Gc
942.6401
V66
v.2
1400147
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
QtA
3 1833 00726 4630
Zhe Dtctoda Ibistor^ of tbe
Counties of Enolanb
EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.
A HISTORY OF
SUFFOLK
VOLUME II
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTIES
OF ENGLAND
SUFFOLK
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LIMITED
This History is issued to Subscribers only
By Archibald Constable & Company Limited
and printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode
H.M. Printers of London
1100147
INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HER LATE MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA
WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE
THE TITLE TO AND
ACCEPTED THE
DEDICATION OF
THIS HISTORY
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY"
OF THE COUNTY OF
SUFFOLK
EDITED BY
WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.
VOLUME TWO
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LIMITED
1907
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Dedication ....
V
Contents ..... .......
ix
List of Illustrations .
xiii
Editorial Note
XV
Ecclesiastical History
By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.
I
Religious Houses : —
Introduction .
53
Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds
56
Priory of Eye .
72
Priory of Dunwich .
76
Priory of Edwardstone
76
Priory of Hoxne
76
Priory of Rum burgh
77
Priory of Snape
79
Priory of Felixstowe .
So
Priory of Bungay
81
Priory of Redlingfield
8?
Prior)' of St. George, Thetford
85
Priory of Mendham .
86
Priory of Wangford .
88
Abbey of Sibton
89
Priory of Alnesbourn
9'
Prior)- of Blythburgh
9'
Prior)' of Bricett
94
Priory of Butley
95
Priory of Chipley
99
Priory of Dodnash .
99
Priory of Herringfleet
„
[00
Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul
Ipswich
»
102
Priory of the Holy Trinity, Ips
wich
» X »
103
Priory of Ixworth
,.
105
Priory of Kersey
»
107
Priory of Letheringham
10S
Priory of the Holy Sepulchre
Thetford .
109
Priory of Woodbridge
„
1 1 1
Priory of Campsey
»
112
Priory of Flixton
„
115
Abbey of Leiston
»
1 17
Knights Templars of Dunwich
„ „
120
l
Preceptor)' of Battisford
„
120
<0
Dominican Friars of Dunwich
ix
121
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Religious Houses {continued) —
Dominican Friars of Ipswich
Dominican Friars of Sudbury .
Franciscan Friars of Bury St.
Edmunds .
Franciscan Friars of Dunwich .
Grey Friars ol 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. Edmund'
Hospital of St. Nicholas, Bury
St. Fdmunds
By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.I)., F S.A.
Hospital of St.
Edmunds
Peter, Bury St.
Hospital of St.
St. Edmunds
Petronilla,
Bury
Hospital of St.
St. Edmunds
Saviour,
Bury
Hospital of St. J
mes, Dun
rich .
Hospital of the
Holy Ti
inity,
Dunwich ....
Ho=pital of Eye
Leper House of Gorleston
Leper Hospitals of St. Mary Mag-
dalen and St. James, [pswich .
Hospital of St. Leonard, Ipswich
Hospitals of Orford .
I lospital of Domus Dei, Thetford
Hospital of St. John, Thetford .
Hospital of Sibton .
Hospital of St. Leonard, Sudbury
College of Jcsuj, Bury St. Edmunds
College of Denston .
Cardinal's College, Ipswich
College of Mcttingham
College of Stoke by Clare .
College of Sudbury .
College of Wingfield
Priory of Blalcenliam
Priory of Crecting St. Mary
Priory of Creeling St. Olave
Priory of Stoke by Clare .
Hospital of Gre.u Thurlow
Hospital of Sudbury
Political History ....
By Miss Mary Croom Brow>
School of Modern History)
(Oxfo
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Maritime History .
Industries
By M. Oppenheim .
By George Unwin, M.A.
• '99
Introduction ....
Woollen Cloth —The Old Draper
The New Draperies, Woolcomb-
ing and Spinning .
Sailcloth and other Hempen
Fabrics ....
Silk Throwing and Silk Weaving
e
» »
• 2 + 7
• 254
. 267
. 271
• 2 7 i
Mixed Textiles (Drabbet, Horse-
hair, Cocoa-nut Fibre) and
Ready-made Clothing .
Stay and Corset Making .
Lowestoft China
„
• 274
. 276
277
Agricultural Implements, Milling
Machinery, Locomotives, &c. .
. 281
Fertilizers
„
. . 2S5
Gun-Cotton
„
. 286
Xylonite .
»
. 28-
Malting .
„
2S8
Printing .
Fisheries
By Miss E. M. Hewitt .
. 28S
. 2S9
Schools .....
• 301
Introduction, Dunwich,
ford, Bury St. Edmunc
wich and Elementary Sl
Thet-
s, Ips-
hools
]
j
By A. F. Leach, M.A., F.S.A.
The remaining Schools
By Miss E. P. Steele Hutton,
M.A. (St. And
rews)
Sport Ancient and Modern
Edited by E. D. Cuming
Hunting
By Edward Huudleston
• 357
Staghounds
By E. D. Cuming
. 360
Harriers .
» »
. . 361
Coursing
By H. Ledger
• • 36.
Shooting
Wild-fowling .
By Nicholas Everitt
• • 36+
• 371
Angling
Racing .
By Cuthbert Bradley .
• 375
. 3S0
Golf .
By F. E. R. Fryer
• 383
Camp Ball
Athletics
By E. D. Cuming
By J. E. Fowler Dixon
• • 38+
• • 384
Agriculture .
Forestry
By Herman Biddell
By the Rev. J. C Cox, LL.D.,
F.S.A.
• 4°3
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Banks of the Waveney . . By William Hvde .... Frontispiece
Ecclesiastical Map of Suffolk .......... faing 5 1
Monastic Seals of Suffolk —
Plate I full-page plate, lacing 72
Plate II 108
Plate III 126
EDITORIAL NOTE
The Editor wishes to express his thanks to all those who have
assisted in the compilation of this volume, but particularly tc
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 iElla, 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 617, 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 religious
houses, particularly of St. Edmunds, and are not here repeated.
2 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.'2 Just about
the time of Sigebert's accession to the East Anglian throne, either in 630 or
63 i,s 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.'4
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 Bcdc, Eccl. Hist. bk. ii, ch. 5-14 ; Bp. Browne, Conversion of the Heptarchy, 68-73.
* Bcdc, Ere/. Hut. bk. ii, ch. 15.
1 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that it was in 636 that ' Bishop Felix preached the faith of Christ to
the East Angles.'
' 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 Registrant Sacr. Angl. p. 4, briefly
states this as a fact, giving Bede, ii, 15, 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.' 1 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.3 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.*
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.5
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 Saham 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. 2 Bede, bk. iii, ch. 18.
3 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.' * Ibid. ch. 20.
0 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 713 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 Hwa?t-
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 ^Ecci of Dunwich.3
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 arc 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 docs 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 Aldwuif
when subdividing the kingdom into two dioceses should fix the scat 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 remain* long known as the Old Minster. These will be subsequently described in detail ; suffice it
here to state that a space of 3J 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 clear 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 Dunvvich 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 iEscwulf, Eadulf (signature 747),
Cuthwine, Aldberht, Ecglaf, Heardred (signatures 781-89), Aelhun (790-3),
Tidferth (798-816), Waeremund (signature 824), Wilred (signatures 825-45),
and iEthelwulf.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 iEthelwulf 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 861, '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 nad
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.4
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. Cb. 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 1 8 74, Stiff. Arch. Inst. 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
the 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.
2 Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 137. 3 Ibid.
* 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 iamb to the slaughter. According to the other and better
■established version, supported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Asser, and Ethelward, Edmund and his men
fought stoutly against the Danes. As to the various lives of St. Edmund, see Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's
Jbbey (Rolls 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 1 004 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
10 10 the Northmen came in yet larger numbers, landing this time at Ipswich,
and harrying a still wider extent of East Anglia."
On Sweyn's death in 10 14 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), ^Elfric, Theodred (signature 975), Theodred
(signature 995), .(Elfstan (995-1001), ^Elfgar (1001-102 1 ), ^Elfwine (1016, last signature 1022), yElfric
(died 1038), JEWic (consecrated 1038), Stigand (1043-6), ^Ethclmaer (1047, last signature 1055), and
Herfast (consecrated 1070).
' Jng. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Scr.), 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. Rama.
(Chron. and Mem. Ser.), pp. 12, 31, 100, 103, &c. ; Vita Osualdi (Chron. and Mem. Ser.), i, passim.
4 Hen. Hunt. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), 1 75-8 ; Matt. Paris, Chron. 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
days, it may be well to offer a short digression as to the church dedications
of 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,5
1 Norfolk retains fifteen parish church dedications to St. Edmund.
2 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.
* Arnold, Mem. of St. Edmunds Bury I, lxii, 36 1.
4 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
Creetings, which is still known as Creeting 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 final
award entirely in favour of the abbot, a decision which Herfast resisted with
much wrath, using personal violence to the messenger who brought him the
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 Geilis Pontif. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 150.
3 Ibid. 156 ; Lanfranc, Epistolae, Nos. xxii-v.
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 ;l 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 near Woodbridge,
1 Inq. Eliensis, fol. 21b.
' Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, i, 287 ; this statement originally appeared in the introduction to the large
folio edition of the Survey issued in 181 3, 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 (manentei) 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 20,49 1.3
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 Dora. Bk. fol. 28 1£. ■ Ibid. 292^.
s Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, ii, 488-93.
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 pauperes1 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.*
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.3
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, lntrod. to Domesday (1833), ii, 488 ; De Grey Birch, Domesday Book, 21 1.
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.
* Stubbs, Const. Hist, i, 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 11 19,
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 (1 121-48) 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 11 27, 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 (1 175-1200) 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-
12 14) 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, 4.86-90.
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.' * 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 Shelland, 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. Hist. 90. ' Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 1-34.
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. 2
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.C ; 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
Stow St. Peter
1256
2 marks
' Snaylwell '
7 marks
Stow St. Mary
Haughley
Newton
2os. 6d.
2,05. od.
4.0s. od.
5 »
6£ „
5 „
In 1 29 1 came the general valuation of the church property of England,
usually known as that of Pope Nicholas.4 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 1 291, 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 antique*, was not a deanery. The six South Elmham churches, with Sancroft,
Homersfield, and Flixton, were exempted from both synodals and procurations.
' In all printed references to the Norwich Taxation that we have seen the number has been given as
over 500.
s 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 Nich. 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 9J- io^- a year; whilst the temporalities pertaining to various
religious houses attained to the annual value of £3,487 8s. 3|d'.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 (i), Amberge abbey, Normandy (2), Anglesey priory (1), Aumerle abbey, Nor-
mandy (3), Barnwell priory (2), Beeston priory (3), Beaulieu abbey (i), Boxley abbey (1), Broomhill
priory (2), Bromholm priory (16), Buckenham priory (1), Burton Lazars hospital (1), Canterbury priory (6),
Carrow priory (2), Castleacre priory (2), Chatteris abbey (i), Coggeshall abbey (1), 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 (1), Horsham priory (3), Holme abbey (1), Ickling
priory (5), Langley abbey (13), Leighs priory (14), Lesnes priory (2), Mailing abbey (1), Mencheneleye (2),
Missenden abbey (1), St. Neots priory (1), Norwich priory (13), St. Osyth abbey (14), Pentney priory (1),
Prittlewell priory (1), Ramsey abbey (2), Rochester priory (1), Royston priory (3), Spinney priory (1), Thet-
ford Cluniac priory (14), Thetford Austin priory (5), Titley abbey (6), Tunbridge priory (1), Walsingham
priory (1), Wardon abbey (4), Wickes priory (6), Woburn abbey (1), Wormegay priory (2), Wymondham
priory (1).
15
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 centurv, 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 1 2 1 5 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 12 19.
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
121 5-16. 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
1 25 1, and Bredfield in 1259 maY ^e 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 c shameful spoliation ' 2 of the country clergy ; but it
is at least doubtful whether the condition of those parishes that had resident
1 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 125-9. 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.
* Dioc. Hist, of Norwich, 1 44.-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. 6.r. Sd. a year ; but in
the same deanery were the following rectories, Cornard Parva £8 2S. 8j</.,
Groton, £8 is. Sd., Somerton £6 16s. Sd., and Preston £5 6s. o\d. In
Suffolk archdeaconry, in the deanery of Bosmere, Bramford vicarage was
worth £13 3-r. gd. whilst in the same deanery there were seven rectories of
less value.2
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.3 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 40J. 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 (1890), 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.
s This was also the case in Susses, but in Winchester diocese the rectories were 2S9 to 95 vicarages, in
London 731 to 201, and in Exeter 524 to 185.
2 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, t^ie 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.2 In the first week of Lent,
Peckham held an ordination for candidates from his own diocese at Sudbury.3
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.4
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. Eph. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 178-90. ' Ibid, i, 173. ' Ibid, i, 267-8, 307.
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.2
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 i 3 1 6 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. Epis. 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 Creeting,
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 theSa^ Arch. Inst, xi, 173-99.
* Norai. Epis. Reg. iv, 91-123.
*9
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 9th of the month he was
at Norwich, the plague making awful havoc all around him. On the 10th
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 bv 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 13 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.9
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 1 3 8 1 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 before 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.3
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 Norte. 120-1.
' 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.
3 The Act De heretlco comburindo was passed by all estates of the realm in 1 40 1 ; 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.
20
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 14 14.1 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 141 6 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.2
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
1 2 Hen. V, cap. 7. * Hook, Archbishops of Canterbury, v, 56-7.
3 • The documents ' of Wakering's time ' which Foxe refers to and dresses up in his usual extravagant
manner have perished ' {Norm. Dioc. Hist. 144).
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 143 1 Foxe, who seems to have
had access to Exeter's register of the heresy courts, mentions that 120 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 143 1, 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
Burv 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, FascuS Zizaniorum, 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. Mar)-, 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. Suff. Arch. Inst, xii, 14-22) ; and the
Fraternity of Corpus Christi of St. Mary's church, founded in I 3 17. 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, 1434.2
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, iiz. 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 xo 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.
* Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 123, 139, 141.
5 Ibid. x. The ordination lists of this episcopate are complete ; the deacons numbered 495, and the
priests 476. ' Raven, PoJ>. Hist. ofSuff. 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 2 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^/., gs., gs. Sd., and js. 8^/., respectively ;
1 For the highly exceptional number of the bells of this county see Raven, Church Bells of Stiff". By the
middle of the fifteenth century there was a flourishing bell-foundry at Bury.
* Reproduced, to some extent, in the modern Church Bazaar, with its refreshment-stalls and tea-rooms.
2 25 4
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
the fifth is not entered. Such amounts, when it is recollected that the pur-
chasing value of money was then at least tenfold of its present power, were
by no means to be despised, for the whole items of the general church
expenses for that year only amounted to i is. \d} The church-ale money
seems to have been saved up for particular purposes. Thus at Cratfield in
1493, one Thomas Bolbre received £2 13J. \d. for ' peyntyng of ye image
of Our Lady,' and the further sum of 8s. for ' ye peyntyng of ye tabernacull
of Seynt Edmond.' In the following year Bolbre received the additional
large sum of jfy for painting the tabernacle of Our Lady, and again, in 1498,
for painting the image and the tabernacle of St. Edmund.2
There is no scholar of the present day who can in any way equal
Dr. Jessopp in his intimate knowledge of the ecclesiastical affairs of East
Anglia, or in the fullness of his research into all the documentary evidence
that bears upon the history. His opinion, therefore, as to the church life of
Suffolk and Norfolk during the century that closed under the prolonged rule
of Bishop Goldwell may be quoted with confidence.
On the whole, the impression left upon me by the examination of all the evidence
that has come to hand is that the condition of the diocese of Norwich in the fifteenth
century reflects credit upon the bishops of the see and the clergy over whom they ruled.3
With the dawn of the troublous sixteenth century began the long rule
of Bishop Nykke or Nix, who died at Norwich in 1535-6, on the eve of the
monastic overthrow ; he seems, however, to have made but little impression
on the times in which he lived. Suffolk must have known something of
him personally, for like several of his predecessors, he preferred the episcopal
residence at Hoxne to the palace at Norwich.
This bishop is said by Foxe to have been active in the violent suppression
of heresy in the northern part of his diocese, in the earlier days of his rule ;
but the circumstantial statements by Foxe as to the burnings of particular
individuals in 1507, 15 10, and 151 1 are not to be credited.* Well sub-
stantiated fierce persecution broke out under Nykke's episcopate, but at a
much later date.
There was a singular riot at Bungay in the year 151 5, on the Friday
after Corpus Christi Day. A complaint was forwarded to Cardinal Wolsey,
himself a native of Ipswich, by several of the leading inhabitants of the town,
stating that on the day mentioned Richard Warton, Thomas Woodcock,
John Woodcock, and other evil-advised persons ' arrayed as rioters ' broke and
threw down five pageants, namely, Heaven pageant, the pageant of all the
World, Paradise pageant, Bethlehem pageant, and Hell pageant, which were
■ever wont to be carried about the town on that day in honour of the Blessed
Sacrament. The excuse made by the defendants looks as if this riot was a
piece of disorderly mischief rather than a religious disturbance. They
pleaded that the pageants were very old and ancient, and they promised to
assist the proprietors to make new ones in their place.6
In the days of Wolsey a small knot of young Cambridge men who had
come under the influence of Tyndale formed themselves into a society called
1 The various gilds that were found in every parish often reduced the general charges for church
expenses to a minimum, for they usually made themselves responsible for particular lights, and not infrequently
.handed over their balance for ordinary church repairs. s Holland, Cratfield Parish Papers, ZI, 22, 29.
3 Norw. Dioe. Hist. 156. * Ibid. 157. ' This burning can have been no more than branding.'
4 Star Chamber Proc. Henry VIII, vii, 94.
26
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
the Christian Brotherhood. They were chiefly East Anglians, and on their
dispersal from Cambridge in 1525, Thomas Bilney, a fellow of Trinity Hall,
and Thomas Arthur, a fellow of St. John's, betook themselves to Norwich
diocese, and became itinerant preachers of the new doctrines in Norfolk and
Suffolk. Bilney was the most able and by far the most aggressive of the
two. Foxe gives a curious account of a vehement dispute between Thomas
Bilney and Friar Bruisyard in St. George's Chapel, Ipswich.1 Bilney gained
many adherents to his Zwinglian views, among them being Anthony Yaxley,
of Rickenhall in this county, who formally recanted before Bishop Nykke at
Hoxne, on 27 January, 1525— 6. 2 Eventually Bilney and Arthur were
brought before a great assembly of bishops, divines, and lawyers, under the
presidency of Cardinal Wolsey, on 27 November, 1527, and formally charged
with heresy. Both the offenders solemnly recanted. Penance was assigned to
Arthur, and he was confined for some time at Walsingham. Bilney, after
carrying a faggot in procession at St. Paul's, was kept in prison for a year,
and on his release returned to Cambridge. Repenting of his abjuration, he
left Cambridge after eighteen months' sojourn, and betook himself again to
preaching and the dissemination of Zwinglian literature from the continental
presses. On 3 March, 1531, he was apprehended in London, and sent down
to Norwich for trial, when he was degraded from his orders, condemned as a
relapsed and obstinate heretic, and burnt at the stake on 19 August.3
It is estimated that during the reign of Henry VIII at least thirty
persons were tried and burnt as heretics for holding Zwinglian and Lutheran
views, and for ' depraving the Eucharist,' whilst a far larger number saved
themselves by recantation.4 No small share of those who lost their lives
in this persecution were burnt in this county, or were immediately connected
with Suffolk.
Notwithstanding their stringent rules, heresy found its way into the
religious houses. William Blomfield, a monk of St. Edmunds, abjured in
1529. Richard Bayfield, chamberlain of that abbey, came under the influence
of Dr. Barnes the ex-Austin prior, a well-known reformer. Barnes made
him a present of a Latin New Testament, and from others he received
Tyndale's Testament 6 in English, and other of Tyndale's condemned books.
On Bayfield's heresy being detected ' hee was cast into the prison of his
house, there sore whipped, with a gagge in his mouth, and then stocked, and
so continued,' says Foxe, ' in the same torment three quarters of a yeare.'
He was released through Barnes's influence, and after visiting Cambridge was
apprehended in London, abjured, recanted his abjuration and then perished
at the stake.6 Three Austin friars of Clare abjured in 1532. Some years
later according to Foxe, ' one Puttedew was condemned to the fire about the
parts of Suffolk,' and William Leiton, an ex-Benedictine monk of Eye,
suffered a like death about 1537 'for speaking against a certain Idoll which
was accustomed to be carried about the Processions ' there, and for his views
1 Foxe, Jets and Monts. (Townsend), iv, 628-30. " East Count. Collectanea, 1, 42.
3 See Foxe, Acts and Monts. (Townsend), iv, 619-56, for the general story of Bilney and his associates.
* Wakeman, Hist. ofCh. of Eng. 256.
5 It is but fair to remember that not only did Tyndale's version show a strong Zwinglian bias, but he
prefixed to each part as it issued from the press violent attacks on the Church and its system. The bias of the
translation is obvious to any scholar, thus Ecclesia is turned into ' congregation ' instead of ' church.' See
Sir Thomas More, English Works, 419, &c. 6 Foxe, iv, 680-3.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
on the Eucharist.1 A ghastly scene is also recorded of the martyrdom of one
Peke, of Earl Stonham, at Ipswich.8 In the days of Bishop William Rugg
(1536-50), the ex-abbot of Holme, persecutions continued by the immediate
and direct instigation of the king. Two men of Mendlesham, Kerley and
Clarke, were burnt in 1546, the one at Ipswich and the other at Bury ; their
chief offence was the denial of Transubstantiation.8
Bishop Nykke died on 14 January, 1536; but his successor, Bishop Rugg,
was not consecrated until 1 1 June of the same year. Henry VIII employed
the interval in stripping the old East Anglian see of all its possessions,
including the very ancient Suffolk property and favourite residence at Hoxne.
The original revenues of the abbey of Holme and the priory of Hickling were
assigned for the upkeep of the see ; but probably the king had some thoughts
of re-arranging and possibly dividing the bishopric of Norwich, as on
19 March, whilst the see was vacant, he caused Thomas Manning, prior
of the Austin house of Butley, to be consecrated bishop of Ipswich, and John
Salisbury, prior of Horsham St. Faiths, to be at the same time consecrated,
by Cranmer at Lambeth, bishop of Thetford.4 There is no record, however,
of Manning having ever acted as a suffragan in this diocese ; Salisbury
became bishop of Sodor and Man in 1571.
The story of the dissolution of the monasteries, with which the name
of Henry VIII will for ever be associated, is told with some degree of
particularity under the respective religious houses, and need not here be
repeated. Between 1536 and 1539 Suffolk was swept clean of all the
religious orders. Probably no other county felt the change more keenly
from a social and economic standpoint than was the case with Suffolk ; the
vast amount of alms so constantly distributed at some thirty convent gates
instantly ceased ; the great tithes of upwards of 1 50 parishes passed from
religious control into the hands of the purely selfish lay impropriators, and
the monastic lords of the manor and landowners gave place in every direction
to the sterner rule of suddenly aggrandized civilians. There was deep
discontent, but every outward expression of it was crushed with the most
rigorous severity.
The spoils taken from the monasteries were, however, soon dissipated.
In 1544 Henry VIII had to apply to Parliament to discharge his debts, and
in 1545 he turned his eyes again to the spoiling of a variety of institutions
administered by the church. An Act was passed for vesting in the crown
all free chapels, chantries, colleges, hospitals, brotherhoods, and gilds of an
ecclesiastical nature.
When Edward VI came to the throne there were still remaining
unspoiled six collegiate churches (including that of Stoke, which was the
richest of all such establishments in England), nineteen hospitals or lazar-
houses, as well as a great variety of chantries and gilds. The Suppression
Act of 1547 was on almost the same lines as the lapsed one of Henry VIII;
but it went a step or two farther, for it was therein provided that in addition
to colleges, chantries, and gilds, all lands or rent-charges providing for obits
1 Foxe, v, 254. » Ibid. • Ibid. 530-3.
' Epis. Reg. Cant. Cranmer, fol. 187-8. Both of these suffragan titles have recently been revived.
Arthur Thomas Lloyd was consecrated bishop of Thetford in 1894; and George Cormac Fisher was
translated from the suffragan bishopric of Southampton to that of Ipswich in 1899.
28
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
and anniversaries (which may be briefly described as temporary or occasional
chantries), as well as for church lights or lamps, were to be crown property.
Commissioners had been sent round under Henry VIII's Act to take
inventories of colleges and chantries and to schedule their property. A fresh
set of commissioners was now dispatched to each county on a like errand.
' The certificatt or declaration of all such and so many chauntreys, hospitales,
colleges, lyvinges of stipendiary priests, free chapels, fraternyties, brother-
hoods, guyldes, lands appointed for the finding of obits, anniversaries, lights
and lamps,' for the county of Suffolk, was issued on 13 February, 1547—8,
by Sir Roger Townsend and four other commissioners. It contains
221 separate entries.1
It is quite obvious that in Suffolk, as well as in most other counties of
which full certificates are extant, the commissioners, though appointed by the
crown, had the courage strongly to deprecate the sweeping away of chantry
priests or stipendiaries, at all events in the more populous places. Thus at
Lavenham, where there were 2,000 inhabitants, they state that the curate of
the parish could not possibly serve the cure without the help of the priest of
St. Peter's gild. At Mildenhall —
A large populus towne having in yt a greate number of housling people and sundrie
hamletts dyvers of them being chappies distante from the parishe Chirche oone mile or twoo
whear the seide (chantry) preiste dyd synge mas sundrie festivall dayes and other holy dayes
and also helpe the Curatte to minister the Sacraments, who withoute helpe werre not able
to discharge the Cuer.
At Nayland, where the housling folk numbered 560 ; at Beccles with 800
communicants ; and at Woodbridge with a like number, the commissioners
pointed out that the cure could not possibly be duly administered without
the assistance of the respective chantry priests. A like statement is also
made with regard to Long Melford.
At Bury St. Edmunds, after an enumeration of the various chantries
and gilds in the town, the commissioners proceeded to state that there were
3,000 housling people as well as a great number of youths, adding —
It has no schole or other lyke devise in the town or within 20 myles, nor hospital of
the poor except those above named (all of which had been already granted by Edward VI
to laymen), whose revenue the people petition may be formed into a foundation for the
relief of the poor and for education.
The stipendiary priests of these certificates differed from the chantry
priests in being supported only for a definite number of years by rent-
charges, varying in duration from a few years to ninety-nine years.
There is some confusion in these entries between the chantry and
stipendiary priests, but eleven of each class are named. Their general duty
and work is several times referred to, even in the parishes that were not very
populous. Thus at Framlingham the duty of the stipendiary is described as
' to praye for all Christian soules and to ayde the Curate and to help the
Inhabitants towards the payment of the Taxe.' The chantry priest at Our
Lady's altar was 'well learned and teachith children,' and those of Lavenham,
Clare, and Long Melford are also entered as schoolmasters.
1 Chantry Cert. (P. R. O.), No. 45. The parts of these certificates that refer to colleges and hospitals
are referred to in the subsequent account of the particular religious houses.
29
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
The entries as to free chapels — that is chapels not subject to the diocesan
or to the incumbent of the parish — are also instructive as showing that their
suppression and that of their ministers did a grievous wrong to the due
administration of religious worship. Now and again the suppression of a
free chapel might do no particular harm when it was near to or adjoining
the parish church. Thus the Lady chapel at the east end of Long Melford
church was technically a free chapel, and there were several cases in which a
free chapel is entered which was but a quarter of a mile from the parish
church. But it must be recollected that suppression in all these cases
involved the disendowment of the minister, and the priests who served such
chapels were, like the chantry priests, as a rule the assistant clergy of the
parochial incumbent. Thus at Kersey, where there was a free chapel a
quarter of a mile from the church, the priest ' always used to helpe the
Curatt synge devine service uppon the holy dayes in the parisshe Chirche of
Carseye.' In other cases chapels at some distance from their parish church,
and serving as chapels of ease for hamlets, were ruthlessly closed, and the
lead of their roofs, the iron and glass of their windows, as well as the bells
and church furniture sold. This was the case with the free chapel of
Chilton, a hamlet of Clare, whose priest held service there once a week, and
for the rest of the time sang in the parish church. Still worse was the
instance at Botesdale, a hamlet about a mile and a half from the parish
church of Redgrave ; the commissioners stated that it was an ancient chapel
originally built by the inhabitants for their own use, and that there were
forty-six householders and 160 housling folk in the street or hamlet. A
third instance is that of the free chapel in Leiston parish, built for the ease
of the people ' on the sea banckes, where the inhabitants be alwayes ready to
kepe watche and warde for the defence and saftie of the same Towne and
countrye.'
This Suffolk certificate as to chantries, free chapels, &c. is remarkable
as showing in what a large number of cases those who held the advowsons
or who were the chief men in the parish or district had become a law unto
themselves, and had anticipated the action of the crown by nominating
laymen to hold these ecclesiastical positions or coolly retaining the incomes
in their own hands. Most of the county certificates show one or two
cases of this kind, but we are not aware of another county so prolific in
such instances as Suffolk.
In the case of Palgrave free chapel, distant half a mile from the church,
the commissioners found that the building was decayed and the incumbent a
layman. The free chapel of St. Margaret in Tattingstone was held by 'John
Fytzhew gent, a layman.' The free chapel of Nayland had been dissolved
in the time of Henry VIII, and granted to Richard Holden. The free
chapel of Cowling, which was distant a mile from the parish church, had a
layman custos ; and the free chapel of Lindsey was in like plight.
The chantry of Haverhill had been dissolved in 1542, and granted by
letters patent to Lord Russell. The Duke of Norfolk had suppressed the
chantry at Framlingham, and appointed no incumbent for three years. The
chantry of Huntingfield, worth £j a year, had no incumbent, for ' one
Nicholas Arowsmyth taketh it to his own use by virtue of a deed feoffment
20 May, 23 Henry VIII.' The Bedingfield chantry in Greswell church,
30
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
worth £\o a year, had been taken and retained by Sir Edward Bedingfield
in the reign of Henry VIII. Two chantries in Dennington church had
been dissolved in 1546 and given to Richard Fulmerston, whilst the
chantries of Brundish and Kedington had also fallen into lay hands.
Two cases of the absorption of incomes assigned to stipendiary
(chantry) priests for ninety-nine years in neighbouring parishes, are also of
interest as showing the fairly good use to which the money was put. The
commissioners found that the income of the foundation at Southwold had
been already converted to the use of the town ; they bore testimony that it
was but a poor town owing to sea encroachments, and that the money was
used to maintain 'jetties and peyres.' At Covehithe they found no stipendiary
incumbent, for the income had been assigned to the vicar, as the vicarage
was not worth eight marks a year ; it was a poor and populous town, with
sixteen score housling people.
By far the greater part of the 270 separate entries on the Suffolk
certificate of the commissioners relate to the small endowments, usually of
the nature of a rent-charge, that provided for an ' obit ' or anniversary of
some departed person on the recurrence of the burial day. The ordinary
notion is that these obits were simply absorbed by the celebrant of the mass.
But this is a complete mistake, for such bequests provided largely for the
poor, so that by their suppression a far more grievous wrong was done to the
indigent and aged than to the parish priest. Suffolk affords a great number
of instances, according to this certificate, wherein the proportion of an obit
assigned to the poor far excelled the pittance received by the priest.
In addition to the annual value of the endowments secured by the
Suffolk commissioners for the crown by the suppression of the chantries,
hospitals, gilds, &c, a considerable amount of other spoils was secured.
They obtained 165 ounces of silver-gilt plate, 142^ ounces of parcel gilt, and
284 ounces of white or silver plate. Other ornaments and utensils were
valued at £85 gs. yd. A stock of money to the value of £52 6s. Sd. was
actually confiscated from the sums in hand belonging to those church benefit
societies, the gilds. Unmolten lead on the roofs of chapels was estimated to
weigh 62 fother, and bell-metal 8,005 cwt. 26 li.
There was a fairly generous pension scheme assigned to the priests of
these suppressed institutions who did not hold any other preferment. On
20 June, 1548, Sir Walter Mildmay, knt., and Robert Kelwaye, esq., were
commissioned to issue letters patent, under the great seal of the Court of
Augmentations, to ' the Incumbents and Mynysters of dyverse late Colledges,
Chauntries, and free Chappelles, and to Stipendarie priestes ' of the county of
Suffolk. Two days later the patents were granted.1
There were many abuses in connexion with the pensions granted at this
time, but more particularly with those granted to the dispossessed members of
the religious houses ejected during the previous reign. Necessity compelled
some to part with their pension patents for ready money, and in other cases the
pension distributors were exacting illegal fees. An Act was passed in 1 549
to regulate these matters, and to compel the restitution of patents held by
those to whom they had not been granted.2 This Act remained to a consider-
1 Accts. Exch. Q. R. bdle. Ixxvi, 1. ' 2 & 3 Edw. VI, cap. 7.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
able extent a dead letter, until in 1552 commissioners were appointed for
holding investigations in each county. For carrying out the purposes of this
Pension Act, Sir William Drury, Sir Thomas Jermyne, and Sir William
Walgrave, knts., Clement Higham, esq., and John Holt and Christopher
Payton, gentlemen, were appointed as commissioners for Suffolk, on
16 September, 1552.
The late priors of Woodbridge and Eye, the late abbot of Leiston, and
the prioress of Redlingfield, appeared personally before the commissioners,
testifying that they were in receipt of their respective pensions, which they
had ' neyther solde nor assignede.' Twenty-five monks of Bury St. Edmunds
appeared and testified in like manner. Thomas Cole, an ex-monk, swore
that eight or nine years past he had assigned his annuity to Ambrose
Jermyne, in consideration that Ambrose obtained for him the benefice of
Flempton in the gift of Thomas Lucas. Thomas Rowte, another former
monk, produced an indenture dated 1 March, 1545, to the effect that he sold
and assigned his letters patent of annuity to Ralph Cokkerell for £26 13s. 4*/.,
whereof he swore that he only received £19. Evidence was given of the
death of one monk. The master and three fellows of Wingfield College, and
twelve members of Stoke College, also appeared and testified to due receipt of
pensions. Twenty-six chantry or stipendiary priests likewise appeared and
testified. Fifteen lay annuitants appeared, but one (Edward Reve) stated that
he had sold his letters patent of annuity in 1543 for £20 to John Holt,
gentleman.
The commissioners returned the names of two of the college of Wingfield,
three of Butley Priory, nine lay annuitants, and nine chantry priests, who did
not appear before them, and as to whom they had not received ' any presente
instrucyons where they remayne or abyde.' 1
The full pension list of 1 555-6, generally known as Cardinal Pole's
Pension list,2 giving details of all fees, annuities, and pensions, then paid to
the religious and others of the dissolved monasteries, and to the priests of
suppressed chantries, shows that the sum of £625 4J. 6d. was the amount
distributed to the various pensioners of the county of Suffolk. George
Carlton, the ex-abbot of Leiston, was in receipt of £20 a year ; William
Parker, ex-prior of Eye, £18 ; Edward Maltyward, ex-prior of Bury St.
Edmunds, £20, and twenty-six monks of that abbey of £iJJ 6s. Sd. ; and
Grace Sampson, ex-prioress of Redlingfield, £13 6s. 8d. Lay annuitants of
the old religious houses, who were chiefly semi-fraudulently put on the list by
the confiscation commissioners on the eve of the dissolution, were then in
receipt of £129 16s. \d. a year.
The remainder of the total sum went in pensions to the dispossessed
prebendaries and vicars of the collegiate churches of Wingfield and Stoke ; to
the ex-chantry priests of Barham, Beccles, Bury (2), Denton, Eyke, Ipswich
(2), Melford, Mildenhall, Nacton, Orford, Palgrave, Polstead, Shotley, Stow-
market, and Tattingstone (2) ; to the chaplains of the suppressed free chapels
of Clare, Cowling, Lindsey, and Ufford ; to the ex-grammar schoolmasters of
Lavenham, Melford, and Stoke College ; and to the stipendiary priest of
the church of Botesdale.
1 Accts. Exch. Q. R. bdle. lxxvi, 21. * B.M. Add. MSS. 8102.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
The uncertainty as to the eventual outcome of the clash of conflicting
religious opinions, and the not unnatural expectation that the spoiling of the
religious houses would be followed by the spoiling of the churches, led to a
large amount of appropriation and embezzlement of church goods during the
closing months of the reign of Henry VIII. In a few counties, such as
Suffolk, where foreign-bred Protestantism was obtaining a considerable hold,
the churchwardens and parishioners agreed to the sale of much of their church
ornaments and valuables, appropriating the money for a variety of purposes.
They apparently foresaw what was coming, and wisely thought that if such
things were to go, the value had better be used for local than imperial
purposes.
In 1547 commissioners were appointed to draw up inventories of church
goods, more especially, as stated, that the goods might be preserved for the
churches and not disposed of; but in reality as a preparatory step to their
wholesale seizure by the crown. There was, however, just a certain amount
of sincerity in the preamble to the commissioners, for in several cases where
church goods had been embezzled by individuals, restitution in kind or money
was enforced from the offenders.
Suffolk affords an instance of this private embezzlement by a man of
position. Philip Woolverstone, esq., of Woolverstone, took from that church
and sold two bells and two vestments which were declared to be worth
£20, and he was called upon to pay over that sum to the Court of Augmen-
tations. But a certificate was afterwards handed in, sealed by eleven of
the parishioners, to the effect that ' the grettyst bell was no more of
wayte than one man myght cary yn hys Armes,' and they both were not
worth above £5. As to the vestments, one was of old white silk with a
red cross of Bruges satin, and the other of old crimson velvet, both of
small value. Moreover, Mr. Woolverstone took them supposing the church
to be his own chapel.1
There are extant an exceptional number of the original returns from
Suffolk made by the parish authorities to the inquiries of 1547.2 They
show the considerable prevalence of the desire of the parishioners to profit
by sales of their own, and in most of the cases the sale had evidently been of
quite recent occurrence.
At Aldeburgh the parish had realized the large sum of £40 (£400 of
our money) by the sale of a cross, a pair of chalices, a pair of censers, two
candlesticks, a pax, and a pyx, all of silver. With this money they stated
that they had purchased ' powder and shot for the realm,' as well as ordnance,
bows, and harness. The small parish of Ashfield certified that they had sold
church goods worth 40/., which they had spent on the setting forth of soldiers.
The churchwardens of Barking, with the consent of the whole parish, had sold
a cross, three pairs of chalices, two pyxes, a pair of censers, a ship, and two
paxes for the large sum of £54. With part of the proceeds they had bought
a pair of organs, which cost (in addition to the pair of old organs) £14.
Beccles had sold silver to the yet larger amount of £59, using the money on
building their fine detached steeple. Also in 1 Edward VI they sold more
1 Q. R. Ch. Goods &.
* Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. cccccix. These returns, numbering 1 76, are made on paper, and have been
mounted in book form.
2 33 5
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
silver to the value of £40, using the proceeds for the repair of the church, for
the great bridge, and more especially ' for the edifyinge buyldynge and
fynyshinge of our steple.' In a different hand is added, as a kind of after-
thought, ' and for setting forth of Soldiers to serve the Kings majesty in his
affaires.'
These 1547 certificates enable us to say that the churches of Suffolk,
were quite exceptionally well supplied with church goods, more especially
plate.
It was, however, after all, only a minority of the churches of Suffolk
that had thus stripped themselves of the best of their church goods ; that
which remained, in this and other counties, was looked upon with covetous
eyes by the insatiable council. On 3 March, 1551, they decreed ' That for
as muche as the King's Majestic had neede presently of a Masse of Mooney
therefore commissions should be addressed into all shires of Englande to take
into the Kinges handes such church plate as remayneth to be emploied unto
his Highness use.' l There was, however, some delay in issuing these
commissions. The one for Suffolk, dated 16 May, 1552, was addressed to
Nicholas Hare, knt., Henry Dale, knt., the bailiffs of Ipswich, Lyonell
Talmache, Edward Grymston, and William Forster, esquires. The book
containing the returns of the commissioners covers the whole county, and
includes 514 churches.8 At the beginning are full entries of all the church
goods of the Ipswich churches at considerable length.
The other inventories have not been preserved, but the rest of the
book is taken up with the record of the miserable remnant of the goods
that the commissioners were directed to leave behind them. They were
instructed to sell everything save one chalice (the term chalice included
a paten) or two for a great church, as well as great bells and ' saunce '
bells. It was also understood that a surplice and a minimum of altar linen
was to be retained in each church, but this is not specified in the Suffolk
returns.3 Among the churches to which two chalices were assigned were
those of Coddenham, Covehithe, Barking, Eye, Snape, Mildenhall, Sudbury,
and Woodbridge.
When Mary came to the throne the change among the beneficed clergy
was considerable. Large numbers were deprived, the reason in almost every
case being on account of marriage, and not, as has sometimes been alleged,
because of any supposed lack of validity in ordination by Edwardian bishops.
Convocation in 1 547 under Edward VI sanctioned the marriage of priests,
and at the beginning of 1549 an Act of Parliament gave civil authority to
such unions. Many of the clergy availed themselves of this permission, but
the general Statute of Repeals under Mary revoked this licence, and clerical
marriage was no longer sanctioned by church or state. The revived obliga-
tion to celibacy came into force on 20 December, 1553, but before this
Convocation had inhibited married priests from ministering or saying mass.
It was not, however, until the spring of 1554 that formal deprivations for
marriage were put in force. The entries relative to deprivation in Norwich
1 Jets of P. C. 1550-2, p. 228.
J Aug. Off. Bks. cccccix. At the beginning is affixed the original commission.
3 The county commission in certain hundreds, notably in Essex, left a vestment or a cope, or both, for all
the churches, and occasionally other plate beside the chalice ; but in such instances they were exceeding their
instructions.
34
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
diocese, beginning in March, 1553—4, are more complete than for any other
diocese, and work, out at about one in five of the whole clergy.1
One of the most interesting cases of Suffolk deprivations on account of
marriage is that of the well-known parson of Hadleigh, Rowland Taylor, who
was a considerable pluralist. He was not only rector of Hadleigh, but also
archdeacon of Cornwall, prebendary of Hereford, and canon of Rochester.
On being summoned to account for his alleged marriage, Taylor had to admit
that he had been married after an irregular fashion twenty- nine years before
to one Margaret, at the house of John Tyndale, merchant tailor of London,
not in the face of the church, but in the presence of one Benet, a priest, and
of Tyndale and his wife. By this union he had had nine children, of whom
five survived. He had received minor orders at Norwich, was ordained
deacon by Bishop Holbeach, then suffragan of Bristol, in 1539, and priest by
Ingworth, bishop of Dover, in 1543. He was a married man with wife
and family at the time of his ordination both as deacon and priest, such
ordinations being then uncanonical and illegal.2 140014: 7
Suffolk had no small share in the shocking persecutions of Mary's brief
reign. The most eminent of the victims was Dr. Rowland Taylor, who was
burnt on 8 February, 1555, which was the same day as the martyrdom of
Bishop Hooper of Gloucester.3 In the following year three men were burnt
as heretics at Beccles, one at Whiston, and two at Debenham.* Another
notable Suffolk martyr of this period was John Noyes, shoemaker of Laxfield,
whose story is told at considerable length by Foxe. He was burnt at Laxfield
on 22 September, 1557.5 Suffolk attained to a gruesome notoriety during
the Marian persecution ; it is said, according to Foxe's estimate, that no
fewer than thirty-six persons were burnt to death during her reign within the
limits of the county.6
John Hopton, confessor to Queen Mary, and bishop of Norwich during
her reign, died about the same time as his royal mistress, in the month of
November, 1558. Elizabeth chose to keep the see vacant for nearly two
years after her accession, and eventually promoted John Parkhurst, who had
been in exile at Zurich, to the bishopric.
1 Frere, Marian Reaction, 49, 51, 53. The list of the deprived clergy of this diocese gives 243 beneficed
and 100 unbeneficed ; but the institution book gives only 172 as the number of deprivations. The balance
are probably entered as merely ' vacant ' ; not a few of the married and puritanically disposed clergy fled to
the Continent at the beginning of the reign.
' Reg. D. and C. of Canterbury, cited in Frere, Marian Reaction, 65-6.
3 Foxe, Acts and Monts. (Townsend), viii, 676-703. In the church of Hadleigh is a brass tablet to the
martyr's memory, on which is engraved a rhymed doggerel epitaph. The last four lines run : —
O Taillor were thie myghtie fame
Uprightly here inrolde,
Thie deedes deserve that thie good name
Were syphered here in golde.
Those, however, who were responsible for erecting this monument did not even go to the expense of a piece of
brass to his memory. The plate turns out (from the reverse) to be a portion of a fine fifteenth-century brass
to a former merchant of the town, which must have been torn off from his grave, and then re-used from motives
of economy.
On Aldham Common the site of the burning is marked by a rough unhewn stone, about two feet long
and a foot high, on which are rudely cut the words : —
1555. D. Taylor in defending that was good,
At this place left his blode.
4 Ibid, viii, 145. 5 Ibid, viii, 424-7.
6 Raven, Hist, of Suffolk, 169. This is probably a considerable exaggeration ; see the list of 'such as were
burned for religion' in Mary's reign in Strype's Memorials (iii, pt. 2, pp. 554-6), where twenty-one are
assigned to Suffolk.
35
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
No sooner was Elizabeth established on the throne than Cecil and her
other advisers successfully urged the carrying out of a general visitation of
the diocese to secure the signatures of the clergy to the Acts of Supremacy
and Uniformity. The visitors were mainly drawn from more or less promi-
nent statesmen, but were associated with certain leading divines. The dioceses
of Norwich, Ely, and London were combined for the purposes of this visi-
tation. The letters patent appointing the visitors were issued about 24 June,
1554. The first named of the visitors was Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper
of the Great Seal, and the second was the Duke of Norfolk, who was lord
lieutenant of both Suffolk and Norfolk ; these were followed by a variety of
lords, knights, and esquires, seventeen in number, with John Salome as
' lawyer,' and Dr. Robert Home (afterwards bishop of Winchester) and
Dr. Thomas Huyck as preaching divines. The visitation of Norwich diocese,
in which there were then between six and seven hundred clergy, occupied
most of September ; the signatures obtained were rather over five hundred,
showing a more ready acceptance of the settlement in this diocese than in
several of the others. Sessions of the visitors were held, so far as Suffolk was
concerned, at Beccles, Blythburgh, Bury, and Ipswich, as well as at Thetford
on the confines of the county.1
It is not a little singular that among the comparatively few Suffolk
incumbents who were deprived of their benefices between 1558 and 1564 —
only seven all told — were three who originally signed their acceptance of the
changed state of matters ecclesiastical, but who could not apparently be
trusted. These were Oliver Haver, rector of Burgh ; R. Appletoft, vicar of
Offton and Little Bricett ; and James Stanley, vicar of Washbrook.
Between 1564 and 1570 eleven more Suffolk incumbents were deprived.2
It cannot be said with certainty that all those removed from their benefices
between 1558 and 1570 were ejected for nonconformity, but this was
probably the case. At all events, the number of the Suffolk incumbents who
were punished for non-compliance with the Elizabethan changes did not
amount to a score out of some five hundred benefices.8
Among head masters deprived at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign on
account of their adherence to the unreformed faith was John Fenn, master of
Bury St. Edmunds school.4
In no diocese at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign was the change in
chief spiritual ruler so strongly marked. Hopton was a bitter and aggressive
Catholic, whilst his successor Parkhurst upheld almost equally strong Puritan
views. The prolonged interregnum between the death of Hopton in Novem-
ber, 1558, and the consecration of Parkhurst in September, 1560, had
1 The actual signatures of the Norwich visitation are preserved at Lambeth. The majority do not append
the name of their benefice, so that it is not possible to give the exact numbers of those clergy of Suffolk who
were prompt to accept the new settlement. The place-names of Suffolk following signatures are in excess of
those for Norfolk, and include the parishes of Acton, Aldeburgh, Aldringham, Beccles, Bramfield, Debenham,
Fakenham, Felixstowe, Flempton, Fressingfield, Freston, Glenham, Gorleston, Henley, Henstead, Hoxne,
Huntingfield, Knoddishall, Lavenham, Linstead, Lowestoft, Marlesford, Mendham, Mickford, Needham
Market, Offton, Peasenhall, Pettbtree, Rattlesden, Reyden, Rushmere, Southwold, Stonham Aspall, Swefling,
Sternfield, Thurston, Uggeshall, Wangford, Washbrook, Westleton, Wickham Market, Whiston, Woodbridge,
and Worlingham. In several of these cases the clergy are described as curates, and in one instance (Southwold)
as schoolmaster. Cart. Miscell. xiii, pr. 2.
1 For list of the deprived in Norwich diocese, see Gee, Elizabethan Clergy, 281-2, 290-1.
3 In a large number of cases two or more benefices were held by the same incumbent.
4 Gee, Elizabethan Clergy, 234.
36
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
produced bad results. In 1 56 1 there were actually 136 parishes in the
archdeaconry of Suffolk without a resident ordained minister. Queen
Elizabeth visited Ipswich in July, 1 56 1 .
Here, says Strype, her Majesty took a great dislike to the imprudent behaviour of many
of the ministers and readers, there being many weak ones amongst them, and little or no
order observed in the public service, and few or none wearing the surplice. And the
bishop of Norwich was thought remiss, and that he winked at schismatics. But more
particularly was she offended with the clergy's marriage ; and that in cathedrall colleges
there were so many wives and widows and children seen, which she said was contrary to
the interest of the founders, and so much tending to the interruption of the studies of those
who are placed there. Therefore she issued an order to all dignitaries, dated August 9th
at Ipswich, to forbid all women to the lodgings of cathedralls or colleges, and that upon pain
of losing their ecclesiastical promotions.1
But there were more complaints against Bishop Parkhurst than his
strong Puritan sympathies. The historian of the diocese charges him with
being ' a man of expensive habits .... and showing a bad example in
making merchandise of the Church of God,' nor were the subsequent
Elizabethan prelates much better.2
There was not near so much trouble with the recusants, or zealous
adherents to the unreformed faith, in Suffolk as in some counties ; but the
persecution of the secret itinerant priests, and the severe harassing of the
estates and goods of the recusants continued throughout Elizabeth's reign.
Henry Cumberford, precentor of Lichfield and rector of Norbury,
Staffordshire, who was one of the first clergy to be deprived of his benefices
on the accession of Elizabeth, was a native of Suffolk. In a list drawn up
early in this reign (probably in 1562) of ' Recusants which are abroad and
bound to certain places ' Cumberford's name occurs ; a marginal note
describes him as 'learned, but wilful and meet to be considered.' He was
bound over to remain in the county of Suffolk, but with liberty to travel
twice a year into Staffordshire, six weeks being allowed at each time of
his travel.3 At this time (1562) Dr. Harpsfield, the deprived dean of
Norwich, was one of fourteen ' prisoners for religion since the first year of
the reign of Queen Elizabeth ' confined in the Fleet.4 Cumberford seems to
have been one of the numerous religious prisoners either in the Fleet or the
Tower, and released with others on finding sureties as to residence. Eventu-
ally Cumberford resumed the active but secret exercise of his priesthood,
and was several times imprisoned. He died a prisoner in Hull Castle
in 1590, after having spent sixteen years in gaol for his religion during
Elizabeth's reign.5
Legislation immediately after Elizabeth's accession provided for a fine
of \2d. on all absentees from the parish church on Sundays and holy days.
In 1 58 1 this punishment was much intensified, for it was then laid down
that the immense fine of £20 a month was to be imposed on all recusants,
and that those who could not pay the fine within three months were to
be imprisoned. Further legislation gave the crown the power of seizing
two-thirds of the offender's lands and all his goods in default of payment.
From time to time these forfeitures were rigidly enforced in Suffolk and
1 Collier, Eccl. Hist, vi, 226. 2 Jessopp, Dioc. Hist, of Norwich, 173-5.
• S.P. Dom. Eliz. Add. xi, 45. ' Harl. MS. 360, fol. 7.
5 Foley, Records, iii, 219, 221, 245, 803 ; Morris, Troubles, 3rd ser. 300.
37
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
elsewhere. Occasionally, when it seemed as if the collection of these fines
would reduce many to beggary whose enforced contributions were so profit-
able to the state, milder measures were taken. Thus on 23 April, 1586,
a letter was forwarded from Ipswich by the justices of Suffolk, to Walsing-
ham, saying that they
had called before them all the Recusants whose names in a schedule we received inclosed
in your lordship's letters to whom we imparted the contents thereof, advising them to con-
sider of her Majesty's gracious favour extended towards them and measuring the benefit
which thereby they are to receive to make offer by writing severally under their hands what
reasonable portion they can be contented yearly of their own disposition to pay unto her
Majesty, receipt to be eased of the Common danger of Law for their recusancy, whose
several offers under their own hands, which herewith we send unto your lordship, may
particularly appear.
Then follow the offers : —
William Yaxlee estimates his income at £220 per annum, and offers
£40 per annum ; £280 has already been levied on his lands, and he has
contributed £50 to setting out of horses for Her Majesty's service. Walter
Norton of Chedeston, gent., having lands to the value of £100, offers £20
yearly. Henry Everard, £100 a year, offers £\o. 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. cboorviii, 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.
' East Anglian 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 Sudbury 3 the recusants of the deanery of Thingoe
numbered 22 ; in Blackburne, 5 ; in Fordham, 4; in Hartismere and Stow, 4 ;
in Clare, 1 ; 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.* 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 67,993.5
1 Harl. MS. 595, No. ii.
'In the Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. for 1883 (vi, 361-400) the return for the Suff. archdeaconry is printed ;
the return for Sudbury archdeaconry appeared in 1901 (xi, I-46).
3 Harl. 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.'1
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 1 63 8.3 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 Nortv. Dioc. Hitt. 187-8.
' Perry, Hist, of Ch. ofEng. ii, App. B, where the ' particulars, orders, directions, and
Wren's primary visitation are set forth at length.
3 Press Mark, B.M. 5155, r. 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 bim
a salary of £iSo 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
1 Proc. Stiff. Inst, of Arch, iii, 71-2. 'Raven, Hist. ofSuff. 204-5.
3 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, Bredfield, Brettenham, Charsfield, Chattisham, Chels-
worth, Cornard, Cheveley, Copdock, Corton, 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 riddle. 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, 1 64 1 , 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. I" trjis 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, Sufferings of the Clergy, passim. The accounts of the sufferings entailed by several of'the
Suffolk ejections are peculiarly heartrending.
1 Ibid. pt. ii, 209, pp. 177, 335. 3 Ibid. p. 178.
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,
1643-4 to 1 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, jresu 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 (1) 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 Southwold, meeting at Hales-
worth ; (6) the Hundreds of Wangford, Mutford, and Lothingland, meeting
at Beccles ; (7) the Hundreds of Bosmere 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, Stiff. 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 chietiy 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 1 June, 1646.1 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
Halesworth R Lady Allington ....
Bamburgh V Co-heirs of Lord Banning
(Impr. £126).
Wissett V The State
Chediston Stephen Blomheld (Impr
£«)■
Holton R State
Spexhall R State
Cratfield John Lanye (Impr. £90)
Huntingfield Sir Robert Cooke .
Linstead Magna, Linstead Parva V. State Impr. as Francis
Edwards, the Impr.
a ' recusant convict.'
Cookley R Sir Robert Cooke .
Yoxford V. ' A great towne and Philip Bedingfield, 'Impr.
hath a great store of inhabitants.' £30.
Sibton V Edward Barker (Impr
A°y .
Peasenhall Impr. chapel, a member \ icar of Sibton .
of Sibton.
Heveningham R State
Ubbeston V Roger Cooke (Impr. £10)
Bramfield V Elizabeth Brooke (Impr.
£3°).
Wenhaston V. Mention made of Lady Brooke's two daugh-
the 'decayed chappelT of Mells ters (Impr. £27).
Value Minister
£
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.'
20 Thomas Smithe, ' a preaching minister.'
40 Samuel Manning, ' a preaching minister.'
33 Lawrence Easter.
44. Nicholas Steenes, 'a preaching minis-
52 Samuel Habergham, • an able preaching
minister.'
30 Symon Sumpter, vicar, sequestered.
Richard Heath serves the cure.
50 Bartholomew Allerton.
BlyfordV Henry North (Impr. £32)
Thorington R John Brooke . . . .
Blythburgh V John Brooke (Impr. £40)
Walberswick V John Brooke (Impr. £22)
Darsham V Philip Bedingfield (Impr.
£30).
Theberton R.
Westleton V Robert Riddington (Impr.
MiddletonV. * The two churches JohnWoodcocke and others
of Middleton and Fordley, (Impr. £40).
standing in one churchyard were
united by the late Bishop of
Norwich.'
Fordley R John Woodcocke .
Leiston V The Company of Haber-
dashers (Impr. £50)
45
20 'Desboreux Jefferyes, a preaching
minister, supplyes the Cure once a
daye, and hath for his paynes twentye
poundsayeare.' Vicarage sequestered.
1 3 Desborough Jefferyes, once a day.
40 John Chunne.
35 Mr. Glynne.
20 Stephen Fenn.
34 Edmund Barker. The cure neglected
by the incumbent's absence, who
has removed 1 3 miles distant.
State 55 John Cory. Former incumbent se-
questered.
Snevth David.
48
Now no minister.
40 Now no minister.
40 Samuel Savage, curate, Impr. ' Pays him
Tenn shillings a Sabbath for his
Sallarye.'
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
Aldringham with Thorpe V. A Elope Harvey (Impr. £24)
church and a chapel.
Knodishall cum-Buxlow R. ■ Bux- Sir Arthur Jennye . . .
low churchdecayedand ruinated
tyme out of minde.'
Dunwich V. All Saints. 'An- William Page (Impr. £22)
other church which is now
fallen into decay, and out of
use and fit to be taken down.'
Southwold. ' Impr. chappell an- Sir John Rous (Impr.
ciently belonging to the vicarage .£20).
ofReydon.' 'A mile from the
decayed chapel of Easton.'
Raydon V Sir John Rous (Impr.
£*8).
Easton Bavents Jeffrey Howland . .
Westhall V. Late dean and chapter of
Ipswich (Impr. X22).
Sotherton R Sir John Rous . . .
Brampton R Heirs of Thomas Leman .
Uggeshall R Sir W. Playters. . . .
Stoven V Bartholomew Ashdowne
(Impr. £25).
Wangford-cum-Henham V. ' The
chapel at Henham was anciently
used for divine worship.'
Wrentham R
Sir John
£")•
Robert Bronsten
Rous (Impr.
Frostenden R William Glover. . . .
Henstead. ' The church of Hen- Heirs of William Sidnor .
stead some eight years since was
burnt downe and nothing left
butt the stone walls, which are
able to beare a new roofe.'
Southcove R State
Benacre R Henry North ....
Value M
10 Now no minister.
George Jennye, ' an able preaching
minister.'
Browne.
Thomas Spurdeons, ' an able minister.'
17 The
Warnc.
Thomas West. ' Hath not preached
there these foure yeares, there being
neyther church nor chappell.'
John Goldsmith.
Samuel Smithson.
Now no minister.
Henry Young, ' a painfull preaching
minister.' Lyonell Playters, late
incumbent, sequestered.
John Colbache, ■ a Preaching minister,'
used to have £5 a year, now the
impropriator allows 40/. a year for a
sermon once a month.
Mr. Shepheard, curate. For preaching
twice a day he has his diet, house-
keeping, and £zo.
'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.'
Thomas Plye.
Edward Wiring sequestered. ' John
Allen a preaching minister put in by
the Parliament.'
Walter Manning,' a preaching minister.'
William Suttlary, ' a reverend preaching
North Hales afiat Cove Hithe V. Jeffrey Howland ... 18
1 Besse, Sufferings of the Quakers, 2 vols. fol. (1753). The part
46
Thomas West.
relative to Suffolk is i, 657-87.
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
1644 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.2
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.4
1 Walker give the names of 2 1 4 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. 1 67 1 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, Creeting, 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 Creeting, and Wrentham. Congregational : Ashfield, Beccles, Bury,
Cooldey, Debenham, Denham, Dunwich, Eye, Framlingham, Fremlingfield, Gislingham, Hopton, Ipswich,
KesS.ngland, Knodishall, Lowestoft, Midileton, Peasenhall, Rattlesden, Rickinghall, ^ibton, Sileham, Spexhall,
Sudbury, Swefling, Walpole, Waybre.id, Westerton, Winkfield, Winston, and Woodbridge. Congregational and
Baptist: Bungay. Undefined: Brockford, Bury, Stowmarket, and Wetheringsett.
3 S. P. Dom. Chas. II, cccxxi, No. 72.
4 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 Fressing-
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.2
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.
• Tanner, MSS. Bodl. cited in Raven, Hist. ofSuff. 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 171 o.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 178 1 '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, 1 3 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 20th 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 Hist. ofSuff. 232.
1 Defoe, Particular and Diverting Account of whatever is Curious and worth Observation (1724).
estoft
Thedwasire
Archdeaconry of Norfolk-
The Deanery of Tbetford
Jurisdiction of Canterbury
C=D
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 io.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 178 1 '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 20th 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 Hist. ofSuff. 232.
' Defoe, Particular and Diverting Account of whatever is Curious and worth Observation (1724).
50
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 Booking 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
ECCLESIASTICAL 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 publ. of Tracts for the Times (1843), by Rev. W. Palmer, 6.
51
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 VVilford ; 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 1 291 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 ot Sudbury there were (in Suffolk)
174 cures, namely 126 rectories, 37 vicarages or perpetual curacies, and II chapelries.5
The Clergy List of i860 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. ofSuff. 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 Knigh'ts 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, Creeting
St. Mary to the abbey of Bernay, and Creeting 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 vears 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
141 5. 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
any hitherto attempted, are not to be considered as
exhaustive in all cases.
2 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. 1000 ; (b) 'The Miracles of
St. Edmund' by Archdeacon Herman, e. 1095 ; (c)
'The Infancy of St. Edmund 'by Geoffrey de Fontibus,
c. 1 1 50 ; (d) ' The Miracles of St. Edmund ' by Abbot
Samson, c. 1190 ; and (e) Jocelyn's Chronicle,
1182-1211.
Volume ii contains : (a) An anonymous chronicle,
breaking off 1 2 1 2 ; (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,
1020— I 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 1 471 ; 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. 1 300, 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,
IJ6-17.
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 12 12. 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 e. 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 (1 302-1 2) and of Abbot
Richard of Draughton (1312-35).
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
1279 to 13 1 2 ; 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
56
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. 14848 is the ' Registrum Curteys '
or 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 (1) 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 1 200 ; (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 ot
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 1 78 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 9th to 31st of Henry VIII.
MSS. in Cambridge University Library
There are six registers of Bury St. Edmunds in
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. F.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.2, 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, 1 77-2 1 6.
MSS. in Various Places
A. Public Record Office. Duchy of Lane. Records,
xi, 5. This is a 'Registrum Cellararii ' of 152 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. i (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.
3 ' Familie monasterii,' Chart. Edmund II ; Arnold
(op. cit.), i, 340.
7 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 ioio 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."
In 1020 /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 1020 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
jEthelnoth, archbishop of Canterbury, on 18 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, and of 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.
1 Dugdale, Mon. iii, 137-8.
5 Arnold, Mem. i, pp. xxvii, 348 ; Matt. Westm.
Hist. Flares sub ann.
' Nop. Leg. Angl. 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
jElfgeth, 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 1 07 1 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, Mon. iii, 100, 138. These eight hun-
dreds were those of Thingoe, Thedwastre, Blackburne,
Bradbourn, Bradmere, Lackford, Risbridge, and Ba-
bergh ; the half-hundred was that of Exning.
b 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 I 3 27 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,
Annals of the Coinage of Britain (1840), ii, 218—20 ;
and Andrew, Numismatie Hist, of Henry I, 385-92.
9 Battely, Antiq. 5. 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
was translated with much pomp to its shrine,
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 1 1 00 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, 1 1 07 — 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 1 14 — Albold, prior of St. Nicasius at Meaux,
was elected sixth abbot; he died in 1119, when
there was again a vacancy of nearly two years,
till in 1 121 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 1 135, 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.
2 ' Reg. Nigrum ' and ' Reg. Sacr.' cited by Battely,
49-50.
3 These dates are usually given wrong ; as to the
two Roberts, see Arnold's Memorials, i, p. xxxvi.
4 Battely, op. cit. 69.
was accomplished by Helyas, the sacrist, Ording's
nephew. This Ording, who was abbot until
1 1 56, was a homo illiteratus, 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.6
Hugh's somewhat lax rule, on which Jocelyn
descants at the beginning of his chronicle, came
to an end in 1 180 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-
5 Arnold's Mem. iii, 78-S0, 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
VValtham, one of the Hampshire manors of the
Bishop of Winchester, on 21 February, 1 182,
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
1 1 82, and obtained the privilege of giving
the episcopal benediction, in 1 187, 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 (1 184-5), 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. 1 21-63).
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 1 903,
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 1 181 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, 1 194,
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
1 3</. 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.2
Abbot Samson died, at the ripe age of seventy-
seven, at twilight ('inter lupum et canem ') on
30 December, 121 1. 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, 12 14, 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, 12 1 3, he gave a half consent to an
election, and the monks chose Hugh Northwold ;
but the king refused confirmation. In Novem-
ber, 1 2 14, 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
'Rokewode, Chron. of Jocelyn, 154.
'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, 12 14, 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 1 5 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 1254.2
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 1 234, 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).i 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.6
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, Flores (Rolls Ser.), iii, 293-4.
'Matt. Paris, Hist. Maj. (ed. 1640), 891-2.
3 The memorandum as to his election (Bodleian
Chart. Suff. No. 37) is printed in Hearne, Chron. of
Dunstable, ii, 837.
' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 413.
5 The text of this letter is given in Arnold's Mem.
iii, 28.
6 Nov. Leg. Angl. ii, 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
16 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 1 175 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
7 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 10 1.
8 Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 13.
"Ibid. 24 Edw. I, m. 18.
6l
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 100 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.6
Abbot Thomas died on 7 January, 1311-12,
'Cole MS. xiv, fol. 51.
2 Pat. 28 Edw. I, m. 13.
3 Ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 18.
4 Ibid. m. 2. 5 Ibid. m. 8 d.
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
16 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; n
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.
8 Pat. 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 <L
9 Ibid. m. 20. 10 Ibid. m. 5 d.
11 Ibid. pt. iii, m. 14.
" Ibid. m. 1 2. 13 Ibid. mm. 1 3 </, 8 d.
62
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
assize1 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,
120 oxen, 200 cows, 300 bullocks, 10,000
sheep and 300 swine, worth £6,000 ; 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 £ 1 0,000 ; 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.
2 Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 35.
3 Harl. 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 abbev 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 1 34 1,
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
4 Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 7.
5 Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 18.
6 Cal. Pap. Reg. ii, 529.
7 Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 29.
8 Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 24.
9 Yates, Hist, of Bury St. Edmunds, 109.
63
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, 1 36 1-2, and Henry de Hunstanton
1 Cal. Pap. Reg. iii, 304-5,
•Ibid. 388. " Ibid. 391-2.
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
12 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,5 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
ofEdmund 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
1 38 1, Jack Straw's rebellion broke out in East
Anglia, when John of Cambridge, the prior, and
* Nov. Leg. 4ngl. ii, 678.
'Pat. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 10; pt. ii, m. 38;
3 Ric. II. pt. i, m. 33 d.
6 Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 22 d.
7 The list of abbots in Lakinghethe Register enters
after the death of John de Brinkley, ■ Abbatia vacavit
per sexennium.'
64
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Sir John Cavendish, chief justice, were among
those murdered at Bury by the mob, who plun-
dered the abbey to the extent of £1,000. For
this outrage the town was outlawed and fined
2,000 marks.1
An indult was granted by Boniface IV, in
1398, in order to relieve the abbey of the perils
and expenses of the journey to Rome, that the
convent might upon voidance freely elect their
abbots, who thus elected should be eo ipso true
abbots, and be so regarded and administer the
monastery without any confirmation of the said
see. Further, the abbots might receive bene-
diction at the hands of any Catholic bishop of
their choice. In compensation for first-fruits,
common and minute services, &c, heretofore
paid to the pope and various papal officials, the
abbey was to pay to the collector in England
twenty marks yearly at Michaelmas. If in any
year such payment be not made within two
months of the lapse of the year, then this indult
was to be void.2
In 1383 Richard II and Anne of Bohemia
paid a ten days' visit to Bury, putting the abbey
to an expense of 800 marks. Archbishop
Arundel paid a visit to the monastery in the
year 1400, arriving from Norwich at the con-
clusion of a visitation of that diocese and Ely.
The manner of his reception and entertainment
are set forth with some detail by one of the
monastic scribes, to serve, as he states, for the
use of posterity if the house should again be
visited by an archbishop. He was received with
the greatest respect and sumptuously entertained,
but every care was taken to show that his re-
ception was one of courtesy and due to his high
office, and that he was nowise to construe
their hospitality as the least recognition of him
as a ' visitor.' There was no solemn procession
to meet him at the abbey gates, but the abbot,
cellarer, sacrist, and other officials met the arch-
bishop on the road between Thetford and
Ingham, and conducted him to Bury. On
reaching the abbey he was taken into the church
through the cemetery and not through the great
west gates, nor were the bells rung. The prior
and convent met him in the nave. On the
morrow, the abbot and his retinue escorted the
archbishop on his road southward as far as
Frisby.3
During the rule of William of Exeter, the
twenty-third abbot (1415-29), the building of
the present church of St. Mary, on the site of
an older church, was undertaken in the south-
west corner of the abbey cemetery ; and under
William Curteys (1429-46) the western tower
of the abbey church fell, but immediate steps
were taken to erect it afresh.4 In 1427, Thomas
1 Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 276-7.
s Cal. Pap. Reg. v, 152.
3 Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 40, 41.
4 Add. MS. 48468, fol. 104*.
2 65
Beaufort, second son of John of Gaunt, was
buried in the great conventual church.6
Henry VI paid a long visit to the abbey, his
sojourn extending from Christmas, 1433, t0 St.
George's Day (23 April), 1434. The monastery,
during this visit, presented him with a grandly
illuminated 'Life of St. Edmund' by John
Lydgate, which now forms one of the treasures
of the British Museum.6 It is supposed that
this visit was chiefly due to the pleasure taken
by Henry and his court in the loyal ballads of
the abbey's famous poet-monk, presented to the
king in 1429, and again when he passed through
London on his return from France in 1433.
Of this visit Lydgate has much to say in his
metrical life of St. Edmund, of which this is the
opening stanza : —
When sixte Henry in his estat roial
With his sceptre of Yngland and of France
Heeld at Bury the feste pryncipal
Of Cristemasse with fulest habundance,
And after that list to have plesance,
As his consail gan for him provide,
There in his place til hesterne for to abide.
When the news of the royal visit reached the
abbot he at once set eighty masons and artificers
at work to enlarge and beautify the abbot's
lodgings. He invited and obtained the cordial
co-operation of the town in the royal reception.
Five hundred townsmen turned out to meet the
young king, headed by their aldermen and chief
burgesses in scarlet, whilst the Bishop of Norwich
and the abbot (so often rivals if not actively
hostile) united in giving him holy water as
he dismounted from his palfrey. Of this
visit Abbot Curteys has left many particulars in
his register.7 There, too, are the various letters
from the king to the abbot, whom he evidently
regarded as a tried and trusted friend. He con-
sulted him freely in his anxiety about the
progress of the French arms, asked his help in
making due preparation for the reception of the
French princess he was about to marry, and in
6 The coffin was discovered and reinterred in
1772.
6 Harl. MS. 2278.
7 This abbot's register (Add. MS. 14848) con-
tains several entries of local events not elsewhere
chronicled. The exact hours of the fall of the
southern side of the great western tower on 1 8 De-
cember, 1430, and of the fall of the eastern side of
the same on 30 December, are set forth (fol. 104^).
Abbot Curteys, in January, 1429-30, entered into
an agreement with John Housell, goldsmith of Lon-
don, to make him a pastoral staff, weighing 12 lb.
9J oz., to have on one side at the top the image of
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and on the
other the Salutation of the same, and in the circum-
ference of the same part twelve tabernacles with as
many apostles, and in the curve of the staff a taber-
nacle with the image of St. Edmund of the best
workmanship. The whole to be of silver-gilt, and
finished before the ensuing All Saints' Day, when pay-
ment of £40 was to be made to Housell (fol. 78).
9
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
a letter shortly before the abbot's death (17 Sep-
tember 1446), urged him to be present at the
laying of the foundation-stone of King's College,
Cambridge, on the ensuing Michaelmas Day, as
he (Henry) was unable to be present.1
Amongst these entries is the record of a great
storm on the evening of 27 January, 1439. It
did much damage, particularly to the bell tower,
especially in the windows and glazing. A
memorable incident was the extinguishing of
every light and lamp throughout the conventual
buildings and church save that only which burnt
perpetually before the Blessed Sacrament ; from
that light all the others were subsequently re-
kindled. This storm was followed, on 29 May
of the same year, by a great flood ; the waters
rose so high that they were deep enough for
a boat in St. James's Church, in the nave of the
great conventual church, and in the Lady chapel
of the crypt (fol. 341).
The abbacy of William Babington (1446-53)
was signalized by the holding of a Parliament at
Bury. It assembled in the great refectory hall
of the abbey on 10 February, 1446-7. Hum-
phrey duke of Gloucester attended, and found
lodgings at St. Saviour's Hospital. There he
was arrested on a charge of high treason and
kept under guard ; a few days later the duke
was found dead in his bed without any exterior
mark of violence ; the death was attributed to
apoplexy, but popular opinion considered that he
had been privately murdered. In the following
November the king granted to the abbey an
ample charter of all their privileges.2 This was
followed, two years later, by a royal charter
which freed the abbey of all aids to the king, in
consideration of paying a fixed sum of forty
marks a year.
The chief event during the rule of Abbot John
Bohun (1453-69) was the complete gutting of
the conventual church by fire on 20 January,
1464-5, involving the fall of the central tower.
The shrine of St. Edmund, though begirt with
flames, remained uninjured. The catastrophe
was caused by the carelessness of plumbers en-
gaged in repairing the roof.3
John Reeve of Melford (sometimes called John
Melford), the thirty-second and last abbot of
St. Edmunds, was elected in April, I 5 13. He
was admitted to the king's privy council in 1520,
and in I 531 he was placed on the commission of
the peace for Suffolk. The unscrupulous Crom-
well first appears on the scene in connexion
with this abbey in November, 1532, when he
wrote to the abbot desiring to obtain the lease
for sixty years of the farm of Harlowbury in
Essex, the previous lease of which had nearly
1 Add. MS. 7096, passim ; Arnold, Mem. iii,
241-79.
■ Arnold, Mem. iii, 357.
3 Cott. MS. Claud. A. xii, 1 89^—9 13 ; Arnold,
Mem. iii, 283-7.
expired. He asked for an answer by the bearer,
and assuming it would be favourable, had alreadv
agreed with the then holder for the remainder of
his lease. If the request was granted he would
do whatever he could for the monastery.1
Lcgh and Ap Rice were the two deputy
visitors appointed by Cromwell to visit the abbey
of St. Edmunds in November, 1535. With
regard to this, Ap Rice wrote at once to his
'mastership'6 stating that they had failed to
establish anything against the abbot save that he
was much at his country houses or granges, and
was said to be fond of dice and cards, and did
not preach. ' Also he scemeth to be addict to
the maintaining of such superstitious ceremonies
as hath been used here tofore * . . . ' Touching
the convent, we could get little or no report
among them, although we did use much diligence
in our examinations, with some other arguments
gathered their examinations.' This being the
case, the commissioners chose to conclude ' that
they had confederated and compacted before our
coming that they should disclose nothing.' When
with all their ingenuity and promptings to scandal,
nothing evil could be discovered, it was coolly
assumed that there was a lying conspiracy. The
commissioners made exactly similar statements
with regard to the seventeen monks of Thetford
and the eighteen canons of Ixworth in this dis-
trict, when they could find nothing against them.0
The visitors reported that the convent numbered
sixty-two monks, three of whom were at Oxford.
Their injunctions here, as elsewhere, ordered
that all religious under twenty-four years of age
as well as those who had taken vows under
twenty were to be dismissed. This reduced the
number by eight. Another injunction insisted
upon the actual confinement to the precincts of
all the religious from the superior downwards.
This letter was dispatched to Cromwell on
5 November, and on the following day the abbot
wrote to him as visitor in chief, begging a licence,
notwithstanding the injunctions left by the late
visitors, to go abroad (that is outside the precincts)
with a chaplain or two on the business of the
monastery.7
Knowing well the style of argument that
would appeal to Cromwell in the obtaining
of any favour, the abbot and convent granted
to him, and his son Gregory, on 26 Novem-
ber, in the chapter-house, an annual pension of
^10 from the manor of Harlow.8 But this
amount did not satisfy his avarice, and in
December one of his agents, Sir Thomas Russhe,
'L. and P. Hen. Fill, v, 1573.
•Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, 120.
6 The actual Comperta show that Ringstead the
prior and eight others were said to be ' defaulted ' for
incontinency, and it was alleged that one had confessed
to adultery. L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 364.
7 L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 781.
8 Harl. MS. 308, fol. 89.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
called on the abbot to beg him to grant Crom-
well and his son a larger sum, which he promised
to do.1
One of the last favours received by Abbot
John was a crown licence in August, 1536, per-
mitting any of his servants, during his life, to
shoot with a cross bow at all manner of deer and
wild fowl in his parks and grounds, notwith-
standing the Act 25 Henry VIII.2
Early in 1538, the agents for spoiling the
greater monasteries (in this case Williams,
Pollard, Parys, and Smyth) visited St. Edmunds.
Writing to Cromwell, from Bury, they tell the
Lord Privy Seal that they found a rich shrine
which was very cumbrous to deface ; that they had
stripped the monastery of over 5,000 marks in
gold and silver, besides a rich cross bestudded
months after the dissolution of his house.
Weighed down, as it is said, with sorrow and
disappointment at the complete degradation of
his order, he died on 31 March, 1540, in a
small private house at the top of Crown Street,
Bury St. Edmunds, never having drawn a penny
of his pension. He was buried in the chancel of
St. Mary's Church, with a pathetic Latin epitaph
on the brass over his remains. The brasses
were torn from his grave in 1643, anc^ m 1 7 1 7
the slab was broken up and the remains removed
to make way for the burial of a ship's purser
named Sutton.8
Having thus followed in outline the general
history of the abbey through its succession of
rulers, it may be well to give some fuller
particulars as to the amount of property that it
ith emeralds and other stones of great value ; but had to administer, which was chiefly in the
that they had left the church and convent well
furnished with silver plate.3
On 4 November, 1539, this famous abbey
was surrendered. The surrender is signed by
Abbot John Reeve, Prior Thomas Ringstede
[alias Dennis), and by forty-two other monks.4
Pensions were assigned, on the same day, of
nature of temporalities within the hundreds over
which it exercised such full powers of local
government.
In Abbot Samson's days (1182-1211) a large
number of churches, chiefly in the eight and a
half hundreds of the liberty of St. Edmunds,
were in the gift of the whole convent, as set forth
^30 to the prior, of ^20 to the sacrist, and of in detail in Jocelyn's Chronicle.9 Thirty-four
sums varying from ^13 6s. 8d., to £6 135. 4^.,
to thirty-eight other monks.5
Sir Richard Rich and other commissioners
who had received the surrender wrote to the
king on 7 November, saying they had not yet
assigned the ex-abbot any pension, but suggested
as he had been ' very conformable and is aged,'
and as the yearly revenues of his house would be
4,000 marks, that he should have 500 marks a
year and a house. They had taken into custody
for the king the plate and best ornaments, and
sold the rest. The lead and bells were worth
4,500 marks. They desired to know whether
they were to deface the church and other edifices
of the house.6 On 1 1 November, the abnor-
are named as pertaining to the abbot, and thirty-
two to the chapter. But there were at that time
very few appropriations, and only a small number
of pensions or portions from the rectories. In-
deed Jocelyn expressly states that 'after all these
churches scarcely brought any gain or profit to
the convent.' Nevertheless the holding of these
numerous advowsons tended to augment con-
siderably the abbey's dignity and influence.
The various officials or obedientiaries of St.
Edmunds, in common with every large Bene-
dictine house, had certain tithes, lands, or rents
allotted to them which they had to administer
for the good of their particular office, and for
which they had to return annual accounts. At
ally large pension of ^333 6s. 8d. was allotted St. Edmunds there was such an
to the abbot.7 He lived, however, only a few
1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, ix, 978.
2 Pat. 28 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 3.
3 Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, 229. The actual amount
of which the abbey was robbed on this occasion was
1,553 02. of gold plate, 6,853 oz. of gilt plate,
933 oz. of parcel gilt, and 190 oz. of white or silver
plate. On 2 December, 1539, after the surrender,
150 oz. of gilt plate, 145 oz. of parcel gilt, and
2,162 oz. of white plate were added to the previous
spoils, besides a pair of birrall candlesticks, handed to
the king, and a jewelled mitre. (Clarke, Jocelyn's
Chron. notes, 275).
4 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 687.
5 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (2), 462.
6 Ibid. 475. The answer as to the 'defacing'
must have been in the affirmative, for within a few
weeks of the surrender the whole of the lead had
been stripped from the church and monastery, and
valued at £3,302. Aug. Off. Mins. Accts. 30-1
Hen. VIII, 226, m. lid.
7 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off), ccxxxiv, fol. 3 83.
lusual amount
of definite application of early grants to specific
purposes that it led to much confusion, and it
was considered expedient to apply for legal sanc-
tion to a re-allotment of the monastic property
in the time of Abbot John of Northwold. Ac-
cordingly in 1 28 1, a general redistribution
scheme between the abbot and the different
obedientiaries was sanctioned by Edward I, and
a single long charter covering the whole ground
was granted in return for the handsome fee of
^1,000. To the abbot was assigned the hidage
or tax on every hide of land, the foddercorn or
ancient feudal right of providing the lord with
horse-fodder, and every kind of court fee and
manorial due throughout the whole of the great
liberty of St. Edmunds. The award then pro-
ceeded to set out the specific manors, lands,
tithes, rents, &c, that were allotted to (i)the
8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 751 ; Parker, Long
Melford, 314. 9 Cap. vii.
67
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
cellarer, (2) the sacrist, (3) the chamberlain,
(4) the almoner, (5) the pittancer, (6) the infir-
marian, (7) the hosteller, and (8, the precentor.1
The remarkable wealth of St. Edmunds comes
out in a striking form in the very numerous
entries in the general taxation roll of 1 29 1. An
exceptional feature of the income of this house
is the comparative smallness of its spiritualities ;
this abbey had then far less appropriations than
any other considerable religious foundation.
Contrariwise the temporalities were much in
excess of any other foundation, apart from the
fees pertaining to the abbot as lord of the various
hundred courts which were not inconsiderable.
Thus the hundred of Lackford produced £4,
and that of Blackburne £14 per annum.2
As to spiritualities, the appropriated rectory of
Mildenhall supplied the abbey with an income
of £30, and there was a portion of 13s. \d. from
the church of Horningsheath.
Other spiritualities were assigned to particular
obedientiaries. The important rectories of St.
Mary and St. James, Bury St. Edmunds, were
divided between the sacrist and the almoner ;
the former receiving from these two churches
£44 13*. \d., and the latter, £26 13J. \d. The
church of Woolpit was divided (after an endow-
ment of £6 1 31. \d. had been arranged for the
vicar) between the infirmarian and the pittancer,
who each received £6, whilst the hosteller had
also an annual portion of £1 6s. 8d. The
chamberlain received the annual income of
£33 6s. 8d. from the appropriated church of
Brook, and also a portion of £4. from Rougham
church. It will thus be seen that the spiritu-
alities of the monastery at this date brought in
an income of £152 13*. \d.
No two of the great Benedictine abbeys were
at all alike in the amounts assigned by grants to
the different obedientiaries, and consequently in
the relative financial importance of the particular
offices. Naturally in the early days, when
grants were made to the monks, it was always
common to give lands or rents that were ear-
marked for the actual sustenance of the religious
in the way of food. The cellarer's income was
therefore usually of considerable importance, but
in no other case had this official anything like so
assured an income to administer as was the
case at Bury. The following were the amounts
definitely assigned to different officials by grants
in 1 29 1, exclusive of the spiritualities already
1 Registrum Cellarii, Duchy of Lane. Rec. (P.R.O.),
xi, 5, fol. 84. In this register, which chiefly relates
to the cellarer, his property and administration, there
is a list of the sacrists, from the days of Abbot Baldwin
onwards, with an account of the work they accom-
plished.
2 Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.) 15, 16b, 54, 54^,
58^, 67b, i\b, 84, 93^, 95, 96, 97, 99, 99^, \oob,
101, 101^, 102^, 104, \o\b, 105, 105^, 108^, 1 \ob,
\\\b, ll<)b, 120, lzob, 121, 123^, 126, I2jb, 130,
130^, 131, 131^, 132, 13^. «33> >33^> 27o.
cited. Cellarer £390 1 6s. 6\d., sacrist
£134 2s- JIl^-> chamberlain £69 12s. $$d.,
almoner £11 lgs. o^d., pittancer £ 1 1 iis.n\d.t
infirmarian £6 ljs. id., hosteller £2 i"]s., sub-
sacrist £1 1 5*. 8d., sub-cellarer 16;., and pre-
centor 1 31. \d. A large portion of the remainder
of the income was assigned to the office of the
abbot, and the rest to the convent at large.
By far the greater part of the income was
derived from Suffolk parishes ; the largest sum
(£99 14J. \o\d!) came from the temporalities
of Mildenhall ; £103 ~js. was contributed by
Norfolk parishes ; £3 US. lod. came out of the
diocese of Ely, and £4 19/. lod. from Lincoln
diocese.
The complete return of 1 29 1 thus shows
that the temporalities of the abbey towards the
end of the thirteenth century were worth
£774 16s., yielding a total income, with the
spiritualities added, and an additional £40 per
annum for offerings at the shrine of St. Edmund,
of nearly £1,000 a year, or about £20,000 at
the present value of money.
There are many particulars extant with regard
to the various obedientiaries throughout the
fifteenth century, particularly as to the pittancer.
The special register or chartulary of the pittancer,
which contains all the evidences relative to the
property assigned to that office, shows that
it was endowed with the church of Woolpit
and much temporal property at Bury, Mendham,
Clopton, and Woolpit, bringing in an income of
£17 17*. id.3 There is also in the same register
a taxation roll giving the value of the whole pro-
perty of the abbey according to its special
appropriation.4 To the abbot was assigned
£798 i8j. 2d., whilst the amounts allotted to
the cellarer, sacristan, treasurer, chamberlain and
almoner, infirmarian, hosteller, feretrar, vestarian,
sub-sacrist, sub-cellarer, and precentor, brought
the total up to £2,030 Js. n^d.
The full returns of the valor of 1535 are of
much interest, though space can only be found
here for the more salient points.
The abbot drew from the various hundred
courts £83 os. 6\d. ; from the temporalities of
Suffolk (the largest amount being £117 17*. \d.
from Melford) £549 Js. 8\d. ; from the tem-
poralities of Norfolk £102 is. \\d. ; from the
temporalities of Essex £82 1 8*. \d. ; and from
spiritualities (the rectory of Thurston and a por-
tion from Fressingfield) £14 6s. 8d., giving
him a total income of £843 lis. 3^/. Out of
this, however, large returns had to be made to
bailiffs, &o, as well as distributions to the poor
of £36 3/. 4-d. The cellarer drew the great
income of £821 13;. 8d. from the temporalities
of Suffolk (the largest contribution being £163
from Mildenhall), and when to this were added
temporalities from Norfolk, Northampton, and
s Harl. MSS. 27, Registrum Croftis, fol. 123.
1 Ibid. fol. 164-74.
GS
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Hertfordshire, and the rectory of Mildenhall,
his gross income came to £903 12s. 2d. From
this great deductions had to be made, including
£191 19/. id. for the poor, so that the cellarer's
clear income was brought down to £629 16s. gd.
The gross total of the abbey's income,
irrespective of its cells, was £2,336 16;. lid.
The deductions, however, were so considerable
that the clear value was only returned at
£1,656 7s. 3W.1
There was no other ot our large English
abbeys that expended by grants or charters so
large a share of its income on distribution to the
poor. In the case of St. Edmunds it amounted
to £398 15^. n^d. a year; and this was alto-
gether apart from the daily distribution of broken
meat, the occasional doles of old clothes,
the long sustained alms on the death of a monk,
the Christmas gifts, Sec, and, above all, the enter-
tainment of all comers in the guest-houses, from
royalty to the poorest tramp. The sum just
named is simply that which they were compelled
to distribute even under the laxest adminis-
tration.
It has been stated with emphasis that Bury
St. Edmunds was by far the wealthiest Benedic-
tine abbey in England. This is, however, by
no means the case, the houses of Westminster,
Glastonbury, St. Albans, and Christ Church,
Canterbury, all possessing larger incomes.
It remains to put on record some of the more
salient points relative to the inner life and work-
ing of the monastery.
As to the numbers of this great household :
in the second half of the thirteenth century
there were 80 monks, 21 chaplains, and
III servants living in curia, apart from a con-
siderable number of officials and hinds of the
home-farms, who drew their rations from the
abbey.2 The number of the monks had dropped
to about sixty at the time of the first visitation
of Henry VIII's commissioners, and his policy
had driven out about a third of that number
before the surrender.
Many of the entries in the custumary of the
abbey, temp. Edward I, are full of interest.3
After reciting the very severe discipline de gravi
culpa, and the lighter punishment de levi culpa,
the custumary proceeds to deal with de trunculo,
which appears to have been a third grade of yet
lighter punishment. The delinquent was re-
quired to sit super trunculum, i.e. on a low trunk
or chest, which stood in the midst of the chap-
1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 459-65.
' Harl. MS. 6+5, fol. 196.
3 Ibid. 3977. Much of it has common features
with the custumaries of other large Benedictine
houses, such as those of Westminster and Canter-
bury, which have been printed by the Henry Brad-
shaw Society. To such details, regulating the chap-
ter, dormitory, or refectory, blood-letting, &c, or to
the general duties of the obedientaries, we do not here
draw attention.
ter-house, between the lectern and the foot of
the abbot's seat. There he had to remain
whenever the convent assembled in chapter.
Full details are also set forth as to the penitential
positions to be taken up by the de trunculo offen-
der when in choir and refectory. There was
also a fourth grade of discipline de minoribus
penitentiis. A delinquent of this class had
various minor but not degrading duties assigned
him, such as carrying the lamp before the con-
vent, collecting the scraps from the refectory,
&c. Nor was he severely restricted in diet ; it
was permitted to him if ailing to drink beer of
the second quality ' propter stomachi infirmita-
cionem et capitis debilitatem.'4
Entry is made of the weekly wages (9;. i\d.)
due to the servants of the church. The chap-
lain in charge of the vestments had two servants
receiving I2d.; the sub-sacrist's boy 6d.; the
cressetarius, who looked after the cressets, Sd.,
but the cerarius only \d.; two steyrarii (?) 12d.;
a carpenter, I2\d.; a plumber, \2d., and his
servant, 6d.; a janitor of the church, with his
dog, jd.; a janitor of the west door, 2d.; a
warden of the green gate (custos viridi hostii), bd. ;
and a carter {carractarius), %\d. A memorandum
adds that the carter received from Easter to
Michaelmas l\d. ad nonchenches,5 the woodman
8d., and the two steyrarii 7,d. each week during
the like period.6
A list of the monastic servants for the year
1284 shows that the cellarer's department had
forty-eight servants of different grades, such as
the porter of the great gate, and the hall
steward, whose names are set forth, and those of
humbler degree who only appear as messor, tres
pistores, or mundator curi. Twenty-four servants
were under the sacrist ; seven under the cham-
berlain, including a tailor and a shoemaker ; six
under the infirmarian ; nine under the almoner ;
and seven under the hosteller or guest-master.
This list takes no account of those of the abbot's
household.7
A list of the chaplains of the monastery,
drawn up early in the reign of Edward I, gives
the names of three chaplains of the church of
St. Mary, three of the church of St. James, one
general chaplain, and one each of the chapels of
St. Robert, St. Margaret, St. John of the
Mount {de Monte), the Round Chapel, St. Denis,
St. John at the Well [ad fontes), St. Katharine,
St. Faith, the Great Rood, St. John at the Gate,
St. Michael, the chapel of the Brazen Cross {ad
crucem aream), the hospital of St. Saviour, and the
Domus Dei. This gives a total of twenty-one
chaplains supported by the abbey.8
The distribution of bread of different kinds to
the household is set forth with much nicety in the
custumary. The total of the day's baking amounted
Ibid. fol. 5-7.
Ibid. fol. 93.
Ibid. fol. 242.
Possibly a 3 o'clock lunch.
Ibid. fol. 237^.
69
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
to 94 loaves, in addition to the bread for the abbot's
household, for the monks' refectory, for the
infirmary, and for the guest-houses. The daily
allowance of beer to the household servants
amounted to 82 gallons (iagenae), whilst 96 gallons
were dispatched once a week to the nuns of
Thetford.
That lordly fish, usually reserved for royalty,
the sturgeon, graced the monastic table on the
anniversary of Richard I, the Transfiguration, the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the feast of All
Saints, the feast of St. Nicholas, and the anniver-
sary of Abbot Samson. On the feast of
St. Denis, fine bread, butter, and cheese, were
provided. A pittance of wine was provided for
the convent at Easter, Ascension, Whitsuntide,
Christmas, the feasts of St. John Baptist,
SS. Peter and Paul, St. Botolph, Relics, St.
Edmund, and the Assumption. On the feast
of Relics a choice was given of ' must ' (unfer-
mented wine) or wine.
The pittances of this abbey for the convent
were numerous ; a list given in the custumary
enumerates eighty-two. Thirty-one of these
were on anniversaries,1 chiefly of their own
abbots or other distinguished men of the house ;
the remainder were on church festivals. The
pittance in some cases was so small that it could
not have made any appreciable difference to the
diet except of a few ; thus there was a pittance
of a mark on the anniversary of Isabel, mother
of Abbot Henry ; and the like amount on the
anniversary of Abbot Edmund. In several cases
where the addition to the usual diet is stated, it
will be seen that the extra food was of a trifling
character. Pancakes and white bread were the
additions at the Epiphany, the Purification, the
feasts of St. John Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, &c.
On Easter Monday, the octave of Easter,
Michaelmas, Martinmas, the Translation of
St. Benedict, &c, and on a few anniversaries,
onions were supplied. On Easter Day, Whit-
sunday, the feast of St. Edmund and Christmas
Day, apples and pears, as well as pancakes, were
placed on the tables. ' Ringes,' which were
probably round cakes, were supplied on the
1 At the beginning of Registrum Ikvvorth, which
relates to the infirmary, is a capitular instrument, dated
1257, establishing an anniversary for Stephen the
physician [medicui) and infirmarian of the house.
The document speaks in the highest terms of the
manner in which Brother Stephen had fulfilled the
various offices in the monastery to which he had been
called, but more especially of his devotion and zeal in
the office of infirmarian, particularly at the time of
the sweating sickness. It was therefore resolved to
perpetuate his memory by establishing an anniversary
of his death on St. Mark's Day, when the full office
for the dead was to be said for him and for his father
and mother. A rental of 22/. was assigned for a
pittance for the refreshment of the convent on that
day, out of property in Kyrkgatestrete and Mayd-
waterstrete in St. Edmunds. Lansd. MSS. 416,
fol. 4.
anniversary of Richard I, the Transfiguration,
the anniversary of Abbot Hugh, the feast of
Relics, and the feast of St. Thomas ; and wafers
and biscuits on the feast of St. Nicholas.2
On forty days in the year, being the
chief feasts, such as Christmas, Circumcision,
Epiphany, &c, the servants of the church
had their meals in the refectory. Particular
details are given as to the Maundy gifts and
observances, including the payment of id. each
by certain of the upper servants, termed ' glove-
silver.'
Among the special privileges of the abbey of
St. Edmunds were the powers bestowed upon
the abbot of conferring minor orders on those of
his own house and the right to call in any bishop
of the Church Catholic to admit monks to the
higher orders within the abbey precincts. Orders
were celebrated in the chancel of the church of
St. Mary in the precincts on the vigil of the
Holy Trinity, 1401, by Bishop Thomas
Aladensis,3 when three deacons and four priests
were ordained, all monks of the house. At the
September Embertide in the same year Bishop
Thomas again held an ordination in the like
place, ordaining four sub-deacons and three
priests.4
Moreover, the abbot's privilege went much
further than the giving authority to bishops to
hold special ordinations for his monks. He
could commission the ordaining, through his
own letters dimissory, of any fit candidates for
holy orders within the liberties of St. Edmunds,
whether religious or secular. Thus in 1 410
and 1 41 9, Abbot William of Exeter, writing
from his manor of Elmswell, commissioned John,
archbishop of Smyrna,5 through letters dimissory
by papal indult, to ordain certain priests who
were not connected with the monastery.6 The
register of Abbot Curteys (1429—46) has many
of these ordination entries.7 On the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin (8 September) 1435, Abbot
Curteys personally ordained four of the monks
from exorcist to acolyte. Again, in the fol-
lowing year six monks were ordained deacons,
in the chapel of St. Stephen, by the bishop of
Emly.8
"Ibid. fol. 25.
3 Aladensis-Killala, an Irish diocese. This was
Thomas Howell, bishop of Killala ; he was suffragan
of Ely from 1389 until his death in 1404 ; he was
also suffragan of the Isle of Wight for William of
Wykeham.
4 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fols. 140^ 148.
i John Leicester, archbishop of Smyrna, a Carme-
lite, acted as suffragan of Norwich from 1 393 to
1423.
6 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 144^.
7 Add. MS. 14848, fols. 766, 78, 87. Robert
Windel, bishop of Emly, in Ireland, acted occasion-
ally as suffragan of Norwich, Salisbury, and Worcester
about this period.
8 Ibid. fol. 143^, 161&.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
There was an old religious saying to the effect
that a monastery without a library was as a castle
without an armoury. In this respect St. Edmunds
was exceptionally well armed, even in early
days. The library consisted of upwards of
2,000 volumes, and was widely famed. A large
number of them have been identified among the
manuscript treasures of the British Museum, and
of the University and College libraries of Cam-
bridge and Oxford. Abbot Curteys built a
special library for the accommodation of the books
in 1430, and drew up regulations for their use.1
It was for a long period, more particularly in
the fifteenth century, considered a high honour
to be made an associate of this celebrated monas-
tery. During the time of Abbot Curteys
(1429—46) admissions to the chapter fraternity
were granted to John Brodwell, doctor of laws ;
William Paston, justice of the King's Bench ;
Thomas Haseley, king's coroner ; William
Brewster, king's clerk ; Richard Beauchamp,
Earl Warwick, with Isabel his wife, Henry and
Anne his children ; Henry, Cardinal St. Euse-
bius ; Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester ; William
Clopton, esquire, of Melford ; Elizabeth Veer,
countess of Oxford ; and William Pole, earl of
Suffolk, and Alice his wife.2 When Henry VI
and his court bade farewell to St. Edmunds on
St. George's Day, 1434, the Duke of Gloucester
and all the leading courtiers were admitted to all
the spiritual privileges of the monks as sharers in
their prayers and deeds. Last of all the king
himself passed into the chapter-house, where he
was enrolled as one of the holy community of
associates, the abbot greeting him with the
fraternal kiss.3
It must not be imagined that this powerful
house of Benedictine monks was free from all
outside visitation because of its being exempt
from diocesan or archiepiscopal jurisdiction.
The abbey was just as much subject to the
general provincial chapter of the Benedictines
as the humblest priorv of the order. The
general chapter met ever}' three years, and one
of its most important duties was the appointment
of visitors. There are several references to these
periodic inspections in the St. Edmund registers.
Thus in 1393, on the feast of St. Barnabas, this
abbey was visited by the abbot of St. Benet of
Holme, the appointed visitor (as it is stated) of
the general chapter. He did not visit in person,
but appointed the prior and another learned
monk of his house (quendam alium scolare) to act
on his behalf.4
1 See a scholarly and exhaustive paper on the Library
of St. Edmunds, by Dr. Montague James, president of
King's College, printed by the Camb. Antiq. Soc. in
1895.
'Add. MS. 14848, fols. 21, 53, 103, 157, 312,
317, 319-
3 Arnold, Mem. iii, p. xxxii.
4 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 35^.
Moreover, the most distinguished of the four-
teenth-century superiors of St. Edmunds, Abbot
Curteys (1429-46), was himself appointed visitor
of all the Benedictine houses of East Anglia by
the general chapter of the order held at North-
ampton in 1 43 1. In the following year Abbot
Curteys gave formal notice of holding visitations
of such important houses as the abbeys of Holme,
Colchester, and Thorney, and even of the
cathedral priories of Norwich and Ely. These
visitations were not carried out by the abbot in
person, but he commissioned his fellow-monks
John Craneways and Thomas Derham to repre-
sent him.5 It must have been singularly trying
to the Bishop of Norwich, between whom and
the abbot of St. Edmunds an almost permanently
jealous feud existed, to find his rival holding a
visitation of the cathedral priory at the very gates
of his palace !
The ' Chronica Buriensis,' of the Cambridge
Public Library, contains a sad account of the
charges made against the monks of Bury in the
fourteenth century. Many of them, it was said,
were living in the surrounding villages away
from the monastery, wearing the dress of lay-
men. It was alleged against them in 1345 that
they were engaged in abductions, fightings, riots,
and other unlawful practices, besides having
many illegitimate children. The abbot, William
de Bernham, was plainly accused of connivance at
these disorders, and cited to appear before the
bishop. There can be no manner of doubt that
these complaints, even if they had some real basis,
were greatly exaggerated. When the charges
were formulated on Bishop Bateman's behalf, it
was with the avowed intention of securing to
himself the visitation of Bury, and his agents
were naturally inclined to make out as black a
case as possible. Moreover, the only authority
for this grievous censure is the chronicle first cited,
whose writer proceeds to state that it was a gross
libel full of malignant falsehoods. True the
writer was a monk, but he was a monk of
Holme and not of St. Edmunds. At all events,
the bishop's attempt to upset the abbey's exempt
jurisdiction completely failed both in secular and
ecclesiastical courts.
Mr. Arnold assumes that Abbot Bernham was
a careless administrator, and that discipline was
generally slack under his rule.6 During the fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries, however, he states
that ' nothing from any quarter turns up to their
(the monks') discredit.'' With this opinion our
own perfectly independent and unbiased investi-
gation coincides. Legh and Ap Rice's comperta,
which have been already discussed, are in reality
strong confirmation of this favourable judgement.
The monks of St. Edmunds, whatever may have
been their failings in the more remote past,
5 Add. MS. 14848, fols. 84-5.
6 Arnold, Mem. iii, pp. x, xiii, xv, 65-8.
7 Ibid. p. xxxv.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
appear to have been well discharging their re-
ligious and social duties at the very time of their
forcible dispersion.
Abbots of Bury St. Edmunds1
Uvius, 1020-44
Leofstan, 1044-65
Baldwin, 1065-97
Robert I, 1 100-2
Robert II, 1 102-7
Albold, 1
Anselm,
Ording, :
Hugh I,
Samson,
Hugh II,
Richard,
[14-19
121-46
146-56
157-80
1215-29
229-34
Henry of Rushbrook, 1235-48
Edmund of Walpole, 1248-56
Simon of Luton, 1257-79
John of Northwold, 1279-1301
Thomas of Tottington, 1302-12
Richard of Draughton, 1312-35
William of Bernham, 1335-61
Henry of Hunstanton, 1361
John of Brinkley, 1361-79
John of Timworth, 1379-89
William of Cratfield, 1390-1415
William of Exeter, 1415-29
William Curteys, 1429-46
William Babington, 1446-53
John Bohun, 1453-69
Robert Ixworth, 1469-74
Richard Hengham, 1474-79
Thomas Rattlesden, 1479-97
William Cadenham, 1497-15 13
John Reeve, 1513-39
The first seal (twelfth century) of the abbey
is a pointed oval bearing St. Edmund seated on a
throne with a curved footboard crowned, with
sceptre in right hand and orb in left. Legend : —
SIGILLUM SANCTO EAD . . . GIS . . . IRIS.2
A large fourteenth-century seal shows the
abbey church of elaborate design, with two small
circular openings with busts in the upper part.
The lower part has three niches ; in the impres-
sion (Cott. Ch. xxi, 7) the centre is wanting, but
there is a crowned king on each side. Legend : —
SIGILL . . . CONVENTUS. ECCLES .... MUNDI .
REGIS. ET MARTIR.
The reverse bears a cross of St. Andrew, in
base the Martyrdom of St. Edmund, a wolf
guarding the head ; above, the Almighty holding
a crown between two angels ; on the cross two
angels receiving the martyr's soul in a cloth.
1 This list of abbots is taken in the main from that
given in Lakynhethe's Register (Harl. MS. 743),
but it has been collated with several other lists, and the
dates slightly amended.
* Engraved in Yates, Hist. pt. i, 37. B. M. Cast,
Lxxi, 90.
Legend : —
TELIS : CONFODITUR : EADMUNDUS l ET ! ENSE !
FERITUR
BESTIA : QUEM : MUNIT : DEUS : LUME :
CELESTIB ' 3
A beautiful privy seal of the thirteenth cen-
tury bears the martyrdom of St. Edmund. The
king is represented tied to a tree and pierced with
many arrows ; on the left are three archers, and
on the right two archers shooting at the king.
In the base, under an arch, is the decapitation of
the saint by a swordsman, and on the right a
wolf bearing away the head. Legend : —
signum: secretum. capl'i : aedmundi:
regis : et : martiris.
The reverse bears St. Edmund crowned and
seated on a throne between two bishops, each
holding a crozier. Legend : —
agmine : stirpatus : sedet : ed : rex :
pontificatus *
Impressions of the seals of Abbots Samson,
Richard de Insula, Simon de Luton, and John
Reeve are also extant.
2. THE PRIORY OF EYE
The Benedictine priory of Eye, dedicated in
honour of St. Peter, was founded by Robert
Malet, in the time of the Conqueror, as a cell to
the abbey ofBernay. The very liberal foundation
charter gave to the monks of Eye a portion of the
founder's burgage in the town of Eye, together
with the tithe of the market, and the church,
all the churches which then existed or might
subsequently be erected in the town of Dunwich,
the tithes of that town, and a three days' fair on
the feast of St. Lawrence, and also the schools
(scolas) of Dunwich ; the churches of Bading-
ham, ' Benseya,' Benhall, Burgh, Bedfield,
Brundish, Denston, ' Helegleya,' ' Helegistow,'
Laxfield, Mells, Playford, ' Pelecoth,' Sedge-
brook, Stradbroke, Stoke, Sutton St. Margaret,
Tattingstone, Thorndon, Thornham, Welbourn,
and Wingfield ; tithes and portions in several
other parishes ; the vills of Stoke and Badfield ;
land in Badingham, Fressingfield, &c. ; and
several mills and fisheries. After specifying his
own donations at length, the founder confirmed
various other donations made to the priory by
his barons and other persons holding under him
by military service. Among these gifts were
two parts of his tithe in Huntingfield, Linstead
and 'Benges,' by Roger de Huntingfield ; the
church of St. Botolph, Iken, and two parts of
his tithe in • Clakesthorp ' and ' Glenham,' by
William de Roville ; the church and vill of
Brome, by Hugh de Avilers ; half the church
of Gislingham, by Godard de Gislingham and
Dugdale, Mon. iii, pi.
Yates, Hist, v, pi. 37.
"7-
E., Prior of Snape, c. i
John, Prior of Mendham, 1307
5T?i.
Abbey of Bury St. Ed
Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds (Obverse) Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds (Reverse)
Suffolk Monastic Seals, Plate I
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
his wife ; the church of Braiseworth, by temporalities, from twenty different manors
Geoffrey de Braiseworth, &c, &c. In further or parishes, amounted to the annual value
augmentation the founder gave the church of of ^65 10s. g^d., giving a full total of
Yaxley, with all the churches and tithes of the ^124 4.S. g^d.
house of Eye, together with the privilege of a
four - days' fair at Eye. This charter was
solemnly offered on the high altar of the church
of Eye. Beatrice, sister of the founder, added
to all this, by an independent charter, the gift
of the hamlet {villuld) of Redlingfield.
King Stephen in 1 138 granted to the monks
a full charter of confirmation ; among the wit-
nesses were his son Eustace and his queen
Matilda. William, earl of Boulogne, son of
Stephen, granted confirmation of the priory's
possessions at Stoke and Occold, and the priory
also received a confirmatory grant from Thomas
a Becket, as archbishop of Canterbury.1
The exceptionally large church patronage
held by this priory aroused particular attention at
Rome ; various popes desiring to secure some of
its preferments for their friends or favourites.
As early as 1 25 1 the pope (Innocent IV) issued
his mandate making provision in favour of Giles,
a scholar, son of Lanfranc Rossi, of Genoa, of
a benefice of the prior and convent of Eye,
worth thirty or forty marks. In July, 1264,
Pope Urban IV directed the Bishop of Norwich
to make provision to Master Walter of Lincoln,
a poor clerk, of some church in the gift of the
prior and convent of Eye, usually assigned to
secular clerks, his fitness as to learning and his
life and conversation having been inquired into
by the bishop. The bishop was also instructed
to enforce residence.3
The taxation roll of 1291 abounds in refer-
ences to the possessions of the priory of Eye.3
The value of the spiritualities amounted to
^58 14*. ; the appropriated rectory of Eye
was worth ^33 6j. Sd. a year, All Saints',
Dunwich, ^10 13*. 4^., and Play ford ^8 ; and
there were appropriations of pensions and por-
tions from twenty-six other churches. The
1 These five charters are cited at length in Dug-
dale's Mon. iii, 404-6. Bishop Tanner quotes from
two chartularies of Eye, the whereabouts of which
are not now known. Fortunately, however, in the
collections of Sir Symonds D'Ewes there are tran-
scripts or abstracts of the contents of both. The
volume containing them is Harl. MS. 639 ; fols.
58-68 give the abstracts from the chartulary known as
' Malet,' and fols. 68-71 of that known as 'Danoun.'
The first of these gives full copies of the five charters
that appear in the Mon. and of various compositions
as to tithes, and of charters of Kings Richard I,
John, and Henry III, and of Popes Adrian and
Innocent III, and Richard, king of the Romans ;
there is nothing later than Henry Ill's reign.
1 Danoun ' is shorter, and is chiefly concerned with
the rentals and custumaries of different manors.
3 Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 273, 414.
s Pope Nich. Tax (Rec. Com.), 60b, 62, 80,
843, 115^, 116, 116b, 117b, 118, n8£, 123, 1233,
125^, 127, 127/J, 128^, 129^, 130^.
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 5*. 5^.,
whilst the expenses were ^4 is. \\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 \\s. \Q\d. ;
the sale of corn realized £39 8*. 7,d. These
items, with certain smaller amounts, produced
a total of £73 1 3*. i£d. But the outgoings
were £49 2s. 4^d. ; of this sum £37 8s. 6^d.
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 14J. g^d.*
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 1 ix. 8i.5
The Valor of 1535 gives ,£112 19s. $\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 ^71 10s. 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 "]s. 4-^d., leaving a total income of
£161 2s. 3HS
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
* Mins. Accts. bdle. 996, No. 12. Certain of the
spiritualities escaped record in these accounts.
5 Add. MS. 6164, fol. 424; Dugdale, Mon. iii.
407-8, where it is set forth in full.
" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 476-7.
73 I0
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
1 33 1, the sea swallowed up the churches of
St. Bartholomew and St. Michael.2 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 1702.3 The ruins of All Saints' are now
gradually disappearing over the cliff*.
In 1 29 1 the taxation roll shows that their
total income from Dunwich was £40 2 J. 2d. at
that date. In 1535 they had no income in
temporalities from Dunwich, and merely received
^10 13;. Afd. from the rectory of All Saints, a
portion of 135. 4^. from the church of St. John,
and a general pension from the remains of other
parishes of 26;. Sd.
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
13 1 3, 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), fisnm.
' Harl. MS. 639. fol. 71, where it is said that
the fruits of these two parish churches had been
worth £40 to the monks.
3 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 10 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, 13 13, 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 j£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 ioj. 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
5 Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, mm. 16, 19^.
6 Ibid. m. 8.
7 Ibid. 19 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 6.
8 Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 9.
9 Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 3.
10 Jessopp, Visit. 40.
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*. 5!*/. 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 20 October, 1 534/
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
j£l3 4*. 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*. viud.,'
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 2od. would be
1 Jessopp, Visit. 140-2.
3 Ibid. 183-5.
'Ibid. 221-3.
5 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 515.
the value of a silver boss or corner, the residue
in reality was simply priceless.6
The contents of the 'Queen's chamber' were
valued at Js. 2d., the ' paynted chamber ' 5*.,
the ' inner chamber ' 3*. \d., and the ' grene
chamber' ioj. lod. In the pantry were some
silver spoons, a goblet, a salt, and four masers
with silver bands. The simple contents of the
kitchen, bakehouse, brewery and parlour are also
set forth, as well as cattle worth £6 19J. 8^.,
and ^ioas the value of the 'Come growynge
opon the demaynes.' The total came to
£45 ljs. iod.7
The formal suppression of the house took
place on 12 February, 1536-7,8 and on 7 April,
1537, the site of the priory and the whole of
its possessions were granted to Charles duke of
Suffolk.9
A pension of j£i8 was granted to William
Parker, the prior.10
Priors of Eye
Wi
the Conqueror and
1232,
1255,
Ibid. 294-6.
Hubert, temp.
Henry I u
Gauselins, temp. Henry 1 12
Osbert, temp. Henry II 13
Roger, died 2 id. April14
Godwinus, died 5 id. April
Silvester Bolton, died 16 kal. Mart
William de Sancto Petro, died 2 id. December
John Belyng, died 13 kal. January
Wakelin, temp. John ls
Roger, occurs 1202, 1215, 1228,
1235 16
Richard Jacob, occurs 1237 ir
William Puleyn, occurs 1242, 1244,
1276, 128218
Nicholas Ivelyn, appointed 1300 19
Durand Frowe, appointed 131320
Robert Morpayn, appointed 132321
Michael Renard, died 1380 s2
6 See account of Dunwich Priory.
7 Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. viii, 105-8.
8 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (1), 510.
9 Ibid. 1 103 (11). I0 Ibid.
11 Chartul. Danoun, 49, 675.
» Ibid. 6-b ; Malet, 22.
13 Chartul. Malet, 32^ ; Danoun, 67b.
14 These next five priors occur in a
Danoun chartulary, with the days of their obits, but no
year. Reg. Eye, fol. 23. This is a register of Eye in
the possession of the Marquis of Cornwallis. Of
this register Mr. Davy made an abstract in 1 8 14
(Add. MS. 19089, pp.
Danoun, fol. 66b.
13 Reg. Eye, fols. 39, 70.
17 Chartul. Danoun, 663.
18 Ibid. fols. 30, 47, 55
Danoun, 67.
19 Norwich Epis. Reg.
80 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.
(1), iS'
the
196-344) ; Chartul.
16 Ibid. fols. 50, 51.
Chartul. Malet, 50^ :
16.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
John de Farnham, appointed 1380 '
Thomas de Fakenham, appointed 1 39 1 2
Silvester Bolton, appointed 1 43 1 3
John Eye, appointed 1433*
Thomas Cambrigg, appointed 1 440'
Thomas Norwych, appointed 1462 s
Augustine Sceltone, occurs 1487 7
Richard Norwich, occurs 1492 8
Richard Bettys, occurs 1520 a
John Eia, occurs 1526 10
William Hadley, occurs 1532 ll
William Parker, surrendered 1536-7 12
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 : —
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.1*
Gardner, writing in 1754, makes mention of
what was probably the last trace of this cell.
Common or Covent Garden, abutting on Si
THE
PRIORY OF
STONE
EDWARD-
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 1 1 14, 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 thetithesof 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
t- 1, , r j 1 ° , part of the bishops manor of Hoxne, for Bishop
field, was a plot of ground whereon grew large tr u . rxr-ur jjl » •
' r , « 6L-, ,. 6 6, Herbert, of Norwich, founded here a cell in
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. 1740.15
1 Norwich Epis. Reg. vi, 71.
2 Ibid, vi, 158.
s Ibid, ix, 51. * Ibid, he, 68.
4 Ibid, x, 36.
6 Ibid, xi, 134.
' Harl. MS. 639, fol. 64a.
8 Cott. MS. xxvii, fol. 90^.
9 Jessopp, Visit. 183. 10 Ibid. 221.
11 Ibid. 295.
'* Pensioned ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (1), 510.
" B.M. Cast lxxi, p. 109 ; Dugdale, Mon. iii,
pt. xix, fig. 5, from Harl Chart. 44, D. 42.
" Leland, Collectanea, iv, 26.
10 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 62. For further parti-
culars see under ' Priory of Eye.'
-6
Norwich, founded here a cell
1 1 OI, 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
16 Abingdon Chartul. (Cott. MS. Claud. B, vi),
fol. 137.
17 Dugdale, Mon. iv, 96, 10 1.
19 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, vii, 41.
19 Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. iii, 607-10. Blomefield
had access to a chartulary 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 ;
and that the tithes were then of the value of 30;.
per annum.
In 13 1 3 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 1 410 ; 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
^27. 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*. \d. 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.2
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
1 April, 1538 ; the patent sanctioning this
transfer declared the clear annual value of the
cell to be £18 is.3
1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 461.
* Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vii, 42.
1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (1), 652.
[42?
Priors of Hoxne4
Hervey
Richard de Hoxne
Roger
William de Acle
John de Shamelisford
Geoffrey de Norwich, 1 411
Nicholas de Kelfield, 1424
John Eglington, 1430
William Mettingham, c.
John Elmham, c. 1438
John Eston, 1 44 1
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, 1 509
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.6
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.
* 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).
6 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, Mon. 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 sue-
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
cessive prior to the Bishop of Norwich for his granted to Robert Downes, who had licence, on
I April, 1 53 1, 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
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 1 29 1 shows that the
income of the priory was then £35 5j. Iifi.
Of this sum £10 12s. nf^. 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 1 1 99, 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, 1 528.'
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.6
1 PopeNicL Tax. (Rec. Com.), 85^ 87, 117,11 83,
119, 121, 126, iz6b, 127, 131, 2663, 267, 267^.
' Harl. MS. 236, fol. 55.
3 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 240.
4 L. andP. Hen. VIII, iv, 4755.
' Cott. MS. Cleop. E. iv, 46.
Priors of Rumburgh9
Blakere, c. 1070 10
John de Acaster, 1 1 99 n
William de Tolberton, 1308 13
Matthew de Ebor, 1 3 1 1 13
James de Morlound, 131614
William de Touthorp, 131915
Geoffrey de Rudston, 1322 le
Adam de Sancto Botulpho, 133 1 "
William de Newton, 133 1 18
John de Maghenby, 1332 19
Roger de Aslakby, recalled 1343 "
John de Manneby (? Maghenby again), 1347 2I
Alexander de Wath, resigned 1347 22
Richard de Burton, 1347 23
John de Gayton, recalled, 1357 24
John de Martone, 1357 26
Richard de Appilton, 1 361 26
Thomas Lastels, 1370 w
John de Garton, 137328
Nicholas Kelfeld, recalled 1392 w
Thomas de Helmeslay, 139230
William de Dalton, 1394 31
JohnSelby, 1405 33
William Hewyk, 1407 33
Thomas Ampulforth, 141234
Thomas Staveley, 141 7 3S
Thomas Gasgyll, 1426 36
6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 5353 (5), 5354.
7 Pat. 23 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 17.
8 Dugdale, Mon. v, 615. Possibly St. Birinus, of
Dorchester.
9 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.
15 Ibid, i, 78. 16 Ibid, i, 95.
18 Ibid, ii, 46. 19 Ibid, ii, 49.
21 Ibid. " Ibid, iv, 66.
" Ibid, v, 22. " Ibid.
"Ibid.vi, 8. !8Ibid. vi, 21.
30 Ibid. 31 Ibid.vi, 192.
33 Ibid, vii, 5. u Ibid, vii, 54.
36 Ibid, ix, 1 1.
Ibid, i, 66.
Ibid, ii, 41.
Ibid, iii, 72.
Ibid.
Ibid, v, 49.
Ibid, vi, 168.
Ibid, vi, 329.
Ibid, viii, 22.
73
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
William Esyngwold, 1428 l
Thomas Goldesburgh, 1439 2
Thomas Bothe, 1448 3
Hugh Belton, recalled 1 464*
John Ward, 1464 5
John Brown, 1478 6
Richard Mowbray, 14837
Walter Hotham, 1484 s
John Lovell, 1492 9
Walter Hotham (again), 1492
Thomas Burton, 1495 u
William Skelton, 1497 12
Richard Wood, 1498 13
John LedelL, 1507 u
Launcelot Wharton, 1523 15
John Halton, 1525 16
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 Alde-
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 1 163 Pope Alexander III confirmed to
the prior and brethren of St. Mary, Snape, the
churches of Freston and Bedingfield.13
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. 8d.
The lands, rents, and mill brought in ^21 I2j. id.
a year, and other temporalities ^11 195. ~j\d. ;
so that the total annual income was £56 i8j. 4-^d.19
Upon complaint made by Isabel, countess of
Suffolk and patroness of the abbey, to Boni-
-' Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 32.
2 Ibid, x, 29. 3 Ibid, xi, 14. ' Ibid, xi, 146.
6 Ibid. 6 Ibid, xii, 61. 7 Ibid, xii, 99.
8 Ibid, xii, 104. 9 Ibid, xii, 156.
10 Ibid, xii, 162. "Ibid, xii, 180.
12 Tanner, Norw. MSS. a Ibid.
14 Ibid. 15 Ibid.
16 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiv, 199.
17 Foundation Charter cited in an Inspeximus
Charter, Pat. 51 Edw. Ill, m. 36.
18 Dugdale, Mon. iv, 458.
19 Pope NicA. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 116, 119*, 125^
126, 127, 127^, 133.
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, 1 399-1400,
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
16 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.22 The
upshot of the dispute was favourable to the abbey ;
but the final agreement was not reached 23
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.25 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.26
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 ^79 is. 11 %d.,
yielding a total income of ^99 is. li^d.27
After Wolsey's attainder, the site and posses-
sions of this priory were granted to Thomas,
duke of Norfolk, on 17 July, 1532.28
20 Rymer, Foedera, viii, 1 2 1 .
21 Pat. I Hen. IYr, pt. vi, m. 4 <£
22 Ibid. pt. viii, m. 28 d.
23 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, 625.
21 Rymer, Foedera, xi, 750.
25 Jessopp, Visit. 37. 26 Ibid. 177.
87 See the subsequent account of Cardinal's College,
Ipswich.
28 Pat. 24 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 9.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Priors of Snape
John Colcestre, 1307 1
Gilbert, occurs 1311s
Thomas de Neylond, 1327 '
Simon de Ely ton, 1349 4
John de Colne, 1349 6
Robert (? Richard) de Colne, 1360 8
Richard de Bury, 1372 7
John de Grensted, 1385 8
John de Mersey, 1394 9
John Wetheryngsete, died 1439 10
John Norwych, 1439 u
William Cambrigge, mentioned 1441 u
Henry Thurton, resigned 1489 13
John Barney, 1489 u
Thomas Mondeley, 1491 "
Francis, occurs 1493 16
Richard Bells, 150417
Richard Stratford, 15 14 18
Richard Parker, 1526 "
A seal of a prior of this house c. 1200 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. 1170-80, 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 12s. \\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.
' Westm. Mun. (Dugdale, Mon. vi, 557).
* Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 18. * Ibid, iv, 93.
5 Ibid, iv, 113. 6 Ibid, v, 49. ' Ibid, vi, 72.
8 Ibid, vi, 113. ' Ibid, vi, 196. 10 Ibid, x, 29.
" Ibid. " De Banc. R. 21 Hen. VI, m. 321.
u Norw. Epis. Reg. xii, 140.
" Ibid. ,5 Ibid, xii, 154.
16 Jessopp, Visit, v, 37. 17 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 44.
18 Ibid, xiv, 117. 19 Ipswich College Chart.
*> Harl. Chart. 431, 18 ; 441, 26.
" Leland, Itin. viii, 66 ; Tanner, Notitia, Sufi", xlv.
■ Taylor, Ind. Mon. 83.
83 Bodl. Chart. Stiff. 239, 240, Chart. 241-3. In
this collection there are also some small grants to the
church of St. Felix.
" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 124, 125, 128.
warden of the cell of St. Felix, Walton, and
others, as to the election of a bishop of
Rochester.26
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 £ 10 ids. io^d.y
and tithe portions from three parishes to 12s.
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 9J. io\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.26
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
m Bodl. Chart. Suff. 1304.
86 Set forth at length in Dugdale, Mon. iii, 563-5.
87 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 24.0.
88 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. ii, 4673.
89 Ibid. 4755.
80
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.' 2
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, 1 496 s
William Waterford, occurs 1499
HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS
9. THE PRIORY OF BUNGAY
About the year 11 60 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, 1 301, 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. Fill, iv, 5075, 5077.
'Ibid. 5144, 5145.
3 A confirmation charter of Henry II, cited in
inspection charter 3 Edw. Ill, No. 48.
4 Chart. R. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 13. Cited in Dug-
dale, Mon. iv, 338-9.
5 Pat. 27 Edw. I, mm. 37 a'. 25 a'.
had carried away the abbey's goods at Bungay
and other places.9
The prioress obtained licence in 13 18 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 j£io.u Edward de Montacute
and Alice his wife assigned the advowson of the
church of Redenhall to the priory of Bungay in
1346, together with licence for its appropriation.12
In 1441 this church was disappropriated, a pen-
sion of 40*. being reserved for the nunnery.13
In 1 41 6 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. Lat. Conc.u 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. Sy. The clear value of the
spiritualities came to £33 10s. oid., giving a
total income of £61 lis. g^d. The spiritualities
included the appropriated churches of St. Mary
6 Angl. Sacr. i, 394. 7 Ibid.
E Cole MS. xxvii, 691 b.
9 Pat. 31 Edw. I, m. z\d.
10 Ibid. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27.
11 Ibid. I Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 16.
1! 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.
15 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 28.
I II
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 10s. and 40J. 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 138 1 ; 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, 1 5 14 ; 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, omnia bene}
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 Eccl (Rec. Com.), iii, 430-1.
1 Inq. p. m. 3 5 Edw. I, No. 46 ; 5 Ric. II, No. 5 7 ;
11 Hen. VI, No. 43.
3 Tanner, Not. Mon. SufF. viii.
4 Jessopp, Visit. 39-40.
6 Ibid. 144. 6 Ibid. 189.
' Ibid. 261. ' Ibid. 318.
being void, I, as founder,9 lawfully entered there-
untoV 10
On 18 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 41. 3</., about a tenth of its annual value.11
Prioresses of Bungay
Mary de Huntingfield, 1220 12
Alice, occurs 1228 ls
Mar}', occurs 127014
Sara de Strafford, 1291 15
Joan, occurs 1 30 1 16
Elizabeth Folyoth, 130617
Mary de Felbrigge, 1308 18
Mary de Castello, died 1335 19
Katharine Fastolf, 1335 2"
Ellen Becclesworth, resigned 1380"
Katharine de Montacute, 1380 22
Margaret Smalbergh, 1395 23
Margaret Park, 139924
Sara Richeres, 1407 25
Margaret Takell, 1433 *
Emmota Roughed, 1439 27
Ellen Tolle, occurs 1451 M
Emma, occurs 1455 S9
Anne Rothenhall, occurs 1459 30
Margaret Dalenger, 1465 31
Elizabeth Stephynson, 1490 32
Maria Loveday, occurs 15 26"
Cecilia Falstolf, occurs 1532 3l
The conventual seal of the priory of Holy
Cross, Bungay, was engraved in the Gentleman's
Magazine of May, 1 8 10, from an impression
attached to a deed of 1360. The design is our
Lord on the cross, with a man kneeling on each
side at the base. Legend :
+ s'
S CIMONIALIA' . DOMUS -)-
DE BUNGEYA
The matrices of the seals of two early prioresses
are also extant ; in each case the design is
9 i.e. descendant or inheritor of the founder or
patron.
10 L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 599, 1236.
11 Ibid, xii (2), 13 1 1.
" B.M. Topham Chart. 13.
13 Feet of F. Suff. Add. MS. 1 9 1 1 1 , fol. 158.
« Ibid. ls Ibid.
16 Pat. 31 Edw. I, m. 24^.
17 Add. MS. 191 1 1, fol. 158.
18 Ibid.
19 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 76.
90 Ibid.
" Ibid, vi, 73.
" Ibid.
9J Ibid, vi, 217.
" Ibid, vi, 256.
25 Ibid, vii, 6.
86 Ibid, ix, 67.
"Ibid, x, 31.
93 Add. MSS. 141 1 1, fol. 158.
95 Ibid.
s0 Ibid.
31 Norw. Epis. Reg
. xi, 151.
32 Ibid, xii, 145.
33 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 :
-f- SIGILL' . MARIE . d' . HUNTINGEFELD.1
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 1120, 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 Redlingfleld.
It was endowed with the manor of Redlingfleld
and all its members and all such customs as
William de Arras held.3
The assignment of the parish church of Red-
lingfleld to the priory is an exceptionally early
instance of appropriation. In the official list of
appropriated churches of this diocese drawn up
in 14 1 6, it was stated that the nuns of Redling-
fleld had held this church to their own use
{in proprios usui) from the year 1 120.4
Redlingfleld is one of the very few religious
houses omitted from the taxation roll of 1 291 ;
it was probably exempted on the ground of
exceptional poverty. In 1 343, it was stated
that the prioress held part of the tithes of corn,
wool, and lambs of Redlingfleld worth two
marks a year, and also forty acres of land
worth 14s. 4^.6
The prioress and convent obtained licence, in
1344, to acquire land or rents to the annual
value of £10 under the privy seal.6 It was
not, however, until 1 38 1 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 £j 13.1. 4^.,
in full satisfaction of the licence of 1344.7 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 lxxi, 88. ' Ibid, lxxi, 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.
5 Inq. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 69.
6 Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 1.
7 Ibid. 4 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 27.
6 Ibid. 6 Ric. II. pt. iii,m. 16.
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
£81 2s. $£d. The temporalities in Suffolk and
Norfolk, chiefly from lands and rents at Redling-
fleld, Rishangles, and Thorndon, amounted to
£68 10;. 1 1*/. The spiritualities consisted of
portions of the churches of Redlingfleld, Wal-
pole, Melton, and Levington, amounting to
£12 us. bd. 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 £g.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 141 8 the
Bishop of Norwich transferred the feast of the
conventual and parish church of Redlingfleld
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 Tates, a novice, that
they had not slept in the dormitory with 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
10 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 478.
11 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 23 I £.
?3
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
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.'
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 7;. 8d. A pair of
organs and four books in the quire were esti-
mated at 5*. The contents of the vestry 8s. 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,
Bishop Nykke personally visited Redlingfield chambers, &c, were but poorly furnished. Th<
on 7 August, 1 5 14, 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, 1 5 I 5. 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.2
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.
1 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.
only substantial items were the cattle £\\ 1 4$.,
and the corn £\\ i6j. The total of the
inventory was £130 Js. il£i.8
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 23;. 4^., the two priests 25;. each, and
thirteen other servants sums varying from 151.
to 2s. 6d. The nuns were turned out penniless
save for their 'rewards.' The prioress obtained
no reward, but then she had been well pensioned
on the preceding 20 January at twenty marks
a year.6
The house and site of the dissolved monastery,
with the whole of its property, were granted on
25 March, 1537, to Sir Edmund Bedingfield
and Grace his wife. 7 Sir Edmund was a large
purchaser of the church furniture from the
inventory of 10 February. The lead and bells
were valued at £<)0.a
• Ibid. 182-3. * Ibid. 224.
5 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 95-8.
6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 388, 510 ; Misc.
Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 40^.
7 Pat. 28 Hen. VII, pt. iv, m. 6.
8 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 388 (iii, iv).
84
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Prioresses of Redlingfield
Emma (probably daughter of the founder),
C. I I 20 '
Alice Davolers, temp. Henry III s
Margery, 1303-14 3
Agnes de Stuston, 13144
Julia de Weylond, 133 1 5
Alice Wynter de Oxford, 1349''
Eleanor de Bockynge, 1394 7
Ellen Hakon, died 14168
Margaret Hemenhale, 1416 9
Elizabeth Clopton, died 1419 I0
Isabel Hermyte, 141 9 u
Alice Lampit, 1427 vl
Alice Brakle, 1459 I3
Margaret, died 1482 u
Alice Legatte, 1482 15
Margery Cokrose, 1520 15
Grace Sampson, 1524 17
There is a poor impression of the twelfth-
century seal of this house attached to a charter.
It is a pointed oval, and represents the Blessed
Virgin with the Holy Child on her knees.
The only word of the legend remaining is
Radeling.18
11. THE PRIORY OF ST. GEORGE,
THETFORD
There was an old religious house on the Suf-
folk side of Thetford founded by Uvius, the first
abbot of Bury St. Edmunds in the days of Cnut.
It was said to have been founded in memory of
the English and Danes who fell in a great battle
near by between King Edmund and the Danish
leaders Ubba and Hingwar. It was served by
canons who officiated in the church of St. George
as a cell of St. Edmunds. About the year 1 160,
in the days of Abbot Hugh, Toleard and An-
drew, the two surviving religious of this cell,
depressed with poverty, visited the abbot and ex-
pressed their strong desire to withdraw. At
their suggestion the abbot and convent of St.
Edmunds resolved to admit to the Thetford
house certain Benedictine nuns who were then
living at Ling, Norfolk. The bishop of Nor-
wich, the archdeacon of Canterbury, and the
The abbot assigned to these nuns, at the time
of the transfer, the Thetford parish churches of
St. Benedict and All Saints, his rights in Favertin
Fields, and whatever else belonged to the abbey
of Bury within the limits of Thetford. As an
acknowledgement of this, the nuns were to pay
yearly 4;. to the abbey infirmary. The prioress
undertook to be in all respects faithful and obe-
dient to the abbot.19
Maud, countess of Norfolk and Warrenne gave
to these nuns in her widowhood a rent of three
marks out of her mill at Cesterford, Essex, to-
wards their clothing.20
Pope Nicholas's taxation gave the annual
value of the temporalities of this house as
£72 9'- \d^
The 1535 Valor gave the spiritualities in Nor-
folk as £\ 1 5 j. id., and those in Suffolk at
j£i3 16s. 8d., the temporalities in the two coun-
ties as £31 145. 1 i±d. ■ but from this sum there
were various deductions, the largest of which
was £$ 6s. 8d. to their chaplain, so that the clear
annual value only amounted to £40 I is. 2hd.,2i
which was a great drop from the earlier valua-
tion. The reason for this depreciation becomes
clear from the statement made by Martin with
regard to the taxing of the religious houses in
the reign of Henry VI. At that time the nuns
of Thetford were excused ; their petition for
relief stated that their revenues both in Norfolk
and Suffolk were much decreased by recent mor-
tality and had so continued since 1349, and that
their possessions in Cranwich deanery had suffered
much from inundations.23
In 1 2 14 the abbey of Bury granted the nuns
seven loaves and 2d. in money, to be given them
every Sunday by their almoner for the corrody
of Margaret Nonne.2*
From the first establishment of the nuns at
Thetford, the cumbersome plan had been adopted
of sending weekly supplies from Bury St. Ed-
munds (a distance of about twelve miles) not only
of bread and beer but even of cooked meat
{fercula). The thirteenth-century custumary of
the abbey states that thirty-five loaves and ninety-
six gallons of beer were sent weekly to Thet-
ford.25 Owing to the not infrequent robberies
and assaults on the servants and wagons of the
convent conveying this weekly dole on a long
sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk gave these ladies journey, and to the occasional unsatisfactory state
and their prioress Cecilia an excellent character, of the provisions on arrival, it was agreed in 1369
and the change was solemnly effected. that henceforth, instead of forwarding bread,
beer, and dressed provisions, the abbey should
Add. MS. 19099, fol. job.
» Ibid.
Ibid. 19090, fol. 70 ; Pat.
7 Edw. II, pt. ii,
19.
Ibid. m. 18. J Norw. Epis,
Reg. ii, 43.
Ibid, iv, 93.
• Ibid, vi, 195.
Ibid, viii, 22. 3 Ibid.
10 Ibid, viii, 46.
Ibid. u Ibid, ix, 27.
"Ibid, xi, 112.
Ibid, xii, 97. 15 Ibid.
Ibid, xiv, 60.
" Ibid, xiv, 190.
Add. Chart. 10640.
19 Dugdale, Mob. iv, 47
count of the foundation
Harl. MS. 743, fol. 219.
20 Maddox, Hist, of Essex, 33.
81 Taxatio (Rec. Com.), 109.
21 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 314.
23 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 106.
" Ibid. 10 1.
" Harl. MS. 3977, fol. 25.
, where the original ac-
set forth at length, from
85
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
grant annually ten quarters of corn, twenty
quarters of barley, and 62s. in money.1
One of the few early notices preserved of this
priory tells how in 1 305 William de Fornham,
cleik, Walter de Trofton and John Cat, chap-
lains, one night after dark climbed over the
priory wall and went into a house in the court-
yard to talk with one Joan de Fuldon, a servant,
and how, when the light shining under the door
had attracted the notice of some of the nuns, the
gay clerks rose up and fled back over the wall
the way they came.2
There was a long lawsuit in 1438 between
Alice Wesenham, prioress, and Robert Popy,
rector of Ling. When the nuns first removed
from Ling they held a messuage where they
dwelt, close to the chapel of St. Edmund in
Ling, together with 60 acres of land and 30 of
meadow adjoining, and rents of 5*. gd. and two
hens. From that date for a long period they
had received the profits ; and out of them had
paid a chaplain at Ling, who was sometimes
called the prior of St. Edmund's chapel. But
for some years past the prioress had let all to the
rector of Ling, who undertook to serve the
chapel, and the dispute arose as to the amount of
rent and the rights of the prioress. Eventually
it was decided that the king should license the
prioress to convey the chapel and all the premises
to the rector and his successors for ever, they
paying to the prioress a clear annual pension of
four marks.3
The nunnery was visited in November, 1492,
by Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary of his
brother the bishop. Joan Eyton the prioress,
six professed nuns, and four novices were sever-
ally and privately examined. The visitor found
nothing needing reformation.4
The only suggestion made by the visitor in
1 5 14 after examining the prioress and eight
nuns was that the books required repairing.
Two of the nuns expressed a fear that the
prioress was about to receive as nuns certain un-
learned and even deformed persons, particularly
one Dorothy Sturghs, who was both deaf and
deformed.5
The visitation of 1520, undertaken by the
bishop in person, simply resulted in an entry that
the nunnery was very poor; there was clearly
nothing amiss.6 Nor was there anything to
correct at the visitation of 1526, when there
were six professed nuns and four novices, in
addition to the prioress, in attendance.7
The last visitation, held in July, 1532, was
attended by the prioress and nine nuns. The
state of the house and the observance of religion
required no reformation. There was, however,
an irregularity pertaining to a corrody, for one
Thomas Forster, gentleman, was receiving sup-
port for himself, his wife, three children, and a
maid. The infant daughter of John Jerves was
in the priory, and he was paying nothing for its
support. Silence was scarcely observed as well
as it ought to be in the refectory.8
The house was dissolved in February, 1537.9
Elizabeth Hothe, the prioress, obtained a pen-
sion of £5 ; 10 this pension the prioress was still
enjoying at the age of 1 00 in the year 1553,
when she was living 'as a good and catholich
woman,' in the parish of St. James, Norwich.11
Prioresses of St. George, Thetford
Cecilia,12 c. 1 1 60
Agnes,13 occurs 1253
Ellen de Berdesette,14 elected 1310
Margaret Bretom,15 elected 1329
Beatrix de Lystone,16 elected 1330
Danetta de Wakethorp,17 elected 1339
Margaret Campleon,18 elected 1396
Margaret Chykering,19 elected 141 8
Alice Wesenham,20 elected 1420
Margaret Copynger,21 elected 1466
Joan Eyton,22 elected 1477
Elizabeth Mounteneye,23 elected 1498
Sarah Frost,24 elected 15 19
Elizabeth Hothe,25 or Both,26 occurs 1535, last
prioress 25
HOUSES OF CLUNIAC MONKS
12. THE PRIORY OF MENDHAM
There are two charters of William de Hunt-
ingfield, the founder of Mendham Priory, in the
chartulary of Castle Acre. By the first of these
he gave to the Cluniac monks of Castle Acre the
isle of St. Mary of Mendham, with ' Ulordage,'
and the granges there, together with certain land
in 'Crodustune' on condition that as many
brethren as might be requisite for ruling the
1 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 102-3.
2 Assize R. 1234, m. 26.
3 Ibid.
4 Jessopp, Koru: Visit. 33.
island should be placed there, and their number
afterwards increased until a secular convent of
5 Ibid. 90-1. 6 Ibid. 155. 7 Ibid. 243.
6 Ibid. 303-4. * L.andP.Hen. Fill, xii.pt. i, 510.
10 Ibid, xiii (1), 576.
11 Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. ii, 92.
12 Harl. MS. 743, fol. 219.
13 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 106.
" Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 39.
15 Ibid, ii, 33. 16Ibid.ii,36. " Ibid, iii, 39.
18 Ibid, vi, 223. "Ibid.viii, 36. "Ibid.viii, 57.
21 Ibid, xi, 158. " Ibid, xii, 55.
23 Ibid, xii, 203. " Ibid, xiv, 1 5 3.
25 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. i, 576.
86 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 3 1 3.
86
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
monks was properly established. The cell of the
island of Mendham was to show such subjection
to St. Mary of Castle Acre, as Castle Acre did to
the priory of St. Pancras, Lewes, and as Lewes did
to the mother house of Cluni ; and it was to pay
half a mark yearly to Castle Acre, as an acknow-
ledgement of submission. By his second charter
the founder described more in detail his gifts of
land ; and at the same time he confirmed the
gifts of Roger de Hammesirl, William the son
of Hoscetel, and Sigar, and provided that the
bequests of these three should only be used to-
wards providing the monks with a church of
stone.1 The exact date of these charters is not
known; but the founder died in 1 155, and his
wife Sibyl in 1186.2
Roger de Huntingfield, the son of the founder,
who died in 1204, materially increased the en-
dowments of Mendham. He gave to the monks
the church of St. Margaret, Linstead, a moiety
of the church of St. Peter, Linstead, and all his
right in the church of Mendham. The convent
of Mendham was by this time complete ; and
Roger appointed John de Lindsey the first prior.
An agreement was at the same time entered into
between Hugh, prior of Castle Acre, and his
convent and Roger de Huntingfield, that the
prior of Mendham was not to be deposed, save
for disobedience, incontinence, or dilapidation
of the house, and that such deposition was not to
take place without the advice of the monks of
Mendham and the patron. It was also agreed
that the convent of Mendham was to consist of
at least eight monks, four of whom were to be
sent from Castle Acre. Any man betaking him-
self to Mendham through fear of death was to be
received ; but no one in health to be admitted
without the consent of the prior of Acre. If the
house at Mendham so increased as to sustain its
whole congregation, they were to be at liberty
to receive any according to their own discretion.3
The taxation of 1291 showed that Mendham
priory had an income of £19 i8j. 6^d. Of this
sum, j£ii came from a portion of the rectory of
Fressingfield, and the remainder in lands or rents
from ten parishes in Suffolk and Norfolk.4
During the wars with France Mendham was
treated as an alien priory ; but in 1337 Edward
III ordered the restoration to the prior of Mend-
ham of the priory with all its lands, benefices,
goods and chattels (in like manner as with Castle
Acre, of which Mendham was a cell), as the
prior and all his monks were Englishmen, and
the priory was founded by an Englishman,
and sent no ' apport ' or contribution across
the seas.6
1 Cited in Dugdale, Mon. v, 58.
' Harl. MS. 972, fol. 113.
3 Charters cited, Dugdale, Mon. v, 58-9.
4 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 92^ 94^ 104,
1043, 105, 107, liz,b, ll%b, lz6b, lijb.
6 Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 39.
The visitors from Cluni reported of Mendham,
about 1405, that it was a cell subordinate to
Castle Acre. The brethren then numbered nine ;
there were three daily masses, two sung and one
said.6
A writ was issued in November, 1534, to the
sheriff of Suffolk to the effect that Sir Humphrey
Wingfield, kt., and others had recovered in the
king's court the manors of Mendham and Kings-
shall, with other rents and lands against Thomas,
prior of Mendham.7
There is no entry with regard to this priory in
the Valor of 1535.
This house and its revenues were given by
Henry VIII, together with the possessions of
several dissolved priories to the short-lived Bene-
dictine abbey of Bisham, Berks, established in
1537. In the following year, when this abbey
was suppressed, the Mendham possessions were
granted by the crown to Charles duke of Suffolk.
Priors of Mendham
John de Lindsey, c. 11708
John, occurs 12399
Simon, occurs 1 250™
John, occurs 1307 u
Nicholas Cressi, died 1336 12
John de Walton, 1340 13
Henry de Berlegh, 1342 "
William, 1353 ls
John de Tornston 16
Robert, 1400 17
John Betelee, 1420 18
Thomas Rede, 1449 I9
Thomas Pitte, 1487 20
Thomas Bullock, 1501 21
Simon, 1523 s2
Thomas, 1534 23
An impression of the seal of John, prior of
this house, a.d. 1307, shows the Blessed Virgin
seated on a throne, under a canopy supported on
slender shafts, with the Holy Child on the left
knee. In the base, under a trefoiled arch, a
shield of arms, on a fesse three plates, for William
de Huntingfield the founder. Legend : —
FRIS JOHIS
MENDHAM.
6 Duckett, Visitations and Chapters-General of Order
of C/uny, 40.
7 Ibid. 229.
8 Dugdale, Mon. v, 59.
9 Blomefield, Hist, of Norf iii, 254, from Mendham
Ct. R.
10 Ibid.
11 Maddox, Form. Angl. 360.
" Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. iii, 254.
13 Ibid. " Ibid.
16 Ibid. 17 Ibid.
19 Ibid. !° Ibid. 8I Ibid.
a Bodl. Chart. Suff. 229.
'* Dugdale, Mon. v, 57 ; B.M. Cast lxxii
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
87
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
13. THE PRIORY OF WANGFORD
A small priory of Cluniac monks was founded
at Wangford, as a cell of the important priory of
Thetford, before the year 1 1 60. There is some
confusion as to the founder and the precise date;
but from early deeds cited by Gardner it would
appear that Weever's statement as to the founder
being ' one Ansered of France ' is correct. Sir
Geraline de Vernuns gave to God and the church
of St. Peter, Wangford, and the monks there
serving God, whatever his father Anteredus had
granted them, namely the church of Reydon with
the chapel of Rissemere (afterwards Southwold),
the water-mill and dam at Reydon, and an acre
of land near the dam for its repair. The wit-
nesses show that this deed was circa 1 200.
Another somewhat conflicting early charter by
Richard FitzWilliam confirms to God and St.
Mary and the monks of Thetford the gifts of his
grandfather Dodo and his father William, of the
church of St. Peter, Wangford, and the chapel
of St. Mary, Rissemere.1
The taxation of 1291 shows that the bene-
factions to the priory had been fairly numerous.
The prior held lands and rents in Wangford
and adjacent parishes of the annual value of
j£i2 is. n%d., and also a mill at 'Surgueland,'
worth 20s. a year. The spiritualities included
Reydon with its chapel, and Stoven, and these
appropriations were worth ^22 a year. The
total income of the priory, exclusive of the
tithes of Wangford itself, was thus £35 15. I \\d.2
An extent of the lands, tenements, churches,
rents, and other temporalities pertaining to the
priory of Wangford, taken by order of the crown
in 1370,3 shows a slight increase of about £8,
but the Valor of 1535 showed a considerable drop
in the value of the temporalities, which only
brought in a clear annual sum of £5 5*. jd. ; the
spiritualities, however, brought the total clear in-
come up to £30 95. 5</. The prior then held the
rectories of Wangford, Reydon cum Southwold,
Covehithe (North Hales), and Stoven, with portions
from the churches of Stoven and Easton Bavents.4
The prior of Wangford was appointed by the
pope in 1226, to be a joint papal commissioner
with the great abbot of Westminster and the
archdeacon of Sudbury in an important dispute
as to the tithes of the church of Walpole.5
The hundred jury of 1275 declared that
William Giffard, the sheriff, had taken Reginald,
prior of Wangford, by violence from the court of
Master Philip of Wangford, contrary to peace,
had imprisoned him for a week in the castle of
1 Gardner, Hist, of Duntvich, &c, 254; Weever,
Funeral Monuments, 762; Leland, Coll. i, 162;
Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xliv.
s Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 104^, 114^, 119,
126, 126^, 127.
3 Add. MS. 6164, fol. 422.
4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 438.
• Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 11 3- 14.
Norwich, and did not release him until he had
paid an unjust fine of seven marks.6
The Cluniac houses were all reckoned as alien
during the wars with France, and were taken
into the hands of the crown. In October, 1307,
Edward II appointed John de Benstede and
William Inge to the custody of the lands and
possessions of the priory of Thetford, with its
cells of Wangford and Horkesley, to apply the
rents and issues to the discharge of the debts of
the house, reserving a reasonable sustenance for
the religious of the mother house and its cells.7
In the December of the following year protec-
tion was granted for one year to Martin, prior of
Wangford, who was going beyond the seas on
the king's service,8 and in 1310, Prior Martin
had renewed protection granted him, as he was
staying beyond the seas on the king's service.9
Edward III in 1327 granted to the prior of
Wangford, amongst a large number of priors of
alien houses, the right to resume control over his
possessions, which had been taken from him by
the late king during the wars with France, saving
the advowsons of benefices, and saving also the
apport or tribute to the parent house of Cluni.10
Edward III took the priory of Wangford again
into his hands by reason of the war with France,
and committed the custody of it to William de
Cusance, king's clerk and treasurer, to whom, in
February, 1342, the ^30 rents of this priory were
assigned, in recompense for the losses he had
sustained during the war.11
In November, 1393, the prior of Wangford
paid 100 marks to the crown, and obtained from
Richard II a full grant of denization, in considera-
tion of the poverty of the priory lately committed
to his (the prior's) custody at the yearly rent of
£10, and of its being ruled henceforth by true-
born Englishmen, and that the prior had paid no
yearly pension to the king's enemies as other
alien priors had.12
Walter, prior of Wangford, about 1402, sued
the pope for the appropriation of the vicarage of
North Hales (Covehithe) to that priory, without
the knowledge or consent of the prior and con-
vent of Thetford, in whose name the suit ought
to have been made, and the pope ' so far as was
in him,' appropriated the vicarage to Wangford.
The vicarage was at that time void by the resigna-
tion of one Peter Braunche, and after that resigna-
tion Henry IV presented a clerk because the priory
of Wangford had no royal licence for the appro-
priation, but on 18 June, 1402, the king granted
that the clerk presented was to hold the vicarage
of North Hales for this turn, but that afterwards
e Hund. R. (Rec. Com.),
7 Pat. I Edw. II, pt. i, m
6 Ibid. 2 Edw. II, pt. i, r
9 Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. 5.
10 Close, 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i
11 Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. i,
12 Ibid. 17 Ric. II, pt. i, 1
, 149.
18.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Thetford priory was to hold the advowson and
patronage as before, as Thetford was able to
show that Wangford was only a cell, and the
prior removable at will.1
The report of the visitors from Cluni as to
their houses of English foundation, drawn up
about 1405, stated that Wangford priory, a cell
of Thetford, had two dailv masses, both with
song ; the number of the brethren was fixed by
some at five, and by others at only four.2
Thomas duke of Norfolk, writing to Crom-
well in March 1537, stated that the small cell
of Wangford had gone to ruin by the misuse of
those to whom it had been committed, and the
prior of Thetford had thought good to call home
his monks and let the cell to farm. He had
offered to lease it to the treasurer of the duke's
household, provided he could do so lawfullv and
with Cromwell's favour.3 In the following April,
William, prior of Thetford, wrote to Cromwell,
who had written to the prior for the assignment
of Wangford cell to one Mr. Felston, begging
the visitor general to take no displeasure, for he
and his brethren had already granted a lease to
Mr. Rouse, treasurer of the Duke of Norfolk,
their patron.'
The surrender of Wangford was included in
that of Thetford, which was signed on 16 Feb-
ruary, 1539-40, as related under Thetford.6
The site of this priory and all its possessions
were assigned to the Duke of Norfolk on 9 July,
1540.7
Priors of Wangford
John, occurs 1 2 1 8 8
William, occurs 1 249 °
Reginald, occurs 1275 10
Martin, occurs 1308 u
Walter, occurs 1402 12
John, occurs 1536 13
HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS
14. THE ABBEY OF SIBTON 4
The Cistercian abbey of the Blessed Virgin of
Sibton was founded by William Cheney, some-
times called William Fitz Robert, and was
1 Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 1 2.
5 Duckett, Vis. of Engl. Clun. Found. 41.
3 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (1), 71 1.
4 A register book (Add. MS. 341560) giving an
extent of lands, &c, of this abbey, of early fourteenth
century date, was purchased by the British Museum
in 1 894 of the late Rev. C. R. Manning. It consists
of 1 39 vellum folios.
The most important MS. relative to this abbey is
the chartulary or register (Arundel 221) formerly in
colonized by an abbot and twelve monks from
the abbey of Warden in Bedfordshire.
The advowson of the church of Westleton
was given to the abbey in 1272,14 and it was ap-
propriated in 1332.15
The taxation roll of 1 29 1 shows that this
abbey held lands or rents in ten parishes of the
city of Norwich, and in twelve parishes of the
county of Norfolk, which brought in an income
of ^29 ~s. $hd. There were also considerable
temporalities in upwards of twenty-five Suffolk
parishes, yielding ^103 8s. 6^d. The spirituali-
ties consisted of the rectory of Sibton with the
chapel of Peasenhall, and portions from four
Earl of Arundel's collection, afterwards in the other churches, producing £1 1 Js. \d. The
the
library of the Royal Society, but transferred to the
British Museum in 1 83 I. It was drawn up towards
the end of the fourteenth century, and contains 153
parchment folios.
From fol. 32 to fol. 143 is a chartulary proper ;
the charter transcripts are followed by a series of papal
bulls granted to the abbey of Sibton, twenty-two in
number, ranging from Alexander III, 1 1 60, to
Innocent IV, 1254.
The earlier part of the volume contains a variety
of entries, such as copies of Magna Charta and the
Forest Charter, the names of the kings of England
down to Edward III, list of the towns in Blything
hundred, and various pleas and inquisitions relative
to the abbey in the reigns of Edward III and
Richard II.
Of this chartulary there are several transcripts. A
portion, on paper in an Elizabethan hand, appears in
Cott. MS. Vitel. fol. xii. Add. MS. 8172 (vol. v. of
Jermyn's Suffolk Collections) is entirely occupied with
Sibton parish, and most of it with transcripts of the
abbey charters and evidences. Add. MS. 19082 (part
of Davy's Suffolk Collections) concerns Sibton from
fol. 1 to 249, mainly about the abbey. Most of
Davy's transcripts correspond with Arundel 221, but
others, with some variants, are taken from a chartu-
total income of the abbey was thus £144 3/. 4^.16
lary and two bursar's account books of the fifteenth
century, then in possession of the Bishop of Salisbury.
Rawlinson MS. B. 4 1 9, of the Bodleian, is a tran-
script of Arundel 2 2 1 . A further chartulary, cited by
Jermvn and Davy, in the possession of Mr. Scrivener
of Sibton, appears also to correspond with the Arundel
register. Other miscellaneous extracts are to be found
in the Dodsworth MSS. of the Bodleian, and in the
Harley Collection (2044 and 2101) of the British
Museum.
5 L. end P. Hen. VIII, xii, pt. i, 836.
6 Rymer, Fcedera, xiv, 666.
7 Pat. 32 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 3.
6 Add. MS. 19803, fol. 66. s Ibid. 67^.
10 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 149.
11 Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 7.
12 Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 12.
13 L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 1257 (2).
14 Feet of F. Suff. 1 Edw. I, No. 83.
15 Pat. 5 Edw. III,m. 5.
le Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 91, 95^, 99^, 103,
103/5, 104, 104^, 105, 108, 115, i\ib, 125, 125^,
126, 126^, 127, 1273, 128, 128^, 130, 132^.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
The Valor of 1535 gave the clear annual
value as £250 15;. -j\d. The spiritualities,
which then produced £41 19*., consisted of the
rectories of Sibton-cum-Peasenhall, Westleton,
Rendham, and Tunstall, Norfolk, with a portion
from Cransford.1 The churches of Tunstall and
Cransford had been appropriated in the reign of
Edward I, and were confirmed to the abbey by
his successor.2
In 1 3 16 Robert Petit was sent by Edward II
to receive the allowance previously enjoyed by
William de Wendelesburgh.3
The abbot and convent, at the supplication of
Ralph, son of the Earl of Stafford, were licensed
in 1385 to acquire lands in mortmain not ex-
ceeding the yearly value of j£io.4
The accounts of John de Merton, bursar of
the abbey from 1362 to 1372, yield various
interesting particulars.6 For the first of these
years the total receipts amounted to £162 5*. lod.
The visitor of the order for that year was the
abbot of Warden. The total expense of the
visitation was ^4 Js. 7,d. Bread, beer, wine,
fish, and horse-meat for the abbot and his train
to Bury St. Edmunds cost 13;. 8fi. ; from
thence to Eye, 23^. ; from Eye to Woodbridge,
and returning to Ipswich, 2od. ; and for tarrying
a night at Ipswich and returning, 12s. 6jd. The
remainder was spent on entertaining at the
abbey the abbot and his two monks, together
with his two squires and three servants.
The receipts for 1363-4 were £185 15*. lid.,
and the expenses £183 10s. l\d. The repairs
for this year to the monastic buildings are interest-
ing ; they included 3*. 4^. for 200 tiles for
mending the furnace of the bakehouse, 8*. for six
weeks' work in dressing and carving stones for
the monks' lavatory [cisterna), and 14.S. Sd. for
seven lime trees for the new chamber of the
abbot. In the following year three windows of
the abbot's new lodging were glazed. The
receipts that year came to ^204 4.S. n\d., and
the expenses to ^ 1 99 1 2 J. id.
In 1365-6 the receipts rose to ^241 12s. id.,
but the expenses increased to ^262 is. iijd.
The last year of these accounts, 137 1-2, the
receipts were £204 i6j. 5^., and the outgoings
^213 10s. ioid.
A detailed list of payments to the abbey
sacrists in 1369-70 shows that the full number
of the servants for this year was forty-four, and
the expenditure in money ^23 14s. lid.
The abbot of Warden filled the obligation im-
posed on him by the Cistercian statutes of visiting
the daughter house of Sibton year by year. The
average cost of this visit to the Suffolk abbey
was £t> 1 01. No Cistercian abbey was ever
1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 434-6.
* Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 9.
5 Close, 10 Edw. II. m. z\d.
' Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 8.
6 Add. MS. 34560, fols. 65-137. See first note.
visited by the diocesan, and there are therefore
only few references to Sibton in the Norwich
registers. But in 1426 a bull of Pope Martin
authorizing Robert Aldeby, abbot of Sibton, to
hold a benefice, was transcribed in the bishop's
register.6
Henry, abbot of Sibton, was summoned to
attend convocation in 1529.7
An undated memorandum among the State
Papers, but clearly of the year 1536, gives the
names of the religious of this house, namely,
William Flatbury, abbot ; Robert Sabyn {alias
Bongay), prior ; and six other monks. It is
noted that the vicar-general was to be asked to
commission some person to take the abbot's re-
signation, with capacity to change his habit, and
to take two benefices with cure without residence,
and a licence for the same from the chancellor.
The abbot was willing to purchase these privi-
leges. Also for the monks, save Prior Sabyn and
another of the name of John Fawkon, all desired
'capacities,' and to take a benefice each with
cure.8
The value of this house being well over £200
a year, it would not have fallen for another two
years ; but the recently-appointed abbot, William
Flatbury, had apparently been put in through the
influence of the Duke of Norfolk, and with the
connivance of Cromwell, on purpose to bring
about a speedy surrender. At all events the
abbot and convent sold their house and posses-
sions to Thomas, duke of Norfolk, some time in
1536, and this action was confirmed by Act of
Parliament in 1539.9 In the duke's annual
receipts for 1538 entry is made of ' Sipton £200,
whereof to the quondam (abbot) and other monks
£ 72.' 10 It therefore appears that all the monks
of this house obtained a pension.
The impression of the fourteenth-century
seal attached to a charter of 1 406 shows the
Blessed Virgin under a pinnacled and crocketed
niche; on each side is a flowering branch, as
well as a star on one side and a crescent on the
other ; in the base under an arch is a lion's face,
a possible allusion to the arms of the founder's
family. Legend : —
com ET CONV
SIBETON . . .U
Abbots of Sibton
Constantine 12
Laurence, c. 120013
Alexander de Walpole u
6 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 23.
7 L. and P. Hen. Fill, v, 6047.
e Ibid, x, 1247.
9 31 Hen. VIII, cap. 13.
10 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 1215.
11 Harl. Chart. 83, D. 1.
11 Add. MS. 8172, fol. 173.
13 Ibid. ; Harl. Chart. 44 I, 25. " Ibid.
Ralph, occurs 1253 '
Richard, occurs 1 269 s
Walter, occurs 1 289s
John, occurs 13031
Eustache, occurs 1 3 13 5
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Ralph, occurs 1334 13
Walter, appointed 1375 14
Robert Aldeby, occurs 1426"
Henry, occurs 152916
William Flatbury, occurs 1536'
HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS
15. THE PRIORY OF ALNESBOURN
At Alnesbourn or Albourn, near the river
between St. Clement's, Ipswich and Nacton, in
the ancient parish of Hallowtree, was one of the
smallest of the several small Austin priories of
Suffolk. This house, dedicated in honour of
the Blessed Virgin, was probably founded by
Albert de Neville ; at all events he endowed the
priory early in the thirteenth century, with the
manor that bore his name in the parish of Hethill,
and also with the advowson of Carlton St. Mary.6
It is stated in a certificate of the year as to the
diminution of the profits of the churches of Alnes-
bourn and Carlton St. Mary that those two
rectories were appropriated to this priory in the
year 1247.7
The taxation roll of 1 29 1 gives a total annual
value of ^71 is. i\d. to the temporalities of this
priorv, all in the county of Suffolk ; the largest
item was for rents and lands in Hallowtree
valued at £2 us. gd. a year ; there were
also small rents from the Ipswich parishes of
St. Clement, St. Matthew, St. Nicholas, and
St. Margaret.8
Robert de Belstede and Robert de Thwevte
obtained licence in 130 1 to alienate to the
priory the advowson of the church of Halghtree
or Hallowtree, with two acres of land in that
town,9 and in 1334 licence was granted for
the appropriation of the church.10
Before 1324 the priory of Alnesbourn held
the church of St. Mary, Carlton, county Nor-
folk, appropriated to them. It was served by a
stipendiary chaplain, but was conveyed in 1324
by the priory to the master and brethren of St.
Giles' Hospital, Norwich.11
In 1 39 1 Robert Bretenham, prior of Alnesbourn,
held Neville's manor, Hethill, as half a fee, and paid
^5 for a relief as his predecessors had done, and
was taxed at ^3 5*. $d. for his temporalities.12
This manor was sold in 1424 by the priory to
I Chart. R. 37 Hen. Ill, m. 9.
• Add. MS. 19082, fol. 49. 3 Ibid. fol. 42.
4 Ibid. 8172, fol. 173. 'Ibid.
' Blomefield, Hist, of Kerf, ii, 98, 107.
' Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 130.
* Pope Kick. Tax (Rec. Com.), 124J, 125, 128,
129, 129^.
! Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 36.
10 Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 28.
II Blomefield, Hist. ofKorf. v, 98.
n Ibid, ii, 107.
John duke of Norfolk, Walter bishop of Nor-
wich, and others, and by them conveyed to the
hospital of St. Giles, Norwich.18
Soon after this date, the exact year has not
been ascertained, the priory of Alnesbourn
ceased to have an independent existence, and
was united to the Austin house of Woodbridge.19
The Valor of 1535 gives the annual value of
this priory, under the heading of Woodbridge
Priory, as £7 13;. ii*/.20
Priors of Alnesbourn
Robert, occurs 128621
Walter de Cretvnge, appointed 131 1 B
John de Stoke, died 1345 a
John de Fynyngham, appointed 1345 M
Robert Snyt, appointed 1350 M
John de Louder, appointed 1350 26
Robert Bretenham, occurs 139 1 Tl
Richard Susanne, appointed 139228
John Tumour, occurs 1424 2*
16. THE PRIORY OF BLYTH-
BURGH 30
The real founders of the prior)' of the Blessed
Virgin were the abbot and canons of the im-
" Close, 8 Edw. Ill, m. 17 d.
u Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 43.
15 Ibid, ix, 32.
16 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. ;ii, 6047.
17 Add. MS. 19083, fol. 18.
15 Blomefield, Hist. ofKorf ii, 107.
19 Dugdale, Men. vi, 583, 601.
K Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 422.
81 Bodl. Chart. SufF. 187.
" Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 45.
"Ibid, iv, 51. "Ibid.
" Ibid, iv, 123. x Ibid, iv, 1 24.
27 Blomefield, Hist. ofKorf. ii, 105.
n Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 170.
" Blomefield, Hist, of Kerf, ii, 107.
30 A chartulary of Blvthburgh priory, in private hands,
contains sixty-two folios ; the date of the writing is
<-. 1 100. The greater part of the transcribed
deeds are undated, and of the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries ; they relate to grants, chiefly of
trifling properties.
The following are among the more important
documents : —
Grant by Henry I to the canons of St. Osyth, of
the church of Blythburgh. (fols. 3, jb).
Charter of Henry II, between 1 164-70, confirming
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
portant Austin house of St. Osyth, Essex.
Henry I bestowed on that abbey the tithes of
the widespread parish of Blythburgh, and here,
aided by the support of the Claverings, the lords
of the manor, a priory or dependent cell of St.
Osyth was established at an early date.1
Blythburgh is an instance of one of those
important cells which had a double life, being
partly independent of the mother house, but in
the main, dependent. The priory presented
to several neighbouring benefices and to one in
Norfolk, and it also possessed a good deal of
property both in spiritualities and temporalities
to the abbot and convent of St. Osyth the right of
placing a prior in the church of Blythburgh, granted
to them by King Henry, his grandfather, (fol. <)b.)
Bull of Innocent III (i 198-1216) to Ralph abbot
of St. Osyth, confirming to him and his canons the
church of Blythburgh. (fol. f)b.)
Confirmation by William de Kerdiston of the
church of Claxton, &c. (fol. I 2.)
Grants by Richard, son of William son of Duet,
of the church of Blythburgh. Confirmation of the
same by Ralph de Criketot and by Hubert de
Criketot, Ralph's son. Grant by William bishop of
Norwich (1 146-75) of the church of Blythburgh to
the canons of Blythburgh on petition of Ralph de
Criketot, lord of that place ; and certificate of the
archdeacon of Suffolk that he was present when the
bishop instituted the canons to the church of Blyth-
burgh. (fols. 16, 1 6b.)
Grant to Blythburgh by Eudo son of Ogar of the
church of Bramfield, with confirmation by William
bishop of Norwich, and by John and Thomas, arch-
bishops of Canterbury, (fols. 19, l<)b.)
Grant by Richard de Clippesby of the church of
Clippesby, and by Roger de Claxton, with confirma-
tion by John bishop of Norwich and his archdeacons
(11 75-1 206). (fols. 25^, 26.)
Confirmation by Archbishop Peckham of the rights
of the priory in the churches of St. Mary and the
Holy Trinity at Blythburgh with the chapels of Wal-
berswick, Bramfield, Clopton, Blyford, and a
moiety of Wenhaston (1281). (fol. 25.)
Grant by Geoffrey de Beletone, rector of the
church of St. John's, Dunwich, of the advowson of
the church of Thorington, with a piece of land,
(fol. 54^.)
Agreement in 1 278 between Robert FitzRoger,
knt., and the prior and convent of Blythburgh, by
which the former releases the latter from the old
custom of providing a feast at Christmas for his men
and serfs at Walberswick, on condition of providing a
resident chaplain to celebrate mass in Walberswick
chapel daily, instead of thrice a week, four of the
weekly masses being for the benefit of the said Robert
and Margery his wife. (fol. 62b.)
A report as to this volume, with an analysis of its
chief contents, appeared in the Hist. MSS. Com. Rep.
x, 451-7. It was at that time in the hands of the
Rev. F. S. Hill, rector of Thorington ; but is now
owned by Mr. F. A. Crisp, F.S.A., who has kindly
allowed it to be inspected by the writer.
1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, Blythburgh and South-
wold, 128 ; Suckling, Hist, of Suff. ii, 143 ; V. C. H.
uncontrolled by St. Osyth's ; moreover it was
subject to the visitation of the diocesan, the
Bishop of Norwich. But, although it was thus to
a certain extent conventual, the most important
function of a chapter or conventual gathering
was the choice of a superior on the occurrence
of a vacancy, and in this respect Blythburgh
was voiceless. The appointment of the prior
always rested with the abbot and convent of St.
Osyth's, though in the formal presentation to the
bishop, the lord of Blythburgh, as lay patron of
the priory, was always associated with the abbot.2
Moreover the prior and his two canons were
always expected to attend the visitations of
St. Osyth whenever they were held by the Bishops
of London or their commissaries; they also took
part in the election of an abbot over the mother
house.
The elaborate charter of confirmation granted
to the priory by Richard I recites all their bene-
factions up to that date. It makes no reference
to the mother house of St. Osyth's.3
The Taxation Roll of Pope Nicholas (1291),
about a century later, shows that the priory had
gained several small benefactions during that
period. The house held lands or rents in about
forty Suffolk parishes, as well as in Great Yar-
mouth, yielding an annual total of ^36 3*. \\d.
Of this sum £20 19/. 6\d. came from Blyth-
burgh and Walberswick. In addition to this
there were the then appropriated churches of
Bramfield, Wenhaston, and Blyford, which
yielded collectively £23 6s. 4^.* Moreover the
appropriate tithes of Blythburgh-cum- Walbers-
wick were omitted in that list, but shortly
afterwards taxed as of the annual worth of
£28 6s. id. ;5 so that by the end of the thir-
teenth century the priory was worth the fairly
large annual sum of ^88 6s. i\d., though the
total would be considerably reduced by a variety
of outgoings.
John Fovas, vicar of Claxton, and Henry
Brid of Halesworth had licence in 1345 to
alienate to the priory 61 acres of land and
3 acres of pasture in Spexhall, Westhall, Thornton,
and Blythburgh, towards the support of a chap-
lain to celebrate weekly in the priory church for
the souls of Henry de Harnhull, and his father,
mother, and ancestors.6 The priory obtained
licence in 1347 to appropriate the church of
Thorington, which was of its advowson.7
* Thus the Norwich visitation books show that the
Claverings, Audleys, Uffords, and Lords Dacres were
successively patrons.
3 This charter is cited in full by Dugdale (Mon. vi,
588-9), and by Suckling (Hist, of Suff. ii, I45-6).
1 Pope N id. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 97^, 113, nSb,
126, 126^, 127, 127^, 128b, 132.
5 Chartul. fol. lb. In this place two small por-
tions or pensions are also named from the rectories of
Stoven and Walpole, amounting to 1 is. }d.
6 Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 9.
7 Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iv, m. 6.
92
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
The value of the property pertaining to the
priory suffered severely from the Black Death of
1349, and never recovered from the deterioration
that then ensued. There was also much loss
experienced from the sea encroachments at
Dunwich and on the coast line of Blythburgh
parish.
The Valor of 1535 gives the annual value of
the temporalities as ^28 13*. ^.d., but the out-
goings brought the clear value down to
j£22 14s. 4</. The spiritualities or tithes of
the parishes of Blythburgh-cum-Walberswick,
Bramfield, Thorington, and Blyford were then
worth ^28 a year ; but from this deductions of
over £6 had to be made for pensions to the
abbot of St. Osyth and the prior of St. Bartho-
lomew, Smithfield, as well as for procurations
and synodals. The clear total value of the
priory was thus reduced to ^48 8;. lod.
The office of prior, notwithstanding its de-
pendent position on St. Osyth, was esteemed a
position of some importance. Thus in 1217,
Pope Honorius III considered the prior of Blyth-
burgh to be a sufficiently noteworthy person
to be associated with the abbots of Sibton
and Leiston in a commission appointed to
report as to the conduct of Peter, archdeacon of
Lincoln.1
Whatever may have been the number of the
canons of this house prior to the Black Death,
they do not seem to have ever exceeded a total
of four, including the superior, at subsequent
dates. In 1473 there were three canons and a
prior ; for in that year John Woley of Blyth-
burgh left 4OJ'. to the prior and convent, viz.,
20*. to the prior, and 6s. 8d. to each canon.2
The injunctions consequent on a visitation in
1308 enjoined on the abbot and convent of
St. Osyth to be careful in the election of canons
•suitable to be sent to Blythburgh.3 In 13 17,
when the commissary of the dean and chapter of
St. Paul's was holding a visitation at St. Osyth,
sede vacante, certain irregularities at the cell of
Blythburgh were condemned.4 The prior of
Blythburgh and his canons attended at the elec-
tion of an abbot of St. Osyth by scrutiny in
1427, when four were present from Blyth-
"burgh.5
The several sixteenth-century diocesan visita-
tions of this priory show that the number of the
religious was then four. The house was in debt,
and the old chapter-house had disappeared.
Blythburgh was visited by the suffragan Bishop
of Chalcedon and other commissaries of the
diocesan in 1 5 20, when the prior and brethren
assembled in a certain chapel of the conventual
church which they used as a chapter-house.
1 Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 47.
' Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, &c. 129.
3 Lond. Epis. Reg. Baldock, fol. 912.
4 Ibid. Newport, fol. 7.
5 Ibid. Grey, fol. 64.
They were severally examined as to the state of
the house and the essentials of religion, and their
answers were in every way satisfactory.6
Bishop Nykke visited in person in June, 1526.
Prior John Righton, Thomas Chapet, sub-prior,
and three other canons attended. All made
satisfactory replies save Robert Francis, who
said they had given up the singing of mass, and
complained that the prior was too lenient in
correction towards those he favoured, but cruel
and severe towards those whom he disliked.7
The bishop again visited Blythburgh in July,
1532, when Prior Righton stated that the house
was in debt to the amount of ^30, of which
^iowas due to the bishop. The three brethren,
on examination, stated that they knew of nothing
worthy of reformation.8
Between the two visits of Bishop Nykke this
priory narrowly escaped dissolution. It was
included in the bull of Pope Clement, granted
to Cardinal Wolsey in 1528, among minor
houses to be suppressed in favour of his pro-
posed college at Ipswich, which was never
carried out.9
On 6 October, 1534, the priory's acceptance
of the supremacy of Henry VIII was signed by
John Righton the prior, and by John Baker,
George Thurstan, and Robert Sprot, the three
canons.
Although strictly speaking Blythburgh priory,
as a cell of St. Osyth s, did not come under the
act for the suppression of the smaller monasteries,
it was placed in that category, and the suppres-
sion was carried out on 12 February, 1537. 10
In the previous August an inventory of the
priory's goods had been drawn up by the three
suppression commissioners for Suffolk. The
priory was in a somewhat poor plight even for a
small house; the total value was only £8 is. 8d.,
including 40/. for five horses and an old cart.
All the vestments in the vestry were valued at
36;. 6d. There were two silver chalices with
patens and a cross of copper gilt. The contents
of the house were apportioned between the
kitchen, pantry, hall, and parlour, and there is
certainly no sign of luxurious living.11
On 29 February, 1537, a pension of £6 was
assigned to John Righton the ex-prior ; and the
three canons were turned out penniless.12
The house, site, and all the possessions of the
priory were originally granted by the crown to
Walter Wadelond, of Needham Market, for
twenty-one years, at a rental of £59 9*., and in
November, 1548, the reversion was granted to
Sir Arthur Hopton.13
6Jessopp, Visit. I J J. 7 Ibid. 216.
8 Ibid. 284-5. 9 Rvmer, F oedera, xiv, 240-1.
10 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi'i, pt. i, 510.
11 This inventory is set forth in full in the proceed-
ings of the Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 99-100.
18 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 40.
aL. and. P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 967 (20).
93
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Priors of Blythburgh
Nicholas1
Thomas 2
Osbert 3
Roger 4
Richard 6
Elias6
Wyth 7
Guy, occurs 1200, &c.8
William, occurs 1260, &c.9
Adam, occurs 1290 and 1294 10
Alexander de Donewych, appointed 131011
Nicholas de Daggeworth, appointed 133212
John de Norton, appointed 1 36 1 13
Walter de Stanstede, appointed 137 1 H
John de Alveley, appointed 1374 16
William de Wykeham, appointed 1382 16
Lawrence de Brysete, 1395 l;
John Hydyngham (Hethyngham), appointed
1395 I8
John Lacy, appointed 141 8 19
Thomas Hadley, resigned 1427 20
Roger Okham, appointed 1427 21
William Kent, appointed 143 1 22
John Sompton, died 1483 23
John Newton, appointed 1483 24
John Brandon, appointed 1497 25
John Marham, appointed 1500 26
Robert Park, appointed 150627
John Righton, appointed 1521 28
An impression of the common seal of the
priory is attached to the acknowledgement of the
supremacy at the Public Record Office. It is
of large oval shape, and bears the Blessed Virgin,
with sceptre in right hand, and Holy Child on
left knee, with the legend : —
SIGILLUM . SANCTE . MARIE . DE . BLIEBURGH
17. THE PRIORY OF BRICETT
Ralph FitzBrian and Emma his wife, about
the year 1 1 10, founded a priory for Austin
1 Blyth. Chartul. fol. Sb. Nicholas and the six
following priors are mentioned in undated grants, &c,
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
2 Ibid. fol. 8b, 36. s Ibid. fol. 39^ 48.
'Ibid. 29. Mbid. 30. 6Ibid. 60b.
7 Ibid. 62. e Ibid. fol. 30, 31, 61.
Mbid. fol. %b, 13, iob, 24, 52.
10 Ibid. fol. 2, 9, 2o£, 61.
" Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 40; Blyth. Chartul. fol. 13,
24, 30*, 31.
12 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 54.
"Ibid, v, 52 ; Blyth. Chartul. fol. 15^.
"Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 10. "Ibid, vi, 28.
16 Ibid, vi, 85. "Ibid, vi, 202.
18 Ibid, vi, 217 ; Blyth. Chartul. fol. 12,5.
19 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 37. 2" Ibid, ix, 27.
"Ibid. "Ibid, ix, 49. 23Ibid. xii, 99.
"Ibid. "Ibid, xii, 195. 26Ibid.
"Ibid, xiii, 70. ae Ibid, xiv, 170.
canons at Bricett, which was dedicated to the
honour of St. Leonard. The foundation charter
endowed the priory with the tithes of Bricett
andof'Losa' with its chapel, a moiety of the
church of ' Stepla,' and the church of Stangate,
Essex, in addition to various plots of land in the
vicinity. The founder also gave to the canons
a large garden on the south of the monastery
and a smaller one on the east, and he ordained
that whenever he was in Suffolk the canons were
to act as his chaplains and to receive a tithe of
his bread and beer.29
These gifts, with slight additions, were con-
firmed to the canons both by the son and
grandson of the founder and by Sir Almaric
Peche, who married the great granddaughter
and heiress. In 1250, Walter bishop of Nor-
wich, with the assent of the prior and convent,
licensed a chantry in the chapel of Sir Almaric
and his lady, within the court of their house, on
condition that the chantry chaplain, at his first
coming, should swear, in the presence of the
prior, to restore to the mother church of Bricett
every kind of offering made in the chapel,
without any deduction, on the day or the day
after the offering was made ; and also that no
parishioner should be admitted to the sacrament
of penance or any other sacrament by the chap-
lain, save in peril of death. It was also stipulated
that Almaric and his wife and household and
their heirs should attend the mother church at
Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption,
and St. Leonard's Day, and make the accustomed
offerings at high mass.30
Although the founder had enjoined that the
canons of this house were to be under the special
protection of the Bishop of Norwich, and that
the prior was to have the power of appointing
and removing canons, the priory of Bricett was
claimed, early in the thirteenth century, as
pertaining to the monastery of Nobiliac, in the
diocese of Limoges and the duchy of Berry.31
This claim was resisted, but in 1295 an agree-
ment was arrived at favourable to the foreign
house, whereby Bricett became an alien priory ;
this composition was renewed and confirmed by
the Bishop of Norwich in the chapter-house of
Bricett, on 16 July, 1310.32
The taxation roll of 1 291 gives the annual
value of the temporalities of Bricett priory in
various Suffolk parishes and in Pentlow, Essex,
as ^13 1 8s. o|d. Under spiritualities there was
the church of Wattisham with an income of
£5 6s. 8d. and portions from Castle Acre of
£1 1 3J. 4^., and from Wenham of 6s.33
" Foundation Charter among King's Coll. Camb.
muniments. Cited in Dugdale, Mon. vi, 174.
30 Ibid. 174-5.
31 Prynne, Pap. Usurp, iii, 682, 707.
32Bodl. Chart. Suff. 188.
33 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), ijb, 115, Wjb,
122, 124, 128, 128^,129^, 130^,131,131^, 132, 133.
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.' 1
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.2
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 £j.3 The fourth
part of the manor of Great Bricett of the annual
value of 361. Sd. 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.6
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
1452,8 and it was again renewed by Edward IV
in the first year of his reign, namely on 24 Feb-
ruary, 1462.9
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 lis. 8d.M
Priors of Bricett
William Randulf, appointed 131211
John de Essex, appointed 1337 13
Alan de Codenham, appointed 1372 '
Nicholas Barne, appointed 1399 w
' Pat. 24 Edw. I, m. 21.
'Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 37.
3 Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26.
' Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 4.
4 Close, 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23 a.
* Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 6 d.
"Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), v. 93.
8 Pat. 31 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 20.
9 Ibid. I Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 23.
10Dugdale, Mon. vi, 175.
" Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 46.
12 Ibid, iii, 5. "Ibid, vi,
11 Ibid, vi, 256.
18. THE PRIORY OF BUTLEY
This important priory of Austin canons was
founded in honour of our Lady, in the year
1 171, 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.15
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
4OJ.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 142517. In 1209 the two moieties
of the advowson of Gissing, Norfolk, were
granted to the priory, and the appropriation was
sanctioned in 1 27 1. 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
1217.18
The Norfolk parish of Dickleburgh possessed
four rectories ; sanction to appropriate one of
these portions was granted by the bishop in
1 180. 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 35. \d. to the priory 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 1 27 1 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,
Mon. vi, 380.
16 Biomefield, Hist. ofNorf. i, 125.
17 Ibid, i, 181.
18 Ibid, i, 543.
19 Ibid, i, 19 1-3.
20 The founder's property had been divided between
his three daughters and heiresses.
81 Add. MS. (Davy), 19 100, 19096.
95
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Peter to the monastery of Butley, which had
been appropriated to this house by William de
SufHeld, 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 1 29 1 shows that the priory
then held the appropriation of fifteen churches,
yielding a total income of £127 6s. Sd. ; the
most wealthy of these were Debenham, ^30 ;
Upton, £16 1 3*. \d. ; Ashfield-cum-Thorp,
^13 6s. Sd. ; and West Somerton, £ 12. The
temporalities in about sixty Suffolk parishes, and
in a few parishes of Norfolk and Lincoln pro-
duced j£68 gs. 8d., and give a total annual income
from all sources, at that date, of ^195 16s. ^.d.3
By far the largest holding of the priory, under
temporalities, was at West Somerton, Norfolk,
whence their income amounted to ^37 3*. \\d.
There were several minor bequests in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An important
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
but temporary addition was made to the priory's and a clerk, praying for the souls of Ralph and
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 1509.4
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 Is. ~j\d. Among the deductions was
the sum of £8 \6s. 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 £108 <)s. "id.,
leaving a total net income of ^318 ljs. o.\d.b
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, i
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. J Ibid. 191.
3 Pope Nkh. Tax (Rec. Com.), 19, 24^, 74, y$b,
79, 833, gyi, 104^, 105, 113, 1153, 117, 119, 123,
1 29^, 131^, 1 33^.
' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 38 1, where Henry VII's
charter of transfer is cited in full.
4 Valor. Ecd. (Rec. Com.), 418-22.
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 ;
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 j£6o
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. \d. of their
stipends to the prior for the needs of the house,
sought restitution ; that the prior punishes at his
6 Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. z-d.
7 Ibid. 28 Edw. I, m. 3.
f Ibid. 1 Hen. IV, pt. iii, m. 10.
9 Bodl. Tanner MSS. 108, 132, 210 (ed. Dr.
Jessopp for Camd. Soc. in 1884).
96
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
own pleasure, without the consent of the seniors
(against the custom of religion) ; that utensils
pertaining to the infirmary ought to be restored
to their proper use ; that the prior should assign
to each canon a certain chamber, but that he
takes them away for a light breach of discipline ;
that many gentlefolk, particularly relatives of the
prior, frequent the house to its great detriment ;
that there is no schoolmaster for the teaching
of grammar ; and that the prior does not exhibit
any statement of account, nor has he any
cellarer or other official who knows the state of
the house and could act in case of his sickness.
The bishop stated, before leaving, that he did not
find much worthy of reformation, and therefore
dissolved the visitation, promising to forward
certain injunctions.1
Bishop Nykke visited in July, 15 14. Prior
Augustine Rivers said that there was an old debt
of £jo, as well as one incurred by himself and
due to the bishop of £20. He said that all
things were laudable so far as the income of the
house permitted ; but that the buildings and
manor houses were out of repair. William
William Woodbridge, the sub-prior, said that
everything was well and industriously observed,
and one other canon was equally content. The
rest had various complaints, but of no very
serious character. Their nature can be gathered
from the subsequent injunctions, which ordered
that a suitable place should be at once provided
for the infirm ; that a sufficiency of food should
be daily provided in the refectory ; that the quire
books should be properly repaired before Christ-
mas ; that an inventory should be exhibited at
the next Michaelmas synod ; and that the bre-
thren should observe silence in the refectory,
dormitory, and cloister.3
At the visitation of 1526 the same prior and
sub-prior again gave good testimony and knew of
nothing worthy of reform. Five of the fourteen
other canons were equally satisfied. The only
complaint was that they had no scholar at the
university. John Debenham, who suffered
severely from gout [podagra cruciatus), sought to
be excused from matins during the winter.
Thomas Orford (vexatus morbo gallorum) exhibited
a dispensation to retire from the religious life
Woodbridge, the sub-prior, said that three masses granted him by the Lord Cardinal (Wolsey)
were said daily, and that both day and night
hours were duly observed ; also that the brethren
were obedient and continent, and that all other
things were well. John Thetford, having a
bachelor's degree, said that he knew but little of
the state of the house as he was absent at the
university, but he knew nothing but what was
creditable of his brethren. He considered that
Thomas Orford was a good grammarian and
given to letters, and his friends wished him to go
to the university at their expense. Richard
Wilton, cellarer, spoke warmly of the prior's
The sacrist stated that the main sewer could not
be flooded. The sub-sacrist complained that the
prior scolded the brethren before laymen, and
that the roof of the church admitted rain. The
third prior said that the seniors confessed to
whom they liked, that the quire books were
insufficient, that due food for the infirm was not
provided, that they had no porter, and that the
roof of the church was defective. These and
other minor irregularities were duly dealt with
in the injunctions.4
The last visitation of Butley priory before the
industry, both in the spiritual and temporal dissolution was held on 21 June, 1532, by Bishop
Nykke, and entered at great length in his visita-
tion register. The sub-prior gave a good report
and spoke of the wise administrative powers of
the prior ( politicm et circumspectus). The precentor
and sacrist said that the prior kept everything
pertaining to the different offices of the house in
his own hands, and a like complaint was made
by others. The third prior reported that neithe
interests of the house so far as income would
permit, but that he was overburdened with the
dilapidations of the buildings, granges, and manor
houses. Seven of the canons simply testified
omnia bene. John Norwich said that the ser-
vice books were sadly worn. James Hillington
considered that the sub-prior and some of the
older canons were negligent in attending divine
offices. Thomas Sudbury complained of the doctor nor surgeon were provided for the infirm;
that the quire books had not been repaired -r
that junior candidates seeking holy orders were
sent on foot, instead of on horseback ; that the
prior made no annual account in spite of the
bishop's injunctions ; that the presbytery of the
church and both the porches were out of repair ;
and that the food was too sparse, with a too'
great frequency of salt fish. The refectorian
complained that the refectory was too cold in the
winter, from which cause the brethren suffered
from the gout and severe colds (alias gelidas in-
firmitates) ; that there was not a sufficiency of
food ; that certain pewter cups for the use of the
infirm had been removed by the sub-prior ; and
language of Reginald Westerfield towards the
younger canons ; in this he was supported by
another canon who had heard Westerfield call
the juniors ' horesons.'
The bishop, in his consequent injunctions,
cautioned Westerfield against the use of oppro-
brious terms, and ordered the prior to permit both
Thetford and Orford to go to the university.2
The priory was visited in July, 15 20, by the
suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and three other
commissaries of the diocesan. Prior Rivers was
able to say that the debt was reduced to 4.0s.
1 Bodl. Tanner MSS. 53-5 (ed. Dr. Jessopp for
Camd. Soc. in 1884).
"Ibid. 1 3 1-3-
Ibid.
177-9.
Ibid.
97
16-20.
13
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
that no statement of accounts had been rendered
by the prior for thirty years. Among the com-
plaints of other canons (in all sixteen were
examined) were the badness of the food and the
dirty methods of serving it ; the faulty nature of
the prior's accounts ; the lack of due provisions
for the sick ; the poor quality of the beer ; and
the lack of necessary garments for the novices.
This visitation also brought to light a grave
case of fraudulent letters to obtain orders.
Thomas Woodbridge, one of the canons, pro-
ceeded to Norwich and received priest's orders
without the licence or knowledge of the prior,
presenting letters forged in the prior's name.
Thomas Ipswich confessed that he had written
these letters for Woodbridge last Whitsuntide.
The reformanda of the bishop, consequent on
this visitation, ordered that a master was to be
provided for instructing the novices and boys in
' priksong ' and grammar ; that one canon
should be sent to the university ; that an annual
statement of accounts was to be presented in the
chapter-house before three or four of the older
brethren ; that a proper place was to be assigned
for an infirmary, with a sufficiency of healthy
food and drink and of medical and surgical assist-
ance for the infirm ; that the prior was to pay
each novice 20*. for clothing according to old
custom ; that horses and a servant be provided
for canons when they seek orders ; that the
presbytery be at once repaired ; that one brother
be sacrist and another precentor ; that the same
drink be supplied to the brethren as to the prior ;
that warning be given to the servants as to being
insolent ; that the roof and walls of the chapter-
house be repaired ; and that the refectory be
supplied with footboards and backs to the benches
to lessen the cold in winter. The visitation was
adjourned until the ensuing feast of the Purifica-
tion to see if the various reformations were
carried out.1
John Thetford, prior of the Holy Sepulchre,
Thetford, was a benefactor to Butley priory
about 1534. He gave them two chalices, one
for the chapel of All Saints and another for the
chapel of St. Sigismond. He also gave them a
relic of special value, namely the comb of
St. Thomas of Canterbury and a silver box of
small relics.2
Thomas Manning alias Sudbury, who had
been elected prior in 1528, was appointed suffra-
gan Bishop of Ipswich in March 1536, having
been nominated along with George, abbot of
Leiston, by the Bishop of Norwich.3 In Decem-
ber 1536 the new suffragan bishop got into
trouble with Cromwell over some alleged com-
plicity in the escape of a canon of Butley
imprisoned on a charge of treason, whereupon
he dispatched his servant to the Lord Principal,
1 Jessopp, Visit. 285—9.
' Add. MS. 190^0, fol. 216.
' L. and P. Hen.' fill, x, 597 (2).
two days after Christmas, with two fat swans,
three pheasant cocks, three pheasant hens, and
one dozen partridges : — the weather had been so
open and rainy that he could get no wild fowl.
In his letter he told Cromwell that divers were
busy to get him to resign his house, but that with
the king's favour he would never surrender it.4
However, the prior-bishop found it impossible
to resist — all pensions would have been forfeited if
he had remained obstinate — and on I March,
1538, Manning and eight of the canons signed
the surrender.5 A list of the household drawn
up at the same time shows that there were then
twelve canons, two chaplains, an under-steward,
twelve men-servants, including a barber, a master
of the children, seven children kept of alms to
learning, three scullions, a slaughterman, two
sheep reeves, two horse-keepers, a church clerk,
a cooper, five wardens of the boats — ferry and
river — a smith, two warreners, three bakers and
brewers, two maltsters, a porter, a gardener, six
women in laundry and dairy, twelve husband-
men, five carters, three shepherds, two wood-
makers^ swineherd, two plough- and cart-wrights,
two for making candles and keeping the fish-
house, and two impotent beadsmen.6
This list shows that the canons retained up to
the end, in their own hands, the direct control of
the adjacent lands, treating them as a ' home
farm.' Moreover, it is quite clear that they not
only kept school for others besides their, own
novices, but that they had also a certain num-
ber of poor boarding scholars.
Prior Manning does not appear to have had
any direct pension granted him, but shortly after
the dissolution of his house he was appointed
warden of Mettingham College, and was also
granted for life (with reversion to the Duke of
Suffolk) considerable manors and lands that had
belonged to the monasteries of Monks Kirby,
Warwickshire, and Axholme, Lincolnshire.7
The site of the priory, with adjacent lands,
was granted to William Naunton, treasurer of
the Duke of Suffolk's household, in July 1538,
on a twenty-one years' lease.8
Priors of Butley
195 »
Gilbert, 1171 s
William, elected by priory
Robert, 121 3 u
Adam, 123412
Peter, 125 1 13
' Ibid, xi, 1337, 1357.
s Dep. Keepers Rep. viii, App. ii, 13.
6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, pt. i, 394.
7 Ibid, xiv (1), 651 ; xiv, pt. ii, 442.
8 Ibid, xiv (1), 603.
9 Appointed by the founder ; Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst.
iv, 406, 408.
10 Ibid. 412, taken from a chartulary in private
hands.
" Ibid. u Ibid. u Ibid.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Walter, 1263 l
Robert, 1268 2
Richard de Yaxley, 1303 3
Nicholas de Wittelsham, 1307 4
Richard de Hoxne, 1309 s
William de Geytone, 13H6
Alexander de Stratford, 1332 7
Matthew de Pakenham, 1334 8
Alexander de Drenkiston, 1353 9
John Baxter, resigned 1374 10
William de Haleworth, 1374 n
William Randeworth, 141012
William Poley, 1444 13
Thomas Frankingham, 1483 14
Robert Beeches, 1497 15
Edmund Lydefield (bishop of Chalcedon),
1504 16
Robert Brommer, 1508 17
William Woodbridge, 1509 ls
Augustine Rivers, 1509 19
Thomas Manning alias Sudbury, suffragan
bishop of Ipswich, 1528
The pointed oval fourteenth-century seal of
this house bears the Blessed Virgin seated be-
neath an elaborately carved niche with sceptre
in right hand, having birds billing in the foliage
at the top, and with the Holy Child on the left
knee. Outside the niche, on each side, is a palm
branch. Under an arch in the base is the kneel-
ing figure of a prior. Legend :
: s\ c'e. ecce. sc'. marie, de. buttele.20
19. THE PRIORY OF CHIPLEY
Neither the date of the foundation nor the
name of the founder of this small priory of
Austin canons, dedicated to the honour of the
Blessed Virgin, is known.
The earliest known records pertaining to it
are of the year 1235, relative to lands at Clopton
and Denardiston.21
The taxation roll of 1 29 1 gives diverse
entries of its small possessions, which then
1 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, iv, 412, taken from a char-
tularv in private hands.
2 Ibid.
3 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 1 2. This and the following
are dates of election.
4 Ibid. 25. 5 Ibid, i, 33. 6 Ibid, i, 46.
r Ibid, ii, 51. 8 Ibid, ii, 58. 9 Ibid, iv, 48.
" Ibid, vi, 36. "Ibid. " Ibid, vii, 27.
" Ibid, x, 55. " Ibid, xii, 99.
15 Add. MS. 19000, fol. 216.
16 Tanner, Norw. MSS.
17 L.and P. Hen. Fill, i, 233 ; Proc. Suff. Arch.
Inst, iv, 413. This prior committed suicide at
Ipswich.
18 L. and P. Hen. VIII, ii, 325, 746. Royal assent
in July, but cancelled by the bishop in December.
19 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiv, 90.
20 B.M. Cast, lxxi, 99.
" Feet of F. Suff. 19 Hen III, Nos. 83, 175
reached a total annual income of £4. 19;. 4,/. ;
including 20;. of spiritualities out of Posling-
ford church, £3 45. of lands, meadows, and
pasture at Stoke, and 15*. 4^. of smaller tempor-
alities at Stansfield, Poslingford, and Gelham
Parva (Essex).22
Licence was granted in 1343 to Roger Nor-
maund to alienate to this priory the manor of
Chipley, knights' fees and the advowson of the
church excepted, to find two canons to celebrate
daily in the priory church for the souls of Roger
and Joan his wife, when they shall depart this
life, and for his ancestors and heirs.23 Roger
Normaund or Norman died seised of the advow-
son or patronage of this priory in 1363.24 From
this it seems probable that an ancestor of
Norman was the founder.
The buildings being in a ruinous condition,
and the income not exceeding ^10, the Bishop
of Norwich consented in 1455 to the annexing
of this little priory to the collegiate church of
Stoke-next-Clare, who had become its patrons.25
When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up the
college of Stoke held temporalities in Chipley to
the annual value of £14 135. 4^. ; and there was
also a small pension accruing from the church
of Poslingford and the chapel of Chipley.26
Priors of Chipley
John de Cavendish, died 1333 s7
Richard de Norwich, elected 1333 2<
David de Thornham, elected 134923
Reginald de Rushworth, elected 135030
Thomas de Hippesworth, resigned 1370 31
Richard Man, elected 1370 32
Thomas Hepe worth, elected 1395 33
The pointed oval thirteenth-century seal of
this priory bears the Blessed Virgin, half length,
with the Holy Child on the left arm ; in base,
under a trefoiled arch is the kneeling prior.
Legend :
s' : prioris : de : chippeleia34
20. THE PRIORY OF DODNASH
Information respecting the small Austin priory
of the Blessed Virgin at Dodnash is somewhat
scanty. Neither the time of the foundation nor
the name of the founder is known, but it was
22 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 17, 121, 12 \b, 132.
23 Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 15.
" Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, No. 7.
25 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 36.
26 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 469-70.
27 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 62.
25 Ibid. 29 Ibid, iv, 120 30 Ibid, iv, 129.
31 Ibid, vi, 3. 32 Ibid. * Ibid, vi, 210.
31 B.M. Cast, lxxi, 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 £$.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 18s. 8^d., when it was suppressed by Car-
dinal Wolsey, in 1525, among the group of
smaller houses whose endowments were intended
to be used in the founding of his colleges of
Ipswich and Oxford. The priory of St. Mary
Dodnash was surrendered by Prior Thomas on
1 February 1524-5, in the presence of Thomas
Cromwell and other members of Wolsey's com-
mission.8
On the downfall of Wolsey the priory site
and lands were assigned, on I April 1 53 1, to
Lionel Tolemache, his heirs and assigns.9
Priors of Dodnash
John de Goddesford, resigned 1346 10
Adam Newman, elected 1346 n
Thomas de Thornham, resigned 1383 12
John Capel, elected 1406 13
Robert Newbone, resigned 1438 H
Michel de Colchester, elected 1438 16
Richard Whytyng, elected 1444"
Thomas, resigned 1525 17
1 Feet of F. Suff. 19 Hen. Ill, No. 77.
* Eund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 177, 190.
3 Feet of F. Suff. 1 5 Edw. I, No. 99.
4 Chart. R. 1 Edw. Ill, No. 11.
6 Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 10.
6 Ibid. S Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 18.
7 Esch. Enr. Accts. Suff. 3 Ric. Ill, No. 156.
8 L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, pt. i, 1 1 37, 1832
:. ii, 3538.
9 Pat. 22 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 17.
'" Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, 54.
" Ibid. I2 Ibid, vi, 90.
13 Ibid, iv, 332. " Ibid, x, 19.
15 Ibid. 16 Ibid, x, 55.
17 L. and. P. Hen. VIII, iv, pt. i, 1137.
21. THE PRIORY OF HERRINGFLEET
The priory of St. Olave, Herringfleet, was
founded for Austin canons by Roger FitzOsbert,
near the ancient ferry across the River Waveney
about the beginning of the reign of Henry III.
The founder assigned to the monastery 40 acres
of land in Tibenham ; he did not die until 1239,
and willed that his body should be buried in the
priory church. Peter, the founder's son, gave to
the canons the advowson of Witlingham. Both
Peter and his wife Beatrice, who died re-
spectively in 1275 and 1278, were also buried in
the canons' church.18
In 1 3 14 John son of Sir Ralph Nunoion, knt.,
granted the patronage of the priory of St. Olave
to Peter Gernegan,19 and in 1 410 the advowson
was granted to Margaret, wife of John Ger-
negan.20 There are various other grants relative
to the transference of this priory patronage
to Sir John Hevyngham, knt., in the reign
of Henry VI,21 but in 1491 the patronage
was restored to the family of Gernegan by Sir
John Hevyngham, Sir Henry Bryan, and
others.22
The churches of Herringfleet and Hales, Nor-
folk, were appropriated to St. Olave's at an early
date. St. Peter's, Burgh, was appropriated by
leave of the bishop about 1390, but in 1403 the
appropriation was resigned, a small pension being
reserved to the priory.23
The taxation of 1291 shows that the priory
then held the rectories of Herringfleet and Hales,
and a pension from the church of Bonewell,
yielding a total in spiritualities of £14 131.4^.
The temporalities in Suffolk and Norfolk at the
same time brought in £12 14s. o^., giving a
total income of £26 ijs. 4j^.24
According to the Valor of 1535 the gross
receipts from the temporalities were £151 3*. 8|i.
but the clear value was only £13 3*. I id. The
spiritualities included the rectories of Her-
ringfleet and Hales, together with a pension
from the church of Burgh, yielding a clear an-
nual value of £$ 2s. *j\d. There are evidently
some omissions from the details of this return, as
the net income is returned at £49 115. jd.ai
Licence was granted in 1 37 7 by the crown,
on payment of ten marks, to Edmund de Carl-
ton, chaplain, and four others, to alienate to the
priory of St. Olave property in Ashby and
Herringfleet, for finding a lamp to be kept
18 Suckling, Hist. orSuff. i, 15 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi,
660.
19 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 1036.
20 Ibid. 1079.
21 Ibid. 1086, 1102, 1105, 1106, 1113.
22 Ibid. 1 1 34.
23 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 340.
84 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 83^, 84, 93, 97^
103, 103^, 104, 104^, 1073, 113, 1166, 124, 126,
126^, 127.
" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 412.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
burning before the high altar in the priory
church, and for performing the offices of the
dead at the anniversaries of the five donors.1
The priory of St. Olave was visited by Arch-
deacon Goldwell on 30 January 1493, as com-
missary for his brother the bishop. Thomas
Bagot the prior and five canons were severally
examined, with the result that William Cokke
was pronounced to be quarrelsome, and the
prior reported for not showing the accounts of
the house to the canons. The canons com-
plained that they were scarcely able to live.2
The next recorded visitation was held in
July, 15 14, by Bishop Nykke. Prior William
Dale stated that he rendered an account yearly
to the senior canons ; that the canons were
obedient ; and that he had recently purchased
certain lands of the annual value of ^10 145. 10^.,
and paid for them. Robert Starys, the sub-prior,
said that they did not rise for mattins at mid-
night, but at 5 o'clock ; that they did not sing
the offices save on festivals and Sundays ; and
that their number was incomplete because of the
insufficiency of income. The six other canons
gave unqualified praise to the condition of the
house. The bishop enjoined on the prior and
canons that they were to furnish him with a
sufficient dispensation from the apostolic see for
not observing the rule of rising at midnight for
mattins, and ordered the canons to observe
(entire) silence in cloister and quire on all
Fridays.3
The next recorded visitation was held by the
suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon in July, 1520. It
was attended by Prior Dale and five canons.
The prior was ordered to produce a statement of
accounts and an inventory at the Michaelmas
synod. The testimony of the canons was unani-
mous as to the good religious conditions of the
house.4
The visitation of June, 1526, attended by the
same prior and five canons, was entirely satis-
factory.5 Prior Dale and the like number of
canons appeared at the last visitation of Bishop
Nykke, in June, 1532, when the statements were
unanimously good, and the visitor reported that
there was nothing to amend.6
The Suffolk commissioners appointed to take
the inventories of the smaller monasteries visited
St. Olave's on 26 August, 1536. In the quire of
the church they found a silver pyx, two silver
chalices, a copper cross, two candlesticks of latten
on the high altar, an alabaster ' table,' and a
linen altar-cloth worth £4. 2s. lod. Other
plate included a pair of censers with a ship of
silver. There were but few vestments. The
furniture of the various chambers, the hall, the
parlour, pantry and kitchen was but ordinary.
The cattle and implements of husbandry were
valued at £12 is., and the corn at £11 135. \d.
The total of the inventory only amounted to
£27 OS. 9dJ
This house was suppressed among the smaller
monasteries on 3 February, 1536-7.8 On the
8th of the ensuing March a pension of ten marks
was granted to William Dale, the last prior ; 9
evidently no credence was given to the coarse
report made against him by Legh and Leyton in
their notorious comperta of a few months' earlier
date.10
The site of the priory and its possessions were
assigned to Henry Jernyngham on I March,
I537-8-11
Priors of Herringfleet
William,12 occurs 1273
Benedict,13 occurs 1 30 1
Thomas de Norwich,14 elected 1308
William Dale,15 occurs 1309
John de Norwich alias Tybenham,16 elected
1329
Philip de Porynglond,17 elected 134 1
John de Porynglond,18 died 1354
John de Surlyngham,19 elected 1354
Roger de Haddiscoe,20 occurs 1370
William de Holton,21 resigned 137 1
Henry de Brom,22 elected 137 1
John de Hanewell,23 elected 1391
John Wyloughby,24 elected 1402
William Dald,25 occurs 1403
John Welles,26 elected 1430
Thomas Bagot,27 elected 1480
William Dale,28 occurs 15 14, last prior
The thirteenth-century seal of this house
represents St. Olave, king and martyr, crowned
and seated on a throne, with an axe in the right
hand and an orbs mundl in the left. Legend —
mune . EC
LINGEFLE
. AVI
. RI .
3-
1 Pat. 1 Ric. II, pt. i,
* Jessopp, Visit. 38-9.
3 Ibid. 129-31. 4 Ibid. 1 77.
'Ibid. 216. 6 Ibid. 284.
Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, viii, 85-7.
L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii, pt. i, 510.
Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 49^.
L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 364.
Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccx, fol. 23^.
Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, i, 15.
Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. ix, 417.
Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 31.
Add. MS. 19098, fol. 158.
Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 29.
Ibid, iii, 45. ls Ibid, iv, 155.
Ibid. !° Add. MS. 19098, fol. 158.
Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 9. 2J Ibid.
Ibid, vi, 164. 24 Ibid, vi, 288.
Bodl. Chart. Suff. 203.
Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 40. " Ibid, xii, 78.
Jessopp, Visit. 130.
B. M. Cast, lxxi, 1 14.
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 conge d'elire 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 priorv.
From the taxation roll of 129 1 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 lew.
The temporalities in lands and rents, chiefly
in Ipswich and the suburbs, amounted to
^45 17*. $d. a year, giving a total income of
£82 7s. 5d>
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 £10, 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 as°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 ;£io; in the same year they had bene-
factions to the annual value of 4U. \d. a year.5
In 1329 the priory obtained further grants,
under this licence, of the annual value of 55J.8
Robert Bishop, at the request of Edward I, had
obtained sustenance for life at this priory ; and
1 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 752 ; Tanner,
Nstitia, Suff. xxviii, 2.
2 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 115^, 117, 119^,
124, 129/J, 133.
3 Pat. 17 Edw. I, m. 21, 20, 18.
4 Ibid. 31 Edw. I, m. 20.
s Ibid. 13 Edw. II, m. 14; 14 Edw. II, pt. i,
m. 4.
6 Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 14.
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, 1 5 14. 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 (jentacu/a) 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,
; Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 30.
6 Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9.
9 Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 32.
lu Jessopp, Visit. 35.
11 Ibid. 137-8. u Ibid. 181.
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 monaster)' 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 Kurseva,9 elected 131 1
Clement de Ipswich,10 elected 1343
William de Ipswich,11 died 1 38 1
John de Monewedon,11 138 1
John de Ipswich,12 elected 141 9
Geoffrey Stoke,13 elected 1444
Geoffrey Grene,14 died 1476
John York,15 electel 1476-96
Thomas Godewyn,lb occurs 15 14
William Brown,1' 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,
Jessopp, Visit
. 221.
Rvm:
:r, Foedera, xiv,
24
1-2 ;
L.
and
r. VIII, \v, 4;
129, 4259
«■
L. and P. Hen. Fill, v,
39:
« (9)-
Pat. 1
? Hen.
III, m. 5.
Ibid.
36 Her
1. Ill, m. 1
ii.
Ibid.
17 Edv
r. I, m. 21
Ibid.
m. 20,
10.
Ibid.
32 Edv
1-. I,m. .5
» 9>
5"
Norn
-. Epis.
Reg- i, \
-3 >
Pat. 5
Edw.
II, pt
13, 11, 1
Pat.
17 Edw
. Ill, pt. ii
, m.
26.
No™
r. Epis.
Reg. vi, 7
S ;
Pat. 5
Ric.
II, pt
25. 3
[.
Norvv. Epis.
Reg. viii, .
;i.
Ibid.
x, 54.
Pat.
16 Edw,
. IV, pt. ii
, m.
19.
Ibid.
m. 15.
16
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 PALL' DE
GIPESWIC.18
A small oval counterseal, probablv 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 ; ^ 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, &TC.
At an early date this monastery is said to have
suffered from fire; it was rebuilt in 1 194 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 ^47 145. gd. The spiritualities
reached the much larger annual value of
j£88 1 4*. 4a. 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
Is Engraved in Wodderspoon's Ipswich, App. 303 ;
and in Brit. Arcb. Assoc. Journ. ii, 268. B.M. Cast,
D.C., C. 6.
19 Attached to a charter of 1282, B.M. Cat. of Seals,
59+-
-' Leland, Coll. i, 62.
21 Chart. R. 5 John, m. 16, 125.
ss Angl. Sacr. i, 409 ; Dugdale, Mm. vi, 447 ;
Wodderspoon, Ipswich, 200-2.
[03
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
and John Shribbs complained that daily chapters
were not held, and there was no correction of
excess in the chapter. The latter also stated
that the canons confessed to whom they liked,
and that they went out of the priory precincts
without asking leave of the prior. The bishop';
between this date and the time of Henry VIII, injunction ordered Carver to be obedient to th«
when the Valor of 1535 gave the clear value of
the temporalities of the house as £69 14;. Sd.,
but showed the spiritualities reduced to the
rectories of Mendham, Rushmere, St. Laurence's
Norwich, and Tuddenham, with a portion in
Morning Thorpe, of the clear value of
j£i8 12s. id. Thus the total net income was
assessed at £82 6s. gd."
The prior and convent of the Holy Trinity
obtained licence, in 1327, to acquire in mort-
main lands or rents to the yearly value of j£io.
In 1335 a variety of small plots of land and rents
were alienated to the canons at Preston, Rush-
mere, Bentley, and in Ipswich and the suburbs,
prior under pain of imprisonment, the holding
of a chapter according to rule, the making of an
annual account before two of the canons, the
appointment of a confessor, the better observance
of silence, and the non-departure of the brothers
from the precincts save by leave of the superior.8
The last visitation was in June 1532, when five
canons were examined besides Prior Whighte. It
was complained that the food and cooking were
bad, the cook dirty, and no annual account
rendered. The bishop issued injunctions as to
each of these defects.9
The priory fell with the lesser monasteries
which were condemned in 1536. On 24 August
to the annual value of 16s. 2d. under cover of of that year the commissioners drew up an in-
the 1327 licence.3 On payment of £20 the
priory obtained leave in 1392 to accept the
alienation to them, by Roger de Wolferston and
others, of land and meadow in Ipswich and
Rushmere ; to find five tapers to burn daily at
the Lady mass in the conventual church, and one
lamp to burn continually day and night in the
Lady chapel.4
In 1393 the royal pardon was granted to John
Bendel, a canon of this house, for causing the
death of Godfrey Neketon, cook.5
Trinity priory was visited by Archdeacon
Goldwell, as commissary of his brother the bishop,
ventory of its goods and chattels. The con-
ventual church, which was popular with the
townsfolk of Ipswich, was well furnished. The
plate included two cruets, a censer with ship,
three chalices, and a cross, all of silver-gilt or
parcel-gilt ; the cross was valued at £5. In the
quire were a great and a lesser pair of standards of
latten, ' a deske of latten to rede the Gospell at,'
and a pair of organs. There were another pair of
organs and a small pair of latten standards in the
Lady chapel. The supply of vestments in the
vestry was ample. In the pantry there was a
salt, two standing cups, ' a lytell cruse,' and six
on 22 January, 1493, when Prior Richard and spoons all of silver. The furniture of the hall,
six canons were present. Nothing was found parlour, and chambers was simple and of little
worthy of reformation.6 The next recorded value. The cattle and corn, which were jointly
visitation was held by Bishop Nykke in August, valued at £42 8;. Sd., declared at £86 5;.10
1 5 14, when eight canons were examined. The actual suppression of the house took place
Almost the only complaint, against which the on 9 February, 1 536-7. u On 20 February
bishop directed an injunction, was the insolence
of some of the servants. The words that two
of the servants addressed to certain of the canons
are set forth in English : ' Yf soo be that ye
medyll with me I shall gyff the such a strippe
that thou shallt not recover yt a twelvemonyth
after.' 7
At the visitation held by Bishop Nykke in
June, 1526, Prior Thomas Whighte complained
of the disobedience of John Carver, but other-
wise all was good. Of the four canons examined,
two testified omnia bene ; but Thomas Edgore
said that the prior did not render annual accounts,
1 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 84, 114^, 115,
wjb, 1 193, 122, 124, 1293, 133.
' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 423.
3 Pat. I Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 23 ; 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i.
John Thetford (alias Colyn), the last prior, was
assigned a pension of £15. 12 The site and lands
were shortly afterwards granted to Sir Humphrey
Wingfield and Sir Thomas Rushe.13
Priors 14 of Holy Trinity, Ipswich
Alan,15 occurs 1 1 80
William,16 occurs 1239
William de Colneys,17 occurs 1248
Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. i,
Ibid. pt. iii, m. 11.
Jessopp, Visit. 34.
Ibid. 135-6.
8 Ibid. 220-1. 9 Ibid. 293-4.
10 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 91-4.
" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii, pt. i, 510.
12 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 48.
13 Ibid, ccix, fol. 40^.
14 Several of the names of priors assigned to Holy
Trinity priory in the lists of Dugdale and Wodder-
spoon are really priors of St. Peter's, Ipswich ; but
one or two canons seem to have held in turn the office
of superior at each priory.
15 Wodderspoon, Ipstvich, 302. ls Ibid.
" Harl. MS. 6957, fol. 98.
104
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Nicholas de Ipswich 1
William de Secheford2
John de St. Nicholas3
John de Kentford,4 1324
Thomas de Thornham,6 1383
John Fyke," 1390
John Gylmyn,7 141 1
John Mauncer,8 1 41 7
John Pyke,9 1424
Thomas Hadley,10 died 1437
John Bestman,11 1437
Thomas Gundolf,12 1470
Richard Forth,13 1479
Robert,14 occurs 15 13
Thomas Whighte,15 occurs 1526
John Thetford16 {alias Colyn), occurs 1535
The priory of Holy Trinity was sometimes
known as Christ Church ; it bore this name as
early as the days of Richard II.17 A circular seal
of this house shows Our Lord seated, with
crucifix nimbus, right hand raised in blessing,
left hand resting on a book. The seven candle-
sticks are shown, four on one side and three on
the other. The whole is enclosed in a quatre-
foil, outside which are the Evangelistic symbols.
Legend : —
sigill : cummune : sca : XPI
GIPEWICENSIS 18
24. THE PRIORY OF LXWORTH
The priory of St. Mary, Ixworth, was first
founded for Austin canons about the year 1100,
by Gilbert Blundus or Blunt. The buildings
and chapel, which were erected near the parish
church, were ere long destroyed during an out-
burst of civil war ; whereupon William, the son of
the founder, rebuilt the priory on a different site.19
The exact endowment bestowed on the priory
by the founder is not known. In 1228 Ralph
de Montchesny gave the advowson of the Norfolk
church of Melton Parva to this priory;20 the
advowson of Hunston was given in 1235,21 and
that of Sapiston in 1272.22
1 Harl. MS. 6957, fol. 107.
2 Ibid. 6958, fol. 88. 3 Ibid.
4 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 105-6. These are dates of
election.
6 Ibid, vi, 90. 6 Ibid, vi, 149.
7 Ibid, vii, 46. 8 Ibid, viii, 25.
9 Ibid, viii, 80. 10 Ibid, x, 12.
11 Ibid. 12 Ibid, xi, 174.
13 Ibid, xii, 71. " Wodderspoon, Ipswich, 302.
16 Jessopp, Visit. 220. 16 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.).
17 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 245-7.
18 Engraved for Wodderspoon's Ipswich, opp. p. 300.
In the B. M. Catalogue of Seals this seal is termed the
second seal of St. Peter's priory.
18 De Fundatione et progenie fundatoris. Kniveton
MSS. cited in Dugdale, Mon. vi, 311.
20 Feet of F. Norf. 12 Hen. Ill, 56.
21 Ibid. SufF. 19 Hen. Ill, 56.
22 Ibid. 1 Edw. I, 39.
The taxation roll of 129 1 shows that the
priory was by that date well supplied with appro-
priated churches. The rectories of Ixworth,
Thorp, Walsham, 'Lynterton,' Badwell, 'Bykyn-
hall,' and ' Aysforth ' belonged to the priory,
and they also held portions of two other churches ;
the total income from spiritualities was £70 i6x.
The temporalities in twelve different parishes
brought in ^n is. n^d.,23 so that the total
annual income was £Si ljs. li^d.
There was a further accession of endowment
in 1362, when half the manor of Ixworth was
bestowed on the canons, as well as three messuages
and 360 acres in Hunston, Langham, &c.24 In
1377 the convent obtained the alienation to them,
by Richard de Pakenham and others, of a moiety
of the manor of Ixworth, for finding two canons,
in addition to the established number, to perform
divine service in the priory church for the good
estate of the king and of his soul after death,
and for the soul of the late king, of William
Crikecot, and of others.25 Richard II, in 1384,
granted the priory a market and two fairs at
Ixworth.26
The Valor of 1535 shows that the gross
income was £204 9*. 5%d. ; but there were large
deductions, including £20 I $s. definitely assigned
to the poor, so that the net value was brought
down to £168 19s. *j\d. The temporalities
produced ^152 Js. i>%d. a year. The spiritu-
alities at that time consisted of the rectories of
Ixworth, Badwell with Ashfield, Sapiston, Den-
ham, and Melton Parva, with the altarage of Wal-
sham (£6 8s. $d.) and portions from three other
churches; the total amounted to ^52 2s. i^d.27
A commission was issued in October, 1283,
to two justices to inquire into the charge pre-
ferred against William, prior of Ixworth, John,
the cellarer of Ixworth, and a large number of
persons of Ipswich and the district, of assaulting
Ralph de Bonevill, the Serjeant of Otto de
Grandison and Peter de Chaumpvent at Ixworth,
and committing depredations on their goods
whilst Otto and Peter were with the king in
Wales.28
Nicholas Goldwell, as commissary for his
brother the bishop, visited Ixworth in February,
1492—3, when Prior Godwin Bury and fourteen
canons (of whom four were not yet professed)
were privately and separately examined, with the
result that no reform was needed.29
Bishop Nykke visited in June, 15 14, when
John Gerves, the prior, stated that all the brethren
83 Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 96, 97, 101, \oU,
nob, 121, 127, 127^, 130, 131, 132, 132^, 133.
24 Pat. 25 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 18; Inq. p.m.
25 Edw. III.
25 Pat. 1 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 5.
26 Chart. R. 7 and 8 Ric. II, No. 14.
27 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 482-3.
23 Pat. 2 Edw. I, m. 2.
29 Jessopp. Visit. 44-5.
05 14
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
were obedient and maintained a religious life ;
that divine worship and the essentials of religion
were laudably observed ; that there was no debt
on the house ; that the various manorial buildings
were in good repair, save those of Saxton, which
had been entirely destroyed by fire in 1510.
He also stated that many buildings within the
priory were in ruinous condition, through the
fault of his predecessors, being prostrate at the
time of his institution. The only complaints of
Nicholas Wallington, the sub-prior, were a de-
ficiency in lights and lamps in the church through
the fault of the sacrist, and that the clock neither
went nor struck. Simon Hirt said that the office
of chamberlain was filled by John Bache, a lay-
man, contrary to religion, and that the brethren
had no common tailor to make their garments.
Adam Ponde also objected to a lay chamberlain,
and that the door of the buttery was so placed
that the brethren had to stand in the rain when
they wished to drink. William Reynberd said
that four lights which ought to burn before
the image of the Blessed Virgin and four
other lights before the image of St. John
Baptist were not found. In all twelve canons
were examined in addition to the prior, five
of whom testified omnia bene. The bishop
ordered the prior to find the accustomed lights at
the proper season, so soon as the repairs of the
church and the glazing of the windows were
finished ; to have the clock repaired ; and to
supply a tailor as in times past.1
Ixworth priory was visited by the suffragan
Bishop of Chalcedon and Robert Dikar, as com-
missaries of the diocesan, in June, 1520. Prior
John Gerves and fourteen canons unanimously
reported omnia bene, and the bishop could find
nothing worthy of reformation.2 The next
recorded visitation was held in July, 1526, when
sixteen canons were examined, in addition to
Prior Gerves. Six said omnia bene and the rest
had comparatively small complaints to make,
such as the absence of a convent tailor, the
insolence of the butler, and the letting of farms
without the consent of the chapter. The in-
junctions consequent on this visitation ordered
that particular inventories of the goods belonging
to each office should be prepared ; that no letting
of farms or manors should be undertaken without
the consent of the majority of the chapter ; and
that a suitable infirmary should be speedily
provided.3
At the last visitation, in July, 1532, Prior
Gerves and fifteen canons were unanimous in
replying omnia bene, save that Simon Fisher,
master of the novices, said that no convent tailor
was provided as was customary. The bishop
could find nothing worthy of reformation.4
On 22 October, 1534, Prior John Gerves,
Sub-prior William Reynberd, and fifteen other
1 Jessopp, Visit. 83-5.
3 Ibid. 240-1.
Ibid. 149-50.
Ibid. 302.
canons, signed their acknowledgement of the
royal supremacy.5
Prior Gerves died a few months before the
overthrow of the house. Sir Edward Chamber-
lain, writing to Cromwell on 13 January, 1535-6,
told him of the death, adding that he was
founder (i.e. patron) of the priory, and that it
appeared from his ancestor's grants that the con-
vent ought to proceed to an election immediately
with his consent. He begged Cromwell, as
visitor-general of monasteries, to sanction this
precedure.6 The result was the election of
William Blome.
The notorious comperta of Leyton and Legh,
drawn up in this year, state that one of the
Ixworth canons acknowledged to a form of
incontinence. But the commissioners could
wring out very little from these canons, and
coolly add: 'there is also suspicion of confedera-
tion, for though eighteen in number, they have
confessed nothing.'7
The net income of this house being under
^200 it came within the meshes of the first
Suppression Act. On 28 August, 1536, the
Suffolk commissioners visited the priory for the
purpose of drawing up an inventory. The
church and vestry were well furnished with
ornaments, plate, and vestments. The most
valuable item at the high altar was 'a lectern of
latten praysed at xs.' There were tables of
alabaster at the various altars, and two pairs of
organs, one little and the other great. The
plate in the vestry, including three pairs of
chalices, a cross, and two cruets, all of silver,
was valued at ^27 19*. lod. The furniture
of the conventual buildings was simple and
of little worth. The cattle were valued at
^33 16s. 8d., and the corn growing on the
demesnes at £44 5*. The hay was another
important item, so that the total came to
£117 9*. 8d. The inventory is signed by
William Blome, the new prior.8
The actual suppression did not take place
until February, 1 536-7,' when Prior Blome
obtained a pension of ^20 a year,10 but the rest
of the canons had to betake themselves to the
larger houses of the order or to go out penniless.
The site of the priory and most of its
possessions were granted on 20 July, 1538, to
Richard Codington and Elizabeth his wife.11
Priors of Ixworth
William de Ixworth,12 died 1338
Roger de Kyrkested,13 1338
i Dej>. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 289.
6 L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 89. 7 Ibid. 364.
6 Proc. Stiff. Arcb. Inst, viii, 109-12.
9 L. and P. Hen. VIII. xiii, pt. i, 510.
10 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 31.
11 Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 21.
'- Norw. Epis. Reg. iii, p. 2. '3 Ibid.
106
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Nicholas de Monesle,1 1362
John de Hereford,2 1389
John de Welles,3 1395
Thomas Lakynghithe,4 1430
Reginald Tylney,6 1439
William Dense,* 1467
John Ive,7 1484
Godwin Bury,8 occurs 1493
Richard Gotts,9 1504
John Gerves,10 occurs 1514, died 153611
William Blome,12 elected 1536, surrendered
same year
The first seal of this priory is a small pointed
oval bearing the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne
with the Holy Child on the left knee and a
sceptre in the right hand. There is hardly any
of the lettering remaining in either of the two
impressions at the British Museum.13
The second (fifteenth-century seal) is very
elaborate. It bears the Assumption of the
Virgin in a vesica of clouds uplifted by four
angels. Above is the Trinity (three half-
length crowned persons side by side) in the
clouds. On the left of the Virgin is a bishop
with mitre and staff, and on the right a saint with
nimbus and a long cross. Below are the arms
of Montchesny, benefactor, and of Blount,
founder. Legend : —
sigillu : commune : cove' : bt! : marie :
de : ixworthe 14
25. THE PRIORY OF KERSEY
Neither the date of the foundation nor the
name of the founder of this small priory of
Austin canons, dedicated to the honour of the
Blessed Virgin and St. Anthony, is known.
The earliest record of it occurs in 1 219 in con-
nexion with lands in Semer.15
Among the muniments of King's College,
Cambridge, are several charters showing that
Thomas de Burgh and his wife Nesta were the
chief early benefactors of this house. Thomas
de Burgh granted them all his patrimony in the
town of Lindsey. By another charter, Thomas
and Nesta his wife granted three acres of arable
land in Groton. His widow Nesta de Cockfield
made several considerable grants to the canons
1 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 86.
2 Ibid. 40. 3 Ibid. 198.
' Ibid, ix, 43. s Ibid, x, 23.
6 Ibid, xi, 166. 7 Ibid, xii, 1 09.
8 jessopp, Visit. 44. 9 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 33.
10 Jessopp, Visit. 84.
11 L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 89.
12 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 31.
" Harl. Chart. 44 E. 50 and 51.
" Engraved, Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, i, p. 86 ; B. Mus.
Cast, lxxii, 3.
15 Feet of F. Suff. 3 Hen. Ill, No. 29.
of Kersey. By the first she granted them the
mother church of Kersey, with all its appurte-
nances, eight acres adjoining the cemetery on the
south, the two and a half acres on which the
house was founded, a messuage where the hospital
(domus hospitalis) stood, &c. By the same charter
she granted the tithes of her mills at Cockfield,
Lindsey, and Kersey, to sustain the light of this
chapel. Nesta took for her second husband John
de Beauchamp; they jointly, in 1240, confirmed
and increased the grants to the priory of lands
and pasture in Lindsey and Kersey, and con-
firmed to them the church of Kersey. After
Nesta was widowed for the second time she
gave the canons the church of Lindsey in order
that they might better relieve the poor who
flocked there once every week. In her last charter
she desired that her body might be buried in the
conventual church, and gave the canons further
lands, with customary service, in Lindsey and
Kersey.16
The taxation roll of 1 29 1 gives the annual
value of the priory as ^33 6s. jd. ; the spiritu-
alities were the rectory of Lindsey £6 135. 3c/.,
and a portion of is. from Pentlow church,
Essex ; the remainder was in lands and rents,
chiefly at Kersey and Lindsey, and at Benfleet,
Essex, with a mill and fisheries at Boxford.
The priory only held the advowson of the church
of Kersey.17
John del Brok obtained licence, under fine of
five marks, to alienate in 1338 to the prior and
convent property in Kersey and adjoining
parishes to find a chaplain to celebrate daily for
the souls of his ancestors.18
In 1347 the prior of Kersey, out of com-
passion for the leanness of the priory, whose
possessions did not suffice for the support of the
prior and canons, was excused his portion of the
tenths granted the king by the province of Can-
terbury for the four terms that had passed and
for the coming year.19
The advowson or patronage of the priory went
with the manor of Kersey, and was granted, in
1 33 1, by the trustees of Edmund, late earl of
Kent, to Thomas de Weston to hold for life,
being subsequently held, in the same reign, by
Thomas de Holand and Joan his wife ; in the
time of Richard II by Thomas de Holand and
Alice his wife ; and in the time of Henry IV by
Elizabeth, wife of John, late earl of Kent.
The next patron was Sir Henry de Grey, Lord
Powys, and in 1444 he obtained permission to
grant it to the college of St. Mary and St.
Nicholas (afterwards King's), Cambridge.20
16 These six charters, from King's Coll. Camb., are
cited in Dugdale, Mon. vi, pp. 592—3.
17 PopeNich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 16b, lU, z\b, \o\b,
loyb, 122, 125, 128^, 129^, 132^, 133.
18 Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37.
19 Ibid. pt. ii, m. 2.
20 Copinger, Hist, of Suff. iii, 395-7.
[07
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Priors of Kersey
Richard Waleys, died 1 331 l
Robert de Akenham, elected 13312
John Calle, resigned 1387 3
John de Polstede, elected 1 387 4
John Buche, elected 13945
John Dewche, elected 141 1 6
Nicholas Bungaye, resigned 1422 7
Richard Fyn, elected 1422 8
John Duch, elected 1 43 1 9
William Woodbridge, elected 143210
The twelfth-century seal is a pointed oval,
bearing a bust of the Blessed Virgin, crowned,
in clouds ; below is the head of St. Anthony ;
between them is a sun and crescent moon.
Legend : —
sigill' sce marie et sci antonii de kerseia
26. THE PRIORY OF LETHER-
INGHAM
There is not much to be learnt about the
small priory of Austin canons at Letheringham,
dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin.
It was a cell of the priory of St. Peter's, Ipswich,
served by three or four canons, over whom was a
prior who was appointed from time to time by the
mother house ; but the prior held the office for life,
the appointment being confirmed by the bishop.
William de Bovile, apparently towards the
close of the twelfth century, gave his tithes at
Letheringham to the monastery of St. Peter's,
Ipswich, whereupon they established here a
priory. The Boviles held the manor of Lether-
ingham with the advowson of the priory for
many generations until 1348, when the lordship
and advowson passed to Sir John de Ufford, in
trust, for the use of Margery, daughter and
heiress of Sir John Bovile. Margery married for
her second husband Thomas Wingfield, and
hence the Wingfields held this property until
long after the dissolution.11
The taxation roll of 129 1 shows that the total
income of this priory was then £12 lis. o\d.,
£% being the value of the appropriated church of
Charsfield, and the greater part of the remaining
income from temporalities coming from lands at
Letheringham.12
A two-days' fair on the vigil and Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin was granted to the priory
in 1297 to be held at Letheringham.13
1 Now. Epis. Reg. ii, 45. * Ibid.
3 Ibid, vi, 126. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid, vi, 307.
6 Ibid, vii, 46. 7 Ibid, viii, 76. 8 Ibid.
9 Ibid, ix, 49. 10 Ibid. 60.
11 Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xxxi ; Page, Hist. ofSuff. i,
116-17. Leland says the founder was Sir John de
Bovile {Coll. i, 62).
12 Pope Nich. Tax (Rec. Com.), 27^, 117, 124, 124^,
125^, 126, 128, 12 83.
13 Chart. 25 Edw. I, No. 19.
John, duke of Norfolk, and Katharine his wife,
gave the advowson of the church of Hoo to this
priory in 1475, and in 1482 the canons obtained
licence to appropriate it.14
The Valor of 1535 gives the total clear annual
value of this priory as ^26 i8j. $d. ; the tem-
poralities amounted to £j 16s. yd., and the
spiritualities (including the rectories of Lether-
ingham, Charsfield, and Hoo) to £19 is. 8d.ls
The Suffolk commissioners for appraising the
value of the goods and chattels of the condemned
smaller monasteries visited Letheringham on
24 August, 1536. The whole was valued at
£7 2s. rod."
The actual date of the suppression of the house
was 7 February, 1536-7."
William Basse, the prior, was assigned a pen-
sion of j£5.18
On 20 October, 1539, a grant was made to
Sir Anthony Wingfield of the site and possessions
of the priory, with the rectories of Letheringham,
Charsfield, and certain tithes in Asketon.19
Priors of Letheringham
Richard de Hecham,20 1307
Richard de Sancto Edmundo,21 13 16
William de Bhi Thornham {sic),22 1357
Stephen Cape],23 resigned 1399
John Bresete,24 1399
Thomas de Hadley,20 1407
William Woodbridge,26 1420
William Keche,27 resigned, 1443
William Noel,28 1443
Robert Kenynghall,29 1462
John May,30 1473
Henry Wortham,31 died 1497
Robert Hadley,32 1497
William Basse,33 1506
William Clopton,31 15 10
William Basse,35 occurs 1535
There is a fine fragment of the oval seal of
this house attached to a charter of 1495 ; it bears
the Blessed Virgin seated in a carved niche.
Legend : —
. . . ll : coe : poris : et : con . . . ,36
14 Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xxxi, citing Norw. Epis.
Reg. xii.
15 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 423-4.
16 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 101.
17 Gairdner, Hist, of Church of Engl, in 1 6/6 Cent. 421.
19 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 58.
19 Ibid, ccxi, fol. 5 3.
20 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 26. Dates of election.
21 Ibid, i, 65. 22 Ibid, v, 19. 23 Ibid, vi, 245.
24 Ibid. 25 Ibid, vii, 4. 26 Ibid, viii, 55.
27 Ibid, x, 48. 2S Ibid, x, 48.
29 Ibid, xi, 133. 30 Ibid, xii, 1 3l Ibid, xii, 198.
32 Ibid. "Ibid, xiv, 13.
34 Tanner, Norw. MSS.
35 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii.
36 Add. Chart. 15755.
108
Herringfleet P
Bl'tley Priory
Ixworth Priory
Kersey Priory
Suffolk Monastic Seals, Plate II
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
27. THE PRIORY OF THE HOLY
SEPULCHRE, THETFORD
Thetford was in the hands of Stephen in
1 139. Soon after this date the king gave all the
lands and advowsons on the Suffolk side of the
river, both within and without the borough,
to William de Warenne, the third earl of
Warenne and Surrey. Immediately after he
had received this grant, the earl founded a
monastery on that side of Thetford for canons
of the order of St. Sepulchre, of the Austin rule,
which order had been introduced into England
about 1 1 20. By the foundation charter the
earl bestowed on the canons the church of St.
Sepulchre, with a quadrigate of land in the ad-
joining fields, together with all the lands,
churches, tithes, and manorial rights in Thetford
that he had obtained from the king. He further
granted them two yearly fairs, namely at the
Invention (3 May) and the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross (14 September). The earl was at
this time about to set forth on a crusade, and
the concluding sentences of the charter solemnly
commend the maintenance of his new founda-
tion to his brother palmers, to the burgesses, and
to all his faithful friends. It was witnessed by
his brothers Ralph and Reginald.1
Hamelin, Earl Warenne, who married Isabel,
the founder's daughter and heir, confirmed this
grant, and also gave them a third fair on the
festival of the Holy Sepulchre, 205. in rent, and
the tithes of two mills. He died in 1202.
William, Earl Warenne, Hamelin's son, gave
the canons sixty acres of lands, and I 05. rent out
of his mill at Brendmilne. Henry II also gave
sixty acres of demesne lands of Thetford to the
priory.
Early in the reign of Henry III Sir Geoffrey
de Furneaux, lord of Middle Harling, died, and
was buried in the priory church by the side of
his wife Amy. He gave the canons, for this
privilege of sepulture among them, the ninth
sheaf of all his demesnes in Bircham (Cambridge-
shire) and Middle Harling, together with a
messuage and twelve acres of land. About 1250
Alice, wife of Sir Michael Furneaux, a grandson
of Sir Geoffrey, was also buried in this church,
as well as many subsequent members of the
family.
In 1272 William Nunne of Thetford
granted to Prior Ralph and the canons a
messuage in the town towards procuring habits
for the canons, and Thomas de Burgh in 1274
granted the ninth sheaf of his demesne lands in
1 There is no known chartulary of this priory.
The charter is recited in a confirmation charter of
John, Earl Warenne, given in Dugdale, Mors, ii, 574,
'Ex autogr. in bibl. Deuvesiana, a. 1620.' Martin's
Hist, of 'Thetford (1779), 174-95, 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 129 1 showed that this priory
was of the annual value of £20 05. \\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 1 33 1 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 jfio 125. o\d. They had liberty of one
foldcourse in the field of Westwick, wherein
they might feed 500 sheep, and might remove
those sheep to B rend 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 9*.
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 225., 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 125. tenths
for the portion.
When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up the
clear annual income was only £39 65. 8d.
This was a great falling-off from the total of
1338; several items of revenue were much
Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 30.
[09
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
reduced, for instance the pension of £6 a year
from Tuddenham church stood only at 4.0s. in
the last Valor.
The priory was visited by Archdeacon Gold-
well, on behalf of the bishop, on 12 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,
1 5 14. 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-
ham and Thomas Herd were to much the same
effect.2
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, Norw. Visit. (Cam. Soc), 32.
2 Ibid. 88-9. 3 Ibid. 155.
4 Ibid. 242-3. 6 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 \is. \od. ; that the
lead and bells were worth £80, and the
movable goods ^29 8s. jd. ; and that the debts
owing amounted to £j is. ~j\d. The house
was 'very Ruynousande 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
Ro^er de Kersey,13 1247, died 1273
William,14 1274
Peter de Horsage,15 elected 1 3 1 5
Richard de Wintringham,16 elected 1329
John de Shefford,17 elected 1338
Roger de Kerseye,18 1347
Robert de Thetford,19 1349
Robert Edwyn,20 resigned 135 1
Adam de Hokewold,21 elected 1 35 1
William de Haneworth,22 elected 1358
Adam de Worsted,23 elected 1378
Robert de Stowe,24 died 1420
John Paltok,25 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. Oft'.), ccxxxii, 35*.
9 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 189-90.
10 Ibid. " Ibid. 12 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. 20 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv. 1 34.
21 Ibid. 22 Ibid, v, 29.
23 Ibid, vi, 63. 21Ibid. viii, 57.
25 Ibid. " Ibid, ix, 57.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Peter Try on,1 elected 1454
Reginald Ilberd,2 elected 1471
John Burnell, uluis Burham,3 1496
William,4 1503
Thomas Vicar or Lowthe,5 occurs 15 12
John Thetford,6 occurs 15 19, 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 : —
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 11 93, 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 1 29 1 was
drawn up, but the temporalities brought in an
income of ^23 I is. 8^d. This amount was
chiefly derived from lands and rents in Wood-
bridge parish, namely, ^12 105. iod., and the
next largest item was ^6 1 35. \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 1 35. \d. The temporalities came chiefly
from Woodbridge, Alnesbourn, Lyndeley, and
Aspall. The total clear annual value of the
priory was £50 3*. 5-g^.12
1 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 76. * Ibid, xi, 82.
3 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 190.
4 Ibid. 6 Jessopp, Norw. Visit. 88.
6 Ibid. 155. 7 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.).
8 B.M. Cast, Ixix, 48 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 729 ;
Acknowledgement of Supremacy (P.R.O.), 109.
9 Add. Chart. 17245 ; Blomefield, Norfolk, ii, 98.
'" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 600 ; Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst.
iv, 338.
" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 27, 124^, 1253,
127^, i28<5, 129^.
18 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 422.
The alliance of the small priory of Alnes-
bourn with that of Woodbridge, in 1466, has
been previously described.
Licence was granted by Edward II, in 13 1 8,
to the prior and convent of Woodbridge to
acquire in mortmain lands and rents to the value
of iooj. a year.13 But there was no ready
response of benefactors to avail themselves of
this licence. It is not until the year 1344 that
we find a gift made under shelter of the licence
of 1 3 18, and then it was only land and rent,
the gift of John de Brewon, clerk, to the value
of two out of the hundred shillings that were
sanctioned.14
Bishop Nykke personally visited Woodbridge
priory on 2 August, 1514. The prior and one
of the canons stated that all was well, but two
other canons said that the prior was remiss in
the collecting of rents to the detriment of the
house. It was also reported that the manor
house of Alnesbourn was in complete ruin, but
not through the fault of the then prior. The
bishop enjoined on the prior to be more par-
ticular and diligent in collecting rents due to the
priory.15
At the visitation of the same bishop in 1532,
William Lucham, sub-prior, deposed that the
prior was remiss and a poor administrator ; that
the priory gates were not shut at proper times ;
that the house was in debt j£io ; and that they
had neither corn nor barley in store for the next
autumn. Canon Goodall stated that the south
porch of the conventual church was in ruins on
account of defects in the timber, and that the
house was overburdened with the pension to
ex-prior Coke. Canon Penderley, the curate of
Woodbridge, said that there was not sufficient
income to discharge the burdens and to do the
repairs of the priory. Canon Pope considered
that the prior had incurred too great expense in
making a water-mill. Canon Daneby said that
the priory suffered from penury and want, and
that both house and mill were in bad repair, but
that otherwise all was well, and in this Canon
Houghton agreed. The bishop admonished the
prior to use all diligence in repairing the defects
and dilapidations of the priory.16
Henry Bassingborne, the prior, and six
canons signed their acknowledgement of the royal
supremacy on 21 August, 1534.17
The house was suppressed in February,
1536-7, and a pension was assigned to Prior
Henry.18 The rest of the canons went out
unpensioned.
The site of the priory and its possessions
were granted to Sir John Wingfield and Dorothy
his wife.
13 Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 4.
14 Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 2.
15 Jessopp, Visit. 134-5. 16 Ibid. 292-3.
17 Dep. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 305.
18 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 40^.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Priors of Woodbridge
Ambrose, ' occurs 1267
Thomas,2 occurs 1286
Henry de Ocklee (Eccles),3 1305
John de Athelyngstone,4 1326
John Brundish, 1342
William Bast, 1345
John de Hadeley,6 1349
William Halton, 1349
Henry de Brom,6 1 37 1
Thomas de Croston,7 1372, died 1394
William de Melton,8 1394
Thomas Parham,9 1432
Nicholas Foster,10 occurs 1447-52
Thomas Pakkard,11 1467
John Hough alias Hadley,12 1493
Augustus Rivers,13 1507
Richard Bool, 1509
Thomas Cooke,16 1516
Henry Bassingborne, 17 1530
The first seal of the priory, early fourteenth
century, bears the crowned Virgin seated on a
throne with a footboard, the Holy Child on the
left knee, and a sceptre in the right hand.
Legend : —
. . omune : capituli : ecc'e : de :
WODEBRE. . . ,18
The later seal, fifteenth century, represents
the Annunciation under a canopied niche. The
Blessed Virgin and the Archangel Gabriel have
a pot of lilies between them ; a scroll from the
latter bears 'Ave gracia pie.' In the base is a
Latin cross on a shield. Legend : —
-f sigillu : coe : cap'li : bte :
marie : de : wodebregge19
HOUSES OF AUSTIN NUNS
29. THE PRIORY OF CAMPSEY
The priory of Campsey, or Campsey Ash, was
founded about the year 1 1 95, by Theobald de
Valoines, who gave all his estate in that parish
to his two sisters Joan and Agnes, to the intent
they should build a monastery in honour of the
Blessed Virgin, for themselves and other religious
women. In accordance with his desire the
sisters built and established here a house of
Austin nuns, of which Joan became the first
prioress, Agnes succeeding her. King John
confirmed the grant of Theobald in January,
1 203-4."
Among the earliest subsequent benefactors
were Simon de Brunna and John L'Estrange
of Hunstanton, both of whom gave lands in
Tottington.15
In 1228-9 a dispute arose as to certain tithes
between the prioress and convent of Campsey
and the prior and convent of Butley, which was
in the first instance brought before the abbot
of St. Benet of Holme and other papal com-
missioners. The prioress and convent of
Campsey appealed again to Rome against the
decision, whereupon the commissioners excom-
municated them. Pope Gregory IX referred
the appeal to the prior of Anglesey and others ;
and the priory of Butley, because these judges
refused to admit the execution of the excom-
munication, obtained papal letters on that point
Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, iv, 224.
Norvv. Epis. Reg. i, 1 7.
Ibid, ii, 2. s Ibid, iv, 91.
Ibid, vi, 197. 9 Ibid.
Bodl. Chart. Suff. 246, 247.
Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 163.
Ibid, xii, 168.
Chart. 5 John, m. 15, No. 124.
Stevens, Contin. of Mon. i, 523.
2 Ibid.
6 Ibid, vi, 9.
9 Ibid, ix, 54.
to the prior of Yarmouth and others. Before
this last commission, the prioress and convent
of Campsey pleaded that as the sentence was
issued after the appeal, every excommunicated
person being allowed to defend himself, the
other judges had acted rightly in refusing to
admit the execution. The prior of Yarmouth
and his colleagues declined to receive such plea,
and the prioress again appealed to the pope.
Eventually, in June, 1230, the original papal
order against the nuns of Campsey was enforced,
whereby the small tithes of the church of
Dilham and of the mill of the same place
were to be paid to the priory of Butley.30
The taxation roll of 129 1 shows that the
temporalities of this priory were by that date
widely scattered over Suffolk, with certain lands
and rents in Norfolk and Essex ; their total
annual value was assessed at ^67 3/. 3^. The
value of the four churches then appropriated,
Allesby (Lincoln), Tottington (Norfolk), and
Ludham and Bruisyard, was ^40, giving a total
of ^107 31. 3f-<£21
The steady way in which the endowments of
this house increased during the fourteenth century
bears testimony to the good repute of the nuns.
Licence was granted in 13 19 to the prioress and
nuns at the request of Robert de Ufford to
acquire lands and tenements to the annual value
of £10 ; and in the same year the convent
obtained grants in Bruisyard and adjacent
parishes, worth £7 17s. 8d. a year.22
16 Tanner Norw. MSS. " Ibid.
18 Cott. Chart, xxi, 44.
19 B.M. Cast, Ixxii, 16. Engraved in Proc. Suff
Arch. Inst, iv, 224.
80 Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 121-4.
21 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 27, 29, 58, 67b, 83,
95, 97<5, 102, 103, 1 12^, \\6b, 119b, 124^, 131^.
22 Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 15, 30.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
John de Framlingham, clerk, obtained licence
in 1332, at the request of Queen Philippa, for
the alienation to the prioress and nuns of
Campsey, of the manor of Carlton-by-Kelsall
and the advowson of the church of that town.
It was provided that the priory was to grant the
manor for life to a chaplain, on condition that
he, with two other chaplains, to be found by
him, celebrated daily in the church of Carlton
for the soul of Alice de Henaud, the Queen's
aunt, and for the soul of the grantor after his
death. On the death of the chaplain the priory
was to resume possession of the manor and
regrant it to another chaplain on like conditions.1
Licence was also granted in 1342, to Robert de
Ufford, earl of Suffolk, to alienate to the prioress
and convent of Campsey an acre of land in
Wickham and the advowson of the church of
that town with leave to appropriate it.2
The prioress and convent had licence in
1343 to alienate to the dean and chapter of
Lincoln a pension of £10 that they had received
yearly out of the church of Allsby, to find two
chaplains to celebrate daily in the cathedral
church of Lincoln, for the soul of Robert
de Alford, rector of Anderby.3
In 1346 Thomas de Hereford had licence to
alienate to this priory the advowson and appro-
priation of the church of Hargham, to find
chaplains to celebrate daily in the priory church
for the soul of Ralph Ufford.4 Later in the
same year the church of Burgh, Suffolk, was
appropriated to the priory under like conditions.5
Both these appropriations were made at the
request of Maud countess of Ulster. This lady,
in 1347, entered the religious life among the
nuns of Campsey, taking the habit of a regular,
and taking with her as dower the issues of all
her lands and rents in England, by crown
licence, for a year after her admission. It was
also granted that when, at the end of the year,
the king or the heir entitled to them, took this
property, Henry earl of Lancaster, her brother,
and five others, whom she had appointed her
attorneys, were to pay for her sustenance and for
the relief of the priory, which was very lean,
200 marks yearly for her life.6 In October of
the same year, licence was obtained for Countess
Maud to ordain a perpetual chantry of five
chaplains (one being the warden) to celebrate
daily in the chapel of the Annunciation of our
Lady, in the priory church, for the honour of
God and His Virgin Mother, and for the saving
of the souls of William de Burges, earl of Ulster,
her first husband, and of Ralph de Ufford, her
second husband (whose body was buried in that
1 Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 2.
2 Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 18, 13.
! Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35.
' Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26 ; pt. iii, m. 25.
5 Ibid. pt. iii, m. 24.
* Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 37.
2 II
chapel), also of Elizabeth de Burges and Maud
de Ufford, her daughters by the said husbands,
and for the good estate of the countess and
of John de Ufford and Thomas de Here-
ford, knights, and for their souls after death.
A messuage in Asshe, and the churches of
Burgh and Hargham, lately given to the priory,
were to be assigned to the warden of this
chantry.7
Roger de Boys, knight, and others obtained
licence in 1383 to alienate to this priory the
manor of Wickham Market and 5 acres of
meadow and 5 of pasture in Mellis, of the yearly
value of £ 1 8 1 8s. to support an increased number
of nuns and chaplains, and to find a wax candle
to burn in the quire of their church on the prin-
cipal festivals,8 and in 1390 Sir Roger de Boys
and others, on payment of £s° to the king,
were allowed to alienate to the priory the manor
of Horpol, a fourth part of the manor of Dal-
linghoo, and the manor of Hillington, in aid of
the maintenance of five chaplains to celebrate
daily in the priory, and of two nuns there
serving God.9 This remarkable foundation is
fully described in a small chartulary at the Public
Record Office.10 It is the only instance of which
we are aware where a small college of secular
priests was actually established within the pre-
cincts of a nunnery.
The various particulars set forth in the ordi-
nation of this chantry by the Bishop of Norwich,
under date 3 October, 1390, provide that the
gifts of lands in Bruisyard, Swefling, Peasenhall,
Badingham, Cranford,and Parham, by Sir Roger
Boys and others were to be used towards the
adding of three chaplains to the two chantry
chaplains already provided by the foundation of
1383 ; that they were especially to pray for the
souls of William de Ufford and Robert de Ufford
and their wives, and for all the faithful, in the
chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, within the
convent precincts ; that the convent was to
build for them a suitable manse with chambers
and common rooms within the close near to the
chapel ; that one of the five secular priests was
to be warden or master ; that they were to have
a common dormitory and refectory ; that the
priory was to pay the master 13 marks a year
and the other four chaplains 10 marks each ;
that the priory was to provide lights, wax, wine,
and vestments for the chapel of St. Thomas, and
also to keep the buildings in proper repair ; that
the chaplains were to be allowed free ingress and
egress through the convent at all suitable hours ;
that the master and chaplains were strictly to.
abstain from entering the cloister or other build-
ings of the nuns ; and that the master was to.
celebrate high mass in the conventual church on
7 Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5.
8 Ibid. 7 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 39.
9 Ibid. 13 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 27.
10 Exch. L.T. R. Misc. Bks. No. 112.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
the great feasts and on principal doubles. The
chartulary also contains a copy of the assent of
Mary the prioress and the nuns to this ordinance,
sealed in their chapter-house on 5 October ;
and of that of the dean and chapter of Norwich,
sealed on 7 October. The surplus of this en-
dowment, after paying the stipend of the master
and chaplains, was to go to the common fund of
the priory, and to be used towards the susten-
ance of two additional nur.s.
Licence was obtained by the priory for
50 marks in 1392 for the alienation by Robert
Ashfield and others of 12s. \d. rent in Totting-
ton, Norfolk, and of the reversion of that manor
after the deaths of John de Bokenham senior
and John de Bokenham junior, to find three
tapers to burn daily before the high altar at high
mass in the conventual church.1
Licence for £40 was granted in 1 400 to the
prioress and nuns of Campsey for Robert Ash-
field and others to assign to them the manor
called Blomvyle by Perham, together with con-
siderable lands in Wickham Market and adjacent
places, and the advowson of Pettistree, with
leave to appropriate.2
In 14 1 6 an important return was made of
the appropriated churches of the diocese of
Norwich, with the dates of the appropriation.
The following are those entered as pertaining to
the priory of Campsey : —
Ludham, 1259; Bredfield, 1259; Totting-
ton, 1302; Wickham Market, 1343; Tun-
stead, 1350 ; and Pettistree, 141 3-3
The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual
value of this priory as ^182 gs. $d. The tem-
poralities consisted of the manors, with members,
of Campsey, Wickham Market, Overhall and
Netherhall Denham, Tottington-cum-Stanford,
andSwefling, of the clear value of ^158 19/. $^d.
The spiritualities, then consisting of the rectories
of Wickham and Pettistree (Suffolk) and Tun-
stead and Tottington (Norfolk) were valued at
^23 9*. ii^d} The wealthy chantry of Ufford
foundation, within the conventual church, was
■worth .£35 6s. 8d., and was most certainly part
of the priory's property, as the surplus, after
paying the chantry priests' stipends, went to the
common fund of the nunnery. To exclude
this from the sum total of the priory's income
was a mere piece of trickery to bring this house
within those that were to be suppressed in 1536,
and which were bound to have a less income
than ^200.
Archdeacon Goldwell visited Campsey on
24 January, 1492, as commissary of his brother
the bishop. The visitation was attended by
Katharine the prioress, Katharine Babington, the
sub-prioress, and eighteen other nuns. Each
1 Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 34.
5 Ibid. 1 Hen. IV, pt. v, m. 4.
3 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fed. 128.
4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 415-17.
was examined severally and separately, but no-
thing was found that demanded reformation.6
Bishop Nykke personally visited Campsey in
1 5 14. The prioress, Elizabeth Everard, gave a
good account of everything pertaining to the
house, and in this she was supported by Petronilla
Fulmerston, the sub-prioress, and eighteen other
nuns, none of whom had any complaint to
make.6
A prioress and the full number of twenty nuns
were found here at the visitation of 1520, when
everything was again found to be satisfactory.7
The like number attended the visitation of 1526,
when Elizabeth Buttry was prioress. Each of
these ladies bore testimony to the good estate of
the house in slightly varied phraseology. The
only shadow of a complaint was from Margaret
Harman, the precentrix, who, after stating that
for the past thirty-five years she had never known
anything worthy of correction or reformation,
added that the office books in choir needed some
repair.8
The prioress Elizabeth Buttry had only just
been appointed when the last-named highly
favourable visitation was held. Judging from
the last visitation of 25 June, I 532, her rule over
this happy, peaceful nunnery was unsatisfactory.
Only six out of the eighteen nuns examined
made an omnia bene report. The remainder all
complained of the too great strictness and
austerity, and more particularly of the parsi-
monious and stingy character of the prioress.
Even Margaret Harman, who was then sacrist,
and who had been a nun of this house for forty-
one years, said that the food was sometimes not
wholesome. Others complained much more
bitterly of the food and of the unhealthy cha-
racter of the meat. Katharine Grome, the pre-
centrix, said that within the last month they had
had to eat a bullock that would have died of
disease if it had not been killed. Another sister
complained of the unpunctuality of the cook ;
their dinner hour was supposed to be six, but
sometimes it was eight o'clock before they had
finished the meal. There was, however, no kind
of moral delinquency alleged of anyone ; and
the bishop, after enjoining the prioress to provide
a more liberal and wholesome diet, and the cook
to be more punctual, gave his blessing, and dis-
solved the visitation.9
The exact date of the suppression of this
house is not known, but it was some time in the
year 1536.
An inventory of the goods and chattels was
drawn up on 28 August of that year by the
Suffolk commissioners. The high altar of the
conventual church was well furnished with a
white silk frontal, a carved wooden reredos, four
great candlesticks of latten, a lamp of latten, and
Jessopp, Visit. 35-6.
Ibid. 179-80.
Ibid. 290-2.
6 Ibid. 133-4.
■ Ibid. 219.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
a pix of silver gilt weighing 9 oz., &c. The
chapel of our Lady had an alabaster reredos.
In the vestry was a good supply of vestments,
altar cloths, frontals, and silk curtains, as well as
a silver cross worth ^5, a silver censer ^4 13*. 4<f.,
and a silver-gilt chalice £2 js. 8d. The house-
hold furniture was simple. The cattle and
stores brought up the inventory to the good
sum of ^56 13s.1
Prioresses of Campsey
Joan de Valoines,3 occurs 11 95 and 1228-9
Agnes de Valoines,3 occurs 1234
Basilia,4 occurs 1258
Margery,5 occurs 13 1 8
Maria de Wingfield,6 1334
Maria de Felton,7 died 1394
Margaret de Bruisyard,8 1394
Alice Corbet,9 141 1
Katharine Ancel,10 1 41 6
Margery Rendlesham,11 1446
Margaret Hengham,12 1477
Katharine,13 1492
Anna,14 1502
Elizabeth Everard,15 1513
Elizabeth Blennerhasset,16 1 5 18
Elizabeth (or Ellen) Buttry,17 1526
The fourteenth-century pointed oval seal ot
this priory bears the Blessed Virgin, crowned
and seated on a throne, the Holy Child standing
on the right knee, within a triple arched canopied
niche. In base between two flowering branches,
a shield bearing per pale a cross lozengy, diapered,
a chief dancetty. Legend : —
PRIOUSSE
MARIE
ET : CONVENTUS
DE CAMPISSEY18
30. THE PRIORY OF FLIXTON 19
An Austin nunnery was founded in honour of
the Blessed Virgin and St. Katharine at Flixton,
1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 1 1 3-1 6.
2 Add. MS. 1909^ fol. 66b. 3 Ibid.
4 Tanner MSS. Norw.
5 Add. MS. 19093, fol. 66b.
6 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 65. 7 Ibid, vi, 195.
8 Ibid. » Ibid, vii, 43.
10 Tanner MSS. Norw.
11 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 1. " Ibid, xii, 59.
13 Ibid, xii, 112. " Ibid, xiii, 21, 36.
15 Tanner MSS. Norw. 16 Ibid.
lr Jessopp, Visit. 2 1 9. She died in 1 543, and was
buried in St. Stephen's Church, Norwich.
18 B.M. Cast, lxxi, 101.
19 Stowe MS. (B.M.), 1083, is a miscellaneous
volume of extracts and abstracts, with a few original
documents. Nos. 56 to 84 are abstracts of a number
of Flixton priory evidences. Those bearing the
names of successive prioresses seem to have been
selected for citation. The writing of these abstracts
in the year 1258, by Margery, daughter of Geof-
frey de Hanes and relict of Bartholomew de
Crek, to whom Robert de Tatesale, son of
Robert de Tatesale, knt., in 1256, granted
licence to found a home of religion upon the fee
which she held of him in Flixton, wheresoever
she would in that town. He also granted her
the fee, which she held of him there on nominal
service, to appropriate to the said house. She
endowed it with the manor of Flixton, and sub-
sequently with her moiety of the advowson of
Flixton, the advowson and appropriation of
Dunston and Fundenhall, Norfolk.20
The same Robert de Tatesale subsequently
granted to Beatrice, the first prioress, and the
convent, the tenement that Margery de Crek
held of him at Flixton, in pure alms, and Robert
son of Bartholomew and Margery de Crek re-
leased to the prioress and the nuns all his right
in the manor of Flixton (formerly his mother's)
with the advowson of the moiety of the church.
Particulars as to this nunnery do not appear
in the taxation roll of Pope Nicholas, 129 1, but
a survey of the priory lands and possessions in
the following year supplies many interesting par-
ticulars. We there learn that the number of
the nuns was limited by the founders to eigh-
teen, in addition to a prioress, and that everyone
received yearly 5;. for garments. The manor
and part of the church at Flixton was worth 40.?.
a year, and the moiety of Flixton church,
£4. ly. \d., and the church of Dunston, .£5 ;
various lands, rents, and services brought the
annual value up to £43 i8x. 2\d. 21
A general return of the appropriated churches
of the diocese, with the date of vicarage ordi-
nations made in the year 14 16, names only two
under Flixton priory: Fundenhall 1347, and
Flixton 1349. The advowson of Dunston is
named as given to the priory in 1274, but not
appropriated.22
At the instance of Master Robert de Cisterna,
the king's leech, licence was granted in 131 1 to
the prioress and nuns of Flixton, on account of
their income being insufficient for their susten-
ance, to acquire lands and tenements to the value
of £10 a year.23
In 1 32 1 the Bishop of Norwich effected an
exchange with this priory of a moiety of the
advowson (with permission to appropriate) of the
church of Flixton for the advowson of the church
is in a hand of about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Nos. 79, 80, and 81 are undated abstracts of
charters temp. Edw. I, all giving the name of Prioress
Beatrice. The originals of these charters are in the
hands of the Earl of Ashburnham. Hist. MSS. Com.
Rep. viii, pt. ii, 27.
20 Lansd. MS. 477, &c, cited in Suckling, Hist, off
Suff. i, 190.
21 Jermyn MSS. cited in Suckling, Hist, of Suff. i,
191.
M Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 125.
13 Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 24.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
of Helmingham, held by the nuns of the gift of
Cicely, widow of Robert de UfFord.1
At the time of the Black Death (1349) the
value of this house greatly deteriorated, and it
dwindled to half its former income, a position
from which it never recovered. The Valor of
1535 gave the total clear annual value, including
the appropriations of the churches of Flixton,
Fundenhall, and Dunston, as £23 41. O^d.
Among the considerable outgoings the largest
item was £8 3*. \d., distributed to the poor on
the anniversary of Margery the foundress.2
Among the rolls at the Bodleian is oneof 1370,
of articles, and depositions relative to a dispute
pending in the Roman court between the
parishioners of Fundenhall, Norfolk, and the
prioress and convent of Flixton, concerning the
repairs of Fundenhall church.3
Katharine Pilly, the prioress, who had laud-
ably ruled this house for eighteen years, resigned
in 1432, on account of old age and blindness.
In the following year the bishop as visitor made
careful provision for her sustenance. The ex-
prioress was to have suitable rooms for herself
and maid ; each week she and her maid were to
be provided with two white loaves, eight loaves
of ' hool ' bread (whole bread), and eight gallons of
convent beer ; with a dish for both, daily from
the kitchen, the same as for two nuns in the
refectory ; and with 200 faggots and 100 logs,
and eight pounds of candles a year. Another
kindly provision was that Cecilia Creyke, one of
the nuns, was to read divine service to her daily,
and to sit with her at meals, having her portion
from the refectory.4
Towards the close of the life of this house, the
average number of the nuns was about eight,
instead of the eighteen named by the founders.
No evil was brought to light at the visitations
of Bishops Goldwell and Nykke.
Bishop Goldwell personally visited this priory
on 20 June, 1493. Elizabeth Vyrly, the
prioress, Margaret Causten, the sub-prioress, and
four other nuns were severally examined, and
nothing was found worthy of reformation. The
nuns were attending mass at the parish church
because their chaplain had broken his arm and
was unable to celebrate.6
Bishop Nykke made his first visitation to this
priory on II August, 15 14. Various complaints
were made as to the caprice and severity of the
prioress, the laxity of discipline and administra-
tion, and of the frequent access of John Wells,
a relative, to the prioress. The bishop ordered
that John Wells (who seems to have been the
chaplain) should leave the house and town,
before All Saints' day, and adjourned the visitation
to the following Easter.6
1 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 21.
• Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 446.
3 Bodl. Rolls, Suff. 13.
4 Now. Epis. Reg. ix, 87.
6 Jessopp, Visit. 47-8. 6 Ibid. 144.
The visitation of 14 August, 1520, was held
by the suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and other
commissaries. Alice (Elizabeth) Wright, prioress,
complained of the disobedience of Margaret
Punder, her predecessor, but gave a good report
of everything in the house. The late prioress
complained of non-receipt of her proper pension,
board, and winter fuel. The sub-prioress stated
that no annual account was presented. Isabel
Asshe said that when she and her sisters were
unwell, the prioress compelled them to rise for
mattins, in which complaint three other nuns
agreed. The visitation was adjourned, and the
prioress was ordered to present the accounts and
inventory before Christmas.7
The visitation was resumed on 20 August by
Nicholas Carr, the chancellor of the diocese, and
another commissary, when each inmate was
again severally examined. The prioress pleaded
that no accounts had been presented, as she was
not accustomed to figures and had not written
down what she had expended. Margaret Pun-
der, the ex-prioress, repeated her complaint of
niggardly treatment, adding that she was unwill-
ing to yield obedience to the prioress as contrary
to the rules of religion. Five other sisters
testified omnia bene, save the non-presentment
of accounts. The chancellor enjoined on the
prioress that all dogs were to be removed from
the priory within a month, save one ; that the
prioress was to have a sister with her if she
slept outside the dormitory ; that she was to
render a yearly account before the senior sisters
of the state of the houses and of all receipts and
expenses, under pain of deprivation ; and that
she was to discharge Richard Carr from the
priory's service.8
At the visitation of August, 1526, the prioress,
ex-prioress, and four other sisters all testified
omnia bene, save that the sub-prioress complained
of the defective roofs of the cloister and refectory
which the prioress was ordered to repair as
quickly as possible.9 The visitation was equally
satisfactory in every respect in 1532, when the
same prioress and ex-prioress and six other sisters
were all examined.10
Flixton Priory was among those numerous
small houses of East Anglia, &c, that were
authorized to be suppressed in 1527—8 by bulls
of Pope Clement VII, to enable Cardinal Wolsey
to found great colleges at Ipswich and Oxford.
Wolsey's fall, however, prevented the accomplish-
ment of this plan, so that Flixton was included
in the general suppression of the smaller houses
by the legislation of 1536. The Suffolk com-
missioners visited this nunnery on 21 August,
1536, when they drew up an elaborate inven-
tory of the goods and chattels of the house.
' In the Chiste wt. in the quire ' were a great
array of vestments, but many of them very old ;
Ibid. 185-6.
Ibid. 261.
Ibid. 1 90-I.
Ibid. 318-19.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
• Seynt Kateryn's cote of clothe of gold lyttle
worth att iiiirf'.' The chambers were well sup-
plied with bedding. The pewter in the buttery,
the table linen in the refectory, and the utensils
in the kitchen were much battered and worn,
and of small value. The church plate was
valued at £5 155. 4^., the most valuable item
being ' a crosse cette with Glasse of Sylvar and
parcell gilt with Mary and John, pond, xx oz.
att iiu. iiii<^. the oz. lxvij. viii^.' The conven-
tual or table plate was valued at £8 7*. ; it
included a maser with a silver foot, and two
other masers with silver bands. The cattle,
hay, and corn were worth upwards of £10, and
the whole inventory amounted to £20 gs. ^d}
Elizabeth Wright, the prioress, surrendered
the house on 4 February, 1536-7.2
The priory and its possessions were granted
by the crown on 10 July, 1537, to Richard
Warton.3
Prioresses of Flixton
Eleanor,4 occurs 1258
Beatrice de Ratlesden,5 occurs 1263, &c.
Emma de Welholm,6 1301-28
Margery de Stonham,7 died 1345
Isabel Weltham,10 elected 1345
Joan de Hemynhall,11 occurs 1357
Joan Marshall,12 occurs 137 1
Margery Howel,13 elected 1375
Katharine Hereward,14 elected 1392
Elizabeth Moor,15 died 1414
Katharine Pilly,16 elected 1414
Maud Rycher,17 elected 1432
Mary Dalangehoo (Delanio),18 died 1446
Cecilia Creyk,19 elected 1446
Helen,20 resigned 1466
Margery Arteys,21 elected 1466
Isabel,22 occurs 1483
Elizabeth Vyrly,23 occurs 1493
Margaret Punder,24 occurs 1 5 10-16
Elizabeth Wright,25 occurs 1520, surrendered
*53726
Impressions of the seal, lozenge-shaped, with
a semicircular lobe on each of the four sides, are
affixed to several Flixton charters of the Stowe
collection of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries.27
It bears our Lord on the Cross between St.
Mary and St. John, with sun and moon ; in the
base, under an arch, the Agnus Dei ; in each of
the lobes one of the symbols of the evangelists.
HOUSE OF PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS
31. THE ABBEY OF LEISTON
The abbey of Leiston was founded for the
white canons of the Premonstratensian Order,
in the year 1 182, by Ranulph de Glanville, who
was also the founder of Butley priory. By the
foundation charter, this abbey, dedicated in
honour of the Blessed Virgin, was endowed
with the manor of Leiston, and with the ad-
vowsons of the churches of St. Margaret,
Leiston, and St. Andrew, Aldringham. These
churches, as stated in the charter, Glanville had
first granted to the Austin canons of Butley,
but they had been by them resigned. The
founder stated that he made these gifts for the
good estate of King Henry, and for his own
soul's sake, and for that of his wife Bertha, and
their ancestors and successors.8
The next benefactions were the church of
St. Mary, Middleton,9 by Roger de Glanville,
1 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, viii, 89-90.
2 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 510.
3 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccix, fol. 1 14.
4 Tanner MSS. 5 Stowe MS. 1083.
6 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 7. 7 Ibid, iv, 52.
8 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xiv, fol. 34^. This MS. is
a small quarto chartulary of the abbey, covering
83 fols. ; it begins with papal and archiepiscopal con-
firmations of privileges, and includes confirmation
charters of Henry II, Richard I, and John.
9 Ibid. fol. 4<7.
confirmed by Roger Bigot, earl of Norfolk, and
the church of St. Botolph, Culpho,28 by William
de Valoines, confirmed by William de Verdun.
Pope Honorius III, in 1224, confirmed to the
abbey the four churches of Leiston, Aldringham,
Middleton, and Culpho,29 and on 26 February,
1280, John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury,
who was staying at the abbey, confirmed to the
canons the appropriation of the same four 30
churches.
The taxation roll of 129 1 gave the annual
value of the priory as £130 15*. ~]\d. Of this
sum ^56 1 3 j. \d. came from the appropriated
rectories, by far the largest amount (^34 135. \d.)
coming from the wide-spread parish of Leiston.31
10 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, 52.
11 Stowe MS. 1082, No. 62. 12 Ibid. No. 83.
13 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 43.
14 Ibid, vi, 170. 15 Ibid, vii, 84.
16 Ibid. ,7 Ibid, ix, 5 8.
18 Ibid, xi, 3. " Ibid.
20 Ibid. 155. 2l Ibid.
22 Stowe MS. No. 74. 23 Jessopp, Visit. 48.
24 Ibid. 105. 25 Ibid. 190.
26 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (1), 510.
27 Nos. 44, 47, 50, 64, 70, and 72.
28 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xiv, fol. 45, 6g&.
29 Add. MS. 8i7i,fol. 62-3.
30 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 226.
31 Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 116, 117^, 118,
118^, 124, 1241J, \z$b, 126, 126^, 127, 1273, 128,
128^, 129, 129^.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
John Underwood of Theberton and Matthew
Broun of Knoddishall obtained licence in 1342
to alienate to the abbey of Leiston a messuage
towards the sustenance of a canon to celebrate
once a week in the abbey church for their souls,
and for the souls of the faithful departed.1
The abbey obtained licence in 1344 to
acquire lands or rents to the value of ^20
yearly, in consequence of their impoverished state
through the frequent inundations of the sea over
their lands.2 Lands and rents in Leiston and
neighbouring parishes to the value of 5 51. yearly
were granted under this licence to the abbey in
the following year.3
In 1347 the royal sanction was obtained for
the appropriation to the abbey of the church of
St. Peter, Kirkley.4 On 1 May, 1380, Henry,
bishop of Norwich, and Nicholas, prior of Nor-
wich, gave their assent to the appropriation of
the church of Theberton to the abbey and con-
vent of Leiston,6 and in the following year an
agreement was sealed securing to Norwich priory
a pension of 4*. from Theberton church,6 but in
1382 Margaret countess of Norfolk effected an
exchange with the abbey, giving the canons the
advowson of Kirkley, and taking Theberton.7
John the abbot and the convent of Leiston
indemnified the Bishop of Norwich and the
cathedral priory in 1367, by reason of the
appropriation of the parochial church of Corton,
of their patronage, for first fruits, hc.B A
notarial instrument at the Bodleian concerning
the appropriation of this church is dated
27 November, 11 Pope Urban VI (1389).9
The Valor of 1535 gave the clear annual
value of the abbey as ^181 ijs. i\d. The
temporalities of the manor of Leiston and its
members produced ^124 lis., and lands and
rents at Culpho, Laxfield, Clavering, and Pet-
taugh added about ^24. The spiritualities from
the four churches of Leiston, Middleton, Aldring-
ham, and Corton, realized a clear income of
£37 OS. $d.
In 1350 the advowson or patronage of this
abbey, which had escheated to the crown by
the death of Guy de Ferre without issue, was
granted to Robert de Ufford, earl of Suffolk.
A few years later the new patron became the
munificent refounder of the abbey ; for the first
abbey church and the buildings, which were
placed inconveniently near the sea, becoming too
small, Robert earl of Suffolk, in 1363, erected
new and larger buildings about a mile eastward,
in a better and somewhat higher situation. This
Pat.
16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 4.
Ibid.
18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 21.
Ibid.
19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 24.
Ibid.
21 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 22.
Bodl.
Chart. SufF. 227. 6 Ibid
Ashrr
1. MS. 804.
Bodl.
Chart. SufF. 222.
Ibid.
196 ; see also 223
new abbey was unhappily, ere long, almost de-
stroyed by fire, but was rebuilt on the same site
on a finer scale in 1 308-9. 10
The old abbey near the sea was never quite
abandoned, but treated as a small cell. Legacies
were left to our Lady of the old abbey in 1 5 1 1
and 1516,11 and John Green, the penultimate
abbot, relinquishing his office by choice, was con-
secrated anchorite at the chapel of St. Mary in
the old monastery near the sea. 12
Richard II, in 1388, granted to the abbey an
ample charter of confirmation, adding the privi-
lege of electing their superior on a vacancy,
without seeking licence of the crown or any
other patron, and that during such vacancy no
one should seize their temporalities or in any
way whatsoever meddle with them. It was
further provided that no abbot of the house
should ever henceforth be compelled to grant
any corrody or pension.13 At this time the
Uffords had become extinct, and Michael de la
Pole, the new earl of Suffolk, is named in the
patent as the patron of the abbey, which was,
however, at that time a purely nominal and
honorary office.
During the reigns of Edwards II and III the
insisting on the support of royal pensioners by
the abbey had been a severe tax. In 1309,
Simon de St. Giles, a servant of the late king,
was sent to Leiston Abbey to be provided for life
with food and clothing and a suitable chamber.
In 1 3 14 the great burden was laid on this con-
vent of supporting for life Thomas de Varlay
in food, clothing, shoe-leather, and all necessaries,
together with suitable maintenance for two
horses and two grooms.14 In 1334 William de
Banbury was sent by the crown to receive mainte-
nance ; 15 and in 1343 John de Lech, one of the
king's mariners, was sent on a like errand.16
The houses of the white canons were all
exempt from diocesan visitation, but they were
always rigidly and regularly visited by commis-
saries from the parent house of Pr£montr6.
When Bishop Redman held the office of visitor
he proved himself to be a singularly painstaking
and somewhat stern official. His visits to Leis-
ton, according to his register at the Bodleian, were
almost entirely satisfactory.
The abbey was visited by Bishop Redman in
1478, when Richard Dunmow was abbot and
Robert Colvyll prior and cellarer. Fourteen
other canons were present. It was stated that
the five churches appropriated to the abbey were
served by the canons, and that their appoint-
ments were not perpetual.17
10 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, ii, 433-4.
11 Ibid. 444.
12 Add. MS. 1 908 1, fol. 162.
13 Pat. 12 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 19.
11 Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 7 d.
"Ibid, 7 Edw. III.pt. ii, m. 12,/.
16 Close, 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 23^.
17 Ashmole MS. 1 5 19 (Bodl. Lib.).
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
The next visit of the bishop was on 2 2 August,
1482, when high praise was given to the abbot
for his administration. The debt on the house,
which was ^140 in 1478, was reduced to j£So,
and there was abundance of grain and other
necessaries.1
At the visitation of 1488 sixteen canons were
present, exclusive of Abbot Thomas Doget
(Doket). The visitor enjoined a day's punish-
ment on Robert Colvyll and three others for
breaking silence, and complained about the ton-
sures ; otherwise he gave the house the highest
praise.2
The visit paid to the abbey on 30 September,
1 49 1, found everything satisfactory ; there was
a superabundance of all necessaries.3 The next
visitation was in 1494 ; there were twelve priests
besides the abbot and six novices, and the report
was entirely favourable.4
The return for this abbey in 1497, when the
abbot, fifteen priests, a deacon, and sub-deacon
were present at the visitation, pronounced every-
thing to be excellent.6
The visitation report on 13 October, 1500,
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 I Of. 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 3J. 4^., and the
corn £10 8;. 8d. The total of the whole in-
ventory only reached ^42 16s. 3a'.8
1 Ashmole MS. 1519 (Bodl. Lib.), 35.
2 Ibid. 74. 3 Ibid. 4 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 ^20,9 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, 1537.10
Abbots of Leiston
Robert,11 occurs 1182, 1 190
Philip,12 occurs 1 1 90, 1 235
Gilbert,13 c. 1240
Matthew,14 occurs 1250
Robert,15 occurs 1253
William,16 c. 1280
Gregory,17 occurs 1285
Nicholas,18 occurs 1293
John de Glenham,19 occurs 1308
Alan,20 occurs 1 3 10
Robert,21 occurs 13 1 2
Simon,22 occurs 13 16
Robert,23 occurs 1326
John,24 occurs 1344
John,25 occurs 1390, 1399
Thomas -de Huntingfield,26 occurs 1403, 141 2
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, c. 1200, shows the
abbot standing on a corbel, with crozier in right
hand, and book in the left. Legend :
. . .HIXIPPI : ABBATIS : DE : LEESTONA 34
The conventual seal, attached to a charter 33
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.
12 Harl. MS. 441, 24 ; Vesp. E. xiv, lob, 38. &c.
13 Addy, Beauchief, 25.
14 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, ii, 431.
15 Cal. Chart. R. I. 426.
16 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 226. " Add. Chart. 10274.
18 Add. MS. 8171, fol. 82^.
19 Pat. I Edw. II. a Pre. Reg. No. 3.
81 Addy, Beauchief, 47. 2! Close, 10 Edw. I.
23 Pat. 19 Edw. II. 2i Close, 18 Edw. III.
85 Suckling, Hist, of Suff
86 Cal. Pap. Reg. v, 620 ; Add. Chart. 1265 1.
27 Suckling, Hist, of Suff.
23 Pre. Reg. No. 80. 89 Ibid. Nos. 496, 500.
30 Ibid. Nos. 501, 507.
31 Suckling, Hist, of Suff. ii, 4.G2. 32 Ibid.
33 Ibid. 3t B.M. Cast, lxxii, 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 1227.2
In 1252 the bona Templia riorum de Donewico
were valued at in. a year. In early wills
their house was styled Templum beate Marie et
Jobannis, and it once occurs as Hospitale beate
Marie et S. Jobannis vocat Le Tempi/.3
On the suppression of the order of the Tem-
plars in 1312, their Dunwich property was
transferred to the Knights Hospitallers. In
1 31 3 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 \d. 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 1 63 1, 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 55 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.9
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 127 1, 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, 1 32 1, 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. 1 John, pt. i, m. 34.
2 Ibid. 2 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 29.
3 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, ii, 279.
4 Dugdale, Mon. (1st edition), ii, 552.
6 Chart. R. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 4.
6 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 193.
7 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 10s. yd. Half the church of Battisford
was appropriated to the hospitallers, and was
worth 10 marks a year, whilst the rectory of
Badley produced ^ioa year.
By far the largest source of income was ' de
Fraria n ad voluntatem contribuentium,' 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 31., with arable and other lands and
rents, and in the case of Coddenham a windmill ;
the total receipts of the former were £10 5*. 8d.
and of the latter £4 3;. id.
8 Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 15.
9 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.
11 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.
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 20*. ; 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. Sd. a year, two youths at $s.
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 4*. in wheat and oats for bread ; £3 45. for
barley for brewing; and £j 16s. 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
£7, 9s- 4-d- The three days' visit of the prior of
Clerkenwell, the mother-house of the order in
England, caused an expenditure of 605. The
total outlay for the year was £33 3*. iod.,
leaving the handsome balance of £60 Os. iod.
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 5*. 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.3 The value of the property of this
bailiwick deteriorated after the Black Death.
The Valor of 1538 gave its clear income as
£52 l6s. 2d.'
After the dissolution of the order, Henry VIII
granted this preceptory in July, 1543, 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 Battisford
John de Accoumbe,8 occurs 1321
Richard de Bachesworth,9 occurs 1328
Henry Haler,10 died 1480
Giles Russel,11 c. 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 120
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 9 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, wnen 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. 12.
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 i6i. to the Friars Preachers of Dunwich for
two days' food. This house benefited to the
extent of 1005. in 1 29 1, 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."
3 Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 167.
4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 403 ; the return is
not quite perfect. Speed gives the value as £53 10/.
5 Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 4.
6 Ibid. pt. vi, m. 27. " Ibid. pt. xv, m. 24.
s 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.
11 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.
12 Palmer, Reliquary, xxvi, 209. 13 Ibid.
" Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 20.
I 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.2
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,
1 538, 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
£ 1 3;. ifd. The site was at once let by the
crown at ich. 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 VVeyland, 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
' Pat. 29 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 6a.
- Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 9 ; pt. ii, m. 33.
3 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii, pt. ii, 102 1, 1023.
* Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, 139.
5 Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, m. 38 (12).
6 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 720 ; Gardner, Hist,
of Dunwich, 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 Kilwardbv,
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 1 308
and in 1334.11
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
103 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, 1 350-1, 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, 1 1 3.
9 Feet of F. Suff. 53 Hen. Ill, 30.
"' Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 27^.
11 Pat. 1 Edw. II, ii. m. 24 ; 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i,
m. 19.
12 Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3.
13 Add. Chart. 10 130.
" Inq. a.q.d. 24 Edw. Ill, 79 ; Pat. 25 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 30.
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.S. 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.2
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. 3
The name of one tourteenth-century prior of
this house is known. In June, 1 397, the master-
general of the order declared that Brother John
de Stanton was the true prior here, and not Brother
William.4
In 1535-6 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.6
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, 1 538/
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*. 2d. a year ; and the whole was sold to him
in 1 541 for £24.8
1 Rot. Gard. de oblat. et eleemos. reg. 5 Edw. I,
25 Edw. I.
■ Reliquary (new ser.), i, 72-5.
3 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 750—2.
* Reg. Mag. gen. ord., at Rome, cited by Father
Palmer.
5 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 236. 6 Ibid.
7 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. i, 1021.
6 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 : —
s' : 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 1 acre 1 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.16
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 129 1 gave 100s., and
Edward I in 1296, when at Waddington, near
this town, gave 30*. to the thirty black friars of
Sudbury for three days' food.16
9 Engraved in Wodderspoon, Ipswich, opp. 305.
"J Weever, Funeral Monuments, 743.
11 Lib. R. 32 Hen. Ill, m. 10.
12 Inq. p.m. 27 Edw. I, No. 87 ; Pat. 27 Edw. I,
m. 14.
13 Inq. p.m. 26 Edw. Ill, z 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 1506.1
The provincial chapter of the Dominicans was
held at Sudbury in 13 16. The king gave ^15 for
the food of the friars on this occasion, being ^5
for himself and ^5 for his queen, and ^5 for his
son Edward. On 24 August the 'deorandopro
rege et regina,' &c, was issued to the assembly.
The province met here again in 1368, when
Edward III made a like donation.2
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.3
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 1 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 ly. \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,
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 1560.5
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, and 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
At that date he obtained the vicarage of the town jurisdiction, called Babwell, and here
154]
Walden, Essex, and afterwards other preferment.
He did active work as suffragan and married in
the reign of Edward VI. When Mary came
1 Reliquary, xxiv, 82-4. *
1 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 38.
' Weever, Funeral Monuments, 743, 778
Ibid. 84.
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
5 Arch. Journ. xxxv, 162-5.
6 Arnold, Memorials (Rolls Sen), ii, 30.
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 141 2, when the general chapter
of the Grey Friars was held at Bury, the great
abbey made a donation of j£io towards their
expenses.5
The popularity of the Babwell friars is proved
by the frequency of bequests to them.6
Robert, bishop of Emly, by his will of 141 1,
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.
* Lib. Gard. R. 28 Edw. I, 46.
3 Arnold, Memorials, ii, 335, 349, 352 ; iii, 294.
4 Pat. 2 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-
8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 760.
9 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 437.
Ibid. 2.
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 ioj.11
Wardens of the Franciscan Friars of
Bury St. Edmunds
Peter de Brigstowe, 1263
Adam EwelC12 14 18
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.15
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.16
Further precautions were taken for the pre-
serving of the old site in the year 141 5. u
The conventual church seems to have been
under repair or re-construction shortly before its
dissolution, for Katharine Read, by will of
16 June, 1 5 14, left 3$. \d. to Friar Nicholas
10 Ibid. 102 1. " Tymms, Bury Wills, 5.
12 Reliquary, xxiv, 85.
13 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 721.
11 Inq. p. m. 18 Edw. I, 92.
15 Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 11.
16 Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 19.
17 Ibid. 16 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 Ilketshall,
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
Wardens4 of the Franciscan Friars of
DUNWICH
John Lacey (predecessor of Bokenham)
Nicholas Bokenham, 1482
George Muse, 1 505
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 : minor :
donewycy 6
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
On the west side of Ipswich, in the parish of
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 1298.7
1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 61.
* Weever, Funeral Monuments, 721.
s Dep. Keeper's Rep. ix, App. ii, 207.
' Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 61.
5 B. M. Cast, lxxi, 106. There is a lithograph of
this seal in Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. ii, opp. 292.
6 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, pi. opp. 43.
7 Dugdale, Baronage, ii, 39 ; Weever, Funeral Monu-
ments, 751.
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,6 and this
protection was renewed in February, 1331.9
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 1 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
tracked out the plate which had been sold or
pledged. He recovered from Archdeacon
Thomas Sillesdon a censer, two chalices, a cross
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.
9 Ibid. 5 Edw. III.pt. i, m. 31.
10 Ibid. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 25, 26.
11 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii, pt. i, 651.
126
*M
&/*?*
Vsl
■a
Philip, Abbot of Leiston, i 190-1235
Leiston Abbey
Suffolk Monastic Seals, Plate IU
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
' till my lord privy seal's pleasure be further
known.' '
Among the corporation records of Ipswich are
two wills of interest with regard to this friary.
Robert of Fornham, who died in 13 19, 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 ; Matgaret, 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 1248.4
1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. i, 699 ; xiii (2), App.
16. 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.
* 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 mortificationis, 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
15th-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.
8 Ibid. No. 166.
.27
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
her first husband, who became the wife of
Sir John de Burgh, built a new chapter-house,
dormitory, and refectory for the friars, about
1 3 10-14. 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 (13 18), granted a like indulgence;4
and so also did Stephen bishop of London in
13 19,6 Benedict, bishop of 'Cardie,' in 1338,6
and John, bishop of LlandafF, in 1347.7
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,
1 36 1, formally assigned in the chapter-house to
Brother John Bachelor, for use at the altar in
' Chartul. Nos. 171-2. 2 Ibid. No. 170.
3 Ibid. No. 160. ' 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 I 333 to I 346.
7 Ibid. No. 163.
8 Ibid. No. 169.
9 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.n
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 1 38 1, granted twenty days' indulgence from
enjoined penance to those contributing to the
fabric.16
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 1 63 1 a curious rhymed
descent of the lords of Clare, in both Latin and
English, from a roll which was then in the
Ibid. No. 165.
Ibid. No. 138.
Ibid. No. 158.
Ibid. No. 161.
'-' Ibid. No. 120.
14 Ibid. Nos. 176, 177.
16 Ibid. No. 174.
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.s
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 £21 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 4.8s. 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 2d. 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,
1 600-1 602.
* Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vi, 80-1.
3 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. ii, 935.
4 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24.
2 12
Priors of the Austin Friars of Clare
Adam de la Hyde, occurs 1299 6
John, occurs 1 349°
Robert, occurs 1 361 , &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, 13 1 1,
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 ; WilliarrTde 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, 148 1.12
Lambarde, writing of this house, which he
mistakenly terms an abbey, savs : ' 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.' 13 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
5 Chartul. No. 122.
6 Ibid. No. 102.
7 Ibid. Nos. 116, 139, 140.
8 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24,
9 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 863.
10 Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 3.
11 Ibid. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 15.
18 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 863.
13 Lambarde, Topog. Diet. (1730), 136,
14 Stevens, Contin. of Mon. ii, 176.
15 Palmer, Hist, of Yarmouth, i, 428
9 17
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
The house was suppressed, with the other
Yarmouth friaries, by Richard Ingworth to-
wards the end of 1538,1 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.2
The Austin Friars of Orford obtained pardon
in 1 314 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
Afurther plot of land, to enlarge their dwelling,
was granted to these friars in 1337, by Walter
de Hewell of Orford.5
Helen Holder, of Orford, bequeathed, in
1526, to the Friars Austin of Orford io*. 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 8 ft.
broad, for the enlargement of their dwelling-
place.8
Pardon was granted to the Carmelites of
Ipswich in December, 1344, for having acquired
1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 1021.
2 Inq. a. q. d. 23 Edw. I, No. 1 20.
3 Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24.
■* Ibid. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 30.
5 Ibid. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 32.
e Add. MS. 19101, fol. in.
7 ' The White Friars at Ipswich,' by Rev. Benedict
iZimmerman, Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, x, 196-204.
6 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,9
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 1377.12
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 13 12 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
9 Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 10.
Ibid.
Edw. II,
pt. 11, m. 24.
11 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. Stiff. Arch. Inst, x, 192.
[30
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,
c 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. \d.y
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, 1539.6
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, 1 335 ; John Hawle, papal
chaplain, 1433 ; John Barmyngham, 1448—9 ;
Richard Hadley, 1 46 1 ; and John Balsham,
bishop of Argyle, 1425. 7
Priors of the Carmflite Friars of
Ipswich
Richard de Yllea, c. 1 280
William Ludlyngton, occuis 1300, &c.
John Berkhamstead, occurs 13 1 2
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 CarmcRtes, Nos. 25, 34, 41, 55,
70, 104, 116, 124; 'The White Friars of Ipswich,'
by the Rev. Benedict Zimmerman, Proc. Suf. Arch.
Inst, x, 196-204.
'L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 102 1
'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.
1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, App. I J.
6 Ibid. 1262.
6 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxii, fol. ib.
7 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 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.
I31
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 devodone,
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 15*., 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.
I'1 1535, 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 Iytell orgaynes very olde,
att X5.' The parlour, several chambers, buttery,
kitchen, bakehouse, and brewhouse were but
poorly furnished. The church plate was valued
at ^28 I2J. \d. ; it included six chalices, two
paxes, and a pair of cruets. The total inventory,
signed by Mary Page, abbess, reached the sum
The abbey, on payment of the sum of j£6o
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 J^y, 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 \s. id.1"
Abbesses of Bruisyard
Emma Beauchamp,11 occurs 1369 and 1390
Agnes,12 occurs 14 13
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 year 1362, when Sir Richard
Walkfare, kt., and others gave to the hospital
'Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 26.
° Ibid. 9 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 7.
3 Ibid. 10 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 26.
'Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 5.
5 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 442-3.
2CU., 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
6L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 1094.
7 Ibid, xi, 347.
8 Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. v, m. 6.
9 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 629.
10 Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 33.
11 Tanner MS. Norw.
12 Ibid. " Ibid.
" Ibid. a Ibid.
16 Ibid. 1 38. 17 Ibid. 202-.
18 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 628.
19 Pat. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m, 34.
[32
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 12^. for a like purpose. John
Bridges, a brother of the hospital, by will of
1567, left 20J. 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 lyff 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.'
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 Hist. qfSiif.i, 22.
2 Add. MS. 191 12, fol. 58.
3 Pat. 4 Edw. VI, pt. iv, m. 3.
4 Suckling, Hist, of Suff. 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.6
It was established by Abbot Edmund, when
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
14 1 6 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/. \d. 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, 1 504,
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
5 Arundel MS. i. This chartulary consists of thirty-
nine folios, the last nine of which are on paper.
6 Ibid. fol. i.
7 Ibid, lb, 2 ; Harl. MS. 638, fol. 138^, I 39.
8 Arundel MS. i, 16a, ija.
9 Harl. MS. 638, fol. 24,192 ; Pat. 16 Ric. II,
pt. i, m. 11.
10 Tymms, Bury Wills, 105-6.
33
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,3 137 1
Reginald Sexter,4 1394
Richard Sudbury,5 14 16
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. 121 5 ; 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 1 35 1 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.
2 Ibid. 14. 3 Ibid. 15a.
5 Ibid. \ja.
7 Tymms, Bury Wills, 105.
8 Close, 8 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m.
9 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 33.
10 Ibid. 28, 30, 83.
11 Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 10.
13 Add. MS. 19103, fol. 160.
Ibid. 16a.
Ibid, passim.
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 19;. id. a year.14
Master Henry Rudde, doctor of Bury, by will
of 1 506, bequeathed to the hospital of St. Nicholas
1 a vestement of whyte satyn and bordrid with
Seynt Nicholas arms, to the value of V mark,' 15
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.' 10
Masters of the Hospital of St. Nicholas,
Bury St. Edmunds
Richard de la Care,17 c. 12 I 5
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 I2d. 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
11 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 466.
15 Tymms, Bury Wills, 107. K Ibid. 138.
17 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 33. I8 Ibid. 105.
10 Harl. MS. 638, fol. 145^.
20 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 123.
21 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 466.
22 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 155-6.
23 Ibid. 29, 31-3, 40, 47, 61, 62, 65, &c.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
of rents in the reign of Edward I,1 and in
1324 an annual rental of \2<i. 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 1 30 1 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.5 In its
later history, the hospital of St. Peter was al-
ways referred to as a lazar-house. The Valor
of 1535 gives 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 16/. 8^., and the
net income as £10 18s. io^d. Out of the
gross, £\ 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.
90, 91.
2 Ibid. 100. s Ibid. 151
4 Reg. Sacr. fol. 86.
* Reg. Kansyk, fol. 94.
6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 465.
7 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 244-5.
8 Reg. Nigrum, fol. 1 8 5.
* Strype, Eccl. Mem. Edw. VI, ii, 241
72, 78,
Masters or Priors of the Hospital of St.
Peter, Bury St. Edmunds
Alan,10r. 1225
Gilbert de Pollekot,11 c. 1240
Robert de Baketone,12 c. 1260
William son of Bartholomew alias Livermore,1
a 1275
Robert,14 occurs 1280
William,15 c. 1300
Thomas de Swanstone,16 occurs 1324
Walter Burton,17 occurs 1439
Christopher Lant,18 occurs 1538
George Hodgson,19 occurs 1 5 5 1
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 ijs. l^d. The income was derived from
temporalities in Bury, Whepstead, and Rush-
brooke, and from a portion of the rectory of
Mildenhall. £4. us. 8d., 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.22
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 1 1 84, 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
poor women.23
Abbot Samson and the convent granted to the
hospital the place upon which the buildings
la Bodl. Chart. Suff. 28, 83.
11 Ibid. 66. «• Ibid. 76. " Ibid. 77.
" Ibid. 70, 84, 87. 16 Ibid. 1386.
16 Ibid. 100. "Ibid. 113. fs Ibid. 151.
19 Strype, Eccl. Mem. Edw. VI, ii, 249.
20 There were considerable remains of it as late as
1780.
21 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 461, 465.
22 Add. MS. 19103, fol. 164.
23 Liber Niger, fol. 24, 30.
*35
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
stood ; ^13 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 2j.,
and to the canons I2d. 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.2
A charter of Abbot John, 1292, 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 5*. 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 22d. 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 B rough ton the hospital should
not again be called upon to provide corrodies
out of its revenues.6
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.
' PopeNicA. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 133.
sHarl. MS. 638, fol. 138.
1 Liber Niger, fol. 30.
5 Pat. 13 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 13.
6 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 6i/J.
' Prot. Stiff. Arch. Inst, vi, 297.
accounts of this hospital for the years 1353-4,
1374-5, 1385-6, 1386-7, and 1438-9. Mention
is made in the accounts for 1386-7 (when the
receipts were £106 is. <)\d. and the expenses
^234 2s- 61^.), 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 55., 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, 13*. \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 £2\ 9*. 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.9
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 £6 2s. 3d.10 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 13 1 8
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
9 Arnold, Mem. ii, 346.
10 Valor Ere/. (Rec. Com.), iii, 451, 453, 461-4-
11 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 244-5.
" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xviii, pt. i, 131, 133.
13 Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 27.
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, pt. 8, 128.
15 Ibid. 129.
16 Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 17.
17 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 103 J.
136
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Si. 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 Riboffwas 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 wheat at 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.3
Protection was granted by Edward II, in
1 31 2, 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 1323.5 In 1330 it was renewed, and in
1 33 1 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 1 63 1, says of this
hospital : —
The church is a great one, and a faire large one after the
oldfashion, 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 ; g Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 29.
5 Ibid. 16 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 17.
6 Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 33.
2 I
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 Hospitall,
to the great hinderance of the poor people of the
said Hospital, as is plainly to be proved.7
Gardner says (1754) that the former great
income had dwindled to jji\ 19s. 8d., of which
48*. went to the master, and the residue to
maintain three or four indigent people 'who
reside in one poor old house, being all the remains
of the buildings, except the shells of the church
and chapel.'8
Masters of the Hospital of St. James,
Dunwich
Hubert,9 c. 1 200
William Coterell,10 1389
John Peyntneye,11 1392
Hugh Blythe,12 1393
Edmund Lyster,13 occurs 1 40 1
Adam Reyner,14 occurs 1499
The thirteenth-century seal of this hospital
shows a full-length figure of St. James with
nimbus, having the right hand raised in bene-
diction, and a crutch or cross-tau in the left.
On each side is an eschallop shell. Legend : —
sigill'. sacti. iacobi. 1
DON 15
52. THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY
TRINITY, DUNWICH
A hospital dedicated to the Holy Trinity, but
more often mentioned as the Domus Dei, Maison
Dieu, or God's House of Dunwich, was founded
at an early date, though no records of it have
been found before the reign of Henry III. It
was then and afterwards in the patronage of the
king, and consisted of a master and six brethren
and certain sisters.
In October, 1304, Edward I granted simple
protection to the master, brethren, and sisters of
the hospital of the Domus Dei, Dunwich.16 In
the following March Robert de Sefeld, and at the
same time two other benefactors, were licensed
to alienate to the hospital land in Dunwich and
Westleton.17 Royal protection authorizing the
collection of alms was renewed by Edward I in
1306,18 and Edward II granted a year's protec-
7 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 719.
s Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 63.
9 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 196.
10 Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 19.
"Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 17.
11 Ibid. 17 Ric. II, pt. 1, m. 22.
13 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 197. " Ibid. 189-90.
15 B. M. Cast, lxxi, 105.
16 Pat. 32 Edw. I, m. 2.
17 Ibid. 33 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 13.
18 Ibid. 34 Edw. I, m. 21.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
tion in 131 1, which was renewed in 1 3 14,
131 5, 131 6, 131 7, and again in 1323, when it
was stated that the house had fallen into debt.1
In 1330 Edward III granted protection for
three years to the master, brethren, sisters, and
envoys of the Maison Dieu of Dunwich, as they
were compelled by their poverty to seek alms
elsewhere,2 and in 1 33 7 protection was renewed
for a year.3
The arm of the civil law was invoked by the
brethren and sisters of this house in 1306, to
recover from the abbot of St. Osyth, Essex, a
certain cross which he had taken away, and to
which very many people used to resort from
divers parts, bringing with them considerable
offerings (non modicas largitiones). The abbot
was ordered to deposit the cross in Chancery,
and eventually on the sworn evidence of good
men of Dunwich that this was the actual cross
that had been taken from God's House of their
town, the abbot was compelled, in the presence
of the chancellor, to restore the cross into the
hands of Adam de Bram, master of the hospital.4
On 24 October, 1378, Richard II revoked
the letters patent of the late king granting to
John Wodecot the custody of the Maison Dieu
of Dunwich ; for it had been granted on the
false suggestion that it was void by the death of
Roger de Elyngton, king's clerk, appointed in
February, 1365, on the resignation of John de
Tamworth. Restitution was to be made to
Roger.6
In 1455 Sibyl Francis made a bequest to the
fabric of the church of ' le Mesyndieu ' ; Robert
Sharparew left 3/. 4^. in 15 12 to the reparation
of the 'Mezendew' ; and in 1527 there was a
legacy towards the paving of the church.
In Weever's time (1631) the church had
been pulled down. He describes the hospital as
decayed, like that of St. James, through evil
masters and other covetous persons, but still pos-
sessing divers tenements, lands, and rents for the
poor of the hospital.6
Gardner (1754) states that in his days the
income, through ' ill-disposed rules,' was reduced
to ,£il \~js. The master drew £2 as salary,
and the rest was divided
among a few Poor who live in the Masters and
another old decrepid House, being all that is left of
the Buildings, except a small portion of the South
Wall of the Church.7
1 Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 22, &c.
2 Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9.
3 Ibid. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 5.
* Piynne, Antiq. Const Regni Angliae, 1 137-8.
5 Pat. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 25.
6 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 7 1 9. He adds, ' I
would to God these injuries and wrongs don to these
two poore Hospitals might be restored, and reformed
again to their former estate. For, surely, whosoever
shall doe it, shall doe a good worke before God ; I
pray God bring it to passe, Amen.'
7 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 66.
Masters of the Hospital of the Holy
Trinity, Dunwich
Robert Falconis,8 died 1290
Robert de Sefeld,9 appointed 1290, removed
Adam de Bram,10 appointed 1306
John de Langeton,11 appointed 13 19
John de Tamworth,12 resigned 1365
Roger de Elyngton,13 appointed 1365
John Elyngton,14 resigned 1386
John Hereford,15 appointed 1386
William Coterell,16 appointed 1389
Adam de Elyngton,17 appointed 1390
John Lucas,18 appointed 1390
John Hopton,19 appointed 1466
The common seal of this house is a large
oval, bearing in the centre the three lions of
Henry III surmounted by a triple cross, on the
lowest limb of which are two fleurs-de-lis.
Legend : —
SIGILLUM. FRATRUM. DOMUS. DEI. DE.
DONEWICO.20
53. THE HOSPITAL OF EYE
There was a leper hospital outside the town
of Eye which was probably of early foundation,
but no record has been found concerning it
earlier than the reign of Edward III.
Protection was granted in 1329 to Adam
Fraunceis, master, and the brethren of the leper
hospital of St. Mary Magdalen without the
town of Eye, and for their messengers collecting
alms about the realm, as they had nothing of
their own whereon to live,21 and in 1337 similar
protection was granted for two years.22
Tanner says that it continued till the Dissolu-
tion, and was under the government of the bailiff
and burgesses of the town.23
54. THE LEPER HOUSE OF
GORLESTON
Not much is known of the lazar-house of
Gorleston. It was probably one of those leper
houses of early establishment of which records
are so few, as they were supported almost entirely
s Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 42. '
"' Ibid. 34 Edw. I, m. 21.
" Ibid. 12 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 6.
12 Ibid. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 25. "
14 Ibid. 10 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 1 1. B
16 Ibid. 13 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 19, 17.
17 Ibid. pt. iii, m. 4.
18 Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40.
19 Ibid. 6 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 19.
'"' Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, pi. opp. p. 4.3,
81 Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37.
22 Ibid. 11 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22.
23 Tanner, Notitia, Surf, xx, 2.
Ibid.
'3«
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
by the alms of those entering or leaving the town
on whose outskirts they were planted.
Protection was granted by Edward III for
two years, in June, 1331, to the master and
brethren of the hospital of St. Mary and
St. Nicholas (sic), Gorleston, and their mes-
sengers collecting alms, as the house had not
sufficient means of subsistence.1
The house is mentioned in a will of 1372,
and again in 1379, when Simon Atte Gap, of
Great Yarmouth, bequeathed a legacy of 6s. 8d.
towards its maintenance.2
Part of its small possessions were held of the
manor of Gapton by the tenure of a yearly pair
of gloves. In the receipts of Gapton Hall court
roll for 1643 is entered : —
Received of Humphrey Prince, gent, for one acre
called Glove Acre, a payer of gloves, of him for the
house, late the hospital of St. James (sic) in South-
to.vne, Geth by the way of Yarmouth viiia'.3
Some of its lands are now in possession of
Magdalen College, Oxford ; they were known
as ' Spytelyng in Gorleston.' 4
55 and 56. THE LEPER HOSPITALS
OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN AND
ST. JAMES, IPSWICH
The first known mention of the leper hos-
pital of St. Mary Magdalen, Ipswich, occurs in
1 1 99, when King John granted it a fair on the
feast of St. James the Apostle.5 This grant
was confirmed and extended by Henry VI in
1430, when the fair was authorized to be held
on the land of this house, on both the day and
the morrow of St. James's festival.6
There was also a leper hospital of St. James
in this town, which was united to the hospital
of St. Mary Magdalen in the fourteenth century,
and held by a common master. The joint
mastership of the two hospitals was in the gift of
the bishop, and to it was usually annexed the
church of St. Helen with the chapel of St. Ed-
mund. There are many collations to this joint
benefice in the diocesan registers.
In October, 1324, the custody of the ad-
ministration of the goods of the leper hospital of
St. James, then vacant, was committed to the
custody of the (rural) dean of Carlford, according
to ancient custom, so that he might answer for
the time being for the receipts and expenditure
of the house.7
1 Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34.
s Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. i, 37.
3 Gapton Ct. R. cited by Suckling, ibid.
4 Hist.MSS. Com. Rep. iv, 461, 463.
5 Chart. R. 1 John, pt. ii, No. 91.
6 Add. Chart. 10104.
7 Norvv. 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 139014
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 . . ,'22
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 £1 6s. Sd. 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, 1320.24
8Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 88. 9 Ibid, iv, 134.
10 Ibid, v, 53. "Ibid, v, 76. ,2 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. ls Ibid.
19 Ibid, xi, 170. 2° Ibid, xi, 18+.
21 Taylor, Index Mon. 1 1 6.
23 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 232.
-' Add. MS. 19094, fol. 144.
21 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 16.
'39
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.2
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 1319,
that John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, held the
advowson of the God's Hospital, Thetford.5
In that year a considerable store of cattle and
goods is described 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.
In 1335, John 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.
1 Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 19, 17.
'Add MS. 19101, fol. 106.
3 Blomefield, Hist, of Nor/, ii, 79.
f Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 92.
5 Close, 1 2 Edw. II, m. 9.
6 Norvv. 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 Lancaster, 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 1264.11
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
9 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.
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 Colnevs
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
survivors 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 40X. 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.2
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
(pbelaschep) of the same, to deliver the said manor
'Add. MS. 19078, fol. 376.
14
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-
* Add. MS. 19078, fol. 377.
3 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vii, 268-74.
4 Tymms, Bury Wills, 56, 58.
s Ibid. 64-8.
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, ^^ ^2d. ' t0 c'le
gilde of the holy name of Jesu, holden at the
college.' John Coote, by will of 1502, left
3*. 4^. 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 6s. 8d. 'to the
company of the Jesus College in Bury, towards
their stoke for salte 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 feoffamente by oone William
Coote clerke to contynnewe for ever to the intente
that in the seid Capytall Messuage nowe called the
65. THE COLLEGE OF DENSTON
Edward IV, on 1 March, 1475, licensed Sir
John Howard, knight, and John Broughton the
younger, esquire, to found a perpetual chantry
or college of a warden and society of chaplains
to celebrate divine service daily at Denston, and
to do other works of piety according to their
ordinance, to be called ' Denston Chauntry.'
They were also licensed to grant in mortmain
to the warden and society possessions not held in
chief, to the value of £4.0 yearly.4
It was endowed with the manor of Beau-
monde in Denston parish, and with lands in
Lilsey, Monks Eleigh, Groton, and Badley
Parva.6
The Valor of 1535 mentions Peter Calcott
as then master of the college of Denston, of the
foundation of John Denston. The rectory of
Denston pertained to the college, but was then
in the hands of the king, and its value is not
given. The temporalities of the college were
valued at £25 gs. l\d., but various outgoings,
including 401. given to the poor on the anni-
versary of John Denston brought down the clear
annual value to £22 8s. yd.6
In 1548 Denston is entered as a small college
Colledge, all the priestes of the parysshe churches of consisting of a warden or master and two priests
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 lxiii 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 xlr of a prebente in Staffordshyre. A manne
beinge indifferently welle learned.'
The college is described as being distant two
furlongs from the parish church, and of the
annual value of 40J. The goods and household
stuff were valued at 7 7 J. 2d., and a bell weighing
20 lb. at 3*. 4-d.
Separate entry is made of a chantry endow-
ment of £6 8s. \d. yearly value, for the master
or president of the college to say mass for the
soul of William Coote in the parish church of
St. Mary's, which was also held by Thomas
Neche.
Also of another chantry founded by John
Smyth for a chaplain of the college to say mass
in St. Mary's Church, of the value of £\2. The
chantry priest was John Stacye, and the surplus
was to be used for the repairs of the college.3
1 Pat. 21 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 5.
* Tymms, Bury Wills, 81, 92, 125, 127.
■ Chant. Cert. 45, No. 44.
-brethren. Richard Baldry, the master,,
had a stipend of j£io and the two priests,
Richard Marshall and Robert Fisher, £5 each.
They served the parish church and had a
mansion house adjoining. The gross income
was there set down as £27 gs. 2\d. and the net
income as ^22 17*. i^d.7 After suppression the
college property was assigned in 1548 to Thomas,
and John Smith.8
66.
THE CARDINAL'S COLLEGE,
IPSWICH
A college of secular canons at Ipswich to-
which was attached a school was one of the two
considerable educational schemes projected by
Cardinal Wolsey. The college at Oxford came
eventually to a successful issue, but the college
at Ipswich perished ere it had come to maturity.
This college was erected on the site of the
dissolved priory of St. Peter and St. Paul. On
14 May, 1528, the king confirmed the bull of
Pope Clement for the suppression of this monas-
tery and the founding of the college at Ipswich.9
To help to find funds for this considerable pro-
ject, the pope also sanctioned the appropriation
to it of the Ipswich churches of St. Peter, St-
4 Pat. 14 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 5.
6 Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1468.
6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 471.
7 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 25.
8 Proc. Arch. Inst, vi, 46.
9 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 241.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
Nicholas, St.-Mary-at-Quay, St. Clement, and
St. Matthew, and the small monasteries of Snape,
Dodnash, Wikes, Tiptree, Horkesley, Rumburgh,
Felixstowe, Bromhill, Blythburgh, and Mountjoy,
together with the various churches pertaining to
them.1
The actual date of the laying of the foun-
dation stone is known from the inscription with
which it was at that time incised. The stone
was found in two pieces built up into a common
piece of walling in Woulfoun's Lane, in 1789,
and given to Christ Church, Oxford. It is in-
serted in the wall at the entrance to the Chapter
House, on the right-hand side. It bears the
following inscription : 'Anno Christi 1528, et
regni Henrici Octavi Regis Angliae 20 mensis
vero Junii 15, positum per Johannem Episcopum
Lidensem.' John Longland, bishop of Lincoln,
was also employed by the Cardinal to lay the
first stone of his college at Oxford.2
The royal licence for the founding of this
college in Ipswich, the cardinal's birthplace,
granted in the same month as the laying
of the foundation stone, set forth that it
was to consist of one dean or master, twelve
priests (sacerdotes), eight clerks, eight singing boys
and poor scholars, and thirteen poor men, to
pray for the good estate of the king and cardinal,
and for the souls of the cardinal's parents, and
also of one undermaster (hipodidasculus) in gram-
mar for the said poor scholars and others coming
to the college from any part of the realm. This
licence also included a grant of incorporation for
the foundation, bearing the name of the Car-
dinal's College of St. Mary in Ipswich, with
mortmain licence to endow it to the annual
value of £100 for the erection of chantries and
appointment of anniversaries, etc.3
Dr. William Capon, master of Jesus College,
Cambridge, was appointed dean, and on 3 July,
1528, a commission was nominated consisting
of Dr. Capon, Dr. Higden, dean of Cardinal's
College, Oxford, Dr. Stephen Gardiner and
others, to amend and reform the statutes of
the two colleges. On the same day the notarial
attestation of the foundation charter of Ipswich
College was made in the south gallery of
Hampton Court.4
The exemption of the college from diocesan
jurisdiction was granted by a bull of Pope
Clement VII, which was confirmed by the king
on 20 August, 1528.5
A letter from the cardinal to the younger
countess of Oxford was written on 3 September,
asking her to send ' two bucks next Lady Day '
(Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary, 8 September),
1 L.andP.Hen. FIII,iy, pt. ii, 4229, 4259, 4297,
4307, 4424, 5076.
1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vi, 334-5.
3 Pat. 20 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 32.
* L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. ii, 4460, 4461.
'Ibid. 4652.
to the college at Ipswich, for the entertainment
of Drs. Stevyns and Lee, whom he is sending
thither for the induction of certain priests, clerks,
and children, for the maintenance of God's ser-
vice there. Various presents for a great dinner
on this occasion also reached the college on
7 September, from the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke
of Suffolk, Sir Philip Booth, and others.6
The newly appointed dean wrote at length to
Wolsey on 26 September, acknowledging the
receipt on 6 September of parcels of vestments
and plate, hangings, Sec. Cromwell and Lee
and Stevyns, who brought the parcels, remained
in the college four days, and Cromwell was at
great pains in preparing the hangings and
benches for the hall, which was then well
trimmed. On Our Lady's Even, the dean, sub-
dean, six priests, eight clerks, nine choristers,
and all their servants, after evensong in the
college church (St. Peter's), repaired to Our
Lady's Chapel and sang evensong there. They
were accompanied by the bailiffs of the town, the
portmen, the prior of Christ Church (Holy
Trinity), and others. On 8 September it rained
so continuously that the procession through the
town had to be abandoned, but they made as
solemn a procession as they could in the college
church, all the honourable gentlemen of the
shire were there as well as the town officials, the
Bishop of Norwich, and the priors of Christ
Church and Butley. They all dined together
in the college. The dearv considered the singing
men well chosen, but some of them said that
they had got better wages where they came
from. One man was not sufficient to keep the
church vestry clean, ring the bells, prepare the
altar lights, etc., therefore he had put in another
man and called him sexton. There were but
five priests under the sub-dean, too few to keep
three masses a day, and the sub-dean could not
attend as he was required to superintend the
buildings. Mr. Lentall was of much zeal with
the quire both for mattins and masses : ' there
shall be no better children in any place
in England than we shall have here shortly.'
He had made fifteen albs of the new cloth,
but there were many more to be made.
Nine bucks arrived for the Lady's Day, which
were distributed with money to make merry
withal to the chamberlains and head men of the
town, to the bailiffs and portmen's wives, and to
the curates. They also received coneys,
pheasants, quails, and a fat crane. One hundred
and twenty one tons of Caen stone had arrived,
and he expected a hundred more after Michael-
mas, and there was promise of a thousand tons
more before Easter.7
With regard to the school attached to the
college, there is an interesting letter extant of
6 Ibid. 4696, 4706.
7 Ibid. 4778. This letter is set forth at length
in Ellis, Orig. Let. (1st ser.), i, 185.
[43
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
William Goldwin, the schoolmaster, dated 1 0 Jan-
uary, 1528-9, to Cardinal Wolsey. He ex-
pressed his gratitude and that of the people of
Ipswich, and sent specimens of the handwriting
of some of the boys, who, he hopes, will soon be
able to speak Italian ; the number is increasing,
so that the school-house is becoming too small.1
A letter from William Brabazon to Cromwell
on 24 July, 1529, mentions that my lord's col-
lege at Ipswich is going on prosperously, and
' much of it above the ground, which is very
curious work.' The sub-dean, Mr. Ellis, takes
the oversight of it ; he has stone and all other
necessaries, and they are working day and night,2
In the following year came the fall of Wolsey,
and with his fall this unfinished college came to
an end. On the disgrace of its founder, the king
claimed all the founder's property.
On 14 November, 1530, the commissioners
made an inventory of all the plate and goods.
They seized a vast amount of church and domes-
tic plate, and after stripping the buildings of
everything of value, they charged Dean Capon
with having £1,000 of the cardinal's treasures in
his possession. Not believing his denial the
commissioners, with six yeomen of the guard
and eighteen other persons, waited five days on
the premises ere they left. On Sunday 21 No-
vember, members of the Duke of Norfolk's council
took possession of the buildings, and on the mor-
row the dean left for London.3
In 1 53 1 the actual site of the college, formerly
the priory of St. Peter and St. Paul, was granted
to Thomas Alvard, one of the gentlemen ushers
of the king's chamber, together with all the
Ipswich property pertaining to ' the late Cardy-
nelles College.'4 Other property of the college
was granted by patent to the provost and college
of Eton,6 and yet more to the abbot and convent
of Waltham.6 ' The very site,' says Mr. Wodder-
spoon, ' of the Cardinal's College becomes in a
brief space of time a spot for depositing of the
refuse and filth of the town.'
67. THE COLLEGE OF METTINGHAM 7
The college of Raveningham was founded on
24 July, 1350, by Sir John de Norwich, eldest
son of Sir Walter de Norwich and Catherine
his wife. It consisted of a master and eight
secular priests or canons who were to officiate in
the parish church of Raveningham for the weal
of the souls of the founder and Margaret his
wife, in honour of God and the Blessed Virgin,
1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. iii, 5159.
• Ibid. 5792.
5 Wodderspoon, Mem. Ifszv. 327-8.
4 Pat. 23 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 4.
5 Ibid. m. 27. 6 Ibid. m. 26.
: Blomefield, Hist, of Nor/, viii, 52-4; Dugdale,
Mon. vi, 1459 ; Taylor, Index Mon. 49.
St. Andrew the Apostle, and all saints. The
church was dedicated to the honour of St. Andrew,
but the collegiate house, according to the foun-
dation charter, was to be named after the Blessed
Virgin.8
The college was well endowed by the founder
and his heirs with the manors of Lyng, Howe,
Blackworth, Hadeston, and Little Snoring, and
with the appropriation of the churches of Raven-
ingham and Norton Subcourse,9 as well as with
lands and rents in various other parishes.
In 1382 there was a proposal to remove the
college to Mettingham Castle (Suffolk). On
5 July of that year John Plays, Robert Honeard,
and Roger de Boys, knights, and John de
Wolterton and Elias de Byntre, rectors of the
respective churches of Harpley and Carleton,
paid the immense sum of £866 135. \d. to the
crown for licence to transfer the chantry of eight
chaplains from Raveningham to Mettingham
Castle ; to increase the number of chaplains or
canons to thirteen, and to alienate in mortmain
to the college the said castle and 60 acres of land,
18 of meadow, 2 of pasture, £5 ioj. in rents,
and much more land in various townships, three
parts of the manor of Bromfield, the manor of
Mellis, and the manor of Lyng, notwithstanding
that the manor last named is held of the Duke of
Brittany as of the honour of Richmond.10
Some difficulty as to this transfer arose chiefly
through the opposition of the nuns of Bungay,
who had the appropriation of the church of
Mettingham, and the college continued at
Raveningham for several years after this date.
On 6 August, 1387, the same applicants ob-
tained a grant from the king, on the payment
of the modest fee of one mark in the hanaper, to
transfer the chantry of Sir John de Norwich's
foundation from Raveningham, where it still was,,
to the church which was then being newly built
in the rectory of Norton Subcourse, and that in
consideration of the great fine of 1 382 the master
and twelve chaplains and their successors at
Norton should hold all the lands and possessions
granted to the chantry at Raveningham with
the castle of Mettingham and all lands and
possessions granted when it was proposed to
move the college to that castle.11
A proposition for this transference to Norton
had been made in the reign of Edward III and
licence obtained in 1371, but it came to nought.13
Sir John de Norwich of Mettingham Castle, by
will of 1373, left his body to be buried in
Raveningham church by the side of his father
Sir Walter, there to rest till it could be moved
to the new church of Norton Subcourse, to the
building of which he bequeathed £450.
• Weever, Funeral Monuments, 365.
9 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 31, 32.
10 Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 35.
" Ibid. 11 Ric. II.pt. i, m. 25.
" Ibid. 45 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
On the death of Sir John de Norwich, the
last heir male of the family, his cousin, Katharine
de Brews, was found heir ; Sir John Plays and
Sir Robert Howard and the others who obtained
licence for the removal of the college to Metting-
ham in 1382, and to Norton in 1387, were that
lady's trustees, on whom she settled the college's
inheritance.
On the removal of the master and twelve
chaplains to Norton the college still retained
the title of the place where it was first founded ;
the society was termed ' Ecclesia Collegiata
S. Marie de Raveningham in Norton Soupecors.'
But the college merely tarried at Norton for
seven years; in 1394 it was eventually removed
to the castle of Mettingham, where it remained
until its dissolution.1
Richard Shelton, the master, and nine chap-
lains signed their acknowledgement of the royal
■supremacy of 28 September, 1534.2
The Valor of 1535, when Richard Skelton
was master, gives the clear annual value of the
temporalities in Suffolk and Norfolk of the college
of the Blessed Virgin of Mettingham as
£191 10s. O^d. and of the rectories of Raven-
ingham and Norton as £10 ijs. 5^., giving a
total clear annual value of £202 Js. $%d. It also
appears from the Valor that the college supported
fourteen boys in the house and gave them
education as well as board, lodging, and clothes,
at an annual charge of £28.
The college was surrendered to the crown on
8 April, 1542. The surrender was signed by
Thomas, bishop of Ipswich, as master or warden,
with the consent of his fellows or chaplains.3
On 14 April of the same year the college with
all its possessions was granted to Sir Anthony
Denny.4
This Denny was clerk of the Privy Chamber
and keeper of Westminster Palace, and profited
much by monastic and collegiate plunder. A
letter from Robert Dacres of the Privy Council
to Anthony Denny, dated 13 May, 1542, states
that his profit had been advanced as well among
the chaplains of the college as the tenants.
There were secured for him two great chalices
and a great pix of silver and parcel gilt, divers
rich corporas cases and nineteen massive silver
spoons, as well as palls of silk, &c. The college,
notwithstanding the obsequious and servile word-
ing of the ' voluntary ' surrender, had made some
endeavour to conceal certain church goods and
other property from the legalized marauders ;
but ' one simple priest being well examined gave
light to all these things, and then all the other
priests confessed.' 5
1 Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 14.
1 Dep. Keeper3! Rep. vii, App. ii, 86.
3 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 746-7, where the document
is cited at length.
4 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. vi, m. 3.
5 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xvii, 322.
Masters of Raveningham College 6
Thomas Boyton, 1349
Alexander de Boyne, 1355
Adam Wyard, 1 361
John de Carlton Rode, 1375
Roger Wiltey, 1380
68. THE COLLEGE OF STOKE BY
CLARE
Richard de Clare, earl of Hereford, removed,
in 1 1 24, the monks of Bee whom his father
had established in the castle of Clare to the
town of Stoke. This alien priory was naturalized
in 1395 ;7 but in 1415 Edmund Mortimer, earl
of March, its then patron, caused it to be
changed into a college of secular priests or
canons, by virtue of a bull from Pope John XXIII,
ratified by Pope Martin V.8
The first charter of foundation was not sealed
by the earl until 9 May, 1 419 ;9 and the seal of
the college was attached to the statutes by Thomas
Barnsley, the first dean, on 28 January, 1422-3. 10
It was provided by the statutes that the college
should consist of a dean and six canons, who
were to form the chapter, to whom obedience
was due from the inferior ministers, and whose
order in quire, chapter, and procession is exactly
set forth. They were all to reside a full thirty-
two weeks yearly, the dean or vice-dean regulating
the period of residence for each ; every canon in
residence was, on every double feast, to attend
mattins, high mass, evensong, and compline, and
on every festival mattins or mass or one of the
hours ; the dean was to hold for the college all
the tithes and appurtenances of the parish
churches of Stoke and Honydon, and all the
tithes of the manors of Arbury and of Chilton ;
the dean's residence was to be in a manse called
' Locus Decani,' and he was to receive annually
20 marks ; the prebends allotted to each stall,
three on the south side and three on the north,
are all set forth, the prebendary of the first stall
on the north side having also at his disposal the
chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Stoke ; neither
the dean nor canons were to be in bed beyond
six o'clock in the morning, or at the latest half
past six, save if oppressed by old age or notable
infirmity ; any canon absent from divine offices
but found present at table at meal times was to
be punished by the dean or vice-dean.
6 From Blomefield, corrected by the episcopal
registers.
7 The making denizen of this alien priory of
St. John Baptist is set forth at great length on the
patent rolls. To secure this privilege from the crown,
Richard Cotesford, the English-born prior, was re-
quired to pay 1,000 marks, at the rate of 100 marks
a year, towards 'the new work' at St. Peter's,
Westminster. Pat. 19 Ric. II. pt. i, m. 8.
8 Cott. MS. Vit. D. xii, fol. 73, 79.
9 Ibid. fol. j 3d. 10 Ibid. fol. 81.
5 19
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
There were also to be eight vicars and two
upper clerks sworn to continual residence, and
instructed in plain song and part-song (in piano
cantu et dhcantii) ; five chorister boys of good
life to help in singing and to serve in quire, each
to receive five marks a year, or at least food and
clothing and all necessaries ; vicars or choristers
absent from mattins, mass, or evensong to be fined
one penny, from the other hours a farthing, the
fines to be used for buying church ornaments.
There were to be, in addition, two under clerks,
perpetually resident, to act as keepers of the
vestments, bellringers, lamp-trimmers, door-
keepers, clock-winders, &c. The mattins bell
was to be rung at five and the last stroke at six ;
high mass to be finished at 1 1 a.m. and evensong
at 5 p.m. All services were to follow the use
of Sarum. The mass of Our Lady to be sung
daily as well as the mass of the day, save when
the mass of the day was of the Blessed Virgin,
and then the second mass was to be of Requiem.
Mattins and evensong were to be sung daily
immediately after the ringing of the bell, save in
Lent, when evensong of Our Lady was to follow
evensong of the day. The canons were to wear
grey almuces and the vicars black, and both
were to wear black copes and white surplices at
mattins, mass, and the other hours, after the
manner of other colleges. A master was to be
appointed at 40*. salary to teach the boys reading,
plain song, part-song, &c, and to give his ex-
clusive time to them, seeing after their clothes,
beds, and other necessaries.
Every evening at eight the curfew bell was to
be rung for a sufficient time to admit of walking
from the chapel of St. Mary to the college, and
when the bell finished every outer door was to
be fastened, and no one of the household of the
college, from canon to chorister, was to be per-
mitted to be outside the house save by special
permission of the dean or vice-dean. No canon,
vicar, or clerk was to frequent taverns at Stoke
or Ash ; a canon thus offending to be suspended
for a year, and other minister to be expelled.
No canon (except he had an income of £40 a
year), nor vicar, nor clerk was to hunt ; nor were
greyhounds or any kind of hunting dogs to be
kept within the college save by the dean, whose
dogs were not to exceed four. No canon nor
minister of the college was to carry arms of any
kind, either defensive or offensive, within the
college, under pain, if a canon, of forfeiting the
arms to the dean for the first offence, and paying
a fine of 20*. to the church fabric for a second
offence ; a vicar or clerk thus acting was to be ex-
pelled. Other statutes dealt with striking blows,
incontinency, slander, and debts ; the attaining
to a thorough knowledge of vocal and instru-
mental music ; the offices of verger and janitor,
with their respective duties and emoluments ;
the division and cultivation of the vicars' garden ;
the common seal, and its custody ; the rendering
of annual accounts ; the arrangement of the
masses ; the dining in common hall, and the
reading of the Bible at meals ; leave of absence
for eight weeks for a vicar, and six weeks for a
clerk ; the use of special antiphons ; the ringing
or causing to be rung of a bell on the chancel
gable (of such sound that it would carry half a
mile) by each priest when about to celebrate
mass ; the giving of a cope of 40*. value by
each canon within the year of his appointment j
the election of dean and canons on a vacancy,
and the election of vicars, clerks, and choristers ;
the assigning of the churches of Gazeley,
Crimplesham, and Bures, and various pensions,
&c. for the sustenance of the vicars ; the giving
to the college by each vicar within a year of his
appointment of six silver spoons, or 1 3*. \d. to
purchase them ; and the oath to be taken by
each member of the college.
The last of all these numerous statutes provided
that daily, immediately after compline, there shall
be sung in the Lady chapel, by all the ministers
present, the antiphon of the Blessed Virgin,
namely, Salut Regina, &c. It is noted that this
one statute was added at the special petition of
Richard Flemyng, bishop of Lincoln, who pro-
cured the confirmation of the statutes by Pope
Martin.1
These statutes were slightly amended from
time to time, and the number of the prebends
augmented as benefactions increased.2
The clear annual value of the college of St.
John Baptist, Stoke, was shown by the Valor of
1535 to be ^324 4*. i\d. The temporalities
in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, and Hertfordshire
brought in an income of ^99 1 is. "]\d. The
spiritualities produced ^268 4*., and included
the Essex rectories of Great Dunmow, Thaxted,
Bardfield Magna, Bardfield Saling, Wetherfield.
Finchingfield, and Bures ; the Gloucestershire
rectory of Bisley ; the Norfolk rectory of
Crimplesham, and the Suffolk rectories of Gaze-
ley, Cavenham, Hundon, and Stoke ; together
with a great number of pensions or portions from
other churches. The offerings at the image of
the Blessed Virgin within her chapel in Carte-
strete, Stoke, averaged 40J. a year.3
The church of Great Dunmow had been
appropriated to the college in 1 48 1, and that of
Wetherfield in 1503.4
1 These elaborate statutes are set forth in full in
Latin in Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1417—23. There is an
English translation of them. Add. MS. 19103,87-95.
2 The institutions in the Norwich diocesan register
of some fifty years later record admission to the sixth
stall on the dean's side (the dean taking the first),
and to the fifth stall on the north side, so there must
have been at one time ten prebendaries.
3 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 469-71. There were
then six prebendaries and a canon.
4 Parker MSS. C. C. C. Camb. cviii, 2-3. There
is much pertaining to the endowments and statutes
of Stoke College in Parker's noble collection of MSS.
They are numbered cviii, 2-4, 16-18, 22-40
clxx, 137. See Nasmyth's Catalogue (1777).
.46
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
The college was visited in February, 1493, by-
Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary for his
brother the bishop. The visitation was attended
bv Richard Edenham, bishop of Bangor (1465—
1496), who held the deanery, and six canons,
together with three vicars, two ' conducts,' six
clerks, a verger, and five choristers. There was
no reform needed.1
All the members of the college were summoned
to a visitation held by Bishop Nykke in the Lady
Chapel of Sudbury College in June, 15 14. The
vicars-choral were first examined ; their testi-
mony was that everything was laudably conducted,
but that the number of the vicars had been re-
duced from eight to six for many years, owing
to insufficiency of income ; one of their number
■complained that their statutory privilege of being
absent for eight weeks in the year without any
diminution of stipend was no longer observed.
Bishop Edenham, as dean, made a satisfactory
report. Thomas Whitehead, prebendary of the
second stall on the south side, and Thomas
Wardell, prebendary of the second stall on the
north side, stated that the book of the statutes
had been suspiciously erased and interlined,
particularly in the parts relative to the residence
of the canons and vicars. Another of the pre-
bendaries complained that the dean and Thomas
Whitehead had been illegally felling much
timber and applying it to the repairs of a mill,
whereas the woods were only to be used for the
repairs of the college and its houses ; also that
Whitehead had carried off much pertaining to
the college for the repair of his benefice of Bird-
brook. The same prebendary, William Wiott,
also stated that Whitehead lived scandalously at
his benefice. A fourth prebendary said that the
erasures in the book of the statutes led to many
disputes ; and that although there were but six
-vicars instead of eight, there were nevertheless
four clerks serving in quire, although the statutes
only provided for two. It was also alleged that
profits of the appropriated churches of Dunmow
and Bisley, formerly assigned for the augmenta-
tion of the vicars, were now divided among the
canons. The bishop was evidently not satisfied,
and prorogued his visitation to the next feast of
the Annunciation.2
The next recorded visitation was held in
Stoke agreed to a revision of their statutes, in the
presence of the bishop's commissary, on account
of the erasures and interlineations in the original
copy ; they promised to abide by any decision at
which the bishop might arrive.4
Five years later, namely on 12 July, 1526,
the bishop in person visited the college. Of the
beginning of this visitation an unusually detailed
account is preserved in the register. It was held
in the chapter-house, or, as the bishop's scribe
explains it, ' in the vestry which they hold to
be a chapter-house in the collegiate church of
Stoke.' Thomas Whitehead, the senior canon,
who had held a prebend here for twenty-nine
years, in the presence and with the consent of
three other canons, asserted openly before the
diocesan, that Richard Griffith, receiver-general
and secretary of Queen Katharine, had at her
command forcibly taken away, in spite of their
protests, the statutes and muniments of the
college, namely the book of the statutes, the bull
of Pope John XXII as to the founding of the
college with bulla attached, the confirmation of
Henry V, the charter of Edmund earl of March,
and the charter of Richard duke of York, with
other muniments and evidences, and the common
seal with three other seals. The visitation notes
continue, Et dicit magister Whitehed, and then
suddenly break off.
At this point in the visitation a startling in-
cident occurred. A letter from the cardinal was
handed to the bishop. Cardinal Wolsey was at
this time endeavouring to carry out his scheme
of suppressing various small religious houses that
seemed to be of little use, in favour of establishing
the two large collegiate foundations at Ipswich
and Oxford. The pope had granted him ample
powers, and he had cast his eyes on the wealthy
college of Stoke. Learning that the bishop of
Norwich was making a visitation tour, it became
a matter of some moment to check it. The
cardinal's commissioners were anxious to make
out a good case for the suppression of the college,
and probably had their brief prepared ; more-
over the non-resident master or dean of the
college, ' no estimable person,' had been already
gained over. But the college was now under
the patronage of the queens of England, and
when Queen Katharine learnt what was con-
June, 1520, when the suffragan Bishop of Chal- templated she acted with prompt decision, sent
down her faithful servant Griffith and took
possession of the title deeds. Meanwhile, on
8 July, the cardinal wrote to the dean announ-
cing that he was about to visit the college on
1 August, with powers of a legate a latere.
This important and ominous letter seems to have
cedon and two other commissaries were the
visitors. The vicars had been reduced from
eight to five, for whose support there was scarcely
sufficient ; nevertheless the ' conducts ' or clerks
had been increased in numbers. The fellows or
prebendaries repeated their complaints as to the
tampering with the book of the statutes, and been handed to the bishop just after he had
consequent disputes. The visitation was pro- begun his visitation. Cardinal Wolsey had full
rogued until Michaelmas.3 power as legate to inhibit the bishop visiting, but
In April, 1 52 1, the master and fellows of the Bishop of Norwich was on safe ground in
considering that a letter addressed to the dean of
1 Jessopp, Visit. 42-3.
'Ibid. 81-3. 'Ibid. 132-4. * Ibid. 195.
147
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
the college did not concern him, and he continued
the visitation regardless of the contents. The
letter, however, of the cardinal to the dean was
set forth at length by the bishop's scribe in his
register ; it stated that the religious life of the
college was said to have declined, and the dean
and canons were cited to appear on I August
before the cardinal's commissioners. This letter
had reached the college on 1 1 July.
The notes of the interrupted but continued
visitation show that Dr. William Greene, the
dean, was not present, but that six prebendaries
were in attendance, with eight vicars and five
1 conducts ' or lay stipendiaries. The result of
the several examination of the canons and the
vicars is set forth in detail. It was shown that
the janitor of the college, who ought to be in resid-
ence, was in attendance on the queen ; that the
dean, though bound to reside, was non-resident
and in other ways broke the statutes ; that George
Gelibrond, one of the vicars who had been forced
upon them by the present dean, though incap-
able of singing, was a most quarrelsome and dis-
creditable person ; and that the dean had presented
him to the vicarage of Stoke under his seal,
without the consent of the chapter, and had also
dismissed a vicar of the college without cause
and without the leave of the chapter. All the
vicars united in complaining of Gelibrond, most
of them also stating that he defamed Cardinal
Wolsey. Three slightly different versions in
English are entered of the actual words used by
Gelibrond when defaming the cardinal, the
most pungent is : 'It is a pitie that he berith
the rule that he doithe, and if otheremen wolde
doo as I wolde, he shoulde be plucked out of his
house by the eyres. I wolde to God there were
xl thousand of my mynde.'
The bishop's injunctions were that if the dean
did not reside he was only to receive ^20 a year
out of the profits, according to the statutes ; that
the chancel of Clare was to be repaired at the
dean's expense, before next All Saints' day; that
the janitor was to reside and see to his duty,
otherwise to forfeit his salary ; that one of the
clerks was to sleep and remain all night in the
vestry ; that the verger was to be in attendance
and exercise his office in the same manner as at
the collegiate church of St. Stephen, West-
minster, or of Windsor ; and that George Geli-
brond, irregularly admitted, was to be expelled
from his stall. This last injunction was after-
wards withdrawn in favour of a monition.
Other injunctions related to inventories, custody
of seals, the recovery of the muniments, &01
The bishop left Stoke on 15 July and visited
other Norfolk houses, arriving at Thompson
college on 21 July. When there, one John
Stacy, of Norwich, a messenger of the cardinal,
brought him a letter from Wolsey, dated 2 July,
concerning the visitation of Stoke, which had
been for some unknown reason delayed. To
this letter the bishop wrote a wary reply, stating
the exact hour that the letter reached him,
adding that he had already visited Stoke, but
saying nothing as to his injunctions. Mean-
while the bishop took action against Dr. Greene,
the dean of the college, whom Dr. Jessopp
describes as ' an unprincipled rogue, ready to
sell himself and the college for what he could
get/
Canon Kiel, supported by two of his col-
leagues, had testified that the dean had been
duly cited to the bishop's visitation, and produced
a letter in which Dr. Greene not only declared
his own intention of being absent, but urged his
fellows to resist the visit. The dean was then
cited to appear before the bishop in the chapel
of his palace at Norwich on 20 August. At
the appointed time Canon Kiel appeared and
testified that the dean's answer to him was ' I
can not appear, nor will not appear, and ye were
to blame and folis any of you to tappere before
my lorde, for I send you letter to the contrary.'
Whereupon, Dr. Greene was formally pro-
nounced contumacious and suspended from cele-
brating divine service and cited to appear before
the bishop in the manor chapel of Hoxne on
Wednesday after next Mid-Lent Sunday to
show cause why graver action should not be
taken. Canon Gilbert Latham, the only one of
the college who supported the dean in sub-
serviency to the cardinal, was also at the same
time pronounced contumacious.2
It is not known precisely what next took
place, but the aged diocesan and the queen
evidently succeeded in checkmating Wolsey so
far as the immediate suppression of Stoke College
was concerned, for it lasted until the days of
Edward VI.
The college was again visited by the diocesan
on 10 July, 1532, when Canon Whitehead>
who had sent the book of the statutes to London,
was ordered to restore it before Michaelmas
under pain of excommunication. There were
not many complaints, but it is clear from one of
the entries that Cardinal Wolsey did visit the
college either in 1526 or at some subsequent
date. The bishop, in consequence of ^13
having been paid to the king that year in dis-
charge of procuration fees due at the visitation
of the late cardinal, and of jewels to the value of
forty marks having been taken by thieves out of
the vestry, ordered that there was to be no
division that year of the residue of the profits of
the college among the residentiaries. He
further enjoined that women were not to fetch
linen for washing from the houses of the vicars,
nor were they to serve in the houses of the
canons ; that the muniments were to be kept
under three locks of diverse workmanship ; that
one of the clerks was always to sleep at night
Jessopp, Visit. 226—39.
Ibid. 254-59.
[48
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
in the vestry, particularly in the winter season ;
and that an annual statement of accounts was to
be made immediately before the feast of the
Purification.1
The state papers show that the corruption of
this college continued. Dean Robert Shorton,
writing to Cromwell on 14 August, 1535, said
that he had received his letter in favour of
Gilbert Latham, a canon of the college, asking
for his restoration to the college dividends. For
once, at all events, in his life, Cromwell met
with no subserviency. The dean flatly refused
to allow Latham a penny. To do so would be
contrary to statute and custom. There could
be no division until repairs were deducted. In
a year and a half the canons had only spent £t\
in repairs, whereas, according to custom, they
should have spent j£i4- Latham had got into
his hands £17, and Westby as much, against
the statutes. This would not be suffered ;
moreover if they, dean and canon, divided
equally, each share would not come to as much
as £5 or £6.2
Dean Shorton could not have had much time
to give to the college affairs, for he was a bad
pluralist, being at the same time master of St.
John's College, Cambridge, and canon of York,
as well as holding a benefice in Durham diocese.
But he died shortly after rebuffing Cromwell,
namely, on 17 October, 1535. Leyton, Crom-
well's subsequent unprincipled tool against the
monasteries, wrote to him in October, saying
that Dean Shorton was in articulo mortis,
begging for a letter commending him to the
bishop of Durham for this benefice. He asked
for the letter to be delivered to the bearer, who
would ride with it to Stoke College, 'and as
soon as the dean is dead, ride on with it to
Durham.'3
The vacancy caused by the death of Dean
Shorton was filled by the appointment of
Matthew Parker, the future archbishop. He
was presented on 4 November, 1 5 3 5 .* In 1537
Matthew Parker procured the assent of his
chapter to a reformation of the statutes.5
An inventory of the goods of Stoke College
was drawn up on 8 December, 1547. There
was a very rich supply of vestments, including
thirteen suits for priest, deacon, and subdeacon,
with albs ; fifty-five copes, seventeen single
vestments, and a considerable number of altar
cloths, corporas cases, etc. The books in the
library, 'with ther cheres, tables, yrons, and
waynscott,' were valued at £5. The silver
plate, including four chalices, a cross, two
candlesticks, cruets, pix, &c. was divided into
1 Jessopp, Visit. 299-301.
'L.andP. Hen. Fill, be, 92.
3 Ibid. 632.
1 Parker MSS. (C.C.C. Camb.), cviii, 6.
5 Ibid. Parker carried out this reform in the hope
of saving the college. Strype, Life of Parker, 3.
gilt, parcel-gilt, and white ; its total weight was
461 oz.
There was also a considerable supply of
church ornaments in latten. There was a pair
of organs in the rood loft, another in the quire,
and two pairs in the Lady chapel. In the tower
were six great bells and a little sanctus bell, and
'a clock parfect striking on ye great bell.'
The destruction contemplated is shown by
the fact that twenty-two gravestones with their
brasses were valued at £3 135. \d. and even 'the
foundar's tombe ' at 20*.6
The following details appear in the certi-
ficate of this college taken by the commissioners
in 1548.7
' The College of Seynte John Baptiste in
Stoke nexte Clare, founded by Edmund yerle of
the Marches and Ulton, lord of Wigmore and
of Clare,' 1 9 May, 2 Henry V, to find a dean,
six canons, eight vicars, seven chief clerks, two
meaner clerks, one verger, one porter, and five
choristers. Since the foundation, the numbers
had been twice augmented ; in the first place by
William Pykenham, sometime dean, for another
vicar, to be vicar to the dean and his successors ;
and in the second place by William Lowell,
sometime verger, for a deacon of the college.
The yearly value was declared at ^383 2j. d\d.
and the clear value £314 14*. 8^. There were
490 oz. of plate, ornaments, and household stuff,
valued at ^69 Os. 8d.; lead remaining 62 fothers,
and bells weighing 8 tons, 2 cwt. 26 li. Arrears
of rent amounted to ^105 91. id.
Matthew Parker, D.D., the dean, aged 48,
drew ^67 os. 2d. and held in addition divers
pensions of the annual value of ^30. The
stipends and pensions of the other members of the
establishment, including the schoolmasters of the
college and of the free school are also given in
detail.
On the suppression of the college in this year,
it was granted to Sir John Cheke and Walter
Mildmay. A pension of £40 was secured for
Dean Parker.8
ge Deans9 of the College of Stoke by Clare
Thomas Barnesley, A.M. 1415-54
Walter Blaket, A.M. 1454-61
William Welflet, S.T.P. 1461-9
Richard Edenham, S.T.P. 1470-93 (Bishop
of Bangor)
6 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 742-3, says that there
were buried in this college Sir Edward Mortimer, the
last earl of March, Sir Thomas Grey, knight, and his
first wife, and Sir Thomas Clopton, and Ada his wife.
The Duke of Norfolk, writing to Dean Parker in
1540, expressed his desire to be buried in the
collegiate church among his ancestors.
7 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 47.
8 Hook, Archbishops of Cant, ix, 82.
9 This list is taken from that drawn up by Arch-
bishop Parker MSS. (C.C.C. Camb.) cviii, 11.
49
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
William Pikynham, LL.D. 1493-7
John Ednam, S.T.P. 1497-15 17
Robert Bekinsawe, S.T.P. 1517-25
William Greene, S.T.P. 1525-9
Robert Shorton, S.T.P. 1529-35
Matthew Parker, S.T.P. 1535
There are numerous impressions of the seal
ad causas of this college attached to various
Harleian charters. It is a pointed oval, bearing
the head of St. John Baptist, with rays and
large nimbus ; there is a flowering sprig above
and below the head. Legend : —
SIGILLU : COLLEGII : DE I STOKE : AD : CAUSAS : *
69. THE COLLEGE OF SUDBURY
There lived at Sudbury in the first half of the
fourteenth century, close to the old church of
St. Gregory, a worthy burgher, Nigel Theobald, a
person of some position and one of the leading wool
merchants in the county of Suffolk.2 To Nigel and
Sara his wife were born two sons, Simon of
Sudbury and John of Chertsey. The eldest
son, distinguished for his learning, was conse-
crated bishop of London in 1361, and translated
to the primatial see of Canterbury in 1375.
Among the records of the borough of Sudbury
is a grant of land near the croft adjoining his
father's house, which was assigned to Simon the
future archbishop by Hugh de Dedlyn in 1339.3
On this plot of land and on the site of their
father's house, the two brothers Simon and John
founded the college of St. Gregory, a charter
granting the requisite permission being sealed by
Edward III on 21 February, 1374-5. In the
previous year the brothers had obtained the
advowson of the church of St. Gregory from the
prioress, prior, and convent of Nun Eaton. The
advowson and appropriation of the church were
to be put in the hands of a community of chap-
lains, one of whom was to be warden.4
A deed dated 9 August, 1375, when Simon
had become archbishop, was enrolled between
Simon and his brother John, of the one part,
and Henry bishop of Norwich, of the other part,
for the actual erection of the college, with the
licence of the latter prelate, who secured for
himself the sum of two marks and for the prior
and chapter of Norwich five shillings annually as
an acknowledgement. This licence was con-
firmed in 1 38 1.5
In March, 1 380, licence was granted for the
alienation to the college by the joint founders, of
the manors of Balidon and Middleton, 570 acres
1 Harl. Chart. 442a, 32-50 ; B.M. Cast, lxxiii, 13.
' Close, 13 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34 ; 14 Edw. Ill,
pt. i, m. I ; 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii.
1 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, vii, 24.
* Pat. 49 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 29.
6 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi.
of land, &c, of the yearly value of ^17 ox. ^\d?
There were further grants in the following
year of a messuage and three shops in
St. Michael's, Cornhill, London, and of over
200 acres of land in Sudbury and other places in
Suffolk, which were the endowment of the
priory of Edwardston (commonly called the
priory of St. Bartholomew, Sudbury), a cell of
the abbey of Westminster.7
In the college the warden lived, with five
secular canons and three chaplains; they kept
the canonical hours and celebrated in the adjoin-
ing church of St. Gregory.
In 1384 the endowments of the college were
increased by the alienation to the warden and
chaplains, by John Chertsey and John Renny-
shale, of the manor of Braundon, Essex, of the
yearly value of j£i2 5*. \\d?
The Valor of 1535 shows that the college
was then in receipt of ^37 0$. a\d. from houses,
lands, rents, &c, in Sudbury and the Sudbury
manor of Neles ; of £jb is, 4^d. from lands in
Essex; and of £ig from property in London.
In spiritualities there was the further income of
£15 is. ifd. from the church of Sudbury with
its chapel of St. Peter, and a small pension from
Cornard Parva. The gross annual value was
£147 is. o.d.y and the net value _£i22 I 8s. ^d?
Archdeacon Goldwell visited this college as
commissary of his brother in 1493.
Thomas Aleyn, the master, presented his
accounts, and eight other fellows attended ; it
was found that no reform was needed.10 The
next recorded visitation was in 1 5 14, by Bishop
Nykke in person. Master John Carver, and
eight fellows were examined ; all declared that
everything was in good order, save that there
was a debt of ^15. The bishop enjoined on
the master and fellows to prepare a tripartite
indenture of the jewels and movable goods of
the college, whereof one part was to be handed
to the bishop at his next visit.11
At the visitation of 16 June, 1 520, Richard
Eden, the master, although he had been duly cited,
made no appearance either personally or by
proctor. His name was again called on the
following day, and as there was again no ap-
pearance, the bishop excommunicated him.
John White, aged 80, testified that he had
been a fellow of Sudbury for 50 years ; he said
they lacked three fellows of their full foundation
number, but they had two ' conducts ' or
stipendiaries in their place ; that one of the
fellows had been acting as chantry priest at
Melford for five years ; and that divine worship
was duly observed ; and that all temporal mat-
6 Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. I ; pt. ii, m. 17.
7 Ibid. 4 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 11. See previous
account of the priory.
s Ibid. 7 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 29.
9 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 456.
10 Jessopp, Visit. 41-2. " Ibid. 80.
150
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
ters were well ordered at the college and that
they were out of debt. Thomas Legate, the
college steward, who had been a fellow for
12 years, gave a good report of everything, save
that the statute as to their dress being of one
colour and pattern was not observed. William
Tublayne, who had been fellow for 12 or
13 years, William Nutman for 7 years, and
John Sickling for 10 years, all made favourable
reports.1
The bishop next visited Sudbury College on
10 July, 1526, when Richard Eden, the master,
was in attendance ; he was examined and gave
an undeviating favourable report of everything
pertaining to the house. But the bishop, acting
apparently on private information,2 contented
himself on that occasion with the master's
testimony, and prorogued the visitation, adjourn-
ing it until after the Michaelmas synod. On
the visitation being resumed, evidence was given
of great disorder. The master was absent, and
Thomas Legate, a fellow and president in the
master's absence, deposed that annual accounts
were not rendered and that the fellows were
ignorant of the state of the house, that he
believed they were in debt, and that Nutman,
the steward, was much in fault. He also com-
plained of the almost daily quarrels and disputes
between Nutman and Sickling, another of the
fellows. William Tublayne also complained of
Nutman, stating that he neglected to pay their
quarterly stipend properly, and did not attend to
the repairs of the manors, farms, and granges.
Nutman deposed that all was well, save that the
house was in debt. Sickling said that he had not
heard or seen any accounts for 14 years, and
that the steward made no monthly returns as he
was ordered by the statutes, that their stipends
were not properly paid, and that there was a
niggardly supply of provisions. Thomas Coche
alias Kerver, a former fellow, had provided the
infirmary with feather beds and other bedding,
but they were not at the service of the fellows
when ill. Robert Chickering, another fellow,
stated that the manor houses, granges, and other
houses belonging to the college were in a
grievous state of dilapidation, through the neg-
ligence of the steward, that the agriculture of
the college property was in a sad plight, and that
cheir food was sparse and unhealthy, all owing
to the bad management of the same official,
who refused to supply any accounts. William
Fisher, another fellow, testified in a like manner.
The injunctions consequent on this visitation
are missing.3
The last visitation of this college, prior to its
dissolution, was made on 7 July, 1 532-
Thomas Legate, the sub-warden, testified that
the number of the fellows was defective. There
ought to have been eight, but there were only
Jessoj
' Ibid.
Visit.
• 4-6.
three. The two other fellows, Chikering and
Fisher, said that there had only been three
fellows for the last three years, and that they
knew nothing of the accounts, for they were
never presented. It was further stated that
sometimes, at time of divine service, there were
only two chaplains in quire ; that there were no
choristers, and that a youth of eighteen acted as
college steward. On 9 July the bishop called
the master, Richard Eden, to account in the
chapter -house, ordering him to exhibit the
faculties, together with institutions and collations,
whereby he held many benefices ; he was to
appear before him on the morrow of St. Nicholas's
Day in the chapel of his manor of Hoxne, and
to hear his will as to the charge of perjury,
which, with other articles, had been alleged
against him. The warden swore on the Holy
Gospels that his faculties, with institutions and
collations, were in his house at London in a
secret place to which he only had access.
The bishop ordered the warden at once to
remove from the college a French chaplain ; and
to fill up the number of fellows to eight before
next Michaelmas. The visitation was then
prorogued until the following Lady Day.4
Richard Eden, the last master of the college,
who was also archdeacon of Middlesex, surren-
dered it to the king on 9 December, 1544.
The surrender, in addition to the master's
signature, was signed by Edmund Lyster,
Thomas Legate, and Robert Paternoster, chap-
lains.5
On 3 February, 1544-5, the king granted
the college and its appurtenances and property to
Sir Thomas Paston, one of the gentlemen of the
privy chamber.6
Masters of the College of Sudbury
John Cordebef,7 occurs 1375
Peter Hermis,8 resigned 1393
John Stacy,9 appointed 1393
George Bryce,10 died 1446
Thomas Bett,11 appointed 1446
Henry Sy thing,12 appointed 1452
Robert Sylman,13 appointed 1464
Thomas Aleyn,u occurs 1493
John Carver,15 occurs 1 5 14
Richard Eden,16 occurs 1520
The fine seal bears St. Gregory seated in a
canopied niche, with papal tiara, the right hand
raised in benediction, and a cross in the left.
4 Ibid. 297-8.
5 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix, pt. ii, 718.
6 Pro/:. Suff. Arch. Inst, vii, 30-1.
7 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 233.
8 Pat. 17 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 1 5. 9 Ibid.
10 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 2. ' " Ibid.
ls Ibid, xi, 29. "Ibid, xi, 143.
14 Jessopp, Visit. 41.
15 Ibid. 80. 16 Ibid. ico.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Above, in a smaller niche, the Trinity, and on
each side in a canopied niche, a saint. In the
base Archbishop Simon kneeling, between two
shields of arms. Legend : —
SIG' LU GREGORII DE SUDBURY1
70. THE COLLEGE OF WINGFIELD
In 1362, Lady Eleanor, relict of Sir John
Wingfield, and Thomas Wingfield, brother of
Sir John, being his executors, founded, in accor-
dance with his desires, a college of priests in the
parish church of Wingfield. The original
foundation only provided for a provost or master
and three other priests ; but this number was
afterwards increased to nine priests and three
choristers. It was jointly dedicated in honour of
St. Mary, St. John Baptist, and St. Andrew.
The original foundation also provided for the
support at the college of three poor boys.2
Licence was granted in November, 1 40 1, to
the provost or master and the chaplains of the
collegiate church of Wingfield, for Thomas
Doupe to grant in mortmain to them land in
Stradbroke, Wingfield, and Earsham. At the
same time Michael earl of Suffolk obtained
licence to grant land rent in Stradbroke, Wing-
field, Silham, and Earsham, worth ioj. yearly.3
The Valor of 1535 shows a clear annual value
of j£io, 14*. 5^. The temporalities were
obtained from Wingfield, Chekering, Sydeham-
cum-Esham, Stradbroke, Walpole, Benhall
Robert, Middleton Chekering, and Raydon
Wingfield ; the gross value being £47 10s. \d.
The spiritualities were the rectories of Wing-
field, Stradbroke, and Syleham, with the chapel
of Esham. Among the deductions was the sum
of £8 paid to the three poor boys on the foun-
dation.4
Bishop Goldwell made a personal visitation of
this college on 27 September, 1493, wnen
William Baynard, the master, with three fellows
and four 'conducts,' was examined. The
report of the visitation stated that though there
was not much worthy of reformation, the
ordinance and statutes of the house were not
read before the members, the master was too
remiss in correction, and that no provision was
made for teaching grammar.6
When Bishop Nyklce visited in 1526, Thomas
Halkyn, one of the fellows, said that the college
seal was in the hands of only a single fellow,
but that otherwise all was well ordered by the
master. Three other fellows gave equally
satisfactory testimony.7
The last visitation of this college, prior to its
dissolution, was held on 4 July, 1532 ; it was
attended by Robert Budde, master, Nicholas
Thurlynge, fellow, and three stipendiaries.
There were no complaints, and nothing to re-
form ; but Robert Tompson, stipendiary and
steward of the college, said that they were two
priests short.8
Robert Budde, master of the college, and four
of the fellows signed the acknowledgement of the
royal supremacy on 17 October, 1534.9
The college was surrendered on 2 June, 1542.
The instrument of surrender is signed by Robert
Budde, master, and by four fellows. Annexed to
the surrender is the commission, dated 12 May,
of the same year, and the commissioners' cer-
tificate of the surrender, dated 17 June.10
In this college were buried the bodies of
William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, 1450, and
his son and heir, John de la Pole, duke of
Suffolk, 1 49 1.11
The fine seal of this college bears St. Andrew
crucified on a saltire cross ; in the base the arms
of Wingfield. Legend : —
-f- COMMUNE -f- SIGILLUM + S -f- MARIE -f-
De Wyngfieeld 12
Masters of the College of Wingfield
Robert Bolton, occurs 1 404,13 resigned 1426 w
John Burthan,15 appointed 1426
Henry Trevyllian,16 appointed 1433
William Baynard,17 occurs 1493
Thomas Dey,18 occurs 1 530
Robert Budde,19 occurs 1532
ALIEN HOUSES
71. THE PRIORY OF BLAKENHAM
Walter Gifford, earl of Buckingham, gave the
manor of Blakenham to the great Benedictine
abbey of Bee in the reign of William Rufus.5
As this was an estate of some importance and
must have required supervision, it is probable
1 Add. Chart. 8405 ; B.M. Cast, lxxii, 14.
1 Norw. Epis. Reg. v, 88.
3 Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 22.
4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 407.
5 Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1002, where the charter is cited
from the original at Eton College.
that it was placed in the charge of one or two
monks who would have their chapel and offices
6 Jessopp, Visit. 52-3. 7 Ibid. 223. 8 Ibid. 296.
9 Dep. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 304.
10 Ibid, viii, App. ii, 49.
11 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 758.
u Add. Chart. 10642 ; B.M. Cast, lxxii, 15.
13 Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. xxi ,347.
14 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 15. Mentioned as master
in 1405 ; Pat. 5 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 7.
15 Norw. Fpis. Reg. ix, 15. 16 Ibid, ix, 61.
17 Jessopp, Visit. 52.
18 Add. Chart. 10642. 19 Jessopp, Visit. 296, &c.
152
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
at the manor house in early days ; but it was
some time before Blakenham is named as a dis-
tinct alien priory or cell. For a long time it
was under the charge of the prior of Ruislip,
Middlesex, against whom in 1220, and again in
1225, this manor of Blakenham was claimed by
Thomas Ardern. For a time the manor was
held by the crown in consequence of these dis-
putes ; but eventually full seisin was given to
the prior of Ruislip as representing the abbey of
Bee.1
Subsequently this manor was under the con-
trol of the prior of Okeburne, the chief repre-
sentative and proctor of the abbot of Bee. The
taxation of 1 29 1 names a portion of 40;. out of
the rectory of Great Blakenham due to the prior
of Okeburne.2 In 1325 the manor was held by
the same prior.3
A curious point arose in 1339 in connexion
with this manor, as held by an alien power
during the time of the war with France. Robert
de Mode, admiral of the fleet from the mouth of
the Thames northward, claimed from John de
Podewell, bailiff of the manor of Blakenham, an
armed man to set out to sea in the king's service.
Whereupon the prior of Okeburne appeared
before the council, asserting that he already
found two men to serve the fleet at Portsmouth,
and if this further charge was laid on him, he
asked to be discharged from the custody of the
priory, as he would be unable to pay the farm
rent due to the king. The council, on delibera-
tion, considered that it would be to the king's
harm if the priory was resumed by the crown,
and therefore orders were issued to the admiral
superseding the exaction of a man from Blaken-
ham.4
After the dissolution of the alien priories, the
former possessions of the abbey of Bee at
Blakenham came to Eton College, through
Henry IV, in 1460.
Among the grants of Edward IV to William
Westbury, the provost, and to the college of
Eton in 1467, occurs 'the priory or manor of
Blakenham, co. Suffolk, sometime parcel of the
alien priory of Okeburne.' 5
72. THE PRIORY OF CREETING
ST. MARY
There are four adjacent Suffolk parishes of
the name of Creeting, differentiated by the in-
vocation of their respective churches, St. Mary,
St. Olave, All Saints, and St. Peter. The first
two of these had small distinct alien priories of
Benedictine monks. The more important of
1 Close, 4 Hen. Ill, m. 15 ; 12 Hen. Ill, m. 11.
* Pope NicA. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 115.
3 Mins. Accts. 18 Edw. II, bdle. 1 1 27, No. 4.
4 Close, 13 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 41 d.
6 Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 13.
the two was the priory of Creeting St. Mary,
a cell of the abbey of St. Mary of Bernay, in the
department of the Eure. Henry II, by charter
of 1 1 56, confirmed to the monks of Bernay all
that they had held in England in the time of
King Henry, his grandfather, including the
manor of Creeting (Gratingis).*
The taxation of 1291 enters lands, &c, from
Everdon, Northamptonshire (another cell of
Bernay), as pertaining to the prior of Creeting ;
they produced an income of £6 Js. 6d. At the
same time lands to the value of 2s. lod. a year
are entered as pertaining to this priory in Ston-
ham Aspall, whilst the lands, stock, Sec, of
Creeting St. Mary and Newton were worth
^10 15*. $d. a year.7
The possessions of Bernay Abbey at Creeting
in Suffolk seem to have continued under the
same rule as those at Everdon, Northampton-
shire. Thus, in a long list of alien priories, in
1327, mention is made of the prior of Creeting
and Everdon ; the two houses then formed a
joint cell of the abbey of Bernay.8
In 1325 the goods and cattle of the manors
of Creeting and Newton pertaining to this prior)'
were valued by the crown at ^18 155. iod.9
A commission was issued by the crown in
1378 to inquire touching waste and destructions
by the late prior and farmers of the alien priory
of Creeting, in the king's hands on account of
the war with France, to the custody of which
the king has appointed his clerk, John de
Staverton.10
In 1409 John Stanton and John Everdon
were acting as crown wardens of the joint
priory of Creeting and Everdon, at a rent to
the king of ^26. The total receipts for that
year were ^39. n
Edward IV granted the possessions of this
suppressed priory, in 1462, inter alia, to form
part of the endowment of Eton College.12
73. THE PRIORY OF CREETING
ST. OLAVE
Robert, earl of Mortain, in the time of the
Conqueror, gave the manor of Creeting St. Olave
(Gratingis) to the Benedictine Abbey of Grestein
in Normandy ; it was held in chief of the king.13
The taxation of 1291 enters 18s. Sd. as the
annual value of land pertaining to the prior of
' Gretingge ' (under the abbot of Grestein) in
Barking, Essex. This priory at the same time
6 Round, Cal. of Doc. Trance, i, 137.
7 Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 54, 120, 129^.
8 Close, 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 22.
9 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1 1 27, No. 4.
10 Pat. 2 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 38 d.
11 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1093, No. 1.
18 Pat. 1 Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 24.
13Dom. Bk.; Testa de Nevitt (Rec. Com.), 295.
:53
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
had js. id. in Earl Stonham, whilst the manor
of Creeting St. Olave produced £9 os. S\d}
The goods and stock pertaining to the priory
of Creeting St. Olave were valued by the crown,
in 1325, at £17 10s. id.2
Edward III granted this manor during the
French war in 1345 to one Tydeman de Lym-
bergh, a merchant ; but in 1360 permitted the
abbot and convent of Grestein to sell it to
Sir Edmund de la Pole.3
74. THE PRIORY OF STOKE BY
CLARE
Earl Alfric, son of Withgar, who lived in the
reigns of Canute, Hardecanute, and Edward the
Confessor, founded the church or chapel of
St. John Baptist in the castle of Clare, and
therein placed seven secular canons. This
church, with all its endowments, was given by
Gilbert de Clare, in 1090, to the Benedictine
monastery of Bee in Normandy, of which it
became a cell, and thus remained until the year
1 1 24, when Gilbert's son Richard removed the
foundation to Stoke, where it eventually reverted
to a collegiate establishment. 4
The fourteenth-century chartulary 5 opens with
confirmation charters of Henry II, Richard I,
John, and Henry III, including a grant of a
Thursday market at Stoke, and a yearly fair of
three days at the feast of St. John Baptist. The
various charters of Gilbert, earl of Clare, the
founder, and of his son and grandson, are set
forth, whereby the monks, in addition to lands,
mills, fishing, and pasturing rights, held the
advowsons of the churches of St. John and
St. Paul, Clare, and the churches of Cavenham,
Foxhall, Hunston and Bures, Crimplesham,
Gazeley, Winham, Birfield, Ash, and Woching.6
The ordination of the vicarage of Gazeley, at
the time when the church was appropriated to
the priory, is duly set forth under date of 12 July,
1286.7
An undated letter of Roger, earl of Clare,
solemnly presents to the house certain relics (not
specified) which he entrusts to the monks, both
cleric and lay, to be by them carefully preserved
with the greatest reverence.8
The confirmation charters of the Bishops of
Norwich and London and the Archbishop of
1 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 129, 129^.
'Mins. Accts. bdle. 1127, No. 4.
sPat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 13; Close,
33 Edw. Ill, m. 6.
4 Dugdale, Mon. (1st ed.), i, 1005-9; Tanner,
Not. Mon. Suff. xiv.
5 Cott. MS. App. xxi. There is an abstract of its
contents in the Davy MSS. (Add. MS. 1 9103,
fols. 136-205).
6Chartul. 21-5, 29, 33, 36.
7 Ibid. 35. s Ibid. 44.
Canterbury, from 1090 to the end of the reign
of Henry III, cover several folios.9 These are
followed by several papal confirmations, and by
an indulgence from Pope Innocent exempting
them from any provision of benefices.10
Amid a very large number of grants of land,
rents, &c, mostly of small value, occur the gifts
of the church of Bradley by Richard the son
of Simon, of the church of Little Bradley by
Albrinus son of Ercald, of the church of Little
Bunstead by William de Helium, of the church
of Bunstead by Robert de Helium, and of the
church of Stamborne by Robert de Grenville,
with various confirmations.11 The taxation roll
of 1 29 1 shows that the priory at that time held,
in addition to churches, temporalities in seven-
teen Suffolk parishes of the annual value of
^30 14*. l\d. ; it had also considerable lands
and rents in Essex, and a small amount in
Norfolk, yielding a total income of ^53 135. T,d.
In 1305 a quit-claim was executed in favour
of this priory of the advowson of the church of
Little Barton by Mildenhall.12
Prior John Huditot died in 139 1 ; whereupon
Robert bishop of London and William prior of
Okeburne, authorized by Pope Boniface IX to
act for the abbot of Bee in the case of dependent
English houses, presented Richard de Cotesford,
an English monk of that house, to the Bishop of
Norwich, to be prior, with the assent of the
king as patron, by reason of the minority of the
son and heir of the Earl of March.13
Richard II, in 1379, made a grant during
pleasure, to his uncle, Thomas de Woodstock,
earl of Buckingham, of ^60 a year from the
farm of this alien priory during the wars, to help
to maintain his rank as an earl,14 and among
grants made from the alien priories' estates to
the crown in June, 1395, towards the king's
expenses in the war with France, was the year's
issues and profits of the priory of Stoke by Clare
of the value of j£6o. 15 In the following month,
however, the friends of this priory managed to
secure from the crown a charter of denization,
but only on condition of the very heavy fine
of 1,000 marks being paid to the abbot of
Westminster, to be expended solely on the new
works of St. Peter's Church. This sum was to
be paid at the rate of 200 marks a year until
discharged. The grant of denization stated that
Richard de Cotesford, the then prior, was of
English birth, and provided that the convent of
monks was henceforth to be exclusively drawn
from those of English birth, and that no tribute
9 Ibid. 70, fols. 32-4. These are in a different
hand ; ibid. 70-137.
10 Ibid. 138-143.
"Ibid. 270, 274, 280, 285, 296, 309.
"Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. 2, m. 9.
"Ibid. 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. I.
14 Ibid. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40.
"Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. ii,m. 9.
154
RELIGIOUS HOUSES
of any kind whatever was to be paid to any
foreign abbey.1
The independent position secured for this
priory had but a brief existence ; twenty years
later the priory was dissolved in favour of a
college.2
Priors of Stoke by Clare
Nicholas,3 occurs 1174
John de Havelen,4 temp. Hen. II
Hugh,5 occurs 1198, 1202
Richard,6 occurs 1222
John,7 occurs 1247, &c>
Henry de Oxna,8 appointed 1325
Peter de Valle,9 appointed 1367
John de Huditot,10 died 1 39 1
Richard de Cotesford,11 appointed 1 391
William de Sancto Vedasto,12 appointed 1395
William George,13 appointed 1396
William Esterpenny,u appointed 1396
75. THE HOSPITAL OF GREAT
THURLOW
The origin or date of foundation of the small
hospital of St. James, which was subordinate to
the foreign hospital of Hautpays or De Alto
Passu, is not known. Being an alien house, it
came into the hands of the crown in the four-
teenth century. The church of Thurlow
Magna, which was appropriated to the hospital
as early as the taxation of 1291, was returned as
of the annual value of £10 13;. ^.d.16
In 1 31 2, grant for life under privy seal was
made to John Menhyr, king's clerk, of the
custody of the hospital of St. James, Thurlow ;
later, however, in the same year the life
custody of this hospital was transferred to
Thomas Miltecombe ; and yet again to John
Beauchamp, alias John de Holt.17
In May, 1385, Robert Dovorr, king's clerk,
obtained life wardenship of this hospital.18 In
the following month, a royal mandate was issued
for the arrest of persons collecting alms in divers
churches and other places, on behalf of Thurlow
Hospital, without warrant of Robert Dovorr, the
warden, and appropriating the same to their
own use.19
Edward IV, in 1463, included the hospital or
free chapel of St. James, Great Thurlow, in the
numerous endowments of Goddishous' College,
Cambridge.20
ADDENDUM
76. THE HOSPITAL OF SUDBURY
In the time of King John, Amicia, countess
of Clare, founded a hospital at Sudbury to the
honour of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin
His mother.15 Tanner supposes it to be identical
with the house or chapel of St. Sepulchre, which
the same countess gave to the monks of Stoke
Clare, and which was granted by Edward VI to
'Pat. 19 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 8.
-See the account of the college of Stoke by Clare.
3 Newcourt, Repertorium, ii, 501.
4 Con. MS. Aug. xxi, 365. 5 Ibid. 16, 17, iS.
6 Ibid. 14. 7 Ibid. 11-12, 13,42.
- Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 6.
9 Ibid, v, 80.
10 Pat. 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 1.
11 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 161.
12 Ibid, vi, 212. 13 Ibid, vi, 223.
M Ibid, vi, 228.
u Dugdale, Man. vi, 776.
John Speke ; but of this there is some doubt.21
Mention is made in 1277 of the breaking open
by thieves of certain chests that had been
deposited in the hospital of Sudbury, county
Suffolk, without mentioning dedication, as
though there was only one of any importance.22
Richard II in 1383 granted the custody of
the free chapel of St. Sepulchre, Sudbury, to
Peter Harmodesworth ; it was in the king's
gift by reason of his custody of the land and
heir of Edmund, late earl of March, tenant in
chief.23
16 Pope Kick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 122.
lrPat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 36, 21, 19.
lsPat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 14.
19 Ibid. m. id.
"Pat. 2 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 16.
21 Tanner, Notitia, 524 ; Taylor, Index Men., 116.
B Pat. 5 Edw. I, m. 2.
23 Pat 7 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 31.
POLITICAL HISTORY
THE South-folk who dwelt in one half of the original kingdom of
the East Angles found a natural boundary between themselves
and the East Saxons in the estuary and marshy course of the
Stour, while the march in the north was also clearly defined by
the course of the Waveney. On the west the boundary was not so clearly deter-
mined. There the fens extended almost to Bury, the county being prevented
from becoming absolutely insular in character by the low wooded hills to
the south-west. The actual boundary here was to be found in the ditch at
Newmarket (called later the Devil's Ditch), where the neck of land between
the fens led to Cambridge and formed the principal gateway into the
county. When the actual separation of the folks took place is impossible
to state. In Domesday Suffolk is geographically distinct from Norfolk, but
all through the middle ages down to Tudor times it continued, with a few
exceptions, to be administered fiscally with the sister county.
The county was divided for administrative purposes into hundreds,
half-hundreds, and ferdings. The origin of this division has been ascribed to
Alfred, but this is no doubt simply a compliment paid to a national hero, for
the term centeni was used among the Teutonic tribes to describe a certain
district. By the time Tacitus wrote the word had ceased to have a literal
meaning and had become the designation of an administrative area, and such
it is in Suffolk in historic times. It is possible that Alfred or his son Edward
redistributed the hundreds in order to facilitate the collection of ship-money.
As evidence of this redistribution it is worth noting that the chief town from
which the hundred was obviously named often lies outside the boundary of the
hundred, and did so in Domesday. Wangford lies no longer in that hundred,
but in Blything ; Parham lay outside the shrunken remains of its hundred ;
Lackford lies beyond the march of Lackford. In Domesday there are twenty-
eight hundreds. Of these Babergh is made up of two and Sampford of
one-and-a-half, pointing again to re-distribution, while Ipswich, Cosford,
Lothingland and Parham rank as half hundreds. By the end of the thirteenth
century the number had shrunk further. Blackbourn had absorbed Bradmere,
but ranked fiscally as two hundreds. In the twelfth century 2 Sudbury had
been regarded as a quarter of the hundred of Thingoe, and in the Hundred
Rolls of Edward I it is held by the earl of Gloucester of Bury, but seems to
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.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
The hundredal organization was the basis of ail 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. They1 were also the doomsmen, and no
foreigner could legally try a Suffolk man. In 133 i 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.
* Cal. of Close 1330-3, p. 113.
158
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 13441
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 geldable2 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,8 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 Clare 5 was assessed for 1 3 1 2 knights' fees
in Suffolk besides J, i, &, §•, to-, and 2 + -55 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 \ 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 IOS- f°r knights
and Serjeants in the Welsh war.7 The honour of Eye was assessed for
oo£ fees. The knights of St. Edmund were bound to do castle-ward at
1 Cal. Pat. 1343-5, p. 363. * Add. MS. 19 171, fol. 36.
3 Pipe R. Hen. II (Pipe Roll Soc), passim.
* Pollock & Maitland, Hist, of Engl. Law (1895), i, 237.
5 Pipe R. 10 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc), p. 33. 6 Ibid. 11 Hen. II, p. 3. ' Ibid. p. 7.
*59
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 3/. 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 13 14 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 20*.
£ „ Great Bures held by Peter Silvestre's heirs, 50/.
\ and £ „ Gaisle held by Wm. de Hausted, 6oj.
g^j „ Brokeleye held by John de Cramavill, 5;.
J ,, Barwe held by John de Cretyng, 20j.
1 „ scattered through several manors held by Rob. Mauduyt, IOOJ.
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 1 297 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 anna by the com-
missioners of array. In 1 345 Edward III reassessed the county ; owners of
land valued at iooj-., 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.
From 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.3
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 zod. to the ward of the castle of the honour at the end of every thirty-
two weeks.
8 Cal. of Close (i33°-3)» P- 244-
5 Grose, Military Antiquities, ed. 1786, p. 80.
160
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 1692,2 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 xt 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.3 At the time of
1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (i), No. 972.
* From a return of 169-. Egerton MS. 1626 (B.M.).
* Rudolf, Short Hist, of Terr. Regiments, 121.
2 161 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 12th 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.3 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,5 being
disbanded at Ipswich in November, 18 14.
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
1 Lawrence- Archer, The British Army, 1 86.
2 The reserve or 2nd battalion was in South Africa actually from 1 85 1 till 1 857. Lawrence- Archer,
op. cit. 185. " Stirling, Our Regiments in South Africa, 121.
* Lawrence-Archer, op. cit. 441. 5 Rudolf, op. cit. 550.
6 Add MSS. 19188, fol. 57.
7 Note from the Muster Rolls in the Record Office. The year 1803 saw the birth of many of the
companies.
Company Men Commanding Officer Did duty at
Helmingham 528 EarlofDysart Ipswich
Hartismere Rangers .... 360 Major Wm. Reeve of Roydon . . . Diss
Halesworth 112 James Reeve Southwold
Blythford 83 Jno. Dresser —
and Claydon . . . 300 Sir Wm. Middleton of Shrubland Park
near Ipswich Bury
162
POLITICAL HISTORY
war, but the movement was revived in 1859, when trouble with 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,3 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
205
180
70
i°5
67
105
100
3i5
65
59
35°
70
113
388
35o
160
57
120
300
100
80
120
76
77
73
200
95
91
7i
157
330
213
58
Commanding Officer
Orbel Ray Oakes and Captain Benjafield
Major Peter Forster of Ditchingham .
Sam Collett ; Robert Ginger . . .
Robert Eagle of Brandon ....
Forman Josselyn
Joseph Stammers
Edward Crisp
Colonel Wm. Matthews
Thomas Mills
M. Rabett
Major W. W. Page
Wm. Barber
Wm. Philpot of Huntingfield . . .
Major Neale
Colonel MacLean
Captain Leake
Captain Mannock
Captain Tyrrell
Lt.-Colonel Webber
Captain Wayth
Captain Powell
Captain Blake
Captain South
Major Good
Captain May
Captain Davy
Captain Jermyn
Captain Robinson
Major Stanford
Captain Arnold
Captain Bell
Captain Freeman
Major Purcell
Major Vernon
Captain Shepherd
Captain Winter
Did duty al
Lowestoft
Bury
Bede, Eccl. Hist. (Eng. Hist. Soc), 140.
.63
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.' 3 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 906,6 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 1016 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 "
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. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, IIO-I. ! Gage, The Hundred of Thingoe, I.
3 A. S. Ckron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 130-1. * Ibid, i, 152-3. s Ibid, i, 180-1.
6 Ibid, i, 182-3. ' Ibid, i, 194-5. 8 Ibid, i, 238-9.
9 Ibid, i, 262-3. 10 Wil1- of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Roils Ser.), i, 212.
11 A. S. Chron. (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's '
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 - 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 117 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 * 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 11 26
and 1 1 3 1 and lightly broke both oaths.5 Suffolk laymen were for Stephen, and
Bigod was for himself, though Stephen made him earl of East Anglia in 1 141.
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.
3 Florence of Wore. Ckron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 10 ; Freeman, op. cit. iv, 573.
* Florence of Wore. Cbron. (Engl. Hist. Soc ), ii, 74.
4 It-id. 84. 6 De Gestis Regis Stefhani (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 J Framlingham and Bungay were given up. Orford
and Eye and Walton were in the king's hands, and were garrisoned by his
knights. In 1 168 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 1 73, 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
1 Roger of Wendover, Cbron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 6.
* Pipe R. 14 Hen. II (Pipe Roll Soc), 1 5. 3 Ibid. 19 Hen. II, 117.
4 Chron. of Jordan Fantosme (Rolls Ser.), 283-97. 5 Pipe R. 20 Hen. II, 126.
6 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 158.
166
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 12 14 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, 121 5, 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-
W alter 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.5 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,6 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, Tlores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, III.
■ Chron. o/Edw. I-Edtv. 11 (Rolls Ser.), i, 17-
3 Roger of Wendover, Thus Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 147-8.
4 Chron. of Edw. l-Edw. 11 (Rolls Ser.), i, 19.
5 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 688 ; Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 18S.
* Assize of Arms. 7 Blaauw, ' Simon de Montfort,' from East Angl. Mag. vii (new ser.), 63.
167
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 £100. 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
carl 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 4 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.
5 Cal. of Close, 1272-9, p. 250. ' 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 1290 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.2 Peremp-
tory orders were issued to Earl Roger to guard the coast, laving 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 Nevreford 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 Quo warranto
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 Burv
with horse and arms, and marched through the county, spreading dismav, 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 Haughlev. The county was soon divided
into Royalists and Lancastrians. One of the lords ordainers of 1 3 1 1 was Sir
Bartholomew de Burghersh, whose wife was the onlv daughter of Richard
1 Cal.ofCkse, 1279-88, p. 529. ' Ibid. 1288-96, p. 455.
3 Ibid. 1307-13, p. 354. * Cal. of Pat. I 307-13, 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 13 12. The death at Bannockburn of the young
earl 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-
east. 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 round1 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 at 3 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 13 14 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 13 18, and were included in the general
pardon which followed. The staunch loyalists all through were Edmund
Bacon of Olton, 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 13 17 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.4 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 18 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. * Cat. of Pat. 1317-21, p. 605.
3 Ibid. p. 469. 4 Ibid. p. 95.
• Ibid. p. 228 passim. 6 Cal. oj Close, 1 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 2 spent some
weeks [26 December to 14 February] going nervously up and down the county
superintending the defences. John de Sturmy,8 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.6 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 Ufford8
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. 1 324-7, p. 3 1 1. s Ibid. p. 200 et seq. s Ibid. p. 243.
4 Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 249. ' Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, 36.
f Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 407. ' Ibid. p. 442.
6 Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, p. 571. 9 Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 471 passim.
10 Cal. of Pat. 1 340-3, p. 3 1 3. " Cal. of Close, 1337-9, p. 60.
171
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.' * 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, 1344,4 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 iooj., £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.5 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 Cal. of Pat. 1338-40, p. 273. * Ibid. 403.
3 Thos. Carte, Cal. Gascon Rolls, i, 35, 50 ; C. Bemont, Roles Gascons, passim.
* Cal. of Pat. 1343-54, p. 414.
5 Wrottesley, Crecy and Calais. From the Public Records (William Salt, Arch. Soc), 3 1 et 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 13 37-40. *
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 £50, 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. WycliPs 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 1 38 1 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.5 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. s Ibid. pp. 635-8.
4 Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Jngl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, I et seq.
5 Powell, East Anglia Rising, 13.
J73
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, juvenis 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 Suffolk s 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,6 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 1 395/ 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. 1 38 1-5, p. 503. ' Ibid. 587.
1 Thos. of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 48-9. ' Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18.
1 Cal Gascon Rolls, 1-91. 6 Stiff. Inst. Arch, viii, 190. 7 Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18.
1 Ibid. 1 391-6, p. 659. ' Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 187.
10 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.* 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,
J450,8 to agree upon and appoint knights of the shire of their own party.
1 Cal. of Pat. 1 399-1401, p. 160. ' Ibid, passim.
'Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 309. 4 Ibid. 313.
5 Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), i, 41. 6 Ibid, i, 148, 358.
7 1448 he was made duke of Suffolk. 8 Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), i, 160-1.
175
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.6 John Gerveysv
1 Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), i, 336 ; Fenn Letters (ed. 1789), iii, 212.
* Fenn Letters, iii, 349. 3 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. 6 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.2 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 1470 5 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.6 But
the speedy return of Edward IV in March, 1 47 1 , 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,9 after the failure of his rising in i486, 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. s Ibid. p. 231.
3 Ibid. p. 116; 1467-77, p. 18. ' Fenn Letters (ed. 1789), iv, 405.
5 Ibid, ii, 54. 6 Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), ii, 413.
7 Cal. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 297. 8 Fenn Letters (ed. 1787), ii, 138.
9 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 Cokes, 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.3 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 40J., and became less in proportion
as the possessions advanced in value, those having lands and rents above 40J.
and under £40 only paying i\ 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. Fill, \, passim. ' Pari. R. House 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 1 525 it
flew in pieces. Wolsey devised strange commissions to every shire ' 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 8 — 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 ' duke ' 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
• Hall, Ckton. (1809), p. 697. s L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, (i), Nos. 1 241-60.
3 Ibid. No. 1241. * Ibid. No. 1 3 19.
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 2 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 5 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, Chron. (1809), p. 699. ' L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (ii), No. 4012.
5 Ibid, vi, No. 1494. * Ibid, vii, No. 689.
5 Ibid, viii, No. 196. 6 Ibid, ix, No. 625.
180
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
numerous, 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. Kill, ix, No. 642.
' The following were commanded to turn out and serve the king's own person — L. and P. Htn. Vlll :
Sir Charles Willoughby with 100 men ; Sir George Somerset of Badmundisfield with 40 men ; Sir Arthur
Hopton of VVestwood 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 100
men ; John Spryng of Lavenham with 60 men ; George Colte of Long Melford with 50 men ; Richard
Cavendish of Girminston (?) with 30 men.
3 L. and P. Hen. Kill, xii (i), Nos. 424 and 1284. ' Ibid, xii (i), No. 32.
5 Ibid, xiii (ii), No. 52.
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. and. P. Hen. VIII. 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 Wentworth, 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.
3 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 20. ' Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii, 1.
182
POLITICAL HISTORY
On the 14th 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 14th 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 1 5th Henry Chettings of Wortham, Edward Glemham of
Glemham (2nd 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 16th and 17th, 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 16th, 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 1 8 th by the advice of her council of Suffolk
gentlemen, and on the 21st proclamation was made to all captains to bring
their men to a muster4 under Sir William Drury and Sir William Walde-
grave. Mary 5 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 6
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 Council (New Ser.), 1552-4, p. 300. * Ibid. p. 294.
3 Ibid. p. 298. * Ibid. p. 300.
5 Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii, 76. 6 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1554-6, p. 106.
183
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;8 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.3 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.4
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,' 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 commuted
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 Helminpham.
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. 4 Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii (i), 546.
6 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), I 5 56-8, p. I 3 5.
' 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,*
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, 1578-9,5 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 Alde-
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.
2 Col. S. P. Spanish, 1568-79, No. 123. » Ibid.
4 Records of the English Province, S. J. ser. ii, iii, iv, passim.
5 Jets of the Privy Council (New. Ser.), 1 578-80, p. 47.
6 Framlingham Castle was considered a fit place for the custody of recusants. Ibid. I 580-1, p. 82.
7 Act of the Privy Council (New Ser.), 1586-7, pp. 114 et seq.
8 Ibid. 1 588, 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 >f 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 ioo marks and under ^ioo, 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 £s9° f°r *'> wnile Orford, Dunwich and Southwold, Woodbridge and
Walberswick, collectively contributed only £40 to the outlay.3 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 28th, 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 £500 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 Antiquities, 13. ' Acts of the Privy Council (New Ser.), 1 588, p. 58.
3 Ibid. 115. ' Ibid. 210. 5 Ibid. 224.
6 Ibid. 368 et seq. 7 Cal. S. P. Dom. 1 591-4, p. 552. 8 Ibid. 1603-10, p. 23.
9 See East Angl. Mag. iii (Ser. xi), 145. 10 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 1 6 17, 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. Ward3 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, Annals of Ipswich, 10 Nov. 1605.
1 Cal. S. P. Dom. 1611-18, p. 505. 3 Ibid. 1619-23, p. 399. * Ibid. 1625-6, p. 102.
s Ibid. 1625-6, p. 409. 6 Ibid. 1627-8, p. 29. 7 Ibid. p. 72.
187
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 £5,550 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 Bury4
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 exaction's, 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 5 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.8 In that month the maritime towns were
1 Cat. S.P. Dom. 1627-8, p. 198. ! Ibid. 1625-49, p. 320. * Ibid. 1633-4, p. 175.
* Ibid. 1625-49, P- 379- ' Ibid- 1633-4, P- 45°- ' Ibid- l63+-5> P- 24z-
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
£7,9oo.3 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 1640
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
drums and bells. Suffolk was clearly a hot-bed for the new ideas. The
new book of canons inculcating divine right and passive obedience was found
1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1634-5, P- 559- ' Ibid- l635> P- 363-
3 Ibid, z Mar. 1637-8, p. 200. * Ibid. 1638-9, pp. 64, 530.
s Ibid. 1640, p. 59. 8 Ibid. 1639, p. 157.
7 Ibid. 1640, p. 274. 8 Ibid. 336.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
nailed to the Ipswich pillory.1 Sir Lionel Tollemache sent to Laud a copy
of the scandalous paper found alongside of it. Small wonder that in the
exciting election of 1640 the Puritan candidates, Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston
and Sir Philip Broke, were returned. The county - was full of the cries of
the poor for work and food, and their curses and threats came daily to every
ear and told of sadder consequences at every door. Sixteen thousand people
assembled to march to the House of Commons to petition for help and also to
have the worship of God settled in a purer fashion. The question of the
control of the militia and the management of military matters had already
been hinted at when Sir Lionel Tollemache and Sir Robert Crane refused to
sign muster-master warrants for fear of embroiling themselves with Parliament.
Now the question had become the crucial one, and Sir Thomas Jermyn was
said to have been one of those who would have used the levies to overawe
Parliament.
By 11 August, 1642, Parliament had voted that the king's commis-
sioners of array were to be accounted traitors, and the militia of Suffolk was to
be turned out in the cause of the Commons.3 On the 18th Sir Roger North
and Sir Wm. Spring were ordered to secure the powder magazine at Bury.
Landguard Fort, under Captain Sussex Camock, was in their hands ; but he
was half-hearted, and allowed * one ship full of ammunition to slip by
him. Parliament appointed new deputy-lieutenants — Sir William Castleton,
Sir John Wentworth, Sir Robert Broke, Sir William Soame, Sir Thomas
Barnardiston, Thomas Baker, Brampton Gurdon, William Rivett of Bildeston,
Robert Brewster, John Gurdon, Nathaniel Bacon, Francis Bacon, William
Bloyes,and Thomas Blosse for Aldeburgh. Thomas Tirrell of Gipping, Edmund
Harvey, and Francis Brewster were added 11 May, 1643. They were to
hasten the contributions of loyal subjects for the defence of king and Parliament
in horse, money, or plate. Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston was sent down by the
House to set things going. The deputy-lieutenants were to exercise the usual
military authority and to appoint colonels and captains. Ipswich 5 was to be
fortified, and John Blomfield and Samuel Dunken rode to Colchester to find
an engineer to do this, while the burghers enrolled themselves as volunteers
under 6 Edward Bedwell, and undertook to watch for the king's ships. In
December, 1642, the papists and others having successfully tried the experi-
ment of association,7 Parliament ordered the association of the eastern
counties for their mutual defence against the said Papists.
In February, 1643, the deputy-lieutenants were ordered to subscribe
the warrants for the association. After two or three attempts they arrived at
the following :
We whose names are hereunder written do profess freely and [with] willingness to join
in the association and do further promise to use the uttermost endeavours for assembling the
inhabitants of the several counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Hertford-
shire, and by our own example and persuasions to further the effectual association of the said
counties according to the Ordinance of Parliament and to return an account thereof.8
1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1640, p. 518.
2 Petition of the Clothiers and other Inhabitants of the county of Suffolk, 1 642.
3 House of Commons Journ. 18 Aug. 1642. ' Ibid. 28 Nov. 1642.
5 Bacon, Annals of Ipswich, 23 Nov. 1642. 6 Commons Journ. 28 Nov. 1642.
? Rushworth, Hist. Co//, ed. 1708, iv, 603, 17 Dec. 1642.
8 Tanner, MSS. Bodl. Lib. 9940. Rushworth gives a ' form of association,' but the one in the Tanner
MSS. is that actually signed by the Suffolk commissioners.
190
POLITICAL HISTORY
The deputy-lieutenants for Bury signed it : Thomas Gippes, alderman,
Thos. Chaplin, John Briggs, and Samuel Moodye ; and for the body of the
county, John Heveningham,1 William Spring, William Soame, William
Barrowe, and Robert Brewster. The committee for Suffolk sat at Bury, and
had very wide powers, both administrative and coercive.2 They could enter
into the houses of Papists and of all delinquents or such as had not contributed
to the cause or who had executed the king's commission of array, and of all
clergymen who had publicly preached against or reviled the proceedings of
Parliament. They were to make a list of these malignants and delinquents,
and in it must have been the following : Sir Frederick Cornwallis of Brom-
hall, Major Thomas Staunton of Staunton, Sir Charles Gawdy of Croweshall
Debenham, Henry and Edward Warner of Mildenhall, Captain Nicholas
Bacon of Culford, Benjamin Cutler of Ipswich, Lord Windsor of Stoke by
Nayland, Sir John Pettus of Chester Hall, John Hervey of Ickworth, Arthur
Denny of Palgrave, Edward Rookwood of Euston, Francis Cheney of Eye,
Robert Gosnold of Otley, Samuel Gooch of Bradfield, Arthur Heveningham
of Heveningham, Sir Thomas Glemham of Glemham, and his son Sackville,
John and William Le Hunt of Little Bradley, Lord Willoughby of Parham,
Richard Bowie of Kersey Priory, Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke,
Edmund Cooke of Herringfleet, George Gage of Hengrave, Nicholas Garnish
of Micklefield, Lawrence Britton of Hitcham (a known agent for the king),
Thomas Webb of Cowling, Thomas Easton of Thorndon. The same families
as had been persecuted for their religion under Elizabeth suffered under
Parliament : Sir Edward Sulyard of Haughley Park, John Bedingfield of Gis-
lingham, Henry Foster of Copdock Manor, Francis and Dorothy Everard of
Great Linstead, Anne Lomax, Sir Thomas Timperley of Hintlesham, and his
son Michael, Sir Francis Mannock of Gifford's Hall, Stoke by Nayland,
Lady Carill of Lavenham, Sir Edward Golding of Eye, James Harrison of
Ipswich, Henry Nuttall of Swilland, Charles and Lady Lettice Tasburgh of
Flixton, John and Edward Daniell of Acton, Lady Mary widow of Sir
Walter Norton, and Nicholas Daniel her brother, Edward Chaplin of Farn-
ham St. Martin, Thomas Allen, Oldring's House, Lowestoft, Reginald Rouse
of Badingham, Henry Yaxley of Yaxley, Francis Yaxley of Melles, Sir Roger
Martin of Long Melford. All these suffered sequestration.3
The county was at first assessed* at a monthly charge of £5,000, of
which Ipswich paid £150, Southwold £20, and Dunwich £5 $s. In 1646
it was assessed at £7,070, to which Ipswich contributed £212. The
money was to be paid in weekly instalments. The Papists' estates contributed
largely to the amount. The earl of Manchester was in command of the asso-
ciation and ordered 5 Lothingland to be garrisoned but his warrant was over-
ridden by that of the commissioners, who 'conceived themselves not only his
judges but reformers of what actions of his they pleased to see fit.' The county
, was denuded of horses to mount home and London troopers, and while money
i flowed from it, but little was returned to pay the soldiers there. The committee
were a set of ignorant civilians who grumbled at having to send their com-
panies beyond their borders. That the county could be defended at York
1 This signature is very indistinct, but John Heveningham was an active Parliament man.
' Rushworth, Hist. Coll. ed. 1708, iv, 604. 3 Cal. of Com. for Compounding, 1643-60, passim.
4 Add. MSS. 19171, fol. 36 et seq. 5 Tanner, MSS. Bodl. Lib. 9941.
191
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
passed their comprehension, and the money and men for the fort at
Newport Pagnell had very often to be written for. This fort, the apex of
the eastern triangle, was in Bedfordshire on the Ouse, and was one of the
points by which the royal forces could break through to the east. The other
point for defence was near Wisbech, called the Horse Shoe Pass. On
1 4 February, 1644, Laurence Crawford was appointed general in command of
the eastern counties, and 3,000 men were sent from the county to Cambridge
to cover Waller's advance towards Oxford. On his defeat, 29 June, at
Cropredy, the county were told plainly that their harvest must wait, for if any-
thing happened to Waller's army it would be worse for them than the going
of their men out of the county. Two days later the news of Marston Moor
relieved the anxious committee, and the men were allowed to go about their
harvest, for they had testified to the committee that their hearts were zealously
set on the cause of God and their country. Soldiers were getting tired of
their trade and many deserted.
The year 1645 was one °f humiliation for the royalists, and the com-
mittee in Suffolk, had trouble with their troops. At Bury 1 there was rioting
fomented by the royalists, who were plotting to get2 Landguard Fort in their
hands. The chaplain there was a dangerous man, and Captain Sussex
Camock's loyalty to Parliament was more than suspect. News from Shrews-
bury warned the committee, and Captain Hunter on 17 May was ordered to
put himself with fifty men into the fort and to keep his instructions secret.
Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston was then commanded to make inquiries in the
county as to such as kept intelligence with the king's quarters. The result
of the inquiry went to prove that the fort had not been in real danger, and
Camock was set at liberty. The importance of Landguard Fort was felt by
Charles the next year, when he attempted to escape by the east coast and
could get no ship. With the king's surrender the war ended for a time, and
Suffolk delinquents escaped abroad in considerable numbers.
In 1648 royalist insurrections blazed up over Suffolk. At Bury3 rioting
began over the hoisting of a maypole and at once became serious. Next day
the streets were full of royalists shouting, ' For God and King Charles !', the
magazine and arms were seized and the Parliament men were chased out of the
town. Several troops of Colonel Whalley's horse were ordered to advance
against the town with the county forces,4 and Sir William Playter and Sir
Thomas Barnardiston were sent down to negotiate, with orders that if the in-
habitants would surrender they were to promise them indemnity for all acts,
but if they would not make absolute submission then there was to be no
capitulation, and the commissioners were to let the rioters take their punish-
ment from Whalley's dragoons. Bury wisely yielded to mercy. Aldeburgh
was secured by Captain Johnson, and Lothingland and the Isle of Flegg by
Sir John Wentworth and Captain Robert Brewster. None of these measures
was premature, for one morning there arrived at Landguard Fort,6 in a
small boat, the vice-admiral of the fleet with his wife and children, escaped
from his ship, which with the rest had declared for the king. During the
siege of Colchester by the Parliament the Suffolk levies were kept on the
1 Cat- o/S. P. Dom. 1644-5, p. 496. * Ibid. 1644-5, p. 484, passim.
1 Ibid. 1648-9, 65 ; Rushworth, Hist. Coll. ed. 1 708, vi, 396.
* Cal. o/S. P. Dom. 1648-9, 65. ' Ibid. 1648-9, 85.
19a
POLITICAL HISTORY
border to prevent provisions being thrown into the town, and after its
capitulation Fairfax made a triumphal procession through the county feted
everywhere. This rising was fatal to the delinquents.1 Sixteen thousand
pounds was demanded from the county as a contribution towards its expense,
and Bacon was sent down to see about sequestering the estates of the
delinquents in order to pay the county forces.
On Cromwell's assuming the title of Lord Protector the old cavalier
enemy began to stir. But, as Colonel John Fothergill of Sudbury wrote on
14 March, 1654, 'the Lord hath hitherto delivered [us] so he will own us
still by discovering all their wicked plots and preventing all their hellish
intentions.' The county was searched by him and he could only discover two
suspected persons, though he had scoured all High Suffolk with his troop,8
Colonel Rolleston of Peterborough, who had been with the king all through
the war, and Captain Partredge of Barham Hall. The people however were
reputed by the extreme Puritans as embittered and malignant, though the
petition of 28 January, 1660, from the gentlemen, ministers, freeholders, and
seamen of the county, to General Monk hardly bears this out :
It is tedious, they said, to see Government reeling from one hand to another ; it
is in your power to fix it. Cast your eyes on a nation impoverished, bleeding under an
intestine sword. Let its miseries and ruins implore your assistance. The only redress is in
a full and free Parliament.
Another was sent to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, promis-
ing to follow their lead, to let this ' cheerful suffrage of ours be annexed as a
label to your honourable intendment.' Writs were issued to fill up county
vacancies in the house, and royalists and presbyterians were returned. On
29 May, 1660, Charles II landed at Dover.
Puritan Suffolk, however, was restless under cavalier government, and
while the Tollemaches, the Cornwallises, and the Jermyns were petitioning for
favours and the loyal clergy detailing their sufferings, the republican party
was neither weak nor silent. Captain Thomas Elliott 3 of Aldeburgh, of the
Commonwealth Fleet, who had plundered the king's royalist subjects to the
extent of £12,000, vindicated his principles on the king's proclamation day
by hanging up a picture of his frigate, and arranging round it the prizes he
had taken. On the other hand obsequious Bury asked for a renewal of its
charter, for it humbly said that certain things had been done in the late
troubles which were not justifiable under their former patents. The dis-
affected were so many that the infamous Edward Potter,4 spy by trade, who
endured many ills in his passion for truth, allowing himself to be arrested
and beaten by the king's officers rather than reveal his identity, was sent
among them. He reported the Quakers, the men of peace, to be doing
much harm and to have the best horses in the county. He promised to
enter into any plot and to help it forward to a certain moment, when he
would reveal everything to the government. The government reorganized
the militia for police purposes, for the republican party was too numerous to
be sent to gaol. The greatest safeguard against plots lay in the division
of parties. On one occasion, possibly in 1663, 200 horsemen rose in
Suffolk, but finding the plotters not of their own party they retired quietly.
1 Commons Journ. 27 July, 1 Sept. 1648. * Clarendon MSS. Ixiii, 103, 3 Aug. 1659.
3CW. ofS.P. Dom. 1661-2, p. 177. • Ibid. 154.
2 193 25
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
The Dutch war diverted men's minds. The militia was ordered in the
autumn of 1665 to be in readiness to defend their coast at the shortest notice,
and men were so needed for the navy that in Aldeburgh and Ipswich the
news that an English frigate had been sighted was heralded by the spectacle
of forty or fifty able-bodied seamen fleeing out of the town into safe hiding.
Dutch prisoners simply swarmed at Ipswich and Sudbury. Landguard Fort
was strongly garrisoned by Colonel Darell with 1,000 men, while Sir Charles
Littleton and Colonel Legge's foot companies camped on the hill behind it.
Lord Oxford's troop lay at Woodbridge. During the summer of 1666 the
whole county was under arms, but it was not till the next summer, when
negotiations for peace were going on at Breda, that the Dutch actually
landed their men. On 2 July eight Dutch ships came into the Rolling
Grounds, and under cover of their guns landed a party of men at Felixstowe.1
The harbour was protected by a line of ships, which were to be blown up and
sunk on an occasion such as this, but for some unknown reason this move-
ment did not come off. Two or three thousand men landed at Felixstowe,
of which the larger party attacked the fort with scaling ladders and pikes and
grenadoes. Twice they came on and twice were repulsed, so that they had
to return to their boats. In the meantime the rest of the landing-party
were holding their own well in the fields and lanes against the county forces
under the earl of Suffolk, who not being able to use his horse could only
press them back by slow inches. All through the afternoon they fought
till the evening, when by 9 o'clock the unsuccessful scaling party rejoined
them. By this time the tide had left their boats high and dry, and there
was nothing for it but to keep up the fight till the tide served. This they
did with great coolness from eleven till two in the morning, the earl's men
pressing them hard all through the night. By dawn they were afloat and
aboard, and by six o'clock they were under sail. The English loss was
trifling, and the Dutch hardly greater, but, adds Silas Taylor the Harwich
store-keeper, the Dutch had an aching tooth. Peace was concluded 2 1 July
and the militia disbanded. Next year the king surveyed the scene of the
fight, living in his yacht, the Henrietta, moored in the estuary of the Orwell.
He sailed round the coast to Aldeburgh, and thence rode to Ipswich to dine
with Lord Hertford, who commanded the forces there.
Peace brought back the religious difficulty, and conventicles increased in
number and boldness daily,8 so much so that the king caused the lord-
lieutenant to inquire concerning the frequent and scandalous meetings under
pretence of religion. In 1672, however, an extraordinary number of
licences for Nonconformist meeting-houses and ministers were issued.
The temper of the county was shown in next year's election, when
Mr. Samuel Barnardiston, the candidate of the commonality and the
Nonconformists, Lord Huntingtower being that of the gentry, was elected
amid great excitement. The indulgence of 1672 was withdrawn in 1675,
and the danger in the county, as Sir John Pettus wrote, was that the
Dissenters and Papists should be forced ' to skip for shelter into the same
scale to make it mount beyond the level.' 3 ' No popery,' was the cry,
however, and had Monmouth been successful in the west * the county would
xCal. o/S.P. Dom. 1667, p. 263. 'Ibid. 1667-8, p. 522. 'Ibid. 1673-5, p. 553.
* There is little doubt that Sir Samuel Barnardiston was one of those who financed his expedition.
194
POLITICAL HISTORY
have risen in a body. A papist king was a thing to mock at, and in 1688
at Bury the Dissenters burlesqued the doctrine of Rome in a show called
' Before the Firy Purgation,' which even the gentry found extraordinarily
comical. ' Free parliaments and the Prince of Orange,' the obverse to that
of ' No popery,' was now the cry. All Papists were displaced in the militia,
and the Revolution was accomplished with characteristic tranquillity. The
regiment that had been Lord Dumbarton's, by its mutiny at Ipswich and the
subsequent trial of the ringleaders at Bury, created the only excitement.
The political history of Suffolk since the Revolution mainly centres
round its Parliamentary interests. Under Edward I the shire returned two
knights, while Ipswich, Dunwich, and Orford were each summoned to
send two burgesses. The Liberty of St. Edmunds was represented by its
abbot ; only one writ was issued for the election of a burgess1 (30 Edw. I),
and the sheriff noted on the back that the seneschal of St. Edmunds had the
right to the return of all writs. Bury was only accorded the right of
parliamentary representation by James I. The election of the knights of
the shire was nominally in the hands of the suitors to the county court, but
until restrained by public opinion and parliamentary act it was practically in
those of the sheriff. In 1275 the sheriff was instructed to cause the election
of two knights in full county court, but the territorial importance of the court
was diminishing, and in 1406 it was enacted that all the suitors duly
summoned, as well as others, should attend the election. It was also
ordered that the sheriff should make proclamation of the election in every
market town fifteen days before the court. In 1430 'in consequence of the
tumults made in the county court by the great attendance of people of small
substance and no value, whereof everyone pretended a voice as to such
elections equivalent with the most worthy knights and esquires resident,' the
franchise was strictly limited. To have the right to vote it was necessary
to be a resident in Suffolk and to possess 40J. in freehold, the same to be
sworn to on the Gospels. In 1432 the freehold had to be in Suffolk. The
sheriff had the right to reject any elector who did not satisfy him that he
possessed the necessary qualification.2 The power of the sheriff was hard
to limit. He could issue a general summons to the court, or he might only
cite his special friends, and in extreme cases he simply did not return the
writ. The act of 1406 tried to accomplish this limitation. It directs that
the names of persons chosen shall be written in an indenture under the seals
of those that did choose them. This indenture was to be attached to the
writ and regarded as the sheriffs return. In 141 o the justices of assize were
given power to inquire into the returns, and any sheriff making a false one
was to be fined £100, while the members forfeited their wages. The
persons eligible as knights of the shire were described in 1275 as ' de
discretioribus et legalioribus.' Those girt with swords were meant, for
in 1340 they are specially described as ' gladio cinctos et ordinem militarem
habentes et non alios.' In 1372 sheriffs were disqualified as candidates, and
in 141 3 it was enacted that candidates must be resident in the county.
The knights elected 3 had to find two, four, or six manucaptors that they
would appear at the day and place appointed. If they refused to find these
1 Brevia ParRamentaria, ii, 212-13. ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. vol. iii, ch. xx.
3 Brevia ParRamentaria, ii, 1 3 7.
195
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
guarantors their goods were distrained to insure their appearance in parlia-
ment on the day fixed. In the reign of Queen Anne a property qualification
was demanded of the knights, and this was not repealed till 1858.
The members for the boroughs were before 1430 usually elected in
the county court after the knights had been chosen. The mayor, bailiffs, or
the chief officers, with four or five citizens and burgesses, were sent as
representatives, and made in the court the formal election of their already
chosen burgesses. This method was found inconvenient, and from 1445 a
precept for the election was sent to the magistrates, which was to be returned
by indenture between them and the sheriff. The election was to take place
between eight and eleven in the morning, and the persons to be elected were
not to be below the degree of a yeoman. Members were paid by the county
and boroughs, and to escape the expense the latter sometimes sent none.
There never was what could be called a free election. That was not
possible till the introduction of the ballot. The interference was not how-
ever wholly confined to local magnates. From the fourteenth century
onwards the crown tried to influence the return of members favourable to its
policy. With the centralization of the administrative this influence increased,
and under the Tudors and Stuarts royal agents were busy. Cromwell's
candidates for Henry VIII's parliaments were sure to be elected. Mary
insisted on the return of orthodox Roman Catholics, while Elizabeth in-
creased her influence by giving representation to Sudbury, Eye, and
Aldeburgh. James I tampered with the charters of the boroughs and gave
Bury two members, and in the time of Charles I the borough warrants had
a curious habit of straying into ! private hands and remaining there. William
of Orange even made an electioneering tour through the county, while the
enormous sums expended by George III for this purpose are notorious.
Until 1586 all petitions regarding disputed elections came before the king
and council. But royal interference was necessarily intermittent and special,
while the influence of territorial families was permanent. In 1450 the
duke of Norfolk and the earl of March decided which knights were to
represent the county, and again in 1455 tneY issued the mandate that 'None
towards the duke of Suffolk (i.e. Lancastrian) were to be elected.' Under
Charles I the territorial influence was weakened by the strong growth of
religious ideas, and royal interference became necessary for the furthering of
despotic measures. In later times the county representation was often a
matter arranged by the two largest interests, each party sending one mem-
ber. There was a decided attempt about 1722 to extend the2 Hervey
interest from Bury to the county by putting up one of the earl of Bristol's
sons. But the earl would not hear of it, for his son had neither the necessary
property qualification of £000 a year in land, nor the equally indispensable
social one of being able to drink without stint at quarter sessions with the
county gentlemen. The Grafton and Bristol interests usually carried all before
them. Farmers voted with their landlords as a matter of course, and land-
owners appeared at the poll followed by their tenants.
In the boroughs the narrowness of the franchise had a very serious
effect on the political morals of the county. The right to vote was
1 Sir Simonds d'Ewes, Pari. Affairs, Harl. MSS. 165.
* Letter Bk. of John Hervey, Oct. 1722.
196
POLITICAL HISTORY
inherent in the status of a burgess, and the freemen with the corporation
chose the member. But there were freemen resident and non-resident, and
the right of the latter to vote was a hotly debated question. Moreover there
were many respectable men who were not burgesses but who contributed to
the municipal charges and desired to vote. The borough elections were
variously influenced : ' by making a private roll of favourable freemen, and
excluding all opponents as not having been enrolled, and ' by the wholesale
making of burgesses just before the polling day. One alderman of Dunwich
had a factor at Wapping who paid men to become freemen and then secured
their vote, though they had never seen the town. The same official was
said to carry the common seal of the borough in his pocket, and to give the
oath of a freeman when and where the fancy seized him. The earl of
Bristol8 in 1725 promised preferment to a local parson, and then was some-
what indignant when his son was challenged by the defeated candidate on
charge of bribery. But open sale of votes was by no means unknown.4 A
vote in Ipswich rose from the fixed normal value of £3 t0 £3° on the last
day of the election. The wise man remained undecided in his opinion till
the last moment, then took the money of one party and voted for the other
just to show ' he had no fancy to be hired.' Vanities such as scarlet waist-
coats were used as bribes, and rents were paid and pressed men redeemed by
candidates. On the other hand an appearance of force was sometimes
resorted to. A convenient frigate would appear just before the election and
press those who were likely to vote for the rival candidate. Boxers and
prize-fighters were imported in 1747 into Sudbury, though6 in earlier
years Benjamin Carter the notorious mayor of this notorious borough
played their part and struck down and imprisoned certain who would have
voted for the opposing candidate. Gradually the territorial influence slipped
off the boroughs, and flourishing ones like Bury, Sudbury, and Ipswich were
left entirely to that of corruption. In 1747 Lord Bristol laments that Bury
is no longer the chaste and constant mistress he loved and valued.6 ' Since
she is grown so lewd a prostitute as to be wooed and won by a man she
never saw,' he wrote to his son ' let who will take her.' The opposition to
his nomination seemed as unnatural to him as the late rebellion. Sudbury
openly advertised her favours for sale, and the mayor did a roaring trade in
promises to use his interest for many candidates.7 Dunwich, in 18 16, a mean
village of forty-two houses and half a church, whose corporation would soon
have to exercise their electoral functions in a boat anchored over the town,
was under the joint ownership of Lord Huntingtower and Mr. Snowdon
Barne.8 The few miserable hovels called Orford had for proprietor Lord
Hereford, while Aldeburgh's patron was Sir Claude de Crespigny, and
Eye submitted implicitly to the nominations of Lord Cornwallis. Nine
individuals sent to Parliament thirteen out of the fourteen Suffolk members.
The restricted franchise was regarded on all sides as the root of the evil,
and great things were expected from the Reform Act of 1832. This Act
enfranchised jTio householders in the boroughs and in the county ; jfio
1 House of Commons J ourn. 19 Mar. 1702, Sudbury. 'Ibid. 31 Mar. 1714, Norwich
3 Letter Bk. of John Hervey, 9 Mar. 1724-5. * Pari. Returns, 1835, viii.
4 House of Commons Journ. 1702, Sudbury. 6 Letter Bk. of John Hervey, 23 June, 1747.
' Oldfidd, Rep. Hist, iv, 561. 8 Ibid, iv, 566-7.
!97
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
copyholders ; £10 leaseholders for a term originally created for not less than
sixty years ; £50 leaseholders for a term created for not less than twenty
years ; £50 occupiers. This materially widened the voting basis; but, as was
shown before the Bribery Committee of 1835, it diminished the monetary
value of the vote without touching the practice of bribery. The Ipswich
elections of 1826 and 1835 show little change in the moral atmosphere. In
18261 the electors were some 1,000 or 1,100 freemen, two-thirds of whom
were non-resident, and all were friends and relatives. The practice was for
candidates to pay the admission fees for freemen, who, generally speaking,
waited for an election to obtain their freedom without cost. The annual
borough contests were financed by the members. Votes were looked upon
as personal property with right of sale. A poor voter would be content
even with 20.C or 30J., while a rich one would ask £50. The bribery oath
was regularly administered. Their votes once bought, the men were ' cooped '
until they had polled to prevent their being corrupted ; that is, they were
housed out of the borough, fed, and treated, and then driven to the poll. The
Reform Bill made little difference in the actual number of voters.2 It
disfranchised the non-resident freemen, but the number oi £10 householders
practically brought the constituency up to the original 1,000. At the
election of 1832 there was a feeling that the old system had been condemned,
and it was unanimously resolved to discontinue the practice of bribery and
treating ; but by 1835 that 'scandal of free institutions ' was in full swing
again, and jTio was offered for a vote after the first day's poll. The bribery
oath was administered and swallowed. One man there had been
bribed by a free loan to vote for Kelly and Dundas.3 As he was about to
enter the booth an inspector tendered him the oath, but when he came to the
words ' promise and inducement ' he stammered and broke off. The
returning officer, standing by, said the voter evidently did not understand
the terms of the oath, and twice repeated them slowly before the con-
scientious objector ' gulped ' them. Tradesmen refused to vote either way
for fear of losing patronage, and one contractor who had promised to remain
neutral was forced to vote by threats of loss of work. Working men in
Ipswich felt bitterly the class pressure : 'Gentlemen,' they said, 'ought to get
us poor men the ballot or else we cannot vote as we like.' The same election
at Sudbury was one of the most riotous and drunken ever witnessed. Cooping
was in full force, and the Rose and Crown inn was besieged by the Reds to
capture three cooped Blues who hadpreferred unwisely to be lodged in the town.
The restriction (1835) of the time of voting to one day reduced the practice of
cooping. In the county the landlords still regarded their tenants' votes as
their own, and forced them to vote for their candidate. The Reform Bill
of 1832 had given Suffolk four county members, while Dunwich, Orford, and
Aldeburgh were disfranchised. Sudbury lost its members in 1844, and, with
Eye, was in 1885 merged in the five electoral districts into which the county
was then divided, while at the same time Bury St. Edmunds was restricted to
one member only.
1 Pari. Returns, vol. viii. ' Ibid. s Ibid.
198
MARITIME HISTORY
A professional committee of 1785, considering the question of invasion, decided that if an
enemy were allowed three months he might transport to England 30,000 men, with guns, horses,
and sixty days' stores, in 10 sail of the line, 85 smaller ships, and 150 shallops. Suffolk has been
held to be a vulnerable point in the line of English coast defence ; it will therefore be interesting
to inquire what facilities it would have offered to an unwieldy fleet carrying a force which, not
strong enough to strike efficiently itself, could only act as an accessory to the main invasion whereso-
ever that might be. A primary necessity for such a fleet is a port where guns and stores can be
disembarked in security, but it is evident that Suffolk offers few advantages in that respect.
Obviously the estuary formed by the Stour and Orwell is the roadstead an enemy would select,
and, assuming that the line-of-battle ships had silenced the defences at Landguard and Harwich, a
disembarkation could be effected safely in the harbour, which is, however, commanded from Shotley and
the Walton heights, and could only be a temporary base until they were held by the invader, and no
base at all if they were lost by him. The troops might have pushed on to Ipswich, but transports with
; tores and supplies could not follow them, because the Orwell for six out of its ten miles of course
between Landguard and Ipswich was at low water a narrow, shallow, and tortuous stream clogged
with mudbanks, and above Downham Reach impassable for ships of any burden. Such as it is,
however, Orwell Haven is the only port in Suffolk an invader could use. The River Deben will
only admit small craft ; the River Aide, although deep in some places within, is marred or protected
at the entrance by a bar which alters in size and shifts in position, and the mouth of the River
Blyth is still more difficult to enter. Neither Lowestoft Harbour nor Yarmouth Haven will admit at
low water of vessels drawing more than ten or twelve feet.
General Dundas, in a confidential report made in 1796, remarked that ' it seems very difficult
for an enemy to make any attempt on the coast of . . . Suffolk.' If he decided to dispense with a
port and throw his troops ashore on the coast, trusting to speed and indifferent to the chance of
weather dispersing his fleet and cutting him off from supplies and reinforcements, it would be a
very dangerous proceeding, but one which might be effected. Even now, although a steam fleet
could possibly hold its anchorage, the heavy surf caused by a gale would prevent communication
with the shore ; in sailing-ship days there was the added peril that the anchorages themselves were
always more or less insecure. The belt of sands which fringes part of the coast of Suffolk serves as a
breakwater generally, but there is usually some one quarter from which the roadsteads thus formed
are exposed to the full force of wind and sea and cease to be protected. Hollesley Bay has always
been a favourite anchorage ; it affords good holding ground and is sheltered by Orfordness, by the
. Whiting, and by the trend of the coast to the south-westward, from the full force of gales from any
quarter but those from NE. by E. to E. ; but even there a sea may easily rise sufficient to close
communication with the shore for a more or less lengthy period. Between Orfordness and
Lowestoft Roads there is practically no shelter, for the famous ' Solebay ' anchorage is only safe
with off-shore winds, and for sailing-vessels to remain at anchor in threatening weather would
be courting misfortune. Passing northwards, Lowestoft and Yarmouth Roads, formed by the
Newcome, Holm, Corton, and Scroby sands, may be considered one roadstead, but of the
Lowestoft portion the South Road is too confined to be of much use for anything but small
coasters, and the North Road is little larger. Corton Road, joining Lowestoft North Road with
Yarmouth Roads, is an area of much greater capacity, but it, like Yarmouth Roads, is exposed to
the northerly gales which have often wrought disaster. The channels leading inside the sands
frequently alter in shape and position, and if the buoys and lightships were removed an enemy
would find it a difficult task even to-day to run in and out continuously with safety. In the past
he would have been also in constant fear of a gale heaping up his transports on the shore, with
which also he could only hold communication by boats when the weather permitted.
Commercially, as well as militarily, Orwell Haven has been the chief port of Suffolk. It is
possible, however, that the action of the sea, which has been continuous on this coast within
historic times, has altered the smaller ports for the worse. We know that it has destroyed
Dunwich, converted Southwold Bay into a meaningless geographical expression, and transformed
the contour of the seaboard. It may be that in the mediaeval period both the Woodbridge and
Orford rivers were easier of access and ran with a deeper stream than now.
199
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
The character of the Suffolk coast, river-pierced, and in some parts fringed by tidal marsh,
must in early times have rendered communication between the inhabitants by water, where that
was possible, easier than by such paths as then existed. The fact, also, that it was included in the
Saxon Shore shows that arrivals and departures by sea were comparatively frequent. Therefore,
although we have no maritime history for a long period, it is fairly certain that there was a
maritime life, especially as the fisheries, the foundation of all traffic by sea, must have existed
immemorially. For geographical and political reasons the first attacks of the Norsemen were on
the north-eastern and southern coasts, and although they encountered a more stubborn resistance in
England than in any other country of the western world, it was more by land than by sea. Never
such good seamen as the Norsemen the Saxons seem to have lost much of their earlier maritime
aptitude ; although fleets were formed, and did sometimes win battles, it would appear to have been
more an artificial effort than a natural inclination. At first Ireland and Wessex promised the
Norsemen richer spoil than East Anglia, of which, perhaps, they had heard little, so that their first
recorded appearance there is in 838, after which an interval of nearly thirty years elapsed before the
Danes came in force in 866. It may be surmised that many a disastrous wreck among the
dangerous sands fringing Essex and Suffolk had taught the raiders to be cautious in their approach
and careful in the choice of season for their arrival in those waters. No land or sea battle is
spoken of in connexion with Suffolk during the thirteen years' contest which ended with the peace
of Wedmore in 878, for East Anglia had long been in the possession of the Danes, and the
English were struggling to hold even Wessex. In 876 the Danish army ' stole away ' to Wareham
from the camp at Cambridge ; 1 most commentators think that it was by a series of forced marches,
but Mr. J. R. Green 2 assumes, as is most probable, that Guthrum went by sea, and if so Orwell
Haven would have been the natural place of embarkation.
The peace of Wedmore was but a truce, and the hard fighting the Vikings had experienced
on the continental shore tempted them once more to try their fortune in England in 884. The
direct onslaught fell upon Kent, and their repulse from Rochester was followed by an attack by
Alfred's fleet on Guthrum's Danes of East Anglia, who had assisted their fellow countrymen.
The resulting battle in 885, at the mouth of the Stour and at Shotley Point,3 when sixteen Danish
ships were captured and their crews killed, is the first known sea fight directly connected with
Suffolk and Essex, although the victors were themselves defeated by a superior force during their
return passage. The years of war which followed Alfred's death had for their object national
consolidation, and have nothing to do with naval history, but we may note that Athelstan, in the
campaign which ended at Brunanburh in 937, was accompanied by a fleet to which probably
every maritime shire contributed its quota. In 980 the Danish harrying recommenced, and in
991 Ipswich was plundered and perhaps destroyed. In the following year there was a levy of
London and East Anglian ships to meet this invading army, for which Suffolk must have supplied
its share. The scene of war was chiefly in Wessex and for a long time the county seems to have
escaped the calamities that were suffered by the greater part of England in the succeeding years, but
no doubt it sent men to the ' fyrds,' and in 1008 obeyed the new law that every 310 hides of
land should build and equip a warship, the legal precedent for the subsequent ship-money levies.
In 1 OIO a Danish army sailed from Kent and landed at Ipswich, but it is not said to have done any
mischief there, although it ravaged and burnt its way through the whole of East Anglia. Again,
in 1 01 6, Cnut landed in the Orwell, necessarily at or near Ipswich, and marched inland destroying
and killing everywhere. In all these cases Ipswich seems to have escaped comparatively lightly,
possibly because of the presence as settlers of descendants of former Norse invaders. With the
accession of Cnut ended the era of a devastating war of conquest ; the lesser civil commotions
which occurred during the reign of the Confessor do not appear to have affected Suffolk. Fleets
were frequently raised during this period, and as Harold, before becoming king, was earl of the
East Angles, it is probable that Suffolk ships followed in his service to Wales and elsewhere. No
doubt, also, they were present in the fleet discharged too soon in 1066.
The commerce of daily life, the coasting and fishing trades, voyages to Flanders, and perhaps
to the North German ports, must have gone on notwithstanding such epoch-making events as the
battle of Hastings and the Conquest. We are ignorant of the maritime strength not only of
Suffolk but of all the counties. The fact, however, of Domesday showing that in several places
manorial rents were paid partly in herrings indicates that the fishery was a well-established industry
long before the Conquest. William I was the last man likely to underrate the importance of
maritime power, and if he had no English he had a powerful Norman fleet at command. At
any rate both in 107 1 and 1072 he was able to send fleets to sea to act in conjunction with his
land forces, and if many of the ships were Norman others must have come from the English ports
and have been collected in proportion to the importance of the coast towns in the manner customary
1 Jng/.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 45. 2 Conquest of Engl. 108.
* Still called ' Bloody Point.'
MARITIME HISTORY
with his successors. Neither in the expedition to Ireland in 1 171 nor in Richard's crusade of 1 1 90
do we know that Suffolk took part. For the former there were 400 ships, most of which mu>t
have been very small and levied in the south and west ; Richard's fleet consisted of upwards of
100 large vessels, and probably included many from the continental dominions of the crown. The
landing at Walton of a military force, brought from Flanders by Robert, earl of Leicester, occurred
in 1 1 73, but there was no attempt by sea to hinder his passage. In 1205 we have the first station
list of the king's ships, from which we find that there were two galleys at Ipswich and five at
Dunwich.1 As there was none between London and Ipswich, and Dunwich has the same number
as London, this is incidental evidence of the early importance of the two Suffolk ports. In that
year the king placed two gallevs in commission to guard the coast from Orford to Yarmouth
promising the crews a half value of all prizes 2 ; besides these other galleys were attached to
Ipswich and Dunwich. Both in 1208 and 12 14 lists of ships belonging to all the ports of the
kingdom, with the names of their owners, were required, but in the latter year the demand was
confined to ships of eighty tons and upwards.3 In 1213 the principal maritime districts were called
upon to supply naval necessaries, Norfolk and Suffolk being required to find masts, oars, and
cordage.4 In the same year there was a general levy of ships to form the fleet which, under the
earl of Salisbury, destroyed a French force in the Swin, and no doubt the Suffolk ports were repre-
sented in his command. John was several times in Suffolk during his reign, but only once on the
coast, in 1 2 16, at Ipswich.
In 1225 the sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk were directed to select at Ipswich three ships fitted
for horse transport, or, if they were not to be obtained there, to take them from Dunwich.5 At
this date the Cinque Ports contingent was the nucleus of the royal fleets, and it is noteworthy that
a writ to the Cinque Ports ordering a levy was frequently accompanied by one to Norfolk and
Suffolk for the same purpose, showing that in sufficiency and readiness they were considered on an
equality. And, of the Suffolk ports, Dunwich stands out pre-eminently as the one upon which
the crown relied as always having ships and men available. On 10 September, 1229, the bailiffs of
Dunwich were required to send forty ships, armed and manned, to Portsmouth by the 29th for
the king's passage over the sea, and although ten of the forty were remitted there is no indication
that this was done because such a sudden demand for so many vessels unduly strained the maritime
resources of the town.6 Again, in 1235, when most of the Cinque Ports, together with Yarmouth
and Southampton, were assessed for one ship each, Dunwich alone was required to send two.7 An
order of 1236 that ten vessels were to be chosen in Norfolk and Suffolk for the passage of the king's
sister Isabella on her marriage with the Emperor Frederick8 seems to show that the ships belonging
to these ports were comparatively large and roomy and suitable for passengers, since the only others
levied were from the Cinque Ports; and those we know, whatever their merits, did not possess such
qualities. Dunwich was again coupled with the Cinque Ports in 1 242, when, after Henry's failure
abroad, he urged the bailiffs to devote the whole strength of the towns to ravage the French coast
and to destroy French commerce.9
Both in 1230 and 1255 there were arrests of ships large enough to carry sixteen horses ; in the
first instance the writ is for Suffolk generally, in the second Orford, Ipswich, and Dunwich are
specified.10 In 1242 only vessels of eighty tons and upwards were required from the Suffolk ports.11
In another writ Goseford, which undoubtedly meant Bawdsey Haven u- — that is to say, the district
watered by the lower part of the River Deben, probably including Woodbridge — is grouped with
Ipswich and Orwell.13 These appear to have been the only Suffolk ports as yet conspicuous.
Perhaps a sign of the commencing decline of Dunwich is to be found in 1264 when a writ states
that twenty-four of their ships having been impressed the town and the adjacent places were left
unprotected, and that therefore one vessel, available at Winchelsea, was to be returned.14 The
Dunwich men themselves considered that the moment of their greatest prosperity was when they
took the farm of the town from Edward I, about 1279 ; at that time they possessed eighty 'great
ships' and the tolls levied at their 'commodious port' paid most of the farm. By 1348 the ships
had been destroyed by enemies, the port spoiled by sandbanks, and lands submerged by the sea.15
1 Close, 6 John, m. 10. ' Pat. 6 John, m. 2.
3 Ibid. 9 John, m. 2 ; 16 John, m. 16. ' Close, 15 John, m. 4.
5 Ibid. 9 Hen. Ill, m. 16. 6 Close, 13 Hen. Ill, m. 4 j 14 Hen. Ill, m. 16.
7 Pat. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 14. 6 Rymer, Foedera, i, 358. 'Ibid. 406.
10 Close, 14 Hen. III. m. 1 7 d. ; Pat. 38 Hen. Ill, m. 5. In the 1230 levy the owners showed some
hesitation and the local authorities were ordered to imprison those recalcitrant (Close, 14 Hen. Ill, m. 13).
11 Close, 26 Hen. Ill, m. 4.
18 'Goseford haven aliter diet Baudseye haven' (Exch. K. R. Mem. Roll 333, East. r. 7).
13 Pat. 19 Hen. III. m. 14 d.
M Close, 48 Hen. Ill, m. 4 d. The others were at Bordeaux.
15 Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 12 d. ; Rot. Pari, i, 426 ; ii, 210.
2 201 26
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
A feature of the maritime history of the thirteenth century is the appointment of one or more
persons, sometimes for one county and sometimes for a group of counties, as keepers of the coast, a
step towards the organization of systematic defence. In 1 2 I 7 Nicholas Donewyz was nominated for
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, and in 1224 Richard Aiguillun for Norfolk and Suffolk ; in the latter
case writs were directed to the burgesses of Orwell,1 Orford, Yarmouth, and Lynn to assist him in
his duties.2 The functions of the keeper were chiefly military, but were also judicial in matters
relating to the sea and coast ; he was in military command both at sea and on land and was given
somewhat large powers. In 1295 the keepers were told to send three Yarmouth ships to cruise in
the North Sea for the protection of English and Flemish fishermen.3 In 1297 the four keepers of
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex were directed to maintain six ships at the expense of the inhabitants
and of merchants using the North Sea.4 In 13 16 John de Thorpe's duties are defined as being to
protect the people of the coast between Ipswich and Lynn from murders and robberies both by sea
and land, and he was empowered to appoint constables and to compel all people to assist.5
Practically, the keeper was expected to put down piracy, to beat off raiders, to enable coasters and
fishermen to sail in peace, and to summon the county to arms upon invasion. The office did not
continue long, for during the second half of the fourteenth century, the growth of the admiral's
court, the increased power of the admirals, and, finally, the creation of the post of High Admiral,
lessened its importance. Historically, however, the keeper may be considered the ancestor of the
conservators of truces instituted locally by Henry V, and of the later vice-admirals of the coast
whom we find acting from the middle of the sixteenth century. An illustration of an intermediate
class of appointment, when the keeper's duties were ceasing to be military and were becoming
administrative, like those of the subsequent conservators and vice-admirals, is to be found in the
duties of Hugh Fastolf who, in 1364, was lieutenant for Norfolk and Suffolk of Robert Herle,
admiral of the king's fleets, and in that capacity held an inquiry upon the seashore at Covehithe."
Here, he who would have been formerly keeper of the coast is becoming the admiral's deputy, as
two centuries later the vice-admiral of Suffolk was the deputy of the Lord High Admiral. A part
of the system of defence under the care of the keeper was the line of beacons, corresponding to the
modern coastguard stations, usually placed on the hill nearest the shore and guarded in war time by
a watch from the neighbouring parishes.7
The Welsh wars of 1277 and 1282-3, an^ l^e Scotch war of 1295 were mainly fought by
the feudal armies. The Cinque Ports furnished most of the squadrons — not large ones — required
for the Welsh wars, but the Scotch campaigns stirred the east coast to greater activity. Parliament
granted a subsidy of a thirtieth for the war of 1282, and the taxation roll for Ipswich shows that
fourteen ships and sixteen boats were owned in the town.8 In 1 294 three large fleets were equipped ;
that from the east coast under the command of Sir John Botetourt included eleven vessels from
Bawdsey and Harwich together, seven from Ipswich, four from Dunwich, four from Orford, and
two from Goseford.9 In the following year there was an attempt to keep the intended port of
concentration secret, the person collecting the ships in Suffolk and elsewhere being directed to
* bring them on a certain day to a certain place as directed by word of mouth.' 10 Sometimes the
levies were very sweeping ; in 1298 all the ships found in Norfolk and Suffolk, suitable for the
transport of men and horses, were to be impressed. From a writ of Edward III u we find that
about this time (probably in 1294) Dunwich furnished eleven armed ships for service in Gascon
waters and lost four of them. A claim of £1,420 10s. for services and losses was examined by the
treasurer and barons of the Exchequer and duly allowed, but for some reason — perhaps there was a
counterclaim for debts due to the crown — was never paid either by Edward I or Edward II. On
his accession Edward III was petitioned, and, in directing the rolls of the Exchequer to be
examined, ordered that if the decree were found upon them the claim was to be paid, ' having
consideration to the estate of the town and the men thereof,' but less any debt due to the crown.
A general call upon the counties was made in 1 30 1 when some seventy ships were demanded,
of which Ipswich supplied two, Goseford and Bawdsey two, Orford one, and Dunwich one.12
1 Cf. 'The Mythical Town of Orwell,' by Mr. R. G. Marsden, in Engl. Hist. Rev. xxi, 93 et seq.
' Pat. 2 Hen. Ill, m. 10 ; 8 Hen. Ill, m. 3. 3 Ibid. 23 Edw. I, m. 6.
I Ibid. 25 Edw. I, pt. 2, m. 14.
5 Ibid. 10 Edw. II. pt. 1, m. 25. In 1338 the keepers for Suffolk were distraining on the clergy and
others to oblige them to provide men (Close, 12 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13 d.).
6 Coram Rege, 38 Edw III, Mich. Rot. 33 (Rex). For other civil appointments of the same character
see Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 24 ; Add MSS. 30222 fol. 18 ; Hargrave MSS. 93 ; Orig. Writs, ii, 322^ On
the subject of coast defence see also Stubbs, Const. Hist. (2nd ed.), ii, 285.
7 ' Signa consueta vocata beknes per ignem.' Cf. Southey, Lives of the Admirals, i, 360 (quoting Froissart),
as to the method of constructing them.
8 E. Powell in Proc. Suff. Inst, of Arch, xii, pt. 2 (1905).
9 Chanc. Misc. T2r. ' 10 Pat. 23 Edw. I. m. 9.
II Close, 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 1. " Foedera (ed. 1816), i, 901, 928 ; Pat. 29 Edw. I, m. 20.
202
MARITIME HISTORY
Again, in November, 1302, there was a general levy from Newcastle to the Land's End, the
eastern counties being called upon for fifty ships, but the number required for each town is not
given.1 In this case, and unlike the southern counties, which were commended as a whole for their
willingness, the east coast showed a lagging spirit which evoked some coercive measures. The
original order was dated 10 November, 1302, and Walter Bacun, a king's clerk, was to select the
vessels in the various ports. On 2 March, 1303, a writ to the sheriffs of the counties directed them
to aid Bacun to take security from the shipowners for appearance at Berwick, as some had absolutely
refused to send ships, and others had not sent as many as had been demanded.2 On 16 April
another clerk was associated with Bacun because 'he has been negligent ' and the king 'expects
great help from the ships.'3 Seeing that probably the greater part of such trade as existed with
Scotland was carried on by the east coast towns it can be understood why a dynastic war was not
very popular in that region. The shipbuilding industry which was afterwards the chief business of
Ipswich must already have been of some standing, for in 1295 a galley and a barge for the king
were being built there.4
The practice of the crown in taking up merchant ships was a part of the king's claim to the
services of all his subjects, upon which the right of impressing seamen was also based. At first
sight the constant levies of ships and men would appear to have been destructive of commerce, but
in reality they were not nearly so disastrous to it as they seem to be. A trading voyage involved
great risk of loss from wreck, piracy, or privateering ; the royal service meant certain payment for
the fitting and hire of the ship with sixpence a day for the officers and threepence for the men, very
liberal wages allowing for the different value of money. The incessant embargoes which harassed
trade — then much increased — under Edward III were not yet common, and the alacrity with which
most of the ports responded to the demands made upon them shows that the services required were
not oppressive, nor even unwelcome, especially as those who contributed to the sea service were
freed from any aid towards that by land. There was no permanent naval administration at this
time. The king possessed some ships of his own and the commanders were usually charged with
their maintenance. When a fleet was to be raised from the merchant navy a certain extent of
coast was allotted to one of the king's clerks, or to a serjeant-at-arms, who acted with the bailiffs of
the port towns in selecting ships and men and seeing them despatched to the place of meeting. If
a ship did not appear, or the men deserted, they or the owner might be required to find security to
come before the king, and although there was as yet no statute dealing with the offence,6 they were
imprisoned by the authority of the king alone or punished at the discretion of the admiral.6
The entries on the Patent and Close Rolls show that in the thirteenth century Dunwich was
the leading Suffolk port. In 1275 and 1285 there are references to a direct wine trade with
Gascony, one of the ships engaged being of at least 125 tons.7 In the next reign two Dunwich
ships were plundered to the value of some thousands of pounds in a Zealand port ;8 in 13 1 7 two
ships of Goseford (probably of Woodbridge) are mentioned, one of which must have been of about
120 tons.9 Orford, Ipswich, Orwell, and Goseford, as well as Dunwich, are referred to as passage
ports, but in 1229 only Ipswich and Dunwich were subjected to an embargo on foreign trading.10
The continual quarrels between the ports about their rights or encroachments are sufficient
evidence that the herring fishery was carried on industriously. In 1233 the bailiffs of Yarmouth
were ordered to allow the Dunwich men to remain in their port in peace ;n an order of the same
year,12 which exempted all Suffolk vessels from payment of the fortieth, was perhaps due to the desire to
encourage the fishery, since such a tax must have pressed most hardly on fishing boats. Some of the
orders, such as one in 1309 that no one should take fish ' without payment' from the Holland and
Friesland boats, seem to point to easy if dishonest methods of supply.13 The feuds between
Yarmouth and the Cinque Ports are well known, but the Suffolk towns also had an uneasy time
with their big neighbour. In 1 302 a commission sat to examine into complaints made by Yarmouth
against Gorleston and Little Yarmouth, and the gist of their offence may no doubt be found in
another Yarmouth petition in 1307 which states that 200 ships at the time, belonging to 'merchants
strangers,' were sometimes lying in the two smaller ports.14 The success of Gorleston caused so
much ill-feeling in Yarmouth that a year later the sheriff of Norfolk was ordered to proclaim that
any injury done to the Gorleston men would be punished by ' grievous forfeiture.' 15 An award of
1 Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 2. ' Ibid. 31 Edw. I, m. 33.
3 Ibid. m. 27. * Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 257.
1 The first statute was 2 Rich. II, st. I, cap. 4, by which deserters were fined double their wages and sent
to prison for a year.
c e.g. Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 13 ; ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 28 ; Close, 17 Edw. II, m. 6 d. See also/w/, p. 206.
; Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 25. e Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 1 1.
9 Ibid. 10 Edw. II, m. 12 d. ; II Edw. II, m. 18 d. w Ibid. 13 Hen. Ill, m. 7 d.
" Ibid. 17 Hen. Ill, m. 10. u Ibid. m. 16 d.
13 Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, m. 23. To the east coast generally except Essex and Lincolnshire.
14 Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 15 d. ; 35 Edw. I, m. 37 d. u Close, I Edw. II, m. 6.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
1 3 3 1 seemed to settle the dispute in favour of Great Yarmouth, for it forbade any foreign ship to
discharge at Gorleston, the use of the port being confined to vessels belonging to the town.1
However, so far from submitting to the decision we find from a writ of 1336 that 'large bodies of
armed men ' assembled at Gorleston and Little Yarmouth, and forced both English (other than those
owned in the town) and foreign ships to unlade there.2 There must have been a large number of
Flemish fishing boats working in the Norfolk and Suffolk ports ; in 1316 the count of Holland
consented to a tax on each boat arriving until a claim of £1,300 against his subjects, for injuries
done to English merchants, was satisfied.3
There was incessant strife between the men of Dunwich, Walberswick, and Southwold, con-
cerning the port and the receipt of dues, and Ipswich and Harwich had at this time a similar
quarrel on hand. Probably the Ipswich claim had been passively admitted until Harwich grew
prosperous, but in 1335 the Ipswich burgesses found it necessary to appeal to the king, saying that
' the port of Orwell with the arm of the sea and the river leading from the mouth of the port
towards the sea as far as the town belongs to the king and his said town,' and again that the port of
Orwell ' has belonged in the past to their town.'4 In 1340 a commission was inquiring into the
rights of the two towns, and the dispute as to jurisdiction lasted, it will be seen, well into the nine-
teenth century. Several documents of this period dealing with the controversy suggest that it was per-
haps the first time the pretension had been definitely put forward by Ipswich or refused by Harwich.
As piracy closely follows trade it may be regarded as a sign of commercial importance that the
Suffolk ports were frequent offenders or victims. The promise of spoil brought over Flemish
pirates, so that in 1282 Yarmouth, Dunwich, and Ipswich were called upon to set out a local
squadron to patrol the coast.5 The wrongs, however, were not all suffered by one side, for in 1291
a Flemish merchant had his ship plundered at Dunwich although not necessarily by Dunwich men.6
In 1299 there was another commission to inquire into the seizure of a ship near Dunwich, the
pirates taking their capture to Gillingham and selling the cargo there ; in the same year the earl of
Gloucester complained that ships in which he was interested were plundered and destroyed at
Southwold and ' his merchants' hindered in their accustomed use of the port.7 At Orford, in 1309, a
vessel from Bruges was emptied and then sunk, while at Ipswich, in 131 1, thirty-seven men,
including the parson of Flixton, were in gaol for piracy.8 The next year a Goseford ship
boarded one belonging to Lynn, at anchor near Rochelle, and after ransacking her set her adrift so
that she went ashore and broke up.9 In 131 5 there were eleven commissions to inquire into
piracies committed between Lynn and Harwich ; there must have been many more in which the
losses were not large enough to tempt the sufferers to the tedious and expensive process of appeal to
the king. But the number is not surprising when we find, also in 1315,8 Cinque Ports ship,
especially commissioned to cruise after pirates, despoiling two Flemish traders lying in the Orwell.10
Matters had become so bad that the next year John de Botetourt was placed in charge of the coast
from the Thames to the Tweed to keep the king's peace, 'as well on land as on the sea near the
land,' with instructions to put aside all other business to attend to this particular need.11
If Botetourt was successful it was only temporarily. Bad cases occurred continually, such
as the attack on a Walberswick ship at Southwold by Dunwich men, and the murder of sixteen of
the crew ; 12 here the hatred born of the rivalry between Dunwich and Walberswick was no doubt a
contributing factor. Soon after, in 1335, four ships, manned by Englishmen, came into Orwell
Haven, and lay there for nearly three months, rifling and sinking all traders, holding the crews to
ransom, and detaining ten vessels prepared for the royal service, although these last they eventually
set free unharmed.13 There seems to have been another peculiarly audacious act in 1344, when 129
men boarded ships belonging to Robert de Morley, admiral of the northern fleet, which were lying off
Lowestoft and plundered them of cargo to the value of £5,000. u As the men were led by four of the
bailiffs of Yarmouth it might be imagined, but for the value of the cargo, to have been merely one of
the innumerable fishery disputes between Lowestoft and Yarmouth. But occasionally cases called
piracy were hardly, if at all, outside the law. In 1340 a fleet of sixty-four ships belonging to
Yarmouth, Dunwich, and Bawdsey, attacked a Mediterranean ship bound to Flanders, and pillaged
.her of goods to the amount of £20,000. Edward was compelled to compensate the owners at a
1 Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 1. ' Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 25 d.
' Ibid. pt. 1, m. 34. * Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 18 d. ; 12 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 16.
5 Ibid. 10 Edw. I, m. 12 d.
6 Pat. 19 Edw. 1, m. 23 d. In the opinion of the writer a very large number of the cases of piracy, so-
called, in mediaeval times would later have been simple privateering cases for the adjudication of the Admiralty
Court. There was then no proper agency for the settlement of captures, and international law, even now
very cloudy, was only in the making. 7 Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. 15 d. ; m. 6 d.
8 Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. 34 d. ; 4 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. \d. 9 Ibid. 6 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 7 d.
10 Ibid. 8 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 2 1 d. " Ibid. 10 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 34.
" Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 22</. 27 ^ " Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 9 d.
14 Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 49^.
204
MARITIME HISTORY
cost of ^16,527, and gave the Norfolk and Suffolk men implicated the option of indemnifying him
or of standing a legal inquiry. They chose the latter course, which argues conscious innocence, and
that the crown standpoint was weak is shown by Edward's later action in offering a free pardon to
those accused if they sent their ships to serve in his fleets.1
The county helped to form the fleets with which Edward II tried to maintain his hold upon
Scotland during the earlier years of his reign. In 130S Yarmouth and Suffolk were called upon for
ten ships;5 in 1310 Ipswich was required to send two, and Dunwich, Orford, and Little
Yarmouth each one, at their own cost. This attempt to make the ports provide ships at their own
expense was necessitated by a depleted exchequer, but must have seemed to them in unpleasant
contrast to the methods of Edward I. It may be a sign of the exhaustion of the east coast that
Edward called for the services of the southern ports more often than for those of the eastern and
north-eastern counties. In 131 3 thirty ships were levied in Norfolk and Suffolk ;3 in 1 3 14 Ipswich,
Orford, and Goseford were asked for one ship each, and Dunwich for two.4 In the following year
a commission issued to inquire into allegations that bribes had been taken by those sent to select ships
on the east coast, through which the best ships and men had escaped impressment.5 In 1316 an
attempt was made to persuade the Suffolk ports to set out ships voluntarily at their own cost, ' for
better keeping of the English sea,' but with what success we are not told.6 In 13 19 Ipswich,
Dunwich, Orford, and Little Yarmouth were asked to send ships for three or four months at their
own expense, and afterwards at that of the king, but the charge on the ports was not to be a
precedent ; some of the towns, including all those of Suffolk, were to have prize goods without
rendering any account, but prisoners were to belong to the king.7
A two years' truce with Scotland expired in 1322, and preparations for an attack on England were
being made in Flanders. Edward invaded Scotland himself and convoked a meeting of representa-
tives from the chief ports of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex at Norwich to discuss with the treasurer and
the bishop of Norwich the measures necessary to ward off the danger threatening from Flanders.
Ipswich, Dunwich, Goseford, Bawdsey, and Little Yarmouth, sent delegates who agreed to provide
■ships at the cost of the ports for two months' service, two each being promised from Ipswich and
Little Yarmouth, one from Goseford and Bawdsey, and one each from Dunwich and Orford.8
This happened in April, 1322, but by June it was considered necessary to strengthen the naval
force still further, and the contingents from the Suffolk ports were doubled, this time at the king's
charges, with an additional ship from Guston (? Gunton), Walton, Colneys, and Felixstowe.9 In
1323 a truce for thirteen years was concluded with Scotland, but war with France followed
immediately, and although an actual levy, made at first in the Suffolk ports, was cancelled, an
embargo was placed on all vessels of forty tons and upwards in England and Ireland. The succeeding
three years must have been a time of vexation for shipowners for, although nothing was done, they
were constantly harassed by preparations which were not followed by action. In 1326 Isabella was
in France, her return expected, and her intentions known. Fleets were levied round the coasts, that
from the eastern ports of vessels of thirty tons and upwards, including those from Ipswich, Orwell,
Bawdsey, Orford, Goseford, and Dunwich, being ordered to concentrate in Orwell Haven by
21 September.10 Twelve ships in addition, manned and furnished at the expense of those not
contributing to the preparation of the main fleet, were to be taken up at Ipswich and Harwich ; this
squadron was to be stationed at Orfordness for the protection of the coast in the absence of the
fleet.11 Orfordness itself is an impossible station, but as it forms one of the shelters of Hollesley Bay
it is clear that this is the first recorded use of the roadstead as a strategical position for men-of-war.
As shown on the Patent and Close Rolls the measures taken by Edward, or his advisers, were
remarkably well considered in the dispositions of the squadrons and the proposed movements ; but
either the final orders were given too late or there was treachery among the higher commanders, for
when Isabella landed at the mouth of the Orwell on 26 September she met with no resistance.
There was a short war with Scotland in 1327—8, for which forty ships were sent from the
whole of the east coast, but there was no levy on a large scale. A more serious war broke out in
1332, and as the Scots at this time, helped by their continental friends, seem to have been unusually
1 Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. K)d. ; 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. zzd. ; 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. \zd.
m. 35 d. ; m. 34 d.
' Rot. Scot. 2 Edw. II, m. 13. 3 Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 18.
' Rot. Scot. 8 Edw. II, m. 8. 5 Pat. 8 Edw. II, pr. 2, m. 10 d. ; m. \d.
6 Close, 9 Edw. II, m. 13^. Application was made to the whole coast from Lynn to Falmouth.
7 Rot. Scot. 12 Edw. II, m. 6, m. 3 ; Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 17.
8 Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 14 d. ; m. I z J. ; Pat. 15, Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 19.
9 Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 5. Covehithe was now added to Bawdsey. The Bawdsey men appealed to the
ting against the action of their mayor and the admiral of the northern fleet who tried to make them equip
another ship for service with the south fleet. They had no difficulty in obtaining a prohibition (Close,
15 Edw. II, m. 4).
10 Ibid. 20 Edw. II, m. 10 d. " Pat. 20 Edw. II, m. 18.
205
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
well equipped for maritime operations the effects were felt along the whole of eastern England, both
in the preparations necessary and the losses caused by the enemies' ships. In 1334 there were
Scotch privateers cruising off the Suffolk coast.1 Gradually the towns were becoming restive under
the hardships due to the embargoes and the frequent arrests of shipping with which Edward began
his personal government. But, like all strong sovereigns, he knew when to hide the iron hand in
velvet and, instead of insisting on the prerogative, condescended to persuasion, sending confidential
officials round the coast in December, 1336, to explain 'certain things near the king's heart.'8 At
the same time another conference, similar to that of 1322, was assembled at Norwich ; ' the usual
Suffolk ports were represented, with the addition of Kirkley, which now begins to appear in the
writs. These mild proceedings do not seem to have been very successful. There was a general
arrest of shipping in January, 1337, but there was so much evasion along the east coast that a
commission was issued in August to imprison the defaulters and seize their ships and goods.4 In
September a writ was addressed to the bailiffs of Little Yarmouth in particular, directing them to give
certain persons the option of going to sea or going to prison.6
A catalogue of the orders, which rapidly succeeded each other during this reign, for levies of
ships in the various ports would be barren of interest unless the connexion with general history was
shown. But the disinclination of the eastern counties, the most progressive in trade and therefore
the greatest losers by these adventures, is well marked. In 1342 William Trussel was commissioned
to inquire, in Suffolk and elsewhere, whether the arresters of ships had not taken bribes from towns
and individuals to free the vessels, and sometimes extorted large sums.6 The balance of maritime
war was against England in 1338 and 1339, until the victory of Sluys restored our supremacy for
many years. For this expedition 200 vessels were collected in Orwell Haven, from which Edward
sailed on 22 June, 1340. The continuous strain was telling, however, on English shipping
resources, and in the same year the sheriffs of the maritime counties were ordered to prevent any
sales of ships to foreigners.7 A truce with France had followed the battle of Sluys, but the continued
decrease of the maritime strength of the country, as well as the necessary preparations for the
renewal of war, induced Edward to require the chief ports to send delegates to Westminster for
consultation and to receive orders.8 The principal ports each sent two representatives, and it is
rather curious to find Goseford among them, while Ipswich and Little Yarmouth only sent one each ;
Dunwich and Orford are not in the list. No doubt social and other influences were brought to
bear on these men, and the plan may have proved successful enough to encourage repetition ; at any
rate, similar councils were convened in 1342, 1344, and 1347. In 1342 only the southern ports
were summoned to send townsmen to Westminster, but in 1344 and 1347 Ipswich sent two, and
Dunwich, Orford, and Goseford one each.
In 1342 complications arose in Brittany owing to the death of the duke without direct heirs,
leading to the despatch of a large fleet and army under Sir Walter de Mauny ; Edward himself
crossed later in the year. In one fleet alone there were 357 vessels, of which Ipswich sent fourteen,
Goseford fifteen, Dunwich four, and Orford one.9 An undated list, probably relating to another
fleet prepared for this expedition, gives a total of 1 19 vessels, for which Ipswich provided two barges,
Little and West Yarmouth one, and Bawdsey, Orford, Kirkley, and Dunwich one each.10 After
Edward's arrival many of the vessels deserted from Brest, leaving the king and his troops 'in very
great peril,' therefore writs were directed to the bailiffs of the ports to arrest the deserters and seize
their property. The masters of eleven ships of Ipswich, eleven of Bawdsey, two of Little
Yarmouth, three of Dunwich, and one of Orford, are named ; the vessels and goods were to be
forfeited and the masters fined. Two Little Yarmouth ships had not appeared at all.11 At the
request of Robert de Ufford, earl of Suffolk, thirteen of the vessels arrested in virtue of the preceding
writs, and described as 'of his lordship,' were released.13 It is very doubtful whether the severe
penalties of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were often enforced to their full extent ; in
many cases they certainly were not, the shipping interest being too important to offend. But in this
instance Bawdsey at least paid its fines, and in 131 5 was freed from any liabilities that might arise
in consequence of the death of the receiver.13
For the campaign of Crecy and the siege of Calais a great fleet was collected. The original
record, said to be a Wardrobe Account, containing a list of the fleet at Calais has perished, and the
1 Rot. Scot. 8 Edw. Ill, m. 5. ' Close, 10 Edw. Ill, m. 4V.
3 Rot. Scot. 10 Edw. Ill, m. 3 d.
4 Pat. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 7 d. ' Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 32 d.
e Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 4 d. 7 Rymer, Foedera, v, 210.
8 Ibid, v, 231 ; Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 43^. They received two shillings a day for their
expenses (ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 18/). ' Chanc. Misc. fe 10 Ibid. -&.
" Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 1 7 d. ; Close, 17 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. \d. ; m. 3 d.
" Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 33. As examples of ship nomenclature the names of some of these may
interest the reader : La Sefray, La Scot, La Saveye, La Molete, La Burghmaydc.
18 Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. I.
206
MARITIME HISTORY
existing copies, which offer internal evidence that the original MS. was in some places nearly or quite
illegible when it was transcribed, are of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.1 There
are discrepancies in these MSS. concerning the details relating to several of the ports, but in Suffolk
it is only Goseford about which any material question arises. One MS.2 omits it altogether ; the
four others allot it thirteen ships, and three of them 303 men, but the fourth 3 says 404 men.
Ipswich sent twelve ships and 239 men,4 Orford three ships and sixty-two men, and Dunwich six
ships and 102 men. It appears that from the time of the capture of Calais the men of the port of
Goseford, which here included Bawdsey, Falkenham, and Alderton, had held the privilege of supplying
the town with beer and other provisions.5 In 1347, and perhaps partly in consequence of the Calais
service, Ipswich petitioned that it was ' piteously impoverished ' by excessive taxation and the loss of
ships by wreck and in the king's fleet,6 but as the object of the petition was to obtain a reduction in
the assessment for the tenths and fifteenths it need not be taken too literally. In 1402 Ipswich again
petitioned about its unreasonable farm, and was described by its burgesses as ' a frontier towards the
sea and a defence against the enemy for all the district around.' 7 A few new ports are mentioned
in the writs of this reign, but it cannot be said that any of them were rising into importance. An
order of 1360 for the arrest of all ships is directed to the bailiffs of Ipswich, Orford, Bawdsey,
Kirkley, Little Yarmouth, and Dunwich ;8 another of 1364, forbidding the export of gold, silver,
and jewels, is directed to Walberswick, Covehithe, and Kessingland, as well as to the places named
in the first writ except Little Yarmouth.9
The naval history of Edward III is an illustration of the fact that the almost invariable result
of the destruction of an enemy's military fleets is an increase of raids and privateering. Although
naval victories were won, and no resistance was or could be made to the transport of Edward's
armies, the coasts were continually harassed by French incursions or the fear of them while the sense
of helplessness was increased in consequence of the spoils made by privateers and the exhaustion of
the shipowning class. An unstable peace existed between 1360 and 1369 ; the outbreak of war in
the latter year was followed by the meeting of another council of provincial experts at Westminster
in November to which, of the Suffolk ports, only Ipswich sent representatives.10 The renewal of the
war was attended by the complete loss of English supremacy in the Channel. Levy followed levy
without result ; the Commons laid the causes to which they attributed the decay of shipping before
the king, and in June, 1372, after the defeat of the earl of Pembroke before Rochelle, the crown was
reduced to issuing commissions of array for the maritime counties instead of defending them at sea.
The ordinary rate of hire of ships was 3*. \d. a ton for three months, and now both that and wages
were left unpaid, in contrast to the liberality Edward had shewn thirty years earlier when he could
afford to make extra and unusual payments to help the equipment of the fleets. The year 1375 was
marked by another maritime disaster in the shape of the capture or destruction, in Bourneuf Bay, of
thirty-nine merchantmen, ranging from 300 tons downwards. Ipswich lost three vessels, two being
of 100 and one of 150 tons ; u they were no doubt wine ships, as there must have been a large
local trade to Gascony.12
Edward III died in June, 1377, and in July the French were raiding the southern counties at
their will. The English fleet was practically non-existent, therefore in November Parliament
decided that the country generally should be required to build ships by the following March.
Ipswich, Sudbury, Bawdsey, and Hadleigh, were requested to prepare a balinger between them and
as an inducement, were promised that after its service in the king's fleets was completed it should
be returned for the use of the towns.13 In 1379 Ipswich alone was called upon for a barge and
balinger. the squadron of which they were to form part being ordered to meet in Kirkley Road.14
For years the coast was more or less in a state of blockade, and little more was done than to
attempt to protect it, as it were, in patches by local levies where the danger seemed greatest. In
1382 certain persons were commissioned 'to take sufficient mariners of the better sort,' in Suffolk
and elsewhere, to man ten or twelve ships for the safeguard of the coast.15 Notwithstanding the
bitter and repeated complaints of Parliament concerning the ruin of English shipping, there are
indications that it was organization and generalship that was lacking rather than men or ships. '
In 1385 there was a powerful fleet at sea, to which Ipswich sent the George, 170 tons, and two
smaller vessels.16 In 1386 invasion was regarded as imminent; a great army was collected at
1 Cotton MSS. Titus F. iii, fol. 262 ; Stowe MSS. 570, fol. 23 ; ibid. 574, fol. 28 ; Harl. MSS. 3968,
fol. 130 ; ibid. 246. ' Harl. 246. 3 Titus F. iii.
4 Harl. MS. 246 says sixty-two men — obviously a mistake. * Rot. Pari, iii, 271.
6 Ibid, ii, 189. ' Ibid, iii, 514. 8 Close, 34 Edw. Ill, m. 37^.
8 Ibid. 38 Edw. Ill, m. rj d. 10 Rymer, Foedera (ed. 1 8 16), iii, 880.
11 Chanc. Dipl. Doc. P. 324 ; there was a Katherine oflpswich ofl6o tons in 1337 (Close, 11 Edw. Ill,
pt. 1, m. 21). u Rymer, Foedera, vii, 563.
13 Close 1 Rich. II, m. 22. u Ibid. 2 Rich. II, m. 14.
"Pat. 6 Rich. II, pt. 1, m. 33. 16 Exch. Accts. Q. R. bdle. 40, No. 9.
207
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Sluys as well as along the coast, and the descent was expected to be made in the estuary of the
Orwell. Therefore in September two knights were appointed to survey the harbour and the neigh-
bourhood where a landing might be effected, as, wrote the king, he had information that the French
and their allies intended to land in that district.1 Charles VI had proposed to invade in August ;
as no counter-preparation, not even the preliminary general arrest of shipping, was made here
until September it was fortunate that several causes disorganized the French design.
Hostilities with France ceased in 1389, and for some years maritime commerce suffered only
its normal afflictions, for, although official peace existed, private war always continued. No
declaration of war came from either side during the reign of Henry IV, but conditions at sea
differed nothing from actual belligerency. In consequence of this state of things, not only the
ports but many of the inland towns were ordered on 11 January, 1400-1, to build and equip ships,
singly or in combination, at their own cost by the following April ; Ipswich was to provide one
balinger, and Kirkley and Goseford, jointly, another.2 Parliament met on 23 January and
protested against the proceeding and Henry's position was too uncertain to permit him, as he might
have done, to insist on the strict legality of his action. A general arrest of shipping in 140 1
applied, in Suffolk, only to Ipswich and Goseford ; two years earlier3 there is a reference to Dunwich
as having been 'in great part destroyed' in 1357, and probably, although the smaller ports were
prospering by the fishery, they had not, from the nature of their trade, vessels large enough to be
of use for military purposes. The deep-sea fisheries, too, must have been in existence for some
time, for in 141 5 proclamation was made at Ipswich, among other places, that for a year there was
to be no fishing in Danish or Iceland waters ' aliter quam antiquitus fieri consuevit.'4 In 1379
sixpence a ton convoy money was levied from herring boats by the week, but from 'other fishers'
only at the rate of twopence a week.8
In 1402 the French raided the Essex coast, which was perhaps the reason why a king's ship,
the Katherine of the Tower, was lying in Orwell Haven from May to October of that year.6 Shortly
before then six Suffolk nobles had promised the king each to provide a ship with a sufficient number
of seamen, forty archers and twenty men-at-arms, two others undertook to provide a vessel between
them, and three more each the half cost of a ship with ten men-at-arms and twenty archers.7
How or where, if the promises were fulfilled, these vessels were used is not known, but the east
coast was in much more peaceful condition than the south during the early years of the reign of
Henry IV. The Patent Rolls are full of details of piracies committed by the men of the southern
ports, while the east coast towns seldom appear as accused, Goseford and Bawdsey in 1404 being
the solitary representatives for Suffolk. A squadron of Spanish galleys in French pay wintered in
the French ports in 1405, and in the spring of 1406 the commanders arranged a raid in the Orwell,
but a sudden gale drove them away when they were lying off the estuary. In the same year the
safeguard of the sea was committed on terms to a syndicate of merchants and shipowners, who
were given large powers, including authority to impress ships. No doubt they took up some in
Suffolk, although we have no details of their proceedings, but, as might have been expected, the
plan failed and in December the king resumed his responsibilities. Henry proposed going to
Guienne in 141 1, therefore in September there was a general arrest of every vessel of thirty tons
and upwards throughout England. In the following April the south-eastern portion of Suffolk —
Ipswich, Bawdsey, Colneys, Erwarton, and Harwich 8 — was directed to provide a hundred mariners
as against thirty from Essex and a hundred from Kent ; 9 this may perhaps, but not certainly, be a
measure of the relative maritime importance of the counties.
To crush privateering and piracy Henry V, in 1414, instituted officials in every port called
conservators of truces who, assisted by two legal assessors and holding their authority from the High
Admiral, were to have power of inquiry and punishment concerning all guilty of illegal proceedings
at sea. They were to keep a register of the ships and seamen belonging to each port, and acted as
adjudicators in such cases as did not go before the admiralty court.10 They seem, so far as related
to judicial functions, to have been a link on the civil side between the earlier keepers of the coast
and the vice-admirals of the coast created in the sixteenth century. That the statute was strictly
enforced and helped to keep a little peace at sea is shown by the fact that two years later the king
consented to some modification of its stringency by promising to issue letters of marque when
equitable. In 1435 it was entirely suspended, being found 'so rigorous and grievou=,' said the
Commons, taking advantage of a weak rule; in 145 1 it was brought into force again for a short
time, and once more renewed by Edward IV.
Henry V began his reign with the intention of having a great fleet of his own. The custom
of general impressment was now expensive both to the shipowner and the crown, slow and inefficient,
1 Pat. 10 Rich. II, pt. I, m. 29. ! Rymer, Foedera, viii, 172. ' Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. 5, m. 34.
4 Rymer, Foedera, ix, 322. 6 Rot. Pari, v, 138.
6 Exch. Accts. Q. R. bdle. 43, No. 7. ' Proc. of P. C. (first ser.), i, 106 (9 Feb. 1400-1).
6 Sic. 9 Rymer, Foedera, viii, 730. 10 2 Hen. V, cap. 6.
208
MARITIME HISTORY
and the continual complaints of the merchant class, as voiced in Parliament, were not to be neglected.
The system could not be, and was not, at once abolished, but it became much less frequent" durin^
the fifteenth century, and there is quite a modern note in the establishment of cruisers round the
coast in 1415, four vessels being stationed between the Isle of Wight and Orfordness and three from
Orfordness northwards.1 The great fleet of upwards of 1,400 vessels, required for the campaign of
Agincourt, included a contingent from Suffolk, but very many were hired in Holland and Zealand
either because the resources of the kingdom were insufficient, or Henry resolved not to tax them unduly.
In 1416 Orwell Haven was the place of assembly of a large fleet, and the numerous occasions when it
served for such a purpose, although they have not called for notice here, must have greatly assisted
the business growth of Ipswich as well as of Harwich. Another big fleet was required for Henry's
passage to France in 141 7, but out of one list of 238 vessels 117 belonged to Holland and Zealand.
Many of the English ports were unrepresented, and it may be surmised that for political reasons the
king preferred to hire foreign ships as transports rather than to disturb English trade. For this
service, however, Dunwich, Covehithe (' Cooshith '), Orford, and Blythburgh each sent one ship.2
An important branch of English maritime traffic in the fifteenth century was the transport of
pilgrims to enable them to perform their devotions at the shrine of St. James of Compostella.
They could only be carried in licensed ships, and nobles and merchants seem to have been equally
eager to obtain a share in what must have been a profitable trade. Most of the ships so employed
belonged to the southern ports, but any taken up for the purpose must necessarily have been of
considerable size judged by the standard of that age. For Suffolk there are very few entries in
long lists extending over many years, and Ipswich and Southwold are the only ports that appear.3
A late licence, of the reign of Richard III, entitled Thomas Rogers, keeper of the king's ships, to
convey pilgrims in four vessels, and one of them was of Woodbridge.4
After the death of Henry V one of the first proceedings of the Regency was to sell off the
Royal Navy by auction, but the loss was not felt at once because there was no French force capable
of contesting the dominion of the sea. There were arrests of shipping in 1428 and 1430, but
there was now a general feeling that in this method ' the long coming together of the ships is the
destruction of the country.' 5 Vessels were still impressed for the transport of troops, but the
cruising service was handed over to contractors who undertook to keep the sea with a certain
number of ships and men for a specified time. Of course the contractors desired to obtain as
much money and go to as little expense as possible, and in 1442 Parliament, dissatisfied with the
results, prepared a scheme by which a squadron was to be made up of selected ships from various
ports, but none came from Suffolk. There are existent several lists of ships taken up for the
transport of troops in 1439, I44°> I443> 1447> and :452.6 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 160 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, 1 350, 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 1 46 1 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. ! Rot. Norman, (ed. Hardy), 1835, pp. 320-9.
5 Rot. Franc, pass. * Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 171. i Proc. of P. C. (first ser.)", v. 102.
8 Exch. Accts. Q. R. bdle. 53, Nos. 23, 24, 25, 39; bdle. 54, Nos. 10, 14.
7 Paston Leturs (ed. 1872), i, 114. 6 Pat. 38 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 21.
9 Ibid. 3 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 11 a1. lc 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
convoyers were appointed by the king, and the persons designated were authorized to arrest and
imprison any others who ventured to undertake similar work.2 In the same year commissioners
were nominated to examine the accounts of the convoyers of 148 1, collecting rough statistics of
the state of the trade and the number of men employed in it ; 3 and in 1484 the accounts of the
convoyers of 1482 were similarly supervised.4 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.6
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;7 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 Orford 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 1 465 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. 11 Edw. IV, pt. z, m. n</. 2 Ibid, zz Edw. IV, pt. I, m. z.
5 Ibid. m. 1 d. * Ibid, z Rich. Ill, pt. I, m. z.
5 Campbell, Materials for a History of . . . Henry Vll.
6 Sailing Directions . . . from a Fifteenth Century MS. (Hak. Soc), 1889. For Orwell Haven see
V. C. H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.'
7 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, Z31. 8 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 831.
9 Gardner, Hist. Account of Dunwich, 1 14.
10Lansd. MSS. 171, fol. 186. " Pat. 10 June, 1505.
" Rymer, Foedera, xii, 139. IS 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 Dieu}
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 4 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 1430 (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 145 1, however, Walberswick was sending thirteen vessels and twenty-two Sperling
boats to Iceland, the Faroes, and the North Sea,5 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 (1 Hen. VIII, cap. 1), 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 ;£i20 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.15 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. 3 See V.C.H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.'
4 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (pt. 2), 4016. 6 Gardner, op. cit. 145.
6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iii, 2783. ' Ibid. 3071.
6 Ibid, iv, 5101. 'Ibid. 10 Ibid, viii, 1153.
II Ibid, iv, 2220 ; Add. MSS. 34729, fol. 63. 12 L. and P. Hen. Fill, vi, 1380.
13 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 831. " L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 1020.
15 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. i, 603. She was manned from Dunwich.
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 lesson 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
fall 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 6 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, 1542,6 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 paper 10 it appears that the blockhouse at the point was built by I 5 4 5 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, South wold ten, and Ipswich ten.12 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.
3 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv, pt. 1, 398, 655. * Ibid. 615.
5 Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 58. 6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xvii, 220 (37).
7 See f>ost, p. 221. 8 S. P. Dom. Edw. VI, i, 22. ' Landguard Fort, Lond. 1898.
10 S. P. Dom. Edw. VI, xv, 11.
11 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (pt. 2), 785 ; Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 129.
18 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xix, (pt. 1), 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, I 547, 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.2
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 system
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 those 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.4
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.' 5 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 Jets of P. C. 12 May, 1545. ' Cott. MSS. Nero C. x. s Ante, p. 202.
4 The patents of appointment were from the Lord Admiral, sometimes for life and sometimes during
pleasure.
5 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 ^800 a year.1 In 1 55 1 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 ; ' " therefore it was resolved to disestablish some and reduce others. In pursuance of this
resolution Landguard was partially or entirely dismantled in June, 1553, 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
'S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, i, 22. 'Act: o/P.C. 26 Feb. 1550-1.
3 Ibid. II June, 1553 ; S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, Add. iv, 45.
' Act: ofP.C. 4 June, 1558. Jenyns seems to have had a legal claim of some kind (ibid. 29 April).
SS.P. Dom. Mary xi, 38 ; Act: o/P.C. 13 July, 1557.
6 Act: o/P.C. 23 Dec. 1564. 7 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 po:t, p. 223).
9 Acts o/P.C. 11 Dec. 1565. 10 R. G. Marsden, Engl. Hist. Rev. xxi, 538 et. seq.
"Cecil MSS. 11 May, 1577.
214
MARITIME HISTORY
of repression adopted ; ' 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 £4.5,* and one list of
Suffolk fines for 1577 amounts to £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.'9 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 1 6 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 ' 12
several of his crew at Algiers in exchange for provisions. They were still in slavery when the
matter came before the Council in 1 600 ; 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 5^. 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
'S.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.
1 Add. MSS. 34150, fols. 61, 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
{Jets ofP.C. 6 June, 1577).
3 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv, 49. * Ibid, cxix, 6, 13, i.
5 Add. MSS. 12505, fol. 333. 6S.P. Dom. Eliz. exxxv, fol. 15.
'Ibid, exxiii, 3. 9 Ibid, exxxi, 38. % Acts ofP.C. 16 Jan. 1578-9.
10 Ibid. 26 April, 1579. "Ibid. 26 Sept. 1586.
"Ibid. 10 Mar. 1599-1600. Adjudications upon several of Glemham's captures exist among the
Admiralty Court papers. " S.P. Dom. Mary, i, 23.
215
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 1 00 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, 1565-6,2 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 18 masters and 66 men ; but Lowestoft, from Kirkley
to Corton, 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
under
Southwold . . .
upwards
tons
tons
under
Ipswich ....
5
12
IO
II
I
2
+
10
Woodbridge .
2
—
4
8
Walberswick. . .
2
3
13
Aldeburgh. . . .
1
8
•3
12
Gorleston . .
—
I
Orford ....
—
1
1
Lowestoft . . .
—
I
7
8
Dunwich ....
—
1
3
2
In 1576 there was a list drawn up of ships of over 100 tons built since 1 57 1, 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 time7 : — Ipswich, six ships and
190 men ; Woodbridge, six and 180 men; Orford, five and 25 men ; Aldeburgh, fifty-four and
120 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 9 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
♦Ibid. 15. 6 Ibid. Add. xxii
6 Ibid, cvii, 68. Harwich occurs independently.
7 Ibid, exx, 1. 8 Ibid, xevi, fol. 267 ; 6 Feb. 1576—7
216
3 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 1590,1 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 20 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
Dunwich 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 157 1 we meet with the first
indication in these papers of shipbuilding to the order of London owners, when the Julian of
120 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 150-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 100 tons or more, besides many smaller vessels.5 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 1 587/ In 1 61 8 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 1 619 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 1 62 1, 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 1687. u
1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 37. ' Ante, pp. 203, 21 1.
3 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 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 254. 5 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 986, No. 70.
6 T. Gentleman, England's Way to Win Wealth, 1 6 14. Gentleman himself was a shipowner, and received
the bounty on a 200-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, 1 1 1. " Gardner, Hist. Acct. of Dunwich, 164.
2 217 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 Probablv
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.2 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 Cary. 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 1576.11 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).
3 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.
5 Acts of P. C. 23 Feb. 1 548-9. 6 S. P. Dom. Add. Edw. VI, iv, 56. ' cf. ante, 211.
9 Of course the 220 boats sailed from the whole coast, and not from any particular county.
9 S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlviii, 83. 10 Acts of P. C. 23 Feb. 1 579-80.
11 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxlvii, 21. In fishing boats the crews were averaged at eight men and a boy to every
twenty tons (ibid.).
218
MARITIME HISTORY
complaining that they were mercilessly robbed by Scotch pirates, who were 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 obiection 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,
1 5 91, 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
1593.5 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 161 4/ 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 1 61 9 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 100 fishing boats, while nine or ten of the owners traded to Italy and Spain, no
doubt with salted fish. A pamphleteer of 161 5 10 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
160 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-
temporary writer said well that ' wet and cold cannot make them shrink nor strain whom the
1 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxxii, 72. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 318.
3 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxxx, 26. ' Cott. MSS. Vesp, C. xiv, fol. 26.
5 Add, MSS. 34729, fol. 63. 6 Seepost, 223. 7 England's Way to Win Wealth, Lond. 1614.
8 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, 23 Feb. 161 8-1 9. 9 Exch. Spec. Com. 2178.
10 The Trade's Increase, Lond. 161 5. u Redstone, Ship-money Returns for Suffolk.
12 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xc, 70.
219
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.2 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,6 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 157 1, 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 I 569/ 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
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, 1557, 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).
8 Eight men died of hunger on board the galley. ' Hakluyt, Voyages (ed. 1888), xi, 9.
4 Pat. 28 Jan. 1580. s Hakluyt, Voyages (ed. 1888), xi, 272.
6 Acts ofP.C. 14 June, 1573. ' Ibid. 27 Jan. 1579-80.
■ S. P. Dom. Eliz. exxxvi, II. 'See V.C.H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.'
10 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clix, 19 ; clx, 8, 9. " Exch. Spec. Com. 2124..
" Acts of P. C. 17 May, 1586.
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.2 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 alon°
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 j£8o, 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 bailiffs 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, Corton, 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.9 Then Aldeburgh followed ; the authorities complained that although their ship
1 Acts o/P.C. 26 Dec. 1587. » S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccvi, 32.
3 Ibid, ccviii, 23. ' Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft, 415.
4 Add. MSS. 22249, fol. 53. 6 Acts of P. C. 31 March, 1 April, 1588.
' S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccix, 88 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 255.
8 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 £$0 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 JVilliam,
140 tons, Captain Barnaby Lowe, and the Katherine, 125 tons, Captain Thomas Grymble ; Alde-
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 13 June, and
the Mathew, contemptuously, on the same date as not worth keeping.2 Three other Aldeburgh
vessels, and a 90-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'v> tne cruc'al 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 ^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.6 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 TVilliam 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 200 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.
■ Ibid, ccxvi, 74. The owner was Thomas Meldrum. ' Ibid, ccxxii, I.
5 Acts of P. C. 17 Dec. 1588. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid, xxv, 315. 8 Ibid. 9 Feb. 1595-6.
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, £"]$o 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.2 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 they 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 non 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. s The losses suffered, not only by Suffolk but also
by other counties, caused debates in Parliament in 1 60 1, 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 1 61 9, 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
1 Acts of P. C. 20, 30 March, 1597. 8 Ibid. 17 April, 18 May, 28 Dec. 1597.
s Ibid. 6 Nov. 1597 ; S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclx, in. ' Ibid. 9 March, 1599-1600.
5 Ibid. 10 July, 1586. 6 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclix, 73.
7 Ibid. Add. xxiv, 47. s S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xiii, 1 1.
9 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, iv, 77. 10 Ibid, xviii, 96. " Ibid, xix, 75, 120.
223
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 £6,800,1051 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, 1627,4 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 Dunkirkers 8
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 list 10 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 1 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 16 1 7 the bounty was paid on the
Griffin, 3 1 8 tons of Orford, and the Anne Bonaventure, 372 of Ipswich. There was evidently money
to spare for speculation because in March, 161 1, the Ipswich corporation subscribed £100 'out of
the town treasure ' for the Virginia Settlement of the London Company.12
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
I S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xxii, 46, i. ' Post, p. 226.
SS.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxxvi, 55; of these thirteen vessels two were of 350, two of 320, 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.
* Ibid, xlii, 102 ; xlvii, 23. s Ibid, lvi, 66.
6 Ibid, lviii, 14. ' Ibid, xc, 70 ; xci, 30, 45.
8 They mainly haunted particular portions of the coast and large and well armed ships were able to
protect themselves.
9 Trans. R. Hist. Soc. xix, 3 1 1, ' English Ships in the Reign of James I.' 10 Ibid.
II Mr. Marsden informs me that the corresponding figures for the period 1509-47 are Aldeburgh 26,
Ipswich 17, Lowestoft 15, Southwold 7, Walberswick 17, Woodbridge 12, Dunwich 10, Orford 2, and
Thorpe, Sizewell, and Bawdsey I each.
13 Hist. MSS. 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, 1827.1
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, 161 8-19,
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 ^150 ;3 the other Suffolk
ports were to assist Yarmouth, but the mayor complained that Wood bridge 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.5 The Ipswich corporation seems to have paid the
assessment without trouble, but in September, 1 62 1, 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.13 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 514 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 Rhe 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, 161. For the disputes between Harwich and Ipswich concerning Orwell
Haven see V.C.H Essex, ii, ' Maritime Hist.'
2 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cv, 88. 3 Ibid. 89. * Ibid, cvii, 26 (12 March, 1618-19).
4 Ibid, cviii, 81 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 309. 6 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxxx, 42, 43.
7 Pipe Off. Dec. Accts. 2263. 8 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xxxiv, 85, 86.
9 Ibid, xxx, 81 (June, 1626). ,0 Hist. MSS. Com. Wodehouse MSS. 446.
" Ibid. Rep. ix, App. i, 254. ls S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xlii, 132 (undated).
13 Ibid, lv, 59 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Wodehouse MSS. 449. " S.P. Dom. Chas. I, lxi, 80.
15 Ibid. cxv.
2 225 29
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
seventeen of from IOO 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 Rhe expedition. In 1629 there were
1,129 seamen in the county, of whom 250 belonged to Ipswich and 256 to Aldeburgh.2
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.' 3 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.6
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
1 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 j£ioo in 1626.12 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 lis. 8d. 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."
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
Commissioners had to be obtained.
4 Hut. MSS. Com. Wodehouse MSS. 443.
6 Ibid, xxix, 114. ' Ibid, vi, 44
8 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, xix, 20 ; xxxvi, 22.
10 Ibid. 64. i.
" Devon, Issues of the Exchequer, 7.
s Ibid, civ, 31.
3 Ibid, iv
• 77-
5 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, lxxxiii,
10 ; ccxlv.
1 49-
Diary of John Rous (Camd. Soc.) 2.
9 Ibid, xxxvii, 64.
11 Ibid, ccliv, 41 ; xciv, 33.
13 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxlvii,
18.
226
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 1 7 1 5 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.2 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 10s. 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, 1 65 1, 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 700-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 £218,500, was general to the
inland counties as well as to the coast, Suffolk being asked for an 800-ton ship or £8,ooo.12 Ipswich
was assessed at £240, Orford £12, Aldeburgh £8 165. 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 800-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. MSS. Com. Rep. xi, App. iv, 131. * S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccxc, 79.
3 Ibid, cccxxii, 59. * Ibid, cccxl, 30. s Ibid. Interreg. cxxiv, 6 Feb. 1656.
6 Commons Journals, 2 Mar. 1646-7. 7 Ibid, ii, 878, 925.
8 Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft, 419. 9 S.P. Dom. Interreg. cxxiv, 38.
10 Ibid, xxiv, 73. " Ibid. Chas. I, cclxxvi, 1, 64. " Ibid, ccxcvi, 69.
13 Ibid, cccxiii, 108. 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. 15 Ibid, ccccli, 18. 16 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 Maidstone, 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.5 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 four hired 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. 2 See Appendix of Ships. * S. P. Dom. Interreg. xlvii, 82.
* Ibid. 52. 5 Ibid, xxxv, 97. 6 Ibid, xxxviii, 34.
7 Ibid. 55. 8 Ibid. 22.
9 Ibid, xlii, 27 Feb. 1653-4 ; lxii, 133.
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 Dunkirkers.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-gan^
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
100 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.7 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 1 62 1 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 \d. 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. s Thurloe S.P. v, 407, 512.
1 S. P. Dom. Interreg. cxxii, 1 3 1 ; cxxiv, 11. ' 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.
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 1730,6 and the high light in 1 796.' In 181 5 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 1 81 5, 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 1618,9
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, 1 634-5, 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 ; u 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; 12 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 1 64 1 the Hull
seamen trading to the Baltic protested against being compelled to pay the dues for Orfordness ; 13
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, 1661,15
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 £"] S° an^ tne usual yearly payment of ^20, 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, 1730 — 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. 3 Ibid. 256 ; Pari. Papers (l86i),xxv, 404.
4 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, Portland MSS. ii, 267. The low light used candles.
5 Pari. Papers (1861), xxv, 404. 6 Ann. Reg.
7 Pat. I June, 55 Geo. Ill, pt. 9 ; Pari. Papers (1822), xxi, 497.
8 Coke MSS. i, 335. Thirty-two vessels were lost off the port on the night ot 28 October, 1627.
9 Lansd. MSS. 162, fol. 255. '"Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 245.
11 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxxvi, 28.
12 Pat. 13 Chas. I, pt. 15. It mentions that Orfordness was increasing by deposit from the sea.
13 Hist. MSS. 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.
15 Pat. 13 Chas. II, pt. 25. 16 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 explanation ' 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.2
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, 1888,4 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 Southwold
was established in 1890, a temporary light in the town having been used since 1888, as well as
the East Cliff lights, established in 1 88 1 ; the pier light at Southwold was first shown in 1900 ; 6
Lowestoft north and south piers 1847, jetty extension 1898, Claremont pier, 1903 ; Gabbard
lightship 1888; Corton 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 1552.7 The brick tower used as a seamark, now known as Bawdsev beacon,
is not earlier than the beginning of the nineteenth century ; it was rebuilt in 183 1. 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.9 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, and two more at Woodbridge in 1859. Orford Castle was certainly used as
1 Pari. 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.
2 Ibid. (1845), ix, 6. 3 Ibid. (1861), xxv, 404. They were 1,439 yds. apart.
4 Naut. Mag. Sept. 1888 ; Adm. List of Lights, 1889.
5 Pari. Papers (1834), xii, 334.
6 Naut. Mag. Oct. 1 890 ; May, 1898 ; Admir. List of Lights, under dates.
7 Admir. Ct. Exam, vi, 29 April, 1552. This may possibly have been a seamark.
8 Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 64. 9 Gardner, Hist. Account ofDunwich, 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 1 62 1 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 200 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 1674.5 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
,£8,500 ; 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 1 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 20 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 16 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
1 North Sea Pilot (ed. 1869), 1 82. ! Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 242.
3 Ibid. 240. ' S. P. Dom. Chas. II. ex, 57, i.
5 King's Prints and Drawings, (B.M.), II Tab. End, 39 (20).
6 Add. MSS. 22920, fol. 136. 7 S. P. Dom. Chas. II, exxviii, 50.
8 Aud. Off. Decl. Accts. 1820-483. 9 S. P. Dom. Chas. II, cxlix, 78.
10 Ibid, clxii, 51. "Ibid. 76. 12 Ibid, clxvii, 164; clxx, 17.
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. Wodehouse MSS. 467. " S. P. Dom. Chas. II, lxxxviii, 91.
15 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xv, App. ii, 301. 16 Ord. War. Bks. iii, 64.
17 W.O. Ordnance, Warrants, 15 Aug. 1666. le Ord. War. Bks, iii, 137.
232
MARITIME HISTORY
inhabitants were deserting the town.1 On 21 June forty Dutch ships were in sight of South wold,
which was ' in a very distracted condition.' 2 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.5 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 11 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
1,000 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. 'Ibid. 126.
3 See V.CM. Essex, ii, ' Maritime Hist.' * S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cccxiii, 1 74.
5 Ibid, ccvii, 112. There is corroborative evidence of the presence of the Ipswich seamen (W. O. Ord.
Warrants, iii, 3 July, 1667). See V.C.H. Essex, ii, p. 294, for a plate of Harwich and Landguard, 1710-14,
which must substantially represent the appearance of the fort in 1667 except that there is no reference 10 a
wet moat in any account of the attack. 6 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccvii, 10 ; ccviii, 24,
'Ibid, ccvii, 131. 8 Ibid, ccviii, 24. 9 Just outside the harbour.
10 Brandt, Vie de Michel de Ruiter, 424. " S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccviii, 72.
12 See V.C.H. Essex, ii, ' Maritime Hist.' " S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccviii, 28, 55.
2 233 30
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 1668 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 1 69 1, 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 Ash by 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
j£6o 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 1709 it was intended to rebuild it to correspond with new fortifications designed
at Harwich.9 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. Dom. Chas. II, ccix, 49 ; ccx, 102 ; 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.
8 Leslie, Hist, of Landguard, 55. 7 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cccx, 16.
8 Ibid. Will, and Mary, 8 July, 1692. 'Treas. Papers, cxii, 39.
10 Aitken, Life of Rich. Steele, i, Si.
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.2
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 100 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 200 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 Betts 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 bad 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 com 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.5 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 con-manies to run small cargoes — that is to say, anything less than the lading of a 50-ton
cutter, while they much preferred to use craft of from 100 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.
' Luttrell, Diary, 24 Feb. 1690-1. 3 Defoe, Tour Through Great Britain, Lond. 1724, i, 57.
4 Add. MSS. 931 1, fol. 94. 5 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.3 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.6 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.' u 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 1 741, 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. 81. ' Ibid, cclxi. 7.
5 Treas. Papers and Bks. cclxxix, 62, 77. 4 Gent. Mag. July, 1734.
6 The duty on tea was then \s. <)d. a pound, while the smugglers bought it in Holland at 2/.
6 Gent. Mag, 21 August, 1735. 7 Treas. Bd. Papers, cclxxxviii, 53.
8 Chamier, Life of a Sailor, ii, 255. 9 Treas. Min. Bks. 19 Nov. 1745.
10 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 1 83 1 it was transferred to the Admiralty and
became naval in organization. Before 1 845 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 20 Vict. 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 1 7 16, 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 171 7, 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 18-pounders, and fifteen 6-pounders ; there was
barrack accommodation for 200 men.5 The war with the revolted colonies (1776-83) caused
the construction of supplementary works, completed in 1782 ;6 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 1 81 5, but have now disappeared. It was perhaps as well that the fort was
never attacked, for in 181 1 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 ar
not mentioned in 181 1. In 1865 the armament consisted only of five guns for saluting purpose
u
Ipszvich Journal, Feb. 1783. ' Eastern Counties Mag. ii, 81. J W. O. Ordnance, Establishments,
Leslie, op. cit. 67. 5 Add. MSS. Z2875. 6 Leslie, op. cit. 78.
W. O. Ord. Estimates, xxx. 8 Ibid. Engineers, cxlvii.
237
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.s 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 1 7 14, 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 1 781 the average number of Lowestoft
herring boats was thirty-three a year,4 but sixty-nine was that of Southwold between 1 760 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.8 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 1753.7 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 1 73 1 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 1 741
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.9 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 1804 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 1 82 1 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, 6ii.
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).
4 Pari. Papers (1798), 1, 141. 6 Ibid.
' Gardner, Hist. Acct. of Dunwich, 1 96.
8 Navy Bd. Min. 2544, 20 Feb. 1728-9.
9 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 17 18. 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
17743 shows that there were six guns at Southwold, probably sent in response to a petition of 1745,4
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 16 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 16 April ; and that
the duke did not return from Scotland by sea but came byroad. In 1 8 19, 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 1 746, 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, 1746, the townsmen complaining
that French privateers took prizes in sight of land. In 1 744 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.6 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 1744, 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 noith battery, but some of them were considered useless.8 About I 78 1
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. i27,fora song on the subject. The Vengeance was taken in 1758 by
H.M.S. Hussar, 28. 3 Ho. Off. Ord. v. 29.
* Wake, Southwold and its Vicinity, 260. s Ibid. 266.
6 Ipswich Journal, 2 I July, 1 1 August, 1 744. 7 Hist, of Lowestoft, 422.
8 W. O. Misc. Var. §£. 9 Adrair. Sec. Min. Hi, 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 1 78 1 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,
Woodbridge, Landguard, Aldeburgh, Southwold, and Lowestoft. Gorleston and Corton 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 1 8 July.6 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 1 6th, 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 14th 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, 109 ; Admir. Sec. Min. lxxxvi, 1 5 December, 1778 ; Ann. Register, June, 1779.
' Hist, if Ipswich, 1 10. * B. M. Suffolk Newspaper Cuttings, 1304 m., fol. 34.
4 Add. MSS. 15533 ; W. O. Misc. Var. §£• ' Gillingwater, op. cit. 432.
6 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 ^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 180 1
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 to go 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.'1 By 1 3 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.6 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 Pari. Papers (1857-8), xxxix, 337. ' Acct. Genl. Reg. xxi. 3 Add. MSS. 34918, fol. 223.
* Nicolas, Letters and Despatches, iv, 432 (Nelson to St. Vincent).
1 ' 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, Hist, of Suffolk, i, v ; B.M. Suffolk, 10351, c. 24.
* 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 1808,1 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 5^-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 1805.3 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.5 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 1 801, 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 — ' motives have been suggested but they are too
disreputable to be believed '7 — and it was decided to remove the boat elsewhere if the Lowestoft men
continued to hang back. In 182 1 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. 1° 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 10*. 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. ' W.O. Ord. Engineers, cxlvii. 3 Ibid. Rents, xxxviii.
* Ante, p. 237. ' B.M. Suffolk Cuttings, 1304 m. fol. 183.
6 Martin, Hist, of Lloyds, 215. ' Ipswich Journal, 13 Oct. 1804.
8 B.M. Suffolk Cuttings, 1035 1, g. 1. 'Appendix of Ships.
242
MARITIME HISTORY
cashiered, but it was for ill-conduct in going out of his course and not for want of courasre. 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 1 821 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. Williams)-9 (c. John Grenville, 2nd It. Rich. Kirby), battle of Bantry Bay, 1 May,
1689 ; C. and C. 1 690-2 (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, 1 704 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, 171 1, 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 (0 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 (c- 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 ; 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.
1 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. 1 667-8 ; 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) j Nfd.
1679; Med. 1681-4 (c. John Ashby) ; Ch. 1685 (c. John Temple); W.I. 1686-8 (c. Ralph
Wrenn) ; W.I. 1 691 (c. John Bounty), taken by French 12 July, 169 1, when outward bound.
See also ante, p. 242.
Preston (4th rate) ; renamed Antelope at Restoration ; 5 16 tons, 40 guns ; built at Wood-
bridge 1654. Services : C. and C. 1654-9 (c- ^n- 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 1 May, 1690 ; W.I. 169 1-2 (c. Josiah Crow). Sold by A.O. 11 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. 166 1;
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 5 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 ; built at Woodbridge 1675. Services: Med. 1675
(c. David Trotter) ; Med. 1677-82 (c. Morgan Kempthorne, and Edw. Wheeler), action in May
1681 with eight 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 1 704-5 (c. Ph. Stanhope); C. and C. 1 706-7 (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, 16 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(0 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 (0 Robt. Allen), 1741 (0 Lord Forester), 1742 (c Hon. Geo. Dawnay), 1743 (c. Shel-
drake Laton), took the Sta. Familia, 14, in 1742 ; W.I. 1744-8 (0 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 (0 Thos. Limeburner and Edw. Legge) ; Ch. 1744 (c. Hon. Geo. Murray); Med.
and W.I. 1745-6 (0 Lionel Daniel) ; C. and C. 1747-8 and P.O. ; Ch. 1755-6 (0 Coningsby
Norbury); St. Helena 1757 ; C. and C. 1758 ; W.I. 1759-62 (0 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 (0 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
(0 Geo. Young and Wm. Owen) ; Lisbon 1780 (0 J. W. Payne) ; N.A. 1781 (0 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. 1 793 ; Downs Station 1 794-1 802 (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, 16, 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, 1796, took Anacreon, 16, on 26 June, 1 799 ; 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. 1 790-1 (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, 1 797, L'Aimable Manet, 14, on I May, 1 797, Wilding, 14,
on 28 Dec. 1798, Resolve, 14, on 31 March. 1799, Heureux Societe, 14, on 17 April, 1800,
Heufeux Courier, 14, on 19 June, 1800; Ireland 1804; N.S. 1806 (c. H. S. Butt); Leith
Station, 1808-10 (c. J. Ellis); C. and C. 1811-14. Convict H.S. Portsmouth, 1818-20.
Sold 1823.
Mecera (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, 18 guns; built at Ipswich 1797. Services: N.S. 1798-1800
(c. Chas. Wollaston), took Jupiter, 8, 27 April, 1798, Deux Freres, 14, on 21 May, 1799,
Courageux, 14, on 13 July, 1799, Perseverant, 14, on 23 March, 1 800, 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 18 Oct. 1804,
Vengeur, 14, on 13 Nov. 1805; Copenhagen, 1807 (c. P. Stoddart), action with Danish flotilla
on 22 Au°;., 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 1 Dec.
1 818. 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 1 8 14. Sold 18 17.
Orestes (sloop), 280 tons, 16 guns ; built at Ipswich 1805. Services : C. and C. 1805-14
(c. Hon. G. Powlett and J. R. Lapenotiere) ; took La Dorade, 10, on 9 May, and Loup Garou, 16,
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, 10 guns; built at Ipswich 1806. Services: C. and C. 1806-7
(c. Robt. Yarker); W.I. 1808- 1 1 (c. Chas. Kerr and Robt. Dowers) ; N.A. 1 812. 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- 1 1 ; C. and C. 181 2 ; W.I. 1 8 13. Taken and sunk by U.S. man-
of-war Hornet, 20, 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. 180R
(c. J. Fleming) ; N.S. 1809-14 (c. Eyles Mounsher), took Tilsit, 18, on 9 April, 18 10. 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 181 1 ; Portugal 1 812-14. Wrecked
at Plymouth 20 Jan. 181 7. 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 1 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, 16, in Channel 10 Dec. 1 8 10.
Transit (cutter), 214 tons, 11 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, 18 guns; 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 1833.
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 18 14.
Sold 1829.
Harrier (sloop), 386 tons, 18 guns; built at Ipswich 1813. Services: C. and C. 1814.
Sold 1829.
Esk (sloop), 458 tons, 20 guns ; built at Ipswich 1813. Sold 1829.
Leven (sloop), 457 tons, 20 guns ; built at Ipswich 181 3. Broken up 1848.
Dee (sloop), 447 tons, 20 guns ; built at Ipswich 1814. Sold 1818.
246
INDUSTRIES
INTRODUCTION
THOUGH 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. o/Suff. 1846, p. 1 374 j 1875, 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 12s. a dozen to js.6
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
8 White, Direct. of Suff 1855, p. 681 ; and Kelly,
Direct. 1900, p. 59.
3 Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 143.
4 Suckling, Hist. Suff. ii, 433.
5 Reyce, Breviary of Suff. (ed. Hervey), 35.
6 Young, A Gen. View of the Jgric. of Suff 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
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
more than half a century.1 The manufacture of have become filled with pure crystallized carbonite
whiting has also been carried on at Brandon for of lime, and are then known as septaria. Along
nearly a century, if not longer. the coast from Harwich to Orford Ness a great
In certain districts the soil of the county yields number of boats used to be engaged in dredging
a beautiful white clay from which bricks, tiles, for these stones, which were used in the manu-
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
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,
road from Botesdale to Bury, there is a bed of and the fact that they were utilized in early
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 20 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
' ' Kelly, Direct. 1846, p. 1374 ; I 875, p. 742 ; and
1900, p. 61.
2 White, Direct. 1855, pp. 234, 500.
3 Ibid. 757, and Kelly, Direct. 1901, p. 95.
* Ibid. 735, and ibid. 351.
5 See references under ' Lowestoft China.'
6 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 171 8 (White, Direct. 1855,
p. 240 ; cf. R. E. Prothero, The Pioneers and Progress
of English Farming, 43).
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 Brtghtwell 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 161 7 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
7 White, Direct. 1855, p. 260.
6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), No. 1280,
fol. 28-30, 35, and App. No. 41.
9 Reyce, Breviary (ed. Hervey), 27.
248
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
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
productivity of its fisheries, which were then rising of 1 38 1 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
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 higher than at the present day. Even the pro-
sixteenth century invested much of his capital in portion of the population fully engaged in industry
these distant expeditions. But two causes have as compared with that engaged in agriculture
seriously checked the natural development of the was probably never much greater than it is now.
industry until quite recent times — the one entirely It was that proportion, as contrasted with the
natural, the other partly social. No county has proportion obtaining in other counties of con-
suffered more than Suffolk from the effects of temporary England, which gave a special character
sea erosion. Dunwich, which had been before to the East Anglia of the fifteenth and sixteenth
the Conquest the principal fishing station in the
county, had almost disappeared beneath the sea
before the end of the Middle Ages, and Alde-
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
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-
reckoned as lasting from about the beginning of 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 32
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.
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 3^.
or ifd. 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 eroding 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.1
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 ; 2 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). 3 Young, A Gen. View, 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 181 7 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 17067
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 1756,9 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 Stow-
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
16 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. All these
4 Cal. o/S.P. Dom. 1637-8, p. 323.
* Stat. 11 and 12 Will. Ill, cap. 22.
6 White, Direct. (1855), 149.
7 Stat. 4 Anne, cap. 1 5.
9 Defoe, Tour in Eastern Counties, 99.
9 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. View, 227, and A. G. H. Hol-
lingsworth, Hist, of Stou-market, 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 1 7 feet. At the time of its con-
struction it was claimed as the largest wet-dock
in the kingdom.2 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 foodstuffs.4
These improvements were, however, subsidiary
to the great development of railway communica-
' White, Direct. 64.
3 Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. ii, 74-5.
* White, Direct. 553.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
tion which took place at this time throughout is interesting to note the other material con-
the country, and in which Suffolk shared in ditions to which the industries of Suffolk have in
somewhat piecemeal fashion. A railway from a secondary sense owed their development. For
Norwich to Yarmouth in 1844 was an essential this purpose they may be conveniently divided
part of Mr. Peto's scheme to connect Lowestoft into two main groups, one consisting of those
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
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
Suffolk Railway brought Halesworth and Beccles of local demand or supply. One favouring
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
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
Railway, which undertook the completion of the malting industry in the Suffolk ports. The
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 inland 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
Tic. cap. 47, and cap. ill; 24 and 25 Vic. cap. 180.
3 Stat. 25 and 26 Vic. cap. 223.
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 20s.
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 m I%72>
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 Jaunt, 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 1 83 1 ; in 1 851
there were 2,200 women and girls employed in
this way ; in 1 87 1 they numbered 2,335 ; but
in 1 88 1 they were reduced to 781. They are
said to have earned from 8s. to 10*. a week, but
* 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 100 hands, but it has long been closed. White,
Direct. 1855, p. 594, and J. L. Green, Rural Indus-
tries of England, III.
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.2 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,5 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. ill.
2 Rep. of Labour Com. (1893)011 'Agricultural
Labourer,' vol. i, pt. iii, p. 87.
3 J. L. Green, op. cit. ill.
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 6
' S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccl, 19.
6 Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Ser.), 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
eomyn into the toun in to merchauntz handys for to
pass from the cay to the partys of the see.2
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 3 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. 11 (1905).
* Black Book of Admir. ii, 1 87.
3 Pari. 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, or 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.5 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 1 38 1 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 1 3 1 2 mentions two fullers
as holding land there. The list of 1 38 1, 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, Bun',
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 Pari. R. (Rec. Com.) ii, 347.
5 Cal. of Pat. 4 Rich. II, pt. ii, m. 8 (p. 615).
6 E. Powell, The East Anglia Rising, in.
7 Cal. of Pat. 14 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 36.
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 13J 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 2d. 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.
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 i486, 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
1525,4 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.6
* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. pt. viii, 133-8.
3 Suff. Inst. Arch. vi. 107.
4 Brewer, Reign Hen. Fill, ii, 59.
5 Shakespeare, Hen. Fill, Act i, Sc. 2.
156
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.2
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 r said the Cardinal. I tell you the
King straitly commandeth you to buy their cloths, as
before time you have been accustomed to do, upon
pain of his high displeasure.'
' L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (2), 401 2, 4044.
2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4239.
■ Brewer, Tie Reign of Hen. VIII, ii, 261.
257
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.5
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
4 Unwin, Industrial Organization in tie l6ti and
\~ti centuries, App. A, ii, 234.
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.2
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 also continued to find occupation for a consider
themselves above the level of the labouring class able amount of semi-pauperised labour in the
by dint of constant alertness and thrift and the larger towns. Spinning indeed was the main
possession of a minimum of capital. A petition
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 Parliar
ment of 15 12, which punished any fraud on
the part of the worker by the pillory and the
cucking-stool.8
Although the preparation of yarn was chiefly
carried on in the villages and smaller towns, it
of clothiers was presented to the government
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) and if any fa
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
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 lb. of wool every week and
to bring the same home every Saturday at night,
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.9
And an order was made En 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
by women and children in their cottage homes the wages of spjnners and weavers by a third.
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
S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv
Ibid. 41.
Lansd. MS. 48, fol. 67.
Cott. MS. Titus B. v, fol
4,40.
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.
8 3 Stat. Hen. VIII, cap. 6.
7 Leonard, Early English Poor Relief.
3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. pt. viii, 139.
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.2
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. Fill, xiv (1), 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 £20 and
to give ^10 in the hundred.'
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 ^5 3 10s. 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
£40 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. Fill, xiv (2), 97.
' S.P. Dom. Elk. cvi, 48.
* Dep. Bk. in town records of Ipswich, 2 I Eliz.
'59
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
lost over £30,000 by the bankruptcies of
merchants during the crisis of 1622.1
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 1 May, 1573, infringed the 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
£28 105. "jd., for the return of which he had
14 cwt. Holland fish to the same value. Robert
Barker admits that as he passed from Hamburg
to Antwerp in 1570 or 1572 he bestowed at
Antwerp about £5. John Barker says he
received through Hamburg certain growgraynes
and taffetas which his servant sent in 1569 value
£2 and bought foreign cloths in 1570 value £8
or £10. Among the merchants who made no
exceptions to their general denial were John
More and Ralph More.2
The depositions taken concerning the oper-
ations of some of these merchants at the time of
the stoppage of trade give a sufficiently clear
notion of the extent and nature of the Ipswich
export trade in Suffolk cloth, and of the business
methods used by those who carried it on. Robert
Barker of Ipswich, aged thirty, declares on oath
that in September, October, and November, I 568,
he was in Antwerp acting as factor for John
More of Ipswich, merchant, and sold divers short
fine coloured cloths, some at £10 Flemish, others
at £10 Ss-> £10 5s- %d-> £10 l0s~> £I2> and
£12 105. He also sold ten long Suffolk cloths
at £14, £15 ioj., and £16 ioj. He declares
also that John More had in Antwerp from
January until July of the same year various sorts
of short whites, some of which sold at £5 9
Flemish the pack, some at £60, some at £61,
some at £62, some at £65, some at £6j.
Robert Barker likewise declares that in October
and November of the same year he sold for
himself and his partner W. Cardinal of East
Bergholt, merchant, in Antwerp, divers fine short
and long coloured Suffolk cloths, the prices of
the short cloths varying from £10 to £12 105.,
and those of the long cloths from £15 10s. to
£ij. Moreover, in December he bought in
Antwerp and shipped in a Flemish hoy two sacks
of hops on behalf of John More which was
seized by the Spanish authorities, and one sack
1 S.P. Dora. Jas. I, cxxviii, 67.
' Ipswich Dep. Bk. 1 7 Eliz. Apl.
of hops, a hogshead of flax and seventeen ballots
of woad for himself and partner. The authorities
also seized two pieces of mackado at 135. 4^.
the piece, in John More's packhouse at Antwerp,
and one piece of Norwich worsted value £2
Flemish, belonging to Barker and his partner.3
In the same month John Stork, aged twenty-
three, prentice to Ralph More of Ipswich,
merchant, made a deposition to the following
effect. In September, 1568, More consigned
by the Linn of Ipswich twenty-seven broad
cloths to a merchant of Vigo named Cotton.
John Stork went along with the cloths and saw
them delivered to Cotton to be sold on his master's
behalf. His master also entrusted him with, the
collection of two debts owing by Spanish
merchants, amounting to 47 and 275 ducats
respectively. Cotton owed More 156 ducats
for four fine cloths which he had sold on his
behalf, and had engaged to pay at the next
vintage. While Stork was in Vigo, his master
wrote him instructions to demand of Cotton in
what state things stood and for a return of moneys
received. Whereupon Cotton answered that all
he had of More's was arrested to the king's use.4
A further piece of evidence as to the quantity
of cloth exported is afforded by the deposition of
John Barker, who in 1560 was fined and im-
prisoned for disregarding an ordinance of the
town, that all cloth should be taken to the Cloth
Hall before exportation. During the two or
three years since the ordinance was made, he
admitted having shipped more than 1,000 cloths.5
Besides the trade done with Spain and the
Netherlands, there was a great deal of Suffolk
cloth sent to more distant countries. We learn
from a statute of 1523, that Vesses, otherwise
called set cloths, of divers colours are made in
Suffolk to be worn in far countries and not in
England. These were exempted, as they had
already been in 1487, from the regulation requir-
ing that cloth should not shrink more than a
certain amount when wet. They were of small
price, not above 405. a cloth, and they did not
hold the length or breadth when they were wet,
'which the buyers know well when they buy
them, so therein is no deceit.'6 They corre-
sponded in fact to the cheap cottons and shoddies
sent out nowadays to the African market, and
were largely exported to Barbary and Muscovy.
In 1613 the Muscovy Company was said to
export 2,500 cloths yearly, nine-tenths of whicli
were finished and dyed in Suffolk.'
The elaborate code regulating the cloth manu-
facture which was enacted in I 55 I, and embodied
the recommendations of a Royal Commission
representative of all branches of the trade,
s Ipswich Dep. Bk. 14 Eliz. Apl. 7.
4 Ibid. 14 Apl. 5.
sExch. Dep. 3 Eliz. 3 East. 3.
6 Stat. 14 and 1; Hen. VIII, cap. II.
7 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, lxxii, 70.
260
INDUSTRIES
required that no cloth should be strained or
stretched more than one yard in length or an
eighth of a yard in breadth, and that no person
should use 'any wrinch, rope or ring, or any
other engine for the purpose of such unlawful
stretching.1 ' We have seen it was admitted by
the Suffolk clothiers that such engines were in
common use, and it also appears that the stretch-
ing of cloth beyond the legal limit was universally
practised. The Privy Council at different times
judged it expedient to grant a dispensation or a
1 toleration ' for the stretching of a certain number
of cloths for the Eastern market,2 and an attempt
made to enforce the law in 1 63 1 was met with
a protest on the part of the justices of Suffolk.3
Sir Josiah Child, writing near the end of the
17th century, was of opinion that —
Excess of straining cannot be certainly limited by a
law, but must be left to the sellers' or exporters' dis-
cretion . . . besides, if we should wholly prohibit the
straining of cloth, the Dutch (as they often have done)
would buy our unstrained cloth, . . . strain it six or
seven yards per piece more in length, and make it look
a little better to the eye, and after that carry it abroad
to Turkey . . and there beat us out of trade with
our own weapons.4
Since 1487 it had been one of the main
features of English mercantile policy to insist
that all English cloth should be finished before
it was exported. Several statutes had been
made to this effect, but as the arts of cloth
finishing and dyeing were not as yet sufficiently
advanced in England to compete successfully
with the work of continental craftsmen, by far
the greater part of cloth exported was still white
and unfinished. In part the law had to be
relaxed, in part it was evaded, and royal licences
were granted to an extent which made the law
of very little effect.5 Where the law was
operative, as in the case of Norwich worsteds,
the effect on trade seems to have been disastrous.6
Nevertheless the policy remained in favour, and
the fact that so much Suffolk cloth, though as
we have seen by no means all, was dressed and
dyed before export, gave it a special interest in
the eyes of the statesman and the pamphleteer.
Whenever it was proposed to remove the hind-
rances imposed by the law on the cloth trade of
the country at large, the cry was raised that the
valuable Suffolk industry would suffer.7 When
courtiers sued for licences to export unfinished
cloth without regard to the law, they recognized
the force of public opinion or of vested interest
by excluding the cloth of Suffolk and of Kent
from the scope of their operations.8 It cannot
1 Stat. 5 and 6 Edw. VI, cap. 6, sec. 11, 12.
1 Acts of P. C. 1577, p. 385;S.P.Dom. Jas. I,xl, 25.
3 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxcii, 26, 42.
4 Smith, Memoirs of Wool, i, 227.
5 G. Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik, i, 454.
c Schanz, op. cit. ii, 20.
7 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxv, 26 ; Ibid, ccvi, 67.
8 Ibid, cclxi, 47, and cclxxi, 3.
be said that even in Suffolk the beneficent
character of the restrictive legislation was univer-
sally recognized. One of the most flourishing
centres of the industry in the county had been
East Bergholt. In the Ipswich records for the
earlier years of Elizabeth it is the clothiers of
that then flourishing place who are oftenest
mentioned as supplying the Ipswich merchants
with goods for export. In the year of the
Spanish Armada the justices of the township, in
reply to a demand of the Privy Council that
they should make some reasonable contribution
to a ship and pinnace out of Colchester, ask for
compassion on account of
the decayed state of this poor corner, growing chiefly
if we be rightly informed by restraint made by a
Statute prohibiting that no Suffolk cloth should be
transported and not here dressed before they were
embarked, thereby changing the accustomed gainful
trade . . . with such cloths as were best saleable in
Spain and now through long want of vent into those
parts we find the stocks and wealth of the inhabitants
greatly decayed.9
As far as the greater part of the English cloth
trade was concerned this restriction had very
little effect till after the accession of James I.
The merchants were interested in evading it and
the crown found the granting of licences for
the export of white unfinished cloth a valuable
fiscal resource. But by the beginning of the
seventeenth century, as we shall have occasion
to notice later, the influence of industrial capital
began to be much strengthened by grants of
incorporation. The clothworkers in different
centres, and especially in London, loudly insisted
on the law being carried out. The king and
his ministers, having quarrelled with Parliament
on the question of supply, were being led to
look to protective measures as a popular source
of revenue. Finally at the end of 1 6 14, just
after a dissolution of Parliament, the Govern-
ment sanctioned an elaborate scheme based on a
large grant of monopoly for securing the dressing
and dyeing of all exported cloth. In the dis-
cussion that led up to the adoption of what
proved a disastrous policy, the case of the Suffolk
industry occupied a prominent place. A state
paper was prepared giving
a survey of the benefits which cometh to this state by
colouring of the wools and cloth made in Suffolk
exceeding the like quantity of cloth made white
elsewhere.10
A very short acquaintance with this class of
document is sufficient to lead one to the con-
clusion that it would be quite unsafe to trust the
accuracy of the statistics thus put forward, but
the incidental details need not be viewed with
• Ibid, ccix, 102.
10 Unwin, Industrial Organizatio.
Seventeenth Centuries, p. 182.
the Sixteenth and
261
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
the same suspicion and are of considerable family the number will soon be accomplished. Some
interest. there be that weekly set more awork, but of this
number there are not many."
First there is made in the said county about 30,000 _r .
cloths which are transported every year in Eastland, °f the movement which has just been men-
Russia, Spain, Barbary, France, Turkey and other fioned towards the consolidation of industrial
places, and which are dyed in wool ere they be interests by means of incorporation, Suffolk
draped, of which number there are, we will suppose, presents some of the most interesting examples.
7,000 coloured blue, 20,000 azures, and 3,000 Although springing out of the progress made by
plunkets, all which are dressed in this land, the industry, the movement was marked to a
whereof we suppose 20,000 are transported in the considerable extent by a reactionary spirit, and if
same colour they received in wool, and 10,000 at ;t had achieVed more permanent success, it would
the least dyed m cochineal in volets, murreyes probably have retarded the industrial development
silver colour, peach colour, and other colours, for all , , J . T .„ , , r.,
u- u u v > n/r • . u j . r A . a- of the nation. It wil have become evident
which the king s Majesty had custom of the stuff , , ... , , , ,
that dyeth them. 'rom the above description that the old local
limitations of the industry had been outgrown.
Every vat set with woad and indigo for dyeing A more economical division of labour on a
the wool is said to require 4 cwt. of woad national, and to some extent on an international
paying 2s. custom and 12 lb. of indigo paying basis, was being rapidly brought about. The
4s. 6d. This amount of dye-stuff will dye the fact that the wool could be grown in one county,
wool for three blues, six azures or twelve plunkets spun in a second, woven in a third, and finished
or watchets. The custom on the cochineal used in a fourth, while it necessarily involved a decay
for those cloths that are dyed after they are of one or another of these occupations in many
draped comes to is. $d. the cloth ; and the total localities, carried with it large possibilities of
custom reckoned on this basis is £2,589 in. 8d. increased national production. But this advance
The statistician then proceeds to calculate how was dependent on the freedom of capital con-
much the ' handicrafts and labouring men ' have stantly to enlarge the scope of its operations and
for dyeing the wool and dressing the 30,000 to break through the barriers erected by local
cloths, supposing half to be coarse cloths and organization. The first step in this direction,
half fine. the control of the town handicrafts by the local
capitalists, the draper or clothier, was achieved
For making wood and caring for fire to without great difficulty, since the capitalist was
dye with and for burning ashes and . . r . ' •, t-,,
' . , , -ljj in possession of the town council. 1 he vain
carriage and for carrying the dyed r r . . . . .
wools to be washed and dried for each P™te* of ,the organized weavers of the towns .s
cjotjl _ I2j to be heard in every clothing centre throughout
For grinding the'indigo at zd. the pound, ' England during the sixteenth century. The
each cloth 6d. draper in the town had become practically the
For shucking the wool of every cloth . 4<z\ employer of spinners and weavers in the sur-
For dyeing the wool of each cloth to rounding country. But capital could not be
the setter and wringer zs. confined to the towns. With the advent of
For burling every coarse cloth 1 zd. every national peace and security, it found more
fine cloth ......... 4/. freedom in the country. And the country
For dressing (to rower and shearer) a producer was not limited to the local market.
coarse cloth cs. a fine cloth . . . 1 2s. « u • r j j j t j
t? .v c u- • j As the operations of trade expanded, London
For mantling, foulding, pressing, and 11 • i • i_
tilloting each cloth zod. merchants, who were in touch with a much
wider demand, became acquainted with the best
The total amount paid in wages is said to be source,s ofu «Vfr> and invaded with their larger
Ao,750, to say nothing of the twenty ships em- caPltaI what the locai, draPer had considered as
ployed in fetching fronTforeign countries woad, 11S own F«erve. The vested mterests of the
indigo, cochineal, and other dye-stuffs, 'where- local capitalist were now found to be opposed to
in is maintained 400 mariners continually.1' the,frec expansion of trade. An attempt was
In this connexion we may cite a computation made to force the, manufacture of several of the
of almost exactly the same date which is given most important clothing districts into dependence
by Reyce in his Breviary of Suffolk, written in on °f°r ™rf of, the towns °f tha< distnct;
jg-g Much Tudor legislation had this object, and
throughout Elizabeth's reign the corporate towns
It is reckoned (says Reyce) that he which maketh were busy reorganizing the cloth industry on a
ordinarily 20 broad cloths every week cannot set as capitalistic basis with the same purpose,
few awork as 500 persons for by the time his wool In the General Assembly Book of Ipswich
is come home and is sorted saymed what w.th breakers, fof ^ ^ Tecorded the ordinances
dyers, wood-setters, wringers, spinners, weavers, , ui- u- r 1 *u 1
1/ , t j ■ u j u- 1 for establishing a new company of clothworkers,
burlers, shearmen, and carriers, besides his own large b r ' '
• R. Reyce, The Breviary of Suffolk (ed. by Lord
1 Cott. MS. Titus, B. v, fol. 254. 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-
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-
dens. No member of the company is to give to workers and tailors of Ipswich about 1619.
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.
1 Constitutions, laws, statutes, decrees.
nances, MS.
Town Hall ; a
Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, pt. viii, 140.
nd ordi-
mary in
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 31. 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
s 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-
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.5
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.5 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
1 6 16-17 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 1 61 9.
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
3 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, cxii, 1 05 ; and Lansd. MS. 162,
fol. 208.
4 Acts of P. C. 26 May, 1620 ; and S. P. Dom.
Copy of charter of the constitutions, and of the Jas. I, cxx, 26. Later on we find the bailiffs putting
: Hist. pressure on the company to enforce these regulations ;
see S. P. Dom. Chas. I, ccxxi, 62.
Jas. I, s F. H. Durham, ' Relations of the Crown to
Trade under James I ' ; Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans. 1899.
264
petition
preser
ved
in Bury
Town Hall ;
MSS. Com. Rep
xiv
pt. viii,
141.
2 Acts
of P.
C. 4 Feb.
620 ;
S. P. Do
cxii, 62-
-4-
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.1
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.3
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 clothiero
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.6 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, 100.
5 Acts of P. C. 18 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 1 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
6 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxxxi, 40.
265
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 are 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. 5 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.'
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. yd. 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 18 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.* 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 ' ; ' but though we
hear of shipments to Smyrna by the Levant
Company in 1657,6 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.
2 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cclxxxii, 130.
3 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.
5 Commons J ousts, ii, 429.
6 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, ^7 t^le
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 20s. to 24.J. a piece.3
On the other hand it was pointed out some fifty
years later (16 1 5) 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.'1
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 3^. the pound, 215., the weavers I as., and the
fullers 2s. bd. ; 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, 10s. ; for spinning
and draping noiles and coarse wool, 6s.; for spin-
ning and twisting of tire wool, £2 4*- 5 f°r
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 Ecott. Hist. pt.
2 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxiv, 32.
3 S.P. Dom. Eliz. Addit. ix, 113.
238.
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,5 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
162 1 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, lxxx, 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, 161 7, 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 by dissolution. Subsequent petitions on
the subject were referred to the committee, but
nothing appears to have resulted J 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.2
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, 16 1 7, 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
made such complaints in 1629 as to the quanti-
ties of yarn seized on the authority of this order
that the government 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.' 4
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 1 631 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
, 1 n j i'i. j clothiers, advised the former to lay their case
every dozen twelve rollstaves, and every rollstaft ^"L""-'3> a 1 ,
' _ "* - ._ U^f^t-a fKa Wrt\r\r I VinnrtJ I h*» iitcfii-pc hpin(7
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.
* Reyce, The Breviary of Suffolk (ed. Lord F.
Hervey), 26.
3 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxl, 82.
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 lb.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 £1, 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 id. a lb.
Manservants to woolcombers working by the pound,
married, having served apprentice, 2d.
Chief servants of fullers, with livery £3, without
5 marks.
Chief servants of millers, with livery 50/., without £3.
Other servants of fullers and millers, with livery 40/.,
without 50/.
Chief servants of dyers, with livery 50/., without £3.
Other servants of dyers, with livery 40/., without 50/.
Chief servants of tuckers, shearmen, hosiers, with
livery 46/. 8*/., without 53/. \d?
After the Restoration, when the new draperies
were rapidly supplanting the old, the ancient
borough of Sudbury with the neighbouring
village of Long Melford became the chief centre
of the Suffolk cloth industry, and the records of
Sudbury show that the weavers there were able
to use the machinery of municipal government in
defence of their status. The oath administered
to the surveyor of weavers on the day of the
election of the mayor in 1665 was as follows : —
You shall swear that you will make diligent search
for the finding out of all such clothiers or saymakers
as shall use more than two broad looms or three say
looms or narrow looms within this town, and of all
such weavers as shall use above the number of two
broad looms or five say looms or narrow looms, and
of all such clothiers or weavers or other artificer in-
habitants as shall take . . . as an apprentice the son
of any husbandman or labourer inhabiting within
this town or elsewhere, unless such apprentice shall be
bound by the churchwardens or overseers of the poor
with the consent of the mayor for seven years. And
that no clothier shall take three apprentices except he
keep one journeyman.3
In 1674, when the clothiers in many counties
united in petitioning against the grant of licences
for the export of wool, fuller's earth, and undyed
cloth and stuffs, the complaints from Suffolk
were especially numerous and amounted to nearly
a hundred, but their numbers cannot be taken
as an indication of prosperity.4 In the latter
half of the seventeenth century the light fabrics,
calicoes and silks brought in by the East India
Company were coming into general use, and the
competition was complained of not only by the
silkweavers, but by the manufacturers of the
new draperies. The saymakers of Suffolk
petitioned Parliament in 1696 for the exclusion
of the Indian fabrics.5 In 1722, when Defoe
made his tour of the eastern counties, he found
Sudbury remarkable for nothing except for being
very populous and very poor.
They have (he says) a great manufacture of says and
perpetuanas and multitudes of poor people are em-
ployed in working them ; but the number of the poor
is almost ready to eat up the rich. . . . Long Melford
.... is full of very good houses, and as they told
me is richer and has more wealthy masters of the
manufacture in it than in Sudbury itself.6
Another traveller thirty years later finds the in-
dustry still carried on in Sudbury, Lavenham,
Clare, Bildeston, and Hadleigh, but is struck by
the poverty and dirt by which it seems to be
accompanied.7 The new draperies were in fact
slowly following the old to the west country and
to the north.
As the amount of weaving done in the county
diminished, the amount of wool combed and
spun for the weavers of other counties increased.
The Norwich weavers were the chief con-
sumers of the Suffolk yarn, and the powers of
search and of forfeiture which had been origin-
ally conferred by order in Council, and which
were re-granted by Act of Parliament in 1662,
were a constant source of dispute. In 1623 the
woolcombers of Suffolk and the other eastern
counties complained to Parliament that the Nor-
wich weavers had, under cover of their powers
of search, 'made great havoc and spoil of the said
commodities by rifling wagons at their inns and
on the road, and by plundering the woolcombers
themselves on the road and by breaking open
their houses and carrying away what they please.'
When a seizure was made, the fine imposed, as
to which the master weavers were both judge and
jury, instead of being used for the benefit of the
poorer weavers, was consumed in treats, whilst
the forfeited yarn was sold and made up into
cloth. These proceedings did not check the
admitted abuses in spinning, as the spinsters were
not punished, and the woolcombers therefore
asked that they might be incorporated by such
methods and under such regulations as the House
of Commons mi^ht think fit. The House,
1 P.C. R. 16 Feb. 163 1, and S.P. Dor
clxxxix, 40 ; ibid, cxcvii, 72.
2 Eng. Hist. Rev. 1897, p. 307.
5 Journ. Suff'. Arch. Inst, viii, I -.
Chas. I, ' S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccclxi, No. 155.
3 Commons "Journ. xi, 456.
6 Defoe, Tour In the Eastern Counties, p.
7 Universal Mag. (1759), l7l-~-
269
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
though it passed a resolution condemning the
practices complained of as arbitrary, illegal and
an abuse to the subject, took no further step at
that time in the direction suggested by the wool-
combers.1
Almost a century later, however, an Act was
passed which practically embodied the earlier
proposal. The manufacturers of combing wool,
worsted yarn, and goods made from worsted in
Suffolk were to hold a general meeting at Stow-
market, and to elect a chairman and committee
of fifteen who were afterwards to meet once a
quarter at Bury. The committee were to
recommend two inspectors for appointment by
the justices of the peace with powers to inspect
the yarn in the hands of the spinners, and to
prosecute defaulters. On a reel of one yard
each hank or skein was to consist of 7 raps or
leas, and each rap to contain 80 threads. On a
reel of if or 2 yards the hank was to consist
of 6 raps of 80 threads. To provide a fund
for the purposes of prosecution the collectors of the
soap duty were to allow a deduction of \d. in
the shilling on all soap used in the wool trade.
As most of the spinning was done by women,
the goods of the husband were made liable for
the wife's default.2
With the help of some statistics obtained by
Arthur Young in 1784 (probably from an em-
ployer), we are enabled to form a fairly definite
idea of the industry over which the new com-
mittee was to preside. The master yarnmakers
who were to attend the general meeting were
about 120 in number. Each of these employed
on the average about ten combers, and a comber
in full work produced material enough for thirty
spinners. The combers were in the position of
small masters, and occasionally had journeymen
or apprentices under them. They earned about
icw. a week. The spinners, taking women and
children together, did not earn more on the
average than 3^. a day. Reckoned on this basis
the total number employed in yarnmaking within
the county would be 37,500, nearly half of
whom were said to be engaged in supplying the
Norwich manufacture, which consumed every
week 65 packs at ^30 a pack.3 It should be
noted, however, that these figures are based on
the assumption of full and regular employment,
whereas a great deal of the spinning was done
in the intervals of other work, so that the
numbers engaged in it may have considerably
exceeded the 36,000 of the above estimate.
Another estimate given in a letter to a member
1 Commons Journ. xi, 22, also viii, 497. The
printed petition of the Suffolk woolcombers included
in S.P. Dom. Chas. II, lxxv, 163, would appear to
have been assigned by mistake to the year 1663, and
to belong to 1693.
2 Stat. 24 Geo. Ill, cap. 3.
3 Young, Gen. View of the Jgrie. of the county of
Suff. (1804), 232.
2
of Parliament published in 1787 is that there
were 192,000 ('say 150,000') employed in
spinning wool in Suffolk, but considering that
the entire population of Suffolk in 1 801 was
only 214,404, this estimate is obviously exces-
sive.
Apart from the rashness of his figures the
writer of the letter in question supplies an inter-
esting account of the economic condition of the
spinners, the general accuracy of which there is
no reason to doubt. There is no legal provision,
he points out, for the assessment of spinners'
wages, either by the piece or by the day. The
employers take advantage of the inefficacy of
the Act of Elizabeth, and assume an arbitrary
power of deducting sometimes twopence, three-
pence, and at this time fourpence out of every
shilling earned. The spinners in Yorkshire do
not suffer from these deductions, and provisions
are cheaper there. A poor woman labours
twelve hours to earn (yd. by spinning and reeling,
and the putter out of wool or packman by order
of his master deducts \\d. or id. out of the 6d.
The mode of delivering wool to spinners is through
a packman who is employed to carry it to the houses
of certain people which are called pack-houses ;
to these houses the spinners repair for their wool,
and there return it after it is spun ; and to these
places the mandate of the employer is sent to
take off 3</. or ifd. in the shilling. As the
spinner cannot live on 4^. a day, the deficiency
has to be made up by the parish, which is the
main cause of the increase in the poor-rate.
The woolcombers and weavers are not treated
in this way, because they are capable of resist-
ance. The writer concludes by urging that the
wages of spinners ought to be fixed at quarter
sessions by country gentlemen who are not
employers.4
By this time both the spinning and the weav-
ing branches of the woollen manufacture were
on the threshold of machine production and the
factory system, and this stage in the development
of the industry was destined to be realized else-
where than in Suffolk. The groups of roadside
spinners which had been one of the sights that
most struck the passing traveller throughout the
eighteenth century gradually disappeared, while
the skill of the hand-loom weaver was applied
to other materials. In 1804 Arthur Young can
still speak of the principal fabric of the county
as being the spinning and combing of wool,
which is spread through the greatest part of it,
but he adds that this manufacture is supposed to
have declined considerably since 1784. In 1840
it was practically extinct. In 1804 there was
still a manufacture of says in the Sudbury district,
and a weaver if a good hand could earn ioj.,
4 A letter to a member of Parliament stating the
necessity of an amendment in the laws relating to the
woollen manufacture as far as relates to the wages of
the spinner. Ipswich, 1787, B.M. Tracts, B 544.
70
INDUSTRIES
but many earned less. At Lavenham caliman-
coes were woven.1 These appear to have been
an interesting survival from the old Eastland
trade.
They were made, we are told, for Russia where they
were used by the Tartars and other Siberian tribes
for sashes. They were of worsted about 1 8 in. wide,
30 yards long, and were striped in the warp of
various colours in the form of shades beginning at
one edge of the stripe with a light tint of colour,
and gradually increasing in depth of shade till the
other edge of the stripe was almost black.3
In 1840 calimancoes also had disappeared, and
the only woollen manufacture that still dragged
on a rather miserable existence was that of bunt-
ings in the Sudbury district. The yarn of
which they were spun was produced in the mills
of Norwich and Kidderminster, as a woman
could not earn above is. %d. a week by spinning
it by hand. A woman or child could weave
two pieces of narrow bunting in a week, for
which they got is. yd. the piece ; and a man
or woman could weave two pieces of broad
bunting a week at is. 3^. the piece. There were
200 looms employed on buntings in Sudbury of
which only twenty were worked by men, these
being old men unfit for silk-weaving. A little
of this work was given out to weavers in Glems-
ford, and there was a manufacturer in Cavendish
who employed eight or nine looms.3 The bunt-
ing industry finally became extinct at Sudburv
in 1871.*
SAILCLOTH AND OTHER HEMPEN FABRICS
Another textile industry that sprang up in the
later half of the sixteenth century was the weaving
of sailcloth. Hemp was a plentiful crop in
Suffolk on both the north and south borders, and
it had probably been long used for making sack-
cloth, for which there has always been a large
demand at Ipswich. But at the end of Elizabeth's
reign the art of making good canvas for sails was
said to be still only partially acquired in Suffolk.
The French canvas, known as Mildernex, was
considered by owners and masters of ships to be
the ' best and profitablest' sailcloth, though it was
dearer, and it was only for want of a steady
supply of this that the Ipswich sailcloth was
taken. These facts are taken from a con-
temporary document, but the unusual degree of
national modesty which the statement of them
seems to indicate is not altogether uncoloured by
practical motives. They are adduced in support
of an argument for the continued protection of
an 'infant industry.' As long, however, as this
reservation is made, the account that is given of
the organization of the industry is well worth
quoting —
Ipswich sailcloths are like every day to beperfecter and
better made than they have been by reason there is one
Mr. Barber dwelling upon Tower Hill in East Smith-
field who is the only buyer of all Ipswich cloths, and the
Ipswich workmen and he by agreement hath two sealers,
principal workmen indifferently chosen by themselves,
the one by the workmen, the other by the said buyer,
to survey seal and mark all true made sailcloths, being
all brought to the said buyer's house in Ipswich by
agreement, and there straight the workmen receive
their money for all cloths that be sealed and marked,
and the untrue made cloths rejected and unsealed, the
workmen are fain to sell to loss, as they can agree, to
the said buyer or otherwise.
The sealers being very good workmen, tell straight
the faults of the cloths refused to be sealed, if the yarn
1 Young, op. cit. 231-3.
8 Rep. of 'Assist. Corn, on Handhom Weavers, 1840,
xxiii, 142.
lack bucking, pinching, beating, or well-spinning, or
otherwise be faulty in workmanship upon the sealing
day every week in the presence of all the workmen,
whereby every man is made to see his own fault, and
is told how to mend it by conference together, and a
willingness the buyer keeps among them to teach one
another and to win their cloths credit by true work-
manship.
There be some sailcloth makers brought up there
and gotten out from thence into Kent and somewhere
else that be not under the like survey that make faulty
cloths that would be brought home again to Ipswich
by reason there is so much good hemp growing there-
about, where our sackcloth for coals and for corn hath
been used to be made, and so are still of the refuse
hemp, and the best yarn there and from Boston,
Lincolnshire, and from Lancashire that can be gotten
is employed upon sailcloths. Our small ketches and
vessels under 100 tons, and the Flemish sailors and
Eastland sailors do commonly buy all Ipswich cloths,
as they are serviceable enough for their price. So as,
may it please her Majesty to continue their privileges
to a greater number of years, and in this quiet plain
manner of survey, sealing, and marking, I think in
time this trade of making sailcloths will serve the realm
or the most part of it.5
An Act against the deceitful and false-making
of 'Mildernix' and 'Powle Davis,' whereof sail-
cloths for the navy and other shipping are made,
which was in all probability promoted by Ipswich
makers, was passed in the first year of James I.
The preamble states that the art of weaving
these cloths was not known in England before
the thirty-second year of Elizabeth, when it was
introduced from France, that many not properly
skilled in the art have been weaving cloths
in likeness and show of Mildernix and Powle Davis,
but not of the right stuff, nor so well-driven or weaved,
nor of that length and breadth as they ought to be ;
3 Rep. of Assist. Com. on Handhom Weavers, 1 840,
xxiii, 294.
4 White. Direct. Suff. 1874, p. 137.
5 Lansd. MS. 108, 78.
27!
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
and it is enacted that none shall in future weave,
or cause to be woven, any such cloth unless he
shall have served a seven years' apprenticeship to
this special branch of weaving. Moreover, no
person is to make such cloth of any other stuff
than good and sufficient hemp, nor of less length
than 33 yards, nor of less breadth than three-
quarters of a yard. The stuff is to be well
beaten, scoured, and bleached, and the cloth well
driven with a brazen or iron shuttle.1
By the middle of the seventeenth century the
industry appears to have been well established at
Ipswich, and it continued to flourish during the
Restoration period, when there are numerous
references to Suffolk canvas in the navy records.2
A contractor named Waith offers the Navy Com-
missioners in 1666 7,000 hammocks of Suffolk
sacking received during the heat of the plague,
and asks leave to deliver them monthly at Dept-
ford.3 In October, 1670, he writes to them :
As to providing Suffolk canvas equalling the west
country pattern for six months, I have 3,000 yards
wrought, and will undertake to make it up to 15,000
or 20,000 yards in six months.
The claim made as to quality is confirmed by
the officials, who inform the commissioners at one
time that the best pieces of Suffolk cloth are equal
to Holland duck, and at another time declare it
to be better than west country cloth. Indeed, a
Weymouth contractor complains in 1672 of
being required to supply sailcloth in accordance
with a Suffolk pattern,
which may be of a finer spinning and so fair to the
eye, because perhaps made most of flax, yet what is
made here, being made of fine strong hemp, is much
stronger and better for use.4
After the seventeenth century the manufacture
of sailcloth seems to have migrated to the north.
The petitions to Parliament for protection against
Russian imports in 1745 come not from Ipswich,
but from Warrington, Gainsborough, and other
towns.6 Hempen cloth, however, for other pur-
poses continued to be made very extensively in
Suffolk, and was one of the main products of
workhouse labour. In his survey of the agri-
culture of the county (1804) Arthur Young
devotes considerable space to the cultivation of
hemp and to the various processes of its manu-
facture. It is chiefly grown, he says, in a district
about ten miles wide, extending from Eye to
Beccles. It is in the hands of both farmers and
cottagers, but it is rare to see more than five or
six acres in the occupation of one man. It is pulled
thirteen or fourteen weeks after sowing, and tied up
in small bundles called 'baits.' It is then steeped or
retted in water for four days, grassed for five weeks,
1 Stat. 1 Jas. I, cap. 24.
- Cal. o/S.P. Dom. 1655-6, p. 482.
3 Ibid. 1665-6, p. 336.
* Ibid. 1670, p. 480.
1 Cal. Treas. Bis. and Papers, 1745, p. 717.
after which it is carted home to be broken. Breaking
is done by the stone at is. The breakers earn I $d.
or \6d. a day and beer. The offal makes good fuel
and sells at zd. a stone. It is then marketable, and
sold by sample at Diss, Harling, Bungay, and else-
where, price is. 6d. to 8/. a stone, generally 7/. 6d. ;
in 1795, 10s. ; in 1801, 14/.
The buyer heckles it, which is done at is. 6d. a
stone ; he makes it into two or three sorts —
' long strike,' ' short strike,' and ' pull tow.'
Women buy it and spin it into yarn, which they
carry to market. . . . This the weaver buys,
who converts it into cloth, which is sold at market
also.
The spinners earn better and more steady wages than
by wool ; a common hand will do two skeins a day,
three of which are a ' clue ' at yd. ; consequently she
earns 6d. a day, and will look to her family and do
half ' a clue.' Nor is the trade like wool subject to
great depressions, there being always more work than
hands. . . . They begin to spin at four or five years
old ; it is not so difficult to spin hemp as wool ; but
best to learn with the ' rock.' . . . About Hoxne
the yarn is half-whitened before weaving ; but in
other places they weave it brown, which is reckoned
better. The weavers of fine cloth can earn 16s. or
1 Ss. a week, middling 10s. The fabrics wrought in
this county from their own hemp have great merit.
They make it to 3/. 6d. and \s. 6d. a yard, a yard
wide for shirts ; and I was shown sheets and table-
linen, now quite good after twenty years' wear.
In addition to this account of his own, Arthur
Young quotes at length an interesting letter from
a manufacturer at Stowmarket whose supple-
mentary details are of importance as showing a
development towards a larger organization of the
industry under the direction of the capitalist.
He has heard that mills are erected for breaking
flax, and thinks they might be applied to hemp.
He goes on to say that the beating of the hemp
by the heckler, which is the next operation after
breaking it, was formerly and is still in some
places done by hand ;
but in Suffolk is now always done by a mill which
lifts up two and sometimes three heavy beaters
alternately that play upon the hemp while it is turned
round by a man or boy to receive the beating regu-
larly. The mill is sometimes worked by a horse, and
sometimes by water; but I think a machine might be
contrived to save the expense of either. Many
weavers vend their cloth entirely by retail in their
neighbourhood ; others to shopkeepers . . . and
others at Diss, where there is a hall for the sale of
hemp cloth, once a week. . . . The earnings of the
journeyman weaver vary . . . from about is. to
is. 6d. a day, in extra cases more. . . . Some weavers
bleach their own yarn and cloth ; others their cloth
only ; others heckle their tow, and put it out to
spinners; others buy the tow and put it out ; and a
few carry on the whole of the trade themselves. The
latter is the plan I pursue, the advantages appearing
to me considerable. When the trade is conducted by
different persons their interests often clash ; by under-
retting the hemp, the grower increases its weight ; by
272
INDUSTRIES
slightly beating it, the heckler increases the quantity
of the tow, but leaves it fuller of bark ; by drawing
out the thread beyond the staple, the spinner increases
the quantity of yarn, but injures the quality ; by forcing
the bleaching, the whitester increases his profit, but
diminishes the strength of the yarn. The whole
should, therefore, be checked and regulated by the
weaver, with a view to his ultimate profit which . . .
should be deemed inseparable from the strength of
his cloth.1
The weaving of hempen cloth was at this
time a considerable industry at Halesworth, where
it is said to have found occupation for 1,000
hands, Bungay, and Stowmarket. It still lingered
in these towns as late as 1830, but had practically
disappeared by 1855.5 Its place has been taken
to some small extent by the sacking industry
now carried on in Ipswich and Stowmarket, the
material for which is woven in Scotland.
SILK THROWING AND SILK WEAVING
The establishment of the silk manufacture in
Suffolk seems to have been closely connected
with the passing of the Spitalfields Act of 1774,
by which the justices were empowered to fix the
rates of wages for the London weavers. The
London manufacturers began almost immediately
to set up branches in the country wherever a
suitable supply of labour was to be obtained.2
The eastern counties, in view of their nearness
to London, and of the decaying state of the
woollen industry within them, offered especially
favourable conditions. By paying piece-work
rates, which amounted to only two-thirds of those
fixed by the London justices, the employer was
able to offer the Suffolk weaver better wages than
he could make in the woollen industry.3 Sud-
bury, Haverhill, and Glemsford were the places
in Suffolk most affected by this migration, and
the silk manufacture has continued, though with
considerable fluctuations of fortune, to be carried
on in them ever since. At Mildenhall there was
a flourishing industry in 1823, established from
Norwich, which had become extinct before 1855,
and probably before 1840.4
At first it was only a question of transferring
the hand-loom weavers, more than half of whom
were women and girls, from one material to
another. But later on, especially after 1824,
when the duty on raw silk was removed, the
manufacturers began to set up throwing mills in
connexion with the weaving centres. In 1840
there were three of these mills in Suffolk, at
Hadleigh, Glemsford, and Nayland. Steam-
power was used in one case and water-power in
the others, but the total horse-power represented
was only nine. The total number of workers
was 465, and of these 217 were under the age
of thirteen, whilst the rest were under nineteen.
A few remained in the factory after that age, but
as they did not become more useful their wages
were not increased. In this way the younger
part of the population was drawn away from
1 A. Young, A Gen. View, p. 146-54.
8 Ibid. 231.
3 Rep. of Assist. Com. on Handhom Weavers, 1 840,
xxiii.
1 ?\got, Direct. 1823; White, Direct, of Suffolk, 1855,
p. 691.
2 27
weaving, even silk-weaving, of which there had
been some at Hadleigh, whilst many of the older
weavers were forced to migrate to the Lancashire
towns.6 A little later the industry spread to
Ipswich, where there were 200 female silk-
winders in 1 855/ The silk-throwing mills at
Hadleigh and Nayland seem to have ceased work
towards the end of the sixties,8 a trying time for
the silk industry, which had some difficulty in
adapting itself to the newly-introduced atmosphere
of free trade. The mill at Glemsford, which was
established in 1824, and which found occupation
in 1874 for over two hundred hands,9 was still
working in 1 90 1, although as the number engaged
in silk-spinning within the county is given in the
census of that year as seventy, the extent of its
operations must have been reduced.10
In 1840 the silk weaving of Suffolk was prac-
tically confined to Sudbury and Haverhill, and
the employing firms all had their head quarters at
Spitalfields. At Sudbury there were about six
hundred looms, which found employment for
about two hundred and seventy men, two
hundred and fifty women and girls, and eighty
boys. Only some half-dozen looms were em-
ployed in weaving velvets and satins, in which
branch the weaver might earn 12s. a week.
For weaving figured goods, at which 10s. might
be earned, there were eight or ten Jacquard
looms. Most of the work consisted of plain
mantels, lutes, and gros de Naples, and the net
earnings for this averaged about Js. There were
no power looms, but a number of the hand-looms
were worked in a factory under the eye of the
employer, who considered that this plan prevented
pilfering and was a better training for the workers.
The trade was subject to great fluctuations,
which made the wages actually received much
5 Pigot, Direct. (1830), pp. 745, 759, 781.
White, Direct of Suff. (1855), pp. 307, 417, 654.
6 Rep. of Assist. Com. on Handkom Weavers (1840),
xxiii, 131.
7 White, Direct, of Suff (1855), p. 69.
6 Kelly, Direct, of Suff. (1865 and 1869). Articles
on Hadleigh and Nayland. The mills are not referred
to in the latter year.
9 White, Direct, of Suff. 1874, p. 178.
10 Kelly, Direct. (1900), p. 144.
3 35
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
less than the amounts above quoted, which could
only be earned in a full week, and the weavers
considered the agricultural labourer as much
better off than themselves. At Haverhill there
were about seventy looms engaged in weaving
umbrella and parasol silks for Mr. Walters of
London. The work was more regular than at
Sudbury. A weaver could make 16 yds. in a
week, and the average wage for a full week, when
expenses had been deducted, was about 8s.1
The highest numbers employed in the silk
manufacture in Suffolk were reached in the
middle of the nineteenth century, when the
throwsters and weavers together numbered about
two thousand, as compared with about seven
hundred in 1 90 1. The reduction has been
chiefly in the boys and girls engaged in throwing
silk, but the weaving also has declined. Since
the opening of the new century, however, there
are signs of improvement. During the last ten
or a dozen years a number of Spitalfields firms
which had long found work for Suffolk weavers
have transferred their head quarters to Sudbury,
and there has been at the same time a tendency
towards amalgamation. Thus the old firm of
Messrs. Stephen Walters & Sons, which had
been established in Spitalfields for a century and
had employed Suffolk workers nearly as long,
became a limited company in 1899, having
absorbed the business of another old firm con-
nected with both Spitalfields and Sudbury, that of
Messrs. Kipling. In the same year it transferred
its London works to Suffolk, and since that date
it has enlarged its factories three times, and now
employs about two hundred weavers, mostly
women, on power-looms. Umbrella silks are the
chief product, but silks for ties, dresses, linings,
&c, are also woven, and for some of these hand-
looms still turn out the best work. A similar
combination is represented in Vanners & Fennell
Bros., Ltd., established in 1900. The firm of
Messrs. Vanners was founded at Spitalfields in
1 81 8, and had had factories of hand-loom weavers
at Haverhill, Glemsford, and Sudbury for upwards
of thirty years. Messrs. Fennell Bros, started
business as late as 1895 with the enterprising
object of meeting foreign competition by adopt-
ing all the latest improvements in machinery as
applied to power-loom weaving. They have in-
troduced an invention not previously used in
England by means of which the silk is mechani-
cally rubbed as it is woven with a view to in-
creasing its wearing power. The amalgamation
therefore promises to unite the advantages of the
old and the new methods. The new company
exhibited an electrically-driven loom at the
Woman's Exhibition, Earl's Court, in 1900,
and was awarded a gold medal. Another firm
with a long and distinguished past, whose opera-
tions have been since 1894 confined to Sud-
bury, is that of Messrs. T. Kemp & Sons.
This firm succeeded Messrs. Girault & Co. of
Spitalfields in 1844, and subsequently absorbed
the business of Messrs. J. Hills & Co. of Sud-
bury. Messrs. Kemp employ nearly a hundred
hand-loom weavers in the making of broad silks.
In former days they also made velvets. More
than two-thirds of those employed are women
and girls, and this proportion is maintained
throughout the industry as a whole.2
MIXED TEXTILES (DRABBET, HORSEHAIR, COCOA-
NUT FIBRE) AND READY-MADE CLOTHING
At the beginning of the nineteenth century
the textile industries carried on in Suffolk were
of very varied and fluctuating character. Of
these silk-weaving, the last to be introduced, was
becoming the most important. Of the old
woollen industry there remained the spinning of
a constantly-decreasing amount of worsted yarn
in the neighbourhood of Bury, and the weaving
of bays, buntings, and calimancoes already re-
ferred to, at Sudbury and Lavenham. A small
amount of woollen cloth was still made for local
consumption, but the place of this industry was
mainly taken by the making of hempen cloth
and of checks and fustians, which were mixed
fabrics of wool or cotton with linen. About the
year 1815 these fabrics were in their turn re-
placed by drabbet, of which the warp was com-
1 Rep. of Assist. Com. on Handloom Weavers (1840),
xxiii, 293-7.
posed at first of hemp, and subsequently of linen,
and the woof or shute of cotton. Drabbet was
so called from its colour, but it was also dyed
olive or slate. It was used very largely for
farmers' smock-frocks, but also for undress gar-
ments worn by gentlemen's servants, grooms,
&c. At Haverhill, which was the principal seat
of the industry, there were in 1840 some 330
weavers of drabbet employed by half a dozen
masters who travelled about the neighbouring
country to obtain orders. The hempen yarn was
brought from Leeds and the cotton from Stock-
port. A full length of drabbet called a ' chain '
was a week's work for a man, but at least half
the weavers were women and children, who
could not on the average produce more than half
' For most of his information as to the recent state
of the industry the writer is indebted to the firms
mentioned.
274
INDUSTRIES
a chain apiece. The price paid for weaving a
chain varied from 6s. to 8s., according to the
fineness, but out of this the weaver had to find
his own loom and harness, and also defray the
cost of winding and of candles, and find dressing
for the warp, so that the net earnings were not
more than 6*. A loom and harness were worth
£4 4;. A loom would last a lifetime, but the
cords of the harness required constant mending
and renewing, which involved an expense of
about 8s. a year. The evils of the truck system,
which had been complained of in the earlier days
of the weaving industry, still prevailed to a cer-
tain extent in spite of legislation. The weavers
had no organization or collective funds. They
complained that their wages had fallen 25 per cent,
in ten years, and that their condition was worse
than that of the agricultural labourer. A dyer
could make half-a-crown a day and some beer,
but he was often wet, and the cost of his shoes
and clothes was more. The drabbet weavers
had not, however, to suffer like the silk weavers
from chronic unemployment.1
The way in which the fund of skill acquired
through many generations by the textile workers
of Suffolk has been adapted to constantly chang-
ing economic conditions by enterprising ' captains
of industry ' can be best illustrated by reference
to the history of the largest textile firm in the
county, Messrs. Gurteen & Sons of Haverhill.
It is at the outset worth remarking that not
only the heads of this firm but also the manager
of its textile departments claim descent from the
Protestant refugees of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries.
The grandfather of the present members of
the firm set up business as a manufacturer about
the beginning of the last century. At that time
' checks ' and ' fustians ' were beginning to be
replaced by drabbet, which is still made in con-
siderable quantities by Messrs. Gurteen, and
which, since the smock-frock fell into disuse, has
been adopted as the material for pockets, military
outfits, and ' motor ' cloths. Drabbet continues
also to be made in other parts of Suffolk. At
Syleham on the northern borders of the county
there is a small drabbet factory which was esta-
blished about 1 842 to utilize the water-power
which had formerly served to turn a lar^e flour
mill.
Since the middle of the last century Messrs.
Gurteen & Sons have built up a considerable
industry in other linen fabrics, such as straining-
cloth for dairy purposes, which is shipped all over
the world, huckaback towelling, &c. About the
year 1875 they also began to make jute and
canvas fabrics, including a cloth known as
' scryms,' which is used by gardeners and paper-
hangers. During the eighties two other branches
of textile manufacture, the weaving; of horse-
1 Rep. of Assist. Com.
355-
Handloom Weavers, 1840,
hair and of cocoanut mats, were undertaken by
Messrs. Gurteen, who have since become the
largest manufacturers of both in the county.
The weaving of horsehair had been introduced
into Suffolk about the middle of the last century.
At Glemsford, Lavcnham, and Stowmarkct it
found work for hand-loom weavers who had been
displaced by machinery in other branches of tex-
tile industry, and as no satisfactory method has
yet been discovered of applying power to the
weaving of hair, it is still one of the chief cottage
industries of Suffolk, the looms being lent out by
the employer, though in many cases the workers,
women and girls, are collected in small factories.
Messrs. W. W. Roper & Sons employ in these two
ways about three hundred women and girls at
Lavenham, and the industry is also carried on at
Glemsford, where Messrs. H. Kolle & Son estab-
lished it in 1844, and at Sudbury. The uses to
which the horsehair fabrics are put vary a good
deal with the change of fashion.
Horsehair seatings are much less commonly used
than formerly for domestic furniture, but they
are still employed to some extent in upholstering
railway carriages and waiting-rooms. What is
known as hair padding is used for stiffening in
garments of all kinds (the vogue of dress improvers
in the early nineties led to a great demand for
horsehair cloth), and it affords one of the many
bases upon which the milliner raises her wonder-
ful constructions. In this branch of textile in-
dustry, to which they have more recently added
the weaving of Mexican fibre, Messrs. Gurteen
are the largest producers in England.
The material is brought from Australia, South
America, and Siberia, and the supply of it suffered
some restriction during the Russo-Japanese War.
The textile use of cocoa-nut fibre was intro-
duced into this country some seventy years ago.
The industry was first established in London and
is still carried on there.2 It would seem to have
been set up in West Suffolk about forty years
ago, partly with the idea of supplementing other
textile industries which were declining. It is still
to be found at Lavenham (Messrs. W. W. Roper
& Sons), Long Melford, Sudbury, Glemsford
(Messrs. H. Kolle & Son, Ltd.), and Hadleigh,
which were the earliest seats of the manufacture,
and Messrs. Gurteen established it at Haverhill
in the eighties. The weaving of cocoa-nut fibre,
like that of horsehair, is entirely a hand-loom
industry, but it requires the strength of men, and
women are employed only in the preparation of
the yarn, which they carry on at home, and in
the summer time in the open air, affording a pic-
turesque parallel to the open-air spinning which
caught the eye of the eighteenth-century traveller
in Suffolk. The chief use of cocoa-nut fibre is
' C. Booth, Life and Labour of the People, vi, 340.
A good description of the processes of mat-weaving
Is given here which applies equally to the Suffolk
industry.
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
the production of mats and matting, both of which
are made in Suffolk. Messrs. Gurteen & Sons
confine their attention to the mats, which are
made in every variety of pattern and size, some
of them having a border of coloured wool. The
competition of prison labour is frequently a sub-
ject of complaint in this industry.
Another industry that is to be found through-
out the eastern counties in many of the old
textile centres is the manufacture of ready-made
clothing. At Haverhill this originated in the
manufacture of smock frocks from drabbet. A
few of these are still made, but the embroidery
which is their distinguishing feature is almost a
lost art. As the smocks went out, they were
replaced by ' slops,' to the manufacture of which
the introduction of the sewing machine in the
late fifties gave a great stimulus.
Some twenty years later another marked
advance was made by the application of steam
power. Messrs. Gurteen now turn out about
20,000 garments weekly, and have a large export
trade. Their principal workroom in this depart-
ment is said to be the second largest in the
kingdom.
Altogether there are about two thousand people
employed by this firm in their factory at Haver-
hill, whilst another thousand are employed in
their homes in the neighbouring villages, some of
which lie in Essex and Cambridgeshire.
About half of the 3,000 are women. In the
factory at Haverhill, with its multiform activities
all organized on a thoroughly modern basis, the
industrial progress of the town is summed up. It
is a remarkable case, though not unique in Suffolk,
of the prosperity of a town of growing population
being due to the enterprise of a single firm.
While the textile industries, with the excep-
tion of a little silk-weaving, have entirely
deserted Ipswich, the manufacture of ready-made
clothing has grown up there during the 'same
period and under much the same conditions as
at Haverhill. Like staymaking, which is the
other principal employment for women at
Ipswich, it seems to have been in its earlier
stages a domestic industry carried on as an
adjunct to the drapery business. It became a
factory industry about thirty-five years ago,
when Messrs. W. Fraser & Co., who were then
employing over a thousand hands, established a
large workshop in Ipswich, where they are still
the chief employers.3
STAY AND CORSET MAKING
The beginnings of stay and corset making as
a Suffolk industry would probably have to be
sought for as far back at least as the seventeenth
century. A nonconformist minister of Beccles,
Mr. Ottee, referred to in a state paper of 1667,
is described as having been formerly a bodice-
maker.1 The industry was extensively carried
on in the Ipswich district in 1 846,* and 553
corset-making concern from a lady who claimed
to be purveyor to Her Majesty Queen Victoria.
The work was then given out to be done by
women in their homes, and was one of the main
cottage industries carried on in the country
round Ipswich.4 Except for the use of the
sewing-machine, it was all done by hand, and
its organization was of the simplest character.
women appear as staymakers in the census of As a mere annexe to the drapery business, Mr.
1 85 1. In the half-century that has elapsed
since then, whilst the population of Suffolk has
increased by only a seventh, the number of stay-
makers has doubled. This, however, is far from
indicating the extent of increase in productive
power. During the same period, and especially
during the latter half of it, the industry has
Pretty did not find the corset-making worth the
trouble of management, and as an alternative to
giving it up he handed it over to his son to see
if he could not make more of the industry by
entirely devoting himself to its development.
The application of power to the sewing-machine
in the seventies afforded a starting point for the
passed from the stage of primitive handicraft to concentration of the manufacture
that of the most highly organized and elaborately
equipped factory production. Suffolk is now
not only one of the two or three chief centres
of corset-making in the United Kingdom, it
exports corsets very largely to every part of the
world. The history of this development may
almost be identified with the expansion of the
activities of a single firm, Messrs. W. Pretty &
Sons of Ipswich.
The father of Mr. William Pretty, who was
a partner in a firm of drapers still carrying on
business in Ipswich, bought the goodwill of a
the direc-
tion of the factory system. Since that time the
division of labour has gone as far in corset-
making as it has in the boot and shoe industry,
and with every subdivided process mechanical
ingenuity has been and is still busy devising im-
provements. Mr. William Pretty and his sons
have kept in constant touch with American
methods, and in their factory at Ipswich, driven
by electric power and lighted by electric light,
S. P. Dom. 1667-8, ccxxv, 39.
P. O. Direct. Suj. (1846), p. 14.26.
* For the data on which this article is based the
writer is largely indebted to Mr. F. Unwin, of
Messrs. Gurteen & Sons.
4 J. L. Green, The Rural Industries of England,
in.
276
INDUSTRIES
the cottage industry of twenty-five years ago is
organized with transatlantic completeness so as
to secure the utmost economy both of time and
of labour. Within its walls there is a dining-
room for the employees, and close by is a creche
with a playground and sandhill attached, where
the children of married workers are looked after
by trained nurses. This reveals the continuity
with which the new system has grown out of
the old. The workers are nearly all women,
the daughters, sisters and wives of the mechanics
at the Orwell Works.
The advantage secured by the old system in
the dispersal of the industry over the country-
side is largely retained by the establishment of
branches. Messrs. Pretty have five of these in
Suffolk — at Bury, Sudbury, Hadlcigh,Stowmarket,
and Beccles ; and three in Norfolk — at Yarmouth,
Diss, and Lynn. The corsets are put through
the earlier processes in the branch factories and
sent to be finished at Ipswich. The women
and girls employed by this firm number nearly
1,200, about half of them being at Ipswich."
The workers employed by another Ipswich
maker — the Atlas Corset Co. — make up about
another hundred.
LOWESTOFT CHINA
It is probable that the manufacture of china,
■which was carried on during the latter half of
the eighteenth century in Lowestoft, owes its
origin to that constant intercourse with Holland
which has exercised so wide an influence on the
industrial history of the eastern counties. The
Delft ware, the universal vogue of which was
just then beginning to be challenged by the
inventive genius and enterprise of the famous
English potters, must have been brought in con-
siderable quantities to Lowestoft, and the Dutch
trader can hardly have failed to be on the look-
out for suitable material at a spot so convenient
for cheap transport to Holland. There is, in
fact, a story recorded of a Dutchman, shipwrecked
on the coast of Norfolk towards the middle of
the seventeenth century, pointing out to the
gentleman who had befriended him a valuable
bed of clay on his estate, which he told him was
of the same kind as that
sold at extravagant rates to the makers of Delftware
and fine earthen vessels, being brought down the Rhine
out of some place in Germany and very much coveted
in all parts of Holland. The gentleman . . . sent
over a sample, and finding the sailor's account to be
true, he opened the vein and dug up such a quantity
as brought him in a profit in eighteen months' time
of £1 0,000. But the stock was exhausted, and he
could never find any more in his lands. . . . l
The first dated specimens of pottery attributed
to Lowestoft are of the Delft species. They
belong to the years 1752—9, and as the china
factory was not started till 1757, it is probable
that there had been an earlier manufacture of
earthenware in the town, though it is possible
that the Dutch pottery may have been merely
painted in Lowestoft to suit the local demand.
The account given by Gillingwater of the dis-
covery or rediscovery of the clay beds affiliated
1 Essays for December, ij 16, by a Society of Gentlemen.
Quoted in W. Chaffers' Marks and Monograms (1897),
805. Mr. Spelman has traced this story back through
Fuller's Worthies of England (1662) to S. Hartlib His
Legacie f 1 65 1 ) ; Lowestoft China, 2.
the manufacture to that of Chelsea, which itself
owed much to Dutch immigrants. ' In the
year 1756,' says Gillingwater,
Hewlin Luson, Esq. of Gunton Hall, near Lowes-
toft, having discovered some fine clay or earth on his
estate in that parish, sent a small quantity of it to
one of the china manufactories near London with a
view of discovering what kind of ware it was capable
of producing, which upon trial proved to be finer
than that called the Delft ware. ... He immediately
procured some workmen from London and erected
upon his estate at Gunton a temporary kiln and
furnace and all the other apparatus necessary for the
undertaking ; but the manufacturers in London being
apprised of his intentions, ... so far tampered with
the workmen he had procured that they spoiled the
ware and thereby frustrated Mr. Luson's design.3
The following year a more successful start
was made at Lowestoft by the firm which, so far
as is known, were the sole producers of Lowes-
toft china from that time till the disappearance
of the industry in 1803. The partners who
then or soon after joined the venture were
apparently all of them strangers to the potter's
art, and each of them approached the enterprise
from a somewhat different point of view. The
full title of the firm was Messrs. Walker, Browne,
Aldred & Rickman. Mr. Philip Walker was
a local gentleman whose name afterwards appears
in the list of subscribers to Gillingwater's
History of Lowestoft. Mr. Obed Aldred is
described as a bricklayer, i.e. a master builder,
and may have been, as builders not infrequently
were, a maker of brick. He was evidently a
man of some means. Mr. John Rickman was
a merchant in a large way. All these three had
more or less capital engaged in the herring and
mackerel fisheries of the town, and had therefore
means of keeping in touch with Dutch or
English ports. This was an important point.
The cheapness of water carriage on the Grand
Trunk Canal was an essential factor in the
* Ex inf. Messrs. W. Pretty & Sons.
3 Chaffers, op. cit. 805.
277
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
success of the Staffordshire Potteries. Later
on we find the Lowestoft firm kept vessels con-
stantly running to the Isle of Wight for a
peculiar sand which formed one of the ingre-
dients of their ware, and to Newcastle for coal.
The china was also sent by sea to London and
the Continent. The remaining member of the
firm, Mr. Robert Browne, was a chemist, and
it was upon his experiments that the industry
was based. He had the management of the
works, superintending the mixing of the clays
and colours, and when he died in 1 7 7 1 his son
Mr. Robert Browne, junior, succeeded to his
position.1
The London manufacturers naturally regarded
the new enterprise no less unfavourably than its
predecessor. The Lowestoft firm was obliged
to draw its workmen from London, and these
had been so far influenced in the interests of
their former employers that the undertaking was
on the point of failure before the plot was dis-
covered. There is a story told of Mr. Browne's
method of retaliation on the London makers,
which though it bears a strong resemblance to
many other stories of the discovery of industrial
secrets, need not on that account be regarded as
a mere tradition. Mr. Browne is said to have
gained admittance in the disguise of a workman
to one of the factories in Chelsea or Bow, and to
have bribed the warehouseman to lock him up
secretly in that part of the factory where the
principal was in the habit of mixing the ingre-
dients after the workmen had left. Browne was
placed under an empty hogshead, through a hole
in which he could see all that was going on.2
Such incidents have really happened often enough
(however much they have been afterwards em-
bellished by the imagination) in the history of
industry. Whatever substratum of truth under-
lies the story in this case it proves that the
founders of the enterprise regarded themselves
as to a large extent imitators of the London
makers of china.3
The factory in which the firm commenced
operations was formed by the conversion of a
number of houses on the south side of Bell Lane
and by the erection of a suitable kiln. Later on, as
the demand for the ware increased, several other
adjoining houses were bought and the works
were enlarged and adapted more completely to
the various processes of the manufacture. The
industry is said to have reached its greatest
prosperity between 1770 and 1780.4 Towards
the end of this time there were sixty to seventy
persons employed on the works, in addition to
which a number of women were engaged in
painting the commoner blue and white china
in their homes. The firm kept two travellers on
'Chaffers, op. cit. 817-8.
1 Gillingwater, Hist, of Lotccstoft,
3 Art J mm. July, 1863.
1 Gillingwater, op. cit.
the road in East Anglia, and most of the china
produced was no doubt sold there, but it had
also an agency in London. An advertisement
in a London newspaper in 1770 states that —
Clark Durnford, Lowestoft China Warehouse, No. 4,
Great St. Thomas the Apostle, Queen Street, Cheap-
side, London, is prepared to supply Merchants and
Shopkeepers with any quantity of the said ware at the
usual prices.
N.B. Allowance of Twenty per cent, for ready
money.5
It is not improbable, moreover, that an export
trade was done with or through Holland.
The firm was still flourishing in 1790, when
the History of Lowestoft was published. A
description of the works as they existed about
that time was derived some seventy years later
from the memory of a Mr. Abel Bly, whose
father and uncles had been employed there, and
who went there daily himself as a boy. Subse-
quent discoveries tend to confirm the accuracy
of his account, which is as follows : —
The factory was situate in Crown Street, where the
brew-house and malting premises of Messrs. Morse
and Woods now [1865] stand, the rear fronting what
is now called Factory Lane. Where Messrs. Morse's
counting-house stands was the packing-room ; the
counting-house of the factory being to the east of the
packing-room. At the rear of the packing-room and
counting-room were two turning-rooms, and farther
to the rear adjoining Factory Lane on the ground
floor was also the drying-room. The painters worked
in a chamber approached by a staircase to the
eastward of the counting-room. Over the east
turning-room was a chamber for finishing the turners'
work. There was a chamber approached from the
east kiln in which the ware was tested as to its shape.
Over this was an attic in which women were em-
ployed painting the blue and white ware. The clay
was made in the factory premises now known as
Mr. W. T. Ball's Auction Mart, from whence it was
taken to Gunton Ravine (where there is to this day a
constant flow of the purest water, discharging many
gallons per minute) and there ground by a large mill.6
During the latter years of the firm's existence
its affairs do not appear to have been so pros-
perous nor the quality of its production so good
as in the earlier period, and as the new century
opened several causes combined to bring its
operations to a close. Most of the partners
were getting old and had no longer the energy
to undertake a competitive struggle with other
makers of china. The natural advantages
possessed by the Staffordshire potters, the near-
ness of coal and of other materials, and the
cheapness of transport to the large centres of
consumption, enabled them to undersell the
Lowestoft makers. About this time, moreover,
the failure of their London agents involved the
firm in serious loss, whilst a quantity of china to
the value of several thousand pounds is stated to
Chaffers, op. cit. 804-7.
Ibid. 810.
278
INDUSTRIES
have been destroyed on the occasion of Napo-
leon's invasion of Holland. About 1803 or
1804 the works were closed, the stock was dis-
posed of by auction, and some of the best
workmen went to Worcester.1
The connexion of Lowestoft with the pro-
duction of china did not, however, cease
altogether for a number of years after this.
Mr. Robert Allen, who had from his boyhood
been employed in the factory, at first as a painter
in blue, then as a foreman under Mr. Browne,
and finally as manager of the works, opened a
shop at Lowestoft as stationer and china dealer,
and having erected a small kiln in his garden,
decorated Wedgwood, Turner, and other Stafford-
shire ware, thus giving rise to an impression that
earthenware was made at Lowestoft, which was
apparently never the case. He even seems to
have bought Oriental china already decorated and
to have marked it with his name. This at any
rate is the explanation now given of the fact that
a teapot in the Schreiber collection in the South
Kensington Museum, painted with a Cruci-
fixion, is inscribed ' Allen Lowestoft ' in red
underneath. The painting is obviously Chinese.
Mr. Allen painted a window for the parish
church with this subject, and this fact, together
with the inscription, led to the supposition that
he had decorated the teapot. He died in 1832,
aged 91.
The best known collection of Lowestoft china,
that of Mr. W. R. Seago, who purchased it from
Mr. R. Browne, the great-grandson of one of the
original partners, was offered for sale in 1873,
but 160 specimens which were reserved were
ultimately acquired by Mr. F. A. Crisp, of
Godalming.2
The facts so far given as to the history of the
Lowestoft china manufacture are not subject to
much dispute. But for the last fifty years a
lively controversy has been carried on as to the
kind of china actually produced at the Lowestoft
factory. The issue turns on the distinction
between hard paste or Oriental china and soft
paste which is strictly speaking an imitation of
this. The secret of hard paste or true porcelain,
long zealously preserved in the east, was dis-
covered by the celebrated chemist Reaumur, in
1727, to lie in its composition as —
a semi-vitrified compound, in which one portion
remains infusible at the greatest heat to which it can
be exposed, whilst the other portion vitrifies at that
1 Chaffers, op. cit. 808-9.
' Besides Robert Allen, the other artists connected
with the Lowestoft factory whose names have been
preserved are Richard Powles, who transferred to
china a view he had taken of the lighthouse hill,
Thomas Rose, said to be a French refugee, Thomas
Curtis, John Sparham, John Bly, John, James and
Margaret Redgrave, James Balls, James Mollershead,
Mrs. and Miss Stevenson, Mrs. Simpson and Mrs.
Cooper ; Chaffers, op. cit. 8 1 9-2 1 .
heat and enveloping the infusible part, produces that
smooth, compact, and shining texture as well as trans-
parency which are distinctive of true porcelain.5
In soft paste, which would fuse at this great heat,
the glaze is separately applied after the body has
been once baked, and then the china is fired
again. The first European manufacture of hard
paste was at Dresden, where Boettcher dis-
covered the secret, and found at the same time
a supply of the necessary kaolin in 171 1. Later
on it was made at Berlin, and at Sevres in 1761.4
The first discoverer in England was William
Cookworthy, who, having found the right ma-
terials in Cornwall, took out a patent in 1768,
the rights of which, after some unsuccessful
manufacturing at Plymouth, were transferred to
Richard Champion of Bristol in 1774.6 In
the meantime great quantities of soft-paste china
were being made in England, and the celebrated
products of Chelsea, Bow, and Worcester are all
of them varieties of soft paste.
The dispute about Lowestoft china arose from
the fact that many East Anglian families possess
services of hard-paste china decorated with
armorial bearings or other designs evidently made
to order, and that tradition — in some cases vaguely,
in other cases definitely and positively — connected
this china with the Lowestoft works. This led
the late Mr. Chaffers in his Marks and Mono-
grams, which is still a leading authority on pottery
and porcelain, to take the view that after making
soft-paste porcelain for about twenty years,
Messrs. Browne discovered a method of manu-
facturing hard paste in close imitation of Oriental
china. It was, he says —
of very thick substance, but finely glazed, with
every variety of decoration ; dinner and tea services,
punch-bowls, mugs, etc. ; the borders of these are
sometimes a rich cobalt blue with small gold stars.
A raised pattern of vine leaves, grapes, squirrels, and
flowers is very characteristic of the Lowestoft hard
porcelain on jars and beakers, enclosing Chinese
figures and landscapes which are evidently painted by
European artists ; the enamel colours are not so
brilliant as the Chinese ; vases of flowers in red,
marone, purple and gold with red and gold, dragon
handles, etc. etc.6
Great weight was attached to the opinion of
Mr. Chaffers, and a large quantity of hard-paste
china has been attributed by collectors to Lowes-
toft on the strength of it. But objections were
soon raised to this theory. The body of much
of the china attributed to Lowestoft was so
obviously Oriental that as early as 1863 Mr. LI.
Jewitt was led to suggest that the best productions
of the Lowestoft works were only painted there
3 ' Porcelain and Glass Manufacture ' in LarttneSs
Cabinet Cyclopadia (1832), 11.
4 Chaffers, op. cit. 483, 505, 582.
6 Ibid. 834-50.
6 Ibid. 807-8.
279
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
on bodies imported from the east.1 In subse-
quent editions of Marks and Monograms, Mr.
Chaffers brought evidence to show that no
porcelain was painted at Lowestoft which had
not previously been potted there.2 This indeed
seems to be confirmed by subsequent investiga-
tion, but no very substantial evidence was adduced
by Mr. Chaffers in support of his contention that
a great part of the china thus potted and painted
was of hard paste. Perhaps the greatest obstacle
in the way of the general acceptance of this con-
tention lay in the fact that the china thus attributed
to Lowestoft was of a kind to be met with all over
Europe in such quantities as could not have been
produced by many factories as large as that at
Lowestoft. The further fact that much of this
china decorated in accordance with local require-
ments is to be found in the neighbourhood of the
ports trading with the East Indies, in Sweden
and Holland as well as in England, has suggested
the possibility that it may have been manufactured
in the East in fulfilment of special orders sent
out by firms in touch with local demand and
accompanied by designs for decoration. This is
the view adopted by Mr. Frederick Litchfield,
who edited the last edition of Marks and Mono-
grams. In an interesting note on the section
dealing with Lowestoft he says : —
When the Editor was in Gothenburg some few
years ago he bought there a tea service, evidently of
Oriental porcelain, decorated on one side with an
East Indiaman flying the Swedish flag, and a Swedish
coat of arms and monogram on the other side . . .
Another service which passed through his hands was
of Oriental porcelain, but represented some Dutch
merchants presenting a petition to some governor ;
this had been painted for some Dutch family in-
terested in a charter. Other similar instances could
be quoted . . . 3
As the mistaken attribution of the Oriental china
to Lowestoft must have been founded on its
having in some cases passed through the hands
of the Lowestoft firm, it is extremely probable
that their trading connexion with Holland led
them to become dealers in Eastern porcelain.
The confusion between the ware thus imported
and that produced at Lowestoft may not have
been intended, but it must certainly have been
assisted by the fact, noted by Mr. Litchfield, that
some of the armorially decorated china was not
of Oriental, but of English, and probably of
Lowestoft make. A service of this kind is in
the possession of Capt. Meade, of Earsham Hall,
Bungay, and the existence of such specimens no
doubt helped to confirm Mr. Chaffers in what
now seems universally admitted to be a mistaken
theory.4
The controversy had already reached this
1 Art Journ. July, I 863.
'' Chaffers, op. cit. 809-10. 3 Ibid. 816.
' Ibid. The question is discussed at some length in
Mr. LI. Jewitt's Ceramic Art in Great Britain, vol. i,
452 ; Mr. Litchfield's Pottery and Porcelain (1900),
point when in 1902 a mass of fresh evidence was
discovered which, while confirming the negative
conclusions above stated, furnished at the same
time a solid basis for a more positive knowledge
as to the nature of the porcelain actually made
at Lowestoft. In that year, and in 1904,
explorations made on the site of the old china
factory, which had since been occupied by a
' malting,' brought to light a large number of
moulds and of broken pieces of china in every
stage of manufacture. With the exception of a
few pieces of earthenware of a common Stafford-
shire type, apparently dinner basins used by the
workmen, and some fragments of distinctly
Oriental china, presumably used as copies for
designing, the whole of both finds is of the same
species of soft paste, to which the early signed
and dated pieces of Lowestoft belong. Not a
single fragment was found of china of the sub-
stance or bearing the decoration attributed by
Mr. Chaffers to Lowestoft. The first ' find '
passed into the hands of Mr. Crisp of Denmark
Hill, and a portion of it has been deposited in
the British Museum. The second is in the
possession of Mr. W. W. Spelman, who has
published an exhaustive description and analysis
of his collection, illustrated by a great many
photographs and coloured plates.
Amongst the debris were found a large piece
of clay, rea ly mixed for use, a piece of finest
quality white biscuit, and a piece of a sort of poor
Jasper ware of a lavender hue. These Mr.
Spelman has had analysed with the results given
below.6 The clay is much like other soft paste
china clay ; it has a bone-earth bottom. The
earlier clay is much the better in quality, the
later being more like ironstone. ' The paste,'
says Mr. Spelman,
has a creamy look which in many cases is disguised
by a colour in the glaze so as to resemble Oriental
china ; but if the glaze is slightly chipped the true
colour of the paste at once appears. . . . Some is
exceedingly soft, so that if filed it is like chalk, whilst
some ... is equal to Worcester china in its hardness.6
194; Mr. Solon's Hist, of Old English Porcelain,
210; Mr. Burton's Hist, and Description of Eng.
Porcelain, 154; Prof. Church's Eng. Porcelain, 92,
and in an article by Mr. Casley, specially dealing
with Lowestoft china, published in the Journal of the
Suff. Inst. Arch. (1903), vol. xi.
Clay
wnite
Biscuit
Jasper Bisci
Silica .
38-20
41-60
37-21
Alumina
22-22
19-14
17-32
Rone earth
28-74
25-81
32-43
(phosphate of Hit
,e)
Lime .
7-67
io-8o
871
Magnesia
.•65
1-22
i-io
Potash .
•93
"41
2-2C
Soda
-}9
1-02
•98
ioo-oo
ioo-oo
ioo-oo
Lozcestoft China.
, p. 16.
6 Spelman, op. cit
.36.
280
INDUSTRIES
The fragments represent a considerable variety
of production. Sauce-boats are the most abun-
dant, and besides the ordinary tea and dinner
services there are many dolls' tea services. The
only product peculiar to Lowestoft seems to have
been the birth tablet with an inscription on the
middle and pierced with a hole to hang up by.
The discovery of moulds is of special interest.
Some are fluted with large or small flutes. Some
are of a ribbed pattern, others decorated with
dots, cable-work, or basket-work. There are
moulds for separate parts of the articles made, as
teapot-spouts, lids, and handles, the latter some-
times in the form of a flower or spray of leaf ;
also for knife-handles decorated with designs
copied from Worcester or Bow. Indeed one of
the chief results of this discovery is to enable
the expert to assign to a Lowestoft origin china,
especially embossed china, which might other-
wise have been regarded as inferior work of
another make. This is the more important as
the factory had no distinctive mark of its own.
The conclusions that emerge from Mr. Spel-
man's investigation may be summarized as follows,
substantially in his own words :
I. Lowestoft ware is porcelain, not pottery, z. It
is soft paste, not hard ; the cruder pieces resemble
Bow, the finer Worcester ; the paste is creamy white,
some pieces being very translucent whilst others are
practically opaque. 3. It is often very rough in
modelling and the bottom of the pieces is roughly
finished. 4. The glaze has a bluish or sometimes
a greenish tinge, and this glaze has run thickly into
crevices, is continued over the bottom rim and the
flanges of teapot lids. 5. The decoration is often
poor though sometimes good ; the blue is apt to run.
6. The models in use at other factories both for form
and decoration were copied without scruple, and the
marks were commonly but clumsily forged. '
Professor Church gives a list of twenty-two
pieces dated from 1 761 to 1795, and adds :
A large number of other pieces enamelled in colours
with roses and other flowers, chequered work and
scale patterns . . . may be assigned to Lowestoft on
the evidence furnished by their resemblance to the
signed pieces. . . . The paste of Lowestoft is not so
soft as that of Bow or Chelsea. It is slightly yellowish
by transmuted light, the glaze being rather bluish and
not over bright. There are specks and black spots on
most of the pieces, while the blue is of a dull cast.
The painting is feeble in drawing, but otherwise
reminds one somewhat of the style of St. Cloud por-
celain except where direct imitation of Chinese design
has been attempted.
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, MILLING
MACHINERY, LOCOMOTIVES, ETC.
The making of agricultural implements, and
of agricultural and milling machinery, with
which is associated the manufacture of road
engines and other locomotives, is the most im-
portant modern industry of Suffolk, whether it
is measured by the number of men employed,
the amount of capital invested, or the extent of
the market served. Though it is established
also in Bury, it belongs more especially to the
eastern part of the county, where it balances the
textile industries of the west. It is to be found
on a larger or a smaller scale in most of the
eastern towns and in some villages. It was
founded in the last quarter of the eighteenth
century. The Leiston works of Messrs. Garrett
were established in 1 7 7 8, the Wickham Market
Iron Works of Messrs. Whitmore and Binyon
in 1780, the Orwell works of Messrs. Ransome
in 1789, and the Peasenhall works of Messrs.
Smyth in 1 80 1. But its great achievements lie
in the nineteenth century. In the thirties and
forties several Suffolk firms began to acquire a
world-wide reputation. Since that time the
expansion of the industry has been continuous ;
the number of those employed in it is still in-
creasing, and it looks confidently to the future.
The small country town of Leiston, far re-
moved as it is from all the great natural lines of
2 28
communication, and from any effective outlet
by sea, is not a site that could have been con-
sciously chosen before the days of railways for
great works destined to supply a world-wide
market. The achievement of this result in so
remote a spot is indeed a convincing proof of
energy and enterprise, and the situation of the
Leiston works sufficiently indicates the simple
origins out of which they have grown. Down
to the last quarter of the eighteenth century the
farmer was supplied with all the agricultural
implements then in general use by the village
blacksmith or wheelwright. The original es-
tablishment of Mr. Richard Garrett, the great-
great-grandfather of the present Messrs. Garrett,
was little more than a roadside smithy, where
horses were shod, and ploughs and harrows made
and repaired. Mr. Garrett, however, acquired
a special reputation for scythes and sickles, and
gradually came to manufacture these on a large
scale. In this industry, and in the production
of ploughs and harrows, turnip-cutters and chaff-
cutters, fifty or sixty men were employed, and
the smithy became a factory by the addition of
a wheelwright's shop and a foundry.2
1 Spelman, 72-3.
* The Engineer, 8 Aug. 1884, p. 109 ; Jgrie. Gaz.
26 Mar. 1888, p. 285.
36
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
By this time the Orwell works had been
founded at Ipswich by Mr. Robert Ransome.
The son of a Norfolk schoolmaster and the
grandson of an early Quaker who suffered im-
prisonment for his opinions, Mr. Ransome was
apprenticed to an ironmonger, and commenced
business in Norwich with a small brass foundry
which grew to be also an iron foundry. After
taking out a patent for cast-iron roofing- plates in
1783, he turned his attention to the improve-
ment of the plough.1 Hitherto the main body
of the plough had been made of wood, the
wheelwright and the blacksmith taking almost
equal parts in its construction. Apart from the
unsatisfactory results of professional jealousy and
divided control on the manufacture, the wooden
plough was liable to get out of order from ex-
posure to the soil and to the changes of the
weather. It did not work uniformly and was
continually requiring repairs. A Scotchman
named Small, who set up a manufactory of
ploughs at Berwick in 1763, was the first to
replace the wooden mould-board by a cast-iron
turn-furrow. In 1785 Mr. Ransome obtained
a patent for making the share of cast-iron specially
tempered instead of wrought-iron. In this way
the first cost was so much reduced that the share
could be renewed at less expense than was in-
volved in keeping the wrought-iron share in
good condition. But the share still required
constant sharpening owing to its wearing away
too fast on the under side. The bluntness
added greatly to the draught, and the plough
passed over weeds without cutting them. Mr.
Robert Ransome hit upon the idea, which he
patented in 1803, of case-hardening the under-
side the thickness of one-sixteenth or one-eighth
of an inch. This part wore away very slowly,
while the upper part being of softer metal was
ground down by the friction of the earth so that
the edge on the under-side was kept constantly
sharp. This simple but ingenious device, which
has been universally adopted, effected what is
perhaps the most striking single improvement
ever made in the plough. A little later a
Suffolk farmer, Mr. Simpson of Cretingham,
invented for his own use a cast-iron plough-
ground or bottom which was generally adopted
in the eastern counties ; and as the art of found-
ing improved, cast-iron to a great extent super-
seded wood and wrought-iron. Plough-frames
were made so as to admit of handles, beams,
shares, mould-boards, soles, and other parts being
screwed to them. They also admitted of the
mould-board being set to wider and narrower
furrows and of changing the shapes of different
parts for different purposes. By keeping a stock
of these various interchangeable standardized
parts the farmer was enabled to save the great
amount of labour and time that had been formerly
lost in conveying the plough frequently to and
Diet. Nat. Biog. art. Robert Ransome.
from the blacksmith's shop. A patent taken out
by Mr. Ransome in 1808 laid the foundation of
this method of construction, and further improve-
ments in the plough were patented by him or
his successors in 181 6, 1820, and 1835.2
The end of the eighteenth and the beginning
of the nineteenth century was a period of great
improvement in agricultural methods and imple-
ments. It is customary to think of the inventive
faculties of Great Britain as being at this time
wholly concentrated upon the achievement of
the industrial revolution. But the village Ark-
wrights and Stephensons were also busy to no
small purpose. Arthur Young mentions quite
a number of such inventors in Suffolk. ' A
very ingenious blacksmith of the name of Brand,'
says Young,
who has been dead some years, improved the Suffolk
swing-plough, and made it of iron. I have been
informed that the corpse in its present state was an
improvement of his ; if so it is much to his credit, for
there is no other in the kingdom equal to it.'
Later on he quotes a letter of a Rev. Mr. Lewes
of Thorndon, who writes :
A Mr. Hayward of Stoke Ash in this neighbourhood,
has invented a machine for destroying weeds and
clearing ploughed land for seed, which, by the ex-
perience of four years is found more effectual than
any other instrument used for that purpose. ... A
farmer assured me that he could with three horses
work up sixty acres per week with it ; and that a
person having the extirpator, may, with only three
horses, farm as much land as would without it require
six horses.
And again :
Mr. Brettingham of St. John's, near Bungay, informs
me that a new drill plough ... is the invention or
improvement of Mr. Henry Baldwin of Mendham,
who has been bringing it to perfection by ten years'
application. . . . He had some thoughts of applying
for a patent for it, but was dissuaded from that by
Mr. Brettingham, as he thought that any monopoly
of useful machines must be of general disservice to
the community, and that it might possibly turn the
attention of a good farmer from a good farm.*
The drill is a sowing machine. The desira-
bility of replacing the picturesque but uncertain
and wasteful methods of the broad-casting sower
by some form of mechanical regularity had
already led to experiments in the seventeenth
century ; but it was the drill plough invented
by Jethro Tull in 1733 for sowing wheat and
turnip seed in three rows at a time that first
set the mind of the inventive agriculturist in
England working on the subject. In 1782
Sir J. Anstruther presented a model of an im-
proved drill plough which he had had in use for
eight years to the Bath and West of England
society.4 After this many patents were taken
' J. A. Ransome, The Impl. of Agric. (1843), 15-20
* Young, Gen. View Agric. Suffolk (1804), 32-5.
1 J. A. Ransome, The Impl. of Agric. (1 884), 99.
282
INDUSTRIES
out for machines of this class, but the drill most
in use in Suffolk at the close of the eighteenth
century, when, as Arthur Young points out, it
was working a small revolution in agriculture,
was that of James Cooke of Heaton Norris in
Lancashire, and it was this machine that formed
the basis of the improvements made by Henry
Baldwin (or Balding) of Mendham in 1790.
Mr. James Smyth of Peasenhall, and his brother
Mr. Jonathan Smyth of Swefling, subsequently
devoted great attention to the drill. They
devised a swing steerage to enable the driver
to keep straight and parallel lines, also con-
trivances for adjusting the coulters to varying
distances from each other, and for the simulta-
neous delivery of manure and seed. These
developments had all been realized before 1843,1
and in 1888 a text-book of farming speaks of
the 'Non-Pareil' corn drill of Messrs. James
Smyth & Sons as exhibiting many recent im-
provements, and of their broadcast corn and seed
sowing-machines as being largely exported to the
colonies, America, and Russia.2
During the same period Messrs. Garrett of
Leiston were also busy with the drill, of which
after extensive experiments and numerous im-
provements, they became the leading manufac-
turers and exported them to all parts of the
world. The famous Suffolk corn-drill was only
one species of this class of agricultural implement.
agriculture rapid harvesting was more essential
than careful sowing, and the increasing use of
steam-power, which was found more readily
applicable to harvesting than to ploughing or
sowing machinery. As early as 1806 Messrs.
Garrett built a threshing-machine (under the
patent of Mr. J. Balls of Wetheringsett) to re-
place by horse-power the action of the flail.
The experiment proved very successful, and the
subsequent demand for these machines was one
of the main causes of the expansion of the
Leiston Works.6 A special variety of threshing-
machine was introduced by Messrs. Garrett called
the bolting machine, which saved the straw by
tying it in bundles. In 1841 we hear of trials
being made at Cambridge under the auspices of
the Royal Agricultural Society of two four-horse
portable threshing machines, one of which had
been made at Leiston and the other at the
Orwell Works of Messrs. Ransome.6
It is now time to resume our account of the
Orwell Works, the subsequent extension of
which has been amongst the most remarkable
features of the industrial history of Suffolk. The
first Robert Ransome, who spent an old age of
retirement in copperplate engraving and the con-
struction of a telescope, and died in 1830, left
two sons, of whom the elder, James, had become
a partner in 1795, and the younger, Robert, in
1 819. The brothers were among the earliest
Machines were devised for sowing all manner of members of the Royal Agricultural Society of
seeds, grass, clover, turnip, beet, peas, and beans,
whether in rows or broadcast, for manures with
or without the seed, and even for scattering sand
and salt on the streets.3 Another farm imple-
ment to the development of which Jethro Tull
had given the initiative, and which was carried
by Messrs. Garrett to a high degree of efficiency,
was the horse-hoe. The improvements patented
by them in this machine enabled the width of
the hoes to be increased or diminished to suit
all lands or methods of planting, and made it
adaptable to broad, stetch or ridge-ploughing,
and to corn of all sorts, as well as roots. The
Leiston horse-hoe won a great many prizes at
agricultural shows, and was awarded a medal at
the Great. Exhibition of 1 85 1.4
In the earlier part of the nineteenth century
drills and horse-hoes were the leading products
of the Leiston Works, but harvesting machinery
was already manufactured there, and after the
middle of the century this branch of the industry
far outstripped the other in importance. This
was due to two main causes, the growing de-
mand of the colonies and of America in whose
1 J. Allen Ransome, The Imp/. of Agric. (1 884), 104.
3 Prof J. Scott, A Text Book of Farm Engineering
(1888), ' Field Implements and Machines,' 82.
3 J. A. Ransome, op. cit 1 1 5 ; J. C. Morton in
Agric. Gaz. 26 March, 1888.
4 Ransome, op. cit. 1 1 ; G. H. Andrews, Rudi-
mentary Treatise on Agricultural Engineering, iii, 75.
England, founded in 1838. Mr. James Allen
Ransome, the son of the elder brother, who
entered the business in 1829, worthily con-
tinued the family tradition by publishing an
admirable book on The Implements of Agriculture
in 1843, fr°m which a great many of the facts
in the foregoing account have been derived.
About the time when this book was written,
the idea was beginning to be entertained of
applying steam-power to agricultural machinery.
Messrs. Ransome were amongst the earliest
pioneers in this new development, which rapidly
brought about an almost entire transformation
of their business.
As early as 1842 they received the first prize
offered by the Royal Agricultural Society for the
application of portable and locomotive steam
engines to agricultural purposes, viz. threshing,
and since that date they have not only continu-
ously improved the steam threshing-machine, but
also constructed numerous other machines for use
along with it, such as elevators and stackers for
lifting and stacking straw, sheaf-corn, hay, &c. A
special improvement to the steam thresher claimed
by Messrs. Ransome is a patent apparatus for
chopping and bruising threshed straw for use as
fodder, which has rendered possible the adoption
of the threshing-machines in hot countries where
primitive methods of threshing with oxen or
'Agric. Gaz. 26 March, 1888, p. 285.
'J. A Ransome, op. cit. 154, 171.
283
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
horses had hitherto prevailed. To the portable
engine they added a special fire-box for burning
straw and other vegetable refuse as fuel to meet
the need of countries where the price of wood
or of coal was prohibitive. Messrs. Ransome
have naturally taken a special pride in the
This separation, however, did nothing to im-
pair the growth of the engineering department of
the Orwell Works. This had its beginnings, as
has already been described, in the production of
engines and boilers for the propulsion of agricul-
tural machinery, but these are now made for all
t of the plough. They claim that kinds of industrial pur
improvemen
the first balance steam-plough was invented and
made at the Orwell Works in connexion with
the late Mr. John Fowler. The development
of the horse-drawn plough has proceeded in two
different directions. On the one hand the
implement has been differentiated into a great
number of separate species, each adapted to some
ludinf
traction, mining, electric lighting, the milling of
corn, and the preparation of tea. The engines
are manufactured in every variety, vertical and
horizontal, simple and compound, portable,
semi-portable, and stationary, and Messrs. Ran-
some have a large plant of special machinery
for the construction of boilers of the Cornish,
particular function or to some peculiar variety of Lancashire, dryback, multitubular, and vertical
soil ; and on the other hand the effect of a single types,
ploughing has been multiplied by adding one
two additional bodies to the plough. To take
one or two examples :
A plough with three bodies is now constructed
for paring the surface of stubble fields after
harvest, which instead of merely cutting off the
tops of weeds and twitch lifts up the roots and
throws them loosely over on the surface for
gathering by harrows. Another multiple plough
is made for covering seed which has previously
been sown broadcast, whilst a further variety is
fitted with a seed-box for sowing seed broadcast,
so that the sowing and covering is done at one
operation. The use of these multiple ploughs
has been greatly facilitated by a special lifting
apparatus introduced by Messrs. Ransome and
now very widely adopted.
Although the connexion with agriculture,
which was the starting point of their develop-
ment, has been continuously maintained, the
activities of the Orwell Works began very early
to take a wider scope. The firm of Messrs.
Ransome & Sons was one of the earliest to build
The present Orwell Works,3 which were
begun in 1849 anc' nave smce Deen continually
extended, include an immense foundry, a smith's
shop with (more than) a hundred forges, a plough
shop, several engine-erecting and boiler shops,
a turnery, a grindery, a threshing-machine
department, and a lawn-mower department.
They have a dock frontage of over 800 feet,
alongside which steamers of 1,500 tons can load,
and there is direct rail communication along the
quay. The works find employment for upwards
of 2,200 men and boys. Messrs. Ransome,
Sims, & Jefferies is now a limited company,
but the family of the founder is still represented
by Mr. E. C. Ransome and Mr. B. C. Ran-
some, both grandsons of the younger Robert
Ransome.4
The introduction of steam brought about as
great a transformation at Leiston as at Ipswich,
and the equally remarkable growth that ensued
was on similar lines to that already described.
Mr. Richard Garrett, the grandson of the
founder, took a leading part in effecting the
bridges, and Stoke Bridge at Ipswich was transition from horse-power to the use of steam,
constructed by them in 1819.1 On the in-
troduction of the railway system they became
very large manufacturers of railway ' chairs '
and also of compressed wood-keys and tree-
nails for securing the chairs and rails, in which
connexion several patents were taken out. In
1869, in consequence of the rapid increase of
the older established business, it was found de-
sirable to remove this branch of the industry
across the Orwell to the waterside works, where
it has since been carried on by the separate firm
of Messrs. Ransome and Rapier, who have now
a world-wide reputation as makers of lifting ma-
chinery and railway-equipment material, bridges,
turntables, &c. The first locomotive introduced
into China was made at these works by Mr. Rapier.2
1 In 1857 they were entrusted with the mounting
.of the equatorial and transit instruments of the Green-
wich Observatory, a task requiring the most perfect
and accurate workmanship.
"Some British Engineering and Allied Industries,'
Sir C. McLaren, bart., in the Times Engineering
Supplement, 14. Feb. 1906.
especially in relation to the threshing-machine,
to the perfecting of which he may be said to
have devoted his life. After patient and ex-
haustive experiments a set of steam-threshing
machinery was produced and exhibited at a show
at Norwich. The demand soon became very great.
Before long Messrs. Garrett found themselves
obliged to specialize in threshing-machines, and
the making of other agricultural machinery and
implements fell into the background, or was
dropped altogether, although the numbers em-
ployed at Leiston and the amount of the output
rapidly increased. The threshing-machine as fully
developed separates from each other the chicken
corn, weed, seeds, chaff and straw, and sends
each to its appointed place, not only by threshing
out the grain, but by sifting on riddles and by
3 Messrs. Ransome have received two gold medals
from the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and
have been awarded a very great number of medals and
prizes at international exhibitions.
4 Ex inf. Messrs. Ransome, Sims, Jefferies, Ltd.
284
INDUSTRIES
passing it through successive currents of air.1
This last function had originally been performed
by a series of different fans, but in 1859 an
arrangement was patented by Mr. R. Garrett,
in conjunction with his foreman, Mr. Kerridge,
by which a single fan placed on the same spindle
as the threshing drum does all the work.
The making of steam-threshing machines
necessarily involved the construction of steam-
engines, and the latter department of the Leiston
Works has developed so extensively as to over-
shadow the other. Mr. Richard Garrett devoted
special attention to the improvement of the
portable engine, 'and no man then living,' says
a competent authority, 'had a more thorough
knowledge of it.' Semi-portable and stationary
engines, traction engines, and steam road-rollers,
all with either single or compound cylinders, are
made in great numbers, and these, along with
steam boilers of all types, constitute a large pro-
portion of the output of the Leiston Works,
which now cover over 20 acres, and are
equipped with hydraulic, pneumatic, and electri-
cal power transmission. Messrs. Garrett export
their machinery, engines, and boilers very largely
to all parts of the world, and have been awarded
gold medals at more than a dozen international
exhibitions. The firm has become a limited
•company, but the management is still in the hands
•of direct descendants of the Richard Garrett whose
epitaph in Leiston churchyard of the date of
1839 declares him to have been ' the elder of the
fourth generation of his name and sixty-two years
a respectable inhabitant of this parish.'
Messrs. Garrett have maintained the best rela-
tions with their workpeople and have done a great
deal to improve their conditions of life. At-
tached to the Leiston Works there is a large hall, a
free library, reading and recreation rooms, and a
recreation ground. The firm has built several
hundred excellent artisans' houses with gardens
in front and back, and as perhaps an even larger
number have been built by the workmen them-
selves, the town may be said to be the creation
of the works.2
The long-continued prosperity of the leading
Suffolk engineering firms is due to the fact
that the inventive ability and the faculty for
industrial organization shown by the founders
have been inherited by one or more in each of
three or four generations of descendants.
The Smyths of Peasenhall, whose early achieve-
ments in connexion with the Suffolk drill have
already been referred to, are another family
whose industrial record covers three or four
generations, and here again a limited company
(Messrs. Jas. Smyth & Sons, Ltd.) has been
founded on the basis of the old firm. Messrs.
Whitmore & Binyon, Ltd., of Wickham Market,
represents the culmination of an equally long
development of the same kind. The Wickham
Market Iron Works were founded by the grand-
father of the present Mr. Whitmore in 1780,
and attained great prosperity under his father,
who was born in 1801, and died in 1872.
The firm, which became Whitmore & Binyon
in 1868, specialized very early in milling and
mining machinery, and have fitted up some of
the largest mills in the kingdom. They like-
wise export a large amount of machinery for
milling rice as well as corn.3 Messrs. E. R. & F.
Turner, Ltd., of St. Peter's Works, Ipswich,
who also manufacture milling machinery, as well
as engines, boilers and gold-mining plant, and
Messrs. Page & Girling of Melton, who are the
patentees of self-righting feeding and drinking
pans for cattle, are both the representatives of
firms that were flourishing in the middle of the
last century.
The works of Messrs. Robert Boby, Ltd., which
have been established at Bury for more than half a
century, have specialized in contrivances for the
sampling and handling of grain, and now supply
the large maltsters of the county with the ma-
chinery which has revolutionized that important
industry.
FERTILIZERS
In this distinctly modern industry Suffolk
may claim a peculiar interest. Suffolk men
were amongst the pioneers, not only of the
scientific discovery on which it was based, but
also of the practical application of scientific re-
sults to the improvement of agriculture ; whilst
the soil of the county itself contributed in no
small degree to the inauguration of the industry.
In the fourth decade of the nineteenth century,
under the combined influence of chemical and
geological research, there began to be opened
up new and extensive sources of those nitrogenous
and phosphatic elements which increase or
restore the fertility of a weak or exhausted soil.
The guano of Peru, which was introduced into
England in 1839, held for many years the first
place as an artificial manure. This could, if
reduced to a powder, be applied directly to the
soil. About this time the attention of English
experimentalists was caught by the suggestion of
Liebig, in his work on the Organic Chemistry of
Agriculture, that super-phosphate of lime might
be prepared from bones or other phosphatic
deposits. The treatment for this purpose of
1 Engineer, 8 Aug.
16 March, 1888.
p. 109 ; Agric. Gaz.
285
Ex inf. Messrs. R. Garrett & Sons, Ltd.
V. B. Redstone, Byegone Wickham Market, 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 1842.1 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.*
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 Applied Chemistry, ii, 507.
' Eastern Counties Mag. and Suff. Note Bk. 1, ' Re-
miniscences of a Scientific Suffolk Clergyman.'
3 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, 510.
' 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
131b. to each lib. of cotton. The whole
process took seven or eight days to complete.
In 1 87 1 there were nine 'poachers' in use at
the works, each of which held 1,000 lb. 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.8 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 190 1, 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 employe
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.3
* The Times, 14 and 19 Aug. 1871, report of the
inquest.
3 Ex inf. of The Xylonite Co. Since the above
was written (Dec. 1 905) the works 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 makings 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
are nearest to all the sources of 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, Woodbridge,
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 makings have
accordingly to be built very high, and the old
buildings are rendered obsolete. The industry
in short, has become one requiring the applica-
tion of fixed capital, and the greater part of it
has therefore passed into the 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. Mortimer & Co.,
and the Ipswich Malting Co., at Ipswich ; and
Messrs. Garrett, 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 malt. In relation
to the amount of capital thus turned over, the
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 the 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 the eighteenth century Bungay assumed some
of the airs of a small provincial capital. It
advertised itself as a spa, possessed a theatre, and
was crowded with fashionable assemblies of local
gentry during the season.1 Some of these glories
had faded when Mr. Charles Brightly set up
business as a printer in 1795 ; but for Suffolk as
a whole this was a period of industrial revival,
nearly all the large manufacturing concerns of
the present day having been established within
ten years of that date. Mr. Brightly was a man
of initiative. He was one of the pioneers of the
stereotyping process, and in 1809 he published a
small book explaining his methods. He was
joined in his business in 1805 by Mr. J. R.
Childs, and the firm became one of the largest
printers and publishers of periodical literature in
the kingdom. Messrs. Childs & Son were
among the first to introduce the practice of
bringing out large works in sixpenny parts, one
of the books so published being Barclay's
Dictionary. A picturesque tradition survives
at Bungay of how Mr. Childs traversed the
country in a chaise to solicit orders for his
publications, armed for self-defence with a pair
of pistols. In 1855, when the firm had come
to be mainly occupied in printing for London
and other publishers, their stock of stereotype
plates was said to weigh above 300 tons.3 In
Suckling, Hist, of Stiffl i.
Ex inf. Messrs. R. & M. Paul.
White, Direct, of Stiff.
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. Trie 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
1847 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.
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.5 So extensive
was the herring trade at this port that the chapel
As elsewhere along our coasts, the herring has of St. Peter, the patron of fishermen, and him-
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
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
invention
Ex inf. Messrs. R. Clay & Sons
Defoe, Tour in Eastern Counties,
3 S. Smiles, " Men of Ir
pp. 208-19.
4 Ex inf. Messrs. Clowes & Sons.
5 Suckling, Hist. Suff. ii, 9.
289
and Industry,
37
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.' x 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
25. bd. and 200 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-
toft to buy herrings of the c 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 145 1 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 1602
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 145 1 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,
1 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 258.
1 Also honoured with a church at Dunwich, South-
wold, and with an altar at Walberswick.
Suff. Dom. Bk.
Gardner, Hist. Dunwich,
Ibid. 19.
Ibid. 9.
7 Ibid. 137.
8 The names of the owners, masters, and boats, are
recorded in the Walberswick Account Book. Sperlings
were selling at 6s. a last this year. Herrings were
6s. Ss. per thousand.
9 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 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
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 such a height of prosperity at Walberswick 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
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.'
By a certificate of the church sent to Crom- Lowestoft Town Council in 1904, it was agreed
well, 30 May, 1654,2 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 csde-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 ioj. and two cade
were bought by John Mounceye for I Ss. The
barrel took the place of the cade under the
Tudors. Every barrel by statute 6 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. Dunwich, 1 5 1-2.
'Ibid. 167. 3 Ibid. 176.
' Cade = old measure for herrings. Sea Words and
Phrases, 4.
1 Stat. Hen. VII, c. 23, and 13 Eliz. c. II.
6 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 19.
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 herriugs 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, to 27 Novem-
ber, 1288, there appears an entry .£4 16s. T,hd.
for beacons and conder,11 and again in 145 1, 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 AngRan N. and Q.
1869.
6 Ped = an osier basket with lid, containing 125
herrings and upwards. Gillingwater, Hist. Lowestoft,
464.
9 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. Dunwich, 27.
291
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
boat going to sea.' ! In 1566 the dole of every
ship was worth £ 1 to the vicar. In 1786 the
receipts were as follows : ' By the Herring
Fishery, £16 5s. bd. The Mackerel Fare,
Mortuaries3 were paid to the vicar of Gorles-
ton ; every herring-boat 10*. bd., 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 20,000
herrings ; after the Domesday Survey, the num-
ber was 2 5, 000. 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 non-payment was 40/
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. Suff. ii, 98.
3 ' 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. Laws Engl, iii, 98.
4 Suckling, Hist. Suff. i, 372.
5 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 187. G Ibid. 189.
7 Ibid. 191. "Ibid. 192. 9 Ibid.
" Crayer = a small coasting vessel. Gardner, Hist.
Dunwich, Gloss.
292
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 £S.
Also every master hired before that time, 40;.
And each common man, 20/.
Also, every person going to sea with sperling " nets,
or line laying before 1 2 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, 10/. And every common man, 12a'."
Every master from Iceland, Farra, Westmona, and
North Seas, making false presentments, 10/.
Every person going to the herring-fare making
false presentments, 10/. 13
Every master, mate, and boatmaster shipped for
the Iceland fishery, or for the North Seas, paid to the
fee-farm 2s. 6d. And each common man zs. Every
man's dole in the fishery was Sd. The penalty for
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 called the
Platsole.™
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.
18 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 193.
13 Ibid.
" Ibid.
15 Ibid. 248-50. William Godell was appointed
first bailiff of Southwold by charter of Henry VII,
Feb. 1490.
INDUSTRIES
fish-days throughout the kingdom. The main-
tenance of • the old course of fishing' was to be
1 for policy's sake ; so that the sea coasts shall be
strong with men and habitations, and the fleet
flourish more than ever.' 1 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.' - In I 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*. jd., probably one of the earliest
Yarmouth and the men of Lowestoft, which
must have imparted a certain flavour of excite-
ment to the routine of municipal life in borough
and town during the centuries through which it
lasted. There can be little doubt that the
covetous eye which Yarmouth cast at a very
early date upon the herring fishery as regarded
the share of Lowestoft in its benefits, was a
prime factor in the many ' Longe and Charge-
able Sutes ' in which the two opposing parties
found themselves continually involved. The
general claim cf Yarmouth, with this end in
view, varied but little in its essentials with the
flourishing of the antagonism through the reigns
of Tudor, Stuart, and Georgian sovereigns.
In order to monopolize the fishery, the Yarmouth
stances of the ichthyological expert to be found burgesses sought to have it enacted that no
in the marine history of the British coasts. The herrings should be sold and bought, by way of
carriage of fish from the quay to the Red Cliff merchandize, at any town or place upon the
coasts of the sea, roads or shores of the same,
within the compass of 14 leagues about the said
town of Yarmouth, that is to say, between
Winterton Ness in Norfolk and Easton Ness in
Suffolk, nor within 7 leagues from all and
singular the shores of the same, during the time
of the fair of herrings, yearly kept at Yarmouth
for forty days from St. Michael to St. Martin,
but only at the town and haven of the same.
And that they are to have the punishing of all
forestalling within the said compass. And
further they claimed that no ship, nor any boat,
should charge or discharge at any town or place
within the compass of seven leagues about the
said town, but only at the said town, or in the
haven of the same, or else in Kirkley Road,
upon pain of forfeiture of ship and goods.8
To these excessive claims the Lowestoft men
had but one retort, which they made as often as
ever the attack upon their liberties was renewed
by Yarmouth. The latter port contended that
such powers as were invoked by their burgesses
were in strict accordance with the provisions of
the famous Statute of Herrings.9 Lowestoft
retaliated by declaring that this Statute, far from
conferring any such right as that so defined by
Yarmouth, was expressly framed, not only to
prevent forestalling, and for the better govern-
ment of the Free Fair, but for the purpose of
confirming every fishing-town in its own separate
rights. It had been the inalienable privilege,
moreover, they maintained, time out of mind,
for all fishermen of the realm to ' utter and sell
their herrings for their best advantage as wind
and weather would permit them.'
Fortunately for the commercial growth of the
two towns there were occasional periods of truce in
the long warfare. Such a period came in 1400,
when an accord or compromise was entered into
between the belligerents whereby the Lowestoft
merchants were allowed to buy fish from all
was 13*. 7,d., whilst several men found employ-
ment in carrying away 'the garbage, tails, fins,
&c.'3
In 1 561, it was enacted that
it shall be lawful for every ' pedder ' to buy of
every Southwold boat, being on ground at the sea-
side within the sand or at the quay of Yarmouth,
herrings to serve his own use or his country, without
let or interruption of any merchant of Yarmouth
aforesaid.4
In 1568 the poor inhabitants of Southwold
petitioned for a renewal of their privilege, under
Stat. 5 Eliz., allowing them to export their fish
duty free.5
In 1 58 1 we find the fishermen of Lowestoft
paying deanage to the bailiff of Lothingland for
the use of the lord of the manor, for the privi-
lege of drying their nets on the Denes (a strip of
land between the sea and the cliffs), of every
stranger's ship, 1 8d., of every English ship, 8^.,
of every small boat, \d. The inference may be
drawn that at this date Lowestoft was frequented
for fishing purposes not only by native, but by
foreign fishermen.6
Orford Haven in 1584 was beginning to
show signs of its ultimate decay, an Act being
passed in that year for the maintenance of the
haven, and of a branch of the same called the
Gull, and for the preservation of the fry of fish
therein.7
Twenty ships and 200 fishermen represented
the industry in 1526 at Lowestoft.
Before passing on to consider the later history
of the minor fishing-ports of the county, it may
be as well to glance briefly at the prolonged and
persistent disputes between the burgesses of
1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 165.
* Gardner, Hist. Dunwicb, 258.
3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 249.
* Ibid. App. i, 308.
5 Cal. S. P. Dom. Eliz. 1547-80, p. 325.
6 Suckling, Hist. Suff. ii, 3.
7 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iii, 5.
Suckling, Hist. Suff.
31 Edw. Ill, cap. 2
76.
293
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
ships not hosted to the Yarmouth men, or from
ships whose catches the Yarmouth men did not
require for themselves, on payment of half a mark
per last to the hosts, in addition to the price of
the fish.
The contest had broken out again, however,
by the reign of Elizabeth, for in 1596, we find
the Commission appointed to inquire into the
lengthy quarrel, ordering that, pending a settle-
ment, the men of Yarmouth be not interrupted
in their fair and the herring fishing this season.1
In the following year, Parliament ordered a
mark to be fixed defining the limits of the juris-
diction of Yarmouth over the fisheries.
In 1659, notwithstanding the Act of Parlia-
ment of 1597, which it had been hoped was to
secure a lasting peace, hostilities were renewed,
the burgesses of Yarmouth proceeding to extreme
measures in order to enforce their claim to the
control of the fishery to the south of Lowestoft.
In 1 660 James Munds of Lowestoft, a fisher-
man of forty-five years' standing, made an affi-
davit before the Master in Chancery that ' the
western fishermen and strangers have constantly
delivered herrings in the roads of Lowestoft to
several merchants of the town without disturb-
ance or molestation ' for many years, till the
Yarmouth men sent out a vessel furnished with
twenty-five men and several weapons of war
which anchored in the roads and ' daily chased
the fishermen, so that none durst deliver her-
rings.' Roger Hooper, a fisherman of Ramsgate
in Kent, was threatened by the men of war that
if he delivered any herrings at Lowestoft they
would seize him. Two fishermen were actually
hailed before the bailiff of Yarmouth and fined
40*. In default their boats were to be con-
fiscated.2
The moment was inopportune for Lowestoft
at least to enter upon such a quarrel as was now
forced upon her, fire 3 and the Parliamentary
troops having reduced her to practical ruin.
Three public-spirited residents, however, came
forward to conduct the case, which was referred
to the Privy Council, and to defray the heavy
costs of the litigation a tax was levied on the
herring fishery, which in one year amounted to
£519 2s- 2,d. During the progress of the suit,
which lasted for four years, Yarmouth continued
to interfere seriously, not only with the Lowes-
toft fishing, but also, in order to emphasize their
claims, with the foreign craft frequenting the
east-coast waters. Two Dutch and French
vessels were seized, the former being despoiled of
their boat-load of herrings, the other of their
cooking utensils and of the sum of 13*. \d.
1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 318.
' Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft, 155.
3 In 1644 a great fire destroyed a great part of
the town, the loss of the fish-house owners being
from £25 to /450 each. Mr. Josiah Wilde alone
lost £400.
In 1 66 1 the towns of Orford, Aldeburgh,
Dunwich, and Ipswich, seeing their own trade in
danger should Yarmouth prove successful in the
struggle, and reinforced bv the countenance of
the Fishmongers' Company, came to the assis-
tance of Lowestoft, and petitioned that the
inhabitants might be confirmed in their ancient
and separate rights of fishing.
The long dispute was not finally closed till
1741, when, thanks to the intervention of
Dr. Lewis, then Judge of the Admiralty Court
of Suffolk, a compromise was arrived at, and a
boundary post which was placed on the confines
of the disputed waters ended the quarrel in
favour of Lowestoft.
The seventeenth century was at once a
period of stagnation and of stir in the fishing
records of the county. The very existence of
such towns as Southwold, Walberswick, and
possibly Dunwich itself, was owing, it has been
pointed out, in the first place, to fishing necessi-
ties ;4 and when, with the decay of their havens,
their staple industry began to decline, it was
inevitable that they should revert to their original
obscurity.
But if calamity had overtaken three at least
of the Suffolk ports at this date, the industry and
perseverance of their fishermen remained un-
daunted by all the successive reverses which
were brought upon them by the steady encroach-
ment of the sea as well as by frequent disasters
by fire. ' It is pitiful,' writes Tobias Gentleman
in 1 61 4, 'the trouble and damage that all the
men of these three towns (Southwold, Walbers-
wick, and Dunwich) do daily sustain by their
naughty harbour.'5 Of their seamen, however,
he was able to add, with the pardonable pride of
a Suffolk man, ' they be a very good breed of
fishermen.'
Friendly relations existed at this time between
the town of Lowestoft and the men of Aldeburgh,
an indenture having been made in 1608 between
the two ports whereby the Aldeburgh fishermen
should pay no duties at Lowestoft for unloading
herrings or sprats.
In 1 619 Letters Patent were issued declaring
the importance of maintaining the havens of Dun-
1 'The first Adventurers,' writes Gardner, 'were
very likely of the craft (of fishermen),' who ' for con-
venience erected huts, and then houses for habitation '
at ' these places of note for the fishery.' Hist. Dun-
wich, 189.
5 England's H 'ay to Win Wealth, 26. The father of
this author, Thomas Gentleman, who, his son informs
us, paid the composition levied on fish in the reigns
of four sovereigns, was a much respected resident of
Southwold, where he died at the age of 98. The
following entry appears in the Southwold Register
relative to this old inhabitant : ' F. I, 1609, July 30.
Tho. Gentleman, he lived above fourscore years in
perfect sight and memorie, and in his flourishing time
for building of ships and many other commendable
parts he continued in his place unmatchable.'
94
INDUSTRIES
wich, Southwold, and Walberswick, formerly
producing 20,000 of fish per annum, but now
greatly decayed by the violence of the water and
losses of the inhabitants through fire, pirates, and
shipwreck^, etc., £6,000 being required for the
repair of the havens, a general collection was
authorized to be made from seat to seat in
church or at the houses of the absentees.1
In 1622 we find Lowestoft demurring at
contributing its share to the £200 required for
the suppression of pirates, whose depredations
were then seriously interfering with the English
fishing. John Arnold, acting as spokesman for
the port, says that ' some of the people are will-
ing to join if it be made a rate on the whole
town.' Others ' think the town is not charged,
as being no member of Yarmouth, and owning
only fishing-boats.' Aldeburgh and Southwold
follow the lead of Lowestoft, ' as trading only to
the north.' 2 Southwold, moreover, pleads
poverty as a further excuse.
More excuses in other directions have to be
recorded in this same year, the sums subscribed
by the county towards the king's contribution
amounting only to £363 gs. bd., ' which is less
than they hoped, but the times are so exceed-
ingly hard. Dunwich, Southwold, and Walbers-
wick have petitioned to be excused.' 3
In 1625 we are reminded that the commonly
peaceful avocation of fishing was attended, no-
where more than on the Suffolk coasts, at this
time with a certain degree of excitement if not
of danger. ' Small ships,' we are told, in this
year, ' dared not stir out to sea without convoy.' 4
In 1630, the bailiffs of Southwold petitioned
the council, who had granted in the previous
season two ships as convoy to the fishers, the
latter supplying the crew with victuals. Certain
of the inhabitants, it would appear, having
refused to pay their contribution to the charge,
the council are prayed to send warrants for the
arrest of such refractory persons.5
In 1635 the fishermen of Suffolk, together
with those of Norfolk, prayed for liberty to con-
tinue buying, selling, and importing salt without
impediment of any new incorporation.6
Convoy duty continued to be part of the
office of His Majesty's ships in 1644, when
F. Greene, captain of the ship Green Dragon,
had orders to waft and convoy the North Sea
fishermen to Aldeburgh Haven.7
In 1653 tne search for men to press was
being actively pursued along the Suffolk coast.
Lieutenant John Scott, writing to the Admiralty
Commissioners, ' could find never a man to press
at Lowestoft and Pakefield, as they were all
employed in the fishing-boats.'8
1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1619-23, p. 17. ' Ibid. 23.
3 Ibid. l Hist. MSS. Com. Ref>. xii, 253.
5 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1629-31, p. 224.
6 Ibid. 1635, p. 501.
7 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 3 1 3a.
8 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1652-3, pp. 406-7.
In the following year Captain Robert Wilkin-
son of the JVeymouth reports himself to the
Navy Commissioners as guarding the fishermen,
numbering fifty sail, belonging to Lowestoft and
Yarmouth.9
On 25 April, 1659, a disastrous fire took
place at Southwold, dealing the port a blow
from which it was never wholly to recover, in
spite of temporary but quickly-passing periods of
apparent rally. Within a few hours the town
was almost entirely destroyed, the fishermen
being the greatest sufferers by the loss of their
nets, tackling, and fish-houses.10
In 1662, the bailiffs of the Cinque Ports
having ceased to attend Yarmouth Fair, as they
had done yearly for centuries, their place was to
some extent taken, as far as the connexion
between Suffolk and Kent was concerned, by
the west country (Kentish) fishermen, who,
from this date, used to repair to the east coast
for the herring fishery, selling their catches to
the merchants of Lowestoft as well as those of
Yarmouth.11
Suffolk fishermen were accustomed to go far
afield at this date. In 1666 several herring
vessels sailed from Aldeburgh to Spain, ' and
more were preparing. Eight hundred able young
seamen were in that fleet.' 12 This fact may
sufficiently account for the redoubled vigour with
which the authorities applied themselves to the
quest for men in the county to serve in His
Majesty's Navy, the ' poor town ' of Southwold
being ordered to be searched from house to
house.13
The autumn fishery of 1666 is recorded to
have been exceptionally prosperous. On 4 Oc-
tober in that year the prospects were declared
to be excellent ; ' the herring fishery proves
good, and will do well, if the weather continue
good, and the fishermen be not taken by the
men of war.' One ketch had 'just brought into
Southwold seven or eight lasts of herrings.' u The
sea at this phenomenal season is said to have
been ' fuller of herrings than was ever known,'
the fishermen being frequently forced to throw
three or four lasts overboard during a voyage.16
The ketches were employed, during their inter-
vals of fishing, in carrying water and ballast to
the fleet, a task for which it would seem they
were occasionally but leisurely paid.16
Under the protection of their own convoys
the Dutch continued to fish in Suffolk waters
during the state of war, their fleet, together with
9 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1654, p. 514.
10 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 226.
11 North country cobles in turn took the place of
the western fishers in 1756, being engaged ('hosted ')
by local owners. The crews received a retaining fee,
or ' steerage money,' to defray the cost of the voyage
home, exclusive of the sum paid per last of fish.
18 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1666-7, p. 341.
15 Ibid. 1665-6, p. 462. " Ibid. 1666-7, p. 181.
ls Ibid. 187. 16 Ibid. 188.
295
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
seventeen convoys, being seen in one instance
off Southwold Bay at this time.1
In spite of the vigilance of the English con-
voys, two Southwold vessels, carrying butter,
cheese, and herrings to London, were taken by
one of the enemy's galliot hoys in 1666.2
In 1670, Suffolk owned a fishing-fleet of
thirty-three boats. Of this number fourteen
belonged to Pakefield and Kirkley, eleven to
Southwold, eight of which were herring-boats,
and three engaged in the Iceland fishery ; Alde-
burgh had five, two herring-boats and three
Iceland barques, whilst Corton had two and
Dunwich only one.3
Various proposals were brought forward in
this year to cope with the desperate state of the
fishing industry at Lowestoft, amongst others, it
being suggested that ' all persons of ability should
have a small quantity of herrings imposed on
them, at a common rate ; ' also, ' that two fish-
days should be observed in the week.'4
The townsmen prayed, moreover, that they
should be relieved from the duty of is. bd. per
barrel imposed on all beer used in the herring
fishery. Fourteen fishing-boats of Pakefield and
Kirkley consumed nine tuns of beer per boat.
Memories of the days of frequent coast alarms
during later wars with the French are evoked by
the following notice which appeared in the
Ipswich Journal of 5 June, I 744 :
Whereas it has been represented and repeated, by
some ill-designing People, that the Boats do not go to
sea from Lowestoft to catch mackarels as usual, on
account of the war with France ; This is to give
notice to all Buyers and others, that we have now at
sea thirteen Boats, employed in catching mackarels,
and that, during the season, all Pedlars and others,
may be duly supplied with the said Fish at Lowestoft
as in former years.'5
At this time there were three classes of boats
engaged in the herring fishery at Lowestoft —
the town boats, the west country cobles, and
the north country cobles. In 1749, a petition
was laid before the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty to prevent Dutch schuyts from fishing
in Southwold Bay. In 1763 it was announced
that the Dutch fishery on the east coast, and all
other boats engaged in the same, would be
limited to a certain number of busses, which
must first be entered at an English custom-house,
and be subject to a tax for the benefit of the
British Herring Fishery.6 The loss by the
depredations of foreign fishermen at this time
was said to be extensive.
In 1750, Southwold appeared to have entered
upon a new era of prosperity with the incorpora-
tion of the Free British Fishery.7 Buildings of
various kinds were erected under the auspices of
Cal. S.P. Dom. 1666-7, p. 212.
Gillingwater, Hist. Lowestoft, 92.
Stiff. Notes, 1744, p. 149.
Incorporated 11 October, 1 750.
2 Ibid. 296.
4 Ibid. 89.
6 Ibid. 11.
the Company : a net-house for the making and
tanning of nets, a bark-mill, whilst a well with
a pump attached was sunk, and a copper hung,
with a cistern for tanning nets. In 1752, the
tan-office was completed, together with the
addition of a larger copper, with four vats, and a
kiln for drying bark. A warehouse, with ample
provision for the storing of salt, was built on
Blackshore Wharf, and two docks were added.
In 1753, two wells were sunk at Woods End
Creek for supplying the fishing-fleet with water,
the busses sailing from the port in that year
numbering sixty-three, thirty-eight of which
went to Shetland. The impetus given to trade
was very great, as apart from the actual fishing,
employment was also given to a large number of
the townspeople in the braiding of the twine
required for the nets, as well in the beeting of
the nets themselves. The popular craze for the
bounty system had reached its height at this date,
and the Free British Fishery were not long in
introducing it at Southwold. In the first year of
its establishment ^65 was offered in sums of
^30, £20, and £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 j£ioo, were
offered.
Two kinds of bounties were granted by
statute in 1808 :8
I. Tonnage Bounties
For Herring Vessels. — £3 per ton per year was paid to
every ' buss ' or herring vessel over 60 and under
100 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 . . . 50/. per ton
From 1826 to 1827 . . . 45/. „
From 1827 to 1830 . . . 35/. „
All the tonnage bounties ceased in 1830.
2. Bouni
Cur
Fish
On Herrings. — From 1808 to 1815, zs. 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 1830.9
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
8 Stat. 48 Geo. Ill, cap. no.
9 Johnstone, British Fisheries, 76, 77.
296
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 I 5,570,000.* A herring 15 J in. long
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
and 3 in. broad was caught by John Ferret, of that of its present firmly established prosperity,
the Daniel and Mary fishing-boat of Lowestoft,
in 1797.2
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 the present day.
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
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
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.'5 In 1752 the Bay
voyages merely had the effect of attracting the 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
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 totver was twenty guineas, inclusive of
the services of his assistant roarers.3 The port
was thrown into a state of panic by the threatened
1 Gillingwater, Hist. Lowestoft, 464.
' Suckling, Hist. Stiff, ii, 7 1 .
' Tower or towher, the head man employed at the
curing-house. A. S. towers, Dut. touwer, 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 2
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 I
barrels was called 'striking'; Gillingwater, Hist
Lowestoft, 95.
2 297
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 1833 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 200 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,
I.
5 Westminster J ourn. 25 Jan. 1748.
6 Gardner, Hist. Dunwich.
7 Forbidden by the Great Court of Ipswich in
• 81, and not allowed in 1399 ; Ipswich, Dom. Bk
8 Suff. Traveller, 1764, p. 53.
9 Nail, Hist. Gt. Yarmouth, 332.
38
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
£455. Ten years later, as evidenced before a
Parliamentary Commission, the Lowestoft fisher-
men's wages were from i6i. to I8*.1
In 1863 Boulogne fishermen bought herrings
for bait of the Suffolk fishermen at I Of. to 131.
per 100. One boat made for a catch of 7,000
£33, another sold a last for j£6o.3
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) i,3°°
Number engaged in other modes of
fishing 2,800
Total . . .4,100s
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
mackerel fishing at Lowes-
i toft, Lerwick, Cornwall,
J and on the Yorkshire
250 Steamers
100 Sailing boats
350 Scotch boats
\ coast.
Catching during
Nov., and Dec.
Oct.,
320 Sailing trawling
smacks
1,020
1 In the winter season of 1904 the average earning
per boat at Lowestoft was slightly over £200, allowing,
after clearing expenses, about .£20 per man for a ten
weeks' voyage. Fish Trade Gaz. 10 Dec. 1904, p. 24.
s Nail, Gt. Yarmouth, 304.
3 In 1905, 667,830 cwt.
* Ann. Rep. Sea Fisheries, 1904, xiii. 5 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 IOO 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.6 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 1 85 1 it is interesting to
recall 77,999 packages of fish were despatched
by rail from Lowestoft; in i860, 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
6 1 20,000 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 : —
Fir
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 —
Registered
Unregistered
Total
408
gives the methods of fishing at each port, the
kinds of fish caught, and the dates of fishing
seasons : —
There are at the present time four fishing
stations in Suffolk : Lowestoft, Southwold,
Thorpe, and Aldeburgh. The following table 2
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 I Dec.
dabs, lemon
soles, plaice,
rays, whiting
Drift nets
Herrings
Mar. to May,
Juneand July,
Oct. to Dec.
Mackerel
i May, June,
| 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 1 888,
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 bearing 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
band and attached to the mayoral chain.' The
Standard, 20 July, 1 906.
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 1,600 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.2
* 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-
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 1 1 12-14, 'three
boys of the monks' school [de scola monacborum),
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
fully asserted for the dean by the bishop, and a dozen, and in point of fact, at Winchester and
the bishop himself is found nominating the Durham, was generally under half-a-dozen, and
masters till the dissolution of the monasteries, sometimes none. Anyhow, this monks' school
The most conspicuous case, however, is that of did nothing for the general public, who were
Bury St. Edmunds, which has been most per- provided for by the grammar school, which must
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 1 181, 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.
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 1 198.
The sole contribution to education by this great
abbey, recorded in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of
1535, is '£26 13*. ^.d. in alms given yearly to
4 poor scholars of the University of Oxford for
their sustentation and maintenance [exibkione)
there at school.' Though paid by the treasurer
1 Battely, Antlquitates Rutufinae et Burgi S. Edmundi
(1745), 61.
2 In 1 5 14 at Norwich Priory, which should have
consisted of 60 monks, there were only 38. At Bury
at the dissolution there were 60.
301
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
of the abbey this was no monastic endow-
ment, but 'by the foundation of Mary Pakenham
by her last will ' out of property in Pakenham
given by her. £6 a year a piece for 4 university
exhibitioners was for those times a rich exhibi-
tion, but the monks did not find the money —
they were merely trustees of it. They did, of
course, contribute young monks as scholars to
the university, sending them at Oxford to the
joint college of the southern Benedictine monas-
teries, Gloucester Hall, founded about 1298, and
at Cambridge to a hall, the purchase of which,
about 1433, by the abbot of Glastonbury on
behalf of the Benedictine order in general, is
recorded in a Bury register. But there were
only 2 or 3 monks at a time at the university,
and the obligation to give even this number a
good education was due to papal statute as late as
J335-
Bury being exempt from episcopal visitation,
we have no information how far the obligation
to teach the novices and junior monks grammar
and to send some at least to the higher faculties
at the universities was observed there. But in
the latter fifteenth and in the sixteenth century
the reports of visitations by the bishop of Norwich
of those monasteries which were not exempt have
been preserved and printed.1 The episcopal
visitors at Butley Priory in 1492-5, where were
a prior and 13 brethren, found that the brethren
' had no preceptor to teach them grammar,' and
in 1 5 14 it required the special interposition of
the bishop to make them send to Oxford
Brother Thomas Orford, who was ' a good
grammarian and given to learning,' though
friends were willing to maintain him at the
university. John Thetford, another brother,
was however studying canon law (in decretis) at
Oxford. In 1526 they had again to be directly
ordered to keep a scholar in the university ' at
the expense of this house.' In 1532 they were
told to provide a master ' to teach the novices
and boys,' i.e. the almonry boys — 'singing as
far as prick-song (prihong) and grammar, and
also to maintain a canon in the bosom of the
University.' At St. Peter's, Ipswich, where
Wolsey shortly afterwards planted his learned
secular canons and grammar school, in I5I4>
they ' have no schoolmaster ' and the prior was
ordered, not to provide a grammar school for the
public (the public, as will be seen, already did
that for themselves), but to ' have the brethren
taught grammar.' This injunction had to be
repeated in 1526. ' Let there be an injunction
to provide a teacher to teach the novices.'
At Eye Priory in I 5 14, there was apparently
a master but ' the juniors are negligent in
attending school (in exercendis scolis).'' Eye
Priory, however, maintained and clothed 4 poor
boys, by ancient custom.
1 Norwich Visit, (ed. Dr. Jessopp), Camd.
(New Ser.), n. 39.
Soc
While the monasteries did nothing for general
education, wherever we find a collegiate church,
even in later creations, where a public gram-
mar school was not expressly part of the
original foundation, we find a public grammar
school springing up. So at Mettingham, which
maintained a small boarding school of 14 boys,
Stoke-by-Clare, Sudbury, and Wingfield, all bore
their part in education. The other grammar
schools which appear in the pre-Edwardian days
were in connexion with chantries or stipendiary
priests or gilds.
It is difficult to make out whether there was
any real increase in the number of schools in
Tudor days, as in most of the schools there
seems to be some evidence or suspicion of
existence prior to the Chantries Act, and of the
Elizabethan foundation being a revival or new
endowment rather than creation de novo. Cer-
tain it is that there were hardly any new foun-
dations after the reign of Elizabeth.
Most of these grammar schools seem to have
flourished, and held their heads high, contributing
even more largely to the universities in propor-
tion to their numbers than the great public
schools. Like them they catered for the country
gentry, the clergy and yeomen of their neigh-
bourhood, and went up or down in size and fame as
the reputation of some particular master brought
one or other into special prominence and
attracted boarders from distant parts of Suffolk
or from the neighbouring counties. But in the
latter part of the eighteenth century a blight
came over many of them, especially those which
failed to provide buildings more suited to the
times, or fell into the hands of masters, who
either had livings at the same time and neglected
their schools, or remained at their posts after
they were too old. When first stage-coaches
and then railways annihilated distance, these
unfortunates languished on as third-grade gram-
mar schools, or were degraded into elementary
schools. Bury alone seems to have preserved a
persistently high standard, and even as late as
1848 to have ranked among the greater public
schools.
The decay of Suffolk as an industrial centre
and its almost exclusively agrarian character, with
the consequent falling-off in population no doubt
affected these schools. This falling-off prob-
ably accounts for the exceptionally scanty
number of endowed elementary schools founded
in the county up to 1750, which is in marked
contrast with the large number of its early
grammar schools. Whether in these days, when
parents seek to plant their boys at schools away
from towns, a more brilliant future is not in
store for Suffolk schools, time and the county
council alone can tell. Certain it is that with-
out good buildings, excellent equipment, ample
recreation grounds, and well paid assistant masters,
no secondary school in these days can become or
remain a centre of light and leading.
302
SCHOOLS
DUNWICH SCHOOL
Suffolk has the honour of having been the
seat of the earliest school the foundation of
which is recorded in English history. 'At
this time,' says Bede,1 speaking of about the year
631, ' Sigbert presided over the kingdom of the
East Saxons. He, while he was in exile in
Gaul, seeking refuge from the enmity of Red-
wald, received baptism. After his return, as soon
as he had obtained the kingdom, wishing to imi-
tate what he had seen well done in Gaul, he
founded a school in which boys might be taught
grammar (instituit scolam, in qua pueri litteris
erudirentur) with the assistance of Bishop Felix,
whom he had received from Kent, who provided
them ushers and masters after the fashion of the
Kentish men (eisque pedagogos ac magistros juxta
morem C antuarlorum prebente).' This is a passage
in 1075 in favour of Thetford. Moreover,
Dunwich was a manor in secular hands, and of
the two carucates of which it consisted, one had
been swallowed up by the sea. Nevertheless,
while there was only one church there in the
time of Edward the Confessor, now there were
3, and the burgesses had grown in number from
120 to 236, besides 178 'poor men.'
Robert Malet now granted to his new priory 4
'all the churches of Dunwich, built or to be built'
(no doubt some were then building), ' the tithe of
the whole town both of cash and herrings, a fair
at St. Leonard's feast for 3 days ; the school also
of the same town (scolas eciam eiusdem villi).'
In 3 other places we have seen the new Nor-
man lord transferring to a new Norman founda-
tion the government of the school of the town
— Christchurch (Hampshire),5 Warwick, and
Pontefract — while similar transfers will be in
of the highest importance in the history of evidence incidentally at Bedford, Derby, Glou-
schools, as it shows that the school at Canterbury
was an established institution long before the
Greek Archbishop Theodore, establishes its claim
as the oldest school in England, and irresistibly
suggests that it was coeval with Christianity in
England, and founded by St. Augustine. The
place where the East Anglian school was set up
is not stated. But we are told in another place 2
that Felix had come from Burgundy, where he
was born, and was ordained by Archbishop
Honorius, who had sent him to preach the word
of life to the East Angles, and that he had con-
verted the whole nation, ' and had taken [accepit)
his see in the city of Dunwich (Dumnoc),' where
eighteen years afterwards he ended his life in
cester, and probably elsewhere. The Normans
apparently wished to tune the schools as Elizabeth
in later times did the pulpits,6 and take them out
of the hands of the secular clergy, who were
English, and presumably patriots, and put them
in the dead hands of alien orders. At Dunwich,
the result of the transfer was to destroy all fur-
ther trace of the history of the school. All the
registers of Eye have disappeared, though two
were known to be in existence as late as 1 73 1 .
When the priory was dissolved, whatever endow-
ments (if any) this school possessed were, as part
of the monastic possessions, confiscated, and the
school disappeared. Successive inroads of the sea
having reduced Dunwich to a village, the grammar
peace. It may therefore be safely inferred that school never revived, and we hear of this ancient
the school also was set up in the ecclesiastical foundation no more,
capital, just as the chief school of the 'Cantwara'
was at 'Cantwarabyrig,' or Canterbury.
In 673 the East Anglian see was divided,
Norfolk becoming a separate bishopric with its
see at Elmham. But we may suppose that the
restriction of the labours of the Bishop of Dun-
wich to Suffolk only did not lessen the personal
interest he took in the grammar school, the
maintenance of which was an important part of
the episcopal duties.
Our next glimpse of the school is 500 years
later, on the foundation of the priory of Eye,
some time after the year 1076, and before
1083,3 by Robert Malet. Dunwich had then
long been deposed from episcopal status, and its
younger rival Elmham had also been superseded
1 Hist. Eccl. iii, 18. The Saxon Chronicle gives the
date of Felix's mission as 636 ; but, as Mr. Pluramer
has shown in his edition of Bede (ii, 106), this is five
years too late ; and it cannot be earlier than 630, as
three years of relapse into paganism had followed Earp-
wald's murder in 627 or 628.
8 Ibid, ii, 15.
3 i.e. between the date of Robert Malet succeeding
his father William and the death of Queen Matilda,
who is mentioned as a patroness of his foundation.
THETFORD SCHOOL
Thetford, which succeeded in 1075 to the
pride of place from which Elmham and Dunwich
had fallen, and became the East Anglian see, also
furnishes very early evidence of the existence of
its school. Under Edward the Confessor there
had been 944 burgesses, and though they had
fallen at the time of Domesday to 720, it was
still one of the great towns. Probably, therefore,
it had a school before it became a bishop's see,
but in any case, having become a bishop's see, a
grammar school would have been attached to it
as a matter of course.
After Thetford was in its turn deposed from
episcopal dignity, by Bishop Herbert Losinga in
1094 transferring the see to Norwich, the
ex-cathedral church of St. Mary was in 1107
transmuted by Roger Bigod into a Cluniac priory.
But 7 years later the priory was moved to a
4 Dugdale, Men. iii, 405.
5 V. C. H. Hants, ii, 1 52 ; Turks, i.
6 A. F. Leach, Hist, of Warwick School and College,
p. 7.
303
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
more ample site outside the town. Though
vouched by Bigod as advising the establishment
of the priory, Bishop Herbert seems not to have
wholly relished the establishment of this par-
ticular order in it, alien priory as it was, subject
to a foreign house, and exempt from episcopal
jurisdiction. He successfully contested with
the priory the possession of the body of its
founder, and buried it in Norwich Cathedral.
In like manner, on the transfer of the priory
outside the town, he rescued the school from the
clutches of the monks and restored it to a repre-
sentative of the secular clergy, the dean, who,
even if he was only dean of Christianity, at all
events in that capacity retained some of the
attributes of the dean of the cathedral chapter
and his archidiaconal powers, including the
probate of wills. Apparently the government
of this school had been taken away and trans-
ferred to the monks when they were established
in the ex-cathedral, but now, circa 1114, the
dean recovered it.
Herbert ' the bishop to his brethren * and his sons 3 of
Thetford know ye that I have given back to Dean Bund
his school at Thetford as he ever better and more fully4
held it, and I order that no such school shall be held
there, except his own or any which he shall allow.
This is extremely interesting, as it is the earliest
specimen yet known to the present writer of that
assertion of the monopoly of the authorized gram-
mar schoolmaster which we find at London and
Winchester under Bishop Henry of Blois in the
reign of Stephen, and as will be seen below at
Bury St. Edmunds in the thirteenth, and at many
places in other succeeding centuries.
The school of Thetford thus restored to secu-
lar management appears at intervals afterwards in
the bishop's registers, in successive appointments
of head masters. Thus on 2 September, 1328,
Edmund of Mendham, priest, was appointed by
the bishop to the custody of the grammar
school.5
Again, 5 August, 1329, we find that 'the lord
bishop conferred the keeping and teaching of the
grammar school at Thetford belonging to his
collation on Master John of Morden, acolyte,
with all its rights and appurtenances, to hold so
long as the lord bishop pleased, and he instituted
1 ' Herbertus episcopus fratribus et filiis apud Ted-
ford. Sciatis me reddidisse Bundo Decano scolas suas
apud Tedford sicut unquam melius et integrius habuit ;
et precipio ut alie scole non habeantur ibi, nisi sue vel
quas ipse permiserit.' Anstruther's Epistoke Herberti
Lozinge xxxij. The last word is corrected from pre-
miserit, which would be meaningless.
8 i.e. the monks, for Herbert had himself been an
abbot, though not a Cluniac.
3 i.e. the secular clergy of Thetford.
4 i.e. independendy.
6 Scolarum gramaticaRum, not as misread in Francis
Blomefield's Norfolk, ii, 128, grammar scholars.
the same Master John as master and keeper of
the same.' c
On 20 April, 1342,7 an appointment in
similar terms was made by the bishop at Thorney
of Master Robert of Hulme, when letters issued
to all abbots, priors, rectors, parish priests, vicars,
and all persons cleric and lay throughout the
diocese to accept the said Robert as master in
form aforesaid. This very exceptional solemnity
of notice is a testimony to the importance of
the office of grammar schoolmaster of the ex-
cathedral town, and shows that there must have
been some challenge of the bishop's right of
appointment, probably on the part of the prior of
Thetford, or the prior and chapter of Norwich,
or both. The appointment of Robert of Hulme
(sic) clerk, was repeated on 10 May following,
1343,8 by 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, 1374,9 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, 1424,11 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
6 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 Johanneni in
magistrum earundem prefecit et custodem.'
7 Norw. Epis. Reg. iii, fol. 54. 6 Ibid. fol. 70.
9 Blomefield, Nor/, ii, 128.
10 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 284.
11 Ibid, viii, fol. 89.
12 Camb. Grace Bk. A, ed. Stanley M. Leathes, 204,
2C7.
304
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
1 ox. a sermon. The lands at Croxton were to
go to Edward Clare and his heirs, on condition
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 bv 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 bodv, 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,
of settling lands worth £35 a year; this sum to and contributed divers boys to the Cambridge
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
GCX3 dj- 8^.), 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 charities. 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. 1
So both Houses passed the Bill, and the principle,
which has ever since governed the construction
2 3°5
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 1681, 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 l
a ' sequestrator ' of St. Peter's, rector of Santon in
Norfolk, and Honington in Suffolk, as well as
1 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
1 81 8 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,
lomefield, Nor/elk, ii, 66.
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 i860, 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
benefit of learning in it without any payment (pacto)
and by way of charity, so I for God's sake grant you
what you ask.
Soon after
the abbot bought a stone house (domes lapldeas) in the
town of St. Edmunds, and assigned it for keeping
school in it (eas scolarum regimini assignavit) 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 league 2
(bannam leucam) 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
pursuance of the settled policy of the Lady of hospital at Babwell by the same abbot at th
the Mercians, Ethelfled, and King Edward th
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.' l
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 1 181. 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
A. F. Leach, Hut. of Warwick School and College,
time was due to the utilization of the same
opportunities.
We are able to fix the exact site of the school
from the 13th 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 30J. in silver half
a house at the entrance of the street called
Scolhallestrete by the high school (juxta mcignas 4
scolai) between the street leading to the alderman's
grange and the messuage of the said Michael.
By a later deed of 25 April, 1295,6 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; maDnus 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
Revm 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 manor 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 Bur)' the division of estates said to have been
made temp. Henry I, was solemnly confirmed by
charter by Edward I in 1 28 1 at a cost, the chronicler
says, of £ 1, 000, a sum we can hardly put at less than
£30,000 of our money. Coat. Circa. 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<J: ' 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.'
30
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 maundv,
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 scolarum) 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 1 98) 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 S. 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.
* Signis, apparently for cygnis.
5 Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 213. ' Consuetudo in scolis.
de gallis die martis ante cineres.'
6 Ibid. fol. 133.
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, 1 00*. 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 (quleti ab omn'i
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 comedentes), who are bound to attend the
school at three terms of the year when the master
begins his lectures (iticipiente 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 11 93, 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. 40J. from that half.
Yet on 9 June, 13 14, 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 40X.
was due from him and paid a noble (65. 8^.)
apparently by way of 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. 3 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.
1363, 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 1 4, in the case of the school-
master of St. Paul's School, London, in 1 137
and 1446, in the case of the schoolmaster of the
High School, Winchester, in 1 1 35, 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,2
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 (ecclesie 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.
2 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 congregatos 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 (filium Henrici) for presuming to keep
an adulterine school and teaching grammarians
(glomerellos) or other pupils (discipulos) 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
m 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.5 It was in use at Salisbury in the 14th
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. 3964a. I am indebted to the
warden and fellows of Merton for the opportunity
of going through these accounts.
0 Hist. MSS. Rep. Misc. (190 1), 343, 345.
7 Harl. MS. 645, fol. 6ji, (S6A, 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 1 is called 'the gilde of the translacione
of Seynt Nicholas, otherwyse called Dusgilde,'
of which a leaden token has been found with
the inscription : Signum Gilde S. Nichi Congre-
gacio Dusse. 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 1 4 1 8, 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 ' Priour of 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 y. \d? 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 S. Edmundi) was taxed
1 2 marks towards it, while the abbot and con-
vent contributed 100 marks. A contribution of
1 Bury Wills (Camd. Soc. 49), 35. ' Ibid. 230.
3 Cont. Chron. Flor. Wigorn. 22 ed. B. Thorpe,
(Engl. Hist. Soc. 1849). The continuation is by
John of Taxter, a monk of Bury.
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, 1370,5 Abbot John Tynemouth,
very much in the language of the document of
1 29 1, 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 [magisttr scolarum 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.
1 V.C.H. Line, ii, ' Schools.'
5 Had. 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 predicte
ad hoc per prius optenta.
SCHOOLS
The chaplains were as usual to excommuni-
cate the delinquents, and inhibit everyone hence-
forth from 'keeping such schools elsewhere than
inthe school of the clerks of thecongregation 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
{gubei~natoreni) who with 1 2 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 Fraternity2 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 th» 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
Proc. Suff. Inst, of Archaeol. xii, 14, by Mr. V. B. Red-
stone.
J P.R.O. Gild Cert. 419.
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
(viii officio deputatus) wishes to send his son to letters
(fiiium luum tradere litteris) 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 55. for a
clerk, 1 3*. \d. 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 "]s. b\d. and
I lb. 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. n-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
(scolarum gramaticalium ville de Bury),' the fol-
lowing document2 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/. 4a1. and a gown (roba) to be yearly delivered
by the hands of the Almoner of our said monastery
for the time being, with eatables and drinkables to be
served to you and one clerk in the almonry of the
said monastery daily,3 and a proper chamber for you and
your said clerk, while you rule the said school in your
own person in praiseworthy fashion (dummodo scolas in
propria persona laudabiliter rexeris) and duly instruct
the scholars there meeting (confluentes) for the sake of
the teaching, in manners and learning (moribus et
scicneia debite informaveris) as the rank (cendicio) and
conscience of a good teacher or master (doetoris she
magistri) demand, we grant you by grace by these
presents for life, as long as you have not been else-
where promoted ; adding, that if it should happen
that you desert the said school at an unreasonable
time, without lawful impediment and without our
leave, thenceforth we will that this our grant shall
1 B.M. MSS. Add. 14848, fol. 52^ ' Collacio
scolarum de Bury facta Roberto Lawshull, presbitero.'
1 Memorials of St. Edmunds Abbey, edited by Thomas
Arnold (Rolls Ser.), 1896, p. 249, from B.M. Add.
MSS. 7096, fol. no.
3 Diatim, not as printed by Mr. Arnold * diutine,'
which is no word and makes no sense.
lose all its force and virtue ; so that it may be lawful
for us and our successors freely to confer the said
school on any one we may please, notwithstanding
this present grant. In witness whereof we have
made these our letters patent, &c.
We are not, however, without indirect evi-
dence of the school's continuance. In two-
Account Rolls of the sacrist of the abbey,4 one
of 1426-7 contains the item, ' Given toS. Nicho-
las, bishop, 1 2d? ; and a similar entry, ' Given in
honour of S. Nicholas,' is contained in the roll
of 1537-8. The boy-bishop's ceremony thus
duly kept up is presumptive evidence of boys
to keep it up. So, too, in the will of Anne
Barett of Bury, widow, 21 August, 1504, is the
provision for the purchase of land to the value of
11 marks (^7 ioj.) a year, for a stipendiary
priest for 20 years, and then ' 40/. of the same I
wyll that yt be geven amongs poore scolers to
help them to their exibicion and lernyng tho
that be good and honest ' ; while Edmund Good-
body, her godson, was to have the ' service '
when he became a priest, and ' be fownd to scoole
with my goods tyll he be of lawfull age to be
prystyd.'
So, too, John Hedge by his will, 28 April,
1 504, gave, in the event of his son's death, a tene-
ment to be sold, and with the proceeds ' I wyll
have a priest or priests to go to scoole at Cam-
bridge to art and to non other science, and so to
continue as long as the money thereof laste.' It
would have been no use providing university
exhibitions if the exhibitioners could not get a
grammar school education first.
When the dissolution of monasteries took
place, here, as at St. Albans and elsewhere, a
vicious construction of the law made all the
trust property of the abbey pass to the king as
if it was part of the monastic property, and the
school endowment went with the abbey endow-
ments into the royal coffers. At least in the
chantry certificate for Suffolk in 1548 5 there
is a
Memorandum yt is to be considered that the said
townne of Bury is a great and a populus townne,
havinge in yt twoo parryshe churches and in the
same parrishes above the nombre of 3000 howselinge
peoples [representing a population of some 9,000] and
a greate nombre of yowth.
The king takes all the tithes, finding only two
parish priests.
And further theare is no schoole nor other lyke divise
founded within the seide towne or wythin 20 miles
of yt for the vertuous educacyon and bringing upp
of yowth, nor any hospytall or other like foundacion
for the comfort or relicfFe of the pover, of which,
theare is exceedinge greate nombre within the seide
townne.
1 Town Hall Muniments.
5 Engl. Schools at the Reformation, 216, from Chan.
Cert. 45, No. 46.
SCHOOLS
The two parochial incumbents take all the
profits and do nothing for the poor.
In consideracyon whereof yt mave please the Kinges
maiestie of his most charitable benignitie, moved
with pittie in that behalfe, to convene the revenues
and profits of some of the said promocions in to
sume godly foundacion, whearhy the said pover
inhabitantes daily there multyplying may be relieved,
and the yowght instructed and browghte upp vertu-
ously, or otherwyse accordinge to his most godly and
discrete wisedome ; and the seide inhabitantes shall
dayly praye to God for the prosperous preservacyon
of his most excellente maiestie longe to endure.
This piteous petition, which is evidently incor-
porated in the certificate in the form framed by
the inhabitants themselves, took no effect till
Protector Somerset had given place to the much
maligned John Dudley, duke of Northumber-
land. At last on 25 July,1 1550, an order was
made by Richard Sakevyle, then chancellor of
the Court of Augmentations, in pursuance of
instructions from the Privy Council, to
make a graunte of the premysses unto William
May, D.D. and deane of Paules ; Nicholas Bakon,
[afterwards Lord Keeper and father of the more
famous Lord Chancellor Bacon], John Eyer and
Christopher Peyton, esquyers ; William Tassel,
Stephen Hayward, gentlemen ; Roger Barbour, and
eight others, ' of Bury Seynt Edmonde, yomen ' to
the use of a scole ther to be founded by the kinges
Maiestie in like maner and forme as the scole of
Sherborne is graunted, reservyng unto the kinges
maiestie in the name of a yerely rente 28/.
The premises in question were lands of the
Chantry in Kirketon alias Shotley, worth I00j.
a year, subject to a yearly distribution to the
poor, which the king was to discharge ; the
chantry called Clopton's chantry founded by
Sir William Clopton, worth £6 gs. Sd. ; the
manor of Calingham Hall worth ^8 a year,
part of the possessions of a chantry founded by
Sir John Freye, knight, in Little Saint Bartho-
lomew's, London ; and certain other lands in
Kirketon alias Shotley worth gross 40;. Sd. and
net 38;. \d. a year, part of lands, given by will
of Nicholas Fikkett for ' the sepulcre light '
i.e. the light at the Easter sepulchre, in the
churches of Kelmeton and Shotley and for doles
every Friday to poor men of those parishes, the
repairs of the churches and his own obit. The
whole yearly value of the property to be granted
to the school was £2 1 8s.
By letters patent under the Great Seal dated
at Leighes 3 August, 1550,
at the humble petition of the inhabitants of the
town of Bury Saint Edmunds the king granted that
there should be henceforth a grammar school called
' the Free Grammar School of King Edward VI '
for the education institution and instruction of boys
1 By a slip of the pen the date was given as I 552,
Engl. Schools at the Reformation, 222, from P. R. O.
' Particulars for Schools,' Roll ii.
and youths there in grammar for ever to endure ;
and he erected the school of a master (magistro seu
pedagogo) and usher (hipodidascalo seu subpedagogo).
The foundation was therefore entirely open
with no special trust for or privilege to the inhabi-
tants of the town. And that the king's 'inten-
tion might better take effect ' he granted the
lands before mentioned to 1 6 persons named
and incorporated them as 'governors of the
goods possessions and revenues of the Free Gram-
mar School of King Edward VI of Bury St.
Edmunds in the county of Suffolk' with licence
to hold other lands in mortmain up to £20 a
year. The governors were empowered to make
statutes with the advice of the Bishop of
Norwich for the time being — a sufficient proof
that a free school did not mean as has been
sometimes wildly alleged a school free from
ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
The school has been claimed as the first and
earliest of Edward VI so-called foundations, for
no better reason apparently than that in a casual
and entirely imperfect and erroneous list con-
cocted by Stow it was put first. The warrant
already granted directing the Bury charter to be
drafted after the model of the Sherborne charter
is sufficient refutation of the claim. The
Sherborne charter was dated in May and the Bury
charter in August, 1550. Nor is that all. As
has been shown 2 the free grammar schools of
St. Albans and Berkhampstead, of Stamford and
Pocklington were founded or rather refounded by
Act of Parliament in the first year of Edward VI,
Bury was not till the fourth year. And if insist-
ence is placed on foundation by charter instead of
by Act of Parliament, or on new endowment
being given out of confiscated chantries, Saffron
Walden, the charter of which was given on
18 February, 2 Edward VI, i.e. 1548, and
divers others must take precedence of Sherborne
and Bury.
It was supposed that the original statutes
made in 1550 had wholly disappeared, though
they were mentioned by Edward Leedes, head
master in 1683, as then existing and as printed.
No copy can be found at Bury, but one is
fortunately preserved in the British Museum.3
As Edwardian statutes are exceedingly rare these
must be treated at some length. Dr. Donaldson
described them as beginning with a complimen-
tary address to the master. This is hardly
the case. The preface is an extremely prig-
gish discourse on the importance of having
good masters and still more good rules to govern
them, and consequently an endeavour ' to em-
brace in the decrees the whole method of
teaching of our school, which are contained in the
chapters following.' Then follow 62 chapters
1 V.C.H. Herts, ii, Lines, ii, Tarts, i.
3 Lansd. MSS. I 19. I am indebted to Lord
Francis Hervey for this reference. He printed the
statutes in 1888.
3*3
40
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
which appear to be modelled on the Tabula
Legum Pedagogicarum, which may still be seen
painted on a board on the walls of ' School ' at
Winchester College, are believed to have been
copied from the original school of William of
Wykeham's day, and are couched in the language
of the laws of the Twelve Tables of Rome. But
the Bury edition is very much enlarged and
altered. They are for the most part the most
useless of vague generalities, e.g. —
i. In the first place let the masters be good
men, diligently teach their flock, instil good morals
at the
time as letters.1 2. Let them abstain
from dice, play and drink.' ... 4. Let them
neither rage with too great harshness, nor be easily
bent to lenity. ... 6. Let them have equal
regard to poor and rich, and show the same zeal in
teaching each.
The usher was to come at 6 and teach till
1 1 a.m., and the master at 7 and teach to
10.30 a.m. Both were to return at I p.m., and
the head master might go at 4.30, the usher at
5 p.m. On Saturdays and half-holidays they
were to go on till 3 p.m. The boys were not
to exceed 1 00 (eorum numerus centenarius esto), and
the poor were to be given a preference for ad-
mission, but those who could not read nor write
were not to be admitted — an effective exclusion
of the gutter poor. There follows a sentence
which expressed the law of grammar schools in
a nutshell : —
Let3 them seek elsewhere the ability to read and
write. Let ours (? masters) give nothing but the
rules of grammar and the learning of the Latin and
Greek tongue.
The 23rd rule is —
Let none come to school with hair uncombed,
hands or face unwashed, dirty boots or stockings, torn
•or unbuttoned clothes.
The boys were to be divided into 5 classes, the
first 3 under the master, the rest under the
usher. This does not look as if a school of the first
grade was contemplated, as at this time the great
schools were divided into 8, 7, or 6 forms. Nor
do the books prescribed. The first or highest form
was to be taught [audiunto, listen to, i.e. be lectured
to on), Cicero, De Officiis ; Caesar's Commentaries ;
V irgil's /Eneid ; Quintilian's Institutes of Rhetoric ;
or Herennius' Precepts of Rhetoric. Form II.
were to read Sallust, Virgil's Bucolics or Georgics,
Horace, and Erasmus On Copiousness of Diction and
Letterwriting. Form III. Erasmus On Deportment
(de civilitate morum), the King's Grammar, Ovid's
1 ' Pedagogi in primis viri boni sunto, diligenter
gregem docento, bonos mores simul cum litteris
inserunto.'
* ' Alea, lusu, potatione abstinento.'
s 18. Legendi vel scribendi alibi quaerant facultatem.
Nostri praeter grammaticse institutiones et lingua
latina; et Graecae informationem nihil aliud tradunt.
3
Tristia, and the chaster plays of Plautus and
Terence. Form IV. were to be instructed by
the usher in Mimus, Public paraemias, Erasmus'
Dialogues, jEsop's Fables, Cato's Couplets, Man-
cinus' Poems on the Four Virtues. The rest were
to learn the elements of grammar.
30. Barbarous writers, obscene poets, because the last
corrupt their morals and the first their Latin, are
not to be obtruded on the boys. 32. They are to talk
Latin continually.
The Winchester ' Let the arms of scholars be
always ready,' appears in the more prosaic form :
34. Ink, parchment, knife, pens, note books, let all
have ready.
A curiously old-world arrangement was
35. When they have to write let them use their
knees for a table.
At the end of the week the work of the week
was rehearsed.
40. On Fridays and Saturdays let the masters read
nothing, but let the boys give an account of what
they have learnt in the preceding days. Let them
bring short speeches [declamatiunculas) which they have
commented on in their leisure hours [horis subsecivti).
43. The schoolmaster every evening is to dictate
three Latin sayings and explain them in English,
the scholars are to write them down next day. 46.
Half an hour before dinner or supper let them dispute
on the inflections and cases of nouns, the conjugations,
tenses, and moods of verbs, or dictate in turns pro-
verbs, adages, sentences, verses, silently and without
noise. 47. These speeches are to end at the first
stroke of the clock, and the boy who has beaten his
fellows, shall have the first place by way of prize. He
shall hold it until he has been overcome by another's
industry.
After 5 years (48) everyone must leave either
for Cambridge or to go to other arts.
50. When they want relaxation, they are to
indulge in some gentlemanly (honesto) sport such
as running, throwing darts, or archery. Dice,
knuckle-bones, quoits, and all games unworthy
of a free man are to be avoided.
No leave to play is to be granted except on
Thursday, and then only if it is fine, and the
boys have been industrious. They are all to go
to church on saints' days, and are to learn the
' Lord's Prayer,' the ' Ten Commandments,' and
other institutes of the Christian faith. There
are to be two pupils named by the masters to act
as censors. A mean and unique addition is
made of a third secretly added by the masters to
report on the censors, and of all crimes unre-
ported by them. Friday was the day when
inquiry was to be held into all crimes, and
punishment inflicted.
The usher was to teach under the order of the
master. He was to open the school doors in the
morning and shut them at night — whence, of
course, his name of the doorkeeper (ostiarius) — and
SCHOOLS
to see that the school and benches, when the
boys go away in the evening are swept, cobwebs,
dust, and dirt carried away. The last statute is
62. The masters are not to keep a family under
the school roofs, nor have beds there ; let women, as
deadly pests, be kept away (muliercs tanquam festes
topi tales cbsunto).
Then comes a pompous and long-winded
admonition, addressed to the masters, to the
effect that they may add anything that occurs to
them as useful, and, as with mock modesty the
governors add, ' for all we know, better,' and a
reminder that though their province is small it is
of great importance.
Lastly, follow in English, ' Articles to be re-
cited to them that shall offer their children to be
taught in the schoole.' They comprise an under-
taking that the child shall obey the master and
'huisher,' that the parents will find him paper,
ink, pens, books, candles in winter, and other
things necessary ; and allow him
at all tymes, a bow, 3 shaftes, bowstrynges, and a
braser to exercise shootynge. You shall be contente to
receive your chilie and put him to some occupacion
if after one yere's experience he shall be founde unapte
to the learnynge of Gramer.
Finally ; ifd. was to be paid the usher ' for
enrollinge of your childe's name.'
The first schoolmaster under the charter, who
we may reasonably conjecture was carrying on
the school at the time of the grant, was John
King, who described himself as ' of Bury, Scol-
mayster,' in making his will ' on 12 August,
1552, ' in the syxt yere ' of Edward VI, and gave
7.0s. and a silver spoon to each of 5 people, includ-
ing his mother, Margaret Tomlynson, wife of
Richard Tomlynson of Colchester, whom he
calls his father-in-law. But his wife was dead,
and he lodged at ' my hostyes Cheston,' to whom
he gave 'my cobbornes, the fire pans, and the
tonges,' and William Cheston, tanner, no doubt
her husband, he made executor and residuary
legatee. The most interesting legacy was —
Item I do geue for implements to remayne unto
the scholle the hangyns in my chamber, one table, one
iovned form, one sede [no doubt his master's chair],
Pline de naturali historia, Virgilius cum commento,
Oratius cum commento, Ouidius cum commento.
Item I geve to Mr. Stirman, Eusebius ecclesie
historia.
The boys of Bury were therefore already
reading the best classical authors.
The resuscitated Bury school quickly regained,
if it had ever lost, the highest rank among the
schools of the county. For it appears in the Gon-
ville and Caius College Register as one of the chief
contributors to that college in the early years of
Elizabeth, when the register begins. In 1562
2 boys from that school, in 1563 3 boys, in
1 Bury Wills, Camd. Soc. 1850, p. 140.
1564 2 boys, were admitted. As they came at
the ripe ages of 18 and 20, instead of at such
immature years as 16 and even 12, as boys did
from smaller and inferior schools ; and comprised
boys not only from Bury itself, but from Stan-
ningfield, Brettenham, Stowmarket, Moulton,
Tuddenham, and West Wickham in Cambridge-
shire, and as several of them were described as the
sons of gentlemen, though most of them, it is true,
were sons of those of middling means or middle
class [rnediocris fortunae), it is prettv clear that it
occupied the position of a great public school.
Similar evidence of status is afforded by the
St. John's College Register when that begins in
1630, the boys being drawn from all over Suffolk
and comprising not only yeomen (agrico/ae), whose
sons were mostly admitted as sizars, but esquires
and D.D.'s, whose sons were admitted as
' pensioners,' or paying pupils and as fellow com-
moners.
The school library, to which John King con-
tributed, received a considerable accession from
Henry Hervey's gift in 1560. He had succeeded
Stephen Gardiner as master of Trinity Hall, and
was no doubt one of the neighbouring family at
Ickworth, who became earls and then marquises
of Bristol. Stephen Cheston, a witness to King's
will, who became archdeacon of Winchester, gave
Cicero's works in 1 56 1 ; and one of the governors,
Thomas Andrews, gave a large number of books
in 1565.
The master in 1562 is said to have been
Philip Mandeville.
The first accretion to the endowment was an
exhibition foundation by Edward Hewer, citizen
of London, and no doubt an old boy. He gave
by will 6 February, 1569, three houses in Botolph
Lane near Billingsgate, London, for the main-
tenance of 4 scholars from Bury School to be
' found and presented by the several oaths of the
schoolmaster and usher to be most apt to learn-
ings and likely to continue in the same,' to have
yearly each ,£6 1 3*. \d. The scholars were ' to
principally and chiefly study physic and civil law
after they should have proceeded in the knowledge
of the Latin and Greek tongues and other arts,'
2 to civil law and 2 to physic. These exhibi-
tions have been regularly kept up.
On 12 March, 1583, the governors made new
statutes with the expressed consent of Edmund
[Scambler] bishop of Norwich. This time they
were in English, but were inscribed in the gover-
nors' statute book in black letter. They provided
for yearly meetings on Thursday after the Epi-
phany, 6 January. One main object of the new
statutes appears to have been to devolve the
duties of the governors, during the interval be-
tween the yearly meetings, on two ' comptrollers/
to manage the affairs of theschool, including the ad-
mission of boys, and render account at the yearly
meeting, writing the account in a book. The
books, unfortunately, have disappeared. After
the account the senior comptroller had to go out
15
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
of office, the junior becoming senior for the next
year. Leases, however, were only to be granted
under the common seal and with the consent of
a majority of the governors. The election of
master and usher and their installation was also
to be done by the majority of the governors.
Any governor absent from a meeting was fined
is. The first twenty-four entries are wholly
taken up with the business arrangements.
By article 25 the master's 'wages' were fixed
at £20, and by article 26 the ' huisher's' at £10
a year. The rest of the statutes are with few
exceptions only translations of the Latin statutes
of 1550. One exception was that by article
50 the morning prayers were now to be in
English and 'at night or afternoone ' in Latin.
In article 70, on games, the two sports of shoot-
ing and running are explained to be shooting at
the long-bow and ' runnynge at base,' but
whether this means ' prisoners' base ' or ' base-
ball ' is left in doubt. In article 75 the prefects
or monitors appear as 'enquestors' (i.e. inquisi-
tors), and the spies on them ' especials and withe
skowt watches.'
On 1 September, 1583, 'John Wright, Master
of Arte ' was ' admytted and inducted to be
scholemaster ' from Michaelmas following
duringe his naturall life if he shall be duringe the
saide tyme of good behaveour and diligently and
faithfully behave himself in teachinge and governinge
the saide schole and scholers there for the tyme
beinge as shall appertayne to the dutie of a good
scholemaster.
The earliest extant record of the acts of the
governors is in
the Register beginning the last daie of December
in the yeare of our Lorde God one thousande Five
Hundred fourscore and nine of the names, elections,
actes, and remembrances of the governors,
etc., setting out their full legal title and date of
foundation. The first entry contains the
names of the governors on 31 December,
1589, only eleven in number, headed by William
Baker, the last survivor of the original governors,
followed by Albert Goldinge, esq., and Anthony
Payne, gent. Five others are described as
' gent.,' Henry Horningold and Thomas
Gippes having no qualification appended to
their names. When in a subsequent docu-
ment names were signed, it is noticeable that
Horningold could not sign his name, but made his
mark. The next entry is of the election seven
years before, 21 January, 1582-3, of four addi-
tional colleagues by the four then surviving original
governors, named in the Letters Patent of
Edward VI. The fact that this entry is made on
a loose two-page paper inserted in the book,
coupled with the opening words of the register
already quoted, seems to show that there had been
no register before and that the business had been
rather carelessly conducted. The first act of
3
the governors in the new register was to bring
up their body to the full number of 16. There
seems to have been some doubt of the regularity
of the new elections as on 3 January following,
1589-90, all those elected before 31 Decem-
ber, were declared elected by Baker as sole
survivor of the original governors. They then
proceeded to re-elect those appointed on 31 De-
cember, 1589, in the presence of a notary public,
George Smyth, who solemnly witnessed the pro-
cess in a lengthy Latin 'instrument' under his
notarial mark, quite in the mediaeval style. It
is interesting to note that the governors kept a
beadle (bedell) whose wages were 261. 8d. a
year.
On 8 December, 1590, William Baker, the
last of the original governors, died.
On 26 February, I 590-1, the governors raised
the salary of the ' Scholemaister ' from £20 to
£24, and of the ' huyssher, in respect that he
nowe is maister of arts ' from £10 to £1 3 6s. Sd.
There were then 2 ' comptrollers ' elected an-
nually, one of them being always new, who
apparently received all rents and made all pay-
ments, accounting yearly to the governors. The
account books have unfortunately disappeared,
and as the register naturally contains little else
than elections of governors, and grants of leases of
the school lands, it sheds only casual lights on the
school history. On 26 December, 1595, we find
the comptroller ordered to
twice in the yere call tvvoo Apposers with which the
companye of the same comptrollers or one of them
and ij or iij of the other Governors shall resort to this
Schole to appose the Schollers of the same Schole.
The term apposer for an examiner is of course a
relic of the old system of learning by debate, the
examiner putting or posing a question and the
examinee answering or responding. The exa-
miners for New College at Winchester are still
called Posers, and the prize-giving at St. Paul's
and the Mercers' dinner to celebrate it are still
called Apposition Day and Apposition Dinner.
On 1 June, 1 596, Edmund Coote, M.A., was
appointed master on Wright's resignation, but his
tenure was changed from ' for good behaviour,'
like that of judges, to that of the
will and pleasure of the governors, which seeme the
most agreable to the true intent and meanynge of the
king's lettres patentes.
On 11 January, 1596-7, William Clarke, B. A.,
was elected usher per viam probationis — the
governors' minutes show a curious see-saw be-
tween the English and Latin tongues — by way
of probation to Lady Day next. This mode of
tenure however displeased him and he utterly
refused to accept office, so Edmund Aldham was
elected instead, on probation, and was elected on
Lady Day to hold at pleasure of the governors.
On 15 May, 1597, Coote resigned the mastership
and as the resignation is accompanied by the long
SCHOOLS
mediaeval formula about not doing so under stress
of fear or being tricked into doing it, but spon-
taneously and freely, we may probably conclude
that his resignation was an enforced one. Yet
he had signalized ' his short term of office by the
publication of The English Schoolmaster, the object
of which was to introduce a knowledge of their
own language not only to grammar school boys
but to everyone. Thus he tells the tradesman,
i.e. the working artificer —
Thou mayest sit on thy shop board, at thy loom, or
at thy needle and never hinder thy work to hear thy
scholars, after once thou hast made this little book
familiar to thee.
The book was so arranged, each chapter repeat-
ing what went before, while adding new matter
that ' if a child should tear out every leaf so fast
as he learneth, yet it shall not be greatly hurtful.'
So successful was the book that between 1596
and 1673 it went through no less than 37 editions.
Mr. Nicholas Martin, whose signature is much
superior in its scholarliness to that of his pre-
decessor, was elected master 18 May, 1597.
On 17 April, 1598, the usher Edmund Aldham
'by reason of the sicknes and other infirmitie of
his body' surrendered up his place of 'huysher'
and a week afterwards, Rowland Wilson, M.A.
was elected. On 23 February, 163 1-2, John
Mosse became master, and the usher's salary
was raised to £16 a year. A quaint article was
inserted by the Bury Town Council in their
* constitutions ' on 18 July, 1607,2 directed at
Popish schoolmasters, which seems incidentally
to suggest that there were subjects such as French
and Spanish taught in the school of the day
which are rather unexpected, and at the same
time testify to the confidence reposed in the
sound Protestant principles of the grammar
.school masters.
Constitutions
.5 July, 5 James I
1 1. To prevent the infectinge of youth in Poperie by
Scholemasters.
Item that the constables of every ward within this
Burghe shall once every quarter of a yeare certifie the
Aldermen, Recorder and Justices of Peace of this
Burghe the names of all and every person or persons
that doe keepe any Schole for the teaching of youth
to write reade or understand the English, Latin,
French, Italian or Spanish tongues, upon paine to
forfeit for every defalt 6s. Sd. and withall yt is ordered
that none shall be permitted to keepe a schole or to
teach any children to write, reade or understand any
of the said tongues other than the Mr. and Huisher
•of the free gramer schole without license under the
hands and seals of the Alderman and chief burgesses
or 4 of them at the least whereof the Alderman to
be one, upon paine that every one putting any childe
to suche a scholemaster to forfeit for every weeke
1 Retrospective Address,^. 28-9.
' Among the Town Muniments at the Town Hall.
John Dickinson was elected 28 September,
1605, 'did take the place ' on 26 March, 1606,
and the oath of supremacy on 17 September,
1606.
Under Dickinson the school had rest over
30 years, and was extremely successful. The
income of the school lands was seemingly grow-
ing, and the governors recognized the master's
services, increasing his salary (18 September,
1607), to ^30, and the usher's to £18.
On 1 April, 1608, the order of 1596 as to the
schoolmaster not having a patent was repealed,
and ' upon speciall consideration in respect of the
scholemaster then being,' Dickinson was given a
patent for life, while a third master, Thomas Allam,
who was now employed, had his wages increased to
£16. On 2 August, 1609, Rowland, Wilson the
usher received notice to quit at Lady Day. On
6 October Laurence Plumbe was elected in his
place, and Wilson retired, receiving his wages up
to Lady Day, and ' 20*. more for a gratuitie in
regard of his longe service done in the schole,'
some 10 years. The new usher was to live on
the ' benevolence of such parents as have children
under his tuition ' till Lady Day. A month
after that time Plumbe was given notice to quit
at Midsummer for ' very slandrous speache by him
uttered against one of the governors.'
Mr. Dickinson was in much request, for on
4 August, 161 5, 'at the instance of Sir Thomas
Jermyn, knight, Mr. Dickinson, Highemaster 3
of this schoole,' had leave for a whole year from
31 October next to ' travell into Fraunce with
Mr. Robert Jermyn, the eldest son of Sir
Thomas,' and Mr. Robert Peley, the eldest son
of Sir William Peley, knight ' for their govern-
ance and instruction.' But afterwards, on receiv-
ing ' a gratuity ' of £5 a year by way of addition
to his salary, Dickinson gave up the journey.
Sir Simonds d'Ewes, the Puritan antiquary and
diarist says, under 16 16 : —
It was hard to tell after I had once seen and
conversed with Mr. John Dickenson the upper master
of Bury Schools whether I more rejoiced to leave the
place I had been at or to settle with him. . . This
was the fifth school I had been at, yet certainly I
have profited more in this short space {i\ years)
under his mild and loving government than I had
done at 4 other schools in divers years before. I was
at my first coming put into a form somewhat too
high for me, by which means I made haste and took
great pains to become equal to those with whom I
now ranked. My employment also about half a year
before my departure thence to teach most of the
upper end (for the lower end was taught by an usher)
did admirably further my progress in learning, so
as I became able to instruct and overlook them who
. . . had better profited than myself at my first
coming to Bury. I was also able to discourse some-
what readily in the Latin tongue.
3 The title of ' High Master,' now known only at
St. Paul's and Manchester Schools, is invariably used
in the Governors' Register up to 1760 for the head
master of Bury School.
317
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
This pert diarist then proceeds to tell how he
once routed Mr. Hubbard, an M.A. of Trinity
College, Cambridge, who came and examined
his form : —
I took him twice or thrice tripping in false Latin
and gave him notice of it, which so nettled him he
broke off abruptly with me and awhile after departed
out of the school.
The system of using the upper boys as pupil
teachers and of talking Latin in school was
common to all the public schools at this time.
On 17 April, 1 61 8, 'the highe master,' as by
his continuall prayers and dilligence he hathe much
weakness of body and spirits . . . unlesse he may
take some other helpe unto him to goe throughe with
his worke in the busines of the schole,
the governors,
considering the great losse that a multitude of youth
shoulde susteyne in their education and instruction if
the said master should give up his place,
gave him £5 a year more, £40 a year in all,
' whereby he maye at his owne charge take some
helpe unto him,' a third master in addition to the
usher. This was to be ' no president ' for his
successor as ' highe master.'
On 26 October, 1624, the first mention of a
leaving exhibition from the school was given,
'John Glover, nowe a scholler whoe hath
formerly hadd £2 a )'ear allowed him by this
Company,' apparently by way of exhibition at
the school, being given ' £6 a year towards his
mayntenaunce in Cambridge,' and 20s. towards a
gown.
In 1626 the governors bought lands at Brad-
field from Sir Thomas Jermyn.
On 16 January, 1632—3, j£io a year was
given the ' highe master ' towards his ' under
huisher,' and Mr. John Hobman, the ' chief
huisher's' salary was raised from £20 to £2$ a
year : and an exhibition of £4 a year at Cam-
bridge given to Thomas Fison. On 12 March,
1635-6, the governors paid 'as a voluntary gift
20 marks towards ,£213 16*. 8^.' assessed on
Bury as part of £8,000, ship-money levied from
the county of Suffolk, but it was refused in 1640
when Parliament had declared it illegal.
Dickinson produced one most distinguished
scholar in William Sancroft, the archbishop of
Canterbury, who, after standing up to James II
as one of the ' seven bishops' while he was king,
blindly adhered to his allegiance to him when he
had abdicated. Sancroft was from Fressingfield
in Suffolk, and went from Bury to Emmanuel,
the great Puritan college at Cambridge, 3 July,
1634.
Another was John Gauden, the real author
of that creation of dreary platitudes, Ikon Basiiike,
which had a furore of success as the reputed
work of the ' royal martyr, Charles I.' More
perhaps than any other book it contributed to
3'
the restoration of the Stuart dynasty, and its
author was rewarded with the bishopric of
Worcester.
On 1 April, 1637, Dickinson's long and pros-
perous reign came to an end, and an entry in
Latin records his solemn surrender of office ' in
the upper chambre ' of the school. Edward
Frances, M.A., was the same day elected to
succeed him, but on 27 July, 1638, 'according
to his former promyse ' he delivered up his place,
receiving £5 towards his charge ' during the
sicknesse' (? the plague) at Bury. Mr. Hob-
man, the usher, received a similar sum. Dickin-
son retired to the living of Barton, where he died
in 1643 at tne a8e °f 7°) having 'ruled Bury
School through 34 years most prudently,' as
his epitaph records. On 16 August William
Cowper, M.A., was elected master, only to
resign on 29 September.
On 10 October, 1638, Thomas Stevens (or
Stephens, as he writes it himself), M.A., was
elected, to be ' high master of the free grammar
schoole.' He was a considerable author as well
as schoolmaster. He acquired fame by his edi-
tion, and still more by his translation into English
verse, of Statius' Achilleis and Sylvae, published
during his second term of office, the former in
1648, the latter in 1 65 1. In a dedication to
the governors he thanks them for restoring the
school buildings. The statues of Grammatica (or
Grammar) and Rhetorica (or Rhetoric) which
used to adorn the old school are believed to have
been of his procuring. He enjoyed the singu-
lar distinction of being the only master whc
had two terms of office, having after his retire-
ment in 1645 been solicited to return 2 years
afterwards, and enjoying a second reign longer
than the first. His entry into office was signal-
ized by new developments. On 27 March,
1639, it was agreed that ' a house shall be bought
for the present mayntenaunce of Mr. Stephens
the high master,' and for that purpose a house
was bought from Mr. Hayes in the upper end
of Eastgate Street, and £100 paid for it on
9 September, 1640. This house, in his second
term, on 29 April, 1652, Mr. Stevens bought
from the governors for £120, perhaps in view
of the removal of the school, which, though it
actually took place only in 1 665, after Stevens' re-
tirement, was decided upon, during his mastership,
on 1 5 April, 1 66 1 . At the same time that a house
was bought, the school library was overhauled —
the bokes belonging to the schole shalbe perused and
those which are superfluous and not fit for use shalbe
sold and newe of better use to be bought with the
money by Mr. Stephens.
Another new development or, at least, one, if
not new, hitherto unnoticed in the governors'
books, was a school play ; the high master being,
on 10 October, 1639, allowed £6 1 35. \d.
towards his charges in the late acting of a
'comedye by the schollers.' On 16 December
SCHOOLS
following another play was in contemplation, he
being ordered to be paid what he had
layd out and disbursed for the makyng of a stage at
the Abby for a commodye for the entertaynmcnt of
the High Sheriff of the county of Suffolk that now is ;
and the seid stage to be kept and preserved to the use
of the schoole.
On 9 September, 1640, £6 13/. \d. was again
paid to the ' high mayster towards his charges
of performing a commodye.'
There are continual entries of exhibitions, one
of £5 on 27 March, 1 64 1, to Thomas Fletcher,
' for his reedying at Lincolnes Inne,' while
Thomas Sargent the barber was ordered, 4 May,
1 64 1, to have an exhibition of £4 a year at
Cambridge ' soe long as he shall well behave
himself,' and on 20 June, 1641-2, Thomas son
of Sibell Crew was given 40*. ' towards his
setting forth for Cambridge.'
The Civil War made no difference to the
school. Some arrears of rent due for 1644 were
not recovered till 1649, but the school itself went
on as usual, and so did the governors' meetings.
On 15 October, 1645, Thomas Stevens resigned
the mastership. Thomas Lye, B.A., was the
same day appointed in his stead. On 23 Decem-
ber following John Hobman retired, after being
usher apparently ever since Plumbe's dismissal
in 1 609, and at all events for some years before
1633, when as we saw his salary was raised.
On 9 April, 1646, Mr. Isaac Tucker was
appointed usher. But on 20 January following
both he and the high master Lye received notice
to go at Lady Day. On Lady Day, 1647,
Jeremy Welby, M.A., was elected high master
(quamdiu se bene gesserit) ; and on 30 March
Reginald Bokenham, usher. The latter held for
8 years. The former, though he received £40
a year and the house, surrendered the place
17 days later, 12 April.
For 6 months there was no master. Then,
•on 11 September, 1647, the governors, ' takinge
into consideration that the schoole ... is be-
come muche decayed and very few schollers left
therein,' as Mr. Stevens undertook to 'use his
utmost endeavoure to replenyshe the hye schoole
with many of his schollers which he now
teachethe,' and having had ' experience of his
abilities,' elected him high master again. It is
interesting to find the term ' high school ' used
in the thirteenth century thus being still applied,
like the term ' school hall,' to the ancient school
in its new quarters. Probably the ill-success of
Stevens's successors had been due to the com-
petition of Stevens himself, who seemingly was
conducting a private school in the town all the
time. At Lady Day following Mr. Bokenham,
the usher, was given ^5 for teaching the whole
school during the interregnum.
Very soon after Stevens's new election we find
exhibitions again being given : Edward son of
John Pettyt ' of this towne ' being allowed £5
a year for maintenance and 33;. 4^. for 'a gowne
and other necessaryes.' On 4 August, 1649,
William son of Lancelot Thetford was given an
exhibition to keep him at Emmanuel College,
Cambridge ; while in the following March
2 exhibitions were given to John Clarke and
William Elliott, both sons of poor ministers
deceased, for a year ; and these were subsequently
extended, Clarke's ceasing in 1654, and Elliott
then receiving 20*. 'towards the charge of his
commencement,' i.e. taking his degree. On
20 December, 1655, on the resignation of the
usher Reginald Bokenham, this William Elliott
was made ' huissher ' in his place. He seems to
have been a Puritan, as he resigned 23 June,
1660, when Mr. John Norris replaced him.
The exhibitions were not confined to town
boys, for on 12 October, 1655, on the cessation
of Thomas Cressner's exhibition, John son of
William Cobell of Horningsheath was awarded
one of ^5 a year. Nor were they confined to
the county, for on 1 1 February, 1656, William
Dubye,1 of Issham, Cambridgeshire, was given
an exhibition of the same amount.
On 30 March, 1654, in consideration of
Stevens's 'service in advanceinge the schole,'
£15 out of £20, the residue of the purchase-
money still due for his house, was remitted.
In 1656 we get the first and only list of boys
in the school until quite modern times, in spite
of the explicit directions in the statutes for the
maintenance of a register of admissions and the
daily reading of the roll.
There were 86 boys.2 Of these 26 were from
Bury, 1 3 of them sons of tradesmen. The bulk of
the residue must have been boarders, as they
include boys from Cambridgeshire and Norfolk
as well as Suffolk, sons of country gentlemen and
clerics and knights. The most distinguished
names are those of Dudley North and his brother
John North, sons of Sir Dudley North, knight of
the Bath ; Sir William Spring, already a baronet;
Henry Boldero, son of a merchant of Dort, whose
uncle became master of Jesus College, Cam-
bridge, and was then keeping an illegal Anglican
conventicle at Bury ; Thomas son of Clement
Everard, then governor of St. Christopher's,
West Indies ; Thomas son of Sir William Poley
of Boxted ; Lees, sons of Sir John Lee ; Jermyns,
Lovels, and so forth.
Ten pounds was contributed by the governors
to the public charge of ^44 1 2*. io</. at the
'solempnizacion' on the Restoration of Charles II.
On 1 February, 1 660-1, the first institution
of school prizes appears. ' For the incourage-
ment of the Boyes or Schollers of the two high
formes of the upper end of the schole and the
highest form of the lower end ' every Easter and
1 He seems to be the same person who heads the list
of scholars as Davye or perhaps Dadge.
1 The list was printed by Dr. Donaldson in his
Retrospective Address in 1850, pp. 36-41.
9
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Christmas 20*. was to be 'bestowed upon the
3 best deserving scholars of either form, in books
or otherwise, at the high master's discretion, at
the breaking-up before the said feasts.' At this
meeting Dudley North, esq., was chosen a
governor.
On 15 April, 1661, it was ordered 'that a
new school should be built upon the same
ground as the present school now standeth.'
Moneys out on interest were to be called in, and
' the High Master, his Usher, and the Governors
were desired to use their respective interests with
such gents as will subscribe ' for the new build-
ings 'as speedily as may be.' But the idea of
building on the old site was abandoned in favour
of the purchase, 7 September, 1662, of a house
and grounds in Northgate Street for £215.
On 30 October, 1 662, a committee was appointed
to take order ' of laying the foundacion of the
New Schole ' ; which by a further order of
8 March, 1662-3, was t0 De Def°re 31 March.
The new school took two years to build.
Before it was finished its undoubted inceptor,
Dr. Stevens, had retired. On 30 October,
1662, ' Doctor Stephens ' was to 'bee att libertie
to declare whether he will hold to his lyveing and
leave the schoole between this and Lady Day.'
On 15 June, 1662, ' intending for the future to
imploy himself in the work of the ministry,' he
resigned the place of high master.
Roger North's ' Lives of the Norths ' x throw
an interesting light on the inner life of the
school, and show Dr. Stevens as a staunch
cavalier, fully imbued with one prominent charac-
teristic of that party — what is euphoniously termed
' wet epicureanism.'
Much may be attributed to the finishing of him
(Francis North, Lord Keeper Guildford) at Bury
School, under Dr. Stephens, a cavalier master. He
was so forward and exact a scholar there that the
bulky doctor, in his pedantic strain, used to say he
was the crown of all his endeavours. Before he went
to Cambridge the master employed him to make an
alphabetical index of all the verbs neuter, and he did
it so completely that the doctor had it printed with
Lilly's Grammar for the proper use of his own school.
Of Dr. John North we are told : —
His scholastic education was altogether at St.
Edmund's Bury, in Suffolk, under Dr. Stephens. . . .
The master was pedant enough, and noted for high
flights in poetry and criticism, and what we now call
jingling, not a little derived from the last age. All
which qualities were not amiss in his employment.
The worst of him was what his corpulence declared,
the being a wet epicure, the common vice of bookish
professions. We pass by his partialities, which were
indeed scandalous and pernicious to many of his
scholars, because they happened to turn in favour of
our Doctor, for his master was exceedingly fond and
proud of him. One happiness was that he was a
noted cavalier . . . [The master] being reputed little
better than a malignant, he was forced to use out-
wardly an occasional conformity by observing the
1 Quoted in Gent. Mag. (1850), i, 40.
3
church duties and days of super-hypocritical fastings
and seckings, wherewith the people in those days were
tormented, though now worn out of almost all credi-
bility ; and he walked to church after his brigade of
boys there to endure the infliction of divers holders-
forth, tiring themselves and everybody else ; and by
these means he made a shift to hold his school. It
happened that in the dawning of the restoration, the
cancer of the times mitigated ; and one Dr. Boldero . . .
kept a Church of England conventicle at Bury, using
the Common prayer ; and our master often went to
his congregation, and ordinarily took some of his
boarders with him, of whom our doctor was, for the
most part, one. . . . After the happy restoration, and
while our doctor was still at school, the master took
occasion to publish his cavaliership by all the ways he
could contrive ; and one was putting all the boarders,
who were of the chief families in the country, into
red cloaks, because the cavaliers about the court usually
wore such, and scarlet was commonly called the king's
colour. Of these he had near thirty to parade before
him, through that observing town, to church, which
made no vulgar appearance. ... I may remember,
for the credit of that scarlet troop and their scholastic
education, that not above one, or two, of the whole
company, after they came to act in their country
ministrations, proved anti-monarchic or fanatic. . . .
The methods of the school were no slight advantage,
for the master required all his scholars to fill a quarter
of a sheet of paper with their Latin themes, and write
the English on the opposite page. At the presenting
them, a desk was set in the middle of the school,
where the boy stood and rehearsed his theme in Latin
or English, as was required ; and at this act a form or
two of boys were called up from the lower end, and
placed by way of audience ; and the master had
opportunity to correct faults of any kind, pronuncia-
tion as well as composition. This discipline, used
generally in free schools, might prevent an obloquy,
as when it is said that in the grand assemblies for
English affairs there are found many talkers, but very
few speakers.
After Dr. Stevens's resignation on 12 Sep-
tember, 1663, a committee, of whom Dudley
North was one, was appointed to ' review the
statutes of the school and prepare such altera-
tions as they shall think requisite.' If the new
master's memory is to be trusted this revision was
undertaken because when the statutes were read
over to him, 'on my objection that there were
some which I could not observe,' they were
altered. But it was only on 30 September the
new high master was chosen in the person of
Mr. Edward Leeds, ' late high master of the
free school of Newark,' at a salary of £40 with
the house newly purchased near the school now
in building. A year later, 5 September, 1664,
the old school was sold to Rev. John Salkeld for
£85. The grip of the reaction of the Restora-
tion and the Conventicles Acts was now felt in a
resolution passed on 27 January, 1664-5, tnat
any scholar refusing to attend church and sermon
according to the discipline of the Church of
England was to be expelled. On 7 August,
1665, new statutes were brought up, and a week
later sent to the bishop for confirmation.
20
SCHOOLS
They were confirmed 2 September, but before
the confirmation was received, which was on
25 September, one important article, number
39, which limited the number of boys to 120,
as the first statutes had to 100, had to be altered
under a power reserved to the governors, ' It now
appearing that more schollers are already comeing
or come to the schole.' The number was enlarged
to 160.
The main change in the new statutes was
for the worse. For the first time a distinction
was introduced between Bury boys and others.
While both the Edwardian and Elizabethan
statutes had provided only that the poor as well
as the rich should be taught gratis and without
partiality, a preference for admission being given
to the poorest ; now it was only the ' towns-
men's children ' that were to be taught gratis,
and differential admission fees were imposed in
favour of the town. The masters ' shall teach
all townsmen's children gratis. Yet may receive
what is voluntarily proffered. Granted alsoe that
the usher may demand for admission of every
town child I2d. and for every foreigner 2s. 6d.
and not more.' The addition of optional Hebrew
to the curriculum is curious. But as the Renais-
sance in its reaction against the schoolmen and
the Vulgate brought Greek into fashion for the
New Testament, so the Biblical controversies of
the Civil War and the reliance on the Old
Testament covenant had brought Hebrew into
vogue, and it threatened to become permanent
in the schools.
The removal of the school took place at I p.m.
on Monday after the Whitsuntide holidays 1665,
when the governors, leading the boys, headed
by the high master and followed by the usher,
marched two and two in procession from the
old buildings across the bridge in Eastgate to
the new ones in Northgate. The walls of the
new school were hung with Latin verses made
by the boys, some of them exceedingly good.
They are preserved in a book in the possession
of the school, Mr. Leeds remarking in the
preface that ' it may seem ridiculous to the
present age that they should be here preserved,
but to a future age perhaps not so.' And the
future age has now arrived. They ought with-
out delay, and before the book breaks up, as
it has begun to do, to be printed in the school
paper, The Burian.
The new master held sway under the new
statutes in the new school for no less than
40 years. During that time the school enjoyed
great repute. Leeds published several school
books, and in the Methodus Gratcam Linguam
Docendi, published in 1690, he gives the names
of the county families whose scions were at the
school; some were from Yorkshire, Durham,
and Northumberland, including Beckwiths,
Legards, Widdringtons, and Greys. Leeds was
decidedly of the willow kind, not of the
oak. When James II wished in 1687 to relax
the restrictions on recusants and Nonconformists,
and the governors petitioned for it, Leeds argued
against, and one of the governors, Dr. Battely, an
old Burian, who was archdeacon of Canterbury,
in favour of it, saying what was perfectly true
then and needs to be repeated now, that
the matter itself or any civil consequences, let it go
this way or that way, is not worth a straw, excepting
only what the recusants and Nonconformists may
gain and lose thereby in the education of their
children.
With equal compliance with the existing order he
wrote in 1695 to a parent to defend allegiance
to William III.
By deed 14 June, 1670, Dr. John Sudbury, dean
of Durham, gave 81 acres of land in Hepworth,
Barningham, and Stanton, in Suffolk, upon
trust after spending £30 in apprenticing 3 or 4
children, for the benefit of the grammar school
or for the maintenance of four scholars sent
thence to the University of Cambridge. In later
days, however, the trustees spent the bulk of the
money on apprenticing instead of on exhibitions,
so that the intention of the donor was partially
defeated.
Leeds died at the age of 80 on 17 Novem-
ber, 1707, and was buried at Ingham, in the
church of which is a mural tablet to his
memory. John Norris, the usher, who had held
office for 29 years, resigned owing to age and
infirmity on 29 August, to take effect at Michael-
mas, 1689. His successor, William Hammond,
B.A., was given a salary of ^30. Hammond
died next year, and on 19 November, 1690,
John Randall, M.A., of Christ's College,
Cambridge, was elected usher. On Leeds's
death, he became high master, Edward Leeds,
one of the late master's sons, becoming usher.
Young Leeds resigned in 17 12, going to be head
master of Ipswich, to be succeeded by Joseph
Lathbury. Randall, on taking a living in 17 1 5,
was given notice to go. Arthur Kinnesman, an
assistant master at Westminster, became high
master. He enlarged the schoolhouse in 171 7,
receiving £60 from the governors towards the
cost. In 1722 it was resolved to pull the house
down and rebuild it, but this was found too
costly a plan, so in 1724 £100 was spent in
repairs instead. Kinnesman, after being pressed
to reconsider his decision, resigned on 5 October
1745, and was presented with a piece of plate.
Robert Garnham, fellow of Trinity, Cambridge,
was elected master on I 7 October, and ' instated *
on 13 January, 1745. The picturesque old
title of high master was now dropped and never
resumed. Garnham refused to live in the mas-
ter's house, and was allowed ^25 for rent of a
house elsewhere. In 1750 a committee was
appointed to pull the old house down ; but it
was still standing in 1758, when another com-
mittee considered plans for a new house with
accommodation for 30 boarders. But the repair
21 41
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
of the school and rebuilding of the master's house
were not actually begun until 1759. The work
was finished in 1762 at a cost of some £1,100.
On 19 April, 1763, William Irving, fellow
of Trinity College, who had been usher since
23 January, 1755, succeeding the Rev. John
Barker, was admonished for (1) his inability or
inaccuracy in teaching, and not teaching in a
proper method after having been informed or
advised otherwise by the head master,1 (2) for
neglect of duty in not taking the boys to church,
and (3) ' for too severely correcting the boys under
his care.' He thereupon resigned 24 September,
1763. John Franklin Squire — the first master
with two Christian names — of Caius College,
Cambridge, was appointed usher, but only held
for 3 years. On his resignation, for the first
time a 'signis' or advertisement for a new
man was ordered to be put into the Ipswich
newspapers. Thomas Smith was chosen. On
30 July, 1767, both master and usher resigned.
Garnham was given a piece of plate ' for his
great services.' He had produced at least two
bishops : Thomas Thurlow, bishop of Durham,
who left Bury School for Queen's College,
Oxford, in 1754; and George Pretyman Tom-
line, a native of Bury, an exhibitioner from the
school to Pembroke, Cambridge, tutor of William
Pitt, and bishop of Lincoln and Winchester.
The Rev. Laurence Wright was elected
13 October, 1767, and in August, 1768, the Rev.
G. W. Lemon, the usher, appealed to the governors
against Wright's ill-usage. No proof being pro-
duced, the governors recommended them to be
reconciled and both to do their duty. But next
year an advertisement was issued for a new
usher. He was Richard Wightwick of St. John's
College, who was in turn admonished 3 April,
1771, for breach of statutes and neglect of duty
and ordered to demean himself better for the striking sketch of him by James Spedding, the
From 1788 to 1809 Dr. P. Becher, fellow of
King's and assistant master at Harrow, was
master. He died in office and was buried in
St. James's Church. One of his pupils was
Charles James Blomfield, a Bury boy, who
became a bishop of London, dying in 1857, we"
known for his courtly manners and learned epi-
grams. He was at Bury from 1795 to 1801.
Two others were Edward Hall Alderson, who
became the well-known judge, Baron Alderson,
and Robert Monsey Rolfe, who became Lord
Chancellor as Lord Cranworth. But neither of
these can be really claimed as Bury products
since they used it only as a preparatory school,
the first going on to Charterhouse and the second
to Winchester, and being numbered among
the celebrated Carthusians and Wykehamists
respectively.
In 1809, in the interregnum on Becher's
departure, new statutes were made under which
the head master's salary was fixed at £60, and
the usher's at £30 a year. The townspeople's
children, who it seems were now termed 'royalists,'
as if they were the sole objects of the supposed
royal bounty, though no special mention even
was made of them in the charter, were to be
taught gratis, i.e. free from yearly tuition fees.
But admission fees of £2 2s. might be charged,
divided between the head master and usher, while
on Maundy Thursday a guinea was to be paid by
royalists learning Latin and 2 guineas by those
learning Greek as well. Besides the Catechism
and English grammar, by a repetition of the
statute of 1665, 'nothing should be taught in
the school but the best Greek and Latin classics,
except that the head master might teach those
who should desire it, the rudiments of Hebrew.'
The next head master was again a Trinity
Cambridge man, Benjamin Heath Malkin. A
future ; so he resigned. But his successor, Thomas
Archer, of Trinity, Cambridge, received his second
admonition to return to duty on 10 Septem-
ber, 1772, and resigned on the 15th. On 10
January, 1776, Wright retired. His reign was
signalised by Prince, Kedington, Pretyman, and
Brundish being successively in 1773-6 fourth,
second, and the last two senior, wranglers.
Philip Laurents of Trinity, Cambridge, 1776—
1788, had for second master R. Valpy, afterwards
head master of Reading, of Greek delectus fame,
and then Mr. Priest, a senior wrangler. He
is said to have been a plagosus magister. But the
drama flourished under him. The ' young gen-
tlemen of the grammar school' performed tragedies
and comedies at the Assembly House and dis-
tributed the profits of the performance, amount-
ing in 1784 to 'upwards of £40,' in charity to
the poor. An interesting painting by Mr. Randall,
of which many prints are preserved, in March,
1785, records their dresses for posterity.
biographer and editor of Bacon, was printed as
an appendix to Dr. Donaldson's Retrospective
Address in 1850 : —
The Homeric Zeus has in my imagination many
of the features and all the voice of Dr. Malkin ... his
sympathy declared itself as his authority maintained
itself by his own nature. . . . When his portly figure
and handsome rosy face appeared at the window of his
library that overlooked the school we knew that he
came there not to see who was working and who was
idle, but to enjoy the sight of boys enjoying themselves.
Like Goddard and Arnold ' he trusted to the natural
sense of honour and justice which formed the
public opinion of the school — trusted it largely and
frankly.' He had his defects.
This is the first use of that term.
Dr. Malkin had a way of setting lessons and exercises
according to some predetermined inflexible rule ; for
instance, that each lesson should consist of a single
section in a variorum edition. This in 9 sections out
of 10 was light work enough ; but in the 10th
occurred some unhappy word upon which the commen-
tators had exhausted all their learning. On such
322
SCHOOLS
occasions I have known morning school prolonged far
into the afternoon . . . the rest disperse and re-
assemble again having dined between, while the VI
were still occupied in galloping at full speed through
that interminable wilderness of commentation ; and
all for no reason whatever except that that arbitrary
rule might not be violated. Yet in securing the
primal and essential condition of all education
Dr. Malkin shone. He taught his boys to think for
themselves.
It was proved by Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury,
that in the years 1806 to 1 8 14 the largest
number of classical prizes at Cambridge was won
by Bury boys, Shrewsbury coming next, and
Eton and Charterhouse with their large numbers,
bracketed third. Among other famous products
of Bury at this time may be reckoned John
Mitchell Kemble, the Anglo-Saxon scholar, who
ought to be mentioned with special reverence
in this work as one of the fathers of the scien-
tific treatment of English history. He was at
Bury from about 1822 to 1826, when he got
from thence an exhibition at Trinity College,
Cambridge.
In April, 1828, John Edwards of Jesus Col-
lege, Cambridge, an assistant master at Harrow
School, and before that, second master at Rich-
mond School, Yorkshire, was appointed head
master. For increase of stipend he was allowed
6 guineas a year for each ' Royalist,' out of the
endowment, not exceeding £52 ioj. in all,
whatever their number, in addition to the statu-
table (1809) stipend of _£6o a year. At that time
there were 68 boys in all, 37 foreigners, and 31
royalists. In 1830 the number in the school
had risen to no.1 But there do not seem to
in his judgements on the boys. There was little
or no flogging, but impositions raged. He was
perhaps too much taken up with his books and
too little with his boys. One of his books pro-
duced a great sensation. Among his other
accomplishments he was a great Hebrew scholar.
In an evil moment he set to work to extract and
put together as ' the Book of Jasher,' which is
referred to a propos of the song of Deborah and
Barak, the poetical fragments which he detected
embedded in the Old Testament. Among
them was the first chapter of Genesis, to which
he gave a somewhat startling interpretation, con-
necting it with phallic worship. Though the
book was published in Latin and in Germany,
the author was, most unfairly, fiercely attacked,
and held up to reprobation as a heretic, and a
depraver of the youth, in an English pamphlet
by J. Perowne, afterwards dean of Worcester.
Donaldson resigned the head mastership in 1855
and returned to be a successful tutor at Cambridge.
In 1855 the Rev. A. H. Wratislaw, fellow
of Christ's College, Cambridge, who had been
for a short time head master of Felsted School,
was appointed head master. He was a man of
remarkably wide and varied accomplishments.
For his classical scholarship his position in the first
five of the Classical Tripos is sufficient evidence.
He was one of the highest authorities on Czech
language and literature ; and was — which was
rarer — eminent in many branches of natural his-
tory, especially entomology and botany. The
edible ' fungi ' which those of his boarders who
remained after him, and who had grasped his
lore, used to bring home to be cooked after
their rambles, were a perpetual, though quite
have been any very distinguished alumni of the groundless, terror to his successor in the head
school in his day
In 1 84 1 came John Williamson Donaldson,
a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Edu-
cated at a private school in Scotland, he early
achieved distinction by introducing the results of
scientific philology, a German product, to
English readers in The New Cratylus, published
in 1839, and of archaeological research in his
Theatre of the Greeks.
In spite of his fame as a scholar the school
did not grow under Dr. Donaldson, but rather
decayed. The domestic arrangements were very
rough.
The fires in the Big Hall were scanty and sel-
dom. There w?s never any at all in the Outer
Hall. The so-called studies, approached by a pas-
sage open at one end to every wind that blew,
were mere cabins . . badly heated by a smoky flue.
The sanitary arrangements . . were absolutely in-
describably vile.
Yet Dr. Donaldson brooked no criticism from
parents either of the arrangements or the bills.
Take it or leave it was his answer.
Dr. Donaldson was rather distant and severe
1 Char. Com. Rep. xx\-, 551.
mastership. His power of initiative was shown by
his being perhaps the first head master of any
public school to adopt the 'new' pronunciation
of Latin and he extended it — mutatis mutandis —
to Greek also. But after the stir in the educa-
tional world which resulted in the creation of
the Endowed Schools Commission and the re-
creation of many schools, the inadequate site and
building of Bury School began to tell heavily
against it in competition with other schools, and
the numbers fell. After a new scheme under
the Endowed Schools Acts became law on
4 February, 1879, Mr. Wratislaw retired on a
pension to be vicar of Manorbier in Pembroke-
shire.
The new scheme established a governing body
of eleven: one nominated by the Bishop of Ely,
another by the university of Cambridge, two by
the town council of Bury, and two by the
justices of West Suffolk, with 5 co-optatives.
The tuition fees were fixed at £15 to ^24 a
year, with a reduction of one-third for ' Royalists,'
while the boarding fees were not to exceed £65
a year. The ' Hewer Exhibitions ' were re-
duced to 3 of j£6o a year. A scheme made
on the same day for Dean Sudbury's Charity
323
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
incorporated it with the grammar school, and
settled the apprenticeship part at the proper
and original sum of not more than £30 a
year, establishing 4 scholarships in the school
of jTio each for Royalists, and a Sudbury
Exhibition tenable at Oxford or Cambridge
or other place of higher education of £60
a year.
The promise of new buildings drew a large
field to compete for the vacant mastership when
The numbers in the school had increased slowly ;
but they never quite rose to 80 ; nor were more
than 37 of the 40 beds in the head master's house
ever filled. A large proportion of the boarders
(i.e. 14 out of 34 in October, 1886 ; II out of
25 in October, 1888) were the sons of clergy-
men. Though only one first class was obtained
during Mr. Sankey's head mastership, viz. by H.
Wing of Trinity, Cambridge, in the Classical
Tripos, yet other distinctions, second classes,
Mr. Charles Sankey, late scholar of Queen's missions to Sandhurst, &c.
College, Oxford, and assistant master in Marl-
borough College, was appointed. He found
some 45 boys in the school ; 9 of them were
boarders, of whom 3 left at the end of term.
The head of the school was G. L. King, scholar
of Clare College, and now bishop of Madagascar.
No changes of note were introduced by the new-
comer, but the annual speech-day was put at the
end of the summer term, and the printing of the and is now Fellow of University College, Ox-
were common ; and
the school was vigorous both in work and
games.
In July, 1890, Mr. Sankey resigned his head
mastership, and left in December to become an
assistant master in Harrow School. His successor
was Mr. J. H. F. Peile, assistant master in Sher-
borne School, and late scholar of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford. After three years he resigned,
1 Prolusiones ' or Prize Exercises at the cost of
the parents of the prize-winners was stopped.
All the scholars, both 'royalists' and 'foreigners,'
were brought into the seats allotted to the school
in St. James's Church : and the play, at the end
of the winter term, was henceforth performed
in the schoolroom, and not, as before, at the
Athenaeum.
Meanwhile the governors found considerable
difficulty in deciding on a site for new buildings.
In the end, the vinefields of the old abbey won
the day. Generous terms were granted by the
Marquis of Bristol, the comptroller of the
governors and owner of the site ; the difficulty
of approach was solved by the formation of a
new road leading out of Eastgate and the con-
cession of a right of way to the scholars through
the abbey grounds. The eminent ecclesiastical
architect, Mr., afterwards Sir Arthur, Blomfield,
produced a red brick pile in the Elizabethan
style of imposing aspect. Its internal arrange-
ments with stone staircases and narrow passages
are more suited to a monastery than a school ;
but the dormitories are light and airy. The
mahogany fittings of the governors' room and
master's study, and a board painted with the
royal arms and the line adapted from Lucretius,
Haec patrio princeps donavit nomine regem (con-
taining as we have seen a historical untruth, since
Bury was far from being the first school to
give King Edward the name of father), were
almost the only part of the old buildings
transferred, though long desks scored with
engineering devices of old boys recall the old
days before science was brought to bear on
school buildings and school furniture.
Half-way through the spring term of 1883 an
outbreak of scarlet fever caused the school to
be broken up. The old buildings were at once
abandoned. After a slight extension of the
Easter holidays the summer term began in the
new school, with about 70 boys, 30 of whom
were boarders.
ford, and a select preacher. During his time
the gymnasium and cricket pavilion were built.
The present head master, the Rev. Arthur Wright
Callis, M.A. Cantab., was head master of Wy-
mondham School, Norfolk, and was appointed
in 1894. He has seen added to the school a
chemical laboratory ; a carpenter's shop with
lathe room ; a ' tuck ' shop ; a sanatorium ; an
Eton fives court and the restoration of the
Rugby fives court ; and a cadet corps, of which
the head master is captain, attached to the
2nd V.B. Suffolk Regiment. He has adorned
the school with a gallery of the portraits of
over sixty distinguished old Burians. As a
Jubilee memorial, in 1897 a bust of the re-
spected founder, Edward VI, was unveiled by
the marchioness of Bristol. It already looks like
an antique owing to the perishable nature of the
stone of which it is made. A South African
War memorial, unveiled by Brigadier-General
Alderson, son of the old Burian, Baron Alderson,
records the contribution of 6 old boys to the
death roll of that regrettable episode. He has
revived the school magazine, The Burian, while
the opening of a preparatory department in the
school hall gives promise of a large contingent of
youthful scholars. On the appointment of the
present head master there were 27 boys in the
school ; this number was quickly doubled, and
an average of 50 to 60 has been steadily main-
tained. Within the last ten years the following
among other distinctions have been gained : —
17 scholarships or exhibitions at the universities ;
3 first classes and 7 second classes in the Cam-
bridge triposes; a first in 'Greats' and a second in
moderations at Oxford, and passes into Sand-
hurst, Cooper's Hill, and the Royal Naval
College.
The immediate needs of the school are more
endowment and more just appreciation and gene-
rous assistance and support from the Suffolk County
Council to this facile princeps of the schools of
the county in the past.
324
SCHOOLS
HADLEIGH SCHOOL
The unsuspected antiquity of some schools is
evinced by casual gleanings from the most unex-
pected quarters. Rash indeed would he be who
should boast that Hadleigh School is older than
Ipswich School. Yet if the evidence only of ex-
tant documents be concerned, we should have to
pronounce the former the elder by nearly a cen-
tury ; though as the first extant mention of each
school shows it as no new creation, but an
already going concern, we can, in fact, draw no
inference as to the date of their origin, except that
it was, in the one case, before 1477, and in the
case of Hadleigh, before 1382.
On 7 May, 1382, six months be it observed
before the foundation of Winchester College,
William Courtenay,1 archbishop of Canterbury,
in the first year of his translation to that see, in
his manor of Croydon, addressed letters under
his privy seal to his beloved son, Sir John
Catour, priest : —
Having ' due regard to the merits of probity and
other virtuous gifts with which we have learnt of the
evidence of trustworthy persons that you are dis-
tinguished we commit to you the teaching and
governance of the grammar school of the town of
Hadleigh under our immediate jurisdiction to exercise
the same and prefer you as master of the same by
these presents.
No earlier or later archbishop has been good
enough to record in his register his presentations
to this ancient school. So we cannot add the
names of any more masters before the Reforma-
tion, or indeed, before the Restoration, to that
of the Rev. John Catour. But we may safely
infer that it was of much older foundation than
1382, and that William Courtenay was not by
any means the first archbishop to see that the
grammar school of his own town of Hadleigh
was served by an efficient master. Nor is there
any reason to suppose that he was the last, or
that the school was at any time suffered to fall
into abeyance.
This school, which Carlisle, in 18 18, calls a
free grammar school — though he does not
vouchsafe the least information as to its origin or
his authority for the term — seems certainly to
have survived the Reformation, and enjoyed a
continuous life to the nineteenth century.
Before the days of Queen Elizabeth, John
Bois, who matriculated at St. John's, Cambridge,
in 1560,' used to walk 4 miles daily when
quite a child to attend the school.
Among other scholars of this school who have
been heard cf, were William Alabaster, author
of Roxana and the unlucky prisoner, first of
Whitgift, and (after his conversion to Roman-
ism) of the Inquisition ; John Overall, one of the
Hampton Court Conference divines, and bishop
of the diocese of Norwich ; Joseph Beaumont,
author of Psyche, and master of Peterhouse,
Cambridge.
William Hawkins — who from 1622 to 1626
held this post during the interval between his
B.A. and M.A. graduations, and was later on
curate of the parish — was a poet whom Milton
is supposed to have honoured by plagiarizing.4
The boys acted his Apollo Shroving, as well as
the dialogue Pestifugium, which was performed
before Cambridge runaways from the plague in
1630.
In 1626, Mr. William Avis, M.A., succeeded
him and was master until his death in 164 1,6
when Mr. Atkinson 6 followed. His having one
of the Grahams, of Netherby, in Cumberland,
as a pupil shows that the school then still enjoyed
a high repute.
In 1655, the only discoverable endowment of
the school, namely j£ioo, was given by Elias
Jordayn.7
In 1667, the master is found asserting himself
and obtaining an injunction ordering the teacher
of Alabaster's Elementary School ' not to meddle
with or claim any stipend paid to the teacher of
the Grammar School in Hadleigh.' 8
Up to the latter part of the eighteenth century
a boy was occasionally sent to the university
from the school. But in 181 8 it was 'enjoyed
by the lower classes of Humanity ;'9 and the
Commissioners of Inquiry concerning Charities
report in 1840 that it was 'kept in a house or
building in the Churchyard, but it has long been
discontinued.' 10
IPSWICH SCHOOL
Ipswich, which had a gild merchant in the
days of King John, probably had a grammar
school in days equally early. But the first men-
tion of one yet discovered is in an order by the
General Court of the Borough on Monday
before Lady Day, 1476-7, hitherto known only
in a late — and, as it now transpires, inaccurate —
translation in a book called Bacon's Book, a
collection of extracts from the corporation
minute books made by Nathaniel Bacon, recorder
and town clerk, temp. Charles I, printed in
Epis. Reg. Courtenay,
scolarum gramaticalium
1 Lambeth MSS. Cant.
fol. 106, headed ' Collacio
ville de Haddelegh.'
' Tibi regimen et gubernacionem scolarum grama-
ticalium ville de Haddelegh nostre jurisdiccionis
immediate committimus exercendum, teque magistrum
tenore presencium preficimus earundem.
3 Suff. Arch. Inst, iii, 112.
* Paradise Lest, viii, 40-7.
5 Reg. of Burials.
6\Reg. of St. Join's College, Camb. He was probably
assistant in the school a little earlier.
7 Char. Com. Rep. xx, 507.
8 Ibid. xx.
9 Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools, ii.
10 Char. Com. Rep. xx.
325
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Ipswich Legacies, a book on the charities of Ipswich, that the grammar school had no right to a monopoly-
published in 1747. The actual entry1 is: — of instruction of those attending song schools, or
Ordinance. [And it is ordered] that the grammar "J infants under 7, merely learning their ABC.
school master shall henceforth have jurisdiction and The reason for this was that both song and
governance of all scholars within the liberty and pre- reading were taught by song schoolmasters, some-
cinct of this town except only petties [little ones] times separately endowed chantry priests, but
called Apesyes and Songe, taking for his salary from more often the parish clerks, who were not, it
each grammar scholar, psalter scholar and primer may be remembered, mere grave-diggers and
scholar, according to the tariff fixed by the Bishop illiterates as they became in later days, but real
of Norwich, viz. for each grammarian, io</., psal- derjcs an(J men of th . j{ fae
tenan, M., and primenan, 6d. a quarter. humble) learning_sufficient at all&evcnts to 'read
This is an extremely interesting entry, the the lessons and help the priest to sing mass. In
interest of which is much diminished in Bacon's Surrey, in Lincolnshire, in Essex, and in York-
version, as he only gives 'excepting little ones shire2 we have seen similar orders. A salient
called Apes eyes taking such salary as by the instance may be found in the history of Warwick
Bishop of Norwich is appointed,' omitting the School about 1315, when the Donatists, corre-
reference to psalterians and primerians. The sponding to the ' primerians ' of this order, were
original passage gives us no less than five different assigned to the grammar schoolmaster, as distinct
classes of children undergoing instruction ; the from the song schoolmaster. The distinction
grammar boys, the psalterians, or boys learning drawn between grammarians, psalterians, and
their psalter, the primerians, or boys learning primerians is almost unique. The only other
their primer, all of whom attended the grammar mentions of reading the psalter as a distinct
school and were under the master cf that school ; stage in education is in a diocesan constitution
and, besides these, the pettits (petties), the little boys of John of Pontoise, bishop of Winchester, in.
not old enough to go to the grammar school, ^95 : — 3
but, as we should say, at a preparatory school,
and the songsters, or those attending the song . Parcntsf shou'd ^ ,ndukced t0 let ]he'r bo>* lea™
. 1 . 1 ' , , ., , j singing after they know how to read the psalter, so-
school, who learnt only song and possibly read- ^ ^ {h ^ ,earnt subjects^h '
>ng ; and, as the lowest class of these, the apsyes, not be obliged t0 g0 back to this (i e ^ging); 7QJ Jt
pronounced as absies, whom Bacon s mis-spelling having learnt it be less fit for divine service .
converted into ' Apes-eyes,' or Abecedarians as
they are elsewhere called — those learning the and in orders made in the case of the Bury
alphabet. St. Edmunds Song School4 in 1290 and 1370.
As usual, the information we do get only whets The tariff of lod. a quarter for grammarians,
our appetite for more. Why was this order made, was perhaps somewhat high ; for at Oxford the
and what authority had the borough court to tariff in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
make it ? Schools were a matter of ecclesiastical was Sd. a quarter, the sum paid by the psalterians
not of civil cognizance, and it was for the eccle- at Ipswich. At all events, 5 years later, on
siastical not the civil authorities to regulate them, Tuesday before SS. Simon and Jude, 1482, the
their fees, and scholars. We can but conjecture tariff was lowered,5 it being ordered that * every
that the Bishop of Norwich, the ordinary of the burgess living in Ipswich shall pay to the gram-
diocese, had decided some dispute between the mar schoolmaster 8d. a quarter for his boy and
grammar schoolmaster, established under some not above.' Apparently by way of consolation,,
charter of the crown and the bishop, and some it was also ordered that ' the said grammar master
chantry priests or parish clerks, as to the extent shall celebrate for term of his life for the Corpus,
of the monopoly of teaching enjoyed by the Christi gild,' and presumably receive the stipend
authorized grammar schoolmaster ; and that for doing so. At an earlier court in the same
the town council gave effect to his decision by year every foreign burgess had been ordered to-
ordering the townspeople over whom they exer- pay is. \d. a quarter to the gild. The school-
cised jurisdiction to carry it out. The decision master was an appropriate person to act as the
was in strict accordance with ancient precedents ; gild chaplain, for the gild furnished the yearly
that all those who were advanced as far as the Corpus Christi play. In 1443-4 John Caustort
primer i.e. Aelius Donatus' Elementary Latin had been admitted a burgess of Ipswich 'on con-
Grammar, must go to the grammar school ; but dition that for 7 years he would keep all the
1 Ipswich Court Bk. B.M. MS. Add. 30158, fol. 34. ' V. C. H. Surrey, ii ; Line, ii ; Essex, ii ; Yorks. u
Ordinacio : Et quod magister scole gramaticalis de 3 V. C. H. Hants, ii, 253.
cetero habebit jurisdiccionem et gubernacionem ' See under Bury, above.
omnium scolarium infra libertatem et procinctum s B.M. Add. MS. 30158. ' Et quod quilibet
istius ville, exceptis petytis vocatis Apesyes et Songe, burgensis infra villain Gippwici commorans solvat
tantum capiendo pro suo salario de quolibet gramatico Magistro Gramatico pro puero suo pro quarterio anni,
saltario et primario secundum taxacionem Domini id. et non ultra ; et quod dictus Magister Gramaticus.
Episcopi Norwicenis, videlicet pro gramatico x* celebrabit ad totum terminum vite sue pro gilda
quarteragii, saltario viij'' et primario v]d. Corporis Christi.
326
SCHOOLS
ornaments of the scenes [de les pagents) of the gild
of Corpus Christi and provide for their repair,
and make the stages for the players as well inside
as outside the town, together with the common
(i.e. town) clerk, under the supervision of the
bailiffs, receiving the money for the repairs and
for hiring properties {arraiamentorum), costumes,
and others things necessary for the said pageants
from the farmer of the town marsh and Port-
man's meadow.'
But meanwhile an endowment had been given
specifically for the school to make it free, and
relieve the poorer inhabitants of tuition fees.
On 2 January, 1482-3, Richard Felaw, who had
been eight times bailiff and twice M.P. for the
borough, in 1460 and 1 46 1, with wages at 2s. a
day, made his will whereby he ordained that his
mees beyng agayn the gate of the Fryers Preachers in
Ipswich be ordained to be for ever a common school-
house and dwelling-place for a convenient schoolmaster
to be there set and deputed by the ordinary of the
diocese of Norwich at the nomination of the
baileys . . . and . . . have the said mees for his
dwelling-place and schoolhouse freely without any-
thing therefor yielding.
This provided a new school and a master's
house. But besides that Felaw gave an income-
producing endowment. 'Also the said master
shall have to him and his successors a messuage
with a curtilage adjoining to the ' schoolhouse
on the North side of the same, and other lands and
tenements, that is to say, 3 closes in the town of
Whitton and within the lordship of Brooks Hall ; for
the which messuage curtilage lands and tenements the
master for the time being shall receive and teach all
children born and dwelling within the said town of
Ipswich coming to the said school, freely, without taking
anything for their teaching, except children of such
persons as have lands and tenements to the yearly value
of 20s. or else goods to the value of £20 to be sold,
a standard of wealth equivalent in modern
language to being assessed for income-tax.
Over that the said master shall with the said children
keep the mass of Our Lady at the north altar within
the said Fryers at six o'clock on the morrow daily.
The governing body to establish the will con-
cerning this article was to be the bailiffs of the
town with Felaw's executors. Felaw also by the
same will established a hospital or almshouse in
another messuage ' at the Town end at the south
part of the way there ' with two closes thereto
newly purchased. In i486 the corporation, the
bailiffs, burgesses, and commonalty, granted a piece
of their common soil under the walls of the friars
preachers to John Squier,1 clerk, apparently in
perpetuity, at a rent of 3*. 4^. and a red rose at
midsummer if demanded, the said Squyer [sic)
being bound to build on the said land ' a latrine
1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. p. 235 (i). Deed
No. 42. Bacon misread (or has been represented as
misreading) the name as Smier. ' Latrinam pro pueris
gramaticalibus.'
for the grammar boys of the said town.' This
entry shows that the grammar school was then
established in the house given by Richard Felaw.
John Squier 3 clerk was elected an inner burgess
[burgensis intrinsecus) on Thursday before 24 June,
I Edward V, i.e. 1483, and made treasurer the
same day, receiving as the balance in hand
j£ll lid. The will of a John Squire of
St. Albright's chapel near Ipswich is in the
Ipswich Probate office circa 1518.3
In 1488-9 Mr. Heed had succeeded him as
schoolmaster. He is probably Dominus Thomas
Heede,4 who on 25 January, 1478-9, as a B.A.
paid is. to the proctors of Cambridge University
for ' his common ' fee, and the Mr. Hede who in
January 148 1 -2 paid zod as inceptor i.e. newly
made master of arts, being then granted by the cor-
poration 20 marks ' to celebrate the Gild Day,'
i.e. the Corpus Christi procession and play. The
value of the endowment given by Felaw appears
from a lease of 3 closes in Whitton ' part of
Mr. Felaw's gift ' to Robert Gooday, ' rendering
to the bailiffs 30*. a year to the schoolmaster's
use.' On 14 March, 1 52 1, we find the gram-
mar school tenement and part of the garden
let to James Lilly for 20 years at 6s. rent, and
persons ' appointed to divide the garden.' It would
seem that the endowment was even for those
days insignificant, as £5 a year was not large pay
for a grammar schoolmaster, ^10 a year being
more usual in a place of any size or importance.
How entirely unfounded is the notion that the
monasteries did anything for general education
may be gauged by the fact that at this very time,
while the town and Corpus Christi gild were
supporting and regulating its public grammar
school, the priory of St. Peter's was being scolded
by the bishop at his visitations6 for lack of
learning amongst its own members. In 15 14
it was a matter of complaint that they have
no schoolmaster {non habent ludimagistrum),
and in 1526 they were ordered to provide a
teacher to teach the novices grammar [fiat in-
junccio de preceptore providendo ad docendos novicios
in gramaticd).
On Wednesday after the Conversion of St. Paul
(25 January), 1520,6 it was granted to William
Stephenson, clerk, to celebrate the service for the
souls of the ' brethren and sisters ' of the Corpus
Christi gild, and likewise it was granted to him
to keep the grammar school {ad exercendum scolas
gramaticales) for the coming year, and to enter on
the said service and into the school aforesaid at
Easter. So that here, as in many other places,
if the Corpus Christi gild had not for one of its
• B.M. Add. MS. 30158.
s Bk. vii, fol. 233. Ref. supplied by Mr. V. B.
Redstone.
4 Camb. Grace Book A, 127, 162.
s Visit, of Dioc. of Norw. (Camd. Soc. 1888, ed.
Dr. Jsssopp), 1 37, 221.
6 B.M. Add. MS. 2443;, fol. 1533 ; Hist. MSS.
Com. Rep.
327
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
primary objects the maintenance of the grammar
school, it used its revenues partly tor that purpose.
It is a curious thing that in each of the years
covered by the Court Books, from which this
entry comes, viz. 15 13-21, there is an entry
that the prandium vocatum le Corpus Christi dynner
and the ludus vocatus le Corpus Christi play
shall not be held this year. It looks as if the
good people of Ipswich were already tired of the
superstitious mummery long before the king began
to move in the direction of the Reformation.
William Stevynson, grammar master in the said
town of Ipswich, occurs as a witness to the will
of Richard Oke of Brooks Street in 1522.1
Meanwhile it would appear that John Squire
or Mr. Heed had the honour of superintending
the first beginnings of the education of the
Ipswichian who has loomed largest in history,
Cardinal Wolsey. His father Robert Wolsey
lived in the parish of St. Nicholas, and the cardinal
was born there about 1470, since the father's will
of 21 September, 1496, contains a bequest that
if Thomas my son be a priest within a year after my
decease then I will that he sing for me and my friends
of the space of a year and he to have for his salary
10 marks.
If not, ' another honest priest ' was to have it.
Presumably the son's priesthood was delayed only
by lack of the canonical age of 24. The fact
that Wolsey had gone up to Oxford at the age
of 15 as a demy of Magdalen College may per-
haps show that Ipswich Grammar School was not
at this time of the highest grade, but it may only
show that Wolsey was an exceptionally clever
boy. At all events, we may fairly infer that he
was an Ipswich Grammar School boy before
entering on the career that led to the summit of
fortune and of fame.
On 14 May, 1528, Pope Clement VII issued a
bull authorizing the suppression of the priories of
Rumburgh (Romeborow), Felixstowe, Bromhill,
Blythburgh (Bliberow), and Mountjoy. On
26 May letters patent of the king ratified a bull
for the suppression of St. Peter's Priory, Ipswich,
and the conversion of the priory into a college,
and on 31 May further bulls issued empowering
Cardinal College, Oxford, to transfer to Cardinal
College, Ipswich, the priories of Snape, Dodnash,
Wikes, Horksley, and Tiptree (Typtre) in
Essex. On 26 June the king granted the rectory
of St. Matthew's, Ipswich.
On 29 June the letters patent of Henry VIII
for the foundation of the college issued. Three
counterparts of the original — one with what is
evidently a portrait of the king in the initial
letter, beautifully drawn and tinted — are preserved
at the Record Office among Cardinal Wolsey's
charters. In view of these impending events they
have a curious sound. For in language that was
1 Wills in Ipswich Probate office. I am indebted
for this reference to Mr. V. B. Redstone, an assistant
master of Woodbridge School.
32
more appropriate in the mouths of Edward III
and William of Wykeham, they recite how it
was because of ' the sincere devotion and special
affection which he felt for the most glorious
Virgin, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
for the augmentation and increase of divine wor-
ship in celebration of masses, prayers, and other
divine offices and for the increase of the art and
science of grammar and the exaltation and estab-
lishment in this behalf of most holy mother
church, his bride,' that the king, on the 'pious
proposal and humble petition ' of his chancellor
the cardinal, wished to found a college in the
parish of St. Matthew, Ipswich,2 ' in and of the
number of I dean, 12 priest fellows, 8 clerks, and
8 chorister boys, there daily to serve at divine
worship, and of poor (egenorum) scholars desiring
to learn grammar, and 13 poor men perpetually to
pray for our good estate while alive and for our
souls when we have passed from this light.'
On 3 July Wolsey issued a commission in
almost royal style to John Higden, dean of
Cardinal College, Oxford, Lawrence Stubbs his
almoner, Richard Ducke, dean of his chapel,
William Capon, dean of the college to be erected
at Ipswich, Cuthbert Martial, afterwards dean of
Darlington, and, most famous name of all,
Stephen Gardiner, LL.D., to prepare statutes for
Ipswich College. On 6 July further letters
granted to Wolsey ' perpetual caretaker 3 of
St. Alban's Abbey ' the nunnery of Our Lady
de Pratis, otherwise Pray, in Hertfordshire, ex-
tinct by the death of Eleanor Barnard, late
prioress. On 9 July Wolsey was empowered to
grant St. Matthew's to the college. On 15 July
the foundation stone of the college was laid by
John Longlands, bishop of Lincoln. On 26 July
two sets of letters patent were issued granting
the lands of the suppressed priories of St. Peter's,
Ipswich, and the priories of Rumburgh, Felix-
stowe, Bromhill, Blythburgh, and Mountjoy.
On 28 July Wolsey executed his foundation
deed in pursuance of the letters patent, erect-
ing ' Saint Mary Cardynall College of Ipswich' and
converting the priory of St. Peter's into a college
to consist of a dean, &c, echoing precisely the
words of the letters patent,
' also ' of one Master Teacher or Preceptor and one
Undermaster in grammar whose duty it is to instruct
or teach the poor scholars and others whatsoever and
wheresoever from the realm of England coming to the
1 The licence in mortmain for the grant of lands was
for the largest amount then given, being up to ^1,000
a year.
3 This is the plain English. In ecclesiastico-legal
'jargon,' it is commendatory or holding in commendam.'
* Necnon unius magistri Informatoris sive Pre-
ceptoris et unius hypodidascali in gramatica qui egenos
scholares aliosque quoscunque et undecumque de dicto
regno Anglie ad dictum collegium confluentes in
rudimentis gramatice gratis absque pecunie vel alterius
rei exaccione debeant informare sive erudire juxta
ordinaciones fiendas, in villa Gippwici erigimus.
SCHOOLS
said college in the rudiments of grammar, gratis without
exaction of money or other thing, according to ordi-
nances to be made.'
William Capon, professor of sacred theology (a
variant for D.D.), was appointed dean or master.
On a vacancy in the deanery the priests, clerks
and scholars were to elect his successor ; and
vacancies among the priests, clerks or scholars
were in like manner to be filled by election by
them with the dean. On 20 August the king
inspected and confirmed a bull of Clement VII
dated 12 June by which, ' that the inmates of the
college might more quietly and freely give their
labour to learning,' he exempted it from all
ecclesiastical jurisdiction but that of the pope, and
appointed the 2 archbishops for the time being
guardians of its liberties.
There can be no manner of doubt that in this
foundation Wolsey was consciously and of set
purpose copying the foundation of Winchester
and Eton ; following the latter where it deviated
from the model of Winchester, particularly in
making the school expressly a free grammar
school, open, free of payment, to all comers from
the kingdom of England, whereas Wykeham had
expressly provided that besides the 70 scholars
only 10 gentlemen-commoners (nobilium) should
be admitted, and they were to pay for their board
and schooling, so as to be no burden to the college.
How far Wolsey intended to follow these pre-
cedents by uniting his college at Ipswich with his
college at Oxford, in the same way as Winchester
College sent its boys to New College, Oxford,
and Eton College sent its boys to King's College,
Cambridge, we do not know, as the statutes of the
college were never made. But it may be noted
that William Capon the dean was not an Oxford
but a Cambridge man, proctor there in 1509 and
Master of Jesus College in 15 16, amply beneficed
with prebends at Bangor, Beverley, &c, and pre-
centor of St. Mary's, Southampton, where by his
will 31 July, 1550, he founded (or refounded and
endowed) the still existing grammar school.
It is strange to observe that while Cardinal
College at Oxford far exceeded in size New Col-
lege, until that time by far the largest foundation in
that University, Ipswich College Grammar School
was not on so large a scale as the Grammar
Schools of the colleges of Eton and Winchester.
We know the exact details of what was con-
templated from a most interesting document
prepared by and perhaps in the handwriting of
Thomas Cromwell, the famous malleus monachorum,
who was Wolsey's business factotum in the
establishment of the two colleges : — l
Rate of charges of wages, comons and lyveres for the
Master, felaws, conducts, scolars and bedesmen
to be maintained in a College entended by my
lorde cardinalle grace to be established within
the town of Ipswich.
1 Chapter House Books, now called Exchequer
Treasury of Receipt. L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 4229 (8).
A President or Master ..136
12 felaws, prests, £4 each . 26 13
A master in gramer, taking to
his stipend yerely ... 136
A Usher taking for his wages
yerely 40
A second Usher and keeper
of the Scolehousc ... 20
To 1 2 olde men eche taking
for his wages by y ere I ls.\d. 8 o
There were to be 9 servants costing £ij 1 3*. 4^.,
and fees of lawyers and stewards ^5.
Under the heading of
' Comons ' were, the
Master's Commons . . 8134
12 'felaws' at l6d. a week 42 o o
' 8 clerkys and 2 ushers ' at
I2d. a week 26 o o
' Scolemaster' at 1 6d. a week 394
'The comons of 50 children
after 6d.3 a pece wekely ' .63 5 4
8 ' queresters ' at 6d. a week 10 8 o
which with servants at iod. and old men at 6d.
made a total for Commons of £184 $s. \d.
Under the heading of 'Lyveres' there was a
strict gradation ; the President was to have
5 yds. of cloth at 6*. a yard, costing 30J. ; the
schoolmaster 4 yards at 5*. a yard, the fellows
4 yards at 4*., the clerks 35- yards at 31. 4^., the
2 ushers 3^ yards at 3*., the 50 'chylderne'
3 yards at is. 8d., the servants at the same
rate, the queresters i\ yards at is. $d., and finally
the bedemen 3^ yards at 2s. The cost of all the
liveries was ^47 15;. The total charge of
the college was £345 6s. a year.
It will be noticed that the number of ' children,'
i.e. resident scholars, was only 50, instead of 70
as at Winchester and Eton, and the cost of their
commons was placed considerably lower, at 6d. a
week instead of 8^. to a shilling. So, too, the
number of choristers was 8 instead of 16. It is
noticeable on the other hand that the head master
has risen in status and pay relatively to the
head of the college. For while at Winchester
and Eton the warden got £30 a year and the
head master only £10 a year, at Ipswich the
head master got the same stipend as the dean,
£13 6s. Sd. The fellows were 12 in number
instead of 10, but on the other hand they only
received ^4 a year and commons at is. jyl. a
week instead of £j a year and commons at is. a
week.3 It may be that living had become cheaper
since the days of Wykeham and Henry VI,
though it hardly seems likely ; or that the supply
3 In Wodderspoon's Mem. of Ipswich this is quoted
as Sd. per week. But this would mean over £2 1 a
year more than the sum given.
3 This figure needs explanation ; probably it is for
part of a year, or the number of priests had not been
filled up.
29 42
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
of learned clergy had increased with the supply
of colleges and their pay had fallen.
When exactly the school was opened is un-
known. At all events it was in full swing by
i September, 1528, when Wolsey sent the
master of it a grammar for the use of the boys ;
while his elaborate orders for the curriculum
are dated the same day.1 These orders are
particularly valuable, as issuing from one
who owed his rise in life to having been
master of one of the then most famous schools
in the kingdom, that of Magdalen College
School, Oxford, and was no doubt intimately
acquainted with the later developments of
schools.
The school was to be divided into eight forms.
We know that both at Winchester and Eton
there were seven forms and at St. Paul's probably,
as now, eight. In Form I, the lowest, the boys
learnt only the parts of speech, our old friend
the Donat, and pronunciation. In Form II they
were to talk Latin and turn into Latin 'some
common proposition, not dull or inappropriate.'
They were to write Roman hand. Their books,
' if any,' for it would seem their work was to be
mainly viva voce, were to be Lily's Carmen
Monitorium and the so-called Cato's Precepts,
better known as the Moralia, moral sayings in
verse. In Form III they were to read ' Aesop,
who is wittier ? Terence, who is more useful ? '
— for talking Latin be it understood — and Lily's
Genders. In Form IV they went on in Lily's
Grammar to preterites and supines, and in
authors to Virgil, * prince of all poets,' whose
' majestic verses ' they were ' to give out with
sonorous voice.' In passing on to Form V,
which was probably the lowest under the
master, Wolsey interrupts himself to give
special directions that ' the tender youth is not
to be treated with severe blows, or threatening
faces or any kind of tyranny. For by injustice
of this kind the keenness of their intelligence is
often extinguished, or to a great extent blunted.'
We may recall the lecture on the same subject
given by Robert Sherborne, bishop of Chichester,
in founding his grammar school at Rolleston in
1524, who remarked that some teachers of the
day behaved more like madmen than teachers ;
and the stories by Erasmus of the brutal methods
he had seen adopted in some German schools ;
and may congratulate Wolsey, following Wyke-
ham, on his superiority to the stupid and reac-
tionary ferocity of one of Sherborne's successors
in the see of Chichester and of his own in the
see of York, Samuel Harsnett, who, founding
a school at Chigwell almost exactly a century
later — 1629 — actually directs the master to be
4 severe in his government' and to apply the
ferula if they do not speak Latin in school and
to chastise them severely for divers offences. In
1 Strype's Eccl. Mem. i, pt. 2, p. 139. Strype does
not say whence he got them.
a similar kindly spirit Wolsey, when he comes to
Form VII, says that a good deal of play should
be allowed and studies made pleasant. The
books prescribed are : In Form V, Cicero's Select
Letters; in VI, Sallust or Caesar; in VII,
Horace's Epistles, Ovid's Metamorphoses or Fasti ;
in VIII, Valla's Elegantiae, Donatus' Figurae,
and any ancient authors in the Latin tongue,
while Terence is to be studied with lectures
on the life of the day, style, and the like.
The veteran diplomatist wished the boys to
be taught precis-writing in English and the
method of writing essays or themes.
William Goldwin was the master who pre-
sided over the school. A Latin letter of his to
Wolsey of 10 January, 1 528-9/ tells him how —
everybody, especially at Ipswich, vies in extolling
his munificence, and how they rejoice in his having
been born there, who had bestowed such benefits not
only on them but on posterity. Especially they ad-
mired his judgement not only in having established
and adorned the college but in having set over it a
man whose learning and wisdom all praise ; and
whom the inmates of the college love and venerate,
who omits nothing which tends to the worship of
God in chapel or the good instruction of the boys
in school.
Goldwin renews his promises for his own zeal
and diligence, and —
as he has laboured not sluggishly hitherto he already
begins to see a more plentiful crop growing so that
he does not despair of the harvest. But it must have
time to ripen. What could be done in so short a
time that I have done as your majesty 3 may see. For
I have sent some writings of my pupils, not of all but
of some, who as they now write so I hope they will
soon be able to speak Latin (Italice) as they ought :
for no one ever employed a sower on more fertile soil,
so full are they all of good intelligence and disposition.
The flock hourly increase so that the house is too
small to hold the number of boys comfortably.
Brewer, in his short mention of this letter,
makes Goldwin promise that the boys shall learn
to speak Italian — a shocking anachronism. By
' writing Italian ' Goldwin meant the clear
round Roman hand he himself wrote, as compared
with the crabbed Gothic script of the day ; and
the Italian they were to talk was similarly the
' very Roman tongue ' which Colet spoke of in
the St. Paul's statutes, though Wolsey's and
Goldwin's ideas of where that 'very Roman
tongue ' was to be found had advanced consider-
ably since the days, only 16 years before, when
Colet recommended Sedulius and Juvencus and
other low Latin authors.
The same day that Goldwin wrote in 'Italian,'
the bailiffs wrote in English in answer to a re-
quest of Wolsey's that they would grant him
■ L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 5159.
* This address w.is almost a hanging matter, seeing
that until the days of Henry VIII not even the king
wa. addressed as 'your majesty.'
330
SCHOOLS
the old endowment of the school for the college
school, giving their cordial assent : —
Pleasith it your grace to be advertised that we the
balies portmen and enhabitaunts of this the Kings
Towne of Yppswich have lately apperceyved by
Master Deane of your newe College of Yppswich
aforesaid, that your pleasour and desire is that all
such Lands and Tenements as of old tyme have been
lymyted and appoynted to the Gramer Maister ther
shuld be mortised and gevene to the said College
toward the sustentacion of your newe Maister of
Gramer of your Schole ther and his successours nowe
by your grace ther appoyncted and ordeigned, And
that your grace wold have our ffree assents unto the
same. It maie please your grace to be advertised that
we welle apperceyve and considre the manyfold good-
ness that your grace hath shewed, as welle in the
ereccyone of the said College and gramer scole ther,
as also in many and divers other thingis that it hath
liked your grace to do to the welth of the said
Towne ; ffor the which we confesse our selffs unable
to make unto yor grace any sufficient Recompence.
But as towchinge your said request and desire, we alle
be not only content frely wit oon assent to accom-
plishe and fulfille the same, but also to do and execute
alle and every other thinge that hereafter shalbe yor
gracious pleasour to advertise us to do for the cor-
roboracione of the same. As knoweth our lord god,
we send unto yor grace, our especalle good and
gracious lord long lief and honourable to his pleasour,
and to the fulle accomplishment of alle yor honorable
affaires. Wreten at Yppswich the xth day of
Januarye
By yor humble and daylye bedemen the Bailies
of Yppswich aforesaid
James Hyll
Thomas Manser1
In pursuance of their promise, at an assembly
of the bailiffs, portmen, twenty-four, and some
of the commoners on 7 October, 1528, the cor-
poration granted to the dean and canons of the
Cardinal College of St. Mary in Ipswich all the
interest of the town in the lands in Whitton and
Ipswich which the town claimed by the last will
and testament of Richard Felaw or otherwise.
But, alas, the enlarged school was not of long
continuance. We do not know whether the 50
scholars were ever appointed. On I December,
1529, Sir Thomas More the chancellor and other
members of the House of Lords presented articles
of impeachment against Wolsey, some of which
were grounded on his proceedings in relation to
the two colleges. He was eventually found
guilty of incurring the penalties of a praemu-
nire for having on 2 December, 1523 accepted
a papal bull without the royal licence. On
9 July following the dean, ' William Capon,
priest,' wrote to Wolsey 2 that
Mr. Fayerfax, Serjeant, and divers other counsel and
the Lord Chief Justice all advised that the college at
Ipswich would not stand,
1 The name is wrongly read by Brewer into
Chanser. L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 5160.
J L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 6?IO.
as the grants had been made to Wolsey after he
had ' ronne in the praemunire.' On the 20th
he wrote again to say that the king had resolved
to dissolve the college by Michaelmas, and that
the lands had already been seized to the king's
use. On 1 9 September, 1 530, a commission sat at
Woodbridgeand gave a verdict that all the college
lands were forfeited to the king. On 4 October
Capon writes that he had received through the
Duke of Norfolk, now practically Prime Minister,
orders to dissolve the college ' retaining only the
subdean, schoolmaster, usher, and six grammar
children until the king's future pleasure should be
known.'
In an undated document,3 but presumably
some time in 1530 or early in 1531, there is
preserved an assignment of the forfeited property
amounting to ^2,234 a year in all, to various
persons, leaving to the king only £359 a year.
England. Lordships, manors, land, tenements, rec-
tories, pensions, portions and other possessions spiritual
and temporal there, now in the hands of King
Henry VIII, and by mandate of the same king as-
signed and appointed to divers persons following.
To the college at Oxford were assigned rents
and farms amounting to £200 a year, besides
the late monastery of St. Frideswide £22 J a year,
and the monastery of Littlemore, another £40 ;
in all £667 18*. 6J^. To 'the college of
Wyndesore,' i.e. St. George's, were given lands
worth £603 a year. Then came : —
Assigned to the College or school of Ipswich {assignata
collegia she schole G'ppezcict) : —
£ s. d.
Rent of manors of Felixstowe
and Fakenham with their
appurtenances 20 o o
Rectories, pensions, and por-
tions late belonging to the
monastery of St. Peter, Ips-
wich, as appears by the
valuation aforesaid ... 23 8 4
Rent of the rectory of Blaka-
more 66s. 8d., and Ginge
Margaret, £12, in all . . 15 6 8
Rectory of Marybourn ... 0134
59
The school was therefore intended to be left
amply endowed, even without the endowment
left by Felaw. But what exactly happened is
unknown and apparently unknowable. For
another edition of the same document4 gives
under the heading ' assigned to the school of
Ipswich (assignata scole Gippwici) ' in more detail
what was assigned. The items mentioned are : —
Rent of the site of the manor of Felixstowe with
demesne lands rents and farms in Felixstowe and
3 The reference to it is L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv,
6816 (5).
• Misc. Bks. Exch. T.R. 117, fol. 87.
33'
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
divers other towns £20 a year, including the rent of
the manor of Falkenham with rents marshland and
tithes of corn there : The monastery of St. Peter's,
Ipswich ; rent of the tithe of corn in St. Peter's parish,
£5 ; in Wharstow £j ; the rent of Thurston rectory,
£8 3/. 8d. ; and divers pensions in the town of
Ipswich, viz. from the parish of St. Mary at Key 40;.,
and from St. Clement's 40/.
But the total value of this is £43 os. \d. only.
If ever this endowment was effectively given,
the king at some time took it back, and gave
instead a charge on the crown lands in the
county. For it is recited in Queen Elizabeth's
charter to the school in 1565 that there was
a certain general and free grammar school (generalis et
libera scold gramaticalis) founded by our most dear
father consisting of a master and usher (magistro injor-
matore et hypodidascalo) to instruct the children . . .
within the town aforesaid and elsewhere within the
kingdom of England ; which offices of master and
usher are in our disposal and the said master and
usher have had and were to have for their wages and
stipends £38 13/. \d. a year . . . out of the issues
and profits of our manors lands tenements possessions
and hereditaments in our said county of Suffolk.
Probably this charge on the crown revenues was
by warrant to the Exchequer or of the Court of
Augmentations.
Somehow or another the corporation of
Ipswich recovered Felaw's endowment, for in 1 5 50
they granted part of the grammar school lands
to the chamberlains for 21 years at a small
reserved rent ; and in 1 5 5 1 x a lease for 2 1 years
at 6s. 8d. a year was granted by the bailiffs of
8 acres of land ' beyng parcel of the closes some-
times called the Grammer Scole Iandes.'
Foxe, the martyrologist,2 made a somewhat
violent attack on ' Richard Argentine, doctor of
physic,' (he took the M.D. degree at Cambridge
in 1 541) who was usher and then head master
from Henry VIII to the end of Mary's time.
Under Edward VI, he says, Argentine was a
professing Protestant,
but when Mary came to her reign none more hot in
all papistry and superstition than he, painting the
posts of the town with ' Vivat Regina Maria,' and in
every corner . . . till at length towards the end of
Queen Mary he came to London, and in this queen
(Elizabeth's) time began to show himself again a
perfect Protestant.
The Ipswich records give only the following item
about him on 3 June, 1552: 'Mr. Argentine
shall have 40;. for translating the charter into
English to be payed by moieties at Midsummer
and Michaelmas.' He published, while at Ips-
wich, in 1548, a school-book, ' Certeyne preceptes,
gathered by Hulricus Zuinglius, declaring how
the ingenuous youth ought to be instructed and
brought unto Christ.' In virtue of this and
1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. p. 2363.
' Acts and Monuments (ed. 1839), 222.
some sermons he finds a niche in the Dictionary of
National Biography.
There seems to have been some difficulty
about the due supply of masters after Argentine's
removal to London. This led to the granting
of a charter by Queen Elizabeth, which has re-
sulted in the school being wrongly dubbed
' Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School,' though
even the charter itself did not, as was usual, give it
any such title. The difficulty arose from the
appointment being vested in the crown, and the
consequent delays in getting a new master on a
vacancy. The charter dated 18 March, 1564-5,
after reciting Henry VIII's so-called foundation
as already set out, proceeds : —
And whereas we are given to understand that the
school aforesaid hath often been vacant by the death
or cession of the master of the school for a long time
before it has been provided with another master,
whence it has happened that the boys there at school
during the times of such vacancy have not been taught,
and have spent the time idly without any benefit, to
their great loss and detriment ;
besides which the salaries have been in arrear,
whence it has often happened that the said master and
usher have been the less able to stay there longer and
give their diligence in instructing boys in learning, to
the great prejudice and loss as well of the boys as of
the inhabitants of the whole town and contrary to the
pious and good intention of the aforesaid founder.
Moreover, there was no governing body to keep
the master in order :
Also the master and usher have often been remiss and
negligent in executing their offices in all things relat-
ing to their attendance and teaching of the children
and scholars, because neither the bailiffs burgesses and
commonalty nor any other our magistrates has any
right or authority to animadvert upon them, to the
great detriment of the scholars aforesaid.
For remedy of these grievances — which must
surely be considerably overstated, as they relate
only to a period of some 8 years — the charte*
gave the corporation 'after the death of out
beloved subject John Scot, who now possesses
and exercises the office of headmaster,' the power
of ' presenting a fit person ' to the Bishop of
Norwich ' being ordinary ' to be head master, who
on approval by the bishop, was to be admitted
by the corporation. They were also to appoint
an usher ' such ... as the master . . . shall
have adjudged fit to undertake the said office,'
and to remove such usher. Of the crown en-
dowment the master was to receive £24 6s. 8d.
and the usher £14 6s. 8d., and the corporation
were empowered to retain the money out of
the fee-farm rent payable by the town to the
crown. The corporation were also empowered
to make statutes with the consent of the
ordinary.
Somewhere about the same time the school
was removed into the ancient chapel of the
332
SCHOOLS
Black Friars, situate in what is now called
Foundation Street. Here it remained for some
two centuries till 1 763, when it was again re-
moved a few yards into the refectory of the Black
Friars, where it stayed till the demolition of that
building in I 85 I.
John Scot was still master on 24 September,
1587,1 when ' fower persons' were
appointed to view what reparacions have been donne
to the Grammer Scole by Mr. Scott and the same
to allow or disallow in part or in whole, and to
cause payment to be made.
This seems to have been on the retirement of
Scot, as in 1567 we find John Dawes master.
He held office till his resignation on 8 September,
1582. The corporation exercised their power
of making statutes in 'ordinancies made at a
Great Court held in the Moot Hall, in
1571':—
That the Master and Usher, with their Scholars,
shall, kneeling upon their knees, devoutly, every day,
say or sing such godly morning and evening prayers
or psalms as shall be written in a Table to be hanged
up in the Upper Part of the said School.
The master was to be there
by 7 of the clock and the Usher at 6, and there remain
and abide until n, and every afternoon to be there
at 1 of the clock, and to remain there until 4 through-
out the year.
That there be ordained in the said school for ever
seven Forms . . . and that the Scholars in every
Form during their school times speak Latin the one
to the other.
The Master and Usher every Saturday and Holi-
day even at afternoon ... to instruct them in Good
Manners and Behaviour towards their Parents, and
toward every other State and Degree.
That the school be daily swept and made clean,
by the appointment of Master or Usher.
Towards the latter end of John Dawes' time
his son was usher. On 14 April, 1580,
Joseph Dawes, usher of the Grammar Schoole, hath
surrendered up his place, and the bailiffs and portmen
with the consent of Mr. Dawes, the schoolmaster,
shalle elect another in his roome.
On 5 April, 1582, an exhibition of £4. a
year was ordered to ' be paid to Robert Dixon,
the town's scoller at Cambridge till midsummer
come 12 months.' On 5 December, 1580, it was
agreed by the corporation that ' on lettres com-
mendatory from Sir Christopher Wray Chief Jus-
tice of England,' John Smith ' shall be presented
to the bishop for his allowance of him to be
master of the Grammer Schoole.'
John Smith, an Ipswichian born, fellow of
Queens' College, Cambridge, who took his B.A.
degree in 1576 and M.A. in 1579, owed his
Bacon, Ann. 277.
recommendation from Sir Christopher Wray to
a letter from Foxe the martyrologist : — 3
Jesus.
Forasmuch as thys yong man for whom I wr; tc ys
not so well known to your honour peradventure, as
he is to me, by long acquayntancc and continnuance,
to signifie thcrfore to your Lordshyp, not only upon
privat affection, but upon truth and knowledge in
hys behalf: thys ys breifly to testifie to your good
Lordship that if the town of Ypsewich stand in neade
of a worthy, godly, and lerned scholmaster, for all
such indowments and ornaments requisite in such a
function, as trew religion, lernyng, diligence, and
practice, for these and such other gyftes of abilitie,
I know not how, nor where, they may be better
spedd than in receavyng thys Mr. J. Smythe, beying
hymself born in the same town of ypsewych, whom
both present occasion of tyme, and the good vocation
of Jesus Christ, I trust, offereth now unto them.
Certifeyng moreover your good Lordshyp, and not
only you, but also the whole town of ypsewych, that
whosoever shall receave hym for guydyng of theire
schole, shal doe no such pleasure to hym, as profvts
to themselves, and commoditie to theire yougth.
Dominus iesus tibi benedicat et tuis. Amen.
Yours in Christ iesu,
Lond. Noveb. 23. Joh Foxe.
To ye ryght honorable and hys very good Lord
ye Lord Chiefe Justice of England.
The corporation were taking time by the
forelock, for Dawes still remained master for
nearly two years more. On 6 April, 1582 —
Mr. Sterne 3 having surrendered the usher's place . . .
Robert Brown shall be admitted thereto soe a
Dr. Norton, Mr. Pemberton, and Mr. Dawes doe
approve him for his learning and religion.'
It was not till 8 September, 1582, that Smith
was formally elected master ' for life from
Michaelmas next.' On 15 October the garden
plot at the north end of the grammar school
was let to him with ' parcell of the tenement
next Shermans' at 6s. a year 'during his con-
tinuance.' On 19 December he was granted
'40*. for his paines and charges in presenting
certain publique pageants in joy of the queene's
coronation upon the last 1 7 of November.' So
that here as elsewhere throughout Tudor times
the schoolmaster was looked to for plays and
pageants.
Mr. Smith stayed no long time. On 19 Sep-
tember, 1585, his petition to the corporation for
the admittance of Mr. Bartley to be master
' upon the surrender of the said Mr. Smith '
was referred to a committee. The committee
apparently reported favourably, as on 19 April,
!Harl. MS. 416, fols. 135, 155 : printed by
Mr. C. S. Partridge in the ///. Scb. Mag.
3 Mr. Sterne can hardly have been, as suggested by
Mr. Partridge in the Ips. Sch. Mag. John Sterne
who matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in
1560, and took his M.A. degree at St. John's College
in 1568, being then Usher at Ely Grammar School.
333
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
1586, it was resolved that 'Mr. John Bartley, founded by public subscription and supported by-
master of arts, shall be presented to the Bishop rates, viz. a 'tonnage' on all ships coming to Ips-
of' Norwich for the injoying of the mastership of wich ; and including poor people, orphans, and also
the grammer schoole.' He gave place in 1589
to George Downing of Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, where he had taken his M.A. degree
in 1577. He was grandfather of Sir George
Downing, British Envoy in Holland during the
Protectorate, and owner of the property which
became Downing Street, and great-great-grand-
father of the founder of Downing College,
Cambridge.
On 29 September, 1594, Robert Brown, the
usher, was ' discharged for neglecting his place,'
and James Leman ' permitted to execute that
place till another usher shall be elected.' He
was himself elected on 11 April, 1595, and held
for nearly 10 years, when he became head master.
Leman was an old boy and exhibitioner from
the school. For on 24 March, 1583, it was
ordered that
James Leman, bachelour of arts, a poore young man
borne in this towne being indebted at Cambridge for
his commencement, shall have £5 paid out of the
towne money, and the same shall be deducted out of
Roger Barnys gift if by law it may soe be.
He took his M.A. degree at St. John's College,
Cambridge, in 1595. As usher he was paid 20 De-
cember, 1595, ' for speeches upon the Coronation
Day made by his scollers and other charges, ^4.'
From 19 July, 1594, to 17 May, 1599, William
Johnson of Pembroke College, Cambridge, where
he became B.A. 1597, M.A. 1601, held an ex-
hibition of ^4 a year out of Mr. Barnys' gift,
and from 16 July, 1696, 'Samuel Bird, sonne
of Mr. Bird, minister of St. Peter's at Cambridge,'
was given an exhibition from the same source of
^4 a year for five years.
On 25 December, 1599, Mr. Downing the
schoolmaster was given 20s. ' for making a speech
on the coronacion day,' meaning probably making
a play or oration for his boys to deliver. On
12 March, 1604, James Leman became head
master, but however successful he may have been
as usher he seems to have been a failure as head
master. The corporation tried to turn him out.
At least that seems to be the explanation of some
otherwise mysterious entries in the corporation
books : —
10 Nov. 1606 : The houses and lands which Mr.
Felaw gave shall be employed according to the gift,
and that a master shall be provided for the schoole.
26 Oct. 1607 : The treasures of the Hospital from
time to time shall receive the rents of Mr. Felaw's
lands and pay the same to William Awder, selected
schoolmaster, by halfyeres, without warrant from the
bailiffs.
The hospital was Christ's Hospital, Ipswich,
founded in 1569 in the vacant Black Friars'
house, just as Christ's Hospital in London was
in the dissolved Grey Friars. It was on the
precise model of its London prototype, being
a workhouse for vagabonds and disorderly persons.
In later days it also followed its model in be-
coming simply a charity school for poor boys, of
the grammar school type ; though of course the
Ipswich Hospital was of a lower grade.
Awder was of Christ's College, Cambridge,,
M.A. 1606. On 6 June, 1608, James Leman.
is discharged from being schoolmaster for his evilt
behaviour and unprofitable teaching and an agreement
shall be sealed of the house and lands in James.
Leman's occupacion and of the schoole lands.
The same day the late master ' Mr. George
Downing is elected master of the Grammer
Schoole for one yere to comme,' and this appoint-
ment was similarly renewed yearly till 161 1.
But on 5 October, 1608, we read 'Mr. Leman
shall have the last quarter's wages and 20s. out
of Mr. Smart's revenues'; and on 14 August
next year a committee was appointed ' to debate
and conclude with Mr. Leman of all causes in
controversy betweene them.' But it was two
years before peace came, and, on 30 October,.
1 6 1 1 , Downing ceased to be locum tenens. Then
was ' Mr. John Cottisford elected master, and a
writing of presentation of him shall be made to the
Bishop of Norwich for his allowance.' Cottisford
was of St. John's College, Cambridge, B.A. 1590,
M.A. 1594. The usher seems to have been
Mr. John Corry, whose stipend was increased
8 August, 1 614, to £20.
On 6 December, 16 16, apparently on a new
mastership, a general statement of the masters'"
pay is made : —
The Grammar Schoolemaster, Mr. Eston, shall have-
£30 per annum, viz. £24 6s. Sd. by the chamber-
lains as the king's stipend, ^4 out of Mr. Smart's
revenewes, and 33/. \d. out of Mr. Felaw's re-
venewes ; and Mr. Cottisford the usher shall have
^28 yerely, viz. £15 61. %d. the king's stipend,
5 y. \d. out of Mr. Smart's revenewes and £11 out of
Mr. Felaw's revenewes.
Eston was of Pembroke College, Cambridge,.
M.A. 1593. ^ Cottisford was the former
master who had descended to the post of usher,,
he need not have been ashamed to take that office
under one so much his senior as Eston, especially
as his total salary of ^28 was scarcely inferior
to the total of £29 13*. \d. of the master. St.
John's College Register records the admission on
5 June, 1632, of two Lowes, sons of the rector
of Tendring, Essex, aged nearly 18 and 19.
respectively, as having been at school at Ipswich
under Mr. Eston. But the Ipswich records, if
correctly quoted by Bacon, contain the entry of
the election of Mr. Clarke on 22 November,
1630, with Mr. Woodsett as usher. Since Eston
appears as sending boys from Botesdale School,
Suffolk, in 1633, who had been under him two.
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 1 630. 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 £zo 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, 1648,2 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 ne 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-
j uror.
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 1 66 1, 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 successcul master does not appear. He
sent no boys to St. John's College, Cambridge.
1 f.C.H. Essex ii, ' Schools,' under Felsted School.
2 Ibid, under Colchester School.
3 Diet. Nat. Biog.
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,
1 695-1 7 1 2, 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 17 12 to 1737, was
a son of the head master of Bury St. Edmunds
School, 1666— 1 703, 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 j£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 aLo
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 1 800. 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, 1 843
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.
4 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 Silvulae, a similar cento of English poetry.
Many a boy who perhaps profited little by the
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
120 under him. In the Daily Chronicle record
translation of the pieces into the dead languages of open scholarships for 1 90 1 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,
Ipswich about the rela-
hool 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
las 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 there was much stir
seemed a passport to a bishopric. At Cam- tions of the middl
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 s tne 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 18 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
Sch. Inq. Rep. xiii, 194.
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 j£8oo
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 jTi2 to j£l8 a year. There are 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 16^., 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 161 5 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-
17 14, who educated Richard Playter the future
master of Mendlesham.
In 1 7 12 Henry Falconbridge, LL.D., de-
vised by will3 real estate in Corton &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
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 1 791. 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 1 8 13, 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, and
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 1867 8 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, 1883, recognized its status as a grammar
school. The Rev. Percy Elliott Bateman, fellow
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.
2 337
4 The Dr. Philip who taught in Beccles 1793-6
was probably a private master.
5 Rix, The Falconberge Mem., 39, 40.
6 He published a Translation of Pindar's Odes in
7 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 232.
8 Sch. Inq. Rep. xiii, 121.
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 Christi 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 ; ' and Humphrey
Bysby gave an endowment of 35s. 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 same scoole was voide 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, 1556,3 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.' 4
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. I 509.
2 Leach, Engl. Sch. at the Reformation, 213, from
Chant. Cert. 45, No. 5.
3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep.x, 533. '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,5 who
by will 18 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,
161 4, directed estate to the value of ^200 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 1 7 1 7 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 181 7,
so that if it went on at all it must have been at a
5 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 18 or 20 free scholars receiving elementary
education and Latin ' when desired.' '
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
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 40J. 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,
management of the grammar school, like that of but a song and reading school — a not unusual
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
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
1548,3 when Matthew Parker, the afterwards
Mr. Notley had at one time 14 or 1 5 boarders, celebrated manuscript-collecting archbishop of
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,
1 41 4, 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 (konesti)
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. Rep. xxii, 140.
2 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 47 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi,
141 7 ; Papal Bull 16 Kal. Feb. 5 John XXIII.
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 £10."
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 ^10 a year, as before ; for at the re-settlement
3 Leach, Engl. Sea. 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 ^10 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
It proceeds —
And oone Sir Roberte Wyncome, clerk of thage of
xxx"e 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.5
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 1669, gave
by will a farm called Borhard's in Barnardiston,
then let at £lS a year, of which £1 5 was to go in
clothing poor widows, and ^ioa 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 1818 'classics6 had not been taught
here for some time past.' The school is not even
mentioned by the Schools Inquiry Commission.
missing, but from 1660 to 1674 and from 1706 T„ „t „„i~« tLa r^k„,;.„ r,„™~.v ;
. &' , . r /• 1 1 -i ■" rniist, unless the Charity Commissioners can
downwards, no pension of £10 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
1 8 1 8,2 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
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
those done to death by the reputed founder of the children lerne,' and after her death, to the
:hools, 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
priests of Melford, the west end being reserved
as a school.7
Ten years later, 1495,8 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 to sing 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
a grammar school due to the lords of the honour, that Sir john Clopton of Melford was thinking
acting rather as legislators making a new scheme
for a charitable endowment than as actual donors
and benefactors; for in 1445-6 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 prieste 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.
2 Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sen. ii, 532.
3 East Anglian Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No.
* Chant. Cert. 45, No. 24.
of when he bequeathed the residue of his personal
estate, ' two parts to go to sad priests and ver-
tuous to sing a trentalfor 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.'
6 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. Sch. at the Reformation 214, from
Chant. Cert. 45, No. 22.
340
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 1620.2 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 Cordeil
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 1 81 8,
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 built 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 exhtant chorhtae}
Before this date, however, grammar teaching had
begun outside. William Wood, dean of Sud-
bury College, gave by will, 6 April, 1 49 1, 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 \os. 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 Melford.
■ Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll.
3 Parker, Hist, of Long Melford.
4 Cal.Pat. 1377-81, pt. i, 413 ; Ibid. 1381-5, pt.
»<, 371-
5 Jessopp, Visitations of the Dioc. of Norto. (Camd.
Soc), 298.
6 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius 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 1 697-1 700, and
then Mr. Mabourn. In 1 7 12 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 18 14 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, I 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 181 J.s 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 tenens till 1 84 1, 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
7 1 641. 8 W. W. Hodson, Trans. Suff. Arch. Soc.
9 Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sch. 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 Books, No. 51, tell us that in 1632 the
' skoolehouse ' was built and 'glassed.'3
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 1 8 19 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 20 July, 1 561,
from Queen Elizabeth, founding it as a grammar
school for the instruction of boys living in Red-
grave and the neighbourhood. Already in 157 1
it sent up a boy to Caius College, Cambridge, who
had been educated in Botesdale for 5 years.
By deed 25 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, j^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.
2 Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stowmarket, 1 60.
3 Bun Pott, July, 1808.
4 Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stoivmarket.
5 Bury Post, July 1 808. 6 Ibid. Dec. I 8 1 8.
7 Ibid. June, 1820. 8 Ibid. July, 18 19.
9 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.1"
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 1 581.
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 1 63 1,12 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. Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No.
585 onward.
11 e.g. Robert Seare and William Flacke ; vide Foley's
Rec. of the Jesuits.
12 Mr. Easton was in Ipswich from 1616 to 162%.
342
SCHOOLS
left Bury to ' finish ' at Botesda'e. 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.2 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.3
1 Venn, Blog. Hist, of Gonville and Caius.
2 Min. Bk.
3 EastAngl. 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.6 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 1 5 7 1 this
endowment was increased by his heir-at-law to
£16. 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
2oi. 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 j£i6
was paid, and the school lost.
Mr. Hawiis was master from 1620 to 1 63 1-2
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
£100 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
1 7 16, 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.
5 Redstone, Social Life in Engl. Trans. Roy. His!.
Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 165.
6 Longe, Lowestoft in Olden Times.
7 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.2
In 1788 a new school building was erected
on the east side of High Street, and a further
change took place in 1 791, 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."
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
1 616 to 1623, and Mr. Granston (or Grand-
stone) from before 1667 until 1670. Mr.
Tatham was a successful master between 1 7 19
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.
2 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 180. ' Ibid. ' Ibid. xx.
Adams, M.A., 'an able and experienced master.'5
Elections to the foundation scholarships were
advertised at the same time as taking place at
their September meeting.
In 1 8 10 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 3*. 3^. of Gurdon's legacy and
other money yielding interest to the
amount of £13 5*. 3^.6
The Commissioners reported in 1829 that the
Rev. William Plumer, M.A. (appointed on or
before 181 7)/ 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 1869,8 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 xxxr. xd.
It. pd. for di. a Coke borde for ye skole
wyndows iij-f.
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;. iiij</.
In 1580 Lionel Throckmorton gave the
present school premises and lent £8 6s. 8d. 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.12
The ordinances of the school made in I 591 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 $s. a
child yearly. Vacancies among the Mildmay
I Ips. Journ. 26 June, 1792.
6 Char. Com. Rep. xx, 552.
• Ips. Journ. Jan. 1817.
8 Sch. Inj. Rep. 1 869.
9 Trans. Suff. Arch. Soc. iv, 76. 10 Ibid.
II Venn, Reg. ofGonville and Caius Col.
12 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 \d. 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. 2>d. 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 J^i'jQ"
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
1 63 1 ; in 1643 3 we find the name of Mr. Creed;
between 1658-60 that of Mr. Gill; Mr. St.
George came next, 1 66 1 -2, Mr. Denton in
1663, Mr. Browne, 1683-5.4
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.
JIn 1634 Henry Bamby 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. of GonvUle and Caius Coll. 5 Ibid.
6 Trans. Suff. Arch. Soc. iv, 76.
7 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 (1) 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 1 795-1 803 ; Mr. Page, 1 804-6. u
The advertisement of the vacant mastership in
1805 13 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
sDeed, 29 Sept. 1728.
9 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 237.
11 Bury Post, June, 1795.
12 Venn, Reg. of GonviUe and Caius Coll.
13 Bury Post, June, 1805.
11 Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sch. ii.
" Venn, Reg. of GonviUe and Caius Coll.
' Ibid.
345
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 1645.1 In 1595, the churchwardens
charged the town ' 45. 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 9*. 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 1 66 1 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, 1662,5 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 ^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.
Ordinances6 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 20*. 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
1 Calamv, Nonconf. Mem. iii, 291.
2 Churchwardens' Accts. 1 66 1.
3 Redstone, Bygone Woodbridge, 28-85.
' Ibid. i 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. Bee'ton
remained until 1670, when the churchwardens
paid out £2 8s. 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.9
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 18 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 BIyth 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.
7 Ibid. Stephenson was appointed to Ipswich in
1664.
8 Churchwardens' Accts.
9 He married Debora Holly de Dinnington in
Jan. 1690. Acta Bks. Ipswich Probate Office.
340
SCHOOLS
Although Mr. Pugh is mentioned as the
master appointed in the account or* 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.3 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 20s. 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-
1 ' Lib. Admis.' ' Ibid.
3 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll.
4 Bury Post, 18 1 5.
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 1 2 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.' 5 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 1 00 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, £2 a vear
under, and £4. a year over, 10 years of age.
Next year the school was full with 100 boys.
5 'Lib. Admis.' 6 Times, 21 Dec. 1835.
7 * Lib. Admis.' 8 Ibid.
9 Mr. Jackson was the only lay head master of
Woodbridge School.
347
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
Mr. Tate left 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 1 900. 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 1 61 2 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,
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, I 5 James I ; and built a Schoolhouse to be
for ever a benefit to Great and Little Thurlowe, Great
and Little Bradley, Wratting, Ketton/
The children were to be
n the English and Latin
and other parishes,
carefully instructed
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
jf20, paid quarterly, his usher receiving £10.°
Sunday attendance at church was compulsory ;
backward children were to be taught in church
on seats before the font. Mr. Moore from 1623
to 1 647 7 sent many pupils to Cambridge.
Mr. Billingsley was master in 1653, aru^
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
if not earlier, the school was in good working 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 1708, and
Thomas Crick, senior, about the middle of the
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.3
1 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. ,■ Bury Post.
Anniversary Dinner advertisement, Aug. 1795.
1 Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stowmarket.
3 Char. Com. Rep. xx, 593.
' Sch. Inq. Rep. xiii, 236.
5 Petty Bag. Com. for Char. Uses,
No. 24.
6 Codicil to Will, 2 March, 1 61 8.
7 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. ;
St. Join's Coll.
8 Com. for Char. Uses, bdle. 28, No. 24.
348
Reg. of
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 1774.1 The Commissioners
of 1826-9 found the school elementary,2 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 tne first master.
Mr. Wilson was there 1 65 1-4, Mr. Smith fol-
lowed during 1666-9, ar,d Mr. Poole in 1 672.*
In 1674 Mr. Thurbin paid 2d. hearth tax
'for the school,'5 and in 17 10 Richard Playter
became head master.6 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, 16 10,
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 1 61 3,
and his son was still alive and, indeed, only
forty years old in 1 62 1.8 In 1638 the school
was incorporated by Letters Patent of Charles I
as 'schola Grammaticalis que vocabit libera schola
grammaticalis Ballivorum et Burgensum Burgi
•de Aldeburgh,'9 but no mention is made of of £40 a year
Thomas Ockeley. The Account Bo ks 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 181 8,
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.
FRAMLINGHAM SCHOOL
By the will of Sir Robert Hitcham, 8 August,
1 636, 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, distant10 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,12
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
1 Venn, Biog. Acct. of Gonvllle and Caiu
* Char. Com. Rep. xx, 199.
3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 593, quoting fi
in Mendlesham parish chest.
* Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll.
5 Stiff. Hearth Tax Returns.
6 Educated at Beccles Gram. Sch.
7 Add. MSS. 26374, Inq. p.m. Suffolk, Th
-Ockeley.
8 Ibid. 9Pat. 13 Chas. I, 13 (2).
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
Coll. 1866 the Commissioners describe it as 'non-
classical ' and rank it with ' a somewhat inferior
m old deed national school.' 15
10 Debenham received .£150 yearly, Sch. Inq.
Rep. xiii. " Sch. Acta. Bk. in church chest.
13 12 Chas. II, cap. 12.
is 13 Green, Strangers' Guide to the Tozvn of Framlingham.
11 ///. Journ. Jan. 1 769.
15 J. M. White, Sch. Inq. 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 ^5 on 'Smith's close' for an
addition to the master's salary.2 On 12 April,
1647, Edmund Darby by his will bequeathed an
additional rent-charge of 40*. for the maintenance
of the school.
In 1719a 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.5
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.
• Will, 26 May, 1646 ; and Deed, 13 Apr. 1647.
3 Char. Com. Rep. xxii, 149.
' 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,' 9 and this an-
nouncement must be used to correct that of the
Charity Commissioners who say that Mr. Blowers
was appointed in 1777.10 He held the post until
1814.
In 1 814-15, 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 181 7 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 ; •*
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 10 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
8 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll; Reg. of St,
John's Coll.
9 Ipswich Journ. 1774. 10 Char. Com. Rep. xx.
11 Ibid. n Sch. Inj. Com. xiii, 2 1 2.
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 1 730-4, ' 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
17 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 3
and William Doll * 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 1812.6 The
Commissioners' Report 7 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 ^40. 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
jf 20 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 j£i5 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. Mathew 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. ofGonvilk and Caius Coll.
2 Bury Post, 23 Dec. 1773.
3 Epis. Reg. 25 April. " * Ibid. 22 July.
5 Bury Post, 18 Feb. 1822 ; Char. Com. Rep. xxii,
.157.
6 Bury Post, June, 1812. 7 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 1 81 6 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 20. 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 1796.14 He was
succeeded in 1806 by Mr. West, who, in 1809,
gave place to Mr. N. Todd. Mr. Todd's adver-
tisement 15 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.
13 Char. Com. Rep. xxi, 489.
" 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. 1796. Mrs. Potter kept up an
' academy for young ladies ' as late as 1 8 1 5.
15 Ibid. July, 1809.
35i
A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
' dilapidated state of the premises the business of
the School is unavoidably postponed to 31 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 20 January, 1632, a
messuage called Guildhall to be taken down and
rebuilt as a workhouse or schoolhouse, and an
annuity of jT20 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 1674.3 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.' 4 His salary was then £4. 10s. ,
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 1 688 compelled Robert
Theobald, grandson of the founder, to vest
the annuity in trustees, after which the school
was more regularly conducted. Mr. Brittan was
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.' 6
In 1 78 1 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 1 800, he resigned, and Mr.
Charles Clarke of Diss was appointed master.
In 181 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 ^50.8 Mr. Clarke, master in 181 8,
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 18 ft.
at its west end. The estate was, however,
falling in value, being let in 1825 at a rental of
master from 1708 to 17 13, or even later, and was £5 5, and it is therefore not surprising to find
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 172 1. 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.
3 Stiff. Hearth Tax Returns. ' Sir Francis Theobald
for the school 5/. empty.'
4 Com. for Char. Uses, 1688. Petty Bag Depositions,
xxi, 19. 5 Ibid.
352
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
Ups.Journ. .771.
7 Ibid, and Bury Post, Aug. 1796.
8 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.'
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. Henwood (1 900-3).
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 I904.3
ELEMENT J 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
1587, 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, 163 1) 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 12 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
£ioa 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, 17 15), bequeathed £100 to
1 This room
1897 ; St. Jam,
2
the dining-room of the
Budget, 26 Nov. 1897.
:hool
1 I am indebted to Mr. Webb for much useful in-
formation contained in the Minute Books of the school.
353
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 1 829, 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 £12 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 I 7 14
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
£50 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, I 718) 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 20
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 Scrivenerand Dorothea
his sister, by deed (17 March, 17 19) 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 school
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 j£io 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 £ 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, 1726),
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 1 731, 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 £5 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
^"40 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 ^'10 a year was paid to
the master of a school in Hundon for teaching
16 poor children.
Coddenham School. — Lady Catherine Garde-
man by deed (31 May, 1753), conveyed to
trustees land in Mendlcsham 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
Li 3s- a vear 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, I 745, 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 Creeting 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 J- 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 6£ 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 4.5 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
Air. 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 18 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. 1 83 I, 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.
353
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. ThomhilPs 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 ; 17^ miles in 1 hour 55 minutes.
The death of Sam Hibbs, which followed a fit at
Plumpton on 16 February, 1 864, 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
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)
sold his hounds, Mr. Jossclyn 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 87 6— 7.
A good run on the Thurlow side was from the
Black Thorns at Weston Colville to Brinkley
E. W. Greene jumping the fence and riding and on to Six-Mile-Bottom over the railway,
along the railway. Turning off the rail-
road hounds went through the Beyton Groves,
Rougham coverts away by Blackthorpe to Tin-
ker's Grove, P'ree 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
where, turning right-handed nearly to Dul
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, I 88 1, 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, 188 1,
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
on the worst of scenting days. An example of distinguished by good scent, especially that 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
theThurlow side was from Hart Wood ; crossing
the Bradley and Branches road half way to
[883—4. The first run of any note was on
1 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-
Branches Park, just touching the lower side of cell Grove into Monk Park, turning right-handed,
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
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
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
Wood, where they were stopped on the Thorpe over the Rattlesden road, leaving Howe Wood
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
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-
just marked as if at ground, when other hounds ham Thicks, where he turned left-handed by Hill
were heard running, and Mr. Brown, taking his Watering through the back of Stanton to Scases
lot quickly up the Thorpe road, joined the rest of Hole, along at the back of Walsham le Willows
the pack, and the hunted fox, jumping up, was nearly to Mr. Hatton's, then left-handed through
through Hastings Grove to Thorpe Wood West Hall, where they killed about a mile and a
run
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
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
360
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
1 89 1 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 1 goo 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 188 1 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 I 722. 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 1 90 1 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
1 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 1899,
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 1 901 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 the Tuddenham 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 190 1, 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 Eve 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 small
meeting was held in the following February,
locally owned greyhounds being principal I v
engaged. In February 1905 the meeting showed
still further improvement and received a still
wider range of patronage. The cup added bv
Mr. S. Hill Wood to the Oakley Park Stakes was
kept in the county, Mr. M. G. Hale's Happy
Fortune 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 16-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 1 904 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 16-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
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 1 878 High Seal ran up for the Ash-
down Oaks, and the duke was highly successful
later in the season at Newmarket, dividing the
the division of the Hall Farm Stakes, two of Champion Puppy Stakes with High Seal (beating
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 lion,
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 1 84 1 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
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
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. 6d.
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 £1 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,
Sir Thomas Gooch, for the following particu-
lars : — From 181 1 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 1 85 1 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 i860, 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 1 893,
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 ;
364
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 17,000 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
307-5 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,
1 ; various, 124 ; and 58,140 rabbits, most of
which were warrened. This gives a total of
81,877 nead f°r tne 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, 1 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
1834. 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 a:res, 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 10-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 hands
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 Scrapiania 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
cst.ues the men received a sm.ill sum for every nest of
pheasants' and partridges' eggs which were hatched off,
and by this means a modus vivendi was established.
The sale of game or game eggs was illegal at that date.
It was in I 839 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 Iron
better than the long wait for the driven bird. Th<
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,
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
d it was at least were at thjs ,jate past tne era Qf the njnt-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
Rendlesham, and Elveden ; but the birds, after living pounds of No. 5 and 6, were generally all that was
for a year or two in the wilder place- ■
wandered and were shot. When food is scarce
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
year or two in the wider places, generally 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 many ingenious 'safety' inventions
came out as a consequence of the numerous accidents,
Bucks Heath, at Rendlesham, when my own bagwas 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.
[39 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-
ihooting 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
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. colchicus),
as the China bird (P. torquatus) 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 1 8 1 8 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 Swaffham 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 181 1, 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 j 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, 1 900 : —
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
pilgrims.
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,
but 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
1904—5 they showed material increase. A few
annually fall victims to the telegraph wires which
line the Thetford 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
1 March, 1890, in the appendix to Emerson's
Wild Life on a Tidal Water, says :—
After twenty-five years' interval — that is since 1863
— only an occasional straggler of the Pallas Sand
Grouse1 has been obtained in East Anglia until
1 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
^ June two more were seen on the North Denes
flying to the north and none of these were secured,
and on 12 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 • ' F°r 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 Tears 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 18 I 3 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 History 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 Weeting, 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
1 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 ot
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 thcr 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 flouri-h 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, m;ike 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 stre:ches
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 off" 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 solelv 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 are 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 are
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 flving 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 Holk-
ham Lake in Norfolk and Tring in Hertfordshire.
It is strictly prcs-rved, and the writer has seen
2,000 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
Water, says : —
A black stork was shot on Breydon Water on
27 June, 1877, also the only specimen of the
Mediterranean black-headed 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 I 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
372
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
1 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,
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
and Mr. W. S. Everitt 1 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
3. 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-
3
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, Benacre,
Friston, Brantham, Flixton, Worlingham, and
Campsey Ash. Iken decoy is about six miles
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 1 880 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 2,150 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.'
8 Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey.
73
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 VVaveney,
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, 1,130; 1868-9, I>°45 ;
1869-70, 1,463; 1874-5, 1,104; 1 878-9,
1,533 ; 1879-80, 2,411; 1884-5, 2,084 ;
1885-6,953. Colonel Leathes of Herringfleet
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
being 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 15,000 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 Wilifowler.
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
1 Whitecaste ' track, to the west of Oulton Broad,
near Lowestoft. About 1 880 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 habitue
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 fivc-
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 dav"s proceedings. Large bags
were seldom procured ; the attraction of the
business lav 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-
tspus Candidas) in the Waveney valley, and shot a
pochard at flight on 1 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
Teally 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,
37.
full of large perch. Another well-known spot is
Tinker's Hole, whence perch of nearly 5 lb. 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
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 lb. 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
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 lew. 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
6s. 8d.; in 1560 the penalty was increased to
1 ox. 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 1 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, 1 715, was taken
at Thetford a sturgeon weighing 13 st. 10 lb. ;
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 7 ft. 8 in. long, weighed 13 st. 10$ lb.,
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
made statutes regulating the use of nets on the of which are more or less open estuaries. 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,
11 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.
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
15 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 lb. A deep swim known as
Sudbury Reach abounds with jack and roach, the
former running from 41b. to 18 lb. 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
ill good for jack and roach. Some fine per
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
are taken, but these fish are not nearly so plentiful of railways the marshmen and wherrymen found
as they were about 1887; of late, however, ready markets away from home, more especially
there has been a decided improvement, thanks to during Lent, for any quantity they could send.
Accordingly the waters were denuded with the
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 lb. per rod is an average capture, whilst
400 lb. to 500 lb. for a boat is not a record ;
6 lb. 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,
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
and jack hawked about the streets of the Suffolk defrayed out of the funds of the association.
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.
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
Nicholas Everitt, Broadland Sport.
311
4S
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 by rod and
line for any trout between 10 September and
25 January inclusive, or for any other kind of
iish between I March and 30 June inclusive,
Mnelts, 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, with 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 12 in. But
-.0 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 12-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 in three
days, 517 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
378
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 gentlv
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 iit
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 bv
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 a
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 iit
bloom ; then the best bait to use is potato paste.
Bream are very numerous ; they migrate in vase
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 lb.
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 lb. 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 lb. to 3 lb. being quite common.
Rudd run larger. These spawn in shoals in
1 Rev. Rich. Lubbock, Observations on 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 lb. A pike exceeding 15 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 '
(U/va lactuca), 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 11^ 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 £2$ and the entrance
money.
380
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
Reference to the Racing Calendar of 1 804
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 200 sovereigns if demanded ;
heats 2\ miles. Captain Hawk's b. m. by Com-
mander of Windlestone carrying 9 st. 4 lb. beat
Mr. Golding's gr. m. Coaxer carrying 7 st. 3 lb.
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 lb.
beat Mr. Williams's bay filly by Pot-8-os carrying
6 st. II lb. 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 1 8 1 6 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 off the other two events.
The dailv race under Jockey Club Rules was
supplemented by races for ponies, gallowavs, 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 18S0 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 will arise.'
This rather significant remark mav 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 ;
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, i860, we find that
the stakes amounted to £864 in the two days.
In 1 86 1 the races took place on 5 and 6 Jul)',
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 j£ioo. 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. Steeplechasing had been started in
1875 in conjunction with flat racing, but races
under Jockey Club rules — the Suffolk Handicap
and the Royal Plate of 200 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 100 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
have been but poorly supported; in 1804, 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 SufHeld'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 addition
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 £$. 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 26th, between the hours of
12 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-
38a
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 1 3 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
j 2 and 3 on the day of running.
The drum was the signal to clear the course
before racing commenced. Robert Blomeficld,
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 seashore 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 Ken-
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.
1 Blackheath, Wimbledon, Westward Ho !, Hoylake,
and Alnwick.
The present course is at times greatly over-
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 £600, 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 ' 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 14 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. Pelling, 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 Anglia.
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 TLngland 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 i860. 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 an
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 lb. 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 o.r. As recently as 1842 the lambs on one of the
best sheep farms in East Suffolk were sold at iij. 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 40J. 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 18 12 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 10/., and £5 per acre.
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 '
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.
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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 $s. 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.
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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
39i
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 nockmaster.
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
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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 ioo 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
3 j. 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
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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
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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
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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.
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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 40J. a quarter, the
corn-grower was ready to lend his skill and his capital to grow it; but wheat
at 28s. 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 Ayiimals. — 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 atid 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.2 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 is, and where to find him.
3 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.
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 5i
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 183 1 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 12s. 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, Plantagent 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 lilvae 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 160
swine; another manor of doubtful identification 120 ; Worlingworth, Pakenham and another
100 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 domini 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 12s. 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
3;. 6d. 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, 301. The Great Wood or Park of Elmsett was then of 260 acres;
from it there were cut 600 faggots a year, valued at 8d. 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' dm'),
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 2d. each for damage done by their beasts in the lord's
woods.* 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 pannagio porcorum*
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-
8 Parkin, Hist, of Melford, 229, 240, &c. 4 Court R. (P.R.O.), %%*.
'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.
6Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), l±±9, 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 tam in piano.' Dugdale,
Mon. (ed. 1), i, 886.
8 A beautiful etching of this celebrated oak is given in Strutt's Silva Britannica (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.2 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 Blything 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 Blything 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, 1 65 1 6; 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. 10s. 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
'Exch. Spec. Com. Nos. 2230, 2231, 2234, 2235. Unfortunately these documents are mostly
illegible.
* Loder, Hist, of Framlingham (1798), 329. 3 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, 118-22, as well as short particulars of two or three of earlier
date not mentioned above.
5 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, vol. xlv, Nos. 7, 91.
6 SP. Dom. 1 65 1, xvii, 57.
7 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cxlv, 25. 8 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.'
When John Kirby first published The Suffolk Traveller,3 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 9/. 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.*
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, Chevington, 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 Hall 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.
Helmingham 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, clxxviii, 38.
' First 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.
4 Whitaker, Deer Parks, 143.
406
FORESTRY
year long, besides other curiosities.' ' 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 150 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
<ireat 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 21 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 west 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 ofThetford, 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 167 1 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. 31st 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, consists of 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. 1662), 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.
' Ibid. 110. * 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 1 794, 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 AH
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 17 15, 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
Reed as given by Mr. Clement Higham, being tame and
whight, j .......
Reed out of Mr. Jemegan his Parke, one whight doe, j
Reed out of Mr. Crane his Parke, viij ....
Remained as in the year ended as before, lxx .
Whereof
Killed and spent in the house in Chrysmas, ij \
Given unto Mr. Clement Higham, ii . .
Morts, with one lost, xj . . . I
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 Hengrave (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 34,771 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
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