Wherstead; some materials for its history ... Second edition, greatly enlarged

Front matter

WHERSTEAD PKJNTKD HY SP0TT1SW00DE ANU CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON fap so Thi; °f HO^MpH'pC_fy//.y-\l<'S'PoRcy- WHEJ^T^Jp -CHURCH- SU FFO L\ W H ERSTEAD SOME MATERIALS FOR ITS HISTORY TERRITORIAL, MANORIAL AND DURING THE EVENTS BETWEEN BY F. BARHAM ZINCKE VICAR OF WHERSTEAD AND CHAPLAIN TO THE QUEEN AUTHOR OK 'EGYPT OF THE PHARAOHS AND OF THE KEDIVE ' *A WINTER IN THE UNITED STATES* * SWISS ALMENDS ' 'A WALK IN THE GRISONS ' ETC. 3nutiti£ olim IRC ViDCat VllUSSe {quoted by J. Evelyn in a letter to S. Pef>y$, 1700 These pages, when my voice is hushed, may plead I did not idle out an aimless life SECOND EDITION, GREATLY ENLARGED LONDON SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO. Ltd. IPSWICH : READ & BARRETT, S QUEEN STREET

Preface

JO THE FIRST EDITION This little book is a reprint. The original appeared in the columns of the Suffolk Chronicle in weekly communi cations, as the successive chapters were written in 1884. At that time I had no thought of republication in any form. My only wish then was to see how much I had to say, and could find to say, that I might suppose would be useful or interesting to some when I should be gone ; and to give to it such permanence and diffusion as might be obtained from its appearance in a popular and well established newspaper. After three years, however, I have been persuaded, perhaps too easily — such cases are not uncommon — to collect the scattered chapters into a single volume. The scantling of this I have so restricted as to enable me to send it by parcel post, at less than the weight of 1 lb., to my friends and neighbours, for whom it is intended. For I am not at all under any illusion that ' the general reader ' will be eager to look at what

PREFACE.

VI I may have said about our 2,264 acres and their 628 inhabitants. From my notes, as they were at first submitted to my good neighbours three years ago, I have in this re print omitted nothing. The number of chapters is the same, with the same heading of contents for each. As, however, collections of this kind have a tendency to continue growing, I have intercalated several paragraphs here and there containing additional facts. Of course some of the dates of the original communications had to be so advanced as to be brought into accord with the date of the reprint. In the accompanying map I have indicated the locali ties of the events and matters of interest mentioned in the text of the volume. F. BARIIAM ZINCKE. Wherstead : 1SS7.

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION In Part I. of this volume ' The Materials for the History of Wherstead' that appeared in book-form in 1887 are reprinted without any omissions, but with some additions that had subsequently occurred to me. Part II., the whole of which now appears in book-form for the first time, consists of some short comments on the Domesday entries of the Manors comprised in what became the Parish of Wherstead. These, as had been done with the preceding part of the volume, were first submitted to my neighbours in the columns of the Suffolk Chronicle. We may suppose that there will arise amongst the English, now occupying in the five Continents of our globe very commanding, indeed in some already pre eminent positions, a wish to know how they came to be what they will find themselves. And no inconsider-

PREFACE.

VIII able part of the answer will be contained in the all embracing records, supplied by the great Survey, of what were the political, economic, and social conditions of England 800 years ago. I would fain hope that the time must come when these uniquely precious details of our national origins will be more intelligently estimated, and regarded with more interest amongst us, than they appear to be at present. The differences in the new world between the de scendants of the English settlers and the descendants of the settlers from France, Spain, and Portugal are mainly the results of the differences in their previous European history. It will be seen that all the illustrations contained in the first edition have been re-drawn or re-copied for this volume ; and that to these some additions have been made. All the portraits were reproduced by the Autotype Company. Wherstead : 1893. CONTENTS

Part I. Chapter

pAUE I. PARISH HISTORY— OUR CHURCH . . . . I II. OUR VICARAGES . . . . . .14 III. THE BENEFICE . . . . 22 IV. OUR VICARS ...... 29 V. THE VICARS' SURNAMES . . . • ■ 3i VI. THE VICARS' BAPTISMAL NAMES . . .40 VII. THE VICARS THEMSELVES . . . . . 44 VIII. THE VICARS THEMSELVES — GEORGE CAPPER . . 64 IX. EVENTS THAT TOUCHED OUR VICARS . . . 76 X. THE PRESENTERS . . . . -92 XI. GLEANINGS FROM THE REGISTERS . . . 98 XII. COLLECTIONS TWO CENTURIES AGO . . . 103 XIII. THE MANSION AT WHERSTEAD PARK . . . 113 XIV. WHERSTEAD TOWN HOUSE . . . . 120 XV. LANDOWNING IN WHERSTEAD . . . . 125 XVI. POACHING IN WHERSTEAD EIGHTY YEARS SINCE . 1 32 XVII. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND VILLAGE WORTHIES . 1 46 XVIII. ASSISTED EMIGRATION FROM WHERSTEAD SIXTY YEARS SINCE . . . . . . 1 65 XIX. CELTS, AND ROMANO-BRITISH POTTERY . . 1 72 XX.

NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF WHERSTEAD . . 183 XXI. NOTES ON THE FLORA OF WHERSTEAD . . . I93 XXII. NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF WHERSTEAD . . 205 XXIII. LOCAL SUPERSTITIONS AND MISBELIEFS . . . 223 XXIV. LOCAL SUPERSTITIONS AND MISBELIEFS — COIll. . 23 1 XXV. OUR EAST ANGLIAN DIALECT .. . . 24 1 a CONTENTS X PAGE CIIAPTEK XXVI. SOME PECULIARITIES OF OUR EAST ANGLIAN DIA- LECT ......* 250 XXVII. EAST ANGLIAN IN THE UNITED STATES. DIS- TINCTNESS IN VOWEL SOUNDS. REDUPLICATED 260 AND RHYMING WORDS XXVIII. DISSYLLABIC FREQUENTATIVE AND INTENSIVE VERBS IN 'OCK.' HAS EAST ANGLIAN ANYTHING TO GIVE? THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 27 1 XXIX. AN ANTICIPATION ..... 282

Part II. Wherstead In Domesday

I. DOMESDAY, AND ITS SURVEY OF WHERSTEAD . . 285 II. TENANTS AND VILLANS. .... 295 III. OTHER SOCIAL GRADES . . . . . 305 IV. THE PLACE OF THE OX IN DOMESDAY ECONOMY . 315 V. THE OX'S FOUR-FOOTED FELLOW SUFFERERS. SALT WORKS IN WHERSTEAD .... 324 VI. JURISDICTION. CHURCH MATTERS. LAND MEA- SURING . . . . . . . 334 VII. MONEY, THEN AND NOW .... 344 VIII THE OLD MISCHIEF IN MODERN GUISE . . . 356 IX. THE MANORIAL SYSTEM WORTHLESS FOR WAR. PRODUCED A SURPLUS POPULATION FOR WHICH IT COULD NOT PROVIDE .... 368 X. THE MANOR OUTWARDLY AND INWARDLY . 378

Appendix

A. NOTE ON THE HARLANDS AND VERNONS . 393 „ B. PRICES OF SUFFOLK PUNCHES AT SIR R. . HARLAND'S WHERSTEAD SALE IN l8l2 . 395 „ C. CAPTAIN RICHARD GOODING OF WHERSTEAD 396 ,, U. LIST OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS, EXCEPT TREES, GRASSES, RUSHES, AND SEDGES, COLLECTED IN WHERSTEAD BY MR. H. HAWARD, AND SUPPLIED BY HIM . . 397 INDEX . . . . . . ... .|o8 ILLUSTRATIONS map OF wherstead . . At the beginning ofthe volume I. NORMAN DOORWAY OF THE CHURCH PORCH For frontispiece II. THE CHURCH ..... To face p. 8 III. UP THE ORWELL . . . \ „ , 7^/1/ I I o face each other between I M. 1 2 and 1 3 IV. DOWN THE ORWELL ) rr J V. THE VICARAGE ..... To face p. 20 VI. THE REV. G. CAPPER, AGED 4,7 .\ -r f 1.1 t / ' I To face each other between I i>i>. 64 and 6 5 VII. THE REV. G. CAPPER, AGED 74 . J rr * 3 VIII. THE PRESENT VICAR PASSING THROUGH 34 years ......

To face p. 75 IX. DAVID DOUBLE, AGED 7- ■ ■ ■ „ 121 X. SIR ROBERT HARLAND, AGED 28) To facc each other between r, I i>t>. I ?o and 1 51 XL SIR ROBERT HARLAND, AGED 7%) rr 1 J

PART I CHAPTER

I. THE PARISH CHURCH. Stand and unfold thyself. — Shakespeare. IN a very large majority of our rural parishes the only historical monument now remaining is the parish church. The formation of territorial estates, on which ensued the arrangement of the land in large farms, has brought about the destruction of the old manor houses, and of the houses of the yeomen and of the small freeholders, which were no longer required. The classes indeed that had built and dwelt in them had already well-nigh disappeared, having, by the pressure of the incidents and conditions of the new system of agglomeration, been forced to go into trade or to emigrate to America. Even the hedgerows, which in many cases were older than the houses, are now gone. Thus the land has for the most part become as bare of everything of historical interest as so much newly enclosed prairie in Minnesota or Manitoba.

The modern farmhouse, built by the landowner for the accommodation of a tenant, and therefore without a suggestion of the pride of owner ship, of individual taste, or of a desire to be remembered by one's descendants, or of any natural or pleasing feeling of any kind, and the labourers' cottages, generally sug gestive of anything rather than pleasing thoughts, and the B modern mansion, frequently unoccupied or let to strangers, all belong to an artificial system, that now appears, in its turn, to have run its allotted course, and to have become incompatible with the requirements, conditions, and senti ments of the times. But the parish church still stands where, and much as, it stood eight or nine, or even ten, centuries ago. It alone saw the growth and the making of England. The Norman Invasion, the Crusades, the Feudal Castle, Cressy and Agincourt, the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation, the Great Rebellion, America and India, Marlborough and Wellington successively in the process of the ages touched the thoughts, the feelings, and the lives of those who assembled within its walls, and prompted their thanksgivings or wrought them sorrow.

It is, too, a priceless monument of the piety, the open handedness, the artistic sentiment, the social arrangements of old times, when, notwithstanding much rudeness, hardness, and wide inequalities, men were regarded as living souls ; and when there was a sufficient number of per manent resident proprietors in every parish to erect structures, in which those who built them were justified in feeling satisfaction and pride. Nor is it less a monument of the neglect, of the ignorance, of the deadness, which we are now prompted, happily with some sense of shame, to call the Philistinism, of the following commercial period, in which man was regarded as a sentient organism, existing only for self-indulgence, and for money-getting, or to toil for others. Frequently, too, it witnesses to what were the passing historical events of a period, through its records in stone of the emergence from among the inhabitants of the village of some great soldier or sailor ; some known statesman, or lawyer, or divine, or man of letters ; some nabob or banker ; some one who was successful in commerce or trade.

Those, however, who emerge to prominence in the world can only be few ; but the parish church speaks to the thought and feeling of all. It discourses to all on the matters that most concern our common humanity. It proclaims man's belies in the reality and supremacy of the moral sense ; for what else could have maintained it throughout so many generations ? It is evidence of the need that all have felt for light, and of the general desire to make what light they had, or what they took for light, the guide of life. And how are we touched here by the memorials of human affection, and of the disappointments and failures of human hopes ! How many wounded hearts have sought for healing here ! The remainder of the parish, all except this house of God, and God's acre around it, is for labour, for money getting, for luxury.

This is the one sacred spot where the humblest have found some inspiration. Here was evoked and fed the moral, and the spiritual life. Here were en larged theparishioners'narrowwork-dayhorizons. Nowhere else were awakened such emotions, such tenderness, such regrets, such hopes, such aspirations. We may notice one more claim the parish church has on our favourable regard. It is the only piece of common property in the parish, held and used in common by all the parishioners. And its use has this excellent quality, that it periodically brings them all together, and makes them, at moments when their hearts are open to the highest and best influences, all acquainted with each other. Here, then, are reasons enough for our endeavouring to propagate the hope — and such hopes have a tendency to realise themselves — that, whatever changes may be in store for the National Church, men may not in the heat of the conflict lose sight of the fact that these material fabrics are unique and priceless monuments for local, and through local for general, history.

It will be necessary also to keep P. distinctly in view that the common rights in them of all the parishioners that have always existed ought in the future, under all circumstances, to be maintained. Of these parish churches, then, we are trustees and guardians, not only on behalf of our children, who in successive generations will take the places we now occupy here in our little sea-girt home, but also on behalf of that portion of the English race dispersed over two continents beyond the Atlantic and the- Indian Oceans, whose numbers, already far beyond our own, are increasing with a rapidity the world has never before witnessed. What they are to-day, and will be in the future, can only be the outgrowth, under new skies and on broader areas, of offsets from the stock which the events and modifying conditions of centuries had created here.

A few steps back from the present bring us to a past that is as thoroughly theirs as it is ours. Some years ago an American happened to be paying me a visit. He might have been taken for a shrewd money-making man, possessed, however, of some little literary culture. At his request I took him to see the parish church. I stood somewhat in advance of him while pointing out to him the ornamentation of the round arch of the porch, and telling him that as it was Norman it must be seven or eight hundred years old. Noticing that he made no reply, I turned round to see if he were listening, or whether he had moved away to look at some thing else, perhaps the old lichen-stained tower or the view of the Orwell. He was, however, I found, close to me, listening to what I was saying, and with tears in his eyes. ' Excuse,' he said, ' a weakness I never felt before, and should not have supposed myself capable of.

But a sudden emotion has overcome me. I, brought up in a country without any antiquities, am overpowered at the thought of how many generations of men, how many even before my own country was known to the world, have entered in and gone out by this venerable porch, and among them probably ancestors of some of the first settlers of our New England States. The memorials of our past are here in England, and the chief of them are your priceless parish churches.' The thought had long been in my mind that it is almost a duty of his position in the incumbent of a benefice to collect what materials might be within his reach for a history of his parish. Such materials, archæological, historical, and connected with the working of contemporary society in the parish, and with the natural history of the locality, everywhere abound.

The rural clergy generally have abundant leisure for work of this kind, though, perhaps, notwithstanding that printing is now cheap, it might not be desirable to send to the press at once a large proportion of such collections. Still, however imperfect and fragmentary, they might be deposited in MS. in the parsonage and in the parish chest, to await the coming of an incumbent possessed of sufficient historical or scientific knowledge, and at the same time of sufficient literary skill, to put them into fit form for publication. In these days science, which is only accurate, compre hensive, and systematic knowledge, is in the air, and the general thought is beginning unconsciously to be coloured with some little tinge of science. People wish to be told something about the world around them, animate and in animate, even in a parochial history.

We have now had for a century an example of what may be effected in this direction in Gilbert White's 'Natural History of Selborne ' — perhaps the most generally attractive book on natural history ever written. Its attractiveness is in some measure a result of the limitation of the area of White's investiga tions ; for it is strictly a parochial monograph, the record of his observations made from time to time, the journal of his notes, on the natural history of the parish of Selborne. In these days works of this character would be received with interest and favourable appreciation by a far larger circle of readers than could have been found for White's charming pages. In fact, a great many people, and their number is increasing, would now be dissatisfied with any thing professing to be a parochial history which did not give some information about the ornithology, the ento mology, the botany, and the geology of the locality.

As to the other department of our subject, that which embraces matters of human concern, Sir John Cullum, to take an instance from our own county, has, in his ' History and Antiquities of Hawsted and Hardwick,' given us what may be described as parochial archæology. But here also the spirit and point of view of the age have very much altered people's ideas about what is required, and what they wish to have. Now that they have got accustomed to looking beyond their own neighbourhood, and know ledge is pretty generally understood to include an acquaintance with the causes of things, the detached and isolated archæology of a detached and isolated locality is felt to be insufficient. The modern reader wishes to be enabled to understand how the little events of and the situation of things in the little village world were connected with the great events of and the situation of things in the general outside world, and how they reciprocally bear upon and illustrate and interpret each other.

The light each can supply must be thrown upon the other. With most men the history of their own country is more interesting than what may be called universal history. So would it be as respects local history with all of us who have not the knowledge and the sympathies required lor the wider history of the country. But then it must be presented to us not as something complete in itself, which it is not, but as, which is what it is, a part of the great whole. If a beginning be once made by an incumbent in any part of the field in which he may be capable of doing some work, in most places a neighbour will be found capable of assisting him in some way or other in some other department. At all events, those who will follow him will sooner or later continue what he commenced ; and so eventually all that it is possible to know about a parish may be collected.

But in this matter, as in most other undertakings, the chief difficulty is the first step. When the work has been entered on, then we may expect that it will be carried on. What is here submitted to the reader is meant for a beginning of this kind. It was in the year 1880 that the thoughts about a parochial history that had long been floating in my mind took form. I was then engaged in rebuilding the vicarage, and it occurred to me, in consequence, I suppose, of my having seen the invaluable lists of the Pharaohs who had preceded him which Rameses the Great set up in the great temple at Thebes and in his palace at Abydos, that it would be a very useful and interesting embellishment to the hall of the new vicarage if I could place on its walls a panel inscribed with the names and dates of as many of the vicars who had preceded me as could now be recovered.

For the small field of parochial history this would have the same kind of interest which the lists of the Pharaohs have for the great field of Egyptian history. Fortunately, I was able to do this through the entries in the diocesan registers of the institutions to the benefice, and without a single break for the last 592 years — that is, from 1300 A.D. to the date of this volume. Encouraged by this success, I proceeded to put upon paper all that I could recollect, OUR CHURCH 8 and that as I went along I could collect, about the parish. Week by week I published in the Suffolk Chronicle the results of my recollections and collections That is the genesis of the present volume. Before, however, we come to the vicars, something should be said about the church in which they officiated, and the successive parsonages in which most of the vicars of at least the last 250 years resided.

To begin, then, with the church. All that is recoverable of its history is what is written on its walls and windows. We have already found that the porch is Norman. So, on the opposite or north side, is the arch for a disused door, the passage through which has been filled in with stone masonry. When this was done is not known. In 1862, on stripping the walls to re-face them, round window arches were found embedded in the walls at the north-west and south-west angles of the nave, where it joins the tower. The thickness of the walls — four feet — is also a Norman feature. We may, therefore, pretty safely conclude that somewhere about the year 1100 a Norman structure, of which the main substance still remains, took the place of the church that had preceded it. In the chancel are two small lancet windows.

These, we may guess, are work of about the year 1200. The tracery of the east window, of the window on the north side to the west of the pulpit, and of four of the windows on the south side, is, in some degree, Decorated. To these, therefore, we may assign a date somewhere about 1 300. The west window is in the Perpendicular style, and so may belong to some date not far from 1400. The rood-loft staircase, the piscina, and the recess in the porch for the stoup still remain. No record is likely to be forthcoming that could throw any light on the erection of the Norman church, of which the existing structure is hardly more than an adaptation. We know, however, that in the year 1207 Gerard of Wachesham (the present Wattisham, near Bildeston) gave the benefice to the Augustinian Priory of Black Canons of St. Peter's, Ipswich, and that it was held by them till the year 1527, when they were suppressed in order that what they drew from the benefice, together with the rest of their income, might be appropriated to the support of Wolsey's College at Ipswich.

Whatever alterations, there fore, in the structure were made in the intervening 320 years must have been made by the prior and canons of St. Peter's, Ipswich. The conversion, then, of the church from a Norman to a Gothic edifice must have been their work ; and so we are indebted to them for all our windows, for the tower, and probably for the oak roof of the chancel. By them also our tenor bell was placed in our belfry. It was of their thought, and at their cost, that it has been made to offer continuously as for themselves so for us, and for so many intervening generations of worshippers, the prayer ' that we may attain through the merits of Thomas (a Beckett) to the blissful realms of light ' — Nos Thome meritis mereamur gaudia lucis. The same hexameter occurs on a bell in the tower of the church of South Elmham St. Cross, in this county, and elsewhere, and indicates the work of a Norwich foundry of the 15th century.

We may imagine, then, that this bell was placed in our church tower at the date of its construction. This we have just supposed, judging from the tracery of the west window, may have been about the year 1400. To the thought of the historically-minded it is pleasant to listen to a bell that one's predecessors on the same spot had listened to for five centuries, beginning in the ages of faith without knowledge, and passing through the turmoil of the Reformation and the overthrows of the Great Rebellion, through the days of the Tudors, of the Stuarts, and of the Georges, down to the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. And this is a pleasure that cannot be had everywhere. For in the days of Pitt clubs and patriotism, and of devo tion to the throne and to the altar, the parsons and church wardens of some of the contiguous parishes had their bells melted down into halfpence to pay for whitewashing their churches, and for port wine to toast Church and State.

The legend on our second largest bell informs us that it was made by Miles Graye. He was a Colchester founder. Its date is 1622. Sam. Samwaies was then vicar, about whom we shall presently have something to say. The legend on our smallest bell informs us that it was made by John Darbie in 1675 ; Richard Gooding, C.W. John Darbie was an Ipswich founder. His work does not appear after 1680. Richard Gooding, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, attested in the previous year, 1674, as churchwarden, the entry in our registers of a collection. The following is the entry of his burial : ' Richard Good ing, Gent : of this Parish, was buried on ye 27 of Novemb : 82.' In 1676, another Gooding, whose christian name was John, attests, as churchwarden, the entry of another collection. Later on we shall have to notice a fact of some little historical interest, which is recorded on the tombstone of a third Gooding, who was buried in 161 8.

From the days of the prior and canons of St. Peter's, Ipswich, to our own day nothing appears to have been added to or altered in the church. It had been so well and solidly built that it was able to sustain the neglect of the ensuing 350 years. In 1863 a third restoration was effected, but this time without any alterations. The Hon. Mrs. Dashwood, widow of Captain Ch. Ant. Dashwood, whose son had then inherited the Wherstead estate, repaired the old historic building at a cost of nearly 2,000/. The walls were re-faced externally — with the exception of the tower — and internally ; the tracery of the windows was repaired, and stained substituted for plain glass ; an oak roof, in keeping with the old roof of the chancel, that was retained, was placed over the nave, and the nave was furnished with open oak seats, the poppy heads of which were copied from some old worm-eaten examples that still remained in the church when its restoration was taken in hand.

A vestry also was added to the building. A stone pulpit was given by the Hon. Miss Rushout. It cost nearly 400/. The carving was done by a sculptor of Louvain. The font was the gift of the vicar. This is recorded in an inscription, which unless looked for is out of sight, at the bottom of the base. The designs for the subjects on the eight sides of the basin were supplied by the vicar. It was the fault of the sculptor that Michael trampling on the dragon was cut on a smaller scale than the figures on the other panels. A reader who may have no acquaintance with Wher stead Chuich will wish to know the meaning of the large black ball that appears in our sketch beneath the weather cock on the tower. The same wish arose in the mind of a church dignitary who some years ago happened to be staying with me.

I explained to him that it was a sailing mark that was used by the vessels navigating the Orwell. In this he appeared to detect a grain of comfort, for he replied that 'he was glad to find that any use could be made of a church' There appears always to have been more or less in one way or another some connection between the town of Ipswich and Wherstead Church. When our list of vicars commences, and for some time after its commencement, the entries in the diocesan register of institutions seem to intimate that it was regarded as within the boundaries of Ipswich. This might have been so arranged because the prior and canons of the almost conterminous Ipswich Priory were impropriators and patrons of the benefice. During this period the vicars, as some are styled friars and some canons, appear to have been selected from among the canons of the priory.