e their way. Miss Reeve--who wrote the 'Old English
Baron,' a popular tale years ago--was the daughter of the Rev. William
Reeve of St. Nicholas Church. Another Ipswich lady, Mrs. Keeley, who
lives on in her grand old age, was certainly one of the most popular
performers of her day.

Two hundred years ago, no city man was better known than Thomas Firmin,
who was born at Ipswich, described in his biography as 'a very large and
populous town in the county of Suffolk,' in 1632. He was of Puritan
parentage, and bound apprentice in the city of London, and then began
business as a linen-draper on the modest capital of 100 pounds. In a
little while he married and was enabled to dispense a generous
hospitality, seeking all opportunities of becoming acquainted with
persons of worth, whether foreigners or his fellow-countrymen. Amongst
his special friends were Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, and Archbishop
Tillotson, at that time the afternoon lecturer at St. Lawrence's. During
the time of the plague he managed to secure work for the London poor, and
after the fire he erected a warehouse on the banks of the Thames, where
coal and corn were sold at cost price. In 1676 he built a great factory
in Little Britain, for the employment of the needy and industrious in the
linen manufacture; he also relieved poor debtors in prison. The great
work of his later years was in connection with the Blue Coat School. He
was also one of the Governors of St. Thomas's Hospital, which he did much
to rescue from the wretched condition in which he found it. When the
French refugees, in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
were driven over to this country, Firmin exerted himself powerfully on
their behalf, and sent some of them to Ipswich to engage in manufacturing
there. He also had a good deal to do with Ireland, when, as now, the
country was torn by contending factions. At a large expense he also
educated many boys and set them up in trade. He was also one of the
first of the avowed and ardent friends and advocates of a free thought,
of which there were few supporters in England at that day--even among the
countrymen of Milton and John Locke. Unitarians were rare in the days
when Firmin proclaimed himself one. Altogether he was one of the best
men of his age, and well deserved to be buried in Christchurch, Newgate,
among the Bluecoat School boys, to whom he had ever been such a friend,
and to have the memorial pillar erecte