21.—Died at his house, Tombland, Norwich, aged 76, Mr. Charles Kitson, one of the Chapter Registrars of the diocese of Norwich.
29.—Norwich Theatre was opened for the Assize week. “Since the period of its leaving Norwich the company has been subject to almost an entire change, and it is now equal to any provincial establishment of the histrionic kind in the kingdom.” The new members included Miss Wensley, Mrs. Dowton, Mr. Osbaldiston, and Mr. Ford White. Mrs. Dowton was a favourite actress in the Norfolk and Suffolk
Company of Comedians, under the management of Mr. Fisher, and afterwards married Mr. Sloman, the low comedian of the Norwich Company.
AUGUST.
2.—At Norwich Theatre a new tragedy, entitled “The Persian Heroine,” written by Mr. Richard Paul Jodrell, was performed under the patronage of the High Sheriff and Lady Jodrell.
—At the Norfolk Assizes, held at Norwich, before Mr. Justice Best, James Smith was indicted for breaking into the house of William Balls, the Half Moon, Stone Hills, near Norwich, and stealing on January 2nd 16 gallons of liquors in bottles, a purse containing £8 in notes and cash, a quantity of copper coin, &c. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. (Although it was not stated at the trial, the prisoner was evidently one of the “Cossey gang” referred to under date January 2nd, 1822.) At the Norwich Assizes, Henry Carter was sentenced to death for entering the dwelling-house of John Clarke, of St. Paul’s, and stealing therein several articles. The execution of these men was carried out under revolting circumstances on August 24th. From an early hour in the morning they were incessantly appealed to by the chaplain of the gaol and a Wesleyan minister to acknowledge the justice of their sentence. The procession from the gaol in St Giles’ Street to the scaffold was headed by the Under Sheriffs on horseback; the Sheriffs accompanied by the chaplain and the minister came next in a mourning coach, “followed by a cart covered with black cloth on which sat the two malefactors each with arms pinioned, neck bare, and head uncovered, each sitting on the coffin destined to receive his lifeless body.” Smith was well behaved, but Carter acted with great levity during the progress of the procession through the Market Place to the scaffold erected near the weighing machine on the Castle Meadow, and on the very drop itself “he seemed to evince perfect indifference to the fate which awaited him.” After hanging for an hour “the bodies were carried by twelve bearers to the house of Carter’s parents in St. Margaret’s, and were buried on the 26th in the churchyard of that parish.”
3.*—“Mr. Yarrington, of this city, plumber and glazier, has presented the Dean and Chapter of Norwich with a valuable piece of stained glass, a portrait of the Virgin, which has been placed in the west window of the Cathedral.”
6.—A great cocking match lasting two days commenced at Yarmouth, between the gentlemen of that town and of Norwich. Yarmouth won eleven mains and five byes, and Norwich nine mains and seven byes. “The feeder for Norwich (Nash) proved the excellence of his management. On Wednesday evening the Norwich cock was pounded and taken by Nash, and from the superiority of his condition afterwards won the battle. In the second pit the same evening one of the Norwich cocks had his thigh broken in the first part of the battle, and afterwards fought two hours, and at one time brought the odds from ten to one against him to the same odds in his favour. He, however, eventually lost. This battle would have been withdrawn, but as the money depended upon it they were induced to continue it.”
7.—Mr. Heber, “the very eminent book collector and M.P. for the University of Oxford,” dined with the Bishop of Norwich at the Palace, and on the following morning proceeded to Blickling to inspect the library at the hall.
8.—A cricket match between eleven members of the Holt club and the first eleven of the Nottingham club, commenced at Nottingham, and owing to unfavourable weather was protracted to the 11th. Scores: Nottingham, 109-91; Holt, 52-43. “Bets to the amount of several thousand pounds were dependent upon the match.”