[Raines's Introduction to Lancashire Visitation (Chetham Soc.); Norcliffe's Preface to Yorkshire Visitation (Harl. Soc.); Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547–80, Foreign, 1553–8, p. 312; Noble's History of the College of Arms; Sims's Manual for the Genealogist, 2nd ed., pp. 165, 168, 176.]
FLOWERDEW, EDWARD (d. 1586), judge, fourth son of John Flowerdew of Hethersett, Norfolk, a large landed proprietor, was educated at Cambridge, but took no degree. He became a member of the Inner Temple 11 Oct. 1552, and in the autumn of 1569 and Lent of 1577 was reader, and in 1579 treasurer. He obtained considerable celebrity as a lawyer in his own county. In 1571 he became counsel to the dean and chapter of Norwich, and in 1573 to the town of Great Yarmouth. He was counsel also to Sir Thomas Gresham. The town of Norwich gave him a silver cup in 1571, presumably for professional services, and various grateful clients settled annuities on him, Thomas Grimesdiche settling 40s. and John Thornton 26s. 8d. in 1573, and Simon Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, one third of five marks in 1575. On 12 Feb. 1584 he received a grant from the clerk of the royal kitchen of a buck in summer and a doe in winter yearly from any royal forest in Norfolk or elsewhere. He was M.P. for Castle Rising 1572–84. He became serjeant and recorder of Great Yarmouth, 16 Oct. 1580, and on 23 Oct. 1584 third baron of the exchequer, when he resigned his recordership. On 20 Feb. 1585 he was a member of the special commission for the county of Middlesex, before which Dr. Parry was tried and convicted for high treason. In the winter of 1585 and 1586 he went circuit in South Wales, and in March held the assizes at Exeter. Here gaol fever broke out, and, seizing upon him, carried him off between 14 March and 4 April. He was buried at Hethersett Church. He was a man of grasping temper, but apparently not of fine feelings. In 1564 he purchased Stanfield Hall and its furniture of John Appleyard, in order to live there, and also married Elizabeth, daughter of William Foster of Wymondham, who had long been Appleyard's mistress. In 1575 he acquired the site of the dissolved abbey of Wymondham. The parishioners, wishing to preserve the church, petitioned the crown to be allowed to buy it at a valuation, and paid the money. Flowerdew, however, stripped it of its lead and carried off a quantity of freestone, whereupon the exasperated parishioners dismantled it. His lands were dispersed on his death, and he left no issue. According, however, to another account, he had a daughter, who married Thomas Skelton.
[Foss's Judges of England; Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 721, 724; Dugdale's Origines Jurid.; Holinshed's Chron. iv. 868; Leicester Correspondence, p. 224; Burgon's Gresham, ii. 493, 499; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 5; Manship's Yarmouth, i. 295; Palmer's continuation of Manship's Yarmouth, ii. 337 et seq. and Vincent's Norfolk Collections there cited; Monro's Acta Cancellariæ; Strype's Annals, iv. 310, and Parker, 453; Weever's Fun. Mon. p. 864; Lemon's Domestic Papers, 1581–90; App. 4, Rep., Publ. Records, p. 273; Gawdy MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep., 1885.]
FLOWERS, FREDERICK (1810–1886), police magistrate, third son of the Rev. Field Flowers, rector of Partney, Lincolnshire, 1815–18, was born at Boston in 1810, and educated at Louth grammar school, Lincolnshire. He was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn 10 Nov. 1828, called to the bar 18 Nov. 1839, joined the midland circuit, and for many years practised as a special pleader. In 1862 he was appointed recorder of Stamford, and was for some time revising barrister for the northern division of Nottinghamshire. He was named by Sir George Grey police magistrate at Bow Street, London, 6 July 1864, and sat at that court until his death. He also acted as a magistrate for Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire, and Essex. As a police magistrate he was extremely well known and greatly respected. His common sense, combined with a sound knowledge of the law, prevented him from making many mistakes in his decisions. He possessed kindness, tact, and discrimination, and a strong sense of justice, especially towards those who were poor and weak. He died at his residence, Holmesdale, Tottenham Lane, Hornsey, Middlesex, 26 Jan. 1886, and was buried at Partney on 30 Jan., where on his grave is a monumental cross, and in the church there is a memorial brass. He married in 1841 Ann, only daughter of R. Kirby, by whom he left one son.
[Law Times, 13 Feb. 1886, p. 275; Solicitors' Journal, 30 Jan. 1886, p. 225; Law Journal, 30 Jan. 1886, p. 79; Graphic, 8 Jan. 1881, p. 32, with portrait; Saturday Review, 30 Jan. 1886, pp. 145–6.]
FLOWERS, GEORGE FRENCH (1811–1872), composer and musical theorist, fourth son of the Rev. Field Flowers, was born in 1811 at Boston, Lincolnshire; he studied music under Rink and Von Wartensee in Germany, graduated Mus. Bac. from Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1839, and proceeded doctor of music in 1865. In the meantime he was organist at the Chapel of the British Embassy, Paris,
