: : This conspiracy was afterwards called the Ryehouse Plot. The laws against Dissenters, which had been suspended for some years, were now put into full execution, many severities were exercised, and shortly after this Charles reigned nearly absolute. In 1683 the King intimidated the different Corporations of the realm into a surrender of their charters, in order to gain an ascendency over the kingdom, as well as to extort money for the renewal of the charters. To effect this design emissaries were sent to the principal Corporations, who intimated to them, "that scarce one of them would escape entire forfeiture, were the King to exercise the power he was possessed of." That infamous Judge, Jefferies, and Judge Holloway, were sent to Hull on this occasion, and the former assured the Corporation "that the only way to gain the King's favour, and to avert the mischief which hung over their heads, was to make a ready and voluntary surrender of their charter, in order to receive a new one in its stead, such as the King should think proper to grant."* The Corporation seeing how futile it would be to contend with the court at this juncture, immediately surrendered the charter into the King's hands; and this readiness to obey the royal desire, coupled with the fact that the people of Hull had paid tonnage and poundage in the reign of Charles I., without reluctance, did in the end operate to the advantage of the town; for the King, upon the payment of the required consideration, renewed the charter to the entire satisfaction of the Burgesses. The efforts of the King towards the latter part of his reign, to render himself absolute, and to govern by prerogative alone, excited general discontent in the country; and the nation was again threatened with a repetition of those horrors from which it had so recently escaped. Before these calamities could return, however, Charles was suddenly seized with an apoplectic fit, of which he died on the 6th of February, 1685, in the 25th year of his reign, and the 55th of his age.t James, Duke of York, was proclaimed in Hull, under the title of King James II., on the fourth day after the death of Charles, notwithstanding the many efforts that had been made for his exclusion, on account of his known attachment to the Catholic faith. In the following year the Judges Allybone and Powell held the Assizes at Hull, and on the day after their arrival (being Sunday), the former requested the Sheriff and his officers to attend him to the Catholic Chapel instead of to the Established Church. This they did as • Town's Records. + The reign of Charles II. is generally calculated from the date of his father's execution, 1649, and not from the Restoration. far as the door of the chapel, but they could not be prevailed upon to enter with him, and be present at the service. In addition to the offices of High Steward and Governor of Hull, the Earl of Plymouth had that of Recorder conferred on him; and this is the only instance of these three offices being ever in the possession of one person. Having published a declaration for liberty of conscience, dissolved the Parliament, and used every means to procure such a new one as would repeal the penal laws and Test Act, it was pretty generally believed that the King's intention was to introduce the Catholic religion. Great efforts, it is said, were made to procure addresses from the different Corporations, thanking his Majesty for his declaration of liberty of conscience; but the people took the alarm, and the royal proclamation was condemned by them. The inhabitants of Hull having given offence to the King, by showing a disposition to elect as their representatives in Parliament men who were opposed to the court, the enraged monarch, to punish the town for the supposed insolence of disobeying him, by not returning members of his own choosing, sent down 1,200 soldiers to live amongst them on free quarters; and to make the town still more sensible of his resentment, he issued out his writ of quo warranto against their charters. Finding it vain to contend, the Corporation surrendered all their powers, privileges, and franchises, into the hands of the King; but in about two months a new charter was granted, by which the Mayor and four Aldermen were deprived of office, and men of opposite principles placed in their stead. In a few weeks after, Judge Jefferies visited the town, and deprived the Corporation of their charter; but in the course of the same year (1688), the King granted another charter, by which he changed the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Chamberlains; and Lord Langdale, the then Governor of Hull, was also appointed to the office of Recorder. The 30th of September following being the day of election, the Corporation chose Mr. Delachamp for their Mayor, but the King soon after sent an order commanding them not to swear that gentleman into office, but to continue Mr. Hoar, their late Mayor, for another year, and to do the same both with the Sheriffs and Chamberlains. The Corporation, dreading heavier marks of the King's displeasure, reluctantly obeyed. Things however did not long continue in this state, for, on the 5th of November following, the Prince of Orange landed 15,000 troops at the village of Broxholme or Brixham, at the southern extremity of Torbay, on the Devonshire coast. Lord Langdale, fully expecting the Prince would enter the Humber, had prepared the town of Hull for a siege, but when the news reached him that the Prince had landed at Torbay, the consternation and confusion with which the town was filled for some days previous abated a little. Most of the Catholics in the neighbourhood fled from the rage of the incensed rural inhabitants, and flew for sanctuary to Hull, under the protection of Lords Langdale and Montgomery, who were both of that faith. The malcontents now began to show themselves, and several insurrections happened in different places. Lords Danby, Fairfax, Horton, and other persons of quality, possessed themselves of York, and declared for a free Parliament. The town and garrison of Hull remained in the possession of the Catholic party, who were in favour of James, until the 3rd of December, when it was apprehended that a plot was formed by the Governor and his adherents to secure all the Protestant officers. Under this impression Fort-major Barrat, Captain Copley, and the other Protestant officers, consulted with the magistrates, and it was determined to call privately to arms all the Protestant soldiers, to secure the Governor and the principal persons of his party. These measures were concerted with such prudence and secrecy that the Governor, Lord Langdale, knew nothing of the business until he was seized in his quarters. Nearly at the same moment Lord Montgomery was secured by Captain Eitzherbert, and Major Mahony by the Fort-major. The inferior officers of that party were also secured, and the next morning Captain Copley, with 100 men, marched out to relieve the guard, who were still ignorant of what had been transacted in the night, and, without difficulty seized the Catholic officers and soldiers whom he found there. The town, fort, and citadel, were now easily secured; and the anniversary of this event was long celebrated at Hull by the name of "The Town-taking day." The unhappy monarch, finding that he could no longer govern in the manner he wished, resolved to abandon a nation where he was hated, and where perhaps it was unsafe for him to remain much longer. He first sent off the Queen and the infant Prince, and soon after embarked himself for France, where he arrived in safety, and thus was the ill-fated house of Stuart cashiered for misrule, by the national will. The throne was now declared vacant, and the affairs of the kingdom being in great confusion, the Prince of Orange issued directions to the nation for choosing members to serve it in, a Parliament appointed to assemble at Westminster, on the 22nd of January, 1689. The election for this borough took place on the 10th of January, when John Ramsden and William Gee, Esqrs., were chosen without opposition. After prescribing to the Prince of Orange the terms by which he was to govern, and determining the disputed limits between the King and the people, the Parliament, as the representatives of the nation, chose him for their King, jointly with his royal consort Mary, daughter to the fugitive monarch. Lord Langdale was displaced, and Sir John Hotham was appointed Governor of Hull in his stead; but the Knight dying soon after, he was succeeded by the Duke of Leeds; Lord Dover having refused to take the prescribed oaths, the Earl of Kingston was appointed to the office of High Steward; and Robert Holliss, Esq., one of the benchers of Gray's Inn, became the Recorder of Hull. Ever since the Revolution the town of Hull has shown the firmest attachment to its Sovereigns. In 1693 an order was made that no one "be admitted to take his freedom of this Corporation, in order to qualify himself for a burgess to represent the borough in Parliament, before he had paid a fine of £50. to the town." On the death of Queen Anne, in 1714, George I., son of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick, and Sophia, granddaughter of James I., pursuant to the Act of Succession, ascended the British throne. During this reign there were no public transactions worthy of notice happened here. In the time of the rebellion of 1745, this town was not inactive, for when news reached it that the rebels had defeated the King's forces under General Cope, at Preston Pans, the magistrates with the principal merchants and inhabitants assembled, and determined to put the town in the best posture of defence, and for this purpose they subscribed the sum of £1,900. The ditches, which had long been neglected, were thoroughly cleansed; breast works and batteries were erected; and in order to animate the people by their example, the principal gentlemen and merchants incessantly laboured at the works till they were completed. The magistrates being authorized by the King to call the townsmen to arms, and officer them at discretion, thirteen companies of infantry, and four of artillery, were raised, armed, disciplined, and officered by the principal gentlemen of the town. And thus was this flourishing seaport fully prepared at this critical juncture to repel every attempt of the enemies of the British Constitution. In 1762 an Act was obtained for the better regulating and lighting the streets of Hull; and in the same year the Market House, which obstructed the Market Place, and some houses behind it, belonging to the Vicar of Trinity Church for the time being, were taken down, by which means the Market Place was enlarged, and rendered much more commodious than formerly. On the death of the Marquis of Rockingham, High Steward of Hull in 1782, the Duke of Leeds was chosen in his stead. The remains of the noble Marquis were buried in the Cathedral of York with much solemnity. The 5th of November, 1788, the centenary of the Revolution was celebrated in every part of the kingdom, and in none with more striking demonstrations of joy than in this town; and in the year following, when the King re ! covered from the alarming malady, under which he for some time laboured, no town in England testified more joy and loyalty than that of Hull. Tickell, who published his History of Hull in 1796, observes, at p. 660, "that this once famous fortress, considered formerly as the strength and safeguard of the north, the walls and fortifications of which, joined to the flatness of its situation, and the great command of the river above it, have rendered it a place considered as almost impregnable ever since the time of Edward II., is now an open town. To promote the convenience of the inhabitants, as a commercial port," he continues, "the ditches have been filled up, and the walls and ramparts levelled, so that the next generation, and even many of the present one, will probably be at a loss to point out to the inquisitive enquirers, the place on which these strong and formidable bulwarks stood, of which the pick and spade has not left so much as a wreck behind." About the year 1762, Captain Sir R. Pearson and T. Piercy, R. N., were presented with the freedom of this borough, for their gallant defence of the Baltic fleet against that notorious pirate Paul Jones; and £500. was subscribed by the Corporation towards raising volunteers. When George III. attained the 50th year of his reign, the nation held a general jubilee, and at Hull, as in other places, the demonstrations of an affectionate loyalty were strikingly manifested. In 1813, at the end of the "Campaign of the liberties of Europe," Great Britain rang with the voice of joy and gratulation. At Hull the public feeling was exhibited by the strongest demonstrations on the day set apart for the purpose-Wednesday, the 15th of December. The coronation of George IV., on the 19th of July, 1821, was likewise celebrated in this town with much solemnity-it being ever the practice in Hull to celebrate the coronation of each of our successive Sovereigns by some mark of loyal regard. The Hull and Selby Railway, which was opened in 1840, tended materially to increase the traffic and prosperity of the town. In 1836, one of the Gainsborough steam packets, lying at the pier at South End, blew up, owing to the boiler being overcharged with steam, and killed about ten persons. In 1847 a neat and convenient pier, called the Corporation Pier, was erected in front of Nelson Street, on the site of the old breakwater jetty, which had stood for many years, but not connected with the shore, as at present. In 1851 the Public Health Act was applied to Hull by provisional order, but the Local Board finding themselves, as they stated, "hampered by certain peculiarities in the condition of the district, which rendered the pro |