Thomas Martin of Palgrave

In 1710 Thetford was visited by the elderly Peter Le Neve, Norroy King of Arms and first President of the revived Society of Antiquaries.

Le Neve sought a guide to the many antiquities of the town only to be told that no-one knew more than thirteen-year-old Master Martin.

Cole, who often met him at Sir James Burrough's lodge at Caius College, and who had also been at his house at Palgrave, said, "he was a blunt, rough, honest, downright man; of no behaviour or guile; often drunk in a morning with strong beer, and for breakfast, when others had tea or coffee, he had beefsteak or other strong meat.

For many years his "hoary hairs were the crown of glory for the anniversary of the Society of Antiquaries," of which he was so long the senior fellow (Gent.

Soon afterward he married Frances, widow of Peter Le Neve, Norroy king-of-arms, then living at Great Witchingham, Norfolk.

By his marriage with the widow Martin illegally came into the possession of a collection of English antiquities and pictures intended by Le Neve for donation to a public institution.

He died at Palgrave on 7 March 1771, and was buried, with others of his family, in the porch of the parish church, where a small mural monument of white marble, with an English inscription, was erected by his friend Sir John Fenn.

[1] The project was stopped by Worth's sudden death, and the manuscript was purchased by Thomas Hunt, bookseller, of Harleston, Norfolk; who subsequently sold it, together with the undigested materials, copyright, and plates, to Richard Gough.

A memoir of Martin was communicated by Sir John Cullam; the public were indebted to Francis Grose for a new set of the plates; and the coins were arranged by Benjamin Bartlett.

Two volumes, almost entirely in Martin's handwriting, with some notes of Blomefield, Ives, and others, by 1893 came into the possession of G. G. Milner-Gibson Cullum of Hardwick House, Suffolk.

In addition to these Cullum had a thin notebook on some Norfolk churches; and some of Martin's notes passed to the family of Mills of Saxham.

Another volume of Martin's notes was sold with the books of John Gough Nichols, and is in the library of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology.