Beccles

Beccles is a small market town in Suffolk, England, around the area of The Broads. The town had a population of about 9, 850 people around 2005.^[1] Beccles has a suburb called Worlingham which has a combined population of about 13,580.^[1] Beccles is twinned with Petit-Couronne in France.

Beccles was once a flourishing Saxon riverport, but today it is in the Waveney valley. There is a popular boating centre. The town was granted its Charter in 1584 by Queen Elizabeth I.

The Peck family was associated with Beccles for a long time.^[2] The Puritan Peck was eventually forced to leave, and went to Hingham, Massachusetts, founded by many members of his parish, where he lived for several years, until King Charles I had been executed and Oliver Cromwell was in charge of government.^[3] At that time, Robert Peck decided to return to Hingham, Norfolk, and continued his pastorship of St. Andrews Church. He died in Hingham but he left descendants in America, as well as his brother Joseph Peck, who settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.^[4][5]