17.—Died at Diss, in his 83rd year, Mr. Meadows Taylor. “It is a singular fact that Mr. Taylor and his uncle, the late Mr. Meadows, had carried on business as solicitors in the same town and the same house for the long period of 97 years.”
19.—Died, Mr. Thomas Bray, farmer, of Diss, aged 79. “He was the sole proprietor of Bray’s Diss waggon, which has travelled over the road under the same name for upwards of a century. He was interred on the 26th, when the hearse was followed by his children and descendants in eight gigs.”
22.—Henry Pettett, a convict under sentence of fifteen years’ transportation for horse stealing, broke out of his cell at Norwich Castle. “He made a rope of his blanket, which he tied round a ring in his cell and the rest round his irons, to prevent their clanking, and let himself down into the arch. Thence he proceeded to the top of the Castle, but suddenly falling down he pitched his head into a bucket, by which he was somewhat seriously injured.”
28.—In a letter addressed to the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the Norfolk Yeomanry Cavalry, Lord Sondes announced that the Government had disbanded a great part of the Yeomanry force raised under precisely similar conditions to their own. He added that he had resigned his commission as Major-Commandant, and advised the regiment to disband themselves and not wait to be dismissed. The Lord Lieutenant afterwards appointed Capt. Loftus to the vacant command; and the Dereham troop, partially disorganized by Lord Sondes’ resignation, was re-formed in the Eastern division as the Hingham troop, and placed under the command of Captain Ives. The uniform of the regiment at this date “was like that of the 2nd Life Guards, with silver instead of gold lace.”
—Sir James Flower, of Eccles Hall, accompanied by Lady Flower, arrived in Norwich to attend the Judges of Assize as High Sheriff of Norfolk. He was escorted to the Swan Inn by a cavalcade of farmers. At Attleborough and Wymondham crowds of people welcomed the High Sheriff with bands of music. Throughout the Assize week he gave official and other dinners, upon a scale of princely magnificence, and the festivities, for such they were, concluded with a bespeak at the Theatre, where “Mr. Martin sang the song of the Eccles Hunt, ‘The Apple-green Coats with the Collars of Blue.’”
30.—Died at Little Walsingham, Mrs. Elizabeth Jackson, aged 82. “She was one of the earliest supporters of the Wesleyan Methodists in Lynn, and often enjoyed the honour of entertaining the venerable founder of the society, the late Rev. John Wesley, Dr. Coke, and others.”
31.*—“Last week was buried, at Diss church, Susanna Baldry, widow, in the 104th year of her age. She was born in the year 1734, in the seventh of George II., and was a subject of four Kings and a Queen.”
—*“We regret to announce the death, in his 77th year, of Lord Berners, so long known as the sporting Col. Wilson, of Newmarket. His lordship’s falconry establishment at Didlington was also well known, as he gave annually several flights of hawks at the Newmarket meetings.” His horse Phosphorus won the Derby in 1837. His lordship was succeeded in his title and estates by his brother, the Rev. Henry Wilson.
APRIL.
4.—At the Norwich Assizes, before Mr. Baron Bolland, Jonathan Whitley Cooper, gentleman, was placed at the bar charged with the wilful murder of Cornelius Moor, at Catton. Mr. Byles and Mr. Roberts were for the prosecution, and Mr. Fitzroy Kelly, Mr. O’Mally, and Mr. William Cooper for the defence. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter. A verdict of acquittal was taken in the further charge against the prisoner of maliciously shooting at a man named Ford. He was sentenced to be imprisoned in the House of Correction for one year.