King's Lynn No. 1 / Lena / Lenne / Lun / Lunea

There are five entries for 'Lynn' in the Domesday book under the variant spellings "Lena" and "Lun", but no mention of a church or cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810), who argues at length about the origin of the toponym, notes that "Lynn [...] from the Conqueror's book of Domesday, made in the year 1085, at which time, and in the Confessor's, this town, with the townships or hamlets of West, North, and South Lynn, we find to be all included under the general name of Lena, and Lun, the distinction of West, North. and South not being till some centuries after". Blomefield (ibid.) writes about the "chapel of St. Nicholas": "supposed to have been founded by Turbus or de Turbe Bishop of Norwich, in the reign of King Stephen, who, after it was built and consecrated, gave it to the monks of the priory of Norwich cathedral, with all its profits. At its consecration it was debarred (as a chapel to St. Margaret of the rites of baptism and marriage, to witness its dependency on St. Margaret's, the mother church; but the parishioners, about 25 years after its consecration, attempting to make it a parochial church, occasioned the successour of the founder, Bishop John de Oxford, solemnly to decree, that it should be a chapel only, dependant absolutely on the church of St. Margaret. However, the same humour still prevailed, and one of the chaplains officiating herein, procured a license from the Pope, that it might enjoy the rite of baptism, which bull was recalled at the instance of the Bishop, and the prior and convent of Norwich. In 1609, was the last effort to make it parochial and independent, but on an hearing in the consistory court at Norwich, it appearing by depositions, that all the inhabitants within the limits of St. Nicholas's chapel, though they received the sacrament or communion there, yet paid their personal tithes and offerings to the farmers of the rectory (or dissolved priory) of St. Margaret, and though persons were buried at St. Nicholas, yet none were baptized or married there, without special license or dispensation, and that there was no font in the chapel, and that from its foundation, to the priory's dissolution, it was served by a monk of the priory of St. Margaret, assigned by the prior, and afterwards served by a curate; it was over-ruled." In an aside in which Blomefield (ibid.) labels "Concerning the Antiquity of St. Nicholas's Chapel", he writes: "Moreover it is recorded (as I before intimated) that in the year 1379, Pope Urban VI. sent his bull hither (which was received with great veneration) to authorise and allow the baptising of infants, and other adult persons in this chapel, which doubtless before were always initiated in the parish church of St. Margaret: that part of the old font, called the bason, then made use of in this holy place, (before the erecting that now standing, granted and consecrated by S. Harsnell, D.D. and Bishop of Norwich, in the year 1627, and which resembles that at St. Margaret's) I am prone to believe is the same which I observed to lie upon the ground (with the pedestal at some distance from it) among the rubbish and lumber, in a certain place on the north side of the quire, perhaps formerly some oratory, chapel, or chantry. It is of free-stone, 164 inches in diameter, upon the superficies within the verge, and 9 inches deep perpendicular from the bottom, carved on the outside". [NB: is this a typo? was the decimal point missed in the transcription? the diameter given in Blomefield [cf. supra], 164 inches is totally out of the question; if it were 16.4 it might be within reason; the 9 inches given as depth of the basin well sounds plausible for either a stoup or a font of the period]. It appears from Blomefield's research that the Chapel of St. Nicholas did not have baptisms or marriages despite the efforts of those concerned, nor did it own a baptismal font, not, at least, until the appearance of the object noted in this entry. This object is described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as the earlier of two fonts in this church that now stands "disused upon the floor"; the same source (ibid.) describes its ornamentation as panels and quatrefoil motifs on the sides of the basin. Pevsner & Wilson (1999) write: "Stoup. In the N[orth] aisle a former stoup, in appearance similar to a small font. Perp[endicular] with quatrefoiled circles and one figure." Illustrated in Knott (2006). The 15th-century (?) basin has a monkish figure on its front side holding a scroll with a carved inscription; the other sides are decorated with quatrefoils inscribed in circles; te thick piping from the sides of the basin continues onto the tall underbowl; the sides of the underbowl have trefoil arch-heads; it is mounted on a modern octagonal pedestal base decorated with mouldings. [cf. Index entry for King's Lynn No. 2 for the early-17th century font in this same church]. [NB: Pevsner & Wilson (1999) report a font in St. Margaret's church; it is from 1875; the fabric of the church goes back possibly to the 12th century, but we have no information on the earliy font(s)]]