Syleham, Suffolk, England

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St. Margaret's church in Syleham dates back to Saxon times. Located on the banks of the River Waveney, the round Saxon tower would have been manned by lookouts keeping an eye peeled for Viking raiders coming upstream in their longships. The church porch is thought to date from the time of Chaucer and his celebrated Canterbury Tales.

[St. Margaret's Bell Tower, Size = 24,260 bytes] The following was taken from a plaque inside the church:

1591 Antonius Fysher
bapt erat 23rd Aprilis Anno Dom. Dicto
- Syleham Parish Registry

Anthony, son of Anthony of Syleham, County of Suffolk, England was baptised there April 23rd 1591, came to New England with his first wife Mary and children (sailing) probably from Yarmouth in the ship, Rose arriving in Boston June 26th 1637 and settled in Dedham (Massachusetts). Anthony Fisher lived on a Freehold estate called "Wignotte" and wife Mary Fiske of St. James, South Elmham, County of Suffolk - an old Puritan family which had suffered during the religious persecution of Queen Mary's reign.

- from the Fisher Genealogy by Philip A. Fisher and published in Everett, Massachusetts in 1893

The bells were rehung...in 1883.... The Belfry, with its small decorated window, contains three bells, as it originally did according to the Commissioners Report in 1553, of these the only one remaining is the tenor which according to Dr. Raven, was founded by the Braziers of Norwich in the fifteenth century. The treble bell bears the inscription "John Darbis made me in 1676." The second bell has "John Goldsmith made me in 1798" and bears the name Margaret.

Refurbishment of the bells at St. Margaret's Church in Syleham has largely been paid for by the American descendents of Anthony Fisher.

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Families associated with Syleham are


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