Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Eighth - From Tudor Torture to Georgian Gaol - Chapter VII

Happy days are here again … but as our dear Blomefield reminds us it was not all royal theatres and romping with Nell Gwyn.

1665, Norwich: "Notwithstanding all imaginable precaution taken by the magistrates, the plague raged here exceedingly, as also at Yarmouth (from whence it was brought hither), and in many other places: there died in this city from Oct 3rd 1665 to Oct 3rd 1666, 3,012, whereof of the plague, 2,251. From 22nd August to the 29th, being only one week, there died 203."

"The market was removed to the north end of the Town Close by order of court, on the request of the county justices."

"Ring a ring of roses … &c."

The plague continued in Norwich through 1666 before fading away by September 1667. 1666 (the year of the Great Fire of London) was one of the few years when Norwich didn't burn down (see posts passim).

Things, however, were soon returning to some semblance of "Normal for Norfolk" and in 1668, "Mr. Noel du Faye had license to show a monstrous woman seven foot and an half in stature." We do love a good monstrous woman show here in Norfolk.

Up at Norwich Castle, the Quarter Sessions records tell us that by this time the cellars beneath the gatehouse at the north end of the bridge were already being used as dungeons due to overcrowding. 

Periodically the castle (by now officially the County Gaol) emptied its worst dregs into ships at Yarmouth and London, where they were chained and transported to the Colonies of New England and Virginia for periods of seven years servitude then left to fend for themselves. Dickens' account of their descendants in Martin Chuzzlewit suggests that this perhaps was not such a wise move.

The 1689 Sessions tell of a "women's prison and chapel" being separated off from the men's on the main floor of the keep. Felons and debtors were now kept separately but conditions for all prisoners were appalling as the gaolers were there simply to make personal profit and didn't care whether their charges lived or died.

Back to 1671 now and "The king and queen, dukes of York, Monmouth and Buckingham, with many other nobles, entered the city on Thurs Sept 28, being met at Trowse Bridge, the utmost extents of the city that way, by the mayor, with all the regalia, sheriffs, aldermen and common council, livery and militia, new clothed in red, and by them conducted to the Duke's Palace, where they lodged, and were magnificently entertained by the lord Hen. Howard."

The Duke's Palace, via the interweb.

There must have been one hell of a clean-up before the king arrived. The Duke's Palace (constructed of stones robbed from Castle Acre and Norwich's Greyfriars monastery at the Dissolution) was built on land poorly reclaimed from the river and was constantly sinking and tilting into its man-made marsh, the palace garden itself being described only shortly before as a "shitten and stinking mire". Having shortly afterwards been abandoned by the Duke and the ruin turned into a workhouse, the Duke of Norfolk's Palace eventually became so rotten and decrepit that it toppled into the pismire and the land is now the site of the less than palatial St. Andrews' multi-storey car park.

"The next day the king went to the cathedral, where he was sung into the church with an anthem, and when he had ended his devotion at the east end of the church, where he kneeled on the hard stone, he went to the Bishop's Palace and was there nobly entertained; and returning through the church, took coach at the west door, and came up to the Gild-hall in the market place, and there shewed himself to the people from the balcony, and viewed the trained bands drawn up in the market, whence coming down he rode to the New-hall and was there feasted by the city, after which they went for Blickling; it cost the city above 900l."

It was at this time that the two-headed monster of party politics evolved from the mess of conflicting interests. Norwich in the late seventeenth century was particularly riven between Whig and Tory, both originally terms of abuse.

Whig (from the Gaelic term for a horse thief) politics grew from the Scottish non-conformists who had humiliated Charles the First in battle before selling him to parliament and were strongly in favour of parliament limiting the power of kings. Add to them a bunch of lefty intellectuals in parliament supported by the common folk.

Tory (from the Irish for a Papist outlaw) was the royalist party and supported James the Second when he converted to Catholicism. They were also the party of the wealthy landowner and early capitalist industrialist (boo, hiss …). Right-wing exploiters of the common people.

These days, Whig has evolved first into Socialist and then sadly declined into wishy-washy centrist while Tory has barely evolved at all, remaining Tory; left and right wings of the political spectrum … the exploited 99% versus the exploiting 1%.

And look where that's got us!

Next time, Huguenot silk weavers are brought in by the Norwich merchants to undercut the wages of the locals and much unpleasantness ensues. Sir Thomas Browne passes away (an Old Dive hero), dammit.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

A  Discourse - Wherein is Examined What is Particularly Lawfull During the Confusions and Revolutions of Government: Anthony Ashcam: 1648 (Old Dive's copy which discusses what the hell to do if you're about to execute the king) in three parts (which influenced the policies of the Protectorate)

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Cromwell, Our Chief of Men: Antonia Fraser: 1973

Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn with Life: H. B. Wheatley: 1906: 4 Vols

Samuel Pepys' Diaries: H. B. Wheatley: 1911: 8 Vols (expurgated) bound in a rather lovely cornflower blue

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Latham and Matthews: Folio Soc. Limited Edition: 11 Vols (unexpurgted)

Narcissus Luttrell's Diaries (ongoing transcription project by Old Dive)

The Interregnum, 1648 - 1660, Studies of the Commonwealth, Legislative, Social and Legal: F. A. Inderwick; 1891 (an exceedingly good read, despite the dull title; I lucked onto an inscribed and signed first edition for next to nothing … yay!)

Notable Historical Trials: Vol 2 of 4: Chapter III: The Trial of Charles I: Justin Lovell (ed) 1999

The History of England Vol 3: Civil War: Peter Ackroyd: 2014

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume IX "The Early Stuarts 1603 - 1660" Godfrey Davies (ed): 1937

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume X "The Later Stuarts 1660 - 1714" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934