16.—Died, aged 83, Mr. Edmund Manning, of London Street, Norwich, “the oldest and wealthiest retired tradesman in St. Peter Mancroft.” He was a brazier by trade. “Some property which his father left him with what he had himself industriously acquired, was so parsimoniously hoarded during his long-protracted life it accumulated the immense sum of £70,000, of which between £50,000 and £60,000 were in the Funds. His annual income at the time of his death was upwards of £2,100 a year, and his expenses were probably not 20s. a week. The great bulk of his property was left to distant relations for whom he affected to have no regard, whilst those whose expectations he had raised (even on the day before his death) had reason to be dissatisfied. He gave to Mr. T. S. Norgate £29,000, and to the Rev. T. S. Buckle £14,500, and to Mr. Manning, of London, £14,500. The remainder he has bequeathed, in various sums, from £1 to £300, to friends and acquaintances and to certain charitable institutions. He also bequeathed £4,000 three per cent. Consols to the trustees of the charity schools, the dividends to be applied annually to apprenticing poor boys.”
19.—A prize-fight took place at Bedingham, between Cricknell and Balls, of Norwich. “After a contest of 53 minutes, Balls was obliged to give in.”
24.*—“Died lately, in the Workhouse at Downham Market, at the advanced age of 100 years, Samuel Simpson. He retained his faculties to the last, and was able to walk with astonishing alacrity.”
—*“We cannot but lament the loss which science sustains in the death of Mr. Samuel Woodward. He was an excellent geologist, particularly as regards his native county. His principal works were ‘The Outline of the Geology of Norfolk’ and ‘Synopsis of British Organic Remains.’ He was a skilful and unwearied antiquary, and through his means were recorded many valuable notices of Norfolk antiquities.”
—The ship Benwell, Captain Moody, 300 tons burden, bound from Newcastle to London, with a cargo valued at £20,000, was lost on Sheringham Shoals. “The crew of eleven hands, two male and five female passengers, were landed on Burnham beach almost in a state of nudity.”
MARCH.
5.—Died, aged 82, Mr. Edward Roger Pratt, of Ryston House, near
Downham Market, “of whom it may be said that he exhibited in every relation of life a perfect picture of the old English gentleman.” On the death of Sir Jacob Astley, in 1817, he unsuccessfully contested the county.
12.—Lord Suffield’s staghounds met on Crostwight Common. The stag crossed the road to Beeston Hall, and ran thence by Rackheath to Wroxham, Salhouse, Woodbastwick, Ranworth, Burlingham, Upton, and Acle; crossed the Bure and made for Stokesby, Thrigby, and Caister, going within a mile of Yarmouth. He then took to Breydon, where he was secured. Distance from point to point, 18 miles; country covered, from 25 to 30 miles.
16.—At the meeting of the county magistrates, at Norwich, it was decided that in future the Quarter Sessions be adjourned to Swaffham instead of to Lynn.