and here they doubtless had a Palace, though there is no direct allusion to it in any of the town's records. The author of Beverlac thinks that the latter fact is conclusive respecting the non-existence of a Palace here; but Mr. Oliver is of opinion that the Archbishops had an occasional residence in the Park; and it is recorded that Archbishop Murdac resided at Beverley for some years. The mansion of the Archbishops, according to Oliver, was subsequently the abode of the Wartons' family;" but however probable this may be, it is by no means certain. The manor of Beverley Water Towns, including Beverley Park, continued in the possession of the See of York until 1545, when Archbishop Holdgate granted it to Henry VIII. In the next year an Act was passed for the annexing of certain lands to the Duchy of Lancaster, exchanged between the King, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishop of London. By this Act the exchanges were confirmed, and the King was afterwards in receipt of the rents and profits of the lordship and manor of Beverley, with the Water Towns. By letters patent dated Charles I., an indenture is recited 14th James I., setting forth that the premises had been devised to Robert Earl of Leicester, and were leased by him for ninety-nine years, to Sir Francis Bacon, Knt., Thomas Murray, Esq., Sir John Dascomb, Sir James Fullerton, and Thomas Trevor. The same letters patent also recite an indenture made in the year preceding their date, from the three last-named parties then surviving, to Michael Warton, Esq., of the said lordship and manor of Beverley, and all the said Water Towns there, for the residue of the said term of ninety-nine years. The same letters ratify and confirm the lease and assignment, and further, in consideration of the sum of £3,593. 11s. 8d., paid by the said Michael Warton, give and grant the said manor, premises, &c., to the said Michael Warton, and his heirs for ever. The noble mansion of the Warton family was pulled down many years ago, and, according to some, the materials were used in the construction of the row of houses near the North Bar, in Beverley, called the Bar Houses. A part of the old house, supposed to have been the servants' hall, and other offices, is now converted into a farm house; and a portion of the garden walls and stable are still standing. The park of Beverley, commonly termed Beverley Parks, has been sold to various individuals, most of the wood has been felled, and it is now divided into about a dozen farms. On the Queensgate, or Hessle Road, are two excellent chalk quarries, of which the best whiting is made, and imbedded in the stone are found the fossil impressions of shells, bones, &c. Hall Garth, the Manor House of the Manor of Beverley Water Towns, is noticed at page 225. Seigniory of Holderness. "6 'Lordings, there is in Yorkshire, as I gesse A mersh contree ycalled Holdernesse."-CHAUCER. WE have already observed at page 42, vol. i., that the ancient British inhabitants of the district between the Humber and the Tyne, were the Brigantes, and that the tribe called the Parisi occupied the present East Riding. But the district inhabited by the latter tribe, as described in the most ancient maps, is that portion of the East Riding known at the present day by the name of Holderness; and some good authorities are of opinion that this tribe was confined to that small tract of country. The Parisi, or Parisii, are supposed by Baxter to have derived their name from their occupation as shepherds; but others are of opinion that they were so named rather from the nature of the situation in which they dwelt, than from their occupation. The French etymology of Paris, Parisii, and Parisiacii, is "from the watery site or feature; they may be derived from the Gaelic Isis, a stream, water, or sea; par, a district-Par Isis." There is no doubt that in the time of the ancient Britons, and of the Romans, many, if not the whole, of the low lands in the district were overflowed by the waters of the Humber, and subsequently by the natural waters of the country, after the Humber was embanked. Holderness, the present name of the district, is derived from the watery or marshy nature of the place, for, as we have seen at page 1 of this vol., Hol is Gaelic for water; Der is water, stream, &c.; and from its running out into the sea like a nose, the inhabitants are said to have added the termination ness, and called the district Hol-der-ness. It is obvious that if the waters of the Humber were not at present confined by high banks, the expanse of water at every flux of the tide would cover thousands of acres of land in the East Riding, and in a great degree insulate the higher and eastern parts of Holderness. Before the Humber banks were made, in the townships of Southcoates, Marfleet, and Preston, it is probable that the waters of the Humber extended through the low grounds of Sutton, Swine, and many other townships northwards towards the source of the river Hull. Leland tells us that Hedon was once insulated by sea creeks, and when that was so, it is probable that the low grounds or carrs on the western side of Holderness were covered with the waters of the Humber, at spring tides, very far towards Frodingham Bridge. But this state of things has entirely disappeared before the system of draining and embanking, which has been so successfully introduced into the district. The name anciently given to the higher parts of the tract now called the East Riding, was Deira Wald; and the lower parts towards the sea and the Humber were called Cava Deira, i.e., hollow or low Deira. It is pretty well agreed upon that the district of Holderness was, in early ages, cut off almost entirely from the country around, by the Yorkshire Wolds, which run to the east on the north; and by thick and extensive forests and morasses, which extended from the Wolds southward to the mouth of the Humber.* The natural division of Holderness, as Mr. Poulson very properly remarks, may be said to include the whole country between the eastern slope of the Yorkshire Wolds, the German Ocean, and the channel of the Humber, its western limits passing by Bridlington, Burton Agues, Driffield, Beswick, Beverley, and Cottingham, to Hessle; and it is most probable, he adds, that this was the extent of country inhabited by the Parisi. Professor Phillips, in his Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire, states "that the lakes, which were left on the retiring of the diluvial currents, appear to have been continually diminished in depth, and contracted in extent, by deposits of vegetable matter, decayed shells, and sediment, brought with them by land floods. In this manner," he continues, "a surprising number of inland lakes have been extinguished in Holderness, and nothing remains to denote their former existence, but the deposits by which they have been filled." The names of many places in the district, as Rotsea, Skipsea, Kilnsea, Withernsea, Woodmansea, &c., indicate the places at which some of these lakes or meres existed, but there is but one now left in the whole tract of The whole district of the East Riding originally formed one immense and trackless forest. Much of the original wood was destroyed by the Romans, who employed the captive natives in the laborious occupation of clearing woods and draining marshes. Much more was burnt to ashes during the ravages of the Saxons and Danes. As one of the objects which the Romans had in view in destroying the forests, was to prevent the Britons from concerting schemes of insurrection and revolt, it is probable that in some places the trees, when rooted up or cut down, were allowed to remain on the marshy ground, in which, in course of time, they became embedded; and abundant remains still exist at a certain depth beneath the surface, of trees, plants, roots, and brushwood, over a great part of this district. Great quantities were found at Beverley, in the common pastures of Swinemoor and Figham, when the Beverley and Barmston drain was cut; and in many other marshy places, particularly at Eske, where not only great oak trees have been taken up, generally with the roots attached; but trees of a lighter description, such as hazel, and on these the nuts have been found in good preservation, which shows evidently the season of the year when they were destroyed. Many trees are frequently found in the neighbourhood of Routh, and in other places in the carrs. The depth at which they are discovered is usually from one to four feet. Another conjecture is-that these trees have been washed away by some great floods, from higher grounds, and deposited in these low marshy places. country, and that is at Hornsea. We may here observe that the termination sea, or sey, as it is also spelt, is not the modern word denoting the ocean, but is merely synonimous with mere. In Horsley's map of Great Britain, according to Ptolemy's Geography, in which are inserted the names of the British tribes, the Parisi are marked on the promontory Ocellum. In a pamphlet, published in 1821, Thomas Thompson, Esq., of Cottingham, tells us that Ocellum was certainly the name of the district now called Holderness, and that "the name, from its derivation, may fairly mean the eye, or exploring place;" and he refers to Baxter and Camden, who seem to agree that Ocellum means Spurn Head, or the projecting head of the Parisi. But others argue with much force that Flamborough Head must be the promontory named Ocellum. The discovery of the book of Richard of Cirencester, a monk, who lived in the 14th century, has added much to the geography of Roman Britain. This book, which is admitted to be genuine, contains a Roman Itinerary, with a comment upon it, and was printed by Dr. Stukeley, in his Itinerarium Curiosum, and has also been published separately in the present century, informs us that at the eastern point of the region or kingdom of Brigantia, "where the promontories of Oxellum, and of the Brigantes, run into the sea, dwelt the Parisi, to whom belonged the towns of Petuaria and Portus Felix." The promontories appear to be Holderness and Flamborough Head, and the towns. Petuaria and Portus Felix belonging to the Parisi, are said to have been at Beverley and Bridlington Quay. (See page 169.) But all these are yet disputable positions. Portus Felix has been assigned by some antiquaries to Filey, and others contend that Petuaria, which was the principal town, was at Patrington. Mr. Drake, who seems satisfied that Petuaria was the present Beverley, is of opinion the Roman road must have gone directly towards Patrington, or Spurn Head, one of which places in Holderness, he concludes, was certainly the Roman Prætorium, mentioned as the last stage in the first Itinerary of Antoninus. LORDS OF THE SEIGNIORY.-After the prodigious slaughter of the English nobility at the battle of Hastings, the Conqueror, as we have seen at p. 111 of vol. i., divided the kingdom of England between his adventurous followers, and the Seigniory, Liberty, and Honour, of Holderness was granted, in 1067, to Drue Debeverer, also called Drogo de Bevere, or Beurere. He was afterwards called Drago de Holdernesse. This Drago married the Conqueror's niece, and built a Castle at Skipsea, but poisoning his wife, he was obliged, according to Camden, to renounce the realm. He was a man of overbearing and covetous disposition, for it appears from Domesday that he was not satis VOL. II. 2 R fied with the Seigniory of Holderness, but that he claimed all the land in the West Riding, which was held by the Church of St. John of Beverley, and had been confirmed by William himself. On the flight of Drago, it is conjectured that the Seigniory escheated to the Crown, it being conferred as a mark of royal favour on its next possessor, Odo, Earl of Champagne, a Norman, who had married the Conqueror's sister Adeliza. William gave him the "Isle of Holderness," as he called it; and the Archbishop of Rouen bestowed on him the city of Albemarle, in Normandy. Holderness at that period was a barren country, bearing no other grain but oats; and so soon as Odo de Campania's wife brought him a son, whom he named Stephen, he entreated the King to give him some land that would bear wheat, whereby he might be better able to nourish his nephew; the King therefore granted him the lordship of Bytham, in Lincolnshire. After the death of the Conqueror, Odo, in 1096, entered into a conspiracy with Robert de Malbray, or De Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, and others, to dethrone William II., and set up Stephen, his aunt's son (who was afterwards King), to the Crown of this realm, for which he was imprisoned. By his wife Adeliza, he left his successor Stephen, and a daughter Judith, wife to Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland. Stephen, on the decease of his father, became the third Lord of Holderness, and the second Earl of Albemarle. His wife was Hawyse, daughter of Ralph de Mortimer, by whom he had issue three sons and four daughters. William, the third Earl of Albemarle, was the eldest son of the last Earl, and was surnamed Le Gros (the fat). He was the chief of the nobles who, in the time of King Stephen, defeated the Scots in the Battle of the Standard. (See vol. i., p. 124.) This nobleman founded and endowed the Abbeys of Meaux, in Holderness, and Bytham and Thornton, in Lincolnshire. He married Cicely, daughter of William, son of Duncan, son of Malcolm King of Scotland, and he died in 1179, and was buried in Thornton Abbey. His daughter Hawise, who succeeded him in all his estates, had three husbands, who were successively Earls of Albermarle and Lords of Holderness in her right. William de Mandeville, third Earl of Essex, married Hawise, in 1180, and became Earl of Albemarle, as above mentioned. At the coronation of Richard I., this nobleman carried the great crown of gold, and so high and important was his character, that he was one of the three Earls and two Barons sent to King Philip of France, to solicit his assistance in recovering the Holy Land from the domination of the infidels. He died at Rouen, in Normandy, in 1190, and was buried in the Abbey of Mortimer, in the same country. |