“on the 30th of April that year, the following Address was read in the Hall, and signed the same day by every one of that House: and the mayor, (Giles Bridgeman) was desired to commend the same to the hands of the right honorable the Earl of Yarmouth (Lord Lieutenant of the County) to be presented by him to his Majesties.”
“To the King’s most excellent Majestie,
Dread Sir,—Wee your Majesties Dutifull and Loyall Subjects, the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and Common-Councell of your Majesties ancient burgh of Lenn Regis, on behalf of ourselves and other the free Burgesses and principal inhabitants here doe in all humility prostrate ourselves at the feet of your most sacred Majestie, and in all duty acknowledge the infinite benefits wee of this burgh, with all other, the liedge people of this your Majesties Kingdom of England by your happy government and royall conduct next under God enjoye, and more particularly wee give your Majestie an oblation of our duty and thankfullness in your pious and resolute support and maintenance of the religion established by the Lawes of this kingdome in the Church of England in your couragious conserving the Regalities of your Crowne against insolent petitions, and protecting the lawfull liberties and freedoms of your subjects. And with our souls we bless Almighty God in the return of your royall brother, the Duke of Yorke, to your Majesties most Gracious presence, and doe cheerfully profess to maintaine and defend your Majesties most Royall person your Heirs and lawfull successors in your and their just rights,
May it please your Majestie
Your natural Liegemen.”
In this remarkable and curious Address to the Throne, what choice matter of joy, thankfulness, congratulation, and triumph is exhibited on the part of the Addressers! The King appeared resolved to govern despotically, or without a parliament. Many of his subjects had petitioned and prayed him to call or assemble a parliament. He had rejected those petitions and prayers with disdain. The Lynn Corporation address him on the occasion, congratulating, praising and extolling him to the skies for acting the despot and turning a deaf ear to the prayers and supplications of his aggrieved subjects. For such royal doings, and for the arrival and presence of the Duke of York at court, which presence had always been a curse to the nation, the corporation of Lynn congratulated their profligate sovereign, and offered to stand by him at all events. Moreover, they exhibit, all the while, a most sanctimonious appearance, and profess with all their souls to bless Almighty God for what was one of the greatest curses of their oppressed country.—So much for this royal and notable Address from Lynn. [800]
As to the accession of James to the throne, it appears to have been contemplated at Lynn with no small pleasure and satisfaction, and the day on which that memorable event was announced here to have been a day of uncommon rejoicing. We accordingly find the following note in the Town Books, “Febr. 10th. (1685) King James II. proclaimed with all due solemnities and signalls of Joy and Gladness.” Four days after was “ordered an Address to the King’s Majestie.” But having never seen a copy of this Address the present writer cannot give a particular account of its contents. He cannot however doubt but it was in the usual style of Lynn Addresses to that monarch.
Another season of extraordinary festivity and exultation at Lynn occurred in 1686. It was on no less interesting an occasion than the erecting of the statue of the sovereign in the Tuesday Market place. We accordingly read, in Mackerell’s “Chronological Account” of the town, of “great rejoicings here that year, at the setting up of the statue of king James II.” His majesty (as well as king John) seems to have been long the object of the admiration of the Lynn people. They admired him while Duke of York, and after his accession to the throne they never rested till they had set up his image or statue in the most public and conspicuous part of their town. Of this royal and memorable affair Mackerell has given the following information in another part of his work—
“An account of King James IId’s statue, and the Rejoicings at the setting up of the” [same.]
“On the 13th day of April 1686. which was the anniversary of their majesties coronation, the same was kept with all due solemnity; the mayor, aldermen, and the rest of the body, meeting in their formalities in the Guild-Hall, after Divine Service at the church, proceeded from thence attended with musick, to the great Market-place; in the middle whereof, by the Gentlemen and other Loyal Inhabitants of the corporation, was then erected the Effigies of his Sacred Majesty upon a Pedestal, with several carvings and embellishments, inclosed with a Pallisade of Iron, under inscribed,
Non Immemor
Quantum Divinis Invictiss. Principis
Jacobi II.
Virtutibus debeat
Hanc Regiæ Majestatis Effigiem
Æternum Fidei et Obsequii
Monumentum, Erexit
S. P. Q. L.
Anno Salutis 1686.
In English
“Not forgetting how much is due to the Divine Virtues of the Victorious King James the Second, the Senate and People of Lynn, as a lasting Monument of their Faith and Loyalty, have erected this Statue of his Royal Majesty, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty six.
“N.B. The King, Queen, and the rest of the Royal Family’s Healths were drank; and the Day was concluded with Ringing of Bells, Bonfires, all sorts of loud Musick, Fire works, discharging the Great Guns, with all other Demonstrations of Joy and Loyalty.” [803]
Such is Mackerell’s account of the extraordinary festivities and rejoicings at Lynn on this great and important occasion. It was, no doubt, worth recording, and it may still be worth preserving here, if it were only for this special reason, that it may help to give us just ideas of the general character of corporations, and of their proceedings. Here is a Statue erected to one of the vilest of human beings; and here are virtues, and even Divine Virtues! ascribed to one who was as devoid of every thing of that kind as the very devil: and here is an Inscription denominating the erection of the Statue a Lasting Monument of Faith and Loyalty; and yet this boasted faith and loyalty, and lasting Monument, lasted only about three or four years. The Statue was pulled down mutilated, decollated, disfigured, dismembered, and buried in dirt and rubbish, where it remains to this day.
There was here also a remarkable exhibition of joy and gratitude, as well as loyalty, in 1687, excited, it seems, by his majesty’s royal and memorable Declaration, and the consciousness of its being the duty of every member of the Church of England to defend and support him with their lives and fortunes.—The following Address to the Throne was accordingly agreed upon and ordered to be sealed with the common Seal, September 19. 1687.—
“Great Sir,—The known principles of the Church of England being such as oblige every member thereof with their Lives and Fortunes to defend and maintain your Majestie Your Royall Prerogative with all other rights belonging to your Majesties Imperiall Crown, makes us at this time humbly to begg your Majesty to receive this further attestation, not in the least doubting of the peaceable enjoyment of our religion under Your Majesties most sacred protection, returning our most hearty and humble thanks for Your Majesties late repeated Assurance thereof, expressed in Your Majesties late gracious Declaration.”