17.—Died, at Windsor, in his 67th year, the Rev. Dr. Lancaster Adkin, rector of Belaugh and minister of St. Andrew, Norwich. “He was the first founder in Norwich of Sunday Schools, which he constantly attended and instructed for more than 21 years.”
—Orders were given for the enlargement of the courts in the Norwich Shire-house, for the repair of the bridge leading to the Castle, for providing a palisade, and for bringing a supply of river water from the main pipes in Golden Ball Lane to the county gaol.
MARCH.
7.—Sergt. John Parker, 3rd Dragoons, stationed at Norwich on recruiting service, was apprehended on suspicion of having committed a murder at Brighton in 1796. The extraordinary statement upon which the accused was apprehended was concocted by a man named William Cobb, of St. Martin-at-Oak, who informed the Mayor that Parker, when a private in the Somerset Fencible Cavalry, met him (Cobb), then a private in Col. Villier’s Fencible Light Dragoons, while halting at Dorking, and told him that he had murdered a woman at Brighton and had thrown her body into a well. An affidavit sent from Collumpton, in Devonshire, to the effect that Parker was there ill at the time of the alleged murder, was sufficient to procure him his discharge from custody.
9.—Died, in his 85th year, Henry Keymer, of East Dereham, “many years a respectable auctioneer and land surveyor, and late sole proprietor of Herring’s valuable antidote for the cure of the bite of a mad dog.”
11.—A bull, the property of Edward Kett, butcher, of Norwich, was baited near “Bishop Gates.” The baiting “offered very great sport; the bull was a game one, and the dogs equally so.”
24.—Died, in the Close, Norwich, aged 90, the Rev. George Sandby, D.D., 39 years Chancellor of the Diocese. He was Vice-Chancellor of Merton College, Oxford, in 1760.
28.*—“His Majesty has been pleased to appoint Wm. Firth, Esq., Steward of Norwich, to be attorney-general in the province of Upper Canada.” On his resignation of the Stewardship on May 3rd, Mr. Firth received the thanks of the Corporation, and Mr. Robert Alderson was appointed in his place. At about this date, Mr. Thomas Amyot was appointed secretary and registrar of Lower Canada.
APRIL.
4.—William Carter, aged 35, was executed on the “new drop,” Castle Hill, Norwich, for horse stealing.