NOVEMBER.
6.—Mr. William Dalrymple was presented with a valuable silver salver by the Mayor, Sheriffs, citizens, and commonalty of Norwich, in acknowledgment of the care and skill he had displayed in the performance of his duties as surgeon to the Great Hospital and Doughty’s Hospital during the period of 28 years.
9.—Died at St. Michael at Coslany, Norwich, Ann, widow of Leonard Atkinson. “She was born in this parish December 24th, 1728, and had scarcely quitted it more than a week during the space of nearly 105 years. Free from wrinkles and decrepitude, she possessed her faculties unclouded till within a few months of her decease.”
13.—The 50th anniversary of the Norwich Public Library was celebrated by a dinner at the White Swan, presided over by Dr. England, president of the institution.
15.—A special assembly of the Norwich Corporation was held, to take into consideration the application of Mr. George Long and Mr. John Buckle, two of the Commissioners named in the Municipal Commission, for the production of charters and other muniments of the Corporation. A resolution was passed stating that the Corporation had no wish to withhold the information required, “but they protested against the Commission as illegal and unconstitutional, and denied the right of the Commissioners to make any inquiries.” At the opening of the Commission, on November 25th, the Sheriffs (Mr. W. J. Utten Browne and Mr. Edward Steward) declined to attend or to allow any of their officers to give evidence relative to the constitution of the Sheriffs Court, on the ground that “a Commission issued by virtue of the Royal prerogative alone was a process unknown to the law of England, and eminently hostile to public liberty.” The inquiry lasted twenty-two days, and concluded on December 19th.
18.—Ducrow advertised the representation of a Spanish bull-fight at his Norwich circus. “To prevent any misconception on the part of visitors to the arena, and at the same time to add to the surprising nature of the performance, ladies and others are informed that the bull is impersonated by one of Mr. Ducrow’s horses, tutored by him for the purpose, enveloped in an elastic skin, and so managed as to deceive even the keenest eye.”
22.—Died at Guanajuato, Mexico, Lieutenant John Thomas Borrow, of the West Norfolk Militia, eldest son of Captain Borrow, of Norwich.
28.—Mr. George Long, Municipal Commissioner, held an inquiry into the affairs of the Corporation of Castle Rising. Mr. F. Lane, of Lynn, the Recorder, stated that he had no charter nor papers of any kind to produce. The Corporation consisted of a Recorder, Mayor, one alderman, and a serjeant-at-mace. The Mayor and alderman served in turn the office of Chief Magistrate. There were about 50 burgage tenants, and the Corporation property was about £20 a year, arising from land, and with the money the Mayor gave each year two dinners to the leet. The Corporation had no debts, no prison, and but one offence had been committed in the borough for a number of years.
DECEMBER.
23.—Two leaden cases were dug up from a piece of ground at the east end of Wymondham church. One measured 6 ft 2 in. in length, and contained the mummified remains of an adult female; the other, 16¼ inches in length, a foetus of about the fourth month. The examination of the remains was conducted in the church on December 27th, by Mr. John Dalrymple, of Norwich, in the presence of sixty scientific and medical men. “As the mummies were taken from the site of the original choir, the female was most probably nearly allied to the founder of the abbey, William De Abbay or Daubeny, who died in the year 1156.”