 Celebrities of the Yorkshire Wolds |
DRIFFIELD AND WOLDS GENEALOGY |
|
|
Trade Directories Historical Directories - a brilliant online resourse Parish Registers Driffield Parish Church Baptisms 1836-1850 (incomplete) A - L Driffield Parish Church Baptisms 1836-1850 (incomplete) M - Z Flamborough Marriages by Banns 1754-1779 North Burton (Burton Fleming) Parish Registers Wesleyan Baptisms 1837-1867 A-H only Monumental Inscriptions North Frodingham & North Dalton Cemetery MIs BMD Announcements &c from the Driffield Times Religion List of Priors etc of Monastic Establishments on the Yorkshire Wolds Driffield Congregational Church Religious Meeting Houses Licenced 1708-1808 The Blockhouses of Kingston Upon Hull (the persecution of local Catholics) WW1 Soldiers who died in WW1 with a connection to Driffield WW2 Social History
History of the Driffield Post Office Trevor Malkin on the Driffield Railway Biographies &c They left Nafferton in 1863 - Where are they now? Some Old Driffield Schoolmasters Thomas Saulsbury Wright- one of yours? Miscellaneous Useful links & Online family trees
|
Copy of an old book, written by a local resident. Also contains a list of Priors etc of monastic establishments on the Wolds, which I have put on THIS PAGE CELEBRITIES OF THE YORKSHIRE WOLDS BY FREDERICK ROSS (Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Member of the English Dialect Society) Author of “The Progress of Civilization,” “Life behind the Counter,” “Two ways of making a fortune,” Etc; And joint author of “A glossary of words used in Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire.” London Trubner & Co, 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill Driffield: T. Holderness, “Observer” Office 1878 PREFACE Every district of country has its Heroes and Men of Renown; its Divines, Philosophers and Poets – a line extending backward, until lost in the misty haze of the remote past. Of the greater number of these, existing generations have but vague and shadowy conceptions; some are only known to the Antiquary or Local Topographer, whilst of others there remains a mere name and nothing more. Frequently will their names crop up in reading or conversation, when curiosity is excited to know something about them, and it is often only after a search through half a score volumes that the desired information can be found, whilst, in many cases, nothing whatever can be ascertained from the resources of a private or even a public provincial library. It is only in the great National Collections, such as those of the British Museum and the Bodleian Libraries, that materials – at times enshrined in costly, rare and even unique books – can be gathered, wherewith to construct a History of these forgotten Worthies. From such sources has emanated much of the matter contained in the pages of the little volume now presented to the public. Nothing is attempted beyond a mere compilation and the sketches are little more than outlines, so as to bring the cost within the reach of all. The compiler believes that in the main, the facts and dates are approximately, if not absolutely, accurate; and he trusts that there are not any errors of sufficient magnitude to mar the usefulness of the work as a Handy Book of Reference to the Celebrities of the Yorkshire Wolds. London, 1877. THE YORKSHIRE WOLDS The tract of country so called (formerly York Wold), is situated in the East Riding of the County, and consists of ranges of chalk hills with intervening depressions, extending from Flambrough Head towards Pocklington and Market Weighton and sloping down hence to the Humber near Welton; and from the north of Beverley to Malton, whence commences the rise of the more elevated hills of Cleveland. Many of the higher points command magnificent prospects – easyard of the German ocean, Flambrough Head and Lighthouse and the Priory Church of Bridlington; north-westward of the vale of York and York Minster; southward, of the flat expanse of Holderness, the majestic Humber, Beverley Minster and the churches of Hull and Hedon. Wold is a Saxon word, signifying a treeless, bleak, unprotected upland; and such were the characteristic features of the district until the present century, when it was brought under cultivation and planted to some extent with trees; the earliest improvers being Sir Christopher Sykes, Bart, Humphrey Osbaldereston, of Hunmanby and Major Edward Topham of Wold Cottage. The multitude of Barrows and Tumuli, scattered over the hills, indicate a numerous population at a very remote period, reaching far down into the pre-historic ages, when the use of metal was unknown, and sharpened flints supplied weapons of war and agricultural implements. In the British era it formed a portion of the kingdom of the Brigantes; under the Romans, of the province of Maxima Caesarensis; and under the Saxons and Danes, of the kingdom of Northumbria, being situated during the frequent disruptions of that kingdom, in Diera, the southern portion. In the British period it was unquestionably the home of numerous tribes, although the mass of the population would be gathered in the oak groves of the lowlands round the Llyn-yr-avanc (Beverley) where they celebrated their mystic rites and the site of Beverley Minster. Doubtless many of the sepulchral mounds scattered over the Wolds cover the remains of chieftains and heroes of the Brigantian race- celebrities of the Wolds, of whom we have no record; and it seems to be highly probable that the mysterious monolith, which stands in silent solitary dignity, in Rudston church-yard, telling not of its origin, was upraised by this people some two or three thousand years ago. Over its hills and valleys the Romans constructed one of their wonderful military roads, from Eboracum, the capital, where Emperors were born and died, to the seaport of Bridlington or Filey, a portion of which may still be seen near Sledmere. After the departure of the Romans from Britain, the Yorkshire Wolds witnessed many a fierce conflict; first between the Britons and Picts, who made continual forays over the Roman wall; then with the Saxon freebooters, who landed on the East coast; and afterwards between that people and the Danish Vikings, one of whose chief landing places was Flambrough, where they established a camp, by digging a trench and throwing up earthworks across the peninsula, which still exist, now popularly called Danes’ Dykes. Multitudes of the heroes of these battles occupy the Barrows of the Wolds. The common soldiers would probably be buried promiscuously, or left to rot on the surface; and the honour of a tumulus accorded only to the leading warriors. Four miles north of Driffield, in a secluded grove, four acres in extent, are some two hundred mounds, called Danes’ Graves, some of which were opened in 1849, and found to contain each one skeleton alone; thus proving that only the leaders were so interred. In 1846 and 1849 a large tumultus was opened at Driffield, which belonged to this era; and was exceedingly rich in weapons and ornaments, with several skeletons; one only being female. During one period of the Heptarchy the Northumbrian King had a palace or castle at Driffield, and round it would, most probably, be a clustering of the residences of Earls, Thegns and other appanages of a Court. Where it was located is not known, but most likely at, or In the vicinity of, Little Driffield, where King Alchfrid lies buried. The sturdy independence of the Northumbrians was the last to submit to the Norman Conqueror; and even after yielding a reluctant submission, repeated insurrections broke out in favour of Eadgar the Atheling, which resulted in the barbarous but politic measure of King William, of desolating sixty miles of country north of the Humber, slaying the inhabitants and burning the villages, farmsteads and crops; leaving a howling wilderness where had formerly been smiling landscapes. Owing to the interposition of St John, a Woldsman, Beverley escaped; the Saint having stricken dead a sacrilegious Norman soldier who attempted to enter his monastery, when the superstitious King, fearing the further wrath of the defunct Prelate, gave orders that Beverley should not be molested; but the Wolds most likely participated in the savage butchery accorded to the Northumbrian rebels; and from that time, until quite recently, they were left with a scanty population, who obtained the means of subsistence by pasturing a few sheep on the bleak hill sides. Cox (1720), says, “The choreography of this division will be but short, because these barren mountains are not much inhabited. The fee of this division, if it be a Bailiwick, is in the crown, and is governed by the Sheriff and his officers. It hath no Market Town in it but a few villages.” Marshall, in “The Rural Economy of Yorkshire, 1788,” says, “Should the day arrive when the higher swells (of the Wolds) shall be crowned with wood, and the intervening vales be covered with living fences, forming enclosures of eight or ten acres, the climate will be rendered some degrees of latitude more congenial than it is at present; and the produce be increased in a duplicate ratio.” Cooke, in the beginning of the present century, writes, “The climate of the Wolds is severe; the winds, as they sweep over the plain and unbroken surface, being extremely violent and penetrating …. Still the Wolds are healthy and the most grass is produced in the driest summers; but when the crops are exposed to the sea fogs they are usually small and the grass thick-skinned and coarse. The houses of this county (East Riding) are generally good, except upon the Wolds, where the materials are indifferent. The old buildings are composed of chalk stone, with mud instead of lime mortar, and covered with thatch …. Many farms are found of £20 and £50 per annum, and a farm of £200 per annum is of a respectable size …. The old-fashioned foot plough has continued too much in use, being a clumsy, heavy, ill-formed implement.” Since then immense improvements have been introduced; some of the largest and best-cultivated farms in the county being found on the Wolds. Science has been introduced into farm operations; steam has been enlisted into the service of the farmer; villages have grown up, and Driffield, the capital, is rapidly rising in population and importance; Education is spreading and literature fostered in the towns and villages; and there cannot be a doubt but that, in a few years, a considerable addition may be made to the list of the “Celebrities of the Wolds.” LORDS OF THE MANOR OF DRIFFIELD “Driffield, a village about 16 myles from Kynston upon Humber; where Ealfride, some tyme Kinge of Northumberland, had a house and dyed. Leland sayeth this was in Little Driffield, at whiche place also the thre braunches of the Humber mete and runneth to Hull.” So wrote Lambarde, “Dict. Ang. Topog,” in 1730. During the Saxon era Driffield appears to have been a place of some importance and a royal residence, where the learned and estimable Alchfrid, King of Northumbria, held his court, and banqueted with his Nobles; and where he was brought to die, after receiving his death-wound at the hands of the Picts. When lying on his death-bed he granted a charter to the town, for holding four fairs annually. In the year 1784, search was made in the church of Little Driffield, by a party of gentlemen, for the relics of the King, but without discovering anything whatever. Nevertheless, it was stated and published that a deputation from the Society of Antiquaries came to Driffield to make search for his burial place, who, “on Tuesday, the 20th Sept, entered the church with proper assistants to be directed to the indentical spot, by a secret history. After digging some time, they found a stone coffin, and on opening the same, discovered an entire skeleton of that great and pious Prince, together with most part of his steel armour, the remainder of which had probably been corroded by rust and length of time. After satisfying their curiosity, the coffin was closed, as well as the grave, that everything might remain in the same state as when found.” This apochryphal narrative found its way into most of the subsequent Topographies of Yorkshire, but it was altogether untrue and was nothing more than a hoax, put forth to test the credulity of antiquaries. After the conquest Driffield appears to have sunk down to a mere village and Kilham became the chief town of the Wolds, with a market and fairs for grain and wool. There are many remains of the foundations of extensive buildings about Kilham, which shew that at one time it has been a place of much greater importance than now. The decline of the town is attributable to the more favourable situation of Driffield for trade, and perchance to the greater enterprise of the Driffield people; which have transferred the trade to the latter town and made it what it now is – the Capital of the Wolds. Leland, who made an Itinerary of Yorkshire in the 16th century, writes, “The Hulne riseth of three seueral heads, whereof the greatest is not far from Driffield, now a small village, sixteen miles from Hull. Certes it hath been a goodlie towne, and therein was the Palace of Egbright, King of the Northumbers, and place of Sepulture of Alfed, the noble King, somtime of that nation, who died there 727, the 19th Cal of Julie, the twentieth of his reign, and whose tombe doeth yet remaine (for ought that I doe knowe to the contrarie) with an inscription upon the same written in Latine letters.” Driffield remained a village until the present century; containing in 1801 only 1,315 inhabitants, increased in ten years to 1,857; since which time the population has been quadrupled and is still progressing, with the establishment of manufactories connected with agriculture, a well-attended market and railway and canal communication with all parts of the kingdom; giving promise of becoming, in a few years, a large and important town. In the reign of Edward the Confessor and Harold II, the Manor of Driffield formed part of the vast possessions of Morkere, Viceroy Earl of Northumbria, who also held Market-Weighton, Pocklington, Pickering and its castle, Warter, Kilnsea in Holderness, &c. He was son of Aelfger, who was a younger son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and his mother was Aelfigu. He was of Danish descent; and, with his brother, Eadwine, Earl of Mercia, played an important part in the annals of England, at the period of the Conquest. The Vice-royalty of Northumbria had been held from its establishment, in 945, by a native race, the descendants of Oswulf, Lord of Barmborough, until the death of Siward, 1055, when it was given by King Eadwarde to Tosti, a younger son of Earl Godwin and brother of Harold II; but the hatred of the Northumbrians to a foreign ruler and the tyranny of the Earl caused the Nobles to revolt; who called a Gemot at York which formally deposed Tosti and elected Morkere in his place. This act of a local Gemot was illegal, dispositions and appointments vesting in the King, with the sanction of the national Gemot; and Eadwine sent Harold with an army to put down the revolt and replace Tosti. But when Harold heard the particulars of his brother’s cruelty and misgovernment, he returned to the King, and recommended him to confirm the proceedings of the York Gemot, which was done. But Harold, by this act of justice, incurred the hatred of his brother, who, after he ascended the throne, invaded England, in conjunction with Harald Hardrada, king of Norway; and defeated Earls Morkere and Eadwine at Fulford; which induced Harold to march into the north and fight the battle at Stamford Bridge; where he signally defeated the invaders. When celebrating his victory, at a banquet in York, news reached the King of the landing of the Norman Duke, in Sussex; whom he had to meet with an army lessened in numbers by the recent battle, and wearied with the hurried march from York; and the result was his defeat and death. Had it not been for the invasion of Tosti the subsequent history of England might have been altogether different. Harold left orders with the brother Earls to follow him with a northern contingent, but they lingered by the way, to shape their measures according to events, and arrived in London only to hear of the death of the King. They attended the Westminster Gemot, assembled to decide on the successor to the throne, when they put forward the claims of the house of Leofric; but the decision was in favour of Atheling. When the question was discussed about raising a fresh army to oppose Duke William they declined having anything to do with it, and returned to the north. After the entire subjugation of the south the two Earls maintained a sort of independence; the one in Mercia, the other in Northumbria. They afterwards joined in the insurrections of Gospatric, in favour of Eadger, which were so ruthlessly put down by the new king. Morkere escaped, fled to Hereward, in the “Camp of Refuge,” where he was afterwards captured, and sent to perpetual imprisonment, in Normandy, and all his estates confiscated. The Manor of Driffield was given by the Conqueror to his nephew, Hugh de Abrinci, a notable Norman warrior, who came to England in the train of his uncle, and had a grant also of Whitby, which he disposed of to William de Percy. He was created Earl of Chester, 1070; married Erementrude, daughter of the Earl of Bevois, in France; lived a gay and dissipated life when young, and in atonement retired in old age to the abbey of St Werburge, where he died, 1101. Richard, his only legitimate son, succeeded as second Earl; married Maud, daughter of Stephen, Earl of Blois, and was drowned, with his wife, in the memorable shipwreck of the Blanche Nef, along with the children of King Henry I. Dying issueless, the Earldom and estates passed to his cousin, Ranulph de Meschines, son of Maud, fourth daughter of Hugh, first Earl. He died 1126; was succeeded by his son, Ranulph, surnamed de Gernons, who at first sided with the Empress against Stephen, then treacherously went over to the King, and died under excommunication, 1153. Hugh, his son, a conspirator against Henry II, died 1181, leaving an only son, Ranulph, surnamed Blandevil, who was a staunch adherent of King John, in his contest with the Barons, and died issueless, 1231, his possessions falling to his sisters and co-heiresses and their issue. John Scott, son of David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of William the Lion, King of Scotland, by Maud, daughter of Hugh de Meschines, third Earl, succeeded to the Earldom and the Co Palatine of Cheshire, also to the Manor of Driffield, and died 1244, poisoned, it was suspected, by his wife, Helen, daughter of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales. Dying issueless, his sisters became his co-heiresses, but Henry III, thinking it not desirable that a Dominion to which pertained Regal privileges should be held by women, seized Cheshire, and gave them other lands in exchange. Driffield passed to Christian, who married William de Fortibus, third Earl of Albermarle and Lord of Holderness, but dying issueless it was inherited by her sister, Helen, who married Roger de Quincy, second Earl of Winchester, who left three daughters – Margaret, who married William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby; Elizabeth, who married the Earl of Buchan and Ela, who married Alan, Baron Zouch of Ashby, but which of them succeeded to Driffield is not known. The Prebend of Driffield, York Cathedral, has been held by many distinguished men, among whom were the following – John, Roman Cardinal and Vice-Chancellor to the Pope, 1317-43 Guncelinus, “Episcopus Albanensis Cardinalis,” circa 1333-43 Hugh, Roman Catholic Cardinal, 1363-72 Lewis, Roman Cardinal, 1386-7 Nicholas de Bubbewith, 1401-6. A very eminent man, born at Bubwith, near Howden, about the middle of the 14th century and died at Wells, 1424, where he was buried in a chapel of the Cathedral, which he had built for that purpose. He commenced life as a Clerk in Chancery, the usual stepping-stone to preferment in Church and State, becoming successively Prebendary of Wolvey, Diocese of Lichfield, 1396-7; Prebendary of Offley, Diocese of Lichfield, 1397-1406; Archdeacon of Exeter, 1399-9; Archdeacon of Dorset, 1400-6; Archdeacon of Richmond, 1401, which office he held only two days; Prebendary of Driffield, 1401/2-6; Prebendary of Tame, Diocese of Lincoln, 1403-6; Bishop of London, 1406-7; Bishop of Salisbury, by Papal provison, 1407-7; Bishop of Bath and Wells, by Papal Bull, 1408-24. Holder also of the following Offices of State – Receiver of Petitions to Parliament; Master of the Rolls, 1402-5; Lord Treasurer of England, 1408-24; and Keeper of the Privy Seal. In 1415 he was one of the Prelates summoned to Rome, to assist the Cardinals in the Papal Election, when Martin V, whom he opposed, was chosen; and the same year attended the Council of Constance, when John Huss and Jerome of Prague were condemned to the flames. He is described as having been “discreet, provident, circumspect, and charitable, feeding twenty-four poor men and women daily.” He built, at his own expense, the north tower and western front of Wells cathedral; also, a chantry and chapel; and gave to the establishment a magnificent library; founding a hospital as well, in the city; all “with his arms fixed up in diuers places.” William Percy, 1451-2; Bishop of Carlisle, 1452-62 William de Grey, 1452-54; Archdeacon of Richmond, 1449-50; Bishop of Ely, 1454-78; Lord Treasurer, 1469. The Prebend was held, 1485, by Wm Beverley, who was also Precentor of York, when Archbishop Scott de Rotherham annexed it to that office, in augmentation of the stipend, and it consequently merged in that dignity. ACEBORNE, or ACHORNE Vix. temp, AthelstaneA Danish or Saxon Thegn, resident on the Wolds, at a period when that portion of the County of York was an open upland, thinly populated, uncultivated and infested by wolves, which attacked travellers, and frequently tore them to pieces. As some sort of protections, Aceborne, a charitable kind-hearted man, erected, at Flixton, a house to serve as a refuge, to which wayfarers might fly when attacked, and placed therein fourteen brothers and sisters, under the government of an Ealderman, to succour the fugitives, much in the same manner as the monks of St Bernard render aid to travellers in the Alpine pass, endowing it with lands in Flixton and the adjoining hamlet of Folkton, with pasture run for twenty-four cows and a bull. King Henry VI, 25 Reg, confirmed the brethren and sisters in their lands and rights, and named the Hospital “Carman’s Spittle,” why, is not known; at which time it was usual for the Vicar of Folkton to celebrate mass in the chapel, on the feast of St Andrew, and grant indulgences to all who attended the service. A farm house, bearing the name of “Spital” now stands on the site, and the land which belonged to the hospital still retains the name of “Wolf-land.” ACHARDUS Vix. 685A Saxon noble, of great piety, the intimate friend of St John, of Beverley, who made a grant of the village of North Burton to the monastery at Beverley; built a church at North Burton, and a chapel in the neighbouring village of Scorbro’. When the church was completed St John went to perform the ceremony of consecration; and when that was over accompanied the Earl to his mansion, to partake of the consecration banquet. Before sitting down he was requested to visit one of the Earl’s servants, who was paralysed and lay at the point of death. He found the young man speechless, with his coffin by his bedside, as was then usual, when recovery was hopeless. The Archbishop stretched his hands over the afflicted youth, gave him his blessing, and added the words, “May you recover.” The Earl and his guests then sat down to the feast and were presently surprised by a message from the sick man, requesting a cup of wine. The Saint blessed a goblet of liquor, which the paralysed man drank, and immediately afterwards felt strength return to his limbs and health to his body, and leaping from his bed he dressed himself, went down to the banqueting hall and saluted the Earl and the Archbishop, when he was invited to sit down at the table and make merry with them. Such is the narrative as given by Bede, in his “Ecclesiastical History,” on the authority of Berthun, Abbot of Beverley. ALCHFRID, KING OF NORTHUMBRIA Ob. 705In the year 547, Ida, an Anglican Viking, from the shores of the Baltic, landed at Flambrough, at a period when the Northern Britons, abandoned by their protectors, the Romans, were enfeebled by the repeated incursions of the ferocious Picts, from beyond the Roman wall of defence, which stretched across the island, but which proved to be no defence at all, when it was no longer manned by the disciplined Legions of the Tiber, and he was enabled to establish himself on the island and found the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria; which extended, east and west, from sea to sea, and northward as far as the Forth, where King Eadwine built a fort, round which a town sprung up, called Eadwinsburgh – now Edinburgh. A few years after, Aella, his kinsman, sailed up the Humber, and reft from him the southern portion of his dominions, from the Tees southward; and established his head quarters at Aellastown (Elloughton), near the modern Hull. His name is perpetuated also in the neighbouring villages of East Ella, West Ella, Ellerker, Ellerton and Ellerby. Ida was too much occupied in keeping in subjection the Britons and opposing the incursions of the Picts to march against the invader of his territory in the south; and at his death was only able to leave the northern portion, from the Tees to the Tweed which was called Bernicia, to his son, Aethelfrith, whilst Aella retained that portion called Deira. In after times the two were alternately one or separate and distinct kingdoms; when united bearing the name of Northumbria. When Aella died, his son Eadwine was a child, and Aethelfrith usurped the crown of Diera, the young Prince being conveyed beyond his reach by his guardians. He wandered about for several years an exile, until Redwald, king of East Anglia, took up his cause, and invaded the dominions of Aethelfrith, who was slain in battle, and Eadwine placed upon the throne of Northumbria. Eadwine was the first Christian Saxon king of the north, and the patron of Paulinus, but was slain in battle by Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, who had vowed to extirpate the heresy of Christianity from the island, and Paulinus, with the Queen and young Princes, fled to the kingdom of Kent. Osric I, son of Aelfric, Eadwine’s uncle, succeeded to Deira and Eanfrid to Bernicia, who were both slain in battle, 634, by Cadwallon, the Welsh king and ally of Penda. St Oswald, the restorer of Christianity, the second son of Aethelfrith and brother of Eanfrid, succeeded to the entire kingdom; but he also was slain in battle by Penda; it is supposed at Oswestry, which took its name from that circumstance. Oswy, a natural son of Aethelfrith, and brother of Oswald, succeeded to Bernicia; and Oswine, son of Oslac, to Deira. Oswy murdered Oswine, becoming thus king of Northumbria; and defeated the incorrigible old pagan, Penda, who had again invaded Northumbria, in the battle of Winwinfield, in which the Mercian king fell. Oswy is famous also as having presided at the great synod at Whitby, when the vexed questions of the time and mode of celebrating Easter, the tonsure, and other matters, which the adherents of Rome and those of the old British Christianity were quarrelling over, much in the fashion of modern rival Christian sects, were settled. After a prosperous and glorious reign of twenty-eight years, blotted, however, by the foul murder of Oswine, Oswy died, leaving, with other children, Alchfrid, or Aelfrid, illegitimately born, and Ecgfrid, his eldest son by his queen. At the time of the death of Oswine, Alchfrid was a bold energetic and ambitious young man, and persuaded his father, partly by menaces, to place him as his co-adjutor, on the throne of Deira. He desired to be absolute king, but Oswy refused to place him thereon in any other capacity than that of viceroy, which office he held until his father’s death, 670, when he hoped to succeed as king of Northumbria; but the nobles objected to the bar sinister, and Ecgfrid, his younger brother, was elected, when Alchfrid was deposed from Deira, or deemed it prudent to expatriate himself. Hitherto, he had devoted himself to politics and the usual athletic sports of the time; but now he went to Ireland – the seat of learning and light – and spent fifteen years at the feet of the best teachers, in the assiduous study of Theology, Philosophy, Science and General Literature, eventually becoming one of the most learned and accomplished scholars of the age, as did his namesake, Aelfrid of Wessex, a century afterwards; and at a time when few, even of the priesthood, could write their names. Ecgfrid died, 686, when the Northumbrians, having heard of his accomplishments, re-called Alchfrid and placed him on the vacant throne. He governed his people nineteen years, with great vigour and wisdom, encouraged learning, patronized ecclesiastics of merit, established churches and monasteries and placed the secular affairs of his kingdom on a firm basis. He was the friend of Wilfrid, by whom he had been educated at Ripon, and bestowed upon him the mitre of York; but that seventh century Becket, encroaching upon the royal prerogative, was banished by him and fled to Rome, making complaint at the feet of the Holy Father, John VII, who sent him back with a missive, peremptorily ordering Alchfrid to reinstate him. The time, however, was not yet come when kings trembled at papal frowns, and the King bravely replied, “You bring a writing, from the Apostolic Seat, as you choose to term it, couched in dictatorial terms, to me, the King of Northumbria; but I wish you to understand that I do not alter my course of conduct at the dictation of a foreign priest; nor do I render obedience to any writing, whether from the Apostlic Seat or elsewhere.” At this time Driffield was a somewhat important place, situate near the Roman road from York to Filey; and the multitude of burial mounds in its vicinity indicate a considerable population, then or previously. This spot was chosen as a place of residence by some of the Northumbrian kings; and here Alchfrid had a castle or mansion, the site of which has not been identified, where he kept court with his nobles and warriors, and held gatherings of the literati of his time. His death is involved in mystery, there being conflicting narratives; but the most probable appears to be that the Picts had descended into Northumbria, and penetrated as far south as Scarborough, and that he met them in battle at the village of Ebberston; where, after an obstinate conflict, he was wounded, crept into a cave for refuge, whence he was conveyed to Driffield and there died. Tradition points out the spot where the battle was fought, by the name of “Bloody Field;” and the cave of refuge is still called “Ilfrid’s Hole.” He was buried in Little Driffield Church, and although search has been made for his grave, which was reported to have been discovered in 1784, it has not been identified. As a political act, he married Kyneburga, a daughter of Penda, and had issue a son, Osred, who succeeded him and was slain in an insurrection of his subjects, at Winandermere, 716. In the church of Little Driffield have been placed two inscriptions in modern times. First – “in the chancel of this church lie the remains of Alfred, King of Northumbria, who departed this life in the year 705” The present on runs thus – WITHIN THIS CHANCEL LIES THE INTERRED BODY OF ALFRED KING OF NORTHUMBERLAND WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JANUARY 19TH A.D. 705 IN THE 20TH YEAR OF HIS REIGN STATUTUM EST OMNIBUS SEMIL MORI During the Heptarchy, Northumbria was the only kingdom which possessed both a silver and a copper coinage. The silver coins were the sceatta and the penny. The earliest sceatta known, of which there exists an unique specimen, was coined by Alchfrid, at York. Formerly there was considerable doubt relative to its identity; but it is now unhesitatingly ascribed, by all numismatitians, to this Saxon monarch. There is also in existence a single specimen of the copper styea, a coin peculiar to Northumbria, of the same king, bearing on its obverse his name and a cross, and on the reverse a rude figure of a four-footed animal. See an elaborate Paper on the York Mint, by Robert Davies, in “Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society,” vol. 1, p. 191. ANDERSON, EDWARD, POET Ob. 18— Thomas Anderson, his grandfather, was a farmer, at Cottam, where his ancestors had held the same farm two hundred years. In 1661 he removed to East Lutton, on the Wolds; was twice married; had nine children by his first wife and six by his second, whom he married at the age of sixty-one, dying 1744, aged eighty-three years. Robert, his eldest son, by his second wife, married Eliza Robson, had seventeen children, and died at the age of seventy-three. Edward, his son, was brought up a shepherd, and wrote “The Muse oft Charmed me when a Lad;” but at an early age went to sea; and, after a few voyages, retired into Westmorland, “admiring still a country life.” Soon after he was subpoenaed to London, as a witness on a trial relative to the scuttling of an insured ship, when, although “They thought a honest Yorkshireman a was fond,” he gave his evidence in so straight a manner that he was complimented for it, and got an appointment as captain of a ship trading to Lisbon. In 1797 he was captured by a French frigate, and made a prisoner of war. On obtaining his liberty he returned to Yorkshire, settled down at Filey, married, joined the Weslyans and became a local preacher. He was author of “The Sailor, a poem descriptive of Fisher Life at Filey and the Natural Objects of the Shore,” a poem somewhat doggerel in style of composition, but very popular, as is evident by the fact of a 14th edition having been published, in Hull in 1872. BEST, HENRY, ELMSWELL; AUTHOR OF “THE FARMING BOOK” Ob 1645 Richard Best, of Middleton Quernhow, Wath, near Ripon, who died 1581-2, left issue (by two wives), Henry and James. Henry was a scrivener, in London, who purchased Elmswell (which had formerly been granted by King William II to St Mary’s Abbey, York), for £2,000 and sold it to his brother James, of Hutton Cranswick, for £2,050 and a fee farm rent of £29 7s 0d. James had issue, Paul and Henry, the former, who died s. p. 1657, succeeding to Elmswell, and selling the manor to his brother Henry 1618, for £2,200, in whose family it remained a couple of centuries and was sold by the Rev Francis Best, who died 1844, Rector of South Dalton, to William Joseph Dennison, for £42,500, who devised it to his nephew, Albert Conyngham, afterwards Lord Londesborough. Henry, who purchased the manor, 1618, died 1668-9, having married Mary, daughter of John Lawrence, of the county of Essex, by whom he had issue John, who succeeded to Elmswell. This Henry was the writer of “The Farming Book,” a very curious work, giving some most interesting details of Wold farming, prices of produce, wages of labour, rents of farms, and the social life of the district a couple of centuries ago. It was published by the Surtees Society, Durham, 1857, entitled, “Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641, being the Farming and Account Book of Henry Best, of Elmswell, in the East Riding of the county of York. Edited by C. Best Robinson, University College (of Snaith), with Appendices of the Account Book of H.B., a Genealogy of the Best family and a Glossary.” The chapters are headed – on Sheepe – how to know Tuppes from Wethers – on greasing Lambes – felling of Woll, &c – Directions for cutting Grasse and Tiftin of hay – of Harvest work – for mowinge of Haver (oats) – for traylinge of the sweath-rake (after the mower) – for eizinge of a wall, &c – Bees and how to order them – for Destroying of Robbers from amongst Bees, &c – The Manner or Forme of a Distingas or Levy – For Marketing, with a list of the chief fayers hereabouts – other short Remembrances, concerning our Fashions at our Country weddings – for providing Heck-stowers – for breaking of Wilfes and Saughs, &c – for Letting Farms and Cottages – For Hyring of Servants – observations concerning Beastes, &c. “At the Little Driffield Whitsuntide fayer the men of Nafferton and Lowthorpe come with clubbes, to keep good order and rule the faire, and have a piper to play before them. At the Little Driffield Easter faire and at Brandesburton and Weeton St Hellen’s ffayres, handsome lean beastes, lean weathers and old ewes have a very good vent, being bought by Holderness men, for stockinge their pasture grounds. The Beverley great ffayre begins aboute the 7th of May, but look in your kalender for John Beverley, and it begynneth always on that daye; thither the Londoners sende their wares by water, and thither come the Yorke Grocers, &c. Most of this side doe use to drape out the worste of theire lambes and send to Pocklington Faire. I have knowne 4 lambes sold for 11d and the seller gave the buyer a penny again.” In one part of the book, instructions are given how to trim sheep to make them appear better when they are for “ffayres.” The rent of farms in the manor were; Layborne, eight oxgangs, £16; Skelton, six oxgangs, £16, Lynsley, six oxgangs, £12; and Westhouse, four oxgangs, £16. There is a difference of opinion as to what an oxgang comprehended; when Driffield was enclosed it was reckoned as twenty-four acres but was only twenty. The wages he paid were; Hay Mowers, 10d a day, to meat themselves; in harvest, Mowers 10d; Outliggers, Binders and Stookers, 8d; women 6d per day; and Sweath-rake Trailers (boys), 22d per week; 2d per score for washing sheep, and 4d per score for clipping, with a groat’s worth of ale, bread, cheese and a cheesecake, at noon, and a substantial dinner of five or six services of which one was invariably a leg of roast mutton. The prices realized for produce were; Oats, 14s; Barley, 22s; cleane Rye, 27s 6d; Dodd-read-masseldine, 29s 6d; cleane dodd-reade wheat, 30s; and Best white wheat, 35s per quarter. Woll fetched 8s per stone, besides 12d earnest; and Butter, sold either by pownde or cake, varied from 3d to 5d per pownde, according to the time of year. BEVERLEY, ST JOHN OF Ob, 721 This bright luminary of the Anglo Saxon Church was born at Harpham, of noble parentage, about the middle of the seventeenth century, and died in his monastery at Beverley. He was educated at Whitby, under the Abbess Hilda, the nursing mother of many an illustrious churchman; afterwards under Archbishop Theodore; and completed his education at Oxford, where he graduated M.A. and D.D., having been, it is supposed, the first on whom the degree of M.A. was conferred. On the death of Eata he was elected Bishop of Hagulstadt (Hexham) and whilst there had the venerable Bede for his pupil. In 705, he was promoted to the Archbishopric of York, succeeding Bosa, and ruled the see with prudence, judgement and piety, until 717, when he resigned and retired to spend the remainder of his days in acts of devotion and ministering to the wants of the afflicted, in his monastery of Beverley, where he died four years after. Eminent as he was in learning, becoming one of the scholars of his age, he was equally so for his gentle and amiable character and his sincere piety; which manifested itself in his rigid adherence to monastic rules and his practice of set times of devotion, with fasting and fleshy self-denial; yet was he withal a true Yorkshireman in his love of horsemanship and passion for witnessing horse-races. During his life he is said to have performed many wonderful miracles, notably those of Earl Punch’s wife of South Burton, and of a servant of Earl Addi, of North Burton, near Beverley and after his death other miracles were wrought at his tomb of so unquestionable a character that Pope Benedict IX canonized him. He was buried in the porch of his monastery at Beverley, but Archbishop Aelfric translated his relics to the Minster, placing them in a golden shrine, which in after time became a perfect blaze of gems, from the gifts of devotees. In 1416, the Synod of London directed his festival to be kept annually and not once but thrice a year, when his relics were carried with reverential ceremonial through the streets of Beverley, followed by the principal burghers in procession, bare-footed and fasting. Athelstane, when marching northward, 934, against Constantine of Scotland and the Northumbrian Rebels, spent a night in Beverley, prostrate before his tomb, imploring his aid and took thence his banner from the church, to be borne before him in battle, leaving his dagger on the altar, as a pledge, which, if successful, he promised to redeem with princely gifts. He came up with the enemy at Brannaburgh, and on the eve of the battle had a vision of St John, who promised him victory. The next day he completely routed his foes, returned to Beverley, and made many valuable gifts to the monastery and a charter of privileges and immunities to the church and town, commencing – “Als free mak I thee As hert may thinke or egh may see.” His second banner, also carried, along with those of St Peter, of York, and St Wilfred, of Ripon, attached to a mast or standard, fixed on a wagon, at the battle of the Standard; whence its name. It was also carried by Edward L., in his Scottish wars. On the day of Agincourt, his tomb was reported to have sweated blood, and popular rumour ascribed the victory to his supernatural assistance; Henry V, and his Queen coming afterwards to worship at his tomb, in gratitude for the aid he rendered in the battle. In 704, he founded a college for Secular Canons at Inderawood (Beverley) endowing it with lands at Middleton, Welwick, Bilton and Patrington. There had been a church previously there, which was destroyed, 450, by Hengist and Horsa, which he re-edified; he built also the oratory of St Martin; established a nunnery; and made his scholar, Brithune or Berthun, the first Prior of his monastery. He ended his life within its walls, and one hundred and sixty-four years after his death the building was destroyed by the Danes; but was re-established; found many benefactors, notably in King Edward the Confessor; and flourished as a centre of light and learning until its dissolution, by Henry VIII, when it was surrendered by Thomas Winter, natural son of Cardinal Wolsey, the last Provost; its revenues being found to be of the value of £109 8s 8¼d per annum. By the way side, near the church-yard at Harpham, is St John’s Well, a representation of which appears in Hone’s Table Book, vol. 2, p. 546, after the stone had been thrown down by a wagon, which was replaced 1827. William of Malmesbury says that the most fierce bull, when brought before it, becomes gentle as a lamb. The church of Whitton, county of Nottingham, is dedicated to St John of Beverley. In the reign of Henry VI a portraiture of St John was placed on one of the windows of University College, Oxford. He is usually represented, in sculpture and painting, in archiepiscopal robes, with the left hand holding a crosier and the right uplifted in the act of blessing. Godwin says of him, “He always had the reputation of a wonderful holy man, and Beda reporteth many miracles done by him, as the curing of diuers folks desprately sicke, by prayer; opening the mouth of a dumb man, &c; which thinges, either they were true or Beda is muche to blame.” Fuller says, “He was tutor to the Venerable Bede, who wrote his Life, which he hath so spiced with miracles that it is of the hottest for a discrete man to digest into his belief.” BIGOD, SIR HUGH, KT Ob, 1266 Second son of Hugh Bigod, of Settrington, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, by Maud, daughter of William Mareschal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. He married first, Joane, daughter of Robert Burnet, and had issue, Roger, who succeeded as 5th Earl of Norfolk; secondly, Joane, daughter of Nicholas de Stuteville, Feudal Baron of Cottingham, and relict of Hugh de Wake, issue by whom succeeded to Cottingham. By her he had no issue. Sir Hugh was a gallant and accomplished Knight, an eminent lawyer, and a prominent actor in the stirring events of his time. He accompanied Henry III in his Welsh expedition, to aid him in negociation as well as in the field, and was constituted Chief Justicier, 1257. At the earnest entreaty of his brother, Roger, 4th Earl, he joined the Barons in their struggle with King Henry, and had the Tower of London placed under his charge. He returned, however, to his allegiance, fought for Henry, at Lewes, and fled after the disastrous issue of that battle; but returned to England after the restoration of the King’s authority, at Evesham, and was appointed Governor of Pickering Castle, the following year. BIGOD, SIR FRANCIS, KT Executed 1537 A member of the ancient family of Bigod, or Bigot, of Settrington, formerly Earls of Norfolk. He was the son of Sir John Bigod, Kt, of Settrington and Mulgrave Castle, Whitby, which latter he obtained by marriage with Constance, daughter and co-heiress of Peter de Mauley. Sir Francis gained the favour of King Henry VIII, by advocating the dissolution of the monasteries in “A Treatise on the Impropriation of Benefices;” but remaining all the while attached to the old Faith, and afterwards changing his views with respect to the dissolution of the monasteries, becoming eventually a vehement opposer of the extreme measures of the King. He stood aloof from the first Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536, saying that although he approved of the rebellion, he did not wish to put himself prominently forward, as people looked upon him with jealousy on account of his superior learning. Throwing aside, however, this scruple, when the second rash outbreak took place, 1537, which was organised at Settrington, in his house, by an assembly of monks, priests, and laymen, to protest against the King’s violation of his promises, the preceding year, he became the leader, along with Hallam, of Cawkill, who raised their banner and were soon surrounded by an undisciplined mob of rustics and expelled monks, enthusiastic in their cause, but lacking every other requisite of successful operations. It was arranged that Beverley and Hull should be seized as preliminary to further advances. Beverley was taken by Bigod, whilst Hallam and others, disguised as market people, attempted to take Hull, but were captured by the authorities, and Hallam hung. Bigod marched to Hull to resuce his fellow captain, but finding the gates shut, laid siege to the town, burning some windmills outside the walls; but finding the attempt hopeless, he retreated towards Beverley, pursued by Sir Ralph Ellerker, Sir John Constable and Harrison, the Mayor of Hull, with an armed force, at sight of whom his followers fled in every direction, and he was captured, sent to London, tried for High Treason and executed at Tyburn. BONNER, EDMOND, BISHOP OF LONDON 1500 – 1569 This notorious member of the Bench of Bishops was born of obscure parentage, towards the end of the 15th century and presented to the Rectory of Cherry Burton, 1530, by the Canons of Beverley; afterwards becoming Bishop of London, 1540. He is remembered by his relentless persecution of the Protestant Reformers, temp Mary; having condemned two hundred persons to the stake in three years. In the reign of Henry VIII, he favoured the Reformation; but the death of that monarch, and the probable succession of Mary, quenched his Protestant zeal and for his Popish proclivities, he was deprived, 1549, and committed to the Marshalsea. On the accession of Mary, he was liberated and restored, signalising his career during the reign by the most cruel atrocities. He was again deprived on the death of Mary, and committed to prison, where he deservedly died, universally execrated. BOYNTON, SIR MATTHEW, 1ST BART, BARMSTON Ob. 1646 A Parliamentary officer in the great civil war, the 3rd son and heir of Francis Boynton, of Barmston, by Dorothy, daughter and heiress of Chris. Plaice, of Halnaby; married first, Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Griffith, Kt, of Burton Agnes, and heiress of her brother, Sir Henry, by whom Burton Agnes came to the Boynton family. By her he had issue, Sir Francis, 2nd Bart; Matthew, six other sons, and four daughters; married secondly, Katherine, daughter of Thomas, 1st Baron Fairfax, and had issue one son, Perceval. Member of Parliament for Hedon, 1628 and 1643; and for Scarborough, 1645, in place of Sir William Boynton, Kt, disabled. High Sheriff, county of York, 1628 and 1643; Knighted and created Baronet by King James I, 1618. At the commencement of the struggle of King Charles with the Parliament, Sir Matthew drew his sword on the side of the latter and became an active and able General. On the death of Sir John Meldrum, he took command of the forces besieging Scarborough Castle, 1645, which was defended by the brave Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, who held it twelve months, and only surrendered when all the stores had been consumed and everything that could possibly afford nourishment eaten, the inmates when they marched or were carried out, looking like a procession of spectres. Sir Matthew assumed the government of the castle, but it fell again into the hands of the Royalists, from whom it was re-taken by Colonel Bethell, 1648. Sir Matthew was engaged all through the war, fought in many battles and skirmishes, and died just at its close. BOYNTON, SIR MATTHEW, KT., BARMSTON Slain, 1651 A Parliamentarian officer in the civil war, who played a more conspicuous part than his father, Sir Matthew, 1st Bart, of whom he was the fourth son. Along with his father, he took up arms against the King, and figured in “Newcastle’s List of Traitors;” defeated Colonel Slingsby, at Guisborough; put to rout a body of Royalists in a skirmish fought in the streets of Beverley, and in the same town apprehended his uncle, Sir John Hotham, when flying from Hull, after his treachery to Parliament, to fortify his house at Scorbro’, for the King, whom he conveyed back to Hull, whence he was sent to London and beheaded. In 1647, he succeeded his father as Governor of Scarborough Castle, and soon after repenting of his disloyalty, as had done his uncle, whom he was instrumental in sending to the block for the same crime – or virtue, whichever it was, he issued a declaration that he held the castle for the King, when Colonel Bethell was sent to besiege it, and he was compelled to surrender; an event which was precipitated by a mutiny of his garrison. He escaped the fate of Hotham, and lived until 1651, when he was slain in the fight at Wigan, in the army of Prince Charles, when on its march to the concluding defeat of Worcester. He married Isabella, daughter of Robert Stapleton, and had issue two daughters, one of whom married Richard Talbot, Earl, afterwards Duke of Tyconnel; the other, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon. BRADLEY, WILLIAM, “THE YORKSHIRE GIANT” 1787 – 1820 Born at Market Weighton, and buried under a marble slab in the church of that place. He was one of thirteen children, all the others being of the usual size; his father, 5ft 9½in in height, and his mother not taller than ordinary women. At the age of eleven he weighed eleven stones and at nineteen, twenty-seven, when he stood 7ft 8in and grew another inch afterwards. His shoe was 15in long and 5½ in broad; his stockings, 3ft 9in from top to toe; his walking stick was 49in and his crutch 5ft 10in in length; the size of his coffin was 9ft by 3ft. When young he worked in his father’s fields, and afterwards exhibited himself in London and the larger provincial towns. He was well proportioned, but before death became lame and was compelled to use a crutch. He never drank anything stronger than water, milk or tea and was a very moderate eater. It is a curious fact that in the neighbouring village of Shipton, was born Edwin Calvert, a dwarf, 36 inches in height, who hastened his death in 1859, at the age of seventeen, by excessive drinking. Brice, the French giant, after a tour of England, stated, in reply to a question by Mr Frank Buckland, that he met with the tallest man in Yorkshire and Lancashire, Buckland adding that in his experience as a Life Guards’ surgeon, he found that the tallest and largest-boned men came from the coal-producing counties. Portrait, published 1811. Cast of head, in the College of Surgeons, London. BRIDLINGTON, GREGORY OF, COMMENTATOR vix. 1173 A learned man, born at Bridlington, successively Canon, Precentor, and Prior of Bridlington, of whom little is known, excepting that he was the author of “A Commentary on Portions of the Bible;” that he was the successor of Robert the Scribe, and that whilst he was Precentor, or Prior, the Danes, who had plundered the Abbey of Whitby, laid siege to the Priory, but were obliged to retire in consequence of the strength of the walls and defences. BRIDLINGTON, ST JOHN OF 1319 – 1379 A man of great piety and considerable learning, born at Bridlington, of exemplary parents; who was educated at Bridlington and Oxford, after which he assumed the cowl in the Augustinian Priory of Bridlington, becoming successively Precentor, Almoner, and Prior, 1362-79. When he was elected Prior, he refused the office with tears, deeming himself unworthy of the dignity; but accepted it after a second election, at the earnest entreaty of the monks, although with great reluctance. He managed the temporalities with business like tact, leaving them more flourishing than he found them, and withal was a generous dispenser of charity to the poor. It was said of him that, “In that place (of Prior) he acted the part of both Martha and Mary, being as provident to husband their revenues, as devout in God’s service. There are some Prophecies and Rythmes fathered upon him still extant, but so ridiculous that we may believe them falsely attributed to him. He is, in these parts, reputed as a Saint, especially by the Papists.” – Cox He was so much esteemed for his talents, learning, piety, and meekness that he was Canonized and his relics translated, by direction of the Pope, to a splendid shrine, the ceremonial being conducted by the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Durham, which became the resort of pilgrims, and it was said the scene of many miracles. Camden says of him “Bridlington is famous for John de Bridlington, a Monkish Poet, whose rhyming Prophecies, which are very ridiculous, I have seen; and yet he has to this day in all that neighbourhood, the reputation of a Saint, and very justly, too, if all the mighty things were true of him, which Nicholas Horsfield, in his Ecclesiastical History, has related with gravity and assurance.” He is sometimes confounded with William Banister, a prophetic writer, temp. Edward III. BRIDLINGTON, ROBERT OF, “THE SCRIBE” Vix. 1160 A native of Bridlington, the son of Gerard, and a monk, eventually 4th Prior of the Canons Regular of Bridlington, succeeding to the office in 1152. He was famous for his skill in penmanship and for his assiduity in the transcription of Monkish Annals, Legends of the Saints, Homilies, etc., which obtained for him the sobriquet of “The Scribe.” He was author of several works and the compiler of a Commentary on the Bible, deduced chiefly from the writings of Hieronymus, Anselm, Bede, and others. His MSS were preserved for a long time in the literary of the Priory and were seen there by Leland in 1534, consisting of Commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the twelve Prophits, the Psalter, the Gospels of SS Matthew and John, the Epistles of St Paul and the Apocalypse; also a Dialogue, “De Corporae et sanguiniae Domini,” and a Treatise, “De Ecclesiae Catholicae” To these Bale adds, Commentaries on the Song of Solomon, the Creed, the Creed of St Athanasius, and the Lord’s Prayer; a Book of Sermons, and a Treatise “De Operibus sex Dierum.” Leland saw his grave in the cloister near the door of the Chapter Houes, with the inscription – Robertus Cognomento Scriba, Quartus Prior BURTON, HENRY, B.D., PURITAN DIVINE 1579 – 1647/8 Born at Birdsall; educated at Cambridge; graduated M.A. and B.D. at Oxford; Rector of St Matthew’s, Friday Street, London, 1626-36. After leaving college, he became tutor to the sons of Robert, Baron Carey, of Leppington, and Earl of Monmouth, and soon after Clerk of the Closet to Prince Henry, and after his death to Prince Charles, on whose accession to the throne he was displaced, when he retired from the Court in disgust, and wrote a letter of remonstrance to the King, in which he charged Dr Neile, who was appointed to the office, with Popish proclivities. In 1636, he preached two sermons, “For God and the King,” in which he charged the Bishops with plotting to re-introduce Popery, for which he was cited before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and committed to Fleet Prison, where he lay several weeks. Whilst in prison, he addressed an epistle to the King, another to the Judges, and a third to the “true-hearted nobility;” for which, at the instance of Laud, his inveterate enemy, he was summoned before the Star Chamber, 1637, as a seditious libeller, and subjected to a most severe sentence, along with Prynne and Bastwick. It was to be deprived of all Preferments and Degrees, to be fined £500, to be pilloried and have his ears lopped off, and to be imprisoned for life, all of which were carried out, excepting the fine, and he was sent to Lancaster Gaol, whence, in consequence of the sympathy of the people, he was removed to Guernsey. Three years afterwards, upon the petition of his wife, Sarah, Parliament reversed the judgement, decided that all which had been done against him was outside the law and made him a grant of £6,000 for the loss of his ears, which, however, in the subsequent confusion, he never got. Along with Prynne, who had been imprisoned in Jersey, he landed in England, and was received with loud acclamations by the people, and in 1642, was re-inducted into his Rectory, afterwards adopting the principles of Independency. CARLISLE, CHARLES HOWARD, 3RD EARL OF Ob. 1738 Son of Edward, 2nd Earl, by Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Uvedale, Kt, and a relict of Sir William Berkeley, and descended from a junior branch of the Ducal House of Howard, his progenitor being “Belted Will” of Border fame, who, by marriage with Elizabeth, sister and co-heiress of George 5th Baron Dacre, of Gillesland, came into possession of Hinderskelf, where Castle Howard now stands. His grandson, Charles, was created 1661, Viscount Howard of Morpeth and Earl of Carlisle, succeeding also the Barony of Dacre, through his grandmother. He was raised to the Peerage, for his loyalty to the Stuarts during the civil wars, distinguishing himself as a diplomatist and published a Narrative of his three Embassies. Charles, his grandson, married Anne, daughter of Arthur Capel, 1st Earl of Essex, and had issue, with other children Henry, 4th Earl, and Anne, his 3rd daughter, who became celebrated as a poetess, and married Richard, 5th Viscount Irvine. He became First Lord of the Treasury 1701-2; Constable of the Tower, 1717; and Deputy Earl Marshall. He was the builder of Castle Howard, employing Vanbrugh as his architect and filling it with art Treasures, amongst which has since been included “The Three Mayrs,” by Carracci, the gem of the Manchester Exhibition, 1857, formerly one of the chief ornaments of the Louvre, and purchased during the French Revolution. He was also a man of great literary taste and a writer of poetry, as have been many members of the family. CARLISLE, FREDERICK HOWARD, 5TH EARL OF, K.T., K.G., P.C. and F.R.S. 1748 – 1825 Son of Henry, 4th Earl, by the Lady Frances, daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland; married 1770, to the Lady Margaret Caroline, daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquis of Stafford, and had issue, George, 6th Earl; Frederick, slain at Waterloo, 1815; Rev Henry Edward John, Prebendary of York; William; and three daughters; was Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1780-2. Lord Carlisle was distinguished for his poetical talents and was also a contributor to “The Antijacobin.” CARLISLE, GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK, 7TH EARL OF 1802 – 1864 Son of George, 6th Earl, by the Lady Georgiana Dorothy, daughter of William, 5th Duke of Devonshire; educated at Eton and Oxford, where he obtained the highest classical honours. M.P. for Morpeth, 1826-30, County of York, 1830-1 and 1831-2, West Yorkshire, 1832-41 and 1846-8; Chief Secretary of Ireland, 1838-41; Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, 1846-50; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1852; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1855 and 1859-64; Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding, 1847; Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, 1853. Lord Carlisle was a man of great reputation as a statesman, orator and a man of letters; lectured at Leeds with great applause on “America” and on “The Life and Writings of Pope,” both which lectures were published. He travelled in Asia and America and published a narrative of his Eastern wanderings, 1854, under the title of “A Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters,” and was author of “The Second Vision of Daniel,” a work on prophecy. DE CLIFFORD, HENRY DE CLIFFORD, 10TH BARON, “THE SHEPHERD LORD” 1453- 1523 The de Cliffords were an illustrious family, seated at Skipton, in Craven, who were afterwards Lords of Londesborough. Richard, 4th Duke of Normandy, had six sons, of whom were Richard, 5th Duke; Robert, 6th, who was father of William the Conqueror and William Ponce, Earl of Arques and Thoulouse, who came to England with his nephew. He had grants of land in South Wales, and his posterity moved northward on marrying the heiress of the de Viponts, becoming Lords of Skipton by a grant from King Edward II, after the fall of Gaveston, to whom it had been given on the execution and attainder of the Earl of Lancaster. Londesborough came into their possession by the marriage of John, 9th Baron, with the heiress of the Bromfletes, Barons de Vesci. Roger de Clifford was summoned by writ as Baron, 1299, which, after forfeitures and abeyance, is still extant. Henry, 11th Baron, was created Earl of Cumberland, 1525, the title becoming extinct on the death of Henry, 5th Earl, 1643, when Londesborough passed to his daughter Elizabeth, who married Richard, 1st Earl of Burlington, who was created Baron Clifford of Londesborough, 1666, from whom the Londesborough estates passed to the Cavendish family. Henry, 10th Baron, was son of John, “Black-faced Clifford,” 9th Baron, the murderer of the young Duke of Rutland, son of Richard, Duke of York, at the battle of Wakefield, who was a devoted Lancastrian and who was slain on the eve of the battle of Towton, after which decisive victory, which placed Edward of York on the throne, he was attained and Skipton given to Sir William Stanley, husband of Margaret Countess of Richmond and mother of Henry VII, and afterwards to Richard Duke of Gloster, the King’s brother. On the death of his father, his mother, the widowed Countess, daughter of Henry de Bromflete, Baron de Vesci, fled from Skipton with her two sons, Henry and Richard, to her father, at Londesborough, and, as her sons were sought for by the Yorkists, to imprison them, or perhaps put them to death in revenge for the murder of the Duke of Rutland, she sent the younger into to Flanders and the elder she committed to the charge of a shepherd and his wife, at Londesborough, to be brought up as their child until a reversal of the attainder, or a change in the dynasty should open out brighter prospects for the family. Here at Londesborough he passed some years tending sheep, without education, living on the hard fare of the peasants of the period, and supposing himself to be the son of the shepherd. Afterwards, when there appeared to be some likelihood of his retreat being discovered, he was sent, along with his foster parents, into the wilds of Westsmorland, where he remained until he was thirty-two years of age, when the battle of Bosworth placed the Earl of Richmond on the throne and terminated by the death of Richard III, the dynasty of York. The shepherd heir of Skipton was then brought from the bleak Westmorland hills; his claims were recognise; the attainder was reversed; and he was restored to the dignity and estates of his ancestors. Conscious however, of his lack of learning and his ignorance of the new world into which he was introduced, he lived some time in retirement, consorting with the Canons of Bolton, and applying himself to study and repair his deficiencies in mental culture. His favourite studies were alchemy, astronomy, natural history, and legendary lore; becoming a very fair proficient in these branches of learning, and at sixty years of age, came out of his retirement, and held a command at the battle of Flodden. He married first, Anne, daughter of Sir John St John of Bletshoe, and had issue Henry, 1st Earl of Cumberland; and secondly, Florence, daughter of Henry Pudsey, of Bolton, and relict of Sir Thomas Talbot, of Bashall in Craven. “Life of Henry Lord Clifford, by J. Heneage Jesse” (grandson of the Vicar of Hutton Cranswick) 1862 COIFFI, HIGH PRIEST OF WODEN Vix. 7th Century At the village of Delgovine stood a magnificent temple, of which Coffi was high priest. He lived during the reign of Eadwine, of Northumbria, and being a man of high spiritual position was frequently at the Court of the King. He was present when Paulinus, the Apostle of the North, who had accompanied Aethelburga, Eadwine’s second Queen, from Kent, proclaimed the glad tidings of the Gospel to the Northumbrian idolators, and became convinced of the truths preached by him. Eadwine was somewhat reluctant to abandon the faith of his fathers, and asked Coiffi what he thought of this heretical teaching. “I have long been sensible, Oh King,” replied the high priest, “that there was nothing in what we worshipped, because the more diligently I sought after the truth in that worship, the less I found it; and I now frequently confess that such truth appears evident in this preaching, as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness; for which reason, I advise that we instantly abjure and destroy these our temples and altars, which we have consequently without reaping any benefit from them.” Eadwine, partly from conviction and partly in compliance with the desire of his beautiful and newly-married Christian wife, assented. “But who shall desecrate the great temple?” enquired the King. “I,” replied Coiffi, “I officiated at the altar of the false god, and it is fitting that I, who taught the people error, should disabuse them.” A day was appointed for the purpose, in the year 646, when Eadwine and his Court, accompanied by Paulinus and Coiffi proceeded to Delgovine, where Coiffi, girt with a sword and spurs and with a spear in his hand, mounted a stallion. It was not permitted for priests to wear war-like accoutrements, or to ride on any other beast but a mare; and when he thus appeared, the trembling bystanders looked menacingly at him as committing a most outrageous and sacrilegious act; but when he boldly rode onto the temple and hurled his spear at the idol, they set up a loud shriek, deeming the priest mad and anticipating some terrible manifestation of the wrath of the great god; but as no supernatural disaster followed and the sun continued to shine, with smiling radiance over the scene; as Coiffi was not stricken dead; and the earth opened not to swallow up the abettors of the act, whilst the helpless image of Woden remained undemonstrative with the spear quivering in his side, they lost faith in their ancestral god and Paulinus, taking advantage of the opportunity, preached to the assemblage the Gospel of Christ, and shortly afterwards baptised 10,000 converts in the river Swale. The Temple of Delgovine (the place of God’s image) was destroyed and a Christian church erected on the site, which was called Godmangham (God man’s house), now Goodmanham. CONSITT, FRANCIS, BURYTHORPE 1618 – 1768 Died, as is asserted, at the age of 150 years. He attributed his longevity to leading a temperate and chaste life and sucking raw eggs. CONSTABLE, JOHN, LL.D., DEAN OF LINCOLN Ob. 1528 This eminent divine and poet was the second son of Sir Robert Constable, Kt, of Flambrough, by Agnes, his wife, daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth, Kt, of the county of Essex. He was educated by Lylie, the grammarian, and at St John’s, Cambridge, where he graduated and became Fellow of his College, in which he afterwards founded four Fellowships. On his personal history but little is known, but he appears to have been a frequenter of the court of Henry VIII, and to have been intimate with many of the more eminent men of the age. He obtained preferment successively as Prebendary of Decem Librarum, Lincoln, 1494-1503; of Castor, Lincoln, 1502-38; Treasurer of Lincoln Cathedral, 1508-12; Archdeacon of Huntingdon, 1512-14; and Dean of Lincoln, 1514-38, in which city he died and was buried in the Cathedral. He was author of “Joannes Constabularii, Londinesia artivm, Professoris Epigrammate, Apud inclytam Londini urbem, MDXX,” printed by Pynson. The only known copy of this work is in th eBodleian Library. Amongst others are Epigrams addressed to King Henry VIII, and Queen Katherine; Bishop Latimer; Sir Thomas More; and his old master, Lylie. There are also Epitaphs to his father and mother; and to his brother Richard and his sister Martha, neither of whose names appear in the Constable pedigree. CONSTABLE, HENRY, POET 1561-1613 Until recently considerable doubt existed as to the identity of this Elizabethan sonnet writer, but the discovery of MSS, particularly those of Joseph Hunter, Roger Dodsworth and several which have been calendared under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, has cleared away the mists which hung around his name, and shewn inconsistently that he was a member of the Everingham branch of the Constables of Flambrough. Sir Robert Constable, Kt, of Everingham, was grandson of Sir Marmaduke, of Flambrough; he married Catherine, daughter of Sir George Manners, Baron de Ros, and niece of King Edward IV, by whom he had issue, with other children, Sir Robert, his second son. This Sir Robert served in the Scottish wars and was knighted there by the Earl of Surrey, and was author of a “Treatise on the Ordering of a Camp.” He married Christiana, daughter of John Dabridgecourt, of the county of Warwick, and relict of Anthony Wilson, with whom he is supposed to have obtained his estate at Newark, where he died in 1591, when the estate was sold to pay a debt due to the Crown. Henry, his son, was born probably at Newark, circa 1561, and was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1579-90, by special grace, but did not proceed further, in consequence of his Popish proclivities, which compelled him to retire abroad to avoid the Elizabethan persecutions. He travelled through the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and Italy and in 1595 we find him in Paris, whence he was sent by the Legate at that city, on a mission from the Pope, accompanied by Lord Bonington, to the court of James VI of Scotland, to exhort him to return to the faith of his fathers, or at least to grant toleration to his Roman Catholic subjects; but he met with no success beyond courteous treatment and fair speeches. Whilst there he was closely watched by the agents of Cecil, whose despatches to their employer (1598-1600) have been published in the Calendars of State Papers, and throw a flood of light on the mission and on the Scottish history of the time. Soon afterwards he was in Arragon, whence he sent a printed book to King James, which Hazlett conjectures was his “Diana,” but it was really “A Counterfeit Discourse Between Counterfeit Travellers,” etc, a treatise on the succession to the English Throne. In 1604 he was in the Tower of London, but as it would appear, was released about the end of the year and banished, when he went to Spain again, and seems to have returned, without leave, as in 1607-8 he was cast into Fleet prison, but was set at liberty, very probably through the influence of his kinsman, the Earl of Shrewsbury. He went to Paris, about which time Dr B. Carrier, an eminent English divine, had embraced Catholicism and entered the Jesuits’ College, at Liege, and thither Constable was sent to confirm the proselyte in his new faith, but soon after his arrival he was seized with a sudden illness, and died in that city in 1613. As a poet he was held in high esteem both by his own and by succeeding generations. Ant. à Wood says, “There was no gentleman of our nation had a more pure, quick and higher delivery than he; witness among others that sonnet of his before the poetical translation called, ‘The Furies’ made by King James.” And in the ‘Return from Parnasus,’ 1606 occur these lines – “Sweet Constable doth take the wondring ear, And lays it up in willing prisonments.” His writings, which are lauded by Ben Jonson, Sir John Harrington and others, are full of quips, cranks, and strange conceits; but this was the style of the age. His earlier sonnets all relate to a hopeless passion for a lady of high rank, who is supposed to have been the Lady Penelope Devereux, afterwards the divorced Lady Rich, and eventually the disruptable wife of Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire. CONSTABLE, SIR MARMADUKE, KT, FLAMBROUGH Circa 1463-1515 A notable warrior who accompanied Edward IV, in his French expedition 1474; assisted in the capture of Berwick, 1482 and was appointed Governor of the town and castle; and was one of the heroes of Flodden, 1513. He was the eldest son of Sir Robert Constable, Kt, by Agnes, daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth, Kt, of the county of Suffolk; married, first, Joyce, daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford, Kt; secondly, Margery, daughter of Henry, Baron of Fitzhugh, by the first of whom he had issue, four sons and two daughters. A partly obliterated inscription on his tomb, at Flambrough, informs us that “at the age of three score years and ten, he was present, with his sonnes, brothers and servants, and Kynsmenne at Brankeston (Flodden) where the Kynge of Scottys (James IV), was slaine.” He lived in the reigns of six monarchs – Henry VI, Edward IV and V, Richard III, and Henry VII and VIII. CONSTABLE, SIR ROBERT, KT, FLAMBROUGH Executed 1537 The eldest son and heir of Sir Marmaduke Constable, Kt, with whom he fought at the battle of Flodden, 1513; married Jane, daughter of Sir William Ingleby, of Ripley, and had issue, with other children, Sir Marmaduke, who succeeded to Flambrough and Holme-upon-Spaldingmoor. He was knighted at the battle of Blackheath, 1497, for his valour against the Cornish Rebels. In 1536 he became a prominent leader in the Cornish Rebels. In 1536 he became a prominent leader in the first Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion and participated in the general proclamation of pardon at Doncaster. Not satisfied with the conduct of the King, relative to his promises at the Doncaster negotiation, he, with Aske and Lord Darcy, considered it necessary to take up arms again, to compel Henry to observe the conditions he assented to; but looked upon the rash attempt of Bigod and Hallam, at Settrington, as premature, and wrote a letter to them urging them to lay down their arms and maintain the peace of the country, for doing which he received the thanks of the King. Bigod and Hallam, however, went forward, took Beverley and attempted to take Hull, but were discomfited and executed. In April, Constable, Aske, and Darcy were suddenly arrested on a charge of High Treason, inasmuch as they knew of the second outbreak and had not given information thereof, and that although they had in a letter pretended to dissuade the conspirators, they were secret abettors and disapproved of the rising then, only as being untimely. They were tried, and by an evident straining of evidence, found guilty and condemned. Lord Darcy was beheaded on Tower Hill; Aske, executed at York; and Sir Robert Constable, as the Duke of Norfolk wrote, “On Fridaye beying market daye at Hull, suffrd and dothe hang above the highest gate of the towne so trimmed in the cheynes that I thinke his boones woll hang there this hundrethe yere.” CONSTABLE, SIR WILLIAM, KT. AND BART, FLAMBROUGH Circa 1575-1655 Son and heir of Sir Robert Constable, Kt, by his second wife, Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Widdrington, Kt; married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Thomas Fairfax, Kt, by whom he had no issue; knighted, 1599; created Baronet, 1611, extinct at death; MP for the borough of Knaresborough, in the Long Parliament; afterwards representative of the County of York. Sir William was knighted for his services in Ireland, under the Earl of Essex, in whose treasonable practices he became involved and was arraigned for High Treason; but remanded before trial, by direction of the Queen, on the ground that he had been “unwarily drawn in.” He was imprisoned, temp Charles I, for resisting the imposition of the Ship Tax; and, on the breaking out of the subsequent civil war, he unhesitatingly unsheathed his sword in defence of the liberties of the people, became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Parliamentarian army, and was actively engaged, all through the war. He fought at Edgehill, 1642; commanded at the siege of Scarborough, 1643; led a body of men from Hull in a raid upon the Wolds, 1644, where he surprised Sir Charles Lucas and scattered the forces of Sir Walter Vavasour. The same year he fought at Marston Moor, and after the battle was appointed one of the Commissioners to treat for the surrender of York; and in 1645, accompanied Fairfax to London on the appointment of the latter to the command of the “new modelled” army. He sat on the trial of King Charles and signed the warrant for his execution; and on the establishment of the Republic, was appointed a member of the Council of State. He died during the Protectorate, and thus escaped the fate of the Regicides who survived the Restoration; nevertheless, his body was exhumed after that event, dismembered and cast into a pit, and in the general pardon of Charles II, although dead, he was specially excepted, was attained and his estates confiscated. Winstanley says of him, “A Yorkshire Knight, whose prodigality brought him to sell his patrimony (Holme-upon-Spaldingmoor) to Sir Marmaduke Langdale, at the beginning of the late trouble, which he afterwards regained for nothing, when that Lord (Baron Langdale) for his loyalty, was voted a delinquent and his estates at the dispose of the Rebbels, who carved fat shares for themselves. He had a principal hand in the King’s death, for which patricide and other treasonable practices, he was, by the Saints, made Governor of Gloucester and a great commander in the north. He died before his Majesty’s return” – “Loyal Martyrology.” CROFT, REV GEORGE, D.D., RECTOR OF THWING 1747 – 1809 A learned divine, born at Skipton of humble parentage, who, displaying an ability for learning, and obtaining a patron, was sent to University College, Oxford, 1762, where he gained a scholarship, 1768, graduated and became Fellow of his College in 1779; Vicar of Arncliffe, near Settle, 1779; Lecturer at St Martin’s, Birmingham, 1791; and Rector of Thwing, 1802. DADE, REV WILLIAM, F.A.S. RECTOR OF BARMSTON Circa 1740 – 1790 A topographer and antiquary, born at Burton Agnes, son of the Rev Thomas Dade, vicar of that parish, by Mary Norton, and grandson of the Rev John Dade, vicar of Stillingotn, near York, whose wife was descended from the Wrights of Ploughland, in Holderness, famous for having furnished two members of the Gunpowder Plot Conspiracy. He was, after taking orders, successively Curate of St Olave’s, York; Rector of St Mary’s, Castlegate, York; and Rector of Barmston, near Bridlington. The greater portion of his life was spent in collecting materials for a “History of Holderness,” of which he wrote a considerable portion, and printed proposals for its publication in 1783; but ill-health and other perplexities prevented his completion of the work. Some time after his death, the MSS were placed in the hands of the Rev George Poulson, of Barrow, County of Lincoln, Historian of Beverley, who re-arranged the matter, added considerably to the details and published, “The History And Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness,” etc. 2 vols. Hull, 1841. There was also published “A Series of Seventeen Views of Churches, Monuments, and other Antiquities, originally engraved for Dade’s ‘History of Holderness.’” Hull, 1835. DRAPER, WILLIAM, BESWICK, “THE NIMROD OF THE NORTH” 1701 – 1776 A celebrated sportsman and Master of the Holderness Hounds, born at Nether Wooton, county of Oxford, who “in 1720 bred, fed and hunted ye staunchest pack of fox-hounds in Europe.” He married Ann, daughter and heiress of Ingleby Daniel, of the old Hall, Beswick, with whom he inherited the Beswick estates, and had issue a daughter, Miss Di. Draper, who, in riding across country after the hounds was as famous as her father, and was the subject of many an enthusiastic toast at the hunt dinners.” “Old Squire Draper,” as he was termed, kept a hospitable table, and was held in great reverence by his tenants and his brother sportsmen. He was uncle to Sir William Draper, K.G., Lieutenant General in the army and conqueror of the Manillas; born 1721; died 1787; who was also the author of some controversial works. DE DRIFFIELD, ROGER, ABBOT OF MEAUX Ob circa 1290 A native of Driffield, who entered the Monastery of Meaux, near Beverley, passed through the usual graduations of office, and was appointed Abbot, 1260, on the compulsory resignation of Richard de Burton, who had been guilty of appropriating to his own use the revenues of the Abbey. In the Liber Melsa we are informed that he conveyed the villages of Wyke and Myton (Hull) to Hamilton, Dean of York and his brother Adam, for 800 marks, for the term of twenty years, which money he put into his own pocket; who the same year re-demised the property to the Monastery for the remaining nineteen years, for a rent of £100 per annum, agreeing to quit claim the village and grange as soon as the 800 marks should be paid, which Driffield raised, by borrowing in the name of the Abbey, from the general Chapter of the Cistercians. In the 21st Edward I, Wyke, of the estimated value of £78 14s 8d, and Myton, of £24 8s per annum, passed by a deed of feoffment to the King and were granted to William de la Pole, and on their site grew up the modern town of Kingston-upon-Hull. The Chronicle further informs us that during the abbacy of “Lord Roger of Driffiled” King Edward made many grants to the Abbey, amongst others, the Manor of Pocklington, of the fee of Albermarle, valued at £43 4s 3d, which was held six years, when it was exchanged with “Dominus Henry de Percy” for half an acre of land at Nafferton and the advowson of the church. “Lord Roger” governed the Abbey twenty-three years, adorned the altar with “two beautiful paintings, and resigned 1310, having erected for his residence in retirement, a room, still standing (1400) and called ‘The Abbot’s Chamber.’ He left the Abbey £1,569 in debt, survived his cession eight years, and was buried in the church of the monastery. DE DRIFFIELD, WILLIAM, B.D., ABBOT OF MEAUX Ob circa 1270 A native of Driffield, who entering the Monastery of Meaux, near Beverley, was, after passing through minor offices, elected Abbot, out of respect for his pious exemplary life, which office he held from about 1250 to 1270. During his abbacy, the monastery was involved in divers lawsuits, in one of which it was compelled to surrender its claim to the Marsh of Weel, near Beverlery; and another, relative to the tithes of Wawn, which lasted five years and was finally settled by an appeal to the Pope. The Abbey also sustained great loss in men and cattle, thirty-five persons having been drowned by an inundation of the Humber, the waters reaching the fisheries at Cottingham and swallowing up lands and buildings, its property. He is mentioned in the Chronicles of the Abbey as having cut down the wood of ‘Birmanskeugh’ and therewith built “naven optimam magnis sumptibus,” to which he gave the name of Benedict. Abbot William was a man of extraordinary piety, living a life of asceticism and devotion, and governing the Abbey with great decorum and strict discipline. He was buried in the Abbey church, and it was reported that many miracles were wrought at his tomb. DE DRINGHOE, WILLIAM, ABBOT OF MEAUX Ob circa 1372 Sixteenth and nineteenth Abbot of Meaux, near Beverley, 1349-53 and 1369-72. Born at Dringhoe; educated at Meaux, where he assumed the cowl and became a sub-cellarer, under Abbot Hugh de Leven. In 1349 an earthquake occurred, which was followed immediately after by an outbreak of the plague, of so virulent a character that in the month of August it carried off the Abbot, twenty-two out of the forty-two monks and six out of the seven novices, including the Prior, the Cellarius, the Bursarius, and other officers. On the cessation of the plague, when only ten monks were left, a meeting was held for the election of a new Abbot, when the choice fell upon Dringhoe, who was installed; but the Cellarer, Robert de Rislay, jealous of his elevation to an office which he thought should have been bestowed upon himself, set his wits to work to eject him, and accused him of subordination of felony and being accessory to the fact in receiving a stolen horse. The Abbot was committed to York Castle, pronounced guilty, fined, ordered to find sureties for future good behaviour and then released. He returned to the Abbey and in 1355 Rislay charged him, not without cause, with mismanagement of the revenues and actual embezzlement, and obtained a commission, at the head of which was the Abbot Fountains, to investigate the charges, which resulted in his deprivation, but with the provision that he should have a chamber in the Abbey and an allowance of five marks per annum. Dringhoe, however, was not the man to submit meekly to this decision. He fled to Rome, laid his complaint at the foot of the Pope, who took a favourable view of his case, and upon his communicating with the Abbey, Rislay deemed it prudent to resign. The monks thereupon assembled in conclave, and instead of re-instating Dringhoe, elected Robert de Beverley, who, finding his tenure of office not very firm, sent a messenger to Rome to bribe the ex-Abbot to refrain from opposition, who consented on the following terms – That he should have a pension of 100 shillings per annum; a chamber in the Abbey, with firing and litter for the floor; a servant, and horses for himself and servant; a monk to bear him company at table; that he should sit on the right of the Abbot in Chapter; be exempt from all cloisteral, choral and chapter services; be at liberty to go forth and converse with seculars when he chose; and have all the expenses of his journey to Rome paid. Robert de Beverley governed the Abbey from 1356 to 1369, when he died, and Dringhoe was re-instated, dying five or six years afterwards, it is not precisely known when, but his successor, William de Scarburgh, was appointed to the vacant office in 1372. During his second Abbacy, the Abbey Church was burnt, the cause of which is not known. DUNHILL, SNOWDEN, CONVICT Ob circa 1336 A notorious thief, born at a village on the Wolds towards the end of the 18th century, soon after which his parents removed to Spalding and both dying, left him an orphan when young. At the age of fourteen or fifteen he was placed with the widow of a farmer to work for his food and clothing, without any wages. Being passionately fond of cock-fighting, he commenced his career of crime by stealing his mistress’ corn to feed his game cocks; and from that proceeded to robbing granaries and disposing of the spoil to two or three millers, who purchased it at a low price, as an equivalent for keeping the secret. In early manhood he married the widow of a thief, named Taylor, set up a cottage on the road between Spaldington and Market Weighton, spent his days in loafing about and his nights in plundering barns and committing burglaries; but although he was generally suspected, he succeeded in evading detection. On one occasion, he was shot, when attempting to break into a house; but was carried off by his comrades, to Howden, where thirty-seven shots were extracted from his back. At length, in 1812, he was apprehended on a charge of highway robbery of which he was innocent, committed to the East Riding Goal, Beverley, and sent to York to be tried, on the ground that an East Riding jury would be prejudiced by his suspected evil character, where he was convicted, sentenced to seven years transportation and served the term at the Hulks. On his liberation he returned to Spaldington and found his family scattered in the following way, as he states in his autobiography – His wife, who former husband had been shot when committing a robbery, had been transported, after committing a series of depravations. Rose, his favourite daughter, was a convict in York Castle, where she had given birth to an illegitimate child. “After her release she was again committed to Wakefield House of Correction, and I have never heard of her. She had cohabited with two men, both of whom have been transported.” Sarah, his other daughter, had been imprisoned in York Castle and the East Riding Gaol, and was afterwards sentenced to seven years transportation at the Beverley Borough Sessions, for robbery. She had cohabited with three men, all of whom had been transported. William, his son, was also undergoing a fourteen years’ terms of transportation. “He, poor fellow, died immediately on his arrival in New South Wales. He was the most promising of my family, and, with different examples before him, would probably have proved an ornament to society.” Robert Taylor, his step-son, brought up by him, had also been transported. Not being able to obtain work, he fell into his old practices, about Hull and North Lincolnshire; and having heard that the Botany Bay convicts led an easy life, besides having a yearning to be with his family, most of whom were there, he resolved to qualify himself for a free passage to the Antipodes. Accordingly, he committed a transportable offence, in Lincolnshire, was tried, convicted and sent thither. After some time, he and his wife obtained tickets of feedom, and settled in Hobart Town, where she opened a school. With all her criminal propensities, Mrs Dunhill was a rapidly pious woman, a religious fanatic, could quote scripture phraseology as glibly as any Puritan or Covenanter, and was looked upon as a saint. She also made pies, which her husband hawked about the town. He afterwards fell into drunken habits, and was suspected of practicing his old vocation. When he died is not known. When serving his term, he wrote his autobiography, but knew not how to get it published until he accidentally met with a sailor, whom he had saved from drowning when a boy at Spaldington, who brought the MS to England and had it printed. He was evidently a man of superior mental ability, as the style of writing in his autobiography indicates. The following passage is from a description of his journey to London en route for Botany Bay; “The beautiful Lincolnshire hills on my left, and the still now more beautiful hills and dales and woods of my own native Yorkshire, lent their charms to form a landscape I never saw equalled, and in casting my last lingering gaze upon it, I felt that the inanimate beauties of creation must now to me for ever be a blank. “ “The Life of Snowden Dunhill; written by himself.” Howden, 1833 D’ESPEC, SIR WALTER, KT, KIRKHAM AND HAMLAKE (HELMSLEY) Ob 1153 A warrior of great distinction, who held a chief command at the battle of the Standard, 1138, and contributed to the victory, not only by his prowess, but by a spiritual address to the troops, uttered with “a voice like a trumpet,” from the wagon which supported the three holy Standards of York, Beverley and Ripon. For his services he was rewarded with divers lands in the Counties of York and Northumberland, of which the Manor of Kirkham formed a portion. He was Justice of the Forests of Yorkshire, tem Henry I; and a Justice Itinerant in 1130, for the Counties of York, Durham and Cumberland. Ailred, Abbot of Rievaulx, describes him as “prudent in council and discreet in war, a trusty friend, a loyal subject of giant-like stature, but comely,” etc. By his wife Adelina, he had an only son, who was killed by a fall from his horse, at Frithby, near Kirkham, on the spot where a stone cross was afterwards erected to his memory. Rendered thus childless, and grief-stricken by the event, he consulted his uncle, William d’Espec, a rector of Garton, as to the disposal of his estates, who advised him, “to make Christ his heir.” Falling in with the suggestion, he converted his mansion at Kirkham into a Priory for Austin Canons to the honour of the Holy Trinity, 1121, and endowed it with seven churches and estates in Northumberland, nominating his uncle the first Prior. He founded also the Cistercian Abbey of Rievaulx, the first of that order established in England, dedicated, as was usual with the Cistercians, to the Virgin Mary; also the Priory of Waxden, County of Beds. In 1151 he became a monk of Rievaulx and died and was buried there two years afterwards. The remainder of his estates passed to his sisters (co-heiresses), Hawise, who married William de Buissy; Albreda, who married Geoffrey de Traili; and Adeline, who married Peter de Ros, of Holderness, from whom sprang the line of Ros, of Hamlake, whose present representative is the Duke of Rutland. EUSTACE FITZ JOHN, FEUDAL LORD OF MALTON AND WATTON Ob 1157 This potent noble, “one of the chiefest Peers of England,” descended from Serlo de Burgh, Baron of Tonsbergh, Nomandy, who came to England with Duke Williams and had a grant of Knaresborough, Aldborough, etc; and remotely, from Charles, Duke of Ingeheim, fifth son of Charlemagne; was the son of John surnamed “Monoculus,” by Maud, aunt of King Stephen. He married, first, Beatrix, daughter and heiress of Yvo de Vesci, with whom he obtained the Barony of Alnwick; and secondly, Agnes, daughter and heiress of William Fitz Nigel, Baron of Halton and Constable of Chester, and became jure uxoris, inheritor of those dignities; he succeeded to the Lordships of Malton and Watton through his mother, the granddaughter and heiress of Gilbert Tyson. By his former wife he had issue William, who assumed the name of de Vesci; by the latter, Richard, who married Albreda de Lizours, half-sister, on the mother’s side, of Robert de Lacy, who issue, without any legal right, succeeded to the Lordship of Pontefract, assumed the name of de Lacy and became Earls of Lincoln. King Henry I made him considerable grants of land, including the town of Alnwick (he already held the castle), and constituted him Governor of Bamborough Castle and Justice Itinerant in the Northern Counties. In the succeeding reign he adhered to the Empress Maud, daughter of his friend, King Henry, and placed the castles of Malton and Alnwick in the hands of the Scots, to hold for her, who desolated the surrounding country. To oppose them, Archbishop Thurstan raised an army and defeated them signally at the battle of the Standard, 1138. Eustace, who fought bravely on that occasion, fled to Scotland, but on submission to King Stephen, was restored and permitted to return. To make amends for the damage he had caused, he re-built Malton, which had been burnt by Thurstan to dislodge the Scots; re-founded the Gilbertine Priory, 1150; founded at Alnwick, 1147, a monastery for Premonstrasensian Canons; re-built, 1149, Watton Abbey, which had been destroyed by the Danes, 870; established a hospital at Broughton, near Malton, 1155; and was a great benefactor to St Mary’s Abbey, York. After an active and somewhat turbulent career, he was slain in Flintshire, fighting against the Welsh. DE EITON, STEPHEN, CHRONICLER Vic 14th century A monkish historian, Canon Regular of the Priory of Warter, and supposed to have been a native of Etton. Author of “Life of King Edward II,” written circa 1320, “whose misfortunes,” says Nicholson, “are very honestly written, without either flattery or contempt.” FAWCETT, BENJAMIN 1808 – 1893 Born at Bridlington, November, 1818, only child of George, master mariner, and Sarah (nee Thompson). His father died at sea before he was born and was buried at Santa Cruz, Philippine Islands; educated at Bridlington; apprenticed to William Forth, bookseller and printer in Bridlington. After his apprenticeship, he moved to Driffield and established himself as bookseller, book-binder, music seller, printer and stationer. He quickly gained a reputation for his wood-block engravings and business began to expand, with orders from all over the country. In 1850 he moved to a larger premises, East Lodge, on Eastgate South, which also became his home and although it is not known for certain where he learned his colour printing methods, he soon became a major employer in the town, employing upwards of fifty people, many being girls and young women, whose dexterity was advantageous to the colouring methods. The quality of his work was never matched by his contemporaries. He produced superior printing, successfully, from 1831 to 1893. A copy of his works, “A History of British Birds,” 1851, was presented to Her Majesty, The Queen. He formed a partnership with Alexander Francis Lydon, who joined him as an apprentice in the late 1840’s and this partnership proved fruitful for both of them. Fawcett produced books on science, natural history as well as books for children. His work is renowned world-wide and fetches high prices, these days. He died at East Lodge on January 12, 1893 and was buried in the Driffield Cemetery. His son, Frank, carried on the business after his death, but filed for bankruptcy in 1894. The printing plant, machinery etc, were sold at auction in 1895 and thus ended of one of the town’s most important and famous businesses. FIDDES, REV RICHARD, D.D., POLEMIC 1671 – 1725 A learned divine, who was born at Hunmanby; took Holy Orders, 1694; became Chaplain to the Earl of Oxford; Rector of Halsham, Holderness, 1696; Chaplain to the Hull garrison; and Chaplain to Queen Anne. Dr Fiddes was an able and eloquent preacher, but the marshy nature of the country round Halsham deprived him of the power of articulating distinctly and he was only able to recover the use of his voice, temporarily, by drinking a considerable quantity of wine; he was, consequently, compelled eventually to resign the living. He was a somewhat conspicuous figure amongst the group of literary notabilities of the “Augustan era,” and allied himself to the party of Swift and Atterbury. His opponents charged him with a leaning towards Popery and that he evinced his enmity to the Reformation, by disguised expressions of opinion in his works, especially in his “Life of Wolsey.” In a pecuniary point of view, his writings do not appear to have been very successful, and having a wife and large family to maintain, he was always in a state of financial embarrassment. In the dedication of one of his sermons to Sir George Strickland, he expresses himself very warmly and gratefully for the bestowal of some favour, and when his friend Swift solicited the Chaplainship of the Hull Gaol for him, he described him as a “clergyman in the neighbourhood, who had lately been in gaol and published sermons to pay the fees.” On leaving Halsham he settled in London, and through the influence of Swift, obtained a Royal Chaplaincy, with a prospect of further preferment, but the death of the Queen, soon after, dispelled all his hopes, and he retired to Putney, where he earned a scanty subsistence by his pen, and there he died. FLETCHER, DICKY, BRIDLINGTON 1748 – 1827 The Bellman of Bridlington, who was killed in his 80th year by falling down the steps of a cellar; famous for his facetious and rhyming announcements, delivered in the unadulterated Doric of his native tongue of which the following is a specimen – “Tak’n oop this fornoon, opud th’s nooarth sans, Two keis, which I hev in my hans, Wo-iver hes lost ‘em mun just cum to mea, An they sal heve ‘em agean, an we can agreea.” GARNET, JOHN, D.D., BISHOP OF CLOGHER, IRELAND 1710 – 1782 Born at Sigglesthorne, the son of the Rev John Garnet, M.A., Rector of Barmston and Siggleshtorne, by Frances, daughter of William Barnard. His grandfather, Henry, was Vicar of Kilham, who died 1686, and his great-grandfather, Anthony, a merchant at Newcastle. He was educated at Cambridge, where he graduated and became Fellow of Sydney Sussex College, after which he was appointed Chaplain to Lionel, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1731, with whom he went to Dublin, and after some minor preferments, was nominated Bishop of Ferns, 1752, whence he was translated to Clogher, 1758, and held the dignity until his death, fourteen years after. DE GANT OR GHENT, WALTER, HUNMANBY Ob 1139 Lord of the Manor of Bridlington and Territorial Baron of Hunmanby, descended from Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, by Maud, sister of William the Conqueror, and son of Gilbert de Gant (who held a command at the battle of Hastings and was rewarded by a grant of fifty-four Lordships), by Alice, daughter of Hugh de Mountford. He was one of the defenders of York, against Gospatric and Waltheof, who laid siege to the city in behalf of Eadgar the Atheling, assisted by a Dano-Scottish fleet, and was taken prisoner in the second siege. Walter married Maud, daughter of Stephen, Earl of Britanny, and had issue, Gilbert, who became jure uxoris, Earl of Lincoln; Robert, a Justice Itinerant, temp Henry III, and Geoffrey. He was a brave warrior, and fought in old age at the battle of the Standard, 1138; “where, by his eloquent speech and prudent conduct, the enemy received a total overthrow.” He was also a man of great piety and founded, circa 1114, the noble Priory of Bridlington for Canons Regular of the Order of St Augustine, which he endowed with his estates in that town. William Wode or Wolde, the last Prior, was hanged at Tyburn, 1537, for complicity in the Insurrection at the Pilgrimage of Grace. At the Dissolution, its revenues were estimated, according to Dugdale, at £547 6s 11d; according to Speed, at £682 13s 9d per annum. GOODAIRE, THOMAS, MALTON Vix 1660 In the course of his evangelising tours George Fox, as appears from his Journals, frequently came to Malton. In 1651 he writes, “Then I turned to Malton again and very great meetings there were, to which more people would have come, but durst not for fear of their relations, for it was thought a strange thing to preach in houses and not in the church, as they called it.” On this occasion one of the “Priests” invited him to preach in the “Steeple-house,” and as he had a vision in which it was told him that he might do so “to gather the people from hence,” he accepted the invitation, and going thither found the other priest preaching to a congregation of eleven persons. When he had finished, he intimated to Fox that he might take his place, who declined entering the pulpit, as an abominable invention, “in which Priests lolled, and which the people regarded with idolatry,” and instead stood on a seat and declaimed to a congregation which now filled the church, against false prophets, pointing out to them the marks by which they might distinguish who were the true successors of Christ and his Apostles. It was probably on this or some similar occasion that Goodaire, “the miserable old Quaker of Malton,” was converted. He soon after went forth on a mission proclaiming the tenents of “the Friends,” underwent much of obloquy and persecution so characteristic of that period of sectarian antagonism and at length was apprehended with one Benjamin Staples, at Oxford, and brought for trial before the Judge of Assize, Sir William Walter, “upon the 2nd day of the 8th month, called, by the world, October, in the year 1660.” As nothing criminal could be proved against them, “on purpose to ensnare us they tendered me the oath of allegiance, which I declined to take, as contrary to the command of the Lord Jesus, and that I chose rather to obey Christ Jesus than King Charles,” upon which the Judge, after consulting with the Justices, said, “Hear your sentence; You are out of the King’s protection; and all your lands, goods and chattels are forfeited, to be ceased on for the use of the King, and you are to remain in prison during the King’s pleasure.” Goodaire asked if they were to be ironed. The Judge replied, “The jaylor may dooe what he wished with us, as we were out of the King’s protection.” How long he remained in the County Gaol, Oxford, does not appear; his “True Relation” is dated from there “this 7th day of the 8th month.” It may not be generally known that it was at Malton the Friends obtained the nick-name of “Quakers.” GRIFFITH, LADY MARY, BURTON AGNES Ob circa 1675 Daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Willoughby, Bart, of the county of Derby; married Sir Henry Griffith, 1st Bart, and had issue Sir Henry, 2nd Bart, at whose death, 1656, the Baronetcy became extinct, and Frances, sole heiress to her brother, who by marriage with Sir Matthew Boynton, Bart, of Barmston, conveyed the Burton Agnes estates to that family. In 1675, there was published, on London Bridge, “Heart Salve for a wounded Soul and Eve Salve for a Blind World; with an Elogie on the Lady Mary Griffith, of Burton Agnes.” HALL, JAMES, SCORBRO’, SPORTSMAN 1801 – 1877 James Hall was a model country squire of the Sir Tatton Sykes and Sir Roger de Coverley type; a good and liberal landlord; a hospitable host; a benefactor to the poor; and a devoted upholder of old English field sports, especially that of hunting. He was in Beverley, the nephew of Samuel Hall, an Attorney, who served the office of Mayor for the Borough in 1811 and 1820, from whom he inherited an ample fortune, with which he settled down to a country life at Scorbro’, the old historically famous home of the Hothams. His father was John Hall, of Scorbro’, from whom he inherited his estates. Here he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits and became famous for his breed of sheep. But it is as the Master of the Holderness Foxhounds that he will be remembered, his name in the annals of sporting ranking with the Osbaldestons the Assheton Smiths and other Nimrods of the chase. He assumed the mastership in the year 1847, and for thirty years, by assiduous attention and judicious management of the kennels, he maintained the reputation of the hunt, on a footing equal to that of any in the country. He suffered several mishaps during his career, in the way of broken and dislocated limbs, but looked upon such as matters of course; and a few years ago a sporting journal said of him, “A gamer man never crossed a horse; and in spite of his weight and his being crippled, he still holds his own across Holderness.” In 1857, his friends and admirers entered into a subscription of 1200 guineas, and presented him in the Assembly Rooms, Beverley, with his portrait (equestrian), by Grant, R.A., and a silver dinner service, as a testimonial of their appreciation of his worth and services. He was buried in the beautiful little church of Scorbro’, which he had re-built, at his own cost, a few years before, and was followed to the grave by a long procession of representatives of the foremost families of the East Riding. HALLAM, JOHN, CONSPIRATOR Executed 1537 A man of some local importance and considerable popularity in the neighbourhood of Cawkill, where he resided; a Romanist, and a determined opponent of the “sacrilegious” acts of Henry VIII, in the suppression of the monasteries and the assumption of the Headship of the Church. He is first heard of at Kilnwick, where the priest announced from the pulpit that St Wilfrid’s Day would be no longer observed, as it had been suppressed by the King, which excited Hallam’s wrath, who, in spite of the King’s proclamation, induced the villagers to keep it as usual with the customary ceremonies. Shortly after, he chanced to go to Beverley, where he heard of the rising of the Pilgrims of Grace, in Lincolnshire, and read Aske’s Address to the people of the East Riding of York, calling upon the Catholics to take up arms and unite with the Pilgrims in the restoration of the old faith and the re-establishment of the monasteries. He at once took the Pilgrim’s oath and there and then was appointed one of the Captain’s of the Commons between Beverley and Driffield. When the insurgents were organised a section under William Stapleton, Captain of the Beverley contingent, under whom Hallam and the Woldsmen served, advanced upon Hull, captured it, and Hallam was appointed Governor of the town; a circumstance which led Tickhill and others into the error that he took the town, whereas he was only the subordinate of Stapleton. When tidings reached Hull of the melting away of the insurgent army, at Donaster, Rogers, the Mayor, and Alderman Eland turned him out of the gates, and issued a proclomation announcing that they held the town for the King; for which loyal conduct they were both knighted. With others of the rebels, he participated in the general pardon; but the following year, 1537, he was sufficiently foolish to engage in the mad scheme of the second Pilgrimage, which was concocted, at Settington, by himself, Sir Francis Bigod, Wode, Prior of Bridlington, and other monks and priests, who had been turned out of their comfortable homes. Bigod and Hallam were the leaders, and when they had assembled a body of ill-armed, undisciplined men, they marched upon Beverley and Hull; the former place being taken by Bigod, whilst Hallam and his followers entered Hull, on the market day, in the guise of farmers, hoping to induce the townspeople and market folks to make a demonstration in their favour and assist them in taking possession of the town; but they met with a very cool reception, and hearing that the authorities were on the alert, hastened to make their escape, Hallam and two or three others got outside the gate, when one cried out, “Will you go your ways and leave your men behind you to their fate?” when he turned back to render them assistance, but was met at the gate by Aldermen Eland and Knowles, who seized the bridle of his horse and struck at him with a dagger, Hallam drew his sword in self-defence and at that moment Bigod came up with his followers, when Hallam was dragged inside and the gates shut against Bigod, who returned to Beverley. Aske then appeared before the town and endeavoured to save him, at first by entreaty and then by menaces, but the Governors of Hull would not listen to him; and Hallam was forthwith tried, convicted and in a very summary fashion hung outside the gate, on the spot where he had turned round to re-enter the town to assist his followers. HARDYNGE, JOHN, ANNALIST Circa 1378 – 1465 It is uncertain where Hardynge was born, but it is probable that he first saw the light on the Wolds, or somewhere in their vicinity, as he was brought up and educated by the Earl of Northumberland and was a member of his household at Leckonfield, and Wressle. He fought under the banner of his patron Hotspur at Homledon Hill, 1402, and the following year at Shrewsbury, where Hotspur was slain. In 1405, he was appointed Constable of Warkworth Castle; served in France under Robert de Umfraville at the taking of Harfleur, and under the Duke of Bedford in a sea fight off the mouth of the Seine. In the reign of Henry V, he was sent to Scotland to recover the deeds of homage of the Kings of Scotland to the Crown of England, which had been given up, by Mortimer, during the minority of King Edward III. He succeeded in getting hold of them and brought them back to England, but at the peril of his life. King James I, of Scotland, offered him a bribe of one thousand marks to destroy a portion of them, which he refused. For this service he was rewarded with a pension of £10, another, afterwards, of £20 per annum and a manor in the county of Lincoln. As a chronicler, he was authentic and industrious, but deficient in grace of style. Cambell says, “His head would appear to have been much better furnished for sustaining the blows of battle than for its poetical celebration,” and Warton says that the Chronicle is, “below criticism,” whilst Winstanley – such is the difference of critical taste – says that “his prose was as useful as his poetry was a delight.” HESLOP, REV JOHN WALLIS, ANTIQUARY Ob 1871 Ordained Deacon, 1842; Priest, 1843 (both by the Archbishop of York); Curate of Feliskirke, near Thirsk, 1843; Vicar of Weaverthorpe, 1856. In conjuncture with Canon Greenwell, of Durham, he opened several of the tumuli and barrows of the Wolds, and made a valuable collection of early British, Saxon and Danish relics, disinterred from the sepulchres of those long past denizens of the district. HESLERTON, SIR JOHN, KT, LORD OF THE MANOR OF LOWTHORPE Vix 14th century In the year 1333, he established a College for six Chantry Priests, at Lowthorpe, to which Sir Thomas, probably his son, in 1364, added a chantry, endowing it with lands, under a proviso that the priests should offer up perpetual prayers for the repose of his soul and that of his wife. The Manor of Lowthorpe passed, by the marriage of a heiress, to the St Quintin’s. HILLMAN, CAROLINE 1828 - 1900 Caroline Hillman, granddaughter of Anthony Hillman, who for many years was porter to His Royal Highness, the Duke of Kent, and eldest daughter of Edward Hillman, who died in 1870 and was a footman to the Duke of Kent, afterwards entering into the service of Lady McDonald, Thorpe Hall; after this, head waiter at the Red Lion and Bell Hotels, Driffield. As a child, Caroline received several gifts from the Queen, one being a tiny gold wheelbarrow and a doll. In later years, Caroline became infirm and blind, and whilst she was still living Middle Street South, Driffield, a letter was written by Mr W Scotchburn, pointing out that Caroline was in needy circumstances, to the Queen, during the Diamond Jubilee year. The result being that on behalf of Her Majesty, Lieut-Col Sir Fleetwoord J. Edwards sent a five-pound note as a donation to help her. Although she struggled on for some time, she was forced to go into the Workhouse on Bridlington Road, and there her life ended, at 72 years of age. If ever a sad story could be told, it would be that of Caroline Hillman. HOTHAM, REV CHARLES, M.A., VICAR OF HOLLYM, HOLDERNESS AND RECTOR OF WIGAN Circa 1612, Ante 1685 Son of Sir John Hotham, 1st Bart, of Scorbro’, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Ralph Rokeby; married Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Thompson, of Humbleton, and had issue Charles, 4th Bart; educated at Oxford, B.A., 1635-6; M.A., 1639; Fellow of Peterhouse, 1644; Proctor, 1646; University Preacher, 1646; Vicar of Hollym, 1640-4; Rector of Wigan, 1646, ejected, 1662, after which he went to the West Indies. HOTHAM, SIR GALFRID OR GEOFFREY, KT, CRANSWICK Vix temp Edward I Sir Geoffrey is supposed to have belonged to a collateral branch of the Hotham’s of Scorbro’, although his name does not appear in any pedigree of the family. He was one of the Collectors of the Quindisme in the county of York 29th Edward I; was a partisan of Thomas of Lancaster; had a license from Archbishop Corbridge to found an Oratory for life on his Manor of Cranswick and in 1331, founded, in Hull, a House of Austin Friars, a large building in Monkgate, extending to the Market Place, where stood a stately chapel, and “was adorned with spacious courts, curious gardens, and pleasant fountains.” John de Wetang, another Woldsman, was afterwards a benefactor. At the Suppression, it was pulled down; but a portion of the walls formed a part of the old Town Hall. Richard, his son, undertook, on the part of himself and successors, to pay the fee farm rent to the King, in consideration of the souls of himself and his wife Avicia, being prayed for by the brethren. George Fox, the Father of the Quakers, speaks in his diary, 1651, of a visit to “Justice Hotham,” of Cranswick, doubtless a descendant, as “a pretty tender man, one that had some experience of God’s workings in his heart.” He further tells us that whilst sojourning there, a woman of Beverley came and told him of the appearance of an angel in Beverley Minster, which appears to have been Fox himself, as he informed the Justice that on that day he had entered “the Steeple House in Beverley and had declared the truth to the priest and people.” HOTHAM, SIR JOHN, 1ST BART, SCROBRO’ Executed 1645 Son of Sir John Hotham, Kt, by his third wife, Jane, daughter of Richard Lydyard or Legard, of Rysome; married, first, Katherine, daughter of Sir John Rhodes, of the county of Derby, and had issue, Sir John; secondly, Anne, daughter of Ralph Rokeby, of York, and had issue, Rev Charles, father of Sir Charles, 4th Bart; thirdly, Frances, daughter of John Legard of Ganton; fourthly, Catherine, daughter of Sir William Bambrough, Kt; fifthly, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Anlaby, of Etton. Created Baronet, 1621, M.P. for Beverley, 1625–1626, 1628, and twice in 1640; Governor of Hull, 1641. In early life he entered upon a military career, served in the Low Countries and Germany, and fought at the battle of Prague. At the commencement of the struggle between King Charles and Parliament, he adhered to the former and was appointed to the Governorship of Hull, the most important magazine of munitions of war in the kingdom. Charles, knowing the importance of possessing the town, came thither when war was inevitable, but Hotham shut the gates against him, and he was compelled to retire discomfited to York, for which service Hotham received the thanks of the Parliament. But when Fairfax was appointed to the Generalship of the North, he felt slighted, thinking that the post was his by right and he refused to receive orders from Lord Fairfax, whereupon the Parliament determined to remove him and appoint a more tractable Governor, which irritated him all the more, and he resolved to transfer his allegiance to the King and deliver Hull into his hands. This determination has been attributed to compunctions of conscience, awakened by the conversation of the Royalist prisoner, Lord Digby, but a jealous pique was more probably the real cause. He entered into correspondence with the Royalists, but the plot was discovered, and he fled from the town with a view of fortifying his house at Scorbo’, for the King, but was apprehended, when passing through Beverley, by his nephew, Captain Boynton, conveyed back to Hull, whence he was sent to London, arraigned along with his son, for “traitorously betraying the trust reposed in him by Parliament,” convicted and beheaded on Tower Hill. In the British museum may be seen a great number of tracts relating to Sir John’s treachery, the first of the series being entitled, “Terrible and Trve Nevvse from Beverley and the City of York, wherein is a trve Relation of the besieging of the Town of Hull, by the King’s Majestie, with 6,000 Horse and Foot, on Thursday, July 7, 1642; also of Sir John Hotham’s drowning the country within foure miles of Hull and what hath happened since,” etc. HOTHAM, SIR JOHN KT Executed 1645 Eldest son of Sir John Hotham, Bart, supra, by his first wife, Katherine; married, first, Frances, daughter of Sir John Wray, Kt, of the county of Lincoln, and had issue, Sir John, 2nd Bart,; secondly, Margaret, daughter of Thomas Lord Fairfax; thirdly, Isabel, daughter of Sir Henry Anderson, Kt. Sir John was a dashing and gallant Parliamentarian officer and “had he lived would have made a glorious cavalry officer; a dare-devil sort of fellow, always ready for any daring exploit.” He was engaged in many skirmishes; captured at Selby; made a raid upon Cawood and frightened away Archbishop Williams, who fled to Wales and never returned; opposed Newcastle at a ford on the Tees, but was defeated and fled, joining Fairfax at Wetherby, who afterwards suspected him of disloyalty to Parliament and placed him under arrest, but he escaped, joining his father, in Hull, and concurred with him in his design of delivering up the town to the King. With his father, he fled, was arrested in Beverley, sent to London, and beheaded the day before his father. HOTHAM, JOHN, S.T.P., BISHOP OF ELY AND LORD CHANCELLOR Ob 1336 Second son of Sir John Hotham, of Scorbro’, by Maude, daughter of Robert de Hilton, of the county of Durham, and uncle of John, Baron Hotham, by Writ of Summons, 1315. He was educated at Oxford, and is said to have been Provost of Queen’s and Vice Chancellor of the University, although Richardson says that the Queen’s College was not then founded and that there was then no Vice Chancellor, He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ireland, 1310, and Prebend of Stillington, 1316-16, when he was sent on an Emabassy to France. In 1314-5, he was sent to Ireland, when invaded by Edward Bruce, to treat for a reconciliation with the Barons, but was only partially successful. He was chosen Bishop of Ely, 1316, and Chaplain to the King, and soon after went on a mission to Rome. In 1317-8, he became Treasurer of the Exchequor; and Lord Chancellor, 1318-20 and 1327-28. He fought with Archbishop Melton against the Scots at Myton on Swale, where the English were routed by Bruce and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. Afterwards he was appointed on a Commission to treat with the Scots for a truce, and in 1323, to treat for settling the affairs of Gascony; he met Queen Isabella, 1326, on her landing in Suffolk; the following year was chosen on the Council of Regency; and in 1328, officiated with Archbishop Melton at the marriage of King Edward III with Philippa of Hainault, at York. He was “a wise and virtuous, but very unlearned man,” and more famous for his material benefactions to than his spiritual edification of the church, contributing considerable sums towards the completion of Ely Cathedral and building the London Palace of the Bishops of Ely, in Holborn, immortalised in the pages of Shakespeare, when the then Bishop is sent by Richard III for some strawberries out of his Holborn garden. He died at Somersham and was buried in Ely Cathdral. HOTHAM, SIR WILLIAM HOTHAM, 1ST BARON, SOUTH DALTON 1736 – 1813 An eminent naval commander, third son of Sir Beaumont, 7th Bart, descended from Sir John, 1st Bart, supra. He succeeded to the Baronetcy, 1811, on the death of his nephew, Sir Charles, 10th Baron, and was raised to the Peerage, 1797, for naval services, as Baron Hotham of South Dalton in the Peerage of Ireland, with remainder to the issue male of his father. He entered the service when young, passed through the graduation of rank, and as Admiral of the White, was second in command under Lord Hood, in the Mediterranean. On Lord Hood’s return to England, he was raised to the chief command, and in 1795, gained a decisive victory over the French fleet, for which he received the thanks of Parliament, was promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Blue and raised to the Peerage. He served under Nelson at the siege of Bastiae, and commanded the Adamant, at Camperdown, 1797, where the Dutch, under De Winter, were defeated by Admiral Duncan. Dying coel, the peerage passed to his brother, Beaumont. JACKSON, REV THOMAS 1783 – 1873 An eminent Wesleyan preacher, author, and editor, who, by the mere force of intellectual power and integrity of conduct and in spite of the adverse circumstances of poverty and lack of education in his youth, rose to the highest distinction in the Wesleyan society, and gained a widely-spread fame as a voluminous and learned writer. He was born at Sancton, near Market Weighton, and was the son of a farm labourer and mole-catcher, who died in 1829, at the age of 83, leaving behind him eleven childrem, three of whom became Wesleyan preachers, and one the mother of the Rev Jackson Wray, a popular Wesleyan minister of the present day. When a boy he spent his days in tending sheep, then became a farm servant, and afterwards was apprenticed to a carpenter, at Shipton. At the age of nineteen, he was converted by the preaching of the Methodists, and soon afterwards, displaying a talent for speaking, he was appointed an “exhorter,” then a “local preacher,” and in 1804 was admitted to the ministry as an “itinerant preacher,” and five years afterwards married Anne Hollinshead, in Lincolnshire, after which he laboured in the circuits of Horncastle, Lincoln, Leeds, Preston, Sowerby Bridge, Wakefield, Sheffield, Manchester and London. In 1817, he served the office of Sub-secretary to the Conference; in 1821, was appointed Sub-editor of the Bookroom, and from 1824 to 1842 was Editor, superintending, in that capacity, the Connexion’s periodical publications and carrying through the Press several of the standard works of the early Wesleyan writers. He was elected to the “Legal Hundred” in 1822, and again in 1872, a distinction conferred on no other preacher. In 1838, and again in 1849 he was chosen President of the Conference, the highest portion in the Society; and from 1842 to 1861, he held the important and responsible post of Theological Tutor at the Richmond Theological Institute. In 1861, he retired to London, resigning all his offices in consequence of the infirmities of age, having served the Society fifty-seven years; twenty as preacher; eighteen as editor; and nineteen as theological tutor; and eleven years afterwards, died at Hammersmith and was buried at Richmond. His memorial sermon was preached in City Road Chapel London, by Dr F. Johnson, at the request of the London ministers. “This venerable minister entered on his probation in his 21st year and died in his 90th, having maintained an unsullied reputation through the whole period.” JESSE, EDWARD, HUTTON CRANSWICK 1780 – 1868 An eminent naturalist, born at Hutton Cranswick, son of the Rev William Jesse, vicar of that village. At the age of eighteen he entered the Civil Service, as a clerk in the Domingo Office, became Private Secretary to Lord Dartmouth, President of the Board of Control, and was afterwards appointed to the offices of Gentleman of the Ewry, Comptroller of the Copper Coinage, Commissioner of Hackney Coaches and Deputy Manager-General of the Royal Parks; in 1830, retired into private life, devoting his time to literature and the study of natural history; and died at Brighton. J. Heneage Jesse, his son, 1815, was the author of several historical works, and his daugter, Mrs Houston, is favourably known as a writer of travel novels, etc. KEITH, THOMAS, MATHEMATICIAN 1759 – 1824 Professor Keith was born at Brandesburton and left slenderly provided for, by the early death of his father, who had, however, given him a tolerably good education. He took a situation as tutor in a private family, and in 1781 went to London, where he soon became known by his superior skill in mathematics. He obtained employment as mathematical tutor in ladies’ school and some families of distinction, and in 1804 was appointed Secretary to the Master of the Royal Household. In 1810 he was given the appointment of Professor of Geography and the Sciences to H.R.H. the Princess Charlotte having previously been the tutor of the Princess Sophia Matilda, daughter of King George III, and in 1814, was nominated to the office of Accountant to the British Museum, which he held until death. His works, although they possess little originality and few discoveries in the science of numbers, are eminently useful for their lucidity and admirable arrangement, and evince an immense amount of careful and conscientious labour. KENT, WILLIAM, LANDSCAPE GARDENER 1684 – 1748 A famous landscape gardener and architect; born at Bridlington; died at Burlington House, London. His parents were in humble circumstances, and apprenticed him to a coach painter, in Hull; but feeling that he had within him which pointed to a higher destiny, he fled from his apprenticeship and found his way to London. There he gave such indications of superior ability, as to cause some Patricians of his native county to take him by the hand, who, in 1710, sent him to Rome, where he studied under the Cavalier Luti and gained the second prize in the second class of the Academy of Painting. Sir William Wentworth granted him an allowance of £40 per annum for seven years; and when in Rome, he met with Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, who, recognising his genius, extended to him his patronage, and on his return to England, gave him an apartment in his town house, which he occupied until his death. Upon the recommendation of the Earl, he obtained employment in portrait and landscape painting, but did not excel in either. He also designed chimney pieces and furniture for Sir Robert Walpole and others, but neither did he, in this branch of art, display much talent. Then he turned his attention to architecture and landscape gardening, and in these he found the bent of his genius. In the former, the staircase of Lady Isabella Finch’s house, Berkeley Square, “beautiful as a piece of scenery;” the staircase at Kensington; the Temple of Venus, ata Stowe; the great room, at Mr Pelham’s, Arlington Street, “remarkable for its magnificence;” Holkham House, the seat of the Earl of Leicester, with its temple, gateway and bridge; and Burlington House, Piccadilly – now the Royal Academy – are favourable specimens of his genius; whilst in the latter capacity, he is regarded as the father of modern gardening, having laid out the pleasure grounds of several mansions in a novel style, infinitely more beautiful and natural than anything which had hitherto been seen. He also tried his hand in sculpture, and designed the monument for Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey; but in this, as in painting, he did not rise above mediocrity. He was patronised by the Queen, the Duke of Grafton and Newcastle, and other dignitaries, through whose influence he obtained the appointment of Master Carpenter, Architect, Keeper of the Pictures, and afterwards Principal Painter to the Crown, with a pension of £100 per annum, which, with fees and perquisites, brought him in £800 per annum. In 1743, he suffered from a severe affection of the eyes, and five years later, from an inflammation of the bowels, which resulted in mortification, and terminated his life. He was buried at Chiswick by the Earl of Burlington, and his fortune, which amounted to £100,000 was left between his relatives and an actress, with whom he lived. LAMPLUGH, THOMAS, D.D., ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 1614 – 1691 Born at Thwing; descended from Sir Robert de Lamplugh, Kt, of the county of Cumberland, temp Henry II; died at Bishopthorpe, and was buried in York Cathedral, under a monument with erect mitred effigy and a Latin inscription setting forth his virtues; a mural tablet has also been placed in Thwing Church to his memory; married Catherine, daughter of Edward Davenant, D.D.; educated at Oxford, where he graduated, became a Fellow of Queen’s College, and Principal of St Alban’s Hall, 1664–73. Rector of Charlton, county of Oxford, 1664; Vicar of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields, London; Chaplain to King Charles II; Prebendary of Worcester, 9th Stall, 1669-76; Dean of Rochester, 1672-3 – 6; Archdeacon of London, 1664-76; Bishop of Exeter, 1676-91; Archbishop of York, 1688-91; holding Exeter in commendam. He was 74 years of age when he was elevated to the see of York, succeeding Dolben and preceeding Sharp. The see had been kept vacant for two years, with the view, it was supposed, of placed therein Father Petre, a Jesuit, the Confessor fo the King, a dispensation having been obtained from the Pope to enable him to hold a Bishopric. King James, as a preliminary towards the introduction of Romanism, issued his famous Proclamation of Liberty of Conscience, which alarmed the Protestant portion of his subjects, and led the seven Bishops to petition him for its abrogation, for which he sent them to the Tower, thus further irritating the susceptibilities of his subjects and inducing them to invite the Prince of Orange to come to England and assume the crown. The Prince landed at Torbay, and on the news reaching Lamplugh, at Exeter, he went post-haste to London, and gave information thereof, to the King, who, as a reward for his diligence in his service, bestowed upon him the vacant archiepiscopal mitre. On the landing of the Prince, the Bishop issued an address to the clergy and laity of his diocese, exhorting them to adhere faithfully to the King and oppose with vigour the would-be usurper; but when the cause of James became hopeless, he trimmed his sails to the prevailing wind, welcomed the prince and took the oaths of allegiance to him as the sovereign of the realm, for which he was permitted to retain his dignity. Lamplugh was a staunch supporter of the Church of England, and was probably not fully aware of the Popish proclivities of James, and it was possibly his enlightenment on this point, which induced him to accede to his deposition. He was a considerable benefactor to the Cathedral of York. LAMPTON, JOSEPH, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST Executed 1593 For some time after the final establishment of Protestantism, by the accession of Queen Elizabeth, the penalty of death attached to the performance of divine worship according to the ritual of the Roman faith, yet were there multitudes of men who boldly braved that penalty in order to win back souls from what they deemed pernicious error. Amongst these was Lampton, who was born at Malton, educated and ordained Priest at the English College of Rheims; sent on the English mission in 1593, and the same year was apprehended for the crime and executed at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In the narrative of his execution, we are told that: “He was cut down alive and the hangman (a felon, who to save his own life was to perform the office), having begun the butchery, by dismembering the martyr, had so great a horror of what he was doing, that he absolutely refused to go on with the operation, though he was to die for the refusal; so that the Sheriff was obliged to seek another executioner, whilst the martyr, with invincible patience and courage, supported a torment, which cannot be thought of without horror and which shocks even the most barbarous of the spectators, till at length a butcher was brought to the work, who ripping him up and bowelling him, set his holy soul at liberty to take its flight to its sovereign and eternal good.” DE LANGTOFT, PETER, HISORIAN AND POET Vix temp Edward II A monkish chronicler, born at Langtoft, in the 13th century, and died at Bridlington temp Edward II. He is supposed to have been of Norman origin, and was a Canon of Bridlington Priory, from which circumstances he was sometimes called by annalists Pers de Bridlington. He wrote his chronicles in French verse, and was one of the earliest of our poets. LEGARD, SIR JOHN, 1ST BART, GANTON Ob 1678 Descended from the Legards of Anlaby, near Hull, and son of John Legard, a devoted adherent of Charles in the civil war, by Mary, daughter of J. Dawney, of Potter Brompton, near Hunmanby. He married first, Grace, daughter of Conyers Darcy, Earl of Holderness, by whom he had issue, a daughter; secondly, Frances, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Widdrington, Kt, by whom he had issue, Sir John, 2nd Bart, three other sons and two daughters. Like his father, he was a staunch Royalist and rendered essential service to King Charles II, by diverting the attention of Lamber, whilst Monk was passing through Yorkshire with his army to promote the Restoration, for which he was created Baronet, 1660. LYTHE, ROBIN A Seaman, whose name has come down to posterity in connection with a cavern, at Flambrough, called Robin Lythe’s Hole.” The cavern has two entrances, one from the sea and the other from the shore, being filled with water at high tide, but traversable dry-shod when the sea is down. It has an irregularly arched roof, and a rough slippery floor; and presents some fine Rembrantesque effects of light and shade to the spectator who enters its portals. Tradition, which informs us not of the period when Robin lived, gives two somewhat conflicting accounts of his life and career, which however, in both cases, are rather meagre in detail. One account tells us that he was a pirate, the commander of a small vessel, which was the terror of the merchant coasters, and that when he was in danger, from pursuit by a superior force, he took refuge in this cavern, which was then only known to himself. The other account is that he was a worthy, honest mariner, who suffered shipwreck off Flambrough Head, and was providentially saved by being washed ashore into the cavern, when his vessel went to pieces. MACKINTOSH, ALEXANDER, ANGLER, DRIFFIELD Vix 1800 Author of – “The Driffield Angler,” Derby 1810. Second Edition, “The Modern Fisher of the Driffield Angler,” etc, Gainsborough, 1815; Third Edition, Derby, 1821 The book is prefaced with “An Ode to Health,” wherein he eulogises Major Topham’s famous greyhound – “The outstretched Wolds where glory won, In many a nobler course, her speed Snowball resigns unto her breed Hung round with trophies of her praise The Prizes of her youthful days.” The author states in his prefaces that he spent thirty years at Driffield, pursuing every description of sport, and adds, “I have angled in many parts of Scotland and the North of England, but of all the places on this side of Great Britain, most delightful for this charming recreation (trout fishing), I much prefer the rivers at Driffield …. All the rivers and becks abound with trout of the finest flavour and largest size …. The streams roll through the finest meadows and there are no trees or bushes to intercept the Sportsman’s diversion, but the country round, particularly near Driffield, is beautifully diversified with picturesque views of hills, dales and woodlands, and all the walks about the town are remarkably pleasant …. Besides, Great Diffield is admirably situated for hunting, hawking, coursing and other field sports,” etc. He states that in 1790, a Mr Wilson, of Hull, caught a pike at Driffield, 35 inches in length and weighing 28lbs, which was presented to Richard Langley, Esq, of Wykeham Abbey, Lord of the Manor. This, however, was surpassed by one he saw taken from a fish-pond, at Rise, which weighed 38lbs. Mr J. Browne, a Driffield antiquary, informs me that Mackintosh was the landlord of the Red Lion Inn, Driffield, which was then the head quarters of the sportsmen of that period. MANYNG, OR DE BRUNNE, ROBERT, HISTORIAN Nat circa 1270 One of the earliest versifiers of the Chronicles of England; born at Malton circa 1270; a monk afterwards in the Gilbertine Monastery of Saxhill, whence he removed to the Priory of Black Canons, at Brunne. His style is rugged and his phraseology exceedingly uncouth; but this appears to have been intended, as he said his writings were not intended for the learned, who could read the originals, but for the “lewd,” i.e., the low and unlearned. MASON, REV WILLIAM, POET 1725 – 1797 A poet, politician, and divine, who attracted some attention in his time, but who is now almost forgotten, described by his friend Gray, author of the Elegy, as “one of much fancy, little judgement and a good deal of modesty, - a good, well-meaning creature, but in simplicity a perfect child; a little vain but in so harmless a way that it does not offend.” He was born in Hull, where his grandfather was Collector of the Customs and his father Vicar of Holy Trinity Church; was educated in the Hull Grammar School and at Cambridge, where he graduated and became Fellow of Pembroke College, 1749, after which he obtained the preferments of Canon of Driffield and Precentor of York, 1762, Rector of Aston, near Rotherham, and was Chaplain to King George III. In 1765, he married Maria, daughter of William Sherman, of Hull, solely because he had spent an evening in her company when she had not spoken a single word. Not content with his fame as a poet, he desired to shine in the sister arts of music and painting, and composed a Te Deum, of not much account, for York Cathedral, whilst as a limner he never reached even mediocrity. His portrait was painted by Reynolds, and engraved by Scriven, 1813; and tablets to his memory have been placed in Aston Church and Westminster Abbey. MATSON, JOHN, BRIDLINGTON 1760 – 1826 John Matson, “The Kidnapped Youth,” was born at Bridlington, the son of William Matson, a builder, and died in London. He married, first, Sarah Harrison, daughter of Thomas Helm, of Bridlington, by whom he had two daughters; secondly, Martha, daughter of John Thompson, of Thornholme, by whom he had one son, his biographer, and one daughter. He was brought up to his father’s business, and sailing to London, 1780, to seek employment, was taken by the press-gang on his passage, but was bought off and proceeded to his destination. He had not, however, been long in London, when he was inveigled into a house near Charing Cross, kidnapped by agents of the East India Company, and shipped off to India to serve as a soldier. He fought in the war against Hyder Ali, was in twelve engagements, and was taken prisoner by Tippoo Saib, but was liberated at the peace of 1784. In 1785, having procured his discharge, he sailed for England; but was shipwrecked, returned to Calcutta and obliged to wait for six months for another vessel. On his return to Bridlington, he was eagerly welcomed by his friends, who supposed him to be dead, not having heard heard of him for so long a period. He commenced business as a builder obtained some reputation as the builder of Flambrough Lighthouse, after which, in 1823, he removed to London. “Indian Warfare: or the Extraordinary Adventures of John Matson, the Kidanpped Youth late of Kingsland Road, London, formerly of Bridlington, in the county of York, written by himself; with a short memorial by his son,” London, 1842 DE MAULEY, REV STEPHEN, RECTOR OF BAINTON Ob 1317 A member of the family of the Barons de Mauley, of Mulgrave Castle, the first of whom was summoned, by writ, as Baron, 1295, and rewarded with the hand of Isabella de Turnham, the heiress of Mulgrave, by King John, for the service of murdering his nephew, Prince Arthur. The family had considerable possessions on the Wolds, including the Manors of Bainton, over which they had a Charter of Free Warren, and of Garton, where they had a castle. Stephen was a man of great consequence in the reigns of Edward I and II, and was a great pluralist. He was the Incumbent of Ouston, county of Lincoln; Rector of Bainton, Hemingborough, near Selby, and Houghton, county of Durham; Prebendary of Bugthorpe, York, 1298-1317; Archdeacon of Cleveland and Lichfield; holder in 1289 and 1306; Dean of Auckland and Wimborn; Vicar-General of Durham; and Seneschal of Durham Castle. He assisted in the translation of the relics of St William to York Cathedral and in 1309 was appointed by Archbishop Greenfield to enquire into the deeds relating to the Privileges of the Prior and Convent of Durham, in Howdenshire and Allertonshire. He was buried in York Cathedral. MOMAN, TOM, ECCENTRIC 1770-1823 A half-witted, but keen and shrewd character, born at Malton, but who resided chiefly at Lutton, a village on the Wolds. Tom was well known in the northern portion of the Wolds for his oddities, and it must be added, for his malpractices, as the stories which are current of his doings shew that he was much a knave as a fool. He spent one half of his life in the workhouse and the other in doing odd jobs, such as cattle driving, which came within the compass of his detective intellect. Amongst the knavish pranks, which tradition tells of Tom, is the following. A farmer, having purchased some cattle at Malton, and seeing him standing by, asked him if he thought he could drive them to his farm. “To be seer ah can;” replied Tom, “but thoo mun pay ma 2s fost.” The farmer complied, and Tom went off with the money jingling in his pocket When he arrived at the farm, he met the foreman to whom he delivered the cattle, saying, “Maysther tell’d ma te ax tha for 2s as he had’nt ne brass aboot him,” and the foreman paid him the sum demanded. Having been successful thus far, Tom went to the house and saw the farmer’s wife, who asked him what brought him there, to which Tom replied, “Ah’ve browt some beasts what mayster’s bowt at Malton, an he tell’d ma ‘at thoo was te pay ma two shillings and gi ma my dinner, a quayt o’yall an some bacca,” all of which he got, and then trudged off to his home. It was remarked, however, that for a long time after he carefully avoided coming in contact with that particular farmer. “The Life and Exploits of Tom Moman, late of Lutton-on-the-Wolds, who was starved to death in a snow-drift, in the severe Winter of 1823, in a field near Thirkleby, Yorkshire.” Malton, 1877. (‘Starved’ means freezing in Yorkshire dialect) MORRIS, REV FRANCIS ORPEN, B.A., NATURALIST Nat 1810 Eldest son of Rear-Admiral Gage Morris, of York and Beverely, by Rebecca Newsham Millard Orden, daughter of Rev Francis Orpen, B.A., of Trinity College, Dublin and descended from Elyeton Glodrydd, a British Chieftan of the 10th century, from whom have sprung many noble and county branches; his immediate line settled in York, and his supplied many distinguished names to the naval and military annals of England. Educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A., second class Lit Hum, 1853, after which he became Perpetual Curate of Hanging Heaton, near Leeds; Curate of Toxhall, county of Cheshire; Christ’s Church, Doncaster; Ordsall, county of Nottingham; and Crambe-with-Huttons Ambo, near Malton; Chaplain to the Duke of Cleveland; Vicar of Nafferton, 1844-54; Rector of Nunburnholme, 1854; married, 1835, Anne, daughter and co-heiress of Charles Sanders, of Bromsgrove, county of Worcester and had issue, Amherst Henry Gage, born 1836. As a naturalist, especially in the study of the denizens of the air, he takes a foremost rank, and has been a voluminous writer of that subject, several of his works having passed through repeated editions, a conclusive proof of their popularity and value. He has also distinguished himself by the publication of a great number of works on theological and social subjects and recently, of “The Humanity Series of School Books,” for the purpose of inculcating kind treatment and merciful dealing towards dumb animals, six of which have been published, at prices varying from 6d to 1s 6d – a series most deserving of support and prizes to school children, and which has received the highest and most unqualified encomiums from the Press. NESSE, REV CHRISTOPHER, M.A. 1621 – 1705 An eminent Nonconformist divine and voluminous theological writer, born at North Cave; the son of Thomas Nesse, of that village; educated at Cambridge, where he studied seven years and graduated. After leaving College, he preached for a short time, at Cliffe, near Market Weighton, then, for a brief period, at a village in Holderness, after which he removed to Beverley, where he established a school, and preached occasionally. In 1650, he became minister at Cottingham, and in 1656, lecturer at Leeds, where he preached in opposition to Dr Lake, afterwards Bishop of Chichester. He was ejected by the Act of 1662, the Duke of Buckingham vainly endeavoured to flatter him into Conformity. The Five Mile Act of 1665 drove him to Clayton, and thence to Morley, when he preached in the villages about Leeds; afterwards, he opened a school at Hunslet, and preached there; and in 1672, when the persecution raged less fiercely, he ministered publicly in the Riding-house, Leeds. He was five times excommunicated, the last time in 1675, when he fled to London and preached privately to a congregation in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, and there he died thirty years after and was buried in Bunhill Fields. NEWBURGH, WILLIAM OF, HISTORIAN 1136 – circa 1220 A monkish chronicler, born at Bridlington; educated at and afterwards a Canon of the Augustinian Priory of Newburgh, near Thirsk, whence he took his name. He is generally styled Guliemus Neubrigensis, and gave himself the appellation of le Petit or Parvus, being short in stature. Afterwards he became a Prior of Bridlington. He was a learned and diligent historian, but displayed bad taste in his depreciation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose History he denounced as a tissue of fictions, and asserted that no such person as King Arthur ever lived. Powel says that “ ‘Givilym Back, (as the Welch call him) wished to get the Bishopric of St Asaph, on the death of Geoffrey, 1165, but being disappointed, he fell into a mad humour of decrying the whole Principality of Wales; its history, antiquities, and all that belongs to it.” His History commences at the Conquest and finishes at the accession of John, 1199. His Latin is considered pure, superior to that of Matthew of Malmesbury, but Pitt says that he was “too much of a flatterer of Court Grandees to write a true History.” NORCLIFFE, SIR THOMAS, KT, LANGTON Ob 1669 Son of Sir Thomas Langton, Kt, a barrister-at-law, who purchased Langton, 1618, by Catherine, daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Bamborough, Bart, of Howsham; married, Dorothy, daughter of Thomas, Viscount Fairfax and relict of John Ingram, brother of Henry Ingram, Viscount Ingram, of Irvine, by whom he had issue one son and “six virtuous daughters.” Sir Thomas embraced the Parliamentarian cause in the civil war, fought bravely under the Fairfaxes, his wife’s kinsmen, was engaged in the storming of Leeds, 1643, and at the siege of Bradford, as well as in many other engagements. He remained in command, in Yorkshire, when Farifax went to London to take command of the new-modelled army; but had not much employment for his sword, the battle of Marston Moor having completed the subjugation of the north. He lived to witness the Restoration, but does not appear to have suffered much for his antagonism to royalty. Lady Norcliffe was a pious woman and a zealous Non-conformist and after her husband’s death, dispensed her bounties liberally, in supporting and affording shelter, at Langton, to those ministers of Yorkshire who had been ejected and reduced to poverty in 1662. NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, 1ST EARL, K.G., LECONFIELD Ob 1407 The representative of a most illustrious and potent Yorkshire family, descended from Mainfred, a Danish chieftan, who assisted Rollo in the conquest of Normandy; and more immediately, from William de Perci, of Perci, near Villedieu, who came to England with Duke Williams, and was rewarded for his valour at Hastings by grants of extensive territories in Yorkshire. The various branches of the family have held a multiplicity of titles, culminating in the highest dignity beneath royalty, and have inter-married with the first families of the realm, as well as with several royal houses, having now not less than nine hundred quarterings on their shield. Earl Henry was son of Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy, of Alnwick, by his first wife, the Lady Mary Plantagenet, daughter of Henry, Earl of Lancaster; married, first, Margaret, daughter of Ralph, Baron Nevill, of Raby; secondly, Maud, sister and heiress of Anthony, Baron Lucy, Lord of Cockermouth. By his first wife he had issue, Sir Henry, Kt (Hotspur); Sir Thomas, created Earl of Worcester, 1397; and Sir Ralph, Kt, who was slain in the Holy Land. Having distinguished himself as a warrior in France and Scotland, he was made K.G., 1366, and Earl of Northumberland, 1377, with remainder to his heirs general, transmissible, like a Barony in Fee, to heirs female. He held several appointments; was a Commissioner for the Observance of the Treaty of Bretigny, 1358; Marshal of England and Inspector of Castles in the March of Calais, 1376; General of all the Forces in France, 1377; Warden of the Scottish Marches, 1369; Earl Constable of England, with a grant of the Isle of Man, and Custodian of the Castles of Carnarvon, Carlisle, Chester, Conway and Flint, 1st Henry IV. Having quarrelled with King Richard II, he assisted Bolingbroke, after his landing at Ravenspurne, in deposing that monarch; soon after which, he made that famous hunting expedition across the Scottish border with his son Hotspur, resulting in the battles of Otterburn, Chevy, Chase, and Homeldun, whose achievements and those of his opponent, Douglas, are imperishably recorded in the old ballad which stirred the heart of Sir P. Sidney like the blast of a trumpet. A dispute with King Henry IV, relative to the disposal of the prisoners taken at Homeldun, alienated him from the King and he raised an insurrection. His army, under the leadership of his sons, he himself being absent through illness, met that of the King, at Shrewsbury, 1403, and was utterly routed, Hotspur being slain and Worcester taken and beheaded. The Earl was attainted, but pardoned and restored on making submission; he again, however, broke out in rebellion, was defeated at Bramham Moor, 1407-8; again attainted and his estates confiscated. His is a conspicuous character in Shakespeare’s “King Richard II” and “King Henry IV.” NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, 2ND EARL OF Ob 1455 Born at Leconfield, son of Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur), by Elizabeth, daughter of Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March; married, the Lady Elinor, daughter of Ralph Nevill, 1st Earl of Westmorland, by whom he had issue, Henry, 3rd Earl; Thomas, created Baron Egremont, slain at the battle of Northampton; Sir Ralph, slain at Hedgely Moor; Sir Richard, slain at Towton; George, Provost of Beverley; William, Bishop of Carlisle; and three other sons. After his father’s death at Shrewsbury, he was taken into Scotland, by his mother, for safety from the vengeance of the King; but through the intercession of his future mother-in-law, the Countess of Westmoreland, was pardoned and restored. He fought at Agincourt, was constituted High Constable of England, and fell at St Albans, 1455, fighting in the Lancasterian interest. His courtship and marriage with the fair daughter of Raby have been invested with a halo of poetry and romance, by Bishop Percy, in his ballad, “The Hermit of Warkworth,” published in his “Reliques.” NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, 3RD EARL OF 1421 – 1461 Son of Henry, 2nd Earl; married, Eleanor, Baroness Poynings (by writ); and was summoned v.p., jure uxoris, 1446, as Baron Poynings, assuming also, jure uxoris, the titles of Baron Fitzpayne and Bryan, without right, but which were recognised by a subsequent patent, 1557, in the person of Henry Percy, 7th Earl. He was leader of the Lancasterians, fell, leading the van at Towton, 1461, and was attainted and his estates confiscated “because he died in harness;” his title being given to John Nevill, afterwards Marquis of Montagu. “Northumberland, a braver man Ne’er spurred his courser to the trumpet’s sound.” SHAKESPEARE NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, K.G., 4TH EARL OF Ob 1489 Son of Henry, 3rd Earl; married, Maud, daughter of William Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, and had issue, Henry Algernon, 5th Earl; Sir William, Kt, a commander at Flodden, executed 1536, for conspiracy in the Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion; Alan, Master of St John’s College, Cambridge, 1516; Jocelyne, who married Margaret, daughter of ____ of Beverley, with whom he had extensive estates, and was grandfather of Thomas Percy, the Gunpowder Plot conspirator; and three daughters. On his father’s attainder, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but released and restored, 1469, John Nevill, who had been created Earl of Northumberland, resigning that title on being created Marquis of Montagu. He fought against the Scots, and took Berwick; adhered to Richard III in his contest with the Duke of Richmond, but remained neutral at Bosworth, and was received into favour by Henry VII. As Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire, he was directed by Henry VII, to explain an obnoxious tax for carrying on the war in Bretagne, which had excited a commotion in the country, but the populace imagining that he had been an instigator of the tax, which he had not, broke into his house, at Cockledge, near Thirsk, and murdered him and several of his domestics. He was buried in Beverley Minster, in magnificent style, at a cost of £10,000, where he now reposes, with his Countess, under a noble monument, in a chapel specially built for his mausoleum. Fourteen thousand people attended his funeral. Skelton, the Laureate, wrote “An Elegy upon the dolorous dethe and much lamentable chaunce of the Moost Honorable Erle of Northumberland,” commencing – “I wayle, I wepe, I sobbe, I sighful sore The dedely fate, the dolefulle destenny Of him that is gone alas; without restore Of the blode royall, descending nobelly. Whose Lordshipe doutles was slayne lamentably” etc NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY ALGERNON, K.G., 5TH EARL OF 1457 – 1527 Born at Leconfield; son of Henry, 4th Earl; married Catherine, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Robert Spencer, Kt, county of Devon, and had issue, Henry Algernon, 6th Earl; Sir Thomas, executed, 1536, for complicity in the Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion, whose sons, Thomas and Henry, became the 7th and 8th Earls; Sir Ingelram, from whom James Percy, the Trunkmaker, who claimed the Earldom, 1716, pretended to be descended; and two daughters. This nobleman is best remembered for his magnificence, aesthitic tastes, and patronage of learning. He lived alternately at three of his castles; but only having furniture for one, had it conveyed from one to the other in seventeen carts and one wagon. He escorted the Princess Margaret through Yorkshire, on her progress to marry the King of Scotland, “well horst, upon a fayre courser, with a cloth to the ground of cramsyn velvet, all borded of orfavery, his armes very riche in many places upon his saddle, and harnys and his sterrops gilt. With him was many noble Knights, all arrayed in his sayd Livery of Velvett with some goldsmith’s work, great chaynes and war wel mounted; a Herault, bearing his cotte and other gentylmen in such wayes aray’d of his said Livery, sum in Velvett, others in Damastk, Chamlett, &c, well mounted to the number of 300 Horsys,” etc. His favourite residence was Leconfield Castle, of which not a vestige now remains. Leland describes it as “a large house and stondith within a greate mote, yn one very spacious courte; 3 parts of the house saving the mane gate, that is made of bricke, is al of tymbre.” In this establishment were employed 166 officers and domestic servants, and fifty-seven visitors were expected to sit down to dinner every day. For the regulation of this vast household, the Earl had a code of rules drawn up – a very curious picture of a nobleman’s household in the Tudor era – which has been published under the title of “The Northumberland House-hold Book.” From it we learn that the family rose at six, dined at ten, and supped at four o’clock, and the castle gates closed at nine o’clock. Forty shillings per annum were paid for the household washing; the table-cloths once a month; sheets for the beds were not used. In the ordering of the meals, we find, “Braikfastes for the Nurcry, for my Lady Margaret and Mr Yngram Percy. Item. A manchet,one quart of bere, and three mutton bonys boiled.” Amongst other officers of the household were eleven priest, all B.D. or D.D.; seventeen chanters and musicians; a surgeon; a clerk of foreign expenses; an almoner to relieve the poor and write plays for the delectation of the family; an expert horseman not afraid of a fence, to attend my Lord when hunting; and a bearward, with a salary of 20s per annum “to be payd when he comyth to my Lorde at Christmas, with his Lordschippe’s beasts, for makyng of his Lordschippe’s pastyme the saide 12 days.” A monument of his fine taste in the Chapel in Beverley Minster, which he caused to be built to enshrine the remains of his father and mother. He caused poetical inscriptions to be painted and graven upon the walls and ceilings of Leconfield and Wressle, and was a patron of Skelton, th eLaureate. There is in the British Museum, a splendid MS, engrossed on vellum, richly emblazoned and superbly illuminated, which was prepared under his directions, containing specimens of the best poetry then produced, and a metrical account of the descent of the Percies, written by one Peares, the Earl’s chaplain. NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY ALGERNON PERCY, K.G., 6TH EARL OF Ob s.p. 1537 Son of Henry Algernon, 5th Earl; married, the Lady Mary, daughter of George, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, In early life he was affianced to Anne Boleyn, but was supplanted by the King, Cardinal Wolsey lending a hand in the separation of the lovers and he was compelled, against his will, to marry Mary Talbot; a marriage which was childless, the husband and wife living apart, and productive only of mutual dislike. The Earl never forgave the Cardinal for his share in the transaction, and was amply avenged when he arrested him for treason, at Cawood. The Pilgrimage of Grace solicited him to take the leadership of the Insurrection, but he declined, although his brothers, Sir Thomas and Sir Ingelram, became active partisans. Although he had nothing whatever to do with the rebellion, his family was so deeply implicated that he feared attainder and, by the advice of his lawyers, devised his estates to the crown, that they might the more easily be restored to his heirs at some future time, an anticipation which was verified. He was directed by the King to sit upon the trial of Queen Anne, which was too much for his sensibility, and her decapitation, with the execution of his brother, so preyed upon his mind that he died shortly afterwards of grief. Dying issueless, and his brother having been attained, the Earldom expired; and in 1551, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, was created Duke of Northumberland, which title also became extinct by his execution and attainder two years afterwards. The Earldom was restored by Queen Mary, 1557, in the person of his nephew, Thomas, son of Sir Thomas Percy, who was beheaded, 1536. NORTHUMBERLAND, THOMAS, K.G., 7TH EARL OF 1508 – 1572 Son of Sir Thomas Percy, Kt (executed 1536), by Eleanor, daughter of Guiscard Harbottle; married, the Lady Anne, daughter of Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Warwick, and had issue, Thomas, Baron Percy, who died v.p. and s.p.; and four daughters. The Earldom and the Baronies of Percy and Poynings having become extinct by the death of the 6th Earl and the attainder of his brothers, Queen Mary created him, by patent, 1557, Baron Percy of Cockermouth and Petworth; Baron Poynings, Lucy, Bryan and Fitzpayne, and the following day, Earl of Northumberland, with remainder to his brother, Henry, and restored him in blood and to all the estates that remained in the hands of the crown. On the accession of Elizabeth, notwithstanding his antagonistic faith, he was appointed Warden of the Scottish Marches, and lived ten or twelve years without offence or molestation, at Leconfield and other castles, dispensing a liberal hospitality until he unfortunately became entangled in a conspiracy which resulted in his death. Mary Queen of Scots was then a prisoner in England, and Northumberland, with other English and Scottish nobles, thought that a marriage between her and the Duke of Norfolk might be a means of putting an end to the troubles in Scotland. Elizabeth, when she heard of it, flew into a violent passion, summoned Northumberland and Westmoreland to London, to answer for their presumption in daring to suggest such a thing without her sanction. Instead of doing so, the two Earls raised an armed force to defend themselves, restore the old faith, replace Mary on the throne of Scotland, and settle her succession to that of England. They raised their standard, embroidered with the cross and five wounds of Christ, 1569; assembled on Clifford Moor, Wetherby, and marched towards York; but for some cause or other, turned northward and laid siege to Bowes Castle, which held out eleven days, when their followers began to melt away, and on the appearance of the Earl of Essex and Lord Hunsdon, with an army, they fled towards Scotland. Westmoreland escaped across the sea, and died in exile; but Northumberland, who had sought refuge in Scotland, was given up by the Regent Morton, for a bribe, and beheaded at York. NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY, K.G., 8TH EARL OF 1563 – 1632 This last of the Leconfield Percies, was son of Thomas, 7th Earl and married the Lady Dorothy, daughter of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, by whom he had issue, besides his heir, Henry, created Baron Percy of Alnwick, 1643, an eminent loyalist in the civil war, who died 1659, when his title became extinct; and two daughters – Dorothy, who married Robert Sydney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, and was mother of Dorothy, the beautiful Countess of Sunderland; and Lucy, who married James Hay, Viscount Doncaster and Earl of Carlisle, and in after life was as famous for intermeddling with politics as for her beauty. On the death of Elizabeth, he used his influence, in conjunction with his kinsman, Thomas Percy, of Beverley, in facilitating the accession of James, by securing the cohesion of the Catholics on the King’s verbal promise of toleration; who, however, when securely seated on the throne, ignored his promise and drove his Catholic subjects to desperation, which resulted in the Gunpowder Plot. Thomas Percy, of Beverley, one of the conspirators, had been an inmate of the Leonfield household, and was killed in defending himself against those who were sent to arrest him. The Earl, although a Protestant, was suspected of complicity and upon a very frivolous charge, was condemned by the Star Chamber to a fine of £30,000 and imprisonment in the Tower for life. His estates were seized, and when £20,000 had been obtained from them, they were restored, 1614, and he was released five years afterwards, when, his castles of Leconfield and Wressle having gone to ruin, he retired to Petworth, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a man of great scientific attainments and spent his long incarceration in experimentalising, along with Harriot, Hughes and Warner, three men of congenial minds who were called, “Northumberland’s three Magi,” whilst he himself obtained the sobriquet of “Henry the Wizard.” He spent a great deal of his time also in friendly intercourse with his illustrious fellow-prisoner Sir Walter Raleigh. Lord Bacon said he was “The chief patron of the new learning, and no scholar of slender means went empy handed from his presence,” and Peele dedicated to him his poem, “The Honour of the Garter,” as also did Spencer, a sonnet. Algernon, his son, succeeded, who, by marriage with a daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, came into possession of Suffolk, afterwards Northumblerland House, Charing Cross, recently pulled down to make way for the new approach to the Thames Embankment. OMBLER, WILLIAM, CONSPIRATOR Executed 1549 A resident at and probably native of East Heslerton, who, instigated by religious and political fanaticism, in conjunction with Thomas Dale, parish clerk of Seamer, and others, in the reign of Edward VI, raised an insurrection to restore the old Romanist faith and establish a democratic republic in accordance with an ancient prophecy, which said that in the coming time there should be no King in England, but four governors instead, chosen by the people, and that all the nobility and gentry would be exterminated. They gathered an army of 3,000 rustics, armed with pitch-forks, bill-hooks and scythes, with whom they marches across the Wolds to York, murdering all persons of distinction whom they meet, leaving their naked bodies on the road sides. The news speedily reached London, and Lord Piers was sent against them, with a promise of pardon to all, excepting the leaders, if they dispersed. Ombler and the other leaders replied, in a defiant tone, that they were the servants of God, and feared not any earthly King, with all his hosts, urging their followers to remain steadfast in the good cause and God would give them the victory; but the rustics became alarmed at the sight of the King’s troops, and sharing not the fanatical assurances of their captains, gradually melted away and sought their homes; whilst the leaders, Ombler, Dale, Barton, and Stephenson, were made prisoners and after a short form of trial for High Treason, were hung at Tyburn, York. OSBALDESTON, RICHARD, D.D., BISHOP, LONDON Ob 1764 Second son of Richard Osbaldeston, Kt, of Hunmanby, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Fountayne, of Malton. Dean of York, 1728-47; Bishop of Carlisle, 1747-62; Bishop of London, 1762-4. Is the year 1741, he married Rev Laurence Sterne, author of “Tristram Shandy,” to Miss Lumley, in York Cathedral. Monument in Hutton Bushell Church, near Scarborough. OUTRAM, SIR BENJAMIN FONSECA, KT, M.D., F.G.S., C.B., F.R.S. Ob 1856Son of Captain William Outram, of Kilham; married, 1811, the daughter of William Scales and relict of Captain Richard Corne, R.N. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.D., 1809; entered the Medical Naval Service, 1794, and was promoted to the rank of Surgeon, 1796, rising gradually in his profession until, in 1841, he was appointed Medical Inspector of the Fleet and Naval Hospitals. He received war medals and clasps for his services and was Knighted by Patent, 1850. In 1810, he became a member of the College of Physicians, and for his attainments in other branches of science, was admitted a member of the Royal Society and of the Royal Geological Society. OXTOBY, JOHN, “PRAYING JOHNNY” Nat Circa 1770A popular revivalist local preacher, connected with the Primitive Methodists and “Apostle of the Filey Fishermen,” familiarly known as “Praying Johnny.” Filey had long been notorious for the vice and utter neglect of religion of its inhabitants. The Primitive Methodists had many a time endeavoured to gain a footing there, but without success, the preachers having been mobbed, pelted with rotten fish, and driven out of the town. At length, in 1823, at a Bridlington church meeting, it was determined to abandon the attempt to evangelise so godless a place, when Oxtoby, who was present, rose and exclaimed, “The Lord has a great work to do in Filey; send me, I will live upon potatoes and sleep upon a board, before it shall be given up,” when it was arranged that he should make a final effort. The following Sunday, he entered the town, passing along the street, singing, “Turn to the Lord, and seek Salvation,” after which he preached upon the beach, in a simple, earnest style, suited to his rough, unlettered audience. Presently tears began to flow, hearts to be softened, and sinners to become convinced of the evil course of their lives. After several repeated visits, the fire which he had kindled, blazed up, converts were multiplied, and a wondrous “revival” ensued, the fishermen of Filey becoming as exemplary for their piety as they had hitherto been notorious for their irreligion. In the account of his life and in the annals of the Connexion, Oxtoby is represented as having been a man of wonderful faith in the efficacy of prayer; and what may be deemed miracles, similar to those we read of in the lives of the Romish Saints, are recorded as answers to his prayers, for the recovery of persons afflicted with hopeless maladies. A poem published on the occasion of his death, finishes with this verse – “And now he’s gone, His face to see; A fadeless crown to him is given; May I my Jesus faithful to serve And meet John Oxtoby in Heaven.” PARKER, MICHAEL, MALTON, GRAVEDIGGER 1758 – 1823 This eccentric specimen of humanity was born at Malton, of poor parents, received little or no education and was in early life employed at the coal yards and in hawking coals, which he continued until his death. He was appointed gravedigger, which he looked upon as a high distinction, pursuing his vocation with real pleasure and enthusiasm, and burying during his fifty years career, more than 5,000 of his fellow townspeople. He was twice married, first to a honest industrious woman, who bore him several children, only one of whom survived their mother, his second wife proved to be a worthless woman, who, shortly after marriage, decamped, carrying with her all the clothing of her predecessor. He was of a very affectionate disposition, and after the elopement of his wife, had only “Johnny” left upon to whom to bestow his affection, who trudged at the heels of his father, who, in the intervals of crying his coals, would continually interject, “Cum alang Johnny; cum alang.” Johnny, however, died at the age of eighteen, and then the old man was left desolate, but replaced his wives and children by his cat, upon which he lavished his love, not permitting any of her progeny to be drowned, sixteen of whom were at one time purring at his fireside; he added also a dog, a leveret, and a turtle dove to his menagerie. His main delight was gravedigging and in healthy seasons he would complain of the dullness of the trade. He was a connoisseur in human bones, and had a fine collection ranged round the walls of his cottage. He was also an antiquary, all his furniture being of bygone fashion; a lover of fine art, possessing a vast collection of pictures, but never expending more than sixpence in the purchase of one, and was a great admirer of public-house signboards; he was also an amateur artist and delineated a cat on a wall, which he called a landscape. He was not altogether free from superstition, and went regularly to the church-porch on St Mark’s eve, to see the procession of the dead of the coming year – this, however, may have been professional and with a view of calculating the amount of forthcoming fees. In his latter days he fell into penury, but sturdily refused parish relief, and added to his income by selling “apple scowps” made, it was conjectured, out of church-yard bones. In Hone’s Year Book, p. 315, is a memoir and portrait of Michael. He is represented in a slouched Roundhead looking hat, fustian coat, corduroy breeches, worsted stockings, darned with every shade of colour, shoes a world too large, tied with hempen string, and a coal sack thrown with a graceful negligence over his shoulders. “A Sketch of the Life of Michael Parker, late of Malton, Gravedigger.” Malton, 1823. PERCY, SIR HENRY, KT, K.G., SURNAMED HOTSPUR FROM HIS IMPETUOSITY AND FIERY VALOUR IN WAR Circa 1366 – 1403The eldest son of Henry, 1st Earl of Northumberland, by Margaret, daughter of Ralph, Baron Nevill; married Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, and had issue, Henry, 2nd Earl of Northumberland. Sir Henry was one of the most redoubtable warriors of that warlike age, and was constantly engaged in military affairs. His career may be briefly epitomised as follows. At the age of twelve, he was with his father at the siege of Berwick, and at seventeen, went with his father and Sir John Nevill to receive the residue of the ransom of King David Bruce. In 1384, he was a Guardian of the Scottish Marches; two years after had custody of the castle of Berwick, and the same year was at Calais. In 1387, he was Warden of the Scottish Marches; the following year fought at Otterbourne and Chevy Chace; was at the siege of Brest, 1389, and the same year was one of the subscribers of the letter to the Pope complaining of the excess of the clergy. In 1394 he was sent to punish the Scots for their infraction of a Treaty, and in 1395 was engaged in the wars of France. With his father, he aided the Usurper Blingbroke, 1399, who, in reward, confirmed him in the Wardenship of the Marches and conferred on him the custodianship of some castles. In 1401 he was appointed Justiciary of Wales and the following year, defeated Douglas, son of the Douglas slain at Otterbourne, at Homeldon Hill, making the Earl prisoner. A dispute with the King, relative to his prisoner, induced him and his father to take up arms against Henry IV, whose forces met those of the Percies at Shrewsbury, 1403, when, after a desperate struggle, he was slain, his troops defeated and his brother, Worcester, taken and beheaded. He is best remembered as the hero of the old Ballads of Chevy Chace and Otterbourne, which were frays rather than battles, and about which some confusion exists, being in some versions represented as one and the same, but really were distinct fights, the latter the sequel of the former. The borders were guarded on the south by the Percies and on the north by Douglas, and there existed a sort of etiquette that neither should hunt across the border without permission, the conflict arising out of a boast by Northumberland that he would take three days hunting on the Scottish side, which he carried out, and the fight of Chevy Chace, in which the Percies were victors, ensued. Douglas, then collecting a larger force, passed over into Northumberland, when the fight of Otterbourne took palce, in the course of which Douglas was slain and Hotspur taken prisoner, the Scots remaining masters of the field, until the Bishop of Durham came up with fresh forces, when they fled. A stone, called “Percy’s Cross” was erected on the spot to commemorate the event. His character is finely portrayed by Shakespeare in his “King Richard II” and “King Henry IV.” PHILLIPS, GEORGE SEARLE, “JANUARY SEARLE” Nat 1816Lecturer, author and contributor to several periodicals, born at Peterborough; educated at Cambridge; went to America, 1836, and established a school at Albany; edited the “New York World;” and returned to England, 1837. In 1838, he commenced his career as lecturer, married and settled at Struton, county of Lincoln; removed to Tuxford, county of Notta, 1842, and to Leeds, 1844, where he obtained an appointment as second master in the school of the Mechanics’ Institute and Literary Society; edited the “Leeds Times,” and was joint-editor, with Dr Lees of “The Truth Seeker.” In 1845, he became secretary of the Huddersfield Mechanics’ Institute; and was resident on the Wolds sometime in the capacity of lecturer. PRICKETT, REV MARMADUKE, M.A., F.R.S., TOPOGRAPHER 1804 – 1839 Historian of Bridlington, born at Bridlington, son of Marmaduke Prickett, by Elizabeth (his cousin) daughter of Paul Prickett, by Elizabeth (his cousin) daughter of Paul Prickett; descended from Robert Prickett, of Everingham, near Pocklington, temp Elizabeth, of which family were George, Sergeant-at-Law and Recorder of York, temp Charles II; Robert, of Wressle, near Howden, who married Mary, daughter of Marmaduke, 1st Baron Langdale; Rev Thomas, 1668-1741-2; vicar of Kilham; Marmaduke, a younger son, 1733-1763, who settled at Bridlington, married Frances, daughter of Rev William Buck, vicar of Church Fenton, and had issue, with two other sons and five daughters, Marmaduke, father of Rev Marmaduke. PUCKERING, SIR JOHN, KT, KEEPER OF THE PRIVY SEAL 1544 – 1569 A memorable lawyer, born at Flambrough of obscure parentage, who, by the sheer force of genius, attained a foremost position in his profession. He was the second son of William Puckering, of Flambrough, who was so poor as to be scarcely able to give his son a decent education, but contrived to place him in a lawyer’s office, from which he worked his way upwards to a Knightship, and a seat in the Privy Council. He entered Lincoln’s Inn for study, 1559; was called to the Bar, 1575; appointed Lent Reader, 1577; and attained the coif, 1588; was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons, 1585, and 1586; had the honour of Knighthood conferred on him, by Queen Elizabeth, 1592; became a Privy Councillor, and was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal, which office he held till death. He practiced in the Common Pleas, and soon distinguished himself as an astute lawyer, especially as “a Black Letter Lawyer,” entered the House of Commons and became an authority in questions of precedence and privilege. He was placed in the Chair of the House, 1585, which he filled efficiently and as it was then unusual to allow Speakers to continue their practice at the Bar, he was employed by the Crown in State trials arising out of the plot for the rescue of Mary Queen of Scots from the fangs of Elizabeth, and in the prosecution of Babington and Tilney, which were conducted by him. In 1586 he was again chosen Speaker, in the Parliament specially called for the business of carrying out the execution of the captive Queen, which he advocated, and was sent, by the House, to wait upon Elizabeth to urge her to comply with their wish in this respect. He appeared as counsel, in the prosecution of Davison, in the Star Chamber, “for presuming to send off the warrant for the execution of Mary without due authority,” and is said to have aggravated the offence. Davison was Elizabeth’s scape-goat, and Puckering, for his service, was made Queen’s Serjeant. In 1589, he was leading counsel, for the Crown, in the prosecution of Knightly, in the Star Chamber, and the same year in that of the Earl of Arundel, for High Treason. His last appearance at the Bar was against Sir John Perrot, late Lord Deputy of Ireland, for High Treason, in 1592, who, although a loyal subject, had spoken disrespectfully of the Queen, for which he was found guilty, chiefly through the eloquence of Puckering, but Elizabeth, after reading the evidence, refused to allow the sentence to be carried out, yet she Knighted the counsellor for his zeal and made him a Privy Counsellor and placed in his hands the Privy Seal, with the inferior rank of Lord Keeper. Lord Campbell says of him that, “although profoundly versed in all the mysteries of the common law, he was nothing of a civilian, and his mind was not much imbued with the general principles of jurisprudence.” Fuller quotes a memorable speech made by him, relative to the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada; and Camden refers to him as “a man of great integrity.” It was also said of him that he was “so dull, heavy, and awkward in his manners; so lawyer-like and ungenteel,” that Elizabeth, who disliked unhandsome men, hesitated some time before making him Lord Keeper. He married Anne, daughter of George Chowne, of the county of Kent, by whom he had issue, with other children, Thomas, created Baronet, 1612, who died s.p. 1636, when the Baronetcy became extinct and his estates, including Weston, county of Herts, a grant from the crown to his father, passed to his nephew, Sir Henry Newton, 3rd Baronet, second son of Adam Newton, 1st Baronet, created 1620, who assumed the name of Puckering, and died s.p. 1700, when that Baronetcy became extinct, and the estate devolved on his wife’s niece, Jane, relict of Sir George Bowyer, Baronet, with remainder to Vincent Grantham, of the county of Lincoln. Sir John died of apoplexy, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument was ereced to his memory. RICHARDSON, JOHN, ITINERANT QUAKER PREACHER 1666 – 1753 The father of John Richardson was a shepherd, at North Cave, and was one of the earliest members of the Society of Friends, having been converted by the preaching of William Duesbury; he was born in 1624, the same year as George Fox, and after enduring the usual suffering and contumely of the Friends of that period, died in the year 1679, leaving a widow and five children, and a small farm for their support. John was born at North Cave, in 1666, and was thirteen years of age at his father’s death; he worked upon the farm for the maintenance of the family, until his mother, two or three years afterwards, married a Presbyterian, who took possession of the farm. John was at a very early age imbued with religious impressions, which grew with his growth, and he steadily adhered to the principles of his father. This, however, did not please his Presbyterian step-father, who treated him with great harshness, and eventually, because he would not renounce Quakerism, turned him out of doors. After casting about some time, he apprenticed himself to William Allon, a weaver, at South Cliffe, whom he described as a honest, pious man, who treated him with great kindness, as he would a son. Afterwards, he commenced business at Bridlington, as a dealer in clocks and watches, but did not remain there long, as he felt an inward and irresistible call to go forth and proclaim the tidings of the Gospel. He had commenced preaching occasionally, in the village and hamlets, at the age of eighteen, and had served an apprenticeship to the hooting and howling of mobs; denunciations from “Priests of the steeple houses,” and threats from Justices of the Peace, hence was he well qualified to extend his ministrations to a wider circle. He was further qualified as being a fluent speaker, with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures; keen at repartee, in replying to objectors; and of a robust frame capable of enduring fatigue, privations, and peril. He made two voyages to America, one in 1700-3 and the other in 1731-3, and travelled over a considerable portion of what are now the eastern United States as well as in the Islands of the West Indies, in the course of which he encountered many perils by sea and land, and met with many adventures of an amusing character, which are narrated in a racy style in his autobiography. He visited Ireland, in 1722, and traversed a great portion of England and southern Scotland, preaching the tenets of George Fox, and making many converts. As was not uncommon with many sectarians of that period, he believed that he had the gift of prophecy and miraculous healing, adducing many instances of curing diseases by means of prayer, and was a devout believer in special Providences. He was twice married, first to Priscilla Connely and secondly, after seven years of widowhood, to Anne Robinson, both of whom predeceased him. With the latter, who was a preacher in the society, he obtained a small property at Hutton-le-Hole, near Lastingham, where he went to reside in after life, and where he died. “An account of the Life of that ancient servant of Jesus Christ, John Richardson, giving a Relation of many of his trials and exercises in his youth and his services in the work of the ministry in England, Ireland, America etc.” Third edition, 1774. A reprint of his autobiography. RIPLEY, SIR GEORGE, KT, ALCHEMIST Ob 1490 or 1492A famous alchemist and Canon of Bridlington Priory, a member of the ancient family of Ripley, of Ripley, near Leeds; Professor of Divinity, 1498, appointed by the General Chapter of his order at Aylesford. Early in life he travelled for twenty years in France, Italy, and other lands, remaining for a long period at Rhodes, when, says Ashmole, he contributed £100,000 annually towards the revenues of the Knights of Malta, to sustain their struggle with the Turks, which Warton pronounces to be incredible, excepting under the supposition that he had discovered the Philosopher’s Stone, which was one of the objects of his chemical researches. On his return to England, Pope Innocent VIII absolved him from the Rules of his Order, to enable him the better to prosecute his studies and experiments; but the Canons of Bridlington objected to this, considering such pursuits to be too intimately associated with the evil one, and refused to re-admit him on such terms, in consequence of which he entered the Carmelite Monastery of St Botolph, at Boston, where he died. He was a man of great erudition, and was the best chemist of his age. In the Harleian MSS, there is a pen and ink sketch of his tomb, a copy of which is engraved in Prickett’s “History of Bridlington Priory.” He was the author of twenty five works, chiefly poems, on Alchemy, set forth in rugged verse, which he desired might be destroyed at his death, as being merely hypotheses, without proof. The MSS, however, were deposited in the Library of the University of Cambridge, and several of them were printed by Ashmole, in his “Theatrum Chemicum,” and others at Cassel, 1549. SALTMARSHE, REV JOHN, PROPHESIER Ob 1647A fanatical Puritan, born at Helslerton, supposed to be of the Saltmarshe family, of Saltmarshe, near Howden; educated at Cambridge, where he graduated and became minister, first at Northampton, afterwards at Braisted, county of Kent; then became chaplain to Sir Thomas Fairfax’s army; and finally retired to Ilford, county of Essex, where he died. He was “esteemed a person of fine, active fancy and a good preacher, who meddled not with Presbytery of Independency, but laboured to draw souls from sin to Christ.” His theological opinions inclined to Antinomianism, and he made pretensions to prophecying and supernatural visitations, writing and publishing several works on such subjects. The manner of his death, if truly narrated, was certainly very remarkable. It is said that on the morning of December 4th, 1647, he told his wife that he had been in a trance, and had received a message from God, which he must deliver immediately to the army, and mounting his horse, he rode to London and thence to Windsor, where, being introduced to the Council of Officers, he told them that the Lord had left them and would destroy them by internal dissention, for having committed his saints to prison. A similar message he delivered to Cromwell, and departed, taking leave of the officers, saying that they would not see him again. In passing through London, he called upon several friends, bidding them farewell, telling them that his work on earth was at an end, and asking them to take care of and be kind to his wife. He reached Ilford on the 9th in perfect health and cheerful spirits, but told his wife that as he had now finished his work, there was nothing more for him to do but die and go to his Master and Father to render up an account of his stewardship, and died in the afternoon of the same day. SANDWITH, HUMPHREY, M.D., F.R.C.P., OF BRIDLINGTON, BEVERLEY AND HULL 1792 – 1874 A physician, author, and newspaper editor, born at Helmsley, descended from a family of landed proprietors, who suffered greatly in the civil war of Charles I, and which, since then, has supplied many men of note in the army, the professions, and literature; and was remotely connected with Edmund Grindall, Archbishop of York. In Helmsley church are many monuments of the family, one of which is that of Ralph Dodsworth, the antiquary, who was born at Newton Grange, and died 1654. His grandfather squandered the family property and incurred heavy liabilities by a profuse hospitality, the whole of which the family property, and incurred heavy liabilities by a profuse hospitality, the whole of which were afterwards honourably paid, with interest, by his son (the father of Humphrey), who was a surgeon, at Helmsley, but who removed, in 1796, to Beverley. The mother of Humphrey was a pious and intelligent woman, who trained up her son in the dogmas of Congregationalism. He was educated at the Grammar School, Beverley, where he eventually became Dux, and gained great applause by the delivery of a Greek oration at the annual exhibition; he received some gratuitous supplementary instruction from the Rev Joseph Coltman, Incumbent of Beverley Minster, a learned man and estimable clergyman, who took an interest in promoting the studies and intellectual advancement of promising young men. He had for a school-fellow and intimate friend, Mark Robinson, of Beverley, the founder of Church Methodism in that town, who was a Methodist, and through whose conversation and persuasion, he became a convert to Wesleyanism, then a despised sect, consisting chiefly of the humbler classes. In conjunction with his friend and some others, he established “The Beverley Free Library,” one of the first free libraries established in England, which existed a quarter of a century and was a great intellectual boon to the town. His father having died, an elder son succeeded to the business, and on leaving school, Humphrety was articled to his brother. Although he took great interest in medical science, he devoted a considerable portion of his time, especially at night, to classical studies; afterwards going to London for study in his profession, where he seriously injured his health, by his close application and the burning of midnight oil. In 1815, he returned to Yorkshire, and entered into partnership with a surgeon, in extensive practice at Bridlington, where he remained until 1833, when he removed to London, to assume the editorship of the Watchman newspaper. It is a remarkable fact that he became the first and most formidable opponent to his friend, Mark Robinson, in his attempt to form a union between Methodism and the Church. Robinson, who was a draper in Beverley, promulgated his views in a pamphlet entitle, “Observations on the System of Wesleyan Methodism,” for which he was expelled from the Society, after which he and his disciples erected a “Church Methodsity” chapel in Beverley, where a service was conducted, based on the prayer-book and the tenets of Wesleyanism, which lasted a few years, and eventually died a natural death. To this pamphlet, Dr Sandwith replied, in “An Apology for the System of Wesleyan Methodism,” etc, and in “Methodism and its Relation to the Church,” etc, which was succeeded by a polemic paper war, which raged with great and virulent intensity for a long period. Next he had a tilt with Lord John Russell, who, in his “Memoirs of Europe,” said, “If a Methodist Preacher wants a dinner, a suit of clothes, or a few pence to pay a turnpike, he puts up a prayer and his want is miraculously supplied: thus, between fanaticism and forgery, sober and genuine Christianity is lost,” to which he replied, in a pamphlet, which was the cause of Lord John being rejected by the constituency of Bedford, in 1830. And in 1833, he had an encounter with the Recored newspaper, in reply to some illiberal attacks on the Wesleyan body. In 1835, he was appointed the first editor of the Wesleyan Watchman newspaper, which he conducted on Liberal-Conservative principles, until 1842, when he was compelled, through ill-health to resign the office. He then settled in Hull, as a physician, where he obtained a good practice; was Physician to the Infirmary, 1842-62, and Consulting Physician, 1862-74. He took an active part in the religious philanthropic and, literary movements of the time; was President of the Hull Philosophical and Literary Association; and for a long time acted as Circuit Steward of Waltham Street Chapel. In 1866, he retired from his business, settling for a while at Winterton, in Lincolnshire, whence he removed to Beaconsfield, county of Buckingham, and in 1871, to Todwick, near Sheffield, where he died. He married, in 1818, Jane, daugher of Isaac Ward, a ship-owner at Bridlington Quay, by whom he had issue nine children, of whom were: Humphrey, M.D., the rev Henry, Rector of Todwick; and Godfrey, M.D., who died in Africa, in 1876. Dr Thomas Sandwith, of Beverley, an eminent philanthropist, reformer in politics, advocate of social and intellectual advancement and author of some medical and scientific works, was with his brother. Memoir in the “Wesleyan Methodist Magazine,” 1875, and in the “City Road Magazine,” of the same date. He was a poet of no mean ability, wrote several short poems and hymns for the Wesleyan periodicals, and “Julius of Rievaulx: or the Conflict of the Creeds,” the scene of which is laid in his native Helmsley, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which, however, still remains in manuscript. SANDWITH, HUMPHREY, JUN., M.D., D.C.L. Son of Humphrey Sandwith, born at Bridlington; educated to the medical profession, in which he has attained some celebrity; an ardent politician, of the Philosophical-Radical school, in which interest he contested Marylebone, unsuccessfully, in 1868; and a considerable traveller in the East, chiefly in connection with the medical staff of the army during the Crimean war, and was shut up in Kars during the memorable siege, of which he published a narrative. DE SANCTAE QUINTINO, ADELIZA, HARPHAM Vix 12th century The relict of Robert de St Quintin of Harpham, who took for her second husband, Eustace de Merch. Like many other Ladies, Knights and Barons of that period, she made a bargain with Heaven, to found a nunnery in exchange for the eternal repose of her soul; and, with the consent of her son, Sir Robert de St Quintin, in the year 1134, built a Cistercian priory for nuns at Appleton, and dedicated it to God, St Mary, and St John the Apostle. Amongst the rules for the government of the sisterhood were some rather curious injunctions – that they should not frequent the alehouse, nor go by the waterside “where it is usual for strangers to resort daily;” that “no sister bring in any man, Religious or Secular, into their chamber or any secret place and that they take in no “Prehendinauncers’ or sojourners unless children or old persons,” etc. The revenues were valued at the dissolution at £73 9s 10d., and the site granted, 1552, to Robert Darknall, who alienated it to the Fairfaxes, who built a mansion there and made it their home. It passed, by the marriage of “little Moll,” daughter of the great Parliamentary General, to George Villiers, the profligate Duke of Buckingham, by whose trustees it was sold, with a defective title, to Alderman Milner, of Leeds. ST QUINTIN, SIR WILLIAM, 3RD BART, HARPHAM 1661 – 1723 Alexander, eldest son of Sir Herbert St Quintin, Kt, of Brandesburton, came into possession of Harpham, temp Edward II. Sir William, his descendant was created Baronet, 1641-2, the Baronetcy expiring, through lack of male issue, 1795. Sir William was son of Sir Henry, 2nd Baronet, by Mary, daughter of Henry Stapleton, of Wighill; was M.P., for Hull, temp William and Mary, Anne and George I; a Commissioner of the Customs; twice a Lord of the Treasury; and Vice-Treasurer and Receiver-General of Ireland. “He died universally lamented by all who knew him for his great abilities, probity and love of his country.” SCOTT, REV CUTHBERT, D.D., RECTOR OF ETTON AND BEEFORD, AND BISHOP OF CHESTER 1510 – 1565 A famous preacher; clever disputant in defence of the old faith, and notable in the struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism, immediately after the establishment of the Reformed Church of England. He was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated and became D.D., 1547, which degree was also conferred on him by Oxford, seven years afterwards. He was elected Master of Christ’s College, 1553, and was Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1554 and 1556. In 1546, he was nominated to the Rectory of Etton, and in 1549 to that of Beeford; in 1554 was Prebendary of Chamberlainswood, London; and in 1556, was appointed, by Papal provision, Bishop of Chester, from which dignity he was deposed in 1559. From the year 1544, he became a frequent and popular preacher at Paul’s Cross, London, on one occasion preaching before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, most of the Judges and thirteen Bishops. Along with others, he was sent, in 1554, to Oxford to dispute with Latimer and Ridley. In the first Parliament of Elizabeth, he protested vehemently against the restoration of the Church of Henry VIII, and the following year was appointed to consider controverted points at Westminster, but declining to attend, he was declared contumacious, bound in £1,000 to appear before the Lords in Council and fined 200 marks. Refusing compliance, he was deprived of his Bishopric and sent to Fleet prison, but was liberated on giving surety for the payment. However, he immediately after absconded, leaving his sureties to pay the fine and fled to Louvaine, where he died. He was a learned man, highly extolled by Dodington in his “Life of Carr,” and by Richard Shackloch, of Cambridge, in his Latin Epitaph. SCOTT, JOHN, TRAINER, MALTON 1795 – 1871 Born at Chippenham, near Newmarket, the son of a trainer; married Miss Barker, daughter of an innkeeper, at Mansfield. At a very early age he was put upon the saddle and won a race at thirteen years of age, after which he became light-weight jockey to Sir Walter Wynn, after which he became private trainer to Mr Houldswoth, owner of Filho de Puta, and to Mr Petre. In 1814, he migrated to Yorskhire, and entered the stables of Mr Franks, trainer, transferring his services, soon after, to Mr Croft, then the first trainer of the North, where he acquired sufficient experience to establish himself at the afterwards famous Whitewall stables, 1825, and rose to the highest distinction as breeder and trainer. From his training grounds came some of the most famous horses of the subsequent half century, the winners of seventeen St Legers, five Derbys, six Oaks, and a hosts of cups, vases, handicaps, &c. In the conduct of a business, more open than most others to dishonesty and fraud, he won the esteem of all with whom he had business transactions, for the upright and straightforward way in which he conducted it. “Bill” Scott, the celebrated jockey, was his brother. Portrait and memoir in the “Illustrated News,” October 21st, 1871. A monument erected to his memory, by public subscription, over his remains in the Malton cemetery, and a marble tablet placed in Norton church, with this inscription – This tablet is Erected in Affectionate Remembrance ofJOHN SCOTT Of Whitewall House, in this Parish Who died October 4th, 1871, aged 76 years By his Employers, Friends, and Neighbours, as a lasting tribute To his skill and success in a Profession on which his name and fame shed a lustre, SLEIGHTHOLME, WILLIAM Died 1387A Benedictine monk of Bridlington, eminent for his piety and austerity, at whose tomb miracles were said to be performed, in consequence of which he was esteemed a saint, although it does not appear that he was canonized, nevertheless, his name appears in the Lives of the Saints. He was an intimate friend of St John of Bridlington, with whom he had many conversations on spiritual matters. In one of these he asked St John how it was that the devil did not assault people personally and materially now, as he was wont to do formerly, as, to wit, in the time of St Dunstan. His friend replied, “the truth is that we have become so remiss in holiness and the performances of our duties and have declined so much in spirituality that he does not find it necessary to take so much trouble; much lesser and brighter temptations being now abundantly sufficient for his purposes.” SMITH, JOHN, “HALF-HANGED SMITH” 16—to 17— “Half-hanged Smith,” as he was called, was the son of a farmer, born near Malton and apprenticed to a packer, in London, after which he went to sea in a merchant vessel, volunteered into a man-of-was, and was in the glorious affair at Vigo, 1702, when the Spanish and French fleets were defeated by Rooke. On his return, his ship was paid off and he enlisted in the Guards, but getting into bad company, he deserted and commenced the profession of burglary. In 1705, he was apprehended, found guilty, condemned, taken to Tyburn and strung up, but after fifteen minutes suspension, a reprieve arrived; when he was cut down, taken into a neighbouring house and restored to life. He said that when he was turned off, he suffered greatly from the dragging weight of his body, that his spirits were in strong commotion and passing upward to his head, that he seemed to be in a great glare of light, which appeared to proceed from his eyes and gradually to become extinct, when he became unconscious; and that when his blood began to re-flow, he experienced such intolerable agony that he wished those who had cut him down, hanged themselves. Failing to take warning by this narrow escape, he returned to his old practices, was again taken and brought to trial, when the jury, not being able to decide upon some knotty point, the question was referred to the twelve judges, who decided in his favour. Again, after the second extraordinary escape, he resumed his housebreaking vocation, was a third time indicted, but the prosecutor dying the day before the trial, he once more cheated the gallows. What became of him, eventually, is not known. STANDIDGE, SIR SAMUEL, KT, MERCHANT 1725 – 1801 A famous Hull merchant, born at Bridlington Quay, the grandson of Robert Standidge, Chamberlain of Hull, and supposed to have been a member of the same family as Henry Standish, Bishop of St Asaph, the vigorous opponent of Henry VIII, in his ecclesiastical reforms. Left destitute when young, he entered the marine service, and worked his way from the forecastle to the quarter deck; then settled in Hull as a merchant, and became Sheriff of Hull, 1775; Mayor, 1795, and was knighted the same year on presenting an address of congratulation to George III on his escape from assassination; Warden of the Trinity House, 1777, 1782, 1795 and 1800; and Governor of the Poor, 1797. He was also created a knight of Russia, by the Czar Paul I. In 1744 on a voyage from Virginia, he was taken prisoner of war, and carried to Hispaniola, after which he became master of the American, when his knowledge of the coast of Rhode Island, enabled him to navigate his ship in a snow storm, which obliterated all land marks. The merchants of Hull were the first to engage in the whale fishery; and in 1766, he sent a ship to Greenland, then considered an unexampled instance of individual enterprise, which returned with one whale and four hundred seals. He went to Greenland himself, on more than one occasion; afterwards fitted out three ships for the trade, and incited others to embark in the fishery. About this time, the exploration of the Arctic regions occupied much attention and he equipped a ship for that purpose, intending to go in person, but his duties as Sheriff of Hull rendered it illegal to leave the country. He was the first to introduce seal skins to England and have them tanned, they having hitherto been thrown overboard as useless, or only worth threepence each for trunk makers’ puposes, but under his auspices, they rose in value to thirteen shillings. He wrote a letter to the “Naval Chronicle,” on the accumulation of Icebergs about Newfoundland and another on hints for the improvement of Naval Architecture. STRICKLAND, HENRY EUSTACHINA, REIGHTON 1777 – 18— The fifth son of Sir George Strickland, 5th Bart, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Rowland Winn, Bart; married, 1802, Mary, daughter of Edmund Cartwright, D.D., of the county of Notts, a poet and inventor of the first power loom, which he made at Doncaster, where he erected a factory and carried on for some time the operation of weaving and for which he had a grant from Parliament of £10,000, and niece of Major of Cartwright, the Radical Reformer, who statue stands in Burton Crescent, London; by whom he had issue, Hugh Edwin. STRICKLAND, HUGH EDWIN, GEOLOGIST 1811 – 1853 A distinguished naturalist, and geologist, son of Henry Eustachina Strickland, born at Reighton. He acquired the rudiments of learning at home; was then placed under the care of Dr Arnold, at Ledsham; and completed his education at Oriel College, Oxford, where he became, 1850, Reader in Geology to the University. Married, 1845, Catherine Dorcas Maule, daughter of Sir William Jardine, LL.D., F.R.S., 8th Bart, eminent for his researches in natural history and works on ornithology, etc. It was at Oxford where young Strickland first began the study of geology, attracted thereto by the lectures of Dr Buckland; and on leaving college, he went to reside with his father, at Tewksbury, where he commenced a systematical survey of the Cotswold Hills and the valley of the Severn, partially in conjunction with Roderick, afterwards Sir Roderick Murchison. In 1835, he paid a visit to Asia Minor, in company with Mr Hamilton, and on his return, embodied the result of his geological explorations there, in a series of papers, published in the transactions of the Geological Society. From boyhood he had been an ardent student of natural history, more especially in ornithology with the native birds of Britain, and a knowledge of the constructional forms of the feathered race generally. Whilst at Oxford, the attention of naturalists had been directed to the head and foot of a dodo, which had been brought to England, the only known existing remains of that extinct bird. To ascertain its form and habitats, Strickland devoted much time, labour, and study and eventually from analogical anatomy and zoological affinities, came to the conclusion that it belonged to the genus of Columbidoe or Doves, and published a work explaining his hypothetical assumptions, in which all sound naturalists now concur. He paid, also, considerable attention to the families of extant and extinct Mollusca, and published several papers on that branch of science. Considering that the nomenclature of natural history was defective, and in many instances, not correct, he suggested, at a meeting of the British Association, the appointment of a committee for its reformation, which was agreed to and he wrote the report of that committee, which has been exceedingly useful, in the rules laid down in it for a more accurate naming of the various species and genera. He was one of the founders of the Ray Society and was mainly instrumental in its publication of the “Biblio Zool et Geol” of Professor Agassiz, of which he undertook the editorship and had seen the third volume through the press, when he met with his death. He added one third more to the list of works and in the fourth volume, published after his death, was given a list of his own writings, eighty-six in number. He was cut off in the prime of life and in the midst of his useful labours, by a deplorable accident. In 1853, he attended the meeting of the British Association, in Hull, embracing the opportunity while there of examining the geological revelations in the cuttings of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, then in process of formation, and whilst in the Charborough tunnel, was so intent upon his work that he did not notice the approach of a locomotive, which came suddenly upon him, and killed him on the spot. STRICKLAND, WILLIAM, NAVIGATOR Vix temp Henry VIIIDescended from William de Strykeland, of the county of Westmoreland, temp Edward I, and ancestor of the Boynton branch of the family. He was Lieutenant of Sebastian Cabot in his expedition of discovery, under the auspices of the first Tudor King and in consideration of his services, had a grant of new armorial bearings by the style and title of “Strickland of Boynton on the Wolds of Yorkshire.” Sir William, his descendant, created Bart, 1641, was an active Parliamentarian officer in the great civil war; was M.P. for Hedon, in the Long Parliament, and was summoned by the Protector Cromwell as Baron Strickland. Queen Henrietta Maria, on her journey from Bridlington to Oxford with munitions of war, from Holland, called at Boynton Hall and appropriated all the plate, under the pretence of taking it as a loan. The Stricklands, in 1865, assumed, by Royal licence, the name of Cholmley, on inheriting the Whitby and Howsham estate of that family. SYKES, SIR MARK MASTERMAN, 3RD BART 1771 – 1823 Son of Sir Christopher Sykes of Sledmere, whom he succeeded, in 1801, in the Baronetcy. He married first, Henrietta, daughter and heiress of Henry Masterman, of Settrington, and assumed the name of Masterman in addition to and before Sykes, on succeeding to the Settrington estates; married secondly, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of --- Egerton, of Tatton, county of Chester, but had no issue by either. He was an eminent patron of literature and art and became celebrated for the noble library which he collected together at Sledmere, as well as for a fine assemblage of pictures, bronzes and other works of art. Diblin describes the library in his “Bibliomania,” and falls into raptures over the “editions principes, tall copies, rare specimens and uniques,” in all which it was peculiarly rich. It was sold by auction, in London, in 1824 and realized the sum of £10,000; a copy of Livy on vellum was sold for 400 guineas. His pictures were also dispersed by auction, one, by Salvator Rosa, selling for 2,100 guineas. Sir Mark was a member of the Roxburghe Club and represented the City of York in Parliament, 1807-20. SYKES, SIR TATTON, 4TH BART 1772 – 1863 No name is more thoroughly identified with the Wolds than that of Sir Tatton Sykes. He was a representative man; a type at once of the Wolds farmer and agricultural reformer; the Yorkshire sportsman, in the hunting field and on the race course; and of the “fine old English gentleman.” Had he lived in the times of Addison it might have been supposed that he had sat for the portrait of Sir Roger de Coverley. For a great number of years he was highly esteemed, not merely by his tenantry and Wolds neighbours, but throughout England, for his manly, upright and benevolent nature, and for what commends itself to all Yorkshire-men – his love of horses and hounds, and his patronage of sport, which he carried out in the most honest and straightforward manner, running his horses to win and never resorting to the slightest deception or underhanded practices. He was familiarly known throughout the county as “t’auld Squyer.” A Yorkshireman was once asked what were the three things best worth seeing in the county, who replied “York Minster, Fountains Abbey and t’ould Squyer;” but thinking he was giving too much prominence to the church, added, “On second thoughts, I would take out the Abbey and put in Voltigeur.” He was the second son of Sir Christopher Sykes, 2nd Bart, by Elizabeth, daughter of William Tatton, of the county of Chester and succeeded as 4th Bart, on the death of his elder brother, Sir Mark, 3rd Bart; he married, 1822, Mary Anne, daughter of Sir William Foulis, Bart, and had issue, Sir Tatton 5th, and present Bart; Christopher, M.P. for Beverley, and afterwards for the East Riding; and five daughters. Until death, Sir Tatton continued to dress in the fashion of his youthful days – a long frock-coat, drab breeches, top-boots, and a frilled shirt – his well-known figure and costume being always welcomed with respectful salutations at the “throwing off,” and on the courses at Doncaster, York, Beverley, and Malton. A versatile politician was once rallying him on the antique style of his dress, to whom he replied, “It is true, my Lord, that I wear the coat of my early days; but you have changed yours so frequently that I scarcely know you.” Up the year 1823, when he resided at Westow, near Malton, he maintained a farm exclusively for the breeding of horses; and all though life, after his removal to Sledmere, that was a prominent feature of his establishment, some of the best race horses of the time having come from his pastures. He rode his first race at Malton, at the age of twenty-three, and his last at the age of sixty, winning on both occasions. From the year 1791, he never missed seeing the St Leger run, excepting in the year of his marriage, and he is said to have made seventy-eight journeys to Doncaster on racing business. He was an enthusiastic foxhunter; was one of the best and boldest riders of the North of England; and kept a pack of hounds at his own expense, his kennels, at Eddlethorpe, enjoying the reputation of being inferior to none in their appointments. Notwithstanding his devotion to field sports, he paid great attention to the cultivation and improvements of his estates, the erection of good farmsteads, and the comfortable housing of the cottagers. Having noticed that on spots near his kennels, where bones had been scattered, the grass grew more luxuriantly than elsewhere, he experimentalised with bones as a manure, and although he was laughed at for his new-fangled notions, he lived to see bone manure generally adopted, with the most beneficial effects, upon the Wold farms. As a landlord, he was liberal to his tenants, more their friend than the grasping owner of their holdings; for the poor and afflicted, he ever manifested a tender and sympathising concern; and as a Christian, he was a munificent benefactor to the National Church, having restored or rebuilt the churches of Kirkburn, Garton and Bishop Wilton, and established several schools, in which sphere of beneficence, his son, the present Sir Tatton, is honourably following his example. After his death, his friends, tenantry and admirers, spontaneously subscribed a large sum of money and created a monument to his memory, of the Eleanor Cross type, on an elevated spot of ground between Sledmere and Driffield, which forms a prominent feature of the landscape for miles round. SYKES, SIR MARK, 6TH BART 1879 – 1919 Son of Sir Tatton Sykes, 5th Bart, and Jessicas Cavendish-Bentwick. Married Edith Gorst, 1903. Educated Beaumont College, Windsor, after which he applied for a commission in the militia in 1897 and was assigned to 3rd Battalion, Princess of Wales’ Own (Yorkshire Regiment), or Green Howard’s, as a Second Lieutenant. After the Boer War, he retuned to England, in 1902 and settled himself into a number of projects connected with the volunteers and later, the Territorial Army. He served with the militia until 1907, becoming Captain. Later, in 1911, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, taking command of the 5th (Territorial) Batt of the Green Howards. On his return from the Boer War, being aware that the country would not be ready for a major armed conflict and knew, also, more than anybody of the valuable experience of the waggoners of the Wolds, he began to organise competitions as a way of training them. The War Office estimated that it took six months to fully train an Army wagon driver to handle one of their pole wagons, whereas Yorkshire already had the experienced men to hand. Sir Mark approached the War Office with his idea in 1906, but met with opposition. He succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1911, on the death of his father and in the same year was elected as the Unionist MY of Central Hull. That year also saw the destructive fire at the Sledmere estate. When he became an MP he was able ‘to harry’ the Secretary of State for War, until they finally agreed to his scheme. The men who joined his Waggoners Reserve, received a bounty of £1 on enrolment and a further £1 each a year if they rejoined the scheme, payment varying with the degree of responsibility. They proved their worth, when, in 1914, war was declared, and the men literally left the harvest fields and answered the call of duty. The Wolds Waggoners are famous in Yorkshire and a monuments stands to their memories, in Sledmere. In 1919, Sir Mark used his knowledge and experience to adivse the delegates of the Peace Conference in Paris, but was to die of the influenza, which swept the country, before he could witness the signing of the Peace agreement, on 16th February, aged only 39 years. TAYLOR, REV ISAAC, M.A., RECTOR OF SETTRINGTON An erudite and learned member of the well-known literary family – The Taylors, of Ongar, several of whom attained distinction, by means of “The Family Pen.” Isaac Taylor, the first, was the son of a Worcester brass-founder, went to London and won fame as an engraver; he had three sons, Charles, the learned editor of Camlet’s “Bible Dictionary;” Isaac and Josiah. Isaac, the second (his second son, born 1759) was an artist in early life, afterwards a dissenting minister, at Ongar, in Essex, and author of “Scenes in Europe” and other works; he married Anne, daughter of --- Martin, an estate agent, at Kensing and granddaughter of a clergyman of Beverley, who ruined himself by building speculations at York. She was authoress of the “Family Mansion” and three or four other works. By her he had issue Ann, Jane, Isaac, Martin, Jeffreys and Jemima. Ann and Jane were the joint authoresses of “Hymns for Infant Minds” and other poems, which have passed through innumerable editions. Ann married the Rev Joseph Gilbert, Classical Tutor of Masbro’ College, afterwards minister of Nether Chapel, Sheffield, 1813-17, and of Fish Street Chapel, Hull, 1817-25. Martin and Jeffreys were also authors. Isaac the third, his eldest son (born 1787, died 1845), of Stanford Rivers, Essex, was the eminent author of “The Natural History of Enthusiasm,” etc. He married (1826) Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Medland of Newington, London, and had issue, Isaac, the subject of this sketch. Isaac, the fourth, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (19th Wrangler), 1853; M.A., 1857, and gained the Silver Oration Cup. He has held the following prefments: Curate of Trotterscliffe, Kent, 1857-60; of Kensington, 1860-1; of St Mark’s, South Audley Street, London, 1862-5. Vicar of St Matthias, Bethnal Green, 1865-9; and of Holy Trinity, Twickenham, 1869-75. Rural Dean of Hampton, Middlesex, 1874-5. Rector of Settrington, 1875. THORBRAND OF SETTRINGTON Vix 1000 Between the Houses of Earl Ughtred and Thorbrand there existed a deadly feud, which lasted during three or four generations and was characterised by a series of barbarous murders. Styr Ufson, a rich citizen of York, at enmity with Thorbrand, had a fair daughter, Sigen, whom Ughtred, Viceroy Earl of Northumbria, became enamoured of, and after divorcing his existing wife, asked her in marriage. The lady consented to become his wife on one condition only, and that was that he would murder her father’s enemy. Ughtred agreed, and they were married, but failing to carry out his promise, his countess caused the marriage to be annulled. Thorbrand, hearing of this compact, lay in wait for Ughtred, and murdered him with several of his followers. It might have seemed more consonant with the ends of justice to have put the lady to death, and not him, who declined becoming her tool in the projected crime. Earl Ealdred, of Bernicia, maternal uncle of Ughtred, in retaliation murdered Thorbrand, and was himself killed in turn by Carl, son of Thorbrand. What was the fate of Carl is not known, but it is supposed that he was put to death by the Earl Siward, son of Ughtred. The sons of Carl fought side by side with Earl Waltheof, son of Siward, and the family feud appeared to have been terminated; but in 1073, the sons and grandsons of Carl were feasting at the family residence, at Settrington, when the house was surrounded by an armed band, the emissaries of Waltheof, and they were all slain there and then, saving Somerlod and Cnut, who escaped. Somerland had estates in the counties of York, Lincoln, and Huntingdon; and Cnut in Yorkshire and elsewhere. TINDALL, EDWARD, BRIDLINGTON, ARCHAEOLOGIST AND GEOLOGIST A savant of considerable eminence in the scientific world, who made a splendid collection of stone implements and other antiquities found in the East Riding, which were exhibited at the Archaeological Institute, in London, 1868, and pronounced to be the finest and most varied ever brought together by a private person. They were also exhibited on several occasions at other places, always eliciting wonder at the industry and judgement which had gathered together such an assemblage of relics of past ages. He died of apoplexy, at Bridlington, 1877. TODD, VEN. HENRY JOHN, M.A., F.R.S., M.R.S.L. Ob 1846 A learned and erudite scholara and voluminous writer, who died at Settrington, of which village he was Rector. He was educated at Oxford, where he graduated M.A., 1786, after which he became successively Minor Canon of Canterbury; Vicar of Milton, county of Kent, 1792; Rector of Addington, county of Surrey; Rector of Settrington, 1820-46; Prebendary of Husthwaite, York, 1830-46; Archdeacon of Cleveland, 1832-46; and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, 1845. He was also Keeper of MSS, Lambeth Palace, 1803. He married, and had issue several daughters. TOPHAM, EDWARD, MAJOR ROYAL HORSE-GUARDS, WOLD COTTAGE, THWING Circa 1750 – 1820 Son of FrancisTopham, LL.D., of York, Master of the Faculties and Judge of the Prerogative Court; whose eldest daughter, Charlotte, married Sir Griffith Boynton, 6th Bart, and who died 1770. It was in consequence of a pamphlet he addressed to Lord Hardwicke, that the Act for the Abolition of Fleet Marriages was passed; and it was he who was ridiculed by Sterne, in his “Adventures of a Watch Coat.” Edward Topham was educated at Eton, where he remained seven years, commenced writing poetry, which was read publicly in the school, and figured conspicuously in the rebellion against Dr Forster, the head master. He then studied at Cambridge, four years, during which period his father and mother both died, after which he travelled on the Continent and in Scotland two years; then proceeded to London, and purchased a commission in the 1st Regiment of Life-Guards. On entering upon his duties, as Adjutant, he found the regiment in a very lax state of discipline, but under his management, from being one of the worst, it became a model regiment, for which he received letters of commendation from the King and was pictured in the print-shop windows as “The Tip-Top Adjutant.” His time, however, was not spent entirely upon pipeclay; he found abundant leisure for associating with John Wilkes, Horne Tooke, the elder Coleman, Sheridan and others of the literati of the age; also to write Farces, Poems, Prologues, Epilogues, etc. In the latter, he was exceedingly happy; one spoken by Lee Lewis in the character of Moliere’s Old Woman, filled Drury Lane for several nights, and another delivered by Miss Farren, caused roars of laughter, the subject turning upon an unlucky tragedy, recently brought out at Drury Lane, which was performed with the usual amount of lamentation, and tears on one side of the curtain and was received with laughter and derision on the other. During his intercourse with the theatres, Mrs Mary Wells, a fascinating actress, famous for her imitations of other performers, wrote to him requesting him to write an Epilogue for her benefit, which resulted in an interview and eventually a closer intimacy. To forward her interest professionally, he established, 1787, “The World,” a daily paper of wit, poetry, the drama, scandal, and other topics of the gay world, numbering amongst its contributors Sheridan, Jekyll, Merry, Mrs Cowley, etc, and soon becoming immensely popular; one very taking feature being a correspondence on the matters pertaining to the ring, between the pugilists, Humphries and Mendoza. Mrs Wells, in a short time, became the chief conductress of the journal, and after five years of publication the copyright was sold. After the birth of four children, Topham abandoned Mrs Wells, who lived a scrambling sort of life, afterwards, and when in Fleet Prison for debt, in 1797, met with one Joseph Sumbel, a Moorish Jew, confined there for contempt of court, whom she married, previously becoming a Jewess, and with whom she lived a wretched life, until he attempted to get a divorce, on the ground that she had broken the Jewish law, by eating “Pork Grisken” but he failed, and fled to Denmark, leaving her behind. In after life, she published her autobiography, “Memoirs of the Life of Mrs Sumbel, late Wells,” etc 3 vols, London, 1811; in which she indulges in the most scurrilous abuse of Topham, and of the unnatural conduct of her daughters, as well as of almost all the world besides, with whom she came in contact, who seemed, to her distempered fancy, to be leagued against her. After breaking his connection with Mrs Wells, he became associated with a Miss Walton, whom he took into his house, under the assumed character of his niece, and whom he employed as governess to his children. With them he retired into Yorkshire and entirely changed the tenor of his life. From having been a London exquisite, a green-room haunter, and the associate of wits, he settled down as a Justice of the Peace, a country squire, a sportsman and a farmer. As a sportsman, he became exceedingly popular, especially in coursing; his kennels being considered the best in England, and his greyhound Snowball, famous for his exploits, as celebrated in Mackintosh’s “Driffield Angler,” was eagerly sought after by the sporting world for breeding purposes. His three daughters, who had the reputation of being the best horsewomen of the county, married the Rev Mr Ford, Mrs Warsop, and Mr Aclam. Topham was friendly with Elwes, the miser, who had two illegitimate sons, one of whom was in the Major’s regiment, Elwes had a superstitious dread of delicate manoeuvring, persuaded him to make one in favour of his sons, who thus succeeded, at his death, to his accumulated wealth, which otherwise they would not have inherited. Whilst residing at Wold Cottage, the famous meteoric stone fell in one of his fields, burying itself nineteen inches in the earth. It was sent to Sowerby’s Museum, London, and now occupies a conspicuous position in the British Museum. Major Topham published an account of the stone, and erected a pillar on the spot where it fell, with an inscription; “Here on this spot, December 13, 1795, fell from the atmosphere, an extraordinary stone; in breadth, 28 inches in length, 30 inches; and the weight of which was 56 pounds. This column, in memory of it, was erected by Edward Topham, 1799.” TOPHAM, JOHN, F.S.A., F.R.S., ANTIQUARY Ob 1803 Son of the Rev Matthew Topham, vicar of Withernwick, in Holderness, by Ann, daughter of Henry Welwick; born at Malton, or, according to some authorities, at Elmly, near Huddersfield; married a daughter of --- Swinden, of Greenwich; died at Cheltenham; and was buried in Gloucester Cathedral. F.S.A., 1767; F.R.S., 1779. In early life he obtained a situation under Philip C. Webb, Solicitor to the Treasury, where his skill in deciphering old writings procured for him a situation in the State Paper Office. Afterwards he entered of Gray’s Inn, was called to the Bar, and became a Bencher; was appointed a commissioner of Bankrupts; Secretary to the Commissioners for the publication of National Records and Keeper of the Library of Lambeth Place. TRAVERS, REV HENRY, M.A., RECTOR OF NUNBURNHOLME A poet of whom little appears to be known, excepting that he was born at the beginning of the last century, was educated at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A, 1722, and M.A,, 1736; and that before obtaining the living of Nunburnholme, he had resided in the Eastern Counties near Ely. He was author of a volume of verse, entitled “Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, by H. Travers, M.A., Rector of Nunburnholme in the East Riding of the County of York.” York, 1740. The poetry is of very fair quality, and above mediocrity, but such as would scarcely command attention in the present age. The earlier portion consists of poems on the Fen country, chiefly in celebration of the drainage works then in progress; and there are translations of the first three books of Homer’s Iliad; and in to modern English, of some of Chaucer’s Tales, but the main bulk of the volume is made up of the usual sentimental nonsense of the period. DE VESCI, EUSTACE, FEUDAL LORD OF MALTON 1166 – circa 1216 Son of William fitz Eustace, who assumed the name of de Vesci, by Burga, sister of Robert de Stuteville, Lord of Knaresborough; married Margaret, daughter of William the Lion, and sister of Alexander, Kings of Scotland. He sided with the Barons in their opposition to King John; and when summoned with others, to London, to give hostages for their loyalty, fled to Scotland, when the King seized his estates; but a reconciliation was effected by the Legate Pandulph. This, however, was but a lull in the storm. He again appeared in arms, with the Barons, influenced partially by an attempt of the King to get his wife into power, for licentious purposes, and the result was the enforced signature of Magna Charta, when de Vesci was appointed one of the twenty-five Barons nominated to compel the King to observe the Articles. In the year 1200, he founded an establishment at North Ferriby, for the Knights Templar, which was converted, on the suppression of the order, into an Augustinian priory. He was slain at the siege of Bernard Castle, by an arrow shot from the ramparts. DE VESCI, OF KNAPTON, JOHN DE VESCI, 1ST Circa 1240 – s.p. 1289Descended from Yvo de Vesci, a notable Norman, who fought at Hastings, and was rewarded for his services with the hand of Ada, or Alda, daughter and heiress of William Tyson, Lord of Malton and Alnwick, with whom he obtained those Baronies. He was the son of William de Vesci, by Agnes de Ferreres; and married, first, Mary, sister of Hugh Lezinian, Earl of March, and Engolesme; secondly, Isabel, sister of Henry de Beaumont, and kinswoman of Queen Eleanor; by neither of whom he had issue. He was summoned as Baron, 1264, by Simon de Montfort, after the victory of Lewes. Being in his minority at the time of his father’s death, he was placed under the guardianship of Peter of Savoy. After attaining his majority, he was engaged the greater part of his life in various wars; was one of the principal commanders in the Gascon Wars, temp Henry VIII; afterwards, took up arms with the Barons, to enforce upon that monarch, the observance of the ordinances of Oxford; fought at the battle of Lewes, 1264, where the King’s forces were so signally defeated; and at that of Evesham, 1265, when the Barons suffered defeat at the hands of Prince Edward (Edward I), where he was taken prisoner and availed himself of the Dictum of Kenilworth. He then made a pilgrimage to Palestine, and on his return was constituted, 2nd Edward I, Governor of Scarborough Castle; and in the 10th of the same reign, fought in Wales, at the head of a body of Gascons, whom he had brought over from France, for that purpose. DE VESCI, OF KNAPTON, WILLIAM DE VESCI, 2ND BARON 1249 – 1295 Brother of John de Vesci, 1st Baron, whom he succeeded in the Feudal Baronies of Malton and Alnwick, and was summoned as Baron, June to October and November, 1295; married Isabel, daughter of Adam de Periton and had issue, John, who died. He was brought up to the legal profession and became Justice of the Forests, North of the Trent, 1285; Justice Itinerant for forest Pleas, in the counties of Nottingham and Lancashire, 1286-9; and Chief Justice of Ireland, 1290; he was also constituted Governor of Scarborough Castle; 1289. In 1290, he had livery of the Irish estates, which he inherited through his mother, Agnes, daughter of Ferrers, Earl of Derby; and whilst there, was charged by John fitz Thomas with conspiracy against the King, and instituted a suit against him for defamation, as well as challenging him to mortal combat. The King, hearing of the affair, prohibited the meeting and summoned them to appear before him, at Westminster, whither de Vesci repaired, and entered the court on horseback, armed cap-a-pie, declaring himself prepared to defend his honour, at any risk of life; but his opponent did not put in an appearance, and although the matter was brought before Parliament, nothing more came of it. On the death of Margaret (the Maid of Norway), 1290, he was one of the thirteen competitors for the crown of Scotland, claiming as grandson of Margaret, daughter of William the Lion. As is well known, King Edward of England, to whom the question was referred, decided in favour of Baliol, who was descended from David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of King William. From this circumstance, the legitimacy of Margaret has been doubted, on the ground that no such bar sinister existed, the pretensions of de Vesci as lineal, would have ranked before those of either Baliol or Bruce, who were only collateral descendants of King William. On the death of his son John, he enfoeffed Bek, Bishop of Durham, in the Castle and lands of Alnwick, in trust for his natural son, William de Kildare, who basely betrayed his trust, sold Alnwick to William de Percy and pocketed the proceeds. He died at Malton, leaving his estate to his son, William, and having no surviving legitimate issue, the Barony became extinct. William, his son, was summoned as Baron 1213-14, and dying, this second creation became extinct and the estates passed to the heirs general of his father. WILBERFORCE, VEN. ROBERT ISAAC, M.A., VICAR OF BURTON AGNES 1802 – 1857 The second son of William Wilberforce, the philanthropist, by Barbara, daughter of Isaac Spooner; educated at Oxford; took a double first-class at Oriel College; was afterwards a College Tutor, Fellow of Oriel, Examiner, and many years Select Preacher. Vicar of Burton Agnes, 1840-54. Prebendary of Apesthorpe, York Cathedral, 1841-7. Vicar of East Farleigh, in the county of Kent, 1843-54. Archdeacon of the East Riding, 1841-54. Married, first, 1832, Everilda, daughter of Archdeacon Wrangham, and had issue, William Francis, born 1833, and Edward, born 1834, author of “Poems,” etc. Married secondly, Jane, daughter of Digby Legard, of Etton, by whom he had no issue. In 1854, he resigned all his preferments, assigning his reasons in a pamphlet, “An Inquiry,” etc, wherein he protests against the Royal Supremacy, and in which he says, “It is idle to set up Holy Scriptures against the Church, when it is only through the Church’s judgement that we are assured of its authority.” He objected also to the doctrine of the Eucharist, as held by the Church, which he explained in a work on the Eucharist. On tendering his resignation to the Archbishop of York, he wrote, “I am as ready as ever to allow Her Majesty to be supreme over all persons and in all temporal causes within her dominions, and I shall always render her, I trust, a loyal obedience, but that she, or any temporal ruler, is supreme in all things or causes, I can no longer admit. If the Act of 1832 were all on which my difficulties were founded, I might justify myself, as I have hitherto done, by the consideration that it was probably passed through inadvertence and had received no formal assertion from the Church. But my present objection extends to the Act of 1533, by which this power was bestowed upon the King, in Chancery, and to the 1st Article in the 36th Canon, which is founded on it.” In the course of the same year, he was received into the communion of the Church of Rome, and ministered therein during the short period that intervened until his death. WODE OR WOLDE, WILLIAM, PRIOR OF BRIDLINGTON 1460 – Executed 1537 The last Prior of Bridlington, who was installed 1531. On the Suppression of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, great discontent arose in the northern counties, where the old faith prevailed much more generally than in the south, which resulted in the insurrection called, “The Pilgrimage of Grace.” It originated in Lincolnshire, but soon spread into the East Riding of Yorkshire, which became the focus of movement, under the leadership of Aske, of Aughton, near Howden, and the heads of several titles and county families of Yorkshire. The first rising took place in 1536, but was put down by the Duke of Norfolk, who was assisted therein by the swollen state of the river at Doncaster, which prevented the passage of the rebels, and facilitated negotiations for a dispersal of the Pilgrims and an assurance of pardon. The King not keeping his word in all its integrity, the insurrection broke out afresh, the following year, at Settrington, under Sir Francis Bigod , Hallam of Cawkill, Wode, and others; but after capturing Beverley, and vainly attempting to take Hull, the conspirators melted away, and the leaders were seized and sent to London for trial, when, with the rest, Wode was found guilty, condemned and sent to York for execution. On Saturday 21st September, 1537, he was drawn on a hurdle from the castle to Knavesmire, and there beheaded and quartered, after which the mutilated fragments of his body were handed over to his friends for burial. In December 1538, an inquisition was held in York, before James Fox, the King’s Escheator, relative to the value of the manors, etc, belonging to the Priory, which were found to be worth £196 5s 5d, per annum, were forfeited, and the monastery with its appurtenant buildings, excepting the fine old church, demolished in 1539. WOODCOCK, REV HENRY, PRIMITIVE METHODIST MINISTER Nat 1830Born at Bridlington, where, from nine to fourteen years of age, he engaged in Mr Forth’s printing office, after which he was apprenticed to Mr W. Dalby, tailor. At the age of fifteen, he was “converted” and united himself to the Primitive Methodist Connection, shortly afterwards becoming a prayer-leader and exhorter. A year before the expiration of his apprenticeship, he was admitted as an itinerant preacher, his master releasing him from his indentures. Since then he has been stationed in the following circuits; Louth, Alford, Doncaster, Brigg, Hull 1st, Driffield, Hull 2nd, Grimsby, Gravesend, Portsmouth, Hull 3rd, and Driffield, a second time, 1876. WRANGHAM, VEN. FRANCIS, M.A., F.R.S., VICAR OF HUNMANBY 1769 – 1842 Born at Malton; educated at the Hull Grammar School, under Joseph Milner and at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A., and M.A., was 3rd Wrangler, Mathematical Prizeman and Classical Medallist, but was refused a Fellowship, because, like most other ardent young men at the time, he was too enthusiastic about “Liberty” and the French Revolution, when he left the University in disgust. He became Prebendary of Ampleforth, York 1823-43, and at Chester, 1825-7; Examining Chaplain to the Archbishop of York; Vicar of Hunmanby; Archdeacon of Cleveland, 1820-8, and of the East Riding, 1828-42. He married, first, 1799, Agnes, daughter of Rev Digby Cayley, Rector of Thormanby, near Easingwold, fifth son of Sir George Cayley, 4th Bart, of Brompton, by whom he had issue Digby, Cayley, Serjeant-at-Law and M.P. for Sudbury, born 1806, died 1863; Agnes, Frances, and Everilda, the latter of whom married, 1832, Rev Robert Isaac Wilberforce, afterwards Archdeacon of the East Riding. In the year 1821, he became involved in a controversy with the Rev Charles Wellbeloved, the Unitarian Minister of St Saviour-gate Chapel, York, and author of the “History of York under the Romans,” which was originated by Captain Thrusk, of Feliskirk, near Thirsk, who, in a letter to his fellow parishioners, gave as his reason for not attending a public worship in the parish church, that he had doubts as to the divinity of the second person in the Trinity and looked upon the service of the Prayer Book as idolatrous. Although the controversy resulted in a great deal of ink-shedding, the rivals were wont to meet, on the most friendly terms at the table of Sir George Cayley; for, although, as polemics, they were at daggers drawn, in politics, they cordially agreed, both of them being staunch, uncompromising Whigs, and were both courteous and urbane gentlemen and scholars, interested and erudite in the same branches of learning. With respect to the result of the controversy, Sydney Smith said, “If I had a cause to gain, I would fee Mr Wellbeloved to plead for me and double fee Mr Wrangham to plead against me.” The Archdeacon became famous, not so much as an ecclesiastic, although he was a scholar and a poet, as for his bibliographical taste and knowledge and for the magnificent library he collected at Hunmanby. He was a thorough bibliomaniac, and his chief pursuit through life was hunting after rare, curious, and out-of-the-way books, sparing neither time nor expense in securing unique copies, first editions, scarce works, books with autographs of the authors or MS notes, or such as chanced to be printed with curious typographical errors. “My friend, Archdeacon Wrangham,” writes Miss Mitford, “who is a collector of scarce books and purchases no other, bought the Sally Walker Book on speculation, it being so exceedingly bad that he was sure it would soon become scarce. I think this is an admirable piece of anticipation.” The library was sold, in London, by auction, after his death, in 1843, the sale occupying twenty days.
|