On July 12th, 1756, the Earl of Orford put the act for the better
regulating the Militia in execution. This act fixed the number of men to
be raised for Norfolk and Norwich at 960, of which the city furnished
151.
On June 21st, 1759, there was a most violent storm here, some of the
hailstones being two inches long, and weighing three-quarters of an
ounce. On July 4th and 5th, the Norfolk Militia, commanded by Lord
Orford, marched from Norwich to Portsmouth, and passed in review before
His Majesty George II., at Kensington.
In digging under the rampart of the Castle Hill in 1760, two very curious
bones were discovered, supposed by some to be amulets, which the Druids
wore at their sacrifices.
In 1760, King George II. died at Kensington, on October 25th, and his
grandson, George III. was proclaimed king, in Norwich, on the 29th, by
the mayor and corporation, preceded by the four Norwich companies of
militia, with flags, banners, and music. On September 22nd, 1761, the
coronation of their Majesties was celebrated with great splendour in
Norfolk, and in Norwich there was a general illumination, and a grand
display of fireworks from a triumphal arch erected in the Market Place.
On October 27th, 1762, there was a sudden flood in the city, which laid
near 300 houses and 8 parish churches under water. It rose 12 feet
perpendicular in 24 hours, being 15 inches higher than St. Faith’s flood
in 1696.
In 1763, January 3rd, John Spurrell, Esq., died, leaving £1355 to the
corporation, the interest to be applied for the benefit of the poor in
the Great Hospital, and for other charitable purposes. The Earl of
Buckinghamshire, alderman Thomas Harvey, and Mr. Robert Page, gave £100
each to Doughty’s Hospital.
In the same year _Sir Armine Wodehouse_, _Bart._, gave a valuable volume
to the corporation containing some old statutes, in which the
prescriptive right of the corporation to its present legal name is
supported. It had been the property of the Wodehouse family for 200
years. A vote of thanks was passed to Sir Armine Wodehouse for his
present. He was a member of parliament for Norfolk from 1736 to 1768 (32
years), and died in 1777. His death was occasioned by a herring-bone
sticking in his throat.
On January 7th, 1769, the church belonging to the Dutch congregation was
opened for the poor of the workhouses. The poor continued to attend till
the New Workhouse was built in Heigham, after which they attended divine
service in the chapel there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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