BLOMEFIELD, FRANCIS English topogra pher of the county of Norfolk, was born at Fersfield in that county. On leaving Cambridge he was ordained, becoming in 1729 rector of Hargham, Norfolk, and immediately afterwards rector of Fersfield, his father's family living. In 1733 he mooted the idea of a history of Norfolk, for which he had begun collect ing material at the age of 15, and shortly afterwards, while collecting further information for his book, discovered some of the famous Paston Letters. By 1736 he was ready to put some of the results of his researches into type. Two volumes of his compilation, the History of Norfolk, were published during his lifetime, and part of a third was left in ms. at his death. This, with two further volumes by the Rev. C. Parkin, was published at Lynn (1769-75), and the whole was republished in II vols. in 1805–io.