Out of the Long Ago

by Maud Milgate

Two Breckland Men

Culford Hall stands in that wild tract of country known as Breckland.

Over 400 square miles of wild heath and silent afforestation with several vast expanses of shallow water known as Meres, more or less in accessible except on foot. The soil, such as it is, is sand and many flints abound. Thetford lies roughly on the heart of it and at nearby Brandon, the unusual trade of flint knapping still thrives. This wild and untamable country had a great attraction for me and I should have loved to explore it on foot. I saw something of its remoteness from the train going from Wymondham to Thetford and a little here and there from car rides but its real lure could only be felt by walking. Much of it was forced into use by both World Wars, for growing pine trees and for Army training, in fact great tracts of it are still closed by the War Office. Anyway in and around this fascinating tract of land this ancestry search has taken me. All the novels of Michael Homes had a Breckland background because he loved it. These are unfortunately now out of print. I also read all the County books on the area and from this reading I was struck by the similarity and divergence of two of its men.

Into this Breckland countryside in 1737-8 were born two men who were destined to influence the history of the world. Thomas Paine, a poor Quaker's son was born at Thetford and a much wanted heir was born to the aristocratic family of Cornwallis of Culford.

One was born to rule, and the other to erupt.

They grew up within seven miles of each other and no two men could have been more completely at opposite ends of the social scale.

Son of the 1st Earl Cornwallis, Charles was born on the last day of December 1738. He was educated at Eton and then at a Military Academy at Turin and passed out a professional soldier at the age of 18. His father died and he became the 2nd Earl and was later made a Marquis and was destined to become the most famous Cornwallis of them all. He enjoyed entertaining at Culford and at the age of 30 married 21 year old Miss Jemima Tulliken Jones. She was a sad looking though beautiful young woman and the marriage was a love match. She was happy at Culford while her husband was with her but grieving sorrowfully when her husband's duties as a soldier took him away from home. He was also Aide-de-Camp and Groom of the Bedchamber to George III. They had two children, Mary and Charles but before the little boy was 2 years old was broke out with America and Cornwallis was given Command of a Division of the British Army. So upset was his wife at his going that she sought permission of the King to allow Cornwallis to return home. This was granted, but Cornwallis refused to comply. He was a man of strong principles, a soldier from his youth, and it was anathema to him to think of giving up his position. His wife and 2 children saw him off at Portsmouth and returned sorrowfully to Culford. It was spring time and the Park was beautiful but she saw no consolation in it or in her children. Her sadness turned to illness and towards the end ot the year her doctors realized her condition was dangerous and sent for her husband. He arrived home at the end of January 1779, but it was too late to save her and she died on 13th Febuary. She confided to her maid that she was dying of a broken heart and requested that no stone be carver to her memory, but a thorn tree be planted on her grave. The inscription on her coffin read "Jemimer, Countess Cornwallis, died 13th Febuary, 1779 aged 31½ years." A thorn tree still grows near the vault on the north side of the church, significant not only of Lady Jemimer's sorrow but of her husbands anguish in losing her. He never married again. Lord Cornwallis returned to America and commanded his Division until the disastrous defeat at York Town in 1781 when he surrendered with all his men to General Washington. Cornwallis was not blamed for this defeat and 5 years later he followed Warren Hastings as Governor of Bengal. He later became Viceroy of Ireland and he described this as his idea of "perfect misery". He signed the Peace of Amiens negotiated with Napoleon in 1802. In 1778 he had been given the Freedom of the City of Norwich. He was also a Knight of the Garter. In 1804 he was again requested to go to India where he died at Ghazeepore in 1805.

A monument was subsequently erected to the Marquis's memory in the crypt of St,Paul's Cathedral, and a model of this can be seen in the chapel at Audley End near Saffron Walden, Essex. He was a man of the highest integrity, serious minded and devoted to duty. He carried out his tasks to the best of his ability and served his country with all his heart.

So much for the Marquis.

Now we come to the other man, Thomas Paine, who was born in 1737 in White Hart St. Thetford, the son of a Quaker Stay maker he was educated at Thetford Gammar School and his father taught him the stay making trade but he was a wild and unruly youth given to wandering his native heath. Was thrashed half to death by the Squire for trespassing and ill-treated by the Squire's son and his college friends as a holiday pastime. Revolt against the upper classes burned into his soul and he ran away to the gin drinking alleys of London and lived like a rat in its streets. Then followed a number of years when he wandered the south coast towns as a staymaker, cobbler, weaver and Excise man, until finally he ended up in Sandwich, Kent here he met and fell in love with and married ary ambert a servant girl. He was 22 she was a year or two younger. He took a shop and started up for himself as a staymaker but he was hopelessly unpractical and the business failed. Evicted, they wandered on to other towns, stealing their food and sleeping under hedges. They ended up in Margate, where Mary by this time pregnant became very ill. He slaved away at his trade and at earning money anywhere to give her food and warmth, finally selling his tools to give her medical aid, but she died, and her death hung round his neck like a stone ever more. His grief turned to blazing anger over the many social injustices of the day.

In his mid-thirties he went to America, bearing a letter of introduction given him by Dr.Benjamin Franklin. He settled Philadelphia and eventually came to edit the "Pennsylvanian Magazine".

He shed his brutishness and was happy for the first time in his life. He had Always wanted to write and he identified himself with America and read deeply. For the first time he had good clothes on his back and was accepted socially. Here was a new breed of men, made not out of blood or class or birth, but out of freedom and a man could make his own way.

He met Col. Washington and Randolph and was friends with Jefferson and believed Passionately in the War of Independence. His book "Common Sense" incited the Americans to break with England. He was offered a Major's commission in the army, refused, but followed the drum urging the men on by his writings, until the French Navy by winning the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, finally prevented all support reaching Yorktown and Cornwallis was forced to surrender. Before the Battle of Chesapeake Bay American Independence was probable. Afterwards it was certain. No man was more aware than Washington of the importance of sea-power. France had provided that power.

Thomas Paine for a time became Secretary for Foreign Affairs and helped with the framing of the Constitution. Finally he wrote "The times that tried men's souls are over and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished…….", and he returned to England.

Here for a time he moved in London society meeting Pitt and Fox but the outbreak of the French Revolution inspired him to write "The Rights of Man" and for this he was prosecuted foe sedition and fled to France in 1792. Romney the painter wrote to him "They're going to hang you Paine, sure as God". France welcomed him and gave him a seat on the National Convention but he later fell foul of Robespiere who imprisoned him and listed him for the guillotine. Only a fever and the fall of Robespiere saved his life. Released, they gave him back his seat on the Convention and later he met Napoleon who said "a statue of gold should be erected to you in every city in the world".

In the year that Cornwallis signed the Peace of Armines with Napoleon, Paine returned to America but "The Age of Reason", which he had written in France, had antagonized his former friends. Dejected and old he retired to the farm in New Rochelle which Congress had granted him after the War. Here he died unnoticed in 1809 and because of his beliefs or lack of them no religious sect would bury him and he was interned on his own land.

Ten years later a man named William Cobbett dug up his bones and brought them to England intending to exhibit them in various cities, but the British Government refused to allow this and the bones disappeared. Thomas Paine has no known grave.

These two men, sons of Breckland soil, who may never have met, but who must have heard of each other, lived lives which ranged over much the same parts of the world. Cornwallis said "The World is my Oyster". Paine said "The World is my Village" and "Where freedom is not. there is my country".

Both were lonely men, having lost their wives in their youth. Both were far-seeing. Cornwallis's rule in India was considered very enlightened in his day. Paine was a man before his time in envisaging a United States of the World, yet Cornwallis did his best to prevent the independence of America which Thomas Paine advocated.

Cornwallis was born to birth and privilege, had an illustrious career and died full of honours, but today he is hardly remembered, although a few public houses bear his name.

Thomas Paine was born in obscurity, lived a chequered life much of it in poverty and squalor and yet 200 years later his name is remembered. Even the tiny house in Sandwich where he lived with Mary Lambert bears the proud inscription "Thomas Paine lived here". In Thetford in front of the Kings House stands a beautiful gilt statue to "Thomas Paine, Citizen of the World" erected by the generosity of the Americans. During World War II they named a Flying Fortress after him "Tom Paine (No. 230793)" painted on the port side of its nose these words of Paine's-
"Tyranny, like Hell is not easily Conquered".

Neither have the English done anything in literature to commemorate the Marquis who served his country so well. The Rev. Cory Elvin in his book "Guide to Brome Church" collected much Cornwallis material which he hoped to use in writing more about the Cornwallis whom he called "the greatest of them all" but he died before he could do it. Mrs. Gertrude Storey naturally included a lot about the Cornwallises in her book "Culford" but it was a book about the house not one man.

A professional author I know collected a lot of material for a bookon his life but it was never written. In the end it was left to the Americans to publish a book on "Cornwallis and the War of Independence" by Franklin and Mary Wickwire. It is a very fine book and portrays Cornwallis's part in the War with the utmost fairness. The only regret is that the book finishes when the war ends. They would have made a fine job of recording the remainder of his life.

Of Thomas Paine, Howard Fast's novel "Citizen Tom Paine" gives a good idea of his life In tracing my ancestry I have read much of these two men which held my interest and fired my imagination. There was a lot to admire in the Marquis' character and Thomas Paine's destiny was quite incredible. Writing of women of his day Paine said "When they are not beloved they are nothing and when they are they are tormented. They have almost equal cause to be afraid of indifference and love. Over three quarters of the globe Nature has placed them between contempt and misery".

He fervently believed that if all men were educated and money more evenly distributed, wars would cease. How wrong he was but perhaps 200 years is not long enough.