their deeds at the day of judgment; and royal favour. The inhabitants were not unby exhorting and praying every one of mindful of the obligations they owed to their them, by the bowels of charity, to contri- Sovereign; and when those intestine conbute freely to the maintenance of the water tests, between the houses of York and Lancourses, by which means they would, in caster, which shook the country to its censome measure, atone for their past offen- tre, raged so fatally, this town continued to ces;" and all who should be instrumental in the last firm and unshaken in its fidelity to promoting this public work, by contribut- Henry. In the battle of Wakefield,* fought ing thereto, were promised "the release of on the 24th of December, 1460, Richard one hundred days in any penance that was Hanson, Esq. the brave mayor of Hull, already or might hereafter be enjoined having greatly distinguished himself by his them." The good effects of this instru- valour and intrepidity, fell covered with ment were astonishing; all attempts to cor wounds, in the moment of victory, in the rupt or poison the water, or to fill up the presence of his Queen. At Towtont too, canals, ceased, and the town, from that the blood of the people of Hull, who had time, has been plentifully supplied with the volunteered in Henry's cause, flowed freely; pure beverage of nature. During the reign and the public coffers of the borough were of Richard II. when the Scots were making so much drained by the expenses of the their inroads into England, and menacing war, that the corporation were obliged to the country from the Tweed to the Hum- take down a stately market cross, which ber, the fortifications of Hull were repair- had been erected about thirty years before, ed, the ditches cleansed, and a strong in order to raise money from the sale of castle was built at the east side of the river the materials of which it was constructed.— Hull, for the better defence of the town and On the elevation of Edward IV. to the haven. The original charter, granted by throne, the town of Hull reluctantly acEdward I. was renewed and enlarged by knowledged him as their sovereign; but subsequent charters, granted by Richard II. no sooner had Henry VI. again resumed Henry IV. and Henry V. but it was not his royal seat, by the support of Warwick, till the 18th year of Henry VI. that the cor- the king-maker, than they again professed poration of Hull received that form which their cordial allegiance to the restored it still preserves. The municipal govern- monarch; and when Edward IV. landed at ment was then placed in the hands of a Ravenspurn, in Holderness, with 2000 mayor, recorder, sheriff, and twelve alder-men, on the 14th of March, 1471, he men, who were to be justices of the peace, and at the same time the King constituted the town, with its precincts, a county of itself, comprising the towns and parishes of Hessle, North Ferriby, Swanland, WestElla, Kirk Ella, Tranby, Willerby, Woolferton, Anlaby, and all the site of the priory of Haltemprise. That monarch also, by another charter, bearing date the second of July, in the same year, granted, that the Mayors of Hull should, for the future, have the sword carried erect before them, and that the mayor and aldermen should have a cap of maintenance. In the year 1443, the town was divided into six wards, each of In 1472 Hull was visited by the plague, them governed by two aldermen, and the which swept off a great number of the inmayor presiding as head of the whole-habitants, and among the rest John WhitIn the month of September, 1448, Henry VI. on his return to London, from the north, visited Hull, and was received with every demonstration of loyal affection by all classes of the people. At this period the famous William de la Pole, fourth Earl of Suffolk, had the chief share of the administration of the government of the country, and whatever might be his errors as a minister of state, he was to Hull a distinguished benefactor, and this town received, through his influence, numerous marks of

marched by the way of Beverley to York, without venturing to attack Hull. The sequel is known to every reader of English history--Warwick was slain in the decisive battle of Barnet. Prince Edward, the son of Henry, was murdered in cold blood by the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, aided by Lord Hastings and Sir Thos. Gray; Henry and his Queen were thrown into the tower, where the former expired in a few days, for "short is the distance between the prison and the grave of princes:" and Margaret was suffered afterwards to retire to Anjou, where she closed her eventful life in the year 1482.

field, Esq. its chief magistrate. For four years the disorder seemed to have ceased, but in 1476 it broke out again with increased fury, and John Richards, Esq. the Mayor, was of the number of its victims. Two years afterwards it raged so violently that 1580 persons died in a short time, and Thomas Alcock, Esq. the mayor, his wife, and all his children, died of the fatal distemper. The sweating sickness, that singular and fatal

*See Vol. I. p. 422. † Vol. I p. 411.

malady, which seemed to be peculiarly but finding themselves unable to carry the English, and which, if historians may be town by force, Sir Robert Constable, and credited, followed the people of this nation some others of the leaders, projected the into foreign countries, making them its stratagem of introducing themselves into peculiar victims, broke out in Hull in the the fortress disguised as market people, in year 1551, and committed dreadful ravages. which way they made themselves masters of In 1576 the plague was again brought into the place. Sir Robert then assumed the this town by some seamen, from neglect of title of governor, but having received inquarantine. This fatal disorder was, how-telligence that his partizans in the country ever, confined to Blackfriargate, which was so deeply infected that it was judged necessary to wall up all the avenues leading to that street, leaving open only two doors,thirty days, surrendered it into the hands of where watchmen were placed to take in provisions and medicine, and to see that none of the infected made their escape. These wise, though rigorous precautions, had the desired effect, the epidemic soon subsided, and not more than one hundred of the in-them were hanged and quartered, and Sir habitants became its victims.

were all either killed or taken prisoners, he fell into a state of despondency, and after keeping possession of the garrison for about

the mayor, with only a faint resistance.— These deluded people being afterwards tried and convicted of high treason, under a commission, sitting here, of which the Duke of Norfolk was the head, numbers of

Robert Constable, their leader, was hanged in chains over Beverley gate.

The affairs of Hull glided smoothly on amidst a successful and continually ex- These rebellions having subsided, Henry tending commerce, till the suppression of made a visit into the north, in the year the religious houses in the reign of Henry 1541, and in the month of August arrived VIII. excited a general spirit of discontent in Hull, accompanied by his Queen, Cathahere and elsewhere. The lesser monasteries, rine Howard, and attended by a train of those with a revenue under 2001. a year courtiers. After partaking of the hospitabeing so denominated, were first suppressed,lities of the Corporation, and condescending and all those of Hull fell under that des to receive at their hands a present of one cription. These were the White Friary, in hundred pounds, the royal personages proWhitefriargate; St. Austin's Friary, com-ceeded to York; from thence his Majesty monly called the Black Friars; and the Car- returned to Hull on the 30th of September, thusian Monastery, founded by Michael de and after taking an accurate view of the La Pole, and dedicated to St. Michael. At the town, gave orders for erecting a castle and time of the insurrection, called the Pilgrim- two strong block houses, with additional age of Grace, in 1537, while one division fortifications, to environ the town. He took Pontefract, and another entered York, also ordered that a new ditch should be cut a third, conducted by a person named from Newland to Hull, and that the stately Hallam, took Hull by surprise, and re- manor house, formerly called Suffolk's papossessed the ejected Monks and Friars of lace, should undergo a thorough repair.their houses. The triumph of the insur-The King, after remaining five days in gents was, however, of short duration; their main body, under Aske, who had advanced into the neighbourhood of Doncaster, being dispersed, the magistrates and other inhabitants of Hull seized Hallam, and the other ringleaders, who were soon after tried, by a special commission, at this place, and the charge of rebellion being clearly established against them, they were convicted and executed. The measures taken by Henry to reform the established religion, accompanied as they were by the dissolution of the monasterics and the seizure of their property, were extremely unpopular in Yorkshire, and this year another insurrection broke out in the neighbourhood of Scarborough and Malton, from whence the insurgents made a hasty march towards Hull, with the intention of taking the town by surprise: being disappointed in this expectation, they besieged the place;

Hull, crossed the Humber, and returned to London through Lincolnshire. In the 26th year of this King's reign, an act passed for the appointment of twenty-six Suffragan Bishops, whose duty it was, in the absence of the bishops, to supply their place in all matters of order, though not of jurisdiction. Of the twenty-six towns appointed for Suffragan Sees, Hull was one, and the prelate had a magnificent palace, in High street, principally built of freestone, adorned with painted windows, like those of churches, and with spacious gateways and lofty towers.

Their office was nearly the same with the Chorepiscopi, or bishops of the country, in the primitive church; but this office had been discontinued for nine centuries, till it was now again revived in England.—-The institution was, however, of short du

Tickell's Hull, page 156.

ration, not exceeding, at most, sixty years, and Robert Purseglove, consecrated Suffragan of Hull, in the year 1552, seems to have been the last of that order in this place.

their own coast. These ships being well equipped and manned, sailed in quest of the maritime robbers, and they had soon the good fortune to capture several of them, and to bring them into Hull. A special commission, at which the Earl of Huntingdon presided, attended by the mayor and aldermen, as judges, was soon assembled here, when six of the pirates were found

Edward VI. on ascending the throne, endeavoured to allay the popular discontent occasioned by the indiscriminate suppression of charitable institutions, which had marked the conduct of his father, and among the first acts of his reign he re-formed the Hos-guilty, and, in virtue of their sentence, pital of the Charter House and the Trinity House in this town. In the same reign, John Harrison, Esq. an alderman of Hull, built and endowed a hospital in Chapel lane, near the church of St. Mary's, which still bears the name of this learned magistrate and valuable citizen. The reformed religion was now making considerable advances: by a royal ordinance, it was directed that all images and pictures should be removed out of the churches of this kingdom, and those which had hitherto been displayed in the church of the Holy Trinity at Hull were committed publicly to the flames. In the same reign the King granted to the burgesses of Hull the entire manor of the town, and conferred upon them the custody of the castle and block-houses, erected in the former reign at an expense of 23,755l.

were executed and hung in chains on the adjacent coasts. As late as the year 1583, a court of jail delivery was held here, at which three persons were convicted of felony, and suffered the punishment of death; and a poor old woman, being tried and convicted of witchcraft, was sentenced to stand in the pillory on four separate market days, and to suffer a year's imprisonment. Nor did the players experience much more lenient treatment than the witches: the theatrical corps resorting to this town were, in a proclamation issued by the mayor, in 1598, stiled idle, lewd persons," "players or setters out of plays," and seeing that these persons, from their vagabond habits, could not be conveniently restrained, it was ordered and agreed that every inhabitant, man or woman, resorting to their theatre, should The gloomy reign of Philip and Mary forfeit and pay 2s. 6d. to the mayor and passed over without making any important burgesses. This very extraordinary attack additions to the records of this place, and upon the theatre, and upon the entertainthe rapid and repeated changes in religionments of the inhabitants, did not, it should under Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, seem appear, arise from any humble or puritanito have excited here no very material sensa-cal disposition, which at that time possessed tion. the leading inhabitants of the place, partiThough great pains had been taken cularly the fair sex; for, in the same year, about the middle of the fourteenth century, it was found necessary, in order to allay the by elevating the roads and repairing the heats and animosities which had arisen banks, to guard against the unusual swell of amongst the alderwomen and others, about the tides, which prevailed for some years in precedency at church, to institute an ecclethe Humber, yet in the year 1527 the tide siastical commission for regulating these imrose to such a height as to overthrow the portant affairs, in which it was directed by banks, and to do incredible damage both to the Archbishop "that the commissioners the town and the adjacent country. All the should place every of the said gentlewomen low lands, for many miles round, were laid in their places according to their respective under water; the farmers, deprived of their callings or dignities." The men, it is said, crops, were reduced to indigence and want; were easily governed, and content to sit and and the merchandize, furniture, and other place themselves where they were ordered, effects in the town, that were lodged in low according to the new arrangement of the rooms, were either destroyed or greatly da-pews in the church, which had recently maged. In 1549 a similar visitation befel | taken place; but the women, like the this place; the waters rose higher than the highest point to which they had ever before attained, and the injury sustained, both in the town and in the country, was immense. The trade of Hull still continued to increase, and the wealth of her ships tempted the cupidity of the pirates by which the seas were then infested; till at length the Lord High Admiral of England required the town to fit up two ships of war, to protect

Pharisees of old, sought the uppermost places in the synagogue, and, whatever might be the fervour they displayed in securing for themselves good places in heaven, they were not less solicitous about those they occupied on earth. The fears of the censures of the church were sufficiently powerful to allay the high-blooded feuds of these aspiring dames, and when the magistrates mentioned in the commission had for some

time discharged the duties of masters of the ceremonies in the sanctuary, the religious services were allowed to proceed without further interruption.

The reign of James I. is almost a blank in the history of Hull. It is only mentioned that this Monarch granted, or rather sold, the corporation a charter to choose an assistant preacher in the church of the Holy Trinity, which charter cost them 6004. and which was the precise sum that the town had lent to Queen Elizabeth, to repel the menaced attack of the Spanish Armada. In this reign the merchants erected an exchange in the High street, at an expense of 500%. which is now disused, and those works were commenced and completed by which the town has ever since been abundantly supplied with pure and wholesome water.

and fled into the country; the gates were kept continually shut, except when provisions were brought in; all assemblies or meetings, as well for religious as for secular purposes, were forbidden; and the whole town exhibited a scene of horror, silence, and despair. As Lent approached, the Mayor and Aldermen thought it necessary to petition the protestant Archbishop of York, to give licence and toleration to the convalescents to dress and eat flesh the ensuing Lent, for their nourishment and more speedy recovery! To which his Grace replied, "that the ministers, upon certificate from the physicians, might give permission to particular persons to eat flesh during that holy season!"*. This indulgence, great as it was, did not stem the overwhelming torrent of disease, the pestilence continued to rage for three years, and 2730 persons fell victims to it in the town, exclusive of those who fled into the country, and died there, which, according to one authority, almost doubled the number, making a sum total probably equal to one half the population of Hull at that period. As this dreadful con

vive, and the town, though so recently threatened with ruin, attained in a few years its former prosperity.

The disastrous reign of Charles I. will, through all time, occupy a distinguish ed place in the annals of England. Every part of the kingdom was agitated by that mighty collision which arose between the monarchical and the democratical branches of the legislature, but in the county of York, and in the town of Kingston-upon-tagion disappeared, commerce began to reHull, the shock was felt with greater violence than in any other county or town in Great Britain. It is not within the province of this history to investigate the causes of the unhappy differences which arose between the King and the popular branch of the legislature, nor to decide whether privilege or prerogative was in the wrong, such inquiries and decisions appertain rather to general history than to topography, and our present duty will be discharged by a faithful, though brief relation, of those local occurrences and military operations which arose in the town and neighbourhood of Hull. When Charles ascended the throne in 1625, England was menaced by a war with France, and the three ships required of Hull, as the contribution of this port for the prosecution of the contest, were very cheerfully granted, and well manned and victualled. This spirit of loyal acquiescence was the next year carried still further, for while the metropolis, and other places, resisted the tax on all ships and goods, called tonnage and poundage, because it was levied by the King without the consent of Parliament, the merchants of Hull paid the impost without murmur or complaint.

While the storm was gathering by which the whole kingdom was so speedily to be convulsed, the plague, which, for some time past, had raged in some of the ports of the continent, made its appearance in this town, and such was the terror it created, that numbers of the inhabitants left their houses,

In the year 1639, the King levied an army, to impose upon the Scotch the epis copal form of church government, to which they had invincible objections, and to resist which they entered into their celebrated League and Covenant. The war which ensued, led to the accumulation of vast quantities of arms and military stores in the port of Hull; and in the same year the King, in his progress towards Scotland, pait a visit to Hull, where he was received with great pomp and ceremony, and assured by Mr. Recorder Thorpe, as the organ of the corporation, in one of those hyperbolical and adulatory addresses which bodies corporate are so prone to address to majesty, that it was more difficult to address him, than to address the King of Kings, and that they would " adhere to him against all his enemies with the utmost of their lives and fortunes." How this unmeaning pledge was redeemed the sequel will show. The next morning, being the 29th of March, his Majesty viewed the town, and carefully

By the statute of 5th of Elizabeth, chap. v. sec. 15, it is provided, that any person eating flesh on a fish day shall be liable to a penalty of £3. or suffer three months' imprisonment-but by the 2nd and 3rd Edward VI. cap. 19, sec. 5, a dispensing power is given to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which power was probably afterwards extended to Him of York.

inspected the fortifications, after which he This unexpected honour Sir John Hotham proceeded to Beverley, and the day follow- was not disposed to accept, and he dispatched ing arrived in York, A treaty was soon a message to the king humbly beseeching after concluded between Charles and the him “to decline his intended visit, seeing Scots, and the kingdom was flattered with that the governor could not, without betrayillusive prospects of peace; but the Scots ing the trust committed to him, open the still kept up their army, and the dissatisfac- gates to so great a train as his majesty was tion felt by the people of England at the attended with." The king, however, conproceedings of the King and his ministers, tinued to advance, and Sir John ordered threatened an immediate explosion. At this the bridges to be drawn up, the gates to be juncture, Charles finding all his supplies shut, and the soldiers to stand to their arms dried up, was obliged to assemble that me round the walls. The king having arrived morable parliainent* wlich was speedily to at Beverley gate demanded entrance, at least contend with him for the sovereign authority. for himself, and twenty of his attendants, After long and fruitless altercations both but the governor continued to plead the parties prepared to decide the contest by trust reposed in him by parliament, proarms. In this situation of affairs the pos- testing, at the same time, upon his knees, session of Hull, a place rendered strong that he wished “God might bring confu. both by nature and art, became an object of sion upon him and his, if he was not a the first importance, and the immense ma- faithful and loyal subject to his Majesty." gazine of arnis and ammunition collected in The threats and the entreaties of the King the garrison servel greatly to enhance its were, however, alike unavailing, and in the value. The King, in order to secure the evening he retired to Beverley, where he town, sent the Earl of Northumberland here, lodged that night. The next morning he to take possession in his Majesty's name, sent a herald to Sir John, summoning him but the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses, once more to open the gates on pain of unmindful of their recent declaration, “that being proclaimed a traitor, in case of refu. they would adhere to his Majesty against all sal, and with a promise of forgiveness for his enemies with the utmost of their lives the past if he consented. The herald, like and fortunes," declined to receive the king's his royal master, proved unsuccessful, and general, and after some hesitation and delay the king, grievously disappointed, returned admitted Sir John Hotham, as governor, by to York. order of parliament. The king had now This was the first act of hostility befixed his residence at York, and it was not tween the king and the parliamentarian difficult to foresee, that he would endeavour party, and proved the commencement of that to obtain possession of the vast magazines at civil war, which, for the space of four Hull, which at that time far exceeded the years, desolated England, and brought her collection of warlike stores in the tower of monarch to the block. On his arrival in London. The policy of the parliament was York, the king sent a message to the two to have these stores removed to London, and houses of parliament, demanding justice the two houses sent petitions to the king for against the governor of Hull, for his treathat purpose, but his majesty refused his sonable refusal to obey the royal commands; consent, and the stores remained at Hull but, instead of punishing Sir John Hotham, undisturbed.

parliament bestowed upon him and his supOn the 23d of April, 1642, a memor. porters a vote of thanks. The king having able period in the history of Hull, and in mustered about 3800 troops, of which 3000 the history of the kingdom, his majesty, were fpot, and 800 horse, and procured a attended by his son, afterwards Charles II. supply of arms from Holland, by the sale of and by a train of from two to three hundred the crown jewels, and by the zeal of his of his servants, with many gentlemen of royal consort, resolved to commence the

the county, set out early in the morning war by an attack upon Hull, the fortress of • from York for Hull, and when he was within which he hoped to carry, rather by the defec

about four miles of this place, he sent for- tion of the governor, than by the force of . ward an officer to inform the governor, that his own arms. On his arrival at Beverley, he intended that day to dine with him. Sir John Hotham called a council of war,