Norfolk Annals
Chapter 15 : 24.-Died, in the Close, Norwich, aged 90, the Rev. George Sandby, D.D., 39 years Chance

24.-Died, in the Close, Norwich, aged 90, the Rev. George Sandby, D.D., 39 years Chancellor of the Diocese. He was Vice-Chancellor of Merton College, Oxford, in 1760.

28.*-"His Majesty has been pleased to appoint Wm. Firth, Esq., Steward of Norwich, to be attorney-general in the province of Upper Canada." On his resignation of the Stewards.h.i.+p on May 3rd, Mr. Firth received the thanks of the Corporation, and Mr. Robert Alderson was appointed in his place.

At about this date, Mr. Thomas Amyot was appointed secretary and registrar of Lower Canada.

APRIL.

4.-William Carter, aged 35, was executed on the "new drop," Castle Hill, Norwich, for horse stealing.

5.-The Norwich Court of Guardians resolved to pet.i.tion the House of Commons against Mr. Whitbread's Bill for amending the Poor Laws.

9.-Died, at his house in Berners Street, London, in his 46th year, John Opie, R.A. His remains were interred in St. Paul's Cathedral on April 20th.

13.-The Rev. James Brown was elected minister of St. Andrew, Norwich, in place of the Rev. Dr. Adkin, deceased. There were three other candidates. None but resident paris.h.i.+oners were allowed to vote.

16.-Died, at his house in King Street, Norwich, aged 60, Mr. James Hudson, banker. He served the office of Sheriff in 1788, was elected alderman for the Mancroft Ward in 1791, and was Mayor in 1794. Mr.

Starling Day, jun., was elected alderman in his place.

MAY.

4.-An election took place at Norwich on the dissolution of Parliament.

Mr. J. Patteson, who polled 1,474 votes, and Mr. W. Smith, 1,156 votes, were returned. The unsuccessful candidate, Mr. Robert Fellowes, polled 546 votes.

-Lynn election: Lord Walpole and Sir M. B. ffolkes returned unopposed.

8.-Thetford election: Lord Wm. Fitzroy and Mr. T. Creevey returned unopposed.

-Yarmouth election: Mr. S. Lus.h.i.+ngton, 604 votes; Mr. W. Jacob, 341; Mr.

A. Upcher (unsuccessful), 21.

12.-County election: Mr. T. W. c.o.ke and Sir Jacob Astley, Bart., elected unopposed.

-At a county meeting a committee was appointed for the purpose of forming a club for the independent freeholders of Norfolk. It was a revival of the Norfolk Club, and met three times a year in Norwich, namely, in the Summer a.s.size week, in the Michaelmas Sessions week, and in the Easter Sessions week. The first meeting was held at the Angel Inn, on October 6th, when Sir John Lombe, Bart., presided.

14.-The birthday of the Right Hon. Wm. Windham was celebrated by a dinner at the Angel Inn, Norwich, under the presidency of Mr. Wm. Smith, M.P.

25.-A rowing match took place, from Carrow Abbey to Whitlingham, between the Victory, four oars, and the Britannia, six oars. The course was 4 miles, and the time of the winning boat, the Britannia, 33 mins. 50 secs.

JUNE.

1.-Died, at Worstead, Mrs. Ann Miller, formerly of Yarmouth, aged 102 years.

4.-His Majesty the King entered upon the 70th year of his age. There were great rejoicings in Norwich. The Mayor and Corporation attended service at the Cathedral, the troops-Regular, Militia, and Volunteer-paraded in the Market Place, fired a _feu de joie_, and marched past. The Mayor gave a dinner, and the several corps dined at their respective inns.

16.-Mr. Robert Herring was sworn into office as Mayor of Norwich, and gave a dinner to 150 guests at Chapel Field House. "The Mayor's wine being of the first flavour and quality, the festivity of the day was kept up till past one o'clock the next morning."

22.-Holkham Sheep Shearing commenced. The implements exhibited included an improved Norfolk plough, invented by Mr. b.a.l.l.s, of Saxlingham. Mr.

Herring, jun., of Norwich, produced goods of his manufacture, and stated that 117 shawls had that year been made by his firm from 224 lbs. of Mr.

c.o.ke's Southdown wool. Mr. Paul, of Norwich, showed some beautiful specimens of shawls manufactured by himself, "including a flowered shawl, a very close imitation of India, made wholly of Mr. c.o.ke's marino wool."

The best implement shown this year was an ingenious device by Mr. Paul, of Starston, for catching turnip fly.

29.-Mr. Bannister appeared at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, in "Bannister's Budget, or an Actor's Ways and Means." The entertainment was repeated on July 4th.

JULY.

3.-Died, at Ferney Hill, Gloucester, Mrs. Cooper, widow of the Rev. Dr.

Cooper, of Yarmouth, and daughter of Mr. James Bransby, of Shotesham.

She was the author of several well-known works, namely, "f.a.n.n.y Meadows,"

"The Daughter," "The School for Wives," and "The Exemplary Mother."

7.-Died, at Heydon House, aged 53, William Earle Bulwer, Colonel in the Army and Brigadier-General of Volunteers.

9.-An action for _crim. con._ was heard in the Court of King's Bench, in which Sir G. B. Brograve, of Worstead Hall, Lieut.-Col. of the East Norfolk Militia, was plaintiff, and Capt. Elwin, of the same regiment, defendant. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages, 2,000. At Doctor's Commons, on November 21st, 1808, the court granted a divorce _a mansa et thoro_, prayed for on the part of Sir Geo. Brograve against Lady Brograve.

8.-Capt. Manby, barrack-master at Yarmouth, made several experiments with his life-saving apparatus in the presence of Admiral Douglas and other officers of the Navy, who expressed satisfaction with the invention.

-A single wicket cricket match was played at Thetford between two gentlemen of that town and two of Newmarket. The former won, with 37 runs to spare.

11.-Died, at Lady Fenn's, East Dereham, aged 67, Mr. John Frere, of Roydon, Norfolk, and of Finningham, Suffolk. He was member for Norwich from 1799 to 1802.

15.-Mr. Paul, of Starston, exhibited a machine for removing lice from peas. Two men, in four hours, caught 24 pecks of lice, and in the afternoon took 16 pecks in 2 hours.

16.-Died, aged 81, Mr. Peter Finch, who for many years held the office of Clerk of the Peace for the county.

23.-A fleet of 24 sail of the line a.s.sembled in Yarmouth Roads, under the command of Admiral Gambier, who, with Vice-Admiral Stanhope, sailed on the 26th with 16 sail of the line, 10 frigates, 10 sloops, 9 gun brigs, &c., for the Baltic. Sir Sidney Smith sailed in the Prince of Wales, of 98 guns, Admiral Gambier's flags.h.i.+p. A strict embargo commenced on the 24th. The remainder of the fleet afterwards sailed. An expedition, under Lieut.-General Sir David Baird, sailed from Harwich about the same time. On September 16th, intelligence was received of the surrender on the 7th of Copenhagen, with the a.r.s.enal and the whole of the Danish Navy, to the British forces, under the command of Lieut.-General Lord Cathcart and Admiral Gambier. The British fleet, which sailed from Yarmouth, sustained but comparatively trifling loss.

27.-At the Norfolk a.s.sizes, held at Norwich, before Mr. Justice Grose, Martha Alden was tried for the murder of her husband, Samuel Alden, at Attleborough, on July 18th. While the man was asleep in bed his wife, with a bill-hook, inflicted terrible wounds on his head, face, and throat. With the a.s.sistance of a girl, named Mary Orvice, the prisoner on the 19th deposited the body in a dry ditch in the garden; on the 20th, they carried it in a corn sack to the common and "shot" it into a pond, where it was subsequently discovered. His lords.h.i.+p, in summing up, said that Orvice might have been charged with being accessory to an attempted concealment of murder. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and the judge "doomed her to death, to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck, and her body to be dissected." The execution took place at Norwich on July 31st. The populace at Attleborough showed their detestation of the crime by destroying the former dwelling-house of the prisoner. It was reported that the ghost of Alden "walked" on the Castle Hill, and in the month of December a party of drunken men, who went there to "lay" the spirit, were seized by the jailer and detained in prison for two days, pending an inquiry into their conduct.

-At the same a.s.sizes, before Lord Ellenborough, an action was tried, in which Lord Albemarle claimed for the recovery of penalties, amounting to 700, under the game laws. The defendant, one Brooke, a poulterer and wholesale dealer in game, at Thetford, was connected with the poachers and gamekeepers in Norfolk, and with the dealers in Leadenhall market.

"The interruption of his commerce," said counsel, "had created as much alarm in Leadenhall market as the stagnation of trade between this country and the North of Germany had occasioned amongst the merchants at the Royal Exchange." A verdict was given for the plaintiff, damages 40, "at the rate of 5 for each head of game which had fallen out of a basket sent by the defendant to the London waggon office at Thetford for transit to the metropolis."

29.-At the public breakfasting at Harper's Ranelagh Gardens, Norwich, nearly 1,100 persons a.s.sembled, and 3,500 were present at the evening performance.

30.-The sum of 180 3s. was collected at the anniversary service held at the Cathedral on behalf of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and 50 16s.

resulted from the dinner at the White Swan.

AUGUST.

5.-In the House of Commons a pet.i.tion was presented on behalf of Messrs.

Blackburne and Bonner, brewers, of Lynn, and of the inhabitants of the town, who complained of the undue influence and the arbitrary proceedings of the magistrates of that borough in withholding publicans' licences.