Bowthorpe (St. Michael)
BOWTHORPE (St. Michael), a parish, in the incorporation and hundred of Forehoe, E. division of Norfolk, 3½ miles (W. by N.) from Norwich; containing 34 inhabitants. It comprises 750 acres, in one farm. The church was used, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, as a storehouse for grain, but, by a decree in chancery obtained in 1635, was restored to its original purpose; in 1792 it was unroofed, and only a portion of the walls now remains. The living was formerly a rectory, in the patronage of the Dean and Canons of the College of St. Mary-in-the-Fields, at Norwich, who, in 1522, petitioned the bishop for its reduction to a curacy: since 1635 the living has been a donative.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.