Category: illegitimacy

April 13th

On 13th April 1280, Richard de Vescy, also known as Kesham, was offered the post of Rector of North Ferriby by Lady Agnes de Vescy, but Archbishop Wickwane ran a campaign to remove illegitimate clergy, and declined.  Richard de Vescy and several supporters occupied the church, seized its property, and beat up priests and clerks trying to obtain possession ‘almost to death’. The archbishop did not recover the church until October, and ordered some of the supporters to perform penance.  2 years later, Richard de Vesci was appointed rector of Escrick.

On 13th April 1563, Hull Mayor John Smith presided over a council meeting that agreed that no ships in the Haven should carry a fire or lit candle at night on pain of a fine; this was imposed after a vessel called the Dragon was set alight by negligence, and put other ships nearby in danger. A further law was passed in 1584 prohibiting the heating of tar on board ships, and all gunpowder had to be offloaded within 24 hours of docking, on pain of 8 days in prison, and a 20shilling fine.

On 13th April 1743, Mary Maister (nee Cayley) , her baby son and 2 maidservants, died in a fire at the original Maister House, High Street, Hull, which spread quickly up the wooden staircase.  Henry Maister rebuilt the house the following year with a stone staircase. This National Trust property is currently closed.

On 13th April 1838, Hull & Selby Railway ran an excursion from Selby to Hull, returning the same day.  From Howdendike to Hull by packet boat, arriving Hull 1.00, leaving again 5.00p.m. First class and best cabin 8shillings, 2ndclass & common cabin 6shillings.

On 13th April 1886, Ethel Leginska, nee Liggins, was born in Pemberton Street, Sutton-on-Hull. A musical child prodigy,  she made her debut performance as a pianist on her 9thbirthday, at St George’s Hall, Hull, and was playing in London’s Queen’s Hall the following year. At 11, she went to study in Frankfurt. She was a concert pianist, conductor, teacher and composer. She established the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston English Opera company, and National Women’s Symphony Orchestra, and was director of Chicago Women’s Symphony Orchestra. (d 26.2.1970) . She was the first woman to conduct many of the world’s leading orchestras, first woman to conduct grand opera (her own opera), and a pioneer for women in music.

Ethel Leginska

 

April 7th

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On 7th April 1615, George Goodgion, senior servant to Francis Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, ordered tenants to cart coals to the big house, which was out of fuel, and to note the names of those who refused. Tenants were required in their leases to do this work, but had to fit it in with their own farming work.

On 7th April 1643, Sir John Hotham wrote several letters to people on the Parliament side; the post for London was captured, and his letters published by the Royalists at Oxford, revealing his double-dealing.

On 7th April 1787, John Morrit, 34, was hanged at York for murdering John Argyle, aka Roundell, of Howden.

On 7th April 1810, Mr William Iveson, Steward to Francis Constable of Burton Constable, proposesd to Hull Trinity House to erect a lifeboat house on Spurn Point, provide 12 crew from Kilnsea, and open a tavern to create an income for the boat’s master.

On 7th April 1828, Joseph Robinson Pease, JP, made his first committal as JP in Cottingham, of a man who disobeyed an Order of Bastardy, i.e. he was jailed for refusing to pay maintenance for an illegitimate child.

On 7th April 1893, a rioting Hull mob destroyed 37 bags of carrots being taken on rullies to the docks, and used them as missiles to attack the police.

On 7th April 1943, pupils at Paull Primary School escaped unhurt when a barrage balloon escaped its mooring in the Humber, and exploded, setting fire to the school building.

 

April 6th

On 6th April 1486, John Heryson, husbandman of Middleton on the Wolds, claimed sanctuary at the church of St John, Beverley, for killing Thomas Metcalfe of Melmerby with a staff earlier that day.

On 6th April 1713, Brigadier General Luke Lillingstone died aged 60 in North Ferriby. He had served in Ireland and Martinique. He is chiefly known for advertising Ferriby Grange for sale due to military debts.  His monument is in Ferriby church. see picture

On 6th April 1816, George Hudson, aged 15 or 16, was fined 12s6d for bastardy. It appears he then left his affluent home in Howsham under a cloud and moved to York. He eventually became known as the ‘Railway King’.

On 6th April 1911, Hull Corporation Transport introduced free passes for blind people.

Luke_Lillingston

January 11th

On 11th January 1582, Hull widow Jane Smyth was ordered to be put in the stocks at the next market, with a paper on her head, and given notice to quit the house she rented from the town, for cursing and slandering the mayor, justices, aldermen and the preacher, accusing them of  ‘punishing the town with water’ and punishing her son.

On the same day, Henrie Wakewood of Hull was ordered either to pay 10d a week to Elizabeth Bratton for the support of their child Isabell, and be whipped on market day, or to marry her and have his punishment deferred. Decision on Elizabeth’s punishment was deferred until she had been churched.

On 11th January 1642, Sir John Hotham was appointed by Parliament as the Governor of Hull.

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December 1st

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On 1st December 1644, Sir John Hotham and Captain John Hotham, his son, were tried for treason at the Guildhall, London; both were convicted and condemned to beheading.

On 1st December 1800, Agnes Sharp, aged 24, was interviewed by the Hedon Mayor and one of the Bailiffs to confirm that she was pregnant, that the child (or children) was likely to be born a bastard, in order to claim payment from the parish. The father was a soldier from Sussex whose unit had left Hedon. Eventually, she received 2s6d a week.

On 1st December 1832, Thomas King and William Duesberry stole 3 chickens from John Carter’s farm, Howden. They were arrested and sentenced at Beverley on 14 Oct 1833, Duesberry getting a prison sentence, but King, who had previous form and did not admit the offence, was transported for 7 years. He was given his freedom in 1846 and seems to have died in Hobart in 1859.

On 1st December 1950, The Port of Hull Society’s Sailor’s Orphan Homes changed its name to The Sailors’ Children’s Society and celebrated with a lunch at the Guildhall.  The Society began as a Christian mission to seamen, and began to house ‘orphans’ (children whose father had died) in the 1860s, opening the Newland Homes in the 1890s.

 

November 24th

On 24th November 1299, King Edward I visited the Collegiate Society of St John, Beverley, and was entertained for 3 days.

On 24th November 1835, Mrs Jane Legard created the Etton Lying-In Charity by her will, providing maternity articles and food for new mothers – so long as they had been married at least 9 months.

On 24th November 1906, John Dunham, 53, train driver and Edward Booth, 25, fireman, of Hull, died in a rail accident at Ulleskelf , which led to railway safety improvements. photo – Western General Cemetery, Hull

Edwd Booth memorial

September 1st

On 1st September 1505, John and Thomas Mudd of Tunstall claimed sanctuary in the church of St Cuthbert  for homicide, stating that on 1.8.1505, in self-defence, they had struck Henry Raw also of Tunstall on the head with a pikestaff, giving him a blow from which he died on 30.8.1505. On 2.9.1505 Oliver Mudd and John Mudd jnr (son of John) also sought sanctuary as accessories to the homicide, having been present when the first 2 struck Henry.

On 1st September 1512, Ralph Thorneton, a smith, of Rise, claimed sanctuary at the church of St John, Beverley, for debt.

On 1st September 1784, Hull General Infirmary charity officially opened a hospital with 70 beds in Prospect Street, a site chosen for its fresh country air. The 3 physicians and 3 surgeons provided their services free. In its centenary year, Queen Victoria agreed to a change of name to Hull Royal Infirmary.

On 1st September 1800, John Batman lost his place at Hull Charterhouse  ‘on account of his immoral and disorderly conduct and of the great expences (sic) which the Town have sustained by the maintenance of his bastard children’.

 

Charterhouse 1780

August 26th

On 26th August 1310, King Edward II visited Beverley.

On 26th August 1346, Sir John de Sutton fought on the English side at the Battle of Crecy.

On 26th August 1800, Hull surgeon Edward Oxley advertised in the Hull Packet his invention Modena Fossil, as a speedy and effectual cure for ‘hooping-cough, palsy, rheumatism, asthmatic fits, … diseases of the breasts…’ The Medical Observer was very scathing of this product which it described as oil of amber.

On 26th August 1809, Hedon borough constable Edward Hoe received £1 8s wages for transporting Agnes Sharp and her son William to Friskney in Lincolnshire (her husband’s parish), as Hedon parish was not liable to pay her benefit. Her 9 year-old-daughter Rachel was entitled to settle in Hedon, and was left behind.

On 26th August 1824, on the traditional day of Swine Feast, the Feast mainly consisted of dancing and ‘riot’, most residents providing food for their friends on the Sunday before, leading to disorder which the magistrates could not control, reported author Thomas Thompson.

On 26th August 1833, Captain Richard Wallis Humphreys of the whaler Isabella in Baffin Bay picked up explorer Captain John Ross and 19 of the crew of his ship Victory. It had become stuck in ice and been thought lost for 4 years.  Humphreys was awarded a silver cup by the town of Hull at a dinner given at the Vittoria Hotel in January 1834. (The Isabella herself was trapped in ice and sank in 1835.)

 

John_Ross_rescued_by_Isabella,_1833

 

July 16th

On 16th July 1796, 10 days after the introduction of the Dog Tax of 5s per dog per year, the Hull Advertiser reported a considerable number of rotting dog carcases, after owners killed their dogs and threw them in the street.

On 16th July 1802, Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of poet William, visited Beverley with friends, commenting on the beauty of the town and the minster.

On 16th July 1807, a Bastardy examination of Ann Linwood, single woman of Hedon
revealed that the father of her son, born on 28 Jun 1807 in Hull was gunsmith Owen Probin. Owen Probin was murdered 7 years later (the events are probably not related).

On 16th July 1885, Hull & Barnsley Railway and the Alexandra Dock officially opened.

On 16th July 1904, the Beverley Guardian reported a new phenomenon, ‘the hatless brigade’, when pedestriansof both sexes had been seen in Hornsea without any head covering whatsoever.minster beverley.JPG

July 12th

On 12th July 1537, Robert Aske of Aughton was hanged in chains outside Cliffords Tower, York, after being convicted of treason in Westminster, as the leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace.

On 12th July 1641, Sir Thomas Glemham resigned his post as Governor of Hull, having only been appointed the previous year.

On 12th July 1714, Elizabeth Hodgson, a single woman of Hedon, was sentenced at Hedon Quarter Sessions to be stripped to the waist and whipped with birch or willows from the Town Hall to Harrison Lane and from there to the jail and to remain in jail at hard labour until ‘sufficient security’ was found for her good behaviour. Her crime was to give birth to her 4thillegitimate child. There is no record of any punishment for the father. An Act of 1792 forbade whipping females for any reason whatsoever.

On 12th July 1826, (in one of the driest summers on record) Hessle banker Joseph Robinson Pease recorded in his diary there was no grass for the cattle, who had to be given linseed cake. Ponds and water tanks dry.  Around this time, too, the pond at Fridaythorpe dried up, and villagers went on a Sunday to nearby Fimber to take water from one of their 2 ponds, resulting in a pitched battle, referred to as ‘the Second Battle of Waterloo’. photo shows the remaining village pond at Fimber.

fimber pond.JPG