“Sir, A long decline of life, and absolute incapacity of attending on such a ministry as that of Lynn, calls upon me to resign it to some hands able in due manner to discharge it to the good-liking and satisfaction both of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich and of the mayor and corporation of Lynn. But I cannot nor ought to do this, without paying my just and most grateful acknowledgements to yourself, Sir, with the former magistrates, and the rest of the gentlemen of your Body, for the favours they have, for a long tract of time conferred upon me, and in particular for their tender and generous indulgence towards me in these last years of my age and infirmities. I request, Sir, you will please to make your hand the conveyor of this only return left in my power of thankfulness to them, accompanied with the sincerest wishes of every kind of good that can finish the welfare and prosperity of an ancient, generous, and loyal society; wishes from the heart of yours and theirs most affectionate humble Servant

Tho: Pyle.”

May 28th. 1755.

This Letter is supposed to have been dated from Swaffham, where, on account of its healthy situation, he resided the two last years of his life; and where, if we are not mistaken, he also died on the last day of the ensuing year. He was buried in the Church of Lynn All-Saints, where a latin epitaph honourable to their memories, is inscribed on the stone that covers the remains of him and his wife. She died the 14th of March 1748, aged 66: and he died the 31st. of December 1756, aged 82. This was 58 years after the commencement of his ministry. He was succeeded in his pastoral charge at Lynn by the late Charles Bagge D.D. whose ministerial as well as literary character must have been widely different from his; and yet it does not seem to have made any mighty difference as to the audience, who, it is presumed, went on much as before, praising the successor in terms very similar to those they had been wont to apply to his predecessor. Thus it often happens after the departure of eminent men, both in the church and in dissenting congregations.

11. Edmund Pyle D.D. was the eldest Son of the former, and a native of this town. In piety and inflexible integrity he is supposed to have been much inferior to his father; and the same was probably the case as to literary attainments, theological knowledge, critical skill, and ministerial talents: but he was certainly a man of no mean parts, as many of his letters that are still extant sufficiently evince. He was educated at Cambridge. When he went into orders, or where he officiated immediately after, does not appear; but in 1732, upon the death of Dr. Littel, and the appointment of his father to be his successor, he then succeeded to the vacant place, and became the lecturer, or assistant preacher and minister of this town; which situation he held till the year 1751, when he resigned in favour of the late Mr. Vann Eyre, and became chaplain to Bp. Hoadly, and a Prebendary of Winchester. After the Bp’s death, which happened in 1761, he is supposed to have resided during the remainder of his life at his prebendal house in that city, and to have died there in 1776. At Lynn he was deemed proud and unsociable, which character he, probably, might deserve, for we have sufficient evidence that even the gentry of this town, for the most part at least, stood so very low in his estimation as not to deserve his associating, or holding any communication with them but what was unavoidable: which to be sure was not altogether commendable, considering that he stood to those very people in the relation or character of one of their pastors. But it is certain that he could at times divest himself entirely of every appearance of superciliousness and reservedness, and behave towards those whom he esteemed in a very free, familiar, engaging and entertaining manner. Of this his letters still extant are a very good proof, [1024] and the same is corroborated by the testimony of some of his contemporaries who long survived him. His two brothers, Thomas and Philip, who were much younger than he and lived long after him, though not inferior to him in point of piety and moral worth, were yet thought to be much so in point of acumen, or quickness of intellect, and literature. They had also three sisters, all well spoken of, and that is supposed to have been all the family their father left.

12. George Hepburn (or Hepborne) M.D. He is supposed to have settled here about the commencement of the last century, as a physician; in which character he soon acquired high reputation, so as to be placed at the head of the profession in this part of the kingdom for near if not quite half a century. He was the favourite physician of Sir Robert Walpole the then prime minster of this country, with whom he spent much of his time at his princely seat at Houghton: and he was also employed in the same capacity by the principal nobility and gentry of this county. Very striking and diverting anecdotes are related of him during his long residence in these parts: but they are hardly proper to be inserted in the present memoir. He was certainly a very eminent and distinguished physician. His posthumous fame is not yet extinguished, as he is still remembered and mentioned, with the utmost respect whenever the conversation leads to the recollection of our eminent men of the last century. His reputation in the latter part of his life was become so very considerable that he was seldom to be found at home, being almost always attending one or other of the great families in the country. The town-practice consequently devolved upon the two other physicians, Browne and Lidderdale, both of whom were skilful and judicious practitioners. But as he lived to a very advanced age, it so happened that his eye sight gradually failed, and he became quite blind some years before he died. Having a large family to maintain, and being perhaps during his extensive practice not very economical, he would towards the close of life have been reduced to great difficulties, had it not been for two pensions which he then very seasonably obtained; one from George II, through the interest and friendship of Mr. Pelham, of 100l. a year; and the other from Dr. Maxwell, a rich relation of his own, of double that sum; which placed him above want, and rendered his situation tolerably easy and comfortable. In Walpole’s life time, and during his long premiership, while Hepburn was at the height of his fame, and in extensive practice, there might be no obvious or urgent season for befriending him and making provision for him in a similar way; otherwise it cannot well be supposed that that minister would have neglected it. But now the case was altered; the once celebrated and much sought physician was become old and blind, and no longer capable of following his profession, and gaining as theretofore the means of supporting himself and family. Something therefore was to be done for him, or he would sink into penury and want. It has been reported that though his practice was extensive, yet his fees were but moderate, considering the length and expence of his journeys, with the great attendance often required by his patients. So that his not dying wealthy was less owing to his improvidence and want of economy or frugality, than to the ungenerous and niggardly conduct of his patients or employers. Correspondent with this is said to have been the experience of others of our physicians since his time, particularly the late Dr. Hamilton, who never could boast of the great liberality or munificence of our opulent families, altho’ he was for some time our only physician. In short, this writer does not recollect having ever heard that any physician grew rich here by his practice, however extensive, unless it was Sir W. Browne, and it is generally understood and allowed that he really could do things which most other people could not. Dr. Hepburn died in 1759, at the very advanced age of ninety. He was a North Briton, as were also many, if not most of our eminent physicians. We have not been able to ascertain in what part of North Britain he drew his first breath, but rather suppose it to have been in East Lothian, and at, or near Haddington. [1030] Nor have we been able to discover at what university he was educated, but think it most probable it was that of Edinburgh, where so many eminent men of the same profession have been since educated. Dr. H. was twice married, first in 1693, to one of his own country-women, who died in 1707, aged 30. There were several children by this marriage. He afterwards married again, and his second wife was a Lynn woman. By her also he had some children, two of whom at least survived him. But they were remarkably and vastly inferior, in point of genius and capacity, or intellectual endowment, to those of the first marriage. His eldest daughter married a Mr. Young, and was the mother of the late Miss or Mrs. Dorothy Young, a lady of distinguished intellectual and literary talents. Another daughter became the wife of Dr. Lidderdale an eminent physician who settled here in the early part of George the second’s reign; and died here, in 1766, much regretted, as he is said to have stood high in the public estimation. The other daughter by the first wife lived single; but was a very extraordinary character, and stood unrivalled all her life time among the wits of this town. Her keen sayings, and stinging repartees are still fresh in the recollection of her surviving cotemporaries. Between her and her father’s daughters by his last wife there was a most striking and humiliating contrast: they being but little distant from idiocy.

13. William Browne M.D. afterwards Sir William Browne, Knight, F.R.S. and President of the Royal College of Physicians. Though he has been already noticed repeatedly in the course of this work, yet as he made so conspicuous a figure here in his day, and our materials relating to him not being yet exhausted, he seems justly entitled to a place among these biographical sketches. He was born about the beginning of the year 1692. The place of his birth we have not been able to discover, but think it to be at some distance from this town. We have understood that he was introduced here by the means and under the patronage of the Turner family, to which he became afterwards implacably hostile. His settlement here must have taken place at an early period of his life; for his name was enrolled among our free burgesses in February 1718; which must have been some time, perhaps two or three years, after he had first taken up his residence here. Yet he seems to have previously resided and graduated both at Cambridge and Oxford, for he denominated himself M.D. of both Universities. However that was, he appears to have soon got on fast in the way of his vocation, so as to obtain a large share of popularity and practice, especially among the middling and lower orders of the community, which he is said to have turned to very good account. And he is understood to have made much more of his patients, in the pecuniary way, than Hepburn was able to make of his among the higher orders. Having become the popular physician and favourite, or what we may call the man of the people, he grew quite regardless of the favour and good opinion of the gentry or higher classes. As to the gentlemen of the corporation, he held them very cheap, and treated them at times with the utmost disdain, looking upon them as his inferiors, and taking precedence of the very mayor himself, which gave no small umbrage, as was observed before, at page [900]. This took place as early as the year 1723: and this hostility to the body corporate appears not to have undergone any abatement during the remainder of his residence here.—Before we proceed further we will beg leave here to subjoin the account given of him in the Encyclopedia Londinensis, the substance of which is as follows—

“Browne (Sir William,) an eminent physician, settled originally at Lynn, where he practised with great success and profit. Having acquired a competency by his profession, he removed to Queen Square, Ormond Street, London, where he resided till his death, which happened March 10, 1774, at the age of eighty two. By his will he left two prize medals to be annually contended for by the Cambridge poets. By his lady, who died July 25, 1763, in her 60th year, he had one daughter, mother to the present Sir Martin Browne Folkes, bart. Sir William Browne was a very facetious man, and the active part taken by him in the contest with the licentiates, in 1768, occasioned his being brought on the stage, in the farce of the Devil upon two Sticks. Upon Foote’s exact representation, of him, in this farce, with his identical wig and coat, tail figure, and glass, stiffly applied to his eye, he sent him a card, complimenting him in having so happily represented him; but, as he had forgot his muff, he had sent him his own. He used to frequent the annual ball at the ladies boarding school, Queen square, merely as a neighbour, a good natured man, and one fond of the company of sprightly young folkes. A dignitary of the church being there one day to see his daughter dance, and finding this upright figure stationed there, told him he believed he was Hermippus ridivivus, who lived anhelitu puellarum, ‘by the breath of girls.’ At the age of eighty on St. Luke’s-day, 1771, he went to Batson’s coffee-house, in a richly laced coat, embroidered waistcoat and band, and fringed white gloves, to shew himself to Mr. Crosby then lord Mayor. A gentleman present observing that he looked very well, he replied, “he had neither wife nor debts.” When he lived at Lynn, an extremely censorious pamphlet was written against him, which he nailed up against his house door, for the gratification of all who chose to inspect it. A great number of lively essays, both in prose and verse, the productions of his pen, were printed and circulated among his friends, Among those written during his stay in Lynn were, an Ode in imitation of Horace, ode 3, lib. iii, addressed to Sir R. Walpole, on his ceasing to be minister. The Pill Plot; to Dr. Ward, a quack of merry memory, then in the town; written Nov. 30. 1734. He also translated from the latin original, Dr. Gregory’s Elements of Catoptrics and Dioptrics, to which he added 1. a method for finding the foci of all Specula, as well as the Lenses universally, as also magnifying or lessening a given object by a given speculum, or lens, in any assigned proportion. 2. a Solution of those Problems which Dr. Gregory has left undemonstrated. 3. a particular account of Microscopes and Telescopes, from Mr. Huygens; which was published at Lynn. His other works are, 1. Opuscula varia utriusque Linguæ Medicinam, 4to 1765—2. a Farewell Oration, 1768, 4to—3. Fragmentum Isaaci Hawkins Browne completum, 1769, 4to—4. Appendix ad Opuscula; six odes, 1770, 4to—5. A proposal on our Coin, to remedy all present and prevent all future disorders 1774, 4to—6. A New years Gift, 1772—7. Corrections in verse, from the father of the College, 4to—8. Speech to the Royal Society, 1772—9. An Eulogy and address, 1773—10. a Latin version of Job, left unfinished, 4to.”

From the above sketch the reader will perceive that Sir William Browne was a person of no common cast, or ordinary genius. Men of his sort are not to be seen every day: and when they do appear they are sure to attract observation, and are apt to make a stir wherever they happen to fix their residence. Sir William was at the head of the party which opposed the ruling body here for most part of his long residence in this town: and he appears to have acted his part with no small skill and dexterity, and with considerable effect. When the squabble assumed any thing of a literary aspect, Dr. Pyle seems to have been his chief opponent. At other times he had the whole corporate body at him, and it must be said that he generally defended himself and repelled the attacks of the whole host of those philistines very stoutly and successfully. There is great reason to believe that the opposition which he and his friends so long maintained here, was often of real and not small service to the town. At the contested election in, 1747, he bore a very conspicuous part, as appears from Dr. Pyle’s Letter already quoted. The part he acted on that occasion is supposed to have laid the foundation of that intimacy between him and Mr. Folkes which issued in an alliance between the two families, by the marriage of that gentleman with Sir William’s only daughter and sole heiress. The issue of that marriage is our present Sir Martin; and Sir Martin’s Lady is the daughter of that same Sir John Turner, between whom and Sir William Browne there was such inveterate and sworn enmity. After the Church was rebuilt in 1747, great complaints were made of the unfair disposal of pews, &c. so as to exclude in a great measure the common people from the privilege of sitting within hearing of the minister. Sir William was one of those who set their faces against this grievance. How far he and his coadjutors succeeded in obtaining redress does not appear. But whether they succeeded or not, the part they then acted was proper and praise-worthy. Our worthy knight, no doubt, performed many other deeds that were equally commendable, and others, it seems, that were not so. Among the leading traits of his character have been reckoned undaunted assurance and consummate vanity. [1037] He died at his house in Queen Square, whence his grandson, Sir Martin, had his remains brought down to Hillington, and there buried in the family vault belonging to that gentleman’s ancestors. His Epitaph, or monumental inscription he had prepared long before he died, and had an elegant engraving of it set up conspicuously in one of his own apartments. It was in latin. This writer has seen a transcript of it long ago, but has not been able to get a sight of it lately. According to a rough draught of a translation of if, which he has now before him, he understands that the beginning of it would read as follows, in English.—

“Sacred to the memory of Sir William Browne, knight, President of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and F.R.S. one who much pursued study and business, and by God’s help surmounted the knowledge of Physic; and every night and day, as his strength would allow, cheerful to give health to mankind. Even that labour was pleasure to him. Alas! to be beheld thus doing no more! Yet asserting that he lived happily, well content, his time fulfilled; as a guest fill’d with life he departed, being a man who thought nothing belonging to mortals foreign from him. He died the — day of — in the year — aged —. He was born on the birth day of Cicero, the 3rd of January 1692—Country! O be perpetual! and free! Let my soul be with Christosophists, viz. with Newton, Boyle, Locke; far from mad-men, and from some sort of wisemen — — —” [1039]

14. Thomas Lidderdale M.D. He is said to have been an elegant and an accomplished scholar, as well as an excellent physician. The land of his nativity, as well as that of Dr. Hepburn, was North Britain; and it appears that he was related to some of the first families in that country: and such was the respectability of his character after he removed to England, that he attracted the notice and obtained the friendship of some of the first personages in this kingdom. He was born in 1709, and settled as a physician in this town about the year 1731, where he continued ever after to the day of his death, which happened in 1766. As to his descent, we learn that he was the “second son of David Lidderdale of St. Mary’s Isle, by Eleonora the eldest daughter of Sir James Dunbar of Mochrum, bart. by Isabella, 2nd. daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Nicholson of Carnock, bart. and Lady Margaret, eldest daughter of Alexander 2nd earl of Linlithgow and Lady Mary Dowglass, daughter of William, tenth earl of Angus or Dowglass.” This we have learnt from his Pedigree, which is now in the possession of a very respectable gentleman of this town, and which leads us back, by a long line of ancestry, through the Dunbars of Mochrum and Carnock, earls of Dunbar, of Murray, of March, heroes of the Holy War, earls and princes of Northumberland, kings of Scotland, &c. up even to the Saxon kings of England. So that in this view it could be no disparagement to any family in England, or out of it, to cultivate the acquaintance or friendship of Dr. Lidderdale. But it is certain that he derived far more real honour and dignity from his own personal worthiness, or respectability of character, than he could possibly do from his whole long catalogue of illustrious ancestors: and that, no doubt, was what raised him so high in the estimation of his numerous acquaintance in this country. Like other younger sons of respectable families, he appears not to have had much of this world’s goods bestowed on him by his father, beyond what was spent upon his education, which seems to have been excellent, from the high reputation he sustained as a scholar. The rudiments of learning he is supposed to have received at one of the grammar-schools of his native country; at one of whose universities he probably spent sometime afterwards; but he finished his education, if we are not mistaken, at the university of Rheims in France, where he received the degree of M.D. which was also conferred upon him afterwards by the university of St. Andrews. It is not very likely that he had begun to practise before he came to England; for he arrived in this town, and took up his residence here, as a physician, at the early age of twenty two. His introduction here he probably owed to his countryman, Dr. Hepburn, who was then advancing in years, and on the verge of his grand climacteric, though he lived near thirty years after. Our young physician soon attracted the notice and esteem of the enlightened and literary part of the public; and being patronized by Hepburn, he presently came into good practice; but like that of his patron, it seems to have been chiefly among those of the higher class. It appears, from one of his letters, that he was employed by the Townshend family from the very commencement of his practice; and of that family he is known to have retained the esteem and friendship to the very last. The Walpoles, Cokes, and Bedingfelds, the Hares, the Hostes, and most of the great families in these parts were numbered among his friends. With such high connections, it might be expected that he could not fail of being placed in easy, if not in affluent circumstances. It did not however so turn out. A sine cure office or place in the custom-house was all he obtained from the favour and affection, the interest and admiration of those honourable and noble personages, besides the fees of attendance in the way of his profession, which appear scarce ever to have corresponded with the length of his journeys, and the time he was often required to spend in attending upon his patients. But many beside him have found the smiles of the great very unproductive of solid advantages.—About seven years after he had fixed his residence here, he married Miss Susan Hepburn, the third daughter, if we are not mistaken, of his great friend and patron, Dr. Hepburn. He was then 29 years old, and the lady some few years older. They lived together about 28 years, when he left her a widow with one daughter, said to have been an extremely amiable and accomplished lady, whom the mother long survived; one dying in 1787, and the other in 1796, at the very advanced age of 92.—How much the doctor felt the unproductiveness of his practice, and the scantiness of his income, some years before he died, and how anxiously he wished to better his condition and be placed in easy circumstances, will appear from the two following Letters, one written to the right honourable Chas. Townshend, then secretary at war, and the other to general Townshend, afterwards Marquis Townshend. The first was dated at Lynn Oct. 10, 1762, and worded as follows,

“Sir,

Having been now upwards of thirty years a Norfolk Physician; where my practice has been attended with greater reputation than self-interest or money; it is no small mortification at last to find myself totally neglected and forgotten, among the many promotions and medical preferments which have been made for sometime, and are still daily making—Greenwich Hospital, or some Almshouse, I had reason to believe was intended for me, but that is gone with other things—I now, Dear Sir, beg leave to throw myself at your feet to dispose of me as you think properest and best, whether in a Physical or Civil capacity, I entirely submit to your determination and pleasure. Indeed I am almost worn out in the service of this county, and am no longer able to undergo the fatigue of winter journeys and slavery; neither is the practice of physic, or manner of residence in the country the same as when I had the honor of prescribing for your truly noble grand-father and his family at Rainham.—Your generous humanity, and known friendly disposition towards me, will I hope plead my excuse for the freedom of this Letter, and remind you of one who has long been, with the most cordial affection and fidelity, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and devoted humble Servant,

T. L.”