ABSTRACT
Jane was born into an influential gentry family and baptized on 9 March 1624 at the church of St Andrew, Letheringsett, north Norfolk. I Bordered by the sea on the north and east, essentially Norfolk was an agricultural county, dissected by natural boundaries of river and breckland and fern. 2 The grey flint church towers dominate the countryside, casting their shadows and influence over the pastoral setting below.3 The parish church of St Andrew, Letheringsett has a distinctive round tower built in the thirteenth century, and the stained glass window on the south side of the chancel dates from the fifteenth century. The church would have been the focal point for village life and great emphasis would have been placed by Jane's family on religious observance. They would have prayed together and attended services at this church or at a private chapel, and their knowledge of the Bible would have been intimate. Their allegiance to the Church of England, at this time, would have inculcated a fear of a return to Roman Catholicism. Indeed, the churches in Norfolk, as in England as a whole, had their interior walls whitewashed to cover the painted scenes of the lives of saints; and their rich vestments, gold and silver chalices, and illuminated psalters were impounded as a visible reminder of anything that suggested popery.
