power or supremacy which was before vested in the bishops. In consequence of which, it has ever since been called KING’S _Lynn_, instead of BISHOP’S _Lynn_, which was its former appellation: an appellation, by the bye, which will serve further to corroborate the idea, that it was formerly the deleterious abode of priest-ridden credulity and ecclesiastical thraldom. Indeed it may be said to have been long distinguished for illiberality, intolerance, and a persecuting spirit: and it must appear somewhat remarkable, that the very first person taken up and burnt, in England, under that diabolical law, _De hæretico comburendo_, was a Lynn man, as was also the last, or one of the very last that underwent persecution for nonconformity under the infamous _conventicle Act_: The former was one of the preachers belonging to St. Margaret’s Church, in the reign of _Henry IV._ and the latter a licenced dissenting minister in that of _William_ III. Of each of them a more particular account shall be given in its proper place. Not only Lynn, but most, if not all, of the adjacent towns and villages appear to have been in being long before the conquest. They are noticed in the celebrated old record, called _Domesday_, as places then in existence, and seemingly of long standing and remote origin. They had, in all probability, been erected and inhabited many ages before that period, though it seems not likely that many of their present names, or those given them in the Domesday book, are to be traced to a British origin, as Parkin and others pretend. {238a} That Lynn had become a place of considerable trade in the Saxon times, or before the Norman invasion, is evident from unquestionable existing documents. It had then a toll-booth, and enjoyed certain duties and customs, payable on the arrival of any goods or merchandise, of which the bishop was in full possession of a moiety. This episcopal privilege is supposed to have been as early as the conversion of the East Angles, and establishment of Christianity among them. The town continued daily to flourish and acquire increasing importance; and at an early period after the conquest, one of the writers of that time calls it, “a noble city,” on account of its trading and commercial magnificence. {238b} This was at a period when Hull did not exist, and when Liverpool, if it did exist, was but a very obscure and insignificant place. SECTION III. _Of the Saltworks formerly at and about Lynn—paucity of appropriate materials—apology_.