Difference between revisions of "Category:The Families of Sprowston"

Corbet Family - Part 1

John Corbet is first found acting for Norwich in 1534-5, when he and Nicholas Hare were paid 24s.8d. by the City for business done in the Exchequer. Three years later Corbet was admitted freeman and on 21st September 1538 excused all Civic Office. This exemption notwithstanding, on 13th August 1540 he was elected steward of the Sheriff’s court in succession to Edmund Grey; he held this office, at a fee of 20 shillings, raised to 26s.8d. on 1544, until 16th August 1547, when he replaced Edmund Grey as Recorder. He was Recorder for three years, but when he resigned on 3rd May 1550 he ‘of his gentleness offered to be in readiness at all times to do any pleasure for the City and Commonalty’, and he was then granted an annual fee of 4 marks and asked to act for the Recorder in his absence.

He combined with his offices at Norwich that of steward of Yarmouth. He also embarked on service in the County: he was presumably the John Corbet senior (to distinguish him from his younger brother) who was put on the commission of the peace in November 1540, his father being probably dead by then, and he was certainly named in the commission of May 1542.

The possibility that Corbet was one of the Members for Norwich in the Parliament of 1536 arises from the inclusion of a ‘Mr. Corbet’ among four Members named on the dorse of an Act for continuing expiring laws passed by that Parliament. The fact that Members so named, probably as having scrutinized the bill concerned, were usually lawyers (as were at least two of the three whose names appear with Corbet’s) tells against his identification with Roger Corbet, the only other bearer of the name who can be presumed to have sat in this Parliament.

If John Corbet did so, it was almost certainly for Norwich. One of the two Members for Norwich in the Parliament of 1529, Reginald Lytilprowe, may either not have survived or have been unable to reappear in its successor, as the King asked all the previous Members to do, and the City could well have chosen Corbet, then on the threshold of his career in its service, to take his place. It is also possible that the long interval before his election for Norwich in 1554 reflected Corbet’s dependence upon the 3rd Duke of Norfolk.

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  ‎Corbet Family Tree.

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  Radus Tredwell map 1589

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  Radus Tredwell map 1589 (Part).

Corbet Family - Part 2

His rise to prominence began with Norfolk’s return to power in 1540, but although the county historian Blomefield’s description of him as ‘being in the duke’s service’ appears to be unsupported by evidence it is consonant with his close connection with (Sir) Richard Southwell and (Sir) Robert Southwell, themselves followers of the Duke before the tragedy of 1546. In a grant of 1545 Corbet is called the King’s servant, and to judge by the £20 annuity he was to receive from Queen Mary for services at Framlingham (if he, and not his younger brother who lived at Framlingham, was the recipient) he was both a loyal servant of the crown and probably a co-religionist of the Queen. This may have had something to do with his election to her 3rd Parliament for Norwich, where although no stranger he no longer had an official position.

“Kett`s men and the Sprowston Dovecote”

The rebels were threatening to burn the house and deface the Dove-Cote (formerly St. Magdalene Chapel, Lazar House), property of Master Corbet's of Sprowston, committing many other outrages wherever they came. On the day 9th July 1549, they had thrown down the quickset hedge and filled up the ditches that enclosed the common a pasture of the City, called the Town Close, which hedge and kept in the neat cattle of the poor Freemen of the City, which were there pastured and looked after by the “neatherd”, who received off every owner, by custom, a halfpenny for every beast kept there; and so that ye fence which, by good and provident advice of their forefathers, had been raised for the common profit of the City, was thus cast down by the very persons whose interest it was made for.

In the event the City had cause for satisfaction, for he and Alexander Mather succeeded, where previous Members had failed, in pushing through an Act (1 and 2 Philip and Mary, c.14) to establish a new industry for making russells, satins and fustians there: Corbet was one of the founder-members of the company established by the statute to organize the industry.

In February 1556 John Corbet became a member of the Fellowship of “Russell” makers of Norwich. An Act of Parliament gave this fellowship permission to weave cloth and make clothes for sale in the City of Norwich. “Russell” is a yarn spun from Norfolk wool. It is possible that John Corbet used the wool from sheep reared at his manors including Sprowston.

Since the 14th century the people in and around Norwich was weaving material made from Wool or Silk. The breed of sheep known as the “Lincoln” was one that was liked by Landowners and Weavers in the 16th and 17th centuries because of its long coat.

Of his part in the other proceedings of the Parliament it is known only that he was not among those who quitted it early and were prosecuted for that offence. Corbet had grown rich on the spoils of the Dissolution. Among his larger purchases were those of the Manor of Sprowston, formerly belonging to the Bishop of Norwich, for £176 in 1540, of the Manors of Kirby Bedon, Poringland and Rockland, formerly of the Abbey of Langley, in 1542, and (with Richard Southwell) of the Chapel of Mary Magdalen in Sprowston, and a Chapel in Rainham, Essex, for £276 in 1548.

One further grant in May 1553 of the wardship of lands and person of James Nunne, which he used to find a husband for one of his daughters (Elizabeth), seems to have ended his acquisitions: during Mary’s reign he was busy in ensuring their peaceable descent to his son Miles Corbet. On 6th April 1555 Corbet gave to feoffees, including (Sir) Christopher Heydon, the Manor of ‘Bastwick Viles’ and other lands in Bastwick, to the use of Miles Corbet and Catherine Heydon, (Sir) Christopher’s sister, on their marriage; the same feoffees also received his Manor of Woodbastwick to his own use for life, with remainder to Miles and Catherine.

By his will, he disposed of his other lands giving more detailed remainders. His manor of Sprowston he bequeathed to his wife for life with remainder to Miles, to whom he left nearly all his other lands except those to be sold to pay his debts or bequests. The will was dated 26th December 1558 and in it he asked to be buried in the church of whatever parish he might die in, but if in Norfolk in the Chapel at Sprowston ‘where my poor father lies buried’. (St. Mary & St. Margaret Parish Church).

Masses were to be said at Sprowston for his soul and those of his father and mother. He left considerable legacies to his wife and his son Miles, who was to provide for Corbet’s daughter Anne, 500 marks to his youngest daughter Bridget, and £20 to his brother, Richard. Miles was the sole executor and the supervisor was Sir Christopher Heydon, ‘my right worshipful friend’. The will was proved on 10th January 1559, Corbet having died six days earlier at Sprowston, where a monument was erected in his memory.

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  ‎The breed of sheep known as the “Lincoln”.

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  Kett`s Rebellion in 1549.

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  They destroyed a dovecote.

Hardingham Family

The following photographs were donated to our Archive, they relate to the Hardingham Family who had connections to Sprowston.

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  ‎Marriage Certificate of William Hardingham and Sarah Hannah Slight.

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  Sarah Hardingham`s father James Slight. Born in Sprowston 1826?

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  Hardingham ‎Family Tree.

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  Sarah Hardingham nee Slight, born 1860 and died 1935, married William Hardingham.

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  Sarah Hardingham nee Slight, born 1860 and died 1935, married William Hardingham.

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  William Hardingham in his garden on Sidney Row, date not known.

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  William Hardingham with his Great- grandchildren.

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  William Hardingham in his 90`s, a Warrener and Vermin catcher ~ 1951.

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  Ethel Hardingham far right. The mode of dress suggests that these ladies were in service, was their place of work Sprowston Hall?

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  Ethel Hardingham married Oliver Miller.

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  Ethel Hardingham married Oliver Miller.

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  Oliver Miller after three years of War – 1917, husband of Ethel Hardingham.

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  George and Bertie Miller, children of Ethel and Oliver Miller.

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  Bert Hardingham, he married Rose ……….?.

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  Bert Hardingham – 1915.

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  William Hardingham Jr. married Lottie Read.

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  Alfred Douglas and Anna Hardingham - date not known.

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  Top Row L to R - Bert Weavers, Unknown. Middle Row L to R - Ethel Miller, Bert Hardingham, William Hardingham, Alfred Douglas, Anna Hardingham , Unknown, Lottie Hardingham, Sam Hardingham. Bottom Row L to R – Rose Hardingham and son Bert, May Weavers, Unknown, Bertie & George Miller, Sarah Hardingham, William Hardingham, Agnes Hardingham and daughter Joyce.

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  Left to Right - Mary Hardingham, William Hardingham Jr, Alfred Douglas, Anna Hardingham and William Hardingham Sr.

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  William Hardingham and wife.

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  May Hardingham.

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  Sarah Hardingham with granddaughter Joyce.

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  Bert Weaver and May Hardingham

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  Bert and May Weaver nee Hardingham.

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  Unknown soldier. Photograph by Gale and Polden Ltd ? Aldershot.

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  The firm of Gale and Polden was founded near Brompton Barracks at Chatham, James Gale opening his bookshop there at No 1 High Street, Old Brompton in 1868. Soon Gale acquired his first printing press, which he set up in a wooden shed in the garden at the rear of his house. Through his contacts with the Headquarters of the Chatham Military District Gale obtained a printing contract for the printing of the Garrison Directory.

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  William Hardingham senior, Ethel Miller and Sarah Hardingham senior.

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  Hardingham Family ~ 1945 L to R – Arthur Long, Lottie (wife of W. Hardingham Jr.), Ethel Miller nee Hardingham, Edith Long nee Hardingham, Arthur Long Jr., William Hardingham senior, Sitting in front Oliver Miller and William Hardingham Jr.

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  Hardingham Family ~ 1950 L to R - Edith Long, Arthur Long, William Hardingham senior. Oliver Miller, Ethel Miller.

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  L to R – Arthur Long Jr, Edith Long, May Weavers and Bert Hardingham.