3.--Died, at Ferney Hill, Gloucester, Mrs. Cooper, widow of the Rev. Dr.
Cooper, of Yarmouth, and daughter of Mr. James Bransby, of Shotesham.
She was the author of several well-known works, namely, "Fanny Meadows,"
"The Daughter," "The School for Wives," and "The Exemplary Mother."
7.--Died, at Heydon House, aged 53, William Earle Bulwer, Colonel in the
Army and Brigadier-General of Volunteers.
9.--An action for _crim. con._ was heard in the Court of King's Bench, in
which Sir G. B. Brograve, of Worstead Hall, Lieut.-Col. of the East
Norfolk Militia, was plaintiff, and Capt. Elwin, of the same regiment,
defendant. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages, 2,000
pounds. At Doctor's Commons, on November 21st, 1808, the court granted a
divorce _a mansa et thoro_, prayed for on the part of Sir Geo. Brograve
against Lady Brograve.
8.--Capt. Manby, barrack-master at Yarmouth, made several experiments
with his life-saving apparatus in the presence of Admiral Douglas and
other officers of the Navy, who expressed satisfaction with the
invention.
--A single wicket cricket match was played at Thetford between two
gentlemen of that town and two of Newmarket. The former won, with 37
runs to spare.
11.--Died, at Lady Fenn's, East Dereham, aged 67, Mr. John Frere, of
Roydon, Norfolk, and of Finningham, Suffolk. He was member for Norwich
from 1799 to 1802.
15.--Mr. Paul, of Starston, exhibited a machine for removing lice from
peas. Two men, in four hours, caught 24 pecks of lice, and in the
afternoon took 16 pecks in 2.5 hours.
16.--Died, aged 81, Mr. Peter Finch, who for many years held the office
of Clerk of the Peace for the county.
23.--A fleet of 24 sail of the line assembled in Yarmouth Roads, under
the command of Admiral Gambier, who, with Vice-Admiral Stanhope, sailed
on the 26th with 16 sail of the line, 10 frigates, 10 sloops, 9 gun
brigs, &c., for the Baltic. Sir Sidney Smith sailed in the Prince of
Wales, of 98 guns, Admiral Gambier's flagship. A strict embargo
commenced on the 24th. The remainder of the fleet afterwards sailed. An
expedition, under Lieut.-General Sir David Baird, sailed from Harwich
about the same time. On September 16th, intelligence was received of the
surrender on the 7th of Copenhagen, with the arsenal and the whole of the
Danish Navy, to the British forces, under the command of Lieut.-General
Lord Cathcart and Admiral Gambier. The British fleet, which sailed from
Yarmouth, sustained but comparatively trifling loss.
27.--At the Norfolk Assizes, held at Norwich, before Mr. Justice Grose,
Martha Alden was tried for the murder of her husband, Samuel Alden, at
Attleborough, on July 18th. While the man was asleep in bed his wife,
with a bill-hook, inflicted terrible wounds on his head, face, and
throat. With the assistance of a girl, named Mary Orvice, the prisoner
on the 19th deposited the body in a dry ditch in the garden; on the 20th,
they carried it in a corn sack to the common and "shot" it into a pond,
where it was subsequently discovered. His lordship, in summing up, said
that Orvice might have been charged with being accessory to an attempted
concealment of murder. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and the judge
"doomed her to death, to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution,
there to be hanged by the neck, and her body to be dissected." The
execution took place at Norwich on July 31st. The populace at
Attleborough showed their detestation of the crime by destroying the
former dwelling-house of the prisoner. It was reported that the ghost of
Alden "walked" on the Castle Hill, and in the month of December a party
of drunken men, who went there to "lay" the spirit, were seized by the
jailer and detained in prison for two days, pending an inquiry into their
conduct.
--At the same Assizes, before Lord Ellenborough, an action was tried, in
which Lord Albemarle claimed for the recovery of penalties, amounting to
700 pounds, under the game laws. The defendant, one Brooke, a poulterer
and wholesale dealer in game, at Thetford, was connected with the
poachers and gamekeepers in Norfolk, and with the dealers in Leadenhall
market. "The interruption of his commerce," said counsel, "had created
as much alarm in Leadenhall market as the stagnation of trade between
this country and the North of Germany had occasioned amongst the
merchants at the Royal Exchange." A verdict was given for the plaintiff,
damages 40 pounds, "at the rate of 5 pounds for each head of game which
had fallen out of a basket sent by the defendant to the London waggon
office at Thetford for transit to the metropolis."
29.--At the public breakfasting at Harper's Ranelagh Gardens, Norwich,
nearly 1,100 persons assembled, and 3,500 were present at the evening
performance.
30.--The sum of 180 pounds 3s. was collected at the anniversary service
held at the Cathedral on behalf of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and
50 pounds 16s. resulted from the dinner at the White Swan.