10.—Thetford coursing meeting commenced. It lasted four days.
1805.
JANUARY.
10.—The Supervisor and officers of Excise belonging to the East Dereham district seized at Melton a horse and cart, with 80 gallons of Geneva and four gallons of brandy.
11.—A murderous poaching affray occurred in Thorpe Wood, near Aylsham, when several game watchers, in the service of Lord Suffield, were severely wounded. At the Norfolk Assizes at Thetford, in March, six of the poachers, indicted under the Black Act, were found guilty and sentenced to death. Lord Suffield and the Hon. Edward Harbord pleaded that their lives might be spared, and the sentence was ultimately commuted to transportation. When the gang were being conveyed by the Expedition night mail coach from Norwich, on their way to Portsmouth, the convicts got free from the chain and made a desperate attempt to escape, but were too heavily ironed. They attacked the coachman, and one of the guards presented a pistol, which missed fire; Johnson, the gaoler, rushed amongst them with a cutlass, and subdued them. One prisoner escaped, and the others were lodged in the Surrey New Gaol on the following morning.
17.—At a public meeting held at the Guildhall, Norwich, it was resolved to establish a Hospital and School for the Indigent Blind in Norfolk and Norwich; towards the foundation of which Mr. Thomas Tawell contributed a house and 3½ acres of land in Magdalen Street, valued at £1,050. Mr. Tawell, who was himself blind, made an eloquent and successful appeal, and the institution was opened on October 14th.
28.—The pantomime, “Don Juan,” was produced at Norwich Theatre “in a style which, for the display of beautiful scenery and of appropriate decorations and costumes, is very rarely to be witnessed on provincial boards.”
29.—Died, aged 57, Mr. Thomas Wodehouse, of Sennowe Lodge. He was one of the gentlemen of his Majesty’s Privy Chamber, in which office he was succeeded by Mr. J. W. Thomlinson, of Cley.
FEBRUARY.
2.—Bishop Manners Sutton, of Norwich, was nominated by the King and chosen, February 12th, Archbishop of Canterbury. On the 13th, his Grace arrived at the Palace, Norwich, from London; and on the 15th, the Mayor and Court of Aldermen proceeded in state from the Guildhall to the Palace, where the Recorder (Mr. Harvey) read an address of congratulation to the Archbishop. The clergy of Norwich, on the 16th, waited on his Grace, when the Rev. Prebendary Pretyman addressed the Archbishop in an appropriate speech. On the 17th, his Grace preached his farewell sermon at the Cathedral, and on the 18th departed for Lambeth.