1st May

On 1st May 1603, surgeon Simon Crouch was admitted as a burgess of Hull free, on condition that he treat the poor at his own cost. There was an outbreak of plague that summer, and Simon Crouch was known to be still in Hull in 1610.

On 1st May 1676, Leonard Gaskill, 27, and Peter Rook, 25, of Beverley, were hanged for stealing 13 sheep from John Brown of Driffield.

On 1st May 1810, Hull gunsmith William Taylor was indicted for passing counterfeit money to Cecily Rickatson at Sculcoates and given 6 months in the House of Correction. He later set up in business in Beverley, where one of his apprentices in 1821 was Esau Akrill (the Akrill family ran a gunshop in Beverley for many years).

On 1st May 1826, Harriet Pease, wife of the banker Joseph Robinson Pease, of Hesslewood Hall, miscarried after horse riding. Medical help came from Hessle; Joseph’s  diary gave his opinion that she might have died if they had had to wait for a doctor to travel the 5 miles from Hull.

On 1st May 1877, William Pritchard, 21, apprentice of Porter St, Hull, drowned on board Hull trawler Iolanthe in the North Sea whilst boarding fish.

On 1st May 1911, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution took over responsibility for the lifeboat station at Spurn, after 3 years of acrimonious argument.

 

March 24th

On 24th March 1582, James Halsey was imprisoned and fined £3 6s8d for buying fish from a Flemish boat and breaching the Hull port regulations.

On 24th March 1602, the Londesborough household records showed that the number of Lady Grissell Clifford’s personal servants had risen to 5 gentlewomen attendants and 7 chamber servants (previously 7 in total), since her husband became Sheriff of Yorkshire. picture shows portrait of Sir Francis Clifford, later the Earl of Cumberland

On 24th March 1905, Charles Edward Hollings, Driffield Medical Officer of Health, published his report for the previous year, noting the very low birth-rate (23.6 per thousand) and high death-rate in the area (16.2 per thou). The principal diseases were respiratory disease and heart disease, with the incidence and mortality rate from cancer notably higher amongst agricultural labourers.

sirfrancisclifford

 

 

February 28th

On 28th February 1803, Burnett’s Daily Shipping List reported that no ships arrived in Hull, and nothing sailed, for the 2ndday in a row. A heavy gale on Saturday and Sunday 26th& 27thresulted in a number of ships losing their anchors, running ashore and collisions. 8 ships were named as affected.

On 28th February 1823, the conditions of employment of the Matron of the workhouse at Nafferton recorded she was paid 5 guineas a year, plus 5 chaldrons of coals and half a load of whins; her tasks included mending clothes and laundry. There was also a Workhouse Master. (Nafferton was included in Driffield poor law union in 1836).

On 28th February 1826, Joseph Robinson Pease, Hull banker, reported in his diary that confidence in banks was being restored, that the credit of Liddell & Pease Bank stood high, and he believed that the Hull banks ‘never stood better’ after the recent national economic crisis.

pease

February 23rd

On 23rd February 1643, Queen Henrietta Maria was woken at 4a.m. in Bridlington Quay by a bombardment of the house by Parliamentary ships; she sheltered in a ditch until the ebb tide moved the ships out of range.

On 23rd February 1724, William Mason was born at Holy Trinity vicarage, Hull. A poet, biographer, composer and garden designer, in 1785 he was  William Pitt the Younger’s  choice as Poet Laureate,  but he refused the post. He is commemorated in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, and in Hull with a cream plaque. (d 7.4.1797) see picture below

On 23rd February 1830, a report in the Hull Packet said that Revd John Earle’s boarding school at Driffield had been relocated to Watton Abbey, the stately home of the Legard family. It remained there for 10 years, and Earle took on the living at Watton church.

On 23rd February 1919, Company Sgt Major Kelly died of flu in Hull Royal Infirmary. He had been discharged from the East Yorkshires a week before, after serving in WW1 from September 1914. He is buried in Hedon Road cemetery.

Wm Mason

February 12th

On 12th February 1519, tailor William Bowman of Sewerby claimed anctuary in Flambrough parish church after assaulting William Johnson. At a coroner’s inquest at Bridlington 2 days later, the jurors reported that Bowman assaulted and killed Johnson with a staff on the king’s road between Sewerby and Bridlington, then fled to ‘Flaynburgh’. The King’s Bench declared Bowman an outlaw on 27.12.1519.

On 12th February 1556, in evidence given in court at York, Thomas Carter of Helperthorpe, 40, herdsman, made the first recorded reference to England’s oldest horse race, Kiplingcotes Derby.

On 12th February 1644, Sir William Constable of Flamborough led Parliamentary troops to capture the Royalist garrison at Bridlington, and took 159 prisoners. On their way back to Hull, they won a skirmish against the Royalists at Driffield.

On 12th February 1687, John Johnson, Rector of Cherry Burton recorded in his diary an earthquake at 3.45 on a Sunday afternoon.

Kiplingcotes

January 25th

On 25th January 1201, King John and Queen Isabella visited Cottingham and Beverley on their way to Driffield, where they stayed on 27th.

On 25th January 1582, Christofer Danbroke, Hull merchant, and John Whelpdaile, draper, were fined 10shillings and 6s8d respectively for buying herrings from a Scottish ship, against the port regulations.

On 25th January 1875, George Myers died aged 72 in London. A Hull-born builder with a national reputation, particularly for his work with Pugin; he was involved in restoring Holy Trinity, in erecting the Wilberforce column, and in building the Royal Pavilion at Aldershot for Prince Albert.  His blue plaque is at 131 St George’s Road, London SE1. (b1803)

On 25th January 1886, Hull Philharmonic Society adopted a rule that evening dress be compulsory at concerts in the body of the hall.

On 25th January 1898, Mr Good and 19 other Hornsea gentlemen met at Fairfield’ Cliff Road, Hornsea, to form Hornsea Golf Club, and invited Capt F.C.S. Constable of Wassand Hall to become its President. The first ground was at Old Hall Fields.

George Myers

January 12th

On 12th January 1808, Robert Escritt and John Paul, agricultural labourers, were probably the last people to be sentenced to the pillory in Driffield. They were found guilty of blackmailing gentleman farmer Francis Brown of Kelleythorpe, after accusing him of raping John Paul. They were sentenced to stand in the pillory at Driffield on 3 consecutive market days, and to a year in the House of Correction, Beverley. N.B. Sodomy was punishable by hanging at the time.

On 12th January 1819, William Clowes, one of the founders of Primitive Methodism,  began an evangelical mission in Hull, preaching in an old factory in North Street.               (b12.3.1780 Burslem, d3.3.1851, buried in Western General Cemetery).

On 12th January 1963, Hull Pilot cutter J.H. Fisher sank west of Spurn Point after colliding with the oil tanker Esso Glasgow, heading for Saltend in a blinding snowstorm. All crew were safely taken off. During the coldest weather in Britain since 1740, pilots also had to cope with ice-floes off Spurn, and the River Humber itself freezing near Brough. photo credit: Ian Burrett

Big Freeze 1963

 

 

 

November 23rd

On 23rd November 1599, the Council in the North made an order that John Gregory should serve as Hull Sheriff, although he had held the office 32 years before in 1567, and had asked to be released. He appears to have been successful in spite of the order.

On 23rd November 1796, John Taylor jnr, member of the Hull Troop of Gentlemen and Yeomanry Cavalry, was unanimously expelled and voted to Coventry for improper conduct. The record does not state what he did. photo shows cavalry of the time.

On 23rd November 1863, at the Howden Martinmas hiring fair, 700 men and 800 women attended, the largest number of any ER town; fairs were also held in Beverley, Bridlington, Driffield, Hedon, Patrington, where farmers and people seeking employment gathered. The church was concerned about the moral issues involved when single women had to parade themselves in public. Traditionally, farmworkers had a week’s holiday, annual wages paid, and there were pleasure fairs.

cavalry1796

October 24th

Beverley Minster

 

On 24th October 1530, at a Coroner’s inquest in Hutton Cranswick over the body of William Aunderson, the jurors reported that John Adayll, a labourer from Driffield, had on 23.10.1530 around 4p.m. assaulted him, with precogitated malice, with an iron fork, killing him instantly. Adayll immediately fled, with the townspeople of Hutton Cranswick pursuing him from town to town, but he escaped to ‘the privilege of Beverley’. Adayll does not appear in the sanctuary register for Beverley, though.

On 24th October 1850, John Branton, lifeboatman, drowned when the lifeboat overturned during the rescue of the brig Cumberland in the Humber near Kilnsea; John Welburn, the mate, was injured and died in 1852 from his injuries. The 9 members of the brig’s crew were rescued. An appeal raised £37 11s 6d for Branton’s widow and 6 children, and the RNLI added £5.

October 20th

On 20th October 1536, Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough took command of Hull after a siege lasting 5 days, by the East Riding rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace. The only condition the inhabitants made was that no-one would be forced to take the pilgrims’ oath.

On 20th October 1580, Rowlande Burton was called before the Hull mayor and aldermen to answer a charge of dealing in hops without paying a customs charge. They agreed that he would pay the charges due.

On 20th October 1586, Luke Fox (or Foxe) was born in Hull. He explored much of the Hudson Bay in search of the Northwest Passage. Later became a brother of Hull Trinity House and in 1635 published ‘North-west Fox, or Fox from the Northwest Passage’. Died approx 15.7.1635.

On 20th October 1749, a ’sudden and dreadful’ fire broke out at night when the Stamford Bridge Mills machinery overheated.

On 20th October 1890, Withernsea pier was damaged for a third time since its opening 12 years before, when an unmanned Grimsby fishing smack, the Genesta, smashed into it, and destroyed half of the remaining pier (see 19.10). Another boat, the Henry Parr, smashed into it in 1893, leaving only 50 feet, which remnant was removed in 1903 during work on the sea wall.

On 20th October 1958, the Malton to Driffield Railway closed to freight traffic, passenger traffic having ceased in 1950.

 

W'sea pier