William Saint, one of the mathematical masters of the Royal Military Academy, at Woolwich, was a native of St. Mary’s Coslany. He wrote the “Life of Fransham,” and was a contributor to the “Lady’s Diary.” He died July 9th, 1819.
George Sandby, D.D., chancellor of the diocese of Norwich, personally presided in the consistorial court of the Lord Bishop of Norwich for nearly thirty years, during the whole of which time no decree of his was reversed by a superior court. He died March 17th, 1807, aged ninety-one.
William Say, an eminent mezzotinto engraver, was born at Lakenham in 1768.
Frank Sayers, M.D., an eminent physician and literary character, who for many years resided in this city, was born in London, March 3rd, 1763. He was the author of “Dramatic Sketches of the Ancient Northern Mythology,” “Poems,” “Disquisitious, Metaphysical and Literary,” “Nugæ Poeticæ,” and “Miscellanies, Antiquarian and Historical.” He died August 16th, 1817, and a mural monument is erected to his memory in the Cathedral, with a Latin inscription by the Rev. F. Howes. His works were collected and edited by the late William Taylor of this city.
Sir James Edward Smith, M.D., F.R.S., president of the Linnæan Society, London, and of the Norwich Museum, and member of several foreign academies, was born in St. Peter’s Mancroft, December 2nd, 1759. He received his education here, and graduated as a physician at Leyden, in 1786. He assisted materially in the establishment of the Linnæan Society, in 1788, of which he was the first president, and he continued to preside over the society until his death, March 15th, 1828. He was the author of several admirable botanical works.
William Stevenson, F.S.A., who was for many years proprietor of the “Norfolk Chronicle,” and who edited a new edition of “Bentham’s History of Ely Cathedral,” was born at East Retford, in 1750, and died at his house in Surrey Street in this city, May 13th, 1821, aged seventy-one. He was, in the early part of his life, an artist of no mean pretension; and was esteemed an antiquarian and numismatist of considerable knowledge and research.
John Taylor, D.D., was a native of Lancaster. He came to Norwich in 1733, and was a minister to the Presbyterian dissenters in 1757. He was the author of several theological works, and died at Warrington, March 5th, 1761, aged sixty-six.
William Taylor, a celebrated German scholar, and a very eccentric character, author of an “Historical Survey of German Poetry,” and a translator of several German works, was born in this city, and resided for many years in Upper King Street. He died in 1836, aged sixty-nine.
Edward Baron Thurlow was born at Bracon Ash, in this county. He received the rudiments of his education at the Free Grammar School here. He rose successively to be appointed solicitor general, attorney general, master of the rolls, and lord high chancellor of Great Britain, and was created Lord Thurlow in 1778. In 1793 he resigned the seals. He died at Brighton, September 12th, 1806.
William Wilkins, sen., architect, was born in the parish of St. Benedict, about the year 1744 or 1747. He received but a limited education, but possessed an admirable taste for design, and his plans and drawings were very beautiful. He was the author of a clever essay in Vol. xii. of the “Archæologia,” on the Venta Icenorum.