HISTORY OF SUFFOLK.

Earl of Leicester, supporting the claims of the King's eldest son, landed at Walton, in Suffolk, with an army of Flemings, and being joined by Hugh Bigod, Earl of Lancaster, overran and laid waste many parts of the county; but being met near Bury, by the royal troops, under Richd. de Lucie, the lord chief justice, they were routed with great slaughter. (Vide pages 55, 168, and 359.) During the first war between the barons and King John, Hugh de Boves, a French knight, not less remarkable for his valor than for his arrogance, promised to bring over a strong army to the assistance of the latter. In consideration of this intended service, he obtained of the king a charter, granting him the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, from which he designed, as it was reported, to expel the inhabitants, and re-people them with foreigners. With this view, he assembled a formidable army at Calais. These troops, with their wives and children, being there embarked, with an intent to land at Dover, were overtaken by a violent tempest, in which Hugh himself and all his followers perished. The number of lives lost was estimated at 40,000. The king was thus disappointed of the expected succour; but the inhabitants of Suffolk were not a little rejoiced at their escape from the destruction intended them. Though the county was saved by this providential interference from the rapacity of the King's confederates, it was destined to suffer severely from the allies of the barons; for Louis, the dauphin of France, in conjunction with the nobles, who were in arms against John, made incursions into it, and having ravaged the towns and villages, reduced it into complete subjection to themselves. As noticed at page 170, King John met them at Bury, and there bound himself by a public oath, to establish that palladium of the liberties of Englishmen-Magna Charta. In 1267, the insurgent barons having taken post in the Isle of Ely, Henry III. assembled his forces at Bury; which was again made royal head quarters by the queen of Edward II., in 1326. Several parliaments were held at Bury in the 15th century, and the town received many royal visits. Many of the Suffolk men, during the rebellion of Wat Tyler, joined the Norfolk insurgents in their formidable revolt, which was suppressed by the Bishop of Norwich. (Vide p. 170.) In the 15th of Henry VII., one Patrick, an Augustine friar of this county, having a scholar, named Ralph Wilford, the son of a shoemaker, instructed him to assume the character of the Earl of Warwick, nephew of Edward IV. and Richard III., at that time confined in the tower, whence the imposter pretended to have escaped by the aid of the friar. This story gained credit from many people, as soon as it was divulged, which encouraged the friar to assert its authenticity from the pulpit. The king being informed of these transactions, caused both master and scholar to be apprehended: the latter was hanged, and the friar condemned to perpetual imprisonment. It does not appear that the people of Suffolk had any share in Kett's rebellion in the reign of Edward VI., which arose in Norfolk, and, like several others, had for its object the re-establishment of the monastic institutions, and the prevention of the enclosure of the open lands of the dissolved houses, on which the poor had previously exercised the right of commonage.

On Edward's decease, the inhabitants of Suffolk, though as sincere Protestants as any part of the nation, zealously supported the title of his sister Mary, against the pretension's of Lady Jane Grey's adherents. When the princess repaired on this occasion from Norfolk to Framlingham Castle, in this county, the nobility and gentry resorted to her, offering their services to vindicate her rightful claim to the crown, on condition that they might enjoy their religion as established in the reign of her predecessor. Mary assured them that no alteration should be made in that point by her consent, and still less by her authority; but no sooner was she firmly seated on the throne, than the people of Suffolk found themselves as much the victims of the misguided system of this princess, as the rest of their fellow subjects. They ventured to remonstrate with her majesty, and humbly entreated her to be mindful of her promise to them, but were answered contrary to their expectation, that "it was not the place of members to govern the head, nor subjects their prince, as they should hereafter know." The threat conveyed in the concluding words was fulfilled in the rigorous persecution to which many of the inhabitants of this county fell a sacrifice. In 1578, the nobility and gentry of Suffolk magnificently entertained Queen Elizabeth in her progress; for though they had but short notice of her intended visit, they prepared so well for it, that on her entering the county, she was received by two hundred young gentlemen clad in white velvet, three hundred of the graver sort in black, and 1500 attendants on horseback, under the conduct of the high-sheriff, Sir William Spring. When her majesty, highly pleased with her entertainment, left the county on her return, she was attended to the confines by the like escort.

During the Civil Wars between Charles I. and the Parliament, this was one of those counties that associated for the maintenance of the cause of the latter, and were placed under the command of the Earl of Manchester. Sir Edward Barker, Sir John Petty, and other loyal gentlemen of Suffolk, endeavoured to raise a force to secure the county for the king, but Cromwell surprised and reduced them to obedience. (See page 559.) In 1782, when England was involved in a war with France, Spain, Holland, and America, the principal inhabitants of Suffolk, at a meeting held at Stowmarket, agreed upon a subscription, in order to raise a sum sufficient to build a 74-gun ship, to be presented to government; but at the close of the year, it was found that only £20,000 had been subscribed ; and a general peace following soon after, the subscribers were never called upon for the various sums for which they had pledged themselves. At the breaking out of this war, Lowestoft and other places on the coast were fortified. In the Dutch war, in the reign of Charles II., a memorable naval engagement took place off Lowestoft; and in 1672, a sanguinary engagement between the French and English fleets on the one side, and the Dutch fleet on the other, occurred in Southwold Bay. (See pages 327 and 560.)

As already noticed, William the Conquerer created Ralph Waher, or Guader, Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, and after his death, the title was held by the Bigods, till the death of Roger Bigod, in 1307,

without issue, after which the earldom of Norfolk was conferred on Thomas Plantagenet, and passed to the Mowbrays and Howards, as stated at pages 358 to 360. Robert de Ufford, in 1337, was created EARL OF SUFFOLK, and was succeeded by his son William de Ufford, who died on the steps of the House of Lords, in 1382, without issue. (See page 270.) Michael de la Pole, the first Baron de la Pole, was created Earl of Suffolk, in 1885, and his second son, William, was created Marquis in 1444, and Duke of Suffolk in 1448. As noticed at page 403, the De la Poles were seated at Wingfield Castle, and became extinct in 1525. Edmund, the third Duke, was beheaded in 1513, and being attainted, his honors became extinct. In 1514, Charles Brandon, son of Sir Thomas Brandon, was created by Henry VIII., Viscount Lisle and Duke of Suffolk; but these titles became extinct on the death of his son Henry, without issue, in 1551. His first wife was Mary Tudor, dowager Queen of France, and sister to Henry VIII. They often visited Bury, and she was interred there, as noticed at page 177. In 1551, Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, having married the daughter of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor, was created Duke of Suffolk, but was beheaded in 1554. The dukedom has never been revived, but the title of Earl of Suffolk was conferred on Thomas Howard, a younger son of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, in 1603. In his family, it has ever since remained. Charles John Howard, the present and 17th Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, Viscount Andover, and Baron Howard of Charleton, has his seats at Charleton, in Wiltshire, and at Suffolk House, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Many places in Suffolk confer titles in the peerage, and there are in the county about twenty baronets, and many other persons of wealth and distinction.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.-The Christian religion, which had gained a small footing in the kingdom of the East Angles, in the reigns of Redwald and Erpenwald, was not established in that country till Sigebert was invested with the government. Redwald, while viceroy of Kent under King Ethelbert, was converted to Christianity, and baptised; but succeeding his father Titul in the kingdom of the East Angles, he was persuaded by his wife to return to his former idolatry; yet that he might not seem wholly to renounce Christianity, he erected in the same temple an altar for the service of Christ, and another for sacrifice to idols, which, as Bede informs us, were standing in his time. Thus Christianity was banished from his kingdom during his reign. The queen, however, who had thus excluded the true religion, was the means of its establishment in the sequel. Being the widow of a nobleman, by whom she had a son named Sigebert, she introduced him at the court of Redwald. By Redwald she had two sons, Reynhere and Erpanwald, who, being brought up with Sigebert, were so far surpassed by him both in person and behaviour, that Redwald took umbrage at the youth, and banished him to France, where he continued during the remainder of Redwald's reign, and that of Erpenwald, who succeeded bis father, because Reynhere had been killed in battle with Ethelfred, King of Northumbria, in Nottinghamshire. Erpenwald hav

ing been convinced of the truth of Christianity by Edwin, King of Northumbria, while residing as an exile at his father's court, had embraced that religion; and on his ascension to the throne, he openly professed it, hoping that his subjects would follow his example; but, contrary to his expectations, they were so dissatisfied that a conspiracy was formed against his life, and he fell by the hand of an assassin, leaving no issue. The Fast Angles being now destitute of an heir to the throne, and considering none so well qualified to fill it as Sigebert, made him an offer of the crown. Having accepted it, he returned to his native country, and brought with him Felix, a pious Burgundian ecclesiastic, to preach the gospel to his subjects. Felix, on his arrival, was constituted Bishop of East Anglia, and fixed his seat at Dunwich, on the sea coast, in Suffolk. (Vide p. 302.) Charmed by the impressive eloquence of this evangelist, and incited by the royal example, numerous converts were soon made, and schools were instituted and churches erected for public worship. Felix was consecrated to the pastoral office in 630, by Honorius, the second Archbishop of Canterbury. After his death, in 647, he was canonised as a saint, and his festival appointed to be held yearly on the 8th of March. The second Bishop of East Anglia was Thomas, who had been deacon to Felix, and died in 653. He was succeeded by Boniface or Bregilsus, on whose death, in 669, Bisa, or Bosa, became the fourth bishop. In consequence of its great extent, and his own infirmities, Bisa, in his declining years, divided East Anglia into two bishoprics, the seat of one of which remained at Dunwich, and the other was fixed at North Elmham, in Norfolk. He was present at the council of Hertford, in 673, and died the same year. He was succeeded, in the see of Dunwich, by Etta or Ecca, who, about two years afterwards, embraced the monastic life in the abbey of St. Osyth, in Essex. Astulfus, or Easculphus, was the next bishop, and was succeeded, in 731, by Eadrid or Edrid, who was present at the council of Clovesho, and subscribed himself Heardelfus Episcopus Dummocencis. The eight succeeding Bishops of Dunwich were Eadrid, Guthwin, Albrith, Eglaf, Hardred, Alsinus, Titefertus or Widfrith, and Weremundus or Wermund. The latter died in 870, about the same time with Humbert, bishop of North Elmham, whose successor, Wybred, again united that see with Dunwich, and fixed the episcopal seat at the former place, whence it was removed to Thetford in 1070, but it was translated to Norwich in 1094.

Until 1837, the whole of Suffolk was in the Diocese of Norwich, except four parishes, viz., Hadleigh, Monks Eleigh, and Moulton, which are peculiars to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and Freckenbam, which is a peculiar to the Bishop of Rochester. The Bishop of Norwich had but one archdeacon in Suffolk till 1126, when Richard, archdeacon of the whole county, being elevated to an episcopal see in France, Eborard, the then diocesan, divided Suffolk into two archdeaconries, making the western part of it, together with such parishes in Cambridgeshire as belonged to his diocese, subject to the Archdeacon of Sudbury, and the eastern portion subject to the Archdeacon of Suffolk. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners of

England, appointed and incorporated by an act of parliament passed in the 6th and 7th of Wm. IV., to carry into effect the Reports of the Commissioners appointed by Letters Patent in 1832, to consider the state of the Established Church in England and Wales, obtained in 1836 the sanction of his Majesty in Council, to certain schemes and decrees, of which the following is the substance:-"That all parishes which are locally situated in one diocese, and are under the jurisdiction of another, be made subject to that see within which they are locally situated; that certain new dioceses should be created, that such apportionment or exchange of ecclesiastical patronage should be made among the archbishops and bishops as should be consistent with the relative magnitude and importance of their sees, so as to leave an average yearly income of £15,000 to the Archbishop of Canterbury, £10,000 to the Archbishop of York, £10,000 to the Bishop of London, £8000 to the Bishop of Durham, £7000 to the Bishop of Winchester, £5000 to the Bishops of Ely, Worcester, and Bath and Wells, respectively; £5200 to the Bishops of St. Asaph and Bangor; and that out of the funds arising from the said dioceses over and above the said incomes, the commissioners should grant such stipends to the other bishops as should make their average annual incomes not less than £4000, nor more than £5000." By this parliamentary commission, the whole of the ARCHDEACONRY OF SUDBURY has been added to the Diocese of Ely, except the deaneries of Stow and Hartismere, which have been added to the ARCHDEACONRY OF SUFFOLK, which is still in the Diocese of Norwich, and comprises the greater part of the county, divided into the sixteen DEANERIES of Ipswich, Carlford, Claydon, Bosmere, Colneis, Samford, Wilford, Loes, Orford, Dunwich, Wangford, Lothingland, Hoxne, Southelmham, Stow, and Hartismere. The Archdeaconry of Sudbury now comprises the six deaneries of Thingoe, Thedwestry, Clare, Blackbourn, Sudbury, and Fordham, the latter of which is partly in Cambridgeshire. These six deaneries comprise all the seven Hundreds forming the LIBERTY OF ST. EDMUND, noticed at page 27.

The Ven. Thos. Johnson Ormerod, M.A., rector of Redenhall, is ARCHDEACON OF SUFFOLK, and holds his visitations at Ipswich, Wickham Market, Yoxford, Beccles, and Stradbroke. Charles Steward, Esq., of Ipswich, is deputy registrar for this archdeaconry. The Ven. George Glover, M.A., of South Repps, Norfolk, is the ARCHDEACON OF SUDBURY, and holds his visitations at Bury St. Edmund's, Sudbury, &c. Charles Wodehouse, Esq., of Bury, is deputy registrar of this archdeaconry. The Rural Deans are named in the directories of the parishes where they reside.

From a statistical table, published in 1829, it appears that there were in Suffolk, in that year, 486 church livings, of which 54 were in the gift of the Crown, 277 in the gift of laymen, 34 in the patronage of University Colleges, 4 in the gift of corporations, 4 in the gift of parishioners, and 113 in the gift of clergy, &c. The total number of CHAPELS in the county were stated, in the same year, to be 127, namely-4 Roman Catholic, 2 Presbyterian, 33 Independent, 35 Particular Baptist, 2 General Baptist, 10 Society of Friends, 40 Wesleyan, and 1 Calvinistic Methodist; but they now amount