Norfolk Annals
Chapter 103 : 4.-Mr. Charles Gill and Miss Vining, two popular performers with the Norwich Company,

4.-Mr. Charles Gill and Miss Vining, two popular performers with the Norwich Company, eloped from the city. "The attachment between the parties has been of long standing, but it was opposed by the young lady's friends, on account of the disparity of years." Mr. and Mrs. Gill appeared at Yarmouth Theatre on September 8th.

-Died at North Walsham, Captain Thomas Withers, R.N., aged 73. He entered the service in 1793, joined Nelson in the Agamemnon, which formed part of Lord Hood's fleet at the occupation of Toulon, and took part in the reduction of Bastia and Calvi, and in the several actions in which the s.h.i.+p was engaged. In 1796 he joined the Captain, and in the following year, in the battle off Cape St. Vincent, had the distinguished honour of commanding the division which boarded the San Nicolas, and from that s.h.i.+p the San Josef. He was made lieutenant next day, and soon after appointed to the Terrible, under the command of Sir Richard Bickerton, and served during the expedition against the French in Egypt. In April, 1803, he was appointed to the command of the Expedition (44 guns), and was chiefly engaged in the Mediterranean until 1804. In 1805 he accepted employment under the Transport Board, and in 1809 received post rank.

8.-A whirlwind occurred at Blakeney. In its course it carried away several yards of a wall two feet thick, took from some smacks the hatchings, which were blown upon the marshes, and blew a man off the seat of a thres.h.i.+ng machine. The stable at the White Horse was unroofed, and a quant.i.ty of Mr. Temple's hay was blown to the distance of a mile.

15.-Arising out of an a.s.sault case, a curious story about witchcraft was told to the Norwich magistrates. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis alleged that a Mrs.

Bell had bewitched them three days after Tombland Fair, and they had been bewitched ever since. "Mrs. Curtis saw Mrs. Bell light a candle and fill it with pins. She then put some red dragon's blood, with some water, into an oyster-sh.e.l.l, and having repeated a form of words over it, her (Mr. Curtis') husband's arms and legs were set fast, and when he lay down he could not get up again without somebody helping him." The man made a similar statement, and said that to the dragon's blood and water Mrs.

Bell added some parings of her own nails, put the mixture over the fire, and muttered an incantation.

19.-A young man named Robert Smithson "wagered that he would run over the nine bridges in Norwich in twenty-five minutes." He performed the distance, nearly four miles, in twenty-two minutes.

24.-Died at Shotley Parsonage, Ipswich, aged 91, the Rev. Samuel Forster, D.D., formerly head-master of Norwich Free Grammar School. On resigning, in 1811, Dr. Forster became private tutor to the son of the Marquis of Bristol. Sir Edward Berry, Nelson's flag captain at the Battle of the Nile, married the doctor's eldest daughter.

29.*-"In the melancholy list of pa.s.sengers on board the Pegasus, lost off the Fern Islands on July 19th, we are sorry to observe the name of Mr.

Elton, for many years a favourite tragedian in the Norwich Company, and latterly holding a most respectable station on the London boards."

-The a.s.size week performances at Norwich Theatre opened with the appearance of Miss Montague, of Drury Lane, as Juliet. On July 31st Miss Clara Novello, Miss Sybella Novello, Mr. Manvers, and Mr. Stretton, of Drury Lane, performed in Belleni's opera, "Norma," and in "Acis and Galatea"; and on August 7th Madame Celeste and Mr. Webster commenced a four nights' engagement in "St. Mary's Eve," "The Woman Hater," and "The French Spy."

AUGUST.

6.-Died at Gaywood, aged 70, Mr. Thomas Marsters, for many years the representative at Lynn of the NORFOLK CHRONICLE. "He was extensively read in the poets and cla.s.sics, and his taste for the drama induced him, when he resided at Gaywood Hall, to become lessee of Lynn Theatre, on the boards of which he occasionally performed as an amateur."

9.-Norwich and many parts of the county were visited by one of the severest thunderstorms that had occurred for many years. It was accompanied by a hailstorm which did immense damage-in the city windows and conservatories were smashed, in the county garden and field crops were destroyed. The first floors and cellars in Surrey Street, St.

Stephen's Street, Rampant Horse Street, the Market Place, and London Street were flooded, and in places morsels of ice lay from four to five inches deep. The storm lasted half an hour. The performance at the Theatre was stopped, and the terrified audience in the gallery rushed down the stairs and found the pa.s.sage filled with water, which prevented their escape. The river at Bishop Bridge rose one foot in five minutes.

At two o'clock on the morning of the 10th, the rain and hail again descended with great violence, and "a surface of flame spread across the heavens, followed by a clap of thunder which seemed to rend the welkin."

Another storm occurred on the 15th, and on the 18th waterspouts were observed at Rushall and d.i.c.kleburgh. At a meeting at the Bishop's Palace on the 19th, steps were taken for the relief of the sufferers, a public subscription organized, and surveyors appointed to a.s.sess the damage. In September the Committee reported that the total losses amounted to 30,770 2s. 3d. In some parishes a voluntary rate of threepence in the pound was paid to a.s.sist the relief fund. The contributions from the parishes amounted to 5,622, and individual subscriptions to 4,391.

16.-The left wing of the Cavalry Barracks at Norwich was destroyed by a fire which originated in the forage barn. The men of the Scots Greys succeeded in saving the remainder of the buildings.

31.-Died at Stisted Hall, Ess.e.x, aged 87, Mr. Charles Savill Onley, bencher of the Middle Temple. He was third son of Mr. Robert Harvey, merchant and banker, of Norwich, by Judith, daughter of Capt. Onley, R.N.

Mr. Onley (then Mr. Charles Harvey) was called to the Bar on November 24th, 1790. In 1783 he was elected Steward, and in 1801 Recorder, of Norwich. In 1804 his portrait was painted by Lawrence, at the expense of the Corporation, and hung in St. Andrew's Hall. In 1812 he was returned to Parliament, and at the dissolution in 1818 retired from the representation of the city, but sat for Carlow from 1820 to 1826. It was in December, 1822, that he took the name of Savill Onley, on the death of his maternal uncle, the Rev. Charles Onley, through whom he came to the possession of a fine estate in Ess.e.x, besides a large personal property.

He resigned his Recorders.h.i.+p in 1826. He was lieutenant-colonel of Col.

Patteson's battalion of Norwich Volunteers, enrolled in 1808 as a regiment of Local Militia. He married, first, Sarah, daughter of Mr. J.

Haynes, by whom he had issue one son, Onley Savill Onley, who married his cousin Caroline, daughter of Mr. John Harvey, of Thorpe; and two daughters, Sarah, married to Mr. William Harvey, and Judith, to Mr.

Charles Turner. Mrs. Harvey died in 1800, and he married, secondly, Charlotte, sister of his former wife.

SEPTEMBER.

7.-Father Mathew attended a temperance festival at Norwich. He addressed a meeting on St. Martin-at-Palace Plain in the morning, and a public gathering at St. Andrew's Hall in the evening, at which the Lord Bishop and Mr. J. J. Gurney were present. On the 8th Father Mathew, from twelve to six o'clock, "administered the pledge to all who cared to receive it."

The NORFOLK CHRONICLE observed: "We cannot but feel that the members of the Church of England are pledged to temperance already, and have therefore no necessity to repeat the pledge before a Romish priest."

11.-The Earl of Leicester laid the foundation-stone of the new quay at Wells-next-the-Sea.

16.-A platform was erected on the summit of the spire of Norwich Cathedral by a party of Sappers and Miners, to support an observatory for the purpose of the trigonometrical survey then being made throughout the kingdom, by order of the Board of Ordnance.

23.*-"Died, lately, aged 101, Mr. Robert Holmes, of St. Augustine's, Norwich."

27.-Died at Ramsgate, Lieut.-General Beevor. He was the last surviving son of Mr. James Beevor, of Norwich. He served in Flanders in the campaigns of 179345; in 18012 he was actively employed in Egypt, and he took part in the protracted operations in the Peninsula and Portugal.

OCTOBER.

2.-Mrs. Fitzwilliam, of Covent Garden Theatre, commenced a six nights'

engagement at the Theatre Royal, Norwich. She was described as the first comic actress of the day and a most accomplished vocalist. On the 7th Mrs. Fitzwilliam was joined by Mr. Buckstone, of the Haymarket Theatre, with whom she appeared in "My Tender Charge" and "Foreign Airs and Native Graces."

14.-In a case before the county justices at the s.h.i.+rehall, Norwich, in which the keeper of h.e.l.lesdon toll-bar was summoned for unlawfully taking toll in respect of a vehicle called a "wheel machine," interesting particulars were given of the contrivance, which belonged to a Norwich mechanic named Matthew Fish. It was described as "only a barrow worked by the feet, and not propelled by machinery." The carriage was shown outside the Court, and "appeared to be a very ingenious machine, which could be worked at the rate of ten miles an hour on a level road." It had three wheels and two levers. Mr. Repton, the clerk to the turnpike trustees, urged that the narrow wheels cut up the road more than those of heavy carriages, and that _such contrivances for evading toll and the keeping of horses were increasing_. These carriages were considered a nuisance on the roads, no horses liked to pa.s.s them, and the Act laid a heavy toll upon them to prevent them running on any turnpike at all. The matter was ultimately settled without a conviction.

16.-Carter, the "Lion King," appeared at Norwich Theatre with his trained lions, &c., in a drama founded on the adventures of Mungo Park. "The submissive bearing with which they crouched to the lash and the utter want of animation and spirit which they exhibited, divested the exhibition of all sense of danger."

17.-A severe gale occurred on the Norfolk coast, several vessels were driven ash.o.r.e, and five lives were lost off Bacton.

23.-The Norfolk Yeomanry Cavalry paraded at East Dereham and received from the Lord Lieutenant of the county a standard, in commemoration of the honour conferred upon it by Prince Albert, in allowing the corps to be called after his name. "The helmets, which formerly were fronted with the Maltese Cross, now exhibit the Royal Arms."

NOVEMBER.

9.-Mr. Freeman was elected Mayor, and Mr. George Lovick Coleman appointed Sheriff of Norwich.

25.-Mr. Murray announced the publication of "The Correspondence of William Taylor of Norwich (author of 'English Synonyms') with Robert Southey, Esq., from 1791 to 1830, with a memoir of his life and works,"

by J. W. Robberds.

DECEMBER.

2.-A meeting of landowners, agriculturists, and merchants of the county, presided over by the High Sheriff (Mr. Tyssen), approved the scheme of the Norwich and Brandon Railway, expounded by Mr. G. P. Bidder. The estimated cost was 380,000, to be raised in 19,000 shares of 20 each.

(_See_ July 29th, 1845.)

9.-The first person in Norwich to advertise "patent photographic portraits" was Mr. Beard, of the Royal Bazaar. These likenesses were stated to be "surprisingly correct," and severe chemical tests proved that they would "last to infinity." The prices ranged from one to two guineas.

-Mr. George Pinson, Governor of Gressenhall Workhouse, was selected by the visiting justices Governor of the County Gaol at Norwich Castle, in succession to Mr. Johnson, resigned.

15.-Died in St. Peter Southgate, Norwich, John Smith, gardener, aged 102.

16.-The improvement of Briggs' Street, Norwich, was completed, and the Paving Commissioners were paid 700 by the trustees of the D'Oyley fund.

19.-Died, Mrs. Elizabeth Barbara Bulwer Lytton, widow of General Bulwer, of Heydon Hall, and daughter and sole heiress of Richard Warburton Lytton, of Knebworth Park, Herts. "She was mother of the Amba.s.sador at Madrid, of Sir Edward, who succeeds to the estates, and of Mr. W. L.

Bulwer, of Heydon Hall. The literary tastes and accomplishments of Mrs.

Bulwer Lytton may have had an influence in early life upon her son's mind. Many poems of hers circulated amongst her immediate friends are full of feeling and grace."

26.-The report on the Christmas trade at Norwich stated that the stage coaches conveyed 3,036 hampers of game and poultry to London. Sykes'

waggons in five days conveyed to the Metropolitan market 68 tons of meat, game, and poultry, from Norfolk and Suffolk.