Roger de Burgh gave the advowason of this church to the priory of St. Olave, at Herringfleet for perpetual alms; and King Henry III, confirmed the donation to them. The prior presented to the rectory, and had a reserved pension of four marks out of it, which is still paid to the owner of St. Olave’s. After the dissolution of the priory the patronage of the church came to the crown. [21b]
The church is a small building, consisting of a nave, chancel, and round tower, and is dedicated to St. Peter. It is a rectory, anciently valued at ten marks; in the king’s books at £6 13s. 4d.; and being of the sworn value of £44 6s. 1d., is discharged of first-fruits and tenths. The parsonage house adjoins to the north-west corner of the churchyard, and has thirty-nine acres of glebe belonging to it.
The present rector is the Rev. John Bellward, to whom the author here acknowledges himself much indebted for his kindness to him many years since.
SECTION II.
OF THE ORIGIN OF LOWESTOFT.
Lestoffe, Laystoft, Laistoe, or, as it was more anciently called Lothnwistoft, is supposed by some to have derived its name from Lothbroch, the noble Dane, on his arriving in this island about the year 864, and from wista, [23] a half-hide of land; but I apprehend, erroneously, as it is doubtful whether these several appellations be of any earlier date than the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In the charter granted by Edward III. for uniting Kirkley road to the haven of Yarmouth, we find it expressed Loystoft and Lowystofte; probably, therefore, the present mode of expression, Lowestoft, may be only the former ones modernized by subsequent writers. Perhaps, at this distant period, it may be difficult to ascertain with certainty, the true etymology of its name, though possibly it may be no improbable conjecture to suppose its being derived, in some measure, from the fairs and market being held formerly below the cliff, and from the town being situated upon the most eastern point of land in England.
In the preceding section an ample description is given of the numerous revolutions which the northern part of the island of Lothingland experienced from the various incursions of the sea, from the earliest period which history can furnish us with, down to the present time; and it is equally evident that the more southern part of it, particularly that whereon Lowestoft is situated, has been subject to as large a share of the same vicissitudes.
In those early ages, when the Romans were in possession of Britain, it is highly probable that the sea, by its frequent irruptions had not only approached, but actually formed those cliffs, upon whose summits the town of Lowestoft is situated.
During those early periods, when the rivers which form the northern and southern boundaries of the island discharged themselves into the ocean with an extensive and rapid current, it appears that the incursions of that boisterous element upon the extremities of the island had made its utmost progress; but with respect to the intermediate parts of it, the case was somewhat different; for it is evident from the ancient maps of the coast and from authentic records which we find interspersed in topographical history, that those intermediate parts of the island protruded themselves much farther towards the east than either the northern or southern boundaries of it did, or either as they do at this present time.
As a corroborating circumstance of what is here asserted, we shall observe that some centuries since there was situated on that part of the coast which lies between Yarmouth and Lowestoft, a village called Newton, which has long since been entirely swallowed up by the ocean without leaving any other vestiges of it remaining than a small piece of land called Newton Green. Since that period the sea on that part of the island appears to have receded again; as formerly we find there was sufficient space between the bottom of the cliffs and the sea for the neck of the Yare to extend itself south as far as Corton before it discharged itself into the sea; although at this present time the ocean on the same part of the island approaches very near the cliffs.
That the basis of the cliff on whose summit the town of Lowestoft is situated was washed by the German Ocean during that era when the Romans resided in Britain, will evidently appear from an attentive investigation of the coast contiguous to the town, where it is very conspicuous how the cliff inclines to the west as it advances towards the river which lies to the south of Lowestoft, occasioned, probably, by the violence of the current, which in those early ages united that river with the ocean; and also the gradual descent of the cliff from the northern part of Lowestoft to the river on the south part of it, where it becomes a perfect level with the adjacent country is still evident, and points out the ancient state of the river and the parts adjoining to the same. These circumstances, undoubtedly rendered this spot extremely convenient for fishermen resorting to the coast, and probably were those which gave birth to the origin of Lowestoft, as similar circumstances did afterwards to the origin of Yarmouth.