R4

HULL.

HULL, or Kinuston-upon-IIull, a large, handsome, and rapidly improving market town, a parliamentary And a municipal borough, and one of the principal seaports in England, forms a town and county of itaelt~ judicially in the NorthP-rn Circuit, and ecclesiastically in the deanery of South Ilarthill, archdeaconry of tbe East Riding-, and diocese of York. It is situated at the point where the small river Hull dischargeR its waters into the mighty stream of the Humber, 38 miles S.E. of York, V miles S. of Beverley, 16! N.\V. of Grimsby, 175 N. of London. Like its sister port on the opposite side of the island, Hull has no claim to hoary antiquity, and its rise is only three centuries earlier than Liverpool, which was merely the abode of a few fishermen till the reign of J ames I. From an examination of the diflerent entries in Domesday Book, it appears that the district on the west side of Hull was, in the latter part of the 11th century, £'a1led Hessle hundred, and that Hessle and Ferriby were two of its principal villages, and, together with Kirk Elln, bad each of them a church and a priest. The chief proprietora were Halph de Mortimer, Robert Earl of Morton, and Gilbert Tyson. Cottingham was likewise a place of some importance, and belonged to Hugh, son of Baldric, whose daughter carried it in marriage to the Stutevilles. Anlaby appears also to have been of more note at that period than at any other, and was divided among- the former three lords and the king. \Voolfreton and l\1yton, as members of Ferriby, belonged to Ralph de Mar­ timer, and were both waste. In llolderness hundred, Drago de Beurere and the Archbishop possessed Sutton, Drypool, and Sculcoates, the two latter of which were waste. Marfleet belonged, in eommon with nearly all Holderness, to Drago, but in Sutton there was a 'freeman' who mny possibly have been the ancestor of the family of Sutton, one of whom, Snierw;;, cut the drain which forms the present harbour of Hull; and another, Sir John, was summoned to l>arliament II.S a baron. Tickell erroneously supposes the entries which relate to Southcoates to baye reference to Sculcoates; but neither that village nor 1hose of Stoneferry and Swanland are mentioned in the record. Thus it appears that for some time after the Norman Con9.uest, th~ land o~'lii!.fes of th~ }I_l_~uth of the river Hull wa~ uncultivat~d, although th.e port was nf considerable Importance-.b"1foi·e the c'lose of the 12th century. 'I he exact site of l\Iyton Is not certainly ascertained, but its houses probably lay strag~ling on the west side of the present town, which appearn to be identified with the more recent hamlet of ·wyke. About the end of the 12th century Maud Camin sold property in \Vyke-del-1\Iyton to the monks of l\Ieaux, but although the two places seem to be described as one, they are, in another grant to the same ab bey, in 1174, mentioned as distinct places. It is therefore probable that 1\Iyton, being in Hessle hundred, was situated on the west bank of the ancient river, and that, after the descent of the water through the drain cut by Saierus de Sutton, which formed a creek or harbour a little to the east, accommodation for the small vessels which came down the stream being required at its mouth, a hamlet sprung up on the strip of land between the two channels; the older of which soon became choked up. In 1198 this port was certainly called Hull, but the hamlet just mentioned appears to have been called \Vyke. It afterwards attracted the notice of Edward I. during one of his frequent visits to this part of the country, who purchased the site of the town from the monks of l\Ieaux, and changed its name from 'Vyke-upon-Hull to l(ing's Town, or Kingston-upon-Hull. The town, favoured by royalty, soon became populous, its harbour was completed, and in 1209 it was by charter constituted a free borough, and has ever since sent two members to J>arliament. In 1332 it was fortified with a wall and ditch, und so rapid WllS its prog-ress, that in about 60 years after the date of its first charter, Hull was called upon to furnish Edward III. with 10 ships and 46G men towards an armament, the quota of the city of London amounting only to 25 ships and 662 men. The trade of Hull continued to increase, and in Leland's time the place is represented as a fair and well built town, and according to Camden, it possessed 'stately edifices, strong fortresses, ships well equipped, a number of merchants, and abundance of all kinds of ·wealth.' Hull has had 27 charters, from various successive monarchs. The walls, erected in pursuance of the charter of Edward II., were repaired and strengthenPd with towers of brick, in the time of Uicbard II., by the lord ot the manor, Sir l\Iichael de la J>ole, whose family long flourished here, but was extinguished by the attainder of Edmund de la J>ole, the last Earl of SufT'olk, in 1508, and the death of his younger brother, Hichard, at the battle of Pavia, in ]525. Henry VIII. built two blockhouses and a castle on the east bank of the river Hull, at an expense of more than £2:3,000; and Charles II., in 1681, laid out £60,000 in improving the fortifications, which had sufl'ered considerably during the civil wars of the preceding reign. The whole of these works have disappeared during the last century. The history of Hull is long and intere8ting, but it i3 impossible to compress it within the limits of this volume. The TowN of Hull, exclusive of its populous suburbs in the parishes of Sculcoates, Drypool, Stoneferry and Sutton, Newland and Newington, is divided into two parishes called Holy Trinity and St. l\fa.ry. The river Hull, and the Docks which occupy the site of the fortifications, separate the town and suburbs into three great though unequal divisions, and completely insulate that portion of the town which was formerly defended by military works. The streets in the older parts of the town are chiefly narrow and inconvenient, but those in the suburbs and mort1 modern parts are regular and spacious, and are lined with bandsom~ terraces, villas, &c. Numerous bridges cross the river Hull and the ends of the docks, thus affording enry facility for both foot passengers and carringes. In the 18th of Henry VI., Hull was constituted a town and