THE CALLS OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK THEIR PASTON CONNECTIONS AND DESCENDANTS BY CHARLES S. ROMANES PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE EDITOR BY T. AND A. CO NS TABLE PRINTERS TO HIS MAJESTY 1920 CHARLES S. ROMANES (ii) THE CALLS OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK, THEIR PASTON CONNECTIONS AND DESCENDANTS THE Calls of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cornwall are an old English family who have taken part in many political and ecclesiastical struggles that have occurred in Britain. They came prominently into notice during the Wars· of the Roses, the Reformation, and the Cromwellian period. They ·thus shared in the disputes~ struggles, fortunes, and sufferings of the party whose cause they espoused. The editor of these Memorials has in his possession a copy of a manuscript account of the Norfolk family ,vritten by Martin Call on 27th May 1751 at Balshagray, in the parish of Govan in Scotland, now forming part of Partick and Govan, and also Martin Calrs autobiography, both of which he acquired through his great-grand­ mother, Lucy Call, once of Alnwick, afterwards of St. Petersburg, daughte·r of James Call, Alnwick, and granddaughter of Martin Call. While printing these two manuscripts for private circulation among his relatives and friends, the editor has added an account of Martin Call's ancestors, descendants, and connections collected by him from every available source. To add to any interest he has awakened by this ·narrative he has illustrated his work by portraits and views. It is probably futile to attempt to explain the origin of the name of Call. It has been suggested that it was Welsh and meant' clever,' or was a species of cap of ·network for the head. Kall in Welsh meant crafty or cunning. Calla in Anglo-Saxon was a man and Kall Koul an island. (D. E. Davy's Suffolk Collection, British Mus. Addl. MSS. 19160.) But all these suggestions are scarcely beyond the region of conjecture. We think that it has a common origin with such names as Cole, Cale, Cally, Callow, upon whic~ we cannot throw any light unless it is from the simple Celtic word, Coil, which means 'wood.' A 2 THE CALLS OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK THE MSS. OF MARTIN CALL It having pleased the Almighty to bless me with long life and more than common health and strength for my years (being now in my 76th year) and having outlived all my relations that I know of, of my name, and having out of 12 children, but 3 sons left (Martin, James and Thomas) and they -ignorant of their family and none other left to inform them, I think it highly my duty to give them a short Memorial of it. -I had it from my father John Call, ap.d he from his father Martin Call and other relatives confirming the same, and they by Tradition from Father to son, that we are originally Saxons, our very name confirming it, Call being the Saxon word for bald (as in their language Kaelth Cop for bald pate), and that we came in with the Saxons in the 8th Century ; that we were then three brothers, the one settling in the Highlands of Scotland (from whence we presume the McCalls, the McAuleys and McCallas, in their Highland way of writing the name, proceeds). The word Mac which a great part of the Highland gentlemen conti_nue to prefix to their surnames, is in great esteen1 with them, all pretending to high blood and ancient family, as the Ap8 (for Apshenking) the native Welsh Gentry and the O's (as O'Neil) for the native Irish Gentry. Another brother settled somewhere in the west of England which I can give no account of, or ever heard tell of the name that way, only of one William Call, whose name I saw, signed to an Address to the parliament from Cornwall in King William's time. The other brother settled in the north east part of England and chiefly in the County of Norfolk, from whence we proceed. And the furthest I can go back with any other authority than tradition, is from Richard Call of Backton, and his son John Call of Little Melton in Norfolk, Esqrs who by a Daughter of the then Sir John Paston, Bart. (whose family came afterwards to be dignified with the noble Title of Earl of Yarmouth) had many sons, and among t_hem my Greatgrandfather, Nicholas Call, his son and heir who lived in Lyn or Kings Lyn in Norfolk and had 9 sons, 8 of them being in arms with him and the rest of the inhabitants in defence of the town against that transcendant villain and infamous usurper, Oliver Cromwell, who with his arbitrary Sequestrations and other hellish devices found PASTON CHURCH LIT fLE MELTON ?\L\LTBY CHURCH (1919) THEIR CONNECTIONS AND DESCENDANTS 3 means to ruin my Greatgrandfather (though then a wealthy man) and all his posterity. Too many the like instances have we seen in these om, days, of too many brave men, and great estates ruined for their (now mistaken) loyalty. My Greatgrandfather died and his six sons, leaving only my Grandfather Martin Call and his two younger brothers, Robert who died Fellow of Peterhouse College in Cambridge and his younger brother, Nicholas, who died, leaving one.son Thomas Call, who had an only daughter and she married to one Mr. Hawkins, by whom she had one son and two daughters, who are all with her since dead. My Grandfathe-r Martin Call practised Physick and Chirurgery in great repute, first in Swaffam Market in Norfolk, till Oliver's malice reached him, who for his Father's and Brothers' loyalty in Lynn, put him in prison, of which, by the help of .Aqua Fortis, he got out then, but by a strict ' hue and cry ' after him ,vas taken and a second time confined, with an intent to hang him, but before bis tryall came on, he made a second escape and got into Holland and there remained till the happy Restoration of King Charles the Second. When he returned he settled and opened an Apothecary's shop in Thetford, in Norfolk, and practised Physick and Chirurgery there with great success, and for his facetious conversation and genteel behaviour was taken up with the best in Town and Country. He married a daughter of [Sir Robert] Wright Esqre a Justice of Peace of Sandy [Santon] Downham near Thetford, by whom he had only my Uncle Martin Call, whom he brought up to his own business, and my Father, John Call. My Uncle Martin died and left two sons, Martin, who died young, and John, who went off and was not heard tell of when I left England, nor since by all the enquiries I could make. My Uncle also left three daughters, who n1arried in the neighbourhood of Thetford. My Father John Call married Mary Cannon [or Canham] a daughter of Geo. Cannon of Swaffam Market aforesaid, of a family of better, blood there than fortune, by whom he had me, my brother George, and four sisters, who are dead childless, so that I am with my three sons the only males left of that formerly worthy name to hand it down to futw"e ages, that I can hear tell of. N.B.-Tbis same· John Call of Little Melton, Esqre lived in Queen Elizabeth's reign, ,:vhen she sent out her heralds-at-Arms throughout England to examine and try what tytle every Gentleman 4 THE CALLS OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK had to the coat of arms they then pretended to. In their Norfolk circuit, they minetted down and ascertained this same John Call of Little Melton, Esqre in Norfolk bearing the same coat of arms we now bear, and have done ever since, from Father to Son, to be his undoubted right and title, and was then reputed to be a man worth upwards of three thousand pounds sterling a year, which was as much thought of then as £5000 nowadays. So much for the ..A.ntiquity of our Family, being according to Tradition from Father to Son above nine hundred years standing at 1751, we coming in the year 820 or there about: and that we are the elder branch, I have sufficiently proved that for more than 200 years past. That before these 200. years there were younger brothers branching out which was not my business to take notice of, if there were any alive my design being only to filch out the elder branch. I was acquainted with some of their posterity and one or two of their ancient Men, who allowed us to be the elder branch as I have proved, and heirs to that estate at Little Melton, if Oliver had not ruined it, and consequently left us nothing but the wide world to seek our bread in. (Signed) M. CALL. BALSHAGRAY, 27th May 1751. HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY Since I have given an account of our Family in general I think a short account of my life in particular, with the several changing scenes thereof, will not be unacceptable to my own Children. 1676. Upon a sunday about midnight on the 16th day of April 1676 I was born ; and as I grew up my Father took especial care of my education, kept me close to school first through the English, next to the Latin School, and when I had attained a reasonable proficiency 1693. in Latin and Greek, at the age of 17 years, and in the year 1693, admitted me a student in Caius College, Cambridge, in order to qualify me either for Divinity, Civil Law or Physick, as my own genius should lead me.