Northumberland, in 1189 (See vol. i., p. 175), his remains were conveyed to Beverley, for interment in the Minster. His funeral, which was most costly, solemu, and imposing, was marked by the spontaneous exhibition of unaffected grief. "The villages," writes Mr. Oliver, "were deserted; and the people everywhere left their occupations to accompany the pageant, and to see the corpse of their beloved lord deposited in its final resting place. All the neighbouring communities of religious issued from their respective monasteries in sorrowing weeds; each individual bearing a torch, a crucifix, or some emblem of mortality in his hand, to meet and precede the illustrious dead; for he had been to all of them most kind and hospitable, and to some an essential benefactor. The body was at length deposited, with solemn ceremony, in a chapel built for the purpose in Beverley Minster; and according to the custom of those times, the nobility and gentry of every rank and station, who had been anxious to express their affection and esteem, were feasted at the expense of the family; and 13,340 poor persons who attended, received each a funeral dole in money.* Seldom have Princes been conveyed to their graves," continues the same author, "with greater solemnity, or more evident testimonies of universal regret, for the Percys, from the extent of their territorial possessions, the splendour of their virtues, and the unostentatious hospitality and benevolence, by which they were distinguished, were the pride and glory of the northern counties. The mausoleum of this exemplary character was adorned with blazonry, and decorated with sculpture, canopied by an exquisite Gothic roof, rich in statuary and friezing, and in every respect worthy to contain the ashes of a warrior noble, who died in the act of yielding obedience to the mandate of his Sovereign."

Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northumberland, a nobleman of great magnificence and taste, maintained a splendid establishment at Wressel and Leckonfield. From the Corporation Records we learn that in the month of April, 1502, the Governors of Beverley were invited by this Earl to breakfast at Leckonfield Castle; and in return for so distinguished a favour, the Governors, "for the honour of the town," presented to the Earl ten capons, four swans, six "heronsewes," two bitterns, and four sholards. Though herons, bitterns, and sholards are now discarded as little better than carrion, they were esteemed luxuries for the table at the period in question. In the first year of the reign of Henry VIII. (1509), the art of printing was introduced into Beverley and York by Hugo Goes. Herbert says that Goes printed at Beverley, in the county of York, "a broadside, having a

• Hist. Dev., pp. 173, 174 + Hans. Topog.

wood-cut of a man on horseback, with a spear in his right hand, and the arms of France on his left. Emprynted at Beverley, in the Hye-gate, by me, Hugo Goes." The same authority tells us that he used for a device the letter H, and a Goose, in allusion to his name.* Goes did not remain long at Beverley-a proof that he did not receive much encouragement there.

The burgesses obtained a charter of inspeximus in the second of this reign, and from a charter granted to the Archbishop in the 17th of the same reign, it is clear that the relative situation of the burgesses and that dignitary, respecting their rights and privileges in Beverley, still continued the same. The tenants and resiants of the Archbishop, within the jurisdiction of the liberty of Beverley, had no other privileges than such as they derived through him, and were perfectly distinct from the burgesses. "Whereas," says the charter, "from the time of the revered memory of the Lord King Athelstan, our progenitor, heretofore King of England, who for his sincere devotion which he bore towards the glorious Confessor of God, St. John of Beverley, heretofore Archbishop of York, and especially for the great victory which he had over the Scots, granted to God and St. John aforesaid, and to the church of Beverley divers liberties, franchises, and privileges, in the words following: 'Als fre make I the as hert may thinke or eegh may see,' by virtue of which general words the Archbishop of York, and all his predecessors Archbishops of York, and their tenants and resiants within the town of Beverley aforesaid, and the liberty and jurisdiction thereof, by pretext and in virtue of the said general words, from the time of the aforesaid grant hitherto to have been free and quit of toll, pontage, passage, presage, lastage, stallage, and of lagan, ewage, and of leneg, and of all other such customs and exactions whatsoever, which pertained or might pertain to the King himself throughout his land, and throughout all his royal dominion and realm, and all and singular other Kings of England, our progenitors, from the time of William the Conqueror, heretofore King of our realm of England, and the aforesaid William the Conqueror, have severally ratified, confirmed, and approved, to God and to St. John, the Archbishop of York, the tenants and resiants within the said town of Beverley, and liberty and jurisdiction thereof, the liberties, franchises, and privileges aforesaid, as in the charter thereof before us, and our council shewn more fully appears."t

From this charter it appears that the celebrated words, said to be in the first charter of Athelstan, now lost, "Als fre make I the," &c., had not lost their efficacy in the days of Henry VIII., nor were they likely to want a

* Herbert's Topog. Antiq. by Dibdin. + Town's Records.

liberal construction at the hands of Cardinal Wolsey, to whom the present charter was granted. The "tenants and resiants" of the Archbishop do not appear to have been, up to this time, upon the same footing with the burgesses of Beverley, as to exemption from toll, &c., but now at least they were so. A confirmatory charter was granted in the 31st of the same reign. About the 17th of this reign two donations were made to the town, which had for their object the encouragement of learning. Two Fellowships were founded in St. John's College, Cambridge; one by "Master Robert Hallitreeholm, of Beverley, clerk; the founder to nominate to it during his life, and after his decease, every succeeding vacancy to be filled up by the Master and Fellows of the said College. The Fellow to be a native of Beverley or its neighbourhood, to be in priest's orders when elected, or within twelve months after; and to sing and say masse for the said founder, and of his father, mother, brethren, sisters, ancestors, benefactors, and all Christian souls. The original endowment was £120. sterling." The other Fellowship was "founded by Dame Johan Rokeby and Robert Creyke, her son, to be called for ever their Fellowship. The Fellow to sing masses for their souls, and the souls of Sir Richard Rokeby, Knt., and of Thomas Creyke, late father of the said Johan, and for all their posterity. The amount of the original endowment was £170. sterling, and the Fellow was to receive quarterly forty shillings."* In 1533 the claims of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, to the payment of tolls upon "shypps and botts" passing through their haven into the Humber were renewed. The burgesses of Beverley persisted in their right to a freedom of passage, and peremptorily refused submission to the impost. After much expense had been incurred by a suit at law, the dispute was referred to the Abbot of Meaux, and was settled under his award by the following "Artycles of agreem't betweyne Hull and Beverley :-Furste, Yt ys agreyde, that the inhabytaunts of Beverley shall pay to the burgesses of Hull for ev'ry quarter of wheat a penny, and ev'ry quarter of other grayne a halfepeny, that they schall carry thorowe Hull haven; that is to say, from Sculcoots goot to Humbre, yf they or theyr ankers or fesh w't'in the saym, or lade within the haven; and in lyke case the inhabytants of Hull to pay to the burgesses of Bev'ley lyke somes from Hull-brigg to Snorome house, if they either anker or fesh, or take away corn within the same. By me, Ricardum, Abbatem de Melsa." It is perhaps uncertain whether this award applied to the "tenants and resiants" of the Archbishop, who had lately received the privilege of freedom from toll.

The suppression of the lesser monasteries, in 1536, must have created an alarming sensation in Beverley, which contained several of these minor establishments; because one source of the prosperity of the town arose from the expenditure of the revenues of its religious houses; and it was universally believed that this statute was but a preliminary step towards a general alienation of all the monastic property. The Bailiffs of Beverley, Richard Wilson and William Woodmansie, appeared to have espoused the cause of the insurgents, under Robert Aske, and to have taken with them a supply of men. When the rebel leaders, however, were executed, the Bailiffs of Beverley escaped, although they were exempted by name on the proclamation of pardon. About the year 1540 Beverley was visited by John Leland, the celebrated antiquary. He approached the town from the Driffield side, and thus describes it:

"And al this way bytwixt York and the parke of Lekenfield ys meately fruiteful of corn and grasse, but it hath little wood. I learnid that al this part of the Est-Ryding ys yn a hundred or wapentake caulid Herthill. And sum say that it cummith one way to Wreshil, and of other parts touchith much on the bounds of the wolds, but the wold itself is no part of Herthil; Pocklington, a market town, of a surety ys in Herthil, and some say ignorantly that Beverley ys also. But Beverley men take them self as an exempt place. (Here follows some remarks on Leckonfield, which will be found in the account of that place at a subsequent page.) These thinges I notid at Beverle. The toune of Beverle is large and welle buildid of wood. But the fairest part of it is by north, and ther is the market kept. Ther was much good cloth making at Beverle, but that is now much decayed. The toune is not wallid, but yet be there these many fair gates of brike-North barre, Newbigyn barre by west, and Kellegate barre by west also."* On his second visit, having made two, he says "Beverle is a large towne, but I could not perceyve that ever it was wallid."+

In 1544 Edward Lee, Archbishop of York, by indenture dated November 12th, exchanged the manors of Beverley, Southwell, and Bishop Burton, with the Crown, for the dissolved Priory of Marton-cum-Membris, in the county of York, and other manors formerly belonging to religious houses.

The Collegiate Society of St. John of Beverley continued for five years after the dissolution of Monasteries, when it fell, with all similar foundations, by the act of 1st Edward VI. (1547). But as a sort of compensation to the inhabitants for the loss of their ecclesiastical institutions, the King soon after granted two charters to the town, both dated on the same day. These charters confirmed all the ancient privileges of the burgesses and other inhabitants. A new state of things now commenced in Beverley. The tenants and resiants on the fee of the Archbishop became the tenants and

* Vol. vii., part 1, folio 54. + Vol. i., p. 1, sq. † Drake's Ebor., p. 451.

resiants of the King; and the great ecclesiastical establishment, with all its extraordinary powers and privileges, was no more. A part of that property which had formed the revenues of the church of St. John of Beverley, was now granted to the town by a decree of the Exchequer, dated 6th of Edward VI., which empowered the Twelve Governors to receive such portion of the rents and farms as amounted to £33. 8s. 10d., towards the repairs of that church, which has been in succeeding years emphatically called the Minster; and also to receive the profits belonging to the late chantries of St. John of Beverley, and St. William, founded in the church of St. John, of the yearly value of £1.13s. 4d., with an arrear of £62. 14s. 8d., to be applied to the same purpose.* But the borough of Beverley soon began to feel the loss it had sustained in the dissolution of the ecclesiastical establishments, for it declined rapidly from the standard of its former rank.

After the marriage of Queen Mary with Philip of Spain, a charter was granted to the burgesses of Beverley, empowering them to receive the tolls and stallage of the town, by land and water, which had now devolved upon the Crown; for this privilege the burgesses were to pay to the Crown annually the sum of £5. 6s. 8d. A charter of inspeximus was also granted, reciting, confirming, and ratifying former charters.

In the first year of the reign of the "Virgin Queen," the dispute between the burgesses of Beverley and the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, relative to the right of a free passage to the Humber, was revived. The men of Hull actually closed the leaf or trap of the north bridge erected by Henry VIII., and hence the commerce of the merchants of Beverley was wholly suspended. In this state of affairs the burgesses of Beverley presented a petition to her Majesty's privy council, setting forth that the Mayor and burgesses of Hull had closed their bridge so that "no ship, brayer, or keel, with mast erect, could pass through the same, to the great detriment not only of the town of Beverley, but also to the hindrance of any quantity of timber to be brought so near the Queen's higness' pier of Hornsea, by ten miles, for maintenance thereof, and also to the tenants on the wolds barren of wood." Besides the burgesses of Beverley, the names of the inhabitants of Fishlake and Hatfield, the Queen's tenants, and of the township of Hornsea, were appended to this petition.

As in a former case the matter was submitted to arbitration, and a bond was executed, under the penalty of £200., by Alexander Stockdale, Mayor, and Robert Dalton, and James Clarkson, Aldermen, of Hull, to the Governors or Keepers of the town of Beverley, covenanting that they would

* Town's Records. + Ibid. † Ibid.