Bungay, Suffolk.
In the year 1845, one of the MSS. of Mr. John Kirkpatrick was printed at
Yarmouth, edited by Mr. Dawson Turner, at the expense of Mr. Hudson Gurney.
This MS. is the _History of the Religious Orders and Communities, and of
the Hospital and Castle of Norwich_, and filled a quarto of 258 folios in
the handwriting of the author. In a very interesting preface, the editor
states that no portion of Kirkpatrick's bequest remains at present in the
hands of the corporation of Norwich, or is even known to be in existence,
except the volume thus edited, and perhaps some fragments of the "small
pieces of paper," described in the will as "containing notes of the tenure
of each house in Norwich," which, if such do exist, are, it is to be
feared, so scattered and injured as to be useless. The editor enumerates
and describes eleven MSS. which, he says, were safe in the custody of the
corporation about forty years ago from the present time: but, he adds, they
have now disappeared, with the exception of the volume which he has edited.
This MS. is the property of the representatives of the late Mr. William
Herring, of Hethersett, whose father purchased it of a bookseller.