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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