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IUuatrati0na ai ©lb Jpsimtlj.

Illustrations

OLD IPSWICH,

TRIlitb Hrcbitectural 2)escriptfon of eacb subject an& sucb Ibfstortcal motices as
illustrate tbe /iDanners an& Customs of previous ages in tbe ol5 Borougb, belping to form

unpubltsbeJ) cbapters in its bistory,

JOHN GLYDE

" I pray you — satisfy your mind,
With the memorials of the things of fame,
Which do renown this borough."

PUBLISHED BY

JOHN GLYDE, 35, ST. MATTHEW'S STREET, IPSWICH.

1889.

6S0837

PREFACE.

The Volume now completed illustrates " Old Ipswich " in a way never before attempted. Each
building has been made as far as possible to tell its own story, and to illustrate by its
historical associations the maimers and customs of former ages, as well as the social changes
which have occurred. Sketches of the most picturesque objects assist the text, and the result
it is hoped is a trustworthy contribution to local history.

It was not practicable to give an illustration of every building in the town as to which
there was something interesting to tell. Only those were selected which caught the eye of
the artist, of the antiquary, and of the lover of the picturesque. The French process of
Photogravure, which happily combines the accuracy of the photograph and the delicacy of the
engraving, was adopted in order that foe similes of the drawings might be given and the
permanence of the steel plate secured. Convinced that cheap art is out of place in illustrating
books of this character, no pains have been spared to make the plates representative of the
highest stage of the art.

The Volume owes its origin in this way. The Author having for many years been a
collector of the drawings of George Frost, and others, of buildings in Ipswich in times gone
by, was urged by friends, whose regard for the sketches was as warm as his own, and who
thought the time was come for an illustrated work on Ipswich, to publish copies of the drawings
he had in his possession, and thus bring before the present generation the Ipswich of their
forefathers. The Author resolved to risk the outlay, and has the satisfaction of knowing that
such journals as " The Times," " The DaUy News," " The Athenseum," " The Building News,"
and the local newspapers commended the project, both in its aim and in its execution.

The Author cannot conclude without heartily thanking many friends for their kind assistance
during the three years he has been engaged in publishing " Old Ipswich." His obligations are
especially due to Professor Skeat, the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar of the age, to Lord John
Hervey, Rev. W. E. Layton, Mr. Henry Clement Casley, Mr. Benjamin Page Grimsey, who
have given him the benefit of their local knowledge, and have occasionally verified his
statements ; and to Mr. E. W. Harvey Piper, Assoc. S. A., who aided in the architectural
descriptions. He has also to express his indebtedness to Mr, H. M. Jackaman for the loan
of MSS., by the late Mr. William Batley, who was for several years Town Clerk of this
Borough.

Ipswich, March, 1889.

CONTENTS.

The Gates and Walls ... ... ... ... ... ... i

The Ancient House and its Historical Associations ... ... 11

The Old Coffee House ... ... ... ... ... ... 29

xH!E JtSKIDGSS ... •■• ••• ••• •»« ««, 3#

The Quay, the Custom House, and the Port ... ... ... 47

The Black Friars and Their Monastery ... ... ... 59

The Cornhill and its Associations ... ... ... ... 67

Early History ... ... ... ... ... ... 75

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The West Gate

to face page 1

The Ancient House

>> >>

Oak Dining Eoom, Ancient House

»> s»

The Old Coffee House, 1815

jj ))

Stoke Bridge, 1790

>j >>

Bourne Bridge, 1780

The Quay and Custom House, 1835

Jj )>

Remains of Black Friars' Monastery, 1746

93 J)

The Shambles, 1793

» >j

The Rotunda, 1805

The Market Cross and Tavern Street, 1785

» >j

The Town Hall, 1810

»» »

lUustratinnB of (DI& Ipahiklj.

THE GATES AND WALLS.

N these peaceful times we can hardly realize the necessity for fortifying a
town like Ipswich. We hear of " walls," " ramparts," and " gates," and
very much besides is left to the imagination. If, however, we go back to
Mediaeval times, good warrant will be found for fortifications even in so
small a place as Ipswich. The Danes, in their descents upon the Suffolk
coast, sailed up the Orwell, landed a body of men, sacked the town, and
retired before an adequate force could be brought to bear upon them. The
last record we have of such pillage is in the years 991 and 1000, when
they broke down the fortifications. These were subsequently re-erected, and we may be
sure that the experience of pillage and massacre fired the inhabitants with zeal enough so
to fortify their town as to enable them to repel an attack. Experience of this kind is not
thrown away upon a self-reliant people. We look back upon the work of our ancestors
with curious solicitude, perhaps with ill-concealed credulity. But those stormy days not only
contributed chapters to history, but they helped to knit more closely the fibre of Englishmen.
A people created in storms are not likely to prove craven cowards. The Danes could not
continue their predatory visits for ever; as their courage weakened, the confidence of the people
of this town increased. As fate would have it, they had to grapple with a foe native to the
soU. There is record of King John having caused a ditch to be cut and a wall to be made,
which, doubtless, was a re-erection of the old ramparts. At all events, we have in the gates
(such as the Bar Gates at Southampton and at York, and the gates here at Ipswich) the best
possible evidence of the lamentable state of insecurity by which our forefathers were embarrassed
in those good old times, when the Curfew tolled every evening at eight o'clock.

At this distance of time, when nearly all the marks of its existence are removed, it is
extremely difficult to trace the exact line of the defences made by order of King John in
1203. That it was extensive and costly work is evidenced by the fact that the inhabitants of
Cambridgeshire, as well as those of Suffolk, were compelled to contribute towards the outlay.
Bacon's Annals throw little light on the question as to the material used in the
construction of these walls, but various incidental notices given by him at a later date offer
strong evidence in proof that the ramparts or walls, raised as we have seen in a turbulent
age, by order of the most tyrannical of English kings, were built of earth rather than of stone.
He shows that, in the course of two or three centuries, common soil on and in connection
with these defensive works had been granted by the Corporation to so many persons that
in February, 1554, the Burgesses ordered that these persons shall, at their own expense, cast
up and repair such portions of the Town Walls and Ditches as adjoined the ground that had
been granted to them. In 1603 the walls were cast up, gravelled, and impaled ; and in 1643,
when civil war raged, the Burgesses ordered breastworks and fortifications to be made about
the Town, "and the Treasurer shall provid immediately 50 or 60 croudbarrowes or handbarrowes
and Baskets." In all probability the wall consisted of broad earthworks, with an outer ditch
and strong entrance gateways. This idea is confirmed by the fact that in 1303, just a
century after the wall was buUt, a " parceU of the Towne ditches " was granted to Robert

Joyliffe at the "yerely rent of sixpence for ever, unless it shall comme to pass that the
Townne shall be inclosed with a stone wall."* This shows that no wall of that kind was
erected in the reign of King John, nor have excavations ever revealed any traces of such.
The nearest town, Colchester, was surrounded by a stone wall ; but then that town was
originally fortified by the Romans, whilst Ipswich was not.

The course of the wall and ditch seems to have been nearly as follows. Starting from
the West Gate, it was caiTied at the back of houses now standing on the North side of
Westgate Street, across the lower end of High Sti'eet, where it abutted upon or joined the
Tower Ditches. This portion of the street was until recently known as Barley Mow Lane,
and extended from Westgate Street to Clay Lane. At this point stood " Bull Gate."
This was a modern erection. Its form is depicted on Speed's Map, issued in 1610, and the
Corpoi'ation Books show that, a few years pi'eviously (1603), a piece of ground was granted to
Mr. Bull at a nominal rent, on which, for some cause not named, he was to " bylde A Gate
house for the w'shippe of this towne." This Mr. Bull was the same year elected a Governor
of Christ's Hospital. Wodderspoon says that this gate is not mentioned in any known
Municipal Record, but Bacon's Annals, the Assembly and Great Court Books witness
against him. Along what is still known as the Tower Ditches, the wall and ditch
continued nearly in a straight line to the corner where " The Halberd " public-house
now stands. Here the " North Gate " was placed. Proceeding onward in a South-Easterly
direction to the junction with Cary Street (Carr Street) and Caldwell Street (St.
Helen's), now known as Major's Corner, they formed an angle and turned Southward
down Upper and Lower Orwell Streets (long known as the Upper and Lower Wash),
running at the back of the Black Fi'iars' Monastery, whose front boundary was in
Foundation Street, then known as St. Edmund-a-Pountney's Lane, directly to the river,
where all trace naturally terminates. Returning to the " West Gate," the ramparts
were carried between the present Black Hoi'se Lane (until recently known as Old Gaol
Lane) and Lady Lane, leaving Daundy's Almshouses and the Chapel of Our Lady of Grace
on the West. This Chapel stood at the North- West corner of Lady Lane, and the greater
portion of Daundy's Almshouses were by the side of it. Passing at no great distance from
the tower of St. Mary at the Elms Church, the ramparts were continued between Curriers'
Arms Lane and Tanners' Lane, skirting Grey Friars' Bridge on the East side. Near this
point they turned so as to embrace the Church of St. Nicholas and the Grey Friars' Monastery.
This Monastery and its grounds occupied a large area between the church and the River
Gipping. Proceeding in a South-Easterly direction towards the Church of St. Peter, they came
to " Lose Gate," which stood nearly opposite to the only relic we have of Wolsey's College,
and close to " The Ford." This well-known and useful place for traflac in ancient days crossed
the river from Whip Street to the site now occupied by Mr. Burton's warehouses in College
Street. The wall thus enclosed the churches of St, Peter and St. Mary Key within its
boundaries.

This outline enables us to see what portions of the existing town were enclosed within
the walls of Old Ipswich. In length they extended from the top of Northgate Street to the
Common Quay, whilst the area enclosed was that between Black Horse Lane and Major's
Corner. This space comprehended all that was strictly urban, and a walk of a mile and a
half would be necessary to get round the walled town. The Churches of St. Matthew,
St. Margaret, St. Helen, and St. Clement, the Chapel of Our Lady of Grace, and the
Priory of Holy Trinity, where the mansion of Christchurch now stands, were without the
walls, and consequently unprotected ; whilst on the other side of the river were St. Austin
and St. Mary in the Hamlet of Stoke. It was not unusual for religious houses and hospitals
to be planted outside the walls of a town, in order that the Friars might be away from the
commotions of the noisy Burgesses.

* Bacon's Annals, page 44.

The West or St. Matthew's Barr Gate gave entrance to the town from the West,
and its memory is perpetuated in " Westgate Street." Hitherto information as to the position
of this Gate has been loosely or incorrectly given by our local historians. Clarke says, veiy
loosely, that it stood just before we come to the "Feathers" public-house; and Wodderspoon,
in many respects a far more accurate historian, has in this case made a serious mistake. By
an outhne which he constructed from Speed's Map, and a dravdng in the British Miiseum,
he depicted the Town Wall as running along the Tower Ditches to Hyde Park Corner, and
from thence down Lady Lane, the West Gate being the junction at the West side of Lady
Lane. Thus placing the gate about thirty yards beyond its actual site.

Fortunately we are enabled to correct these errors and show conclusivelv the exact position
of this gate. When the sewer was laid down in Westgate Street, tlie massive foundations of
the old gateway were discovered. They ci'ossed the road from the house which adjoins
premises now occupied by Mr. H. Churchman as a retail tobacconist's shop, to the East end
of the public-house known as " The Feathers." The East side of the gate was, therefore, but
a few steps from the lane now known as Black Horse Lane. We know that the Gate House
was restored in the 27th of Henry VI., 1448, by John de Caldwell,* and from that date used as a
gaol. This enables us to bring confirmatory evidence of its position. Through the kindness
of the late Mr. John Chevallier Cobbold, we are enabled to state that among the title deeds
of "The Feathers," there is one dated 5th July, 1644, which thus describes the house: — "All
that Messuage or Tenement wherein Thomas Boycott doth now inhabit and dwell, commonly
called the " Princes Arms " or " Three Feathers," being in the parish of St. Matthew, in
Ipswich, between the common way there called Lady Lane, on the part of the West, and the
ditch of the said town of Ipswich, there called the wall ditch, on the part of the East, the
North end whereof abutteth upon the common street there in part, and upon the Gaol of the
said town of Ipswich in part."

This picturesque relic of the olden time, as will be seen by the engraving which forms the
first of our illustrations, consisted of two storeys, surmounted by a bell turret. The lower
story, formed of stone, was, doubtless, erected in the fourteenth century. It carried antiquity
on its face, was pierced by an archway for travellers on horseback, in carriages, or on foot. •
Whatever the ignorance of our forefathers, they knew how to build : their structures were put
up with care, and could only be pulled down by great effort. The solidity and strength of
the masonry were remarkable. One never sees a really old structure levelled with the ground
without remarking upon the high quality of work displayed. There are " sermons in stones,"
lacking theology, but rich in moral pith. This gate, the upper storey of which was of red
brick, was something more than a gate. In times of peace a watchman or warder had his
" chambers " in it, in times of trouble the watchman or warder would make way for men of
arms. When its original purpose ceased to serve, an economical borough administration turned
it into a cage for thieves. The reader will be prepared to learn that such a gate bore little
decoration, for it was built not for ornament, but for use, and that of a rough order.

Springing from each side of its West front, facing the country, was a deep bastion-like
tower, two storeys in height. The archway gave a headway of about fifteen feet, with
a span little exceeding that in width. This archway was of the familiar four-centred
Edwardian type, obtusely pointed, and had on the external faces a hood moulding, consisting
of a double row and fillet, and probably terminating, when first constructed, with carved
dripstones. The deep archway was barred, vaulted, and well rendered in plaster to a smooth
surface. In some engravings indications may be seen of the groove and recess which mark
the position of the massive wooden gate, by which admission could be barred. There is,
however, no trace of the portcullis, by which the upper portion was protected, a feature
of a town gate which forms the weU-known badge of Henry VII. and of the City of
Westminster.

* Bacon's Annals.

xiiis.
s.

mid.
d.

A bold projecting string course of stone sharply defined the demarcation between the first
storey and the more modem upper one. The latter follows the angles and lines of the lower
stage, and was faced with brickwork, doubtless the small local red brick relief was given by
diapering the surface here and there with lozenge-shaped patrals of blackened bricks. The
treatment with decorative patterns recalls similar work still standing in Northgate Street,
part of a gateway built in 1471 by William Pykenham, then Archdeacon of Suffolk.
This red brick storey, which is somewhat deeper than the stone one beneath, had nearly
in the centre a square slightly projecting wooden dial to a town clock. This had only
one hand, which would appear to indicate its antiquity. Old clocks had but one hand, the
hour hand, as though minute sub-divisions of the hour were unnecessary. The Rev. Francis
Haslewood has gleaned some interesting particulars respecting this clock, from the " Church
Book" of St. Matthew's. We shall see that, although affixed to a Town Gate and Borough
Gaol, it was kept in repair by the inhabitants of the Parish, thus : —

1629. Whereof in Mr. Hayles hands wch is agreed to be allowed him toward

his charges oute about the fynishinge of ye clock in the Borogate xls.

More agreed to be paid to Baddston for keeping the new clock iij

quarters of a year ------- xiijs. iiijc?.

1630. Whereof they are to pay to the sexten for keepinge of the clock one

whole yeare, ended at Easter last - - - -

1704. To Roger Moore, for cloning and mending ye Goale Clocke -

1777. Oct. 7th. OU for the Clock -----

1778. April 19th. For a Clock Line ....
1780. April 14th. Thos. Read, for a Clock Line . - . .

In " The Memorial Book " belonging to St. Matthew's, there is an entry on this subject,
evidently made by a very economical Churchwarden :—

1698. Memorandum that there is a note in the Church Chest, under the hand of
Roger Moore, which obUge him to keepe the Gaol Clocke in good repaire
during his life for eighteen pence a year.*

The internal apartment of this West front was lighted by a single wide and massively barred
window.

Still looking at the West side, a slightly later, but very picturesque, addition was made
in brickwork of a deeper red tint, taking the form of an over-sailing course, carried on dwarf
blind arcades, and capped with a coped battlement. Where the arcading should cross the
angles of the turrets was a bold projecting parapet, with apertures, supported by arches, the
angles and facets being reversed to those of the tower. This, like the other work, was coped
by mimic battlements, and naturally gave the old gateway a fortress-like appearance.

There was a remarkable difference between the East and West fronts of this old
Gate-house. All defensive strength and ornamentation was confined to the West front, which
greeted the visitor. On the East front the face was flat. The towers of the West front were
each cut into on the East side by a wide opening, closed by a stout oaken door, having iron studs
and two broad and plain hinge straps. To the South of the left hand tower was a lancet-headed
window, and there were three wide windows in the storey above. The facade was capped by
three plaster-pointed gables of equal span, canying as many roofs, covering in the archway and
the towers. These roofs overhung the eaves on the North and South sides, and were visible
above the parapet formed by the battlements on the West front, those on either side being
hipped to a point, and were covered with the narrow irregular heavy tiles so familiar in old
Ipswich. Their weight was too much for the slender purlins under the gables, as was evident

* Cover of St. Matthew's Parish Magazine, April, 1883.

from occasional sagging. On a town gate of some importance one would naturally expect to
see examples of the ornamental and carved barge boards characteristic of the district, but
decoration was not aimed at. As in the West front, the lower part of this East side was
constructed of coursed ashlar masonry, which had at some former period been coated with
plaster. From age and climate this had scaled off in patches, revealing the constructional
details beneath. There was another feature on this side, viz., a wooden framework bell turret,
which rose from the centre of the middle roof This was plastered in the lower stage, above
which the openings were partially filled with close-set turned balustrades. The roof of the
turret was steep pitched, and covered with tiles like those on the main building, terminating
in a knob finial and a very plain banner vane. Nearly in the centre of the middle gable a
elock was fixed similar in style to that which adorned the West front of this gate.

Considering the gateway as a whole, it is evident that precaution was taken on the country
or West side to protect the town from the danger of sudden attacks. The flanking towers were
multiangular, which would prevent assailants from creeping up unnoticed, whilst the projecting
arrisses rendered all attempts at scaling without ladders impossible. In the oversailing parapet
above were apertures through which a shower of molten lead, or, failing this, boiling oil or
water could be poured on the beseigers' heads. In the Southern or right-hand tower a cruciform
loophole facilitated the discharge of arrows and bullets. The battlements of the parapet were
also of a defensive character.

It only remains for us to endeavour to determine the probable date of erection of this gate.
A very slight examination of the architectural details proves that it owes its picturesqueness to
the fact that it was the work of three widely separated periods. The lower part is manifestly
of the period of Edward III., say about 1370, while the upper stages agree well in character
with the date of John de Caldwell, the liberal Ipswich Bailiff, who undertook the rebuilding
about the middle of the fifteenth century. It is a little older in character than Pykenham's
Gate, already referred to, and considerably anterior to the gateway of Wolsey's College, or the
tower of Layer Marney, near Colchester. The turned balusters in the bell turret and its
proportions indicate the days of the now fashionable " Queen Anne " style.

Wodderspoon, in his " Memorials of Ipswich," says, notices of the Barr Gate — that is the
West Gate — occur at early periods. In 1483 common soil was granted to John Parker at 4d.
rent, and in the next year the street now called Westgate Street is found named after the
building — Barr Gate Street. In Ogilvie's map published 1674 a part of this street is named
Gaol Gate Street. John de Caldwell, in the reign of Henry VI., offered to build a common
Gaol at the Barr Gate. This offer was accepted, and the prisoners of the franchise were confined
therein. In 1556 one, Richard Bird, was keeper of the Gaol, and some of the more ardent
apostles of the Reformation — some, indeed, whose lives were sacrificed on our Cornhill — were
confined under his charge. Bird was one of the Protestants of his day, and in a document
dated May 18th, 1556, drawn up by Commissioners appointed by Queen Mary's Government to
hunt out heresy and put a mark on suspected persons, complaint is made that Bird doth by
evil counsel animate the prisoners of his sect. It is also said that he and his wife did cheek
the Commissioners with unseemly words, tending almost to a tumult. Bird was evidently not
an official of the ordinary stamp. A century later we find intolerant theology stiU supplied
the prison at the West Gate with victims. Golding, in his " Coinage of Suffolk " says that
John Story, the keeper of the Ipswich Gaol in 1655, is mentioned for his cruel and inhuman
treatment of some Quakers, who were fined and imprisoned there for non-payment.

In the Corporation Records there is the following entry November, 1647 : — "Twenty nobles
a year, quarterly shall be paid by the Treasurer to the Minister of St. Matthewes to preache
once in three weeks at least to the prisoners in the Towne Gaol." The Puritans were
all-powerful in Ipswich at the above date, and it is doubtless to them that the appointment
of a Chaplain is due. Many of the prisoners who died in the Gaol were buried in the
Churchyard of St. Matthew's. The Parish Register gives the following entries : —

1571. mother hasaerde prisoner was buried the xxiij daie March.

1575. Jone Waters, a prison was buried the xxvj daie of September.

1576. A preson one Mother Penez was buried the vij day of Juhe.
1626. Thomas Alderson gaoler was buried the 8 daie of March.
1630. Xpofer Toulson gaoler was buried the xvij daie of Januarie.
1640. Susan Russell from the Gaole June 4th 1640.

These entries are continued to the end of the eighteenth century, but the West Gate
was abandoned as a Gaol long before that date, a cell only therein being occasionally used.

In the Record Office many documents may be seen relating to this prison and the
prisoners confined at Ipswich during the Commonwealth period. In 1649 the Magistrates
complain to the Council of State that they are "overburdened with prisoners from sea." The
security of the prison may be inferred, as in 1652 pirates were sent here for confinement.
Many foreigners taken prisoners at sea were kept at Ipswich till they could be exchanged.
So numerous were they in 1652 that the Council of State ordered " that 4d. a day each, be
allowed to the prisoners in Ipswich Gaol until discharged." The money to come out of the
proceeds of the prize ships in which they were taken.

It wiU be interesting to note the fees paid to the gaoler when the prison was at this
West Gate, though it may be remarked this was not the first prison erected in the town.
In the proceedings which took place at the time of the first incorporation, John Prikeht was
elected to keep the prison. In the 5th of Edward I., William de Goldham was Sergeant of
the Town Gaol, and, for the safe keeping of the prisoners, was ordered to find sureties, not
only that they should be kept safely, but should not be permitted too much indulgence. The
stipend of this officer was 13s. 4d. yearly, to which were added the " ancient fees." In the
10th of Ehzabeth, for every prisoner committed concerning felony, the gaoler received a fee of
Is. 2d., and at his discharge or acquittal, 3s. 4d. ; for every arrest on personal action, 14d. ;
for diet at meals, 6d. ; for lodging and bed each night, 2d. ; for every oath taken. Id. These
payments went to the support of those who could not afford to pay for board. For persons
committed for ofiences against the peace, a sum not exceeding 20d. was allowed. For the
supply of fetters, the gaoler was not permitted to compound at above a halfpenny per lb., and
for persons condemned. Id.

In the 38th of Elizabeth, the fees of the gaoler were re-arranged. He was allowed 8d.
per meal for all prisoners committed on action, and 6d. for opening the door to each of those
confined above four days.

The gaoler wore a town cognizance, but the Bailifis compelled him to buy his own cloth.*

The Borough Gaol of the last and at the commencement of the present century consisted
of two houses, with a large garden, standing on the East side of Old Gaol Lane,f now
known as Black Horse Lane, and with a frontage of some fifty feet in Westgate Street.
" Escapes " from this gaol were by no means unusual, and that probably accounts for the
statement made by Clarke in his History of Ipswich, that, notwithstanding the existence of a
Borough Gaol, a cell in one of the towers of the West Gate was used by the gaoler as a
dungeon or " black hole " for refractory prisoners until the demolition of the gate itself.

Part of the upper rooms over the gate were used by the Military at and previous to the
year 1780 as a depot for gunpowder, the lower parts as a guardroom and places of confinement
for soldiers. But a fire breaking out in the neighbourhood in the night of the 11th of November
of that year, the inhabitants of the town petitioned the Secretary of State that the gunpowder
magazine might be removed to another place, which was ordered to be done.|

In 1587 it was proposed that the Barr Gate should be sold, though the offer of a purchaser
was refused. It is probable this relic of ancient times continued unmolested until nearly the

* Wodderspoon's Memorials, page 229.
fin Ogilby's Survey, 1674, and in Pennington's Map, 1778, this lane is called " Burstall Lane."

I Batley MSS., British Museum.

close of the last century, when the question of its removal was revived, and the work was
soon after carried into effect. We have no evidence why this decision was so promptly acted
upon. The newspaper of that day did not report Great Court Meetings, and the " Gate " was
sold before the Editor thought the subject worthy of a paragraph to interest his readers. In
the Corporation Records, the first notice relating to its destruction will be found in the Minutes
of the "Great Court, held 17th November, 1781, when it was agreed and ordered that
St. Matthew's Gate, in this Town and Borough, be sold to the best bidder, in order that the
same may be pulled down. All deficiencies to be made good by the purchaser. And that the
Bailiffs, Portmen, and 24 men, or any five of them whereof one of the Bailiffs be one, be a
Committee for conducting this business." At this Great Court both the Bailiffs, four of the
Portmen, seven of the Common Council, and 41 of the Free Burgesses were present. In the
Ipswich Journal of December 1st, 1781, the following advertisement appears: — "Whereas, at
a Great Court, held for the town and borough of Ipswich, the 17th of this instant November,
it was agreed and ordered That Saint Matthew's Gate in this town be sold to the best- bidder,
to be pulled down, and all deficiencies to be made good by the purchaser. Notice is hereby
given That the said gate will be sold at the Town Hall, on Satui'day the 8th day of
December next, at Ten of the clock in the forenoon, when and where all persons desirous of
purchasing the same, must deliver in proposals in writing sealed up. T. Notcutt, Town Clerk.
Nov. 28."

In the Ipswich Journal of December 15th, 1781, a paragraph appears as follows : —
" Saturday last the West Gate in this town was sold to be pulled down, for £32. The
purchaser to make good all damages. It was built in the year 1430." Who was the
purchaser 1 What was the destination of the materials 1 We may safely assume that in the
walls of houses built at that time, some of these bricks and other materials were used.
" Hard as a brick " is a colloquial comparison which has some justification, when we reflect
that bricks made in 1430 did duty in this structure till 1781, and are even now in use.
Five months elapsed from the date of this order of the Corporation before another Great Court
was held. The Minute as to that sitting is as follows: — "Great Court, 16th AprU, 1782.
Agreed and ordered that the waste piece of ground at St. Matthew's Gate, be let on building
or other Leases for such term or terms, and at such Rents, as the Bailiffs, Portmen, and 24
men shall think proper, giving the parish of St. Matthew the preference." And the July
following it was " Agi-eed and ordered that a Lease for 99 years be made of so much of the
piece of waste ground at St. Matthew's Gate to Mr. John Cobbold, as adjoins to and abuts
upon his premises called ' The Feathers,' at a yearly rent of one shilling, he keeping the
pavement in repair during the said term, and that the said Lease be sealed with the Common
Seal at some future Great or Petty Court."

And at the same time it was "agreed and ordered that a similar piece of ground laid
waste on the opposite side of the street by the removal of the " Gate," should be leased for
99 years to Mr. John Bond, on the same terms and conditions as those named in the lease
to Mr. Cobbold.

This West Gate was one of four answering to the four Leets, or wards, into which
the town was divided, but the West Gate and North Gate are the only gates directly
noticed in historic records. We have mentioned that on Speed's map of Ipswich a gate
called " Bull Gate " is depicted, and an " East Gate " is mentioned in the local Domesday
Book.* This East Gate was probably in the parish of St. Clement, but the exact
situation of the South, as well as the East, Gate is involved in obscurity. Mr. WiUiam
Batley, formerly Town Clerk of the Borough, says in his MS. notes that the North Gate is
supposed to have been of very ancient date, but tlie time of its erection is unknown. The
first mention of it, he says, is that in the years 1620 and 1622, the wall ditches were ordered
to be paved and posts set up at both the Barr Gates.t

* Wodderspoon's " Memorials," 228. f Batley MS8., British Museiun.

It is somewhat singular that whilst the form of the " West Gate " is preserved in several
engravings and drawings, no authenticated engraving or drawing of the " North Gate " is
known — although George Frost, to whom we are indebted for so many sketches of our
picturesque antiquities, resided in the Town long before its demolition. On this subject Mr.
H. C. Casley has favoured us with some details. The " North Gate," or, as it was frequently
called St. Margaret's Barr Gate, stood across the upper part of Northgate Street, the contracted
point between " The Halberd " and the opposite house plainly indicating its position. It is
believed that no trustworthy representation of this gate, either in its pristine condition or in
its venerable decay, exists, although sketches purporting to depict it are to be found in the
hands of some collectors. The basis for them all is believed to have been an oil painting
offered for sale by the late Mr. William Mason, a broker of this town. It gave the
prospect from N. to S. of a lofty structure in rough stone with high pitch tile roof, having
a centi-al archway for road traffic with foot gates on either side. Through this middle arch
could be seen the street, in those days called " Brook Street," with a Church spire in the
distance. Making every allowance for an artist's licence, Ipswich readers scarcely need to be
reminded that the only spire in early days in this vicinity was that of the Municipal Church
of St. Mary at the Tower, and it would have been perfectly impracticable to have viewed the
present spire — a much more imposing structure than its predecessor— looking through the
gateway in any position, but the old spire stood several feet further to the north-west, and
was destroyed by lightning in 1661, whilst the picture was certainly not 150 years old. It
is somewhat strange, too, that the painting did not show either of the premises against
which the Bar abutted, although the maps of the day evidence that those on both sides of the
street were in great part in existence, whilst the picturesque gateway of Archdeacon Pykenham's
former palace (1471) is likewise ignored — and no provision is seen for the brook which until
comparatively recent years ran down the centre of the street.

Probably if the truth could only be known, St. Margaret's Barr Gate, like the " Lose "
and the " Bull " Gates, had little about it that found favour in the artistic eye, which would
account for no perfect delineation of the edifice having been handed down to us. It was
a great obstruction to the highway, and its demolition was one of the first acts of the old
Paving and Lighting Commission, after they obtained their Act in 1793. A dated pencil
sketch by a lady, in the possession of the contributor, represents it in July, 1794, when the
workmen were engaged upon the demolition of the wing walls, the Gate-house chamber being
already gone. There is certainly little that is attractive in the fragment thus depicted.
Specimens of the rough stone of which it was constructed may still be seen in the lower part
of the " Halberd Inn."

Provision for travellers in the way of rest and entertainment was as necessary two
hundred years ago as it is now, and we find that the houses, as shown in the engraving, on
each side of the old West Gate were devoted to this purpose. They were timber-built houses
in the old style, with over-hanging jetties, and chamber windows of small size quite under the
edge of the roof. These houses were made attractive to travellers by huge signboards that
projected some distance from the dwelling. The house shown on the left in the engraving
was known as " The Three Kings." This was a small public-house, but on the other side of
the street was a larger one, with " accommodation for man and beast," known as the Princes
Arms, or the " Three Feathers." Although the old timbered building has vanished, and a
modern erection of white brick occupies its site, the sign of " The Feathers " is retained. The
original structure was taken down about twenty-five years ago, and to the last retained the
appearance which it has in the engraving here given.

There are several old Town Gates still in existence, chiefly however in the cathedral
cities, where they shut off the cathedral close from the general area of the city. In noticing
them by way of comparison with the gate under notice, it must be borne in mind that most
of these structures are of stone throughout, and the majority of them have higher architectural
character and beauty than the Ipswich example ever possessed.

At Southampton there is a well-known Barr Gate across the High Street, not unlike the
Ipswich gate, but it is larger and more imposing. The four gates of the City of York are all
of solid masonry, having embrasures and battlements. At Canterbury there are several gates,
and that known as West Gate somewhat resembles the West Gate in Ipswich, but it has
circular towers developed on both faces, and is of masonry. The Norwich gates of Ethelred
and Erpingham, very fine examples, are essentially "Close" gates. The gateway at Peterborough
also led from the Market Place to a monastery near the Cathedral, and dates from 1330.
There are four gateways into the "Close" at Salisbury, and a like number in the City of
Wells. Two of the latter are about contemporary with the re-constructed Gate of John de
CaldweU at Ipswich. From these notices we may infer that the West Gate at Ipswich was
not equal either in defensive power or architectural beauty to the gates in many other towns,
and that the gates which most conspicuously combined strength and grace were most frequently
seen in connection with the predominance of ecclesiastical power.

We have thus far dealt with the " Gate " from a prosaic standpoint. Something has been said
of its history. Something may be added as to the scenes of which it formed a part. From
its stolid walls the fair and gentle may have looked upon the pomp and pageantry of State ;
its frowning walls may have been smitten with the peal of laughter, or enlivened with the
emotion of the enthusiastic sightseer. Life was not all hard matter of fact in those days. Nature,
as in our own times, had its softer side. Princes of the realm passed under its shadow.
Ill-fated Queens, the pious and the impious, had looked, it may be, with awe upon its
portentous features. A structure which stood the bufiets of the elements and the shocks of
time for four centuries would have much to say could its dumb stones be inspired with life.
We should hear something of an obtrusive but sincere piety which enforced fidelity to forms,
ceremonies, and creeds, for hard by stood the Chapel of " Our Lady of Grace." In this
chapel was a shrine before which the faithful prostrated themselves in large numbers. Indeed
it was second only in popularity to that greater shrine at Walsingham, in the adjoining county
of Norfolk. Now-a-days, except in foreign lands, we know little about shrines, but they had
their attractions in times gone by. The old gate outlived the shrine, a fact which is an
awkward comment upon the sanctity of the latter, as well as, some will think, upon religious
decadence. The Princes and Nobles, the ladies of fair degree, and the lords of high renown
who flocked to the shrine, where are they ? The old gate gave sharpness to their footfall
as they went to pray in the Chapel of Our Lady in Lady Lane. The pious flavour has
long been lost and Lady Lane has ceased to be historical or the resort of the feir and
gentle. Pilgrimages are ended and the virtues of the shrine disappeared in the sequence of
time. But all concerning it and those who went to pray in the Chapel of Our Lady are not
lost. History, with its partiality for the great and lofty, is not silent. Would that it had been
more observant and communicative. Blufi" old Harry was not overburdened with piety, but he
had pious wives ; and who shall say that fur the good of his soul prayers were not offered
within earshot of this ancient gate? His first spouse, Catherine of Arragon, visited (1517)
Lord Curzon at his house in Silent Street, and paid an early morning visit to the Chapel
of Our Lady of Grace. From Silent Street to Lady Lane her Majesty went on horseback,
and she would not go unattended. In 1522 Henry himself went there to pray. He had
not then quarrelled, either with his spouse or with the Pope. In the year before Leo
conferred upon him the title of "Defender of the Faith," so shortsighted was even a
Pope. Thither, too, " our Cardinal " repaired ; and Wolsey — who, with all his greatness
of mind, delighted in magnificence — we may be sure, would flavour his piety with
ostentation. Seated on his white palfrey and surrounded by noblemen, and preceded
by cross-bearers and pillar-bearers, he would seek to impress the spectators by his gorgeous
retinue as a preliminary to impressing them by his zealous devotions. Queen Mary, too,
when troubles vexed the State and her own bosom, passed through the gate (1553) on
her way from Kenninghall to Framlingham Castle. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, must

have (in 1561, 1565, and 1577) startled its grim portals with the grandeur of her display.
The swarthy face and loud laugh of the profligate Charles II.— the King whose mistresses
outnumbered the wives of Henry VIII. — were once seen and heard while passing through this
gate (1668) on his way to Christ Church. Later Kings and Princes of the Royal House also
made its acquaintance. But a greater than any of them passed through this archway, trotting
a splendid horse, in 1597. He was a man about thirty-five years of age, with an outward grace
and aspect. Somewhat sUght in build, and of average height, he, though round in flesh, looked
worn for his years. Dressed sumptuously, he rode with ease, his head well set, erect, and
framed in a thick starched fence of frill, his hat and feather tossed aside from a broad and
high forehead, over which crisped and curled a mass of dark soft hair. A short trimmed beard
decorated a face partly shaven, which was made still more attractive by good eyebrows, penetrating
eyes, and a mouth small and delicate, a thousand pranks and humours lurking in its twinkling,
tremulous Unes. Its smile combined intellect and benevolence, lighting up a face which you were
insensibly drawn to admire. This was Francis Bacon (afterwards Viscount St. Albans), on his way
from Shrubland to the Moot Hall, to take his oath as a Free Burgess, having previously been
elected to represent the Borough of Ipswich in the Parliament at Westminster.*

These Kings and Queens, the Shrine of our Lady, and the Gate itself are now only in the pages
of history ! The prison bars and chains — the irons once deemed essential to prison discipline —
the massive iron doors which alike prevented the escape of the pirate, the heretic, and the
traitor, are gone for ever. The persecution and cruelty inflicted, and the misery endured by
the innocent as well as the guilty, within the walls of this strong tower of defence are,
happily, things of the past. The gate and something of its surroundings we have re-called
as matters of local interest, and from what has been said the reader will gather that if time
has its revenge it also has its triumphs. The gate is gone, and with it, happily, the necessity
for its existence.

* Hepworth Dixon's Life of Bacon.

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THE ANCIENT HOUSE

AND ITS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.

T would be difficult to find a house, belonging to a private individual and
never inhabited by one beyond the rank of a squire, which possesses so
many attractions to the artistic eye as the "Ancient House," in the Butter
Market, Ipswich. This house was long known as " Sparrowe's House,"
from its having been the residence of the Sparrowe family for nearly three
centuries, and it is so described in all publications respecting it prior to
1860. Some of the rooms took their present form and appearance when
Shakespeare was only three years old, and Elizabeth had been but nine
years on the throne ; but various parts of the house are of a much older date. Perhaps
no period of our history has been so rich, so varied, so full of life and of aU that makes
a nation great, as the latter half of the sixteenth century, when the destiny of the
Empire was shaped. English merchant ships were traversing every sea, and Ipswich played
no obscure part in the commerce of the age. Cavendish, the second Englishman who sailed
round the world, and his companion, Thomas Eldred, who lived in the parish of St. Clement's,
were familiar figures in the town, and probably were friends of George Copping, to whom the
" Ancient House " owes its present form. The Continental trade carried on at the Port of Ipswich
brought foreign workmen to it, and their influence was displayed in the architecture of the
period. It may be assumed that Copping had amassed wealth by foreign trade, since it was
only the merchant adventurer who enriched himself in that age. The solidity and stability of
the house he built are typical of the man. No common-place citizen would have built a house
of which, as an ornament to the town, many generations of Ipswich men have been justly
proud, and many more are yet, we trust, to point to it as an example of what their forefathers
could accomplish.

The faqade of this remarkable building is of a highly ornamental character, and unique in
its way, for it may be cited, not only as the most interesting specimen of existing ornamental
woodwork and pargeting, but as one of the most richly decorated domestic buildings in
England. It difiers so essentially from any other that the date of its erection has been a
matter of ingenious speculation to architects and archaeologists. Clarke, in his " History of
Ipswich," says "it was built in 1567, by a person of the name of Clyatt, for Mr. Robert
Sparrowe, who was several times Bailifi" of Ipswich." This statement, like many others by the
same writer, will not bear investigation. The Mr. Robert Sparrowe who resided at Ipswich in
1567 held several official positions in the corporate body, but was only once elected Bailiff.
Wodderspoou has shown that the house was not built for any member of the Sparrowe family,
as Mr. George Copping resided there in 1570.* Portions of the interior are of much

* George Copping lived in the parish of St. Lawrence, and probably in the Ancient House, long prior to this date.
On the 17th of September, 1545, he was married at St. Lawrence Church, to Margaret Typho, and in the following year
his first-born, Nicholas, was baptised there. Seven other baptisms followed, the last one being in 1567. He was
elected one of the Chamberlains of the Borough in 1551, and ten years later we find the Headburrows were ordered
to allow George Copping to take a piece of land at the back of Lord Curzon's house in Silent Street, at a rent of
half-a-crown a year. This land was part of the common soil, and situated in what is now called Turret Lane. The
ground thus obtained was kept as a bowhng green and garden by the Sparrowe family down to nearly the middle
of the present century. The site is now built upon by the British Schools, Turret Green Chapel, and other buildings.

Tn 1573, the year in which it is said that Mr. Eobert Sparrowe took possession of the Butter Market House,
we find George Copping residing on the country side of Stoke Bridge. The Corporation at that date allowed him, on
certain conditions, to have next " to his own grounds " a piece of the common soil in the channel, eight feet in breadth,
and extending from the Bridge Eastwards in length 140 feet, at a nominal rent, that of a penny a year. (Bacon's
Annals.) A notice in the Church Books shows that his remains were interred at St. Lawrence, on the 28th.
August, 1578.

earlier date than the exterior, but there is no evidence to show when this change of character
took place. Architectural experts assign the present front of the building to the age of
James I., say 1610, whilst other parts of the house carry one back to the time of
Henry VII., when Wolsey was astonishing the professors at Oxford as a "boy bachelor" —
a time when strength rather than ornament, durability instead of decoration, were the
characteristics of English domestic architecture.

The late Mr. R. M. Phipson, an antiquary and also an architect of wide experience, to
whom every facility was afforded for examining this old house, when describing it more than
thirty years ago, said, " I have been unable to obtain any positive data from which a satisfactory
conclusion could be drawn as to the exact period of the erection of this very interesting building.
The information to be gleaned from documents in the possession of the Sparrowe family and in the
hands of collectors of deeds and papere connected with the locality is so meagre as to be of
little service in elucidating the question. It is, therefore, only by investigating its architectural
characteristics that a solution of the problem can be arrived at. After a minute and careful
investigation of its details in every part, I feel satisfied that the house, as we now see it,
cannot be referred to any one period, but has been the accumulated work of a lengthened
series of years, extending over probably nearly two centuries. The earliest portion of the
edifice, with the exception of the foundations, which cannot now be examined, is undoubtedly
a hammer-beam roof of three bays, the wall plate of which is 21 feet from the ground. The
existence of this roof was for many years unknown, a floor having been thrown across its whole
area, just below the level of the cornice. When it was discovered in 1801 several wooden
angels, &c., were found upon tlie floor, having, doubtless, fallen from the ends of the hammer-
beams and intei'sections of the ribs, their fastenings (wood pins) still remaining in their original
position. This roof is of the date of Henry VII. (say 1495), and probably belonged either to
a chapel, the usual adjunct to a mansion at that period, or it may have been the roof of the
hall, which often took this form, as at Helmingham and Gifford's Hall in this county. The
external wall from which this rises has been so recased some hundred years since as to leave
no indication as to door or window openings. Next in date, I imagine, is a wooden corridor,
forming two sides of a courtyard adjoining the hall or chapel."*

Another writer, whose taste and judgment are well known, says, " The great glory of
Ipswich, as regards Architecture, is the house of Mr. J. Eddowes Span-owe, situate in the Old
Butter Market. The weekly market for poultry, &c., was held in this street up to the
year 1811. There is, perhaps, no house in the kingdom which, for its size, is more curiously
or quaintly ornamented, or contains within its apartments more that can interest the connoisseur
in painting, the student in genealogy, or the lover of antiquity. The architect of the building
is unknown, but it was believed to have been buUt for the residence of Mr. Robert Sparrowe,
in 1567, by an individual named Clyatt. It has, however, been discovered within a few years
that in the year 1570 the building was occupied by George Copping, and by him erected in
1567. This information is contained in the wUl, made about that date, of Mrs. Joan West,
widow of William West, who, in devising the Waggon Inn, still the next house to Mr.
Sparrowe's residence, describes her own tenements as standing * between G. Copping's house
upon the West and the tenements of — Ward, where one Ralph Carrawaye now dwelleth,
on the East, whose North head abutteth on the Fish Market Street, and the South head
thereof on the Churchyard of St. Stephen.' Added to this evidence, the initials of G.
Copping exist upon the doorway and over the mantel of an inner room of the building, and,
being accompanied by the figures 1567, are presumed to mark, not only the name of the
owner, but also the date of the erection of the buLlding."f

The main front of the house has a North aspect extending along the Butter Market some
62 feet, with a return hx^de in St. Stephen's Lane. Briefly described, the elevation consists

* Suffolk Archaeological Proceedings, vol. 2.
f Wodderspoon's Historic Sites of Suffolk.

of a double plinth and pilastered ground story, a richly pargeted principal story, having
five large bay windows, all differently treated, projecting over the ground story, above which
is a broad over-sailing cornice, with a series of gable dormers in the roof. With the exception
of the double plinth, which is of brickwork, the building is of timber, with parget-work plastering
and carving in high relief The roof and the dormers are tiled.

At the pavement level the elevation, on both the North and West fronts, commences
with a plinth of red brickwork, about three feet in height. This brickwork continues to the
underside of the ground floor window sills, and forms the base on which the building is
constructed. It has been either renewed or scraped, but an examination of the earliest
illustrations of the house shows that it follows the old lines. Above this dado is a substantial
oak sill, some four inches in depth, and this extends along the main front, broken only by
two doorways, one near the centre, tlie other at the extreme East end. From this massive
oak sill the timber framework, in the form of sohd richly-carved oak pilasters, springs. The
original doors have been removed. The panel over the principal entrance is decorated with a
boldly carved pediment of Jacobean character, ornamented with fruit.

Confining our attention first to the main front, we note that the ground floor is divided
into fourteen equal spaces, viz., eight windows, four blanks, and two doorways, all of which
are deeply recessed. These divisions are decorated with fifteen boldly projecting pilasters,
gradually increasing in size from base to cap, and ornamented on each of the exposed sides
with bunches of grapes and drops of flowers carved in high relief. On the front of each
pilaster towards the base, looking in some instances alternately right and left, are grotesque
animals' heads, the expression of which represents the agony of having to bear the superincumbent
weight. All these pilasters were believed by Mr. Phipson and others to be of oak, the only
wood which was used for carving in the sixteenth century, but closer examination has proved
some of them to be of deal, evidence of altered arrangements and repairs in modern times.
The interspaces were formerly filled alternately with a window and a wood panel, the main
entrance to the mansion being in one of the otherwise blank intervals. Now that the house
has been modernised for trade purposes, the old quarry panes in the windows and some of the
blank panels are replaced by single sheets of plate glass. The shutters in the blank spaces
evidently belong to different periods. The earlier ones consist of framework faced with
over-lapping bands, secured with rows of lozenge-shape headed nails. Till recently the old
door at the East end was of this pattern. The other shutters are of framed circular panel-work,
moulded and intersected. The architrave mouldings surroimding the windows, panels, and
doors are decorated with the Classical egg-and-tongue ornament. The pilasters are surmounted
by semi-Ionic caps, beneath which the pilasters are rounded off and carved with an acanthus
leaf. At the angles surmounting these caps are heavy and deeply-cut double-scroU brackets,
which form an ornamental support to the overhanging first floor.

This floor is distinguished by a series of four large bays, each straight in front with a
quadrant on either return. The space between the bays is occupied by widely-spaced coupled
pilasters connected by festoons. In the central panel, which is an exception, the Royal Arms, crest,
and supporters of the Stuart period are fully displayed, with the letters " C. II., K" over the top
Carolus Secundus, Rex. Beneath is the motto, " Dieu et mon Droit.'^ The whole of the work
on this story is in alto relievo modelled in plaster. The space between the windows on the
left, or East, side of this is occupied by emblems of the earth, a vase of flowers and foliage,
the pilasters being connected by a festoon of similar character. The small panel beyond the
Eastern window has a single pilaster, and from rings on either side just below the capital is
suspended a festoon of flowers and fruit. Turning to the compartment between the bays on the
Western half of the main front, we note at the foot of the one immediately to the right of
that containing the Royal Arms emblems of water, a figure of Neptune holding his trident
and mounted on a hippocampus (^,he armorial supporters of Ipswich) in lieu of the customary
dolphin, while the festoon coupling the pilasters is a string of fishes. The Western panel

contains the pelican, the legendary bird of piety, feeding her young from her own breast, and
here the festoon above is formed by aquatic birds. Thus we see a natural association between
the subjects of the lower part and the treatment above, fruits, fishes, and birds forming a
regular progression in dignity over the entire front.

Above this principal floor is a very bold over-sailing cornice, elaborately moulded in many
members. In the centre of each bay the cornice is broken by a portion mitred over the key
of the arch on the face of each window. These projecting portions, which are exactly similar in
contovu* to the rest of the work, effectively break the rigid uniformity of the sky line as seen
from the street level, and afford just the required relief to the strongly-marked continuous
mouldings. The upper surface of the cornice furnishes a promenade round the upper part of
the building. The leads here are wide enough for two persons to walk abreast. Above this level
four gabled dormers carry upwards the lines of the bays. In each of the pediments beneath
the moulded barge boards of the gables an attempt is made by pargeting to symbolise mythological
events. There are difficulties in the way of interpretation which are not removed by the
wear and tear of two hundred years. The first example, beginning at the East end, probably
represents Perseus slaying Medusa ; the next two, Hercules and his Club ; and the last, Cupid
and his bow. The panels beneath the windows are left blank, giving a much-needed relief
to the front.

" No chimneys can be seen from the street," say Clarke and Wodderspoon. This was,
doubtless, one of the peculiarities of the structure, but it is a peculiarity no longer. There is
a chimney toward the East end.

Returning to the bays, it will be found that they exhibit unity of treatment. The upper
part of each is glazed in small rectangular quarries, the middle lights opening beneath
a semi-circular head with ornamental key. At the springing line of the head is a
moulded transom, intersecting the side lights. The vertical quoins are carved on the
face with bunches of fruit, forming a running ornament. These quoins continue through
the transom to the corner of the bay, terminating in a carved head. The lower third
of each bay, which is occupied by figures modelled in plaster, is still more interesting.
The central square is filled with an emblematical representation of one of the four quarters of
the globe, with its peculiar attributes. The names are given in relief above. Europe, in the
left hand bay, has as its attribute a crowned female seated on a horse, holding in her right
hand a cornucopia, and apparently pointing with her left hand to an ecclesiastical looking
edifice, of Gothic design. The second contains a seated figure, Asia, wearing an Oriental
cap of State, with two pointed ends, and in her left hand is a sceptre. She is apparently
seated on a camel, while in the background is a palm tree and in front a domed
and minaretted mosque, intended, probably, as in the former case, to indicate the predominating
form of rehgion. The third figure, Africa, rides upon a crocodile, and protects himself
by an umbrella from the rays of a scorching sun. He holds a barbed spear, while in
place of the building seen in previous panels there is a small bird. The fourth compartment,
representing America, gives us the nude figure of a man standing with legs widely apart, one
hand on his hip and in the other a quiver full of arrows. On his right crouches a bison.
The panels on the returns or sides of each window are filled with free scrollwork, in each
case differing in style and character and adding greatly to the beauty and variety of the
design.

The return front in St. Stephen's Lane, which is about 26 feet deep, follows in its main
features the details of the principal front, and is treated with similar elaboration. The chief
variation is in the subjects. On the ground floor are three bays of pilasters, the intervening
panels being now occupied by shop windows, and beyond there is a circular-headed domestic
window. The first floor projects as in front, and in the centre is a bay window. In the
tipper portion of the broad-pilastered panel, between this window and the corner, is a festoon
formed of musical instruments, whilst in the lower part is a pastoral scene, probably founded

on a discourse in the First Eclogue of Virgil. Beneath the arm of a shady tree a shepherd is
seated tending his sheep, and to him approaches another shepherd, having long hair and the
bucolic dress of the middle of the seventeenth century ; in his right hand he holds deferentially
a low broad-brimmed hat, and in his left a long shepherd's crook. In the panel beneath the
window is a kneeling figure of Atlas supporting the world on his shoulders by both hands.
He is represented as an old bareheaded man with a long straggling beard. To the right of
the bay window is a circular one, treated, as to the woodwork surrounding it, exactly like the
blank panels on the ground floor in the main front, but above this are figures of
Angels. The over-hanging cornice has the same peculiar projection over the bay as already
described in the main faqade. The gable above has meagre barge boards, and over the dummy
vpindow in the middle is a spirited representation of a man on horseback. To the south of
this window is a plainer one, coeval in date.

Cast ornaments in plaster of the present day bear witness to their nobler parentage in
the days of hand-wrought pargetry. This pargeting or modelling of plaster in low relief was
often employed in ornamenting timber-built houses in the seventeenth century. It was
occasionally used for interiors, as in the Old Assembly Room, Ipswich. In some cases panelling
was adopted for the lower parts of rooms, and, in the place of tapestry, pargeting was
employed as a means of enriching the walls above. Sometimes these plaster enrichments
consisted of foliage and flowers, sometimes of figures, sometimes simply of ornamental mouldings.
Modern ideas of improvement having led to the disappearance of many fine specimens of this
kind of work, existing examples are scarce. Less elaborate specimens than this Ancient House
may be seen in Cheshire, in Essex, and in Kent, also in Eouen and its neighbourhood. At
Newport, in Essex, there is a good example of pargetry, modelled foliage and fruit running
the length of the house, and over the porch is a crown in full relief, resting on a cushion.
The exterior of " The Sun Inn," at Safii-on Walden exhibits some fine pargeting, but the
details are singularly grotesque. In Wyvenhoe, the first floor of some low and poor looking
houses is most elaborately decorated in this style. The ground floors are covered with weather
boarding, which contrasts greatly with the enrichment above. All these examples are said to
be seventeenth century work. But, of all known exteriors decorated in the pargeted style,
this Ancient House is the richest and best example. The age was a stirring period in English
history, and the quaint carvings and the grotesque extravagance frequently introduced into
the external decoration of domestic architecture seem to indicate a love of freedom, and an
imagination which gave itself joyous expression. The work on the front of this Ancient
House is altogether of a higher order. There is a marked absence of the grotesque. Symbol
and art are in felicitous union. The emblematical figures representing Europe, Asia, Africa,
and America, show that the architect was a man of genius. The subjects drawn from Classic
and other sources are treated in a sympathetic spirit, and all the details of the ornamentation
bespeak the influence of the Italian Renaissance. Taken as a whole, this house may be described
as one of the most finely decorated specimens of domestic architecture of the seventeenth
century.

Thus far the exterior. It is time to step inside. What was formerly the entrance hall
of the old mansion is now part of a bookseller's shop. Neither in the celling nor in the
surroundings is there an indication of anything beyond the Hanoverian age. A staircase leads
to what was originally the drawing room, but what is now a reading room and library.
Paintings and portraits by Vandyke, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Gainsborough, and
other masters have given place to rows of books. The room extends over the chief portion
of the front. It is lighted by three of the bay windows which are seen from the Butter
Market and one at the West end. The splendid efiect of the windows and the richness of
the ceiling decoration at once strike the eye. The bays add materially to the size of this
otherwise magnificent room. The quaintness of the iron fastenings to the casements is worthy
of notice, being of the same date as the front of the buildings.

The fire-place and mantel are modem, for in the time of the late owner and his
immediate predecessors there was nothing of the kind in the room. This splendid apartment
was formerly occupied as a summer drawing room only. At other seasons it was used and
appreciated as a morning room and promenade. The ceiling is traversed by massive oak
beams divided into six compartments. These are elaborately worked in plaster with wreaths
of fruit and flowers and shields at the comers. The shields formerly added greatly to the
beauty of the ceUing. The arms of the Sparrowe family and of those immediately connected
with them were emblazoned thereon. This ceiling is of the same date as the ornaments on
the front of the house. The decoration is bold and massive, though somewhat heavy in detail.
Originally it must have been very effective. But the age of white ceilings has come in and
the shields and coloured decorations are covered thick with whitewash ; the ancient glory is
blotted out.

Wodderspoon describes the room as extending "over the whole of the front part of the
house." This is an error. Part of the front at the East end is occupied by a small room,
which is lighted by one of the bay windows. The rooms were of the same dimensions as
they are now long before Mr. Wodderspoon saw them, and experts have informed us that
there is no indication of any alteration in that respect having taken place since the present
front was built. In one corner of the room is a small door now disused, which opens to a
staircase leading to the roof. This staircase is noticeable for the quaintness of the balusters
and details. The small room at the East end is now a repository for books belonging to a
Medical Society. In the time of the late Mr. John Eddowes Sparrowe it was used as a
billiard room. The decoration of the ceiling is totally different to that of the large room,
fleurs de lis being used.

In the first year of the present century a singular discovery of a concealed loft, with
a hammer-beam roof, was made in this upper region of the house. This room or loft is
twenty-three feet long and fifteen feet seven inches wide. It has three hammer-beam
principals, with carved braces, richly moulded collar beam, moulded pvirlins, and curved wind
braces. The Pointed form of the arch has naturally suggested the idea that this loft once
formed part of a small chapel or oratory. Wodderspoon supposed that it existed as such in a
perfect state at the date of the Reformation, but after that period, the open assumption of the
proscribed faith becoming dangerous, the chapel was converted into a sitting room, and the
roof was concealed by a beamed ceiling. Others have thought that the loft formed the roof
of a hall to an older mansion. Either supposition is not without probability, but as Mr.
Phipson tells us that when this loft was accidentally discovered in 1801 several wooden angels
were found upon the floor, having doubtless fallen from the ends of the hammer beams and
from the interstices of the ribs, the evidence in favour of a chapel is stronger than that of a
hall. This discovery dispels the idea that the house was built in 1567, as this roof is of much
earlier date. The house was doubtless then re-modelled and re-arranged.

Returning to the shop, a door nearly at the foot of the stairs leads to a room which
looks on to the court yard. The walls of the room are panelled in oak, bold, deep, and well
moulded, the excellent workmanship of which is unfortunately to some extent concealed by
repeated coats of light-coloured paint. The mantel-piece, which is of good design and
workmanship, has but little carving on it, and that is in low relief In the frieze are two
3-inch circles, enclosing the letters " G. C." and " M. C." in monogram style, and on a pilaster
to the left of the fireplace the former initials are repeated. Mr. Phipson, referring to '•' G. C."
remarked that these initials are those of George Copping, who owned this property before it
came into the possession of the Sparrowe family in 1573. He did not allude to the second
monogram, " M. C." which may fairly be taken as the initials of Margaret Copping.
There are two doors near the fireplace, one of which is modern. On the top of the old door
is " 1567," also carved in low relief The panelling in the room is, with one exception,
the oldest specimen of this kind of work in the building. The exception is an example

\C^

of the linen pattern panelling, just outside this very room, that belongs to the time of
Henry VII.

A doorway from this room leads to a passage, on one of the walls of which a number of
five-inch Dutch tiles are embedded. On these, painted in blue and white, are full length
representations of Mars and Pallas — the god of war and goddess of wisdom — clad in the massive
and gorgeous trappings of Homeric heroes, with the name of each in scrollwork at foot. The tiles,
thirteen rows in height, are accurately fitted together, and the figures and the scroUwork thus
formed reach to a height of five feet five inches. They are unique both in design and
execution, and it is inferred that they originally formed the inside jambs of some important
mantel-piece. They are manifestly out of place in their present position.

Re-entering the room, a doorway on the other side of the fireplace leads to what was in
former days the oak dining room, which is low, but of good dimensions. It is snug enough
for a sociable dinner party, but lacking anything of an exhilarating tendency. Its surroundings
produce a gloomy first impression. It is lighted from the South by a modem window, and
the sun's rays, therefore, enliven it. But the effect of the dark panelling, low ceUing, and the
proximity of adjacent buildings is unmistakeable, and it and the absence of that cozy attraction,
a blazing fire — "that live thing in a dead room," as Sydney Smith said — combined to give the
room, when we saw it, a sombre appearance. The surface of the walls is panelled in dark oak.
This carries us back to the age of Elizabeth, yet the wood looks as sound now as when first
put up. The panelling is divided into bays by fluted pilasters, with carved capitals and
moulded base and dado, having in addition pilasters of a more imposing character under the
cross beams. The mouldings of the panels, of course, are hand wrought. Above the panel-work
and immediately under the cornice is an enriched frieze of Elizabethan character.

Round the fireplace opening are moulded marble jambs and mantel. Outside these the
richly carved woodwork commences with a wide band, containing a combination of acanthus
scrollwork and some natural foliage and fruit. This carving is of later date than the panelling :
on the base of both pilasters the date is carved, 1603. The overmantel has three pilasters,
and immediately beneath the centre one, surrounded with rich carving, and forming a sort of
key to the work, are the arms of the Sparrowe family, forming a strong bas relief, the crest,
with a silver horn to the unicorn, not being omitted. This is the starting point of the
decoration ; and the acanthus ornamentation here used has been described as the most masterly
example of conventionalism that has ever been seen in ornamental art. The Greeks, who
valued clearness rather than richness of efiect, selected the acanthus as a model for ornamental
purposes, and their judgment has been endorsed by the best artists of all ages. The carver of
the work in this room has, by a beautiful system of curved lines, which balances and contrasts
the various scroUs, displayed his fancy and ingenuity most attractively, giving sufficient likeness
between each scroll to make them balance, without imparting the appearance of mechanical
reproduction. In this overmantel the carver has displayed the richest part of his art. Two
large panels are divided by a pilaster and flanked by pUasters. Each of these is carved in a
style which ranks with the best work of the time in which it was executed. The carving
consists of figures, terminating with ornamental shields and cartouches. The flanking pilasters
rest on a dado and base, and are continued by a second pilaster to an enriched base, forming
a line with the pilasters in other parts of the room.

Besides this decorative carving, this overmantel has some beautiful marquetry ornamentation.
Two large panels, between pilasters, are thus filled, adding greatly to the richness and dignity
of this side of the room. The design in each panel is a vase with handles. Out of the vases
spring elaborate foliated scrolls, terminating in conventional flowers and completely filling each
space. Small birds perch on the handles of the vases. The framework and the compartments are
worked in coloured woods, probably lime and oak. Marquetry was the fashion at the end of
the sixteenth century, and the owner of the Ancient House, who was evidently a rich man,
seems to have been of opinion that his dining room, on which he had lavished a wealth of

carving, woiild not be complete without examples of it. In the fifteenth century Florence
was noted for decorations of this character, and these panels show that half a century later
specimens of the art for which the Italians had become pre-eminent were introduced into
Ipswich by a gentleman who was probably only a merchant draper, a resident in the town.
The style, by some, is said to be Indian, while others maintain it to be Persian.

Mr. Wodderspoon, in describing this room, says that the oak is carved in a manner which
would do honour to Grinling Gibbons. This remark must be taken cum grano salis. The two
modes of cai'ving are totally different, and cannot be compared. One is the result of skill,
the other of genius. The carving in this overmantel is cut out of the solid. The work grew
into beauty under the artist's hands ; whilst much of that of Grinling Gibbons, particularly his
rendering of delicate leaves and flowers, or birds, is worked without a background, and exhibits
that marvellous power which can only be ascribed to genius.

The door on the right of the fireplace is especially worthy of note ; it combines carving
and fretwork moulding of a very delicate character. The carving and moulding were worked
and finished independently of the door, and when completed were fastened on to the surface
they were intended to decorate. The panel above the door is of the same character. All this
work is of the same date as the carving in the overmantel, and aids greatly in producing that
harmony which charms all lovers of art workmanship. The door on the left is modem, and of
greater height than its companion. To gain this accommodation the frieze next the cornice has
been taken away, and the pilaster at the side reduced to about half its original width.

When such carefully preserved specimens of an old art as we have here in this overmantel are
examined, the excellence of early seventeenth century wood carving will be readily admitted. The
quiet refined beauty, the deUcacy and richness, the elegance and freedom of the carving, have onlv
to be seen to be admired. There is in the example under notice a display of energy, and what
the craftsmen call " go," that are highly prized by students of the art. The smoothness of surface
and purity of colour, characteristic of marble, are not to be found in wood, and it is useless
to try to produce effects which are foreign to the substance. But the artist in this case
knew exactly what to expect from his materials. He was familiar with the mysteries of line,
the subtleties of curves, and the growth of plant life, and he attempted nothing that was
legitimately outside the wood carver's art. His work is as fresh and sharp as if newly cut.
The keenness of his tool marks, which gives crispness to his designs, shows that he valued
every stroke of his chisel, and these are among the strongest evidences of his skill.

If asked whether this work was done by foreigners, an expert would reply that the
figures are strikingly English. They are somewhat clumsy in form, and more Gothic than
Classic in appearance. Human figures are sparingly introduced, and those which are shown
lack the refinement of Italian, or even of French work, but they are less effeminate, and even
more vigorous and rich, than Italian or French Renaissance. The work is at the same time
free from the quaintness which characterizes the German work of that day. It lacks the
robust and vigorous character of good old Gothic work, but exhibits a degree of culture
and refinement which balances the loss of the other qualities. The general design of the work
is good. The proportions are well kept. Details are subordinate to leading lines, and one cannot
fail to notice the harmony of the whole. The blending of Classic and Gothic characteristics
is particularly successful, and the room presents one of the finest examples of English
Renaissance to be found anywhere in East Angha.

With a few incidental notices we conclude our remarks on this, the most richly decorated,
apartment in the Ancient House. The room is lighted by a large window (modern), which
overlooks a small garden. In one of the upper lights are fragments of old stained glass
bearing the Arms of the Sparrowe family. The fireplace is open, with cheeks and back fitted
with old 5-inch Dutch tiles, the embellishments on which are alternately horsemen and
small landscape views. A modem grate supplies the place of the old dog irons of former
days.

The ceiling, plain, flat, and whitewashed, is intersected by two large oak beams at right
angles. These, contrary to custom, are cased, and the casing is rich in carved panels. This
ornamental work gives a capital efiect to the ceiling. The cornice is enriched with dentils,
which also run round the beams. The panelling gives repeated evidence of alterations and
re-arrangements, and reveals occasional irregularities. These lead one to suppose that at some
time or other a departure from the original size or form of the room was made. Wodderspoon
gives the dimensions as 22 feet by 21 feet. The actual measurement now is 23 feet by
17 feet. Owing probably to some settlement, the height is not uniform. The greatest height
is 9 feet 8 inches.

On leaving the house from this pannelled room, we enter a paved courtyard, such as waa
usually found in old Tudor mansions. It runs on the west side of the building, and the
entrance to it is from St. Stephen's Lane. Though very small for so magnificent a house, it
contains within its narrow boundary some of the oldest portions of the building. Round two
sides of the yard is a wooden corridor supporting a carved gallery, lighted by six long but low
windows, which are divided by heavy muUions and transoms. The floor timbers rest upon
flat square-headed carved arches springing from columns, the bases of which are moulded
in stone. From them arise oak fluted shafts, surmounted by carved caps of a semi-Ionic
character. The walls are constructed of ornamental studding and pargetting, less elaborate in
character than that which adorns the main front of the building. All this part of the hotise
is early Elizabethan.*

Thus far as to the house itself. Its associations must not be passed over, since through
a tradition this unique building has been invested with additional interest. Houses of note
are ofttimes made more remarkable by something in their history, In some cases there is a
haunted room. In others a marvellous story clings to a particular apartment. The Ancient
House has not been haunted, and the tradition can be more satisfactorily dealt with than a
ghostly chamber.

Wodderspoon, writing on the discovery of a secret room in this house, says, " There
exists in the Sparrowe family a tradition, descending from father to son, that through
the agency of one of its members, a zealous loyalist, Charles II. lay some time concealed
within this house after the battle of Worcester. Previously to the discovery of the secret
room some difficulty had arisen with regard to the locality of the hiding place of the royal
fugitive, but the opening of this chamber seems to point to its solution. It is but fair to add
that the family are not in possession of any docvimentary evidence proving the residence of
Charles within the habitation, but there is apparently a close yet mysterious connection existing
between the Sparrowe family and the then reigning House of Stuart, which might have been of
the kind to which allusion has been made. Several portraits of Charles II. are in possession of
the Sparrowes, as also of other members of that branch of the Stuarts. The arms of Charles
stand on the exterior of the front of the house conspicuously emblazoned, and two portraits of
the Monarch and one of Miss Lane are sacredly kept by a member of the family to the present
day, as memorials from the hand of Cliarles himself upon leaving the place. The fact of one
of these miniatures being a likeness of Miss Lane, the heroic deliverer of the Monarch from
the perils of captivity, is, we conceive, a proof added to other evidences of probability, that
partaking the protection of the Sparrowe family Charles sent them his likeness, with that of a
fellow contributor to his safety, as an appropriate remembrance of their peculiar service. This
MLss Lane was a maiden lady, in the house of whose brother at Bentley, in Staffordshire,
Charles II. took refuge, and was conveyed by her (Charles being put in the disguise of a
servant) from that place to Bristol. Had Charles presented the likeness of any other lady to
the Sparrowes the chain of connection would have been broken. His gift, however, being the
portrait of one distinguished by the performance of an heroic act for his safety, it was a proper
token of remembrance to be transmitted to a person who had befriended him in equally
perilous circumstances." f

*Pliip8oii — Suffolk Archeeological Proceedings, Vol. 2. f Historic Sites of Suffolk.

The Rev. Erskine Neale, an intimate friend of the Sparrowes, writing in 1846 of the
Chapel Chamber in the roof of the house says, " This discovery lends strength to the tradition
current in the Sparrowe family, that in this excellent old house Charles II. found a hiding
place after the fatal field of Worcester » * * There was unquestionably a secret,
stringent, and enduring connection between the Sparrowe family and the reigning Stuart
dynasty — a connection impossible to explain otherwise than upon grounds of some marked and
definite obligation conferred by the subject and accepted by the Monarch.

"Traces of this connection one stumbles upon at every step. Portraits of Charles II. are
in the possession of the Sparrowe family — presents be it remembered of the king himself
Portraits too they hold of various other members of that branch of the Stuart dynasty, and
by no ignoble hand. The arms of Charles are emblazoned prominently on the exterior of the
old mansion ; and of Miss Lane, who took so fearless and enviable a part in the preservation
of the Monarch, the Sparrowes hold a miniature, sent them by the King himself. Was this to
remind them of the similar succour they themselves had rendered to him ? " J

We have quoted these extracts because all that can be said in favour of the tradition is
here put in the strongest form, upon what might be considered the best authority — that of
the Sparrowe family. How far will history and documents at the Record Office sustain the
tradition ? Did the King come to Ipswich ? Of few events in English History have we so
full and circumstantial an account as of the flight of Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester
(September 3rd, 1651), through Stourbridge, over Cannock Chase, to Boscobel House.
" Clarendon's Narrative " was, the author says, written from information communicated to him
by the King himself, and collected from daily conversation with Lord Wilmot (afterwards Earl
of Rochester) and others who had aided Charles in his escape. The statements of Clarendon,
in all essentials, are confirmed by the " Boscobel Tracts." The story of Lord Wilmot's journey
from Heale into Sussex in search of a vessel to take the King into France ; of Wilmot's and
the King's progress to Bristol with Mrs. Lane ; of Wilmot's disappointment in not obtaining
the vessel that was engaged ; of the King's return from Bristol to Trent, and thence to
Salisbury and the neighbourhood of Brighton, where he embarked and was conveyed across
the Channel, is told in the interesting narrative of Colonel Gunter. It would appear to be
established by these records that the King's movements as a fugitive after the Battle of
Worcester were confined to the Midland, Western, and Southern Counties. If this be so, the
King did not come to Ipswich, and therefore would require no shelter in the Ancient House.

Letters, petitions, warrants, and other documents among the State Papers at the Record
Office the great mass of unedited historic materials, the Commonwealth Papers, the proceedings
of the Council of State, the records of the Admiralty and other departments have been
searched in vain for any intimation that the King in his extremity went to Ipswich for
temporary shelter. The result of our own researches is confirmed by Mrs. Everett Green, a
high authority, who has spent many years in transcribing, condensing, and calendaring the
State Papers of the Commonwealth and Charles II. period. She says : " I do not think it
possible that Charles II. could have got to Ipswich after Worcester fight. * * The notices
of the escape among the State Papers are connected with petitions from some of the parties
(whose name is legion) that claimed to have assisted him. As these were addressed to the
King we may presume that they would not contain false statements as to his route. The
places named are Boscobel, County of Salop ; White Ladies, County of Stafford ; Trent, County
of Somerset ; Charmouth, County of Dorset ; Ripley, County of Surrey ; and Shoreham, County
of Sussex, from the vicinity of which he sailed. Ipswich is quite outside this route."

Thus, neither the published accounts of the flight of Charles II., nor the materials relating
to them which have been discovered at the Record Office since the publication of the Clarendon,
and other narratives, countenance the Sparrowe tradition.

Does internal evidence supply what external evidence lacks ? There is Wodderspoon's
J Stray Leaves from a Freemason's Note Book, by a Suffolk Eector.

statement that " two portraits of the Monarch and one of Mi's. Lane are sacredly kept by a
member of the family to the present day as memorials from the hand of Charles himself upon
leaving the place." A similar statement is made by Clarke in hid History of Ipswich. There
are various difficulties in the way of accepting these. If the King did not come to Ipswich
he could not have given the portraits. If he did come it must have been as a fugitive in
disguise, as before he left " Whiteladies " his hair was cut off, his hands and face were stained,
and he assumed the coarse and threadbare garments of a peasant. It is not likely that in
such disguise he would be incumbered by anything beyond necessaries. The presentation of
portraits would suggest a triumphal entry rather than a King in distress. One important fact
is this. Ipswich was intensely anti-royalist, and at the time the journey is said to have
been made a reward of a thousand pounds was offered for the capture of the King. Yet we
are asked to believe that, though thus in danger and coming in an assumed appearance, he
carried about with him miniature portraits, which would at once have established his identity.
Such a want of caution was not impossible, but it is incredible.

Wodderspoon's suggestion that the King sent his likeness seems to have grown out of the
difficulty which had to be got rid of. He suggests that Charles, who had accepted the
protection offered by Robert Sparrowe, had, when in exUe, sent his likeness, with that of a
contributor to his safety, as an acknowledgment of services rendered. But a gift, commemorating
no less an event than personal deliverance, would assuredly have been accompanied by a letter
from the hands of the King. Would not such a letter have been as sacredly kept as the
miniatures ? Where is the letter ? There is no pretence that it ever existed. Another
question arises. Would such portraits have been received without an effusive acknowledgment?
We know how soft is the heart of man in connection with kingly patronage or kingly
condescension. Letters and documents of aU kinds sent to Charles II. are preserved in
abundance, but no letter of this kind from the Sparrowe family has been discovered.

Again, Charles wrote letters of thanks. One of such is in the possession of the Earl of
Stradbroke. Charles, whilst in exile, sent an autograph letter to Sir John Rous, of Henham
Hall, thanking him for his aid to the Royalist cause. At the Restoration he conferred a
baronetcy on him in acknowledgment of his services. Now the aid afforded by the Knight
of Henham Hall bears no comparison with the secret help said to have been given the King
by the head of the Sparrowe family. But Robert Sparrowe had neither letter nor baronetcy.
The King had many failings, but ingratitude was not one of them. We are, therefore,
shut up to the conclusion that there was no letter because there was no obligation to
acknowledge.

In October, 1668, Charles II. visited Ipswich, staying, not with the man who is said to
have protected him in the hour of his greatest danger, but with Lord Hereford, at Christchurch.
The usual corporate deputation met the Monarch on his arrival. Robert Sparrowe was one of
the party, but there is no intimation in the Assembly Book that the King bestowed any more
notice on him than he did upon other members of the deputation. If under an ever-memorable
obligation, would he have forgotten him ?

There are other difficulties in the way of accepting the tradition. At no period of English
history were the people so divided into factions as during the struggle between the ParHament
and the Monarchy, 1643-9. Between CavaHers and Roundheads it was sometimes war to the
knife. For many years the head of the Sparrowe family for the time being had taken a
prominent part in the pubhc affairs of Ipswich. Most of them had been enrolled as free
burgesses, several had been chosen as portmen, as bailiffs, and one had represented the
borough in Parliament. Such a family would most assuredly have taken its side in the
struggle between King and Parliament. If at this era the residence of Robert Sparrowe
became a temporary place of concealment for Charles II., its owner must have been among the
staunchest of the Royalists. When the fact of such concealment became known, he would have
been almost idolised by the adherents of the King. What evidence is there that Robert

Sparrowe and his father were supporters of the Royalist cause ? Very little. Clarke, in his
"History of Ipswich," gives a list of the bailiffs of the borough; and "W odderspoon, in his
"Memorials," starts his list from an earlier date. From these lists it appears that no member
of the family was elected bailiff from 1645, in which year William Sparrowe served the office,
tUl after the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, when Robert, his eldest son, was chosen.
Before we began to investigate this matter we had been led to believe that, as Royalists, the
Sparrowes had declined to accept office as chief magistrate of the borough under the
Commonwealth, and that it was only when the Restoration became probable that Robert
Sparrowe consented to be made bailiff.

There is another point which must not be eluded. Carlyle and others have shown that
durino- the Civil War the leading men in Ipswich were decided Anti-Royalists. When the
Eastern Counties' Association Committees were formed for the purpose of carrying on the war
against Charles I., and of seeing that the Parliamentary cause suffered no damage by lack of
money or otherwise in this district, the Bailiffs of Ipswich sat on the Suffolk Committee,
not in their private, but in their official capacity, and the Recorder of Ipswich as well as
its Parliamentary representatives were also members of the Committee. Mr. Aldus, Mr.
Brandling, Mr. Dunkon, Mr. Gale, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Pemberton, Mr. Puplett, and Mr.
Sicklemore, all of whom had served, or were serving as bailiffs, portmen, magistrates, coroners,
or treasurers of the borough were on this committee, but the name of Sparrowe does not
appear. This negative evidence gives colour to the traditional idea that the Sparrowes were
Royalists. Then there is the fact that the arms of Charles II. are emblazoned on the front
of the house, and that portraits of the King and other members of the Stuart dynasty by
Vandyke and other masters were inside. All this points in a certain direction, but let us see
what the evidence amounts to.

To obtain further information, we turned to the Royalist Composition Papers in the Record
Office. Of a large number of these there is at present no printed calendar, and as the
manuscript indices make no allusion to counties, and only give names, the dusty records must
be examined page by page if you would find returns relating to Suffolk. These records,
however, are a mine of wealth in relation to the sequestration of estates and the amounts
paid as fines by Royalists to the Government of the Commonwealth. From 1643 to 1650
Sequestration Committees existed, whose duty it was to take possession of the lands of those
Royalists who had been in arms against the Pai-liament, and to appropriate them to State
purposes. Many Royalists in this county were allowed to avoid sequestration by payment of
fines, varying from one half to one tenth of the value of the property, such amounts being
graduated according to the activity employed in the King's cause. Large sums were thus
wrung from Royalists of wealth and position. Thus Edmund Pooley, of Badley, charged with
being in arms against the Parliament, was fined a tenth — £728 ; Sir John Pettus was fined a
tenth — £866 ISs. 4d. ; Edward Aylmer, of Akenham, in Suffolk, clerk, whose offence was,
"that hee left his habitation and resided in ye Enemyes Quarters," was fined a third
(being a minister) — £1,900.

These are examples of the way in which Royalists were dealt with by the Puritans, and
we might extend them. A large number of Royalists in Suffolk were reduced by the infliction
of fines, while others had to endure imprisonment, and some fled from their homes. All
Royalists of wealth and position in this county suffered more or less, whilst a few of the
nobility, through their continued determination to support the Royal cause, lost their estates
by confiscation. A long search over these Royalist Composition Papers for the name of
Sparrowe, of Ipswich, was in vain. We found no intimation that William Sparrowe, Robert
Sparrowe, or any member of the family was among those who suffered in the way above
described. As far as these records go, and no stronger testimony can be offered, the Sparrowe
feimily did not help Charles I. by personal or pecuniary aid, nor were its members fined or
imprisoned during the struggle with the unfortunate Monarch.

The facts here point to entirely opposite conclusions. On the one hand the Sparrowe
family are shown to have escaped all penalties and were not classed as proscribed Royalists
during the Civil War ; on the other hand, they are not named as members of Cromwell's
Suffolk Parliamentary Committee. Where then was the way out of the difficulty which this
state of things presented ? Mrs. Everett Green has come to our aid. She says, " The Sparrowes
must, I feel sure, have taken the Parliament side in the Civil War, or I should find their
names in the Indices I have made of those who advanced money, whose estates were
sequestrated, or by whom compositions were paid." This induced further research in the Great
Court and Assembly Books of the Ipswich Corporation. We began with 1645, in which year
a member of the Sparrowe family was elected one of the bailiffs. An examination of these
Books soon convinced us that the theory that the Span-owes refused civic dignities because
they were Royalists was untenable. Mr. Bailiff Sparrowe had for brother magistrates in 1645,
Mr. Brandling, Mr. Cage, Mr. Puplett, and Mr. Pemberton, who were also members of
Cromwell's Eastern Counties Association Committee. Considering the hostile feeling which
then existed between Cavaliers and Roundheads, the fact that William Sparrowe was chosen to
administer justice in Ipswich whilst the four magistrates elected to serve with him were
enthusiastic Parliamentarians, is, to say the least, strong evidence that one member of the
Sparrowe family, and he the father of Robert Sparrowe, was not at the time of the Civil War
a Royalist.

It is, however, with Robert Sparrowe that we are more particularly concerned. His
father was in the Puritan camp, but it does not follow that the son adopted his father's
views. On the contrary, perverts from the family faith not unfrequently emphasize their
departure by effusive demonstrations. Robert Sparrowe, it will be remembered, is said to have
himself received from the hands of the fugitive Charles the celebrated miniature portraits.
His political views will, therefore, furnish a solution of the problem.

Robert Sparrowe was the only son of William Sparrowe by his first wife, Mary, daughter
of Mr. John Laney, Recorder of Ipswich. The date of Robert's birth is unknown, but he was
baptized in St. Lawrence Church, April 2nd, 1629. His father was married on the 29th of
April in the pi'evious year, died November 22nd, 1647. At his death, Robert Sparrowe had
not attained his majority, and this created an obstacle when he desired to become a free
burgess, as will be seen by the first notice of him in the Great Court Books of the Ipswich
Corporation. The minute, 12th March, 1649, says : — " Mr. Robert Sparrow, son of Mr.
William Sparrow, deceased, made request to be admitted a free burgess of this town for a
reasonable fine, on the ground that he was born but not christened at the time that his father
took up his freedom. And although bound by indenture as an apprentice to his father, he
was prevented by the decease of his parent from fulfilling the contract, and was only able to
serve five out of the stipulated seven years. The Court took a favourable view of the case,
and for the reasons given agreed that Mr. Robert Sparrow be admitted a free burgess, and
that the fine should be only ten shillings. This concession was gratefully accepted, and he
was then and there sworn. Mr. Sparrow, in addition to the payment of the fine, made a
donation of two shillings and sixpence for the use of the Hospital, and declared that he had
neither sons nor apprentices."

The Bailiffs and Justices present as free burgesses at this meeting were strong partisans
of Oliver Cromwell's. The court could easily have refused Robert Sparrowe's request, instead
of which he was admitted on the payment of a nominal fine, and members of the Puritan
party treated him as an ally rather than as an opponent.

On the 21st January,* 1650, Robert Sparrowe married a daughter of John Parker, gent.,
of Reigate, by whom he had a large family. At the earlier period of his career he attended
neither Great Court nor Assembly Meetings. But he was recognized as a rising man, whom

* The additional MS., 15,620, in the British Museum, gives a different date in same year. Our date is taken from

the family pedigree, now in the possession of Mrs. Marshman.

the municipal leaders in the town desired to enlist in their ranks. On the 8th September,
1651 (about 8 or 10 days before Charles II. is supposed to have been secreted in the Ancient
House), he for the first time as a free burgess presented himself at a Great Court. A large
number of burgesses and four of the portmen, Mr. John Brandling, Mr. John Smythies, Mr.
Manuel Sorrell, and Mr. Jacob Caley were in attendance. Mr. Peter Fisher and Mr. Robert
Duncon were elected baihflfs. Robert Sparrowe was nominated one of the chamberlains — an
important office, as the income and expenditure of the corporate body passed through the
Chamberlain's hands — but he requested to be discharged from this office and agreed to pay a
fine of ten pounds. The Puritans were all powerful in the borough, and were not likely to
elect a Royalist to one of the chief offices in the Corporation, nor to risk the chance of such an
one becoming a power in the borough.

Great wealth or unusual ability may have been the cause, but whatever it was the fact
remains that the Burgesses seem to have determined to confer on him — Robert Sparrowe,
all the honours at their disposal. When very young he was made a Governor of Christ's
Hospital, a borough auditor, alderman of the Guild, a feofiee of Tooley and Smart's
Charity, one of the Four-and-Twenty (or Common Council), and lastly portman, and
bailiff. The office of Alderman of the Guild was not agreeable to his taste, and he paid
a fine of twenty nobles to be discharged therefrom. He sought to be released from the
duties of a common councilman, but the Court declined his offer of a fine. This was in
April, 1653. On September 8th, 1658, five days after the death of Oliver Cromwell, he
was elected portman, as well as one of the bailiffs. After this date he took a prominent
part in the government of the town.

Briefly we have thus sketched the municipal career of Robert Sparrowe. Happily the
Corporation Records do not leave us to imagine and conjecture his political opinions. The
extracts from them already given leave a strong impression that he, like his father, ranged
himself on the side of the Parliament. Positive evidence strengthens that which is
circumstantial.

In the Assembly Book the following minute will be found : — " 16th November, 1658.
Ordered that the humble Representacion of the Bailiffs, Portmen, Common Counsell and
Ministers of the Towne of Ipswi"'' now Read shall be p'sented to his highness the Lord
Protector. And that the same shall be p'sented by Mr. Bailiffe Sparrowe, and that he
shall have his charges borne by the Towne." Not only was the corporate body strongly
puritan when Robert Sparrowe was chosen as Chief Magistrate, but he was selected to
convey to Richard Cromwell the homage and congratulations of the people of Ipswich on
his succeeding his father as Lord Protector of England ! Is it probable that a man who
had offered concealment to Charles II. after the battle of Worcester would a few years
later, as the representative of a body largely influenced by the Puritan party, have offered
homage to the young Protector ?

The question, however, may be asked if Robert Sparrowe was in full and hearty sympathy
with the Puritan party, what made him shrink from taking his shai-e in municipal duties
during the memorable years 1650-7 ? The Ipswich Corporation books are comparatively
barren of information respecting his career during the years named, and to obtain an
answer we again searched the unpublished documents at the Record Office. Aided by an
expert our labours this time were fully rewarded. Among the State Papers, Common-
wealth period, 1651, there is a letter dated Ipswich, signed by Robert Sparrowe and
WUliam Hamby, which throws a flood of light on the position of the former. It will be well
to glance at the events which caused it to be written.

Shortly after the death of Charles I. Cromwell determined to raise a new tax by way of
fine on the adherents of the exiled family. The Royalists, strong in numbers and in rank,
were irrepressible. They had been put down, had been severely fined, and in some cases
dispossessed, but they were ever active, and only waited for opportunity to raise their heads

and restore, as they hoped, their cause. The partizans of Charles II. were constantly collecting
arms and money that war might be commenced at any moment in different parts of England.
To put an end to this the Protector divided England into twelve districts, in each of which
he established a local militia for the purpose of maintaining the peace and repressing
Royalist plots. This mUitia was composed of staunch adherents of the Commonwealth. Each
district was entrusted to the command of a Major-General, who was enjoined to obtain the
co-operation of local men as commissioners in every county. These commissioners were
empowered to summon before them any person whom they should consider disaffected towards
the Government and require them to give an account of themselves or their property. They
were at the same time authorized to receive information from other quarters, and by that
means, if needful, correct the misrepresentations of the principals. Disobedience rendered the
offender liable to imprisonment at the pleasure of the Protector and Council of State. By this
plan the assessment of Royalists was easy to execute, and the Major-General and his trusty
commissioners proceeded to a valuation of the means of the Cavalier party. The tax imposed
upon Royalists to meet the cost of this organized force was a tenth part of their income.
Only those whose landed property produced less than £100 yearly or whose personal estate was
under £1500 in value were exempted from the tax.

A general register of those who were known to be hostile to the Commonwealth and
attached to the Royalist cause was kept in every county, and none of these persons were
allowed to visit the capital without sending information to the Registrar of their place of
temporary abode and intended movements. It was what we should call police surveillance of
a suspected class, who Cromwell said were incessantly threatening the State with new dangers,
and he considered it only just that they should pay the cost of the necessary means for its
defence.*

The documents found among the dusty folios at the Record Office show that Robert
Sparrowe, at the very time he was said to have sheltered Charles II. in the Ancient House
(September, 1651), was holding a lucrative office under Oliver Cromwell's Government. He
was one of the before-mentioned commissioners for the assessment of fines on the Royalists and
the sequestration of their estates in the County of Suffolk. Can anything be more destructive
to the theory of the Royalist tendency of the Span-owe family during the Civil War ? Here
is a copy of one of his letters as a commissioner.

" Hono^^

" According to y® Letter of the 29th of August, wee have caused our Agent to
deliver the Sumons, wee Received the Examination inclosed. Inclosed will informe the pticular
times And Places of Delivery, As also the Reason of the non Delivery of these inclosed. Our
Request Is, that if they pay in their Monyes vppon Simons, yett our Agent may be remembred.
For it cost him the Rideinge of Five Dayes to finde the pties out.

"Yo' Servants,
"Dated att Ipswich, "Will"' Hamby.

"22°^ of September, 1651. "Robert Sparrow.

" This letter is addressed

" To y* Hono''"° y* Comissioners
" For Advance of Money,

" Sittinge at Haberdashers*
" Hall, these present,
" London.

(( gd. »

The examination referred to in the above letter as being enclosed runs as follows : —
"The Examinacon of Mordecay Gifford, of Ipsw"", in the County of Suff., Gentl., Taken

* Guizot's Life of Cromwell.

vppon oath before vs, beinge Comissio" for Seq™° w**" in the said County, the 22'^ day of
September, 1651.

" Hee saith hee left A Sumons from the Hono'"'® the Comissio" for Advances of Mony, dated
the 29*^ of August, for John James to pay in his 20"°'*' pte on y^ 29*^ of Sept. Instant ; hee
left it w*^ WUliam Westly, his Servant, Att the howse of S' Richard Winckfield, att Easton,
in this County, vrhere y° said James doth vsually reside, on y* IG*'' day of this Instant
September.

"The like Sumons he left for Sir John Pettis w^ Henery Horsman, his reputed Servant,
att S' John's Howse att Cheston, on y* 17** of this Instant September.

"The like Sumons hee left for Edward Pooly, Esq', w*'' his Maid Servant, at the house of
Sir Henery Crofts at Saxtra, where the said Mr. Pooly now Sourjourneth, vpon the 18''' of
this Instant September.

"The like Sumons hee left for Mr. Thomas Stanton w"" Mrs. Garrard, of Cannum in this
County, where y* said Mr. Stanton now Sourjourneth, on y* 19"" day of this instant September.

"The like Sumons he left for Mr. Edward Rokewood w"" Elizabeth Grindall, his Maide
Servant, att his howse at Ewston, on the 19"' of this instant September.

"The like Sumons were left for S' Fredericke Comewallis, K', w"' the lady Bacon, his
moother, Att Culford, on the 18"" of this Instant September, who hath all the Estate of the
said S"^ Fredei'icke in her hands, hee beinge reported to be beyond sea.

" He further sayth for the other two Sumons Inclosed, he cannot heare of the said pties
att p^'sent, y® said Richard Whitinge beinge now a Pirate att Sea, haveinge, after his
Composition, as this examinant is Informed, sold his Estate.

"And for Anthony Buckingham or his Brother, this examinant cann heare of noe such,
there beinge no such Towne in Suff'' as Dedham, menconed in y® said Sumons.

(Signed) "MORDECAY GIFFORD."

Again, among the Thurloe State Papers in the British Museum, there is a letter to Oliver
Cromwell, dated Bury, November 20th, 1655, from the Commissioners for securing the peace
of the Commonwealth in the County of Sufiblk. This document, after extolling the means
adopted by the Protector for the preservation of peace, and praising the scheme by which the
Royalists alone were made to bear the cost of the special organization enforced, says, " We
acknowledge ourselves bound to bless God, who hath moved your highness and Council's heart
to be thus careful of the security and care of the good people of this Commonwealth, and of
those their dear liberties, purchased with the price of so much precious blood and vast expense
of treasure. We do pray that as the Lord hath been pleased to make use of your highness as
the instrument of our deliverance from that implacable generation of men, so that he will be
pleased further to use your highness as the instrument of our preservation and further
reformation, which shall be the daily request of

" Your highness' most humble Servants."

This letter is signed by more than twenty well-known residents of Suffolk, headed by
Thomas and George Barnardiston, and among the names stands that of Robert Sparrowe.

A few more facts from the Record Office relating to Robert Sparrowe and we have done.
He was appointed one of the Parliamentary Commissioners for imposing taxes on the Royalists
throughout the County of Suffolk, May 6th, 1650, and was probably sworn in at Ipswich, as
he took the oath before Mr. Nathaniel Bacon (author of " The Annals of Ipswich "), at that
time Recorder of the Borough, and Mr. John Brandling, J. P. How so young a man as Robert
Sparrowe secured so advantageous an appointment, or even whether it was made by Act of
Parliament or by warrant of Council, we could not discover. John Gurdon was Member for
Ipswich, and as he was in the February of that year elected a Member of the Council of State,
the appointment was most likely gained through his recommendation. To this office there was
no fixed salary, the commissioners being paid by a per centage on the actual receipts, and the
delinquents were made to pay the amount. The rate fixed was sixpence in the pound, and as

the fines were heavy, the appointment was lucrative. Prior to Robert Sparrowe's nomination
difficulties in obtaining the per centage were not unusual. To remove them an order was
issued in 1650, by which delinquents could not obtain their discharge from sequestration until
the sixpence in the pound was paid. This per centage was afterwards doubled.

Wodderspoon in his " Memorials " says that among the valuable paintings in the Ancient
House was a portrait of Captain Robert Sparrowe — captain of the train band. In the
Assembly and Great Court Books of the Ipswich Corporation, Robert SpaiTowe is sometimes
described as Captain Robert Sparrowe. The Domestic State Papers at the Record Office show
that on the 22nd April, 1650, a commission was granted to Robert Sparrowe to be captain of
a troop at Ipswich. At the same date Mr. Brampton Gurdon was made colonel, and Mr.
John Moody major of the troop. Brampton Gurdon was well known for his activity on
the Parliament side, and John Moody became Major-General of the district.

With this our story ends. Romance becomes such a house. It imparts flavour to its
history. But the tradition which has had a respectable career vanishes. In saying good
bye to it, we may be pardoned if we express the hope that light has been thrown, not
only upon the position of the Sparrowe family, but upon the political proclivities of the
borough, at a period when the liberties of Englishmen were endangered.

Leaving pedigrees to genealogists, we briefly glance at the career of the Sparrowe family,
whose history for nearly three centuries is linked with this Ancient House, and also with that
of the Corporation of Ipswich. No other family can boast of so long a connection with the
governing body of this borough. The John Sparrowe, who figures first in the Annals of
Ipswich, was elected one of the portmen as well as joint treasurer in September, 1537. Three
years after he was elected bailiff, and in December, 1541, he was returned as one of the
representatives of the borough in the Parliament which met at Westminster, 16th January,
1541-42 — a Parhament which became noted for securing to its members the privilege of
freedom from arrest, and for having, a few days after its assembling, passed the BiU of
Attainder which sent Katharine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII., to the scaffold.
Payment of members was a recognized principle at this period of our history, but this must
not be taken as detracting in any way from the wealth or position of the John Sparrowe
referred to, as Edmund Daundy was M.P. for the borough not many years previously, and
Thomas Seckford a few years later. This John Sparrowe was a son of Thomas Sparrowe,
of Somersham, Suffolk, a small estate on which the family had long resided, and had furnished
victims for the rival houses of York and Lancaster at the battles of Hexham and Bosworth
Field. John Sparrowe was not re-elected for the borough, but continued to give his aid in
the government of the town, and, in 1545, was chosen as one of its magistrates, who were
then appointed annually. Robert Sparrowe, son of this John Sparrowe, was, in the year
1540, during the bailiwick of his father, made a sergeant-at-mace, showing that such office
was held as an honovu* in the reign of Henry VIII. This same Robert Sparrowe became
successively one of the chamberlains, one of the twenty-four men, treasurer, coroner, portman,
and bailiff'.

For several generations the head of this family invariably filled all the corporate offices in
succession, and sometimes two of its members were at the same period among the leaders of the
corporate body. John Sparrow^e, who died in 1762, was distinguished by being bailiff no fewer
than thirteen times. He also had the honour of receiving from George I. a handsome
acknowledgment, in the shape of a fine portrait of the Monarch, in return for attentions
received during his visit to Ipswich, and for presenting to His Majesty a certain confectionary
composition of large dimensions called a " Marchpane." He had the honour of kissing hands
with George II.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the leading members of this family were
among the business men of this district, some of them being described as drapers, and others
as grocer or mercer. John Sparrowe, who was Bailiff" of Ipswich, and whose will was proved in

1558, is described therein as a yeoman, having a residence in Offton and land in Somersham. His
father, Thomas Sparrowe, is described in such will as " husbandman," but this term must not be
taken in the literal sense of the present day. Robert Sparrowe, a portman of Ipswich, who died
in 1594, is described as a draper. On the 13th December, 1599, George, son of Mr. BailiflP
Sparrowe, was buried at St. Lawrence, Ipswich. On a brass, formerly in the church, he
was described as a citizen and grocer, of London.* In 1659 John Sparrowe, a draper, issued
one of the Ipswich Tokens, which bears his name and occupation. Robert Sparrowe a few
years previously had also issued a Token.f There was a " Drapers' Hall " and a " Cloth Hall "
in Ipswich, and a large portion of the population were engaged in the manufacture of cloth.
The charitable benefactions of the time testify in the strongest manner to the wealth of those
engaged in the wool and cloth trade.

Whatever their occupation, there is abundant evidence to show that the head of the
Sparrowe family at various stages of its career was as celebrated for his wealth as for his
corporate distinction. Some members of the family resided in the town more than thirty years
prior to their occupation of the old house in the Butter Market, and the Robert Sparrowe
who purchased it of Mr. Copping was a son of the John Sparrowe who was M.P. for Ipswich
in 1541. His successor, who lavished so much money on the embellishment of his dining
room, the year James I. ascended the English throne, must have been a wealthy man. In
the Corporation Records of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, indications of the wealth
and position of the Sparrowe family are of frequent occurrence. When the Judges came to
Ipswich in 1690 Mr. Sparrowe had to accommodate them, and if a member of the royal family,
or any person of eminence, visited it, Mr. Sparrowe was expected to perform the duties of
host. The nineteenth century dawned before the decline of the Sparrowes in wealth and
corporate power.

The family have not however run on in unbroken line. On the 7th January, 1723, Mr.
Robert Sparrowe, who became the head of the family, gained his freedom of the borough by
apprenticeship to Mr. Thirkle. William Sparrowe was in 1822 admitted to the freedom of the
borough by presentation. The last of the male line, Mr. John Eddowes Sparrowe, who died
in 1860, took up his freedom May 8th, 1811, being entitled to it through serving articles to
Mr. Simon Jackaman, soUcitor, of Ipswich. Had these men been qualified descendants of the
portman of 1537, or the bailiff of 1659, they would probably have claimed their freedom in
right of birth.

The Church Registers of the parish of St. Lawrence give no information as to the
marriages of the Sparrowe family — Mary Sparrowe, who mari'ied Austin Parker in 1632, and
Richard Sparrowe, who married Judith Fisher on the 6th of February, 1653, excepted. They»
however, contain numerous entries of baptisms and burials. On the vault in St. Lawrence
Church, in which their remains were placed, a quaint inscription was written —

" Nidus Passerum."
"The Sparrows' Nest," A merry conceit, on what to some people is a gloomy subject,,
implying that here the sparrows, the old birds and the young, securely nestle !

•Nichols' "Topographer and Genealogist," 1852, vol. 2. f ^°l*^"ig'8 "Coinage of Suffolk."

.^ ^^^^ J^^La€^, /<9/S.

t-i%:^£»- ^SiOiVci^^,

OLD COFFEE HOUSE

AND CARVED ANGLE POSTS.

N the middle, and even towards the close, of the eighteenth century Tavern
Street was a picturesque thoroughfare. Gable crowded upon gable ; of stiff
trimness there was very little. Want of uniformity in height and size was
so marked a feature that in some parts of the street each house seemed to
have been built from plans which agreed with none other. The view from
the Comhill was pleasing ; the other end of the street was narrow, somewhat
crooked, and, for vehicles, dangerous. Whilst one wonders how our forefathers
could have so built, he involuntarily admires even where his comprehension
may be at fault. We have said that Tavern Street was picturesque, and we may add that
the most picturesque structure in it was the " Old Coffee House," an illustration of which
accompanies this paper. This house was a fine specimen of the half-timbered town residences
of the middle of the sixteenth century. At the commencement of the present century it
still stood as one of the most charming examples of ancient domestic architecture in Ipswich,
rich as the town then was in that respect.

The house occupied a site in Tavern Street, at its junction with Tower Street, on the
Eastern side, and was a relic of which the town might well be proud. The position was
favourable to its reputation. Then, as now. Tavern Street was a principal thoroughfare, and
in those quieter days no ti'avelling artist, no lover of the picturesque, could pass this old house
without being touched by its mute appeal. One can but regret its disappearance. Commercial
developments and consequent improvements are almost certain to involve the sweeping away,
or dismantling of their beauty, the creations of past ages. That such a house as this could
not remain an abiding monument of art and utility, it may be urged, is not so much the fault
of the day, as of those who provided Ipswich with intricate streets and narrow lanes. All
the same, whilst bowing to possibly imperious necessity, one would have liked to have preserved
so interesting a Unk between the present and past. It would have displayed the influence
which foreigners had in forming the once prevailing taste. The old class of Merchants and
Burghers did not higgle over items. To them good work and ornamentation had a charm.
Such embellishments of domestic architecture attested alike their taste and wealth.

Let US look more closely at this structure. It presented a long frontage, broken into
three gables, upon Tavern Street, and had a considerable depth in Tower Street. It was of
three stories. The ground floor was solidly constructed of the local red brickwork, with
bonding upright timbers at intervals. Above this was a projecting principal floor, and over
this, in the gables, were spacious attics. These upper stories were faced with plaster. All the
leading vertical and horizontal lines were emphasized by richly carved woodwork, to which we
shall presently revert.

The house, which seems originally to have been in one occupation, became divided into three
tenements, each having a gable, and a separate entrance. Each division was of irregular
formation. Owing to this system of sub-division, many a house in Ipswich to-day is of
mysterious outline, innocent of symmetry, and suggestive of adaptation roughly carried out.
We may trace here a social change. The saUent feature and glory of the " Old Coffee House "
was the elaborately carved post at the South-west angle. This projected to a considerable
distance on to the footway, and was carried to the hipping of the gables. It was ornamented
with tiers of full length human figures, more than half life-size, in four stages, two to each
story. These were carved in wood, doubtless oak, for no other material would so well have
stood the effects of weather and time, and incidental ill-usage. The composition showed on
each floor a group of three figures, so arranged as to occupy the corner on both the South

and West sides, and above these a single grotesque figure. All were executed in high relief,
and spoke well for the carvei*s.

Beginning at the ground level, there was a chamfered plinth carrying four dwarf
cylindrical columns, rudely squared at the base. Upon this pedestal, some four feet from the
pavement level, stood three draped female figures, evidently representing the three Graces, Faith,
Hope, and Charity. Contrary to custom, the group commenced on the right hand with Faith,
who was represented as wearing a hood. The figure inclined forward, bearing in her arms
above the shoulder level a Latin Cross. The central figure, Hope, grasped in her drooping right
hand the Anchor of Assurance, while her left forefinger was raised and her face turned towards
Heaven. To the left was Charity, drawing to her side an infant closely entwined in its arms,
whilst a child of somewhat larger growth clung to her tightly -fitting garments. The group was
excellently conceived, well balanced, and the idea most skilfully and artistically worked out.

In odd contrast with this group, and separated from it by a triple band of carving, with
a shield marking the angle, the heraldic device of which at the time of examination was
obliterated, was a rude grotesque figure of a Bacchanalian Satyr. This was in the nude, and
of well-developed proportions, having a boy's head, a rotund figure, and the lower limbs of a
goat. The arms were placed akimbo on the hips, the forehead was surmounted by short curly
hair, and the face wore a smiling expression. Above either shoulder was a winged cherub.
This figure filled up the vacant angle in the woodwork, and completed the treatment of the
ground floor.

On the first floor the ornamentation was broken by the horizontal cornice line, and was
continued by a moulded and banded dwarf pedestal. On this, standing on separate rounded
cushion-shaped supports — possibly a fantastic form of shield — was a second group of three
figures, less distinct and more enigmatical. Mr. Wodderspoon describes them as a female figure
supported on each side by men habited as Burghers, but more probably they were intended to
represent the three masculine virtues — Fortitude, Vigilance, and Courage. The central figure
stood with folded hands and slightly raised right knee and heel, an attitude suggestive of
the " at ease " of the drill sergeant. Above these figures was what resembled a trophy — a
chevaux de frise ; the shields seen in the lower group being here absent. Surmounting this
was a second unclad corpulent grinning Satyr, whose broad and brute-like shoulders were thrust
into a beam of the roof.

The lower story next Tavern Street was, as already stated, of brickwork and timber,
which was painted, and the very wide windows, which were common to the house, were flat
double hung sashes. Beneath each of these was a slightly projecting rectangular block of
unpainted brickwork. The window frames of common deal, with large oblong panes, were
evidently eighteenth century insertions. Indeed from the treatment of the brickwork it is
probable that the whole of this ground story was originally of lath and plaster, supported by
half timbering, which broke it into panels. Some of the old quartering, with the interstices
between the timbers filled in with brickwork, was to be seen on the Tower Street side.
Each of the slender upright posts which were left between the windows was capped by an angle
bracket, consisting of a grotesque torso, resembling an uncouth figure-head of a coasting vessel.

These brackets, all of which seem to have been diversely carved, acted as caryatides to
support a rich carved cornice, connecting the projecting joists of the principal or first floor.
The cove was divided alternately into plaster and wooden panels, and the corbel table above
was filled with a running ornament, on which scrolls were carved in relief, the ornamentation
being probably vine leaves and clusters of grapes, or oak leaves between, as in other examples
in the town. Between the windows, the first floor front was plastered in blank panels,
somewhat similar to the treatment of woodwork at the Ancient House in the Butter Market,
and elsewhere. It is extremely probable that the alterations of windows, and restoration of
ground floor, date from the period when the house was divided.

Marking this story from the attics above was a second cornice flat in section, and

decorated with the vine leaf and clusters of grapes. The front of the house to Tavern Street
was an exception to this. There the ornamentation was ruthlessly cut away and replaced by
this inscription — Heney and Dorcas Bvckingham. Such inscriptions were not uncommon on
Elizabethan Houses.

Over the second cornice just referred to rose the three gables, the fronts of which were
of plaster, and ornamented with barge boards beautifully decorated with the flowering
vine ornamentation. The Tower Street end, contrary to the general custom, was the most
elaborately treated. The half-timbering was shown, cutting up the surface into rectangular
spaces, and a second barge board, with carved edge and piercings between, was set beneath the
other, adding greatly to the richness of the effect. The roofs were covered with a small
reddish-brown tile. Behind the steep-pitched roofs rose a chimney of modern construction.

While half-timbered houses of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries are to be
met with in other parts of England besides East Anglia, very few examples are known in
which the ornamentation compares with that of the structure now under notice. That which
most closely resembles this " Old Coffee House " is the " Market House " at Hereford, bearing
the date 1621. Formerly it was the end of a middle row, but the hand of improvement has
left it the solitary occupant of the Market Place. Disfigured by posters on the end gable, and
littered with the miscellaneous odds and ends of a second-hand furniture showroom, it yet
retains much of its ancient picturesqueness. Like the Ipswich building it has three stories
and three gables, the latter having deep barge boards carved with the familiar vine leaf, and
without either hip knobs or pendants. The return gable at the end of the house, as at
Ipswich, is more highly ornamented, and on the first floor over the shops are bay windows of
exceedingly light projection filled with diamond quarries. This indicates the original treatment
at Ipswich. The pitch of the roof is nearly the same, and firom it springs a brick chimney.
The half timbering, as usual in the West of England, is more pronounced than in East AngUa.
Allowing for the three score and ten leagues which separate the towns, the general resemblance
is close, but there is none of the quaint carving that was to be seen on the Old Coffee House.

The question will probably arise, what is the date of these old carvings ? — for, fine as the
house was in many respects, the carved Angle Post was its great and distinguishing feature.
Before assigning any specific date, it will be necessary briefly to examine the building in
detail by the light of cotemporary work. Too much care in this respect can hardly be
exercised, as the usually assigned dates for buildings are exceedingly vague, and so remote
that the practical archaeologist must sometimes be amused by appeals to his credulity. Thus
"Clarke's History of Ipswich," 1830, speaks of the carvings under notice as "curious relics
of our forefathers' taste, three or four centuries ago," — a sufiiciently indefinite speculation.

Taking first the Carvings, their undeniable grossness, and even vulgarity in certain details,
must not lead us to ante-date the work. The later carving is usually more refined than the
earlier, and though at first sight these figures approach in vigour, breadth, and coarseness of
treatment the stone carvings of the twelfth century on the eaves of Kilpeck Church,
Herefordshire, and the capitals of columns in Canterbury Cathedral crypt, yet allowance must
be made for the grossness of the Elizabethan era, as well as for the taste of the carver,
or his patron. Without such caution an early date might be assigned to some of Hogarth's
far more indecorous paintings, executed but a century and a quarter since.

Looking at the house again we remark that the roofs are of somewhat high pitch,
indicating a moderately early date, as from the Tudor era to that of Queen Anne the lines of
roof were steadily becoming flatter, in accordance with the gradual predominance of the
horizontal lines of Renaissance over the vertical lines of Gothic Architecture.

Barge boards were introduced in the fourteenth century, chiefly in domestic work, and
were placed in front of and below the gable, to cover the ends of rafters and edges of tiling.
In early work they were pierced and had free verges, but at a later period we find them
finished with straight edges, kept soUd, and decorated with a single vine leaf carving as in the

example before us. In seventeenth century work they are more varied and elaborate in
treatment than in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but are less boldly and deeply cut.
The figured brackets beneath the cornice are nut usual in seventeenth century work, but are
common at earlier periods. On the other hand, there were no square-headed, four-centred
doorways with spandrils fitted with carvings, the upper story does not project to any great
extent, and there is an absence of bay windows, though this is possibly due to alterations.
Reviewing all the points we come to the conclusion that the " Old Coffee House " was
erected in the middle of the sixteenth century.

The carved Angle Post is not a common feature in those timbered dwellings which yet
survive in other parts of England. In Ipswich, however, there were some of a character
somewhat similar to that under notice. Indeed, the town may be said to have been largely
enriched in this respect. Fuller, in the seventeenth century, spoke of the number of wealthy
merchants' houses in it. The situation of these is suggestive, significant alike of social changes
and of individual taste. In many parts, particularly in the neighbourhood of the river, you
may trace remains of former wealth. Mansions are not now erected in the busiest part of the
town. Only a few years ago remains of fine old houses were numerous in the vicinity of what
is now the Dock. Some of our forefathers were men of taste, which they had the means to
gratify. Comer Posts bore evidence of this. These posts were covered with fanciful or allegorical
designs. Nor was internal carved work wanting. In the lower room of a merchant's house
at the corner of College Street, and opposite the "Sea Horse," stood a chimney piece wrought
in a style similar to the carving at the Old Coffee House. Upon pillars in bold relief were
male and female figures in the attire of the time. The round cap, the slashed doublet and
breeches of the men, the stiff collars, long dresses, and hanging girdles of the women, bespoke
the Elizabethan type. This house disappeared under the hands of the buUder in 1849.

The removal, half a century since, of a shop front on the premises occupied by a Mr.
Butcher, in the Butter Market, revealed an interesting specimen of a story post, which formed
a jamb of a doorway, with lintel and a small window above. This post was about eight feet
in height, and was rich in bold and effective carving, divided into four panels, with a shield
as a sort of centrepiece. The upper panel was filled in with a rose, the well-known Tudor badge.
Immediately below this was a sharply-cut figure in the picturesque costume of Henry VIII.,
playing a fiddle. The figiure may have represented a wandering musician or a bear warden.
The lower panels bore, one a bear, the other a dog, both rampant. On the lintel, which was
much defaced, was the monogram, " T. S." This remnant of ancient architecture found a
sympathetic custodian in the person of the late Mr. R. M. Phipson.

At the comer of a house occupied in 1830 by Mr. James Conder, not far from the above,
was a massive decorated post, on which, some eight feet from the ground, were beautifully
carved figures, symbolical of some apochryphal incident. Originally they must have been fine
specimens. In decay they were eloquent witnesses of taste and skill.

In a yard which gave access to the Quay from Fore Street, St. Clement's, there was, in
1846, a fine gable post. On the face towards the street was the figure of Queen EUzabeth,
crowned, holding a sceptre; on that towards the Quay an armed male figure, with the visor
of his helmet down. On the front was a scroll, on which were three Kons. Surmounting
this was the word " Mars." Above one figure was an heraldic shield ; above the other, an
indecipherable monogram. Upon the decoration of this post much care was evidently bestowed.

Among existing examples on a smaller scale may be mentioned a post in Northgate Street,
at the entrance to Oak Lane, leading to the Church of St. Mary Tower. On the upper part
of this is represented Vulcan at his Forge ; on the other is a female head, which may be that
of Venus. Below the figures is an enriched scroll, ornamented with griffin heads in the style
of the Renaissance. In comparatively early days monastic life had its caricaturists, who were
restrained by little deUcacy for the feelings of those they satirised. At the South angle of
the " Half Moon," at the junction of Foundation and Lower Brook Streets, is a post, on the

upper part of which is represented the time-honoured fable of the Fox and Geese, as typical
of the Monks and Laity. The old Monastery of the Black Friars was on the opposite side o^
the street, and that was the grievance ! The original owner of the hoiise wovdd be gleuJdened
could he be told that his caricature outlived the Monastery ; that, whilst the post remains to
attest his hostility, the Black Friars have disappeared, and that it, not they, attracts attention
even to this day. Ornamented posts still exist on houses at the corner of Bell Lane, in Carr
Street, at its junction with Cox Lane, on St. Margaret's Plain, at the corner of Soane Street,
and in St. Nicholas Street, at the SUent Street corner (a house thought by some to have been
the residence of Wolsey's father), but the tooth of time has in each case destroyed some of the
characteristic carving. On a house in Lower Orwell Street, at the Fore Street end, there is a
fine figure of a Satyr, bold and projecting. This originally formed the top figure to the Angle
Post of the old house, which is even now rich in carved woodwork.

At Lavenham there is a large house, formerly used as the Guild Hall, which is decorated
with much tracery, the vine leaf predominating. At one angle, under a canopy, is the full
length figure of a man clad in military costume. In style, treatment, and character this
carving approaches closer than any other known examples to the figures on the Angle Post at
the Old Cofiee House. Another carved post may be found in Cross Street, Sudbury ; and at
Bristol there is a coarsely executed specimen. In BaUey Lane, Coventry, is one of the finest
extant. It is covered with carving divided into rectangular panels, filled with tracery. There
and in most instances, except at Ipswich, a naturally curved piece of timber is used, and forms
a stop to the projecting cornice. There occurs to us no other example of continued carving of
the Angle Post, in stages from pavement to roof level, than in the Old Cofiee House.

Wodderspoon speaking of this old House says — " In the Great Court Book, of the
Corporation, under date 17th March, 2nd James I (1604), is the following entry: — 'Henry
Bvckyngham shall have a lease of the houses adjoining to the Tower Churchyard fi-om Lady-
day next for 100 yeres, at £26 8s. yerely rent.'" Bacon in his 'Annals' makes no mention of
such a lease at the date given, and an examination of the Great Court Books revealed
Wodderspoon's error. The lease was granted to Buckenham on the 17th March, 1614, instead
of 1604, and the rent was fixed at twenty-six shillings and eight pence, and not £26 8s.
Instead of the Old Coffee House this lease doubtless refers to small tenements at the rear of
that building, which are said to abut on to the " Churchyard of St. Marie tower."
Wodderspoon having apparently determined that the entry in the Corporation Books referred
to the fine old House itself, felt that the rent named was so inadequate that it must be a
sUp of the pen, which he ought to correct, and therefore substituted pounds for shillings.
There need have been no mistake here, as in 1648 this property reverted to the Corporation
through non-payment of rent, and it was leased to Henry Girling on the same terms as before,
viz. : a yearly payment of twenty-six shillings and eight pence.

Who was Henry Buckenham, whose name appeared so prominently on the front of this old
house ? He was a man of good position, as his residence indicated ; a Burgess, who obtained
his freedom by apprenticeship, and was admitted in 1601, declaring that he had neither
apprentices nor children. In 1612, and again in 1621, he was made one of the governors of
Christ's Hospital. In 1614 he was discharged from being Guild Merchant on his paying a fine
of ten pounds. In 1608 he was churchwarden of St.-Mary-at-the-Tower, and the extempore
and fervent preaching of the Rev. Samuel Ward, known as " Watch Ward," drew so large a
number of hearers who were not parishioners, that to provide extra accommodation Mr.
Buckenham and his brother churchwarden, Mr. George Raymond, erected at their own cost a gallery
on the North side of the church, receiving, as compensation for the outlay, seat-rents from such
non-parishioners as desired to sit in the " severall roomes and seates " so comfortably prepared
for their use. In 1617, Mr. Raymond being then deceased, Mr. Buckenham agreed, for the
sum of thirty shillings paid to him by the parishioners, to relinquish all his rights and interest
in the said gallery, simply reserving to himself a seat in it for the remainder of his Hfe.

At what period this unique house was converted into a place of entertainment under the
guise of a coffee house we have no evidence to offer. It appears from an assessment of
the parish of St. Maiy-at-the-Tower that in 1689 the " Coffee House " was entered on
the Rate Book, and that it had many " Inns " as neighbours. The Corporation from an
early date exercised the privilege of granting licenses. This privilege was used with such
strictness and so jealously was the liquor trade watched, that no tradesman selling wine
or liquors was eligible for the ofl&ce of Bailiff. In addition to this, licensed innkeepers were
required to find sureties to indemnify the town for any expense arising from illegitimate
children which might be born in their houses, and in 1567 a Committee was appointed by a
Great Court to look after such of the inhabitants or travellers who loitered in ale or tipphng
houses. According to " Bacon's Annals " there were only three licensed vintners in Ipswich in
1568, but in 1575 the Bailiffs increased the number of wine licenses, and agreed to issue
20 licenses for inns and ale houses. In the Record Office there is a return of the inns,
taverns, and ale houses in England, 1574, apparently just before the Bailiffs increased the
number of licences. Therein we find that Ipswich had fifteen inns, four taverns, and two ale
houses, making a total of 21 refreshment houses. The County of Suffolk as a whole had 97
inns, 65 taverns, and 287 alehouses. The Return illustrates the social habits of our forefathers
in different parts of England. Thus bustling Northampton, like Ipswich, had four taverns, but
it had also 39 alehouses ; the Primate's City, Canterbury, had four taverns and 22 alehouses ;
mercantile Boston, one tavern and 27 alehouses ; ecclesiastical St. Albans, two taverns and 26
alehouses. K this return may be relied on, it indicates the wealth and exclusiveness of the popu-
lation of Ipswich. The people were wine drinkers when claret and Rhenish wine could be obtained
at 3d. per pint, and hock at 6d., ordinary drinking ale being sold at two quarts for a penny.

Coffee houses and their associations were popular in London, and that at Ipswich was
doubtless established as much to afford a lounging place for gossip, for reading the " News "
and playing at cards, as for coffee drinking. It is even said that the sober-minded and the
lounger resorted to the Old Coffee House, where they sipped their favourite beverage, and at times
refreshed themselves with a nap, over the dull journals of the day, whilst the favourite Coaching
House, the " Old White Hart," hard by, with its spacious parlour and its sanded floor, was the
rendezvous of the more convivial, the free and easy of the place being better suited to their
carousals. In those days " Hotels," as we know them, had no existence, and a stranger coming to
Ipswich took private apartments, and had to resort to a tavern, or to an ordinary, for his dinner.

In 1767 the Coffee House, then the property of Mr. Josiah Harris, an auctioneer and
cabinet maker, and known as Dod's Coffee House, was offered for sale. It was described as
having coffee, tea, card, and dining rooms. The Assembly Room (now used as the
Reading Room of the Working Men's College), let with the house, had been built about
fourteen years, for which term the house had been let on lease. For balls, concerts,
and public meetings this fine room had been a great accommodation to a large number
of persons, but it was less profitable to the proprietor than he anticipated. To prevent
the property being diverted from its public use, a number of gentlemen united for its purchase,
and it was convey4d by Josiah Harris and his wife to ten persons in equal shares, one of
them being the lev. Richard Canning, minister of St. Lawrence. After the shareholders
had obtained posf iion Daniel Bamford, a man who figured in a variety of ways in connection
with this class o |ade, became landlord. He occupied the Coffee House in 1771, in which
year an informati i was laid against him for allowing billiards to be played in his house. He
was convicted, i the Justices, who were the guardians of public morals in Ipswich,
ordained that ^ J recognizances be forfeited, and that he be disfranchised as a Licensed
Victualler for th, ^ena of three years. The case, however, was removed to the Court of
King's Bench, an- jthe conviction was quashed. A few years later Bamford removed to the
Great White F fie (it had not then risen to the dignity of an Hotel) and shortly after
announced that ^ had fitted it up "as Hotel, Coffee House, and Tavern."

After a lapse of 30 years the Old Coffee House was again sold. The shares had changed
hands and got sub-divided. When Mr. John Cobbold purchased the property in 1798, for the
sum of £1,350, more than half the shares were in the hands of Mr. Trotman, the brewer,
and Mr. Kerridge, the banker. When sold to Mr. Cobbold the house was called Alderson's
Coffee House, but at the commencement of the present century it became known as Prigg's
Coffee House, a noted place for billiards, the landlord apparently having no fear of a prosecution
for gambling. All high-class balls and concerts were given at the Assembly Room, which
was let in connection with this Coffee House, and became the resort of the gayest of the gay.
At the present day few persons beside those who take part in them, and their immediate
Mends, attend fashionable balls. At the commencement of the century a different custom
prevailed. Ladies, whose dancing days had passed some thirty or forty years, looked upon a
Race Ball or a County Ball as the most agreeable dissipation of the year. It gave them the
opportunity of gossipping with old friends, when travelling was difficult ; of seeing the aristocratic
people of the county ; of speculating, whilst they watched the dancers, as to probable matrimonial
engagements ; of exhibiting their best dresses, as well as the old lace for which some of the
spinsters and dowagers within the charmed circle — which was almost as select as " caste "
in India — were distinguished ; or of having a quiet rubber of whist. On these evenings, hackney
coaches were in demand, but many lady residents would accept no other conveyance than the
cozy sedan chair, a kind of hand cab carried by two men, whose appearance was rendered
picturesque by the wearing of cocked hats and rather conspicuous liveries. This chair had
its usefulness at a time when ladies' hair was dressed in such a style as to render the least
derangement fatal to an imposing appearance. Men of fashion entered the ball room in those
days with powdered hair, nicely adjusted curls, coloured cloth coat, lined with satin, embroidered
waistcoat of satin, black silk shorts, white silk stockings, full shirt frill, lace ruffles, and silver
buckles. Men in such costume were equally glad to avail themselves of a conveyance which
landed them under cover in the vestibule of the Old Assembly Room. The sedan chair
survived until recent years in unprogressive towns. Ancient dowagers, comforted by the "sweet
simplicity of the three per cents," stuck to them to the last.

Lady Harland, on her way to a County Ball at the Old Coffee House, lost a diamond
earring, which, if found, was not restored. George, Prince of Wales, graced the Old Coffee
House by attending one of these balls. The man whose tailor's bills amounted to ten thousand
pounds a year, charmed several ladies by dancing with them that evening, and delighted a
much larger number by the fascination of his smile and the elegance and gallantry of his manner.

In 1817, when the front of it was shced off, this house was shorn of its beauty. Very
few persons are living who remember its appearance ; a large majority of the present generation
have never even heard of its existence. Yet which of our old buildings could fairly claim as
much notice, whether for its picturesque beauty or its unique associations ?

As one looks at the engraving, the question arises, why was so charming an example of
sixteenth century work sacrificed ? Why was so picturesque a specimen of domestic architecture
demolished ? Did the end justify the means, or was its demolition a piece of that iconoclasm
which, under the guise of improvement, has led to the removal of so many ancient buildings
from our midst ? The facts are these.

At the beginning of the present century that part of Tavern Street — extending from
Hatton Court to Northgate Street — was very narrow. On one side stood the White Horse
Hotel, on the other directly facing it, the Post Office. The width of the street here was
only nineteen feet, and of this width, a portion on each side had to be appropriated to foot
passengers, leaving only a very narrow way (such as that which most of the inhabitants
remember at the east end of the Butter Market, before it was widened) for vehicular traffic.
The inconvenience thus occasioned naturally augmented as the traffic increased, and accidents
so often occurred that the spot was considered dangerous. With one exception, every structure
in this part of the street was a shop, and ladies who went shopping, or those who had to wait

whilst a friend entered the Hotel, were painfully embarrassed by the probability of being
overturned. So notorious in this respect had this part of the town become, that many persons
from the country avoided it, by driving along the back road from St. Matthew's Street.
Travellers who posted from London or Colchester to Yarmouth, or any place on the route,
followed this example, and by changing horses at Copdock White Elm passed through the
town without stopping. At the Post Office Comer, where the four streets met, that portion
of Tavern Street which was available for carriage traffic was only twelve feet wide, and at
Hatton Court the space was almost equally limited.

The shopkeepers who lived in this narrow way felt that the diversion of traffic was a
serious impediment to business, and they became urgent in then- demands to have the street
widened. Three of them being owners as well as occupiers offered to give up, without
compensation, such portions of the entire frontage as were required for the widening process,
provided their houses were re-fronted and put into tenantable condition. Imposing shop fronts
were not then conspicuous in Tavern Street, and most of the houses on the north side were
very low, with overhanging jetties.

The following sums were eventually paid to the owners and occupiers of the premises for
what they surrendered : — Mr. Brothers, hatter, £650 ; Mr. Pipe, shoemaker (for self and another),
jC900 ; Mr. Brett, shoemaker, £350 ; Mr. Skoulding, confectioner (for self and another), £600 ;
Mr. Meadows, £620 ; A. H. Steward, Esq., for Great White Horse, £1,100 ; Mr. Brooks,
tenant of White Horse, £100. The Lessees of the Assembly Room accepted £30, upon
Mr. John Cobbold agreeing to the alterations and compensation offered. The Surveyors, Messrs.
Brown, Catt, and Doughty, were to receive 6 per cent, on the £6,500 agreed to be spent.

It is evident that thus far the Paving and Lighting Commissioners, by whom the plan
was brought forward, were justified in making the improvement at the East end of the street.
But why they continued the widening process to the corner of Tower Street is not so clear.
The street at this portion was much wider than at the East end, and to obtain a uniformity
of line on the North side seems to have been the chief motive for dismantling one of the finest
specimens of ancient domestic architecture that Ipswich possessed. The inhabitants were not then
alive to the importance of preserving memorials of the past. According to the published report
of the public meeting called to consider the proposed plan, not a word was said on behah of
the old Jacobean front, the removal of which so many lovers of the picturesque have deplored.
It has been truly said that commerce is not governed by sentiment, and it was, no doubt,
thought that, so long as a widened thoroughfare was secured, regard for the handicraft of a
past age could be dispensed with. And thus a building of great archaeological interest, a
memorial which threw Ught on the history of art in our town, a link which would have
connected the present with the past, was ruthlessly destroyed in order that a few inches of
ground should be added to a footway !

It is curious to note, that what would now be considered a very small matter for corporate
deUberation, was at that date a serious financial question. The estimated cost of the projected
improvement in Tavern Street according to plan agreed upon by the Paving and Lighting
Commissioners was £6,500. Towards this sum the Commissioners had about £2,000 in hand.
Alluding to the expense, the Chairman of a public meeting which was held to consider the
matter said the alteration was so necessary that to it he trusted no objection would be made,
but as the expense was great, he suggested that it might be carried into effect by degrees.
It looks as if very economical ideas prevailed in those days, for at the same meeting it was
incidentally mentioned that the sum of £100 was annually expended in sweeping the streets,
and Mr. Mileson Edgar, a good man of business, thought that even this moderate sum was
£30 a year more than was necessary !

THE BRIDGES.

HE existing Bridges in Ipswich are modem, and are not of such a character
as to have taxed to any great extent the mechanical ingenuity or the
engineering skill of the day in which they were erected. One can see that
they were built for use rather than ornament, an economical standpoint
probably preventing the combination of the two essentials in a good structure.
Public spirit was not so easily evoked a century ag»»as it can be now.
Money could not be so readily obtained, and there was a tendency to make
shift which the present generation would not have tolerated. Hence such
erections as Bourne Bridge and Handford Bridge, which, as far as public accommodation is
concerned, are a disgrace to the nineteenth century. The present Bourne Bridge replaced one
of historic type and great architectural merits. Though erected probably in the reign of the
first Edward of England, it was as good for traffic as that which rose on the same spot in
the reign of George III. What follows treats of the Bridges in detail. As historic structures
they naturally occupy a place in these " Illustrations of Old Ipswich."

STOKE BRIDGE.

Eight hundred years ago a Bridge leading from the town of Ipswich to the Hamlet of Stoke
was in existence. It was deemed of sufficient importance to be named in the Inventory,
known as Doomsday Book, made by order of the Norman Conqueror. Whether it crossed the
Orwell at the spot occupied by that of the present day, there is not sufficient evidence to
determine. At a Great Court held in Ipswich, 1378, an order was made that the rent of a
tenement in Cook Row, formerly the property of William Malyns, which had become forfeited
to the Corporation, was in future to be applied to the repairing of St. Peter's Bridge, and it
has been conjectured that a Bridge at one time led from Whip Street to St. Peter's Dock.
It must not be forgotten that, although called Stoke Bridge, the present structure is entirely
in the parish of St. Peter, and evidence as to any other Bridge in this locality giving access
to the hamlet of Stoke has not been found.

At a very early period in the history of Ipswich this Hamlet was an important district of
the town. The best means of access to Ipswich for all traffic coming from the Samford
Hundred, via Bourne Bridge, would be by a route over the Orwell somewhere near St. Peter's
Church. That the Bridge, wherever it stood, was much used and in consequence an object of
care on the part of the town authorities, is evident from the numerous entries in the Borough
Records relating to it, and the aid given to it, at different times, by private individuals.
Thomas Ailverd, one of the Coroners of the Borough, who died in 1300, left by will the sum
of twenty shillings yearly out of lands in the parish of Stoke, and ten shillings yearly from
tenements, for the maintenance of " the Bridge." John de Caldwell, one of the pubHc-spirited
men of his age, seeing the necessity for improved accommodation, offered in 1435 to have a
Bridge to the hamlet of Stoke constructed at his expense, providing the inhabitants of Ipswich
would pay pontage. His offer, it seems, was not accepted, for repairs to what was most likely
a timber structure were frequently needed, and the stability of that structure ofttimes a matter
of doubt. In 1477 an order was made at a Great Court that carts should not go over
Stoke Bridge, and to enforce this the Bailiffs were requested to keep it locked. It is
evident therefore that the Bridge was narrow, and that a bar or gate, protected if necessary
by a padlock, was provided for the maintenance of the toll keeper's rights. Before the end

of the fifteenth century the Bridge was again extensively repaired, for in May, 1495, it was
ordered that " all Carts going over Stoke Bridge lately built shall pay towards the repairing
and maintaining of the same, viz., every Burgess Id. ob., and every forrainer Id. for ever,
provided that none shall goe over the bridge when they may goe through the ffoord."* This
shows that there was a Ford passable, not far from the Bridge. Probably the toll bar was
kept locked, and the keeper was little troubled by carters or horsemen, except when the tide
was too high to permit horses to wade the stream without risk. A toll seems to be referred
to in the entry under date September 18th, 1495, " Auditors for Stoke Bridge Mony." The
Bridge was re-built at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, for in 1559 reference is made
in the Town Records to the carriage of 28 "lodes" of timber from Whitton to Ipswich for the
building of Stoke Bridge, and eight "lodes" of timber from Holbrook.

Where was the Ford? Evidently it was somewhere close to the Bridge, but old maps
do not mark its whereabouts. The passage from Whip Street to St. Peter's Dock, which was
in a line with the Wherstead Road, in ancient times the regular route from London to
Ipswich, was the spot selected for it. With a Bridge that needed frequent repairs, a Ford
near at hand was almost a necessity. There are orders in the Great Court and Assembly
Books for making passable the roadway through the Channel at this place. Thus in 1670-71
the sum of thirty shilHngs was paid to John Sharman and Francis Rednall "for clearing the
Dock to make a passage through the channell." Later evidence as to the locality of the
Ford is to be found in the Ipswich Journal for the week ending November 3rd, 1804 : —

"Repairs to Stoke Bridge occasioned great inconvenience, as all vehicular ti'affic had to be
diverted to the Ford at St. Peter's Dock." Here "Ford" is used as the ordinary and proper
designation of the spot.

According to Wodderspoon, a bridge of stone existed between the town of Ipswich and
the Hamlet of Stoke two hundred and seventy five years ago ; Speed's map of Ipswich
published in 1610 shows such a Bridge. It also indicated that a house was erected upon one
of the piers on the eastern side of the Bridge. This house seems to have overhung, so as
not to intrude upon the space for traffic. It was probably placed there for the convenience
of levying pontage. " This Bridge," says the same authority, " according to the map seems to
have been erected in a ponderous style, and the arches were of a low and pointed character.
It stood with little alteration until the l2th of April, 1818, when in consequence of a heavy flood
caused by rain two of the arches were swept away, and the structure was rendered useless." f

We cannot say of what material the Bridge shown on Speed's map of 1610 was
constructed. If built of stone, Wodderspoon is wrong in stating that it stood with little
alteration imtil 1818, as Buck's view of Ipswich published in 1741 exhibits Stoke Bridge at
that date as timber-built. From the Corporation Records, it appears that very extensive
repairs were made to a timber Bridge in 1670-71, and as ten loads of old timber were at
that time carted away for use as firewood at Christ's Hospital, it may be fairly inferred that
the structure then repaired, or more probably replaced, was of timber also. The sale of 210 lb.
of old iron and of only 180 bricks from the old materials, points to the same conclusion.

The following particulars respecting the last named repairs at Stoke Bridge contain
matters of much interest alike as to the cost of the Bridge, the value of labor and materials
at that date, and the amount of money received by rate.

In 1670-71 during the Bailiwick of Nicholas Phillipps and Thomas Reeve, it was "agreed
that a rate shall be made for the payment of four hundred pounds for the repair of the
Bridges belonging to the Town, by the Portmen, Thomas Edgar Christopher Milton and the
Mr. Town Clerk, the Four-and-Twenty, Mr. Simon Cumberland, Isaac Day, and John Gibbons
and John Wade." So runs the minute in the assembly book of the Ipswich Corporation, and
another book among the Corporation Records supplies details as to the amount raised and how
it was expended.

•Bacon's "Annals." f "Memorials of Ipswich."

The accounts of John Sawyer and Jonathan Button, Surveyors for Handford Bridge and
Stoak Bridge, for the years 1669, 1670, and 1671 :—

Eeceipts.
Received of John Gawdy and John Sayer, Collectors for the first

Bridge Rate -----_.

Received of William Hawes and Thomas Passall, Collectors for the

second Bridge Rate --_-..

210 lbs. of old Iron at 13d. lb. - - - - .

For 180 Bricks --..-_.

505

238

745

237

Among the payments made are the foUov^ing : —

Paid Truth Norris for his timber and work at Stoak Bridge, in full,
as by his bill appeareth ---.-_
Paid unto George Allen in full, for Painting of Stoak Bridge
Paid unto John Sharman and Francis Rednall for clearing, the Dock,

to make passage through the Channell - - - - I 10 00

Paid unto Robert Rushford for 5 loads of Gravel at Is, id. the load,
to lay on the Bridge before it was begun . _ .

Paid for Spreading the Gravel and beating down the Cartwracks
Paid unto Edmund Applewhite for 300 of bricks

For 4 bushels of lime and sand . - _ _ .

Paid unto Jacob Waithwhaite for one day's work for himself and

laborer - - - - - - - - 00 03 00

Paid unto Robert Rushford for the Carriage of ten loads of old

timber to the Hospitall - - - - - - 00 10 00

For 5 pounds of great Nayles - - - - - - 00 01 08

Paid unto Francis Rednall and John Sharman for putting doune the

Cartwracks, 12 weeks - - - - - - 00 12 00

An order of Sessions for the repair of Stoke Bridge was in several instances made during
the eighteenth century, it having been presented by the Grand Jury as dangerous. When the
Brick and Stone Bridge shown in the engraving, as it stood in 1801, was buUt, we have no
evidence to oflFer, Mr. Batley says that no account of its erection has been found among the
Corporation Records.*

During the morning of the 12th April, 1818, the inhabitants of Ipswich were alarmed by
a report that Stoke Bridge had collapsed. A heavy rain had fallen on the previous day and
during the night. The Gipping overflowed its banks and the marshes for miles along the
valley were flooded. It was Sunday morning, and fortunately there was but little traffic over
the Bridge. The flood continued to increase and the rush of water gained in impetuosity.
Three men were standing on the Bridge intently watching the surging flood a.s it rushed
through the three narrow arches. Unconsciously to the spectators the wash was sapping the
piers which retarded its progress, and the impetuosity of the flood was increased by a falling
tide. Suddenly the end of the south pier gave way, and with it went part of a centre and a
side arch. The three men who had been absorbed by witnessing the seething torrent fell
with the debris into the flood. Two of them were saved by means of ropes ; the third, unable
to maintain the unequal combat, was drowned.

The Bridge which was thus destroyed is the subject of our illustration. Constructed of
brick and stone, it consisted of three low arches and four substantial piers ; rounded masses of
stonework projected into the stream. The outline of the arches was well marked by bold

* Batley MSS., British Musuem.

central keystones. Each of the piers was ornamented by a niche, above which was a small
rectangular panel Over each arch a string course ran from pier to pier, and above this was a
similarly executed cornice, the two forming strongly marked parallel lines, and relaxing the
stiffness of the outline of the Bridge. Through each of the spandrils of the arches an iron rod
had been run from side to side, and was tied in on either external face by a circular cast
iron boss. The piers were connected above the string course by a parapet and a series of
turned stone balusters, thus forming one of those open balustrades that were frequently seen
on Bridges of the 17th and 18th centuries. The piers were bulky and wide, the arches were
low and nearly circular in outline. The absence of lateral supports, the limited extent of
waterway provided, and the constitutionally weak form of arch adopted, all contributed to the
instability of the Bridge. Taking the drawing now re-produced as our witness, a heavy flood
and a gale of more than usual intensity were only needed to ensure the sudden collapse of the
structure.

The morning after the startling catastrophe the Bailiffs and Magistrates of the
town assembled to consider what steps should be taken to repair the mischief Public
accommodation and economy had to be studied. Fortunately they called to their aid Mr,
WUliam Cubitt, Civil Engineer, who was then employed by Eansomes & Sons. That
gentleman advised the immediate construction of a temporary timber Bridge in a line with the
yard of the White Lion Inn, to enable foot passengers to cross the river without the trouble
of a ferry boat, and a floating Bridge formed of barges for vehicular trafiic across the river
from St. Peter's Dock. These suggestions were adopted and so promptly carried out that the
floating Bridge was in use in less than four weeks from the fall of the old Bridge. This
floating Bridge so well served its purposes, that loads of timber weighing nearly eight tons
passed over it without inconvenience or injury. To enable vessels and barges to pass the
Bridge was opened every tide for an hour before high water for the passage of barges going
upwards, and for one hour after high water for those going downwards. The bargemen upward
bound lay to as near the Biidge as was convenient till the time for passing, and those
downward bound made fast to a buoy just above the broken Bridge, there to wait their turn.
Of course barges which came up too late had to wait for the next tide,

Mr. Cubitt was also requested to prepare plans and estimates for a new structure. He
advised the use of iron, and in accordance with his plans a Bridge of one arch, 60 feet in the
span, constructed of cast iron, with abutments of brickwork, faced with Scotch granite, was
thrown over the channel. The estimated cost was £3,850. Under his vigilant superintendence
a Bridge with a roadway 22^ feet in the clear was built. Its strength and durability have
now been tested for seventy years. There has been no impediment to traffic and no serious
call upon the pockets of the ratepayers for repairs.

Turning to the engraving, on the bank to the right of the Bridge is a Water Mill,
timber-built and plastered, with a grindstone resting against the wall. At a very early period
in the history of Ipswich the hamlet of Stoke was celebrated for its Mills. One belonging to
the Monastery of St. Etheldredra of Ely was long afterwards held by the Prior and Convent
of Ely. The Doomsday Survey mentions one, and frequent references to the Town Mills on
both banks of the stream occur in the Municipal Records throughout tlie middle ages. Under
the paternal Government of those days the inhabitants, upon pain of fine and forfeiture of a
portion of the grain, were compelled to bring their corn to the Town Mills to be ground.
The miller in his turn was restricted as to charge. Only a certain toll could be taken, and
he was cautioned not to mingle inferior produce with grain brought to be ground for food.
The Old Water Mill on the town side of the Bridge, which existed within the memory of
persons living, was the most noted of these Town Mills. It was long known as Eainbird's
Mill, Mr. Laurence Rainbird having been for many years a tenant of the Corporation, and is
described in the Chamberlain's Accounts as "Stoke Mill." A century ago it was let with
some Marshes at an annual rental of £65. Mr. Joseph Fison was the last lessee.

-f-c

BOURNE BRIDGE.

This is a border Bridge, partly in the Borough and partly in the County parish of Wherstead.
The waters of the Orwell wash under it and form a kind of lagoon to the west. The date
at which a Bridge was first erected here is unknown. The earliest mention of one occurs
1352 — 3 (Edward III.). The BailtflPs of Ipswich, when perambulating the boundaries of the
town, rode from the BuU stake, on the Comhill, to the middle arch of Bourne Bridge.* The
allusion to the middle arch shows that at that period the Bridge consisted of an vmequal
number of arches, and probably this was the Bridge with seven arches which remained till
nearly the close of the eighteenth century.

In the closing years of the sixteenth century, and early in the seventeenth century,
frequent repairs were made to the Bridge at the cost of the town, according to the requirements
laid down by an Act, passed in 1517 (Henry VIII.). Thus in 1554 the Bailifis and Justices,
according to Statute, named Assessors for the " reparacion " of Bourne Bridge, and Collectors
were appointed in every parish. In September, 1578 (Queen Elizabeth), the Bridge was
ordered to be repaired at an estimated cost of £150. Up to this date the boundary line
between the town and the county, and the responsibility for maintenance and repair, do not
appear to have been well understood. In 1580, a conference between the town and county
magistrates was held on the spot, to inspect the repairs then in progress, when they reported
in writing, under their hands and seals, how far the town and how far the county was
chargeable, and directed the same to be put on record. The boundary line thus agreed to
has ever since been recognised. In the years 1610, 1624, and 1671, and at other periods up
to the year 1757, the town repaired its part. In the last-mentioned year it was repaired
under a contract, and under the inspection of a Surveyor.

In 1785, advertisements appeared in the Ipswich Journal, from Mr. CoUett, Clerk of the
Peace for the County, and from Mr. T. Notcutt, Deputy Clerk of the Peace for the Borough,
notifying that on the 29th day of August the Bridge would be impassable imtU further notice.
Horses and carriages, it was stated, might pass with safety through the river at low water.
Mr. Thomas Fulcher, Surveyor, of Ipswich, who was engaged to superintend the repairs, was
empowered to put out the brickwork and agree for its performance. On the 18th of the
following November another advertisement appeared announcing that the repairs were finished,
and that Bourne Bridge would be passable for carriages " on Monday, the 21st instant." In
eleven weeks therefore those repairs were completed. The payments made to Mr. Fulcher on
the part of the Borough amounted to £85.

The ancient Bridge with its seven pointed arches of unknown antiquity is gone. When
did it cease to exist ? We found on attempting to collect evidence on this point that the
question was more easily asked than answered. The minutes of proceedings at the County
Quarter Sessions for the last century, wherein such facts would be recorded, are not, it seems,
in existence, and the Borough Eecords enable us to give only an approximate idea as to the
date. It would appear that the repairs to the old Bridge executed under the supervision of
Mr. Thomas Fulcher were not of much value. The Ipsivich Journal for September 9th, 1786,
contains a notice to the public showing the hours on each day of the forthcoming week at
which carriages could pass through the river at that spot with safety, a proof that the Bridge
in less than twelve months after the repairs had again broken down.

Among the Eecords of the Borough we found that at the Sessions held 15th March,
1790, the following bills were ordered to be paid : —

For Stone and Gravel at Bourne Bridge _ - - -

For Paving by Mr. Elliott at Bourne Bridge - - - -

For balance of Messrs. Gowing & Selsby's bill - - . -

For Messrs. Clinchin's Bill for Stone delivered at the Bridge

* Bacon's "Annals."

199

141

These items (one of which is balance of bill) being paid for work done to the Borough portion
of the Bridge only, prepared us for the statement made by Mr. Batley in his MSS. notes on
Ipswich, that in 1786 the Bridge was reported by the Surveyors, specially appointed to
examine its condition, to be in so ruinous a state as not to admit of substantial repair. It
was therefore taken down and the present one built, the Town and County sharing the
expense of the new structure in their due proportions. * This testimony from a gentleman
who was Town Clerk of the Borough of Ipswich at the very period, viz. : 1784 to 1790, seems
to be conclusive as to the date at which the old Bridge was removed. An examination at
low water shows that much of the squared masonry of the old Bridge was re-worked into the
lower portions of the new.

The old Bridge, which we beheve was taken down in 1786, was originally roughly but
substantially built. It was carried upon seven arches, between each of which and projecting
outwards was a narrow buttress, constructed to withstand the pressure of the rising tide on
the one side, and the land water and occasional floods on the other. The arches were four
centred and pointed, and the key stones forming the actual face of the arches were ornamented
with a double row of moulding. The vaulting of the arches was perfectly plain, the stones
having a uniform smooth surface. The pitch or rise of the Bridge was much less than usual
in mediaeval work of this character, the abutments or land supports were skilfully treated so as
to provide a gentle approach. The Bridge was extremely narrow, and a serviceable parapet,
nearly breast high, following in most cases the heads of the buttresses, provided a number of
recesses as places of safety for foot passengers. Standing by these time-worn parapets and
looking eastward a charming view of the sylvan scenery of the Orwell is obtained. On the
west the landscape is also picturesque.

Among the documents in the Muniment Boom of the Ipswich Corporation are two
Indentures of Agreement for the repair of Bourne Bridge that are worthy of note, as they
connect the " Freemasons " with the repair of the Bridge. One of them was made 21st
Elizabeth (1579), the other 7th James I. (1610). The first Agreement is between Sir Eobert
Wingfield, of Letheringham, Sir PhiUp Parker, of Erwarton, Thomas Seckford, of Ipswich, Esq.,
and Philip Tylney, of Shelley, Esq., of the one part, Eobert Cutler and three others, of Ipswich,
of the second part, and John Knyghts, of Barton, Suffolk, " freemason," and William Knyghts of
Crowfield, Suffolk, " freemason " of the third part.

The second Indenture of Agreement is between William Bloyse, merchant, Tobias Blosse,
mercer and bailiff, Robert Cutler, gentleman and portman, of Ipswich, of the one part, and
Thomas Reynberd, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, " freemason," of the other part. This Agreement
witnesseth that for certain payments therein named the said Thomas Reynberd undertook to
repair and re-edify and amend in a workmanlike and substantial manner " one halfe of the
said Bridge, that is to saie, soe muche thereof as is standinge from the middest of the said
Bridge to the furthest and uttermost end thereof towards the said town of Ipswch." The best
and the most durable stone adapted to such work was to be used, and the whole to be so
well wrought and troweled as shall be thought fitt by suehe skillfull workmen of that science
of free-masons as shall be appointed to viewe the same by the said William Bloyse, Tobias
Blosse, and Robert Cutler.

To some of our readers it will be news to find " Freemasons " acting as Surveyors of public
Bridges, and called upon to decide the character of such work. But "Freemasons" at this
era were evidently the best workmen that could be found — men who worked on geometrical
lines, and only such masons as were well grounded in science were admitted as members of
the craft. To this society of men we seem to be indebted for the vaultings which secure our
Cathedrals, and to the art of constructing walls to resist the thrust of a stone vaulting. Many
agreements similar to the above appear to have been made with "Freemasons" in relation to
our coUegiate buildings.

* Batley's M8S., Britisli Museum.

The superiority of the Freemason as a workman is shown by the Statute 6, Henry VIII,
c. 5, At the date of the contract named above (1610) the wages allowed under this Statute
were : — To a Freemason who can draw his plot, work, and set out accordingly, having charge
over others, 8d. per day with meat. Is. per day without meat, whilst the wages of an ordinary
mason having charge over others was 2d. per day less. The amount to be paid to Thomas
Reynberd for the repairs was, as per agreement, £27 lis. This sum was paid by instalments.
By the first agreement the amount to be paid to John and William Knyghts was £150, thus:
£50 before Michaelmas Day, 1579, £25 at Whitsuntide, 1580, £25 at Michaelmas, 1580, £25
at Whitsuntide, 1581, and £25 at Michaelmas, 1581.

In 1609, Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England, resided at Wherstead. To him
the Bailifi" and Burgesses granted a lease of the Mills which then existed on the west side of
Bourne Bridge " newly built." They have long since disappeared.

At a Great Court, held May 3rd, 1788, permission was given to Dame Susannah Harland,
her Heirs or Assigns, " to dig, make, pile, and complete a Dock in and upon the land and soil
sometimes overflowed and covered with water by the ebbing and flowing of the tide, upon the
edge of the river Orwell, at a distance of not less than eighteen yards from Bourne Bridge, on
the east side thereof, of such length, width, depth, size, and dimensions, as she or they shall
think proper, and to make a convenient hard way by the side of the said Dock."

The lady to whom this permission was given was the mother of the late Sir Robert
Harland, Bart., and resided at Wherstead. She for years prior to this date had a Dock at
Bourne Bridge. The old Bridge had suffered considerably through vessels in this Dock drifting
from their moorings during a gale, and the Bailiffs and Burgesses made the above-named
concession, in order that the Dock might be made at a greater distance from the Bridge, and
injuries from similar causes thereby prevented.

A Dock at a distance from the Ipswich Quay existed long before the time of Dame
Susannah Harland. In 1605, licence was granted to Robert Gooding, salt finer, to set a post
near Bourne Bridge, beneath the full sea mark, about the half flood, in order that he might
make a Dock there for the loading and unloading of vessels during the Town's pleasure, he
paying the sum of 12d. a year for the privilege. * Documents at the Record Office show that
in 1634 Sir Richard Broke, of Nacton, petitioned Charles I. for authority to construct a Dock
at Downham Reach, and his petition was granted.

HANDFORD BRIDGE.

At the spot where Handford Bridge stands, a timber Bridge, rude in form, simple in
construction, and destitute of the usual accommodation for vehicles, existed from an early
period. The stream here was always strong after heavy rains, and then the torrent invariably
damaged the road at the foot of the Bridge. In former times the people felt the advantage of
even trifling additional accommodation, and the Burgesses in Great Court displayed their good
sense by rewarding individuals who were spirited enough to make improvements for the public
good. Thus in 1467, William Sewell, for altering the Bridge at Handford so that the king's
subjects might pass through the river with horses and carts, was made a Free Burgess. The
Bridge itself, though broad enough for carts, was restricted to the use of foot passengers and
horses. This state of things continued in the sixteenth century. In 1562, one Charles Crane,
having pulled up the post which prevented carts passing over the Bridge, was taken before the
Bailiffs and Justices and fined six shillings and eight pence. What was better, he was
compelled to set up at his own expense another post.

Ulverstone Hall, Debenham, a farm belonging to the Corporation of Ipswich, seems to
have been well stocked with trees in the Tudor and succeeding age. Thither the Bailiffs of

* Batley MSS., British Museum.

Ipswich went for timber when repairs to public buildings in the town were ordered. Bacon
in his "Annals" tells us that in 1619 trees were ordered to be felled at Ulverstone Hall for
the repair of Handford Bridge. According to the Batley MSS. the Bridge was taken down
in that year and rebuilt, 4d. a night being paid by the Burgesses for keeping watch during
re-building. At this date there was a foot Bridge where the seven arches are placed. This
was increased in width, and the highway made good between the great Bridge and the little
Bridge. A causeway was also made on the right of the highway. This timber Bridge seems
to have lasted only half a century. In 1669 over £200 was spent in repairing or re-constructing
Handford Bridge. The sum of one hundred and thirty pounds, twelve shillings, was paid to
Mr. Truth Norris for timber and work The iron used weighed 5 cwt. 3 qrs. 8 lbs., and cost
£9 lis. lid. The painting of the Bridge cost £6. Broom, which was used in the roadway,
cost 3s. a load; gravel one shilling; and clay two shillings and twopence. Men received
Is. 6d. a day for labour, and George Thirkettle was paid eight shillings a day for work with
horses and tumbril. For carting a load of old timber from the Bridge to the Hospital, which
was in Foundation Street, the charge was one shilling. These payments were met by a Bridge
Rate. This kind of rate was evidently not unusual. In April, 1750, a Bridge Kate of 3d. in
the £, was made, and in April, 1753, there was an order of Sessions for one of 6d. in the £.
This last-named raised the sum of £208 14s. Od.

Handford Bridge was so frequently out of repair that it became a source of great anxiety
to the Corporate Body, whose property was heavily mortgaged, and they could not therefore
raise money for the erection of a substantial structure. At a Borough Sessions in 1747 the
Grand Jury made a presentment that Handford Bridge was " so much out of repair as to be
ruinous and dangerous for all His Majesty's liege subjects to pass and re-pass over the same."
In 1777 a post chaise was over-turned by the impetuous stream at the foot of the Bridge, and
two horses belonging to Mr. Manning, of Colchester, were drowned. In 1779 several holes
were scooped out in the road by the overflow of the stream. One of these was seven feet
deep, and when covered with water could not be seen; a horse whilst fording the stream got
entangled with its harness, and was drowned in this hole. This accident stirred up the
inhabitants, and a number of them signed a petition with a view of obtaining an Act of
ParUament for the erection of a Bridge on this spot and for making in addition a causeway
for foot passengers, but the application was made too late in the Session and could not be
received. By renewed efforts the road was made passable, but in the following year, through
a great overflow of water, occasioned by a sudden thaw, it became nearly as bad as before.
In 1791 another timber Bridge was built, but an Act of Parliament having passed for making
the river Gipping navigable from Stowmarket to Ipswich the Bridge recently erected not
being adapted for such traffic it was taken down and re-built by the Trustees of the
Navigation, upon an understanding with the Borough Magistrates of Ipswich.

In the year 1814, the road at the foot of the Bridge being again rendered impassable
through damage by floods, coaches, carriages, and vehicles of all descriptions on their way
from the London and Hadleigh Roads came no nearer the Town than Handford Hall Farm,
but went through the lane on the opposite side, passing by what was then known as
"Haxell's Farm," almost parallel with the present Ranelagh and Willoughby Roads, entering
the Town from Stoke HilL

The house attached to the land known as " Haxell's Farm " is worthy of a note. In
appearance it was an old Manor House in a decayed condition. One part was constructed of
brick of the age of Queen Elizabeth, its other was timber framed of much earlier date, and
appeared to be the remains of a larger house. The brick portion, which was covered with lichen
and moss, conveyed the idea of an incomplete building which had been designed to supersede
the original timber and mud-built fabric. The walls of the garden looking towards the
town were loop-holed as if for defence. On the wall of a room in the older part of the house
— ^that probably in which the feasting and revelry of the olden days took place — the following

quaint inscription, painted in black letter, remained as if to attest the antiquity of this part of
the building : —

"He that

seteth do

wn to mete

and; leteth

Grace, pas

seteth do

wn leik a

n ox and

reseth leik

an ass."

The house was long known as "New Place," most likely a contraction of New Palace,
because tradition says that on this spot stood a Saxon Mansion in which the beautiful Edith,
Queen of the Monk-King, Edward the Confessor, occasionally dwelt. Ipswich was at that
time a Royal Burgh and two thirds of its annual payments to the King were granted by him
to his Queen, the other third was held by Earl Guert, her brother. We know by Doomsday
Book that the Queen had a grange here to which a considerable quantity of land was
attached, but have not discovered any record relating to this house in the Norman or
Plantaganet age. Like many other mansions of the olden time, it imderwent a variety of
changes after it fell from its high estate. There is a brass in St. Peter's Church to John
Knappe, 1604, who lived at New Place. If the old brickwork of the existing house (enlarged
and remodelled it is now known as Gyppeswick Hall) be of late Tudor date, John Knappe
must have resided there soon after its erection. In 1737, Thomas Thorrowgood, Esquire, was
ovmer of the property,* and about thirty years later we find an enterprising surgeon and
apothecary hiring it as a residence for the reception of patients who were expected to pay
handsomely to be inoculated with small-pox. The charge varied from three to five guineas,
the patients being supplied with all necessaries, tea, wine, and washing excepted. Patients
might have "a relation, nurse, or servant with them by paying half-a-guinea a week for
their board." f

*A small portion of this estate, called "Clay Pits," and "Hardings Croft," or " Fursdose," was, until recently,
copyhold of the Manor of Stoke next Ipswich ; the following notes of admissions from the time of Edward IV. till
the close of the last century will not improbably afford a clue to the ownership of " New Place " during that period,
as foUows : —

Edward IV. The Lord lets to John Skalfry for 20 years.

Edward IV. 18. The Lord lets to John Cannon for 40 years.

Henry Vii. 5. John Cannon, his son, admitted.

Henry VII. 7. John Cannon, the son of the said John, admitted for remainder of term.

Henry VII. 23. Thomas Eeynold, admitted upon surrender of John Cannon.

Henry Vm. 5. Robert Eeynold, admitted on surrender of Thomas Eeynold.

Henry VlLl. 26. Eobert Eight, admitted on surrender of Eobert Eeynold.

Elizabeth. 34. Thomas Kempe, admitted on surrender of Eobert Eight.

Elizabeth. 36. John Knappe, admitted on surrender of Thomas Kempe.

James I. 11. Thomas Knappe, youngest son of John Knappe, admitted, but surrenders to his elder brother,
John, who is admitted.

James I. 15. James Palmer, sen., and James Palmer, jun., admitted on surrender of John Knappe.

1659. Thomas Thorrowgood, admitted on surrender of James Palmer.

1675. John Thorrowgood, youngest son, admitted on death of his father. June Ist, 1693, he surrendered to
the use of his Will. He died 1733, Will dated 6th September, 1733. He devises New Place, then
in the occupation of Eichard Girling, to his eldest son, John Thorrowgood. This son was admitted
to the copyhold portion of New Place 6th August, 1734, and died in 1736.

1737, October 17th. Thomas Thorrowgood, his only son, admitted. He was afterwards knighted; was High
Sheriff; lived at Sampson's Hall, Kersey; died about 1793 or 1794. His only child and heiress-at-law,
Katharine Thorrowgood, admitted 28th May, 1795. She died 1803, Will dated 25th February, 1798.

f Iptwich Journal, December, 1766.

To return to the Bridge. At this period the Bailiffs and Justices went earnestly to work.
The necessity for doing something effectual had become imperative. They instructed Mr.
"William Brown, Architect and Surveyor, to inspect the place, and report without delay upon
the best means of repairing the damage, and preventing its recurrence. Mr. Brown advised
that the road on the west side of the Bridge should be raised and a small channel cut at right
angles with it, across which a viaduct of seven arches should be constructed to convey at any time,
but more particvdarly in case of floods, the overflow from the Gipping into an off-shoot of the
Orwell, without damage to the road. Mr. Brown's plans were carried out and time has proved
the soundness of his judgment. For although a weir has been made to relieve the meadows
during floods, tbe Seven Arches have proved themselves equal to the demands made upon them.
The cost of the work was £1,600.

FRIARS' BRIDGE.

The Bridge which formerly stood near the present Cattle Market and known as Friars' Bridge
took its name from the Franciscan Grey Friars, who were located near the spot. The Priory
stood on the bank of an arm of the Gipping, and the stream which passed by it was called
by the inhabitants in olden time the Grey Friars' river. Over this stream the small wooden
Bridge was suspended, untU in 1807 it was superseded by a brick one, which in its turn
disappeared when the bed of the stream became occupied by a sewer. In the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries the Bridge was chiefly used as a means of communicating with the Priory,
Portman's Meadow, and the Town Marshes a short way beyond. A little house which abutted
on to the Bridge was known at the beginning of the present century as Friars' Bridge house.

THE QUAY,
THE CUSTOM HOUSE,

AND

THE PORT.

THE QUAY.

HE earliest mention of a Quay is found in the first of the published rentals
of the Holy Trinity Priory, said to have been compiled in the middle of the
reign of Henry HI., wherein tenants "In Paroch' del Kay" are named,
but it does not appear to be referred to in the Corporate Records until
in the 9th Edward I. (1281), in the grant of "common soile to Godscalk,
nigh the wall at the Kay." In the 14th year of this reign the account
rendered by the chief inhabitants of the farme, and included in the Sheriff
of Norfolk's accompts in the Exchequer, places the " Customs of the Kay "
for the half-year at £10 lis. Od. In the 14th Edward III. (1341), the Kay, Tronage, and
Bermandry were let at an annual rental of £20. In 1344 the rental was £17, and in 1346-8
it had decreased to £10. Prior to this date our "Little Doomsday Book" (19th Edward I.)
speaks of the custom of the Cay and repeatedly of the " Cay " as a locality,* and a Collector
of Customs was appointed for the Port in 1280. It is therefore probable that a Common or
Public Quay existed in the early part of the thirteenth century.

Wodderspoon says that "in the 35th Edward I. (1306) Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, and
Alice, his wife, died, seized of the Quay at Ipswich." And Bigod's name seems to have been
associated with the old "Kay" through succeeding generations, for as late as 1631 a complaint
was made in the Court of Chancery by Sir Robert Hitcham, who at that period lived in the
town, as to the condition of " Bigot's Kay." f

In 1472 the Quay was in so decayed a condition that the inhabitants had to contribute
the cost of its repair. Again in the 16th Edward IV. (1476), it once more needed reparation
and the Portmen had to "contribute towards the repaire of the Kay, two lodes of greene
broome and 8d. in Mony." And every two Burgesses " one lode of greene broome and 7d. in
Mony, and every of the 24*^ one lode of broome." Other entries show that the repairs thus
made were ineffectual. In the following year there was further expenditure for a new crane.
A fine of four pounds, imposed upon a Chamberlain deposed from office was applied towards
the repair of the Common Quay. Fines upon foreigners {i.e., burgesses who were made free of
the town for trading purposes) and moneys collected in a like way were similarly applied.
The cost of repairs, however, exceeded the amount of contributions and fines, and a Great
Court ordered the Chamberlains to pay the sum of £300 out of the Town Funds to defray
the expenses incurred. To meet this an assessment was levied, and Burgesses were ordered
to pay up in full before the Nativity of the Virgin, under peril of disfranchisement. J

In the General Court Books for the sixteenth century, the growing importance of, the
town commercially is shown by the attention paid to this locality. In 1540, an order was

* Black Book of the Admiralty 11., App.. Pts. pp. 161, 183, 185, 187, 205.
f Memorials of Ipswich. J Bacon's Annals.

made for the payment of arrears due for paving it. In the 12th of Elizabeth (1570), it was
ordained by a Great Court that it should be repaired and made good with timber at the
charge of the town. In 1572, liberty was given to Eobert Cole, shipwright, to build a ship
upon the common soil of the town called the Old Kay, paying for the town's use, 2d. for
eveiy ton of the ship's burthen. In 1582, a committee was appointed for the repair of the
Quay in St. Clement's parish, the work to be done at the cost of the town. In 1585 it was
agreed that the Assembly should have the power to let the old Kay, and in 1588, after selUng
a part of the old Kay to John Brenning, the Assembly agreed to lease or sell " the residue of
the Kay" to Edward Cage. This shows that the Common Quay, as known to inhabitants sixty
years ago, was not in Plantaganet times the " Kay " of the Port, although they would appear
to have been adjacent.

We find that the Corpoi-ation were firm in asserting their right of tolls whether the
Common Quay was used or not. The merchants in Fore Street, having river frontages,
naturally desired to have Wharves of their own, but the right to use them was subject to the
payment to the Corporation of the Port dues.

There are several grants shewing the creation of these private wharves. In the 32nd
Edward I. the Bailiffs and community of Gippewic grant to Peter Douneman a piece of land
in the suburb of the town, lying between the course of the salt water on the South and the
highway running before the gate of the capital messuage of the said Peter on the North,
at the yearly rent of 4d., "taking thenceforth wharfage even as it is meet according to the
custom of the said town." In the 2nd Henry VI. William Phelipp, Knt., John Joye, vintner,
WilUam Wetherold, and William Haylee, appear as grantees of two pieces of land in the parish
of St. Peter, of the said town, in fee farm at a yearly rent of three silver pence, one of the
said pieces being described as lying in the parish of the Virgin Mary of the Caye, between
the Caye, formerly of John Bryght, on the West, and the salt water on the East.

In 3l8t Henry VI. (1453) liberty was granted to John Goss " to Kay in the ground he
bought of Brazier in the salt water,"* himself and heirs to be held responsible for keeping
the same in good repair. In the 15th Henry VII. there is a grant to John Squire, clerk, at
a yearly rent of 4d., of two quays lying together in the parish of St. Mary at the Quay,
lying between the common soil in the tenure of Margaret Gosse, on the East, and the Common
Quay of the said town on the West, with its South head abutting on the salt water, f There
are, at a later date, similar grants to merchants, and it would appear that having the right to
charge wharfage at their own Quays, the merchants thought that they would escape the port
charges. In the 30th Henry VIII. (1539), an order was made that "all strangers comming by
water to the Common Kay shall unlade theire Merchandise uppon the Common Kay, paying
the Tolls and Customes of the Towne and King, according to the Table in ye Kay house.
And noe person shall unlade at any other Kay unless the Toll and Custome shall first be
payde." X

In 1716 this question of Private versus Common Quay was brought before the Commissioners
of Customs. Alice WoUard was the owner of a small quay where goods from a sloop trading
between Ipswich and London were landed without paying port dues. Of this the Bailijffs
complained to the Collector of Customs, who had permitted an Officer of Customs to attend at
the unloading. The Commissioners of Customs, after considering the evidence offered on both
sides, decided that all goods should be landed at the Common Quay, and that the Custom
House Officers be requested not to grant certificates as to landing nor to discharge their coast
bonds unless their goods were so landed. This stringent decision was due to the Collector of
Customs, who reported that "The Corporation of Ipswich having a Charter granted by King
John, and renewed and confirmed by succeeding Kings, which empowered them to claim
certain duties for all goods shipped and landed at this Port, it has been a custom, time out
of mind, especially for vessels brmging down merchants' goods from London to land them at
* Bacon's Annals. f MSS. of Corporation. + Bacon's Annals.

the Common Quay, where a crane and a convenient warehouse has been erected. For this
accommodation the owners of the said goods pay a certain duty to the Town, and the
Corporation, in consideration of the same, are obliged to pay a Kent to the Crown of 50 or
60 pounds a year." *

By a Treasury Warrant issued in the 32nd Charles II., the legal Quay of the Corporation
was defined as " All that open space called the Common Quay of the Town of Ipswich, and
of rights belonging to the town, extending along the river from East to West about 84 yards,
and bounded on the East end with the warehouses of Samuel Carnaby, and on the West end
with the warehouse of John Hazelwood." At the commencement of the present century, the
whole of this space, excepting about 20 feet made into " stairs " for the convenience of
passengers in small boats, was constructed of red brick and pUes 14 feet in height
from the ground line to the surface. It was protected by a dwarf fender pihng. At
distances varying from 6 to 10 feet, there were guide piles placed at a batter of 1 foot
3 inches. A new embanked roadway and quay, 30 feet wide, was thrown up in front of
it under the Dock Act of 1837 — not before it was wanted — for the work was then reported
as being in a very bad state of repair.

THE CUSTOM HOUSE.

The old Custom House, as will be seen by the engraving here given, was a long, low,
isolated structure, originally of timber, but patched here and there at various periods with
brickwork, standing almost at the north easterly corner of the Common Quay, lastly described.
At the commencement of the present century it was dilapidated both externally and
internally, and although not finally condemned till 1843, it had for years exhibited marked
symptoms of being in a bad way. It consisted of two stories, covered in by a high and
cumbrously framed roof The first floor considerably projected, the front and flank being
carried on a colonnade. Along the chief faqade, which is said to have extended to 120 feet, the
over sailing upper story was supported on a series of eleven stone columns, having caps and
bases of the Doric order. The return side on the East was carried by a twelfth pillar, of
similar dimensions and style. Between each column the bressumer of the first floor front was
upheld by a nearly flat four-centred arch with unusually massive pendant or key block in the
centre. Both arch surface and pendant were enriched by incised mouldings and carvings of
conventional foliage, whilst a dentilled cornice and cove were placed over the beam. The latter
was ornamented by horizontal lines of bead and roll mouldings. The recess, nearly twenty feet
in width, formed by setting back the ground story behind this colonnade, was paved with flag-
stones, and therein the seamen of the Port delighted to lounge. Affixed to the wooden walls
at the back were several low benches, the appearance of which indicated pretty constant use
during many years of wear. As these faced the river and shipping, this sunny yet sheltered
piazza naturally became a favourite rendezvous for retired salts, as well as for the skippers and
the able-bodied seamen of the port.

The wooden fi-ont of the first floor was lined out and cut to resemble squared ashlar work.
This was irregularly broken into by several windows, between the original of which carved
strings of fruit and flowers formerly hung. In the centre of this story was a double doorway,
and probably here there was at one time a crane. Near the western extremity was a sun
dial, and close to it a tall flagstafi" was firmly planted in the ground. Over this principal story
rose a steep and heavy roof, broken up along the front into five bays, in only one of which was
a gabled dormer. The entire roof surface was covered by narrow tiles, large pantiles projectmg
over the ridges and angles. Gutters were laid in the valleys between the several hips, ending
in long spouts, which discharged their contents at the eaves-level, clear of the colonnade.

* Letter Book at the Ipswich Custom House.

The origin of the buUdmg and the date of its erection are unknown. In April, 1651,
the Bailiffs reported that the "Town House and Customs" (the Port Dues) were let to John
Wollfender from March last to Michaehnas next, for £36. "He putting m sufficient
sureties for the payment of the same." Its first use as a Custom House seems to date from
the Government of Oliver Cromwell (1654-5), when, at an Assembly of the Corporation,
Mr. Sorrell and Mr. Ives were requested to view that part of the Galleries at the Town
House which the CoUector of Customs desired to have, and to report thereon. But no
reference is made to the request or the report in the minutes of subsequent meetings of
the Assembly. Bacon says that in 1507 "the house at the Com: Kay" was "demised
to Sewall for one yere." Nothing is said as to the purpose for which it was demised,
but Batley considers that the buUding referred to was the Town House, afterwards known as
the Custom House. He also says that in 1589 a Committee was appointed to demise the
Custom House. Clarke, writing in 1830, says "the Custom House must be one of the oldest
houses in Ipswich * * it has been standing at least between four and five hundred years " (1330
to 1430). We question whether any architect with a knowledge of archaeology would assign
so remote a date as this. On the other hand, a writer in the Suffolk Chronicle at the time
the New Custom House was opened (1846) remarked that the old building dated from 1689.
This was equally wide of the mark. Documents at the Custom House afford convincing proof
that the building was erected long prior to that date. It is true that the earliest of these
documents bears date 1695, but in 1729 the officers in charge reported to the Commissioners
of Customs that " the building was in so ruinous a condition that it was positively unsafe and
dangerous to be in it, being very much out of the perpendicular, and held together only by
pieces of iron."

A few years earlier it was declared incapable of defence against rogues and vagabonds, and
during the reign of Queen Anne (1711) burglars could not resist the temptation it offered.
Thieves effected an entrance and " broke open the locks of all the doors, drawers, and boxes, and
particularly that chest for lodging the Queen's money in." This so-called chest was of wood
and as it could not be made secure, the Officers asked the Honourable Commissioners to send
them an iron chest to prevent any further loss of revenue from the like cause. A massive
iron chest, well provided with locks, is now at the Custom House and it is believed was sent
in answer to this application.

The Corporation being involved in debt, through frequent litigation, could not find money
to repair the Custom House. The Handford Hall Estate had been mortgaged to raise funds,
and ultimately an additional amount was obtained on the security of the Town Marshes. A
dispute with Mr. Cooper Gravenor, the Lessee of the Custom House, who had paid no rent to
the Corporation for 13 years, though he had on twelve occasions been elected Bailiff, increased
their difficulties. A son of Mr. Cooper Gravenor was at this time Collector of Customs at the
Port, and his description of the ricketty condition of the building, quoted above, caused the
Commissioners of Customs in the spring of 1729 to permit the removal of the Customs business
from the Old Custom House to more secure and convenient premises. The Corporation by this
move, being again deprived of rent for their property, were roused to action, and they resolved
to checkmate Mr. Gravenor. Mr. Francis Negus, one of the representatives of the Borough,
was requested to wait upon the Commissioners of Customs and state the case for the
Corporation. His influence may be inferred from the fact that a few days after his interview, the
Commissioners wrote to the Customer and Collector at Ipswich stating that as " the former
Custom House at your Port is said to be no longer safe, or fit for the purpose, since the
business of the Port is so much increased, we direct you to consult with proper workmen what
is necessary to be done, in order to put the same into a thorough repair and fit for the service."

The old building was speedily renovated and restored, and before the end of December,
1729, the Collector received orders to "remove to the Custom House lately repaired and
rented of the Corporation, and there to transact the business of the Port."

The Custom House thus repaired at the expense of the Government is the building
represented in our engraving. We may now inquire what is the probable date of its erection.

Every detail of the building exhibits evidence of Classic feeling and the influence of
the Renaissance. The Classic mouldings and contour of the stone columns, their caps and
bases, the heavy pendants, the relief carvings, the substitution of square for pointed or
four-centred heads to openings, the outline and arrangement of the roofing all point to one
conclusion, that it has no claim to the antiquity which Clarke tries to assign to it. That
it was erected before the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign is very improbable.

A few words relative to the Officials. Men of note have at various dates been anxious
to hold appointments in the Customs department. The attraction was not the salary, which
in old times was nominal, but the fees and leisure time, the duties occupying only a few hours
daily. The poet Chaucer was Comptroller of Customs on wools in London ; Rowe, the dramatic
poet, was a Landing Surveyor ; Congreve and Prior also held office in the Customs. We have
no such great names to recount at Ipswich, but the chief officials have ofttimes been men of
considerable standing. Among them were Thomas Alverd, who was appointed by Wolsey to
be keeper of his wardrobe, and had in consequence to discharge his duties of Customer by
deputy,* Richard Felaw, (the commercial agent of Sir John Howard, afterwards Duke of
Norfolk,) who represented the Borough in Parliament, and was a large contributor at the
foundation of our Grammar School, Richard Percyvale, who compiled our " Great Domesday
Book," Samuel Wollaston, of Finborough Hall, a brother of the gentleman who in 1768,
1774, and 1780 was elected as M.P. for the Borough, was Patent Customer of the Port
in 1781. Erasmus Darwin, a member of the now celebrated Darwin family, held the post
of Seai'cher at Ipswich in the last century. The influence of these officials may be judged
from the fact that the Collector or Customer was frequently one of the Chief Magistrates of
the Borough. An ancient mode of collecting the " King's Revenues " was by farming them
out to private individuals, and during the reign of Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh " farmed " the
Customs at Ipswich and his successor was Sir Francis Walsingham. At this period Mr.
Henry Goldingham seems to have ofiered a bribe to the great Lord Burghley for an
appointment here. He applied to the Lord Treasurer for the Comptrollership, telling his
lordship that if the office was conferred on him he had a hundred pounds for his lordship
" to dispose as seems best to your honoi-." At the Restoration, the Marquis of Hertford
successfully solicited the appointment of " Customer " at Ipswich for a Mr. Booth.

In illustration of the nominal salaries it may be mentioned that, in the early part of
the reign of James I. (1604), the Collector, Edmund Jenny, gentleman, had for annual "fee
and reward," £46 13s. 4d. ; the Comptroller, Augustine Parker, £12 ; and the Searcher,
Thomas Cleer, an allowance of £8 for his better maintenance and encouragement in the
due execution of his duties. A century later, 1711, the salaries were, Customer, Paul Boyer,
£55 6s. 8d. ; Comptroller, John Carter, £15 ; Searcher, James Pavey, £8. t These small
payments by the Crown were, as might be expected, supplemented by fees imposed on
merchants, in most cases arbitrary in amount and far beyond what the services performed
justified. Some idea of the extent to which this extortionate system prevailed, may be
gathered from the fact that on the abohtion of fees to Customs Officers in 1831, there were
in the Long Room, in London, Patent Officers styled Cocket Writers, whose average fees were
estimated at £1,000 per annum each, although their acknowledged salaries were only £60,
whilst a junior clerk with a nominal salary of £100, received when his office was abolished
£800 per annum as compensation for his loss of fees, calculated at the rate of one-third of
his actual receipts. %

The formation of an extensive Wet Dock, under the Act already referred to, with increased

* CoU. Hen. 8. v. 4. No. 297.
t Audit Office declared Accounts, Bundles 594, Roll 2, and Bundle 782, Eoll 961.
X 'Chester's Chronicles of the Customs.

facilities for shipping heralded the doom of the Old Custom House which by this date, 1841,
was considered not merely inadequate to the requirements, but architecturally a disgrace to
the Town. The happy idea was conceived of finding a home under one roof for the Officers
of the Customs, the Inland Revenue, and the Dock. The idea once started gradually received
support, and the present Hall of Commerce was the result. This building was opened July
2l8t, 1845, Mr. John Medland Clarke being the architect and Mr. Pettitt the builder. The
contract for its erection was £4250.

THE PORT.

Ipswich was a Port in the early days of English histoiy. In Saxon times towns in
connection with ports, to which native produce was brought for sale and exportation, were
surrounded by walls or ramparts, to protect the goods stored therein. As early as 919, when
the Danes sailed up the Orwell, landed their forces and plundered the Town, Ipswich was one
of these walled ports.

In Lancastrian Times there is documentary evidence of its having been known as the Port
of Orewell. * The origin of this word and the claims to the existence of an antient town of
that name have been examined elsewhere, f The town of Ipswich claims its port by prescription.
Its limits would appear to have been well understood and enjoyed without dispute, until the
town of Harwich was made a free town corporate in the 13th Edward II., when jealousies
shortly began to arise between the rival burgesses. In the 14th Edward III. a Commission
of InquiryJ was issued concerning the haven, which, after reciting that " our well-beloved
Burgesses of the Towne of Ipsw"*" have prayed us that whereas they doe hold of us as of our
Crowne of England the said Towne, with the appurtenances in fee farme by the gift and grant
of ovir progenitors formerly Kings of England, rendering thereout to us 60*' yerely : and
although the whole Haven of Erewell in the arme of the sea there to the said Towne of
Ipsw"'' dothe belong and from all times passed hathe belonged," &c., proceeds to set forth that
"the men of the town of Herewick by coUour of our I'rs patents,'' &c., "the customs of all
goods and merchandises comming to the said port of Erewell * * * doe take and will not
leave oflf to take," &c. The Commissioners were accordingly directed to inquire by oath of
honest and lawful men of the County of Suffialk " If the Port aforesaid with y" arme of the
sea there doe belong to the said Towne of Ipsw""" as it is said or not — and if soe then from
what time, in what manner, and how," and as to the distresses, attachments, toll, and other
customs taken by the Bayliffs of the said Towne of Ipsw^*"- &c. The Inquisition taken upon
these Articles returned "that the port of Erewell wholly w"* the wholle arme of the sea
there running from a certain place called the Polles§ in the deepe sea on every side unto the
towne of Ipsw"* to the said Towne, as to the Crowne of our Soveraine Lo: the King dothe
belong, and for all times past hathe belonged." The Commissioners, after adducing some
information which was beyond the limits of their inquiry, set forth the several tolls and
customs which the Bayliflfe of Ipswich had been in the habit of taking, and the instances of
illegal exactions by the men of Harwich.

In the 3rd Richard II. the Town of Ipswich petitioned the King that they might have their
haven to Polls Henned granted to them to hold in fee farm w'='' they have time out of memory
belonging to them, but not expressed in theire Charter in p'ticular words. ^ The result was
the issue of a second commission to certain Commissioners therein mentioned "to inquire

* Eymer's Foedera— Dale's Harwich, p. 14. f Wodderspoon, p. 151. + Bacon's Annals, p. 64.

§ The Sanda outside Landguard Poinlw *i\ Bacon, p. 80.

if the Port to the place aforesaid hathe formerly and still dothe pertain to the Towne
as parcell of the ffarme thereof And if it be to the prejudice of y* Crowne or others
that it should be granted unto them unto the place aforesaid in aid of their fee farme." The
Inquisition taken by virtue thereof at Shotley returned "that the porte of y" Towne of
Ipsw"*" extends from the said Towne unto the said place called PoUes Henneds and soe hathe
donne time out of minde, and remaineth soe at the present parcell of the fee and ffarme of the
said Towne ; and that it is not to the dammage or prejudice of the King or others, if the King
shall grant the same to y" Burgesses of the said Town, theire heires and successors."

Amongst the antient customs of the town, again brought into writing upon the compilation
of the Little Domesday Book (19th Edward I.), was that of a Court of Petty Pleas, sitting
from tide to tide, to hear Maritime Pleas.

In the 11th Henry VI. the water bounds were sailed, every craft of the town having to
find boats.

By the Charter of Concession of 24th Henry VI., and by the Inspeximus and Confirmation
of 3rd Edward IV., Admiralty Jurisdiction was conferred upon the bailiffs, burgesses, and
commonalty, with the Borough liberties suburb and precincts by land or by water. Under
this charter the bailifis manfully refused to execute the Lord High Admiral's precept to attach
a ship in "the Kode of Ipsw"*"' in 1493.

Henry VIII. , by Letters Patent, in the lOth year of his reign, after reciting the grant
by his grandfather of the Admiralty Jurisdiction, and that the limits of the port "are known
to be and have been time out of mind within the liberties of the Town aforesaid " and that
some " evil-minded persons " have molested and disturbed the enjoyment of these Uberties,
declares and notifies " that the Port aforesaid and the Water running by the flowing and
ebbing of the sea, from the said port towards the South East, unto the said place called
PoUeshened alias Polleshed, and also the aforesaid Land and Soil sometimes overflowed and
covered with water by the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea, was, and is within the Liberty and
Franchise of the Town aforesaid. And the said Port, Water, and Course of Water, and the
aforesaid Land and SoU, by the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea, sometimes overflowed and
covered with Water. * * * "VVe do, by these Presents, annex and unite them to the said
Town as parcel of the said Town and within the liberties and franchise of the same." The
King by the same charter confirmed the Admiralty Jurisdiction, and this title was subsequently
recognised by the Lord High Admiral by warrant, dated 7th Feb., 11th Henry VIII.

Notwithstanding this confirmation of the privileges, the inhabitants of Harwich were
presented in 1535 for taking anchorage at Landguard, and Bacon's Annals of Ipswich are full
of presentments for minor ofiences against the Admiralty Jurisdiction of the town at various
points in the river. The Corporation of Ipswich seems also to have taken the part of the
inhabitants of Chelmondiston and other places within the haven, when vexed by the process
of the High Admiral, and Admiralty Courts were frequently held at difierent points down
the River.* The quarrels with the men of Harwich however stiU continued though they
were brought to something like a culminating point in an action for anchorage dues, taken
from a vessel in Harwich Harbour, which was heard at the Essex Assizes in 1778 and resulted
in a verdict for the Corporation of Ipswich, a new trial being refused to the defendants. The
question of franchise seems to have been definitely settled by this action, but it does not
appear to have been necessary for the purposes of the case to determine the ownership of the

soil.

The water boundaries of the port were again perambulated in the years 1722, 1759, 1761,

and 1811. f

The title of the Corporation to the soil is evidenced by numerous grants of foreshore and
ooze for the purposes of reclamation and making quays ; they appear also to have jealously
watched any interference with the foreshore or bed of the river, especially in the matter of
* Wodderspoon, pp. 142-147. t Bransbj's Perambulations.

setting out of quays and jetties, several instances occurring in the Corporate Records of
complaints being made and penalties being imposed. They also appointed a "Water Bailifij
Crane Porters, and Warden. The Bailiffs duty appears to have been, to execute their
"Admiralty precepts, levy the fines, and latterly to collect their tolls, dues, and cranage at the
Common Quay and, last but not least, to look after certain beds of oysters and see that they
were not dredged out of season. In the early days of Elizabeth, this office seems to have been
sometimes let to the highest bidder, but later on in her reign they returned to a salary of
jC30. Master and supporters seem to have been appointed as early as 1474. The duty of
the Warden seems to have been to fish for the baihffs and to preserve such " eyry of swann "
as Mr. Bayliflfe should put in the river. This official's salary in the reign of Elizabeth was
4 marks.

Besides the cranage and wharfage at the Common Quay other dues were levied by the
Corporation as incidents of their port. These were a due of 2d. per chaldron upon coals, an
anchorage due of Is. for every vessel not belonging to the Port anchoring in the river, a
groundage due of 8d. upon every such vessel grounding in the river, the bailifis' dues of
2 bushels of coals from every ship that imports coals, unless it was the property of a freeman,
also of a quantity of salt from every similar ship importing salt ; these two last latterly became
commuted at Is. each, and 2d. of fish from every boat. At the time of the Municipal
Corporation's Commission Inquiry in 1835 the 2d. coal duty was stated to realise £300 per
annum. No account could be given of the other dues. To the Commissioners appointed
to enquire into local charges upon shipping in 1854, the coal duty was returned at £685
gross for 1852, the Bailiffs' (or as they then were Mayoi-'s) dues at £30, whilst the others
it was said the Water Bailiff was permitted to keep for his trouble.

The Corporation seems to have done little for the conservancy of the river. Persons
casting ballast or filth into the channel were presented in Admiralty and fined. Certain slight
attempts were made to regulate the fisheries, and in the reign of Elizabeth a little was done
to beacon the channel. The same neglect which allowed the old Quay and the Custom House
to fall into a dilapidated condition also characterized the conservation of the river, with the
result that in the latter end of the last century the navigation of the upper reaches of the
Orwell had become intricate and difficult, a vessel of 100 tons not being able to get up to the
quays without fear of detention. This naturally produced a feeling of dissatisfaction on the
part of the Merchants of the town, which the Corporation sought to allay by the employment
of a barge to cleanse the river at an annual payment of £150 from the coal duty of 2d. per
chaldron. This did little to appease the growing feeling of discontent, and in the early part
of the present century meetings of the inhabitants were held with the view of placing the
conservancy of the Port in other hands. A characteristic report of the period, full of dry
humour, relates how the depth of water was only five feet at neap, and at the Spring tides
eight feet at the Quays, and how the shipping of that day had to wait ten days for a tide
to get to or from the wharfs, and that it sometimes occurred that there was not a tide
during springs sufficient to remove the shipping without the expense of lighterage and porterage,
during which the goods were exposed to suffer much peculation and waste. The result was
the passing of the first River Act in 1805, placing the conservancy of the river in the hands
of the Commissioners thereby constituted.

A further limitation of the conservancy rights of the Corporation took place upon the
passing of the Stowmarket Navigation Act, in 1768, by which the trustees thereby constituted
took charge of the tidal portion of the river from Handford Bridge to Stoke Bridge. And
again by the Harwich Harbour Act, 1863, which placed the conservancy of the haven in the custody
of the Conservators as far as an imaginary line drawn across the river from Shotley Point
to Fagborough Head, and within those limits aboHshed the antient dues levied by the
Corporation of Ipswich. These are now no longer levied, with the exception of the coal duty
of lid. per ton, and the exemptions of freemen were abolished by the Shipping Dues Exemptions

Act, 1867. The Oyster Fishery Rights have been preserved to the Corporation by the Ipswich
Fishery Act, of 1859, and the present Corporation still exercises its antient jurisdiction to the
mouth of Harwich Harbour as a Sanitary Authority.

As regards the early limits of the Customs Port of Ipswich, the records at the Custom
House do not afford much information, but they appear to have been reduced in extent in the
5th William and Mary, by commission dated the 1 9th May, 1693, to so much of the River
Orwell as was above an imaginary line drawn across the river from Levington Creek to Tills
or Toller's Hole, the residue of the estuary being within the Customs Port of Harwich. These
limits, however, were again enlarged, by a Treasury Warrant of June, 1878, to the line at the
mouth of the river from Shotley Point to Fagborough Head, to be co-extensive with the
modern conservancy jurisdiction.

With respect to the commercial aspect of the Port, its importance is in some measure
shown by the fine of 200 marks, which at the end of the 12th century Richard I. levied upon
the inhabitants for unlawfully supplying the enemy with corn. Such a fine, at a time when
land in the district was let at four pence per acre, and wheat sold at four shillings and
sixpence per quarter, indicates the presence of corn merchants and a considerable trade.

Being one of the so-called King's Ports, Ipswich in the time of the Plantagenet Kings,
shared with London, Boston, Southampton, Hull, Chester, Newcastle, Lynn, Plymouth, Sandwich,
and Yarmouth the privilege of receiving the foreign trade of the country. Its proximity
through Harwich Harbour to Brabant, Flanders, and Holland probably caused Ipswich to be
thus distinguished. Antwerp was for a long period the staple town, and the Flemings
were the chief foreign traders who reached our shores. As craft were small, the approach
by a river was considered an advantage. Several of the King's Ports, like the oldest cities in
Greece, were not immediately on the coast. When petty states sent out piratical invaders,
places entirely open to the sea were looked upon as dangerous, and ports on a navigable river
were preferred by traders. Ipswich became successively a royal burgh, a walled port, a customs
port, and lastly a staple port.

There is no reasonable ground for doubting that from a very early date in English History
a tax for the benefit of the King was levied in specie or in kind on all native produce
exported, and on all kinds of foreign wares imported. Tonnage and poundage duties were
levied as early as the reign of Richard the Lion Hearted, by an organization connected with
the central control of the Exchequer, and as the system was then in a complete state of
elaboration, it must have had its origin long prior to the date shown by the imperfect records.
It probably came into existence at the consoKdation of the Saxon Kingdom. Ipswich was one
of the ports at which a special revenue official was placed. John in his Charter, speaks of
him as the " Provost," and as Reeve or Provost he resided in the town to render half-yearly
accounts to the Sheriff of the county.

That the Merchandise of the Port was considerable is evidenced in many ways, though
returns are not obtainable for the earlier years. John, by his Charter, granted (1199) to the
Burgesses of Ipswich " freedom from toll, and all other customs throughout our sea ports,"
that is, freedom from Port dues for goods or merchandise bought or sold, "which have been
set or landed upon wharfs or common ground in all the King's Ports." Power was also given
them "to have a Merchants' Guild and their own house." Henry III. in confirming the
Charter (1251) specially mentioned the merchandise of the Port, and his successor, Edward I.
(1282) made the merchants of Ipswich, being Burgesses, free of portage, anchorage, standage,
and searchage, for all their merchandize in all the King's Ports. A few years later he appointed
a permanent "Customer" "to collect, receive, and guard the revenue for the Crown."

We have mentioned that from an early date an import and export tax, for the benefit of
the King, was levied on all goods at certain ports. These tolls were, many of them, petty in
amount and somewhat difficult to collect. The sagacious Edward I. exchanged them for a
definite assessment on the chief commodities of the realm distinctly specified. In this Eastern

district of England the principal products for export were wool, sheep skins, and leather.
Thompson, in his HisKyry of Boston, gives a tabular statement shewing the amount of duties
annuaUy collected for the King at Ipswich and Yarmouth, for the seven years ending 1285.
These returns show that the amount at Ipswich was £932 8s. 7d. ; Yarmouth, £323 12s. 4|d.

In the last year of these returns the King, for some offence committed by the
Burgesses, seized the Town and took away all power of local government. He appointed a
"Gustos" who exercised his own discretion in administering laws and customs. This continued
for six years, paralysing the trade of the Port. But the merchants, nevertheless, fitted up two
ships to aid the King in his Scottish war, and it was through this effort that the Borough
regained its freedom. Edward, pleased by the bravery of the Ipswich seamen, sent them
home with a letter of commendation and restored the liberties of the Borough (1291), but he
took care to improve the occasion by raising the Fee Farm rent, from forty to sixty pounds

per annum.

Judging from documents at the Kecord Office, commerce advanced by rapid strides after
the Town regained its freedom. In the first year of Edward II. (1307), the Great Custom
collected at Ipswich amounted to £312 7s. 6|d. As the Great Custom did not include "Imports,"
this sum may be said to show that the Export trade had more than doubled in the course
of twenty years. The kind of goods exported is not detailed, but we know they must
have chiefly consisted of —

Ist. Wool, paying Custom 6s. 8d. per sack from natives; and lOs. per sack if exported
by foreigners.

2nd. Wool-fells (sheep skins), 300 to the sack, at the same rates.

3rd. Leather, so many lasts, paying 13s. 4d. per last ; or 20s. if exported by foreigners.

4th. Rough undyed cloth, duty Is. 5d. per piece if exported by aliens.

Through documents at the Record Office, we also learn that amongst those who exported
wool from Ipswich, in the reign of Edward II., were : Robert de Balsam, Nicholas de Middleton,
Wmiam Cursoun, Rodger de Bythering, John Flynte, Richard de Scholethorp, William de
Palgrave, Greofirey Cauntrel, Walter Rabatts, Edmund de Acre, Roger de Stratton, Geoffi*ey de
Acre, Stephen de Erlyng, William Malyn, Thomas de Ely, Nicholas le Barbour, William le Ry,
and Henry le Retoun.

The Collectors of Customs at Ipswich (1322), when the above named were exporters of
wool, were John de Wakefeld and Henry le Retoun. Their accounts were kept thus :

"The ship called The Margaret, of Witsand, whereof Robt. Trofte is master, weighed
" the 21st day of May.

"Robert de Balsam, rated for 9 serplers, 7 sacks, 16 stone of wool, paid ... 50/9|

"Nicholas de Middleton, rated for 3 serplers, 2 sacks, 19 stone, paid... ... 18/2|

"William Cursoun, rated for 4 serplers, 13 sacks, 17 stone, paid ... ... 24/4^

"Total of the wool laden in this ship, 16 serplers, 14 sacks.

"Custom thereof -^ £4 13s. i^d. (correct)

" And for the Cocket 6d.

" Increment jd."

As the word staple became an important designation, applied in various ways, during the
early stages of English commerce, it may be desirable to define its meaning. " Staple " meant a
place where goods were stored or exposed for sale. The staple towns first chosen for convenience
came in time to enjoy important privileges. Goods intended for exportation had, in the first
instance, to be exposed for sale at a staple town. Commerce, by this regulation, was thus
restricted to places where the Customs Officers could superintend it, and where foreign
merchants found it easy to assemble and were encouraged to resort. It was compulsory
to have all goods weighed, by the standard, in the presence of an official before they could be
sold or exported, then they were sealed with the King's seal, called the "Cocket," and

forwarded to a staple port, where on landing they were again weighed in the presence of the
customer of the said port. Thus goods from York, staple town, were shipped at Hull, staple
port, goods from Norwich, staple town, were shipped at Yarmouth, staple port. It will
thus be seen that to make a port a staple was at this date one of those coveted distinctions
which towns on the coast naturally desired, although but few received it. On the Suffolk
coast the now ruined city of Dunwich had lost its prestige as a King's Port, and could
not compete with Ipswich, but Yarmouth watched it jealously as a rival, and seems to have
had sufficient influence to prevent this distinction being conferred upon it, until the
commencement of the fifteenth century. The 6th Henry IV. (1404) arrived before Ipswich
became a staple port.

In the reign of Edward I., the great natural product of England was wool, and when this
English Justinian determined to revise the customs on exports, the Nobles of England
represented to him (1297) that in their opinion one half of the wealth of the kingdom consisted
of wool. This, though probably an exaggerated statement for all England, was most likely
correct if applied to the East Anglian district. The exportation of corn was prohibited except
when the price was very low, and wool consequently was produced in preference, as it could
be exported in its raw condition, or manufactured, and then exported. On this account
it was more profitable to grow than com. At a very early period wool was extensively converted
into a kind of cloth in Suffolk. The Barons in 1261 passed a law prohibiting its
exportation, at the same time ordaining that no woollen cloths should be worn except
such as were manufactured at home. The wars of John and Henry III. turned the
activity of the people from peaceful industry to the waste of war, and by thus draining
the country of its artisans the best mode of manufacturing the chief staple of the district
was in a great measure lost. Dyed cloths were in consequence difficult to obtain,
and a large number of persons had to dress themselves in cloth of the natural colour
of the wool. Edward I. greatly encouraged commerce, and during his reign wool was freely
exported and cloth imported. The improvement in commercial transactions brought about by
this wise king were almost lost during the reign of his feeble son. It was not until
Edward III. invited Flemish weavers and dyers to settle amongst us that fine woollen cloths
were manufactured here, laying the foundation of a trade which greatly benefited the district
for more than two centuries. Large quantities were exported from Ipswich. The material was
sold and valued per cloth, each " cloth " being about 24 yards long. In one year in the
sixteenth century the exports of Suffolk cloth from this port numbered 630 pieces, the value
being £3,323, whilst the export of cloths from Wiltshire at the same date were valued
at £1,740.*

If we look to commerce in the fifteenth century, we find great changes in the imports of
the kingdom, in which the Port of Ipsndch shared. Sweet wines were freely imported, and
the Revenue from these imports, under the title of " Butlerage," from Michaelmas, 1501, to
Michaelmas, 1502, at the rate of 2s. per tun, amounted at Ipswich to £79 6s., whilst at
Yarmouth the total was only £9 5s. 4d. In the 22nd Henry VIII., when the King
wanted to raise money for his household, he gave an assignment for £100 on the Customs
at Ipswich, £80 on those at Yarmouth, and £55 on those at Lynn. That this really
indicates the proportions of trade at each of these Ports is evidenced by a similiar assignment
in the 1st of Henry VIII. f

It was in the reign of Elizabeth that Ipswich seems to have attained the zenith of
its fame. There is scarcely a branch of foreign commerce carried on at the present time,
with the exception of that with China, that was not prosecuted with more or less entirety
in the reign of Elizabeth. The flourishing condition of the trade towards the close of the
sixteenth century is shown by the average annual value of the Customs Revenue for the
5 years ending 1601, particularly when compared with other Ports in this district, and even

* Hubert Hall's History of the Customs. t I^i^.

with Southampton, long known as a great commercial centre, thus : — Ipswich, £1553 9s. 3d. ;
Yarmouth, £970 16s. l|d. ; Lynn, £269 3s. 9d. ; Southampton, £899 lOs. 4d.*

The commerce suflFered severely during the reign of Charles I., farmers, merchants, and
shipowners making their grievances known by petitions. In the time of the Commonwealth,
the influence of the Puritans in Ipswich was great, and vessels belonging to the Port
were freely employed by the Parliament in the conveyance of food and stores of various
kinds. On one occasion, provisions for 16,000 men were sent from this town, and on another
oocasiou, Ipswich ships were used for transporting soldiers to Ireland. Again, we find 869
loads of hay, and 2500 cwt. of biscuits were sent for the army in Scotland, and three weeks
later (January, 1651), 315 tons of Suffolk cheese followed. During the same year, whilst
Robert Dunkon was Bailiff, Samuel Dunkon of this town received an order from the Council
of State for the sum of £1,500, in discharge of an amount due to him, for biscuits provided
for the army.

Cavendish and Eldred connect the town with the Buccaneers of their age, and it is said
that Mr. John Brandliog, one of the Justices of the Borough and who was Bailiff in 1650,
was the son of a renowned merchant adventurer. Evidence at the Record Office shows that
some of these daring spirits resided in Ipswich in the age of the Commonwealth. In 1651,
the Admiralty Judges granted a warrant to William Ling, master of "The Roebuck" of
Ipswich, to roam the seas as private Man-of-War. Owners belonging to the Port, whose craft
had been used for for freight of various kinds, received Treasury warrants for considerable sums
during this era, thus:— "The Fortune" £16 16s. Od., "The Margaret" £90 15s. Od., "The
Dolphin" £155 9s. 8d., and again, £125 13s. 4d., "The Adventurer" £118 15s. lOd., "The
Consent" £300 Os. Od., "The Merchant" £375 Os. Od. Yet with all this activity, among a
section of the community, a serious derangement of trade is made evident by the Customs
Revenue. We have seen that in 1601 it amounted to £1553 9s. 3d., whilst half a century
later, 1649-50, it was only £1080. f

We have lingered long over the early history of the Port. Many other interesting details
of the wool trade and the fitting out of ships for the Royal Navy are recorded by
Wodderspoon,^ to whose Memorials our readers must be referred. Our space has only enabled
us to touch lightly upon the changes in jurisdiction, whilst the efforts which have been made
to adapt our antient Harbour to the exigencies of modern requirements are matters which
belong rather to the History of the 19th century and must be left to another pen.

* Hubert Hall's History of the Customs. f I^id

X pp. 185, 190, 220.

THE BLACK FRIARS

AND THEIR MONASTERY.

IRBY, in his "Suffolk Traveller," says that Henry Loudham, Henry Redred,
and Henry Mansby, were the founders of the Black Friars' Monastery
at Ipswich. Wodderspoon* leaves the matter in doubt, but he says Speed
and Weaver assert that the first-named gave them such possessions as induced
the Friars permanently to settle in this town. The researches of a living member
of their own order, the Rev. C. F. R. Palmer,t conclusively prove, however,
that the Black Friars were in Ipswich nearly a century before the grant of
messuages by Henry Loudham and others was made, and that to Henry III.
they were indebted for their settlement here. They came in 1263, and the King purchased of
Hugh, son of Gerard de Langeston, a house and garden, which, for the weal of his own soul
and the souls of his ancestors, he gave to the Friars, that they might dwell there, and on
September 15th he commanded John de Vallibus, Keeper of the Peace in Suffolk, to go in
person and give them full possession of the messuage. This house was situated in Foundation
Street, near where the Porter's Lodge to Tooley's Almshouses now stands. In this humble
tenement the Friar Preachers first took up their abode. Two years after the first gift, the
King, through his Confessor, Father John de Derlington, granted another messuage, also
belonging to the same owner as the former one.

This addition to their property must have been extensive, as the Friars shortly afterwards
began to build their church, which they dedicated to St. Mary. In a Monastery the church
was the heart of the place, and its erection and adornment occupied the first thought. How
the money for the erection of such a substantial edifice came to them is unknown. Taylor, in
his " Index Monasticus," says that Lynn, Norwich, and Yarmouth were divided into districts,
one being assigned to each of the Mendicant Orders, the Friars thus obtaining considerable
revenue from the privileges of confessing, preaching, and begging in their respective districts.
But no facts are known to warrant the statement, and it is more likely that generous benefactors,
touched by the Friars' fervent appeals, poured out their wealth to build the church. Fortunately
at this period the Provincial of their order, Father Robert de Kilwarby, a man of position and
influence, who became Archbishop of Canterbury and died a Cardinal, interested himself personally
in this new foundation, and in 1269 obtained for them another messuage adjoining it. Other
lands were gradually acquired. In 1307, Alice Harneys assigned a plot, 200 feet long and
36 feet broad, for enlarging the site ; and in January, 1333-4, Godfrey Lumbekyn, parson of
Rendlesham, and Richard de Leyham, assigned by royal license an acre of land. In 1346,
another enlargement occurred. A plot of land, 100 feet in length and the same in breadth,
was obtained from John Harneys. This land was held of the Crown in capite, and as the
transfer was made without a royal licence, the Friai*s obtained a pardon for transgressing the
Mortmain Statutes. The " burgesses and men of the town " were, however, to have free access
to the town walls.

Before three more years had closed the popularity of the Friars was made evident by the
Bailiffs and whole community of the town granting to them "in free, pure, and perpetual
charity, and for the safety of the souls of ourselves, our ancestors, and successors," a plot of
land, five score and three feet of men in length, one head of which abutted on the Friars'
garden and enclosure towards the West, the other upon the middle of the ditch of the town wall on

* Memorials of Ipswich,
t Published in "The Reliquary," April, 1887. By the kind permission of the Author, we have in the text availed

ourselves of this exhaustive article.

the east. The Friars agreed that they and their successors should pay a rent of sixpence a
year, and keep up the wall opposite their plot and the two great gates, one in the north
head and the other in the south part of their court, in order that through these gates the
burgesses and their successors might ride and drive, as often as the said "town, from any
misfortune or necessity (which God forbid), shall require to be defended hereafter. ":j: Bacon, in
his "Annals," does not mention this grant of land, though the deed is among the Municipal
Records. A duplicate of it may be seen at the British Museum, doubtless taken from the
archives of the Friars at the dissolution of the Monastery.

Long before this date both the Grey Friars and the Carmelites had settled in Ipswich.
Like the Black Friars they ultimately had buildings of considerable extent, and for many
years a healthy rivalry existed between them. Their enthusiasm re-acted upon others, and
men of gentle blood were anxious to join the new order as lay associates. Men of learning
also, wearied and worn by the turmoil of the age, were desiring of resting in the sanctuary of
the cloister. The rules <«f the Order had been modified to meet such cases, but the Black
Friars lacked the necessary accommodation. At this juncture, 1350-1, nearly a hundred years
after the entrance of the preachers into Ipswich, three messuages were given to them for the
extension of their Monastery, thus enabling the Friars to open the doors to outsiders who
were craving admission. The benefactors in this case were the three Henrys — Henry Loudham,
Henry Rodbert, and Henry de Monessele — whom Kirby had credited with the foundation
of the establishment.

In this way the Black Friars acquired an extensive site, aU of which was through them
made extra-parochial. It was bounded on the east by the Wash, or Gunpowder Lane (Lower
Orwell Street), on the west by St. Edmund-a-Pountney Lane (Foundation Street), on the
north by Stepples Street (Orwell Place), and on the south by a house and garden
adjoining Star Lane. The Monastic Buildings here erected are said to have housed more than
fifty religious. By the aid of Joshua Kirby's drawing of the remains of this Monastery, made
in 1746, which we have had re-produced to illustrate this article, our readers will obtain a
fair idea of the principal buildings as they appeared in the days of their prosperity.

The Monastery was entered at the tower, shown at the extreme left of the engraving, a
part of which formed the gate house, from whence a long covered passage led past the refectory
and the kitchen to the cloisters. These were near the centre of the site, and, surrounded by
other buildings, formed a quadrangle of two stories, marked 5 on the engraving, on the south side
of the church. Round this quadrangle on both stories ran a covered arcade, seven or eight feet in
width, providing a walk along and beneath the galleries. The upper floor had a panelled wooden
gallery front nearly breast high, above this it was open, the upright timbers being continued to
support the over-hanging roof. At the time when Kirby's sketch was made, the appearance of the
cloistere area resembled the galleries which were so marked a feature in the quadrangles of
some of the old London taverns, but the four-sided balusters, with moulded ornamental lines,
must have been put up long after the convent was dissolved. The front of the cloister was
about 80 feet in length, and the open space between the walks, some 60 feet by 40 feet in extent,
was covered with grass. This open space, called the Garth, was exclusively used as the burial
place of the brethren. Here, bareheaded, the Friars at stated times assembled to pray for the
souls of the departed. The cloister was the place for study, where "Mused of old the
cloister'd brothers." The rooms were indeed the workshops of the convent. There were no
fireplaces in them, but pans of lighted charcoal were used for warmth, as they are now at
Rome. Even in the coldest weather a good penman might be seen copying a scarce MS., and
in an adjoining room a lay brother illuminating the initial letters of a favourite volume. Some
of the brethren were famous for their knowledge of medicine, and in the cloister much of this
knowledge was acquired. The studies of Father John Sygar being approved by the Master-
General, he was, in the fourteenth century, assigned by him to the convent at Ipswich as

t Corporation M8S.

Lector, until the General Chapter of the Order held its next assembly. His duties were to
teach and give lectures on theology and Scripture, philosophy, and various branches of science,
and especially to teach grammar to the young. This indicates what went on in the cloister.

The north and west sides of the cloister on the second floor were used as dormitories.
Each consisted of a long room, with bare walls, having a broad passage from end to end
strewn with rushes. Like a hospital ward at the present day, it was divided into compartments.
The beds, made of straw, were placed on low bedsteads and the bedding was all woollen. In
case of sickness, old age, or continued infirmity feather beds and linen sheets were allowed.
At the side of each bed stood an armless chair, and frequently a wooden crucifix or a portrait
of the Virgin Mary was placed at the head of it. Sometimes a separate chamber was assigned
to the aged or infirm, but in all such cases the sanction of the highest authority at Rome
had to be obtained. Thus in 1397 the Master-General of the Order approved the grant of
a separate chamber to Father Reginald Fynbork by the brethren of his native convent at
Ipswich. Among legacies in the Suffolk Wills to particular Friars of this Monastery was to
one "a tick for a feather bed," and to another "a feather bed, blankets, bolsters, and sheets,"
A lamp was kept burning in the dormitory throughout the night, as the service at two a.m.
had to be attended by all the brethren.

The refectory, with kitchen and cellarage, was a large building to the north of the
cloisters, standing like the church, north and south, but distant from it some fifty yards.
It is marked 1, 2, and 3 on the engraving. The room was nearly 100 feet in length, 24 in
width, and of proportionate height. The walls were bare, and the roof principals consisted
of plain unmoulded ribs, slightly resting on moulded hammer beams, with curved wall braces,
but without the usual corbels or supports in the wall below. This roof is well known through
drawings by Fredk. B. Russel and Jabez Hare, both of which have been engraved. The room
was lighted by a large window at the south and three others on the east. Externally the
walls were of rubble, plastered over ; the doorways exhibited Fourteenth Century work, and
in the lower part on the eastern side several Early English arches were found when the
building was pulled down about 1849. Some of the windows, as seen in the engraving, were
probably Eighteenth Century creations. After 1763 the refectory was known as the Grammar
Schooli'oom.

It was in this room that the brethren assembled for their meals. The reader will possibly

be interested by a rapid recital of the customs which prevailed and the discipline enforced.

At any rate it will give completeness to this record. A peep into the refectory, soon after

mid-day, would have shown a number of Friars dressed in white* common serge tunics, with

scapulars and hoods, having also leather girdles from which a rosary was suspended. They

were standing in two lines in front of bare deal tables, whilst at a cross table at the upper

end of the room stood older members, and among them one whose appearance proclaimed him

Prior. Priests and Clerics were distinguished by the " tonsure," and white scapulars ; Lay

Brothers had their hair simply cut round level with the ears, and wore black scapulars. The

Prior rang a bell and grace was said. All then took their places, the Lay Brothers at the

lower end of the side tables, and the Friars sitting according to rank. One of the Clerics

moved to the lectern on the right of the Prior and sang some verses of scripture, and when

the Prior touched the bell a second time the, dinner began. A Lay Brother moved about

noiselessly with jugs and dishes. As servants were not allowed in the Monastery the duty of

waiting devolved upon each of the Lay Brothers in turn. The fare was of the simplest, the

bread was coarse, but the fish was abundant, and ale good. Abstinence from flesh meat all

the year round was a rule of the Order, and so strong in the fourteenth century was the

ascetic feeling among the Friars, that fasting time extended from Holy Cross Day (September

* Some of our readers may think it erroneous for us to picture these Friars dressed in white serg^ flannel, but
the black cloak, which led to their distinction among the people, was not worn in the Monastery, or in the choir,
except from AU Souls Day to Easter, when it was used as a protection against winter. It was, however, always worn
when the Friars appeared in public and preached.

15th) to Easter, during which period they had only one meal a day (dinner), a little bread and
wine being taken just before the closing prayers in the evening.

Conversation was not allowed during meals, but the Cleric who sat apart read in Latin a
portion of the rules of the Order and passages of Scripture. The meal ended the Prior gave a
lap on the table, and the reader rose and sang some verses of scripture, and concluded with
"Tu autem Domine, miserere nobis" (But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us), to which all
ZQsponded " Deo gratias," standing while they joined in the thanksgiving. The Precentor then
intoned the Psalm "Misei-ere met Deus," and all taking it up in alternate choirs proceeded, two
by two, Lay Brothers leading and the Prior bringing up the rear, down the refectory, through
the north cloister to the church.

The exterior of the church is well shown in the engraving. The interior measurement
•was in length 67 feet, and in breadth 24 feet. It seems to have stood north and south, or
nearly so, instead of east and west. This was not uncommon with the Friars, who were
eminently religious utilitarians. Orientation was to them a trifle, and in the ground plan of
their buildings time-honored precedents were not allowed to hamper them in their arrangements.
We can always discern at a glance whether this or that ruin was a Benedictine or a Cistercian
house, even though there be not one stone left upon another, so only that we can trace the
bare foundations, half buried beneath the soil. But when we are standing before the remains
of a Franciscan or Dominican house we can never be sure how the buildings stood. The
Friars had a free hand, and erected as necessity impelled them, or as funds permitted.

To return to the church, it consisted of a nave roofed-in in one span, with a slightly
projecting transept at the north or chancel end. The window in the transept was of three
lights, and had cusped circles in the traceried heads. It is probable that the gable had originally
a stone coping, with a cross at its apex. Two of the windows on the west side were of similar
character, but instead of circular had quatrefoil openings in the head. Some of the other
windows had been altered, but that on the left of the gable was Early Geometric in style.
On the eastern side of the church there were three more windows. For many years after its
erection the internal walls were plain, without image or picture, a single candle beam between
the choir and the nave being probably the only ornament. Images, pictures, and stained glass,
the gift, of benefactors, came in due course. A high screen separated the Friars and Lay
Brothers from the congregation, for whose benefit, at the elevation of the Host, windows were
opened in the screen, a Gregorian chant being at the same time sung.

The roof was plain and roughly worked. It consisted of single hammer beam principals
with bold collar ties and collars, and a heavy king post at the apex of each set of timbers.
The spandrils were deeply moulded and carved on the surface with bold oak foliage, plain
shields, and a pair of shears. Whilst building their church, the Black Friars were the
recipients of abundant alms; a devout cloth worker or draper being probably a generous
benefactor, the shears were carved on the spandrils to attest liis munificence. A merchant's
mark of the same character appears on the east wall of St. Lawrence Church, Ipswich. Like
the roof in the refectory, the carved spandrils were not supported on corbels but sprang
directly from the face of the wall. When this church was pulled down in 1767, after having
been used as a Grammar School, the roof was removed to a malt-house near Star Lane, and
there cut and adapted to its new situation. It ultimately found a more appropriate resting
place in a Wiltshire parish church.

The Monks were antagonistic to the Friars, and the Parish Clergymen soon learned to
hate them through loss of fees. The burial ground of the Black Friars was on the east and
west sides of the church. It was comparatively small, but wealthy persons frequently
bequeathed legacies to the Friars, in order that they might gain the privilege of having their
bodies interred in it. On this point superstition was remarkable. Some people felt sure of
obtaining mercy at the day of judgment if they were buried in a Friars habit. Cranmer
mentions that persons used to wear a Friar's tunic as a protection against ague or pestilence,

and to ease their pains in the dying struggle. Edmund de Ufford, brother of the Earl ot
Suffolk, by his will dated 1374, directed that his body should be buried in a Friar's habit.
Eank and opulence not being free from this credulity, the Friars' burial fees were wormwood
and gall to the Parish Clergy. The Canons, they said, had robbed them of their endowments,
and now the Friars were sweeping away their fees.

In the southern part of the cloisters the Prior's rooms were placed, and at the rear of
them, having a full south aspect, was the chapter house. In the present century the large
room was used for Christ's Hospital School. The house was of Fourteenth Century character,
and in the front were enormous buttresses, apparently built to stay the wall, which had
become weak through shallow foundations. In the chapter house, all the business of the
community was transacted. It has been described not inaptly as the council chamber of the
convent, being the place in which all local and personal matters were daily discussed, and
once perhaps in every twenty years the principal Friars in England assembled to conduct
general business. The government of this body was centred in a Master-General, who resided
at the Papal Court, while the provinces were each ruled by Provincial Priors, and the charge
of each house was committed to a Prior. The Provincial Priors were elected at a provincial
chapter, the Conventual Prior in an assembly of his own community.

The Provincial Chapter of the Order was held at Ipswich about 1389, and probably in
other years. As the Chapter embraced England and Wales, the gathering must have been
a large one. At these meetings all the business of the province was transacted. They lasted
five or six days, sometimes longer. The Kings of England, from Henry III. to Henry VIII.,
contributed food for three days. At first the sum allowed was £10, then Edward II. raised
it to £15, being 100 shillings for himself for the first day, 100 shillings for the Queen the
second day, and 100 shillings for the Royal Children on the third day. In return for this
benevolence it was customary for the King to direct a royal writ to each Chapter, asking the
assembled Fathers to pray for the Royal Family and the good state of the realm ; and also
to intercede in any particular political emergency.

In addition to payments made to the Friars when the Provincial Chapter held its Assembly
in Ipswich, we have a few scanty notices of alms bestowed on, and legacies bequeathed to,
them. Edward I. was in Ipswich, 1277, and during his stay he gave the Friars an alms of
14s. lOd. for two days' food. Shortly after, the allowance for each man was raised to a groat
a day. Edward visited the town again in 1296, for the purpose of presenting his daughter in
marriage to the Count of Holland. Through Father John de Hotham he gave the Black
Friars four marks on December 23rd for the food for four days. The marriage took place in
the King's Chapel, at the Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul, on the 8th of the following
January, and on that day he most liberally bestowed on these Friars 13s. 4d. for a day's food.
The executors of Queen Eleanor of Castile (1291) gave 100 shillings to the convent, through
Father John de Hotham, Provincial. Among testators to the convent were Thomas de
Wingfield, of Letheringham ; Bartholomew Bacon, knt., of Erwarton ; John Rookwode, of
Stanningfield ; Roger Drury, knt., of Rougham ; Peter Garneys, of Beccles ; Joan Lady
de Bardolf, Sir John de Plais, John Baldwin (1488), draper, and William Cutler (1509-10), of
Ipswich. The bequests are interesting, as they show how down to the last the Friars retained
the confidence of all classes ; they were recognized as the workers among the monastic orders
centuries after the older Monks were regarded as landlords and little more.

After the Friars became free from the grinding influence of poverty, and Lay Brothers of
rank dwelt among them, a guest-house was provided, which was open alike to baron, burgess,
and swineherd, to the pilgrim from a distant land, and to the merchant who brought goods
to sell at Holyrood Fair. Before the printing press came into existence the number of books
in the world was small ; but so learned a body as the Dominicans were sure to have manuscripts
and treatises, some of priceless value ; these were deposited in the library, and therein some
two or three specimens of the genus book-worm were occasionally found.

It would be idle to assert that the Friai-s of the sixteenth century retained the vigour
and energy of the fourteenth. The exemption from diocesan jurisdiction probably tended to
destroy discipline, and when the Dissolution came, the Friars had lost that zeal and fervour
which distinguished their early labours. Jocelin of Brakelond has shown us that the Abbot
and his Monks in the great Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's did not always agree. So also with
the Black Friars at Ipswich. Even in the second century of their existence, a commotion
prevailed which seriously disturbed their harmony. In 1397 two Fathers were elected as
Prior. This divided allegiance caused an appeal to be made to Eome, the Master-General
declared that Father John de Stanton was the true Prior and that Father Williams was not,
and that obedience must be given to the former. During the next year the Master-General
transferred Father Kichard de Lawsefeld from Ipswich to Canterbury, and made him a son
of the Priory, which was thus bound to support him in sickness, old age, or infirmity.

The policy of Wolsey and his royal master led the Black Friars of Ipswich to anticipate
the approaching storm. In the early part of the sixteenth century, their numbers were greatly
reduced, and such parts of the monastery and gardens as were not absolutely necessary for
their own use, were leased to other persons. In the 27th Henry VIII. (1535), the Prior and
Convent by deed " given at Yppiswiche in our Chapetire House," leased a garden for forty
years at a yearly rental of twopence to Henry Tooley, merchant, and Alice, his wife. This
probably was the garden, half an acre in extent, held afterwards by Thomas Tooley. The
Prior and Convent moreover leased a dwelling house with garden to Sir John Willoughby, knt. ;
another called Lady Daundy's lodgings to Wm. Golding ; and another called Friar Woodcock's
lodging to WilHam Lawrence, August 22nd, 1537, for 30 years from the next Michaelmas.

Among the MSS. of the Ipswich Corporation is a lease (29th Henry VIII) for 99 years
by Edmond the Prior, and the convent of House of Friars Preachers in Yppiswiche, to William
Golding of the same place, gentleman, and to his assigns, of the houses and lodging which Sir
John Tymperley, knt., occupied and lately dwelt in ; other portions of the property were also
leased, and the whole brought in a rental of 36s. lOd.

The Grey Friars of Ipswich surrendered their property to the King more than seven
months before the other mendicant orders of this town. The King's visitor, the Sufiragan
Bishop of Dover, made an inventory of their goods, April 7th, 1538, which is given by
Wodderspoon in his " Memorials." These goods were laid, by order of the visitor, within the
precincts of the Black Friars, securely locked and under the Prior's charge. In November
following the same visitor returned, and received for the King's use the houses of the Black
and Grey Friars, as he mentioned in a letter to Thomas Cromwell, the King's Vicar-General.
On the expulsion of the community, William" Sabyn, gent., one of the King's sergeant-at-arms,
whose residence adjoined the Monastery, became tenant of the site and buildings. The Black
Friars' property then furnished the following rental to the Crown : —

Site, with all lands, orchards, gardens, &c., late in the occupation of the Prior s. d.

and convent, let to Will Sabyn - - -- --.134

Mansion leased to Sir John Willoughby - - - - -134

Mansion, called Lady Daundy's lodging, leased to WiU Golding - - 0 2

Houses and gardens leased to Will Golding - - - - - 2 0

The Frayter, &c., leased to Golding and Will Lawrence - - - 0 8

Mansion, called Friar Woodkoke's lodging, leased to Lawrence - - 0 6

Mansion and garden leased to Lawrence - - - - - 20 0

Garden leased to Tho. Tooley -------02

Total yearly rents - - 50 2

William Sabyn in 1539 was elected one of the representatives of the Borough in Parliament,
and the whole of the property was sold to him November 27th, 1541, for £24, from the

previous Michaelmas, to be held by the 20th part of a knight's fee and the yearly rent or tenth
of 5s. Not long afterwards the entire site passed into the possession of John Southwell, the
King's chirurgeon, and in 1569 it was sold to the Corporation, who paid for it partly with their
own money and partly with money belonging to Tooley's Charity. The conveyance was made
absolutely to the Corporation, and the buildings were used for various pubhc purposes, such as
the Grammar School, Town Library, Bridewell, and Christ's Hospital School The building
called the Shire Hall was erected in 1698 on ground formerly used as a garden by the Friars.

The common seal of the Priory is oval. It bears the figure of the Virgin seated, with
the " Infant Christ " in her arms. Below, under a pointed arch, is the figure of a Friar praying.
Inscribed around is the motto : " + S . Co -vent . Fr-m . Predicatorvm . Gippeswici." The
style is Late Thirteenth Century. The seal, the matrix of which is preserved in the Bodleian
Library, is finely engraved in Wodderspoon's "Memorials of Ipswich."

The question naturally suggests itself what was the ecclesiastical condition of Ipswich when the
Friars came ? The town was small, it was provided with fourteen churches, but in it were no Monks.
Though Monks properly so called were not located here, two Priories of Black Canons existed.
These Canons lived according to the rule of St. Austin, which was not a strict one. The Canons
of that rule were far more in sympathy with the parochial clergy than Monks could be. There was
this essential difference between Monks and Canons : — The former held aloof from the cares,
and interests and duties of the outer world, whilst the latter recognized duties which they
■were supposed to be in some way or other called upon to perform. As long as the original
enthusiasm lasted they did discharge them. When the fire died out the Canons gradually,
and in some cases rapidly, fell into the exclusive ways of the Monks. The richer a Canons*
house grew, the more likely were the inmates to remember their privileges and forget their
duties.

The Ipswich Canons were on good terms with the burgesses, and when the charter was granted
by King John, the Priors were enrolled among the burgesses. They also won the esteem of the
landowners of the neighbourhood, and thus managed to get almost the whole of the patronage
of the Ipswich churches into their hands, as well as a considerable amount of property outside
the town. The Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul was placed at the back of the present
church of St. Peter, and the grounds were six acres in extent. It had the right of presentation
to six churches in Ipswich, had property in 54 parishes, and its annual income in 1291
amounted to £46 Os. lid. The other Priory, that of Holy Trinity, standing on the site of
the present mansion of Christ Church, had finely timbered grounds, more extensive than the
present park, with fish pond to produce delicacies for the table, pasturage for 400 sheep,
free warren in eleven parishes, a mill, 140 acres of marsh, and an annual income of £47 17s. 4id.,
chiefly derived from the tithes of appropriated benefices and houses in the town. It
had the right of presentation to eight of the parish churches in Ipswich. The nominations
of the religious teachers to the various parishes was thus entirely in the hands of the Canons
to these Priories.

The Ipswich benefices, St. Mary Stoke excepted, rank at the present day among the poor
ecclesiastical livings. In the thirteenth century they were in a similar condition, St. Clement
was then valued at £6 13s. 4d. ; St. Lawrence, £3 6s. 8d. ; St. Margaret, £4 13s. 4d. ;
St. Mary Elms, £l ; St. Mary Tower, £3 6s. 8d. ; St. Nicholas, £1 10s. ; St. Peter, £4 ;
St. Mary Stoke, £29 9s. 6d. But through the right of presentation these sums, which
included the rectorial tithes and the glebe, were absorbed by the Priories, and the Vicars of
the parish churches were left to the tender mercies of their parishioners, on whose offerings,
more or less voluntary, they had to depend for their subsistence. In consequence of this
pillage the secular clergy in towns were very needy, and those only of low status would accept
such benefices. Clerics abounded, as the law of the church shielded them to a great extent
from the law of the king. We have the authority of Dr. Jessopp for stating that at this
period, candidates for holy orders were admitted without much scrutiny or examination, and

. 66

the clergy consisted largely of men who traded on the profession as a means of secular
advancement. There was everything to show that in the middle of the thirteenth century
religious life was at a very low ebb, and the Canons and the clergy generally were in the
habit of hearing confessions, celebrating mass, and dispensing the sacraments in accordance
with a dull and formal routine. The clergy were required by law to preach in their parishes at
least four times in a year, but even this small claim on the shepherd of the flock was
frequently disregarded.* They were also forbidden to marry, nevertheless they did marry and
their wives were called concubines.

Such was the state of things ecclesiastically when the Friars came to Ipswich and threw
themselves unreservedly upon the voluntary principle, depending for their daily bread upon
alms from day to day. They came when years of war had cut ofi" the young and the strong,
and there was scarcely a home in which the weeping form of some childless, husbandless, hopeless
woman could not be found. Having no endowments, they were compelled to restless action ;
compelled to appeal to the multitude in a hundred ways; compelled to try and make themselves
useful, and, if possible, indispensable to all classes. The extensive buildings which they raised
show that they found a way to the hearts and the pockets of the merchants and traders in
Ipswich and the gentry around. Nor need this surprise us. Their enthusiasm brought into
greater prominence the cold formality which prevailed. It startled the indifferent. Men were
brought to think, then to act. Their hearts became warmed towards those who had set up for
themselves a lofty standard of duty. The human, as well as the spiritual, side was touched.
Exempted ttova episcopal jurisdiction, and invested with an authority by Pope Alexander V. to
receive confessions, celebrate mass, and give absolution in any part of the world,t the Friars
went wherever they were wanted, not caring in what parish they ministered. In lanes and in
hovels, in the midst of loathsome diseases, by the sick bed in the Lazarhouse, where the poor
leper was brought to end his days, in the haunts of the black death, from whence all others
were flying, they were to be seen, fearless in the midst of infection, giving to the djring
brother or sister, with the kiss of peace, an assurance of the Heavenly Kingdom.

The spirit of self-sacrifice naturally won for them a popularity only equalled by the reverence
they gained as preachers. Sermons were unusual things in those days ; pulpits were very
rarely to be found in the parish churches. What little preaching was heard was commonly
delivered from the steps of the altar, and in the early part of the fourteenth centuiy not
unfrequently sermons were preached from the roodloft. When the preaching Friar therefore
took his stand at Lewis' Cross (in Brook Street), and exhorted his hearers in the highest style
of pulpit oratory, the people listened with wonder and amazement, and looked upon their
Preaching brother as a prophet sent by God.

Though we look back with horror at the cruel persecutions in Spain and elsewhere which
the Black Friars adopted in the pursuit and punishment of what they, through their narrow
theological views, deemed dangerous heresy, we cannot withhold our admiration of the Christlike
devotion and self-sacrifice which their Order exhibited during the first century of its labours
in England. Truly indeed they gave themselves a ransom for many, and thus did much to
evangelize the masses. Their coming to Ipswich was a blessed thing for the people.

* Gasquet's Henry Vlll. and the English Monasteries,
t Hook's Lives of the Archbishops, Vol. 3.

^
^

THE CORN HILL

AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS.

OWARDS the close of the last • Century the Comhill, although of limited
area, presented many objects of interest to the antfquary. It was almost
surrounded with buildings three, four, and five centuries old, each of which
was, in some way or other, inseparably connected with our town history and
corporate life. The changed aspect of many parts of Ipswich is a source of
wonder to the oldest inhabitant. In no spot has the change been more
remarkable than on the Cornhill. There thfe transformation has been so
complete as to sweep away what were its distinctive features — the Shambles,

the Moot Hall, and the Market Cross.

THE SHAMBJLES

Stood at the south-east corner of the Cornhill, and occupied part of the site now covered
by the Post Office. The building, constructed chiefly of wood, formed three sides of a
quadrangle, fronting east, west, and north, the open part to the south being used as a Herb
Market. It was three stories high. The external facades' on the Cornhill, or market level,
were open, the over-sailing first floor being carried on massive ' pillars of wood, with moulded
caps and bases. These pillars divided the chief front into six wide bays, within which, a few feet
recessed, the butchers' stalls were arranged^ Arches, four-centred ifa design, made of the best
oak, supported the first floor, in which each bay over one of the stalls below was sub-divided
into two by a post of lesser scantling than the pillars^ the "spaces between being filled up
with windows, which lighted a gallery extending the whole length of the Cornhill front.
Above was a continuous arcade of slight wood work. A broad flight of steps from the inside
led up to it, and the Bailiffs granted orders for adinission to this grand stand whenever such
attractive spectacles as burning a heretic or baiting a buU occurred to gratify passion or
afford amusement. Loyalty to the King and constitution was' rather ostentatiously manifested
every 29th of May, when the Christ's Hospital boys,' attired in new clothes, with gilt oaken
apples or sprigs in their caps, assembled in 'the gallery, and were regaled with light refreshment,
in commemoration of the day. Rooms at the back of the gallery were let to working wool-
combers and other traders. " ' ■ • . .

The sparidrils of the arches ori the market level were filled in with carvings, and the
c6iling of the arcaded walk beneath "the gallery was probably vaulted in plaster. The principal
pillars rose above this floor, and supported, on the north side three lath and plaster gables,
which did not range vertically witb the bays beneath. ' Each gable was finished with enriched
barge boards meeting" in the 'centre at a round knob, ' or finial. The east and west sides of the
Shambles were similar in construction to this firorit, excepting that the projecting gables on the
upper floor were continued for only one bay on the return side. On the north roof, rising from
the inner side of the quadrangle, was a bell turret, ' consisting of a circular canopy, carried upon
four slender wooden columns.

The carvings in the sparidrils of the basement ' arches, to which allusion has been made,
were ornamental devices and displayed considerable merit, but when the building was pulled
down they found their destiny in a builder's yard ; with two exceptions they became reduced
to "kindling." In one spandril the carver portrayed, with much spirit, the slaughtering of a
bull, in another that of a ram. One of these pieces was sold by auction a few years ago, and
went out of the town ; the other is preserved in the Ipswich Museum.

When were these Shambles erected? Tradition asserts in the days of Cardinal Wolsey,
but evidence is wanting to support the tradition. Corporation Records declare that the "flesh
stalls" were "newly built" in 1583 (the same phrase is used in 1378), timber being brought from
Ulverstone Hall for that purpose. This indicates pretty strongly that the building was erected
at a date much earlier than the birth of the Cardinal. The Flesh Market in 1346 was let for
£10 a year, a rental which shows that it must have been a large building. The only
constructive details that will assist in fixing an approximate date, are the four-centred arches
on the ground floor, which indicate fourteenth century work. There is no evidence that
the Shambles, or Butchery, existed elsewhere than on the Cornhill. In the 2nd Richard II.
(1378) mention is made of a "flesh stall" newly built. In the next century the terms
"Butchery" and "Market" are used, instead of Shambles. In 1461-2 John Brown was
admitted a free Burgess and granted a stall in the Butcheiy. In 1468 every butcher was
compelled to sell his flesh in the Market. From the Corporate Records it is evident that the
buying and selling of food was hedged round by a series of minute Municipal ordinances. In
1483 a townsman was subject to a fine of 6s. 8d,, if he bought flesh of any butcher who had
not a stall in the Market; butchers were permitted to sell their tallow only to the two
Common Chandlers, who were appointed by the Corporation ; they were in addition liable to a
fine of forty shillings if they sold meat at their own houses on a market day. These regulations
will provoke a smile, but others testify in the strongest manner to the soundness of the
burghers' judgment. Thus : — As cattle had been stolen in the country and the carcasses sold
in Ipswich, it was ordained that country butchers should bring to the Shambles on market
days the hides and skins of the carcasses they offered for sale. There was a well in the
Shambles, bricked round in the old style for windlass and bucket. Round this well — a pump
was placed over it in 1650 — the hides and skins were exposed. Butchers might sell them at
any time of the day, but they could not be removed from the market till after the clock had
struck one, and then only by the permission of one of the flesh wardens.

Extensive repairs in the reign of Elizabeth inaugurated a new era in the history of the
Shambles, and considerably improved rentals resulted. In 41st Elizabeth (1599) the Chamberlains
were not allowed to let the corner stalls in the Shambles under 20s. a year ; the annual rent of the
Middle Stalls was fixed at 16s., and in the following year the Chamberlains were made responsible
for all arrears. A fine of Is. was inflicted on every butcher who offered for sale the flesh of any
bull that had not been baited for one hour on the Cornhill on the day it was killed. The custom
commenced in the reign of Edward III., and was enforced until omitted in the Ipswich Paving
and Lighting Act of 1793, poor beasts having been cruelly baited in the reign of George III.
In the Chamberlain's Accounts for 1648, the following entries may be found : —

"To John Heme, for discovery of unbayted bulls - - - - 13s. 4d.

To Joseph Hobert, for a bull coller- ----- 3s. 6d.

To Roger "Withe, for bull rope ------ 3s. 4d."

Among the Batley M.S. at the British Museum is the original receipt as under : —
" Ffor workmanshipp and stuff" about the paueing, when the bull ringall was

broken up, about the said bull ringall - - - - - Is. 6d.

September 28th, 1676. Received then the contents of this bill by me, John Payne."

Clarke, in his " History of Ipswich," mentions that there was a popular impression that
the Shambles were erected by Cardinal Wolsey. Wodderspoon, alluding to this tradition,
states that they were said to have been erected by the Cardinal's father, and tbat the head
of Wolsey, or that of his father, carved in wood, was placed over the entrance.* For these
fetatements there is no foundation in fact.

It has ofttimes been a matter for regret that so little is known of Thomas Wolsey, who
had a world wide reputation, but respecting whom the records of the borough in which he was
bom are almost silent. When Mr. Jeaffreson arranged the Charters, Deeds, and MS.S. of the

♦Historic Sites of Suffolk.

I- ,■

i- "Win

Ipswich Corporation, this silence was to some extent accounted for. He discovered that the
Eecords had sustained serious losses. From the close of Edward the Fourth's reign to the
17th year of Elizabeth there is scarcely a single file or packet of all the letters that were sent
to the Corporate body from Lords of the Council and other State officials. The missing
documents probably related to the family of Wolsey, or to the Cardinal himself

The only entries that came to light respecting the Wolseys were in the Chamberlain's
accounts of payments to a person named Wolsey, for the performance of one of the most
menial of occupations in connection with the Shambles : —

1585. Book of the accounts of receipts and payments of Robert Knaff and John

Raynberd, Chamberlaynes.
Item. Paid to Mother Wolsey for her paynes in clensinge the Come Hill, the

Butcherage, and the New Keye, for her whole yeres wages, xxs,
1587, 3 April. Item, paid to the Widow Wolsey for her wages, vs.
,, 14 June. Item, paid to the Widow Wolsey by warrant, vs.
,, [Without date.] Item, paid to Elizabeth Wolsey, skavenger, for her wages, vs.
„ 25 December. Item, paid to Elizabeth Wolsey, skavenger, for her wages, vs.
The Shambles, like most old buildings, did not improve by age. Rough usage produced
effects, and towards the close of the 18 th century, the structure, in parts, exhibited signs of
decay. A desire arose for its removal. The idea, however, slumbered until a free burgess of
some influence, Mr. George Gooding, an architect and surveyor, made a visit to Paris. Whilst
there, he became so enamoured of the Halle au Ble (Corn Market) that he returned home
determined that posterity should know something of him through a similar building which
he would build in place of the old Shambles. The subject, broached in December, 1793,
was favourably received, and in the following January a plan was laid before an Assembly
Meeting of the Burgesses and at once adopted. Mr. Gooding proposed to take down the
Shambles at his own expense and to erect in their stead a new building, he being
allowed to convert the old materials to his own use, the Corporation to grant him a lease
of the place for sixty years, at an annual rent of twenty pounds. Such a lease was
signed, and the foundation stone of the new building was laid by the Bailiffs on the 1 5th
February, 1794. The structure then erected was dignified with the name of The Rotunda.

THE ROTUNDA

Was circular in plan, the ground floor on the outer ring being divided and arranged into a
series of butcher's stalls and shops facing outwards, behind which were rooms for residential
purposes for the traders. The central space was left open to the cupola as a Market House.
The apartments were in two stories, the upper one being at the back of the shops over and
behind the first floor, the roof being carried up as a low domical vault. Some of the shops
looking on to the ComhiU and Herb Market were open stalls, others were glazed with small
oblong panes vsdth bull's eyes, these panes being considered sufficiently ambitious by leading
tradesmen a century since ; the gospel of plate-glass had not been proclaimed.

Directly over this fringe of shops was a continuous low and nearly flat roof, covered with
pantiles and extending back the uniform depth of the shops. On this roof a series of semi-circular
headed windows rested, each comparatively large, resembling gigantic fanlights, affording light
to the living rooms behind and to the small sleeping rooms above. A second sloping tUed roof,
carried on sUghtly projecting timbers, was placed above these windows. This was broken into
here and there by low chimneys, which, with their capped pots, were more unsightly and obtrusive
than picturesque. From this level a curving bulbous roof spanned the internal area. It was
constructed of beams and rafters, cased with wood and painted, and agreeably broken into by
a series of eight narrow glazed lights. The cupola, somewhat steep in pitch, was covered with
lead, and from the apex sprang a dwarf flagstaff, carrying a weather cock, which served as a

finiaL A singular constructional feature (of which the architect was very proud) was that not
a nail was used in the fabric, which was almost entirely of wood.

The structure as a whole, although of bold design and picturesque effect, was too poorly
executed to be pronounced a success. The Parisian model combined strength and utility. The
Ipswich copy was, even to the indulgent critic, poor. Inadequate provision for ventilation
made it very offensive, and on sanitary grounds it was condemned (January, 1810), as a nuisance,
■within sixteen years of its erection. The following significant extract relating to the bargain
with the builder of the condemned Rotunda has been taken from the Corporation Records : —

" 26th July, 1810. Ordered that the Bailiffs do forthwith treat with Mr. George Gooding
for the purchase of the Rotunda at the price of twelve hundred pounds, and that the purchase
money be paid at the rate of one hundred pounds per annum (or at a greater rate, at the option
of the Corporation) with interest until the whole is discharged, and that this order be acted
upon as soon as the actual possession is delivered."

THE MARKET CROSS.

In the seventeenth century the Market Cross was in most towns, particularly in those
devoted to trade, a structure of some account. It was a place of shelter for country people
who came to do business, was usually erected on the most public spot in the town, and
where an ancient preaching cross had preceded it. The octagonal was a favourite form. Of
such form are those at Chichester, which Britton characterizes as grand in design and elegant
in execution; and -Malmesbuiy, both still standing. That at Leicester was also octagonal. The
designer of the Market Cross at Ipswich followed the fashion, without attempting similar
architectural pretensions. The Cross was, however, almost as useful as those of greater dignity,
and served no less important purposes. Its demolition in 1812, after having for nearly two
centuries been its central feature, very largely detracted from the picturesque appearance of the
ComhiU. Now that the Mediaeval Town Hall, the Renaissance Shambles, the Classic Market
Cross, and the Edwardian and Tudor timber and plastered houses with overhanging upper
stories have been swept away, it is difficult for the younger generation to ■ realize the
appearance of the CornhiU a century ago.

To the east of the centre of the Cornhill, and about eighteen feet from the pavement on
the north side, this Market Cross stood "from 1628 to 1812. In its construction stone, oak,
and lead were employed with highly satisfactory results. It consisted of a canopied stand,
•carried on eight Doric pillars of stone, of excellent proportions. It was open at the sides,
and surmounted by an elaborate terminal post and cross of considerable height, on • which
a statue was set. The pillars supported a framework of "elliptical arches, carrying in their
turn an entablature and "• coved cornice, "with embattled parapet above. Over each column
was a' bold over-sailing truss, carved with masks, and rising above the general level of the
battlements into a stop-block, on the face of which was • sculptured in relief a conventional
treatment of the snake-encircled head of Medusa. The whole of this portion of the Cross,
which was executed in oak, was covered with elaborate and freely designed carvings, aU
details being large in scale and vigorous in treatment. From the centre of each of the
depressed arches hung a square pendant, and the spandrils of the arches were filled in with shields,
bearing armorial devices, said to have been those of Daundy, Bloss, Long, and Sparrowe. and
two tradesmen's marks, C.A. and B.K.M. All the carvings were Classic in design and
treatment, and bold and free in execution. Their character may be studied in the example
preserved in the Ipswich Museum.

Over the really ornamental wooden frame- work rose a ribbed canopy and cupola of wood,
<X)vered with lead, and ogee in form. The king-post in the centre of the roof, to which it was
framed, was supported on cross beams just above the level of the eaves. This king-post was

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carried above the dome as a square terminal, cai-ved on each of the four faces, with the figure
of a cupid supporting the stone ball above. This spherical member supported in its turn a
deeply undercut Maltese cross, and on this was placed the figure of Justice, with her usual
attributes — the sword and scales — to remind, as the fashion went, all the trading class that
they must be true and just in all their dealings. This statue, which was designed as Flora, was
in 1723 presented to the town by Mr. Francis Negus, of Dallinghoo, M.P. for the Borough.

The history of the Cross may be briefly narrated. Wodderspoon says that a Cross was
first erected in this town in 1510, and that the benefactor was Edmund Daundy, but Bacon's
"Annals" are silent on the point. Daundy was elected as one of the Bailifis in that year, and
during his term of office he founded a chauntry in the church of St. Lawrence. The cross then
erected was probably an upright ornamental pillar of stone, examples of which abounded in the
fifteenth century, and many of which were patterns of lightness and beauty. Daundy is known
to have been favourable to the Friars, and Lady Daundy had apartments in the Black Friars'
Monastery at the time of its dissolution. The pillar Cross, in all probability, was erected by
him in the most central place of the town, to enable the preaching Friars to address large
gatherings of the people. This Cross seems to have lasted about a century, when the Refor-
mation had entirely changed the aspect of afiairs. The Friars had vanished ; but the Cross
was felt to be useful, and in 1610 Mr. Benjamin Osborne bequeathed the sum of £50 towards
the erection of a new one. Mr. Osborne's gift was not paid until 1628, when the Corporation
obtained £44 from his executors for the purpose named in his will. The new buUding was
immediately commenced. Other persons contributed towards the cost, and armorial bearings of
the donors were carved on wood, and placed round the lower circle of the dome.

The Market Cross made known to us by the drawings of George Frost is that erected
in or about 1628. The classic knowledge shown in the details points to the early part of the
seventeenth century as the probable date of its erection. The old corporate body, with all
their extravagance, had occasional fits of economy, and it was, we suppose, when in one of
these moods that the following resolution was placed on the books: — "August, 1745. Ordered
that a Committee do examine whether the repairs done to the Market Cross by Mr. Henry
Bond, late town treasurer, were necessaiy, and the charge for the same reasonable."

The general outline of the Cross was pleasing. The several features harmonized in themselves
and with their surroundings. The only point open to criticism was the disproportionate height
of the finial, increased to an awkward over-balance when the statue, presented by Mr. Negus,
was added. The diameter of the building was 28 feet, and it afforded more than 600 feet of
standing room. Its wanton destruction is to be regretted by all lovers of the picturesque. ,

THE TOV^N HALL.

The Town Hall, which stood at the south-west corner of the Cornhill at the commencement
of the present century, was St. Mildred's Church adapted to municipal purposes. The church
is not mentioned in Domesday, but this is no proof of non-existence. Its dedication suggests
two or three centuries of existence in the Saxon age, and in the Conqueror's purely financial
survey its omission might arise from its having no property liable to dues. Very few particulars
can be had respecting it, and what can be obtained fail to prove that it had a parochial
character. In Bacon's "Annals" St. Mildred's Church is mentioned, 8th Edward II. (1314-5)
but the same authority in 1377 speaks of the building as Mildred's " Chappell." In the 6th
Edward III. (1832-3) Bacon, in describing the situation of a tenement, speaks of St. Mildred's
Parish, but as this is the only instance in which the word "parish" is used, this reference
cannot, in the absence of the names of incumbents in the institution books of the diocese, b-^
aUowed to have authority. The church existed at the time of the "Norwich Taxation" (1291)
and through the kindness of Dr. Bensley, the Tanner MS.S. in the Diocesan Registry at

Norwich have been examiDed, but the only entry discovered was this — " Church of St. Mildred,
not in Macro, amongst the spiritual valuations, but amongst the temporal." The Macro here
referred to is Dr. Cox Macro, but where his collections are, or whether they still exist, is
unknown. We have said that the church is noticed in the Norwich Taxation. In plain
English the notice there given runs thus — The Prior of St. Peter, Ipswich, has it for his own
special use, and causes it to be of service to the Church — in other words, serves it by a
chaplain. Procuration, three shillings and four pence.

According to Clarke, the Prior and Convent of Holy Trinity granted to the Burgesses of
Ipswich, in 1393, a piece of ground in the parish of St. Mildred, 24 feet by 18 feet, the north
end abutting on the Cornhill. In Bacon's " Annals " this transaction is not mentioned, and
Clarke does not give his authority. This probably was the ground occupied by the red brick
portion of the Town HaU on the east of St. Mildred's Church and called the Hall of Pleas.
The interior of the church was converted into two stories by the insertion of a floor, the lower
portion being sub-divided into kitchen and cellarage, whilst the upper part was arranged as an
Assembly Hall. The Hall of Pleas seems to have been added to the original building in
1435-45, as John Deker was then appointed to superintend the work, and a Committee was
nominated to co-operate with him. Ten years later surveyors were appointed to look after the
erection of a new chamber, probably a CouncU Chamber, at the end of the Hall of Pleas.

The building, though called the Town Hall and sometimes the Moot Hall, was really the
old GuUdhalL As viewed from the Cornhill it consisted of two very diverse buildings. The
larger portion to the west was faced with plaster, and had Late Fourteenth Century two-light
windows. Over these was an embattled and coped parapet of brick, while behind this the
building was recessed so as to form a quasi-clerestory, above which rose a high pitched roof,
covered with tiles. A large and ugly porch, reached by a flight of steps, and having a square
landing place, roofed but open to the roadway, led to the room in which public business was
transacted. This staircase was open at the bottom somewhat like a lych gate at the entrance
to a churchyard, whilst beneath the highest portion a doorway led to cellars and other apartments.
The porch distantly reminds one of a much more beautiful example of the twelfth century,
still forming the approach to the King's School at Canterbury, and the whole treatment, in two
stories, with covered staircase to upper floor, is paralleled in the curious fifteenth century
church of Bramerton, near Barnstaple. The building throughout appeared like work of the
early years of the 15 th century.

The second portion of the building to the left was of red brickwork, with diamond patterns
in bluish tinting on either side of a projecting stone oriel two stories in height. The front
rose with a high, row stepped gable, and the whole effect closely resembled the still-existing
gate of Archdeacon Pykenham's, in Northgate Street, Ipswich, which is known to have been
built in 1471.

When this building was pulled down in 1812, a portion of the interior of the old church,
with some two-light windows, was brought to view. Two of the windows, which were
comparatively small, seem to have belonged to the south aisle of the church. The third was
placed under a large and probably a three-light window. The wall in which the windows were
found had been raised at a later date to serve the purpose of the upper room, built to accommodate
the Corporate body at their official assemblies. The lower part of the building was in the
fifteenth century used as kitchen and cellarage at the feasts of the Corpus Christi Guilds, the
" Sociary," or feasting room, being a part of the building.

Roman London is said to be entirely underground, and the windows of the church of
St. Mildred when brought to light showed that the surface of the ground at the time
the church was erected was very much lower than the level of the present Cornhill.
This accretion of earth was further proved diu-ing the progress of the main sewerage works, when
the original soil was found some four or five feet below the existing level of Tavern Street.

The old Town Hall, as already stated, was pulled down in 1812, and the Corporate body

being, in common parlance, "hard up," the site for some years was left vacant. At last, on
the 4th of June, 1818, the foundation stone of the second Town Hall was laid. The buUding
was a sixteenth century version of a design of Palladio's— plain, heavy, and tasteless. After
standing forty years increased accommodation was needed, and the present elegant and
commodious structure took its place.

Turning from the buUdings to the associations that are inseparably connected with the
ComhiU, one is struck with the barbarism which was practised. From time immemorial the
CornhiU had been the place where punishments of various kinds had been inflicted. During the
sixteenth centuiy it was on several occasions Hghted up by the flames of blazing faggots,
which surrounded the dying victims of cruel persecutions. Death by burning must be among
the most horrible of punishments, yet fanaticism tried to prolong the sufierings of victims by
using green broom with the faggots. Items connected with these executions may be found in
the Corporation Books, for this brutality was all in the way of business.

"1556. Accounts of the Receipts and payments of Robert Sparrow and Jafiery Cave,
Chamberlains : —
Item, paid for a wryte for the excicusion of the ij women whiche ware
burnede -----._.

vs.

Item, paid to John Ceryson for certain yorns apertaining to the excicusion

of the said women -----.._ jjig ijjjjj^

Item, for ij lodes of wode and a lode of brome, and for earring the same

into the towne-house - - - - - . . viiis. iiid.

Item, paid for a stacke at the said exicusion - - - _ . yid.

Item, paid to iiij men for earring of woode and brome to the place of excicusion iiijs. viiid.
Those "good old times!" But perhaps the most degrading of punishments used by our humane
and discriminating ancestors was the Pillory, which was ancient in character and barbarous in practice.
Originally its use was confined to cheats, perjurers, and thieves, but in the eighteenth century men
who had committed very trivial offences were sometimes sentenced to the same kind of punishment as
those guilty of disgusting crimes. Thus in 1776, Thomas Garwood was put in the Pillory at
Ipswich for compounding an infraction of the law in not having on a waggon the words, " Common
stage waggon," whilst a few years previously Lieutenant Wye stood there for a disgusting offence. An
ill-mannered mob freqently mal-treated those who were deserving of pity, but when punishment was
inflicted for a heinous crime public resentment was inflamed, and the poor wretch was greeted by
voUeys of rotten eggs and filth. Whether this was virtue in a rage or a mere coarse display of
brutality under false pretences the reader must judge. Passion is sometimes more excited by the
detection of crime than by the crime itself As at public executions in the present century, so great
was the eagerness to witness the punishment that the CornhUl was filled with spectators.
Carts, waggons, and other vehicles, which blocked the traffic, were crowded with men and
women, morbidly anxious to see the helpless criminal writhe with agony whUst pelted by a
brutal populace.

The "Pillory" seems to have been used as an instrument of punishment from the Norman
Conquest to the nineteenth century. Ordinances in the Little Domesday Book provide that
men guilty of forestalling fish coming to market — that was buying them before they arrived at
the Quay, so as to seU them in the town at a high price — were for a second offence to be
placed in the Pillory. If tainted fish were offered for sale, the fishmonger ; if bad meat, the
butcher, but only on the second offence, was stuck in the Pillory. This instrument of torture,
like the gallows on Rushmere Heath, was evidently a fixture on the CornhiU, as an ancient
bye-law of the borough ordained that inferior meat should be exposed on a stall beneath the
PUlory, and there sold for what it really was. At the Record office is a letter dated July
27th, 1640, from Sir Lionel ToUemache, complaining of some new Canons, which were made
public by being nailed to the Pillory in Ipswich Market Place.

The "Stocks" are a more famiHar institution. They remained in town and country to a

comparatively recent date. They were used for the punishment of rogues, vagabonds, and
drunkards, and prior to 1607 those in Ipswich were fixed at the Bridewell. In that year the
Corporation resolved that men thus punished should be publicly exposed and the Stocks here
accordingly found a "local habitation" on the Cornhill, in front of the Town Hall. Whipping
at the cart's tail was another delicate mode of punishment, for the carrying out of which the
Cornhill was specially selected. The prisoner, with his back naked to the loins, was tied to the
back of a cart The cart was drawn by a horse three times round the Cornhill, whipping vdth
a cat of nine tails being continued during the circuit. From the cart's tail the culprit was taken
back to prison.

In the middle of the sixteenth century whipping seems to have been considered the proper
thing for a certain class of offenders. In the Chamberlains' accounts, 1569, are the following
items : —

Payd for carting and whipping of a young wetche _ _ - xiid.

Payd to Browne for whippmg of a wentche that came from Woodbridge- viiid.

Payd for cartyng and whipping of the Flemyng . - - - xiid.

St. George's Fair was for several centuries held on the CornhiU. It was at one time
a sort of three days' carnival, to which people of all ranks resorted. A history of the fair
would be an interesting chapter in the history of the town. In early times fairs were useful
in drawing people together at stated intervals. They were centres at which the greatest part
of the trade of the kingdom was ti-ansacted. Generally granted by Koyal Charter, they
yielded considerable profit in the shape of tolls. The grant of St. Margaret's Fair was made by
Henry II. to the Prior and Convent of Holy Trinity ; that of St. James's Fair, by King John,
to the Lepers of St. Mary Magdalen ; but the grant of St. George's Fair has not been discovered.
That it was of ancient date is clear, as in 10 Henry VIII., 1519, the day of holding the fair
was changed, in consequence of its falling on a festival day. Urged by the Bev. Watche Ward,
the Puritans in 1644 made an unsuccessful attempt to abolish it. Two years previously the
Bailiffs had ordered the Treasurer to pay to Mr. Ward the sum of twenty shillings, as an
expression of their gratification at his excellent sermon delivered on the first day of the fair.
Long before the commencement of this century the fair had lost all signs of its trading
character. Amusements, eating and drinking, and noisy festivity had been its characteristics.
Giants, dwarfe, and monstrosities of all kinds were there ; conjurors to exhibit their sleight of
hand ; learned pigs, which could do sums in arithmetic and teU fortunes by cards ; waxwork
exhibitions and theatres. The most noisy of the latter was owned by one " SamweU," a fat
man in a tight satin jacket, the buffoonery of whose clowns on the stage outside was an
immense attraction. Wombwell's Menagerie came once at fair time, but " Samwell " held his
ground. The best shows were lighted by numberless variegated lamps, and were rendered
attractive by bands of music. The carnival at that time was opened on the third of May.
The covered stalls for toys, fancy goods, gingerbread and confectionery, sometimes extended
into Tavern Street, and lines led towards King Street. A Free Burgess was clerk of the fair,
his perquisites being 20 per cent, on the amount collected as toUage, the rest being paid to
the Town Treasurer. The license and riot which characterised the proceedings at length
aroused the Town Council, and in 1859 they resolved that the fair should be no longer
tolerated in "Central Ipswich."

The foregoing pages have not exhausted all that could be said about the Cornhill and its
associations. No allusion has been made to the political dramas played upon it, nor to the
grand celebrations of birthday anniversaries in the reign of George III., when of all things a
huge bonfire was hghted. It will be sufficient to record that the Cornhill, as the centre of
the town, was fi-om time immemorial the arena for stately pageants, grotesque performances,
and degrading punishments — a centre at which local life gave expression to its joy, and
offended law enforced its own vindication.

EARLY HISTORY.

HE origin of towns is generally enveloped in obscurity, and that of Ipswich
forms no exception to the rule. Nearly all the prominent cities and towns
in England have some characteristic of their own, by which it is not hard
to find for each of them a distinctive feature. Colchester is of Roman origin,
Bury St. Edmund's owes its rise to an abbey, Windsor and Richmond each
clustered round a castle, Norwich stands near the site of a Roman town.
Ipswich is indebted to no such cause for its rise and progress. Probably
its situation at the head of a navigable river and within easy distance of
the sea favoured its development from a small village into a cluster of townships, which in
turn expanded into a borough.

Nothing has been discovered to prove that a town existed where Ipswich now stands
before England came under the Saxon rule, but it should be stated that relics of occupation
by ancient Britons, in the shape of flint implements, have been found in the neighbourhood.
The Romans also left their mark. The tesselated pavement brought to light some years since
from beneath the soil at the back of Brook's Hall indicates the site of a Roman villa of good
dimensions, whilst the numerous fragments of Romano-British pottery and large number of
Roman coins found at Wherstead show that the Romans had a settlement on the banks of
the Orwell. These discoveries, however, afibrd no evidence that the town itself has the
slightest claim to having once been a Roman settlement.

The Kingdom of East Anglia, which was formed in the sixth century, included the
district of Ipswich, and there can be little doubt as to the Saxon origin of the town. Its
name, which is certainly Anglo-Saxon, is strong presumptive evidence as to that fact. Clarke,
Wodderspoon, and a cotemporary writer have followed Kirby in declaring that the town derived
its name from the river Gipping. This declaration, if it might do in the eighteenth century, will
not do now, and a well-known Anglo-Saxon scholar. Professor Skeat, of Cambridge, writing
to us, says, "It is quite impossible that the river Gipping can have given its name to the
town. The idea that it did so conflicts with the first and most elementary law of etvmology,
for a simple word cannot be derived from a compound (or longer) one. We cannot derive the
adjective real from the verb to realise, since the verb is extended from, and therefore derived
from, the adjective real. Similarly, Gipp-ing, containing the well-known suffix ing, is extended
from, and therefore derived from the simple name Gip.

" The real state of the case is this. There was a man named Gip, and his creek was
called Gip's-creek. He had some descendants who were called Gipp-ings, 'ing' being the
suffix applied to children, descendants, and tribes. That this tribe gave its name to
the river is a perfectly reasonable supposition. In other words, 'Gipp' and 'Gipping' are of
course closely related names, but ' Gip ' is the shorter and therefore the older. When the
town is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (a.d. 993) it is called 'Gipes-wlc'
Gipes is the genitive of ' Gip,' presumably a man's name, and ' wic ' is a word borrowed from
the old Scandinavian, and signifying a creek. As to the sense of ' wic ' it so happens that
there are two such words, both used as place-names — (1) 'wic,' a town, not a true English
word, but merely borrowed from the Latin vicus ; (2) ' wic,' from the Scandinavian, and now
known in Icelandic in the form vlk. No. 1 appears in Warwick, but No. 2 in Woolwich,
Greenwich, and Ipswich. In both these words, the vowel i was originally long, but was soon
shortened on account of its occurrence in that part of the compound word which was unaccented.
It is also worth while to notice that the initial G acquired the sound of y on account of the
following i, as in other cases. Thus Gipes-wic regularly became Yipswich, from which the
modern name comes by the loss of the initial F-sound."

The government of the town at the time it comes into historic notice affords further
evidence of its Saxon origin. Certain customs and regulations were in accordance with Saxon
laws, such as the dower of a married woman to a moiety of what freehold the husband died
seized of within the Borough, and the lawful or full age of minors at fourteen years.

When the Saxons over-ran this Eastern district is uncertain. Nothing is known of the
circumstances of its conquest, of the fate of its inhabitants, or of the settlement of the
conquerors within its boundaries. The Britons who escaped slaughter, and survived the event
which robbed them of their lands, were doubtless settled as slaves on the estates of the
victors. A good portion of the boundary, afterwards known as " Gipeswic," had probably
been cleared and made fertile by its original inhabitants, and the Saxons, with a wit of which
nobody can complain, appropriated the spot and divided it among themselves. The unallotted
portions became common land, as Westerfield Green, Cauldwell Heath, and Rushmere Heath.

The Gipeswic of this early age must not be confounded with the small town fenced
with earth which, some three or four centuries later, was laid waste by the Danes. The
Saxons abhorred fenced towns, and the dyke surrounding Gipeswic must have been made
long after they had formed a settlement, and when, from the ravages of foes, they found the
value of earthworks as a means of defence. Gipeswic in its early stage was a large village
community, extending from Westerfield Green to King John's Ness, and from Spright's Lane
to Rushmere Heath. It was a piece of the country, but a piece containing eight thousand
acres, organized and governed precisely in the same foi'm as the hundreds around it, and the
town portion was simply a part of the district near the river, where the inhabitants lived closer
together and population increased. The boundary of that day it has retained, and on the
fields, pasture, and waste, which this district embraced, shepherds and labourers held common
land. The broad acres which were the property of the free burgesses in the last century,
were the same as those over which our Saxon Ibrefathers had rights as folk-land, in the
eighth century.

The allotment of the conquered land which followed the victory of the tribe settled the
kindred freemen on their estates, and the townships, as they were called, were grouped into
hundreds. The term "hundred" was originally military. It designated a hundred fighting
men who had settled in a certain locality, but when the machinery of government had lost its
simplest form, the term was applied to a district in which freeholders, united by mutual duties and
responsibilities, formed a community for judicial administration, peace, and defence. From the
unequal size of the hundreds it is reasonable to suppose that under the geographical hundred we
have the variously sized districts in which the hundred warriors originally settled. Tradition
asserts that King Alfred devised the arrangement of hundreds; it is more probable that he
adopted what ahready existed, and made it a basis for rating purposes. Ipswich was treated
as a half-hundred.

It is unknown how long the freeholders existed as such. The feudalism of the time of
Alfred grew out of the freedom of an earlier age. Endeavours to trace the history of the
period when the Saxons held sway over England show how little we know of the age in which
the tribal king emerged into the national ruler, and when custom began to consolidate as
written law. England was at an early period dotted with small kingdoms. Perpetual commotion
and tribal wars were the result, and the freeholders, unequal singly to cope with their foes,
were induced for the safety of their persons and property to surrender their lands into the
hands of a Thegn, or over-lord, receiving them back laden with suit and service, but guarded
by his powerful protection. The King became lord of those who had not surrendered to other
lords and the community of Ipswich thus passed into the hands of the King himself.

Feudalism existed two or three centuries before mention is made of the town of Ipswich.
The first notice that is known occurs in the Will of Bishop Theodred, Bishop of London and
Hoxne, about a.d. 955, and runs thus :-•« And ic an Sat lond at Waldringfield Osgote mine
•Quoted by John MitcheU Kemble, Esq.. in "Notes" respecting the "Bishops of East Anglia »-

Archaeol. Inst. Gt. Britain, Norwich, 1847.

sustres sune, and mm hage Sat ic binnin Gypeswich bouhte," showing that he gave to his
sister's son land at Waldringfield and a fami which he had bought at Ipswich. Here the
town is merely mentioned, but a few years later we have evidence that Gipes-wic must have
been a trading place of considerable importance at the very time it was thus incidentally referred
to by Bishop Theodred. When the Saxon King Eadgar was on the throne (959—975), the
King's Moneyers had a settlement in Ipswich, and the first fact in the history of the Borough
comes from this source. There are in existence silver pennies which are inscribed on the
obverse eadgar rex anglor, and on the reverse leofric mot gip. Gip is here a contraction
for Gipes-wic; and the inscription signifies that they were coined there by a moneyer named
Leofric. This fact testifies that the town was of some importance when it was first brought
into notice. There is no evidence to show on what principle the selection of towns was made,
but it may be assumed that as the number which issued coins was limited, they were the most
important in their districts. In the reign of Ethelred, no fewer than seventeen moneyers
issued coins at Gipes-wic, and specimens of its mint from Eadgar to Henry III. may be seen
at the British Museum.

The history of Ipswich, as far as printed records are concerned, begins with the Danish
invasion in 993,* when the Saxon Clironicle records that Gipes-wic was plundered by the
army of the sea kings. The Danes do not seem to have stayed in the town, but ravaged
the place and passed on. The destruction of life and property on tliis occasion was so great
that the people cowered panic-stricken before their foes. As the aim of the pirates was mainly
plvmder, the inhabitants along the coast were kept in continual terror. Under these circumstances,
Siric, Archbishop of Canterbury, advised the King to purchase peace, and it is said that the
terms agreed upon were ten thousand pounds in the shape of tribute. Clarke, in his "History
of Ipswich," absurdly blunders when he states that this sum of ten thousand pounds was a
fine inflicted by the Danes on the town of Ipswich, instead of being a tribute paid to them
by the nation at large. This tribute was the origin of the Danegelt, a tax which soon became
annual. Until this advice of the Archbishop was adopted, a purchased peace was unknown
in England, and events proved that it only encouraged the Danes to become more frequent
and more powerful in their invasions. Only two years after this enormous sum of money was
paid, a large number of these piratical invaders landed near London, marched along the coast
to Gipes-wic, where they laid all waste and continued at intervals to plunder and ravage the
district.

The base treachery of the West Saxon King caused the Danes in 1010 to wreak their
vengeance on the kingdom. A fleet, with the dreaded banner of the raven flying at the
masthead, came swarming up the Orwell, and the marauding army landed at Gipes-wic.
Shallow as the channel of our river may be supposed to have been eight hundred years ago,
the long, narrow, and nearly flat-bottomed boats of the Danes, which drew only about five feet
of water, were easily moored not far from the town. On this occasion the Danes marched
direct to the Rushmere and Nacton Heaths to give battle to the Saxon General, Ulfketel.
They achieved a signal victory, and were afterwards described as masters of East AngUa. The
country was harried, monasteries and churches were plundered, men and women slaughtered.
Cambridge was burnt, but the Chronicle is silent as to Ipswich. For nearly six years the struggle
went on, but ultimately the West Saxon Realm collapsed, and Canute became master of the
kingdom.

* Wodderspoon, through a printer's error, gives the date as 919 for 991, but this date requires a few words of
explanation "The chronology of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is somewhat confused. The earUest mention of Ipswich
in the Parker M.S., in connection with the Battle of Maldon, is given under the date 993. The spelling there used

is ' Gipeswic' . . . , , . -.r oo j

"The very same mention of it also in connection with the Battle of Maldon is given in the later M.bS. under

the date 991. The spelling then used is ' Gypeswic' , . i. xl *

" Pilologically, 'Gipes wic' is the better spelling. The spelling 'Gypeswic' with y is enough to show that
these M.SS. are late, as only the later scribes confused the sound of i with that of yr—Profemr Skeat.

One of the blessings that supervened upon Canute coming to the throne was that of
peace. The Saxon fear of the pirate vanished. The Dane was no longer an enemy. A large
number became converts to the Christian faith; and as Christianity extended the Ecclesiastics
became more and more rigid in their calls for abstinence and fasting. The supply of fish
became a necessity for daily food, and fishing developed into a lucrative trade along the eastern
coast. The regulations in the Little Domesday Book show, that in this trade Ipswich largely
shared. A few years later the city of Dunwich paid sixty thousand herrings as part of its
fee ferm rent to the king. This shows how the men of this district were making use of the
harvest of the sea. Ipswich, at the head of the Orwell, had a valuable position for trading
purposes. Roads led into the town in all directions, and the river was only another highway
to bring trade to its markets and to afford its inhabitants the means of intercourse with the
Continent. The Danish element was strong among the householders, and the impulse and
enterprbe of these daring people aroused and stimulated a taste for trading among the
inhabitants generally. The foundations of commerce in connection with the Port were laid at
this era, and, although the Danish rule continued for a short time only after the reign of
Canute, the trading element must have been well consolidated before his death.

In the invaluable Noraian Record known as Domesday Book, Ipswich springs into historic
light as a town with a borough organization. We had hoped that this record would give a
picture of its social life during the reign of the Confessor, but the details are scanty, and we
have to be satisfied with the names of a few owners and tenants in chief, and retm-ns which
are statistical and financial.

Ipswich in 1060 was a royal borough, and was treated as a half hundred, whilst Colchester
and Cambridge ranked as hundreds. There were 538 burgesses paying custom to the King.
The comparative importance of the town may be judged from the roll of burgesses. Thetford,
a Bishop's see, and the chief place in East Anglia, had 943 burgesses, Norwich 665, Yarmouth
70, Sudbury 118, Clare 43, Beccles 26, Eye 25, Colchester 401. The Borough paid fifteen
pounds yearly as rent to the King. Edith, queen of Edward the Confessor, and sister of
Harold, had a grange here. Her manor contained about 480 acres of land, and to her was
granted two-thirds of the revenue of the Borough as part of her dower. Her brother. Earl
Guert, who also had a grange here, was Earl of the town, and received the other third
of the revenue. In addition to this payment, the Borough also contributed for the King's
household one gallon of honey, which was a staple article of food among our Saxon forefathers.

The 538 burgesses paid annually a gable rent, amounting probably to sixpence or sevenpence
a year for each house. This burgage rent was in the nature of a ground rent, which in royal
boroughs was received by the King, as lord, from the burgesses within his dominion. Houses
had been built on land held by individuals as royal grants in former reigns ; the tenants in
those cases paid rents to their respective owners, the King claiming only from those who were
styled the King's burgesses. For example, Wisgar, the patron of one of the two churches
dedicated to St. Peter, had five burgesses and six houses in the town, besides fifteen
burgesses in the suburb of Thurleston. The strong-minded Archbishop Stigand, who crowned
Harold, had two houses in the Borough and jurisdiction over both tenants, who were
burgesses. Wisgar was the largest tenant in the district, holding 820 acres, on which bordarii,
villeins, and some freemen resided. The land belonged to the Church of St. Peter, and
Wisgar appears as Patron of the Church and tenant of the land. Large tracts of country
were at that time uncleared, sturdy oaks abounded, and the prowling wolf was a frequent
visitor. Besides arable land, Wisgar had a wood for hogs, a run for sheep, meadow land, and
a mill. The mill was invariably valuable, for tenants were compelled to bring their corn to be
ground at the Lord's mill. Earl Guert had 240 acres of land and the third part of the
profits of a mill. The Monks of Ely, in the name of the pious Etheldreda, who died in
675, held a manor consisting of 360 acres; the Rectory of St. Mary Stoke, and the land
thereto attached, are a part of this property.

We hear only of burgesses as a class. As a body they had forty acres of land, for which
they paid custom. From their holding so small a quantity of land the inference is that
the majority of them were traders. Beyond this we get no notice of the burgesses or their
rights; no statement as to whether they held one, two, or three houses; no account of the
customs of the people, nor any notice of municipal officers.

Although no details are given as to the occupations of the 538 burgesses, it appears
that within the boundaries of the Borough there were fifty-three free-men holding land of
their own, and small plots belonging to oti.er owners. Twelve of these dwelt on the land
of Queen Edith, and occupied between them eighty acres belonging to her manor. The
tenure was absolutely copyhold (though equal to freehold), in return for which they did
service and paid custom to the King. In other words they paid what was equivalent to a
rent (land in those days was valued at twopence per acre), and held themselves ready to
attend Court-leet, or Port-moot, in the King's service whenever summoned by the Reeve.

We find also that there were in the Borough thirty bordarii— farm labourers of the highest
class— who held their homesteads, with small parcels of land, on condition of performing defined
service to the Lord of the Manor. This service was frequently that of supplying him with eggs,
poultry, &c., and working on the land two or three days in the week. They were provided
with huts, and fed when they worked on the Lord's land. Ten of these men were on the
Queen's land, and they had between them eighty-six acres of her manor. The Survey also
names twenty-four villeins in connection with the land at Ipswich, and five serfs or bondsmen,
the lowest class of slaves. This class, of whom there were many in Sufiolk in the days of the
Confessor, were, with their wives and families, usually sold with the land. Their sons naturally
grew up in the same state of bondage, and their daughters could not marry without the Lord's
consent. All these held small portions of land, by which they fed themselves and their families.
What we call rent was paid by the performance of work, such as hewing wood, cutting turf
for fuel, or by acting as cowherds or swineherds.

Domesday proves that the inhabitants of Ipswich found their taxes much heavier under
the Norman King than under his Saxon predecessor. The annual fee farm rent was raised from
fi[fteen pounds and a gallon of honey to thirty-seven pounds, although the Borough had lost
two-thirds of its tax-paying inhabitants. The burgesses were reduced to 210, and of these 100
were unable to pay more to the tax of the King than one penny in capite, and there were 328
empty houses. The empty houses and the poor burgesses point to a prosperity that had faded
away. A largely reduced number of contributors had to furnish to the Crown a rental more than
double that at which the Borough had been previously assessed. As neither pestilence, conflagration,
nor war seems to have scourged the district, the empty dwellings and the impoverished
condition of the burgesses were probably owing to the conflict between Harold and William.

Glancing at the town ecclesiastically we have no evidence as to when the parochial sub-
divisions were made. As it grew from a village into a town, churches were doubtless erected
by the pious owners of land in the district, for use by themselves, their tenants and those in
their employ. In the eighth century to build churches was quite fashionable. Perhaps a sense
of religious obligation was keener then than it is to-day, or as good works their erection might
be considered the key to the celestial gates. Whatever the motive, pious or selfish, Ipswich
teemed with churches. According to Domesday there were thirteen in the town at the time
of the Survey. Those within the walls were St. Mary (at the Tower), St. Michael, St.
Lawrence, St. Peter, St. Stephen, and St. Mary (at the Elms). Those without the walls were
Holy Trinity, St. George, St. Austin, and Stoke St. Mary. At Whitton stood St. Botolph—
which was within the liberties. The whereabouts of St. Julian and also of a second church
dedicated to St. Peter, have not been ascertained. St. Michael and St. Julian were probably
destroyed by the great storm of 1287. The first there is little doubt was succeeded by St
Nicholas : may not the second have been in like manner succeeded by St. Matthew, which
though an old edifice is not mentioned in Domesday ?

The list shows that for a very limited population a great many churches were provided,
but it must not be forgotten that the Anglo-Saxon Churches were small. Land of varymg
area belonged to each of those named. In some cases it was only an acre, m others of large
extent. Some of them belonged to Priests, others to Laymen, but nothing is known of those

who endowed them.

To trace the Ipswich of the eleventh century in the Ipswich of to-day is no easy task.
Its aspect in those days is difficult to realize. If we could see a map of the district as it
was 800 years ago, we should find the arable land divided into large fields. Each field was
not, as now, the property of an individual owner, but was divided by strips of turf into pieces,
measuring an acre. Each of these pieces belonged to a burgess, and some burgesses owned
several. Cultivation was governed by custom. Once in every three years the cultivator must
let each strip lie fallow, and diu-ing this fallow his neighbour's cattle might graze upon it. He
might enclose his acre with a permanent fence, but if he did he lost the right of grazing on
his neighbours' lands when they were fallow. In everything he did, he had to be very careful
not to interfere with the rights of others. He could not plough without the help of his
neighbours, as eight oxen formed a normal plough team, and co-operation was necessary to

make up these teams.*

Turning from the outlying fields and meadows to the town itself, we shall find that a
part of Ipswich was fenced with earthworks, nearl}/ in the form of an oval. They were pierced
with gates on the E., W., N., and S. From the West Gate to Major's Corner, and from the
North Gate to the Quay, ran highways. The population was chiefly located in narrow lanes
and streets, of which Cook Row and Stephen's Lane some sixty years ago were types. Along
what is now known as Westo-ate and Tavern Streets were timber-framed houses with gables,
and on the North side they had orchards or gardens, reaching to the ramparts at the back.
The fronts of the houses were whitewashed; the roofs were of straw or reeds; and shops,
where they existed, were projections from the main building. The floor on the ground
story was the natural soil, well rammed down, and covered with rushes. Hearth-stones
for fires were in the centre of the room, and, glass being a luxury barely used even by
royalty, wooden lattices, or wooden shutters, were the ordinary apparatus for the admission
of light and air. The dwellings of the labourers were little better than mud hovels. The
conveniences of life were not regarded. Wooden dishes and plates were used, and as forks
were unknown and very few knives existed, people when they sat at meals used their fingers
as substitutes. The superfluous fat obtained by the slaughter of beasts was converted into
home- manufactured candles, and a lump of wood, with a nail at the top, served the purpose of
a candlestick. Even with a burgage tenant, his brass pot, and tripod, by which his pot was
hung over the fire on the hearth in the middle of the house, were his only cooking utensils,
and the furniture of the house was rough, and mostly made on the spot by a carpenter. The
retainers of a Norman Baron reposed on rushes in the great hall of the Mansion, and the
servants were content with the stables as their usual sleeping place.

As regards local government history is almost silent. There is no known record of an
Officer of the Crown having been appointed for its administration duiing the Anglo-Saxon period.
but a Town Court was held before the time of William the Conqueror, and over this court some
Officer of the Crown must have presided.f Ipswich being a royal demesne, its chief magistrate
was doubtless a Reeve, whose appointment was vested in the King. The Borough included
several townships or parishes, and the rights of the King, both in jurisdiction and revenue,
were exercised by this Reeve. He had to collect the town dues, prepare a general account of
the revenues, and pay to the Sherifi" the amount collected. Under his orders every villein on
the demesne land was bound to do a certain amount of work for his master, generally two or
three days in the week throughout the year, with an extra day at harvest time.

* Seebolim's English Village Communities,
t Black Book of the Admiralty.

In the matter of jurisdiction the regulations were exceedingly minute. Twice a year
the mhabitants assembled at the "Port-moot" to present themselves before the Sheriff to
prove that they were duly enrolled in a tithing of ten persons. This was called the view of
Frank-pledge. Every landless man, even in the time of Eadgar, waa required to have a surety,
who was bound to produce him in case of litigation and answer for him if he was not
forthcommg. At a later period men were bound to combine themselves in associations of ten.
Each association had a head man, who was a " capital pledge." If one broke the law the
other nine had to hold him to right. If they could not produce him, the capital pledge, with
two of his brethren, had to purge his Association of all complicity in the flight of the
criminal, or make good the mischief he had done. The Borough Court, similar in its organization
to the Court Baron, was composed of the burgesses— the owners of land or houses for which
they paid rent to the King. This court, "over which the Eeeve presided, tried all cases of
debt or damage, and disputes as to ownership within the Borough. The town was divided
into four " leets," named after the cardinal points of the compass, and a Court-leet, over
which the Eeeve presided, tried petty criminal offences and made bye-laws, regulating almost
everything in streets, market, or the common fields, and punished offenders. In both these
Courts the burgesses formed, as it were, a jury, but they examined no witnesses, and decided
the cases brought before them according to their own knowledge of the facts. There was no
statute law or common law to be explained, but if they decided wrongly they might be
fined for their mistake. A fine appropriate to the offence, or the crime committed, was the
usual punishment. Homicide, wounding, assault, or lawless violence were expiated by a fine,
proportioned to the status of the injured person, and that status was determined by his
property. The fines and the fees payable were collected by the Reeve, as part of the
revenue of the King.

We have seen that the fee farm rent of the town was raised considerably by William
the Norman, and that the burgesses, greatly reduced as they were in numbers, suffered much
from the extra tax which the Conqueror imposed. This grievance, however, decreased yearly
as the vacant burgage tenements were filled up by the Norman followers of the Conqueror, who
shared in the burdens of the town. This settlement of the Normans led to increased trade,
and as the English and Normans intermarried and became fused, the inhabitants began to
aspire to independence as a corporate body. The Sheriff, on behalf of the King, had the right
to levy taxes on the inhabitants for the support of his royal master, and could appear
whenever he pleased at the Borough Courts to collect the fines and profits. Prior to the
granting of a Charter, there are several notices on the Pipe Rolls of money from Ipswich, paid to the
Exchequer by the Sheriff of Suffolk and Norfolk : thus— Pipe Roll, 31 Henry I., " The Sheriff
renders account of £7 of aid from the burgh of Ipswich ; " again. Pipe Roll, 5 Henry II., " The
Sheriff renders account of 100 shillings, the gift of the burgh of Ipswich."

To get rid of this interference of the Sheriff in the management of their affairs had
been the aim of the chief men in rising towns for a long period. The efforts of the Ipswich
burgesses, at an earlier age, to free themselves from the country districts for taxation
purposes, and have a definite sum levied on the town as a fixed rent, mark their first step in
the struggle for municipal liberty. As the Eeeve collected and the Sheriff received this fixed
amount, they were suspected of gnriching themselves at the expense of the people. At this
period the institution of a Guild forced its way into prominence, and merchants banded
themselves together to acquire privileges which individual effort could not obtain. The growth
of local industry helped the movement. Foreign weavers discovered the Value of English wool ;
the gold of Flanders found its way into the pockets of Ipswich traders. The burgesses, thus
enriched, resolved to purchase permission to govern themselves. In this they were stimulated
by the fact that the Confederates of the Hanse, or Guild Merchants, had lain down a rule
that there should be admitted to the league no town which did not exercise corporate
jurisdiction.

aarters were granted to some towns by Henry II., but several of them only confirmed
old privileges and prescribed no form of municipal constitution. Applications from Ipswich for
aelf-govemment may have been made, but there is no proof thereof before the time of Richard
the Lion-hearted. On the Pipe Roll, 4 Richard I., the Sheriff of Suffolk returns that the
men of Ipswich owe 60 Marks for having their liberties ; and in the Pipe Roll, 6 Richard I.,
the Sheriff returns that the men of Ipswich have paid 60 Marks for having the town in their
own hands by an increase of 100s. a year on their former "ferm" for confirmation by the King
of their Uberties. The money was paid but the Charter did not come. When John ascended
the throne the merchants renewed their efforts, and this monarch, with kingly shrewdness,
compUed with their wishes, but, disregarding the payment to his brother, exacted another forty
marks for the grant. The Charter is enrolled on the Charter Roll, 2 John, and dated
"Apud Rupen Aurivall" 25th May, "in the second year of our reign." Clarke and Wodderspoon
are in error in stating that the charter was given in the first year of King John's reign.
It is amusing to see how Clarke in his "History of Ipswich" exulted over the grant by
King John, as though the King had singled out Ipswich for an extraordinary favour. The
historian might easily have ascertained that in John's days the King's treasury was often at
so low an ebb that anything could be obtained for money. The Pipe Roll shows that the
men of Ipswich paid for their privileges before the Charter was dated. No fewer than seventy-
seven Charters were granted by John. Evidently this was an easy way of raising money.

In those mediaeval times a Charter was of greater value than we can fairly appreciate.
Through it the town assumed a distinct position, and was placed on a level with the shire.
Through it the people of Ipswich exchanged their Crown-appointed Provost for two Bailiffs of
their own choice, and these magistrates exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction. Through
it the Bailiffs negotiated directly with the officers of the Exchequer as to the amount which
their community should subscribe to the royal aid, and by assessing it equally among the
inhabitants, the town was freed from official tyranny and oppression. The town was
granted in fee farm to the burgesses for ever, the BaiUffs having to collect the dues and
pay the rent into the King's Exchequer. The burgesses were not to be called before any
court outside the lipnits of the town, were to have lio person quartered upon them without
their consent, nor to have anything taken, from them by force, and were exempted from
tolls and mercantile dues throughout the kingdom. This was a great privilege in the
twelfth century as dues on importations were imposed at every port. The trading class
moreover obtained their desired legal standing, by having granted to them the right to
have a " a Merchants' Guild and their own house."

The burgesses having obtained their Charter, lost no time in acting upon it. It was
granted in May ; in June the inhabitants were summoned to meet in the burial ground of
St. Mary at the Tower, to elect two Bailiffs and four Coroners, in accordance with its
provisions The burgher life of the town gathers round the Church of St. Mary at the
Tower. Its yard was probably the spot on which " Port-moots " were held in the Saxon age.
After a corporation was formed it exercised a certain control over that church. One of its
beUs was from the earliest times used to toll the " curfew," and the Corporation Lecturer,
who as well as the bell ringers was paid by that body, exhorted the people from the pulpit
of the church.

The BaUiffij and the Coroners having been elected, the inhabitants met again on the following
Sunday, in the same churchyard, to elect twelve Portmen. Most of the public business in
that age was transacted on Sundays, and churchyards were selected as the place of meeting,
because the witnesses to the proceedings would be numerous, through the people flocking in
large numbers to church. There was a motley assembly on this memorable Sunday, when the
people congregated to rejoice over the success of a long struggle for corporate rights and
privileges. By the costumes of the crowd the distinction of classes was made clear. When
the elected Portmen had sworn that they would faithfully maintain aU the liberties of the

Borough as granted by the Charter, and justly act in the government of the town to the poor
as well as the rich, without respect of persons, the spectacle was impressive. Youth and age,
the gentleman and the craftsman, the merchant and the weaver, stood bare-headed on a
hot summer's day, in the midst of God's acre, with the canopy of heaven only as the dome of
their temple. They cried as with one voice that they would in every way aid in governing the
town according to their newly-granted privileges, and stretched forth their hands towards the
gospels in token of an oath.

As soon as the corporate body was fully constituted, and William Goscalk made Alderman
of the GuUd, the landed gentry of the neighbourhood became anxious to share the privileges
of the Borough. Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, entered the ranks of the free burgesses in
order that he and his villeins should, in the purchase and sale of corn, be free of town duties.
Lord Robert de Vaux was made one of the Guild in order that he and his villeins at Wenham
should be free of toll. The Priors of Holy Trinity and St. Peter having been elected, came
in open court and swore that they would be at scot and lot as resident burgesses. At a
later period, the Lord John de Tudenham, the Lord John de Stratton, Hugh de Gosbeck,
Robert de Henley, Richard de Holbrook, the Lord Hugh Tollemache, John de Belstead, and
others, became burgesses by the payment of small annual donations to the Guild Feast, in
order that they and their villeins should be free of toll This Charter was, and remained,
the foundation of the chief municipal rights in the Borough until 1835. Its charter privileges,
however, did not prevent it from being treated somewhat similarly to a copyhold tenant. To
every succeeding King or Queen the burgesses had, on his or her accession, to pay a sum of
money to have their Charter confirmed or inspected. This confirmation or inspection, generally
speaking, meant fresh taxes or penalties. Some additional privileges were granted to the people
of Ipswich by succeeding monarchs, but the alterations, with one exception, need not detain
us. The exception came directly after the Puritan era, when the burgesses felt the power of
despotism.

In 1665 Charles II., by writ of Privy Seal, dated Westminster, 17th of February, for
a fine of 20 marks, confirmed all charters and grants previously made to the Corporation,
supplementing them with such other liberties and privileges as were deemed expedient for the
better government of the Borough. With reference to this ratification by Charles II.
Mr. Batley says, " It appears, from the letters of the Recorder and Solicitor who conducted
the application to the King, that the Lord Chancellor was prevailed upon by the High
Steward of the Borough to withdraw a clause out of the new grant, as prepared by the
Attorney General, in which the approbation of His Majesty was needed whenever a High
Steward, a Recorder, or a Town Clerk was appointed."*

Mr. Sicklemore, the Recorder, was paid £25, and afterwards received a gratuity of £50,
for his trouble in connection with this Charter.

Even thus early in the reign of Charles II., the right of the burgesses to elect their officers
was preserved in the new Charter only by the influence of the High Steward, the Earl of
Sufiblk, who was also Lord Lieutenant of the County. Some years later (1685), the King,
or his ministers, determined to carry out the idea broached in 1655. Owing to intimidation
on the part of the Government, the burgesses agreed to petition the King to accept an
unconditional surrender of their old Charters, at the same time sohciting him to grant a new
one. This surrender having been accepted. His Majesty incorporated the burgesses de novo,
by granting a Charter which limited the power of appointment. Persons were appointed by
name to fill the chief offices of the Corporation. Thus Sir Henry Felton, bart., and John
Burrough, gent., were named as the first two BailiSs, and Christopher Milton, Recorder. All
the Portmen were named, and the Common CouncU was to consist of the Bailiflfe, Portmen,
and Chief Constables for the time being, or greater part of them. Having deprived the freemen
of their right of electing, it followed that the King retained in his own hands the power of

♦Batley MS.8.

removing any member of the Corporation by Order of Privy Council. The changes made in
the Corporation show that the Royal prerogative was frequently used.

This Charter continued in force until the l7th October, 1688, when, by Order in Council,
the rights and liberties of the Corporation were restored, and they continued in operation until
1835, when the Municipal Corporations Act was passed. Under this Act we live to-day.

In conclusion, a word as to the old Corporation. It had considerable revenues derived
from farms and parcels of land, exclusive of the Charity farms, from town dues at the
quay, from anchorage or port dues, from fines in judicial affairs, and from petty rents. The
revenues thus derived were applied to the payment of the fee farm rent and the salaries of
the Corporation officers. When in 1834 the Municipal Commissioner came to investigate the
Corporation affairs, he found the Corporation property charged with a heavy debt, the
history of which was involved in much obscurity. The interest on this debt absorbed a large
proportion of the income, but the total expenditure of the Corporation could not be ascertained.

A rate, called the Marshalsea rate, was made at the Borough Sessions, and levied on the
inhabitants. It was similar to a County rate and destined to the same kind of objects, viz., the
repair of bridges, roads, &c.

The meetings of the Corporation were of two kinds. Great Court and Assembly. The
Great Court was a meeting at which all acts binding on the Corporation were done. It
consisted of the two Bailiffs, two or more of the Portmen, two or more of the Common
Councillors, and an indefinite number of freemen of the Borough. The corporate officers were
appointed at these meetings, including the Members of Parliament, and the freedom of
the Borough could only be taken up at a Great Court. The only days fixed for holding it
were the 8th and the 29th of September, but the Bailiffs had power to call a meeting at
any time. All freemen of the Borough, although not resident in it, could vote at Great Court,
whether for Bailiffs or Members of Parliament, for granting the lease of a farm, or the
payment of a bill for the repair of Corporation property ; and at contested elections enormous
expenses were incurred by bringing freemen from aU parts of the kingdom to vote. When
in Official Costume the Bailiffs were attired in scarlet gowns trimmed with fur, the Portmen
in scarlet gowns trimmed with black velvet, and the Common Councillors were robed in gowns
of dark purple.

The " Assembly " was more like a standing committee for investigating and considering
any matter of interest to the Corporation, and reporting thereon to the Great Court. It
was composed of one or more Bailiflfe, some of the Portmen, and some of the Common
Councillors, and was convened by the Bailiffs as occasion might require.

Evidence in favour of the Saxon origin of the town may be found in the fact that the
burgesses were summoned to attend a Great Court by the old Saxon custom of blowing a
horn at midnight. The Crier performed this duty in several parts of the town, and
particularly in front of the residences of the Bailiffs, Portmen, and some of the Common
Councillors, proclaiming that a Great Court would be held at such a day and hour. The
horn, which is said to have been used for this purpose from the days of King John, is yet
in the possession of the Corporation.

The freedom of the Borough was acquired by inheritance and apprenticeship, or gift.
The right by birth devolved only on those children born after the father's admission.
By apprenticeship, a seven years' service to a burgess ; the service being duly proved. In
cases of gift it was granted by the burgesses at large in Great Court, and was unfettered
by conditions.

The Portmen and Common Councillors were self-elected bodies. The former were all
Whigs and the latter all Tories, and the partisanship shown by these political rivals did
not add to the harmony of the Corporate body.

The End.

INDEX.

Admiralty Jurisdiction 53-54

Alehouses, Inns, and Taverns in 1574 . . 34
Alverd, Thomas .. .. .. ., 51

Ancient House and its Historical Associa-
tions, 11 ; not built by any Member of
the Sparrowe Family, 16 ; description of
interior, 16 ; the Oak Dining Room, its
panelling and beautiful overmantel, 17 ;
the Secret Room, 19 ; the Tradition as
to the concealment of Charles II. in
this house entirely legendary . . . . 21

Angle Posts, carved . . . . 29, 32, 33

Archbishop Stigand . . . . . . 78

Bacon, Francis, M. P., Ipswich .. .. 10

Bacon's Annals . . . , . . . . 1

Bacon, Nathaniel . . . . . . . , 26

Bailifls, First Election of, 82 ; their Livery

in the 17th Century 84

Balls and Concerts at Old Assembly Room 35
Barr Gate Street . . . . . . . . 6

Batley, William, Town Clerk, his MSS. in

British Museum . . . . . . . . 7

Beccles . . . . . . . . . . 78

Bigod, Roger 47

Black Friars, 59 ; their indebtedness to
Henry III., 69; their Monastery des-
cribed, 60 ; provincial chapter of their
order held, 63 ; alms bestowed on them,
63 ; legacies bequeathed to them, 63 ;
the Friars' dress and mode of life, 61 ;
their self-sacrifice, 66 ; rental of their
property when surrendered, 64 ; sold to
William Sabyn, 64 ; Common Seal of
the Priory , . . . . . . . . . 65

Bond, John, lease from Corporation . . 7

Borough Court, in eleventh century . . 81
Bourne Bridge, mentioned in 1352-3, 41 ;
repaired by Freemasons in 1679, 42 ;
old Bridge described, 42 ; boundary
line between town and county defined 41
Bridges, The, 37 ; Bourne Bridge, 41 ;
Friars' Bridge, 46 ; Handford Bridge,

43; Stoke Bridge 37

Buckenham, Henry . . . . . . 33

Bull Gate 2

Bull Ring on Cornhill, and bulls baited there 68
Burgage Rent . . . . . . . . 78

Burgesses, number in the time of Edward
the Confessor compared with those in
other towns . . . . . . . . 78

Caldwell, John de 3, 37

Caldwell Street 2

Canons, Augustinian . . . . . . 65

Carved Angle Posts 29, 32, 33

Carving, decorative, in Ancient House . . 17
Carr, or Cary Street . . . . . . 2

Catherine of Arragon . . . . . . 9

Cavendish, Thomas . . . . . . . . 58

Chapel of Our Lady of Grace, 2 ; visited
by Henry VIIL, Catherine of Arragon
and Cardinal Wolsey . . . . . . 9

Charles II., the Tradition of his conceal-
ment in the Ancient House, 21 ; grants
a Charter, which deprived the Burgesses
of their rights . . . . . . . . 83 i

Charter granted by John . . . . . . 82 j

Churches mentioned in Domesday . . 79 i

Church of St. Mildred 71

Clare 78

Coal Duty in 1852 54

Cobbold, John, lease from Corporation . . 7

Cobbold, John Chevallier .. .. .. 3

Coffee House described, 29 ; probable date
of erection, 31 ; splendid carved angle
post, 30 ; Assembly Room in connection
with it, 34 ; George, Prince of Wales, at
a ball, 35 ; sold to Mr. John Cobbold,
35 ; Wodderspoou's error as to lease, 33;
the front of house removed . . . . 35

„ . . , r*OB

Coins issued from Eadgar to Henry III. . . 77

Coke, Sir Edward 43

Collector of Customs appointed in 1280 . . 47
Commercial rise of the Port under Danish
rule .. .. .. .. ., 77

Common Quay, its boundary defined . . 49
Common Council, in old Corporation, self-
elected . . . . . , . . . . 84

Copping, George, his initials in Ancient
House, 16 ; his marriage-, 11 ; one of
the Borough Chamberlains, 11 ; interred
in St. Lawrence .. .. .. .. 11

Cornhill and its associations, 67 ; the
Pillory, 73 ; the Stocks, 74 ; Whipping
at Cart-tail, 74 ; Heretics Burnt . 73

Colchester . . . . . . . . . . 78

Corporation Property in 1834 burdened

by debt 84

Cromwell, Oliver 28,60

Cubitt, William 40

Custom House, Old, described, 49 ; Mr.
Cooper Gravenor as lessee, 50 ; the
Officials include Thomas Alverd, Richard
Felaw, Richard Percyvale, Samuel Wol-
laston, and Erasmus Darwin, their nomi-
nal salaries and great perquisites, 51 ;
Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis
Walsingham " farmed " the Customs »t
Ipswich 61

Danish Ravages . . . . . . . . 77

Darwin, Erasmus . . . . . , . . 61

Daundy, Edmund, M.P., Ipswich .. 27, 71

Domesday Survey of Ipswich . . . . 78

Domesday Book, The Little . . . . 47

Dominican Priory . . . . . . . . 60

Dunwich 78

Early History 75

Eastern Counties Association supported by

Members of Ipswich Corporation .. 23

Ecclesiastical condition of Ipswich in the

13th century .. .. .. .. 65

Edith's (Queen) residence and manor . . 78

Edward the Confessor . . . . . . 78

Edward 1 . seized the Borough . , . . 66

Eldred, Thomas 68

Elizabeth, Quet-n . . . . . . . . 57

Etheldreda, St 78

Fair, St. George's, date of establishment
unknown, 74; Puritans unsuccessful in
their attempt to abolish it, 74; removed

from Cornhill .. .. .. .. 74

Fair, St. Margaret's, Charter for, granted

by Henry 11. . . . . . . . . 74

Fair, St. James', Charter for, granted by

John 74

Felaw, Richard . . . . . . . . 51

Ferm, or Rent of Ipswich . . . . 78

Fishing Trade established . . . . . . 78

Flint Implements found near Ipswich . . 76

Ford, The 3, 38

Franciscans, The . . . . . . . . 64

Frankpledge, View of . . . . . . 81

Freemasons employed to repair Bourne

Bridge 42

Freemen, how Freedom of the Borough was

obtained . . . . . . . . . . 84

Friars, their popularity . . . . . . 59

Friars Bridge . . . . . . . . 46

Frost, George . . . . . . . . 71

Gaol, 3 ; Chaplains appointed for, 5 ;

Fees of the Gaoler . . . . . . 6

Gates and Walls, 1 ; Bull Gate, 2 ; North

Gate, 8 ; West Gate 3

Gibbons, Grinling . . . . . . . . 18

Gilford, Mordecay, examination of . . 25

Gipeswic, origin of the name . . . . 75

Gokling's Coinage of Sutfolk . . . . 28

Goscalk, William, elected alderman of
the Guild . . . . . . . . . . g3

Gooding, George . . . , , . . . 69.70
Great Courts, when held and how som-
moned, 84; all the important bosineia
of the Borough tranaacted at, 84 ; bar-
geaseii. resident or noD-reaident. could
attend and vote . . . . . . , . g4

Green, Mrs. Everett 2J

Guert. Earl, brother of Harold, Earl of

the Town J$

Gunpowder Lane . . , . . . . . go

Gurdon, John, M.P. 38

Gurdon, Brampton . . • • . . . . 27

Hamby, William 34

Handford Bridge, 43 ; restricted to the
use of fool passengers and re-built in
1619, 44 ; accidenU from floods at . . 44

Uarland, Dame Susannah 48

Hatton Court .. .. .. .. 85

Haxell's Farm, 44 ; quaint insciiption
in the farmhouse . . . . . . 46

Henry III. grants property to Black

Friars for their settlement . . , . 69

Heretic-s burned on Cornhill . . . . 78

Hitcham, Sir Robert 47

Hundred, original meaning of the geo-
graphical term . . . . . . . . 78

Inns and Alehouses in 1574 .. .. 84

Ipswich, of Saxon origin, 75 ; its name,
how derived, 75 ; never a Roman
settlement, 75 : extent of Ipswich in
the Saxon age, 76 ; date of first known
notice, 76 ; ravaged by the Danes, 77 ;
Mint established, 77 ; number of Bur-
gesses in the time of Edward the
Confessor, 78 ; residence of Queen
Edith. 78 ; local government, 'Town
Court held before the Conquest, 80 ;
Fee Farm Rent, paid to Edward the
Confessor, largely increased by William I.,
79 ; one of the King's Ports at an early
date, 55; Burgesses paid Richard I. for
a Charter, which they did not obtain,
82 ; Charter granted by John, and
amount paid for it, 82 ; appearance of
the Town in the eleventh century, 80 ;
Bailiffs and Coroners elected in the
churchyard of St. Mary-le-Tower; 82 ;
landed gentry anxious to become
Burgesses, 83 ; arrival of the Friars, 69 ;
Charter granted by Charles II. deprived
the burgesses of their rights, 83 ;
meetings of the old Corporation described 84
Ipswich 'tokens . . . . . . . . 28

Jenny, Edmund, Collector of Customs . . 51
John (King) orders the ramparts to be

repaired . . . . . . . . . . 1

Kings, The Three 8

Knappe, John . . . . . . . . 46

Land, how cultivated in eleventh century 80
Leofric, the Moneyer . . . . . . 77

Lynn .. .. .. .. . . .. 68

Market Cross, described, 70; its history,

71 ; demolished in 1812 70

Marshalsea Kate leried 84

Mildred's ■' Chappell " .. .. .. 71

Mint at Ipswich in Saxon age .. .. 77

Moody, John, MBJor-Genenu .. .. 27

Monastic Houses .. .. .. •• 65

Municipal Life, Struggle for . . . . 81

Negus, Francis, M.P. .. .. ..50,71

North Gate, no delineation of it known 8
Norwich . . . . . . . . . . 78

INDEX.

lf«« Pbe^ the spot where Qae#n Edith
iMUcd, 45 ; Ext«nt of her manor. 78 ;
ktboaran oa tha estate, 79 ; the Manor
How* Mtd for imall-pox inocnlation,
it: Ikmm bow known as Gyppeawick
HaU

PAOB I

Old Coffee HoQM, deocribed, 29 ; its
carved angle post, SO : its front
mnoTcd in 1817. S5 ; Wodderspoon's
•nor as to the lease of this hcnse . . 33

OU Castoa House 49

(Md Oorpoiatiaii. rerenne of 84

Oaboma, Beigamin, beqaest for the
•nctioii of a cross 71

PCRyvale, Richard 51

Pipe Bolls, extracts from 81

Pott. The, 62 ; Admiralty jarisdiction,
St I aiBOOnt of dnties collected in 1285
aod 1M7, 56; Collector of Customs
appointed, 47 ; becomes a Staple Port,
S7 : Custom revenues of the Port in
IMl, 57 ; water boundaries, .'>8 ;
Cnnserrancy rights of the Corporation
limited by Harwich Harbour Act of
186S, 64 ; trade suffered duriufr the
niga of Charles I. and prospered in the
time of Commonwealth, 58 ; Water
Bailiff appointed. 54 ; dues levied by

the Corporation 54

IVmImiiii, self-elected body, their livery 84

1>riories of Black Canons 65

Pnritans, strong in Ipswich . . . . 23

Qnqr, earliest mention of the, 47 ;
fiMtomt of the Kay, time of Edward I.,
47 ; rental in 1341, 47 ; repaired in
1472 "Bigot's Kay," 47 ; legal boundary
of Coounon Quay, 49 ; Corporation firm
ia sesiirting their right to Toll, 48 ;
qiwtiuns of Private vernu Common
Qn«y 48

Bainbird's Mill 40

KaUigh, Sir Walter 51

Romano -British Pottery found near

Ipswich .. .. .. .. .. 75

Roman Settlement, Ipswich never a . . 75

Roman Villa, Remains of .. .. ., 75

Rotunda described, 69 ; purchased by the

Corporation . . . . . . . . 70

Rous, Sir John . . . . . . 21

Royalist Composition Papers . . . , 22

Royalist Persecutions . . . . . . 22

Sabyn, William, M.P., Ipswich, bought
site and buildings of Black Friars'
Monastery . . . , . . . . . . 64

St. George's Fair 74

St. Mildred's Church, 71-72 ; St. Mildred's

Parish 71

St. Kdmund a Pountney's Lane . . . . 2

St. Etheldreda 78

Saxon origin of the Town . . . . . , 75

Seckford, Thomas, M.P 27

Sheriff of Suffolk and Norfolk . . . . 81

Shambles described, 67 ; no evidence in
support of the reputed connection of
Wolsey's father with the Shambles . . 68
Sicklemore, Mr. . . . . . . . . 83

Skeat, Professor, on the origin of the name

Ipswich 75

Southampton . . . . . . . . 58

Bparrowe Family, its career, 27; has not
run on in an unbroken line, 28 ; family

vault 28

Sparrowe, John, M.P., Ipswich . . . . 27

Sparrowe, William, father of Robert
Sparrowe, a Puritan . . . . . . 23

Sparrowe, Robert, his baptism, 23 ; his
marriage, 23; takes up his freedom, 23;
the tradition that he concealed Charles
II. in the Ancient House entirely
legendary, 21 ; instead of being a
Royalist, he held a lucrative office under
Oliver Cromwell's Government, 25 ;
elected Bailiff in 1658 and conveyed the
homage of the people of Ipswich to
Richard Cromwell . . . . . . 24

Stoke Bridge, doubtless mentioned in
Domesday, 37 ; toll demanded for

going over, 33 ; repair of in 1670-71,
39 ; according to Buck's view a timber
bridge, 38 ; broken down by a flood . . 39
Staple Port, Made a . , . . . . 57

Sudbury . . . . , , . . . . 78

Tanner MSS., The 71

Tavern Street, picturesque in olden times 29

Thetford 78

Thorowgood, Thomas . . . . . . 45

Tollemache, Sir Lionel, 73 ; Lord Hugh 83
Town Hall, The old, 71 ; was St. Mildred's
Church adapted to municipal purposes,

71 ; pulled down in 1812 .. .. 72

Value of Ipswich benefices in the 13th
century . . . . . . . . . . 65

Viaduct in connection with Handford
Bridge 46

Victims at the Pillory . . . . . . 73

Walls and Gates, 1 ; course of the Wall
and Ditch, 2 ; West or St. Matthew's
Gate described, 3 ; Clock on the Gate
repaired at parishioners' expense, 4 ;
when pulled down . . . . . . 7

Walsingham, Sir Francis . . . . . . 51

Ward, Rev. Samuel 33, 74

White Hart, Old 34

White Horse Hotel 34, 36

Wodderspoon, his outline of the course of

the Town Wall inaccurate , , . . 3

Wollaston, Samuel . . . . . . . , 51

Wolsey, Cardinal, why the Records of the
Borough are, to so large an extent, silent
respecting him, 69 ; his Father's reputed
connection with the Shambles unsup-
ported by evidence, 68; a "Mother
Wolsey " employed as scavenger in

1585 69

Wool, names of exporters in the reign of
Edward II., 56 ; importance of the Wool
Trade 57

Yarmouth, Cnstom Duties at

.56, 57, 68, 78

ERRATA.

Page 5-2, Une 10, for "919" read "991," and see note, page 77.

,, 64, line 8, for "supporters" read "sub-porters."

„ 54, line 16, for "imports" read "imported."

„ 54, line 49, leave out "within those limits."

„ 77, in foot note, for " Pilologically " read " Philologically."

„ 84. Une 5, after "under this Act" add "amended and consolidated."

S. ic W. J. King, Printtri, PHncei Street, Jptwidt.

27199?

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Full text of "Illustrations of old Ipswich; with architectural description of each subject and such historical notices as illustrate the manners and customs of previous ages in the old borough, helping to form unpublished chapters in its history"

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