The Historians and Histories

The Historians and Histories.. Chapter 2

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Chapter Two

Peter Le Neve Francis Blomefield, Charles Parkin

After the death of Manship in 1625, there was no further work done in Yarmouth on its history until Peter Le Neve the herald and antiquary moved there from London in 1709. Peter, the son of Francis Neve, a draper of London, had been ill since 1703, and in 1706 was thought likely to die. He suffered a fistula, which suggests that he may have had tuberculosis. It was known that Peter was loosely connected with Yarmouth, owning some warehouses on the south side of row 109, but during the last twenty years of his life he had a residence in the town. Examination of the deeds of a number of private houses revealed that he had purchased a substantial dwelling in King Street jointly with his wife Prudence in 1709,^[1] and that they held it until the time of Peter’s death in 1729.^[2] Peter has always been considered to reside at Great Witchingham. Peter’s brother Oliver Le Neve, the owner of an estate at Great Witchingham, died on 21^st October 1711 aged 49, and Peter then inherited his estate.Oliver Le Neve was infamous as the man who killed Sir Henry Hobart in an illegal duel, and then had to flee the country. Oliver’s three daughters continued to live at Great Witchingham, and thus it seems that Peter and Prudence remained at Yarmouth, certainly they never gave up their residence there, it was only sold after Peter’s death. Peter is said to have been an extrovert, given to wenching and drinking. If so, Yarmouth life would have suited him much better than residence at Witchingham. Peter had a mistress, a Mrs Carnegee (“Durham Dolly”), whilst Prudence is said to have been “bad tempered, introspective and frustrated.” After the death of his first wife, Peter married Frances, very much his junior, in 1727. He had no surviving children (Prudence gave birth to twin daughters, but they died a month after birth).^[3]

One time Suffolk Herald, Peter Le Neve was to become Norroy King of Arms, one of the most senior four officers of the College of Arms, only junior to the Garter King of Arms.^[4] He became Rouge Croix in 1690, and Richmond Herald in 1704. The same year he became Norroy King of Arms. He was the first president of the revived Society of Antiquaries, a post that he held from 1687 (when only 26 years old) to 1724. He was Deputy Chamberlain of the Exchequer from 1693 to 1706. Elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1712, he was also a Freemason and a Unitarian. Corresponding with many important and famous men of the times, he was personally acquainted with several other important antiquarian collectors, including Thomas Martin of Palgrave, John Ives (senior), and Robert Harley of Brampton Bryan in Hereford. (Harley was elected Speaker of the House of Commons, and then made Earl of Oxford and Mortimer in 1711, as well as Lord High Treasurer). Peter gave Harley a “Pedigree of Knights”,^[5] “Notes and pedigrees of the Paston family”, and other original papers and documents, now part of the “Harleian Collection” of the British Library.^[6] Other Yarmouth documents at one time held by Le Neve came to be lodged in the Bodleian Library.^[7] Frances Le Neve married Tom Martin after Peter’s death, by which means Martin acquired Peter’s collections. The collection was auctioned when Martin died, and was largely acquired by Richard Gough, who had inherited a large fortune from his parents. Gough is well known as the editor of an edition of Camden’s Britannia, he also produced an unpublished account of Fastolf’s life.^[8] Gough never married, had no heir, and so left all of his collections by will to the Bodleian Library. Some other documents of local interest were acquired by the Bodleian, but by a rather different route.

Bishop Thomas Tanner was another great collector of that age. Chancellor of the diocese of Norwich, he acquired at auction various deeds and papers, which he later deposited at the Bodleian Library. On arrival in Oxford, the carriage failed to safely negotiate Magdalen Bridge, and the collection fell into the Thames. Fortunately the papers were rescued, and dried out with little apparent damage or loss. Those documents which Bishop Tanner retained at his death in 1735, were likewise bequeathed to the Bodleian Library in his will.^[9]

Peter Le Neve compiled a revision of the “History of Norfolk for Camden’s Brittannia”, ^[10] and more importantly the “History of Norfolk” that was eventually published by Blomefield and Parkin. During this exercise he collected items^[11] specific to Yarmouth.^[12] Although polished up, added to and finished for printing by Blomefield and Parkin, the historical detail in “Blomefield’s Norfolk” was compiled by Peter Le Neve, and it seems to me that recognition of this has been lacking. Recent work by Stoker rather makes light of this.^[13] The original manuscript compiled by Le Neve, now in the British Library, consists of many thousands of extracts from old deeds and documents pasted into a series of substantial books.^[14] The villages and towns of Norfolk are covered as they were in the final publication, but the information is written on strips of paper that are then arranged and pasted onto the pages of the books. There is vastly more material in the original than was ever printed. The village of Mautby for instance has in Le Neve’s collection, sixty one deeds and documents. From this, Blomefield’s piece on Mautby Church is a straight transcript, the list of rectors has just two added on the end by Blomefield. The village of Ormesby has one hundred and seventy eight deeds and documents collected by Le Neve, which are hardly touched on by Blomefield. Some items given by Blomefield are word-for-word from Le Neve. It would be wrong of me though not to point out that Blomefield’s own work in the compilation, adding much of his own, as well as the effort in getting the work to the press was enormous. It is simply that Le Neve gave him the basis for the work.

One hundred and forty eight pages were devoted to Yarmouth in Blomefield’s History of Norfolk, when it was reprinted in 1804 by William Miller of London. The Rev. Charles Parkin actually finished off the last half of Blomefield’s work, since Blomefield himself died before its completion.

The final part of Blomefield’s History of Yarmouth was a chronology of events. Full transcripts of many of the Charters and Ordinances of Yarmouth were inserted in the same way as Swinden and Damet had done earlier, and it seems that Blomefield drew heavily upon these two earlier compilers. Full copies are given by Blomefield of many of the memorials in Yarmouth Parish Church. It was his practice to travel around the county personally making records of these when possible. The work proved very onerous though, and he took to writing to the incumbent of each parish asking him to contribute the details. It is likely, then, that these were transcribed by the Vicar of Yarmouth. The history of the havens and of the fortifications seems to have been gleaned by Blomefield from Manship’s history, possibly from Henry Swinden by correspondence. The work also contains a summary of the events of the civil war as they affected Yarmouth.

I think that Blomefield first conceived the idea of publishing the history when he was shown Le Neve’s great compilation by Martin in 1732. When it came to it though, he had enormous problems in gathering the extra material needed to make it into a printed work. Blomefield decided to seek subscriptions, a difficult task in itself, and then found that he needed to undertake the actual printing himself as well, so he bought his own press which he set up in an outhouse at the Fersfield Rectory.

Fortunately Blomefield was allowed access to the records stored at Oxnead, including the famous “Paston letters”, in 1735.^[15] Some of the Paston letters had been separately collected by Le Neve, and are now preserved in the British Library as “Le Neve's Fastolf Collection” (annotated in Le Neve’s hand). There may well be others elsewhere still unaccounted for. Some of the letters had been acquired by Peter Le Neve from Oxnead. Thus it appears that Blomefield must have learned of the archive at Oxnead through Tom Martin after Peter Le Neve had died. Le Neve it appears to me, was the discoverer of the “Paston letters”, not Blomefield.

By 1735 Blomefield had circulated a questionnaire as a method of acquiring extra information, and so he engaged Parkin, who was subsequently given responsibility for compiling the history of about one sixth of the county. In 1735 the press was obtained, but by 1749, only the eleventh part of volume 3 had been printed. In 1751 Blomefield contracted smallpox. Smallpox had killed his father, and Blomefield refused vaccination due to a fear of contracting the disease, and because of his religious beliefs. Vaccination was very new then in any case. On 5^th January 1751 he made a will, and he died only eleven days later. Blomefield’s library was sold at auction on Tuesday July 28^th 1752 at Norwich. The collection of manuscripts was valued by Parkin and Martin, and bought by Martin in 1755.

Parkin was Rector of Oxborough from 1717, and had access to the antiquarian material stored in the great house at Oxnead by Paston. When Blomefield died, Parkin was persuaded by Tom Martin to continue the Norfolk History. They both felt that it was important to try and speed up its production. Parkin was able to complete the whole work by 1763, although the desire to finish it seems to have resulted in something less substantial than the earlier volumes. Like Blomefield, Parkin also died before final publication. The remainder of the work since Blomefield’s death was only published by William Whittingham of Lynn between 1769 and 1775. That further delay itself must again have led to shortcuts and to some reduction in the quality of the finished history, and it was only finally completed by the publisher's clerk. Parkin nevertheless is considered the author of the final two of the five folio volumes of the first edition. In the Bodleian Library there is the original manuscript of Parkin’s “History of Yarmouth”.^[16] This confirms that much of the later part of the treatise was written by Parkin. An expanded version of the two Norwich volumes, with pictorial insertions compiled by Dr. Frank Sayers, is at the Cathedral Library, Norwich.^[17] There is however only one extra plate in it relating to Yarmouth, an interesting view of the town from the sea.

Materials had been gathered by one man, who probably always realised that he would never produce a complete work. Perhaps he expected the materials to pass to his friend, if so it is likely that he intended another to use them for a substantial history in the way that they were used. In those days matters such as these seem to have been decided by fortune and by the state of health of the writer, who so frequently succumbed to one illness or another. In county after county we see the same process, with historian after historian unable to produce the complete published work that was surely their intention. Time after time, the materials were passed from one to another to complete and commit to print. In Devon, Hooker’s annals passed to Westcote and Risdon, In Durham, George Allan’s work was subsequently used by William Hutchinson. Robert Cotton supplied the materials used by John Speed. John Stow used William Fitzstephen’s account of London in his survey. Burrell’s collections in Surrey were subsequently used by Dallaway. In Yarmouth the work done by Henry Swinden was to be published after his death by the young John Ives.^[18]

The Historians and Histories chapter 3

^[2]C. J. Palmer, The Perlustration of Great Yarmouth (George Nall, King Street, Great Yarmouth; 1874) II, p.271.

^[3]Peter Le Neve Foster, The Le Neves of Norfolk, (1968) p. 12.

^[4] Catalogue of Manuscripts, College of Arms, (1970), p.87.

^[5]Dawson Turner, Sepulchral Reminiscences, (1843), p.53.

^[6]British Library, MS “Collections for Norfolk”, Add. 8839-8843.

^[8]Printed, but apparently not published, it is with “Le Neve’s Fastolff Collection” in the British Library, Add MS 39848.

^[9]David C. Douglas, English Scholars, (Cape, London; 1943) p.207.

^[10]Peter Le Neve, “Norffolk for Camden’s Britannia”, circa 1700, Bodleian Library, MS Gough Norfolk 16/18072.

^[11]Almost certainly he was responsible for the preservation of the second “Hutch Map” which was subsequently acquired by Gough. (See chapter on maps).

^[12]“Yarmouth extracts from Mr. Le Neve’s collections” Bodleian Library, MS Willis 85.

^[13]The Correspondence of the Rev. Francis Blomefield (1705-52) ed. David A. Stoker.(Bibliographical Society, London, 1992).

^[14]Le Neve “Ms Collections for Norfolk”, BL Add. 8839-8843.

^[15]Rev. C. L. S. Linnell, Some Notes on the Blomefield Mss in the Bodleian Library, Norfolk Record Society, (1951), xxii, p.66.

^[17]Rev. Francis Blomefield, History of Norfolk, Norwich Cathedral Library, copy once owned by Frank Sayers.

^[18]Henry Swinden, The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Borough of Great Yarmouth in the County of Norfolk, (John Crouse, Norwich; 1772) preface, p.7.