2. Saint Godric. He is said to have been a native of Walpole, and to have originally followed the humble occupation or profession of a Pedler. He afterwards went on pilgrimage to Rome, and even to Jerusalem; but whether he relinquished his former profession before he set off, or took his pedlery along with him, does not appear. Some of the pilgrims of those times, it is said, used to engage, clandestinely, in certain pedling, mercantile, or commercial adventures, and to find their account in so doing, as the garb, or profession of pilgrims exempted them from the tolls or duties imposed upon mere pedlers, or merchants. Whether that was the case with our Godric, or not, he acquired the character of a Saint, and was canonized; which yet with some people will make no very great deal in his favour. In the latter part of his life he became a hermit, and lived sometime at Finchale near Durham, where he is said to have worn out no less than three successive suits of iron clothes, [123] which, with many, would be an indubitable proof that his sanctity must have been far superior to that of the wearers of flannel, coarse woollen, or even haircloth; by which kind of dresses numbers of his brethren chose to distinguish themselves. Godric died in 1170. Many miracles, of course, are ascribed to him; and his girdle that he left, was said to have in it such uncommon and wonderful virtue, as to make barren women fruitful.—After all, it seems not quite clear, or certain, that he was a better man, or worthier character than Hickifric.
3. Sir Frederic Tilney. He was one of the attendants and Captains of Richard I, in his memorable expedition to the Holy Land, and was knighted by that monarch, in his third year, at Acon or Acre, otherwise Ptolemais—by Tilney; that is, at St. John’s, as it is supposed; where we are told his height was to be seen as late as 1556.—Sixteen knights of the same name (and supposed to be his descendants) succeeded him, most, if not all of whom lived at Boston.
4. Richard de Tyrington. He is said to have been one of the great favourites of King John, who granted him, for his life, an annuity of twenty marks. Little more is known of him. But as a king’s favourite, he must have been a noted man in his day. That king had many favourites, it seems, in and about Lynn. No part of his kingdom seemed to be more, if so much attached to him. His favourites and adherents, and this Richard of Terrington among the rest, may be presumed to be much of the same cast with their royal, patron, and therefore the less said about them is best.
5. Sir Frederick Chervill, or Chervile, otherwise Kervile. He lived in the reign of Henry III. and had considerable possessions in Tilney, Islington, Wigenhale, and Clenchwarton. He was found, in the thirty-fourth year of that king, to have a Gallows in Tilney, and the liberty or power of trying and hanging offenders; by which it appears, that he was in his time a person of no small consequence and dignity in this country. He lived at the time when the Ouse deserted its ancient course or channel by Wisbeach, and mixed with the waters of Wigenhale and of Lynn. Of the qualities of his heart, or his particular deeds, good or bad, no memorial now remains.—The seat of the Kerviles, for many successive generations, was the manor-house of Wigenhale St. Mary’s, of which only the gate-house now remains, and is visible from the Wisbeach road. Its appearance seems to indicate that the mansion formerly attached to it was in its day a sumptuous edifice; and for no short period, perhaps, the first house in all Marshland.
6. John Colton: a native of Terrington, chaplain to W. Bateman, bishop of Norwich, and the first master of Gonvil-Hall in Cambridge. Afterward, on account of his great learning and piety, (as it is said) Henry IV. advanced him to the archbishopric of Armagh, and primacy of Ireland. While in that high station he was sent to Rome, and employed in the affair of the schism between Urban VI. and Clement VII. which occasioned his writing a learned treatise (as Fuller says) De causa Schismatis; and also another De remedio ejusd. He is supposed to have resigned his archbishopric some time before his death, which happened, it seems, in 1404. It does not appear that he was one of the worst men of his order.
7. Walter Tirrington, LL.D. a celebrated writer and author, is said to have been another native of Terrington. At what time he flourished, is rather uncertain; though it seems not improbable, that he was contemporary with Colton. Nor is it now known what these writings were which made him so celebrated as an author. Whatever they were, and they might be highly valuable in their time, they seem to have been long ago swallowed up in the dark devouring abyss or gulph of oblivion; and from which the very name of their author has hardly escaped.
8. John Aylmer: born at Aylmer-Hall in Tilney, about 1521. When very young, Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, afterward Duke of Suffolk, took a great liking to him, entertained him as his scholar, and gave him an exhibition at Cambridge, where his proficiency was so considerable, that he was afterward deemed one of the best scholars of his time. [126] From the University his noble patron took him to his family, and made him tutor to his children, among whom was the memorable Lady Jane Grey. He early imbibed the opinion of the reformers, and was very instrumental, under the patronage of the Duke of Suffolk, and the Earl of Huntingdon, in diffusing the same about Leicestershire, (in which bounty was the Duke’s chief seat and residence,) where he seems to have had some preferment, and to have been tor sometime the only preacher of that description. In time he was promoted to the archdeaconry of Stow, in the diocese of Lincoln, which qualified him to sit in Convocation, the first year of the reign of Mary, where he defended protestantism with so much zeal, learning, and acuteness, that he was soon after deprived of his archdeaconry, and obliged to abscond and quit the kingdom, to avoid the approaching storm. After he had embarked he was in no small danger from the searchers, who came onboard, in quest of fugitives; but he happily escaped, partly through his own diminutive size, (being of small stature like Zaccheus,) and partly through the friendship of the Captain, who placed him in the empty end of a wine butt, that had a partition in the middle, where he sat very snugly, while the searchers were drinking wine, which they saw drawn out of the other end. He was sometime after landed on the continent, and got safe to Strasburgh, whence he shortly after removed to Zurich, where he diligently prosecuted his studies, and attended the Lectures of Peter Martyr. He afterwards visited most of the universities of Italy and Germany, and at Jena, in Saxony, he had the offer of the Hebrew Professorship, which he declined. After the accession of Elizabeth he returned home, and was one of the divines appointed to dispute at Westminster with an equal number of popish bishops. He sometime after was made archdeacon of Lincoln; but got no higher for a long while. At last, upon the translation of Sandys to York, he was appointed his successor in the see of London. This elevation he is said to have owed, in a great measure, to the interest and friendship of that prelate, but which he afterward very ill requited. He now forgot his former affection to the puritans, and became a bitter persecutor. On Sunday afternoons he was fond of playing at bowls, and would use such language at this game as justly exposed him to reproach. When he happened to preach, if he observed his audience inattentive, he would take a Hebrew bible out of his pocket, and read them a few verses, and then resume his discourse. [128a] He was a man of great courage, which he shewed on many occasions; one of which was his having a tooth drawn, to encourage the queen to submit to the like operation. Strype says, he was a man of metal, and could use his hands and arms well, [128b] and would turn his back on no man. Fuller says, he was foully belibelled by the puritans; but does not say how much provocation he had given them for so doing. He died at his Palace of Fulham, June 3. 1594.
9. Sir Robert Aylmer, elder brother of the preceding, appears to have been a person of some note in his time, and resided chiefly, as it is supposed, at Aylmer Hall, above-mentioned; but as the particulars of his history have not been recorded, and seem to be now entirely forgotten, no more can be here said of him.
10. Thomas Herring. He was the Son of the reverend John Herring, rector of Walsoken, where he was born in 1693. At a proper time he was sent to Cambridge, and in 1722, became chaplain to Dr. Fleetwood, bishop of Ely. In 1726 he was chosen preacher of Lincoln’s Inn, and appointed king’s chaplain; in 1737 he was made bishop of Bangor, and in 1743 was translated to York. When the rebellion broke out, and the king’s troops were defeated at Preston Pans, the archbishop convened the nobility, gentry, and clergy of his diocese, and by an excellent speech removed the general panic, and excited such zeal among his auditors, that a subscription to the amount of 40,000l. was raised; and the example was followed in most parts of the kingdom. On the death of Dr. Potter, in 1747, he was advanced to Canterbury, and so attained to the very summit of ecclesiastical preferment and dignity; but his health very soon began to impair, and after languishing about four years, he died, in 1757, leaving behind him a very amiable and excellent character, in spite of the many disadvantages of his elevated situation, and his long course of worldly prosperity. He appears to have been a real and warm friend to civil and religious liberty, as well as one of the best and worthiest men of the age in which he lived.
11. Dr. Richard Busby. He was not indeed born in Marshland, but close by, at Lutton in Lincolnshire, in 1606. He had his education at Westminster school, and afterward at Christ-Church, in Oxford. In 1640, he was appointed master of Westminster school, and by his skill and diligence in that laborious and important office, for the space of fifty five years, bred up the greatest number of eminent men, in church and state that any teacher or tutor could boast of in this, or perhaps in any other country. In his school discipline, he was extremely and proverbially severe, though he applauded and rewarded wit in his scholars, even when it reflected on himself. After a long life of unwearied assiduity and temperance, he died, in 1695, at the age of 89.