e commodious than heretofore; and here all
county business is transacted, and the summer assizes held.

The town of _Nor_-_wic_ probably soon succeeded the building of the
Castle, and became occupied by the Anglo-Romans, from Castor, at which
time it appears to have been chiefly inhabited by fishermen and
merchants. According to ancient manuscripts, a large arm of the sea
flowed up to Norwich, till about the time of William the Conqueror.
There exists positive evidence of Norwich being a fishing town in the
reign of Canute, about the year 1020. In the time of Edward the
Confessor, about the year 1050, it appears to have had 25 churches, and
1320 Burgesses; during the peaceable reign of Edward, and his successor,
Harold, it continued to increase in wealth and population. In the year
1075, it experienced a serious decrease by siege; in about the year 1085,
according to Doomsday book, a great number of houses were uninhabited,
yet the churches were increased to 54, and the houses to 738, which,
allowing six persons to each house, makes the population 4428. In the
reign of William II. the bishop's see was removed from Thetford hither,
which together with a great influx of Jews at that time, made a
considerable increase to the population. In the reign of Henry I. the
government of the city was separated from the castle jurisdiction and in
the following reign licence was granted for Norwich to have coroners and
bailiffs. In the time of Richard I. 1193, the inhabitants were called
citizens.

The city wall was begun in 1294, and finished in 1320.

Previous to the plague in 1348, according to Blomfield, the population
amounted to 70,000; but, surely, this account as applied to the city,
must appear incredible from the extent of the walls, and from the
increase of population since 1085, a term of 263 years, the population
must have increased sixteen fold--a circumstance, I believe, unparalleled
in the annals of History.

In 1336, a great influx of Flemings in consequence of religious
persecution, settled in Norwich, and introduced the worsted manufactory.

Henry IV. in the year 1403, granted the city a charter, which made
Norwich a county of itself; and from this time it was governed by a mayor
instead of bailiffs; and in 1406, another charter was obtained for
regulating the mode of choosing the mayor, sheriffs, &c.

This city has suffered greatly at various times by the plague and
scarcity, and few places have sustai