will attempt to do justice to her character in a few words. Her genius, talents, and acquirements, were of a superior and varied description. As a poet, she was graceful, playful, or pathetic; and an easy elegance pervaded all the productions of her pen. She was eminently skilled in music, drawing, botany, mineralogy, and conchology; well versed in the sciences, history, and antiquities; and had also an extraordinary talent of cutting portraits, landscapes, &c. in paper, with facility and correctness. She was possessed also of another rare accomplishment for a female, she was a powerful and persuasive orator: which has been frequently evinced in the addresses she delivered at the various charitable institutions over which she presided, or of which she was the instigator, or the life and soul in this town. She was the friend and patroness of artists of every description; the promoter of all respectable public amusements, and the leader in every fashionable assembly; a liberal contributor to public establishments and private charities, and, blessed with a fortune to keep pace with her liberality, she was never weary of well doing. She died beloved and lamented by her numerous family and friends, and universally regretted as a public loss to society. The inhabitants of Ipswich, of every sect and denomination, high and low, rich and poor, felt that they had lost their best friend, patroness, and benefactor. December 30th, 1617, Mr. Leonard Caston, portman, left, by will, £100, for the use of the bailiffs, &c. They to put forth and improve the said £100 as a stock; and out of the benefit and profit thereof, to pay £6:12:6 to be laid out in bread for thirty poor persons of the town, to be distributed every Sunday, at St. Mary at the Tower church; also twenty shillings to the minister of the said parish, to preach a sermon annually, on the day of his burial. And for the payment of the said £100, he tied the house he lived in, commonly called the Archdeacon's House, and the residue of the £6:12:6 towards the repairs of the said church, provided " the inhabitants of the said house shall enjoy the herbage of the north part of the churchyard, as it is now severed, and the benefit of the roses and plants there now growing, or hereafter to be growing therein." 1643. Mr. William Tyler, portman, gave forty shillings per year to the minister of this parish: which is paid out of lands lying in Southolt, in the county of Suffolk. 1664. Mr. John Parker gave forty shillings per annum -to be paid out of the Swan inn, in this parish-to buy coals for the poor. 1690. Mr William Neave, portman, gave the sum of £5 per annum, to be paid out of his dwelling-place, situate in the Butter-market, to buy coals for the use of the poor. Also Mr. John Rednall left the house now used as a workhouse, with several other tenements, to the parish. In Tavern street, in this parish, in the house where one of the present proprietors resides, the Suffolk Chronicle was first printed and published, on Saturday, April 4th, 1801, by Mr. G. R. Clarke: but after carrying it on for two or three years, with every prospect of eventual success, he was obliged to relinquish it, for want of funds to proceed. The materials were purchased by two or three individuals, with a view of its continuance; but difference of opinion arising as to its management, it was for a time laid aside; when the idea of again commencing it revived on Mr. King's coming to reside at Ipswich. A fresh agreement was entered into; and after many fluctuations and reverses, it has, by extraordinary exertion and perseverance, been brought to its present perfection; for its reputation is unquestionable, and its circulation firmly established. The original projector-like many other sapient speculators - sowed the seed for others to reap the benefit of the harvest. The spirit of improvement in building seems to have entered this parish in the year 1786, when the late C. A. Crickitt, esq. built the row of houses in Tavern-street, called the Bank Buildings; and, in conjunction with his excellent colleagues, J. Kerridge and William Truelove, esqrs. commenced the Blue Bank, as it is commonly called. Mr. Crickitt having secured his seat in parliament, remained at the head of the firm, from its first establishment. to the time of his death, in 1802, after having been eighteen years member of parliament for Ipswich. Robert A. Crickitt, esq. son of the before-mentioned gentlemansucceeded his father in his banking concerns at Ipswich, Colchester, and Chelmsford: but in consequence of the panic, in 1826, and the run upon country banks in general, the bank at Chelmsford gave way, to the universal regret of every person who had ever known, or transacted buisiness with, Mr. R. A. Crickitt; for his honour and integrity were equal to his urbanity, and persons of all parties spoke of his losses with sorrow, and of his conduct with respect. The Ipswich Blue Bank stood firm, and has since gained an additional accession of strength: it is now carried on in the names of Bacon, Cobbold, Rodwell, Duningham, and Co. - R. A. Crickitt, esq. was representative for the borough for thirteen years, in several different parliaments, as mentioned in a former part of this work. In the year 1789, in taking down an old house adjoining to the Bank Buildings, the workmen found secreted under one of the floors, a relic of the Romish church: it consisted of four figures, curiously cut in alabaster; in the centre is represented the head of the Deity; immediately |