1855, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Suffolk

Lowestoft chapter, page 562

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He was of a restless and fanatical disposition; at first a Benedictine, and afterwards a Carmelite monk; sometimes retiring to his convent for several years, and a others wandering about the country, clothed in slackcloth, girt with an iron chain and crying out in the streets and lanes that "the New Jerusalam, the bride of the Lamb, was shortly to come down from heaven, prepared for her spouse, and that with great joy saw the same in spirit."

On the first step leading to the communion table, is an inscription in the memory of the Rev. John Tanner, who was vicar there for 51 years, and died in 1759. He was brother to Bishop Tanner, author of the Notilia Monastica, of which he completed and published the second edition after brother's death. He rebuilt part of Kirkley Church, and was for some time commissary and official to the archdeacon of Suffolk. He was distinguished for his activity in promoting the interests of religion, and spent a large sum in repairing and embellishng this church.

In 1719, with the aid of £200 from the Governors of Queen Ann's Bounty, and the contributions of the gentlemen of the town and neighbourhood, he purchased the impropriate rectory of Lowestoft for £1050 and settled it up the vicarage for ever; so that the living is now worth about £350 per annum, though valued at only £10. 1s. 0 1/2d. in King's Books, and at £43. 16s. 6d. in the reign Queen Anne. The Bishop of Norwich is patron, and the Rev. Francis Cunningham, M. A. has been vicar since 1810.

The Rev. P. B. Jeckll and the Rev. Edward Rodgers, are the curates; Mr. Hobart Newson, clerk; Mr. Robt. Browne, organist; and John Barrott, sexton.

In the churchyard are many neat monuments, one of which is in memory of the Rev. Robert Potter, a late vicar, who died in 1804, and is well known in the literary world as the translator of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Between the church and the Infirmary are Basket Wells, said to be a corruption of Bess and Kate's Wells, and to have had that name from two old maiden sisters who are traditionally said to have lived a recluse life for many years in the room over the South Porch of the Church. At their death they are said to have left money to make these wells, and to purchase the piece of land adjacent for drying ground, for which the purpose it is still used.

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St. Peter's Chapel of Ease, where the vicar and his curates officiate, was erected in 1832'3, in lieu of the old chapel, now forming part of the Town Hall (See page 558) It is a handsome Gothic fabric, of white brick, and was finished in 1833, at the cost of £3400, of which £600 was given by the Society for Building and Enlarging Churches, and the remainder was raised by subscription, except about £900, obtained by the sale of pews. It was repaired and beautified in 1842, with money raised by the church from the town, rendered it necessary, at an early period, to have a chapel of ease at a more convenient situation.

Before the Reformation there are two chapels here, viz., Good Cross Chapel, which stood near the south end of town, but was destroyed by the sea many years ago; and the Old Chapel, a small thatched fabric, in the centre of the town, which was taken down and rebuilt in 1698, with the corn cross and town chamber adjoining it, a the cost of £350. As already notice, this building was used as a chapel of ease till the completion of St. Peter's Chapel.

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St. John's Church is a handsome district church, which was built by subscription in 1853-4, and consecrated July 15th, in the letter year. It is pleasantly situated in that new, elegant, and rapidly increasing part of the town called South Lowestoft, where the want of a church had been felt for some years in 1851, when a plain building was erected, capable of holding 300 persons, and license for divine worship, with the intention of being converted into school rooms, after the erection of the church.

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