LYNN-REGIS, a borough and sea-port and market-town, having exclusive
jurisdiction, though locally in the Lynn division of the hundred of
Freebridge, county of NORFOLK, 44 miles (W. by N.) from Norwich,
and 97 (N. by E.) from London, containing 12,253 inhabitants.
This place is by Camden supposed to have been an ancient British town,
and to have derived its name from the expanse of water
near which it is situated, and of which the British word
Llyn was significant; but Spelman is of opinion that
the name is of Saxon origin, derived from the word
Lean, signifying a tenure in fee, or farm. It was anciently
called Len Episcopi, or Bishop's Lynn, from
having been under the jurisdiction, both temporal and
spiritual, of the Bishops of Norwich, who had a palace
where Gaywood hall now stands; but this authority
was, in the reign of Henry VIII., surrendered to that
monarch, and from that time the town assumed the
name of Lenne-Regis, or King's Lynn. In Domesdaybook
it is called Lun and Lena, and described as the
property of Agelmare, Bishop of North Elmham, and
Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury. It appears to have
been a place of considerable importance, and to have
enjoyed valuable privileges, among which were certain
customs on the arrival of all merchandise by sea and
land, of which the bishops claimed a moiety. Henry I.
granted liberty to the prior of Norwich to hold an annual
fair on the feast of St. Margaret, with other .privileges;
and in the reign of Richard I. it was the residence
of numerous Jews, who carried on an extensive
trade with most parts of Europe. In 1204, during the
contest between John and -the barons, Lynn continued
faithful to the king, who remained there for some time,
and on the petition of John Grey, Bishop of Norwich,
made the town a free borough; he presented to the inhabitants
a silver cup, weighing seventy-three ounces,
richly gilt and beautifully enamelled, which is still preserved
by the corporation; and he is said to have presented
his own sword to be borne before the mayor on
public occasions; the sword now used is, however, reported
to have been given by Henry VIII., on his assuming
the power previously exercised by the bishops.
John was frequently here during the war, and from
this place he departed just before the disaster which
befel him in crossing the Wash, and to which is ascribed
the illness that caused his death. Henry VI.
also visited the town; and Edward IV., in 1470, retreating
before the celebrated Earl of Warwick, came
hither, in company with his brother, the Duke of Gloucester.
In 1498, Henry VII., with his queen and the
Prince of Wales, attended by a numerous retinue, spent
some time at the Augustine convent in the town. In
the parliamentary war the inhabitants embraced the
royal cause, and the town was besieged by the parliamentarian
forces, under the command of the Earl of
Manchester, to whom it surrendered, after a vigorous
resistance for three weeks, and was garrisoned with parliamentarian
troops. Numerous plagues and other diseases
have raged here, at different periods, with destructive
influence; in 1540, an intermittent fever prevailed to
such an extent as to occasion a suspension of the mart
for that year. In 1636 and 1665, the market and fairs
were discontinued, owing to the plague; at the former
period, temporary habitations were erected without the
town for persons afflicted with it. In 1741, the spires
of the church of St. Margaret and the chapel of St.
Nicholas were blown down, and several other buildings
greatly injured, by a violent hurricane and storm.
The town is situated on the east bank of the Great Ouse,
which is here of considerable breadth, and at a distance
of ten miles from the North sea: it extends a mile and
a quarter in length, and half a mile in breadth, and is
intersected by four rivulets, called fleets, over which are
numerous bridges, that have lately been widened, and a
new road for carriages constructed over Penfleet bridge.
Many improvements have been effected under acts of
parliament, obtained in 1803 and 1806, for paving, cleansing,
and lighting the town, the approaches to which are
commodious and pleasant. It was anciently defended on
the east side by a wall, in which were nine bastions, and
by a broad and deep fosse, over which were three drawbridges
leading to the principal gates; a few fragments
of the wall are still remaining, and one of the gates,
arched and embattled, at the south entrance; the others
have been taken down. On the north side is St. Anne's
fort, a platform battery, constructed in 1627, and formerly
mounting twelve pieces of heavy ordnance. The town
consists of three principal streets, nearly parallel, from
which several smaller streets diverge; it is well paved
and lighted with gas, but indifferently supplied with
water conveyed by pipes from a reservoir at Kettle Mills,
iu the north-eastern suburb; application is about to be
made to parliament for increasing the supply, by the
construction of more effectual works. The houses are in
general ancient and inconveniently built, though interspersed
with several respectable mansions, and in the
more modern parts of the town are several ranges of
handsome dwellings. The environs are flat, and not
very attractive in their scenery; but the public promenades
are pleasant: the principal is a mall, three hundred
and forty yards in length, and eleven yards wide,
constructed and kept in order by the corporation. The
theatre, a handsome building, was erected by subscription
on shares in 1814, and is well arranged and
elegantly fitted up: it is open annually for about six
weeks, commencing at the great mart in February. Assemblies
are held in a suite of commodious rooms in the
townhall, in which also concerts take place occasionally.
The subscription library, established in 1797, contains
three thousand two hundred volumes, and is supported
by about one hundred and sixty members  and the inhabitants,
by means of a written order from the mayor,
have access to an excellent parochial library in St. Margaret's
church, by permission of the corporation. A
mechanics' institution was established in 1827, which is
under the direction of a president and committee.
In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Lynn was a
place of considerable trade, and it had grown into such
commercial importance at the beginning of the 13th century,
that the revenue paid to the crown was more than
two-thirds of that arising from the trade of the port of
London. In 1374, the inhabitants furnished nineteen
vessels towards a naval armament for the invasion of
France; a mint was established here; and there were
thirty-one incorporated guilds, or trading companies,
some of whom had separate halls. The limits of the
port extend in a northerly direction from the promontory
on which Hunstanton lighthouse stands, in a supposed
right line, north-north-west, to fourteen fathoms
of water, and likewise from this line towards the east,
until it falls into fourteen fathoms of water, at a point
northward from the eastern end of the sand-hills, commonly
called Burnham Meales; southerly to a place
in the channel of the harbour of Lynn, called White
Friars' Fleet, and to Gibbon's point opposite thereto,
thence down the river, on the western side, and round
the coast of Marshland, to a point called Sutton corner.
The harbour is deep, and sufficient to accommodate
three hundred sail; but the entrance is somewhat dangerous,
from the frequent shifting of the channel, and
the numerous sand banks; and the anchorage is rendered
difficult from the nature of the soil, and the rapidity of
the tide, which rises to the height of twenty feet: to
counteract a portion of these disadvantages, a company
of pilots has been established, whose office is on St.
Anne's fort, commanding a view of the channel. Anciently
the course of the Ouse was by Wisbeach: its
present direction, according to Dugdale, may be referred
to the reign of Henry III.; and it has been ascribed to
the decay of the outfall at Wisbeach, and to some great
flood which rendered a fresh line necessary. This accession
of water into the channel of a small river, which
previously flowed past the town, destroyed a considerable
part of Old Lynn, and the church at North Lynn
is stated to have been completely engulphed. After the
sluices at Denver and Salter's Lode had been constructed,
for the purpose of draining the fenny tract called
Bedford Level, the navigation of the river was much unpaired,
and the harbour obstructed by the accumulation
of silt; to remedy which, the Eau-brink cut was commenced
in 1818, and completed in 1820, avoiding a considerable
bend in the river; and the old channel of the
river is gradually filling with soil, so that in a few years
a valuable part of more than seven hundred acres of
land will be gained for agricultural purposes; but the
accumulation of silt in the harbour still continues, so
that vessels which formerly lay immediately along side
the quays, cannot now approach within several yards.
To remedy this inconvenience, three jetties, composed
of timber, have lately been constructed, at stated distances,
with a view to divert the stream to the eastern,
or harbour, side, but their effect has scarcely been ascertained.
Near the north end of this cut, a handsome
wooden bridge has been built, over which a new road
leads into Marshland; and a bridge over the river Nine,
and an embankment at Cross Keys Wash, are now in
progress, affording a direct road from Norfolk and Suffolk,
through Lynn, into Lincolnshire. The Purfleet and
Common Staith quays are the principal places for landing
merchandise; on the former, where all wines are
landed, the custom-house and exchange stands, occupying
the site of the hall of the ancient guild of the Holy
Trinity; it is a handsome building of freestone, ornamented
with two tiers of pilasters, the lower of the
Doric, and the upper of the Ionic order, and surmounted
by a small turret; in a niche in the front is
a statue of Charles II. In the High-street is the excise
office, to which are attached a collector, supervisor, and
other officers. This port, from its situation, so near
the North sea, and enjoying the advantages of inland
communication, carries on an extensive foreign and
coasting trade: the principal imports are, wine from
Spain and Portugal; timber, deals, hemp, and tallow,
from the Baltic; corn from the northern parts of Europe;
oil-cake from Holland, and timber from America. The
coasting-trade is very considerable, consisting chiefly of
imported and agricultural produce, with which it supplies
the neighbouring districts 5 and a fine species of
white sand, much used in the manufacture of glass, of
which great quantities are sent to Newcastle and Leith;
also a considerable number of shrimps, which are
found in abundance on the coast, and are sent to London;
its intercourse with the interior of the country
is greatly facilitated by the river Ouse and its several
branches, with which various canals have communication;
and not less than one hundred and fifty thousand
chaldrons of coal are annually brought into the port.
In the year ending January 5th, 1827, sixty British, and
one hundred and twenty-seven foreign, ships entered inwards
from foreign ports; and twenty-one British, and
one hundred and ten foreign, vessels cleared outwards;
the annual amount of dues paid at the custom-house is
on an average £90,000: the number of vessels belonging
to the port, in 1828, was one hundred and twelve, averaging
a burden of one hundred and twenty-one tons.
Formerly, several ships were annually fitted out for the
Greenland whale fishery, but this branch of the business
of the port has, of late years, greatly declined.
Ship-building has been carried on here from a very
early period, but it is not at present of so much note as
formerly. There are no particular branches of manufacture
deserving notice: the chief are ropes and sailcloth,
the latter on a very confined scale. The market
days are Tuesday and Saturday; the former, principally
for corn, is held in a spacious paved area of about
three acres, surrounded by some well-built houses; it
contains a handsome but dilapidated market-cross of
freestone, erected in 1710; the lower part of the building
is surrounded by a peristyle of sixteen Ionic columns,
above which is a walk, defended by iron palisades,
and in the centre is an octagonal room, on the
exterior sides of which are carved figures facing the
cardinal points, the whole being surmounted by a cupola.
It is in contemplation to form a new market-place, by
pulling down some houses on the western side of the
preceding one, and erecting a market-house, to extend
towards the common staith, or quay, where the fish-mart
ket now is. The market on Saturday, formerly held in
the High-street, was removed, in 1782, to an area near
St. Margaret's church, where shambles have been built.
In 1826, the weekly cattle-market was removed, from
its inconvenient site in the environs of the town, to a
more central situation; the mayor and burgesses, in
consequence of a petition to that effect, granted a piece
of land abutting upon one of the streets, to which convenient
approaches have been made, so that cattle can
reach the market-place without passing through any of
the streets. The fairs are, February 14th, which is the
grand mart for six days, but generally continued for a
fortnight; and October 17th, which is a great cheese fair.
The town, which under the bishops was governed by
a provost appointed by them, was first incorporated by
John, and has had no less than fifteen royal charters.
The parish of All Saints, or South Lynn, was constituted
a part of the borough by a license from Henry VIII., in
1546, and confirmed by charter in the 4th of Philip and
Mary. By the last charter, granted by Charles II., the government
is vested in a mayor, high steward, recorder,
twelve aldermen, and eighteen common council-men, assisted
by a town clerk, chamberlain, two cproners, and
other officers. The mayor is chosen annually on the 29th
of August, from among the aldermen, by the common
council, and enters upon his office on the 29th of September.
All members of the corporation who have
passed the chair are justices of the peace for the borough
and liberties, exercising exclusive jurisdiction:
the freedom of the borough is inherited by the eldest
sons of freemen, on the death of their fathers, or acquired
by servitude or gift. The corporation hold courts
of admiralty, for determining all pleas arising within
the limits of the port; quarterly courts of session, for
the trial of all offenders, except for high treason; and
a court of record, under the charter of Henry VIII.,
for the recovery of debts to any amount: a court of
requests is also held, under an act passed in the 10th of
George III., for the recovery of debts under 40s. The
mayor, aldermen, magistrates, and clergy, used to hold
a meeting for determining all controversies in an amicable
manner, called the " Feast of Reconciliation j"
but this custom, which originated in 1558, has long
since become obsolete. The borough first exercised the
elective franchise in the 23rd of Edward I., since which
time it has regularly returned two members to parliament;
the right of election is vested in the freemen generally,
the number of whom is about three hundred
and thirty: the mayor is the returning officer. The
guildhall is an ancient structure of stone and flint, in
the later style of English architecture, containing a
spacious hall, courts for the sessions, and a suite of assembly-
rooms; and is ornamented with portraits of
many public characters, among which are those of Sir
Robert Walpole, Bart., who represented the borough in
S3venteen successive parliaments; Sir Thomas White;
Sir Benjamin Keene, and others. The prison for the borough
is both a common gaol and house of correction,
containing separate rooms for debtors, aud for male and
female felons, but it is not well adapted to the classification
of prisoners, having only one airing-yard, for the
alternate use of all classes.
King's Lynn comprises the parishes of All Saints,
Southgate; St. Edmund, North End; and St. Margaret,
all in the archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich. The
living of All Saints' is a vicarage, rated in the king's
books at £ 18. 6. 8., and in the patronage of the Bishop
of Ely; the church is an ancient cruciform structure;
the tower, which fell down in 1763, and demolished
part of the body of the church, has not been rebuilt.
The living of St. Edmund's, North End, is a sinecure
rectory, rated in the king's books at £13. 1. 8., to which
S. Thornton, Esq. and others presented in 1799; the
church is supposed to have been anciently swept away
by the river. The living of St. Margaret's is a perpetual
curacy, with the curacy of St. Nicholas annexed, endowed
with £1000 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of
the Dean and Chapter of Norwich; the church is a spacious
structure, combining the early, the decorated, and
the later styles of English architecture, with two western
towers, and an east front of singularly beautiful design,
with two octagonal turrets rising from the flanking
buttresses; the chancel is in the early English style,
with a fine circular east window; the south porch is
highly ornamented with canopied niches and shields,
and the roof finely groined. The chapel of St. Nicholas
is a large structure, combining the decorated with
the later style of English architecture: the original
roof of beautifully carved oak is carefully preserved,
and the interior contains many parts of great beauty.
There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of
Friends, Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians,
and a Roman Catholic chapel. There is a burialground
for the Jews, but they have no synagogue.
The free grammar school was founded in the reign of
Henry VII., by Thomas Thoresby, alderman of Lynn,
who endowed it with lands producing about £60 per
annum: a spacious school-room, and a dwelling-house
for the master, were erected, in 1825, by the corporation,
who are trustees under a charter of Edward IV. It has
two scholarships at Emanuel College, Cambridge, of
£5.10. each per annum; and one scholarship of £2 per
annum at either University; both founded by the corporation,
and tenable for seven years; one scholarship of
£ 2, at either of the Universities for seven years, founded
by the owner of the estate near Highbridge-Lynn; one
scholarship of £3. 8. 6., at Trinity College, Cambridge,
for five years, in the gift of the Master and Vice-Master
of Trinity, and the Mayor of Lynn; and one scholarship
of £6, tenable for four years, in St. John's College,
Cambridge, in the gift of the Corporation. Eugene
Aram was usher here when he was apprehended, in
1759, on a charge of murder committed fourteen years
previously near Knaresborough, in Yorkshire, for which
he was tried and executed, having acknowledged the
justice of the sentence a short time before it was carried
into effect. A school on the Lancasterian plan was
established in 1792, which has been enlarged for the
instruction of fifty girls; it is supported partly by subscription,
and partly by the industry of the girls,.who
are employed in needle-work. A similar school for.
boys, established in 1808, is supported entirely by subscription,
in which two hundred and thirty boys are
instructed. There is a National school for girls.
Gaywood's almshouses occupy the site of the ancient
hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, founded in the
reign of Stephen, for a master and twelve brethren
and sisters; the endowment, lapsing to the crown, was
granted by James I. to the mayor and aldermen, in trust
for the maintenance of a master and eleven aged and
infirm persons. The hospital was burnt down by the
parliamentary troops in the reign of Charles I., and rebuilt
by the corporation in 1649; it contains a chapel,
and apartments for a master, who receives ten shillings
per week, and eleven poor women, who have five shillings
per week each, the charity being under the management
of the two senior aldermen. The Bede house, an establishment
of obscure and uncertain foundation, was
rebuilt, in 1822, by Mr. Benjamin Smith (who has recently
proposed to found a new almshouse, the design
having been approved of by the corporation), and is
endowed for the maintenance of a reader and eleven aged
women, who receive each about six shillings per week.
Valenger's hospital, founded in 1605, and rebuilt in 1806,
is inhabited by four aged women, each of whom receives
four shillings per week. Paradise, or Framingham's hospital,
begun in 1676, by Mr. John Heathcote, and completed
after his decease by Mr. Henry Framingham, is
endowed for the support of a reader, who receives four
shillings and ninepence per week, and eleven aged meny
who receive each three shillings and sixpence per week.
Among the charities held in trust by the corporation is
one by Mr. Cook, of London, who bequeathed £ 5000
three per cents.; the dividends on £ 2300 to be paid to the
inmates of the Bede house, the dividends on £2000 to the
inmates of Framingham's hospital, and those on the
remaining £700 to the hospitallers of South Lynn. There
are various benevolent institutions for the relief of the
necessitous, among which are a Ladies' Society for the
relief of lying-in women, established in 1791; another
for visiting the sick at their own habitations, formed in
1827; the Strangers' Friend Society; a dispensary, established
in 1813, and supported by subscription; and
a Dorcas Society; there are numerous benefit societies,
and various charitable bequests for distribution among
the poor. The corporation are in possession of funds for
apprenticing children, for loans to young tradesmen, and
other benevolent purposes. The workhouse was originally
a chapel, dedicated to St. James; having become
ruinous, it was rebuilt by the corporation, in 1581, and
used for the manufacture of sacking, &c.: this undertaking
having failed, it was converted, in 1682, into aa
hospital or workhouse for fifty decayed old men, women,
and poor children. By an act passed in 1701, its management
was entrusted to an Incorporated Society, styled the
" Guardians of the poor of the borough of King's Lynn
in the county of Norfolk, and within the liberties of the
said borough;" this act was amended in 1808, adding
the churchwardens and overseers to the corporation.
It is now confined to the reception of the poor of St.
Margaret's parish only; the inhabitants of South Lynn
maintain their own poor, and are exempt from this act.
The monastic institutions and ancient hospitals consisted
of a priory of Benedictine monks, in Priorylane;
a convent of White friars, in South Lynn; one
of Grey friars, in St. James' street; one of Black friars,
between Clough-lane and Spinner-lane; one of Augustine
friars, in St. Austin's street; a college, near the
town hall; St. Mary Magdalene's hospital, the site and
endowment of which are appropriated to Gaywood's
hospital; also a nunnery, a monastery of friars de
Pcenitentid Jesu, St. John's hospital, and four lazarhouses,
the sites of which are unknown; besides various
chapels, all which were involved in the general
dissolution of these establishments. Vestiges of the
houses which belonged to the Grey, "White, Black, and
Austin, friars still remain; that of the first consists
of the tower and lantern of their conventual church; it
rises from a pointed arch supported by buttresses, to
the height of about ninety feet, and within is groined
with stone. A spiral staircase leads to the summit,
whence a complete view is obtained of the town and its
environs. It stands in a small enclosure opposite and
belonging to the free grammar school, on the left of the
entrance into the town from London. An ancient
building, in a state of complete repair, in Queen-street,
near the town hall, has been considered that which
formerly constituted the college. But the most interesting
relic of antiquity is an ancient and curious edifice,
at the eastern extremity of the town, denominated the
Lady's Chapel, or, the Chapel on the Red Mount. It
is of singular construction; within an octagonal wall of
red brick, strengthened by buttresses, is a handsome
cruciform chapel of very small dimensions, with an elegant
stone roof; it formerly contained an image of the
Virgin, before which journeying pilgrims, on their way
to Walsingham, are supposed to have presented their
offerings. The whole has lately undergone a thorough
reparation, by means of a subscription. Nicholas of
Lynn, a celebrated mathematician, astrologer, and navigator,
was born here, and became one of the Grey friars;
he also died and was buried here in 1369. William
Browne, M. D., afterwards Sir William Browne, resided
here; he was President of the Royal College of Physicians,
and author of several works, chiefly on medical
subjects. The custom of ushering in May-day with the
blowing of horns is still observed at this place. At
RefHey, about two miles distant, in a sequestered spot,
stands an obelisk, from which, by means of an aqueduct,
a chalybeate spring issues; near it is an octagonal temple,
whither subscribers repair for the benefit of the
water. Lynn gives the inferior title of baron to Marquis
Townshend.