With the impropriation there was likewise purchased a large barn (to lay the tithes in) copyhold, on which barn there was left unpaid £50. This money was also paid off at Michaelmas, 1745, by the care and good management, and bounty of the above worthy vicar John Tanner. This barn was surrendered, a little before the Mortmain Act took place, to Mr. Woolmer, of Carleton: Mr. Robert Hayward, jun., and Mr. John Durrant of Lowestoft; in trust, for the use of such person and persons as, from time to time, shall be entitled to the great tithes. It pays a quit rent of 1/8 to the Manor of Lowestoft.
The value of the living is also further increased from the fisheries. The Vicar receives from the owner of every boat employed in the herring fishery half a guinea, and for every boat employed in the mackarel fishery half a dole. When the North sea and Iceland fisheries flourished at Lowestoft, the Vicar was not allowed half a dole for every vessel sent upon those fisheries, but for every voyage which they made annually to those seas, which were not only one, but sometimes two, three and even four voyages. In the begining of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, about fourteen of these vessels, called doggers, were employed by this town in the North sea and Iceland fisheries, which paid a considerable sum annually to the Vicar. But these latter fisheries are now entirely ceased at Lowestoft, and have been so for many years.
This custom of allowing the vicar half a dole is a very antient one, but how long it has subsisted at Lowestoft is uncertain. At Yarmouth, in the year 1484 the half doles of fishing voyages were granted by the assembly to the use of the haven; but this custom, called the half-doles, had been before that time paid to the town even from time immemorial; for the fishermen had always given a whole dole, namely, half a dole to the use of the church, and the other half to the use of the town; and because one half part of the dole was given to sacred purposes, it was called Christ’s dole. Probably the payment of the half dole by the fishermen at Lowestoft to the same sacred use, is as antient as that at Yarmouth.
What is meant by a dole is this: from the amount which each boat raises by the sale of mackarel, during the voyage, a sum is first deducted for provisions and incidental expenses; the residue is divided into shares or doles of which the owner of the boat has a certain number, and the net owner the like for his nets, and the remainder is distributed among the boatmen according to their several stations, including the minister’s half dole. Thus, if a boat raises £100, take for provisions, etc., £25, then the residue, £76, will be the sum to divide into doles; and if the number of doles for boats, nets and men, together with the half dole to the Vicar, be 150, then the division will be 10s. per share or dole; and consequently, in that case, the Vicar will be entitled to 5s. for his half dole for that boat.
There not being any antient records now remaining, respecting the origin of this noble and beautiful structure, the church at Lowestoft, they being all burnt in the year 1606, when the dwelling-house belonging to Mr. Glesson, vicar of this town, was destroyed by fire, we are unable to ascertain with certainty the exact time when this building was erected; and consequently all the investigations in pursuit of this discovery must be attended with much difficulty and enveloped in the obscurity of probable conjecture.
It is evident, from what has been already observed at the begining of this section, respecting the grant of Henry I that there was a church belonging to this parish in the eleventh century, but how long it had been erected before that period is now uncertain, probably soon after Christianity was first introduced into the kingdom of the East Angles. In those early ages the generality of our English churches were undoubtedly very ordinary buildings; they were of Saxon origin, some few were built with stone, but the greater part of wood only, and consequently were much inferior to the stately edifices that were erected after the Norman conquest. To determine therefore, what kind of church it was that they had at Lowestoft at that early period is now impossible; all that can be advanced on the point is, that when we consider the barbarous taste which prevailed in that uncivilised age, the infant as well as the persecuted state of Christianity, and the violent commotions which at that time agitated this part of the kingdom, it may be concluded that it was but a mean building, and bore but a small resemblance to the size and elegence of the present structure.
But it may be asked, that if the original church at Lowestoft was a building of that inferior kind as is above represented, by what means was it that the present large and elegant structure came to be erected; since it is evident, that the ability of the inhabitants at any one period was never equal to the accomplishing such an expensive undertaking?
In answer to the question it may be observed that the church belonging to the impropriation of this parish, which made part of the endowment of the priory of St. Bartholomew, by Henry I, was the old original building, which was then standing, and not the present structure. The former of these buildings, was of very ancient date, probably soon after the establishment of Christianity in the Kingdom of the East Angles; therefore it may reasonable be supposed, that at the time when the grant of it was made, namely, in the reign of Henry I, it must be in a very decayed and ruinous state. This grant of Henry I was confirmed by a charter from Henry III, in the year 1230. When, therefore, the priory of St. Bartholomew was in full possession of the church and impropriation of this parish, by virtue, of this charter, they, in consequence of their zeal, or rather religious frenzy, for erecting churches and founding religious houses, which at that time so universally prevailed, the old ruinous church at Lowestoft was entirely taken down, and the present elegant structure erected in its place, through the munificence of the priory and pious ostentation of the times.
Tanner, in his Notitia, says “That Henry I gave churches in Suffolk to the priory of St. Bartholomew, without specifying the names of those churches; yet it may reasonably inferred that the church at Lowestoft was one of them; because, when the grant was confirmed by the charter of Henry III, this church was particularly mentioned.”
It is certain that the present church at Lowestoft was erected prior to the year 1365, because Weever has given an inscription which he found in the church, namely,