The town was favoured with another royal visit,
“That is to say it would have been,
If it had not been prevented.”
for the royal yacht which brought to England Charlotte, the consort of George III., would have landed here, as George II. did on his return from Hanover, had not the wind suddenly changed.
THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE TOWN
next claims our notice, and as the religious denominations are intimately connected with their several places of worship, the places and people will he spoken of together.
1. The Episcopalians. In this parish, as in most others, episcopacy has flourished under its two forms, Romish and Protestant, and the parish church has been its home, which even now presents many mementos of the time when Romanism held an undivided sovereignty over the minds and hearts of the inhabitants: but there are records and traditions of places of worship of earlier date than the present parish church, which we must first notice. There was Good Cross chapel, situated in the south-east part of the town, probably near the lane, called to this day chapel lane; this has been washed away by the sea. There was also another chapel which occupied the site of the present town hall; it was originally built on arches, and was but a poor thatched building, which, after having been long disused, was fitted up in 1570, as a place of protestant worship, for the convenience of the inhabitants. In 1698 this chapel was re-built, since which time it has undergone various alterations, and has recently been converted into a town hall, in front of which is the town chamber, where parish business is transacted. The building may be instantly recognised by the clock, which is attached to its front, projecting over the street.
Near the town hall may be seen the fragments of a flintstone building, in which exist the weather mouldings of one or two arches, apparently in the style of Henry VII. Gillingwater conjectures that it is the remnant of a cell belonging to the priory of St. Bartholomew in London, to which the Impropriation of Lowestoft belonged; other appearances in the immediate neighbourhood, and especially the discovery of the arms of the priory, on a piece of timber dug up there a few years ago, seem to favour the conjecture.
Having now spoken of the ecclesiastical buildings, which either no longer exist, or have been appropriated to common purposes, we turn to the parish church and matters connected particularly with it.
The benefice of Lowestoft is a vicarage, endowed with the great tithes, through the exertions of the Rev. John Tanner, a former vicar, who, with great trouble and perseverance, collected money for the purchase of the Impropriation, which purchase he effected in 1721.
