Ilketshall St. Laurence

ILKETSHALL ST. LAURENCE.

Chief part of this parish lies in Sir Windham Dalling's manor of Ilketshall Bardolph. I can discover no traces of the old Bardolph Hall.

There is also a manor called Ilketshall Seckford, which, about the year 1600, belonged to Isaac Cooper, Esq., who had his seat here; for Judith Eachard, widow, by her will, dated June 27, 1657, authorized John Eachard, Gent., and Laurence Eachard, Clerk, of Yoxford, her executors, to sell "all that her manor of Ilketshall Seckford, and all her capital messuage thereupon built, situate and being in the parish of St. Laurence in Ilketshall, &c., which were devised to her by the last will and testament of Isaac Cooper, late of St. Laurence aforesaid, Esq., her late deceased father." In 1662, the executors surrendered to John Vynar, Gent.; and in 1671, Richard Vynar, his brother and heir, was admitted.

In 1696, Samuel Pycroft, Clerk, and in 1710, Samuel his son, were lords. (fn. 62)

In 1672, Sir Edward Bysshe, Clarenceux, granted or confirmed to this family of Eachard the following arms: Erm. on a bend azure 3 chessrooks or; (fn. 63) but as their predecessors at Barsham bore the charges, as given in that parish, they were probably at that time assumptive.

The Church

of this parish was appropriated to the Priory of Bungay by the Countess Gundreda, its foundress, in the reign of Henry II., and became at the Dissolution a perpetual curacy of the certified value of £5. 12s. 4d. Its revenues were then granted to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. Anthony Style, Gent., died in 1739, impropriator of the great and small tithes, allowing a stipend of £5 per annum to the curate, "according to ancient custom," who officiated once a month, and performed other occasional duty. In 1810, James Chapman was the impropriator. The benefice has been twice augmented with Queen Anne's bounty, by which means an estate has been purchased which yields to the officiating minister £15 per annum, after paying taxes and repairing the premises; and an additional estate in Topcroft, in Norfolk, which renders about £28 per annum; in consideration of which increase of salary the minister performed divine service, in 1801, once a fortnight. Service is now performed here every Sunday, in the morning and afternoon, alternately; and the fabric of the church, which a few years since was in a most woeful and disreputable condition, has been repaired and restored to a neat and creditable state. The present impropriator is the Rev. Jeremy Day, of Hetherset, in Norfolk, and the incumbent the Rev. James Cutting Safford, of Mettingham, who is also the patron of the perpetual curacy.

The church comprises a small nave and chancel with a square tower, in which hang two bells. On a brass plate on the floor of the nave is the following legend:

Maria Doggett, daughter of James Chapman, of Bungay, died October 18, 1819, aged 10 years.

The registers commence in 1559.

Perpetual Curates of Ilketshall St. Laurence.

Estimatur ad xl^s. Synodalia per ann: xij^d. Denarij S. Petri, iv^d.

Population, in 1841, 221.