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NORTHFOLKE is an Iland inclining to an Ovall forme, closed on the South part with the Rivers of Waveney and the less••r Ouse, which divides it from Suffolk. On the East and North with the German-Ocean; on the West toward Cambridge-shire, with some branches of the greater Ouse; toward Lincolne-shire with that part of the Nene which passeth from Wisbitch into the Washes.
* 1.1It containeth in length (from Yarmouth to Wisbitch) about fifty miles. In bredth (from Thetford to Wels) about thirty. The whole Circuit is about two hundred forty two miles.
* 1.2The name ariseth from the situation of the people, who being the Norther-most of the Kingdome of East-Angles, are therefore called the North-folke, as the Souther▪most South-folke.
* 1.3The Ayre is sharpe and piercing, especially in the Champion, and neere the Sea: therefore it delayeth the Spring and Harvest, the situa∣tion of the Country inclining thereto, as being under the 53. degree of Latitude.
* 1.4The Soile diverse: about the Towns commonly good; as Clay, Chalk, or fat earth, well watered, and with some wood: upward to the Heaths naked, drie, and barren: Marsland and Flegg exceeding rich; but Mars∣land properly for Pasture, Flegg for Corne.
(2) The parts from Thetford to Burneham, and thence Westward, as also along the Coast, be counted Champion: the rest (as better furnished with woods) Wood-land. The Champion aboundeth with Corne, Sheepe, and Conies, and herein the barren Heaths (as the providence of our Ancestors hath of old disposed them) are very profitable. For on them principally lie our Fould courses, called of the Saxons (whose institution they therefore seem to be) faldsocun, that is, Liberty of fold or fouldage. These Heaths by the Compasture of the Sheepe (which we call Tathe) are made so rich with Corne, that when they fall to be sowne, they com∣monly match the fruitfullest grounds in other Countries: and laid a∣gaine, doe long after yeeld a sweeter and more plentifull feed for sheep: so that each of them maintaine other, and are the chiefest wealth of our Country. The Wood-land (fitter for grasse) is maintained chiefly by fee∣ding of Cattell, yet well stored with Corne and Sheepe.
The Coast is fortunate in fish, and hath many good Harbours, where∣of Lenn and Yarmouth be the mother Ports, and of great traffique: Wels and Blakeney next in estimation.
The whole County aboundeth with Rivers and pleasant Springs, of which the Ouse is chiefest, by whose plentifull Branches the Isle of Ely, the Towns and Shires of Cambridge, Huntington, and the County of Suffolke vent and receive commodities. The next is Hierus or Yere, passing from Norwich to Yarmouth, where it rec••iveth the Bure comming from Ayl∣sham, both of them of great service of water carriages, but very notable for their plenty of fish: for some one man out of an hold upon the Bure, hath drawne up ordinarily once a yeare,* 1.5 between two Nets, about five or six score bushels of fish at one draught. The Waveney and the lesser Ouse are also Navigable and of great use. The residue I omit.
(3) The People were anciently called ICENI, as they also of Suf∣folke, Cambridge-shire, and Huntington-shire, and supposed to be of them whom Caesar nameth Cenimagni; Ptolemic, Simeni; some Tigeni. Their manners were likely to be as the rest of the Britaines, barbarous at those times, as appeareth by Caesar and Tacitus. Neither can I otherwise com∣mend their Successours the Saxons: for so also their owne Country∣man Ethelwerd termeth them. Since the entry of the Normans, they have been counted civill and ingenious, apt to good Letters, adorning Religion with more Church••s and Monasteries then any Shire of Eng∣land, and the Lawes and Seats of Justice (for many ages) with some ex∣cellent men; from whom most of our chiefe Families, and some of the greatest Nobility of the Kingdome, have taken advancement. And here∣in is Norfolke fortunate, that as Crete boasted of an hundred Cities, so may shee of an hundred Families of Gentlemen, never yet (that search∣ing I can find) attainted of high Treason. How the government of this Country was about Caesars time, is uncertaine, but (agreeable, no doubt, to the rest of the Britaines) under some peculiar Toparch or Regulus, as Tacitus termeth him. The latter Romans held it by two Garrisons, one at Gariannum neere Yarmouth; the other at Branodunum, now called Bran∣castre, both of horse, and commanded by the Comes Maritimi Tractus, as Marcellinus calleth him, termed after Comes Littoris Saxonici. Upon the entry of the Saxons, this County with Suffolke fell in the portion of the Angles, and about the yeare 561. were together erected into a King∣dome by Vffa,* 1.6 of whom the succeeding Kings were tituled Vffines. But having suffred many Tempests of Fortune, it was in yeare 870. utterly wasted and extinct by Hungar and Hubba the Danes, who overthrew the vertuous King Edmund about Thetford, and after martyred him at S. Ed∣mundsbury. Yet they did not long enjoy it: for King Edward shortly re∣covered it from them, and annexed it to his other Kingdomes. The Danes notwithstanding inhabited abundantly in these parts, so that many of our Townes were founded by them, and a great part of our people and Gentry are risen out of their blood.
(4) This Kingdome of East Angles was after allotted to an Earle∣dome of that name by William the Conquerour, who made Radulph a Bri∣taine, marrying his kinswoman. Eal••e thereof; but gave the greatest parts of this County about Wimondham, Keninghall, Lenn, Burneham, Fulmer∣ston, &c. to W. de Albany, Pincernae, and W. de Warranna Forrestario. who to strengthen themselves (according to the use of that time) with the homage and service of many Tenants, divided large portions of the same amongst their friends and followers; so that most of the Manours and Lands in the parts aforesaid, were in those dayes either mediatly, or immediatly holden of one of them. And as Norfolke and Suffolke were first united in a Kingdome, then in an Earledome, so they continued united in the Sheriffewicke till about the fifteenth yeare of Queene Elizabeth.
* 1.7(5) The Townes here are commonly well built, and populous; three of them being of that worth and quality, as no one Shire of Eng∣land hath the like, Norwich, Lenn, and Yarmouth: to which for ancient reputation (as having been a seat of the Kings of East-Angles) I may adde Thetford,* 1.8 knowne to Antoninus, and elder ages, by the name of Si∣tomagus, when the other three were yet in their infancie, and of no esteeme: for I accept not the Relations of the Antiquitie and state of Norwich in the time of the Britaines and Saxons, though Alexander Nevil hath well graced them. Her very name abridgeth her Antiquitie, as ha∣ving no other in H••stories but Norwich, which is meere Saxon or Danish, and signifieth the North-Towne,* 1.9 Castle, or winding of a River. It seemeth to have risen out of the decay of her neighbour Venta, now called Castor, and as Master Cambden noteth,* 1.10 not to have beene of marke before the entry of the Danes, who in the yeare 1004. under Sweno their Captaine, first sackt, and then burn it, even in her infancie. Yet in the dayes of Edward the Confessor it recovered to 1220. Burgesses. But maintaining the cause of Earle Radulph aforesaid against the Conquerour, they were by famine and sword wasted to 560. at which time the Earle escaping by Ship, his Wise upn composition yeelded the Castle, and followed. In William Rufus time it was growne famous for Merchandize and con∣course of people;* 1.11 so that Herbert then translating the Bishopricke from Thetford thither, made each of them an ornament to other. In variety of times it felt much variety of fortune: By fire in An••o 1508. By ex∣treame plagues,* 1.12 whereof one in An. 1348. was so outrage us, as 57104. are reported to have dyed thereof between the Calends of January and of July. By misery of warre, as sack••d and spoyled by the Earle of Flaun∣ders and Hugh Bigod, Anno 1174. In yeelding to Lewis the French, against their naturall Lord King Iohn, Anno 1216 By the disinherited Barons, Anno 1266. By tumult and insurrection between the Citizens and Church-men: once about the yeare 1265. which if Henry the third had not come in prison to appease, the City was in hazard to be ruined▪ The second time in Anno 1446. for which the Major was deposed, and their Liberties for a while seised. In Edward the sixths time, by Ketts rebellion, whose fury chiefly raged against this City. Since this it hath flourished with the blessings of Peace, Plentie, Wealth, and Honour: so that Alexander Nevil doubteth not to preferre it above all the Cities of England, except London. It is situate upon the River Hierus, in a pleasant valley, but on rising ground, having on the Last the Hilles and Heath called Mussold for Moss-would, as I take it. In the seventeeth yeare of King Stephen it was new founded,* 1.13 and made a Corporation. In Edward the firsts time closed with a faire Wall, saving on a part that the River defendeth. First governed by foure Bayliffes; then by Henry the fourth in Anno 1403. erected into a Majoralty and County; the limits where∣of now extend to Eaton-bridge. At this present it hath about thirty Pa∣rishes, but in ancient time had many more.
(6) Lenn having been an ancient Borrough under the government of a Bayliffe or Reve,* 1.14 called Praetositus, was by King Iohn in the sixt yeare of his Reigne made Liber Burgus, and (besides the gift of his me∣morable ••up, which to this day honoureth this Corporation) endowed with divers faire Liberties. King Henry the third in the seventeenth yeare of his Reigne (in recompence of their service against the out-lawed Ba∣rons in the Isle of Ely) enlarged their Charter, and granted them fur∣ther, to choose a Major Loco Praepositi: unto whom King Henry the eight, in the sixteenth yeare of his Reigne, added twelve Aldermen, a Re∣corder, and other Officers, and the bearing of a Sword before the Major. But the Towne comming after to the same King, he in the nine and twentieth yeare of his Reigne, changed the name, from Lenn Episco∣pi, to Lenn Regis.
(7) Yarmouth is the Key of the Coast,* 1.15 named and seated by the mouth of the River Yere. Begun in the time of the Danes, and by small accessions growing populous, made a Corporation under two Bayliffes by King Henry the third, and by his Charter, about the fifteenth yeare of his Reigne, walled. It is an ancient member of the Cinque Ports, very well built and fortified, having only one Church (but faire and large) founded by Bishop Herbert, in William Rufus dayes. It maintaineth a Peere against the Sea, at the yearely charge of five hundred pound, or thereabout: yet hath it no possessions, as other Corporations, but like the children of Aeolus and Thetis, Maria & 4. ventos, as an Inquisitour findeth, Anno 10. Henry third.* 1.16 There is yearely in September the wor∣thiest Herring-fishing in Europe, which draweth great concourse of peo∣ple, and maketh the Towne much the richer all the yeare, but very un∣savoury for the time. The Inhabitants are so courteous, as they have long held a custome to feast all persons of worth, repairing to their Towne.
(8) The Bishoprik of Norwich had first her seat at Dunwich in Suf∣folke,* 1.17 and was there begun by Foelix, who converted this County, and the East-Angles to the Faith. Being brought out of Burgundy by Sigebert (the first Christian King of the East-Angles) he landed at Ba••ingley by Lenn, and there builded the first Church of these Countries which in his memory, is at this day called by his Name. The second he built at Sharn∣bourn then of wood, and therefore called Stock-Chappell. After Foelix and three of his Successours, this Bishoprick was divided into two Sets: the one with eleven Bishops in sucession, continuing at Dunwich; the other with twelve at Elmham in Northfolke. Then united againe in the time of King Edwyn, the entire See for twelve other Bishops remained at Elmham, and in the Conquerours time was by his Chaplaine Arfustus (being the thirteenth) translated to Thetford, from thence by Herbert (his next successour save one) bought of William Rufus for nineteene hundred pounds, and brought to Norwich. This Herbert (surnamed Lo∣singa a Norman) builded the Cathedrall Church there, and endowed it with large possessions. Not far from thence hee also builded another Church to S. Leonard, a third at Elmham, a fourth at Lenn, (S. Margarets, a very faire one) and the fifth at Yarmouth before mentioned. By the Cathedrall Church he builded a Palace for the Bishops, and founded the Priory there (now converted to Deane and Chapter) and another Priory at Thetford. Since his time the Bishops See hath immoveably re∣mained at Norwich, but the ancient Possessions are severed from it▪ and in lieu thereof the Abbey and Lands of S. Benedict of Holme annexed to it. The Commodities of this County I have contained in these foure Verses:
Ingenio & populi cultu Norfolcia clara est: Hinc fluviis, illinc Insula clausa mari; Quaratis, & vellus, frumenta, cuniculus, agnus, Lac scatet, & pisces, pabula, mella, crocus.
This Description of Northfolke, I received from the Right Worshipfull, Sir HENRY SPELMAN, Knight.