16.—Died at Ryslip, near Uxbridge, the Right Hon. Lady Wodehouse, aged 77. She was the only surviving daughter of the Hon. Charles Berkeley, of Bruton Abbey, Somersetshire, niece of Lord Berkeley of Stratton, and the last of that branch of the Berkeley family. Her ladyship’s remains were interred at Kimberley on May 27th, when the funeral procession was headed by fifty mounted tenants on the estate.
18.—A meeting of the citizens was held at St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, by requisition, at which resolutions were adopted asking the legislature “to undertake at the earliest opportunity such a revision of the Corn Laws as may secure cultivators of the soil from a recurrence of those ruinous fluctuations in price which the present system has occasioned, and at the same time complete that liberal commercial policy in which progress has already been made.” A petition based on the resolution was prepared and presented to Parliament. It received 14,385 signatures.
21.—Married at St. Giles’ Church, Norwich, by the Rev. C. J. Chapman, Lieut. Charles Thurtell, R.N., third son of Mr. Thomas Thurtell, alderman of Norwich, to Mrs. Dunham, of Chapel Field.
23.*—“Died at Lynn, the Widow Oldershaw, aged 107.”
MAY.
1.—Four candidates were nominated at the Mayoral Election at Norwich. A poll was demanded, and the result was declared on the same day (Sunday) as follows:—Alderman Day, 679; Alderman Booth, 579; Alderman Leman, 152; Alderman Burt, 150. “It is somewhat singular that the father of the Mayor-elect was also chosen on a Sunday, May Day so falling in 1808.”
9.—The Norwich Museum was opened at a house in the Upper Haymarket.
14.*—“The work of constructing the new Theatre was commenced, at Norwich, last week. Mr. Wilkins is the architect and patentee, and the site is nearly adjoining to the ground on which the present Theatre stands, and at the back of the green rooms.”
29.—At Yarmouth Quarter Sessions, before the Recorder (Mr. Robert Alderson), Mary Neal, aged 42, Susan Neal (21), her daughter, and William Neal (18), son, were charged with attempting to murder the family of Mr. Hales, cordwainer, of Howard Street, Yarmouth, by poisoning them. It was alleged that the female prisoners persuaded William Neal, an apprentice of the prosecutor, to place arsenic in the food of his master’s family to avenge some fancied grievance. Mr. and Mrs. Hales and their children narrowly escaped death. Sentence of death, afterwards commuted to transportation, was recorded.
30.—The members of a newly established club, called the Norwich Loyal Society, held their first anniversary dinner at the Wheat Sheaf Inn, Bethel Street, in commemoration of the birthday of Pitt.