“That from and after the first day of May, 1712, there shall be a corporation to continue for ever, within the said city of Norwich and county of the same, and liberties thereof, consisting of mayor, recorder, and steward, justices of the peace, sheriffs, and aldermen of the said city for the time being, and of thirty-two other persons of the most honest, discreet, and charitable inhabitants of the said city and county, in the four great wards of the said city, and the towns, and out parishes in the county of the said city, in such manner as is hereinafter expressed, and the said thirty-two persons shall be elected on the third day of May next ensuing, or within three days after, at an assembly of the said city, for that purpose to be held, by the votes of the mayor, sheriffs, citizens, and commonalty, in common council assembled, or of the major part of them present.” Then follow the provisions of the act by which all the parishes in the city were incorporated for the relief of the poor. The Court of Guardians was constituted, and empowered to assess to the poor rates all lands, houses, tenements, tithes, stock, and personal estates. The assessment of stock and personal estate, as may be easily imagined, caused great dissatisfaction amongst the rate-payers possessed of property, and was abolished in 1827, when a new act was obtained which considerably altered the constitution of the court. This act was further amended by another passed in 1831, and that was superseded in 1863, by the act at this time in force. In 1712, the steeple of the new Hall, now St. Andrew’s Hall, fell down and was never rebuilt. In 1713, the Duke of Ormond was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk and Norwich, in the room of Lord Townshend. George I. was proclaimed here on the 3rd of August, 1714, two days after Queen Anne died. In 1714 a Bethel was built for the reception of poor lunatics by Mrs. Mary Chapman—one of the first charitable foundations in this country for those unhappy persons. In 1717 she endowed the same by her will, in which is the following pious clause:— “Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to visit and afflict some of my nearest relations with lunacy, but has blessed me with the use of my reason and understanding; as a monument of my thankfulnesss for this invaluable mercy, I settle Bethel, &c., for this purpose.” She was the widow of the Rev. Mr. Chapman, minister of St. Lawrence. In 1715, in consequence of the rebellion in the north, an artillery company of 100 men was first raised in Norwich. William Hall, Esq., was their captain.