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On ending his year in Office he again gave meat, bread and beer to the prisoners, as he had done on becoming Mayor. This was done at Christmas and other occasions by many people, but so far I have not come across another Mayor starting and ending his mayorality in this way. Also Robert is the first retiring Mayor to get his reply to the vote of thanks in the paper. But from reading Mercuries I get the feeling that direct reporting, as we know it today, was fairly unknown in Norwich in the mid 18th century. So I don’t think that the changes in the way that this day was reported necessarily tell us anything. While he was Mayor in October ‘Robert Rogers Esq. Merchant of the City of Norwich’ acquired his third parcel of Copyhold land at Catton adjacent to the last. There is no documentary evidence for the date Catton Place was built. At least I cannot find it. The family were still living in Colegate in October 1757 because his youngest daughter, by his second marriage, was baptised then at St George’s, and by 1761 Robert had become a Church Warden at Catton. Robert acquired the land piece-meal, so he could not build until he had enough land for the house and the stables; it is inconceivable that anybody would build a ten bed roomed house and only add the stables and coach house two years later. The land was acquired in 1747, 1756, 1758 and 1767 (1). The above information leaves the possibility of after 1756 and 1758. After October 1756 would mean the house went up before he became Mayor the following June. This would seem Robert’s obvious choice. After 1758 may make more sense of the fabric of the house and Robert’s finances. It could be either date. In 1845 a plan of Catton Place was put into the Catton Court Minutes, with the ‘four several Copyhold Estates’ marked. On first sight it looks as if he would have had enough land after 1756. The plan gives the appearance of accuracy, with measurements to the nearest perch, but certain things are wrong, so I was left wondering how accurate any of it is. The land to the south of the house does not make sense. One boundary was drawn to fit the buildings as they stood in 1845. The Black Dog, on the last piece of land Robert bought has had both ends built on, turning it into a terrace of five cottages, the stable has also been added to. Also land has changed hands according to the plan. Catton Place land had been sold to Jeremiah Ives by both Robert’s son, Thomas, and Henry Lathom, yet the plan records Catton Place with as much land as Robert Rogers had. None of these transactions are in the Minutes. It seems that once something is written in the Minutes it goes on being repeated. In 1784 ‘Anna Rogers etc surrender Copyhold Estates’ although Anna had died the previous year. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
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