Norfolk, Virginia

“ A hundred years hence, when Norfolk may or may not have become the commercial seat of a vast Southern empire; when the face of external nature in this low region, unmarked by mountain ranges, will be wholly changed in all but in the course of our great river and of our two glorious seas; and when the rising genius of Virginia, turning from the sages and statesmen of Greece and Rome, from Socrates and Demosthenes, and from Cato and Cincinnatus, shall seek to know the details of the lives of the greater men who have adorned our own annals ”

“ Besides boards and shingles, they sent beef and pork to the West Indies, and it was not unusual to see a score of sloops and brigantines riding in the noble harbour. Under these favourable circumstances the population of Norfolk had come by 1776 to be about 6,000. At that time Philadelphia had some 35,000 inhabitants, and New York 25,000, though the population of their two states taken together scarcely equalled that of Virginia.
Futile attempts to make towns by legislation. ”

“ Some genuine old-time New York ferryboats help to complete the illusion that Norfolk is New York
The principal shopping streets of Norfolk and Richmond are as unlike as possible. Broad Street, Richmond, is very wide, and is never overcrowded, whereas Granby Street, Norfolk (advertised by local enthusiasts as "the livest street in Virginia," and appropriately spanned, at close intervals, by arches of incandescent lights) , is none too wide for the traffic it carries, with the result that, during the afternoon and evening, it is truly very much alive. ”

“ Added to this, Norfolk, from its contiguity to the Dismal Swamp, is enabled to supply the West Indian market with lumber on better terms than any other town in the United States. It is in consequence increasing with wonderful rapidity, notwithstanding the disadvantages it labours under from the laws, which are so inimical to commerce. At present it contains upwards of five hundred houses, which have all been built within the last twenty years, for in the year 1776 the town was totally destroyed by orders of Lord Dunmore, then regal governor of Virginia. ”

“ The population, in proportion to its numbers, was very widely distributed. It was not collected in groups, after the fashion with which we are now familiar, for then there were no cities or towns in Virginia. The only place which could pretend to either name was Norfolk, the solitary seaport, which, with its six or seven thousand inhabitants, formed the most glaring exception that any rule solicitous of proof could possibly desire. Williamsburg, the capital, was a straggling village, somewhat overweighted with the public buildings and those of the college. ”

“ THE FOURTH PREBEND, Or prebend of the archdeacon of the cathedral church of Norwich, to which the 2d stall from the archdeacon's on the north side of the church belongs.
1. Edmund Drake, alias Norwich, monk here, and prior of their cell at Aldby, was made prebendary by the charter in 1538.
2. Henry King, S. T. P. installed in 1548; he was vicar of Wimondham in Norfolk, rector of Great and Little Fransham; was deprived of all in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, and being reconciled, became rector of Winterton, in 1557. ”

“ And on the day of the conversion of St.Paul, for lack of good government of the governours of the city, they rang the bells, and the said mayor and commonalty, with 3000 other citizens and persons unknown, assembled by the said ringing, with force and arms, viz. with bows, swords, arrows, helmets, &c. in a warlike manner, and went to the Priory of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity at Norwich, in the county of Norfolk, calling out, "lett us burne the priory, and kille the Prior and monks." ”

“ In 1281, John Earl Warren, the first of that name, granted to the canons the advowson of the church of Gresham in Norfolk, which belonged to his manor there, and was held in capite of the King; but yet the Prior did not present to it for some years after, till it was confirmed by John Earl Warren, his son and heir, in 1329, and from that time they presented the rectors. ”

“ Such was Norfolk, not enveloped in the mists of tradition, but such as she was, when Mr. Tazewell came to reside here in 1802.
He lived to behold a very different state of things. He lived to see it one of the cleanest cities in the world, and to see more miles of paved streets in Norfolk than any other city south of the Potomac can boast of; and those streets lighted up every night with a brilliancy equal to that which a rejoicing people, thirteen years later than 1802, kindled in commemoration of the victory of New Orleans, and of the peace with Great Britain. ”

“ Rose, preacher, by order of the privy council, was sent from the Tower to the sheriff of Norfolk, to be conveyed to Norwich, and there delivered to the Bishop, who was either to reduce him to recant, or else proceed against him, for now the bloody spirit of persecution began to rage in Suffolk, Norfolk, &c. ”

“ In 1409, at the request of the commons, it was granted, that the mayor, sheriffs, and commonalty of Norwich, shall for certain years, have the aulnage and survey of measuring all manner of worsteds made in Norwich or Norfolk, and none shall be sold without their seal, for which they shall take a halfpenny for each piece sealed, and such as are not measure shall be forfeited, half to the King, and half to the city; in which grant, all the terms, makings, and quantities of worsteds may be seen: this aulnage and seal was let this year to two citizens at 20 marks rent. ”

“ The unequalled harbor of Norfolk, and the resources of the country all around it, extending as far, almost, as thought could reach, might well have encouraged the theory of Washington. But munificence and energy and labor have built up many cities since then, which had not half the natural advantages of Norfolk, while Norfolk is far behind. A little lack of enterprise, a little lack of harmony and liberality, may, in the early days of a town, divert business and improvements from a good location, till in a short time an unheard-of and inferior place totally eclipses it. ”

“ Marsham, mayor of Norwich, John Corbet, Esq. Austen Steward, Rob. Leech, Rob. Rugg, John Ball, and Alex. Mather, aldermen, Thomas Whale, Tho. Peck, Ralph Marsham, Rob. Henrie, John Sutton, Ric. Thompson, citizens and Merchants, have at their great costs, brought in looms and strangers to work with them, by which they have made in the said city, of Norfolk wool, much better russels satins, &c. than are made beyond sea, by which the citizens are like to be relieved, and advanced to their good and former estate, if some good laws were made for the continuance of the making of the said satins, &c. ”

“ Norfolk was a wise and experienced politician, and an expert and valiant soldier, careful in the management of his own affairs, and a faithful adherent of the house of York; but his memory is stained by his desertion of the interests of the son of his old master and by his intimate relations with the usurper. By his first wife, Catharine, he had Thomas, earl of Surrey and second duke of Norfolk [q. v.] , and four daughters: Anne, married to Sir Edward Gorges of Wraxall, Somerset; Isabel, married to Sir Robert Mortimer of Essex; Jane, married to John Timperley ”

“ Paul's is properly valued I mean that many citizens told my companion and me to be sure to visit. I observe, however—and I take it as a sign [Pg 253] of the times in Norfolk—that an extensive, well-printed and much illustrated book on Norfolk, issued by the Chamber of Commerce, contains pictures of banks, docks, breweries, mills, office buildings, truck farms, peanut farms, battleships, clubhouses, hotels, hospitals, factories, and innumerable new residences, but no picture of the church, or of the lovely old homes of Freemason Street. ”

“ In 1578, the City was acquainted that her Majesty designed a progress through Norfolk and Suffolk, and to visit this city; upon which, at a court held on the 20th of June, the houses, streets, and lanes, were ordered to be repaired and beautified: and the mayor sent letters to the mayors of Lyn, Yarmouth, &c. to desire them to send workmen to assist, who should be well paid for their journeys and work: the cross in the market was painted, the posts in timber colour, and the rest white ”

“ Anne, their only daughter, who married Richard Plantaginet of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, second son to King Edward IV. who, because the title of Duke of Norfolk was by the creation limited to the heirs male of the Mowbrays, he obtained a patent from his father, creating him Duke of Norfolk, and Earl Warren; with annuities of 40l. a year, out of the revenues of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and 20l per annum out of the profits of the counties of Surrey and Sussex, to be paid by the sheriff's of those counties. ”

“ The water is very cold, and in the extremity of frost never freezes, though the motion is but little. The people that come to see this place have pulled down most of the ruins, to throw into the vault to hear the sound, which is very great, and continues long. The meadow is called the Conduit Meadow, and is part of the estate of the Duke of Norfolk. [1736.]
In 1285, he had a charter for free warren in all his demeans here, and in Wilby in Norfolk, and Chedeston in Suffolk ”

“ This year, the Earls of Northumberland and Huntington, the Lords Tho. Howard and Willoughby, with many other lords and knights, came to Norwich, to visit the Duke of Norfolk there, and were all lodged with their retinue at the Duke's palace; and during their stay, they diverted themselves with shooting and other martial exercises on Moushold-Heath; and it being at the time that the mayor's feast was to be held at the New-hall, Will. Mingay, Esq. then mayor, invited them and their ladies to the feast, John Suckling, baker, Tho. ”

“ In 1306, Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk and Marshal of England held it jointly with Alice his wife, of Robert Fitz-Walter, by the service of two parts of a fee; and from that time to this, it hath passed as Forncet manor.
The church is dedicated to all the Saints; when Norwich Domesday was wrote, Hugh de Dovedale was patron; the rector then had no house, but two barns, and 23 acres of glebe, though now there is a house, barn, and outhouses, adjoining to the north side of the churchyard, and about 30 acres of glebe. ”

“ Edmund's Bury, to which it belonged in the Confessor's time, except that part which Almar then held of that house, which was almost half the town. This part was a manor also, and held in the Conqueror's time by Roger Bygod Earl of Norfolk, who was afterwards infeoffed in the other part, by Abbot Baldwin, as Joceline's Chronicle, in the Cotton Library, informs us, to hold it of the abbey, at one fee, and to pay nothing to the ward of Norwich castle, because the abbot paid 7s. every twenty weeks for the whole town. ”

“ Robert Whetyng, Nicholas Horkysley, John Garbolsham, Christopher Garbolsham, Thomas Hynyngham, and Thomas Berney, monks there. The surrender lies in the Augmentation Office, and hath its seal still upon it. The cell of Wangford in Suffolk, which belonged to this priory, was surrendered with it, and passed along with the monastery and all its revenues to the Duke of Norfolk, in whose family the monastery hath continued to this time, the honourable Philip Howard being the present [1738] owner. ”

“ Relic-hunters visiting the place have a habit of clandestinely appropriating the cannon-ball, so the sexton, with an eye to business, has some on hand ready to put into the cavity, and thus maintain the old church's patriotic reputation. A novel sight in Norfolk is its market, largely served by negroes—old "mammies" with bright bandannas tied about their heads and guarding piles of luscious fruits ”

“ After the Dissolution, the site, &c. with Windham abbey manor, was given, in 1545, to Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey, during the life of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, his father, if the Earl so long lived, paying into the Court of Augmentations 9l. 7s. 7d. a year. It came after to the Crown, belonged to Queen Mary, and was granted by Queen Elizabeth, in 1564, to Walter Haddon, to be held by the fee-farm of 11l. 9s. 8d. per annum. ”

“ The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes having subjugated the fair territory of England, they divided it into seven kingdoms, called the Heptarchy, in which Norfolk formed a part of East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxon leader, Uffa, established himself in this part of the island, in 575; and assumed dominion over that portion of the eastern district now divided into Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, giving it the name of East Anglia, of which Norwich was made the metropolis. Norwich was, therefore, a royal city, and the residence of the kings. ”

“ Sarah Frankland gave 100l. with which there was freehold land purchased in the parish, the rent of which is to find 2s. worth of bread to be distributed to the poor every Sunday, by the rector and church-wardens.
The Commons are inconsiderable, except their intercommonage with Brisingham on Boyland Green; (see p. 72;) and a large tract of meadows which are common from Lammas to March, and are called the Lammas Meadows.
This parish is in the archdeaconry of Norfolk, and deanery of Redenhall. In 1603, it had 142 communicants, hath now near 40 dwellinghouses, and contains about 200 inhabitants. ”