A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



According to Blomefield, the mayor, who was for the king, toolc little 

 notice of this, and he was summoned to Parliament 22 April, 1648, and 

 Mr. Christopher Baret, alderman, appointed mayor in his place ; whereupon 

 the mayor's friends drew up a petition to Parliament which was signed by 

 many hundreds, and at last the commons met in the market-place and 

 declared that by their oaths all freemen were bound to support their mayor 

 and keep him in the city during his year ; they collected in great numbers, 

 vowed they were for the king, would purge the bench and common council, 

 pluck the Roundheads out, and put such honest men in as would go to church 

 and serve God. The assembly grew into a riot, which was put an end to 

 by the explosion of ninety-eight barrels of gunpowder in the committee 

 house, by which over a hundred persons were slain or wounded on both sides. 

 The mayor then rode to London, and a thanksgiving day was appointed for 

 deliverance from the mutiny ; on Tuesday following Mr. Carter preached in 

 the forenoon in the cathedral and Mr. CoUings in the afternoon, each 

 receiving 20J. 



Some attempt to justify the confiscation of church property was felt to 

 be necessary, and as a set off against sequestration the stipends of a few of 

 the clergy (of whom the names of some happen to have appeared in the 

 Attestation) received augmentation. An order was made by the Committee 

 for Plundered Ministers 23 December, 1646, for the payment of a yearly rent 

 of 32//. reserved to the dean and chapter of Norwich out of the impropriate 

 rectory of Great Yarmouth, towards the maintenance of the ministers of 

 the said parish, ' consisting of about 5,000 communicants, and the present 

 maintenance of the ministers there amounting to but 20 ii. a year.' ^ A 

 similar order was made 25 March, 1647, for an annual payment of 40 ft. out 

 of the rents, tithes, and profits of the impropriate rectory of Ludham, parcel 

 of the possessions belonging to the late bishop of Norwich, towards the further 

 provision for the ministers of the parish of Great Yarmouth, and for the 

 payment of the residue of the same rents and tithes, etc., not exceeding 50//. 

 per annum, to the ministers of the said parish church of Ludham, the vicarage 

 whereof is but 30//. a year.' The stipends of the ministers of Swetsham, 

 St. Stephen's in Norwich, Southreppes, Stanfield, Ormsby, New Buckenham, 

 Lynn, Swaffham and Oulton also received very considerable augmentation.' 



Norfolk must have learnt under the Commonwealth that the quality of 

 mercy was not the one most highly prized by the puritan party. In the 

 year 1644 the notorious Hopkins had a commission from Parliament to 

 make a circuit for the discovery of witches, and had 20 shillings allowed 

 him from every town requiring his services. Yarmouth employed him in 

 1645, ^"^ presentments were made 10 September, 1645, °^ Ahce Clipwell, 

 Bridgitta Howard, Maria Blackbourn, Elizabeth Dudgeon, Elizabeth Brad- 

 well, and Johanna Lacey ; all except the last-named were hanged.* From 

 Quaker records we learn that already by 1654 Norfolk Quakers were suffering 

 imprisonment. Without claiming that they would have received different 

 treatment if the Episcopal had been the Established Church, and while 

 acknowledging that their methods were probably very provocative, it is 

 certain that under the Commonwealth they were treated with anything but 



' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 313. ' Ibid. ' S. P. Dom. Intcrr. cxxiii, No. 46. 



* From the Yarmouth Gaol Delivery Rolls, quoted in Kerf. Arch, iv, 248. 



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