On the 12th of June, 1644, Francis Jessope, of Beccles, under a commission from the Earl of Manchester, visited this church, and took away all the brass plates from the grave stones having the inscription “Orate pro Anima, etc.” and others of the like nature, except the following: “Pray for the soul of Lady Margaret Parker, who died the First day of March, Ao. Dni. 1507. On whose soul may God be propitious.” He also disrobed the stones of many brass effigies. All the brass was sold to Mr. John Wilde, of Lowestoft for five shillings; although the quantity was sufficient to be run into a bell, which was used for a chapel. On the bell is the inscription “John Brand made me, 1644.” The stone work of the font is covered with a handsome piece of carved work erected in the year 1734 by John Postle and Edmund Gillingwater, churchwardens. About the year 1740, the pews in the church being very old, irregular, and much decayed, the Rev. Tanner, the vicar of the parish, in order to recover it from this disgraceful state, and to ornament it with that decent arrangement of seats, so becoming a place dedicated to public worship, and so generally to be met with in other churches, first set the example of new-pewing the church by erecting (in 1746) six neat wainscot seats in the body of the church, in memory of his wife. On these seats was the following inscription: “In memory of Mary, the wife of John Tanner, and daughter of Robert and Mary Knight, 1746. Not unto us, O Lord; not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise. John Tanner, vicar, desires this to be considered as a monument and pledge of love.” In 1747 he added eight more, in grateful acknowledgment of some great mercy he had received from the Almighty. On these seats the inscriptions are “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me. J. T., 1747”; the other is “In memory of Grace Symonds, sister of John Tanner, vicar, 1759.” It is supposed he thus shewed his thankfulness, for having been enabled to complete and publish the great work of learning and antiquity the “Notitia Monastica,” which his brother, the Bishop of St. Asaph, left unfinished. The town being stimulated by so pious and useful an example, undertook within a few years after, to complete what Mr. Tanner had so laudably began; for in the year 1770 the whole design of new-pewing the church was completed; and by the addition of a very elegant desk and pulpit, is become one of the neatest and best pewed churches in the county.