The History of Lynn, Vol. 1 [of 2]

HISTORY OF LYNN, PART II.

What is now called Lynn, Lynn Regis, or the Borough of King’s Lynn, is generally considered as a place of no very high antiquity.  It arose probably during the Heptarchy, out of the ruins of the old town, though not built on the same spot, and must soon have become a place of no small consideration in the kingdom of the East Angles, as may very reasonably be concluded, from the convenience of its situation for trade and commerce.  We hear not much of it, however till after the conquest, when it presently appears as a place of growing importance, under the direction and management of its new French masters, the enterprising companions and agents of the successful Norman adventurer, the Bonaparte of the eleventh century.

But though no traces can be discovered of the existence of a town on the eastern side of the river, prior to the time of the Heptarchy, it is more than probable, that there was a town on the opposite, or western side, long anterior to that period.  That town has not yet entirely disappeared.  It may still be recognized in the little village called Old Lynn; a name which plainly indicates, that the original town must have stood there.  It is well known that the town on the eastern side was formerly called New Lynn, or rather New Len, and that the other was then distinguished from it by the name of Old Len.  No good reason can be assigned for this, but that the latter was the original town, known by the name of Len long before the other had any existence.  The attempt made by Spelman, Parkin, and others to elude this conclusion is weak and frivolous.  It does not appear that there ever has been any period, since the eastern, or modern town existed, when the inhabitants did not apply the name of Old Len, or Old Lynn to the other.  There can therefore be no manner of doubt, but that it is to this same old Lynn we are to look for the site of the ancient and original town.  It is probable, indeed, that that town might extend much nigher to the spot now occupied by the present town, than what the village of Old Lynn now does, as the bed of the river was formerly very narrow, compared with what it is at present; and the waters are allowed to have made considerable encroachments on the western shore.  When, and by whom the original town was founded, as well as, what may be the true etymology, or real meaning of its name, are points that are involved in no small obscurity, and cannot, therefore, be very easily and clearly settled, or ascertained.  It seems, however, highly probable, if not certain, as shall be shewn by and by, that it took its name from its marshy situation, and was founded by the Romans, at the time when they undertook to drain the fen-country, and rescue Marshland, by strong embankments, from the power and ravages of the ocean.  It may also pretty safely be concluded, that this must have taken place within the first century of the christian era, and probably in the reign of Nero, if not in that of Claudius. [215]  The foundation of Lynn may therefore be considered as coeval with the first introduction of Christianity into this island; which was nearly if not quite 1750 years ago: and though this fixes the origin of Lynn at a pretty remote period, and much beyond what has hitherto been supposed, yet it seems to be supported by no small degree of probability.

Section II.

This account, given by Gildas, is remarkably corroborated by the Triads of the Isle of Britain, which are ancient British documents of undoubted credit, though but little known. [217a]  From them we learn that the famous Caradoc, or Caractacus, having been overthrown in the war, and afterwards basely betrayed and delivered up to the Romans, by Aregwedd Voeddig (the Cartismandua of Roman authors) was, together with his father Brân, (or Brennus) and whole family, carried captive to Rome, about the year 52, where they were detained seven years, or more.  At that time Rome enjoyed the preaching of the gospel, and Brân with others of the family became converts to the christian religion.  After the expiration of their captivity, they returned home, and were the means of introducing the knowledge of Christ among their countrymen: on which account, Brân is called, one of the three holy sovereigns, and his family, one of the three holy lineages of Britain.  The Triads also have preserved the names of three of the primitive christians who accompanied Brân on his return to this country, and who were probably the very first christian ministers that ever set foot on this island: one was an Israelite of the name of Ilid; of the other two, one was called Cyndav, and the other Arwystli Hên, or Arwystli the aged. [217b]  This account is very curious, and, in all probability, authentic. [217c]

When Brân returned to his native country, it has been understood that some of his family stayed behind and settled at Rome.  Of them Claudia, mentioned, along with Pudens and Linus, in the second Epistle to Timothy, is supposed to be one, and the very same with Claudia the wife Pudens, mentioned by the poet Martial, who lived in those times, and who celebrates her, in his Epigrams, as a Briton of extraordinary beauty, wit, and virtue.  To this it has indeed been objected, that Martial, living in the reign of Trajan, cannot be supposed to speak of Paul’s Claudia, who flourished in the reigns of Claudius and Nero.  But it might be urged in reply, that though he lived in Trajan’s reign, he lived also, and resided at Rome, in the reign of Vespasian, if not in that of Nero; and the Epigrams in which he mentions Claudia might be written in his younger years, when she was in the prime and bloom of life.  Some have made her to be the daughter of Caractacus, which seems not at all unlikely.  Pomponia Græcina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, Claudius’ Lieutenant, and the first Roman Governor here, has also been, thought a Briton and a christian, and one of the earliest British Christians.  Tacitus speaks of her as an illustrious lady, but accused for having embraced a strange and foreign superstition; [218] and though he says she was acquitted, as to any thing immoral, yet he represents her as leading ever after a gloomy and melancholy kind of life: all which will strictly coincide with the idea of her being a christian.  Tacitus could conceive or express himself no otherwise of a person dissenting from his own pagan tenets, or of a religion disallowed by the Roman law, which was with him the standard of truth, rectitude, and orthodoxy.  The above accusation and trial of Pomponia Græcina took place, it seems, while Nero and Calphurnus Piso were Consuls, and after Paul had come to Rome the first time, and therefore she may not unreasonably be supposed one of his converts.

Other authorities render it highly probable, that some of those captives had embraced Christianity during their residence at Rome; but the Triads, above-mentioned, may be said to settle the point, and reduce the matter to a certainty.  They were documents formed on purpose to preserve and perpetuate the memory of remarkable and interesting events; of which sort may justly be considered, the conversion of Brân and family, and their introducing Christianity into this island.  There is every reason to conclude, that the religion of the first British Christians was venerably simple, pure, and perfect, like what appears in the New Testament, and very widely different from that of the men of the present generation.  But this subject we will now drop, and resume the thread of the narrative. [219]

Section III.

The great project formed by the Romans of embanking, draining, and improving these fens and marshes, is said to have been executed by a foreign colony, [220] brought over and settled here for that purpose, but, without doubt, powerfully assisted by the natives.  This colony is presumed to have been of Batavian or Belgic origin; for where could the Romans have found a people so fit for their purpose as among the inhabitants of a country that so much resembles this, and who must have been, while at home, habituated to the work in which they were here to be employed?  The vicinity of those countries to this, and their then subjection to the Romans, may be considered as further corroborating this opinion.  From the exposed situation of Marshland, and its lying next to the inhabited part of the country, it may very reasonably be supposed, that these colonists would begin their work there, and even on its eastern side, about where Lynn now stands: and as they would immediately want habitations, it is very natural to conclude, that the town of Old Len, or Lynn, was built for, or by them, and that they were the very people that gave it its name.  These conclusions appear remarkably countenanced and supported by that very name itself; for LEN, in the Celtic (or Belgio-celtic) dialect, or language, is said to signify a Fen, Morass, or Marsh. [221]  LEN, therefore, as they applied, or used the word here, might mean a town by a morass, the town in the marsh, or the chief town and mother town of Marshland and the Fens.  This seems to be, by far, the most tenable and satisfactory explanation of the name of this ancient town, that has ever yet been offered or suggested.

Camden derives the name of Lynn from the British word Llyn, which signifies a lake; but circumstances do not at all support that idea.  There was anciently at Lynn no very large collection of waters: its very river was inconsiderable, consisting only of the water of the Little Ouse, and the Wissey, together with that of the Nar, or Setch river, formerly called Len, and sometimes Sundringham Ea. [222a]  The very harbour also, for many ages, was remarkably narrow.  As to the waters below, in the roads, “It is very unlikely that the Britons should call them Llyn, (i.e. Lake,) a name which they never appear to have given to similar collections of water: but if we were to admit, that they actually gave that name to these waters, still it would seem exceedingly improbable, that this place should derive its name from thence, any more than Rising, or other towns that are situated near to the like estuaries, or arms of the sea.”  Spelman’s conjectures on this point are weaker and more untenable still.  He would have the name to be derived from the Saxon Læn, or Lean, signifying, as he says, a farm, or tenure in fee; but which sense, according to Hicks, is unusual: nor is it likely, as Gough has observed, that this tenure should be more particularized here than elsewhere. [222b]  Equally futile is what he further advances, “that Len is Saxon for church-land; whence Ter Llen, in Welsh, is church-land:” which is most strangely confounding those two languages, as if the one had sprung from the other.  Nor is it strictly true, that Ter llen in welsh means church-land, or even that there is such a welsh word in being.  Tir llan might, indeed, have such a meaning, but it does not seem to be ever used in that sense.  Llen or Llëen, in that language, means literature, and not church; and as an adjective, it means literary, scholastic, or clerical; whence gwyr llen, or llëen, signifies the clergy, as gwyr lleyg, or lleygion does the laity.  But all this can make nothing for Spelman’s point, and it must, of course, fall to the ground.—That Lynn ever went by the name Maidenburg, from saint Margaret the virgin, seems to be another of the idle whimsies of dreaming antiquarians.  Of all such dreamers none perhaps ever exceeded Parkin, the continuator of Blomefield the Norfolk historian: whenever he is at a loss for the etymology of the name of any town or village, he generally refers to the British, and pretends to explain it accordingly.  Never is he more ready or flippant than when speaking of the signification of British words; of which, at the same time, he knew nothing at all.

Lynn, as has been already suggested, was, in all probability, the very first town built by the above mentioned colonists, and so the mother town of that extensive country, which they were the means of recovering, improving, and securing from the annoyance of the salt and stagnant waters.  Being their original dwelling place, it may naturally be supposed, that it would continue afterward to be their principal habitation or settlement, although in the progress of their work, and as they advanced further on, other dwellings and villages would of course be constructed and inhabited.  Considering these people as originally from Belgium or Batavia, than which nothing is more likely, it may from thence be inferred, that the intercourse between Lynn and the Low Countries must have been of very early origin.  Some connection or traffick between these colonists and their mother country may fairly be supposed to have commenced from their very first settlement here: so that the trade and intercourse between Lynn and the Netherlands may be concluded to be now of above seventeen hundred years standing.

Those industrious colonists seem not to have, in the least, disappointed the hopes or expectations of their employers.  They appear to have carried on and executed the work with great diligence, skill, and success.  It is probable, as before hinted, that they began on the eastern side of Marshland, (that being nighest the habitable or inhabited part of the country, and where also their first town or settlement would naturally be erected) and from thence extended their labours to Wisbeach, and so on to the Marshes of Holland, in Lincolnshire, and other parts of the country which they were to recover and improve.  The Banks which they constructed in their progress were large, high, and firm, and such as effectually secured the country from the incursion and depredation of the sea.  They are still known, in most places, and even on the eastern side of the Ouse and in the vicinity of Lynn, by the name of the Roman Banks.  Nor does it appear that they were less judicious or successful in their attempts to drain and improve the parts which they had so well and effectually rescued from the Ocean’s destructive power; for by accounts handed down from ancient writers, it would seem that the country within their banks, at least a great part of it, was soon brought to an admirable state of cultivation, improvement, and fertility, like another paradise, and remained so for many ages. [225]

Even roads, of considerable length and width, appear to have been made by the same people in this new recovered and marshy country, constructed of gravel of no small depth and breadth, and formed in a most masterly manner: of which that leading from Denver to Peterborough, or rather, perhaps, to Castor, or Caister in Northamptonshire, is a most remarkable, and very striking instance.  This road, according to Dugdale (as has been already observed in the Introduction) was composed of gravel, three feet deep, and sixty wide: at present, it is said to be covered with a moorish soil, from three to five feet thick.  The constructing of such a road, and carrying it for so many miles, through a country almost totally destitute of gravel, stone, or any other materials proper for road-making, which must therefore have been procured from a vast distance, and with immense labour and difficulty, must have been a very extraordinary and stupendous achievement.  In comparison with which, how puny are the efforts and performances of our modern adventurers, or commissioners of roads, in this flat country!  A proof of this we have in the great Turnpike Road that leads from St. German’s to Wisbeach, where attempts have been making now for some years to cover it with gravel, but hitherto with no very great effect.  At any rate, it must appear, that those ancient Colonists, introduced by the Romans, for the purpose of recovering and improving this great fen-country, were eminently qualified for the work in which they were employed, and ought to be still held in grateful remembrance by the good people of England, especially those of Marshland and the Fens, and esteemed among their very best benefactors.—The merit of those works and improvements, however, should not be all ascribed to them: the Romans, who introduced, employed, and maintained them, and who projected the undertaking, should be allowed some share of it.  Nor are the natives, or Britons, who laboriously, powerfully, and effectually assisted in carrying on those works and improvements, to be entirely overlooked or forgotten on this occasion.  The latter are said to have borne so large a share in those laborious undertakings, as to occasion very serious complaints and remonstrances from some of their countrymen to, and against the Romans, as having cruelly exhausted their strength, by the excessive hardships and fatigues they had been obliged to undergo in that service.  Nor is this at all incredible; for the Romans are known to have been often very unfeeling, severe, and cruel task-masters to the nations they had subdued.  If the country was improved it was always at the expense of the sweat and treasure, and not unfrequently of the groans and lives of its inhabitants.

CHAP. II.

Long before they had effected any settlement in Britain, they used to make frequent descents upon the coast, particularly that of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex.  To guard against which, the Romans not only kept a fleet cruising in these seas, but also built a chain of forts in the most convenient places, which they had well garrisoned.  These forts were nine in number, and extended from Brancaster to Yarmouth, and thence down a considerable way along the coast; and (as was before observed) the troops here stationed, a good part of which consisted of cavalry, were under the command of an officer called, The Count of the Saxon shore.  This provision, or precaution, however, proved, too often, but a very imperfect security against the sudden inroads of those ancient and daring marauders. [229]

Of all the nations of the north, the Saxons appear to have been the most barbarous and most sanguinary.  The Francs, who conquered Gaul, were a civilised people compared with them.  Of the use of letters they were totally ignorant.  All knowledge that had not some affinity with piracy, or tendency to improve their system of rapine and devastation, was by them held in the utmost contempt and abhorrence.  Gildas, who was born but a few years after their arrival in this country, describes them as a most fierce and detestable people, “a nation odious both to God and man.” [231]  They were invited here to assist the inhabitants in opposing the incursions of the Picts and Scots; but they soon turned their arms against their infatuated employers, and converted the war into a system of extermination.

Their countrymen on the continent long retained the original character of their nation.  During many ages they continued preeminent for their bloodthirsty disposition and savage manners.  Charlemagne subdued them, after a thirty years war, and forced them to become converts to his Christianity, and submit to baptism; but their ferocity he did not subdue, nor had their conversion any effect towards humanizing them.  They were, however, called Christians: which was like calling evil, good, or Satan, an angel of light.  These Saxon Christians, in the twelfth century, quarrelled with the Venedi, a neighbouring nation, because they objected against embracing their Christianity, and refused to renounce their own paganism, which they seemed to prefer, for its cheapness.  The former they found to be an institution attended with an expence which they could but ill support.  Bishoprics were to be erected, with large revenues, Monasteries to be endowed, and an annual tribute, under the name of tithes, to be paid by the whole country.  Against this the Venedi remonstrated, to Bernard Duke of Saxony, the christian champion.  They protested that they were very poor, and unable to bear any heavy burden, such as providing for the maintenance of priests, and especially for the dignity and parade of mitred prelates; that they were fully determined to suffer any extremity, even to abandon their country and state, rather than submit to so tyrannical an oppression.  This firm opposition of theirs to the will of the christian potentate, or rather the Saxon tyrant, involved them in a long and bloody war, the final issue of which was, their utter extirpation, by Henry Duke of Saxony, surnamed the Lion, the great champion of the church on that occasion.  The cruelty with which he disgraced his victory, was horrible.  Few revolutions in history were attended with such circumstances of barbarity, or proved so destructive to the ancient inhabitants. [232]  Even Charlemagne, after he had subdued the Saxons, by a long and bloody war, did not attempt to destroy their whole race, but only transplanted a part, and the remainder he endeavoured to reconcile to his empire by the establishment of his Christianity.  But the Saxons, by far more cruel than the Francs, were of all conquerors the most destructive, extending the utmost rigour of the sword against those who dared to contend with them for liberty or empire.

“In the same ferocious manner, (says the historian) their ancestors some centuries before had behaved in Britain, where they either massacred or expelled the greatest part of the natives, who had invited them over to their assistance.  None of the other nations that overran the Roman Empire behaved with such cruelty to the conquered inhabitants, or were inflamed with such rancour and animosity, as to attempt to convert those provinces into deserts.  The Goths, the Burgandians, the Lombards, instead of massacring the Romans in cold blood, and endeavouring to extirpate their whole race, enacted very just laws in favour of those people, in consequence of which the Romans and those fierce barbarous, their conquerors, were considered in the same light as fellow citizens.  Theodorick king of Italy, a Gothic prince, upon sending an army into Gaul, makes use of these words to his general, which deserve to be inscribed on pillars of brass, “Let other kings delight in the plunder and devastation of the towns they have subdued; we are desirous to conquer in such a manner, that our new subjects shall lament their having fallen too late under our government.” [233]

How much happier had it been for the Britons to have been invaded by Theodorick than by the Saxons!

From the above account of the character of the ancient Saxons, one may be enabled to form a pretty just, but shocking idea of the miseries in which they involved the wretched inhabitants of this country, and those of Lynn and its vicinity among the rest.  The exterminating war which they here waged, and the horrid devastation which attended their successful progress, have been recorded by Gildas, who himself lived at that eventful period, and must have been an eye-witness to no small portion of the direful events which he describes.  Nothing can exceed the tragical description he gives of the diabolical and destructive operations of those brutal invaders.  He represents the whole country, and especially the western parts, near to which he chiefly resided, as entirely laid waste with fire and sword, and the inhabitants massacred wherever they could be found.  Of the wretched remnant, some fled to foreign countries, others retired to the mountains, or hid themselves in deserts and fastnesses, where, however, they could not long remain:—drawn forth by the pressing calls of hunger and famine, multitudes were forced to surrender to the merciless foe, begging that their lives might be spared, on the abject and miserable condition of submitting to perpetual slavery.  Even of these not a few appear to have been instantly consigned to destruction. [234a]  Others, however, were spared; and from them, in all probability, sprung the Servi, or slaves, with which the country abounded for many ages after. [234b]  Some of the wretched inhabitants were so fortunate as to make their escape to their countrymen, either in Wales, or in Devon and Cornwall, or else in Cumberland and the northern parts, where they made a noble stand, and long maintained their liberty and independence.

Those Saxon conquerors of our island consisted of different clans, or tribes, one of which went by the name of Angles; and though they are not generally supposed to have composed the principal or most numerous part of the invaders, yet it so happened, that the whole of the conquered country and also the language of its new inhabitants took their names from them.  They took possession of the ancient country, or province of the Iceni, and there founded the kingdom of East Anglia, or of East Angles, comprehending the present counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, which made some figure among its sister kingdoms in the time of the Heptarchy.  The kingdom of Mercia and that of Northumberland also, it seems, were inhabited by the same people.

Of Lynn, during that dark and disastrous period, no account has been preserved.  It was probably destroyed by those merciless invaders, during their long and bloody contest with the ill fated natives, along with many other towns, all over the country, which certainly met the same fate. [236]  At what time it revived, or rose again into existence, is no where recorded.  But from the convenience and advantage of its situation it may be supposed to have done so pretty soon after the government of the East-Angles had assumed a settled form, and acquired a competent or tolerable share of stability.  That it existed under the East-Anglian kings, seems a very natural and credible supposition; but whether it stood then on the western side only, or on both sides of the river, cannot now be ascertained.  Under the Saxon princes that succeeded the dissolution of the Heptarchy, it is well known to have extended to the eastern shore of the river; and it is then, most probably, that we are to date the origin of the present town or borough of Lynn.  In the time of Edward, called the confessor, we find it a place of trade and considerable note; a plain proof that it must have been in being, and growing into consequence a good while before that period.  It belonged then to Ailmar, bishop of Elmham, and his brother Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, when blind superstition and ecclesiastical servility may naturally be supposed to have been among the principal or most distinguished characteristics of its inhabitants.  It continued afterward under episcopal domination and ghostly discipline till the memorable reign of Henry VIII. who thought proper to take into his own hands that power or supremacy which was before vested in the bishops.  In consequence of which, it has ever since been called King’s Lynn, instead of Bishop’s Lynn, which was its former appellation: an appellation, by the bye, which will serve further to corroborate the idea, that it was formerly the deleterious abode of priest-ridden credulity and ecclesiastical thraldom.  Indeed it may be said to have been long distinguished for illiberality, intolerance, and a persecuting spirit: and it must appear somewhat remarkable, that the very first person taken up and burnt, in England, under that diabolical law, De hæretico comburendo, was a Lynn man, as was also the last, or one of the very last that underwent persecution for nonconformity under the infamous conventicle Act: The former was one of the preachers belonging to St. Margaret’s Church, in the reign of Henry IV. and the latter a licenced dissenting minister in that of William III.  Of each of them a more particular account shall be given in its proper place.

Not only Lynn, but most, if not all, of the adjacent towns and villages appear to have been in being long before the conquest.  They are noticed in the celebrated old record, called Domesday, as places then in existence, and seemingly of long standing and remote origin.  They had, in all probability, been erected and inhabited many ages before that period, though it seems not likely that many of their present names, or those given them in the Domesday book, are to be traced to a British origin, as Parkin and others pretend. [238a]

That Lynn had become a place of considerable trade in the Saxon times, or before the Norman invasion, is evident from unquestionable existing documents.  It had then a toll-booth, and enjoyed certain duties and customs, payable on the arrival of any goods or merchandise, of which the bishop was in full possession of a moiety.  This episcopal privilege is supposed to have been as early as the conversion of the East Angles, and establishment of Christianity among them.  The town continued daily to flourish and acquire increasing importance; and at an early period after the conquest, one of the writers of that time calls it, “a noble city,” on account of its trading and commercial magnificence. [238b]  This was at a period when Hull did not exist, and when Liverpool, if it did exist, was but a very obscure and insignificant place.

Section III.

The vicinity of Lynn in the Saxon times, and long after, appears to have been remarkable for its numerous Saltworks. [239a]  At Gaywood alone, in the Confessor’s time, there were no less than thirty Salt pans, or pits. [239b]  The Salt springs of Droitwich, Nantwich, Northwich, &c. were then, it seems, not so much attended to as to afford a supply to the distant parts of the kingdom.  The people of these parts were therefore obliged to manufacture their own salt.  To what extent the work was carried on, or what quantity was generally, or annually produced, cannot now be ascertained.  Nor are we informed of the particular mode, or process adopted and pursued in carrying on this ancient manufactory.  It was, probably, pretty simple and not very unlike that used in latter times in the salt-works of South-town, by Yarmouth, and at other places.  By the great number of Salt-works then at Lynn, or in its neighbourhood, it seems probable, that a considerable part of the adjacent country, and the interior districts, were supplied from thence with that necessary article: which might easily, even at that early period, be conveyed thither, by means of the inland navigation, which always gave to Lynn the vast advantage of a free and easy intercourse with all those places, however distant, that are situated near the banks, or in the neighbourhood of its numerous rivers.  The Salt manufactured here was made, it seems, from the sea water which the tides brought up to the town, and which must have been, of course, much less salt, and less fit for the purpose than the water found below in the roads, or at sea: it appears therefore rather odd, that those salt-works should be placed so far up the country, or so distant from the sea: and yet so it was; every village and hamlet, almost, had then its Salt-work, or the moiety of one. [240]  Here it may be proper to observe, that, at the periods of which we have been speaking, salt was not an article of revenue, and must therefore have been a pretty cheap commodity compared to what it is now, when the duty laid upon it by government is said to be above ten times its prime, or original cost.

In attempting to give an account of the state of things at Lynn during the period which we are now contemplating, almost all our light must be borrowed from the general history of the kingdom in the mean while, as the paucity of materials, relating particularly to this town, leaves us, for the most part, no other clew for our guidance.  The reader must not therefore be displeased with the method here generally pursued, in exhibiting the state or history of Lynn under its East-Anglian and Anglo-Saxon sovereigns.

CHAP. III.

The inhabitants of Lynn, after it had been rebuilt and repeopled by its Anglian masters, appear to have been blind heathens, and gross idolaters; for when the Angles, or Anglo-Saxons seized upon this country, and founded the East-Anglian kingdom, they were a nation of pagans, worshippers of Thor and Woden, and the rest of the miserable objects of northern, or Scandinavian adoration; and so continued till the seventh century.  At that period, one of their princes, named Sigebert, having lived sometime in exile among the Francs, was there converted to Christianity.  At his restoration to his kingdom, he brought over with him one Felix, a Burgundian priest, who was employed in recommending to the people the religion of their sovereign, in which he appears not to have been unsuccessful.  He was consequently appointed the first bishop of the East Angles, and had his see fixed at Soham, [242] in Cambridgeshire, and afterwards at Domnoc, or Dunwich, in Suffolk.  He is said to have taken no small pains in promoting the conversion of the inhabitants; and the parts about Lynn seem to have engaged a considerable share of his attention.  In these very parts he is reported to have commenced his labours, which issued in the conversion of the whole country.  Tradition gives to Babingley, by Lynn, the honour of being the place where he first landed, and where was erected the very first christian chapel, or place of worship among the East Angles.  The second edifice of the same description is said to have been erected at Sharnborn, in the same neighbourhood.  At what time the first place of that sort was built at Lynn, cannot now be determined; but it seems very probable that it must have been as early, at least, as the middle part of the seventh century.  It cannot, however be said, that the Christianity then introduced was of any great value.  The national character was not much, if at all, mended by it; and the people still remained grossly ignorant, profligate, and savage.  What they wanted in rational piety and real Christianity, they made up in stupid credulity, blind zeal, and miserable superstition; and it had been well if their descendants had always carefully avoided the imitation of their wretched and pernicious example.

It is somewhat remarkable that Christianity, as it was called, was not received among the East-Angles till it had made considerable progress in most of the other kingdoms of the Heptarchy.  In Kent it had been received about the year 526, or soon after, by the ministry of Austin the monk: and even before that time, several years, some of the Kentish people had been brought to think favourably of that religion, by the means of Luidhart, a French bishop, who had accompanied the princess Birtha, daughter of Cherebert, king of Paris, upon her marriage with Ethelbert the Kentish king.  The conversion of the East Saxons took place about the beginning of the seventh Century under the ministry of Mellitus, their first bishop: and soon after, that of the Northumbrians, where Paulinus appeared as a very active and successful labourer.

Section. II.

Another remarkable feature in the character of the English christians of the seventh and following centuries, was an extravagant veneration for relics; in which the Romish priests drove then a very gainful trade, as few good christians thought themselves safe from the perils or disasters of life, and the machinations of the devil, unless they carried about them the relics of some paint: nor could any church be dedicated without a decent or certain quantity of the same sacred and precious ware. [244]

Stories of dreams, visions, and miracles were also propagated without a blush, by the clergy, and believed without a doubt, by the laity.  Extraordinary watchings, fastings, and other arts of tormenting the body in order to save the soul, became frequent and fashionable; and it began to be believed in the seventh century, that a journey to Rome was a most meritorious undertaking, and even, of all others, the most direct road to heaven.—Such was the christianity of the good people of Lynn and the rest of their countrymen in those days.

In the eighth century the humour of making pilgrimages to Rome, and of retiring into monasteries, still increasing, Coinred king of Mercia, as Henry informs us, laid down his sceptre, and took up the pilgrim’s staff, in 709, and travelled to Rome, accompanied by Offa, a young prince of the royal family of the East-Saxons, where they both became monks.  Not long after, Ina, the warlike and victorious king of the West Saxons imitated their example, and ended his days in a cloister at Rome, where he founded a house for the entertainment of English pilgrims, and the education of English youth.

The religious prayers and songs, which constituted the church service, were then all in Latin, and so not understood by the common people, who were therefore directed by the 27th. canon of the first council of Cloveshoos, or Cliff, in Kent, [246] held in 747, to affix any meaning they pleased to the words in their own minds, and to pray in their hearts for any or every thing they wanted, no matter how foreign to the real sense of the public prayers.  A curious salvo, says Henry, for the absurd practice of praying in an unknown tongue.  The same canon contains also the following short form of prayer, for the dead; “Lord, according to the greatness of thy mercy, grant rest to his soul, and for thy infinite pity, vouchsafe to him the joys of eternal light with thy saints.”

Some of the nobility, or great men of that time, not very fond, it seems, of going themselves through all the fastings and prayers enjoined them by their confessors, would fain be allowed to have the service performed by proxy: and it appears that they actually hired and employed poor people to fast and pray in their stead.  It was, certainly, a very notable as well as convenient device, and became, it seems, pretty fashionable, though it is said not to have the good fortune of obtaining the approbation of the said council of Cloveshoos. [247a]

A late historian, [247b] alluding to this period, observes, “that long fasting was then ordered frequently; but as the wealthy might abstain by proxy, a seven years fast might be performed in three days, if the principal could prevail with 840 persons each to take his share.  This concise plan of atonement for crimes, (he adds) was condemned solemnly at the council of Cloveshoos; but the decree was disregarded.”  The practice therefore seems to have gone on unchecked, notwithstanding the decree of that council.  It was not to be expected that so convenient a custom could be very easily abolished.  It may be worth while to inquire, whether it had in it, after all, any greater absurdity, than there is in the present practice of the infants at the font, making a confession of their faith by proxy.

Ignorance and superstition, instead of diminishing, appear to have increased in England, during the eighth century.  Pilgrimages to Rome became far more frequent, and were attended with worse effects than formerly; the rage of retiring to monasteries became more violent in persons of all ranks, to the ruin of every useful art; the clergy became more knavish and rapacious, and the laity more abject and stupid, than at any former period: of which the trade of relics, then at its height, and which can never be carried on, but between knaves and fools, is a sufficient evidence.

During the memorable reign of the celebrated Alfred, the state of religion has been supposed to have improved; but how far we are warranted to admit, or carry that idea, does not seem very clear.  Alfred was, doubtless, a most excellent prince, as may fairly and justly be inferred from that notable clause in his Will, “that the English had an undoubted right to be free as their own thoughts,” and particularly from his so greatly magnifying, and acting upon that never to be forgotten precept of Christ, “to do unto others as we would have others do unto us;” not to mention the many other notable and commendable deeds ascribed to him: [249] but that he was instrumental in very materially reforming, or improving the religion of his country, appears rather doubtful, if not improbable.  His altering the Ten Commandments, leaving out the second, and adding another, to humour the worshippers of images, make very considerably against the notion of his having much advanced the work of religious reformation.  The commandment which he added, was expressed in these words, “Make not thou gods of gold, or of silver,” a precept, as it has been observed, which few of his subjects could afford to transgress. [250]

From Alfred’s days to the conquest, the religion of England experienced no amendment; nor ever after till the Era of the reformation, or the 16th. century, except what took place under the influence of Wickliff, and the Lollards; but they were soon crushed under the heavy and strong hand of priestly and royal persecution: the very first victim, as was before observed, was a Lynn man.

“He was not to destroy the heathen temples of the English, but only to remove the images of their gods, to wash the wails with holy water, to erect altars, and deposit relics in them, and so convert them into christian churches; not only to save the expence of building new ones, but that the people might more easily be prevailed upon to frequent those places of worship, to which they had been accustomed.  He directs him further, to accommodate the ceremonies of the christian worship as much as possible to those of the heathen, that the people might not be much startled at the change; and in particular he advises him to allow the christian converts, on certain festivals, to kill and eat a great number of oxen, to the glory of God, as they had done formerly to the honour of the devil.” [252]

These admonitions, (says Dr. Henry) which were but too well observed, introduced the grossest corruption into the christian worship, and shew how much the apostles of the sixth and seventh centuries had departed from the simplicity and sincerity of those of the first.

CHAP. IV.

Of the state of Society in this country, as to the different ranks among the inhabitants, the following is thought to be a pretty fair and true representation.—The next rank below that of the royal family was held by the Thanes, which were, it seems, of different degrees, and we are told that the highest order among them went by the name of king’s thanes. [253]  These also are said to have been of two different sorts, Eoldermen, and Eorles; the former supposed to be supreme in the administration of justice; the latter comprehended military as well as civil authority, but was not hereditary till the close of the Saxon dynasty.  The Ceorles (Churles, or Carles) were next below the thanes.  They were free, descended from yeomen, and were chiefly engaged in husbandry.  To them the gate of nobility was open, and they might become thanes by five different methods. [254a]  Another order, or description of men, in those times, was called Huscarles; (i.e. house-carles:) they were retainers, or domestic dependents of the thanes, and reputed freemen.  All the rest of the community, it seems, were slaves, of different descriptions.  Of them however, it would sometimes happen, though but very rarely, that some obtained manumission, and they formed a particular class, denominated Freed-men; but we are told that they were few, and little regarded.  They could obtain, it seems, no rank in the state; and applying, for the most part, to mechanical employments, seem hardly to have been distinguished from the race which they had quitted.—Slaves were never suffered to carry arms, and the very gift of a weapon conferred freedom.  Of the other orders no man went abroad without his spear; and laws were enacted to guard against damages occasioned by the careless bearer.  In battle the ceorles who formed the infantry, beside a broad sword, and sometimes a club, bore only a round shield with an offensive pointed weapon in the centre.  The cavalry being composed of thanes, huscarles, and the richer ceorles, who could afford to keep horses, was better provided with defensive armour. [254b]

The enslaved part of the inhabitants, and which is said to have constituted by far the most numerous class of the community, went, like the privileged orders, by different names.  Of them the chief and most remarkably were the Villani and the Servi.  In regard to the former, we are told that Villenage was of two kinds: 1st Pure Villenage, to which some were subject from their birth, from whom uncertain and indeterminate service was due to the lord.  The successors of these are our copy-holders; who, though time has dealt favourably with them in other respects, still retain one mark of their original vassalage, or servitude; for as of old the former were not reckoned as members of the commonwealth, but merely as part and parcel of the owner’s substance, no way entitled to the privileges of freemen, so do their successors still continue without any right to vote at elections by virtue of their copy-holds.  2nd Villenage by Tenure, which bound the tenant to perform certain services agreed upon between him and his lord; such as ploughing his ground, reaping his corn, &c.

The lowest, as well as most numerous class of slaves among the Anglo-Saxons were the Servi, who, (as well as all the rest of the unfreemen,) were probably the descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants, who had escaped the general massacre, or whose lives had been spared at the reduction and conquest of the country.  These were protected by neither law nor religion, for a very long period; and they consequently suffered the most unfeeling and cruel treatment.  Christianity is said to have ameliorated their condition.  It certainly ought to have done so; but from such a christianity no material amelioration could well have been expected.  Even our own boasted protestantism, how feeble has generally been its influence in such cases!  The long and bloody contest between the rival and barbarous houses of York and Lancaster did more, it seems, for the relief and emancipation of those poor English slaves than any thing else; for the contending parties, in order to recruit and reinforce their armies, found it convenient and necessary to liberate great numbers of them: at length they were all manumitted, and Britain now contains no people of that description.  It would be well if the same could be said of every other, part of the British dominions.  These Servi are often mentioned by Bloomfield and Parkin, and appear to have been very numerous in the parts about Lynn before the conquest, and even long after that period.

Beside the Villani and Servi, we meet with other descriptions of bondmen, whose condition seem to have been less abject; at least, less so than the latter.  Of those one sort was called Bordarii, Bordars, or Borderers: they were such as held a cottage, or some small parcel of land, on condition of supplying the lord with poultry, eggs, and other small provisions for his board and entertainment.  Such small estates were formerly called Bord-lands, now demesnes.—Coliberti was the name of another description of bondmen among the Anglo-Saxons; and they were, it seems, a middle sort of tenants, between servile and free; they had their patrons, to whom they paid rent, and were manumised as servants used to be, but were not absolutely free.  They were such of the Servi as were enfranchised, or liberated in a certain degree, but still paid some duties to the superior lord.  They appear to have been held in scarcely any higher estimation than the class to which they had originally belonged.—The Burgaris, Burgenses, or Burgesses, was another order of bondmen among the Anglo-Saxons.  They were tradesmen in great towns, and had their patrons, under whose protection they traded, and to whom they paid an acknowledgement; but some of them were in a more servile condition, and altogether under the power of the king, or other lords. [257a]  Some of the above descriptions of Anglo-Saxon bondmen, or British slaves, and particularly the Villani, the Servi, and the Bordarii, were very numerous in the parts about Lynn, in the times of which we are now speaking, and long after. [257b]  England did then so abound in slaves, and was so much a land of slaves, as to be able to carry on a trade in that commodity with other nations, and especially the Irish, whom English merchants, for a long time, abundantly supplied with that favourite article, out of their home stock, or native produce, with as little shame or remorse as they have in modern times supplied the West Indies and North America with the poor defenceless natives of ill-fated Africa. [257c]  And yet the English was then, as well as now, a christian nation, priding herself in the fond idea of the purity and pre-eminence of her goodness, faith, and piety.  Alas, for poor christianity!  How often hath her venerable name been profaned and postituted on the vilest occasions, and for the basest of purposes!

The Wittenagemote, or assembly of wise men, was the highest court among the Anglo-Saxons, and from which our parliament seems to have originated.  Bishops, judges, and thanes composed it, and it does not appear that the lower orders, or bulk of the people were there any how represented.  The business of this assembly was prepared and opened by the king.—Another high court, but inferior to the former, was the Shiregemote, in which much business was transacted in the way of a modern assize.  The Eolderman, or the Eorle was the president, and the domesmen, or judges, with certain lawmen, as they were called, formed the bench.  It was held only twice in the year.—The Hundred Court came next, over which the Hundredary presided.  Sales of estates, registering of Wills, manumission of slaves, &c. were here transacted.  It was also called Wapontake, from the custom of always attending well armed.  It was the repository of deeds and records, was held monthly, and had the jurisdiction of ten tythings.

Compensation to the injured party or his family, rather than the annoyance of the criminal, being the principle of the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, capital punishments were unfrequent.  The chastity of maidens was protected by very severe laws; the ravisher of a nun was fined as an assassin, and the violator of a child incurred the penalty of a severe mutilation.  Murder, as well as manslaughter, might be atoned for, at a stated price: every wound had its exact value; robbery was venial, and when committed on a bordering country, (although in peace) was almost deemed laudable. [259]

It was in the institution of Tythings, or neighbourships, that the wisdom of the Anglo-Saxons appeared most conspicuous and admirable.  Every ten families were connected together, as fellows in arms and in civil society.  Each answered for the others’ good behaviour to the magistrate, and each joined in paying the penalty which any one member might casually incur.  A man who was not inrolled in these tythings was avoided by all, as a vagabond and person of bad character; nor could he hope to be admitted to a tything unless his probity was generally acknowledged.  To Alfred this excellent institution is said to owe its perfection; and its effects on society must have been very great and salutary. [260]

Of the customs of the ancient inhabitants of Lynn, and of the Anglo-Saxons in general, relating to matrimony, the following appear to have been some of the most remarkable and striking.—Every unmarried woman was supposed to have a guardian, or owner: the virgin belonged to her father, brother, uncle, or nearest male relation; the widow claimed the same protection from her husband’s male relatives; the lover was obliged to buy his mistress, of her guardian, by a gift, the amount of which was settled by a law, that set a higher price on the maid, by one half, than on the relict.  If unadvisedly the wooer wedded the lady without the guardian’s consent, her property and goods were still the property of that guardian, and an injury offered to her was to be atoned for to him, and not to the spouse.  At the wedding, the guardian delivered up his ward to the husband, a friend of whom had previously avowed himself the guarantee of a proper provision for the bride in case of his death.  At the feast which followed, the usual and large presents of gold, silver, arms, cloths, household stuff, &c. made by the invited friends and relations, formed the portion of the bride, who had beside, from custom immemorial, a right to ask of her mate, on the next sun-rising after her nuptials, a gift, to serve her as pin-money.  As to what related to divorces, among these people, we meet with no particular account.  In the education of their children, they only sought to render them dauntless, and apt for the two most important occupations of their future lives, war and the chase.  It was a usual trial of a child’s courage to place him on the sloping roof of a building, and if, without screaming or apparent terror, he held fast, it was deemed a favourable omen, and he was pronounced a brave boy.

The burial ceremony is said to have been much more joyous among them than that of marriage; which seems to imply something very unnatural, as well as barbarous.  The house in which the body lay till its burial, was a perpetual scene of feasting, singing, dancing, and every species of riot.  This, of course, was very expensive to the family of the deceased; and it was in some places carried so far, that the corpse was forcibly kept unburied by the visiting friends, till they were certain that they had consumed, in games and frantic festivity, all the wealth the deceased had left behind him.—Nothing can well exceed the barbarism and brutishness of such a custom: and yet it seems to have long continued in some parts of this island after the introduction of christianity, and even of protestantism.  Nay, some remains of it are known to have existed in some places within the memory of some of the present inhabitants.  It is surprising how tenacious mankind often are of their ancient customs, be they ever so vile, unseemly, or heathenish.  Heathenish, certainly, or of pagan origin, must this most odious practice have been: but it is not the only English custom that comes under that description.  The Waites, that usually go about before christmas, may be considered as of the self-same origin, and belonged, in all likelihood, to a certain pagan, riotous, and lawless feast, celebrated at that time of the year: the precursor and prototype of our principal christian festival.  The ushering in of May with the blowing of horns, a custom now almost, if not altogether peculiar to Lynn, seems evidently to be of the same class.  It is still most tenaciously kept up in this town, by the boys and children, though nobody pretends to know either its meaning or its origin.  But as May-Day is known to have been one of the highest and most notable days of the year among our heathen ancestors, the said custom may very safely be concluded to have originated with them; especially as that day does not appear to have ever been very much thought of by the papists.