Many of us have a large Christmas meal but in Yarmouth a custom was established to provide a Christmas breakfast. According to Charles Parkin’s 1776 History of Great Yarmouth:
“At Yarmouth before the Reformation it was a custom for the prior and monks, and afterwards for the dean and chapter, or the farmer of their parsonage, to provide a breakfast for the inhabitants of the town every year on Christmas Day, which custom continued till the 21st of Elizabeth”
It is started that it was established:
“on account of a grievous plague which carried off two thousand of the inhabitants in one year, and on consideration of the ruinous condition of the parsonage-house, it was agreed that Thomas Osborne, who was then farmer of the parsonage, should pay 5l. a year to the churchwardens for the use of the town in lieu of the said breakfast.”
However, after the plague had ceased, the breakfast resumed and continued as usual, till the reign of James I. This was when according to Parkin:
“William Gostlynge, then farmer, absolutely refused to provide it or to pay an equivalent composition, upon which the town preferred a complaint to the dean and chapter, who promised not to countenance him in such a non-conformity to the terms of the lease by which he held of them. Finally, Mr. Gostlynge was obliged to sign an agreement, whereby he engaged to pay yearly to the town in lieu of the breakfast, 10l., which was distributed to poor fishermen, &c., and 5l. for his default, in before refusing to provide the breakfast.”
This seemed a convenient arrangement and again Parkin continues to note:
“This continued till the making of a new agreement, between the corporation and Mr. Gostlynge, of a grant of nomination and appointment of preachers and ministers in the town, since which it seems that both breakfast and composition shared the fate of all human institutions and sank into oblivion.”
Understandably despite the sentiment it has never been revived!
In search of traditional customs and ceremonies 