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Worlingham or Worlingaham
This estate was formerly vested in the Duke family. John Duke, Esq., who
deceased about 1649, seized of the principal lordship of Diss, in Norfolk,
resided here. It was afterwards the seat of John Felton, Esq., youngest son of
Sir John Felton, Knt, of Playford Hall; who erected the present mansion, which
has been altered, enlarged, and improved, so as to leave but little of the
original building.1 Mr. Felton deceased here in
1703, and was interred in this parish church.
His only daughter and heir, Elizabeth, married Sir John Playters, Bart., of
Sotterley; who sold this, with some other estates, to Sir Thos. Robinson, Bart.,
son of Sir Lumley, and grandson of Sir Thomas Robinson, Knt., Prothonotary of
the Court of Common Pleas, of Kentwell Hall, in Melford; who was created a
Baronet by King Charles II., in 1681-2. Sir Thomas made this his chief
residence. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Hare, Bart., of Stow
Bardolph, in Norfolk; but deceased without issue, in 1743, when the Baronetcy
expired. His remains were deposited in this parish church.
After which, the estate was purchased by Robert Sparrow, Esq., who died seized
thereof in 1766; when Robert Sparrow, Esq., his son and heir, succeeded; who
deceased in 1822, and devised this property to Archibald Acheson, second Earl of
Gosford; who in 1805, married Mary, his only daughter. In 1835, Lord Gosford was
created a Peer of the United Kingdom, by the title of Baron Worlingham, of
Beccles, in the county of Suffolk.
Here were formerly two parishes, St. Mary and St. Peter, or Great and Little
Worlingham; and John Jernegan, senior, by his will, which was proved in 1474,
gave the latter manor, which he lately purchased of William Core, to his son
Osbert, for life. John Jernegan resided at Worlingham, at the time of his
decease.
Sir Thomas Gooch, Bart., successively Bishop of Bristol, Norwich, and Ely, was a
native of this village; being second son of Thomas Gooch, Esq., by Frances his
wife, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Lane, Esq., of Worlingham. He succeeded to
the Baronetcy upon the decease of his elder brother, in 1751, without issue; and
married Mary, daughter of Dr. William Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, and sister
of Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London; by whom he had an only son, who succeeded
as 3rd Baronet. He married, secondly, Harriet, daughter of Sir Thomas Miller,
Bart., by whom he had issue; his lordship married, thirdly, Mary Compton, niece
of the Eight Rev. and Eight Hon. Henry, Earl of Northampton, Bishop of London,
in 1675, by whom he had no child. He deceased in 1754.
Dr. Gooch was of Caius College, Cambridge, of which he was Fellow, and
afterwards President; and was chosen Vice Chancellor of that University in 1717,
and two following years; in which time, by contributions, and his good
management, he raised 10,000; which has since been expended in the erection of
the present Senate House there. He published three Sermons, preached on
different public occasions.
ARMS. Robinson: vert; on a chevron, between three bucks trippant,
or, three cinquefoils, gules. Sparrow: ermine; three white roses, seeded,
or. Acheson: argent; an eagle displayed, with two heads, sable, beaked
and membered, or; on a chief, vert, two mullets, pierced of the chief.
CHARITIES. The town estate here, of which the original acquisition is
unknown, consists of the following parcels: A messuage, called the Guildhall, in
Worlingham; rent £5: land, in Ellough, two
acres; rent £8: marsh lands, in this parish,
called Pound's Half Acre; rent 10s. 6d.: nine acres, in the same parish; rent
£10: messuage and blacksmith's premises, in
Worlingham, 3A. 2 1P.; rent £10. The
declaration of trust is in these terms: "That the rents should be applied for
payment of the leet fee, of the whole town of Worlingham; and for repairing the
buildings on the estate, and the parish church of Worlingham; and for putting
out the poor children, belonging to the said town, apprentices; and for the
teaching of the children of such poor people, to read English, and for
instructing them in the church catechism, and for such other purposes for the
good and benefit of the said town; provided that no part of the said rents
should be laid out in beer, or any other liquors, at bonfires, or
perambulations, or on account of repairing the highways." Thomas Atkin, vicar of
Mutford, gave Pain's Close, in this parish, of the yearly value of 40s., for
stipends, for three scholars of the diocese of Norwich, in Gonville and Caius
College, Cambridge. This close is in three divisions, 30 acres: money rent,
£1 6s. 8d.; corn rent, wheat l½
qrs. 2 bushels, malt 3 bushels.
1. Mr. Davy gives a view of this mansion, in its
present state, in his "Seats of the Nobility and Gentry of Suffolk."'
County
of Suffolk
Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page |
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