Page:History of Norfolk 1.djvu/224

 if he would take it, both which he generously refused, and by necessary consequence brought on himself the common calamities and fate which then attended loyalty and fidelity to his Majesty, for his house was plundered and rifled of a great deal of plate, linen, and other goods; he was also seized and dragged away towards Norwich castle, but by his excellent life and doctrine, he had so much recommended himself to his parishioners, that they thought a greater judgment could not befall them, than to loose him, and so by consent they followed the party that had him in custody, and rescued him: they also gave this further testimony of their affection towards him, that when the villains had designed to plunder his house a second time, unknown to him, they voluntarily went, and by force secured the remainder of his goods in their own houses, and even the very women and children assisted in this perilous undertaking, to the manifest hazard of their safety, perhaps of their lives, if it had been discovered. He had at the time of his sufferings, a wife, and at least nine young children, which helped to compleat his misery, and sufficiently aggravated the barbarities which were exercised upon him; 'tis remarkable he had always a firm perswasion of his Majesty's Restauration, which he afterwards lived to see, and was himself one of the first ministers restored in this county, after which he enjoy'd his rectory 20 years, and having been admitted about the year 1620, and not dying 'till 1680, (in the 84 th year of his age) he must in all have been rector of it near 60 years."

Thus far Mr. Walker, in which account there are some small errours, all which may be corrected by this inscription on his stone in the chancel, viz.