A COMPREHENSIVE
HISTORY OF NORWICH
INCLUDING
A SURVEY OF THE CITY:
AND ITS PUBLIC BUILDINGS;
CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL HISTORY:
INCLUDING COMPLETE LISTS OF MAYORS AND SHERIFFS,
AND NOTICES OF EMINENT CITIZENS;
POLITICAL HISTORY:
INCLUDING COMPLETE ELECTION RETURNS AND LISTS OF MEMBERS
OF PARLIAMENT;
RELIGIOUS HISTORY:
INCLUDING MEMOIRS OF BISHOPS AND DEANS—RISE AND
PROGRESS OF NONCONFORMITY;
COMMERCIAL HISTORY:
INCLUDING THE SUBSTANCE OF PRIZE ESSAYS ON THE MANUFACTURES
AND TRADE OF NORWICH.
By A. D. BAYNE.
JARROLD AND SONS, 12, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON;
AND LONDON AND EXCHANGE STREETS, NORWICH.
MDCCCLXIX.
PREFACE.
Some account of the sources of information should be given in the preface to a history, in order to assure the reader of the authenticity of the narrative. No one can have turned over a bookseller’s catalogue of local historical publications without observing how few they are in comparison with the extent and importance of the particular district in view. The fact is, that most of the productions of the early authors are either very scarce or are entirely out of print. No city or county can boast of so many industrious topographers and antiquarians as Norwich and Norfolk. If we arrange them in alphabetical order, we have:—Ames, Beatniffe, Blomefield, P. Browne, Brettingham, Sir Thomas Browne, Chambers, Cory, Cotman, Dixon, Eldridge, Sir Richard Elles, Forby, Sir John Fenn, Sir Andrew Fountaine, R. Fitch, Gibson, Gillingwater, Hudson Gurney, Green, Gunn, Gurdon, Harrod, Ives, Kent, J. Kirkpatrick, Le Neve, Lawrence, Mackerell, Manship (both father and son), Marshall, Tom Martin, Matchett, Neville, Nashe, Parkin, Prideaux, Quarles, Richards, Sir H. Spelman, Sir John Spelman, Clement Spelman, Swinden, Dawson Turner, Wilkins, Watts, Wilkinson, and the Woodwards (father and son). Most of these, however, were antiquarians, and contributed more to archæology and topography than to history.
Mr. J. Kirkpatrick, in the early part of the eighteenth century, was the first who formed the plan of a regular historical narrative. He spent the greater part of his life in making researches and collecting materials for a history of Norwich; and he wrote an immense quantity of matter in thick folio volumes, the whole of which he left in MS. to the old corporation. They comprised—
No. 1. A thick folio volume of the Early History and Jurisdiction of the City; date 1720.
No. 2. A similar folio volume, being an account of the Military State of the City, its walls, towers, ponds, pits, wells, pumps, &c.; date 1722.
No. 3. A thick quarto.
No. 4. Several large bundles, foolscap folio; Annals of Norwich.
No. 5. A fasciculus, foolscap folio; Origin of Charities, and Wills relating thereto, in each parish.
No. 6. Memorandum books of Monuments.
No. 7. Ditto of Merchants’ Marks.
No. 8. Ditto of Plans of Churches.
No. 9. Paper containing Drawings of the City Gates, and a plan of Norwich.
No. 10. Drawings of all the Churches.
No. 12. A MS. quarto volume of 258 pages; the first sixty devoted to notes upon the Castle at Norwich, the remainder to an account of Religious Orders and Houses, and the Hospitals of the City.
After the new corporation was constituted, all Kirkpatrick’s MSS. were dispersed into different hands. The late Hudson Gurney, Esq., obtained possession of some of them, and published a very limited number of copies of those relating to the castle and to religious houses. Mr. Dawson Turner edited the last-named MS. (No. 12), and it was printed in 1845. He says that all the other MSS. had disappeared, but that they were safe in the custody of the old corporation, thirty years before (1815), when Mr. De Hague held the office of town clerk.
Fortunately, Mr. Kirkpatrick was the contemporary of the Rev. F. Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, who appreciated his researches, and bore this testimony to his merits:—
“Mr. Kirkpatrick was a most laborious antiquary and made great collections for the city of Norwich, of which he published a large prospectus. In pursuing his studies, he worked with Peter Le Neve, Norroy; and as they were very intimate, they mutually exchanged their collections for this place, Mr. Kirkpatrick giving all his draughts to Mr. Le Neve, and Mr. Le Neve giving his to Mr. Kirkpatrick. To the labours of both these gentlemen I am exceedingly obliged, and did I not acknowledge my obligations in this public manner, I should inwardly condemn myself as guilty of the highest ingratitude.”
Mr. Blomefield was, indeed, indebted to his deceased friend for the most valuable parts of his History of Norwich, published in 1742. It is the only part of his work which can be properly called history, the rest consisting of topographical descriptions of different hundreds and parishes in Norfolk. Mr. Blomefield began to print his “History of Norfolk” at his own press in his own house at Fersfield, in 1739, by subscription, and intended to publish a list of his subscribers when the whole was finished. During his life the History came out in monthly folio numbers; but he died when he had proceeded as far as page 678 of the third volume. This volume was completed by the Rev. Charles Parkin, rector of Oxburgh, Suffolk; and after his death was printed in 1769 by Whittingham, bookseller at Lynn, by whom the “Continuation” was published in two more volumes in 1777, these two volumes being very inferior to the previous three. Blomefield’s work is of course the chief source of information respecting Norwich, and it has been republished in many abridged forms, the best edition being that printed by J. Crouse for M. Booth, bookseller, in 1781, in ten vols., the last relating to Norwich. Many smaller abridgements have also been published, carrying on the narrative to a later date.
The most reliable authority for the whole of the eighteenth century is the “Norfolk Remembrancer,” compiled with great care by Mr. Matchett. R. Fitch, Esq., published a very full and accurate account of the Old Walls and Gates from J. Kirkpatrick’s MSS., illustrated with views by the late John Ninham. B. B. Woodward, Esq., F.S.A., librarian of the royal library at Windsor Castle, has also been a contributor to the history of the old city, but as yet we have only brief reports of his lectures “On Norwich in the Olden Time,” as published in the local journals. He directed attention to the purely fictitious accounts of the origin of the city to be found in the early historians, who drew in all good faith on their fertile imaginations. He gave a much more probable account, and described the
The chapters on the “Rise and Progress of Nonconformists in Norwich” in this history, are the first given in any work of the kind, and supply information which will readily account for the political condition of the city. From a few hundreds in the seventeenth century, the Nonconformists have so greatly increased that now they number many thousands, and have at the same time attained to considerable wealth and influence.
The chapters on Trade and Commerce supply a new feature in Norwich history, and are very important to men of business. The information on this head, including the history of the Manufactures and of the Wholesale Trade of the city, is for the most part taken from Essays, by the compiler, to which the prizes were awarded at the Norwich Industrial Exhibition of 1867.
The great length of the secular narrative must suffice as an apology for the brevity of the ecclesiastical details, which occupy the greater portion of Blomefield’s work. A full history of the churches in Norwich would fill many volumes; indeed, Kirkpatrick’s account of the Old Religious Houses occupies as many as 300 pages. But the general reader would not be interested by such details.
A full history of Norwich, up to the latest date, has long been wanted, and the present compiler has availed himself of all sources of information, but he has been obliged to compress a great deal into a small compass. He has introduced many notices of eminent citizens of every period, including bishops and ministers of all denominations, who exercised much influence in their day and generation.
Accurate views of local history afford the clearest insight into the state of society at different periods. Thus the records of Norwich Castle prove that nearly all the land in the country was either assigned to bear, or was chargeable with, the castle guard of some castle or other in ancient times. The castles being fortresses were the centres around which large towns arose, and where people most congregated for protection in lawless ages. The whole island was one vast camp during the feudal period. Monasteries were the only places of refuge for travellers, or for the destitute poor, and when the religious houses were dissolved, an entire change took place in the state of society.
Local history, properly understood, is not a dry register of events, but leads from particular conclusions to higher generalisations. The predominance of certain ideas at different times produced all the events of those periods. Norwich men took an active part in all the great movements of the day,—in the Reformation, the Civil Wars, the Commonwealth, and all the agitations of more modern times. Therefore, the story of the city is interesting and important in every period, and it is identified with the whole course of events in East Anglia. Indeed, it is difficult to separate the history of Norwich, the capital of East Anglia, from that of the whole district.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGES
Survey of Norwich. Rise and Progress of the City—The Modern City—Public Buildings—Parishes
9–115
PART II.
Chapter I.
The Ancient City—Old Walls and Gates—Desecrated Churches and Chapels—Monastic Institutions—Monumental Brasses
116–145
Chapter II.
The Aborigines
146–151
Chapter III.
Norwich in the Roman Period—The Venta Icenorum
152–157
Chapter IV.
Norwich in the Anglo-Saxon Period
151–161
Chapter V.
Norwich under the Danes
162–164
Chapter VI.
Norwich in the Norman Period
165–168
Chapter VII.
Norwich in the Twelfth Century
169–172
Chapter VIII.
Norwich in the Thirteenth Century
173–176
Chapter IX.
Norwich in the Fourteenth Century
177–182
Chapter X.
Norwich in the Fifteenth Century
183–187
Chapter XI.
Norwich in the Sixteenth Century—Bilney’s Martydom—Dissolution of the Monasteries—Kett’s Rebellion—Queen Mary—Queen Elizabeth—Eminent Citizens of the Period
188–211
Chapter XII.
Norwich in the Seventeenth Century—The Civil Wars—Eminent Citizens
212–240
Chapter XIII.
Nonconformity in Norwich—The Independents—The Baptists—The Methodists
241–257
Chapter XIV.
Social State of Norwich from Fourteenth to Eighteenth Centuries—Trade Regulations, &c.
258–267
Chapter XV.
Norwich in the Eighteenth Century—Social State—Nonconformity—Eminent Citizens—Norwich in the Nineteenth Century
268–356
Chapter XVI.
History of the Norwich Navigation
357–365
Chapter XVII.
Leading Events of the Nineteenth Century
366–378
Chapter XVIII.
The Reform Era—Commission of Enquiry respecting the Old Corporation—The Election of Stormont and Scarlett
379–404
Chapter XIX.
The Reign of Queen Victoria—Leading Events
405–415
Chapter XX.
The Murder of Isaac Jermy, Recorder of Norwich
416–428
Chapter XXI.
The Census of 1861—New Poor Law Act—Visit of Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Queen of Denmark—The New Drainage Scheme
429–454
Chapter XXII.
History of the Triennial Musical Festivals
455–474
Chapter XXIII.
Eminent Citizens of the Nineteenth Century
475–540
Chapter XXIV.
Norwich Artists in the Nineteenth Century
541–551
PART III.
Chapter I.
Rise and Progress of the Manufacture of Textile Fabrics, and Present State of the Trade
552–594
Chapter II.
Trade and Commerce of the City—Banks and Banking—Wholesale Producers and Dealers—Cattle and Corn Trade—Traffic by Rail and Water, &c.
595–633
PART IV.
Chapter I.
Political History—Elections for the City—List of Members of Parliament
634–683
Chapter II.
Political History continued—Lists of Mayors, Sheriffs, Stewards, and Recorders
684–705
Chapter III.
Ecclesiastical History—Origin of the See—Lists of Bishops, Deans, and Clergy—Dignitaries of the Diocese—Nonconformist Ministers
706–721
Chapter IV.
Religious, Educational, and Benevolent
722–735
Appendix.
City Authorities and Officials, &c.
736–738