9.*—“A letter from Philadelphia, of the 16th ult., announces the death of Mr. Davenport, formerly lessee of the theatres on the Norwich circuit. He had been making a successful tour in the United States with his talented daughter. He died a few days before, at Cincinnati.”
16.—On this date was published an extract from the “New York Express,” giving particulars of a confession of murder by a private named Thomson, belonging to the 1st Royals, then stationed at Halifax, North America. He stated that when at Norwich eight years previously he was on terms of intimacy with a woman. A quarrel had occurred between them, and he had thrown her into a canal. The crime had so preyed upon his mind that he determined to give himself up to justice and allow the law to take its course. On September 13th it was announced that Thomson had been brought to England and committed to Winchester Gaol, pending inquiries by the police of that city. Two police-officers came to Norwich, investigated the affair, and elicited the following remarkable facts: Thomson was stationed in Norwich with the Carabineers in 1846, and afterwards exchanged to the 1st Royals, then in Canada. A girl named Anna Barber was in the habit of frequenting the barracks, and became acquainted with Thomson, whom she appeared to have displeased. In the month of August, 1846, a tailor named James Taylor was fishing for eels in the river near Blackfriars Bridge when he heard a scuffle, a shriek, a splash, and the sound of retreating footsteps. He immediately rowed to the place and assisted out of the water a young woman, who refused to give him her name. She went away, and no report was made to the police. In 1850 Anna Barber was again seen in Norwich. It was evident, therefore, that the remorse which impelled Thomson to make his confession was groundless.
28.—The Norwich Corporation adopted the Public Health Act of 1848, and appointed twenty members as a Local Board of Health.
29.—The church of St. Matthew, Thorpe Hamlet, was consecrated by the Bishop of Norwich.
SEPTEMBER.
10.—Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, then on a visit to England, attended a dinner given at the Norfolk Hotel, Norwich, by members of the Valpeian Club, established in 1847.
25.—A severe gale occurred off the Norfolk coast, and did much damage to shipping at Yarmouth.
30.—The opening of the Norwich Waterworks was publicly celebrated. The band of the Coldstream Guards played selections in the Market Place, 220 guests dined at the Assembly Rooms, under the presidency of Mr. Samuel Bignold, chairman of the Waterworks Company, and twenty thousand persons witnessed a display of fireworks in the Market Place. The works were commenced by Messrs. Lucas Bros., the contractors, in February. There were 20,000 yards of excavations, and 2,500,000 bricks, 15,000 yards of clay, 5,000 yards of filtering sand, 7,000 yards of filtering stone, 3,000 yards of concrete, and 40 tons of lead were used. The rising main was 4,000 yards in length, and 15 inches in diameter.
OCTOBER.
4.—Died at Hampton Court, in his 80th year, George William Stafford Jerningham, Baron Stafford. He inherited a baronetcy as Sir George Jerningham on his father’s death in 1809, and established his title to the barony, under letters patent of Charles I., through his great grandmother, after a reversal of the attainder of Sir William Howard, Viscount Stafford, in 1824. He assumed the additional name of Stafford in 1826. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry Valentine.