was called Brewer's Lane, which it continued for some time, and then resumed its ancient name. Waterworks Street and Waterhouse Lane, derive their appellations from the Waterworks, which formerly stood near St. John's church. Trippet Street is called from an Alderman of that name. The space between the Anlaby Road and the Humber was anciently called Myton Carr; and the district called the Pottery was formerly noted for the manufacture of bricks, tiles, and earthenware. Besides these streets there were in ancient times other streets in Hull, the precise situation of which are unknown, as Fulke Street, Le Bother Street, Lyster Gate, Le Pavement, &c. Mortality. Dr. (now Sir Henry) Cooper read a paper "On the Prevalence of Disease in Hull," before the British Association, at a meeting of that body here in 1853, and from that interesting paper we learn that, according to returns made, the rate of mortality for the borough in its entirety is 1 death in 33. Fever, he said, was singularly equable, and remarkably low for a large town, not favourably situated, or well drained. In another paper, read before the same learned body, "On the Mortality of Hull in the autumn of 1849," Dr. Cooper showed that the total number of cholera and diarrhœa cases was 1,860, or 1 in 43 of the whole population of the town. The greatest mortality compared with the annual average, appears to have occurred in the prime of life (from 30 to 35), where the ordinary mortality is very low. Of the above-stated number of victims of cholera, 1,738 belonged to the labouring classes, and 122 to the gentry, traders, and well-to-do classes. The localities in which there had been the greatest mortality, were the parts of the borough where the levels were the lowest, and in which, therefore, the hygienic condition, as regards moisture and drainage, might be presumed to be most defective.

Commerce.--Kingston-upon-Hull-the "great seaport of the north-has long been famous for its trade and shipping, and it still holds the rank of one of the first commercial towns in the kingdom. Its situation on the great estuary of the Humber, the great natural outlet for the drainage of Lincolnshire and a great part of Yorkshire, also the great inlet for the waters of the German ocean, presents advantages of an unusual but valuable description. At a very early period Hull was a place of considerable mercantile importance, consisting chiefly in the exportation of wool, and the importation of wine. Towards the close of the 12th and during the progress of the 13th century, the great native commodity of England was wool, which in very ancient times, and particularly in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., was converted into cloth in this country. Spelman relates that the nobles, cn delivering in a list of their grievances, in 1297, to Edward I., represented

VOL. II.

N

it to be their opinion that one half of the wealth of the kingdom consisted of wool; but Danyel states, that according to the representation of the nobles, the wool of England was equal to a fifth part of the substance thereof. Wools, woolfels, and leather, were the native commodities which first constituted the export trade of the country. Upon the exportation of these three articles the King received certain duties or customs, and the goods upon which they were charged were allowed to be exported from those places only where the King had his staple, and hence the articles themselves obtained the name of staple commodities. The first specific mention of this port in connexion with commerce, is so early as the year 1198, when Gervasius de Aldermannesberie accounted for 225 marks, for 45 sacks of wool taken and sold there. From this circumstance Mr. Frost very reasonably infers, that it was then not only a seaport, but also one of the chosen places whence wool was allowed to be exported; and the same writer has brought forward various proofs, founded upon the authority of the Pipe Roll and other records, of the early mercantile importance of Hull. Of these, one of the earliest and most important is the Compotus of William de Wroteham and his companions, collectors of the King's customs, recorded on the great Roll of Pipe, of the 6th of King John (1205); whence it appears, that in the extent of its commerce, Hull was at that time inferior only to London, Boston, Southampton, Lincoln, and Lynn.‡

"At the very beginning of the reign of Edward I.," writes Dr. Oliver, in his "Inquiry," the Archbishop of York preferred his claim, in answer to a writ of quo warranto, to the first tasting of wines, and the first purchase of goods brought into the port of Hull, after the King's prises were taken. The claim was founded on prescription, corroborated by a charter granted to Archbishop Gifford in 1267, in which it is acknowledged that the same privilege was enjoyed by Archbishop de Grey (in 1216) and his predecessors in the See of York. Now these prelates, in ancient times, held their liberties in the East Riding under a charter of Athelstan, which was granted in 925. Is it not then probable that Hull or Myton-Wyk was a port of some consequence in that King's reign? The claim was however contested on the ground that the Archbishop's rights on the river Hull extended no further than the end of old Hull, and if this prelate's claims were ultimately negatived in Sayer's Creek, it does not follow that they were never enjoyed

Fol. 162. (Edit. 1698.)

+ Danyel's Hist. Eng., p. 165.

Frost's Notices, p. 95. The Pipe Rolls are the great rolls of the Exchequer, which are deposited in the Pipe office, Somerset House.

in the old channel as far as its junction with the Humber; although when the litigation took place it had been suffered to warp up. I should rather conclude that the Archbishop's predecessors attained undisputed possession of these franchises in the ancient harbour of Myton-Wyk, and that the deterioration of his claims was owing to its being superseded by the intervention of a new channel. This contest forms a link in the chain of evidence, that Myton-Wyk was a port of some consequence in ancient times, where the Archbishops of York had claimed and taken prises of merchandise,"

Macpherson, in his "Annals of Commerce," tells us, that the people of Hull used to pay certain duties to the city of York, and were also in some degree of subjection to the Archbishop till the 26th of Edward I. (1298), when under the appellation of the King's men of Kingston-upon-Hull, they petitioned that monarch that their town might be made a free burgh, and had the prayer of that petition granted. We may add that there appears to be no vestige remaining in Hull of the above "subjection," but the Archbishop's coat of arms over the Cross Keys Hotel, which is a permanent memorial of his former power.

This town furnished the greatest part of Yorkshire and the adjoining counties with wines, and other customable commodities, from a very early period; and its commercial importance at the beginning of the reign of Edward I. may be estimated from the fact, that on the passing of the Act by which the Nova Custuma, or Great Customs, were formally attached to the Crown, when collectors and comptrollers were stationed at the chief ports of each county for receiving the same, these officers were appointed at Myton-Wyk, as a primary station, and the ports of Scarborough, York, Hedon, Gainsborough, and several other places of less note, were assigned to their superintendence in the characters of member ports. This arrangement unequivocally points out that the former was the largest port in this part of the kingdom. We may here observe, that in early times the duties. on customable merchandise was taken in specie, i. e., the King took of the goods of merchants, in the name of prisage,* whatever he chose, and at his own price, but in his wisdom this monarch relinquished the exercise of that power, and in lieu thereof, certain fixed payments were charged upon the goods, under the name of Parva Custuma, or Petty Customs. In order to prove the early importance of Hull, Mr. Frost refers to the accounts rendered by the Italian merchants, then settled in this country, who for thirteen

• The custom of prisage derived its name from the French word prise, because it was taken in specie out of the goods liable to the payment of the duty.

years, viz., from the 4th to the 16th of Edward I., inclusive, held the Great Customs of England and Wales, as a security for the sum of £23,000., which they had advanced to supply the urgent necessities of Edward, soon after his accession to the throne; and from the Great Roll of the Pipe he gives the following extract from the accounts of the sums received by Buonricini Gidicon, and other merchants of Lucca, in respect of the customs of wool, woolfels, and leather, exported from Hull, within four consecutive years, to shew that the duties received here amounted to nearly one-seventh of the aggregate sum taken throughout the whole kingdom :-*

The import trade into Hull, particularly in the article of wine, was at the same time very considerable. In the latter year (18th Edward I., 1290) Joricius le Fleming was appointed to take the King's Recta Prisa of wines coming to the port of Hull. In the following year Gervas de Clifton, then Sheriff of Yorkshire, paid, in obedience to the King's writ, £78. 2s. 10žd., for the carriage by land and water of 415 doles or tuns and pipes of wine from Hull to Brustwyk (Burstwick) and other places. Such was the state of commerce in this port immediately preceding the year 1293, when it passed from the monks of Meaux into the possession of the King, and received the name of Kingston. The commerce of Hull now increased with great rapidity, and the total amount with which the receivers stood charged upon the Compotus for the duties on wool, woolfels, and leather, exported from Hull during the 23rd, 24th, and first part of the 25th of Edward I., was no less than £10,802. 10s. 1d. But the wools of which the receivers were charged for the duties of the customs did not comprise the whole of the wools exported from Hull, as the accounts shew that 1,560 sacks of wool were exported by different companies of Italian merchants during the above period, the duties thereon being £3,120. These 1,560 sacks of wool were exported on the King's account, in respect of the debts owing to these merchants; it being the custom to allow the wools of the different Italian companies, who were creditors of the Crown, to be sent abroad on giving credit for the amount of the duties or customs. Hence it appears that onethird of the commerce of Hull, and perhaps of the whole country, was carried on by these foreign merchants.

• Frost's Notices, p. 101, &c.

In the year 1298 (26th Edward I.) writs were issued to the Sheriffs of counties, requiring them to make proclamation that merchants were to take their wools and leather to either of the following towns for exportation:Kingston-upon-Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Boston, Yarmouth, Ipswich, London, Sandwich, Southampton, or Bristol. By these regulations Hull was not only constituted one of the few ports in the kingdom from which alone the great native commodities of the country might legally be exported, but was assigned as the sole port of exportation for the great county of York; and while the statute of the staple, which passed in the following year, made York a staple town for the receipt of duties, it required that all goods which might come there, should afterwards be brought to Hull to be re-weighed prior to exportation.*

In consequence of the decay of the towns of Hedon and Ravenspurne, the trade of Hull was materially increased. From the accounts of John Liversege and John Tuttebury, in the year 1400, wine appears to have been one of the principal articles of import. Among other items we find salt, canvas, Spanish iron, linen cloth, paper, wax, spices, bow-staves, seed-oil, fur, gloves, scoops, wooden dishes, resin, copper, patten-clogs, and horns for lanterns. Among the exports are woollen cloths, worsted, coals, lead, and calf skins.

The commerce of Hull-that rich mine of wealth from which all her public institutions draw their main support-divides itself at present into three leading branches-the coasting trade, of which it enjoys a greater share than any other port in England, London alone excepted; the Baltic and Eastland trade, for which Hull is peculiarly well situated; and the whale-fishing trade. The Baltic trade received a shock during the revolutionary wars, from the hostile occupation of the ports of that sea, which it has never completely recovered; but up to the breaking out of the present war between Russia and Turkey, it was of considerable importance.

The merchants of the port of Hull may be said to have given birth to, in this country, that hazardous but once profitable branch of trade-Whale Fishing. The Rev. Dr. Scoresby, in his History of the Northern Whale Fishery, says the first attempt by the English to capture the whale, of which we have any account, was made in the year 1594. Elking, in his View of the Greenland Trade, remarks that the merchants of Hull, who were ever remarkable for their assiduous and enterprising spirit, fitted out ships for the whale fishery as early as the year 1598, being about half a century after the discovery of Greenland by Sir Hugh Willoughby. Although the English

Frost's Notices, p. 116, &c.