present, and pointed out the Norman foundations and the old boulder corner-stone. Before leaving Thwing for Bridlington the party were entertained to tea at the Rectory by the Rev. William Felton.

The third summer excursion took place on August the 23rd. The members of the Society met at Withernsea Station, and subsequently visiting Kilnsea, and Easington.

At Kilnsea the party were fortunate enough to find a portion of the foundations of St. Helen's Church visible at low water at a distance of about 250 yards from the cliff top. Mr. Park showed

the members Little's drawing of the old church, and Buck's view of the old Priory of Burstall. Service was conducted in the church for the last time in 1823, and it was finally dismantled in 1828. The kitchen middens on the Humber clays were visited by some of the party, conducted by the Rev. E. Maule Cole, and some interesting finds of shells and bones were the result. Mr. Cole pointed out that the countless oyster shells found in these kitchen middens all showed signs of having been opened by some boring instrument.

Mr. Murray, of Kilnsea, showed a remarkably fine fossil of a nautilus, with most elaborate suture markings, obtained from the Kilnsea cliff.

At Easington the old tithe barn with aisle was inspected. The barn, said to date from the fourteenth century, is supported by immense pillars of oak, virtually oak trees, which rest at the base upon huge boulders. It is believed to be unique in its construction, perfection, and size, and the roof has lately been thoroughly repaired and rethatched.

In the church much interest was evinced in a supposed stone altar which had been used as a grave stone, and was found doing duty as a doorstep by the late vicar, who, finding the dedicatory crosses upon it, had it restored to its original use as an altar inside the church. The church also contains a most interesting piscina, similar to one at Muston. The church formerly had a rood screen and loft, the entrance to which is now used as the entrance to the pulpit.

The ruins of the chapel at Dimlington were inspected and measured, and it was found that the distance from the ruins to the sea was only twenty-five yards, whereas when measured by Lord Hawkesbury in 1887 it was forty-seven yards.

The present volume has been prepared for publication by the Editorial Committee appointed by the Council. Mr. Frederic Gleadow, of London, has prepared the index, and the Council take this opportunity of thanking him for his kindness in again undertaking this very necessary work.

The Council wish it to be understood that the writer of each paper is alone responsible for the views expressed therein.

Examined with vouchers and found correct, 27th September, 1899,

A. B. WILSON-BARKWORTH.

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

East Riding Antiquarian Society.

Some East Riding Families.*

BY THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD HAWKESBURY, PRESIDEnt.

IN

For

N attempting to give a short account of some East Riding families, I do not propose to include the great baronial families of the Norman and Plantagenet periods who held manors in the Riding, and took their names or titles from places within its boundaries. not only would it be impossible, within the limits of a short paper, to do justice to so large a subject, but their pedigrees are already accessible. The descents of such families as the ancient Earls of Albemarle-William le Gros, the three Williams known as "de Fortibus," and their successors in the Seigniory of Holderness-the baronial family of Roos, who, though taking their name from Roos in Holderness, made Helmsley Castle (or Hamlake as it was then called), in the North Riding, their chief residence; the Barons of Grimthorpe on the Wolds, who succeeded to the estates of the Greystokes or Greystocks in Cumberland and Northumberland; the great family of Percy, whose castles at Leconfield and Wressle were within the East Riding; the Cliffords of Londesborough; and other families of like position; are easily to be found in Dugdale's Baronage, the Extinct Peerages, and other works of reference.

* Read at Malton on 15th December, 1898.

I propose, therefore, to confine myself to the families of lesser rank, who owned and lived on their manors, who spent their lives and died amongst their own people, and whose pedigrees are recorded in the various Heralds' Visitations of the County.

These Visitations, of which there were five, viz., those of Thos. Tonge, Norroy, in 1530; of William Flower, Norroy, in 1563-64; of Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, in 1584-85; of Richard St. George, Norroy, in 1612; and of William Dugdale, Norroy (afterwards Garter King of Arms), in 1665-66, record the families who had survived the Wars of the Roses. They show, too, that others were rising and coming to the front, the events of the reign of Henry VIII. bringing large tracts of land into the market, by which means many families rose to the ranks of the gentry.

Then, in the seventeenth century, the Civil War brought about a further change, sending some down into poverty and raising others up.

It will be convenient to classify the families in some sort of chronological order; taking, first, those who took their names from places in the Riding where they were seated from the earliest times; second, those who had been settled in the Riding from early times, that is prior to the fourteenth century; and then those who first appear here in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries respectively.

I do not propose to extend the scope of this paper to our own times, but to confine its limits to the period of the last Visitation, which was made more than two hundred years ago; because as we approach modern times, changes become more frequent, and some estates have passed through so many hands that it would be impossible to enter upon so large a theme. There is something sad in the disappearance of families from the roll, especially as we come near our own day; we are reminded vividly that families, like individuals, “have