of the writer,
one son survives, Mr. G. Milner-Gibson-Cullum of Hard-
wick House, near Bury St. Edmunds.
CHAPTER XVII
In 1820, John Pipe tolled the bell for the funeral of
King George III. His trade of shoemaker was for a
small village quite extensive, he employed some five or
six journeymen. He seems to have kept school also. I
find a bill of his among the parish documents : " to half
a year's schooling £1. i8j. 6d." which may perhaps
have been the parish subscription on behalf of pauper
children.
A bill dated 1822 was not at the first glance easy to
interpret " To 3/4 day of myself and lad putting up pool
on the steble oak plank for bottom of pool." One had
to call to mind that there is a flagstaff upon our church
tower.
" A bell for Majesty " was tolled on the death of King
George IV. in 1830.
In that year, occurs the last account I have found with
the item " Pd. Apparitor." It was high time indeed that
those " moral police " of the Church of England should be
disestablished and disendowed.
Some thatching to both church and chancel roofs,
was done in 1830, we find payments by the parish, and
by the Rector Mr. Strong respectively.
The Rev. Charles Montagu Doughty, son of George
Clarke Doughty, held his first court for the manor of
Theberton in 1834.
Q
aas ^
226 THE LAST PARISH PERAMBULATION
And a white stone should mark that year for the last
perambulation of our parish — which an old friend of
mine who died but a few years ago, could remember.
It seems indeed to have been a most festive occasion.
A certain Tom Waller was then mine host of the Lion.
Of his name I retain a childish remembrance ; for our
four church bells chimed, so we were told, " Come Tom
Wal-ler, come Tom Wal-ler." Whether they brought
him to church " regular " I cannot say. Here is Tom
Waller's bill :
"The Parish of Theberton Dr. to Thomas Waller at the
perambulation of the boundary of the above parish May lo
1834."
s. d.
Beer 8 8
Biscuits 26
12 to tea 180
16 ditto 16 o
Beer no
Brandy 23
Brandy and water . 2 6
Gin and water . . 36
Rum and water . . 20
ditto and ditto . . 20
Beer and tobacco . i o
Mr. Smy day work. 7 6
2 leading men . . 40
Mr. Waller was not good at his addition, for the total
is wrong by two shillings — against himself. Discreet
obscurity veils the last two items. Was it Mr. Smy's
well paid work, to pilot the procession through the
intricacies of their perambulation } And the two leading
men } Had they to lead the field, over the hedges and
ditches.^ or was it their office, after the beer, the brandy,
the gin, and the rum, had been imbibed, to lead the
weaker brethren to their homes } It was a roaring day
at all events for the Lion and for Mr. Waller.
A PARISH EMIGRANT 227
Tom Waller must have been a jolly soul, with great
power of social attraction. While he was innkeeper,
our parish meetings were more thirsty than of old. In
1827 a " Churchwarding's meeting" drank Ss. ^d. worth
of beer at the Lion. Sound stuff no doubt, bad for
neither the heads nor feet of the parish fathers. ;^i was
spent, while he was still landlord, on a subsequent
occasion.
Tied up with a bundle of bills endorsed " Church-
wardens bills to Michaelmas 1835," I find a bill headed
"Emigrant's expenses." The law was then that rate-
payers could direct money to be raised to defray the
expense of the emigration of poor persons settled in
their parish, with consent of the Poor Law Board. This
bill shows that the Act was brought into operation
at Theberton, and that in no illiberal spirit ; it ran thus :
Emigrant's expences
£ s-d.
Paid William Cable conveyance 110
Toll Gates 10
At Wangford eating and beer 20
At Lowestof .... do 10
Shop and flour bill i 18 2
Carriage of luggage by coach 24
Butchers bill i ig 2
Small cash and padlock 19
Baker's bill for bread and bags i 10 o
Bill at the Bear Inn 2 o 10
Give Cable to buy liquors 50
Expenses at Gorleston day and night . . 46
Give Cable 400
The Captain for Cable 600
Mr. Preston for passage 10 o o
Expenses coming home 50
Postage of a letter to and from Yarmouth . i 5
£■29 13 2
Cable seems to have been well provided. The shop,
and flour bill, the butcher's and the baker's bills were
Q 2
228 EDUCATION PAST AND PRESENT
I suppose, for food on the voyage. He was given ^s. to
buy liquors, besides £4 in cash, and the captain was
entrusted with another £6, to be spent no doubt for his
advantage. Where our emigrant went does not appear ;
wherever it was, may he have prospered. His escort
seems to have made a blissful sojourn at the Bear Inn.
The church was visited by competent observers in
1836. The Davy MSS. mention that the structure had
then lately been repaired, and the roof ceiled. The pulpit
had been moved to the north side, near the eastward
end of the nave.
We have the original faculty, dated 1837, authorizing
the building of the little red brick school, which some of
us can remember, upon a piece of the churchyard. The
small room — only thirty-one by thirteen feet — served
its modest purpose till 1 871, when it was replaced by
the present school, which I hope may long grow in
usefulness. The words of the faculty show that the
churchyard was then much larger than there was need
for ; yet, though the site of the old school was thrown
back into it, a cemetery has had of late years to be
provided, upon land given by the late Mr. Jasper
Milner-Gibson.
The ignorance of our poor folk was formerly deplor-
able. Now, it may be that teaching is too ambitious, and
tends to be superficial — too many subjects attempted ;
and the children leave school so young, that inevitably
they forget most of what has been painfully taught
them, so that teachers' time and talents and the over-
taxed means of ratepayers produce no adequate results.
But, in old days, things were much worse ; there was
nothing worthy of the name of education. Inefficient
dames' schools afforded the sole opportunity to acquire
even the sound foundation of the three R's. How few
COMMUTATION OF TITHES 229
could either read or write, is disclosed by our registers
of marriages. From 1754 to 1781, I find that out of
one hundred and forty-four persons married in Theber-
ton, one hundred and five could not write their names ;
from 1 78 1 to 1 8 14, one hundred and thirty-nine persons
out of two hundred and eight were unable to sign ;
from 18 1 3 to 1836 out of one hundred and fifty-six
persons, ninety-six were illiterate-^
In 1837, a wall was built on the south side of the
churchyard — the wall which we have now. It cost, with
foundations, coping, and the piers to the gate all told
£2^. 13J. 8|</. To meet this outlay, £'>f> was lent by
John Ablett, the then tenant of the Church farm ; to
whom the repayment, with interest at 5 per cent, in
annual instalments of £^^ was secured by a promissory
note of Henry Plant, a churchwarden. This document,
endorsed with Mr. Ablett's receipts for all instalments,
is in the parish box.
That year the bell was tolled again "for Majesty"
— the death of King William IV. ; marking also the
accession of our late venerated Queen Victoria ; and
there is a charge for the needful alteration of the
Liturgy.
The year 1838 brought a great change in relations
between farmers and the parson. Not again was the
rector or some one on his behalf, to enter the fields at
harvest, and stick a green bough for a sign of ownership
in each tenth stook or shock ; no more would the tithe
barn of the rector be stored with tithes in kind. Collec-
lection of those tithes had caused endless friction, not
conducive to the good influence of clergymen, and now
a better system was to be substituted. Under the
provisions of the Tithe Act of 1836, an agreement was
1 See also p. 158.
230 VALUE OF THEBERTON TITHES
made between Mr. Strong as rector of Theberton, on
the one part, and certain owners of not less than two-
thirds of the titheable land in the parish on the other
part ; and by this statutory compact the tithes were
commuted for a yearly rent charge of ^^430. los. How
this sum of rent charge was arrived at, evidence might
perhaps be raked out of the dust of some Government
office, but I have not made any search for it. In cases
not settled by agreement, the Act prescribed that the
average value of the tithes for the seven years which
ended at Christmas 1835, should be the basis of com-
mutation. This principle may, or may not, have been
adopted here. If it were, six out of the seven must have
been bounteous years indeed, for assuming a terrier of
1834 to be reliable, the income from the tithes and
glebe that year was no more than in 1820, viz., ;^200.
Looking back through preceding terriers and other
documents available, for evidence of the value of the
living, quite surprising are their discrepancies. We know
that in the first year of Elizabeth, the value was assessed
in the King's Books at £26. 13^. 4<t More than a
century later in 1668, we have seen that John Hacket's
petition stated the yearly value as " not above £70." In
I706, 1709, and 17 16, Robert Wychingham's terriers put
it at ;^30. In 1720, the living had under the Act of
Anne been exempted from First Fruits, on the ground
that it produced less than ;^5o, viz. £^i. 13J. 4d. In
1723, a terrier sets the value at ;^40. For 1725 and
1729, the terriers of Wychingham junior returned the
old value of ;^30. Likewise that of Robert Hacon for
1735. In 1740, the value rose to £60. From 1747 to
18 1 3 both inclusive, during incumbencies of Benjamin
Taylor, James Benet, John Whittington, James Benet
the second, and William Wyatt, their terriers repeat the
UNTRUSTWORTHY TERRIERS 231
accustomed figure of £^o. Yet, as it will be remembered,
John Taylor — ah'as Orthodoxus — testified that in 1762,
the Rectory was worth quite ;^2CX) a year. And in
Bacon's edition of Liber Regis dated 1786, we find two
figures of value, the one ;^3i. 13^. 4^. plainly copied
from the bishop's return under the Act of Anne — and
the other £iSO, of which no explanation is given, but
which must have been intended for the then actual
value.i Again for 1808 and 1809, 1 find that Mr. Wyatt
then rector, was assessed for property tax at ;iC20 — I
think for glebe, and ;^240 for tithes.
Such is the evidence : the reader will form his own
conclusion. My own view is, that terriers, as before
said, used to be copied carelessly from each other ;
and that no reliance can be placed upon them. This
view is strengthened by another consideration. During
the ;^30 terrier period, at all events from 1748 to 1813,
a regular succession of curates in charge represented
non-resident rectors. Following poor Orthodoxus, who
starved on ;^2o a year, came S. Foster, W. Smith,
N. E. Smith, W. Bradley, D. E. Davey, W. Cole,
C. Brown, and F. H. Groom. That such a poor milch
cow as a living of ;^30 a year, could supply its rectors
with cream worth the skimming, and their curates with
skim milk enough to keep them alive, is quite incredible.
We may, I think, believe the evidence of John Racket ;
of " Orthodoxus " ; of the Liber Regis ; and of the
assessment of 1808 ; and discard the tales of the terriers
as utterly untrustworthy.
As to the period after 18 13, terriers tell us that ir|-
1820 the yearly income was ;^200 ; in 1834 the same ;
in 1835 Lewis' Topographical Dictionary gives the net in-
** I have to thank my friend Mr. Herbert M. F. White for kind
assistance here.
232 A POET RECTOR
come as ;^354; and in 1838, the tithes were commuted we
know, for ;^430. los. With regard to the rise from ;^i50
in 1786, to ;C200 in 1820 — if we may accept the former
figure — it is explainable by the fact that, though the
enclosure award had then not yet been published, new
tithes were created by the operation of the Enclosure
and the Drainage Acts. As to the jump from ;^20o
to £3S4, and thence to the commutation value
;^430. lOi-.: "that I must leave," as we say in Suffolk.
I have no explanation to offer.
The Commutation Agreement sets out the same
customs of titheing as are recorded in the survey of
1754. They of course went the way of tithes in kind,
and after 1838 ceased to be payable.
In 1 841, the Rev. Henry Hardinge was instituted to
the Rectory on the resignation of Mr. Strong ; he was a
man of cultured taste, an accomplished linguist, and
author of a poem "The Creation" published in 1863; he
had for some years been curate for Mr. Strong, in charge
of the parish. The bad system of pluralist parsons and
poor starveling curates, was not to endure much longer ;
but so late as 1837, there were still no less than five
hundred non-resident beneficed clergy — Mr. Strong
among them — in this diocese of Norwich.
Two alms plates or patens which he presented to the
church keep Mr. Strong's name in our remembrance.
This year saw the erection of a gallery supported by
wooden arches, across the west end of the church,
in place of the former platform. I find only one bill
relating to this work, dated 1841 : "to George Ward
for building the gallery, ;£"io."
The baptism of the present writer is registered in
1841 ; and in 1843 the register records the baptism
of his brother Charles Montagu Doughty, author of
THE CHURCH RESTORED 233
" Arabia Deserta " and " The Dawn in Britain " ; and
also the burial of their mother, Frederica Doughty,
daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Frederick Hotham,
then rector of Dennington.
The Davy MSS. describe the church in the year
1848. Pews then nearly filled the chancel, but the nave
had been re-seated, and the aisle completely restored by
my father, at a cost of nearly ;^2,ooo. The author of the
MSS. noted with some disapproval the stencilled walls
and pillars of the aisle. He did not know, perhaps, that
Mr. Cottingham the eminent church architect, had but
followed a practice of the period to which the aisle
belongs. There are original examples in England and
in some ancient churches of North Germany which I
have seen. The gallery was not touched at this time ;
remaining till Mr. Bradstreet succeeded to the Rectory
on the death of Mr. Hardinge ; it was removed, I think,
in 1866. Afterwards, an organ, and a choir of good
intentions, supplanted the " company of singers."
There was granted in 1846, a faculty for seats in the
then restored aisle, to compensate Mr. Doughty for
"the ancient pews which had belonged to his Hall by
prescriptive right." My father did not live long after
his work of restoration ; he died in 1850.
The pulpit had been moved, I think, during these
works; it had undergone former migrations in 1822,
and in 1841. In 1882, it was proposed once more to
remove it, and I remember well, how at a vestry meeting
we all laughed at the suggestion of a worthy church-
warden that it be put upon casters ; he had, he told
us, known three Reverends, and each wanted it in a
different place. If it had been upon casters, they
might have pleased themselves, without expense to
the parish.
234 THE GLEANING BELL
Till about halfway through last century, one interest-
ing custom still held its own among us at Theberton —
the gleaning bell. Blackstone's opinion was, that the
Common Law of England allowed the poor to enter on
any man's ground to glean after harvest. That opinion
was over-ruled by legal decision, but the practice held
on under kindly favour of the farmers. It happens that
many parish bills of the time have been preserved ;
and they show that, from 1815 to 1849, a gleaning bell
was paid for every year. It was rung for two or three
weeks, according to circumstances ; in 18 15, for instance,
"from 1 2th August at Mr. Heath's, to 31st at Mr.
Ablett's." I think that at one time all persons belonging
to our parish, and perhaps also outsiders, after sound
of the morning bell, were at liberty to glean where they
pleased, but that latterly this licence was restricted, and
each farm became a preserve for the families of the men
employed on it. At the present time, self-binding and
reaping machines, and horse rakes following close behind
the wagons, leave but few ears upon the ground ;
and, moreover, the price of corn has not for many years
been high enough to attract the women — now, happily,
so much better to do — to a petticoat harvest in the
fields.
The following lines I quote from a little volume —
" Suffolk Largess," kindly given to me, soon after it
appeared in 1865, by the author. He was a police-
constable stationed at Theberton, who preferred to veil
his identity under the pseudonym of " Quill." Our good
old Suffolk speech is fairly well rendered : —
(Morning)
Why ! listen, yow be quiet, bo' — the bell is tolling eight
Why don't yow mind what you're about? We're allers kind o'
late!
THE END OF THE STORY 285
Now Mary, get that mawther dressed — oh dear ! how slow yow
fare
There come a lot o' gleaners now. Maw, don't stand gawkin'
there !
(Evening)
Dear me ! there goo the bell agin — 'tis seven I declare
And we don't fare to have got none : — the gleaning now don't fare
To be worth nothin' ; but I think — as far as I can tell
We'll try a coomb somehow to scratch, if we be live and well.
And now my work may end. The story of nearly
eight centuries has been brought down to 1850, within
old people's memories. Some day perhaps, another
pen may care to carry on these simple Chronicles of
Theberton.
Among Authorities consulted for this book may be
mentioned : —
" The Doomsday Survey."
" The Saxon Chronicle."
Chaucer. " Prologue to the Canterbury Tales."
" Collectanea Anglo Premonstratensia." Gasquet.
" Abstracts of Charters from the Register of Leiston Priory.
British Museum, Cotton MSS. Vespasian E. XIV.
Jessop's " Diocesan History of Norwich."
Suckling's « Suffolk."
" Deer and Deer Parks." E. P. Shirley.
Davy's " Suffolk Collections." Add. MSS. British Museum.
Stephen's " New Commentaries on the Laws of England."
CuUum's " History of Hawsted."
" Suffolk Records and MSS." Copinger.
"Parliamentary History of England" (23 volumes).
Raven. " History of Suffolk."
Tanner. " Notitia Monastica." 1787.
Gamier. " Annals of the British Peasantry."
Gamier. " History of the English Landed Interest."
Hawes' " History of Framlingham." 1798.
Rolls of Manor of Middleton cum Fordley.
Rolls of Manor of Middleton Chickering.
Rolls of Manor of Theberton.
*' Diary and .Autobiography of Edmund Bohun." Rix.
"The East Anglian Rising, 1381." Powell.
" The Founders of Penang and Adelaide." A. F. Steuart.
" Memorials of Old Suffolk." V. B. Redstone.
238 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED
" Wenhaston and Bulcamp Suffolk." Rev. J. B. Clare.
"Thorington Registers." Rev. T. Hill.
Wise. " History and Scenery of the New Forest."
Tusser. "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry."
Edition of 1812.
"The Old Times Parson." Ditchfield.
Fuller's "Worthies of England."
" Leaves from the Note Book of Lady Dorothy Nevill." 1907.
Stebbing's " History of the Church."
Walker's " Sufferings of the Clergy."
Kingston's "East Anglia and the Great Civil War." 1897.
" Poems of Bishop Richard Corbet." 4th Edition.
Cobbett's " Rural Rides."
Disraeli. " Curiosities of Literatui-e."
Disraeli. " Miscellanies of Literature."
Shaw's " Parish Law."
"Suffolk in 1674 : Hearth Tax Returns."
Ecton's " Thesaurus."
" The Clerical Guide." 1829.
" Index Villaris." 1680.
Walter Rye. " History of Norfolk."
Capper. "Topographical Dictionary of United Kingdom."
1825.
Reyce's " Breviary of Suffolk." Lord F. Hervey.
" MS. Collections for Dennington," by Edward Dunthorne. In
possession of the author.
Cox. " Magna Britannia Suffolk."
Ecton. " Liber Valorum et Decimarum." 171 1.
Webb. " English Local Government."
Hone. " Every Day Book."
Bacon's " Liber Regis." 1 780.
" Suffolk Sportsman." Symonds.
"Taxatio Ecclesiastica" of Pope Nicholas IV.
Taylor's "Index Monasticus, Diocese of Norwich." 1821.
" Valor Ecclesiasticus." Circa, 1535.
Lewis' "Topographical Dictionary of England."
" Tract on the Commodities of England." Sir John Fortescue.
" Sportsman's Dictionary." 1735.
Strutt's " Sports and Pastimes."
Brand's " Popular Antiquities."
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 239
Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy."
"Excursions through Suffolk." 1818.
" Paston Letters." Gairdner's Edition, 1908.
*' Suffolk Feet of Fines."
Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, &c., Publications.
Bishop's Registers, Norwich.
Acts of Court Books, Norwich.
Bishop's Visitation Book, Norwich.
Cal. Dom. State Papers.
Calendars of Wills, Norwich. Probate Registry.
Sacrist's Register, Dean and Chapter of Norwich Records.
Prior's Register, Dean and Chapter Records, Norwich.
Archbishop of Canterbury's Registers, Lambeth.
*' Victoria History — Suffolk.
Mandates to Induct, Suffolk Archdeaconry Register, Ipswich.
Visitation Books, ditto.
Act Books, ditto.
Parish Registers, Theberton.
Parish Accounts, ditto.
Parish Registers, Middleton.
Parish Accounts, ditto.
Calendars of Patent Rolls.
P.R.O. Rentals.
Sign Manual Warrants.
Exchequer Depositions.
Early Chancery Proceedings.
Star Chamber Proceedings.
Chancery Inquisitions post mortem.
Domestic State Papers, Ipswich.
"Ship Money Returns, Suffolk, 1639-46." V. B. Redstone.
Return of Rates (Suffolk) collected pursuant to Act of
Parliament, 16 Charles I, 1642. Original in Bury St.
Edmunds Museum.
Jortin. " Ecclesiastical History."
Gasquet. " Parish Life in Mediaeval England."
East Anglian Daily Times Miscellany.
"Gleanings after Time." G. L. Apperson, 1907.
" Piers the Plowman." Professor Skeat.
Lecture on Chaucer. Professor Skeat. Times Report,
June 2, 1898.
240 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED
" Anglo-Saxon Britain." Grant Allen.
" Precedents in Criminal Causes." Archdeacon Hale.
Ranke's " History of the Popes."
Foxe's " Book of Martyrs. "
Weever's " Funeral Monuments."
" History of Hampshire." Shore.
*' North Wales." S. Baring Gould.
Green's " History of the English People."
A FEW NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
By the Rev. PROFESSOR SKEAT
I TRUST I may be allowed to add a few notes, on my own
account, upon a few points which have come under my special
notice.
With regard to the footnote on p. 2, I do not feel sure that I
have expressed myself clearly. I mean that the present name of
Theberton has resulted from the old name by regular changes,
and in this sense has been preserved. The pronunciation of
Theod-beorhtes tun can only be fully appreciated by such as have
learnt a little Anglo-Saxon. Theod-beorht is composed of two
elements ; the former, " theod," means " people," and the latter
means "bright." Most of our old names are thus strangely com-
pounded. Each element must have its meaning ; but the whole
compound is usually nonsensical. A large number of Old English
Christian names still survive as surnames ; and Theodbeorht is the
source of the modern Tebbut, Tebbott, Tebbit, and Tibbert.
At p. 31 occurs "le Packeway." The word "pack" is first
recorded in 1225. The word "pedder" is derived from "ped,"
which meant " a basket," and is equivalent to " pedlar " ; they
hawked things (originally fish) about in baskets. The Latin
" pedes " could only have yielded " peder " ; so that Weever's guess
is impossible.
At p. 99, the best edition of Tusser is noted as being that of
181 2. A newer edition was printed for the English Dialect Society
in 1878, with notes and a glossary ; it leaves little to be desired.
At p. 130, the passage is as follows : " Qui alteri dederit liquorem
in quo mus vel mustela fuerint submersi, si secularis homo sit, tres
dies jejunet ; si monasticus sit, trecentos psalmos cantet." —
t4i R
242 A FEW NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Confessionale Ecgberti, § 40. This Ecgbert was Archbishop of
York. The Confessionale is printed in Thorpe's Ancient Laws,
vol. ii.
A " whitteritt," at p. 130, is the same as a "whitrack," otherwise
called a " whutthroat," />., white-throat. "Whitrack" means
" white neck," from " rack," a neck. See Whitrack and Rack in
the English Dialect Dictionary. The throat of the weasel is
white.
At p. 142, there is no difficulty as to "a payre of uppbodyes."
It means a pair of stays, to keep the bodies up.
P. 163, note. The wood- wale is the green woodpecker ; see the
English Dialect Dictionary. It is so explained in my Glossary to
Chaucer.
Where the Suffolk man says "an alpe," meaning a bull-finch,
the Shropshire man says " a nope," shifting the n from the article
to the substantive. The origin is unknown, but "alpe" is certainly
the older form.
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
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