Relief of Distress in Other Communities (1681-1698)

Late 17th Century Public Collections Taken in Lowestoft

In addition to the Parish Register record of the marriages, baptisms and burials which took place in Lowestoft during the Early Modern period, 1561-1786 (Norfolk Record Office, PD 589/1,2 & 4), there is another parochial document (PD 589/3) which began life as a Woollen Burials register – an addition to the main body of entries resulting from the Woollen Burials Act of 1678 requiring everyone to be buried in a woollen shroud, as a means of boosting the national textile industry. Records were kept and anyone wishing to be buried in a linen shroud had to pay a £5 exemption fee. The wealthier people in Lowestoft continued to be laid to rest in linen and had the fine paid by executors or relatives, probably using this as a means of social differentiation and superiority. During the early 18th century, “woollen burials” (as they were termed) seem to have been no longer recorded in Lowestoft and the Revd. John Tanner (Vicar, 1708-59) used this particular register as a day-book, in which he or the parish clerk made entries prior to these being entered in the main register itself.

It had also had a previous use of limited length, additional to its intended function, dating from the incumbencies of Joseph Hudson, Edward Carleton and William Whiston and covering the years 1681-98. This listed the number of briefs (as they were known) issued for the relief of distress in other communities – all of them at some considerable distance from the town, and only two of them in Suffolk (Stoke by Clare and Newmarket) and none connected with Norfolk. The brief itself – which was, at root, a declaration of royal authority – would have been made known at the place affected, probably with the backing of a local MP or JP, or of some leading member of the gentry, but the wider publicising of the appeal itself and the paying over of the money raised would have been carried out by the Church of England’s administrative structure, whereby Norwich Diocese (in Lowestoft’s case) would have informed its parish clergy of the various briefs issued, leaving it to them to announce the appeals being made (at Sunday service times) and see that any money donated reached the official collector – who was usually an Archdeacon, next in rank to the Bishop himself (the Dean, also, of high rank being primarily concerned with the care and running of the Cathedral itself and of its associated clergy).

Below the Bishop of Norwich were three of them: the Archdeacon of Norwich (this being England’s second city into the early part of the 18th century), the Archdeacon of Norfolk and the Archdeacon of Suffolk – the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich not being created until 1914. It was the duty of these men to assist the Bishop in the administration of the diocese, paying particular attention to the personal conduct of its clergy, the condition of church buildings and the good behaviour of congregations. Among the many matters dealt with would have been the issue of briefs and the handling of funds deriving therefrom. The Norfolk and Suffolk Archdeaconry Courts would have been held in different venues, on some kind of rotational pattern, so as to cover the geographical spread of each jurisdiction.

A total of twenty-seven briefs in all is to be found in the pages of the Woollen Burials  Register/Day Book volume belonging to Lowestoft, with seventeen relating to major fires in English communities, three to the persecution of Protestant people in Roman Catholic countries, one to repair of an English parish church, one to a French invasion of the English mainland, and five to unspecified events (with fires, again, being the likely cause). All of them are presented as they appear, with original spelling used and with the layout of the pages retained as accurately as possible. The introduction and dates have been put in bold font to aid ease of reading.

An account of what Briefs have been gathered in ye Parish of Lowestoft, & ye sums collected, & when & to whom they have been payd, since Septmbr ye 29th 1681

Octobr ye 2d. 1681. Published a brief for ye Parish = Church of St Albans in ye County of Hertford, collected thirty seaven [sic] shillings & ten pence; paid to Mr John Sayer of Beckles appointed to receive it by Dr Womack Arch = Deacon of Suf. Octobr ye 8. 1681. att ye general Court.

[There is no explanation able to be offered for use of the equals symbol (=) in this entry and in ones which follow – but, it seems to have served mainly as a means of separating place-names with two elements or components.]

Septembr ye 4th. 1681. Published a briefe for ye reliefe of ye  Protestant in churches in ye lesser Poland, collected three pounds, eight shillings, & ten pence; payd to Edward Page of Blyborough [Blythburgh] in ye County of Suffolk who produced his deputation to receive it.

Received ye above = named summe of three pounds, eight shillings, & ten pence for ye above mentioned brief; I say received the 19th day of octobr 1681.

                                                                                                            p [per] me Edw Page

[Lesser Poland was a former, extensive, southern and south-eastern province – different in many ways from the rest of the country. Roman Catholic persecution of some kind, of its Protestant population, was obviously taking place. There is no indication of what kind of relief was being given.]

[Edward Page was probably an officer of the Suffolk Archdeaconry Court.]

August 29th. 1681. Published a brief for a fire in Stafford, collected one pound, five shillings, & six pence, received ye sd [said] sum this 10th day of March 1681/2

                                                                                                                                                p me Edw: Page

[The split year-date indicates the Julian Calendar of 1681, while also acknowledging the fact of it actually being 1682 in terms of the twelve-month sequence – something which wasn’t recognised for official and legal purposes until adoption of the Gregorian Calendar on 2 September 1752.]

April 30th. 1682. Collected in ye parish church of Lowestoft for a burning by thunder & lightning in ye Parish of Hansworth [Handsworth] in West = Riding of ye County of York, the summe of eighteen shillings & eight pence; Received ye sd sum this 10. of May. 1682.

                                                                                    p me Ed: Harrison

[Edward Harrison would probably have been another officer connected with the Suffolk Archdeaconry Court.]

May ye 28. 1682. Collected in ye Parish Church of Lowestoft for a burning in the Towne of Caister [Caistor] in Lincoln = shire the sum of six = teen shillings & six pence; Received ye sd  Sum of 16s & 6d this 22th [sic] of June 1682.

                                                                        p me. Edw: Page

[This fire occurred in 1681 and destroyed most of the town’s medieval buildings. Forty-five families were made homeless and a number of deaths caused.]

March ye 19th. 1681/2 . Collected in ye  Parish Church of Lowestoft for a burning in East = Budley [Budleigh] in in Devonshire the sum of fourteen shillings & three pence, halfpenny. Received ye  sd sum

                                                                        p me. Edw: Page

July ye 2d. 1682. Collected in ye Parish Church of Lowestoft for ye French Protestants that came over to settle in England. The sum of five pounds, fourteen shillings & eight pence.

                                                                                    p me. Edw: Page

[The main immigration of French Protestants – generally referred to as Huguenots – occurred during 1685, after Louis XIV had revoked the Edict of Nantes (many of them settling in the Spitalfields area of London). The collection taken here refers to an earlier incoming.}

July ye 30th. 1682. Collected in ye Parish Church of Lowestoft ye sum of fifteen shillings & six pence for a fire in ye Towne of Bishton in ye County of Stafford.

                                                                                    p me Edw: Page

[This fire occurred on 16 April 1682, with the cost of the damage caused amounting to the sum of £2,176 16s 0d.]

June ye 3d. 1683 Collected in ye parish = church of Lowestoft the sum of 21sh [21 shillings] for a fire in Preston Candever [Candover]in South = Hampton.

[This fire severely damaged the parish church of St. Mary the Virgin .]

July ye 10th. 1683 . Collected the sum of 01 – 02 – 03 for a fire att St. Katharines in London.

[The parish named may have been either St. Katharine-by-the-Tower (demolished in 1825 for the construction of St. Katharine’s Dock) or that of St Katharine Cree in Aldgate. The total collected amounted to £1 2s 0d.]

June ye 2d . 1683. Collected ye sum of 20s for a fire in Stoke by Clare Suff.

                        Received ye sd sums for the 3 briefs last mentioned

                        this 6th of Septembr. 1683 p me Edw: Page

Novembr ye 25th. 1683. Collected the sum of one pound, four pence for a fire in Colompton [Cullompton] in Devon = shire, Received ye sd sum for ye sd Brief this

                                                                        17th of Decembr 1683

                                                                        by me Edw: Page

Februarie ye 17th 1683/4 Collected the sum of – 03 – 02 – 03 for a fire in Wopping [Wapping] London. Received the sd sum for ye sd brief this 30th day of April, 1684.

                                                            p me Will: Shaw Collr [Collector]

[The Wapping fire had broken out about 9 p.m. on 19 November 1682, in Cinnamon Street. It burnt for twenty hours or so and forty people were reported killed in trying to put it out. A total of 1,000 houses were said to have been destroyed, along with large quantities of goods of all kinds. The sum of money raised was the largest recorded for standard post-fire relief of the time and was almost certainly the result of certain inhabitants living there having their origins in Lowestoft.]

[William Shaw was probably an officer of the Suffolk Archdeaconry Court.]

June ye 15th 1684. Collected in ye Parish church of Lowestoft for a fire in the Burrough [Borough] of Bradninch in Devon the sum of 13s & 10d.

[This community had also suffered from a serious blaze during 1666.]

August ye 7th. 1684. Collected in Lowestoft for a fire in Bassingborne {Bassingbourn] in ye County of Cambridge the sum of 20s & 4d.

            Received the abovesd [above-said] for ye two briefs above mentioned

                        this 26th of Sept. 1684.

                                                                        p me Will: Shaw Collr

May the 7th. 1685. Payd  then into ye hands of John Davis of Ipswich by the order of Mr Will[ia]m Edgar Deputy Register [Registrar] of our Archdeaconry in Suffolk the sum of forty = five shillings & ten = pence collected in Lowestoft for the burning att Newmarket.

                                                                                                            p me Jos. Hudson [Vicar]

[This fire had broken out in a stable near the Market Place on 22 March 1683 (1684, by Gregorian Calendar) and was exacerbated by a strong wind blowing. Altogether, sixty-six houses were destroyed and nearly £20,000 worth of damage was done. A total of about 300 people were forced to sleep out on the heath in inclement conditions. Charles II, who was there for the Races, was forced to leave town early – which caused him to escape an assassination attempt on his life (known as the Rye House Plot) on his way back to London.]

[John Davis is likely to have been another officer of the Suffolk Archdeaconry Court.]

June ye 1st. 1685. Received then of Joseph Hudson Clerk [minister] for a brief in Channel = row twenty six shillings & six pence, for Alrewas in Stafford nineteen shillings, for Ely St. Maries [sic] fifteen shillings, for a private man in Breckles in Norfolk twenty six shillings one half = penny,

I say received by me Will Shaw Collr  

[Channel Row refers to what later became Canon Row in Whitehall, London, situated near Westminster Abbey. Derby House, made headquarters of The Admiralty in 1660, was located there. St. Maries Ely refers either to the parish church of St. Mary (situated near the Cathedral) or to the parish itself. There is no way of telling which. The first three briefs may have related to fires.  No indication is given as to the plight of the man who lived in Breckles.]

No Date Given – but probably during 1688-9. Collected in Lowestoft for the relief of the Irish = Protestants that fled into England, the sum of thirty eight  pounds, four shillings and six pence: wch [which] was paid into the hands of Humphrey Prideaux  Dr. of Divinity, and Arch = Deacon of Suffolk.

[This was by far the largest sum collected in Lowestoft for any kind of public relief. Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (1630-91) was an Irish aristocrat and soldier – the close friend of James Duke of York, later to become King James II. When James acceded to the throne in 1685, Tyrconnell (Roman Catholic, like the Monarch) began to purge the Army and the Law in Ireland of Protestants, replacing the men dismissed with fellow Catholics. This led to an exodus of Irish people, of the merchant and trading class, into England during 1687-8. These events preceded the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688, when James II was deposed and replaced as Monarch by his older daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange.]

[Humphrey Prideaux (1648-1714) was a Cornish clergyman, who arrived in Norwich Diocese from Oxford during 1688 and was made Archdeacon of Suffolk. He became Dean of Norwich Cathedral in 1702 and also served as Vicar of Saham Toney and (later) as Rector of Trowse.]

May ye 7th. 1691. Payd att Beccles Generals [General Court] into ye hands of Francis Edgar the sum of one pound, two shillings and eleven pence collected in ye Parish of Lowestoft in Suff. for a fire att St. Ives in Hunting shire [Huntingdonshire] by me

                                                                        Jos. Hudson

[Beccles Generals refers to a session of the Suffolk Archdeaconry Court held in that town. There would have been other venues in the county, organised on a rotational and geographical pattern. Francis Edgar would have been an officer of some kind.]

[Huntingdonshire was made part of Cambridgeshire in 1974, on implementation of the Local Government Act of 1972. Joseph Hudson was Vicar of Lowestoft.]

May ye 7th. 1691. Payd at Beccles Generals into ye hands of Henry Walker the sum of seventeen shillings, four pence half penny, Collected at Lowestoft for Bishops Lavington Brief by me

                                                                                                                        Joseph Hudson.

[Henry Walker would have been a court officer of some kind. Bishop’s Lavington – now known as West Lavington – was a village to the south of Devizes, on the north edge of Salisbury Plain. A serious fire occurred there in 1689, with 226 houses and buildings destroyed and damaged, to the value of £5,367 18s 8d. The adjacent community of Market Lavington was where John Tanner (Vicar of Lowestoft, 1708-59) was brought up – his father being the incumbent there.

Sept. 6. 1691. Collected in Lowestoft for a fire in Morpeth in Northumberland the sum of – 00£ – 18s – 63/4d pd [paid] att Beccles Generals into ye hands of Henry Walker Sept. 26. 1691.

[The final part of the payment, being three-farthings, shows the old division of one penny into four units.]

Sept. 26. 1691. Collected in ye Parish of Lowestoft for Teingmouth [Teignmouth] & Shaldon (who suff[e]red by ye French the sum of – 04£  – 02s –01d pd att Beccles Generals into ye  hands of Gabriel Bradden Collector for ye same Sept. 26. 1691.

[On 26 July 1690, after a victory over the English and Dutch fleets at the Battle of Beachy Head, the French ships anchored up off the east coast of Devon and a force of about a thousand men landed at Teignmouth and neighbouring Shaldon at 4 a.m. in the morning. This was the last invasion of England, of any kind, and the damage done by the French during their three hour occupation (the time given by residents) was described thus by local JPs: “By the late horrid invasion there were burnt down and consumed 116 dwelling houses…and also 172 dwelling houses were rifled and plundered and two parish churches much ruined, plundered and defaced, besides the burning of ten saile of shipps  with the furniture [equipment] thereof, and the goods and merchandise therein…” The residents’ initial account also referred to the destruction of fishing craft and gear, but this was not mentioned by the Justices. The Crown authorised a collection of £11,000 nationwide for the relief of distress in the two communities.]

[Gabriel Bradden was yet another named officer of the Suffolk Archdeaconry Court.]

Aug: 21. 1698. Collected at Lowestoft  for a fire in Newbury Barkshire [Berkshire] ye summe of 0£ – 13s  – 0d

                  Will: Whiston. Vicar.

Sept: 4. 1698. Collected at Lowestoft for a fire in Minehead in Somersetshire 0£  – 15s – 03d  

There would have been other briefs issued in Lowestoft during the 17th and 18th centuries, but these are the ones which have survived in recorded form. And it is a fortunate circumstance of history that they have, giving the reader (as they do) a real sense of the period of their issue.

One surprising omission, perhaps, relates to the very serious fire which destroyed much of the town of Bungay on 1 March 1688 (1689, by adoption of the Gregorian Calendar). Total cost of the damage was put at £29,898 0s 0d and around 400 houses and other buildings were said to have been either destroyed or damaged. A surviving brief from the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, shows that the sum of £25 0s 83/4d was raised, while the City of Norwich collected £526 18s 21/2d from its people.

The surviving Lowestoft documentation shows the process of public appeals made at the time, before means of mass communication via news media of different kinds developed during the 20th century.

CREDIT: David Butcher