Norfolk: Burnham Thorpe

William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1845

BURNHAM-THORPE, a considerable village and parish, pleasantly seated in the vale of a small rivulet, about a mile E. by S. of Burnham Market, has 396 inhabitants, and 2,321 acres of land, of which the Earl of Orford is principal owner, and lord of the manor; but the Earl of Leicester and J. Morse, Esq., and several others, have small estates here. The manor is mostly on arbitrary fines, and with the whole of the Earl of Orford's estate, in this parish, was purchased by Peter Lombard, Esq., in 1755, and passed from him to the Earl's ancestor, Horatio Lord Walpole, of Wolterton. The hall, now a farm-house, has been a large moated mansion.

Burnham-Thorpe formerly had a weekly market on Saturday, and will ever be memorable in the annals of fame, for having been the birth-place of that eminently distinguished, and ever-to-be-lamented hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, whose father was many years rector of this parish, and also of Burnham Sutton. A brief memoir of this illustrious hero is already inserted at page 265, with the history of Yarmouth, where an elegant Naval Pillar has been raised to his memory. (Vide p.249.)

The CHURCH (St. Peter [sic - this should be All Saints],) contains several marble tablets to the memory of the Nelson family, and has a nave, chancel, north aisle, porch and tower. The rectory, valued in the King's Book at £19 10s., and in 1831 at £500, has 29A. 2R. 23P. of glebe, with a neat residence built near the site of that in which Nelson was born. The Earl of Orford is patron, and the Rev. Daniel Everard, M.A., incumbent. The CHURCH was substantially repaired in 1842, when the font in which Nelson was baptized was renovated. The tithes have been commuted for £712 15s. per anum.

In the 41st of Elizabeth, RICHARD BUNTING gave a chamber over a malthouse to be used as a School, and charged his lands and the manor of Gyrres-cum-Patin, in Barwick and Barmer, now belonging to J.J. Gay, Esq., with the yearly payment of £12 to the schoolmaster. The school was not established till 1704, and the rent charged was not paid till 1797, when, after paying the costs of a suit in chancery, the remaining part of the arrears, £219, were laid out in the purchase of £448 three per cent. Consols, which has since been increased by unapplied dividends, &c. to £1,075 of the same stock.

In 1797, Lord Walpole, against whom the Chancery suit had been instituted, gave in exchange for the old school, a good dwelling house and school, with about an acre of land. The Earl of Orford is one of the trustees, and keeps the school premises in good repair. For the rent charge of £12, and £25 6s. 6d. out of the yearly dividends of the above named stock, the master teaches reading, writing, and arithmetic, to about 20 poor boys recommended by the rector.

The poor parishioners have three yearly doles, viz:- 16s. from Ward's Charity, (see Thursford;) 16s. left by Thos. Taylor; and 5s. left by an unknown donor.

         Brett    Jas.               wheelwright & vict., Nelson
         Buck     John               baker and grocer
         Curtis   Robert             blacksmith
         Everard  Rev. Daniel, M.A.  Rectory
         Everard  Rev. William, M.A. curate
         Norman   Thomas W.          schoolmaster
         Norman   Matthew            parish clerk
         Tuck     Robert             shopkeeper
         Tuck     William            bricklayer
 
                              FARMERS.
 
         Calver   Henry              Hopson   Henry
         Calver   John               Mack     Thomas T.
         Gay      Joshua             Starling Thomas
 

See also the Burnham Thorpe parish page.

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Copyright © Pat Newby.
March 2007