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1825.].

Account of Merton, Norfolk.

as is usual in country churches, frag ments of stained glass. Near the first pillar to the west stands the font, which consists of an octagonal bason and shaft, raised on a base of two steps, all of stone. The bason is lined with lead, and perforated at the bot tom. The eight faces are ornamented with plain shields. The corners of the lower part of the bason have angels, with expanded wings, bearing shields. The covering, which is of wood, is lofty, reaching nearly to the top of the arch: it was formerly gilt and richly ornamented with tabernacle work, but is now going to decay.

4

The seats on the north side of the nave are open, and appear antient. On the south side are four inclosed pews, built in 1813, and appropriated to the four farms into which the parish is divided. The hall pew, which is of carved oak, and lined, stands at the south-east end. Opposite to it, on the north side, are fixed the reading-desk and pulpit, both of oak; the latter is octagonal.

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In the middle of the nave there is a stone, which formerly had this inscription:

Otate pro a'i'a Christianae Butken bam nuper uroris Georgii Buckenbam filiae Will: de Grey Armigeri, que obrit riiio die Junii Ao 'ni NCCCClrrrrii. et pro a'i'a Agnetis Herb quonda' filiae Francisci Herb Are migeri, que diem clausit extremum, biz: priii Mait MCCCClxxxiiii.

At the east end of the above lies a stone which had formerly five shields, viz. the 1st has De Grey's arms; 2nd, now gone, had De Grey, quar

See Bl. Ask. 1. 287.

15

tering Baynard; the 3rd bears De Grey's; the 4th, Manning, quarterly Az. and Gu. over all a cross patonce between three trefoils slipped Or; the 5th has De Grey impaling Manning. The inscription, which has been reaved off, was as follows:

Orate pro a'i'ab's Will'i de Grey Arnigeri & Christianae uporis ejus, filiae Job'is Mannpnge nuper de Ellingham Magna gener: & pro a'ï'ab's omnium benefactoru' suoru', & pro a'i’ab's pro quib's tenentur. Qui quide' Willi’us obiit in festo S'e'i Martini Eph. an o nimeCCCirriv, dicta Christiana obiit in festo S'c'i Petri ad ́vincula...

Another stone, partly covered by the hall pew, had five shields and an inscription on brass, all gone. It was in memory of Mary, wife of William de Grey, son and heir of William de Grey, and sister to Edmund Bedingfield, esq. who died April 5, 1480. The arms were Grey impaling Bay nard; Grey quartering Baynard im paling Bedingfield, quartering Tuden

ham.

The next stone, a little to the north, has also lost its brass and inscription.

Against the north wall, under the first window from the chancel, there is a monument for William de Grey, esq. and his two wives. The brasses are all remaining, except those which bore the inscriptions. His effigy in armour, with the arms of De Grey, is in a kneeling posture, having his helm lying by him, a scrowl issuing from his mouth, and De Grey's arms quar tering Baynard over his head; behind him are his five sons in loose gowns, with a disrobed scrowl over their heads:

+ In consequence of the paternal arms of De Grey being borne by so many families, Sir Thomas de Grey, about 1300, totally omitted them, and assumed those of Cornherd, which he and his descendants for several generations bore as their paternal arms, viz. Az. a fess between two chevrons Or; which arms the Cornherd or Cornerth family took in imitation of the Bainards, their superior lords, of whom they held great part of their estate, whose arms are the same exactly as Cornerd's, only the field and chevrons differ in colour, In all MSS. Visitations, &c. per Hawley Claren. temp. E. VI. ; per Harvey Claren. temp. Eliz.: per Bishe Claren. 1664; the De Greys have used the arms of Cornerd, and in Bishe's Visitation the quarterings are thus entered: 1. Grey alias Cornerd, Az. a fess between two chevrons Or; 2. Baynard, Arg. a fess between two chevrons Az.; 8. Barnston or Bernardesion, Az. a fess dancetté Erm. between six crosslets Arg.; 4. Manning, quartering Az. and Gu. over all a cross patonce between three trefoils slipped Or. Crest : on a torce of his colours a dragon's head erased Or.

1. Edmund, see monument in chancel against the north wall.-2. William, see mor nument in south aisle, south wall.-8. Fulk, was buried in 1560 in the south aisle of Carbrooke Church near Watton, in the grave of Elizabeth Drury his wife, who was buried Nov. 8, 1555. Their gravestone, stripped of all its brasses, still remains. In Blomefield's time one shield remained, having the arms of Grey impaling Baynard.-4. p••—5. 4.kop Daughters: 1. "Gabriell Grey, the daughter of Mr. William Grey, was baptized the xxy of September 1551."-Parish Register of Thompson, Norfolk.

opposite

14 Preservation of a Family on Ship-board during the Great Plague. [July,

opposite to him is Mary Bedingfield, his first wife, kneeling, with her three daughters behind her; over her head also has been a scrow, and the arms of De Grey quartering Baynard im paling Bedingfield, Ermine, an eagle displayed Gu. quartering Tudenhain, lozenge, Arg. and Gu. Behind them is Grace Teye, his 2nd wife, and their two daughters with dishevelled hair; over her has been a scrowl; the arms of De Grey quartering Baynard, impaling Teye of Essex, a fess, in chief three martlets, in base a chevron. (To be continued.)

Mr. URBAN, London, July 14.
HE following narrative is collected

in page 311 of your Magazine for May, which your Correspondent W. L. C. calls "The Fabius-like caution and firmness exhibited by a London citizen during that dreadful visitation." This may possibly possess some portion of interest to readers of a similar taste with him, and, as well as my prior communication, is one among the many traits of former times collected during my limited researches into the antiquities of this great city; as such it is perfectly at your disposal.

Yours, &c. W. HAMILTON Reid.

Account of a Family preserved on Ship board in the Thames during the Great Plague in 1665.

TWO brothers and a sister, the children of one pious mother, a widow, lived together in one house in the city; the sister, the youngest of the family, was about nineteen, one of the brothers near forty, and the other about twenty-six years of age. The sister, as well as the mother, was pious and well instructed; the brothers men of business, in which they were much taken up and engaged, but still sober and orderly people. Having been merchants and resided abroad, on their return to England, as partners, they had large concerns on their hands, kept two or three servants and bookkeepers daily in the counting-house, and doing business as well at the water side as at the Royal Exchange. As the eldest of these brothers was a widower, and the youngest a bachelor, the young lady their sister was their housekeeper, and in a familiar way they called her their governess. The old lady, with some of the younger

children, lived a little way out of town, where her recollections of a visitation similar to what she again expected, often gave her much uneasiness on account of her sons in the city. This occasioned her visits to be much more frequent than before; and her repeated admonitions to prepare for the event expected, by repentance and a change of life, at length were thought officious, and in a great measure imputed to imbecility. But, as before observed, the old lady had lived in London in the time of the great plague, as it was then called, 29 years before, viz. in 1624, when there died of all distempers above 54,000 people, exclusive of those in the out-parishes. One of the last

young men with

their mother upon this subject was in February 1665, and then but one person had died of the plague since December; so that the eldest brother once or twice jested with her and his sister on the subject, and, as the latter thought, a little prophanely. It was not above a fortnight after this dis course when the city had another. alarm, and one of her brothers was the person that brought the news, viz. that the plague had broke out again in St. Giles's parish, and that a whole family was dead of it. The young lady was in her chamber, when her brother coming up to her door, "Oh, sister," said he, "we are all undone!” “Undone," said she, "what's the matter ¿" He could not speak for some time, but at last continued-" We are all undone, sister! my mother and you were both in the right, the PLAGUE IS BEGUN!" He then proceeded to give her an account that two men had been buried in St. Giles's in the Fields; that it was true there were but two persons put in the weekly bill, but he was assured that two or three houses were infected; that five people were dead in one, and seven in another that the burials in St. Giles's parish, usually 16 or 18 a week, had increased to 30. Though scarcely a day passed without some reasoning on the com mon calamity, many persons, and particularly one in this family, endea voured to persuade themselves that the disorder had died away; but about the 3rd or 4th of May, the youngest brother, having been out in the morning, came into the counting-house, when, having sent a servant out of the way and shut the door, the elder im

mediately

1895.] Preservation of a Family on Ship-board during the Great Plague. 18°

mediately asked him if he had heard any bad news-any thing more of the plague: "Any thing more of it? why tis come into the city: here's one dead in the next street to us almost, 'tis but in Bearbinder-lane. Indeed, my Lord Mayor sent two surgeons to search the body, and they have both given it in that he died of the Plague': he was a Frenchman."

This discourse having ended, the elder brother went out, and found all the other had said was true; the plague had infected five or six families in St. Giles's, near Long Acre, and had spread down Drury-lane into St. Clemient's parish, and the other way into St. Andrew's, Holborn. Still it appeared that many persons, especially shop-keepers, concealed the distemper as much as they could to prevent their customers from leaving them. The dead they pretended died of the spotted fever, or any thing else they could get the searchers to report for them.

This family, like the other that resided near Wood-street, Cripplegate, after some deliberation, proposed get ting a stock of bread and beer into the house, and to trust to their mother in the country, who sent them fresh provisions every week; but when it was considered that no messenger or servant would dare to bring them provisions much longer, this scheme was given up as being then too late. At this time it appears the ordinary carriers had ceased going; besides, there was no passing the roads; the towns were all guarded, the passages stopped; and though they had got certificates of health from the Lord Mayor, the city began now to be so infected that no one would receive them-no inn would lodge them on the way. They had for some time left off burying the dead in the usual form and manner, especially in the out-parts; but the dreadful cry of Bring out your dead," between twelve and three in the morning, was not heard in the city till the first week in August. In that week more than 4000 persons in the parishes near the city walls, about Bishopsgate and Cripplegate, had died.

This family, having debated three or four days respecting their means of providing for themselves, were happily relieved by the arrival of the captain of a ship that belonged to one of the brothers, which had been fitted out for a voyage to Genoa and Messina. Having

something to communicate, he began to tell one of the owners that he wondered he had not removed his family all this while, &c. The captain was some time before he would undertake to explain his proposal; but being pressed to come to the point, he replied, "Why, then, Sir, the short of the story is this-Have I not a ship here in the river? and is she not your own, excepting a sixteenth which I have by your friendship? Here we have victuals for her for four months for twentytwo men, and have put her up on the Exchange for Genoa, Naples, and Messina. We have taken in no goods on your account but some hogsheads of sugar and about 50 fodder of lead for ballast; nor, as things are now, will any body ship off any thing; besides, 'tis to no purpose to go to sea; for no nation in Europe will give us product, or let us so much as come to an anchor in any of their ports." In a word, t the captain's proposal being adopted, the ship fell down from Rotherhithe to Deptford, and beds and bedding-linen of all sorts, with all kinds of kitchen furniture, and other family necessaries, were packed up in cases, boxes, and bales, as if for the use of passengers. All the plate and valuables of the family were fetched away by the ship's long-boat, and another they borrowed, for three days together, their own servants assisting to put it on-board. The captain was equally industrious, and in a few days they were as completely fitted out and provisioned as if a voyage to sea had really been intended.

Their dwelling-house in the city, in the parish of St. Margaret Pattens, they left fastened up with no one in it, the care of it being consigned to the ordinary watch by night, and two poor men who took their turns in keeping the outer door by day, took in letters, and attended to such business as might casually occur. The letters were ordered to be sent to a house at Greenwich; thence they were brought to the ship's side, having been sprinkled with vinegar, and then scorched at the fire.

The ship continued at anchor a little above Deptford about a fortnight; but finding by that time the dreadful increase of the plague that came on eastward from the other end of the town, by the north side of the city, into Aldgate, Whitechapel, and Stepney, and raged especially in Wap

16. Preservation of a Family on Ship-board during the Great Plague. [July,

ping and Ratcliffe, and even down to Blackwall, also that some persons had died of it in Rotherhithe and Dept ford, they expected they should be, as it were, surrounded; so the captain, at their request, weighed and fell down the river to Bugby's Hole, a secure place for ships to ride in,

The vessel they were in carried 16 guns, and could carry 24; so that they lived at large, and had room enough. The merchants and family had the great cabin and steerage to themselves, with some others built for his maidservants and children in the gun-room. The captain had the round-house and the little room before it, which they called the cuddie, for his family, and the quarter deck was their parade, over which an awning was thrown; and being closely covered at the top and sides, it appeared like a great hall. Here they rode with much satisfaction all the rest of the month of August, when the last weekly bill amounted to the frightful number of 7496, exclusive of those who died in Deptford and Greenwich.

While they thus lay in Bugby's Hole, the captain and the merchant's brother ventured down to Woolwich, or to the upper end of the town; but did not go on shore; neither were the people willing at first that they should, not knowing whence they came, or how they fared on-board. They were the more wary, as they knew that in the parishes of Bromley, Blackwall, Poplar, Limehouse, Bow, Old Ford, Bethnal Green, Mile End, &c. there died 1026 that very week.

However, the visit to Woolwich answered the purpose intended. They learned that the town was not yet infected, excepting two houses at a little distance towards Greenwich, where three or four had died; that the market was yet pretty well supplied with provisions: so they got a poor woman of that place to purchase them fresh butter, eggs, and a good deal of garden stuff. Apples in particular were a great relief to them, having been so long confined to salt meats, very different from their former way of living. They also purchased such fresh meats as pork and veal. But by the next market day the plague had got so far into the town that the country people came but very thinly to market. This source being thus interrupted, the captain made a little voyage in his boat to

Barking Creek; but here he was informed by the fishing smacks at the mouth of it that the plague had got in there also. The truth they did not stay to ascertain, but came back.

The merchant after this growing impatient, they weighed and went down to Greenhithe, where they heard that the plague was at Gravesend, Chatham, and Rochester, but happily this news proved premature; yet as the merchant could not bear to be anywhere with the ship, if the plague was beyond him, he made the captain fall down again to Gravesend, and passing the town he came to an anchor below a place since called "The New Tavern," being as far as the custom-house officers would let him pass without clearing.

In fine, they agreed at last to come up the river again, not to Greenhithe where they lay before, but to the upper part of what they call Long Reach. Here they had good and safe riding, though not without some blustering weather. Here lay six other vessels, two above them, and four below; and though they did not go on-board each other, yet they soon became acquainted, and conversed upon the state of public affairs. They soon found these were outward-bound ships, but embargoed, as it were, by the general calamity; that the captains had all their families on-board, with others, and had fallen down there for safety from the plague; and that hitherto there had not been the least illness among them. They had not been there above three days, when the head most ship made a signal to the rest, which they found was to know if they would join in a weekly fast, which the six ships had observed ever since they rode there, to beg of the Almighty to preserve them from the pestilence; and further stated, that they should be glad if these would join them in it. This being agreed to, an officer in a boat informed the single ship that they began at eight the next morning, and resolved not to eat or drink till six in the evening. Accordingly, they kept a most religious day of fasting and humiliation; the captain and his family remained in the roundhouse, &c. and none of them were employed otherwise than in reading and acis of devotion during that day.

Three days after this, Sept. 6, 1665, they received the Weekly Bill of Mortality, stating that from the 29th of

August

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