Tag: tradition

December 13th

thwing meteorite

On 13th December 1760, John Courtney, gentleman, reported in his diary being awoken at midnight by the sound of bells ringing to announce that Hugh Bethell had declared himself a candidate for Parliament. The bells rang all day. A week later, Bethell changed his mind and withdrew his name.  He served as Beverley MP 1768-72.

On 13th December 1795, at 3p.m., a meteorite weighing 56 pounds landed in a field near Wold Cottage, Thwing, home of Capt Edward Topham. It embedded itself 9 inches into the soil, weighing 56lbs, and 3 ft long. Capt Topham displayed the meteorite in London at a charge of 1shilling. He raised a brick obelisk on the landing site (see photo). The meteorite is now in the Natural History Museum, and is the origin of the name of Wold Top Brewery’s ‘Falling Stone bitter’.

On 13th December 1816, Frederick Brown, 60, was buried in Holy Trinity, Hull, after dying in the workhouse. Born in Guinea, he worked as a labourer in a number of jobs in Whitby and Hull. In 1794 he was acquitted of burglary by a Hull jury, apparently a case of being mistaken for another black man.

On 13th December 1830, Joseph Robinson Pease, JP, recorded in his diary an attempt to swear in special constables to deal with the ‘Swing Riots’ by agricultural labourers protesting about high rents, low wages, and the introduction of new machinery. However, they found it difficult to recruit in Cottingham.

On 13th December 1842, Moses Roper, student and escaped slave, gave a lecture at Beverley Guildhall on his personal experience of slavery in the USA, in which he exhibited instruments of torture used on slaves. He lectured extensively and published an autobiography.

On 13th December 1889, John Nicholson reported seeing the “Plough Lads’ (groups of men not hired on farms) going round Beverley, dancing and asking for money or drink. They dressed in ‘motley garb’, with one dressed as a woman with a broom, one (Blether Dick) with a bladder on a stick, one with a coat covered in strips of rag. “Often … at lonely houses they are rude and bold, demanding money or drink in such a way as to terrify the women who have been left at home”.  

December 6th

On 6th December, it was the tradition in many villages for a Boy Bishop to be elected, to serve to Christmas Eve.

On 6th December 1567, after being admitted to the Council in the North by the Archbishop of York, Sir John Constable of Halsham and Burton Constable was dismissed after opposition from protestant Sir Henry Gates.

On 6th December 1852, Henry ‘Box’ Brown, escaped US slave and actor, performed a panorama of African and American Slavery at The Music Hall, Hull.

Henry Box Brown

 

October 18th

On 18th October it was the tradition, on St Luke’s Day, to appoint an official dog-whipper to keep dogs out of church, and to whip any dogs found in the streets; the tradition is said to have begun when a dog ate a consecrated wafer in York Minster.

On 18th October 1654, The Petition of the Three Colonels or The Humble Petition of Several Colonels of the Army was published, authored by Alured, John Okey and Thos Saunders. Colonel Matthew Alured, brother of Hedon MP John Alured, lost his commission, and was imprisoned for a year for stirring up dissatisfaction with Parliament among English troops in Ireland.

On 18th October 1833, Capt John Ross was granted the Freedom of the Town of Hull. Having returned to Hull on expedition to find the lost Isabella, was then himself thought lost.  (He was also granted the freedoms of London, Liverpool, Bristol and Wicklow)

On 18th October 1850, the Hull Advertiser reported that the ring leaders of a riot which resulted in the deaths of 4 Irish labourers on Sunk Island in July were found guilty of riot and sentenced to 4 months each with hard labour.They were: Robert Smith, John Londsbro, George Bellamy, John Dent, George Bielby and Fewson Towse.

 

John_Ross_rescued_by_Isabella,_1833

July 25th

On 25th July each year a traditional football match was held on St James Day, between Sutton and Wawne, starting at Foredyke bridge, boundary between the 2 villages, each village trying to get the ball home. Not known dates played or when abandoned.

On 25th July 1328, King Edward III is said to have closed down the Warter annual fair on St James Feast Day because of the number of murders that had been committed at the fair. There is a record that in 1300 certain manslaughters had been committed in the village by the canons’ men from Warter Priory. In 1328, King Edward III issued an order that it was an offence to go armed into any fair or market. Probably not aimed specifically at Warter.

On 25th July 1768, Joseph Hall was hanged at York Castle for coining at Hull. photo shows  medieval coins being made.

On 25th July 1873, William Dunwell, former Hull Trinity House School pupil, lost his life at sea by jumping overboard to save the life of a shipmate.

On 25th July 1911, Father Ottway, superintendant at the Yorkshire Catholic Reformatory at Market Weighton (actually in Holme on Spalding Moor) reported on rebellion from the boys, including threats to knife masters, which resulted in the attendance of 3 police officers and the thrashing of 6 or 7 boys.

coiner, Hanse Day