From the above account of the character of the ancient Saxons, one may be enabled to form a pretty just, but shocking idea of the miseries in which they involved the wretched inhabitants of this country, and those of Lynn and its vicinity among the rest. The exterminating war which they here waged, and the horrid devastation which attended their successful progress, have been recorded by Gildas, who himself lived at that eventful period, and must have been an eye-witness to no small portion of the direful events which he describes. Nothing can exceed the tragical description he gives of the diabolical and destructive operations of those brutal invaders. He represents the whole country, and especially the western parts, near to which he chiefly resided, as entirely laid waste with fire and sword, and the inhabitants massacred wherever they could be found. Of the wretched remnant, some fled to foreign countries, others retired to the mountains, or hid themselves in deserts and fastnesses, where, however, they could not long remain:—drawn forth by the pressing calls of hunger and famine, multitudes were forced to surrender to the merciless foe, begging that their lives might be spared, on the abject and miserable condition of submitting to perpetual slavery. Even of these not a few appear to have been instantly consigned to destruction. [234a] Others, however, were spared; and from them, in all probability, sprung the Servi, or slaves, with which the country abounded for many ages after. [234b] Some of the wretched inhabitants were so fortunate as to make their escape to their countrymen, either in Wales, or in Devon and Cornwall, or else in Cumberland and the northern parts, where they made a noble stand, and long maintained their liberty and independence.
Section II.
Of the Angles, from whom England, and the English language derive their names—they seize on the parts about Lynn, and the whole province of the ancient Iceni, which receives the denomination of East Anglia, and forms one of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy—revival of Lynn in the mean time—with remarks on the adjacent country.
Those Saxon conquerors of our island consisted of different clans, or tribes, one of which went by the name of Angles; and though they are not generally supposed to have composed the principal or most numerous part of the invaders, yet it so happened, that the whole of the conquered country and also the language of its new inhabitants took their names from them. They took possession of the ancient country, or province of the Iceni, and there founded the kingdom of East Anglia, or of East Angles, comprehending the present counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, which made some figure among its sister kingdoms in the time of the Heptarchy. The kingdom of Mercia and that of Northumberland also, it seems, were inhabited by the same people.
Of Lynn, during that dark and disastrous period, no account has been preserved. It was probably destroyed by those merciless invaders, during their long and bloody contest with the ill fated natives, along with many other towns, all over the country, which certainly met the same fate. [236] At what time it revived, or rose again into existence, is no where recorded. But from the convenience and advantage of its situation it may be supposed to have done so pretty soon after the government of the East-Angles had assumed a settled form, and acquired a competent or tolerable share of stability. That it existed under the East-Anglian kings, seems a very natural and credible supposition; but whether it stood then on the western side only, or on both sides of the river, cannot now be ascertained. Under the Saxon princes that succeeded the dissolution of the Heptarchy, it is well known to have extended to the eastern shore of the river; and it is then, most probably, that we are to date the origin of the present town or borough of Lynn. In the time of Edward, called the confessor, we find it a place of trade and considerable note; a plain proof that it must have been in being, and growing into consequence a good while before that period. It belonged then to Ailmar, bishop of Elmham, and his brother Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, when blind superstition and ecclesiastical servility may naturally be supposed to have been among the principal or most distinguished characteristics of its inhabitants. It continued afterward under episcopal domination and ghostly discipline till the memorable reign of Henry VIII. who thought proper to take into his own hands that power or supremacy which was before vested in the bishops. In consequence of which, it has ever since been called King’s Lynn, instead of Bishop’s Lynn, which was its former appellation: an appellation, by the bye, which will serve further to corroborate the idea, that it was formerly the deleterious abode of priest-ridden credulity and ecclesiastical thraldom. Indeed it may be said to have been long distinguished for illiberality, intolerance, and a persecuting spirit: and it must appear somewhat remarkable, that the very first person taken up and burnt, in England, under that diabolical law, De hæretico comburendo, was a Lynn man, as was also the last, or one of the very last that underwent persecution for nonconformity under the infamous conventicle Act: The former was one of the preachers belonging to St. Margaret’s Church, in the reign of Henry IV. and the latter a licenced dissenting minister in that of William III. Of each of them a more particular account shall be given in its proper place.
Not only Lynn, but most, if not all, of the adjacent towns and villages appear to have been in being long before the conquest. They are noticed in the celebrated old record, called Domesday, as places then in existence, and seemingly of long standing and remote origin. They had, in all probability, been erected and inhabited many ages before that period, though it seems not likely that many of their present names, or those given them in the Domesday book, are to be traced to a British origin, as Parkin and others pretend. [238a]
That Lynn had become a place of considerable trade in the Saxon times, or before the Norman invasion, is evident from unquestionable existing documents. It had then a toll-booth, and enjoyed certain duties and customs, payable on the arrival of any goods or merchandise, of which the bishop was in full possession of a moiety. This episcopal privilege is supposed to have been as early as the conversion of the East Angles, and establishment of Christianity among them. The town continued daily to flourish and acquire increasing importance; and at an early period after the conquest, one of the writers of that time calls it, “a noble city,” on account of its trading and commercial magnificence. [238b] This was at a period when Hull did not exist, and when Liverpool, if it did exist, was but a very obscure and insignificant place.
Section III.
Of the Saltworks formerly at and about Lynn—paucity of appropriate materials—apology.
The vicinity of Lynn in the Saxon times, and long after, appears to have been remarkable for its numerous Saltworks. [239a] At Gaywood alone, in the Confessor’s time, there were no less than thirty Salt pans, or pits. [239b] The Salt springs of Droitwich, Nantwich, Northwich, &c. were then, it seems, not so much attended to as to afford a supply to the distant parts of the kingdom. The people of these parts were therefore obliged to manufacture their own salt. To what extent the work was carried on, or what quantity was generally, or annually produced, cannot now be ascertained. Nor are we informed of the particular mode, or process adopted and pursued in carrying on this ancient manufactory. It was, probably, pretty simple and not very unlike that used in latter times in the salt-works of South-town, by Yarmouth, and at other places. By the great number of Salt-works then at Lynn, or in its neighbourhood, it seems probable, that a considerable part of the adjacent country, and the interior districts, were supplied from thence with that necessary article: which might easily, even at that early period, be conveyed thither, by means of the inland navigation, which always gave to Lynn the vast advantage of a free and easy intercourse with all those places, however distant, that are situated near the banks, or in the neighbourhood of its numerous rivers. The Salt manufactured here was made, it seems, from the sea water which the tides brought up to the town, and which must have been, of course, much less salt, and less fit for the purpose than the water found below in the roads, or at sea: it appears therefore rather odd, that those salt-works should be placed so far up the country, or so distant from the sea: and yet so it was; every village and hamlet, almost, had then its Salt-work, or the moiety of one. [240] Here it may be proper to observe, that, at the periods of which we have been speaking, salt was not an article of revenue, and must therefore have been a pretty cheap commodity compared to what it is now, when the duty laid upon it by government is said to be above ten times its prime, or original cost.