29.*—“In the melancholy list of passengers on board the Pegasus, lost off the Fern Islands on July 19th, we are sorry to observe the name of Mr. Elton, for many years a favourite tragedian in the Norwich Company, and latterly holding a most respectable station on the London boards.”
—The Assize week performances at Norwich Theatre opened with the appearance of Miss Montague, of Drury Lane, as Juliet. On July 31st Miss Clara Novello, Miss Sybella Novello, Mr. Manvers, and Mr. Stretton, of Drury Lane, performed in Belleni’s opera, “Norma,” and in “Acis and Galatea”; and on August 7th Madame Céleste and Mr. Webster commenced a four nights’ engagement in “St. Mary’s Eve,” “The Woman Hater,” and “The French Spy.”
AUGUST.
6.—Died at Gaywood, aged 70, Mr. Thomas Marsters, for many years the representative at Lynn of the Norfolk Chronicle. “He was extensively read in the poets and classics, and his taste for the drama induced him, when he resided at Gaywood Hall, to become lessee of Lynn Theatre, on the boards of which he occasionally performed as an amateur.”
9.—Norwich and many parts of the county were visited by one of the severest thunderstorms that had occurred for many years. It was accompanied by a hailstorm which did immense damage—in the city windows and conservatories were smashed, in the county garden and field crops were destroyed. The first floors and cellars in Surrey Street, St. Stephen’s Street, Rampant Horse Street, the Market Place, and London Street were flooded, and in places morsels of ice lay from four to five inches deep. The storm lasted half an hour. The performance at the Theatre was stopped, and the terrified audience in the gallery rushed down the stairs and found the passage filled with water, which prevented their escape. The river at Bishop Bridge rose one foot in five minutes. At two o’clock on the morning of the 10th, the rain and hail again descended with great violence, and “a surface of flame spread across the heavens, followed by a clap of thunder which seemed to rend the welkin.” Another storm occurred on the 15th, and on the 18th waterspouts were observed at Rushall and Dickleburgh. At a meeting at the Bishop’s Palace on the 19th, steps were taken for the relief of the sufferers, a public subscription organized, and surveyors appointed to assess the damage. In September the Committee reported that the total losses amounted to £30,770 2s. 3d. In some
parishes a voluntary rate of threepence in the pound was paid to assist the relief fund. The contributions from the parishes amounted to £5,622, and individual subscriptions to £4,391.
16.—The left wing of the Cavalry Barracks at Norwich was destroyed by a fire which originated in the forage barn. The men of the Scots Greys succeeded in saving the remainder of the buildings.
31.—Died at Stisted Hall, Essex, aged 87, Mr. Charles Savill Onley, bencher of the Middle Temple. He was third son of Mr. Robert Harvey, merchant and banker, of Norwich, by Judith, daughter of Capt. Onley, R.N. Mr. Onley (then Mr. Charles Harvey) was called to the Bar on November 24th, 1790. In 1783 he was elected Steward, and in 1801 Recorder, of Norwich. In 1804 his portrait was painted by Lawrence, at the expense of the Corporation, and hung in St. Andrew’s Hall. In 1812 he was returned to Parliament, and at the dissolution in 1818 retired from the representation of the city, but sat for Carlow from 1820 to 1826. It was in December, 1822, that he took the name of Savill Onley, on the death of his maternal uncle, the Rev. Charles Onley, through whom he came to the possession of a fine estate in Essex, besides a large personal property. He resigned his Recordership in 1826. He was lieutenant-colonel of Col. Patteson’s battalion of Norwich Volunteers, enrolled in 1808 as a regiment of Local Militia. He married, first, Sarah, daughter of Mr. J. Haynes, by whom he had issue one son, Onley Savill Onley, who married his cousin Caroline, daughter of Mr. John Harvey, of Thorpe; and two daughters, Sarah, married to Mr. William Harvey, and Judith, to Mr. Charles Turner. Mrs. Harvey died in 1800, and he married, secondly, Charlotte, sister of his former wife.
SEPTEMBER.
7.—Father Mathew attended a temperance festival at Norwich. He addressed a meeting on St. Martin-at-Palace Plain in the morning, and a public gathering at St. Andrew’s Hall in the evening, at which the Lord Bishop and Mr. J. J. Gurney were present. On the 8th Father Mathew, from twelve to six o’clock, “administered the pledge to all who cared to receive it.” The Norfolk Chronicle observed: “We cannot but feel that the members of the Church of England are pledged to temperance already, and have therefore no necessity to repeat the pledge before a Romish priest.”