An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY It is said that the Manor House at Buxton was a moated one nearly opposite Lammas Church. but as that would be practically in a wet marsh I think it is more likely to have been on a higher ite behind Buxton Mill where there are traces of earthworks. Tl.le barons of Rye no doubt used it as a "grange" to their Mid-Norfolk estates; they kept up their connection with the place, for one of them was a member of a guild there in 1464, and monuments to them were in Buxton Church. Isabel de Rye (afterwards Cressy) bought land in Lammas 1 in 1250, her husband had a deer park at Buxton,. and the name long remained in the district, for in 1251 Robert de Rye was witness to a Jewish declaration as to land in the adjoining village of Hautbois (Davis' Hebrew Deed , p. 50). In 1333 Wirnam Rie was taxed in the Subsidy Roll of Stocton, 2 and he may have been a poor relation of the Ryes of Swanton and Hingham. In 1350 John de Rye was killed in Norwich, apparently in some street fray. He may have been the man of the same name who was serjeant to Waller Turk, sheriff of London, 1334, as the Turks were Norfolk men. I am proud to say that Richard Rye, of Blofield,. was hanged in 1381 for participating in Litester's "Rebellion," one of the most justifiable so called rebellions in English history. Whether William Rye, of Norwich, smith, who in 1435 bought land in Fibriggate (Norwich Deeds Bundle,. 18 m. 20 d.), or Richard Rye, of Norwich, were from Mid-Norfolk I do not know, but it is practically certain some of the Norwich Ryes were connected with the East Norfolk family. After the occurrence of the name at Hautbois in 1251 and at Blafield in 1381, the next time I find the name in East Norfolk is when Robert Rye, of Smallburgh, was rated there in 1525 at the then large sum of 103l : 6. He had two sons, William and Thomas, and by his will be gave a legacy to Christ Church-the Cathedral at Norwich-which might point to the connection with that city, but, on the other hand, it was not unusual for country people to leave 1 My own residence there was a coincidence only, for I only bought the cottage iu which I lived as a week-end retreat from Norwich. "'A searcher at the Record Office misread the place name as. Scottow and so confirmed my previous accounts of the family.