Le Grice, Le Grys et al.

John Stockwood died at the age of 42. The average expectation of life was 37, so he did not die young. It is surprising to learn that in the beginning of the 18th century more than half the population in the country was under 21 years of age. She, when widowed, married Robert Le Grys, a surgeon and the continued living in Waveney House. As a surgeon he was called upon to publicise, with other doctors, the appearance, spread and disappearance of smallpox in the town. In 1728 and again ten years later he is listed in Norwich papers saying that Beccles was free of smallpox, but in 1756 he stated that 13 houses had smallpox within them, and seven years later there was another outbreak of smallpox and 6 houses were affected.