The English ancestry of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct ...

22 The English Ancestry of
Bishop, to be spent for pious uses." The early history of
these courts is obscure, and there is no apparent reason for
the hasty proceedings in this case. As shown by the lan-
guage and style of the instrument, it was doubtless written
by a cleric, as was then the custom, and probably by the
parish priest of St. Stephen's. We may conjecture that for
convenience he took advantage of the presence in Ipswich,
on that day, of the proper officer. Wodderspoon * gives a
partial list of the incumbents of the Parish. John Bromley
was appointed in 1442, but whether he remained until 1478,
when Henry Barnard took charge, does not appear. The
ancient Will-books were deposited in the "Archdeacon's
Palace," situated on North Gate Street ; a tall gate house
and a deep, recessed doorway in the outer wall to the street,
still remain, to show something of the early building.
That Roger was possessed of "lands and tenements," aside
from the home in which he died, appears from his Will,
but they are not named in the abstract furnished me. He
directed that his interment should be in St. Stephen's
Church. This is one of the oldest Churches in Ipswich ;
it is mentioned in " Domesday," and occupies a site where
stood an older Church in Saxon times, on St. Stephen's Lane,
"a very narrow and crooked avenue lined with odd and un-
shapely houses." The Church is "light-looking," small, and
plain inside and out, and its revenues are also small (£7$ in
1895). The building gives evidence of its great age, and
* " Memorials of the Ancient Town of Ipswich," by John Wodderspoon, London,
1850, pp. 382-3-