9.--Mr. Edward Kerrison Harvey was elected Mayor and Mr. John Robison
appointed Sheriff of Norwich.
15.--For the second time since its erection in 1857-8, the Britannia pier
at Yarmouth was partially destroyed. Built at the cost of 6,000, it was
originally 750 feet in length. On October 25th, 1859, during a
tremendous gale, a sloop, driven from her anchors, was dashed upon the
pier and divided it into two portions. It was deemed advisable not to
rebuild the severed portion, 80 feet in length, and the terminal portion
was subsequently removed. During a heavy north-east gale on this date
the schooner Seagull, of Lynn, parted from her anchors, and, drifting
towards land, struck against the north side of the pier. The crew of six
hands speedily scrambled upon the structure and escaped, but about 105
feet of the centre portion of the pier was completely torn away and
damage done to the amount of nearly 1,000.
16.--The nomination of candidates for Norwich, to be elected under the
new Reform Act, took place at the Guildhall. The Liberal candidates were
Col. Sir William Russell, Bart., C.B., Charlton Park, Charlton Kings,
Gloucester, and Mr. Jacob Henry Tillett; and the Conservative candidates
Sir Henry Josias Stracey, Bart., of Rackheath, who had been selected
about a fortnight previously. The show of hands was in favour of the
Liberals, and Sir Samuel Bignold demanded a poll, which was opened on the
17th "at 29 polling places most conveniently arranged in the different
wards." The pronouncement of the electorate at this election was upon
the Irish Church, and at Norwich, as elsewhere, a severe contest
resulted. The poll closed at four o'clock with the return of Sir William
Russell and Sir Henry Stracey, the figures being officially declared on
the 18th as follow:--Stracey, 4,521; Russell, 4,509; Tillett, 4,364. Sir
Henry Stracey, accompanied by Lady Stracey, on the morning of the 18th
was escorted from Rackheath Park to Norwich, by his mounted tenantry, and
received at Magdalene Gates by an imposing procession of Conservative
electors, who, amid the playing of brass bands and the ringing of St.
Peter Mancroft bells, accompanied him to the Guildhall. After the
declaration the procession, half a mile in length, marched through the
city. Mr. Tillett, in an address to the electors, stated: "The Tory
party have, beyond all precedent, and in the most undisguised manner,
committed themselves to the disgrace involved in the wholesale purchase
of votes." (_See_ January 14th, 1869.)
16.--The nomination of representatives to serve in Parliament for the
Western Division of the county took place at Swaffham, when Sir William
Bagge, Bart., and the Hon. Thomas de Grey were re-elected without
opposition.
17.--The nomination of candidates for the borough took place at King's
Lynn. Lord Stanley and the Hon. Robert Bourke were nominated by the
Conservatives, and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., by the Liberals. The
poll was opened on the 18th, and resulted as follows:--Stanley, 1,265;
Bourke, 1,125; Buxton, 1,012. (_See_ March 16th, 1869.)
--Died at his residence, Surrey Street, Norwich, in his 82nd year, Mr.
Thomas Brightwell. A native of Ipswich, he married the only daughter of
Mr. W. M. Wilkin, of Costessey, and settled in Norwich, where he resided
for 60 years, and practised as a solicitor. An earnest Nonconformist, he
joined the congregation which assembled at the Old Meeting in St.
Clement's, where to the close of his life he officiated as one of the
deacons. He was the author of a work on the Pentateuch, and his
intellectual attainments and scientific pursuits gained him admission
into the circle which included William Taylor, Doctors Sayers, Martineau,
Rigby, and Barrow, Sir James Smith, and other Norwich celebrities. Men
bearing historic names, and of widely different sentiments, had from time
to time been entertained beneath his roof--Williams, Dr. Gary, Moffat,
Doctors Philip and Wolff, of missionary fame; Joseph Kinghorn, the
eloquent Irving, Belzoni, the Egyptian explorer; Professor Sedgwick,
George Borrow, and many others who had done good service in the cause of
religion, literature, and science. A close observer of nature, Mr.
Brightwell gave much of his time to entomology, and a fine collection of
insects in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum was formed by him. But the
study to which, in his later years, he devoted especial attention was
that of Infusoria. A treatise upon Infusoria, illustrated from drawings
by his daughter, was written by Mr. Brightwell and printed for private
circulation. At the Norwich Congress of the British Association, of
which he was a vice-president, he was greatly amused by the anxious and
ineffectual endeavours made by several of the scientific men present to
procure copies of the work, then out of print. In 1821 Mr. Brightwell
became a Fellow of the Linnaean Society, and he also rendered
considerable assistance in the formation of the Norfolk and Norwich
Literary Institution and of the Norfolk and Norwich Museum.
21.--The nomination of candidates for South Norfolk took place at the
Shirehall, Norwich. The Conservative candidates were Mr. Edward Howes,
of Morningthorpe, and Mr. Clare Sewell Read, of Honingham Thorpe. Mr.
Henry Lombard Hudson, of Harleston, was nominated by the Liberals. The
polling, on the 24th, resulted as follows: Read, 3,097; Howes, 3,055;
Hudson, 1,679.
23.--The following gentlemen were nominated at Aylsham to contest the new
constituency of North Norfolk:--Sir Edmund Knowles Lacon, Bart., and the
Hon. Frederick Walpole, Conservatives; Mr. Edward Robert Wodehouse and
Mr. Robert T. Gurdon, Liberals. The polling took place on the 26th, at
nine polling-places--Aylsham, Cromer, Holt, North Walsham, Ormesby,
Reepham, Stalham, Wells, and Yarmouth. The official declaration was made
at Aylsham on the 28th, as follows:--Walpole, 2,630; Lacon, 2,563;
Wodehouse, 2,235; Gurdon, 2,078. (_See_ May 17th, 1869.)