Syer, Thos., Esq., Melton Symonds, Mr., Stowmarket Tayer, Mr. Robert Taylor, Rev. G., D. D., Dedham Taylor, Mr. Charles Taylor, Mr. Thomas, Manningtree Taylor, Mr., Little Baddow Hall Taylor, Mr. Thomas Thacker, Mr. J., R.N. Theobald, J. M., Esq., Claydon Hall Thompson, Mr., Woodbridge Thompson, Mr. Philip, Woodbridge Thompson, Mr. Geo., Woodbridge Thompson, Mr. Thomas, Harwich Thorndike, Miss, Westerfield Thorndike, Mr. James Thorndike, A. S., Esq., London Thurston, Mr. Thos., Bramford Thurston, Mr. James, Wickham Toosey, J, Esq. Topple, Mr. G., London Townsend, Mr. W. Turner, Mr. G., Harwich Turner, Mr. Jas., Wenham Turnor, Edm., Esq., Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire Wilkinson, -. Esq., London Upcott, Wm., Esq., London Insti- Wilkinson, G., Esq., London tution. Utting, Mr. G., Bawdsey Vaux, Geo., Esq. Wade, Rev. Ellis, A. M., Blaxhall Walkden, Miss E. A. Walker, Major Waller, Miss Ann Waller, S., Esq. Waller, Mr. H., Handford Hall Wallis, Mr. William Wallis, Capt., Hartest Wallis, Mr. J. E., London Ward. Mr. J. H. Ward, Mr. John, Finborough Ward, Mr., Bildestone Ward, Mr. James, Ramsey Williams, W. H., Esq., M. D., Wilson, R., Esq., Bildestone Wing, Mr. John, London Witheat, Mr. George, Dedham Wood, J., Esq., jun., Woodbridge Wood, Rev. Mr., Kenton Woodbridge Book Club Woodhall, Mr., Sproughton Woods, Mr. John, Woodbridge Woods, Mr. James, Stowmarket Woollard, Mr. William Worts, Mr. William Wright, Mr. J. C., Lynn Wright, Mr. W. S. Wright. Mr. Thomas, Brentwood ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece-Ipswich from the Ostrich Engraved Title-page, on which are delineated the Arms of the Borough, the Maces, the Great Seal, and the Bailiffs' Corner of Mr. Conder's House, in the Old Butter-market 210 Old Beech Tree in the Park of Christ Church, Ipswich 330 1 THE HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF IPSWICH. HISTORY may be supposed to be a reverend gentleman with a flowing beard and a grave face. Now I assure you, gentle reader, that I have neither one or the other; I shall therefore endeavour to render my antiquarian and topographical researches as entertaining as the subject will admit; for it may safely be asserted, that gravity is not always wisdom. In the character of historian, after being half blinded by poring over the dusty records of antiquity, I may have been seen searching among the repositories of the dead, peeping through the chasms of dilapidated edifices, scrambling over stone dykes, or leaping brick walls; and in the same manner as Old Mortality with his chisel renovated the memorials of the departed which Time had nearly erased, so have I with my pen brought into notice events and personages that would have been probably forgotten, giving them of course a greater chance of immortality than they otherwise would have enjoyed. It is extremely difficult to define the boundaries between positive truth and legendary fiction, and almost impossible to find printed or written documents for every assertion; and as it does not follow of necessity that every thing must be true because it appears B / 1 in black and white, I have not altogether rejected the assistance of tradition; I have however never falsified facts merely from fancy, but have in all cases drawn my conclusions from the best possible authenticated sources of information-I have not, certainly, taken my oath before the bailiffs of the verity of these pages, but I positively affirm, that my readers in no instance run the hazard of being wantonly deceived. As in the narration of a story it is desirable to begin at the beginning, I shall commence with the name. The town of IPSWICH received its appellation from its being seated where the fresh water river Gipping connects itself with the Orwell, and loses its own name by its being joined to another river, thence owning the Orwell for its lord and master. "What's in a name?" a great deal! and formerly a great deal more than was necessary, for in Doomsday it is spelt Gyppeswid, Gippeswiz, Gippeswic, and afterwards Yppyswyche, but divested of all superfluities it now stands before us plainly and simply Ipswich. The Orwell was called, in the Saxon annals, Arwan; probably it was originally Arwell, as we have Arwerton on one side of it, and Arwich (Harwich) on the other, at which place it empties itself into the German Ocean. Towns, as well as families, pride themselves in tracing back their origin to the earliest periods; and if any person could discover that one of his ancestors had been hanged for his misdemeanours in the time of William the Conqueror, he would not think himself disgraced by the relationship; so if we can discover any thing like the remnants of a Roman wall, or an elevated space of earth in which are found a few bones denoting it as a place of human sepulture during our Saxon slavery, we deem it as an evidence of the spot having formerly been a place of some notoriety; and luckily for the honour of Ipswich, on the heath which extends from Rushmere to Nacton, at a place called Seven Hills, near this town, there are seven mounds of earth, call them tumuli, barrows, or what you please, in which bones of human bodies have been met with; therefore it is determined that near this spot our forefathers, under the the command of earl Ulfketeł, bravely defended themselves against the Danes, in the year 1010, and that these mounds are the burial-places of the slain. The conduct of the Danes affords a convincing proof of the importance of Ipswich at that period, for they levied the enormous fine of £10,000 upon the inhabitants. It is likewise recorded that about the year 880, a most important engagement took place near the mouth of the Orwell, between our countrymen under the command of Alfred, and the Danes; in which sixteen of the enemy's ships were taken and destroyed, with a great number of soldiers, who were all put to the sword. The ramparts of the town had twice before been broken down by these invaders, about 991 and 1000. They also sailed up the Orwell, and made an irruption into the kingdom of Mercia, in 1016; from which we infer, that it must have been a place of note long before the Norman conquest: indeed, Ruding places this matter beyond a doubt, for he has the following account of the coins at Ipswich. |