We know well that Lowestoft in these old days was not what we see now, but it is as difficult to substitute any clear idea of what she was, as for a grown up man to picture himself when running about in a short frock. In order to form a tolerably correct idea of what our old town was at the beginning of the 15th century, we must dismiss altogether from our mind’s eye the large populous town with which we are acquainted, and picture to ourselves a village of small cottages with thatched roofs being gradually improved by the erection of houses of a better class. At the early part of Henry VIII.’s reign Lowestoft appears to have been a small town on the cliff, containing some 20 or 30 merchants—in a very small way of business—the richer men among them owning one or two ships; most of them having fish-houses at the bottom of the cliffs, and doing a good deal of business during the autumn season in buying fish from the foreign and west-country fishermen in the Roads, and selling it to fish merchants coming from inland towns. They would also be doing a little business with their visitors in light merchandise, which could be brought in the fishing boats, or taken away after the season was over. Profit would also be made during the season in victualling the visitors’ ships. A few handicraft tradesmen and shopkeepers and a number of working men and sailors would complete the adult population. In fact the town would be very much what it was some 60 years afterwards in Elizabeth’s time, which will be the subject of our next lecture. LECTURE III. LOWESTOFT IN ELIZABETH’S TIME. PART I.—THE PARISH REGISTER. PART II.—LOWESTOFT AND YARMOUTH AT THE END OF THE XVI CENTURY. PART I.—THE PARISH REGISTER. Much light has been thrown on the character of Lowestoft some 300 years ago by the copies of the parish register, published in the “Parish Magazine,” which, I doubt not, many of you have been in the habit of studying. The existing parish register dates back to 1561. The first volume of the book, so to speak, which would tell us who were living or dying in Lowestoft in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, was unfortunately burnt in the fire which destroyed the old vicarage house in 1606. The register was kept from 1561 to 1583 by Mr. Benjamin Allen, the parish clerk. From this year to the end of our period it was kept by Mr. Stephen Philip, the first master of Mr. Annott’s school, of whom we shall speak again soon. Mr. Allen was probably one of the few persons in Lowestoft at the time who could write—at least, well enough to undertake such an important and responsible task. I cannot say much for his spelling, but variety rather than uniformity in spelling was as yet a fashion of the day. He belonged apparently to one of the upper, or as they would have said, one of the “bettermost” families in the town, which produced one of our naval heroes of the following century.