Norfolk Record Office

The Accounts of the Chamberlains of Norwich, 1539-45

Accounts are an important source of evidence for students of late medieval and early modern history. The requirement that officials should produce minutely detailed lists of all the individual sums that they received and all the money that they paid out sprang from a desire to avoid fraud. As a result, these documents contain a treasure trove of information that is often unavailable elsewhere. How else would we know that in 1542 torrential rain led to such serious flooding in Norwich that the streets and drains were badly damaged, and piles of debris had to be removed from the marketplace? The accounts kept by the sixteenth-century chamberlains illuminate many other aspects of life in England’s second city, from the treatment of homeless beggars to the lavish gifts presented to local dignitaries. Those for the years 1539 to 1545, which have just been published by the Norfolk Record Society, cover an unusually challenging period in the city’s history, when the ruling elite struggled with the problems posed by religious change, economic recession, widespread poverty, food shortages and disease.

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