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.