Norfolk: West Lynn

Parish Register Extracts

October 1811: Ferry Accident

This has been found by the Norfolk transcribers for FreeREG, in the West Lynn parish register of baptisms 1782-1812 and burials 1783-1812. It is inserted after the burials for 1812.

Memento: On Saturday evening the 5th of October 1811 ten persons were drowned in crossing the river from West Lynn to King's Lynn, being in a very small boat and overloaded. N.B. John Smith the Ferryman was among the number, leaving a wife and five children to lament his loss. On Sunday morning at the hour of service five of the poor souls lay in the Church of West Lynn.

In the burials for 1811 are the following entries: James Keel Oct 5th } Drowned
Robert Pilcher Oct 5th }
Jonathan Wright Oct 16th. Drowned the 5th
John Smith, Ferryman Nov 13th. Drowned Oct 5th

It would suggest that the bodies of the first two men were among those lying in the church on the Sunday morning, and that the other two were only found some time later. The other six people would have been buried in their home parishes.