January 1st

January

On 1st January 1151, Meaux Abbey was founded on land given by William le Gros, Count of Aumale, Lord of Holderness.

On 1st January 1645, Captain John Hotham was executed for treason at Tower Hill, London.

On 1st January 1685, Alderman Duncalf of Hull gave £5, the interest of which to be given to the poor of Patrington every New Years Day.

On 1st January 1754, Joseph Pease opened Hull’s (and Yorkshire’s) first commercial bank at 18, High Street, Hull.

On 1st January 1841, Daniel Boyes, landlord of the Angel Inn, Beverley, started a new tradition, to bake an enormous game pie for customers; it weighed more than 7 stone. In 1844 the pie weighed 10 stone, and was 18” wide, 12” high, and 2’ 2” long.

On 1st January 1904, Hull GP Dr Francis William Fullerton obtained the first driving licence issued in Hull.

On 1st January 1908, the newly created Humber Conservancy Board took over responsibility for Humber lifeboats from Hull Trinity House, which had managed Spurn lifeboat for 97 years. The Board did not seem to realise the complexity of running a lifeboat service, and after 3 years of arguments, the RNLI took over in 1911.

April 27th

On 27th April 1314, King Edward II stayed in Beverley on his way to fight the Scots at Bannockburn.

On 27th April 1681, John Baker, pewterer, known as ‘the Protestant tinker’ and a chamberlain of Hull, was working for the Ordnance Office to look into the misappropriation of lead, timber and other materials for use in Hull North Blockhouse. He alleged that materials had been delivered to the houses of the Governor (Bellasis) and the Lieutenant-Governor (Gilby). The Privy Council ordered Hull council to prosecute Baker for spreading false news.

On 27th April 1759, Mary Wollstonecraft was born in Spitalfields, London. Feminist writer and mother of Mary Shelley, she lived in Beverley for 6 years, aged 9-15.

On 27th April 1821, the Spurn lifeboat crew were assaulted while loading gravel for the Lord of the Manor, Francis Sheldon Constable, by local men who wanted to share the income from this work.

On 27th April 1918, former Reckitt’s employee Private Richard Wilson, 42, died on active service with 942ndArea Employment Co Labour Corps. He is buried in Rouen, France.

Mary Wollstonecraft

April 7th

john-hotham-1-sized

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.

 

March 14th

On 14th March 1293, as part of the process of creating his new port of Kingston upon Hull, King Edward I had Myton valued, at £24 8s a year, including 2 windmills, a grange, a sheep farm, arable land and 2 areas called Southwick and Milnwick.  He purchased lands in both Wyke and Myton from Meaux Abbey, but it took many years before they were content that they had been suitably repaid.

On 14th March 1471, during the Wars of the Roses, King Edward IV landed about 2,000 men at Ravenspurn when a storm drove them into the Humber for shelter. Some ships landed as far west as Paull.

On 14th March 2013, Norman Collier died aged 87. Comedian, famed for TV stand-up routines, including the ‘faulty mic’. (b 25.12.1925 in Grotto Square, Mason Street, Hull)

normancollier

March 7th

On 7th March 1759, the allowance Hull Trinity House paid to retired grocer William Robinson was stopped as William was given a place in the Charterhouse.

On 7th March 1803, Mr William Iveson, Steward of Francis Constable of Burton Constable, agreed to Hull Trinity House’s proposal to establish a lifeboat at Spurn. No further action was taken until 1810.

On 7th March 1866, Archbishop of York called a ‘day of humiliation’ when East Riding ministers were instructed to ‘exhort the people to accept this grievous murrain as a chastisement from the hand of our loving Father’, in response to the Great Cattle Plague. Rinderpest had been introduced from Russia through Hull cattle imports, leading to widespread slaughter, and restrictions on the movement of cattle. Many areas of the country were affected.

On 7th March 1888, Rev Henry Kemp, Master of Hull Charterhouse, died after 20 years in post, having pressed for change, including an end to evicting widows when their husband died.

On 7th March 1919, after the death of her husband, Central Hull MP Sir Mark Sykes, the Hull Conservative Party unanimously voted to invite Lady Edith Sykes to stand as candidate in the by-election.  Lady Edith cited her responsibility to her family as the reason for refusing their offer.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

March 6th

On 6th March 1851, two days of severe storms, coupled with high tides, caused several breaches in Spurn Point, and made the Low Light insecure. The lifeboat was damaged, and several of the crew’s cottages were flooded. The extraction of gravel was halted, but did not finally end for many years.

On 6th March 1862, Joseph Wildridge, aged 14, apprentice, was attacked by another apprentice, probably named William Webb, on board Hull fishing smack Fairy. He was  so severely injured that he had to be returned home by another vessel, and died on 9thApril. He was unable to report on the events leading up to his attack, and a court case failed to prove a case against his assailant, as the crew would not testify.

On 6th March 1883, a great storm affecting the whole of the East coast resulted in huge losses in the Hull fishing fleet. Accounts vary: up to 230 Hull fishermen and 32 fishing smacks are recorded as lost.

On 6th March 1916, Zeppelin L14, after attacking Hull, dropped bombs on Burstwick and Owstwick, with no further casualties, before passing out to sea.

On 6th March 1919, the RAF Squadron 248 at Hornsea Mere seaplane station disbanded. From August 1918, it flew coastal patrols with Short 184 and Fairey Hamble Baby floatplanes off the Yorkshire coast. photo shows a short 184

 

short-184

February 14th

On 14th February 1763, Mr Newmarch, lighthouse keeper at Spurn Point, reported to his employer that the low light had ‘washed down wholly all together’.

On 14th February 1792, Thomas Wilson, son of a lighterman, was baptised at Dagger Lane Independent Chapel, Hull, He became a clerk, then salesman, set up a business  importing iron, and eventually became owner of Thomas Wilson, Sons & Co, the beginning of the Wilson Line, a multi-national business; his son Charles became Lord Nunburnholme.

On 14th February 1803, Burnett’s Shipping List reported the departure of the first whaler leaving for the fishing grounds that season: the Adventure, captain’s name Gibson, headed for the Davis Strait, got into the roads, but it was a week before it got under way. 5 other whalers left in February, followed by 33 in March. 2 other Hull whalers, the Thomas and the Lynx, appear not to have sailed that season.

On 14th February 1927, 12 Rail passengers died in a head-on rail collision near Hull Paragon Station; 40 others were injured. The outgoing Hull to Scarborough train was put on the same track as the train arriving from Withernsea.

TrainCrash1927

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

 

 

 

January 7th

On 7th January 1651, John Shaw was confirmed in post as Master of Hull Charterhouse; a radical, he was already a very popular Lecturer (i.e. preacher) at Holy Trinity. The previous incumbent at the Charterhouse, Wm Styles, had said he would never quit the post voluntarily if Shaw were to replace him.

On 7th January 1884, the steamer European landed in Hull, bringing the Spurn lifeboat for repair from Holland, where it had been found on the Dutch island of Texel after breaking from its moorings in a gale on Christmas Day.

On 7th January 1889, Alice Norah Blyth, aged 10, died in the care of Port of Hull Society’s Sailor’s Orphan Home.

Orphan deaths, Sailor's Orphan Home
Western General Cemetery