209 
y. 
A MEMOIR OF MR. LILLY WIGG, F.L.S., . 
OF GT. YARMOUTH. 
By Hampden G. Gi.asspoole. 
Read 2 ‘jth February, 1877 . 
The subject of this paper was born in the village of Smallburgh, 
Norfolk, on Christmas Day, 1749. His father was a poor but 
respectable shoemaker, and brought up his son to the same trade ; 
having first given him all the education that a village school in 
those days could afford. 
\Yq have no account of Wigg’s early life, except that a writer 
who gives a short sketch of him, in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 
February, 1830, mentions “that he was very fond of books;” and 
endowed by nature with more than ordinary talent', he took a 
dislike to his humble occupation, and before he was twenty removed 
to Yarmouth, where he opened a school in “Fighting-cock Row.”' 
This business which was more congenial to his inclinations (but of 
little profit to his pocket), he continued for many years. Occupied 
as was his time, and small as were his resources, Mr. Wigg never- 
theless by dint of great industry acquired a competent knowledge 
of Latin, made himself to a certain degree acquainted with Greek 
and French ; he was also very conversant with the highest 
branches of arithmetic. 
The parish of Smallburgh lies next the marsh grounds, on the 
road between Yarmouth and North Walsham ; the river Ant runs 
through it, and is crossed by a bridge called Wafer bridge, a cor- 
ruption of the Saxon “ Way fare”. Whether it was here among the 
marshes and the broads of the district that Wigg’s attachment to 
natural history first manifested itself is not known, but he certainly 
became a most ardent student of the science. Botany was his 
favourite department, and as long as he had health and strength 
few men pursued the study with more energy, or as far as his 
limited means would allow with more success. 
Yarmouth and its neighbourhood was his great field of action 
1 See Palmer’s Perlustrations of Gt. Yarmouth, vol. i, p. 178. 
