_Biographical sketches of some of the most eminent or distinguished personages among the natives or inhabitants of Lynn_, _from the reformation to the present day—Watts—Arrowsmith—Goodwin—Horne—Phelpes—Falkner—Goddard_. In the list of persons of real note, or memorable distinction who appeared since the reformation among the natives or inhabitants of this town, the first place, in order of time, seems to belong to _William Watts_, said to have been a native of this borough, or its vicinity. The time of his birth is not recorded, but is supposed to have been about the close of the reign of Elizabeth. He probably received the rudiments of his education in the Grammar school of this town, which was from 1597 to 1608 under the care of _Mr. John Man_, afterwards minister of South Lynn, and from 1608 to 1612 or 13, under that of _Mr. Henry Allston_. He was afterwards sent to Caius College in Cambridge, where he appears to have made great proficiency, and to have finished his academical education. He then went and made some stay at Oxford; after which he travelled, as Anthony Wood says, into several countries, and became master of divers languages. In his travels he is supposed to have made his chief stay in Holland, where he became acquainted with the celebrated _John Gerard Vossius_, who entertained a very favourable and high opinion of him, and spoke of him as _doctissimus et clarissimus Watsius_, _qui optime de historia meruit_. At his return, after the accession of Charles I, he was made one of the king’s chaplains, and preferred successively to livings and dignities in the church. Being, as might be expected, a zealous royalist, and adhering firmly to the king’s cause, he was sequestered, plundered, and left without a shelter for his wife and children. He was carried by his courage and resentment into the field with prince Rupert, during the hardiest of his exploits; and died, in 1649, on board his fleet, in the harbour of Kinsale. He had an especial hand, says Wood, in Sir Henry Spelman’s Glossary; he edited Matthew Paris, and, exclusively of other treatises, he published, before the civil war of England began, several numbers of new books, in the English tongue, (more than forty,) containing the occurrences in the wars between the king of Sweden and the Germans. When he returned from his travels, Newspapers were very little known in this country. They had first appeared in the reign of Elizabeth, under the sage direction of Burleigh; but they were published only occasionally, and were all extraordinary gazettes. They appeared frequently about the time of the armada, and are supposed to have then answered very important purposes. Being no longer deemed necessary when that danger was past, they were discontinued. The public curiosity having been much gratified by these publications, the people would be no longer satisfied without a newspaper. It was therefore not long before publications of that kind began to make their