5.--Died at his seat at Honingham, the Right Hon. and Rev. Lord Bayning.
His lordship was the second son of Mr. Charles Townshend, who was created
Baron Bayning in 1797, and succeeded his brother, Charles Frederick, as
third Baron on August 2nd, 1823, when he assumed, by sign manual (in lieu
of his patronymic, Townshend), the name of his maternal grandfather,
William Powlett. Born on June 8th, 1797, he married, on August 9th,
1842, Emma, only daughter of Mr. W. H. Fellowes, of Ramsey Abbey,
Huntingdon, by whom he had one son, who died twelve months previously to
his lordship's death, and the barony thus became extinct. Lord Bayning
was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in
1818, and was appointed rector of Brome, Suffolk, in 1821, and rural dean
in the diocese of Norwich in 1844. He resigned the rectory of Brome in
1847, and was appointed to the rectory of Honingham with the vicarage of
East Tuddenham in 1851. His lordship was High Steward of Norwich
Cathedral, Vice-President of the Norwich Diocesan Association for the
Propagation of the Gospel, of the Norfolk and Norwich Museum, of the
Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, and of the Institution for
the Indigent Blind, and he was a trustee of the Norwich Savings Rank, &c.
For some years he was treasurer and a most active promoter of the
Diocesan Church Building Society.
6.--At a special meeting of the Norwich Town Council, Mr. Edward S.
Bignold was elected Coroner, in place of Mr. Wilde. In order to take the
office, he resigned his seat in the Town Council, and was permitted to
retire without paying the customary fine.
10.--A new self-righting lifeboat was launched at Happisburgh. The
vessel was presented to the National Lifeboat Institution by the people
of Huddersfield, who contributed upwards of 1,000 for its purchase.
14.--At the Norwich Assizes, before Lord Chief Justice Erle and a special
jury, was tried the libel action, Athill _v._ Soman. The declaration
stated that the libel was published in a newspaper called the "Norwich
Argus," of which the defendant was the printer, and was contained in a
letter signed "Honour Lingley," dated November 25th, 1865. The writer
accused Athill, a superintendent of police, of wrongfully ransacking her
chests of linen at a house at Sprowston called the "Haunted Cottage," at
which disturbances had taken place, and where Athill had been present in
the discharge of his official duties. The damages were laid at 500; the
jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages one farthing.
Application was made on behalf of the plaintiff for costs, but his
lordship held that "there was not a solitary instance of any personal
malice or ill-will on the part of the defendant," and refused it. The
county magistrates subsequently contributed to a fund to defray the
expenses of the plaintiff.
25.--At the sale of the Lessingham House estate, by Messrs. Hewitt and
Capon, at the Norfolk Hotel, Norwich, a portion of Surlingham Broad was
purchased by Mr. R. Pratt, for 1,300. "The last time this lot was sold
by public auction it fetched about 900."
27.--The Hon. Thomas de Grey, M.P., shooting on Blubberhouse Moor, made a
bag of 215 brace of grouse, "a feat which has not met with its equal on
any of the Yorkshire moors, nor on any other in England or Scotland."