244 A FARMER'S YEAR 



i68o towards ye redemption of ye captives in Algiers ye sum of 

 two pounds seven shillings.' 



Here also is an entry which shows that the good folk of Beding- 

 ham lived long, although not quite so long as those in the neigh- 

 bouring parish of Denton : ' In Bedingham there have been but 2 

 Vicars in the space of 94 years, William Cowper collated in 1680 

 died April 2. 1725 age 70 years held the living 45 years. Joseph 

 Parsons collated in 1725 died July 1774 held the living 49 years.' 



In the register-book of Denton, in Norfolk, where I have a 

 small farm, Mr. Rogerson, rector of the parish, remarked that 

 his predecessor was instituted into the living in 1595, and died in 

 1659. Mr. Rogerson was instituted in 1659, and died in 1715 : 

 so that his predecessor was sixty-four years rector, and he himself 

 fifty-six years ; two only in the space of 1 20 years ! 



This is a remarkable record, but I can almost match it by one 

 that came within my own experience. The Rev. Mr. Edwards, the 

 rector of Ashill, near Bradenham, who was a friend of my family 

 for some generations, filled that cure, I think, for about seventy- 

 five years. If I remember right, he told me that he had baptised, 

 married and buried, nearly three generations of the inhabitants of 

 Ashill. He was, I believe, within a month or two of a hundred 

 years of age when he died, about fifteen years ago, from a chill 

 contracted while recording his vote at a contested election. 



Before leaving the subject of the Bedingham registers I must 

 copy a last extract from them, a curious one enough to find in such 

 a place. Here it is : ' John Francis, the Vicar of this parish 

 underwent October 25th: 1780 an operation for the stone, when 

 two, weighing an ounce and a half, were extracted by that very 

 eminent surgeon, Mr. William Donne of Norwich, for which Mr. 

 Francis paid him seventy ' pounds. Mr. Francis is now perfectly 

 recovered, for which great mercy he daily returns his most sincere 

 and unfeigned thanks to the Divine Author of his Being, the 

 Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. 



' It is possible that this word is ' twenty,' though it appears to read ' seventy.' 

 Even in the former event the sum is large for the time. 



