Chapter XXVII: Section IV

_Biographical Sketches of some of the most celebrated_, _or memorable persons who were natives of this part of the country_.

Of all the eminent men who sprung up in this part of Norfolk, the precedence seems unquestionably due to

_Sir_ EDWARD COKE, the famous Lord chief Justice. He was the son of Robert Coke, Esq. of Mileham, where he was born in 1550, or as some say in 1549. At ten years of age he was sent to the free school at Norwich; and after having spent there a competent time, he was removed to Trinity College in Cambridge, where he continued about four years, and then went to Clifford’s Inn, and the next year was entered a student of the Inner Temple. He was called to the bar at six years standing, which in that age was held very extraordinary. Lloyd tells us that “the first occasion of his rise was his stating the Cook’s case of the Temple, that all the house, who were puzzled with it, admired him; and his pleading it so, that the whole bench took notice of him.” His reputation increased very fast, and he soon came into great practice. When he had been at the bar about seven years, he married a lady of one of the best families in his native county, and with a very large fortune for that age. He now rose rapidly: the cities of Coventry and Norwich chose him their Recorder; and he was engaged in all the great causes in Westminster Hall. He was also in high credit with Lord Burleigh and the other rulers, and often consulted in state affairs. He became moreover, one of the representatives of his native county in parliament, Speaker of the House of Commons, and successively Solicitor-general, Attorney-general, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and finally, Lord Chief Justice of England, or rather _of the King’s Bench_, as king James would have it called. Sir Edward was a high spirited man, and on many occasions discovered much firmness and integrity, even when the other judges gave way, and the mandates of the Sovereign required a different conduct. This kind of behaviour, in time, rendered him obnoxious to the Court, and brought upon him its heavy displeasure, which issued in his expulsion from the Council Table, and his removal from the office of Lord Chief Justice; the king declaring, “That he was for a tyrant the fittest instrument that ever was in England.” He afterward joined the country party, and made a distinguished figure among the great parliamentary patriots, in the latter part of the reign of James and the former part of that of Charles I. He died at his house at Stoke Pogey, in Buckinghamshire, Sept. 3, 1634, in the 86 year of his age, and expired with these words in his mouth, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” He was one of the greatest Lawyers that England ever produced. He had quick parts, a deep penetration, a retentive memory, and a solid judgement. He was greatly honoured and esteemed among his brethren of the long robe; and when persecuted by the Court, and a brief was given against him to Sir John Walter, that gentleman, though Attorney-general to the prince, laid aside the brief, with this remarkable sentence, “Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, whenever I open it against Sir Edward Coke.” He was observed to make a better figure in adversity than in prosperity; and he was so good at making the best of a disgrace, that king James said, “Let them throw him which way they would, he always fell upon his legs.” He valued himself, and not without reason, upon this, that he obtained all his preferments without employing either prayers or pence, and that he became Speaker of the House of Commons, Solicitor-general, Attorney-general, Chief Justice of both Benches, High Steward of Cambridge, and a member of the Privy Council, without either begging or bribing. In this he was very different from many of his most eminent cotemporaries, and especially from his great and celebrated rival Bacon, who was remarkable for the meanness with which he used to solicit preferment. He was in his person well proportioned, and his features were regular. He was neat, but not nice, in his dress; and would say, that “the cleanness of a man’s clothes ought to put him in mind of keeping all clean within.” He was twice married, but his second marriage proved unhappy. He left behind him a numerous issue, as well as a large fortune; and may be ranked among the greatest men of his time. {177a}

In the latter part of his life he appears to have been among the reputed _Jacobins_ of that day, [as is also said to have been the case, in the estimation of some _wise_ and _virtuous_ people, {177b} with his present descendant of Holkham, during the late memorable reign and rage of our furious alarmists.] While he lay upon his death-bed, his house was, by an order of council, searched for seditions and dangerous papers: and the searchers took away his commentary upon Magna Charta; his commentary upon Lyttleton, with the history of his Life before it, written with his own hand; the Pleas of the Crown; and the Jurisdiction of Courts; his 11th. and 12th. Reports, in MS; with 51 other MSS; together with his Last Will and Testament, which contained the provision he had been making for his younger grandchildren. These papers were kept from the family for several years, and the Will was never heard of more. {178}

2. _Sir_ HENRY SPELMAN. He was born at Congham, in 1561, or 1562. Before he was fifteen he was sent to Trinity College, in Cambridge; but his father dying in about two years and half after, he was taken home by his mother to assist her in managing the affairs of the family. About a year after, he was sent to Lincoln’s Inn to study the law, where having continued almost three years, he retired into the country, and married a Lady of good family and fortune. Beside his own rural and domestic concerns, which now demanded and employed the chief of his attention, he was also very assiduous to improve himself in the knowledge of the Constitution, Laws and Antiquities of his Country. He was early admitted a member of the Society of Antiquaries, which brought him into an intimate acquaintance with Sir Robert Cotton, Camden, and others of the most eminent men for that kind of literature. In 1604, he was appointed High Sheriff of Norfolk, and about the same time wrote a description of that county, which he communicated to _Speed_: but it was not the first book he wrote: a book on Heraldry, and another on the Coins of the kingdom, he had before written; and perhaps more. In 1607, the king nominated him one of the Commissioners for determining the unsettled titles of lands and manors in Ireland; on which occasion he went thither several times, and discharged the trust reposed in him with great reputation. He was also appointed one of the Commissioners to enquire into the oppression of exacted fees in all courts and offices, as well ecclesiastical as civil; which gave rise to his treatise _De Sepultura_, or of the Burial Fees, in which he made it evident, that most part of the fees exacted by the clergy and church officers, on account of funerals, is no better than gross imposition. His close attention to those public employments proved prejudicial to his family and circumstances; in consideration of which the government made him a present of 300_l_, till something better could be done for him. His majesty also conferred on him the honour of knighthood, which, however, did probably impoverish rather than enrich him. His majesty did what was still worse, in prohibiting the Meetings of the Antiquarian Society, lest, forsooth, they might be led to treat of _state affairs_! {179} His wise majesty seemed conscious that those affairs were too brittle to be handled, and too foul to be exposed to open daylight. When about fifty he went to reside in London, and gave himself up to archaiological studies. He collected all such books and MSS. as he could find of that description, whether foreign or domestic. In 1626, he published the first part of his well known _Glossary_, which he never carried beyond the letter L, because, as some have suggested, he had said things under _Magna Charta_, and _Maximum Concilium_, that could not then have appeared without giving offence. He wrote many things, most of which are still held in considerable repute. He died in 1641: his posthumous works were published in 1698, in folio, under the inspection of bishop Gibson. At his death his papers came into the hands of his eldest Son,

3. _Sir_ JOHN SPELMAN, “the heir of his studies,” as he himself calls him, who was also a very learned man, and had great encouragement and assurance of favour from Charles I. That prince one time sent for Sir Henry Spelman, and offered him the mastership of Sutton Hospital, with some other advantages, in consideration of his good services both to church and state. He returned his majesty thanks, and told him that he was very old, and had now one foot in the grave, and should therefore be more obliged if he would consider his son. Upon which the king sent for Mr. Spelman, and conferred both the mastership of the Hospital and the honour of knighthood upon him; and he afterwards employed him to draw up several papers in vindication of the proceedings of the court. He published the Saxon Psalter under the title of _Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum vetus_, in 1640, in quarto, from a MS in his father’s Library, collated with three other copies. He also wrote “The Life of King Alfred the Great,” in English; which was translated into Latin, sometime after the Restoration, by Mr. Christopher Wase, superior Beadle of the Civil Law at Oxford; which translation, with notes and cuts by Mr. Obadiah Walker Master of University College, was published, from the Theatre Press, in 1679, in folio. The original English was also published from the same press, by Mr. Thomas Hearne, in 1709. 8vo. Sir John Spelman died in 1643.

4. _Sir_ ROGER L’ESTRANGE is another of the notable natives of this part of the county. He was the youngest son of Sir Hamon L’Estrange, Bart. of Hunstanton Hall, where he was born Dec. 17, 1616. He received a liberal education, which he is supposed to have completed at Cambridge. His father being a zealous royalist, took care to instil the same principles in his son, which the latter eagerly embraced; and in 1639, he attended the king, in his expedition into Scotland. His attachment to the royal cause became now very strong; and sometime after nearly cost him his life: for in 1644, soon after the Earl of Manchester had reduced Lynn to the authority of the Parliament, young L’Estrange, thinking he had some interest in the place, as his father had been governor of it, formed a scheme for surprising it; and received a commission from the king, constituting him is governor, in case of success: but his design being betrayed by two of his confederates, (named _Leman_ and _Haggar_,) though both bound under an oath of secresy, he was seized, tried, and, by a court-martial, condemned to die, as a traitor. While he lay in prison, he was visited by Mr. Arrowsmith, and Mr. Thorowgood, two of the assembly of divines, who very kindly offered him their utmost interest, if he would make some petitionary acknowledgement, and submit to take the covenant, but he refused. After thirty months spent in vain endeavours, either to have a hearing, or to be put into an exchangeable condition, he printed a state of his case, by way of appeal from the court martial (by which he had been tried) to the Parliament. About the time of the Kentish insurrection, in 1648, he escaped out of prison, with the keeper’s privity, as he himself says, and went into Kent, and retiring to the house of Mr Hales, a young gentleman, heir to a great estate in that county, he spirited him up to head the insurrection; but that design failed of success. After this miscarriage, he escaped beyond sea, where he continued till the autumn of 1653; when taking his opportunity, in the change of government, upon Cromwell’s dissolution of the long parliament, he returned into England, and having an opportunity to speak to Cromwell, and obtaining a favourable hearing, he escaped any further trouble, and shortly after received his discharge, by an order dated 31. Oct. 1653. How he spent his time for the next six or seven years does not appear; but it may be presumed that he remained pretty quiet, and avoided all interference with political, or state affairs. He is said to have sometimes played before the Protector on the bass viol, for which he was by some called _Oliver’s fidler_. After the Restoration he was little noticed, either by the king or his ministers, for sometime; which he very much resented. Afterward, however, he was appointed to a profitable, but odious office, that of _Licencer of the Press_; which he held till a little before the Revolution. In 1663 he set up a newspaper, called “The Public Intelligencer and the News,” which was afterwards put down by the _London_ GAZETTE; for which, however, government allowed him a consideration. After the popish plot, when the Tories began to gain the ascendant over the Whigs, he, in a paper called _the Observator_, became a zealous champion for the former, and an advocate for some of the worst measures of the Court. He was afterward knighted, and served in the parliament called by James II. in 1685. After the Revolution he met with some trouble, as a disaffected person. He is said to have been particularly disliked by the queen, who very curiously anagrammed his name, as was mentioned in the first section of this chapter. He died on the 11th. of September 1704, in the 88th. year of his age, and was interred in the church of St. Giles in the fields, where there is an inscription to his memory. He wrote many political tracts, in a high tory strain, and often with little regard to truth; and also published translations of Josephus’s works, Cicero’s offices, Seneca’s morals, Erasmus’s colloquies, Esop’s fables, Quevedo’s visions, &c. His style has been praised by some, while others have represented it as intolerably low and nauseous: and Granger represents him as one of the great corrupters of our language. But there was something in his character that was still worse and more detestable than even his style.—Having mentioned him as one of our early compilers of newspapers, it may not be amiss here just to note, that he had been long preceded in that occupation, by a country-man of his, _Wm. Watts_, M.A. who is supposed to have been the very first compiler of a weekly, or stated English newspaper; at least his employer, _Butter_, seems to have been the first editor of such a paper, which was begun in August 1622, under the name of “The certain news of this present week;” and Watts is thought to have been the compiler of it from the first, and is therefore deemed the _Gallo-Belgicus_ of England: alluding to the first newspaper, or periodical publication of the low Countries, about the beginning of the 17th century, which went by that name. But as Watts is said to have been a native of Lynn, a further account of him shall be given in its proper place.

5. _Sir_ ROBERT WALPOLE, afterward Earl of Orford. He was born at Houghton, in 1674. In 1700, he was chosen member of Parliament for Lynn, which he also represented in many succeeding parliaments. In 1705 he was made one of the council to Prince George of Denmark, as lord high admiral. In 1707 he was made secretary at war; and in 1709 treasurer of the navy. On the change of the ministry, the year following, he was removed from all his places, and in 1711 was voted by the house of commons guilty of notorious corruption, in his office as secretary at war: it was therefore resolved that he should be committed to the tower, and expelled the house. But being considered by the whigs as a kind of martyr to their cause, the borough of Lynn rechose him, and though the house declared his election void, yet the electors persisted in their choice, and he sat in the next parliament. On the accession of George I. he was appointed paymaster-general of the forces, and a privy counsellor; but in a disagreement, two years after, with Mr. Secretary Stanhope, he resigned, turned patriot, of course, and opposed the ministry. Early in 1720 he was again made pay-master of the forces, and the complaisance of the courtier began once more to appear: nor was it long before he acquired full ministerial power, as first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. The measures of his administration, during the long course of his premiership, have been often canvassed, with all the severity of critical inquiry, and variously determined. Though he has been called the father of corruption, and is said to have boasted, that he knew every man’s price, yet the opposition prevailed over him in 1742, and obliged him to resign. He was screened from any further resentment of the house of commons, by a peerage, being created Earl of Orford, and gratified with a pension of 4000_l_ a year. He is generally allowed to have been a minister of considerable talents, and a notable manager of parliaments. Whatever were his faults, and he doubtless had many, he was evidently a _man of peace_, and _no war minister_, which ought to endear his memory to posterity. Had his successors, and particularly the late minister _Pitt_, been more of his disposition in that respect, it had probably, at this time, been a happy circumstance for the British empire, if not also for some other nations.

6. _Sir_ ANDREW FOUNTAINE. He was born at _Narford_, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied the Anglo-Saxon language, of his skill in which he afterward gave good proof, by a piece inserted in Dr Hicks’s Thesaurus, entitled, “Numismata Anglo-Saxonica, et Anglo-danica, breviter illustrata ab Andreâ Fountaine eq. aur. et æd. Christi Oxon alumno, 1705.” King William conferred on him the honour of knighthood: and he was afterwards, it seems, in 1726, made knight of the Bath, by patent; at which time he was Vice Chamberlain to the princess of Wales. He travelled for a considerable time in various parts of Europe, and is said to have made a noble collection of antiques and curiosities; of his adventures in the meantime, not all over and above delicate or reputable, some curious anecdotes are still remembered. In 1709 he drew the designs for the Tale of a Tub, by Swift, with whom he is said to have been very intimate, as well as with Pope, who complimented him for the elegance of his taste. In 1727 he was appointed Warden of the Mint, which office be held till his death, in 1753. He was reputed an eminent connoisseur, virtuoso, and antiquary; and Narford Hall owes to him most, if not the whole of its boasted curiosities.

7. MARTIN FOLKES, Esq. much distinguished in his time as a philosopher and antiquary, was the eldest Son of a Barrister of the same name, by one of the two daughters and coheiresses of Sir Wm. Hovell of Hillington Hall; which accounts for the estate of the Hovells descending to him. He was born in 1690, at Westminster, where his father then resided. His education, which is supposed to have commenced at Westminster school, was finished at Cambridge, where his proficiency appears to have been very considerable. He became a member of the Royal Society in his 23rd year. About ten years after, he was appointed vice president of the same Society, to which he had been nominated by Sir Isaac Newton, the then President. He was also a member of the Society of Antiquaries. On the resignation of Sir Hans Sloane, in 1741, be was elected President of the R.S. and not long after he was nominated one of the eight foreign members of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. He died in 1754, and is said to have been a person of very extensive knowledge and great respectability; and in his private character polite, generous, and friendly. His principal service to science was his elucidation of the intricate subject of coins, weights, and measures. Though he had daughters of his own, he left the seat and estate of his maternal ancestors, the Hovells, to his brother, whose Son, Sir Martin Browne Folkes, bart. M.P. is their present possessor.

8. _The honourable_ HORACE WALPOLE, afterward _Earl of Orford_. He was the youngest Son of the celebrated Sir Robert Walpole, and born about the year 1717. In 1739 he set out upon his travels, accompanied by his friend _Gray_, the poet: but they afterward quarrelled and separated. In the parliament of 1741 he was a member for Collington; in that of 1747, for Castle Rising; and in those of 1754 and 1761, for Lynn. At the expiration of the latter parliament he retired from business, and attached himself wholly to literary pursuits, residing chiefly, if not wholly, at Strawberry Hill, in Surrey, where he had a private printing-office, for the purpose of having his productions edited under his own eye. His principal works are The Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, and The Historic Doubts respecting the character, conduct, and person of Richard III. He wrote also The Mysterious Mother, Castle of Otranto, and other works, which are considered as proofs of his being a person of very extensive reading, and of eminent genius and talents. On the death of his nephew he succeeded to the family title and estates; but did not long enjoy them. He died in 1797.

9. _Admiral_ HORATIO NELSON, afterward _Sir_ HORATIO NELSON, and latterly, _Lord Viscount Nelson_, and _Duke of Bronte_ in the kingdom of Naples. He was the 4th Son of the Rev. Edward Nelson, rector of Burnham Thorpe, where he was born September 29, 1758. He is said to have been maternally related to the Walpoles and the Townshends, two of the first families in his native county. He was sent early to sea, under the care of a relation, who was a captain in the navy, where he soon distinguished himself, and became in time one of the greatest naval commanders that this or any other country ever produced. His most renowned achievements were those at _Aboukir_, _Copenhagen_, and _Trafalgar_; the latter of which he did not survive, being killed by a musket ball, near the close of the engagement, which terminated in one of the most complete and decisive victories ever recorded in the annals of naval warfare. He arrived at high pre-eminence, through deeds of blood, and a vast destruction of his species, which can have no place among the christian virtues. But his biography and character are too well known to need being here further enlarged upon. {189}

10. WILLIAM BEWLEY was for many years a most distinguished character among the inhabitants of this part of Norfolk. He was not a native of this country, but came hither, it is thought, from the north of England, about 1749, and settled at Great Massingham, as a surgeon and apothecary, where he continued for the remainder of his days, greatly respected as a professional man, but more especially so as a _philosopher_, in which character he was thought inferior to few, if any, of his cotemporaries. With some of the most enlightened of them he was held in high and deserved estimation. Dr. _Burney_ and Dr. _Priestley_ were of that number; the latter of whom he very materially assisted in his experimental pursuits, and was the first who discovered and suggested to him the acidity of mephitic or fixed air. Intimate as these two philosophers appear to have been, they were in some respects, it seems, of very different sentiments. Priestley was an admirer of _Hartley_, and a decided materialist, while Bewley, on the other hand, was a disciple of _Berkeley_, and a firm believer of the ideal system. Between these two systems there is evidently a very striking contrast; yet that occasioned no breach in their friendship, or any coolness or abatement in their esteem for each other. Among theologians, and minor philosophers, much slighter differences might have occasioned (as they generally do) endless jarrings, and an irreconcileable antipathy; but Priestley and Bewley were men of another, and a very different cast, and knew how to entertain the purest friendship for each other, while they held, on some important points, very dissimilar, and even opposite opinions. Their friendship commenced about the time that Priestley published his History of Electricity. Bewley’s critique upon that work, in the Monthly Review, was the means, as the Dr. says, of opening a correspondence between them, which was the source of much satisfaction to him, as long as Mr. Bewley lived. The Dr. used instantly to communicate to him an account of every new experiment that he made, and in return was favoured with his remarks upon them. All that Bewley published of his own (except those articles which he furnished for the Monthly Review) were papers inserted in the Dr’s. volumes _on Air_, all of which, says the doctor, are ingenious and valuable. Always publishing in that manner, he used to call himself _Dr. Priestley’s Satellite_. There was a vein of pleasant wit and humour (as the Dr. informs us) in all his correspondence, which added greatly to the value of it. His Letters to the Dr. would have made several volumes, and the Dr’s to him, still more. He was in his latter years a valetudinarian of a very sickly appearance. When he found himself dangerously ill, and his dissolution fast approaching, he made a point of paying the Dr. a visit before he died. He accordingly made a journey from Massingham to Birmingham, for that purpose, accompanied by Mrs. Bewley: and after spending about a week there, he went to pay another last or parting visit to his friend Dr. Burney, and there, at his house in St. Martin’s Street, London, he died, on the 5th. of Sept. 1783. He was for many years one of the writers of the Monthly Review, and the articles he furnished for that respectable publication were thought not inferior to the productions of the very ablest of his associates. How many articles he furnished for that work is not known, except, perhaps, to the Editor. The review of _PRIESTLEY’S History of Electricity_, (as was before observed,) of _WHITEHURST’S Inquiry into the original State and formation of the Earth_, and of _Sir JOHN HAWKINS’ History of Music_, are understood to have been drawn up by Mr. Bewley. The last mentioned article is said to have been much admired at the time by the late celebrated Dr. _Samuel Johnson_. Mr. Bewley was sometimes denominated _The Philosopher of Massingham_, and with as much propriety, it was supposed, as _Hobbes_ was styled _The Philosopher of Malmsbury_. The branches of knowledge in which he was said chiefly to excel were those of _Anatomy_, _Electricity_, and _Chemistry_. He had naturally a fine ear, and was particularly fond of music; and was not only an excellent judge of composition, but also a good performer on the violin. He cultivated the art and science of music as a relief from severer pursuits, and applied to it in the hours of relaxation, with that ardour which characterized all his undertakings. A love for every liberal science and an insatiable curiosity after whatever was connected with them, were his predominant passions. So strongly and lastingly did they operate, that he desired some books might be brought to him on the very evening before he died, when the excruciating pains of his disorder had a little abated; and though unable to read himself, he listened to what was read, and drank in knowledge with his wonted eagerness, and,

—“with his latest breath
Thus shewed his ruling passion strong in death.”

He was a remarkably warm friend, and an excellent husband: and withal of so benevolent and peculiar a turn of mind, that he would not willingly hurt a worm; nor would he, it seems, cut a living twig from a shrub or tree, because he did not know, (as he would say) but the operation might occasion pain. Many will probably affect to smile at this, under an idea of their own fancied superiority, whose characters, nevertheless, would bear no comparison with that of William Bewley, not to say as _scholars_, and _philosophers_, but even as _men_, and _members of society_. In short, he appears to have been a very _good_, as well as a very wise and great man. {192}