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Levington, or Leuestuna
This village gave birth to that great and benevolent man, Sir Robert Hitcham,
Knt., Serjeant at Law; of whom Mr. Ryce, in his manuscript of Suffolk families,
gives the following brief notice: "In Levington was born Sir Robert Hitcham,
Knt., the King's Serjeant, who gave to good uses Framlingham Castle, together
with the lands, and mannour, and advowson, worth neere a thousand pounds per
annum. He was not borne to £200 per annum (nor to £20, nor to 2., in the
margin), and rose to an estate of about £1,500 per annu. He was a passionate
man, but had a good wit, was very learned in the lawes, and spoke to admiration.
He left Robert Butts, Gent., his sister's sonne, heire to his estate in
Levington, which had descended upon him from his ancestours. Mr. Butts is now
living, this year 1655."
To this may be added, that he acquired the rudiments of his education at the
Free Grammar School of Ipswich; and at an early age, removed from thence to
Pembroke College, Cambridge; where he directed his studies, with great success,
to the profession of the law, and afterwards entered himself at Gray's Inn.
In 1596, he represented the borough of West Looe, in Cornwall, in Parliament; in
1603, he was appointed Attorney General to the Queen, and became Lent Reader at
Gray's Inn the following year: in 1616, he was made the King's senior Serjeant
at Law; upon which he received the honour of Knighthood.
In the same year he held the office of Town Councillor for Ipswich; and was
chosen, in 1623, one of the representatives for Orford, in this county, and so
continued until 1628. He purchased the Framlingham property in 1635, and about
the same period, a house in Ipswich, formerly called, and well known as
"Seckford House," or the "Great House," in St. Matthew's (now occupied by
William Rodwell, Esq., the present proprietor), where he passed the remainder of
his life.
Sir Robert made his will in the following year, and devised his lordship of
Burvalls, in this parish, to his nephew, Robert Butts, and his heirs, subject to
certain payments to the testator's sister, to whom, and to her heirs, he also
gave a certain farm, called "Watkins." He further wills, that there be presently
built, after his decease, one Almshouse, at Levington, for six female persons,
of the poorest and impotent of Levington and Nacton; the same to be built upon
his tenement near the street there, and they to have the like allowance in all
things, as the poor of Framlingham are appointed to have: to begin first with
Levington, and so successively.
His will bears date the 8th of August, 1636, and he deceased the 15th of the
same month and year. His remains were interred at Framlingham; and in Mr.
Kirby's account of that parish, his benevolent bequests to that town are
particularized.
The advowson is consolidated with Nacton, and the patronage of it belongs to Sir
Robert Harland, Bart.
ARMS. Hitcham: gules; on a chief, or, three torteauxes.
In 1801, some men, in digging gravel, half-a-mile above Levington Creek,
discovered an urn, containing some hundreds of Roman coins, of Gordian, Maximus,
Posthumus, and other Emperors and Empresses of that period.
County
of Suffolk
Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page |
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