THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A. VOLUME TWO LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED 1907 DA 670 CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO Dedication ., Contents ..... List of Illustrations .... Editorial Note .... Ecclesiastical History Religious Houses : — Introduction .... Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds Priory of Eye .... Priory of Dunwich . Priory of Edwardstone Priory of Hoxne Priory of Rumburgh Priory of Snape Priory of Felixstowe . Priory of Bungay Priory of Redlingfield Priory of St. George, Thetford . Priory of Mendham . Priory of Wangford . Abbey of Sibton Priory of Alnesbourn Priory of Blythburgh Priory of Bricett Priory of Butley Priory of Chipley Priory of Dodnash . Priory of Herringfleet Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul, Ipswich .... Priory of the Holy Trinity, Ips- wich .... Priory of Ixworth Priory of Kersey- Priory of Letheringham Priory of the Holy Sepulchre, Thetford . Priory of Woodbridge Priory of Campsey . Priory of Flixton . .» Abbey of Leiston Knights Templars of Dunwich . Preceptory of Battisford Dominican Friars of Dunwich . By the Rtv. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. IX PAGE V ix xiii xv I 53 56 7* 76 76 76 77 79 80 Si 83 85 86 88 89 91 9i 94 95 99 99 100 102 103 105 I0; 108 109 in 112 I'S 117 120 120 121 CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO Religious Houses (continutJ) — Dominican Friars of Ipswich Dominican Friars of Sudbury . Franciscan Friars of Bury St. Edmunds .... Franciscan Friars of Dunwich . Grey Friars of Ipswich Austin Friars of Clare Austin Friars of Gorleston Austin Friars of Orford Carmelite Friars of Ipswich Abbey of Bruisyard . . Hospital of Beccles . Hospital of Domus Dei, Bury St. Edmunds Hospital of St. Nicholas, Bury St. Edmunds Hospital of St. Peter, Bury St. Edmunds .... Hospital of St. Petronilla, Bury St. Edmunds Hospital of St. Saviour, Bury St. Edmunds Hospital of St. James, Dunwich . Hospital of the Holy Trinity, Dunwich .... Hospital of Eye Leper House of Gorleston Leper Hospitals of St. Mary Mag- dalen and St. James, Ipswich . Hospital of St. Leonard, Ipswich Hospitals of Orford . Hospital of Domus Dei, Thetford Hospital of St. John, Thetford . Hospital of Sibton . Hospital of St. Leonard, Sudbury College of Jesus, Bury St. Edmunds College of Denston . Cardinal's College, Ipswich College of Mcttingliam College of Stoke by Clare . College of Sudbury . College of Wingfield Priory of Blakenham Priory of Greeting St. Mary Priory of Creeling St. Olave Priory of Stoke by Clare . Hospital of Great Thurlow Hospital of Sudbury Political History .... By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. E iss MARY CROOM BROWN (Oxford Honours .hool of MoJcrn History) 122 123 124 I2S 126 127 I29 130 130 131 I32 133 '34 '34 '35 »35 '37 137 138 •38 139 '39 '39 140 140 140 140 141 142 142 '44 '45 150 152 152 153 'S3 '54 '55 '55 '57 CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO Maritime History .... Industries ..... Introduction .... Woollen Cloth —The Old Draperies The New Draperies, Woolcomb- ing and Spinning . Sailcloth and other Hempen Fabrics .... Silk Throwing and Silk Weaving Mixed Textiles (Drabbet, Horse- hair, Cocoa-nut Fibre) and Ready-made Clothing . Stay and Corset Making . Lowestoft China Agricultural Implements, Milling Machinery, Locomotives, &c. . Fertilizers .... Gun-Cotton .... Xylonite ..... Malting ..... Printing ..... Fisheries Schools .... Introduction, Dunwich, Thet- ford, Bury St. Edmunds, Ips- wich and Elementary Schools The remaining Schools Sport Ancient and Modern Hunting .... Staghounds Harriers .... Coursing .... Shooting .... Wild-fowling .... Angling .... Racing ..... Golf .... Camp Ball .... Athletics .... Agriculture ..... Forestry ..... By M. OPPENHEIM . By GEORGE UNWIN, M.A. By Miss E. M. HEWITT . By A. F. LEACH, M.A., F.S.A. By Miss E. P. STEEI.E HUTTON, M.A. (St. Andrews) Edited by E. D. CUMING By EuwAku HUDDLESTON .... By E. D. CUMING ..... By H. LEDGER ..... By NICHOLAS EVERITT ..... By CUTHBERT BRADLEY . By F. E. R. FRYER By E. D. CUMING By J. E. FOWLER DIXON By HERMAN BIDDELL By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 199 247 267 271 273 274 276 277 281 285 286 28- 288 288 289 301 357 360 36, 36, 364 37' 375 380 383 384 38+ 3«5 403 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Banks of the Waveney Ecclesiastical Map of Suffolk Monastic Seals of Suffolk — Plate I ... Plate II . Plate III . By WILLIAM HYDE . frontispiece facing 51 full-page plate, facing 72 » 7. „ loS >» » >! 126 XIII EDITORIAL NOTE The Editor wishes to express his thanks to all those who have assisted in the compilation of this volume, but particularly to Mr. W. T. Bensly, LL.D., F.S.A., for kindly affording access to the episcopal registers under his charge at Norwich, and to Mr. Vincent B. Redstone, F.R.Hist.S., for much information and assistance for the article on the Suffolk Schools. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN this sketch of the ecclesiastical history of the county of Suffolk, it must be remembered that the general story of the successive bishops of East Anglia, from the time when, under the Normans, the see was transferred to Norwich, belongs far more to the ' Northfolk ' than the * Southfolk,' and will therefore be more properly considered in the volumes that deal with Norfolk.1 The kingdom of East Anglia corresponded in its origin to the Norfolk and Suffolk of later days, together with that part of Cambridgeshire which lies to the east of the great Devil's Dyke at Newmarket, as well as parts of the fen country up to Peterborough. Bede tells us that JEAla, king of the South Saxons, about 490, was the first overlord of the East Angles, and that their next ruler was Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons, about 500. To Ceawlin succeeded Ethelbert of Kent, the first Christian overlord of East Anglia. When Ethelbert died, ' twenty- one years after he had received the Faith,' the overlordship passed into the hands of Redwald, who played such an important part in the history of Northumbria, and who had ruled in East Anglia, subservient to Ethelbert, during the latter's lifetime. Edwin of Northumbria took refuge at the court of Redwald, which was probably then stationed at Rendlesham in Suffolk, and it was when he was in exile in this county that Edwin, according to Bede's interesting and detailed narrative, experienced a singular vision which was the eventual means of bringing him to the Christian faith. Through Redwald's assistance, Edwin, in 6 1 7, recovered his Northumbrian throne. When Edwin became a Christian, at a later date, Redwald was dead, and had been succeeded by his son Eorpwald, who had had in his youth a curious experience of semi- Christianity. His father, during one of his visits to Kent, had been baptized ; but on his return his wife raised strong objections to his change of belief, with the result that, at the East Anglian court in Suffolk, Redwald had, from that time till the day of his death, ' in one and the same temple an altar for Christian sacrifice, and a little altar for the victims offered to demons.' Ald- wulf, who became king of the East Angles in 663, personally assured Bede that this temple of his great-uncle, with its Christian and Pagan altars side by side, was standing in his days, and that he had seen it when a boy. Through Edwin's influence, Eorpwald was led to abandon all share in idolatrous superstitions, and his whole province is said to have embraced, at 1 Many incidents of ecclesiastical history will also be found in the subsequent accounts of the religions houses, particularly of St. Edmunds, and are not here repeated. i I I A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK least nominally, Christian tenets. Eorpwald's baptism, according to the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, took place in 632, which was Edwin's last year.1 Soon after Eorpwald's conversion, he was slain by a pagan, Richbert, and for three years the hastily renounced idolatry was resumed. But after this brief interval there came a happy change, a genuine Christianity dawned over the land of the East Angles. Eorpwald's brother Sigebert, who had been in exile in Gaul, had become a Christian during his banishment, and he determined, on succeeding to the kingdom, that the true faith should be pro- claimed to his people. Bede pronounces a brief but high eulogium on the new ruler, styling Sigebert * a most Christian and most learned man.' * Just about the time of Sigebert's accession to the East Anglian throne, either in 630 or 63 i,3 there landed in England a Burgundian missionary bishop, Felix by name, eager to take part in the evangelization of the dark places of Britain. He made his way to Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and showed him his desire, whereupon, in Bede's words, ' Honorius sent him to deliver the Word of Life to the nations of the Angles.' * Sigebert gave a warm welcome to the Burgundian bishop, and placed ! the episcopal see at the city of ' Domnoc,' later known as Dunwich. It would seem that at that time the Southfolk of the East Anglian kingdom were more important than the Northfolk, and Dunwich — the old Roman town of Sitomagus — was an important seaport, and the centre of some small trade and commerce. At Dunwich Sigebert proceeded to erect a cathedral church for his bishop, as well as a palace for himself. Here it may be well to remark very briefly that Dunwich flourished as a city for several centuries ; churches, religious houses, and important buildings multiplied, though by no means to the extent indicated in romantic and fabulous tradition. But by degrees the steady roll of the northern sea on England's shore gained the mastery over the great protecting headland that jutted out just north of South- wold, and Dunwich began to crumble before the advancing waves. The old harbour and 400 houses were swept away in the days of Edward III, and church after church disappeared, the sites of four being covered by the water between 1535 and 1600. At the present time the last of the ancient parish churches is crumbling on the edge of the cliff, each successive storm flinging more of the old fabric down upon the beach. Bishop Felix met with wonderful success in spreading the knowledge of the faith throughout Sigebert's kingdom ; pagan unhappiness and wickedness giving place, as Bede asserts in two glowing passages, to Christian happiness and virtue, as though by the very sacrament of his name. Nor was he content with merely preaching the Word through his own lips and those of his clergy. Himself a learned man, he desired to establish true learning, and 1 Bede, Eccl. Hist. bk. ii, ch. 5-14 ; Bp. Browne, Conversion of the Heptarchy, 68-73. * Bede, Eccl. Hist. bk. ii, ch. 15. 3 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that it was in 636 that ' Bishop Felix preached the faith of Christ to the East Angles.' 4 It is asserted in Hook's Archbishops and in various other church histories that Honorius consecrated Felix bishop of Dunwich in 630. Even Bishop Stubbs, in both editions of his Regiitrum Sacr. Angl. p. 4, briefly states this as a fact, giving Bede, ii, 1 5, as his reference. But Bede, as the bishop of Bristol points out (Con- version of the Heptarchy, 74-76), states that Bishop Felix had been born and ' ordained ' in Burgundy, and ' ordained ' is the word generally used by Bede as indicating the consecration of a bishop. Thus on the death of Felix, Honorius 'ordained' Thomas his deacon in his place (iii, 20), and Augustine 'ordained ' Laurentius to the episcopate (ii, 4). ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY gave cordial support in this respect to his sovereign. Bede states that Sige- bert, desiring to imitate the good institutions he had seen in France, set up a school for youth to be instructed in literature, and was ' assisted therein by Bishop Felix, who furnished him with masters and teachers after the manner of that country.' l Bishop Felix ruled as bishop of Dunwich with unvaried success, during much civil disorder, for seventeen years, during which period Suffolk was of far more importance in the establishment of Christianity than the Norfolk division of the kingdom. After a few years, Sigebert, tired of the turmoil of kingly rule, put off his crown, committed the kingdom to his kinsman Ecgric, and ' went himself into a monastery which he had built, and having received the tonsure, applied himself rather to gain a heavenly throne.' 2 This place of retreat was called ' Bedericsworth,' which afterwards became so celebrated under its changed name of St. Edmundbury. The fame of the good and learned bishop of East Anglia spread far and wide, and, whilst Sigebert was still on the throne, a holy man of Ireland called Fursey was attracted to this diocese, bringing with him a little company consisting of his two brothers, Fullan and Ultan, and two priests named Gobban and Dicul. This small community resolved to assist in the evangel- izing of East Anglia, and ere long established themselves at a wild and desolate spot called ' Cnobbesburgh,' now known as Burgh Castle, a little to the south of Yarmouth and some twenty-five miles north of Dunwich.8 Here, as at Dunwich, was the site of an important Roman station, and doubtless in both cases the material of the extensive fortifications and the massive walls would be used in the erection of a Christian settlement. Thus Suffolk, within a few years after the arrival of Felix at Dunwich, possessed two other Christian settlements, namely at Burgh Castle and Bury St. Edmunds ; for it must be remembered that a monastery of those days meant an establishment of vowed missionaries, who did their best to christianize the district around them. On the death of Bishop Felix, Archbishop Honorius consecrated his deacon Thomas as the second bishop of Dunwich. He held the see but five years, and on his death in 652, Bertgils, surnamed Boniface, of the province of Kent, was appointed in his stead.4 In the year 655 Penda, the headstrong pagan king of Mercia, made an inroad on the Anglian kingdom, then under the rule of King Anna. There was a great battle at Bulcamp near Blythburgh, where Anna and his son Firmin fell by the sword, together with the greater part of his forces, and heathendom again raised its head in the land.6 But though Anna left no son to succeed him, he was, according to Bede, * the parent of good children and was happy in a good and holy progeny.' 1 Bede, bk. iii, ch. 18. Later writers have differed as to whether this great school, employing many masters and teachers, was established at Dunwich or at Sahara Tony in Norfolk. William of Malmesbury was probably right in saying that Sigebert and Felix ' instituted schools of learning in different places.' Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), i, 97- ' Bede> bk- i!i' ch" l8< ' Ibid. ch. 19. There is much in this long chapter about the visions and sanctity of St. Fursey. 'An ancient brother of our monastery,' says Bede, ' is still living, who is wont to declare that a very sincere and religious man told him that he had seen Fursey himself in the province of the East Angles, and heard these visions from his mouth.' ' *bid- ch- 2O- * There is much divergence in the account of the strife between Penda and Anna given by Bede, William of Malmesbury, and others ; but the statement in the text seems the most probable. See paper by Dr. Jessopp on Blythburgh, Stiff. Arch. Inst. Proc. iv, 225-43. 3 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Four daughters survived him, each of them renowned for devout Christian lives. Sexburga, the eldest, married Erconbert, king of Kent. On the death of her husband of the plague in 664 she became for a time regent of the kingdom, but resigning these duties she eventually joined her more cele- brated sister Etheldreda, who had founded the renowned monastery of Ely among the swamps of the Anglian borderland. A third daughter, Ethelburga, left England for a conventual life on the Continent, and died abbess of Brie ; whilst the fourth daughter, Witberga, passed her days in retirement at East Dereham. A connexion of Anna's was a yet more celebrated Christian lady, and perhaps the most distinguished of all those holy women of Suffolk who did so much for the civilizing of England in the seventh century. After the battle of Bulcamp, Anna's brother Ethelhere became king of the East Angles. His wife Hereswith was a Christian princess of no small repute, but her sister Hilda won yet higher religious renown outside Anglia as the great founder of Whitby Abbey in Northumbria. Nor is this the full tale of the saintly women of the highest birth who went forth from Dunwich as a purifying salt in an age of much corruption and lingering paganism. Aldwulf, the son of Ethelhere and Hereswith, reigned long and prosperously as the Christian king of the East Angles.1 On his death in 7 1 3 he left but three surviving daughters. Each of these in their devotion to religion adopted the cloistered life. Eadburgh became abbess of the important Mercian monastery of Repton, whilst Ethelburga and Hwst- burga, the other daughters, were successive abbesses of Hackness, a religious house which was second only in repute to Whitby in the land of North- umbria.2 In the midst of the long reign of Aldwulf, when Bisi, the fourth bishop of Dunwich, was growing too old and infirm to undertake long journeys over his extensive diocese, there was a division of the see. In 673 Archbishop Theodore's principle of multiplying bishoprics came into operation in East Anglia. Aldwulf gave his consent to the retirement of the aged Bisi, and Theodore in his room consecrated two bishops, the one to rule as formerly from Dunwich, but only over Suffolk, and the other apparently intended to preside over Norfolk from the new centre of Elmham. Baduvine became bishop of Elmham, and JEcci of Dunwich.8 1 His name appears among the signatories to the Council of Hatfield in 688. Hadden and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 141. * See the long chapter, of singular beauty, in Montalembert's Monks of the West, entitled ' The Anglo- Saxon Nuns' (Auth. Trans.), v, 215-361. * There are in East Anglia two Elmhams, North Elmham and South Elmham. The former of these is near the centre of Norfolk, whilst the latter is the name for a group of seven Suffolk villages, distinguished by the saints' names of their respective churches, which lie some fifteen miles to the north-west of Dunwich. Bede when he mentions that see does not distinguish it by either 'North' or 'South': but it was long tacitly assumed that North Elmham was the centre of the new see. That Archbishop Theodore and King Aldwulf when subdividing the kingdom into two dioceses should fix the seat of the new see within a few miles of the old one at Dunwich seems almost incredible. The chief reason why a few able men have been led of late years to argue in favour of South Elmham is because of the presence at South Elmham St. George of certain remarkable remains long known as the Old Minster. These will be subsequently described in detail ; suffice it here to state that a space of 3 \ acres called the minster yard is enclosed within a bank and moat, and contains considerable ruins. The bishops of Norwich also retained an episcopal residence at South Elmham down to the days of Henry VIII. It is quite dear that there was an important Christian settlement at South Elmham in early days, which was the mother church or minster of the immediate district ; but archaeology also shows that North Elmham was of much former importance, for there too is a mound and fosse and remains of ancient ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Of the future history of the see of Dunwich but little is known. It came to an end with the incursion of the Danes. There were eleven bishops •of Dunwich after JEcci, whose names were ^Escwulf, Eadulf (signature 747), Cuthwine, Aldberht, Ecglaf, Heardred (signatures 781-89), Aelhun (790-3), Tidferth (798-816), Waeremund (signature 824), Wilred (signatures 82C-4C)' and^thelwulf.1 For about a hundred and fifty years after Archbishop Theodore, the signatures of the bishops of the two East Anglian sees are appended to the various acts of the national synods ; but after the death of Humbert of Elmham (870) and ^Ethelwulf of Dunwich, in the ninth century, the name of no East Anglian bishop occurs for about a hundred years. The reason is not far to seek ; the province was overrun with the hordes of heathen Northmen or Danes who landed in constantly increasing numbers on the long line of seaboard, finding their chief spoils in Christian churches and monasteries. At last, in 86 1, 'a great heathen army came to the land of the English nation, and took up their winter quarters among the East Angles, and there they were housed ; and the East Angles made peace with them.' 2 This was the date of their first definite settlement. When the winter of 866-7 ^ac^ passed away, the Danes in great multitudes left their quarters in Suffolk and Norfolk, and for three years cruelly ravaged Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Nottinghamshire. In 870 they returned to East Anglia, making Thetford their head quarters for the winter.8 During the absence of their army for those three years, the courage of the men of East Anglia had revived. Edmund, their king, full of Christian ardour, rallied them to resist the heathen marauders and strike a blow for freedom. A great battle was fought near the town that afterwards bore the martyr's name ; but the English were •defeated and their king taken prisoner. Hingwar and the other Danish chief- tains would have spared Edmund's life had he but consented to be their tributary prince and abjured his baptism. The king, on the contrary, refused to reign under Hingwar unless the latter first embraced Christianity. A cruel .scourging followed this refusal ; he was bound to a tree and met with a lingering death as a target for Danish arrows, according to the well-known and oft-illustrated story of his martyrdom.* After they had slain St. Edmund, the chroniclers all agree that the Danes, recognizing the religious nature of the uprising against their cruel rule, fell with renewed force on the remaining churches and monasteries or walls. As supporters of the North Elmham site it will suffice to mention Camden and Spelman of earlier writers and Dr. Jessopp and the Bishop of Bristol among modern ecclesiologists. See also Bright, Early Engl. Ch. 250. The arguments in favour of South Elmham being the seat of the bishopric were set forth in a paper by the late Mr. Harrod in 1874, Suf. Arch. last. Proc. iv, 7-13 ; a previous paper in the same volume gives a plan .and description of the moated site by Mr. Woodward. 1 The spelling adopted by Dr. Stubbs in his Reg. Sacr. Angl. (230-1) is the one used in the text. For ithe attendance at synods and for the signatures of these early bishops of Dunwich and Elmham see Hadden and Stubbs, Councils and Eccl. Doc. vol. ii, passim. ' Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 137. ' Ibid- 4 The legendary lives of St. Edmund and the contradictions of annalists make the truth connected with Edmund's actions and death difficult to elucidate. But the bare facts cited above seem undoubtedly true. As to his martyrdom there were two different early versions, which have been termed the clerical and the secular. According to the first of these, as described by Abbo, Florence, and Malmesbury, Edmund when attacked by the Danes made no resistance, and was led as a lamb to the slaughter. According to the other and better •established version, supported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Asser, and Ethelward, Edmund and Ins men fought stou',y against the Danes. As to the various lives of St. Edmund, see Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund' I (Ro'ls Ser.), 3 vols. (1890-6), particularly the introduction to vol. i. 5 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK residences of the clergy, determined if possible to stamp out the faith through- out the whole of that region. Then arose Alfred, and when at last peace was signed between the English monarch and Guthrum the Dane, it was arranged that the latter should leave Wessex, but should be permitted to retain East Anglia and other northern territory. It was also stipulated that Guthrum should accept Christianity as the religion of his people. Guthrum was accordingly baptized, Alfred standing as his godfather, and took the new name of Athelstan. For ten years he ruled in East Anglia, abiding there, and died in 890. For at least thirty years after his death the province was entirely under Danish rule ; but the chroniclers are almost silent as to its internal condition, and the extent to which Christianity was maintained is a matter of conjecture. Dunwich is not heard of again as the seat of a bishopric ; probably the incursions of the sea had already begun to deprive it of some of its import- ance. Elmham, on the contrary, in the centre of Norfolk, seems to have been recognized as a more suitable station for a bishop than any place on the coast line, and when bishops of East Anglia begin again to be named they are invariably, for more than a century, bishops of Elmham.1 The Danes had been brought into subjection by Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, in 921, and East Anglia again came under English rule.2 After the Danish suppression a strong revival of monastic life under the Benedictine rule passed over England.3 But monastic fervour was suffered to receive another severe check from Danish incursions. In 991 and again in 993 Ipswich was ravaged, and a tribute exacted on account of the great terror of the wild Northmen which existed on the coast line. In 1004 King Sweyn sailed up the Yare, burned Norwich and Thetford, and made much desolation with fire and sword throughout many parts of Suffolk and Norfolk. The churches and monasteries were spoiled, and many monks carried off into captivity. In 1010 the Northmen came in yet larger numbers, landing this time at Ipswich, and harrying a still wider extent of East Anglia.4 On Sweyn's death in 1014 his son Canute succeeded, and within three years found himself master of England. Canute in his turn became a patron of the Benedictine order, and in the year that he became overlord of East Anglia and the rest of the kingdom founded in the midst of the Norfolk Broads the abbey of St. Benet of Holme. It was from Holme a few years later that a colony of monks proceeded to found the ever-famous Suffolk abbey of St. Edmunds. With regard to the action and influence and lives of the later bishops of Elmham, such as Stigand and his brother ^Ethelmaer, any discussion of their lives comes more appropriately under the story of the church in the county 1 There is record of twelve bishops of Elmham, after the break from the Danish invasion up to the trans- ference of the see to Thetford : — Eadulf (signatures 956-64), JEUiic, Theodred (signature 975), Theodred (signature 995), ^Elfstan (995-1001), ^Elfgar (1001-1021), ^Elfwine (1016, last signature 1022), jElfric (died 1038), ^Elfric (consecrated 1038), Stigand (1043-6), ^Ethelmaer (1047, last signature 1055), and Herfast (consecrated 1070). 1 Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 195. 3 One of its chief supporters in this district, during the tenth century, was ^Ethelwine, to whom from his devoutness the patriarchal title of the ' Friend of God ' was applied. He was alderman of East Anglia, and founder of the abbey of Ramsey in the Huntingdon swamps, where he was buried in 992. Hist. Rames. (Chron. and Mem. Ser.), pp. 12, 31, loo, 103, &c. ; Vita Qswaldi (Chron. and Mem. Ser.), i, pasnm. 4 Hen. Hunt. Hitt. (Rolls Ser.), 175-8 ; Matt. Paris, Cbron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), i, 481-2 ; Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 264. 6 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY of Norfolk. Suffice it here to say that the Conqueror imposed his own chaplain, Herfast, an Italian, on the see of East Anglia in the year 1070. Before proceeding with the religious history of Suffolk in post-Conquest lays, it may be well to offer a short digression as to the church dedications the county that bear on local Christianity ere the days of the Norman settlement. Upwards of fifty ancient churches in England are dedicated to the well- loved king of East Anglia, whose memory is so imperishably associated with the second town of Suffolk, Bury St. Edmunds. The little chapel at Hoxne that sprang up over the spot in the woods where the Danes had flung aside the mutilated body, and where it was first buried, was naturally placed under the invocation of St. Edmund, King and Martyr ; but it has long since dis- appeared. Five Suffolk churches retain the dedication in his honour, namely Assington, Bromeswell, Fritton, Kessingland, and Southwold ; whilst old inventories and wills show that side altars and images in honour of this royal saint were of frequent occurrence in numerous other churches.1 The purely Saxon name of Botolph 2 is commemorated in the invocations of a variety of early churches in East Anglia. The true story of this seventh- century saint, a hermit, abbot, and bishop according to somewhat conflicting statements, is difficult to elucidate ; but the tradition that identifies Ikanho— the dismal spot surrounded by swamps where St. Botolph first built a monas- tery— with the village of Iken, on the south side of the estuary of the Aide, seems almost certainly correct, for it coincides, with much nicety, with the details given of his first settlement.3 The church of Iken still bears the name of St. Botolph. The Bury St. Edmunds tradition of him, current as early as the eleventh century, termed St. Botolph a bishop, and stated that he was first buried at Grundisburgh, a few miles north of Ipswich, ere his remains were conveyed to St. Edmunds.4 Immediately north of Grundisburgh is the village of Burgh, whilst Culpho is the adjoining parish on the south ; both these churches are still dedicated in honour of St. Botolph. The name of the saint is also apparently embedded in the place-name Botesdale, on the northern confines of the county, where St. Botolph at one time probably tarried ; the dedication of the ancient chapel of Botesdale, as well as of the mother church of Redgrave, are also to the honour of this saint. North Cove, near Beccles, is another Suffolk parish church of the like dedication, and the Domesday Survey gives a church of St. Botolph at Ipswich. St. Ethelbert (known also as Albert or Albright) was a murdered East Anglian king, who must not be confused with his more celebrated but uncanonized royal namesake Ethelbert of Kent. Ethelbert left Suffolk for Herefordshire in May, 794, on a visit to the court of King Offa, where he was treacherously done to death on 20 May, 794. The cathedral church of Hereford, where he was buried, is still dedicated to his memory. Fourteen other churches are dedicated to this East Anglian king, seven of which are in Norfolk and four in Suffolk ; the latter are in the parishes of Fakenham," 1 Norfolk retains fifteen parish church dedications to St. Edmund. 1 Though St. Botolph finds no place in the Sarum calendar, the York calendar held him in honour on 17 June. 3 Foster, Studies in Church Dedications, ii, 54. 4 Arnold, Mem. of St. Edmunds Bury I, Ixii, 361. * Erroneously described, of late years, as dedicated to St. Etheldreda. 7 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Herringswell, Hessett, and Tannington. There was also an important gild of St. Ethelbert in connexion with the abbey church of St. Edmunds. St. Olave or St. Olaf, an eleventh-century martyred king of Norway, who used to be commemorated in the now destroyed church of one of the Greetings, which is still known as Greeting St. Olave, is one of the two Scandinavian saint names (the other being St. Magnus) brought into these islands by the Danes, while French influence is shown at Euston and Forn- ham by the invocation of St. Genevieve, who built the famous church of St. Denis at Paris, and at Stonham Aspall by the commemoration of St. Lambert, who is thus honoured at only one other place in England, so far as is known, namely at Burneston in Yorkshire. Herfast was the last bishop of Elmham and * the first foreigner who had ever presided over an East Anglian see.'1 In 1078 Herfast transferred the seat of his bishopric from Elmham to Thetford, as a convenient borderland town between Norfolk and Suffolk.2 To Herfast, as a stranger to East Anglia, the claim of chartered exemption from diocesan jurisdiction made by the abbey of St. Edmunds over their liberty, which included a third of Suffolk, was amazing and evil. He at once set himself to defeat, if possible, this opposition to his authority, and insisted on visiting the abbey. But Baldwin, the abbot of St. Edmunds, was a man of blameless life and high repute. His fame as a physician was so great that he had been sent by Edward the Confessor to cure Abbot Lefstan, his prede- cessor, of his sickness. Moreover Baldwin was well known on the Continent, and had been ordained priest by that remarkable man Pope Alexander II. Both parties appealed to the king, but William was at that moment (1073) crossing the seas in connexion with the revolt of Maine, and commissioned Archbishop Lanfranc to arbitrate. Meanwhile Herfast, in his impatience, excommunicated certain of the abbot's contumacious priests, whilst Lanfranc was on his journey to East Anglia. The archbishop had got as far as Frec- kenham in Suffolk, where Siward bishop of Rochester had a manor-house, when he was attacked with sickness, and Abbot Baldwin was summoned to his bedside in the capacity of a physician. On his recovery, Lanfranc proceeded to Bury, and gave a decision which was pleasing to neither side, though apparently more favourable to the abbot than to the bishop. Thereupon the case was transferred to Rome, and in November, 1074, Gregory VII, who had just succeeded to the papacy, wrote strongly to Lanfranc in favour of the abbot, stating that if Herfast was still dissatisfied both parties must appear personally at Rome. Upon receipt of this letter Lanfranc gave his fin?! award entirely in favour of the abbot, a decision which Herfast resisted with much wrath, using personal violence to the messenger who brought him th ; archbishop's letter.8 William de Beaufeu, the successor to Herfast, was consecrated by Lan- franc at Canterbury in 1086. It was in the first year of his episcopacy that the Domesday Survey of East Anglia was compiled. This survey is fully discussed elsewhere, but brief reference must also be made to it in this place, as the information contained in it with reference to the church is excep- tionally full. The church entries extend from No. xiii to xxiv inclusive. 1 Dioc. Hist. Norwich, 36. ' Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontif. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 150. 1 Ibid. 156 ; Lanfranc, Epistolae, Nos. xxii-v. 8 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY It is not a little significant, in the light of the contemporary controversy between abbot and bishop, to find that the abbot of St. Edmunds comes first. The next three are Lanfranc the archbishop, the bishop of Bayeux and the abbot of Ramsey. The lands of William bishop of Thetford come fifth in the ecclesiastical list. These are followed by the bishop of Rochester, with the manor of Freckenham, and the abbot of Ely, with his great possessions, whilst two alien proprietors, Gilbert, bishop of Evreux, with two manors, and the single manor of the abbot of Bernay, together with the small holding of the Cambridgeshire abbey of Chatteris* complete the list. The abbey of St. Edmunds, who also held largely in Norfolk and Essex, and to a smaller extent in Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and Northamptonshire, is the only one recorded in the whole of Domesday as possessing about three hundred manors ; even the abbot of Ely, including possessions outside the liberty of St. Etheldreda in Suffolk, in the counties of Norfolk, Essex, Cambridge, Lincoln, Hertford, and Huntingdon, held only just one hundred. That the survey nowhere professes to include all or indeed any churches is now so well known that it scarcely needs even the briefest reassertion. Even in the case of Suffolk, notwithstanding the extraordinary number of churches that the East Anglian commissioners saw fit to include, the list is not complete. One instance will suffice to establish this. There was a church at Harpole, a hamlet of Wickham Market, which had twenty acres of land j1 but there is no mention of it in Domesday. The actual number of Suffolk churches entered in the survey is constantly stated to be 364, as most writers are generally content to quote from Sir Henry Ellis, without testing his figures.2 The fact is that, large as is this amount, the figures require to be considerably increased. It is difficult to give the exact numbers, for parts or fractions of a church are entered from time to time, implying that a manor or hamlet shared with one or more of its neighbours in the possession of a church, or that different tenants held shares of the same church. Thus Offton, Undley, and Wantisden are entered as having half a church ; Parham a fourth part ; Westley a third part ; Sapiston and Saxham two parts ; and Wantisden two parts in one place, and a fourth in two other places. The returns are by no means always so perfect as to enable us to add up the fractions to complete the church, as in the case of Wantisden. In some cases the entry is simply pars ecclesie. But if all the churches are added up, and the fractional parts estimated to make whole churches so far as is possible, the total reaches 398. Two chapels also receive special mention, so that the number of places of Christian worship recorded reaches the round number of 400. Moreover the two cases of chapels that obtained entry were placed on the record for special financial reasons. It is therefore fair to assume that there were various other chapels then extant which were non-parochial and escaped mention. In one case we know that a chapel then standing escaped entry ; for there is no record of the chapel of St. Botolph at Burgh nearWoodbridge, 1 Inq. Efitnsii, fol. lib. ' Ellis, Intnd. to Domesday, i, 287 ; this statement originally appeared in the introduction to the large folio edition of the Survey issued in 1813, but is repeated in the two vol. 8vo. revised edition issued in 1833. 292 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK where the relics of St. Edmund rested until their translation in 1095 to the great abbey. The entry on the survey relative to one of these two chapels, that of Thorney, occurs on the first folio of the king's lands, and is sufficiently remarkable to be here translated : — Hugh de Montford has twenty-three acres of this carucate, and claims it as pertaining to a certain chapel, which four brothers, Hugh's freemen, erected on their own land near the cemetery of the mother church. And they were inhabitants (manentes) of the parish of the mother church (and built it), because it could not include the whole parish. The mother church always had the moiety of the burial fees, and had by purchase the fourth part of other alms which might be offered. And whether or not this chapel has been dedicated the Hundred doth not know.1 The other chapel was at Wisset ; it was in connexion with the church and served for twelve monks.2 The glebes which attached to almost the whole of these numerous Suffolk churches differed very widely in extent. In one or two cases, as at Dunwich, the church is recorded without any mention of land pertaining to it. But such cases were clearly rare, for now and again the scribe entered as something noteworthy, as in the instances of Cornard and Dagworth, that the church was landless (sine terra}. The amount varied from half an acre at Keworth, and one acre at Hinderclay, to fifty acres at Thorpe Morieux, sixty at Framlingham, and eighty-four at Barking. The average amount of glebe attached to the numerous churches of the Liberty of St. Edmund works out at about sixteen acres each, and this seems to have been nearly the average throughout the county. The astonishingly large number of churches that Suffolk possessed at the beginning of the Norman occupation — they were fully a hundred in excess of those recorded in Norfolk, notwithstanding that county's greater area and larger population — bears striking witness to the reality and extent of the Christian faith of the times in this much ravaged district. It is not a little remarkable that there should be this vast number of places of worship when they had been so frequently destroyed and sacked by the piratical Danes within the memory of not a few. Doubtless the churches were almost entirely of wood, and timber was abundant ; but their erection and furnishing, apart from the sustenance of the priests, meant in every instance no small outlay of time and means. Their number is the more astonishing, when thought is taken as to the population of the period. The detailed estimate made by Sir Henry Ellis of the population of Suffolk as recorded in the Domesday Survey reaches the total of 20,491." Taking this total and the number of the churches in round figures, the result is reached that Suffolk possessed a church for every fifty inhabitants before the close of the Conqueror's reign. There can be little doubt that Suffolk was then ahead of all other parts of England — possibly even of Christendom itself — and it is equally certain that the result was in no small measure due to the earnest labours of the monks of St. Edmund and St. Etheldreda, who in their respective liberties and outlying manors had immediate influence over more than two-thirds of the county's area. 1 Dom. Bk. fol. 28 1£. ' Ibid. 292*. * Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, ii, 488-93. 10 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Before the consideration of the ecclesiastical side of Suffolk Domesday is left, a few words must be said with regard to the special entries relative to the two towns of Bury and Ipswich. The great importance of St. Edmund's Abbey is shown by the details given of the household. It is the only case in the whole survey where the number of retainers and servants of a monastery is recorded. There is unfortunately no enumeration of the actual monks. The priests, deacons, and clerks attached to the abbey numbered thirty, and the servants seventy-five. The nonne et pauperes l who received regular rations from the abbey numbered thirty-eight. There were also thirteen indwellers, who seem to have been engaged in trades for those in the house, twenty-seven bordarii and thirty-four milites, yielding a total of 207. The survey also supplies details with regard to the retainers and servants in the time of the Confessor, but entered in such a way that any exact comparison between the two periods is not possible. At the earlier date there were 108 homagers living ad victum monachorum ; the total entered under the monastery was then 310. The houses on the abbey property amounted to 342.2 The ecclesiastical entries with regard to the ancient borough of Ipswich are also exceptionally full and interesting. The town had 538 burgesses in the Confessor's days. It was singularly well supplied with churches. Eight are mentioned in Domesday — namely, two dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, the church of the Holy Trinity, and the churches of St. Michael, St. Botolph, St. Lawrence, St. Peter, and St. Stephen. Three of these churches belonged to priests, but the others were in lay patronage. Culling, a burgess, held one of the St. Mary's ; Lefflet, a freewoman, had St. Lawrence ; Roger de Ramis held the church of St. George, with four burgesses and six wasted houses ; Alwin the son of Rolf, a burgess, held the church of St. Julian ; and five burgesses belonged to the church of St. Peter. So abundant was the church accommodation of Ipswich that only one new parish church, that of St. Matthew, sprang up between the Conquest and the Reformation.8 The chief religious event in the diocese during the five years of the episcopate of William de Beaufeu was the founding of the great Cluniac priory of Castle Acre, and there is little to record concerning Suffolk. On William's death in 1091, the ambitious Herbert de Losinga, abbot of Ramsey, became bishop. Bishop Herbert is generally spoken of as rising to this position through unblushing simony ; but after all there is something to be said for the gentle way in which the fact of purchase is set forth by Dr. Stubbs. That great historian represents the abbot as coming forward as a candidate for the vacant office who was willing and able to pay such fees for entering upon the ecclesiastical fief as the king thought proper to demand.* William Rufus was so absolutely unscrupulous in his dealings with the highest church preferments that it was possibly better for East Anglia that 1 These nuns may have been those of Lyng (Norf.) who were transferred to Thetford in 1 1 60. The Thetford nuns, as is afterwards stated in detail, received their weekly supply of food and drink from the monks of St. Edmunds. * Ellis, Introd. to Domesday (1833), ii, 488 ; De Grey Birch, Domesday Book, 211. 3 Cutts, Parish Priests and their People, 506-7. All the parish churches of Ipswich became eventually appropriated to one or other of the two Austin priories founded here at the end of the twelfth century. 4 Stubbs, Const. Hist. \, 299. II A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the abbot should purchase the episcopate, rather than that it should be kept vacant by the crown for the appropriation of the income, as was the case at this period with the archbishopric of Canterbury for four years and the bishopric of Chichester for three years. Bishop Herbert brought about the transference of the East Anglian see from Thetford to Norwich, which was rapidly becoming an important commercial centre, in 1094, and became the munificent founder of the cathedral church and Benedictine priory of that city. His life and times were in many ways eventful, but their story far more concerns the county of Norfolk than that of Suffolk. His attempts to destroy the exempt jurisdiction of the abbey of St. Edmunds were as futile as those of Bishop Herfast.1 During this episcopate, which ended by the death of the bishop in 1119, Suffolk saw the rise of various small religious houses, the priories of Hoxne (a cell of Norwich), Blythburgh, Eye, Herringfleet, and Ixworth. The particular incident that affected Suffolk during the episcopate of Bishop Everard (i 121—48) was the dividing of the archdeaconry of Suffolk, which had hitherto been conterminous with the county, into two parts. Richard was the last archdeacon of the whole county. Upon his being appointed to a French bishopric, Bishop Everard took the opportunity of apportioning the county between two archdeacons, the one retaining the title of Suffolk, and the other receiving his name from Sudbury in the south of the county. Walkelin, a nephew of Bishop Everard, was appointed archdeacon of Suffolk in 1127, and William Fitz-Humphrey archdeacon of Sudbury about the same time.2 During the next episcopate, that of William Turbe (1146-74), the staunch supporter of Thomas of Canterbury, the nunnery of Bungay was founded; whilst Bishop John of Oxford (1175—1200) distin- guished himself in Suffolk by rebuilding the Austin priory and church of the Holy Trinity, Ipswich. Bishop John de Grey was the diocesan (1200— 1214) during all but the final stage of the disastrous rule of King John ; but throughout this period it was Abbot Sampson of St. Edmunds and not the bishop of Norwich who was the great champion of the Church in East Anglia. The diocese might almost as well have been without bishops during the rule of Pandulf Masca the papal legate and the non-resident Thomas de Blunville, whilst William de Raleigh (1239—44) was speedily translated to Winchester. Episcopal functions must have been almost entirely discharged by suffragans during the first half of the thirteenth century. It was, however, during this period that the mendicant friars reached England, and brought about a marked revival in religion. Both Dominicans and Franciscans were strongly established at Norwich during the episcopate of Thomas de Blunville (1223—36) and they doubtless crossed the county frontier into Suffolk. None, however, of the friars took up their residence in Suffolk until somewhat later in the century and chiefly in the reign of Edward I. Their first establish- ment was the important house of Austin friars at Clare, founded in 1248. The respective dates of their introduction elsewhere in the county are subse- quently discussed, suffice it here to say that eventually the Dominicans had 1 See Goulbourn and Symonds, Life, Letters, and Sermons of Herbert de Losinga (1878), 2 vols. ' Le Neve, Fasti ii, 486-90. 12 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY houses at Dunwich, Ipswich, and Sudbury ; the Franciscans at Bury (removed to Babwell), Dunwich, and Ipswich ; the Austins at Orford and Little Yarmouth ; and the Carmelites at Ipswich. After a long period of gloom, the diocese at last obtained, through the free election of the monks of Norwich, in Walter Calthorpe (1245—57) a bishop of a very different type. ' A man of unblemished character, a graduate of the University of Paris, a scion of an old Norfolk house whose ancestors had enjoyed large possessions in East Anglia, and a friend of Bishop Grosseteste and of the Franciscans.' 1 His episcopate is memorable for the valuation of all the benefices of the diocese, which was drawn up for the assessment of the tenths due from the clergy. It was compiled in 1256, and is known as the Norwich Taxation. At the beginning of the Liber Albus of the monks of St. Edmund is a tabulated copy of Bishop Calthorpe's taxation of his whole diocese, beautifully written and rubricated on thirty-four folios.2 The distinguishing feature between the portions relative to Norfolk and Suffolk is that the latter has an extra column on the left hand of the page, wherein another valuation headed ' Snaylwell ' is also set forth in a later hand. The archdeaconry of Sudbury with its eight deaneries is the first to be entered. In the deanery of Stow were thirteen parishes ; four of these had duly endowed vicarages, Stow St. Peter, Stow St. Mary, Haughley with the chapel of Shetland, and Newton. In the deanery of Thedwastre were twenty-five parishes; only one vicarage, that of Woolpit, is named. The deanery of Blackburne contained thirty-five parishes, without any mention of a vicarage. The deanery of Hartismere had thirty-two parishes, and again, though there are many ' portions ' assigned to religious houses, there is no vicarage. In Fordham deanery (a portion of which was in Cambridgeshire) there were twenty-eight parishes ; seven of these had vicars, namely, Ditton, Ixning, Mildenhall, Soham, Fordham, Chippenham, and Kirtling, but only the first three are in Suffolk. In Thingoe deanery were nineteen parishes and no vicarage. Sudbury deanery included forty-nine parishes ; out of this large number there were nine vicarages, namely, Preston, Stoke, Wissington, Cornard Magna, Edwardstone, Waldingfield Parva, Glemsford, Eleigh Combusta, and Bures. Clare deanery contained twenty-nine parishes, four of •which, Gazely, Clare, Redington, and Poslingford, had vicarages. The archdeaconry of Suffolk was divided into thirteen deaneries. The deanery of Bosmere had twenty-five parishes, the deanery of Claydon fourteen, Hoxne twenty-four, Lothingland twenty-five, Wilford seventeen, Orford twenty-one, Loes seventeen, Samford twenty-seven, Ipswich twelve, Wang- ford twenty-two, Dunwich forty-eight, Carlford eighteen, and Colneys thir- teen. There is not a single case of a vicarage mentioned in the Suffolk archdeaconry ; but as there is only one instance of a ' portion ' entered, when it is well known that there were many portions or pensions to religious houses, it is clear that this record (or copy of a record), compiled on less definite principles than that of Sudbury, cannot be relied upon to prove the absence of any vicarages in these thirteen deaneries. The total number of parishes in the two archdeaconries in the 1256 taxation roll is 488 : but from these thirteen have to be deducted, which 1 Norwich Dioc. Hitt. 90. ' Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 1-34. 13 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK were in the Cambridgeshire half of Fordham deanery. Against these we have to reckon the nine churches of the South Elmham peculiar, which are not given in the Norwich Taxation, though they appear separately at the end of the Snaylwell list,1 and were entered as a deanery in 1291. It therefore follows that the full number of Suffolk parishes given in 1256 was 484.* This Valor shows that the portions or pensions taken out of many of the churches exceeded that which was retained by the rector. Thus in Stow deanery, the rector of Wetherden had nine marks, but the portion assigned to the priory of Blackborough was ten marks, and the schoolmaster of St. Edmunds also drew 40^. ; the rector of Harleston in the same deanery drew ten marks, but the monks of Stoke had thirty marks from that church. The parallel ' Snaylwell ' 3 valuation is clearly of a later date, and of the next century ; it corresponds fairly closely in the value assigned to the general benefices with the 1256 Valor. But there is a considerable rise in the worth of the vicarages. Taking as an example the value of the four vicarages of the first recorded deanery, that of Stow, the following is the result : — VICARAGES, STOW DEANERY 1256 'Snaylwell' Stow St. Peter . . 2 marks 7 marks Stow St. Mary . . 30*. 6d. 5 „ Haughley . . . 30*. od. 6£ „ Newton . . . 40*. od. 5 „ In 1291 came the general valuation of the church property of England, usually known as that of Pope Nicholas/ It is of some interest to compare the entries for this diocese with those of Bishop Calthorpe. In the course of the fifty odd years that had elapsed since the taking of the Norwich Taxation, there had been a distinct increase in the definitely ordained vicarages. The additional vicarages of Sudbury archdeaconry were : In Thedwastre deanery, Barton and Pakenham ; in Fordham deanery (Suffolk portion), Mowton ; in Sudbury deanery, Assington, Lawshall, and Acton ; in Hartismere deanery, Eye, Mendlesham, and Wytham ; or nine in all. The vicarages of Suffolk archdeaconry were not named in 1256. They numbered twenty-two in 1291, and were as follows: In Bosmere deanery, Coddenham and Battisford ; in Claydon deanery, Debenham; in Hoxne deanery, Fressingfield and Hoxne ; in Lothingland deanery, Lowestoft and Gorleston ; in Carlford deanery, Rushmere ; in Wangford deanery, Ilket- shall St. Margaret, Bungay, and Mettingham ; in Dunwich deanery, Cratfield, Chediston, Darsham, Bramfield, Yoxford, Benacre, Reydon, and North Hales; in Orford deanery, Bruisyard and Aldeburgh ; in Colneys deanery, Walton ; and none in the deaneries of Loes, Samford, Wilford, and Ipswich. The majority of these twenty-two vicarages were founded before 1256; but in various instances they were ordained in the second half of the thirteenth century. 1 South Elmham, ab antiquo, was not a deanery. The six South Elmham churches, with Bancroft, Homersfield, and Flixton, were exempted from both synodals and procurations. 1 In all printed references to the Norwich Taxation that we have seen the number has been given as over 500. 3 Snailwell is the name of a small parish in the Cambridgeshire portion of the deanery of Fordham. Probably the commissioner or official who drew up this Valor used this place-name as a surname. John de Snaylwell was sacrist of St. Edmunds in the middle of the fourteenth century. 4 Pope NUb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 115-23. 14 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Fifteen chapelries obtain distinct mention in the Pope Nicholas Taxation. The number of portions or pensions paid from the rectories to religious houses materially increased between 1256 and 1291. In some parishes these pensions were exceptionally numerous. Thus the church of Sibton, whose advowson was in the hands of the abbot of Sibton, found pensions for the three priories of St. Faith's, Romburgh, and Eye ; whilst the church of Pos- lingworth, in the gift of the prior of Dunmow, contributed to the priories of Chipley, Stoke, and Tunbridge. The spiritualities of the two archdeaconries were at this time worth £6,825 9-r. lod. a year; whilst the temporalities pertaining to various religious houses attained to the annual value of £3,487 8s. 3J*/.1 It may be well here to follow up the question of the appropriation of so many rectories to the religious houses. A small proportion of the churches of England were in the hands of the monasteries as early as the twelfth century. As a rule such churches adjoined the religious house, or were within a reasonable walking distance. Monks were strictly prohibited from serving a parochial cure, save under a rarely-granted dispensation. There was a little more laxity with regard to Austin canons, but they could only officiate as vicars by the distinct permission of the bishop. The Premonstratensian canons were the only religious order who possessed the privilege of serving their own churches, and then only as duly instituted vicars, and under special responsibilities to their own chapter. Occasionally the previously existing parish church became, so far as the quire was concerned, the conventual church of a religious foundation, the nave being reserved for parochial purposes. This was the case with the small Austin priory of Bricett, founded in 1 1 10, when the church of Great Bricett became absorbed in the foundation and continued in that position, being served by the canons. In other cases where the parish church was within reasonable distance of the monastery to which it had been appropriated, part of the arrangement for a vicar was that he should have a corrody in the house, sometimes of board only, and at other times of both board and lodging, although the vicar was not himself under vows. Thus at Sibton, in this county, the custom prevailed down to the Dissolution, of both the vicar and the parochial chaplain being provided with food and lodging at the Cistercian abbey, which was but a few hundred yards distant from the parish church. The evil habit, however, began to prevail during the twelfth century of monasteries providing poorly paid chaplains, removable at will, to serve the 1 The remarkable way in which so large a part of Suffolk was distributed among religious foundations comes out very clearly in this taxation. An exceptionally large number of monasteries whose head quarters were out- side the county drew a more or less considerable part of their annual revenues from Suffolk. Of these the following is a list, the figures in brackets giving the number of the different parishes wherein they held property : — St. Albans abbey (l), Amberge abbey, Normandy (z), Anglesey priory (i), Aumerle abbey, Nor- mandy (3), Barnwell priory (2), Beeston priory (3), Beaulieu abbey (l), Boxley abbey (i), Broomhill priory (2), Bromholm priory (16), Buckenham priory (l), Burton Lazars hospital (l), Canterbury priory (6), Carrow priory (2), Castleacre priory (2), Chatteris abbey (l), Coggeshall abbey (i), Colchester abbey (10), Colchester priory (2), Colne priory (3), Dereham abbey (3), Dunmow priory (3), Ely priory (27), Fordham priory (3), Hatfield priory (2), Hockesley priory (i), Horsham priory (3), Holme abbey (l), Ickling priory (5), Langley abbey (13), Leighs priory (14), Lesnes priory (2), Mailing abbey (i), Mencheneleye (2), Missenden abbey (i), St. Neots priory (l), Norwich priory (13), St. Osyth abbey (14), Pentney priory (l), Pritdewell priory (i), Ramsey abbey (2), Rochester priory (l), Royston priory (3), Spinney priory (l), Thet- ford Cluniac priory (14), Thetford Austin priory (5), Titley abbey (6), Tunbridge priory (i), Walsingham priory (i), Wardon abbey (4), Wickes priory (6), Woburn abbey (l), Wormegay priory (2), Wymondham priory (i). A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK cure of those churches whose tithes had been assigned to them. Against this abuse the bishops strongly protested, as it resulted in the withdrawal of such parishes from episcopal control. To guard against this, the custom of ordaining vicarages was established — that is, making the appointment of such chaplains permanent and subject to episcopal institution, together with the assigning to them of a definite income, drawn mainly, as a rule, from the smaller tithes, such as hay and wool, as distinct from those of grain. The formal ordering of vicarages began to come into force in the second half of the twelfth century, and was enjoined by the third Lateran Council of 1 179. Many of the monasteries resisted these attempts to control their actions, with the result that the fourth Lateran Council of 1215 insisted on vicarages in cases of appropriation in more stringent terms. A few of the more powerful monasteries still held out, but Bishop Hugh of Lincoln brought a test case against the powerful priory of Dunstable and won, in the papal court in 1219. Four years later the Council of Oxford gave further strength to this decision, and from that date there were but a few isolated attempts to avoid the provision of permanent endowed vicarages in all appropriated parishes. A return was made for the diocese of Norwich in 4 Henry V of churches appropriated to the nunneries, and to some of the other minor houses, with the date of the appropriation.1 In this return, so far as Suffolk is concerned, two appropriations, namely, those of the churches of Wattisham and Finborough Parva to Bricett Priory, are entered as having ordained vicarages ' before the Lateran Council,' meaning by that apparently the fourth Lateran of 1215. Another group are entered as having their vicarages formally arranged ' at the time of the Lateran Council,' or in the years 1215-16. In this group are the Suffolk churches of Holton to Rumburgh Priory, and Ilketshall St. Andrew, Ilketshall St. Mary, Ilketshall St. Lawrence, Nettingham, and Bungay St. Thomas, all pertaining to the nunnery of Bungay. Amongst other appropriations with vicarages assigned, during the thirteenth century, of which we are able to give the exact date, those of South Elmham St. Michael, in 1241, Alnesbourne in 1246, Flitcham in 1251, and Bredfield in 1259 may be mentioned. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, appropriations and the ordination of vicarages steadily increased. Where the episcopal or papal documents permitting the appropriations are preserved, it is almost if not quite invariably stated that permission was granted owing to the stress of circumstances that had impoverished the religious house. This was particu- larly the case at the time of the Black Death (1349), when the depreciation in the value of monastic and other lands was specially grievous. Among the Suffolk appropriations sanctioned at that date were the churches of Levington to Redlingfield Priory, of Flixton to the priory of that name, and of Great Redisham to the priory of Bungay. This appropriation of benefices to the religious houses is sometimes spoken of as an act of ' shameful spoliation ' * of the country clergy ; but it is at least doubtful whether the condition of those parishes that had resident 1 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 1 z 5-9. The return was probably intended to be complete, and was either never finished or never entered in the register. The abbey of St. Edmunds would almost certainly decline to make any such return through the diocesan. * Dm. Hist, ef Norwich, 144-5, &c- 16 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY vicars was not generally superior to those that had rectors, for the two cen- turies preceding the dissolution of the monasteries. In every set of diocesan institution books of this period, where it has been tested — and it is certainly the case with those of Norwich diocese — the scandal of admitting to bene- fices men who were not qualified to fulfil the duties of the sacred office, occurred in the cases of rectories and only in the very rarest instances with vicarages.1 It was the rule rather than the exception with many, if not most, of the wealthier rectories of mediaeval Suffolk, to find rectors who were mere boys or continuing in minor orders, and frequently absent altogether from their supposed cures. It is safe to say that for one absentee or pluralist vicar, there would be several rectors. The monasteries, at all events, often made some effort to supply the parishes, whose great tithes they absorbed, with men of earnest lives ; and the bishops had advantages over such appointments in various ways that they could not put into operation against powerful lay patrons. Moreover the assignment of some portion of the church's income to the poor of the parish, as enjoined both by canon and statute laws, was insisted on by the bishops in the formal ordination of vicarages. It should also be borne in mind, in order to get a true grasp of the rectory and vicarage problem, that the appropriation of the great tithes only occurred where the income of the church was fairly large, and that the amount allotted to the vicar in such a parish was often more than that held by the rectors of small parishes or those with much fen land and but little corn. This was specially the case in Suffolk. It scarcely matters into which deanery we look, instances at once occur. Take the example of but two deaneries chosen absolutely at hazard. In Sudbury archdeaconry, in the deanery of Sudbury, Acton vicarage was worth £9 6s. 8d. a year ; but in the same deanery were the following rectories, Cornard Parva £8 2j. 8j^/., Groton, £8 is. 8*/., Somerton £6 i6s. Sd., and Preston £5 6s. v\d. In Suffolk archdeaconry, in the deanery of Bosmere, Bramford vicarage was worth £13 3-f. qd. whilst in the same deanery there were seven rectories of less value.8 There are two of those exceptional cases in Suffolk wherein duly ordained vicarages reverted to the position of rectories. The church of Burgh was appropriated to the small priory of Herringfleet in 1390. But the prior and convent only retained the rectory for a few years ; in 1403 they resigned it to the bishop of Norwich, reserving to themselves a small pension.8 The church of Redenhall, which had been formally appropriated by Bungay nunnery in 1346 and a vicarage endowed, was disappropriated in 1441, and a pension of 40^. assigned to the priory.4 This question of the vicarages is essentially one of East Anglia, for the proportion of benefices in that district that became appropriated to the monasteries was much larger than in many other parts of England, particularly in the south and west of the kingdom. In round numbers, half of the Suffolk benefices had become vicarages by the time the new Valor was taken in the reign of Henry VIII.6 It is 1 Dr. Cutts, in Parish Priests and their People (i 890), pp. 324-9, says this evil ' was specially the case with the rectories "... and ' a large proportion of the rectories were served by such men,' i.e. in minor orders. ' Bacon, Liber Regis, 723-5, 767-73. * Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 340. * Ibid, x, 48. 6 This was also the case in Sussex, but in Winchester diocese the rectories were 289 to 95 vicarages, in London 731 to 201, and in Exeter 524 to 185. a 17 3 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK interesting to note that at that time the total of the benefices, 485, almost exactly corresponded with the number in the Norwich Taxation of 1256. Some chapelries of the earlier date had meanwhile attained to the honour of being separate parishes ; but this slight increase was counterbalanced by the amalgamation of others. Reverting to the general ecclesiastical history of the county, it is to be noted that Suffolk shared to the full in the troubles and tumults of the reign of Henry III, when under the episcopal rule of Simon de Wauton (1258-66). Bishop Simon, in 1261, took the side of the king against the barons and was bold enough to publish the papal absolution of Henry III from keeping the oath he had sworn in 1258 as to carrying out certain reforms. This action of the bishop excited great indignation in East Anglia. Civil war broke out, and the irony of events caused Bishop Simon to seek safety for a time in the abbey of St. Edmunds, as the only place in his diocese where he felt he could be secure from popular fury.1 On the death of Simon in January, 1266—7, the monks of Norwich obtained a free election, and in the same month chose their prior, Roger de Skerning. There was grievous civil strife at the beginning of Bishop Roger's episcopate. Many of the local followers of Simon de Montfort, who had been dispossessed of their property after the battle of Evesham, took refuge within the precincts of the abbey of St. Edmunds, from whence they were driven out by the royalists, and both abbey and town fined for their support of the insurgents. But these disturbances, which were not quelled until July, 1267, pertain more to political than ecclesiastical history. It was during the episcopate of William de Middleton (1278-80) that Friar John Peckham, the energetic archbishop of Canterbury, came into East Anglia during the visitation tour of his province. He began to visit the religious houses of Norfolk towards the end of November, 1280, and was in that county throughout December and the greater part of January. In February and March, 1280—1, the archbishop was in Suffolk, and we know from the dating of his letters that he was at the priory of Blythburgh, and also tarried at Framlingham and Freckenham.8 In the first week of Lent, Peckham held an ordination for candidates from his own diocese at Sudbury.8 The archbishop, in his strenuous life, kept a general control over the Southern Province, outside the lines of metropolitical visitation. In January, 1282, he issued his mandate to the official of the archdeacon of Sudbury, directing him to cite the abbot and convent of St. Edmunds, concerning their tenure of the appropriated churches of Mildenhall, Barton, Pakenham, and Bret- tenham, to appear before him on the first Monday in Lent wherever he might happen to be in his own diocese. The mandate states that his previous summons for an earlier date had been contumaciously neglected. We find from a later letter of Peckham, written to his proctors at Rome, that the abbot and convent again failed to appear and refused to allow any inspection of their documents, and that they had appealed to the pope in justification of their refusal.* In July of the same year Peckham wrote to the Bishop of Norwich with reference to a dispute about the Suffolk rectories of Risby and Redgrave, to 1 Bart, de Cotton, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 139. ' Reg. Epii. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 178-90. ' Ibid, i, 173. ' Ibid, i, 267-8, 307. 18 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY the effect that their sequestration must be committed to the Archdeacon of Sudbury.1 Ralph de Fernham, at that time holding this archdeaconry, was a friend of Peckham's, and acted on several occasions on the archbishop's behalf.8 In addition to the extraordinary ecclesiastical rule over the greater part of the hundreds of Suffolk, eight and a half of which were in the liberty of St. Edmund, and five and a half in the liberty of St. Etheldreda or Ely Priory, the number of manors or townships held by the church throughout the county was remarkably large. In 1316 a return was made by order of the Parliament at Lincoln, in connexion with the raising of military levies, of all the rural townships throughout the kingdom, giving in each case the name of the lord. The return for Suffolk shows that upwards of a hundred of these townships, out of a total of 453, or about a fourth of the whole, were in the hands of the church.3 The Black Death of 1349 laid grievous hold on Suffolk. The diocesan institution book of this period tells the story of this awful visitation with grim brevity. During the five years previous to the outbreak, the annual average of the institutions to all kinds of benefices throughout the diocese was eighty- one. In a single year these institutions increased by more than tenfold. From 25 March, 1349, to the same date, 1350, the recorded institutions amounted to 831. The terrible death-rate among the clergy, both religious and secular, goes far to prove that the accounts of the devastation as given by the old chroniclers are not one whit exaggerated. No notice is of course taken of the general deaths in monasteries in the institution books, but the vacancies among the superiors of these houses under diocesan visitation are recorded. Those religious houses of Suffolk whose superiors required episcopal institution numbered fifteen, and of these eight died in the fateful year, namely the heads of the priories of Alnesbourne, Bungay, Chipley, Flitcham, Redlingfield, Snape, Thetford (St. Sepulchre's), and Woodbridge. In one instance, that of Snape, the office of prior was twice vacant during the twelvemonth.4 The action of William Bateman, bishop of Norwich (1344-58), during this grievous strain, is in every way to his credit ; he proved himself to be a true shepherd of his flock. When the outbreak began in the spring of 1349 the bishop was beyond the seas, conducting negotiations for the conclusion of peace between France and England. He returned early in June to find his brother, Sir Bartholomew Bateman of Gillingham, dead of the plague, and 1 Reg. Efts. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 381. 'Ibid. 8, 63, 186. 3 The following were the proportions of the Suffolk townships held by religious and secular ecclesiastics: — Abbot of St. Edmunds, fifty-two ; prior of Ely, ten ; bishop of Ely, six ; bishop of Norwich, prior of Thetford, and prior of Butley, three each ; prior of Norwich, prior of Canterbury, prior of Leigh, abbot of Colchester, prior of Snapes, and abbot of St. Osyth, two each ; abbot of Ramsey, prior of Royston, bishop of Chester, bishop of Rochester, prioress of Redlingfield, prior of St. Peter's, Ipswich, prior of Greeting, prior of Wilmington, abbess of Mailings, abbot of Leiston, prior of Eye, prior of Bromholme, prior of St. John of Jerusalem, prior of Stokes, abbot of ' Becherlewyne ' and abbot of ' Abemarsia ' one each. There are various copies of this return, which was so important for the calling out of a military array. It has been twice printed, namely in Parliamentary Writs, ii, 34, 301, and in Feudal Aids, i, No. 241. But these are defective in places, and so far as Suffolk is concerned omit the liberty of St. Etheldreda, that is the hundreds of Carlseford, Colneis, Loes, Plomesgate, Thredling, and Wilford. These hundreds, however, fortunately appear in an old copy of the return in possession of Sir W. R. Gowers, F.R.S., which has been recently printed by theSuf. Arch. last, xi, 173-99. 4 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, 91-123. 19 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the whole diocese in its grasp. During the rest of the time of the visitation Bishop Bateman never left his diocese for a day. In the single month of July he personally instituted 207 persons. Till the gth of the month he was at Norwich, the plague making awful havoc all around him. On the loth he moved to Hoxne, and there in a single day instituted twenty persons ; from this time till the pestilence abated he moved about from place to place, rarely staying more than a fortnight in any one house, and followed every- where by troops of clergy, who came to be admitted to the livings of such as had died.1 The bishop, in the midst of this fateful year, sought the guidance of the pope as to the supply of clergy. By bull of 1 3 October, Clement VI, seeing that so many parishes were bereft of ministers, authorized the bishop to ordain sixty young men who might be two years under the canonical age for the priesthood; provided always that they were proved fit after due examination, and that they had in all cases completed their twenty-first year.* Bishop Bateman's register for this period has far fewer instances of the institution of clergy to benefices in minor orders than was the case in the great neighbouring diocese of Lincoln. Such instances as do occur are almost entirely confined to those livings that were in the gift of the crown, of the nobility, or of the great landed proprietors. Dr. Jessopp is also undoubtedly right in stating that this register makes it quite plain that ' the laity of East Anglia were not ashamed to make merchandise of their patronage.' It was during the episcopate of Henry Spenser (1370-1406), known as 'the soldier-bishop,' that the agrarian rebellion of 1381 broke out, in which that great Suffolk ecclesiastic, Archbishop Simon of Sudbury, suffered at the hands of the mob. Spenser, in person, fell upon the Suffolk insurgents with prompt fierceness near Newmarket ; but the story of this formidable uprising in East Anglia belongs to another part of this history. It was in the days, too, of Bishop Spenser that this diocese gained the unenviable notoriety of being the first to bring about the death .of an Englishman for preaching heresy. But the tale of William Sawtre, a chaplain of St. Margaret's, Lynn, who solemnly abjured his errors befo/e the bishop at Elmham in 1399, and on repeating them in London diocese two years later was burnt to death, pertains to Norfolk rather than to Suffolk.8 Lollardism, which was a strange combination of extreme socialistic views with opposition to most of the received religious tenets of Christendom, increased much during the reign of Henry IV. It is to the credit of the bishops that they generally hesitated to take action against heretics, knowing that death by the flames would be the eventual penalty of obstinacy. Whilst 1 Dioc. Hist, of None. 120—1. 1 Dr. Jessopp remarks that it is much to the credit of Bishop Bateman that, so far from availing himself to the utmost of the papal dispensation, he exercised this exceptional privilege with scrupulous reserve, for only five instances occur in his register of candidates under the usual canonical age of twenty-three being admitted to a cure of souls. This evidence is, however, decidedly doubtful, for it is quite possible that such exceptions were not always recorded when both the bishop and his scribe, in those times of stress, were continually moving from place to place. 1 The Act De heretico comburendo was passed by all estates of the realm in 1401 ; it provided that the bishop was to arrest, imprison, and bring heretics to trial at his courts. Should they refuse to recant, or relapse after recantation, they were to be handed over to the sheriff or mayor to be burnt alive. Sawtre was its first victim. It has been well remarked that in no country save Great Britain was a special law necessary for the execution of heretics ; the mere will of the government was elsewhere sufficient. 2O ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Henry IV was on the throne, there was only one other victim in addition to Sawtre, namely Bradby, a tailor of Worcester diocese. During the successive episcopates of Tottington and Courtenay (1407-16) there seems to have been no Lollard persecution in the diocese of Norwich. On the accession of Henry V, Lollardism, under Sir John Oldcastle, assumed a more distinctly political character, and a still more severe Act to check its progress was passed by the laity in Parliament in 1414.* Under this law the king's justices were empowered to search out offenders, ' to arrest and deliver them to the ordinary for trial,' who on conviction handed them back to the secular power for execution. It was under this Act, passed in defence of the government and providing for the execution of heretics, as ' traitors to the king,' that all the burnings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries took place. It is, however, only fair to remember that in 1416 Convocation, under Archbishop Chicheley, provided that heretics were to be inquired after by the bishops or their officials in each rural deanery twice a year. But there is no available evidence of any serious prosecution of heretics having been initiated by the ecclesiastical authorities under these ordinances of Convocation.8 Under the episcopate of John Wakering (1416—25) some severity seems to have been shown towards the Lollards of Suffolk and Norfolk, but none were put to death.3 Of the persecution in the days of his successor, Bishop Alnwick (1426-36), Foxe gives more particular accounts. On 6 July, 1428, a special commission was issued for apprehending Lollards in the eastern counties to John Exeter and to Jacolit Germain, the keeper of Colchester Castle. The valley of the Waveney, at the junction of the two counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, had become a hotbed of Lollardism, of which Loddon and Gillingham in the former county, and Beccles and Bungay in the latter, were the chief centres. Their ringleader was one William White, an ex-priest, who had been censured before the Convocation at St. Paul's in 1422 for preaching at Tenterden, Kent, without sufficient licence and for teaching heretical doctrine. Two years later he had made a solemn abjuration of his heresies before Archbishop Chicheley at Canterbury, and had sworn on the Gospels never to teach or preach any more. But ere long he was busily at work in Suffolk and Norfolk, making Bergholt in the former county his chief residence. He ceased to wear the priestly habit, suffered his tonsure to grow, and married one Joan, who shared his views. White was summoned to appear before a council in London in July to answer for his relapse, but refused to obey ; he was then arrested and taken before Bishop Alnwick and William Bernham his chancellor, John Exeter acting as registrar of the court. The bishop summoned a diocesan synod on 13 September, 1428, in the chapel of his palace at Norwich. William Worsted, prior of Norwich, Thomas Walden and John Lowe, the respective provincials of the Carmelite and Austin Friars, several other friars of the four great mendicant orders, and various secular clergy were present, and before them White was brought in chains. He was examined under a variety of heads as to his teaching and preaching on the eucharist, baptism, confession, the unlawfulness of church property, and the mendicant orders, as well as to his former abjuration, his _ I1 2 Hen. V, cap. 7. * Hook, Archbishops of Canterbury, v, 56-7. 1 'The documents' of Wakering's time 'which Foxe refers to and dresses up in his usual extravagant ner have perished ' (None. Dioc. Hist. 144). 21 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK subsequent preaching in Norwich diocese, and his alleged marriage. To most of these articles he confessed. The twelfth article, which he denied, asserted that on the last Easter Day he had, within his house at Bergholt, inducted a lay disciple named John Scutte to discharge the office of a priest ; and that Scutte broke bread, gave thanks and distributed to White and his concubine and to three others, directing them to receive and partake of it in memory of Christ's Passion. It was testified inter alia that White had said ' that such as wear cords or be anointed or shorn are the lance knights and soldiers of Lucifer ; and that they all, because their lamps are not burning, shall be shut out when the Lord Christ shall come.' White was convicted on thirty articles, and sentenced to be burned as a lapsed heretic who had preached in Norwich diocese the doctrines which he had on oath renounced. Between 1428 and 1431 Foxe, who seems to have had access to Exeter's register of the heresy courts, mentions that 1 20 were brought before the bishop or his chancellor on charges of Lollardy or heresy. Among those whose residence is given, six were from Beccles, two from Aldeburgh, one from Bungay, one from Eye, and one from Shipmeadow. The offenders were mostly of the working classes, but one was a beneficed clerk, John Cappes, vicar of Tunstead. They were charged with such offences as holding heretical views as to the mass, baptism, marriage, and the payment of tithes, and with saying that the pope was anti-Christ, and that every true man was a priest. In the great majority of cases these poor people not unnaturally shrank from the terrible consequences of contumacy, and made submission, formally abjuring their views after a most solemn fashion. They all seem to have suffered a certain period of imprisonment, for on arrest they were committed to prison, usually at either the castle of Framlingham or the castle of Norwich, until the ecclesiastical court was held. In what were considered bad cases a period of imprisonment was ordered after confession and abjuration. The one severe case cited by Foxe is that of John Skilley, miller of Flixton, who was brought before the bishop on 14 March, 1428—9. He was condemned to seven years' imprisonment in the Premonstratensian abbey of Langley, fasting on bread and water on the Fridays, and at the end of that time he was to put in four appearances at the cathedral church with the other penitentiaries, namely on the two ensuing Ash Wednesdays and the two Maundy Thursdays. But no one save that lapsed heretic, the ex-priest White, was condemned to the stake.1 Public declaration of their recanting, accompanied by whippings in the church and market-place, were the usual fate of the penitents. Thus Norman Pie and John Mendham of Aldburgh were condemned to make their abjuration openly and to do penance in their own parish church on six several Sundays, being whipped on each occasion before the solemn procession ; they were also to have three whippings on three several market-days in the market-place of Harleston. The penitents on these occasions were to have bare necks, heads, legs, and feet, and to be clad only in shirts and breeches ; they were also to carry a half-pound wax taper in their hands, and to present the tapers on the last Sunday at high mass unto the high altar. The provocative and grossly irreverent action of some of the Lollards, in going out of their way to insult the religion of others, naturally provoked 1 Foxe interprets some sentences of branding as being ' put to death and burned.' 22 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY severity. Thus Nicholas Conon, of Eye, was charged, in 1431, with having •on Easter Day, when all the parishioners were in procession, mocked and derided the congregation, going about the church the other way. Nicholas not only acknowledged that the charge was true, but affirmed that in so doing he did well. He was also charged with having, on Corpus Christi Day, at the elevation of the host, when all were devoutly kneeling, gone behind a pillar with his face from the altar and mocked. A third accusation was to the effect that on All Hallows Day, when many parishioners carrying lighted torches proceeded to the high altar and knelt there in devotion, Nicholas Conon, carrying a torch, went up to the high altar, but stood there with his back to the altar whilst the priest was celebrating mass. To these two other charges he not only pleaded guilty, but again told the court that he had done well.1 A return was ordered to be made, by a parliament of Richard II which sat at Cambridge in the autumn of 1388, of all the gilds and brotherhoods of the kingdom, with details as to their foundation, statutes, and properties. The gild certificates pertaining to Suffolk which are now extant are thirty- nine in number and are comparatively brief, save that in three cases, all of Bury St. Edmunds, the statutes and ordinances are set forth in full.2 Almost .all these gilds, besides providing lights before particular images or the rood, were also expected, according to their rules, to contribute towards the general repairs of the church, as is usually expressly stated. Thus the gild of St. Andrew, Cavenham, is entered as having at the last Eastertide con- tributed ten shillings pro securam trabis in eadem ecclesia. The members for the most part attended mass and feasted together at certain festivals, and attended the funerals of the brethren or sisters, usually contributing to the expenses. There is an interesting entry in the register of Bishop Alnwick relative to the admission of a hermit at the old Suffolk borough of Sudbury. The entry is in English, and records a petition from John Hurt the mayor and ten other parishioners of St. Gregory's, dated 28 January, 1433-4. A previous application for the admission of one Richard Appleby of Sudbury to a hermit's position had failed, but the mayor and leading parishioners begged the bishop to reconsider the case. They stated that Richard was * a man as to owre conscience knowne a true member of holy cherche and a gode hostly levere ' (honest liver) ; that it was better to live in a solitary place, where virtues might increase, and vices be exiled ; that they had examined him, with the aid of the church-reeves and others ; that Richard was desirous of living with John Levyington in his hermitage, made at the cost 1 Shirley, Ftiscufi Zizaniorunt, Ixx, 417, 432 ; Foxe, Acts and Monuments (ed. Townsend), iii, 587-99. ' These three are the Gild of St. Botolph in St. James's church, founded time without memory ; the Gild of St. Nicholas in the church of St. Mary, founded in 1282 (the ordinances of the Gild of St. Nicholas have been printed in full, with a translation, by Mr. V. B. Redstone, Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst. xii, 14-22) ; and the Fraternity of Corpus Christi of St. Mary's church, founded in 1317. Short particulars are given of fifteen other gilds, all of the abbey town, which will be found in the topographical section of this history. The others whose certificates temp. Richard II remain, were : Barton, Gilds of the Assumption and of St. John Baptist ; Beccles, Fraternity of Corpus Christi and Gild of Holy Trinity ; Cavenham, Gilds of St. Andrew, St. Mary, and of the Holy Trinity ; Gazeley, Gilds of All Saints, St. James, and St. Margaret ; Herringwell, Gilds of St. Ethelbert and St. Peter ; Icklingham, Fraternity of the Holy Cross and Gild of St. James ; Kensford, Gild of St. John Baptist ; Kettlebaston, Fraternity for lights and repairs ; Monks Eleigh, Fraternity for lights ; Stradishall, Fraternity of St. Margaret ; and Tuddenham, Gilds of St. John Baptist and Holy Trinity. 23 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK of the parish of St. Gregory in the churchyard, to dwell together ; and they begged the bishop to admit him ' to abide your bedesman.1 The mediaeval hermit differed from the anchorite or absolute recluse in having certain practical work assigned to him, hence the interest that the town authorities took in such appointments. The bridge hermit not only received alms for the sustenance of the structure, but usually kept the causey in repair. Possibly the Sudbury hermit or hermits kept the churchyard and its walks in order. Bishop Alnwick, during his ten years' episcopate over Norwich diocese (1426—36), was frequently in residence at Hoxne. Among ordinations that were held in Suffolk churches were those at Lavenham on 18 May, 1428, at the conventual church of the Franciscans of Babwell, near Bury St. Edmunds, on 19 December, 1433, and at the parish church of Hoxne on 18 Sep- tember, 1434.' On Alnwick's translation to Lincoln in 1436, Thomas Brown, bishop of Rochester, was translated to Norwich. It is obvious from his register that he passed most of his time within the diocese,3 and more in Suffolk than in Norfolk, for his favourite residence was at the episcopal manor-house of Hoxne ; there he died on 6 December, 1445. It seems to matter but little what English county is under survey, the record of its ecclesiastical history is almost uniformly dull during the last half of the fifteenth century. It was the lull before the gusts and storms of theological passion that blew so fiercely in the century that followed. Of Bishop Goldwell's (1472-99) faithfulness in his monastic visitations there is much evidence, which is sufficiently cited under the different religious houses. Something, too, may be gleaned of the character and learning of the East Anglian clergy from their wills, wherein frequent mention is made of their books, whilst the continuous occurrence of their names as trustees in the settlement of landed estates shows that they were generally trusted by men of position. It was certainly no time of deadness in the outward manifestation of the Church's faith. The wealthier burgesses and successful wool merchants rejoiced to spend their riches in the reconstruction of their parish churches on a grand scale, and to overcome the niggardliness of nature, that had denied to Suffolk a single stone quarry, by the exercise of a masterly ingenuity in the production of splendid effects by a combination of flints and pebbles, gathered from their own shores and fields, with the smooth textured freestone carried at no small expense from lands beyond the seas. As Dr. Raven happily expresses it, ' while the din of arms was resounding in other counties, the click of the trowel was rather the prevalent note in Suffolk.' * In no other county of broad England could so grand a quartet of noble fifteenth- 1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 112. The episcopal registers of both Ely and Salisbury give a variety of interesting particulars as to the form used by a bishop or his commissary on admitting a hermit to his dwelling and blessing his habit ; also as to the solemn declaration made by a hermit of leading a life of chastity ' according to the rule of St. Paul, the first hermit,' and of reciting certain prayers, etc. The case of two hermits living together is exceptional, but there is an instance in 1493, of two being admitted at Cambridge on the same day. See a paper by Rev. C. Kerry on ' Hermits' Fords and Bridge Chapels,' Derb. Arch. Jour. xiv, 34-71. 1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 123, 139, 141. ' Ibid. x. The ordination lists of this episcopate are complete ; the deacons numbered 495, and the priests 476. « Raven, Pop. Hist. ofSuf. 133. 24 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY century churches be found, clustered together within a very short distance of each other, as those of Southwold, Covehithe, Blythburgh, and Walberswick — each of them the work of the actual inhabitants who were profiting largely by the trade of their little ports. Or, if we go further inland, where, save in Suffolk or Norfolk, can such pre-eminently noble parish churches be named, erected at this particular period, as those of Lavenham and Long Melford ? The monks of Bury, retaining their vigour to the last, might re-erect, at about the same time, the fine fabrics of the churches of St. Mary and St. James, for the use of the townsmen, but placed jealously within their own precinct walls ; nevertheless, they were easily surpassed by the fervour of zeal of the unvowed laity. Church towers, often stately and magnificent, like those of Laxfield, Eye, or Bungay St. Mary, sprang up all over the county ; or, where the parish was too small and poor to run to such an expense, they could at least add an extra stage to the old round tower of early Norman days. Nor was it only in stately fabrics that the churchmen of Suffolk made manifest the generosity of their religious faith. Towers were not raised for mere idle show, but all were speedily furnished with rings of tunable bells, cast for the most part in the county were they swung. The whole air of Suffolk in the days of the Seventh Henry, above that of any other district of the kingdom, must have been saturated with the brazen melody of its four hundred belfries, calling men from earthly toil to spiritual worship as the Sundays and Holy Days came round in their endless cycles.1 To escape such music anywhere in the county would have been an impossibility, for the churches were well planted as well as numerous throughout its bounds. When, too, the particular details of church after church come to be enumerated in the topographical section of this work, it will be found, from the remnants still extant, after three centuries of wanton destruction or criminal neglect, that the timber in which Suffolk abounded was wrought almost everywhere during the fifteenth century into glorious roofs, or carved with masterly skill into stalls and seats or pulpits, and above all into screen- work ; that the sculptor's best art was lavished on the baptismal fonts and their pediments ; and that figure and pattern-painting, as well as gessowork and gilding, often of consummate beauty, were employed to add to the dignity and worth of the interiors of remote village sanctuaries, as well as of the churches in the small market towns where comparative wealth could far more easily be attained. Among the unhappily few instances in which parish books of a pre- Reformation age remain within this county, as at Cratfield and Huntingfield, plain evidence is forthcoming that the villagers depended to no small extent on those popular local gatherings termed church-ales 3 to find some of the funds necessary to maintain the beauty of the sanctuary. In the remote village of Cratfield five church-ales occurred in 1490 ; three of them were strictly parochial, and were held on Passion Sunday, Pentecost, and All Saints' Day ; the other two were of exceptional occurrence, being part of the Trental arrangements of deceased parishioners. The profits on four of these church-ales were js. 4^., gj., 91. 8Tio. Richard Martyn of Welford, gent., offers £6 a year. Edward Sulyarde, with yearly revenue of £440, has already paid a year's income for recusancy, and has furnished a horse £25, offers £40 per annum. John Bedingfeld, £40 per annum, offers £10. Margaret Danyell of Acton, a widow, offers £20. Edward Rook- wood offers £30. These are followed by nine other smaller offers.1 The Recusant Rolls for Suffolk at the Public Record Office begin in 1593. The first of these supplies lists of amounts owing from farmers of the two-thirds of estates of recusants, farmed out to grooms of the chamber, gentlemen of the chapel, and other of the minor court officials, and not infrequently to the tenants of the owner. Among the Roman Catholic gentry of the county in this- roll the Rookwoods of Stanningfield and of Euston are very prominent ; they are entered as indebted for sums from £260 to £280. About ninety recusants altogether, mostly yeomen and spinsters, or engaged in humble occupations such as tailors, are entered as owing £80 to £120 of the £20 a month penalty.2 The condition of the church fabrics of the county in Elizabeth's reign, when all religion seemed to be at a very low ebb, went from bad to worse. ' Certificates of all the ruines and decayes of all the Ruinated churches and chauncells of the dioc. Norwich ' were returned to Bishop Redman in 1602. The return for the archdeaconry of Suffolk schedules the ruinous state of the chancels of Ashfield, Bramfield, Brandeston, Culpho, Eyke, Fakenham, Flixton, Freston, Gunton, Higham, Ipswich St. Stephen, Ipswich St. Margaret, Kessingland, Lowestoft, Offton, Pakefield, Shipmeadow, Shottisham, Snape, Thorpe (Ashfield), Wherstead, Wilby, Wingfield, and Wissett. In most cases the ruinous condition had prevailed for several years. In all instances, save three, chancels were in the hands of lay proprietors, whose names are set forth.3 1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cbooviii, 38. * Recusant R. Suff. i, 34, Eliz. The receipts from recusant fines throughout the country from 1593 to 1602 brought over ,£120,000 to the crown. 3 East dnglian N. and Q. i, 340-1. 38 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY In June, 1603, a circular letter was addressed by Archbishop Whitgift to his suffragans of the southern province, requesting information as to the number of communicants and recusants in the parishes of their respective dioceses, together with the names of such clergy as had two benefices, the number of impropriations and vicarages, and the values and the patrons of the various livings. The original returns are to be found in the Harleian collec- tion of the British Museum.1 The returns for the county of Suffolk, as sent in to the Bishop of Norwich by the archdeacons of Sudbury and Suffolk, differ in style. The former is somewhat more detailed, and comprises an explicit answer to all the queries from each parish, three or four being entered in a small hand on each folio. The return from the Suffolk archdeaconry is more condensed, and assumes a tabulated form for each deanery.2 The answers do not cover quite the whole of the county, for the plan adopted was for the archdeacon to summon the parsons, vicars, or curates of the different parishes of each deanery to some appointed place, and there to receive their respective replies. In a few cases, as in three of the Ipswich parishes, no one appeared to make any reply, and the returns for such parishes were left blank. Occasionally there was a good excuse for non-appearance. Thus in the Dunwich deanery under ' Reydon cum capella de Southwold ' it is entered : ' The parson did not appear by reason the Sicknes was veri dangerous in the towne.' The numbers of those * who do not receive ' are entered separately from the avowed recusants, who were all probably confessed Romanists. The pro- portion of both these classes is a good deal smaller than in some counties. In the archdeaconry of Sudbury3 the recusants of the deanery of Thingoe numbered 22 ; in Blackburne, 5 ; in Fordham, 4; in Hartismere and Stow, 4 ; in Clare, i ; in Sudbury, 35 ; and in the town of Bury, 19; giving a total of 132 for the archdeaconry. Those who did not receive the communion, though coming to the church services, numbered 89 in the same district. The archdeaconry of Suffolk had fewer of both these classes.4 Of recusants there were in the deanery of Lothingland, 6 ; in Wangford, 4 ; in Dunwich, 5 ; in Orford, 5 ; in Wilford and Loes, 14 men in the castle of Framlingham, and one other ; in Carlford and Colneys, 4 ; in Ipswich, 4 ; in Samford, 8 ; in Bosmere and Claydon, 1 1 ; and in Hoxne, 2. The total, therefore, of recorded recusants for the whole county was 190 ; whilst the full total of those who did not receive throughout Suffolk was 122. The totals of communicants usually entered in round numbers, doubtless include all parishioners over sixteen years, save those already enumerated ; for the unhappy rule prevailed of their being compelled under heavy penalties to be at least occasional communicants. The returns afford, therefore, a good criterion of the whole population, and may be taken as a rough kind of census. The total of communicants in both archdeaconries amounted to 67,993.' 1 Had. MS. 595, No. ii. 'In the Suff. Arch. InK. Proc. for 1883 (vi, 361-400) the return for the Suff. archdeaconry is printed ; the return for Sudbury archdeaconry appeared in 1901 (xi, 1-46). 3Harl. MS. 595, fol. 95-119. 'Ibid. 167-93. 5 In order to get the total population, about forty per hundred have to be added to those who were over sixteen. After making allowance for several omitted parishes this would bring the population of Suffolk to about 100,000 at the beginning of the seventeenth century. 39 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK The recusants of Suffolk continued to have hard times during the reigns of the first two Stuarts. The execution of Ambrose Rookwood belongs more to political than religious history. During the comparatively mild episco- pates of the four bishops who held the East Anglian diocese from 1603-32 ' sectaries ' multiplied and many irregular clergy were ordained, whose only title was the chaplaincy of an often nominal employer. Such clergy escaped all episcopal jurisdiction, and, as 'lecturers,' usually propagated views that were quite out of harmony with the doctrines of the Church of England. In May, 1632, Bishop Corbett was translated from Oxford to Norwich. The next year Laud, the uncompromising opponent of Puritanism, became primate. In Dr. Corbett he found considerable support. The lecturers at Bury St. Edmunds and at Ipswich were silenced. The bishop in his answers to Laud's inquiries congratulated himself that he had made ' two wandering preachers run out of his diocese ; ' nevertheless, he added, ' lectures abound in Suffolk, and many set up by private gentlemen even without so much as the knowledge of the ordinary.' * Bishop Corbett died in July, 1635, and was succeeded by Dr. Matthew Wren, a distinguished Cambridge scholar, who held this see for three years until his translation to Ely. He at once held a visitation of his diocese, following the exact lines laid down by his primate, and so sternly suppressing the sectaries that many fled over the seas.2 In the year that Wren left this diocese, the archdeacon of Suffolk, who was evidently in accord with both Wren and Laud, held his visitation. ' Articles to be Enquired of in the Ordinary Visitation of the Right Wirshipfull Doctor Pearson, Archdeacon of Suffolke ' were issued and printed in i638.3 They follow for the most part, with some variants, the customary form of such articles in the reign of Charles I, but are of greater length and detail than several other examples. Thus the archdeacon inquired whether the Blessed Sacrament hath beene delivered unto any or received by any of the Communi- cants within youre Parish that did unreverently either sit or stand or leane, or that did not devoutly and humbly kneele upon their knees, in plaine and open view without collusion or hypocrisie. They had also to answer whether any of the inhabitants of their company ever ' bring their Hawkes into the Church or usually suffer their dogges of any kinde to come with them thither.' Chapter four of the articles, with its five items, is entirely concerned with the steeple and the bells. The particulars as to daily service and saints' day services, with due tolling of bell, the use of the Athanasian Creed on all appointed days, the Commination Service, and the Litany every Wednesday and Friday, are most explicit. So too with regard to not preaching in the surplice, or the improper use of 'any Bason or paile or other Vessel set into the Font ' at baptism. A book of presentments in the Dean's Court of Bocking from 1637—41, termed Liber Actorum, is extant, which supplies many instances of the juris- diction then exercised over the morals of the parishioners of this peculiar, 1 None. Diof. Hist. 187-8. * Perry, Hist, of Ct. ofEng. \\, App. B, where the ' particulars, orders, directions, and remembrances ' of Wren's primary visitation are set forth at length. "Press Mark, B.M. 5155,^. 23. 40 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY corresponding to similar action in the archidiaconal courts for other parishes. The presentments include various ones relative to incontinence, among which occur cases of pre-nuptial fornication ; for absence from church on Sundays and holy days, and neglecting to receive the Communion, and for irreverence in church, omitting to stand or kneel in accordance with the rubric, and not bowing the head at the name of Jesus. In a few cases the offenders were excommunicated, and in cases of incontinence penance in a white sheet in the parish church was the usual result.1 One of the best and most able of the Puritan divines of East Anglia was Samuel Ward, a native of Haverhill. He was for many years ' town preacher ' at Ipswich by the appointment of the corporation, who paid him a salary of £180 a year. He was licensed by Bishop Jegon (1603-18) as a preacher throughout his diocese ; but in Bishop Wren's time he was convicted of various acts of nonconformity, suspended, enjoined a public recantation, and on his refusal lodged in prison. When in gaol, he wrote a preface to a volume of his sermons, wherein he bravely and with some humour described his imprisonment as ' a little leisure occasioned against my will.' He died in 1640, just at the beginning of the grievous ferment in church and state.2 The Long Parliament, which began to sit in November, 1640, at once addressed itself to matters ecclesiastical ; Episcopacy was speedily abolished, and ere long even the private use of the Prayer Book was made penal and the directory of Public Worship imposed in its place. Meanwhile the universally respected divine, Joseph Hall, was translated from Exeter to Norwich as bishop ; he was received with a certain amount of respect when he entered Norwich, in the spring of 1642, but in the following year he was ejected and the episcopal estates were sequestered. ' The removing of scandalous ministers in the seven associated counties ' of the east of England was intrusted to the Earl of Manchester, who on 12 March, 1642—3 appointed a committee of ten to deal with the matter in Suffolk.3 The ejections in Suffolk were carried out with exceptional harshness. A fifth part of the sequestered incomes or estates of the clergy who adhered to episcopal rule — for their private estates, if they possessed any, were also seized — might, at the option of the Earl of Manchester, be assigned to their wives and children ; but this seems to have been seldom carried out. Several of these Suffolk clergy, suddenly reduced to beggary, turned schoolmasters. Such were Lionel Gatford, ejected from Dennington, Nathaniel Goodwin from Cransford, and Thomas Tyllot from Depden ; but this form of earning an income was soon stopped, for a further ordinance was issued forbidding lProc. Stiff. Inst. of Arch, iii, 71-2. 'Raven, Hist, of Stiff. 204-5. "This ordinance of the Lords and Commons was ordered to be printed on 22 Jan. 1642-3. Dr. Tanner drew up a list of Suffolk ministers who were ejected in 1643-4, appending the dates and brief particulars to each. The total is sixty-five ; it included the incumbents of Acton, Ashbocking, Bardfield, Barnham, Bealings, Bawdsey, Bedingfield, Benhall, Blyford, Blakenham, Bredficld, Brettenham, Charsfield, Chattisham, Chels- worth, Cornard, Cheveley, Copdock, Gorton, Depden, Debenham, Eyke, Finborough Magna, Felixstowe, Flowton, Finningham, Friston, Grundisburgh, Hadleigh, Hargrave, Hasketon, Hepworth, Hemingstone, Hollesley, Hoxne, Kettlebaston, Kettleburgh, Lawshall, Melton, Moulton, Mildenhall, Monks Eleigh, Preston, Ringshall, Sancroft, Shimpling, Soham, Sotherton, Snape, Stradbroke, Stradishall, Trimley St. Mary, Tunstall, Uggeshall, Walton, Waldingfield, Wenhaston, Westhorp, Weston, Wicken, Winston, Wixoe, Woolpit, and Worlingworth. Many others were added to this list at later dates. Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. ix, 307-9. 2 41 6 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the teaching of a private school by any sequestered minister. It is said that Aggas, the rector of Rushbrook, got his living by the fiddle. According to the historian of the ejection, one at least of the dispossessed ministers profited in bodily health from the treatment he received. James Buck, the ex-vicar of Stradbroke, was committed to Ipswich gaol, when a martyr to the gout, and when his physicians did not believe he had more than two years' life in him ; but a diet of bread and water for two months effected a cure, the gout never returned and he lived to the age of four-score.1 However sorrowful many of these cases must have been, it is better to reserve our chief pity for those episcopally ordained clergy who were content to remain in their cures and teach doctrines diametrically opposed to those they were solemnly pledged to uphold. It was amongst the ejected that a certain semi-secret supply of church ministrations was maintained, in spite of all penalties. Thus Lawrence Bretton, the ejected rector of Hitcham, removed to his birthplace at Hadleigh, where he continued to use privately the daily service of the Church, and to ' administer the Blessed Sacrament on the three great festivals of the year to such loyalists as resorted to him,' and Lionel Playters, when turned out of the rectory of Uggeshall, continued the exercise of his ministry.2 Nor was the vehemence of the East Anglian Puritans confined to action against clerical ministrations ; it blazed forth with peculiar virulence against the places of worship. The county of Suffolk, so celebrated for the beautiful carving and furni- ture of its churches, had the unenviable fame of giving birth to that unhappy destroyer of so much that was worthy of God's sanctuaries, the uncompro- mising iconoclast, William Dowsing. It was in August, 1641, that an order was first published by the Commons ' for the taking away all scandalous Pictures out of Churches.' 3 At the instance and under the direction of the Earl of Manchester, General of the Associated Eastern Counties, Dowsing received his appointment as Parliamentary Visitor of the Suffolk Churches dated 19 December, 1643. In this commission, under Manchester's signa- ture, it is stated that many crucifixes, crosses, images of the Trinity and the Virgin Mary, and pictures of saints and superstitious inscriptions still re- mained in many churches and chapels of the Associated Counties, and that William Dowsing, gent., was empowered to remove or deface all such, and to require assistance from mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, constables, headboroughs, and ' all other officers and loveinge subjects.' He also had the power assigned him, which he freely exercised, of appointing deputies to carry out the work. Dowsing and his associates far exceeded even the wide terms of the com- mission, working the most wanton and wicked mischief wherever they went, and clearly making plunder and illegal exactions a regular part of their pro- ceedings. Memorial brasses, many of post-Reformation date, were torn up and sold, and payments actually insisted on from the churchwardens for the destructive work in which they had been engaged. There is no reason to doubt that the work of destruction was carried out in all the Associated Counties, which included Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, 1 See Walker, Suffering! of the Clergy, passim. The accounts of the sufferings entailed by several of'the Suffolk ejections are peculiarly heartrending. ' Ibid. pt. ii, 209, pp. 177, 335. » Ibid. p. 178. 42 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Essex, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Hertford. It is known that the furious zeal of Dowsing in person was exercised at Cambridge, not only in the college chapels but even (quite illegally) in the schools, halls, libraries, and chambers of the university. But so far as Suffolk is concerned, the man left behind him a journal of his own performances in which he clearly gloried. His work in this county, recorded in the journal, extended from 6 January, 1643-410 i October, 1644. During that period upwards of one hundred and fifty places were visited in less than fifty days. The journal is obviously incomplete, and only records the deeds done in about a third of the old churches. Future references will be made to this destructive work under particular parishes ; here it will suffice to cite some of the wanton mischief wrought by Jessop, one of Dowsing's deputies, in the church of Gorleston, as a sample of their operations : — In the chancel, as it is called, we took up twenty brazen superstitious inscriptions, ora pro nobis, etc. ; broke twelve apostles carved in wood, and cherubims, and a lamb with a cross ; and took up four superstitious inscriptions in brass, in the north chancel, Jesu filii Dei Misere mei, etc., broke in pieces the rails, and broke down twenty-two popish pictures of angels and saints. We did deface the font and a cross on the font. We took up thirteen superstitious brasses. Ordered Moses with his rod and Aaron with his mitre to be taken down. Ordered eighteen angels off the roof and cherubims to be taken down, and nineteen pictures in the windows. The organ I broke ; and we brake seven popish pictures in the chancel window, one of Christ, another of St. Andrew, another of St. James, etc. We ordered the steps [up to the altar] to be levelled by the parson of the town ; and brake the popish inscription My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. I gave orders to break in pieces the carved work, which I have seen done . . . and eighteen Jesuses written in capital letters, which we gave orders to do out. A picture of St. George and many others which I remember not, with divers pictures in the windows which we could not reach, neither would they help us to raise ladders ; so we left a warrant with the constable to do it in fourteen days. . . . We rent in pieces a hood and surplices and brake I.H.S. the Jesuits badge in the chancel windows. . . . We brake down a cross on the steeple, and three stone crosses in the chancel, and a stone cross in the porch.1 William Dowsing was a member of a prosperous yeoman family at Saxfield, Suffolk, where he was baptized on 2 May, 1596, and buried on 22 March, 1679. By order of the Commons, on 5 November, 1645, Suffolk was divided into fourteen classical presbyteries, with ministers and others nominated by the county committee in accordance with the Speaker's direction. The divisions were (i) the Hundred of Samford, with the town of Polstead, meeting at East Bergholt ; (2) the town of Ipswich and its liberties, with the Hundred of Colneys and Carlford, meeting at Ipswich ; (3) the Hundreds of Loes, Wilford, and Thredling, meeting at Wickham Market; (4) the Hundred of Plumsgate, with Aldburgh and Orford, and certain parishes in the Hundred of Blything, meeting at Saxmundham ; (5) the rest of the Hundred of Blything, with Dunwich and South wold, meeting at Hales- worth ; (6) the Hundreds of Wangford, Mutford, and Lothingland, meeting at Beccles ; (7) the Hundreds of Bosmcre and Claydon and Stow, meeting at Coddenham ; (8) the Hundred of Hoxne, meeting at Stradbroke ; (9) the Hundred of Hartismere, meeting at Eye; (10) the Hundred of Black- burne, meeting at Ixworth ; (11) the Hundreds of Thingoe, Lackford, and 1 Two or three editions of the Journal have been printed. The fullest and best account of Dowsing, with the journal of his Suffolk work, is that by Rev. C. H. E. White, Su/. Arch. Inst. Proc. vi, 236-90. 43 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Thedwastre, with Bury St. Edmunds, meeting at Bury; (12) the Hundred of Cosford with certain parishes of Babergh Hundred, meeting at Bilston ; (13) the rest of the Hundred of Babergh, with Sudbury, meeting at Laven- ham ; and (14) the Hundred of Risbridge, meeting at Clare. It soon, however, becomes quite clear that though Presbyterianism predominated in many parts of the county, this elaborate scheme for regu- lating religious worship, with its stern form of discipline, existed chiefly on paper. The ' sectaries ' had succeeded in upsetting for a time church government, but their attempts to build up any generally accepted substitute in its place were complete failures. The Independents or Congregationalists began to make headway, and in many parishes there was a resolute under- current in favour of the old episcopacy. The melancholy petition of the ministers of the counties of Suffolk and Essex concerning church government was presented to the Houses of Parliament on 29 May, 1646. It was ordered by the Lords to be printed, together with the respective answers of both Lords and Commons; it appeared in a small quarto form of eight pages on i June, I646.1 The petition took a singularly gloomy view of the state of religion and morals, notwithstanding the abolishment of episcopacy and the stripping of the churches. The pressing miseries of the orthodox and well-affected ministers and people in the county cry aloud to your honours for a settling of church government according to the Word. From the want of this it is that the name of the most high God is blasphemed, his precious truths corrupted ; his Word despised, his ministers discouraged, his ordinances vilified. Hence it is that schisme, heresie, ignorance, prophanenesse, and atheisme flow in upon us, seducers multiply, grow daring and insolent, pernicious books poyson many souls, piety and learning decay apace, very many congregations ly waste without pastours, the Sacrament of Baptisme by many neglected and by many reiterated, the Lord's Supper generally disused or exceedingly prophaned, confusion and ruine threatening us in all our quarters. The petitioners therefore prayed for the establishment by civil sanction of a form of church government ' according to the Word of God, and the example of the best reformed churches,' and that all schismatics, heretics, and soul-subverting books be effectually suppressed. To this petition the names of 163 Suffolk ministers were attached, or less than a third of the whole number, supposing each parish had a minister. Those who signed probably represented the full number of Suffolk ministers sincerely attached to a Presbyterian form of worship. Parliament replied to this petition in a few set phrases of thanks, and stated that the objects the petitioners had in view were under their consideration. The only apparent result was the printing, under the signature of Manchester, in the following April of elaborate lists of ministers and elders nominated for each of the fourteen classic divisions. In pursuance of various ordinances of the Parliament a complete survey of all benefices was made in 1650 by special commissioners. Most of these surveys are preserved at Lambeth Library, where they are bound up in twenty-one large folio volumes. The returns for Suffolk contain a variety 1 B. M. King's Pamphlets, E. 339. 44 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY of statistical and interesting information for the whole county, arranged in hundreds.1 The period of the Commonwealth is sometimes represented as a period of religious toleration, but such a view is entirely erroneous. The three denominations of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists were tolerant to each other, save in the strength of verbal criticism ; but with 1 Lambeth, Commonwealth Surveys, xiii. The following is an abstract of the returns of the various benefices in Blything Hundred (508-79) as an example of the rest. The commission, which met at Hales- worth on 15 October, 1650, took evidence on oath as to all benefices, donations, and impropriations, etc., within the Hundred of Blything : — Parish Patron Value Minister Halesworth R. Bamburgh V. Wissett V. Chediston Holton R. Spexhall R. Cratfield . Huntingfield Lady Allington .... Co-heirs of Lord Banning (Impr. ^126). The State Stephen Blomfield (Impr. £«). State State John Lanye (Impr. £90) . Sir Robert Cooke . Linstead Magna, Linstead Parva V. £ 60 John Swayne. ' A godly and a painfull preaching minister.' 26 Benjamy Fairefax. ' A painfull preach- ing minister.' 28 50 Thomas Neave. 30 John Swayne. 100 Samuel Kells, 'a preaching minister.' 40 Gabriel Elands. 100 Edward Stubbes, 'a constant preacher of the Word of God.' 2O Thomas Smithe, ' a preaching minister.' Cookley R Yoxford V. 'A great towne and hath a great store of inhabitants.' Sibton V. 40 Samuel Manning, ' a preaching minister.' 33 Lawrence Easter. 44 Nicholas Steenes, ' a preaching minis- ter.' State Impr. as Francis Edwards, the Impr. is a ' recusant convict.' Sir Robert Cooke . Philip Bedingfield, 'Impr. £30. Edward Barker (Impr. £40). Peasenhall Impr. chapsl, a member Vicar of Sibton . ... 20 of Sibton. Heveningham R State 52 Samuel Habergham, 'an able preaching minister.' Ubbeston V Roger Cooke (Impr. £10) 30 Symon Sumpter, vicar, sequestered. Richard Heath serves the cure. Bramfield V Elizabeth Brooke (Impr. 50 Bartholomew Allerton. Wenhaston V. Mention made of Lady Brooke's two daugh- 20 ' Desboreux Jefferyes, a preaching the ' decayed chappell ' of Mells ters (Impr. £27). minister, supplyes the Cure once a daye, and hath ior his paynes twentye pounds a yeare.' Vicarage sequestered. Blyford V Henry North (Impr. £32) 13 Desborough Jefteryes, once a day. Thorington R John Brooke .... 40 John Chunne. Blythburgh V John Brooke (Impr. £40) 35 Mr. Glynne. Walberswick V John Brooke (Impr. £22) 20 Stephen Fenn. Darsham V Philip Bedingfield (Impr. 34 Edmund Barker. The cure neglected .£30). by the incumbent's absence, who has removed 1 3 miles distant. Theberton R State 55 John Cory. Former incumbent se- questered. Westleton V Robert Riddington (Impr. 48 Sneyth David. £45). MiddletonV. ' The two churches John Woodcocke and others 8 Now no minister. of Middleton and Fordley, (Impr. £40). standing in one churchyard were united by the late Bishop of Norwich.' Fordley R John Woodcocke ... 40 Now no minister. Leiston V The Company of Haber- 40 Samuel Savage, curate, Impr. ' Pays him dashers (Impr. £50) Tenn shillings a Sabbath for his Sallarye.' 45 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK these exceptions toleration was unknown. The times were cruelly hard for Anglicans and Romanists, as well as for Quakers and Unitarians. In Suffolk, as elsewhere, the Quakers were most severely treated. It should, however, always be remembered that the early Quakers were in many respects the exact opposite of the peaceable folk who now bear the name. The curious consciences of George Fox and his immediate followers found a virtue in doing their best to upset the worship of others. When the matter is inquired into there is hardly a county of England where this was not their line of action in the Commonwealth days, and it is small wonder that such conduct provoked much resentment, and brought them within the action of the law. Their own historian affords ample evidence of this,1 and Parish Patron Value Minister £ Aldringham with Thorpe V. A Elope Harvey (Impr. £24) 10 Now no minister. church and a chapel. Knodishall cum-Buxlow R. ' Bux- Sir Arthur Jennye ... 55 George Jennye, ' an able preaching low church decayed and ruinated minister.' tyme out of minde.' Dunwich V. All Saints. 'An- William Page (Impr. £22) 22 William Browne. other church which is now fallen into decay, and out of use and fit to be taken down.' Southwold. 'Impr. chappell an- Sir John Rons (Impr. 10 Thomas Spurdeons, ' an able minister.' ciently belonging to the vicarage j£20)- of Reydon.' 'A mile from the decayed chapel of Easton.' Raydon V ........ Sir John Rous (Impr. 17 Thomas Warnc. £*8). Easton Bavents ...... Jeffrey Howland ... 10 Thomas West. 'Hath not preached there these foure yeares, there being neyther church nor chappell.' Westhall V. ...... Late dean and chapter of 60 John Goldsmith. Ipswich (Impr. £22). Sotherton R ....... Sir John Rous ... 38 Samuel Smithson. Brampton R ....... Heirs of Thomas Leman . 50 Now no minister. Uggeshall R ....... Sir W. Playters. ... 55 Henry Young, ' a painfull preaching minister.' Lyonell Playters, late incumbent, sequestered. Stoven V ........ Bartholomew Ashdowne John Colbache, ' a Preaching minister,' (Impr. £25). used to have £$ a year, now the impropriator allows 40*. a year for a sermon once a month. Wangford-cum-Henham V. ' The Sir John Rous (Impr. Mr. Shepheard, curate. For preaching chapel at Henham was anciently £22). twice a day he has his diet, house- used for divine worship.' keeping, and £20. Wrentham R ....... Robert Bronsten ... 60 'Mr. John Phillips, an antient and reverend preaching minister is the incumbent, and supplies the cure every Lord's day, with the assistance of Mr. William Amys, sonne to the late reverend Doctor Amys.' Frostenden R ....... William Glover. ... 45 Thomas Plye. Henstead. ' The church of Hen- Heirs of William Sidnor . 70 Edward Witing sequestered. ' John stead some eight years since was Allen a preaching minister put in by burnt downe and nothing left the Parliament.' butt the stone walls, which are able to beare a new roofe.' Southcove R ....... State ....... 31 Walter Manning, 'a preaching minister.' Benacre R ........ Henry North .... 62 William Suttlary, 'a reverend preaching minister.' North Hales alias Cove Hithe V. Jeffrey Howland ... 1 8 Thomas West. 1 Besse, Sufferings of the Quakers, 2 vols. fol. (1753). The part relative to Suffolk is i, 657-87. 46 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY the corroboration of it in set terms is to be found wherever the sessional papers of that period are extant. In 1655, one Richard Clayton, with two other Quakers, affixed to the ' steeple-house ' l door of Bures a document full of the strongest abuse of ministers of religion, couched in Biblical language. Clayton was taken before a magistrate, whipped, and sent out of the town as a vagrant, whilst his companions, who offered some resistance, were committed to Bury gaol. At the sessions the two latter were fined twenty nobles each as, says Besse, ' disturbers of magistrates and ministers,' with imprisonment till the fine was paid. In gaol they experienced the harshest treatment, being herded with felons and sleeping on rye straw. The gaoler treated them after a brutal fashion, because they, being water drinkers, would not purchase ' strong liquors,' on whose sale he made much profit. About the same time William Seaman, of Mendlesham, was committed to Ipswich gaol for speaking to a ' priest ' in church, as the Quaker historian puts it. The Restoration made no improvement in the position of the Quakers, but indirectly increased their troubles. The oath of allegiance was imposed on all, and their scruples as to oaths, and not any objection to the revival of the monarchy, caused the committal of increased numbers to prison. In 1660 there were thirty-three of the Friends in gaol at Bury, nine at Blyth- burgh, thirteen at Melton, and twenty-three at Ipswich. The majority were indicted for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, one for refusing to swear at a court leet, and others for non-attendance at church. Their refusal to pay tithes, both under the Commonwealth and the Monarchy, brought about considerable distraining of goods. They had a brief respite in 1672 ; for at that date, during the short- lived indulgence of Charles II, ' the peaceable people called Quakers,' as they termed themselves in a petition, were all released from the Suffolk gaols and elsewhere, under a special royal warrant.2 But the continuance of their objection to paying tithes and ' steeple-house rates ' soon brought them again into gaol. When the proclamation of James II, of 8 April, 1685, made another gaol deliverance, seventy-four Quakers obtained their freedom from Suffolk gaols, namely thirty-one from Ipswich county prison, thirteen from Ipswich town prison, thirteen from Bury, nine from Melton, and eight from Sudbury. After the Restoration, Dr. Edward Reynolds was appointed bishop of Norwich ; he was consecrated on 6 January, 1661. He had been for many years identified with Presbyterian theology, but his change of faith seems to have been genuine. He made a conscientious, earnest bishop, whilst his earlier belief made his action towards the nonconformists conciliatory throughout. Hence the harshness of the Conventicle Act and the Five-Mile Act was much mitigated in East Anglia. When the time came, on St. Bartholomew's Day in 1662, for the removal from their benefices of those Commonwealth ministers who refused to accept episcopal ordination, sixty- seven ministers were ejected from their cures in the widespread diocese of 1 According to the Quaker nomenclature a church was always termed a ' steeple-house,' and a minister of any kind, even if Independent, Presbyterian or Baptist, was known as a ' priest.' ' S. P. Dom. Entry Book xxxiv, 171. 47 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Norwich ; but nine of them afterwards conformed. Eleven of the number were holding livings the incumbents of which had been dispossessed about 1 644 and were still surviving. Thus the real number cast out for conscience' sake in the diocese was only forty-seven. About half of that total were Suffolk incumbents ; it thus follows that the number of ejected nonconformists was about a quarter of the number of ejected churchmen.1 In 1672 Charles II and his council, being desirous to conciliate the dis- senters, put forth a declaration of indulgence wherein it was stated that although no persons save conformists were eligible for office, the penal laws against nonconformists and recusants were to be suspended, but that none should meet for religious worship at any place until that place of meeting and the teacher had been duly licensed. Popish recusants were not to be allowed public places of worship, but they might assemble under certain con- ditions in private houses. The licences that were applied for under this short-lived indulgence give a good idea of the strength of dissent in different counties and localities. There were thirty-nine licences applied for and granted for buildings for Presbyterian worship or for the residence of a Presbyterian minister, thirty- one for Congregationalists, one for Baptists, and four cases in which the particular sect was not defined. The exact number of Presbyterian ministers licensed for Suffolk was twenty-eight ; there were only ten for Norfolk. The licensed Congregational ministers for this county were twenty-three — a number exactly paralleled by Norfolk, and only exceeded amongst all the counties by London.3 These licences almost invariably name a particular house for the assembling of the sectaries — there was no time to erect meeting-houses. At Beccles, however, in May, 1672, 'the Church of Christ' in that town petitioned the king to allow them to assemble in the guildhall, and to have Robert Otty licensed as their teacher. They enclosed a certificate of the trustees of the hall and of the chief officers of the town consenting to the use of the building by Mr. Otty's congregation. The petition was granted.3 Another granted petition of some interest was one signed by twenty-one nonconformists of Wrentham and neighbourhood expressing thankfulness for the indulgence, and praying for licence for a house in Wrentham for their worship and for Mr. Ames as their teacher. They promised not to teach any doctrines tending to sedition.* 1 Walker give the names of 214 ejected churchmen in the diocese, but Dr. Jessopp (Dioc. Hist. 206) believes they numbered 250. The proportion in Suffolk could not have been under 100. 1 Cal. S. P. Dom. 3 vols. from Dec. 1671 to Dec. 1673 passim. In the introduction to the 3rd vol. Mr. Daniel has supplied useful summary tables arranged according to counties. The following are the places licensed for Suffolk : — Presbyterian : Aldeburgh, Assington, Barking, Battisford, Bury, Clare, Coombes, Cow- ling, Greeting, East Bergholt, Geesings in Wickham, Great Cornard, Hadleigh, Haughley, Haverhill, Hessett, Higham, Hundon, Hunston, Ipswich, Kelshall, Little Waldingfield, Nayland, Nedging, Needham Market, Ousden, Ovington, Rattlesden, Rede, Rendham, Southwold, Spexhall, Stowmarket, Sudbury, Walpole, Walsham-le-Willows, Wattisfield, West Greeting, and Wrentham. Congregational : Ashfield, Beccles, Bury, Cookley, Debenham, Denham, Dunwich, Eye, Framlingham, Fremlingfield, Gislingham, Hopton, Ipswich, Kessingland, Knodishall, Lowestoft, Middleton, Peasenhall, Rattlesden, Rickinghall, Sibton, Sileham, Spexhall, Sudbury, Swefling, Walpole, Waybread, Westerton, Winkfield, Winston, and Woodbridge. Congregational and Baptist: Bungay. Undefined: Brockford, Bury, Stowmarket, and Wetheringsett. 1 S. P. Dom. Chas. II, cccxii, No. 72. * Ibid, cccxx, No. 284. Interesting particulars are known with regard to this congregation at Wrentham and Mr. Ames. At Walpole an old house, which was gutted in the seventeenth century to serve as a meeting- house, is still used by the Congregationalists. See subsequent accounts of these parishes. 48 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY This mildly tolerant indulgence was, however, only in force for a few months. Parliament revoked it in 1673, and passed the Sacramental Test Act. Toleration for Protestant nonconformity did not come until 1689. Anthony Sparrow succeeded to the bishopric of Norwich in 1676, on the death of Bishop Reynolds. He was a native of Depden in Suffolk, in which parish he resided after his ejection in 1644 from the rectory of Hawkedon, and from his fellowship at Queen's College, Cambridge. He had the boldness to publish his famous Rational! upon the Book of Common Prayer in 1657, at a time when its use was prohibited under heavy penalties. On his death in 1685, Bishop Lloyd was translated from Peterborough to this diocese. The accession of William of Orange to the English throne in 1688 occasioned a most serious loss to the church of England. Archbishop Sancroft, a native of Suffolk, eight other bishops (including Lloyd of Norwich), upwards of four hundred and fifty of the clergy, as well as some of the more distinguished of the laity, conscientiously objected to taking any new oath of allegiance, as they had already taken an oath of allegiance to James II and his heirs from which they had not been dispensed. Among the nonjurors were many men of the deepest piety and learning; but the Whigs pressed the advantage they had gained, and insisted on tendering the new oath to men like Sancroft, Ken, and Lloyd, who had resisted James's despotism, and who had indeed paved the way for the revolution of 1688. Twenty-three of the clergy of Suffolk followed their archbishop and bishop in preferring to lose their cures and emoluments rather than take the new oath.1 Two others at first refused, but afterwards complied. It is impossible not to feel much admiration for men who, rather than do violence to their conscientious scruples, went forth from their benefices ' into the cold shade of neglect and even of want.' Archbishop Sancroft, on his ejection from Lambeth, retired to his birthplace at Pressing- field, passing the rest of his life in quiet retirement. Many in his own county had much sympathy both with the deposed archbishop and his views, particularly among the Tory gentlemen. There is an extant letter addressed to him by Mr. Glover, of Frostenden, asking Sancroft to confirm his daughter in his private chapel at Fressingfield, as he could not bear the thought of her being confirmed by the intruding bishop of Norwich.8 The pious archbishop died on 24 November, 1693. He was buried in Fressingfield churchyard, where a humbly worded epitaph, written by him- self, records his career. It thus ends : — ' The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away (as the Lord pleaseth so come things to pass) ; Blessed be the name of the Lord.' 1 Overton, Nonjurors (1902), 471-96. They were Anger, curate of Botesdale ; Edward Beeston, rector of Sproughton and Melton ; Matthew Bisbie, rector of Long Melford ; Anthony Bokenham, rector of Helmingham ; Cole, rector of Chelsworth ; Sam. Edwards, vicar of Eye ; Fisher, curate of Washbrook ; W. GifFord, rector of Great Bradley ; Mich. Gilbert, curate of Spexhall ; George Gripps, rector of Brockley ; W. Kerrington, curate of Depden ; Ric. Lake, curate of Parham ; Jonathan More, schoolmaster of Long Melford ; Stephen Newson, rector of Hawkedon ; J. Owen, rector of Tuddenham ; W. Phillips, curate of Long Melford ; E. Pretty, rector of Little Cornard ; Richardson, curate of Great Thurlow ; T. Rogerson, rector of Ampton ; T. Ross, rector of Rede ; Abraham Salter, vicar of Edwardstowe ; Charles Turnbull, rector of Hadleigh ; and Giles Willcox, curate of Bungay. 1 Tanner, MSS. Bodl. cited in Raven, Hut. of Stiff. 231. 2 49 7 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK The ecclesiastical history of Suffolk, like the rest of East Anglia, was singularly uneventful throughout both the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies. The bishops seemed unable to resist the more wealthy attractions of other sees, particularly of the much smaller but much more lucrative one of Ely, and were constantly being translated. Out of the thirteen seventeenth- century bishops of Norwich, eight left for other sees after a brief experience of East Anglia. ' In Anne's reign,' says Dr. Raven, * Sacheverell had many Suffolk ad- mirers, especially Leman of Charsfield, who had perpetuated the name of that turbulent divine on one of the church bells, cast in 17 lo.1 Defoe's account of a journey he made through the eastern counties in 1722 gives an interesting picture of Suffolk in the time of George I. He spent a Sunday at Southwold, and found a congregation of only twenty-seven, in addition to the parson and the clerk, though he thought that the building was capable of holding five or six thousand people ; but the meeting-house of the dissenters was full to the very doors.2 The Methodist movement that stirred the country so deeply in the south and west in the second half of the eighteenth century made but little impression in East Anglia. John Wesley, the great itinerant evangelist, was always lamenting the sluggishness of the societies he founded at Norwich and Yarmouth. He never tarried in Suffolk during his earlier circuits, and at later dates he was seldom found anywhere in the county save in those parts that bordered on Norfolk. In October, 1764, he proceeded for the first time from Yarmouth to Lowestoft ; he remarks in his journal, ' a wilder con- gregation I have never seen, but the bridle was in their teeth.' On his next visit to the same place, three years later, he preached in the open air, though it was the month of February, for the house would not contain a fourth of the people who had assembled. On 9 November, 1776, the evangelist opened a new preaching house at Lowestoft, which he describes as ' a lighthouse building filled with deeply attentive hearers.' Wesley paid several other visits to Lowestoft up to the year 1790, on two occasions going to North- cove. In 1779 he enters 'a great awakening ' at Lowestoft; in 1781 'much life and much love'; and in 1782 'most comforting place in the whole circuit.' In 1776 Wesley preached at Beccles and noted in his journal that 'a duller place I have seldom seen. The people of the town were neither pleased nor vexed, as caring for none of these things ; yet fifty or sixty came into the house either to hear or see.' In 1790 the aged Wesley, then in his eighty-eighth year, paid his last visit to the eastern counties. Setting out early on Wednesday, 13 October, from Colchester, he found no post-horses at Copdock, and so was obliged to go round by Ipswich and wait there half an hour; nevertheless he got to Norwich between two and three. This seems to have been his only visit to Ipswich. On the following Friday he went to Lowestoft, where he was cheered by finding ' a steady, loving, well-instructed society.' On Wednesday the 2oth of the same month Wesley was at Diss in the morning. It was but rarely that his brother clergy had the courage to admit 1 Hilt, of Buff. 232. ' Defoe, Particular and Diverting Account of whatever is Curious and worth Obsetvation (1724). 50 Reference RELIGIOUS HOUSES BENEDICTINE MONKS i. Bury St. Edmunds Abbey a. Eye Priory 3. Dumvich Priory 4. Edwardstone Priory 5. Hoxne Priory 6. Rumburgh Priory 7. Snape Priory 8. Priory ot FelixstoWc BENKDICTINE NUNS 9. Bunpay Priory 10 Redliiigfteld Priory n. Thetford, Si Georges Priory CUIN1AC MONKS 12. Mendham Priory 13. Wangford Priory CISTERCIAN MONKS 14 Sibton Abbey AUSTIN CANONS 15. Aliwsbourn Priory i'. Blythburgh Priory 17. Bncelt Priory 1 8. Bulley Priory 19. Chipley Priory 20. Dodnash Priory 21. Herringfleet Priory 22. Ipswich, Priory of SS. Peter & Paul 23. Ipswich, Priory of the \lo\y Trinity 24. Ixworth Priory 25. Kersey Priory 26- Letheringliam Priory 27. Tbetford. Priory of the Holy Sepulchre 38. Woodbridge Priory AUSTIN NUNS. 29. Catnpsey Priory 30. FlixtoD Priory PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS 31. Leiston Abbey KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 32. Dunwicb KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS 33. Battisford Preceptory • FRIARIES 34. DuDwich, Dominican 35. Ipswich, 36. Sudbury, .. 37. Bury St. Edmunds, Franciscan 38. DuDwich, Franciscan 39. Ipswich, „ 40. Clare, Austin 41. Gorleston, ,, 42. Orlord, ,, 43. Ipswich. Carmelite HOUSE OF M1NORESSES 4^, Bruisyard Abbey HOSPITALS. 45. Becclea. 46. Bury St. Edmunds, Don us Dei 47. Bury St. Edmunds. St. Nicholas 4$. Bury St. Edmunds, St. Peter 49. Bury St. Edmunds, St. Petronilla 51 1. Bury St. Edmunds, St. Saviour 51. Dunwich, St. lames 52. „ Hofy Trinity S3 Eye 54. Gorleston •55-56. Ipswich. SS Mary NUdalenA James 57 Ipswich, St. Leonard 5859. Orford. SS. Leonard & John Baptist 60. Thetford, L)omus Dei 61. St. John 62. Sibfon 63. Sudbury, St. Leonard COLLEGES 64. Bury St. Edmunds, Jesus 65. Dencton 66. Ipswich, Cardinal 67. nettinghain 68. Stoke by Clare 69. Sudbury 70. Wingfield ALIEN HOUSES 71. Blakenham 72. Creeling St. Mary 73. Creeling St. Olave 74. Stoke by Clare 75. Great Thurlow 76. Sudbury Hospital Showing ANCIENT accon Sudbury 36.63.69. A 76. ECCLESIASTICAL MAP of SUFFOLK. RURAL DEANERIES and RELIGIOUS HOUSES. ling to the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535. Scale of Mile?. I 3 + (outhwold Battisford 33. Great Bricett -,17... 'cstoft NORTH SEA Aldeburgh i 58.59. 'Felixatone 8. Dodnash. X Suffolk was under the juris- diction of two Archdeacons ARCHDEACONRY OF SUFFOLK— The Deanery of Bosmere CarUord Colneys Dunwich ,, Hoxne Ipswich COM Lot It in gland Orford Sam ford Sth. Elmham Wangford Wilford ARCHDEACONRY or SUDBURY— The Deanery of Blackburne Clare „ Ford ham Hartismere Stow Sudbury Thedwastre Thingoe ARCHDEACONRY OF NORFOLK- The Deanery of Thetford Jurisdictioo of Canterbury ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY him to their pulpits; but on the bishop (George Home, 1790-2), who was in the neighbourhood, being appealed to if he had any objection to Wesley using the church, the reply was : ' Mr. Wesley is a regularly ordained minister of the Church of England, and if Mr. Manning has no objection to his preaching in his church, I can have none.' After preaching in Diss church in the morning, the aged evangelist proceeded to Bury St. Edmunds, where he preached that evening and the next ; but the journal does not say whether he was allowed to use either of the churches. Neither the Evangelical movement at the beginning of the last century, nor the Oxford movement of its centre, produced any particularly apparent or striking result in Suffolk, nor was any specially prominent leader of either of these revivals — the one the corollary of the other — connected for long with the county. Nevertheless both movements have doubtless had their decided weight in Suffolk and have tended to bring about marvellous improvements in most parishes, not only in the condition of the churches and the come- liness of worship, but also in an increase of congregations and of devout communicants. Mention, however, must not be omitted of the fact that to Suffolk belongs the honour of being the birthplace of the great Tractarian movement. Hugh James Rose, a distinguished Cambridge scholar, was appointed rector of Hadleigh and joint dean of Bocking by Archbishop Howley in 1830, but his health obliged him to resign this preferment and leave Suffolk towards the close of 1833. The design of the publication of a series of pamphlets on the position and true teaching of the Church of England from a High Church point of view was first discussed in the common room of Oriel College, Oxford; but it was at Hadleigh, in the historic library of the fine old brick tower of the rectory or deanery immediately to the west of the church, under the presidency of Mr. Rose, whose abilities and learning as editor of the British Magazine were acknowledged on all sides, that the project of issuing the 'Tracts for the Times' was thoroughly debated and the project crystal- lized. In July, 1833, Mr. William Palmer, Mr. Froude, and Mr. Arthur Perceval visited Mr. Rose for the express purpose of these deliberations. The conference at Hadleigh, which continued for nearly a week, concluded, says Mr. Palmer, without any specific arrangements being entered into, though all concerned agreed as to the necessity of some mode of combined action, and the expediency of circu- lating tracts or publications intended to inculcate sound and enlightened principles of attach- ment to the Church.1 APPENDIX ECCLESUSTIC4L DIVISION OF THE COUNTY The county of Suffolk was originally wholly in the diocese of East Anglia, which had, as we have seen, its first seat at Dunwich. In the seventh century the diocese was divided, Norfolk having its own bishops with the see centre at North Elmham, whilst Suffolk retained Dunwich as the episcopal seat of that county. These two East Anglian sees were reunited in the ninth century, when Suffolk lost its episcopal dignity, Elmham, and afterwards Thetford for a brief period, giving the name to the wide East Anglian diocese. Soon after the beginning of the Norman rule, the seat of the bishopric was transferred to Norwich. For seven and a half centuries the whole of Suffolk remained under the control of the Bishop of Norwich. A small portion of Cambridgeshire (thirteen parishes), on the Newmarket verge of 1 Narrative of Events connected with the fubl. of Tracts for the Times (1843), by Rev. W. Palmer, 6. 5' A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the county, was also under the rule of the same bishop, and formed part of the Suffolk rural deanery of Fordham. It is not possible to give any particular date for the subdivision of Suffolk into deaneries, but it was probably an accomplished fact when the county was divided in 1126 into two archdeaconries, namely those of Suffolk and Sudbury. The Norwich Taxation Roll of 1256 shows that the Suffolk archdeaconry then embraced the thirteen rural deaneries of Bosmere, Carlford, Claydon, Colneys, Dunwich, Hoxne, Ipswich, Loes, Lothingland, Orford, Samford, Wangford, and Wilford ; whilst eight deaneries formed the archdeaconry of Sudbury, namely Blackburne, Clare, Fordham, Hartis- mere, Stow, Sudbury, Thedwastre, and Thingoe. The only change that appears in the 1291 taxation is that South Elmham, a hitherto exempt jurisdiction, had become a recognized deanery of Suffolk archdeaconry. These arrangements held good at the time of the Valor of 1535, and for just three centuries beyond ; for it was not until the general upheaval of old diocesan arrangements by the Ecclesi- astical Commissioners in 1835-6 that any change was made. At that time the archdeaconry of Sudbury was annexed to the small diocese of Ely, with the not inconsiderable exceptions of the deaneries of Hartismere, Stow, and Sudbury, which were added to the archdeaconry of Suffolk.1 By this division of Suffolk between two dioceses there were left in the diocese of Norwich and archdeaconry of Suffolk 348 cures, namely 198 rectories, 135 vicarages or perpetual curacies, and 15 chapelries; whilst in the diocese of Ely and archdeaconry of Sudbury there were (in Suffolk) 174 cures, namely 126 rectories, 37 vicarages or perpetual curacies, and n chapelries.2 The Clergy List of 1860 shows that there were then two rural deans appointed for each of the deaneries of Bosmere, Carlford, Dunwich, Hartismere, Lothingland, Orford, and Wilford, implying their subdivision. At the present time (1906) the archdeaconry of Suffolk contains eighteen deaneries, all the old names and boundaries being maintained, but with the subdivisions they are : — Bosmere, Carlford, Claydon, Colneys, Dunwich North, Dunwich South, Hartismere North, Hartis- mere South, Hoxne, Ipswich, Loes, Lothingland, Orford, Samford, South Elmham, Stow, Wangford, and Wilford. The changes in the deanery designations and boundaries of the archdeaconry of Sudbury are much greater. The Cambridgeshire deanery of Camps, which was added to the archdeaconry at the time of the diocesan change, was transferred to the archdeaconry of Ely before 1880. Sudbury archdeaconry now consists exclusively of Suffolk parishes and is divided into the eleven deaneries of Blackburne, Clare, Fordham, Hadleigh, Horningsheath, Lavenham, Mildenhall, Sudbury, Thed- wastre, Thingoe, and Thurlow. There used to be four peculiars in Suffolk that were exempt from both diocesan and archidia- conal visitation. These were the rectories of Hadleigh, Monks Eleigh, and Moulton in the juris- diction of Canterbury ; and of Freckenham in the jurisdiction of Rochester. There is a movement now (1906) on foot for securing, by a readjustment of dioceses, a bishop to be spiritual overlord for the whole of Suffolk. Should this be accomplished there will be a reversion to the ancient arrange- ment of the seventh century. 1 6 & 7 Will. IV, cap. 77 ; Phillimore, Ecc. Law, i, 25. ' Suckling, Hist. o/Stif. i, 15. THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF SUFFOLK INTRODUCTION The Religious Houses of Suffolk were considerable in number, and in a few cases of no small importance. So far as the Benedictine or Black monks are concerned, the great abbey of St. Edmunds was one of the most important and wealthy houses of the order either in the British Isles or in continental Christendom. The amount of original information that is extant with regard to this foundation is quite unusual, and the little use that has hitherto been made of a great deal of this material is remarkable. The other houses of Black monks in the county were of comparatively small size and importance, and were, one and all, originally cells of some larger establishment outside Suffolk. The largest of these was the priory of Eye (with its cell of Dunwich) ; it was in the first instance an alien cell of the abbey of Bernay, but it became naturalized in 1385. Felixstowe was a cell of the cathedral priory of Rochester, and Edwardstone of the abbey of Abingdon, Hoxne of the cathedral priory of Norwich, and Sudbury of Westminster Abbey. Snape Priory was subject to the abbey of Col- chester ; its attempt in 1400 to secure its independence eventually failed. Rumburgh was a cell of St. Mary's, York ; its priors, though removable at the pleasure of the York abbot and changed with great frequency, were always presented to the bishop before taking office ; there were no fewer than forty priors between 1308 and the dissolution, their average rule being only for five years. There were two houses of Benedictine nuns, namely those of Redling- field and Bungay, the latter of which was continuously supplied by daughters of the local gentry. The Cluniac monks had two small houses, Mendham Priory, which was a subordinate cell of Castle Acre, and Wangford, a cell of Thetford Priory, which was naturalized in 1393. The other great reformed branch of the Benedictines, the White monks, or Cistercians, had a comparatively small abbey at Sibton, of some local importance. The Austin canons had a large number of priories in this county, as well as in Norfolk, which were mostly quite small. Such were the priories of Alnes- bourn, Bricett, Chipley, Dodnash, Herringfleet, Kersey, and Woodbridge. Butley was an Austin house of some wealth and importance, whose mem- 53 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK bers were usually recruited from the gentlefolk. Ipswich had two Austin priories within its walls, dedicated respectively to the Holy Trinity and to SS. Peter and Paul ; between them they held the advowsons of almost all the churches in Ipswich and its suburbs, and were otherwise of no small influence in the administration of the affairs of the town. Ixworth was next in importance to Butley among these priories, both in numbers and name ; sixteen canons, in addition to the prior, signed the acceptance of royal supremacy in 1534. The priories of Blythburgh and Letheringham were also Austin foundations ; the former a cell of St. Osyth, Essex, and the latter a cell of St. Peter, Ipswich. The Austin nuns had two foundations, Campsey and Flixton. The former was an establishment of renown, the sisters always being ladies of birth, daughters of the old landed gentry of Norwich diocese ; it seems to have been always free from the slightest taint of scandal, although it was unique among all English nunneries in having a small college of secular priests within the precinct walls. The Premonstratensian or White canons held the abbey of Leiston, in the extreme south of the hundred of Blything ; the site was changed in 1363. The Knights Templars had an early foundation at ill-fated Dunwich, the church of which was known as ' the Temple ' long after their suppression. The Suffolk commandery of the Knights Hospitallers was at Battisford, whence annual contributions were sought throughout the whole county. Suffolk was well supplied with the mendicant orders. There were three houses of Dominican friars, namely at Dunwich, Ipswich, and Sudbury. There were also three houses of Franciscan friars, namely at Dunwich, Ipswich, and Babwell near Bury St. Edmunds. The Austin friars had also three priories in Suffolk, at Orford, Gorleston or South Yarmouth, and at Clare in close connexion with the castle. This foundation at Clare seems to have been the most important house of their order in England. The Carmelites had a single house at Ipswich. At Bruisyard, founded on the site of a former college in 1366, was an establishment of Nuns Minoresses, or poor sisters of St. Clare, under the rule of an abbess. There were only four houses of this Franciscan order in England, namely the head house at the Minories without Aldgate in the city of London, this Suffolk abbey, and the Cambridgeshire houses of Denney and Waterbeach. With regard to alien priories, in addition to Eye and Stoke-by-Clare, whose denization saved them from extinction, and the semi-alien Cluniac cell of Wangford, there were in Suffolk three small cells of foreign Benedictine abbeys, which fell at the time of the general suppression of the alien houses. These were Blakenham, pertaining to the great abbey of Bee, Greeting St. Mary to the abbey of Bernay, and Greeting St. Olave to the abbey of Grestein. The hospitals of the county — for such establishments ought always to be included in lists of religious houses, as they were under the rule of those who led vowed lives, and usually of the Austin profession — were fairly numerous. They were to be found at Bury (5), Ipswich (3), Dunwich (2), Orford (2), Beccles, Eye, Gorleston, Sibton and Sudbury. Out of these seventeen, no fewer than eleven were founded for the use of lepers. 54 RELIGIOUS HOUSES The examples of colleges or collegiate churches in Suffolk are not many, but they were fairly representative of different classes of such foundations for the promotion of a common life amongst those serving a particular church. The oldest of these was that of Mettingham Castle, which had been originally established in 1350 at Raveningham, in Norfolk, by Sir John de Norwich; his grandson, about 1387, moved these secular canons and the rest of the establishment to Mettingham. The college of Bruisyard, estab- lished in 1334 and removed here after an existence of seven years at Campsey, had but a short life, being suppressed in favour of a nunnery in 1356. The college at Wingfield was founded in 1362 ; and that of Sudbury was founded by Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, and his brother in 1374. Stoke-by-Clare, originally a Benedictine cell, was changed into an establishment of secular canons with vicars, clerks, and choristers in 1415. Jesus College, Bury St. Edmunds, was founded in the time of Edward IV, for the common life of certain chantry priests ; and Denston College was a like foundation about the same time, but on a smaller scale. The ill-fated Cardinal's College, Ipswich, 1522, fell at the time of its founder's downfall, ere it was completed. As to the colleges, it is usual for many writers on monastic sub- jects to point with no little approval to the founding of collegiate estab- lishments instead of monasteries, seeing therein a love of education and culture rather than of cloistered life. But a closer study of these colleges in any given area would probably lead to a revision of such opinions ; certainly in Suffolk the life and work of the monasteries would compare favourably with that of the colleges. The promotion of learning was little advanced by these collegiate establishments, and certainly the monasteries were doing something in that direction. The later administration of Sudbury College was most wasteful, and the funds squandered by non-resident secular canons at the wealthy college of Stoke-by-Clare could not possibly have been thus misused when in Benedictine hands. Perhaps other bishops, besides Bishops Goldwell and Nykke, kept special registers of monastic visitations, but none are extant save those of these two prelates, whose visitations from 1492 to 1532 are among the Bodleian manuscripts. Their visitation records were printed by the Camden Society in 1884, under the editorship of Dr. Jessopp. To that volume the ensuing notices of the particular religious houses are much indebted. After studying, with as much closeness and frankness as is possible, the records of the latter days of the religious houses of East Anglia and their suppression, we find the opinion at which other investigators have recently arrived become more and more strengthened, namely that the condition of England's monasteries was better, and the general fulfilment of the solemn obligations more faithfully observed, in the last fifty years of their life than at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries. The record of the exceedingly faithful and severe visitations of the White canons of Leiston Abbey shows that the extra-diocesan visitations of religious houses of those of their own order could be thorough and genuine, and sternly punitive in cases of offence. Nor, so far as we are aware, is there any reason to suspect that visitations of both Benedictines and Austins, by their own duly authorized visitors, to which even the 'exempt' abbey of St. Edmunds 55 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK had to submit, were on less scrupulous lines. Such visitations were made every three years, whereas those made by the diocesan were, as a rule, only undertaken every six years. The amount of material that has had to be digested before producing the following brief sketches of the different houses has, in some cases, been exceptionally large. The extant records of St. Edmunds are almost over- powering in their number, whilst the chartularies or registers of the houses of Eye, Sibton, Blythburgh, Campsey, and Leiston, with Clare Friary and Stoke-by-Clare Priory, are considerable in extent. The endeavour has been made in each case to point out to the student the source or sources of further information.1 HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS i. THE ABBEY OF BURY ST. EDMUNDS2 In the year 903, or somewhat later, the relics 1 The lists of superiors, though much fuller than ;iny hitherto attempted, are not to be considered as exhaustive in all cases. * Several particulars with regard to the more general details of the history of this great abbey have already appeared in the sketch of the Ecclesiastical History of Suffolk, and are not here repeated. The MS. sources of information with regard to this great Benedictine house are a good deal more numerous than those that are extant for any other English religious foundation. But, first of all, mention must be made of the Memorials of St. Edmund 's Abbey (Rolls Ser.), in 3 vols., 1 890-6, edited by Thomas Arnold. The MSS. there printed are : Volume i (a),' The Passion of St. Edmund ' by Abbo of Fleury, c. IOOO ; (b) 'The Miracles of St. Edmund ' by Archdeacon Herman, c. 1095 ; (c) 'The Infancy of St. Edmund 'by Geoffrey de Fontibus, c. \ i 50 ; (d) ' The Miracles of St. Edmund ' by Abbot Samson, c. 1190; and (e) Jocelyn's Chronicle, 1 182-121 1. Volume ii contains : (a) An anonymous chronicle, breaking off 1212 ; (b) three narratives of the elections of abbots in 1215, 1257, and 1302 respectively; (c) a French metrical biography of St. Edmund by Denis Piramus ; (d) an account of the expulsion of the Grey Friars from Bury in 1257 and 1263 ; (e) the story of the Great Riots of 1327 ; and (f) Building Acts of the Sacrists from 1065 to 1200. Volume iii contains : (a) ' The Chronicle of Bury, 1 020— 1 346 ' ; (b) the Collectanea of Andrew Aston, hosteller of Bury, made in 1426 ; (c) Excerpts from Cambridge MSS. 1351 to 1462; (d) the Curteys Registers, 1429 to 1446; (e) the destruction of the -church by fire, 1465 ; (f) a short general chronicle -from the Conquest to 1471 ; and (g) a variety of valuable excerpts in an appendix. The introduction supplies full particulars as to the MSS. cited. MSS. IN BRITISH MUSEUM I. Harl. MS. 3977 is the ' Liber Consuetudinarius ' of the abbey, c. 1300, with a few later additions. It deals with the reception of novices, the professions of the monks, the different penances, the duties of the of the martyred king, St. Edmund, were trans- lated from the comparatively obscure wooden obedientiaries, and various matters pertaining rather to a chartulary than a custumary. There are also certain folios of general chronicles. Many of the facts contained in it, which have hitherto been ignored by writers on this monastery, are given in the account in the text. The heads of the forty-six chapters of this custumary are given in a note in Dugdale's Man. iii, 116-17. II. Harl. MS. 1005 is a thick vellum quarto entitled ' Liber Albus,' in different hands, of nearly 300 folios. The contents are most varied ; but its chief importance lies in the fact that it is to a great extent a custumary of the abbey, for so many details and ordinances relative to its minor working are scattered throughout the folios. These are chiefly to be found on fol. 49—64, 69, 84^, 88^-92^, 95-109, 117, 192-213. III. Harl. MS. 645, termed ' Registrum Kempe,' contains 261 large parchment folios. The contents are singularly varied, and are set forth in some detail in the old catalogue of the Harl. MSS. (vol. i, 396). IV. Harl. MS. 447 is a book of general annals, written in this monastery about 1300 ; it begins with the creation and ends in 1212. It contains a few special facts as to the history of the abbey. V. Harl. MS. 1332 is another parchment volume of general annals, with a few local details, written rather earlier than the last ; it is imperfect, and ends in 1093. VI. Add. MS. 14847 is the ' Registrum Album ' of the monastery, written c. 1 300, with a few additions by a slightly later hand. This chartulary of 95 folios con- tains copies of several Anglo-Saxon documents in the orthography of the thirteenth century. VII. Harl. MS. 230 is the register of Abbot Thomas of Tottington (1302—12) and of Abbot Richard of Draughton (131 2-3 5). VIII. Add. MS. 14850 is a large chartulary of 107 folios (xv cent, or xvi cent.) containing many rentals, custumaries, and charters from registers of abbots from 1 279 to 1312; rentals, surveys of several manors, and plan of the water-pipes of the monastery. IX. Harl. MS. 743 is an interesting collection of charters, ordinances, &c., pertaining to the abbey compiled by John Lakynghethe, a fourteenth-century RELIGIOUS HOUSES chapel of Hoxne to Beodricsworth, afterwards known as Bury St. Edmunds.1 The first church in which the body of St. Edmund was placed when it was removed monk of St. Edmunds, and generally called by his name. This contains 280 folios. A full calendar of the contents, arranged alphabetically, occupies the first fifty folios. This is followed by a dated list of the successive abbots, with brief remarks as to their acts, from Uvius, the first abbot (1020), down to John of Brinkley, who died in 1379. X. Add. MS. 1 4849 supplies extents and custumaries taken in 1357 and 1387 ; and various statutes and letters of Edward III. XI. Lansd. MS. 416, called ' Ikworth,' is a register of the rents pertaining to the office of infirmarian, arranged in alphabetical order by Thomas Ikworth, infirmarian, in 1425, on 87 folios. XII. Tiberius B. ix, of the Cotton MSS. is much damaged by fire. From folio i to 203 is a register of the abbey during the rule of two successive abbots, _William of Cratfield and William of Exeter, who ruled from 1390 to 1429. XIII. A. xii, of the Cotton MSS. contains the ' Registrum Hostilariae,' a collection of documents put together by Andrew Aston, hosteller, in 1426. The contents are printed, as already stated, in Arnold's Memorials. XIV. Add. MS. 1 4848 is the 'Registrum Curteys' _pr register of the acts of William Curteys, abbot 1429- 46. XV. Add. MS. 1096 is the ' Registrum Curteys II,' a very large volume of 221 folios. The more important letters are in Arnold's Memorials, iii, 241—79. XVI. Harl. MS. 638, known as 'Registrum Werke- ton,' is a fifteenth-century chartulary of 270 folios. Among the more important contents, in addition to the chartulary proper, may be mentioned (i) the process against the Friars Minors and their expulsion from the town of St. Edmunds in 1293 (printed by Arnold, op. cit. ii, 263-85) ; (2) a taxation roll of the pos- sessions of the abbey in the archdeaconries of Sudbury and Suffolk in 1200 ; (3) charters, temp. Richard II, relative to the hospital of Domus Dei ; (4) a con- vention, of 49 Edward III, between the abbots of St. Edmunds and Malmesbury as to the use of quadam camera honesta in Kewell Street, Oxford, for the use of students from St. Edmunds. XVII. Harl. MS. 58 is in the main a register of the rents due to the sacrist, drawn up in the year 1433, when John Cranewys was sacrist. It also includes the various dues (relevia) in the town of St. Edmunds paid yearly to the sacrist under the term Hadgovell, which began in the year 1354. XVIII. Harl. MS. 27 is a register known as ' Registrum Croftis,' consisting of 178 folios, in fifteenth- century hands. It relates to the property of the pittancer. XIX. Harl. MS. 312 is a collection of transcripts, but there is nothing that is not found elsewhere. XX. Add. MS. 31970 is a portion of a register of charters, rentals, and other evidences. XXI. Harl. MS. 308 contains a collection of leases granted by the abbey from gth to 3istof Henry VIII. MSS. IN CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY There are six registers of Bury St. Edmunds in 2 57 from the decent tomb (competent mausoleo) at Hoxne was a large church made of wood with much skill by the people of the district of all ranks.2 Edmund son of Edward the Elder granted in 945 the lands round Beodricsworth to the family 3 of the monastery. At that time the this library. They formerly belonged to the Bacons, to whom the abbey was granted : I. ¥.2, 29 is the ' Registrum Rubeum I,' 87 folios ; it deals with the privileges, disputes, and agreements of the reign of Henry IV. II. Ff.4, 35 is the ' Registrum Rubeum II' ; a con- tinuation of the preceding one, with some additions of the next reign. III. Ff.z, 33 is the ' Registrum Sacristae,' compiled by R. de Denham, who was sacrist temp. Edward II. In this volume are transcripts of 48 Saxon charters. IV. Ee.3, 36 is the 'Album Registrum Vestiarii,' 326 folios ; the work of Walter de Pyncebek, monk of St. Edmunds, begun in the year 1333 ; it is chiefly occupied with a register of all the pleadings, &c. between the town of Bury St. Edmunds and the abbey. V. Gg.4, 4 is the first part of the ' Registrum Alphabeticum Cellararii.' VI. Mm. 4, 19 is the 'Registrum Nigrum,' of different hands, and of 241 folios. It is a chartulary of royal grants and papal confirmations, as well as of general benefactions and privileges. Some of the salient points from these Cambridge registers are given in Arnold's Memorials, iii, 177-2 1 6. MSS. IN VARIOUS PLACES A. Public Record Office. Duchy of Lane. Records, xi, 5. This is a ' Registrum Cellararii ' of I 52 folios, containing pleas of Edward I and II, bounds and rentals of Mildenhall, &c., and transcripts of all charters relative to the cellarer's office up to 1256. B. Barton Hall, Suffolk (Sir E. Bunbury). 'Regis- trum Cellararii II.' This is the second part of the alphabetical chartulary, the first part of which is in the Univ. Lib. Camb. C. Public Library at Douai. Cod. 5 5 3 is the Liber Cenobii S. Edmundi, c. 1424. The 72 folios of this register are occupied with a list of benefactors, and the rules of the Officium Coquinariae, the last compiled by Andrew Aston, who also compiled Claud. A. xii, of the British Museum. See Dr. James's treatise on the Library and Church of St. Edmunds (Camb. Antiq. Soc. 1895), pp. 180-2. D. Bodleian Library, MS. 240. This is a great codex of 898 pages, in late fourteenth-century hands. A note at the beginning styles it ' Liber Monachorum Sancti Edmundi,' and gives 1377 as the date of its beginning. Dr. Horsman has given a summary of the contents of this book in the preface to his Nov. Leg. Angl. 1(1901). The chief contents relating to Bury are a very full life of St. Edmund, and an account of the monastic discipline for the novices of the house. Excerpts are given in Arnold's Memorials, i, 358-77 ; ii, 362-8. 1 The date 903 is assigned to this translation in the Curteys Register (pt. I, fol. 211), and it is the most likely of the early authorities to be correct. ' Abbo, < Life ' (Jesus Coll. Oxf. MSS.) ; Arnold, Mem. (Rolls Ser.), i, 19. 5 ' Familie monasterii,' Chart. Edmund II ; Arnold (op. cit.), i, 340. 8 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK household or college of clerks, to whom the duty of guarding the shrine was assigned, consisted of six persons, four priests and two deacons. Her- man supplies their names.1 In the year 1010 Ailwin, the chief guardian of the shrine, hearing that the Danes had landed, took up the body of the saint, and passing through Essex in search of a place of greater security eventually reached London, where the relics remained for three years. On the return of tranquillity, notwithstanding the opposition of the Bishop of London and his flock (who are said to have been miraculously baffled), Ailwin returned with the relics to their former resting- place.2 In 1 020 /Elfwine, bishop of Elmham, formerly a monk of Ely, removed the seculars in charge of the shrine, and twenty monks, headed by Uvius, prior of Holme, were installed at Beodrics- worth. Uvius was consecrated the first abbot of Bury St. Edmunds by the Bishop of London, and a new stone church was begun by the order of Cnut.3 In IO2O Cnut granted an ample charter of endowment and liberties. The fundus or farm of St. Edmunds was to be for ever in the hands of the Benedictine monks of the abbey, and they were to be exempt from episcopal jurisdiction. At any time when the English might be called upon to pay danegeld for the support of the Danish fleet and army of occupation, the tenants of the abbey were to be taxed at a like rate for the benefit of the monastery. Regal rights in their fisheries were made over to the monks, and by the same charter there were assigned, as a gift from Queen Emma, four thousand eels yearly from Lakenheath. Finally, full juris- diction in all their townships was granted to the abbot.4 The first stone church was consecrated by ./Ethelnoth, archbishop of Canterbury, on 1 8 Oc- tober, 1032, and dedicated to the honour of Christ, St. Mary and St. Edmund.6 In 1035 Hardicanute confirmed and extended the privileges of the monks of St. Edmunds, imposing the impossible fine of thirty talents of gold on anyone found guilty of infringing the franchises of the abbey.6 Edward the Confessor first visited St. Edmunds in 1044, ar>d °f his great devotion granted to the abbey the manor of Mildenhall, full freedom to elect their own abbot, and jurisdiction over eight and a half hundreds ; 1 Herman, ' De Miraculis S. Edm.' (Tib. B. ii) ; Arnold (op. cit.), i, 30. * Herman, loc. cit. ; Arnold, Mem. (Rolls Ser.), i, 42-5. 3 Arnold, Mem. i, p. xxvii ; Clarke, Chron. ofjocelyn, 259. 4 Dugdale, Mem. iii, 137-8. * Arnold, Mem. i, pp. xxvii, 348 ; Matt. Westm. Hist. Flares sub ann. 6 Nov. Leg. diigl. ii, 607. that is to say, over about a third of the wide- spread county of Suffolk.7 In the same year Uvius died, and was succeeded as abbot by Leofstan, one of the monks who had accompanied Uvius from Holme. The rule of Leofstan (1044-65) nearly coin- cided with the reign of the Confessor. It is said by Herman to have been a period of sloth and torpor at the abbey, from which the monks were roused by the entreaties and reproaches of .flLlfgeth, a Winchester woman, who had been cured of a congenital dumbness at the shrine. At her instigation, the resting-place of the saint was restored. On the death of Leofstan in 1065, the influence of the Confessor caused the choice of the monks to fall on the king's French physician, Baldwin, a monk of St. Denis, a native of Chartres. The Confessor in that year granted a mint to the abbey.8 This seems to be the first time that Beodricsworth was styled St. Edmunds- bury or Bury St. Edmunds (Seynt Edmunds Biri).9 In 1071 Abbot Baldwin visited Rome, where Pope Alexander II received him with peculiar honour, and gave him a crozier, a ring, and a precious altar of porphyry. His chief object in undertaking the journey was to oppose the claim of Herfast, bishop of Thetford, to remove the seat of the East Anglian bishopric to Bury St. Edmunds. In this he was successful, the pope taking the monks of St. Edmund under the special protection of the holy see, and forbidding that a bishop's see should ever be there estab- lished. William the Conqueror also granted a charter to the like effect, and confirmed their exemption from episcopal jurisdiction.10 Towards the end of his abbacy Baldwin found the wealth of the house, through fresh bene- 7 Dugdale, Man. iii, loo, 138. These eight hun- dreds were those of Thingoe, Thedwastre, Blackburne, Bradbourn, Bradmere, Lackford, Risbridge, and Ba- bergh ; the half-hundred was that of Ezning. 0 This privilege of a moneyer was confirmed by the Conqueror, William II, Henry I, Richard I, John, and Henry III. The presentation and admission on oath of moneyers and assayers during the reigns of Henry III and the first three Edwards occur frequently in the Registers ' Kempe ' and ' Werketone ' (Harl. MSS. 638, 645 ). During the Great Riot of 1 327 the townsmen carried off all things pertaining to the abbey mint. On 22 January, 1327-8, the king ordered a new die and assay for the mint to be made in the place of those which had been taken and destroyed by the mob (Harl. MSS. 645, fol. 134). The sacrist's register, temp. Edward II, names the following mint officials : ' Monetaries, Cambiator, duo Custodes, duo Assaia- tores, et Custos Cunei.' The abbots retained their privilege of coining until the reign of Edward III. Other particulars relative to the St. Edmunds mint are given in Battely, 134-43. See also Ruding, dnnals of the Coinage of Britain (1840), ii, 218-20 ; and Andrew, Numismatic Hist, of Henry I, 385-92. 9 Battely, Antiq. S. Edmundi Burgi, 134. 10 The texts of both bull and charter are given in Arnold's Memorials, i, 344, 347. RELIGIOUS HOUSES factions and the growth of the town, increasing so rapidly that he felt justified in rebuilding the church on a nobler scale.1 The stone was pro- cured from the fine quarries of Barnack, North- amptonshire, which belonged to the abbot of Peterborough, through the direct mandate of the Conqueror, who also ordered that the usual tolls should be remitted for its conveyance.2 At length the noble church built by Abbot Baldwin and his sacrists, Thurstan and Tolineus, was finished, and on 29 April, 1095, the body of St. Edmund translated with much pomp to its shrine, was Walkelin, bishop of Winchester, being the pre- siding prelate. Baldwin died in 1097, and Rufus, following his usual policy of ecclesiastical pillage, prolonged the vacancy for a considerable time. When Henry I came to the throne, he gave the abbacy in noo to Robert, one of the illegitimate sons of Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester. Two years later this Robert was deposed, because he had accepted the office without the consent or the election of the monks. Robert II, a monk of Westminster, was elected fifth abbot in 1102 ; but there was a delay of five years — namely, till 15 August, 1107 — ere he was consecrated by St. Anselm. He only lived a few weeks after his benediction, for his death occurred on 16 September of the same year.3 After an interregnum of seven years — namely, in 1 114 — Albold, prior of St. Nicasiusat Meaux, was elected sixth abbot ; he died in 1119, when there was again a vacancy of nearly two years, till in 1 1 2 1 Anselm, abbot of St. Saba at Rome, and nephew of Archbishop Anselm, accepted the abbacy. In his days — namely, in 1 132 — Henry I made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Edmund, in accordance with a vow made during a storm at sea. About the year 1135, Abbot Anselm, in lieu of making a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, built the fine church of St. James within the abbey precincts ; it was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time Henry I granted him the privilege of a prolonged fair at St. Edmunds — namely, on the festival of St. James, and on three days before and two days after.4 Abbot Anselm died in 1 146, when Ording, the prior of the house, was elected eighth abbot. Four years later a fire occurred which destroyed almost the whole of the conventual buildings, including the chapter-house. The rebuilding 1 The Domesday returns as to the wealth of the abbey will be found in that section. The annual value of the town 'ubi quiescit humatus S. Ead- mundus rex et martyr gloriosus ' was double that of its value under the Confessor. 1 ' Reg. Nigrum ' and ' Reg. Sacr.' cited by Battely, 49-50. 1 These dates are usually given wrong ; as to the two Roberts, see Arnold's Memorials, \, p. xxxvi. 4 Battely, op. cit. 69. was accomplished by Helyas, the sacrist, Ording's nephew. This Ording, who was abbot until 1156, was a homo i/literatus, according to Jocelyn's chronicle, but ruled wisely and obtained an extension of privileges from Stephen. On his death, Hugh, prior of Westminster, was chosen ninth abbot in January, 1156—7, receiving bene- diction at Colchester from Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury. It is said that on that occasion the primate strove to exact future submission to the see of Canterbury. In 1161 a bull of Pope Alexander II sanctioned an appeal to the holy see in certain important matters,5 and eleven years later the same pope issued a further bull exempt- ing the abbey from the visitation of the archbishop of the province, even though coming as legatus natus* Hugh's somewhat lax rule, on which Jocelyn descants at the beginning of his chronicle, came to an end in 1180 in the twenty-third year of his abbacy. He was making a pilgrimage to St. Thomas of Canterbury, when he fell from his horse at Rochester on 9 September and severely injured his knee. He was brought back to St. Edmunds in a horse-litter, but died on 15 November. A year and three months elapsed before royal assent could be obtained to proceed with a new election, and when the king's letters at last arrived it was laid down that the prior and twelve of the convent were to appear before him to make choice of an abbot. When the chapter met they charged the prior, at the peril of his soul, con- scientiously to choose twelve to accompany him, from whose life and conversation it might be depended that they would not swerve from the right. The prior thereupon nominated six from one side of the choir and six from the other, his choice ' by the dictation of the Holy Ghost ' being commended by all. The chapter, how- ever, were not disposed to leave the matter entirely in the hands of the thirteen ; they chose six other of their number of the best reputation, who went apart, and, with their hands on the Gospels, selected three men of the convent most fit to be abbot. The names of the three were committed to writing, sealed up and given to those who were to go before the king. If they found they were to have free election of one of their own house, then they were to break the seal and present the three names to the king for his election. They were further instructed, in case of necessity, to accept anyone of their own convent nominated by the king, but to return to consult the chapter if the king named an out- 1 Arnold's Mem. iii, 78-80, gives the full text of this bull. 6 Shortly afterwards, in Archbishop Richard's time, the abbey was exempted from the visitation of even a legate a latere. On the visitation exemptions of the abbey see Rokewood's edition of Jocelyn's Chronicle (1840), 108-9. 59 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK sider. The deputation came before the king at Waltham, one of the Hampshire manors of the Bishop of Winchester, on 21 February, 1182, when they were told to nominate three members of their convent. Retiring, they broke the seal of the writing and found, to their surprise, the names of Samson the sub-sacrist, Roger the cellarer, and Hugh the third prior, entered in that order, those of higher standing being ignored. Their oath forbade them to alter the names, but they changed the order, according to convent precedency, and placed Samson last. Jocelyn enters into full detail as to what subsequently happened before the king, and the nomination of others, but eventually the deputation agreed upon Samson as their first choice, the king concurred, and the Bishop of Winchester gave Samson the episcopal benediction at Merewell on 28 Feb- ruary.1 On Palm Sunday, 21 March, Samson was solemnly received by the convent, and homage was done to him on the fourth day of Easter by barons, knights, and freemen. For the thirty years of his rule, Abbot Samson proved himself to be a superior of unflinching integrity and of exceptional business capacities. Jocelyn's narra- tive comes to an end nine years before Samson's death ; up to that date the information as to his rule is exceptionally full. The following is a very brief abstract of the more important events of his reign. Samson was appointed a judge in the ecclesiastical courts by Pope Lucius III in 1182, and obtained the privilege of giving the episcopal benediction, in 1187, from Pope Urban III ; in 1 1 84 he was appointed by the holy see one of three arbitrators in a dispute between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the monks of Christ Church, in 1200 between the archbishop and the canons of Lambeth, and in 1 20 1 one of the three commissioners sent by the pope to Worcester to inquire into the mi- racles of St. Wulfstan ; in 1203 he was ap- pointed by the pope on a commission concerning the dispensation of Crusaders from their vows, and was summoned over sea to advise the king on this question. He restored the church of Woolpit to the monastery (1183), founded St. Saviour's Hospital (1184-5), effected the entire discharge of the abbey's debts (1194), took the cellarer's department into his own hands (1196), and transferred the shrine of St. Edmund to the high altar, viewing the body 1 Jocelyn, Chron. cap. 3. Jocelyn's delightful chronicle, which reveals the inner monastic life of the twelfth century in so intimate a manner, occupies 43 folios of the Liber Albus(Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 121-63). It was edited by Mr. Rokewode for the Camden Society in 1840. Carlyle made it famous in Past and Present (1843), giving it unqualified praise. Sir Ernest Clarke edited the chronicle anew in 1903, with many good notes and a table of dates of events pertaining to abbey affairs ; this admirable edition has been of much service in preparing this sketch. (1190). In 1181 Henry II was at Bury, and Samson was refused permission to accompany him to the Crusades. He took active part in the collection of money for the ransom of Richard I, in 1 1 93, when a gold chalice given to the abbey by Henry II was ceded for that purpose, and visited the king in his German prison, taking with him many gifts. The king, on his return to England in March, 1194, after an absence of four and a quarter years, proceeded at once to make a thanksgiving visit to St. Edmunds. The death of Richard was a great loss to Samson and the abbey. John, immediately after his coronation in May, 1199, visited Bury, but caused great disappointment by his excessive meanness. We indeed, says Jocelyn, believed that he was come to make offering of some great matter ; but all he offered was one silken cloth, which his servants had borrowed from our sacrist, and to this day have not paid for. He availed himself of the hospitality of St. Edmund, which was attended with enormous expense, and upon his departure bestowed nothing at all, either of honour or profit upon the saint, save I T,d. sterling, which he offered at his mass, on the day of his departure. King John again visited Bury on 21 December, 1203, when he made no personal offering, but granted the abbey 10 marks annually from the exchequer, persuading the convent to return him for life certain valuable jewels which his mother, Queen Eleanor, had given to St. Edmund.8 Abbot Samson died, at the ripe age of seventy- seven, at twilight (' inter lupum et canem ') on 30 December, I2II. It was the fourth year of the Interdict, and even an abbot could only be buried in silence and in unconsecrated ground, and the sorrowing monks had to cover over his remains in a little meadow hard by. The Interdict was removed in July, 1214, and the remains of Samson were exhumed and reinterred in the chapter-house on 12 August of that year.3 The tyrannical John gave a deaf ear to the requests of the monks for a free election, and finding it to his advantage to keep the office vacant, strenuously insisted on royal prerogative. In July, 1213, he gave a half consent to an election, and the monks chose Hugh Northwold ; but the king refused confirmation. In Novem- ber, 1214, the king even lectured the monks in their own chapter-house as to his rights in the matter. The convent appealed to Rome, and the papal commissioners finally gave judgement in Hugh's favour in March, 1215 ; the king's reluctant approval to this appointment was wrung from him in Staines meadow on 9 June of the same year.4 Meanwhile the abbey had played a most important part in the national resistance to the 1 Rokewode, Chron. of Jocelyn, 1 54. •Arnold, Mem. ii, 19, 20, 62, 85. 4 Ibid, ii, pp. xv, 95-6. 60 RELIGIOUS HOUSES despotism of John. The earls and barons met at Bury on 20 November, 1214, assembling in the great conventual church ; Archbishop Langton read to them Henry I's charter, and each swore on the high altar to make war on John unless he granted them the liberties therein contained.1 As a result of this Magna Charta was sealed on 15 June following. In 1224 Abbot Hugh II appeared instate at the royal camp before Bedford Castle, attended by the knights holding manors under St. Edmund. Abbot Hugh, whom Matthew Paris describes as 'flos magistrorum monachorum, abbas abbatum, et episcopus episcoporum,' was unanimously chosen bishop by the monks of Ely in 1229; he died in 1254.* On 20 November, 1229, Richard, abbot of Burton, formerly a monk of St. Edmunds, was installed twelfth abbot, it being St. Edmund's Day.3 Abbot Richard only ruled for some five years ; for on his return from the court of Pope Gregory in 1234, whither he had gone in a matter of appeal, he was attacked in Septem- ber with mortal illness and died at Pontigny. His body was embalmed and brought back to St. Edmunds for interment in the chapter-house. It was not until 27 September, 1235, that another election was held, when the choice of the monks fell on their prior, Henry of Rush- brook, as their thirteenth abbot. In the year of his election, Henry III granted to Abbot Henry two fairs at Bury and a market at his manor of Melford. Among those excused from attendance at the council of Lyons in 1245 was Abbot Henry, owing to an attack of the gout (morbo podagrico laborantem}.* In the same year, at the request of the convent, Henry III gave the name of Edmund to his newly born son, who became the founder of the house of Lancaster.6 A bull was issued by Innocent III in July, 1248, pre- scribing the solemn celebration of the feast of the translation of St. Edmund to be observed on 29 April.8 Abbot Henry died in 1248, and was succeeded in the same year by Edmund Walpole, LL.D., who had only worn the monk's habit for two years. Abbot Edmund and his two predecessors all received episcopal benediction at the hands of good Bishop Hugh of Ely, their former abbot. In March, 1249-50, Henry III took the cross at the hands of the Archbishop of Canter- bury ; whereupon Abbot Walpole did the same, exposing himself, as Matthew Paris says, to 1 Roger of Wendover, f lores (Rolls Ser.), iii, 293-4. 'Matt. Paris, Hist. Maj. (ed. 1640), 891-2. "The memorandum as to his election (Bodleian Chart. Suff. No. 37) is printed in Hearne, Chron. of Dunstable, \\, 837. 4 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 413. 'The text of this letter is given in Arnold's Mem. iii, 28. 6 Nov. Leg. Angl. li, 574. general derision and setting a pernicious example to monks, for such a vow was inconsistent with the vow of the monastic order.7 Revised statutes for the governance of this abbey were approved in 1256 by Pope Alexander IV ; they provided, Inter alia, for four church watchers, night and day, two for the shrine of St. Edmund, and two for the church treasure and clock. On the last day of this year Abbot Edmund died. His successor, Simon of Luton, the prior, was elected fifteenth abbot on 15 January, 1256-7. He was exempted from going in person to Rome to procure papal confirmation ; but the securing of the confirmation by Alexander IV cost the vast sum of 2,000 marks, and was not obtained until October. The story of the expulsion of the Grey Friars from Bury during this abbacy is told in the account of the friary, which they were permitted to establish at Babwell. At Easter, 1264, a serious conflict arose between the monastery and the town burgesses, which resulted in the infliction of a fine on the latter. Henry III during the troublous years at the close of his reign was at the abbey of St. Edmund's on several occasions. Tarrying here on his way back from Norwich in the autumn of 1272 he was taken seriously ill, and according to some accounts breathed his last in the abbey on 1 6 November. On 17 April, Edward I and his queen came to St. Edmund's on a pilgrimage to the shrine, to fulfil a vow they had made when in the Holy Land. Abbot Simon died in April, 1279, and was buried in the Lady chapel of his own recent building. John of Northwold, the hosteller, was elected sixteenth abbot by his brethren on 6 May, 1279. His journey to Rome and fees to procure con- firmation cost 1175 marks. On his return he was solemnly received on 28 December in the abbey church, which he ruled for twenty-two years. The crown, in June, 1285, granted to the abbey the fines for trespasses against the assize of weights and measures whenever the king's ministers made a view thereof; the said fines to be collected by the abbey and applied to the decoration of the tomb of St. Edmund.8 This grant was extended in January, 1296, when Edward I was visiting the abbey. He then granted that, whenever the king's ministers of the markets passed through the town to view measures and to do other things pertaining to their office, the abbot and convent and their successors were to have all amercements and profits of bread and ale, &c. The ministers were to furnish the sacristan of the abbey with schedules of all such fines, &c., which were to be collected by the abbey's officials and applied to the decoration of the saint's tomb and shrine.9 'Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, IOI. 8 Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 13. •Ibid. 24 Edw. I, m. 18. 61 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK One of the recurring disputes between the monastery and the town at its gates came to a head in 1292, when a royal commission of inquiry was appointed, by which it was arranged that the burgesses were to present annually at Michaelmas an allowance for confirmation by the abbot ; and the alderman was to present four persons to the sacrist as keepers of the four gates of the town. The fifth or last gate was to remain in the custody of the abbey. The commissioners stated that this had been the custom since the days of the Confessor.1 In consideration of a fine made by Abbot John, in June, 1300, the crown sanctioned the assignment by the abbot and convent, to two chaplains celebrating in the chapel recently built in the abbey churchyard and called ' La Charnere,' of the yearly produce of twenty- seven acres of land sown with wheat, being the produce of one acre in as many vills of their demesne lands, which produce had hitherto been assigned to the abbot's crozier- bearers for performing that office.2 The char- nel in the abbey churchyard had been founded in order to avoid the scandal of the bones of the departed lying about in the over-used burial- ground. In May, 1304, the king pardoned the abbey of all their debts to the crown, in consideration of their remission to the king of a thousand marks, borrowed of them from the tenths of the Holy Land on the clergy, which had been de- posited in the abbey's custody in the pope's name. During the same month, Edward I, ' out of devotion to St. Edmund,' granted that the prior and convent should, during future voidances, have the custody of all temporalities, saving knights' fees and advowsons. But for this privilege the abbey had to pay the stiff fine of 1,200 marks if the voidance lasted a year or less, and if longer at the proportionate rate of IOO marks a month.3 In May Edward I granted the murage and pavage dues of the town on goods coming into the town of Bury St. Edmunds to the abbot and convent for three years.4 In August of the same year a commission of three justices was appointed in the matter of the rebellion of the town against the general administration of the abbot as lord of the town. The charge against sixty-two of the townsmen, who are named, and others was of a comprehensive character, accusing them of conspiring together by oaths of confederacy and resisting every detail of the abbey's rule, usurping the administration of justice and collecting tolls and other dues granted by charter to the convent.5 Abbot Thomas died on 7 January, 1311-12, 'Cole MS. xiv, fol. 51. 1 Pat. 28 Edw. I, m. 13. 3 Ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 1 8. 4 Ibid. m. 2. ' Ibid. m. 8 d. 62 and the election of Richard, the third prior, was confirmed in April, 1312, by Pope Clement V. This confirmation states that Richard had been elected by the sacrist, cellarer, infirmarian, and chamberlain, and by four other monks whose names are cited.6 In June of the following year the pope sanctioned the appropriation of the church of Harlow, value 20 marks, to take effect on the death or resignation of the rector, a per- petual vicar being assigned.7 In 1327, the long simmering disputes between the town and the abbey came to a head with grievous results, involving the plunder of the abbey and its estates, and the seizing of the abbot and his deportation to Diest in Brabant. These disturbances were long known as the Great Riot. Long statements on both sides appear in Arnold's Memorials, as already set forth. In this summary it seems best to take the state- ments from the official entries on the patent rolls. On 14 May, 1327, mandates were de- livered by the king and council to the authorities of both abbey and town, under forfeiture of all they could forfeit, prohibiting the assembling of armed men.8 Nevertheless the riots continued, and on 20 May, 1327, Edward III appointed John de Tendering and Ralph de Bocking, during pleasure, to the custody of the abbey and town of St. Edmunds, which the king had taken under his immediate protection in conse- quence of the grave dissensions. Power was given to the two wardens to arrest inferior offenders, but not to remove officers and ministers of either abbey or town as long as they were obedient.9 In July the king associated two other warders, Robert Walkefare and John Claver, with John and Ralph.10 A further step was taken in the interest of the monks, on 1 6 October of the same year, when the crown appointed John Howard, during pleasure, to the custody of the abbey, with power to protect it and defend its possessions, to arrest those who had injured it, and to apply its revenues, saving the necessary provision for its governance, to- wards the payment of its debts and its relief ; 1] but this appointment was revoked on 10 Novem- ber.12 This revocation was doubtless brought about by the very serious and extensive character of the revolt against the abbey's authority be- coming better known to the authorities. By the end of October commission was granted to the Earl of Norfolk, Thomas Bardolf and others to take, if necessary, the posse comitatus of both Norfolk and Suffolk, to arrest those besieging the abbey, and to imprison others guilty of criminal acts in these affrays.13 At the same time four justices were appointed to hold a special 6 Cal. Pap. Reg, ii, 1 1 1 . ' Ibid. 115. ' Pat. i Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 d. ' Ibid. m. 20. 10 Ibid. m. 5 d. 11 Ibid. pt. iii, m. 14. " Ibid. m. 1 2. " Ibid. mm. 1 3 d, 8 d. RELIGIOUS HOUSES assize * at St. Edmunds, on the complaint of the abbot, who gave in the names of about 300 alleged offenders out of a great multitude, in- cluding three rectors, nineteen chaplains or assistant parochial clergy, a merchant, six drapers, four mercers, two butchers, a tailor, and two taverners. Among the particular offences speci- fied are beating and wounding the abbey's ser- vants and imprisoning them till they paid fines ; mowing the abbey's meadows, felling the trees, and fishing the fish-ponds ; preventing the holding of courts and collecting rents and tolls and other customs ; cutting off the abbey's water-conduit ; breaking down the fish-ponds at Babwell ; throwing down the houses of the abbey in the town ; carrying away the timber, and burning the abbot's manor houses at Barton, Pakenham, Rougham, ' Eldhawe,' Horningsheath, Newton, Whepstead, Westley, Risby, Ingham, Fornham, ' Redewell,' and ' Haberdon,' with their granges and corn ; carrying away 100 horses, 1 20 oxen, 200 cows, 300 bullocks, 10,000 sheep and 300 swine, worth £6,OOO ; and besieging the abbey with an armed force and great multitude ; breaking the gates and doors and windows of the abbey ; entering the con- ventual buildings and assaulting the servants ; breaking open chests, coffers and closets and carrying off gold and silver chalices and other plate, books, vestments, and utensils^ and money to the value of ^1,000, as well as divers writings ; imprisoning Peter de Clapton, the prior, and twelve monks in a house in the town ; taking the said prior and monks to the chapter-house and forcing them to seal a document setting forth that the abbot and con- vent were indebted to Oliver Kemp and five other townsmen in the sum of ^10,000 ; and imprisoning the abbot and using his seal as well as the corporate seal to documents obtained by duress, the contents of which neither he nor the monks saw or heard. On 5 November, 1328, a commission was issued to the Bishop of Ely and two others to compose the differences between the abbey and the townsmen. An agreement as to the matters in dispute between the abbey and the town was finally drawn up at Bury, in the presence of the king, at Trinity, 1331, to the effect that in consideration of the remission of the huge fine of ,£ 140,000 imposed on the defendants, they should pay the abbey the sum of 2,000 marks during the next twenty years, in sums of 50 marks at a time.2 The great seal was affixed to this covenant, and the defendants were conditionally discharged.3 Licence was granted in August, 1330, for the abbey to appropriate the churches of Rougham and Thurstan of their advowson, in consideration of the grievous losses they had sustained at the hands 1 Assize R. 853. 1 Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 35. 3Harl. MS. 654, fol. 141. of the men of St. Edmunds, and because, at the king's request, they had pardoned a great part of the sum recovered by them as damages.4 As a further compensation from the crown for their losses, the king in the following month granted free warren in all demesnes of the abbey, a weekly market at Melford, and an annual fair of nine days at the same place. The riotous attacks on the abbey and its possessions in 1327 took place at the time when it was known that the king and his forces were in Scotland. When Edward III was at York, on 23 October, 1334, preparatory to another expedition into Scotland, protection was granted by the king and council to the abbey owing to the increasing hostility of the townsmen, and for fear another attempt should be made at the abbey's overthrow when the forces were across the border.5 Abbot Richard died on 5 May, 1335. The king's licence for a new election was speedily obtained, and the new abbot, William of Bernham, the sub-prior, was hastily chosen on 25 May, in order to forestall the expected inter- ference of the pope. Abbot William proceeded to Rome for confirmation, and on 29 October, 1335, received the mandate of Benedict XII to betake himself to the abbey to which he had been appointed, having received benediction from Anibald, bishop of Tusculum.6 He ruled for nearly twenty-six years. A peculiar privilege was granted by Edward III, for life, to Abbot William in 1338, namely that the chancellor was to issue the writ De excom- municato capiendo in the case of persons excom- municated by the abbot at his signification and request, as he did in like cases at the request of archbishops and bishops.7 Five of the king's justices being directed to hold a session at Bury St. Edmunds in 1341, for hearing and determining complaints as to oppressions by ministers in the county of Suffolk, the abbey protested that this was an infringement of their chartered rights against the holding of any secular courts in the town. Edward III thereupon (out of the affection which the king bore for the glorious martyr, St. Edmund the King) granted a charter to the effect that this session was not to prejudice as a precedent the liberties of the abbot and convent.8 A dispute arose in 1345 between the abbey and William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, the latter making strenuous efforts to obtain a reversion of the abbey's exemption from diocesan control ; but the effort completely failed.9 A mandate was issued in 1349 by Pope Clement III Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 7. Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 8. Cal. Pap. Reg. ii, 529. Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 29. Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 24. Yates, Hist, of Bury St. Edmunds, 109. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK to the Bishops of London and Chichester touching ' the complaint of the Bishop of Norwich, whose citation the abbey of St. Edmund's refused to obey, sending Sir Richard Freysel, knight, to the king's chancellor, pleading that by royal letters they were exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and asking for letters prohibiting their diocesan from making any such attempts. Thereupon the bishop excommunicated Richard, who re- turned to the chancellor pleading that this had been done in contempt of the king's majesty, and that the bishop, the prior of Kersey, and other beneficed clergy in the dioceses of Norwich and York had published the excommunication. Thereupon he obtained letters citing the bishop and his commissaries before the king's justices, before whom exception was taken that the jus- tices could not and ought not to take cognisance of excommunication, and that appeal lay with the archbishop. Nevertheless the justices ordered the imprisonment of the commissaries, and James, rector of Wrabness, Essex, one of those who had published the excommunication, was put in the abbot's prison at St. Edmunds. The prior of Kersey and Hamo, rector of Bunny, lay in hiding, and Simon, rector of Wickhambrook, Suffolk, got away privily to the apostolic see. The justices, the king being abroad, ordered all the goods of the bishop to be seized and to remain in the king's hands until the excom- munication vows were revoked and satisfaction made to Richard, who made the huge claim of £10,000 damages. Letters were sent to the sheriffs of four counties where the episcopal estates lay ordering the seizing of all temporalities of the see, and the bishop, fearing he would be taken, betook himself, with his household, to his cathedral church and shut himself up therein. The pope ordered that, if these things were so, the abbot and Richard were to be cited to appear before the pope within three months to receive what justice requires for their excesses and sins.1 In April, 1350, the pope sent a mandate to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Exeter and Chichester, enjoining the public excommunication of all who hindered the Bishop of Norwich from prosecuting his cause, which had been going on for five years at the Roman court, against the abbot and convent of St. Edmunds, who claim exemption from episcopal jurisdiction, certain persons having obtained letters from King Edward ordering the bishop to prosecute the cause before him and his council, and not in the Roman court.2 In the following July a further mandate was sent to the same papal commissioners ordering the public excom- munication of all the abettors of Richard Freysel.3 Abbot William died on the last day of February, 1361-2, and Henry de Hunstanton 1 Cat. Pap. Reg. iii, 304-5, ' Ibid. 388. ' Ibid. 391-2. 64 was elected his successor in the following month ; but proceeding to Avignon in the summer, to obtain papal confirmation, Henry fell a victim to the plague which was raging in that province, dying on 24 July, in a village two miles distant from that city. Pope Innocent VI seized this opportunity of appointing a successor, and made John of Brinkley, a monk of Bury, abbot on 4 August. Edward III gave his consent on 1 2 November, and on the 1 6th of that month the new abbot was duly installed at St. Edmunds. His was a comparatively uneventful abbacy, but he was a learned man, and for ten years was president of the provincial chapter of English Benedictines. The last recorded miracle of St. Edmund occurred in 1375, when Symon Brown, nearly lost at sea, vowed to St. Edmund and was saved.4 On 6 January, 1379, the prior and convent obtained licence to elect a successor to Abbot John, deceased, and on 28 January notification was dispatched to Pope Urban of the royal assent to the election of John de Timworth, sub-prior of that house, to be abbot. In August of the same year there is a further entry relative to the election on the Patent Rolls, namely, orders for the arrest of Edmund Bromefeld, a monk, who was scheming to annul the election of Tym- worth as abbot, although it had received the royal assent, and who had procured a papal provision thereof for himself besides divers bulls,6 and on 14 October, 1379, the Earls of March and Suffolk, with the sheriff of Suffolk, were appointed to arrest Edmund Bromefeld, who, notwithstanding the Statute of Provisors of 25 Edward III, had procured provision of the abbey from the Roman court, and had taken possession of the abbey by the aid of John Medenham and fourteen other monks of the abbey, and by the aid of various clerks and laymen. All the abettors of the monk Edmund were also to be arrested for this contempt of the crown.6 This controversy, caused by the appointment of Edmund Bromefeld to the abbacy by Urban VI, dragged on for five years ; but the pope's nomi- nee never obtained more than a partial and very short-lived recognition at St. Edmunds. Nevertheless, without the papal confirmation John Tymworth was not technically abbot until 4 June, 1384, when the pope at last gave way.7 Whilst this dispute was in progress, namely in 1381, Jack Straw's rebellion broke out in East Anglia, when John of Cambridge, the prior, and 4 Nov. Leg. Angl. ii, 678. 'Pat. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 10; pt. ii, m. 38 ; 3 Ric. II. pt. i, m. 33 giving a full total of £124 4/. 9^. The full accounts of the manor of Eye for 1297-8, when it was in the hands of the crown owing to the war with France, are extant. They show that the total receipts from rents, manorial court dues, &c. amounted to ,£54 $s. $d., whilst the expenses were £4 is. 4%d. The accounts for the same year of other property of the priory, paid to the receivers or crown bailiffs, show that the tithes of the chapel of Badingham and of the churches of St. Leonard and All Saints, Dunwich, together with certain rents, amounted to £33 us. io^d. ; the sale of corn realized £39 8;. 3^. These items, with certain smaller amounts, produced a total of £73 13*. i^d. But the outgoings were £49 2s. \\d. ; of this sum £37 8*. dfd. were spent on the sustenance of the nine monks of the priory. The clear total handed to the crown that year from the priory seems to have been £74 141. 9^.* An extent of the possessions of Eye taken in 1370, during the war of Edward III with France, gives its total annual value as £123 us. 8d.5 The Valor of 1535 gives £112 195. $\d. as the clear annual value of the temporalities from the manors of Eye, Stoke, ' Acolt,' Laxfield, Bedfield, and Fressingfield. As to the spirituali- ties, the churches of Laxfield, Yaxley, All Saints, Dunwich, and Playford in Suffolk, and Barchly and Sedgebrook in Lincoln, were ap- propriated to the priory. They also received portions or pensions from twenty-three Suffolk churches, with one from Essex, two from Lin- coln, and two from Norfolk, yielding a total income in spiritualities of £ji los. 2d. But the outgoings from this part of their income were so considerable, including £14 12s. ^.d. given to the poor, that the clear value was only ,£23 7*. 4^., leaving a total income of £161 2s. 3^.6 The income of the monks, on the eve of dissolution, would certainly have been higher, had it not been for their serious losses at Dun- wich from the incursions of the sea. There was only one church at Dunwich, dedicated to St. Felix, in the days of the Confessor, but two more were built in the reign of the Conqueror, and several others shortly afterwards, so that there were churches of St. Felix, St. Leonard, St. John Baptist, St. Martin, St. Nicholas, St. Peter, St. Michael, St. Bartholomew, All Saints, and the Templars' church of St. Mary, by the 4 Mins. Accts. bdle. 996, No. 12. Certain of the spiritualities escaped record in these accounts. 5 Add. MS. 6164, fol. 424; Dugdale, Man. Hi. 407-8, where it is set forth in full. 8 yahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 476-7- 73 10 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK beginning of the thirteenth century. St. Felix and the cell of the priory of Eye (which is noticed independently) were among the first to perish, and these were followed, at about 1300, by the loss of St. Leonard's church.1 About 1331, the sea swallowed up the churches of St. Bartholomew and St. Michael.8 The last institution to St. Martin's was in 1335, and to St. Nicholas's in 1352. St. John Baptist's church was taken down to save the materials from the sea in 1540. St. Peter's was not pulled down till 1702.' The ruins of All Saints' are now gradually disappearing over the cliff. In 1291 the taxation roll shows that their total income from Dunwich was £40 2s. "id. at that date. In 1535 they had no income in temporalities from Dunwich, and merely received £ 10 13;. ifd. from the rectory of All Saints, a portion of 13*. 4^. from the church of St. John, and a general pension from the remains of other parishes of 265. 8d. In April, 1296, the king, when at Berwick- on-Tweed, instructed the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer to cause the custody of the priory of Eye to be restored to Edmund earl of Cornwall, to be held by writ of Exchequer, securing the right of the king and others ; for the king had learnt from an inquisition that Edmund took the custody of the priory into his hands on Thursday before Palm Sunday, 1294, as true patron and advocate (advocatus) thereof, by reason of the death of Richard the late prior ; and that Richard, Edmund's father, had always had the custody in times of voidance ; and that on the eve of St. Andrew, 1295, Richard Oysel, by reason of the king's orders to take into the king's hands (on account of the war) the alien houses in Norfolk and Suffolk, ejected the earl and his men from the priory and barns and outer manors.4 On the death of Prior Nicholas Ivelyn, in 1313, a dispute again arose as to the charge of the priory during the vacancy. The king's escheator and his bailiffs of the honour of Eye seized into the king's hands the priory with its appurtenances. The alleged reason for this action was that the advowson had fallen in by the death of Margaret, late the wife of Edmund earl of Cornwall, who held it in dower by grant of her husband of the king's inheritance. But the sub-prior and convent represented that Eye Priory was founded by Robert Malet as a cell of the abbey of Bernay in Normandy, and that neither the founder nor his heirs, nor Henry III, into whose hands the priory fell as an escheat by forfeiture, nor the earls of Corn- wall, who afterwards held the advowson as a gift 1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich (1754), passim. ' Harl. MS. 639, fol. 71, where it is said that the fruits of these two parish churches had been worth £40 to the monks. ' Gardner, passim. ' Close, 24 Edw. I, m. 8. of Henry III, were accustomed to receive any- thing out of the priory at time of voidance, but only to appoint a warden or janitor for the gates of the house, who had during voidance merely a competent sustenance as a token of their dominion. A commission was appointed on 17 July to inquire as to this, and on IO August the tem- poralities were restored to Durand Frowe, who had been preferred by the abbot of Bernay to be prior of Eye.5 In October, 1313, the king's licence was obtained for the appropriation of the church of Laxfield, the advowson of which was already held of the priory ; for this licence a fine of ,£20 was paid by the prior.6 The appropriation of Laxfield was not, however, carried out until 10 January, 1326. Ten days later grant was made by Edward II assuring the priory of the payment as before to them of the pensions out of the churches of Thorndon and Mells, the advowsons of which they had quit- claimed to the king.7 The farm of ,£94 I0f. due from the alien priory of Eye was assigned by Edward III, in 1347, to the king's scholars at Cambridge, during the war.8 At the special request of the queen, their patron, and on payment of a fine of £60, the alien prior and convent of Eye were, in 1385, granted a charter of denization. The priors were henceforth to be Englishmen. No subsidy was hereafter to be exacted from them as aliens, but the priory was in all respects to be like that of Thetford. It was stated that at this time, through ill-government, the priory had become so impoverished that it could hardly maintain a prior and three or four monks. Certain persons had, however, promised to relieve and repair it when nationalized.9 The visitations of this house during the latter part of its existence are much to its credit. Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary of his brother the bishop, visited this priory in February, 1494, when Richard Norwich the prior and nine monks were present. It was found that no reform was needed.10 The next recorded visitation was in .August, 1514, when Bishop Nykke visited in person. Three of the eight monks who were examined testified omnia bene. The rest made various complaints, the nature of which appears in the bishop's injunctions. The bishop ordered the prior to procure the return of the books lent to Doctor White before Christmas, and to exhibit a true inventory and statement of accounts before the Michaelmas synod ; he also ordered that Margery, the washer- woman, was not for the future to enter the Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, mm. 16, Ibid. m. 8. Ibid. 19 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 6. Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 9. Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 3. 10 Jessopp, Visit. 40. 74 RELIGIOUS HOUSES priory precincts. The visitation was adjourned until Michaelmas.1 The suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and other commissaries visited in August, 1520. Richard Bettys, the prior, expressed himself as in every way satisfied ; but the eight monks all gave utterance to their suspicions of the prior's dealings with one Margery Verre or Veer. It was also complained that the prior had presented no accounts since the first year of his appoint- ment, and that he had sold certain silver bowls. The commissaries were evidently not satisfied, for the visitation was adjourned until Christmas.2 The visitation of July, 1526, by Bishop Nykke in person, when John Eia was prior, was quite satisfactory. The nine monks, as well as the prior, were severally examined by the bishop ; none of them knew of anything needing reform, save the negligent keeping of the common seal, which was mentioned by the subchanter. The bishop ordered a chest to be prepared with three locks and keys, and dissolved the visitation.3 The last recorded visitation was also personally conducted by Bishop Nykke in July, 1532. William Hadley, the prior, presented his accounts showing a balance in hand of 49*. ^\d. It appeared that the common seal was still kept in a coffer with only one key. Complaint was made that they had two ordinals, one old and one new, and that there were erasures in both leading to confusion and dispute. Eight monks were examined in addition to the prior. A page is left in the register for Reformanda, but it has never been filled up.4 The acknowledgement of the king's supremacy was signed in the chapter-house by William the prior, William Norwich the sub-prior, and six others, on 2O October, 1534.* The Suffolk commissioners visited this priory on 26 August, 1536, and drew up a complete inventory of goods and chattels. The furniture of the high altar and quire was of trifling value, the only item of moment being ' one payer of old organs ner to the Qwyer lytell worth, at xs.' There were small ' tables ' of alabaster both in the lady chapel and the chapel of St. Nicholas. In the vestry was silver to the value of £13 45. 6d., including three chalices and a pair of censers. In addition to a variety of vest- ments were ' iii lytell boxes of sylver with relyques, vs.' 'an arme of tymber garnysshed with sylver called Saint Blasis arme, at vi;. viii^.,' and 'a lytell piece of timber with a piece of a rybbe in it, at xd.' 'An old masse boke called the redde boke of Eye garnysshed with a lytell sylver on the one side, the residewe lytell worth, xxd.,' refers to the book of St. Felix from the destroyed cell of Dunwich ; the 2O Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 8. 11 Norwich Epis. Reg. i, 102 ; Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27. " Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 71. 75 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK John de Farnham, appointed 1380 l Thomas de Fakenham, appointed 1391 s Silvester Bolton, appointed 1431 3 John Eye, appointed 1433 * Thomas Cambrigg, appointed 1440* Thomas Norwych, appointed 1462* Augustine Sceltone, occurs 1487 7 Richard Norwich, occurs 1492* Richard Bettys, occurs 1520' John Eia, occurs I52610 William Hadley, occurs 1532" William Parker, surrendered 1536-7" The first seal of the priory represents St. Peter, full length, in the right hand two keys, and in the left an open book. Over his shoulders are a crescent and a star. Legend : — t SIGILL' NTUS. SAN 3. THE PRIORY OF DUNWICH In early days the monastery of Eye, to which all the churches of Dunwich had been assigned by the Conquerer, possessed a cell or small priory in that town. It was swallowed up by the sea about the time of Edward I. Leland states that the monks of Eye, in his days, possessed an ancient textus or book of the Gospels, brought from this cell, called in later days, ' The Red Book of Eye,' which had belonged to St. Felix.14 Gardner, writing in 1754, makes mention of what was probably the last trace of this cell. Common or Covent Garden, abutting on Sea- Field, was a plot of ground whereon grew large crops of thyme, &c., which created in many people a belief that it was a garden for the service of the whole town. But the name rather implies the foundation of some convent thereabouts. Also mention is made of a cell of monks at Dunwich subordinate to Eye, destroyed some ages past, so possibly it was a curtilage appertaining to the religious house. And as the sea made encroach- ments thereupon many human bones were dis- covered, whereby part thereof manifestly appeared to have been a place of sepulture, which was washed away in the winter Ann. Dom. I74O.15 1 Norwich Epis. Reg. vi, 71. Ibid, vi, 158. Ibid, ix, 51. 4 Ibid, ir, 68. Ibid, x, 36. Ibid, xi, 134. Harl. MS. 639, fol. 64*. Cott. MS. xxvii, fol. 90^. Jessopp, Visit. 183. w Ibid. 221. " Ibid. 295. 11 Pensioned ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (i), 5 10. 13 B.M. Cast Ixxi, p. 109 ; Dugdale, Mon. iii, pt. xix, fig. 5, from Harl. Chart. 44, D. 42. 14 Leland, Collectanea, iv, 26. " Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 62. For further parti- culars see under ' Priory of Eye.' 76 4. THE PRIORY OF EDWARD- STONE The story of the small short-lived priory of Edwardstone can soon be told. Hubert de Mon- chesney, lord of the manor, gave the church of Edwardstone, in the year 1114, with all its appurtenances, to the abbot and monks of Abing- don, Berks. In the following year this grant was confirmed by Henry I, in whose charter mention is also made of two parts of the tithes of 'Stanetona' and ' Stanesteda,' of the tithes of mills and underwood, and of pannage for pigs, &c. A further confirmation was granted by the Arch- bishop of Canterbury.16 Hence it came to pass that two or more Bene- dictine monks were placed at Edwardstone to hold it as a priory or cell of Abingdon. This arrangement, however, only lasted until 1160. In that year Hugh de Monchesney, the son of the founder, with the assent of his own son and heir Stephen, allowed the removal of these two monks, at the wish of Abbot Wathelin, to the larger priory or cell of Colne in Essex.17 Colne itself became an independent priory in 1311. 5. THE PRIORY OF HOXNE A small religious house existed at Hoxne in pre-Norman times, dedicated in honour of St. Athelbright ; it is mentioned in the will of Bishop Theodred II, in 962. Probably it formed part of the bishop's manor of Hoxne, for Bishop Herbert, of Norwich, founded here a cell in 1101, in connexion with the great Benedictine cathedral priory, which Ralph, the sewer, rebuilt from the ground.18 Bishop Herbert's charter granted the parish church of St. Peter, Hoxne, and the chapel of St. Edmund, king and martyr, to the monks of Norwich, and the cell and priory were removed to the immediate vicinity of the historic chapel under Bishop de Blunville, who was conse- crated in 1226. Bishop Roger de Skarning in 1267 consecrated a churchyard for the priory. The house consisted of a prior, removable at will by the prior and convent of Norwich, and seven or eight monks. The monks kept a school for the children of the parish, and supported or boarded two of the scholars.19 "Abingdon Chartul. (Cott. MS. Claud. B, vi), fol. 137. 17 Dugdale, Mon. iv, 96, 101. 13 Proc. Buff. Arch. Inst. vii, 41. 19 Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. iii, 607-10. Blomefield had access to a chartulaiy of Hoxne, which was then (1743) in the hands of Mr. Martin of Dalgrave, and from which he took his information as to the succession of the priors and the gifts of benefactors. This chartulary cannot now be traced. RELIGIOUS HOUSES Blomefield names various benefactions. The chief of these was the manor, with the chapel of Ringshall, granted to this priory by the mother house in 1294. Luke, the parish chaplain of Ringshall, made a return on oath that the chapel was a free chapel belonging to the prior of Norwich, who assigned it to his cell of St. Edmund at Hoxne ; that it was endowed with thirty-two acres of land, and two parts of all the tithe corn and hay of the ancient demesnes of Sir Richard de la Rokele and Robert de la Wythakysham and their tenants in Ringshall j and that the tithes were then of the value of 30*. per annum. In 1313 Robert Guer, chaplain, had the whole of the endowments of Ringshall assigned him for life, paying 30;. a year to Hoxne priory, serving the chapel thrice a week, and keeping the houses in repair. Gilbert, bishop of Orkney, as suffragan of Norwich, granted a forty days' indulgence to all persons making a pilgrimage to the image of St. Edmund in the priory chapel of Hoxne, and making offerings for the repairs of the chapel. Although Hoxne priory was allowed to hold property granted to it independently of the mother house of Norwich, the priors of Hoxne were bound to make annual returns to Norwich of their accounts. Among the obedientiary rolls preserved in the cathedral there are a large number of the annual accounts of this cell. They extend from 1395 to 1399, and from 1407 to 1410 ; and there are thirty others at irregular intervals, the last one being for the year 1534. In the time of Henry VI the annual value of the lands and rents of this cell was returned at £zj. The commissioners of the Valor of 1535 made no return of the priory of Hoxne, content- ing themselves with stating that it was a cell of Norwich under Nicholas Thurkill, the prior, and that the accounts would be included in those of the cathedral priory.1 This priory obtains occasional mention in wills. In 1375 John Elys, rector of Occold Magna, left 3*. 4^. to the repairs of the chapel of St. Edmund, and a rood of meadow-land near Hoxne Bridge in perpetual alms. Bishop Brown of Norwich, by will of 1445, gave forty marks to the reconstruction of the chapel.* William Castleton, the last prior and first dean of Norwich, in view of the coming dissolution, alienated the property of the cell to Sir Richard Gresham, recalling the monks to Norwich. For this act he was pardoned by the king on I April, 1538 ; the patent sanctioning this transfer declared the clear annual value of the cell to be £ 1 8 Vakr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 461. Prix. Suf. Arch. Inst. vii, 42. 1 L. and P. Hen. rill, xiii (i), 652. PRIORS OF HOXNE* Hervey Richard de Hoxne Roger William de Acle John de Shamelisford Geoffrey de Norwich, 1411 Nicholas de Kelfield, 1424 John Eglington, 1430 William Mettingham, c. 1428 John Elmham, c. 1438 John Eston, 1441 John Eshgate, 1452 Robert Gatelee, 1453 John Eston (again), 1453 Robert Bretenham, c. 1460 Simon Folcard, c. 1473 Nicholas Berdney, c. 20 Edw. IV, 1480 Robert Swaffham, removed 1492 John Attleburgh, 1492 Thomas Pellis, 1509 Stephen Darsham, 1523 Nicholas Thurkill, 1535 6. THE PRIORY OF RUMBURGH The priory of Rumburgh was founded between 1064 and 1070 by Ethelmar, bishop of Elmham, and Thurstan, abbot of St. Benet at Holme, and supplied with a few monks, with Brother Blakere at their head, from that Benedictine foundation.5 These monks are named in the Domesday Survey as being then twelve in number. Some time in the reign of Henry I, either Stephen, the second earl of Richmond and Bre- tagne, or his son Alan, the third earl, gave this priory as a cell to the abbey of St. Mary, York.6 In the charters relative to this gift the priory church of St. Michael's, Rumburgh, is described as in possession of the churches of Wisset, Spex- hall, Holton, and South Cove, with other lands, tithes, and woods ; to these the earl added the Norfolk churches of Banham and Wilby with all their appurtenances. It was definitely laid down in Earl Alan's charter that the prior and monks of Rumburgh were to be appointed by the abbot and convent of York, and were to be removable at will. 4 This list is the one drawn up by Blomefield (iii, 609-10) from the lost chartulary, &c. ; he was not able to fix the dates or order of the first five. * Cott. MS. Galba, E. ii, fol. 59 (Reg. of St. Benet's). 4 In Bishop Everard's charter the foundation is ascribed to Earl Alan, but in a charter of Geoffrey bishop of Ely, to Earl Stephen. Both charters are given in Dugdale, Man. iii, 612. There is a small roll of charters relating to this cell at the British Museum (L. F. C. ix, 9) ; they are eleven in number, and include that of Stephen earl of Richmond, several episcopal confirmations, and references to the church of Banham. 77 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK This injunction was always observed down to the dissolution. The abbot appointed the prior of this cell, which was jointly dedicated in honour of St. Michael and St. Felix, and removed him at will. The unusual practice in such a case was also invariably observed of presenting each suc- cessive prior to the Bishop of Norwich for his sanction, although the priory could not be con- sidered a benefice. Owing to the frequent recall of these priors, the number recorded in the diocesan institution books is abnormally large. The taxation roll of 1291 shows that the income of the priory was then ^35 5;. Iif^. Of this sum £10 125. ii$d. was from lands or rents in different parishes, whilst the spiritualities that made up the remainder were portions from the rectories of ' Canburgh,' North Tuddenham, Barnham, Swaffham, Chediston, Sibton, Spex- hall, South Cove, Wicks, and Ryburgh, in Norwich diocese ; and from those of Bassing- burne, Little Abington, and Lynton, in Ely diocese.1 An attempt was made by the Earl of Rich- mond, in 1199, on the appointment of John de Acaster to be prior of Rumburgh, to claim the position of patron to that cell. But on an in- quisition being held, the jury returned that the lords of Richmond never had custody nor seisin of the cell of Rumburgh during vacancies.2 Rumburgh was one of those small priories included for suppression, in favour of Cardinal Wolsey's great college at Ipswich, in the bull of Clement VII, dated 14 May, I528.3 On II September, 1525, Dr. Stephen Gar- diner, at the commission of Cardinal Wolsey, and under his seal, arrived at Rumburgh, and there in the convent declared to the prior and monks, with the authority of the pope and the king, the suppression of the house, assigned the goods both movable and immovable to Wolsey's college at Ipswich, and ordered that the religious should enter other monasteries of the same order. Thomas Cromwell and others were present as witnesses.4 On the news reaching York, Edmund, abbot of St. Mary's, wrote, on 24 Sep- tember, complaining that among the goods taken away from Rumburgh by the commission were certain muniments belonging to the monastery of York, which had lately been sent there for re- ference in a dispute between the abbey and men of worship in Cambridgeshire. He also begged that the priory might be allowed to remain a member of their monastery as it had been for three centuries. The rents of the cell were little more than £30 a year, and the abbot and his brethren were quite willing to give instead 300 marks to the college.' 1 PopeNicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 85^, 87, 117, n8£, 119, 121, 126, 126^, 127, 131, 266^, 267, 267^. 'Harl. MS. 236, fol. 55. 1 Rymer, FoeJera, xiv, 240. 4 L. and P. Hen. nil, iv, 4755. ' Cott. MS. Cleop. E. iv, 46. However, in March, 1528-9, the abbey felt compelled to execute a formal release and quit- claim of the priory of Rumburgh to the car- dinal's college.6 On the cardinal's downfall, Rumburgh priory and its property reverted to the crown and was granted to Robert Downes, who had licence, on I April, 1531, to alienate it to Thomas, duke of Norfolk.7 A survey of the site of the monastery taken soon after its suppression, wherein the dimen- sions of the different buildings are set out, states that ' there ys a seynt in the churche of Rum- burgh called Seynt Bory, to the which there is moche offeryng uppon Michelmasday of money and cheses.'8 PRIORS OF RUMBURGH 9 Blakere, c. icyo10 John de Acaster, 1199" William de Tolberton, 1308" Matthew de Ebor, 1311" James de Morlound, 1316" William de Touthorp, 1319" Geoffrey de Rudston, 1322" Adam de Sancto Botulpho, 1331 I7 William de Newton, 1331 18 John de Maghenby, 1332 19 Roger de Aslakby, recalled I34320 John de Manneby (? Maghenby again), 1347 !1 Alexander de Wath, resigned 1347 M Richard de Burton, 1347 23 John de Gayton, recalled, 1357 ** John de Martone, 1357 25 Richard de Appilton, 1361 K Thomas Lastels, i^JO3" John de Garton, 1373^ Nicholas Kelfeld, recalled i^qz*9 Thomas de Helmeslay, I39230 William de Dalton, 1394" John Selby, 1405 32 William Hewyk, 1407 M Thomas Ampulforth, I4I231 Thomas Staveley, I4I736 Thomas Gasgyll, I42636 e L. and P. Hen. nil, iv, 5353 (5), 5354. 7 Pat. 23 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 17. 8 Dugdale, Mm. v, 615. Possibly St. Birinus, of Dorchester. ' The dates are those of appointment unless other- wise stated. 10 Cott. MS. Galba, E. ii, fol. 59. 11 Harl. MS. 236, fol. 55. " Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 28. » Ibid, i, 44. " Ibid, i, 66. 15 Ibid, i, 78. 16 Ibid, i, 95. " Ibid, ii, 41. 18 Ibid, ii, 46. " Ibid, ii, 49. M Ibid, iii, 72. 11 Ibid. " Ibid, iv, 66. » Ibid. 14 Ibid, v, 22. 15 Ibid. 14 Ibid, v, 49. 17 Ibid, vi, 8. 88 Ibid, vi, 21. "Ibid, vi, 1 68. 10 Ibid. " Ibid, vi, 192. 81 Ibid, vi, 329. 83 Ibid, vii, 5. 34 Ibid, vii, 54. 34 Ibid, viii, 22. "Ibid, ix, 15. RELIGIOUS HOUSES William Esyngwold, 1428 l Thomas Goldesburgh, 1439* Thomas Bothe, I4483 Hugh Belton, recalled 1464* John Ward, I4645 John Brown, 1478* Richard Mowbray, 1483' Walter Hotham, 1484* John Lovell, 1492° Walter Hotham (again), 1492 10 Thomas Burton, 1495 u William Skelton, I49712 Richard Wood, 1498" John Ledell, 1 507" Launcelot Wharton, 1523 ls John Halton, I52518 7. THE PRIORY OF SNAPE About the year 1155 William Martel, in conjunction with Albreda his wife, and Geoffrey their son, gave the manors of Snape and Aide- burgh to the abbot and convent of the Benedic- tine house of St. John, Colchester. The founders intended that a prior and monks should be established at Snape subject to St. John's, Colchester, and this was speedily accomplished. The priory, by the foundation charter, was to pay the abbey annually half a mark of silver as an acknowledgement of its submission. The monks of Snape were to say two masses every week, one of the Holy Spirit and the other of our Lady, for the weal of William and Albreda, and after their death masses for the departed. The abbot of Colchester was to visit the cell twice a year, with twelve horses, and to tarry for four days.17 In 1163 Pope Alexander III confirmed to the prior and brethren of St. Mary, Snape, the churches of Freston and Bedingfield.18 The taxation roll of 1291 shows that there were then appropriated to this priory the churches of Snape, Bedingfield, Freston, and Aldeburgh with its chapel, producing an incomeof £23 6s. %d. The lands, rents, and mill brought in £21 I2s. id. a year, and other temporalities j£n 19*. 7\d.; so that the total annual income was £56 18;. 4^.19 Upon complaint made by Isabel, countess of Suffolk and patroness of the abbey, to Boni- 1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 32. * Ibid, x, 29. ' Ibid, xi, 14. "Ibid. 6Ibid. xii,6i. 8 Ibid, xii, 104. 10 Ibid, xii, 162. " Tanner, Norw. MSS. 14 Ibid. 16 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiv, 199. 17 Foundation Charter cited in an Inspeximus Charter, Pat. 51 Edw. Ill, m. 36. 18 Dugdale, Mm. iv, 458. 19 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 1 1 6, 119^, 125^, 126, 127, 1273, 133. 4 Ibid, xi, 146. 7 Ibid, xii, 99. 9 Ibid, xii, 156. "Ibid, xii, 1 80. " Ibid. 15 Ibid. face IX, that the abbot and convent of Colchester did not maintain a sufficient number of religious at Snape, according to the founder's directions, the pope, by bull dated 10 January, 1399-1400, made this priory independent and exempt from all control by the Colchester abbey.20 But whilst this matter was still in hand, the abbey of Col- chester had sufficient influence to stir up the crown against this papal action. On 3 May, 1400, commission was issued to John Arnold, serjeant-at-arms, to arrest John Mersey (monk of St. John's, Colchester, and prior of Snape), which Henry IV claimed as of the king's patronage, as Mersey had obtained divers exemptions and privi- leges prejudicial to the abbey from the court of Rome, and was proposing to cross the seas to obtain further privileges. He was to be brought before the king in chancery, and to find security that he would not leave the kingdom without the royal licence, or obtain anything prejudicial to the abbey in the court of Rome.21 On 1 6 July, Mersey was still at large, for the com- mission to arrest him was renewed and its execu- tion entrusted to four serjeants-at-arms.82 The upshot of the dispute was favourable to the abbey ; but the final agreement was not reached n until 1443. Pope Sixtus IV, in 1472, confirmed the priory in its possession and privileges, but with no state- ment as to independence.24 Archdeacon Nicholas Goldwell visited this priory, as commissary of his brother the bishop on 20 January, 1492-3 ; Prior Francis pro- duced his accounts, and the commissary found nothing worthy of reformation.26 There is record of another visitation of this small house in July, 1520; the visitor reported that everything was praiseworthy considering the number of the re- ligious and the income of the priory ; the prior was ordered to provide another brother, and to exhibit an inventory of the condition of the house at the synod to be held at Ipswich at the ensuing Michaelmas.28 This priory was one of those numerous small religious houses of East Anglia for whose sup- pression, in favour of a great college at Ipswich, Cardinal Wolsey obtained bulls in 1527-8. It was at that time valued in spiritualities at ^20 per annum, and in temporalities at £ 7 9 is. li^d., yielding a total income of ^99 if. i i^-27 After Wolsey's attainder, the site and posses- sions of this priory were granted to Thomas, duke of Norfolk, on 17 July> I532.28 10 Rymer, Foedera, viii, 121. " Pat. i Hen. IV, pt. vi, m. 4 d. " Ibid. pt. viii, m. 28 d. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, 625. " Rymer, Foedera, xi, 750. 15 Jessopp, Visit. 37. M Ibid. 177. 17 See the subsequent account of Cardinal's College, Ipswich. * Pat. 24 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 9. 79 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK PRIORS OF SNAPE John Colcestre, 1307 l Gilbert, occurs 1311* Thomas de Neylond, 1327 8 Simon de Elyton, 1349 * John de Colne, 1349 * Robert (? Richard) de Colne, 1360' Richard de Bury, 1372 7 John de Grensted, 1385 8 John de Mersey, 1394° John Wetheryngsete, died 1439 10 John Norwych, 1439" William Cambrigge, mentioned 1441 u Henry Thurton, resigned 1489 13 John Barney, 1489" Thomas Mondeley, 1491 " Francis, occurs 1493" Richard Bells, 1504" Richard Stratford, 1514" Richard Parker, 1526" A seal of a prior of this house c. I2OO is appended to two charters at the British Museum. It represents a prior standing, holding a book in his hands. Legend : + SIGILLUM PRIORIS DE SNAPE 20 8. PRIORY OF FELIXSTOWE Roger Bigod, in the reign of William Rufus, gave the church of St. Felix at Walton to the monastery of St. Andrew, Rochester. Some monks from that priory soon established a cell at Walton,21 to which the founder gave the manor of Felixstowe, and the churches of Walton and Felixstowe.22 There was a grant, c. 1 170-80, to the monks of St. Felix by Robert de Burneville, of his man Eluric Pepin with his children, which was con- firmed by William de Burneville.23 The taxation of 1291 shows that this priory had then an income of £6 I2s. i^d. from lands and rents in eight different parishes.24 In 1291 there was a commission from Thomas the prior and the chapter of Rochester to John, 1 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 26. I Westm. Mun. (Dugdale, Mm. vi, 557). * Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 18. * Ibid, iv, 93. * Ibid, iv, 113. * Ibid, v, 49. ' Ibid, vi, 72. 8 Ibid, vi, 113. ' Ibid, vi, 196. 10 Ibid, x, 29. II Ibid. " De Bane. R. 21 Hen. VI, m. 321. " Norw. Epis. Reg. xii, 1 40. "Ibid. "Ibid, xii, 154. 16 Jessopp, Visit, v, 37. " Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 44. 18 Ibid, xiv, 117. " Ipswich College Chart. " Harl. Chart. 431, 1 8 ; 441, 26. " Leland, Itia. viii, 66 ; Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xiv. M Taylor, Ind. Mon. 83. " Bodl. Chart. Suff. 239, 240, Chart. 241-3. In this collection there are also some small grants to the church of St. Felix. 14 Pofe NicA. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 124, 125, 128. cell of St. Felix, the election of Walton, and a bishop of warden of the others, as to Rochester.25 A roll of 1499, when William Waterford was warden of the cell of St. Felix, gives a full account of the year's receipts and outlay. The rents and court fees amounted to £ i o 165. io$d., and tithe portions from three parishes to 121. The sale of corn brought in ^13 12s. 2d., and the farming of pasture and mills and certain other details brought the total receipts to ^33 9;. lO^d. Among the smaller payments of the outgoings are 2od. to the friars of Ips- wich towards building their church, 2d. for cleaning the churchyard, and 6d. for oil for the church lamp. The chief payments were for repairs to the conventual and farm buildings and mills, and for wages of the servants. Among the gifts and rewards were 8d. at Christmas to a harp- player, three bushels of wheat and three of barley to the three orders of friars at Ipswich, one bushel of each to the friars of Orford, and half a bushel of wheat to the anchorite of Orford. There were also various donations of corn to the lights, &c., of the churches of Walton and Felixstowe. The last entry under this head is the gift to Thrum's wife of a bushel of both wheat and bar- ley, inasmuch as her house was burnt, and her husband and two children burnt by the fire.28 This priory was suppressed in 1538 towards the founding of Cardinal's College, Ipswich, under the bull of Clement VII.27 On 29 August, 1528, Thomas duke of Norfolk wrote to Wolsey, asking if ' the house of Fylstowe ' of his foundation is really going to be suppressed for the college, and if in that case it would be left in fee farm for him and his heirs.28 Eventually on 9 September in the ' priory of Felixstowe alias Fylstowe,' before Stephen Gar- diner, LL.D., archdeacon of Worcester, and Rowland Lee, canon of Lichfield, sitting as judges, there was presented a commission of Cardinal Wolsey, the effect of which Gardiner declared to the prior and two other monks, by which with the authority of the pope, and the consent of the founder's kin, he proceeded to the suppression of the monastery, applied the goods both movable and immovable to the college at Ipswich, and ordered the prior and his monks to enter other monasteries of the same order. The prior and monks being asked what monastery they would choose, they begged time for con- sideration, which was allowed them till the arrival of the legate at London. Thomas Cromwell was one of the witnesses.29 The formal grant of the site of Felixstowe priory, with its appurtenances, was made to * Bodl. Chart. Suff. 1304. 16 Set forth at length in Dugdale, Mm. iii, 563-5. 17 Rymer, Foettera, xiv, 240. 18 L. and P. Hen. HII, iv, pt. ii, 4673. 80 Ibid. 4755. RELIGIOUS HOUSES Wolsey on 30 December, 1528. On the following day the cardinal's agent entered into the barn of corn at Felixstowe, and met with no resistance.1 On 6 January, 1528-9, the Duke of Norfolk made a formal grant of Felixstowe to the cardinal. An unsigned memorandum sent to Cromwell about that date of ' certain utensils that I saw at Filstou,' mentions in the hall, old hangings of little value, stained, of the life of Job. The contents were very poor according to this summary ; for instance, in the cellar, ' nothing ' ; in the chamber over the parlour, a small bedstead, and a ' noghty lok ' ; 'all the locks about the house been nought.' ' William Capon, the dean of Wolsey's Ips- wich College, writing to the cardinal on 12 April, 1529, mentions a visit from the Duke of Nor- folk, who was at first very rough with him as he had been informed that the house at Felix- stowe was spoiled, and lead and stone conveyed away ; but he was able to assure him that this was not the case. On the speedy ending of Ipswich College, owing to the fall of Wolsey, the crown granted this priory and its appurtenances to the Duke of Norfolk. WARDENS OR PRIORS OF FELIXSTOWE Robert de Suthflete, prior of Rochester, 1352* John Hertley, prior of Rochester, 1361 7 Richard Pecham, 1496® William Waterford, occurs 1499 HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 9. THE PRIORY OF BUNGAY About the year 1160 Roger de Glanville and the Countess Gundreda, his wife, founded the priory of Bungay, in honour of the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Cross, for nuns of the Benedictine order. The first endowment con- sisted of benefices, lands, and rents, the greater part of which had been part of the dower of Gundreda on her marriage, and included the four churches of All Saints, Mettingham, Ilketshall St. Margaret, Ilketshall St. Andrew, and Ilket- shall St. Laurence.3 An elaborate charter of confirmation by Henry III in 1235 marks a great variety of other benefactions chiefly of small plots of land, made since the foundation, including the church of St. Mary Roughton, by Roger de Glanville, and the mill of Wainford by Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk.4 It is not a little remarkable that there is no mention of the possessions of the nuns of St. Cross, Bungay, throughout the taxation roll of Pope Nicholas in 1291. We can only conclude that the house obtained at that date the rare privilege of exemption from such taxing. On the complaint of the prioress of St. Cross, Bungay, a commission of inquiry was issued in February, 1299, as to Robert, prior of Coxford, with various men, carrying away her goods at Roughton and Thorpe Market, county Norfolk, and assaulting her men.6 On the other hand, in May, 1301, a commission was appointed on the complaint of the abbot of Barlings, that Joan, prioress of Bungay, Simon, parson of the church of St. John by Mettingham, and many others, 1 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, 5075, 5077. 'Ibid. 5144, 5145. 3 A confirmation charter of Henry II, cited in inspection charter 3 Edw. Ill, No. 48. 1 Chart. R. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 13. Cited in Dug- dale, Mm. iv, 338-9. 6 Pat. 27 Edw. I, mm. 37 d. 25 d. had carried away the abbey's goods at Bungay and other places.9 The prioress obtained licence in 1318 to appro- priate the church of St. John Baptist, Ilketshall, which was of their own advowson,10 and in con- sideration of their poverty the prioress and convent obtained licence, without fine, in 1327, to acquire in mortmain land and rent to the yearly value of jTiO.11 Edward de Montacute and Alice his wife assigned the advowson of the church of Redenhall to the priory of Bungay in 1 346, together with licence for its appropriation.18 In 1441 this church was disappropriated, a pen- sion of 40*. being reserved for the nunnery.13 In 1416 a list was drawn up of all the churches of Norwich diocese appropriated to nunneries, with the date of the appropriation. Under Bungay priory appear the names of the four churches originally given by the founder, as well as Bungay St. Thomas and Roughton, and the date assigned to the appropriation of these six and the establish- ment of vicarages is temp. Lot. Cone.1* To these six the list adds Redenhall, giving 1349 as the year of the ordaining of a vicarage.15 The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual value of the temporalities, which were chiefly in Suffolk, as £28 is. 8|rf. The clear value of the spiritualities came to £33 ids. o|*/., giving a total income of £61 us. 9^. The spiritualities included the appropriated churches of St. Mary 6 Angl. Sacr. i, 394. ' Ibid. 8 Cole MS. xxvii, 691 b. 9 Pat. 3 1 Edw. I, m. 24 d. 10 Ibid. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27. 11 Ibid, i Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 1 6. 18 Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 6 ; Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 27, 28. 13 Norw. Epis. Reg. x, fol. 48. 14 The fourth Lateran Council, 1215, insisted on the proper founding of vicarages in the case of appropria- tions. 14 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 28. Si A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK and St. Thomas, Bungay ; St. John, St. Laurence, St. Andrew, and St. Margaret, Ilketshall ; Met- tingham and Roughton, Norfolk ; and portions of i Of. and 40*. respectively, from Morton and Redenhall.1 The advowson or patronage of this priory, im- plying the assent of the patron (usually formal) to the prioress chosen by the chapter, and certain rights during a vacancy, belonged in the reign of Edward I to Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk. William de Ufford, earl of Suffolk, died seised of it in 1381 ; and John, duke of Norfolk, in 1432, as pertaining to the manor of Ilketshall.2 The visitations of Bishops Goldwell and Nykke were entirely to the credit of this nunnery. The numbers of the religious of this house were considerably less towards the close of its history than had been the case in the thirteenth century. In 1287 there were a prioress and fifteen nuns,3 but probably Bungay, like many other religious houses, never recovered from the pauperizing effects of the Black Death, as when Nicholas Goldwell visited Bungay on 31 January, 1493, as commissary for his brother the bishop, besides Elizabeth Stephynson, the prioress, nine sisters were resident. Nothing was then found worthy of reformation.4 Bishop Nykke visited this priory in August, 1514; the register page beyond re- cording the visit is blank.5 The next visitation entry was of that made by two of the bishop's commissaries in August, 1520; the prioress, Elizabeth Stephynson, did not appear on account of infirmity, as well as another of the sisters ; seven other nuns replied both as to the state of the house and the essentials of religion, omn'ia bene.s At the visitation of 1526 Maria Loveday, the prioress, stated that everything was praiseworthy both in spiritualities and temporalities, and in this estimate the visitor and seven nuns concurred.7 Equally satisfactory was the visitation of 1532, when Cecilia Falstolf was prioress ; there was nothing to reform.8 This priory came, of course, under the Act of 1536 for the suppression of the smaller houses. The exact date on which it was dissolved is not known. In April of that year a memorandum in the hand of the Duke of Norfolk was forwarded to Cromwell, wherein he stated that he had obtained possession of Bungay, worth £60 last St. Andrewtide. The nuns seem to have forestalled forcible action and deserted the house, knowing what was in store for them, for at that date the duke found 'not one nun left therein.' He stated that he had previously shown the king that the nuns would not abide, so 'the house 1 Valor Ecc 1. (Rec. Corn.), iii, 430-1. 1 Inq. p. m. 35 Edw. I, No. 46 ; 5 Ric. II, No. 57 ; 1 1 Hen. VI, No. 43. ' Tanner, Not. Man. Suff. viii. 4 Jessopp, Visit. 39-40. * Ibid. 144. ' Ibid. 189. 'Ibid. 261. "Ibid. 318. being void, I, as founder,9 lawfully entered there- unto.' 10 On 1 8 December, 1537, Thomas, duke of Norfolk, obtained a grant of the site of this priory, with the whole of its property and advow- son, from the crown at the modest rental of £6 4*. 3 Ibid. " Ibid, vi, 73. "Ibid. "Ibid, vi, 217. " Ibid, vi, 256. *> Ibid, vii, 6. 16 Ibid, ix, 67. "Ibid, x, 31. K Add. MSS. 141 1 1, fol. 158. 19 Ibid. »" Ibid. 31 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 151. " Ibid, xii, 145. ** Jessopp, Visit. 260. "Ibid. 318. RELIGIOUS HOUSES suggested by the name of the prioress. On the one, circa 1200, appears the Blessed Virgin, crowned and seated under a trefoiled arch, with the Holy Child on left knee. In the base, under a pointed arch, is the half-length kneeling figure of the prioress. Legend : •4- SIGILL' . MARIE . D' . On the other, circa 1300, appears the figure of St. John Baptist, right hand raised in benediction, in the left hand the Agnus Dei on a plaque. In the base, half-length of prioress kneeling. Le- gend : -f- s'. JOHANNE. PRIORISSE. DE. BUGEIA * 10. THE PRIORY OF REDLINGFIELD The foundation charter of this priory of Benedictine nuns, dated II2O, shows that it was founded by Manasses count of Guisnes and Emma his wife, who was the daughter and heiress of William de Arras, lord of Redlingfield. It was endowed with the manor of Redlingfield and all its members and all such customs as William de Arras held.3 The assignment of the parish church of Red- lingfield to the priory is an exceptionally early instance of appropriation. In the official list of appropriated churches of this diocese drawn up in 1416, it was stated that the nuns of Redling- field had held this church to their own use (in proprios usus) from the year 1 1 2O.4 Redlingfield is one of the very few religious houses omitted from the taxation roll of 1291 ; it was probably exempted on the ground of exceptional poverty. In 1343, it was stated that the prioress held part of the tithes of corn, wool, and lambs of Redlingfield worth two marks a year, and also forty acres of land worth 14*. 4*/.s The prioress and convent obtained licence, in 1344, to acquire land or rents to the annual value of j£io under the privy seal.6 It was not, however, until 1381 that grants were obtained covered by this licence ; in that year Sir William de Kerdiston assigned to the priory a third part of the manors of Hickling and Rishangles, of the yearly value of ^7 13*. 4^., in full satisfaction of the licence of 1344.' A further licence to this priory, described as of the patronage of Queen Anne, was granted in 1383 to obtain property to the value of £20 a year,8 and other small grants were subsequently made.9 1 B.M. Cast Ixxi, 88. ' Ibid. Ixxi, 85. 3 This charter is cited in an Inspeximus Charter of 1285, Chart. R. 13 Edw. I, m. 16, No. 51. 4 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 125. * Inj. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 69. 0 Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. I. 7 Ibid. 4 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 27. 8 Ibid. 6 Ric. II. pt. iii, m. 1 6. 9 Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 46 ; Ibid. 19 Edw. IV, m. 23. The Valor of 1535 shows that the clear annual value of this priory was at that time j£8 i 2s. $^d. The temporalities in Suffolk and Norfolk, chiefly from lands and rents at Redling- field, Rishangles, and Thorndon, amounted to jf68 IDS. lid. The spiritualities consisted of portions of the churches of Redlingfield, Wai- pole, Melton, and Levington, amounting to j£l2 us. 6d. The daily dole of pence, bread, beef, and herrings, according to ancient use, and certain alms to aged poor at Easter and Lent cost the nuns ^9.10 The foundation charter states that the house was dedicated to God and St. Andrew, but the Valor of 1535 gives the joint invocation of the Blessed Virgin and St. Andrew. In 1418 the Bishop of Norwich transferred the feast of the conventual and parish church of Redlingfield from 24 December to 24 September. u The cause assigned for this change was that there ought to be an abstinence from work on the day of the dedication feast, but that immediately before Christmas there were so many worldly occupations and social duties pressing on both the nuns and the parishioners that the day could not be duly observed. The reason given by the bishop for selecting 24 September was that on that date the feast of the dedication of Norwich Cathedral was observed. More than one scandal came to light in connexion with the episcopal visitations of this nunnery ; but it is satisfactory to find that the house had recovered its good tone when the last of the series was held. The sad irregularities disclosed in 1427 supply another proof of the evil result of the rule of an un- principled superior ; the result shows the genuine character of such investigation. An inquiry was held on 9 September, 1427, in this convent by Dr. Ringstede, dean of the collegiate church of St. Mary-in-the-Fields, Norwich, as com- missary of the bishop, concerning alleged excesses and dilapidations. Isabel Hermyte (prioress), Alice Lampit (sub-prioress), five professed sisters, and two novices, assembled in the chapter-house, when the deputy visitor read his commission first in Latin, and then in the vulgar tongue, in order that it might be the better understood by the nuns. The prioress confessed that on 25 January, 1425, she had promised on oath to observe all the injunctions then made ; she admitted that since that date she had never been to confession, nor had she observed Sundays or double principal feasts as ordained. The prioress further admitted for herself and for Joan Tales, a novice, that they had not slept in the dormitory wilh the other nuns, but in a private chamber contrary to injunctions ; that there ought to be thirteen nuns, but there were only nine ; that there ought to be three chaplains, but there was only '• Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 478. 11 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 23 i £. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK one ; that she had laid violent hands on Agnes Brakle on St. Luke's Day ; that she had been alone with Thomas Langelond, bailiff, in private and suspicious places, such as a small hall with windows closed, and sub heggerowes ; that no annual account had been rendered ; that obits had been neglected ; that goods had been alienated, and trees cut down and sold without knowledge or consent of the convent ; and that she was not religious or honest in conversation. On Joan Tates being questioned as to incontinence, she said that it was provoked by the bad example of the prioress. The inquiry was adjourned to 1 1 September, when the prioress, to avoid great scandal, made her resignation in a written document witnessed O by all the nuns. The commissary's secretary set down the details of this solemn scene, with curious particularity, describing even the difference in dress between the professed sisters and the novices. Dr. Ringstede considered that all the religious were to blame, and ordered the whole convent to fast on bread and beer on Fridays. Joan Tates having confessed to incontinence, was to go in front of the solemn procession of the convent next Sunday, wearing no veil and clad in white flannel. The full form of resig- nation and confession of the prioress was entered in the diocesan register, and she was sent in banishment to the priory of Wykes.1 Bishop Nykke personally visited Redlingfield on 7 August, 1514, when certain minor irregu- larities were brought to light. The prioress complained of the disobedience of some of the sisters. Several of the nuns complained that the sub-prioress was cruel and too severe in discipline, even to the often drawing of blood. It was objected by others that no statement of accounts had been rendered for some years ; that there were no curtains between the beds in the dormitory ; that boys slept in the dormitory ; that they had no proper infirmary ; and that the refectory was unused for meals, being put to other purposes. The visitor ordered the prioress to exhibit an inventory of the valuables, of the cattle, and of all movables before the feast of All Saints, and a statement of accounts at Michaelmas, 1515. The refectory and infirmary were to be put to their proper uses, and a warden of the infirmary appointed. The sub- prioress was to correct and punish with discretion and not cruelly. Curtains were to be provided between the beds, and boys were not to sleep in the dormitory.4 The suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and Dr. 1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 104-6. This is the only religious house scandal that we have noticed in the whole of the diocesan registers at Norwich. ' Jessopp, Visit. 1 3 8-40. By the boys, as may be gathered from other nunnery visitations, were meant the little boys who occasionally accompanied their sisters as boarding scholars. 84 Cappe visited this priory, as commissaries of Bishop Nykke, in August, 1520. Margery Cokrose, the prioress, and nine other nuns were all examined, with the result that not a single complaint nor any remissness was brought to light ; a full inventory of all the goods was exhibited, and the annual account would be presented at Michaelmas.3 There was an equally satisfactory visitation in July, 1526, when there was nothing to redress ; the visitation was attended by Grace Sansome (alias Sampson), prioress, and by five professed sisters and three novices.4 The last visitation of this house, undertaken by Bishop Nykke, with Miles Spenser as auditor and principal official, was held on 5 July, 1532, when the same prioress and nine other nuns testified ; all returned satisfactory answers, and the bishop could find nothing needing reformation. This house coming under the Suppression Act of the smaller monasteries of 1536, the Suffolk commissioners visited Redlingfield on 26 August to draw up an inventory. The ornaments of the altar were only valued at "js. 8d. A pair of organs and four books in the quire were esti- mated at 5*. The contents of the vestry 8;. 4^., including a silver chalice, many old altar cloths and linen cloths, and a pair of censers and a ship of latten. The contents of the Lady chapel only added 8d. to the total. The hall, parlour, chambers, &c., were but poorly furnished. The only substantial items were the cattle ^n 141., and the corn £11 161. The total of the inventory was £130 js. ii^d. s Grace Sampson, the prioress, on the day before the taking of this inventory, deposed to Sir Anthony Wingfield and the other commissioners that the house had seven religious and twenty- three servants, of whom two were priests, four women servants, and seventeen hinds. The priory was surrendered on 10 February, 1536-7, when each nun received the trifling sum of 231. 4, 132, 133. 94 RELIGIOUS HOUSES In a long list of royal protections to religious houses in 1295, in return for bestowing on the king a tithe of their income, the priory of Bricett is described as a cell to the priory of ' Noblac in Lymoches.' : In 1325 Thomas Durant and Margaret his wife obtained licence to enfeoff John de Bohun of a fourth part of the manor of Great Bricett, together with the advowson of the priory of St. Leonard of the same town.* Licence was granted in 1331 for the aliena- tion by Thomas le Archer, rector of Elmsett, and Richard his brother, to the prior and canons of Bricett of three parts of the manor of Great Bricett, of the yearly value of £7.' The fourth part of the manor of Great Bricett of the annual value of 365. 8d. was assigned to the priory in 1346 by Richard Hacoun and Anne his wife.4 In the same year John Bardoun and Isabel his wife released to the prior and canons of St. Leonard's all their right and claim in the manor of Great Bricett.5 The prior, with a great number of other priors of alien houses and cells, was summoned to appear before the council at Westminster, on the morrow of Midsummer, 1346, 'to speak with them on things that shall be set forth to them,' upon pain of forfeiture and the loss of the priory, lands, and goods.6 On the general suppression of the alien priories, Bricett came into the hands of the crown. In 1444 Henry VI granted the whole of the possessions to the college of SS. Mary and Nicholas (afterwards King's), Cambridge.7 This grant was confirmed by the same king in 1452," and it was again renewed by Edward IV in the first year of his reign, namely on 24 Feb- ruary, 1462.° In a book of surveys of the University of Cambridge, 1545-6, the annual value of the priory or manor of Bricett is set down under the possessions of King's College at £33 i is. 8d.l° PRIORS OF BRICETT William Randulf, appointed 131 a11 John de Essex, appointed 1337 1JI Alan de Codenham, appointed 1372" Nicholas Barne, appointed 1399** 1 Pat. 24 Edw. I, m. 21. 'Ibid. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 37. "Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26. 4 Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 4. 'Close, 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23 a. "Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 6 d. 1 Par/. R. (Rec. Com.), v. 93. 8 Pat. 3 I Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 20. 'Ibid, i Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 23. 10Dugdale, Man. vi, 175. 11 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 46. "Ibid. Hi, 5. "Ibid, vi, 14. "Ibid, vi, 2 56. 1 8. THE PRIORY OF BUTLEY This important priory of Austin canons was founded in honour of our Lady, in the year 1171, by Sir Ralph de Glanville, justiciary of England. It was founded upon lands called Brockhouse, which Ralph held by his wife Bertha, daughter of Theobald de Valoins, lord of Parkham. A chief part of the founder's original benefaction consisted of the churches of Butley, Farnham, Bawdsey, Wantisden, Capel, and' Benhall.1' Henry II, at the request of the founder, gave the rectory of Burston, Norfolk, to the canons ; but they subsequently resigned the appropriation and appointed a rector, securing a pension of 40*.16 It was further endowed, in the same reign, with the rectory of Winfarthing, Norfolk, but in this case the advowson and appropriation were lost in I42517. In 1209 the two moieties of the advowson of Gissing, Norfolk, were granted to the priory, and the appropriation was sanctioned in 1271. The advowson and appro- priation of the church of Kilverstone, Norfolk, together with a fold-course and common of pas- ture in that parish were granted to the prior in 18 95 1217 The Norfolk parish of Dickleburgh possessed four rectories ; sanction to appropriate one of these portions was granted by the bishop in 1 1 80. The abbot of St. Edmunds drew pensions from two of the other portions. But in 1454, with the consent of all parties, the four portions were consolidated, each rector covenanting to pay a yearly pension of -is. A.d. to the priorv of Butley.19 There was hardly a religious house in the kingdom, save some of the largest Benedictine abbeys, that had so much church patronage, or such a wealth of appropriations in its hands as was eventually the case with the priory of Butley. In the year 1235, William D'Auberville, grand- son of Maud, eldest daughter of Ralph de Glan- ville, the founder, gave to the priory his third 20 of the churches of Chedgrave, Somerton, Upton, Wantisden, Capel, Benhall, Bawdsey, and Fin- borough, with a moiety of the church of Glem- ham Parva. In 1271 Lady Cassandra Baynard gave her share of the church of Chedgrave ; and other shares of several churches subsequently fell to the canons.21 The prior and convent of Norwich confirmed in 1249 tne church of Little Worlingham St. 15 The foundation charter is among the MSS. of C. C. C. Camb., and is cited in full in Dugdale, Man. vi, 380. 16 Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. i, 125. "Ibid, i, 1 8 1. 18 Ibid, i, S43- "Ibid, i, 191-3. 10 The founder's property had been divided between his three daughters and heiresses. " Add. MS. (Davy), 19100, 19096. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Peter to the monastery of Butley, which had been appropriated to this house by William de Suffield, bishop of Norwich.1 An undated con- firmation by Norwich priory, c. 1266, also con- firmed the appropriation to Butley of the church of Gissing.2 The taxation of 1291 shows that the priory then held the appropriation of fifteen churches, yielding a total income of £i2J 6s. Sd. ; the most wealthy of these were Debenham, £30 ; Upton, £16 135. ifd. ; Ashfield-cum-Thorp, j£i3 6s. 8d. ; and West Somerton, £12. The temporalities in about sixty Suffolk parishes, and in a few parishes of Norfolk and Lincoln pro- duced j£68 9*. 8^., and give a total annual income from all sources, at that date, of ^195 i6s. i,d? By far the largest holding of the priory, under temporalities, was at West Somerton, Norfolk, whence their income amounted to ^37 3*. if\d. There were several minor bequests in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An important but temporary addition was made to the priory's income by Henry VIII, in 1508, when the cell of Snape, which till then had belonged to St. John's, Colchester, was given to the Butley canons, together with the manors of Snape, Scottow, 'Tastard,' Bedingfield, Aldeburgh, and Friston. The Colchester monks, however, showed themselves, not unnaturally, very trouble- some over this transfer, and the prior of Butley resigned it in 1509.* When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up it was found that this priory had an income con- siderably exceeding ^3,000 of our money. The clear annual value of the temporalities amounted to £210 Js. "]\d. Among the deductions was the sum of £8 i6s. 8d. paid in pence to the poor of Chesilford at the chief festivals, out of the rentals of that manor. The spiritualities pro- duced a further clear income of j£io8 95. 7\d,, leaving a total net income of ^318 17 s. 2^/.6 The priory had lost in recent years, through various causes, two or three of its appropriated churches ; those that it still retained were Butley, Capel, Gedgrave chapel, Wantisden, Glemham Magna, Kesgrave, Shelley, Redisham, Willing- ham Magna and Parva, Ramsholt, Ashfield-cum- Thorp, Aspall, Fornham, Harleston, Kylmton, Weybread, Debenham, Finborough, Benhall, Bawdsey, in Suffolk ; West Somerton, Gissing, Upton, and Bylaugh, in Norfolk ; Byker, in Lincoln ; St. Stephen Coleman, City of London ; and Debenham, Essex — twenty-seven in all. The leper hospital of West Somerton, Nor- folk, was in the charge of the prior of Butley in 1 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 190. ' Ibid. 191. * Pofe Kick. Tax (Rec. Com.), 19, 24^, 74, 78^, 79. 83^97<*> '°4A J05» "3» >'5<*> >'7» 119, «*3> 1296, 131^, 133^. 4 Dugdale, Man. vi, 381, where Henry VII's charter of transfer is cited in full. r. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 418-22. 96 the time of Edward I. A commission was issued to William de Ormesby and William de Sutton in February, 1299, touching the persons who entered the West Somerton lazar-house — in the custody of the prior of Butley, by the king's orders — and carried away the corn and goods and the muniments of the hospital.6 In October of the following year the crown granted to the prior of Butley, keeper of the leper-house of West Somerton, in consideration of a fine of 100 marks, to hold the hospital quit of any account, as his predecessors used to do, but subject, like other hospitals of the king's advow- son, to be visited by the chancellor or his deputies to correct defects.7 An inquisition held on 14 November found that Ralph Glanville, whose heir the king was, granted to the prior and convent of Butley the custody of the hospital of West Somerton, on condition that they maintained in it thirteen lepers, with a chaplain to celebrate daily there and a clerk, praying for the souls of Ralph and his father and mother ; that the prior for twenty years past had ceased the maintenance of nine of the lepers and of the chaplain and the clerk j that for twelve years the prior had withdrawn from the four lepers who were there on that date seven gallons of ale a week, worth id. each ; and that the hospital was worth ten marks annually. Thereupon the hospital was taken into the king's hands. In November 1399 the priory informed Henry IV that the hospital at the time of its first endowment was worth ^60 a year, and that as it was now worth only 10 marks it could not possibly discharge its first obligations ; and that the place where the hos- pital formerly stood was desolate. Whereupon Henry IV discharged the priory of all its hospital obligations, on condition that two canons of the priory celebrated daily for the good estate of the king, and for the souls of his progenitors and predecessors, and for the souls of Ralph, the founder, and his father and mother.8 Much light is thrown upon the inner working of a fairly large house of Austin canons, towards the close of the monastic system, by the visita- tions of Bishops Goldwell and Nykke, of which unusually full records remain.9 It is evident that here, as elsewhere, the tone of a house depended much upon the character of the superior. Bishop Goldwell visited this priory on 10 July, 1494, when the prior (Thomas Framlingham) and thirteen canons were examined. Another canon was absent. The report stated that the brethren who had granted 135. 4^. of their stipends to the prior for the needs of the house, sought restitution ; that the prior punishes at his ' Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. 37 Pope NifA. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 17, 121, 12 1£, 132. 13 Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 15. " Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, No. 7. 16 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 36. *• Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 469-70. " Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 62. 18 Ibid. 89 Ibid, iv, 120 30 Ibid, iv, 129. 11 Ibid, vi, 3. " Ibid. M Ibid, vi, 210. 11 B.M. Cast, Ixxi, 102. 99 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK probably founded by an ancestor of the earl and dukes of Norfolk, as they held the patronage of the priory for many generations. The priory held lands in Bentley,1 Chelmon- diston,2 and Bergholt,3 in the thirteenth century, and in 1327 the prior of Dodnash obtained free warren over his lands in Bentley, Falkenham, and Bergholt.4 Licence was obtained in January 1331 by the prior and convent to acquire lands or rents in mortmain to the yearly value of ^IO.6 In April of the same year John de Goldyngham, under the foregoing licence, was allowed to alienate to the priory, property in Bentley, Berg- holt, Capel, Brantham, and Tattingstone, of the yearly value of ^f.6 The endowment of the priory in 1485 in- cluded the tithe of barley in Falkenham, 320 acres of land in Hemingstone, Coddenham, etc., 280 acres of land in Burstall, Bramford, etc., a messuage and 39 acres of land in Bergholt, free warren in the three places already named, and rents and lands in fifteen Suffolk parishes.7 The total clear annual value of the priory was declared at ^44 I 8;. 8£ Add. MS. 19098, fol. 158. " Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 9. " Ibid. 13 Ibid, vi, 164. " Ibid, vi, 288. " Bodl. Chart. Suff. 203. 16 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 40. " Ibid, xii, 78. " Jessopp, Visit. 130. '9 B. M. Cast, Ixxi, 114. 101 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 22. THE PRIORY OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL, IPSWICH The priory of St. Peter and St. Paul was established in the parish of St. Peter, Ipswich, for Austin canons about the end of the reign of Henry II. It is said to have been founded by the ancestors of Thomas Lacy and Alice his wife j1 but the crown claimed the patronage as early as the reign of Henry III, and continued to issue a cmgi filire on vacancies down to its suppression. Very little is known of its early history. The gift of Letheringham, early in the thirteenth century, and the establishment of a small cell of this house, is described under Letheringham priory. From the taxation roll of 1291 we find that it was then in possession of a considerable in- come. It held the appropriation of the Ipswich churches of St. Peter, St. Nicholas, and St. Clement, and also the rectories of Creting- ham and Wherstead, and a portion of Swineland ; the annual total of the spiritualities was ^36 los. The temporalities in lands and rents, chiefly in Ipswich and the suburbs, amounted to ^45 ijs. $d. a year, giving a total income of £82 7s. Sd.3 A grant was made 15 February, 1289, to the sub-prior and convent of the church of SS. Peter and Paul, for a fine of j£iO, of the custody of their house during voidance. John de Ipswich, a canon of the church, had brought word to Westminster in the previous week of the resig- nation of William de Secheford, their prior. Licence was obtained for a new election, and the assent of the crown to the election of John de St. Nicholas was forwarded to the bishop on 5 May.3 Licence was obtained by the prior in 1303 to enclose, with the asr,ent of Hugh Haraud, a void plot of land, six perches long by three broad, a little distance from the priory, together with an adjoining road, to build on the same for the enlargement of the priory, on condition that a like road was made on their own adjacent ground.4 The priory obtained licence in 1320 to acquire lands in mortmain to the annual value of jCio; in the same year they had bene- factions to the annual value of 41*. \d. a year.5 In 1329 the priory obtained further grants, under this licence, of the annual value of 55*." Robert Bishop, at the request of Edward I, had obtained sustenance for life at this priory ; and ' Weever, funeral Monuments, 752 ; Tanner, Nstitia, Suff. xxviii, z. * Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 115^, 117, 119^, 124, 1*9^, 133. 3 Pat. 17 Edw. I, m. 21, 20, 1 8. 4 Ibid. 31 Edw. I, m. 20. J Ibid. 13 Edw. II, m. 14; 14 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 4. • Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 1 4. on his death Edward II had made a like grant to Gerard de Cessons of sustenance fit for a man of gentle birth, adding that Nicholaa, Gerard's wife, should receive the same for her life if she survived her husband. Edward III, in 1330, granted to the priory that, after the death of their pensioners Gerard and Nicholaa, the house should not be further burdened by the crown after that fashion.7 Thomas de Lacy and Alice his wife obtained licence in 1344 to alienate to this priory land at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, and the advowson of the church of St. John Baptist of that town, for the celebration in that church of masses for their souls and their ancestors ; the licence also authorized the appropriation of Duxford church to the priory.8 The priory paid in 1392 for licence to accept, from Roger de Wolferston and others, consider- able benefactions in lands at Thurlston and other places, to find a canon-regular to celebrate daily in their church for the souls of Thomas Harold and John de Claydon.9 Archdeacon Goldwell visited this priory as commissary of his brother the bishop in January, 1493, but no particulars were recorded in the register.10 The next recorded visitation is that by the vicar-general on behalf of Bishop Nykke, in August, 1514. Prior Godwyn presented his accounts from the time of his appointment, but not as an inventory ; he complained that the brethren did not duly rise for mattins. John Laurence, who was serving the church of St. Nicholas, Ipswich, said that the brethren were disobedient in not rising for mattins. Geoffrey Barnes, who served the church of St. Peter, considered that everything was well and laudably done. William Browne com- plained that the foundation of a chantry within the church of St. Peter was not observed, that the brethren did not have their usual pension and that there was no schoolmaster. There were other complaints as to the absence of a school- master, and as to comparatively small matters, such as no lunch (jentacula) in the morning. Nine canons were examined, in addition to the prior. The injunctions of the vicar-general ordered the canons to rise for mattins and to be obedient to the prior, and the prior to provide a chest with three locks for the custody of the seal before Michaelmas, and a teacher in grammar for the canons.11 A visitation was held on 2 August, 1520, by the Bishop of Chalcedon and Dr. Cappe, as the diocesan's commissaries, but no particulars are recorded.12 The next visitation was held by Bishop Nykke in July, 1526. William Brown, 7 Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 30. 8 Ibid. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9. 9 Ibid. 1 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 32. 10 Jessopp, Visit. 35. 11 Ibid. 137-8. " "Ibid. 1 8 1. I O2 RELIGIOUS HOUSES the prior, four canons, and two novices were examined, all of whom reported omnia bene. The bishop found nothing worthy of reforma- tion, but he enjoined the providing of a preceptor to teach the novices in grammar.1 When Wolsey formed his design in 1527 for the establishment of Cardinal's College, Ipswich, this priory was one of the small monasteries marked out for suppression for that purpose. Pope Clement issued a special bull sanctioning the dissolution of this house in May, 1528, in favour of the college. Therein it is described as holding the Ipswich churches of St. Peter and St. Nicholas, St. Clement and St. Mary-at- Quay, and also the parish churches of Wherstead and Cretingham.2 On the disgrace of Wolsey, the Cardinal's College came to an end, and the king granted the site of this monastery of six acres, which served as the deanery of the short-lived college, to Thomas Alvard, one of the gentlemen ushers of the king's chamber.3 PRIORS OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL, IPSWICH Gilbert,4 elected 1225 Nicholas de Ipswich,5 1252 William de Secheford,6 resigned 1289 John de St. Nicholas,7 elected 1289 Henry de Burstall,8 elected 1304 Henry de Kurseya,9 elected 1311 Clement de Ipswich,10 elected 1343 William de Ipswich,11 died 1381 John de Monewedon,11 1381 John de Ipswich,12 elected 1419 Geoffrey Stoke,13 elected 1444 Geoffrey Grene,14 died 1476 John York,15 electeJ 1476-96 Thomas Godewyn,16 occurs 1514 William Brown,17 occurs 1526 The late twelfth-century seal of this priory is of much interest. It shows the priory church from the south with central tower and spire, nave, chancel, and south transept ; over the roof, I Jessopp, Visit. 221. * Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 241-2 ; L. and P. Hen. nil, iv, 4229, 4259 (2). 3 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, v, 392 (9). 4 Pat. 9 Hen. Ill, m. 5. 5 Ibid. 36 Hen. Ill, m. 1 1. 6 Ibid. 1 7 Edw. I, m. 21. 7 Ibid. m. 20, 10. 8 Ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 15, 9, 5. 9 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 43 ; Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 13, 1 1, 10. 10 Pat. 1 7 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26. II Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 75 ; Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 25, 31. 11 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 51. 13 Ibid, x, 54. 14 Pat. 1 6 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 19. 15 Ibid. m. 15. " Jessopp, Visit. 137. "Ibid. 221. each side of the tower, are circular panels con- taining respectively the half-length figures of St. Peter with key and St. Paul with book. Legend : — SIGILLUM ECCLE SCOR* PETRI ET PAUL* DE GIPESWIC.18 A small oval counterseal, probably the signet of the thirteenth-century prior, has the bust of an emperor with antique crown, from an ancient intaglio gem. Legend : — MITTENTIS : CAPITI : : CREDIT' sicuTEi.19 23. THE PRIORY OF THE HOLY TRINITY, IPSWICH An Ipswich church of the Holy Trinity is named in Domesday Book ; but the foundation of Austin canons under that dedication was not established until the time of Henry II. The date of the first building is 1177. 'Normanius Gastrode fil. Egnostri ' was the first founder, according to Leland ; 20 at any rate Norman is shown by the charter of King John to have been one of the chief benefactors and a canon of the house.21 This charter shows that the priory held, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Ipswich churches of the Holy Trinity, St. Laurence, St. Mary-le-Towers, St. Mary-at- Elms, St. Michael, and St. Saviour, and the churches of ' Wilangeda,' Henham, Layham, Foxhall, and Preston, and moieties of the churches of Tuddenham and Mendham ; and lands in Nacton, Helmingham, Hemingstone, Bramford, Delf, Coddenham, Tunstall, Tudden- ham, &c. At an early date this monastery is said to have suffered from fire; it was rebuilt in 1194 by John de Oxford, bishop of Norwich. He placed there seven canons under a prior, but as endow- ments increased, the number was at one time raised to twenty. Richard I gave the patron- age of the house at the time of its re-opening into the hands of the bishop.22 The Taxation Roll of the temporalities of this priory in 1291 shows that its lands and rents, which were chiefly in the town and immediate neighbourhood of Ipswich, produced an annual income of ,£47 141. <)d. The spiritualities reached the much larger annual value of j£88 14*. 40. It would appear from this return that the canons then held the rectories of St. Laurence, St. Margaret, St. Mary-at-Tower, and St. Mary-at-Elms, Ipswich, and the country 18 Engraved in Wodderspoon's Ipswich, App. 303 ; and in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ, ii, 268. B.M. Cast, D.C., C. 6. 19 Attached to a charter of 1282, B.M. Cat. of Seals, 594- 21 Leland, Coll. i, 62. 21 Chart. R. 5 John, m. 1 6, 125. " Angl. Sacr. i, 409 ; Dugdale, Man. vi, 447 ; Wodderspoon, Ipswich, 200-2. 103 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK churches of Tuddenham, Foxhall, Rushmere, Bentley, Caldwell, and Preston, together with considerable proportions of three other rectories.1 But possibly there was some error in these entries, as it seems scarcely likely that the priory would have lost so many appropriations between this date and the time of Henry VIII, when the Valor of 1535 gave the clear value of the temporalities of the house as £69 14*. 8 has a painstaking ac- count of this house ; the statements in this sketch are chiefly taken therefrom where no other reference is given. Somerton, Suffolk, and Burgh in Cambridge- shire, in exchange for the advowson of Somerton. The taxation of 1291 showed that this priory was of the annual value of £20 Os. i\d. ; it then held possessions in fourteen Norfolk and five Suffolk parishes, in addition to small incomes from the dioceses of Ely and London. The hospital of God's House, Thetford, was definitely settled on the priory in the year 1347. In 1331 Edward III licensed the appropriation to the priory of the church of Gresham, the advowson of which had been granted by John, Earl Warenne, in 1281, but the Bishop of Norwich refused his consent. In 1339 the prior and canons appealed to Rome, and Pope Boniface granted them leave to appropriate the revenues on the next vacancy, provided they served it by one of their own canons and paid all episcopal dues. The bishop would not, how- ever, give his consent without the formal ordination of a vicarage. A survey of this house, taken on 20 December, 1338, shows that the priory held the Thetford churches of SS. Cuthbert, Andrew, Giles, 'Edmund, Lawrence, and the Holy Trinity, the last two being served by the canons. They also held 293 acres of meadow and arable land in the neighbourhood of Thetford, of the united value of jTiO 12*. oW. They had liberty of one foldcourse in the field of Westwick, wherein they might feed 500 sheep, and might remove those sheep to Brend for change of pasture when the shepherd pleased and had convenience for washing them ; also another foldcourse for 320 sheep, and various other pasturage rights for cattle and swine. The total annual value of the priory at the time of this survey was £62 gs. In 1394 Abbot Cratford, of Bury St. Edmunds, licensed the prior to purchase the tenement called Playforth in Barnham, with its services, rents, foldcourse for 400 sheep, and 133 acres of arable land worth %d. an acre, of Master Walter of Elveden, who held it of the fee of St. Edmund. For this the prior was to pay a yearly rent to the abbey of 22*., and id, on the election of a new abbot.2 In 1442 the Earl of Suffolk obtained licence to alienate to the priory 240 acres of arable land, 600 of pasture and heath for fold- courses in Croxton, and a messuage and garden in Thetford, to found a chantry in the con- ventual church. The prior sued John Legat, rector of Tuddenham, in 1464, for an annual pension of £6 from that church, which he had detained for two years ; the prior recovered it by proving that he was always taxed at 12s. tenths for the portion. When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up the clear annual income was only £39 6*. 8d. This was a great falling-off from the total of 1338; several items of revenue were much 1 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 30. 109 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK reduced, for instance the pension of £6 a year from Tuddenham church stood only at 40*. in the last Valor. The priory was visited by Archdeacon Gold- well, on behalf of the bishop, on 1 2 November, 1492. Prior Reginald and seven canons were present ; the visitor found that no reform was needed.1 Bishop Nykke visited the house on 21 June, 1514. The record of this visit is incomplete. The prior, Thomas Vicar, said that Canon William Brigges, then at Snoring, was an apos- tate and of evil life. Richard Skete complained that no one had been appointed sacrist, that the beer was of poor quality, that the prior had re- turned no account since his appointment, that Stephen Horham, the prior's servant in charge of the dairy, had the spending of the profits of seven or eight cows, that Stephen was married, and he had suspicions as to his wife, and that Stephen had laid violent hands on him. Richard Downham made some like complaints, and also spoke of the bad repair of the buildings and nave of the church, and that there were not sufficient vessels in the kitchen, and that spoons and other silver plate had been pledged. William Kings- mill made like complaints, and said that the prior, whom he considered remiss but not crimi- nal in his conduct, had presented no accounts for seven years. The depositions of Robert Barne- liam and Thomas Herd were to much the same effect.3 At Bishop Nykke's visitation of June, 1520, only the prior, John Thetford, and three canons were present. The prior stated that the priory buildings were in sad decay, and that the income was not sufficient for their support. Richard Noris said that Thomas Lowthe, the predecessor of the present prior, had taken with him a breviary belonging to the house.3 At the visitation of July, 1526, the prior and five canons were present. Prior Thetford com- plained of the unpunctuality of the canons at high mass on Sundays and the principal feasts. Nicholas Skete thought the beer was too sweet and weak.4 The last visitation was held in July, 1532, when the prior and three canons were severally examined, and all testified omnia bene so far as the condition of the house permitted. There were also three novices who were professed by the bishop. The bishop enjoined on the prior to see that the newly professed were instructed in grammar.6 Prior John Thetford and six canons sub- scribed to the royal supremacy in their chapter- house on 26 August, 1534. In that year Prior Thetford, who had been a canon of Butley, gave to the church of that monastery two chalices, 1 Jessopp, Norm. Visit. (Cam. Soc.), 32. 1 Ibid. 88-9. 'Ibid. 155. ' Ibid. 242-3. • Ibid. 303. one for the chapel of All Saints and the other for the chapel of St. Sigismund ; also two relics, with a silver pix for relics, and a comb of St. Thomas of Canterbury. He resigned the priory of Thetford about the close of 1534, and became prior of Holy Trinity, Ipswich. Legh and Ap Rice, the notorious visitors of Cromwell, visited this priory towards the end of 1535. According to their comperta Prior Clerk confessed incontinency to these men and his desire to marry ; they also reported badly of three others.6 The county commissioners for suppression of this house in 1536 reported that it was of the clear annual value of £44 12s. lod. ; that the lead and bells were worth j£8o, and the movable goods £29 8s. "jd. ; and that the debts owing amounted to £j is. J^d. The house was 'very Ruynous ande in Decaye.' They found only one religious person there, ' of slendre Reporte who requirythe to have a dispensacione to goo to the Worlde.' The persons who had their living at the house were sixteen — namely, two priests, two hinds, four children, and eight waiting servants.7 Prior Clerk obtained a pension of ten marks.8 The house, site, and possessions were granted in 1537 to Sir Richard Fulmerston. PRIORS OF THETFORD Richard,9 1202 Gislebert 10 William,11 1228 Richard,12 1242 Roger de Kersey,13 1247, died 1273 William,14 1274 Peter de Horsage,15 elected 1315 Richard de Wintringham,16 elected 1329 John de Shefford,17 elected 1338 Roger de Kerseye,18 1 347 Robert de Thetford,19 1349 Robert Edwyn,20 resigned 1351 Adam de Hokewold,21 elected 1351 William de Haneworth,22 elected 1358 Adam de Worsted,23 elected 1378 Robert de Stowe,24 died 1420 John Paltok,26 elected 1420 John Grenegras,26 elected 1432 6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 364. 7 Chant. Cert. Norf. No. 90. 8 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, 35^. 9 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 189-90. 10 Ibid. "Ibid. "Ibid. 13 Ibid. " Ibid. 15 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 63. 16 Ibid, ii, 28. " Ibid, iii, 19. 18 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 189. 19 Ibid. " Norw. Epis. Reg. iv. 134. " Ibid. » Ibid, v, 29. " Ibid, vi, 63. " Ibid, viii, 57. 15 Ibid. * Ibid, ix, 57. no RELIGIOUS HOUSES Peter Tryon,1 elected 1454 Reginald Ilberd,2 elected 1471 John Burnell, alias Burham,3 1496 William,4 1503 Thomas Vicar or Lowthe,6 occurs 1512 John Thetford,6 occurs 1519, 1534 John Clerk,7 occurs 1535 The thirteenth-century seal of this priory has under a pinnacled canopy Our Lord rising from the sepulchre, at the head of which is an angel, with two sleeping soldiers in base. Legend : — .ECCLESIE D THETFORD. A fine but imperfect impression of a seal ' ad causas ' of this house is attached to a charter of 1457. It bears the risen Saviour standing, the right hand raised in benediction, and the left grasping a long cross. In the field, on the left, are the arms of Warenne, chequy ; and on the right a crescent and a star. Legend : — .HEFO. .AD CAVS. 28. THE PRIORY OF WOOD- BRIDGE The small priory of Austin canons at Wood- bridge, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, was founded about the year 1193, by Ernald Rufus. It was endowed at the outset with lands at Woodbridge and in the neighbourhood, and with the advowson of Woodbridge church, and to these were soon added the advowsons of Brandeston and St. Gregory, Ipswich. 10 There were no appropriations to this priory at the time when the taxation roll of 1291 was drawn up, but the temporalities brought in an income of ,£23 i is. 8^. This amount was chiefly derived from lands and rents in Wood- bridge parish, namely, jCi2 10*. iod., and the next largest item was ^6 13*. ^.d. from lands at Layer de la Hay, Essex.11 The Valor of 1535 showed a considerable increase. The prior and canons at that time held the rectory of Woodbridge (j£8), whilst a portion of Brandeston Rectory produced £2 13*. 4 was somewhat longer ; Abbot Thomas Doket and fourteen other canons were present. The bishop enjoined that there was to be a little window to each cell or chamber of the dormi- tory. No canon, either within or without the house, was to use hoods with either white or black tails,6 but simple cowls. Thomas March, an apostate, was condemned to twenty days of penance, but sentence was remitted at the prayer of the convent. Everything else was excellent.7 This abbey came within the number of the smaller houses suppressed by the Act of 1536. The Suffolk commissioners came here on 21 August, 1536, and drew up a full inventory. The conventual church was fairly well supplied with ornaments and vestments. Details are given of the high altar, and those in the Lady chapel, St. Margaret's chapel, and the chapel of the Crucifix. The last three altars were supplied with alabaster tables, and there was another small alabaster sculpture on the south side of the quire door. The censers and candle- sticks were of latten, but there were three pairs of chalices (that is chalices and pattens) of silver gilt. The vestments in the vestry were fairly numerous, but chiefly old and of small value. ' A lyttell pair of old organs ' in the quire was valued at los. The furniture and utensils of the chambers, cloister, buttery, kitchen, were of an ordinary character, and of very little value. The only large items of the inventory were the cattle of the home-farm £22 3*. 4<£, and the corn j£io 8i. 8d. The total of the whole in- ventory only reached ^42 i6s. T,d? 1 Ashmole MS. 1519 (Bodl. Lib.), 35. 1 Ibid. 74. ' Ibid. ' Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 ' Liripiis nigris aut albis.' * Ibid. 8 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst. viii, 102-4. George Carleton, the last abbot, received a pension of ^2O,9 but his fellow canons were turned out penniless, the Act only providing pen- sions for the superiors of the suppressed houses. The abbey and its possessions formed a part of the vast monastic grants made by the crown to Charles, duke of Suffolk ; they were granted to him on 7 April, I537-10 ABBOTS OF LEISTON Robert,11 occurs 1182, 1190 Philip,12 occurs 1190, 1235 Gilbert,13 c. 1240 Matthew,14 occurs 1250 Robert," occurs 1253 William,16 e. 1280 Gregory,17 occurs 1285 Nicholas,18 occurs 1293 John de Glenham,19 occurs 1308 Alan,20 occurs 1310 Robert,21 occurs 1312 Simon,22 occurs 1316 Robert,23 occurs 1326 John,24 occurs 1344 John,25 occurs 1390, 1399 Thomas de Huntingfield,26 occurs 1403, 1412 Clement Bliburgh,27 occurs 1437, 1445 John of Sprotling,28 occurs 1456, 1459 Richard Dunmow,29 occurs 1475, 1482 Thomas Doget,30 occurs 1488, 1500 Thomas Waite,31 occurs 1504 John Green,32 occurs 1527 George Carleton,33 last abbot, 1531 The seal of Abbot Philip, f. 1200, shows the abbot standing on a corbel, with crozier in right hand, and book in the left. Legend : . . .HILIPPI : ABBATIS : DE : LEESTONA ?4 The conventual seal, attached to a charter 35 of 1383, also shows an abbot on a corbel, with a crozier and book. Legend : + SIG' : ABBATIS : ET : CONVENT : DE : LEESTONA 9 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, 31. 10 Pat. 28 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, No. 8. 11 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xiv, 10, 39. " Harl. MS. 441, 24 ; Vesp. E. xiv, lob, 38. &c. 13 Addy, Etauehief, 25. 14 Suckling, Hist, of Suf. ii, 431. 15 Cat. Chart. R. I. 426. 16 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 226. 1; Add. Chart. 10274. "Add. MS. 8171, fol. 82^. " Pat. I Edw. II. 2J Pre. Reg. No. 3. " Addy, Beaucbief, 47. " Close, 10 Edw. I. 13 Pat. 19 Edw. II. " Close, 18 Edw. III. 15 Suckling, Hist, of Suff. K Cal. Pap. Reg. v, 620 ; Add. Chart. 1265 1. " Suckling, Hist, of Suff. m Pre. Reg. No. 80. " Ibid. Nos. 496, 500. 30 Ibid. Nos. 501, 507. 31 Suckling, Hist, of Suff. ii, 402. ™ Ibid. » Ibid. " B.M. Cast, Ixxii, 6. 35 Harl. Chart. 54 I, 4. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK HOUSE OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 32. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS OF DUNWICH There was a house or preceptory of the Knights Templars at Dunwich at an early date, for King John, in the first year of his reign, con- firmed to them their lands and other liberties at Richdon in this town.1 This confirmation was strengthened by Henry III in 1227.* In 1252 the bona Templiariorum de Donnvico were valued at I is. a year. In early wills their house was styled Temp/urn beate Marie et Johannis, and it once occurs as Hospitale beate Marie et S. Jokannts vocat Le Tempi!.9 On the suppression of the order of the Tem- plars in 1312, their Dunwich property was transferred to the Knights Hospitallers. In 1313 John de Eggemere, who had been ap- pointed ad interim keeper of the Templars' manor of Dunwich, was ordered by the crown to pay to the Bishop of Norwich the arrears of the wages assigned to Robert de Spaunton and John Coffyn, Templars assigned to him to put in cer- tain monasteries to do penance, to wit 4^. a day for each, and to continue to pay the same.8 There can be no doubt from this entry on the close rolls that Spaunton and Coffyn were two of the Templars who had been attached to the Dunwich preceptory. Weever, writing in 1631, describes the church of this establishment as having been a fine build- ing, with a vaulted nave and lead-covered aisles. The church held various indulgences and was a place of much resort. It stood in Middlegate Street, and about 5 5 rods from All Saints'. The establishment possessed various houses, tenements, and lands in the town and neighbourhood, and their manor extended into Middleton and Wes- tledon. The court of the lordship, called Dun- wich Temple Court, was held on All Saints' Day. The church, styled in wills ' the Tem- ple of Our Lady in Dunwich,' remained in use until the dissolution of the order of the Hos- pitallers in 1540, when the revenues of the Temple manor fell to the crown, and were granted to Thomas Andrews in 1562, as parcel of the possessions of the Preceptory of Battis- ford.8 HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS 33. THE PRECEPTORY OF BATTIS- FORD There was a preceptory or hospital of the Knights of St. John at Battisford at least as early as the reign of Henry II, for that king gave lands at Bergholt to the Hospitallers of Battis- ford.4 Henry III, in 1271, granted these knights a market, a fair, and free warren on their lands at Battisford.5 William de Bates- ford gave them, in 1275, 40 acres of land and 6 of wood ; at the same time they had a grant from Henry Kede of Battisford of a certain messuage with the customary service pertaining thereto.6 Brother John de Accoumbe, preceptor of the house of the hospital of Battisford, together with two other brothers who were being sent by the grand prior to Scotland on business of the order, in April, 1321, obtained a safe-conduct for two years.7 That remarkable source of information as to the knights hospitallers in England in the reign of Edward II, namely the report of Prior Philip 1 Chart. R. I John, pt. i, m. 34. * Ibid. 2 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 29. * Suckling, Hist. ofSuJf. ii, 279. 4 Dugdale, Men. (ist edition), ii, 552. 6 Chart. R. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 4. 6 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 193. 1 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 16. de Thame, in 1338, to the Grand Master of the whole order, is very explicit with regard to the Suffolk preceptory.10 The bailiwick or preceptory of Battisford had two members or ' camerae ' attached to it, namely those of Coddenham and Mellis. The total receipts for the year 1338 amounted to £93 ioj. -jd. Half the church of Battisford was appropriated to the hospitallers, and was worth 10 marks a year, whilst the rectory of Badley produced £10 a year. By far the largest source of income was ' de Fraria n ad voluntatem contrikuentium,' which produced that year the large round sum of £50. There were messuages (houses) with gardens at both Coddenham and Mellis, in each case valued at 3$., with arable and other lands and rents, and in the case of Coddenham a windmill ; the total receipts of the former were £10 51. 8d. and of the latter £4. 3*. id. 'Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 15. ' Weever, Funeral Monuments, 719; Gardner, Hist* of Dunwich, 54. 10 Edited by Mr. Larking for the Camden Society in 1857. The details as to Battisford occur on pp. 84—6. " The ' Confraria,' ' Fraria,' or « Collecta ' was the regular annual collection for the needs of the order made throughout the particular district assigned to a. preceptory (in this case, as in most, a whole county) by authorized clerks. 120 RELIGIOUS HOUSES The expenses enable us at once to see that the chief local charges on the income were those of maintenance and hospitality. Following the general rule, it is found that there was (i) a preceptor or master of the house, Richard de Bachesworth, who acted as receiver and who was himself a knight ; (2) a confrater or brother, William de Conesgrave, also a knight ; (3) a salaried chaplain at 2Os. ; and (4) a corrodian, one Simon Paviner, who in return for certain benefactions had board and lodging at the house. In addition to these there were of the house- hold a chamberlain, a steward, a cook, a baker, each receiving 6s. 8d. a year, two youths at 5*. each, and a page at 3;. The board for all these, in addition to the hos- pitality they were bound to extend to visitors, particularly the poor, caused an expenditure of j£7 4*. in wheat and oats for bread ; £3 4.5. for barley for brewing; and jCj 161. at the rate of 3*. a week, for fish, flesh, and other necessaries for the kitchen. The robes, mantles, and other necessaries for preceptor and brother cost £3 gs. i^d. The three days' visit of the prior of Clerkenwell, the mother-house of the order in England, caused an expenditure of 6os. The total outlay for the year was £33 3$. iod.y leaving the handsome balance of £60 OS. to be handed over to the general treasury. There were two other small sources of income for the Hospitallers from this county, in 1338, which were paid direct to Clerkenwell, namely 10 marks from Dunwich, of which the particu- lars are given elsewhere, and 51. from Gisling- ham, being the yearly rent of a life lease of much waste property in that parish. In both cases these estates had originally pertained to the Templars.* The value of the property of this bailiwick deteriorated after the Black Death. The Valor of 1538 gave its clear income as £52 161. 2d.4 After the dissolution of the order, Henry VIII granted this preceptory in July, I 543, to Andrew Judde, alderman of London.5 In the following September he obtained licence to alienate it,6 and on 18 April, 1544, it was granted to Sir Richard Gresham.7 PRECEPTORS OF BATTTSFORD John de Accoumbe,8 occurs 1321 Richard de Bachesworth,9 occurs 1328 Henry Haler,10 died 1480 Giles Russel,11 <:. 1530 FRIARIES 34. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF DUNWICH The Dominican priory of Dunwich was founded about the middle of the thirteenth century by Sir Roger de Holish. It was situated in the old parish of St. John, and was but I2O rods distant from the house of the Franciscans.1 The exact time of their settlement cannot now be determined, but at all events considerable progress was being made with substantial build- ing prior to 1256. On g April that year Henry III gave these friars of Dunwich seven oaks for timber out of any of the royal forests of Essex.2 After the house had been founded, difficulties arose between the Black Friars of Norwich and those of Dunwich as to the bounds which the two houses were to traverse for spiritual and eleemosynary purposes. Two friars of each convent were elected to confer. Those chosen for Dunwich were brothers, Geoffey de Walsing- ham and William of St. Martin. The four met at the Austin house of St. Olave, Herringfleet, on 10 January, 1259, when they chose a fifth friar to act as arbitrator. The decision was to the effect that the river which divides Norfolk from Suffolk was to be the bound between the two houses, save that two parishes, Rushmere 1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich (1754). ' Close, 40 Hen. Ill, m. 1 2. and Mendham, that were in both counties, were to be assigned in their entirety to Dunwich.12 When Edward I visited Ipswich in 1227 he sent i6s. to the Friars Preachers of Dunwich for two days' food. This house benefited to the extent of 100*. in 1291, under the will of Eleanor of Castile.13 In 1349 a considerable addition was made to the homestead of these friars ; on 1 2 October the king licensed John de Wengefeld to assign 5 acres to them for the enlargement of their site.1' . 14 3 Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 167. 4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 403 ; the return is not quite perfect. Speed gives the value as £53 IDS. :> Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 4. 6 Ibid. pt. vi, m. 27. ' Ibid. pt. xv, m. 24. 8 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 16. 9 Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 85. 10 Killed at the siege of Rhodes, 1480. Porter, Knights of Malta, ii, 321. " Porter, Knights of Malta, ii, 291. Giles Russel, joint preceptor of Battisford and Dinghley (Northants), was nominated lieutenant-turcopolier about 1535, and turcopolier in 1543. Turcopolier was the title peculiar to the chief knight of the English language. He was commander of the turcopoles or light cavalry, and had also the care of the coast defences of Rhodes and afterwards of Malta. " Palmer, Refijuary, xxvi, 209. " Ibid. 14 Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 20. 121 16 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Thomas Hopman, a friar of this house, got into trouble in 1355 for leaving the realm with- out licence. It is supposed that he was acting as an agent at the Roman court on behalf of the Bishop of Ely in the serious dispute between the king and that prelate. A writ was issued in August for his arrest when he returned, and for his deliverance to the prior of the Friars Preachers of Dunwich, there to be kept in safe custody. Licence was obtained in 1384 by Robert de Swillington, at the supplication of the Friars Preachers of Dunwich, whose house was im- perilled by the incursion of the sea, which had already destroyed the greater part of Dunwich, to alienate to them land at Blythburgh for build- ing thereon a new house ; with licence to the friars to transfer their house thither, selling their old site to any who would buy it.a This translation to a site four miles distant never, however, took place ; the friars continued in their old house. Here the priory remained till its dissolution. A letter written to Cromwell in November, 1538, by the ex-prior, who had been promoted to be suffragan bishop of Dover, informed him that he had suppressed twenty houses of friars, among them being ' the Black and Grey in Dunwich.' He further reported that the lead from the roofs of these despoiled houses lay near the water, and was therefore meet to be carried to London or elsewhere.3 The possessions of these Black Friars then consisted of the site of the convent with its buildings, gardens, and orchard, and of two adjacent tenements of the yearly value of £ i 31. \d. The site was at once let by the crown at los. a year, and the tenements at 6s. 8d. each.4 The whole property was granted in 1544—5 to John Eyre, an auditor of the Court of Augmentation.5 Amongst the distinguished persons who ob- tained interment in the church of the Black Friars, Dunwich, were the founder, Sir Roger de Holish, Sir Ralph de Ufford and Joan his wife, Sir Henry Laxfield, Dame Joan de Harmile, Dame Ada Craven, Dame Joan Weyland, sister of the Earl of Suffolk, John Weyland and his wife Joan, Thomas son of Robert Brews, knt., Dame Alice, wife of Sir Walter Hardishall, Sir Walklyn Hardesfield, Austin Valeyns, Sir Ralph Wingfield, Richard Bokyll of Leiston and his two wives, and Sir Henry Harnold, knight and friar, ' whose bones with the church and edifice now lie,' as Gardner wrote in 1754, ' under the insulting waves of the sea.'6 1 Pat. 29 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 6a. 1 Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 9 ; pt. ii, m. 33. 3 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. ii, 1021, 1023. 4 Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, 139. 5 Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, m. 38 (12). 6 Weever, funeral Monumenti, 720 ; Gardner, Hist, of Duntvicb, 61. 35. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF IPSWICH The Dominican friars were established at Ipswich by Henry III in 1263. For their accommodation the king purchased a messuage of Hugh, son of Gerard de Langeston,7 and two years later, at the instance of his confessor, John de Darlington, the king granted them an adjacent messuage, purchased of the same Hugh, for the augmentation of their site.8 Their church and house, dedicated to St. Mary, soon began to flourish. Robert de Kilwardby, provincial of their order, who afterwards became archbishop of Canterbury, took a particular interest in this foundation ; in 1269 he pur- chased a further messuage to add to their site.9 The crown issued a commission in May, 1275, to John de Lovetot, to inquire whether it would be to the injury of the king or town to grant licence to the Friars Preachers of Ipswich to build an external chamber extending from their dormitory to the town dyke.10 Further enlarge- ment of their homestead was authorized in 1308 and in I334.11 Pardon was granted to the Friars Preachers of Ipswich for having acquired without licence from John Harneys, for the enlargement of their manse, a void place and a dyke 100 ft. square ; licence was at the same time granted them to retain the lot without fine, providing the burgesses and townsmen had full ingress to repair the walls of the town for defence in time of war, and whenever necessary.12 In February, 1348, the bailiffs and commonalty of Ipswich unanimously granted the Black Friars a plot of land south of their curtilage, which was 1 03 ft. in length. For this the friars were to pay 6d. a year rent and to keep up the town wall opposite the plot, and also the two great gates, one on the north and the other on the south of their court ; and through these gates the com- monalty were to be allowed to pass whenever any mishap fell on the town, or other necessity required.13 By an inquisition of March, 1350—1, it was adjudged that Henry de Monescele and two others might assign three messuages to the Dominicans for the extension of the site.14 These various grants gave to the Friars Preachers a large site in the parish of St. Mary at Quay, reaching in length from north to south, from St. Margaret's Church to the church 7 Close, 47 Hen. Ill, m. 2. 8 Pat. 50 Hen. Ill, 113. 9 Feet of F. Suff. 53 Hen. Ill, 30. 10 Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 11 Pat. i Edw. II, ii. m. 24 ; 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 19. " Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3. 13 Add. Chart. 10130. 14 Inq. a.q.d. 24 Edw. Ill, 79 ; Pat. 25 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30. 122 RELIGIOUS HOUSES of St. Mary at Quay (Star Lane), and in width from east to west, from Foundation Street to the town wall, parallel with the Lower Wash. The convent accommodated, in the thirteenth century, over fifty religious, as can be gathered from the amount of the food grants made by royalty. When Edward I was at Ipswich in April, 1277, he gave the Dominicans an alms of 14.5. lod. for two days' sustenance. In Decem- ber, 1296, the king gave four marks for the food of four days, and in the following January one mark for a single day's food.1 Father Palmer has set out a large number of bequests to the Ipswich Dominicans of small sums of money for masses, from the townsfolk and others, from 1378 to the very eve of their suppression.8 The following burials in this church are recorded by Weever : — Dame Maud Burell, Edmund Saxham, esquire, John Fastolph and Agnes his wife, Gilbert Roulage, Jone Chamber, and Edmund Charlton, esquire. He also adds the following, whose names are on the martyr- ology register of the Black Friars' benefaction : — The Lord Roger Bigot, earl-marshal, Sir John Sutton, knight, Lady Margaret Plays, Sir Richard Plays, and Sir Robert Ufford, earl of Suffolk, who died in 1369.* The name of one fourteenth-century prior of this house is known. In June, 1397, the master- general of the order declared that Brother John de Stanton was the true prior here, and not Brother William.4 In X535~6 Edmund, the prior of the Domini- cans of Ipswich, leased a garden next one of the gates of their house to Henry Toley, merchant, of Ipswich, and Alice his wife.6 Towards the end of 1537 the prior and convent leased for ninety years a dwelling-house and garden to Sir John Willoughby, knt., and other dwelling-houses, including a building called ' le Fraytof,' to different persons.8 This action points to a considerable diminution in the number of the friars, and also to an expectancy of dissolution. The suffragan Bishop of Dover (an ex-friar) suppressed this house, as royal visitor, in Novem- ber, 1538.' On the expulsion of the community, William Aubyn, one of the king's serjeants-at-arms, became tenant of the site and buildings, worth 50*. id. a year ; and the whole was sold to him in 1541 for £24..* 1 Rot. Gard. de oblat. et eleemos. reg. 5 Edw. I, 25 Edw. I. 2 Reliquary (new ser.), i, 72-5. 3 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 750-2. 4 Reg. Mag. gen. ord., at Rome, cited by Father Palmer. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 236. ' Ibid. 7 L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. i, 1021. 8 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 7. The matrix of the thirteenth-century seal of this priory is in the Bodleian Library. It bears- a half-length of the Blessed Virgin, with the Holy Child in her arms, and in an arch below the figure of a kneeling friar. Legend : — CO VENT : FR M : PREDICATORUM GIPPESWICI 9 36. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF SUDBURY The Friars Preachers were established at Sudbury by Baldwin de Shipling and Chabil his wife, who were afterwards interred in the quire of the conventual church, which was dedicated to our Saviour.10 They were settled here before 1247, for in that year Henry III gave them six marks towards their support.11 Their first site was about 5 acres in extent, and there is record of its being twice enlarged. In 1299 Robert de Pettemer, chaplain, was. allowed, after inquisition, to give the friars a strip of adjacent land, 134 ft. by 40 ft. ; 12 and in 1352 a far more considerable enlargement was sanctioned, whereby Nigel Theobald (father of Archbishop Simon) gave them 4^ acres of land,. 3 acres of meadow, and i acre i rood in Sudbury, adjoining their original homestead.13 In August, 1380, Archbishop Simon and his brother John Chertsey obtained licence for the alienation to the Friars Preachers of Sudbury of a piece of land in ' Babyngdonhall ' 20 ft. square containing a spring, and for the making by the latter of an aqueduct thence to their house.14 The archbishop and his brother paid a half mark for this permission, and made the grant ; but so much opposition was offered by landowners to the making of the conduit that it was delayed for nearly five years. At length the friars obtained from the king royal protection for themselves, their servants, and labourers engaged in this work, and all sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, &c., were charged to defend the friars and prevent any molestation or violence in the matter.18 The records of the royal alms bestowed on this house are scanty as compared with many friaries. Edward I in 1299 gave the friars of" Sudbury three days' food ; the executors of Queen Eleanor in 1291 gave IOQJ., and Edward I in 1296, when at Waddington, near this town, gave 30*. to the thirty black friars of Sudbury for three days' food.18 9 Engraved in Wodderspoon, Ipstvich, opp. 305. 10 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 743. 11 Lib. R. 32 Hen. III,m. 10. 11 Inq. p.m. 27 Edw. I, No. 87 ; Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. 14. 13 Inq. p.m. 26 Edw. Ill, 2 d. 406, No. 32 ; Pat- 26 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 3. 14 Pat. 4 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 27. 15 Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 28. 16 Reliquary, xxiv, 82. 123 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Father Palmer collected a large number of small bequests made to these friars by will, between 1355 and I5O&.1 The provincial chapter of the Dominicans was held at Sudbury in 1316. The king gave £15 for the food of the friars on this occasion, being £$ for himself and £5 for his queen, and ^5 for his son Edward. On 24 August the ' de orando pro rege et regina,' &c., was issued to the assembly. The province met here again in 1368, when Edward III made a like donation.* This priory was suppressed some time before October, 1539, for in that month Thomas Eden, clerk of the king's council, and Griselda his wife obtained a grant of the site and appurtenances in as full manner as John Cotton, the last prior, held the same.5 Weever has a long list of distinguished burials in this church, which includes, in addition to the founders, many members of the families of Gifford, Cressenon, Walgrave, and St. Quintyn.4 The most noteworthy member of this com- munity was John Hodgkin, who took a prominent part in the Reformation movement immediately preceding the dispersion of the friars. He was a D.D. of Cambridge and taught theology in the convent of Sudbury. In 1527 he was appointed provincial by the English Dominicans. In February, 1529-30, Godfrey Jullys, prior of Sudbury, and the brethren granted him the use of a house to the west of their church, with garden and stabling, at a yearly rental of I 5*., so long as he was provincial. On the establishment of the royal supremacy in 1534 Hodgkin was regarded with some sus- picion, and court influence procured his deposi- tion and the appointment of John Hilsey as provincial in his place. Hodgkin endeavoured to get reinstated, and he wrote a sycophantic and meanly submissive letter to Cromwell, declaring that he would be ' ever ready to do in the most lowly manner such service as he shall be commanded.' Towards the end of 1536 he was restored to the office of provincial ; and the priory of Sudbury, ' considering the help and comfort they had by the presence of Master Doctor Hodgkin provincial,' renewed the lease of his lodging at the reduced rental of 131. ^.d. On 3 December, 1537, he was appointed by the king one of the suffragan bishops, and was consecrated at St. Paul's on 9 December under the title of bishop of Bedford. On the suppres- sion of the friary of Sudbury, Hodgkin had his lease registered in the Court of Augmentation, and continued to reside there till February, 1541. At that date he obtained the vicarage of Walden, Essex, and afterwards other preferment. He did active work as suffragan and married in the reign of Edward VI. When Mary came 1 Re/ijuaiy, xxiv, 82-4. * Ibid. 84. 1 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 38. 1 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 743, 778. to the throne he was deprived of his preferments, but repudiating his wife and expressing penitence obtained a dispensation and preferment from Cardinal Pole. On the accession of Elizabeth Hodgkin was quite ready to conform yet again, and took part in several consecrations of bishops. He died in 1560.° 37. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF BURY ST. EDMUNDS In the year 1238 both the Dominicans and the Franciscan friars endeavoured to establish themselves at Bury ; but the legate Otho was then at the great monastery, and being dis- couraged by him the Dominicans desisted from their attempts.6 The Franciscans, however, persisted in their efforts, and at last they obtained a bull in their favour from Alexander IV. Relying on this, they entered Bury on 22 June, 1257, an^ hastily established themselves in a farm at the north end of the town. The officials of the abbey remon- strated with them, but in vain, and at last the monks, in spite of the papal bull, expelled them with ignominy, though without personal violence. The friars appealed to Rome, and the pope wrote severely to the convent, enjoining the primate and the dean of Lincoln to induct them into another homestead which had been granted them on the west side of the town. Accordingly the treasurer of Hereford cathedral, as the commis- sary of the archbishop, and the dean of Lincoln in person arrived at Bury, gave their judgement in the parish church of St. Mary, and invested the friars in their new premises. The monks, however, in their indignation, drove out both friars and delegates from the town. The next step of the Franciscans was to lay their grievance at the foot of the throne, when Henry III, specially urged by his queen, espoused the side of the mendicants, and caused the friars, backed by the civil power, to be established on the western site in April, 1258. Here they rapidly raised buildings and remained for between five and six years. After the death of Alexan- der IV, the monks laid their case before his successor, Urban IV, with the result that the new pope ordered the friars to pull down their build- ings and abandon the ground. The friars obeyed, and reconciliation was effected between them and the monks on 19 November, 1262. On leaving the town itself the monks granted the friars a site beyond the north gate, just outside the town jurisdiction, called Babwell, and here they continued till the dissolution. There was some delay on the part of the friars in carrying out their promise, but they finally quitted the town in November, 1263. Their 4 Arch. Journ. xxxv, 162-5. 6 Arnold, Memorials (Rolls Ser.), ii, 30. 124 RELIGIOUS HOUSES minister or warden was at that time Peter de Brigstowe, and the names of five other friars are set forth.1 In 1300, when the king was at Bury, he granted 44*. for putura or dietary payment for the convent of the Franciscans for three days. A day's food for a friar was always reckoned in these gifts at 4^., so that there must have been about forty in the household.2 During the riots of 1327, at the time when the town had got the upper hand and the prior of St. Edmunds and his brethren were locked up in the Guildhall, six of the senior friars sought leave to re-establish themselves in the town. The whole convent of the Franciscans, together with the town chaplains, made at this time solemn procession through Bury, a thing which they had never done before, as though to en- courage the populace in their violence against the monks. Moreover, according to the monkish historian, the friars subsequently helped the ring- leaders to escape.3 In February, 1328, the warden and Friars Minor of Babwell obtained the royal protection for two years, and this was changed in the follow- ing April to protection 'during pleasure.'4 There was apparently peace between the monks and friars at the beginning of the fifteenth century, for in 1412, when the general chapter of the Grey Friars was held at Bury, the great abbey made a donation of j£io towards their expenses.6 The popularity of the Babwell friars is proved by the frequency of bequests to them.6 Robert, bishop of Emly, by his will of 1411, left his body to be buried in the church of the Friars Minor of Babwell ; he also left to that con- vent six silver spoons, a silver cup, and his lesser maser.7 Among other burials in this church, Weever mentions Sir Walter Trumpington and Dame Anne his wife, Nicholas Drury and Jane his wife, and Margaret Peyton.8 John Hilsey, the ex-Dominican friar, Crom- well's agent, who was then bishop of Rochester, wrote to his master on 27 September, 1538, saying he had been at Babwell talking with the warden ; he had been reported for some treason- able utterances, but expressed his sorrow, and said he was ready to surrender if the king or Cromwell wished it. Hilsey offered to take the surrender on his return from Lynn. There was a bed-ridden friar at Babwell, and he should be used as Cromwell commanded.9 1 Reg. Werketon (Harl. MS. 638), .passim. Cited and annotated in Arnold, Memorials, ii, 263-85. 1 Lib. Card. R. 28 Edw. I, 46. 8 Arnold, Memorials, ii, 335, 349, 352 ; iii, 294. 4 Pat. z Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 29. 5 Reg. Croftis (Harl. MS. 27), fol. 109. 6 Tymms, Bury Wills, 2, 5, 6, 35, 50, 55, 73, 79, 80,83,92,94,95,115,117- 7 Ibid. 2. 8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 760. 9 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii, pt. ii, 437. The actual surrender was, however, made in the following December to another ex-Dominican and special tool of Cromwell in dealing with the friars, Richard Ingworth, suffragan bishop of Dover.10 The house of the Grey Friars, Babwell, with its appurtenances, was granted in May, 1541, to Anthony Harvey, at a rental of ios.u WARDENS OF THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF BURY ST. EDMUNDS Peter de Brigstowe, 1263 Adam Ewell,12 1418 38. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF DUNWICH According to Weever, quoting from the 'painfull collections of William le Neve,' the house of the Grey Friars of Dunwich was founded ' first by Richard Fitzjohn and Alice his wife, and after by King Henry the third.'13 Its original site was changed and moved further inland (where the ruins and precinct walls still remain) by gift of the burgesses of the town in 1289. An inquisition ad quod damnum of that year returned that it would not be in- jurious to the king to allow the corporation of Dunwich to grant these friars a plot of land for their convent, containing about seven acres of ground, situated between the king's highway on the west and the house of Richard Kilbeck on the north.14 Accordingly a grant was made in mortmain by the king in August, 1290, to the Friars Minor of Dunwich of the king's dyke adjoining a plot given to them by the com- monalty of the town to build upon and inhabit, with licence to enclose the same.16 Licence was granted to the Friars Minor of Dunwich in 1328 to enclose and hold the vacant plot there which they used to inhabit, and which was taken into the king's hands when they re- moved to another place in the town, because it would be indecent that a plot of land dedicated for some time to divine worship, and where Christian bodies were buried, should be con- verted to secular uses.18 Further precautions were taken for the pre- serving of the old site in the year 141 5. 17 The conventual church seems to have been under repair or re-construction shortly before its dissolution, for Katharine Read, by will of 1 6 June, 1514, left 3$. 4^. to Friar Nicholas 10 Ibid. 1 02 1. " Tymms, Bury Wills, 5. 18 Reliquary, xxiv, 85. 13 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 721. " Inq. p. m. 1 8 Edw. I, 92. " Pat. 1 8 Edw. I, m. ii. " Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 19. 17 Ibid. 1 6 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 33. 125 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Wicet, or to those that shall rebuild the church of the Friars Minor.1 The only record of the suppression of these friars is the communication made to Cromwell in 1538 by the suffragan Bishop of Dover, which has already been cited under the Black Friars. Within their church were interred the bodies of Sir Robert Valence, Dame Ida of Illcetshall, Sir Peter Mellis and Dame Anne his wife, Dame Dunne his mother, John Francans and Margaret his wife, Dame Bertha of Furnival . . . Austin of Cales and Joan his wife, John Falleys and Beatrice his wife, Augustine his son, Sir Hubert Dernford, Katharine wife of William Phellip, Margaret wife of Richard Phellip, Peter Codum, and the heart of Dame Hawise-Ponyngs.2 The site of this convent was granted in 1545 to John Eyre, of the Augmentation Office, who was so large a holder of monastic lands in the eastern counties.3 WARDENS* OF THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF DUNWICH John Lacey (predecessor of Bokenham) Nicholas Bokenham, 1482 George Muse, 1505 The pointed oval fifteenth-century seal of this convent bears St. John Baptist under a canopied arch, with nimbus, clothed in a camel skin, its head hanging at his feet ; holding in the left hand the Agnus Dei on a plaque, and pointing to it with the right hand. By the side of the Baptist is a kneeling friar, with scroll, s. : JOH : ORA : p' : ME : Legend : — SIGILLU : GARDIANI : FRATRUM DONEWYCY 6 MINOR Gardner gives a reproduction of another re- markable seal of this friary, representing a ship with large mainsail ; at the bow is seated a crowned king, and at the stern a mitred bishop with crozier in left hand. Legend : — SIGILLU' : FR'M : MINOR : DONEWIC 6 39. THE GREY FRIARS OF IPSWICH There are but few record entries relative to this house. In September, 1328, Edward III granted protection, during pleasure, to the warden and Friars Minor of Ipswich,8 and this protection was renewed in February, 1331.° In January, 1332, licence was granted, after inquisition, to these friars to accept the alienation to them by Nicholas Frunceyes, knight, of a messuage and toft for the enlargement of their dwelling-house. At the same time they received a pardon for having acquired without due licence a toft from Geoffrey Poper, and land 50 perches in length and 7 ft. in breadth from Sir William de Cleydon, knight.10 On i April, 1538, Lord Wentworth; of Nettlestead, wrote to Cromwell as to this friary, stating that the warden and brethren lived there in great necessity, for the inhabitants were extending their charity to the poor and impotent instead of to ' such an idle nest of drones.' He complained that they were selling the jewels of their house, and as he was 'their founder in blood ' he sent for the warden, who stated that they had been compelled to sell something, for during a twelvemonth they had only gathered ^5, and could not continue in that house three months longer. There were no lands, only the bare site, with a garden or two enclosed. Lord Wentworth, hereditary patron of this friary, called to mind (for Cromwell's edification) how this order was ' neither stock nor grifFe which the Heavenly Father had planted, but only a hypo- critical weed planted by that sturdy Nembrot, the Bishop of Rome,' and begged for the grant of the house.11 As a consequence of this letter, Ingworth, the special visitor of the king for the friaries, attended at the Grey Friars, Ipswich, on 7 April,, and drew up an inventory of their goods. In the quire were five candlesticks, two hanging lamps, a holy-water stoop, with latten sprinkler, twenty books good and ill, and a wooden lectern ; in the vestry were various old vest- ments and other matters of little value ; whilst the other contents of the house were all common- place and mostly old. Bishop Ingworth removed all of this stuff to the house of the Black Friars,, locking it up in ' a close house.' The visitor S~L . ' J /* T •*••&, »' **^> «. «rCWVW IIVVU^V. A 11L VIMMH Un the west side of Ipswich, in the parish of tracked out the plate which had been sold or St. Nicholas, a convent of Franciscan or Grey Friars was founded early in the reign of Edward I. The founders were Sir Robert Tiptot, of Nettlestead, and Una his wife ; Sir Robert died in 1298.' 1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwicb, 61. * Weever, Funeral Monuments, 721. 1 Dep. Keeper's Rep. ix, App. ii, 207. 4 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 61. 4 B. M. Cast, bod, 106. There is a lithograph of this seal in Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, ii, opp. 291. 6 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, pi. opp. 43. 7 Dugdale, Baronage, ii, 39 ; Weever, Funeral Monu- ments, 751. 126 pledged. He recovered from Archdeacon Thomas Sillesdon a censer, two chalices, a cros& with a crystal in it, twelve spoons, &c., and various vestments which he had craftily pur- chased, as well as plate from Lord Wentworth which had been pledged to him. The total plate recovered amounted to 259^ ounces. The visitor left behind him certain utensils for the use of the friars still remaining there,. 8 Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 21. ' Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 31. 10 Ibid. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 25, 26. " Z,. and P. Hen. rill, xiii, pt. i, 651. WOODBRIDGE PRIORY CAMPSEY PRIORY PHILIP, ABBOT OF LEISTON, 1190-1235 LEISTON ABBEY FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF DUNWICH SUFFOLK MONASTIC SEALS, PLATE IH RELIGIOUS HOUSES * till my lord privy seal's pleasure be further known.' l Among the corporation records of Ipswich are two wills of interest with regard to this friary. Robert of Fornham, who died in 1319, left the tenement that he had purchased of Claricia Strike, and the tenement he had purchased of Leman Le Bakestere to the Grey Friars ; but John Strike and Geoffrey the cook, on coming before the bailiffs and coroner of the court of Ipswich as executors of Robert of Fornham, could only produce an unsigned and unwitnessed will. Probate, however, was granted on the testimony of two of the Grey Friars (although their house was to benefit), who ' on the peril of their souls ' certified that the deceased had made this will when of sound mind.2 Weever mentions the following distinguished persons who sought and obtained burial in the conventual church of the Grey Friars. Sir Robert Tiptot and Una his wife, the founders ; the heart of Sir Robert Vere the elder ; Margaret, countess of Oxford, wife of Sir Robert Vere, the younger ; Dame Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Ufford, and daughter of the Earl of Warwick ; Sir Thomas Tiptot, the younger ; Margaret, wife of Sir John Tiptot ; Robert Tiptot, esquire ; Elizabeth Ufford ; Elizabeth Lady Spenser, wife of Sir Philip Spenser and daughter of Robert Tiptot, with Philip, George, and Elizabeth their children ; Joan, daughter of Sir Hugh Spenser ; Sir Robert Warlesham and Joan his wife ; John son of William Cleydon ; Sir Thomas Hardell, knight ; Elizabeth, wife of _Sir Walter Clopton, of Hadley ; Sir William Lancham ; Sir Hugh Peach and Sir John Lovelock, knights ; the heart of Dame Petronilla Ufford ; Dame Beatrice Botiler ; Dame Aveline Quatefeld ; Dame Margery, aunt of Sir Thomas Ufford ; and Dame Alice, widow of Sir John Holbrook.3 To these may be added Sir Robert Curson, at whose great house in Ipswich Henry VIII had visited in 1522; the hearse-cloth over the hearse above his tomb is named in the 1536 inventory. 40. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF CLARE Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, was the first to introduce the Friars Heremites of St. Aus- tin to this country, and it is generally assumed that the first establishment of the Austin Friars was at Clare, and that they were brought here in the year 1248.* 1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. i, 699 ; xiii (2), App. 1 6. The whole inventory is set forth at length in Wodderspoon, Mem. of Ipswich, 315-19. * Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 225. 3 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 751. 4 Their next house was founded at Woodhouse, Salop, in 1250, and their third at Oxford, in 1252. The Austin Friars, like the rest of the mendicant orders, were not permitted by their rules to hold other property save the site of their house ; but in this instance the rule was inter- preted in a somewhat liberal sense. Houses of friars, owing to their freedom from the cares of property, appear to have seldom possessed any- thing of the nature of a chartulary ; but in the case of Clare there is a fairly long chartulary extant, containing transcripts of nearly two hundred separate deeds.6 The high position of the founder and his posterity, coupled with the fact that Clare was the parent house of the order in England, placed this friary in a some- what exceptional position, particularly as Clare was a favourite residence for royalty in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The majority of the numerous grants in the chartu- lary were for quite small plots of meadow land, or of adjoining small lots of buildings, which were added to the site for enlargement, and would have been lawful for any friary. Other charters are mere evidences of the title to small properties on the part of benefactors. Others again are the recital of indulgences and various privileges, or the record of particular events. But a few of them are undoubtedly in direct antagonism to the usual mendicant rule, and involve grants that would not have been accepted save by the consent of the provincial and of the general chapter of the province. Thus in 1349, John, prior of this house, accepted the gift of the manor house of Bourehall from Michael de Bures.6 The most noteworthy record of abnormal gifts is the first entry of the chartulary, headed Carta mortificatlonis, which recites the licence of Edward III, in 1364, for the alienation in mort- main, to the prior and brothers of the Austin House at Clare, of Ashen and Belchamp St. Paul, for their benefit and for the enlargement of their manse.7 Many of the small grants of adjoining property were from Maud, countess of Gloucester and Hereford, for the repose of the soul of the founder, her husband, who died in 1262. In 1278 William bishop of Norwich granted a licence for any bishop of the Catholic Church to consecrate the cemetery round the friars' church.8 In the following year Anianus, bishop of Bangor, when on a visit to Clare, granted a forty days' indulgence from enjoined penance to penitents contributing to the enclosure of the cemetery, or the construction and repair of the 5 Harl. MS. 4835. It is a quarto of paper in a I jth-century hand, entitled ' Registrum Chartarum Monasterii Heremitarum S. Augustini de Clare.' Among the Jermyn MSS. (Add. MS. 8188, fol. 55- 84), is a full transcript of this chartulary. The subsequent references to these charters give their numbers in the transcript. 6 Chartul. No. 102. ' Ibid. No. I. •Ibid. No. 1 66. 127 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK buildings of the priory. In the same year William archbishop of Edessa granted a like indulgence.1 The bishop of Bangor also granted an indulgence, at the same time, for all who should say an Our Father and a Hail Mary there for the repose of the soul of Richard de Christes- hale, whose body was buried in the friary church.2 On 10 May, 1305, died Joan of Acre, and was buried in the conventual church of the friars of Clare, in the presence of Edward II and most of the nobility of England. Joan was the second daughter of Edward I and Queen Eleanor, and took her name from the eastern town where she was born in the first year of her father's reign, when he was fighting the Saracens. She was married at the age of eighteen to Gilbert, earl of Clare and Gloucester, grandson of the founder of the priory, to which she was a benefactor, building the chapel of St. Vincent as an adjunct to the conventual church. She out- lived the earl, and took for her second husband, Ralph Mortimer. Her daughter Elizabeth, by tier first husband, who became the wife of Sir John de Burgh, built a new chapter-house, dormitory, and refectory for the friars, about 1310-14. Ralph, bishop of London, in 1307, granted a forty days' indulgence to all penitents saying here an Our Father and a Hail Mary for the soul of Joan of Acre.3 Thomas, bishop of Worcester, when at Clare in the first year of his consecration (1318), granted a like indulgence;4 and so also did Stephen bishop of London in 1319,' Benedict, bishop of 'Cardie,' in 1338,° and John, bishop of Llandaffj in 1347.' In 1324 Bishop Rowland, formerly arch- bishop of Ordmoc, granted an indulgence to all penitents contributing to the fabric and orna- ments of the church.8 Benedict, bishop of Cardie and suffragan and commissary for the Bishop of Norwich, granted in 1338, forty days' indulgence to penitents visiting this church and contributing to the fabric fund on the solemn dedication day.9 The same bishop in 1340 granted a like indulgence to those saying an Our Father or a Hail Mary for the soul of Brother John of St. Edmunds, D.D., of good memory, whose body was buried in this church.10 Prior Robert of this house, on 3 August, 1361, formally assigned in the chapter-house to Brother John Bachelor, for use at the altar in 1 Chartul. Nos. 171-2. * Ibid. No. 170. 1 Ibid. No. 1 60. < Ibid. No. 159. 5 Ibid. No. 173. 6 Ibid. No. 162. Benedict Cardicensis (Sardis), prior of the Austin Friars of Norwich, was suffragan of Norwich from 1333 to 1346. 'Ibid. No. 163. • Ibid. No. 169. •Ibid. No. 164. 10 Ibid. No. 165. the newly-built chapel of the Annunciation, a great missal, a silver chalice weighing twenty- seven shillings with a silver spoon weighing six pennies, a green velvet chasuble and set of vest- ments with gold orphreys and apparels, various cushions, a green carpet four ells long, two neck- laces set with precious stones and a silver necklace, nine gold rings, a small chest containing four silk veils, &c.u Edward Mortimer, son of Joan of Acre by her second husband, was buried in this church by the side of his mother. Further celebrity was given to the friars' church by the burial, before the high altar, after long delay, of the body of Lionel, duke of Clarence and earl of Ulster, son of Edward III. He died at Alba Pompeia, Piedmont, in 1368, and was first buried at Pavia. Eventually the body was exhumed and re-interred in this chancel. The sum of ten marks was paid to the prior and brethren, in the chapter-house, on 12 September, 1377, for their share in the funeral expenses.12 In 1373, a dispute that had arisen between the Austin Friars of Clare and of Orford, as to the seeking alms in the Isle of Mersea and other places, was settled at the provincial chapter held in August at Newcastle-on-Tyne ; the upper gate of Colchester was to be a bound between the two houses.13 A similar difference between the Austin Friars of Clare and Thetford was settled in 1388, when a list of the parishes where they might severally visit and seek for alms was drawn up.14 On St. Agatha's Day (5 February), 1380, William, bishop of Pismon, suffragan of the bishop of Norwich, dedicated the new ceme- tery without the walls of the church, extending from the west gate to the footbridge to the castle, together with the re-built cloister and chapter-house.15 William, bishop of Norwich in 1381, granted twenty days' indulgence from enjoined penance to those contributing to the fabric.18 Robert, bishop of London, in a communica- tion to the prior of the Austins of Clare, with- drew the excommunication of Sir Thomas Mortimer, knt., who with his assistants had dragged out from the friary church one John de Quinton, who had escaped there for a certain, theft, thus violating sanctuary ; provided that Sir Thomas, on the first Sunday in Lent, after evensong, came to the church bareheaded and barefooted, carrying a taper, and presented both the taper and a silk cloth valued at ^3, at the altar.17 Weever printed in 1631 a curious rhymed descent of the lords of Clare, in both Latin and English, from a roll which was then in the 11 Ibid. No. 165. 13 Ibid. No. 138. 15 Ibid. No. 158. "Ibid. No. 161. " Ibid. No. 120. 14 Ibid. Nos. 176, 177.. 16 Ibid. No. 174. 128 RELIGIOUS HOUSES possession of his friend the Windsor herald.1 A drawing at the head of the roll shows a table tomb, on the one side an Austin friar and on the other a civilian, engaged in conversation. The heading to this rhymed descent is : — This Dialogue betwix a Secular as asking, and a Frere answerying at the grave of Dame Johan of Acres shewith a lyneal descent of the lordis of the honoure of Clare, fro the tyme of the fundation of the Freeris in the same honoure, the yere of our Lord MCCXLVIII unto the first day of May the year MCCCLVI. A MS. of Robert Aske's, temp. Henry VIII, gives : The names of the nobles buried in the Frere Augustyn's of Clare. Sir Richard Erie of Clare ; Lionell Duke of Clarence ; Dame Joan of Acres ; Sir Edmond Montbermer, son of the said Joane ; John Weyburgh ; Dame Alice Spencer ; Willm. Goldryche ; Sir John Beauchamp, knight ; John Newbury, esquire ; Willm. Capel and Elianor his wyfe ; Kempe, esquire ; Robert Butterwyke, Esquire ; the Lady Margarete Scrope, daughter of Westmoreland ; Joan Candyssle, daughter of Clofton ; Dame Alianor Wynkeferry, Sir Edmund, last of the Mortimers, Erie of Marche, Sir Thomas Gily and his furste wyfe ; Lucy, wife of Walter Clofton ; Sir Thomas Clofton and Ada his wyfe.* There is but little information with respect to these friars during the fifteenth century. The details as to their suppression in 1538 were in the hands of Richard Ingworth, then suffragan bishop of Dover. Writing to Cromwell on 29 November of that year, Ingworth said that he had received at Clare the Lord Privy Seal's letter instructing him to deliver that house and its ' implements ' to Richard Frende, which had been done. The implements did not suffice to pay the debts and at the same time save the lead and plate for the king. The jewels were pledged for ^33 2s. £>d. and he had redeemed them for the king with other money. He had left the house and its contents in Frende's custody under indenture. The lands besides the orchards were thirty-eight acres, only worth at clear annual value 48*. io\d. There were fifteen or sixteen fother of lead (on the church), and the house, which was tiled, was in much decay.3 In August, 1539, Richard Frende obtained grant in fee from the crown of the site, soil, circuit, and precinct of the late priory of Austin Friars of Clare, which lay in the parishes of Clare, Ashen, and Belchamp St. Pauls (of the annual value of £3), to hold at a rent of 'id. a. year, in as full a manner as John Halybud, the late prior, and the brethren thereof held the same.4 1 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 734-42. This roll has been accurately reproduced, with the drawing and the arms, in the large edition of Dugdale's Mon. vi, 1600—1602. ' Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst. vi, 80-1. 1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. ii, 933. * Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24. PRIORS OF THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF CLARE Adam de la Hyde, occurs 1299 * John, occurs 1349* Robert, occurs 1361, &c.7 John Halybud, occurs 1538 8 41. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF GORLESTON This friary was founded towards the end of the reign of Edward I, by William Woderove, and Margaret his wife.9 On 28 June, 1311, Roger Woderove, son of the founder, obtained licence to grant to the prior and Augustine Friars of Little Yarmouth a plot of land adjacent to their dwelling,10 and in 1338 a further enlarge- ment of their house was made on a plot of land 240 ft. by 70 ft., the gift of William Man, of Blundeston.11 In the large and handsome church many dis- tinguished persons were buried. Weever names the founder and his wife ; Richard earl of Clare ; Roger FitzOsbert and Katharine his wife ; Sir Henry Bacon, 1335, and many of his family ; Joan countess of Gloucester ; Dame Alice Lunston 1341 ; Dame Eleanor, wife of Sir Thomas Gerbrigge, 1353 ; Dame Joan Caxton 1364; William de Ufford, earl of Suffolk, 1382; Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk ; Sir Thomas Hengrove ; Dame Sibyl Mortimer, 1385; Sir John Laune, and Mary his wife ; Alexander Falstolfe ; William March, esq., 1412, and John Pulman, I48i.12 Lambarde, writing of this house, which he mistakenly terms an abbey, says : ' Here was of late years a librarie of most rare and precious workes, gathered together by the Industrie of one John Brome, a monk of the same house, which died in the reign of King Henry the Sixte.' I3 John Brome was prior of the house and died in 1449. His collection of books was famous and said to include several of which there were no other copies in England ; he was himself the author of chronicles and sermons.14 The historian of Yarmouth says that these Austin Friars had a cell across the water in Yarmouth proper, the remains of which are to be seen in Howards Street ; the adjoining row is still called Austin Row ; though popularly corrupted into Ostend Row.15 6 Chartul. No. 122. ' Ibid. No. 102. I Ibid. Nos. 1 1 6, 139, 140. 8 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24, 8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 863. 10 Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 3. II Ibid. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 15. 11 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 863. 13 Lambarde, Tofog. Diet. (1730), 136, 14 Stevens, Contin. of Mon. ii, 176. " Palmer, Hut. of Yarmouth, i, 428 I29 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK The house was suppressed, with the other Yarmouth friaries, by Richard Ingworth to- wards the end of 1538,* and the site was ganted in 1544 to John Eyre, rightly styled by Weever 'a great dealer in that kind of property.' 42. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF ORFORD A priory of Austin Friars was founded at Orford in the reign of Edward I. Robert de Hewell, in 1295, gave them a plot of ground in Orford, sixteen perches square, whereon to build." The Austin Friars of Orford obtained pardon in 1314 for having acquired, without licence, a small plot of land from John Engaye for the enlargement of their site.3 They had licence in the following year to add another small plot, 30 ft. long by 3 ft. broad, to their area.4 A further plot of land, to enlarge their dwelling, was granted to these friars in 1337, by Walter de Hewell of Orford.8 Helen Holder, of Orford, bequeathed, in 1526, to the Friars Austin of Orford icu. to sing a ' trentall of Massis for my soule, the mony to be parted among them that be priests.' 6 43. THE CARMELITE FRIARS OF IPSWICH The Carmelite or White Friars seem to have been established at Ipswich in 1278, for their settlement here was contemporary with that at Winchester, which took place at that date. In that year a provincial chapter of the Carmelites was held at Norwich, and there seems good reason to believe that the founding of a house in the second great town of East Anglia was determined at that chapter, and the members of the new community chosen from those of Norwich.7 They were established on land that eventually extended from St. Stephen's Lane to Queen Street on the south side of the Butter Market. The first record of the extension of the site occurs in 1297, when licence was granted for the Carmelite friars of Ipswich to enclose a lane called 'Erodesland,' 26 perches long and 8ft. broad, for the enlargement of their dwelling- place.8 Pardon was granted to the Carmelites of Ipswich in December, 1344, for having acquired L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. ii, 1021. Inq. a. q. d. 23 Edw. I, No. 120. Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24. Ibid. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 30. Ibid, ii Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 32. Add. MS. 19101, fol. in. 7 « The White Friars at Ipswich,' by Rev. Benedict Zimmerman, Proc. Suf, Arch. Inst. x, 196-204. "Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 16. in fee, without licence from Edward I, various small plots of land adjoining their area for enlarging the conventual buildings and church,* and in 1321 a further extension of their build- ings was begun, for in that year the prior obtained licence to acquire twelve small plots of adjacent land for that purpose.10 Thomas le Coteler was licensed in 1333 to alienate to the priory of Mount Carmel an adjacent messuage for the enlargement of their house,11 and Thomas de Lowdham gave a further small plot of adjoin- ing land in 1377." The last-known enlargement of their premises occurred in 1396, when John Reppes, the prior, purchased two messuages from John Warton and Margaret his wife for the sum of 100 marks.13 Ipswich was often chosen for the meetings of the provincial chapters of the White Friars, so that it may be fairly assumed that the house was of sufficient size soon after its foundation to accommodate a large number of visitors. At the chapter held at Ipswich in 1300, William Ludlyngton, then prior of the Ipswich House, was elected provincial. In 1312 the provincial chapter elected John Berkhamstead, prior of Ipswich, provincial. Several other friars of this house attained, from time to time, to the honour of provincial ; among them were John Polsted in 1335, and John Kynyngham in 1393. The conventual church was rebuilt in the latter part of the fifteenth century. It was consecrated by Friar Thomas Bradleyce (alias Scrope), bishop of Dromore, a man noted for his special sanctity, in 1477. This friary was celebrated for the number of learned men who were its members. Thomas Yllea, a preacher and writer of merit, entered religion at the time when his father was prior ; he was for some time in Flanders, but died at Ipswich in 1390. John Polsted studied at Oxford, and was provincial from 1335 till his death in 1341 ; he wrote more than twenty works, and was buried at York. Friar John of Bury St. Edmunds rendered this house celebrated by his erudition, eloquence, and piety ; he chiefly wrote commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, and died at Ipswich in 1350. John Paschall, of Suffolk, graduated at Cambridge from this house in 1333 ; he was consecrated bishop of Scutari in 1344 as suffragan bishop of Norwich diocese, but in 1347 was translated to LlandafF. He was a voluminous writer, and several volumes of his sermons are extant. Friar Richard Lavingham is said to have written ninety volumes, and Bale considers his literary activity almost miraculous ; he died at 'Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 10. 10 Ibid. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24. "Ibid. 6 Edw. III.pt. ii,m. 3. "Inq. a.q.d. 50 Edw. Ill, No. 21. 13 • The Carmelites of Ipswich,' by V. B. Redstone, Proc. Suf. Arch. Inst. x, 192. 130 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Bristol in 1383. John Kynyngham, provincial from 1393 till his death in 1399, did credit to the Ipswich friary as a writer of many works. Prior John Barmyngham, who died in 1449, Doctor of both Oxford and Paris, was considered one of the most enlightened scholars of each of those universities. Nicholas Kenton, provincial from 1444 to 1456, 'shone so as a historian, poet, philosopher, theologian, and orator,' that he was appointed chancellor of the university (Cambridge) in 1445. John Bale, elected prior of Ipswich in 1533, joined the order at Norwich when only twelve years of age. It is generally said that he broke his vows and married in 1534 ; but his marriage must have been some years later, for he was writing as prior of this monastery in 1536. He held the bishopric of Ossory from 1553 until his death in 1563. In all his virulent and coarse writings against his former co-religionists, Bale had the grace to deal gently with his former order of the Carmelites, and evidently esteemed the learning that characterized various members of the house over which he was for a short time prior.1 The Carmelites of Ipswich were suppressed by the ex-friar Richard Ingworth, then suffragan bishop of Dover, in November, 1538, as is known from his letter about various friaries addressed to Cromwell.2 Earlier in the year, 4 the petition of the Carmelyttes of Ipsewich supplicacion to the Lorde Cromwell moste piteously lamenting' set forth, on behalf of the prior and his co-brethren of their ' poore religious house,' that Dr. Ingworth, as Cromwell's deputy- visitor, had confiscated the sum of £28 135. 4^., owing to them for tenements in Ipswich, which they had been compelled to sell through extreme poverty. They desired, in their simplicity, Crom- well's assistance.4 About the same date Cromwell received a strongly-worded begging appeal from one Sir John Raynsforth, asking for the gift of the house of the Ipswich White Friars.5 The site was granted to Charles Lambard, of Ipswich, in October, 1539.° Weever mentions the following among the more important burials in this church : — Sir Thomas de Lowdham and his son Sir Thomas, both knights, and John de Loudham, esquire ; Margaret Coldvyle, and Gilbert Denham, esquire, and Margaret his wife, who was a daughter of Edward Hastings. Also the following of this order : — John Wilbe, 1335 ; John Hawle, papal chaplain, 1433 ; John Barmyngham, 1448-9 ; Richard Hadley, 1461 ; and John Balsham, bishop of Argyle, 1425. 7 PRIORS OF THE CARMVUTE FRIARS OF IPSWICH Richard de Yllea, c. 1280 William Ludlyngton, occuis 1300, &c. John Berkhamstead, occurs 1312 John Reppes, occurs 1396 John Barmyngham, c. 14/0-8-9 John Ball, 1533 HOUSE OF MINORESSES 44. THE ABBEY OF BRUISYARD A brief account is given under the nunnery of Campsey of the founding by Maud countess of Ulster, in 1346, of a perpetual chantry of four chaplains and a warden in the chapel of the Annunciation, within the conventual church of Campsey.3 Eight years later this chantry or college was removed from the nunnery to the manor place of Rokehall, in Bruisyard parish, where a chapel of the Annunciation was built and rooms provided for the warden and four priests. The sound reasons alleged for the change were that the residence for these five chaplains was in the village of Ashe, some distance from the priory church of Campsey, and that this going backwards and forwards for the various divine offices in wintry and rainy 1 Stevens' Cont. of Dugdale's Man. ii. Writers of the Order of the Carmelites, Nos. 25, 34, 41, 55, 70, 104, 1 1 6, 124 ; 'The White Friars of Ipswich,' by the Rev. Benedict Zimmerman, Prof. Suf. Arch. Inst. x, 196-204. 'L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. ii, 1021 'Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5. weather was unduly onerous for the older chap- lains ; moreover it was thought more expedient that their chapel should be in some other place, ' ubi non est conversatio mulierum.' 8 This chantry or collegiate church at Bruisyard had, however, but a brief life ; for in 1364, on some complaints, at the instance of Lionel duke of Clarence and with the consent of king and bishop, it was agreed that this establishment should be surrendered for the use of an abbess and sisters belonging to the order of Nuns Minoresses or Sisters of St. Clare. 9 The actual surrender to the nuns was not accomplished until 4 October, 1366. 4 L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. ii, App. 17. 5 Ibid. 1262. 6 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxii, fol. ib. 7 Weever, Funeral Monument!, 750. The date of the death of John Balsham is erroneously stated by Weever to be 1530; Friar Balsham resigned the bishopric of Argyle in 1420, and was buried at Ipswich five years later. 8 Pat. 30 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5, per inspex. where the statutes for the rule of this collegiate church of Bruisyard are set forth. 9 Ibid. 38 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 44. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Sir Nicholas Gernoun, knight, in his old age and infirmity, was allowed to dwell at the house of the Nuns Minoresses of Bruisyard ex devocione, and he obtained leave from the crown in 1383 to continue to hold his rents and farm from Drogheda to the amount of £66 13*. 4^. yearly, which had been forfeited for the defence of Ireland by virtue of the statute of 3 Richard II touching non-residence.1 Licence was granted in May, 1385, to the executors of the Earl of Suffolk to alienate to the abbey the manor of Benges, Suffolk.2 In the following February the abbess and convent of Bruisyard were licensed to alienate this manor of Benges to the prioress and convent of Campsey, in exchange for the manor and advowson of Bruisyard, together with leave to appropriate the church.3 In 1390 the abbey acquired various plots of land in Bruisyard and adjacent parishes, and in Hargham, Norfolk, as well as the advow- son of the church of Sutton, Suffolk.4 The Valor of 1535 shows that the abbey then possessed temporalities of the clear annual value of £43 1 5*., namely the manors with mem- bers of Bruisyard, Winston, Alderton, South Repps, Hargham, and Badburgham (Camb.). The clear value of the spiritualities, comprising the churches of Bruisyard, Sutton, and Bulmer, amounted to £12 ~js. id., leaving a full total of £56 2s. id.* This house seems to have been exempt from episcopal supervision ; at all events it does not appear in the visitation registers of Bishops Goldwell and Nykke. In I535> when dissolution was in the air, some complaint was made to the Lord Privy Seal as royal visitor-general, with regard to the action of this abbey, whereupon the abbess and convent wrote to Cromwell : — We your oratrices and humble subjects, thank you for your worshipful letter, whereby you have com- forted us desolate persons. We assure you we have not alienated the goods of our house, or listened to any but discreet counsel. We have not wasted our woods beyond the usage of our predecessors in times of necessity. We beg you to intercede for us with the King, our founder, that we may continue his bedewomen, and pray for him, the queen, and the princess.6 The Suffolk commissioners for the suppression of the smaller religious houses visited Bruisyard Abbey on 22 August, 1536, and drew up an inventory. The ornaments of the church in- cluded a variety of vestments and altar cloths, a table of alabaster, two great candlesticks of latten, and ' a payor of lytell orgaynes very olde, att x;.' The parlour, several chambers, buttery, kitchen, bakehouse, and brewhouse were but poorly furnished. The church plate was valued at jCzS I2s. 4.d. ; it included six chalices, two paxes, and a pair of cruets. The total inventory, signed by Mary Page, abbess, reached the sum of £40 1 3;. 4.J.7 The abbey, on payment of the sum of £60 to the king, was able to stave off the evil day, being specially exempted from suppression, and Mary Page confirmed as abbess by patent of 4 July, I537-8 On 17 February, 1539, came the final sur- render of the house and all its possessions, signed by Mary Page, abbess, in the presence of Dr. Francis Cove.9 The site and precinct of the abbey, with the whole of its possessions, was assigned by the crown to Nicholas Hare and Katharine his wife, on 9 March, 1539, at a rental of £6 4.5. i^.10 ABBESSES OF BRUISYARD Emma Beauchamp,11 occurs 1369 and 1390 Agnes,12 occurs 1413 Ellen Bedingfield,13 occurs 1421 and 1425 Katharine,14 1444 Elizabeth Crane,15 occurs on 29 August, 1481 Alice Clere,16 1489 Margaret Calthorpe,17 1497 Mary Page,18 1537 HOSPITALS 45. THE HOSPITAL OF BECCLES There was a leper hospital, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, on the south side of the town of Beccles, on a site now known as St. Mary's Hill. It was probably of early foundation, as was the case with almost all hospitals for this special affliction, but no record of it is found earlier than the yea- 1362, when Sir Richard Walkfare, kt., and Jthers gave to the hospital 1 Pat. 6 Ric. U, pt. i, m. 26. * Ibid. 9 Rir Al, pt. ii, m. 7. 3 Ibid. 10 JPJfc. II, pt. ii, m. 26. 'Ibid. 14 Cc. II, pt. i, m. 5. * fabr Eccr(R.zc. Com.), iii, 442-3. 20s., annual rent issuing out of the manors of Barsham and Hirst.19 Tradition relates that one Ramp, who was very much afflicted with leprosy, was perfectly cured of his "L. and P. Hen. Vlll, ix, 1094. 1 Ibid, xi, 347. 8 Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. v, m. 6. ' Rymer, FocJera, xiv, 629. 10 Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 33. " Tanner MS. Norw. 11 Ibid. » Ibid. " Ibid. « Ibid. 16 Ibid. 138. » Ibid. 202. 18 Rymer, Toedera, xiv, 628. " Pat. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m, 34. I32 RELIGIOUS HOUSES disorder by accidentally bathing in a spring of water near this plot, where he soon after created a hospital for the benefit of persons so afflicted.1 It was under the rule of a master, and possessed a chapel. Various wills of the locality include bequests to this house. In 1503 Thomas Leke of Beccles left 6s. 8d. to the repair of the lepers' chapel, and in 1506 John Rudham of Beccles bequeathed i2d. for a like purpose. John Bridges, a brother of the hospital, by will of 1567, left 2cw. to Humphrey Trame, master, to be equally divided between the brethren and sisters.2 This hospital escaped suppression by either Henry VIII or Edward VI, as there seems to have been no kind of chantry endowment con- nected with it, it being, like many other leper hospitals, chiefly maintained by voluntary gifts. Edward VI in 1550 granted licence to Edward Lydgate, a brother of the hospital, to beg daily for the lazars' house of Beccles.3 By a deed dated 18 May, 1575, between Humphreye Trame, master of the hospital of St. Mary Magdelin at Beccles, and the bretherne and system of the said hospital on the one part, and Margaret Hury of Yoxford on the other part, it is witnessed, that the said Humfry and the brethren and system, of their godly love and intent have not only takyn the sayd Margaret into the said hospytall beinge a sore diseased person wythe an horyble syck- ness, but also have admytted and made the seyd Mar- garet a syster of the same house during her naturall lyfe, accordinge to the auncyent custom and order of the same ; trustynge in our Lord God, wythe the helpe and devocon of good dysposed people, to prepare for the same Margaret, mete, drink, clothinge, wash- inge, chamberinge, and lodginge, good and holsome, duringe the naturall lyft" of the said Margaret, mete for such a person. Humphrey Trame, by his will of 1596, gave to the hospital one bible, one service-book, and ye desk to them belonging, to go and remain for ever with the hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, to the intent that the sick, then and there abiding, for the comfort of their souls may have continual recourse unto the same.4 46. THE HOSPITAL OF DOMUS DEI, BURY ST. EDMUNDS The hospital of St. John, more usually known as the ' Domus Dei ' or God's House, was founded by Abbot Edmund 1248-56. There is a chartulary in the British Museum, drawn up about 1425, when Thomas Wyger was warden, pertaining to the Domus Dei, 1 Jermyn MSS., cited in Suckling's Hut. ofSujf.i, 22. 'Add. MS. 19112, fol. 58. 3 Pat. 4 Edw. VI, pt. iv, m. 3. ' Suckling, Hill, of Stiff, ii, 22-4, where the later history of the hospital is recorded. ' gallice Maysondieu ' ; described as being out- side the south gate of the town of St. Edmunds, and under the governorship of the prior of the monastery.8 It was established by Abbot Edmund, v/hen Richard was prior, for supplying hospitality and refreshment to Christ's poor without any fraud or diminution. If any of the poor in the hospital fell into any grave sickness and were not able to depart, they were to tarry till strong enough to go on their way. No brother or sister was to be admitted except they were approved by two wise and discreet wardens who were to act under the guidance of the almoner. Mass was not to be celebrated in the house, nor any altar erected, but a room was to be provided for private prayer.6 A revised ordination of this house by Abbot Simon and the convent shows that the original house had proved inconvenient, so that a new and much enlarged house was built. In this enlarged Domus Dei a chapel and altar were provided for the inmates, and there was also a graveyard attached for the burial of any who might die within the walls.7 Several masters or chaplains of this house are named in the chartulary. They were instituted by the prior of the abbey. Thus in 1394 Prior John Giffbrd inducted Reginald Sexter, and in 1416 Prior Robert Iklynham inducted Richard Sudbury.8 Richard II in 1392 licensed Robert Stabler chaplain, William Say chaplain, John Redgrave chaplain, and two others, to alienate to this hospital property in Bury and Westhill, in aid of sustaining a chaplain to celebrate in the chapel of Domus Dei ; the charter recites the consent of the abbot and convent in 1379 to the founding of a chantry in this hospital for the souls of John Kokerel and Clare his wife, Stephen Kokerel and Agnes his wife, and several others. The stipend for this chantry priest was to be 33*. Afd. to be paid by the master; in addition to board and lodging and fire.9 William Place, priest, master of the hospital of St. John Evangelist, by will of 21 July, 1504, proved on I December, 1504, bequeathed small sums to the church of St. Mary, Bury, and to various friars at Lynn, and particular gifts to the abbey of Bury. He made no mention of the hospital of which he had charge, but possibly it benefited, for he left the residue of his goods to his executors to do other good deeds as they should think best to the pleasure of God.10 4 Arundel MS. i. This chartulary consists of thirty- nine folios, the last nine of which are on paper. ' Ibid. fol. i. 7 Ibid, \b, 2 ; Harl. MS. 638, fol. 138^, 139. 8 Arundel MS. i, I da, \ ja. 'Harl. MS. 638, fol. 24,192; Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 11. 10 Tymms, Bury Wills, 105-6. 133 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK WARDENS OF DOMUS DEI, BURY ST. EDMUNDS Adam,1 temp. Hen. Ill Simon de Sermingham,2 1332, 1337 John de Serton,3 1371 Reginald Sexter,4 1394 Richard Sudbury,5 1416 Thomas Wyger,6 c. 1425 William Place,7 died 1504 47. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. NICHOLAS, BURY ST. EDMUNDS The hospital of St. Nicholas stood a short distance without the east gate. The establish- ment consisted of a master, a chaplain, and several brethren. It was founded by an abbot of Bury St. Edmunds ; but the exact date and the particular abbot are unknown. The earliest known dated reference to it is of the year 1224, when Henry III granted a fair to the master of the hospital of St. Nicholas, to be held on the feast and vigil of the Translation of St. Nicholas.8 The oldest of several charters at the Bodleian relative to this hospital is perhaps of a little earlier date, c. 1215 ; it is a grant from Richard de la Care, the prior, and the brethren of the hospital of St. Nicholas without the east gate of St. Edmunds to the hospital of St. Peter of all their right in land called ' Holdefader Acre,' lying at ' Dristnapes ' ; for this grant the brethren of St. Peter gave 6s. of silver.9 Other undated deeds of a slightly later date refer to further transfers between the two hospitals.10 In 1325 Edward II granted pardon to the brethren of St Nicholas for acquiring from Hervey de Staunton, the king's clerk, land and rent in the town of St. Edmunds, in aid of the maintenance of a chaplain to celebrate daily in the hospital for the king and his children and for the souls of Abbot John and the faithful departed.11 The master and brethren of the hospital of St. Nicholas obtained licence in 1392 for the alienation to them, by Thomas Ewelle and others, of land and meadows in Bury, Langham, and Great Barton.12 The chantry of Henry Staunton's founding in the chapel of this hospital seems to have been usually held by one of the obedientiaries of the great abbey. In 1351 it was held by John de Sneylewell, the sacrist, and at another time by Edmund de Brundish, the prior.13 1 Arundel MS. i, fol. 8. 'Ibid. 14. 'Ibid. ISA 6 Ibid. 17*. ' Tymms, Bury Wills, 105. • Close, 8 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 8. ' Bodl. Chart. Suff. 33. 10 Ibid. 28, 30, 83. 11 Pat. 1 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 10. 13 Add. MS. 19103, fol. 1 60. 4 Ibid. 1 6*. 6 Ibid, passim. Ibid. The Valor of 1535 names John Keall as chaplain of the chapel of St. Nicholas without the east gate. At that time the mastership and the chaplaincy were apparently combined. The clear value is given as £6 1 9*. id. a year.14 Master Henry Rudde, doctor of Bury, by will of 1 506, bequeathed to the hospital of St. Nicholas ' a vestement of whyte satyn and bordrid with Seynt Nicholas arms, to the value of V mark,' ls and Anne Buckenham, of Bury, by will of 1534, left ' to the chapell of Sainte Nicholas, of whom I holde my house, a litle chalis.' 16 MASTERS OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. NICHOLAS, BURY ST. EDMUNDS Richard de la Care,17 c . 1215 William Maymond,18 1343 John Gerrard,19 1396 William Stowe,20 1459 John Keall,21 1535 48. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. PETER, BURY ST. EDMUNDS St. Peter's Hospital stood without the Risby gate, but within the abbey jurisdiction. It was founded by Abbot Anselm towards the close of the reign of Henry I, for the maintenance of infirm, leprous, or invalided priests, or in their absence of other aged and sick persons. The earliest deeds in the muniment room of the Guildhall, Bury St. Edmunds, are a parcel chiefly of the reigns of Henry III and Edward I, concerning the possessions of the hospital of St. Peter, which are now attached to the Grammar School. There is one, however, of the reign of Henry II which recites the gift to this hospital by Simon de Whepstede of nd. rent for the lights before the altar of St. Mary within the hospital church. Scientia, widow of Gilbert de la Gaye, gave IOJ. annual rent from a building in St. Edmunds, in return for which Robert de Baketone, clerk, then prior of the hospital, granted her a weekly mass for her soul and the souls of her ancestors and the souls of brethren dying in the hospital. What was left of the rent, after paying for the masses, was to be expended in shoes for the brethren.22 There are also at the Bodleian a variety of other undated deeds, temp. Henry III, of small grants to this hospital,23 and several grants " Vahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 466. 14 Tymms, Bury Wills, 107. 16 Ibid. 138. 17 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 33. " Ibid. 105. 19 Harl. MS. 638, fol. 145^. 80 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 123. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 466. " Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, i 5 5-6. a Ibid. 29, 31-3, 40, 47, 61, 62, 65, &c. 134 RELIGIOUS HOUSES of rents in the reign of Edward I,1 and in 1324 an annual rental of I2d. from a mes- suage in St. Edmunds, in Scolehallestrete, was granted to Thomas de Swanstone, warden of St. Peter's.8 The last pre-Reformation master, Christopher Lant, occurs in a deed of 1538, whereby the master and brethren appointed Edmund Hurste, their proctor, to ask and collect in their name, throughout England, alms and charity for the leprous of the hospital of St. Peter.3 Though not originally founded exclusively for lepers, this hospital gradually become confined to such cases. It was ordained by the abbot and convent in 1301 that when any priests of the charnel were disabled by any incurable disease, they were to be maintained at St. Saviour's Hos- pital ; but if they were infected with any conta- gious disorder, they were to be sent to the hospitals of St. Peter or St. Nicholas.4 There is a reference in another of the abbey registers to the Leprosi extra Risby Gate.6 In its later history, the hospital of St. Peter was al- ways referred to as a lazar-house. The Valor °f J535 g'ves the gross income of the chapel of St. Peter of the foundation of the abbot of St. Edmunds, of which Christopher Lant, clerk, was then master, as £20 i6s. 8^., and the net income as £10 iSs. io^d. Out of the gross, £4 is entered as paid in alms 'pauperi- bus le Lazares House extra Rysbygate de Bury.'6 It is rather singular that the income of this hospital was specially assessed in 1535 ; for in 1528 a bull was obtained from Pope Clement authorizing the annexing of this hospital, to- gether with St. Saviour's, to the abbey, the in- come being specially appropriated for hospitality at the abbot's table ; in the case of St. Peter's, however, this project does not seem to have been carried out.7 In the first instance, St. Peter's hospital was under the immediate control of the abbey al- moner ; 8 but in the time of Henry III and on- wards it was ruled by a master who was a secular priest appointed by the almoner. This hospital continued after the dissolution of the great majority of kindred institutions, for in 1551 protection (or licence to beg) was granted to the lazars of the hospital of St. Peter nigh St. Ed- munds Bury, for one year ; and George Hodg- son, ' guide ' of the house, was appointed their proctor.9 1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 72, 78, * Ibid. 151. 90, 91 ' Ibid. 100. 4 Reg. Sacr. fol. 86. 5 Reg. Kansyk, fol. 94. 6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 465. 7 Rymer, FoeJera, xiv, 244-5. 8 Reg. Nigrum, fol. 185. * Strype, Eccl. Mem. Edvi. PI, \\, 249. MASTERS OR PRIORS OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. PETER, BURY ST. EDMUNDS Alan,10 c. 1225 Gilbert de Pollekot,11 c. 1 240 Robert de Baketone,12 c. 1260 William son of Bartholomew alias Livermore,13 c. 1275 Robert,11 occurs 1280 William,16 c. 1300 Thomas de Swanstone,16 occurs 1324 Walter Burton,17 occurs 1439 Christopher Lant,18 occurs 1538 George Hodgson,19 occurs 1551 49. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. PETRON- ILLA, BURY ST. EDMUNDS Near to the hospital of St. John, or ' Domus Dei,' out of the south gate, stood the hospital of St. Petronilla, or St. Parnel, for leprous persons.20 It is ignored both by Dugdale and Tanner, but was clearly a separate foundation apart from the Domus Dei, and founded by one of the early abbots. Edward Steward was the master in 1535, when the clear annual value was declared to be j£iO 1 7*. i^d. The income was derived from temporalities in Bury, Whepstead, and Rush- brooke, and from a portion of the rectory of Mildenhall. ^4 115. 8^., apparently apart from the just cited income, was paid to the poor of the house of St. Petronilla.21 The hospital is referred to in various docu- ments as to land transfers of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth, wherein it is di- versely described as the hospital of St. Petronilla, St. Peternelda, St. Pernell, and St. Parnell.23 50. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. SAVIOUR, BURY ST. EDMUNDS The hospital of St. Saviour, without the north gate, was begun by Abbot Samson about the year 1184, but it was not finished nor fully endowed until the time of King John. It was originally founded for a warden, twelve chaplain priests, six clerks, twelve poor men, and twelve 93 poor women. Abbot Samson and the convent granted to the hospital the place upon which the buildings 111 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 28, 83. 11 Ibid. 66. » Ibi'd. 76. " Ibid. 77. "Ibid. 70, 84, 87. "Ibid. 1386. 16 Ibid. 100. "Ibid. 113. ls Ibid. 151. 19 Strype, Eccl. Mem. Edw. VI, ii, 249. 10 There were considerable remains of it as late as 1780. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 461, 465. " Add. MS. 19103, fol. 164. 13 Liber Niger, fol. 24, 30. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK stood ; £ 1 3 in silver of their village of Ickling- ham ; two portions of their church of Melford ; portions of certain tithes ; eight acres of corn in Cockfield ; and their houses at ' Telefort,' saving to the monastery an annual service of 2*., and to the canons lid. This grant was con- firmed on 1 6 July, 1206, by John de Gray, bishop of Norwich.1 The annual value of this hospital in 1291 is set down at the round sum of £io.3 A charter of Abbot John, 1 292, relative to this hospital, lays down that the inmates henceforth must be poor ; that 6s. 8d. was to be allowed to clerks and laymen, and 51. to sisters ; and that the warden was to be a man of prudence and discretion. The endowment was at the same time augmented by 10 acres of land and two of meadow near the south gate, and by 22^. rent in the town.3 In the time of Edward I, there were only seven chaplains, and it was decided to dismiss the poor sisters and in their place to receive and maintain old and infirm priests.4 In 1336 the abbey successfully resisted the crown's custom of imposing pensioners on the hospital funds ; securing a grant that after the death of John de Broughton the hospital should not again be called upon to provide corrodies out of its revenues.5 In 1390 William the abbot, with the consent of Adam de la Kyndneth, guest-master, granted to Edward Merssh of Ickworth a corrody in this hospital for his life. In the following year Robert Rymer was granted a corrody by the same abbot in St. Saviour's, through the vacancy caused by the death of Edward Merssh.6 In the year 1392 John Reve, of Pakenham, was admitted an inmate on the following terms : he was to have board and lodging in the hospital for life, and to receive annually a gown, a pair of stockings, and a pair of shoes. It is added in a memorandum that John Reve in consideration of this grant was to pay to the master of the hospital, towards the new fabric of the hospital, the large sum of 26 marks by the hand of Robert Ashfield. The hospital was also used from time to time as a refuge for worn-out priests. Abbot John of Northwold, when founding the charnel house, laid down that its two chaplains, when they became infirm, were to be admitted to St. Saviour's Hospital, save if they were suffering from any contagious disease, when they were to be sent to the hospital of St. Peter or that of St. Nicholas.7 Among the town muniments are five rolls of 1 Bodl. Chart. Suff. ii. ' PopeNich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 133. 3Harl. MS. 638, fol. 138. 4 Liber Niger, fol. 30. * Pat. 1 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, ra. 1 3. 'Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix,fol. 6iJ. 1 Proc. Stiff. Arch. /»//. vi, 297. 136 accounts of this hospital for the years 1353-4, 1374~5> x 385-6, 1 386-7, and 1438-9. Mention is made in the accounts for 1386-7 (when the receipts were ^106 2s. ()^d. and the expenses. ^234 3*. 6j|W.), among the ornaments of the chapel of St. Thomas in the infirmary church, of 1 2s. for a silver box placed beneath the feet of an image, and a base (corbel stone) bought of Simon, the abbey mason, at 5*., for the image to stand on at the right corner of the altar. Also three books with the services of the passion and translation of St. Thomas, 135. \d. Sixpence was paid to a messenger going to Clare to get a doctor in theology to preach on St. Thomas's Day,, and then on to Sudbury for tiles for the pavement of St. Thomas's Chapel. A suffragan bishop re- ceived a gift this year, as well as his chaplain and servant ; he probably attended to consecrate the chapel or altar of St. Thomas.8 St. Saviour's Hospital was by far the largest and most important institution of its kind in the town. It suffered much at the hands of the rioters of 1327, both in stock and goods ; the loss was valued at £21 <)s. 6d., including horses, cows, and pigs, as well as smaller articles, such as six silver spoons worth js. 6d., and a maser worth a mark.8 The accounts of this hospital are not entered separately from those of the abbey in the Valor °f I535- There are eight entries of dues pay- able to the hospital from certain abbey properties, amounting to JT6 2s. 3^.'° This intermingling of the accounts of the hospital with those of the abbey arose from the fact that in 1528 Pope Clement issued a bull whereby the profits of this hospital were annexed to the abbey and specially assigned for the exercise of hospitality at the abbot's table.11 The hospital site and buildings (save the lead} were granted on its suppression by Henry VIII to Sir John Williams and Anthony Stringer in February, 1542-3, but they almost immediately received licence to alienate to Nicholas Bacon: and Henry Ashfield.12 WARDENS OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. SAVIOUR,. BURY ST. EDMUNDS Peter de Shenedon,13 occurs 1318 Nicholas Snytterton,14 occurs 1374 Walter de Totyngtone,15 occurs 1385 John Power,16 occurs 1390 Adam de Lakyngheth,17 1406 8 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 128-30 3 Arnold, Mem. ii, 346. 10 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 451, 453, 461-4.. 11 Rymer, FoeJera, xiv, 244-5. 11 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xviii, pt. i, 131, 133. 13 Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 27. 14 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, pt. 8, 128. 13 Ibid. 129. 16 Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 17. 17 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 103*. RELIGIOUS HOUSES 51. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JAMES, DUNWICH A leper hospital dedicated in honour of St. James, consisting of a master, with several leprous brothers and sisters, existed at Dunwich at least as early as the reign of Richard I. Walter de Riboff was one of the chief bene- factors, and by some considered the founder. By his charter, apparently early in the reign of John, he granted to the church of St. James and the house of lepers of Dunwich, and to Hubert the chaplain who ministered there . and to all successive chaplains, for the soul of Henry de Cressie and his own good estate, 40 acres of land at Brandeston, various plots in other places, to- gether with eight bushels of wheatat Michaelmas, two loaves of bread (daily) from his oven, and a sex- tary (pint and a half) of ale from his brewhouse wherever his residence might be, and the tithes of his mills. To the chaplain he also assigned an annual pension of 5*., and a comb of corn yearly at Michaelmas, to be divided between two leprous brethren, one of the chaplain's nomina- tion and one of the nomination of himself and his heirs; any of the household of the hospital who were healthy (not lepers) were to receive the sacraments and make their offerings at the church of Brandeston on festivals. The dead were to be buried in the graveyard of the mother church.1 Pope Gregory IX, in 1233, granted licence confirmatory of letters by Pope Lucius to the lepers of St. James, Dunwich, to receive legacies and trusts left for their use.2 Protection was granted by Edward II, in 1312, with authority to seek alms for one year, to the master and brethren of St. James, Dun- wich, as they had not sufficient wherewith to live unless they obtained succour from others.3 This licence was renewed for another twelve- month in each of the three following years, for the same reason.4 This annual sanction for collecting alms was also maintained from 1320 to 1323.* In 1330 it was renewed, and in 1331 the same was granted for two years to the master, brethren, and their attorneys col- lecting alms in the churches ; the king's bailiffs were to prevent any unauthorized persons col- lecting in their name.6 Weever, writing in 1631, says of this hospital : — The church is a great one, and a faire large one after the old fashion, and divers tenements, houses, and land to the same belonging, to the use of the poor, sicke, and im- 1 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 196 ; Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 62-5. 8 Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 137. 3 Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 21. 4 Ibid. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 12 ; 8 Edw. II, pt i, m. 7 ; 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 29. 5 Ibid. 1 6 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 17. 6 Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 33. 2 137 potent people there. But now lately, greatly decaied and hindred by evil Masters of the said Hospital, and other evilly disposed covetous persons, which did sell away divers lands and rents from the said Hospital!, to the great hinderance of the poor people of the said Hospital, as is plainly to be proved.' Gardner says (1754) that the former great income had dwindled to £21 igs. 8. iv, 461, 463. 5 Chart. R. I John, pt. ii, No. 91. 6 Add. Chart. 10104. * Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 117. The dues are those of appointment. MASTERS OF THE LEPER HOSPITALS OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN AND ST. JAMES, IPSWICH Alexander,8 1336 William Olde de Debenham,9 1351 John May de Multon,10 1361 Thomas de Claxtone,11 1367 John de Blakenham,12 1369 Stephen Ingram,13 1385, reappointed 1390" William de Cotsmore,16 1399 William Tanner,16 1409 Robert Markys,17 resigned 1464 Robert Lang,18 1464 Thomas Bullok,19 1468 Thomas Eyton,20 1472 57. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, IPSWICH There was a third leper hospital of early foun- dation at Ipswich — that of St. Leonard, in the parish of St. Peter, near the old church of St. Augustine,21 probably but slenderly endowed, and relying chiefly on the alms of travellers. A commission appointed in 1520 to define the bounds of the town of Ipswich began its report in these terms : — ' From the bull stake on the Cornhill in the said burgh of Yepiswiche unto the close of the hos- pitall of Seynt Leonard, & from thens . . .' - It escaped suppression under Henry VIII and Edward VI. In 1583 Henry Bury was ap- pointed 'Master of the hospital and Sick House of St. Leonard,' vacant by the death of Philip Apprice. At the same time Henry Lawrey, beadle of the hospital, had ^i 6*. 8d. added to his salary for his great pains. In 1606 ' the preaching place' in the hospital was ordered to be restored and the head of the pulpit ceiled.23 58 AND 59. THE HOSPITALS OF ORFORD There seem to have been two hospitals at Orford in honour respectively of St. Leonard and St. John Baptist, the former in all probability for lepers. We have only met with a single record reference to each. The master and brethren of the hospital of St. Leonard, Orford, obtained the royal licence to seek alms in October, I32O.24 8 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 88. 9 Ibid, iv, I 34. 10 Ibid, v, 53. " Ibid, v, 76. » Ibid, v, 86. 13 Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 17. 14 Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40. 15 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 252. 16 Ibid, vii, 23. 17 Ibid, xi, 145. "Ibid. "Ibid, xi, 170. "Ibid, xi, 184. " Taylor, Index Man. 1 1 6. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 232. " Add. MS. 19094, fol. 144. *4 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 16. 139 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK In 1390 Richard II granted to his servant William Coterell, for life, the wardenship of the hospital of St. John, Orford, in conjunction with the hospital of Holy Trinity and St. James, Dunwich.1 A chapel of St. John Baptist was standing in 1500 on the north side of the river.* 60. THE HOSPITAL OF DOMUS DEI, THETFORD God's House, or Domus Dei, was a house of early foundation. Blomefield believed that it dated back to the days when William Rufus removed the episcopal see from Thetford to Norwich,3 but Martin could find no sufficient proof of this.4 It was situated on the Suffolk side of the borough ; the river washed its walls on the north, and the east side fronted the street. It was at any rate well established before the reign of Edward II, as it was found, in 131 9, that John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, held the advowson of the God's Hospital, Thetford.6 In that year a considerable store of cattle and goods is dejxribed as having been acquired by the prudence and frugality of William de Norton, the late master, and left under the care of the bishop ; his successor was enjoined not to dispose by sale or donation of any of the particulars of the inventory without leaving to the house an equivalent.6 The new master does not, however, appear to have followed the good example of William Norton ; for he is soon found to be holding other preferment, and was probably non-resident. In 1326 William Harding, master of God's House, Thetford, and rector of Cerncote, Salisbury diocese, acknowledged a debt of eleven marks due to one Stephen de Kettleburgh. 7 In the same year he was also warden of the hospital of St. Julian, Thetford. 1° X335> Jonn de Warenne obtained the royal licence to transfer the hospital of God's House with a'l its revenues and possessions to the prior provincial of the Friars Preachers ; but speedily changing his mind obtained another licence for transferring it to the prior and canons of the Holy Sepulchre, Thetford.8 By this arrangement it was covenanted that the priory should find two chaplains to sing mass for the soul of the founder of the hospital, and to find sustenance and entertainment for three poor men. Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 19, 17. Add MS. 19101, fol. 1 06. Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. ii, 79. Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 92. Close, 12 Edw. II, m. 9. Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 77. 7 Close, 19 Edw. II, m. 9. 8 Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26. In 1347 Henry, duke of Lai. caster, as patron, confirmed to the prior and canons the gift of the lands, tenements, and rents lately belonging to the hospital of God's House, but excepted the actual site of the hospital, which he conferred upon the Friars Preachers. Two of the canons were to sing daily mass in the conventual church for the souls of the founders of the hospital. The priory was also to find a house yearly for three poor people from 9 November to 29 April, giving to each of them nightly a loaf of good rye bread, and a herring or two eggs. They were also to provide three beds, and hot water for washing their feet. This charter received royal confirmation the following year.9 61. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN, THETFORD There was a leper hospital dedicated in honour of St. John on the Suffolk side of the town. Martin gives references to it under the reigns of Edward I, II, and III. In 1387 John of Gaunt, as already detailed in the account of the friary, gave the old parochial church of St. John to the friars, which then became the chapel of the hospital. At the time of the dissolution it was demolished as part of the friars' property, and the site was granted to Sir Richard Fulmerston.10 62. THE HOSPITAL OF SIBTON There was a hospital near the gate of Sibton Abbey. Though there is but little to put on record about it, it is given separate mention, as it had an income independent of the abbey. Simon bishop of Norwich appropriated to it the church of Cransford for the better support of the inmates in the year I264.11 There are slight remains on the site. 63. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, SUDBURY Most of our leper houses were of early foundation, whilst the crusades were in progress, but one was founded, about a mile outside Sudbury, as late as 1272, by John Colneys or Colness, its first governor or warden. Colneys applied to Simon of Sudbury, then bishop of ' Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23. 10 Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. ii, 71-2 ; Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 97-8. There is a certain amount of confusion as to two leper hospitals, one of St. John, and the other of St. John Baptist ; but the house had possibly a double dedication. 11 Reg. Prior. Norw. vii, fol. 80, cited in Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xxxviii, 2. 140 RELIGIOUS HOUSES London, to draw up certain ordinances for its rule. The bishop assented, and from his ordinance, dated i May, 1372, we learn that the bishop's parents, Nigel and Sara Theobald, were also concerned in this charitable foundation. It was laid down that there were to be for ever three lepers, and after the death of John Colneys •one to be chosen governor whom the other two were to obey ; that when a leper died or resigned or was expelled, a third was to be chosen by the •survivor-; within six months, but if any difficulty arose they were to inform the mayor of Sud- bury, and the spiritual father of the church of St. Gregory was to put in another ; that the profits of the hospital of St. Leonard were to be divided into five parts, whereof the governor was to have two parts, his two leper brethren other two parts, and the fifth part to be used in the repair of the premises ; that there was to be a common chest in some church or safe place in Sudbury wherein the fifth part and the writings of the house were to be kept ; and that the governor was to have one key of the chest, and the other was to be in the hands of some person deputed by the mayor of Sudbury. It was also provided that if the statutes should not be duly kept after the founder's decease, the hospital revenues should be divided between the church of St. Gregory and the chapel of St. Anne annexed to the same in equal pro- portions, for the souls of Colneys the founder, and of Nigel and Sara Theobald, and all the faithful departed.1 The estates of the hospital were vested in feoffees by deed of 16 January, 1445-6. In the later corporation books of Sudbury there are several references to the ' hospital called Colnes ' and lands adjoining. In 1619-20 'the little house at the Colnes' was rebuilt. In 1657 John Rider was appointed governor of the hospital in the place of Edward Stafford; he had to find 40*. to be of good behaviour. The last person who bore the name of governor or master was a man called Loveday ; he died in 1813. The following was the form of oath taken by members of the hospital, on admittance : — You shall swear that you will well and truly observe all the ancient rules and orders of this house (as governor or fellow of the same) so long as you shall continue therein, according to the utmost of your skill and knowledge ; you shall be obedient to the members thereof as your state does require in all things lawfull ; you shall quietly submit to all such deprivation and expulsion as by competent authority shall be inflicted on you, for such crimes and misdemeanours as they shall judge worthy of the same ; and all other rules and orders which shall hereafter be made by sufficient authority for the due governance and regulation of the said hospital you peaceably acquiesce in — So help you God. The oath, doubtless adapted from the original one, was thus used in 1770, when Edmund Andrews was governor, and Joseph Andrews and George Gilbert fellows.3 By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners of 1867 the net income of Colneys' charity is applied towards the support of St. Leonard's Cottage Hospital. This is one of the extra- ordinarily rare instances of a medical hospital escaping confiscation under Henry VIII and Edward VI. It was probably spared as there was no ground for supposing that any of the slender income was used for ' chantry ' purposes.3 COLLEGES 64. THE COLLEGE OF JESUS, BURY ST. EDMUNDS A college was founded at Bury in 1480 by John Smyth, esquire, a wealthy burgess, as a residence for certain chantry priests presided over by a warden or master ; they were to say divine service in the church of St. Mary and to pray for the souls of the founder, of his wife Anne, his parents John and Avice, and his daughter Rose. By his will dated 12 September, 1480, John Smyth left 2od. to every priest of the college present 'at mynedirige,' and he further provided that whensoever the college of priests became incorporate and had royal licence to purchase or hold property, then he desired his feoffees of the manor of Hepworth, upon due request to them by the master or president and fellowship (phelaschep] of the same, to deliver the said manor 'Add. MS. 19078, fol. 376. with its appurtenances to them for the sustenta- tion of the said chantry priests ; he also made a like provision with regard to his manor of ' Swyftys.' 4 Six days after drafting his will, the founder executed a deed conveying the manor of Swifts to trustees, who were to assign all the profits to the master or president of the college of priests ' newe builded within the town of Bury, to be wholly applied to the building and sustention and repair of the college,' reserving, however, to himself for his life a yearly sum of 10 marks.5 The royal licence was obtained in the follow- ing year, founding a chantry and perpetual gild of 'the sweet name of Jesus,' consisting of a warden and society of six chaplains or priests, who were to live together in a common man- 1 Add. MS. 19078, fol. 377. * Proc. Suf. Arch. Init. vii, 268-74. 4 Tymms, Buiy Wills, 56, 58. 6 Ibid. 64-8. 141 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK sion, to pray daily for the souls of John Smyth (the deceased) and others, as well as for the brethren and sisters of the gild, and to do other works of piety.1 The college received various small bequests by wills of Bury townsmen. William Hony- born, of Bury, dyer, in 1493, k^ I2^- ' to tne gilde of the holy name of Jesu, holden at the college.' John Coote, by will of 1502, left 3*. \d. to the gild of St. Nicholas held in the college, and also provided that 'at my thyrty day the priests of the colage to have a dyner among themseffes in the colage, after the discression of myne executors and supervisor.' Edmund Lee of Bury, esquire, in 1535, left 6;. 8d. 'to the company of the Jesus College in Bury, towards their stoke for sake fyshe and lynge." Thomas Neche, master of the college, was one of the witnesses of this will.2 This college was suppressed by Edward VI. The Chantry and College Commissioners of 2 Edward VI made the following report of this establishment : — The messuage called the Colledge wythe vj small tenements in Burye. In feoft'amente by oone William Coote clerke to contynnewe for ever to the intente that in the seid Capytall Messuage nowe called the Colledge, all the priestes of the parysshe churches of Seynte Jaymes and Seynte Maryes in Bury should contynually kepe & have their lodgings. And in iiij of the seide small tenementes iiij poore mene should have other dwellynges free for ever. And thother two tenementes to be letten yearly, and with the money that shoulde growe of the farme, the seid vj houses shoulde mayntayne the seid vj houses in reparation. The whiche capytall messuage and ij tenements bene at this daye and at all tymes sythe decayse commytted to thuse aforeseide and noother. And oone Thomas Neche clerke of thage of Ixiii yeres having cs. yerely in the name of a pencian owte of the parsonage of Founcham All Seyntes, and hath the parsonage of Trayton of the close yerely valew of vj //', and xlj of a prebente in Staffordshyre. A manne bcinge indifferently welle learned.' The college is described as being distant two furlongs from the parish church, and of the annual value of 40*. The goods and household stuff were valued at 77*. 2^., and a bell weighing 2O Ib. at 3*. ifd. Separate entry is made of a chantry endow- ment of j£6 8*. 4 be identified with Babergh. The extra-hundredal part of Loes, containing Woodbridge manor, is given in Domesday as part of Loes. Lothingland was. part of Luding, a hundred which was afterwards the half hundred of Mut- ford. Both these half hundreds were manors in the king's hands and granted out by him. In 1763 the two were re-united into one hundred. Exning seems to be another instance of a manor becoming a half hundred. Below the hundreds came the vills and townships. 1 J. H. Round, Feud. Engl. 98. ' Ibid. 101. 157 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK The hundredal organization was the basis of all administration, judicial, fiscal, and military. There was the county court, the hundred court, and the court of the township, though this last was not strictly speaking judicial. In Anglo-Saxon times the county court met twice a year and the hundred court every three weeks. Under Henry II the latter was held every fort- night, while in the thirteenth century it occurred every three weeks, and the county court every month. Twice a year, however, came a specially full hundred court, when the sheriff visited the hundred to see that the tithings were full and that every man was in frank-pledge. At these the reeve and four men of the vills attended. Attendance at these courts was a duty attached to the land and as such irksome : such a man held such land on condition that he attended so many courts in the year. The dwellers in the county were identified with the land, and were collectively responsible for crimes and miscarriages of justice committed within their marches. There was the same idea underlying the hundred. If a man committed a murder in Sampford or Babergh the whole hundred was responsible for the payment of the fine of five marks. If a man fled from justice the hundred made good his flight. The county and the court were one. In the shire the courts were never called anything but the county, and the suitors were the freeholders of the county. They l were also the doomsmen, and no foreigner could legally try a Suffolk man. In 1331 2 the county complained that owing to the dilapidated condition of Ipswich gaol Suffolk criminals were lodged at Norwich, and were delivered by Norwich men. This was against the law, for the men of Norfolk knew not the crimes of the men of Suffolk. The principle of the administration of the county was Suffolk men must transact Suffolk business, and no matter whether it were a hue and cry, an inquisition post-mortem, an array, a grant to collect, it was done by the landowners of the shire. The officers of the county were first the sheriff who presided at the county court, while the bailiff of the king or the steward of the lord presided at the court of the hundred. The earl had no official position beyond drawing the third penny from the county revenue till the fourteenth century, when he prac- tically became responsible for the military organization. The office of sheriff became neither hereditary nor elective. His judicial powers were lessened by the introduction of the Custodes Pacis, two or three knights empowered to hear and determine felonies, who finally developed in the reign of Edward III into the justices of the peace. In Tudor times the quarter- sessions had superseded both the county and hundred courts, and were held at Ipswich, Bury, Woodbridge, and Dunwich. Below the sheriff came the coroners, four officers elected in the county court who kept the pleas of the crown. These had to be resident in the county and possess certain property. The king's fiscal and territorial interests were further looked after by the escheator. The judicial interests of the crown in Suffolk were constantly clashing with those of the great ecclesiastical liberties in which the king's writ did not run. They removed fourteen hundreds from the royal juris- diction, for the abbot of Bury claimed the right of the return of all writs in Babergh, Risbridge, Thedwastry, Thingoe, Cosford, Lackford, and Black- 1 Pollock and Maitland, Hist, of Engl. Law (1895), i, 550. 1 Cal. of Close 1330-3, p. 113. I58 POLITICAL HISTORY bourn, while the like claim was made on behalf of St. Etheldreda of Ely in Carleford, Colneys, Plumesgate, Loes, Wilford, and Threadling. In I3441 the abbot of Bury was required by the sheriff and the king's justices to plead at Ipswich. He replied that already, in the time of Edward I, the question of his jurisdiction had been argued and settled. He cited the evidence then given by twelve men from the hundred of Risbridge, who swore before the justices in eyre at Ipswich that the abbot had royal liberties as appeared in the pleas of the king of Quo Warranto. It was further proved that all original pleas affecting any tenement within the four crosses of St. Edmund should be delivered to him, and with all other writs affecting the crown within the liberty of St. Edmund should be pleaded in Bury by justices appointed by the abbot. The sheriff sometimes refused to arrest men indicted at Bury. For fiscal purposes the county was divided into the two liberties and the geldable 2 which had two centres, one at Ipswich for Bosmere and Claydon, Sampford, Stowe, Hoxne and Hartismere, and the other at Beccles, for Blything, Wangford, Mutford and Lothingland. The liberties paid one half of the tax between them, while the geldable area was responsible for the other. Bury paid two parts to Ely's one, and of the secular Beccles paid two to Ipswich's three. Out of the county receipts were paid its defence, its gaols, its castles and its sick,3 and until after the Restoration the sheriff was responsible for the amount of the firm. From Anglo-Saxon times there have been two sources from which the king could draw an army. There was the county host — the county in arms for purposes chiefly of defence — and there were the individuals who owed military service and so to speak formed the army for attack. The county host, led in pre-conquest times by the aldermen or the earl, and afterwards by the sheriff, was an unwieldy instrument, badly armed, unmanageable and disinclined to advance beyond the county border. At the Conquest William gave many of the forfeited lands on the understanding that the service of a fixed number of knights would be demanded,4 but at an early period the crown accepted a money payment in lieu of personal service. By the reign of Henry II the county was com- pletely parcelled out into knights' fees, and the fees themselves had become minutely sub-divided — the earl of Clare6 was assessed for 131^ knights' fees in Suffolk besides £, i, £, £, TO-, and z + -5$ of fees. Such sub-division meant an arrangement among the various holders, probably one by which the original divider of the fee remained responsible for the service, while the holders of the aliquot parts paid him their obligation in kind or money. The abbot of St. Edmunds acknowledged that he owed the king 40 knights' fees : 6 as a matter of fact he had 52 J from which he took scutage, and pocketed the difference, or rather the hereditary seneschal William de Hastings took toll. Earl Hugh rendered account for £227 IQJ. for knights and Serjeants in the Welsh war.7 The honour of Eye was assessed for 90^ fees. The knights of St. Edmund were bound to do castle-ward at 1 Cal. Pat. 1343-5, p. 363. ' Add. MS. 19171, fol. 36. 3 Pipe R. Hen. II (Pipe Roll Soc.), passim. 4 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. ofEngl. Law (1895), i, 237. 6 Pipe R. 10 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc.), p. 33. 6 Ibid. 1 1 Hen. II, p. 3. ' Ibid. p. 7. 159 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Norwich for three months in bands of five as were those of Eye at Eye and Orford ; but this ward, too, was being commuted for money.1 Under Edward I the system broke down, though as early as 1198 the abbot of St. Edmunds had had to hire knights to go to Normandy at 3J. a day, for his own refused on the pretext that they were not bound to cross the sea. Minute sub-infeudation had made a feudal host impossible. In 1314 the dower of the widow of the earl of Clare consisted of many fiefs in various manors. Amongst others she held : — J fee in Helmingham held by Robert de Cressi at zos. J „ Great Bures held by Peter Silvestre's heirs, 50;. J and J „ Gaisle held by Wm. de Hausted, 6os. •fo „ Brokeleye held by John de Cramavill, 5;. J „ Barwe held by John de Cretyng, 201. i „ scattered through several manors held by Rob. Mauduyt, loor. Under Henry III the whole of the freemen, the jurati ad arma^ were enrolled by name and arms by the constables of every hundred for military and police purposes, while Edward I instituted the commissioners of array, whose business it was to inspect the county contingent and take the most likely men. This led to a decrease in the military power of the sheriff. The higher classes were forced into arms by distraint for knighthood, all those who held .£40 a year in fee being liable. In i 297 the sheriff was commanded to summon all those who possessed 20 librates of land or more, as well those who held in chief as those who did not, those within the franchises and those without, to prepare at once to follow the king with arms and horses. The •county force was now made up of great lords who received a special summons from the king, and whose tenants usually served under them, minor knights who by the fourteenth century served by indenture under a chosen lord, and the men picked from the jurati ad arma by the com- missioners of array. In 1345 Edward III reassessed the county; owners of land valued at ioos., or one knight's fee, to provide one mounted archer, those of £10 to provide a hobeler armed at least with hagueton, visor, burnished palet, iron gauntlets, and lance, the number of men increasing with the income. The Davillers of Brome,2 it may be noted, held their land by the duty of leading the footmen of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk from the ditch of St. Edmunds without Newmarket to the Welsh wars. Prom this time the force was under the command of the chief men of the county, who in Tudor times were appointed by the king to the office of deputy lord-lieutenant.8 The Tudor and Stuart kings often sent letters missive to their servants and other gentlemen desiring the person addressed to certify how many men he could put in the field in the service of the king. In 1536 Sir Charles Willoughby, Sir Arthur Hopton of Westwood, Sir Anthony Wingfield of Letheringham, Sir William Drury of Halstead, Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke, could all put one hundred retainers in the field ; Sir Thomas Rushe of Chapmans, and John Spryng of Lavenham, sixty ; George Colte of 1 1324 Richard de Amundeville held Okenhall in chief of the honour of Eye by the service of doing suit at each court of the honour, and 20^. to the ward of the castle of the honour at the end of every thirty- two weeks. * Cal. of Close (1330-3), p. 244. * Grose, Military Antiquities, ed. 1786, p. 80. 1 60 POLITICAL HISTORY Colt's Hall in Cavendish, Sir John Jernyngham, and Richard Cavendish of Grimstone, thirty. In 1524 Suffolk furnished a muster1 of 2,999 archers and 7,763 billmen. But the service was by no means voluntary, and the usual method when it came to foreign service was simply to press the men in the market-towns and ship them off. At other times, the whole contingent being assembled at Ipswich or Beccles, the captains appointed by the king, beginning with the colonel, picked their men. The old system of the militia broke down in the wars of the seven- teenth century. An Act was, however, passed in 1662 for there-organization of the militia, the obligations to provide horsemen or footmen being allotted according to a scale of property, while the lord-lieutenant was granted full powers of raising the force, appointing officers, and levying rates for the supply of equipment. According to the muster roll of 1692* the Suffolk militia then consisted of four regiments of infantry with two additional companies at Ipswich and four troops of horse : the Red Regiment, under Colonel Anthony Crofts, included six companies with a total complement of 460 officers and men ; Colonel Sir Philip Parker's White Regiment com- prised seven companies, with 509 of all ranks ; the Blue Regiment, late commanded by Sir Philip Skipton, mustered eight companies 657 strong ; while the Yellow Regiment of Sir Thomas Bernardiston showed the same number of companies with a complement of 660. The two Ipswich companies with their 181 men and the four troops of horse 208 strong, under the personal command of the lord-lieutenant, Lord Cornwallis, brought up the total of the county forces to 2,675 of all ranks. In 1697 it was remarked that the Suffolk militia had not been mustered since 1692, while the sixty years that followed witnessed the general decay of any efficient militia force outside the city of London. The Militia Bill of 1757 introduced the ballot, and all men from eighteen to forty-five were with a few exceptions liable to its operation. During the Napoleonic wars the regular or ' marching ' militia supplied volunteers, attracted by bounties, to fill the waste of the line, while under special Acts of Parliament supplementary and local militia were further raised, the latter being largely recruited from disbanded volunteers. After Waterloo the regular militia was nominally retained, but by a policy of systematic neglect reduced to a mere skeleton of officers and sergeants. The middle of the century witnessed a revival, and in 1871 the old constitutional force was removed from the special jurisdiction of the lords- lieutenant to the more direct control of the War Office. Some ten years after, on the territorial re-organization of the infantry of the line, the West Suffolk Militia became the 3rd battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, and was embodied on two occasions during the last Boer War. Besides the infantry there are also now artillery militia with head quarters at Ipswich. The regular battalions of the present Suffolk regiment are furnished by the old 1 2th Foot, which owes its origin to an independent company raised shortly after the Restoration to garrison Windsor Castle.8 At the time of 1 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv (i), No. 972. * From a return of 1697. Egerton MS. 1626 (B.M.). 1 Rudolf, Short Hut, of Terr. Regiments, 121. 2 l6l 21 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Monmouth's rebellion other companies raised in Norfolk and elsewhere were united with it, and the regiment thus formed was numbered the i2th of the line. It had already fought at the Boyne and Aughrim, at Dettingen and Fontenoy, where its loss is said to have been greater than that of any other regiment on the field, before it shared in the memorable victory of Minden, for which the laurel wreath is graved in commemoration on the buttons of the officers.1 At a later date the regiment was the senior corps of infantry present in the last great siege of Gibraltar, and has since borne the badge of the castle and key with the motto ' Montis Insignia Calpe,' while during the siege it first received the territorial title of the East Suffolk Regiment. In the record of its later service may be mentioned the storm of Seringapatam in 1799, the Kaffir War2 of 1851—3, and the fighting in New Zealand in the early ' sixties ' of the last century. In the late South African War, though the Suffolk Regiment lost heavily at Colesberg in January, 1900, it did excellent service on many occasions afterwards, the conduct of the Suffolk Mounted Infantry at Bothaville being especially worthy of note.s As in most of the non-royal regiments of English infantry its facings are now white. Besides the East Suffolk, now the Suffolk Regiment without qualification, the old 63rd of the line, now the first battalion of the Manchester, bore for about a century4 the title of the West Suffolk Regiment, while in 1804 a second battalion was raised for it and stationed at Bury St. Edmunds,6 being disbanded at Ipswich in November, 1814. The record of the county yeomanry can be merely alluded to here. In the late South African War the Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars showed their readiness to answer the call of duty and patriotism. Suffolk men still acknowledged the duty of the citizen to defend his country when during the Napoleonic wars forty-two separate companies of volunteers were raised. The volunteers of Yoxford 6 (1798) solemnly signed an agreement by which they agreed to form themselves into an independent company of not less than 60 nor more than 1 20 men, to be supplied with arms and uniform by the government, also with a non-commissioned officer to teach them the use of arms. They promised to serve under the general commanding the Eastern Division in case of actual invasion, or of the danger of invasion being deemed so imminent as to make it advisable for the lord- lieutenant or his deputies to give orders for the removal of cattle, corn, or any other article which might be of advantage to the enemy or useful to the public service.7 Most of the companies were disbanded before the end of the Lawrence-Archer, The British Army, 1 86. The reserve or 2nd battalion was in South Africa actually from 1851 till 1857. Lawrence-Archer, op. c t. 1 8 5 . * Stirling, Our Regiments in South Africa, I z I . Lawrence-Archer, op. cit. 441. * Rudolf, op. cit. 550. AddMSS. 19188, fol. 57. Note from the Muster Rolls in the Record Office. The year 1803 saw the birth of many of the companies. Men Commanding Officer . . 528 EarlofDysart . . 360 Major Wm. Reeve of Roydon . . . 112 James Reeve 83 Jno. Dresser . . 300 Sir Wm. Middleton of Shrubland Park near Ipswich 162 Company Helmingham Hartismere Rangers Halesworth . Blythford . . . Bosmere and Claydon Did duty at Ipswich Diss Southwold Bury POLITICAL HISTORY war, but the movement was revived in 1859, when trouble wifh France was anticipated, and the lord-lieutenant was asked to superintend the formation of volunteer companies to repel invasion. From that date to the present day the movement has increased, and the volunteers are now an acknowledged factor in home defence. Of the four volunteer battalions attached to the Suffolk Regiment two are furnished by Suffolk, with head quarters at Ipswich and Bury respectively, both possessing affiliated cadet corps from Suffolk schools. There are also artillery volunteers at Ipswich and elsewhere. The early political history of East Anglia is rescued from obscurity by the incursions of the Danes. .The insular character of her geographical position prevented the Angles from entering on a career of conquest such as in turn tempted the other members of the Heptarchy. One of the royal family of the Uffings, Redwald, who succeeded to the throne in 599, became Bretwalda, but this was probably a case of personality over-riding environment. At first even the christianizing of the kingdom was intermittent ; behind the screen of forest and fen the Angles dropped back again into their old rites.1 Feeble knees were confirmed by the establishment by King Sigebert about 636 of a school at Dunwich, and of a monastery at Cnobheresburg,2 while in 673 Dunwich and Elmham became bishops' sees. Until 823 the kingdom existed as a separate entity, but in that year Egbert of Wessex granted his Company Bury Bungay Carlford Lakenheath and Wangford Leiston and Theberton . Melton Rendlesham .... Risbridge Saxham Kelsale and Carlton Hollesley Bay .... Hoxne ...... Huntingfield .... Ipswich Babergh Hadleigh Stoke Stowe Blackburn Eye Fornham and Bury . . Thedwastre Beccles Benacre and Wrentham . Southwold Yoxford Sibton Dunwich Framlingham .... Lowestoft Gorleston Saxmundham .... Woodbridge .... Colneys Tunstall Aldeburgh . . . . . Men Commanding Officer 205 Orbel Ray Oakes and Captain Benjafield 1 80 Major Peter Forster of Ditchingham . 70 Sam Collett ; Robert Ginger 105 Robert Eagle of Brandon . . . . 67 Forman Josselyn 105 Joseph Stammers 100 Edward Crisp 3 1 5 Colonel Wm. Matthews 65 Thomas Mills 59 M. Rabett 350 Major W. W. Page 70 Wm. Barber 113 Wm. Philpot of Huntingfield . . . 388 Major Neale 350 Colonel MacLean 1 60 Captain Leake 57 Captain Mannock 1 20 Captain Tyrrell 300 Lt.-Colonel Webber 100 Captain Wayth 80 Captain Powell 80 Captain Blake 1 20 Captain South 1 80 Major Good 1 20 Captain May 76 Captain Davy 77 Captain Jermyn 73 Captain Robinson 200 Major Stanford 95 Captain Arnold 91 Captain Bell 71 Captain Freeman 157 Major Purcell 330 Major Vernon 213 Captain Shepherd 58 Captain Winter Did duty at Lowestoft Bury 1 Bede, Eccl. Hist. (Eng. Hist. Soc.), 140. 163 ' Ibid. 198. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK alliance to it at the price of its nominal independence.1 The witan of the East Angles continued to act as the centre of local government and military organization. The thing of the South folk may have met at Thingoe2 — at Bury, in fact. In 866 the Danes, who had been for long harassing the coasts, lurking among the creeks and inlets, came first to land and took up their quarters in East Anglia, ' and there they were horsed.' s Four years later Suffolk acquired its famous martyr, for King Edmund was killed in defence of his kingdom. In 884 East Anglia became Danish. The army under Guthrum settled there and apportioned it among themselves, and it became by virtue of the treaties of Wedmore part of Danelagh. The return of the Danish army from a pillaging expedition in France was the signal for the breaking-out of the Anglo-Danes. Alfred prevented the landing of one detachment in the Stour, but a second pirate fleet swept away his victorious ships and landed its men.4 On Edward's accession Ethelwald, the pretender to Alfred's throne, thought to make good his claim by Danish arms, fled to East Anglia and gathered a large army among them.5 This gave Edward a chance of ravaging the county in 906," and he afterwards bridled the South folk by a chain of forts. The Danes broke through the line again and again, and it was not till 920 7 that Edward was able to oust the Danes from the Huntingdon-Cambridge line of defence. He took them in the rear, making Colchester his head quarters and sending expeditions thence into East Anglia, where the English and the Danish colonists received him gladly. The army, caught in the fens, with Edward and his army behind and his forts in front, had to submit. From now until 991 East Anglia enjoyed a cessation of raids, but in that year the Danes, who for ten years had been burning intermittently the south and west, landed and fired Ipswich,8 and then over-ran the county. This was the year which saw the first payment of Danegeld by the exhausted English. The county, however, both paid and suffered. In 1010 Ulfkytel, the alderman, met the army invading the Stour at Ringmere near Ipswich.9 His army, composed of the county levies, had in its ranks the usual traitor, this time one of Danish extraction, for Thurkytel, a Danish jarl, was the first to flee. The county levy was slaughtered, and for three months the pagans lived on the whole district, where they destroyed men and cattle, and burned even into the wild fens. So great was the misery that St. Edmund appeared to fight for his people, and smote Sweyn the tyrant, so that he died,10 and the county was rid of one oppressor. Even the martyr however could not fight the army single- handed, and in i o 1 6 Cnut had obtained so firm a footing that for a second time a partition of the kingdom took place, and again East Anglia fell to the Danes. The death of King Edmund affirmed Cnut's hold upon England, and he divided the whole kingdom into four provinces and gave East Anglia u to Thurkill as his viceroy. East Anglia afterwards continued to be governed by its earl, and was part of Harold's earldom and later of Gyrth's, but it was not until the fourteenth century that the earldom of Suffolk was separated from that of Norfolk or East Anglia. 1 A. S. Citron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 10-1. ' Gage, The Hundred of Thingoe, I. ' A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 130-1. 4 Ibid, i, 152-3. 5 Ibid, i, 180-1. • Ibid, i, 182-3. ' Ibid- '» '94-5- " Ibi<1. '» 238~9- • Ibid, i, 262-3. '" w'll- of Malmesbury, Gesta Reguai (Rolls Ser.), i, 212. " A. S. Chrm. (Rolls Ser.), i, 284-5. 164 POLITICAL HISTORY Under William I the geographical separation of Suffolk was recognized in Domesday, but politically the twin shires were regarded as one. William's1 policy was to give one shire to one earl under his two viceroys, and to Ralph Wader, an Anglo-Breton, who had fought for the Normans, was given the earldom of East Anglia, whose centre was Norwich Castle, to which lands in Suffolk owed castle-ward. The other castle of importance in East Anglia, the only one mentioned in the Suffolk Domesday Book, was Eye, built by Robert Malet, but there can be little doubt that strongholds existed in such places as Clare, Framlingham, Haughley, Ipswich, Walton and Burgh. It is impossible to determine the part played by Suffolk in the resistance to the Normans, though no doubt the fens saw tragedies which find no record in the scant annals. It is very probable that so long as local customs went on fairly undisturbed the county took small heed of changes in the kingship, to which it had in the last fifty years become inured. Suffolk men fully appreciated the danger from the Danes, and Roger Bigod's new possessions made him responsible for the defence of the southern coast, the usual entrance of the invaders. He, with Robert Malet and Ralph Wader, met Sweyn 2 when he sailed up the Orwell in 1069 and defeated him near Ipswich. A few years later Suffolk was called to arms again under Robert Malet to resist its own earl. The king's frequent absence in Normandy and Ralph Wader's steady advance in power were the forerunners of the earl's rebellion. Ralph married Emma, daughter of the Earl of Hereford, and at the Bride-ale at3 Exning hatched the conspiracy and rebellion which was to divide England into independent earldoms. The earl was defeated and outlawed, and his fall made way for the rise of a more formidable family, the Bigods, one of whom already possessed 1 17 manors in the county. Roughly speaking he, with Robert Malet, who possessed 221 manors, the Liberty of St. Edmund and that of St. Etheldreda, wielded the whole county influence. The turbulent reigns of William II and Henry I saw the gradual growth of the power of the Bigods, whose influence became almost paramount after the expedition of Robert of Normandy in 1101 to claim his brother's throne. On the suppression of the rebellion Robert Malet suffered the confiscation of his vast properties, and in consequence the castle and honour of Eye fell into the royal hands. Roger Bigod was staunch for Henry and received the castle of Framlingham as his reward. He was in high favour. His eldest son 4 was drowned in the White Ship with Prince Henry in 1120, and Hugh Bigod, the younger son, succeeded to his father's place. Earl Hugh was one of those who swore fealty to Matilda in 1126 and 1131 and lightly broke both oaths.6 Suffolk laymen were for Stephen, and Bigod was for himself, though Stephen made him earl of East Anglia in 1141. The king's treatment of the bishops had alienated the Church, and the Liberties were probably against the king.6 Bungay, the Bigod stronghold, was taken and the earl himself, playing too openly for his own hand, was surprised and defeated by Stephen. In 1 153, when Henry of Anjou invaded England, Ipswich under Bigod declared for him, was besieged and had to 1 Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv, 70. ' Ibid, iv, 251—2. 8 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 10 ; Freeman, op. cit. iv, 573. 4 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc ), ii, 74. * IKd. 84. ' De Gcstis Reps Stephani (Rolls Ser.), 46 et seq. 165 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK surrender before help arrived. Earl Hugh must have regretted his support of Prince Henry, for the first demand of the new king was for the surrender of his castles, and in 1 1 57 * Framlingham and Bungay were given up. Orford and Eye and Walton were in the king's hands, and were garrisoned by his knights. In 1168 Orford2 was refortified, and during the war with his son in 1 173 all the king's castles were put into a state of thorough defence ;3 two Norman engineers being sent from Ipswich to Orford to oversee the work there. Walton was garrisoned by twenty foot soldiers and two horsemen under the command of four knights, Gilbert de Sanford, Roger Esturmey, William Tollemache, and William Vis-de-Leu, all members of south-eastern Suffolk families. Ships were sent from Orford to Sandwich to prevent the landing of the Flemish allies of the prince. The preparations were justified, for on 29 September, 1 173, the earl of Leicester landed near Walton with an army of Flemings. Presumably he took the castle, but it does not necessarily follow, for he failed before Dunwich. In conjunction with Earl Hugh he garrisoned Bungay and Framlingham, took Hagenet, and secured Norwich by treachery. Then he marched westwards from Framlingham towards Bury, for, as the chronicler gibes, the hospitality of St. Edmund's was proverbial. At Farnham St. Genevieve they were met by the abbot's forces under Walter fitz-Robert and the king's men led by Richard de Lucy and the earl of Arundel, who had both come with all speed from the Scottish border, and defeated. The countess of Leicester was captured crouching in a ditch, and her husband was also taken. The hapless Flemings, scorned as weavers, were butchered by the county levies armed with scythes and other primitive weapons, and great was the slaughter which followed the presumption of the foreigners in over-running the territory of St. Edmund.4 This defeat, however, did not make peace in the county, for the Flemish garrisons in Bungay and Fram- lingham led by Earl Hugh terrorized the surrounding county. He besieged Eye, swept off the cattle and corn belonging to the castle, and destroyed the fish-ponds, cow-houses, and barns.6 The garrisons were increased in Walton and Orford, and the following year 1 174—5 Earl Hugh made peace with the king and gave up Framlingham Castle, which was levelled to the ground, as also was Walton. The earl went on a crusade and died abroad in 1177. Crusading zeal had seized hold of Suffolk. Numbers took the cross, and as an earnest of their prowess in the Holy Land they 6 massacred the Jews in Bury on Palm Sunday, 1 190. Those who survived were banished from the place for ever. In Sudbury, Bungay, and Ipswich, the same fate overtook them to the filling of the royal coffers and the easement of local debtors. Grateful Richard sent the standard of Cyprus to decorate the shrine of St. Edmund. During Richard's absence, the bishop of Ely had been supported in his quarrel with John by Walter fitz-Robert, who held the castle and honour of Eye for the king. There was a general loosening of the central authority, and by the death of Richard the earl of Norfolk re- gained his power and seized his castles and refortified them. If John had been able to retain the fealty of the two Liberties his cause in Suffolk would have ' Roger of Wendover, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 6. 1 Pipe R. 14 Hen. II (Pipe Roll Soc.), 15. 4 Chron. of Jordan Fantoime (Rolls Ser.), 283-97. ' Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 1 5 8. 1 66 'Ibid. KjHen.II, 117. * Pipe R. 20 Hen. II, 126. POLITICAL HISTORY been good, but already in his brother's time he had alienated the goodwill of St. Etheldreda, while his exactions as king soon made1 St. Edmund's the head of the conspiracy against him. Richard earl of Clare, his son Gilbert and his cousin Robert fitz-Walter, William de Huntingfeld, Roger de Cresci and the earl led the county against the king. The autumn of 1214 saw an extraordinary number of noble pilgrims at the shrine of the martyr, whose church was turned into a council chamber. Every knight there swore to stand by the liberties accorded to church and nobles by Henry I. Roger de Cresci undertook to raise the county and lead it. Robert fitz-Walter son of Walter fitz-Robert, who had opposed John during Richard's absence, was elected ' Marshal of the army of God and of the Holy Church.' In the inevitable civil war Suffolk suffered as between two fires ; soldiers, either friends or foes, plundered indiscriminately. The barons in London proved themselves as great a scourge as the royalists,2 and in November, 1215, the county found itself ravaged by the king's army, which was watching to prevent the barons drawing supplies, and at the same time trembling under the incursions of the licensed robbers who had made the isle of Ely their head quarters. The destruction of John's fleet under Hugh Boves3 had strewn the coast with corpses and left it defenceless against the landing of 7,000 Frenchmen, the vanguard of Lewis's army. These in their turn pillaged the towns and marched off to London laden with booty, and twice again in the same year were towns put to ransom by the barons under fitz- Walter and William de Huntingfeld. The news of John's death followed close on the last ravaging of the county, for true to his policy of carrying the war into his enemies' lands, the king had overrun the county before his retreat north.4 Suffolk now exchanged the doubtful excitement of war for that of religious revival, which in the days of rival orders brought many evils and riots in its train. The Friars Minor and the Dominicans were preaching •everywhere at the market crosses and usurping the place of the parish priest, •especially in the matter of confession, for it was easier for the sinner to confess anonymously to an unknown and passing friar than to his own director. The very liberties of St. Edmund were threatened. Gilbert of Clare, engaged in a lawsuit with the abbot, tried to thrust into the town a body of the friars, while the sheriff refused to acknowledge his judicial rights.6 The abbot complained that those who sought sanctuary within the four crosses were so watched as to starve to death. The county was restless ; no strangers were allowed to pass unchallenged, nor was anyone allowed to give them entertainment,8 and the hue and cry was strictly kept in every town by special constables. When war actually broke out Suffolk as usual was against the legitimate authority. At the battle of Lewes in the insurgent army were the earl, Robert de Veer earl of Oxford, William de Criketot, Roger de Huntingfeld, John de Boseville, John Esturmy, Roger de Sancto Philoberto, Waleran Munceaux, Robert Peeche, and William de Boville.7 The last was nominated one of the custodes pads of the Mise 1 Roger of Wendover, flares Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, ill. ' Chron. of Elite. l-Edvi. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 17. 1 Roger of Wendover, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 147-8. 4 Chron. of Edw. l-Edw. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 19. 4 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 688 ; Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 1 88. * Assize of Arms. ' Blaauw, ' Simon de Montfort,' from East Angl. Mag. vii (new ser.), 63. I67 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK of Lewes (1264). The next year most of these were in sanctuary at St. Edmund's or in the Isle of Ely. After the taking of Kenilworth the Disinherited dispersed, and a large body of them took refuge in the Fens. They drew their supplies from Suffolk, ravaged the county generally, and brought the fruits of their excursions to Bury for sale, the burgesses openly conniving. On 27 May, 1266, John earl of Warenne and William de Valence, the king's half-brother, appeared before the town and accused the abbot of conniving at the presence of the insurgents under Nicholas de Se- grave.1 The abbot threw the blame on the burghers, who, caught thus in a cleft stick, had to make their peace with the king at the price of 200 marks, and with the abbot, who demanded >CIO°- Next year (6 February, 1267) the king arrived to hold a council at Bury, and brought with him the papal legate who justified his presence by excommunicating the Disinherited. They cared not a jot, and Gilbert of Clare made a successful diversion in their favour towards London, so that it was not until 1 1 July that Prince Edward forced the isle and pardoned the defenders, a considerable number of whom took the cross. The Hundred Rolls of Edward I give a clear view of the balance of parties in the county at this time. The two Liberties were intact, but the hundred of Loes was held of Ely by the earl-marshal. Sampford was in the hands of Robert de Ufford, whose son later became the first earl of Suffolk ; Mutford in those of Thomas de Hemgrave ; and Lothingland in John de Baliol's. In the king's hands were Stowe and Hartismere, Bosmere and Claydon, Blything, Wangford, and Hoxne. Gilbert, earl of Clare, practically commanded the south-west corner. Aylmer de Valence held Exning. The work of reducing the county to order was vigorously undertaken by Edward, whose fiscal and judicial system was a clearly defined one of personal responsibility on the part of collectors and judges. The county suffered under the taxation, which was assessed by royal officers who had no regard for the liberties. On the other hand, the unjust judge was not allowed to escape. When Thomas de Weyland,2 forgetting that he was a judge of the supreme court, hid the murder committed by one of his servants and was chased into sanctuary at St. Edmund's, where he was sheltered by the earl of Clare's friars, the king roused the county forces to hem him about till he would come out and surrender, which was not for two months. In 1275 the knights of the shire were first summoned to Parliament for the purpose of voting money. The fifteenth voted was to be collected by Robert de Typetot,3 the sheriff to co-operate only. Ready money was badly needed, and not only by the king, almost every knight was indebted to Luccan merchants or to the Jews. In 1278 the Jews and the goldsmiths, who were also bankers and money-lenders, were arrested in Bury for coin- clipping. They were imprisoned till they ransomed themselves. The king, however, respected no liberties, and the goldsmiths (presumably the Jews had paid enough) were taken from * Bury gaol under the very nose of the abbot, to be tried in London. Bury protested and the king sent the men back, but the justices in eyre finally invaded the liberty and — culmination of perfidy — took the fines and brought them to the king's 1 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 197. ' Ibid ii, 240. * Col. of Close, 1272-9, p. 250. 4 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 220-1. 168 POLITICAL HISTORY exchequer. But still money was not forthcoming freely, and1 the sheriff was warned that unless he squeezed his county more thoroughly the king would make him remember. The Jews were finally expelled in 1 290 and the county came into the hands of the Italian merchants. Home defence cost the king nothing but a command — Suffolk had to defend its own shores. The coast had been for years infested by pirates, who plundered Dunwich, landed raiding parties and attacked ships, and by 1295 to this was added the possibility of French invasion.8 Peremp- tory orders were issued to Earl Roger to guard the coast, laying all other things aside. Under him William de Boville of Letheringham, Reginald de Argenteyn of Halesworth and Cratfeld, Roger de Coleville of Rendle- sham, John de Byskeleye of Brampton, constables, were directed to levy the county forces, horse and foot, and to cause them to come to the coast to guard it. Royal letters were sent to the following knights and county gentlemen, who were to work under the constables, and to see that their tenants and men were in readiness for defence, William de Neyreford of Henstead and Cove, Robert de Shelton, John Bygod, Edward Charles of Dodnesse, Jolland de Vallibus, Giles de Mountpounzen, William de Wauncy of Depden, Simon de Noers, John de Cokeford of Whatfield and Naughton, Thomas de Bavent of Easton Bavent, William de Kerdiston of Glemham, Robert de UfFord of Ufford, Shelton, and Bawdsey, John de Holebrook of Kesgrave and Floxhall. Recalcitrant landowners were to be distrained by the sheriff if they refused to answer to their assessment, and Peter de Dunwich was made overseer. The general tightening of the sinews of government had its reaction under Edward II. The levelling effect of the county legislation of Edward I had been resented, and £>uo ivarranto stung deep. St. Edmund and St. Etheldreda again asserted their privileges against the county, the barons regrasped their liberties, the sheriff and the conservators of the peace became party leaders, and the common folk followed the lawless example of their superiors. Suffolk was suffering all the evil effects of the prolonged wars with France and Scotland, and of a series of bad seasons. The continual drain of men and money exasperated the peasants, as it wearied the landowners. Provisions were scarce and dear, purveyance harsh. The rich bribed the takers of prisage and the poor had to bear double. Justice was again at the mercy of might. Stephen de Segrave of Peasenhall, and Nicholas his brother, espoused the quarrel of their brother Henry with Walter de Bermyngham.3 Nicholas assembled his men at Bury with horse and arms, and marched through the county, spreading dismay, to join Stephen and overawe the court at Norwich where Henry was imprisoned. The king forbade this brotherly expression of interest, but the Segraves carried it through, and next year Nicholas, far from being in dis- grace, received from the king a grant for life of the town and castle of Orford and £60 out of the farm of Ipswich.4 Peter de Gaveston, earl of Cornwall, on his marriage with Margaret, sister of Gilbert de Clare, received the castle and manor of Eye and the manor of Haughley. The county was soon divided into Royalists and Lancastrians. One of the lords ordainers of 1311 was Sir Bartholomew de Burghersh, whose wife was the only daughter of Richard 1 Cal.of Close, 1279-88, p. 529. ' Ibid. 1288-96, p. 455. * Ibid. 1307-13, p. 354. 4 Cal. of Pat. 1307-13, p. 506. 2 169 22 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Weyland of Fenhall, and John de Botetout of Mendlesham was one of the negotiators of the peace of 1312. The death at Bannockburn of the young carl of Clare and the subsequent division of his property among D'Audleys, Damorys, and Despensers, hardly affected the balance of parties in the county.1 Roughly speaking the strength of the lords was in the south and west, while what hold Thomas of Brotherton, earl of Norfolk, had, was in the north- cast. Clare Castle was the centre of the Lancastrian circle, and in many cases the fiefs of the earl of Gloucester lay cheek by jowl in the same manor with those of Lancaster, whose manors lay round l Ipswich, and possibly encouraged the town-folk to resist the king's officers 2 and those of the bishop of Norwich. The burghers besieged the king's bailiffs in their house, while at3 Bury the king's clerk had to run for his life from abbot and townsmen. The castles were mostly in the hands of the rebels. The king's half-brother, Thomas of Brotherton, held Framlingham, the Norfolk centre, but in 1314 it was given into the hands of Sir John de Botetout, while Nicholas de Segrave still held Orford. Both Botetout and Segrave were 'out' with the earls in 1318, and were included in the general pardon which followed. The staunch loyalists all through were Edmund Bacon of Clton, and John of Cleydon his brother, Thomas de Grey of Denardiston, Edmund de Hemgrave of Hemgrave and Mutford, Robert de Bures of Aketon and Kettlebaston, and John de Haustede, Guy de Ferre of Benhall, and William de Beauchamp of Debenham and Pettaugh. They carried, or miscarried, on what county business could be transacted. There were the usual complaints of the exactions of the sheriff, who could not protect the property of those serving in Scotland nor would he bring the malefactors to trial. In 1317 Lancaster was making his party against the Despensers, and the county was full of those who promised gifts and lands, and who entered into illegal conspiracies.* Next year William de la Mote of Willisham (Lancaster's tenant), Nicholas de Segrave, Peter de Denar- diston, William de Amundeville of Thorney, John de Botetout, Robert Spryng, Richard de Preston, Richard de Emeldon, John de Yoxhall, John, son of Robert de Vaus, Nicholas de Preston, Simon Sturmyn, John de Tendring, Bernard de Brus, John de Claveryng were all pardoned as Lan- castrians,5 and the castle and honour of Eye were taken into the king's hands. On 1 8 November, 1321, Edward issued an order to arrest any in the county who spoke to the king's shame,6 and sent a writ of aid to Hemgrave and Grey to assemble all the horse and foot of Suffolk against the insurgents on the Welsh marches. Gilbert Peeche of Little Thurlow, Thomas de Veer, Edmund Bacon, John de Vaus, and John de Tendring were amongst those who led their men to join the royal forces. The sheriff was ordered to raise the hue and cry against the adherents of Lancaster, taking with him the posse of the county. Accordingly Peter Denardiston, Robert de Peyton, Robert de Gedeworth, and Sir John de Botetout, Sir John de Fresingfeld of Cockley [Despenser's man], Sir Adam de Swillington, and Robert de Wat- ville were outlawed and their property confiscated. The usual pardon followed. With Lancaster's death in 1322 the territorial balance was affected 1 Tanner MSS. Bodl. Lib. 10056. s Ibid. p. 469. * Ibid. p. 228 passim. 1 Cat. of Pat. 1317-21, p. 605. 4 Ibid. p. 95. ' Cal. of Close, \ 3 1 8-23, p. 506. 170 POLITICAL HISTORY favourably to the king, for the earl's lands fell to him, and he had also in his hands Clare Castle and manor (for Elizabeth Damory had ' left the king without permission ') as well as that of Eye. This, however, made little difference to the rebellious spirit of the county. During the anxious months from December, 1325, to September, 1326, when Isabella the queen was daily expected to land on the Suffolk coast with an army of English refugees and French mercenaries, it refused to pay for signal beacons or to make prepara- tions to repel the invasion,1 though Robert de Ufford, Thomas de Latymer, and Richard de la Ryvere were duly appointed arrayors. The king * spent some weeks [26 December to 14 February] going nervously upand down the county superintending the defences. John de Sturmy,3 admiral of the north fleet, guarded the coast and held Orford Castle, while the ports of Ipswich, Orwell, Bawdsey, Orford, and Dunwich were left to the watch of what forces the arrayors could raise. They watched in vain, for in September Isabella and Mortimer landed unopposed on the coast, probably at Landguard Point, near Walton. The county flocked to her army at every step, and she proceeded triumphantly to Bury, where * she levied contributions and laid violent hands on treasure stored there. John de Sturmy,5 probably as the price of his treachery, was confirmed in his custody of the castle and town of Orford. The minority of Edward III and the reign of Mortimer and Isabella did not make for a strong central control, and the local conditions became deplorable. The attempt of Edward I to assimilate all justice under one system had come to nought under his son, and now the eight and a half hundreds which were under Bury's jurisdiction were absolutely lawless. The magnates were little better than robbers, and in 1328 the king issued an order prohibiting any earl or baron from seeking adventures or doing feats of arms.8 Some sought adventure nevertheless in kidnapping7 the abbot of Bury, and his fate was unknown for days. To this normal state of lawlessness was added the distraction of Kent's rebellion. Robert de Ufford 8 raised the county against 9 Sir William de Cleydon and John fitz-Simond and the widow of John de Nerford, and was rewarded by receiving the custody of the town and castle of Orford. Night and day the county was harassed by armed robbers, for the commissioners of the peace were lax in the performance of their duties. A certain band countenanced by the sheriff made 10 Stowmarket church their head quarters and thence issued to terrorize the neighbourhood. They drove Sir Richard de Amundeville from his house at Thorney. As late as 1344 men were riding with banners displayed, taking men, imprisoning and holding them to ransom, perpetrating homicides, arsons, and other evils. An attempt to widen the powers of the sheriff brought a protest from the abbot of Bury. Sir Robert de Ufford was the king's right hand, and in 1337 was rewarded with the earldom of Suffolk.11 The same year the decisions of the council on the French war were laid before the men of Suffolk at Bury by him, supported by Hugh de Saxham and Ralph de Bockyng, seneschal of St. Edmunds. The war was not popular at the outset, and the commissioners of array, empowered to arrest recalcitrant 1 Cal. of Pat. 1 3 24-7, p. 3 1 1 . 4 Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 249. ' Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 407. 8 Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, p. 571. 10 Cal. of Pat. 1 340-3, p. 3 1 3. ' Ibid. p. 200 et seq. * Ibid. p. 243. 6 Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, 36. 7 Ibid. p. 442. ' Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 471 fasslm. 11 Cal. of Close, 1337-9, P- 6o- A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK defenders of their country, were roughly handled at Ipswich by Sir Thomas de Holebroke and his followers, who rescued the attached ' rebels.' 1 Suffolk, admiral of the coast, reported the impossibility of getting men and ships, and resort was had to convicted pirates, who were offered the alternatives, gaol and confiscation or service in Brittany and Gascony. The wages paid to soldiers and leaders were good enough to tempt anyone ; still, though many crossed the sea, it was not until i 345 that the whole county was ordered out and went. The county was full of wrangling over the value of the one-ninth which was paid direct to the Italian merchants, the Bardi and Peruzzi, on whose failure Sir2 William Tollemache of Gaisle, merchant of England, advanced money to the king. Suffolk was used to the departure of men to seek their fortunes in Gascony.3 Sir Guy de Ferre, of Benhall and Farnham, had been lieutenant in Guyenne in 1298 and seneschal in Gascony in 1307 ; Sir Gilbert Peeche had held the latter office in 1316—17; Sir John de Wysham in 1324; Sir John de Haustede (who certainly held lands in the county) in 1330 and 1342; Sir Oliver de Ingham of Weybread in 1334. In 1331 John de Sancto Philiberto of Lackford was mayor of Bordeaux, an office second only to that of seneschal. Criketot and Dagworth were also familiar names in the duchy. The French possessions were looked upon much in the same light as the colonies of the present day. Active young men might there push their fortunes. The fiscal burden entailed by this war was what made it so unpopular. The wages of men were paid in beasts, and further com- plications arose in converting the sheep or fleeces into a more portable form of exchange. In October, 1344,* Sir Thomas de Holebroke, Nicholas de Playford and Thomas de Enges were ordered to find by inquisition and certify to the king by the Epiphany the names of all persons other than religious men holding of the fee of the church, having IOQJ., £10, or £25, and so on up to £1,000 yearly in land or rent. On this inquisition the county was assessed next year, and all barons, bannerets, knights, and esquires were ordered to prepare themselves to set out for Gascony and Brittany. Sir Thomas Dagworth, of the family of Dagworth and Thrandeston, was made king's lieutenant and captain in Brittany. Ships were impressed at all the ports. On Palm Sunday the county levies, including those from the towns of Bury, Ipswich, and Sudbury were inspected at Ipswich and the archers led to Portsmouth by Oliver de Stretton and Thomas de Wachesham. Few of the gentry seem to have remained at home save those incapacitated by age or infirmity. The county poured across to La Hogue. Suffolk landowners fought in the first division at Crecy under the Prince of Wales.6 Among his ' bannerets were Sir William de Kerdiston, Sir Edmund de Thorpe, Sir Thomas de Barnardiston, Sir William de Tendring, Sir Richard Playce. In the second division were Sir William Tollemache, Sir John Shardelowe, Sir Robert de Tudenham. The king's division held the earl of Suffolk, Sir John de Botetout, Sir John de Huntingfeld, Sir John de Wingfeld, 1 Cat. of Pat. 1338-40, p. 273. * Ibid. 403. 3 Thos. Carte, Cal. Gascon Rolls, i, 35, 50 ; C. Bemont, Riles Gascons, passim. 4 Cal. of Pat. 1343-54. P- 4I4- 4 Wrottesley, Crtcy and Calais. From the Public Records (William Salt, Arch. Soc.), 3 1 ct seq. 172 POLITICAL HISTORY Sir Bartholomew de Naunton, Sir Gilbert Peeche, Sir John Loudham, Sir William Carbonel, Sir Oliver de Stretton, Sir Thomas de Colville, Sir Adam de Swillington, Sir Thomas de Vis de Leu. The train of the earl of Suffolk included Richard Fitz-Simond, Richard Freysel of Boyton and Capell, Oliver de Stretton, John de Rattlesden, Oliver de Walkfare, Gilbert Peeche, Thomas de Vis de Leu, Richard att Lee, William Criketot of Ousden and many others, some of whom had already served in the campaign of 1337— 40.' After the Crecy and Calais campaign came the Black Death, and the war was not renewed till 1355, when the Black Prince led his army to Gascony. The same Suffolk names appear on the rolls, sons taking the place of fathers. The earl of Suffolk was given lands in Gascony, and on his death in 1369 he was succeeded by his son William, who while the war dragged on was admiral of the north fleet. Now England was no longer the invader, but feared invasion. In 1377, about ten days after the death of Edward III, the harrying of the southern coast by the French brought out the Suffolk men-at-arms and archers. Beacons were watched2 to send the signal through the county. Two years later the king demanded loans for the war. The earl3 headed the list with £100 ; the good men of Hadleigh gave £$o, those of Bury 50 marks, Ipswich £40, while Alderton and Bawdsey gave 40 marks. This was followed by the calling out by the county of all able men between the ages of sixteen and sixty to resist invasion. The county had been passing through an economic crisis. The villeins had during the last century gradually emancipated themselves and the modern farmer class was emerging. At the same time many causes had tended towards the emancipation of the serfs and labourers. The Black Death and the resulting scarcity and dearness of labour had opened the eyes of the landlords, and the Statute of Labourers (1351) had been an attempt to rebind the labourers to the soil. Added to the economic question was the religious one. Wyclif's poor priests had been going through the county in their long russet gowns, and were accused of teaching what are now termed socialistic doctrines. The poll tax of 1381 was the culmination of burdens, for the county was already full of ' champerties and embraceries, confederacies, deceptions and other falsities.' In the beginning of that year the sheriff and the escheator were commanded to inquire touching the names, abodes, and conditions of all lay persons over fifteen years of age, men, women and servants, notorious persons alone excepted, and to return the list direct to the treasury. By June4 all Suffolk was in an uproar, though the storm seems to have concentrated itself round Bury, whither marched those ' angels of Satan,' their Essex sympathizers, with William de Benyngton as archangel. Under John Wrawe and his lieutenant Robert Westbrom, they broke into and pillaged Sir John Cavendisshe's house at Bury, and soon after slew the owner in the neighbourhood of Lakenheath.6 At the same time another gang was perpetrating a similar act at Mildenhall, where the country folk found and killed the prior of Bury. His murderers marched to Bury, and the two 1 Cal. of Pat. 1334-8, p. 527. ' Ibid. 1377-81, p. 38. ' Ibid. pp. 635-8. 4 Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, I ct seq. 5 Powell, East Anglla Rising, 13. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK forces under threat of burning down the convent, forced the monks to give up their charters and jewels, and divided the latter among themselves as earnest of the fulfilment of the promises of the monks to reduce the customs. Then sticking the heads of Cavendisshe and the prior on tall poles, with ribald jests they carried them through the town to the market-place, where they were posted. The prior's body was flung into the fields, and for fifteen days no man dared to give it burial. In the county the plan of the insur- gents was to seize the person of the earl and cover their depredations with his presence. The earl was warned of their approach and intention, and fled precipitately from his dinner-table to St. Albans. The bishop of Norwich, juvem's et audax^ marched from Newmarket to Thetford overawing the countryside by his stream of adherents, and so into his own county, where he defeated the insurgents. The danger was first averted by promises and pardons, from which the men of Bury were excepted ; then licence was given to the landowners who had been spoiled to regain their possessions as best they could without hindrance from the king or his ministers. The lands and goods of the late rebels were put up publicly to farm. But in spite of drastic measures the sheriff had no easy business to execute his office. The men of Lowestoft refused admittance to the king's officers,1 and John de Tudenham,2 the sheriff, went about in fear of his life from the outlaws who were lying in wait to kill him. Bury was not forgiven till 1385, when after much haggling a large fine was paid by the burghers. In the meantime -the earl of Suffolk3 had died very suddenly on the steps of the council room in 1382. He left no heir, and three years later the earldom was revived for Michael de la Pole.4 He was the son of that William de la Pole, merchant of Hull, who had established the political fortunes of his family by lending to Edward III the sum of £11,000, in 1338, at Mechlin.5 Edward had always been grateful to the man who had prevented his bankruptcy at the time of the ruin of the Italian bankers. The son was greater in administration than in arms, though he had served, it was said in the articles of impeachment of 1386, for thirty years in the war and had been captain of Calais and admiral. He had raised himself to the position of chancellor, and was in high favour with Richard II. Marriage with the heiress of Sir John Wingfield brought him the lordship of the manor of Wingfield,8 but save the manor of Lowestoft and the hundred of Lothingland he held no other lands in Suffolk. He was only granted the reversion of the Ufford lands on the death of the widow of the late earl.7 She was still living in 1395," and Earl Michael died in exile in Paris in 1389.* The leaders of the county were the duke of Norfolk and the earl of March. The former revived the preponderance of the Bigod family centring round Bungay and Framlingham, while the latter represented the Gloucester interest which centred round Clare. The banishment of Norfolk and the death of March in Ireland left Michael de la Pole, lord of Wingfield, who had not 10 succeeded to his father's attainted title, without a rival in the county. His opportunity arrived when Henry Bolingbroke came to claim 1 Cal. of Pat. 1381-5, p. 503. ' Ibid. 587. * Thos. of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 48-9. * Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18. * Cal. Gascon Rolls, 1-91. ' Stiff. Inst. Arch, viii, 190. ' Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18. ' Ibid. 1391-6, p. 659. • Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 187. " Cal. of Pat. 1381-5, pp. 449-50. 174 POLITICAL HISTORY his patrimony and found a crown. ' In consideration of his services at the king's advent ' he was rehabilitated in the dignity of the earldom of Suffolk,1 with the lands which had belonged to the Uffbrds. He was now definitely Lancastrian, and round him collected the adherents of that party, as did the Yorkists round March and Norfolk. The Lancastrians were fairly numerous :2 Sir Edward Hastings, Sir William Clopton of Kentwell Hall, Sir William de Elmham, Sir John Heveningham, Sir William Argentein, Sir Roger Drury, John Burgh, Robert de Peyton, Thomas Hethe, and others. Sir Thomas Erpyngham was given the custody of the castle and manor of Framlingham during the minority of the earl of Nottingham, Norfolk's heir, while the earl of Suffolk received the lordship of the honour of Eye. The death of the young earl of Nottingham in 1405 for conspiracy against Henry IV confirmed the de la Pole influence. The earl of Suffolk died at the siege of Harfleur in September, 141 5," and the following month his heir, who had tried to unite both county factions by his marriage with Elizabeth Mowbray, was killed at Agincourt.4 The earldom devolved on William the brother of the last earl. For seventeen years he served his country abroad, and saw the gradual shrinkage of the Anglo-French possessions. His long absence and his unfortunate reputation damaged his county influence, which was almost swamped by those of March and Norfolk combined. They were constantly clashing : where one oppressed the other championed. Here is an example in point. A certain esquire of Suffolk called John Lyston 5 recovered 700 marks in the assize of novel disseisin against Sir Robert Wingfield of Letheringham. Sir Robert, to evade payment, had Lyston outlawed for some offence in Nottinghamshire, so that all his goods and chattels became forfeit to the crown. Then the duke of Norfolk was granted that 700 marks as part of his arrears of pay for service on the Scots marches. This the duke released to Sir Robert Wingfield, who went quit of his debt. The duke of Suffolk took the matter up warmly. But while he championed Lyston old Sir John Fastolf in Lothingland complained bitterly of his exactions.6 Suffolk had been governor of Normandy, and the responsibility of its loss was thrown on his shoulders. Now Fastolf had held lordships in Maine, and regarded the duke as his debtor for the amount of his loss. This lay lightly on the duke, who wanted to get hold of the property of the childless old man, and by 1450 had already managed to oust him from four manors valued at a rental of 200 marks, besides other extortions put at 6,000 marks. In 1447 Suffolk was at the zenith 7 of his career, and in February his rival the duke of Gloucester was arrested at the Parliament held at Bury and died immediately. Preparations had been made for the stroke and soldiers had been sent into the county by sea to ensure its success. Three years later, Suffolk, ' the abhorred tode,' was a fugitive by Ipswich to the Continent, but was intercepted at sea and beheaded on the gunwale of a boat on the Dover sands. The duke of Norfolk and his uncle the duke of York now used all their influence to swamp the Suffolk party. They met at Bury 16 October, 1450," to agree upon and appoint knights of the shire of their own party. 1 Cal. of Pat. 1399-1401, p. 1 60. ' Ibid, passim. •Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 309. ' Ibid. 313. 6 Pastm Letters (ed. Gairdner), i, 41. ' Ibid, i, 148, 358. 7 1448 he was made duke of Suffolk. 8 Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), i, 160-1. '75 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK The earl of Oxford backed them up so that by 8 November, the day fixed for the election, their adherents came to Ipswich in their best array ' with as many cleanly people ' as they could get for their worships. The county was full of private strifes. Land-snatching and ward-lifting were common, and ' it stood right wildly without a mean may be that justice be had.' The obvious remedy seemed to be a strong sheriff, but that was impossible to get as parties stood. In 1454 the sheriff, Thomas Sharburne, did not return the writ for the knights of the shire, alleging intimidation by the duke of Nor- folk's men and tenants. He saw he was to be overborne, and rode away refusing to hold the shire. Next year Norfolk worked hard to keep out the Lancastrians, the most to be feared being Sir Thomas Tudenham. The Suffolk levies probably arrived with the duke too late for the first battle of St. Albans (1455), but one Suffolk man gained uneviable notoriety there. Sir Philip Wentworth, a valiant kidnapper of wards,1 bore the king's standard, but cast it down and fled into hiding in Suffolk. Norfolk swore he ought to be hanged. After the rout of Ludlow the Yorkists were in peril, and Tuden- ham, Chamberlayn, and Wentworth were ordered to take as traitors and imprison all well-wishers of the lords.2 The rapid change of 1460 when York landed turned the tables,3 and the late commissioners for traitors were glad of letters of protection from March and Warwick, while the countess of Suffolk had assured her position with the winning side by marrying her son John to Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of the duke of York. From this time on, though the territorial rivalry of the two dukes — Edward IV later restored the dukedom to John — did not cease, they were both adherents to the house of the White Rose. In February, 1462, the Lancastrians, Sir Thomas Tudenham, John earl of Oxford and Aubrey Veer his son and heir, John Clopton, and William Tyrrell were all arrested on suspicion of having been in treasonable correspondence with Margaret the queen, and with the exception of Clopton, were beheaded on Tower Hill.4 The Veer tenants were arrested and all their lands confiscated : Sir Thomas Tudenham's went to John Wenlock lord of Wenlock. Sir John Clopton of Long Melford had a general pardon,6 turned his coat, and set about, along with Sir Thomas Waldegrave and Sir Gilbert Debenham, the raising of men and ships to defend the coast against Margaret's Scots and French allies. The county was absorbed in the factious troubles of the two dukes. The king threatened to send a com- mission under the duke of Clarence to inquire into the rioting which attended their disputes. The Suffolk folk loved neither their duke nor his mother, and accused them of harbouring traitors and countenancing the extortioners whom the king had already tried to get hold of, to the filling of their own pocket. The sheriff too and his officers indicted men for their own profit, and Sir Gilbert Debenham and the under-sheriff fell out over this at the Bury assizes. In October, 1463, Queen Margaret sailed from France, but the coast was well guarded and the county levy was turned out to resist her. Sir John Wingfield, William Jermy, John Sulyard, and Thomas Heigham were appointed commissioners for treason.' John Gerveys, 1 Pasfon Letters (ed. Gairdncr), i, 336 ; Fain Letters (ed. 1789), iii, 212. * Fain Letters, iii, 349. ' Paston Letters-(ed. Gairdner) i, 519. * Fenn Letters (ed. 1787), i, 84 ; Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, pp. 28, 132, &c. * Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, pp. 113, 195. ' Ibid. p. 348. 176 POLITICAL HISTORY gentleman, of Bury St. Edmunds, was rewarded by the grant for life of the manor of Brent Bradford,1 lately held by Lord Roos, while Sir James Luttrell lost his Suffolk manors.8 Thomas Colte got Acton, which had been confiscated from the earl of Wiltshire, and Sir John Scotte received Clopton, late Lord Beaumont's.3 This was only an interlude in the county rivalry. The duke of Norfolk held his court at Framlingham and the duke of Suffolk held his at Wingfield Castle. There they lived like princes with their councils and their soldiers, wielding almost absolute power over their adherents. The Fastolf inheritance was coveted by both. The duke of Norfolk called his adherents out of Suffolk to besiege the manor house of Caister which John Paston had inherited from Sir John Fastolf, and Sir John Heveningham, Sir Thomas Wingfield, Sir Gilbert Debenham, and Sir William Brandon were all captains at the siege.4 In this uproar the preparations for the Lancastrian rising of I47o5 were almost unnoticed, and the earl of Oxford was busy dis- posing himself with all the power he could at Bury in conjunction with his brother, who was raising Norfolk. The duke of Suffolk was true to Edward IV, and during the short restoration of Henry VI, compelled his men of the borough of Eye to pay the men enlisted for the Yorkist army.8 But the speedy return of Edward IV in March, 1471, though Veer was able to prevent the possibility of his landing on the coast, was followed by his pro- clamation in Suffolk by Lord Howard. Oxford and his adherents suffered further forfeiture, and Richard duke of Gloucester7 was granted the lordships of Lavenham, Mendham, Cockfield, &c., lately belonging to the earl, and also Borsted, Shelley, &c., belonging to Robert Harleston. The earl was not deterred however from making another attempt, and in May, 1473, he was hovering round the coast.8 One hundred gentlemen in Norfolk and Suffolk had agreed to rise to meet him, but wind and weather did not serve, and though he actually landed at St. Osyth's he did not tarry long. The same year Edward IV made a progress through the county. The duke of Norfolk died in 1475, and Sir Robert Wingfield was made controller of his estate during the minority of his daughter. Suffolk's position was perilously near the crown, and his son the earl of Lincoln was regarded as the heir after Richard of Gloucester. The final triumph of the Lancastrians in 1485 found the duke still supple enough to join the winning side. By 20 October, after Bosworth field, which was fought on 22 August, he was calling out the county levies in the name of Henry VII. Lord Lovell,' after the failure of his rising in 1486, tried to escape by Suffolk ports, and his hiding-place in the Isle of Ely was denounced to the sheriff by Margaret countess of Oxford, his wife's aunt. She straitly charged the sheriff to watch the ports and creeks, but the fugitive gained a refuge in Flanders, where he found the preparations for the Lambert Simnel expedition in full swing. Along with the duke's eldest son he returned in Lambert's cause. The Suffolk levies10 were turned out, and money was not to be accepted in lieu of service by Sir William Clopton and Sir William Cornwallis of Thrandeston. The duke did not openly approve of his son's action. Both 1 Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, p. 443. ' Ibid. p. 231. 3 Ibid. p. 1 16 ; 1467-77, p. 18. ' Fenn Letters (ed. 1789), iv, 405. s Ibid, ii, 54. * Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), ii, 413. ' Cal. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 297. 8 Fenn Letters (ed. 1787), ii, 138. ' Ibid, ii, 339. 10 Ibid, v, 363. 2 177 23 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the county and its duke were sources of anxiety to Henry VII, for Duke Edmund was almost the only remaining Yorkist heir to the throne. The county would have followed him, and in 1504 Henry confiscated all his estates and spent much ingenuity in trying to entrap his person. Finally he was given up by the duke of Burgundy in 1506 and closely guarded in the Tower. The county had suffered much from Henry's ingenious methods of acquiring money. * Those that love me pay,' said he ominously ; and the Yorkist paid. The composition of the county was slowly changing. New families were springing up. The late wars had brought forward such as the Drurys and Sulyards, Hoptons, Brandons, and Coltes, while cloth fortunes were founding such as the Spryngs of Lavenham. The court under Edward IV had become a brilliant centre, and under Henry VIII was the source of all honour and service. Within its walls county jealousies could be fought out : the duel settled now what had before involved half the county. The fortunes of Suffolk became more directly dependent on the king's wishes. Henry VIII had European ambitions which meant men and money from the county. Charles Brandon, Lord Lisle, son of Sir Robert Brandon of Henham, had with him at Tournay Sir Richard Cavendish, Sir Richard Wingfield, and Sir Arthur Hopton.1 Sir Anthony Wingfield and Sir Thomas Tirrel won their spurs there and were made knights in the church after the battle by the king as he stood under his banner. Peace was made and Francis and Henry met and kissed on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Suffolk men were there to attend on the king and queen : Sir Richard Wentworth, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Robert Drury, Sir Arthur Hopton, Sir Philip Tilney, Sir Robert Wingfield, Sir William Waldegrave. All this magnificence had to be paid for and the county was drained of money.2 Parliament had voted a tenth and a fifteenth, and the knights of the shire, citizens of cities, and burgesses of boroughs and towns were to name and appoint able persons for the collection. This rate, however, would make but a small sum to meet the great charges of the wars, and the ' loving Commons willing a larger sum to be collected in a shorter time — as in a more easy, universal and indifferent manner ' voted a graduated subsidy which gathered pence from every able-bodied man and unmarried woman above the age of fifteen. It began at 5 per cent, on the year's income of all those over fifteen taking wages or profits for wages to the value of 40^., and became less in proportion as the possessions advanced in value, those having lands and rents above 40^. and under £40 only paying 2% per cent. The inequality was glaring. The method of collecting and assessing the tax was of the most businesslike. Sad and discreet persons as well justices of the peace as others were appointed commissioners. The county by hundreds, towns, and parishes was to be canvassed by constables and head-boroughs, and the names and surnames of men and women over fifteen years of age were to be written in a book. Masters might pay for servants and stop it out of their wages. The com- missioners were to return the assessed list to the constables who were to collect the money and distrain if resisted. Thus was the Tournay campaign paid for, and the sixpences of the Suffolk labourers went to help to gild the cloth of gold. 1 L. and P. Hen. rill, \, faiiim. ' Par/. R. Home of Lords, 4 Hen. VIII. 178 POLITICAL HISTORY War was renewed in 1522 and so were the demands for money. Par- liament was called, but before it met a property tax in the shape of a loan was resolved on. Again an inquiry was to be made, but quietly so that no one should be alarmed. Then the commissioners were to call together such temporal persons as they thought fit, and to explain to them the king's necessitous state and how he required a loan on the following terms : Persons worth from £20 to £300, at the rate of £10 per £100 ; from £300 to £1,000, 20 marks per £100. The shadowy bait of repayment out of the next Parliamentary loan was to be used. The commissioners at the same time were to have an eye for likely-looking labourers who could be pressed for the wars. Lord Willoughby, the abbot of Bury, Sir Robert Drury, Sir William Waldegrave, Sir Richard Wentworth, Sir John Heveningham, Sir Philip Tilney, Sir Thomas Tirrell of Gipping, Lionel Tollemache, Humphrey Wingfield were the com- missioners who by their successful ' practising ' squeezed £7,400 out of those who owned £40 and upwards, while those who owned from £5 to £20 contributed £3,000. Besides this there was £3,374 from the subsidy which was to have been used to repay the first £10,000. Add to this the necessary drain on private incomes in providing sons with war outfits, for Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, had with him in France Wingfields, Cavendishes, Jerninghams, Waldegraves, Wentworths, and Hoptons. The patience of the county was cracked and at the next demand in 15251! flew in pieces. Wolsey devised strange commissions to every shire l and ordered that one-sixth of every man's substance should be paid to the king for furniture of his war. This was in March. The dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, aided by the news that ten French sail were cruising off the coast,2 set about practising the grant. On 6, 7 and 8 April they practised all the rates from £20 upwards, and next week came the more ticklish work 3 — those below that amount. The people objected that the spirituality were not put to any charges, the more that they had taken no part in the rejoicing at the capture of Francis I at Pavia, when the laymen had had to pay for the bonfires and public rejoicings commanded by the king. Norfolk promised that the spirituality would certainly pay double and that they would make general processions of thanksgiving, and thought the matter ended. He was too sanguine. The commons adopted the method of passive resistance towards the collectors with threats of violence towards those who paid. In the woollen towns of the south-west, however, there was actual disturbance. Essex was in sympathy, and popular gatherings were held on the county borders, for the wool workers of Lavenham, Sudbury, and other towns were seething. Norfolk (May 8) feared an actual outbreak,4 and desired above all things to temper their madness and untruth by some ' dulce ' means, for hasty punishment might cause danger. He had by gentle handling persuaded the master clothiers to assent to giving the sixth, but the manufacturers had not now wherewithal to pay the wages of their men, so they dismissed their carders, spinners, fullers, and weavers. The men raged at the loss of their work, and Suffolk (no expert handler of men) ordered the constables to confiscate their harness. This caused an open outburst against Suffolk and Sir Robert Drury, and four thousand men assembled from the woollen towns 1 Hall, Chi-on. (1809), p. 697. ' L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, (i), Nos. 1241-60. 1 Ibid. No. 1241. ' Ibid. No. 1319. 179 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK at the sound of the alarum bells. Suffolk assembled his men, retainers, and county gentlemen, but they refused to draw on the rioters.1 They broke down the bridges, however, and waited near Bury for Norfolk to come up, when negotiations at once began. John Spryng, of Lavenham, with his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Jermyn, went willingly from the duke to treat with the rebels, and persuaded the labourers that their only safety now lay in complete submission. Those of Lavenham and Brent Eleigh came in their shirts and kneeled for mercy, saying they were the king's subjects and had committed this offence for lack of work. Norfolk aggravated their offence purposely to frighten them, took four hostages, and sent a message to the other towns to warn them to be at Bury by seven the next morning or else be treated as rebels. The danger which had been averted was great, for the whole of the eastern counties were ready to rise. The four hostages were to be indicted for high treason, and were sent finally before the council, where they were released, wily Wolsey himself going bail for them as another Suffolk man. But though crushed the county was not quieted. The treaty with France interfered with the wool trade and the workers were adrift on the county. Sir Robert Drury got hold of certain rioters in March, 1528, and on examination at Bury 3 John Davy, the leader, said that he and others had arranged to go up to the king and cardinal with as many men as they could assemble and beseech a remedy for the living of poor men. Norfolk recom- mended severity and asked that they might be hanged. Next month, April, Norfolk hinted that the people would soon be asking for the repay- ment of the loan money — ' a thing more to be feared than any other, for it is so much desired.' The Parliament of 1530 disappointed that growing hope, for by it the king was released from repayment and in return granted a general pardon to all rioters. But pardons do not fill empty stomachs. In the meantime Henry was embroiled with wife and pope, and later with his people over the question of his divorce. Anne Boleyn was crowned in May, 1533, and at her coronation Sir William Drury, Sir John Jernyngham, and Sir Thomas Russhe were made knights of the Sword, Sir Thomas Jermy a knight of the Bath,3 and William Waldegrave was knighted. The passing of the Act of Succession in 1534 outraged the county while it was forced to submit. Sir William Waldegrave,4 John Spryng, and Robert Crane had the unenviable task of enforcing it. In vino veritas, and Margaret Ellys of St. Clairs Bradfield 6 spoke the truth as all men knew it when, in her cups as she pleaded, she said Anne was no queen but a naughty whore, and cried ' God save Queen Katharine.' In Suffolk the duke of Norfolk managed the king's affairs, and for the Parliament of 1536 he had arranged that such knights should be chosen as would serve his highness according to his pleasure. His pleasure was the suppression of the smaller monasteries, which inoculated the county gentlemen with land fever and added further to the distress of the poor. The Lincoln rebellion sent Suffolk, the favourite, north in command of the troops, while Norfolk remained behind to settle the county and call out the levies. From Stoke 6 he directed operations and calmed the ' light ' young clothiers, making such harsh words in Hadleigh, Boxford, 1 Hall, Chroti. (1809), p. 699. * Ibid, vi, No. 1494. 5 Ibid, viii, No. 196. 1 80 1 L. and P. Hen. rill, iv (ii), No. 4012. 4 Ibid, vii, No. 689. • Ibid, ix, No. 625. POLITICAL HISTORY Nayland, Bildcston, Rattlesden, and elsewhere, that it would have been hard for anyone to speak an unfitting word without being seized and sent to him. Sir Thomas Jermyn, under-steward to the duke at Bury, and Sir William Drury and John Spryng, stewards of the liberty of St. Etheldreda,1 rode with him through the country, and 1,400 or 1,500 tall Suffolk men were ready at an hour's warning. Out of the liberty of Bury alone were 1,000 more men •only waiting for harness. Lord Wentworth was to remain to govern the •county with Sir Humphrey Wingfield, Sir Thomas Russhe, Sir John Jernyngham, ' a man of good estimation,' to assist him towards the coasts, and about Bury, the abbot.2 Thanks to the duke's firm not to say rough hand- ling, Suffolk, denuded of her tall men, for the moment was saved from open rebellion ; but through the year individuals continued to be indicted for treasonable utterances, and plays, prophecies, and songs touching the king's honour were common.3 One mysterious individual who had played too suc- cessfully the part of Husbandry in one of the plays was sought for but not to be found. No games, no assemblies of the people were allowed, and Suffolk reported all quiet. It was the quiet of hopeless regret, for it was now firmly believed through the county that if they had only risen and joined with Lincolnshire and Yorkshire they would have ' gone through the realm.' They were in consequence irritable and inconstant and not in a mood for the levying of the subsidy in 1538,* so that Norfolk advised great firm- ness and the money to be assessed at the quarter sessions by the magistrates. A rumour got about that all unmarked cattle were to be confiscated to the king. Unhappy experience had taught that the flagrant injustice of the order did not show its impossibility, and an unknown rascal in a green coat and riding a fair white gelding was held responsible for the report.5 Vagabonds were tiumerous, and were ordered out of the county, but as the same measure was in practice in every other county it is not wonderful that their number remained undiminished. Priests and curates were by no means reconciled to the Act of Supremacy, and read so confusedly ' hemming and hacking the Word of God and such injunctions as we have lately set forth ' that no man could understand the true meaning thereof. Such clergymen, with vagabonds, valiant beggars, and readers of the mass of Thomas a Becket, were to be swept up and imprisoned without bail. This year (1539) the military force of the county was reorganised, with a view not only to defence but for the advancement of justice and the mainte- nance of the commonwealth. When he had pardoned the poor souls in the Suffolk riots Henry had remarked that it was in his power to cut them to pieces by the sword with their wives and children, and this ' ordering of the Manrede ' was conceived in the same spirit. It was a kind of police and militia system. The king was to appoint four, five, or six men in every 1 L. and P. Hen. Vlll. ix, No. 642. 1 The following were commanded to turn out and serve the king's own person— L. and P. Hen. Vlll : Sir Charles Willoughby with 100 men ; Sir George Somerset of Badrnundisfield with 40 men ; Sir Arthur Hopton of Westwood with 100 men, served with Suffolk ; Sir Anthony Wingfield of Letheringham with 100 men, served with Suffolk ; Sir Thomas Russhe of Chapmans with 60 men ; Sir John Jernyngham of Somerleyton with 30 men ; Sir William Drury of Halsted with 100 men ; Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke with loo men ; John Spryng of Lavenham with 60 men ; George Coke of Long Melford with 50 men ; Richard Cavendish of Girminston (f) with 30 men. 3 L. and P. Hen. nil. xii (i), Nos. 424 and 1 284. 4 Ibid, xii (i), No. 32. 5 Ibid, xiii (ii), No. 52. 181 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK shire to be his head commissioners, who were to take oath to execute all com- missions, letters, and missives, and to do all they could for the surety of the king and his succession, for the advancement of justice, the repressing of unlawful games, and the encouraging of the use of the long bow. Under them sundry minor officials who took the same oath did the work, took the musters, and sent in the certificates to the king. Besides the general musters the king sent letters missive to his servants and other gentlemen, desiring them to certify the number of men they could put in the field for the king's service in war. The invasion of a force under Charles V and Francis I to execute the papal bull launched against Henry was the occasion of all this bustle. Lowes- toft, Aldeburgh, and Orwell were to be put in a state of defence1 and nothing was thought of but the carting of ammunition and guns. In 1542 there was war with France and danger from the Scots. The duke of Norfolk was ordered to the Border and commanded to take the Suffolk levies with him. Certain gentlemen like Sir John Jermy the sheriff, ' as good a knight as ever spurred a cow,' paid for substitutes. Norfolk took with him his own special adherents, Sir William Drury, Sir William Waldegrave, Sir Thomas Jermyn, John Spryng, and Henry Doyle, and 2,500 foot, all desirous to be avenged on the Scots. Two years later 3,000 men mustered for France.2 Tall men were taken in the markets and pressed, and immediately shipped off to Calais, whither there was a daily procession wearing the red cross. Nothing was seen or talked of save harness, ensigns, and liveries of footmen. This cam- paign was disastrous to both Lord Surrey and his father the duke of Norfolk, the former was accused of treason and beheaded 13 January, 1547, and ten days after Norfolk was attainted and his warrant signed 27 January. Next day Henry VIII died. The county respected the Act of Succession, and Edward VI was pro- claimed. Princess Mary had a following, however, and all those oppressed by the new landlords looked eagerly to her accession. One Pooley was a leader of the worst sort of rebels in Suffolk 3 and held seditious meetings. Of the rebels who were taken some were set in the Ipswich pillory by Sir Anthony Wingfield, others lost an ear, or, worse still, were sent up to London to be tried and punished there. The short reign of Edward came to an end on 6 July, 1553. Princess Mary was in Norfolk at Kenninghall. She at once bestirred herself to gather the loyal east about her." On the 8th she wrote to Sir George Somerset, Sir William Drury, Sir William Waldegrave, and Clement Heigham, requiring their obedience and presence at Kenninghall. 1 L. an J. P. Hen. Vlll. xiv (i), No. 655. * Ibid, xix (i), p. 158. The following gentlemen with their men were commanded to the army for France in 1544: — Lord Wen tworth, 140 foot; Sir Humphrey Wingfield, 10 foot; Sir John Willoughby, 6 foot ; Sir Thomas Jermyn, 40 foot ; Robert Crane, 6 men ; Wm. Calthorpe, 6 men ; Edmund Pooley, 3 men ; Robert Downes, 2 men ; Ralph Chamberlayn, 6 men ; John Croftes, 10 men ; Rob. Garnish of Kenton, 4 men ; Thos. Heigham of Heigham, 6 men ; Clement Heigham, 4 men ; Robert Spryng, 4 men ; Edward Waldegrave, 5 men ; Marten of Melford, 5 men ; Ric. Coddington, 10 men ; John Brewse, 10 men ; John Southwell, 3 men ; George Colt, 10 men; Lawrence Slystede, 2 men ; Wm. Rede, 6 men ; Wm. Pooley, 2 men ; Thos. Pope, 3 men ; Robert Gosnold, 2 men ; Wm. Mannock, 6 men ; Rob. Kene, 2 men ; Rob. Forde, 4 men ; Rob. Raynoldes, 3 men ; Wm. Foster, 3 men ; Walter Waddeland, 3 men ; John Tasburgh, Thos. Bateman, Edm. Playter, Jn. Hacon, Roger Rookwood, Ant. Heveningham, Rog. Wood- house, Thos. Dereham, Wm. Hunston, J. and H. Wentworth, nil ; Sir Wm. Drury, 30 men ; John Spryng, 30 men ; John Shelton, 30 men ; Henry Doyle, 30 men. 1 Cal. S.P. Don. 1547-80, p. 20. 4 Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii, i. 182 POLITICAL HISTORY On the 1 4th she was at Framlingham collecting an army to oppose the earl of Oxford and Lord Rich, whom she commanded to retire towards Ipswich.1 On that and the following days Suffolk men came to swear fealty to her : on the 1 4th Francis Jenney of Knoddishall, Thomas Playter of Sotterley, Robert Codan of Weston, George Harvey of Ickworth, Thomas Timperley of Hintles- ham, Nicholas Bohun of Chelmondiston, John Reeve of Beccles, Robert Bacon of Drinkstone, John Rinete (or Reignolde) of Shotley, Owen Hopton of West- wood, Edward Ichingham, Robert Cheke of Blendhall, John Blennerhasset of Barham ; on the i5th Henry Chettings of Wortham, Edward Glemham of Glemham (and son), Sir Anthony Rowse of Dennington, Sir Thomas Corn- wallis of Brome (sheriff), Sir Nicholas Hare of Bruisyard, John Tirrel of Gipping, Thomas Petyt of Shipmeadow ; on the roth and i/th, John Smith of Cavendish, Richard Cooke of Langham, Robert Gosnolde of Otley, Sir Richard Brooke of Nacton, John Brend of Beccles, Lord Wentworth of • Nettlestead, Edward Tasburgh of Ilketshall, Sir William Drury of Halstead, Robert Drury of Halstead, Clement Heigham of Barrow.2 The munitions and ordnance of the ships which had been stationed at Harwich under Sir Richard Brooke to prevent Mary's escape were safely brought away to Framlingham on the i6th, as well as the artillery from St. Osyth's, before Lord Darcy could come up.3 In order to recruit her army all the gaols in the county were discharged on the i8th by the advice of her council of Suffolk gentlemen, and on the 2ist proclamation was made to all captains to bring their men to a muster* under Sir William Drury and Sir William Walde- grave. Mary5 was received by the people of Suffolk solely on her right as heir to the crown. They realized the danger and difficulty which would beset them under a Roman Catholic queen if she proved bigoted, for the county favoured the Gospel. Mary was a woman of thirty-seven, whose life had been one long persecution for her religion. She was embittered and distrustful, but there can be little doubt that she was honest when she bought the general allegiance of Suffolk by her promise to respect its conscience. As she said a month later to the Mayor of London, ' she meant not to compel or strain men's consciences otherwise than God should, as she trusted, put into their hearts a persuasion of the truth that she is in, through the opening of this Word unto them by godly and virtuous and learned preachers.' A pacific restoration to the power of Rome was all she seemed to have dreamed till her marriage in 1554. Mary was grateful to in- dividuals. She did not forget those who had helped her at Framlingham, and one of her first actions was to reward them with office and pension. Six of her council were Suffolk men : Lord Wentworth, Sir Thomas Cornwallis, Sir Edward Waldegrave, Sir Henry Jerningham (captain of the Guard), Sir Wm. Cordell, Sir Clement Heigham, Sir Nicholas Hare. The approaching marriage with Philip of Spain roused Protestant Suffolk. Ipswich protested, and Edmund Withipoll of that town was no truckler, whatever the bailiffs might be. In the county there was Thomas Pooley * of Icklingham to lead them. Sir William Drury was ordered to search his house for incriminating papers, and either take £1,000 bail or send him 1 Acts of Privy Co«»«Y(New Ser.), 1552-4, p. 300. * Ibid. p. 294. 1 Ibid. p. 298. * Ibid. p. 300. 5 Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii, 76. 6 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1554-6, p. 106. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK under strong escort to London. Sir Henry Tirrell1 had the unenviable task of forcing the recalcitrant to church and imprisoning those who refused. He was thanked for his 'travail' in August, 1554. Papist members were returned for that year's Parliament. The Marian persecution began;* in February, 1555, Dr. Rowland Taylor was burned at Hadleigh, and in June seven men were delivered out of Newgate to suffer in Essex and Suffolk.8 In July Francis Clopton of Denston was apprehended with his servant and committed to the Fleet. Many fled abroad to France and Geneva, and waited their chance of over- throwing the scarlet woman on the throne. In June, 1556, these exiles- made an attempt in Suffolk. The traitorous correspondence of Andrew Revett and William Bigott had been taken by the sheriff, Sir John Sulyard.* In consequence their persons were secured and their houses searched, with small result. This summary dealing did not deter the exiles, and they sent a bold man and ' one condemned ' called Clayberd,6 who gave himself out as the earl of Devon, then in exile at Padua, and used the name of the Princess Elizabeth to further his cause. He fell immediately into the hands of Sir John and was executed at Bury, while his few supporters were arraigned and condemned. Andrew Revett cleared his name by proving that the charge against him rested on a letter forged by a retainer of Sir Nicholas Hare. Most of the county stood aloof ready to follow a recognized leader against a persecution which was so abhorred that it was almost impossible to get the burnings carried into effect,6 and that with a papist sheriff and two zealous assistants, Sir William Drury and Sir Clement Heigham. Lady Wentworth, the wife of the unfortunate defender of Calais, was first charged with harbouring Protestants, then she was apprehended and committed to the Fleet, and not released till she recanted. Edmund Withipoll, William Brampton, and William Gresham were ordered to come up before the council also. Mary died opportunely 17 November, 1558. The county could not have been held in much longer, and the accession of Elizabeth was hailed by the majority with acclamation, for Suffolk hoped she would reign by the light of the Gospel, as expounded by its favourite preachers. They were soon to find out that her mind was in the main that of her father. In her progress through Suffolk in 1561 she was scandalized at Ipswich by the impudent behaviour of many of the ministers and readers, for little order was observed in the public service, and few wore the surplice, while all had wives and children. The bishop winked at the schismatics. Not so the queen.7 She issued an order to the archbishop of Canterbury and all church digni- taries, dated Ipswich, August 9, forbidding the resort of women to collegiate churches or cathedral lodgings. Having spread dismay through the town which had assessed itself heavily for her entertainment she departed to Shelley Hall and thence to the Waldegraves at Smallbridge and the Tollemaches at Helmingham. 1 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1554-6, p. 63. ' Machyn's Diary (Camden Soc.), p. 82 et seq. 3 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1554-6, pp. 165, 171. 4 Ibid. 235 and 360. * Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii (i), 546. * Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1556-8, p. 135. 1 Nicholl, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, pp. 96-7. 184 POLITICAL HISTORY The county was over-run with returned soldiers and sailors whose pay was in arrears.1 The coast was riddled by pirates, subjects of the queen who, forgetting the fear of God Almighty and the duty of good subjects, had been robbing and spoiling honest merchants on the coasts and seas. Foreign wars had deranged the cloth trade. Mary queen of Scots, a captive in England, had become the hope of English Catholics and already the duke of Norfolk was intriguing for her release. Add to this the growing number of enclosures, royal and private parks becoming daily more spacious and encroaching on the arable and pasture land, with the attendant game laws. It was rumoured that the Protestants had risen to massacre the Catholics,2 a strange thing, as the Spanish ambassador writes, for in Suffolk they have it all their own way. The arrest of the duke of Norfolk however turned the rising into a social one and the Protestant county prepared to go to London to liberate forcibly their Papist duke. Rigorous measures were used, but the clothiers continued disturbed and incensed. All their enterprises were lost, says the Spanish ambassador, by bad guidance,3 ' although they are undertaken with impetus, they are not carried through with constancy.' Papists, Puritans and Ana- baptists, all extremists were alike subjected to persecution. Certain families,4 such as the Sulyards, the Rookwoods, the Drurys of Losell, and the Forsters, were staunch for their faith and suffered imprisonment, fine, and exile without a murmur. In February, 1 578-9, 5 the good divines of Ipswich and Bury attempted the conversion of Michael Hare, Roger Martin of Melford, Henry Drury, and John Daniel, who all preferred prison. In the autumn of the same year they laboured with equally vain results, for Edward Sulyard of Wetherden, Thomas Sulyard of Grundisburgh, Edmund Bedingfield, Henry Everard, and William Hare refused liberty on their terms.6 The year 1582 saw the beginning of the Jesuit mission to England. Losell was a well- known harbour for the priests, who evaded the vigilance of the coastguard. They taught the children of the recusants and, inspiring them with a magnificent spirit of self-abnegation, persuaded many to become lay members of the order. The political danger was increased by the mission, for the Catholic forces in England were becoming organized just about the time when the Spanish invasion seemed most probable. Now began the prepara- tions to repel the Spaniards. Spanish spies of a sanguine temperament reported Suffolk impracticable for a landing, but though full of heretics there were still Catholic gentlemen who could raise 2,000 men. The coast defences at Aide- burgh, Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft were put in order by Robert Day, an engineer.7 The inhabitants were to pay for the work, and those that would not be persuaded, to suffer. Many Suffolk merchants furnished ships out of their private means, and Ipswich and the other ports were called upon to pro- vide four ships and a pinnace.8 The necessity of mobility in the forces for land defence caused a new muster rating to be issued. All those who had estates 1 Acts of the Privy Council (New Ser.), I 558-70, pp. 278 et seq. 1 Cat. S. P. Spanish, 1568-79, No. 123. 3 Ibid. 4 Records of the English Province, S. /. ser. ii, iii, iv, passim. 6 Acts of the Privy Council (New. Ser.), I 578-80, p. 47. 6 Framlingham Castle was considered a fit place for the custody of recusants. Ibid. 1580-1, p. 82. 7 Act of the Privy Council (New Ser.), 1 586-7, pp. 1 14 et seq. 8 Ibid. 1588, p. 10. Ipswich and Harwich were called upon for two ships and one pinnace, of the cost of which Harwich eventually bore a sixth part, Aldeburgh, Orford, and Dunwich for one ship and Lowestoft and Yarmouth one ship and one pinnace. 2 185 24 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK of jT 1,000 and upwards must keep six horses or geldings fit for mounting demi-lances with harness complete and ten with weapons and harness for light horsemen and so on down to estates of 100 marks and under £100, which were to furnish one gelding and harness for one light horseman.1 The apportioning of the ship-money was not so easy.2 Upland woollen towns objected to pay for both coast and land defence. Ipswich answered that their wool was shipped at the coast, and no port no trade. Lowestoft was too poor to furnish the pinnace alone, and the coast towns of Blything had to contribute. Aldeburgh had in a most spirited fashion furnished a ship and paid >C59° for it, while Orford, Dunwich and Southwold, Woodbridge and Walberswick, collectively contributed only £40 to the outlay.8 During the summer of 1588 it was found impossible to maintain the county levy at the coast, for the farms wanted hands in the June weather, and it was arranged that the towns and companies should take it by turns to watch a month. Her Majesty was a believer in the blue water theory and the Navy was indeed the defence of the whole realm. Suffolk was ordered to provide 200 cwt. each of butter and cheese for the fleet at reasonable price. On 23 July, while the fight was running up the channel, the county was ordered to send 2,000 men, and on the a8th, when the Spaniards had anchored off Calais, another 1,000 was urgently demanded. The county levied 4,239 men, and 2,000 of these were to repair on 8 August to Tilbury, under Sir William Heydon their colonel, but the same day a contradictory order was sent, for news had come that the Spanish fleet had been sighted ENE. of Yarmouth,4 and Sir William was to wait with his levy till it would appear what course they were going to take, while Sir William Waldegrave, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and Sir William Spryng were ordered to bring the rest of the levies to Stratford-le-Bow. On 7 August the danger was over, for the Spaniards were fleeing northward before the gale, and the Suffolk men were allowed to go about their harvest again.5 Only the seamen had no rest, and 1 10 were ordered to be taken and pressed and sent to Dover and Sandwich. The geldable portion of Suffolk was commanded to contribute £5°° to the ships furnished by Ipswich and Harwich.6 All gentlemen who had served in Her Majesty's service in the summer were to be exempt, and the tax fell principally on the poor and on the recusants. The county continued to send contingents to the Spanish wars under Drake and Norris,7 but the men deserted at the water's edge, and sailors simply were not to be found. The 21 July, 1603, saw Suffolk once more with a duke of its own. Thomas, lord Howard de Walden,8 second son of the Duke of Norfolk, was raised to the dignity. Two years later the county was horrified to find that one of its number was implicated in the Gunpowder Plot. Ambrose Rook- wood, of Coldhamhall9 had been persuaded into joining the plot, which was wildly supposed to be the first act in a new Spanish invasion. Robert Rook- wood of Clopton and Robert Townsend of Broughton were examined for evidence, and Ambrose's house was searched, but nothing treasonable was to be found and he himself had not been seen in the county since October.10 The 1 Grose, Military Antiyuitiet, 13. * Acts of the Privy Council (New Ser.), 1588, p. 58. 1 Ibid. 115. 4 Ibid. 210. * Ibid. 224. 6 Ibid. 368 et seq. ' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1591-4, p. 552. * Ibid. 1603-10, p. 23. • See East Angl. Mag. iii (Ser. xi), 145. I0 Cal. S. P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 253. 186 POLITICAL HISTORY county ordered public rejoicings at the king's escape,1 and the poor of Ipswich received a dole of bread, while Dr. Samuel Ward, the town preacher, published a picture in which he commemorated this grand blessing of God to the nation. The immediate result of the plot was an increased distrust of the Papists. The excitement of the Spanish marriage seems to have run high as early as 1617, and stout Protestants like2 Sir John Heigham proposed to buy off James I. He wrote to the justices of the peace asking them to use their influence to get a liberal contribution voted in the county and to test the disposition of the principal gentlemen. Dr. Willett was imprisoned for sounding the county on the same extraordinary proposal. This exhibition of feeling did not deter James from pushing on the marriage in 1622, with the result that recusants were more leniently treated and Mr. Ward 3 of Ipswich was inhibited from preaching. The Spanish fear was only super- seded by the French one, and the county was alarmed at the attitude of the Papists, who were said to be holding secret meetings, among others at the houses of one4 Benefield in Redlingfield, and one Gage. In spite, however, of their fears, the county refused to pay a muster-master, and it was so bare of money that none was to be had to pay the garrison in Landguard Fort. A loan was hurried on, and a list of persons able to subscribe £10 was sent up to the council. It is significant that the subsidy in Suffolk under James I only produced £2,137, as against £6,828 in Elizabeth's time. All the money was absorbed in general war expenses ; nothing was spent on the county, and at the summer assizes at Bury in 1626 the people raised a great clamour against the duke of Buckingham's careless neglect of their coasts.5 They complained bitterly that their ships were taken and fired by pirates in their very havens before their eyes, and Suffolk boats hardly dared venture a bow out of port. Buckingham could not afford to withdraw the loan, though everywhere the people were refractory, and the attitude of a certain attorney, Valentine Coppin of Halesworth,6 was typical. He said he had no intention of lending money to His Majesty nor had he authorized anyone to subscribe for him ; in fact, he knew nothing about a subscription. There were at the same time disputes in the county about the provision for the king's household. The petition of the inhabitants of Woodbridge 7 shows what a constant drain there was at this time on all purses. They were charged for the king's provisions for his household, the repairing and watching of beacons, the provision of powder and match and bullets, the wages of soldiers in the bands for every five weeks' training, the carts, pioneers' tools, and nags ; the charge of 3,000 men to march into Kent on any alarm, and 5,000 men on the coasts, and 4,000 men to march to Yarmouth, as well as all county charges. To these they were asked to add, with the rest of the county, a moiety of the expenses of the two ships demanded from Ipswich for the war with Spain. The water was so low in the well that the county sent a remonstrance to the council demonstrating their impotency to contribute. The men pressed for service mutinied at Harwich, and many fled through the county and were concealed by the 1 Bacon, dnnals of Ipswich, 10 Nov. 1605. ' Cal. S. P. Dom. 161 1-18, p. 505. * Ibid. 1619-23, p. 399. 4 Ibid. 1625-6, p. 102. 4 Ibid. 1625-6, p. 409. * Ibid. 1627-8, p. 29. ' Ibid. p. 72. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK friendly inhabitants. Sir Charles Cornwallis, at his wits' end, suggested that the deputy-lieutenants should be given powers of arbitrary punishment, so that the runaways might be punished without fear of pursuit in law or in Parliament.1 Further, men were demanded for the siege of La Rochelle. The county refused to send them till the last two presses were satisfied and some definite provision made by the council for the payment of press and conduct money, for ' without money service cannot be got.' In reply, the council first adopted a tone of dignified reproach, saying that the custom always had been for the county to defray all expenses, and send in its bill to the government, and then peremptorily ordered the impressment to proceed without delay. The justices of the peace and the deputy-lieutenants had simply to put their hands in their pockets. Masters2 and owners of Ipswich ships were many of them like to be ruined by the Isle de Rhe disaster, and Aldeburgh frankly told the council that if they wanted the town fortified they must do it themselves. A further loan of £5*55° was demanded in February, 1628. The county despaired of keeping solvent, and Buckingham was regarded as the root of all evil, so much so that one of the Feltons of Playford thought to mend matters by assassinating him. It was rumoured that Felton was only one of certain persons of quality in Suffolk who had threatened the Duke.3 But Felton's fortitude prevented the discovery of the names of any of his confederates. His action brought no relief, only a change of masters. The coasts were no better defended. The county definitely refused to pay the muster-master's fee, and at Bury* Sir Robert Crane and Sir Lionel Tollemache, as members of Parliament, refused to sign any warrants for it, fearing they might be committed for it by the House. 'But,' said Sir Robert Crane, 'you, Sir Thomas Glemham and Mr. Poley, and such as are no Parliament men, make out the warrants.' The other deputy-lieutenants answered they would all run the same course, and the warrants remained unsigned. The fiscal and military exactiorJs, added to the irksome ecclesiastical restraints under Laud, made Suffolk men restless and hopeless. The sacredness of individual religion as they found it in the Gospels and in the sermons and prayers of their powerful preacher, Dr. Samuel Ward, whose fame was great in both London and Cambridge, was to them more precious than their homes. They decided, urged thereto by a certain 6 Dr. Dalton, parson of Woolverstone by Ipswich, to emigrate to America, and arrangements were made for transporting some 600 persons out of Suffolk. Mr. Ward did not discourage their flight under persecution, while commending the courage of those who remained, for he writes : ' he was not of so melancholy a spirit nor looked through so black spectacles as he that wrote that religion stands on tip-toe in this land looking westward.' The first ships were to sail on 10 March, 1633. Ward was brought up before the Court of High Commission, and Dr. Brent made an ecclesiastical visitation through the county. He found preachers everywhere. Not a bowling-green or an ordinary could exist without one, and many private gentlemen kept divines in their houses as tutors to their children. October, 1634, saw the beginning of the fiscal revolt, the struggle in the county against arbitrary taxation." In that month the maritime towns were 1 Cal. S.P. Dm. 1627-8, p. 198. * Ibid. 1625-49, P- 3*°- * ^b^- '633-4, P- '75- 4 Ibid. 1625-49, p. 379. * Ibid. 1633-4, P- 45°- ' Ibid- l634-5> P- 24*- 1 88 POLITICAL HISTORY asked to provide a ship of 700 tons, with arms, ordnance, double-tackling, and provisions for twenty-six weeks, from 21 March, with 250 men. In March, 1635, this was amended.1 The king would provide the ships if the county would give the money, and in August the amount still unpaid out of Suffolk and Essex amounted to £657. During the same month was issued the second writ for ship-money, assessing this time the whole county and all corporate towns therein at £8,000.- This was not without precedent, for in 1628, as has been seen, the county refused to pay its share of the ships assessed on Ipswich. The sheriff was personally responsible for the total amount. The poor country towns cried out that the ports had forced them to pay on the last writ, and that they ought at least now to be assessed merely at the county rate. This led to endless disputes ; every town and hundred had fifty good reasons why part of its assessment should be thrown on to its neighbour. By January, 1636, Sir John Barker had managed to collect all save £100, but his receipt for £7,615 is dated 31 July. The demand became yearly now; each August saw its writ. In 1636 only half the assessed amount was paid, but the decision of the judges in the king's favour quickened Sir Philip Parker, so that next year the amount was brought up to £7,900." The demands of 1638 and 1639* were simply not paid, many of the defaulters having fled to New England and Holland, and Sir John Clench, the sheriff, was practically ruined. By 1640 the absolute impossibility of collecting the ship-money was demonstrated, and Sir Symonds D'Ewes, the sheriff, on 2 1 April, the day appointed for the high constables to bring in the £8,000, did not receive £200. ' Instead, the distracted constables sent him certificates, saying that they could not get the money, and dared not distrain, for the tenants threatened actions. Ipswich division backed up Beccles, and the constables were powerless. The sheriff gave the true reasons for the non-payment : deadness of trade, scarcity of money, low prices for all com- modities of plough and pail, great military charges of the past summer. Daily groans and sighs were the only returns. In the Parliament of 1 640 the king offered to take twelve subsidies instead, and these were granted. The trouble with Scotland in 1639 meant the calling out of the county levy. The Covenanters had many sympathizers in Suffolk, and the Puritans •of Ipswich organized a transport strike,6 so that the army contractors in the north could get no shipmen to carry out their contracts. Many in the county refused to pay coat and conduct money for the same reason,7 and the 1640 levy of 600 men mutinied at Bungay. They attacked the deputy- lieutenants there who had gone to see them delivered over to Lieut.-Colonel Fielding, and held them up in their inn. Sir William Playter, however, boldly arrested the two ringleaders.8 The soldiers were Puritans and fanatical. They held commissary courts among themselves and did justice on those of their fellows who offended against their moral standard. They also proceeded against witches. Sir Thomas Jermyn, the lord-lieutenant, got them on the march with all possible speed, dreading the impossibility of harmonizing the and I452.6 Seeing that they only represent a portion, large or small, of the merchant marine, they show that, notwithstanding war and weak government, it was still flourishing, some of the vessels being of 300 and 400 tons. The large ships, however, all belonged to the southern counties ; those from Suffolk, with the exception of one of 1 60 and another of 140 tons, owned at Ipswich, were all small. During these years Dunwich sent five vessels, Walberswick six, and Easton, Kirkley, and Southwold each one. A vessel of 240 tons, described as of Orwell, must have belonged to Ipswich or Harwich. Sea power played no great part in the Wars of the Roses, but we get some indication in the Paston letters of the insecurity of territorial waters when such legal trammels as had existed were relaxed. On 30 April, 1350, the duke of Suffolk sailed, exiled, from Ipswich to meet his death in the Straits of Dover, and it need not be imputed to cowardice that his Ipswich crews did not raise a hand to save him. Writing in March of the same year, Agnes Paston notices several occurrences showing how ' perlyous dwellyng be the se cost ' was then,7 and although her letter refers to Norfolk, the coast of Suffolk must have been equally dangerous. The Walberswick Account Books show payments in 1457 and 1463 for powder and cannon shot, and in 1469 for labour in throwing up entrenchments. In 1460 the earl of Warwick, then at Calais, was expected to make a descent in Suffolk, and orders were given to take the necessary precautions.8 From the fact that in 1463 it was necessary to seize all ships laden with stores intended to supply Edward's enemies the existence of a Lancastrian party in the county may be inferred.9 In 1461 Suffolk was invited to join with Essex and Hertfordshire and follow the example of the north by raising a squadron at their own cost to act against the French and Scots. Edward IV was not ignorant of the value of a fleet and slowly set about the re-creation of a Royal Navy. His method was to buy ships rather than to build them for himself. In 1462 he held 'two parts' of the Margaret of Ipswich ; later he purchased one-fourth more from the London possessor,10 and 1 Proc. of P. C. (first ser.), ii, 145. * Rat. Norman, (ed. Hardy), 1835, pp. 320-9. 1 Rot. Franc, pass. * Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 171. * Proc. of P. C. (first ser.), v. 102. * Exch. Accts. Q. R. bdle. 53, Nos. 23, 24, 25, 39 ; bdle. 54, Nos. 10, 14. 7 Pas tan Letters (ed. 1872), i, 114. 8 Pat. 38 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 21. 'Ibid. 3 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. \\d. w Ibid. 2 Edw. IV.pt. 2, m. 4. 2 209 27 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK subsequently he must have bought the remaining shares, for the Margaret appears in the lists as a king's ship. There were several arrests of ships in 1475 for the French war ; one of them — from Newcastle to Bristol — must be almost, if not quite, the last example of the general arrest affecting the whole country. The growth of the fishery is shown by the struggle for the profitable privilege of supplying convoys for the fishing fleets. In 1472 a vessel at anchor in Orwell haven was carried off by a Sandwich ship hired by the people of the east coast for the protection of the fishermen during the season; but that seems to have been an exceptional incident.1 In 1482 the conveyers were appointed by the king, and the persons designated were authorized to arrest and imprison any others who ventured to undertake similar work.8 In the same year commissioners were nominated to examine the accounts of the conveyers of 1481, collecting rough statistics of the state of the trade and the number of men employed in it ; 8 and in 1484 the accounts of the conveyers of 1482 were similarly supervised.* There are several commissions for convoy of the same character during the reign of Henry VII,5 but the custom soon fell out of use as the Navy grew larger, and men-of-war were more often in the North Sea. Some sailing directions assigned to the reign of Edward IV show that the principal sands, channels, and landmarks for navigation along the coast of East Anglia were much the same as now.8 There must have been many wrecks upon the dangerous Suffolk coast during these centuries, but few of such casualties appear in the records perhaps because the Crown had granted away most of its rights along the coast. The right of wreck was coveted by manorial lords and corporations both for profit and, incidentally, as evidence of exemption from the inquisition of the High Admiral. Legally, if man, dog, or cat escaped alive from a ship it was no wreck, but if the cargo once came into the hands of those ashore there was small chance of recovery. Every corporation used what influence it possessed to obtain local jurisdiction in admiralty matters, not only as a question of dignity and profit, but even more in order to escape the arbitrary and expensive proceedings of the Lord Admiral's deputies, who brought much odium upon their master. Ipswich obtained admiralty jurisdiction by the charter of 28 March, 1446;' in 1536 it was found by inquisition that the bailiffs of Ipswich were exercising jurisdiction at Walton and fining people for non-appearance. The wives of fishermen were 'attached in Ipswich with their horses and take their fish from them.'8 The burgesses of Dunwich claimed that their rights had been granted to them by John, and an inquisition of 21 Henry III found that they were then exercising right of wreck.9 The same inquisi- tion tells us that Orrbrd was enjoying similar powers, and at Aldeburgh, Thorpe, and several other places the right to wreck of the sea was then in private hands. Very little of the Suffolk coast remained subject to the pecuniary profit of the High Admiral; the fact that the duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III, held this office during his brother's reign may explain why there was some inquiry in 1465 into the powers under which individuals and corporations in Norfolk and Suffolk were acting to the injury of the duke's emoluments.10 Any results concerning Suffolk that may have followed are unknown, and no evidence has been found of similar disputes for more than a century. Southwold acquired its like immunities in the reign of Henry VII.11 In 1481 a squadron was equipped to act against Scotland, and the Carvel of Ipswich, Captain Thos. Coke, was one of the five merchantmen selected to join the king's ships.12 The reign of Henry VII is almost barren of maritime incident, but some Suffolk ships were used as transports when the earl of Surrey invaded Scotland in 1497. Three came from Walberswick, two from Aldeburgh, two from Dunwich, and one each from Southwold, Orford, Easton, and Sizewell.13 With the reign of Henry VIII the era of arrests and impressment of shipping may be said to have terminated. The port towns were sometimes to be called upon to provide ships, but such towns were usually associated in order to lessen the expense and eventually the county as a whole contributed to the cost. Improvements in building and armament had now differentiated the man- of-war from the merchantman ; the latter was of little use in fleets except ' to make a show,' and to have required the ports to furnish real men-of-war would have ruined them. It was one of the purposes of Henry's life to create a national Navy, and there was not a year of his reign that did not witness some accretion to its strength. Such merchantmen as he required were hired without the exercise of the prerogative. It is not until the reign of Elizabeth that we find in force the further development of the right of impressment, the demand for fully armed ships at the cost of the ports and counties, the principle upon which the ship-money levies were based. The first war with France 1 Pat. ii Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. \\d. ' Ibid. 22 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 2. 5 Ibid. m. -jd. * Ibid. 2 Rich. Ill, pt. I, m. 2. * Campbell, Materials for a History of . . . Henry VII. * Sailing Directions . . . from a Fifteenth Century MS. (Hak. Soc.), 1889. For Orwell Haven see V. C. H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.' 1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 231. 8 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 831. * Gardner, Hist. Account of Dunteich, 1 14. '"Lansd. MSS. 171, fol. 186. " Pat. 10 June, 1505. " Rymer, FoeJera, xii, 139. 13 Chap. Ho. Bks. vii, fol. 60 et. seq. 210 MARITIME HISTORY of 1512-13 was fought almost entirely by men-of-war, and although there were some twenty hired ships in pay as tenders and victuallers none can be traced as belonging to Suffolk. It need hardly be said that although impressment of ships had practically ceased, impressment of men continued, and Aldeburgh, Southwold, and Ipswich helped to make up the crews of the king's ships.1 Shipwrights and caulkers were pressed in Ipswich, Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft, to come to the new dockyard at Woolwich to help in the building of the Henry Grace de Dleu? Ipswich and Dartmouth sent more shipwrights than any others of the ports and, so far as Ipswich is concerned, the number available is a sign that the great shipbuilding industry which was so striking a feature of its local history from the end of the sixteenth century was already estab- lished. The famous Pett family, which provided master shipwrights in the royal dockyards for upwards of a century, probably came from Harwich but some branches of the family lived at Ipswich.3 War with France and Scotland recommenced in 1522 and Ipswich sent some auxiliary ships to join the fleet. The proposed, 'and possibly executed, erection of a blockhouse at Lowestoft in 1528* is evidence of the importance of the roads as an anchorage. The Iceland fishery, which had flourished during the early part of the fifteenth century, had almost died out in consequence of a statute of 1 430 (8 Hen. VI, cap. 2) forbidding Englishmen to repair to Iceland or Denmark, but only to North Bergen ; this was enacted in fear of the king of Denmark and in consequence of the riotous and piratical behaviour of English fishermen and traders. In 1451, however, Walberswick was sending thirteen vessels and twenty-two Sperling boats to Iceland, the Faroes, and the North Sea,6 and in 1484 a proclamation prohibiting ships to go to Iceland without convoy shows that the fishery was still carried on. The first Parlia- ment of Henry VIII repealed the Act of 1430 (i Hen. VIII, cap. i), and for a time, at any rate, the fishermen can have given little cause for complaint for in 1523 the king of Denmark wrote to Henry encouraging a larger trade.6 The extent to which it had been taken up along the east coast may be judged from a passage in a letter written by the earl of Surrey to Wolsey,7 in the same year, where he reports that he had heard that the Scots were fitting out a squadron to intercept the Iceland fleet in which, if they succeeded, Norfolk and Suffolk he said, would be ruined and all England left without fish. In 1528 the Iceland fleet numbered 149 vessels ; Ipswich is grouped with five Essex ports, and fourteen ships sailed from them; Woodbridge sent three, Aldeburgh, Sizewell, and Thorpe, six, and Dunwich, Walberswick, Southwold, Easton, and Covehithe, thirty-two.8 The last five places followed the Iceland trade more vigorously than that of the North Sea proper, in which only eight boats were employed; but Ipswich, with Harwich and Manningtree, sent twenty, Aldeburgh four, and Lowestoft six.9 More than half these boats frequented Scotch waters. The temporary improvement in the conduct of the fishermen does not appear to have endured, at any rate near home, for in 1535 James V wrote to Henry that 'the English who go to Iceland for fishing take slaves and plunder in the Orkney Isles.'10 But, however irregular their conduct they also fished, and by 1526 the quantity brought home was so great that it was found possible to remit a portion of that taken for the king under the right of purveyance.11 There is a return of 1533 giving the number of vessels come back from the fishery that year, from which we find that seven entered Lowestoft, twenty-two Dunwich, one Orford, and seven Orwell Haven, which here probably stands chiefly for Ipswich.12 The average tonnage was from forty to sixty tons, except those at Orwell, which run from 60 to 150 tons. In 1536 Robert Kingston of Dunwich, the master of an Aldeburgh vessel, was presented at an Admiralty Court for leaving six sick men behind him in Iceland.13 It would seem that at this period Dunwich, fallen from its former estate as a commercial port, secured temporarily a new prosperity in the Iceland traffic. From an action at law in 1535 relating to a Southwold ship we learn that she was hired for £120 for an Iceland voyage ; in an illustrative case quoted in the depositions, it was said that the profit earned by another boat was upwards of £700, and would have been more but for the defaults of the master.14 Occasionally persons of higher social standing than those who made the trade their occupation were tempted by the large profits to join in it ; in 1545 there is an account of the expenses of a vessel belonging to Sir Thomas Darcy which he sent to the fishery.16 From a national point of view it would be difficult to exaggerate the value of the Iceland, North Sea, and Newfoundland fisheries. The Atlantic and North Sea were the breeding and training grounds of the men who, in the reign of Elizabeth, destroyed the maritime pretensions of Spain. I Chap. Ho. Bks. ii, fols. 7-10. ' Ibid, v, 179. s See V.C.H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.' 4 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv (pt. 2), 4016. ' Gardner, op. cit. 145. 6 L. and P. Hen. nil, iii, 2783. ' Ibid. 3071. 8 Ibid, iv, 5101. 'Ibid. 10 Ibid, viii, 1153. II Ibid, iv, 2220 ; Add. MSS. 34729, fol. 63. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, vi, 1380. 13 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 831. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, ix, 1020. 15 Hut. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. i, 603. She was manned from Dunwich. 211 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK About 1539 Henry feared a combination of the continental states against the kingdom. The new navy, although more powerful than any England had ever yet possessed, more powerful than even its creator dreamed it to be, was as yet an untried weapon. The preceding centuries were fraught with the le«son that English battles were best fought on the English seas, but there was a natural inclination, especially in an age which was tending towards formalism in military science, to fell back upon the orthodox defences of castles, sconces, and bulwarks to prevent a landing or to support a defending force. As early as 1535 the idea of fortifying the strategic points round the coast was in the air, for Cromwell then noted in his ' Remembrances ' that a small tax formerly paid to Rome might well be diverted ' towards the defence of the realm to be employed in making fortresses.' That the subject was then under consideration explains the existence of a map of 1533-4 showing proposed fortifications at Harwich and Landguard, although there is some doubt as to the value of this map as evidence in point of date.1 If it is reliable there must have been some par- ticular reason, because at the time, and for some years afterwards, Calais and Dover were the only places upon which money was being spent lavishly, and the fortification of the coast generally was not commenced until 1539. Early in that year commissioners were appointed ' to search and defend the coasts,' 2 and Lowestoft, Aldeburgh, and Landguard were designated as requiring defences.* On 27 March the earls of Oxford and Essex, who were in superintendence in the eastern counties, wrote to Cromwell that 20,000 men might be put ashore at Landguard and that a ' substantial blockhouse ' was necessary there.4 The French ambassador, writing to his sovereign in May, thought that most of the places where a foreign force might land would be in a state of defence by the end of the summer, but in reality the work did not progress nearly so quickly ; in 1540 most of such bulwarks as had been erected were still unarmed, but Lowestoft possessed one gun. A contemporary map 5 shows a three- gun battery commanding the Stanford Channel and another that of St. Nicholas Gat ; the sites of these batteries have long been below low-water mark. As there is an appointment of a gunner for Lowestoft in March, I542,6 the map may be assigned approximately to that year, and as Landguard is indicated by a conventional circle it shows that the fort there was yet unbuilt. Possibly there were also entrenchments thrown up at Mismer Haven.7 In 1547 there is a reference to the fort or forts at Landguard and to the six gunners permanently stationed at each of them.8 There seem to have been 'houses' at Langer Point and Langer Rood ; Major J. H. Leslie, the historian of Landguard,9 considers the latter, now Garrison Rood, an excellent position militarily. From a later paper10 it appears that the blockhouse at the point was built by 1545 but that at Langer Rood was probably somewhat later or not then garrisoned. Silas Taylor, who wrote his history of Harwich in 1676, says that there was then remaining a bastion of one of the Henry VIII blockhouses which was situated at or near the old burial-ground. At first all the coast defences, except those within the Cinque Ports, were placed under the control of the Lord Admiral and regulations were drawn up for their government,11 but they soon passed out of his hands. Probably it was considered unwise to entrust a subject with so much power. War with France and Scotland broke out again in 1543, and in June the North Sea fleet was collecting in Orwell Haven, when Henry visited Harwich. Besides being the best harbour south of the Humber, that of the Orwell was also the nearest to the fertile eastern counties, an important point in relation to the victualling of the fleets. North Sea squadrons were in commission in 1542-3-4; for that of the last year, operating in Scotch waters in conjunction with the invading army under the earl of Hertford, Lowestoft supplied fifteen ships, Aldeburgh nine, Dunwich sixteen, Walberswick eleven, Southwold ten, and Ipswich ten.18 All these must have been used as transports and storeships, but as no doubt a sufficient number of vessels was left to carry on trade the figures indicate an active maritime industry. Four of those from Lowestoft, one from Aldeburgh, one from Southwold, and two from Ipswich, were of 100 tons or more, the largest being one of 160 tons belonging to Ipswich ; the largest Dunwich ships were only of 60 tons. On 6 July, 1543, an action was fought ofF Orfordness between a French squadron and one under Sir Rice Mansel. The French, fifteen or sixteen in number, had conveyed troops to Scotland in June ; war was declared subsequently, and on their voyage back they were intercepted by Mansel. The French took one ship and the English two, but Mansel chased them back to the Forth. Probably 1 Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 56. ' For Suffolk : — Lord Wentworth, Sir Humphrey and Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Arthur Hopton, Sir Edmund Bedingfield, Sir John Cornwallis, Sir Thomas Jermyn, Sir Wm. Drury, Sir Wm. Waldegrave and Sir John Jerningham. I L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv, pt. I, 398, 655. ' Ibid. 615. 6 Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 58. • L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvii, 220 (37). 7 See/w//, p. 221. ' S. P. Dom. Edw. VI, i, 22. ' Landguard Fort, Lond. 1898. 10 S. P. Dom. Edw. VI, xv, n. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (pt. 2), 785 ; Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 129. II L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xix, (pt. i), 140 (6). 212 MARITIME HISTORY Suffolk, like other counties, was depleted of seamen and fishermen to man the royal fleets during this war ; as a consequence certain hundreds were allotted to Lord Wentworth in 1545 for the defence of the coast in the absence of the maritime population.1 In February, 1547, Sir Andrew Dudley was in command of a fleet then lying in Orwell Haven, ordered to intercept the supplies passing from France to Scotland, but it does not appear that he had any merchantmen with him. His flagship, the Pauncye, afterwards took the Lion, a Scotch man-of-war, but the prize was lost in Harwich harbour ' by negligence,' says Edward VI in his Journal.8 The question of piracy and wrecking becomes more noticeable during the reign of Henry VIII, not because the offences were more prevalent — there were probably fewer cases than during preceding centuries — but because suppression was taken in hand more seriously. Henry was determined to make his kingship feared and respected at sea as he made it feared and respected on land. No single life could have been long enough to see complete success, but the steps he took mark a great advance in the organization of repressive measures and only the application or extension of them was left to his successors. It had been found that the existing sy-stem of trial for piracy was nearly useless, the offender having to confess before he could be sentenced, or his guilt having to be proved by disinterested witnesses, who naturally could seldom be present at sea. By two statutes, 27 Hen. VIII, cap. 4, and 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 15, such crimes were in future to be tried according to the forms of the common and not as hitherto of the civil law. Probably for the better administration of these statutes and for other reasons — namely the exe- cution of a treaty with France of 1525 concerning maritime depredations, the strict protection of the king's and Lord Admiral's rights in wrecks and other matters, the registration of ships and men available and the levy of seamen, the inspection and certification of ships going to sea touching their armed strength and the peaceful nature of the voyage, the exaction of bonds from captains and owners as security for good conduct and the safe-keeping of prizes and prize goods — it was deemed advisable to have round the coast permanent representatives of the Lord Admiral, who should be of higher social standing and armed with greater authority than were the deputies who had hitherto visited each county or district collecting the Lord Admiral's profits or maintaining his rights. The officers in question, the vice-admirals of the counties, were, in their civil functions, the successors historically of the keepers of the coast and the conservators of truces of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and there is not one of the duties of the vice-admirals which cannot be paralleled among those performed by the earlier officials. We have seen that there had been occasional appointments for Norfolk and Suffolk of officers who held posts very similar to tho^e of the vice-admirals,3 but now, instead of acting temporarily and only in one or two districts, they became a band of crown officials stationed round the whole coast, backed by the power of the Tudor despotism and continued without any interruption during which their authority might diminish by intermission.* The scheme did not come into operation simultaneously over all England, but developed out of necessity and according to opportunity. The first nomination known by precise date is that for Norfolk and Suffolk, but Cornwall may have even been earlier, and in view of the long established reputation of the southern county for the lawless practices customary on its coast there is some significance in the fact that the East Anglian appointment is of about the same date, although the exact reasons are unknown to us. The first vice-admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk, appointed by the then Lord Admiral, Sir William Fitzwilliam, by patent for life 20 August, 1536, was William Gonson, long connected with the naval administration ; he is styled ' our commissary, vice-admiral, and deputy in the office of the vice-admiralty.' ' Gonson was well known to Henry and it is likely that the nomination was the king's rather than Fitzwilliam's ; it may also be due to Henry's favour that, unlike his successors, he was granted all fees and profits free from any account to the Lord Admiral. Very shortly after the general institution of the vice-admirals the perquisites were shared with the Lord Admiral, and they had to give bond to render their accounts half-yearly. This duty was often ignored, and about 1553 ordinances were drawn up by which they were to regulate their conduct and that of their subordinate officers.6 The post was usually held by country gentlemen for whom it was a source of dignity and profit ; in Suffolk, as elsewhere, all the best-known county names appear in the lists. Norfolk and Suffolk were not divided into separate vice-admiralties until late in the reign of Elizabeth, and until the separation the office was almost an appanage of the Wodehouse and Southwell families. 1 Acts of P. C. 12 May, 1545. f Cott. MSS. Nero C. x. ' Ante, p. 202. 4 The patents of appointment were from the Lord Admiral, sometimes for life and sometimes during pleasure. 4 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. Ser. II, 224. I am indebted to Mr. R. G. Marsden, to whose learned researches the history of the evolution of the office of vice-admiral is mainly due, for bringing Gonson's appointment to my notice. Mr. Marsden has also given generous help in the legal and local history of the coast. * Admir. Ct. Inq. i. 213 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK In 1547 the total cost of the Essex fortifications, in which Landguard was always included, was nearly j£8oo a year.1 In 1551 the Privy Council decided that there was 'a number of bulwarks and other fortresses upon the sea coast and otherwheres within this realm which stood the king's majesty in very great charges and in no service at all nor could serve at any time to any purpose ; ' 2 therefore it was resolved to disestablish some and reduce others. In pursuance of this resolution Landguard was partially or entirely dismantled in June, I553> and the ordnance sent up to the Tower.3 The end of the Henry VIII defences may perhaps be read in the confession of John Jenyns before the Privy Council that he ' pulled down two bulwarks at Langer in Suffolk side beside Harwich.' 4 Dr. Lingard thought that the disarmament of the coast forts was only a device of Northumberland's to supply himself with guns and other necessaries for the dynastic revolution he was plotting. In July, 1553, the duke's fleet watched at Orwell Haven and along the coast to prevent Mary's escape, had that course entered her mind. The county was not called upon for much service during the queen's reign, but in 1557 we were once more at war with France and Scotland. Sir John Clere was in command of a squadron in the North Sea, but as it was doubted whether he was strong enough to protect the Iceland fishing fleet a reinforcement of armed mer- chantmen was ordered for him, for which Ipswich, Lowestoft, and Aldeburgh had each to provide one vessel, and Dunwich and Southwold together, one.6 With the Lord Admiral, in the Channel, were two small Lowestoft vessels as tenders. The reign of Mary sent many of the outlawed and discontented to the refuge of the sea, and the more or less continuous warfare existing in western Europe during the reign of Elizabeth tempted many such men to continue their vocation. Therefore the plague of piracy, and its first cousin privateering, was virulent during the latter reign, although a number of cases which the sufferers called piracy were really seizures of enemy's goods in neutral ships, and were justly questions for the judge of the Admiralty Court. The east coast was less guilty than the south in supporting pirates and purchasing their plunder ; it also suffered less from their depredations, but it was by no means free from either class of circumstance. The peace of 1564 and the protests of neighbouring powers forced Elizabeth to take more energetic action, and a circular letter to the vice-admirals of counties called their attention to the suggestive fact that although many pirates had been taken not one had been executed.6 In August, 1565, a letter was addressed to the vice- admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk, exhorting him to increased vigilance and to search the villages on the coast for goods recently landed.7 In November of the same year commissioners were nominated for each county with large powers, and they were to appoint deputies at every creek and landing place.8 As the pirates had friends, agents, partners, and informants in nearly every port the proceedings of the commissioners were not of much avail ; as an example, we find Robert Arnold of Walberswick ordered to appear before the duke of Norfolk, at Kenninghall, for using abusive language about them,9 and there were no doubt many others who thought like Arnold but escaped punishment. The business became further complicated when the prince of Orange issued letters of marque, many of which were taken out by Englishmen, and many of his ships had Englishmen on board. The Orange privateers were an element of la haute politique, and Elizabeth did not hold it advisable entirely to crush them even if it had been in her power to do so. Subsequently the Spanish Netherlands followed the precedent of the Dutch and sent out privateers, the beginning of the affliction of ' Dunkirkers,' which plagued the coast for more than a century, while Englishmen also obtained letters of marque from the Huguenot leaders in France. Pirates and privateersmen used the English ports, secretly or openly, with an almost complete indifference to the commis- sioners ; in 1569 Martin Frobisher, the famous seaman, was arrested for a prize brought in to Aldeburgh and sent to the Marshalsea prison.10 Frobisher's light-hearted proceedings at sea, which were often nearly or wholly piratical, several times brought him under arrest, and in this aspect he presents himself in connexion with more than one of the counties, but he always escaped unscathed. In the spring of 1577 there was an especial outburst of piratical energy on the east coast, from which Norfolk and Suffolk suffered severely, and the queen ordered ships to be sent to protect the coasting trade.11 In September new commissioners were appointed and still more stringent methods 1 S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, i, 22. *Acts cfP.C. 26 Feb. i 550-1. 'Ibid. II June, 1553 ; S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, Add. iv, 45. 4 Acts ofP.C. 4 June, 1558. Jenyns seems to have had a legal claim of some kind (ibid. 29 April). 'S.P. Dom. Mary xi, 38 ; Acts ofP.C. 13 July, 1557. * Acts ofP.C. 23 Dec. 1564. ' Ibid, vii, 244. 8 Ibid. 8 Nov. 1565; S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxxvii, 71, i. The commissioners for Suffolk were Sir Owen Hopton, Sir Robert Wingfield, Edward Grimston, and John Blennerhassett. The state paper gives a full list of the ports, creeks, and landing places of the county ; the ports were Gorleston, Lowestoft, Easton, South- wold, Walberswick, Dunwich, Aldeburgh, Orford, and Ipswich. In 1597 the Lowestoft men objected that the place was not a port nor a member of any port (see fast, p. 223). * Acts of P.O. 1 1 Dec. 1565. 10 R. G. Marsden, Engl. Hist. Rev. xxi, 538 et. seq. "Cecil MSS. II May, 1577. 214 MARITIME HISTORY of repression adopted ; 1 the aiders and abettors ashore were now to be prosecuted and fined, and the fines were to go towards recouping the victims ; the takers of pirates were to have a proportion of the goods found on board, and commissions were to be granted to private persons to send out ships pirate-hunting.2 The commissioners set to work energetically, and soon succeeded in finding misdemeanants in Suffolk. Within a month a number of Aldeburgh burgesses, who, surprised at the new departure, at first 'utterly refused' to pay, were fined for dealing with pirates; they subsequently thought better of it and offered what they considered ' reasonable ' compositions.3 By December the commissioners had compiled a long list of receivers all over the county ; among the offenders, as an actual pirate, was John Flicke of Woodbridge, probably a relative of Robert Flicke, well known in naval history as a commander in the queen's fleets.4 In another list Flicke appears as paying ^3, with sixteen other delinquents, fined from ^3 to £4.$,* and one list of Suffolk fines for 1577 amounts to jf 182 from fifty-nine persons, of whom thirteen lived at Ipswich.6 Probably matters had not become worse in 1578, but the commissioners had found out more, and in March forwarded another catalogue of forty-four receivers, many of whom were apparently well-to-do people.7 In 1579 Aldeburgh was searched, with the result that an inventory of pirates' plunder found in the houses was sent up to the Council.8 The accused were sometimes recalcitrant ; in January of this year two burgesses of Southwold and one of Dunwich refused to pay the fines charged on them, and, in consequence, were sent for to London and ' ordered to attend here upon their lordships until discharged.'8 Obviously this might be made a more expensive punishment than the original fine. There is incidental evidence that the abettors and protectors of Elizabethan pirates were sometimes of much higher social standing than the persons who merely looked to a profit in buying their booty. We get a hint of one such case in the same year when five gentlemen, living near Woodbridge, were ordered to appear before the Privy Council to answer an accusation that Anthony Newport, a notorious pirate, had escaped apprehension by their connivance.10 By an Order in Council of 16 December, 1582, jurisdiction in matters of piracy was suspended for three years in those towns possessing Admiralty rights in order to avoid the conflict of authority which occurred with the piracy commissioners in such places. This measure can hardly have had much effect, for in 1586 pirates were resorting quite openly to Gorleston, which was in the Yarmouth jurisdiction, to revictual.11 It seems that when abroad the pirate or privateer was, as might be expected, even less burdened with ethical scruples than when in English waters. About 1593 Edward Glemham, who belonged to a Suffolk family, was cruising in the Mediterranean, and actually ' pawned 'l several of his crew at Algiers in exchange for provisions. They were still in slavery when the matter came before the Council in 1600; Glemham was dead and had left little property, so that the queen authorized the Lord Mayor and the Trinity House to collect money for the redemption of the men. The bounty system inaugurated by Henry VII, by which an occasional tonnage allowance was made to the builders of new ships suitable for service in war, had, under Elizabeth, settled into a grant of 51. a ton on all vessels of 100 tons and upwards. The expansion of trade and the attraction of privateering stimulated shipbuilding everywhere, while the bounty conduced to an increase of size in new vessels. For a time Ipswich, which by reason of the plentiful supply of timber in the neighbourhood, became the shipyard of London, prospered exceedingly by the demand. Besides the stimulus of war there were economic reasons for a revival of the shipping trade under Elizabeth, but during the middle of the century there appears to have been a decline of commerce with a consequent decrease of shipping. A paper, probably belonging to the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, enumerates a long list of vessels 'decayed' since 1544; during the period reviewed Ipswich and Harwich had lost the use of five ships of 600 tons, Walberswick one of 140, and Aldeburgh one of 200 tons.13 The part that Suffolk took in the Spanish war was the supply of men, ships, and money. On the south coast there were recurrent panics of imminent invasion, but Suffolk did not feel the actual 1S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv, 32. For Suffolk : Lords Wentworth and North, Sir Robt. Wingfield, Sir Wm. Waldegrave, Nicholas Bacon, Robert Jermyn, Edw. Grimston, and others, including the bailiffs and recorder of Ipswich. 'Add. MSS. 34150, fols. 6l, 64. In 1559 the judge of the Admiralty Court held that all goods must be restored to the owners (S.P. Dom. Eliz. vi, 19) ; therefore this must refer to property belonging to the pirates or unclaimed. There had been some doubt whether accessories ashore could legally be prosecuted (Acts ofP.C. 6 June, 1577). 'S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv, 49. * Ibid, cxix, 6, 13, i. 'Add. MSS. 12505, fol. 333. 'S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxxxv, fol. 15. 'Ibid, cxxiii, 3. 'Ibid, cxxxi, 38. 'Acts ofP.C. 16 Jan. 1578-9. "Ibid. 26 April, 1579. "Ibid. 26 Sept. 1586. 11 Ibid. 10 Mar. 1599-1600. Adjudications upon several of Glemham's captures exist among the Admiralty Court papers. " S.P. Dom. Mary, i, 23. 2I5 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK effect of war until the military strength of Spain was destroyed, and privateering, the last expedient of the defeated, taken up with vigour. When that happened the eastern counties, flanked by the privateering nests of Sluys, Dunkirk, and Newport, experienced the fullest effects. For nearly forty years, however, the resources of Suffolk were devoted to the increase of the national fleets and armies, and we have better means of estimating what those resources were in the way of shipping than for any earlier period. From at least the reign of John it had been usual to call upon the officials of the ports for returns of the ships and men available for service ; most of the earlier ones are lost, but several, complete or fragmentary, remain for the Elizabethan period. Usually the details only deal with vessels of IOO tons and upwards, as smaller ones were not considered useful for fighting purposes. War with France and Scotland existed in 1560, which was the cause of the first Elizabethan list of March of that year.1 The return for Suffolk gave 415 'mariners and sailors,' and but four vessels of 100 tons and upwards, two belonging to Walberswick and two to Southwold, the largest being of 140 tons. The number of seamen — the distinction between mariners and sailors is obscure and unnecessary to discuss here — is evidently only that of those ashore at the date of inquiry, and the list of ships is obviously incomplete since Ipswich is not included. The next report, made in January, I5&5-6,2 gives a total of 1,161 masters, mariners, and fishermen, 68 ships, and 436 crayers and boats. In men Southwold leads the county with 174 mariners and fishermen, Dunwich is next with 166, Aldeburgh follows with 155, and Walberswick is fourth with 122 men. Ipswich had only 1 8 masters and 66 men ; but Lowestoft, from Kirkley to Gorton, 115 men. These figures are only general, because the coast on each side of a town was included in its return. Of ships of 100 tons and upwards Ipswich possessed three, Walbers- wick two, and Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft each one, the largest of 140 tons, belonging to Southwold. Aldeburgh, including Thorpe, had the largest number — 89 — of fishing boats, and the district from Southwold to Easton followed with 84. In July, 1570, a general embargo was ordered, and at the moment it was found that in Norfolk and Suffolk there were 1, 660 men at sea and 600 at home ; 3 another list of the same date enumerates 1,156 Suffolk seamen with their places of residence.4 By far the highest number — 320 masters and men — lived at Aldeburgh, Southwold was second with 192, and Dunwich third with 108. In 1572 Thomas Colshill, surveyor of customs at London, compiled a register of coasting traders belonging to the ports.5 The Suffolk section may be thus arranged : — 100 tons From From 20 tons 100 tons From From 20 tons and 50 to 100 20 to 50 and and 50 to 100 20 to 50 and upwards tons tons under upwards tons tons under Ipswich .... 5 12 1O II Southwold . I 2 4 10 Woodbridge . 2 4 8 Walberswick. . — 2 3 13 Aldeburgh. . . . 1 8 13 12 Gorleston . — I Orford .... — i I I Lowestoft . - — I 7 8 Dunwich .... i 3 2 In 1576 there was a list drawn up of ships of over 100 tons built since 1571, in which Southwold appears with one of 170 tons, Ipswich with one of 160 and two of 120, Aldeburgh with two of 140 and 150, and Orwell with one of 150 tons.6 A year later there is another list of men and ' ships, barks, and hoys,' but probably only of those at home at the time 7 : — Ipswich, six ships and 190 men ; Woodbridge, six and 1 80 men ; Orford, five and 25 men; Aldeburgh, fifty-four and 1 2O men ; Dunwich, fourteen and 80 men ; Walberswick, four and 60 men ; Southwold, twenty and 100 men ; Pakefield and Kirkley, four and 46 men ; and Lowestoft, four and 60 men. The next full return is of ships of 100 tons and upwards.8 In this Harwich and Ipswich are coupled with eleven vessels of 1,230 tons, of which the largest was 150 tons; Bawdsey and Woodbridge possessed one of 100 tons ; Orford and Aldeburgh, nine of 1,110 tons, of which the largest was 140 tons; and Walberswick or Southwold, one of 100 tons. References occur in the corres- pondence of the Spanish ambassadors which show that shipbuilding was proceeding apace, and the next list of 1582 * supports the information they gave Philip II. Fifteen ships of 100 tons or more, including two of 200 tons, were owned at Aldeburgh, eight at Ipswich, two at Southwold, and one at Orford. Of craft between 80 and 100 tons Ipswich had six, Aldeburgh, four; and Southwold and Lowestoft, each two. Of under 80 tons there were 60 vessels in the county, 1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xi, 27. ' Ibid, xxxix, 17. 4 Ibid. 15. 'Ibid. Add. xxii. * Ibid, cvii, 68. Harwich occurs independently. 'Ibid, cxx, I. 'Ibid, xcvi, fol. 267 ; 6 Feb. 1576-7. 216 1 Ibid. Ixxiii, 48. He excluded fishing craft. 'Ibid, clvi, 45. MARITIME HISTORY Dunwich and Southwold each possessing ten and Ipswich twelve. The number of men available was 98 masters and 1,184 sailors. A paper of uncertain date, but of about 1590,' gives Aldeburgh twenty-four fishing boats of 20 tons each, of which sixteen were new within eight years ; Walbers- wick and Dunwich seven each, whereof four and five respectively were new ; Southwold three and Lowestoft, two. All these were of 2O and 25 tons, and there were many smaller ones as well. The system of registration must have rendered it difficult for the men to escape the Navy net when they were required to serve. Thus on 7 March, 1589-90 the deputy-lieutenants, vice-admirals, and justices in all the counties were ordered to register the ages, names, and dwelling places of all seamen, fishermen, and gunners between sixteen and sixty years of age before 25 March ensuing while the officers of the ports were to send similar returns of those absent at sea. On 28 April the deputy-lieutenants and the vice-admirals of Suffolk were thanked for their diligence in carrying out the order ; 800 men remained impressed, 400 from Gorleston to Dunwich, and 400 from Dunwfch to Ipswich, and of these 310 were to be allowed to go fishing and to Iceland. It is to be presumed that for the rest the original order remained in force ; that is that they were not, on pain of death, to leave their districts. The shipping in these lists owned at Ipswich is not remarkable for extent, but the real prosperity of the town was based on the considerable building trade, which is noticeable during this and the succeeding reigns. It was probably no new thing,2 but it certainly increased greatly under the favourable economic conditions which followed 1588. We obtain some guide to the number of ships on which the five-shilling bounty was paid, by the orders for payment, or allowance on the customs, among the 'Exchequer Warrants for Issues' ; but there is no doubt that many, if not most, of these warrants are lost. During the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign Woodbridge ran Ipswich closely ; in 1566 the bounty was paid on two Woodbridge-built ships, and on another in 1568, while Ipswich also launched three between 1560 and 1570. It is, however, possible that those constructed at Woodbridge were really the work of Ipswich builders. In 1571 we meet with the first indication in these papers of shipbuilding to the order of London owners, when the "Julian of 1 2O tons and the Minion of 250 tons were constructed for Olyff Burre, a Southwark coppersmith, who was a large owner of merchantmen and privateers. In 1572 Burre built another I5o-ton vessel in the Orwell, and in 1575 two more were launched, but the owners' names are not given. The Ipswich reputation must have steadily improved, and the town reaped the full benefit of the demand for ships towards the end of the reign. In 1595 three were launched for London owners, and in 1596 five more.3 In 1598 the Matthew of 320, in 1599 the Elbing Bonaventure of 300, and in 1603 the Providence of 300 tons were paid for by the warrants. Other Suffolk ports had some share of the building trade. In 1595 the Cherubim of 240 tons came from Orford ; Aldeburgh, too, built some vessels, five, belonging to Alexander and William Bence, earning the bounty in 1596. Several generations of the Bence family produced shipowners and shipmasters. John Wylkinson is the only Ipswich builder named in the warrants ; another, mentioned in 1572, is Robert Cole, who had liberty to build at the Old Quay on payment of twopence a ton to the town.4 A third, William Wright, asked compensation in or about 1590 for a ship sunk by order of Drake in 1589, and in his petition deposed that since 1563 he had built twenty-six ships, all of IOO tons or more, besides many smaller vessels.6 The town must have maintained a thriving business during the reign of James I, although there are only occasional allusions to its chief industry. In 1614 an author, writing about the fishery, pointed out that Ipswich was the best place in which to build fishing 'busses' to compete with the Dutch, because there were more ship- wrights there than in any other six towns in England ; 6 it was already famous for its cordage, and was supplying canvas for the Navy in 15877 In 1618 the committee of the East India Company conferred with Browning of Ipswich about a ship of 500 or 600 tons for the eastern trade, and in February completed the contract.8 In 1619 the company again employed Browning,9 who seems to have had a yard also at Woodbridge, where probably his larger ships were built. The strength and influence of the Ipswich shipbuilding interest is shown by the fact that, in 1621, the report that the Ipswich men intended to promote a Bill for the dissolution of the London Shipwrights' Company caused the representatives of that company to implore the protection of a secretary of state.10 At Walberswick a series of shipbuilders, extending for over a century, are referred to : — Thomas Pryme in 1587, William Crispe in 1634, Robert Boulton, senior, in 1641, and John Cowling in i687.n 1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 37. ' Ante, pp. 203, 211. ' It should be understood that these dates are those of the payments of the bounty ; the ships may have been built long before, but there is no way of ascertaining the exact year. 4 Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 254. * Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 986, No. 70. 6 T. Gentleman, England's Way to Win Wealth, 1614. Gentleman himself was a shipowner, and received the bounty on a 2OO-ton ship in 1600 (S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxiv). 7 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxviii, 25. 8 S. P. Col. 16 Jan. 1617-18. 9 Ibid. 25 May, 1619 ; 26 Nov. 1621. 10 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. i, u i. " Gardner, Hist. Acct. of Dunwich, 164. 28 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK In 1626 a petition for payment of money owing by the Crown stated that for the past thirty years twelve ships a year had been built at Ipswich, but that ' that trade is now stopped.'1 Probably this assertion was not literally true, and the situation marked a check rather than a decline. In 1634 Sir Richard Brooke applied for permission to build a quay and dry dock at Downham Bridge, or Reach, as the cheapness of timber in Suffolk made shipbuilding, he said, easy and profitable ; he enclosed a certificate from some shipmasters testifying that Downham was a suitable place, and that the great increase of the Ipswich building trade rendered additional dock and quay accommodation necessary.8 There is other striking evidence of the volume of the shipbuilding industry at Ipswich about this time. A list exists of some 380 ships, built mostly for London owners between 1625 and 1638, the certificate of building being necessary to obtain a licence for ordnance.3 Of these fifty-nine were built at Ipswich for owners, in one or two instances, as far apart as Newcastle and Sandwich ; the builders were Zephonias and Saphire Ford, Robert and Jeremiah Cole, Henry Leaver, and Thomas Wright. Other Suffolk towns shared for a time in the good fortune born of Suffolk oak. Fourteen ships came from Aldeburgh during the same years, and eleven from Woodbridge. The builders belonging to the former town were Henry Dancke, Mathew Friggott, and Benjamin Hooker ; to the latter Thomas Browning and William Gary. The largest vessel of all, the Levant Merchant of 400 tons, was launched at Woodbridge. From this period the especial production of ships of the ocean-going class declined. Perhaps timber was becoming scarcer and dearer, and the extended establishment of the Thames yards commenced a dangerous competition. The demand for men-of-war caused by the wars of the Commonwealth brought a new form of the old industry into Suffolk, but it was very limited in extent and did not compensate for the loss of merchant ship construction which became more local. The severest individual blow to Ipswich building was dealt by a Suffolk family, the Johnsons of Aldeburgh. In the middle of the seventeenth century Henry Johnson founded the Blackwall Yard, now the Thames Ironworks Company ; he not only pursued the business of shipbuilding on a very large scale, but his and his sons' success encouraged others to establish yards on the Thames, and Suffolk ceased to build for London. The Johnsons became important personages in relation to the Navy; a son, another Henry Johnson, was knighted on 6 March, 1679-80, when Charles II and the duke of York dined with him at the Blackwall Yard. In 1542 a statute (33 Hen. VIII, c. 2) forbade any subject to buy fresh fish at sea or abroad except in Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, the Orkneys, and Newfoundland. Whether due to legislation or a general tendency of the age, the sea fisheries were pursued with a new energy in the sixteenth century and were henceforward carefully watched and nurtured. The success of the Newfoundland fishery from the western counties may have had some influence by encouraging the employment of capital in those nearer home. How keen the competition was becoming in home waters is shown by a French request about the end of September, 1543, for a safe-conduct for nearly 1,000 boats. This could only have been for the herrings, which are due along the shores of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex in October, and if we remember also the presence of the Dutch the local fishermen may well have been pleased at Henry's refusal.4 One of the articles of accusation against Lord Seymour of Sudeley, the Lord Admiral, was that he had extorted ' great sums of money ' from the owners of the Iceland ships, which shows that the business was profitable enough to bear large expenses.5 There was some decline under the unsettled conditions existing during the middle of the century. An undated paper of the reign of Edward VI6 tells us that in 1528-9 there were 140 vessels sailing to Iceland,7 but now — when the paper was written — only 43 ; and that, instead of 220 North Sea boats, there were only 80. 8 This falling off did not continue long; a petition of 1568 says that the Norfolk and Suffolk fisheries were a fifth greater than when the statute of 5 Eliz. to which the improvement was attributed, was passed, and probably the petitioners, asking for more, did not over-estimate the growth.9 There is a general reference in 1580 to the Iceland fishery of Suffolk,10 and in 1581 we have a Trinity House certificate of the increase of fishing boats since the last Parliament — that is of 1576." Orford was the only place in the county which used more boats ; Dunwich with 28, Aldeburgh with 25, Southwold with 8, and Walberswick with 6, were stationary. The year 1584 gives us a petition from John Beycombe of Southwold for himself and other fishermen from Shields to Brightlingsea, a claim which implies some sort of organization, 1 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xxxiv, 85, 86. * Ibid, cclxv, 40. The Trinity House, to whom the petition was referred, approved (ibid, cclxvi, 59). 1 Ibid, xvi, xvii. * L. and P. Hen. VIII, xviii, pt. 2, 259. It was not unusual to agree not to molest fishermen in time of war. The number is that stated by Henry to the Emperor's ambassador and probably an exaggeration. " Acts of P. C, 23 Feb. I 548-9. 6 S. P. Dom. Add. Edw, VI, iv, 56. 7 cf, ante, 2 1 1. 8 Of course the 220 boats sailed from the whole coast, and not from any particular county. ' S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlviii, 83. "> Acts of P. C. 23 Feb. 1579-80. " S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxlvii, 21. In fishing boats the crews were averaged at eight men and a boy to every twenty tons (ibid.). 2l8 MARITIME HISTORY complaining that they were mercilessly robbed by Scotch pirates, who v/ere at that time lying in wait for the Iceland fleet of thirty sail.1 The question of convoy protection clamoured for settlement during this reign seeing that Elizabeth would never do anything at the expense of the Crown if, by delay, she thought she could force her subjects to do it for themselves. In 1575 the Lord Admiral equipped ships for the protection of the east coast, and endeavoured to recoup himself by a rateable charge on those who benefited. From an objection to pay anything made by the Rye men, who sent boats round, we learn that he had done this at the request of Norfolk and Suffolk. In July, 1591, Yarmouth undertook to provide the convoy for a payment of eightpence in the pound (on the value of the fish) from the North Sea men and fourpence from the Icelandmen, but this arrangement did not last long.2 The behaviour of the Icelandmen gave rise in 1585 to complaints from the king of Denmark of their misconduct in his ports ; he threatened to forbid them to fish, and the customs officers were directed to take bonds for their good behaviour.3 The subject was again under discussion in 1599, when we find that the English claimed the right of free fishing and trading in Iceland under a treaty of 1490, conditional on the payment of customs and renewal of licences every seven years.4 The exaction of the composition due to the queen gives us the list of Suffolk vessels sailing to Iceland in J593-5 Orford sent two ships, Aldeburgh four (one of the owners being Henry Johnson), Sizewell two, Walberswick two, Dunwich two, and Southwold four ships and twelve ' barks,' of which five belonged to John Gentleman, junior, and Thomas Gentleman. The development of the North Sea fisheries was checked by the ravages of the Dunkirkers towards the end of the reign,6 and still more, thought Englishmen, by the competition of the Dutch after their truce with Spain. However, from the alarmist pamphlets written during the reign of James I, we gain some information as to the relative importance of the ports as fishing centres. Tobias Gentleman, writing in i6i4,7 describes Ipswich as possessing no fishermen, but many seafaring men ; at Orford and Aldeburgh there were forty or fifty North Sea boats and ten or twelve Iceland ships, while Southwold, Dunwich, and Walberswick owned between them about fifty Iceland vessels and twenty North Sea boats. Kirkley and Lowestoft, he says, were 'decayed,' having only six or seven boats, and the Lowestoft people bought fish of the Dutch instead of working for themselves. The English fishermen were handicapped by several disadvantages, one being unskilfulness as compared with the Dutch, but an especial hindrance was the unsatisfactory condition of some of the towns and harbours. Dunwich, he remarks, is 'now almost ruined;' the entrance of Southwold Haven, although the whole trade of the town depended on the Iceland fishery, was so often closed that it frequently happened that the vessels could not get in or out at the proper time. In 1619 a petition relating to Dunwich, Southwold, and Walberswick states that the conjoint value of their fishery had been ^20,000 a year.8 The evidence concerning these ports is usually contradictory, but some of them evidently possessed a foreign as well as a local trade. The question arose in 1585 whether Aldeburgh or Orford was most suitable for a custom house, and while there were only two Orford owners trading abroad the witnesses deposed to a much greater Aldeburgh trade.9 One witness said that there were 40 ships and 140 fishing boats belonging to the town, and the lowest estimate was 14 or 15 ships and IOO fishing boats, while nine or ten of the owners traded to Italy and Spain, no doubt with salted fish. A pamphleteer of i6i510 writes that Aldeburgh formerly had 30 or 40 vessels, of an average of 200 tons, working all the year round in carrying coal from Newcastle to France, and bringing back salt, but there is no hint of this trade nor of these ships in the details of the Exchequer Commission. The Chamberlain's Accounts of Aldeburgh for 1626-8 give the names of forty-eight vessels belonging to the port, but most of them are small ones.11 A petition of 1628, asking for convoy on behalf of ten towns of Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Cinque Ports,12 states that 1 60 Iceland ships and 230 North Sea boats were expected to sail, but of the Iceland vessels the larger portion must have belonged to Norfolk; in 1632 it was estimated that half the number of vessels going to Iceland sailed from Yarmouth. A combination of fortunate circumstances brought Devon to the front during Elizabeth's reign, but although the eastern counties produced no remarkable leader, they gave the Navy a breed of men strong, steady, and true, fine fighters and fine seamen, who could be relied upon either to command or to serve. Thomas Cavendish of Suffolk was a circumnavigator of renown, but he only copied Drake. The real strength of the east coast men lay in their North Sea training. A con- lemporary writer said well that ' wet and cold cannot make them shrink nor strain whom the 1 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cbcxii, 72. 3 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxxx, 26. 6 Add. MSS. 34729, fol. 63. * See fust, 223. 8 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, 23 Feb. 1618-19. 10 The Trade's Increase, Lond. 1615. "S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xc, 70. 2I9 ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 318. ' Cott. MSS, Vesp. C. xiv, fol. 26. 7 England's Way to Win Wealth, Lond. 1614. ' Exch. Spec, Com. 2178. 11 Redstone, Ship-money Returns for Suffolk. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK North Sea hath dyed in grain ' ; the hard men, disciplined to coolness, resource, and endurance by the ceaseless struggle with their dangerous servant were as valuable a national asset as their descendants are to-day, and had no small share in winning that modern mastery of the sea for which the struggle commenced with Elizabeth. Although several of the expeditions sailing to the north-east put into Orwell Haven, it was for the purpose of communicating with Harwich, and they cannot be said to have had anything to do with Suffolk. John Foxe of Woodbridge was a man of more than local reputation. He was gunner of a Mediterranean merchantman which was taken in 1563 by a Turkish ship.1 He remained in slavery in Egypt until 1577, when, seeing his opportunity, he transfused some of his own wary courage into 266 fellow-prisoners, killed the guards, seized a galley, and, with 258 survivors, escaped to freedom.* He tells the story himself with some touches of cynical humour ; * the pope rewarded him, Philip II gave him a warrant as a gunner in his service, and even Elizabeth was stirred to award him a pension of a shilling a day 'in consideration of the valiantnes done in Turkey.' 4 Robert Flicke was a Suffolk man favoured, as a commander, by the London merchants. He was commodore of the London squadron of eleven ships with Drake in 1587, and perhaps rear-admiral of the fleet. Flicke was probably a wealthy man, for he subscribed £1,000 towards Drake's 1589 voyage to Portugal, and in 1591 he was selected to command a squadron of six London merchantmen sent to reinforce Lord Thomas Howard at the Azores. William Parker of Woodbridge and Thomas and John Gentleman of South wold are mentioned in 1582 among the masters of merchantmen available for service in the Navy. Edmund Barker of Ipswich was an officer of Lancaster's flagship in the East Indian voyage of 1591, of which he wrote an account,* and a monument in St. Clement's Church, Ipswich, tells us that Thomas Eldred of that town went round the world with Cavendish. The spirit of the time worked in Suffolk as elsewhere. A letter was directed to the bailiff of Ipswich in 1573, as well as to other officials in the neighbourhood, informing them that the queen would not tolerate the assemblies of men intending to go to sea in armed ships ; all preparations were to cease except for service in Ireland.6 The coast defences were neglected during the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign ; but the Ridolfi conspiracy of 1571, when there was some idea of landing troops from the Low Countries at Harwich or Landguard, drew fresh attention to the port and it was inspected, but nothing else was done. In June, 1578, Lord Darcy was directed to examine the defec- tive fort ' beside Harwich,' which may mean Landguard, and in January, 1579-80, when the political outlook became very threatening, another survey was ordered. At the same time Sir Robert Wing- field was told to go to Aldeburgh, Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft, where such guns as remained lay dismounted and useless, and persuade the burgesses to replace them at their own expense ; Aldeburgh, at least, was bound to do this by an agreement of 15697 Later in the year the justices of the county were directed to put the ordnance of the four towns in condition for service.8 Consideration was also given to the state of Harwich harbour, which was deteriorating from several causes, one being the existence of a breach in Landguard through which the tide was washing shingle from the north and east. The Ipswich people were considered responsible, but answered that the breach was not within their liberties but within the freeholds of Mr. Fanshawe and others. A commission of inquiry issued in 1582 to report on the harbour,9 and the consequent regulations ordered the bailiffs of Ipswich to repair the breach. Fanshawe denied responsibility, and added that Landguard had only been used for drying fish within the last forty or fifty years.10 The deterioration and shoaling had probably been progressing for many years, for a commission of 1565 u found that Ipswich, then, was ' not so much frequented as heretofore,' the reason being that nothing of more than 60 tons could come above Downham Bridge. The effect of anything that stopped the scour of the tide at the mouth would be felt even in the upper reaches of the river. The war with Spain caused some thought to be given to the defenceless state of the coast, but the queen, as usual, tried to bargain with her subjects as to how much she and they should respec- tively accomplish. Wingfield's mission of 1580 had probably proved fruitless, and now he and others were ' to deal ' with the towns to induce them to contribute towards the repair and mounting of guns belonging to the queen, which remained in an unserviceable state at Aldeburgh, Southwold, and Lowestoft.12 As these are the same towns that Wingfield visited in 1580, and as he was to per- suade the people ' to better consideration and not be obstinate,' it may be presumed that they had 1 There is an order of 8 July, 1 557, to the Lord Admiral to deliver again to John Foxe of Aldeburgh his ship, the Mary Fortune, recaptured from the French (S. P. Dom. Mary, xi, 23). ' Eight men died of hunger on board the galley. 4 Pat. 28 Jan. 1580. * Acts ofP.C. 14 June, 1573. 8 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxxxvi, 1 1. 10 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clix, 19 ; clx, 8, 9. " Acts of P.O. 17 May, 1586. 1 Hakluyt, Voyages (ed. 1 888), xi, 9. 4 Hakluyt, Voyages (ed. 1888), xi, 272. 7 Ibid. 27 Jan. 1579-80. ' See y.C.H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.' " Exch. Spec. Com. 2 1 24. 220 MARITIME HISTORY proved obstinate in the former year. This time any who opposed him were to be reported to the Council. Apparently little or nothing was done, because eighteen months later, in December, 1587, when it was realized that the Armada was really coming, Captain Tumour was sent into Suffolk to survey the defences, and the Aldeburgh burgesses petitioning at the same time for fortifications were directed to consult with him.1 The Council expressed the usual hope that the townsmen would bear the cost themselves. There is a report of December, 1587, perhaps by the deputy-lieutenants, on the military condition of Suffolk which shows that Landguard was quite defenceless.8 The shore was sufficiently steep to enable an enemy ' without help or use of boats to leap on land out of their ships.' Once ashore it was a strong position for them, being cut off from the mainland at every flood tide by the ' fleets ' under Walton Cliff. It was intended to throw up an earthen intrenchment with six guns. Orford was undefended, Dunwich and Walberswick were passed over as of little importance, and Aldeburgh was said to have guns, but no intrenchments wherein to place them. Mismer Haven is discussed at some length as ' apt for the enemy to land in,' and it appeared that the remains of former intrenchments there only required repair and re-arming. Southwold was unprotected and marked for an 8-gun battery ; Lowestoft possessed two guns, and batteries were designed to occupy the same relative position as those of Henry VIII. A parapet was proposed along the top of the cliff between Lowestoft and Gorleston, with a sconce at Gorleston. In January, 1588, the deputy-lieutenants and Tumour sent in another report, substantially the same as that of December.3 Landguard and Lowestoft were the weakest points ; Aldeburgh, ' being now a town rich in shipping and otherwise,' required a fort for which the burgesses would contribute. They concluded, in a striking passage, by saying that the people from the best to the meanest are ready, according to their own most bounden duties, to bestow their lives in this service for God, her Majesty, and country. And if these necessary defences and succours may be had we shall no doubt fight with the better courage ; if not, we shall yet, notwithstanding, do the duties of loyal and truehearted subjects but with greater hazard. With this may be paired the spirit of the 4,000 Essex men who marched into Tilbury in July, 1588, with empty stomachs and found nothing to eat, but said 'they would abide more hunger than this to serve her majesty and the country.' The Chamberlain's Accounts of Ipswich show that an earthwork was in progress at Landguard in September, 1588 ; the corporation of Lowestoft built a bulwark in the same year at a cost of £80, for which Elizabeth sent six guns.4 At Aldeburgh three batteries, carrying twenty guns, were erected.5 The experience of 1587, and of later years, showed that the brunt of the fighting had always to be borne by men-of-war, and that armed merchantmen were at best useful only for secondary operations. This, however, was understood in 1588 only by a few seamen ; therefore in that year the whole of the English coast was called upon to help, not by a general impressment but by sending a specified number of ships to join the royal fleet. On 31 March, 1588, a general embargo on shipping was proclaimed, the object being not so much to retain the vessels as the men. This was followed the next day by orders to the port towns to furnish ships at their own expense, all to be of more than 60 tons.6 Ipswich and Harwich were linked for two ships and a pinnace ; Orford, Dunwich, and Aldeburgh for one ship ; and Lowestoft, with Yarmouth, for a ship and a. pinnace. Both now, and on subsequent occasions, many of the ports sought excuses in their poverty either to obtain a reduction in the demand made upon them or to have the county and neighbouring towns joined with them towards the charges. As far as Ipswich and Harwich were concerned, the original order had been changed to three hoys, and on 12 April the bailifrs of Ipswich, who usually constituted themselves the spokesmen for the two towns, expatiated to Walsingham on the difficulties encountered.7 There had been an auxiliary order that most of the cost should be borne by those who had made profits by reprisals, but the persons liable were all ready to swear that they were losers by their ventures. A week later they wrote again to Walsingham and named one Ralph Morrys, a gentleman of the town, who obstinately refused to pay anything.8 On 19 April an Order in Council directed that all the places within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of Ipswich were to contribute towards the Ipswich and Harwich ships. Lowestoft protested that it was very poor, and that many of the wealthiest inhabitants refused to pay, while some had left the town rather than do so. The Council ordered Pakefield, Kirkley, Kessingland, Covehithe, Gorton, Gorleston, and South Yarmouth, to assist, recommended the bailiffs to chase the refugee townsmen, and told them to send to London all who continued to refuse payment.' Then Aldeburgh followed ; the authorities complained that although their ship Acts a/P.C. 26 Dec. 1587. ' S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccvi, 32. Ibid, ccviii, 23. * Gillingwater, Hist, of Lotot 'stiff, 415. Add. MSS. 22249, fol- 53- ' Acts o/p- c- 31 March, i April, 1588. S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccix, 88 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 255. S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccix, 100. ' Acts of P. C. 19 May, 1588. 221 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK was already in commission, at a preliminary outlay of ,£590, they had not been able to obtain more than j£4O from Orford, Dunwich, Southwold, Walberswick, and Woodbridge, the places appointed to help them.1 The Privy Council answered that the towns ought to contribute at the rates to which they were assessed for the subsidies, and that those who persisted in not paying were to be sent up to them. These difficulties were not peculiar to Suffolk ; they occurred nearly everywhere, but they throw a cold sidelight on the enthusiasm for battle which most historians and all poets describe as inspiring England in 1588. The truth is that, while the ports were no less patriotic than the shires, the demand for ships now bore on them with an unfair severity for several reasons, and as open refusal was as yet impossible evasion or cavils were their only resource. Of the three vessels assessed on Ipswich and Harwich the first town sent two, the William, 140 tons, Captain Barnaby Lowe, and the Katharine, 125 tons, Captain Thomas Grymble ; Aide- burgh sent the Marygold, 150 tons, Captain Francis Johnson, and Lowestoft the Mathew, 35 tons, Captain Richard Mitchell. The Marygold was dismissed for want of provisions, on 1 3 June, and the Mathe-w, contemptuously, on the same date as not worth keeping.2 Three other Aldeburgh vessels, and a go-ton Lowestoft bark, the Elizabeth, joined the fleet as volunteers in the queen's pay, presumably in the hope of picking up some plunder. The Elizabeth was one of the vessels used as fireships on the night of 28-29 Ju'y> tne crucial moment of the campaign.3 All the Suffolk ships were attached to Lord Henry Seymour's division, watching the Flemish ports, which joined the main fleet off Calais on 27 July, and they were no doubt in the subsequent battle off Gravelines, but, like the rest of the merchantmen, did no useful service. On i August, Seymour's division anchored in the Rolling Grounds, where the Lord Admiral, Howard, also arrived on the 7th, after chasing the Armada past the Firth of Forth. After the Armada crisis many of the corporations and counties showed no desire to liquidate the liabilities incurred, but only a ready ingenuity in finding reasons why the responsibility should be shifted to their neighbours' shoulders. In most cases the ships had been sent to sea before the money for their equipment was collected, the credit of the town or district being pledged to some of the more wealthy inhabitants for the necessary advance of money. In the case of Ipswich and Harwich the vessels were with Seymour in May, while the Ipswich bailiffs were making the before-noticed complaints to Walsingham, and that this was done was owing to two burgesses of Ipswich, John Tye and John Barber, to whom the William and the Katherine belonged.4 In December, 1588, the Council were informed by the Ipswich authorities, speaking for Harwich as well as for themselves, that they had levied four whole subsidies and had borrowed money, but yet had jf 500 more to pay which they were unable to find, especially as some of the places formerly directed to assist them had been excused by the Council and others made their own excuses.' The Council directed that the hundreds adjoining the coast were to make up the deficiency. This plan does not seem to have been successful for, in the following January, Tye and Barber themselves addressed the Council, saying that, notwithstanding these orders, they could not get paid. In 1589 Norreys and Drake led a fleet and army to Portugal to place Don Antonio, the pretender to the crown, on the throne and thus dismember the Spanish empire and end the war. Although the queen gave assistance the expedition was a private adventure on the part of the leaders and their associates ; consequently the ports were not called upon for ships, but upwards of eighty were hired on the usual terms of two shillings a ton per month. The port of origin of many of the ships is not given, but at least seven were from Suffolk, including both the William and the Katherine, commissioned in the previous year. The failure of this enterprise deterred Elizabeth from further undertakings on a large scale until 1596, when the attack on Cadiz took place. The first sign of preparation was on 14 December, 1595, when the county was required to find provisions. A week later, on 2 1 December,6 a circular letter asked for two ships, manned, armed, and victualled at local charge for five months. By this time the unfairness of placing the whole charge on the ports was recognized, and of the ^1,800 the vessels were expected to cost the Council expected half to be raised on the coast and the other half from the county.7 The original assessment was intended to be ,£3,000, therefore the Council had cut down the cost considerably in response to protests, and they further decided that no person should be charged who was not rated at a certain amount of subsidy.8 Eventually the Costly and the James, each of 20O tons and twenty guns, and both Ipswich ships, sailed with the fleet as transports at a cost of ^1,896, but the troubles of the Suffolk authorities were by no means over. Many people refused to pay and, in November, 1596, three burgesses of Woodbridge appeared before the Council to answer for their contumacy. It had not been uncommon for occasional cases of recalcitrancy to occur in the ports, but a more dangerous spirit is indicated when persons of the position of Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sir Robert Jermyn were ' giving particular advice contrary to our direction aggravating the matter ' against the Privy Council, who had written 1 Acts of P. C. 28 May, 1588. * S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccxii, 34, i. 1 Ibid, ccxvi, 74. The owner was Thomas Meldrum. * Ibid, ccxxi i, i . • Acts of P. C. 17 Dec. 1588. • Ibid. ' Ibid, xxv, 315. ' Ibid. 9 Feb. 1395-6- 222 MARITIME HISTORY seven times in vain to the county authorities.1 Together with three burgesses of Ipswich Jermyn and Bacon were summoned before the Council. It may be that the revolt of the county magnates was a consequence of the new plan of assessing the whole county, and that they represented a considerable body of opinion. In April, 1597, ^74° remained unpaid; in May four Lowestoft men, who apparently represented the town, were before the Council, and they boldly maintained that not only was the rating too high, but that Lowestoft was not a port nor a member of any port, and had always been assessed hitherto with inland towns to the county for military contributions. On the first point their arguments seem to have impressed the Council, for it was agreed to refer the question to commissioners and accept their decision.3 In November we find the officers and men of the James and Costly petitioning that they were yet unpaid, at which the Council ' marvelled.' 3 In February, 1600, the Suffolk assessments were still uncollected ; the Lord Chief Justice had been directed to confer with the local justices when he went on circuit, and he reported that they found ' the country so unwilling that there is small hope the said money could be gotten in unless there be some strict order taken.' The Council could only apply the usual stimulant of ordering the stubborn ones to appear in London.4 In 1596 some of the refractory inhabitants of the West Riding of Yorkshire had demanded to know by what authority these assessments were made. The temper shown there and elsewhere may have caused the government to be chary of making such claims without very real necessity. There were nearly 200 transports with the earl of Essex to the Azores in 1597, but lhey were all hired in the usual way, and there were no more forced levies from the counties during the reign of Elizabeth. As piracy died down the scourge of Dunkirk privateering, which was little different, became more and more virulent, and it especially affected the east coast as the nearest cruising-ground to the Low Countries ports, and as offering a harvest of helpless coasters, colliers, and fishing boats. The Spanish government had always hesitated about issuing letters of marque, not for humanitarian reasons, but because there were so few seamen in Spain, and permission, several times given to its subjects, had been in each case speedily withdrawn. The governors of the Low Countries had no grounds for wavering, and as Dunkirk, Sluys, Nieuport, and Ostend fell into their hands they became privateer bases which inflicted terrible injury upon English commerce. As early as 1586 the Council recommended the people of Norfolk and Suffolk to subscribe among themselves to equip two vessels to protect the fishermen from the Dunkirkers who were then marauding among them ; 5 the plague grew worse towards the end of Elizabeth's reign because the queen refused to go to the expense of cruising ships while there was any likelihood that a passive nan possumus would compel her subjects to act for themselves. In 1596 six or seven Dunkirkers were blockading Harwich harbour, and nearly thirty traders had been taken. 6 The losses suffered, not only by Suffolk but also by other counties, caused debates in Parliament in 1601, when one member declared that, within his knowledge, Dunkirk alone began with two and now had twenty privateers at work. No assistance, however, was to be obtained from the government, therefore in 1602 the masters and men of Orford, Aldeburgh, Ipswich, Yarmouth, and the Essex ports expressed their willingness to subscribe five per cent, of their wages towards the expense of convoying.7 The accession of James I brought peace with Spain but piracy still continued on a smaller scale, and the contempt shown by the Dunkirkers in taking Dutch merchantmen in territorial waters caused them to be defined in 1605 as the portion contained within a straight line drawn from headland to headland.8 But international definitions are of little value unless emphasized by battleships, and the outrages of the Flemings continued irrespective of proclamations when the Thirty Years' War commenced. Pure piracy was less prevalent but there was sufficient existing to make it necessary to issue a fresh commission of piracy, for all the counties, in 1608. When, in 1619, a national subscription was called for to restore the haven of Dunwich, Southwold, and Walberswick, one cause of the poverty of the towns was said to be losses by pirates. When the war with Spain, of 1624, legalized the action of the Dunkirkers they fell with renewed activity on the east coast, which was quite defenceless. Orwell Haven was so open that in August, 1625, Secretary Coke thought that even a few of them would constitute a sufficiently strong force to destroy Harwich and then Ipswich ;9 in 1626 they were expected to attack the unfinished fort at Landguard.10 In January, 1626, there were four cruisers on the station between Harwich and Yarmouth, but notwithstanding this protection the Aldeburgh men petitioned for ordnance because they were in daily fear of the Dunkirkers who had fired on the town.11 A month later a privateer took a ship out of Southwold Roads, in sight of the place, driving the townsmen from I Acts of P. C. 20, 30 March, 1597. i Ibid. 6 Nor. 1597 ; S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclx, 1 1 1. II Ibid. 10 July, 1586. ' Ibid. Add. xxiv, 47. S.P. Dom. Chas. I, iv, 77. " Ibid, xviii, 96. 223 * Ibid. 17 April, 18 May, 28 Dec. 1597. 4 Ibid. 9 March, 1599—1600. 6 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclix, 73. 3 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xiii, 1 1. 11 Ibid, six, 75, izo. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK their guns by its fire.1 As the Southwold authorities stated a few weeks afterwards that the town was unprotected these guns were the old and useless ones referred to later.2 It was believed, no doubt with some exaggeration, that there was a whole fleet of Dunkirkers off the Suffolk coast. A certificate of 1628 specifies thirteen Aldeburgh ships, of the value of £6,800, lost between 1625 and 1627, of which four had been taken by Dunkirkers ; 200 men had been drowned, leaving 300 widows and children.3 In August, 1626, there were fifty-eight Ipswich ships lying in the Orwell and in Harwich harbour unable to sail for fear of capture, while the 'Iceland and North Sea fishermen had abandoned their voyages for the same reason. In consequence of a petition from Dunwich and its neighbours in December a convoy of four Newcastle ships, hired for the purpose, was ordered for the fishery in January, 1627,* but in March the Ipswich burgesses still reported the Orwell as blockaded and estimated their losses, from capture alone, during 1626 at ^5,000.* In addition to this the hindrance to free ingress and exit was destroying their shipbuilding trade.6 The Navy was not large enough to spare vessels in war time for convoy purposes, nor was the administration efficient enough to make the most of what resources were available, therefore in reply to a joint petition from Norfolk and Suffolk of 1628, hired ships were again ordered to be taken up. In this instance the government undertook to pay, but the petitioners were told that if the necessity recurred the ports would have to pay for themselves.7 Peace with France and Spain brought some relief, but the Dunkirkers — which it should be understood was a generic name for all privateers — were not quelled, and the pause was only for a time until the vastly increased parliamentary Navy policed the four seas effectively. The peaceful reign of James I gave little occasion for military or naval levies, therefore there are few references to the ports. But there is evidence that in spite of the ravages of the Dunkirkers8 maritime commerce had steadily increased so far as London and other ports carrying on special trades were concerned. Mr. R. G. Marsden considers that there were upwards of 2,000 trading craft afloat ;9 this number is largely in excess of that existing in the palmiest days of Elizabeth. Mr. Marsden has compiled a list10 of ships' names occurring in legal and historical documents of the reign of James, and also in various printed sources, in which 36 Aldeburgh vessels are mentioned, 76 of Ipswich, 1 2 of Orford, 9 of Southwold, 27 of Woodbridge, 2 of Walberswick, and i of Dunwich.11 There must have been many others that sailed through an uneventful career without attracting the attention of the law, the Admiralty officials, or the customs. The tendency of ship tonnage was to increase, in itself a sign of growing trade and larger cargoes ; in 1617 the bounty was paid on the Griffin, 318 tons of Orford, and the Anne Bonaventure, 372 of Ipswich. There was evidently money to spare for speculation because in March, 1611, the Ipswich corporation subscribed j£ioo 'out of the town treasure' for the Virginia Settlement of the London Company.13 The profit from wreck and the latent jealousy of the crown anent privileges shorn from the prerogative were causes why the Admiralty rights of the towns were regarded with suspicion towards the end of the sixteenth century. In 1606 the opinion of Coke, the attorney-general, was taken on the jurisdiction exercised by Ipswich, but the claims of the Suffolk towns were more firmly based than were those of some in other counties and no legal proceedings followed. An inquisition of 1628 showed that the Lord Admiral only possessed rights of wreck between Leiston and Aldeburgh, all the rest of the coast being franchised to the corporations or to private persons. The time had passed when the exempted towns were places of refuge for maritime criminals, and the time was coming when preciser legislation more strictly administered was to make their pecuniary privileges of less value. During the eighteenth century the office of vice-admiral was an almost honorary one and the profits from wreck and accessory perquisites became less and less. Local jealousies, however, made these immunities seem of consequence as proofs of former importance, and in 1829 Dunwich and South- wold went to law over the question whether a puncheon of whiskey found floating at sea was within the jurisdiction of the one or the other. The victor, Dunwich, had to pay its own costs of upwards of £1,000. The absurdity of this case may have hastened legislation but there were also more serious grounds for action. The Municipal Corporation Commissioners found that the proceedings of the 1 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xxii, 46, i. » Post, p. 226. 1 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxxvi, 5 5 ; of these thirteen vessels two were of 3 50, two of 3 20, and two of 300 tons. One of the thirteen was a Mayflower, and this ship, Mr. Marsden informs me, was not improbably the famous vessel of the Pilgrim Fathers. 4 Ibid, xlii, 102 ; xlvii, 23. * Ibid. Ivi, 66. 6 Ibid. Iviii, 14. ' Ibid, xc, 70 ; xci, 30, 45. ' They mainly haunted particular portions of the coast and large and well armed ships were able to protect themselves. ' Trans. R. Hist. Soe. xix, 311,' English Ships in the Reign of James I.' I0 Ibid. " Mr. Marsden informs me that the corresponding figures for the period 1 509-47 are Aldeburgh 26, Ipswich 17, Lowestoft 15, Southwold 7, Walberswick 17, Woodbridge 12, Dunwich 10, Orford 2, and Thorpe, Sizewell, and Bawdsey I each. " Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 256. 224 MARITIME HISTORY Admiralty Court at Southwold were very irregular and were complained about by Lloyds, while in 1835 some of the inhabitants stated, in a petition to the House of Commons, that they were 'an intolerable nuisance.' Eventually all these jurisdictions, except that of the Cinque Ports, were abolished by 5 and 6 Will. IV, cap. 76. The Ipswich corporation held an Admiralty Court on the Andrews Shoal as late as 23 July, 1827.* The first naval armanent of moment during the reign of James I was that under Sir Robert Mansell intended to act against Algiers. The western ports were the greatest sufferers from the Mediterranean pirates, but the king thought that all the trading ports, as more or less interested, should bear most of the expense. A circular letter from the Privy Council in February, 1618-19, related that the Algerine and Tunisian pirates had taken 300 ships and many hundreds of men in a few years, but in reality the expedition was more immediately occasioned by European politics than by the sufferings of James's subjects.2 Ipswich was required to find £i$o;3 the other Suffolk ports were to assist Yarmouth, but the mayor complained that Woodbridge had not answered their application, while Lowestoft repudiated any liability and owned nothing but fishing boats. Aldeburgh, Southwold, and Walberswick flatly refused as not being members of Yarmouth, and Orford would only contribute if Aldeburgh did.4 A month later the mayor wrote that Woodbridge was richer than Yarmouth and its members combined, but that it still refused any payment ; the constable of Wood- bridge deposed that he delivered the Yarmouth letter to Thomas Boughton, the chief shipowner there, who refused to show it to the townsmen.4 The Ipswich corporation seems to have paid the assessment without trouble, but in September, 1621, further payments were requested as Mansell's fleet was staying in the Mediterranean (and doing nothing there) longer than had been expected. To this Ipswich and Harwich replied conjointly that they had already contributed more than they were justified in expending considering their losses at sea.6 The war with Spain caused preparations for the Cadiz fleet of 1625. It was made up of men-of-war and hired transports, the counties not being required to find any armed ships. The port of origin is not always given in the fleet list, but it contains eight Woodbridge and three Aldeburgh vessels ;7 from another source we learn that Ipswich sent twenty-four vessels, of which one, the Robert, Captain Edmond Curling, was lost with all hands.8 A year later the owners of these ships had received nothing and were petitioning for payment ; in 1627, and no doubt long afterwards, they were in the same plight. In 1626 Charles, on the brink of war with France, resolved to follow the precedents of Elizabeth's reign, and called upon the maritime shires for fifty- six ships to join the royal fleet. Harwich, Ipswich, and Woodbridge were associated for three vessels, each to be of 200 tons, and victualled and stored for three months.9 All the towns immediately represented their poverty in urgent terms, and an offer of the county to bear one-third of the expense was refused.10 In July the Council reduced the demand to two ships, but this also gave no satisfaction. In September the bailiffs and aldermen of Ipswich passed a formal resolution that they had met several times to consider the Council Order, and had made rates for a levy, but that ' the most part of the inhabitants of this town are not able to undergo the charge thereof, and likewise understanding from the coast towns that they are altogether disabled by reason of their many losses to contribute their proportions,' determined to send a bailiff to London to beg the Council to relieve Ipswich and Woodbridge.11 Another paper, perhaps a little later in date, says that not a fourth part of the rate had been collected in Ipswich.12 In February, 1627, Woodbridge petitioned on its own account, and in March the Council directed that the county as a whole was to pay half the cost of the two ships.13 In April the Ipswich corporation petitioned again and referred sullenly to their outlay for the Cadiz voyage of 1625 as yet unpaid ;14 no doubt this was the expla- nation of much of the backwardness at Ipswich and elsewhere. In Lord Willoughby's fleet of 1627 there were seven vessels from Ipswich, one from Aldeburgh, and one from Woodbridge ; in Buckingham's Rhi expedition thirteen from Ipswich, two from Aldeburgh, and one from Woodbridge. These were all transports, but evidently there were plenty of vessels available if there was any hope of being paid for them. A list of ships for which letters of marque were granted between 1625-8 shows the Rainbow, 160 tons, of Aldeburgh, and Margaret, 200, of Ipswich, besides others.16 A return of 1634 states that in 1628 Ipswich possessed sixty-three vessels of from 100 to 300 tons, and four of from forty to sixty tons; Woodbridge 1 Clarke, Hist, of Ipswich, 1 6 1. For the disputes between Harwich and Ipswich concerning Orwell Haven see f.C.H Essex, ii, ' Maritime Hist.' 1 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cv, 88. * Ibid. 89. 4 Ibid, cvii, 26 (12 March, 1618-19). 4 Ibid, cviii, 8 1 ; Hilt. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 309. ' S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxxx, 42, 43. I Pipe Off. Dec. Accts. 2263. ' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xxxiv, 85, 86. ' Ibid, xxx, 81 (June, 1626). 10 Hist. MSS. Com. Wodehouse MSS. 446. II Ibid. Rep. ix, App. i, 254. " S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xlii, 132 (undated). 13 Ibid. Iv, 59 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Wodehouse MSS. 449. " S.P. Dom. Chas. I, Ixi, 80. 15 Ibid. cxv. 2 225 29 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK seventeen of from 100 to 300 tons, and Aldeburgh fourteen of the same class with twenty-four of from thirty to eighty tons.1 Dunwich housed eighty-two seafaring men, but petitioned in 1628 that there was only one parish left in the town, which was now too poor to set out anything but small fishing boats, and thatmost of their men had died in the Rh6 expedition. In 1629 there were 1,129 seamen in the county, of whom 250 belonged to Ipswich and 256 to Aldeburgh.8 The recurrence of war caused attention to be paid to the coast defences generally and to Harwich harbour in particular as a descent was apprehended there. In August, 1625, Sir John Coke, an influential official then attending to the restoration of the ruined forts in the home counties, wrote forcibly to Buckingham about its importance and its absolute unprotectedness, ' this place then above all others must be considered of.' * It was probably in consequence of this letter that the deputy lieutenants of Suffolk were asked for a report upon Landguard and other places. They of course recommended a fort at Landguard, ' where formerly there hath been one, for if the enemy should land there and build a sconce he would command all the harbour.' From Orfordness to Thorpeness there were only eight ' old honeycombed iron pieces,' presumably at Aldeburgh ; Dunwich and Southwold had each two old and useless guns.4 Nothing was done immediately for the coast towns, and a report of 1627 shows that their antique armament still remained, but in the same year ten new guns were sent to Aldeburgh and eight to Southwold.5 Although these, places were supplied with guns they were expected to furnish ammunition for themselves, but Aldeburgh petitioned that it was too poor even to do that.8 When Sir John Coke wrote to Buckingham insisting on the immediate necessity of a fort at Landguard he added that, ' if the haste will not expect the ordinary slow proceeding in the Office of the Ordnance,' the superintendence might be entrusted to a Navy Commissioner. This was in August, 1625, and a descent under the Marquis Spinola being daily expected 1,000 militia were encamped there in September.7 In the result the work was placed in the charge of the earl of Warwick, the lord-lieutenant of Suffolk, and by January, 1626, it was in progress.8 In October commissioners were sent to survey the new buildings there and at Harwich ; they reported that ' great care and judgment ' had been displayed, but that another four months' work would be required to finish Landguard.9 It seems to have been a square with four ' bulwarks,' or bastions, and four curtains, having a circuit of 1,968 feet ; the curtain walls were to be eighteen feet high, and two faces of the fort commanded the entrance of the harbour.10 The fortress was established from I July, 1627, but it was sufficiently advanced in 1626 to be armed with forty-three guns, and nineteen more were added in the following year.11 It was probably planned by Simon von Cranvelt, who was induced by our ambassador in Holland to come over here ' for the making and working of fortifications within this kingdom.' Cranvelt died here, and his representatives were paid ;£ioo in i626.12 The earl of Holland was created governor of Landguard for life, with the colonelcy of the garrison of 126 men, by grant of 7 March, 1628, and a fee of ^207 in. 8^. a year was allowed him for their maintenance. The first incident of interest in the history of the new fort was 'a great mutiny ' in June, 1628. Robert Gosnold, the lieutenant-governor, who must have exceeded his powers, made the six ringleaders draw lots, the one who lost being condemned to death. The prisoner was handed over to the civil arm, the process being to transfer him from one parish constable to another until he reached his destined prison. However, the constable of Trimley St. Mary, who perhaps knew more than Gosnold of the law, set the culprit free. Both men-of-war captains and port commandants were everywhere sticklers for etiquette in the matter of salutes, and the usual collision between the Navy and the Army soon occurred at Landguard. In 1629 Captain Richard Plumleigh, in a king's ship, put into Harwich harbour, and was ordered by the commanding officer at Landguard to strike his flag. Plumleigh, like other captains, thought such a confession of inferiority insufferable, even if the demand had not been for several reasons ridiculously impertinent as coming from this particular army. His description of his proceedings is couched in the right spirit : — I told them that without an order from the Council or the Commissioners of the Admiralty, I durst do no such obeisance ; they answered that if I refused they would sink me, and that they had warrant from my lord of Warwick so to do. I slighted that authority and replied that I thought myself as able to beat their paper fort to pieces with my ordnance as they to sink me, and bid them take heed how they made the first shot. Upon this we fell to worse words, and at length to some blows, in which they had nothing the better.13 1 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxx, 64 ; cclxxii, 135. It may be noticed that before an English ship could be sold to a foreigner the approval of the judge of the Admiralty Court, of the Admiralty, and of the Navy rf"» ••__!_!. 1 » . • 1 9 Tl • 1 1 M T i • i . I Ibid, civ, 31. ' Ibid. iv. 77. 5 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, Ixxxiii, 10 ; ccxlv, 49. Diary of John Rous (Camd. Soc.) 2. 9 Ibid, xxxvii, 64. II Ibid, ccliv, 41 ; xciv, 33. " S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxlvii, 18. 226 Commissioners had to be obtained. 4 Hist. MSS. Com. Wodehouse MSS. 443. * Ibid, xxix, 114. ' Ibid, vi, 44 ' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, six, 20 ; xxxvi, 22. 10 Ibid. 64. i. " Devon, Isiuei of the Exchequer, 7. MARITIME HISTORY From the last sentence it may be inferred that shots actually were exchanged. So far as the Navy was concerned, this especial folly soon ceased, but merchantmen were for long expected to salute the king's forts. In 1715 sixty-one masters of merchantmen petitioned that the then governor was in the habit of firing on them for not saluting, or for not going through the process to his satisfaction, and that he made them pay for the cost of the exercise.1 Notwithstanding the favourable opinion of the commissioners of 1626, Landguard fort must have been badly built, for in 1635 the walls were falling down, and it seems that the moat and counterscarp had never been completed.8 There were forty guns, but they were lying dismantled and useless, and the pay of the garrison was ,£5,600 in arrear, the men being ' weak,' unclothed, and in fear of arrest for debt. No repairs were undertaken, and in May, 1636, it was possible 'to ride into the fort horse and man,' the wall being in a condition which offered no obstacle.3 The governor, in reporting the state of things rather later, said that there were 150 ships belonging to the haven — presumably to Ipswich and Harwich — and that the county levies were not to be trusted for the defence of the fort.4 Landguard fell into the hands of the Parliament without trouble ; nothing occurred there during the civil war, through which period it was kept in serviceable condition, but after the return of peace it was neglected, and by 1656 had fallen into a ruinous state again.5 At one moment, however, there had been a possibility of its disestablishment, the question being referred to the committee of the Eastern Association.6 Beyond the guns of 1627 no further defence was afforded to the Suffolk ports before the Civil War. The threat of royalist privateers off the coast impelled Parliament, in December, 1642, to assign ,£50, and in the following January another ,£50, for the purpose of throwing up batteries at Aldeburgh.7 Later, the town petitioned that it had expended ,£2,125 IQJ. about its twenty-six guns and the men watching and serving them, there being often occasion to use them against the privateers hovering around. When Cromwell marched into Lowestoft in 1643 he is said to have taken away the guns sent by Elizabeth, but according to a petition of 1663 the Commonwealth built an 8-gun battery, which was shortly afterwards swept away by the sea.8 In 1656 there were guns at Lowestoft, but no ammunition for them, and on 8 February five Dunkirkers were lying off the town, the inhabitants expecting momentarily that the crews would come ashore and plunder.9 The nomination of a parliamentary committee in May, 1651, to consider the advisability of building some defence at Gorleston probably marks the date of the Old Fort, or of its reconstruction and re-armament. Guns were in position at Southwold when, in July, 1652, a Dutch fleet was off the place and took two prizes in despite of the town artillery.10 Charles had intended an issue of ship-money writs in 1628, but, alarmed by the feeling aroused, he withdrew from the first trial. Forced, however, to choose between facing a parliament or raising money by this method, the ship-money writs of 20 October, 1634, were sent out, Suffolk being linked with Essex to provide a 7OO-ton ship with 250 men, victualled, armed, and stored for twenty-six weeks' service.11 As the ships required were larger than those possessed by any port except London, an equivalent in money might be paid to the Treasury to be applied to the preparation of a king's ship, and Suffolk and Essex were therefore given the option of paying ,£6,615. The total amount for the whole country was ,£104,252, and there was only ,£2,000 deficit in the payments. The second writ of 4 August, 1635, for ,£2 18,500, was general to the inland counties as well as to the coast, Suffolk being asked for an 8oo-ton ship or ,£8,000. 12 Ipswich was assessed at £240, Orford jCi2, Aldeburgh ,£8 i6s. Southwold ,£8, and Dunwich £4, the rates affording striking evidence of the comparative wealth and importance of Ipswich.13 The third writ of 9 October, 1636, was again for an 8oo-ton ship, and for the fourth writ of 1639 the town assessments were the same as in 1635 ;14 but it was afterwards proposed to reduce them considerably, the Ipswich rate falling to ,£90 and Dunwich to £2. In 1639 Sir Symonds D'Ewes was chosen sheriff of Suffolk, and as in his Autobiography he describes ship-money as 'a most deadly and fatal blow' to the liberties of the country, he was probably not very eager in applying pressure to laggards in payment. On 21 April, 1640, he wrote to the Navy Treasurer that on that date he had expected to receive ,£1,000, but feared there would not be ,£200, and enclosed examples of evasive replies.15 In June he was accused of slackness, but protested that he had done his best.16 All the more considerable English ports, the worst sufferers by Charles's naval mal- administration, stood by the Parliament even in royalist counties ; in Suffolk only Lowestoft 1 Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. xi, App. iv, 131. ' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccxc, 79. * Ibid, cccxxii, 59. 4 Ibid, cccxl, 30. * Ibid. Interreg. cxxiv, 6 Feb. 1656. 6 Commons Journals, 2 Mar. 1646-7. ' Ibid, ii, 878, 925. 8 Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft, 419. ' S.P. Dom. Interreg. cxxiv, 38. 10 Ibid, xxiv, 73. " Ibid. Chas. I, cclxxvi, I, 64. " Ibid, ccxcvi, 69. 13 Ibid, cccxiii, 1 08. It may be that Ipswich paid .£450, for the sheriff raised the assessment to that amount; the corporation appealed to the Privy Council (ibid, ccc, 59). 14 Ibid, cccci, 37. " Ibid, ccccli, 18. " Ibid, cccclvi, 41. 227 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK affected adhesion to the king, but much more out of hatred of Yarmouth, which was parliamentarian, than from love of Charles. The county as a whole had no naval history during the Civil War ; although privateers, sailing with or without a royal commission, kept apprehension alive on the coast, the attachment of the county to the Parliament rendered it useless to attempt to land supplies which could not be pushed through to the royal armies. Yarmouth and Lowestoft carried on a privateer war of their own, in which Captain Thomas Allin, afterwards Admiral Sir Thomas Allin in the time of Charles II, took a leading part.1 Suffolk did not really feel the effect of naval operations until the occurrence of the first Dutch war in 1652. Before that event the necessity for strengthening the Navy, not only in view of the threatened quarrel with the Dutch, but also for other reasons, gave occasion to the employment of the private yards in the county for government work in building men-of-war. In 1650 Peter Pett junior, then a Navy Commissioner, contracted to build two vessels, the Advice, 42, and Reserve, 42, at Woodbridge, the first two war-ships of the modern Navy constructed in Suffolk. The Pett family were still connected with Harwich and Ipswich, and the Woodbridge yard may have belonged to some member of the family, or more probably to Pett himself. The Basing, 28, was launched at Walberswick, and the Maiditone, 40, and Preston, 40, at Woodbridge, in 1654, the first by a government shipwright, the last two by private builders.2 After the return of peace the national dockyards were equal to the requirements of the Navy, and no men-of-war were built in Suffolk for some years. The war of 1652-4 was extremely popular with the seamen, and at first volunteers flocked in to man the state's ships. But after the volunteers there was always a residuum who could only be reached by the press system, and in May, 1652, a circular letter to all the counties directed the impressment of all seamen between fifteen and fifty years of age. There was more difficulty as the novelty of fighting the Dutch wore off, and the higher pay of private owners and greater chances of prize-money in privateers exercised counter-attractions, so that in December, 1652, wages were raised in the state's ships and other advantages offered. The immediate result was that men were coming in ' cheerfully and in great numbers,' but the truth was that there were not enough seamen in Great Britain to man both the merchant navy and the large fleets then in commission. In February, 1653, the agent at Aldeburgh wrote that the sailors of that town had set off to offer themselves as volunteers.3 At Ipswich men were so scarce that able seamen in merchantmen were obtaining masters' wages,4 and some, who perhaps conscientiously objected to war, were taking to the plough to avoid the press.6 The first North Sea battle of the war was fought in September, 1652, off the Kentish Knock. When the North Sea became an area of active hostilities, Orwell Haven, with Ipswich and Harwich, at once sprang into consequence as a base of the first importance, and the Suffolk coast towns also had their value for subsidiary purposes. Notwithstanding the constant going and coming of English men-of-war, Dutch privateers were always on the coast, and in August it was feared that the fishery would be stopped for the year. In May, 1653, Monk and Deane were lying off Yarmouth with the fleet, whence they dropped down to Southwold Bay, and on 2 June was fought the battle of the Gabbards, thirty miles out at sea. Deane was killed, but Monk, who had been joined by Blake, returned to Southwold Bay, and the sick, wounded, and prisoners were landed among the Suffolk ports. The financial difficulties which finally ruined the Commonwealth were already acute, and the money still owing for former quartering of the sick and wounded rendered the inhabitants unwilling to admit others. There were, of course, very few hospitals in England, and the sick men were received in private houses where they were supposed to be nursed and obtain the attention of the surgeons. On 10 July Monk wrote to the Admiralty Commissioners that great complaints were made by the bailiffs of Ipswich, Dunwich, Aldeburgh, and Southwold that they received no money with which to pay for the care and housing of the sick, ' whereby the inhabitants begin to be weary of them.' 6 Monk added that he had been compelled to pledge his personal credit at Southwold for assistance. Four days later the bailiffs of Southwold wrote to the Navy Commissioners that they had provided for 600 sick and wounded in the town at a cost of £30 to £40 a day.7 One distinguished invalid — Robert Blake — was landed at Walberswick on 5 July ' in a very weak condition, full of pain both in his head and left side, which had put him into a fever, besides the anguish he endures by the gravel, insomuch that he has no rest night or day, but continues groaning very sadly.'8 For him there was no suitable accommo- dation to be found at Walberswick. After the war there was at least one bill of £1,883 5J- 4^- for the maintenance of prisoners and the sick owed at Aldeburgh, and £3,838 at Ipswich.9 In spite of the hindrance of war, the Iceland and other fisheries maintained themselves fairly well during the troubled years following 1642. In 1649 f°ur n're<^ merchantmen were detailed to convoy the Iceland ships, and in the same year Lowestoft and other ports petitioned for a guard for 1 Gillingwater, op. cit. 1 10. * See Appendix of Ships. * S. P. Dom. Interreg. xlvii, 82. 4 Ibid. 52. s Ibid, xxxv, 97. ' Ibid, xxxviii, 34.. 'Ibid. 55. 'Ibid. 22. ' Ibid, xlii, 27 Feb. 1653-4 » 'x"> '33- 228 MARITIME HISTORY the mackerel boats.1 Southwold and Aldeburgh joined with Wells and Yarmouth in 1656 in a petition direct to Cromwell to the effect that they had thirty-five Iceland fishing ships at sea under insufficient convoy, and asked that it should be strengthened, as they had already lost many vessels taken by the Dunlcirkers.2 Lowestoft had little trade, and was therefore the more ready to engage in politics ; in 1656 there was supposed to be a plot in the town and neighbourhood to receive a royalist force from over-sea.3 Following the Dutch war came the war with Spain and the operations in the West Indies. The struggle with Holland had been comparatively popular to the end, but the general knowledge of the unhealthiness of the West Indies, and the terrible losses from sickness among the troops and crews under Penn and Venables, rendered it impossible to obtain men without a rigorous use of the press-gang. The sympathies of the local officials were with the men, for, with the new spirit of freedom permeating all classes, impressment was no longer regarded as something almost inevitable : to be evaded if possible, but if not, to be accepted as unavoidable. Moreover, many of the magistrates and officials round the coast were engaged in maritime trade, and it was contrary to their commercial interests to have their districts swept bare of sailors. The lieutenant in command of a press-gang landed at Aldeburgh reported that he was abused by the bailiffs and constables and stoned by the people, who routed his men.4 At Southwold the bailiffs and constables assisted the seamen to escape, and arrested a soldier of the troop of horse acting with the impress officers : ' the officers of the town were so base that they (the impress party) could not get a man. In fact, as our people searched one part of the town they got into the other, although they searched with candles.' 5 At Ipswich the press-gang was 'much abused by the townsmen, and the constables were afraid to assist.'6 These incidents happened in 1656, and although there was no tropical service to be feared in 1659 the same repugnance existed, though for different reasons. In February, 1659, Captain Edmund Curtis of the Newcastle saw the bailiffs of Ipswich, who told him that there were but few seamen in the town ; to which he replied that that could not be true because there were IOO ships in the river fitting for sea. The next day, unknown to the bailiffs, Curtis sent up a press gang ; the townsmen attacked the gang, rescued their prisoners, and brought the man-of-war's men before the bailiffs, who disarmed them and sent them back to the Newcastle.1 A month later another officer appeared at Ipswich; he reported that the men 'fly into the woods and up the hills as from the face of an enemy, leaving some of their ships and boats under sail adrift. ... I do not know the grounds of their great disaffection for the service.' 8 The reasons were plain enough : besides the personal interests of the local officials in saving the men, the Commonwealth was now in such financial straits that it could not feed the crews serving in the state's ships, far less pay them. It may be remarked here that the use of Ipswich canvas in the Navy extended greatly during the Commonwealth, and, as long as the Admiralty could afford to pay, must have afforded profitable occupation to many in the town. The east coast was the first part of England to be lighted systematically, and its priority was no doubt due to the needs of the continuous collier traffic passing to and fro. Here and elsewhere, there was a long struggle for monopoly between the Trinity House and private speculators, both parties to the contest being moved by the hope of profit rather than the requirements of navigation. The early history of the Suffolk lights is very uncertain ; that at Lowestoft, at first called the Stamport as showing the entrance to the Stamport or Stanford Channel, was the earliest to be erected. It has been assigned to 1609, and this date is probably correct as there is a petition for it, signed by many Suffolk seamen, referred by the Privy Council to Sir Thomas Crompton, Judge of the Admiralty Court, who died in 1608. This petition is followed by others, which can be assigned to 1608-13, complaining of the weight of the Trinity House charges, so that the light must then have been working.9 A paper of 1621 says, however, that it was built by Thomas Bushell, who may have been the mining engineer of that name.10 It seems that it was put up in or very soon after 1609, because on 30 May of that year the Privy Council addressed a circular to the customs officers of all the ports between London and Newcastle, stating that beacons, buoys, and lights were wanted ' at Stamport near Lowestoft,' and that it had been agreed between the Trinity House and the principal shipowners that all vessels belonging to such ports should pay ifd. a voyage, which was to be col- lected with the customs.11 According to this it must have been under the control of the Trinity House from the beginning, and Bushell's connexion with it is shadowy. Only one light, the lower, was erected originally, but the fact that the Stanford Channel frequently shifts in position within certain limits soon made apparent the necessity for a second light. Therefore in 1627 1 S.P. Dom. Interreg. i, 12 May, 1649 ; iii, 28 Dec. 1649. * Ibid, cxxviii, 44. * Thurlae S.P. v, 407, 512. 4 S. P. Uom. Interreg. cxxii, 131 ; cxxiv, II. 5 Ibid, cxxiv, 12 ; cxxxiv, 18. 6 Ibid, cxxxv, 40. ' Ibid, cci, 14, 21. * Ibid, ccii, 14. 9 Cott. MSS. Otho E, ix, fols. 446-52. 10 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, cxix, 121. "Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 242. 229 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Walter Cooke and William Ewins were sent to design two new lighthouses, the high, which was intended to be fixed, while the low lighthouse, being a small timber structure, could be moved to follow the alterations in the Stanford Channel, the two lights leading in line over it.1 In 1663 there is a reference to the negligence of the lightkeeper,2 and in 1676 the high light- house was rebuilt.3 According to Gillingwater it was not reinstated in quite the same position, but replaced a beacon formerly on the site it now occupies. Colonel Baskerville, travelling in the eastern counties in 1681, noticed that at Lowestoft 'we rode along by two watch, or light, houses one for candle, and in the other a great fire made with coal.' 4 As the Lowestoft lights were always under the control of the Trinity House they escaped the fierce criticism levelled against the private lights by the parliamentary committees of the first half of the nineteenth century. The low light was converted to oil in 1730,* and the high light in 1796." In 1815 the Stanford light- ship, at the north end of the Newcome Sand was established, and the three lights were producing about ^3,300 a year net revenue in 1822, under the patent of 1815, by which they were then held.7 In 1832 the low lighthouse was rebuilt as a timber lantern on a brick foundation ; in 1866 it was replaced by an iron structure, and the high lighthouse was rebuilt in 1873. Towards the end of 1627 the bailiffs of Aldeburgh petitioned for a lighthouse ;8 if they meant one for the town they were destined to be disappointed, but if Orfordness was near enough to satisfy them they were not to have long to wait. There had been a suggestion of Orfordness in 1618,* but the proposal was not taken up although the Aldeburgh burgesses may have kept it in mind. The exact date of the establishment of the light is doubtful. In February, 1634-5, the king was petitioned to authorize a lighthouse at Orfordness.10 In April Sir John Meldrum, a large speculator in lighthouses, who was in constant litigation with the Trinity House about them, writes of Orfordness as erected ; n a possible explanation is that a patent had been promised, but not having passed he had put up a temporary light to ensure possession. The patent is dated 13 April, 1637;" it recites that Sir John Meldrum and Sir William Erskine had erected lighthouses at Winterton under a patent of James I, that Erskine's interest had passed to Gerard Gore of London, that Meldrum had built two at Orfordness, and now petitioned the king to grant the proprietorship in them and in Winterton to Gore, with whom, presumably, Meldrum had come to some pecuniary arrangement. Gore's lease was for fifty years at a rental of £20 a year ; he was entitled to charge id. a ton, outward and inward, on merchantmen, but only ^d. on colliers and fishing boats. In 1641 the Hull seamen trading to the Baltic protested against being compelled to pay the dues for Orfordness ; n in 1663 Gore was called upon to appear before the Trinity House for neglecting the lights,14 and this is practically all that is known of his period of possession. By a patent of 15 October, i66l,ls a new lease was granted to Sir Edward Turner for sixty years if Gore's concession was void, but only for thirty-three years if the first grant ran to its natural termination. In all the patents there was a restriction that no other lights were to be put up within two miles of Orfordness or Winterton, the two stations always going together. By a patent of 30 January, 1695, William III, in consider- tion of a fine of £750 and the usual yearly payment of j£2O, granted to Richard Neville and George Davenant, as trustees and executors of Ralph, Lord Grey, a term of sixty years from the end of Gore's patent if Turner's was void ; if Turner's was not void it was to run for thirty-five years from 13 April, 1720. A comparison of these dates shows that Gore's term ran to the end, that then Turner, or his representatives, held the lights until 1720, and that they came into the possession of Henry Grey of Billingbear as residuary legatee of Lord Grey.16 Henry Grey, in view of his expenditure of ^2,000 in reconstructing and repairing — one of the buildings having been washed away by the sea in October, 1 730 — prayed for a longer term.17 An affidavit from the collector of the dues certified the truth of Grey's statement, and added that the lighthouses had been left in a ruinous condition by the former proprietor. No doubt Grey had influence, for he obtained without difficulty a further grant of thirty-six years from 1755 at a rental of ^20 a year. Shortly afterwards the ownership passed by marriage into the Aldworth-Neville (Lords Braybrooke) family. They obtained a further extension by patent of 6 November, 1765, and this 1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 243. ' Ibid. 252. * Ibid. 256 ; Par!. Papers (i86i),xxv, 404. 4 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, Portland MSS. ii, 267. The low light used candles. 4 Par/. Papers (1861), xxv, 404. • Ann. Reg. ' Pat. i June, 55 Geo. Ill, pt. 9 ; Par/. Papers (1822), xxi, 497. 8 Coke MSS. i, 335. Thirty-two vessels were lost off the port on the night of 28 October, 1627. ' Lansd. MSS. 162, fol. 255. 10 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 245. 11 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxxvi, 28. " Pat. 13 Chas. I, pt. 15. It mentions that Orfordness was increasing by deposit from the sea. 13 Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. 76. 14 Ibid, vii, App. i, 252. By a misprint, or an error in transcription, he is called Alderman Grove. Few of the Trinity House MSS. are original documents. 14 Pat. 13 Chas. II, pt. 25. "Treas. Bd. Papers, cclxxv, 13. 17 Treas. Papers and Bks. 8 Jan. 1730-1. 230 MARITIME HISTORY lease expired in 1826. By that time Parliament was giving close attention to these extraordinary- bounties of tens of thousands of pounds to private individuals for which very indifferent service was rendered in return. For 1823-5 Lord Braybrooke's net profits on Winterton and Orfordness, the two still being held together, were £13,414 a year,1 and a parliamentary committee of 1822 had * recommended that as these leases expired the lighthouses should be transferred to the Trinity House. Therefore in 1826 the Treasury at first refused to renew Lord Braybrooke's lease, but eventually, when his lordship pleaded family difficulties of various kinds, he obtained a renewal for twenty-one years from 1828, nominally to allow him time for settlement. On this the committee of 1834 drily remarked that they could not find an 'adequate explanation1 of the favour shown to Lord Braybrooke, and that the renewals at Orfordness and other places after the reports of the committees of 1822 and 1824 had been 'highly objectionable and improper.' If there was no explanation that would bear inquiry the interpretation of the Treasury complaisance was no doubt perfectly well understood by the committee; The tolls were reduced one-half by the lease of 1828, and half the profits were reserved for the crown. The Act of 6 and 7 Will. IV, c. 79, s. 42 vested all the English lights in the Trinity House, with power to purchase those in private hands ; Lord Braybrooke's remaining term was bought I January, 1837, for £37,896, the interest of the crown in Orfordness and Winterton being valued at £108,041, which the Trinity House also had to pay.J Both lights at Orfordness were lit with oil in 1793, and the high lighthouse, or perhaps both, were rebuilt in the same year, but not in the same relative position.3 Owing to the encroachments of the sea the low lighthouse had to be abandoned in August, 1888,* and since then the two lights have been shown from different heights in the same tower. Pakefield lighthouse, intended to show the channel between the Newcome and Barnard Sands, was first lit 15 May, 1832, no tolls being charged for it ; 5 since 1897 it has been replaced by an iron hut on the cliff south of Pakefield. The first Landguard light consisted of a lamp placed in a window of the barracks on I October, 1 848, and this was transferred to a wooden frame building at the point in 1868 ; the jetty light was established in 1878, and the beacon lights in 1896. Felixstowe (Dock) south pier light was established in 1877, the north pier in 1896, the promenade pier 1905 ; Shotley pier 1894; Cork lightship 1844; Shipwash lightship 1837, connected by telegraph with the shore 1894 ; the permanent lighthouse in the centre of the town at South wold was established in 1890, a temporary light in the town having been used since 1888, as well as the East Cliff lights, established in 1881 ; the pier light at Southwold was first shown in 1900 ; 8 Lowestoft north and south piers 1847, jetty extension 1898, Claremont pier, 1903 ; Gabbard lightship 1888; Gorton lightship 1862, replacing the Stanford light-vessel of 1815 ; Gorleston south pier upper light 1852, lower light 1887. The early history of beacons, buoys, and seamarks is obscure. The last, in the shape of church towers and clumps of trees in prominent positions, are of course the first in point of time, and Leland notices that the tower of St. Nicholas, Gorleston, was a seamark. For several of the counties there are sixteenth-century grants of beaconage and buoyage to private individuals, but none is known for Suffolk. Beacons, and seamarks generally, were under the control of the Lord Admiral until 1594, when they were transferred altogether to the Trinity House, and by 8 Eliz. cap. 13, which had given the Trinity House modified powers, anyone taking down a steeple, tree, or other known seamark, was liable to a fine of £100, or to outlawry if he did not possess so much. On a coast so constantly traversed as that of Suffolk, the church towers must have been seamarks as soon as erected, and in all sailing directions nearly every one that can be observed from the sea is used as a guide in navigation. The havens also must have had beacons put up by the inhabitants to lead through the fairways, but the earliest known by precise date is that at Bawdsey, which is referred to in an Admiralty suit of I552.7 The brick tower used as a seamark, now known as Bawdsey beacon, is not earlier than the beginning of the nineteenth century ; it was rebuilt in 1831. A sixteenth- century map shows two timber beacons, or seamarks, at Aldeburgh fitted with lanterns for use at nights although such use was probably only occasional.8 Two harbour beacons at Woodbridge Haven were advertised in the London Gazette of January, 1683-4, and there was a seamark on Eye Cliff at Southwold.* Others were in position at Pakefield and Felixstowe before 1750, but have prob- ably a much greater antiquity than that date connotes. Two fairway beacons at Landguard were placed in 1857, an(^ two more at Woodbridge in 1859. Orford Castle was certainly used as 1 Par/. Papers (1834), xii, p. xlvi. At this date there were fourteen lights in the hands of private persons who received from them very nearly as much as the Trinity House obtained from the fifty-five under its control. 1 Ibid. (1845), vs., 6. ' Ibid. (1861), xxv, 404. They were 1,439 yds. apart. 4 Naut. Mag. Sept. 1888 ; Adm. List of Lights, 1889. 5 Par!. Papers (1834), xii, 334. * Naut. Mag. Oct. 1890 ; May, 1898 ; Admir. List of Lights, under dates. 7 Admir. Ct. Exam, vi, 29 April, 1552. This may possibly have been a seamark. 6 Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 64. ' Gardner, Hist. Account of Duntvick, 188. 231 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK a seamark in the sixteenth century, and no doubt for centuries previously ; in consequence of its utility in that respect the government, in 1809, prevented its demolition by the marquis of Hertford.1 An Order in Council of 5 January, 1606, directed to the customs officers along the east coast, authorized a levy of one shilling on every hundred tons of shipping arriving at ports between Newcastle and Yarmouth to be paid to the Trinity House for buoys and beacons between Lowestoft and Winterton.2 This was probably the first essay at buoying the sands forming Lowestoft Roads. In 1621 two Trinity House officials visited the district for inspection and reported that they had sounded the Stamport or Stanford Channel, and laid a buoy on the middle ground.3 The outbreak of the second Dutch war again brought Suffolk into the area of naval activity. From a report of January, 1664-5, we learn that there were thirty-two Ipswich ships suitable for use as armed merchantmen, twenty-seven of them being of from 2OO to 300 tons.4 It was added that there were many more good ships although not adapted for war purposes. In consequence of the want of space at Harwich there was a victualling office for the Navy at Ipswich, and the ' king's cooperage ' is marked on a map of 1674.' In May, 1665, the duke of York was lying in Southwold Bay with the English fleet, and on 3 June he fought the Dutch and won a victory some thirty miles off Lowestoft. Upwards of 2,000 prisoners were landed at Southwold ; 6 in August 1,600 of them were at Ipswich, besides 300 sick and wounded from the fleet.7 Although the treatment of the sick and wounded was miserable everywhere, large payments were made during the course of the war for the hospitality afforded them at the different ports: Southwold received ^5,900, and Ipswich j£8,5OO ; Southwold, Woodbridge, Ipswich, and Sudbury were also paid for the support of Dutch prisoners.8 The English were generally successful during 1665, but the local trade appears, as usual, to have suffered by privateers. In February, 1666, Lowestoft petitioned for guns, but the townsmen added that they had suffered so greatly that even if sent they were unable to find the money necessary to build a battery and mount them.9 At Southwold there were nine guns, but only four of them were mounted, and there were only a few rounds of ammunition ; 10 at Aldeburgh there were twenty guns, but no men to work them.11 Two more great battles were fought in June and July, 1666 ; in August between 600 and 700 sick men were landed at Southwold, and the number had risen to 1,000 by I September.12 Hostilities on a large scale then ceased for 1666, and the negotiations which ended in the Peace of Breda were commenced. In the interval nearly all the fleet was put out of commission, and in the event of the war continuing Charles intended to rely on commerce warfare. The Dutch were eager for peace, but thought that the best way to obtain it was to stimulate the plenipotentiaries at Breda by acts of war. When news came to London that the Dutch fleet was going to sea a circular letter of warning was sent round the counties on 29 May, 1667, but this had been preceded by an order of 6 April to the deputy-lieutenant of Suffolk to have the militia ready at an hour's notice.13 In 1663 Albemarle had ordered Landguard to be dismantled,14 perhaps as a short answer to a petition from eighty-three of the garrison that they were starving, and, if not relieved, must quit the fort.15 The Master-General of the Ordnance protested against the abandonment, and a year later steps were taken to strengthen the batteries.16 An Order in Council of 2O May, 1664, directed that twenty guns were to be sent down, and further defences were planned in 1666, but probably these intentions were rendered sterile by want of money.17 The duke of York visited Landguard in March, 1667, and an undated order that the fortifications were to be finished with brick and stone, and outworks made, may have been the consequence of his inspection ; 18 if so it may be considered certain that these additions were not executed before the Dutch raid. On 7 June the Dutch were at anchor inside the Gunfleet, and the eastern counties feared an immediate attack, but the enemy's operations in the Thames and Medway gave a respite, which was utilized to make preparations locally. There was no time to bargain with owners, and an Order in Council of 1 6 June directed the Navy Board to press all vessels suited for use as fireships that could be found in Harwich, Ipswich, and the adjacent ports ; this, so far as the present writer knows, is the last time that the sovereign's prerogative of impressing ships was resorted to. Twenty- six vessels were taken up, of which thirteen belonged to Ipswich and one to Woodbridge. The coast towns — Lowestoft, Southwold, Dunwich, and Aldeburgh — complained that they were left defenceless because the county levies were being drawn towards Landguard, and at Aldeburgh the ' Hist. 4S. P. 1 North Sea Pilot (ed. 1869), 182. 8 Ibid. 240. 4 King's Prints and Drawings, (B.M.), II Tab. End, 39 (20). ' Add. MSS. 22920, fol. 136. ' S. P. •Aud. Off. Decl. Accts. 1820-483. • S. P. "Ibid, clxii, 51. "Ibid. 76. "Ibid. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. Wodehouse MSS. 467. " S. P. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xv, App. ii, 301. " Ord. 17 W.O. Ordnance, Warrants, 15 Aug. 1666. " Ord. 232 MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 242. Dom. Chas. II. ex, 57, i. Dom. Chas. II, cxxviii, 50. Dom. Chas. II, cxlix, 78. clxvii, 164 ; clxx, 17. Dom. Chas. II, Ixxxviii, 91. War. Bks. iii, 64. War. Bks, iii, 137. MARITIME HISTORY inhabitants were deserting the town.1 On 21 June forty Dutch ships were in sight of Southwold, which was ' in a very distracted condition.' * By the end of June preparations to repulse a Dutch assault were well advanced ; Harwich was occupied by regulars and the harbour defended against an entrance from the sea,3 the Suffolk militia was encamped on Walton heights, and Landguard sufficiently garrisoned. According to Sir Charles Lyttelton, who was governor in 1672, the commandant of 1667, Captain Nathaniel Darell, had 1,000 men, as well as 100 Ipswich seamen to work the guns.4 This was, no doubt, an exaggeration, but Darell had both soldiers and seamen, because on 29 June he wrote to the earl of Arlington, the Secretary of State, denying that the two services were on such bad terms that the place must fall if attacked, and incidentally repudiating the accusation that he was a papist.6 At Aldeburgh there were three companies of foot and one or two troops of horse.6 On 30 June the earl of Oxford told Arlington that the Dutch, if they were coming at all, had delayed too long, and would be unable to effect anything if they appeared.7 Some members of the Dutch Government had been very desirous in 1666 that an attack should be made on Harwich, a testimonial to the value of the new dockyard ; but their information, correct or incorrect, as to the strength of Landguard had caused the design to be dismissed as too perilous, although the real cause for hesitation should have been not Landguard but the English fleet. That fleet was now, for the moment, non-existent, and Ruiter, after his operations in the Thames and Medway, held a council of war on 30 June, when proposals to attack Portsmouth or Plymouth were discussed and discarded in favour of Harwich and Landguard. Vice-Admiral Evertz and Rear-Admiral van Nes had already, for a week, been cruising along the Suffolk coast and blockading the mouth of the Thames with their squadrons ; on I July Ruiter joined them with the main body of the fleet. Early on the morning of 2 July the Dutch, 80 strong, were off Aldeburgh putting the townsmen in fear that a landing there was intended ;8 at 1 1 a.m. they were off" Felixstowe, and at one o'clock 47 sail were off Landguard and 8 or 9 in the Rolling Grounds.9 An English observer notices that by two o'clock I ,OOO troops were landed. This was in accordance with the plan decided upon at the council of war, by which the assault upon Landguard was to be made by 1,000 soldiers and 400 seamen, while Evertz and van Nes cannonaded the fort from two sides with their squadrons.10 The landing force was under the command of Colonel Dolman, who is said to have been an English traitor.11 In the result the two admirals did not come into action ; all the buoys and beacons had been removed, and van Nes, who should have entered the harbour, went aground on the Andrews. Ships had been sunk in the fairway,12 which no doubt made the passage look uninviting to the Dutch, and by the time that van Nes was ready to go forward, sounding from boats, the tide was ebbing and the wind had fallen. Evertz was hampered by the sands and shoal water that cover the eastern front of Landguard and extend along Felixstowe Bay, so that he did not come within effective range at all. The accidents to the two admirals deranged the original design to deliver the assault under cover of their fire. The troops and sailors were landed without difficulty at Felixstowe, and while the main body formed up to advance on Landguard some five hundred men were detailed to hold in check the militia lining Felixstowe cliff, who used their muskets valiantly. Time was lost in waiting for Evertz and van Nes to co-operate, but when it was realized that that was hopeless it was decided to proceed without them, Ruiter himself accompanying the soldiers within musket range of the fort. The first assault was made about five o'clock, and seemed to an onlooker ' long and tedious,' although that description is probably not one which would have fitly described the passing time to the actors in the drama. It lasted about three-quarters of an hour ; the storming party of seamen came on boldly with scaling ladders, hand grenades, and cutlasses under cover of the fire of their comrades.13 The garrison kept up a steady fire, and were greatly helped by two small ships lying in the Salt Road, inside the harbour, which sent their shot into the shingle scattering it in showers among the Dutch, although the effect was probably more moral than material. The assailants were so daunted that they fell back in disorder, seeking cover in any inequalities of the ground. There can be no doubt that if there had been any English force to follow up the success the repulse would have been converted into a rout. As it was, the Dutch officers had time to rally their men, and, about seven o'clock, led them on again to an assault, but the heart had been taken out of them and this second attempt, lasting a quarter of an hour, was a 1 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccvi, 47. 3 See V.C.H. Essex, ii, ' Maritime Hist.' 'Ibid, ccvii, 112. There is corroborative evidence of the Warrants, iii, 3 July, 1667). See V.C.H. Essex, ii, p. 294, for which must substantially represent the appearance of the fort in wet moat in any account of the attack. 'Ibid, ccvii, 131. "Ibid, ccviii, 24. 10 Brandt, Vie de Michel de Ruiter, 424. " See V.C.H. Essex, ii, ' Maritime Hist.' 2 233 'Ibid. 126. 4 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cccxiii, 1 74. presence of the Ipswich seamen (W. O. Ord. a plate of Harwich and Landguard, 1710-14, 1667 except that there is no reference to a 6 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccvii, 10 ; ccviii, 24, 'Just outside the harbour. 11 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccviii, 72. 13 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccviii, 28, 55. 3° A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK very weak affair. The Dutch official return of their loss was seven killed and thirty-five wounded;1 on the English side only one man was killed in the fort and two were wounded, including the governor, Darell. By the time the Dutch had retreated to Felixstowe the tide was out, and they could not get their boats off until 2 a.m. of 3 July ; a desultory combat was kept up with the militia, who, however, were not able to hinder the re-embarkation. Ill-luck still followed the Dutch, for when they sailed three of their ships went aground on the Whiting shoal, but in revenge they were able to affright Aldeburgh again, for on 1 1 July six vessels appeared off the town, and, as the earl of Suffolk had dismissed the militia, the people were ' much depressed.' A varying number of Dutch ships was at anchor off Aldeburgh for five or six weeks.2 In view of the absolute beggary of the military departments it is rather surprising to find that Landguard was so well equipped for defence as events showed it to have been. The credit of the government was so bad after this war that the captain of a cruiser calling at Aldeburgh in 1 668 was obliged to leave six barrels of powder with the bailiffs as security for the provisions supplied to him. The third Dutch war was not fought like the preceding ones. It was unpopular in itself, and rendered more so by our alliance with France, recognized by national instinct as the true enemy. The distrust and dislike of the French were intensified by the character of their assistance, and after the first battle which they and we were supposed to have fought side by side the popular London street phrase addressed to a hesitating combatant was : ' Do you fight like the French ? ' There could hardly have been much fear of invasion, or even of a raid, but beacons ready to be fired were established between Easton and Landguard.3 Notwithstanding this precaution Landguard was allowed to remain in a dilapidated state. A new governor, Sir Charles Lyttelton, came in April, 1672, and found the place 'in the most miserable condition of any fort in Europe.'4 Lyttelton, who seems to have been unable to recognize the difference between the maritime conditions of 1667 and 1672, feared an attack ; in May he wrote that he had only sixty men, and that the fort was under-gunned, 'Unless, as I was once told, we have too many already to lose.'6 Just a year later Captain Edward Talbot, who then took the command, wrote to the Master- General of the Ordnance that the drawbridge had fallen in, and that, altogether, he had never seen such a state of ruin.6 In May, 1672, the duke of York was lying eight or nine miles out in Southwold Bay, Aldeburgh and Southwold being the watering-places for the fleet. On the 28th the battle of 'Solebay' was fought, within sight of Aldeburgh, and volumes of smoke from the war-ships were driven along the coast as far as Essex.7 As war with France was considered imminent in 1677, Parliament granted an especial sum for the construction of thirty large men-of-war. All were built in the government yards except four given out to contract with Sir Henry Johnson, of the Aldeburgh family, and launched from his Blackwall yard. Again, in 1691, Parliament gave money to build twenty-seven ships, and a list of the private yards at that date able to construct vessels of sixty guns and upward shows that there was none in Suffolk. The Revolution of 1688 did not affect the county from a maritime point of view, and the subsequent wars only brought those annoyances to which all the coast counties were exposed. Suffolk produced some seamen during the second half of the seventeenth century who did good service in the Navy. Admiral Sir Thomas Allin, who commanded the van in the battle of 25 July, 1665, and who was twice commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, Rear-Admiral Richard Utber, and his two sons, Captains Robert and John Utber, Admirals Sir John Ashby and Sir Andrew Leake, who were both leading seamen in their generation, and Vice-Admiral James Mighells, were all Lowestoft men. A humbler hero was Robert Cason, the master of an English merchantman, who, in 1690, was awarded a medal and chain of the value of £60 in recognition of his splendid defence of his ship against French privateers. From 1688 until 1697 Admiral Henry Killigrew was governor of Landguard, being the only sailor-governor it ever had. It was a titular but salaried post, and the officer in real authority was the lieutenant- governor ; Francis Hamon had been given that appointment by James II to put an end to the embezzlement of stores that went on, from which we may infer that the garrison did not neglect the opportunities offered by their isolated situation.8 In 1692 the armament of Landguard was sixty- two guns, and in 1 709 it was intended to rebuild it to correspond with new fortifications designed at Harwich.* In the interval the most distinguished litterateur the British Army has ever possessed, Captain Richard Steele, commanded a company of foot in the garrison between 1702 and 1704, and shortly after his arrival wrote representing that the barrack rooms were in such bad repair as to be open to the weather.10 Steele, himself, lived at a farmhouse at Walton. 1 Brandt, op. cit. 425. ' S.P. Dora. Chas. II, cctx, 49 ; ccx, loz ; ccxiii, 10 Aug. •Ibid, cccxiii, 34 ; cccxxiii, 144. « Ibid, cccvi, 31, III. 5 Ibid, cccxiii, 174. There was but one trained gunner, with one arm, belonging to the garrison. •Leslie, Hist, of LanJguarJ, 55. 'S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cccx, 16. 'Ibid. Will, and Mary, 8 July, 1692. 'Treas. Papers, cxii, 39. " Aitken, Lift of Rich. Steele, i, 8 1. 234 MARITIME HISTORY The hope of freedom which had caused resistance to impressment under the Common- wealth had long died out into resignation, and we find few notices of the individual hardships and subterfuges which accompanied the exercise of the custom. Occasionally a press-gang made a big mistake, and then the incident comes under notice in official papers. In 1692 Mr. Jeremiah Burlingham, an alderman of Dunwich, was pressed, but immediately released in virtue of a sharp order from the Secretary of State to the Admiralty. Inquiry followed, and it was found that Burlingham had been pressed by the procurement of Samuel Pacy, ' Esquire,' and John Benafile.1 What sordid drama of self-interest or passion lies behind the bare facts cannot of course now be discovered. On the other hand favourite captains had little difficulty at any time in obtaining crews. Luttrell tells us ' two hundred seamen lately come out of Suffolk went in a body . . . and voluntarily offered their services to the earl of Danby at St. James's to go on board the Resolution.3 Danby, afterwards second duke of Leeds, was a man of intelligence and devoted to experiments in improving shipbuilding, but he was a better captain than admiral. From the evidence before a committee of 1692 there seems to have been a flourishing local trade with London, nine or ten hoys from Woodbridge going to and fro every week and double as many from Ipswich and Aldeburgh. Defoe says that Ipswich still retained a large shipbuilding trade during the reign of Charles II. chiefly in colliers built so strongly that their average life was fifty or sixty years.3 That trade, he says, was ruined by Parliament suspending the clauses of the Navigation Act in favour of Dutch prizes, which could thus be obtained more cheaply than English ships, so that instead of IOO belonging to the town as in 1668 there were hardly forty when he visited the place. He notices that there was an ' inexhaustible ' store of timber round Ipswich, and if there were many storms like that of 1692, when 140 out of 2OO light colliers going north were wrecked on the Suffolk and Norfolk coasts, there must still have been a demand for the especial Ipswich industry. Defoe's statement as to the extent of the Ipswich building trade at the Restoration period is borne out by an order of January 1665-6 to press 134 shipwrights in nine ports when we find Ipswich rated for more men than any of the other towns.4 The rapid increase of the Navy necessitated by the wars which followed the Revolution enforced the use of private yards and Suffolk again built for the Admiralty, although on a small scale. William Hubbard of Ipswich, and Isaac Belts and Andrew Munday of Woodbridge, were the builders employed. During the eighteenth century smuggling was a regular industry in Suffolk, success in which must have compensated the inhabitants living near the coast for many a tad fishing season. In early centuries smuggling had been mainly confined to the secret export of prohibited goods ; in 1592 the customs officers at Ipswich complained to Burghley about the extent to which corn and butter were secretly exported from Suffolk to Holland, the exciting cause of their general indictment at the moment being the fate of a searcher at Harwich who had recently been thrown overboard while examining a vessel.6 Smuggling in the modern sense only arose with the heavy and indis- criminate taxation rendered necessary by the wars of expansion which commenced with the Commonwealth. As the government guard of the coast increased, so did the methods and combi- nations of the smuggling associations, trading companies in organization, whose head offices were at Ostend, Flushing, Calais, or Dunkirk. When the danger and expense grew greater it did not pay these comoanies to run small cargoes — that is to say, anything less than the lading of a 5O-ton cutter, while they much preferred to use craft of from IOO to 200 tons, strong enough to fight if overhauled. Eventually their vessels, built for speed and well armed, ran with almost the regularity of a cargo liner of to-day and sometimes engaged revenue smacks and even man-of-war cutters. The Suffolk coast was a favourite one on which to run cargoes, for it offered facilities in landing absent in Essex while it was little farther from the continental ports. The institution of revenue sloops about 1698 was not of much avail, if only because the Customs Commissioners and the Admiralty disputed as to which body was to provide them, and the latter department had quite enough on its hands without having to protect the revenue. The government alternated between sloops and riding officers ashore, or a combination of the two, and with equally little success. The Peace of Utrecht threw many seamen out of employ- ment, of whom a large proportion naturally took to smuggling, and when the spirits and tea were landed they were taken inland by gangs of farm labourers and others, sometimes 300 strong. A witness before a parliamentary committee of 1746 confessed that about 1720 his vessel was one of six which ran their cargoes in a single night on Aldeburgh beach and had 300 men waiting for them. Many of the customs officers were amenable to threats ; more still had their price, and in 1722 the Commissioners of Customs obtained a schedule of the rates paid to the officers by smugglers 1 S. P. Dom. Will, and Mary, 2 Sept. 1692 ; Admir. Sec. Min. viii, 10 March, 1692-3. The Admiralty was always very careful to confine its action to the poor and helpless and never, if possible, allowed a case in which the right of impressment was likely to be argued to come into court. 1 Luttrel], Diary, 24 Feb. 1690-1. * Defoe, Tour Through Great Britain, Lond. 1724, i, 57. 4 Add. MSS. 931 1, fol. 94. * Cecil MSS. iv, 570. 235 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK and masters of merchantmen for goods of different values.1 If an officer could neither be bribed nor terrorized the ruffians who feared him did not hesitate at torture or murder ; in 1727 they caught one such near Snape and cut off his nose.2 In July, 1732, the Customs Commissioners represented to the Treasury the excessive smuggling in Suffolk and asked that more cavalry should be stationed round the coast to assist the officers. By way of emphasizing their request the comptroller at Southwold reported a desperate fight by his men with a gang of forty smugglers.3 Two years later Mr. Walter Plummer, member for Appleby, told the House that he had recently been in Suffolk, where the smugglers rode about forty or fifty strong, ' and give such excessive wages to the men that will engage with them that the landed interest suffers considerably by it.' 4 While waiting for the smuggling vessel a labourer would receive 2s. 6d. a day, and a guinea a day while running the cargo inland.8 It was no wonder that, compared with the eighteenpence a day they could earn on the land, the lavish pay of the smugglers brought the farm hands down in crowds to help. It was noticed publicly in 1735 that the customs officers in Norfolk and Suffolk had given up the struggle and ran away when they met a gang,6 but the official papers give us the same information two years earlier.7 At Ipswich, in 1733, the smugglerswere ' very numerous and so insolent in the town and country that they bid defiance to the officers and threaten their lives.' One smuggler passing through Ipswich, on his way to London to give information, was murdered there in December. Ill-considered legislation was all in favour of the smugglers ; the customs officers, afloat or ashore, were not entitled to any pensions for themselves or their families if disabled or killed, so that they had every inducement to save their lives. By law a captured smuggling vessel should be burnt, therefore when taken at sea it was more profitable to the captors to remove the cargo and receive a gratuity to let the vessel escape. Later yet, the law made it more advantageous to the revenue officers to take only part of the cargo and save themselves the trouble and risk of prosecution which had to be carried on at their own expense. In time of war Suffolk smuggling became even more frequent than during peace because, although somewhat farther than Kent or Sussex from the ports of embarkation, it was less covered by men-of-war. During hostilities there was usually more or less fear of invasion in Kent and Sussex ; consequently the south-eastern coast was always vigilantly watched by small war vessels who, although not averse from running goods for themselves, could not be trusted to deal kindly with business rivals. Nor, either then or much later, were they very eager to help anywhere. Captain Chamier relates that while cruising between Orfordness and Yarmouth he brought-to a smuggler in bad weather. The smuggler took his chance and the opportunity of a squall to run ashore at Lowestoft, where he landed his cargo but lost his vessel and two lives. As for Chamier, ' I took the liberty of going to bed again and allowing my friend to make the best use he could of his local knowledge.' 8 In 1745 war existed with France and Spain ; invasion by the former was anticipated, and the revenue boats were taken off their stations and collected at the Nore to act as tenders to the squadron assembled there for the protection of the east coast. In view of the free hand thus afforded it is not surprising to find Suffolk more prominent than ever in the daily record of smuggling. In November Admiral Vernon and Mr. Sparrow of Ipswich wrote to the Secretary of the Admiralty about the ' numbers and insolence ' of the smugglers and, writing with Sparrow, Vernon may be presumed to have referred to Suffolk as well as to his immediate station in Kent. The Admiralty sent on this letter to the Treasury, who replied rather hopelessly that if the Admiralty could suggest any fresh remedies they should be adopted.9 Sparrow, at any rate, may have been thinking of a case that had just happened at Beccles, where a man the smugglers had reason to dislike had been taken from his bed, whipped, and then abducted. It was estimated that during the second six months of 1745, there had been 4,551 horseloads run in Suffolk,10 and it was proposed, without apparently any appreciation of the whimsical side of the suggestion, to form an association of which the members should bind themselves to buy nothing of smugglers ' without real necessity.' r Between 1 1 and 31 July, 1745, three cargoes were run at Benacre, and two at Kessingland, the customs officers being present but afraid to interfere. In 1741, however, one smuggler was hanged at Ipswich for the murder of an officer of the town who had arrested him. In part from sympathy, and in part from fear, juries rarely convicted a smuggler accused of injuring or killing a customs officer, but their interest in their own safety may have been more keenly excited when ordinary town officials were victims. Another reason why smugglers got off and prosecutions were compounded may be found in applications from voters ' who cannot be refused.' In 1780 there were two revenue cruisers attached to Harwich and one to Yarmouth, the next station north being Boston. The Harwich vessels also worked to the south, therefore this was a 1 Treas. Papers, ccxl. 8 1. * Ibid, cclxi. 7. * Treas. Papers and Bks. cclxxix, 62, 77. * Gent. Mag. July, 1734. 4 The duty on tea was then 4*. yd. a pound, while the smugglers bought it in Holland at 2t. ' Gent. Mag, 21 August, 1735. ' Treas. Bd. Papers, cclxxxviii, 53. * Chamier, Life of a Sat/or, ii, 255. ' Treas. Min. Bks. 19 Nov. 1745. " Gent. Mag. " Ibid. 1746, p. 615. 236 MARITIME HISTORY long reach of coast to be watched by three vessels, especially when the duty on brandy was nine shillings a gallon and the smugglers could afford to sell it for three. The lapse of years had brought no improvement, and a parliamentary committee of 1783 reported that the trade was carried on ' with the most open and daring violence in every accessible part of the coast.' As an example, in the same year, a smuggling cutter went aground near Orford and when the revenue officers appeared the smugglers fought and at first drove them off. Returning reinforced to the attack they seized part of the cargo, but an armed gang broke into the storehouse the same night and carried off the goods.1 In 1784 a seizure was made near Woodbridge after a savage fight, wherein half a dozen officers and all the smugglers, headed by ' the noted George Cullum of Brandestone,' were wounded. As a rule ' the majesty of the law ' was inoperative, and ashore, at any rate, there was usually insufficient physical force ; in June, 1778, a gang of 140 smugglers worked a cargo near Orford, when there were six customs officers present, who could do nothing but look on. In theory the revenue officers could require the assistance of troops ; in practice the soldiers did not like the work and commonly came too late to be of use. In view of the open way in which the smugglers transacted their business they could hardly have required many hiding places, but one under the pulpit of Rishangles church is assigned to them.2 The story of concealment, or storage, in churches is common to several counties and may be true of Suffolk and Cornwall. The smugglers were often accused of giving information abroad ; it is certain that our government, especially during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, often obtained it from them, and some of them were protected from prosecution for that reason. The close of the Napoleonic war saw the beginning of the end of smuggling. The exhaustion of the Treasury induced the ministry to try new methods of repression, and there were now men available in any number to line the coast. In 1818, at the suggestion of Captain William McCullock, R.N., the ' coast blockade ' of Kent and Sussex was instituted, forming a chain of posts within hail of each other, and, in a modified form, the system was extended to the remaining counties. In Suffolk several of the disused martello towers were handed over to the coast blockade service. The Navy men were not open to the intimidation, and were less amenable to the bribery that had coerced or persuaded their civilian predecessors ; therefore an era of evasion and trickery succeeded the frank violence with which cargoes had previously been run. It had been intended that the ' blockade' should be performed entirely by seamen of the Navy, but the hardships, and the severe restrictions as to social intercourse with their neighbours locally, caused them to show so much distaste for it that, before long, civilians of all kinds and trades had to be enrolled. The results were not satisfactory ; desertion and collusion became prevalent, and in 1829 the formation of a mixed civilian and naval force, under the name of coastguard, was commenced. At first this body was under the control of the Customs department, but in 1831 it was transferred to the Admiralty and became naval in organization. Before 1845 it was maintained purely for revenue protection, but in that year a regulation was made that every seaman appointed should bind himself to serve in the fleet upon an emergency, and this was the first step in the fashioning of the present coastguard. The change was completed by 19 and 2O Viet. cap. 83, which authorized the Admiralty to maintain a force of 10,000 men as a reserve for the Navy, composed of men who had served in it and were liable to be called upon to rejoin it. From May, 1857, the districts were placed under the command of captains of the Navy, and the coastguard is now far more a military than a revenue force. It was considered, in 1716, that the English forts, compared with the continental standard, were over-gunned ; in consequence Landguard was reduced, by a warrant of 6 July, from sixty-three to twenty guns, but as deviations from the order were permitted, it is doubtful whether it was fully put into effect.3 The construction of a new fort, rather nearer the estuary, was begun in 1717, and finished in 1720 ;4 this mounted twenty guns, and ten more were added in 1745. In 1752 it was furnished with ten 32-pounders, twenty-five i8-pounders, and fifteen 6-pounders ; there was barrack accommodation for 200 men.6 The war with the revolted colonies (1776-83) caused the construction of supplementary works, completed in 1782;' lines were thrown up inside the ' fleet,' which formerly made the point an island at high tide, but which now served as a moat for the new defences, and batteries were built north and south of the fort. Most of these works were maintained until 1815, but have now disappeared. It was perhaps as well that the fort was never attacked, for in 1811 the area within was filled up with wooden buildings, and three powder magazines adjoined the kitchen.7 That the hospital was so foul and unhealthy that sick men were usually sent to Harwich was, at that date, no doubt considered a minor detail. There were twenty- five guns in the fort, which contained five bastions and forty-one casemates.8 Another battery outside — Beauclerk's — mounted eleven 42-pounders, but the north and south batteries of 1782 are not mentioned in 1811. In 1865 the armament consisted only of five guns for saluting purposes, 1 Ipswich Journal, Feb. 1783. 4 Leslie, op. cit. 67. 7 W. O. Ord. Estimates, xxx. ' Eastern Counties Mag. ii, 81. 5 Add. MSS. 22875. 237 3 W. O. Ordnance, Establishments, i. ' Leslie, op. cit. 78. * Ibid. Engineers, cxlvii. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK but the fortress was rebuilt and re-armed between 1871 and 1876. A fort, commanding the harbour, was also constructed at Shotley. The Suffolk deep-sea fisheries appear to have declined after the Restoration. A petition to Parliament of about 1665, from Lowestoft, Pakefield, and Kirkley, said that their subsistence depended on the cod and herring fishery, that they were now very poor, and that half the owners had ceased to send out boats. The decrease was common to the whole coast, so that in 1670 a company was formed under the patronage of the king, and endowed with exceptional privileges, for the purpose of restoring the fisheries. At this time Pakefield and Kirkley possessed fourteen sea-going fishing boats, Lowestoft twenty-five, Southwold eight, Aldeburgh and Corton each two. and Dunwich one. Southwold and Aldeburgh each owned three Iceland ships.1 There were several capitalist associations formed towards the end of the seventeenth century with the object of revivifying the fisheries, but they all failed, and private enterprise declined with them. In 1720 Lowestoft had five Iceland ships, but only one in 1748, which was so unsuccessful that Gilling- water, who wrote in 1790, says that it was the last.* A witness before a parliamentary committee of 1785 3 attributed the cessation of the Iceland fishery to the vexatious salt regulations, 'millstones about the neck of the fishing trade.' The Dogger Bank fishery, begun about 1714, was 'no doubt also a factor in the diminution. The wars of 1739-63 do not seem to have exercised much injurious influence, seeing that on 5 June, 1744, the Lowestoft owners advertised that the mackerel fishery was not stopped as reported. Between 1772 and 1781 the average number of Lowestoft herring boats was thirty-three a year,4 but sixty-nine was that of Southwold between 1760 and 1770.' During the war of American Independence, Louis XVI ordered that fishermen were not to be molested, but the French government showed no such chivalrous consideration during the Revolutionary War. The risk and losses thus caused were accountable for a further decrease, so that in 1798 there were only twenty-four Lowestoft herring boats, but Yarmouth and Lowestoft between them possessed forty or fifty mackerel boats.6 In 1750 'The Society of the Free British Fishery,' with a capital of £500,000, was incorporated under the aegis of Parliament. It went the way of its predecessors, but its interest for us lies in the fact that Southwold was the head quarters of the association, wharves and storehouses being erected there, and as many as fifty-three fishing ' busses ' belonging to the company lying in the port in 1753.* In 1786 Ipswich attempted to join in the Greenland whale fishery by sending two ships, but the enterprise was relinquished in a few years. Notwithstanding certain disabilities Ipswich maintained its position as a port. We find that in 1729 three vessels owned there were taken up for the Admiralty, of which two were of 350 and one of 270 tons ; 8 in 1731 and 1734 others of 320, 350, and 400 tons are mentioned as belonging to the place. The Orwell, however, was gradually silting up, and in 1744 there was no depth, even at high water, at Ipswich quays, so that vessels of any size were compelled to load at Downham Bridge. There was a shipbuilding yard at Downham belonging to John Barnard, who shortly afterwards removed to Harwich on account of its superior advantages for his trade. In 1741 the Hampshire, 50, was launched at Downham, and the favour enjoyed by a builder working for the Admiralty is indicated by a Navy Board order of 12 February, 1740-1, that another builder, Mr. Goody, was to be informed that if he persisted in employing shipwrights who had left Barnard, and their work on the Hampshire, his protections would be withdrawn.* When the Hampshire was built there were 14 ft. of water at Downham at low tide,10 but in order to be able to build big ships without inconvenience, Barnard induced the Admiralty to lease Harwich dockyard to him. His principal yard at Ipswich was on the left bank of the river below the bridge, and this is shown as then existent in a map drawn in 1674. By 1764 there were four building yards, two of them being those called the Halifax and Nova Scotia yards on the right bank of the Orwell at Stoke, both eventually, together with Barnard's original yard, held by the Bayley family. The fourth yard may have been occupied by a builder named Stephen Teague ; in 1763 William Barnard and William Dodman held the Nova Scotia yard. In 1 804 Prentice, Godbold, and Rayment were the Ipswich builders besides the Bayleys. The latter built several East Indiamen, the largest being the William Fairlie, 1,348 tons, launched in 1821 from the Halifax yard.11 The East India Company's shipbuilding was in the hands of a ring of Thames builders so that outsiders, whatever their merits, obtained little of it. 1 Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft, 91. » Ibid. 109. ' Reports (1785), xxxvii, 6\b. 4 Gillingwater, 94. Until the middle of the eighteenth century boats from the south coast came to hire, or ' host,' themselves during the herring season to Lowestoft owners ; the custom ceased when the Lowestoft boats again increased in numbers. There were forty-eight in 1775 (ibid. 80). • Part. Papers ( 1 79 8), 1, 1 4 1 . • Ibid. ' Gardner, Hist. Acct. of Dunwich, 196. 1 Navy Bd. Min. 2544, 20 Feb. 1728-9. 1 Each private builder was given a certain number of ' protections ' sheltering his men from impressment. 10 Navy Bd. Min. 2554, 22 August, 1740. " India Off. Mar. Rec. Misc. 529. 238 MARITIME HISTORY At Woodbridge there were no dry docks, and the men-of-war launched from there were built, as was usual, on slips;1 in 1804 there was only one builder — Dryden — working there. Other Suffolk shipbuilders in the same year were William Critton of Aldeburgh and Southwold, Johnson of Lowestoft, Abbot of Orford, and Williams of Walberswick. This is a very short list compared with Essex, -and in view of the number of merchantmen built at Ipswich, it is at first sight surprising that so few men-of-war came from there. The probable explanation is that Ipswich builders were so fully occupied with private work that they did not care to tender often for small men-of-war, and that the Orwell was too shallow to permit the launch of third and fourth rates, upon which the most profit could be made. The other places in Suffolk where building was possible suffered under every difficulty militating against the convenient construction, launch, and fitting of men-of-war, whether such places were situated on rivers or on the coast. During the long and almost unbroken peace which followed the treaty of Utrecht the only interesting circumstance relating to Suffolk is the presence of a Lowestoft man, Thomas Arnold, as first lieutenant of the Superbe, 60, in the battle of Cape Pasaro in 1718. The Spanish flagship, the Royal Philip, struck to the Superbe and Kent. Arnold brought home her flags, which for long afterwards, were used at weddings to decorate the streets of Lowestoft. Another Suffolk hero during the Seven Years' war was Captain William Death of the Terrible, a London privateer. The Terrible, of twenty-six guns, took a prize on 23 December, 1756, after a severe action. On the 28th, when much damaged, and with a crew of about only 150 effectives, she fell in with the Vengeance, 32, and 360 men, just out from St. Malo. The Terrible was taken, but only after the captain and nearly half his men had been killed, and when there was hardly an unwounded man left standing ; the Vengeance is said to have lost two-thirds of her crew.2 A Lloyds subscription was raised for the widows and orphans. The state of war which, except for one interval of peace, existed between 1739 and 1763, rekindled the fears of the coast ports, and they all applied for means of defence. A return of 1774' shows that there were six guns at Southwold, probably sent in response to a petition of I745,4 and mounted at Gunhill. There is a tradition that, taken at Culloden, they were sent by order of the duke of Cumberland in gratitude for the warm reception he received when he landed at Southwold in 1746. The objection to this story is that the official answer of 1 6 January, 1745-6, acceding to the request, is in the ordinary form in which such replies were couched when guns were sent from the Ordnance Office ; that there is no reference to the duke of Cumberland ; that the ordnance was probably sent towards the end of March or beginning of April, when guns were also sent to Aldeburgh and other places, while Culloden was not fought until 1 6 April ; and that the duke did not return from Scotland by sea but came by road. In 1819, however, when the coast batteries were being dismantled, the Ordnance Office is said to have admitted that the guns were the gift of the duke and belonged to the town.5 It is possible, therefore, that in one of his many journeys from the Continent, later than 1746, stress of weather may have driven his ship into Southwold instead of Harwich, and that such a gift was made, confused by lapse of time with the Ordnance Office guns. Aldeburgh obtained eight guns in April, 1 746, the townsmen complaining that French privateers took prizes in sight of land. In 1744 one ran into the roads under English colours and signalled for a pilot ; when a boat went out the privateer fired into it, killing and wounding three men.8 She was afterwards captured by H.M.S. Hound, and it would have been in accordance with international law to have hanged her crew as pirates. Pakefield was supplied with two and Lowestoft with six guns ; in every case it was made a condition that the towns should build the batteries and provide ammunition. At Lowestoft the battery at the south end of the town was thrown up in 1 744, and, according to Gillingwater,7 two of the guns were removed in 1756 to a new battery at the north end on the beach. During the American war the south battery was rebuilt by the government in 1782 on a larger scale, so that it mounted nine guns ; there were fourteen in the north battery, but some of them were considered useless.8 About 1781 a 4-gun battery had been placed at Pakefield, and a 6-gun battery was also built on Gorleston heights. The year 1745 brought a keen apprehension of a descent from Dunkirk. Admiral Vernon was in command in the Downs with a subsidiary squadron, under Commodore Thomas Smith, at the Nore, whose especial duty it was to guard the Thames, Essex, and Suffolk. In December Vernon called the attention of the Admiralty to the defenceless state of the Suffolk coast, and, in consequence, Smith was directed to visit the harbours and immediately take what steps he could to remedy the deficiencies.9 As we know, there was no descent on the east coast, but the same fear 1 Suffolk Traveller (1764), 106. ' See the Suffolk Garland (1818), p. 127, for a song on the subject. The Vengeance was taken in 1758 by H.M.S. Hussar, 28. ' Ho. Off. Ord. v. 29. 4 Wake, Southwold and its Vicinity, 260. i Ibid. 266. • Ipswich "Journal, 21 July, 1 1 August, 1744. ' Hist, of Lowestoft, 422. 8 W. O. Misc. Var. f£. ' Admir. Sec. Min. lii, 3 December, 1745. 239 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK recurred with every war. In 1779 a combined French and Spanish fleet was in command of the Channel for some weeks, and, although its real objective was known to be the south coast, the Admiralty were prepared, as a measure of precaution, to extinguish the Orfordness among other lights. The American war produced a press-gang incident at Ipswich, ordinary enough in its details except that it ended in murder. On 12 December, 1778, a press party from Harwich searched the ' Green Man,' an Ipswich public-house ; the townsmen came to the rescue, there was a fight, and the proprietor of the public-house died from his injuries in a few hours. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against Lieut. Fairlie, the officer in command, and sixteen of his men, a verdict repeated when they were tried at the Sessions. The Admiralty, of course, exerted every means to save them, and brought the case up to the King's Bench on a technical point, which was won, and the Ipswich verdict quashed.1 During the war of American Independence there was a strong party in England in sympathy with the colonists. Perhaps the antipathy they aroused rendered the loyalists still more loyal, and was the reason that the Suffolk supporters of the government desired to prove their ardour by presenting the country with a 74-gun ship. A meeting was held at Stowmarket on 5 August, 1782, and a circular sent out, signed by the sheriff, inviting subscriptions. Admiral Lord Keppel, who was a Suffolk seaman in so far as he possessed a seat in the county, subscribed £300, and at first promises came in quickly. But the cost of a 74-gun ship ready for sea was nearly £100,000, and the enthusiasm of the county was not exchangeable for such an amount. Clarke 2 is responsible for the statement that there was no intention of proceeding with the gift unless twelve other counties followed the example of Suffolk, but there is no suggestion of such a condition in the original circular ; 3 so far from that, the undertaking was held up as one which was to serve as a model for the rest of the kingdom. In the result, only some £20,000 was promised, and the peace of 1783 was a welcome reason to drop the scheme. A plan of Aldeburgh in 1779 shows four batteries and a redoubt, but their general condition in 1781 was criticized very unfavourably.4 It was a very critical period of the war ; the fleets and armies were acting at the periphery of the empire and the centre was only defended by militia. Regiments or companies of this force were stationed at Ipswich, Wood bridge, Landguard, Aldeburgh, South wold, and Lowestoft. Gorleston and Gorton were added after the Dutch declared war in 1780 when there was a still more instant expectation of invasion. It is said that the government had information of an intended descent in 1782 ; consequently the coast was patrolled by cavalry during the summer nights and a system of alarm by rockets was tried on i 8 July.5 After some experiments an alarm was conveyed from Bawdsey to Caister, a distance of fifty miles in eleven minutes. When the Revolutionary War broke out the great need was for men. Years of ever-widening commerce and of naval victory had their effect eventually in atttracting thousands of men to the sea, but at first the supply of sailors was altogether insufficient to man the royal and merchant navies. Therefore besides the impress system, always working, and a suspension of certain sections of the Navigation Acts, Parliament sanctioned in 1795 and 1796, an experiment analogous to the ship- money project of Charles I by requiring the counties each to obtain a certain number of men for the Navy who were to be attracted by a bounty to be raised by an assessment charged in every parish like other local rates.6 In 1795 the county was called upon for 263, and in 1796 for 341 men, com- paring with 244 and 316 for Essex, and 460 and 337 for Norfolk. The ports also were required to procure men, an embargo being placed upon all British shipping until they were obtained. Aldeburgh was assessed for nineteen men, Ipswich fifty-eight, Southwold twenty-one, and Woodbridge eighteen. In 1798 the need for men was greater than ever; Ireland was in revolt, the discontent which had flamed into the mutinies of 1797 was still smouldering in the fleets, the French armies were terrorizing the continent, and the battle of the Nile was not won until August. In Suffolk preparations were made to meet invasion ; on alarm being given by means of red flags, all stock was to be driven inland, wheeled vehicles removed, and gangs of labourers set to break up the roads and barricade them with trees. There was an evening of enthusiasm at Ipswich in October, when on the i6th, a ball was given to celebrate the victory of the Nile, Lady Nelson, who was received by Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, a distinguished veteran of the American war, being present. In view of the persistent fear of invasion and the want of men, all protections from the press for fishermen and others were suspended in May, 1798, and by an Order in Council of the I4th of that month a new force, the Sea Fencibles, was created. It was raised with the intention of meeting an invading flotilla by another of the same character and for the purpose of manning the coast batteries ; it was to be composed of fishermen and boatmen as well as the semi-seafaring dwellers of 1 Clarke, Hist, of Ipswich, \ 09 ; Admir. Sec. Min. Ixxxvi, I 5 December, 1778; Ann. Register, June, 1779. * Hist, of Ipswich, no. ' B. M. Suffolk Newspaper Cuttings, 1 304 m., fol. 34. 4 Add. MSS. 15533; W. O. Misc. Var. f$- * Gillingwater, op. cit. 432. •35 Geo. Ill, c. 5; 37 Geo. Ill, c. 4. 240 MARITIME HISTORY the shore who were not liable to impressment. The order applied to the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, but had especial reference to that stretch of coast, extending from Norfolk to Hampshire, which fronts the continental centre, and is always particularly exposed to attack. The men were to be volunteers and the principal inducement offered was that, while enrolled, the seafaring members were free from the liability to be impressed ; they were under the command of naval officers and were paid a shilling a day when on service. In 1798 there were two districts for Suffolk, but one included part of Norfolk, as it extended from Cromer to Southwold ; it was served by one captain, four lieutenants and 322 men. The other district reached from Southwold to Shotley with seven officers and 346 men.1 If, which is doubtful, it was worth anything it was a cheap defensive force, the cost for Suffolk for the year ending 17 March, 1801 being only jf 2,694 12s. ^d? By that year the total number enrolled in Suffolk had risen to 1,142 men, of which Gorleston supplied 250, Lowestoft 234, Pakefield 44, Woodbridge 120, Aldeburgh 89, Southwold 203, and Walton 99.' When Napoleon collected his army and flotilla in Boulogne and the neighbourhood in 1801 the tension became acute and on 24 July St. Vincent wrote that the French preparations were ' beginning to wear a very serious appearance.' On the same day Nelson, just returned from the Baltic, was commissioned as commander-in-chief between Orfordness and Beachy Head. Besides a squadron of men-of-war the Sea Fencibles were placed under his authority. A sixty-four gun ship and smaller vessels were held ready in Hollesley Bay, and armed Thames barges placed at the mouths of the Orford and Woodbridge rivers. It was now proposed to use the Sea Fencibles to man the stationary ships and the flotilla at sea, but as early as 30 July Nelson found that ' they were always afraid of some trick,' in other words, of being impressed for foreign service instead of being allowed to go ashore when the immediate need was past.4 Moreover, although they all expressed their readiness to fight when the enemy appeared, they said that to leave their work indefinitely would mean the ruin of their families.5 Of the Gorleston men only twenty volunteered logo to sea, forty-eight offered them- selves from Lowestoft and Pakefield, forty from Southwold, eight from Aldeburgh, but twenty-eight out of thirty from Orford.6 The district captain thought that the men would come forward on occasion, but there seems to have been an implicit condition in their minds that they should be judges of the occasion, for when the Orford volunteers were sent for they refused to serve except practically within sight of their homes. Sir Edward Berry, who was commanding in Hollesley Bay, wrote that the Sea Fencibles were ' a set of drunken good for nothing fellows, and I beg that none of them may be sent to the Ruby.'7 By 13 August the district captain reported that scarcely any volunteers had appeared except fourteen from Woodbridge, and his remedy was to discharge the others from the Sea Fencibles and press them in the usual way. Bad as is this record it is better for Suffolk and Essex than for Kent and Sussex, from which no volunteers at all could be obtained. On the same 13 August Nelson gave his opinion that if the French put to sea they would be destroyed before they got ten miles out and that all danger of invasion was over. The reluctance of the Sea Fencibles was, therefore, of little importance. When the war was renewed in 1803 the force was reconstituted in deference to popular fears, but among professional men it was regarded with contempt as a refuge for skulkers in the lower grades, and for officers who were paid better for doing nothing on shore than their comrades were for working at sea. The outer ring of fleets, with a great volunteer army at home, were relied upon for security until Trafalgar extinguished the possibility of invasion. Hollesley Bay was much used as a man-of-war anchorage during the wars which began in 1793, but it had its risks and from 1807 Yarmouth and Lowestoft Roads were the head quarters for the squadron on the station. The River Aide has some deep water pits inside, and in 1813 it was proposed to form a new harbour, by a cutting at Orfordness, capable of receiving seventy-four gun ships. The project was abandoned because the formation of a bar was considered certain.8 The operations in the North Sea rendered the speedy conveyance of intelligence of importance, therefore from 1798 signal stations were established round the coast. The places selected were, Further Warren near Bawdsey; Orford Castle ; Felixstowe ; Eastern Point, Orford Haven; Red House Warren near Aldeburgh ; Beacon Hill, Dunwich ; Yoxford ; Easton Cliff; Gunton near Lowestoft ; and Kes- singland. Later, all these stations, except Yoxford and Orford Castle, were links in a semaphore telegraph system between Yarmouth and London.9 In 1796 it was proposed to defend the exposed portions of the coast, where a hostile landing was comparatively easy, by the erection of martello towers, adapted from a type of fortification 1 Par!. Papers (1857-8), xxxix, 337. ' Acct. Genl. Reg. xxi. 3 Add. MSS. 34918, fol. 223. 1 Nicolas, Letters and Despatches, iv, 432 (Nelson to St. Vincent). 6 ' They are no more willing to give up their work than their superiors.' Nelson to St. Vincent, 9 August. 6 Add. MSS. 34918, fol. 122. ' Ibid. fol. 142. 8 Suckling, Hilt. ofSufoik, i, v ; B.M. Suffolk, 10351, c. 24. 9 Admir. Sec. Misc. dxci ; Admir. Acct. Gen. Misc. Var. 109, 2 241 31 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK which had given our men-of-war much trouble in Corsica. They were recommended by Lord St. Vincent as useful to support such defending force as might be at hand at the moment of descent, but their construction was not begun until after the renewal of the war in 1803. In Suffolk their erection was commenced in iSoS,1 and those in the county we/e lettered from L to Z, with three more, AA, BB, and CC. They were armed either with three 24-pounders on traversing platforms or with one 24-pounder and two 5j-in. howitzers ; except M, O, P, S, U, Z, and BB, they also had batteries in front of them, mounting from three to seven 24-pounders.2 At Aldeburgh there were three batteries on the beach, and at Lowestoft north, centre and south batteries, the last mounting twelve guns, dated from 1805.* Of the towers, L and M were at Shotley ; N at Walton ; O and P at Landguard ; Q, R, and S along Felixstowe Bay ; T, U, and V at the mouth of the Deben ; the others, except CC, which was just south of Slaughden Quay, were along Hollesley Bay. After the war M, W, X, Y, and Z, were let to private tenants; V was sold in 1820 to Lord Dysart, to whom the ground belonged, and BB in 1822 ; some of the towers were used by the coast blockade.4 All three batteries at Lowestoft had been disarmed and the ground let on lease ; in 1822 the tenant of the centre battery was under arrest for stealing pigs. About 1797 there was a movement to establish a lifeboat at Lowestoft for the memory of a great storm in 1770, when thirty vessels were driven ashore on Lowestoft Sands and all the crews drowned, was still vivid.6 Dunwich was considered to be another suitable place ' if it were sufficiently inhabited by seamen.' According to the Annual Register boats were stationed at Lowestoft and Bawdsey in 1 80 1, but if that is so it is difficult to understand why one of the fourteen boats voted by Lloyds in 1802 was also sent to Lowestoft as well as one to Aldeburgh.6 However this may be, the results at Lowestoft were not satisfactory — ' motive? have been suggested but they are too disreputable to be believed >r — and it was decided to remove the boat elsewhere if the Lowestoft men continued to hang back. In 1821 a lifeboat was built at Ipswich by public subscription and stationed at Landguard ; 8 how long this boat continued there is not known, but a new one was supplied by the Admiralty in 1845. In 1825 the 'Suffolk Association for saving the Lives of Ship- wrecked Seamen ' was founded, and this body placed boats at Sizewell Gap and Woodbridge Haven in 1826. Manby's mortar apparatus was supplied to Orfordness and Lowestoft in 1809, the year after its first practical trial at Winterton ; no further issues were made until 1815 and 1816, when Kessingland, Easton, Dunwich, and Aldeburgh were similarly equipped. No Suffolk built man-of-war became especially famous in naval annals, but the earlier ones were stoutly built vessels for they were worked hard and long before they came to their end. Those whose names commemorated Commonwealth victories were rechristened at the Restoration, but as the Royalists had no victories to recall the new names lacked particular significance. It will be noticed ' that the Advice, Basing, Maidstone, and Kingfisher all fought desperate actions with Algerine squadrons and their experience is emphatic of the dangers of the Mediterranean in the seventeenth century. In the case of the Kingfisher the lieutenant, Ralph Wrenn, who fought the ship after Kempthorne was killed, was awarded a gold medal and chain. Of the Maidstone s (Mary Rose) action there is a picture in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, and her captain, another Kempthorne, afterwards became an admiral. John Ashby, another captain of the Mary Rose, became one of the leading admirals of the second rank during the earlier part of the reign of William III. Edward Russell, subsequently Lord Orford and the victor of La Hogue, some time commander of the Reserve, is the only one of the captains who rose to fame and high rank, although some of the others became notorious if not famous ; for even among these few ships we find illustrations of the low standard of discipline and personal honour characterizing the majority of naval officers during the Restoration period. In 1669 Captain Wilshaw, of the Preston, was forgiven a fine of ^282 I os. laid upon him for embezzling prize goods. A year earlier the crew of the Reserve petitioned to be transferred to some other ship, as Captain Gunman sold the provisions and ammunition to foreigners, used the Reserve as a merchantman, and flogged them if any of the goods he shipped were missing. The redeeming quality of these men was that although ignorant, lazy, drunken, and dishonest they were usually staunch fighters and, genially as they regarded each other's ethical transgressions, they were severe enough when sitting in court-martial on a fellow captain who had lost his ship to the enemy, a severity which was the saving salt during an epoch of which the tendencies might have been permanently ruinous to naval efficiency. The depositions of the court- martial on the loss of the Mary Rose show that Captain Bounty wasted three days waiting off Plymouth for his wife and went far out of his course because paid to convoy a Genoese merchantman, thus falling in with a French squadron. But he fought for seven hours to save the English traders in his charge, and did enable them and his consort the Constant Warwick to escape. He was 1 Add. MSS. 21040, fol. 2. 'Ante, p. 237. * Martin, Hist, of Lloyds, 215. • B.M. Suffolk Cuttings, 10351, g. I. ' W.O. Ord. Engineers, cxlvii. * Ibid. Rents, xxxviii. 6 B.M. Suffolk Cuttings, 1304 m. fol. 183. 7 Ipswich journal, \ 3 Oct. 1 804. ' Appendix of Ships. 242 MARITIME HISTORY cashiered, but it was for ill-conduct in going out of his course and not for want of couraee. The crews were as eager for plunder as their officers and as unscrupulous in obtaining it. On 19 April, 1665, the master and many of the men of the Basing were court-martialled for brutality to the crew of a Frenchman they had searched. The master was cashiered and the men were sentenced to be flogged round the fleet. There is little to be said about the later ships ; they were mostly small vessels engaged in police work in the Narrow Seas, which they did fairly successfully. The Cruiser, built from the plans of Sir William Rule, the then Surveyor of the Navy and not usually a very fortunate designer, proved to be very fast, as is shown by the long list of prizes under her name ; a list not complete, for she took other vessels of too small force to be worth recapitulating. Several other sloops were built on her model, and in 1823, five years after she had been sold out of the Navy, the Admiralty directed, in one order, six more to be constructed on her lines. The Transit was from the plans of Mr. R. H. Gower, an officer of the East 'India Company living at Ipswich, but was spoiled, he maintained, by alterations made by the Navy Board while she was being built. From 1804 onwards all the men-of-war were built by the Bayleys. The Ganges, a wooden 84-gun ship built at Bombay in 1821 and used as a training ship for boys at Devonport between 1865 and 1898, was transferred to Harwich harbour in 1899 ; two of the earlier ironclads, the Minotaur and Agincourt, became tenders to her in 1906. From I January, 1904, Felixstowe Dock became the local head quarters of a torpedo boat and destroyer flotilla. APPENDIX OF SHIPS CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF MEN-OF-WAR BUILT IN SUFFOLK, WITH DETAILS OF COMMISSIONS TO THE CLOSE OF THE NAPOLEONIC WAR : Abbreviations used: — C. and C. = Convoy and cruising duties; Ch. = Channel Fleet; W.I. = West Indies; E.I. = East Indies; N.A. = North America; Nfd. = Newfoundland ; Med. = Mediterranean ; N.S. = North Sea ; G.S. = Guard ship ; H.S. = Hospital ship ; A.O. = Admiralty Order ; P.O. = Paid out of Commission. ADVICE (4th rate), 545 tons, 42 guns ; built at Woodbridge 1650. Services : C. and C. 1654- 60 (c. Fr. Allen) ; C. and C. 1663 (c. Wm. Poole) ; battles of 3 June, 1665 (c. Poole) and 25 July, 1666 (c. Chas. O'Brien) ; C. and C. 1667 and P.O. ; Med. 1670 (c. Ben. Young), in July, in charge of convoy with Guernsey, engaged seven Algerines off Cape de Gatte, 24 k. and w. including capt. Young killed ; Med. 1671-2 (c. Hen. Barnardiston) ; Fleet battles 1672 (c. Domi- nick Nugent)-3 (c. John Dawson) ; Ch. 1674 ; G.S. Portsmouth 1678-9 (c. Wm. Holden) ; Ch. 1688 (c. Hen. WiIliams)-9 (c. John Grenville, 2nd It. Rich. Kirby), battle of Bantry Bay, I May, 1689 ; C. and C. 1690-2 (c. Ed. Boys and Chas. Hawkins) ; W.I. 1693-4 (c. Wm. Harman), operations on coast of Espanola, Harman killed ; C. and C. 1695 (c. Ed. Acton) ; E.I. 1696-8 ; C. and C. 1699 (c. Jas. Greenway) ; N.A. 1700-2 (c. Wm. Caldwell) ; C. and C. 1703 (c. Salmon Morris); N.A. 1704-6 (c. J. Lowen), in June, 1704 captured a privateer of 18 guns taken into Navy as Advice Prize; Nfd. 1707-9 (c. Peter Chamberlain); C. and C. 1710-11 (c. Lord Duffus). Taken off Yarmouth 27 June, 1711, by six French privateers, 60 k. and w. RESERVE (4th rate), 533 tons, 42 guns; built at Woodbridge 1650. Services: Nfd. 1654 (c. Robt. Plumleigh); C. and C. 1655 ; Nfd. 1656; C. and C. 1657-9; Nfd. 1660 ; Med. 1663-4; Fleet battles 1665-6 (c. John Tyrwhitt) ; C. and C. 1667-8 (c. Christ. Gunman); C. and C. 1670-2 (c. Thos. Elliott and Jasper Grant); repairing during 1673; Med. 1674-5 (c. Edw. Russell) ; Nfd. 1676 ; Med. 1677 ; Ch. 1678 (c. David Lloyd) ; Nfd. 1679 (c. Lawrence Wright); C. and C. 1681-2 (c. Hen. Priestman) ; Ch. 1684-5 (c. Geo. Aylmer) ; G.S.Ports- mouth 1686-7 (Ct Dom. Nugent) ; Ch. 1688 ; Med. 1691 (c. Thos. Crawley) ; C. and C. 1692-4 (c. Jas. Launce) ; W.I. 1696-7 (c. John Moses) ; Nfd. 1702 (c. Rich. Haddock) ; C. and C. 1703. Foundered in Yarmouth Roads in the Great Storm of 27 Nov., 1703 ; c. John Anderson and 174 men drowned. See also ante, p. 242. MAIDSTONE (4th rate), renamed MARY ROSE at Restoration; 556 tons, 40 guns; built at Woodbridge 1654. Services : Med. 1654-7 (c. Thos. Adams), action of Tunis 4 April, 1655, Santa Cruz 20 April, 1657 5 C. and C. 1657-60 (c. Thos. Penrose) ; E.I. 1662-4 (c- Jos.Cubitt) ; Ch. 1665-6, battle of 3 June, 1665 (c. Wm. Reeves), battles of June and July, 1666 (c. Thos. 'Names of captains are within brackets. It should be remarked that only the chief movements of vessels are given. A ship may have been for some years on a foreign station, and during her commission have come home several times for repairs ; such intervals are not noticed in the list of services, nor, if occupied in more than one employment in a year is any other than the principal one usually named. 243 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Darcy) ; C. and C. 1667-8 ; Med. 1669-71 (c. John Kempthorne and Wm. Davies), on 29 Dec., 1669 Kempthorne fought seven Algerines off Gibraltar, 30 k. and w. ; Fleet battles 1672-3 (c. Thos. Hamilton) ; Med. 1674-5 (c. Wm. Capon) ; C. and C. 1678 (c. Chas. Talbot) ; Nfd. 1679; Med. 1681-4 (c. John Ash by) ; Ch. 1685 (c. John Temple); W.I. 1686-8 (c. Ralph Wrenn) ; W.I. 1691 (c. John Bounty), taken by French 12 July, 1691, when outward bound. See also ante, p. 242. PRESTON (4th rate) ; renamed ANTELOPE at Restoration 5516 tons, 40 guns ; built at Wood- bridge 1654. Services : C. and C. 1654-9 (c. Ph. Gethings and Robt. Robinson) ; Med. 1660 ; Med. 1663-4 (c. Robt. Clark) ; Ch. 1665-6, battle of June, 1665 (c. John Chichely), on 4 Sept., took Seven Oaks, 54, battles of June and July 1666 (c. Freschville Holies), raid in Vlie in August ; C. and C. 1667-8 and P.O.; C. and C. 1671 (c. Roger Strickland) ; Fleet battles 1672-4 (c. Rich. White and Gustavus L'Hostein), in Sept. 1672 took a Dutch man-of-war and two merchant- men ; C. and C. 1678 (c. Hen. Priestman) ; Nfd. 1679 ; Med. 1680-2 (c. Jas. Storey) and P.O. ; Ch. 1688 (c. Hugh Ridley) ; C. and C. 1689 (c. Hen. Wickham) ; Ch. and W.I. 1690, battle of Bantry Bay i May, 1690 ; W.I. 1691-2 (c. Josiah Crow). Sold by A.O. n July, 1693. BASING (5th rate), renamed GUERNSEY at Restoration ; 245 tons, 28 guns; built at Walbers- wick, 1654. Services: C. and C, 1654-60 (c. Alex. Farley and Rich. Hodges); Nfd. 1661; C. and C. 1662-4 (c. Humph. Coningsby) ; Ch. 1665 (c. John Utber), attack on Bergen, 2 August, 1665, c. Utber killed ; C. and C. 1666-71 (c. Thos. Fisher, Thos. Bridgman, Argentine Allington, and Rich. London), in July, 1760, with Advice, engaged seven Algerines off Cape de Gatte, and Allington killed; C. and C. 1672 (c. Leon. Harris); Ch. 1673, battle of 28 May; C. and C. 1674 (c. Chas. Royden) ; Salee, 1675 ; C. and C. 1676-7 (c. Jas. Harman) ; Med. 1678, on 19 March, 1677-8, engaged an Algerine of 50 guns, 9 k. including Harman ; C. and C. 1679-81 (c. Math. Tennant) ; W.I. 1682-4; C. and C. 1685, and P.O. ; Ch. 1688 (c. Thos. Ashton) ; made fireship by A.O. of 12 Jan. 1688-9 ; Ch. 1689 (c. Robt. Arthur) ; W.I. 1690-3 (c. Ed. Oakley). Condemned and sold by A.O. 26 Oct. 1693. See also ante, p. 243. KINGFISHER (4th rate), 663 tons, 46 guns ; builf at Woodbridge 1675. Services: Med. 1675 (c. David Trotter) ; Med. 1677-82 (c. Morgan Kempthorne, and Edw. Wheeler), action in May 1 68 1 with ei^ht Algerines, 46 k. and w. including Kempthorne killed; C. and C. 1685 (c. Thos. Hamilton) ; N.A. 1686-7 ; Ch. 1689 (c. Thos. Allen) ; Ireland 1690 (c. John Johnson) ; Nfd. 1691 ; C. and C. 1692-5 (c. Jasper Hicks) ; E.I. 1696-7 ; C. and C. 1702-5 (c. Anth. Tollett). Made hulk at Harwich by A.O. 17 Aug. 1706. See also ante, p. 242. MILFORD (5th rate), 385 tons, 32 guns; built at Ipswich 1695. Services: C. and C. 1695-7 (c. Thos. Lyell). Taken by French privateers in the North Sea, 7 Jan. 1696-7, 60 k. and w. Retaken 1702 but not again used in the Navy. HASTINGS (5th rate), 381 tons, 32 guns; built at Woodbridge 1698. Services: C. and C. 1698 (c. Rich. White); E.I. 1699-1701 ; C. and C. 1702-3(0 Rich. Culliford and John Kenney) ; Guinea 1704-5 (c. Ph. Stanhope); C. and C. 1706-7 (c. Fr. Vaughan). Wrecked off Yarmouth, 9 Feb. 1706-7, 26 men saved. LUDLOW (5th rate), 381 tons, 32 guns; built at Woodbridge 1698. Services: C. and C. 1699 (c. Hen. Lumley) ; W.I. 1700-1 ; C. and C. 1702-3 (c. Wm. Cock). Taken by two French 32-gun ships, 1 6 Jan. 1702-3. GREYHOUND (5th rate), 494 tons, 40 guns; built at Ipswich 1703. Services: C. and C. 1703-4 (c. Chas. Langton and Wm. Stephenson) ; W.I. 1705-7 (c. Wm. Herriot) ; C. and C. 1708-11 (c. Jas. Stewart). Wrecked off Tynemouth, 26 Aug. 171 1. BIDEFORD (6th rate), 423 tons, 24 guns; built at Ipswich 1740. Services: C. and C. 1740 (c. Robt. Allen), 1741 (c. Lord Forester), 1742 (c Hon. Geo. Dawnay), 1743 (c. Shel- drake Laton), took the Sta. Fami/ia, 14, in 1742 ; W.I. 1744-8 (c. C. Powlett). Broken up by A.O. 8 Aug. 1754. HAMPSHIRE (4th rate), 854 tons, 50 guns; built at Ipswich 1741. Services: C. and C. 1742-3 (c. Thos. Limeburner and Edw. Legge) ; Ch. 1744 (c. Hon. Geo. Murray); Med. and W.I. 1745-6 (c. Lionel Daniel) ; C. and C. 1747-8 and P.O. ; Ch. 1755-6 (c. Coningsby Norbury) ; St. Helena 1757; C. and C. 1758; W.I. 1759-62 (c. Arthur Usher), on 18 Oct. 1760, destroyed Prince Edward, 32, and Due de Choiseul, 32, privateers, off Cuba; reduction of Havannah 1762. Broken up by A.O. 29 Aug. 1766. GRANADO (bombship), 270 tons, 8 guns; built at Ipswich 1742. Services: As sloop, C. and C. 1743-8 (c. Arthur Upton and Wm. Parry). In 1747 the crew petitioned that she was so bad a seaboat that she was always wet. As bomb, Ch. 1758 (c. S. Uvedale), bombardment of St. Malo; W.I. 1759; C. and C. 1760 (c. John Botterill) ; W.I. 1761-3(0. Thos. Frazer), reduction of Martinique 1762. Sold by A.O. I June, 1763. CORMORANT (sloop), 304 tons, 14 guns; built at Ipswich 1776. Services: E.I. 1776-9 (c. Geo. Young and Wm. Owen) ; Lisbon 1780 (c. J. W. Payne) ; N.A. 1781 (c. Chas McEvoy). Taken off Charlestown by the French fleet under Comte de Grasse on 24 Aug. 1781. 244 MARITIME HISTORY SAVAGE (sloop), 302 tons, 14 guns; built at Ipswich 1778. Services: C. and C. 1778; W.I. 1779-80 (c. Thos. Graves); N.A. 1781 (c. Chas. Stirling), taken by the American ship Congress in Sept. 33 k. and w., retaken immediately afterwards, with the Congress, by H.M.S. Solebay ; N.A. 1782 (c. Edw. Crawley) ; C. and C. 1783 and P.O. ; C. and C. 1786 (c. R. R. Burgess), 1787-90 (c. J. Dickinson), 1791 (c. P. Frazer), 1792 (c. Alex. Fearon), 1793 (c. A. Fraser), took Custine, 8, on 24 Feb. 1793 ; Downs Station 1794-1802 (c. Geo. Winckworth, N. Thompson, and W. H. Webley). H.S. Woolwich, 1804-5. Sold 1805. CHAMPION (6th rate), 518 tons, 24 guns ; built at Ipswich 1779. Services: Ch. 1779-80 (c. C. P. Hamilton) ; W.I. 1781-4 (c. T. Wells and A. Hood), present at Sir Sam. Hood's action with de Grasse at St. Kitts, 25-7 Jan. 1782, and at Rodney's victory of 12 April, 1782, took Ceres, 1 6, on 19 April, 1782 ; C. and C. 1786-90 (c. Wm. Domett and S. Edwards) ; C. and C. 1796-9 (c. Hen. Raper and G. E. Hammond), present at Sir Home Popham's attempt on Ostend, 19 May, 1 796, took Anacreon, 1 6, on 26 June, 1799; Med. 1800-2 (c. Lord Wm. Stewart), retook H.M.S. Bulldog, 18, on 16 Sept. 1802 ; N.S. 1803-5(0 R. H. Bromley), engaged batteries off Ostend, 23 July, 1805, when 5 k. and w. ; N.A. 1806; Ch. 1807-8 {c. K. Mackenzie and J. C. Crawford); C. and C. 1809 (c. R. Henderson). R.S. Sheerness, 1810-16. Sold 1816. SPITFIRE (sloop), 421 tons, 16 guns; built at Ipswich 1782. Services: As fireship, Ch. 1782 (c. Robt. Mayston) ; Nore, 1783 ; Ch. 1790-1 (c. R. Watson and T. Fremantle). As sloop, C. and C. 1792 (c. J. Woodley), 1793 (c. P. C. Durham), on 13 Feb. took LAfrique, 1794 (c. J. Cook), 1795-6 (c. A. Morris), 1797-1801 (c. M. Seymour), 1802-3 (c- Robt. Keen), took Les Bans Amis, 6, on 2 April, 1797, UAimable Manet, 14, on I May, 1797, Wilding, 14, on 28 Dec. 1798, Resolve, 14, on 31 March. 1799, Heureux Sodete, 14, on 17 April, 1800, Heureux Courier, 14, on 19 June, 1800; Ireland 1804; N.S. 1806 (c. H. S. Butt); Leitli Station, 1808-10 (c. J. Ellis); C. and C. 1811-14. Convict H.S. Portsmouth, 1818-20. Sold 1823. MEG^ERA (fireship), 425 tons, 14 guns; built at Ipswich 1783. Services: Ch. 1794-5 (c. Hen. Blackwood), 1796 (c. A. C. Dickson), 1797-8 (c. G. J. Shirley), 1799 (c. Geo. White), 1800-2 (c. H. West); N.S. 1804-5. Sold 1817. CRUISER (sloop), 384 tons, i8,guns; built at Ipswich 1797. Services: N.S. 1798-1800 (c. Chas. Wollaston), took Jupiter, 8, 27 April, 1798, Deux Freres, 14,011 21 May, 1799, Courageux, 14, on 13 July, 1799, Perseverant, 14, on 23 March, 1800, Filibustier, 14, on 25 March, 1800 ; Copenhagen, 1801 (c. Jas. Brisbane); c. Brisbane sounded and laid down buoys in the Middle Ground to replace those removed by the Danes and was commended by Nelson in his official report ; N.S. 1802-6 (c. John Hancock), took Contre-amiral Magon, 17, on 1 8 Oct. 1804, Vengeur, 14, on 13 Nov. 1805 ; Copenhagen, 1807 (c. P. Stoddart), action with Danish flotilla on 22 Aug., took Jena, 16, on 6 Jan., took Brave, 16, and recaptured two merchantmen on 26 Jan. ; Baltic, 1808-12 (c. G. C. Mackenzie) ; N.S. 1813-14. Sold by A.O. of i Dec. 1818. See also ante, p. 243. DARING (gunbrig), 177 tons, 12 guns; built at Ipswich 1804. Services: N.S. 1808-10; west coast of Africa (Lt. W. R. Pascoe), 1812-13. Destroyed I Feb. 1813, to prevent capture by the enemy. IMOGEN (sloop), 282 tons, 16 guns; built at Ipswich 1805. Services: Med. 1806-13; Irish Station 1814. Sold 1817. ORESTES (sloop), 280 tons, 16 guns ; built at Ipswich 1805. Services : C. and C. 1805-14 (c. Hon. G. Powletc and J. R. Lapenotiere) ; took La Dorade, 10, on 9 May, and Loup Garou, 1 6, on 27 Oct. 1810. Sold 1817. HEARTY (gunbrig), 183 tons, 12 guns; built at Ipswich 1805. Services: Ch. 1805-6; Portsmouth Station 1807-8 ; Baltic 1809; N.S. 1810-14. Sold 1816. JULIA (sloop), 248 tons, IO guns; built at Ipswich 1806. Services: C. and C. 1806-7 (c. Robt. Yarker) ; W.I. 1808-11 (c. Chas. Kerr and Robt. Dowers) ; N.A. 1812. Wrecked off Tristan d'Acunha, 2 Oct. 1817 ; 55 men drowned. SAPPHO (sloop), 384 tons, 10 guns; built at Ipswich 1806. Services: Copenhagen and N.S. 1807-8 (c. Geo. Langford), took the (Danish) Admiral Yawl, 28, 2 March, 1808 ; W.I. 1808-14 (c. Wm. Charlton and T. Graves). PEACOCK (sloop), 386 tons, 18 guns ; built at Ipswich 1807. Services: C. and C. 1807-8 (c. Wm. Peake) ; N.S. 1809-11 ; C. and C. 1812 ; W.I. 1813. Taken and sunk by U.S. man- of-war Hornet, 2O, on 24 Feb. 1813 ; the Peacock lost nine men drowned and thirty-eight k. and w. including c. Peake, killed. The Hornet lost one man killed and two wounded. The Peacock had long won the admiration of lady visitors by the 'spit and polish' resplendence of her get-up. The guns were kept brillantly polished but apparently the gunnery left much to be desired. BARRACOUTA (sloop), 385 tons, 18 guns; built at Ipswich 1807. Services: E.I. 1808-14 (c. Geo. Harris, Wm. Wells, and Sam. Leslie). Sold 1815. 245 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK DRAKE (sloop), 237 tons, 10 guns; built at Ipswich 1808. Services: W.I. i8oR (c. J. Fleming) ; N.S. 1809-14 (c. Eyles Mounsher), took Tilsit, 18, on 9 April, 1810. Wrecked Nfd. 1822. Many drowned. JASPER (sloop), 237 tons, 10 guns; built at Ipswich 1808. Services: C. and C. 1808 (c. W. W. Daniel); Portugal 1809-10 ; Portsmouth Station 1811 ; Portugal 1812-14. Wrecked at Plymouth 20 Jan. 1817. Only four men saved. ONYX (sloop), 237 tons, 10 guns; built at Ipswich 1808. Services: N.S. 1809-10 (c. C.Gill and Wm. Hamilton), recaptured H.M.S. Manly, 16, on I Jan. 1809; Med. 1811-13; W.I. 1814. Sold 1819. ROSARIO (sloop), 236 tons, 10 guns; built at Ipswich 1808. Services : C. and C. 1809-14 (c. B. Harvey), took Mamelouck, 1 6, in Channel I o Dec. 1 8 1 o. TRANSIT (cutter), 214 tons, n guns; built at Ipswich 1809. Services: Coastal, see ante, P- 243- BEAVER (sloop), 236 tons, 10 guns; built at Ipswich 1809. Services: Downs Station (c. E. O'B. Drury), 1810-12 ; N.S. 1813-14. Sold 1829. NIMROD (sloop), 382 tons, iSguns; built at Ipswich 1812. Services: W.I. 1813; N.A. 1814. Sold 1827. ESPEIGLE (sloop), 382 tons, 18 guns; built at Ipswich 1812. Services: W.I. 1813-14 (c.J.Taylor). Sold 183 3. JASEUR (sloop), 382 tons, 18 guns; built at Ipswich 1813. Services: C. and C. 1813 (c. G. E. Watts) ; N.A. 1814. Condemned 1842 ; broken up 1845. HARLEQUIN (sloop), 382 tons, 18 guns; built at Ipswich 1813 Services: Irish Station 1814. Sold 1829. HARRIER (sloop), 386 tons, 18 guns; built at Ipswich 1813. Services: C. and C. 1814. Sold 1829. ESK. (sloop), 458 tons, 2O guns ; built at Ipswich 1813. Sold 1829. LEVEN (sloop), 457 tons, 20 guns ; built at Ipswich 1813. Broken up 1848. DEE (sloop), 447 tons, 20 guns ; built at Ipswich 1814. Sold 1818. INDUSTRIES INTRODUCTION 1 CHOUGH the industries of Suffolk cannot be said as a whole to owe much to the soil of the county, there are one or two interesting exceptions. The manufacture of flints at Brandon is the oldest of all British in- dustries. It was carried on in the remotest pre- historic times with the help of implements differing in material, but not essentially in form from those used at the present day. The Brandon flints were said to be the best in the world for use on fire- arms, and as late as the Napoleonic Wars the demand for them was so great as to find employ- ment for a large part of the population. An account published in 1846 states that the industry was no longer so prosperous as it had formerly been when seventy or a hundred were employed. But even then, although similar deposits, at Purfleet, Greenhithe, and Maidstone had ceased to be worked, there was still sufficient demand for the Brandon flints to encourage the formation of a company consisting of 138 share- holders of £25 each, whose agent received the flints when made at a certain rate per thousand and supplied the orders of the outside world : The flints are obtained (says the authority above quoted) from a common about a mile east of Brandon. The chalk is within 6 feet of the surface. The men sink a shaft 6 feet and then proceed about 3 feet horizontally, and then sink another shaft lower in the chalk about six feet, and sometimes they fall in with a floor of rich flint at this depth ; if not, they work again 3 feet horizontally, and sink another shaft 6 feet, and so they progress, perhaps for 30 feet, when generally they meet with 3 or 4 floors of flint, at every floor of which they excavate horizontally several yards. It is found in large blocks, like septaria, which the men break into pieces sufficiently portable to hand from stage to stage, and a man being placed at each stage so formed, the flint is passed from hand to hand till it reaches the surface. It is then cut and worked with great skill in the required form.1 The invention of the percussion cap struck a •severe blow at this thriving industry, but it still survives in a small way to supply the needs of primitive man in other continents to whom civilization has not yet extended the blessings of the percussion cap. The flints are also used for the purpose of architectural decoration. The 1 Kelly, Direct, of Stiff. 1 846, p. i 374 ; 1 875, p. 742. population of Brandon now devote most of their attention to another natural product of this other- wise barren district, the rabbit, whose skin is turned into glue, and whose fur is prepared for the use of the hat manufacturer.2 If the rabbit is not quite as inherent in the soil as the flints, it was at least very much at home there in the thirteenth century, especially along the western border, where the rights of warren seemed to the lords of manors worth claiming and to the juries of the hundred worth disputing,3 and on the coast, where poaching seems to have been common at that time.4 In the seventeenth century Reyce speaks with something approaching enthusiasm of the ' harmless conies which do delight naturally to make their abode here,' and adds : For their great increase with rich profit for all good housekeeping hath made everyone of any reckoning to prepare fit harbour for them with great welcome and entertainment ; from whence it proceeds that there are so many warrens here in every place which do furnish the next markets, and are carried to London with no little reckoning.5 In Arthur Young's day there was, he says, a warren near Brandon said to yield above forty thousand rabbits in a year. He adds : Estimating the skin at sevenpence and the flesh at threepence (in the country it sells at fourpence and fivepence), it makes tenpence a head ; and if ten are killed annually per acre, the produce is eight and fourpence. But Arthur Young's feelings as an agriculturist appear to have led him to under-estimate the profits of rabbit-farming. He rejoices that great tracts of warren have been ploughed up, and that the price of skins has fallen from 1 2J. a dozen to 7*.° Since that time the fur-dressing industry has been continuously carried on, though its prosperity has varied with the changes of fashion. In 1846 it was said that more than 200 had formerly been employed, but that in consequence of the introduction of the silk hat, the number was reduced to fifty. The danger of the silk hat 1 White, Direct, of Stiff. 1855, p. 68 1 ; and Kelly, Direct. 1900, p. 59. 5 Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 143. 4 Suckling, Hiit. Stiff, ii, 433. 6 Reyce, Breviary ofSuff. (ed. Hervey), 35. ' Young, A Gen. View of the Agric. of Stiff. 220. 247 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK driving out the felt appears to have soon passed, and the industry got back to its old level. In 1875 the principal employer alone, Mr. William Rought, found work for 200 hands, and this firm is still in existence, having been established for more than half a century.1 The manufacture of whiting has also been carried on at Brandon for nearly a century, if not longer. In certain districts the soil of the county yields a beautiful white clay from which bricks, tiles, and ornaments are made in imitation of stone. Woolpit brick began to be widely used in the middle of the eighteenth century, and a number of halls, including those of Woolverstone, Redgrave, and Great Finborough, are built of it.2 Bricks and tiles of the same kind have long been made at Chilton, near Sudbury.3 At Wattisfield, on the road from Botesdale to Bury, there is a bed of clay from which, in addition to bricks and tiles, a brown earthenware much used by dairymen and gardeners is manufactured.4 Ordinary brick is widely made throughout Suffolk. The history of the Lowestoft china industry will be fully dealt with later. Experts differ as to how far the clay and sand of the district can have supplied the factory with materials, but there seems no doubt that the enterprise had its origin in the discovery by a Gunton landowner of what he took to be a bed of china clay on his estate.5 The china industry at Lowestoft, as at so many other places, was short-lived, but another industry that has sprung more recently from the soil has become independent of this material connexion, and seems to have a prosperous future before it. This is the manufacture of fertilizers, which will be dealt with in a separate section. The discovery by Professor Henslow in 1843 at Felixstowe between the Pleiocene Beds, locally known as Crag, and the London Clay, of large deposits of phosphatic nodules, capable of con- version into artificial manure of the highest value, led to an extensive industrial exploitation of the strata which lasted some thirty years.6 The Coprolite, as it was called, was chiefly obtained along the coastline of Hollesley Bay, between Bawdsey and Boyton, where veins and ridges of it were found at various depths from 2 to 2O ft., and as much as ^20 worth was got out of a cottager's garden. The unearthing, sorting, and washing of these deposits found employment in 1 Kelly, Direct. 1846, p. 1374 ; 1875, p. 742 ; and 1900, p. 61. ' White, Direct. 1855, pp. 234, 500. 3 Ibid. 757, and Kelly, Direct. 1901, p. 95. 4 Ibid. 735, and ibid. 351. 4 See references under • Lowestoft China.' * See references under ' Fertilizers.' The local use of ' crag ' applied directly as a manure had been com- mon in the eighteenth century (Young, A Gen. View, 193). A farmer named Edwards of Levington is said to have discovered it in 1718 (White, Direct. 1855, p. 240 ; cf. R. E. Prothero, The Pioneers and Progress ef English farming, 43). the fifties and sixties for many hundreds of men, women, and children. The London Clay of the same district contains large numbers of rounded masses of impure limestone called cement stones, which are sometimes traversed by cracks which have become filled with pure crystallized carbonite of lime, and are then known as septaria. Along the coast from Harwich to Orford Ness a great number of boats used to be engaged in dredging for these stones, which were used in the manu- facture of Roman cement. The fishing hamlet of Pinmill on the Orwell had, in 1855, about fifty boats employed chiefly in this way, but the industry appears to have died out. Goldstones for making copperas were also found on this coast.7 It was no doubt the existence of these deposits, and the fact that they were utilized in early times, that led the ubiquitous mining speculator of the sixteenth century to imagine that he was on the track of gold in this part of Suffolk. In July, 1538, the king made a grant of £20 to Richard Candishe and other commissioners, who were to have the oversight of the king's mines of gold in Suffolk and to convey certain finers and other artificers there for the trial of the ore. Later on further grants were made for the purpose of bringing up skilled miners from Cornwall. The king's hopes of treasure seem soon to have been disappointed. In September of the same year we find the Cornishmen and others being paid off and sent back. But a rumour had got abroad, and the private prospector had already commenced operations. At the end of September a certain Thomas Toysen complained to Crom- well of divers ill-doers who had digged for gold and treasure in his lordship of Brightwell of Suffolk, and promised that if he could have a licence to search so as to be rid of the intruders, he would hand over all the treasure he found to the king.8 The locality of the king's gold mine is not stated. It may have been somewhere in the same neighbourhood, but a tradition reported by Reyce in 1617 suggests another possibility. After referring to the absence of mines in Suffolk, he adds : Yet I have heard that in ancient time there was a mine of gold ore about Banketon in Hartismere hun- dred, but the experience of this day[ly] so much contrarying the same made me to receive it but as unprobable hearsay.9 Apart from influence on the political, social, and commercial history of Suffolk, the sea has always been one of the most considerable of the county's industrial resources. In this respect Suffolk now stands fourth among the counties of England, and it is not impossible, in view of the 248 7 White, Direct. 1855, p. 260. 8 L. ana1 P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (2), No. 1280, 1. 28-30, 35, and App. No. 41. 9 Reyce, Breviary (ed. Hervey), 27. INDUSTRIES rapid growth of Lowestoft, and of the contem- plated development of Southwold as a fishing station, that in the future it may come to take a still higher position. In the earliest times, if we may judge by the number and the magnitude of the herring-rents mentioned in Domesday, Suffolk was inferior to no other county in respect of the productivity of its fisheries, which were then carried on mainly along the northern half of its coast.1 Throughout the Middle Ages, and down to modern times, fishing fleets have gone out from Gorleston, Kessingland, Lowestoft, South- wold, Walberswick, Dunwich, and Aldeburgh, not only to the North Sea for herring and mackerel, but to far-off Iceland for cod and ling, and the wealthy merchant of Ipswich in the sixteenth century invested much of his capital in these distant expeditions. But two causes have seriously checked the natural development of the industry until quite recent times — the one entirely natural, the other partly social. No county has suffered more than Suffolk from the effects of sea erosion. Dunwich, which had been before the Conquest the principal fishing station in the county, had almost disappeared beneath the sea before the end of the Middle Ages, and Aide- burgh, which was a flourishing port under Elizabeth, had become in the days of Crabbe the mere shadow of its former self. The other cause has been the bitter contention, amounting at times to a kind of civil war, between rival ports. The struggle of Gorleston and Lowestoft with Yarmouth, and of Southwold, Walberswick, and Easton Bavent with Dunwich, was more or less continuous for four or five centuries. Perhaps a curious natural feature of the county had some share in aggravating these differences. No less than three of the rivers of Suffolk turn at a right angle when within a short distance of the sea, and run parallel to the coast from five to ten miles before finding an outlet. In this flirtation with the sea the river itself seems to provoke a struggle for its possession. In the sixteenth century Southwold and Dunwich actually engaged in such a struggle for the mouth of the Blythe, setting bands of diggers to change the channel of the stream by stealth. And in more recent times Lowestoft has compelled the reluctant Waveney to fulfil her early promise, which had been broken in favour of Yarmouth. The industrial history of Suffolk falls into three well-defined periods, in each of which the influence of geographical position has operated very strongly, though with widely different results. In the first period, which may be reckoned as lasting from about the beginning of the fourteenth century to about the middle of the seventeenth, the counties on the south-east coast became the chief manufacturing district of England. The main cause of this was proximity to the Continent, which had in the first place 1 Ellis, Introd. to Dom. i, 140. tended to make this part of England the most thickly populated, and for that reason the most naturally disposed to industrial development, and which in the second place led to constant inter- course with a more advanced industrial civiliza- tion. It was not by mere accident that the social discontent which found expression in the rising of 1381 should have blazed most fiercely in the eastern counties. From that time to the Civil War those counties held that kind of political hegemony based on pre-eminence which is now enjoyed by the cities of the Midlands and of the North. The pre-eminence was, of course, a purely relative one. The actual numbers engaged in Suffolk were almost certainly not higher than at the present day. Even the pro- portion of the population fully engaged in industry as compared with that engaged in agriculture was probably never much greater than it is now. It was that proportion, as contrasted with the proportion obtaining in other counties of con- temporary England, which gave a special character to the East Anglia of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. From that point of view we may consider the manufacture of woollen cloth as the dominating feature of this period of the economic history of Suffolk, though the industry never thoroughly established itself outside the south- western part of the county. After the Civil War the economic conditions of the eastern counties began to be remoulded under the influence of a fuller national develop- ment. The force of the continental influence was spent ; or, rather, it had by this time over- spread the whole country. The advantage of an earlier reception was changed into a disadvantage when an industry hampered by the growth of vested interests and artificial restrictions was forced to enter into free competition with the compara- tively untrammelled industry of the North. But besides this negative factor there was also a positive factor of perhaps even greater importance. The influence of the proximity of the Continent was replaced by the influence of the proximity of London. The enormous growth of the metro- polis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the necessity of a correspondingly increased food supply, coupled with a policy of high pro- tection, gave a powerful impetus to agriculture in those counties by which the demand could most readily be met. Natural advantages had from the first made Suffolk one of the chief sources of supply, and it is not surprising that under these favouring conditions it became the country of the experimenting landowner and of the enter- prising and progressive farmer, and that industrial interests had to take a secondary place. Many of the weavers emigrated to the North, and those who remained found that the agricultural labourers around them were in a better condition than themselves. It is not improbably true that, as far as mere numbers go, the woollen manu- facture found occupation for as many hands in 249 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the eighteenth century as it had in the sixteenth. But the great majority of these were women and children, who span wool in the intervals of household work for a miserable pittance of ^d. or 4^. a day. Their occupation in this way can hardly be said to have given an industrial character to the county. From Defoe's famous description of his tour through the eastern counties in 1722, it is clear that at this period the activities of Suffolk seemed to the intelligent observer to be mainly concen- trated in maintaining a large export of food. A very great quantity of corn is shipped from Ipswich to London. . . . Woodbridge is full of corn factors and butter factors some of whom are very con- siderable merchants. . . . Even Dunwich, however ruined, retains some share of this trade as it lies right against the particular part of the county for butter. ... A very great quantity of beef and mutton also is brought every year and every week to London from this side of England. . . . Suffolk is particularly famous for furnishing the city of London and all the counties round with turkeys. . . . Three hundred droves have been counted crowing Stratford Bridge in one season and still more leave the county by Newmarket, Sudbury, and Clare. The geese begin to be driven to London in August . . . and hold on to the end of October when the roads begin to be too stiff and deep for their broad feet and short legs to march in. . . . Moreover of late carts have been made with four stories to put the creatures in one above another by which invention one cart can carry a great num- ber. Changing horses they travel night and day, so that they bring the fowls seventy, eighty, or one hun- dred miles in two days and one night.' Under such conditions as these it is evident that good communications by road or river be- tween the interior of the county and the outside world, especially with the capital, were of the utmost importance to the economic prosperity of Suffolk ; and it was at this period that both road and river received the greatest improve- ments. It was the period of the Turnpike Acts ; 3 and Arthur Young, towards the close of it, testifies that ' the roads are uncommonly good in every part of the county ; so that a traveller is nearly able to move in a postchaise by a map, almost sure of finding excellent gravel roads ; many cross ones in most directions equal to turnpikes. The improvements in this respect in the last twenty years are almost inconceivable.'3 The canalization of the rivers, so far as it has been accomplished, was practically all of it carried out during this distinctively agricultural period of Suffolk history. A scheme for making the Lark 1 D. Defoe, Tour in Eastern Counties, Cassell's National Library, 94, pp. no, 112, 120-3. ' Stat. 25 Geo. Ill, cap. 106 (Ipswich to Gorleston), 51 George III, cap. 10 (Barton to Brandon), 51 Geo. Ill, cap. 108 (Ipswich to Scole), 51 Geo. Ill, cap. 113, (Gorleston to Blythburgh), 52 Geo. Ill, cap. 24 (Ipswich to Stratford), 52 Geo. Ill, cap. 119 (Bury to Newmarket), 52 Geo. Ill, cap. 23 (Ipswich to Debenham). * Young, A Gen. Hew, 227. navigable from Bury to the Little Ouse had been set on foot by a certain Henry Lambe, and received the royal approval just before the out- break of the Civil War,4 but was apparently not carried out till 1698, when an Act was passed empowering Henry Ashby, esq., of Eaton Socon in Bedfordshire to make the Lark navigable from Long Common a little below Mildenhall as far as Eastgate Bridge at Bury. The Act was amended by another passed in 1817 which placed the navigation under the management of about eighty commissioners.5 Owing to some misun- derstanding between the first proprietors and the Bury corporation respecting the right to con- struct wharves and erect warehouses within the borough, the canalization of the river was never carried further than Fornham. A further pro- ject set on foot at the beginning of the nineteenth century to connect Bury by a canal with the Stour near Manningtree met with opposition from the proprietors of the Lark Navigation and others and was abandoned.6 Similar powers for the improvement of the Stour from Sudbury to Manningtree and for the levying of tolls on the traffic were conferred on a body of commissioners connected with the former town. In 1 706 7 Defoe found the improvement in operation, and though there were complaints that it did not pay very well,8 it continued in full use till the intro- duction of railways. The Blythe was made navigable for small craft to Halesworth under the powers conferred by an Act of 1756,° this being the completion of a work commenced in 1 749 and continued in 1752 by opening out the choked- up Blythe haven at Southwold, and erecting two piers, one on the north and the other on the south side of the haven.10 The canalization of the Gipping from Slow- market to Ipswich was begun in 1790 and finished in 1798, the chief movers in the matter being Mr. Joshua Grigsby of Drinkstone Park and Mr. William Wollaston of Finborough Hall. The total cost was over £26,000, a good deal of extra expense being incurred in a lawsuit with the first contractors. The length was over 1 6 miles, and there were fifteen locks con- structed. The original charges made for freight were a penny per ton per mile from Stow to Ipswich, and a halfpenny per ton per mile from Ipswich to Stow. In the first full year ten barges were employed, and the tolls amounted to £937 IOJ. The cost of the carriage of produce was reduced to one-half, and the rent of land is said to have risen in consequence. AH these 4 Cal. o/S.P. Dom. 1637-8, p. 323. ' Stat. n and 12 Will. Ill, cap. 22. * White, Direct. (1855), 149. 7 Stat. 4 Anne, cap. 15. ' Defoe, Tour in Eastern Counties, 99. * A Collection of Acts and Ordinances, etc. Relating to Suffolk, vol. i (B.M.) 10 Stat. 20 Geo. II, cap. 14 ; see also 30 Geo. II, cap. 58, and 49 Geo. Ill, cap. 77. 250 INDUSTRIES improvements in water transport seem to have been made primarily for the benefit of the agriculturist. Corn, malt, butter and cheese, and other agricultural produce were the princi- pal commodities carried outwards, and coal was the leading import.1 Although Suffolk has remained and is likely to remain, under whatever change of tenure or of cultivation, predominantly an agricultural county, a distinctly new period of its industrial history may be said to have opened with the nineteenth century, the essential feature of which is that Suffolk has built up half a dozen- indus- tries which have secured and retained for at least a quarter of a century a place in the world's market. The history of these modern industries, as well as that of the older textile manufactures, and the episode of the Lowestoft china works, which serves chronologically as a picturesque link between the first period and the third, will be followed in some detail, and all that need be attempted here is a brief summary of the general causes underlying the later development. Of these causes the most vital is undoubtedly to be found in the personality of the captains of in- dustry. What distinguishes modern industry from that of earlier times is a greater degree of vigour and initiative shown by the ' entre- preneur ' in adapting the resources which he inherits from the past to the constantly changing needs of the present and in going out some way to meet the demands of the future. In the case of the Suffolk industries these qualities have been exhibited in a marked degree, not only by the founders of great manufacturing concerns, but in many instances by several generations of their descendants. The other cause whose operation distinguishes the new industry from the old is freedon of trade. It is not merely that the agricultural machinery, the fertilizers, the umbrella silks, the corsets, and the ready-made clothing of Suffolk are sent to every quarter of the globe. The materials of these and of other industries are drawn from the same wide field. The barley grown on the banks of the Danube, the phosphates found on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, the horse-hair of Siberia, the cocoanut fibre of the East Indies, the steel of the United States, and the textile fabrics of France, have all been requisitioned in recent years by the manufacturers of Suffolk. The business capacity which has been the prime cause of success has in fact been mainly exercised in making a prompt use of world-wide oppor- tunities to build up industries for which no basis was to be found in a narrower area of supply. But this achievement was obviously impossible unless Suffolk could be brought into touch with the larger currents of the world's commerce. The establishment of direct communications 1 Young, A Gen. Pieti; 227, and A. G. H. Hol- lingsworth, Hut. tf Stowmarket, 218. with the world at large bears the same relation to the industrial development of this period as the improvement of the roads and rivers and the maintenance of the coasting trade with London, Newcastle and Holland bore to the agricultural prosperity of the eighteenth century. Before 1805 the larger ocean-going vessels could not ascend the Orwell as far as Ipswich, but had to discharge their cargoes by means of lighters at Downham Reach, 3 miles below the town. In that year an Act was passed for improving the port, so that vessels of 200 tons and drawing 12 feet of water might come up to the quays. This modest ideal was realized by the River Commissioners, but much more was soon felt to be needed. Larger schemes for the development were formed, but thirty more years elapsed before public opinion was strong enough to carry them into effect. The first Ipswich Dock Act was obtained in 1837, the foundation stone of the , lock was laid on 6 June, 1839, and the work was completed in January 1842. The quay enclosed has a length of 2,780 feet and a breadth of 30 feet, the surface of the dock being 32 acres and its depth 17 feet. At the time of its con- struction it was claimed as the largest wet-dock in the kingdom.3 Further powers were con- ferred on the Dock Commissioners by an Act of 1852 and many improvements have since been made in the navigation of the Orwell. During the same period equally extensive im- provements were being carried out at Lowestoft, although here it was the economic interests of Norfolk rather than of Suffolk that were the primary cause of expansion. In 1827 an Act was obtained by a company consisting chiefly of Norwich merchants and manufacturers authoriz- ing the construction of a waterway for sea-borne vessels between that city and Lowestoft. This canal, which was completed in 1833, connects the Yare with the Waveney, joins the two portions of Lake Lothing, and opens the eastern part of the lake to the sea by a large lock, thus turning it into a spacious inner harbour some 2 miles in length for Lowestoft shipping.3 In 1844 the Norwich and Lowestoft Navigation, which connects Beccles as well as Norwich with the sea, passed into the hands of Mr. Samuel Morton Peto, the famous railway contractor, and became absorbed in a larger scheme for the im- provement of the port of Lowestoft. An outer harbour was constructed, enclosed by two piers, which not only furnished a basis for the rapid expansion of the fishing industry, but gave Lowestoft an increasing share in trade with the Continent, especially in imported Danish cattle and foodstufis.4 These improvements were, however, subsidiary to the great development of railway communica- 1 White, Direct. 64. * Suckling, Hilt, of Stiff, ii, 74-5. 4 White, Direct. 553. 251 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK tion which took place at this time throughout the country, and in which Suffolk shared in somewhat piecemeal fashion. A railway from Norwich to Yarmouth in 1844 was an essential part of Mr. Peto's scheme to connect Lowestoft with this line at Reedham. This was accom- plished in 1847. Previous to this the Eastern Counties Railway from London to Norwich, opened in 1845, had crossed the north-west corner of Suffolk and touched at Brandon ; and in 1846 the Eastern Union Railway had opened a line from Colchester to Ipswich from which branch lines were constructed to Hadleigh and Bury in 1847, and the main line continued through Stowmarket to Norwich in 1849. A line from Sudbury to Marks Tey was also opened in 1849. In 1854 Bury was connected with Newmarket, and in the same year the East Suffolk Railway brought Halesworth and Beccles into communication at Haddiscoe with the line from Norwich to Lowestoft.1 The continuation of the East Suffolk Railway from Halesworth to Saxmundham, Woodbridge, and Ipswich was completed soon after, and a branch opened to Framlingham. Thus before the end of the fifties the greater part of the present railway system of Suffolk was completed. The various portions had been constructed by some half-dozen separate companies, but by 1858 most of these had been absorbed by the Eastern Union, which served the centre of the county, and the East Suffolk, which ran along the coast.2 In 1862 these two com- panies along with the Eastern Counties Railway and others were themselves included in the amalgamation since known as the Great Eastern Railway, which undertook the completion of the lines connecting Long Melford, Clare, Haverhill, and Lavenham with Sudbury, Bury, and Cambridge,3 and subsequently established branches to Aldeburgh, and to Felixstowe, and connected Bury with Thetford. The Great Eastern Railway Co. also took over the harbours of Lowestoft, and has just constructed a large additional basin for use as a fish-market. It would be a mistake to suppose that the modern development of Suffolk industry was solely or even primarily due to these new facilities of communication. That development had already begun in the early decades of the nineteenth century and was itself one of the causes of improvement in land and water transport. But the establishment of direct connexions with the resources of a world-wide commerce together with the almost simultaneous removal of tariff restrictions on imports were the indispensable conditions of the great progress subsequently achieved. Apart from these more fundamental causes it 1 White, Direct, 48, 553. * Stat. 19 and 20 Vic. cap. 53 and 79 ; 21 and 22 Vic. cap. 47, and cap. ill ; 24 and 2 5 Vic. cap. 1 80. 1 Stat. 25 and 26 Vic. cap. 223. is interesting to note the other material con- ditions to which the industries of Suffolk have in a secondary sense owed their development. For this purpose they may be conveniently divided into two main groups, one consisting of those that have arisen out of the needs or activities of the county as an agricultural community, and the other of those which have arisen to replace the old textile manufactures of the county. In the former group the workers are almost all men, in the latter they are at least two-thirds women. It was perfectly natural, and indeed inevitable, that the manufacture of agricultural implements and of artificial manures, as well as the industries of milling and malting, should spring up in the eastern counties. What is remarkable is the ex- pansion of these industries far beyond the scope of local demand or supply. One favouring con- dition has been the steady supply of fairly cheap labour, owing to the constantly decreasing demand for it for the purposes of agriculture. It is no doubt from the class of displaced farm labourers that Suffolk has drawn the five or six thousand artisans who now find employment in machine- making, and who form the main body of the increased population in the eastern towns. But geographical conditions have also played an im- portant part in this expansion. Ready access to the sea, so greatly improved by the enlargement of the Ipswich dock and the Lowestoft harbour, is one of these conditions, and another is the comparative nearness of London by cheap water transport. This, as will be seen later, has been one of the main factors of the rapid growth of the malting industry in the Suffolk ports. The barley which is now brought from nearly every quarter of the globe is malted on the dock-side within a few yards of the vessel that brings it, and the barges then take it round the Essex coast to the London breweries with a minimum cost of freight. The success of this Ipswich industry is due to its having provided the cheapest link between the largest supplies of material and the greatest demand for the product in the world. It has no longer the least dependence on the supply or the demand of Suffolk. And the same is true of the manufacture of fertilizers and feed- ing stuffs. A very interesting attempt in the opposite direction, i.e. to set up an industry which would call forth a local supply of material, and so in- crease the opportunities of the agriculturist, was the experiment made about thirty-five years ago in beet-sugar manufacture at Lavenham. A factory was established there in 1869 by Mr. Duncan, who made arrangements with farmers to grow sugar-beet, for which he was to pay 201. per ton delivered at the factory. Although there was a considerable advance from year to year in the quantity of roots grown, and in the percent- age of sugar obtained, the average of which increased from 8-39 in 1869 to 11-84 'n 252 INDUSTRIES the enterprise had to be given up in 1873. Apart from minor local difficulties, the cause of failure lay in the fact that whereas 30,000 tons were required every year if the factory was to be worked at a profit, not more than 7,000 were supplied. The farmers were not willing to modify their modes of cultivation sufficiently to produce the amount required. To achieve the desired result some 3,000 acres, or, allowing for rotation of crops, 6,000 acres, would have had to be devoted to the cultivation of beet.1 Turning now to the other group of industries, which include some half-dozen species of textile manufacture and the manufacture of ready-made clothing and of corsets, and which find work for about six or seven thousand people, two-thirds of whom are women, we find their connexion with Suffolk broadly explained by reference to a single economic principle. They may all be considered as having arisen to utilize the supply of labour created by the cloth industry, which in one form or another had been carried on in Suffolk from the end of the thirteenth till the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first and most notable phase of this industry, the making of coloured (chiefly blue) broad cloths and kersies of heavier texture, reached the height of its pros- perity by the end of the fifteenth century, was visibly declining under Charles I, and is little heard of after the Restoration, having gradually passed to the west and north of England. In part it was replaced by the making of the ' new draperies' — bays, says and calimancoes, which was set up in Elizabeth's reign, and of which Sudbury was the centre, and by the weaving of sailcloth and other hempen fabrics, the former at Ipswich, the latter at Stowmarket, Halesworth, Bungay, and all along the northern border of the county. But the weaving of these fabrics was not a full equivalent for the industry that had been lost. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the amount of weaving done in Suffolk con- tinually declined, and the chief occupation of the county, as far as the textile manufactures was concerned, was the combing of wool and the spinning of yarn for the worsted weavers of Nor- folk. At the beginning of the nineteenth century both the spinning and the weaving, whether of wool or of hemp, were fast being driven out by the competition of the power-looms of Yorkshire. There was thus at this time in Suffolk a large fund of cheap technical skill seeking occupation, and offering an excellent opportunity to the in- dustrial capitalist who knew how to divert it into some profitable channel. The first to occupy the vacant field were the master silk-weavers of Spitalfields. The increased cost of living in London and the consequent advance in wages secured by the Spitalfields Act was leading them to transfer a good deal of their work to the country, and much of it went to Suffolk. After 1 Journ. of the Roy. Agric. Soc. (1898), 345. serving for a century as an outpost of London, Sudbury has recently been selected as the indus- trial head quarters of a number of old Spitalfields firms. Power-loom weaving of silk has been largely introduced, but the hand-loom weavers still number several hundreds. About the time of the introduction of silk weaving, the pure woollen and hempen fabrics of Suffolk were being replaced by checks and fustians, a mixture of woollen or cotton yarn with linen, and these in their turn gave way to drabbet, a mixture of linen and cotton, which is still, along with other mixed fabrics, largely made at Haver- hill and at Syleham. Here again the hand-loom has gradually given way to the power-loom, but its use in the silk and drabbet weaving for several generations after it had been abandoned in the weaving of woollen cloth served to soften the transition between the old form of industry and the new. About the middle of the nineteenth century two new branches of textile manufacture were introduced into the county, which are still entirely retained by the hand-loom — the weaving of horse-hair and of cocoanut fibre.2 At the present time there are altogether about 1,800 hand-loom weavers in Suffolk, half of whom are men engaged in making mats and matting, and the other half mainly women weaving horse-hair and silk. That these representatives of the old Suffolk textile industry should still be so numerous is a striking proof of the tenacity of an industrial tradition and of its adaptability in the hands of the enterprising capitalist. But if to this body of workers are added the power-loom weavers, the total, which will be somewhere near 3,000, will be far from an equivalent for the numbers who found employ- ment in the woollen manufacture in the middle of the eighteenth century. According to a very moderate estimate there were then 1,500 combers and 36,000 spinners. The spinners were all women and children, and though their earnings were very small, there must have been consider- able economic pressure upon them to find some other employment when the woollen manufac- ture failed them. This large fund of cheap labour eagerly seeking occupation has at different times attracted various industries into the county, in addition to the new textile manufactures already mentioned. Straw-plaiting was one of these. It was carried on in the south-western corner of the county as early as 1831 ; in 1851 there were 2,200 women and girls employed in this way ; in 1871 they numbered 2,335 ; but in 1 88 1 they were reduced to 781. They are said to have earned from 8s. to los. a week, but 1 About this time the cultivation of flax was being much advocated in Suffolk agricultural meetings, and a flax netting mill was started at Eye which employed nearly loo hands, but it has long been closed. White, Direct. 1855, p. 594, and J. L. Green, Rural Indus- tries of England, III. 253 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the industry disappeared before 1891. A certain amount of laundry work is sent out from London to the country round Ipswich,1 and as late as 1894 at any rate tailoring was done for London by the villages round Bury.8 It was perhaps to replace this latter arrangement that the numerous clothing factories which are now to be found all over the eastern counties came into existence. There are very large establishments of this kind at Haverhill and Ipswich, and besides the workers concentrated in the factories there are a great many women employed in branch workshops and in their homes, the total number being between three and four thousand. Corset-making is another Suffolk industry which has attained a first-rate importance during the last thirty years, and now finds employment for considerably over a thousand women. The manufacture of sacks for the corn and coal trade has been carried on in Suffolk for several centuries, and since the hempen cloth of which they were made ceased to be woven in the county, the industry has probably rather increased than diminished. It was formerly to some extent a cottage industry,3 but it is now concentrated chiefly at Ipswich and Stowmarket, the largest manufacturers being Messrs. Rand & Jeckell, of Ipswich. Sails and nets must also have been made in the coast towns from the earliest times, but the rapid growth of the fisheries of Lowestoft has given a new impetus to the manufacture of both in that town. There remain to be mentioned several indus- tries which do not fall under either of the categories already dealt with. In the first place there are two or three old Suffolk industries of a non-textile character. Brewing is one of these. In the fifteenth century a considerable number of Flemish and Dutch brewers settled in Ipswich, Woodbridge, Lowestoft, and elsewhere,4 and in the sixteenth century we find beer exported from Ipswich to the Low Countries. The industry still flourishes, but it produces now mainly for local consumption. The production of leather was much more extensively carried on in Suffolk in proportion to the population in earlier times than it is now, though there are still tanneries in all the principal towns. In the Ipswich Subsidy Roll of 1282, out of a list of householders numbering less than 300, there are mentioned about a dozen tanners, half-a- dozen skinners, four or five shoemakers, a parch- ment maker, and a glover. In surveys of Suffolk villages of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies, the mention of barkers is very common. In what the exact calling of the mediaeval barker consisted is not quite clear, though it is generally identified with that of the tanner. In the sixteenth century, however, Suffolk was cer- tainly one of the chief sources of the London leather supply,* and tanning remained at Ipswich when the textile industries had left the town. The number of tanners has increased within the last half-century. In 1851, 95 were enumerated in the census ; in 1901, 169 ; but the larger of these numbers does not indicate a very great production. The manufacture of boots and shoes has been carried on at Ipswich, Wood- bridge, and in some of the surrounding villages for a century at least. The census does not enable us to distinguish very clearly between this wholesale production, which is partly carried on as a domestic industry and partly in factories, from the work of the independent craftsman for a purely local consumption. The total number of males and females given as engaged in shoe- making in 1851 was 6,238, and in 1901,2,031. Even with a considerable allowance for the in- creased productivity of machine labour, these figures seem to show a marked decline in the industry in Suffolk. Suffolk has continued to benefit of late years by the migration of London industries to the provinces. The growth of the printing trade at Bungay and Beccles, and the transference of the manufacture of xylonite to Brantham, the two most striking examples of this tendency, are to be dealt with later in separate articles. WOOLLEN CLOTH— THE OLD DRAPERIES The spinning of wool and the weaving of cloth for home wear was no doubt carried on from the earliest times in Suffolk as in most other parts of England and of Europe. The story, therefore, told by Jocelyn of Brakelond, and immortalized by Carlyle, of the old women 1 J. L. Green, op. cit. in. * Ref. of Labour Com. (1893) on 'Agricultural Labourer,' vol. i, pt. iii, p. 87. 1 J. L. Green, op. cit. in. 4 I derive this fact from an unpublished paper by Mr. V. B. Redstone, on • Alien Immigrants in Suffolk in 1486.' of Bury rushing out to brandish their distaffs in the faces of the monastic tax-gatherers, does not of itself prove the existence of what can be properly called a cloth industry in the town at that early date. But when Jocelyn goes on to tell us how the cellarer of the abbey was accustomed to summon the fullers of the town that they should furnish cloth for his salt ; otherwise he would prohibit them the use of the waters and would seize the webs he found there e * S.P. Dora. Eliz. ccl, 19. 1 Memorials tf St. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Sen), i, 303 ; Carlyle, Past and Present, bk. ii, chap. 5. 254 INDUSTRIES we may safely conclude that before the end of the twelfth century cloth was made in Bury for sale in its market, and probably also in the fair at which the London merchants were among the most important customers. In the thirteenth century there were merchants at Bury who did a large trade in foreign cloth, and one of the leading cloth manufacturers in London in 1296 was a certain Fulk de St. Edmunds. By that time we get a glimpse of the industry at Ipswich. The Domesday Book of Ipswich, which dates from the end of the thirteenth century, ordains that non of the same toun take in kepyng of poore webberes, ne off spynneres, ne of threed makeres ne of poure tailours, ne of tayleresses, ne off poure laven- deres, ne of other poure caytyvys clothes maade, ne parcel of clothes ne woole whitte or lettyd, ne flax, ne hemp, ne woollen threed ne lynen threed, ne non other maner of thing suspesious, for silver, ne for breed, ne for wyn, ne for ale, ne for other victuayle, wher of a man may have veray suspesioun that swich maner of thyng so put to wedde (pledge) be not the owen propre good of such poure men that layn hem to wed.1 With such clear evidence as this of the existence of the evils which have always been complained of in connexion with the ' Domestic system ' we might naturally infer that there was already a considerable cloth manufacture at Ipswich, but the subsidy roll for 1282 recently published by Mr. Edgar Powell does not justify us in saying so much. There are only four dyers and a couple of weavers especially desig- nated as such among the citizens, though the amount of wool and cloth possessed by others points to the possibility of their having been also engaged in the industry. The list of customs taken at the quay in Ipswich at the same date indicates another seat of the manufacture in Suffolk. It speaks of the cloth of Cogeshale, Maldon, Colchestre, Sudbury, and of other clothes that ben bought in the cuntre and myn into the toun in to merchauntz handys for to pass from the cay to the partys of the see.* thus showing that on the borders of Suffolk and Essex weaving had been widely carried on before the immigration of the Flemings in 1336, as indeed it has continued to be carried on in one material or another ever since. Moreover, in 1315, a proclamation made at the instance of foreign merchants setting forth the true length and breadth in which worsteds and 'aylehams' ought to be made s was ordered to be read in Suffolk as well as in Norfolk, which seems to indicate that the making of worsteds, which 1 Black Book of the Admir. (Rolls Ser.) ii, 133 ; Stiff. Inst. Arch, xii, pt. 1 1 (1905). 1 Black Book of Admir. ii, 187. s Par!. R. (Rec. Com.) i, 292 ; and 23 Hen. VI, cap. 4. originated in Norfolk, had already spread into Suffolk ; and subsequent legislation * which in- cludes Suffolk together with Norfolk in the regulations made for the worsted industry tends to confirm this view. The Flemish immigra- tion, of which Sudbury preserves a strong tradition, must however have greatly stimu- lated the growth of the woollen manufac- ture of Suffolk, which rapidly increased in importance after the middle of the fourteenth century. The Commons of Suffolk and Essex presented a petition in the Parliament of 1376 that the strait cloths called Cogwares and Kersies may not be comprised in the statute of 47 Edward III which fixed the length and breadth of coloured cloth.6 The request, which was granted, shows that dyed cloth had already become what it long continued to be, a charac- teristic product of Suffolk. The most striking evidence of the progress made by the industry at this time is furnished by the poll tax return for Hadleigh in 1381 which has been transcribed by Mr. Edgar Powell.6 Some weaving had pro- bably been done at Hadleigh since the beginning of the fourteenth century, as an extent of the manor in the year 1312 mentions two fullers as holding land there. The list of 1381, of which only a portion is preserved, contains the names of eleven cloth workers, seven fullers, six weavers, five cutters of cloth and three dyers. Only about 260 names out of an original list of 705 are preserved and of these half are females. So that, even if the cutters of cloth (sissores) are omitted, the number of those connected with the cloth industry amounts to at least one in five of the recorded adult male population, and it is very probable that many of those entered as artificers (operarii) found employment as journeymen in the various branches of the manufacture. An entry in the Patent Roll of 1390 shows us a draper of Had- leigh in debt to a London merchant to the extent of £40,' and the frequency of similar entries at a later date proves that Hadleigh had become a busy manufacturing town. In the course of the fifteenth century the industry spread throughout the southern half of the county and became in many districts the principal occupation of the people. It was found not only in the boroughs at Ipswich, Bury, Stowmarket, and Sudbury, but in a great number of villages, some of which, like Laven- ham and Long Melford, became as populous and wealthy as towns, and built magnificent churches, which remain as a striking testimony to their former prosperity. Of the upgrowth of this country industry we hear little and we do not get much insight into its organization 4 Par/. R. (Rec. Com.) ii, 347. 4 Cal. of Pat. 4 Rich. II, pt. ii, m. 8 (p. 615). 1 E. Powell, The East Anglia Rising, 1 1 1 . 7 Cal. of Pat. 14 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 36. 255 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK till a century later. Even concerning Ipswich and Bury, which were the natural centres of the manufacture, there is little information available at this period. The General Court of Ipswich issued an order in 1447 that all fullers both of Ipswich and the country should hold and exercise their market for sale of their goods above the Motehall on all market days on pain of forfeiting every cloth sold outside the Mote- hall, and similarly that the market of all clothiers of town and country should be under the Mote- hall, and that of all men selling wool over the woolhouse.1 Concerning the weavers of Bury we have a much more interesting document — the ordi- nances granted at their request by the sacristan of the abbey in 1477. The craft gild, which contained both linen and woollen weavers, was probably of long standing, as half the fines that may be inflicted are assigned to the maintenance of the pageant of the Ascension of our Lord God and the gifts of the Holy Ghost as it hath been customed of old time out of mind yearly to be had to the worship of God among other pageants in the feast of the Corpus Christi. It is ordered that every man ' as well masters, householders, apprentices, servants hired by the year or by the journey, as all other men occupy- ing the craft in the town,' are to assemble yearly to choose four discreet persons of the craft, having freehold within the town, to be wardens with power to swear all members of the craft to obedience. Apprenticeship is to be for not less than seven years, and no one is to set up in Bury unless he has been apprenticed. A journeyman if he stays a year in the town is to pay \d. to the pageant. The entrance fee of the foreigner setting up is 1 31 4^., and every foreign weaver that fetches yarn to weave out of the town shall be contributory to the pageant ' as a deyzin wever oweth to be.' Of all fines, fees, and amercements, the sacristan is to have half, and his sub-bailiffs are to assist in collecting these dues street by street along with the wardens, and to receive along with them id. in the shilling for the trouble of collecting. Perhaps the most curious feature in the ordinance is the arrange- ment for summoning a leet jury of the weavers at the same time as the town leet. The sub- bailiffs and the wardens are to call twelve or thirteen honest and discreet persons of the craft to be sworn before the bailiffs of the town to present all offences. There are not wanting signs in these ordi- nances of the increasing influence of capital on the industry. The necessity of limiting the master weavers to four looms apiece and the reference to a class ' having sufficient cunning and understanding in the exercise of the said craft and not being of power and havour to set 1 Add. MSS. 30158. 256 up looms,' are clear indications of this. But the master weavers were not the only employers nor the largest capitalists. The penalties attached to fraudulent detention of yarn indicate that the smaller weavers were employed by the clothier, who also gave out work to the country weaver and kept a multitude of women and children engaged in preparing yarn.2 A century and a half later we shall find the employing class in Bury trying to reduce the industry of south-west Suffolk into dependence upon them. At the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, however, it was not at Bury, but at the new centres of Lavenham and Hadleigh that the power of industrial capital was most fully developed. It was at this period that the churches of these two places assumed their present imposing dimensions, that their Gildhalls were built, and their charities founded. The story of the Springs of Laven- ham affords an authentic parallel to the partly legendary achievements of the famous Jack of Newbury. The first Thomas Spring died in 1440. The second, who died in 1486, and to whom there is a monumental brass in Lavenham vestry, left 100 marks to be distributed among his fullers and tenters, 300 marks towards build- ing the church tower, and 200 marks towards the repair of the roads round Lavenham. But it was the third Thomas who was the rich clothier par excellence. In his will, which was proved in 1523, he left money for 1,000 masses and £200 to finish Lavenham steeple. His chief triumph, however, was the marriage of his daughter Bridget to Aubrey de Vere of the noble family of Oxford who held the lordship of Lavenham manor. Sir J. Spring, to whom his wealth descended, held in 1549 no less than nine manors in Suffolk and two in Norfolk.3 The social and political problems raised by the rapid development of capitalistic industry which are revealed in the resistance aroused, nowhere so strongly as in the clothing districts of East Anglia, to the proposed war taxation of I525,4 will have to be dealt with in the social and political sections of this history. From the point of view of industrial history, the main feature, so admirably seized by the chronicler and borrowed by the dramatist, is the economic dependence of all branches of the manufacture on the capitalist ' entrepreneur.' For, upon these taxations, The clothiers all, not able to maintain The many to them 'longing, have put off The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who, Unfit for other life, compelled by hunger And lack of other means, in desperate manner Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar, And danger serves among them.4 1 Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. xiv, App. pt. viii, 133-8. 3 Stiff". Inst. Arch. vi. 1 07. 4 Brewer, Reign Hen. Vlll, ii, 59. 6 Shakespeare, Hen. Vlll, Act i, Sc. 2. INDUSTRIES Another essential point which the events of this period bring into prominence is that the Suffolk cloth industry has become largely depen- dent on the demand of the foreign market. Whenever the policy of Henry or of Wolsey seems likely to disturb free intercourse with Flanders, the Suffolk trade is threatened with paralysis. On 4 March, 1528, the Duke of Norfolk writes to Wolsey from ' Hexon ' to inform him of the measures he has taken to put down the discontent he had found brewing at Bury, and adds that on Sunday he is to have a number of the most substantial clothiers of Suffolk with him, whom he must handle with good words that the cloth-making be not sud- denly laid down in consequence of the rumour that English merchants are detained in Flan- ders.1 Five days later he writes from Stoke to say that he has called before him forty of the most substantial clothiers of those parts, of some towns two and of some one, and exhorted them to continue their men in work, assuring them that the reports were false about the detention of English merchants in Spain and Flanders, and using other arguments which he will explain to Wolsey on coming to him before Sunday next. He was assisted by Sir R. Wentworth and Sir P. Tylney, and finally persuaded them to resume work and take back their servants whom they had put away. If he had not quenched the bruit of the arrests in Flanders he would have had 200 or 300 women suing to him to make the clothiers set their husbands and children on work.8 On the 4th of May in the same year, when the duke was again in Stoke, the clothiers came to complain that they could have no sale for their cloth in London, and that unless remedy were found they would be unable to keep their workpeople for more than a fortnight or three weeks. The scarcity of oil alone, they said, would compel them to give up making cloth, unless some came from Spain.3 In his second letter Norfolk had concluded with a suggestion that Wolsey should put pressure on the London merchants, and it is apparently to this hint that we owe the famous scene related by Hall. The cardinal sent for a great number of the merchants, and said to them : Sirs, the King is informed that you use not yourselves like merchants, but like graziers and artificers, for when the clothiers do daily bring cloths to your mar- ket for your ease to their great cost and there be ready to sell them, you of your wilfulness will not buy them, as you have been accustomed to do. What manner of men be you ? said the Cardinal. I tell you the King straitly commanded! you to buy their cloths, as before time you have been accustomed to do, upon pain of his high displeasure.4 The threat with which the cardinal concluded, that the king would take the cloth trade into his own hands, may seem to be a mere piece of petulant bluff, but it has in reality a deeper sig- nificance. It indicates one line along which the solution of the national problems presented by the expansion of the cloth industry might be sought, and along which, a century later, it was sought with disastrous consequences. By the middle of the sixteenth century the cloth industry of Suffolk had attained its full development ; before the end of the century it had probably reached the high-water mark of its prosperity. It will be well, therefore, to gain as complete an idea as possible of the economic organization of the industry as it existed at this period. In the state papers of Elizabeth's reign and in the contemporary records of Ipswich there are fortunately to be found adequate materials for this purpose. We are enabled to follow the course of the wool from the back of the sheep through all the various processes of manufacture and exchange until it is stowed away in its finished form of dyed cloth of many colours in the hold of an Ipswich trading vessel. Nor do its adventures end there. As it crosses the sea we find it frequently falling a prey to the lurking pirate, or in war time to the enemy's cruisers ; and if it reaches its destination in safety we may watch the bargain made for it by the merchants of Flanders or Spain, or see it pass at once into the hands of the Levantine trader to furnish the dress of the Turk or the Muscovite, or of nations still further east. The first stage in this progress was the purchase of the wool after shearing. This might be made by the manufacturing clothier direct from the grower, but for a century before this period the intervention of the middleman or broker had been becoming more and more necessary. As the industry expanded the wool-grower and the clothier frequently found themselves in different counties, and had no time to seek each other out. Even when they were within reach of each other, capital was needed to tide over a period of waiting. In some cases this was furnished by the wealthier wool-growers or clothiers themselves, but the capital of the majority of either class was not large, and the demand upon it was greatest at sheepshearing time. The broker therefore who bargained for the wool beforehand, collected it and supplied it on credit or held it over till it was wanted, supplied an indispensable link be- tween the small producers of wool and of cloth.6 Nevertheless public sentiment was unfavourable to his operations, and many Acts of Parliament were passed to restrict or prohibit them. The only effect of this was to give the crown an opportunity of dispensing with the law by special licence, which introduced the evils of monopoly 1 L. and P. Hen. VII 'I, iv (2), 4012, 4044. 8 Ibid. 'Ibid. 4239. * Brewer, The Reign of Hen. Vlll, ii, 261. 4 Unwin, Industrial Organization in the i6th and \-]tb centuries, App. A, ii, 234. 257 33 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK into what had been a legitimate sphere of competi- tive business. Some of the brokers who could not get licences continued to pursue their avoca- tion as nominal agents of the larger wool-growers.1 No doubt the main grievance against the broker was that he bought wool, not only to sell to the clothier but also for export, the prevailing theory being that the English manufacturer had an exclusive right to English raw material.8 Coming next to the clothier, into whose hands the wool directly or indirectly passed, we have to do with a class of the most varied status. Some of its members were large employers of labour and at the same time merchants on an extensive scale ; others only contrived to keep themselves above the level of the labouring class by dint of constant alertness and thrift and the possession of a minimum of capital. A petition of clothiers was presented to the government in 1585 against the activities of the licensed brokers, complaining that as their own capital was not great they had to buy at second, third and fourth hand in the latter end of the year at excessive prices. Of the 166 names appended to this document, representing nine or ten counties, forty-one were those of Suffolk clothiers. No other county in the list (Norfolk was not included) furnished more than half the number ; and no doubt the petitioners, in spite of their protestations of poverty, were the representatives of a more numerous class.3 In the hands of these capi- talists, small or great, lay the control and direc- tion of the manufacture, with the exception of the finishing processes which were often carried out after the cloth had been disposed of to the merchant. Although some undyed cloth was made in Suffolk, the greater part seems to have been dyed blue in the wool, whilst a smaller portion was further dyed violet, purple or green after it had been woven. The chief materials used in dyeing the wool were woad and indigo ; and three varieties of colour, i.e., blues, azures, and plunkets, which seem to have differed from each other mainly in depth, as the dyestuff that would dye a given amount of wool for blues would dye twice the amount for azures, and four times the amount for plunkets.4 After being dyed one of these colours, the wool was washed and dried before being carded and spun. The carding and spinning were mostly done by women and children in their cottage homes all over the country-side. ' The custom of our country is,' says another petition of Suffolk clothiers in 1575, to carry our wool out to carding and spinning and put it to divers and sundry spinners who have in their houses divers and sundry children and servants that do 1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv, 14, 40. 'Ibid. 41. 5 Lansd. MS. 48, fol. 67. 4 Cott. MS. Titus B. v, fol. 254. card and spin the same wool. Some of them card upon new cards and some upon old cards and some spin hard yarn and some soft ... by reason whereof our cloth falleth out in some places broad and some narrow contrary to our mind and greatly to our disprofit.4 The manner of the delivery of the wool and the return of the yarn by weight with allowance for waste had been prescribed by an Act of Parlia- ment of 1512, which punished any fraud on the part of the worker by the pillory and the cucking-stool.6 Although the preparation of yarn was chiefly carried on in the villages and smaller towns, it also continued to find occupation for a consider- able amount of semi-pauperised labour in the larger towns. Spinning indeed was the main resource of those whose duty it became under the new Poor Law to find work for the unem- ployed, and in institutions, such as Christ's Hospital, Ipswich (founded 1569), children were set to card and spin wool from their tenderest years.7 At Bury in 1570, an order was made by the town that every spinster was to have (if it may be) 6 Ib. of wool every week and to bring the same home every Saturday at night, and if any fail so to do, the clothier to advertise the constable thereof for the examination of the cause, and to punish it according to the quality of the fault.8 And an order was made in 1590 at Ipswich with a view to finding employment for the poor, that no clothier should put out more than half his work to be carded or spun, woven, shorn, or dressed out of the town (if he could get it as well done in the town), without special licence from the bailiffs.9 The spinners, who never seem to have pos- sessed any organization of their own, were very liable to oppression on the part of their employers, not only through low wages, but also through payment in kind and the exaction of arbitrary fines. It is not surprising, therefore, to find them frequently accused of keeping back part of the wool given out to them and of making up the weight by the addition of oil or other mois- ture to the yarn. The natural connexion of these two evils found recognition in a Bill pre- sented to the Parliament of 1593, which while imposing fresh penalties on frauds in spinning and weaving, proposed at the same time to raise the wages of spinners and weavers by a third.10 The Bill failed to pass, but the regulation of wages in the interest of the spinners continued to be a problem of poor law administration during the next half-century. 5 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxiv, 32. 6 3 Stat. Hen. VIII, cap. 6. 7 Leonard, Early English Poor Relief. 3 Hist. A/SS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. pt. viii, 1 39. 9 Ibid. Rep. ix, App. pt. i, 255. 10 S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccxliv, 126. 258 INDUSTRIES The yarn woven in the country districts was collected by riders sent out by the clothiers and delivered to the weavers. The weaver, though he too was dependent on the clothier for employment, was not in so helpless a position as the spinner. The power of his organiza- tion in the town, though weakened, was not destroyed. The line between the clothier and the weaver was, at first, not sharply drawn. The more prosperous among the weavers gradu- ally developed into clothiers, and Suffolk was one of the counties in which this tendency was allowed to have free play, since it was exempted from the operation of the statutes forbidding clothiers to set up outside the market towns.1 But although a master weaver here and there might rise in the world, the majority were sinking into the position of wage-earners. A petition of the weavers of Ipswich, Hadleigh, Lavenham, Bergholt, and other towns in 1539 states that the clothiers have their own looms and weavers and fullers in their own houses, so that the master weavers are rendered destitute. For the rich men the clothiers be concluded and agreed among themselves to hold and pay one price for weaving, which price is too little to sustain house- holds upon, working night and day, holyday and weekday, and many weavers are therefore reduced to the position of servants.* As a rule, however, the weaving continued to be done in the weavers' homes, although perhaps in some cases the loom was the property of the employer. Elaborate regulations, both by Par- liament and by the local authorities, were to ensure that the right weight of yarn should be delivered by the clothier, and that none of it should be wasted or stolen by the weaver. The fuller, who next took over the cloth, was also employed by the clothier. It would be a natural thing for a fuller with a little spare capital to set up a loom in his house, and no doubt he did so, as we find it forbidden in later ordinances, just as we find the weaver and the shearman prose- cuted for setting up as clothiers. When the cloth was woven and fulled the clothier might have it finished by the local shear- man, but he more often seems to have disposed of it to the merchant. The two chief markets for the Suffolk clothier were London and Ipswich. A good deal of Suffolk cloth was bought by the London clothworkers to finish, and some was bought by the London merchants ready finished for export. The London clothworkers, who naturally wished to concentrate the finishing trade as much as possible in the metropolis, used their powers of search to further this end. We find them in 1539 seizing twenty-nine broad Suffolk cloths on board the ship of Edward Lightmaker of the 1 Stat. 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary, cap. 5, Sec. 25. 1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 874. Steelyard, and declaring them to be forfeited as not wrought according to the Act.3 In a petition already alluded to, which was presented in 1575, the clothiers of Suffolk declared that the statute as it is cannot be observed by any means. The reason is this. We occupy the coarsest wools that are occupied in this land which will not brave out the danger and the charge that finer wool will in spinning and other workmanship. After attributing many of the defects in the cloth to the inevitable conditions of the domestic system, they add that they are forbidden by statute to use any engine, which they are never- theless obliged to do, and that lewd persons inform against them. If the law were strictly carried out the trade would be brought to a standstill, but the search being in London not one in three- score is searched. These extremities, the petition proceeds, make us the clothiers to shun the open market and to commit our trust to clothworkers to make sale of our cloths who many times commend unto us men that are not able to pay to our great hindrance, and they do seek out chapmen and offer our commodities to them who being sought unto will not by any means give us any reasonable price. . . . We are forced to lay our commodities to pawn upon a bill of sale to pay our poor workmen and others that we be indebted unto and to pawn ^40 worth of commodities for £zo and to give j£io in the hundred.4 An illustration of this system of credit is supplied by the records of the Ipswich borough court. It appears that in 1577 Sebastian Mann, a merchant of Ipswich, agreed to take from Anthony Colman, clothier of Wadringfield, six broad cloths called 'asers' (azures) of the value of ^53 icu. Mann was to be bound along with his brother for ^40 before Bartholomew's day, and was to give a bill for the payment of the rest at Christmas. In the meantime the cloths were to be sent to John Cowper, a shearman of Ipswich, who would 'dress' them and deliver them to Mann on receiving assurance that the bond for £4.0 was duly executed. Mann, however, without having executed the bond, obtained delivery of two of the cloths and sold them to other merchants, and while three more were lying at Cowper's house, a certain creditor of Mann's named Leete, sent the Serjeant of the mayor of Ipswich to attach them, whereupon the shearman declared that the cloths were the property, not of Mann but of Colman the clothier.6 It need not be supposed that trans- actions of this unsatisfactory kind were of so regular occurrence as the language of petitions might seem to imply. But the clothier often gave credit to the merchant, and it was said that the clothiers of a dozen small towns in Suffolk 3 L. and P. Hen. V11I, X!T (2), 97. 4 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cvi, 48. 4 Dep. Bk. in town records of Ipswich, 2 I Eliz. 259 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK lost over ^30,000 by the bankruptcies of merchants during the crisis of I&22.1 Supposing that the cloth is finished, delivered to the exporter and honestly paid for, we may now follow it to its destination over sea. In the reign of Elizabeth there were about a dozen merchants who exported cloth among other products of Suffolk, and brought back foreign commodities in exchange. Exactly a dozen were put on their oath before the bailiffs in 1575 as to whether they had, between 22 August, 1569, and i May, 1573, infringed tne Act of Restraint prohibiting trade with the Spanish Netherlands. All of them replied with a general negative, but one or two admitted exceptions. Robert Osborne admits that in April, 1573, being bound to Memden with certain cloths, he was forced to put into Carsel, Holland, and so went up to Enkhuisen and sold eight cloths costing £28 IQS. 7d. This amount of dye-stuff will dye the wool for three blues, six azures or twelve plunkets or watchets. The custom on the cochineal used for those cloths that are dyed after they are draped comes to is. ^d. the cloth ; and the total custom reckoned on this basis is ^2,589 I is, Sd. The statistician then proceeds to calculate how much the ' handicrafts and labouring men ' have for dyeing the wool and dressing the 30,000 cloths, supposing half to be coarse cloths and half fine. For making wood and caring for fire to dye with and for burning ashes and carriage and for carrying the dyed wools to be washed and dried for each cloth 1 2.J. For grinding the indigo at zd. the pound, each cloth 6ii. For shucking the wool of every cloth . 4^. For dyeing the wool of each cloth to the setter and wringer 21. For burling every coarse cloth 1275°> to say nothing of the twenty ships em- ployed in fetching from foreign countries woad, indigo, cochineal, and other dye-stuffs, ' where- in is maintained 400 mariners continually.1 ' In this connexion we may cite a computation of almost exactly the same date which is given by Reyce in his Breviary of Suffolk, written in 1618. It is reckoned (says Reyce) that he which maketh ordinarily 20 broad cloths every week cannot set as few awork as 500 persons for by the time his wool is come home and is sorted saymed what with breakers, dyers, wood-setters, wringers, spinners, weavers, burlers, shearmen, and carriers, besides his own large 1 Cott. MS. Titus, B. v, fol. 254. family the number will soon be accomplished. Some there be that weekly set more awork, but of this number there are not many.* Of the movement which has just been men- tioned towards the consolidation of industrial interests by means of incorporation, Suffolk presents some of the most interesting examples. Although springing out of the progress made by the industry, the movement was marked to a considerable extent by a reactionary spirit, and if it had achieved more permanent success, it would probably have retarded the industrial development of the nation. It will have become evident from the above description that the old local limitations of the industry had been outgrown. A more economical division of labour on a national, and to some extent on an international basis, was being rapidly brought about. The fact that the wool could be grown in one county, spun in a second, woven in a third, and finished in a fourth, while it necessarily involved a decay of one or another of these occupations in many localities, carried with it large possibilities of increased national production. But this advance was dependent on the freedom of capital con- stantly to enlarge the scope of its operations and to break through the barriers erected by local organization. The first step in this direction, the control of the town handicrafts by the local capitalists, the draper or clothier, was achieved without great difficulty, since the capitalist was in possession of the town council. The vain protest of the organized weavers of the towns is to be heard in every clothing centre throughout England during the sixteenth century. The draper in the town had become practically the employer of spinners and weavers in the sur- rounding country. But capital could not be confined to the towns. With the advent of national peace and security, it found more freedom in the country. And the country producer was not limited to the local market. As the operations of trade expanded, London merchants, who were in touch with a much wider demand, became acquainted with the best sources of supply, and invaded with their larger capital what the local draper had considered as his own preserve. The vested interests of the local capitalist were now found to be opposed to the free expansion of trade. An attempt was made to force the manufacture of several of the most important clothing districts into dependence on one or more of the towns of that district. Much Tudor legislation had this object, and throughout Elizabeth's reign the corporate towns were busy reorganizing the cloth industry on a capitalistic basis with the same purpose. In the General Assembly Book of Ipswich for the year 1590 are recorded the ordinances for establishing a new company of clothworkers, ' R. Reyce, The Breviary of Suffolk (ed. by Lord Francis Hervey), p. 26. 262 INDUSTRIES shearmen and dyers, with a view to remedying the abuses that arise from the incursions of foreigners, and in order that ' the said mysteries and sciences may be better ordered, the town better maintained, and the country near about it more preferred and advanced.' The members of the new company are, by the advice and consent of the bailiffs of the town, to elect two wardens, one of whom is to retire after a year and be replaced by a similar election. The retiring warden is to render an account to the new warden in the presence of the bailiffs. The company is to have a chest with three locks and three keys to hold the forfeits and other profits, and also the register book. The wardens are to have one key apiece, and the third key is to be kept by one of the portmen appointed by the war- dens. No member of the company is to give to journeymen greater wages than the law of the realm allows, and if any journeyman shall refuse to work for these wages the wardens and bailiffs shall commit him to prison. No craftsman of the company is to take an apprentice born out of the town without the licence of the bailiffs in writing.1 With these ordinances may be compared the much more extensive regulations for the true working of cloth made at Bury in 1607, the town having only received its charter in the preceding year. There are to be chosen yearly by the alderman and burgesses six discreet, honest, and skilful men who are called overseers, of whom two are to be weavers, two shearmen, and two clothiers. These are to give a bond of ^40 to search and find out all frauds done by every clothier, carder, spinner, weaver, burler, rower, thicker, dyer or shearer. A seal of lead for which 2d. is to be charged is to be placed by the searcher with the arms and name of the borough to every cloth sufficiently dressed, dyed, and pressed. The frauds and offences visited with penalties include straining cloth with engines, defective length, breadth or weight ; withholding cloth from the sealer, absence of the clothier's token, defective dyeing, use of hot press or iron cards. None is to buy coloured wool or yarn from carder, spinner, or weaver. No weaver is to act as fuller or dyer. No fuller is to have a loom in his house or to take profit directly or indirectly from a loom.2 In each of these two sets of ordinances there is an evident revival of the old spirit of local industrial mono- poly, but the extent of its practical effects was dependent on the manner in which the new organizations were administered. These were, however, entirely subordinated to the municipal authorities ; and the leading men of the two 1 Gen. Assem. Bk. 33 Eliz. 30 Apr. and Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 255. ' Constitutions, laws, statutes, decrees, and ordi- nances, MS. in Bury Town Hall ; a summary in Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, pt. viii, 140. towns were by no means unanimous in their desire for industrial monopoly. Many of them were wealthy merchants whose prosperity de- pended on the maintenance of the trade that had grown up by the removal of local restric- tions, and who had no desire to see those restric- tions reimposed. If the industrial capitalists of the towns who wished to make the spinning and weaving of the country round serve as feeders of their finishing trade were to have their way they must get powers independent of the town govern- ment. And we find that there was a general movement in this direction among the cloth- workers of the chief clothing towns of England about this time.3 The clothiers, clothworkers, woollen weavers, and tailors of Bury and its liberties were incorporated in 1610, the cloth- workers and tailors of Ipswich about 1619. The Bury corporation was the more ambitious of the two, as the liberties of Bury not only embraced a third of Suffolk, but included nearly all the districts where cloth-making was carried on. There were to be two masters and two wardens and twenty associates. The two masters named in the charter were George Boldrow of Bury, clothier, and George Fysson of Bury, tailor, and two wardens, Edward Hynard of Bury, clothier, and Edward White of Bury, weaver, whilst the associates included six tailors, three clothworkers, three weavers, and two clothiers of Bury, and six country clothiers, one each from Hadleigh, Lavenham, Glemsford, Waldringfield, Boxlord, and Groton. One master and one warden were to be always tailors. The masters and wardens, with the consent of the associates, were to name so many of the better sort as they thought fit to be the livery of the company, which was in other respects also to be framed after the model of a London livery company. The masters and wardens, or their deputies, were to have powers of search in Bury and its liberties, and might call in magistrates and headboroughs to their assistance. No householder was to set on a journeyman before the latter had appeared at the hall and explained why he left his last master. The journeyman was then to receive a certificate and pay 8d. No person that had not been a covenant servant or householder within Bury or its liberties above twelve months before the date of the charter, or had not served seven years' appren- ticeship, was to set up shop till he had paid a fine, not exceeding £5. The apprentice at the end of his service was to pay 3;. 4^., and have his name recorded, and after three years' approved service as a journeyman he was to pay 6s. 8d. and be admitted householder. There were numerous regulations against fraud or defec- tive work on the part of spinners, weavers, fullers, and dyers, against stretching, the use of cards, &c. Payment of wages was to be in 263 Unwin, Industrial Organization, pp. 40, 98, 147. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK ready money. No clothier was to take advances of money or wool from any gentleman, yeo- man, &c., on agreement to make him a partner, or was to pay more than 2s. in the £ for such advances. But perhaps the most significant clause in the regulations was one requiring that every person exercising the above trades shall be contributory to the masters, wardens or their deputies all such reasonable sums for taxes, tall- ages, &c., ordinary or extraordinary, as shall be thought good by the masters, wardens and associates, either for the king's use or that of the company, or towards the charges of obtaining the king's grant and the ordinances. The charter had not long been granted before a number of tailors, weavers, and others of the district petitioned for its suppression, declaring ' that the corporation was obtained by some few men of the meaner sort without the consent of the majority as a means to draw money from the poorest sort by divers unjust taxations, and to vex those they have a grudge against ; that they exact money to admit men into their society, and having compounded with them allow them to do as they please ; that they draw all the men over whom they can get any de- mand to travel from all places of the said fran- chise (about eight score towns) to attend the common hall of Bury or else to undergo a fine.'1 We hear nothing of the Ipswich Corporation of Clothworkers and Tailors except from its op- ponents. On 4 February, 1620, the privy council received a bundle of petitions praying for its dissolution. The bailiffs, portmen, common council, and chief burgesses of Ipswich complain of the many inconveniences and disorders caused by the promoters of the new organization, who have contemptuously demeaned themselves against the ancient and well-settled government of the town. The merchants point out that the char- ter gives them the oversight of their own work- manship whereby the clothworking for which Ipswich used to be famous is much impaired. The clothiers of Ipswich complain that the privileged clothworkers prevent them from dressing their own cloths, and do it so badly themselves that the town has lost the best trade of the London drapers, and of many country clothiers. And finally that some of the cloth- workers and tailors themselves ask that the charter may be revoked, as the corporation is being managed by poor and unworthy persons, and is only made a means of levying money from them.2 The government caused inquiry to be made, from which it appeared that the members of the new corporation had been full of suits among them- 1 Copy of charter of the constitutions, and of the petition preserved in Bury Town Hall ; see Hist. A/SS. Com. Rep. xiv, pt. viii, 141. ' Acts of P.C. 4 Feb. 1620 ; S. P. Dom. Jas. I, ocii, 62-4. selves, and had made ordinances that put more than necessary charge on their company. At the same time the commissioners, while con- sidering under-corporations in cities generally in- jurious, did not hold it fitting that the whole making and dressing of cloth should pass through the hands of the clothier, as this may give rise to abuses. Much depends on the clothworkers, who set many poor at work in the towns. They do not therefore advise the revocation of the cor- poration's patent, but rather its better manage- ment by associating some of the magistrates as governors, admitting none but freemen of the borough, and making provision for a more im- partial examination of the dressing of cloth.* These recommendations were embodied in a set of new ordinances which the justices of assize made for the corporation in the following May. The bailiffs were to appoint yearly two free- men, one a merchant and the other a clothier, who were to join with the wardens of the com- pany in a monthly search.4 The clothworkers were thus obliged to content themselves with a very modified form of independence. It seems highly probable that the Bury Corporation suc- cumbed to the opposition it aroused. If any- thing approaching to its far-reaching powers had been realized a great deal more would have been subsequently heard of it. The policy with which these experiments were intimately connected, of forcing dressed and dyed English cloth on the reluctant foreigner, provoked general retaliation, and led to a speedy breakdown in the cloth trade, the effects of which were felt for a number of years.6 The Suffolk industry, indeed, never seems to have re- covered from the shock. Other more permanent causes were no doubt at work leading to the migration of the broad-cloth manufacture to the west country and to Yorkshire, but the crisis of 1616—17 served to give a painful emphasis to their operation. This is shown clearly enough by a petition of the justices of Suffolk to the Privy Council in 1619. Not many years since (they say) our country tasted of an extraordinary calamity in the breaking of one Cragg a merchant beyond the seas, by occasion where- of divers merchants in London bankrupting likewise overthrew the estates of divers clothiers in our country. . . . And this loss not yet recovered . . . one Gerrard Reade a merchant of London having gotten of the clothiers' estates about £20,000 into his hands for cloths bought of them doth now withdraw himself into his house and hath set over his goods unto his friends answering the said clothiers that he is able to * S. P. Dom. Jas. I, cxii, 105 ; andLansd. MS. 162, fol. 208. 4 Acts of P.C. 26 May, 1620; and S. P. Dom. Jas. I, cxx, 26. Later on we find the bailiffs putting pressure on the company to enforce these regulations ; see S. P. Dom. Chas. I, ccxxi, 62. * F. H. Durham, ' Relations of the Crown to Trade under James I ' ; Ray. Hist. Sac. Trans. 1 899. 264 INDUSTRIES make them no satisfaction. There are four score clothiers of Suffolk at the least to whom he is in- debted, many of them young beginners so that their estates be overthrown if they lose the money he oweth them, and their people being 5,000 at the least that work unto them they will be brought into such extremities that neither the clothiers by their trade nor we by any means we can use shall be able to relieve them.' Three years later, when the Privy Council were instructing the justices in many counties to urge the clothiers to find work for the poor,2 the Suf- folk justices replied that the clothiers .were willing to employ their workmen, but were un- able, having spent most of their estates in making cloth which lay on their hands. ' The clothiers,' they add, ' that inhabit but in twenty towns in two hundreds of this county have at the present 4,453 broad cloths worth £39,282 which do lie upon their hands, some one year, some two.' The losses from bankruptcy sustained by the clothiers in twelve of these towns amount to £30,415, and the losses elsewhere are in the same proportion. The justices attribute this bad state of things to the lack of free trade in buying and selling of cloth owing to the incor- poration of the merchants into companies. They complain also of the export of wool and fuller's earth, and of the new imposition lately laid on cloth.1 The point about fuller's earth has a touch of Sophoclean irony. In 1639 the Privy Council ' in its wisdom ' gave ear to the complaint and forbade the export by special proclamation, being urged thereunto by the fear that Puritan clothier., from Suffolk, who were migrating to Holland, needed only English fuller's earth to enable them to transplant the industry. So strictly was the new order enforced that the export of fuller's earth from Rochester to Ipswich by water was stopped by a watchful government, and before long we hear the bitter complaint of the Suffolk clothiers that they have to pay £6 a ton for land carriage instead of 2s. which was the cost of water carriage.4 In referring to the lack of free trade the jus- tices undoubtedly came nearer to the real cause of the trouble. Not that the merchants who were complained of were alone to blame in this respect. We have already seen the clothworker of the towns trying to hamper the freedom of the clothier. At the very same time a number of weavers and shearmen of Suffolk were appeal- ing to the Privy Council against the action of the clothiers, who were bringing indictments against them for setting up in the trade of cloth- making.* The spirit of monopoly was deeply 1 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cix, 126. 1 Ibid, cxxvii, 75. 3 Ibid, cxxviii, 67. 4 Ibid. Chas. I, ccccxxiv, loo. ' Acts of 'P. C. 1 8 Jan. 1616-17. rooted and widespread, and the merchants had good precedents for their assertion that foreign trade could not be safely carried on except by exclusive and privileged corporations. It is in the records of a struggle against this tradition as preserved in the evidence taken in a case between some Ipswich clothiers and the Eastland Com- pany that we get one of the last glimpses of the Suffolk broad-cloth industry in its relations with the European market. The Eastland Company, which held a mono- poly of the trade with Scandinavia and the Bal- tic, was one of the main agencies for the export of Suffolk cloth. It had a branch at Ipswich,, and several merchants of that town were mem- bers. In 1622, when the government was urging merchants to buy, four of these went to the Ipswich clothiers to see what they had in hand. Five clothiers offered between them 192 pieces of cloth. Of these 40 belonged to Mr. George Acton, and 45 to Mr. Hailes, the latter comprising 17 fine azures, 6 violets in mather, 2 violets in grain, 10 middle blues, 5 ' teire ' blues, 3 fine blues, and 2 grass greens at prices varying from £10 to £15 the cloth. The clothiers said that these prices were I 2 per cent, less than the merchants had been paying to others. The merchants on the other hand de- clared they were £2 a cloth more than usual, and wrote to the governor of their company in London that the high prices asked showed that the Ipswich clothiers were holding back their cloth in the hope of inducing the Privy Council to give them a licence to export on their own account, which, if granted, would so unsettle trade as to prove a greater inconvenience than those already complained of.6 Whether this was true or not, there is no doubt that the Ipswich clothiers were desirous of trading abroad on their own account. Two of them had already offered to pay the entrance fee to the Eastland Company, but had been refused admittance. One of them thereupon joined with another clothier in sending out a factor to the Eastland countries, who reported a good demand for Suffolk cloth, and apparently brought back orders. Soon after the futile negotiations with the Eastland merchants several of the clothiers sent off from Aldeburgh and Lynn shipments of their goods, consigned nominally to Amsterdam and Rochelle, but with instructions for trans- shipment to the Eastland countries ; and in due course they received in exchange cargoes of the products of those parts, hemp, flax, and potash. Proceedings were taken by the Eastland Com- pany against the interlopers. Evidence was brought to show that the clothiers did not en- tirely depend on the Eastland merchants for a market, but might also dispose of their cloth to the merchants trading with East India, Barbary, Muscovy, and Turkey ; and it was alleged that 265 6 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxxxi, 40. 34 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the defendants had deliberately aimed at destroy- ing the company's privileges, one of them having been heard to say that if they had law for their money they might overthrow the charter. The arguments relied upon by the other side were directed more to the point of policy than to the point of law. It was contended that the Suf- folk industry had been suffering for many years for want of a free export trade, that the exclu- siveness of the company made its agency inade- quate and inefficient, and that trans-shipment was a customary device for eluding the restraints of monopoly. It is, however, the facts rather than the arguments in which we arc interested, and these clearly point to a steady decline in the Suffolk cloth trade. The number of cloths exported by the Eastland Company from Ips- wich dropped from 3,340 in 1626 to 728 in 1627, and one of the leading clothiers had not sold them sixteen cloths in four years. Another who once employed a hundred workers could not find work for twenty. The amount raised for poor relief in East Bergholt had had to be doubled, and there was no prospect of improve- ment.1 The same story is repeated five years later in a similar connexion. This time it is the London drapers and the merchant-adventurers who are trying to gain exclusive possession of the market. In 1635 the clothiers of Suffolk and Essex com- plained to the Privy Council that on repairing to London to sell their goods as for- merly they found a stand upon the market by reason of an order made upon petition of the Merchant Adventurers and drapers shopkeepers that no one should sell any woollen cloths either by wholesale or by retail but themselves. This order was designed to prevent the London clothworkers from acting as agents to the country clothiers, who often left the cloth in their hands to find a purchaser. At this time, continues the petition, £100,000 worth of cloth lies pawned for want of buyers and in storehouses, and if the number of buyers be lessened the petitioners cannot continue their trade. If the drapers become the sole chapmen they will compel the clothiers to sell at what price they please, and being few in number may easily combine to agree to do so. The merchant buys generally only against shipping times ; the drapers buy but small quantities at some special times of the year, and divers others buy of the clothiers when they are most surcharged. The clothiers at all times of the year are driven to repair to London to sell their cloths to pay the wool-grower and the poor whom they set on work. . . . The drapers are not 1 Exch. Dep. s Chas. I, East. I. able to buy half the cloths that are brought to Lon- don . . . being not 140 families and the worst and hardest paymasters.1 It appears from the Privy Council Register that the petition was successful,3 and there is an entry in the London Clothworkers' Court Book under the date of 15 April, 1635, authorizing the re- payment of £147 8s. <)d. laid out by various members in and about the reversing of an order . . . prohibiting clothworkers and other to sell woollen cloth. From what has been said it cannot be sup- posed that the Suffolk cloth industry owed much to the fostering care of the Stuart monarchy ; but they both came to grief about the same time, and there is something pathetic in the appeal made by the Suffolk clothiers to the king in 1642 when he was issuing out of his coach at Greenwich too deeply pre-occupied, one would think, with his own troubles to be of any assistance to the petitioners. The pressing fears that hath befallen your loving sub- jects (runs this document), especially those of the city of London, in whom the breath of our trade and livelihood consisteth, have so blasted our hopes that the merchants forbear exportation ; and cloths for the most part for the space of 1 8 months remain on our hands. The clothiers go on to say that they have already petitioned both houses, and 'well knowing that the life of all supply next under God resteth in your royal Self,' they implore His Majesty to let fall one word to his Parliament on their behalf. The king received their petition very graciously. He said they had done well to lay their troubles before him. They had just cause to complain. He had seriously considered their case, had already recommended it to Parliament, and would take further care of it.4 A committee of the House of Commons was in fact appointed in the same year to consider remedies for the obstruction of trade in Suffolk cloth, ' and how it may be vented in Turkey as formerly ' ; 8 but though we hear of shipments to Smyrna by the Levant Company in i657,6 the statement of the Suffolk Traveller that the old broad-cloth industry of Suffolk, which supplied so important a part of the trade of Ipswich, began to decline about the middle of the seventeenth century seems to be substantially correct. * S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxxii, 130. * Acts of P. C. 26 Nov. 17 Dec. 1634; 13 Feb. 1635- 4 ' Suffolk clothiers petition to the King,' in B.M. 66c, fol. 3-48. 6 Commons Jount. ii, 429. * S.P. Dom. 1657, p. 314. 266 INDUSTRIES THE NEW DRAPERIES, WOOLCOMBING AND SPINNING The place left vacant by the decay of the older cloth manufacture of Suffolk was largely occupied by the production of yarn and of the new draperies. These two branches of the woollen industry grew up together, the one supplying the material for the other. Instead of the short carded wool previously used, the new draperies, like worsted, required long wool which must be combed before it was spun. The making of the new draperies, i.e. bays, says, perpetuanas, &c., was introduced by Dutch refugees in the early years of Elizabeth.1 A great many of the Dutch settled at Colchester, and the industry established itself all along the border of Essex and Suffolk. Sudbury, which was the chief Suffolk centre of it, may almost be considered as an outlying part of the Essex district. The new manufacture was regarded with no friendly eyes by those engaged in the old. It increased the demand for wool, the price of which they con- sidered too high already, and which ought not in their opinion to be wasted on such flimsy wares. The Suffolk clothiers account for the high price of wool to a Royal Commission in 1577, by the facts that bay and say makers engross it, and that the Dutchmen ' convert it into many slight and vain commodities wherein the common people delight, and also into yarn to send beyond sea.'2 The earliest reference to the new industry in Suffolk shows the same spirit of depreciation. Sudbury bays are said to be little better than cotton, and are worth only 201. to 24*. a piece.3 On the other hand it was pointed out some fifty years later (1615) that ' those of the new draperies by their great industry and skill do spend a great part of the coarse wools growing in this kingdom, and that at as high a price or higher than the clothiers do the finest wools of this country.' a It was said that the 84 pounds of wool used for a cloth of the old drapery found work for only fourteen people, all servants of the clothier, at small wages, the spinners receiving per cloth, at ^d. the pound, 2 is., the weavers IDJ., and the fullers 2s. 6d. ; while the same quantity of wool used in making stuff and stockings found work for forty or fifty people, the amount earned by labour being: for combing, los. ; for spinning and draping noiles and coarse wool, 6s. ; for spin- ning and twisting of tire wool, £3 4*. ; for working of two-thirds into stuff and one-third into stockings, £3. All sorts of these people (adds the pamphleteer), are masters in their trade and work for themselves. They 1 W. J. Ashley, Introd. to Econ. Hist. pt. ii, 238. ' S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxiv, 32. J S.P. Dom. Eliz. Addit. ix, 113. buy and sell their materials that they work upon. So that by their merchandise and their honest labour they live very well. They are served of their wools weekly by the wool buyer either merchant or other.* This happy condition of independence the majority of the small masters in the industry do not appear to have long maintained. The weavers of Colchester (said to be 2,000 in num- ber) are found complaining throughout the reign of Charles I of having their wages lowered and of being paid in truck,6 and the little we hear of the same class in Suffolk at a later date gives no reason to suppose that they were in any better position. It seems to have been held that the manufacture of the new draperies, owing to its more recent introduction, did not come under the provisions of the Statute of Apprentices,6 and complaints were frequently made of the want of regulation, some of which were no doubt motived by hostility to the Dutch and jealousy of a rival industry.7 Numerous attempts were made to organize the industry on a corporate footing. In 1621 the government drafted a scheme which was further elaborated and embodied in letters patent in 1625, with no less an object than that of trusting the principal men of quality in each of thirty-two counties with the oversight and government of the industry. The justices of the peace by name of the county were to be incor- porated by the name of the Governors for the New Draperies of that county, and given power to make ordinances, to choose officers, to raise stock, to inflict punishment on offenders. The body of the corporation was to be all the inhabi- tants of or within the county. Suffolk was the third county on the list. This magnificently impossible scheme was on the point of being tried, when Buckingham's adventures at Rochelle provided an irresistible counter - attraction.8 Separate corporations were, however, set up. The Dutch and the English at Colchester had rival organizations, and their disputes were con- stantly before the Privy Council.9 A Bill ' was exhibited' to the Parliament of 1621 by the weavers of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, with the object of extending the regulations already in force in respect to broad cloths and kerseys to the worsteds, bays, says, stuffs and fustians made 4 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, Ixxx, 13. 5 P.C.R. 10 and 17 May, 1637. S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclix, 153. 6 Tracts on Wool. ' A declaration of the state of clothing,' J. May, ch. 5. 7 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xv, 1 7. 8 Ibid, cxxi, 36, and S.P. Dom. Chas. I, i, 24. 9 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxiii, 31, and cxv, 28 ; also P.C.R. 14 May and 15 July, 1617, 13 Feb., 1632. 267 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK in those counties, especially the insistence on seven years' apprenticeship. The towns were to be empowered to appoint yearly officers to be sworn before the justices of the peace. The Bill was lost ly dissolution. Subsequent petitions on the subject were referred to the committee, but nothing appears to have resulted l except the all- embracing but abortive plan above described. The Norfolk industry, however, carried a mea- sure on its own account after the Restoration. Perhaps the failure of Suffolk to secure any share in the corporate organization of the new draperies was due to the fact that, from the first, much of the yarn produced there was for the consumption of other counties. Reyce in his Breviary of Suffolk (1618) after referring in words already quoted to the num- bers employed in the manufacture of cloth, goes on to say, Again at this day there is another kind of this trade not long since found out by which many of the poorer sort are much set on work and with far more profit as they say. This trade is commonly called kembing. The artificers hereof do furnish themselves with great store of wools, every one as far as his ability will ex- tend. This wool they sort into many several parties, being washed, scoured, kembed, and trimmed, they put it out to spinning of which they make a fine thread according to the sort of the wool. Of these spinners (for the gain of this work is so advantageable and cleanly in respect of the clothing spinning, which is so unclean, so laboursome and with so small earn- ings) they have more offer themselves than there can at all times work be provided for. Now when their wool is made into yarn they weekly carry it to London, Norwich, and other such places, where it is ever readily sold to those who make thereof all sorts of fringes, stuffs, and many other things which at this day are used and worn.* The dependence of the weavers of Norfolk and other counties on Suffolk for a supply of yarn continued down to the end of the eighteenth century, and was the occasion of constant dis- putes. The weavers complained that the spin- ners made up reels of yarn that were of defective length and wanting in the proper number of threads, which the yarnmen, who acted as middle- men, failed to detect. On 26 May, 1617, they obtained an order of the Privy Council that every gross of small wool or worsted yarn taken into Norfolk should contain twelve dozen, and every dozen twelve rollstaves, and every rollstaff fourteen leas, and every lea forty threads, or if not, it might be seized. Later on, in attempting to get this regulation included in the Bill of 1621 already referred to, they declared that the order not having been published by proclamation had little or no effect.3 Nevertheless the combers and yarnmen of Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridge 1 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxl, 82. 1 Reyce, The Breviary of Sufolk (ed. Lord F. Hervey), 26. 1 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxl, 82. made such complaints in 1629 as to the quanti- ties of yarn seized on the authority of this order that the goverhment appointed a Royal Commis- sion of the knights belonging to the several counties affected to meet at Bury and hear both sides. The yarnmen admitted that defective yarn might occasionally pass through their hands, and were willing to make good the loss if proved. Beyond this, however, they did not think they ought to be held responsible for the yarn they sold. Their spinners (they said) were so very many in num- ber, and many false and defective. Themselves, in regard of the multitude they set on work, and their spinners repairing unto them at one instant of time to bring home their work, in regard of their carrying of them to their market at Norwich, are impossibilited to search and look into their several work before the sale. Also their threatening to put them out of work little or nothing prevails with them, they usually answering that if they work not for them they may for other, whereby it likewise plainly appeareth that these people contrary to their former clamours want not occupation. An offer made by the yarnmen to sell by the pound weight was not accepted by the other side, and the commissioners found it difficult to devise measures of conciliation. After some hesitation they took the side of the weavers, who had, they considered, a right to have what they paid for, and whose ' sufferances ' and losses were so great that if they continued the estate of Norfolk and Norwich could not subsist. They thought that the established order of selling by length and tale was best, and that the yarnmen had no right to take advantage of the spinners' fraud by their own neglect ' out of the supposed strait of time which themselves may enlarge, and their dili- gence by timely search easily prevent.' * Although it is likely enough that the spinners were tempted by their poverty to make up short reels of yarn, there is little reason to trust the account given by the yarnmen of their indepen- dent attitude. The statement to the opposite effect already quoted from Reyce's Breviary is confirmed by other evidence. In 1631 the say- makers of Sudbury reduced the wages both of spinners and weavers. A gentleman of the neighbourhood who pitied the lot of the spinners, and at the same time had a grudge against the clothiers, advised the former to lay their case before the Privy Council. The justices, being directed by the Council to inquire into the matter, were informed by the saymakers that a similar reduction had been made by employers all over the kingdom. The Sudbury masters were willing to agree to an increase of wages if the Council would enforce it elsewhere. On this understanding the justices fixed a new rate of wages and sent it for the Council's approval, ordering it to be paid for a month in the mean- ' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cliii, 53. 268 INDUSTRIES time. The spinners were to have a penny for every seven knots without deductions, and the weavers a shilling per pound weight for weaving white says, with a deduction of sixpence per piece in says weighing over 5 Ib.1 The task of raising wages all over the country was probably found to be beyond the powers of the Privy Council. In this connexion may be given an assessment of wages for the cloth industry of Suffolk made by the justices at Bury in 1630 and applying to both the old and the new draperies : — Clothiers' chief servants using to ride to spinners, with livery £3, without £4. Other servants of clothiers, with livery 40^., with- out 50^. Servants to weavers of woollen cloth or stuff, with livery 30*., without 40*. Manservants to woolcombers, paid by the year 40^. Manservants to woolcombers working by the pound, single men \d. a Ib. Manservants to woolcombers working by the pound, married, having served apprentice, znefriMamMarktt,pp. 54-6. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK mineral phosphates with sulphuric acid originated in this country with Sir J. Bennet Lawes, who took out a patent for the process in I842.1 In 1843 Professor J. S. Henslow, who took a deep interest in the application of science to agricul- ture, was staying with his family at Felixstowe, when he was struck by the occurrence in large quantities of phosphatic nodules between the red crag and the London clay of that neighbour- hood. He communicated his discovery of these deposits, which he called coprolites, to the Geo- logical Society,2 and in a few years they began to be largely drawn upon for industrial purposes. The late Mr. Edward Packard, the founder of the firm of Messrs. E. Packard & Co., who began life as a chemist at Saxmundham, had, after a number of experiments carried out on a modest scale with a pestle and mortar, already started making artificial manure from bones, and was led by Professor Henslow's discoveries to turn his at- tention to 'coprolites.' His first operations were at Snape, where he secured the power of a pump- ing engine from Mr. Newsom Garrett, but as he was unable to obtain the site of a mill there, he transferred his business to Ipswich about the year 1849. Mr. Allen Ransome came to his assistance and sold him a site at Ipswich Dock, then occupied by a flour mill, which has since borne the name of Coprolite Street. The business rapidly expanded. The new super- phosphates manufactured from ' coprolite ' had been first used by several Suffolk agriculturists, but they soon began to be sent to Scotland, Ireland, and even to Russia. In 1854 Mr. Packard purchased land from the Great Eastern Railway at Bramford near Ipswich, where the manufacture of fertilizers is now extensively carried on by other firms as well as by the one he founded.3 The Suffolk deposits, to the discovery of which the early prosperity of the industry was so largely due, and which continued for fifteen years to provide the principal material for a rapidly increasing production, have now for a long time ceased to be worked. A supply of similar phosphatic nodules of somewhat superior quality was subsequently discovered in the Upper Greensand of Cambridgeshire from which as much as 20,000 tons have been extracted in a single year, but of late years nearly all the phos- phates required by the industry have been imported from abroad. France and Belgium supply ores of inferior quality ; others come from Algeria, from the islands of the Caribbean Sea, from Florida and Tennessee. The ore thus obtained is thoroughly dried, and after being broken in a stone-crusher is ground as fine as flour in a mill. This phos- phatic dust is purified by fanning, and then dissolved in sulphuric acid. The product of this reaction, when it has cooled, is a dry friable honey-combed mass, and is dug out of the pits in which it has been deposited with pick-axes. This is once more reduced to powder in a disin- tegrator, and at this stage nitrogenous material such as ammonium sulphate may be added, or in other cases salts of potash, in order to produce a manure specially adapted to corn, grass, mangel, potato or other crop.4 Of recent years a great deal of careful study has been devoted to the needs of each variety of cereal and of other field crops as well as of fruits and flowers. Foremost among the specializers in this direction is the firm of Messrs. Joseph Fison & Co. of Ipswich, whose fertilizers are used to raise the flower crops of the Scilly Isles and of Guernsey, and the fruit and potato crops of Kent, and who claim to have adapted the reactive properties of arti- ficial manure so as to meet the peculiar needs of hothouse grapes, cucumbers, hops, flax and tomatoes. During the last twelve years Messrs. Fison have also become large producers of in- secticides, disinfectants and sheep dips which are exported to all parts of the world.6 GUN-COTTON The manufacture of artificial manures seems to have served as a starting point for the intro- duction of further chemical industries into Suffolk. The discovery of the coprolite deposits led many firms who had already established con- nexions with agricultural Suffolk in the chief market towns to set up as makers or dealers in the new fertilizers. Among these was the firm of Messrs. T. Prentice & Co., who had long 1 Thorpe, Diet, of jiff lie J Chemistry, ii, 507. 1 Eastern Counties Mag. and Suff. Note Bk. i, ' Re- miniscences of a Scientific Suffolk Clergyman.' * A memoir of the late Mr. Edward Packard, pre- served amongst the Suffolk pamphlets in the Ipswich Public Library. been settled in Stowmarket as merchants. Be- fore 1855 they had further added to their industrial activities by taking over the manage- ment of the town 'gas supply, and about the year 1861 they were instrumental in introduc- ing the manufacture of gun-cotton into Stow- market. A few years later the Patent Safety Gun-cotton Company was formed, of which Mr. Eustace Prentice became the managing director. Gun-cotton is made by the saturation of waste cotton in nitric and sulphuric acid. The par- ticular process adopted at Stowmarket was one for which a patent had been taken out by 286 4 Thorpe, Diet, of Applied Chemistry, op. cit. ii, 5 10. ' Ex inf. Messrs. Joseph Fison & Co. INDUSTRIES Professor Abel. The cotton was first cleaned and then sent to be dipped in several dipping houses. After having been cooled for twenty- four hours the cotton was centrifuged to expel the waste acid. It was then tubbed or washed again, centrifuged, and laid in tanks of water to soak, from which it was taken to be beaten into pulp, and then let down into ' poachers ' for washing again. The quantity of acid used was I3lb. to each lib. of cotton. The whole process took seven or eight days to complete. In 1871 there were nine 'poachers' in use at the works, each of which held i,ooolb. of cotton ; and all were kept in full work largely by government orders, though a second quality was made for mining purposes. The number of persons employed was considerably over a hun- dred, including about thirty boys and a number of girls. The date given is a terribly memorable one in the annals of Stowmarket. There had been a small explosion in 1868, but in 1871 the works were utterly destroyed, thirty persons killed, and as many seriously injured by an ex- plosion that shook the whole town and shattered almost every pane of glass in its houses, churches, and public buildings. Amongst the killed were several members of the Prentice family. The managing director was away at the time.* The works were soon after re-established and no such serious calamity has since occurred. The company, which has recently been reconstituted as the New Explosives Company, manufactures cordite as well as gun-cotton. In the Suffolk census of 1901, eighty-three males and ten females are enumerated as engaged in the manufacture of explosives. XYLONITE The youngest of the industries of Suffolk is the manufacture of xylonite. This is a product of the same kind as celluloid. The nitrates of cellulose afford the material in both cases, and the structural use to which they are put in the xylonite industry depends upon the ease with which they are brought into a plastic condition or entirely dissolved in various ' neutral ' solvents, e.g. alcohol-ether, acetone, amyl-acetate.1 Xy- lonite is a semi-transparent, horn-like substance. It differs from vulcanite in being originally transparent so that it can receive any colour that is desired, and can be made to imitate natural substances such as tortoise-shell. It is very largely used as a substitute for wood, metal, or bone in the manufacture of brushes, combs, fans, trays, musical instruments, cutlery, bicycles, toys, &c., and as a substitute for linen in the manufacture of collars, cuffs and fronts. The original patent was taken out in 1856 by Mr. Alex. Parkes ; but The British Xylonite Company, Ltd., was not formed till 1877. With this company the Homerton Manufacturing Company, Ltd., which had been simultaneously formed for the production of articles from xylonite was amalgamated in 1879. Several years of struggle and experiment followed, and the ultimate success achieved by the company was largely due to the determined efforts of Mr. L. P. Merriam, the father of the present managing director. When the tide turned, the works at Homerton soon became too small, and in 1887 the directors determined to transfer the manufacture of their material to the country. In selecting Brantham-on-the-Stour as the new seat of the industry they were influenced by 1 C. F. Cross and E. J. Bevan, A Text Book of Paper- making, 32. the fact which explains so much of the recent industrial development of Suffolk — that both railway and water transport were available, so that they were not wholly dependent on either. The company purchased Brooklands Farm, which comprised 130 acres of freehold land, and the new factory was started during the same year. A considerable number of workpeople migrated from London to Suffolk, and as the house accommodation in the neighbourhood was naturally insufficient, the company built about sixty houses to meet the needs of the new colony. Each of these handsome and well-built semi-detached cottages has a good piece of gar- den, and as in addition to this any employ^ can have as much allotment as he wants, gardening has become a fairly general hobby. There is a clubhouse on the estate. A large field has been set apart for sports and a site allotted for a schoolhouse. The workmen have organized an excellent band, which helps to supply entertainment in the winter evenings, and is in request for garden parties, &c., in the summer. The church, which is a negligible factor in the life of the London workman, is found to regain some of its influence under the healthier social conditions of the country. In short, the new settlement seems to have many of the characteristics of a model industrial vil- lage. The Brantham works find employment for between 300 and 400 people. The xylonite there produced is sent to be made up in the factory at Hale End, London, and the finished goods are largely exported.8 ' The Times, 14 and 19 Aug. 1871, report of the inquest. 3 Ex inf. of The Xylonite Co. Since the above was written (Dec. 1905) the worb have been de- stroyed by fire. 287 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK MALTING Malting has, no doubt, been for centuries a Suffolk industry in the sense that more malt has been produced in the county than was needed for its own consumption. But during the last decade of the nineteenth century the industry has entered on a new phase, not merely of expansion, but of technical and economic development which, as it is largely to be attri- buted to favouring conditions of locality, deserves special mention in the history of the county. Twenty years ago small mailings were to be found in nearly every village, the product of which was collected and disposed of by dealers in the towns. The small malt-houses are still everywhere to be seen, but the work they used to do has been almost entirely concentrated at the ports, where immense buildings have sprung up, constructed on scientific principles in imme- diate contact with the water transport, which delivers the material and carries away the malt at a minimum of cost for freight. This change is due to a variety of causes. In the first place, the barley malted in Suffolk is no longer grown there, but comes by the shipload from the Pacific coast, the Danube, the Sea of Marmora, Asia Minor, Tunis, and Algeria, so that the ports arenearestto all the sourcesof supply. The Suffolk ports have the further advantage of being nearest to the largest demand for malt, which is that of the great London breweries. The malting itself cannot be done in London because it requires plenty of space and a free supply of pure air. Both of these were available around the Ipswich dock, and at Lowestoft, Wood bridge, Beccles, and Snape, where malting is now ex- tensively carried on, and whence the malt can be easily transported to the Thames in barges. The largest firm of maltsters in Ipswich employ a dozen lighters and some fifteen barges (which they build themselves) in this work, and they also have five steamers of their own engaged in bringing the barley from foreign ports. Another factor in producing the concentration above described has been the technical progress made in the industry. The rough and ready country malting of former days would not satisfy the demands of modern scientific brewing. It is not so much a matter of machinery, though machinery is extensively used in turning, hoisting, and delivering the barley, as of adapting the buildings to the several processes so as to preserve the right temperature for each process, whilst economizing the labour spent in transition from one to the other. The mailings have accordingly to be built very high, and the old buildings are rendered obsolele. The industry in short, has become one requiring the applica- tion of fixed capital, and the greater part of it has therefore passed into ihe hands of a com- paratively small number of firms, the chief of these being Messrs. R. and M. Paul, Messrs. E. Fison & Co., Messrs. T. Moriimer & Co., and ihe Ipswich Malting Co., at Ipswich ; and Messrs. Garreit, Newson & Son, at Snape. Along with malting other allied industries are carried on by these firms, such as corn-milling, the preparation of feeding stuffs from oats, peas, and beans, and the flaking of mall. In relalion lo ihe amounl of capital ihus lurned over, ihe quantity of labour employed is not very large.* PRINTING The pleasant but quiet and secluded country town of Bungay is not the place in which one would expect to find a busy printing Press which turns out some of ihe leading periodical literature of the day. Yet the Press of Bungay is 1 10 years old, and its past has been a distinguished one. In ihe eighleenth cenlury Bungay assumed some of ihe airs of a small provincial capilal. It advertised itself as a spa, possessed a ihealre, and was crowded wilh fashionable assemblies of local geniry during ihe season.1 Some of ihese glories had faded when Mr. Charles Brighlly set up business as a primer in 1795 ; bul for Suffolk as a whole ihis was a period of induslrial revival, nearly all ihe large manufacluring concerns of ihe present day having been established wilhin len years of that date. Mr. Brightly was a man of initiative. He was one of the pioneers of the 1 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, i. stereolyping process, and in 1809 he published a small book explaining his melhods. He was joined in his business in 1805 by Mr. J. R. Childs, and ihe firm became one of ihe largest printers and publishers of periodical literalure in ihe kingdom. Messrs. Childs & Son were among ihe first lo inlroduce ihe praclice of bringing oul large works in sixpenny parts, one of the books so published being Barclay's Dictionary. A picluresque Iradilion survives al Bungay of how Mr. Childs Iraversed ihe counlry in a chaise lo solicit orders for his publications, armed for self-defence wilh a pair of pisiols. In 1855, when the firm had come to be mainly occupied in priming for London and olher publishers, iheir slock of slereolype plates was said to weigh above 300 tons.8 In ' Ex inf. Messrs. R. & M. Paul. * White, Direct, of Suff. 288 INDUSTRIES addition to their printing works Messrs. Childs & Son employed at one time as many as 60 or 70 engravers on metal, who did the work in their own homes at Bungay. In 1876, Mr. C. Childs, the son of Mr. J. R. Childs, died, and in the following year the business was taken over by Messrs. Clay & Taylor, now Messrs. Richard Clay & Sons, and the firm became a limited company in 1890. The increasing tendency shown by the printing trade to leave the metro- polis has led to a constant expansion of the Bungay printing industry. The number of those now employed is upwards of 300, and further building is in progress. The educational character of the work undertaken is as marked a feature now as it was when the famous Bohn's Library was issuing from the Bungay Press. Besides books, Messrs. Clay print a large number of the best magazines, monthly reviews, and annual or other publications of learned societies, such as the Early English Text Society. They pay much attention to illustration by the latest colour processes.1 Readers of Dr. Smiles' Men of Invention are familiar with the remarkable career of Mr. William Clowes, who took a leading part in the introduction of the printing of books by steam. The Penny Magazine and the Penny Cyclopaedia, and the many admirable volumes edited for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge by Mr. Charles Knight, which did so much for the promotion of popular education in the first half of the last century, were issued from the newly-established steam press of Mr. Clowes. From the very smallest beginnings his printing office became one of the largest in the world. It had twenty-five steam presses, six hand-presses, six hydraulic presses, and gave direct employment to over five hundred persons, whilst many times that number were employed indirectly. Mr. Clowes cast his type and pro- duced his own stereotype plates. The printed matter issuing from his presses every week at Duke Street, Blackfriars, was equivalent to 30,000 volumes. Mr. William Clowes died in 1 847 at the age of sixty-eight.3 The branch establishment of Messrs. Clowes & Sons, Ltd., at Beccles, was founded in 1875, and since that date has made steady progress. In 1894 the increase in business was so marked that the directors found it necessary to make large additions to buildings and plant. These now include composing-rooms and reading-closets, with accommodation for 250 compositors, capa- cious machine-rooms, a foundry fitted up with all modern stereo and electro appliances, extensive plate rooms, and a large bindery, which enables the company to produce books ready for the publishers. Several machines for the execution of art work have been laid down of late years. Altogether employment is found for over four hundred hands. In connexion with the works there is a flourishing athletic club for the promotion of cricket, football, cycling, quoits, swimming, &c., which is presided over by Mr. W. Knight Clowes, the chairman of the company, and there is an institute where religious and social meetings are held for the benefit of the girls employed in the works.4 FISHERIES ' Hereabouts,' writes an eighteenth-century tourist in Suffolk, ' they begin to talk of herrings and the fishery.' 2 This local characteristic may claim to be a very ancient one. The remoter records of the industry are mainly concerned, as along every coast-line that has suffered from the encroachments of the sea, and the consequent loss or restriction of its fishing-havens, with the fortunes of decayed towns, or, in instances where a port has averted, or rallied from absolute ruin, with a period of its story which verges on the legendary. As elsewhere along our coasts, the herring has been from the earliest times of supreme import- ance in the history of the Suffolk fisheries, not even excepting the Iceland fishing, which is entitled, nevertheless, to the special place allotted to it in another section of this volume. The herring was borne on the seal of the bailiff of 1 Ex inf. Messrs. R. Clay & Sons. 1 Defoe, Tour in Eastern Counties, 113. Dunwich in 1218, and in later times on the town-tokens of Lowestoft and Southwold. At the time of the Domesday Survey, Beccles, whose ancient commerce would seem to have been almost entirely confined to this staple fish, paid sixty thousand herrings as fee-farm rent, the introduction of the industry having been owing, it is said, to that company of twenty-four burgesses of Norwich who fled from the latter town to escape the penalties of their participation in the conspiracy of Earl Guader.6 So extensive was the herring trade at this port that the chapel of St. Peter, the patron of fishermen, and him- self a member of their craft, was specially erected for the convenience of buyers and sellers on the western side of the market-place, being in use as late as 1470. Covehithe or North Hales was PP 289 'Men of Invention and Industry,' 37 3 S. Smiles, 208—19. 4 Ex inf. Messrs. Clowes & Sons. 5 Suckling, Hist. Suf. ii, 9. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK a considerable fishing town in ancient times, with a ' hithe,' or quay at which large vessels could unload. Easton Bavent, once the most easterly point of England, a position now held by Lowestoft, was reputed to have had a con- siderable trade in fish, ' the abundance of fennel is token thereof.' * The church in this parish was further dedicated to St. Nicholas, another patron of seamen.2 A notable landowner at the time of the Con- quest was Hugh de Montfort, whose numerous herring-rents are abundant evidence of the pros- perous state of the fishing in the county at that early date. From his farm in Kessingland, he received 22,000 herrings (two lasts and two bar- rels), the value of salted herrings then being 30*. per last. His Rushmere farm paid 700 herrings, two farms at Gisleham respectively 2s. bd. and 2OO herrings, and 51. and 300 her- rings. Similar rents were paid by farms at Carlton, Kirkley, Worlingham, Weston, and Wangford.3 At the time of the survey, Dunwich was paying 60,000 herrings, and Gilbert Blundus rendered to Robert Malet, lord of the manor, for eighty homages £4 and 8,000 herrings. The contribution of Southwold to the monks of Bury at the same date was 20,000 herrings. Blyth- burgh, in the Confessor's time, rendered 10,000 herrings annually to the king's use,4 the town being 'well frequented upon account of its trade, and divers other affairs here transacted, especially the fishery,' crayers, and other craft, sailing (before the river was choked) up to Walberswick Bridge. Dunwich succeeded Beccles in the pursuit of the herring fishery. According to Gardner, of all occupations exercised at Dunwich the fishery (consisting of dry, wet, and fresh fish) had the pre- ference ; and of that, the greatest regard was paid to the herring. No person whatsoever might forestall herrings privately or openly, but all herrings were to come freely unsold into the haven, upon pain of im- prisonment at the King's will. And no herrings were to be sold until the fishers had come into the haven, and the cable of their ships drawn to land. The sale was to be from sunrise to sunset, neither before nor after, upon forfeiture of all herrings otherwise so bought.5 In the time of Edward I Dunwich had in it 'sixteen fair ships, twelve barks, or crayers, and twenty-four fishing-barks, which few towns in England had the like.' 6 In the fourteenth century, the fish trade at Lowestoft was sufficiently active to come within the scope of municipal regulations. It was to be lawful in 1359 for the merchants of Lowes- 1 Gardner, Hut. Dunwich, 258. ' Also honoured with a church at Dunwich, South- wold, and with an altar at Walberswick. 1 Stiff. Dom. Bk. 1 Gardner, Hist. Duntoick, 1 20. "Ibid. 19. 'Ibid. 9. toft to buy herrings of the ' fishers as free as the London pykers, to serve their carts and horses that come thither from other countries, and to hang them.' Lowestoft men, it was evident, were accustomed to go out to the foreign and other fishing vessels anchored in the roads, and buy herrings, which they landed on the Denes. There the fish were sold to the peddars, or travelling merchants, who loaded their pack- horses with them, and started off to sell to the inland villages. By the reign of Edward II the gradual decay ' of the port of Dunwich had begun to be felt by the inhabitants. It was found necessary, for commercial convenience, to open a new port within the limits of that of Blythburgh, and two miles nearer Southwold. In order to retrieve the loss suffered by the inhabitants of Dunwich, the king ordered that all fish imported at the new haven was to be put on sale nowhere but at the ancient market-places in Dunwich. But this, as well as all other attempts to save the town from inevitable ruin proved ineffectual, the loss of the port being ' an incurable wound.' A similar fate was to overtake Blythburgh with the suppression of its priory, and the ces- sation of its fishing trade. By covenant with Margery de Cressy, lady of Blythburgh and Walberswick, Dunwich gave licence to the towns of Blythburgh and Walberswick to occupy any number of merchant ships, or fishing-boats they thought fit, paying customs thereon. Sir Robert Swillington, lord of the manor in the reign of Edward III, received tolls from the ' peddars ' buying fish there.7 Walberswick was exempted from paying any customs or dues to Dunwich for fish exported or imported in their proper vessels, at their own quay; their trade in 1451 being sufficiently extensive to require thirteen barks, trading to Iceland and the North Sea, together with twenty- two home fishing-boats ' for full and shotten herrings, Sperlings, or sprats, etc.' 8 In 1 602 there were fifteen barks, exclusive of herring- vessels. Of these the town had a dole ; the king receiving of the herrings.9 We learn from the churchwardens' accounts, in the year 1489, that a constitution was made for the town doles which fixed the amount to be paid and the manner in which it was to be received. In 1451 the churchwardens' receipts contain many references to herrings and other fish. In 1597 authority was granted to the church- wardens by the inhabitants of Walberswick to sell, let, farm, or hire to any man, or many men, 'Ibid. 137. 8 The names of the owners, masters, and boats, are recorded in the Walberswick Account Book. Sperlings were selling at 6/. a last this year. Herrings were 6s. 8/. per thousand. 9 Gardner, Hist. Duntuich, 145. 290 INDUSTRIES all such profit and duties as might arise from the following sources : — The herring-fishing dole, the sperling-fare dole, and the duties on the Iceland voyages, namely 3;. $d. a voyage. In 1609 the butter and cheese trade had risen to such a height of prosperity at Walberswick as to threaten seriously to interfere with the fishing. An order was therefore made at Beccles Sessions, 2 October, 1609, that none but the old men, who had spent their former days in fishing -fare, should occupy the coasting busi- ness for butter, etc., and that the young men should diligently attend the fishing-craft, alleging, that the neglect of the fishery was ' the means tending to the destruction of a nursery that bred up fit and able masters of ships and skilful pilots for the service of the nation.' l By a certificate of the church sent to Crom- well, 30 May, 1654," it is evident that the town was greatly decayed. This decay had set in as far back as 1628, when a warrant had been granted for the relief of its poor. In 1652 'a private relation ' speaks of Walberswick as 'our poor town.' 3 It may not be altogether without interest to make a brief survey at this point of the various modes and measures which have been in vogue from time to time in the Suffolk fishing trade with regard to the handling of the fish caught along this coast. The most ancient form of packing was by the cade,* which contained 600 herrings. The frame in which the herrings were packed was called a cr.de-bow, and was made of withs, with two hinges top and bottom. Straw was used to line this receptacle, enclosing the fish, and the whole was secured with small rope-yarn. Seven cade of full red herrings sold at market in 1596 for £3 los. and two cade were bought by John Mounceye for i PJ. The barrel took the place of the cade under the Tudors. Every barrel by statute 5 was to con- tain 1,000 herrings. Complaints of fraud in the counting and packing of the fish soon began to come to the ears of the council. The mayors and bailiffs were therefore empowered, in every fishing- town, to ' choose able and discreet persons to search and faithfully gauge all packing.' The herrings were to be of one time, taking, and salting, well and justly couched, and packed in the middest, every end and part thereof, upon forfeiture and fine for the offence three and fourpence.6 The fees of the gauger, packer, and searcher were to be one barrel 2d., and so in proportion. 1 Gardner, Hist. Dunwick, 151-2. •Ibid. 167. 'Ibid. 176. 4 Cade = old measure for herrings. Sea Words and Phrases, 4. 6 Stat. Hen. VII, c. 23, and 13 Eliz. c. 1 1. 6 Gardner, Hist. Dunu'ich, 19. By the Elizabethan statute, referred to above, the assize of herring-barrels was settled at thirty- two gallons wine measure, which was about twenty-eight old standard. The swill and the mand 7 succeeded the barrel, to be in turn replaced by the ped,8 which was in general use in the eighteenth century, these three kinds of baskets being principally em- ployed in bringing the fish ashore from the boats. The Scotch invasion of the Suffolk fishing- grounds was responsible for the introduction of the cran, Scotland reaping thereby a yearly har- vest of from ,£800 to £1,000 for supplying the English market with these baskets, which might, it has frequently been pointed out, open up a fresh industry to the osier-growers and basket- makers of Suffolk instead. At a meeting of the Lowestoft Town Council in 1 904, it was agreed that the system of counting herrings hitherto in use in the fish markets is cumbrous and unsuited to modern conditions, and to the magnitude of the fishing trade, and that His Majesty's Government should be urged to take immediate steps to make the use of the cran measure legal and binding in all transactions for the sale of herrings in England.9 In order to assist the fishermen to a discovery of the direction taken by the herring-shoals, conders 10 were erected at various points along the shores of the fishing-towns. Upon these eminences men were stationed to signal with boughs, which they carried in their hands, which way the shoals were travelling. In William de Rothing's Account of the Issues of the Town of Dunwich from Michaelmas, 1287,10 27 Novem- ber, 1288, there appears an entry £4 i6s. 3^. for beacons and conder,11 and again in 1451, the Walberswick Account Book contains entries for the ' conde ' and nails for the same. The dole and the mortuary figure largely in ancient records of fishing transactions. The former was an agreed value, deducted from the whole catch, placed upon the boats, nets, &c. At the close of the season, after his outlay had been repaid to the owner, the produce was divided into two shares. The ' town's half-dole ' was generally applied to the repair of the pier and havens, the other, called ' Christ's half-dole ' being devoted to the service of the church. Thus, the vicarage of Lowestoft was originally endowed with a tithe of fish ' of every fisher- 7 A mand of sprats, 1 ,000. East Anglian N. and Q. 1869. 8 Ped = an osier basket with lid, containing 125 herrings and upwards. Gillingwater, Hist. Lowestoft, 464. ' Fish. Trades Gaz. 28 May, 1904, p. 19. 10 Conder = an eminence where persons were stationed to give notice to the fishers which way the herring shoals go. Halliwell, Diet. Archaic Words. 11 Gardner, Hist. Duntvich, 27. 291 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK boat going to sea.' * In 1566 the dole of every ship was worth £i to the vicar. In 1786 the receipts were as follows : ' By the Herring Fishery, £16 5*. bd. The Mackerel Fare, Mortuaries * were paid to the vicar of Gorles- ton ; every herring-boat lOs. 6d., every mackerel- boat a consideration.4 ' The arrows in saltier piercing the crown between two dolphins naiant ' on the seal of Southwold declares the town, asserts Gardner, to have been from the earliest times, ' of note for the fishery.' 5 Held by the abbot of Bury for one manor for the victualling of the monks, before the Conquest the town was paying 2O,OOO herrings ; after the Domesday Survey, the num- ber was 25,ooo.6 In 10 Henry IV we find Southwold was exempted from paying any cus- toms or tolls for their small boats passing in or out of the river or port of Dunwich. The annual payment of herrings was among the properties held by Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, and Cecily, his wife, together with the manor and township. Henry VII, as a reward for the ' industry and good service ' of the in- habitants, the greater part of whom were at this date certainly engaged in the fishery, made the town a free burgh, with remission of all dues and customs payable to Dunwich, conferring on them besides the privileges of the haven. Henry VIII confirmed his predecessor's grants, and added thereto many gifts, franchises, im- munities, &c.7 The royal favours gave a great impetus to trade and navigation, 'whereof the Fishery was no small part.' 8 Many barks and vessels were annually fitted out in Tudor times for the cod-fishing as far as Iceland, Faroe, and Westmona. The herring fishery was ' esteemed of such consequence ' at Southwold 9 that the following enactments with regard to it were made by the town's council : — No dogger, hoy, or crayer,10 should lie at the Key (unless to load or unload goods) during the 1 According to an inquisition in the reign of Eliza- beth, ' Christ's dole ' for Lowestoft was of every fisherman going to the North Sea half a dole, of every ship bound for Iceland, half a dole (Gilling- water, Hist. Lowestoft, 266). At Lowestoft in 1845, a case was tried in which the vicar sought to recover from a fisherman, John Roberts, his tithe of fish. The testimony of several witnesses on this occasion was to the effect that the demand was a perfectly legal one, and had never been disputed within memory. * Suckling, Hist. Buff, ii, 98. 5 'A sort of ecclesiastical heriots due to a minister on the death of any of his parishioners, a child, a wayfaring person, and a married woman being ex- empt.' H. J. Stephen, New Com. Lams Engl. iii, 98. 4 Suckling, Hist. Suf. i, 372. 6 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 187. 6 Ibid. 189. 'Ibid. 191. 'Ibid. 192. "Ibid. 10 Crayer = a small coasting vessel. Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, Gloss. Mart, viz. from Michaelmas to Martinmas, under penalty of 20*. And any person shipped for Iceland, Farra, West- mona, or North-Seas, before St. Andrew's Day, for- feited £5. Also every master hired before that time, 40^. And each common man, zos. Also, every person going to sea with sperling " nets, or line laying before 12 of the Clock on Sundays, and not first been at Church to hear Divine Service, £*• Also, every boat laying, or setting sperling-nets, or laying lines, between one o'clock on Sunday morn- ing, and one o'clock on Monday morning, each owner thereof, los. And every common man, 1 2^." Every master from Iceland, Farra, Westmona, and North Seas, making false presentments, los. Every person going to the herring-fare making false presentments, los." Every master, mate, and boatmaster shipped for the Iceland fishery, or for the North Seas, paid to the fee-farm T.S. fid. And each common man 2s. Every man's dole in the fishery was 8^. The penalty for non-payment was 4O/.U The will of William Godell of Southwold, made in 1509, points to the testator having been a fairly prosperous shipmaster and fish-merchant, judging from the following extracts : — Item, I give to Margaret my wife one of my two ships, the Cecily or the Andrew, whether of them she will. Item, I will that all mine other ships be sold by mine executors, as well those that be in Iceland as those that be at home. And also those that I have part in, except that ship that Margaret my wife shall have. And also I will that all the fish that God shall send me out of Iceland be sold by mine execu- tors in performing of this my last will . . . Item, I will that my said wife Margaret have my nets and all manner of nets, with the ropes belonging to them. Item, I give to my wife Margaret a boat tailed the Platiole." Southwold, in common with other centres of the fish-supply of the kingdom, suffered greatly from the rupture between Henry VIII and the pope, which resulted in a consequent laxity with regard to the rules as to fasting or fish-days in the community. The Elizabethan fisherman had little cause for complaint as to the zeal and sympathy with which his interests were safe-guarded by the shrewdness of his sovereign, who never ceased to see in his craft that nursery for her navy which she rightly believed to be indispensable to the firm foundations of her empire. Suffolk fisher- men, no doubt, participated in the benefits which were likely to accrue from the strict enactments with regard to the observation of 11 Sperling = sprats. Ibid. 11 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 193. " Ibid. " Ibid. 15 Ibid. 248-50. William Godell was appointed first bailiff of Southwold by charter of Henry VII, Feb. 1490. 292 INDUSTRIES fish-days throughout the kingdom. The main- tenance of 'the old course of fishing' was to be ' for policy's sake ; so that the sea coasts shall be strong with men and habitations, and the fleet flourish more than ever.' l In more than one parish in the county, bequests of nets and fishing tackle are frequent in the reign. At Easton Bavent, John Franke bequeaths 'my Schyppe, and my boats and nets.' 2 In 1 569, the fishing at Ipswich was certainly in a condition of great pros- perity. The chamberlain's book of accounts and receipts records the fact that ' the charges ' were ' growing by reason of the great fishes taken in the Haven.' 'A Londoner,' we learn, was brought down to give advice as to the fishes at a fee of 36*. 7 £,20> ar>d £15, to the respective crews of the three vessels taking the largest number of herrings per voyage. In the following year other premiums, amounting to £lOO, were offered. Two kinds of bounties were granted by statute in 1808 :8 I. TONNAGE BOUNTIES For Hiring Vessels. — £3 per ton per year was paid to every ' buss ' or herring vessel over 60 and under loo tons burden, built and owned in Great Britain, and equipped for the capture of herrings in British waters. For Cod and Ling Vessels. — From 1820 to 1826 . . . 5o/. per ton From 1826 to 1827 . . . 45^. „ From 1827 to 1830 . . . 35.?. „ All the tonnage bounties ceased in 1830. 2. BOUNTIES ON CURED FISH On Herrings. — From 1808 to 1815, is. per barrel of herrings caught in British seas and cured and packed according to the regulations prescribed by the Board. These bounties also ceased in 1830.' The office of the Free British Fishery Com- pany at Southwold was taken down during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and the materials were sold. This appears to be the last account of the undertaking according to a private MS. which we have had an opportunity of examining. Many of the busses [adds the same authority] were left in the Dock, and in time were submerged, but about 1 8 1 6 a number of men belonging to the town and out of work excavated the mud out of the Dock, and 296 8 Stat. 48 Geo. Ill, cap. 1 10. 9 Johnstone, British Fisheries, 76, 77. INDUSTRIES recovered a portion of the old timbers and oak plank, and sold them to pay their expenses and for their labour. Whatever misfortunes had overtaken the fishing centres of the county in the century with which we are dealing, the harvest of the sea remained un- failing. Gillingwater, the historian of Lowestoft, gives 1773 as the year of the greatest herring fishery ever known, the total catch being 1,557 lasts, each last comprising 10,000 fish, being a total of 1 5, 5 70,ooo.1 A herring 15^ in. long and 3 in. broad was caught by John Ferret, of the Daniel and Mary fishing-boat of Lowestoft, in 1797.' In 1776, with an enterprise that went near to landing the town in disaster, Lowestoft pro- ceeded to extend the operations of its fishing fleet by sending boats to Scotland and the Isle of Man with a view to bringing back the larger herrings to be found in those waters, to be sub- mitted to the drying and curing processes in the Suffolk curing-houses. The first boat despatched on this errand was the property of Mr. Peache, and returned with 20 lasts of fish. Successive voyages merely had the effect of attracting the attention of the Scotch fishermen and masters to English methods of curing, in which Lowestoft had at this time attained to a high degree of excellence. Premiums were offered to induce men to go to Scotland to give lessons, in the art, whilst agents were sent from Scotland to gather all the available information with regard to the secrets of the curing-houses. The fee paid to a Lowestoft tower was twenty guineas, inclusive of the services of his assistant roarers* The port was thrown into a state of panic by the threatened 1 Gillingwater, Hist. Lowestoft, 464. ' Suckling, Hist. Suf. ii, 71. * Tower or totcher, the head man employed at the curing-house. A.S. taviers, Dut. toutcer, possibly from the tanning or steeping process employed in hanging herrings ; Nail, Hist. Yarmouth, 675. Roarers, men who shovelled out the herrings from the luggers into the peds, or from the peds on to the floor of the fish- curing houses, with sturdy wooden shovels. Dan. rare, to stir about. The process of curing on the east coast was as follows : As soon as the herrings were brought on shore they were carried to the fish- house, where they were salted and laid on the floors in heaps about 2 ft. deep. After they had continued in this situation about fifty hours, the salt was washed from them by putting them into baskets and plunging them in water. Thence they were carried to an ad- joining fish-house, where, after being pierced through the gills by small wooden spits about 4 ft. long, they were handed to the men in the upper story of the house, who placed them at proper distances as high as the roof, where they were cured or made red by the smoke of billet-wood fires. At the end of seven days these fires were put out, and the fat allowed to drip from the herrings for two days more, when the fires were relit and the herrings again smoked. The pro- cess of taking them down prior to packing them in barrels was called 'striking'; Gillingwater, Hist Lowestoft, 95. passing of its staple industry into the hands of rivals. Liverpool followed the lead of Scotland, and the curing trade was soon in full vigour in these two fresh markets. Our wars with France and Spain further seriously crippled the town in its fishing commerce, as, in spite of every pre- caution, it was found impossible to convey a cargo to the distant Mediterranean ports (the sole market now left to it) in safety from surprise by the enemy. In the period of transition which was to elapse between this era of vicissitudes and that of its present firmly established prosperity, Lowestoft wisely devoted its attention to its sea defences, on which it has expended the sum of £68,000. To this prudent forethought must be attributed a great part of the success which has attended the development of its fishing trade at the present day. Of the smaller Suffolk ports at this date there is little to record. Orfordness and Dunwich preserved their old reputation for ' excellent sprats.'4 In 1748 Aldeburgh was said to be ' the only place in England for the drying and redding of the same fish.'8 In 1752 the Bay Fishery at Walberswick was ' managed by four small boats.' 6 The system of forestallage 7 was doing great damage to the fishing at Ipswich. The peddars were in the habit of 'attending the tides ' of the Orwell and ' its neighbouring seas ' and buying the fish, chiefly mullets, turbots, smelts, and salmon, carried it off to supply the inland markets, refusing to sell to the towns- people at any price.8 In 1 833 the evidence of Mr. Benjamin Brown, of Lowestoft, before the Parliamentary Com- mission sent to inquire into the depreciation of the British Channel fisheries, afforded much interesting information as to the state of the Lowestoft fisheries at that date. Seventy boats of 40 tons were fishing at the port, none of which were ever at sea above fourteen days at a time; 150 to 20O men were engaged on the coast stowboat or sprat fishing. The quantity of soles in the Suffolk bays, which have long been famous for this fish, had greatly diminished owing to the presence of the stowboats. The Lowestoft fishermen lodged a protest at the same time against the charge of 6d. which was levied upon them by the customs, the authorities alleging that they were not bringing fresh fish into port like any other fishermen, but cured, therefore, in the nature of a cargo.9 In 1854 thirty-two boats at Lowestoft, manned by from five to eleven boys, earned in a season 4 Tobias Gentleman, England's Way to Win Wealth, 21. * Westminster Journ. 25 Jan. 1748. 6 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich. 1 Forbidden by the Great Court of Ipswich in 1281, and not allowed in 1399 ; Ipswich, Dom. Bk 8 Suf. Traveller, 1764, p. 53. 9 Nail, Hist. Gt. Yarmouth, 332. 297 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK £455- Ten years later, as evidenced before a Parliamentary Commission, the Lowestoft fisher- men's wages were from i6x. to iSs.1 In 1863 Boulogne fishermen bought herrings for bait of the Suffolk fishermen at ids. to 13*. per 100. One boat made for a catch of 7,000 £33, another sold a last for £6o.2 It is to the Great Eastern Railway Company that Lowestoft owes its modern prosperity, the port ranking as third in the kingdom as regards the quantity of fish landed,3 Yarmouth being fifth. The industry is divided into two distinct classes, as in remoter times, viz. : the herring and the mackerel fishing, in both of which floating nets are used, and the trawl fishing, in which a net is drawn or ' trawled ' on the bottom of the sea for soles, turbot, plaice, and other fish swim- ming near the bottom. For each branch separate dock and harbour accommodation is provided, all piers and harbours in the port being owned by the Great Eastern Company. To the total quantity of herrings landed in 1904 at the thirteen principal ports — namely, 3,151,582 cwt. — Lowestoft contributed 827,477 cwt.4 The number of regular fishermen resident in the port and employed in fishing in 1905 is as follows : — Number engaged in trawling (except for shrimps) ..... 1,300 Number engaged in other modes of fishing ..... 2,800 Total . . 4,100 s The number and average net tonnage of steam fishing boats, which were also registered as 'British ships' under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 at the port of Lowestoft in 1905, was 124 of 36 average net tonnage, as against I of 32 in 1890. The Lowestoft yawls, which are owned by the beachmen, and are models of form and seaworthiness, are used for salvage purposes, and are exceptionally swift craft. The following is a summary of the number of boats engaged in the fishing industry at the port of Lowestoft : — /Engaged in herring and 2 5 o Steamers m'lckerrel fis.hjn8 « Lowe;T 100 Sailing boats t0*' Lerwl,ck' Cornwall, and on the Yorkshire V coast. 350 Scotch boats Catching during Oct., Nov., and Dec. 320 Sailing trawling smacks 1,020 1 In the winter season of 1904 the average earning per boat at Lowestoft was slightly over^2OO, allowing, after clearing expenses, about £20 per man for a ten weeks' voyage. Fish Trade Gaz. I o Dec. 1 904, p. 24. 1 Nail, Gt. Yarmouth, 304. 3 In 1905, 667,830 cwt. 4 Ann. Rep. Sea Fisheries, 1904, xiii. • Ibid. 1905. On these 7,200 men and boys are employed afloat, whilst about 4,000 men, boys, and women find employment on shore in dealing with the fish caught. The fishing fleets are made up as follows : 250 steamers and 100 sailing craft, which are used for herring and mackerel catching, and the crews of which number at least 2,800 men and boys. These vessels take part in the fishing at Newlyn and other west-country ports, going also to the Shetlands and on the Yorkshire coast. During the fishing season, which starts in October and lasts until Christmas, the Scotch fleets, numbering 350 boats, arrive in the port and carry 2,800 men with fish from Lowestoft. The trawling fleet, which consists of 320 sailing trawlers with 1,610 men and boys, is made up of exceptionally smart craft. The fish are all sold by auction, and buyers come from all parts of Scotland and the north of England, also from Germany, Russia, and other countries, and during the months above quoted some thousands of tons of herrings in a fresh and cured state are conveyed to Germany by steamers which run to Hamburg almost daily.8 The Scotch curers bring the women and men whom they employ by special trains, the herrings being gutted for the Russian and other ports. Large curing-houses and yards are erected all over the town, forming a very important centre of interest as well as of industry. Bloaters and kippers are the chief fish cured, though other kinds are also dealt with in a lesser degree. In nearly every case the men and boys on the boats work on the share system, the boats them- selves being largely owned by local masters. A few fish companies are in existence, and these are all managed by local experts in the trade. The value of the fish landed at the port during the year 1904 was £575,930 ; in 1905 the value was £536,840. The weight landed during these years was, respectively, 58,791 tons and 57,650 tons. In 1851 it is interesting to recall 77,999 packages of fish were despatched by rail from Lowestoft; in 1860, 13,030 tons; in 1864, 17,340 tons. Fish on the east coast is divided into 'prime ' and 'offal.' Under the former category are included soles (a general favourite), turbot, brill, and cod ; ' offal ' comprising haddock, plaice, and whiting. The term was formerly introduced when fish were abundant and men to catch them few, and the means of conveyance restricted, and it was therefore necessary to throw much of it overboard. It is now applied merely to the cheaper and more plentiful sorts of fish. One of the leading fish merchants of the town is Mr. E. F. Thain, who supplies thousands of customers in every part of the kingdom, and to 8 120,000 packages of cured herrings went to Holland and Germany for the Christmas season of 1904. Fish. Trades Gaz. Jan. 1904, p. 25. 298 INDUSTRIES whom we are indebted for the valuable informa- tion relative to the fishing industry of Lowestoft. The women engaged in the fish-curing industry of Lowestoft are employed, first, in splitting the fresh herrings prior to the process of 'kippering,' and, secondly, in packing the kippers in wooden boxes and nailing the lids down. If no herrings arrive on the completion of this part of their task the workers are engaged in making boxes while awaiting the coming of a catch. After this they resume the splitting of the fish, which work is carried on while there are any herrings left. After the split herrings have been put through the pickle and washed in fresh water the women commence putting the herrings on hooks or sticks, and hand them up to the men in the curing tubs till this process is completed.1 The following are the number and description of sea-fishing boats at Lowestoft in 1 904 : — gives the methods of fishing at each port, the kinds of fish caught, and the dates of fishing seasons :- FIRST CLASS Number of boats Steam (45 ft. keel and upwards) : Trawling 7 Other than trawling 105 Sailing (45 ft. keel and upwards) : Trawling 234 Partly trawling — Other than trawling 122 Less than 45 ft. keel : Trawling — Partly trawling — Other than trawling 8 SECOND CLASS 26 ft. keel and upwards : Trawling — Partly trawling — Other than trawling — 22-26 ft. keel : Trawling 2 Partly trawling — Other than trawling — Less than 22 ft. keel : Trawling — Partly trawling 10 Other than trawling — THIRD CLASS Registered 10 Unregistered — Total 4Q8 There are at the present time four fishing stations in Suffolk : Lowestoft, Southwold, Thorpe, and Aldeburgh. The following table * 1 Ann. Rep. Factories and Workshops, 1903, p. 33. ' Ann. Rep. Board of Agric. and Fisheries, 1904, App. ii, 34-5. Stations Methods of fishing Principal kinds offish caught by each method Dates of fish- ing seasons Lowestoft Trawling Brill, soles, I Jan. to turbot, cod, 3 1 Dec. dabs, lemon soles, plaice, rays, whiting Drift nets Herrings Mar. to May, Juneandjuly, Oct. to Dec. Mackerel \ May, June, i July, Sept. to Nov. Sprats Nov. and Dec. Southwold Trawling, Soles, plaice, May to Oct. inshore dabs Drift nets Herrings Mar. to June, Sept. and Oct. Sprats Oct. to Jan. Lines Cod Nov. to Jan. Dabs Jan. to Mar. Trawling Shrimps Feb. to Sept. Thorpe Trawling Soles, plaice June to Nov. Shrimps Apr. to Nov. Drift nets Herrings Oct. to Jan. Sprats Nov. to Dec. Pots Crabs Mar. to Aug. Lobsters Feb. to Aug. Aldeburgh Trawling Soles, plaice, June till Mar. shrimps and Oct. Drift nets Herrings May to June, Sept. to Nov., Jan. to Mar. Sprats Oct. to Jan. Lines Cod, codling Oct. onwards Pots Crabs, lobsters May to Sept. The regulation of the sea fisheries of Suffolk at the present time is by the Board of Conser- vators for the Stour, Suffolk, and Essex Fishery District, acting as a Local Fisheries' Committee under the Sea Fisheries' Regulation Act of 1888, their jurisdiction lying between Covehithe, just above Southwold, and Harwich. The coast between Covehithe and Happisburgh (between Cromer and Yarmouth) is the only piece of coast on the east and south shores of England which is not included in a sea-fisheries' district, or sub- ject to regulation by a sea-fisheries' committee. It includes the two great fishing ports and ancient rivals, Yarmouth and Lowestoft. It is interesting to note in passing that the latter port has almost entirely absorbed the trawling trade from the former. In the light of its beating on the pursuit and development of the fishing industry, it may be mentioned that the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, whose head quarters are 299 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK at Plymouth, have been entrusted by the port of Lowestoft with the duty of carrying out the English share in the International Fishery and Hydrographical Investigations in the North Sea, and in this connexion have established a marine laboratory at Lowestoft under the direction of Dr. Garstang. At the moment of writing, we are reminded by the daily press of the right which the South- wold Corporation claims under ancient charters of regulating the fishing in the harbour,1 whilst Lowestoft is still further extending the scope of its fishing industry by the opening of its new Hamilton Dock for fishing vessels. The cere- mony of inauguration took place 5 October, 1 ' Southwold Town Council have accepted half-a- sovereign for the harbour site there. Mr. W. S. Fasey, who has made the purchase, will at once develop the property, which has long lain dormant. The coin which passed is to be mounted in a gold hand and attached to the mayoral chain.' The Standard, 20 July, 1906. 1906, in the auction mart which has been built by the Great Eastern Railway Company at the junction of the old and new markets. The event is of special interest in the fishing trade in view of the fact that here all herrings and mackerel will in future be sold by sample, re- placing the old method of sale whereby the boats' catches were shot on to the floor of the market according to the place where the vessels were moored. In future buyers will cease to suffer from the disadvantage of being unable to see the fish whilst buying, as all will be in view from a gallery in which buyers will sit. Brisk selling was the order of the day on this inaugural occasion. The mayor of Lowestoft was present, and the mayor-elect, Mr. B. S. Bradbeer, con- ducted the first sale of herrings. The new dock provides 9 acres of additional water area, and I, boo ft. of landing space. It was estimated that the number of boats which would take part in this autumn's voyage would exceed a thousand sail.8 1 The Daily Telegraph, 6 October, 1906. 300 SCHOOLS SUFFOLK, like Essex and other' east coast counties, bears manifest traces of its early commercial and industrial prosperity, due to the intercourse with Flanders and the Hanse Towns, in the number and importance of its ancient grammar schools as of its ancient churches. We find specific evidence of not less than a dozen grammar schools in the county before 1548, and we may be sure that there were many more, notices of which have not come down to us. These schools are as usual found in connexion with the secular clergy, not the monks. Indeed, the Suffolk schools emphasize this fact. It will be seen that this county affords the earliest specific mention of the foundation of a school in England, at Dunwich in the year 631 or thereabouts, and that by a bishop who was not a monk, which school was handed over to the governorship of the regular canons of Eye, four and a half centuries later. At Thetford the school's independence of the monks, who had invaded it on the removal of the cathedral to Norwich in William Rufus' reign, was success- fully asserted for the dean by the bishop, and the bishop himself is found nominating the masters till the dissolution of the monasteries. The most conspicuous case, however, is that of Bury St. Edmunds, which has been most per- sistently called a monastic school and credited to the foundation of the monks in the person of Abbot Samson. Yet the abbey registers them- selves furnish the most conclusive proof that the school was not monastic. So far from having been founded by Abbot Samson, the accounts of the two endowments given by him ; — first, about 1181, a new schoolhouse, and 18 years afterwards a yearly payment of £2 from a portion of a living in the patronage of the abbot, — afford irrefragable evidence that the school was not founded by this abbot, but was attended by him when he was a boy, a clerk, before he became a monk or a novice, and was under a master who was a clerk and not a monk. The evidence from the abbey registers that this school was outside the precinct of the abbey is equally against its being intended for monks. For the rule of the Benedictines was against the monks going outside the precinct ; and though this, like most monastic rules, was often broken, it could not have been broken by boy novices. It is abundantly clear that the school was the public school of the town, that the masters were clerics, not monks, and that all the monastery had to do with it was, in virtue of the episcopal and archidiaconal jurisdiction transferred to the abbot, to appoint the masters and maintain their rights and privileges. There was a monastic school in the abbey, of course, but among all the voluminous records of the abbey which have descended to us, only a single mention of it — in striking contrast to the numerous references to the public grammar school — has yet been found. That was, when the chronicler vouches1 as eyewitnesses of a miracle in 1112-14, 'three boys of the monks' school (de scola monachorum), namely Ralph, afterwards sacrist, Guy and Walter, who were still living, when the chronicler wrote. There are unfortunately no obedientiaries' rolls here as at Winchester and Durham, which would show us what this so-called school was in point of numbers. But it stands to reason that the number of novices in a monastery which at its highest consisted of 60 to 80 monks,2 who stayed all their lives, could never have exceeded a dozen, and in point of fact, at Winchester and Durham, was generally under half-a-dozen, and sometimes none. Anyhow, this monks' school did nothing for the general public, who were provided for by the grammar school, which must undoubtedly have existed from the first founda- tion of Bury by King Athelstan, as a college, not of monks, but of secular priests. It certainly casts a lurid light on the monks' want of care for the welfare of the people by whose industry they were supported that out of their vast possessions, amounting to ^2,336 a year, which cannot be put at less than ^46,000 a year of our money, they never contributed a farthing of endowment to the grammar school, beyond the £2 a year given by Abbot Samson in 1198. The sole contribution to education by this great abbey, recorded in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of I535> 's 'jC2^ 131. 48 ty Bishop Anthony Bekat London, with a clause added : — And although the masters and keepers of the said school for the time being used to be removed at the good pleasure of the diocesans of the place, and others substituted in the said keepership in their room, we, having regard to your personal merits, will and grant so far as in us lies, that such keepership may remain in you for the term of your life, saving in all things the episcopal customs and the right and dignity of our church of Norwich. On 24 October, I374,9 Peter Rolf of Eveden, priest, was made perpetual master. On 22 August, 1402, 10 'the lord committed the teaching and governance of the grammar-school of the town of Thetford to one Edward Eyr, and preferred him as master in the same after the form of past time.' The special mention of the school of the town at once negatives any idea of the school being in the priory, or having anything to do with it. On 23 September, 1424," Master Hugh Anderton was appointed in the same form, but this time only at pleasure, while in the appoint- ment of James Wale, clerk, 12 March, 1434-5, nothing is said about the term of appointment. In the appointment in 1496 of William Rudston, M.A., there was a reversion to the longer term, he being appointed for life. He was no doubt the William Rudston who became 12 a ' question- ist,' the first stage in becoming B.A., at Cambridge in 1486-7, paying a shilling fee and depositing a silver gilt cover as security (cautio). What happened to the school after this does not appear. The deanery of Thetford was * Epis. Reg. Norw. ii, fol. 30. ' Dominus episcopus contulit custodiam et regimen scolarum gramaticalium Thetford vacancium et ad collacionem suam spec- tancium . . . et eundem Magistrum Johannem in magistrum earundem prefecit et custodcm.' 7 Norw. Epis. Reg. iii, fol. 54. e Ibid. fol. 70. 9 Blomefield, Norf. ii, 128. 10 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 284. 11 Ibid, viii, fol. 89. " Camb. Grace Bk. A, ed. Stanley M. Leathes, 204, 207. 3°4 SCHOOLS abolished in 1540, and it may have been con- sidered to disappear with it, or there may have been some endowment held by a religious house, which, according to the legal doctrine adopted, was confiscated with the house. By will of 23 January, 1566, Sir Robert Fulmerston gave the Trinity Churchyard and the Black Friars' Churchyard to his executors, Thomas duke of Norfolk, and three others and their heirs, and 3 tenements in St. Mary's, Thetford, in one of which R. Hargreaves dwelt and the others were decayed, and also another tenement in which certain poor folk dwelt, with lands at Croxton, on condition within 7 years after his death to procure a licence to erect and establish a free grammar school in Thetford, the 3 tene- ments to be chambers for the master and usher, and the Black Friars' yard for a schoolhouse to be built upon ; while the poor folks' tenement was to be for an almshouse. There was to be a preacher to preach in St. Mary's and 4 times a year to preach in remembrance of the founder at I CM. a sermon. The lands at Croxton were to go to Edward Clare and his heirs, on condition of settling lands worth ^35 a year ; this sum to go in certain specified proportions to the preacher, schoolmaster, usher, and poor, which sums made up the whole ^35 a year. It is probable that Hargreaves was school- master already. For what happened was that the trustees built the schoolhouse on one corner of the Black Friars' yard with a chamber for the master, but made no provision of the kind for the preacher or usher. In the first 20 years after the will they paid the schoolmaster 20 marks (£13 6s. 8d.), the usher £5, and the preacher £2 a year, and to the 4 poor people a shilling a week each. For the next 14 years they paid the schoolmaster £20 and left the others as before. The master who enjoyed the augmented sti- pend was the Rev. William Jenkinson. The landowner seems to have claimed the whole surplus income as his own. But a private Bill was promoted in Parliament to establish the right of the charity to it. The matter was referred to the two Chief Justices, Fleming and the celebrated Coke of Coke on Littleton. Thus the Thetford School case, reported 8 Co. 130, became a famous leading case on the law of schools and chanties. The chief justices certi- fied their opinion that the whole ' revenue of the lands,' which had grown from £35 to j£iOO a year, ' shall be employed to increase the several stipends and, if any surplus, nothing to be con- verted by the devisees to their own use ' ; for the founder had divided up the whole income at the time and given nothing to the devisees, there- by showing that ' he intended all the profits of the land shall be employed in the charitable works by him founded.' The House of Lords, ' upon conference with all the judges,' agreed. So both Houses passed the Bill, and the principle, which has ever since governed the construction of deeds and wills founding charities, was firmly established. A private Act of 7 James I was passed, which incorporated the foundation as ' the Master and Fellows of the School and Hospital of Thetford, founded by King James according to the will of Sir Robert Fulmerston,' the king not giving a penny of endowment to the foundation to which he affixed his name. A very ecclesiastical tinge was given to it by the preacher, who was to be always the curate, i.e. incumbent, of St. Mary's, being made Master of the Hospital at a salary of ^30 a year, while the schoolmaster was only given 40 marks, or £26 13*. 4^., the usher £20, and the poor 2s. a week. The municipal corpora- tion were made the governing body, and their con- sent was necessary to leases by the corporation of master and fellows. A new school and houses for preacher, master, and usher, and poor, were ordered to be built. The Act gave the school new life. After a short tenure of five years by a Mr. Smith, who was also curate of St. Mary's from 1624 to 1629, the Rev. William Ward occupied the post throughout ' the troubles ' undisturbed, and contributed divers boys to the Cambridge Colleges of Caius and St. John's, some of them evidently boarders from a distance. After the Restoration, under the Rev. Mr. Keene from 1662 to 1 68 1, or later, we find the sons not only of clerics but of knights and baronets coming thence to St. John's College. After that the Rev. John Price was master. He was * a ' sequestrator ' of St. Peter's, rector of Santon in Norfolk, and Honington in Suffolk, as well as ' master of the free school,' and curate of St. Cuth- bert's, Thetford, where having died 27 February, 1736, he is buried, under a stone without inscrip- tion, by the middle buttress of the south aisle wall. The historian of Norfolk, who was ' brought up under him above 10 years," supplies the want of an inscription by stating that he was 'a man of sound learning and great eloquence, an excellent preacher, discreet master, agreeable companion and true friend.' In 1738, the Rev. Thomas Eversdon was promoted from being usher to head master, acting as usher as well, a conjunc- tion which points to decay in the school. St. John's College Registers know it no more. In 1818 the Rev. H. C. Manning, LL.D., had been master since 1778 and 'had for some time past from advance of years,' declined private pupils. The Rev. William Storr, LL.D., as usher, did the work, but there were only 20 or 30 boys in the school. When the commissioners of inquiry into charities visited in 1834, they found the school practically divided into two schools, one under the master, the other under the usher, who set up as an independent potentate. The head master was the Rev. R. Ward, appointed in 1830, and he had under him precisely 12 boys, 1 Blomefield, Norfolk, \\, 66. 3°5 39 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 7 boarders and 5 paying day-scholars, while one free foundationer divided his time between master and usher. The usher was Mr. Storr, the son of the former master, and had held office since 1809. He had 34 boys, 21 free and 13 paying, learning little but the 3 R's. The commis- sioners expressed a very strong opinion that the head master had full authority over the usher, and that in the interests of the school the corpora- tion should see to it that this was recognized in practice. In 1 866, in spite of a Chancery scheme made in 1860, there were only 25 boys at fees of £2 a year. A scheme made under the Endowed Schools Acts on 24 March, 1876, established a repre- sentative governing body, pensioned off the then master and usher, and severed the preacher- ship from the mastership, usually held with it. Under the Rev. Benjamin Reed, B.A. Lond., 1882, appointed head master 1884, with two assistant masters, there are now 55 boys, of whom 21 are boarders, paying tuition fees of 6 guineas a year. BURY ST. EDMUNDS GRAMMAR SCHOOL It may safely be assumed that Bury St. Edmunds Grammar School began with the col- lege of secular priests, instituted there by King Athelstan, as at Beverley in Yorkshire, Ripon, and Durham. These colleges were founded in pursuance of the settled policy of the Lady of the Mercians, Ethelfled, and King Edward the Elder, in consolidating their conquests from the Danes by the establishment of burghs with full civil and ecclesiastical institutions, conspicuous being a collegiate church with its invariable con- comitant a grammar school, thus confirming ' by arts what she had achieved by arms, educating the heathen when she had subdued them.' ' When the secular canons were turned out, as it is said, by King Canute, the school must no doubt have been continued, and when the abbot was given episcopal powers, if it had not done so before, must have fallen under the government of the monastery. Whether that took place in the reign of William the Conqueror, as is probable, or earlier, as certain charters forged by the monks alleged, it is difficult to decide. The earliest actual mention of Bury School is about 1181. Abbot Samson, the hero of the chronicle of Jocelyn of Brakelond, soon after he had been made abbot (1180), when Master Walter, son of Master William of Diss (Dice), asked by way of charity for the vicarage of Cheventon, answered — Your father was schoolmaster, and when I was a poor clerk he granted me the entry of his school and the 1 A. F. Leach, Hut. of Warwick School and College, 12. benefit of learning in it without any payment (facto) and by way of charity, so I for God's sake grant you what you ask. Soon after the abbot bought a stone house (domos laflJeas) in the town of St. Edmunds, and assigned it for keeping school in it (fas scolatum regimini assignavii) on con- dition that four clerks should for ever be free of the rent of the house, towards which every scholar whether able or not was compelled to pay a penny or a halfpenny twice a year. As was seen to be the case at Winchester, Durham, and St. Albans, the school was not in the abbey or its precinct, but outside it in the town, it was taught by a secular not by a monk, and was frequented by scholars who were clerks not monks. At Bury the school was not ap- parently endowed, as free scholars were only admitted by favour of the master, and conse- quently the scholars even had to pay the rent of the schoolhouse, until Abbot Samson bought the stone house and gave it to the school. The excellent abbot's charity was not quite so great as appears at first sight, as there is every reason to believe that it was a Jew's house, which he got at a low price, since it was pre- cisely at this time that he got leave from the king to expel the Jews from Bury, on the ground that everyone within the sacred league3 (bannam leucani) must be either men of St. Edmund or go. They preferred to go, and were allowed to take their personal property with them, but had to sell their houses. The foundation of the hospital at Babwell by the same abbot at the same time was due to the utilization of the same opportunities. We are able to fix the exact site of the school from the I3th century deeds in the Register of the cellarer of the abbey.3 By an undated deed witnessed by Geoffrey son of Robert le Hacher- man (a strange corruption for alderman) and Nicholas Fuke and Gilbert of Grim, bailiffs ; Luke Johnson and John the goldsmith, Sara Sturbote gave her son Michael and his children Michael and Yvette (Ivota) for 305. in silver half a house at the entrance of the street called Scolhallestrete by the high school (juxta magnas * sco/as) between the street leading to the alderman's grange and the messuage of the said Michael. By a later deed of 25 April, 1295,' under the heading of Reymstrete and Scolhallestret the ' At Bury, as at Beverley and Ripon and others of Athelstan's foundations, the ' liberty ' of the college extended for a mile in every direction, and was marked by 4 crosses at the 4 points of the compass. This liberty was a sanctuary, and heavy penalties were imposed for any breach of the peace in its limits. 3 Camb. Univ. Lib. G.G. iv, 4, fol. 249. *cf. magnus chorus = high choir ; magnus cancel- larius = high chancellor. 6 Camb. Univ. Lib. G.G. iv, 4, fol. 135. 306 SCHOOLS said Michael Sturbote — but whether father or son is not clear — granted to Matilda Sudbury, wife of Robert Hod, for a mark of silver, a toft at the High School (apud magnas scolas) lying between the king's way on one side and a messuage of Walter Hangemore on the other, abutting at one end (caput) on Hod's toft and at the other in Reym Strete, 17 ft. long by 16 ft. broad. The deed was endorsed 'for the Sacrist.' As Schoolhallstreet still bears the same name, and the alderman's grange is now the Shire Hall, and Reym Street is Rungate Street, there is no difficulty in pointing out the exact spot. It was and is of course well outside the abbey precinct and in the town ; a conclusive proof that it was no monastic school in the sense usually attached to that term. In process of time, just as the bishops' possessions rights and privileges became severed from those of the chapter, which they had originally held in common, so were estates allotted to the abbots separated from those of the Benedictine monas- teries of the monks at large.1 In a series of chapters (capitula) containing the customs or ' statutes ' of the abbey (which have come down to us only in a thirteenth-century copy) the first heading or chapter is ' that some things specially belong to the abbey and some to the convent.' The sixth heading 2 is ' On the collation of schools, to whom they belong and how masters are removed or appointed.' The chapter runs as follows : — 2 The collation of the school of S. Edmund belongs to the abbot in the same way as the collation of churches in which the convent receives some yearly interest, and the aforesaid school ought to be conferred like the aforesaid churches, namely, with the assent of the convent. The schools indeed on the m.inor of Milden- hall and of Beccles are by law to be conferred by those in whose custody the manors are. And it is to be noted that when a schoolmaster (rector scolarum) is to be removed he ought to be given notice by the person who appointed him (datore) before Whitsuntide. If on the other hand the master wishes to retire, he is bound to give like notice to the person who appointed him, i.e. the abbot, the sacrist, or deputy (vices gerentis) of the abbot and convent. The fifth chapter tells us how the collation is made to churches in which the convent have a yearly interest, viz. by the abbot, with the consent of the convent after due notice. The school 1 At Bury the division of estates said to have been made temp. Henry I, was solemnly confirmed by charter by Edward I in 1281 at a cost, the chronicler says, of £1,000, a sum we can hardly put at less than £30^; o of our money. Cont. Chron. Flor. Wigorn. By B. Thorpe (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 1849, p. 225. This part of the MS. was written late in Henry III or early in the days of Edward I, in about 1260-80. * Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 95^: ' Collacio scolarum, qui- bus spectat et qualiter magistri amovendi sive consti- tuendi sint. Collacio quidem scolarum S. Edmundi sic pertinet ad abbatem sicut collacio ecclesiarum, in quibus conventus aliquid percipit annuum.' therefore was treated just like an ecclesiastical benefice, as to all intents and purposes it was, except that the holder was not bound to be in holy orders. The implication of the ubiquity of schools by the reference to schools outside Bury in the dependent manors of the abbey is remarkable. At first there seems to have been no endow- ment of Bury School, which was dependent on fees. In a statement of the ancient customs of the abbey we find 3 that on the evening before Maundy Thursday the almoner of the abbey ought to receive 150 swans4 to make his maundy, which he ought to give to these persons ; the prior 3, himself 12 or more, his sub-almoner 2, the cellarer, the principal officer of the abbey, 22, the chamberlain (or bursar) 7 and sometimes 2 more as a matter of grace, the schoolmaster (magistro sco/arum) 13, and so on. Each private monk got one. An account is also given of a 'custom in school for cocks on Shrove Tuesday,'5 by which someone, it does not say who, had to distribute cocks to all the servants of the abbey, the 'steyrars' having 2, the carpenter I, and so forth. The custom of the schoolmaster provid- ing cocks for ' cock-shys ' or for cock-fights, on Shrove Tuesday extended far down in the eighteenth century in some places, and a learned origin and philosophic defence of the cock-fights was given by Christopher Johnson, M.D., head master of Winchester, to his boys in 1564. The occasion of these cock-fights was utilized for the boys to bring presents from themselves and their parents, which, in free grammar schools where fees were forbidden, afforded an ingenious way of mitigating the rigour of the law, and pro- viding something like a decent salary for the master. We may therefore safely conclude that at Bury the schoolmaster provided these cocks and got a return for doing so. Eighteen years after the gift of the school- house, Abbot Samson gave the school a small endowment. 'When6 (c. 1 198) an agreement had been made between Abbot Samson and Sir Robert of Scales, knight, about a moiety of the advowson of the church of Wetherdene, and the said Robert had recognized the rights of St. Edmund and the abbot, the abbot, without a previous covenant or any promise, gave that half of the church to Master Roger of Scales, the knight's brother, on condition of his paying an annual pen- sion of 3 marks to the sacrist for the schoolmaster who for the time being taught in the town of St. Edmund (magistro scolarum quicunque legeret in -villa 5. Edmundi]. This the abbot did through gratitude for the kindness above related, that, as he had first bought the stone house for the ' Ibid. fol. 52. 4 Signis, apparently for cygnis. 6 Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 213. 'Consuetudo in scolis. de gallis die martis ante cineres.' ' Ibid. fol. 133. 3°7 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK school, so that poor clerks might be quit of the rent of a house, so now they might be hence- forth quit of all payment of fees (denariorum) which the schoolmaster according to custom exacted for his teaching. ' And, by the will of God in the lifetime of the abbot the whole moiety of the aforesaid church, worth, as it is said, zoo*, was converted to these uses.' A note, not forming part of Brakelond's chronicle,1 but a sort of appendix to it, informs us that — at the time when Abbot Samson made the school- house at his own expense and caused a rent of 3 marks a year to be paid to the schoolmaster, he showed the reason for doing so, and established it in full chapter ; that all the scholars both rich and poor should be quit for ever of hiring the house, and that 40 poor clerks might be free of all fees (yuieti ab omni exaccione) to the master for their instruction. Among the 40 ought to be first reckoned the relations of the monks so long as they wish to learn, and the remainder ought to be supplied at the discretion of the school- master. And for this reason the master was allowed always to have 2 clerks boarded in the almonry (in elemosinaria comeJentei), who are bound to attend the school at three terms of the year when the master begins his lectures (incifitntf legere), viz. Michaelmas, after Christmas, and after Easter ; and when his lec- tures stop they must retire, except before Easter when they may stay to the Lord's Supper (i.e. till Maundy Thursday). The same custom obtains for the Usher (Ostiario Scolarum). And all the clerks who are boarded in the almonry ought to attend school in the same way ; but they ought to be reckoned in the aforesaid number, that the master may not be over- burdened. The mention of an usher and 40 free scholars shows that the school was already well frequented and highly organized. On 27 April,2 1193, John, then bishop of Norwich, at Ipswich, at the petition and pre- sentation of Abbot Samson, patron of half the church of Wetherden, granted and confirmed in pure and perpetual alms to the master teach- ing school at Bury St. Edmunds, whoever he might be, three marks, i.e. 40$. from that half. Yet on 9 June, 1314, the payment had been challenged by the then rector and had to be solemnly confirmed by the bishop's commissioners at a visitation. A hundred years later,3 7 Janu- ary, 1419-20, the then rector John Brigtyefe, after legal proceedings not reported, entered into a recognizance that the annual pension of 405. was due from him and paid a noble (6j. &/.) apparently by way cf costs. In that golden age of litigation, the second half of the thirteenth century, we find the rights of the grammar school the subject of several law- suits. In the first of these — the exact date is not given, but as the next succeeding document is dated in April, 16 Edward I, it must be about 1 Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 130. A copy is in B.M. Add. MSS. 14848, fol. 13^. 'Ibid. fol. 136. 'Ibid. fol. 120. 1287 — one J. of C.4 had cited R. of C. before Mr. S. of C., the schoolmaster, for defaming his state (super status sui diffamacione). What exactly that may mean, whether it was an allegation that the scholar was a villein, and therefore not properly admissible to the school, or whether it merely meant that the boy was charged with misconduct, is not clear. At all events, the defendant R. of C. appealed to the sacrist of the monastery, and the sacrist, William of Hoo, issued a prohibition to Mr. S. of C. telling him that his claim to have cognizance of all cases between clerks and laymen was bad, since by ancient and hitherto approved custom cases between clerks and laymen, except in the single case of violent assault by laymen on his own scholars or vice versa, belonged not to the master but to the sacrist. Further, even if the ordinary jurisdiction belonged to the school- master, as he had refused to seal the article or bill brought against R. of C. by J. of C. on which he had made a decree, or to state a case for appeal, and had refused to stay execution pending an appeal, an appeal lay to the sacrist. So the sacrist forbade the master to proceed further, and called up the case to himself. He then issued a mandate to certain officials, not named, directing them to excommunicate ' all those who to the damage of the school of St. Edmund held adulterine schools in the same borough, and those who treat the said schools as deserted, till they have made satisfaction to the master, and obtained absolution.' The schoolmaster did not sit quiet under this interference of the sacrist, but appealed to the abbot, John of Norwold. He promptly in his turn issued a prohibition to the sacrist. The abbot says he had — received the plaint of the schoolmaster reciting that though by ancient and approved custom the master had hitherto enjoyed full jurisdiction over all offenders against his scholars and had duly summoned W. de C. at the instance of his scholar J. de C., the sacrist, pretending that he was the schoolmaster's superior in this matter, had called up the case before himself, and had given no assistance to the injured scholar. The abbot, therefore, finding that whatever jurisdiction the schoolmaster claimed was derived from himself, the abbot, and that if an appeal lay, it lay to his immediate superior the abbot and not to the sacrist, told the sacrist not to interfere, but to let the schoolmaster freely exer- cise 'his or rather our' jurisdiction. There the record with its usual tantalizing fragmentariness ends. But as the documents are found entered 4 Harl. MS. 230, fol. 5 (fol. 12 pencil.) Only the initials of the names are given in the original MS. and it seems probable that C. is used as meaning any place, as the M. or N. of the Church Catechism for any name. In B.M. Add. MSS. 14848, fol. i 36^, is a later copy of this in which E. and not C. is the initial used. 308 SCHOOLS in the sacrist's register no doubt he acquiesced in the abbot's claim and recognized the school- master's jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of the master not only over his scholars but over any cause between a scholar and an outsider was recognized, as we have seen,1 at St. Albans and at Canterbury in the fourteenth century, and is still recognized in the Vice- Chancellors' courts at Oxford and Cambridge as between undergraduates and the public. A year or two later we get two interesting documents in connexion with the grammar schoolmaster's legal monopoly of teaching, -to the exclusion of all other schoolmasters not licensed by him ; a monopoly recognized as we have seen at Thetford circa 1 1 14, in the case of the school- master of St. Paul's School, London, in 1137 and 1446, in the case of the schoolmaster of the High School, Winchester, in 1135, and of the head master of Winchester College in 1630, and at Canterbury, York, Lincoln and Beverley in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The document runs : ' A. of B., Official of C.' (the initials are again fictitious, the document being entered as a precedent or common form) ' to the discreet men constituted in such and such a place:' Whereas we understand that certain pedagogues,* wrongly using the title of master, with sacrilegious dar- ing usurping the jurisdiction of Sir C. of teaching, rashly presume to teach school without his authority within the liberty of Saint Edmund, keep adulterine schools,3 pretending to teach dialecticians, grammarians, and pupils of all kinds publicly assembled, without the assent of Sir C. and against the will of the School- master of S. Edmunds, to the prejudice of the church and school of the same place, eluding the jurisdiction of the apostolic see to the scandal and contempt of the church and school (eccleste et scolarum) of St. Edmund. In most solemn form therefore to bridle these presumptuous persons' rash audacity and in reverence to the most holy see and in con- sideration of the most glorious King and Martyr Edmund, and on pain of excommunication which we hereby declare if you are disobedient, the Official directs the clergy he is addressing to excommunicate the offending ' pedagogues, gram- marians, and pupils meeting indiscriminately and publicly,' and to go on doing it as long as the master shall ask it. Further, they were publicly to denounce the culprits as excommunicated with •candles burning and bells ringing during high mass until by satisfying Sir C. for their contempt and the Master for their trespass they have earned the benefit .of absolution in due form of law. 1 V. C. H. Herts, ii. * The pedagogue was, strictly speaking, the slave who took the Greek or Roman boys to school, not the schoolmaster. 3 Scholas [sic, the use of the ' h ' in the word at this time is unique] infra libertatem Sancti Edmundi regant adulterinas, dialecticos glomerellos seu discipulos .quoscumque pupplice congregates indistincte dogmati- zare fingentes.' Anyone disobeying was to be brought before the Official in the chapel of St. John at the Fount. A mandate in precisely similar terms, clearly modelled on this, is given in Abbot Curteys' Register as issuing from Clement Denston, archdeacon of Sudbury, to the Dean of T. (sic) in which for Dominus C. is substituted Dominus William, Abbot, i.e. Abbot Curteys : and for the chapel of St. John ad Fontem, the church of Fornham. It is undated, but must be between 1423 when Denston was made arch- deacon, and 1434 when he was convicted of divers adulteries and rape. On a later page another similar mandate is given directed against a single individual named John Harrison (/ilium Henrici) for presuming to keep an adulterine school and teaching grammarians (glomerellos) or other pupils (diidpulos) not as doctor but rather as seductor (non ut doctor quin potius seductor) against the privileges of the monastery and school of St. Edmunds. He was directed to desist within 8 days from his adul- terine school so unlawfully held on pain of the greater excommunication. The use of the word ' glomerellos,' small gram- marians, as distinguished from the dialecticians, the more advanced scholars who had passed on to dialectics, or the art of argument, shows that the school of Bury St. Edmunds was, as we should say, of the first grade. The earlier rival school- masters had even ventured to trespass to the extent of dialectic ; the later one, John Harrison, had only held probably a kind of preparatory school which did not venture beyond grammar. The word ' glomerelli ' is a curious and char- acteristically mediaeval corruption of grammati- culi. It was used at Cambridge, the master of Glomery being the doyen or superintendent of the grammar schools there. He is mentioned 'n I533~4-4 Oddly enough the only use of the word which has been found at Oxford is in the accounts for the year 1277 of the grammar school attached to Merton College, and remains in MS.8 It was in use at Salisbury in the 1 4th century,6 where the same house is described in a deed of 1308 as scole glomerie, and in one of 1322 as scole gramaticales, thus establishing the identity of meaning beyond doubt. Besides the grammar school there was a song school, which was seemingly almost equally ancient, and the master of which enjoyed a like monopoly for teaching song and the psalter. On Friday after St. Agatha's Day (5 February) 1290-1, the sacrist, William of Hoo, as arch- deacon, issued 7 a mandate on behalf of it to 4 Camb. Grace Book, A. 223. 5 Merton MSS. 39641;. I am indebted to the warden and fellows of Merton for the opportunity of going through these accounts. 6 Hist. MSS. Rtp. Misc. (1901), 343, 345. 1 Harl. MS. 645, fol. 6jb, (%6b, pencil). 3°9 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK ' all and singular chaplains as well parochial as chapels.' He recited that by long custom it had been granted and it had from time whereof there is no memory peacefully obtained that no one should dare to teach boys their psalters or singing without the licence of the master of the Assembly of Twelve (congregacionis duodene} ; and we are informed that there are some who presume to keep adulterine schools in parish churches and in chapels and other places in our territory aforesaid to the prejudice of the master aforesaid and the peril of their own souls. He ordered the parochial and other chaplains to inhibit all such persons on pain of excommuni- cation from presuming to do such things henceforth without the licence of the master, in the places aforesaid or elsewhere except in the Song School. Any disobeying were to be summoned before the sacrist at Glashows, from which place he dated his letter, on Thursday after 24 February. The reference to the Assembly of Twelve explains an institution which has been a matter of mystery and some bad guessing. It refers undoubtedly to the gild, which in a will of 1435 l is called 'the gilde of the translacione of Seynt Nicholas, otherwyse called Dusgilde,' of which a leaden token has been found with the inscription : Slgnum Gilde S. Nichi Congre- gacio Dune. Various wild derivations have been made and assigned to explain the word Dusse. One was that it might have been the mark of the merchant gild with their Pie-poudre or Dusty foot court 2 ( !) and another that it was a corrup- tion of Deus. It is clear that Dusse is merely a corruption, or rather anglification, of Douze, i.e. twelve. In a Latin will made in 1418, Agnes Stubbard gave ' to two chaplains gilde de dusze 3*. 4^., and to the rest of the chaplains of the said gild each of them 2s. A ' Priourof Dusgylde' is mentioned in the will of John Baret in 1435 already quoted. In 1503 John Coote bequeathed ' to Seynt Nicholas Gild named Dusse gild holden in the colage 3*. 4^.' The college was a much later foundation, which was not yet incorporate, when John Smith, the founder of what is called the Guildhall Feoffment Charity, made his will 12 December, 1480, and gave land to it ' when- somever the said collage be so incorporate.' It was the Gild of Jesus, and incorporated shortly afterwards. In 1 28 1,3 on Edward I's visit to Bury in the course of raising a forced loan for the con- quest of Wales, the brotherhood of the twelve (Fraternitas duodene ville 5. Edmundt] was taxed 12 marks towards it, while the abbot and con- vent contributed 100 marks. A contribution of *Bury Wills (Camd. Soc. 49), 35. ' Ibid. 230. *Cont. Chnn. Flor. Wigirn. 22 ed. B. Thorpe, (Engl. Hist. Soc. 1 849). The continuation is by John of Taxter, a monk of Buiy. this magnitude points to the possession of con- siderable property and a well-established organiza- tion. In London the Gild of St. Nicholas was the gild of the parish clerks, who were persons in minor orders, whose duty, or at all events practice, it was to keep song and reading schools. At Lincoln4 in 1305 we saw the precentor summoning all the parish clerks of the city for keeping adulterine schools and teaching song and music to the prejudice of the song schoolmaster of the cathedral. But this Bury gild seems to have consisted of priests. The requirement of their licence for the establishment of song schools remains at present unexplained. One can only conjecture that it was in some way representa- tive of the parish chaplains and clerks, and was therefore interested in preventing undue com- petition from unlicensed persons. On i May, I37O,5 Abbot John Tynemouth, very much in the language of the document of 1291, which is written below it, evidently for use as a precedent, addressed a letter to ' all and singular the parish priests of Bury St. Edmunds and their vicegerents.' He informed them that by long custom without the licence of the song schoolmaster (magister sea/arum cantus) no one ought to teach boys in the town aforesaid their psalters or singing (psalteria vel cantum), but he understood that in divers places in the town illicit schools were held, and he directed the excommunication of all those who without the master's licence presumed to keep school except in the song school, and if they objected they were to appear before him in St. Robert's Chapel. Nothing is said in this instance of the Douze Gild. But on 12 May, 1426, Brother William Barrow (Barwe), sacrist, addressing the parish chaplains of the town, puts the gild in the fore- front and gives them a very high antiquity : — Whereas our beloved in Christ, the clerks of the Assembly of the Twelve (congregacionis duodene), within our jurisdiction of Bury by their charters from the most holy King Edward and other kings of England, also by charter of the most holy Abbot Baldwin and other abbots of the monastery aforesaid, amongst other things have this privilege (libertatem) that none within the town of Bury ought 6 to administer teach- ing of reading or singing without the licence of the clerks of the assembly aforesaid first obtained for the purpose. The song school has now definitely become also apparently a reading school, as literature here does not seem to be used in the sense of grammar but of the elements of literature, letters or read- ing, meaning reading Latin. 4 V.C.E. Line, ii, ' Schools.' 6Harl. MS. 645, fol. 67 (86 pencil). 6 Quod nullus infra villam de Bury supradictam doctrinam literature sive cantus alicui debeat mini- strare sine licencia clericorum congregacionis predicts ad hoc per prius optenta. 3IO SCHOOLS The chaplains were as usual to excommuni- cate the delinquents, and inhibit everyone hence- forth from ' keeping such schools elsewhere than in the school of the clerks of the congregation afore- said or presuming to teach any boy song or letters within the said jurisdiction.' Here then the St. Nicholas' Gild appears as one of clerks, no doubt parish clerks, and their charters of immemorial antiquity. It is strange that in the returns of gilds made to chancery in 1389, the Gild of St. Nicholas1 is said to have been founded only in 1282, when certain priests in the honour of the Lord Jesus Christ, Blessed Mary the Mother of God, and Saint Nicholas the most illustrious bishop, to celebrate yearly the day of the translation of that saint and attest a purer unity in love of the brotherhood, made a brotherhood after the manner of a gild. They elected a governor (gubernatorem) who with 1 z priests should rule and keep the said brotherhood, while ' up to 60 brethren and sisters ' might be admitted to it, priests or laity. The ordinances are only the usual provisions for a yearly meeting, obits, and daily prayers for dead and living members. But St. Nicholas' Gild seems to be only an off- shoot of or secession from the original Douze Gild, the Fraternity 2 of Clerks of Glemsford. According to their return in 1389 they consisted of a master and 12 clerks ' afterwards changed into priests.' Under the heading of ' Cnutus,' the return says that the origin of the congregation was that in the time of King Canute faithful Christians who then existed, with the counsel and help and licence of that most pious king, began it and established it and handed it down to our brethren and to us, and from the time of King Edward and William the father and William his son, and the most wise and prudent King Henry [I] has been kept with great diligence and reverence (religione) and to the end of the world will by God's gift be observed and kept for the benefit of all the saints of God living and dead. It then sets out the number of masses that each priest, and the number of psalters that each deacon of the gild said for the king and queen, and the brethren and sisters living and the total number of masses in a year was 1,037, an^ °f psalms 3,008, and the same number for the dead. The laws of the gild under which it was practic- ally a sick and burial club are then stated. Then in the time of Edward the Confessor Abbot Baldwin decreed that the congregation and its sixty clerks should be free from all public customs and labour such as burgate, watch (wasche) and ward, army service (hereget), harvest labour (bed- repe) and gelds payable by the borough, in con- sideration of their keeping wakes day and night for the good estate of the church of St. Edmund, 1 B.P.O. Bk. vi, 30, 103 ; Bk. viii, 68 ; P.R.O. Gild Cert. 415. The ordinances are printed in Pnc. Suf. Inst. ofArchaeol. xii, 14, by Mr. V. B. Red- stone. 1 P.R.O. Gild Cert. 419. 31 and the abbot and monks, singing psalms round the corpses of dead monks and praying for their souls. Confirmation charters of William the Con- queror, Henry I and Henry II, and of Arch- bishop Thomas a Becket are given ; while an undated one of Abbot Samson is the first to mention a dedication to Blessed Nicholas the Confessor, and adds the remarkable provision that — if any layman in the town deputed to a vile office (fill officio deputatus) wishes to send his son to letters (filium suum traJerc Rtterii) he shall by no means do so without the leave of the congregation. A farther confirmation charter of Abbot Simon dated 5 February, 1267-8, is the first to contain the clause — No clerk in the town of St. Edmund shall presume to teach anyone the psalter or singing without the licence of this congregation, and if he does, he shall owe zs. to the congregation, as appears in the aforesaid grants, in which, in fact, it does not appear. The entrance fee of the gild was 5*. for a clerk, 131. 4^. for a layman, and nothing for a priest. The endowment, alleged to have been given in the time of Canute, was very small, consisting only of 13 acres in Melford, five shops in Bury, and quit-rents of 75. bkd. and I Ib. of cummin. Not a word is said to explain why this gild in Bury is called ' the congregation of Glemsford,' but as Glemsford is in the tithing of Melford it was probably so-called simply from the situation of their small landed property. One of the abbey registers gives a still more exalted origin for this gild, viz. that the twelve clerks represent the secular clerks dispossessed by Canute in 1020 to make room for the monks, who after wandering about the country for forty years were finally housed by Abbot Baldwin in Bury, on condition of praying for the monks ; a curious reversal of the normal order of things, monks being established on purpose to hold up the ever-burning lamp of prayer for laymen and seculars. To return from the song to the grammar school. In the Bury Register of the time of Henry IV-V, preserved in the Cambridge University Library (MS. Ff. 11-29), we again find the schoolmaster being attacked, and again getting the abbot's support against his assailants. This time it was against a secular enemy, the bailiffs of Bury, and it was the person of the master himself that had to be defended, and we get the name of the master, the first known to us — William of Kimberley. On 4 August [1420 ?], the year is not given — Brother William, abbot, tells his bailiffs of the town of St. Edmund, that whereas the grammar schoolmaster of the town of Bury for tne time being, the collation and disposition of which school belongs to us, by immemorial cus- tom enjoys the privilege and immunity that on all A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK contracts entered into in the said town and on all trespasses there committed he cannot be called on to answer to another in this behalf, but only before us (the abbot) or our special deputy ; and we have learnt that you, at the instance and procurement of one Alexander of Walsham, a scholar of his, have brought Mr. William of Kimberle, appointed master of the said school by us, before yourselves on the case of a fictitious trespass falsely pretended to have been com- mitted in the same, molesting and disquieting him from day to day — they are to stay the proceedings. In Abbot Curteys' Register,1 on the appoint- ment of Robert Lawshull, priest, to the teach- ing and mastership (regimen et magisterium), of the grammar school we find it still with only the same endowment, viz. 3 marks or 401. from the moiety of Wetherden rectory, which it acquired from the gift of Abbot Samson 300 years before. Under the heading ' Copy of a letter issued on the collation of the mastership (regiminis) of the Grammar School of the town of Bury (sea/arum gramaticaltum ville de Bury),' the fol- lowing document3 dated 24 September, 1444, shows a small increase in value, the master now being boarded and lodged in the almonry of the monastery. William by divine permission abbot of the monas- tery of St. Edmund of Bury immediately pertaining to the church of Rome, to our beloved in Christ, Mr. Robert Farceux, graduate in the science of grammar and in the faculty of arts, Greeting. The rectorship and mastership of the grammar school in the town of St. Edmunds of Bury now vacant and in our collation, with all its rights and appurtenances, and a yearly pension of 40^. of silver from the moiety of the parish church of Wetherden in our patronage, due from the hands of the rectors to us and our monastery, and all right of action we have to the same pension ; also i 3/. 4 Ibid. xx. ' Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools, ii. 10 Char. Com. Rep. xx. 325 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Ipswich Legacies, a book on the charities of Ipswich, published in 1747. The actual entry1 is: — Ordinance. [And it is ordered] that the grammar school master shall henceforth have jurisdiction and governance of all scholars within the liberty and pre- cinct of this town except only petties [little ones] called Apesyes and Songe, taking for his salary from each grammar scholar, psalter scholar and primer scholar, according to the tariff fixed by the Bishop of Norwich, viz. for each grammarian, lot/., psal- terian, %d. a quarter, the sum paid by the psalterians. at Ipswich. At all events, 5 years later, on Tuesday before SS. Simon and Jude, 1482, the tariff was lowered,6 it being ordered that ' every burgess living in Ipswich shall pay to the gram- mar schoolmaster 8d. a quarter for his boy and not above.' Apparently by way of consolation,, it was also ordered that ' the said grammar master shall celebrate for term of his life for the Corpus. Christ! gild,' and presumably receive the stipend for doing so. At an earlier court in the same year every foreign burgess had been ordered to pay is. J^d. a quarter to the gild. The school- master was an appropriate person to act as the gild chaplain, for the gild furnished the yearly Corpus Christi play. In 1443-4 John Causton had been admitted a burgess of Ipswich 'on con- dition that for 7 years he would keep all the * V. C. H. Surrey, ii ; Line, ii ; Essex, ii ; Torks. L * V. C. H. Hants, ii, 253. 4 See under Bury, above. 6 B.M. Add. MS. 30158. ' Et quod quilibet burgensis infra villam Gippwici commorans solvat Magistro Gramatico pro puero suo pro quarterio anni, 9> 334 SCHOOLS years, it may be that the Lowes had not gone to college direct from Ipswich school, but had followed him to Botesdale in 1630. William Clarke was probably a Cambridge man, but has not been identified between three persons •of that name who were contemporaries at Cambridge at this period. The St. John's College Register shows Mr. Holt as master in 1638. On 19 December, 1644, Mr. Glascok is made master and £20 bestowed upon the schoolmaster's house, or, if he like not there he shall have 45*. yearly towards the providing of him a house elsewhere, and libertie to make benefit of the schoolemaster's house over and besides. Christopher Glasscock was perhaps an Ipswich man, as one of the name was chief custom-house master there in 1604. But he was a boy at Felsted School,1 and B.A. at St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge in 1634. He sent boys to St. John's up to 1650, when he resigned to be appointed head master of his own old school, where he attained great fame and held office for no less than 40 years. Mr. Nathaniel Seaman, son of a draper at Chelmsford, at the grammar school of which place he was educated, and admitted a sizar at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1639, was elected usher 20 May, 1645. In March, 1648^ he received promotion by election to the head-mastership of Colchester Grammar School which he combined with three livings. On Glasscock's migration to Essex, John Mereweather held for a year, to be succeeded by Cave Beck. He was son of an innkeeper at Clerkenwell, admitted pensioner at St. John's in 1638. To St. John's he sent boys from Ipswich up to 1655. He wrote 'On the Universal Character.' In 1657 he was succeeded by Robert Woodside ; in 1659 came Henry Wick- ham; in 1662 Mr. Colson ; in 1663 Jeremy, father of Jeremy Collier, the celebrated non- juror. It is said3 that Jeremy Collier himself was educated under his father at Ipswich School, and went thence to Caius College, Cambridge, in 1669, with an exhibition as a poor scholar. But if he was at the school he owed little to his father's tuition, as the same year, 1663, Joseph Thomas became head master, and he also stayed only a year in the place. Meanwhile the ushers, William Dixon 1657, Andrew Weston 1658, John Hildeyard 1660, Nathaniel Hudson 1661, Thomas Page 1663, changed even more rapidly than the head masters. At length the school rested for over 30 years under Robert Stevenson, 1664-95. Whether he was a successful master does not appear. He sent no boys to St. John's College, Cambridge. 1 f.C.H. Essex ii, ' Schools,' under Felsted School. * Ibid, under Colchester .School. 3 Diet. Nat. Bug. His tombstone in the north aisle of St. Mary Quay, Ipswich, records his death at the age of 61, on 10 June, 1695. Robert Conningsby, 1695—1712, renewed the connexion with St. John's College, sending three boys there, one the son of the parson of Woodbridge. Edward Leeds who followed, from 1712 to 1737, was a son of the head master of Bury St. Edmunds School, 1666—1703, and was himself usher there. He successfully asserted on his retirement his rights to the full value of Felaw's lands, making the corporation pay up all arrears, amounting to about ^200. But the only result for his suc- cessors was that they were admitted on terms which precluded their claiming the rents. From 1734 to 1743 the Rev. Thomas Breton, and from 1743 to 1766 the Rev. Robert Hinge- ston held office. In 1767 the Rev. John King,4 a Richmond (Yorkshire) Grammar School boy and fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, left the under- mastership of Newcastle Grammar School for the head-mastership of Ipswich. He was aho given the town lectureship in the parish church. He held office for 32 years. He is said to have had 70 boarders at one time, and 9 sons of his own. From 1776 he also held the college living of Witnesham. He retired from the school in 1798 on account of ill-health, but survived till 1822. The Rev. Rowland Ingram held office but for 2 years, 1798 to 1800. Another long reign of 32 years, that of William Howorth, followed. The free boys were restricted to 30, the salaries of master and usher were combined, but only amounted to £50, and boarders varied. James Collett Ebden ruled from 1832 to 1842. In that year the Black Friars' School was aban- doned for a new building — now 23, Lower Brook Street — next to the head master's house, numbered 19 to 21 in that street. John Fen- wick was the first master in the new site, 1843 to 1850. Next came Stephen Gordon Rigaud, D.D. — who has left his name and fame in one of the boarding houses at Westminster School, still called 'Rigaud's' — from 1850 to 1858. In his time the new school buildings in Henley Street, on a hill then well out of the town, were erected in 1850 to 1852. The new buildings, in the Elizabethan style, though presenting a fine appearance, were not scientifically built. A big school on the old model was provided, in which the whole school, including a junior school, in some 9 forms, were all taught and prepared their lessons together. Moreover, more rent was exacted from the head master for the new buildings than the total income from the endow- ment, which even in 1864 was only ^109 a year. Further, though land there was then cheap only 6 acres were allotted for playing fields, a most short-sighted parsimony. 1 Annual Register (1822), p. 267. 335 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Among the masters on the removal may be noted Mr. Montagu Williams, afterwards a most successful Old Bailey barrister and police magis- trate, and author of two volumes of racy remini- scences. The name of the next head master, the Rev. Hubert Ashton Holden, whose tenure was actually a quarter of a century, was for many years a household word to all boys in the public schools of England, and is still to many classical scholars; and since his death in 1896 has found a place in the Dictionary of National Biography. He edited and wrote on many classics, Plutarch's Lives and Cicero's Speeches inter alia. But the two books which made him famous were Folia Centuriae, a collection of pieces from English prose authors for translation into Latin or Greek prose ; and, more especially, Folia Si/vu/ae, a similar cento of English poetry. Many a boy who perhaps profited little by the translation of the pieces into the dead languages has imbibed a knowledge and love of English classics, which he would never otherwise have made acquaintance with, from finding them in Holden's storehouse. Holden himself was a product of King Edward's School, Birmingham, in its palmy days, when its head-mastership seemed a passport to a bishopric. At Cam- bridge he won the Bell University Scholarship in his first year, 1842, was senior classic and a senior optime, scholar, and fellow of Trinity College. The school was very successful under him. In 1864* the Endowed Schools Inquiry Com- missioners'Report showed 103 boys, of whom 58 were day-boys, 20 of them on the foundation paying no fees, the rest paid £12 to £18 a year according to their position in the school. In 1867 there were 1 8 Old Ipswichians up at Cam- bridge, of whom 6 held open scholarships, among them the present Cambridge secretary of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examinations Board ; while the present bishop of Salisbury, John Wordsworth, was there as a preparatory school to Winchester. Though Dr. Holden — he was LL.D. — was before all things a classical scholar, and his pupils achieved great distinction in classics, mathematics were also followed with effect, and German and French were not neg- lected. On 29 November, 1881, a new scheme under the Endowed Schools Act became law, which put the finances of the school on a better footing, and was designed to put the whole secondary education of the town on a scientific basis ; by putting Christ's Hospital and the grammar school under the same representative governing body, and providing for 3 schools — the grammar school, a middle school, and the girls' school. But it assigned only five-twelfths of the income to the grammar school, and four-twelfths to the middle school, though the grammar school was at least ' Set. Inf. Rep. xiii, 1 94. twice as expensive to maintain. The usual thing happened. The middle school was not content to do its work in its own sphere, but tried to trespass on that of the grammar school ; and though it was expressly forbidden to be a boarding school yet was allowed by the gover- nors to become so. Dr. Holden retired in 1883, and died in 1896. His name has been commemorated by the establishment of a Holden Library. Under the Rev. F. H. Browne this school grew for a time, but an unfortunate personal incident ended in decline of .the school and the suicide of the head master. The Rev, Philip Edwin Raynor, a scholar of Winchester and of New College, who had been head master of St. Peter's College, Adelaide, in Western Australia, suc- ceeded in 1894. The school averaged about 1 2O under him. In the Daily Chronicle record of open scholarships for 1901 Ipswich stood very high, having won 36 in the previous 15 years,, or 30 per cent, of the number of boys, and it has had a good number of athletic distinctions at the universities as well. After the passing of the Education Act, 1902, there was much stir in Ipswich about the rela- tions of the middle school and the grammar school, which ended in two new schemes made by the Board of Education, under which both head masters are pensioned off. Mr. Raynor has retired to a college living. By a scheme of 14 June, 1906, the middle school and the girls' school have become the Ipswich Municipal Secondary Schools under a governing body of 13 — 10 of whom are to be appointed by the town council, 2 by the muni- cipal charity trustees, with educational experience represented by one person appointed by Cam- bridge University. A third of the income of the endowment is given to those 2 schools, which are to be mainly financed out of the rates, tuition fees being £6 to £12 a year. As no less than 40 free scholarships, with — for 10 at least and perhaps more — cash payments of £2 to £4 a year in addition, are to be provided the rates may have something to bear. The grammar school, under the name of Ipswich School, is given two-thirds of the endowment, which will amount to about £800 a year, when debts for building are discharged. The governing body is to consist of 8 represen- tatives of the town council and 4 municipal charity trustees, tempered by one representative of each of the three universities of Oxford,. Cambridge, and London. The tuition fees are to be £12 to £18 a year. There arc two leaving exhibitions, with a hope of more from the town council if it should see fit. There are 10 Queen's Scholarships, so-called after Queen Elizabeth, though, as she did not found or pretend to found the school, nor give anything, not even her name, to it, the title is somewhat misplaced. 336 SCHOOLS BECCLES GRAMMAR SCHOOL As we noticed under Bury School, the thir- teenth century custumary of St. Edmunds Abbey states that the appointment of school- masters to grammar schools or manors and pos- sessions of the abbey outside Bury, belonged to the officer to whose office the possessions were appropriated. Accordingly we find in a register1 of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries an appointment of such a master at Beccles by the chamberlain. The document is headed ' Collacio Scolarum de Beklys.' By it, on i June, 1396, William Bray, chamberlain of the monastery, ' to whose office by ancient laudable and approved custom the collation of the school of the town of Beclys belongs ' fully confers the teaching (regimen) of the said school on Master Reginald Leche, chaplain, to the end that he may well and duly teach and occupy the same school in his proper person so that no one else, of whatsoever estate or degree he may be, shall presume to keep school there in any wise, under the penalty which we intend to invoke against any rashly violating this present grant. He then revokes and annuls ' all other commis- sions granted to any other person by us or any of our predecessors.' But the grant was only at pleasure ' these presents not to be in force longer than it may please us or our successors.' A few years later in 1403-4 we find the master receiving i6d., for teaching two clerks from Mettingham College,2 but after this date we have few traces of the school until the Cambridge registers are available. Mr. Dorlet (or Darley) was master between 1591 and 1608, Mr. Brant about 1606, Mr. West in 1615 and Mr. Rayner in 1624-6. Mr. Neane taught there from 1630 to 1637. Other names are those of Mr. Capp 1645-8, Mr. Nuttle 1650-5, Mr. Cannon 1656, Mr. John Forby, who was licensed to teach in Beccles in 1667, Mr. Busby 1667-9, Mr. Atkinson 1672-5 and Mr. Leeds 1697- 1714, who educated Richard Playter the future master of Mendlesham. In 1712 Henry Falconbridge, LL.D., de- vised by will3 real estate in Gorton &c., to endow a school, after the death of his wife. The master was to be nominated by the Bishop of Norwich, the archdeacon of Suffolk and the rector of Beccles. He was to be ' well learned and experienced in the Latine and Greeke tongues so as to capacitate youth fitting for the Universities.' If the mastership remained vacant for six months, Falconbridge's heir was to receive the rents for that time. Several life tenants intervened before the school 1 Camb. Univ. Lib. ff. II, 29, 47. It is wrongly entered in the University MSS. Calendar as a pre- sentation to Bury School. 1 Mettingham Coll. Acct. Bks. 'Proved 17 Feb. 1713, P.C.C. benefited by this bequest in 1770, and meantime the teaching, as shown by the matriculations at Cambridge, continued at a tolerably high level. Mr. Symonds was master from 1735 to 1744. Mr. Peter Routhe must be counted the first head master of Falconbridge's Grammar School. He combined this office with that of rector of Beccles. Mr. Routhe had a genial personality which along with his notion of discipline, was- pleasingly shown when a pupil from Mr. Bright- ley's private school broke one of his windows. The culprit was made to pay up in public, but the money quietly found its way back to his pocket when justice was satisfied. This mild tempered master ruled until 1788, sending several pupils to the universities meanwhile. His son, Martin J. Routhe, became president of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1791. Until that date, he had paid a yearly visit to his father and had frequently, to the delight of the boys, taken his place in the schoolroom. Dr. Girdle- stone, M.A., was the next master, and during his time the school was held in the old Guild Hall.4 Mr. Burrows advertises as master of the 'Free School at Beccles' in 1807, but this pro- bably refers to Leman's school, as Dr. Girdle- stone remained until 1813, removing to Mr. Routhe's house in 1802 when the old master died. Girdlestone was a ' character.' He was reserved in social habits and singular in appearance, rarely to be seen except clad in a short blue spencer, worn through all kinds of weather, and with a walking cane which was never known to touch the ground.0 He was both strict and generous tempered, anJ was always ready to grant a holiday for skat- ing.6 The Rev. Hugh Owen succeeded him in 1813. The Commissioners of Inquiry in 1829 came to the conclusion that the founder had not intended to establish a free grammar schooL Poor boys were however free, while others paid £1 is. a quarter.7 In 1846 the Rev. Henry Burrows became head master, and was followed in 1853 by tne Rev. A. O. Hartley. In 18678 Mr- J- L- Hammond, bursar of Trinity College, Cam- bridge, acting as Assistant Commissioner to the Schools Inquiry Commission found a school of 52 boys, of whom 19 were day boys. It was mainly a preparatory school for the public schools. The Rev. J. H. Raven became master in 1873. A new scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts> 19 July, 1 883, recognized its status as a grammar school. The Rev. Percy Elliott Bateman, fellow 4 The Dr. Philip who taught in Beccles 1793-6 was probably a private master. 5 Rix, The Falconberge Mem., 39, 40. * He published a Translation of Pindar's Odes in 1810. 7 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 232. ' Sch. Inq. Rep. xiii, 1 2 1. 337 43 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK of Jesus College, Cambridge, was master from 1901 to 1904. The school in 1905 numbered 46 boys, of whom 23 were boarders, under the Rev. Percy Raymond Humphreys, of Repton School and Corpus Christ! College, Cambridge, with 3 assistant masters and 3 visiting teachers in art, music, and woodwork. EYE GRAMMAR SCHOOL The origin of Eye Grammar School is to be sought in the ' lands and tenements put in feoff- ment by John Fluke and others for the finding of a scoolemaister in Eye for ever.' At what date this was has not yet been shown. But it must have been before the reign of Henry VIII, for William Gale, clerk of Eye, provided in his will for two scholars from Eye at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge ; l and Humphrey Bysby gave an endowment of 35*. a year for a similar purpose in 1540. The chantry certificate in 1548 avers that the school had continued till Michaelmas, 1547, saving that the samescoole wasvoide of a scoolemaister sumtyme by the space of halfe a yeare, bicause they could nott be provided of oone in that tyme, and for the same cause yt is nowe voyde. The parishioners also made the interesting aver- ment that this schoolmaster had been ' sometyme a layeman and sometyme a prieste.' The yearly net value of the lands was ^5 2s. id., which the town at this time did 'take to their own use.'2 In a letter from Sir William Cardall to the Bishop of Norwich, dated 10 October, 1556,' he tells how he and Sir Edward Waldegrave sum- moned the town authorities before them to answer charges of the 'abusyng of town lands.' The Commissioners considered that the founders of the late chantry had a meanyng in themselves that the same preste suld be a scolemaster and lernyd in latyn tunng to teache and trayne up the yowught of the town in good lernyng and vertu, and accordyngly thexpens theroff hat hytherto ben. Sir William goes on to say that they arranged for the election of such a master by 'the Vicar and Balyves off the towne,' with the stipulation that ' none at all be chosen as scolemaster except he be also a preste.' * Ten years later, in 1566, we find it stated in the ' Constitutions of the Borough ' — hitherto reckoned the first notice of the school — that such townlands as had been given for a schoolmaster's use should now be employed for maintenance of a learned man ' to teach a grammar school in Eye.' He was to receive £10 for his work, was 1 Sept. 1504 ; will proved 9 Nov. 1509. 'Leach, Engl. Scf>. at the Reformation, 213, from Chant. Cert. 45, No. 5. 1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, 533. 4 Ibid. not required to teach writing, showing that the authorities were determined the school should not be reduced to an elementary status unless the master pleased, and was not to remove without half a year's warning. Among the documents relating to the ' Eye ' is a Memorandum Book which contains a note of William Lambert's appointment as usher in the grammar school in accordance with the will of Francis Kent of Oxborough, Norfolk,6 who by will 1 8 September, 1593, bequeathed lands and tenements in Bedfield and Worlingworth as an endowment for a sufficient usher to teach freely all such children of Eye, Horham,6 Allington, and Bedfield as should be put into school to learn grammar and also to teach them all to write. He therefore wished to make the school do the double work of elementary as well as secondary teaching. There is a succession of matriculations at Caius College during the sixteenth century, but in no case is the master's name given until 1585, when a Mr. Popson held the post. He was followed in 1590 by Mr. Lomax, and in 1608 by Mr. Mosse. The school received another endowment from Edward Mallows, who by will 5 December, 1614, directed estate to the value of ^2OO to be settled for two or three scholarships at Cam- bridge for boys from Eye ; or failing a demand for this, for the grammar school itself. In 1623 came Mr. Dorman (or Dormer). Mr. Hall was licensed in 1624, and held office for a long time, apparently up to the Resto- ration. The usher Henry Youll sent his son up to St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1634. Thomas Browne was licensed in 1642, pre- sumably as usher, and he eventually succeeded Mr. Hall, and was for many years moderator dignissimus, grammaticus in ignis,7 dying only in 1695, aged 79. In 1666 Mr. Francis seems to have been usher. In 1692 the town authorities agreed that as the school had decreased in numbers the usher might be dispensed with, the master doing all the work and receiving pay from both endowments, and his salary being increased to £20 a year. From 1717 to 1739 only £18 a year was paid. Naturally, under these conditions, we find little trace of the school in the college registers. The existence of an endowed grammar school at Eye was unsuspected by Nicholas Carlisle, in 1817, so that if it went on at all it must have been at a * Will of Francis Kent, gent. 1593. 6 Memorandum Book (unbound and marked B — Eliza). This book also contains 'Orders to be observed by the Usher in the Gramer Schole, made by the Feoffees of the lands given for his mayntenance by Francis Kent, Gent,' 2 May, 1600. 7 Venn, Biogr. Hist, of Gonville and Caius Coll. 338 SCHOOLS very low ebb in point of numbers and educa- tion. The Commission of Inquiry of 1822 found 1 8 or 2O free scholars receiving elementary education and Latin ' when desired.' 1 The school was then held in a large room in the Guildhall, the master living in other rooms in the same building up to 1827. The Com- missioners advised the consolidation of the usher's endowments with those of the mastership and the continuance of the existing educational system. When under the Municipal Reform Act the management of the grammar school, like that of other charities, was taken out of the hands of the corporation and vested in Municipal Charity Trustees, the corporation refused to pay any stipend at all. The school was therefore reduced to the endowment given by Francis Kent for the usher, then producing about £37 a year. The Schools Inquiry Commission in 1866 found the Rev. Charles Notley, B.D., had been master for 20 years. The old Guildhall was then used for the school and master's house, in which Mr. Notley had at one time 14 or 15 boarders. But in 1866 the school consisted only of 30 boys in all, 23 free boys and 7 paying 15*. a quarter crowded in a room 'with a low ceiling and insufficient means of ventilation, which they quite filled.' Practically no Latin was learnt, and even the reading ' would have been but fairly good in a village school.' The school was restored to its grammar school status by a scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts of 12 August, 1876. The present head master, Mr. William George Watkins, was appointed in 1895. He now has 70 boys, of whom 40 are boarders in two houses, and 3 assistant masters. STOKE BY CLARE SCHOOL Under licence in mortmain of 16 October, 1414, Edmund, earl of March and Ulster, lord of Wigmore and of Clare, founded, on 1 9 May, 1419, the College of St. John in Stoke by Clare ; a bull of Pope John XXIII sanctioning the transference of the property from the alien Benedictine priory then in possession of the site.2 The foundation consisted of a dean, 6 canons, 8 vicars (choral), 2 chief clerks, 2 meaner clerks, a verger, a porter, and 5 choristers. In the statutes of the college it was ordered that there shall be also 5 choristers or well-bred (hottest!) boys to sing and minister in the choir to such a number as the provision made for their maintenance will allow, and each of them shall have 5 marks a year, or at least sufficient food and clothing with other necessaries. 1 Char. Com. Ref. xxii, 140. 1 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 47 ; Dugdale, Man. vi, 14.17 ; Papal Bull 16 Kal. Feb. 5 John XXIII. There was also to be a master assigned by the dean and chapter to teach the boys of the said college ' reading and other good and well bred manners, and the said master shall have for his trouble 40*. a year.' There is here no question of grammar teach- ing. This college, unlike those of ancient foundation, was no body of missionary priests or learned clerks, but only a large chantry to pray the souls of the founders out of purgatory. The choristers had to receive some education, but a song and reading school — a not unusual combination — was thought enough for these 5 ' well-bred boys.' The college did not attempt a general educa- tion for the place. Whether this was because there was no population to provide for, or whether the provision had been made already before the college was founded, there is nothing to show. But presumably the latter was the case, since, at the dissolution of the college in I548,3 when Matthew Parker, the afterwards celebrated manuscript-collecting archbishop of Canterbury, was dean, while we find ' Thomas- Wilson, clerke, Scolemaster in the colledge,' i.e. the song school master, receiving the statutory stipend of 405., we also find ' John Crosier, clerke, Scolemaister of the free scoole,' receiving the very ample salary for a grammar school master of£io.< It may be that this grammar school is a later foundation than the college, as we are told in the chantry certificate that ' syns the firste foundacion dyvers other benefactors hath both encreased the nombre and lyving.' If so, it is perhaps an example how universal was the con- nexion in thought between a college or collegiate church and a grammar school, that though this college was founded without one, some subse- quent benefactor to or legislator in the college thought it necessary to add one. The college itself, though dissolved, continued to support learning, by being granted to Sir John Cheke, who, though he was not the first to teach Cambridge Greek, as Milton says, was at all events the first ex-Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge and classical tutor to King Edward VI. Matthew Parker, too, continued to draw a pension of some £50 from it to add to his other ecclesiastical promotions and his headship of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In the absence of any Receiver-General's accounts for Suffolk we do not know exactly what happened. But there appears to be no doubt that the school was continued by the warrants of Sir Walter Mildmay and Robert Kelway like other grammar schools, though the endowments of the college were confiscated to the crown, and the master paid at the fixed rate of £ i o a year, as before ; for at the re-settlement 5 Leach, Engl. Sch. at the Reformation, 217. 4 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 47. 339 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK of the land revenues of the crown after the Restoration this sum was included in the pension list of Charles II. This inference is confirmed by finding in the register of Caius College, Cambridge, a fair sprinkling of students who matriculated from Stoke by Clare School. The St. John's College Register for the year 1639 gives us Richard Cutts,of Debden, M.A., esquire, admitted a pensioner from that school, and the name of the master, Mr. Bevior, apparently Peter Beauvoir of Jesus College, Cambridge. After the Restoration, the payment, though it seems to have been irregularly made, still continued.1 For Sir Gervas Elwes, bart., by will 20 September, 1678, proved in the Prero- gative Court of Canterbury 25 October, 1706, reciting that £10 a year had been allowed out of the revenues of the crown to the schoolmaster of Stoke, and that Mr. John Owen was school- master, in case the j£io should cease to be paid out of the revenue, gave £10 a year to John Owen and his successors, Protestant divines, and £20 more for board and lodging. The Land Revenue Accounts from 1674 to 1705 are missing, but from 1660 to 1674 and from 1706 downwards, no pension of jTiO has been paid to the schoolmaster at Stoke, though provided for .by the pension deed of Charles II. The school- .house was pulled down about 1780, and by i8i8,3 there was ' no vestige of a school house ; ^neither does there exist at this time a Free :School of any description in this parish.' So this collegiate school must be reckoned among those done to death by the reputed founder of schools, Edward VI, and by his Chantries Act, ostensibly passed in order to substitute grammar schools for homes of superstition. Some remains of the college itself are still standing as part of .a private residence.3 CLARE SCHOOL The neighbouring town of Clare, the capital of the honour, described in 1548 as ' a greate and populous towne,' was even less happy in the fortunes of its school. For it, too, possessed a grammar school due to the lords of the honour, acting rather as legislators making a new scheme for a charitable endowment than as actual donors and benefactors; for in 1 445-6 4 Richard, duke of York and lord of the honour of Clare, gave by deed a free chapel in Clare and its pos- sessions to the gild of St. John the Baptist, in Chilton, a hamlet of Clare, to find, says the chantry certificate of 1548, a. pricste to saye masse one day in the weke in the saide chappie to praye for the sowles of the same Duke and other. 1 Char. Com. Rep. xxiv, 497-8. ' Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Set. ii, 532. 3 East Anglian Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No. «5°3- 4 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 24. It proceeds — And oone Sir Roberta Wyncome, clerk of thage of xxxtie yeres having no other lyvinge, well learnid, doth now as well the said devyne service, as also the reste of the weake he singeth in the churche of Clare, and helpyth the curatte to discharge his cure. And also he teacheth oone grammer scole to the goode and vertuous instruccion and education of the yowthe theyre.6 This chantry school came to an end, not being a grammar school, by the express terms of the foundation. We hear no more of any school in Clare until William Cadge, yeoman, who died in 1 669, gave by will a farm called Borhard's in Barnardiston, then let at £28 a year, of which £i 5 was to go in clothing poor widows, and j£iO a year to a school- master for teaching 10 poor boys in that town. The master was to be chosen by the vicar and chief inhabitants, and was to teach English, Latin, and Greek. The schoolroom was over the Market Cross. By 1 8 1 8 ' classics 6 had not been taught here for some time past.' The school is not even mentioned by the Schools Inquiry Commission. It must, unless the Charity Commissioners can interfere, be numbered among the many legions of ' lost charities.' LONG MELFORD SCHOOL In 1484 Robert Harset clothmaker bequeathed his house near the churchyard in Long Melford to his wife, during her lifetime, ' except where the children lerne,' and after her death, to the priests of Melford, the west end being reserved as a school.7 Ten years later, I495,8 John Hill of Melford, granted by deed the manor of Bowes Hall, and other lands at Pentlow, Essex ' for 99 yeres and further so long as the lawes of the realme wyll suffer,' for a stipendiary priest losing for his soul. In 1548 we find 'Sir Edward Tyrrell, clerk of the age of 50 yeres,' the stipendiary priest, and it is stated that he aids ' the curat, the towne being very populus. He doth also teache a gram- mer scole thear.' It was no doubt this school that Sir John Clopton of Melford was thinking of when he bequeathed the residue of his personal estate, ' two parts to go to sad priests and ver- tuous to sing a trental for me and to find vertuous scolers to scole.' These ' vertuous scolers ' are probably referred to in the following item from the books of Hugh Isacke, churchwarden (1582-4) : ' Geven by Dr. Jones' commandement to twoo scollers of Melforde ijs.' • Ibid. 6 Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sch. ii, 5 1 9. 7 Parker, Hist, of Long Melford. Will dated 29 Feb. 1484, proved 15 Mar. 1484. Bury Probate office, Bk. iii, f. 365. 8 Leach, Engl. ScA. at the Reformation 2 1 4, from Chant. Cert. 45, No. 22. 34° SCHOOLS This school must have been continued by the Chantry Commissioners' Warrant, as in 1694 Clopton's grant was still paid to the free school.1 Grammar teaching certainly went on in this school until the mid-seventeenth century, as the Caius College Register shows boys going thence to Cambridge up to i6ao.2 In 1670, the Lady chapel had been converted into a parish school- room, and continued to be so used until the National Schools were built in 1840. When this * much ruinated ' chapel was first used, the in- habitants combined to give the necessary materials for the work of reparation. Sir Robert Cdrdell contributed three large trees and ' certain wains- cotted pews.' Mr. Roger Clopton gave two trees, and two other parishioners were stimulated into lending carts and horses to carry out the good work.3 It is difficult to say when this school became purely elementary. There is no positive evidence of grammar teaching after 1620. Carlisle knew nothing of any endowed school there in 1818, nor did the Schools Inquiry Commission in 1867. SUDBURY SCHOOL In 1375 the parish church of Sudbury was purchased from the nuns of Eaton by Simon Theobald of Sudbury, bishop of London,4 and converted into a collegiate church of St. Gregory by him and his brother, who butlt a col- lege for the canons on the site of their parents' house. Any teaching of grammar within the walls has remained unrecorded, and in 1532 we even learn that nulli existant choristae.6 Before this date, however, grammar teaching had begun outside. William Wood, dean of Sud- bury College, gave by will, 6 April, 1491, a croft of land near the lane leading from the house of the Dominican friars to the church of St. Gregory for a grammar schoolhouse, and an endowment of some 90 acres of land at Maple- stead, Essex. The master was to be appointed by the dean of the college, to receive lew. a year, and to repair the house and school himself. When the college was surrendered in 1538 the school being independent remained unaffected except that its patronage passed to the patron of St. Gregory's Church. In the Caius College and St. John's College, Cambridge, matriculation registers we find men- tion of the following masters : Mr. White in 1578, Mr. Brittaine in 1652, Mr. Weston in 1664, Mr. Newton in 1676. Mr. Nathaniel Farclough in 1677, was assisted, or succeeded, or both, by Mr. Chapman.6 1 Parker, Hist, of Long Mtlfird. * Venn, Reg. ofGonville and Caius Coll. 3 Parker, Hist, of Long Melfird. 1 Cal.Pat. 1377-81, pt. i, 413 ; Ibid. 1381-5, pt. ii, 371. ' Jessopp, Visitations of the Dioc. of Norai. (Camd. Soc.), 298. 6 Venn, Reg. ofGonville and Cams Coll. About this time the school recovered the rents of the ' school farm ' at Great Maplestead, a much needed benefaction, as we learn from a letter of Mr. R. Smyth, the minister, to Sir Simonds D'Ewes, which states that the 'church school and hospital had been abused.' 7 A Mr. Hast was master in 1697-1700, and then Mr. Mabourn. In 1712 the lessee of St. Gregory's Church brought forward and es- tablished his claim on the tithes of the school field.8 Between 1714 and 1814 the perpetual curate of Sudbury held the mastership of the school, and either taught himself or by substitute. There seem to have been about six free scholars at this time. During the mastership of the Rev. Hum- phrey Burroughs, 1 723-55, his nephew, Thomas Gainsborough, was educated in Sudbury, the painter's first masterpiece being probably the caricature of his master on the old school wall, now pulled down. The next interesting event in the history of the school was its purchase by Sir Lachlan Maclean after the death of the Rev. W. Finley, curate and master. He rebuilt it in 1817.' The Rev. Simon Young was appointed master in 1 8 1 2, but in 1827 Maclean installed his son Hippias, a minor, and claimed the school farm. A law- suit— ' Attorney-General v. Maclean ' — was in- stituted, and lasted for some years. The school struggled on under a locum tencns till 1841, when it was closed. In 1857 judgement was given against Maclean. In 1858 the old schoolhouse was demolished and fresh buildings were erected at a cost of £2,500. But owing to the incum- brances on the property, and to a consequent rapid succession of practically unendowed masters, the school did not flourish. In 1867 the Schools Inquiry Commissioners found the number of day boys increased from 12 to 17, under the Rev. Francis Slater, of Queens' College, Cam- bridge. Since being placed under a proper governing body by a scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts, 1878, the school has been fairly successful as a second-grade secondary school. After Mr. Slater's retirement in 1883 and two brief head-masterships, there came in 1889 the Rev. W. G. Normandale, B.A. Lond., and he has remained ever since. He has now 44 boys (of whom 12 are boarders), paying tuition fees of £6 to £8 a year, under 3 assistant masters. STOWMARKET SCHOOL Some time before the year 1547 'by common consent of the lord of the manor of Abbott's Hall and diverse inhabitants of Stowmarket,' the Guildhall was converted into a school- house and was for ' diverse years ' so used, but 1 1641. • W. W. Hodson, Trans. Suff. Arch. Soc. " Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sets, ii, 533. 341 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK for 30 years before 1565 it was in the tenure of private persons.1 This is all we know of its origin. The names of a few boys who entered Cambridge from Stowmarket are found in the college registers, but these records do not begin until the mid-sixteenth century, and cannot, therefore, establish any early dates. The Parish Record Booh, No. 51, tell us that in 1632 the ' skoolehouse ' was built and ' glassed.' 8 In 1764 Mr. Samuel Haddon was head master, and was succeeded in 1769 by his son John Haddon.3 The elder Haddon taught the poet Crabbe, and both these teachers were ' ex- cellent scholars, good Grecians, and superior mathematicians.' 4 If the Stowmarket Academy of an advertisement in 1808 is the grammar school, then Dr. Owett was head master at that date,6 and ten years later Mr. Paul and Mr. Dade advertise, on separate occasions, what seems to be the same institution, as ' Stowmarket Classical School ' 6 and ' Stowmarket Academy.' 7 These gentlemen were partners, and took boarders in addition to the day school. In 1819 the school was removed to the premises which had been until then occupied by Miss Batley's girls' school,8 and in the following year Mr. Paul 'the younger' and Mr. Dade dissolved partnership, the former continuing the school.9 It does not, however, figure in the Inquiry Commissioners' Report of 1829 nor in the Schools Inquiry Commission Report of 1865-8. BOTESDALE SCHOOL Whether there was any pre-Reformation school here does not appear, but the Elizabethan school- house included an old chantry chapel. Sir Nicholas Bacon obtained letters patent of 2O July, 1561, from Queen Elizabeth, founding it as a grammar school for the instruction of boys living in Red- grave and the neighbourhood. Already in 1571 it sent up a boy to Caius College, Cambridge, who had been educated in Botesdale for 5 years. By deed 2 5 March, 1577, Bacon endowed the school with a rent-charge of ^30 a year on the Blickling estate, Norfolk, once the house of Anne Boleyn, £20 for the master, ^8 for the usher, and £2 for repairs of the schoolhouse. Ordinances dated 10 October, 1566, provided for the appointment of two governors, one for Redgrave and one for Botesdale, each to hold office for one year and to appoint his successor ; while the schoolmaster was to be appointed by Sir Nicholas and his heirs male. The master's salary was £20, and the usher's £10. The school was limited to 60 boys, and a preference was given 1 Petty Bag. viii, 10. ' Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stowmarket, 1 60. 1 Bun Post, July, 1808. 4 Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stowmarket. 4 Bury Post, July 1808. 6 Ibid. Dec. 1818. 7 Ibid. June, 1820. 8 Ibid. July, 1819. 1 Ibid. June, 1820. to poor men's children as free scholars. The parents were required to supply their children with the usual school materials, including candles, and also ' a bow, three shafts, a bow-string, shooting gloves, and a bracer.' This provision is almost a certain mark of Bacon's hand in school statutes. It is found at St. Albans and Harrow and many more. There was to be a common chest for all documents pertaining to the school, but no trace of this chest has been found.10 Bacon also founded scholarships tenable at St. Benet's (i.e. Corpus Christi), Cambridge, from which college the masters and ushers were to be elected, preference being given to former scholar- ship holders. No school documents earlier than 1670 exist. The first master was probably Mr. Bartholomew, and his usher, Mr. More, succeeded him in 1581. Several of the scholars were Catholics u who matriculated at Cambridge but could not take a degree. Attendance at the parish church (which was binding on the schoolboys) was of course permissible to Catholics before 1580. There seem to have been no Catholic scholars sent to Cambridge after that date. Between 1580 and 1680 the school flourished ; there were 39 admissions from the school to Gon- ville and Caius College alone, others to St. John's College, and no doubt more to Corpus, showing steady maintenance of a high grade. During this period the masters were Mr. More (already men- tioned), who went on to Palgrave School, and who was succeeded in 1586 by Mr. Foules (or Fowle). One of his pupils was Anthony Gaudy, whose father had been in the Revenge, and who, during his undergraduate years, assaulted the dean of Caius. Mr. Nicholas Easton (or Eason) was master as early as i63i,12 and in 1640 the usher, Mr. Neave, took his place. Mr. Ives followed in 1646. In 1664 Mr. Loades became master, one pupil being the John Forby afterwards licensed to teach at Beccles. Then for a time we find a quick succession of names, viz. : Mr. Locke in 1670 ; Mr. Paston, 1673-8 ; Mr. Leeds in 1684 ; Mr. Leader, 1684-91, or possibly longer. There is other evidence to show that the school was in some disorder owing to the odd arrangement under which the governors held office for only a year, which caused them, having no voice in the master's and scholars' elections, to feel little interest in their formal duties ; while the originally ample endow- ment had, through the fall in the value of money, become insufficient to attract capable graduates. Yet, in 1698, the school received Mr. Samuel Maybourne as master, and under him the teaching became so efficient that boys 10 East Angl. Dally Times, East Anglian Misc. No. 585 onward. 11 e.g. Robert Scare and William Flacke ; vide Foley's Rec. of the Jesuits. l> Mr. Easton was in Ipswich from 1616 to 1623. 342 SCHOOLS left Bury to ' finish ' at Botesdale. Maybourne was master for 50 years, and sent 23 boys to Caius College, including his own 3 sons.1 In 1738 a conscientious rector, Mr. Gibbs, was sufficiently scandalized at the neglect of the founder's regulations to nominate governors for the school, thus restoring an office which had lapsed for 50 years, and the establishment of the ' School Minnet and Account Book ' was begun in the same year. The governors failed to elect their successors, and the rector again intervened. In 1743 the Rev. Mr. Price became usher, and latterly did most of the work. The veteran Maybourne resigned in 1752. The Rev. Mr. Christian was appointed in 1753, and held the post until 1762, when the Rev. John C. Galloway succeeded him, followed in 1774 by his usher, the Rev. John Smith. The Rev. William Tindal was the next master, but within a year of his appointment in 1789 he was suspended for non-compliance with the ordinances, probably caused by the insufficient salary.3 He was replaced by the Rev. W. Hep- worth, under whom Edward Law, afterwards Lord Ellenborough, and Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') were pupils. In 1828 Mr. Hepworth's health had declined. He had given up boarders, but still taught 6 free scholars and 1 2 paying pupils, having long been unable to pay an usher. The Commissioners of Inquiry of that date reformed matters by appointing 6 trustees, but when these died out their places were not filled. In 1841 the Rev. W. Hepworth, junior, took his father's place and settled the free scholar problem by sending the boys to Mr. Joseph Haddock's private ' com- mercial ' school and paying ^20 a year for them, receiving the rest of the salary and enjoying the house with a large garden as a sinecure. Had- dock's successor, Mr. H. E. Laker, was even- tually appointed master of the grammar school, a happy solution of the disastrous competition. Mr. Laker died in 1878, and the school was closed. There being no further endowment forthcom- ing, by a scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts, approved by Queen Victoria in Council 2 May, 1 88 1, the school funds were converted into the Bacon Exhibition Endowment. So, through lack of foresight in giving a fixed income instead of lands to the same value, ended a once famous school. The building has become a private house, its ancient bell, with the name and crest of the Bacon family, is still to be seen on the roof between the chapel and the old schoolhouse, and there also existed recently (in a room parallel to the west end of the chapel) a double desk and other wood- work of the school, all over three hundred years in age.8 1 Venn, Biog. Hist. ofGonville and Caius. ' Min. Bk. 3 Easting/. Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No. 755. LOWESTOFT SCHOOL In 1472 John Gallion left by will 40*. to place a chained ' Liber Gramaticus ' in the chancel of Lowestoft parish church,4 and there is evi- dence that the church was used as a parish schoolroom during four centuries.5 In 1570 Thomas Annot by indenture gave lands in Whitacre Burgh to secure 20 marks for the salary of a schoolmaster appointed by the chan- cellor of Norwich diocese, and in 1571 this endowment was increased by his heir-at-law to jTi6. The master was 'to be learned in gram- mar and in the Latin tongue,' and was to teach 40 Lowestoft boys, vacancies among these foundation free scholars being filled by suitable candidates from Lothingland and Mutford. The school does not seem to have formed any close connexion with the Cambridge Colleges usually favoured by Suffolk boys, but if many of the masters performed such manifold duties as Mr. Philip, for eighteen years parish clerk, registrar, and ' Mr. Annot his schoolmaster,' we cannot be surprised. He taught the 40 free scholars on the foundation and others at a charge of 2dd. each.6 In 1609 there was a suit in the Court of Chancery on the question whether the school was entitled only to a rent-charge or to the whole value of the estate out of which the was paid, and the school lost. Mr. Hawiis was master from 1620 to 1631—2 or later,7 the schoolhouse in his day being pro- bably in the original town-close by the east wall of the churchyard. By 1670 this building was dilapidated, and a scheme was formed by the Aliens of Somerley to unite ' Annot's School ' with that founded by Sir Thomas Allen. A letter from Mr. Henry Britten, master from 1667 to 1696, shows that the Allen family held the school lands, that the master's salary was in arrears, and that Sir Thomas wanted Mr. Britten to resign in favour of Mr. Evans, who proposed to open a writing school in the old building lately repaired by Sir Thomas. Mr. Britten refused to yield ; he wasted money on a chancery suit which he finally relinquished, and after receiving jTiOO from Sir Thomas renounced all claim to the mastership.8 Meantime in 1674, the ' Town Chamber ' had been fitted up as a schoolhouse. The early eighteenth century shows the usual decline in the fortunes of a slenderly endowed school. By a resolution of the inhabitants in 1716, the number of free scholars was reduced to 13. But the welcome bequest of an estate in Worlingham by John Wilde in 1735 once 4 Ipswich Wills, Bk. ii, fol. 249. 4 Redstone, Social Life in Engl. Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 165. 8 Longe, Lowestoft in Olden Times. 1 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. 8 Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft. 343 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK more caused the original number to be restored.1 The master's salary now became ^40. The Court of Chancery ratified this arrangement in 1754, and ordered preference to be given to the children of fishermen.8 In 1788 a new school building was erected on the east side of High Street, and a further change took place in 1791, when the Worling- ham estate was exchanged for a farm called Croatfield.3 When the Charity Commissioners visited the place in 1829, the education given in the school had become purely elementary, and the master (appointed by the Norwich Chancellor) instructed 23 boys free besides paying pupils. The Com- missioners note that ' it is not remembered to have been ever kept up as a grammar school.' The Endowed Schools Commissioners in 1866 found it purely elementary with 130 boys, stand- ing on part of the premises of ' the elementary school founded by will of John Wilde 22 July, 1735.' It has never emerged from that state. There is, however, now in Lowestoft a Muni- cipal Secondary School. BOXFORD SCHOOL A charter was obtained for Boxford Grammar School in 1596, but Robert Jasper, John Pote, and Thomas Whiting all entered Caius College from ' Boxford School ' between 1560 and 1576, so that it had been going on for at least 40 years previously. Probably, however, it was not endowed. In 1596 John Snelling and Philip Gostlinge granted to John Gurdon and others ' a messuage, garden and orchard in Boxford ' for the school. Thirty-seven governors were named who were to appoint the master and the usher, the former being ' at least ' an M.A.4 The history of the school was uneventful. During the seventeenth century it sent up scholars to Cambridge, and we can therefore ascertain the names of the more successful masters. Mr. Hoogan was at Boxford from 1616 to 1623, and Mr. Granston (or Grand- stone) from before 1667 until 1670. Mr. Tatham was a successful master between 1719 and 1730, but must have left soon after that date, as the names of Mr. Thomas and of Mr. Woodrope (one of these probably being usher) replace his on the registers. In 1777 the school received a new endow- ment from John Gurdon, who left ^100 by will to the master for teaching two poor children from Assington, to be appointed by the owners of Assington Hall. Mr. Wade seems to have been master from 1775 until about 1792, and in June of that year the governors elected James 1 During the mastership of the Rev. J. Thoughton, curate. 1 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 1 80. ' Ibid. 4 Ibid. xx. Adams, M.A., ' an able and experienced master.'* Elections to the foundation scholarships were advertised at the same time as taking place at their September meeting. In 1810 the school estate consisted of: — (1) A dwelling-house and schoolroom, where the master resides, and a garden ; (2) 10 ac. 19 poles in Edwardstone, let for ^20 per an. ; and (3) £442 31. 3^. of Gurdon's legacy and other money yielding interest to the amount of £13 5*. The Commissioners reported in 1829 that the Rev. William Plumer, M.A. (appointed on or before 1817),' had had no usher for many years, while the school had ' long ceased to be maintained or attended as a free grammar school,' and no revival had taken place in 1869,* while in the Schools Inquiry Report Boxford is classified among elementary schools and so remains. BUNGAY GRAMMAR SCHOOL The present Grammar School in Bungay was founded in 1592, but an earlier establishment is mentioned in the Parish Book of St. Mary Mag- dalen. In 1565 the churchwardens' accounts contain these entries : — Item paid for ij lods Rede and my charge makyng the Chappell in ye Churchyard for a gramer skole xxx/. \d. It. pd. for di. a Coke horde for ye skole wyndows iij/. Three years later the school was removed near Bungay tollgate,9 and in the same record we read : — Item paid for half a hundred poplyng bord for the skolehouse ij/. iiijV. In 1580 Lionel Throckmorton gave the present school premises and lent £8 6*. 8<£ to the ' Revys of Bungaie ' for building purposes.10 Before this date the school had justified its claim to be a grammar school by sending up boys to Cambridge,11 and a close connexion with Emmanuel College was established by the Mildmay Scholarship.13 The ordinances of the school made in 1591 gave the appointment of the master to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and limited the school to 50 unless an usher is provided by the master, in which case every townsman was to pay 5*. a child yearly. Vacancies among the Mildmay 4 Ips. Journ. 26 June, 1792. 6 Char. Com. Rep. xx, 552. 7 Ips. Journ. Jan. 1817. 8 Sch. Inq. Rep. 1869. 9 Trans. Suff. Arch. Sac. iv, 76. w Ibid. 11 Venn, Reg. ofGonvilk and Caius Col. 11 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 234. 344 SCHOOLS scholars were to be notified to the schoolmaster and the chief constable of Bungay. By deed of 16 January, 1592, Thomas Popeson, M.A., granted to the master and fellows of Emmanuel a yearly rent of ^4 (after decease of himself and his wife), the feoffees of the townlands granting also £6 a year, in consideration of which the college undertook to pay a weekly allowance of ifd. to each of Sir Walter Mildmay's 10 scholars. By a further deed of 20 May, 1592, Thomas Popeson conveyed to Emmanuel College all messuages, &c., aforementioned on the decease of himself and his wife, and the college under- took to pay ^3 6s. 8d. yearly to the schoolmas- ter, and to give him his house rent free and in repair.1 In 1593 the school received its next endow- ment from Thomas Wingfield, who left £iJO2 to be laid out for a rent of ^10, part of which was to keep two poor scholars at Cambridge. From this time onwards we find a steady suc- cession of boys matriculating at Cambridge Colleges from Bungay Grammar School. From the registers of these colleges we gather the names of some of the masters : — Mr. Ward was at the grammar school in 1604, and was followed by Mr. Smith, who taught there until 1631 ; in 1 643 * we find the name of Mr. Creed ; between 1658-60 that of Mr. Gill; Mr. St. George came next, 1661-2, Mr. Denton in 1663, Mr. Browne, 1683-5.* In 1688 the work of the school was inter- rupted by a fire which probably gutted the building, and Mr. Stiff,5 the master at that date, may be responsible for the inscription over the new entrance : — Exurgit laetum tumulo subtriste cadaver Sic schola nostra redit clarior usta rogo.6 The next benefactor was Henry Williams, who gave the perpetual advowson of St. Andrews, Ilketshall, for the presentation of the school- master of Bungay as its vicar.7 This contra- vened the ordinance that the master was to undertake no extra duties, but as Popeson's bequest had been amalgamated with the town funds, and was in consequence partly lost to the school, perhaps the irregularity was ignored. It is not surprising, however, to learn that, in this year, the school ' was entirely neglected and in a manner lost.' The feoffees and Emmanuel College reorganized it as much as possible, arranging for two exhibitions tenable by Bungay 1 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 234. 'Will, 31 Jan. 1593. 'In 1634 Henry Barnby was licensed to teach grammar in St. Andrew's Church, Ilketshall, which was later, in 1728, in the patronage of Bungay Grammar School. 4 Venn, Reg. ofGonville and Caius Coll. ' Ibid. • Trans. Stiff. Arch. Sac. iv, 76. ' Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 236. schoolboys at that college.8 Later on in the same year Robert Scales left land in St. Lawrence, Ilketshall, in trust to provide ' clear profits ' for a schoolmaster who must (i) be a minister of the Church of England, (2) read service on Wed- nesdays and Fridays in the parish church of St. Mary, (3) teach not more than 10 poor boys of the town.9 Warned by experience the trustees kept Scales's bequest distinct from the town funds. During these evil days, naturally enough the school left few traces on college registers, but by the middle of the eighteenth century we occasionally recover the name of a master. The Charity Commissioners declare that since 1754 they find 'no trace of the charity being administered in any respect as to the purpose or objects of the will,' 10 especially as regards the supporting of university students, yet Bungay figures on the list of entries at Caius College until the early nineteenth century. Some of the masters in this period were as follows : — Mr. Smee, 1742-52; Mr. Cutting, 1758-67; Mr. Reeve, 1777-95 circa; the Rev. R. Houghton,11 1795-1803; Mr. Page, 1804-6. 12 The advertisement of the vacant mastership in i8o513 states that the salary is ^130, exclusive of pupils' fees. The Rev. Richard Burnet obtained the post and began work in 1806. The system of deputy masters which was in vogue about this date is confusing. The Rev. John Gilbert was the last master appointed by Emmanuel College,14 and Mr. Bewick was in 1820 his deputy,15 and was followed in that capacity by Mr. Barkeway in 1829. The evi- dence before the Commissioners shows that both as regards demand and supply, grammar teaching had declined. The Schools Inquiry Commis- sion found the education ' highly satisfactory,' and describes Mr. Hart, the master, as ' a man of great energy, and very successful in teaching.' In 1880 the school was closed for a time, but ' reopened under the Rev. G. W. Jones next year. The Rev. O. H. Gardner was appointed head master in 1906, and had under him the Rev. H. S. Gardner, B.A., J. T. Gardner, B.A., B.Sc., and Mr. W. Minns, art master, with 31 boys paying tuition fees of £6 a year. WOODBRIDGE SCHOOL In 1577 Thomas Arnott or Annot of Lowes- toft (the founder of Lowestoft School) bequeathed land in Gisleham for a free school in Wood- bridge. For a century after its foundation the 8 Deed, 29 Sept. 1728. 9 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 237. 11 Bury Post, June, 1795. "Venn, Reg. ofGonville and Caius Coll. "Bury Post, June, 1805. 14 Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sch. ii. 14 Venn, Reg. ofGonville and Caius Coll. 10 Ibid. 345 44 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK school sent up students to the university. The most interesting of these was Robert Franklyn, who on account of his master's illness was 'taken off grammar learning' and prepared for a com- mercial career until, owing to the sick man's protests, he resumed classical studies under another teacher, entering Jesus College, Cam- bridge, in I645.1 In 1595, the churchwardens charged the town ' 4*. to repair the windows of the schoolhouse, when Master Packlyfe kept school,' and a hint of trouble is given by the fol- lowing entry in the same record during 1607 : ' Robert Sale received <)s. which he had laid out about the suit concerning the grammar school land.' 2 This refers to William Bearman's claim to ' the tenement called Woodes,' which had been used as the schoolhouse. Bearman retained possession of it, and bequeathed it to the poor of Woodbridge in 1668. The school seems to have collapsed soon after.3 But Woodbridge was not long without gram- mar teaching. In 1661 a sum of 9*. \d. was expended at the ' Crown ' and ' King's Head,' ' when Mr. Marriot treated with the inhabitants concerning the school ' ; 4 and by quinque partite indenture of 2 September, i662,8 Marryott gave a copyhold messuage in Woodbridge and a building near Well Street to the grammar school, while the Burwells and Dorothy Seckford agreed to pay j£5 annually towards the maintenance of a school and schoolmaster, who should educate ten free scholars in Latin 'until they are fit for the university if it be desired.' The nomination of these scholars was to lie partly in the hands of Robert Marryott, Francis Burwell, and Dorothy Seckford, or the heirs male of any one of them, and partly in those of the church- wardens and 'six chief inhabitants of Wood- bridge,' an ambiguous clause which led to trouble later. The appointment of the school- master was also to be by Marryott, Burwell, and Dorothy Seckford (or heirs male), and the curate of Woodbridge, or by any three of them, of whom Marryott's representative was to be one. If no appointment was made by these electors within six months of the occurrence of a vacancy, then the curate, churchwardens, and six chief inhabitants were empowered to elect. Ordinances 6 were made ; the school was to be kept in the east part of the messuage abutting upon the churchyard, and the rest of the house was to be the schoolmaster's residence. Wood- bridge boys other than free scholars might attend the school on payment of 201. apiece ' at least.' The choice of teaching methods was left to the schoolmaster, but he was directed to ' cause Theme to make Epistles, theames and verses in Latine in (sic) greeke.' The ' principles of the Calamy, Nonconf. Mem. iii, 291. Churchwardens' Accts. 1 66 1. Redstone, Bygone WoodbrtJge, 28-85. Ibid. * Char. Com. Rep. xxiv, 491. ' Lib. Admis." at present in churchwardens' chest. Christian religion according to the Doctrine of the Church of England ' were to be taught, and the boys were to demean themselves ' sivilly and reverently towards the Inhabitants of the Towne.' Seats in the ' long gallery ' of the parish church were appointed for the master and his pupils. The master might be removed for ' publique scandall,' for ' manifest Cruelty,' if disqualified by law from teaching, if he taught or publicly spoke anything contrary to the Church doctrines, or for absenteeism. He was further instructed to keep a register of the admission of scholars. Though not very regularly kept, the ' Liber Admissionum ' set up still exists. Robert Stephen- son, appointed in 1662, was the first master ;7 but in 1663 Mr. Dockinge received the salary.8 In 1665 Edmund Brome, M.A., the perpetual curate of Woodbridge, became master, and, by sending two or three pupils to St. John's College, Cambridge, began a connexion which was long continued. Brome became rector in 1666, but, owing to the plague, his vacated post was not filled until 1667, when Simeon Wells became master. At this time Mr. Edward Beeston and Mr. F. Woodall both figure in the books as receiving payment for teaching. Mr. Beeston remained until 1670, when the churchwardens paid out jf 2 8j. on 'charges removing Mr. Candler from Ipswich.' The money was well expended. Philip Candler, M.A., presided over the school for 19 years, during which time he kept the register carefully. Ipswich boys followed him to Woodbridge, and the matriculation registers of Caius College and St. John's show the results of his teaching. In 1679 the school received the endowment of a piece of land near ' The Oyster,' which was bequeathed to it by Francis Willard, and the letting of which brought in ^8 per annum. In 1689, Philip Candler, M.A., jun., suc- ceeded his father, and was master for 14 years.* Under his successor, William Cayter, the register is a blank. It was renewed by Mr. Samuel Leeds, M.A., of Queens' College, Cambridge, son of the man who had long made Bury grammar school famous. During his 1 8 years' mastership the admission of Woodbridge pupils to Caius and St. John's goes on steadily, and the names on the matriculation roll correspond to a certain extent with those of the free scholars of the school. John Blyth became master in 1727, and at his death, in 1736, the curate, churchwardens, and six chief inhabitants elected Mr. Thomas Pugh to fill the vacancy. There had recently been great irregularity in the appointment of free scholars, but ten Woodbridge boys were now selected by order of the churchwardens. ' Ibid. Stephenson was appointed to Ipswich in 1664. * Churchwardens' Accts. * He married Debora Holly de Dinnington in Jan. 1690. Acta Bks. Ipswich Probate Office. 346 SCHOOLS Although Mr. Pugh is mentioned as the master appointed in the account of the meeting,1 his name does not appear in the list of masters which ends the record. Probably he remained only a short time, for his successor, Thomas Ray, was appointed on 25 October by the same electors.8 After his decease, in 1774, a dispute arose about the nomination of the 'six chief inhabitants,' and, on a case being stated, counsel decided that no definition of the term was given in the foundation ordinances, and that consequently any six chief inhabitants might, with the churchwardens and curate, elect a master. In answer to another question it was decided that the fees might be raised beyond the original zos. a year. The 'six chief inhabitants' were now chosen at a vestry meeting, and, along with the other electors, appointed Mr. Robert Dyer to the mastership. In October, 1800, the school was again vacant because of fresh disputes. In November, Mr. Thomas Carthew, the curate, John Gan- nett, a churchwarden, and four ' chief inhabi- tants ' (two being nominated by Carthew and Gannett respectively at a vestry meeting, when Samuel Elvis, the other churchwarden, refused to nominate or take any part in the proceedings) elected Mr. John Black, a private teacher in Woodbridge, to the mastership of the grammar school. After the vestry meeting was over, Elvis and 'some inhabitants ' made a fresh choice of representatives, who elected Peter Lathbury to the mastership. Black, being already in pos- session, refused to resign or to give up the ' Liber Admissionum,' and Lathbury, soon after obtaining preferment in the Church, withdrew from the contest. Both elections were now declared void, though Black continued the school-work until the chancery proceedings which had been taken were concluded. A decree of 2 August, 1806, declared the six chief inhabitants to be the lord of the manor, if resident and of Woodbridge, and three chief landowners (four chief land- owners if the lord of the manor were an unmarried lady), and the two ' most considerable' occupiers of land as decided by their payment of poor rates. All were to have equal voice in the elec- tion, and five were to be a quorum. Inspection of the school was to be made by the electors, and the perpetual curate might not be school- master. In 1806, William Alleyne Baker became master, having boarders as well as day boys. On his resignation in 1815, the Rev. John Clarryvince, an old Cavendish boy3 and late master at Colchester,4 was appointed. The register gives some interesting information about the working of the school at this date. The Christmas and Midsummer vacations each con- sisted of 31 days, and there were holidays on saints' days and public thanksgivings. From March to November the school hours were from 7 to 9 a.m., 10 to 12 a.m., and 2 to 4.30 p.m. ; from November to March, from 9 to 12 a.m. and from 2 to 4.30 p.m. Clarryvince neglected the free boys, placing them at other schools in Woodbridge. He admitted his errors at a meeting, but declared that he had done his best and blamed the electors for negligent inspection. This tu quoque was admitted to be fair, but the electors excused themselves by saying that his reputation had ' lulled them into culpable inactivity.' s In July, 1822, Mr. Clarryvince resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. William Fletcher. Mr. Chris- topher Crofts, B.A., followed in 1832, but delayed opening school so long that the founda- tion scholars were sent to Mr. Fenn's school. Things had not improved by 1835, so the electors, after receiving no response to very direct queries as to his intentions, put a notice in The Times calling on him to resume his work or resign.6 On the appointment of Mr. Wood- thorpe Collett in 1836, Crofts wrote resigning the mastership and expressing ' acutely painful ' 7 regret at leaving Woodbridge. His mention of labours for ' liquidation of my debts' 8 sufficiently explains his conduct. The next appointment was that of Mr. T. W. Hughes in 1841. During his time the electors held the first formal examination of the free scholars, the results of which gave the examiners ' considerable pleasure.' When Hughes resigned in 1847, the advertisement of the mastership gives the endowment as £40 a year, and makes mention of a comfortable dwelling-house with accommodation for 30 boarders. Mr. Postle Jackson was appointed to the post.9 With slender endowments and old, inconveniently small build- ings this school fell into decay. But by a new scheme of the Court of Chancery, 14 June, 1 86 1, the school was brought into connexion with the Sackford Hospital. This almshouse, founded under letters patent of 23 May, 1587, by Thomas Sackford, had been endowed by him with lands in Clerkenwell, which by the growth of London became enormously productive, yielding an endowment of £3,500 a year. By the scheme for the hospital £390 a year of this was applied to the school, which was rebuilt on a fine site on the outskirts of the town for 100 boys. It opened in August, 1865, under Mr. William Tate, LL.D., with 80 boys, of whom 20 were free scholars, while 15 were boarders. The fees were very low for day boys, £3 a year under, and £4 a year over, 10 years of age. Next year the school was full with 100 boys. 1 ' Lib. Admis.' ' Ibid. 8 Venn, Reg. ofGonville anil Caius Coll. 1 Bury Post, 1815. ' Times, 21 Dec. 1835. "Ibid. ''Lib. Admis.' 7 ' Lib. Admis.' ' Mr. Jackson was the only lay head master of Woodbridge School. 347 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Mr. Tateleft in 1884. Mr. James Russell Ward held the mastership till 1895. Mr. P. E. Tuckwell followed, and Mr. Madeley, the present master, entered upon his duties in 1900. At the present day the school presents an appearance of healthy prosperity, which it is pleasant to chronicle after recording the decay of so many of these older foundations. Under a new scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts approved by Queen Victoria a substantial addition was made to the school revenue from the superfluous funds of the hospital. PALGRAVE SCHOOL There is no record of the foundation of a grammar school at Palgrave, but, besides the evidence of Gonville and Caius College Register, which shows that grammar was taught, it seems strange that Mr. More of Botesdale should relinquish his head mastership there to come to Palgrave in 1586 unless the appointment were worth something. About 1790 Mr. Barbauld and Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Philips were successful grammar teachers.1 The school is advertised in the Bury Post in 1805, but must soon after have lost any rights it ever possessed to be classed as a grammar school. STONHAM ASPALL SCHOOL. In 1612 the Rev. John Medcalf, incumbent of Stonham Aspall, left tenements, &c., for a schoolmaster and usher, who were ' to instruct in good letters freely,' and the school was founded soon after. Practically nothing is known of its history before 1769, when Mr. Samuel Haddon left Stowmarket for Stonham Aspall, and his stay there was marked by a suit in Chancery, during which he locked up the school and the house for three years.2 He seems to have refused to perform part of his duties, and after spending all his money on the legal proceedings he had to give up the contest. He returned to Stowmarket and opened a private school there. By 1785, if not earlier, the school was in good working order under the Rev. William Betham, who, advertising it as the Free School, offers a curri- culum including Latin and Greek. In 1829 the Commissioners report that — The school, which was once in considerable repute, has of late declined, being attended by free children, except those of the labouring class, and the number of scholars seldom exceeds twenty. At this date, too, the master and usher were old and the teaching presumably not vigorously carried on.8 1 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. ,• Bury Post, Anniversary Dinner advertisement, Aug. 1795. ' Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stowmarket. 1 Char. Com. Rep. xx, 593. In 1868-9, the school had become entirely elementary in character, appointments to the mastership being made by the rector, church- wardens, and constables.4 LITTLE THURLOW SCHOOL. An inquisition of charitable uses tells us that Sir Stephen Soame, knt., during his life — did firm found a Free School in the parish of Little Thurlowe, 1 5 James I ; and built a Schoolhouse to be for ever a benefit to Great and Little Thurlowe, Great and Little Bradley, Wratting, Ketton,5 and other parishes. The children were to be carefully instructed in the English and Latin tongues untill they shall be preferred by their friends as scholars at the University of Oxford or Cambridge, or apprenticed or otherwise. The master was to be elected by the parsons of Great and Little Thurlow, and was to receive £20, paid quarterly, his usher receiving j£i0.6 Sunday attendance at church was compulsory ; backward children were to be taught in church on seats before the font. Mr. Moore from 1623 to 1647' sent many pupils to Cambridge. Mr. Billingsley was master in 1653, and under him the school was kept up to its old standard.7 In 1659 a good deal of friction arose over the election of Mr. Christopher Holmes to the mastership by the two parsons. Sir Thomas Soame, the sole surviving executor, objected to him, and the ' best inhabitants,' who appear to have had a customary right of consultation, were displeased owing to the privilege being ignored on this occasion.8 Holmes began work in December, 1659. An inquisition by the Commission for Charitable Uses in 1677 found him unpopular. He took money from some of the parents and borrowed horses from them as a reward or bribe for extra attention to their children. He was convicted of ' misde- meanour and breach of trust,' and the Commis- sioners advised his removal. Nor did the clerical electors escape censure ; convicted of neglected duties, they were relieved from further perfor- mance of them, their electoral powers passing to Samuel Soame, esq. (son and heir of Sir Thomas), Sir Thomas Goldinge and John Morden, until new rectors should be appointed to Great and Little Thurlowe. The record of masters is not complete. Mr. Harwood was there as early as 1 708, and Thomas Crick, senior, about the middle of the *Sch. Inf. Rep. xiii, 236. 'Petty Bag. Com. for Char. Uses, bdle. 28, No. 24. 6 Codicil to Will, 2 March, 1618. 7 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. ; Reg. of St. John's Coll. 8 Com. for Char. Uses, bdle. 28, No. 24. 348 SCHOOLS century. He was joined by his son, also Thomas Crick, as usher in 1769, and they ran the school between them until the younger Crick went to Caius College in 1774.* The Commissioners of 1826-9 found the school elementary,3 the master's son, aged 15, acting in the capacity of usher. MENDLESHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL In 1618 Peter Duck conveyed a messuage in trust to the inhabitants of Mendlesham for the residence of a schoolmaster, the maintenance of a grammar school, and the relief of the poor of the town.3 Mr. Mosse, 1618-49, was the first master. Mr. Wilson was there 1651-4, Mr. Smith fol- lowed during 1666-9, anc^ Mr. P°°le 'n l672.4 In 1674 Mr. Thurbin paid zd. hearth tax * for the school,'8 and in 1710 Richard Playter became head master.8 As late as 1785 'Men- dlesham Free School ' was advertised by its master, Mr. Daniel Simpson. In all probability this school shared the fate of many others and died out owing to the small endowment and the equally small demand in the locality for grammar teaching. ALDEBURGH SCHOOL Thomas Ockeley, by will of 26 January, 1 6 1 o, left lands in trust to the burgesses of Aldeburgh (in the event of his son dying without issue) for the maintenance of poor people and for ' the erecting and maintenance of a free Schole in the said Towne of Aldeburgh.'7 He died in 1613, and his son was still alive and, indeed, only forty years old in i62i.8 In 1638 the school was incorporated by Letters Patent of Charles I as 'schola Grammaticalis que vocabit liberaschola grammaticalis Ballivorum et Burgensum Burgi de Aldeburgh,' 9 but no mention is made of Thomas Ockeley. The Account Books for the borough in 1661 give the name of Mr. Savage as schoolmaster. The school does not appear in the Commissioners of Inquiry Report of 1818, in Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, or in the Reports of 1829 or 1865, and the Municipal Corporations Commission doubts whether it ever really existed. i 1 Venn, Biog. Acct. of Gonvtlle and Cams Coll. ' Char. Com. Rep. xx, 199. * Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 593, quoting from old deed in Mendlesham parish chest. 4 Venn, Reg. ofGonville and Caius Coll. 5 Suf. Hearth Tax Returns. " Educated at Beccles Gram. Sch. 7 Add. MSS. 26374, Inq. p.m. Suffolk, Thomas Ockeley. •Ibid. 'Pat. 13 Chas. I, 13 (2). FRAMLINGHAM SCHOOL By the will of Sir Robert Hitcham, 8 August, 1636, the castle and manor of Framlingham were devised to Pembroke College, Cambridge, and the revenues of the demesne lands were hence- forth to be applied, in part, to maintenance of a school and workhouse at Framlingham at which the poor and children from Debenham, 10 miles, and Coggeshall, 50 miles, distant 10 might attend. In response to petitions, on 20 March, 1653, Lord Protector Cromwell in council by ordin- ance established three schools, one in each of the parishes,11 but as the Restoration in 1660 annulled this, among other acts of the Common- wealth, it was not until 1672 that this non- political measure was confirmed by Parliament,1'2 and meantime the management had become seriously disorganized. The children were first taught in a room over the market cross, but about 1788 the school was removed to a wing of the almshouses.13 In 1769 Mr. Scrivener advertised as the master of Fram- lingham School, and proposed to teach Latin, Greek, and French.14 In 1783 affairs were still further disorganized by the reply of the Attorney General to a case stated by Pembroke College, in which he decided that the ordinance of 1672 was not binding. The trustees thereupon diverted Hitcham's school funds entirely to elementary education. A scheme embodied in an Act of Parliament in 1862 apportioned the income among the various objects of the trust, and gave certain funds to the Albert Memorial scheme, otherwise Framling- ham College, then being established by Royal Charter. This new school is managed by 26 governors (eight being elected by Pembroke College, which also nominates six free scholars resident in the parishes). The course of instruc- tion is both classical and scientific, and there is an Upper and a Lower School. In 1906 the head master is Dr. O. D. Inskip, and there are 280 boys, all boarders on the hostel system at fees of £40 a year. DEBENHAM SCHOOL Debenham School, called into existence by Cromwell in 1653, competed with the poor of the parish in securing a part of the ^105 ap- portioned to the parish for these two objects. From its foundation onwards it did little to main- tain a reputation for grammar teaching. In 1866 the Commissioners describe it as 'non- classical ' and rank it with ' a somewhat inferior national school.' " 10 Debenham received £150 yearly, Sch. Inq. Rep. xiii. " Sch. Acta. Bk. in church chest. " 12 Chas. II, cap. 12. " Green, Strangers' Guide to the Town offramRngham. 14 Ips. Journ. Jan. 1 769. 15 J. M. White, Sch. Inj. Com., xiii, 165. 349 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK GISLINGHAM SCHOOL The Free School at Gislingham was founded in 1637 by John, Edmund, and Mary Darby, the first of whom left property for a rent-charge of £10 to the rector and others in trust for a free schoolmaster to teach all of the testator's name and kindred and for others in the same parish.1 Mary Darby, after her husband's death, gave a rent-charge of £$ on ' Smith's close ' for an addition to the master's salary.8 On 1 2 April, 1647, Edmund Darby by his will bequeathed an additional rent-charge of 40*. for the maintenance of the school. In 17193 Commission for Charitable Uses confirmed these several rent-charges. The Commissioners of Inquiry in 1822 found the master was receiving £17 per annum for teaching 10 free scholars nominated by the trustees and resident in the parish ; the teach- ing by this time however was elementary, and the master refused to take more free scholars, relying upon paying pupils to make up his income.3 The schoolroom and master's residence were in good repair, but the Commissioners had to record that, though formerly used for grammar teaching, the school had for some time been main- tained as an ' English school.' It is still elemen- tary. LAVENHAM SCHOOL The earliest known endowment of Lavenham School is a rent-charge which was made by one Richard Peacock, 4 September, 1647, for the education of five poor children, who were to be chosen by the heads of the borough, the church- wardens, and the overseer, ^5 a year being left in his will for this purpose,4 and in 1 66 1 another Richard Peacock (nephew of the first donor) gave by deed two rent-charges in Great and Little Waddington, in value ^5, for the school.6 In 1699, when the school premises needed repair, the necessary funds were raised by ' con- tributions.'6 In the same year Sir Richard Coleman, fulfilling the intentions of his uncle, Edward Coleman, gave an annuity from the manor of Greys for the salary of a schoolmaster, who need not necessarily teach more than Peacock's 5 free scholars.7 The Rev. Matthew Drift was master from 1696 until 1723, 'to whom most of the neighbouring gentry sent their sons.' Several boys went up to Cambridge from Lavenham during his mastership. Mr. Richardson, Mr. Brownsmith, and Mr. Smithies followed, the last-mentioned seeming to be the 'Will, 9 Sept. 1637. 1 Will, 26 May, 1646 ; and Deed, 13 Apr. 1647. * Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 149. 4 Ibid, xx, 561. 'Ibid. • Ibid. ' Ibid. most successful teacher.8 Mr. Coulter was master in 1756. One of his pupils, William Clubb, was a minor poet. In 1774 the Rev. W. Blowers advertised the re-opening of ' Laven- ham Ancient Grammar School," 8 and this an- nouncement must be used to correct that of the Charity Commissioners who say that Mr. Blowers was appointed in ijjj.10 He held the post until 1814. In 1814-15, the school buildings needing repair, the master's salary was applied to this purpose, and the school allowed to stand empty. Naturally it suffered ; pupils went elsewhere ' in a neighbouring town to a school taught by a former Lavenham usher.' u When the school was re-opened in 1815, under the Rev. Fred. Croker, its troubles were not over. Until 1817 there were only 5 pupils besides the free scholars. After that date the paying pupils disappeared altogether, and the number on the foundation was not always complete. Croker was very irregular in atten- dance ; he did not want boarders and his terms for day boys were high. In 1824 he was reprimanded, without result, and the trustees consequently withheld his salary. Two years later the Commissioners found the funds as greatly disordered as the teaching, one boy only learnt Latin, and Croker taught English gram- mar for 2 hours daily. The rest of an ele- mentary education was given to the boys at another school, Croker paying its master £10. The Commissioners advised a stricter contract with the next master. His successor, Mr. Pugh, revived the reputation of the school to a certain extent, but when Mr. Ambler was master in 1857 there were only seven pupils in all, and he eked out his salary by making a kitchen-garden of the playground.12 In 1892 the school suffered financially by the handing over of Stewart's legacy to the poor ; ls in 1893 it came to an end and the endow- ment was converted into an exhibition, tenable at Bury St. Edmunds Grammar School. BRANDON SCHOOL Robert Wright, by will of IO November, 1646, gave lands for a grammar school in Bran- don for the benefit of the youth in that place and for those of Downham, Wangford, and Weeting (Norfolk). An ' able schoolmaster '. was to be paid ^30 a year to instruct in ' gram- mar and other literature,' the surplus funds being spent on his dwelling-house or laid aside for repairs. The provisions of the will were ' Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll ; Reg. o/St. John's Coll. ' Ipswich Journ. 1774. I0 Char. Com. Rep. xx. 11 Ibid. " Sch. Iny. Com. xiii, 212. 13 End. Char, of West Suff. 350 SCHOOLS embodied in indentures of 25 March, and 23 and 24 June, 1664. These disappeared long ago. The earliest masters are unknown. Mr. Kemball was there in 1730-4,' and after this the first name we meet with is that of the Rev. George Wright, M.A., who advertises that he will open the grammar school on 1 7 January, 1773, when he proposes ' to teach the English, Latin, and Greek Languages, Writing and Arithmetic,' adding that he will take boarders on moderate terms.2 In 1785 the bishop licensed John Johnson * and William Doll 4 for this post. New trustees in 1801 filed a bill in Chancery because Wright refused to receive scholars 'ex- cept such as come to be taught Latin.' 5 The bill was dismissed with costs. In 1823 Mr. William Blainey was appointed to the mastership ; apparently he had conducted a private school in the town since i8i2.6 The Commissioners' Report J shows that there were in 1823 40 free scholars receiving elementary education, Latin being taught only if asked for. Mr. Blainey's salary gradually diminished until 1826, when he received practically nothing, but after that date he was regularly paid a salary of ^4O.8 The school then became elementary. When in 1877 the old building was pulled down and a board school erected, the endow- ment was transmuted by scheme into two j£2O scholarships tenable at Thetford. CAVENDISH GRAMMAR SCHOOL This school was founded by the Rev. Thomas Gray, alias Bishop, rector of Cavendish, who endowed it in 1696, for 15 poor children. The master was to teach English, Latin, and Greek and to prepare ' pregnant lads ' for Cambridge, receiving in return £1$ annually and a dwelling- house. A certain portion of the scholarship fund was to be reserved for college expenses.9 A minute book relating to the school still exists, and certain particulars about the masters may be gathered from it. Mr. Hodson held the appointment from 1721 to 1723, and was succeeded by Lewis Lewis, B.A. Mathcw Richardson was there from 1724 to 1739; Mr. Kendal, B.A., held office for a year ; Thomas Best, a ' mechanic,' then offi- ciated for 3 days, and after a year's interregnum 1 Venn, Reg. ofGonvillc and Caius Coll. ' Bury Post, 23 Dec. 1773. 1 Epis. Reg. 25 April. * Ibid. 22 July. * Bury Foil, 1 8 Feb. 1822 ; Char. Com. Ref. xxii, 157- 6 Bury Post, June, 1812, ' Vol. xxii, 157. 8 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 157. 9 Ibid, xxi, 488. Christopher Gibbons, B.A., and, in 1742, Mr. Hitchcock, each did a year's work. At last, in 1743, the mastership was saved from becoming an annual appointment by Mr. Stephen Brown, who did 36 years' successful teaching before he resigned. During this period a fair number of boys went up to Cambridge from Cavendish, and his epitaph in Great Ash- field churchyard 10 speaks of ' the Purity of his Manners and the Unwearied Attention he paid To the youth committed to his care.' The school advertisement in 1782 men- tions the Rev. Mr. Waddington as master and Mr. Seabrooke as assistant.11 After this Thomas Seabrooke, usher since 1766, took the master- ship and held it to 1834, when he died. John Clarryvince, future master of Woodbridge, was a pupil from 1803 to 1805. About 1816 a decree in Chancery gave the trustees extended powers. In 1829 the master's salary amounted to ^30 a year, and the free scholars (nominated by the rector) numbered 2O.12 Mr. Seabrooke took boarders until prevented by age, and the school being then limited to the 14 foundation scholars, it was found that none required Latin. But though the Commissioners of 1829 doubted the possibility of conducting it as a grammar school, it gradually took position again among classical schools.13 In 1862, under Robert Hurst, it regained its position. It is now under Mr. B. H. Keall, B.A.Lond., late assistant master at Chelmsford Grammar School. TUDDENHAM SCHOOL By will, 25 May, 1723, John Cockerton of Tuddenham devised land to the minister and churchwardens in trust for a free school where the children should be taught to ' read, write, account, and learn Latin as in other schools.' His own house was to become the residence of the school- master, Mr. Potter, who advertised a non-classical syllabus in the Bury Post in ij<)6.1* He was succeeded in 1806 by Mr. West, who, in 1809, gave place to Mr. N. Todd. Mr. Todd's adver- tisement 16 is headed ' Tuddenham Free Grammar School,' and his syllabus includes Latin and Greek. He states that he ' is about to remove from the Parsonage to the Schoolhouse in the centre of the village,' and that owing to the 10 He died in 1786, aged 67. 11 Bury Post, 21 Dec. 1782. " Char. Com. Rip. xxi, 489. 11 1834, John Sheal or Shiel ; 1837, Robert Simp- son; 1848, Rev. W. M. Cox; 1850, Rev. Fred. Toller; 1852, George William Shaddock; 1858, Benjamin Brown (ejected); 1862, Robert Hurst; 1884, Harry A. Rumbelow ; 1886, C. Riches ; 1896, Rev. Geo. Larder, M.A. ; 1 900, Rev. Thomas Normandale, B.A. " Bury Post, Dec. 1 796. Mrs. Potter kept up an 'academy for young ladies ' as late as 1815. "Ibid. July, 1809. 351 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK ' dilapidated state of the premises the business of the School is unavoidably postponed to 3 1 July.' By 1829, however, all pretensions to a classical curriculum had disappeared,1 and the school was maintained for 20 free scholars and some paying pupils, all receiving an elementary education. NEEDHAM MARKET SCHOOL This grammar school was endowed in 1632, but it had been carried on before that date.2 The owner of Barking Hall, Sir Francis Needham, had promised the townsfolk to erect and endow a free school, but died with his promise un- fulfilled. His successor, Sir Francis Theobald, had pressure, amounting almost to coercion, put upon him to carry the plan into effect. Sir Francis, protesting that this compulsion did 'much dampe his cheerfulness in his donations,' gave nevertheless, in his will of 2O January, 1632, a messuage called Guildhall to be taken down and rebuilt as a workhouse or schoolhouse, and an annuity of £20 to keep it up. The bequest was applied to building a schoolhouse. From the sta- tutes we learn that the master was to be ' a man of competent learning in the tongues and grammar, a graduate in the university of Cambridge.' He was to have no other duties save that of occa- sionally relieving the minister of Barking. He was to teach free of charge (except when parents could afford payment) and to repair the school premises out of his salary. The son and grandson of the testator neglected to pay the annuity. Consequently we find the school stood empty in 1674.' This produced a Commission of Charitable Uses in 1688, before which Mr. William Richardson de- poses that ' he teacheth the Grammar there to his scholars, but confesseth that he is no graduatt in the university.' * His salary was then £4 io/., and he adds that he ' never taught any of the scholars of the town of Needham Market free and without money, there not being any offered.' Richardson remained master to 1689 or longer, and gave ' good content and satisfaction.6 The Commission of 1688 compelled Robert Theobald, grandson of the founder, to vest the annuity in trustees, after which the school was more regularly conducted. Mr. Brittan was master from 1 708 to 1 7 1 3, or even later, and was followed by Mr. Richard Peppin, who, in defiance of the statutes, preached regularly in several parishes, and, refusing to desist, was starved into resignation by the trustees in 1721. His suc- cessor, Mr. John Corbould, after 6 months' work, resigned. 1 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 176. * Acta Bks. No. 2, 19 Ap. 1616 ; Ipswich Probate Office. 1 Suf. Hearth Tax Returns. ' Sir Francis Theobald for the school 5/. empty.' 4 Com. for Char. Uses, 1688. Petty Bag Depositions, xxi, 19. Ibid. The trustees now decided, in 1723, to use the endowment for an ' English school.' Two years later this had become degraded into some sort of workhouse or industrial school under 'one William Lithers, of Elmswell, woolcomber,' as master, the Rev. J. Nunn, of Needham Chapel, having declined the post. In 1727 the grammar school was re-established under Mr. Grimwood, who held office until 1730, when he was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Wilkinson, curate of Barking. Under this master, under Mr. Uvedale, and the Rev. Mr. Griffiths, the school did well. The last-mentioned master advertised from 1771 to 1773 offering to take boarders ' upon the most moderate terms that the present high prices will admit of.' ' In 1781 a fire occurred at the Swan Inn (the property from which the endowment was de- rived), but the loss was covered by insurance, and 10 years later the master's salary was raised to £20 ; as, however, an usher had to be paid out of this sum, it must still have been more than inadequate. In 1796 Mr. Jonathan Abbot, master at that date, resigned, and Mr. William Howarth of Dedham School was unanimously elected.7 He met the trustees in a very generous spirit, giving up his claim to all salary over £25 a year until the estate should be free of debt, in consideration of the changes made for his convenience in the schoolhouse. When, however, no salary was forthcoming by 1800, he resigned, and Mr. Charles Clarke of Diss was appointed master. In 1 8 1 1 the property was conveyed to new trustees, and more profitably invested. The number of free boys was consequently in- creased from 14 to 21, and the master's salary raised to £50.® Mr. Clarke, master in 1818, seems to have been a disciplinarian, for he ex- pelled Edward Badham as of 'an incorrigible disposition and very disobedient,' and was, more- over, very insistent on the order to be maintained by the boys in going from the schoolhouse to church.9 In 1824 Mr. Walter Gray, formerly master at Harwich, succeeded Mr. Clarke, and at his recommendation the school was enlarged i8ft. at its west end. The estate was, however, falling in value, being let in 1825 at a rental of £55, and it is therefore not surprising to find that the Charity Commissioners in 1829 declared ' the endowment too small for the support of a regular grammar school, and proposed that it should henceforth be continued as an elemen- tary school for seventeen poor children.' The * Ifs. Journ. 1771. 7 Ibid, and Bury Post, Aug. 1 796. ' East Anglian Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No. 280. * Ibid. There was provision in the statutes for expulsion ' after one or two years' experience ' of truants or ringleaders in ' idleness and looseness of life.' 352 SCHOOLS trustees, however, had more faith, and during the next 40 years the standard of teaching was raised to a much higher level. Mr. J. C. Sam- mons, master from 1848 to 1857, stipulated, when elected, for the enlargement of the existing schoolroom,1 and later on built the present school- room which he then used for his private pupils. Under the Rev. James Brown (1857-70), his successor, the first and second of the three classes in the school (i.e. two-thirds of the whole) learnt Latin, and the character of the school was generally raised. A new scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts became law in December, 1872. Mr. R. Hall became head master, and raised the school considerably, and his good work was continued by Mr. Cheal (1882-5), Mr. Boyce (1885-90), Mr. Thomas Normandale (1890-99), and Mr. W. Kenwood (1900-3). At the present day the school is conducted as a ' Public Endowed Secondary School,' under the scheme of 1872, the head master, Mr. H. A. Webb, B.A., B.Sc. (London), having been ap- pointed in 1904.* ELEMENTS RT SCHOOLS FOUNDED BEFORE 1800 WENHASTON SCHOOL. — Founded by William Pepyn by will dated 20 January, 1562. He gave land called Dose Mere Pightle for the main- tenance of a free school in the town of Wen- haston for the instruction of poor children in learning, godliness, and virtue. Reginald Lessey, by will, 1563, gave a piece of copyhold land near Blythburgh for the same purpose. STRADBROKE. — Michael Wentworth, esq., in 1 587, granted the town chamber for a school, the master of which was appointed by the parishioners. His stipend was ^5 a year from the rent of land given by Giles Borrett in 1667, for which he taught five poor children, and £15 a year from the trustees of Warner's Charity, for which he taught 12 poor children reading, writing, and arithmetic. EAST BERGHOLT SCHOOL. — Edward Lamb, by deed of feoffment (25 September, 1589), con- veyed to trustees a schoolhouse and a piece of land in Bergholt for a free school. Lettice Dykes (30 September, 1589) gave more lands by deed for the maintenance and finding of poor children in learning and virtue. Six were to be taught to read and write, and six others of Berg- holt and two of Stratford and Langham grammar and good learning. Long before 1829 it was elementary, and has remained so. EARL STONHAM SCHOOL. — The foundation of this school is due to George Reeve, who in 1599 settled 20 acres of land in trustees to maintain a schoolmaster. BECCLES — THE FREE SCHOOL. — Sir John Leman, knt., by will (8 July, 1631) devised to his executors a schoolhouse in Beccles and other lands that they should procure a licence in mort- main and convey these to the portreeve and corporation for a free school for 48 children, who should be 8 years old and able to read per- fectly on admission, and should be taught writing, ciphering, casting accounts, and the religion established in this realm. He appointed the portreeve and 24 chief men of the corporation governors of the school. It was and is ele- mentary. BARDWELL SCHOOL. — By a decree of the Court of Chancery made in 1639 the town estate was appropriated to public uses, one of which was the allowance of ^13 a year for the support of an elementary school. HADLEIGH SCHOOL. — Founded by John Ala- baster, senior, who by will (20 April, 1667) gave a tenement and 1 2 acres of land, the rents and profits to be applied for the stipend of a school- master to teach poor children the three R's. Ann Beaumont, by will (5 August, 1701) gave ^5 a year to the schoolmaster of the free school in Hadleigh for teaching 6 poor boys the three R's. FRESSINGFIELD SCHOOL. — William Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, by deed (5 January, 1685), covenanted with the master, fellows, and scholars of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, that certain fee-farm rents should be charged with the payment of £10 a year to a schoolmaster, for which he should teach 5 poor boys of the parish the three R's and the Church Catechism and Creed. WORLINGWORTH SCHOOL. — John Baldry, by will (14 April, 1689), gave lands in Monk Soham for a schoolmaster to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic to all poor children of Worlingworth. John Godbold, by will (13 May, 1698), gave £120 for the yearly increase and maintenance of a schoolmaster. A house was built for the schoolmaster in 1825 by Mr. John Corby. The school was free for all children of inhabitants who occupy at rents not exceeding ,£10 a year. It was, and is now, an elemen- tary school. AMPTON — CALTHORPE'S CHARITY-. — By deed (27 March, 1692) James Calthorpe, esq., con- veyed a manor at Aldeby, in Norfolk, to trustees, the rents to be applied in educating, clothing, and feeding 6 poor boys. Henry Edwards, by will (23 October, 1715), bequeathed £100 to 1 This room was the dining-room of the school in 1897 ; St. Jamefi Budget, 26 Nov. 1897. 2 353 * I am indebted to Mr. Webb for much useful in- formation contained in the Minute Books of the school. 45 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the trustees of the charity school for teaching 5 poor boys with the partakers of Calthorpe's charity. These 1 1 boys received an elementary education with other scholars whom the master was allowed to take in 1829, but in 1867 there were 32 boys receiving education free, 10 of whom were also boarded and clothed. HALESWORTH. — A sum of £3 a year is paid out of the rents of the town-lands to the master of a school for teaching 6 poor children to read and spell from £60 given by Thomas Neale for the education of poor children in 1700. A further educational charity was made by Richard Porter, who by will (2 June, 1701) directed that a schoolmaster and schooldame should be ap- pointed by the churchwardens of the parish to teach not more than 20 boys and 20 girls. HACHESTON SCHOOL. — By will (2 June, 1701) Richard Porter directed that a schoolmaster should be appointed by the churchwardens and chief inhabitants, and have jCi2 a year for teach- ing 1 2 poor boys whose parents should not be worth ^30. The schoolmaster received an annuity of £12 from the Earl of Rochford, the owner of the property charged in the will. KELSALE SCHOOL. — The estates of the Kelsale Charity have arisen under many different old grants and surrenders, the trusts or purposes of which cannot be distinctly ascertained. In 1714 on a surrender of copyholds, trusts were declared of an annual sum, not exceeding £30, to a school- master within the parish to teach the boys of the parish. A general deed of trust, made in August, 1765, comprising the freeholds, declared that the rents should be employed for maintaining a school in which 10 of the poorest children should be educated in writing, casting accounts, or grammar learning, or to maintain such of the grammar scholars at Cambridge as the trustees should think fit, and allowing the schoolmaster £16 a year. The salary of the schoolmaster is j£5O a year, and there were about 87 children in the school in 1829, which had decreased to 71 in 1867. LAXFIELD — JOHN SMITH'S CHARITY. — By will (25 June, 1718) John Smith devised all his lands in Laxfield on trust, the rents at first to be applied to building a schoolhouse, and £40 a year to be paid to a schoolmaster, who should have no preferment in the church, to teach 2O poor boys the three R's. The trustees for some time also allowed ^5 a year to a schoolmistress for teaching 12 poor girls to read, knit, and sew. SIBTON SCHOOL. — John Scrivener and Dorothea his sister, by deed (17 March, 1719) settled an estate in Sibton and Peasenhall, half the rents of which were to be employed for building a school for teaching poor children, in the English tongue, writing and arithmetic. There was a school- room in 1867, in which 12 boys and 12 girls were taught by a schoolmaster and schoolmistress gratis, out of 74 boys and 47 girls who were in the school. ROUGHAM SCHOOL. — Edward Sparke, by will (27 August, 1720), devised his estate at Thurs- ton to the charity school at Rougham, that 4 poor children from Thurston should be taught at the school, and he gave all his land in Rougham to the school. The income was about £47 a year ; there was a house for the master with schoolroom, and he taught the three R's to 8 boys from Rougham and 4 from Thurs- ton gratis in 1829, but in 1867 there were 20 boys. WHEPSTEAD — SPARKE'S CHARITY. — Thomas Sparke, by will (10 June, 1721) devised a copy- hold estate, the rents to be applied for the school- ing of poor children in the parish. There were usually from 8 to 12 children taught in the schooi as free scholars. LAXFIELD — WARD'S CHARITY. — Mrs. Ann Ward, by will (2 August, 1721), directed that ^20 a year from the income of her estate should be applied towards the education of 10 poor children, boys and girls, in Laxfield. £20 was paid to a schoolmaster for teaching 10 boys to read and write, and £10 to a school- mistress for teaching 10 girls, who were taught with the Smith's charity girls. SUDBURY NATIONAL SCHOOL. — Susan Girling, by will (13 October, 1724,) devised to trustees lands in Suffolk to apply the rents for teaching poor children of Sudbury. In 1747 a subscrip- tion was raised for building a school and ex- tending the benefit of the charity to girls. In 1775 the Rev. William Maleham bequeathed ^50 to the schools. The school for girls was conducted on the national school system, and there were about 1 50 scholars. The master had the use of the dwelling-house and a salary of j£ 1 2 a year. In the other school 12 poor girls were taught reading and sewing by a mistress who had a house and £6 a year. In 1867 there were 90 boys who paid id. and 87 girls who paid id. a week. BLUNDESTON SCHOOL. — By will (3 June, 1 726), the Rev. Gregory Clarke devised a house and lands in trust to apply the rents to the payment of a schoolmaster. BENHALL — DUKE'S CHARITY SCHOOL. — By will, dated in 1731, Sir Edward Duke desired his executors to settle ,£1,000 for the main- tenance of a schoolmaster to teach poor children to read and write. William Corbold by will (29 April, 1746) devised land from the rents of which j£s a year was to be paid for 4 poor boys from Saxmundham to go to the free school at Benhall, and this sum was paid to the school- master. In 1867 there were 34 boys and 33 girls in the school. HOXNE FREE SCHOOL. — Thomas Maynard, by will (8 June, 1734) devised his real estate in Hoxne upon trust to lay out a sum from £,200 to ^300 on a house for a schoolmaster and mistress to teach, free, all such boys and girls of the parish as should be sent to them, 354 SCHOOLS j£4O to be paid yearly to the master and £10 to the mistress. In 1867 there were 38 boys and no girls, and £42 was paid to the master. HUNDON SCHOOL. — Founded by James Vernon, who by deed (8 April, 1737) granted a rent charge of ^32 on lands in Wickhambrook to trustees, the surplus of which, after various pay- ments, was to be laid out in teaching poor boys to read and write and poor girls to read, knit, and sew. From this jCiO a year was paid to the master of a school in Hundon for teaching 1 6 poor children. CODDENHAM SCHOOL. — Lady Catherine Garde- man by deed (31 May, 1753), conveyed to trustees land in Mendlesham and Earl Ston- ham for teaching 15 poor boys the three R's and 15 poor girls to read, write, knit, and sew. HOLTON ST. MARY CHARITY SCHOOL. — The 'Town Pightle ' was demised in 1755 by the then churchwardens and overseers of the poor to the Rev. Stephen White, the rector, to hold for the use of the school. It was established and endowed by him and other subscribers, including £3 3s- a yeAT from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. BARROW. — The town estate was vested in trustees in Henry VIII's reign, and the rents applied for the general use of the parishioners, but about 1790 they were appropriated to finding a schoolmaster, and 24 poor children were taught the three R's and the Church Catechism gratis. 355 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN HUNTING THE history of hunting in this county begins at an early date. The dukes of Grafton hunted a large portion of what is now the Suffolk country about the middle of the eighteenth century, either keeping their hounds at Euston or taking them from place to place as their move- ments might dictate. The run which took place 2 December, 1745, from Euston to within some three miles of the borders of the Essex and Suffolk hunt, was through nearly the whole of the present Suffolk country. The boundaries of ' countries ' were not defined with much par- ticularity in those days, but I conclude that the dukes of Grafton hunted all this part and con- tinued to do so for a length of time. Ampton Holmes was at this time a noted fox-covert and a certain find. The run referred to above is thus described in the Sporting Magazine of October, 1828 : — Unkennelled at 9.30 at Jack's Carr near the decoy in Euston, and thence came away over the heath to the Marl pit, through Honington and by Sapiston Carr, thence to Bangrove Bridge, came away to Mr. Reed's Carr and crossed the road by Black Bridge, then away to Stanton Earths, thence through the coursing grounds on the back part of Hepworth Common to Scase's Hole, where we turned to the right, came through Walsham le Willows, then for Langham Common and Thicks to Stowlangtoft, crossed the river between Bailey Pool Bridge and Stow Bridge, then to Pakenham Wood on to the Kilnground in the back part of Thurston Common, thence to Beyton Groves and on to Drinkstone and Hessett Groves near Monk Wood, passed Drinkstone Hall and thence to Rattlesden, between the Great Wood and the Street, and through Hayle Wood to Wood Hall, where the hounds came to a check for two or three minutes, which was the only one during the whole chase. The huntsman took a half-cast, hit it off, came away across Buxhall Fen Street, thence by Northfield Wood and by Tot Hill Grove in Haughley, then across the Stowmarket road to Dagworth Hills and through Old Newton and near Gipping Wood, then away to Stow Upland, thence by West Greeting over the Green by Roydon Hall, turned to the right, came down to Combs, and crossed the two rivers by the Water Mill, thence across the road by Combs Ford and Stowmarket Windmills, through the cherry grounds to the sign of the Shep- herd and Dog at Onehouse, and killed by some hop ground near W. Wollaston's Esq. at four o'clock in the afternoon. Ran through 28 parishes. Intimately connected with the history of the county hunt is that of the Thurlow Hunt. The two countries were sometimes hunted to- gether, and at other times separately. The Thurlow Hunt dates back to 1793; in this country for many years there existed a Hunt Club which materially assisted sport, devoting attention to earth stopping, fox preservation, &c., &c. The earliest report of sport with the Thurlow describes a run with a pack of foxhounds belonging to Mr. Thomas Panton of Newmarket on 15 October, 1793 : — Found in Abyssey Wood near Thurlow, when he immediately broke cover and ran two rings to Blunts Park and back to Abyssey. He then flew his country and went in a line through Lawn Wood, Temple Wood to Hart Wood, where there was a brace of fresh foxes. The pack then divided; 15^ couple went away close (as it was supposed) at the hunted fox to West Wickham Common, thence to Weston Colville near Carlton Wood and over Wellingham Green. He then took the open country to Balsham and away to Six-Mile-Bottom, going to Newmarket. He was then headed by a chaise, turned short to the left, and stood away in a line with the Gogmagog Hills, and was run from scent to view. He lay down and was killed on the open heath at the bottom of the hill. He stood an hour and three-quarters without one minute's check, and it is supposed in that time he ran a space of nearly thirty miles ; the only gentlemen who were in at the death were Mr. Thomas Panton, and Mr. Benjamin Keen with the Huntsman, Thomas Harrison. Of the remaining hounds 6J couple went away with a fresh fox and killed him at Withersfield near Haverhill ; and the remaining couple of hounds went away with the other fox and killed him at Thurlow Park Gates.1 I doubt whether the distance stated could have been done in an hour and 45 minutes. Squire Osbaldeston also hunted the Thuriow country at the same time that he hunted the 1 Daniel, field Sports. 357 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Pytchley, between 1827 and 1834, hacking to and fro between the two. In those days the Thurlow territory extended up to Ickworth Park, and the squire considered it one of the finest plough countries in England. Shortness of foxes appears to have been the reason of his giving up, as witness the speech attributed to him at the end of his last day at Plumpton : he said ' Good-night ; there is not a fox or a gentle- man left in Suffolk,' and sticking spurs into his old grey horse he left the district for good.1 On the resignation of Squire Osbaldeston Mr. Mure took over the Thurlow ; hunting with his own hounds. He had established the pack in 1825 to hunt the Suffolk side, having as his huntsman Will Rose, and as first whipper-in Sam Hibbs, who occupied that post for seventeen seasons till Mr. Mure gave up in 1845. There are few records of the sport enjoyed ; the run afforded by a fox found in a willow tree on Pakenham Fen nearly to Colchester, where he beat hounds, probably belongs to the region of fable. Mr. Charles Newman appears to have kept hounds at one time at Coggeshall. A fine run on I 8 February, 1834, is chronicled. Find- ing in Boxted Old Park (now in the Suffolk country), hounds ran their fox nearly to Thurston Park, turning right-handed over the Somerton Hills, through Brockley, Hawstead, Stanningfield, and Welnetham to the Link at Rushbrooke. Through Free Wood, Mill Field, Monk Wood, Drinkstone Park and the Bromley Groves, killing him at Gedding Old Hall, a distance of about sixteen miles. On Mr. Mure's retirement in 1845 Mr. John Josselyn got together a pack of hounds, and with Sam Hibbs as huntsman hunted the Suffolk and Thurlow countries till 1864. Mr. Josselyn's first season, albeit his pack consisted of draft hounds got together in a hurry, was considered by many one of the best during his long tenure of office. A notable run in February, 1846, took place in the Thurlow country. Finding in The Lawn, hounds ran through nearly all the coverts on the Thurlow side and killed their fox at last at Weston Col- ville ; about eighteen miles as hounds ran. Another very fast run was from Shadwell to Stanton Low Wood, where they killed their fox after a nine-mile run ; time about forty minutes. In the early part of Mr. Josselyn's time Hitcham Wood on the Bildeston side of the country was noted for a fox who gave the hounds many a good run ; they were never able to catch him. At the crack of a whip or the sound of horses on the road this fox would go away at once, nearly always from the same place. Hibbs, taking advantage of this habit, one day got away nearly 1 It was on 5 Nov. 1831, while he was master of the Thurlow, that the squire rode his famous match against time at Newmarket : for 1 ,000 guineas to ride 200 miles in ten hours, which he performed in eight hours forty-two minutes, riding on the round course in four-mile heats. in view, and hounds ran very fast indeed through Thorpe, Monk Park, Raw Hall Woods, nearly to the Link, where the fox turned and retraced his steps through Thorpe, eventually beating hounds on the Elmswell side of Woolpit Wood. Mr. W. G. Blake remarked to Hibbs on the way home : ' Sam, if you could not catch him to-day, you never will.' Sam drily replied : ' No, sir, I don't think I ever shall.' Another good run took place on February, 1853. They found in Thelnetham Wood ; going away by Wattisfield through Walsham le Willows, Bad- well, Parker's Groves, East Wood, Broad Border, Northfield Wood, they reached Dales Groves at Finboro, where a fresh fox jumped up and nearly saved the life of the hunted fox. Being put right hounds turned back and killed at the ' Shepherd and Dog,' Onehouse. The run from Mr. Thornhill's Carr at Black- water has been considered nearly a ' record.' Three foxes went away at once. Hounds settled to one which ran through Riddlesworth, the Harlings, Quiddenham, Hargham, and, cross- ing the river about half a mile on the left of the Thetford and Norwich high road, was killed close to Attleborough ; iy£ miles in i hour 55 minutes. The death of Sam Hibbs, which followed a fit at Plumpton on 1 6 February, 1864, just as hounds were killing their fox, was a great loss both to Mr. Josselyn and the Hunt, as few finer hunts- men ever carried a horn. Will Jarvis, who had long been with Mr. Josselyn as first whipper-in, took Hibbs's place and continued to hunt the hounds when Mr. Josselyn gave them up and was succeeded by Mr. John Ord of Fornham House. Mr. Ord had been for many years secretary to the Suffolk, till 1864, when he be- came master. He retained office for three seasons only. He was fortunate in having a good scent- ing season in 1864 and another particularly good one in 1865, when hounds were hardly at all stopped by frost. In January, 1865, a fox found in Northy Wood, Cavendish, ran to Price's Grove, to the stream below Hawkedon Green, through Christlands, and, bearing to the right through Brockley and Whepstead, was killed close to Hawstead Green. In 1865 sport was exception- ally good. Three fine runs may be noticed. On one occasion finding in Chedburgh Hall hounds ran nearly to Hawkedon Green before they turned through Somerton, Brockley, Whep- stead, over the meadows (where Mr. Mortlock now lives), and killed in Mr. Wixton's garden at Horsecroft close to Bury. Another very fast gallop was from Rede Groves by Wickham- brook Eastes, which hounds did not touch, killing at Ouseden. Jarvis and Mr. W. G. Blake had the best of it all the way. Later in the season there was a run from the Link with a good deal of snow on the ground. Hounds went fast through Colville's Grove, Free Wood, Mill Field, Monk Wood, Drinkstone, by Hessett Rectory to Norton Wood, where they divided, 5^ couples 358 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN taking a fox to Stowlangtoft ; the hunted fox going back through Tostock was lost close to Hessett Rectory. In Mr. J. Ord's third and last season the best run was from Norton Wood, hounds going down the railway to Mr. Jennings' arch at Thurston, Jarvis and Mr. (now Sir) E. W. Greene jumping the fence and riding along the railway. Turning off the rail- road hounds went through the Beyton Groves, Rougham coverts away by Blackthorpe to Tin- ker's Grove, Free Wood, through Monk Park, and killed where Mr. Algernon Bevan's house now stands. On Mr. Ord's retirement in 1867 Mr. Josselyn again took the country and showed varying sport for four seasons, with several changes in the establishment. Will Jarvis re- tired and his place was taken by Jefferies, who in turn gave place to Wilson, the latter hunting the hounds up to the date of Mr. Josselyn's resigna- tion in 1871. Messrs. Edward and E.Walter Greene (now Sir E. Walter Greene) took the hounds when Mr. Josselyn gave up. Sir E. W. Greene carried the horn himself, with T. Enever and R. Simmonds as whippers-in. He was par- ticularly fortunate on the Thurlow side, where he showed some grand sport. At the end of his third season, however, he sustained injuries in a bad accident with his coach, and this kept him out of the saddle for some considerable time. With Mr. Edward Greene alone in command for the fourth season, Tom Enever hunted the hounds, but in 1875 when it appeared that Sir E. Walter Greene's disablement would prevent his resuming an active share of responsibility for an extended period, Mr. Josselyn again took the management, Mr. Greene kindly lending his hounds for a season. Ben Morgan was Mr. Jos- selyn's huntsman, and Tom Enever his first whipper-in. Morgan, who only remained in Suffolk one season, was a fine huntsman and seemed able to keep hounds on the line of a fox on the worst of scenting days. An example of this talent was shown one day in November, 1875. Findinga fox in Woolpit Wood, Morgan hunted him in the wood for a long time, then got him away to Northfield Wood, where he again dallied. Away to Tot Hill and back again, hounds at last got him away by the ' Union,' and began to run steadily over the river by Stow- market through all the Boyton Groves, America, up to Devil's Wood in the Essex and Suffolk country, where he turned back and was killed close to the mill at Hitcham, on Hitcham cause- way. In December, 1875, a very fast gallop on the Thurlow side was from Hart Wood ; crossing the Bradley and Branches road half way to Branches Park, just touching the lower side of Branches Park coverts, over the Upend road to the Cropley Earths, into the Ouseden coverts, where they lost him, Morgan and Mr. Jim Gardiner having the best of the first part of the run. The following season, Mr. Greene having sold his hounds, Mr. Josselyn got together another pack, with which, retaining Tom Enever as hunts- man, he hunted the country till 1880, showing some good sport especially in the season of 1 8 7 6-7 . A good run on the Thurlow side was from the Black Thorns at Weston Colville to Brinkley and on to Six-Mile-Bottom over the railway, where, turning right-handed nearly to Dulling- ham the fox recrossed the railway and was killed in the fir covert while pointing back for Brinkley. In 1880 Sir E. W. Greene again took the country and held it for three seasons. Perhaps one of his best runs was that in January, 1881, from Trund- ley Wood through Abbacy. The fox leaving Thurlow rectory on his right ran straight to Weston Colville, through it to ground in Mr. W. King's earth at Brinkley. Another, of which few of the field saw anything, was in February, 1881, from Stanstead Great Wood into the bottoms below Glemsford, turning left-handed through Cavendish Northy and King Wood and killing close to Clare osier-bed. Another very fast run took place in December, i88i,from West Hall, leaving Burgate Wood on the left, to Mellis where hounds ran into their fox. In 1883 the Suffolk country was divided from the Thurlow ; Mr. Edward Brown took the Suffolk side and Mr. Jesser Coope the Thurlow side. The bounds of the territory retained by the former were as follows : — From the boundary with the East Essex below Glemsford through Glemsford to the bottom of the hill, turning left- handed by Trucket's Farm, leaving Thurston Park on the left, to the Boxted and Hawkedon road, turning to the left to Hawkedon Green, Denston, Denston Plumbers' Arms, Wickhambrook White Horse, Lidgate, bearing left-handed to the four crossways on the Ouseden and Silverley Tower road, leaving Dalham Park just on the right to Gazeley, crossing the Newmarket road at Need- ham Street to Barton Mills. Mr. Brown's two seasons, 1883—5, were distinguished by good scent, especially that of 1883—4. The first run of any note was on i December, 1883, from the Dalham coverts, when the fox ran through Lipsey to Coys Grove to Glumpsey, to ground in covert in Ouseden Park. They got him out and raced him through Spring Wood by Bromley's to the Denston road above Denston Plumbers' Arms, through the Stews and Slater's Groves to Hawkedon Green to the Thurston Bottoms, turning right-handed and killed in the open, one field from Stansfield church. The best run of many years in Suffolk was that on 29 December, 1883, from the Link ; going away nearly to Raw Hall the fox turned left-handed and then right-handed through Chen- cell Grove into Monk Park, turning right-handed, leaving Cockfield Stone on the right to Bulls' Wood by Mr. Edgar's on the left along the meadows nearly to Lavenham, left-handed over Mr. Wright's farm nearly to Preston Mills, again to the left through Bulls' Wood, Monk Park, by 359 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Hessett Hole, through Handeler to Drinkstone Park, where hounds swam the water and marked their fox to ground at Tostock in a pipe, whence he was bolted and killed. On 20 January, 1885, a very good run was from Monk Park to Thorpe, where hounds divided. Six couple going away with only a few of the field ran through Hastings Grove to Brettenham, Brent Eleigh, Chelsworth, back to Brettenham, Hastings Grove, and Thorpe Wood, where they were stopped on the Thorpe road. Mr. Brown and the rest of the field went away from Thorpe with another fox by Duck Street Farm to Pie Hatch, through World's End nearly up to Little Finboro, right-handed by Hitcham Mill to the Brettenham coverts to Bulls' Wood and Monk Park, where after running their fox round and round for a time they got him away again by Cockfield Stone. They had just marked as if at ground, when other hounds were heard running, and Mr. Brown, taking his lot quickly up the Thorpe road, joined the rest of the pack, and the hunted fox, jumping up, was run through Hastings Grove to Thorpe Wood and killed a few fields on the Monk Park side of Thorpe Wood. In 1885 Mr. J. M. King succeeded Mr.. Brown and was very successful in showing sport. During his first two seasons Mr. Brown hunted the hounds ; the remaining five Mr. King carried the horn himself, showing some good runs. A memorable day to those out was that in Feb- ruary, 1888, at Barrow Green, when there was so much snow it was considered by many impossible to hunt. A very late start was made in conse- quence, and hounds did not find till they got to Wickhambrook Eastes and the fox went to ground one field from the covert. It took an hour to get him out, and hounds starting close at him nearly killed him before he reached covert through the deep snow. He went away over the Depden gully right-handed to Coblands, Denston, Arlibut, Appleacre, over the Hundon road, pointing as if for Trundley, over the Thur- low road to Branches Oakes, to Spring Wood, and leaving most of the Ouseden coverts on the right, to the new covert on the Lidgate side, turned back. It was now late, but luckily there was a bright moon and hounds going back through Spring Wood to Wickhambrook Eastes marked him to ground in the main earths (which had been opened) at 7 o'clock in the evening after running for about four hours. A really good run in February, 1890, was from Bretten- ham Fish Ponds away to Kettlebaston Earths, turning back to Hitcham, leaving Bildeston on the left to Semer, going over the Hadleigh road nearly to Calves Wood, where the fox jumped out of a ditch and ran in a left-handed circle to Somersham, where hounds got their heads up, owing to the holloaing of foot-people, and unfor- tunately lost this good fox within two fields of Lucy Wood. In succession to Mr. J. M. King on his resignation in 1892 came, for two seasons, Mr. J. A. Chalmers, who also hunted the hounds himself. The country at this time was well off for foxes of the right sort, and Mr. Chalmers showed excellent sport. A good run in November, 1892, was from Hill's Carr at Buxhall, passing Mr. Wells's house by Wood- hall to Clopton Groves nearly to Woolpit Green; turning back here hounds ran by Clopton Hall over the Rattlesden road, leaving Howe Wood on the right, to Whalebone Lodge, through World's End over Old Hitcham Wood, and killed two fields from the Pie Hatch road. In 1894 Mr. P. G. Barthropp succeeded Mr. Chalmers. The new master was very for- tunate in his second season. Finding a fox one day in December, 1895, in the Dove House covert, Wyken, hounds ran him nearly to Lang- ham Thicks, where he turned left-handed by Hill Watering through the back of Stanton to Scases Hole, along at the back of Walsham le Willows nearly to Mr. Hatton's, then left-handed through West Hall, where they killed about a mile and a half on the Mellis side of the hall. In 1898 Mr. Barthropp resigned and Mr. Eu- gene Wells of Buxhall Vale took the country. After the first season he hunted the pack himself, showing some good sport especially on the Stow- market side. Two of his best runs, though un- fortunately hounds did not account for their foxes, were — theone, in January, 1899, from Den- ham Thicks through Wickhambrook Eastes by Wickhambrook White Horse into the Thurlow country, leaving Branches Oakes on the right, crossing the Thurlow road and losing at the Hundon road pointing for Appleacre ; the other, in February, 1899, from Boxted Park into the Thurlow country at once, by Thurs- ton Park, Pryce's Grove, Arlibut, and Denston Park over the Hundon road, in a ring back again left-handed to the Hundon road, and left-handed again nearly to Trundley Wood for Lord's Fields in the East Essex country, where this good fox beat hounds at dark. In 1903 Mr. Eugene Wells was followed by Mr. F. Riley-Smith of Barton Hall, who at the time he took the foxhounds was also hunting the staghounds he had taken over from Sir E. Walter Greene a season or two before. Hunting both packs himself, and showing first-rate sport with them both, he gave up the staghounds after another season, and has now (1906) much to the regret of the whole country given up the foxhounds. He has been succeeded by Mr. Guy Everard. STAGHOUNDS The pack of staghounds referred to was origin- ally established in 1864 by Sir (then Mr.) E. Walter Greene, by whom it was maintained until the year 1870. It ceased to exist when the master took over the county foxhounds. In SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 1891 Mr. Greene returned to Suffolk from Worcestershire, where he had held the master- ship of the Croome, and re-established the stag- hounds, with which he hunted two days a week. In 1900 Mr. F. Riley-Smith took over the pack and the small herd of deer, and carried on the hunt until 1904, in which year he gave place to Mr. Eugene Wells, who hunted one day a week. The country over which the staghounds run has necessarily varied with the changes of ownership. In 1906, Mr. W. P. Burton pur- chased Mr. Eugene Wells's pack and transferred the hounds to kennels at Edgehill, Ipswich, and the deer to paddocks at Nether Hall, Bury St. Edmunds. HARRIERS The oldest pack of harriers existing in the county in 1906 is the Henham, of which the Earl of Stradbroke is owner and master. These harriers were originally established as the East Suffolk in 1832 by Mr. Anthony George Free- stone, who held the mastership from that date until 1872. In the latter year Mr. Benjamin Charles Chaston became master and altered the name to the Waveney Harriers. Mr. Chaston was succeeded in 1881 by Sir Savile Crossley, bart., who held office until 1888, when the Earl of Stradbroke purchased the pack and named it after his seat. The harriers are kennelled at Henham Hall, Wangford, and hunt two days a week over a large area of country which extends into Norfolk. Hounds were kept by Mr. Freestone's family as far back as 1722. The father of Mr. Anthony George Freestone hunted a pack of 22-inch harriers over the country which has since been hunted by the East Suffolk, Waveney, and Henham in turn ; the 22-inch harriers re- ferred to hunted hare until St. Valentine's day, and thereafter fox till the close of each season. The Hamilton Harriers were originally estab- lished about 1863 by the late Colonel Barlow of Hasketon, Woodbridge. A few years later, about 1868, they were taken over by the late Duke of Hamilton, who in 1872 bought Sir Thomas Boughey's famous pack of harriers and kennelled them at Easton Park. The duke hunted them at his own cost until his death in 1895, when they became a subscription pack under the name by which they were subse- quently known. Messrs. G. H. Goldfinch and L. Digby held the joint mastership for the first season (1895-6) of their existence as a subscrip- tion pack. Mr. L. Digby then reigned alone for one season, giving place in 1897 to his former colleague, Mr. Goldfinch, who held office till 1900. Mr. Goldfinch was succeeded by one of the most active and energetic sports- men in England, Mr. R. Carnaby Forster. When this gentleman took the mastership of the harriers he was already master and huntsman of his own pack of otter-hounds with which he hunted waters in various parts of England and Scotland, and in 1901 he accepted the master- ship of the Ledbury Foxhounds in Herefordshire, thus achieving the unique feat of holding three masterships concurrently, which he did until 1905. In that year the Lady Mary Hamilton took over the mastership of the harriers and hunted them at her own cost until 1906. On Lady Mary Hamilton's resignation the pack was taken over by Mr. S. Hill Wood of Oakley Park, Eye, who hunts about one-half of the Hamilton country, the hounds being known as the Oakley Harriers. In the same year Mr. A. Sowler of Stonham, near Stowmarket, established a new pack of harriers to hunt the Woodbridge and Ipswich side of the Hamilton country and therewith the Stonham, Stowmarket, and Men- dlesham districts, which had not been hunted by harriers for some years. The otter-hounds referred to were established by Mr. Carnaby Forster in 1895 as a private pack at Easton Park ; the master's residence was their head quarters, but as already said they hunted wherever opportunity offered, going to Scotland in August. The pack was given up in 1906. COURSING Public coursing appears to have been neglected in the county until comparatively recent times. Only in 1868 does mention occur1 of a small meeting at Kirkley. Kedington in 1877 was the scene of a two-day meeting, when Dr. Salter from over the Essex border won the principal stake, run- ning first and second with Polly and Madolina ; the Duke of Hamilton, Sir R. Lacon, and Mr. T. P. Hale were also represented at the meeting. At a one-day meeting in the following year Mr. H. P. Johnson won two stakes with 'Thacker. Scrumptious and Bag o' Bones, and again at Great Thurlow in 1879 won two of the four events. In that year there was another two-day meeting at Kedington over land occupied by Messrs. Goodchild, Pearl and Johnson. The life of the Kedington fixture, however, was brief, for after an excellent and well-supported meet- ing in 1880 it was discontinued. For ten years after this Suffolk coursing men had to look beyond the county borders for opportunities to run at public meetings, though private gatherings were brought off in many districts. In 1890 the Orford meeting was established under the 361 46 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK patronage of Mr. A. Heywood of Sudbourne Hall, who for some years added a cup to the Sud- bourne Hall Stakes. The meeting extended to two days and was well patronized. Orford is somewhat out of the way, but no better coursing is to be had than over the level marshes near the town. It should be said that meetings had been held at Orford for many years previous to 1890, but not under National Coursing Club rules ; so that no record of them exists. In the following year (1891) another successful meeting was brought off, Mr. G. M. Williams from Amesbury winning the Town Cup with his smart bitch Pat- tern, the Sudbourne Hall Cup being won by Mr. M. G. Hale's Happy Embrace. In 1895 Mr. Pye's Jessie Corner and Mr. Thurston's Royal Union divided the Orford Stakes, whilst Mr. T. P. Hale's Hair Restorer won the Sudbourne Hall Cup. There was not another meeting until 1 899, and then frost marred the sport. Mr. Giles's Ghost of a Belle and the useful Anstrude, belong- ing to Mr. H. T. Michels, divided the Orford Stakes. Mr. C. Brocklebank, a son of the late Sir Thomas Brocklebank, ran some greyhounds but without success. The meeting in 1901 was chiefly noticeable for the success of Messrs. Mayall and Sikes, who scored their first win by the aid of Such a Miser. Mr. Hyem's Hill Ranger, a dog who won several stakes over this country, was also successful. This was the first meeting held under the secretaryship of Mr. George Hunt, who still holds sway. Two years later Messrs. Mayall and Sikes repeated their success by winning both open stakes, and the same year the South Essex Coursing Club was invited to hold a meeting over the Orford marshes. Unfortunately heavy rains had rendered the land exceedingly wet, and the coursing by no means came up to the standard of previous meetings. Small gatherings at Orford are still supported by the tenants of the marshes. In 1894 a meeting was held at Mildenhall. The Club Stakes were won by Little Fan, the runner-up being Mr. Bouttell's Bogie, a name thereafter associated with the owner. Mr. T. P. Hale shared in theTuddenham Club Stakes with Hightown, out of his old favourite Hemstitch, and his more than useful dog Handkerchief also divided the Cavenham Stakes. Another small meeting was held at Mildenhall in 1899 and again in 1901, in either case being supported by local greyhound owners. About 1896 a few small meetings were held at Trimley on Captain Pretyman's estate, organized by Mr. Spencer Dawson and the farmers in the neighbourhood. They were chiefly noticeable for the extraordinary swiftness of the hares, which perhaps was brought into greater prominence by want of speed on the part of the greyhounds. The Eye Club was established and held its first meeting in 1901, and in the following February a two-day gathering was arranged. Mr. P. D. Chapman's Celia won the Avenue Stakes, the Longton Green Stakes being divided be- tween Mr. Barway's Bugler Dunn and Mr. Pitt's Walton Benedict. In 1903 this club assumed the name of the Oakley, Brome and Eye Club, and held a more important fixture. The piece of plate added to the Brome Hall Stakes by Mr. S. Hill Wood was won by Mr. Wilson's Hygeia, who ran really well, but unfortunately broke her leg when killing her hare in the final. The cup added by Lady Bateman to the Oakley Park Stakes was won by Mr. Harris's Straightaway II. In January 1904 another excellent meeting was held. The cup given by Mr. Hill Wood this time went to Ireland, Mr. Beyer's Casque D'or beating Messrs. Mayall and Sikes's Such a Mad- man in the final. The latter owners, however, won the Brome Hall Stakes and the cup added by the Hon. C. B. Hanbury with Such a Moucher. It must be added that in the final course Such a Moucher beat Mr. E. Herbert's Homfray, winner of the Waterloo Cup two months later. This was the first meeting held entirely under National Coursing Club rules and was a distinct improvement on previous efforts, excellent coursing being witnessed. A smart meeting was held in the following February, locally owned greyhounds being principally engaged. In February 1905 the meeting showed still further improvement and received a still wider range of patronage. The cup added by Mr. S. Hill Wood to the Oakley Park Stakes was kept in the county, Mr. M. G. Hale's Happy P'ortune beating Mr. Death's Aviary in the final. Mr. Death, however, had his turn, Day of Days winning the Brome Hall Stakes and the Hon. C. B. Hanbury 's Cup. Mr. Wellingham's Wild Wil- liam won the Avenue Stakes and Messrs. Mayall and Sikes the Langton Grove Stakes with Such a Mover. In 1905 the club brought off a really excellent meeting with a full card of four i6-dog stakes. Mr. Hill Wood with Wagga Wagga and Windrush supplied both the winner and runner-up for the Oakley Park Stakes, and his Hot Whiskey was only beaten in the final for the Brome Hall Stakes by that useful puppy, Top Hole, the property of Mr. Fred Tighe. Ruby Robe and Desperate Defence divided the Avenue Stakes, and Black Earl shared the Langton Grove Stakes with Mr. Hill Wood's Wendouree. In 1904 a club was formed at Benacre, and in December of that year a meeting was held over the estate of Sir T. V. S. Gooch, bart., the presi- dent. The Benacre Hall Stakes was won by Messrs. Mayall and Sikes's Such a Mover, who had to go twice to slips in the final with Mr. T. Cook's (the hon. secretary) Certainty. The Hall Farm Stakes and the cup added were won by the president's Girton Girl, Mr. Hill Wood's Warra- minta being the runner-up. Mr. Cook's Cheer- ful and Mr. Greig's Gay Gordon divided the Covehithe Stakes, the latter taking the cup given by Sir Thomas Gooch, whilst Mr. Thacker's Throwaway II, beating Mr. Hyde Clarke's Hard 362 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN Chisel in the final, won the Beech Farm Stakes and the cup added thereto by the president. In January, 1905, a one-day meeting was held over the same ground and was well supported locally, Mr. Edgar Smith winning two stakes with Stump Speech and Scholastic. In December of the same year a much more important programme was framed, a full card of two 32 and two 1 6-dog stakes rewarding Mr. Cook's efforts. The Ben- acre Hall Stakes and the cup presented by the town of Lowestoft were won by Mr. Death's Dutch Defence, who beat Mr. M. G. Hale's Happy Remedy in the final. Four puppies shared in the division of the Hall Farm Stakes, two of them, Staff Surgeon and Sixes and Sevens, belong- ing to Mr. Edgar Smith, the other two being Mr. Death's Diamonds Declared and Mr. Tighe's Top Hole. Mr. Smith's superior claims were recognized, and he took the cup which the club added to the stake. The Covehithe Stakes were divided by Mr. Mann's Black Earl and the hon. secretary's Calid, the former taking the cup given by Sir Thomas Gooch. Mr. Cook was again to the fore in the Beech Farm Stakes, winning Mr. J. S. Sterry's Cup with his useful dog Cabman, who beat Mr. Tubby 's Rare Talker in the final. Game was plentiful, the going was good, and the beating and all arrangements connected with the meeting exceedingly well carried out. The county claims many coursers whose grey- hounds have made their mark at the principal meetings in England. So long ago as 1838 the late Earl of Stradbroke won the Altcar Stakes, then run at the same meeting as the Waterloo Cup, with a dog named Madman, repeated the performance in 1840 with Marquess, and again in 1842 with Minerva, winning the Waterloo Purse with Magna the same year. Newmarket and Swaffham were perhaps the meetings he chiefly patronized, but he ran dogs at Ashdown in 1841 with conspicuous success, winning the Cup with Musquito, the Craven Stakes with Minerva, and two smaller stakes. In 1842 his Magdalen won the Swaffham Cup, Mango ran up for the Champion Puppy Stakes at New- market, and Minerva won the All-aged Stake there. The following year Mintman won the Swaff- ham Derby, and the Port Stakes at Newmarket in 1845. The kennel was in great form at Newmarket in 1846, winning the Derby with Mentor, the Cup with Manse, and the Port Stakes with Mac. Three years later Lord Strad- broke almost repeated this performance, winning the Derby with Merchant, the Oaks with Manto, and the Port Stakes with Mary. Merchant, Merrymaid, and Midnight in the following years maintained the prestige of the kennel. In 1857 Lord Stradbroke won three stakes at Newmarket with Miranda, Mahomet, and Mischief respectively ; Mischief in a previous season had divided the Champion Puppy Stakes. In those earlier days matches were greatly in vogue and Lord Stradbroke was conspicuously successful even against such opponents as Mr. Dobede, Mr. Fyson, and Captain Daintre. The present earl keeps a few greyhounds, and each year holds at Hen ham a Tenants' Meeting, at which he acts as judge. The late Duke of Hamilton was the possessor of a useful kennel of greyhounds in the seventies. In 1877 Huron ran into the last four of the Waterloo Cup, and the following year occupied a like position in the Purse. In 1878 High Seal ran up for the Ash- down Oaks, and the duke was highly successful later in the season at Newmarket, dividing the Champion Puppy Stakes with High Seal (beating Misterton), the All-aged Stakes with Bluebeard, and the Chippenham Stakes with Hawkshaw Belle. Harpsichord, High Pearl, and Hughie also ran with credit. A contemporary of the Duke of Hamilton was Mr. T. P. Hale, who inherited a love of the sport from his father. Mr. Hale started a kennel in 1872 ; Babety, out of the celebrated bitch, Bab at the Bowster, crediting him with perhaps his earliest success, by winning the Cheveley Stakes at Newmarket in 1873. For a few years no great success attended him, but in 1879 Heligoland divided the South of England Stakes at Plumpton. In 1882 Hoffman divided the Produce Stakes at the South of Eng- land Meeting at Amesbury, Hunooman the following year dividing the Cheveley Stakes at Newark, Hussey dividing the Southminster Oaks in 1884. Hippia, Huntingdon, Heart of Oak, and High and Mighty, were successful in succeeding years. Hemstitch in 1888 divided the Produce Stakes at the South of England Meeting at Stockbridge, a smart bitch out of a still smarter dam, Stitch-in-Time; Head Mourner, High Light, and High Tone, were also credited with winning brackets. Horizon won the Produce Stakes at Newmarket, and also at Wye in 1890, and Hardy Born in 1891 divided the Produce Stakes at Stockbridge. Handkerchief, out of Mr. Hale's old favourite, Hemstitch, in 1892, divided the Produce Stakes at Amesbury, the Produce Stakes at Southminster, and the Champion Puppy Stakes at Newmarket ; whilst Hardy Born won the Craven Challenge Cup at Amesbury, and Haverhill Lass, another daughter of Hemstitch, ran up for the Produce Stakes at Stockbridge. The following year Handkerchief divided at Newmarket and at Stokesby. High Wind, Hair Restorer, and Hailsworth also won stakes for the kennel. Since about the year 1880 Mr. M. G. Hale has had his kennel at Claydon, and perhaps no one in the county has made a bolder bid for Waterloo honours than he. In 1886 Happy Omen divided the Waterloo Plate. In 1894 Happy Relic divided the Purse, and three years later Happy Sight also divided the Purse, whilst Happy Sammy at the same meeting won three courses in the Waterloo Cup, being beaten by Five-by-Tricks in a desperately near trial ; in 1889 Happy Rondelle, another 363 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK excellent bitch, after her success in the Members' Cup at Altcar was thought to have a great chance, but she was palpably overdone and succumbed in the third round to Miss Glendyne. From the commencement Mr. Hale has rarely been without a good greyhound in his kennel. In 1883 Happy Flight divided the Ashurst Stakes at Plumpton, and in the following year Happy Hampton won the Ashford Stakes at Wye, and Happy Report was successful at Southminster and Cliffe. In the following year Happy Catch won the All-aged Stakes at New- market. In 1887 Happy Isle divided the Hast- ings Stakes at Plumpton, and Happy Omen the December Stakes for sixty-four greyhounds at Kempton Park. During 1888, at Altcar, Happy Knight won the Molyneux Stakes, Happy Omen the Sefton Stakes, and Happy Rondelle, as already stated, the much coveted Members' Cup. In 1890 Happy Embrace won the Sudbourne Hall Cup at Orford ; and two years later Happy Alice divided the Produce Stakes at both of the South of England Meetings, and Happy Mac paid two successful visits to Witham. The following year Happy Mac, Happy Relic, Happy Sunshine, all earned winning: brackets, and in * O J 1896 Happy Sammy won the Voloshovo Cup (presented by Count StrogonofF, the owner of Texture when she won the Waterloo Cup) at the Eastern Counties Meeting at Witham, Happy Sight dividing the Derby at the same place. Since that time perhaps the kennel has been less successful, but Happy Reflex, Happy Liking, Happy Delay, Happy Fortune, and Happy Heroine, amongst others, have won stakes. Among coursers of a later date mention must be made of Mr. S. Hill Wood, who has done much to foster the sport in the county. He opened his coursing career in a somewhat sensational manner by giving 220 guineas for Garbitas and 175 guineas for her sister, Good Form, at the Barbican in 1900. The former bitch gave evidence of her quality by dividing the Brent- wood Cup at Rainham the following year, and later in the season won the Barbican Cup at the same meeting. Since then Militant, Watch Me and her useful son Windrush, and many others have maintained the reputation of the kennel. Mr. Hill Wood is the leading spirit in the Oakley Broome and Eye Club, always ready to add a piece of plate, and under his supervision the meetings there have vastly improved. Another still later coursing recruit is Sir Thomas V. S. Gooch, bart., whose kennel has been recently established. It is chiefly through Sir Thomas's support that the meetings of the Benacre Club, which are held over his estate, have taken such a prominent position. SHOOTING No counties in the kingdom can compare with Norfolk and Suffolk for pheasant and partridge shooting. Which is the better county of the two is difficult to say, but perhaps the best grounds are found upon the border line. The economic value of shooting is well shown by the past and present conditions of the waste lands in the north-west of Suffolk. Years ago these were used only as sheep walks, and the labour employed upon them did not amount to 2s. 6ct. per acre per annum. At the present day nearly all these lands have been purchased or leased by men of wealth who cultivate the barren flint-be- strewed ' Brecks ' for game, in order to improve their shootings ; game thriving best where culti- vation is carried on. This means payment of wages amounting to £i per acre per annum and upwards. Such is one of the results of the intro- duction of the breechloader and the elevation of shooting to a science. Fifty years ago the artificial rearing of game was almost unknown. Now-a-days both landowner and labourer in Suffolk profit by the system of letting the land to a shooting tenant instead of allowing it to lie waste. One of the best estates for all-round shooting is Benacre Hall, which lies on the seaboard be- tween Lowestoft and Southwold. The writer is indebted to the courtesy of the present owner, 364 Sir Thomas Gooch, for the following particu- lars : — From 1811 to 1820,3,401 head of game was bagged ; the best records for one day being 20 brace of partridges, 40 pheasants, and 47 hares. No records were kept between 1820 and 1851. From 1851 to 1856 over 4,000 head was killed each year. The best day with partridges was 94 brace, this having been made on 25 Septem- ber, 1855. Pheasants were not numerous, but in 1856 the shooting was let for the first time, and the annual bag began to show an increase. In 1858-9 704 partridges were killed in five days. In 1860, 663 hares were shot in five days ; and this is the first evidence that hares had become at all numerous. In 1868-9, 3,803 partridges, 149 woodcock, and 1,734 hares were shot. In 1875-6, 3,203 pheasants were reared, and about the same number were killed. The bag in the season 1876-7 was 3,869 phea- sants, the highest number in any year until 1895-6, when the total was 5,940. In 1889, 184 snipe were bagged ; and 162 the year fol- lowing, 49 being shot in one day. In 1892, 960 head of wild fowl were killed, and in 1893, 1,001 wild fowl. As regards the largest aggre- gate of game killed in any one year, the season 1897-8 produced 16,709 head, made up as follows: Partridges, 3,420; pheasants, 4,981 ; hares, 365 ; rabbits, 6,834 ; woodcock, 31 ; SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN snipe, 47 ; wild fowl, 725 ; various, 306. Since 1897—8 partridges have done badly, the total bag in any one season not exceeding 1,133. In 1901-2, 250 brace of Hungarian birds were turned down to improve the stock, but there has been no appreciable increase in the number shot. In 1897-8, 1,581 partridges were killed in five days. In 1905-6, 4,674 head of game were killed in five days, viz. : Partridges, 122 ; phea- sants, 4,242; hares, 152 ; rabbits, 93 ; wood- cock, 33 ; wild fowl, 5 ; and pigeons, 27. During the whole season 1,030 hares were shot. Partridges have never been reared to any extent, but much benefit has been derived by changing the eggs from nests in one part of the estate to another. It is interesting to compare with these records those from another large estate on the north-west border of the county, where the conditions of soil, &c. are entirely dissimilar. Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, of Old Buck- enham Hall, a son of the late Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, G.C.S.I., who owned the celebrated Elveden estate for over thirty years, and was one of the best game shots of the day, has furnished some valuable notes of the game, more particu- larly partridges, killed from 1863 to 1893. In his letter to the writer Prince Frederick explains that the bags mentioned were secured at Elveden proper over an area of 1 7,000 odd acres, almost half of which was wood and heath. During the period 1863-93, inclusive, the largest bag of partridges was obtained in 1876, when 11,828 birds were killed. From September, 1876, to 2 February, 1877, the head of game killed was : Pheasants, 9,803; partridges, 11,823; hares, 1,724; woodcock, 26 ; snipe, 31 ; various, 70; rabbits, 31,609 ; of the last-named of course by far the greater number was trapped by warreners in the woods and the warrens. The next best season for partridges was about ten years later, namely, 1885-6, when 9,491 birds were shot. Of this number over 6,500 were killed in six- teen days' driving, by three guns, which gives an average of over 200 brace per day. The best bags were 428 brace, 326 brace, 309 brace, and 307^ brace ; the total head of game killed this season was : Pheasants, 1 1,921 ; partridges, 9,491; hares, 1,815 > woodcock, 77 ; duck, 8 ; snipe, i ; various, 124; and 58,140 rabbits, most of which were warrened. This gives a total of 81,877 nea(l for the season. The number of rabbits seems stupendous, but it must be remem- bered that some thousands of acres consist of a < blowing sand ' on which nothing will grow but a little heather and bracken, coarse tussock grass and a sort of grey lichen — beloved of rabbits. These lands from time immemorial have been rabbit warrens, and owing to the nature of the soil (into which the rabbits can burrow in a night) are practically useless for shooting purposes ; so the rabbits are annually trapped by warreners as in the neighbouring breck-lands and warrens of Norfolk. The calling of the warrener is heredi- tary in certain families in these counties. 77,365 is the largest number of rabbits killed here in one year during the above period. The season 1885-6 seems to have been the 'record' for woodcock as well as for pheasants, though the total of the latter is not to be compared with what is, I believe, obtained now-a-days. There were other very good seasons when from 6,000 to 8,000 partridges were killed, but the two years mentioned above are the best. The earliest bag recorded at Elveden is that for the year 1 834. Of course the area then shot over was very much smaller, about one-third of that on which the later bags were obtained. For that year the totals were : Pheasants, 674 ; partridges, 392; hares, 710; rabbits (shot), 248; wood- cock, 34 ; but the pheasants and partridges steadily rose in numbers until in 1857 there were killed: Pheasants, 1,823; partridges, 3,258; hares, 821 ; rabbits (shot), 368 ; woodcock, 33. The bag of partridges is really remarkable, as it was obtained in the old muzzle-loading days and on an area of about 3,000 acres of arable land. To revert to later times, perhaps the most extra- ordinary bag ever obtained at Elveden was when the late Maharajah killed 780 partridges (390 brace) to his own gun, driving and walking. This was in the year 1876, which, as we have seen, was the ' record ' year for partridges here. In the north-west corner of Suffolk several large estates almost overlap one another. These are owned by Viscount Iveagh (Elveden), the Duke of Grafton (Euston), Lord Cadogan (Cul- ford), Sir H. Banbury (Mildenhall), and the Marquis of Bristol (Ickworth). They vary in extent from 5,000 to 25,000 acres, and the total bag of game recorded each season depends much upon the quantity of birds reared by hand. The biggest days on such shootings may produce from 2,000 to 3,000 head (of winged game) for six to eight guns. All these estates are strictly preserved ; the tenant farmers are liberally com- pensated for any damage done to crops, and they are given many days' sport amongst them- selves ; an army of keepers, watchers, rearers, and general helps are employed ; the labourers are generously rewarded for nests found and vermin destroyed ; enormous sums of money are expended by the shooting owners and lessees in the locality. Thornham (Lord Henniker), Or- well Park (Captain Pretyman), Easton (Duchess of Hamilton), Henham Hall (Earl of Stradbroke), Brandon Park (Mr. A. H. Paget), Downham Hall (Colonel Mackenzie), Flixton Hall (Sir Frederick Shafto Adair), Somerleyton Hall (Sir Savile Crossley, bt.), Rendlesham Hall (Lord Rendlesham), Heveningham Hall (Lord Hunt- ingfield), Sotterley Park (Colonel Barnes), are some of the more noteworthy estates where most excellent sport is obtainable with pheasants, par- tridges, hares, and wild fowl. Upon one of these over 20,000 pheasants were shot during the season of 1905-6; nearly 100,000 rabbits 365 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK were taken from the warrens under one owner- ship, whilst over 500 brace of partridges were killed by six guns in one day, and considerably over 1,000 brace in three consecutive days upon several manors. In the year 1905 some controversy arose regarding the ' Euston ' system of rearing game, and on 7 November the Duke of Grafton wrote to the Times as follows : — I have never reared partridges in any way except having the estate watched and shepherds treated as friends. My system with pheasants is simply as fol- lows : After my brother's death, in 1882, I sent for my keeper and told him I meant to have no more rearing of and turning out tame barndoor pheasants, and he was to take all eggs laid in places liable to be taken, or where birds would be disturbed, and add them to the nests of the wild birds ; but at his request I allowed him to put these eggs under hens until near the time of hatching and then put into the wild birds' nests, and so all were hatched wild. When I told my keeper of my intention he was dismayed, but I was firm in my resolution, and at the end of the season he came to me and said, ' I am so glad your Grace was so decided, for we have had as good shooting as ever, and the gentlemen come to me and say, " What have you done with your birds, they get up wild all over the place ? " He simply told them, ' It is because they are wild birds." That system has been carried out ever since, and the shooting has improved every year. . . . My object was twofold, viz. to obtain good shooting and benefit the farmer. The shooting I have alluded to. I asked a tenant whether my system was good or bad for him. He said, ' There is this difference. Formerly in your brother's life (tame birds, not many) I used to find the tame birds at my stacks. I used to frighten them, but they only got up and went to the other end of my stacks ; but yours, directly they see me, fly away like wild birds and never come back that day.' On estates where foxes are plentiful the keepers run round the nest wire netting of 4-in. mesh. This allows the old bird to get through, and is small enough to keep large vermin out. About ten yards of netting are required for each nest, making a circle with a lo-ft. diameter ; this is sufficiently large for the bird to remain undis- turbed by a fox or dog outside — an important consideration, as if the bird is suddenly disturbed and hits the wire in flying off her nest she will probably desert. The wire is put round when the bird is laying, and apparently she soon becomes accustomed to it. Some keepers put the wire down some distance from the nest and gradually bring it closer, but this seems quite unnecessary. The obvious objection to this plan is the guidance it gives to egg stealers. In ordi- nary circumstances the egg stealer has to work by day with considerable risk of capture ; but where the nests are thus plainly marked he can work by night. In practice this objection is not a serious one, as the poachers are aware that eggs are often marked with the owner's name in in- visible ink. This method of safeguarding game eggs in a recent case (1905) effectually disposed of the defence put forward that the eggs came off a small farm in the prisoner's occupation. Where footpaths are numerous greater danger arises from the curiosity of women and children. One of the most distinguished sportsmen of Suffolk was the late Mr. F. S. Corrance, of Parham Hall, near Wickham Market, who shortly before his death furnished the following interesting notes of shooting in former days : — My own personal experience of shooting dates from the thirties and forties, but there were mighty sports- men before those days, and great shots, in whose hand* the flint-lock was a lethal weapon, and whose bags by dint of hard walking assumed quite respectable pro- portions. Among these keen veterans were Ross, Kennedy, Osbaldeston, Sutton, and George Hanbury, to whom are credited in the pages of Scrtipiania one hundred brace of grouse and partridges killed between the hour of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. the same day ; Ross is said to have won the last Red-House Cup shot for, with a score of 88 kills out of 100 shots. In those days shooting was confined to a particular class, and a certain property qualification was essential even to take out a licence, which, however, was not hard to get ; and except at Holkham and a few other spots, where the turnip cultivation introduced by Coke made walk- ing up the birds more profitable, a larger area of both these counties was still corn-land and fallow, and the long stubbles left by the reaping-hooks were shot with dogs. The number of guns did not exceed two, and the etiquette in the approach to a point, and the shot, was very rigidly enforced. The dogs dropped to shot, and no one moved until the recharge took place. There were few redlegs, and the wounded birds, if any, were retrieved by the pointers. To the real sports- man from ten to twenty brace was a fair day's sport, and involved plenty of walking and hard work. As a rule no tenant farmer shot, but at that date and up to the thirties there were many yeomen who farmed 200 or 300 acres of their own land, and they were some- times very dangerous neighbours to a highly preserved estate. During the last fifty years of the nineteenth century these farms have been almost entirely bought up and absorbed into the large estates, or their shoot- ing hired at some cost. Upon the whole the rela- tions between the owner and the cultivator were friendly, and the farmers, doing pretty well in other respects, with wheat at 65*., could afford to take some interest in the sport. Where did the labourer come in ? It is here we touch a sore point, for it must be confessed that between him and the game preserver there was not much love lost ; he was ill-paid, hard-worked, had lost his parish allowance under the new Poor Law, and was generally in a sullen state of discontent. In the preserved woods and plantations spring-guns and man-traps were set, notices to that effect being placed on the fences or walls. The poacher was not infre- quently a desperate character, and the shooting of a keeper was an act by no means uncommon. I could mention three or four manors whereon bloodshed of this sort occurred. Among young men it was regarded as rather in the nature of ' a lark ' to go out with cudgels for a free fight with the guardians of the night. I recall a desperate affray which took place at Campsey Ash, between nine on each side, being dismissed by the judge of the Assizes on the ground that it did not come under the night-poaching Act. On some 366 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN estates the men received a small sum for every nest of pheasants' and partridges' eggs which were hatched off, and by this means a modus vlvendi was established. The sale of game or game eggs was illegal at that date. It was in 1839 that my own shooting commenced, and although we still used pointers on the stubble the main shooting was in turnips ... the swede having been lately introduced. There was no mangel nor beet, and the white turnips were sown broadcast, which gave much better cover than drill-sown roots ; even the redleg would consent to remain long enough for a shot. The lines were kept with mathematical precision, and when a halt was made to load, even if a bird was winged, neither dog nor man dared to forestall the advance, and there was a second halt, often very much prolonged, to pick up ; to leave a bird unaccounted for was deemed unsportsmanlike. It was very trying, for the birds driven in with so much care were meantime going out, but it was a point of honour to men and dogs, and very few birds were left. No doubt there was a certain degree of monotony in the solemn noiseless tramp, but there was always something in front, and it was at least better than the long wait for the driven bird. The cream of all such shooting in Suffolk is upon its heaths which skirt the north-west border of the county and also lie between Felixstowe and Aldeburgh. There the red grouse might well exist save for the summer droughts. Several attempts have been made to introduce black game at Benacre, Scots Hall, Rendlesham, and Elveden ; but the birds, after living for a year or two in the wilder places, generally wandered and were shot. When food is scarce a cornfield is an attraction the blackcock cannot resist. Nor indeed, except at Butley, are there any firwoods large enough to give them the necessary winter cover. The walk up and over one of these large heaths — upon which the game has been driven by men or horsemen — must always be noble sport ; and on a •crisp October or November morning, with a gale blowing, they afford perhaps the most difficult shoot- ing at long rises we can have. I can remember one such, with five guns out, on what was then called Bucks Heath, at Rendlesham, when my own bag was 139 birds out of a total of 312. At Orwell Park, walking in a deep horseshoe line, I have seen equally good bags made. At Sudbourne and Arle there are also what may be called moors, though of less ex- tent, and at Scots Hall the deep valleys and quite respectable hill deserve their name. Blythburgh and Henham are not so wild, a good deal of clay being found in the soil, and it has been more extensively broken up, while beyond this the moorland generally gives place to marshes ; on these in old times the snipe- shooting was very good, and there were plenty of ducks. Benacre is the best shooting of this sort in Suffolk, and is visited during the winter by a great variety of fowl and waders as well as woodcock. Fine as all this range of wild shooting is, the quantity of game (hares excepted) which can be naturally produced is very inferior to the great inland plains consisting of light loam and chalk in Norfolk and Cambridge, where cultivation is more general and the amount of cereals less. This will be found to be invariably the case, and since the conversion of corn land into grass the deterioration of the shooting has been general and great in many parts. The number of pheasants has greatly increased, through the introduction of the new system of rearing under coops. This system was introduced by the gamekeeper to Mr. Robert Stone of Kesgrave in the thirties, although eggs had been gathered and put under hens before that date. At the beginning of the century it was thought mean to sell game ; sports- men of the old-fashioned school always gave it away to the last. Nothing would have induced them to receive money for it. Mr. Corrance makes some interesting obser- vations on the equipment of the sportman at the period referred to : — ' The shooting coat was of black velveteen, furnished with several small and large pockets, for sundry uses, such as instruments, guns, screws, pickers, tweezers and the like ; for although at the time I speak of detonators had come to stay, these garments still remained the fashion, indeed they were very necessary in the old days of flints. Breeches and gaiters completed the dress, with dog-whistles, whips, and couples often appended in various loops, while a cap crowned the head. As regards the gun we were at this date past the era of the flint-lock, and, though converted guns were common enough, the cap gun and nipple was in the hands of almost everyone. It did not miss fire often, even in the wet, and there was no changing flints, and although at least one great shot (Sir R. Sutton) declined to use it this was a mere freak on his part. A powder flask which held barely half a pound, and a shot belt containing two pounds of No. 5 and 6, were generally all that was required for the ordinary day's sport. The wadding was punched out of cardboard ungreased, and a ramrod attached to the gun was used to load. With the increase of game a change in guns took place. First, a powerful loading rod superseded the ramrod and materially increased the speed of loading. Con- siderable danger attended the use of this, and I witnessed two bad accidents, one to Lord Rendlesham and the other to Admiral Rous. Each lost a finger. It is probable that the second barrel had been left on cock. A good rmny ingenious 'safety' inventions came out as a consequence of the numerous accidents, but very shortly after the loading rod had come into use sportsmen gave up loading for themselves and employed a servant to carry a second gun. When well served the user of the old weapon could shoot nearly as rapidly as with a breechloader at a hot corner or at driven birds ; and when walking up partridges there was no halt after a shot. Once, when shooting upon General Hall's property (which was shortly after- wards let to the Duke of Cambridge) in company with six guns, I killed 240 birds in four days in January after the ground had been severely shot all the season ; on another memorable occasion at Oakley, 276 brace in the same month during a hurricane ; while on the same day at Orwell the bag was very little less. Pheasant shooting became more of an art as more trouble was taken in the flushing of the birds. It soon became the custom to put them up gradually and to arrange so that they rose over high trees before coming to the gun. But the bouquet of birds in a grand rush seldom gave the chance of getting four cocks with four barrels. At this date 300 to 400 pheasants was an average day's bag, but at Hevening- ham and a few of the larger estates 600 to 700 was generally reached at big shoots. Thus far the muzzle- loader had done its work. But agreat change was at hand, and a few years afterwards it was a thing of the past. 367 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Concerning the game birds of Suffolk the grey partridge may be considered as indigenous, although at one time it must have been much scarcer than at present. Probably this is accounted for by the absence of corn cultivation, upon which the bird so greatly depends, as is soon found when land is thrown down to grass. The pheasant bred wild, and the hen was not often shot. ' A brace of hens, gentlemen,' was the ordinary advice at the commencement of the shoot. One hundred cocks was a fine day's sport and was seldom exceeded, even at Ryde, the Duke of Norfolk's estate ; or at Whitmere Wood, when the Duke of York came down to Rendlesham. There was no artificial rearing of game, and the principal duty of the keeper was to trap or otherwise kill rats and other vermin. The pheasant was of the old variety (P. colchicui), as the China bird (P. torquatui) had not been introduced. The redleg partridge was not very common, nor had it made its way far from Sud- bourne, where it was introduced about 1818 by Lord Hertford ; and when shot at Henham or Newmarket at that date they were often stuffed as a ' variety.' When they were numerous they were not liked ; it was said they spoiled the dogs by running. On the light lands and the heaths they flourished, and soon established themselves along the entire country, but the prejudice against them was strong, and on some estates, such as Oakley and Brome, they were destroyed by the keepers. They were very wild at all seasons, and the best bags were made in snow when it was too deep for them to run — but this belongs to a later epoch. Neither quail nor land- rail visit Suffolk in any number ; while woodcock, if not rare visitors, do not stop long on their way to the west coast. Except by the seaside there is also little broken land left for snipe. In 1900 sixteen or seventeen great bustards,1 imported from Spain, were turned out upon the large barren ' breck ' lands of north-west Suffolk, and every care taken to guard them. It was hoped that they would thrive and multiply as in the days of old when, according to Mr. Henry Stevenson, the great bustard was extremely common in the county. The earliest mention of great bustard in Suffolk is found in the Household Books of the L'Estranges of Hunstanton ; the volume for the year 1527 contains the following entry : — 'The xljst weke.' . . . ' Wedynsday. Itm viij malards, a bustard, and j ' . . . ' hernsewe kylled wt ye cros- bowe.' And again, in the year 1530 amongst the list of gratuities : — ' Itm in reward the xxvth day of July to Baxters ' . . . ' sarvent of Stan- newgh for bryngyng of ij yong ' . . . * bustards ijd.' In 1825 these birds still bred in the open parts of the county round Thetford, though they were yearly becoming scarcer. The most reliable information is that collected 1 See also article on ' Birds,' V.C.H. Suffolk. by Mr. Henry Stevenson, according to whom, during the last hundred years, the history of the bustard is as follows : — The open country round Swaffham and near Thetford formed each the head quarters of a ' drove,' for so an assemblage of these birds was locally called. The Swaffham tract, a long narrow range, chiefly lying in the 'breck' district bounded on the east by the enclosed part of the country and on the west by the fens, extended probably from Heacham in the north to Cranwich in the south, if indeed it did not reach by way of Mundford and Weeting to the Wangford and Lakenheath uplands, which are strictly part of the Thetford or Stow tract. In this Swaftham tract the drove formerly con- sisted of at least twenty-seven birds ; it subse- quently decreased from twenty-three or twenty- two to seventeen or sixteen, then to eleven, and finally dwindled to five and two ; all accounts agreeing in this that the last remaining birds were hens. The hen bustard nearly always laid her eggs in the winter-sown corn, which in former days was without exception rye sown broadcast after the old fashion. As the mode of tillage improved, wheat was gradually substituted for rye, and the drill and horse-hoe came into use. After children had weeded the fields, speedier if not more thorough weeding was accomplished by the horse-hoe. Thus every nest made by a bustard in a wheat field was sure to be discovered — perhaps in time to avert destruc- tion from the horses' feet or the hoe blades. When found the eggs were generally taken up by the driver of the hoe (in defiance of the Act of 25 Henry VIII which, though often enforced when smaller and less valuable species were con- cerned, seems in the case of the bustard to have been a dead letter), and if not chilled by the time they reached the farm-house were probably put under a sitting hen. The latest authenticated nest from the old English stock is recorded from Thetford Warren in 1832; and the last birds were killed in 1838, 1843, and 1845. Though protection was accorded to this bird by some proprietors (the Duke of Grafton at Euston, Mr. Newton at Elveden, and Messrs. Gwilt at Icklingham), others permitted their persecution. George Turner, formerly a gamekeeper at Wretham, was suffered by the late Sir Robert Buxton, Lord Cornwallis (the latter owning the Culford estate, in which was included North Stow Heath, already spoken of as the ' head place ' for these birds) and others, not only to go in quest of them with a swivel gun, mounted on a wheelbarrow screened with boughs, a parch- ment stalking horse, or similar device, but even to construct masked batteries of large duck guns, placed so as to concentrate their fire upon a spot strewed with turnips ; and there is no question that he thus killed a very considerable number. The triggers of the guns were attached to a cord perhaps half a mile long, and the shepherds and other farm labourers on the ground were instructed 368 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN to pull this cord whenever they saw the bustards within range. A shepherd on the Place Farm, at Thetford, of which Sir Robert Buxton was landlord, has stated that on one occasion, about the year 1820, he saw five or six bustards, and pulling the string shot two cock birds. There is evidence also of hen bustards having been captured on their nests. Before 1811, Coulson, keeper to Lord Albemarle, tried ineffectually to throw a casting net over a sitting bird at Elveden ; he took her eggs, which were hatched out under a hen; the young, successfully reared, were eventually killed by dogs. More than ten years later, Mr. Booty, a farmer at Barnham, per- formed the feat with dexterity at Stow, and carried off the old bustard which he kept in the cheese room of his farm-house. Referring to recent reintroduction of these birds Lord Walsingham wrote from Merton Hall, near Thetford, to the Eastern Counties Magazine on 4 November, 1900 : — Up to the present time I am not aware that any systematic attempt has been made to reintroduce under conditions of complete liberty the noblest of our indigenous game birds, but on one occasion the late Lord Lilford took much trouble to find a mate for a single male bustard which was known to be at large in one of the fen districts of Norfolk in the year 1876. He telegraphed to several zoological gardens on the Continent before succeeding in his object, and the reply received in one instance (I think he told me it was Madrid) was, ' Nous n'avons pas des outardes : voulez-vous des faisans ? ' A healthy hen bird did at last arrive, but after being turned down and seen in company with the wild cock for some days she was unfortunately found dead in a ditch ; the male then disappeared and was not again heard of. An experiment has now been commenced under conditions promising at least a chance of better success. Sixteen birds have been imported and have been accorded full measure of care and hospitality on a large estate on the borders of Suffolk, where they will receive ample protection within the limits of an area of some 50,000 acres, owned by good sports- men with a friendly interest in natural history. When these birds arrived I clearly explained in a short letter to the local papers that this importation was due to the public-spirited enterprise of an English gentle- man resident abroad, and I must entirely disclaim any personal credit for what has been done. Con- trary to the inference drawn or implied by the writers of several newspaper articles which have lately appeared, I had nothing whatever to do with the matter until my advice was asked in what particular locality the best chance of success could be secured, when I made certain suggestions which have since been followed. The first shipment of sixteen birds arrived safely, and up to the time of writing one only of their number has died through an unavoidable accident. The wing-feathers were cut to insure safety of transport, and the time has therefore not yet arrived when they will be completely at liberty to fly when and where they please. In the meanwhile they have become very tame, but before they re-acquire the power of flight they will enjoy a run of some 800 acres of open land within the precincts of low wire-netting. . It is a curious coincidence that, in selecting a place where the surrounding conditions would be favourable to their liberty, I quite accidentally hit upon the very land on which the last breeding-colony of Great Bustards is known to have existed in England. I am credibly informed that some of the oldest residents in the district remember a flock of about forty and can still tell of the manner in which they were approached and killed by men engaged in agricultural work carry- ing a gun behind their horses. No small induce- ment to their destruction must have been found in the quantity of meat of excellent flavour afforded by these large birds. Although the Great Bustard is perhaps equally partial to open heaths and large tracts of cultivated land, it is almost exclusively a feeder on green food. So far as my experience goes, farmers need not anticipate any damage to their crops ; at the most perhaps the ordinary grass diet may be varied by some picking at turnip-tops, but for many years to come no considerable increase in numbers can be anticipated, and the killing of a few more wood- pigeons would probably more than compensate any loss that could possibly be sustained through extending friendly hospitality to the pioneers of our returning pilgrim?. For some time this small drove remained in the neighbourhood of Elveden, but it rapidly diminished in numbers until but a single pair remained. For two successive seasons this pair has nested, yet the eggs have not been hatched and examination proved that they were infertile. In 1904 the failure of the eggs to hatch was ascribed to the bird being disturbed while sitting, but last year (1905) the nest was formed in the centre of a large field, the crop thereon left uncut, and no one allowed to ven- ture into it ; notwithstanding these precautions, nothing resulted. At the spot where the bus- tards were liberated, a large surrounding area be- longs to two or three keen sportsmen, among them being Lord Iveagh, Lord Cadogan, the Duke of Grafton, Sir H. Bunbury, and the Mar- quis of Bristol, and it was thought the combined estates of these owners would prove an area be- yond which the bustards would not ramble. However, the birds have disappeared one by one, and there is no doubt the majority have been shot or otherwise killed at a considerable distance. Professor Babington, in his catalogue of the 'Birds of Suffolk' (1884), says an attempt was made about 1866 to introduce the red grouse into Suffolk. Four were turned out at Butley Abbey Farm, belonging to Lord Rendlesham. It was also turned down at Elveden by the Ma- harajah Duleep Singh. In two successive years (1864 and 1865) the Maharajah had a quantity of grouse brought from his Scotch moor, Gran- tully, Perthshire, and turned down at Elveden, but the experiment proved a complete failure. He attributed it to lack of water. His highness also in 1865 tried capercailzie and blackgame with a like result. In 1878 he obtained some capercailzie eggs from Scotland, and made a second attempt. The eggs hatched out well j 369 47 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK and the young birds appeared at first to be healthy and strong ; but after a short time they refused the artificial food supplied to them, searched upon the grounds for their natural food, and failing to find it pined and died. The great drawback was the want of running streams and the sandy and dry nature of the soil. Professor Newton says that the experiment of turning out grouse in Suffolk was tried by a Mr. Bliss at least ten years before this at Brandon, but with a like result. Greater success has attended the most recent attempts to establish grouse on the heather of Suffolk, and the birds now show every sign of remaining where they are safe. About 1900 twenty brace of strong, healthy birds were turned out, and each year they have nested and reared broods ; the latter thrive best during a wet breed- ing season. Drought is detrimental to the broods, hut water being supplied artificially to every por- tion of the estate they suffer less from this cause than might be expected. In the season of i 904—5 they showed material increase. A few annually fall victims to the telegraph wires which line the Thctford and Newmarket roads, and these are generally young birds which can ill be spared. Fresh blood is introduced each season by placing eggs in the nests. Repeated experiments have been made at Elveden and elsewhere in Suffolk to establish blackgame, but hitherto none of them have met with anything like success, although a few birds still remain in the neighbourhood of Thetford and Lakenheath. Roedeer are found in the big woods of Elveden. The late Mr. R. Fielding Harmer, writing on i March, 1890, in the appendix to Emerson's JVild Life on a Tidal Water, says : — After twenty-five years' interval — that is since 1863 — only an occasional straggler of the Pallas Sand Grouse ' has been obtained in East Anglia until i June, 1888, when numbers made their appearance in different parts of the two counties. On that date 20 were seen on the Denes not far from Breydon, flying to the north, and afterwards seen ' settled ' on the sandhills. None of these were obtained. Again on T, June two more were seen on the North Denes flying to the north and none of these were secured, and on 1 2 June six were seen flying across Breydon. Several specimens were shot hereabout and also in other parts of Norfolk during this ' Tartar Invasion.' Soon after the Norman conquest many of the manorial lords had grants of free-warren, that is, the exclusive right of killing beasts and fowls of warren within certain limits. Some of the sandy portions of East Anglia, particularly much of the light land in south-west Norfolk and north-west Suffolk, became particularly noted for their ' conies,' and a big district of west Norfolk was popularly known as the ' rabbit and rye ' country. Black rabbits are mentioned in the Paston 1 See also article on ' Birds,' V.C.H. Suffolk, i. Letters about 1490, and the Household Book of Thomas Kytson of Hengrave contains the following entry in October, 1573 : ' For baiting my Mr his horse at Brandon, etc., For vj Black Coney skins to fur my Mrs her night gown iiijs, iiijd.' This indicates that even at that day the fur had a decided market value. Sir Henry Spelman in 1627 mentions that the ' Champion (open country) aboundeth with Corne, sheepe, and conies.' The third Duke of Grafton used to call the broad ditches with their honey- combed banks 'Suffolk graves' ; and the fifth Earl of Albemarle in Fifty Yean of My Life said : ' The whole county is a mere rabbit warren, and still goes by the name of the holey (holy) land.' But even though rabbits were plentiful the penalties for taking them from enclosed land were extremely heavy.2 Two cases prove the severity with which the law with regard to taking rabbits was administered. At a quarter session held at Bury St. Edmunds in January, 1805, a man named G. Cross was convicted of stealing a trap and two rabbits from Wangford warren, and was sentenced to six months' soli- tary confinement and hard labour, and to be publicly whipped at Brandon. In 1813 Robert Plum, aged twenty-two, and Rush Lingwood, aged eighteen, were indicted at the Norfolk assizes, held at Thetford, for entering the warren of Thomas Robertson of Hockwold, farmer and warrener, and taking one cony from a trap. Plum was transported for seven years, and Ringwood received two years' imprisonment. The appendix to Martin's Histtry of Thetford contains a most interesting lease of Santon Manor from Thetford Abbey to William Top- pyng of Kenninghall in 1535. The lease included all the manor, together with the waren there, and the profits of the conys of the same waren. If the said William let the conies from the waren build earths beyond the high- way between West Tofts and Wceting, by which conies should tarry and multiply within Lynford Warren, then it should be lawful for the prior and convent and their successors to take as many conies as they would beyond the said way. Toppyng was at the end of the lease to leave the warren stocked with as many rabbits as he found therein. The prior and his successors ' An Act was passed in 1563 to prevent the taking of ' conies ' from enclosed grounds. Proving of little avail, it was strengthened in 1 60 1 (3 Jas. I, cap. 13), by ' Acte against unlawful hunting and stealing of Deere and Conies.' This set forth that since the statute of 1563 divers grounds had been enclosed and kept for the preservation of deer and conies, and there was no sufficient remedy against those who hunted and killed them, it was therefore enacted that per- sons breaking into parks, &c., and taking deer or conies should be punished by three months' imprison- ment, pay treble damages, and find sureties for seven years' good behaviour. A further enactment set forth that commoners could not lawfully dig up cony burrows in a common. 37° SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN were also to have liberty to hunt and fish in the warren and water, and enjoy reasonable disports and libertie, with their bowes and with forrett in the said waren so that they and eny of them, at eny suche tyme of ther beyng ther, shall not take or kill, nor cause to be taken or killed in the said waren, above the nombre of three capill (couple) coneys, without the consent of William Toppyng. Rabbits still flourish greatly in the district, being nowadays chiefly caught for edible pur- poses ; but the fur is made into felt and the skins into glue at the neighbouring town of Brandon. Many farmers still rely on rabbits to pay their rent, and some, whose land is suitable for rabbit rearing and perhaps unsuitable for almost everything else, make them the sole object of their attention. WILD-FOWLING The low-lying coastline, intersected in all directions by estuaries and rivers running inland, with innumerable fens, swamps, and vast stretches of marshes, provides opportunities for wild-fowling unrivalled by any other county. The three recognized branches of wild-fowling are, punt- gunning, shore-shooting, and flighting. As a business, decoying stands alone. During recent years several systems have come into favour whereby wild fowl are made to augment the shootings of most estates. Eggs are purchased and hatched oft under hens, the ducklings being hand-fed in certain ponds. The day before shooting the birds are caught, taken to a spot a mile or so distant, and released at intervals. Flying as they do straight home to their feeding- place, they come over the guns posted in the line of flight. Or they are simply ' put up ' with the pheasants or other game, or alone, and shot whilst circling round. On some of the larger estates a line of flighting ponds is estab- lished. These are small ponds reserved and arranged solely for the accommodation of hand- reared wild duck, half-breds and wild birds which are attracted by those haunting such waters. Every evening they are fed at certain places which arc generally as far as possible from the most secluded ponds. Once a week a flight- ing party shoots the fowl coming in to one of the feeding- places, which are used in turn to avoid breaking the ' lead in ' to the flighting grounds. Punt-shooting is practised upon the estuaries and oozes of the Stour, Orwell, Deben, Aide, and Breydon Water ; the walls and banks arc also the resorts of the shore-shooter ; the beach- line, especially from North Weir Point to Orford Ness, is a favourite haunt of the shore- shooter. Almost every species of waterfowl and wader known in England occurs, but the sport varies in accordance with the weather. These waterways being very easy of access, many Londoners come down in the winter and hire fishing craft, steam and motor launches, even tugboats, in which they move along the estuaries and coast. Such craft, and, in less degree perhaps, the periodical artillery practice and firing of signal guns stationed along the coast, have been instrumental in driving away the vast flocks of wild fowl and geese that formerly made the estuaries near Harwich their winter quarters. The myriads of ' oxbirds ' (dunlins) and waders have also been thinned. Before steamers were known on these waterways, fowl and geese were shot by shore-shooters while flying over the neck of the land south-west of Harwich from the neighbouring marshes to the sea at tide-turn. The Deben was never a good place for punt- shooting except when hard weather drove the birds to the coast, though fowl from the neigh- bouring decoys feeding in the river and on the marshes, especially at night, afforded a certain amount of sport to the flight and shore shooter. Practically the same remarks apply to the River Aide, which lies a little north of the Deben. Southwold marshes and the creek well up be- yond Walberswick Ferry were always favourite grounds for the shoulder gunner, providing more especially teal, mallard, and wigeon. In this district, perhaps, the ruddy sheldrake has been more frequently found than in any other part of England. In west Suffolk gadwall are still fairly common. North of Southwold lies Easton Broad on the Benacre estate ; a small piece of water separated from the sea by a narrow strip of beach. For its size this water is visited by perhaps larger quantities of teal and mallard than is any other in England, excepting Hoik- ham Lake in Norfolk and Tring in Hertfordshire. It is strictly preserved, and the writer has seen 2,OOO to 5,000 wild fowl rise at a gunshot. Fifty years ago any flight-shooter visiting the marshes or borders of the saltings almost any- where in the county at flight-time could make certain of obtaining a dozen shots or more ; now a walk of many miles and much study of locality is necessary to obtain three. At the most north-eastern extremity of Suffolk lies Breydon Water, which some hundred years ago was about the best place for wild fowl on the east coast. But when, in the forties, Sir Morton Peto built the railway line from Reedham to Great Yarmouth, and the country was drained, the flats gradually silted up and the birds yearly diminished in numbers, until it was not worth while launching a punt — except during a severe frost. A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK The late Mr. R. Fielding Harmer, in the appendix to Emerson's Wild Life on a Tidal Wattr, says : — A black stork was shot on Breydon Water on 27 June, 1877, also the only specimen of the Mediterranean black-heade i gull ever shot in England was killed here on 26 December, 1866. On 22 May, 1890, an Asiatic or Caspian plover was shot on the North Denes close by Breydon. This is the only specimen ever observed in England. In former years, godwits, knots, and grey plovers abounded, whilst ring dotterels, greenshank, and turnstones were found in large numbers. Spoonbills, avocets, and spotted red- shank were obtained every season. For example, on 20 May, 1866, and for three or four days after, thousands of godwits and knots were pass- ing in a north-easterly direction, followed for several days by stragglers ; in May, 1877, only two godwits were seen, and four knots were shot. Some very heavy shoots have been made on Breydon at swans, geese, wigeon, curlews, godwits, knots, plovers and other fowl, but during the last sixteen years fifteen or twenty at a shoot is exceptional. The best season Mr. Harmer remembered was the winter of 1854-5. All kinds of fowl were abundant and fine specimens of smew, goosanders, mergansers, and male golden-eyes were shot ; geese were numerous, while coots, dunlin, knots, and plovers abounded. He remembers two herds of swan ' sitting,' one numbering seventeen birds and the other thirty-four ; after that season he never saw a larger herd of swans than eight until 1889, when one numbering eighteen was counted. Within Mr. Harmer's knowledge, two mature females excepted, no brent geese were shot on this water for forty years until 5 October, 1883, when five were killed ; none have been seen since. Seven is the largest number of spoon- bills seen here at one time ; on 9 June, 1873, however, three were killed at one shot. Five is the greatest number of avocets seen here at one time ; these appeared on 3 May, 1887, and four were shot. These birds are seen in pairs or singly, whilst spoonbills are generally found singly. With the exception of two mature birds, the red-necked grebe had not been seen since 1852, 1854, and 1865, until 30 October, 1870, when a mature female was shot. In 1887 fewer curlews were seen than in any year pre- viously, but during September and October grey plovers were abundant, particularly from 9 to 1 7 September. This was quite a feature of the autumnal migration. Two specimens of the long-tailed duck were shot 27 and 28 October. A Manx shearwater was caught alive in Septem- ber, 1857, by an eel-picker. A grey phalarope (immature male) was shot 28 September, 1887. During December several bean geese arrived in the North Marshes close to Breydon. Thirteen settled on the flats 8 January, 1888. The absence of sheldrakes was a very noticeable feature, only five having been seen during the whole season. A male merganser was shot on i March, 1888. The season for wild fowl shooting proper for 1889-90 may be dismissed as the worst on record. As the number of birds visiting the estuaries has decreased, so have the professional and amateur puntsmen. Nevertheless a sharp frost not only drives all inland fowl to the coast, but brings the frequenters of northern climes south- ward, and excellent shooting may be enjoyed upon the estuaries named, more especially if launches and similar noisy craft are absent. In former days some marvellous bags were made by punt-shooters on the Stour, who used to approach a big company of geese and wild fowl with their punts in line, and firing together at a signal, bag some hundreds at a volley. Even at the present time during a sharp frost these rivers are packed with wild birds, and the flocks of geese, wigeon, and other fowl are of almost incredible size. The author of British Field Sports says he has seen upon the Manningtree river a shoal of coots two miles long and half a mile across as thick as they could well swim. This statement probably refers to the thirties. Forty years ago enormous flocks of common and velvet scoters, scaup, and other ' hard ' fowl used to frequent the coast from Yarmouth south- wards to the Nore, and the writer's father records having seen, while punting in the road- steads from Kessingland Beach, a flock several miles in length which must have contained tens of thousands. It consisted almost entirely of 'curres' or short-winged fowl. His method of punting in a seaway with a strong tide was interesting. He carried a very long line and a small anchor. When a flock was located the anchor was dropped and plenty of line paid out. The punt was steered away from the track, the manipulator waiting an opportunity to sheer back again. The stronger the tide the greater the impetus attained by the punt, with attendant advantages to the gunner. All ' curres ' or short-winged fowl at sea, after floating a mile or two on the tide, are wont to rise and fly back to their original starting points, and fowlers would sometimes charter a local fishing boat and anchor in the feeding ground of the birds, so obtaining sport of a kind. In the roadsteads scaup duck and common scoter (the latter locally called ' black duck ') are still to be found in hundreds, where fifty years ago they were to be seen in countless thousands, but they are practically useless and are therefore seldom sought. The three most distinguished punt-gunners in the country during the past century were the late Mr. Fielding Harmer, the late Mr. Fred Palmer, both of Great Yarmouth, 372 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN and Mr. W. S. Everitt ' of North Cove Hall and Oulton Broad near Lowestoft. 1 The last-named gentleman (father of the present writer) is one of the oldest living punt-gunners ; he contributes the following interesting notes on the equipment of the sportsman in the days of the flint- lock :— ' In the thirties percussion guns began to supplant flint-locks. Two or more methods were adopted in conversion. One was to screw in a plug at the side to take the place of the pan, with a nipple for a per- cussion cap screwed into this plug protruding from the gun so that the hammer fell upon it and caused ignition ; the other was to tap the bottom of the barrel and screw on the end a chamber which was fitted with a nipple. This was by far the best method known, and rendered an old gun equal to a new one. Most converted guns were fitted with these so-called "patent breeches". ' Just before percussion ignition was introduced, waddings were invented and old playing cards were much in demand ; but sheets of specially manufac- tured wadding paper enabled sportsmen using a gun- wadding punch to provide themselves with wads. Old beaver hats were also used for this purpose, and an enthusiastic sportsman would cut up his father's hat before the owner considered it had done duty in its original capacity. Some old-fashioned sportsmen came into the field with strings of papers attached to their button-hole. In the forties one of these worthies in a party, however much he might be respected, was a nuisance, as he would double the paper in his own particular fashion before ramming it down, and thus prolonged his loading quite unnecessarily. A loader was not the fashion amongst orthodox sportsmen. Should a shooter happen to be using waddings which had been cut without a dent in the rim, to enable the air to escape, the entire charge of powder would often escape through the touch-hole ; then the wad had to be drawn before the charge of powder could be renewed, and this caused a good deal of what at the present day may be called Parliamentary language. When the wind was high the powder was often blown out of the pan of a flint-lock, and a careful sportsman made a practice of examining this every time a point was made before considering himself ready, and if the powder in the pan proved deficient he had to add a little from his powder horn. The correct thing to carry was a bullock's horn with a measurer at the top on which one placed a finger, inverting the horn and pushing up the spring cutter so that the measure filled with powder. The nozzle of the measure was then placed in the muzzle of the gun to pour the powder down the barrel. There were awful risks attending this process, because in loading a double- barrel gun, one barrel of which had been fired, the hand was constantly over a loaded barrel at full cock. Powder horns were also made of copper, brass, or block tin, and just as muzzle-loaders went out of use, an improvement was invented whereby the measure of the powder horn was turned up, so that when it was inserted in the barrel, the powder horn itself was not immediately over the loaded barrel, and there- fore less likely to burst in one's hand if the charge accidentally exploded ; an accident of not uncommon occurrence in those days. Shot was carried in a long belt which was hung over the left shoulder with a measure at the lower end fitted to withdraw. An improvement upon this were the shot pouches, leg-of- About a hundred years ago, more than 100,000 acres of rough fen land in the north-west of the county were, according to the agricultural survey, out of cultivation, but this estimate did not in- clude the vast stretches of ' meal' marshes, saltings and sandhills adjacent to the big estuaries on the east and south-east. Apart from the effects of steam drainage the county has not materially altered in its outward aspect, and wild fowl are found to-day in all parts, especially on the coast and where big estuaries penetrate far inland, or where they can rest undisturbed. By reason of modern arterial drainage the fen lands of Milden- hall, Lakenheath, and Brandon are rapidly closing up, and the number of wild fowl visiting them annually decreases. Old meres and pools are also being converted into marsh land, and many of the decoys which in former times were valuable properties are now become rush-grown swamps. The Suffolk decoys 2 still working are those at Iken, Chillesford, Orwell Park, Bixley, or Purdis Hall, Nacton (two), Fritton (two). Disused decoys still exist at Lakenheath, Benncre, Friston, Brantham, Flixton, Worlingham, and Campsey Ash. Iken decoy is about six milss south-east of Saxmundham on the shores of the River Aide. It covers 16 acres, 2 of which are open water, and has six pipes. It dates back 150 years. During the seasons 1880 to 1885, inclusive, 4,896 duck, 5,183 teal, and 1,169 wigeon — total 11,248 — were taken. Chilles- ford decoy is three miles south-west of Iken, and close to Butley Creek, which enters the River Ore at Havergate Island. It covers 20 acres, 2 acres of which are open water ; it is over 100 years old. The average annual take is about 250. Orwell Park decoy lies nearer Levington Heath than the park from which it takes its name. It was designed and made by Sir Robert Harland about 1830. Colonel George Tomline, the succeeding owner, considerably improved the decoy, which he bequeathed to Captain Pretyman, who now owns it. The annual take rarely exceeds 1,000, but the returns were much heavier when the decoy was first opened ; a three-years' average, 1853—5, giving 2, 1 50 per annum. During a period of eighteen years 27,990 wild fowl were taken, of which 5,700 were wigeon. The Nacton, Bixley, or Purdis Hall decoys were opened many years ago (date mutton shape, with spring clip ends to automati- cally measure the charge. ' Rattling ramrods up and down the guns was a terrible process, and for hard shooting a loading stick with a good knob at the end was often carried, which with proper wadding accelerated the process and enabled one to withdraw the rod when it stuck, a thing likely to occur at the end of a hard day's shoot- ing, owing to the burnt powder that fouled the barrel. That our forefathers were able to shoot as they did with all these drawbacks, misfires and hang- fires, speaks volumes for their patience and skill.' 1 Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey. 373 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK unknown) ; they lie two miles from the Orwell Park decoy, and belong to Admiral Sir George Broke Middleton, bart., of Broke Hall. The larger covers 10 acres, and has six pipes. The annual take does not average 750. Fritton decoy is on the island formed by the River Waveney, which has outlets to the sea at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Fritton Lake is over two miles long, almost entirely surrounded by dense planta- tions, and is the property of a number of owners, most of whom at one time possessed and worked several pipes. At present only three or four pipes are in use ; these are situated at the east end of the lake, and are owned by Sir Savile Crossley, bart. Some good takes have been made in Sir Savile Crossley's four pipes, viz. : 1864-5, 1,063; 1866-7, V3°; 1868-9, 1,045; 1869-70, 1,463; 1874-5, 1,104; 1878-9, 1.533; 1879-80, 2,411; 1884-5, 2,084; 1885-6,953. Colonel Leathes of Herringflect Hall had five pipes, which have been worked by members of his family for 200 years ; he recollects 600 ducks being taken on each of several nights in succession in the Herringfleet decoy alone, whilst takes equally heavy were bein^made elsewhere upon the same lake. Duck and mallard, wigeon, teal, pintails, shovellers, with a few gadwall, pochards, and goosanders, were the fowl taken. Colonel Leathes used to clear £300 per annum from his decoy. The veteran decoyman, John Fisk, died at Herring- fleet. His best takes were made on still, moon- light nights ; he took over 200 at a single drive, and 600 birds in one night. Of the disused decoys in Suffolk perhaps Lakenheath (near Mildenhall and Thetford) is one of the most celebrated. An old gamekeeper living in the parish in 1878 declared that he once saw fully 3,000 fowl sitting outside the decoy in the fen ; the decoy was so full there appeared to be no room for another bird. The record from Lakenheath is I 5,000 in one season. The railway line from Brandon to Ely wrecked its prosperity. Benacre decoy (near Wrentham and Southwold) is peculiar, being built on the open marsh with neither tree nor large bush any- where to shelter it. At Iken, also elsewhere in the fen lands of Suffolk, ' pochard ponds ' were profitably worked.1 On one or two occasions within living memory the capture of pochards, or dunbirds as they are locally called, has been so great at one pull of the net that a wagon and four horses were required to remove them. Five or six hundred at one pull of the net was in the early years of the nineteenth century considered quite a moderate capture. The modus operandi was to affix high nets to long poles which were laid flat upon the ground near the edge of the pond, and so arranged with balance weights that on pulling a string they sprang upright. Several 1 The best description of the working of a pochard pond will be found in Folkard's Wtldfwiler. of these nets were set at various carefully selected points, and a deep trench was dug at the foot of each from which the birds were unable to escape. The nets being ready, the birds were frightened off the pond ; the moment they left the water the nets were freed, and, springing up, intercepted the heavily flying fowl before they were fairly on the wing, throwing them into the trenches. Plover netting, also the snaring of snipe, ruffs and reeves, were much in vogue before the days of breech-loaders, but now the snipe springe is a thing of the past ; ruffs and reeves seldom occur, much more rarely do they remain to nest. The lapwing from time immemorial has furnished excellent sport. The large open ' brecks ' with the heaths, warrens, and sheep walks in the north-west of the county have always been its favourite haunts. The number of eggs gathered in the spring in times past seems incredible. An expert at the egging business can walk direct to each nest with the greatest certainty, though some half-dozen pairs of old birds are on the wing at one time; he can also tell in an instant by the actions and flight of the birds not only the males from the females, but also how many eggs their nests contain, and whether they are freshly laid or partly incubated ; and if the latter, for about what period. In the Hockwold and Felt- well fens and in the neighbourhood of Swaffham, Castle Acre, Walton, West Acre, Harling, Roudham, Thetford, Brandon, and Euston, these birds still nest in thousands. During a frost or first snowfall they visit the estuaries and ' meal ' marshes on the coast, where they are killed in great numbers, flight-time being most in favour with the shoulder gunner. Perhaps the most celebrated snipe-shooting grounds in Suffolk in days gone by were the ' Whitecaste ' track, to the west of Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft. About 1880 the writer often saw 500 and 1,000 snipe on wing at one time, and two guns might kill thirty couple in a day. The marshes consist of some 40 acres, and belong to the poor of the parish. It is said that ' a bet of £5 was once made by a local habitat that one could not dig up a square foot of soil anywhere in the middle of these marshes with- out sifting therefrom an ounce of shot.' The excellence of the snipe grounds on the Benacre estate has already been noted ; at this day five- and-twenty couple is not an extraordinary bag. Before the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1880 was passed, excellent sport was obtainable with the redshanks from 4 to 14 July ; on the latter date they leave for the coast. The mode of shooting these was to watch the movements of the older birds and so ascertain the most fre- quented marshes ; on an appointed day the guns were told off, some to walk up, others to take a place in fixed stands to shoot the wilder birds. These ' stands ' were reed hurdles, temporary screens, a convenient bush, clump of reeds or coarse litter, as might be most convenient. The 374 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN walking-up division beat the ground with dogs towards the guns concealed in the stands, shoot- ing the young birds that rose ; the old red- shanks were spared as a rule, being at that period of the year comparatively worthless. The guns posted forward got the best of the sport, as the birds flew over them at high speed. The flies and midges which swarmed and the excessive heat made redshank-shooting hard work ; falls into a dyke or bog-hole were frequent ; and a swim in the river without removing one's clothes often concluded the day's proceedings. Large, bags were seldom procured ; the attraction of the business lay in the necessity for exercising practical knowledge of the ground and habits of the birds, and the hard work which was essential to success. Some twenty years ago hundreds of pink- footed geese were wont to visit daily the marshes of the Waveney valley between Oulton Broad and Beccles, but now they are never seen there, and wild fowl are very scarce. Reclamation of the waste lands is entirely responsible for this. The picturesque old windmills are gradually disappearing, and steam drainage has deprived the marsh levels of those stagnant puddles and quagmires in which snipe and wild fowl revelled. In 1878 the writer saw a stilted plover (Himan- topus candidus) in the Waveney valley, and shot a pochard at flight on I August in the same year at Barnby ;a few years later he observed nine barnacle geese in the month of March on Oulton Broad. In 1848 the Rev. F. O. Morris records that a common scoter was shot at Beccles in February. Wild-fowling a hundred or fifty years ago was really profitable, and there were many men who practically earned their living as fowlers. These made snaring a science. The wild-fowler's mainstay, however, was his dog, and the clever- ness of the mongrels used was remarkable. They would hunt up the quarry, and, when it was killed, retrieve it from the most impassable bog or mere. These wild-fowlers' treasures are seldom seen nowadays. They were specially trained to act as decoys for the gun, and would enter into the business with as much zest as their owners. A small brownish dog is the one most liked : the more nearly it resembles a fox the more effective will it be. Its training; is simple ; it is required merely to gambol in an eccentric fashion, implicitly obeying the gesture of its master's hand. Black retrievers have been used to decoy birds within range, but the antics of these must be carefully superintended and the dogs particularly intelligent. One method of decoying birds within range of the gun is to take advantage of the habit, to which ' wypes,' as lapwings are locally called, are much addicted, of mobbing an intruding fox or dog (they have been known to mob cats prowling upon their domain). The dog is trained ac- cordingly, and the shooter discovering a field or suitable marsh frequented by the lapwings con- ceals himself close by and sends the dog round to the further side to rush through the midst of the birds. These, recovering from their first alarm, follow and mob him, until lured within range of the ambushed sportsman. The dog is trained to run straight into the ambush, and instantly crouch motionless to the ground, as lapwings, when one of their number is shot, almost invariably follow it, and several couple can thus be secured. If they see neither the shooter nor the dog, and one or more be shot, they are almost certain to swoop to them. Sometimes an attendant leads the dog round to the point whence he is to be released. Another plan confined almost exclusively to decoying wild ducks is extremely simple and generally effective, but it requires the aid of an intelligent dog. Having marked down wild fowl upon some small sheet of water, the shooter conceals himself within reasonable distance, and directs the dog to perform his part. This is to jump suddenly into view upon the bank, and madly chase his tail round and round for a few seconds and disappear. Out again and back instantly, with many variations of antic. The ducks act almost precisely as they do at the entrance to a decoy pipe. First they are a little disturbed ; then, yielding to curiosity, they swim shoreward, collecting closer and closer the nearer they approach. Biding his opportunity, the shooter waits until they arrive within range : the dog then plays the part of retriever. As a breeding ground for wild fowl Suffolk still retains her superiority owing to the number of carefully preserved estates. ANGLING The principal angling rivers in Suffolk are the Waveney and the Stour. The streams of north- west Suffolk, though not large, contain enormous •quantities of coarse fish of nearly every kind. On the Little Ouse, Santon Downham deep is a noted place for anglers, and Croxton Staunch, Brandon, also has some very good deeps full of fish. Lower down is Lakenheath, famed for big pike and perch. Close to the staunch are the famous cross waters, full of large perch. Another well-known spot is Tinker's Hole, whence perch of nearly 5 Ib. weight have been taken. There is good fishing all along the river, and at Brand Creek, where it joins the Cambridgeshire Ouse, there are some excellent places for big chub and roach. In many parts of the Lark are excellent gravelly bottoms, where trout, dace, and gudgeon are to be caught. Near Hempton Mills, and still lower 375 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK down at the Cherry Lock, are some excellent roach and chub holes. Here also trout and perch are taken, but large dace are the fish that most abound. From Cherry Lock on to Icklingham the water is shallow and difficult to fish. At the three bridges, Icklingham, and the mill pool, there are shoals of fine roach, chub, and dace. The double lock, just above Icklingham, and the Temple Lock, about a mile from Icklingham, are noted places for trout and large dace ; the latter are frequently taken up to I Ib. in weight. About half a mile beyond this is the renowned Jack Tree deep, a big pool, very deep and full of large roach, chub, and trout ; it also contains a few perch and pike. Hence to Barton Mills bridge there are not many good fishing places except the road in front of the mill stream. Half a mile further on is Barton Lock, with a very deep pool full of roach and dace, and containing a few trout. Mildenhall Gas House pool holds good trout, dace, and roach ; a few yards lower down is the double lock, near the mill stream, a good place for trout, roach, dace, and chub. Lower down the river begins to deepen, and at King's Staunch there is a deep swim full of fish of all kinds. West Staunch, nearly three miles lower down, is famed for large perch and roach. Islehams Sluice, a deep wide place, is full of roach, dace, chub, and trout ; bream also come up from the Ouse. Between Isleham and Duckwillow, about eleven miles, are no locks nor staunches. The Lark joins the Ouse at the branch bridge, and at this corner are some excellent places for pike and perch. The Thet, only a few miles long, is a good river for dace, roach, and gudgeon, and trout are occasionally caught. It runs into the Little Ouse at Thetford Lock. In former times the fisheries with net, line, and rod in this part of the county were of considerable value.1 Old statutes or by-laws concerning these waters show how plentiful were fish in former days by comparison with the present. So far back as 1 1 Edward I notice was taken of the fishery within the limits of Thetford. An order was obtained from the mayor that fishers who took pike or other fish in the common stream should not sell them to strangers, but expose them for sale in the town. Henry VIII and Edward VI made statutes regulating the use of nets on the Thet, and young fry were protected. The waters had value, as witness the old deeds. On 12 April, 1553, William Matthew leased to Robert Clop the King's Poole, or pond, and reeds, &c., for twenty years, at 6s. per annum. This place was behind Pitmill. On 16 June, II Elizabeth, George Mathew sold for ^19 to Edmund Gascoyne, mayor of Thetford, his fishery called the King's Pool, &c., fourteen perches in length and two in breadth. In 1682, Francis, Lord Howard of Effingham, Paul Rycant of 1 The old records of the town of Thetford. St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, esq., and Cuthbert Browne of Stansworth, in the county of York, clerk, let all their royalty of fishing in the River Weste alias Ouse the Less, running through Thetford from Melford Bridge to Thetford Bridge, for twenty-one years at los. per annum. Philip and Mary forbade fishing except with ' shove nets,' and in the same reign a close season was appointed. The soaking of hemp in the river was forbidden by 3 and 4 Philip and Mary, except under conditions that prevented the process being ' noisome.' By ancient custom the fishers of Thetford were required to sell the fish taken in the common river at the Bell Corner and carry none to any other market, on pain of fine 6;. %d. ; in 1560 the penalty was increased to IQS. Another curious ordinance made one year's residence in Thetford the qualification for any- one to fish on the common days, or in the common water. A close season from I March till 30 June was prescribed by 2 Elizabeth. The rivers in and about Thetford, as we learn from the old records of the town, yielded pike, jack, or pickerel, in great plenty ' up to a yard in length.' They came up in great shoals upon the overflowing of the neighbouring fens at Milden- hall, Methwold, Brandon, &c. ' Four score of them have been taken at one throw of a casting net ' (sic). Fine eels of the white-bellied sort were plentiful ; also lampreys, which at one time the people held poisonous, ' especially so far as the holes extend on either side of the head.' Eel pouts were occasionally taken out of holes in the banks, and these fish were accounted very delicate and wholesome. Salmon and salmon trout were taken here in great plenty ; perch often taken by angling, carp sometimes, tench very seldom ; roach, dace, and gudgeon in great plenty. Bleak, we read, were taken with an artificial fly. On 7 April, 1715, was taken at Thetford a sturgeon weighing 13 St. 10 Ib. ; it was 7 ft. 8 in. long, and about 38 in. in girth ; ' it had three pecks of spawn in it.' The last sturgeon caught at Thetford was in April, 1737. It was 7ft. Sin. long, weighed 1351. lojlb., and was 39 in. in girth. Returning to the coast line, the first river south of the Waveney is the Blyth. Further south is Ore, the mouth of the Butley Aide, both of which are more or less open estuaries. The River Deben, which is navigable to Woodbridge; the Orwell and the Stour from Harwich to Manningtree, are all large open estuaries. From Sudbury to the sea the Stour is navigable for barges. The flow is restrained by fourteen locks, and at each of these there is really good fishing. Above Sudbury to Clare the fishing is equally good (except for bream) ; there are some grand swims at Glemsford, Cavendish, Liston, and Long Melford. At Rodbridge, nearer to Sudbury, is a deep and long reach full of roach and jack. All the mill tails offer excellent sport with dace, the fish often running from 10 oz. to 376 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 1 5 oz. At Sudbury there are more anglers and greater facilities. A basket of forty-seven roach recently taken (1904) in three hours near Croft Bridge weighed 57 Ib. A deep swim known as Sudbury Reach abounds with jack and roach, the former running from 4 Ib. to 1 8 Ib. When the weeds are troublesome very good sport is obtained with caddis worms, using a fine-drawn gut line without a float. In hot weather on the shallows very good takes can be secured with the blow line, a live blow-fly from the gentle being the lure used. The swims from Sudbury to Bures may be dismissed with the remark that they are all good for jack and roach. Some fine perch are taken, but these fish are not nearly so plentiful as they were about 1887 ; of late, however, there has been a decided improvement, thanks to measures taken to check pollution. Being the most accessible fishing station upon the river from London, there is more angling at Bures than at all other places on the river put together, excepting possibly Sudbury. That justly cele- brated piece of water known as Wormington Mere, formerly called ' The Decoy Pond,' lies about two miles down the stream from Bures, upon the Essex side ; it is connected with the river by a narrow cutting some 200 yards long. This mere, which is about 10 acres in extent, belonged to the Tufnell family for generations. A deep fringe of tall trees and high-growing rushes effectually prevents fishing from the banks. Bream appear to be the most plentiful fish ; 50 Ib. per rod is an average capture, whilst 400 Ib. to 500 Ib. for a boat is not a record ; 6 Ib. is about the best weight for a single speci- men so far obtained. The best season is from the middle of August to the middle of October. In the river, bream seldom come up beyond Bures, but below that point to the sea, or where the fresh and salt waters mingle, they are plentiful. At Dedham, bream, jack, and roach are very numerous. It is well known that fish have increased in numbers during the last hundred years, with perhaps the exception of perch. In former days the bargemen, who were then more numerous, carried large drag nets, and it was no uncommon sight to see bushels of roach, bream, and jack hawked about the streets of the Suffolk towns by these men. Then, again, what were called ' bush-fights ' were considered good sport. Parties gathered from miles round to operate with two drag nets. The nets would be brought closer and closer together until all the fish were gathered in a narrow space, when the fish were taken by the cartload with a casting net. The law has put a stop to such wholesale netting. In every part of the Stour there are hordes of tench, and a few carp have from time to time been taken. Attempts at various times have been made to introduce trout, especially between Sud- bury and Clare, care having been first taken to exterminate the jack ; but high floods allow them to enter the water. Of the innumerable meres, decoy ponds, and small lakes, artificial and natural, which dot the county, it is only necessary to say that one and all contain fish in large and small quantities. From time immemorial Suffolk waters have always been very rich in coarse fish, and the remains of artificial fish-ponds can to-day be plainly traced near- most of the large houses of note. Eels, bream, tench, carp, perch, pike, roach, rudd, or some of them are to be found in the waters at almost every village. Formerly fish were plentiful in the waterways, as they were taken only in the quantities necessary to supply local requirements. But with the introduction of railways the marshmen and wherrymen found ready markets away from home, more especially during Lent, for any quantity they could send. Accordingly the waters were denuded with the long drag or seine nets ; and old residents on the marshland have seen tons of fish taken at a haul, packed, and sent away to London. Most injurious was the custom of netting the spawning fish in the shallows and backwaters, until anglers- took steps to procure prevention of the practice in 1857. In that year a memorial was presented to the Norwich corporation,1 praying that the existing charter might be put in force, and that measures should be adopted to stop the wholesale netting. For the furtherance of this object a private meeting was held at Norwich from which the Norfolk and Norwich Angling Society sprang into existence. In 1874 a meeting was held by the society to consider a proposal to apply for an Act of Parliament to regulate fishing in the Waveney, Yare, and Bure. A substantial fund was raised in Norfolk and Suffolk, and after many more meetings and much work the Nor- folk and Suffolk Fisheries Act became law on 12 July, 1877. On 27 April, 1878, the Norfolk Fisheries Preservation Association was formed to collect funds in order to carry the new Act into effect. The principal duty of this Association was the appointment of keepers, watchers, boat- men and others employed by landowners as water-bailiffs ; also the conduct of prosecutions in courts of summary jurisdiction in the name of the Board of Conservators ; the costs being defrayed out of the funds of the association. By 1879 forty-two water-bailiffs had been appointed and many cases of poaching were detected and vigorously prosecuted ; extra water- bailiffs were appointed every year following. In the same year at Lowestoft a meeting was held under the auspices of the Waveney and Oulton Broad Fish Protection Society, to hear an address by Mr. Frank Buckland, advocating the introduction of foreign fish to Suffolk waters. From this meeting originated the National Fish Acclimatization Society. In 1883 netting was totally abolished except for the purpose of obtain- ing bait. In 1890 the Waveney and Oulton 1 Nicholas Everitt, Broadland Sfort. 377 48 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Broad Fish Preservation Society practically ceased to exist owing to lack of funds and want of local support. Doubtless acts of poaching occur at the present day, but the rewards are hardly com- mensurate with the risk. By-laws passed under the Act forbid fishing otherwise than bv rod and line for any trout between 10 September and 25 January inclusive, or for any other kind of fish between I Marcli and 30 June inclusive, smelts, bait, and eels excepted. An order made on 9 August, 1890, forbade the use of bow-nets, drag or seine-nets, liggers or trimmers, night lines, snares, guns, spears (except eel-spears), snatchers and wires, with exceptions in respect of smelts, bait, and eels. No regulation has ever been enforced regarding size or weight of fish. When considering the inland fishing of the county it must be remembered that at Great Yarmouth, the main outlet of the Waveney, the rise and fall of tide, barely six feet on the average, is, witli the exception of that on the Isle of Wight coast, about the smallest in the United Kingdom. Further, owing to the two miles of contracted neck from the junction of the three rivers (Waveney, Yare, and Bure) and Breydon Water to the Bar, the tide there and at Southtown Bridge varies as much as 2 ft. Fifty years ago, before steam dredges were used, the tide ran up these rivers in only half its present volume, whilst Breydon was 2 ft. or 3 ft. deeper. Now the salt water makes itself felt several miles further up stream, and the water at Burgh St. Peter is quite brackish ; four miles higher up it is pure enough to drink. A south-east wind will let the water run abnormally low, but if the wind suddenly veers round to the north-west the tide comes up with a rush and kills many fish which have travelled too far down the rivers on the low ebb. These unusual disturbances are, however, almost invariably accompanied by rain, and freshets counteract what might otherwise prove disastrous. The Waveney is navigable some 20 miles up to Beccles by vessels of 9 ft. draught where the tide does not rise much more than 1 2 in. But so many steamers and motor-boats now ply on these waters that the fish have become very shy. Occasionally bull-trout are taken. Some ex- cellent swims for roach, dace, perch, bream, and rudd occur between Beccles and Geldeston Lock and in the higher reaches of the upper river below Bungay. The netters are aptly called ' skinners ' at Beccles. Almost within a stone's throw of St. Olave's Priory is the celebrated Fritton Lake, which with Lound Run is about three miles in length. Col. H. M. Leather records in 1874 that an enormous pike took as a bait a 1 2-lb. jack which had been caught on a ligger, the larger fish being between five and six feet long(!). In 1880 this gentle- man and two friends caught 1,133 fish >n tnree 378 days, 5 1 7 of which were secured in one day. At the present day the lake is so stocked with bream that in summer their working in the mud makes the water quite thick ; this, however, is pre- judicial to the other angling. Fifteen stone of bream to two rods in one day would be con- sidered a good basket. Flixton Lake is very similar to Fritton, only much smaller. It lies some five miles higher up the river, with which it is connected by a narrow dyke. Twenty- eight stone of bream were taken here by two rods in one day about 1885. Some seventeen miles from the mouth of the Waveney is Oulton Broad, a magnificent stretch of water which, prior to 1828, was connected with Lake Lothian ; now a lock divides the two and Lake Lothian is open to the sea. Oulton Broad offers excellent coarse fishing all the year round, the best being for roach, pike, perch, and bream. Until thirty years ago several of the local inhabitants obtained a good living from fish and wild fowl, but these industries are now things of the past. In 1878 torrential rains of unpre- cedented volume fell in Suffolk, and most of the low-lying towns were flooded out. On 16 July the Beccles bank broke and the pent-up flood swept down the Waveney valley, turning the entire level into one vast lagoon. The river banks, erected to keep the water off the marshes, kept the floods in, and the enormous amount of decaying vegetable matter produced a most dis- astrous effect upon the fish in the river. It was estimated that there was one large fish per yard lying on either bank for ten miles between Oulton Dyke and Beccles. Every really big fish seemed to have perished. It was astonishing to see the quantity floating on the surface, or gasping in the reeds. The smaller fish, though affected, survived. The little eels seemed to suffer most, and it was common to see two or more lying on each leaf of a water-lily. The rands (swampy ground between the river and the river walls) were in places packed with eels, and one could walk there ankle deep in water and pick up as many as desired. The foul water daily pumped up from the flooded marshes into the river by the steam and wind drainage mills which line the banks maintained this state of affairs for some two months. Mr. Frank Buck- land, accompanied by the late Mr. A. D. Bartlett, director of the Zoological Gardens, made searching investigation, but the real secret of the disaster does not seem to have been dis- covered. The decaying vegetation brought into being animalculae quite visible to the naked eye if a sheet of white paper was held a few inches below the surface of the affected water. A few of the dykes adjoining the river which contained a spring or inlet of pure water offered refuges up which the fish crowded. In one of these the writer counted upwards of forty pike, besides other fish, squeezed close together as if in an overcrowded fish trunk. It was thought at SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN the time the river had been absolutely depleted of fish, but it was afterwards ascertained that a quantity of small fry had survived, and within ten years the normal condition of the river was practically restored. The principal rivers of Suffolk are bordered by marshland, banked out by river walls from two to four feet high. The marsh levels are divided off into enclosures of about ten to fifteen acres, sepa- rated by minor drains and dykes some six to fifteen feet wide. The water is pumped into the river by wind or steam power, as the level of the marshes is slightly below that of ordinary high- water summer tides. In these dykes are found almost every variety of coarse fish, particularly eels ; one method of catching them called ' lamming ' is peculiar to the locality, but as it cannot be re- garded as of interest to the angler, description must be omitted. Tench are common and much esteemed. Where they were plentiful in ponds and weed- choked meres, two old scythes welded together, back to back, were used from the stern of a boat to cut passages in likely places through the weed beds ; these passages were locally called lanes, and in June and July when the tench worked through them they were caught in bow-nets set for the purpose. Some fishermen would suspend inside the nets bunches of flowers, or vials of quicksilver or similar luminous metal, but since the conservators have prohibited the use of such traps tench have become very numerous. They only breed in certain places and under certain conditions. A good example of this is recorded at North Cove near the Norfolk border- land. On a two-hundred-acre level some two or three miles of marsh dykes had not been cleaned out for forty years, and the tench became extinct, except in one hole. At the end of the last century these dykes were all thoroughly deepened, an operation which took two years, and within eighteen months they were literally teeming with small tench. Tench-catching originated with a family of the name of Hewitt at Barton, all the members of which were fisher- men and gunners. One of them, observing the sluggish nature of the fish, attempted to take them with his hands and often succeeded. The art has spread, and the system is better under- stood, so that now there are fishermen who, upon shallow water — for in deep nothing can be done thus — prefer their own hands, with a landing-net to be used occasionally, to bow-nets or any other engines. The day for this occu- pation cannot be too calm nor too hot. During the heats of summer, but especially at the time of spawning, tench delight to lie near the surface of the water amongst beds of weeds ; in such situations they are found in parties varying from four or five to thirty in number. On the very near approach of a boat they strike away, dis- persing in different directions, and then the sport of the ' tench-tickler ' begins. With an eye like a hawk he perceives where some particular fish has stopped in its flight, which is seldom more than a few yards ; his guide in this is a bubble which arises generally where the fish stops. Approaching the place as gently as possible in his boat, which must be small, light, and at the same time steady, the tickler keeps her still with his pole, and lying down with his head over the gunwale and his right arm bared to the shoulder, he gently displaces the weeds with his fingers. If he can determine which way the head lies, the prospect of capture is much increased ; if he cannot, he feels slowly and cautiously about until he touches the fish, which if done gently on head or body is generally disregarded ; but if the tail is the part molested, a dash away is the consequence. Should the tickler succeed in ascertaining the position of the fish, he puts one hand under it just behind the gills and raises it gently but rapidly towards the surface of the water, and over the low gunwale, taking care not to touch the gunwale with his knuckles, as the slightest jar makes the captive struggle. The fisherman then, if he ' marked ' more than one tench when the shoal dispersed, proceeds to search for it. If not, he endeavours to start another by striking his pole against the side or bottom of the boat — several are generally close at hand. The concussion moves other fish, when the same manoeuvre is repeated. In the course of :i favourable. day one good tickler will easily secure five or six dozen.1 It is very difficult to induce the tench to take any kind of bait ; the season when they appear to feed most readily is when the wheat is in bloom ; then the best bait to use is potato paste. Bream are very numerous ; they migrate in vast shoals from the river to the broads at certain seasons, returning in August. September is per- haps the best month for bream fishing, as they then frequent deep holes in the bends of the river where the tide is strongest, whilst they seem to enjoy the dash of salt in the water of the lower reaches. There are two kinds, the silver and the gold bream. They run to over 8 Ib. in weight and are usually caught legering. Eels occur everywhere and are persecuted all the year round. Lamperns also ascend the rivers, and on one occasion in the eighties an eel-catcher at Somerleyton took just upon a ton of these fish at one haul ; some of them scaled upwards of 2 Ib. in weight. Roach, rudd, and dace are plentiful. The quantity of roach that survive is remarkable in view of their persecution by predatory fish and the very reprehensible practice of some anglers whose habit it is to see how many dozen they can take in a day. In the Waveney, roach grow to a very large size, fish of 2 Ib. to 3 Ib. being quite common. Rudd run larger. These spawn in shoals in 1 Rev. Rich. Lubbock, Observations tn the Fauna of Norfolk. 379 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK May, and while spawning are sometimes poached with a common landing-net. In former times the marshmen with drag or seine nets used to sweep them off the spawning grounds when they were shoaling in Lent, as they then commanded a ready sale in the inland towns ; in midsummer rudd take the fly freely and afford good sport. Pike are plentiful in every pool connected with a stream. In the principal rivers and lakes they run to 30 Ib. A pike exceeding 1 5 lb., however, is seldom killed. The grey mullet was a common annual visitor to Breydon, shoals coming up in the summer-time; and in the deeper water that then obtained (some of the flats being scarcely ever dry) it revelled among the vegetation growing there, the species known locally as ' sea-cabbage ' ( Ulva /actuca), together with the molluscs living upon it, being eaten by this fish. From the time when the ' Dickey Works ' — a kind of break- water to the ebbs coming from the Waveney and Yare — were constructed, prior to the forties, the flats commenced to silt up, while the channel deepened. From that time till now the mullet has come in lessening shoals each year, until what was once a remunerative fishery, giving •employment to several Breydoners, has entirely ceased. Among other unusual catches upon Brey- don Water within the past twenty years may be mentioned a sturgeon weighing 1 1^ stone and 7 ft. 6 in. in length. Other somewhat smaller sturgeon have been taken there. A large skate was once shot in the shallows by a punt gunner. In summer large shoals of grey mullet some- times find their way to Oulton Broad, but it is useless to fish for them with any bait, although elsewhere they afford excellent sport. In conse- quence they are obtained by various methods of spearing. Casting from the beach has always been a favourite practice upon the Suffolk coast. From a four-foot stick, notched at the end, a long weighted line is thrown to a distance of about a hundred yards ; the line carries from a dozen to fifteen hooks. In 1903, when the East Coast Development Company put out their piers at Lowestoft, Southwold, and Felixstowe, some of the more scientific anglers introduced legering with the rod. A Sea Anglers' Fishing Society, consisting of several hundred members, was then formed at Lowestoft. Fishing competitions for prizes are organized, and visitors come great distances to participate therein. Fishing with hand-lines as well as with rods from boats in the roadstead is also in high favour, and very heavy baskets are annually recorded. One prize-winner in 1905 landed seventeen cod weighing 170 lb., whilst another boat brought in 300 whiting as the result of a few hours' fishing, but these are exceptional ; the average catch being a few score per boat carrying two or three rods. RACING The ancient flat-race meetings of Ipswich, Bungay, and Beccles having been abandoned, Suffolk has little claim to notice as a racing county. The fine course on which the Cam- bridgeshire was run for thirty years or more, after its establishment in 1839, is in Suffolk, but is now used only for a race decided on the Friday of the Houghton week. The Suffolk Stakes course — the last mile and a half of the Round Course — is the longest course now used ' Behind the Ditch,' and the Ellesmere Stakes course of a furlong less, but finishing at the bottom of the hill, is more popular in both weeks. Part of the town of Newmarket and the training grounds are in Suffolk, but the course or running tracks are in Cambridgeshire. Charles II, who spent a good deal of his time at Newmarket, spoke of it as ' the little horse-racing town in the corner of Suffolk.' The date when Ipswich Races were instituted is not recorded, but they are supposed to be nearly as ancient as those of Newmarket. Refer- ence occurs in old ballads to the meeting, and local records contain no mention of the date when the brick stand (pulled down a year or two ago) was built, or by whom it was erected. Admiral Rous once stated during a visit to the town that Ipswich meeting was in existence long before the Stuart period, but on what authority does not appear. The Ipswich meeting was sufficiently important in the early Georgian period to be the scene of a race for one of the royal plates, which in 1785 was won by Camel a son of Mambrino. The following affords a good idea of the social conditions under which the sport was carried on at the end of the eighteenth century : — Tuesday, July 4. Public Breakfast and Ball at the Coffee House as usual. Second day at the Great White Horse. Third day at the Golden Lion. By particular desire there will be an ordinary for the ladies at the Coffee House on the third day of the Races. On the first day of the meeting the race was His Majesty's Purse of 100 guineas run in three heats and won by Mr. Loder's Pilot, who beat Mr. Clarke's Schoolboy and Mr. Patch's Briar. On the second day the Gentlemen's Purse of 50 sovereigns brought out two starters only. Mr. Patch's Briar beat Mr. Harwood's Parling- ton in both the heats run. On the Thursday Sir C. B. Bunbury's Volatile, being the only horse entered, received £25 and the entrance money. 380 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN Reference to the Racing Calendar of 1804 shows that by that date little progress had been made. There were three days' racing with one event, run in three heats, each day. On Tuesday, 3 July, the race was His Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas, weight for age, 2-mile heats. This was won by Sir C. Bunbury's three-year-old ch. h. Prospero, who beat Mr. Dawson's three-year-old Hippocampus, and Mr. Morland's four-year-old b. f. Duckling. The betting was 2 to I on Hippo- • campus, who won the first heat and was second in the second and third. On Wednesday, 4 July, the second day of the meeting, the chief event was a stake of 50 sovereigns for horses of all ages. The winner to be sold for 2OO sovereigns if demanded ; heats 2\ miles. Captain Hawk's b. m. by Com- mander of Windlestone carrying 9 St. 4 Ib. beat Mr. Golding's gr. m. Coaxer carrying 7 st. 3 Ib. The third day's race was the Town Stake of 50 sovereigns run in 2-mile heats : Sir C. Bun- bury's b. m. Eleanor by Whisky carrying 9 st. 1 1 Ib. beat Mr. Williams's bay filly by Pot-8-os carrying 6 st. ii Ib. in two heats. It will be noticed that only seven horses were started for the three races, and that Sir Charles Bunbury won two out of the three. The famous mare Eleanor was winner of the Oaks in 1 80 1. In the year 1804 she also won a £50 plate at Chester and other races at Newmarket and elsewhere. In 1816 matters had not greatly improved as far as the size of the field is con- cerned. Only nine competitors faced the starter during the three days' meeting. Lord Rous won His Majesty's Plate with the four-year-old Tigris by Quiz ; Mr. Grisewood's five-year-old Biddick by Dick Andrews carried offthe other two events. The daily race under Jockey Club Rules was supplemented by races for ponies, galloways, and cart horses ; the latter being ridden by plough- boys over a straight half-mile course. There -was also a bullock race. The period from 1825 to 1880 saw the palmy •days of the Ipswich races ; a local paper of the first-mentioned year says : — Previous to the races, at a meeting at the Great White Horse Hotel one of the stewards, Mr. T. Lay of Newmarket, member of the Jockey Club, was pre- sent, and under his auspices it was hinted that ' no demure about paying the winner \\ill arise.' This rather significant remark may perhaps ex- plain why the meeting had not been largely patronized by racing men theretofore ! In 1825 His Majesty's Purse was won by Col. Wilson's five-year-old bl. m. Black Daphne, who beat Mr. Rush's four-year-old b. h. McAdam in both heats. The Gentlemen's Purse of ,£50 was won by Mr. Rush's three-year-old Pioneer, who beat Mr. Wilson's five-year-old Isabella and Mr. Well's five-year-old bay mare (unnamed). A third race shows that the Ipswich executive •catered for the fox-hunting fraternity. This was the Hunters' Cup, won by Mr. Bedwell's Orbell. On the second day there were three starters for the Town Purse, won by Mr. Wil- son's Isabella. The Silver Tankard was won by Mr. Orbell's unnamed grey horse from a field of four. ' Several causes have combined to lessen the supply of horses for our races,' adds the record. In the first place the [void caused by the] death of Sir Charles Bunbury — who never deserted the course at Ipswich, and who from his personal influence at New- market was a great support to our races — has never been filled up. Then again the introduction of four- mile heats for the King's Purse, with a regulation of a particular age of the horses, has had an unfavourable effect. Indeed the exclusion of three-year-olds appears to be a most injudicious alteration. Sir Charles Bunbury was one of the leading racing men of the day. It will be remembered that his Diomed won the first Derby, in 1780. Despite the demise of Sir Charles, Ipswich races increased in importance, and in 1840 became a two-day fixture with half a dozen races under Jockey Club rules each day ; and so it continued with varying fortunes, sometimes as a two-day meeting, sometimes with sport enough for only one day, until the seventies. In the early days of the Victorian era visitors came from all parts of the eastern counties for the race-week. The horses from Newmarket and other training centres arrived on the Saturday or Sunday before the meeting, and ' Race Sunday,' when these did their morning gallops on the old course at Nacton, became quite an institution. The annual race-week was recognized as a holiday for many years. Some of the best race-horses of the period ran for the Queen's Plate of 100 guineas. Fisher- man and Lilian almost monopolized the prizes at this and other meetings in the fifties. Most of the leading jockeys of the period rode winners at Ipswich, including Sam Rogers, Arthur Edwards, George Fordham, George and James Barrett, Wells, Tom Chaloner, and Tom Cannon. During the early part of the nine- teenth century the bells of the principal churches at Ipswich rang peals on the morning of a race day, this practice continuing until the seventies, if not later. Cock-fighting here, as elsewhere, was an accessory to the racing. A ' main ' between the gentlemen of Suffolk and the gentlemen of Norfolk for 5 guineas the battle, and 50 guineas the main, at the Queen's Head hotel, seems to have been a standing dish. Cock- fighting was made illegal by the Act of 1 849 ; j and the gambling booths on the course having been closed, boxing booths became the order of the day ; such famous pugilists as Jem Ward, Jem Belcher, Ben Caunt, and Jem Mace of Norwich (who is still living), ' took on all comers ' at Ipswich. Passing to a later period, 1 8 60, we find that the stakes amounted to £864 in the two days. In 1 86 1 the races took place on 5 and 6 July, 38' A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK and there were six events each day. The prin- cipal race on the first day was the Borough Member's Plate of £50, and on the second day Her Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas ; the latter was won by Blue Jack, four horses competing. It is worth noting that the biggest stake run for at Great Yarmouth the same year was a sweep- stake of £5 each with £50 added. On the race nights, the performances at the Theatre Royal, Tackett Street, were under the patronage of Sir Fitzroy Kelly and the stewards of the races. During the seventies the programme became more mixed : hurdle races, races for hunters, and steeplechases were added, and the meeting lost much of its ' legitimate ' character. Neverthe- less it was carried on with varying success, until the Jockey Club in 1877 made the rule that £ 300 a day should be given, of which at least ^,150 should be allotted to races of a mile or more, the minimum value of any race to be raised to £100. This was of course fatal to many flat-race meetings to which the public had free access, and that of Ipswich became a thing of the past. Stceplechasing had been started in 1875 in conjunction with flat racing, but races under Jockey Club rules — the Suffolk Handicap and the Royal Plate of 2OO guineas — were last included in the programme of the 1883 meeting, since when there has been none but steeple- chasing at Ipswich. In 1902, the old race-course being required for building purposes, a new one was sought and found by Colonel Alderson, chairman of the Ipswich Race Committee, who secured from the local landowners a most desirable new course contiguous to the old one, at a nominal rent. The course is egg-shaped and level, with a ' straight ' of over a quarter of a mile. The going is always excellent, as neither wet nor dry weather affects the ground. A new grand stand has been erected, and a two-day meeting under National Hunt Rules takes place annually in April. Six events figure on each day's pro- gramme, and comprise the Rendlesham Park Selling Hurdle Race of 40 sovs., the Essex and Suffolk Hunt Plate of 40 sovs., the Eastern Counties Race of too sovs., the Brooke Plate of 40 sovs., an open selling race, and a maiden hurdle race. The secretary of the Race Com- mittee and starter is Mr. J. T. Miller. Beccles is one of the numerous meetings which have disappeared. In the early years of the nineteenth century there was a two-day meeting annually, which seems, however, to kave been but poorly supported ; in 1 804, for example, only three horses ran for the two £50 stakes which formed the programme. Nor had matters greatly improved twelve years later when '• Lord Suffield's horse Burlow won all the chief races, namely, a three-guinea sweepstake with 25 guineas added, a £50 selling plate, and the Town Plate of the same value. A cricket match between eleven gentlemen of Beccles against eleven of Yarmouth was a supple- mentary attraction to the races in 1840 and frequently in subsequent years. These meet- ings were well attended, there being, in additioti to the races under Jockey Club Rules, pony, galloway, and donkey races. There were also competitions by teams of cart horses for a silver watch, value £5. The last meeting held under the Rules of Racing at Beccles was held in September, 1857. There were three races on each of the two days, but the sport seems to have been of very moderate order, twelve horses starting for the six events, two of which it may be observed were run, after the old fashion, in heats. Very little is known concerning the old Bungay meeting. It is not mentioned in the Calendar, and the explanation doubtless is that the races which were held on the common for two or three centuries were for ponies, gallo- ways, and horses other than thoroughbreds. The Bungay meeting under National Hunt Rules was revived by Captain Boycott about 1883, with Mr. Luke McDonnell as hon. secretary, and at the present time has Mr. A. S. Manning as clerk of the course and Mr. Gordon Barratt as hon. secretary. It is a two-day meeting held during April, and the programme comprises six events. The course, nearly two miles in circum- ference, on the celebrated Bungay Common, is all grass and always affords good going. The chief events are the Rendlesham Steeplechase and the Coronation Hurdle Race, each worth £70. In 1904 the executive gave a steeple- chase of £250 and a hurdle race of £100. An attempt to organize an autumn meeting in 1904 failed. The Bungay meeting is acknowledged to be the best of those held under National Hunt Rules in East Anglia. During Whitsun week, in former days, Thet- ford and Swaffham had their annual races, which were liberally supported by the Dukes of Grafton. A clause in the conditions under which the then duke gave a fifty-guinea plate at the Thetford meeting in 1779 is worth reproducing : — The horses to be shown and entered for the Plate at the gate of St. Mary's Church before the Clerk of the Course on Sat. June z6th, between the hourj of I z and 3 o'clock, paying 3 gs. entries and ten shillings and sixpence to the Clerk of the Course. Swaffham Races seem to have enjoyed a measure of fame in their day. In 1789 a horse was entered by the Prince Regent, and among the company were the Earl of Oxford, Lord Claremont, Sir William White, Sir John Wode- house, and Mr. Thomas Newman Coke, the last of whom drove on the course with a team of six black horses and the same number of out- riders. Many little villages in East Anglia at Whit- suntide and Easter had their so-called race meet- 382 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN ing in former times. An old window bill gives the following : — Westerfield Races 1797 : On Whitsun Tuesday, will be run for on the Green, a new saddle and bridle, by Hobbies, not measuring more than 13 hands high, two rounds to a heat, the best of three heats, the second best to have the bridle. The drum to beat at five and start at six. Every owner to enter his hobby, and pay 2 shillings and 6 pence, between the hours of 1 2 and 3 on the day of running. The drum was the signal to clear the course before racing commenced. Robert Blomefield, the Suffolk poet, alludes to the old custom in ' Richard and Kate on Fairday ' — And now, as at some nobler places, 'Twas by the leaders thus decreed, Time to begin the Dickey Races, More famed for laughter than for speed. Colonel McCalmont's steeplechase course at Newmarket is in Suffolk. The Suffolk, Hunt have an annual point-to-point race at Hawstead and Cockfield alternately. GOLF The course of the Aldeburgh Club, founded in 1884 by Mr. J. G. S. Anderson, is beautifully situated a mile from the town, on a sandy heath. The course has been lengthened and the greens very much improved of late; the lies are good. The membership, including ladies (who also play over the course), is 418. The Beccles Club, instituted in 1899, has its course, which consist? of nine holes, on the com- mon, half a mile from the station. Felixstowe Golf Club claims the distinction of being the first one founded in the county. It was estab- lished in 1880, when there existed only five other clubs in England.1 The course is situated in the only area of real seaside golfing turf on the Suffolk coast — namely, along the senshore between the high ground occupied by the town and the mouth of the River Deben. Before the foundation of the present club golf had been played for two or three years on the common on the opposite side of the town, towards Landguard Fort. Lord Wemyss (then Lord Elcho) receives credit for discovery of the existing course ; being an ex- perienced golfer, he recognized its possibilities. He was greatly assisted by Mr. F. W. Wilson, late M.P. for Mid-Norfolk ; Mr. John Kerr, M.P. for Preston ; Colonel Lloyd Anstruther, Mr. Cecil Anstruther, and others. Lord Elcho gave great assistance in procuring the ground from the War Office (one of the two martello towers standing thereon was used as a club-house before the present club premises at the Felixstowe end of the links was acquired), and Mr. John Kerr was instrumental in bringing a large number of the Wimbledon Club members, who to this day constitute the backbone of the club. Mr. John Kerr won the medal at the opening meeting, Lord Elcho being also a competitor. The course consists of only nine holes, but it includes two or three of the best holes to be found on any course in Scotland or England, the eighth and ninth being particularly good. The greens are very undulating, and the putting requires great skill. times greatly 1 Blackheath, Wimbledon, Westward Ho !, Hoylake, and Alnwick. The present course is at crowded, and a few years back an attempt was made to extend the course along the river bank, but the project fell through. Ladies play on a. few holes separate from the gentlemen's course. Lord Wemyss is still president. The Ipswich Club, which was founded in 1895 by a few gentlemen interested in the game, has its course on Rushmere Heath, about two miles from the town. The management was for a time hampered by the refusal of the commoners to permit the furze to be sufficiently cut away; but this, to some extent, has been overcome ; the greens are good. The membership is now 300, including ladies, who also play over the course. The Lowestoft Club was instituted in 1887. The course of nine holes is situated on the North Denes, about a mile from South Lowestoft station. This course is used by fisher- men for drying their nets, and for this reason is not available at some seasons. Efforts are being made to acquire a better site. The Southwold Club was founded in 1884 in conjunction with a Quoit Club, the latter soon dying out. The original course consisted of only nine holes on a common close to the town and station, but in 1904, at a cost of jT6oo, it was increased to eighteen holes, under the direction of the late Tom Dunn. Ladies play over the course. There are 1 90 members ; the Earl of Stradbroke is presi- dent. The Stowmarket Club course consists of nine holes on the outskirts of the town. The Waveney Valley Club, whose course is situated close to the town of Bungay, was instituted in 1 889 by the principal residents in the neighbour- hood, with Mr. F. C. Morrice as its first presi- dent. It originally started as a nine-hole course, but in 1896 a club-house was erected, and the course extended to eighteen holes. It is pleasantly situated on high ground ; the grass is short and fine, affording good lies, and gorse forms natural hazards. The Woodbridge Club was instituted in 1893 by Major Rooper King with a nine-hole course, later enlarged by Major Howey to eighteen holes; it is situated on an undulating heath one and a half miles from Woodbridge. The course, which 383 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK is now being extended, has been very greatly improved of late years, and the greens are quite excellent ; the turf through the green is very good, and never in the driest weather becomes too hard. Ladies play over the course. The Royal Worlington and Newmarket Club was founded in 1893 as a proprietary club by Mr. William Gardner on land owned by him near Mildenhall, within three-quarters of a mile of that station and seven miles from Newmarket. At a later date it was reconstituted as a members' club; and H.M. the King (then Prince of Wales) becoming president, the late Queen Victoria con- sented to the club being styled ' Royal.' In 1903 the club acquired the course as their own property. It is of only nine holes, but they are very good ; the turf is excellent, as also are the greens. The ground is never too soft nor too hard, and the holes are very well laid out. The Cambridge Univer- sity players play most of their home matches here. CAMP BALL ' Camp Ball ' or ' Camping ' was a popular game in East Anglia as far back as 1472. Ac- cording to Moor (1823, quoted by Dr. Marshall) there were various forms of the game, but in the main it was a primitive form of football ; sides were formed, the number on each being appar- ently unlimited, and the object of the players was to send the ball between the goal posts of the opposing team. Each team defended two goals placed ten or fifteen yards apart. The game was played either with a ball about the size of a cricket ball ; with a large football, in which case it was called ' kicking camp ' ; or, if shoes were worn by the players, ' savage camp,' a name it appears to have well deserved. The account of camping given by Mr. W. A. Dutt 1 shows that the game more nearly resembles a free fight than anything else. He refers to a match played between Norfolk and Suffolk on Diss Common, about the middle of the eighteenth century ; each team consisted of 300 men. Suffolk won ' after 1 4 hours' play had converted the ground into a battlefield ' ; nine deaths ensued within a fortnight of the contest. ATHLETICS A very old meeting is that annually held at Sudbury. Beccles and Lowestoft have annual sports ; but it is at Ipswich (where the mile championship of the county is decided) and Bury St. Edmunds that the largest meetings are held. Ipswich is the home of several well-known athletes, including champions of the county, who occasionally compete successfully in open races in the metropolitan district. The county has pro- duced several famous athletes, among whom may be mentioned Mr. E. H. Felling, born at Bran- don. Mr. Felling, now honorary secretary of the London Athletic Club, is an amateur ex-cham- pion at 100 yards, and holder of several short- distance ' records.' 1 Highways and Byetvays of East Anglla. 384 AGRICULTURE IN giving an account of a single county, it may occur that those writing for other districts more or less distant and of similar character may describe the corresponding practices here related. If it should be so, it need not, and probably will not, detract from the value of either work. The following account, relating to the last forty or fifty years, is mainly from the experience or observation of the writer. The earlier history and subsequent development of Suffolk agriculture must necessarily be derived from other writers, or from personal acquaintance with those whose memory reached into the far past. Materials for this are not wanting. For the description of the agriculture of Suffolk we have that of Arthur Young, compiled for the Board of Agricul- ture in 1797 ; Hugh Rainbird's essay in the "Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England written in 1849 ; a contribution to White's Suffolk Directory in 1884 ; and, later still, that excellent account of Suffolk farming from the pen of Mr. Rider Haggard. The last relates to the present time ; from the other three sources may be traced the gradual advance in practice during the entire period of the nineteenth century. These works were placed before the public at the time they were written ; those out of print may occasionally be met with on the second-hand bookstall ; but the writer of these pages has access to the labour books, memoranda, experiments, and observations of an ancestor who commenced farming under the Marquess of Bristol in the year 1808. He lived at Playford, near Ipswich, and died there in 1860. Volume after volume of his farm accounts are still extant, and if, in future years, they should be dealt with by an expert, they will form a source of information on local agriculture second to none of the works, named. There is yet another mine of wealth for the historian of this county in the 140 volumes of a weekly county paper started about 1820, now deposited in the reference library of the Ipswich Museum. Want of space forbids any copious extracts being made use of from the sources mentioned. Arthur Young's books have been read, quoted, and forgotten by generation after generation. His account of Suffolk forms art octavo volume of some 300 pages, and if it is not exhaustive it is at least comprehensive, for he seems to have omitted nothing. In looking back to the time in which he lived, one thing strikes the reader, and that is the feeble powers of food-production compared with the enormous capabilities of the land as now cultivated. This is more apparent when estimated by money value, and the slow returns with which the farmers in those days were satisfied. This view is confirmed by the description of what was done on the land a hundred years back as related to the writer fifty years ago by men who were living at that date. Especially is this the case with regard to meat. Within sight of the writer's home is a fine mixed soil holding occupied by one of our leading stock farmers. The machine-like regularity 2 385 49 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK with which beef, mutton, and milk are sent into the market from that farm represents the latest development of practical, scientific, and, let us hope, paying agriculture. Many years ago I had related to me a detailed descrip- tion of what was the practice on that same occupation in the early decades of the last century. My informant was born about the year 1790. In place of the modern plant of cattle-sheds, root-houses, and covered yards, the bullock grazing was then carried on in the fields where the roots grew. The only protection from the weather was the haulm walls, and the accumulation of manure stacked up behind the beasts. The same system is similarly described by Arthur Young. The steers bred on the farm were kept lean on the undrained low meadows till they were three years old. The last winter they were ' finished ' on white turnips, cabbages, and hay. All grain or artificial food was at that time too valuable to make into beef. The dairying was as primitive as the cattle management. Butter was made in large quantities, and was either sent to London or supplied the local demand. The only cheese made in Suffolk in the early part of the nineteenth century was the ' Suffolk Bang,' a flet milk cheese, for which there would now be no more demand than for the thick pickled fat off the back of the pig, with which the indoor-servants were mostly fed in the kitchen. When fit for sale this skimmed milk cheese was hard beyond belief. The price was z\d. per Ib. The last evidence of this branch of dairying which came under the notice of the present writer was a long upper chamber, shelved on both sides, with lattice windows at the ends for securing a draught, at a farmhouse in this parish. It has long been dismantled and used for other purposes. This cheese was the staple article on the kitchen table, and at the cottage dinner. The word ' dairymaid ' has long outlived the occupation which gave the name to the servant who worked the dairy. With the assistance of the cook she did the principal part of the milking ; dairy hours commencing at four o'clock in the morning. She was of far more importance in the farmer's household than the cook and commanded higher wages. In a few isolated centres a very good cheese is made in Suffolk. One farmer on the banks of the Stour erected an excellent plant, and worked it under the management of an expert from the Cheddar district. The tenant has a stall in the provision market at Ipswich, but I believe the new milk trade pays him better. There are very few farms in Suffolk where cheese is made. At one time there was made a kind of Stilton on a few farms in the eastern part of the county ; but I understand it could not be produced at a price any less than that of real Stilton. In those days butter for the retail trade was measured in pints equal to a pound and quarter. The consumer introduced the sale by weight, but the farmer was often a gainer by the innovation. From the dairy districts, in the localities of Framlingham, Stradbroke, Eye, and Debenham, immense quantities of butter were conveyed to the London markets by the road waggons, a mode of goods traffic difficult to realize in these days of rapid commercial deliveries. In the early decades of the nineteenth century the cowkeeper realized about £6 per head of produce from the average cow ; with butter, flet milk cheese, and a calf, he was satisfied with this. Young puts it at £7, but from one who formerly kept a dairy of from 50 to 100 cows I gathered this was an extreme estimate. With well-managed, highly-fed cows, and a milk run in a town 386 AGRICULTURE of easy access, £20 a year is not beyond the mark, even on a farm where the grass lands are not rich. But the expenses are high, and the wear and tear of carts, ponies, and milk churns appear as a heavy item in the year's expenses. Owing to the necessity for rising at 3.30 in order to milk the cows for the early delivery, and the Sunday milking which has to be done whether there is a delivery or not, it is not easy to obtain dairy hands, except by the induce- ment of very high wages. Perhaps the greatest increase of the farmer's output in money value would be from the large flocks. The difference is most remarkable. A reliable correspondent, quoted by Arthur Young, estimated the return per head of a breeding flock at gs. As recently as 1842 the lambs on one of the best sheep farms in East Suffolk were sold at iu. per head, but they were Southdowns, of which great numbers were kept in Suffolk sixty years ago. The large breeds made little more. Now an average of 40-1-. each for the lambs sent to market is not an unusual figure. But of course seasons, flush of sheep-feed, &c., have great influence on current prices. It must be remembered, too, that the intrinsic worth of the lamb at the present day is very much greater than it was seventy years ago. The ewe of whatever breed is kept is heavier, wider, shorter in the leg, and produces a different type of lamb. More judgement is exercised in the choice of rams, and higher prices are paid even by those who are not ram breeders. The value of common work-horses has varied very little between 1825 and the present day. Previous to the war with France, and some time before its conclusion, Suffolk foals were sold at from £3 to £6 each, and in one case a colt realized £10, but this afterwards became a celebrated horse. With the general inflation of prices following on the war all farm stock increased in value. In 1812 the first two four-horse teams of common working horses at the Newbourne Hall sale realized more than 80 guineas each, when an ancestor of the family who afterwards became noted breeders of Suffolk horses took that farm in hand ; and these, although probably very good, were not breeding animals, but common agricultural horses. Then for a decade or two all stock depreciated in value. Depression in agriculture shows itself in various ways. Since the present fall in price of farm produce the character of the working horses in general use in this county has decidedly deteriorated. Before the eighties numberless small farmers had valuable pedigree Suffolk mares; few other than Suffolk horses were used. When the hard times tempted the small farmer to part with his best mares, they were bought by the more wealthy breeders, and stables were made up with bays and browns of an inferior type. A marked difference in the uniformity of colour in the present day breeds may easily be detected in a rail journey through east Suffolk. The farmers renewed their stock with other breeds and various colours because they could buy these more cheaply. Although Suffolk is less a breeding than a meat-making district, the great increase of the milk trade results in more calves being bred in this county. Even thirty or forty years ago the wretched stamp of horned bulls used in the large dairies would have struck any but a Killarney man with astonishment. The consignment of excellent north-country bulls by pure-bred Durhams has entirely altered the general character of cattle bred in this county. They are sent in detachment to the repository sales. The 387 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK extra prices which the best of these animals realize (best in quality, irre- spective of size) marks a great advance in the practice of cattle-breeding in Suffolk. The depreciation of the value of land in Suffolk at the commencement of the twentieth century as compared with the worth of estates in the seventies is a subject rather for the statesman than for the historian of practical agriculture. Taking the county as a whole, the loss sustained by the principal landowners since 1873 is very heavy,1 although the really good sporting estates are not so much depreciated. Terms of hire have been greatly affected by the facts just mentioned. In the first half of the nineteenth century to get hold of a fine corn-growing farm in Suffolk under a popular landlord was considered a good start in life for a farmer's son. Occupations keenly sought after some years ago are now gladly disposed of to any tenant with capital sufficient to take a farm. Years ago the tenant would close with his landlord under a lease no one would now sign. The agent at that time kept watch and ward over the most trifling matter that affected his client's interest. There were clauses in the leases then in use which protected the landlord on every conceivable point ; but the tenant seldom made stringent terms for his own protection. He was content to submit to any condition with regard to game, hedge-row timber, sale of produce, which not even the most careful agent of the present day would think of asking a tenant to adopt. And yet he lived on the best of terms with both agent and landlord. Yearly agreements with fair terms between landlord and tenant have almost entirely superseded the 7, 14, or 21 years' lease. The dark days in farming have warned the tenant not to bind himself far ahead. ' Security of tenure ' brings him no comfort when he thinks of the rapid downfall of the past ; and possibilities of a future even worse. He has no idea of being bound hand and foot to a position which threatens ruin, without any prospec- tive remedy for low prices, high rates, and yearly increasing labour troubles. As regards cottages, there is an immense advance both as to numbers and improvement in structure, new ones having been erected in place of the old. Thatched roofs, low rooms, and clay walls have been superseded by red brick, slates, or the best form of pantile. The decrease in population has, however, resulted in many empty tenements, and the deserted dwellings have, of course, been those least desirable to live in. The grandfathers of the present generation passed their lives in cottages which long ago would have been condemned by the sanitary authorities, even if the newer and more comfortable one did not tempt the tenant to desert his old house. Unfor- tunately recent legislation, instead of encouraging the landowner to erect new cottages, has had a contrary effect ; the laws which some rural district councils have put in force involve so much unnecessary expense that less wealthy landlords decline building. Suffolk homesteads, as a rule, are miserably bad. They are insufficient, costly to the owner to keep in repair, and far from adequate to the requirements 1 Instances supplied by an auctioneer of old practice in Suffolk : — (i) Estate bought in 1874 for £4,000 sold in 1897 for under £900 ; (2) 292 acres, a choice property, bought in 1870 at £45 an acre, sold in 1897 for £16 an acre ; (3) Auction price 1873 £13,000, the same in 1893 £1,850 ; (4, 5, 6) £35, £40, and » £34 per acre some years ago lately realized respectively £5, £6 lot., and £5 per acre. 388 AGRICULTURE of the tenant who understands the advantage of making manure under cover, keeping his animals in comfort, and saving labour in stock management. A great many of those on the small farms are built of perishable materials, such as cheap wood fences from top wood off the hedge-row trees, and covered with thatch. Sixty years ago many farm-buildings were made of haulm l walls, with rough timber laid horizontally, and a stack of rotten straw made to serve as the roof. The writer can call to mind many such. They were warm and comfortable, but as straw became of more value the cost of thatching was a serious matter for the tenant, for these make-shifts never came under the landlords' agreements. If they were kept up they were costly, if they were allowed to go to ruin the occupier had no accommodation for cattle. There are still many open yards where the manure is greatly deteriorated by rainfall. In some cases the stable with the door left open did duty for the horse-shed, which has now mostly superseded the old plan. On such premises bullocks were grazed without shedding ; the mangers, or bins as they are called, stood separately about the yard. No premises would now be built without a shed with manger at the back, a pathway leading to the root-house enabling the animals to be fed in half the time required by the old plan. Box feeding is to be found on the more wealthy estates, and is occasionally adopted for cart-horses. The large brick barns on the great corn-growing farms are seldom used for the purpose for which they were originally intended. The introduction of the steam threshing-machine rendered them unnecessary. The bays of most of them are now floored with asphalte or cement, on which the corn is deposited as it comes from the threshing-machine. The writer has filled such a barn with barley, both ends and floor, trodden in with horses ; a space ten feet square being cut out for the man with the flail to commence his winter's work in. The floor was gradually cleared and then the bays. The cost of this hand labour will be referred to later. These large barns make the best of grazing sheds, especially for summer use. The covered yard is steadily gaining ground ; but the reduced rents prevent the landlord from spending more money on farm buildings than is absolutely necessary to secure a suitable tenant. Unfortunately for the needy owner, as the demand for farms becomes less, the tenant is apt to make his condition of hire include the outlay of money on the premises. Formerly the farmer took the tenancy as the last occupier left it, and so it went on in this county till the premises in Suffolk were probably some of the worst in England. A visit to the best farmed districts in Scotland convinced the writer that Suffolk was immeasurably behind the Lothians and Fifeshire in agricultural buildings. The introduction of the corrugated iron roof has been made use of with great advantage in many cases. This material is far inferior to the best pantiles for cattle-sheds, being hot in summer and cold in winter ; but the Suffolk farmer has of late years become alive to the value of straw, and declines to keep up large quantities of thatched roof. The size of farms in Suffolk may be said to range between the small one-horse holding and the single farm of seven hundred acres. Many tenants cultivate much more than this ; but these occupations are the result of adding 1 The sickle left a stubble nearly 2 ft. high. When harvest was over this was mown close to the ground, and the short earless straw was called haulm. 389 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK one farm to another, which formerly were separate hires. The trend of low prices and reduced demand for agricultural land is all in this direction. The farmhouse which would cost the landlord a heavy outlay to satisfy a new- comer is easily made good enough for a bailiff or head horseman, and so the farm is added to the adjoining holding of a tenant already on the estate, who has shown his landlord he knows how to cultivate the land, and has the capital to do it. The small holder, who has no bank reserve, and has all his available savings invested in tenant's capital, is the first to go under when the wave of bad seasons and low prices sweeps over the land. Many such have succumbed in this manner in Suffolk during the last twenty-five years. And this is yet another cause why the landlord sees his interest in letting his land in large farms. It is, in fact, the history of what many regard as the evil of the small occupations being swallowed up in large ones. There can, however, be no possible doubt that the best cultivation and the most successful farming in Suffolk is found in the largest occupations. The small holding, as such, does not gain ground in Suffolk. Suffolk is not a grass county, and the tilling of a little piece of arable land is simply pitting retail against wholesale, without the advantage of labour-saving machinery. The small holdings in this county are generally in the hands of those who have resources other than cultivating their five- or ten-acre plots ; the dealer, the butcher, the rat and mole catcher — anyone but the agricultural labourer. As such he may have risen through the grades of rabbit, poultry, or pig-dealer ; but the cases where a labourer still on the farm cultivates three, six, or ten acres of ground in his own hire are extremely rare. The allotment system is a more flourishing element in the village community. But the allotment is not by any means a modern innovation in Suffolk. On one occasion as far back as the eighties the writer remembers taking a 5^. rent for an allotment — a jubilee year of the little hire of an agricultural labourer — nor was this the only instance. Allotments had been held from the time of the enclosures of the common land about seventy-five years ago. In another parish there were small fields cut up into twenty-rod allotments, of which there are records of rent-paying eighty years back. But the system as applying to the agricultural labourer is not extending. The reason is not far to seek : few cottages are now built in Suffolk where ample ground for garden is not attached. After all, the allotment at a distance from the cottage is but a poor substitute for the garden close by the back- house door. The allotment is given up when the labourer gets into the new cottage where he has forty rods of ground surrounding the house. There are many well-cultivated allotments in the outskirts of the provincial towns in Suffolk, or in the immediate vicinity of the factory. The system of valuing between the outgoing and incoming tenant in Suffolk fortunately does not extend beyond the county borders. There is little to be said for the practice to which the professional valuer still adheres. It is not a custom which is in his power to alter without the co-operation of the landowner. As a tenant goes in, so he must go out. But it is time an alteration should be introduced. One of the largest owners in East Suffolk has made a move in the desired direction. In a change of tenancies he paid the outgoing occupier the sum for cultivation of roots under the same system as when he took the farm. 390 AGRICULTURE When the new tenant came into possession he was required to pay only the amount which the roots were worth for feeding purposes ; in other words the outgoing tenant was awarded the amount to which he was entitled under the Suffolk conditions ; the incoming tenant paid on what is known as Norfolk covenants. In adopting the latter, in this case the landlord made a considerable sacrifice. It is this sacrifice that in a great measure stands in the way of reform. Under the Suffolk system the incoming tenant pays for the cultivation of the root-crop, irrespective of whether the labour and cost expended tended to the increase of value of the crop. Under the Norfolk covenants, the worth of the roots for feeding purposes is the sum the incoming tenant has to pay. The prices for maximum crops are fixed at a meeting of the valuers held mostly in July. The value is determined by how much, more or less, the crop on the land approaches the maximum of the best yield. Under the Suffolk system no amount of experience, no examination of evidence by valuers can in all cases protect the incoming tenant from, if not deliberate fraud, at any rate incompetent management, unnecessary horse labour, delayed seeding, &c. Should the neglect of the outgoing tenant result in a half crop, it is his successor who pays for the mismanagement. Transit by railway has long effected a revolution in the cattle trade, as much in store stock as in the animal ready for the butcher. The fairs in Suffolk years ago were magnificent displays of the best black cattle, fine north country shorthorns, and large Welsh runts. They covered acres of the Melton and Woolpit autumn fair fields. The former is close to Woodbridge in East Suffolk, the latter seven miles east of Bury St. Edmunds. To these marts the graziers from all quarters of the country assembled in hundreds to make their choice for winter grazing. For the Scotch breeders it was far better to walk their cattle to the south in store condition than to fatten them at home only to lose flesh again in tramping all the way by road or by being taken perhaps by sea to London. But when the rail brought the metropolitan market within easy access of the Scotch graziers these mighty droves were fattened north of the Tweed, and the Suffolk fairs for store cattle gradually declined. Days before these fairs commenced roads from the north converging on the place of sale were crammed with endless droves of these hardy denizens of Scotland ; long streaks of black in narrow lanes with here and there a paddock for a night rest reminded the farmer of the coming marts. But there are fine Scotch cattle grazed in Suffolk now. The best are procured by trustworthy commissioners attending Carlisle and other Scotch markets ; and some are consigned by their breeders to the auctioneers at Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds. These are sold in half-dozens or tens at a time, and afford an excellent opportunity for those not heavily in the trade to get at the fair market prices of the day. The north country Shorthorns are to be obtained in the same way. Many of the Suffolk farmers get the best of Irish cattle through dependable dealers, who attend Bristol markets or buy from the ship direct from Ireland. When these Irish beasts were walked from Bristol right through to the eastern counties the best were disposed of before they arrived in Suffolk ; but owing to the importation into Ireland of pure- bred Durham bulls and direct communication by rail from one side of the A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK country to the other, the Irish steer is a totally different animal from the island beast offered at Ipswich in the forties. But the most remarkable revolution in marketing in Suffolk has been brought about by the repository system. Where one fat beast in Ipswich or Bury St. Edmunds is sold by private contract on the stones of the market, probably ten are sold at the repository sales. These repositories were not started without risks nor without opposition. Risk of worthless cheques from strangers ; ' knock outs ' by combination (a vicious practice not yet entirely abandoned by low-class buyers and dealers) ; and the unscrupulous fictitious bidding by consigners, long militated against the success of these institutions. The small farmer, at one time little engaged in market trans- actions, was practically at the mercy of the man who acted as the intermediary between grazier and butcher. In many instances those who lacked capital to go into the market for stores independently of anyone had to fill their yards with beasts sent by the dealer at the price he chose to name, who waited for his money till the animals were fat, and then took them once more at his own valuation. When the bad times set in this disastrous practice was more in evidence than ever. But there is this to be said, that there are on our markets dealers in a large way of business strictly honourable in all transactions, to whom many a struggling farmer is indebted for his yard of beasts on the system I have mentioned, and thus may have tided over a bad year. The fat stock repository has numerous features to recommend it. The bullock cart — a modern invention — takes a single beast without damage to the repository, furnishing the small capitalist with the month's wages of which he is in need. The cheque arrives with a punctuality the old-fashioned dealer was not always careful to regard. But if the system has effected a revolution in the fat cattle trade, it is nothing to the alteration in marketing which it has brought to the flockmaster. The lamb sales in Suffolk give some idea of the number of these animals bred on the light lands. They have now been in operation many years. The first that was started is held on a heath abutting on the Yarmouth turn- pike three miles east of Ipswich, and this one is known as the Kesgrave Lamb Sale. In July last it held its fiftieth anniversary. These sales take place in June, July, and the late ones in August. The lambs at the June and July sales come direct from the ewe. These repositories are almost invariably made up from the produce of the same flocks year by year. They are attended by numerous buyers not only from distant parts of the county, but from other districts, and a purchaser having tried the lambs from one flock, if they turn out well, has the opportunity of getting his next year's supply from the same source. Where one lamb is now sold in the market or at a fair by single contract fifty must pass under the auctioneer's hammer. They are exhibited in a ring during the biddings, and yearly practice has enabled the managers to effect these sales with the minimum of lost time. The Suffolk sheep fairs, if not totally extinguished like the cattle fairs, have dwindled to mere shadows of what they were forty or fifty years ago. Ipswich Lamb Fair, an exceedingly old institution, originally lasted three days. The writer has a vivid recollection of standing by a pen from the commence- ment to the close of the fair and selling the lambs on the way home. Where 392 AGRICULTURE there is one pen of lambs now there were forty in the first half of the nineteenth century. The fair at the present time is chiefly used for the sale of third-rate Suffolk ram lambs and a few shearling ewes. One salesman has annually held a stall of long-woolled rams for fifty years. A few Welsh ponies reach the county, the best animals having been sold on the way. Thirty years ago useful three or four year-old hacks and hunters, as well as younger ones, could have been bought at Ipswich fair. But there never were riding-horse fairs in Suffolk to compare with Barnet Fair, much less that of Horncastle and other large gatherings of undeveloped hunters. Horringer Fair, a great sheep and lamb gathering held 2 miles from Bury St. Edmunds, bears no resemblance to what it was when the then Marquess of Bristol enlivened the scene every year with his beautiful four-in- hand team of pure-bred Shetlands reared in Ickworth Park, a mile from the fair field. This, too, is now not much more than a late sale of ram lambs from the West Suffolk Black-faced breeders. The introduction of artificial manures during the last forty years has had a gradually increasing effect on production, more especially that of roots and barley. The digging of coprolite in East Suffolk, where the Crag overlies the London Clay, following the littoral of the sea-coast inland, in some places as far as 12 miles, was quite a business at one time, but the price dwindled down to half what it was in the sixties. It was mostly done by the men on the farm in slack times, and carted by the farm horses. A royalty was paid to the landlords. The writer has known whole fields turned over from twenty to thirty feet in depth with the upper soil deftly left on the surface. But the most remarkable deviation from old methods has come through the inventive faculty of the agricultural implement maker. The machinery of the present day has worked a revolution in saving manual and horse labour. The effect has not been so apparent in reducing cost as in supplying the place of hand labour, which has been transferred to other callings. In the sickle, the scythe, the reaper, and the self-binder we have the stages of advancement in harvesting from the earliest times to the present day. The substitution of the scythe for the sickle was an immense stride in the saving of labour in harvest-time, and yet the writer remembers having to bribe the men with a shilling an acre to give up the old way. Then came the reaper, whose development into the self-binder is the last triumph in the substitution of machinery for hand labour. The reaper did but half the work. No man can tie up as fast as another can mow ; the self-binder does both. There are few living who can remember the use of the hand dibble for wheat planting on large farms. In one parish the writer has known as many as 65 acres planted in this way. The man walked at an angle backwards, made three holes to the foot, 9 in. from row to row, and the wife and children deftly put three grains into each hole. This works out to eleven millions of holes in the 65 acres ! Few farmers are now without a drill, but fifty years ago the keeping a drill to let out was as common as letting the steam plough for hire is at the present day. Some years ago a useful turnwrest-plough was issued from the Orwell Works, but it did not take widely. In laying down for permanent pasture it acted well : no stetch furrow was left to impede the grass mower. From 2 393 50 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the same firm a far more acceptable implement has been introduced — a light steel-tined cultivator. These are largely used all over the county. The old light-land gallows plough, which I believe was largely in fashion 100 years ago, is still in use on some farms. The four-horse threshing-machine went down before the steam threshing-machine. The plough is not yet out of date, but the steam cultivator is freely used on large farms and those who have it one year hire it again the next. The elevator used for stacking clover and barley relieves man of the hardest work he is ever called upon to perform, but this, too, can only be used on large farms. But to trace the gradual development of the implements used in Suffolk farming would require an essay for itself. The comparative yield per acre of crops between the present day and what our forefathers extracted from the soil is not easily arrived at. There is an immense increase of the farmers' output in everything grown in Suffolk. But much of this comes from land being brought into cultivation which was formerly barren heath or sheep-walk ; the land has less rest now than formerly. Probably there were almost as heavy crops of wheat grown seventy years ago as are produced now, but the average is greater. More barley is grown per acre, and more acres are devoted to this crop than was the case in the early decades of the past century. There is probably no increase in the acreage of beans or in quarters per acre. The root crop must have trebled in area, and vastly increased in weight per acre. The application of artificial manures, and the greater demand for meat, have contributed to successful root culture. Of late years landlords have thrown fewer impediments in the way of farmers selling the produce off the land than when there was great choice of tenants. Advantage has been taken of this in sending roots into London ; in the cultivation of large areas of potatoes, and in selling vegetables and straw to supply the demand in provincial towns. The introduction of mangolds has contributed to the production of meat in an incalculable degree. The writer once heard one of the largest farmers in the county, with an extensive business as valuer and land agent, say that he had no doubt the introduction of this root had added as much as jj. an acre rental value to all heavy land in Suffolk. It enables the stiff lands to maintain stock all the year round ; and the keeping quality of mangold enables the large flockmaster to meet the late springs without, as in former times, having to go to great expense in artificial food. The soils of the county and the farming resulting therefrom may be divided as follows : — The Red Sand, which forms a belt on the coast running from Woodbridge almost to Yarmouth, and roughly speaking, is bounded on the west by the railway. But line of demarcation is very irregular, stronger soils cutting in to it and almost severing its continuity. Much of the district is sheep-walk ; much more has been sheep-walk, and from years of good cultivation is now useful light land. In places there is little soil above the sand, but it produces excellent turnips, which are made the foundation of good crops of barley fit for the choicest malt-making. The thin skurmed gritty soil in West Suffolk comprises a large area, which, except for the fen-land, forms the north-west corner of the county. Starting from some four or five miles due north of Thurston station, the 394 AGRICULTURE southern boundary runs in a direct line towards Newmarket, keeping a few miles north of the railway. The western boundary touches Cambridgeshire ; then follows the east side of the fen corner to the Little Ouse dividing Norfolk from Suffolk. It follows the river eastward to Thetford and Brandon, taking as its eastern face a direct line towards Thurston. The fen-land in the extreme north-west corner. The area lying between the Deben and the Orwell, with the old turn- pike from Woodbridge to Ipswich as its northern boundary, which partakes of the nature of the sands in the belt on the east coast. But interspersed in it are some parishes of excellent mixed soil, and the blunt end of the apex of the triangle, which comprises the watering-place of Felixstowe, extending on the sea-line from the mouth of one river to the other, and reaching two or three miles from their outlets, is a spot of perhaps the very best land in Suffolk, deep enough to grow excellent crops in a dry season, and friable enough for any kinds of roots. On the west side of the Orwell is another triangular area of land of the same character as the last named, but without any light, heathy soil. It extends from Shotley to where the line from Ipswich to London crosses the Stour. That line may roughly be described as its western boundary. But towards the line itself there are some sharp, gravelly hillsides. On the whole it is, perhaps, the finest district in the county. It is known as Samford Hundred, and comprises the splendid Woolverstone estate, with its magnificent park, excellent farm buildings, and endless model cottages. The stiffer part of Suffolk contains good corn districts, but it also embraces a great deal of the worst heavy land in the county. Of course there are more fertile spots and some useful meadow lands which flank the fresh- water streams. To the north of Ipswich there are pleasant mixed-soil farms, but they lie close to the stiffer lands. The valley of the Gipping, running from Ipswich to Stowmarket, is mostly low-lying grass lands, water-slain with no very fertile subsoil. But there is a narrow strip of land through which the railway runs from Thurston to Newmarket, some twenty miles in length and about four miles wide, comprising some of the very best farming in Suffolk. The fields are large, immense quantities of lambs are reared in it, and the finest Burton barley grows there. Bury St. Edmunds is in the midst of it. The marsh-lands are the only grass-lands in the county which are good cattle-feeding pastures. The upland meadows may be described as bad, and while the present system of repeated mowings continues, with dressings of manure few and far between, and they are thus managed, they will not improve. Some of the low-lying pastures bordering the smaller streams are useful. But where there is barge traffic and mill power, the water is headed up to the roots of the grass. These are mostly cow-fed, or used for raising young store cattle. The marshes are better treated ; they are usually at a distance from the farms to which they are attached, and there is little temptation to mow them. Those on the flats in the neighbourhood of Beccles are fine grazing lands. Many of these are let by auction, and a few years ago made as much as £4 an acre. The ploughed marshes produce good crops of beans and oats, but their cultivation is heavy work, and they are the only lands where oxen take the 395 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK place of farm horses. There was this advantage where the ploughed marsh was away from the homestead ; the animals were turned into the grasses adjoining and shifted for themselves till the next day's work called them to the plough. Not many young men cared to work them, and they are now rarely seen at work. The Devon was the breed mostly used. Occasionally it occurs that arable fields adjoining the homestead are laid down to grass, but the climate in Suffolk is too dry for rapid formation of a good bottom of turf. But where it is fed and not mown, and liberally treated, there are places where, since corn-growing has been unprofitable, some newly laid down pastures are becoming fair feeding grounds. The only instance of breaking up land from what may have been termed ' pasture ' in the agricultural returns has been on light sheep land. It is ploughed up for a crop of roots or oats, sown with cheap seeds, and again left to re-fertilize itself. The crops grown in Suffolk comprise the following : — Cereals : Wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, rye. Roots and Cattle Feed : Mangolds, swedes, kohl rabi, turnips, cabbages, carrots. Fodder and Sheep Feed : Red clover, white clover, alsac, lucerne, rye-grass, sainfoin, trefoil, trifolium, rye, colewort or rape, tares, lupins, natural grass. Other Crops : Hops, flax, potatoes, sugar beet. There is nothing unusual about cereals either in kind or treatment. The chief sorts of wheat now in fashion are the old Kentish Red under various names, the rough-chaffed Tunstal, and occasionally a little early sown Talavera. Of course, there are endless varieties in the seedsmen's catalogues, some of which find favour in one place and some in another. Of barley there are various names, but perhaps the most universally sown variety is the old Chevallier introduced many years ago by an ancestor of the present owner of Aspall Hall, near Debenham. Winter barley, drilled in the autumn, has been cultivated very successfully in the Lavenham district. Both black and white oats are grown ; the Tartarian produces an abundant crop. The heavy Canadian White finds favour in some places, but is not widely patronized. Winter beans are displacing the old spring kind, and are grown on lands which some years ago were not thought stiff enough to produce a bean crop at all. Peas are considered an uncertain crop. The fine old Pheasant Eye has given way to modern kinds, and a few farmers grow peas of a delicate character for seed growers, the farmer having the seed found him and a contract in price for the crop. Rye is only grown as a crop, on the poorest soils ; the produce is chiefly retailed out for seed to the flockmasters for early sheep-feed. Among roots it may be mentioned that mangolds are increasing in acreage. The yellow globe, and tankard-shaped orange, are favourite varieties, but the long red is grown on marsh or low lands, and produces enormous weights per acre. The latter keeps sound into summer, but the idea is prevalent that it is not so rich in fattening qualities as the yellow and orange varieties. Swedes are mostly up and hoed out in the northern counties before the Suffolk farmer has drilled his. Compared with the crops grown in Scotland our swedes are miserably small. If sown early they are subject to lice and mildew in September. There has been recently a great increase in the area 396 AGRICULTURE sown with kohl rabi. To some extent these are superseding the swede, being less affected by dry weather, and form splendid fattening for sheep or for consumption in the cattle-shed. Carrots are grown in small patches ; the cost of cleaning was always a heavy item of expense in cultivation, and with the scarcity of labour many abandon them. In the early decades of the nineteenth century the sands east of Woodbridge were noted for their crops of carrots. Cabbages were the staple winter cattle food a hundred years ago, but after the introduction of mangolds they were less grown. Forty years ago it was rare to see a field of cattle cabbages, but there are more grown now, and not many stock farmers are without a few acres. But the white turnip is still the mainstay of the flockmaster. It costs less to produce than any other root crop, and with the large Norfolk white variety to begin with, and the hardy green top for winter and spring feeding, it lasts through the lambing season till the rye and rye-grass layers are fit to feed. The yellow Aberdeen hybrid is grown on stiffer land, and comes to hand earlier than the swede, and may be carted off the heavy lands in time to get the plough to work in December. Clamped round the cornstacks and covered with straw, it keeps well into the winter, but is less grown now than in former years. Among green crops red clover is the most popular for artificial grass hay, or stover, as it is always called in Suffolk. It is mostly sown behind the drill when barley seeding comes on. But neither red nor white clover succeeds if grown on the same land oftener than once in twelve years in this county. For sheep-feed on light land white clover is freely used. Grown for seed on heavy land it yields a good return ; but it is said two crops of white clover seed were never grown in the same field during one man's lifetime. Sainfoin is expensive to sow, and not on every soil can a plant be assured. It is by far the best grass for ewes and lambs, or indeed for any sheep. As a hay crop it is invaluable : two heavy swaths in the summer, and a third crop for autumn feed for sheep are usually secured in Suffolk. On the stiff lands overlying the chalk on the Cambridgeshire side of the county immense crops of hay are grown. Lucerne may be cultivated to great advantage as a hay crop, and as such perhaps yields a heavier return than any other grass. But it is not a good sheep grass ; the stalks soon get hard, and it is not every sowing which yields a standing plant. It goes off in the spring on lands which do not suit it. The writer has had it stand as a profitable crop seven years. Rye-grass is much used as a mixture with other grass seeds. It comes on, bite after bite, like a permanent grass. Hoed in with the wheat plant in spring, it appears the next year before any other green food. It is splendid food for ewes and lambs if fed early, but the stems get hard if left too long. Trefoil is mostly used as a mixed seeding, but as it does not yield a second crop it is best supplemented by white clover or rye-grass. As a catch crop for seed on land too heavy for roots it is frequently cultivated with profit ; when cleared the land is laid up for barley. Trifolium is the earliest grass to come to hand for hay. It is mostly hoed in on the wheat growth, and either for hay or first green crop for fodder the land is cleared in time for a turnip crop. It is a precarious swath for hay, for the woolly nature of the stem holds the rain and dew also, and once wetted it is not readily dried again. Drilled on the unploughed wheat stubble immediately after harvest it comes well in the spring. 397 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Tares are used for horse fodder, and if grown on heavy land and folded with sheep in the summer they make an excellent preparation for barley. Rye drilled immediately after the wheat is carted with a single ploughing gives a fortnight's feed for the ewe and lamb directly the turnips are done ; but it soon gets out of hand, and should always be off before the ear comes out. Nothing gives such a healthy hue on wool as a nightly fold on the coleworts. Lambs thrive immensely on this green colza ; but it is subject to rust and mildew in a dry August. It comes before the earliest turnips are fit to feed. The cultivation of hops has entirely ceased in Suffolk. Forty years ago there were a few acres grown three miles east of Ipswich, The spot was after- wards marked by a public-house, existing a few years ago and probably there still, called the ' Hop Ground.' Between Stowmarket and Haughley there were several acres in the bed of the valley, but osier beds have taken their place, or rough grass on the drier spots. In the early fifties some flax was grown in Suffolk, but as labour became more difficult to obtain the cultivation was given up. The time of securing it encroached on the harvest weeks ; and as it had to be pulled by hand, and no reaper or horse-rake could be used for the ingathering, the few who tried it became less, and it is not now ranked as an item in the list of Suffolk crops. Potato culture has very much increased lately. The potato plough, when the land is friable, has reduced the cost of lifting ; and the artificial manure maker enables the farmer to restore the fertility of the soil which the removal of the potato extracts. Different methods of cultivation are determined by the various soils. The sands in east Suffolk ; the gravelly soils in the west, where they are not too poor ; and the strip of land already referred to as between Woolpit and Newmarket, are the great sheep and lamb-breeding grounds. On the better farms many lambs are bred and fattened — not leaving the holding till they are fit for killing. Otherwise they are sold direct from the ewes at the repositories already mentioned. This lamb-breeding partly accounts for the system of growing wheat, roots, barley, and grasses in regular order. The close folding of roots in winter by the ewes is the preparation for barley ; the high feeding in summer tells on the wheat crop ; and so the root crop is the commencement of a course resulting in the best cultivation and the largest yield of cereals. It is the continuation of the old-fashioned four courses system, practised in the time of Young, and still adhered to by the best farmers on light and mixed soils. On the poorer soils the seeds are occasionally allowed to stand for more than one year, but the yield in feed of the second is very little ; some try a kind of self-producing herbage for three or more years ; and then a wheat crop and perhaps mangold. The latter often produces a fair weight of roots with artificial manure, or salt and nitrate of soda, with one ploughing. The plan adopted on the soils right and left of the Orwell is to get as much out of the land as possible with liberal dressings of bought manures ; high feeding of cattle in yards in winter and forcing sheep on roots and seeds. Good farming, with much capital employed, may be seen here. But the production of milk seems to be introduced in all districts. When the town 398 AGRICULTURE is near enough for two deliveries in the day, or the railway to London within easy reach, the dairies are doing pretty well. The heavy-land farmer is less fortunately placed. Cereals were his great mainstay, but prices have been against him. He, too, is in the milk trade, and the little stations on the line speak to the general extension of cow- keeping. Artificial manures have done much for the heavy lands. Sheep- farming has been little help, except in a small way, where upland meadows are at hand when the weather is too wet for the sheep on the arable fields. High farming, artificial manures, bullock grazing, and the London milk trade, are made the most of. Much of this soil produces abundant crops of barley in a favourable season ; and when wheat brought 4OJ. a quarter, the corn-grower was ready to lend his skill and his capital to grow it ; but wheat at 2%s. a quarter can scarcely be grown at a profit. The landlord has there- fore to make things as easy as his means will allow, and takes every means to keep the tenant on the holding. He knows too well the vacant farm ends in derelict, and when once a poor heavy-land farm gets out of condition it is hopeless to find a tenant. The fen-lands are treated precisely similar to those in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire — that feature in the English landscape so fascinating to the eye of a Kingsley, but so trying to the man whose success depends upon an occupation which is so often the sport of the weather. The crops he depends upon are oats and wheat among the cereals ; potatoes for the London market, not of the very best quality, unless the season is dry ; cole seed (colza) and rye-grass, grown for seed. The actual preparation for corn crops in Suffolk differs little from the practice adopted in other counties. A firm, well-rolled earth for wheat, the earlier ploughed the better, and sowing over in October is the general rule. The County Breeds of Animals. — First among these stands the Suffolk horse. In the year 1880 the Suffolk Horse Society issued a large work under the title of The Suffolk Horse: a History and Stud Book. In illustration, research, and publication the cost to the Society was some £600. It has now reached its fifteenth volume. The history revealed some extremely interesting facts in connexion with the development of the breed. Although repeated attempts have been made to infuse other blood, every particular of which has been given in the first volume, they have all died out, and there is not a single animal of the breed now extant which does not trace its lineal descent in an unbroken line from a horse foaled about the year 1760. The descrip- tion of this animal taken from printed records in the county paper of the day, has much in it to remind one of the horse of the early decades of the seven- teenth-century. But the introduction of the smarter type advertised as be- longing to a certain Mr. Blake of Hoo, went far to modify the unsightly outline of the original stock. But although this infusion of a more comely strain — an advertisement of one representative on a flimsy fly-sheet dated 1783, is now before the writer — was widely patronized, curiously enough the blood completely died out in the male line, and the old breed again asserted its lasting influence. To those interested in animal development and the theories enunciated by the school of Darwin, we can hopefully refer to the Suffolk Horse Society's first volume. The searching investigation of the Society revealed the fact that the popular idea that much of the character of 399 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the present Suffolk is due to the introduction of Flemish blood, is without the slightest foundation. Not a single instance of any such introduction, by tradition or record, could be found to support the theory. The extraordinary uniformity of character, in colour, outline, and other distinctive points, is doubtless due to the circumstance of one common source of origin. The large volume already referred to is nearly out of print, but a few years ago the Suffolk Horse Society published a six-page pamphlet,1 from which many interesting particulars of the breed may be gathered. The Red-polled Suffolk cow belongs as much to Norfolk as to this county.8 The pedigrees are intermingled and good animals find their way from the best herds in one county into the best herds in the other. The best herds still retain much of the milking qualities which distinguished the old pale red cow found in the dairy farms in Suffolk a hundred years ago, but not quite to the extent recorded by some writers of that period. Every effort is being made by the best breeders to improve the Suffolk steer as a show beast at the Christmas exhibitions, and while attempting this they have not sacrificed their milking qualities. At present their efforts have met with limited success and those who exhibit at Islington may well envy the back and loin of the Hereford, the Devon, and the Aberdeen Angus breeds. But the Red-poll is an admirable grazer, and as a growing steer, or a cow in milk, the breed is hard to beat. The Black-faced Suffolk is fast becoming a favourite sheep. The breeders are getting a footing as far north as Scotland, and as far south as the Cape, and Australia. It has found its way into distant shires and is gaining year by year a firmer hold in all the sheep districts in the eastern counties. In fact it is the sheep of the day in its old home and the surround- ing districts. When the heaths in East Suffolk were gradually giving way to the plough, and root culture was being recognized as the foundation of the barley crop, there arose a demand for a sheep more adapted for high feeding and early maturity, than the deer-like Norfolk which had so long cheerfully faced the two-mile walk to the fold at night. The Southdown cross effected a splendid improvement as far as mutton and early maturity were concerned. In West Suffolk the Sussex cross was less favoured than the heavier, coarser ram from Hampshire. Five-and-twenty years ago the Black-faces seen in both sides of the county bore unmistakable evidence of the source from which the improvement came. The West Suffolk breed were less adapted for the heath farms in the east, but they produced a heavier carcase through the high feeding and close folding adopted by the farmers on the Cambridgeshire side of the county when they sent the mutton into the market. It was at the instigation of the East Suffolk breeders that the Suffolk Agricultural Society offered prizes for ' Black-faced sheep now named the Suffolk.' But no sooner did the show-yard open, than the East Suffolk heath farm breeders were outclassed for every prize offered. Then came the blending of the two sorts. The East Suffolk men went into the west for the rams, from which they obtained a heavier carcase, and if, as the old shepherds maintained, the new sort did not face the heath as the descendants of the Southdowns did, 1 The Suffolk Hone, what he ii, and where to find him. ' The secretary of the Red-polled Society, Mr. Euren of Norwich, compiled an excellent account of the breed in the first volume of the Herd Book. 400 AGRICULTURE the breeders had to cater for the public. But the ' comical mixture of Hants, Sussex, and Norfolk,' as a show-yard reporter once described the exhibits, has now become no mixture at all. It is a magnificent breed of sheep. No shepherds of other herds can compete for the lamb-rearing prizes with a Black-faced flock of the present day. Probably no ewe in England pro- duces the number of good healthy lambs to the score that these sheep do. Within the memory of a middle-aged man no animal has undergone such a complete change of character as the pig bred in Suffolk. The original Suffolk was white, with an extremely short nose, big in the cheek, round in the rib, with a wide flat back and as short in the leg as any domesticated animal in existence. It would probably be the perfect model of the greatest weight of flesh in the smallest compass possible. Such was the Suffolk pig fifty years ago, and much later on. In 1856 a neighbour of the writer showed a sow with an eight weeks old litter at the Royal Agricultural Society's show held at Chelmsford. He refused forty guineas for a pair of the pigs to go to France. A herd of the best of these was a mine of wealth to the breeder forty years ago. Then came the Black Suffolk — the exact counterpart of the kind just described but black instead of white; these made fabulous prices. The late Mr. Crisp of Butley Abbey showed a sow of this breed at the International Exhibition in Paris, about the year 1858. The judges disqualified her, as too fat to breed, but her future history showed that this judgement was mistaken. After a time these Black Diamonds as they were called, and the White Suffolk, which was the original breed of the county, went as completely out of fashion as the flail and the sickle ; sixty years ago the thick fat on the back was pickled in brine — not made into bacon — it was pickled pork, the mainstay of many a cottage dinner and many a farmer's kitchen ; there would be little sale for it now. But the call for bacon became louder. The breeds described had to give way to a totally differently formed pig. Hence the run on the large breed of black pig. I do not know that it has any especial claim to be called a Suffolk production, though some of the best of the breed and some of the most successful exhibi- tors hail from this county. They have the forward pointed ear converging to the end of the nose ; great depth of rib, producing heavy weight of the best bacon parts ; large hams, but the back is neither wide nor deeply covered with fat. To those who remember the Black Diamonds they do not appeal on the score of beauty. They are in their present development somewhat coarse, but are largely patronized by the best stock farmers, and the breed makes way. Nothing has been said of poultry farming. It is not an especial feature in the agriculture of the county ; but there is no doubt that the number kept on a farm, not round the homestead, but in colonies all over the holding, is rapidly increasing. As a poultry farm distinct from other features on the occupation, the writer knows of none on a large scale. On small holdings poultry is a great item ; but it has been most successfully adopted in scattered centres distant from each other in the usual stock farm. To judge by the immense number of movable hen-houses now to be seen in every direction the Suffolk farmer evidently makes poultry pay. The Co-operative Society at Framlingham has given an enormous impetus to the egg industry. It has been a great assistance to the small poultry 2 401 51 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK farmer in pooling his produce with others, and so making a wholesale busi- ness with the London dealer. The introduction of the vegetable business in connexion with sheep breeding and dairying has a few notable examples in this county ; on one farm near Woodbridge the occupier has built up a large connexion with the London consumer. He has probably many hundred private customers, and has at least a hundred hampers constantly on the line going backwards and forwards from the nearest station. The small box system introduced on the Great Eastern Railway a few years ago has made great progress. A short time ago the writer saw a hundred of these packages taken by one customer to fill with farm produce from a small station on the Yarmouth line. The benefit of agricultural shows has long been recognized in Suffolk. The County Society held its first exhibition in 1831 or 1832. But there are numerous smaller societies and farmers' clubs holding annual meetings for prize competition. There are excellent exhibits at Woodbridge, Framling- ham, Eye, Stowmarket, Hadleigh, and one in the south-west of the county. One branch of agriculture has not been mentioned — the breeding of riding horses. Although the hunter and hackney classes at our shows are well filled, Suffolk does not rank high as a light-horse breeding county. It is certainly not for want of opportunity of getting at first-class thoroughbred sires, for the writer has now before him a list of forty-three first-class horses which have, one after another, been located at the late Colonel Barlow's paddocks at Hasketon. Amongst these were the blood of Melbourne and Bay Middleton, Voltigeur, and Touchstone, Sweetmeat, Orlando, and Stockwell ; with many a trotting horse which has brought there a ribbon from the Royal Agricultural Society. About the year 1867 a sugar factory was started at Lavenham in West Suffolk. It was kept at work for some six years, but was then abandoned, as it was not a financial succcess. To the grower this was a great disappointment. From one farm in the parish where the factory was situated the output averaged more than 900 tons a year. There were some 700 or 800 acres of the occupation, but a source of receipt of £1,000 a year without curtailing the cereal shift, even on a farm of this size indi- cates a useful addition to the usual sale products from arable land. The occupier of a farm four miles from the factory informed me that while the factory was in work his business paid him 10 per cent, on his tenants' capital. He had the cost of cartage to deduct from the profits, and yet sugar-beet culti- vation enabled him to realize a living return. The pulp after the sugar had been extracted was sold back to the farmer at 1 2s. a ton. The tillage was not exactly like that for mangolds ; the roots had to be deeper in the ground, with as much below the surface as possible. These were deterio- rated by exposure to the sun and had to be taken up with a fork ; but the cultivation of the crop left a profit. An effort is being made to induce the introduction of the sugar business again, but at present no factory has been started. 402 FORESTRY SUFFOLK is one of the eight English counties of which there is no record of any royal forest within its confines. But though Suffolk thus escaped the penalties of being under forest law, it need not be concluded that it was at all lacking in woodland or timber. Contrariwise, it probably possessed considerably more woodland in Norman, Plantagem t, and even Tudor days, than did Essex or some of the great counties of the west that were cele- brated for their extensive royal forest lands. For the mediaeval ' forest,' it should ever be remem- bered, did not imply, etymologically or otherwise, any great extent of wood, but merely a vast district, much of which was never wooded, reserved for royal hunting and sport : the deer, indeed, either red or fallow, could not live unless the forest contained much open space and pasturage ground. The Domesday Survey affords clear evidence of the very considerable area of the county that was then covered with wood. Particularly was this the case with the great Liberty of St. Edmund, which included, by the gift of the Confessor, the eight hundreds of Thingoe, Thedwastre, Blackburne, Bradbourne, Bradmere, Lackford, Risbridge, and Babergh, and the half hundred of Cosford, forming the western portion of the county and more than a third of the whole area. The value of woodland in those days consisted not only in its value for building and fencing purposes, and for fuel, but in the limited rough pasturage or agistment for horses and horned cattle, and more especially in the pannage for the swine. The sustenance afforded for the pigs by the acorns and beechmast was all-important to the poorer classes, whose chief food supply came from the swine. The survey was compiled by different sets of commissioners. It is only natural to find that varying methods of computation were adopted ; this is especially the case with regard to woodlands. In some counties the amount of wood was calculated by lineal measure (miles and furlongs), as in Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, and Worcestershire, or by square measure (acres), as in Lincolnshire; but the more usual plan was to give a rough estimate according to the number of swine that could be supported by the acorns and mast. The estimating by the pigs admitted of a two-fold method. One plan, which was adopted in the case of Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex, was the stating of the number of swine due as tribute to the lord for the privilege of pannage, which was usually one in seven. The other plan, which was adopted in the case of Suffolk, and which also prevailed in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, was to enter the full approximate number of swine for which the particular wood could find pannage. Of the various Suffolk manors pertaining to the great abbey of St. Edmunds at the time of the survey, upwards of sixty are entered as having silvae worth so many pigs. Mendham had the largest timbered area, for it could feed 360 swine ; as the whole acreage was under 3,000 acres, probably two-thirds was then woodland. The woodland of Chepenhall could feed 1 60 swine; another manor of doubtful identification I2O; Worlingworth, Pakenham and another IOO each; Ingham 80 ; and Long Melford and several others 60 each. At the abbot's manor of Melford was an old grandly wooded deer park of ancient foundation called Elmsett, or magnus boscus dominl in early charters. The abbot had also a grange and place of occasional residence at Elmswell in another part of the county. One of the most delightful! stories told of Abbot Samson's shrewdness, by his biographer, Jocelin of Brakelond, concerns these two places. Told succinctly, it runs as follows. Geoffrey Riddell, bishop of Ely (1174-89), desiring timber for a great manor-house, asked the abbot personally for the same, and the abbot unwillingly granted the request, not liking to offend the bishop. Soon after, when the abbot was at Melford, the bishop sent a clerk asking that the promised timber might be taken at Elmswell, mistaking the word and saying Elmswell when he meant Elmsett. Meanwhile the abbot's forester at Melford informed his master that the bishop, in the previous week, had sent his carpenter secretly to the wood of Elmsett, putting marks on the desired trees. Samson, though well aware that there was no good timber at Elmswell and detecting the blunder, sent off the bishop's messenger with a ready compliance with his request. So soon as the messenger had departed, the abbot went into Elmsett wood with his carpenter, and caused not only the trees privately marked by the bishop, but a hundred more of the best for timber to be branded with his mark, and felled as speedily as 403 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK possible for the use of the steeple of the great tower and other parts of the building of St. Edmunds. When the bishop's messenger reached Ely with the abbot's consent to obtain wood at Elmswell, the bishop gave him many hard words and ordered him instantly to return and say Elmsett not Elmswell. But by the time he got back to Melford all the good timber of the great park had been felled for the use of the abbey, and Samson could only express his inability to oblige the bishop.1 In the record of Abbot Samson's reforms and business energy, we are informed by his biographer that soon after his election in 1182, 'he enclosed many parks, which he replenished with beasts of chase, keeping a huntsman with dogs ,• and upon the visit of any person of quality sat with his monks in some walk of the wood, and sometimes saw the coursing of the dogs ; but I never saw him take part in the sport.' 2 A survey of the important manor of Melford, taken in 1287, shows that there were then 360 acres of wood, against 800 acres of arable, 24 of meadow, and 53 of pasture. A more particular survey of Melford in 1386, given in Abbot Timworth's register, shows an apparently larger area of woodland, namely about 490 acres, but it seems that other parts of the parks were included in this estimate. The wood called Lemynge was of 90 acres, and it is represented as producing £2 I2s. 6d. a year from 15 acres, at 3*. 6d. an acre. This means that it was the practice to cut down all the undergrowth in lots, a sixth part each year ; and that, after the cost of fencing to protect the new cleared part from the deer that it might grow strong again, the profit averaged y. del. an acre. To cut coppices every sixth year was unusually frequent ; but it was a rich soil. The wood called Le Speltue was of 80 acres, and after the same fashion produced £2 Js. a year ; and Le Small Park, of 60 acres, 305. The Great Wood or Park of Elmsett was then of 260 acres; from it there were cut 600 faggots a year, valued at 8^. the half hundred ; there was also a receipt of £2 for agistment of stock. The general wood receipts of the year also included I2d. for a cutting of thorns, and 6s. 8d. for depasturing swine. An exact survey in 1442 of these Melford woodlands, given in acres, roods, and poles in Abbot Curteys' register, makes the total acreage of the woodland and parks 504 acres.3 The considerable prevalence of woodland in mediaeval Suffolk can also be gathered from another source of information. Many of the manor court rolls of the county, of which there are a large number at the Public Record Office, contain a great and most unusual variety of references to offences committed against the woodland and timber rights of the district. One instance of this must suffice ; it is but a sample of many others. The records of a manor court of Westwood, including Blythburgh and Walberswick, held in 1323 on the Monday after the feast of St. Edmund, show that twenty-seven offenders were charged with wood trespass ('dampnorum fact' in bosc' dniM, and were in each case fined 3^. Three years later, at a court of the same manor held on 9 September, nine offenders were fined ~id. each for damage done by their beasts in the lord's woods.4 The ancient woods of this manor have long ago disappeared, though their former presence is attested by various place and field names, and particularly by the frequent occurrence of the term 'Walk' throughout the district, which was the old name for a division of a forest or woodland.6 In the reign of Edward III the accounts of various Suffolk properties that were temporarily or permanently in the hands of the crown also bear witness to the extent of woodland by such entries as De pannfigio porcorum.6 The best timbered parts of the county, next to the many woodland manors of the Liberty of St. Edmund, were to be found in the hundred of Blything on the eastern coast. The grants made to the Cistercian Abbey of Sibton and to the Premonstratensian Abbey of Leiston, immediately around their respective sites, bear strong witness to this fact.7 In the two chief parks of this hundred, Huntingfield with Heveningham (300 acres), and Henham (1,000 acres), there are traces of ancient oaks. Huntingfield, whose woods were worth 150 swine at the Domesday Survey, was visited by Queen Elizabeth at the beginning of her reign, and the remains of a noble old tree called ' the Queen's Oak ' are still pointed out, whence she is said to have shot a buck with her own hand.8 Close to Henham Hall are several 1 Jocelin, Chron. (ed. Clarke), 106-7. ' Ibid- 43- 3 Parkin, Hist, tf Melford, 229, 240, &c. 4 Court R. (P.R.O.), ^. 4 The older name for a forest division, under the charge of a particular forester or keeper, was bailiwick ; but 'walk' became the more usual term in the sixteenth century. See Fisher's Forest of Essex, 145-6; Cox's Royal Forests, passim. •Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), >•#*, 7 to 17 Edw. Ill, &c. 7 See subsequent accounts of these houses. The general confirmation of Hen. II to Sibton Abbey, of lands in Sibton, Peasenhall, and elsewhere, put the woodlands first — ' quam in bosco tarn in piano.' Dugdale, Man. (ed. i), i, 886. 'A beautiful etching of this celebrated oak is given in Strutt's Silva Britann'ua (1824), and there is an engraving in Shirley's Deer and Deer Parks (1867) from a photograph taken in 1866. 404 FORESTRY ancient oaks of great girth with hollowed stems, though the historical one in which Sir John Rous was concealed from the Roundheads for some days has disappeared. Henham manor had wood for forty swine in the eleventh century. Nothing tended so much to the destruction of the old woods of Suffolk as the dissolution of the monasteries. The religious houses had, for the most part, preserved them with faithful care ; but the new owners felled or stubbed them up on all sides to produce ready money. The crown endeavoured, under Elizabeth, to do something to stay this spoliation, and several commissions of inquiry were issued with regard to Rattlesden and other manors.1 Framlingham Park used to have an acreage of 600 acres, and the pales were 3 miles in circuit.3 It must have been remarkably well stocked with fallow deer. A roll of the accounts of Richard Chambyn, park-keeper of Framlingham to the duke of Norfolk for the years 1515-18, shows that in the first of these years presents were made of seventy-five bucks and sixty-four does ; in the following years the gifts of venison were yet larger.3 There are also various proofs of the considerable amount of timber contained in this once celebrated park in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As every park in olden times, as at present, embraced a certain amount of well-grown and well-tended timber, it may be as well to recall how numerous were the Suffolk parks in the days of Elizabeth. Saxton's Survey of this county, dated 1575, marks four parks in the hundred of Hartismere, namely, Redgrave, Burgate, Westhorp, and Thwaite ; Wingfield, Denham, Monk Soham, Kelsale, and Framlingham in the hundred of Hoxne; Kenton and Letheringham in the hundred of Loes ; Henham, Blythburgh, Huntingfield, and Heveningham in BIything hundred ; Nettlestead in Bosmere hundred ; Hadleigh in Cosford hundred ; Chilton, Small Bridge, Gifford Hall, Cavendish, and three near Lavenham in Babergh hundred ; three near Stradishall in Risbridge hundred ; and Chevington in Thingoe hundred.4 On the crown manors of Suffolk, although there was some timber taken, both in Elizabethan and Stuart times, for the wholesome object of assisting the navy, no provision was made for future production, and the surveyors seem to have been encouraged to add paltry sums to the revenue by the rash destruction of coppice growth. At the beginning of the reign of James I, William Glover was surveyor of the crown property in East Anglia, and had the control of the considerable wood sales both in Norfolk and Suffolk. On 2 May, 1609, Glover wrote at length to Lord Salisbury respecting the sale of the king's timber in the two counties, the claims of the copyholders, the threats of the people of Ginningham and Tunstead to insist on felling for their own use, and the marking of trees for navy purposes. From this and other com- munications it becomes clear that there were at that date considerable woods at Frostenden and at Leiston, both in BIything hundred. In these woods Glover could find but very few trees sufficiently good for navy purposes. A great number were, however, marked as ' wrong tymber,' that is twisted or gnarled or decaying trees useless for ship-building, yet suitable not only for fuel but for smaller carpentering purposes. The timber sales from these woods produced the handsome sum of ^1,877 14*. Another royal manor, about the centre of the county to the south of Stowmarket, was the extensive district of Barking-cum-Reedham, which was also at that time well wooded. Glover reported to Lord Salisbury that the leases of this manorial property had fallen in some five or six years previously, and that the woods were being seriously spoiled by the poor people of the neigh- bourhood. As a means of checking this spoiling, Glover asked that crown leases should be granted to himself.5 A survey of timber in Suffolk fit for the navy was undertaken in May, 1651 e; and in January, 1666, Thomas Lewsley, writing from Woodbridge to the Navy Commissioners, reported that he had met with much good timber in Suffolk, the greatest and best belonging to the two Mr. Mundys, who were willing to supply it upon payment of their former bills of ,£400 due a year ago.7 In the following month particulars were furnished of 150 loads of Suffolk plank at £4 los. per load.8 Edward Mundy, who had a timber yard at Woodbridge, wrote to the Navy Commissioners in the March following, stating that he had sent a quantity of plank into the stores at Chatham, and 1 Exch. Spec. Com. Nos. 2230, 2231, 2234, 2235. Unfortunately these documents are mostly illegible. 1 Loder, Hist, of Framlingham (1798), 329. * Shirley, Deer and Deer Parks, 29-33. 4 Several particulars of parks laid out in this county during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are to be found in Shirley, Deer and Deer Parks, 1 18-22, as well as short particulars of two or three of earlier date not mentioned above. 4 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, vol. xlv, Nos. 7, 91. 6 S P. Dom. 1651, xvii, 57. ' S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cxlv, 25. • Ibid, cxlviii, 18. 405 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK entreated payment of his former bills for goods delivered sixteen months previously.1 His entreaties however were unheeded.8 When John Kirby first published The Suffolk Traveller* based on an actual survey of the whole county, undertaken in 1732-3, he described it as naturally divided into the Sandlands, the Woodlands, and the Fielding. The very considerable Woodland section is named as extending from the north-east corner of the hundred of Blything to the south-west corner of the county at Haverhill, and including part of the hundreds of Carlford, Wilford, Loes, Plomesgate, Blything, Blackburne, Thedwastre, and Thingoe, and all the hundreds of Risbridge, Babergh, Cosford, Sandford, Stow, Bosmere and Claydon, Hartismere, Hoxne, Thredling and Wangford. Arthur Young drew up a General View of the Agriculture of the County of Suffolk in 1794 for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture. His remarks on the woods of the county are but scanty and insufficient ; he considered that they ' hardly deserved mentioning, except for the fact that they pay in general but indifferently.' He continued By cuttings at ten, eleven or twelve years' growth, the return of various woods, in different parts of the county, have not, on an average, exceeded g/. per acre per annum ; the addition to which sum, by the timber growing in them, but rarely answers sufficiently to make up for the difference between that produce and the rent of the adjoining lands. There cannot be a fact more clearly ascertained than that of every sort of wood being at a price too low to pay with a proper profit for its production; and nothing but the expense and trouble of grubbing prevents large tracts of land thus occupied from being applied much more beneficially. The present deer parks of the county, including several of small area, are eleven in number.4 Ickworth Park (marquis of Bristol) is one of the largest in the kingdom, as it contains, including the woods, nearly 2,000 acres. It is eleven miles in circumference, lying in the parishes of Ickworth, Clievington, Little Saxham, and Horningsheath ; and is stocked with about 500 head of fallow deer. There has been a considerable amount of planting on the marquis's property in Suffolk of late years, for the most part having in view the desirability of keeping up a supply of timber for estate purposes. The next largest of the Suffolk deer parks is that of Livermere (Lord de Saumarez), which has an area of about 550 acres. It is undulating and well wooded, particularly with fine old oaks, and is stocked with about 120 fallow deer. Flixton Hal! Park (Sir F. E. Shafto Adair, bart.), near Bungay, has an area of 500 acres. The fallow deer vary in number from 250 to 300. There are numerous old trees, oaks, elms, and chestnuts, in this ancient park, as well as new plantations. There has been a small amount of recent planting on the estate, but only for game purposes. Hclmingham Park (Lord Tollemache) has an acreage of 306 acres. The hall is approached by a long avenue of oak trees, and in the park of ancient foundation is ' probably the finest clump of oaks of any park in England.' 5 The fallow deer, small and black in colour, now number about 150, and there is also a small herd of 35 red deer; it is intended to keep the numbers about the same. There has been practically no recent planting on the estate, save the replacing in the park of old trees that have died or been blown down. Shrubland Park in Barham parish (Lord de Saumarez) has an area of 355 acres. It is well wooded, and famous for some singularly fine specimens of old Spanish chestnut trees ; it is stocked with about 150 fallow deer. Woolverstone Park (Mr. Charles Hugh Berners) encloses 350 acres, and is stocked with a herd of about 400 fallow deer. The park extends to the margin of the Orwell and contains much fine timber. During the past decade a few acres have been planted for landscape effect, and others for game purposes. The park was enclosed about the time of the erection of the mansion, namely in 1776. Somerleyton Park (Sir Savile B. Crossley, bart.), in the north-east of the county, is remarkably well wooded and encloses nearly 400 acres. There is a stately avenue of limes. It is stocked with 40 fallow deer and 30 red deer. Fuller's brief comments on this house and grounds, published in 1662, show that fir trees were at that time regarded as rarities in England. He says : — ' Among the many fair houses in this county is Somerleyton Hall (nigh Yarmouth), belonging to the Lady Wentworth, well answering the Name thereof : For here Sommer is to be seen in the depth of Winter in the pleasant walks, beset on both sides with Firr-trees green all the 1 S.P. Dom. Chas. II. cl, 102. » Ibid, cbaviii, 38. 1 Pint edition, 1733 ; second edition, 1764. 4 Brief particulars are given of these in Whitaker, Deer Parks, 1892. In almost every case these- particulars have been brought up to date through the courtesy of the owners and their agents, whose assistance: we desire specially to acknowledge. * Whitaker, Deer Parks, 143. 406 FORESTRY year long, besides other curiosities.' 1 There have been about ten acres planted within recent years, partly for game purposes, but chiefly for the protection of exposed arable land. Orwell Park (Mr. E. G. Pretyman), in Nacton parish, incloses 150 acres, and is stocked with about 1 50 fallow deer. The park slopes down to the Orwell, which is here tidal ; it contains much broken bracken-covered ground, and some fine oaks. The tree planting on this estate has been done chiefly on the light lands which have been found unprofitable to farm. About 160 acres have been covered in recent years, and these plantations are used as cover for game. This park was enclosed by Lord Orwell about 1750. Redgrave Park (Mr. George Holt Wilson) is a well-wooded deer park of about 300 acres, with a herd of 80 fallow deer; it assumed its present proportions in 1770. There has been no recent planting on the estate, except to replace. This park is marked on Saxton's survey of 1575. Polstead Park (Mr. Edmund Buckley Cooke) has an acreage of 84 acres, and a herd of about 70 fallow deer ; it is well wooded with oak, ash, horse-chestnut, and elm. Near the church is a great ancient tree known as the 'gospel oak ' ; the decayed trunk has a girth of 32 ft. at 5 ft. from the ground ; there is also an elm with a girth of 2 1 ft. Campsey Ash Park (Hon. William Lowther) has an area of 87 acres and is stocked with about 100 fallow deer. The park is well studded with trees, and in front of the house are some exceptionally large cedar trees, and a double avenue of limes. There has been no considerable planting on this estate of late years. The old coverts have been replanted when necessary, after the underwood has been cut. Six small plantations, each of about an acre, have been planted with Scotch and spruce firs and larch, and a few hard wood trees, chiefly for the purpose of shelter in the most exposed parts of the estate, which is open to the east coast. In addition to the deer parks of the county, Suffolk still possesses an unusual number of parks untenanted by deer, all of which are fairly well timbered or surrounded by plantations, whilst several are of great beauty and extent, and possessed of fine old forest trees.2 The historic parks of Henham and Heveningham have already been named, and besides these there are eleven which cover an area of 300 or more acres, and which demand a word or two of special mention. Brandon Park (Mr. Almeric Hugh Paget) lies about a mile webt of the town of Brandon, in the north-west of the county. The area of the property known by this name is 2,626 acres, and it contains between four and five hundred acres of woodland scattered in different parts. In the last four years a great deal of planting has been done, to form new coverts for game, as well as for land- scape effects. The whole of the woodland has been long neglected, but is now being gradually taken in hand and renovated. It is found in this neighbourhood that — so far as the success of a plantation is concerned — it pays over and over again to double-trench the land before planting. There are thousands of larch on the Brandon Park property that should have been felled long ago ; about seventy per cent, of them are hollow. Euston Park (duke of Grafton) to the south-east of Thetford, has the noble area of 1,262 acres ; it contains much splendid timber. There are between 1,300 and 1,400 acres of woodland on the estate, which is about a tenth part of the whole property. There has not been much planting of late years, only two or three acres annually, consisting principally of ornamental clumps and shelter belts. In 1671 Evelyn visited Lord Arlington at his 'palace of Euston.' ' Here my lord,' says the diarist, 'was pleased to advise with me about ordering his plantations of firs, elms, limes, &c., up his park, and in all other places and avenues. I persuaded him to bring his park so near as to com- prehend his house within it ; which he resolved upon, it being now near a mile to it.'3 In August 1677, Evelyn was again at Euston and enters: — ' 29th We hunted in the park, and killed a very fat buck. 3 1st I went a hawking !'4 In the following month he refers to ' four rows of ash trees a mile in length which reach to the park pale, which is nine miles in compass, and the best for riding and meeting the game that I ever saw. There were now of red and fallow deer almost a thousand, with good covert, but the soil barren and flying sand, in which nothing will grow kindly. The tufts of fir and much of the other wood were planted by my direction some years before.'' The deer were done away with by the fifth duke of Grafton about the middle of the last century. Culford Park (Earl Cadogan), four miles north-west of Bury St. Edmunds, consistsof 550 acres; it is well wooded and extends to the river Lark. During the past seven or eight years, new planta- tions have been made on the estate at the rate of about 25 or 30 acres per annum. Besides the new planting, the old woods are being improved. The new plantations have been made with a view to 1 Fuller, Worthies (ed. l66z), ii, 53. * The short details relative to these parks are partly from the fragmentary histories of Gage and Suckling, and partly from personal observations ; but we are chiefly here also indebted to the courtesy of owners and their agents. 3 Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence (ed. 1850), ii, 64. 4 Ibid. no. 'Ibid. 113. 407 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK profit, although at the same time they have been put in position to help the game and to serve as shelter for the adjacent land. In short on this estate arboriculture is the main object. Trees have also been planted in the park and along the roadside to improve the landscape. Sotterley Park (Captain Miles Barne), in the north-east of the county, a little south of Beccles, consists of 458 acres, of which 180 are woods, the remainder being pasture. It contains some very fine old oaks. Sotterley oak had at one time a considerable reputation in ship-building yards. A large ' fell,' about the year 1794, was secured by the royal navy, and was used in ships that fought at Trafalgar. Oaks grow here almost to perfection. A specimen that was lately felled contained 300 cubic feet in the bole. Care has long been taken to replant where any felling has been done. Forty or fifty acres have been newly planted, principally with larch and pines, in the last few years on Captain Barne's Sotterley and Dunwich estates. Hengrave Park (Mr. John Wood) four miles north-west of Bury St. Edmunds, has a total area of 300 acres, including belts and plantations, which occupy about 50 acres. There has been little or no planting on the estate of late years. In 1894 about 35 acres were planted in the adjoining parish of Risby. Sir Thomas Kitson erected a noble mansion here in 1525-38. Queen Elizabeth, in 1587, licensed Sir Thomas Kitson the younger to impark 300 acres in Hengrave, Fornham All Saints, Risby, Flempton and Lackford, granting him all the privileges of free warren and other rights pertaining to a park. There had previously been a small enclosure round the manor-house called the Little Park, and the new enclosure was termed the Great Park. The extent of the two parks, in 1715, was 500 acres. A contemporary book of accounts give the following interesting particulars of the deer placed in the Great Park when finished at Michaelmas 1587 : — Deare of all kinds taken owte of Chevington Parke in the beginning of the last year, ix"xiij .... Reed and also put into Hengrave Park out of Lopham Park, xiiij ........ Out of Westrop Park, xxvj ...... Out of Wethenden Park, iij . . . . . . •> cccxvj Reed as given by Mr. Clement Higham, being tame and whight, j . Reed out of Mr. Jernegan his Parke, one whight doe, j Reed out of Mr. Crane his Parke, viij .... Remained as in the year ended as before, Ixx Whereof Killed and spent in the house in Chrysmas, ij Given unto Mr. Clement Higham, ii . Morts, with one lost, xj . . . Killed and sent unto London of bucks, ij Given unto Mr. Seckford, j Stolen, j . . . . . . And is Remaynes of bucks xviij „ sores xx „ sorrels xlviij „ pricketts xxv „ does and fawns ix"vj cciiij"xvij* Sudbourne Park (Mr. Kenneth M. Clark) to the north of Orford, has an area of about 300 acres and is well wooded. Very little planting has been done of recent years except in the way of improving existing covers for game. Rendlesham Park (Lord Rendlesham), to the south-east of Wickham Market, extends over 400 acres, about 180 acres of which are woods or plantations. No planting has taken place here of late years, beyond filling up the woods with cover for game. For this purpose about 25,000 plants, consisting of laurels, rhododendrons, spruce, American dogwood, mahonia and snowberry were planted. Glenham Park (earl of Guilford), between Framlingham and Saxmundham, has a well-wooded area of about 350 acres. This park, until about the middle of last century, used to be noted for a herd of dark fallow deer. Glevering Park (Mr. Arthur Heywood) near Framlingham, has an area of about 300 acres. Since purchasing the estate in 1898, Mr. Heywood has planted about 25 acres. Other wooded parks, mostly of much less extent and chiefly of modern origin, are those of Assington, Benacre, Boxted, Branches, Brettenham, Chadacre, Dalham, Denston, Easton, Elvedon, 1 Gage, Hist, of H engrave (1822), 4-5. 408 FORESTRY Finborough, Hintlesham, Kentwell, Loudham, Melford, Rougham, Rushbrooke, Santon Downham, Saxham and Stowlangtoft. On the estates or in the parks of Ickworth, Orwell, Campsey Ash, Brandon, Sotterley, and more particularly at Culford, a fair amount of planting has been accomplished of recent years that may rightly be included under the term arboriculture, or tree planting from a commercial or agricul- tural point of view, and not merely or solely for game preserving or ornamental landscape effects. Taking the county of Suffolk as a whole, it is satisfactory to find that it has had its full share in the increase of woodland throughout England during the last quarter of a century. The English wood- lands increased by 50,000 acres from 1895 to 1905. During that decade the woodlands of Suffolk increased from 34,77 1 acres to 37,979 acres. The return of 5 June 1905, gives the coppices of the county, that is woods cut over periodically and reproduced naturally from stool shoots, as 11,134 acres ; plantations or lands planted or replanted within the last ten years, 2,740 acres ,• and other woods, 24,105 acres. 409 52 DA 670 S9V6 v.2 The Victoria history of the e-e. or use in e Library ONLY For use In the Library ONLY