The Bishop seems to have landed at Yarmouth about the both of June;
he did not at once push on to report himself to the King; urgent
private affairs detained him in his native county. Seventeen or
eighteen miles to the south-west of Yarmouth lies the village of
Gillingham, where the Bishop's brother, Sir Bartholomew Bateman, a
man of great wealth and consideration, had been the lord of the
manor. The parish contains about 2,000 acres, and at this time had at
least three churches, only one of which now remains. Besides these
Sir Bartholomew had a private chapel in his house. Here he kept up
much state, as befitted a personage who had more than once
represented Norfolk and Suffolk in Parliament. The plague came, and
the worthy knight was struck down; the parson too fell a victim; and
the Lady Petronilla, Sir Bartholomew's widow, presented to the living
a certain Hugh Atte Mill, who was instituted on the 7th of June. The
first news that the Bishop heard when he landed was that his brother
was dead. He started off at once to Gillingham. Death had been busy
all around, and the plague had broken out in the Benedictine Nunnery
of Bungay and carried off the prioress among others. Straightway the
few nuns that were left chose another prioress; on the morning of the
13th she came for institution, and received it at the Bishop's hands.
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