G. H. Grindell, and J. Walker. Population in 1851, 212 persons; rateable value, £1,820.; assessed property, £2,811. The knightly family of De Skeffling were the ancient proprietors of this place. The family of Holme, late of Paul Holme and Skeffling, are the lay impropriators.

The Church of Burstall, alias Skeffling, belonged to the Priory of Burstall, and afterwards to the Convent of Kirkstall. In 1466 license was granted to the Vicar of Skeffling, because the church was translated from the old place, and newly rebuilding upon another foundation, to celebrate at the high altar in the chancel, which was then finished and adorned; and on the 20th of June, 1470, a commission was directed to William Bishop of Dromore, to consecrate the then finished parish church of Skeffling, alias Burstall.

The Living is a Perpetual Curacy, in the patronage of Mrs. M. T. Holme, and incumbency of the Rev. Geo. Inman. It is rated in the Liber Regis at £5.; was augmented, in 1740, by £200. from Queen Anne's Bounty; and in 1757, and in 1807, by a similar sum in each year. Its present value is but £53. per ann. Tithes commuted in 1765.

The Fabric (St. Helen) has a venerable appearance, and consists of a nave and aisles, chancel and tower. Its windows are mostly square-headed. On each side of the nave are four pointed arches, resting on multangular pillars, and on each side are three clerestory windows. The tower is open to the nave by a lofty arch. The roof of the chancel is of timber, and in one of the cross beams is a beautifully carved head, said to be a portrait of a former Prior of Burstall, and brought hither on the dissolution of that house. The churchyard, in which are the remains of a fine cross, commands a good view of the Humber, Spurn lights, and Lincolnshire coast. The Parsonage House, erected in 1820, is a good residence.

The Village is pleasantly situated, about 4 miles S.E. by E. from Patrington, half a mile from the Humber, and 3 miles from the German Ocean.

Skeffling Hall is a handsome structure, built in 1717, by the family of Bee. The situation is picturesque and beautiful. It is now the residence of Mr. T. Grindell, farmer. The largest colony of rooks in Holderness is located here. On the north side of the church, the remains of the moat, that surrounded the ancient seat of the Holme family, is still visible.

Skeffling House, a good brick building, erected in the village about 1822, is the property of Mr. Christopher Jefferson.

A small Methodist Chapel was erected in the village in 1822. Birstall, or Burstall Priory. This place derives its name from Burg-stall, which signifies a seat, or site, on the side, or pitch, of a hill. In 1115 Stephen Earl of Albemarle, Lord of Holderness, founded the Benedictine

In

Abbey of St. Martin, near Albemarle, in Normandy, and endowed it with many churches and tithes in Holderness and Lincolnshire. Bishop Tanner tells us that a procurator or prior was soon after sent over here with some of their own monks, to look after these tithes and churches, and having no fit or proper habitation for some time, a Cell or Priory was ordained for them in June, 1219, and Archbishop de Grey granted to them the Chapel of St. Helen, at Byrstal, with the great and small tithes of Skeffling for ever. consequence of the frequent seizure of the estates of the alien Abbeys in England, during the wars with France, it became the interest of the Abbot and Convent of St. Martin, to grant or rather to sell this alien Priory of Burstall, to the Abbot and Convent of Kirkstall, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1315, together with all the manors, lands, &c., which they had in Burstall, Skeffling, Holmpton, Withernsea, Owthorne, Burstwick, Aldborough, &c.; and also the advowsons and patronage of the vicarages of the churches of Burstall, Paull, Skeckling, Aldborough, Owthorne, Withernsea, and of the chapels of Marfleet, Thorngumbald, Paull Holme, Rymswell, Frodingham, Newsom, Colden, and Waxholme. The Priory of Burstall, continued till the dissolution. It was situated about two miles south of Easington, but its site has been swept away by the encroachments of the Humber, and is now covered by the Trinity Sands. The Manor of Burstall, or Burstall Garth, has passed through many possessors, and is now the property of Thomas Prickett, Esq. There were formerly two mansions here, called Birstall Hall and Birstall Garth.

Winsetts, a place in this parish, now consisting of about 200 acres, formerly belonged to the Abbey of Thornton, having been granted to it by William le Gros, Lord of Holderness. Since the dissolution it was sold through various families, and Mrs. Waltham of Hessle is its present proprietor.

SUNK ISLAND. This parish, which is the property of the Crown, extends along the banks of the Humber, from Stone Creek to what is termed the north channel, a distance of about 64 miles, and lies between 2 and 5 miles S.E. from Patrington. Its area is nearly 7,000 acres, of the rateable value of £7,502. Population in 1851, 310 souls. We have formerly observed that the average annual loss of land by the incursions of the sea, between Spurn and Bridlington, is about 2 yards (2) according to Professor Phillips), but the earth thus removed appears to be mostly carried on the constantly feculent waters of the Humber, and deposited on the shores of that river, where, during the last century, many thousand acres of land have been recovered from the visitation of the tides, which still daily uncover in many parts of the river innumerable tracts of growing silt; and in this manner has been

VOL. II.

2 Y

formed the parish now under notice. It first appeared as a sand bank in the Humber, and soon became a small island, which in course of time has increased in size, until at length it was joined to the main land of Holderness, by embankments and the accretion of warp, or sand and soil, deposited by the river. In the time of Charles I. the island contained about seven acres, and was then 14 mile from the Yorkshire coast, having a navigable canal between it and the main land, through which ships of considerable burthen could pass. We are indebted chiefly to the 15th report of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods and Forests, for most of the following particulars respecting this parish.

On the 18th of December, 1668, it was first granted on lease to Colonel Anthony Gilby, Governor of Hull, for a term of thirty-one years, at a rent of £5. per ann., when it was described as containing 3,500 acres of "drowned land," seven acres of which only was then embanked; and a stipulation was inserted in the lease for the embankment by the lessee of 100 acres or more, within the first ten years of the term. But the difficulties attending the undertaking were so great, and the expense so heavy, that in the year 1675 the lessee presented a petition to his Majesty, stating his inability to proceed with the same (having then succeeded in embanking not more than twenty acres) unless he should have a grant made to him of the Crown's reversionary interest of the property, which was not complied with; but it was thought reasonable under the circumstances to accept a surrender of the lease, and to extend, by a new grant, the terms to 99 years at the same rent. Under that lease considerable progress was made in the embankment, particularly by the exertions of Mr. William Gilby, a descendant of the original lessee; as it appears by a survey made of the estate in the year 1744, that 1,500 acres had been embanked, and that the estate was divided out into farms. In the year 1755 a third lease of the estate was granted, on payment of a fine of £1,050., at the old rent of £5.; and in 1771 a fourth lease was granted to Mrs. Margaret Gilby, for a term expiring on the 15th of March, 1802, on payment of a further fine of £1,550., and at a rent of £100. per ann. time before the expiration of the last-mentioned lease, a survey of the estate was made, when it appeared that the quantity of land then embanked was only 1,561A. OR. 14P., no addition having been made since the year 1744 to the quantity brought into cultivation; but the surveyor reported that above 2,700 acres of new ground were fit for embankment, the expense of which was estimated to amount to £8,940.18s. He certified at the same time that when the work should be completed, the property would be worth about £3,400. per ann., and it was finally agreed that the estate should be granted

Some

to the Rev. John Lonsdale and others, in trust for the representatives of the original lessees, subject to a stipulation on their part for the embankment, at their own expense, of the new ground, containing 2,700 acres above referred to (which was estimated to cost about £10,000.), for a term of 31 years, from 1802, at a rent of £704. 2s. 6d. for the first year of the term, which lease expired at Lady-day, 1833. A new survey was then made of the estate, for the purpose of ascertaining the rent which should be required on a renewal of the lease, when it was valued at £9,814. per ann. According to this valuation, terms were proposed to the last lessee, but as he would not give more than £5,205. per annum for the property, the negotiation terminated, and a treaty was entered into with the then under tenants to become separate lessees under the Crown, at rents amounting in the aggregate to £9,140. 10s., with the stipulation that the lessees should be bound to keep the jetties, embankments, &c., in repair during the term of their leases. On the survey made of the estate in 1833, it was certified that the land in actual cultivation contained no less than 5,9294. 1R. 13P. of land of excellent quality, then divided into fifteen farms, besides some small holdings by cottagers and others. It is now in fourteen farms.

In 1850 a further embankment took place, of nearly 700 acres of most excellent land, so that now the Sunk Island estate within the banks, secured from the tides, together with some available grass beyond the banks, amount to little less than 7,000 acres, with a prospect of still further increase. The land is of the most valuable kind for agricultural purposes, and requires very little manure for many years after it is embanked. In 1836, in consequence of representations made to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, by the tenants and others, of the great inconvenience they sustained from the want of a carriage road, or other eligible communication between the island and the neighbouring towns on the borders of the Humber, an Act was passed for making and maintaining a road from the church to the town of Ottringham, which was completed at a cost of about £5,000.

During the last few years great improvements have been made on the island, in constructing roads, drains, &c., and the place is now in a high statę of cultivation. The farm houses are generally scattered along the embankments, and bear different names, among which are, Old Hall, Dunn's Folly, Matcham, Chirkson's Farm, Sand House, Stubbing House, Coates' Farm, dc.

Sunk Island was formerly Extra Parochial. About a century ago there was a chapel on it, near the Old Hall, at which a clergyman from Hedon used to officiate. Under the lease of 1802, a new chapel was built, and a chaplain engaged by the lessees to officiate on the island; and in 1831 an Act was

passed for endowing, among other places, "a chapel erected on Sunk Island, in the river Humber." Under the provisions of this Act, the said Island was formed into a parish, to be called the parish of Sunk Island; the chapel, built in 1802, became the parish church; and the said church was endowed with £8,333.6s. 8d., in the three per cent. Consols, purchased out of the Crown's revenues. Thus has the once small sand bank in the Humber grown into an extensive and interesting parish.

The Church is a small plain brick building, with a square tower. The Living is a Perpetual Curacy, in the patronage of the Crown; and the Incumbent (the first that was appointed) is the Rev. Robert Metcalf, who has for his stipend the dividend of the above-named stock. There is a National School in the church yard, to the support of which the Crown contributes £25. per ann. In the Patrington register of burials there are five deaths entered of unfortunate individuals who were drowned by the upsetting of a boat in returning from Sunk Island in 1736. The north channel, in which this accident occurred, was then more than two miles in width, now it is nearly warped up.

Jesse, in his Gleanings in Natural History tells us that in the spring of 1813, hundreds of acres of pasture were entirely destroyed in Sunk Island, by the long-legged gnat, tibula oleracea; the land being rendered so completely brown as if they had suffered a three months drought, and destitute of all vegetation except that of a few thistles, and that a square foot of the dead turf being dug up, 210 grubs were counted in it. A similar circumstance is quoted by the same author as having occurred in Greenwich Park.

WELWICK. The name of this parish originated in the springs abounding in it; and the place gave name to a feudal family, but of whom very little is known. A Richard de Welwick was the 14th Prior of Wartre, in this county. The manor of Welwick Provost was the property of the Provostry of St. John of Beverley, until the dissolution, when it reverted to the Crown. It subsequently passed through several families, including those of Wright, Craythorn, and Maister. In 1824 Col. Maister sold it to Jacob Clement, Esq., of London, from whom it descended to the Rev. J. C. Clement. There are two other manors in the parish, viz., Kelk and Weeton. Area of the parish, 3,310 acres; rateable value, £4,649; assessed property, £5,214; population, 468. The principal landowners are the Rev. J. C. Clements, Henry Wm. Askew, Esq., Messrs. J. Fewson, T. Fewson, T. B. Baron, Joseph E. Roberts, David S. Burnham, Robert Clubley, Chas. Walgate, &c.

The Church was in the patronage of the Collegiate Society of Beverley, but now belongs to the Crown. The Benefice is a Vicarage, valued in the