Bequests for the Relief of Poverty, 1560-1730

For centuries, the use of alms boxes in parish churches throughout the whole of England was a means of collecting sums of money for charitable purposes – particularly the relief of poverty where it was known or seen to exist. During the 16th century, as a result of general cost inflation (aggravated by Henry VIII’s mindless extravagance and debasement of the coinage, to say nothing of the social and economic problems caused by the Dissolution of the Monasteries), the alleviation of financial distress in the lower levels of society became more and more of a challenge. And one way of noticing this is the increasing use of bequests in wills, particularly during the century’s second half – before the Poor Relief Act of 1601 imposed the duty on English parishes of collecting a variable rate (on those who could afford to pay) to address the plight of those in need. One noticeable effect of which was the immediate decrease in the number personal bequests made to assist the needy – many people of means not feeling obliged to support the impoverished in their community beyond the contributions made to the local poor-rate.

The following bequests listed would have been initially in the hands of the various executors (unless otherwise stated), but would then at some point have required the assistance of the two parish churchwardens who (with the vicar) had the responsibility of managing charitable funds and also of appointing overseers of the poor when these came into operation following the Act of 1601. The people below, named as donors, are placed in alphabetical order of surname with occupations and social status given, where known (this information deriving from the wills themselves and from parish register entries). The date of the signing and witnessing of the will is shown and the spelling of each testator’s name is given as it appears in each document’s preamble. Most wills, at this time, were made with the testator in a state of poor health and were often followed by his or her death and burial soon afterwards. In other cases, recovery from illness followed the making of the will, with an interval (years, occasionally) interposing before death itself occurred.

Bequests 1560-1599

Total cash sum: £396 6s 5d, with a certain number of accompanying bequests not able to be determined in monetary terms.

Total number of surviving wills: 102 (45 of them making bequests of one kind or another for the relief of poverty).

Explanatory Notes 

(numbers relating to the bequests above)

1. Thomas Annot was a great benefactor to the town, having founded a free grammar school for Lowestoft in 1570. Christmas and Easter (as the two main Christian feasts of the year) were often used as the time for the disposal of charitable money. His four loaned sums of £25 had a very generous interest rate, since it was permitted at the time (by Act of Parliament) to charge up to 10%.

2.A former unit of English currency (though not an actual coin) was the mark, which was worth 13s 4d (160 pence) and was originally the value of 8 ounces of pure silver – meaning that 160 silver pennies could be made from this particular weight of the metal. The sum of 6s 8d (80 pence), therefore, was half of a mark. Rafe Baryngforth lived in a house which stood immediately to the south of what is now Herring Fishery Score, but which once bore the Baryngforth/Barringforth surname to identify it.

4. A housewright would have been a builder of some kind – the term “mason” being more commonly used at the time.

6. The title of Mr. (Master) shows that Cornelys [Cornelius] Bright was regarded as being of locally elevated social standing above occupational level(s).

8. The sum of 3s 4d (40 pence) was one quarter of a mark. The day-wage of a labouring man of the time would have been about 6d (without food being provided).

11. The disposal of charitable funds on a benefactor’s funeral day was often carried out at the time, with executors and churchwardens co-operating in the process. Bequests of money to buy coal and firewood for poor people were also common practice.

16. Hand-outs of bread (as loaves) and beer to the needy, on funeral days, was a feature of the time – with the the latter being the common drink of the time for all townspeople, regardless of age and social standing.

19. William Frenche was the son-in-law of Thomas Annot. He owned The Crown inn and another establishment called The Rose (location not known), as well as a half-share in a fishing vessel named Grace of God. Fishing gear and fish-houses are also mentioned in his will.

20. Ann Girling’s property stood to the north of Beccles Way (now St. Peter’s Street), close to the junction with Blue Anchor Lane (now Duke’s Head Street) – placing it on land now occupied by the St. Peter’s Street-Jubilee Way traffic roundabout. Copyhold tenure was a type of leasehold, whereby a tenant paid an annual ground-rent to the lord of the manor but had the freedom of disposing of the property in whatever way suited (whether by sale or gift) and with each new occupant having to pay an entry fine on taking up tenancy, as well as the annual charge. The township of the time had 80-85% of its houses and other buildings held as copyhold. Fuel charities providing poor people with coal and/or wood, for use during the winter particularly, were quite a common feature of pre-industrial times.

22. Possession of certain items, made of silver, for use at the table was a feature of wealthier households in the town during the second half of the 16th century.

24. Thomas Gylbanke’s occupation is likely to have been that of a barber-surgeon, at a time when medical advances were being made. However, a certain amount of suspicion was attached to the practice of surgery by some leaders of the Church of England as it was deemed to be interference with God’s will (seen by many people as being the cause of illness). In the 1597 visitation of Norwich Diocese, carried out by Bishop William Redman, both Richard Gilbancke (relative of the man here) and Adrian Simpson (al. Simons) were both noted as practising surgery in Lowestoft and were excommunicated from the Church for refusing to give it up.

26. Roger Hylle’s house was the two buildings now numbered as 31 & 32 High Street – the former retaining a number of its original features and the latter being of later construction. Both his will and probate inventory show his large-scale involvement in fishing and fish-curing, including a quarter-share in a vessel called Gift of God.

27. Robert Jeffe’s will also shows that he owned a fish-house (used for the curing of red herrings).

28. The faggots referred to were probably bundles of brushwood or gorse, used in the heating of bread ovens or to get domestic fires started. The Jetters (or Jettors) were the richest of Lowestoft’s merchant families from the mid-15th to the mid-16th century. By refusing to abandon their Roman Catholic beliefs, after the Reformation, they became subject to punitive fines imposed by the government and one of them, Robert Jettor, became the most heavily penalised of all Suffolk recusants with a fine of £1,500 imposed on him in October 1586.

30. At this time, a chaldron of coal (as measured out in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the main English place of export) was a quantity weighing forty-two hundredweights (two tons and two hundredweights). The billets referred to were lengths of coppiced ash and oak, used in the curing of red herrings – which suggests that Robert Lawer might well have been a merchant producing this type of processed fish.

32. Richard Mighells lived at No. 27 High Street, a house he had had built in 1551. The year at this time, for various legal reasons, was divided into four quarters: terminating on 25 March (Feast of the Annunciation, or Lady Day), 24 June (Midsummer), 29 September (Feast of St. Michael & All Angels, or Michaelmas) and 25 December (Christmas Day). Under the old Julian Calendar (before the introduction of its Gregorian successor in September 1752), the new year in England began on 25 March. The surname Mighells here, and Myhell following in No. 33, are one and the same – but, with variant spelling used. Modern equivalents would probably be either Miles or Myhill, with the spelling recorded as such in 19th Century census returns and thereby permanently fixed thereafter.

34. The giving of money to people attending his funeral seems to have been this man’s way of making some kind of statement regarding his gift to those in need.

36. All but one of the gifts made here have been previously recorded. The donation of two bed-sheets is not as insignificant as it might appear, because good-quality bed linen was of some monetary value in addition to its utility.

38. Robert Skarlett’s house was the building now numbered as 102, 103 & 104 High Street. It contains high-quality internal timber-framing inside, particularly in the middle section (on both the ground floor and above) and probably dates from around 1520-30.

43. The term “sailor”, at the time, was a general one used of seafarers involved in either maritime trade or fishing (or both activities). Robert Wylde’s gift of one penny would have purchased a standard loaf of bread.

44. William Wylde Snr. was father of the man (also William) who built No. 80 High Street.

45. Joone Wiseman’s bequest of money to be used for the relief of blind or sick people is the only surviving one of its kind, as are those of smocks (women’s undergarments) and burial shrouds for people who could not afford them. A well-off widow might easily have had three smocks in house at the time of a will being made, but the gift of nine shrouds (made of linen or wool) suggests that she and her late husband might well have been involved in some way in the textile trade.

Bequests 1600-1649

Total cash sum: £25 13s 4d at least, with Richard Berye’s gift not able to be calculated in terms of its operative length of time.

Total number of surviving wills: 129 (18 of them making bequests for the relief of poverty).

Explanatory notes (numbers relating to the bequests above)

2. William Bently was Vicar of Lowestoft 1574-1603 and died during the plague outbreak of 1603, which killed over 300 people (about 20% of the town’s population). He was buried on 25 August, just five days after making his will. His wife Alice survived him by nearly eleven years. His pastoral duties were probably taken over by his friend Stephen Phillipp, Master of Annot’s School, who was himself an ordained priest of the Church of England and also Parish Clerk of the time.

3. The word “yeoman” mainly applied to farmers of larger holdings of the time, above 30 acres in area – as opposed to small scale operators, usually known as “husbandmen”. It is also found used, at the time, by some urban craftsmen as a term of social elevation above their fellows. Richard Berye was involved in agriculture.

4. The presence of small numbers of gentlemen in Lowestoft during the second half of the sixteenth century, and the first half of the 17th, shows that they were not from families connected with the town and were almost certainly younger sons who were not main inheritors of family estates. They used what money they had to acquire land and houses in the parish, so as to create income from the rents charged. Some of them moved on to other places after a period of time, while others died in the town. Thomas Burford was a case of the latter, with his burial recorded on 20 March 1639 – showing that he was in a state of fragile health when his will was drawn up.

6. William Canham, his wife and children seem to have come into Lowestoft during the early 17th century (based on a baby son’s baptism of 12 April 1607) and subsequently became part of its established family structure, with both sons and grandsons becoming seafarers of one kind or another. William Canham’s wife Ann’s parish register burial entry of 13 October 1639 describes her as “a good virtuus [sic] and charitable woman”, while his own of 26 March 1649 calls him “an honest and prudent man”. The Manor Roll of 1618 shows that the family lived in a house to the south of Church Way (later St. Margaret’s Road) – on the site of what is now the High Street filling-station – which was part of a croft one-and-half acres in size.

9. Symond Feiffeild (al. Simon Fifield) was of dual occupation by being both a master-shoemaker and someone involved in herring fishing and curing (drift-nets and fish-houses are referred to in his will). And he is also mentioned in a Manor Roll of 1610 as being involved in the extraction of oil from cod livers (used to treat new leather and fuel household lamps) down on the Denes. He lived in a house on the site of what is now No. 45 High Street.

10. The Grudgefields were merchants who seem to have arrived in Lowestoft possibly during the 1530s, since they do not feature in the Lay Subsidy of 1524-5 but have a member named John well established by the time of the 1568 Levy and seen paying the sum of 16s 8d on £20 worth of goods – thus placing him among the higher echelon of town merchants of the time. Thomas Grudgefeild fell victim to the 1603 plague epidemic – making his will just as it was about to begin – and was buried on 31 May.

11. Alice Hawes’s husband Robert was Vicar of Lowestoft from 1610 to 1639, his burial being recorded on 3 September of the latter year. His and his wife’s sons became shipwrights and mariners.

13. William Meike was not only involved in farming, but owned an inn as well. It was called The Cock, later renamed The Pye (i.e. Magpie), and it stood on the site of what is now No. 143 High Street.

14. Thomas Postle’s tannery was located immediately to the north of what became Lighthouse Score when the main lighthouse was built on top of the cliff in 1676. It was situated there to take advantage of the spring-line present in the lower levels of the slope, as tanning cow hides into leather needed large quantities of water.

15. Edward Sparrow, like William Meike, was involved in farming (ewes and lambs being mentioned in his will) and he also owned an inn. This was called the Spread Eagle and it occupied a large plot of land fronting the High Street on what is now the Triangle Market area (including part of the land where the canopies once stood). It was referred to, by name, in the Manor Roll of 1618 while still in the hands of family members. Edward Sparrow’s burial was recorded on 7 September 1609 and the reference made to the Town House (where funeral food and drink were to be made available) relates to the late medieval Town Chamber, which once stood where the Town Hall is situated. This building and St, Margaret’s Church would have both served as venues for the distribution of charitable gifts.

17. John Wilde was possibly the wealthiest man in Lowestoft at the time of his death and his grave slab (in the middle aisle of St. Margaret’s Church) states that he died on 10 August 1644 (burial registered three days later). His will (which he drew up himself) was of great length and complexity and showed his involvement in fishing, fish curing and maritime trade. He left substantial sums of money to his children and grandchildren and his standing in the community was such that the Elder Brethren of Trinity House entrusted him with supervising the construction of the town’s first high lighthouse in 1628. This stood on the cliff-face towards the top of Swan Score (now Mariner’s Score), on the north side, to the rear of what is now No. 40 High Street.

18. William Woodshed was buried on 18 June 1603 – yet another of the many victims of the plague outbreak that year. A spelling variant of his surname as Woodshead is to be found in his parish register entry.

Bequests 1650-1699

Total cash sum: £98 10s 0d.

Total number of surviving wills: 144 (16 of them making bequests for the relief of poverty).

Explanatory notes (numbers relating to bequests above)

1. Robert Allen was the father of Admiral Sir Thomas Allen (al. Allin), the well-known Naval commander of the 1660s. He lived in a house on the site of what are now Nos. 29 & 30 High Street – being shown in occupancy there in the Manor Roll of 1618. The two dwellings, as they now are, consist of a later rebuild of the northern part of the original house (No. 29) and a much more complete mid-16th century interior of the southern part (No. 30), with high-quality timber-framing in evidence.

2. Edward Brown’s tannery was located on Whapload Road, roughly where the Maritime Museum is now located, occupying land forming part of the Sparrow’s Nest gardens. It drew its water supply from the spring-line issuing from the lower levels of the cliff, which is still in evidence seeping out across Cart Score. During the 1660s, it came into the possession of the Wild(e) family – relatives of the Browns – after it had ceased to function as a tannery.

3. William Church had his origins in Pakefield and Kirkley, with an interest in both farming and fishing. He seems to have moved into Lowestoft during the mid-17th century and in 1667 he purchased the impropriation of St. Margaret’s Church (from William Mewse of Bermondsey, house carpenter), giving him the right to appoint clergy and have the considerable income deriving from the parish’s grain tithes. His will shows that he was involved in farming, had shares in fishing vessels, and lent money by both bond and mortgage. In the absence of banks, merchants and other people of means were the main source of funds for people who needed to borrow.

5. Henry Coe was not of true gentry status, but is an early example in Lowestoft of a man whose family had made money in the town, mainly through farming and associated trading activity, to be able to live a comfortable life-style and elevate himself socially. His burial entry of 25 January 1681 in the parish registers describes him as an “ancient man”. He lived in a house on the site of what is now No. 4 High Street – the property coming into possession of the Arnold family, following his death, through the marriage of his daughter Thomasine to the brewer, Coe Arnold – the latter’s forename showing earlier marital connections between the two families.

7. Thomas Harvey ran a drapery business from his home on the site now occupied by Nos. 47 & 48 High Street. It had previously been in the hands of the Gentleman family, from whom he had acquired the premises in January 1640. His burial is not recorded in the parish registers, but his wife inherited the property in April 1664 and carried on with the help of Joshua Smythson (woollen draper), who put money into the enterprise in the form of mortgages until her death in November 1673, while also occupying part of the messuage (presumably to carry on trading activity of his own) until his own decease in September 1693. The property had passed to the Harveys’ son William (a cooper by trade), following the death of both his parents.

8. Francis Knights had his burial recorded in the parish registers on 24 March 1656. His will shows him to have been involved in malting and brewing (though it is not known whether or not this was his main occupation) and he also owned property in Lowestoft. He lived on the freehold area of town, to the north of Swan Score (now Mariners Street), on or near to the site of what is now No. 176 High Street. A malthouse was also present on the messuage.

9. Phama (al. Phebe) Knights was the widow of Francis Knights. Her burial is not to be found in the parish registers, but the registration process suffered to a certain degree, during the 1650s and 60s, from the upheavals of the Protectorate and Restoration of the Monarchy. She and her husband had married on 22 September 1606 and would both probably have been in their mid-70s when they died.

10. On the evidence of his will and his wife’s probate inventory of 18 August 1682, Samuel Pacy was probably the richest Lowestoft merchant of the second half of the 17th century, being widely engaged in fishing, fish-curing and maritime trade with the Baltic ports. He was one of Lowestoft’s leading Nonconformist Dissenters and, with John Soane (yeoman), co-accuser of Rose Cullender and Amy Denny for the crime of Witchcraft in March 1662 (1663, by “new style” Gregorian calendar dating).

11. James Reeve was one of two men practising medicine in Lowestoft during the second half of the 17th century – the other being Robert Pake (al. Peake). Reeve had come into the town from Carlton Colville and was the forbear of Robert Reeve (lawyer), who was steward of the manor of Lowestoft during the late 18th and early 19th century and a gifted antiquarian of his time.

13. Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Utber was a leading Naval commander of the 1660s and the brother-in-law of Sir Thomas Allin. His grave-slab (close to the organ, at the end of the south aisle, in St. Margaret’s Church) states that he died on 18 November 1669, with the parish registers showing that he was buried three days later. He had retired from active service and his probate inventory of 9.12.1669 shows that he had “shares in shipping” and was lending money by “bill and bond”. The document also recorded “three fowling pieces” (sporting guns) and three pairs of pistols – the latter no doubt deriving from his time in the Royal Navy. The noted presence of “an old nag”, at the time, referred to a small horse or pony (without the overtones of the animal being useless, as well as old).

14. Henry Ward Snr. was a merchant with a main interest in malting and brewing, and with a lesser one in fishing. He lived in a house on what is currently part of the Triangle Market area, where the High Street and St. Peter’s Street converge – a large messuage, which included the buildings associated with his brewing activity. He also owned the Old White Horse inn, in West Lane (later, White Horse Street) – located between Bell Lane (nowCrown Street East)and Fairstead Lane (now Dove Street) and was a leading member of the town’s Nonconformist Dissenters. His burial took place on 1 January 1652.

15. Elizabeth Ward was the wife of Henry Ward Snr. and was laid to rest on 28.7.1656. Her will reveals that she had a quarter-share interest in a pink – this being a small trading ship, of shallow draught and with a narrow stern – and she was also involved in lending money to other members of the Lowestoft community. She was a member of the Arnold family and she and her husband had married on 24.3.1608.

16. James Wild was of a well established merchant-maritime family (going back in Lowestoft until at least the time of the 1524-5 Lay Subsidy) and he lived in the family home built by his grandfather William in 1586 – long identified as No. 80 High Street. He had extensive interests in fishing, fish-curing and maritime trade and was a considerable benefactor to Lowestoft, heading up the town’s opposition in Parliament, during the early 1660s, to the attempts made by Great Yarmouth to control its trading activity. His grave-slab, at the west end of St. Margaret’s Church near the font, records that he died on 11.2.1684.

16 (cont.) It is not known how, or when, the £50 legacy James Wild left for the relief of poverty was spent. But, in February 1724 – forty years after his death – his grandson John transferred a family property on Whapload Road (consisting of a house and accompanying acre of land) to six trustees, who were to ensure that the rents from this property were used to provide bread for the poor of the town. The dwelling became known as “James Wild’s bread house” and a later replacement (built c. 1820) is the cottage which forms part of the Lowestoft & East Suffolk Maritime Museum. The acre of land donated was basically what is now the southern sector of the Sparrows Nest Gardens.