March 22nd

On 22nd March 1503, Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, died and the Hull Mayor acquired  the Charterhouse and the lands it owned in Cottingham, Hessle, Westella, Myton, Willerby, and Tranby.

On 22nd March 1581, Hull surgeon John Kydd was made a burgess of the town in consideration of his service on local ships setting out to apprehend pirates.

On 22nd March 1834, labourer Robert Billany of Thorngumbald  was found guilty at York Castle Assizes of setting fire to a stack of straw belonging to Peter Ingleby, and was sentenced to execution, although he was reprieved as there was doubt as to the soundness of his mind.

johnnykidd&pirates.jpeg

March 10th

Holy Trinity

On 10th March 1425, Hull Holy Trinity Church, was consecrated; building began in 1291 and was interrupted by the Black Death.

On 10th March 1447, Henry VI issued a charter enlarging the county of Hull to include Hessle, North Ferriby, Swanland, West Ella, Kirk Ella, Tranby, Willerby, Wolfreton, Anlaby, the site of Haltemprice Priory and Derringham Dike.

On 10th March 1623, George Tummond, butcher, of Patrington, was found dying at sunrise in Winestead, after starting to walk home from the alehouse in Ottringham. Holderness was notorious for its floods.

On 10th March 1800, George Hudson, the “Railway King’, was born in Howsham.  He  made a great business and political career from sharp practice and bribery (was MP for Sunderland, and Lord Mayor of York). He became hugely rich, but was disgraced, and imprisoned for debt, though released when his debts were paid by public subscription. In 1845, he bought the Londesborough Estate for £470,000. D14.12.1871

On 10th March 1823, John Bacchus Dykes was born in Hull. By the age of 10, was assistant organist at St John’s Church, Myton. Became a vicar, and composed over 300 hymn tunes, including ‘Eternal Father, Strong to Save’ and ‘We plough the fields and scatter’. (d 22.1.1876)

On 10th March 1921, Mr J.H. Tate proposed a motion at Hornsea Golf Club that ’Old Jack be shot’! It is assumed Old Jack was the horse used to pull mowers and rollers on the course.

On 10th March 1954, Alex May, master of the tug Fenman, died in hospital after the tug was overrun by the ship she was towing, the Rudolf, and sank, on the way into Hull’s Alexandra Dock. 2 of the crew were swept away. There was 1 survivor.

January 20th

On 20th January 1577, John de Tradescant of Cottingham broke into the York house of John Paschal with 2 associates; they were convicted, hanged and their bodies given to the surgeons of the city to be dissected and anatomized.

On 20th January 1595, Robert Cripling and William Lucas, servants to Sir Francis Clifford, bet another Londesborough servant, George Ingmire, that they could beat him in a race on foot from Londesborough to Market Weighton; they won.

On 20th January 1652, John Rogers, Mayor, and Hull aldermen Edward Wingate, Durand Hotham, and Lance Roper, asked the Court of Chancery for help in compelling Mr Stiles and other former Masters and Brethren of Hull Charterhouse, to appear before them and produce documents to account for corruption in the management of the Charterhouse Hospital. (Things appear to have changed after this: a report in 1668 showed an increase in the number of poor cared for from 12 to 40.)

On 20th January 1782, Dr Robert Levett, or Levet, of Westella,  was buried in Bridewell church yard, London. He had died, aged 79, apparently of a heart attack. He had lived in Dr Samuel Johnson’s household for 20 years. Earned a living as a servant, waiter and physician to the poor. Johnson wrote a poem ‘On the Death of Dr Robert Levet’. Tablet in Kirkella church. B 1703 Westella.

On 20th January 1968, Ross Cleveland of Hull set out from Hull for the last time for the North-West coast of Iceland.

St Andrews Dock memorial
Zebedee’s Yard