N.B.--Notwithstanding The Number Killed In The Siege, And Dead Of
The Flux, And Other Distempers Occasioned By Bad Diet, Which Were
Very Many, And Notwithstanding The Number Which Deserted And
Escaped In The Time Of Their Hardships, Yet There Remained At The
Time Of The Surrender:
Earl of Norwich (Goring).
Lord Capell.
Lord Loughbro'.
11 Knights.
9 Colonels.
8 Lieut.-Colonels.
9 Majors.
30 Captains.
72 Lieutenants.
69 Ensigns.
183 Serjeants and Corporals.
3,067 Private Soldiers.
65 Servants to the Lords and General Officers and Gentlemen.
3,526 in all.
The town of Colchester has been supposed to contain about 40,000
people, including the out-villages which are within its liberty, of
which there are a great many--the liberty of the town being of a
great extent. One sad testimony of the town being so populous is
that they buried upwards of 5,259 people in the plague year, 1665.
But the town was severely visited indeed, even more in proportion
than any of its neighbours, or than the City of London.
The government of the town is by a mayor, high steward, a recorder
or his deputy, eleven aldermen, a chamberlain, a town clerk,
assistants, and eighteen common councilmen. Their high steward
(this year, 1722) is Sir Isaac Rebow, a gentleman of a good family
and known character, who has generally for above thirty years been
one of their representatives in Parliament. He has a very good
house at the entrance in at the south, or head gate of the town,
where he has had the honour several times to lodge and entertain
the late King William of glorious memory in his returning from
Holland by way of Harwich to London. Their recorder is Earl
Cowper, who has been twice Lord High Chancellor of England. But
his lordship not residing in those parts has put in for his
deputy,--Price, Esq., barrister-at-law, and who dwells in the town.
There are in Colchester eight churches besides those which are
damaged, and five meeting-houses, whereof two for Quakers, besides
a Dutch church and a French church.
Public Edifices are -
1. Bay Hall, an ancient society kept up for ascertaining the
manufacture of bays, which are, or ought to be, all brought to this
hall to be viewed and sealed according to their goodness by the
masters; and to this practice has been owing the great reputation
of the Colchester bays in foreign markets, where to open the side
of a bale and show the seal has been enough to give the buyer a
character of the value of the goods without any further search; and
so far as they abate the integrity and exactness of their method,
which I am told of late is much omitted; I say, so far, that
reputation will certainly abate in the markets they go to, which
are principally in Portugal and Italy. This corporation is
governed by a particular set of men who are called governors of the
Dutch Bay Hall. And in the same building is the Dutch church.
2. The guildhall of the town, called by them the moot hall, to
which is annexed the town gaol.
3. The workhouse, being lately enlarged, and to which belongs a
corporation or a body of the inhabitants, consisting of sixty
persons incorporated by Act of Parliament Anno 1698 for taking care
of the poor. They are incorporated by the name and title of the
governor, deputy governor, assistants, and guardians of the poor of
the town of Colchester. They are in number eight-and-forty, to
whom are added the mayor and aldermen for the time being, who are
always guardians by the same charter. These make the number of
sixty, as above. There is also a grammar free-school, with a good
allowance to the master, who is chosen by the town.
4. The castle of Colchester is now become only a monument showing
the antiquity of the place, it being built as the walls of the town
also are, with Roman bricks, and the Roman coins dug up here, and
ploughed up in the fields adjoining, confirm it. The inhabitants
boast much that Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, first
Christian Emperor of the Romans, was born there, and it may be so
for aught we know. I only observe what Mr. Camden says of the
Castle of Colchester, viz.: In the middle of this city stands a
castle ready to fall with age.
Though this castle has stood one hundred and twenty years from the
time Mr. Camden wrote that account, and it is not fallen yet, nor
will another hundred and twenty years, I believe, make it look one
jot the older. And it was observable that in the late siege of
this town, a common shot, which the besiegers made at this old
castle, were so far from making it fall, that they made little or
no impression upon it; for which reason, it seems, and because the
garrison made no great use of it against the besiegers, they fired
no more at it.
There are two charity schools set up here, and carried on by a
generous subscription, with very good success.
The title of Colchester is in the family of Earl Rivers, and the
eldest son of that family is called Lord Colchester, though as I
understand, the title is not settled by the creation to the eldest
son till he enjoys the title of earl with it, but that the other is
by the courtesy of England; however, this I take ad referendum.
From Colchester I took another step down to the coast; the land
running out a great way into the sea, south and south-east makes
that promontory of land called the Naze, and well known to seamen
using the northern trade. Here one sees a sea open as an ocean
without any opposite shore, though it be no more than the mouth of
the Thames.
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