oder persons, and they have ever used to mowe the same, and that the Citizens nor none oder used to have Comyn there but yn shak tyme when the corne and hey were caryed awey. And then to Comyn aswell yn the seid more, as yn the seid medowe and londs, unto our Lady day in March. Item, where my lorde Cardynall ordred that the seid Prior shuld ley out to the Comyn xl acres of londe, which the seid Maire and Citizens seyid that it was the xl acres specyfied yn the seid fyne, and seyd that they wold shewe where xxxiiij of the seid xl acres lyeth. The seid Commyssyoners have herd and seyn all that ever they can sey or shewe theryn, and as yet they can neyther fynde ne have eny contente therof. Item, the seid Commyssyoners vewed and sawe a pasture grounde lyeng by the wode syde on the Est parte, and at the wode end at the North parte yn Eyton afforeseid. In which grounde it is aggreed by both parties that the seid Citizens have ever used to have Comyn, and also in the arable grounde lyeng therto in shak tyme. And it is shewed unto the seid Commyssyoners by the seid Maire and Aldermen, that the grounde where as the seid wode groweth was taken out of the seid Comyn, and sett with accornes and nowe is a wode. And for the proff therof, one Walter Colls of Eyton afforeseid, deposeth that he sawe his ffader ere the seid grounde and set it with accornes aboute 1. yers paste and more, and that he helped to geder the accorns to sett the grounde withall, &c. † + Blomefield says that, about 1524, the City resigned to the Church all right and prescription of commonage in Eaton and Lakenham, and the Prior's lands in those towns; and the King, to settle it firmly, licensed the City to receive, and the Prior and Convent to convey to the City for ever, eighty acres of ground and pasture, parcel of the said Common, now called the Town Close, in lieu of such right of commonage. BLOMEFIELD has placed Diss at the commencement of his Norfolk History. That town, situated within a few miles from the secluded rectory of Fersfield, his residence, possessed for him a special charm: it was the scene of his early youth. In the pedigree he gives of his family, it is stated that he "was educated first at Diss." Most probably he attended the Grammar-School, carried on in the house known as the Guildhall. This building he identifies as having been used in common by the two gilds of St. Nicholas and Corpus Christi, and subsequently "granted to the inhabitants.” * It has now been totally swept away. A slight notice of its history and successive occupants may be thought worthy of preservation. The opulence to which the gilds at Diss had advanced, affords some countenance to the opinion that the Guildhall might be as old as the reign of Henry VII. Unfortunately, * Blomefield's Norfolk, 8vo. edition, Vol. I., p. 33. at the time when alone the writer had the opportunity of knowing it, successive repairs had been allowed to obliterate. almost every trace of its ancient appearance. The only proof of its antiquity, a massive oak post, remained at the southwest corner, having on its upper part the rude carving of which an etching is subjoined. Through the kindness of Mr. Dawson Turner an extract has been obtained, from Sir Francis Palgrave, showing that the letters patent of 18th June, 27 Eliz. (1584), quoted by Blomefield as a grant of St. Nicholas Chapel to William Croft and John Hallyet, also included the Guildhall, by the following description : "And also all that, the house in Dysse aforesaid (called in English a Gwylde-hall), with the appurtenances now or late in the tenure of Thomas Burton, and late parcel of the possessions of a certain fraternity or society of divers persons in Dysse aforesaid." Croft and Hallyet probably obtained the grant as trustees for the various persons to whom the property embraced therein was intended to be conveyed. This was a common practice to save expense. It would seem, however, that the Guildhall had already come into the possession of the inhabitants; for Blomefield notices that, “in 1575, here were kept the standard scales and weights for the market;" and he gives a list of utensils which "then were left to the use of the town in this house."+ The earliest existing deed relating to the Guildhall, according to the Charity Commissioners' Report, bears date 10th September, 1596, whereby the property was enfeoffed by Robert Cooper and others to Richard Leacke and others. This deed refers to a conveyance, dated 7th September then instant, made to the feoffors by Richard Fisher and others. No trusts were declared. But in the next feoffment, dated 18th April, 1623, and on subsequent similar occasions, the premises were conveyed to the use and benefit of the inhabitants of Diss. Speed mentions "one Cleber, a schoolmaster, some tyme at Dys in Norfolke," who, in 1556, read publicly a traitorous proclamation, and persuaded the people to take arms against Queen Mary; and who was executed at the following assizes at Bury. Whether he had swayed the ferule in the Guildhall is uncertain; though the dissolving statute of 1 Edward VI., cap. 14, under which the building was seized, expressly contemplates the "erecting of grammar-schools to the education of youth in virtue and godliness." The earliest evidence the writer has met with of its being applied to such a purpose, occurs in 1692, when a charge is made in the "Disse Towne Booke," § of 10s. for "glazing the Schoolhouse." In a list of “rents yearly growing due to the towne," made in 1693, are the following: "Robt Towell for pte of ye Guildhall Mr Edw. Easterby, tent to the Guildhall At Easter, 1705, these disbursements occur : £. s. d. 03 10 00 01 10 00" + Vol. I., p. 33. Page 854 (104.).. § I am indebted to the courtesy of the Churchwarden, Mr. Farrow, for an inspection of this record. * The payment by the parish of a salary of £10. a year, is first recorded in the churchwarden's account at Easter, 1706. "Paid to Mr. Lloyd for halfe a yeare's sallary. 05 00 00" Another entry calls him "the Schoolmaster;" and in 1707 the disbursement is: "Paid Mr Lloyd for his sallary and a bill for burying poor people 11s. 6d. which shows that Mr. Lloyd was in holy orders. 10 11 06" In 1710, The Rev. John Bryars, M.A., Rector of Billingford, undertook the mastership. Accordingly, at the following Easter the parish officers take credit for "Pd Mr Bryers a year's sallary for ye scool.. 10 00 00" This gentleman was active in promoting the success of a charity-school established in the adjacent village of Palgrave, and preached and published a sermon at the first meeting of its patrons. The dedication of this sermon is dated "Billingford, May 15, 1711." And it would seem that he did not remove to Diss before 1713, when he was presented to the living of that parish. A second dedication prefixed to the same sermon is addressed, among others, to "Rob Burroughs, Gent., Francis Guybon, M.D., William Coggeshall, Gent., Samuel Manning, Gent., and John Moulton, Gent., [all] of Diss." Two years after its establishment, the Palgrave Charity-School was transferred to the Guildhall at Diss. There it was still carried on when Blomefield wrote (1736); the master having his dwelling in one part of the Guildhall, and keeping school in another part.† * See Blomefield, Vol. I., p. 37. † Vol. I., p. 37. |