JULY.
9.—Died at Southtown, Yarmouth, Commander Francis Harris, R.N. He entered the Navy on July 12th, 1805, as first-class volunteer on board the Temeraire, 98, Captain Harvey and Sir Charles Hamilton, in which ship he was present at the battle of Trafalgar. From 1826 to 1860 he was employed with the Coast Guard, and retired with the rank of commander.
13.—Died at Tunstead, the Rev. G. H. Harris, aged 57, for twenty years rector of the parish. Mr. Harris was well known for his exertions in behalf of church bell-ringing, and was the means of reviving the art not only in his own neighbourhood, but in other parts of the county. He was the originator and honorary secretary of the Norwich Diocesan Association of Ringers.
14.—In the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, before Vice-Chancellor Bacon, an order was made for the compulsory winding-up of the Norwich Equitable Fire Insurance Company, which was stated to be insolvent.
25.—Died at East Dereham, where he had spent the declining years of his life, Mr. Antonio James Oury, the celebrated violinist. Mr. Oury was born in London in 1800. His father, a native of Nice and of noble descent, left home to follow the early campaigns of the then General Bounaparte, and was taken prisoner by the British and landed near Southampton, at which place he married, in 1799, the daughter of a Mr. Hughes, a musician and dancing master. Young Oury at the age of three years commenced violin playing under the tuition of his father and George Macfarren. In 1812 he became the pupil of three eminent professors, Mori, Spagnoletti, and Kiessewetter; and in 1820 he went to Paris to study under Baillot, Kreutzer, and Lupont. Returning to England, he made his début at the London Philharmonic Society, and afterwards became joint leader with Francis Cramer at the Birmingham, York, Leicester, and Derby Musical Festivals, and made several operatic tours in Ireland. In 1826 he was engaged as leader of the ballet, sub-leader of the opera, and solo violinist at the King’s Theatre, and as successor to Mori and Lacy he held this tripartite post for five years. Oury married, in 1831, the distinguished pianist, Mdlle. Belleville, whose father had been an officer of Napoleon’s. In 1832 they left England for Hamburg, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Moscow, gave twenty-three concerts during a residence of two years in Russia, and returned to Berlin. They next visited Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, and Vienna. After a brilliant sojourn of two years in the Austrian capital Oury visited Pesth and Buda, gave seven concerts with great success and profit, played in the presence of the Imperial Court at the Bourge Theatre, Vienna, and returned to Munich. Accompanied by Madame Oury he gave concerts in all the principal towns on the Rhine, and arrived in Holland, where his wife was attacked by a serious illness, which interrupted several professional engagements. They subsequently visited a number of other places on the Continent, and returned to England after an absence of nine years. In 1846–47 Oury and his accomplished partner visited Italy, gave concerts at Rome, Naples, Venice, and Milan, and returned to England in 1848. Oury removed to Norwich in 1868, and after being some years resident there, proceeded to Dereham, where he lived with Mr. Arthur Mori.
AUGUST.
6.—Lady Walsingham unveiled a fountain and rest erected at Swaffham as a memorial to Sir William Bagge, Bart., for thirty-six years a representative in Parliament of the Western Division of the county. Its cost, which amounted to £800, was defrayed by public subscription.
7.—Died suddenly at a board meeting of the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, of which he was a director, Mr. Elijah Crosier Bailey, Clerk of the Peace for the city, aged 65. He was head of the firm of Bailey, Cross, and Barnard, solicitors, and was appointed Clerk to the Norwich Board of Guardians in 1844, in succession to Mr. Roger Kerrison, and resigned in 1879. On the death of Mr. Arthur Dalrymple in 1868 he was elected Clerk of the Peace. Mr. Bailey was for many years secretary of the Norfolk Agricultural Association, and on his resignation of that office was appointed honorary director. A warm supporter of the party, he was for a long period Conservative agent for East Norfolk. Mr. Bailey married, first, Miss Cann, daughter of Mr. W. R. Cann, of Wymondham, by whom he left four sons; and, secondly, in January, 1879, Miss Haselwood, of Swardon, Kent, granddaughter of Sir Edward Dering, Bart., M.P.
—At Norwich Assizes, before Mr. Justice Day, Joseph Betts, described as a labourer, was charged with maliciously sending to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Norwich, on June 5th, a letter threatening to murder him. Mr. Blofeld, for the prosecution, said that the Bishop was of opinion that the prisoner had no real intention to take any step towards carrying out his threat, and was desirous that the case should be withdrawn. The judge said that his lordship had acted in a very handsome and generous manner, and allowed the prosecution to be withdrawn on the prisoner entering into recognisances to keep the peace towards the Bishop and all other persons. At the Norwich Police Court on September 21st Betts was charged with knowingly, wilfully, and feloniously sending to Mr. J. J. Colman, M.P., a letter, signed “Another Invincible,” threatening to murder him “unless he fairly and proportionately distributed his last year’s balance among his workmen.” He was committed for trial, and at the Assizes on October 27th was sentenced by Lord Justice Fry to twelve calendar months’ imprisonment. (See February 21st, 1889.)
11.—The scheme prepared by the Charity Commissioners for the future management of the endowed schools and children’s hospitals in connection with King Edward VI.’s charity and Anguish’s and Norman’s charities, was published. The scheme for the Grammar and Commercial Schools was practically the same as those promulgated in 1878. In the matter of Anguish’s charity, it was proposed to divide the endowment into two parts, one to be called Thomas Anguish’s endowment for boys, and the other Thomas Anguish’s endowment for girls. The existing boys’ school was to be given up, the master pensioned, and the income devoted, so far as £200 yearly was concerned, to providing lodging, clothing, and maintenance for boys holding exhibitions preferentially awarded under the scheme. With the rest of the income the governors were to maintain seven special exhibitions for poor boys who for not less than three years had been scholars in some public elementary school or schools, and as many general exhibitions for poor boys as the income available would allow to be tenable at either of King Edward VI. schools. As to Thomas Anguish’s endowment for girls, the girls’ hospital was to be abolished and the income applied in the same way as that for boys, except that £300 yearly was to be devoted to providing lodging, clothing, and maintenance for orphan or other necessitous girls. Norman’s charity was to cease to exist in its then form, the master pensioned, and the endowment to be appropriated to the maintenance of a girls’ middle school, the scheme for which was practically the same as that for the King Edward VI. Middle School for Boys, and to be known as Norman’s School, provision being made for the acquisition by purchase of the Girls’ Hospital School at Lakenham by the new governors of the Norman School. On August 28th the Norwich Town Council passed resolutions in opposition to the scheme, on the ground that it was contrary to the wishes of the founders and of the people of Norwich; and similar resolutions were carried at a meeting of the Norwich Charities Protection Society held at the Guildhall on September 10th, under the presidency of the Sheriff. (See February 3rd, 1888.)