Norwich, Connecticut

“ This town was the residence of the valiant Sassacus, Sachem of the Pequod nation.
Stonington lies on Narraganset-Bay, is the east corner of Connecticut, and consists of three parishes. The township is 8 miles square.
[Pg 123] Preston, on Quinnibaug river, forms three parishes, one of which is episcopal. The township is 8 miles square.
Norwich, on the Thames, 14 miles from the sea, is an half-shire with New-London. The town stands on a plain, one mile from Chelsea, or the Landing. Its best street is two miles long, and has good houses on both sides, five yards asunder from each other. ”

“ On April 26th, 1786, the Norwich and Norfolk Benevolent Medical Society was instituted. In May, an exact account of the inhabitants of Norwich was taken from house to house, and the population was ascertained to be 40,051 souls, exclusive of those living in the precincts of the Cathedral, being an increase of nearly 4000 since 1752. This entirely contradicts the statement of Mr. Arthur Young, in his Tour of England, published in 1770, to the effect that 72,000 persons were then employed in manufactures in this city. ”

“ The living is a perpetual curacy valued at £95, and was augmented by royal bounty. The Rev. J. Dombrain is the incumbent.
The Eastern District.
This side of the city has been greatly improved by the formation of a new road called Prince of Wales’ Road, from Foundry Bridge to the Castle Hill. Handsome houses have been built on each side, and broad pavements laid down. Rose Lane has been widened and improved. The Castle Meadow has been adorned by the erection of a new bank called the Crown Bank, a very handsome building in the Corinthian style of architecture. ”

“ The principal owners of the land are the Rev. F. Money, the Great Hospital, and the Dean and Chapter of Norwich; the last of whom are lords of the manor, impropriators of the great tithes, and patrons of the vicarage. The Rev. George Carter, M.A., of Norwich, is the incumbent. ”

“ No merely ecclesiastic settlement, the cold glories of its Cathedral are but one phase of Norwich. Prosperous and self-sufficing in the best sense; its citizens public-spirited, its situation beautiful, its highways imposing and byways quaint and curious, Norwich stands by itself, in its likeness to no other town or city in England. If one must seek a parallel, it is to Exeter one must look, for there is much in common between the two. Both are, very distinctly, the capitals of their respective 294provinces; Norwich still metropolitan to East Anglia, and Exeter to the West of England. ”

“ Norwich is very remarkable for its antiquities, its historical associations, its manufactures, and its trade; and also for the eminent men who have flourished at various periods in the city. It was the scene of many important events in the times of the Iceni, the Romans, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and Normans. It was the royal seat of Anglo-Saxon princes. It was the Hierapolis Monachopolis of the middle ages; famous for its churches and convents; and in later times, celebrated for its Norman castle and cathedral. ”

“ A grand old city is Norwich, with its castle, now a museum, looking over it all, with its St. Andrew’s Hall, now utilised for concerts and public meetings, with its great markets, with its Colman’s Mustard Mills, with its old houses and narrow streets. The workman, with his strikes, has driven away from Northampton a good deal of its boot and shoe manufacture. What Northampton has lost Ipswich, Colchester, and especially Norwich, have gained. There is beautiful country round Norwich; and Norwich ought to be eminently holy, for there are forty churches there, many of them very ancient. ”

“ Another strong point in favour of Norwich having been the Venta Icenorum is, that all the roads radiated from the city to all parts of East Anglia.
In tracing the rise and progress of the city we must remember that it was in the centre of a vast common, and that it was the nucleus of an agricultural community, at first without any trade or any kind of manufactures. ”

“ There is no evidence of the existence of Norwich as a city for 400 years after the Christian era. The whole island was a howling wilderness, and Norfolk was a vast common, like Roudham Heath. The natives lived by hunting or fishing, and sheltered themselves in the woods, or in caves, or huts. Water covered nearly all the area in which the city is now built, and filled all the valley of the Yare. The aborigines, called the Iceni, probably lived in huts near the banks of the river, as it afforded a good supply of fish ”

“ Augustine’s parish, just outside the city walls, was probably founded by a bishop of Norwich, as an hospital for lepers, but is now occupied by ancient poor of both sexes, who are past labor, and not fit to be put into common workhouses; they are in wards from 8 to 12 in each ward, and have every necessary, both of food and raiment; the number entertained here is 103, and as soon as one dies, the vacancy is filled up by election of the committee of the court of guardians for the poor. ”

“ Proceeding eastward out of the Fenland and among the hills of Norfolk, the little river Wensum is found to have cut a broad, deep, and trench-like valley into the chalk and gravel plateau. Upon the elevated bank of the river is the irregularly picturesque town of Norwich, with the castle keep rising above the undulating mass of buildings, and the cathedral and its noble spire overtopping the lower portion of the city on the right hand. Norwich is an ancient town, but very little is known with certainty about it anterior to the Danish invasions. ”

“ The most reliable authority for the whole of the eighteenth century is the “Norfolk Remembrancer,” compiled with great care by Mr. Matchett. R. Fitch, Esq., published a very full and accurate account of the Old Walls and Gates from J. Kirkpatrick’s MSS., illustrated with views by the late p. ixJohn Ninham. B. B. Woodward, Esq., F.S.A., librarian of the royal library at Windsor Castle, has also been a contributor to the history of the old city, but as yet we have only brief reports of his lectures “On Norwich in the Olden Time,” as published in the local journals. ”

“ In the reign of Edward III., 58 parish churches and chapels were within the walls, besides 19 monastic institutions and cells, anchorages, &c. Norwich still contains a greater number of churches and parishes than any other city in England except London. Many of the present churches are excellent specimens of ancient architecture. Several of them are built of squared flints. Besides the cathedral there are three undoubted specimens of the Norman style, and there are also many examples of the decorated or florid which succeeded the lancet style, of the transition style, and of the perpendicular. ”

“ The water-side is the familiar dull red, above which glancing roofs and steeples among trees are seen retreating up the ascent. By night a ridged and chimneyed blackness bestrewed with lights rewards the curious gazer from the deck of a Sound steamboat. I admired in Norwich the broad avenues, the wealth of old trees, the luxurious spaciousness of the private grounds. Washington Street is one of the finest I have walked in. There is breathing-room everywhere, town and country seeming to meet [Pg 435] and clasp hands, each giving to the other of the best it had to offer. ”

“ No one can have turned over a bookseller’s catalogue of local historical publications without observing how few they are in comparison with the extent and importance of the particular district in view. The fact is, that most of the productions of the early authors are either very scarce or are entirely out of print. No city or county can boast of so many industrious topographers and antiquarians as Norwich and Norfolk. ”

“ Norwich was not a city then, the see of the Bishop of East Anglia being at Elmham, but there was a monastic church called Christ's Church where the present cathedral stands, and the bishop had a palace on the site of the well-known Maid's Head Inn of the present, the walls of which were lapped by the river.
Herfast, who held the see from 1070 to 1076, had been chaplain to William the Conqueror when he was Duke of Normandy. ”

“ In 1336, a great influx of Flemings in consequence of religious persecution, settled in Norwich, and introduced the worsted manufactory.
Henry IV. in the year 1403, granted the city a charter, which made Norwich a county of itself; and from this time it was governed by a mayor instead of bailiffs; and in 1406, another charter was obtained for regulating the mode of choosing the mayor, sheriffs, &c. ”

“ Harrod, too, has contributed a good deal to more accurate views of early periods, especially in relation to the earth-works of the castle, and to the monasteries.
The chapters on the “Rise and Progress of Nonconformists in Norwich” in this history, are the first given in any work of the kind, and supply information which will readily account for the political condition of the city. From a few hundreds in the seventeenth century, the Nonconformists have so greatly increased that now they number many thousands, and have at the same time attained to considerable wealth and influence. ”

“ James assures us that Norwich attained its highest prosperity during the middle of the eighteenth century, so great was the energy and fertility of resource displayed by its merchants. The worsted dyers of the city were pre-eminent for skill, and their profits were great. The city merchants sent travellers throughout Europe, and their pattern books were shown in every principal town as far as Moscow. Norwich goods were introduced into France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Poland, and there was also a large trade with Russia. ”

“ The census, which was taken in this year, showed that the population of Norwich had increased to 68,713 persons who were in a comparatively prosperous condition, for trade was good and provisions were cheap. ”

“ These may be found grouped together in profusion, making the impression on the mind that this must be a wealthy district to require the vast stores of goods kept in Norwich warehouses; but so it is, as every one knows who has visited the dwellings of many of our rich citizens. Luxuries are enjoyed by the well-to-do classes of to-day, which could not be found in baronial halls a few centuries ago. ”

“ There is no chancel arch, but the rood stair turret still remains on the south side; and under the east window, externally, are some good niches and panels. A beautiful carved stone reredos was erected in 1850 by subscription in memory of the late Rev. James Brown, B.D., who was the esteemed incumbent of this parish from 1807 to 1856. The benefice is a perpetual curacy valued in 1831 at £90, and augmented from 1756 to 1786 with £800 of Queen Anne’s bounty, and with a grant of £600 in 1815. The church estate is let in long leases, for £22 16s. yearly. The parishioners are the patrons. ”

“ Many of the Jews were killed, and their houses plundered and burnt. A rumour was thereupon spread throughout the nation that the king did not favour them, on which the people of Bury, Lynn, and Norwich, took occasion to rise and rob great numbers of them. On November 27th following, Roger, son of Hugh Bigod, was created Earl of Norfolk, and steward of the king’s household. By his means the city regained as ample a charter as London then possessed, for in 1193, the king granted the city in fee farm to the citizens and their heirs, for a fee farm rent of £180 yearly. ”

“ Norwich is the capital of all the county, and the centre of all the trade and manufactures which I have just mentioned; an ancient, large, rich, and populous city. If a stranger was only to ride through or view the city of Norwich for a day, he would have much more reason to think there was a town without inhabitants, than there is really to say so of Ipswich ”

“ Norwich then became one of the chief seats of Anna, king of the East Angles, who gave the castle, with the lands belonging to it, to his daughter Ethelfrida on her marriage with Tombert, a prince of the Gyrvii or Fenmen, who inhabited the fens of Lincolnshire and the adjacent parts of Norfolk. At the same time Tombert granted to Ethelfrida, as a marriage settlement, the isle of Ely, which for greater security was to be held by castle guard service to the castle of Norwich. ”

“ These have been succeeded by the Maunday Thursday horse and cattle fair, and the pleasure fairs of Easter and Christmas. The market, which must have existed before the Conquest, was held daily in the 13th century, when citizens enclosed stalls by royal licence. Edward III. made Norwich a staple town, and the importance of its trade in wool and worsted dates from his reign.
See Victoria County History, Norfolk; W. Hudson, Records of the City of Norwich (1906) . ”

“ In 1565, the prosperity of the city, which had begun to decline, was again revived by the settling here of 330 Flemings and Walloons, who had fled from the Netherlands, from the rigid persecution under the sanguinary Duke of Alva. In 1570, by the fostering encouragement of Queen Elizabeth, the number of these foreign settlers had increased to 3925, and by the introduction of bombazine, and other manufactures, they contributed much to the wealth and prosperity of Norwich. ”

“ During this reign the citizens of Norwich took a very active part in all the great movements of the age—the Roman Catholic Emancipation movement, the Anti-Slavery movement, and the Reform agitation. Strong contests at elections took place on all these questions. Bribery, corruption, treating, cooping, and intimidation, were resorted to by both parties on every occasion, as will appear in a subsequent chapter, on our political history. Party spirit never ran higher in any town than in Norwich. ”