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Notes relative to the 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 
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 BY 
 
 J. TRAVIS-COOK, F.R. Hist. Soev., 
 
 Author of " The History of the Hull Charterhouse," 
 " The Story of the De la Poles ; " 
 A Vice-President of the Hull Literary Club. 
 
 Nescire autem, quid antea quam natus sis acciderit, id est 
 semper esse puerum. — Cicbbo. 
 
 HULL: 
 A. BROWN & SONS, SAVILE STREET. 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Limited. 
 
 1890. 
 
\ 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Right Honourable the COUNTESS OF DARNLEY, 
 THE following pages, by hee kind permission, 
 
 ABE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED J 
 
 PAETLY AS A SLIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 OF THE INTEEEST SHE WAS PLEASED TO TAKE 
 
 IN A PREVIOUS WORK ; 
 
 MAINLY BECAUSE OF THE GREATER INTEREST SHE FEELS 
 
 IN THE PAST HISTORY 
 
 OF THE NOBLB AND UNFORTUNATE FAMILY OF 
 
 DE LA POLE, 
 
 WHO WERE SUCCESSIVELY 
 
 LORDS OF THE MANOR OF MYTON 
 
 FOR SIX GENERATIONS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 OF MANORS GENERALLY 3 
 
 OF THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME "MYTON " 17 
 
 OF THE HISTORY OF THE MANOB OF MYTON 31 
 
 OF THE (SO-TERMED) MANOR OF TUPCOATES-WITH- 
 
 MYTON 147 
 
 OF THE CHANGE IN THE COURSE OF THE RIVER 
 
 HULL 183 
 
 CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA 201 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 209 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 219 
 
PREFACE. 
 
" FOR THE FATHERLAND OF THE ENGLISH 
 RACE WE MUST LOOK FAR AWAY FROM ENGLAND 
 
 itself." — Dr. Green. 
 
Preface 
 
 HESE notes are the expansion of a paper 
 prepared at the request of and read before 
 the Hull Literary Club, to which body 
 (always anxious to encourage local literary effort) 
 the credit of their inception, should they "be found 
 to possess any interest or value, is largely due. 
 But given a soul, the next desideratum is a body in 
 which it may be presented to the public view ; and 
 in this respect writer and reader are alike indebted 
 to the liberality of the publishers, Messrs. Brown & 
 Sons, of Savile Street, to whom it is only fitting 
 some acknowledgment should be made at the outset. 
 The form indicated by the title has. been chosen 
 as allowing more discursive treatment of the subject 
 than would have been permissible had this little 
 work claimed the more ambitious title of a history. 
 The writer's aim has been more to collect, in a 
 sequence of dates, facts and information relative to the 
 lordship of Myton and its later phase of Tupcoates- 
 with-Myton, as the parent district of the town of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, and now a considerable portion 
 of its site, than to comply with the strict require- 
 
xii. Pre/ace. 
 
 ments of history viewed as an essential part of 
 moral and political science. And the object in view 
 will have been very amply attained should it be the 
 fortune of this volume to become a starting point 
 for another labourer in the same field, or prove of 
 any assistance to a future historian of the town. 
 
 The history of Hull yet remains to be written as 
 the growing size and importance of this great town 
 deserve that it should be written. Until the late Mr. 
 Charles Frost arose, a prophet in Israel, our annals 
 had been indited after too brief an inquiry, and upon 
 too scanty material. Each successive writer was 
 content to rely upon the authority of his predeces- 
 sors, thus perpetuating error ; all of them too eager, 
 like the zealously-loyal Gent, to ascribe to a royal 
 brain and to a monarch's intelligence solely the origin 
 of a town which, in reality, owed its beginning to the 
 chance landing upon its future site of a crew of 
 piratical but sagacious freebooters, going forth from 
 that conquering tribe to bear whose name is still our 
 proudest boast. Mr. Frost undertook an independent 
 investigation, upon which he employed intellectual 
 powers of no small order, and first paved the way 
 for a history worthy of the town. It would be alike 
 futile and ungenerous to deny that to his famous 
 work the present writer is, as all other travellers in 
 the same path must be, very largely indebted for aid 
 
Preface. xiii. 
 
 and information. Indeed upon the lines of his 
 celebrated "Notices" these pages have been fashioned, 
 in a spirit of imitation intended and desired to be 
 sincerest flattery in its highest sense. And here it 
 may be observed, par parenthese, that whilst the 
 district, vill, or township of Myton does not appear 
 to have been a manor in the strict legal acceptation 
 of the term, it was certainly regarded as one popu- 
 larly, and in this sense is so styled when referred to 
 as a manor by the writer. 
 
 The Bench Books and records of the town are 
 full of the most interesting details of its inner life. 
 Too much stress has been laid upon such a salient 
 point in our history as the siege of Hull by King 
 Charles, whilst what we really want to know is more 
 of its internal affairs ; of the sayings and doings of 
 those who thronged before our time its busy streets ; 
 how those very streets came into existence and de- 
 rived their names ; how the commerce of the town 
 was carried on centuries before the days of postage, 
 of steam or electricity ; what manner of men were 
 the potent, grave, and reverend signiors with whom 
 those merchant princes, Richard and William de la 
 Pole, associated ; how they lived and moved and had 
 their being in their quaint timbered houses inside the 
 old town-walls ; all these and many other questions 
 we should like to ask of the past. How refreshing, 
 
xiv. Preface. 
 
 for instance, in a day of courted publicity and too 
 frequently fulsome panegyric, is it to read in the old 
 Bench Books how a worthy citizen, desiring to pre- 
 sent to "Mr. Mayor and the Aldermen, his Brethren," 
 a silver vessel for Corporate use for ever, sent it to 
 the Guildhall, where they were assembled, by his 
 servant maid, whom the Bench bade carry back their 
 thanks to her master, not forgetting, if memory serves 
 me right, to further content the damsel with gift of 
 current coin. 
 
 Necessarily, perhaps, and unfortunately, there are 
 many difficulties and delays, especially for anyone 
 whose time is not his own, in the way of thoroughly 
 searching our local records, a task which would 
 also require months of patient toil. Moreover 
 it is quite understandable that the Corporation could 
 not do with half-a-dozen or so of eager gentlemen 
 rummaging during business hours their charters, books, 
 and deeds, in the pursuit of various branches of en- 
 quiry ; so we must be satisfied, perforce, to build up 
 a complete history of our town line upon line, " here 
 a little, there a little," until some local Gibbon shall 
 be born to write, as it ought to be written, the 
 history of Kingston-upon-Hull. 
 
 Yet the work of those who have gone before must 
 not be under-rated. Gent and Hadley, Tickell and 
 Frost, form a brotherhood of writers whose names 
 
Preface. xv. 
 
 the people of Hull will always hold in esteem, until 
 patriotism has become a defunct virtue. In our own 
 day Mr. Sheahan has worked, and Mr. T. T. Wild- 
 ridge and Aid. Symons are working, in the same 
 vineyard ; and with them, the present writer may say 
 to the manes of our departed historians, in the words 
 of Father Chaucer — 
 
 glni* rve come aftev, Qlettxixa, Ijeve ano Hjeve^ 
 
 gltti* ave full Qiao tjf me man fnnbc an eve 
 ©f ann QoobLn wovbe tliat xje Ijan left. 
 
 A final word may be added as to the situation of 
 the ancient chapel of Myton. In a previous work 
 (" Story of the De la Poles," p. 6) the current 
 theory, originated, I believe, by the late Mr. Thos. 
 Thompson, F.S. A., ex-town clerk of Hull, is followed, 
 and the site of the chapel in question identified with 
 that of Holy Trinity Church. The Rev. J. R. Boyle, 
 F.S. A., also adopts this view in his recent work on the 
 church alluded to ; but it is clearly untenable, and 
 seems to have been arrived at without taking into 
 account the alteration in the district made by the 
 change in the course of the Hull. The chapel of 
 Myton would certainly stand in Myton, and not in 
 Holderness ; in Harthill, and not in the reliqud parte 
 del Wyk ; west of old Hull, and not east of it. Nor 
 is there (I submit with all deference to Mr. Boyle) 
 much weight in favour of the prior theory as to 
 
xvi. Preface. 
 
 identity of site in his inference from the rectorial 
 rights of the prior and convent of Guisborough 
 in both the early chapel and the later church ; since 
 it is evident that when Sayercreek had become the 
 Hull, it was considered to stand in the place of the 
 old river as the eastern boundary of Harthill 
 deanery and Hessle parish, which of course brought 
 Holy Trinity Church within them just as the ancient 
 oratory had previously been. 
 
 Adelaide House, 
 Anlaby Road, 
 
 Hull, 30th September, 1890. 
 
I. 
 
 OF MANORS GENERALLY. 
 
Notes Relative to the 
 Manor of Myton. 
 
 i. 
 of manors generally. 
 
 I S an introduction to the more immediate subject, it 
 may be useful first to consider the Manorial system 
 as it existed in its completest form amongst the 
 Normans. 
 
 The etymology of the word " Manor," and the origin of this 
 essentially feudal institution, together with the details of its 
 organisation, have been much discussed by antiquaries and 
 scholars, and are still the subject of conjecture and debate. 
 According to Lord Coke manors are, in substance, as ancient as 
 the Saxon constitution, but yet are considered by the best writers 
 on English antiquities as of Norman introduction. Dugdale, a 
 painstaking and trustworthy antiquary -of the 17th century, 
 informs us that manors are first mentioned in England during the 
 reign of Edward the Confessor ; and, as that monarch had a strong 
 partiality for Normans and their institutions, it is very probable 
 that he may have grafted on the Saxon community so fundamen- 
 tal a feature of the Norman system of land tenure, or, rather, 
 perhaps, that he moulded into a closer resemblance to the Norman 
 model a social system which was already very analogous, because 
 having had a common origin in the township or village community 
 of ruder ages. At any rate we must take it as admitted that the 
 Normans founded or developed the particular form of manor with 
 which we are acquainted in England, and which for some 
 centuries after the Norman invasion formed a vital and leading 
 
4 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 feature of English civilisation and social life ; providing the 
 realm at little cost with a powerful army for defence or offence, 
 but at the same time baneful to the advancement and liberties of 
 the people, as it placed under the control of the greater barons 
 armed forces available for the enforcement of their ambitions, the 
 oppression of weaker members of society, or the maintenance of 
 civil wars. 
 
 Amongst the Normans a manor, in Norman French Memoir, 
 and in the Latin of the period Manerium, seems to have been 
 originally an estate or district of land granted by the duke or 
 king to some vavasour or other important person, to be held of 
 the monarch as chief lord in return for fixed military or official 
 services, and called a lordship or barony. By this grantee, or 
 lord of the manor, a sufficient portion of the estate was retained 
 for his own use, and distinguished as the terra dominicales, or 
 demesne lands, being those of the dominus manerii, whilst the 
 remainder was parcelled out amongst his kinsmen or retainers, to 
 be held under him as their lord in freehold tenure for ever, by 
 services not derogatory to free men, and generally of a military 
 nature, accompanied by certain monetary payments, such as an 
 annual rent by way of acknowledgment of the tenure, or payments 
 in aid of the lord's ransom, or of the knightiug of his eldest son, 
 or the marriage of his daughter. 
 
 Of the demesne lands, again, only a part was retained in the 
 actual occupation of the lord, so much, indeed, as he required for 
 the site of his castle or moated manor-house with its curtilage and 
 gardens or park ; the other part he allotted to his villeins or serfs, 
 to be held merely at his own pleasure and under base services, 
 such as to carry out his manure, to hedge and ditch, garden and 
 plough for him, and the like ; whilst the residue served for roads 
 through the property, and common pasture land, available for the 
 cattle of the lord and all his tenants. 
 
 In this way, after his invasion of England, William granted 
 out a large portion of the soil of the conquered country amongst 
 his officers and followers. Money was very scarce, and personal 
 property of little worth, whilst the possession of land meant 
 
Of Manors generally. 5 
 
 dignity, importance, and wealth, so that lavish gifts of it were the 
 natural rewards for the fortunate adventurers who accompanied 
 their duke to these shores. Having thus much more land than 
 he could possibly occupy or use himself, the new possessor of the 
 Saxon estate formed it into a manor, and laying it out and 
 disposing of the greater portion of it in the way described, 
 reigned over it like a petty king. Indeed, the ownership of land 
 conferred rank and title as well as other material advantages ; 
 barons by tenure sat in the Upper Chamber of Parliament amongst 
 the great officials of Church and State ; and thus originated that 
 dignified landed aristocracy which is still so important a feature 
 of our modern social system. The military force which, as we 
 have seen, this method of land owning provided was a territorial 
 one ; and hence the earlier striking victories of our national arms 
 upon such fields as Cressy, Poitiers, and Agincourt were gained 
 by armies of combined landlords and tenants, each tenant serving 
 under the banner and orders of his own landlord. ( L ) 
 
 From the lord's personal residence upon his estate it is that 
 Lord Coke found the derivation of the word " Manor," in the 
 expression a mancndo from manerc to dwell ; a derivation adopted 
 by Ducange, who defines Mancrium as " Habitatio, cum certa agri 
 portione, a mancndo dicta," i.e., a residence, with a certain amount 
 of land attached, and so called from residing. Lord Coke, 
 however, himself preferred another derivation which he discovered 
 iu the French verb mesner, to guide, because the tenants were 
 under the lord's guidance and direction. With deference to so 
 learned an authority, I venture to think the latter etymon, 
 especially, as far-fetched, and to suggest that the origin of the 
 word " manor " is to be found in the Latin manus, a hand, which 
 is reasonable because one hand, that of the lord, held the whole 
 estate from the Crown ; his hand parcelled it out amongst his 
 various sub-tenants ; and his hand wielded its little sceptre of 
 authority. 
 
 There were two especial features of the manorial economy 
 
 (1) In the Continental wars of the Norman kings mercenaries were largely employed as 
 infantry. 
 
6 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 which are of sufficient general interest to merit notice in some 
 detail — the law courts of the manor, and its system of villeinage, 
 both of which in a modified form have come down to our own 
 day. The former, indeed, amongst the Normans was essential to 
 the very existence of a manor, since no size or nature of landed 
 estate could possibly be deemed a manor unless it comprised one 
 court at least, the lord's court, or Court-Baron. This minor 
 jurisdiction, though not a court of record and possessing, therefore, 
 no authority to fine or imprison, was an inhei-ent feature of the 
 manor, and could not be severed from it. Its functions were to 
 secure the maintenance of the services and duties stipulated for by 
 the lord of the manor, and to determine personal causes where 
 the debt or damage did not exceed forty shillings. The freehold 
 tenants of the manor alone were suitors to the Court Baron, and 
 also were its judges and jury, adjudicating upon and deciding all 
 matters proper to be brought before the court. Nor was this 
 without some analogy amongst the Saxons for, according to Lord 
 Coke, the lage-man, or man of law, at the head of any district or 
 tun, who had sac and soc upon his men, that is authority to hold 
 a court, try causes, and amerce offenders according to their 
 system of punishment by fines, was essentially a lord of a manor, 
 and his tun or district a manor. 
 
 For dealing judicially with his villeins the lord held another 
 court, the Customary Court, or Customary Court-Baron, in which 
 by his steward he was the sole judge, holding it at his pleasure, 
 and compelling the attendance thereat of his villeins at will. 
 Here were recorded the grants of lands and tenements to the 
 villeins, and by a homage or jury of them the steward was 
 informed of any change of tenant caused by death, or of any other 
 matters touching the lord's rights or dignity. 
 
 A court of more extensive jurisdiction was held within some 
 of the larger manors, known as the Court-Leet, or view of Frank 
 Pledge, but this not by any manorial prerogative of the lord, it 
 being a privilege which the holders of large estates purchased 
 from the Crown, or received by especial favour, in order that their 
 tenants might have justice rendered to them near their homes. 
 
Of Manors generally. 7 
 
 As the alternative title implies, this court maintained a survey 
 or oversight of the frank-pledge, of those who lived under the 
 protection and responsibility of the Tithing's surety to the law for 
 the good behaviour of all the freemen within it. The steward of 
 the manor, as impartial between the lord and the law, presided as 
 sole judge with power to fine and imprison, and to take security 
 for the keeping of the peace ; the general function of the court 
 being the maintenance of law and order within the liberty. Like 
 the Court-Baron, the Court-Leet was held only once in the year ; 
 and each is said by Prof. Stubbs to have come down almost un- 
 changed from the early township. 
 
 The Court-Baron for the freeholders of the manor has long 
 vanished ; but the Court-Leet and the Customary Court have 
 survived to the present reign. The last named, especially, as an 
 essential feature of copyhold tenure still exists, and is even now 
 occasionally held in some manors ; yet since the passing of the 
 Statute 4 and 5 Victoriae, cap. 35, the Copyhold Act of 1841, by 
 which the necessity for the holding of the Customary Court for 
 the passing of surrenders and granting of admissions was 
 abolished, it has become purely nominal. 
 
 In the copyhold tenure of to-day we have also the survival in 
 a much modified form of a very marked feature of the manorial 
 system, villeinage. The history of the extensive portion of the 
 population which existed in this miserable social condition for 
 more than three centuries after the Norman conquest is very 
 obscure. As Stubbs remarks, the man who had no political rights, 
 and very little power of asserting his social rights, who held his 
 cottage and garden at the will of a master who could oppress him, 
 if he could not remove him, and could claim his services without 
 remunerating him — who had no rights against his master, and 
 who could only assert such rights as he had through the agency 
 of his master — the rusticus, the nativus, the servus — fell only 
 occasionally within the view of the writer who chronicled great 
 events, and then but to add an insignificant feature to his picture. 
 The villein possessed at first no title deeds by the evidence of 
 which his rights were attested ; he carried his troubles to no 
 
8 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 court that was skilled enough to record its proceedings. It is only 
 by a glimpse here and there that we are enabled to detect his 
 existence ; and the glimpses are too uncertain to furnish a clue 
 by which his history can be traced. Yet when he reappears, as 
 he does in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, he bears 
 marks of a history on which some conjectures must be 
 hazarded. ( 2 ) 
 
 The researches of the learned author of the foregoing remarks, 
 and of other writers, have established that, originally, villeinage was 
 a sort of tenure neither strictly feudal, nor distinctly Norman or 
 Saxon, but mixed and compounded of them all. Sir William 
 Temple states that under the Saxon government of England there 
 was a class of people in a condition of downright slavery, 
 employed in the most servile work, and belonging with their 
 wives, children, and effects to the lord of the soil upon which they 
 dwelt. These seem to have been those who held what was called 
 the folcland, from which they appear to have been removable at 
 their lord's pleasure. To this wretched state some of these 
 unhappy people had been reduced by conquest, some by sale 
 effected by themselves or their parents; ( 3 ) others had been sold 
 into slavery for theft, or were rendered slaves by non-payment of 
 penalties for infraction of the laws. 
 
 On the arrival of the Normans it is not unlikely, says Black- 
 stone, that those invaders, being strangers to any other than 
 feudal state, gave some spark of enfranchisement to this degraded 
 peasantry by admitting them to the oath of fealty, (*) so conferring 
 upon them a right as vassals to their new owner's protection, and 
 raising them to a state superior to absolute slavery though 
 
 (2) By a Statute of 26 Edward III., a vivid glimpse of his depressed oondition is afforded in 
 its enacting that, notwithstanding a villein might have sued out a writ of Liberlate Probanda 
 —a legal method of proving his right to freedom— his lord might seize his body wherever 
 found. 
 
 (S) The Saxon laws authorized the sale of a child of seven years by its parents, and the 
 sale of himself by one of thirteen ; the consequence, probably, of the grievous famines which 
 are often recorded in the Saxon Chronicle. 
 
 (4) The villein's oath of fealty as fixed by a Statute temp. Edward II., was to run as follows : 
 " Hear you my lord, E., that I, W., from this day forth shall unto you bo true and faithful 
 for the land that I hold of you in villeinage, and shall be answerable to you in body and 
 estate ; and that I will see no evil or damage done concerning you, but will warn and defend 
 you to the utmost of my power." 
 
Of Manors generally. 9 
 
 inferior to every other condition. Indeed, according to Stubbs, 
 the Norman invasion had a curious two-fold action upon the 
 lowest class of the conquered population, enlarging its borders 
 whilst ameliorating its conditions ; for we find the free ceorl to 
 have become a villein, whilst the servus, theow, or slave, has 
 disappeared altogether. The minute distinctions of Anglo-Saxon 
 dependence, all duly recognized in the Domesday Survey, seem 
 to have been practically ignored by the Norman landowners, and 
 the tendency of both law and social habit was to throw all the 
 population described in Domesday Book as servi, bordarii, and 
 villani, into one homogeneous class and condition of nativi, or 
 born serfs, termed by the Norman lawyers villei7is and 
 villeinage, either from vilis, low, or a villa, ( 5 ) because they lived in 
 villages, and were engaged in the humblest kind of agricultural 
 work. 
 
 These unfortunate people were either villeins regardant, 
 annexed to the soil and bought and sold with it like Eussian serfs 
 within living memory, but who could not be dissociated from the 
 soil ; or villeins en gros, annexed to the person of their lord, by 
 whom, if they ran away, or were stolen by marauders, they could 
 be recovered by action-at-law like his horses or cattle, and 
 transferable from one owner to another by deed independently of 
 any sale of the estate on which they lived. They held, indeed, 
 small portions of land for the maintenance of themselves and 
 their families, yet solely at the pleasure of their lord, who could 
 dispossess them at will, and by such villein and base services as 
 have been mentioned. ( 6 ) From this wretched condition of life 
 there were, save death, but three methods of release. Manu- 
 mission by his lord at the intervention of the Church, which ever 
 preached that the liberation of villeins was a meritorious and 
 
 (5) Villa, from vicula, diminutive of vicus. The ingenious reader will detect the origin of the 
 modern epithet of reproach, " villain." 
 
 (6) It is maintained by some writers that the curious custom of Borough-English, found in 
 some parts of England, by virtue of which upon the father's death intestate his lands descend 
 to the youngest instead of the oldest son, is the result of a monstrous droit de teigneur pre- 
 valent upon some manors, and giving the lord the right to the bridal night of any female 
 villein upon her marriage. It is asserted, however, by later investigators, and, probably, 
 with more truth, that there is no evidence of such a right having ever existed in England, 
 the custom in question being traced by them to a Tartar origin. 
 
io Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 acceptable work ; ordination by the Church into any of the 
 numerous ranks of her servants ; or flight into some chartered 
 town, where residence for a year and a day ipso facto conferred 
 freedom. 
 
 The course of time, however, which like music soothes the 
 savage breast, gradually improved the villein's miserable lot ; and 
 not without effort of his own in the direction of his own 
 emancipation In 1377 confederacies of villeins for the purpose 
 of withstanding their lords are spoken of and prohibited by 
 statute; ( 7 ) and villeinage and villein service formed no small part 
 of the grievances for which redress was sought by Wat Tyler and 
 his Kentish following in 1381. ( 8 ) 
 
 It is well known that this rising failed ; yet in effect, says 
 Subbs, it struck a vital blow at villeinage. The landlords gave up the 
 practice of demanding base services, accepted money payments in 
 lieu of forced labour, and began to recognize in the Customary 
 Courts of their manors a villein's moral right to his holding so 
 long as he performed the conditions of his tenancy. As time went 
 on he grew to be under the protection of the Common Law of 
 England, of which custom is the life, and the accustomed 
 succession to the villein's orchard or tenement of the sons after 
 the fathers became a right in law as well as in ethics, and 
 enforceable even against the lord. This succession of tenancy 
 generation after generation was duly recorded for the villein's 
 benefit on the roll of the Customary Court of the manor ; a copy 
 of this roll was his title deed and proof of possession ; and from 
 the villein he gradually rose into the improved condition of a 
 tenant by copy of court roll; for all practical purposes a freeman, 
 a yeoman, handing down a reminiscence of his once state of 
 
 (7) In this statute the villeins' lords are alluded to as "their lords of life and limb" — lours 
 s'rs de vie et de membre. 
 
 8) It would seem from the statute 9 Richard II., cap. 2 (1385), that the ingenuity of 
 lawyers had invented an additional method of obtaining for a villein his freedom. A custom 
 had evidently grown up for a villein who had managed to escape to a free town (such as 
 Kingston-upon-Hull then was) to at once commence on some fancied ground an action-at- 
 law against his lord, whose answer, which he was bound to deliver or let judgment go against 
 him by default, was taken as an admission that his villein was his equal before the law, and 
 ergo a free man. The Act alluded to forbids any such inference being drawn from the 
 lord's answer. 
 
Of Manors generally. \\ 
 
 servitude to our own day in the form of our existing copyhold 
 tenure, destined itself to die out and become extinct ere many 
 more generations have passed away. Even yet the copyholder's 
 muniments of title keep up the legal fiction that he holds his 
 property " at the will of the lord, and by the accustomed dues 
 and services," and still solemnly assert that " his fealty is 
 respited," he paying for that favour a small fee to the steward of 
 the manor ; words which, as the dying echoes of the slavery of the 
 Anglo-Saxon peasant, and of the degrading servitude of the 
 Anglo-Norman villein, still possess a pathetic and peculiar interest. 
 Such, in brief, was the manorial system in its fullest 
 development amongst the Anglo-Normans ; and hence the 
 exactitude of Lord Coke's statement that from the Normans we 
 derive the particular form of manor with which we are acquainted. 
 Nevertheless, in a rougher form, a like system undoubtedly existed 
 amongst the Anglo-Saxons. Frequent mention is made in 
 Domesday Book of manors bearing Saxon or Danish names, such 
 as the local manors of Ferriby and Sculcoates ; and these we may 
 safely assume to have been estates belonging to some single 
 proprietor as lord, upon which lived in one or more hamlet or 
 hamlets a mixed population of freemen cultivating the soil for 
 their own benefit, and of various classes of serfs, hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water, tenders of the lord's cattle and keepers of 
 the lord's sheep, yet each having his small holding for his support, 
 with privilege of pasture on the commons of the lordship for 
 his few geese or his solitary beast. To such estates the Norman 
 commissioners, in their report to the king, naturally gave the name 
 of manors as the only appropriate term within their knowledge ; 
 yet there is no necessity on that account to regard them as new 
 lordships since the Conquest, but, rather, may we see in them the 
 ruins of a much older social institution, a degeneration, indeed, 
 from the first step out of barbarism— the ancient village com- 
 munity, the township, or tun, as it existed on the Continent long 
 before Hengist landed at Ebbsfleet in the middle of the fifth 
 century, and which the English, as modern historians term them, 
 themselves introduced into Britain. 
 
12 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 From its primitive state of being the fortified association of 
 freemen, possessing the townlands in common, and regulating 
 all their local affairs in the town moot — mother of parliaments — 
 the township came by steps which cannot now be traced to have a 
 feudal lord, who acquired part of the lands hitherto enjoyed in 
 common as his private property, or demesne ; whilst the chances 
 of warfare, hard times, and poverty, bred a peasant class more or 
 less enslaved, weaponless, having few if any rights, who toiled for 
 their lord's advantage under that system of forced, unrewarded 
 labour, or corvde, which in much later times was a main cause of 
 the first French Eevolution. 
 
 Probably amongst the Anglo-Saxons this state of things had 
 come about naturally, and the assumption of the lord's power 
 without harshness. Be this as it may, such was the social 
 system prevailing in England at the time of the Norman inva- 
 sion ; so that when the Norman baron came upon the scene as 
 the new land owner, with the Conqueror's grant fresh in his hand, 
 he experienced but little difficulty in introducing the completer 
 feudalism he had known at home, and converting the Anglo- 
 Saxon estate into the Anglo-Norman manoir. 
 
 Exactly six hundred years ago, the creation of manors was 
 rendered impossible by a statute passed in the 18th year of King 
 Edward I. (1289-90), commonly known amongst lawyers as the 
 statute of Quia Emptores, and intituled in the Eolls of Parlia- 
 ment Statu turn regis de terris vendendis et emendis. This enact- 
 ment was passed in the interests of the greater landowners, 
 especially to prevent what was known as sub-infeudation, 
 under which, as they alleged rightly enough, they were losing 
 many important and remunerative incidents of feudal tenure. Prior 
 to this statute the tenant of any landowner could grant the whole 
 or part of his fief to some under-tenant or tenants to be held of 
 himself as lord of the fee, and this could be repeated again and 
 again, with the results that the fruits of the tenure fell into the 
 hands of the intermediate or mesne lords to the grievous prejudice 
 
Of Manors generally. 13 
 
 of the lord paramount, or chief lord of the soil. (») As an instance 
 of this state of ownership may be cited a messuage at Wyk-upon- 
 Hull, which in a return to a writ of ad quod damnum, 17th 
 Edward I., was certified to be held by the Dean of York of the 
 Abbot and Convent of Meaux, who held of John de Melsa, who 
 held of William Le Constable, who held of William de Vesci, who 
 held of Edmund de Mortemer as lord paramout of the fee, and 
 who held in his turn of the Crown in chief by grant to an ances- 
 tor from William the Conqueror. As the land was thus transferred 
 the lord paramount lost the chance of ivardship of any infant heir 
 of his grantee — a very comfortable office in days when no baron 
 dreamed of accounting for rents and profits so received by him 
 to any Court of Chancery. Gone, too, was the very pretty 
 bargain he could have made for himself on the marriage of his 
 wealthy ward, as the price of his or her hand ; and he was also 
 excluded from his succession to the estate, by its reverting to him 
 as ultimus lueres under the feudal law of esclteat, upon the failure 
 of the heirs of an intestate tenant. After reciting the loss by 
 the chief lords under the prevailing system of " their escheats, 
 marriages, and wardships — which thing seemed most hard and 
 difficult, and, indeed, to their manifest disheritance," the statute 
 enacts that from henceforth " it shall be lawful for every free 
 man to sell at his own pleasure his lands or tenements, or part of 
 them ; so, nevertheless, that his feoffee hold the same lands or 
 tenements of the same chief lord, and by the same services and 
 customs, as his feoffee held them before him." 
 
 This Act applied only to lands of freehold tenure, not to 
 copyholds; but the intelligent reader will perceive from con- 
 sideration of the words of the statute, and what has been said 
 before, how completely impossible it was after that enactment 
 for any new manor to be created, since no landowner could 
 
 (9) The " tenant " under the feudal system must not be confused with the tenant as we 
 understand that term now-a-days. He was to all intents and purposes owner of the free- 
 hold, so long as he discharged the conditions of his tenure ; he was the one holding the land. 
 Hence the legal doctrine, which stands good to-day, that all the soil of England is vested in 
 the monarch, of whom each possessor we term " owner" is the " tenant; " and no Eng- 
 lish subject can, theoretically, hold more than an estate in land, be it for life, or for years, 
 or in fee simple. In copyhold property the owner is "tenant" of the lord of the manor, 
 who, again, is " tenant " of the manor under the Crown. 
 
14 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 thenceforward make a grant of freehold land to any person to be 
 held of himself, the grantor, as lord, which was of the very 
 essence of a manor. 
 
 Every manor, therefore, to be found in England to-day is six 
 hundred years old at least. 
 
II. 
 
 OF THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE 
 NAME "MYTON." 
 
II. 
 
 OF THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE 
 NAME "MYTON." 
 
 AM not aware that so far any attempt has been made 
 to discover the origin of this locally well-known 
 name. ( xo ) And yet as a place-name it is replete with 
 interest and full of suggestiveness, more than possibly carrying 
 back the history of the lordship as an inhabited district for a 
 period of thirteen hundred years. 
 
 The name is Saxon, and implies a township of some nature, 
 which might well have been founded so long ago as the middle 
 of the sixth century. 
 
 At the close of the preceding century the loss of the Saxon 
 Shore had completed the first step in the subjugation of Britain ; 
 and with the opening of the sixth century appeared the English 
 invaders on her east coasts. It was circa the year 501 that the tribe 
 of Engles, who subsequently came to call themselves Deirans, ( xl ) 
 entered the broad estuary of the Humber, and first gave to the 
 flat naze or promontory at its mouth the name of Holderness, ( x 2 ) 
 
 (10) It was a great pity that on the recent enlargement of the borough, and the re-arrange- 
 ment and re-naming of the municipal wards, this historical word, so long preserved in North 
 and South Myton wards, was totally ignored, and the ancient lordship of Myton relegated 
 to a matter of only antiquarian memory. 
 
 (11) At the time of Ida's invasion with the first English hordes, the country immediately to 
 the north of the Humber was called by the Britons Deifyr ; and this name was adopted 
 by the invaders when they had subdued the ancient inhabitants. In Deira it appears in a 
 Latinised form. 
 
 (12) Dr. J. E. Green's " Making of England." The;late Mr. Thomas Thompson, F.S.A., 
 places the origin of this name at a later period, that of the Scandinavian invasions. In his 
 " History of Welton " he remarks : " The people who have left among us the strongest traces 
 of their inhabitancy of East Yorkshire are the Scandinavians, commonly called in our 
 histories the Danes ; " and " during the greater part of the so-called Saxon Heptarchy, East 
 Yorkshire, whilst nominally a part of the Saxon kingdoms of Deira and Northumbria, was 
 really peopled and possessed by the Scandinavians, who in every invasion of Yorkshire 
 slew and drove away the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants they found there, and possessed them- 
 
1 8 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 and, perhaps, to our own river the name it still bears in the 
 altered form of Hull. 
 
 It is likely enough, according to Dr. Green, that the limits of 
 the present East Riding of Yorkshire roughly preserve the 
 boundaries of the earlier kingdom of the Deirans, whose first 
 king JElla commenced his reign in A.D. 559, and for forty or 
 fifty years before which time the Engles' invasion of the district 
 would probably be going on. ( 13 ) 
 
 As the first vessel of these invaders sailed up the broad 
 waters of the Humber, their crews eager to effect a settlement in 
 the land, the special position of the district at the mouth of the 
 Hull must have struck the Engles as very suitable for their pur- 
 pose, or at all events for a commencement of their enterprise. A 
 
 selves of their property and landed possessions." He then explains that amongst these 
 peoples there were men of similar rank and power to the Thegns of the Anglo-Saxons, 
 called " Holdres " (a title, I may add, afterwards adopted by the Anglo-Saxons in the form 
 of "Hold") who were the holders or lords paramount of large estates, and presided over 
 extensive districts of land, which they parcelled out in the form of manors to be held under 
 themselves. He then surmises that the first Scandinavian chief who succeeded in obtaining 
 full possession of the lowlands in the south-east of Northumbria would be deemed the Holdr 
 or chief lord of that district, " and as Ness is the Norse for a nose or promontory, such as 
 exists at Spurn Point, the district would be known by the Scandinavians as the " Holdres- 
 Ness" to distinguish it from other •' Nesses " on the coast." This etymology Mr. Thomp- 
 on supports by mentioning that, at least since the Conquest, all the existing manors in 
 Holderness have been held by the lords of those manors, not as chief manors, but as mesne 
 manors under a lord paramount, who has always had the rights of sporting and free warren 
 over the manors of the other lords of manors in Holderness. But whilst it is the fact that 
 the whole district of Holderness is a seigniory or lordship, this exceptional use of the word 
 " Holdr " seems against the theory Mr. Thompson puts forward ; and the peculiarly hollow 
 or low-lying nature of the district as viewed from the river suggests itself irresistibly as the 
 origin of its name. In the Netherlands a tract of land below the level of the sea or nearest 
 river, and which, being originally a morass, has been drained, is called " polder." Poulson 
 derives the name from two Gaelic words, Hoi and Der, each signifying water or stream, and, 
 combined, a district of streams and lakes. 
 
 (18) Mr. Thompson suggests that in "Kirkella " we have a still existing memorial of the 
 completion of this conquest, and of King -Ella. Mr. Nicholson, the author of the " Beacons 
 of East Yorkshire," Hon. Librarian to the Hull Literary Club, disputes this. Kirkella 
 appears in Domesday Book under the name Alcengi, which must have been given to the 
 Norman surveyors on the spot as the usual, if not only, designation of that manor. Mr 
 Nicholson finds in this another trace of the Scandinavians ; and defines the name as the 
 Norse Alf, elf or fairy, and Eugi, meadow or pasture, which seems unanswerable. After 
 Domesday the name appears in various forms of an Anglo-Saxon nature, as "Elley," 
 "Elnele" "Elveley;" and in a deed in the present writer's possession, dated in 1269, 
 reference is made to the " Church of Elvelay." Mr. Nicholson sees in all these forms the 
 Anglo-Saxon JOf, fairy, talk, meadow, and in the modern Ella, a contraction of them, and 
 the prefix Kirk a distinguishment of it, by its having a church, from other fairy meadows. 
 It is not easy to resist his argument ; but it is most curious that, having apparently had a 
 Norse designation up to the Conquest, Kirkella should have afterwards reverted to an 
 Anglo-Saxon form, and whilst duly noted in Domesday Book as having a church and apriest, 
 the ct of the church was in no way added to or signified by its then name. 
 
Of the Etymology of the Name " Myton." 19 
 
 tidal river offered a roadway northwards into the interior of the 
 country, and at its mouth was a landing place most convenient 
 for rapid retreat in case of disaster. It is, of course, im- 
 possible to say at what particular date Myton was actually 
 founded with more certainty than that it was an Anglo-Saxon 
 township prior to the Norman Conquest, but there is nothing im- 
 probable in the earlier period here indicated. And if a settlement 
 of the first Engles, then its position so close to the Humber, a 
 highroad for invading or piratical vessels, renders it no more 
 improbable that at Myton were captured those fair- haired Engles 
 from Deira, who caught the chance glance of St. Gregory 
 in the slave-market at Borne, and were unconscious martyrs for 
 the conversion of England. 
 
 In case, however, so remote an antiquity be objected to, on 
 the ground that at the time of the Norman Conquest Myton was 
 only a feature of the manor of Ferriby, which had evidently been 
 one of the Scandinavian lordships alluded to by Mr. Thompson 
 (see previous page) ; we must be content, perhaps, with the early 
 part of the eleventh century, when fork-bearded Sweyn of Den- 
 mark, still burning to avenge the wholesale massacre of his 
 countrymen throughout England on the feast of St. Brice, again 
 invaded the unhappy land, ravaged East Anglia and Northum- 
 bria, and ultimately assumed the crown. In the village of Swan- 
 land we still possess a memorial of his encampment on this side 
 of the Humber ; and it is exceedingly probable that during this 
 period (A.D. 1013) the ferry across the river was established, with 
 its ferry-town at each end, to keep up the communications 
 between the Danish forces north and south of the Humber. 
 
 The north ferry-town gave its name to the manor, of which we 
 shall hereafter see Myton was only a berewick, although another 
 berewick, Anlaby, Anlaf's town, was nearly a century older, being 
 a relic of the days in 937 when Anlaf from Ireland and Con- 
 stantine of Scotland entered the Humber to meet with over- 
 whelming defeat at Brunnanburgh, or of the after years when 
 Anlaf was baptised, and "royally gifted" of King Edmund 
 
20 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 (943) ; but evidently his town had never attained the importance 
 of Ferriby, since after the later place the lordship was called. 
 
 Yet we need not assume that because Myton was a 
 parcel or member of Ferriby manor, it was a settlement made in a 
 part of that lordship after the latter had been formed. The 
 name is Saxon, and, therefore, proof of Saxon origin ; and though 
 lofty minds have sneered at the general tendency of local his- 
 torians to claim a mythical antiquity for their own particular 
 town or district, still I see no valid objection to the theory that 
 Myton was one of the earliest settlements of the Engles north of 
 the Humber, and older even than ancient Beverley, where, as Dr. 
 Green poetically put it, " in the marshy and desolate channels of 
 the Hull men hunted the beaver " a thousand years ago. 
 
 Of what is meant by the second syllable of the name, ton, or, 
 as it was originally, tun, we cannot be in any doubt. " At first," 
 Professor Stubbs writes, "the tun was the enclosure or hedge, 
 whether of the single farm or the inclosed village." From the 
 barrier inclosing the word grew to mean the area- inclosed ; and 
 the tun ( 14 ) in this sense is so admirably described by Dr. Green 
 in his " Making of England," that not to quote his very words 
 would be to slight his labour. 
 
 Speaking of the freeman as the unit of the Anglo-Saxon com- 
 munity, Dr. Green says : " To view, however, the new settler in 
 Britain simply as a warrior would be false and incomplete. In 
 the old world the divorce which modern society has established 
 between the soldier and the citizen, the fighter and the toiler, did 
 not exist. No chasm parted war from civil life, the solemn arm- 
 ing made the young Englishman not only a warrior but a free- 
 man, a man of the folk, a tiller with his right to a share in field 
 and pasture and waste, a ruler of his village, with his 'own due 
 place in village-moot and hundred-moot. The unit of social life, 
 indeed, was the cluster of such farmers' homes, each set in its 
 own little croft, which made up the township or the tun. The 
 tun was surrounded by an earthen mound tipped with a stock- 
 
 (14) It will, doubtless, at once occur to the reader, as an example of the living force of 
 language, that the agricultural labourer to this day speaks of a " town " in the tongue of his 
 Anglo-Saxon ancestors, and calls it " toon." 
 
Of the Etymology of the Name " My ton." 21 
 
 ade or quickset hedge, as well as defended externally by a ditch ; 
 and each township was thus a ready-made fortress in war, while 
 in peace its entrenchments were serviceable in the feuds of village 
 with village, or house with house. The importance of its 
 defences, indeed, was shown by the customary law which forced 
 every dweller within them to take part in their rearing and 
 repair. Inside the mound lay the homes of the villagers, the 
 farmsteads, with their barns and cattle stalls ; and in the centre 
 of them rose the sacred tree or mound where the village with its 
 elders met in the tun-moot, which gave order to their social and 
 industrial life. Outside the mound, in close neighbourhood to 
 the village, lay the home pastures and folds, where the calves and 
 lambs of individual cultivators were reared. In these, and in the 
 ' yrfeland,' or ' family estate,' held apart from the lands of his 
 freemen by the aetheling or noble, we find the first traces of 
 a personal property strongly in contrast with the common hold- 
 ing which prevailed through the rest of the township. Beyond 
 and around these home-pastures lay the village plough-land, 
 generally massed together in three or four large ' fields,' each 
 of which was broken by raised balks into long strips of soil that 
 were distributed, in turn, among the village husbandmen. The 
 whole was inclosed by a borderland or mark, ( x 5 ) which formed the 
 
 (15) To illustrate the development of the Manorial system out of the primitive village com- 
 munity, it ma; be well to remember that the tun, as here described, l» itself derived from what 
 baa been termed the Mark system, so admirably treated of by Prof. Stabbs in his " Con- 
 ssstrtsonnl History of England." Its nssniltsl character, he tells us, depended on the 
 tenure and cultivation of land by the members of a community in partnership. The 
 general name of the mark was given to the territory held by the community, the absolute 
 ownership of which resided in the community itself, or in the tribe or nation of which the 
 community formed a part. The mark, be continues, had been formed by a primitive settle- 
 ment of a family or kindred in one of the great plain-forests of the ancient world, and 
 was, accordingly, like any other clearing, surrounded by a thick border of wood or waste, 
 supplying the place or increasing the strength of a natural boundary. In the centre of this 
 clearing was placed the primitive village, and there each of the marksmen had his home- 
 stead, his house, courtyard, and farm buildings. This possession, the exponent, the Pro- 
 fessor terms it, of his character as a fully-qualified freeman, entitled him to a share in the 
 land of the community. He bad a right to the woods, the pastures, the meadow, and the 
 arable land of the mark ; such right being, however, of the nature of usufruct or 
 po s s e s si on solely, bis only title to absolute ownership being merged in the general right 
 of the community which he of coarse shared. The woods and pastures being undivided, 
 each marksman had an equal right of user, and could torn therein a number of swine and 
 cattle. The use of the meadow-land was also definitely apportioned. From the hay harvest 
 to spring it lay open, and was treated as a portion of the common pasture , out of the area 
 of which it was annually selected. When the grass began to grow the cattle were driven 
 out, and the meadow was fenced round and divided into as many equal shares as there were 
 
22 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 common pasture where flock and herd could be turned out by 
 every freeman to graze, though in numbers determined by usage 
 or the rede of the village moot." 
 
 " For the most part," he adds, " each township lay, no doubt, 
 within the area of older British or Roman settlements ; " but we 
 cannot venture to affirm this of My ton, although, of course, it is 
 by no means improbable that some of the aboriginal British 
 Deifyrans were settled about Hull mouth. 
 
 As the second syllable of the name " My ton " is thus ex- 
 plained by Dr. Green, we get a vivid glimpse of the Anglo-Saxon 
 township or hamlet ( 16 ) which, as the name sufficiently proves, 
 existed upon part of the site of the modern Kingston-upon-Hull 
 so many centuries ago ; and we are carried back in spirit to a 
 remoter past than any writer has hitherto ventured to claim for 
 any portion of our town. 
 
 The same admirable historian also gives us a clear insight 
 into the domestic economy of the tun ; and in his words we may 
 read a description of life in Myton in the long past years when it 
 was an English settlement. 
 
 " If we pass from the township to the homes within its bounds, 
 we see the freeman himself in that outer garb of peace and 
 industry which has been brought down to us by the ploughman 
 and peasant of to-day, in his smock-frock, a coarse linen overcoat 
 that fell to the knees, and whose tight sleeves and breast were 
 worked with elaborate embroidery. Feet and legs were wrapped 
 in linen bands, cross-gartered and party-colored as high as the 
 knees ; a hood sheltered the head in wintertide ; and among the 
 
 mark-families in the village. Each man had his own haytime and housed his own crop ; 
 that done, the fences were thrown down, and the meadow again became common pasture, 
 another field in another part of the mark being chosen for the following year. Every such 
 mark became a political unit : every free mark-man had his place in the assembly of 
 the mark, which regulated all the internal business of the partnership and of the relations 
 that arose from it. 
 
 It ia worthy of reflection by the modem mind that here was a perfect communistic and 
 home-rule system ; yet it was found incompatible with the improvement of agriculture, the 
 increase of population, and the growth of civilisation. It cannot be safely affirmed, adds 
 Prof, Stubbs, that the German settlers in Britain brought with them the entire system of 
 the mark organisation. It is probable they had passed beyond this stage before they 
 migrated. 
 
 (16) "The unit of the constitutional machinery is the township, the tiltata or vkut,"— 
 Prof. Stubbs. 
 
Of the Etymology of the Name " My ton." 23 
 
 nobles or wealthier ceorls, a short cloak of blue cloth, often 
 embroidered with fanciful figure- work, and fastened at the shoulder 
 with a costly buckle, was thrown over the frock for warmth or 
 ornament. The house of such a villager naturally varied in 
 size and importance with the wealth and rank of its owner. 
 Dwellings were everywhere of wood ; and the new settlers, 
 accustomed to wooden dwellings in their own land, found in 
 Britain a wealth of forest and woodland which supplied abundant 
 material for construction near every township. The centre of the 
 homestead was the hall, with the hearth-fire in the midst of it, 
 whose smoke made its escape as best it could through a hole in 
 the roof. The hall, indeed, was the common living place of all 
 the dwellers within the house. Here the "board," ( 17 ) set up on 
 trestles when needed, furnished a rough table for the family meal ; 
 and when the board was cleared away, the women bore the 
 wooden beer-cups or drinking-horns to the house-master and his 
 friends as they sat on the settles or benches ranged round the 
 walls, while the gleeman sang his song, or the harp was passed 
 round from hand to hand. Here, too, when night came and the 
 fire died down, was the common sleeping-place, and men lay 
 down to rest on the bundles of straw which they had strewn about 
 the floor. 
 
 "Beside the hall stood chambers for women and the house- 
 hold, while around the farm-yard were stable and threshing-floor 
 and barn. With so thin and scattered a population, and at a time 
 when even internal trade had hardly begun to exist, the home- 
 stead had to be in the main its own provider ; the grain had not 
 only to be sown and reaped, but to be made into bread in the 
 household, as the flax was not only gathered but woven into 
 garments. To woman fell much of the outer and almost all this 
 inner farm work. It was she who milked the kine and shore the 
 sheep, who made the cheese and combed the wool and beat the 
 
 (17) The " board " is Anglo-Saxon ; the " table " Latin and Norman. It is curious 
 that the spirit of these languages (both of which were at one time, of course, current 
 together amongst our ancestors) so far survives that for mirth and feasting we speak of the 
 "board," the "hospitable board," the " festive board ;" for a more dignified occasion we 
 say "table," the "dinner-table," the "tables of the wealthy," &c, Ac. 
 
24 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 flax ; while her name of the ' spinster ' still reminds us how she 
 spun the thread and wove the wool of every garment. The 
 buildings in which this work went on lay round each larger home- 
 stead ; the mill for grinding the ' grits ' or rough corn and the 
 finer wheat-meal, the oven where the loaf was baked, common 
 loaf, or alms loaf, or white bread of pure wheat, or raised loaf 
 and cake, the sheds for storing wool and honey and wax, the 
 malt-house and the brewery, with its bright ale, and mild ale, 
 and smooth ale, and beer ; the dairy with its butter and its 
 cheese. The outer work of the farm fell upon the freeman and 
 his serfs. Ox-herd and cow-herd, shepherd and goat-herd, the 
 swine-herd who drove the hogs into forest and woodland to feed 
 on the oak-mast, the barn-man and the sower, were serfs in 
 wealthier households, or on the estate of the lord who had 
 gathered a township about him ; but in the free townships the 
 poorer freeman must have been his own labourer, and the toil 
 necessitated by the common system of culture was severe. The 
 open lands of the common pasture were often far from any 
 homestead, so that through the long winter nights, from Martin- 
 mas to Easter, the villagers had to take their turn in folding and 
 guarding the horses and cattle that pastured on them. The need 
 of fencing off the common meadow into separate grass fields when 
 the grass began to grow afresh in the spring was a yet more 
 serious burden ; and besides all these the villagers had to help in 
 the maintenance of mound and ditch around the township, as 
 well as to be ready when occasion called to join the hue and cry 
 in case of stolen cattle, or to follow the reeve of his township" — 
 the tim-geref 'a — " to hundred-moot or folk-moot." Finally, "the 
 dwellers in such a township were not men who had casually come 
 together. As the blood-bond gave its form to English warfare, so 
 it gave its form to English society : " and hence we may conclude 
 that the original colonists of Myton were of kin. 
 
 There seems no apology necessary for thus quoting Dr. Green's 
 own words at some length. The information extant upon a sub- 
 ject so especially interesting to us who still glory in bearing the 
 name and exhibiting the characteristics of these by-gone genera- 
 
Of the Etymology of the Name " Myton." 25 
 
 tions, and which has been compiled through the researches of 
 many scholars and antiquarians, could not possibly be better 
 summarised or more clearly expressed than by the lamented 
 author of the " History of the English People." Moreover the 
 work of every historian is a well from which others may draw 
 water, his voice is that of " deep calling unto deep," nor does he 
 grudge but rather delight to add corner-stone or coping or orna- 
 mental window to the structure of another. 
 
 Nor can we fail to reflect here how deeply into the soil of 
 our own island sank the roots of the agricultural and social 
 system so graphically depicted by Dr. Green. Barely a century 
 ago its influences might have been seen still at work in rural 
 England. The country squire was practically lord paramount of 
 the district ; the tenant farmer represented the marks-man or 
 freeman ; whilst the farm labourer was surely a serf in all but 
 name, only in our own day obtaining a voice in the great national 
 folk-moot. ( 18 ) That especially odious expression " the quality," 
 then used of the high by the low, and still dragging out a mori- 
 bund existence, spoke volumes to the ear of one who was mindful 
 of the days when in Saxon England the setheling with his 
 jewelled cloak stirred the slow envy and awe of the theow, and 
 of the serf- wife who bore to him his following generation of slaves ; 
 and when afterwards the Norman, few but powerful, occupied 
 every place of rank and dignity, and owned every rood of land, 
 whilst the Saxon, far more numerous but despised and de- 
 graded, toiled as his servant upon his estates — the Norman the 
 "quality," the Saxon merely the "quantity " of the dual population. 
 
 "My" — the first syllable of the name "Myton" — presents 
 greater difficulties to one who would fain hear the story it has to 
 tell. More than one word may be taken from the Saxon tongue 
 of which it may not unreasonably be a corruption or contraction. 
 There are the words Midi and Middcl, meaning " mid, middle," 
 so often found more or less corrupted in the names of Anglo- 
 Saxon towns, such as Midhurst, Melton, Middleton, Middleham, 
 and the like ; but I cannot find or suggest any appropriateness in 
 
 (18) In the tun-moot the serf had no place or voice. 
 
26 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 Midd-tun, or Mid-ton, i.e. the township midway between any other 
 two settlements, although as the name of the manor is sometimes 
 rendered " Mitton " (a very obvious corruption of Mid-ton) in 
 later days when a word was spelt as it was spoken, some show of 
 plausibility is lent to such an etymology. That form of th&uame, 
 however, is exceptional, being probably due to an error of pro- 
 nunciation, and the true reading must lie deeper than the mere 
 surface. 
 
 The natural situation of the township may prove the key to 
 unlock the riddle, and I venture to suggest the Saxon word 
 Mythe, the mouth of a stream, as the true etymon ; finding in its 
 peculiar locality the real origin of its name as Mythe-tun, the 
 township at the mouth of a stream, and in that very name some 
 evidence of its being a very early settlement of the Engles in 
 Deifyr, if not their very first, f 19 ) In Domesday Book, where we 
 find the first mention made of Myton, it appears amongst the 
 berewicks of the manor of Ferriby as Mitune. The sound of the 
 final e in the first syllable of Mythe-tun would naturally be lost 
 in general pronunciation ; and Mitune would be exactly the form 
 in which the native word would be rendered by the Norman com- 
 missioner whose own mode of speech knew no th sound. ( 20 ) If 
 this derivation be correct, then, in the use of the word Mythe in 
 naming the settlement, mouth of a stream, instead of Mutha, 
 mouth of a river, is there not, first, a distinction naturally 
 suggested between the mighty Humber and the small Hull which 
 flowed into it ; secondly, an inference that the old river Hull 
 emptied itself into the Humber through a narrow channel ; and, 
 thirdly, a hint of the reason why the former in after years 
 became warped up and forsaken of its waters ? 
 
 In Myln or My ten, a mill, a not improbable etymology is 
 suggested, giving us Myln-tun — the mill-town. Mills are known 
 to be of very great antiquity in England ; and under the old 
 
 (19) I would imply here that the colony was too new amongst the Engles to reoeive any 
 name but one suggested by the natural features of the locality. It was the township at the 
 mouth of the first stream of any magnitude which they met with as they passed up the 
 Humber. 
 
 (20) Thus in Domesday Book Thornton is Torenton, Thonithorp is Torntorp, and 
 examples might be multiplied. 
 
Of the Etymology of the Name u My ton." 27 
 
 manorial system the lord's mill was a very important feature 
 in the manor, since nowhere else was the villein permitted to 
 grind his corn. According to the better opinion, windmills were 
 not known in England until after the Norman Conquest, the 
 molcndinum of Domesday Book being always a water-mill. The 
 right bank of the old river Hull, being the eastern boundary of 
 the lordship of Ferriby, would afford precisely the situation for 
 the proprietor's mill or mills, around which there would naturally 
 gather granaries for storage, and cottages for the millers and 
 labourers, the whole probably enclosed and forming an area 
 which would emphatically be known as the Myln-twi. In 
 this way the hamlet of Myton might possibly have grown up 
 within the great lordship of Ferriby, after the latter had been 
 formed, as only a berewick from its commencement (the Saxon 
 significance of a berewick being a barley-village, a corn-farm, or 
 grange), instead of being, as I have rather suggested, of much 
 older foundation, and become merely a berewick of Ferriby 
 manor by decadence. This the critical reader must decide. 
 Ducange defines a berewick to have been a village, or any hamlet 
 within a manor, which is consistent with either theory ; yet as 
 neither Domesday Book nor the Liber Melse in after years makes 
 any mention of a mill at Myton, the weight of argument seems in 
 favour of the previous etymology. 
 
 Nevertheless, this district we know has for many centuries 
 been remarkable for the number of windmills. Three are shewn 
 within Myton in the plan which Mr. Frost reproduces as his 
 frontispiece from the Cotton MSS., and to which he ascribes the 
 date of 1350 or thereabouts. In Speed's plan of Hull circa 
 1610 no less than six windmills are depicted within Myton, and 
 in close proximity to the town's western wall, clearly shewing 
 that even allowing for some poetic license on the part of the 
 draughtsman, windmills were then a prominent feature of the local 
 suburban landscape. The curious plan discovered by Frost in 
 Mesner's Libellus Novus, dated sometime about 1638, exhibits 
 two windmills in Myton ; and it is remarkable in connection with 
 a theory as to the course of the old river Hull ventilated later in 
 
28 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 these pages, that in all the plans I have mentioned the mills are 
 placed very near to the town's western boundary. Assuming that 
 such mills stood upon the sites of Anglo-Saxon watermills, but 
 now using wind-power as the change of the river's course 
 westerly had deprived them of the more certain water-power, 
 forcible corroboration of my suggestions is afforded by their 
 situation as shewn in the plans alluded to. 
 
 Frost himself, in his own theoretical sketch-plan of the 
 appearance of the town at the commencement of the fourteenth 
 century, gives two mills in Myton, each standing in amilne-croft. 
 These he places farther from the town's wall than does any other 
 chartographer, yet still to the west of what he suggests as the 
 original flow of the river. In this respect he was no doubt 
 influenced by the same consideration, namely that the windmills 
 near Hull stood within the manor of Myton near the right bank 
 of old Hull, just as any Anglo-Saxon watermills which might 
 have preceded them would in their day have stood within the 
 berewick of Myton. 
 
 It is curious that Hollar's careful and minute plan of the 
 town, of about the same date as Mesner's, ( 21 ) shews no mills 
 Within Myton. 
 
 21) Mesner's plan is very evidently a rough copy of Speed's. 
 
III. 
 
 OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 MANOR OF MYTON. 
 
III. 
 
 OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 MANOR OF MYTON. 
 
 'r'WSr'' ^^ recorded history of the Manor of Myton commences 
 jj£§£f with a brief entry in Domesday Book. Yet its very 
 ji f^Pi^l appearance there, as also its name, sufficiently in- 
 dicates, as we have seen, a much greater antiquity than 1085, 
 the year of the Norman survey, notwithstanding the fact that the 
 district first emerges from the darkness of pre-historic times 
 in that careful report. 
 
 This entry is in itself replete with interest, especially in its 
 preservation of the name of the last owner of the property in 
 Anglo-Saxon times ; although the true significance of the inform- 
 ation afforded has so far escaped the observation of our historians. 
 
 That quaint but somewhat slipshod writer, Gent, who was 
 the first to publish any annals " Begioduni Hullini," conceals 
 the truth in the vague, irrelevant words, "Ferriby is mentioned " 
 — in Domesday Book — " as a manor, in which Edina enjoys 
 almost 1000 acres"; Tickell repeats Gent's words; Frost makes 
 no allusion to the matter at all ; whilst Sheahan, our latest 
 historian, is content to slightly vary Gent's expression, and writes 
 apropos of the manor of Ferriby — "Edina had nearly a thousand 
 acres in the same manor." 
 
 Such a meaningless statement as that just quoted is the 
 result of a careless mis-reading of the entry in Domesday Book, 
 which so far from having the barren aspect thus attributed to it, 
 is in reality of considerable value. 
 
 The exact wording of the Norman record, of which a fac-simile 
 reproduction has been made by Messrs. Goddard & Son, of Hull, 
 as a frontispiece for this volume, is as follows : — 
 
32 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 \ In Fcrebl h'b' Eddiua. x. car' t're ad g'UV . t'ra. e' 
 ad. v. car'. Badulph h't ibi n'c xiiij uill' cu' 
 Hi car.' 
 
 "Ibi p'b'r & cccl'a. T.B.E. ml', c. sol.' n' Ix. sol'. 
 " Ad hoc M' p'tinent lie Bercw'. Vmlouebi ii bo'. Walbi i c'. 
 Bipinglia' x bo'. Tosted i car'. Mitune i c' A dim'. Vluar 
 dune d' c'. Hasc i c' . 
 
 " Simul ad g'ld'. vi. car' t're & dimidia. t'ra e' ad iiij. car'. 
 Wasta sunt hec p'tcr q'd in hase sunt iiij uill' i cu' . i car' " ; 
 and these details are given under the titles " Evrvicscire, Terra 
 Badul'h De Hortemer, Est-reding, Hase Hvndrct." 
 
 Such is the original entry which, to quote Gent's quaint 
 phraseology, is "thus render'd " : — 
 
 jjOBKSHIBE. Land of Ealph de Mortemer. East 
 Biding. Hessle Hundred. 
 
 " Manor. In Ferriby Eddiva had ten 
 carucates of land to be taxed. There is land to five ploughs. 
 Ralph now has there fourteen villeins with three ploughs. 
 
 " There is a priest and a church. Value in the time of 
 King Edward five pounds, now three pounds. 
 
 " To this manor belong these Berewicks : Anlaby, two 
 oxgangs; Wauldby, one carucate ; Riplingham, ten oxgangs ; 
 Tosted, one carucate ; Myton, one carucate and a half ; 
 Wolfreton, half a carucate; Hessle, ( 22 ) one carucate. 
 
 " In the whole there are six carucates and a half of land to 
 be taxed. There is land to four ploughs. 
 
 " All these are waste ; save that in Hessle there are four 
 villeins with one plough." 
 
 The carucate, a carvage or a carve of land, was a quantity 
 of arable land somewhat roughly estimated as that which could 
 be tilled in a year, or in a year and a day, by one plough, its 
 extent varying from sixty to one hundred and twenty acres in 
 
 (22) Later in Domesday Book, amongst the lands in the East Riding of Yorkshire of 
 Gislebert Tison (William's standard-bearer), Ymlouebi and /Awe appear as manors: the 
 former having a plough and seven villeins on it; the latter having a church, a priest, two 
 bordars, seventeen villeins, and four ploughs, its dimensions being given as a mile long, and 
 half a mile broad. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 33 
 
 different counties and according to the diverse natures of soils, but 
 its average size being generally agreed at one hundred acres. In 
 like manner the bovate or oxgang, that is as much land as one ox 
 or ox-team could plough in a year, is usually held to have con- 
 tained as a mean fifteen acres, although differing in precise size in 
 different localities ; so that understanding these ancient land- 
 measures in an average sense we find Ecldiva (not Edina) to have 
 been the owner in the time of Edward the Confessor of Ferriby 
 manor, containing one thousand acres of arable land, and a 
 proprietor also, as a member or parcel of that lordship, of Myton 
 berewick with its one hundred and fifty acres of cultivated soil. 
 The possessions of Eddiva, or, as she is occasionally termed in 
 Domesday Book, Editha, appear to have been fairly extensive in 
 this part of the East-Riding, since she is noted as the former lady 
 of seven manors in Hessle hundred, and of five manors in " Scard " 
 hundred, such as Kirk-Ella, Wressle, Breighton, Newsham, Lund, 
 Thornton, Melbourne, &c, with their appendant berewicks and 
 sokes. Who was this evidently wealthy lady, and what was her 
 position in the land before William and his vavasors came to 
 treat the Anglo-Saxons as their ancestors had treated the Britons 
 five centuries before ? 
 
 She was a royal and most unfortunate lady, twice forced by 
 policy into a loveless marriage, twice widowed by violence, and 
 very directly connected with a main crisis in our national history. 
 
 Generally spoken of in Domesday Book as Eddiva or 
 Ediva ( 23 ), and called by some of our historians Edith 
 from a Latinised form of her name, she was known to the Anglo- 
 Saxon people, to the tenants of her manor of Ferriby, and to the 
 dwellers within her berewick of Myton, as Algitha, the lady of 
 England, the second wife of Harold, the last of the Saxon kings. 
 A sister of the ill-fated Earls Edwin and Morcar, she was 
 the elder daughter of iElfgar, or Algar, earl of Mercia, him- 
 self the eldest son and heir of that Leofric whom Canute created 
 earl of Mercia about 1018, by his wife, the ever-famous Lady 
 
 (23) Vide " Annals of England," Vol. I., pp. 148-9, and Domesday Book passim. 
 
34 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 Godiva, whose well-know liberation of the citizens of Coventry 
 from oppressive customs and exactions still forms the theme of 
 painter and of poet. 
 
 Of this beautiful and devout countess the lady Algitha was the 
 first-born grandchild ; and she too, like her second husband, was 
 twice married ; first to Gryffyn or Gryffyth, king of South Wales, 
 whose tragic death under the daggers of his own people is so 
 graphically described by Lord Lytton in " Harold, the Last of 
 the Saxons," and secondly, for reasons of state-craft and to unite 
 two powerful rival families, to Harold, who was then a widower. 
 
 Very early, consequently, in the history of a portion of the site 
 of our modern town, we find it a royal possession ; a part, however 
 insignificant, of the property of that twice-bereaved queen who 
 lost her second lord on the fatal field of Senlac ; a field fateful as 
 well as fatal, for out of the blood-stained ashes of its watch-fires 
 sprang the marvellous Phoenix, England's empire of to-day. 
 
 The entries in Domesday Book of so many properties in York- 
 shire as formerly belonging to Algitha, or to her brothers both 
 Edwin and Morcar, the latter of whom owned several manors 
 in Holderness, including those of Withernsea and Hornsea, 
 would seem to imply that her family held large estates north of 
 the H umber, and that the manor of Ferriby, with its 
 appendant berewicks, was part of the dowry she took to King 
 Harold. Of all, however, they were ultimately dispossessed by the 
 ruthless Conqueror ; and so far as Lady Algitha is concerned, the 
 list of Yorkshire claims in Domesday Book records briefly that 
 Ralph de Mortemer " had Ediva's land." 
 
 It is not quite easy to account for the possession by a daughter 
 of Alfgar of these estates in Northumbria. Certainly it would 
 appear from Dugdale's researches that they were not any portion 
 of her family's original possessions, nor inherited by or conferred 
 upon her ex parte pater ml or ex •parte mater nd. It is true that 
 the great rival families of Leofric and Godwin — both Englishmen, 
 probably of obscure origin, and owing their elevation to services 
 rendered to Canute — divided betwixt them all England under the 
 Crown, so that their earldoms almost overshadowed the realm ; 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 35 
 
 yet iElfgar's portion was only the great central earldom of Mercia, 
 Harold and his brothers holding Wessex, Kent, Essex, and East 
 Anglia, and Tostig Northurnbria, having been appointed to that 
 earldom by the Witenagemot upon Siward's death early in 1055. 
 But, as we know, ten years later the people of Northurnbria rose 
 against Tostig's government whilst he was absent at Britford, in 
 Wiltshire, with the king, seized his treasures, slew his house- 
 carles, and declared him outlaw, choosing for his successor 
 iElfgar's son, and Algitha's brother, Earl Morcar. The latter 
 promptly entered into the enjoyment of the powers, prerogatives, and 
 profits of this rich earldom, which he held at the time of Harold's 
 politic marriage with his sister ; so that the manors and estates 
 Algitha possessed in the south-eastern portion of Northurnbria 
 may have been Morcar's gift to her, perhaps as a marriage 
 portion when her hand united the two families for a time. 
 
 But to resume. A further light is thrown by Domesday 
 Book upon the past of Myton, a lurid light casting far into after 
 centuries grim shadows of ruin and despair. The laconic 
 statement that the berewicks of Ferriby manor were then 
 (1085) "waste" — save four villeins and a plough in " Hase " 
 — would seem to imply that Myton had shared in a far heavier 
 calamity than the mere loss of Saxon lady for Norman lord ; 
 and that upon Myton and its companion hamlets had fallen a 
 bitter portion of the terrible vengeance which the Conqueror took 
 for the capture of York, with its concomitant slaughter of three 
 thousand Normans, by Edgar Atheling and Sweyn of Denmark 
 in 1069. From the Humber to the Tyne William devastated the 
 country, sweeping over it in a whirlwind of sword and flame ; 
 and in this terrible tempest of his wrath Myton must have 
 suffered its " baptism of fire." Sixteen years had come and gone 
 since that fearful visitation and the appearance on the scene of 
 the Norman commissioners, and still the land lay bare ! 
 
 Of Balph de Mortemer, successor in ownership to the un- 
 happy lady Algitha, it may be briefly stated that he was of Duke 
 William's kin, and accompanied his great relative to the invasion 
 of England, "being," writes Dugdale, " one of the chiefest com- 
 
36 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 mandei-s in his whole army." He took part in 1088 in the 
 rising against William Rufus, headed by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 
 in favour of Robert Curthose ; but returned to his allegiance and 
 was received into favour again two years later. At the time of 
 the Domesday survey he held eighteen lordships in Yorkshire, 
 and more than one hundred in other counties. His descendant, 
 Edmund de Mortemer, held Ferriby manor and Myton in a 
 technical feudal sense, as chief lord of the fee under the king, 
 when Edward the First purchased Myton and Wyk. 
 
 A lapse of seventy-five years occurs after the Domesday sur- 
 vey before any further mention of Myton can be found. During 
 this period, as I gather from the charter shortly to be mentioned, 
 two important changes had taken place, or rather, one change 
 had been accomplished, and another was then in slow 
 progress within the district. The berewick had been elevated 
 into a lordship, owing to the erection within its precincts by its 
 Norman proprietor of an Aula, Mote-Hall, or place where a court 
 for the manor could be held, owing, perhaps, to the second of 
 the two changes alluded to, viz., the gradual growth at the old 
 mouth of the river Hull of a little trading port or village, what 
 may be described (using the word tun as meaning hamlet) as a 
 hamlet within the hamlet — an increase of population and homes 
 just at the particular point within the manor where could be felt 
 the first faint pulsations of that mighty trade which has made 
 modern Hull the third seaport in the United Kingdom. As a 
 purely agricultural district Myton contained within itself no 
 material for improvement or development ; but the vast value in 
 the latter respect of its boundary river where it emptied itself in- 
 to the great Humber sea, was a testimony to the unconscious 
 sagacity of the first English invaders who there founded a settle- 
 ment. Hence we shall see by the charter in question how 
 important this especial portion of the lordship had become, as 
 distinct from what we may term the purely farming residue, in 
 the ninety odd years of quiet life which had passed since 
 William's mad and disastrous foray. 
 
 A third change, or rather a reversal of the first change, may 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 37 
 
 also be noted as of some importance. The Aula, built as I sur- 
 mise by Ealph de Mortemer, had fallen into complete decay, 
 owing to what reasons or neglect " the ingenious reader " must 
 imagine for himself. This is the more difficult to understand 
 because, as we have seen, there could not be a manor without a 
 court, so that the Manor-House, or Court-House, was the out- 
 ward and visible sign, the hall-mark as it were, of a manor ; 
 indeed the Manor-House is frequently described in legal docu- 
 ments as itself the manor, thus illustrating the essential 
 importance of that feature of the lordsnip. Consequently 
 where there was no Mote- Hall presumably there was no manor ; 
 and it is remarkably consistent with these ideas that the district 
 of Myton with its ruined Court-House is not called a manor, or 
 the manor of Myton, in the charter shortly to be quoted, nor 
 afterwards until Edward the Second had built there a new Manor 
 House. 
 
 When after seventy-five years of obscurity Myton again 
 appears on record it was once more the property of a woman, 
 though not one of noble or even important family, Maud or 
 Matilda Gamin, a lady — judging by her name — of Norman 
 descent, and who afterwards married one Robert de Melsa, 
 evidently a member of a Holderness family. 
 
 It is clear from the wording of her charter that Maud 
 Camin had inherited Myton with its Wyk, or harbour, as the 
 heiress at law, from which we must gather she was the only 
 surviving child of her father, Hugh Camin ; but from whom he 
 had acquired the lordship, or of whom he held it feudally under 
 the De Mortemers, is doubtful. It appears from certificates 
 returned in the reign of Henry the Second of knights' 
 fees held in Yorkshire, that Matilda, the daughter of Hugh 
 Camin, then held one knight's fee de antiquo feudo under Robert 
 de Stuteville of Cottingham, and the fourth part of another knight's 
 fee under Everard de Ros, lord of Roos in Holderness ; and as 
 the extent of the knight's fee was twelve carucates, or twelve 
 hundred acres, these certificates account for a sufficiently 
 extensive ownership — fifteen hundred acres in all — on her 
 
38 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 part (-*). She could not, however, have held Myton lordship 
 and harbour under either De Stuteville or De Eos ; and as it is 
 stated in Kirkby's Inquest (1284-5) that Myton was of the 
 fee of De Vesci, and that Gilbert de Aton then held the 
 whole, the probability is that Myton was held by Maud Camin 
 of a De Aton, who held of a De Vesci, who held of a De 
 Morteiner, who held of the king in capita. In this I am con- 
 firmed by a grant of portions of the manor made by William de 
 la Pole, junior, in 1346, which describes the property as "of the 
 fee of Aton." 
 
 The charter previously alluded to is a grant without date from 
 Maud Camin to the Abbey of Meaux of a considerable portion of 
 Myton lordship, the growing importance of its harbour as a seat 
 of trade being emphasised by its peculiar and especial mention. 
 The document in question, which is the oldest deed in existence 
 relating to any part of Hull, is still preserved amongst the 
 archives of the town ; and Frost, who must be acknowledged 
 the discoverer of it, gives an admirable facsimile reproduction of 
 it between pages 8 and 9 of his most valuable work, " Notices 
 Relative to the Early History of the Town and Port of 
 Hull." He ascribes to it, no doubt quite correctly, the date of 
 circa 1160; and although he gives a full translation of it in a 
 foot-note, no work seeking to deal especially with Myton could 
 be deemed at all complete, or of value for use by future writers, 
 unless it set out this most interesting document ipsissimis verbis, 
 which even at the risk of being tedious I must do. 
 
 MI'IB'S s'c'ematris" — the charter runs — " eccViefiliis 
 p'sentib' q'm futuris visuris et audituris litteras has 
 Mathildis Camin filie Hitgonis Camin sal 'f : Sciatis 
 me dimisisse ac vendidisse Monachis de Melsa integre duas 
 partes terre pat'monii mei del Wye de Mitune, & t'tc 
 integerrime diias partes pat'monii mei de Sevenstanghes & 
 quatuor bovatas terre in territorio p'dicte ville dc Mitune, 
 
 (24) She would discharge by proxies, of course, the feudal conditions of her tenure, 
 which bound her as the owner of a knight's fee to serve De Stuteville for forty days, and, as 
 the owner of a quarter of a knight's fee, to servo De Ros for ten days, annually, if called 
 upon, in the wars, armed and equipped as a knight, and at her own expense. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 39 
 
 vid'l'c't Mas iiij bovatas que p'tinucr't ad parte 1 meam qu' 
 terra divisa fait bit' me & d'nam Anor matre' meam, <£• 
 pastura' octingentis ooibus, cum om'ib's aliis p'tincnciis int'a 
 villam et ext'a, ita t'n q'd tres bovate Me qu' in p'dicta villa 
 remane't 'd meo feodo possint habere tantiC pasture quam 
 p'tinet ad tres alias bovatas quas monachi tenent in cade' villa: 
 Vcndidi ecia' eisdc' monachis toftn' in quo Aula sitafuit, cu' 
 om'ib' toftis que p'tinuer't ad p'dicta' partem mea', ct 
 sedem uni' piscarie in Hombro, & duas partes saltinaru' 
 feodi mm in eade'villa, et duas partes del Cotecroft, ct duas 
 partes de Lancroft, code' modo quo p'dictc partes divise 
 fueru't qu' predicti terra de Mitone partita fuit hit' me £ 
 anteno'i'ata Anor matre' meam : Et totu' doninicu' meum 
 p'dicti ville sicut remansit in mea parte & ad men' opus ea 
 die qu' Ma partitio facta fuit int' me et matre' meam, cu' 
 om'ib's p'tinentiis int'a villam & ext'a, absq tillo retenemento 
 vendidi p'fatis monachis pro qiiat' viginti & undcci' marcis 
 argenti quas m'chi dederunt : Et conccdo £ p'scntis carte 
 testimonio confirmo cccl'ie p'dictc Mclse q't'm p'dicta om'ia de 
 me & de he 'dib's meis in p'petuam elemosina' teneant liberam cib 
 om'i t'reno servicio q'd ad me ut ad liercdes mcos p'tineat: salvo 
 t'm' forinseco servicio qu'to p'tinet ad alias quatuor bovatas 
 terre in cade' villa de code' tcnemento, exceptis comitatib' <t 
 wapenta'es & trithinges wide ego et he'des mei monachos p'fate 
 cccl'ie om'ino acquictabim : Et cu' om'b's aliis lib'tatib's £ 
 liberis consuetudinib's p'fati monachi p'dicta om'ia ita lib'e 
 teneant ct habcant sic ego ut aliquis ancessor' meor' ea cunq'a 
 liberi tcnuim' in p'tis in pasturis in agris in aq's in vy's in 
 semitis et in om'ib's aliis aisiamentis int' villam ct extra : Hcc 
 om'ia ut predicta su't tenenda & ad opus cccl'ie de Mclsa & 
 monachor' ibide' D'o servient'm erga om's ho'i'es ivarcntizanda 
 absq' malo ingenio affidavi in manu Basilic, filic Odonis de 
 Frieboys, A tactis sacrosc'is evang'liis jurcjurando con- 
 firmavi coram li'is testib's ; Joh'e sae'dote de Wagna, Bicardo 
 filio Sehcrij de Sutton, Wi'llmo de Emminghebure, Ganfrido 
 sae'dote fre Badulfi de Dudinghcton, Thomap'sona dc Wagna, 
 
40 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 Tlioma f're B'n'dicti d' Sculecothes, Petro filio Joh'is d' Melsa, 
 StepJi'o le blachc, Rob'to fil' Scherij suttun, Bicard' fil' 
 Baldirini, Basilia uxore Bicard' de sutton, Xr'iana uxore 
 B'n'dicti d' sculecothes, Aldured uxore Thorn' d' Buda, 
 Mathilda uxore Rob'ti d' Swin', Juliana uxore Bicard' d' 
 Wagna, Rob'to fil' Bicard' d' scurcs, Ada' & Alexand' filiis 
 Joli'i sac'dotis." 
 
 The charter, as will be seen on reference to Frost, is a beauti- 
 ful specimen of caligraphy, but the seal attached is of rude work- 
 manship and design, and bears the legend, " Sigilum Matild* 
 Camin." 
 
 This very interesting document may be (to quote Gent again) 
 " thus translated " : 
 
 j|0 all sons of Holy Mother Church, present or to come, 
 by whom these Letters shall be seen and heard, 
 greeting from Matilda Camin, the daughter of Hugh 
 Camin : Know ye that I have demised and sold to the monks 
 of Melsa the whole two parts of the land of my patrimony of 
 the Wye of Myton [in the original "Mitune," exactly as in 
 Domesday Book] and all the most entire two parts of my 
 patrimony of Sevenstanghes, and four bovates of land in the 
 territory of the aforesaid town of Myton, that is to say those 
 four bovates which were assigned to me when the land was 
 partitioned between the lady Anor, my mother, and myself, and 
 pasture for eight hundred sheep, with all other appurtenances 
 within the township and without; so, nevertheless, that those 
 three bovates in the township which still remain of my fee may 
 have as much pasturage as is enjoyed by three other bovates 
 which the monks already hold in the same township : And I 
 have also sold to the same monks the toft ( 2S ) in which 
 the Court-House formerly stood, together with all the 
 tofts appertaining to my aforementioned part, and the 
 place of one fishery in the Humber, and the two parts 
 of the salt pits of my fee in the same township, and two 
 
 (25) An enclosed piece of ground ; usually, the curtilage of a dwelling house; strictly, the 
 enclosed site of a decayed residence, 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 41 
 
 parts of the Cotecroft f 26 ) and two parts of Lancroft, in such 
 wise as the aforesaid parts (or premises) were divided (or 
 allotted to me) when the aforesaid land of Myton (Mitone) was 
 partitioned betwixt the beforenamed Anor, my mother, and 
 myself : And all my lordship of the aforesaid township as it 
 remained on my part and to my use on the day when the 
 said partition was made betwixt my mother and myself, 
 with all its appurtenances within the township and without, 
 I have sold, without any reservation, to the aforesaid monks 
 for fourscore and eleven marks of silver, which they have paid : 
 And I do grant and by the witness of this present charter do 
 confirm unto the aforesaid church of Melsa that they shall 
 hold all the premises of me and my heirs in perpetual alms ( 27 ), 
 free from all earthly service which might be due to me or to 
 my heirs, saving nevertheless such special service ( 28 ) as per- 
 tains to four other bovates of land of the same holding 
 (or tenure) in the said township, county, wapentake, and 
 tithing dues excepted, from which I and my heirs shall 
 wholly acquit the monks of the aforesaid church ; and with 
 all other liberties and free customs the aforesaid monks shall 
 have and hold all the premises as freely as ever I or any 
 of my ancestors held the same, in meadow, pasture, field and 
 water, in road and way, and in all other easements within 
 the township and without. And that all the premises shall be 
 held and warranted to the use of the church of Melsa and of 
 the monks there serving God against all men, I have sworn 
 without evil intent (or mental reservation) in the hand of 
 Basilia, the daughter of Odo de Frieboys, and making oath, 
 whilst touching the most holy gospels, have confirmed 
 
 (26) A croft was a small piece of ground attached to a house for pasture, or cultivation, 
 or other like purpose. Also a very small farm or agricultural holding. 
 
 (27) This was the feudal tenure of Frankalmoigne—& spiritual tenure under which religious 
 corporations held lands of their donors to them and their successors for ever, discharged 
 from all services except the Trinoda necetsitas, i.e., Bryge-bdt for keeping in repair roads 
 and bridges, Bunj-bdt for maintenance of fortresses, and Fyrd for keeping up the military 
 and naval services of the kingdom. 
 
 (28) Forinstcum servitium was an aid quite extra to the ordinary feudal aids, such as an 
 extraordinary money grant to the Crown by the House of Commons ; the origin of our modern 
 system of taxation. 
 
42 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 before these witnesses : — John, priest of Wawne, Eichard, 
 son of Saer of Sutton, William of Hemingbrough, Ganfred 
 the priest, brother of Ralph Duddington, Thomas, the parson 
 of Wawne, Thomas, the brother of Benedict of Sculcoates, 
 Peter, son of John of Melsa, Stephen le Blache ( 29 ), Robert, 
 son of Saer Sutton, Richard, son of Baldwin, Basilia, the 
 wife of Richard of Sutton, Christiana, the wife of Benedict of 
 Sculcoates, Aldured, the wife of Thomas of Roos, Matilda, 
 the wife of Robert of Swine, Juliana, the wife of Richard of 
 Wawne, Robert, son of Richard de Scures, Adam and 
 Alexander, sons of John the priest." 
 
 The above document is not too precise in its expressions, nor 
 is it possible to gather from it the exact area or situation of the 
 lordship, or decayed manor, of Myton. It is evident, however, that 
 the deceased Hugh Camin had been solely seised of the lordship 
 and wyk for an estate of inheritance in fee simple, that is had 
 been what is popularly known as the sole and absolute owner of 
 them, and had died so seised leaving behind him a relict, Dame 
 Anor, and an only child, Maud. The former as the widow was 
 entitled by law to have one equal third part of her late husband's 
 lands allotted to her, to be enjoyed by her in severalty during 
 the remainder of her life, as her dower ; and it is very clear from 
 the daughter's charter that a partition had been made accordingly 
 betwixt herself and her mother, so that the " two parts " (duas 
 partes) of the lands, crofts, and salt pits which she had sold to 
 the monks of Meaux Abbey, were ascertained, divided, and 
 recognisable portions of the properties, and not the uncertain 
 quantities which the words would seem at first sight to imply. 
 
 It would further appear that the lordship, using this word in 
 the sense of district not of seigniory, was already considerably 
 inclosed. We read of Cotecroft and Lancroft, of the toft where- 
 in the Hall once stood, and of other tofts, all of which would be 
 inclosures, and the " Sevenstanghes " mentioned in the third line of 
 the charter was something of the same sort. Frost has un- 
 accountably translated the word as a measure of land, " seven 
 
 (29) Qy. the corn-dealer. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 43 
 
 stangs," a rendering superficially supported by the immediate 
 context, " sevenstanghes and four bovates of land ; " although in 
 the appendix to his work he himself gives some extracts from the 
 Chartulary of Meaux Abbey, which clearly show his reading to be 
 erroneous, and that Sevenstanghes was a proper name, a separa- 
 ted portion of Myton necessary to be specially mentioned in a 
 legal document. One of these excerpts describes the above sale 
 as of Maud's patrimony " del Wyk de Myton et Sevenstanges ; " 
 and another speaks of a meadow in Myton as " abutting on the 
 west upon Sevenstanges." Moreover, in a deed afterwards to be 
 mentioned, and dated eighty years later than Maud Camin's 
 charter, Sevenstangs is mentioned as "a sheep meadow called 
 La Sevenstanges." 
 
 The total quantity of the arable portion of the township or 
 berewick of Myton is given, it will be remembered, in Domesday 
 Book as one carucate and a half, equivalent to ten bovates or ox- 
 gangs taken at fifteen acres each. This quantity, though sub- 
 sequently more than once confirmed, is not supported by Maud 
 Camin's deed. That document speaks of four bovates allotted 
 to Maud upon the partition with her mother, of three bovates 
 remaining of her fee, and which I take to be the three bovates 
 allotted to Dame Anor for her life, and of three other bovates 
 already possessed by the monks in the township, so making up 
 the proper ten bovates, or one hundred and fifty acres ; but then 
 goes on to refer, though very vaguely, to four more bovates of 
 land in the township of the same holding or fee, which bring up the 
 total to fourteen bovates, or two hundred and ten acres, an 
 amount quite irreconcilable with Domesday Book and later 
 authorities, and not explainable. 
 
 The meadows and common pastures of the township must have 
 been extensive, since the charter expressly grants grazing rights 
 for eight hundred of the abbey sheep, whilst reserving for the 
 three bovates of land unsold as much pasturage as was appur- 
 tenant to the three bovates already owned by the monks, thus 
 implying that the above large number of sheep by no means 
 exhausted the feeding capabilities of the lordship. We also read 
 
44 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 afterwards of robberies of sheep from Myton common by men of 
 Swanland, from which we must gather that such common ex- 
 tended considerably to the westwards. 
 
 Probably the boundaries of the township of Myton had been 
 from of old as follows : on the east the right bank of the old Hull, 
 on the north in part the southern edge of the manor of Sculcoates, 
 and in part some line or feature of the ground now represented 
 by the Spring-dike, on the south the broad Humber, and on the 
 west the eastern bounds of the berewicks of Anlaby and Hessle. 
 These limits, which cannot be more exactly fixed, give the best 
 idea that can now be arrived at of the situation and size of the old 
 Anglo-Saxon township, the subsequent berewick, and later manor, 
 of Myton. Within this area must have lain Cotecroft and Lan- 
 croft and Sevenstangs ; so that they were originally, whatever they 
 may have been at the time of Maud Camin's charter, a portion of 
 Myton. Yet, as regards the last named, the especial mention of it 
 made in the Abbey Chartulary raises a strong presumption that at 
 the date we are now arrived at it was regarded as independent 
 of Myton. The name itself is faintly suggestive of some small 
 meadow or field named from its size, seven stangs or seven poles, 
 or of some area contained within seven wooden fences, or entered 
 by a seven-barred gate ; and this, with the fact that it was a 
 pasture for sheep, is all the light time has left on the subject. 
 
 No mention is made in the charter, it will be observed, of any 
 windmill or watermill, a nature of property that would assuredly 
 have been expressly described in the grant had any such existed at 
 the time. Nor in the Chartulary of Meaux Abbey is any mill in 
 Myton alluded to, whilst in the deed referred to on the preceding 
 page two windmills are mentioned, a strong inference conse- 
 quently arising that there were no mills within Myton prior to its 
 acquisition by Edward I., which is almost fatal to the etymology 
 suggested on p. 27 ante. 
 
 The next source of information on the subject of Myton is the 
 Liber Mclse, or Chronicle of the Cistercian Abbey at Meaux 
 in Holderness, compiled by Thomas de Burton, the nineteenth 
 abbot, who was elected to that office in the year 1396 and 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 45 
 
 resigned it in 1399, between which dates probably his history was 
 written. His material would be the existing archives of the 
 abbey, including, perhaps, an earlier chronicle, papal bulls, title 
 deeds, accounts of receipts and disbursements, and the like ; but 
 it must be borne in mind in referring to his work that he wrote 
 about Myton and Wyk and Kingston-upon Hull many years 
 after the last-named had been founded, and after such consider- 
 able changes had taken place in the locality as a complete altera- 
 tion in the course of the lower Hull, and the growth of a royal 
 borough upon the site of a former hamlet. His account of their 
 acquisition of the lordship and Wyk of Myton will therefore be 
 found somewhat lacking in clearness, and little better than a 
 brief recapitulation of Maud Camin's charter. 
 
 " In the time of Philip," second abbot — formerly prior of 
 Kirkstead, and whose period of office at Meaux was from 1160 to 
 1182 — "Eobert de Melsa," writes Burton, "son of John de 
 Melsa, gave us four bovates of land in Myton, and pasture for 
 four hundred sheep, and the bed of a fishery in the Humber, and 
 two parts of the salt pits, with that toft in which the Hall once 
 stood, with other their appurtenances, and the whole of his lord- 
 ship remaining in his hand when the said four bovates of land 
 were divided from three bovates which Anor, the wife of Hugh 
 Camyn, held there for her life ; all of which the said Eobert 
 received in marriage with Matilda, his wife, daughter of the said 
 Hugh and Anor. But the said three acres of land were afterwards 
 acquired by us in exchange, as afterwards will be mentioned. 
 Moreover the said Robert and Matilda, his wife, sold us as well two 
 parts of the land of his fee of the Wyk of Myton, and two parts of 
 the land of his fee of Sevenstanges, and pasturage for four hun- 
 dred sheep upon Myton common. In like manner Galfrid and Brito 
 de Buggethorpe sold us two bovates of land there ; Thomas, son of 
 Benedict de Sculcoates, one bovate ; and Lambert Camyn, a toft. 
 All of which the said Robert and Matilda confirmed to us, saving 
 always to them and their heirs such special service as was due in 
 respect of all their lands." Then, in a passage not so easy to 
 understand, he adds : — " William de Sutton and Benedict de 
 
46 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 Sculcottes gave us the remaining part -of the Wyk (reliquam 
 partem del Wyk) which had been within the ditches or without 
 (quicquid intra fossata fuerat vel extra) up to the middle of old 
 Hull, in which place our grange used to be." 
 
 The whole of this section of the chronicle, which is headed 
 "Of lands and tenements in Myton and Wyk," is sufficiently 
 interesting to the student of the days of old to bear full setting 
 out, even though a little foreign to the immediate subject. 
 
 " As much as," continues the narrator, apparently alluding 
 to the remaining part of the Wyk, "with a few lands in the 
 midst, Humber and old Hull (a certain torrent separating on the 
 west side the wapentakes of Holderness and Harthill) inclose on 
 the south, and originally belonged to Holderness. But because 
 new Hull was daily becoming larger to the eastwards of this very 
 Wyk, in the process of time old Hull, warping up, became 
 scarcely worth calling a sewer. So now the fact is that this same 
 new Hull, which from of old was called Sayercyk, a great river, 
 is the division between Holderness and Harthill ; and Wyk, 
 therefore, ought to be considered as within Harthill. Moreover, 
 our grange itself is now wholly laid waste, and its ruins can be 
 seen at the present time on the surface of a certain meadow still 
 called Grangwyk. Furthermore a new Manor-House ( 30 ) stands 
 in another part of the territory of Myton called Tuppcottes. 
 And for all the foregoing, with other lands and tenements in 
 Myton and Wyk and elsewhere acquired afterwards, we gave at 
 divers times, beyond lands in exchange, a hundred pounds and 
 more of sterling money, of which exchanges more in their place. 
 At which time " — I infer this to mean the period of their 
 acquisition of Wyk — " William de Stutevylla and Benedict de 
 Sculcotes were in the occupation of the largest portion of the com- 
 mon pasture of Myton and neighbouring hamlets, digging ditches 
 to drain Cotyngham marsh. And afterwards we gave the said 
 lands and tenements in Myton and Wyk to our lord, King 
 
 (80) The term used here "novum maiierium" clearly signifies to my mind a Manor- 
 House. That subsequently erected at Myton by Edward II. is styled in an Inq. p. m. 
 " quoddam mtm'itt'." 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 47 
 
 Edward the First, in exchange for lands elsewhere ; as will be 
 duly mentioned in the time of Roger, our 13th abbot. Furthermore 
 it may be mentioned that Benedict de Sculcottes begat Alicia, who 
 married William de Seynt Luce ; who had by her Beatrice ; who 
 married Robert de Gray ; who begat Walter ; who begat Robert ; 
 who begat John. Whose heir by succession, Sir Michael de la Pole, 
 earl of Suffolk, acquiring the lands of his inheritance in Sutton 
 and Sculcottes, gave them to the monastery of St. Michael, of the 
 Carthusian order, near Kingston-upon-Hull. Which monastery 
 was founded by Sir William de la Pole, the first mayor of King- 
 ston-upon-Hull, within the territory of Myton, upon the very 
 lands which we had given to the king in exchange, and which he 
 had obtained from the king. And without the gates of this 
 monastery he established a home for xiii. men and the like num- 
 ber of women, giving to each of them 8d. weekly ; and within the 
 building he proposed that monks from our own abbey should dwell ; 
 but failing to provide for their successors, he installed there a 
 college of six priests ; who were ultimately displaced on account 
 of the bitter quarrels amongst them. Then he placed there a con- 
 vent of friars minor, who also passed away from the scene. 
 And, finally, on Sir William's death, his son and heir, the said 
 Michael, established the Carthusians there about the year of Our 
 Lord 1376, who still remain there rich in lands and churches." 
 
 Some matter of antiquarian speculation is afforded as to the 
 respective situations of the Aula, or Court-House, and of the Abbey 
 Grange, mentioned in the earlier portion of the foregoing extract. 
 Frost remarks on the question that " upon the ' reliquam par- 
 tem del Wyk ' stood the Aula mentioned in the charter of Maud 
 Camin, which was used by the monks as a grange ; " and he sur- 
 mounts the difficulty caused by the reliquam partem del Wyk 
 being on the Holderness side of the Hull by adding as a foot-note, 
 — "There is nothing inconsistent in placing this Aula upon the 
 ' reliquam partem ' of Wyk, which was in Holderness, the Manor 
 of Myton itself being described as being within that district in a 
 grant from Edward III. to William de la Pole of ' Manerium de 
 Miton in Holdernesse.' " Here this usually so careful writer 
 
48 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 must be in error. It is clear that Maud Gamin's grant, including 
 the toft in which the Aula once stood, was of lands within My ton 
 only, and therefore lying to the west of old Hull ; whilst the 
 chronicle states distinctly that William de Sutton and Benedict 
 de Sculcoates gave to the monks the remaining part of the Wyk, 
 up to the middle (and eastward) of old Hull, in which place their 
 grange had stood (before Abbot Burton's time), and which had 
 originally belonged to Holderness. Maud Camin speaks of a Court- 
 House which had ceased to exist prior to 1160, the date of her 
 grant ; Abbot Burton of a grange the ruins of which were visible 
 so late as 1396, when he wrote. The site of each he ascribes to 
 different donors. Bobert de Melsa, he states, gave us the toft in 
 which the hall once stood; William de Sutton and Benedict de 
 Sculcoates gave us the place where our grange used to be ; and the 
 one building he calls aula, the other grangia. 
 
 My own view is that Maud Gamin's Aula was a Court-House 
 erected within and for Myton berewick (on the west side of old 
 Hull) by Ralph de Mortemer, its Norman owner, so as to con- 
 stitute it an independent manor. That for some reason or other, 
 and, perhaps, because the district was only sparsely inhabited, this 
 had fallen into neglect and utter decay ; yet the inclosed area 
 within which it had existed was of a sufficiently distinctive 
 character to need special mention in a deed of conveyance, for to 
 that little toft was attached and upon it depended the lordship, 
 dominicum, which went with the district. That upon their acquisi- 
 tion of the remaining part of the Wyk, which lay about the east 
 bank of old Hull, the monks built themselves a grange, or farm- 
 stead, upon their own side of the river ; and it is easy to account 
 for this building being always styled the grange of Myton since 
 it was built for the service of that lordship, and the change of the 
 course of the Hull to the eastwards of its original channel left it 
 geographically within Myton. 
 
 I apprehend that the grange in question was a purely agricul- 
 tural building, neither more nor less than a farmhouse with its 
 appropriate sheds and outbuildings ; and in no sense a Court- 
 House or Manor-Hall. That until its acquisition by King Edward 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 49 
 
 Myton was not a manor properly so called, as it lacked the 
 essential attributes of a Court and a Court-House, but only a lord- 
 ship of an inferior nature, entitling its proprietor to extensive 
 pasturage, and to quit rents from the other freeholders within it. 
 Nor does it seem that there were any villeins or copyhold tenants 
 on any part of the lordship until the time of Sir William de la 
 Pole ; certainly none are mentioned in the Liber Melsc. That 
 this view is a true one appears from the wording of Maud Camin's 
 charter, wherein the district is always called villa, a township, 
 and never manor. In a bull of Pope Alexander III., dated in 
 1172, and confirming to the monks their possession of the district, 
 it is alluded to as " the grange of Myton, with its appurtenances." 
 In a second bull the same Pope confirms to them, five years later, 
 " the lands which ye possess in Myton, the pastures and sheep- 
 cotes which belong to the grange ye have there." Later bulls 
 of Innocent III. and Gregory IX. relate to " the grange of Myton, 
 with its appurtenances ; " whilst King John's confirmatory 
 charter of 1205 speaks of the monks' " place and lands of their 
 grange of Myton ; " also mentioning, amongst other properties of 
 theirs, a fishery and cow pasture upon the Hull, and the 
 adjacent marsh of Sutton. In none of these documents is the 
 term manor used, Myton being alluded to simply as a large 
 farm (a 1 ). 
 
 Another point may be noticed here which somewhat puzzled 
 Frost as well as our earlier historians. 
 
 The mention in Maud Camin's charter, as afterwards in the 
 Liber Melse and other documents, of Wyk and Wyk-upon-Hull 
 distinct from Myton, and of a villa (which he renders town) of 
 Myton, as well as Myton lordship or manor (the villa de 
 Myton, moreover, being frequently alluded to after the royal 
 borough of Kingston-upon-Hull was in existence upon the site or, 
 
 (81) It is a curious proof of the importance of large buildings, in a day of small things in 
 the building line, that in all these documents the lands, pastures, and sheep-cotes of Myton 
 should be described as attached to the grange, which was built after the monks had acquired 
 them. No further detail was deemed necessary than a general statement that the broad 
 acres, &c, were the lands. &c, appertaining to the grange of Myton. 
 
50 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 rather, as an enlargement of Wykj ( 3 3 ) forced Frost to a conclusion 
 which he thus states. "In addition to the lordship of Myton 
 there was also a town which bore that name. This town has 
 long ago been lost ; it is probable that it was absorbed in the 
 increase of Wyke or Hull, but it is remarkable that neither any- 
 written document, nor the busy agency of tradition, has ever 
 marked the spot where it stood, or left any ground for conjecture 
 under what circumstances, or at what period, it ceased to exist." 
 
 I think this statement shews some misconception on his part. 
 So far as there ever was a distinct town of Myton it exists to-day, 
 as it possibly existed a thousand years ago ; nor has there been 
 at any time a solution of its continuity, notwithstanding Leland's 
 statement in the middle of the 16th century that " suburbes in 
 the out part of the towne be none." 
 
 I venture the suggestion that Frost in his previous remark has 
 missed the true interpretation of the matter, drawing much 
 nearer to it, however, in his surmise that " the difficulty at the 
 present day of fixing the locality of the town of Myton may arise 
 from the circumstance of its having consisted of houses built at a 
 distance from each other, and covering a considerable tract of 
 ground." 
 
 Now, as we have seen, the Anglo-Saxon township, afterwards 
 berewick, and later manor, of Myton comprised a somewhat 
 extensive area of ground, purely agricultural and pastoral, 
 occupied, probably, in the days when it was a berewick of Ferriby 
 manor and up to the time of Maud Camin's charter by a few 
 scattered sheep-folds and cattle-stalls, with the huts of the 
 shepherds and cowherds in charge of the flocks, and by a few 
 small farmsteads sheltering the cultivators of its hundred and 
 fifty acres of arable land. But about the embouchure of old 
 
 (82) For instance in the royal license which Sir Michael do la Pole obtained from 
 Richard II. to authorise his departure from his father's intentions by founding a Car- 
 thusian monastery near Hull in lieu of a convent for Sisters of the order of St. Clare, it is 
 recorded that Sir William de la Pole had purposed endowing the latter with lands in the villa 
 of Kingston-upon-Hull, and the villa of Myton. So in the Bench Books of Hull f vol. 2, 
 fol. 325) certain lands are described in 1835 as being in Kingston-upon-Hull, and in Myton 
 near Hull. Also in an Inquest taken in 1856 it was found that the roads to Kingston-upon- 
 Hull were so much flooded as to prevent approach to that place, to the great damage of the 
 towns of Kingston-upon-Hull and Myton. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 51 
 
 Hull, as well on the left bank as on the right, was slowly growing 
 up a little hamlet, a closer grouping of houses forming, at first, 
 what Leland erroneously terms it as being at a much later date, 
 " a meane fischar towne." The researches of Frost prove beyond 
 the shadow of a doubt that this place under the names of Wyk, 
 le Wyk, "Wyk-upon-Hull, and sometimes Hull only, had become a 
 trading place of no small repute when Edward I. formed it into a 
 royal town. This is also evident from the especial mention of 
 le Wyk (so far as the Myton bank of the river Hull was con- 
 cerned,) in Maud Gamin's charter ; for it is clear we must under- 
 stand her words "del Wye de Mitune " to mean the harbour or 
 port of Myton, and not the township or hamlet of Myton, reading 
 here the word Wye as fluminis ostium, and not in its more 
 general sense of a dwelling, village, or villula. We can well con- 
 ceive that in the progress of the years the purely pastoral and 
 farming portion of the township or district of Myton remained at 
 a standstill, yielding the same crops, feeding the same flocks, 
 "more or less" as lawyers say, season after season and season 
 after season, whilst at Hull mouth the little fisher town, whose 
 humble beginning saw but a rough jetty and a rude boat or two 
 lying on the mud, contained within it the active germ of a giant's 
 life, until it became of such importance in a day of small things 
 that Maud's donees would not venture to hold it under a grant 
 of Myton pure and simple, but carefully expressed it as also part 
 of her gift beyond cavil or dispute, practically saying " let all 
 sons of the Church know that we acquired from Maud Gamin the 
 harbour, port, or riverside hamlet within Myton, as well as the 
 lands of her patrimony and her lordship of that district." 
 
 Another century brought with it a further momentous change, 
 not without great effect upon the Wyk. The river Hull, altering 
 its lower course to the eastward, found its way to the Humber 
 through a broader, deeper, more suitable channel, and was 
 followed, as Frost surmises, by the houses forming the Wyk. 
 The result of this was that Wyk was now geographically outside 
 Myton; it was become by this natural change a distinct hamlet, a 
 villa de Wyk. Retaining its old name of le Wyk given to it when it 
 
52 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 was merely Myton wyk or harbour, it could not now be possibly 
 known as anything but Wyk-upon-Hull ; being neither in Myton 
 nor in Holderness it must continue its existence under an inde- 
 pendent banner. The careful monks, far-sighted enough, took 
 good care not to lose their lordship of the growing town. From 
 William de Sutton and Benedict de Sculcoates, of whose lordships 
 or one of them the new site of Wyk, the area of ground con- 
 tained between old Hull and new Hull, must have originally 
 been a portion, they purchased this No-man's Land, the remaining 
 part of the Wyk, so that their feudal ownership of the entire area 
 covered by the rising town could not be challenged. It is in this 
 sense that I read the ambiguous expression in the Liber Melse as to 
 the remaining part of the Wyk, " which had been within the ditches 
 or without up to the middle of old Hull." Abbot Burton wrote 
 his history after the defensive ditches of Kingston-upon-Hull had 
 been dug on its northern and western faces, and wished to convey 
 that from William and Benedict they had acquired all the rest of 
 Wyk, both within the town's moats and without them up to the 
 middle of old Hull (which in Burton's time was itself less than 
 a mere sewer), so covering all the ground which lay between the 
 old and the new rivers, and formed the site of Kingston-upon-Hull. 
 Yet during this period Myton as an agricultural district and 
 lordship continued no less to exist. Its arable land was tilled, its 
 pastures cropped by sheep and cattle as of yore, its cottages and 
 farmsteads still housed shepherd and farmer. Its separation from 
 its old wyk, and from the subsequent royal town of Kingston- 
 upon-Hull, was more strongly emphasised when the latter place 
 was walled round. Then more plainly no part of the town of 
 Hull, yet still an inhabited district, it naturally grew to be 
 designated the town of Myton, the term " villa " being sufficiently 
 general to express any definite inhabited area, and not having 
 the restricted sense of our modern word "town." More especially 
 was such a term appropriate, since it is evident from the Bench 
 Books that Lyle-street, now My ton-gate, ran some distance into 
 Myton, that Milk-street lay wholly within it, and that houses 
 were built near each. _: 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 53 
 
 The villa de Wyk, or de Kingston-upon Hull, occupied a site 
 provided by nature, and in a strictly geographical sense within 
 no lordship, because the alteration in the river's course had 
 destroyed the ancient boundary. The villa de Myton was the 
 collection of houses within Myton lordship, i.e., outside the walls 
 of Kingston-upon-Hull ; and in this sense the villa de Myton has 
 endured to the present day, when property within the district (as 
 it afterwards contracted into narrower limits) is still described in 
 deeds and conveyances as " within the lordship of Myton." 
 
 There seems then, to summarise, no need for a vanished town 
 of Myton, whose site " no man knoweth to this day," to under- 
 stand the charters, deeds, and records of the twelfth and two 
 following centuries ; for a simpler and more natural interpretation 
 seems given to them by the considerations I have submitted. 
 Such dwelling-houses as remained or were subsequently built 
 outside the western wall of Kingston-upon-Hull were in Myton. 
 They were not within Kingston-upon-Hull ; and hence were 
 alluded to with the district wherein they stood as the "town of 
 Myton." However inexact or misleading this expression may 
 seem, it is difficult to say what other could have been used at the 
 time. 
 
 A register or list of grants of lands in Myton and Wyk to 
 Meaux Abbey, quoted by Frost in his appendix, proves that there 
 were more proprietors of lands in the district than Maud Camin. 
 
 The first transaction recorded is the before-mentioned sale by 
 Robert de Melsa and his wife Maud of the two parts of the land 
 of their patrimony " del Wyk de Myton et Sevenstanges," of the 
 four bovates of land, pasturage, fishery, saltpits, &c, and the 
 entire seigniory of the township of Myton, " totn' d'nicu' sun' 
 ville de Myton; " and this is followed by the statement that the 
 monks' rights of pasturage, and those of the men of the 
 township ( 33 ) upon the common lands were confirmed to them 
 by John de Melsa, junior (Maud's son), Eobert de Benneyr, 
 
 (33) " Cet'i ho'i'et de villa." This is the first expression I have met with which would in 
 any aspect support a presumption that there were any villeins in Myton. The word nativi 
 (generally used of villeins) would have settled the question beyond doubt j homines seems to 
 indicate that freeholders are alluded to. 
 
54 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 Matilda his wife, Ealph de Benneyr and Constance his wife, 
 Roger de Mowbray, and Eustace de Vesci. The rest of the list 
 may be summarised thus. 
 
 Maud Camin gave the abbey a toft on the bank of Hull. 
 Robert de Benneyr gave three acres of meadow in Myton ; a gift 
 subsequently confirmed by John and Ralph, his sons, Constance, 
 the wife of the latter, and Roger de Mowbray. Galfrid Breton 
 de Buggethorp gave two bovates of land, reserving nevertheless 
 such special service as was the due of his lords. Roger, son of 
 Serlo de Flinton, and Alice of Willerby, his wife, released 
 whatsoever right they had in the same two bovates ; and Robert 
 de Melsa and Maud, his wife, ratified Galfrid's sale. Thomas, 
 the brother of Benedict de Sculcoates, gave one bovate of land 
 which he held of Benedict in Myton ; and this transaction the said 
 Benedict and Robert and Maud de Melsa duly confirmed. 
 Lambert Camyn gave a toft in Myton, and this was confirmed 
 by his son William, and also by Robert de Melsa and Maud. 
 Stephen of " Elvesle," and Thomas, son of Ivo, gave a meadow 
 in Myton, bounded on the west by Sevenstanges and a meadow of 
 Ralph Benneyr. John of Melsa sold all the land of his fee in the 
 territory of the Wyk of Holderness, within the ditches or without 
 to the middle of old Hull, and all that pertained thereto up to 
 the Humber, and confirmed to them all that they held of his fee. 
 Benedict of Sculcoates likewise granted all his land in the Wyk 
 of Holderness, within or without the ditches to the mid-stream 
 of old Hull, and whatever belonged to the same up to Humber 
 side ; and also gave them the land which he had adjacent to their 
 mansion, "mansuram n'ram," which I take to mean their 
 grange. William, son of Saer de Sutton, is also recorded to have 
 made a similar exhaustive donation of his lands in the Wyk of 
 Holderness : all these sales by John de Melsa, Benedict de 
 Sculcoates, and William de Sutton of the land "which is called 
 le Wyk de Hulderneysse," being confirmed by Thomas de Surros 
 and his sister Isabel, whose father, William Surros, held the 
 same in fee and inheritance. John of Melsa gave all the holding 
 which he had in Myton, namely one bovate of land which was of 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 55 
 
 the fee of William de Stuteville, and two bovates and all the 
 lordship which he had of the fee of William Tyson, in exchange 
 for one carucate of land belonging to the monks in Aldborough and 
 Thorp. Gerard de Furnivall exchanged with the abbey a meadow 
 belonging to him in Myton for one carucate and twenty acres at 
 Braythwait. 
 
 John de Melsa, son of Eobert, is then stated to have confirmed 
 to the abbey in frankalmoigne all the lands and tenements which 
 they held of his fee in Myton, namely ten bovates of land with all 
 their appurtenances, forever discharged from any manner of 
 service due to his lordship of Willerby. Eustace de Vesci is also 
 recorded to have similarly confirmed all the lands and tenements 
 which they held of his fee in Myton, that was to say nine bovates 
 of land, with the common pasture of the same township up to 
 '• Wilardesryk," also all they possessed to the westward of the 
 same place in Sevenstanges, with the bercharies (sheep-cotes, 
 buildings with suitable conveniences for the shelter and care of 
 sheep) and crofts belonging thereto on the south up to the 
 Humber, and the land which they held of Robert de Benneyr, 
 Matilda his wife, Stephen of Ella, and Thomas Fitz Ivo. 
 
 The catalogue of these possessions also includes a state- 
 ment that Pope Alexander III. confirmed to them their lands 
 in Myton and the pastures and bercharies belonging to their 
 grange there ; and that the same Pope, Innocent III., and 
 Gregory IX. ratified to them their grange of Myton with its 
 appurtenances. 
 
 A final paragraph records that King John and Edward I. 
 confirmed to the abbey the place and lands of Myton grange ; 
 adding that the latter monarch, desiring to be enfeoffed of the 
 manor of Myton, had given them for it properties of less 
 value to their prejudice. 
 
 All these grants are made to the abbey " in perpetual alms," 
 a tenure already explained, and under which no services were 
 reserved to the donor, except the understood obligation that the 
 donees should forever pray for his soul. Forinsecum servitium 
 (which I have rendered " special service," see p. 41 ante) is 
 
56 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 always excepted where the liability to it existed on the part of 
 the donor's original fee ; the reason for this exception, and the 
 true meaning of this service being best explained by quoting Du 
 Cange's definition of the term. He speaks of forin. serv. as 
 " service which does not belong to the chief lord, but to the king. 
 Thence called also Sercitium Regale, which especially belongs to 
 our lord the king, and not to another. Of this kind is that which 
 is called Scutage. These services are only by reason of tenure, 
 and not of person, because they issue forth out of holdings." 
 Scutage was a feudal aid or tax levied upon the holders of knights' 
 fees towards furnishing the king with military forces, at the rate 
 of one, two, or three marks for each knight's fee. Hence the 
 reader will understand that where a gift or sale of land was made 
 out of a knight's fee, the donor or seller was bound for his own 
 protection to stipulate that the grantee should pay his due pro- 
 portion of any such special tax charged upon the whole fee. 
 
 The above record of the various acquisitions made by the 
 monks from time to time of lands and tenements, meadows and 
 pastures, not only in My ton, but also on the Holderness side of 
 the Hull, is of more interest than merely as a bare list of not too- 
 well defined possessions obtained in the districts alluded to. Mr. 
 E. A. Bond, the editor of the Liber Melse, well points out the 
 astonishing fact that Abbot Burton, in relating the circumstances 
 fo the foundation of Kingston-upon-Hull, is not led into a single 
 reflection on its importance to the surrounding country, or any 
 comment on the extent and character of the trade it served to 
 develop ; and yet it would seem that some of the heads of the 
 monastery must have had a prescience of the great future value 
 of the territory round Hull mouth, since no opportunity appears 
 to have been lost of purchasing land there. Not only so, but 
 extreme precaution was taken to have every acre confirmed to 
 them by all its feudal lords, so as to avoid any possibility of 
 dispute as to their title ; whilst Ossa was piled upon Pelion in the 
 shape of papal and royal charters, obtained doubtless at no small 
 cost, to additionally safeguard these precious possessions. Some 
 indication of the value the monks attached to their Myton 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 57 
 
 property is afforded by their giving Gerard de Furnivall one 
 carucate and twenty acres of land at Braythwait in exchange for 
 a single meadow in My ton, which would not probably contain 
 anything like so large an area as one hundred and twenty acres. 
 This terrier moreover confirms the entry in Domesday Book as to 
 the extent of the arable portion of Myton, where it states that 
 John de Melsa's confirmation of all the lands which the monks 
 held of his fee in Myton embraced just ten bovates with their 
 appurtenances ; whilst a question discussed at the commencement 
 of page 38 ante is decisively settled. It is clear that Maud Camin, 
 and afterwards John de Melsa in her right, held one bovate in 
 Myton as of the fee of De Stuteville, and nine bovates as of the 
 fee of De Vesci, these quantities again agreeing with Domesday 
 Book. Further, the mention of the land " called the Wyk of 
 Holderness " is by no means unimportant. It would imply that 
 adjacent to the left bank of old Hull lay an area of land so 
 wholly or partially enclosed within natural limits as not to be 
 reckoned of any lordship, but esteemed to have a sort of humble 
 individuality as the Wyk of Holderness. It would be contained, 
 as I think, within the old channel of Hull river on the west and 
 north, the creek or inlet which later formed the modern Hull on 
 the east, and the swift Humber on the south. It was thus a sort 
 of No-man's Land; though John de Melsa, Benedict de Sculcoates, 
 and William de Sutton, all seemed to have claimed proprietorship 
 in it. Its name of Wyk also raises an inference that it was 
 inhabited, however sparsely, and that its dwellings were recognised 
 as a part of the little port growing up about Hull mouth. That 
 le Wyk, or this small port, was situate on each bank of the Hull, 
 and was a place of increasing commerce at a very early date — as 
 Mr. Frost maintains — appears obvious from the care displayed by 
 the monks in acquiring the full ownership of the Wyk of 
 Holderness as well as of the Wyk of Myton, so as to be indisputable 
 proprietors of the entire place and soil; whilst the term, "the 
 Wyk of Holderness," used in the register, and which it would be 
 ridiculous to read as " the village of Holderness," is conclusive 
 
58 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 that the word "Wyk" in this connection means "fluminis 
 ostium," or rather a port or harbour. 
 
 The unlucky monks, however, never reaped the full benefit 
 either of the far-sightedness of those abbots who had acquired 
 this important site, or of its destined growth in value far beyond 
 " the dreams of avarice." Theirs was another instance of " Sic 
 vos now robis." The acute and practical intelligence of Edward I. 
 detected the vast capabilities of the little trading hamlet far more 
 keenly than did its owners, and he bought it from them at a 
 valuation at which they never ceased to grumble, and which at its 
 best was but a strictly market price for the place as it then stood, 
 without reckoning one stiver for its capacity for development. 
 
 The reader will also notice that the register, like the chronicle 
 itself, does not speak of the " manor " of Myton until the sale to 
 King Edward is treated of. The township, villa, the harbour, 
 la wyk, the grange, the pastures, the bercharies, are all mentioned ; 
 but so far as Myton is concerned, apart from Wyk, it is evident 
 that a large sheep and grazing farm only is referred to. This is 
 all Myton then was. A large grange, a farmstead with its 
 smitheries, tanners' buildings, workshops, its accommodation for 
 housing lay-brethren, workmen, and servants, with its appendant 
 sheep-cotes, cow-houses, and rights of extensive pasturage, — a 
 considerable and probably remunerative farm, — had succeeded to 
 the Anglo-Saxon berewick, which, no doubt, in the days of its 
 decadence from a township proper to a member of Ferriby manor, 
 had itself been a similar but far poorer holding. 
 
 The Liber Melse itself affords much interesting information 
 about Myton, although dealing as such chronicles unfortunately 
 are wont with the external affairs of the lordship mainly, and not 
 with what would have been of so much value to us to-day, its 
 internal condition and domestic affairs. 
 
 We are told that the gift of Robert de Benneyr of three acres 
 of meadow in Myton, as mentioned in the register recently quoted, 
 took place during the term of office of Thomas, the third abbot 
 (1182-1197), and that the gift also included pasture for two 
 hundred sheep upon the common of " Alvele." In the time of 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 59 
 
 Alexander, the fourth abbot (1197-1210), as also mentioned in the 
 register with less detail, John de Melsa, the son of Eobert and 
 Maud, and consequently the grandson of Dame Anor Camin, the 
 latter's mother, gave to the abbey in exchange for one carucate 
 of land in Aldborough and Thorp and twenty marks of silver those 
 three bovates of land in Myton which were alloted to Dame Anor 
 for her life upon her partition with her daughter, as before 
 mentioned, together with all the lordship belonging to them. 
 Afterwards, says the chronicle, Thomas the Clerk, uncle of the 
 said John de Melsa, and " a man of great wealth and authority," 
 with apparently a considerable amount of generosity at other 
 folks' expense, caused his said nephew and Maud, his mother, 
 " whose patrimony this land of Myton was," to duly confirm the 
 previous grant to the abbey made by Eobert de Melsa, the 
 'husband and father (and whom I judge to have been then dead) ; 
 " and thus the whole of our land of Myton, namely ten bovates "— 
 once again agreeing with Domesday Book — "was granted to us, 
 yielding nevertheless for in. serv., but this was afterwards 
 transferred to the said John's lordship of Willerby in considera- 
 tion of thirty marks paid to him by us ; and so he confirmed to 
 us the said ten bovates of land with all their appurtenances in 
 pure and perpetual alms." 
 
 One of the early experiences the abbey had of the sweets of 
 property so far as Myton was concerned, was the commencement 
 of a long and costly dispute as to their liability to pay tithes to 
 the parson of Hessle. About the period of their acquiring the 
 lordship from Maud Camin, the church of Hessle was made 
 independent, or constituted a parish church, and Richard Duchet, 
 the fifth vicar of Hessle, who was a client of Geoffry FitzPeter, 
 then earl of Essex, doubtless a powerful friend at court, appears 
 to have contended, on what grounds does not appear, that Hessle 
 parish extended up to the west bank of old Hull, and so included 
 Myton as a tithable portion of it. Until his time the tithes of 
 Myton had been duly collected by the monks, but for their own 
 benefit, and the predecessors of Abbot Alexander had never paid 
 them over or any portion of them to the four vicars who had 
 
60 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 successively held the living before Eichard Duchet. Yet some 
 claim to the tithes of Myton must have been urged more or less 
 successfully by these prior incumbents, since it is stated that for 
 the sake of peace the abbey had been accustomed to pay to the 
 church one mark of silver annually in lieu of tithes, and by this 
 payment had been tithe-free for thirty years before Abbot 
 Alexander's time. But even this nominal sum Alexander had 
 declined to pay ; so that the soul of Eichard Duchet waxed 
 exceeding wroth within him, even in the very first year of his 
 enjoyment of the living. Nor was his action less prompt or 
 thorough. With a great number of armed men he " irreverently " 
 attacked and broke into Myton grange, and thence " pre- 
 sumptuously and with violence " ejected the lay-brethren and 
 servants who resided there, finally carrying off the large quantity 
 of forty waggon-loads and three cart-loads of corn in vindication 
 of his outraged claims. Upon this the abbot appealed to the 
 papal legate, who commenced proceedings by solemnly cursing 
 " all those presumptuous ones," but subsequently bestirred 
 himself so practically in the matter that, " after much pleading 
 and expense," a friendly settlement was come to. Duchet on his 
 part agreed to return the grain so lawlessly carried away, upon 
 the oath of honest men as to identity of quantity, and to send 
 those who had assisted him in his attack upon the grange (such 
 is the gratitude of princes !) to make submission at the gates of 
 the monastery, according to the custom of the Cistercian order. 
 On the other hand the monks consented that so long as Duchet 
 held the living they would pay him 20s. a year in satisfaction of 
 his claim for tithes, for the sake of peace, and because in his 
 time they had increased their holding in Myton by the purchase 
 of the three bovates which Dame Anor had enjoyed for her life. 
 However, a short time afterwards the vicar, evidently a fair-minded 
 man, having satisfied himself that this annual payment was really 
 a breach of the abbey's privileges, released them from it (and 
 from all differences concerning a chapel which had formerly stood 
 in Myton) for an immediate sum of £5 sterling, and gave them a 
 deed to that effect. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 6r 
 
 Meantime a grievance of another sort arose. The common 
 pastures of Myton and the neighbouring villages, such as Anlaby, 
 Hessle, Swanland, and Kirkella, lay together and undivided, as 
 is evident from the statement in the Liber Melse, already quoted, 
 as to the drainage operations of William de Stuteville and 
 Benedict de Sculcoates ( 3 *). Of this fact certain sons of Belial 
 resident in Swanland had taken undue advantage ; for we read 
 that in the time of Hugh, fifth abbot (1210-1220), the abbot and 
 convent gave Eustace de Vesci 15 marks to confirm to them their 
 lands of Myton of his fee, and to place boundaries between them 
 and his men of Swanland, because the latter had over and over 
 again seized the abbey sheep grazing on Myton common, on 
 pretext of debt or other frivolous grounds. " And this," adds the 
 chronicle, " was done." 
 
 But man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards ; and in 
 spite of Richard Duchet's formal deed of release, the vexed question 
 of the tithes of Myton was again raised during the period of office 
 of Richard, seventh abbot (1221-1235) . It is related that the prior 
 and convent of Gysburn, being at that time rectors of Hessle 
 church, drew the abbey into a law suit concerning these tithes, 
 and also, amongst other matters, in reference to the destruction 
 of the ancient chapel of Myton, a chapel of ease to Hessle church, 
 which the monks appear to have pulled down at some time as a 
 practical protest against its standing upon their soil ( 3S ). Upon 
 
 (34) "At which time William de Stuteville, &c, making drains, 4c, ocoupied nearly all 
 the common pasture of Myton and of the neighbouring villages."— J/a.rimam partem communis 
 pasture de Myton et vicinarum villarum. 
 
 (35) By what pious hands, or at what period, this humble oratory was raised does not 
 appear. It has been alleged to have stood on the site of the chancel of Holy Trinity Church ; 
 but this is certainly wrong. It may have been a Saxon edifice ; or more probably havo been 
 built by Ralph de Mortemer at the instigation of the priest of Hessle. Bearing in mind the 
 natural desire of the people of that day to be buried within the precincts of holy places, I 
 should unhesitatingly find its site, as well as a touching memorial of domestic calamity in a 
 much-enduring age, in the paddock in Myton, mentioned by Mr. Frost (p. 12 of his "Notices," 
 in notd), as bounded on the east by Love-lane, where, on digging for bricks some century 
 ago, about seventy skeletons were found, the bones well-preserved and larger than average 
 human bones of this generation. In one grave two skeletons, doubtless of husband and 
 wife, were found side by side, with five children near them. In several others the remains 
 of children were found. These details Mr. Frost had on the authority of a respectable 
 individual, who was an eye-witness of the disinterment. Love-lane is now represented by 
 Cogan-street, the then northern boundary of the paddock in question by the modern 
 Waverley-street, so that the late Dr. Bell's residence, Waverley House, roughly marks the 
 site of the ancient chapel of Myton. 
 
62 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 this papal letters were issued to the prior of Durham and others 
 to hear and determine the matters in question. But, pending the 
 suit and after proceeding a little with it, the prior obtained his 
 release from further consideration of it. Then for seven years 
 the business hung fire ; when the canons of Gysburn once more 
 stirred up the expiring embers of dispute, this time making an 
 especial point of the destruction of the chapel, and claiming its 
 restitution, with payment of all tithes, obventions, and oblations 
 issuing out of the fee of John de Melsa in the township of Myton, 
 and belonging of parochial right to the church of Hessle. Further 
 than this the plaintiffs sought to recover possession of four acres 
 of meadow and half a bovate of agricultural land in Myton of the 
 fee of John de Melsa, which may have been an empty (I cannot 
 say groundless) claim, or the thoughtful monks may have 
 unobtrusively annexed the property as conveniently adjacent to 
 their own ; the former theory, however, being much the more 
 tenable. Thereupon the unlucky prior of Durham was again 
 forced into reluctant action by papal authority, but with the 
 result that a speedy and final settlement was arrived at. The 
 abbot and convent agreed to pay 5s. a year to Hessle church for 
 ever; whereupon the canons gave them a full quittance in respect 
 of all the premises, but without prejudice to any other rights of 
 their church. 
 
 Michael, the eighth abbot (1235-1249), is related to have built 
 a stone house at Myton, but of what nature or for what purpose 
 we can only surmise. The material employed was so costly, 
 substantial, and unusual in that day, as to imply a very special 
 and important building. I conjecture it to have been the grange 
 alluded to by Abbot Burton as at his time wholly destroyed, and 
 to have given the name of Grangewyk to the inclosure within 
 which it had stood. The previous grange may have been a merely, 
 or mainly, wooden structure, replaced by Abbot Michael with a 
 new grange of such solidity that the fact of its having stood on the 
 reliquam partem del Wyk, and fallen into ruins still visible, were 
 deemed by the compiler of the Liber Melse deserving of special 
 mention. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 63 
 
 It appears from an inquisition of ad quod damnum that in 
 1278 Eobert of Skyrne, the eleventh abbot (1270-1280), petitioned 
 King Edward that he and his successors might have a market on 
 Thursday in each week at " Wyke near Mitton upon the Hulle," 
 and a fair there annually on the eve, day, and morrow of the Holy 
 Trinity (i.e., eight weeks after Easter) and on the twelve following 
 days ; which after due enquiry was granted, as without prejudice 
 to the king or any neighbouring market or fair. This was after 
 the alteration in the course of the river Hull had caused Wyk to 
 stand on a sort of delta of land, and to have acquired (as has 
 before been pointed out) an independent name and existence ; 
 but although over the growing town the abbey claimed and 
 exercised absolute lordship — having apparently bought out all 
 other claimants — it was still too new to be described apart from 
 the lordship of which it was once, mainly at least, a member, 
 which accounts for its being referred to in this petition as Wyk near 
 My ton on the Hull, the latter being an ancient locality easily to 
 be identified. The necessity for this market and fair, the evident 
 custom for them testify, as Mr. Frost truly asserts, to the 
 importance of Wyk, or Hull, as a town and place of trade at this 
 early date. 
 
 The next transaction recorded concerning Myton was a 
 singularly unfortunate one for the abbey. Eoger of Driffield, the 
 thirteenth abbot (1286-1310), for a cash payment of 800 marks, 
 leased the town of Wyk and Myton grange to Sir William de 
 Hamilton, dean of York, and his brother Adam, for a term of 
 twenty years. The abbot and convent, however, repented of their 
 bargain within the very first year of the demise ; probably, as 
 Mr. Bond surmises, because they had heard something of King 
 Edward's wishes in regard to the port, and hoped to make con- 
 siderable capital out of the royal purpose. They entered into 
 negotiations with their new tenants for the cancellation of the 
 lease, and obtained an agreement to that effect on terms that they 
 should pay Sir William and Adam £100 a year during the 
 unexpired nineteen years of the term ; De Hamilton and his 
 brother promising on their part that as soon as in this way they 
 
64 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 had received back their 800 marks, further payment of the annual 
 stipend should cease. But Abbot Boger was too eager to regain 
 possession of the property to endure so tedious a process. Pro- 
 ceeding to Citeaux, the head-quarters of his order, he borrowed 
 800 marks from the general chapter, binding himself and the 
 abbey to pay 40 marks per annum to the lord abbot of Citeaux 
 and four other abbots, in trust for the general chapter, until the 
 principal sum was repaid ; but whether these annual payments 
 were understood to be 5 per cent, interest on the loan, or 
 instalments of the principal, is not clear. However, armed with 
 the agreed amount the abbot claimed from Sir William and Adam 
 fulfilment of their verbal arrangement, only, alas, to find that the 
 churchman's word was by no means as good as his bond. They 
 refused to give up their possession of the town or grange unless, 
 in addition to their 800 marks, the profits of the demised property 
 which they had received during the first year of the term, and the 
 sum of £100 duly paid to them by the monks for the second year 
 of the lease pursuant to the original agreement for cancellation, 
 they were also paid a further sum of £20 per annum for the 
 eighteen years their tenancy still had to run. This unconscionable 
 demand the abbot flatly refused. For five years the matter 
 consequently remained in abeyance, but was then finally com- 
 promised ; the abbot agreeing to pay the dean the 800 marks, £5 
 a year for the residue of the term, and to grant him a lease of the 
 grange of North Dalton, which was worth £10 a year, for the 
 remainder of his life. This settlement Sir William survived for 
 eleven years, when his death relieved the monastery of the said 
 annual payment of £5, and restored to them North Dalton grange. 
 So much for the dean ; but the debt to the general chapter 
 still remained. For twenty years the abbey struggled under the 
 burden of the 40 marks a year, and then Abbot Boger claimed 
 that he had refunded the amount lent. The general chapter failed 
 to take this view of the matter, so that it stood over until the 
 time of Adam of Skyrne, fourteenth abbot (1310-1339), who paid 
 back the capital of the loan in four equal annual instalments. As 
 one means towards raising the necessary funds for this purpose, 
 
s 
 
 Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 65 
 
 the abbot had arranged to lease the manor of Tharlesthorpe to a 
 certain Peter atte See, merchant of Eavenser, and his wife for 
 their lives, in consideration of a payment of 300 marks. It is 
 hardly credible that one of the monks of the abbey was treacherous 
 enough to go to Peter and, for what seems to us the paltry bribe 
 of a new gown (although, to be sure, it may have made to the 
 monk all the difference between rags and dirt and cold, and 
 warmth and comfort and cleanliness) suggest to him that the 
 abbot's necessities were too great to permit of his breaking off the 
 negotiations, even if Peter reduced the 300 marks to 200. " And 
 this," to quote an earlier entry in the chronicle, " was done ! " 
 It is comforting, however, to know that the traitor monk never got 
 the promised gown, and that ultimately Peter himself repented 
 and made amends. 
 
 Summing up the whole matter of this unlucky lease, the 
 chronicler reflects with dismay that the abbey had lost by the ill- 
 judged transaction the very considerable 3um in our own day, 
 and in his the enormous one, of £1000 " and more ; " of which 
 disheartening total the gloomy items included £365 received by 
 Sir William de Hamilton over and above his 800 marks ; the 
 destruction of the grange of North Dalton during his lease of it 
 by fire, so that it could not be rebuilt for more than £100 ; the 
 fact that when his tenancy commenced it was worth with its live 
 and dead stock £28 14s. lid., whilst at his death its stock had 
 vanished, nor was there any price in lieu ; the twenty years pay- 
 ment to the general chapter amounting to £533 6s. 8d. ; and 
 divers expenses in and about the premises reaching the respectable 
 total of 100 marks. 
 
 We are come now to a very momentous epoch in the history of 
 Myton and of Wyk, namely to the period of the acquisition of 
 town and manor by King Edward I. 
 
 According to Mr. Bond, the king's purchase was based upon a 
 desire to form magazines at a port convenient for the embarkation 
 of men and shipment of goods in the prosecution of his designs 
 upon Scotland ; but nothing of this warlike purpose is mentioned 
 
66 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 in the Liber Melse, which speaks only of the royal desire to 
 establish at Hull mouth a mercantile haven. The account of the 
 bargain with the king is told by Abbot Burton at some length, 
 and in a disappointed or discontented tone ; although the impartial 
 reader must feel after perusal of it that Edward gave the abbey 
 compensation with an ungrudging hand, and paid a full price for the 
 manor and town according to their then value as certified to him. 
 This valuation was the sore point with the abbot and convent. 
 Only a year before the temporalities of the abbey had been 
 surveyed and valued on the grant of a subsidy of one-tenth of the 
 revenues of all the churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 made to King Edward by Pope Nicholas IV. for the service of 
 the Holy Land ; and on this occasion the manor of Myton and 
 town of Wyk were assessed together at the annual rental of 
 £126 15s., of which the tenth was £12 13s. 6d. We must, of 
 course, admit that it was decidedly hard on the unfortunate 
 monks that a property valued at one amount when the king wished 
 to tax it, was estimated as worth almost a fifth less when the 
 king desired to buy it ; but, probably, of this injustice, which 
 poisoned the whole transaction from the first so far as the monks 
 were concerned, the sovereign was entirely ignorant, the fault 
 being that of his exchequer, which seems to have had in the 
 thirteenth century, as it has in this, very minute principles of 
 honesty when dealing with subjects. For the purposes of the 
 king's purchase the manor of Myton was valued at £24 8s. Od. 
 per annum, and the town of Wyk at £78 14s. 8d. per annum ; that 
 is, together, at exactly £23 12s. 4d. less than when surveyed for 
 taxation under Pope Nicholas' subsidy. But, as Mr. Frost points 
 out, the relative values of the new commercial town and the old 
 agricultural manor are very significantly contrasted in these figures. 
 The bargain made with the king, and the account of what the 
 abbey received in exchange for Myton and Wyk, cannot be better 
 ^old than in a summary of Abbot Burton's narrative. 
 
 After the abbey had resumed possession of the manor and 
 town on the completion of their arrangements with Sir William 
 de Hamilton, King Edward, desiring to gain possession of the 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 67 
 
 said town and manor for the sake "of establishing there a port 
 suitable for ships and merchandise, promised that if the abbot 
 and convent would enfeoff him and his heirs of those properties, 
 he would give them in lieu other lands and tenements of equivalent 
 value, as well as further benefits, privileges, and liberties. 
 " Therefore," says the narrator, " we enfeoffed him of the town 
 of Wyk, which was valued at £78 14s. 8d. by the year, and of 
 the manor of Myton, valued at £24 8s. Od. by the year ; and 
 because our lord the king had not yet arranged what lands he 
 would give us in exchange, he granted us £103 2s. 8d. out of his 
 treasury until we had been assigned an equivalent value in lands 
 or rents for the said town and manor. But as a matter of fact the 
 feoffment was made to the king about the Feast of the Purification 
 of the Blessed Mary (22nd February) in the twenty-first year of 
 his reign (1293). Therefore the king gave us an acre of land of 
 his lordship in Skipsea, with the advowsons of the churches of 
 Skipsea, Easington, and Kayingham, with their appurtenances, 
 which had escheated to him in consequence of the death of 
 Aveline, daughter and heiress of William de Fortibus, the last 
 earl of Albemarle ( 3 6 ). His majesty also gave us a charter of 
 warren ( 37 ) in all our lands ; and confirmed the charter of King 
 John, his grandfather. Moreover he confirmed to us all our lands 
 and granges whatsoever and wheresoever ; and (gave us privilege) 
 that none should shed human blood, or seize, arrest, or slay any 
 man, or presume to do any act of violence within our abbey or any 
 of our granges, manors, lands, or possessions, but that all the 
 same should be from thenceforth inviolable as the precincts of any 
 holy church wheresoever. And beyond all these the king gave us 
 a license to acquire lands and tenements of Master Bichard de 
 Ottringham ( 88 )." Subsequently the king issued his precept to 
 
 (36) He was lord of the seigniory of Holderness, and had a castle at Skipsea. His 
 daughter, Aveline, was an heiress of very great wealth and beauty, who married Edmund, 
 earl of Lancaster, and died young, without issue. Sic transit gloria hujus mundi ! 
 
 (37) A franchise, or place privileged for keeping beasts and fowls of warren, such as 
 hares, rabbits, partridges, pheasants, water-fowl. 
 
 (38) This was a very substantial favour. It was a lioense in mortmain to enable the 
 abbey to take and hold the endowment of a ohantry in Ottringham, which Richard de Ottring- 
 ham, the rector of the village ol Shelford in the diocese of Ely, had purposed giving to the 
 
68 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 the bishop of Bath, then his treasurer, to forthwith assign to the 
 abbey lands of equivalent value to the " town of Hull " and 
 manor of Myton. This the treasurer was apparently most 
 l-eluctant to do, for it was only after great effort and expense on 
 the part of the monks that he made over to them the manor of 
 Pocklington (of the fee of the earl of Albemarle) as worth £50 
 annually, although its actual value was only £46 15s. 9d. ; and 
 even then he reserved to the king all wardships and escheats 
 amongst the freehold tenants of the manor. 
 
 The treasurer also gave them the manor of Wyfelsby near 
 Grimsby, with its appurtenances in Thorp, Little Coates, Bradley, 
 Waltham, Grimsby, Brigsley, and Clee ; but this again was put 
 at a higher than its actual value. Also a house with four bovates 
 of land and 16 acres of pasture, called Criland, in Wawne, which 
 had also escheated to the king through the failure of the heirs of 
 Albemarle ; and this, too, was put at £5 whilst actually worth 
 only £3 6s. 8d. : these three allotments, Pocklington, Wyfelsby, 
 and Wawne, resulting in a gross loss to the abbey, so Burton 
 computes, of £14 12s. Id. yearly. In other ways the monks 
 considered themselves to have been defrauded to the extent of a 
 further £70 and more per annum, partly in the adjustment of the 
 rents of Pocklington, Wyfelsby, and Wawne, which were paid at 
 Michaelmas, with those of Myton and Wyk, which were due at 
 Martinmas ; nor did they cease to continue their complaints of 
 this to the king who, at last, proposed to make matters up to their 
 satisfaction by giving them the manors of Kayingham Marsh and 
 Little Humber, estimated as worth together £90 18s. Od. So a 
 certain clerk was despatched from court to survey and value the 
 manors in question ; having performed which task, he called one 
 day at the monastery just after mass had been performed, and 
 was exceedingly angry because the monks would not sing it again 
 
 priory of Bridlington, but had been persuaded by King Edward to bestow upon the abbey 
 of Meaux as a favour from the monarch to that brotherhood ; so that they were in fact 
 indebted to Edward for the gift, and ought to have reckoned it as part of the compensation 
 for Myton and Wyk. The endowment in question consisted of the chantry building, 
 20 tofts, 22$ bovates and 126 acres of arable land, 270 acres of meadow, and pasture for 500 
 sheep, and 22s. 6d. quit rents, in Tharlesthorp and Frismersk (two of the lost towns of the 
 Humber), Welwick, Drypool, Southcoates, Sutton, and Ottringham. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 69 
 
 at his pleasure. In this frame of mind he was extreme to mark 
 whatever was amiss, and noticing certain breaches of discipline 
 and rudenesses (insolentias) on the part of some of the monks, and 
 that sufficient hospitality was not shown to him as he thought, 
 he departed in wrath, and reported to the king the value of the 
 lands proposed to be conceded as far beyond the amount of 
 recompense claimed by the abbey. He also represented the 
 conversation of the monks as depraved, and so seriously 
 prejudiced the royal mind against them. Nevertheless the king 
 gave them a charter authorising them to hold land to the value 
 of £30 a year " notwithstanding the statute; "( 30 ) and eleven years 
 afterwards granted that notwithstanding the statute they 
 might appropriate the church of Skipsea after the death 
 of Sir Eobert d'Istria, then its parson, and also in due 
 course the churches of Easington and Keyingham. " Moreover," 
 the story continues, " the king, having thus secured the said 
 town of Wyk and manor of Myton, changed the name of the said 
 town of Wyk, and caused the same town to be called Kingston- 
 upon-Hull. To which town he granted sundry liberties ; made 
 it a port for ships; and placed it under a mayor and bailiffs. 
 And the manor of Myton he afterwards gave to Sir William de 
 Pole (sic), who was appointed first mayor of Kingston, which 
 William, removing the buildings of the site of the said manor 
 (i.e., the manor-house) from their original place, hitherto called 
 Graungwyk, re-erected them in another place belonging to the 
 manor called Tuppcottes." This latter part of the narrative, 
 as will be at once perceived, is somewhat of a jumble, as the 
 governing body of the town ordained by Edward I. was a warden 
 (not mayor) and bailiffs ; whilst the gift of the manor of Myton 
 to Sir William de la Pole was made by Edward III., who first 
 appointed a mayor of the town nearly forty years after Edward 
 the First's acquisition of Wyk-upon-Hull. 
 
 (39) This was the Statute of Mortmain, 7 Edward I., passed to prevent the gift or sale of 
 lands to religious corporations, in whose possession they were practically inalienable, and 
 were thus said to be held in a "dead hand" (mort-main). Lands in mortmain have been 
 described as a dead weight upon commerce. 
 
jo Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 For some time, as we have seen, the growing wyk had been 
 rapidly eclipsing the parent lordship, and with the establishment 
 of the former as a royal and chartered borough the history of the 
 latter practically ends. 
 
 King Edward placed the government of his new town in the 
 hands of a warden or custos and bailiffs, the former officials, of 
 whom Eichard Oysel appears to have been the first, having also 
 the charge of the manor of Myton, for the rents, profits, and 
 issues of which they accounted to the crown. The immediate 
 successors of Oysel were Milo de Stapelton, warden in 1307, 
 followed by Edward de Ebor, warden in 1308, who received the 
 custody of the town (and manor) from Milo de Stapelton at 
 Michaelmas 2 Edward II., and accounted for the issues thereof to 
 the 13th August, 4 Edward II. He was succeeded by Eobert 
 Hastang, to whom in 5 Edward II. letters-patent, wherein he is 
 described as dilectus et fidelis, were issued, giving him the custody 
 of the royal manors of Kingston-upon-Hull and Myton, " man'ii 
 n'ri de Kyng' sup' Hull cu' Myton" and of the town of Kingston- 
 upon-Hull, for the term of his life, in recompense for certain lands 
 in Scotland bestowed upon him for his faithful services, but 
 subsequently taken back into the possession of the crown. 
 Hadley and Tickell represent this grant as a gift to Hastang " of 
 the fee-farm rents of Hull, Myton, and Tupcoates, amounting 
 in the whole to £70 per annum." But as a matter of fact 
 Tupcoates (then an insignificant cottage) is not mentioned at all ; 
 and the real nature of the transaction is best shown by a copy, 
 preserved in B.B. 2 fo. 203, of letters-mandatory addressed by the 
 next monarch, Edward III., to " the mayor, bailiffs, and honest 
 men of Kingston-upon-Hull," and bearing date the 15th October, 
 in the 5th year of his reign (1331). These letters recite that 
 Edward II. had sometime granted to Kobert Hastang for the 
 good service which the said Eobert, " bona memorice," had 
 rendered to that king and to his father, Edward I., the royal 
 demesne lands of Bathket and Eachen in Scotland, to be held 
 by the said Eobert at the king's pleasure, and so that he might 
 receive £100 a year out of the issues thereof, paying over any 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 71 
 
 surplusage to the royal exchequer at Berwick ; that afterwards the 
 same king had resumed possession of the said lands, and in lieu 
 thereof had given to the said Eobert the custody of the royal 
 manors of Kingston-upon-Hull with My ton, and the custody of 
 the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, for the rest of his life, subject 
 to an annual payment of £10 into the king's exchequer at 
 Westminster, and to the intent that the said Eobert might have 
 his £100 a year out of the rents and profits of the said manors 
 and town ; and this latter grant, the letters continue, the 
 then monarch (Edward III.) had ratified. The king then 
 reminds the mayor, bailiffs, and honest men aforesaid that he 
 had by his charter of the 6th of May then last given the town 
 (" burg' sit' ") to them, their heirs and successors, burgesses of 
 the same town, in fee-farm for ever {i.e., in perpetual lease at a 
 rent), subject to their paying yearly into his exchequer the rent 
 of £70, as in his said charter fully appeared ; and, after expressing 
 the royal wish to indemnify Hastang for this loss of the custody 
 of the town, the king commands the mayor, bailiffs, &c. to pay 
 the said annual fee-farm rent to the said Eobert as long as he 
 should live, and which payment was to be a sufficient discharge 
 of the said rent. 
 
 The account given by our historians is, therefore, roughly 
 correct in the main, though inexact in details, since it was 
 Edward III., and not Edward II., who gave the fee-farm rent of 
 Hull (but not of Myton, which was unaffected by the town's 
 charter, nor of Tupcoates, which in that sense was non-existent) 
 to Sir Eobert Hastang. He was, however, a considerable loser 
 by the town's gain ; and the whole transaction shows how loose 
 and careless the Plantagenet kings were in their grants to this 
 subject and to that. The fact that Sir Eobert Hastang held the 
 custody of the town for life under royal gift, seems to have been 
 no obstacle whatever to the king's conferring the privilege upon 
 the town itself. 
 
 The charter alluded to by King Edward in the letters- 
 mandatory is the celebrated one, dated 6th May, 1331, which 
 elevated the governing body of the town from a warden and 
 
72 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 bailiffs into a mayor and bailiffs ; and it was accompanied by a 
 writ addressed to Kobert Hastang, requiring him to give up the 
 custody of the town to the burgesses in accordance with the 
 terms of the charter. The former document is briefly entered in 
 the Abb. Hot. Oi'ig. as " Carta p' burgensibus de Kyngeston- sup er- 
 Hull;" whilst the writ appears as " Et viand' est Bob' to de 
 Hastang, custodi burgi B. de Kyngeston-super-Hull, q'd eisdem 
 burgensibus burgum p'd'c'm cum p'tin' incustodid sud libe't h'end' 
 juxta tenorem carta." It is curious that neither in the letters- 
 mandatory nor in this writ is Hastang described as a knight ; 
 although he was one in 1329, as is evident from his appearance in 
 that year amongst the witnesses to a conveyance of land in 
 Kyrk-lane as " Bob' to Hastang, miles, tunc custode d'c'e ville." 
 (B.B. 2 fo. 210). 
 
 The year in which the grant of the manors and town was 
 made to Bobert Hastang by Edward II. is given both by Hadley 
 and Tickell as 1317, and in this they are followed by Sheahan, 
 who also repeats their misleading statement as to the fee-farm 
 rents. But the date I have given, 5th Edward II., is evidently 
 the true one, since it is supported by the entry of the royal letters- 
 patent in the Abb. Bot. Orig., the calendar of estreats returned 
 to chancery of all grants of the crown inrolled on the patent 
 and other rolls, whereon any rent was reserved to the king. There 
 the following appears early in the year 5th Edward II. — "B. 
 dc. sal't'm: Sciatis q'd cum nup' concessimus Bob' to de Hastang 
 p' bono s'vicio dc. d'nicas t'ras B. dc Bathket d Bachen in Scoc' 
 tenend' ad voluntatem n'ram ita q'd sing'lis annis de exitib's 
 car'dem t'rar' h'ret centum lib'as dc. ac postmodum t'ras p'd'c'as 
 resuini fecim' in manum n'ram ; Nos in recompensac'o'em dc. 
 concessim' p'fato Bob'to custodiam man'ii n'ri de Kyngeston sup' 
 Hull cum Myton d omnib's p'tin' suis d custodiam ville de 
 Kyngeston sup>' Hull tenend' ad totam vitam suam, dc." The 
 matter, therefore, is beyond dispute ; but it is somewhat difficult 
 to reconcile the proper date of this grant with Frost's carefully- 
 compiled list of wardens of the town, wherein we find Hastang 
 warden in 1310, in conjunction with Botenheryng and others in 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 73 
 
 1311 (the year of the grant to hiin for life), and again solely in 
 1316, 17, 29, and 31 ; which last was the year of the charter 
 elevating the office into that of mayor, and conferring the custody 
 of the town upon the burgesses. Frost further states in a 
 footnote based upon the national records that on the 4th 
 November, 1312, Eobert de Wodehouse, the king's escheator 
 beyond Trent, took the town and manor from Sir Eobert Hastang 
 back into the king's hands, which taking seems strangely at 
 variance with Sir Robert's then holding the same for his life ( 40 ). 
 In the Inquisition taken after the death of Richard de la Pole 
 (1346) Myton grange is mentioned as a tenement in " Myton 
 upon the Humber," called in the time of Abbot Roger " Myton 
 grange," and of which the abbot is said to have been seised with 
 " ten bovates of arable land," a quantity which exactly 
 corresponds with Domesday Book. It is also stated that 
 Edward II. erected there a new Manor-House, known at the 
 
 (40) The year of his death is uncertain, but he is referred to in the 10th Edward III. 
 (B.B. 2 fo. 203) as ''jam defuncto" As he was the last warden of Hull, and was connected 
 with the town so early in its history, although apparently a stranger and a south-countryman, 
 it may be interesting to give an abstract of his civil and military services from the published 
 Parliamentary writs. These appear to have been as follows : — 
 
 Hastings, Robert de < Robertus Ilaitang, Hattynqu, tlasteno, de Hastanges), 
 1294 — Summoned to perform military service against the Welsh. Master and military 
 
 council at Worcester, 21 Nov. 
 1296— Summoned to perform military service in person against the Scots. Muster at 
 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1 March. 
 1297— Summoned to perform military service in person in parts beyond the seas. Muster at 
 
 London, 7 July. 
 1298— Summoned from Staffordshire to perform military service in person against the Scots. 
 
 Muster at York, 25 May. 
 1801 — By the style and title of Dominui de la Disiree joins in the letter addressed to the Pope 
 
 on the part, as well of the persons named therein, as of the " Communitai" of 
 
 England. Dated at Lincoln, 12 Feb. 
 1303 — Appointed sheriff of the shire of Peebles. Parliament at Westminster, 15 Sept. 
 1811 — Commanded to attend the muster at Carlisle, 3 Nov., with ten men-at-arms, to 
 
 perform service in the Marches, receiving pay for the same. 
 1311 — Summoned as a baron to Parliament at Westminster, on the first Sunday in 
 
 Lent, 18 Feb. 
 1816 — Certified as lord of the township of Barforth ; also East Tanfleld and Carthorp, in the 
 
 county of York. 
 1317 — Summoned to perform military service in person against the Scots. Muster at 
 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 8 July. 
 1317— Muster prorogued, and re-summoned for 11 Aug. 
 1817 — Muster again prorogued, and re-summoned for 15 Sep. 
 1S18— Holding lands beyond the Trent, empowered to raise and arm all his men and tenants ; 
 
 16 Dec. 
 1324— Knight, and returned by sheriff of county of York, as summoned to attend the great 
 
 council. 
 
74 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 time as "Myton Manor-House," which with the ten bovates of 
 arable land attached to it he granted to Sir Eobert de Hastang 
 for life. 
 
 The original of this extract runs as follows — " Dicunt," — i.e. 
 the jurors, — q'd quidam Bog'us de Driffield, quondam Abbas de 
 Melsa, fuit seisitus de quo' dam ten' in Miton super Humbre tunc 
 vocat' Miton Graunge, ct de x bovat' terr' arabil' et p'ti ibidem. 
 Post decessum ip'ius D'ni Beg' avi D'n's E. pat' reg' qui nu'e est 
 fecit edificar' ibidem quoddam man'iu' tunc vocat' man'iu' de 
 Miton, quod quide' man'iu' cu' x bovat' t're arabil' et p'ti p'dict' 
 dedit et concessit D'no Rob'to de Hastang, milite, p'cartam suam 
 ad t'minu' vite ip'ius Bob'ti." 
 
 There is much uncertainty as to the relative situations of the 
 grange of Myton which belonged to the monks of Meaux Abbey, 
 and the Manor-House which King Edward II. is here said to 
 have caused to be built. Mr. Frost states that the Aula spoken 
 of in Maud Gamin's charter was used by the monks as a grange, 
 that " there the successor of Edward the First built a house 
 called Myton Manor-House ; and in that place the Court of thev 
 Manor of Myton continued to be held, until it was at length laid 
 waste, and reduced into a plain which obtained the name of 
 Grangewyke." I think I have previously shewn (see p. 48 ante) 
 that Mr. Frost was mistaken in identifying the grange described 
 as in ruins by Abbot Burton with the Aula mentioned in Maud 
 Camin's charter, and that, indeed, each stood on a different side 
 of the old course of the river Hull ; nor can I accept his further 
 statement that upon the site of the grange stood the Manor- 
 House built by order of Edward II. The matter is purely one of 
 surmise ; but my own theory is that the grange was an 
 agricultural building simply, in no way such an outward and 
 visible sign of lordship as a Court-House would have been. Con- 
 sequently when the rapidly-growing town of Kingston-upon-Hull 
 was constituted a manor, there arose a danger of the less- 
 important lordship of Myton becoming forgotten or extinct, unless 
 some tangible sign of its continued existence were established ; 
 and to secure this end the king ordered a Manor-House to be 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 75 
 
 orected within it. Building materials not being over-plentiful in 
 that day, it is not unlikely that the stone and timber of Abbot 
 Michael's grange were utilised for the cheaper erection of the 
 structure intended to supersede it ; which would also account for 
 Abbot Burton's statement, " Now our grange is wholly laid waste, 
 and its ruins are to be seen " etc. 
 
 Mr. Frost's further assertion that in the new building " the 
 court of the manor of Myton continued to be held, until it was at 
 length laid waste," is, of course, mere conjecture on his part. It 
 seems to be contradicted by the fact that like its Norman 
 predecessor, the Aula before alluded to, Edward's Manor-House 
 quickly fell into decay, from which I cannot but find confirmation 
 of my view that Myton never was a true manor, and that no 
 court or leet was held there. So early as the 5th Edward 
 II. (1312) an Inquisition into the condition of Myton lordship 
 revealed a state of things only compatible with the supposition 
 that the royal Manor-House was never used, either as a 
 residence or even for the purpose of holding a manorial court. 
 The jurors reported that the roofs and walls of the hall, chamber, 
 kitchen, and outbuildings of the Manor-House had suffered from 
 gradual decay and neglect to the extent of 40s., during the time 
 when Milo de Stapelton, John Botenherying, Bobert Hastang, and 
 Edward de Ebor were custodians of it ; and that the bridge before 
 the gate of the Manor-House (it was evidently moated, as Manor- 
 Houses usually were) required repairs to the amount of 6s. 8d. 
 
 Two of these custodians, Bobert de Sandale and Bobert 
 Hastang, seem from the town's records to have entertained 
 peculiar and original views as to the duties and privileges of 
 lessees of royal property ; as we gather from a brief entry which 
 appears in B.B. 2 fo. 141 of the finding of a jury upon an 
 inquiry into the state of the manor of Myton, held on Friday 
 next after the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8th Sept.) 
 in the 14th Edward II. (1320) before Henry de Staunton, 
 Adam de Lymbergh, and Galfrid le Scrop, upon the oath of 
 Arnold Nicol, Peter Nicol and others ; a record of considerable 
 interest chiefly because in it occurs the first mention of Tupcoates. 
 
 
jd Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 First the jurors say that in the manor of Myton once stood a 
 certain berchary called Humbercote, established there as a 
 store for the manor, and worth £20, which Eobert de Sandale, a 
 former custodian of the lordship, had destroyed ; as he had like- 
 wise destroyed another berchary to the king's loss to the extent 
 of 1 mark. That through the negligence of Eobert de Hastang, 
 the bank (which protected the manor from the Humber) had so 
 decayed that for the past four years the manor had suffered 
 damage to the amount of 10 marks per annum through divers 
 inundations of the waters of the Humber, and such bank could 
 not be properly repaired for less than £10, although 50s. would 
 have sufficed at first. Further that Allan de St. Clare formerly 
 held one messuage in Lyle-street ( 41 ), paying for the same a 
 quit rent of 7s. per annum ; which payment ceasing, Eobert de 
 Hastang seized the house into the king's hands, and in the same 
 year unroofed " xiij domosin ead" messiicuf," (* 2 ) selling therefrom 
 3000 tiles for 10s. Lastly that there was within the manor a certain 
 cottage called "Topcote," wmich Eobert de Sandale had caused to 
 be pulled down, and had sold the timber from it for 10s ( is ). 
 
 We may briefly note from this finding that the lordship of 
 Myton had fallen through the neglect and positive destruction of 
 two of its custodians into a condition of great decay and poverty. 
 It would appear to have consisted at this time merely of a few 
 ruined bercharies and dismantled houses, having suffered from the 
 greed and laissez-faire of stewards "whose own the sheep were 
 not ; " nor did it recover from this miserable state until it 
 became the property of the De la Poles. 
 
 That illustrious and wealthy family were the next possessors 
 
 (41) Afterwards Myton-gate, a name it acquired as early as 1890. It is evident from this 
 Inquisition and from other entries in the town's records that this street extended westward 
 from Kingston-upon-Hull into Myton. 
 
 (42) I cannot satisfactorily explain this extraordinary statement if the word " domot '• is 
 to be read as " houses." The term " messuagium " includes, it is true, not only a building 
 but also the adjacent land assigned to its use; yet it seems difficult to believe thot this 
 particular " messuage " comprised 13 separate tiled houses. But as in the same Inquisition 
 Humbercote berchary is alluded to as " dom' ilia " — that house — we are constrained to give 
 the same meaning to the word as used again here. 
 
 (43) /fro dtcunt q'd/uit ibi guo'da' cotagia' toeaF Topcote quid Rob't's de Sandale p' strafe fecit 
 // John de laxton s'cicnte' suu' et vendidit ind" imTfm p' xs. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 77 
 
 of the lordship, their tenure of it, broken only by occasional 
 forfeitures, lasting as long as their fortunes endured. 
 
 In the 3rd Edward III. (1329) the brothers Eichard and 
 William de la Pole petitioned their sovereign for a grant of the 
 manor of Myton, in the county of York, in exchange for their 
 moiety of the manor or villa of Lyndeby, in the county of Not- 
 tingham (**). What was the especial value of the former property 
 in their eyes we can only surmise. Although its rent-roll was 
 the larger as a matter of fact, this would have to be equalised on 
 exchange ; but Myton was situate at their own doors, and was 
 an agricultural lordship of some importance just outside the walls 
 of a growing commercial town in which they themselves were 
 rapidly accumulating vast wealth. There would also be some 
 increase of dignity and consideration amongst their fellow citizens 
 in being lords of the adjacent manor ; beyond which they were 
 undoubtedly largely indebted to Myton for one easy and prolific 
 source of their riches. According to Leland, " most part of the 
 Brik that the waulles and Houses of Kingston were builded 
 with was made without the South side of the Town," and he adds 
 " the Place is caullid the Tylery." By the south side of the town 
 I understand the south of its western face, identifying " the 
 Tylery " with the brickyard which the De la Poles had in Myton 
 when the walls of Kingston-upon-Hull were built. It is highly 
 probable that they enjoyed an exceedingly lucrative monopoly of 
 brick-making during the early years and growth of Hull, and this 
 must have stimulated a desire to acquire the rights of lordship 
 over the valuable district without its gates. 
 
 However this may have been, pursuant to their request writs 
 were issued to the king's escheators in both counties to ascertain 
 the respective values of the properties sought to be exchanged. 
 
 Accordingly as regarded Myton an Inquisition was taken there 
 before John de Sutton and others, on Monday after the Feast 
 of St. Dunstan the bishop, 3rd Edward III., in the presence of 
 
 (44) William de la Pole it was who acquired the moiety of the manor of Lyndeby, which 
 he bought of Sibilla, wife of John de Metham, chivalier, who held it in chief. Edward II. 
 pardoned William de la Pole for thiB offence on his paying a fine of 5 marks (12th Aug., 1825). 
 Pat. Roll, 19 Edu. II. 
 
78 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 Eobert de Hastang, keeper of the said manor, to see if it would 
 be to the king's loss were he to grant the manor to Eichard and 
 William de la Pole in fee, in exchange for their moiety of the 
 township of Lyndeby. The jurors astutely returned that it would 
 not be to the king's loss if he received to the value thereof, " but 
 they say that Robert de Hastang, keeper of the said manor, hath 
 by the grant of the lord Edward, father of the king, the aforesaid 
 manor, with the custody of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, 
 receiving therefrom yearly £100 during his life." As their extent 
 of the manor the jurors said — and their finding gives us a 
 complete and most interesting account of its then contents and 
 value — that the site of the manor (Manor-House) of Myton, with 
 a certain piece of meadow lying under the same, was worth by the 
 year, quit of reprises, 13s. 4d. Also that there were with the 
 same manor ten bovates of land and meadow, whereof each 
 bovate contained 15 acres of arable land and 10 acres of meadow 
 thereto pertaining, and each bovate was worth by the year, beyond 
 reprises, and beyond defence against the waters of the Humber, 
 2 marks. Also that there was a certain piece of meadow con- 
 taining 12 acres in Waldinges (Wold Ings) which was called 
 Sevenstangs, and worth annually 20s. Further that there was a 
 certain windmill there, worth by the year 2 marks. Also eleven 
 cottages paying yearly 26s. 4d. at two terms of the year. And 
 lastly that there was a pasture wherein cattle were sometimes 
 agisted called Mytonker (Myton Carr), and it was worth 2s. per 
 annum : the sum of the extent being £17 15s. 
 
 The king's grant of the manor to the two brothers was made 
 on the 8th day of May, 1330, the court being then at Woodstock. 
 It runs as follows (Originalia Rolls, 4 Edwd. III., Roll 5) : — 
 
 [HE King to all, &c. Know ye that we, for the 
 good services which our beloved servants Eichard 
 de la Pole and William his brother have heretofore 
 frequently rendered to us by expending themselves and their 
 goods in our service &c, have granted for us and our heirs that 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 79 
 
 our manor of Miton ( 45 ) with the appurtenances, which our 
 beloved and faithful Eobert de Hastang holds for the term of his 
 life by the demise of lord Edward late king of England our 
 father, and which after the death of the same Eobert ought to 
 revert to us and our heirs, shall after the decease of the same 
 Bobert remain to the aforesaid Eichard and William ; To have 
 and to hold to them and their heirs of us and our heirs for ever, 
 in exchange for a moiety of the vill of Lyndeby with its 
 appurtenances in the county of Nottingham which the same 
 Eichard and William hold of us, and which by their deed they 
 have given granted rendered and released quit from them and 
 their heirs forever to us and our heirs in exchange for the 
 manor aforesaid ; Eendering therefor to us and our heirs at our 
 exchequer after the death of the said Eobert £10 3s. annually, 
 by which amount (the said manor) exceeds the value of the 
 moiety of the town aforesaid according to the extent thereof 
 made; And we, having regard &c. to the great costs and 
 expenses which the said Eichard and William daily sustain in 
 our behalf, and desiring to show more abundant grace to them 
 on that account, have granted &c to the same Eichard and 
 William that they may hold the same manor with the 
 appurtenances after the death of the said Eobert free from the 
 aforesaid rent of £10 3s. during their whole lives, So never- 
 theless that the heirs of the same Eichard and William to whom 
 the aforesaid manor shall happen to come after their deaths 
 shall pay the said rent to us and our heirs &c every year for 
 ever : Given at Woodstock &c." 
 It is evident that at this time the annual value of the lordship 
 had considerably decreased. Prior to its purchase by Edward in 
 1293 the manor of Myton was estimated, as we have seen, to be 
 of the annual value of £24 8s 0d., so that in the course of the 
 nearly forty years which had elapsed since that event its revenues 
 
 (45) In the Patent Rolls, quoted both by Dngdale and Frost, the manor is described in 
 the entry of this exchange as " Miton in Holdernesse ; " and it is this description, though not 
 contained in the grant itself, which seemed to Frost to support his impression that Maud 
 Camin's Aula had stood on the " reliquam partem del Wt/k," The statement, however, must 
 have been a pure error on the part of an official, and can be of no historical or geographical 
 value whatever. 
 
80 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 had diminished almost one-third ; a state of things owing partly 
 fco the neglect of former custodians but mainly, perhaps, as that 
 very neglect may have been, to the superior attractions and rapid 
 development of Kingston-upon-Hull tending to depopulate the 
 immediate rural neighbourhood. I cannot quite reconcile the odd 
 shillings in the annual rent reserved to the crown, since the 
 yearly value of the moiety of Lyndeby, which the brothers duly 
 conveyed to King Edward by deed dated at Woodstock, 10th 
 May, 1330, appears to have been not £10 3s. but exactly £10 less 
 than the value of Myton, as I gather from an entry in the Patent 
 Rolls of some eleven years later (* 6 ). The king's remission of 
 this rent during the lives of Eichard and William de la Pole was 
 a grateful acknowledgment of their providing the daily expenses 
 of the royal household {vide " Story of the De la Poles," p. 12). 
 The date of this grant appears by mistake in Frost's pedigree of 
 the De la Pole family as 1311. 
 
 In 1334 the brothers De la Pole made a formal partition 
 of the manor between them ( 47 J. This was carried out by deed 
 dated the day of August next after the Feast of St. Peter ad Vin- 
 cula, 8 Edward III. (3rd Augt., 1334), a document which evidently 
 ran much to the following effect. " Partition is hereby made 
 between Richard de la Pole, on the one part, and William de la 
 Pole, on the other part, of the manor of Myton adjoining Kingston- 
 upon-Hull with its appurtenances, which the said Richard and 
 William hold of the gift and fee of our lord the king in exchange 
 for the township of Lyndeby in the county of Nottingham ; that 
 is to say, the said Richard shall have five bovates of arable land 
 with their appurtenances, which were formerly in the hands of 
 divers men of the said town of Kingston-upon-Hull by demise of 
 Sir Robert Hastang, knight, formerly custodian of the said manor ; 
 and a windmill upon the water of the Humber " (i.e., close to the 
 water-side); " and also the place or meadow called the Crookedcote- 
 
 (46) " Rex coneets' Thomce de Bourne in feodo omnia terras et ten' in villa de Lindby infra 
 forettam de Shirewode ad ralentia.n £7 15i. per ann', nuper WilVi de la Pole in escambio pro 
 tnanerio de Myton."— Cal. Rot. Pal. 15 Edw. III. 
 
 (47) For this information I am indebted to a note supplied to me by Mr. T. Tindall 
 Wildridge, author of " Old and New Hull," &c, but unfortunately he cannot recollect when 
 or from what source he obtained it. It, however, proves itself. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 81 
 
 dale ; and the other place or meadow called the Sevenstangs ; with 
 one moiety of all rights of pasturage and agistment of the manor : 
 the said William shall have the site of the Manor-House with the 
 houses and buildings thereon, and all places and profits within the 
 boundaries thereof; and the meadows adjoining the Manor-House ; 
 also the five bovates of arable land which the said Richard and 
 William heretofore held jointly of the said Sir Robert ; and all 
 other tenements and cottages within the said manor, with the 
 services and rents therefor due ; and one moiety of all rights of 
 pasturage and agistment of the manor." 
 
 It appears from the document next to be mentioned that the 
 brothers had purchased Sir Robert Hastang's interest in the 
 lordship and in the fee-farm rent of the town, and had been for 
 some time in full possession of the manor. Amongst the 
 town's muniments is an earlier indenture between Richard and 
 William de la Pole, which corroborates the fact of a partition, 
 and to some extent supports the date given in the preceding 
 paragraph. After reciting that they had jointly acquired from the 
 king his manor of " Mytona juxta Kyngcston sup' Hull" with its 
 appurtenances, to hold to them and their heirs after the death 
 of Sir Robert Hastang, to whom the late king (father of the 
 then monarch) had given the manor for his life, and also that the 
 king intended to give them for their lives the whole farm (tot am 
 firma', i.e., the said annual rent of £10) of his town of Kingston- 
 upon-Hull after the decease of Sir Robert, whom " they had 
 wholly satisfied so that he had entirely released to them as well 
 the said manor as the said annual rent," they mutually agreed 
 to equally divide the said manor and farm of the town, " with all 
 commodities and profits issuing therefrom," in such wise that 
 Richard should have for himself one half-part of the net value 
 thereof, and that William should have for himself the other half- 
 part of the net value thereof ; further agreeing to bear equally such 
 costs or expenses as both or either of them might be put to at any 
 future time in defending or justifying his moiety against the crown 
 or any other authority. This deed is dated at Hull on Wednesday 
 
 i^ 
 
82 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 next after the Feast of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, in the 
 year pi our Lord 1332, and in the 6th Edward III. The witnesses 
 to a business arrangement of this magnitude were naturally fellow- 
 townsmen of standing and reputation, and were all well-known 
 men of their own day, although now r to the great majority of 
 readers their names will be a mere string of idle sounds. They 
 were Hugh le Taverner, Eichard FitzDien, Eobert Stut, Stephen 
 of Swine, Alan Coc, Eobert of Lichfield, Walter le Taverner, 
 Eoger Lambert, Thomas of Upsale, Walter Helleward, and others. 
 
 Eobert Stut in 1334 was appointed a royal commissioner to 
 select vessels suitable for warlike purposes from the ports of 
 Newcastle, Hartlepool, and Hull; and was mayor in 1341. Of the 
 others we will give a few particulars later. But the mere perusal 
 of their forgotten names suggests to us the reflection how few, if 
 any, of those who to-day are the chief citizens of Hull in her 
 council-chamber and marts will, when five centuries more have 
 passed by, be known even by name to those who will then occupy 
 their places. 
 
 As a large portion of the manor of Myton was held " of 
 the fee of Aton," it may be interesting here to quote from B.B. 2 
 fo. 235 a grant of lands in Myton held of the same fee ; and 
 made by Eobert FitzHugh to Hugh le Taverner in 1335. Judging 
 from the names of the witnesses, all of whom were local men of 
 mark, the transaction was regarded as one of considerable 
 importance, and from the wording of the instrument itself would 
 seem to include all the fee of Aton within the town or without. 
 Yet it could not possibly have affected, or been for a moment 
 intended to have affected, any portion of the lands of Myton 
 belonging at this time to Eichard and William de la Pole. 
 Altogether the matter is somewhat puzzling ; and the delicious 
 vagueness which this grant displays, in common with so many 
 medieval conveyances, does not assist one to an explanation. 
 The entry of the deed in the town's records runs as follows : — 
 
 \CIATIS p'sentes et futur' q'd ego Bob'tus fil' 
 Hugo' is de Kyngeston sup' Hull dedi co'cessi et 
 hac p'senti carta mea confirmavi Hugoni le Tav'n' 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 83 
 
 de Kyngeston sup' Hull om'es et singidas t'ras et ten' cu' 
 b'caria p'tis pascuis et pasturis et o'ib's aliis commoditatib's 
 aysiamentis et p'tin' suis que et qaas h'ui ex dono et feoffamcnto 
 d'ni Gilb'ti de Aton militis in Kyngeston sitp' Hull et My ton 
 juxta Kyngeston ; H'end' et tenend' om'es et singulas p'dict' 
 t'ras ct ten' cu' b'car' p'tis pascuis et pasturis ct o'ib's aliis 
 commoditatib's aysiamentis et p'tin' suis p'd'tis p'dict' Hugoni 
 her' et assign' suis libe' et integre imp'petu'm de capitalis d'm'i 
 feodi Mi p' s'vi'a indc debita et consueta ; Et ego p'd'c'us 
 Rob'tus ct her' mei o'es et smg'las p'd'tas t'ras et ten' cu' b'car' 
 p'tis pascuis et pasturis et o'ib's aliis commoditatib's aysiamentis 
 et p'tin' suis p'd'tis p'd'c'o Hugoni her' et assign' suis cont' 
 om'es ho'i'es warantizab' ivip'petu'm ; In cuj' rei testi'oni' huic 
 p'senti carte mee sigillu,' me'm apposui; Hiis iestib's, Will'o de la 
 Pole, tunc maiore de Kyn' sup' Hull, Will'o de Birkyn et Walt'o 
 Tav'n', baill'is c'usde' ville, Eob'to de Lychefelde, Bic'o FitzDien, 
 Walt'o Helward, Bob'to de Uppesale, et aliis ; Dat' apud 
 Kyngeston sup' Hull die d'nica in festo Annunciac'o'is B'e 
 Marie Virg'is, Anno D'm' mill' into t'ccntesimo tricesimo quinto 
 rcgni regis Edwardi t'cii p' conquestu' nono." 
 The document may be " thus render'd." 
 
 |NOW all men present and to come that I, Eobert 
 FitzHugh of Kingston-upon-Hull, have given and 
 granted, and by this my present charter have 
 confirmed, unto Hugh le Taverner of Kingston-upon-Hull all 
 and singular the lands and tenements, with the berchary, 
 meadows, grazing-grounds, and pastures, and with all other 
 their commodities, easements, and appurtenances, which I 
 have of the gift and feoffment of Sir Gilbert de Aton, knight, 
 in Kingston-upon-Hull, and Myton nigh Kingston ; To have and 
 to hold all and singular the said lands and tenements, with the 
 berchary, meadows, grazing-grounds, and pastures, and with 
 all other the commodities, easements, and appurtenances as 
 aforesaid, unto the said Hugh his heirs and assigns freely and 
 wholly of the chief lord of the fee for ever, by the services 
 therefor due and accustomed ; And I the said Robert and my 
 
84 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 heirs all the foregoing lands, tenements, berchary, meadows, 
 
 grazing-grounds, pastures, commodities, easements, and 
 
 appurtenances, unto the said Hugh his heirs and assigns will 
 
 for ever warrant against all men ; In witness whereof I have 
 
 hereunto affixed my seal ; these being witnesses, William de la 
 
 Pole, mayor of Kingston-upon-Hull, William de Birkyn and 
 
 Walter le Taverner, bailiffs of the same town, Eobert of 
 
 Lichfield, Richard FitzDien, Walter Helward, Eobert of 
 
 Upsala, and others ; Dated at Kingston-upon-Hull on Sunday 
 
 in the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
 
 in the year of Our Lord 1335, and in the 9th year of the reign 
 
 of King Edward the 3rd after the Conquest." 
 
 Upon this deed I may shortly remark that, first, the reader 
 
 will learn from it and the other charters set out in these pages 
 
 that the custom amongst lawyers, so frequently found fault with 
 
 in these degenerate days, of repeating the same words over and 
 
 over again in deeds, has come down to them from a very 
 
 respectable antiquity ; secondly, that Sunday was and is a most 
 
 unusual day upon which to transact any legal business or execute 
 
 any legal document, and some special reason must have existed 
 
 for its being the day of the signature of the present one ; thirdly, 
 
 that many of those mentioned in the deed were men whose 
 
 memories we may hold in respect as once leading citizens of 
 
 Hull, albeit five-and-a-half centuries have come and gone since 
 
 they trod the pavement of High-street, or discussed commercial 
 
 and municipal affairs on 'Change or in the warm parlour of their 
 
 favourite tavern. 
 
 Sir Gilbert de Aton, lord of the fee of which the lands and 
 tenements, berchary, &c, were held, was a knight of considerable 
 wealth and importance. He had his residence in High-street ; 
 and was summoned to Parliament from 17 Edward II. to 16 
 Edward III., in which latter year he died. He was a member 
 of the ancient baronial family of Aton, who had much property 
 in Hull, Myton, and Trippet, and after whom Aton-lane, now 
 Chapel-lane, was called. William de la Pole we know. This was 
 his fourth year of office in the mayoralty ; and the fact that he 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 85 
 
 is not described as miles or dominus is another proof that 
 Tickell is in error in saying that he was made a knight- 
 bachelor in 1332 (see " Story of the De la Poles," p. 12). Hugh 
 le Taverner is mentioned in the same year (1335) as holding 
 property in Market-gate under lease from the Archbishop of 
 York. Eobert de Lychfield was three times mayor of the town ; 
 Robert de Upsale once, and being in 1347 associated with Sir 
 William de la Pole, the mayor and bailiffs, and other prominent 
 citizens in drawing up a terrier of the royal possessions in Hull 
 (B.B. 2 fo. 31) ; whilst Walter Helleward was thrice mayor, and, 
 doubtless, a son of James Helleward, or Helward, who founded 
 Holy Trinity church as a chapel of ease to Hessle. He was 
 collector of customs at Hull jointly with Richard de la Pole, was 
 a member of a family of much local esteem, and probably lived in 
 High-street near to Sir Gilbert de Aton. The name of 
 FitzDien is also of frequent mention in the town's records of 
 this period, arguing a family of property and position. 
 
 The title of the brothers De la Pole to the fee-farm rent of the 
 town ( 48 j was not readily admitted after Sir Robert Hastang's 
 death, or the payment of it not cheerfully made ; since in B.B. 2, 
 fo. 203 appears a copy of letters-mandatory from King Edward, 
 directing the immediate payment to them of the arrears of the 
 rent. It is interesting that these letters were given at the Tower 
 of London. They bear date 15th April, 1336, and are addressed 
 to the mayor, bailiffs, and " honest men " of the town; the last 
 expression being a compliment to the burgesses at large, or 
 founded upon city-officer Verges' aphorism, slightly altered, — 
 " If he be not an honest man, he is none of the prince's subjects," 
 upon which a local Dogberry might well have commented " True, 
 and these letters are to none but the prince's subjects." In 
 much the same words as are used in the case of Sir Robert 
 Hastang, the king mentions his gift of the custody of the town to 
 
 48 It would be interesting to follow the history of this annual payment, which exists, 
 1 believe, in a modified form at the present time. I have no doubt that Mr. Wiklridge could 
 give us a full account of it, if permitted by the Corporation to do so. After the death of Sir 
 William de la Pole, his son and heir Michael, afterwards carl of Suffolk, paid £5 for the 
 royal confirmation of a writing from his father assigning the said rent to him. 
 
86 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 that knight for his life ; then that he had on the 9th day of June, 
 in the fourth year of his reign (1330), promised his heloved 
 servants Richard and William de la Pole that after the death of 
 Sir Robert they should have the custody of the town for their 
 lives, in recognition of their good and faithful services repeatedly 
 rendered to him ; reminds the burgesses that in spite of this 
 grant and promise he had by his charter of 6th May, 
 1331, given them the custody and keeping of their town for ever, 
 at the annual rent of £70 ; that he had given this rent to the two 
 De la Poles for their lives, Sir Robert Hastang being now dead ; 
 and, finally, commands them to pay the arrears and the future 
 rent to the said Richard and William, making which payment 
 they should be quit of the said rent against the king. 
 
 On the 16th July, 1338, King Edward III. embarked for 
 Flanders from Orwell, with the intent to make practically good 
 by conquest the theoretical title he had assumed of King of 
 France. Harassed and hampered by lack of funds the king was 
 unable to invade France until the September of the following year. 
 Meanwhile in purse and person William de la Pole had been 
 unwearied on behalf of his royal master, and his zealous services 
 were in part rewarded by five grants which the king made to him 
 at Antwerp on the 15th day of May, 1339, one being a perpetual 
 release from the annual rent of £10 3s. 0d., reserved by Edward 
 out of the manor of Myton for equality of exchange, in the form 
 following : — 
 
 " For Richard de la Polt.-] iRSfjHP 1 ^ king to all &c greeting: 
 and William de la Pole, hi^Hje&Q Know ye that whereas 
 brother. J " " W e lately granted to our 
 
 beloved merchants Richard de la Pole and William, his brother, 
 certain lands and tenements in the township (villa) of Myton on 
 Hull, to have and to hold to the same Richard and William 
 and their heirs of us and our heirs, paying yearly to us into our 
 exchequer £10 3s. Od. for ever, and that out of regard for the 
 praiseworthy service performed for us by the aforesaid Richard 
 and William we have since remitted to them the said fee-farm 
 of £10 3s. Od. during the lives of the said Richard and 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 87 
 
 William, as in our letters-patent then obtained more fully 
 appears ; We, considering the various labours and expenses 
 which the same Eichard and William have since very often 
 undergone for us, and desiring therfore to do them more 
 abundant favour, have in that respect remitted to the aforesaid 
 Eichard and William and their heirs and for ever quit-claimed 
 for us and our heirs the said fee-farm rent of £10 3s. 0d., and 
 have granted that the same Eichard and William and their 
 heirs may have and hold of us and our heirs the said lands and 
 tenements without any drawback for the service of a rose 
 annually, to be delivered to us at our said exchequer on the 
 Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist for ever ; In 
 witness whereof &c. Witness the King at Antwerp the 15th day 
 of May, 1339" (*°). 
 Henceforth, therefore, the manor was to be enjoyed by the 
 brothers and their successors in title free from any rent to the 
 crown. 
 
 Sir Eichard de la Pole died 22nd September, 1345. The 
 Inquisition taken after his death has already been alluded to ; but 
 it contains further details respecting the manor of Myton, and 
 notably the statement that Sir Eichard had become the sole 
 owner of the lordship. The enquiry was held at Hull before 
 Thomas de Eokeby, the king's escheator, in 1346, and the jurors, 
 after presenting as to the grange and Manor-House what we 
 have before discussed, the gift of the manor to Sir Eobert 
 Hastang, the grant of the reversion of it to Eichard and 
 William de la Pole in fee at the annual rent of £10 3s. 0d., and 
 the release to them of that rent for their lives, found that " after 
 the death of the same Eobert the said Eichard and William 
 entered into the premises" — this is not consistent with the recital 
 in their deed of partition (page 81 ante) that they had fully 
 satisfied Sir Eobert, who had wholly released the manor to 
 them — " And afterwards the said William released his interest to 
 the said Eichard, who became solely seised thereof. And every 
 bovate of (arable) land is worth with the meadow 10s. by the 
 
 49. Pat. Roll, 13 Edw. III., pt. 4, m. 20, Vasoon. 
 
88 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 year and no more on account of divers inundations of the 
 Humber thereupon." They further found that Sir Eichard died 
 seised of three bovates of land and meadow in the township of 
 Myton called " Aton fee," and each bovate with the meadow- 
 was worth 10s. a year and no more by reason of the said inunda- 
 tions. " Also that he died seised there of a certain yearly rent of 
 23s. 4d., by the hands of divers free tenants reserved by deed ; 
 also of rents of four bond tenants worth 42s. 4d. by the year ; 
 also of a certain cottage holden in bondage at the rent of 32s. 6d. ; 
 and also of one windmill worth nothing that year because out of 
 repair and unlet." Then, after enumerating other properties and 
 rents, the jurors conclude — "And all the said lands and tenements, 
 rents, &c, and the said mill (except tenements in Kingston-upon- 
 Hull, and five bovates of land and meadow in Myton, which are 
 holden of our lord the king) are holden of Sir John de Mowbray 
 by service of homage and fealty." 
 
 This enquiry shows and accounts for a still further decline in 
 the annual value of the lordship. In the forty years preceding 
 the acquisition of it by the great mercantile house of De la Pole 
 Brothers, its revenues had diminished one third. In the further 
 and much shorter period of sixteen years, which had just passed, 
 they had again shrunk by another third ; whilst if we deduct 
 from the total of £11 8s. 2d. given in this Inquisition the 30s. 
 annual value of Aton-fee, as perhaps we ought to do, then the 
 rent-roll of Myton had dwindled to something under £10. 
 Neglect to repair or maintain the Humber bank had resulted in 
 frequent inundations of these low-lying lands, with a heavy con- 
 sequent loss to owner and tenant. 
 
 The mention of bond tenants, and of a cottage holden in 
 bondage, is the second suggestion we have met (although it may 
 fairly be termed the first, since the earlier one is so faint) of 
 there having been any villeins within the manor ; a question 
 which can be better discussed later, when we shall find them 
 expressly named. It is, however, worth while noting the ex- 
 cessive rents borne by these tenants, and laid upon this cottage. 
 Each bond tenant paid 10s. 7d. yearly, more than the annual 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 89 
 
 value of 15 acres of arable land with their accompanying 10 acres 
 of meadow, and equivalent to close upon £8 of modern currency. 
 But the case of the cottage held in bondage seems especially 
 hard ; indeed almost incredible. Its rent would amount to-day 
 to £24 7s. 6d. ; and who could support such a heavy tax upon 
 his industry in a purely agricultural district subject to inunda- 
 tions, and with no labour but that of his own hands and spade ? 
 In fact the magnitude of the amount seems itself the strongest 
 argument we could find against the word " bond " or " bondage " 
 here implying villeinage, since it is preposterous to suppose that 
 such a pecuniary burden, too heavy for a freeman, could be borne 
 by a mere serf. 
 
 The subject of Aton-fee is involved in obscurity, owing to the 
 scanty nature of the records making it difficult to understand 
 them at this distance of time. Both Domesday Book and the 
 Liber Melse give the total area of the berewick and grange of 
 Myton as ten bovates, or 150 acres of arable land with the 
 meadow and pasturage pertaining thereto. Subsequent 
 documentary evidence so repeatedly confirms this as to leave the 
 quantity apparently beyond doubt ; yet in this Inquisition Aton- 
 fee is certainly mentioned as distinct from the ten bovates which 
 originally formed the lordship. And this particular holding I find 
 again mentioned as a separate property in a grant from Michael 
 de la Pole, second earl of Suffolk, to Edmund de Stafford, bishop 
 of Exeter, and others, dated 1st June, 1408, although its contents 
 are there given as seven bovates, or 105 acres, " setup tern bovatas 
 t're cu' p'tin' in Miton vocat' Atonfe " (B.B. 2 fo. 211J. The 
 matter is rendered more difficult of comprehension by the fact 
 that in Kirkby's Inquest into those knights' fees in Yorkshire which 
 were holden of the king in capite (A.D. 1284-5J, Myton appears as 
 of the fee of De Vesci, and then held entirely by Gilbert de Aton ( 5 °); 
 from which tenure one would assume this name of Aton-fee, or 
 Aton's fee, to have originated, becoming limited to seven or three 
 particular bovates in the manor as a topographical identification 
 
 (50) "Miton. De fcodo de Vesci j car' terra. Gilbertm de Aton tenet totum. Unde xvj car' 
 terra; faciuntfeod." The editor in his index of places very mistakenly represents Myton 
 as " lost." N.B.— This J car' is practically equivalent to 7 bovates. 
 
90 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 of them through causes not now traceable. Yet a proof that this 
 assumption is not correct, and that Aton-fee was additional to what 
 I may term Myton proper, is afforded by a grant from Sir William 
 de la Pole, the great duke of Suffolk, to Sir John Chardelowc, 
 Thomas Hoo, esquire, Eobert Bolton, clerk, Eobert Bolton, 
 esquire, John Bolafre, and many others, dated 25th Oct., 1430, 
 which passed, amongst other hereditaments, ten bovates of land in 
 Myton called King's fee, "decern bovat' t're vocat' Kyngcsfee eu' 
 suis p'tin' in Miton in Coin' Ebor' " (B.B. 2 fo. 261), which I have 
 no doubt were the original ten bovates constituting Myton lord- 
 ship, and so called because acquired from a king and held under 
 his successors ( 51 ). In the same way, however, Aton-fee must 
 have obtained its especial name from having once formed part or 
 all of the fee of Aton ; and I can only surmise that it was the 
 whole or some portion of that accretion of area which Myton 
 gained, as will afterwards be mentioned, subsequently to the 
 change in the course of the river, and the foundation and 
 delimitation of the royal town of Kingston-upon-Hull. Yet how 
 or when part of the fee of any Aton " does not now appear," 
 further than in Kirkby's concise return as to Myton, " Gilbert de 
 Aton holds the whole." It may be remarked here that the 
 difficulties of fixing, except very generally, the limits of the 
 district which a few centuries ago was known as Myton, are 
 insuperable, because so many references to portions of it im- 
 possible to be identified now meet the enquirer. For instance, 
 there occurs in the Cal. Hot. Pat. for 1342 an entry of a 
 judgment against the abbot of Meaux at the suit of the prior of 
 Ferriby, establishing the latter's right of pasture over 200 acres 
 of moor and marsh in Myton, in respect of a free tenement of his 
 in Swanland ( 52 ), which seems indicative of more rights of pasture 
 and a greater area of common lands than are mentioned even in 
 Maud Camin's charter ; whilst so late as 1513 an Inquisition into 
 
 (51) Yet it is curious that this grant is distinct from a previous one, dated the 20th of 
 the same month, in which Sir William conveys to Chardelowe and the rest "the manor of 
 Myton," and all his lands, tenements, and rents in Myton and elsewhere ;B.B. 2, fo. 260). 
 
 (52) " Ampla exempHficatio Judicii pro Priore de Feriby versus Abbatem de \felsa pro 
 communia pasture? suae in ducentis acris mora; et marisci in iiitton ut pertinen' ad liberum 
 tenementum suum in Swanland." Cal. Rot. Pat. t 10 Edwd, III., m. 44. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 91 
 
 the properties of Edmund de la Pole, attainted, speaks of "a 
 thousand acres of land in Kingston-upon-Hull and My ton " ( 53 ). 
 It will be noticed that the words vill or township {villa) and 
 manor (manerium) are used indifferently in reference to Lyndeby 
 in the documents connected with the exchange, and also <af Myton 
 in this Inquisition. In both cases this supports my argument 
 that the former word is not used in the sense of town as we 
 understand that term, but as meaning township or inhabited 
 district (see p. 52 ante) ; so that the frequent use of the expression 
 villa de Myton by no means implies the whilom existence of a 
 vanished or forgotten town. We know from the finding of the 
 jurors upon John de Sutton's enquiry that Myton included only 
 eleven cottages and a windmill, and therefore could not possibly 
 have ranked as a town, and yet it is spoken of here, as in Maud 
 Camin's charter, as a "vill," whilst the same term is used in 
 regard to Lyndeby, the total annual value of which was less even 
 than that of Myton. It would seem clear, then, that in neither 
 case ought the word villa to be construed " town " in its present 
 signification. 
 
 It is impossible to understand the final verdict of the jurors 
 that Sir Eichard de la Pole held at least half of Myton lordship 
 under Sir John de Mowbray, and only five bovates of the king in 
 cajnte. The Meaux register previously quoted from speaks of a 
 confirmation to the abbey of their purchase of Myton wyk and 
 lordship by, amongst others, a Roger de Mowbray (page 54 ante), 
 
 (53) It would appear from documentary evidence subsequent to Maud Camin's charter 
 that, although her deed is so indefinite as to the actual or reputed area of Myton, the lord- 
 ship was nevertheless regarded as then comprising only ten bovates. At page 171 of part 42 
 of the " Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Journal " appears an extract from the 
 Feet of Fines of 7 Ric. I. (1195-6) which throws some light on the subject. It is the record 
 of a Fine made between Maud Camin, then the widow of Robert de Melsa, as plaintiff, and 
 her son John de Melsa (therein called " De Mehus ") as tenant, concerning inter alia the vill 
 of Willerby, and ten bovates of land in Myton — " decern bovatas terre mMiton" — all of which 
 Maud released and quitted claim to her said son in return for two marks ("marcatas," i.e. marks 
 issuing out of the rent of land) annually for her life, secured upon various properties 
 belonging to the said John, including 2J lbs. of pepper payable yearly by the town of Bever- 
 ley. The editor of the journal erroneously remarks that " Myton, which was in the same 
 district (i.e. as Willerby, and near Hull), and is mentioned in Domesday, and as late as 
 1302-3, is no longer to be identified." 
 
 For the information of the non-legal reader it may be remarked that a " Fine " was a 
 compromise of a fictitious suit, and a method of obtaining legal sanction and authority to 
 a friendly arrangement of adverse claims. ,: It was termed a fine for its worthiness, and the 
 peace and quiet it brought with it— finis fructus exitus eteffectus legis." 
 
92 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 which would undoubtedly imply that the family of Mowbray had 
 at some time had possession of the fee or part of the fee of My ton, 
 and still retained a technical feudal lordship therein ; but the 
 king having acquired the whole could not have held, even 
 feudally, under one of his own subjects. It must have been that 
 when the land which had been originally granted out by the 
 crown returned to the crown, even by purchase, the line of past 
 feudal lords terminated, and their rights ceased. The Inquisition 
 held in Myton prior to the exchange is clear, and in strict 
 accordance with the facts, that Sir Robert Hastang held ten 
 bovates of arable land and meadow under King Edward's grant 
 to him of the custody of the nianor of Myton, the same being, of 
 course, the monarch's property by virtue of his exchange with the 
 monks of Meaux. Yet this Inquisition is equally clear and 
 emphatic that all the said lands, &c, except five bovates of land 
 and meadow in Myton held of the king, had been holden by Sir 
 Eichard de la Pole of Sir John de Mowbray, which appears to 
 force us to the unavoidable conclusion that the king, his immediate 
 predecessor in title, had in his turn held the lordship (save the said 
 five bovates) of Sir John de Mowbray " by service of homage and 
 fealty," which as Euclid says " is absurd." Moreover, if I am 
 right in identifying the ten bovates in Myton known as King's fee 
 with the ten bovates of the lordship proper, the question is 
 settled in flat contradiction of the jurors, since we cannot under- 
 stand the name of those ten bovates otherwise than as decisive 
 testimony that they were held of the king in chief. 
 
 The windmill mentioned in the extent of the manor made prior 
 to the exchange, and again in this Inquisition where it is also 
 stated to be held of Sir John de Mowbray, is the earliest one in 
 Myton of which I have been able to find any record. It is not 
 likely that it was built by Sir Robert de Hastang or any of his 
 predecessors in the office of custodian of the nianor, for they 
 appear to have been destructive agents rather than constructive ; 
 and most probably it was erected by King Edward II. at the 
 time when he built a Manor-House. As the lord's mill it may 
 have been intended as a further proof of seigniory, and an 
 
Of the History of the Manor 0/ Myton. 93 
 
 additional hall-mark to stamp the district as a manor. From the 
 annual value assigned to it by the jurors prior to the exchange, 
 £1 6s. 8d., and from the statement in this Inquisition that it 
 was then worth nothing because decayed and untenanted, I infer 
 that it was not retained in the lord's own hands, but let to a 
 tenant. Its custom, however, could not have been large, judging 
 from the small rent it commanded. But how came it to be 
 holden of Sir John de Mowbray by homage and fealty '? 
 
 A few months after the death of Sir Richard de la Pole, his 
 son and heir William de la Pole, called "the younger" to 
 distinguish him from his eminent uncle Sir William de la Pole 
 senior, made a disposition of the portion of the manor of Myton 
 inherited by him upon his father's death, which is enrolled in the 
 town's records, B.B. 2 fo. 104, and is of sufficient interest and 
 value to deserve full quotation. 
 
 jlCIAT' p'sentes ctfutur' q'dego Will's de la Polefil'ct 
 heres d' nl Bic'i de la Pole mil'tis dedi concessi et hac 
 p'senti carta mea indentata ( Si ) confirmavi Edmundo 
 de Benhale rector' cccl'ie de Drayton in com' Norff et Will'o fil' 
 Tlwm' de Hedon de Weston in the Claye duas p'tcs tot's dominii 
 om' t'rar' ten' reddit' s'vicior' et om' nati'or' cu' tota sequela sua 
 et eor' cattail' una cu' approvame' 'tis vastor' agistame'tior' 
 imparcame' tior' p'tis pascids et pastur' lorecce cu' o'ib's etsi'g'lis 
 per'tin' suis ad dictas duas partes dominii p'd'c'ip't' en' que injur' 
 hereditar' deccndebant post mortcmp 'die 'id'niBic'idelaPolepatris 
 mei in Myton jux' Kyng' sup' Hull Oustmersh Westhelueleye 
 Hessill Wylardby et Fcriby in com' Ebor' tarn in d'nico q'm in 
 s'vicio defeodo de A ton ; Dedi eciam et concessi e'usdem Edmund' 
 et Will'o fil' Thorn' dims p'tes unius molendini ventricii ex p'tc 
 
 (54) Deeds are of two kinds, Dee/h Poll and Indentures ; a deed poll being made by one 
 party only, and an indenture being made between two or more parties. Formerly it was 
 usual where a deed was made between two parties to write two copies upon the same piece 
 of parchment, with some word or letters written between them, through which the 
 parchment was cut in a wavy or toothed line so as to separate the two copies but render 
 them easy of positive identification, and each party retained possession of one copy. The 
 above deed is the earliest the writer has met with in which the expression " indented " is 
 used ; and it is evident that the custom was only just in its beginning since the instrument 
 is not stated to be an indenture made between the parties, but is in fact an indented deed 
 poll. It is a deed poll in form, but made in duplicate and cut throngh as before described, 
 so that the grantor and grantees might each keep an original. 
 
94 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 borial' de Kyng' sup' Hull que jur' hereditario in for' p'd'cta m' 
 dccendebant ; Et dedi eciam et concessi p'fat' Edmund' et Will'o 
 fil' Thorn' duas p'tes v bovatar' t're arrabill' in Miton p'd'c' cu' 
 p'tis eisdem p'tin' et cluas p'tes clausure del Topcote cu' edificiis 
 et cohtmbariis sup' edificatis et duas p'tes unius molcndini vent- 
 'cii sit' a sup' aq'm de Humbr' et duas p'tes cujusdam pecue pa'ci 
 vocat' la Crokedcotedale et duas p'tes alt' ius pecue pa'ci vocate la 
 Sevcnstanges cu' duabus p'tib's medietati' om' pasturar' 
 agistame' tor' man'io de Miton jux' Kyngeston sup' Hull q'ndam 
 spectan' ; IT end' et tenend' dictas duas p'tes om' t'rar' ten' reddit' 
 s'vicior' et om' nati'or' cu' tota sequela sua et eor' cattail' una 
 cu' approvame' 'tis vastor' agistame' t' or' imparcamc' tior' p'tor' pasc' 
 pastur' xorecce et om' et si'g'lar' libertat' et alior' p' tinencior' suor' 
 p'dic'or' ad p'dictas duas p'tes quoque inodo spect' sim'l cu' 
 p'dic'is duab's part'b's molend' p'd'c'or' p'fatis Edmund' et 
 Will'o fil' Thorn' et eor' heredib's et assign's de capital' d'nis 
 feodor' illor' p' s'vicia inde debita et consueta imp'p'm; Et 
 ego p'd'c' s Will's de la Pole et hered' mei p'd'c' as duas p'tes om' 
 terrar' ten' reddit' s'vicior' et om' nati'or' cu' sequela stia et eor' 
 cattail' una cu' approvame' 'tis vastor' agistame' tor' imparcame' tor' 
 p' t' s pasc' pastur' wrecce et om' et si'g'lar' libertat' et alior' p' tin' 
 suor' p'd'c'or' ut p'd'c'm' est p'fatis Edmund' et Will'o fil' Tlwm' 
 et eor' her' et assignatis cont' om' es gentes warrantizabim' imp'p'm; 
 In cuj' rei testimon' huic p'senti carte indentate sigill'm me'm 
 apposui ; Hiis testib's, d'm'o Thorn' de Wake d'n'o de Lydell, 
 Geradde de Usflet', Will'o de la Pole senior, Joh'e de Sutton, et 
 WiU'o de Byston, militib's, Joh'e Moygne ae Hessill, Joh'e de 
 Anlagby de Westhelueleye, Will'o de Neuport, et aliis ; Dat' ap'd 
 Miton jux' Kyngeston sup' Hull die lunc p'x' postf'm Conv'sionis 
 S'c'i' Pauli anno r' r' Edward' t'eii post conquest' vicesimo." 
 This instrument is especially interesting as having been 
 executed at Myton, probably in the Manor- House which seems 
 at this time to have been located in Tupcoates. It contains a 
 good description of the general condition of the manor at the time, 
 and its mention of dove-cotes and wrecks implies the exercise of 
 manorial prerogatives on the part of the lords. It bears date 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 95 
 
 the Monday after the 25th January, 1346 ; and is the deed 
 referred to at p. 43 ante, where instead of "eighty" (11th 
 line from the top of the page) should be read "about one hundred 
 and eighty." But before discussing it further, it may be better 
 to give its purport in a tongue more generally " understanded of 
 the people." 
 
 NOW all men present and to come that I, William de 
 la Pole, son and heir of Sir Eichard de la Pole 
 knight, have given and granted, and by this my 
 present charter indented have confirmed, unto Edmund de 
 Benhale, rector of the church of Drayton in the county of 
 Norfolk, and William of Weston-in-the-Clay the son of Thomas 
 of Hedon, two parts of the entire lordship and of all lands, 
 tenements, rents, services, and of all villeins with their families 
 and goods, together with profits of wastes, agistments, 
 impounding of cattle ( 55 ), and with meadows, grazing 
 grounds, pastures, wrecks, with all and singular the 
 appurtenances belonging to the said two parts of the lordship, 
 which by right of heirship descended to me after the death of 
 the said Sir Eichard de la Pole, my father, in Myton nigh 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, in Oustmersk, Westella, Hessle, Willerby, 
 and Ferriby, in the county of York, as well in lordship as in 
 service of the fee of Aton : I have also given and granted to 
 the said Edmund and William son of Thomas two parts of a 
 windmill on the north of Kingston-upon-Hull which descended to 
 me in like manner by right of heirship : Also I have given and 
 granted to the said Edmund and William son of Thomas two 
 parts of five bovates of arable land in Myton aforesaid with the 
 meadows thereto pertaining ; and two parts of Tupcoates close 
 with the buildings and dovecotes erected thereon ; and two parts 
 of a windmill on Humber water-side ; also two parts of a certain 
 sheep-pasture called Crookedcotedale ; and two parts of another 
 
 (55) The word " imparcamentuni" has this meaning as well as to impark, generally 
 used 01 woods or forests of which Myton would have none. It also includes the enclosure 
 of commons or part of them with hurdles for the protection of sheep. As in this deed it 
 follows agistment, the pasturing other men's cattle at a rent, it seems preferable to render 
 it as the corresponding right to seize and impound cattle unlawfully grazing within the 
 precincts of the manor. 
 
96 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 sheep-pasture called Sevenstangs ; with two parts of all the rights 
 of pasture and agistment heretofore belonging to the manor of 
 Myton nigh Kingston-upon-Hull : To have and to hold all the 
 aforesaid two parts of lands, tenements, rents, services, and of 
 all villeins with their families and goods, together with profits 
 of wastes, agistments, impounding of cattle, and of meadows, 
 grazing-grounds, pastures, wrecks, and all and singular liberties 
 and other the appurtenances belonging to the said two parts, as 
 also to the said two parts of the windmills aforesaid, unto the 
 said Edmund and William son of Thomas their heirs and assigns 
 of the chief lords of the fees by the services therefor due and of 
 right accustomed for ever : And I the said William de la Pole 
 and my heirs will for ever warrant and defend against all men 
 unto the said Edmund and William son of Thomas all the 
 aforesaid two parts of lands, tenements, rents, services, villeins 
 with their families and goods, profits of wastes, agistments, and 
 impounding of cattle, meadows, grazing-grounds, pastures, 
 wrecks, and all and singular liberties and other the appurtenances 
 as aforesaid : In testimony whereof I have set my seal to this 
 my present charter indented ; these being witnesses, Sir Thomas 
 de Wake, Lord de Liddell, Gerard de Usfleet, William de la 
 Pole senior, John de Sutton, and William de Eiston, knights, 
 John Moyne of Hessle, John of Anlaby of Westella, William of 
 Newport, and others : Given at Myton nigh Kingston-upon-Hull 
 on Monday next after the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, 
 in the twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the third 
 after the Conquest." 
 Several matters of interest are suggested for consideration by 
 this document which is of much value and importance in relation 
 to the history of the manor. 
 
 And first its general effect seems strangely inconsistent with 
 what we know positively about the subsequent ownership of 
 Myton lordship. Like the previously noticed later grant in 1408 
 from Michael de la Pole, the second earl (which included by the 
 way the family mansion in Hull), and those also already 
 mentioned from William de la Pole, afterwards duke of Suffolk, 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 97 
 
 in 1430, this deed purports to be an absolute conveyance of the 
 property ; although William de la Pole senior, the uncle of this 
 grantor, himself died seised of the manor, which remained, with 
 the exception of certain transient forfeitures, in the possession of 
 the De la Poles so long as their fortunes lasted, forming part of 
 the family estates from the reign of the third Edward to that of 
 the merciless and crafty Henry the Seventh. To reconcile these 
 apparent sales of the manor with its actual devolution in title is 
 not very easy. Their dates are not consistent with any theory 
 that they were conveyances upon secret trusts made on the eve 
 (and to avoid the consequences) of attainder ; and I can think of 
 no explanation so satisfactory as Mr. Wildridge's suggestion that, 
 whilst not purporting so to be, they were in fact mortgages, or 
 dispositions made to secure temporary loans of cash. And in this 
 connection it may be noticed that like Maud Camin before him, 
 and doubtless for a similar reason, William de la Pole only conveys 
 two parts, " dvas p'tes," of the several properties mentioned. 
 Sir Eichard's wife, Dame Johanna, survived him, and as his 
 widow would be entitled to her dower of one third of his real 
 estates during the remainder of her life ; so that until her death 
 only two thirds of the lordship of Myton were at the son's 
 disposal "jure hereditaria." But his dealing with two thirds, 
 whilst his widowed mother held the remaining third, is in 
 accordance with the finding of the jurors on the Inquisition after 
 Sir Richard's death, that Sir William de la Pole senior had 
 released his moiety of the manor to his brother. 
 
 I cannot fully identify the place here called " Oustmersk." 
 It is mentioned in the grants of 1408 and 1430 as well as in this 
 deed ; in the former two in connection with Anlaby, and in all 
 three associated with Myton. It appears later with Myton in the 
 finding of the jury after the death of Sir William de la Pole, duke 
 of Suffolk, as if the two were one property, and this enables one 
 to hazard a reasonable conjecture as to what it was. In note 52, 
 page 90 ante, reference is made to two hundred acres of moor and 
 marsh in Myton, and to this or some portion of it I am inclined 
 
98 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 to attach the name " Oustmersk," as denoting an unbanked, un- 
 drained portion of the common lands of the manor, lying at the 
 extreme south-west or Hessle end of Myton and more or less 
 marshy from frequent inundations of the Humber. Thus the 
 name may mean the " out-lying, or west marsh," from Ouste, 
 west, or outer, and Mersk, marsh — Latin, Merscum, A.S. Mersc. 
 
 It will be observed that the " two parts of the entire lordship " 
 and all the properties therewith conveyed to Edmund de 
 Benhale and his fellow grantee are described as of " the fee of 
 Aton." Now, as we shall see afterwards, only a portion of Myton 
 was held of that fee, so that a further element of confusion seems 
 added to the question by this deed. 
 
 It is noteworthy that here we meet for the first time with 
 definite mention of the existence of villeins upon the manor of 
 Myton. They are unmistakeably referred to by their generic 
 name of uativi ; this degradation of that term being, I may digress 
 to state, difficult to understand. The Norman conquest of 
 England was hardly so crushing, nor were its affects upon the 
 Anglo-Saxon people so overwhelming, that to be native-born was 
 ipso facto to be a slave. Yet whilst the course of the troubled 
 years which followed the great invasion was distinctly in favour 
 of the conquered people as against their conquerors, steadily 
 tending towards the restoration of the former by their absorption 
 of the latter, the haughty dominance of the Normans seems so 
 deeply to have impressed the growing nation that for centuries 
 after the battle of Hastings the degraded lowest class of the 
 community was contemptuously known as natives, a term which 
 ought rather to have been the boast of Englishmen of every sort 
 and condition. Perhaps, however, the longevity of this expression, 
 so uncomplimentary to the patriotism of the English people, was 
 due more to the conservatism of conveyancers than to any 
 intrinsic fitness. 
 
 Yet the appearance of nativi in this deed is by no means 
 conclusive proof that there were any villeins either regardant or 
 en gros attached to the lordship of Myton. A negative presumption 
 of some force arises from the entire absence of mention of any 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 99 
 
 such in Maud Camin's charter, in the Liber Melse, or in any 
 other document connected with the manor, excepting, perhaps, 
 the Inquisition after Sir Richard's death. Nor is this presumption 
 at all inconsistent with the wording of the deed in question, for 
 it is a recognised and ancient custom of conveyancers to introduce 
 into a transfer of property anything and everything which the 
 grant should theoretically include. Hence the scribe who prepared 
 this document either might be ignorant whether or not there 
 were any villeins within the manor, and so have carefully inserted 
 words to include such, if any ; or, well-knowing there were none, 
 might still have used the same words ex abundante cautcld. Yet 
 the terms of the grant are so definite, the various properties 
 transferred so precisely detailed, that the words " nati'or' ciC 
 tola sequela sua et eor' cattail' " are certainly primd facie 
 evidence that there were nativi dwelling within the manor and 
 transferable with it from lord to lord. Again, it may well have 
 been that in the berewick of Myton, as in its subsequent phases 
 of grange and manor, there existed upon its soil hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water, practically serfs, passing from hand to 
 hand with the soil on which they dwelt, and, possibly, deemed 
 too unimportant for mention either by Maud Camin or Abbot 
 Burton. Nor must we fail to consider that this deed being dated 
 at Myton was doubtless drawn up in Hull, where it would 
 assuredly be notorious whether or not there were any of the 
 wretched and enslaved class of villeins living outside the walls ; 
 although, on the other hand, the immediate proximity of a free 
 and chartered town must surely have been fatal to the existence 
 of villeinage at its very gates. 
 
 The earliest court-rolls of the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton 
 do not, as might otherwise have been supposed, throw much 
 light upon the subject. They speak of several classes of tenants, 
 freeholders, tenants by copy of court-roll, tenants for years, 
 tenants at will, and "bond" tenants; but give us no information 
 as to the terms upon which the last-named held their tenements. 
 As regards the only class which has survived to our own day, 
 the tenants by copy of court-roll, their tenure of their properties 
 
ioo Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 is in no instance stated to have been either actually (as it 
 was originally) or theoretically (as it is in most manors at the 
 present time) " at the will of the lord ; " a silence of very great 
 significance, and from which it would seem that we cannot, in this 
 particular case, apply to the argument Blackstone's con- 
 clusion that " copyholders are in truth no other but villeins, who 
 by a long series of immemorial encroachments on the lord, have 
 at last established a customary right to those estates which 
 before were held absolutely at the lord's will." One fact 
 certainly is clear and indisputable, that when the berewick of 
 Myton was visited by the Norman Commissioners no nativi dwelt 
 upon its deserted soil, for Domesday Book not only makes no 
 record of such, but says emphatically of Myton and its associated 
 berewicks " they are waste," save the four villeins with a plough 
 at Hessle. 
 
 My own conclusion is that there never were any villeins 
 within the lordship, at any rate after its acquisition by Edward I. ; 
 but the arguments are before the court, and judicet lector ! 
 
 I have translated the word " sequela " as " families." Upon 
 this expression Selden remarks, "when in former times any lord 
 sold his villein, it was said — dedi A. B. nativum meum cum tota 
 sequela sua — by which was meant all the villein's offspring." 
 
 The term wrecce is worth observing ; and also first appears in 
 connection with Myton in this deed. I think it may be viewed in 
 much the same light as " nati'or', " that is rather as an insertion 
 by the conveyancer of a right that might pass with the lordship, 
 and so had better not be omitted, than as evidence that the 
 franchise of wrecks was appendant to the manor. Legally 
 speaking, " wreck " is such goods or material as the sea casts 
 upon the shore after a shipwreck, for so long as such remain 
 afloat they are in the jurisdiction of the marine authorities. It 
 was anciently a branch of the coroner's office to inquire concerning 
 shipwrecks, and to certify whether wreck of the sea or not, and 
 who was in possession of the goods. It was not a manorial right 
 of course, for the revenue of wrecks was a special privilege granted 
 by the crown to the lords of seaboard manors ; and as regards 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. ioi 
 
 Myton, which was not strictly a seaboard lordship, no such grant 
 or evidence of it is extant. Yet this suggestion as to the force of 
 the word is purely conjectural ; and some may see a strong 
 contrary argument in the express conveyance of the franchise 
 (though only amongst what lawyers term the " general words ") 
 in a deed probably prepared on the spot, where every one would 
 know who got the benefit of shipwrecks on the foreshore of 
 Myton. It may also have been the case that, acquiring the 
 manor direct from the sovereign, the brothers De la Pole 
 considered that they took with it every prerogative and franchise 
 the monarch could confer, deeming a king especially bound by the 
 legal maxim that no man can derogate from his own grant. Let 
 us hope, as a solution, that shipwreck upon the manor coast was 
 so rare that the question had never been raised ! 
 
 In the partition of the lordship betwixt Richard and William 
 de la Pole mention is made of a windmill within the manor, 
 standing upon the Humber bank ; and I apprehend that it is the 
 same mill as that which appears in the extent of the manor, made 
 prior to Edward the Third's grant to the brothers, as worth two 
 marks a year, and again in the Inquisition after Sir Richard's 
 death as "weak" and unlet. In the present deed, however, 
 two mills appear ; and the second, which is simply described as 
 " ex p'te boriaV de Kyng' sup' Hull," must have been built by 
 one of the De la Poles subsequently to their division of the manor, 
 perhaps by Sir Richard after he had acquired the entirety of the 
 lordship. It is, consequently, somewhat singular that no mention of 
 it is made by the jurors after his death, especially as this document 
 follows too closely in point of date to permit of the mill having 
 been erected in the interval. I was at first inclined to discover 
 in this second windmill the original of that of which " the 
 counterfeit presentment " appears upon the notes of the great 
 banking firm of Messrs. Pease and Sons, of Hull. But this 
 appears untenable on fuller consideration. The words " ex p'te 
 boriaV" can only be construed as " without the north part" of 
 the town, and this mill must have stood upon that portion of 
 ground which, originally part of Sutton lordship if of any, was 
 
102 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 after the walling of the town considered to be in Myton ; whilst 
 Messrs. Pease's mill always stood, as I am informed, in Salthouse 
 Lane, and, of course, within the town of Hull. The other and 
 earlier mill, which spread its sails to the winds of heaven " upon 
 the water of Humber," was undoubtedly the predecessor of that 
 which fronts the spectator, in close proximity to the western side 
 of the town, in the well-known view of Hull in 1770 which is in 
 possession of the Pease family. In the 17th century this mill was 
 the property of Alderman Peck : and it is thus mentioned on the 
 court-rolls of Tupcoates-with-Myton on the 3rd May, 1655 : — 
 •' The jurors present that William Pecke, late one of the aldermen 
 of the towne of Kingston-upon-Hull, who of the lords of this 
 manor held to him and his heirs for ever in socage by suit of court, 
 at the yearly rent of 5s., one close commonly called " the Humber 
 Mill close," one messuage or tenement built thereon, and one 
 windmill wasted, in Myton, died so thereof seised." 
 
 The form of the deed we are considering, as of those previously 
 quoted, could not be better explained to the non-legal reader than 
 in the famous Selden's words, quoted from his " Janus Anglorum." 
 " The Normans," he writes, " called their writings given under their 
 hands Charters, and they ordered the confirmation of such 
 charters with an impression of wax by every one's particular Seal, 
 under the testimony and subscription of three or four witnesses 
 standing by." 
 
 The seal used by William de la Pole junior was an impress 
 of the original coat-of-arms of the family as borne by his father, 
 Sir Eichard, namely azure, two bars nebulee or, surrounded by 
 the legend " Sigillum Willi de la Pole." The accompanying 
 engraving of it, the only one ever published so far as the present 
 writer is aware, is taken from a very perfect example still 
 appendant to a deed of release from the said William to one Adam 
 Pound, or Pund, a well-known and prominent citizen in his day, 
 of a tenement which it may be interesting to state is described as 
 lying between " a tenement of Adam Stirkland on the south and 
 le Pole-street on the north, and bounded by Hull water on the 
 east, and Hull-street on the west ; " a description which would 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 103 
 
 imply, if Frost's sketch-plan of Hull early in the 14th century is 
 correct as to Pole-street, that the house in question stood without 
 the town's walls and was a messuage in Myton. The grantor 
 discharges it from all services except " a rose in the time of roses, 
 if demanded." The deed is dated at Hull on the eve of Pentecost, 
 1550, and in confirmation of Frost's carefully-compiled list gives 
 Gilbert de Birkyn as then mayor, and Gilbert de Cornbergh and 
 William de Botheby as bailiffs. 
 
 The Seal or William be la Pole joniok. 
 
 At this stage the history of the manor of Myton is to a great 
 extent the history of the noble family of De la Pole. From father 
 to son, from ancestor to heir, it passed in their main line until 
 the chivalrous but mistaken earl of Lincoln, John de la Pole, fell 
 at Stoke-upon-Trent in 1487. From their rise to wealth and 
 
104 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton, 
 
 importance until the star of their destiny vanished from the 
 heavens they were lords of the manor; and in the various 
 Inquisitions post mortem held as one by one they quitted the 
 scene of their successes or misfortunes, we have a series of 
 documents which agree as to the size and feudal tenure of the 
 lordship, and give us more exact information upon those points 
 than we have hitherto been able to discover. 
 
 How the property passed from what may be termed the 
 collateral branch of the family, namely from Sir Eichard's 
 heir, William the younger, to the main line as represented by his 
 uncle, Sir William de la Pole the elder, I cannot ascertain. 
 According to Frost the will of William de la Pole junior was 
 proved on the 26th day of June, 1366, and as it was then 
 customary to obtain probate very quickly after death had given 
 effect to a will as a legal instrument, we may safely assume that 
 he died in the same month. At the customary Inquisition held 
 after his decease it was certified that he died seised of Myton 
 manor (" Mitton maner' ." Inquis p.m., 40 Edwd. Ill) ; and 
 this is in accordance with his having inherited the lordship, as we 
 know, from his father, Sir Eichard, who had become solely 
 possessed of it. It is, however, quite inconsistent with the grant 
 to the rector of Drayton, just discussed (unless that deed were as 
 suggested merely a mortgage) and strangely at variance with 
 the undoubted fact that Sir William de la Pole his uncle also died 
 seised, jointly with his wife Dame Katherine, of the lordship of 
 Myton. The uncle died in the same year, 1366 ; according to 
 Frost's pedigree of the family on the 21st April, but according to 
 the Eevd. H. A. Napier's " Historical Notices of the Parishes of 
 Swyncombe and Ewelme," on the 22nd June, the very same 
 month, if not the very same day as his nephew. It is difficult to 
 reconcile the statements that each of them died possessed of 
 Myton lordship. It is puzzling enough if we accept the Eevd. 
 H. A. Napier's date, according to which they died about the same 
 day ; and still more puzzling if we take Frost as correct that the 
 uncle died first. 
 
 The published National Eecords are my authority in the case 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 105 
 
 of the nephew ; but as regards Sir William de la Pole senior, I 
 have had before me (through the kindness of Mr Wildridge) a full 
 translation of the result of the inquiry into his property so far 
 as Myton was concerned. It is the first document which gives us 
 what was evidently the actual area of the manor, is consistent 
 with King Edward's commutation of the annual fee-farm rent 
 into the service of a rose, and in harmony with the subsequent 
 devolution of the manor upon Sir William's descendants, so that 
 its authority is unimpeachable. 
 
 The document runs as follows : — " Inquisition taken at 
 Kingston-upon-Hull before William de Eeggate, escheator, on 
 Monday the Feast of St. Bartholomew (24 Aug.), 40th Edward 
 III. (1366). The jurors find that Sir William de la Pole the 
 elder, knight, held jointly with Katherine his wife, still surviving, 
 the manor of Myton with the appurtenances of our lord the king 
 in chief, by fealty and the service of a rose annually. And they 
 say that there are in demesne there ten bovates of land, each 
 worth by the year 5s., and 20 acres of meadow, each worth 12d. 
 And that there are four messuages in the said township (villa), 
 each worth 6d. ; and one windmill, worth 6s. 8d. by the year. 
 And that the site of the manor is worth by the year 12d. Also 
 that he held therein (i.e. in the same vill or township) three 
 messuages and five bovates of land of Sir John de Mowbray, each 
 messuage worth 6d., and each bovate 3s., by the year. Also two 
 bovates therein holden of the same, each worth 3s." And that 
 Michael de la Pole (the first earl) was his eldest son and 
 heir-at-law. 
 
 It will be observed of this finding that it somewhat supports 
 the view already expressed in these pages that Myton was not a 
 manor in the full signification of the word. The term " manor " 
 where used by the jurors evidently means the Manor-House, and 
 the district itself is spoken of as a vill or township. On the other 
 hand Sir William's heir, Michael, in his subsequent letters of 
 foundation of the Charterhouse hospital, expressly alludes to 
 himself and his descendants as " lords of the manor of Myton ; " 
 and as there is no evidence that the family ever resided in Myton, 
 
I ob Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 it is difficult to account for their maintaining a Manor-House 
 within that lordship, except as a Court-House, an outward and 
 visible sign of their seigniory, and a place for the transaction of 
 the business of the manor, which could only consist, one would 
 suppose, of the receipt of rents, a general supervision of the 
 tenants, and the holding of courts for the control and enforcement 
 of the conditions of the tenants' tenures. 
 
 It also appears from this finding, and is subsequently more 
 than once confirmed, that the area of the manor or township of 
 Myton embraced in all seventeen bovates of agricultural land, 
 with their complement of meadow and pasture. Of these 
 seventeen bovates ten were holden of the king in chief, and these 
 I identify with the " ten bovates called King's-fee," already 
 alluded to. The other seven are stated to be holden of Sir John 
 de Mowbray, and these appear to be the " seven bovates called 
 Aton-fee," also before mentioned ; but how they became included 
 within the vill or district of Myton, originally consisting of only 
 ten bovates, is not easy to say. Probably they were primarily of the 
 fee of the first De Stuteville, who fought on the side of Eobert 
 Curthose against his brother Henry the First. At the battle of 
 Tenchebrai in 1106, where Eobert was completely defeated, De 
 Stuteville's horse was killed and himself taken prisoner by Nigel 
 de Albini, ancestor of the De Mowbrays, who for that timely 
 feat received a grant of all De Stuteville's lands in England ; and 
 this is the only way in which I can account for Sir John de 
 Mowbray being at this time the chief lord of the fee of which 
 these bovates were holden, and of whom De Vesci and the Atons 
 must have been vassals. It may have been in allusion to these 
 seven bovates only that Kirkby was speaking when he described 
 the whole fee of Myton as being held at the time of his inquest 
 by Gilbert de Aton. The Atons being a local family and the last 
 owners of the seven bovates in question before the founding of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, their name must have become popularly 
 attached to them as a local identification. It will be convenient 
 to return to this subject on a subsequent page. 
 
 The whole matter is difficult to comprehend. So far as we 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 107 
 
 can now understand these past events King Edward the First 
 purchased all the seigniory and district, bovates, meadows, and 
 pastures comprised within the topographical term " Myton ; " 
 and certainly if he did so he could not have held any portion of 
 the property under one of his own subjects. To the " ingenious 
 reader " the question may appear clearer than it does to the 
 writer, and if this be the case I am well content. 
 
 There appear to have been at the time of this Inquest only 
 seven dwelling-houses in Myton. Four in the township proper 
 held of the king, and three in " Aton-fee " held of De Mowbray. 
 Two of these had already been dedicated to the charitable uses 
 which their successors still continue, as of these seven must have 
 been those " two messuages of ours in Myton, called the 
 Maisondieu," in which Sir Michael de la Pole founded his still- 
 sUrviving hospital called " God's House of Hull." 
 
 The jurors refer only to one windmill, that, I imagine, which 
 stood outside the west wall of Hull and close to the Humber. 
 From its frequent mention in this and other documents it would 
 almost seem to have been a principal feature of the manor as the 
 lord's mill. Why the second mill, that which was situated " ex 
 p'te borial' de Kyngestou-super-HiiU," is not included in the 
 finding I cannot say. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that the Inquisition refers to the ten 
 bovates of land (King's-fee) of which the lordship of Myton is 
 over and over again stated to have consisted, from Domesday 
 Book with its carucate and a half down to this very enquiry, as 
 being " in demesne." This expression, as we have seen (p. 4 
 ante) applied only to such portion of the estate as the lord 
 retained in his own hands, partly as the site for his Manor-House 
 with its gardens or park, and parti)- for the sustenance of his 
 villeins or bond-tenants. From this it would appear that the ten 
 bovates in question were, at any rate in Sir William de la Pole's 
 time, the terra dominicales of Myton, which may add some weight 
 to the affirmative side of the argument as to the existence of 
 villeinage in the lordship. 
 
 Dame Katherine de la Pole, Sir William's widow, apparently 
 
108 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 relying on her joint seisin, entered into the sole possession of the 
 manor of Myton upon her husband's death ; and for so doing 
 without the king's permission was fined the substantial sum of 
 £10, on payment of which she received the royal pardon for her 
 unintentional contempt of the crown. She died on the 28th day 
 of January, 1382 ; and an Inquisition post mortem into her 
 Yorkshire property was held at York on Thursday in Easter week 
 following (5 Bic. II.). The jurors reported that she held of 
 the king in capita the manor of Myton adjoining Kingston-upon- 
 Hull, paying annually a rose at the time of roses, if demanded ; 
 and ten bovates of land, twenty acres of meadow, four messuages, 
 and a windmill, in the vill or township of Myton. Also that she 
 held there of Lord de Mowbray three messuages and seven 
 bovates of land : a description of Myton which exactly accords 
 with that given on her husband's death sixteen years before ( 56 ). 
 Her successor in title was Sir Michael de la. Pole, the first earl, 
 who had a writ of seisin of the manor granted to him on the 27th 
 day of April in the year of her death. 
 
 Turning his back upon trade, Sir Michael de la Pole sought 
 advancement and renown not only in the profession most 
 honoured amongst men, that of arms, but also in the field of 
 action most alluring to a man of ambition, the political, and in 
 both under what should seem the most favorable of all auspices, 
 the favour of his king. What he sought for he found, " full 
 measure, pressed-down, and running over," only to discover the 
 coveted fruits Dead Sea apples in his mouth. His rise to 
 greatness and his utter fall are a twice-told tale. He was 
 attainted of high treason in 1388, and died in poverty and exile 
 the following year. An Inquisition was held at Hull shortly 
 after his attainder, before Eichard Filougley and John Godard, 
 knight, the king's escheators, when he was found to be seised in 
 his demesne as of fee of the manor of Myton, and of the 
 advowsons of the Carthusian priory and Maisondieu hospital 
 which he had founded there, and of four messuages and seventeen 
 
 (56) In this case also the word " manor" appears to mean Manor-House. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 109 
 
 bovates of land in Myton vill or township ( 57 ). In the same 
 Inquisition the mansion which he had built himself in Hull 
 appears as " a messuage well-built," i.e. of considerable size and 
 importance, " unum messuagium bene edification." 
 
 There is amongst the archives of the manor a lease of the 
 whole or the greater part of Myton made by Sir Michael de la 
 Pole to John de Hedersete and John de Dymelton, burgesses of 
 Hull (the latter being bailiff in 1366-7) for twelve years from the 
 8th July, 1382, and at the annual rent of £35. The property 
 demised is described as " the site of the manor of Myton (le site 
 del memoir de Miton) with the houses there built, and two 
 bercharies with all the arable land, meadows, and pastures in 
 Myton thereto belonging, then in the hands of Sir Michael as lord, 
 and 30 acres of meadow land in Wold Ings (Waldhcnges), and 
 also two windmills in Myton with their tofts, crofts, and gardens, 
 and the tilery (tieghcllarie), and also 20 acres of meadow in two 
 parts (en demy doles), of which 10 acres lay in West Ings 
 (Westhenges) and 10 acres in Humbercroft." The lessees were 
 to keep in repair the manor buildings, the two bercharies, and all 
 walls, ditches, clows, gates, and banks of the Humber to the said 
 manor belonging, and to deliver up the same at the end of the 
 term in as good condition as they received them (en auxi bone 
 cstat come als les resceyvent) ; for the due performance of which 
 obligation they bound themselves jointly and severally in the sum 
 of £100, and found two sureties similarly bound in the persons of 
 Walter de Dymelton, then mayor of Hull, and John de Styropp, 
 burgess of the same. From this deed we get a vivid glimpse of 
 Myton as a purely agricultural region, save such small portion of 
 it as was utilised for brick and tile making. 
 
 Sir Michael's eldest son and heir, the second Michael de la 
 Pole, inherited only a disgraced name. But the monarch he was 
 afterwards so basely to forsake was as well-disposed to the son 
 
 (57) " Michael de la Pole attinctus. Extent' terraru.n, &.C. Milan Mancv' ; advoc' prioratilt 
 ft hospltalis vocaV Mauondieu ; quatuor meu' ; xvij. borat' ten-'" (11 Kic. 2). The quantity of 
 land exactly agrees with the two preceding Inquisitions, but their seven messuages now 
 appear as four. The Maisondieu accounts for two of the missing ones, and, probably, the 
 priory for a third. 
 
] io Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 as he had been to the father ; and there can be - no doubt was 
 anxious to repair the shattered fortunes of the De la Poles. In 
 1392 Eichard made a gift to Michael de la Pole and Catherine 
 his wife of £50 a year out of the fee-farm rent of Kingston-upon- 
 Hull ; and a few years later granted him complete restitution of 
 his late father's estates. This was in response to petitions whicli 
 the earl presented to the king in the 13th Eichard II. (1389-90), 
 wherein he is described as " chivaler " simply, and in one of which 
 he besought the king to charge the chancellor to do him right 
 with regard to the deceased earl's Hull property, including the 
 " manor of Miton-on-Humber," the " manor of Courthall in 
 Kingston-upon-Hull," 23 messuages, 20 shops, 16 tofts, 10 
 gardens, 2 windmills, 2 dovecotes, 17 bovates, and 20 acres of 
 land, 33 acres of meadow, and certain annual rents in Hull, 
 Myton, Newland, and Cottingham ( 58 ). An order was made 
 upon this petition that no timber should be sold nor other act 
 done to the detriment of the property until the petitioner's claim 
 had been investigated ; and the ultimate result was the passing 
 of the Act 21 Eich. 2, cap. 13, which repealed the father's 
 attainder and restored to his heir his estates. 
 
 The " manor of Courthall," or as it is described in the 
 petition " quedam messuag' vocat' le maner' de Courthall in 
 Kynqcston-super-Hull," was the family mansion in Hull, the 
 famous Suffolk palace which stood in Lowgate and Denton- (now 
 Bowlalley-) lane. Its being termed " the manor " of Courthall 
 is another and striking instance of the word mancrmm being used 
 of a Manor-House or superior residence, and not meaning an 
 estate in the sense in which " manor " is now generally 
 understood ( 59 ). The name "Courthall" probably conveyed at 
 the time the idea of a large and aristocratic mansion suited to the 
 rank and dignity of an earl ; or, possibly, may have signified the 
 Court-House or Manor-House in which was held the court of the 
 
 (58) This petition has been misplaced amongst the Inquisitions post mortem of this year 
 as No. 41, and so appears in the printed National Records, 
 
 (59) Almost a more emphatic instance is afforded by this same Sir Michael's will, made 
 1st July, 1415, in which he devises to his wife ' my manor in Kingston-upon-Hull called 
 the Court Hall." 
 
 > 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 1 1 1 
 
 manor of Kingston-upon-Hull, or wherein the lord of the manor, 
 an office held by the De la Poles, resided, although I find no 
 record or trace of any court having been held there. 
 
 It was not long after the striking instance of royal regard 
 just alluded to, that the son of Eichard's favourite minister 
 embraced the Lancastrian cause, hurrying to join Henry of 
 Bolingbroke immediately upon the latter's landing in England. 
 Casting to the idle winds his plighted oath of fealty to poor 
 Richard of Bordeaux, Sir Michael de la Pole the second made of 
 his lost honor a "stepping-stone to higher things," and for 
 reward was restored to the " name and fame " of earl of Suffolk, 
 with confirmation of all the estates and possessions of his late 
 father. 
 
 I have had placed at my disposal an original account for one 
 year of the management, subsequently to this grant, of the earl's 
 Hull and Myton properties, a document replete with interest for 
 the general reader as well as for the antiquary or historian. 
 Whilst shewing, so far as these pages are concerned, a notable 
 increase in the annual value of Myton lordship, the account 
 gives us some insight into the way in which the local affairs of 
 the De la Poles were managed during their frequent absences 
 from Hull, and affords valuable information as to the rents of 
 property, amount of wages, and prices of commodities at the 
 time. Nor should the record it contains be without interest for 
 us if only for the reason — which we may esteem without any 
 abatement of our self-respect as citizens — that five centuries 
 almost have passed since this town of ours was so far honored as 
 to be the residence of a peer of the realm. 
 
 The account alluded to is headed " Compotus of John 
 Waleys ( 60 ), Receiver of the moneys of the lord Michael de la 
 Pole, earl of Suffolk, at Kingston-upon-Hull, from the Feast of St. 
 Martin in the winter in the fourth year of King Henry to the same 
 Feast in the fifth year of the said king ; " i.e. from Martinmas 
 1402 to Martinmas 1403. It commences with an entry of 
 £29 lis. 6d., the balance paid over by the receiver for the 
 
 (60) Mayor in 1109 and nil. 
 
H2 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 previous year, Sir Richard de Kylhom (or Kilham), priest, 
 evidently a trusted servant of the family, and who it may be 
 remembered was the first master of the Charterhouse hospital. 
 
 Then follows a detailed list of annual rents of assize, payable 
 half-yearly in respect of various lands and messuages in 
 " Marketstrete," Polestrete," " Hullstrete," " Atonlane," 
 " Bisshopesgate," " Kirkelane," Oldebevleystrete," " Mitongate," 
 " Munkgate " ( 01 ), and "without the town's ditches;" the 
 total, inclusive of " £50 out of the fee-farm of the town, granted 
 to his lordship and his lady and the heirs of their bodies as 
 appears by the king's charter to that effect," amounting to 
 £105 8s. 6d. 
 
 A brief digression may be here pardoned, as it is not clear 
 how the De la Poles became entitled to these especial rents. 
 " Eent of assize " was the ancient term for the small reservation 
 made on the original grants of freehold or copyhold lands, because 
 the rents were assised or settled by the lord of the manor, and 
 could not thereafter be altered. For these rents the lord had his 
 remedy of distress by common right, without reservation or grant 
 of power to distrain ; and, subsequently, they became more 
 generally termed quit-rents, because by payment thereof the 
 tenant went free and quit of all other service. The town of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull was created a manor by King Edward I. 
 shortly after its foundation ; and as the vacant ground within it 
 was taken up for occupation and use, the king as lord of the 
 manor would, for the encouragement and growth of the place, 
 readily make grants of its soil at small and fixed rents in lieu of 
 all other feudal services. Such a policy it is obvious was the only 
 one which could be pursued with any success if it were wished 
 to build up a town in days when the ownership of land meant 
 subjection to military service, or other feudal exactions such as 
 heriots, reliefs, forfeiture, and what-not. As a further inducement 
 
 (61) These streets are all shown in Frost's sketch of Hull at the commencement of the 
 11th century, where, however, " Mitongate " appears as " Lylcstreet." They are represented 
 (following the same order) by the modern Lowgate, Market-place, and Queen-street ; 
 Paradise-row ; High-street ; Chapel-lane ; Bowlalley-lane and Bishop-lano ; Posterngate and 
 Church-lane ; Land of Greenginger and Trinity House-lane ; King-street, Fish-street, and 
 Sewer-lane ; Mytongate ; Blanket-row and Blackfriargate. 
 
Of tJL History of the Manor of My ton. 113 
 
 to liege subjects to settle in the new royal town the grants of land 
 within it were always of freehold tenure, since there are no copy- 
 holds in the manor of Kingston-upon-Hull. Yet one would have 
 thought that when, by his memorable charter of 1331, King 
 Edward III. granted the town to the burgesses, reserving to 
 himself only an annual fee-farm rent of £70 out of its issues and 
 profits, these rents of assize would have formed part of the very 
 issues and profits out of which the £70 annual payment was to be 
 made, and not that they would have belonged, as it seems from 
 this compotus was the fact, to the nominal or honorary lords of 
 the manor of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, the De la Poles. 
 At any rate we cannot account for their receipt of the same on 
 any other ground than as lords of the manor. 
 
 Waleys' account then deals with three other classes of rent 
 payable to the earl out of shops, tenements, messuages, cottages, 
 gardens, and inclosures, his own property as landlord either by 
 royal gift, by purchase, or as lord of the manor in the several 
 streets already enumerated, and also in Aldgate (the present 
 Whitefriargate and Silver-street), a name of Anglo-Saxon origin 
 and betokening much antiquity. These are described as rents for 
 term of life, that is reserved on tenancies for the lives of the 
 lessees ; rents for terms of years, which were reserved on leases 
 for years as now generally made ; and rents at will, issuing out 
 of holdings from year to year created by parol and not by deed : 
 the whole amounting to nearly £86 per annum, of which the first 
 class of tenants contributed £14 19s. 6d., the second £27 3s. 0d., 
 and the last £43 15s. Od. 
 
 Some of these tenancies are of sufficient antiquarian value to 
 bear a brief notice. Amongst those for terms of years are 
 mentioned " two buttes in the hands of the citizens of the town, 
 which lie without the ditches on the northwards of Mitongate, 
 called le Tyelcrre," each butt let to the bailiffs of the town at the 
 annual rent of 6d. These butts were, of course, the place where 
 the townsfolk practised archery, and were provided at the 
 common expense. They appear to have occupied the site of the 
 
114 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 De la Pole's disused brickyard, and to be the piece of ground 
 which still bore the name of the Tylery when Leland visited Hul 
 a century and a half later. This use of the ancient tilery seems 
 to support Frost's statement, based upon an entry in B.B. 2 fo. 
 206, that a new brickyard was established in Hull in 1357 f 62 ). 
 Amongst the tenancies from year to year appear a tenement in 
 " Hullstrete," situate near " le Northfery," and another in the 
 same street called " Aldburghstathe," i.e. the old town staith. 
 This staith was situate at the east or river end of Aldgate. 
 Evidently from its Anglo-Saxon name it was a landing-place of 
 great antiquity ; and no doubt the main or only one in Wyk, the 
 town anterior to the then modern Kingston-upon-Hull. Taken 
 in conjunction with the name of the street of which it was the 
 river end, it seems to affirm conclusively the theory that the 
 two towns were one in situation and continuity. A rent of 3s. 4d. 
 is specified as issuing out of a place called the Salthouse, " de 
 plac' vocat' Salthotis," demised to John Aslagby ; but if this 
 were the same as the residence with a tower, situated in High- 
 street, which Nicholas Putfra devised to his daughter Johanna in 
 1337, I cannot understand why it is here referred to merely as 
 " a place." The names of two tenants are suggestive of the origin 
 of surnames, vizt. Roger Maltgrynder, and Roger le Cardmaker : 
 and two names, once royal nicknames, arc mentioned, 
 " Longespye " and " Loklond." A feature of our main subject 
 appears in the shape of " an inclosure without the town's ditches 
 called Milnecroft," which is frequently mentioned in the 
 subsequent records of the manor. A paragraph then follows 
 entitled " Issues of the manor," " Exit' man'ii," but whether 
 relating to Myton or the Suffolk palace is not clear, though more 
 probably to the latter. The items are £2 paid " out of the fruits 
 of a garden " to Benedict Gardiner for keeping and planting the 
 
 (62) Frost makes the extraordinary statement that this new tilery was established " on 
 the west side of the River Humber " ! This is however a misreading of the entry at fo. 201! 
 (not 205 as he gives it) of B.B. 2. The minute is about the lands and ways belonging to the 
 town outside the walls, " and extending from the Westposterne of the town to Lyle-strect 
 and the Humber," and mention is made casually of " un tenement " belonging to Richard 
 de Gretford, in which had then commenced to be built a new tilery, " est ore comencer a 
 edifjeer une novele Tighelertc." 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 1 1 5 
 
 same for the earl's use ; 6s. 8d. received for the rent of a dove- 
 cote near the gardener's house, "jux' clomu' Gardinarii," let to 
 the said Benedict ; and 6s. 8d. for another dovecote " near the 
 grange there," let to the wife of Hugh Mapelton. 
 
 Amongst " freehold rents " appear the large one at that time 
 of £4 13s. 4d. for lands in "Dripole," granted by deed to Simon 
 Grimsby and his heirs in fee, but subject to the earl's right of 
 re-entry for rent unpaid or buildings not repaired ; 40s. for land 
 in "Neulond;" £7 Is. lOd. the fee-farm rent of the manor or 
 vill of Bewholme ; and £44 19s. lid. out of the rents and profits 
 of the manor of Myton, " as appears by the compotus of the said 
 manor for this year." Contrasted with the amount contributed 
 by Bewholme, and with 7s. Id. given as the rents of Bimswell, 
 collected by John del Kychyn the receiver, the rental of Myton is 
 extremely large, and shows that the property had so improved as 
 to have become one of very considerable value. With the growth 
 of the royal borough the adjoining district, or manor, of Myton, 
 including as it did all the country westwards from the town's 
 walls up to the territories of Hessle and Anlaby, had also increased 
 largely in value ; and the descendants of the far-sighted traders 
 who had purchased it were now deriving a considerable revenue 
 from their ancestors' judicious exchange. Probably for purposes 
 of gardening and pasturage it was principally valuable at this 
 period ; but as it was impossible for Kingston-upon-Hull to grow 
 in area except by overflow into the manor of Myton, the 
 acquisition of this particular property was a very shrewd 
 transaction, especially in a day when no finely-spun theories about 
 " the unearned increment " vexed the soul of him who invested 
 his money in the soil of his own country as the wisest use he 
 could make of it. 
 
 The grand total of all the receipts, inclusive of the balance 
 paid over by Sir Richard de Kylhom, is then given in the rent- 
 roll as £273 lis. 2d., equivalent to rather more than £4000 of 
 modern currency ; a very substantial income, of which the crown 
 had deprived itself for the enrichment of a subject in accordance 
 
1 1 6 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 with views then accepted, but which have indirectly resulted in 
 the heavy income tax of present times. And it is difficult here to 
 avoid the reflection how vast would have been the revenues of the 
 State to-day, and how infinitesimal (if at all existent) the burden 
 of taxation, had our ancestors grasped the principle that the 
 monarch was trustee for the nation of the revenues he derived as 
 its head, and held such for the benefit of the community at large 
 without right or power to pervert any portion of them to the 
 aggrandisement of favourites. Surely no actuary could attempt 
 to tell us what would have been the national income in this 
 present year of Grace, had the crown of England at no time in 
 our history parted with an acre of the land or a copper of the 
 rents which came to it by right of sovereignty. Possibly the 
 revenue of the country would then have sufficed for all our 
 national and local purposes without requiring of any citizen a 
 farthing by way of rates or taxes. Indeed the mind loses itself in 
 considering the results which might have been attained had what 
 seems the merest common-sense in the nineteenth century been 
 understood or appreciated in its predecessors. Perhaps, however, 
 as much evil as good would have come of it— qitien sabe t 
 
 After giving the total amount received the compotus, which is 
 in one long parchment roll, proceeds to detail the various 
 disbursements made by the receiver on the earl's account. The 
 first items include a rent of £7 15s. lOd. paid to Eobert Shakles 
 and Henry Braken, the bailiffs of the town, towards the fee-farm 
 of the town for divers tenements in the earl's hands ; and 5s. 
 paid to " the lord of Cotyngham " for lands in Newland. The 
 small total of 10s. 3d. covers loss of rents through unoccupied 
 properties ; and then follows a list of life- annuities granted by the 
 earl to various persons, some for services rendered, others 
 probably for cash payments, the townsfolk, no doubt, regarding 
 the purchase of an annuity from a De la Pole much as we now 
 do the buying one from government. Amongst these are 13s. 4d. 
 to Simon Grimsby for his good service rendered and to be 
 rendered to the earl ; another of 40s. to him ; and the considerable 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 117 
 
 one of £20 to Sir Eobert de Bolton, clerk ( 63 ). An item headed 
 " Fees " comprises 40s. for collecting the rents of Hull and 
 My ton — for thus I read " tarn de My ton q'm de ista villa; " a 
 payment of 2d. a day to Hugh Mapelton for superintending the 
 repairs of houses, and for managing the pastures, agistments, and 
 other profits of the manor of Myton ; 13s. 4d. the fee of Eobert 
 Beuley, apprentice-at-law ( 64 ), "for his advice in the lord's 
 business this year ; " and a like fee to Eichard Tyrwhyt, the 
 steward of the manor of Myton. Some inkling of the mode in 
 which the by no means unimportant affairs of the earl were 
 managed during his necessarily frequent absences from Hull is 
 afforded by the entry of £5 5s. 2d. as paid to Sir Eobert de 
 Bolton, Eobert de Bolton junior, Eichard Tyrwhyt, " and others 
 of the lord's council," for hearing and determining various affairs 
 amongst his servants and superintending divers matters. And 
 the same part of " th' accompt " contains the modest entry of 8d. 
 as paid for " one horse taken by Eobert Mapelton, groom, from 
 Hull to Eimswell for John del Kychyn, and from Hull to 
 * Bewley ' for Eichard Tyrwhyt, for two days, including the 
 expenses of the said Eobert ; " whilst 4d. is debited " for one 
 horse taken to Eimswell against the lord's coming to Hull." 
 
 Amongst the household expenses 3s. 2d. are charged for two 
 "towelles" and " ij sanapes" (query napkins); and 3s. Id. for 
 two pair " linthia'm" (query sheets). There is also an entry of 
 6s. 8d. paid to one Eobert Seton for mending glass windows 
 within the lord's manor (i.e. the Suffolk palace), with Is. 3d. for 
 the purchase of half a hundredweight of glass. Thirty shillings 
 
 (63) This reverend gentleman ia to me an historical puzzle. He appears several times 
 in this account as a man of authority in the earl's affairs, and evidently high in his regard. 
 He was one of the grantees in the deeds mentioned on pp. 89 and 90 ante ; and was also, for 
 some reason 1 cannot fathom, a party to this earl Michael's deed of gift to the Charterhouse 
 hospital in 1408. He is mentioned in the two former deeds, as also in this compotus, in 
 connection with a Robert de Bolton junior, armiger or esquire, presumably a son or nephew ; 
 but beyond his clerical character I cannot discover anything about him. 
 
 (64) This term "apprentice-at-law" does not imply a student, or a practitioner of 
 small experience. Anciently even the benchers of the Inns of Court were called apprentices 
 of the law, " apprenticii Juris 7iobiliores." Sir Henry Finch in his " Nomotechnia " styles him- 
 self " Apprentice del ley ; " and in Coke's Institutes " apprenticii legis " are called "homines 
 consiliarii in lege periti." 
 
n8 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 and twopence are charged for two waghe ( 65 ), 8 stones and 10 
 pounds of lead for the gutters of the palace and certain tenements 
 in Hull. The same portion of the compotus includes also two 
 entries relative to Myton, in the shape of "paid to John 
 Dymelton for his release of half a bovate of land of Swerdlond 
 (i.e. grass-land, from A. S. sweairl) in Myton, and for one other 
 bovate of land there late of Nicholas Berwold, as per agreement 
 made with him (Dymelton) by the lord's council, £13 10s. lid. ; " 
 and "paid to William Bryd {i.e. Bird) for one bovate of land 
 called Swerdlond in Myton, late of the said William, £13 6s. 8d." 
 
 Finally the total amount of outpayments is stated as 
 £210 3s. 4d. ; and Master John Waleys debits himself with the 
 net balance due to the earl of £63 7s. lOd. 
 
 I have already alluded (page 89 ante) to the grant made in 
 June, 1408, by this same Sir Michael de la Pole to the bishop of 
 Exeter, Eobert de Bolton, and others of, inter alia, "Atonfe," 
 but the reason or effect of which deed I cannot gather. Yet as 
 shewing some of the possessions of this wealthy family it may be 
 interesting to set out here what lawyers term " the parcels," that 
 is to say the description in the deed of the properties intended to 
 be conveyed. These comprise "our capital messuage with its 
 appurtenances in Kingston-upon-Hull ; our manor of Bimswell 
 with its appurtenances ; and all other our lands and tenements, 
 rents and services, with all reversions of lands held in dower or 
 for terms of lives or years with all their appurtenances in Kingston- 
 upon-Hull, Bewholme, Drypool, Newland, Anlaby, Oustmersk, 
 and (Nottingham ; also seven bovates of land with their 
 appurtenances in Myton called Aton-fee in the county of York ; 
 aud also our manors of Lisle and Bradbury ; and all our lands 
 and tenements, rents and services, in the townships of Bradbury, 
 Preston, &c, in the see of Durham ; and our manor of Westwood 
 with all its appurtenances in the Isle of Axholme in the county of 
 Lincoln." It will thus be seen that the grant was a fairly 
 
 (66) Wagha or waya (a weigh) was a mediaeval weight-measure of wool, cheese, salt, &c, 
 and, as appears by this account, also of lead, although not so stated in any other authority. 
 As a measure of cheese it ought by the statute 9 Hen. vi., tap. 8 to have contained 256 Iba. 
 averdupoit, but its capacity varied locally. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 119 
 
 extensive one. It was also absolute and unqualified in its purport ; 
 but clearly was no permanent alienation of the estates affected. 
 
 It would appear that prior to this transaction the earl had 
 already sold a portion of Myton to the monks of the Carthusian 
 priory which his father founded there in 1387 ( a6 ). At fo. 247 of 
 B.B. 2 there is a copy of an indenture dated the 20th day of 
 September, 1402, and made between the prior and convent of the 
 house of St. Michael of the one part, and the mayor and bailiffs 
 of Hull of the other part, anent a certain chantry in the priory, 
 which Edmund de la Pole (the earl's uncle) and divers others had 
 founded for one monk to pray daily for the soul of John 
 Colthorp ( 87 ), deceased, and for the good estate, " salubri statu," 
 of Alice the wife of Thomas Graa of York, and formerly the wife 
 of the defunct John. This pious foundation had been endowed 
 with £20 annual rent ; which rent, the deed recites, had been 
 transferred by the monks to Sir Michael de la Pole, earl of 
 Suffolk, in purchase of " one toft, twenty-five acres and one rood 
 of meadow, and forty-six acres of pasture in Myton adjoining the 
 said town of Kingston-upon-Hull." 
 
 I also find amongst the deeds relating to the manor a lease 
 from the earl to the mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty of Hull for 
 the long term of a hundred years of property which seems to have 
 been within Myton. The deed bears date the 10th day of August, 
 1403 ; and the ground demised is described as an inclosure of 
 meadow land underneath the walls of the town on the west side 
 thereof, together with a footpath or alley to the same inclosure 
 belonging and lying between the town's ditch on the east, and an 
 inclosure of Hugh Sleford on the west, the inclosure itself 
 abutting on the water of the Humber towards the south, and upon 
 
 (66) It has not been thought necessary to mention in detail the two well-known 
 religious foundations made by the first Sir Michael de la Pole in that portion of Myton lord- 
 ship which lay to the north of Kingston-upon-Hull. The Carthusian priory of St, Michael 
 was founded by charter dated 18th February, 1878, in " a messuage with its appurtenances 
 containing seven acres of land, heretofore parcel of the manor of Myton." The Maisondiev 
 —the well-known modern Charterhouse hospital— was established by letters-patent of the 
 1st March, 1384, " in two messuages in Myton " closely adjoining the priory. The appoint- 
 ment of master, brethren, and sisters of the latter was expressly reserved by the founder to 
 himself and his heirs, " lords of the manor of Myton." 
 
 (67) Mayor of Hull 1389-90. He died circa 1391. 
 
]20 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 the way called " Mitongate alias diet' Lylestrete " towards the 
 north. The lessees agree to pay an annual rent of 6s. 8d., to 
 repair and maintain the walls and ditches within the said 
 inclosure, and its defences against the waters of the Humber, and 
 to keep the earl indemnified against the king and all others in 
 respect of his liability to maintain the same walls and ditches for 
 the safety of the town. The instrument is dated in the Common 
 Hall (Co'e Aula) of the town ; such eminent citizens as Simon 
 Grimsby (described as then mayor, although not so given ,n any 
 of our histories), John Leversege, and John Tutbury, being 
 witnesses. This lease is also interesting as fixing the date when 
 the name Mytongate began to supersede the older term Lyle- 
 street, as a tribute to the growing importance of the lordship 
 into which it was the main approach from the town, and into 
 which it ran for some distance westwards, as is evident, amongst 
 many other proofs, from its being here given as the northern 
 boundary of land outside the walls. 
 
 On the 18th September, 1415, Earl Michael died of dysentery 
 under the walls of Harfleur ; and upon the 20th October following 
 an Inquisition post mortem (3 Hen. V., No. 48a) was held at Hull 
 before Peter del Hay, the king's escheator, when the jurors said 
 upon oath that Michael de la Pole, the late earl of Suffolk, held at 
 his death seven bovates of land called Aton-fee in Myton, and 
 the advowsons of the priory and hospital there, the said land 
 being held of the king by knight's service. Also that the earl 
 died on Wednesday after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy 
 Cross, and Michael was his son and next heir. 
 
 As " to Amurath an Amurath succeeds," so the second Earl 
 Michael was followed by a third Michael. But ere the latter had 
 entered into full possession of his title or estates he perished in 
 the same campaign, falling gallantly on the glorious field of 
 Agincourt, 25th October, 1415. An . Inquisition p>ost mortem (3 
 Hen. V., No. 48b) was held on the 27th day of the following 
 December at Wyghton (?), but as the young earl had not formally 
 entered into possession of the estates he had inherited (no doubt 
 this was intended to be done on his return from the French wars), 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 121 
 
 the finding of the jurors was mainly confined to what ought to 
 have passed to him as heir-at-law on his father's death, amounting 
 practically to another inquest upon the latter, necessitated by the 
 death of his oldest son. The jurors found that Michael do la Pole, 
 the late earl of Suffolk, on the day of his death, held, with 
 Katherine his wife, ten bovates of land in Myton, and seven 
 bovates there called Aton-fee, with the advowsons of the priory 
 and Maisondieu. That Michael, his eldest son and heir, died on 
 Friday in the Feast of SS. Crispin and Crispinian last, and that 
 William his second son, Michael's brother, was the next heir male. 
 Also that the said last-mentioned Michael had left issue only 
 three daughters, Katherine aged 4 years, Elizabeth aged 3 years, 
 and Isabella aged 6 months. 
 
 It will be observed that in this last enquiry distinct mention 
 is made of ten bovates of land in Myton, and of seven other 
 bovates there called " Aton-fee." This tends to confirm my 
 previous identification of the former quantity with " King's-fee," 
 and throws enough light upon the subject to enable us to form a 
 satisfactory theory in support of what has already been assumed 
 to have been the case. It would seem, then, that at this time the 
 seigniory or lordship of Myton consisted in all of seventeen 
 bovates, or about 250 acres, of arable land, of the meadows and 
 pastures pertaining thereto and comprising possibly 170 acres 
 more (since in John de Sutton's inquest each bovate was found 
 to include 10 acres of meadow : see p. 78 ante), and of the rents, 
 agistments, and profits of extensive common pastures. Of these 
 seventeen bovates, the ten which had by this time come to be 
 known as " King's-fee " were held of the king in capite, and were 
 the original lordship of Myton, the berewick of Domesday Book, 
 and the very carucate and a half of land of which that member 
 of the manor of Ferriby had consisted at the time of the Norman 
 survey. But in some way and at some period subsequent to the 
 Norman survey but prior to Maud Camin's charter, there had come 
 to be incorporated within the vill or township of Myton other 
 seven bovates which had, at a date beyond which local memory 
 did not run in the fifteenth century, been the fee of a De Aton, 
 
122 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 and so become popularly known as " Aton's-fee " to distinguish 
 them from the adjacent King's-fee. In this way the manor of 
 Myton, as possessed and enjoyed by the De la Poles, was the 
 union or.connection of two feudal lordships, the lordship of the 
 holding which came to be known as King's-fee, and the lordship 
 of that which grew to be called " Aton's-fee." According to 
 Frost, who traced back the pedigree of the once noble and local 
 family of De Aton to the earlier part of the twelfth century, a 
 Gilbert de Aton married (temp. John, or Hen. III.) the daughter 
 and heiress of Warine de Vesci ; and their grandson Gilbert, 
 who was living in 1306, must have been the Gilbert de Aton 
 mentioned in Kirkby's Inquest as holding the whole fee of De 
 Vesci in Myton. This fee is stated to have consisted of one 
 carucate which is practically the same as seven bovates, and, 
 thus understood, Kirkby's statement is perfectly intelligible and 
 consistent with the facts. It is clear that the "whole," which 
 he says Gilbert de Aton held, was not the whole of Myton (as I 
 had supposed at page 89 ante), but the whole of the fee of De 
 Vesci within Myton. Again, his statement is not an authority 
 that all Myton lordship was of the fee of De Vesci (as surmised 
 at page 38 ante), but only that one carucate of land situate within 
 the township or district of Myton was of that fee. This view of 
 the subject, irresistibly suggested as the true one by the Inquisition 
 under consideration, also explains partly, though not entirely, the 
 difficulty felt by the writer (and discussed at page 43 ante) as to 
 the fourteen bovates of land stated in Maud Camin's deed to be 
 contained within the vill of Myton. No doubt even at that period 
 the township or district known as Myton included topographically 
 the seven bovates of De Vesci's fee as well as the ten of Maud's 
 own fee, so that the "territory of the vill of Myton " mentioned 
 by her was not limited to ten bovates nor yet to fourteen. Con- 
 sidered, however, in connection with the Meanx register (pp. 54 
 and 55 ante) the question of the total area and feudal tenure of 
 Myton is by no means easy of solution. 
 
 It is not so difficult to fix the period when " King's-fee " and 
 " Aton's-fee " came under one proprietorship. Abbot Burton 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 123 
 
 summarises the possessions of the abbey of Melsa in Myton at 
 ten bovates ( B8 ) (page 59 ante) ; and this quantity alone is dealt 
 with in the partition of the manor between Richard and William 
 de la Pole, showing clearly that King's-fee only was acquired by 
 the monks of Meaux, by Edward I. when he purchased the manor, 
 and by the brothers De la Pole from Edward III. But on the 
 death of Sir Richard de la Pole, he was found seised of three 
 bovates of land in Myton called Aton-fee, from which it seems clear 
 that his was the hand which "joined house to house and laid 
 field to field," and brought Aton's-fee under the same lord as 
 King's-fee. 
 
 Katherine de la Pole, daughter of the earl of Stafford and wife 
 of the second Michael de la Pole, survived both her husband and 
 her eldest son, dying in April, 1419. An Inquisition post mortem 
 (7 Hen. v., No. 62) was held after her death at Sculcoates on the 
 1st day of the following July before William Chancellor, the king's 
 escheator, from which it appears that she had retained a life 
 interest in the manor of Myton, or, as suggested by the finding in 
 the case of her husband, had been jointly seised thereof with him 
 so as to become entitled on his death to the whole by survivorship, 
 a surmise strongly supported by the present inquest. The jurors 
 upon their oath said that Katherine who was wife of Michael de 
 la Pole, late earl of Suffolk, held on the day of her death ten 
 bovates of land with the appurtenances in Myton, a holding 
 there known as Aton-fee, " tenement', &c, in Mitton vocat' Atton- 
 fee," and the advowson of the hospital there called the 
 Maisondieu ; that she died on the 8th day of April then last; 
 and that William de la Pole, then earl of Suffolk, was her son and 
 heir male, and of the age of 22 years " and more." Mindful also 
 of the rights of the third Michael's infant daughters, the jurors 
 concluded by adding their parentage, names, and then ages to 
 their finding. 
 
 History is silent as to the manner in which these fatherless 
 little girls were deprived of their just inheritance. The two 
 
 (68) In connection with this subject it may be here stated that the word "acres" at 
 page 45 ante, twenty-flfth line from the top, should be read " bovates," the reference being 
 to the three borates retained by Dame Anor. 
 
 / 
 
124 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 younger were speedily removed from all earthly rights or wrongs 
 by kindly Death, Elizabeth dying in December, 1421, and Isabella 
 seventeen days later, the one aged about 9 years, and the other 
 about 6. But the eldest, Katherine, so named after her grand- 
 mother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother, 
 survived ; the sole heiress and inheritrix of all that should have 
 descended to her late father, "dead on the field of honor," 
 except such lands or tenements, manors or estates, as were held 
 in tail male. In the case of such the late earl's second son 
 William was undoubtedly the legal heir ; but all others should 
 have descended to the eldest son's three daughters as co- 
 parceners, to vest ultimately in Katherine alone as survivor. 
 Certainly it would seem that this should have been the case with 
 the manor of Myton, at least with King's-fee, the grant of which 
 was made by Edward III. to Kichard and William de la Pole and 
 their heirs generally, and not limited to their heirs male (see p. 
 79 ante). 
 
 Be this as it may, the actual inheritor of the family estates, 
 as of the title which doubtless was limited to male descendants, 
 was William de la Pole, the afterwards famous duke of Suffolk, 
 greatest and most unfortunate of his illustrious house ; and any 
 claims which the unhappy Katherine might have possessed or 
 urged were conveniently stifled by her forced entry into a convent, 
 some say under an assumed name, at the tender age of 12 years. 
 Of this William the services by land and sea, in court and camp, 
 the rise to high estate and the miserable end, are well-known. 
 His acts and all that he did, are they not written in the book of 
 the chronicles of the kings of England ? 
 
 I have referred at page 90 ante to his two grants to Sir William 
 Chardelowe, Bobert de Bolton, and others, one on the 20th 
 October, 1430, of the " manor of Myton," the other on the 25th 
 of the same month of " ten bovates in Myton called King's-fee." 
 Precisely like the conveyance made by the second Michael de la 
 Pole (p. 118 ante) these two documents purport to be absolute and 
 unqualified transfers, yet were not final alienations of the estates 
 dealt with. These were, in the former deed, " the manor of 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 125 
 
 Courthall in Kingston-upon-Hull, the manors of Myton ( 69 ), 
 Rimswell, and Bewholme, in the county of York, and all lands 
 and tenements, rents and services, liberties, warrens, and chaces 
 with their appurtenances in Kingston-upon-Hull, Myton, Rimswell, 
 Bewholme, Drypool,Newland, Anlaby, Oustmersk, and Cottingham, 
 in the county of York ; the manor of West wood, and all lands 
 and tenements with their appurtenances in Stamford in the county 
 of Lincoln ; the manor of Burley in the county of Northampton ; 
 and all lands and tenements with their appurtenances in Burley 
 in the county of Rutland ; all and singular which said manors, 
 lands, and tenements were late of Michael de la Pole, earl of 
 Suffolk, father of us the present earl, and were in the aforesaid 
 Robert de Bolton, clerk, Robert de Bolton, armiger, and others by 
 the gift and feoffment of the said Michael de la Pole ( 70 )." 
 
 The second deed relates to " our manors of Blyburgh in the 
 county of Lincoln ; Normanton, Sutton, and Clifton, in the county 
 of Nottingham ; and ten bovates of land called King's-fee with 
 their appurtenances in Myton in the county of York." 
 
 On Saturday, the 2nd day of May, 1450, the glories and 
 disasters of the duke's life came alike to an end with his 
 barbarous murder in a ship's boat off Dover. The Inquisition 
 post mortem was held at South Cave on the 28th day of August 
 following, when the jurors found that he died seised of Myton 
 manor (meaning, no doubt, the Manor-House), and of one 
 windmill, seven messuages, three tofts, and eighteen bovates of 
 land in Myton and Oustmersk ( 71 ) ; that he died on the 2nd day 
 of May previously ; and that John, then duke of Suffolk, was his 
 next heir, and aged 7 years on the 27th September then last. 
 
 (69) If, as the context implies, the Manor-House of Myton and not the lordship is 
 meant, this deed is quite reconcilable with the subsequent grant of King's-fee. Otherwise the 
 greater would have included the less, and the second deed woul 1 have been unnecessary 
 and had no operation so far as King's-fee was concerned. 
 
 (70) This appears to refer to Earl Michael's grant (page USante), but the parcels are not 
 quite identical. 
 
 (71) Inquisition post mortem. 28 Hen. VI., No. 25. 
 
 WilVus nup' dux SuffoW. 
 Miton matter'. 
 
 Miton et > 1 moltttd' ventrip 7 messuag' 
 Oustemerk j i toft et 1 8 bovaC terr' ibi'm. 
 
126 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 This finding is not very clear as to Myton, but mention is 
 again made of the windmill as well as of the seven messuages 
 before referred to, but not particularised in the last three 
 preceding inquests. The eighteen bovates appear to be an error, 
 as seventeen was undoubtedly the correct quantity. 
 
 John- de la Pole, the duke's eldest son, was married whilst 
 still a minor to Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister of the duke of York, 
 afterwards Edward the Fourth. This marriage was the work of 
 his politic and ambitious mother Alice, the dowager duchess of 
 Suffolk, and for a time it repaired the family fortunes. As a first 
 consequence of this most judicious alliance, young De la Pole was 
 restored to his father's rank and title of duke of Suffolk, and 
 given license to enter into full possession and seizin of his estates 
 six months before he attained his majority, by letters-patent from 
 Edward, dated 23rd March, 1463. 
 
 For five and twenty years he lived a quiet and dignified life in 
 undisturbed enjoyment of his wealth and honours. To his period 
 of ownership seems to belong an unsigned, undated memorandum 
 of the annual value of the Hull and Myton properties of his family, 
 which exists upon a scrap of paper amongst the town's records, 
 and of which the following is a copy : — 
 
 " The value yerlie of all the landes & tent's of the Due and 
 Duchesse of Suff within the towne of Kyngeston-upon-Hull 
 and the lordeship of Myton beside the fee ferme of the saide 
 towne whereof the saide Due ought not paie herafter apperith 
 
 In the Merketgate 
 
 In Polestrete vij" xvnj 8 nij" 
 
 In Hullestrete 
 
 In Chapellane 
 
 In Dentonlane 
 
 In Whitefreregate 
 
 In Kyrkelane 
 
 In Champeneystrete 
 
 In Monkegate 
 
 In Mitongate 
 
 In Fenkelstrete ... 
 
 . . . xiij" 
 
 xxiij d 
 
 ... vij" xviij" ] 
 
 ... xlix" 
 
 xvij d 
 
 ... lx 8 
 
 
 ... xlij s 
 
 viij" 
 
 . . . cviij' 
 
 iiij' 1 
 
 ... xiiij 1 
 
 xx d 
 
 ... V s 
 
 
 ... lv» 
 
 
 . . . xxij" 
 
 VJ'l 
 
 ... vij 8 i 
 
 n A 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 127 
 In Oldebev'leygate lx s ij d 
 
 Ivij 8 iiij 
 
 in 
 
 xvj 11 
 
 p 
 
 xxix" 
 cvj" xiiij d 
 Ixxij" ix" ix d 
 vj u x"." 
 
 In ferme of ye pastures w'out the 
 walles of the towne 
 
 In the value of the lordeship of Miton. Ixxiij 1 ' ix s j d 
 Sm clxxviij x 8 xj 
 
 Wherof deducte in Bent resolute yerlie x" ix 8 vj d 
 
 It'm Eent respected yerlie of the Yerlej 
 of Northumbr' (iiij 8 ) and the Maire [ xj" viij d 
 and Com'altie (vij 8 viij d ) 
 
 It'm vacawn'es yerlie 
 
 In reparacons 
 
 In fees & annuitees ...•• 
 
 Sm of deductons 
 
 And so the clere value is 
 
 Wherof the x th parte is 
 
 I cannot suggest any reason why the account should show 
 the tenth of the net total, unless it were in connection with the 
 payment, voluntary or otherwise, of one of those numerous 
 " benevolences, or free gifts," which Edward IV. so frequently 
 exacted from his wealthy subjects, nor why that tithe is so 
 palpably incorrect ; but we cannot fail to be struck by the marked 
 increase in the annual value of the manor or lordship of Myton, 
 which is given as £73 9s. Id., or an advance of more than fifty per 
 cent, upon the revenue derived from it in 1402. 
 
 In 1487 the duke's heir, John de la Pole, who had been 
 created earl of Lincoln in regard to his nearness to the throne, fell 
 at Stoke-upon-Trent under the banner of the pseudo-Edward the 
 Sixth, and when the cold and crafty Henry VII. occupied the 
 English throne. This blow proved fatal to the De la Pole family ; 
 although the duke and duchess and their heir had witnessed, 
 unaffected in title or estate, the brief restoration of Henry VI., 
 the usurpation of Eichard Crookback, the defeat and victory of 
 Bosworth field, and the accession of Henry Tudor. An Act of 
 Attainder was immediately passed, declaring forfeit to the crown 
 not only the dead earl's own estates, but also all that he would 
 have inherited had he lived to survive his father. By this 
 
128 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 ingenious fraud, worthy of an Empson or a Dudley, and utterly 
 contrary to the common law, the next heir was most effectually 
 impoverished, and the family fortunes ruined well-nigh beyond 
 redemption. 
 
 Duke John died four years afterwards, and his second son, 
 the ill-fated Edmund de la Pole, inherited the empty title. But 
 in 1493 the royal clemency was extended to him by the cautious 
 and calculating monarch, who in consideration of his being 
 " comen of noble discent," and of his undertaking to pay the 
 substantial sum of £5000, restored to him a portion of the family 
 estates including " manoris londes and tenementis in Kyngeston- 
 upon-Hulle, Mitton, and all londes in Mitton." But at this time 
 King's-fee and Aton-fee, the Manor-House, and all the rents and 
 profits of the lordship of Myton, were in the hands of his royal 
 mother, the widowed duchess of Suffolk, either by way of dower 
 or under some family custom which seems throughout their 
 history to have given the widow of the head of the house of De 
 la Pole the use and enjoyment of the Manor-House and lordship 
 of Myton for the rest of her life. However, with the close of the 
 closing year of the fifteenth century Duchess Elizabeth died (16th 
 Nov., 16 Hen. VII.), and Edmund de la Pole, then known as 
 earl of Suffolk, for he had given up to the crown the title of duke 
 which he was too poor to fitly maintain, entered into possession. 
 Yet he was not destined long to enjoy the scanty portion of the 
 family estates which he had wrung from the crown. Falling 
 three years later into the meshes of his cruel and unscrupulous 
 king he, too, was attainted of treason, his property forfeited, and 
 himself imprisoned in the Tower of London ; a dismal captivity 
 only terminating with his death on the scaffold in April, 1513. 
 
 Upon the 1st of December following an Inquisition was held 
 at Hull before Edmund Eedall, or Eiddell, mayor of the town, 
 and as such the king's escheator, for the purpose of informing 
 Henry as to the value and extent of the forfeited possessions of 
 the dead earl. The finding of the jurors as embodied in the 
 mayor's certificate set out that Edmund de la Pole, earl of 
 Suffolk, for high treason forfeited his lands to Henry the Seventb, 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 129 
 
 being thereof convicted on the 25th January, in the 19th Hen. 
 VII., at which time Elizabeth, late duchess of Suffolk, was 
 possessed of the said lands for the term of her life. Thai the said 
 duchess died Nov. 16th, 16 Hen. VII., whereupon all the said 
 lands belonged to the king by vitrue of the Act of Attainder. As 
 to the extent of the lands in Hull and Myton the jurors found 
 that "the Lands, &c, which Elizabeth, late Duchess of Suffolk, 
 possessed for the term of her life of and in the Manors and 
 Lordships of Kingston-upon-Hull and Myton, and also of and in 
 the head Messuage with Buildings and Garden called the Hall 
 Garth in Kingston-upon-Hull aforesaid," were " an hundred 
 messuages, a thousand acres of Land, three hundred acres of 
 meadow and pasture, ana five pounds in quit rents, in Kingston- 
 upon-Hull and Myton aforesaid ; and a Mansion or Messuage, 
 with an hundred acres of land and two hundred acres of pasture 
 and meadow lying together, commonly called Tupcoates, which 
 were members appertaining to the aforesaid Lordship and Manor 
 of Myton ; " and they declared the annual value of all the local 
 property of the De la Poles which became forfeited to Henry VII. 
 on the said earl's attainder, to be the considerable sum of 
 £145 13s. lOd. ( 72 ). 
 
 Here our history bids adieu to the De la Poles. The unhappy 
 Edmund was the last of their line to be lord of the manor of 
 Myton; and its next possessor was Sir William Sydney ( 73 ), one 
 of the squires of the body to King Henry VIII. , a brave soldier, 
 an adroit courtier, and evidently a royal favorite, to whom in 
 
 (72) The quantities of land given in this certificate seem greatly exaggerated, but why 
 so one cannot imagine. A thousand acres of land in Hull and Myton are equivalent to 
 nearly 67 bovates ; whilst the hundred acres of arable land given as the area of Tupcoates 
 represents that portion of Myton as being almost as large as King's-fee, besides which its 
 accompanying quantity of 200 acres of meadow land is out of all proportion. 
 
 (78) Sir William Sydney was lineally descended from a knight of the same name who 
 came from Anjou with Henry II. He was both steward and chamberlain to Henry VIII., for 
 whom he did knightly service both by land and sea, being also one of the chief commanders 
 on Flodden field. He was paternal grandfather of the illustrious Sir Philip Sydney, whose 
 noble self-devotion at Zutphen placed him high on the roll of heroes, and who is thus slightly 
 connected with Hull. Another grandson was made earl of Leicester by James I. The State 
 Papers give some interesting glimpses into Sir William's life. 3 Hen. 8 he had license with 
 another to export 2000 sacks of wool : 5 Hen. 8 he was joint captain of the ship of war ' The 
 Oreat Barke," 400 tons, at Is. 6d. a day : 6 Hen. 8 he was " a little crazed with ague : " and 
 II Hen. 8 he was in attendance on his royal master at the field of the Cloth of Gold. 
 
130 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 1513 in recognition of his many services, especially at the battle 
 of Flodden, the king gave the manors of Kingston-upon-Hull and 
 Myton in tail male by letters patent of which the following is a 
 concise translation. 
 
 jENBY, by the Grace of God king of England and 
 France and lord of Ireland, to all to whom these 
 presents shall come greeting : Know ye that we of 
 
 our special grace, sure knowledge, and own motion, have given 
 and granted and hereby give and grant unto our well-beloved 
 Sir William Sydney, knight, our lordship or manor of Kingston- 
 upon-Hull with the appurtenances thereto belonging within the 
 county of the said town ; also our lordship or manor of Myton 
 with its appurtenances in the same county ; also all other the 
 lands and tenements, rents, reversions, possessions, and 
 inheritances whatsoever with their appurtenances late belonging 
 to Edmund de la Pole within our said town of Kingston-upon- 
 Hull or otherwise within our counties of the said town or of 
 York, and which lordships, manors, and premises with their 
 appurtenances came to the hands of Henry VII., late king of 
 England, under the forfeiture and attainder of the aforesaid 
 Edmund de la Pole, and the which by the death of our late 
 father are now in our own hands ; together with all knight's 
 fees, advowsons of churches, parsonages, abbies and priories, 
 waters, fisheries, mills, parks, warrens, leases, franchises, 
 liberties, privileges, forfeitures, commodities, and advantages 
 whatsoever to all or any of them belonging : to hold the same 
 to the said Sir William Sydney and the heirs male of his body 
 lawfully begotten, in like manner and form in all respects as the 
 said Edmund de la Pole, or any other for him, possessed, 
 exercised, enjoyed or occupied the same before the aforesaid 
 forfeiture, with all profits, &c, from the 29th day of September 
 in the 4th year of our reign up to this day, of us and our heirs 
 by faithfulness only for all manner of services whatsoever : 
 Dated at Westminster the 22nd day of March in the fourth year 
 of our reign." 
 A quarter of a century later, vizt., in 1538, Henry re-acquired 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 131 
 
 from Sir William Sydney by exchange the said manors and 
 hereditaments, desiring to have the full feudal lordship of the 
 town so as to strengthen and increase its defences with a view of 
 making the port practically impregnable ( 74 ). Prior to and for 
 the purposes of this exchange a careful survey was made as usual 
 on each side so as to ascertain precisely the natures and annual 
 values of the properties intended to be respectively disponed. 
 That made for the king of Sir William Sydney's property was 
 carried out by Leonard Beck with or Bekwith ( 7S ), receiver in 
 Yorkshire of the Court of Augmentations ( 76 ), and the result was 
 a most exact and exhaustive terrier of the local possessions 
 theretofore of the great house of De la Pole but then of Sir 
 William, a return which amply attests the industry and ability of 
 its compiler. The original was filed in the Court of 
 Augmentations, but a copy of it, certified under the great seal of 
 Queen Elizabeth on the 12th June, 1601, is still preserved 
 amongst the archives of the town. This most interesting 
 document is the source from which Tickell obtained the full 
 particulars he gives of the Suffolk palace at p. 39 of his " History 
 of Hull." It is headed (in Latin) " Elizabeth, by the Grace of 
 God, &c, greeting : We have examined certain particulars of 
 survey on an exchange between our late lord King Henry the 
 Eighth and William Sydney, knight, taken by Leonard Bekwith 
 of all the manors, lands and tenements in the town of Kingston- 
 
 (74) Gent gives this date as 1539, and says that " about this time the king purchased of 
 Sit William Sydney the forfeited manors, &c." Hadley makes it 1540 ; and Sheahan, equally 
 inexact, gives 1514 as the date of the king's grant to Sydney, adding in the same paragraph 
 that " the king became again lord of these manors, but by what means, whether by purchase, 
 exchange, or seizure, does not appear." On the contrary it is perfectly clear from 
 Beckwith's certificate that Henry took them by exchange in or about August, 1538. 
 
 (75) He was also particular receiver of the lands of the suppressed monasteries in 
 Yorkshire, and was evidently a faithful and loyal servant of the crown. At the time of the 
 Pilgrimage of Grace he was serving the king at his own cost with six men-at-arms, and Aske 
 made more than one attempt to capture or corrupt him. In 32 Hen. 8 Sir Robert Sadler, 
 donee of the site and property of Selby abbey, obtained a license to alienate to Beckwith the 
 site of the abbey, with the little park, " ter' vocal" It Little Pare," containing about 10 acres, 
 and the abbey grange or manor with its appurtenant arable and pasture land. In 1549 he 
 was " Sir " Leonard Beckwith, and was a paid member of the great Council of the North, 
 commissioned to keep the king's peace in the northern counties, and directed to hold its 
 sessions in Hull amongst other places. 
 
 (76) This court was constituted in 1536 to manage the revenues expected to be derived 
 from the suppressed religious houses ; but their lands were so profusely granted away that 
 the court quickly became a nullity and was abolished. 
 
132 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 upon-Hull belonging to the said Sir "William Sydney in the 
 thirteenth year of the said King Henry the Eighth, as appears by 
 the record thereof in the court of augmentation of the revenues 
 of the king's crown, and which said particulars are in the words 
 following : — ' A Cebtificate upon the survey made by me 
 Leonard Bekwyth ( 77 ) the xiij day of August in the 30th yere of 
 the reigne of King Henry the Eight, by the grace of God kyng 
 of England and of Fraunce, Defendour of the Fayth, lord of 
 Irland, and in erth sup'me hed of the Cherche of England ( 78 ), 
 of all the manors lands tenements possessions &c perteynyng to 
 Syr Will'm Sydney, knight, lyeng and beyng in the towne of 
 Kyngeston-upon-Hull, and of the maners of Tupcotes wyth Myton 
 in the countye of Kyngeston-upon-Hull, and of the sexte parte of 
 the maner of Sutton in Holdernesse in the countye of Yorke, 
 as hereafter enseuyth.' " Then follow very full particulars of all 
 the properties surveyed, but inasmuch as those relating to Myton 
 are given under the title " The manor of Tupcotes with Myton," 
 they will be better discussed under that head of our subject. 
 
 The total annual value of the lordship of Myton or, as 
 Beckwith puts it, the " S'm' to' lis of all the sayd rentes of 
 Tupcotes and Myton," is given as £112 15s. 7d., and the gross 
 yearly income from all the manors, lands and rents included in 
 the survey is stated to be £228 Is. 5d. ; " oute of whiche " were 
 
 (77) Of very recent years a doctrine has been taught us in Hull that our sheriff is in 
 some especial and mysterious manner the direct representative of Her Majesty, and that his 
 brow is consequently encircled with something of a diadem, wherefore much honor and 
 worship should be his due. I confess my ignorance of the foundation for this article of 
 belief, which is sufficiently contradicted by the fact that the mayor has precedence as chief 
 magistrate over the sheriff, but would not have over the sovereign if personally present. 
 Again some light is thrown upon the subject by the further fact that in times past the local 
 sheriff never seems to have been employed as surveyor or escheator for the crown, as he 
 would assuredly have been if regarded as the monarch's direct agent or representative. 
 Anciently chosen in the county court by the suffrages of the people, the sheriff was the 
 vicecomes, the deputy or minister of the earl of the county, and as such the discharger of 
 those duties and the carrier-out of those royal and other mandates which the earl was 
 bound to perform. As the shire-reve (Saxon Scire-gere/a), he was the reve, greve, or bailiff 
 of the county as a sort of very large franchise. Although to-day a sheriff is the chief officer 
 of the erown in his county, and as keeper of the queen's peace the first man therein, he does 
 not appear to occupy quite so exalted a position in a borough-county, where he is over- 
 shadowed by the mayor. At his best, however, he is an officer not a representative of the 
 crown, like any other official in the queen's military or civil service. 
 
 (78) This title was formally assumed by Henry under the authority of parliament 
 in 1535. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 133 
 
 deducted (for there seems to be hardly any income known to 
 civilized man which is free from payments to some other income) 
 certain outpayments, including 15s. to " Saynt Mary cherche for 
 the tythes of the west yng wythin the lordship of Myton," 
 amounting altogether to £13 19s. Od. "And so the clere yerely 
 valewe of all and syng'lar the sayd maners, landes and ten'ts and 
 other the p'mysses is, over and above the said mansion ( 70 ) and 
 place, ccxiv" ij 8 v d ." 
 
 From the date of this survey until the closing years of the 
 following reign the lordship of Myton remained the property of 
 the crown, and the court held within it at Tupcotes, as will 
 be seen in our next division or chapter, was described as the 
 king's court. In some way, which we can better enquire into 
 shortly, a change had taken place in the district by the estab- 
 lishment of a court at Tupcotes or Tupcoates, and the creation, 
 so to speak, of a manor within the manor, an imperium in 
 imperio. 
 
 In 1552 Edward VI., by charter bearing date at Westminster 
 the 29th day of March, in the sixth year of his reign, gave to the 
 town all the whilom possessions of the De la Poles which his royal 
 father had granted to and purchased back from Sir William 
 Sydney. The wording of this document (which is set out in 
 extenso at pp. 70-79 of the writer's " History of the Charterhouse ") 
 so far as it relates to Myton is worthy of notice, since the district 
 granted is described by words capable of being read as not 
 including the entire lordship of Myton. " In consideration 
 of the good, true, faithful and acceptable service as well 
 for us as our progenitors, kings of England, by the inhabitants of 
 our town of Kingston-upon-Hull done and bestowed," the king 
 gives and grants to the mayor and burgesses of the town (inter 
 alia) " all that our manor of Tupeotts with Myton with its rights 
 members and appurtenances in the county of the town of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, and late parcel of the lands, possessions or 
 revenues of William Sydney, knight, heretofore being : And all 
 and singular messuages, lands, mills, meadows, woods, reversions, 
 
 (79) Alluding to the Suffolk palace in Lowgate, then called the " Hall Garth.' 
 
134 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 rents as well of free as of customary tenants, fishings, rivers, pools, 
 lakes, moors, marshes, fairs, tolls, native men and native women 
 and villeins with their children, courts-leet, view of frank-pledge 
 and all that to view of frank-pledge belong, privileges, profits, &c, 
 &c, situate, lying and being in Tupcotts, Myton, Lymekylne, and 
 Myton Carr, in our said county of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, 
 to the said manors of (inter alia) Tupcotts with Myton in any 
 manner belonging ; to have hold and enjoy the aforesaid manors 
 of {inter alia) Tupcotts with Myton, and all and singular other 
 the premises, to the proper use and behoof of them the mayor and 
 burgesses of the said town of Kingston-upon-Hull and then- 
 successors forever, to be held of us, our heirs and successors, in free 
 burgage of the said town of Kingston-upon-Hull, yielding to us, 
 our heirs and successors, of and for the aforesaid manor of 
 Tupcotts with Myton, £47 6s. 3d. of lawful money of England at 
 our Court of Augmentations and Eevenues of our crown, at the 
 feast of St. Peter ad Vincula and the Purification of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary every year, for all other rents, services and demands 
 whatsoever." 
 
 The properties granted, namely " Tupcotts with Myton," the 
 manor of Kingston-upon-Hull, and the sixth part of the manor of 
 Sutton, are stated in this charter to have been then recently 
 extended at the clear yearly value of £81 13s. 9d., and in order 
 that the crown might not lose any revenue by the transaction 
 a sum that ought to have been exactly equivalent, but which by 
 some strange blunder was a few shillings and pence short, was 
 reserved out of the gift by way of rent-charge and thus 
 apportioned; £13 Os. 4d. out of the manor of Kingston-upon-Hull, 
 £21 3s. 6d. out of the sixth part of the manor of Sutton, and 
 £47 6s. 3d. out of Tupcotts with Myton, the last evidently being 
 much the most valuable property. 
 
 Comparing this extent with Beckwith's it is difficult to account 
 for the extraordinary decline in the net annual value of the 
 manors in question, from £214 2s. 5d. in 1538 to £81 13s. 9d. in 
 1552 — a fall of more than sixty per cent, in fourteen years ! We 
 know that men's heads sat more firmly on their shoulders under 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 135 
 
 the sceptre of the gentle Edward than they had done in his father's 
 
 days, and are forced to conclude that for the purpose of 
 
 minimising the value of the boon in the eyes of the royal advisers, 
 
 or of obtaining an unconscionable bargain, the mayor and 
 
 aldermen of that day hoodwinked the king's escheator, perhaps a 
 
 nominee of their own, or blinded his eyes with a bribe, none of 
 
 the parties having before them the fear of that short, sharp shrift 
 
 which bluff King Hal would have dealt to man or woman who had 
 
 so deceived him. To my mind, indeed, these two valuations are 
 
 a most significant comment upon the popular appreciation of the 
 
 widely-different characters of the two monarchs. And what 
 
 makes the matter the more glaring on the part of the mayor and 
 
 aldermen is the fact that Queen Elizabeth's exemplification of 
 
 Beckwith's report (showing so much larger an annual value) was 
 
 issued to them in 1601 upon their special request, at which later 
 
 date, consequently, they still regarded it as authoritative and 
 
 valuable. 
 
 Here, in a sense it may be said, the history of the manor of 
 
 Myton comes to an end. Henceforth the term "manor of 
 
 Myton " is superseded (if we are to regard the two as identical) 
 
 by the expression " manor of Tupcoates with Myton," which 
 
 latter it was that Edward VI. gave to the mayor and burgesses, 
 
 in whose hands it remains at the present day. By permission 
 
 of the Property Committee of the Corporation I have had an 
 
 opportunity of perusing the earlier court-rolls of the manor, 
 
 and so obtaining material for the next division of the subject. 
 
 But concerning that division, and this which now closes, I must 
 
 quote Chaucer's lines — 
 
 For my wordes here and every parte 
 I speke hem all under correcion. 
 
 There remain, however, a few words by way of appendix or 
 addendum, which may be more conveniently inserted here than 
 put at the end of the book as, perhaps, more usual. And first as 
 to the use of the terms manor and villa or vill, upon which I have 
 laid some stress, and in fuller explanation of each, especially in 
 the case of the former as a seigniory or lordship over a district 
 
136 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 apart from the ownership of its soil, I may with advantage quote 
 from the authorities collected in Blount's "Law-Dictionary" of 
 1717. Under the word "manor" he proceeds, "As touching 
 its Original, which was after the Conquest ; vizt., There was a 
 certain Compass of Ground granted by the King to some Baron, 
 or such-like Man of Worth, for him and his Heirs to dwell upon, 
 and to exercise some Jurisdiction, more or less, within that 
 Circuit, as he thought good to grant, performing such Service and 
 paying such yearly Bent for the same, as he by his Grant 
 required ; and that afterwards this great Man parcelled his land 
 to other meaner Men, enjoining them again such Services and 
 Bents as he thought good : And by that Means as he became 
 Tenant to the King, so the Inferiors became Tenants to him : " 
 and adds " in these Days, a Manor rather signifies the Jurisdiction 
 and Boyalty incorporeal, than the Land or Scite : For a Man may 
 have a Manor in Gross, that is, the Bight and Interest of a Court 
 Baron, with the Perquisites, and another enjoy every Foot of the 
 land belonging to it. A Manor may be compounded of divers 
 Things ; as, of an House, Arable Land, Pasture, Meadow, Wood, 
 Bent, and such like." Of " Vill (Villa)" he says that it "is 
 sometimes taken for a Manor, and sometimes for a Parish, or part 
 of it. Vill and Parish shall be intended all one, yet there may 
 be two Vills in one Parish. And Fortescuc writes, that the 
 Boundaries of Villages is not by Houses, Streets, or Walls, but 
 by a large Circuit of Ground, within which there may be several 
 Hamlets, Waters, Woods and wast Ground. Fleta likewise 
 mentions the Difference between a Mansion, a Village, and a 
 Manor, viz., a Mansion may be of one or more Houses, but it 
 must be but one Dwelling-place, and none near it ; for if other 
 Houses are contiguous, then 'tis a Village ; a Manor may consist 
 of several Villages, or of one alone." 
 
 Whoever has paid me the compliment of perusing these pages 
 will have gathered that I fully share the views first promulgated 
 by Mr. Charles Frost as to the existence of a town, port, or 
 waterside hamlet at the mouth of Hull river long anterior to the 
 days of Edward I., whose foundation of Kingston-upon-Hull was 
 
Of the History of the Manor of Myton. 137 
 
 an adaptation of existing material, as Frost has proved, and not 
 the creation of a brand new town, as our other historians were 
 content to assume. Amongst the cloud of witnesses in favour of 
 the former hypothesis Mr Frost has noticed at p. 95 of his 
 admirable work the striking Compotus of William de Wroteham, 
 which gives the very large sum of £344 14s. 4|d. as the quinzime, 
 or tax of the fifteenth part of the proceeds, of Hull for the two 
 years 1203-5, a return only possible on the basis of a considerable 
 business being then carried on at the port. 
 
 Another piece of evidence of some weight has come to light 
 since Frost's day in the shape of a grant of free-burgage ( 80 ), 
 evidently made to the inhabitants of Wyk or Hull, by Walter 
 Gray, archbishop of York from 1215 to 1255, extracted from his 
 register and published recently by the Surtees Society. The 
 grant is to " our burgesses dwelling in the town upon Humber, 
 that each of them shall have burgage of eighty feet in width and 
 a hundred and sixty feet in length," at the annual rent of 4d., 
 with " the same liberties that our burgesses of Beverley enjoy ; " 
 and the learned editor, Canon Eaine, remarks " the ' burgus super 
 Humbre' is what became afterwards Kingston-upon-Hull. This 
 is a very curious chapter in the history of the place." 
 
 Possibly the gift was ultra vires on the part of the archbishop, 
 an usurpation of an authority he never possessed over Wyk, 
 however much he could exercise it in Beverley ; but on Canon 
 Baine's authority that the town which existed at Hull mouth 
 prior to Kingston-upon-Hull was intended to be benefitted, it is 
 worth while giving for the first time in a local work the full 
 text of the charter as enrolled in the archbishop's registry. 
 
 "1239. Scroby 3 nonas Junii xxiiij. Omnibus, &c, Noveritis 
 110s concessisse et prcesenti carta nostra confirmassc burgensibus 
 nostris in burgo super Hilmbre commorantibus quod quilibet eorum 
 habeat burgagium de latitudine quater viginti pedum et de 
 longitudine octies viginti pedum in libero burgagio reddendo inde 
 
 (80) Burgage was a tenure proper to boroughs, whereby in consideration of a fixed 
 annual payment the houseowner went quit of all other services to his feudal lord. Ducange 
 defines it as " a certain and annual tax which a burgess or dweller in a borough pays to the 
 lord of the same for his dwelling or tenement in the town." 
 
138 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 annuatim nobis et successoribus nostris quatuor denarios medietatem 
 ad Pentecosten et aliam medietatem ad festum Sancti Martini in 
 Ryemi : Concessimus etiam eisdem burgensibus eandem libertatem 
 quam burgenses nostri de Bevcrlc dinoscuntur de nobis et 
 predecessoribus nostris liabere in quantum nostra potestas 
 permittct : Et tit hcec nostra concessio et confirmatio rata et 
 stabilis permaneat in posterum prasens scriptum sigilli nostri 
 munimine roboravimus : Testibus Magistro Sewal de Bovill, 
 canonico Ebor', Galfrido de Bocland, canonico Beverle, Petro de 
 Fikelden, capellano, Domino Willelmo de Wydindon, senescallo 
 nostro, Odone de Bichem', Reginald' de Stoiva, clericis, et aliis." 
 
 I hesitate, I can hardly say why, to accept this deed as 
 genuine ; hut if it be authentic it is indeed a most interesting and 
 valuable as well as curious contribution to the history of our 
 town. It demonstrates that one archbishop of York at least 
 claimed to have the feudal lordship of Wyk-upon-Hull, and that 
 in the early part of the thirteenth century it was of sufficient size 
 and importance to be recognized as a burg or borough, a name 
 which, according to Verstegan, " signifies a town having a wall or 
 some kind of enclosure about it." My principal object in quoting 
 it here is because it seems so strongly to corroborate Frost's 
 1||iews ( 81 ). 
 
 Since page 80 ante was in type I have had the opportunity of 
 examining and perusing the original deed of partition of Myton 
 manor between the brothers Eichard and 'William de la Pole, 
 which proved to be one of a bundle of deeds labelled generally as 
 relating to Myton. It is indented, that is to say it was engrossed 
 in duplicate, one part for each brother, upon one piece of parch- 
 ment, and then divided by a waved or toothed line cut through 
 written characters. To the part retained by Eichard de la Pole 
 the seal of William was affixed, and Eichard's seal was attached 
 to the part kept by William. By some person or persons " more 
 curious than devout " the seal has been cut away from that part 
 
 (81) In Mr. Boyle's " Lost Towns of the Humber " he mentions that Archbishop 
 Rornanus in 1291 ordered a special effort to be made on behalf of the crusade, when a 
 preaching friar was sent from Beverley to " le Wyk," as one of the centres to be roused 
 Into activity. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 139 
 
 of the indenture which still exists amongst the archives of the 
 town, so that it is impossible to say to which brother it originally 
 belonged. The two parts, however, would be in identical terms, 
 and the full translation following amply attests the accuracy of 
 Mr. Wildridge's note. 
 
 jHIS is the partition made between Eichard de la 
 Pole of the one part, and William de la Pole his 
 brother of the other part, on Wednesday next 
 after the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula in the eighth year of the 
 reign of King Edward the third after the conquest, Of the 
 manor of My ton nigh Kingston-upon-Hull with its appurtenances 
 which the said Eichard and William hold to them and their 
 heirs of the gift and feoffment of our said lord the king in 
 exchange for the moiety of the township of Lyndeby in the 
 county of Nottingham ; namely The said William hath granted 
 and confirmed to the said Eichard his brother for his part five 
 bovates of arable land, with the meadows to the same bovates 
 belonging, which were heretofore in the hands of divers men of 
 the said town of Kingston under lease from Sir Eobert Hastang, 
 knight, formerly keeper of the said manor ; and a certain 
 windmill upon Humber water; and also a certain place of 
 meadow-land (" quamdam placeam prati") called the Crooked- 
 cote dale, and a certain other place of meadow-land called the 
 Sevenstangs ; with one half of all the pastures and agistments 
 to the said manor in anywise belonging ; To have and to hold 
 the aforesaid five bovates of land with the meadows thereto 
 belonging, windmill, places of meadow-land, moiety of pastures 
 and agistments, to the aforesaid Eichard his heirs and assigns 
 of the chief lords of the fees by a moiety of the rents and 
 services which ought to be rendered for the said manor for 
 ever, and so that in respect thereto neither the said William 
 nor his heirs shall in future have any right or claim whatsoever 
 against the said Eichard or his heirs : And the aforesaid 
 Eichard hath granted and confirmed to the said William his 
 brother for his part the whole site of the manor (i.e. of the 
 Manor-House) of Myton aforesaid, together with the houses 
 
140 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 • 
 
 and buildings thereon, and together with all places and profits 
 within the walls of the same manor, and all meadows to the 
 same manor adjoining ; and also five bovates of arable land, 
 with the meadows to the same bovates belonging, which were 
 lately in the hands of the said Eichard and William under 
 lease from the said Sir Eobert ; and also all tenements and 
 cottages of the said manor of Myton, with their services and 
 rents ; with one half of all the pastures and agistments to the 
 said manor in anywise belonging ; To have and to hold the 
 aforesaid site of the manor with the houses and buildings 
 thereon, and all places and profits within the walls thereof, and 
 the said five bovates of land with the meadows thereto 
 belonging which were lately in the hands of the said Eichard 
 and William under lease from the said Sir Eobert as above 
 written, with the meadows adjoining the manor, and all the 
 said tenements and cottages of the said manor of Myton with 
 their rents and services, and the said moiety of pastures and 
 agistments, to the aforesaid William his heirs and assigns of 
 the chief lords of the fees by a moiety of the rents and services 
 which ought to be rendered for the said manor for ever, and so 
 that in respect thereto neither the said Eichard nor his heirs 
 shall in future have any right or claim whatsoever against the 
 said William or his heirs : In witness whereof the said William 
 hath set his seal to one part of this chirograph writing (" sc'pti 
 cirographati") intended to be retained by the said Eichard, 
 and the said Eichard hath set his seal to another true part 
 remaining with the said William : These being witnesses, Hugh 
 le Taverner, mayor of the said town of Kingston, William de 
 Birkyn and Walter le Taverner, bailiffs of the said town, John 
 de Barton and Eobert de Lichfield, burgesses of the same town, 
 Thomas of Cottingham, Hugh Bodel of Myton, and others. 
 Given at Myton on the day and year above written." 
 This document is interesting as one of the very few which we 
 find executed at Myton, probably within the great hall of the 
 Manor-House, where the two brothers, then living realities but to 
 us only historical memories, would be present, with the scrivener 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 141 
 
 and the invited witnesses standing round the table. For more 
 than half a thousand years the silent memorial of this important 
 transaction has existed amongst our local records, during which 
 period art and commerce and civilization have advanced by leaps 
 and bounds, and the town of Kingston-upon-Hull has swallowed 
 up the manor of Myton, and still grows in numbers and 
 importance. Yet never since has she boasted two such sons as 
 those who on the 3rd day of August, 1334, set their seals to this 
 "chirograph writing," never since has she produced or nurtured 
 two such merchant princes, and it may be she never will again. 
 
 It is important to note here that had there actually been any 
 villeins resident within the manor and passing from hand to hand 
 with it, they would assuredly have been expressly mentioned in 
 this partition of the lordship. 
 
 Sufficient has been said in the foregoing pages to show that 
 one very especial feature in connection with the manor or lordship 
 of Myton was its defence along its southern boundary against the 
 waters of the Humber. In the 14th century the whole country on 
 the north bank of the Humber was subject to severe and continued 
 inundations ; and the annals of our Plantagenet kings record the 
 constant efforts of the inhabitants (in the cases of Kavenser, 
 Tharlesthorpe, Frismersk, 4c., in vain) to protect themselves and 
 their homesteads against this enemy. 
 
 As regards Myton some interesting information is supplied by 
 Dugdale who seems to have made an exhaustive inquiry into the 
 subject, the results of which are to be found in bis " History of 
 Imbanking and Draining." 
 
 In 7 Edward II. the king directed his precept to Eobert de 
 Sandale, then governor of Hull and keeper of the manor of Myton, 
 requiring him to take £40 out of the farm of the town and issues 
 of the manor and employ the same in the repair of the banks and 
 ditches upon the rivers Humber and Hull, according to the 
 directions of Eichard de Gretford and other honest men of the 
 town. 
 
 Two years later De Sandale, in connection with John del Isle 
 and John de Doncaster, was directed to view and repair the 
 
142 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 banks, ditches, &c, for the safety of the manor of Myton, the 
 same having been forcibly and riotously broken in the night-time 
 by Gerard de Usflete, Eichard of Anlaby, Balph Nevil, and others ; 
 and to enquire as to that misdemeanour. And a like commission 
 was granted, 10 Edward II., to Eobert de Hastang, Alexander of 
 Cave, and Eobert of Hedon to inquire into another breach of the 
 banks of Myton by Loretta, widow of John de Usflete, John her 
 son, Gerard de Usflete, and others. It is difficult to conceive what 
 object the Usflete family had in view in these two attacks upon 
 the water defences of Myton. We cannot possibly regard them 
 as merely acts of wanton mischief or maliciousness ; but even if 
 made under colour of some title to the manor or a part of it, and 
 as evidences of ownership, such attempts to destroy or grievously 
 damage the lands and pastures within the lordship were, to say 
 the least of them, extremely illogical ( 82 ). 
 
 In 30 Edward III. complaint was made to the crown that the 
 tides in the Humber and the Hull then flowed four feet higher 
 than they had been wont to do, by reason whereof the common 
 roadway from Hull to Anlaby and the lands and pastures lying 
 between those places were frequently inundated and damaged. 
 The complainants recommended that the roadway should be raised 
 a corresponding height, that the ancient ditch extending from 
 Anlaby to Anlaby Carr should be cleansed and widened twelve 
 feet, and that it should be continued in a new ditch of twenty- 
 four feet in width through Myton Carr to the town of Hull, where 
 of course it could empty itself into the town's moat ; and Thomas 
 Ughtred and others were appointed commissioners by letters- 
 patent dated 10th May, 1356, to carry out these suggestions. 
 
 Dugdale also gives the result of an enquiry under a writ of 
 ad quod damnum which concerned Myton lordship and the 
 
 (82) I am led to believe that this family had or imagined some special rights within the 
 manor or in connection with its water defences, because, about a century afterwards, we 
 find them owners of meadow and pasture lands within Myton adjacent to the west wall of 
 Hull. Upon a suit in the King's Bench, 18 Hen. 4, the jurors presented that there was a 
 certain water-course coming from the Spring-head in the fields of Anlaby by Warlingham 
 dyke unto the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, which was so stopped up at the gate of that town 
 towards Anlaby as to overflow the meadows and pastures of Gerard de Usflete and the towns 
 of Anlaby, Swanland, Hessle, and Ferriby, to the common damage of all those hamlets ; 
 which water-course ought to be scoured by the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, but was not. 
 
Of the History of the Manor of My ton. 143 
 
 effectual draining thereof, in 3 Henry IV. The jurors presented 
 that it would be no damage to the king or any other if a new 
 ditch or sewer were made in the meadows and pastures of 
 Anlaby, twelve feet in breadth and five feet in depth, from Julian's 
 well in the fields of Anlaby to the Wold Carr of Swanland, and 
 thence descending unto the dyke in Myton Carr, going by the 
 same dyke along the north side of Myton Carr to a certain new 
 ditch near the roadway leading from Hull to Beverley, thence 
 descending to the ditch called the Town dyke under the walls of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, and so to the gate of that town. They 
 advised that a " substantial stop " (or gates) should be made to 
 keep back the salt water at the end of the ditch between Wold 
 Carr and Myton Carr ( 83 ), with other stops wherever necessary, 
 and that all such stops should for ever thereafter be repaired by 
 the mayor, bailiffs and commonalty of Hull without cavil or 
 hindrance. The new ditch or sewer was to be called " Julian 
 dyke," and by its means the town of Hull was to be supplied 
 with the fresh water from Julian's wells, and from other wells in 
 Dernyngham Ings in Anlaby, and elsewhere in Anlaby and 
 Haltemprice ; invaluable sources of supply, the unused waters of 
 which had, I gather, up to this time run to waste, overflowing 
 their immediate neighbourhoods, and finding their way ultimately 
 into the Humber. 
 
 Some light on the question of villeinage within the manor of 
 Myton is thrown by the entry of the accounts of Eichard Oysel 
 and Edward de Ebor, the first and third custodians of the lordship, 
 upon the great roll of the Pipe. The former accounts for the sum 
 of 8s. lid. as the rents of the cotarii (or cottagers) of Myton 
 (circa 35 Edward I.), and the latter for rents of assize of cotarii 
 of Myton (6 Edward II.) ; the term rents of assize being 
 inconsistent with rents of villeins, and the form of account 
 leading to a very strong inference that the only inhabitants in 
 Myton were a few cottagers holding at fixed rents. It is 
 somewhat curious that Oysel also accounts for 106s. 8d. as the 
 
 (83) The modern representative of this ancient water-course appears on the Ordnance 
 Survey of Hull as " Gaily Clough Drain." 
 
144 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 farm of a watermill at rent in My ton. This may have been an 
 ancient mill, although the silence of Maud Camin's charter on 
 the point is strongly negative. Most likely it was erected by 
 Edward I., and let to a yearly tenant at a substantial rent. It 
 would, doubtless, have a good custom from the growing town of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull ; and very probably was the forerunner of 
 the subsequent windmill " upon the water of the Humber." 
 
IV. 
 
 OF THE (SO-TERMED) 
 MANOR OF TUPCOATES-WITH-MYTON. 
 
 \ 
 
IV. 
 
 OF THE (SO-TERMED) 
 MANOR OF TUPCOATES-W1TH-MYTON. 
 
 S we have seen (p. 6 ante) it was of the very essence 
 of a manor that it should comprise a court-baron, or, 
 to put it conversely, a court-baron was by law incident 
 to every manor and could not be severed from it ; and it was vital 
 to the existence of such a court that there should be two suitors 
 at least. It is impossible now to say with certainty whether or 
 not the district of Myton was a manor in this sense when it was 
 entered in Domesday Book by the Norman commissioners as 
 a berewick of the manor of Ferriby. Whilst a berewick is 
 generally understood, from its original A.S. meaning of a corn- 
 farm, to have been only a farm, grange, or hamlet belonging to a 
 manor and lying within or without the confines of the lordship 
 (" sen vel in confinio vel disjunctus "), the learned Spelman 
 seems to attach a greater significance to the word in his 
 definition of it as " Manerium minus ad majus pertinens " ; an 
 interpretation which would justify the assumption that Myton 
 was then a complete though dependent lordship, answering fully 
 to the Norman definition of a manor. On the other hand it seems 
 more reasonable to presume that whatever court was held or " 
 jurisdiction exercised by the A.S. proprietor of the great manor of 
 Ferriby, was held or exercised centrally, in and for the whole 
 manor and its dependencies*, rather than to suppose that there 
 was a court for the manor and one for each of the berewicks ; 
 and if this view be the sounder it follows that Myton was not a 
 manor as the Normans understood that term. 
 
 It is, however, evident from Maud Camin's charter that prior 
 to the sale of the lordship to the monks of Melsa there had once 
 
148 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 existed within Myton a building in which a court of some nature 
 was held, for the better reading of the word "aula" is court- 
 house, although it may signify like "manerium" the lord's 
 residence. I am inclined to ascribe the erection of this "aula" to 
 Anglo-Saxon times, and to see in it the building where the 
 steward or headman of Queen Algitha's manor of Ferriby met the 
 tenants and shepherds of Myton, receiving their rents and tallies, 
 arranging their disputes, and generally controlling the affairs of 
 the berewick. But in Maud Camin's time it must long have been 
 destroyed, since she speaks of it as then but a tradition, only 
 remembered by the inclosure within which it had stood ; and it 
 is quite probable that it was burned by the Normans when King 
 William wasted the country from Humber to Tyne about a 
 century before the date of her grant. The first Norman 
 proprietor of Ferriby and its berewicks had never cared to re- 
 build or replace this hall, in itself a strong inference that Myton 
 was a mere dependence and not a manor sui juris, so that up to 
 the time the township was acquired by the monks of Meaux 
 abbey no court-baron or leet had been held there, and it could 
 not consequently have been a manor in the strict legal sense ; 
 although, undoubtedly, some tradition or aroma of lordship 
 adhered to it as a legacy from the vanished " aula." 
 
 The next building of any importance erected by lords of the 
 soil within Myton, as it was enlarged by the addition of the 
 " reliquam partem del WyJc," was the grange built by its new 
 proprietors, the monks of Meaux abbey. It seems clear that Frost 
 was mistaken in identifying this building with the ancient " aula," 
 and alleging a continued existence of whatever court had been 
 held there. On the contrary the grange appears to have been an 
 agricultural structure pure and simple, and in no way a manor- 
 hall or court-house. At any rate there is no evidence in the 
 Liber Melse that the monks ever held any manorial court in 
 Myton, or in any way regarded it as other than a large grazing 
 farm ; and, therefore, it is impossible to maintain that whilst the 
 township was in their possession it w T as legally a manor. A 
 " grange " was " a house or farm not only where were necessary 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 149 
 
 places for all manner of husbandry, as stables for horses, stalls 
 for cattle, &c, but where were barns and granaries for corn, hay- 
 lofts, &c. ; " and such a place it was, I think, no more and no less, 
 that the monks built on their own side of old Hull to be the farm- 
 stead for the pastures and ploughlands of their newly-acquired 
 estate of Myton ( Si ). 
 
 Of this grange, known at the time as Myton grange, with ten 
 bovates of land in Myton, which were evidently the original 
 lordship, the A.S. berewick, and thereafter to be called " King's- 
 fee" ( 85 ), Edward I. was enfeoffed when he purchased from the 
 abbot and convent of Meaux the grange and vill of Myton, as is 
 clear from the finding of the jury upon the Inquisition taken after 
 the death of Sir Eichard de la Pole (see p. 74 ante). It would 
 further appear from the same finding that Edward II. built a 
 Manor-House within the vill called Myton Manor-House, which, 
 with the ten bovates of land forming Myton proper, he granted 
 for life to Sir Eobert Hastang. As the monks' grange undoubtedly 
 stood outside King's-fee (the eastern boundary of which was the 
 old channel of the river Hull), it seems only natural that if the 
 king wished to erect that district into a manor he should build 
 a Manor-House within it (because a court-baron could only be 
 held within the lordship), but the statement that he did so is 
 strangely at variance with the course afterwards taken by Sir 
 William de la Pole as related in the Liber Melse. From that 
 authority we can only infer that King Edward did not erect a new 
 Manor-House, but adapted the existing grange to that purpose, 
 although this again is inconsistent with the express finding of the 
 jury mentioned at page 75 ante. But whether a new building, or 
 merely the dedication to a new purpose of the grange, it must 
 have been the king's intention to create Myton a manor proper, 
 
 (84) In the grant by Hen, VIII. to Sir Ralph Sadler of the site and appurtenances of 
 Selby abbey, its grange is certainly styled " manerium," but evidently only in the restricted 
 sense of the word as signifying a residence of the larger class. 
 
 (85) I must here acknowledge that I am in error at p. 107 ante where I assume that 
 King Edward purchased all that was comprised " within the topographical term 'Myton.' " 
 It appears that he only required the ten bovates of which the township originally consisted, 
 the area subsequently termed " King's-fee," with, of course, the grange and its 
 appurtenances, which stood on the east side of old Hull and not in Myton proper. Aton-fee 
 was added to the lordship by Sir Richard de la Pole (see p, 123 ante). 
 
150 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 and institute a court there. Frost says of this royal edifice (page 
 30 of his "Notices") " in that place the court of the manor of 
 Myton continued to be held until it was at length laid waste, and 
 reduced into a plain, which obtained the name of Grangwyk." 
 This, however, is mere supposition on his part, and his statement 
 is of no historical value, besides confusing the king's Manor- 
 House with the abbey grange, the ruins of which latter gave rise 
 to the name of Grangwyk ; although it is possible that the two 
 were the same building. However this may have been, one thing 
 is certain. The king's Court-House fell so rapidly into decay as 
 to justify the assumption that it was of little use, and that no 
 court could be established or continued there because it was 
 foreign to the soil. 
 
 The next attempt to make the district of Myton a manor, and 
 to maintain a court there, was made, and with success, by Sir 
 "William de la Pole, who built a Manor-House at Tupcoates. 
 
 The origin of this still surviving name, " Tupcoates," or, as it 
 ought to be written, "Tupcotes," is not difficult to discover. In 
 the primeval days of Myton, when it was mainly a feeding-ground 
 for sheep, dotted over with the folds necessary for their protection 
 from beasts of prey or wintry weather, and with the rude 
 dwellings of the shepherds, Tupcotes was the fold for the rams of 
 the lord's flock. In its original significance the word " cote," 
 "cot," or "coat" meant a hut or other small dwelling (whence 
 "cottage") as Verstegan writes, "a cote in our language is a 
 little, slight-built, country habitation." By some curious process 
 this name of a human residence has for centuries been applied 
 to the shelters of two classes of the humbler creation, sheep and 
 pigeons or doves. No doubt in the open district of Myton, subject 
 as it was on its southern and eastern marches to inundations from 
 the Humber and the Hull, where the flock was housed at nights 
 and in the long dark winters there the shepherd also lived, his 
 cote within the sheepcote, so that in both senses the little 
 enclosure was entitled to the name. 
 
 It is, however, as a purely human residence, in the day of 
 its downfall and destruction, that Tupcoates makes its first 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 151 
 
 appearance on the stage of history. I have already quoted (page 
 76 ante) the finding of the jury upon an inquiry into the condition 
 of Myton held in 1320, where Tupcoates is mentioned as " a 
 cottage called Topcote," which Eobert de Sandale's servant, John 
 de Laxton, had pulled down, selling its timber for his master's 
 benefit for the sum of ten shillings. 
 
 We are told in the Liber Melse that to the site of this cottage, 
 an enclosure, as we afterwards learn, of some four acres, Sir 
 William de la Pole at some time during his ownership of Myton 
 removed the Manor-House, demolishing for that purpose the 
 whilom grange and utilising its material for his new house. The 
 incident is twice mentioned in the chronicle (see pages 46 and 49 
 ante), and in both cases the destruction of the one building and 
 the erection of the other are related in such close connection as to 
 make it perfectly clear that it was the abbey grange, and not King 
 Edward's Court-House (if they were separate buildings), which 
 Sir William pulled down and transplanted into Tupcoates. Indeed 
 the second record states so distinctly that Sir William had 
 removed from Grangwyk the edifice which he rebuilt at Tupcoates 
 that the matter is beyond doubt ; and this would seem to prove 
 that Edward II. had converted the monks' farmstead into a Manor- 
 House and did not build a new one, however much such an 
 assumption violates the jurors' explicit statement that the king 
 " fecit edificari ibidem qitoddam Manerium." It seems only 
 reasonable to suppose that Sir William would not leave one 
 manor-house outstanding, so to speak, when he built another on 
 a new site, and, therefore, that the one he pulled down 
 (unquestionably the grange) was the only building of that nature 
 within the vill. 
 
 His reasons for this removal one can only surmise. I have 
 been unable to fix the site of Tupcoates, and can but conjecture 
 that since Grangwyk was on the east side of old Hull (as Frost 
 agrees, although he mistakenly identifies the monks' grange with 
 Maud Camin's "aula") Tupcoates was on the west ; that it occupied 
 some central or other convenient situation in King's-fee, or 
 
152 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 approximated more closely to the site of the ancient "aula," the 
 court of which Sir William intended to revive. Tupcoates may 
 have commanded a finer view than was obtainable from Grangwyk, 
 or possessed other advantages now forgotten ; or, possibly, was 
 more immediately surrounded by unoccupied land which the lord 
 could treat as demesne, and grant out through his new court to 
 be held directly of himself on tenures less than freehold, so that 
 his Manor-House at Tupcoates with its demesne land, conjoined 
 with the rest of Myton, might appear a legal manor in every 
 sense. The Manor-House which he built was undoubtedly a 
 substantial structure, fortified and moated as was then customary 
 with the lord's residence on a manor, and it endured for some 
 centuries, its site being recognizable and its ruins in existence so 
 lately as the close of the 17th century. Amongst Warburton's 
 Collections for a History of Yorkshire (Lansdowne MSS. No. 894) 
 the following paragraph appears under the heading " Myton cum 
 Tupcoates." " There hath been at Tupcots an Old Manor- 
 House in a Close there called Tupcots Close, which contains about 
 six acres, in which is digged up great quantitie of Old Bricks and 
 Eubbish, which was formerly fortifyed and Incompassed with a 
 Great Moat, as is to be seen by the remains of it to this Day." . 
 
 It seems to have been Sir William's desire to constitute 
 Myton a manor in the fullest sense of the term, by impressing upon 
 it the outward and visible sign of his lordship in the shape of a 
 Manor-House, by establishing and holding a court there, and by 
 creating through this court a class of what may be termed base 
 tenants, not villeins, for, as I have before contended, there were 
 no villeins properly so-called within Myton, nor yet copyholders, 
 because such had not then come into being, but somewhat akin in 
 terms of tenure to villeinage as existent at that time upon other 
 manors, and destined to become like the latter class the copy- 
 holders of the future. In this way he would not only increase the 
 dignity of his estate and of himself as its feudal proprietor, but 
 would enlarge and perpetuate his authority over it. Two obstacles 
 he may have had to encounter. The township of Myton was not 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Mylon. 153 
 
 a legal manor, and the statute of Quia Emptores forbade his 
 making it one ( 86 ), but he was a rich and powerful man who 
 could well afford to trust to time and the absence of opposition to 
 legalise anything he might do which for the moment was ultra vires. 
 
 There is no direct sequence of court-rolls until nearly a century 
 after the gift of the manor (as I must for convenience call it) of 
 " Tupcotts with Myton " by Edward VI. to the mayor and 
 burgesses of Hull, but a few earlier ones have survived, extending 
 from the close of the 14th century to the middle of the 17th, 
 which supply much curious and interesting information on the 
 subject before us. From these it is evident that, at first, transfers 
 of property amongst the lower tenants [i.e., the less than free- 
 holders), were made by word of mouth in open court, the steward's 
 entry of the transaction on the court-rolls of the manor being 
 considered a sufficient formality and evidence. This, no doubt, 
 was the original practice in all English manors, the custom of 
 giving the grantee a copy of the entry on the roll as proof of his 
 title being of later growth. As regards Tupcoates-with-Myton it 
 is expressly stated in Beckwith's report as a matter of oral 
 tradition that no such copies were issued prior to the reign of 
 Henry VI. ; for so I understand his words, "afore that tyme 
 their were no copie holders as it is sayd." We also learn the 
 origin of the fine still paid to the lord of a manor by a copyholder 
 on his admission ; a payment which in many manors, as in 
 Tupcoates-with-Myton, is small and certain, but in some amounts 
 to as much as two years improved value of the holding. It was 
 the fee paid to the lord for his license or permission to the tenant 
 to enter upon the property to which he had been admitted. 
 
 I find no mention throughout this period of the straw which 
 is now, and in modern times always has been, used symbolically 
 on every surrender in this manor. Theoretically a transfer from 
 A. to B. of copyhold property is accomplished by A. surrendering 
 
 (86) By rendering it impossible for him to have suitors to constitute a court-baron. 
 The service of suit at the lord's court-baron was not an ordinary incident of tenure. It was 
 compulsory only upon those freeholders whose grants were made to them on that express 
 condition ; and as the statute prevented Sir William from granting any freehold land to be 
 held of himself, he could not, of course, attach to any grant the condition of rendering suit 
 at his new court. 
 
154 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 up the tenement to the lord of the manor " to the use" {i.e., for 
 the benefit) "of B.," whereupon the lord through his steward 
 accepts B. as his tenant in the place of A. ; and formally admits 
 him to the property on his payment of the fine and steward's fees. 
 In the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton the record, or 
 Memorandum as it is technically termed, of a surrender runs that, 
 in consideration of so much money, A. came without the court 
 and " did surrender to the lords of the manor, by the hands and 
 acceptance of the steward, and by a straw according to the 
 custom thereof " (i.e., of the manor) "All that messuage," &c. ; 
 the straw typifying the land surrendered, and upon which it is 
 supposed to have grown. No doubt in ancient days the straw 
 was part of the ceremony of surrender in exactly the same way, 
 and was actually the produce of the field or close surrendered, 
 a part for the whole, its figurative use in this way coming down 
 by oral tradition as " a custom " of the manor ; but it is a little 
 curious that no mention of it is to be found in the earlier rolls. 
 
 It is also noteworthy that the expression " Tupcoates-with- 
 Myton" does not occur before the 16th century. It first appears 
 in the reign of Henry VIII., when that monarch was himself lord 
 of the manor; prior to which time the rolls are headed 
 " Tupcoates of Myton," " Tupcoates in Myton," or " Tupcoates 
 at Myton." 
 
 I gather that Sir William established his court under some 
 royal charter or grant which has been lost, because, although not 
 so called at first, it was a court-leet or view of frank-pledge as 
 well as a lesser court-baron. Being well-known to enjoy the 
 favour and protection of his sovereign, it might have been possible 
 for him to have constituted, either cle novo or under pretence of 
 a revival, a customary court for dealing with the lower class of 
 tenants in Myton, and to have compelled them to resort to such 
 court and conform to its rules, especially as to the weaker sort it 
 would have offered some security of tenure ; but Sir William would 
 hardly have ventured to exercise the functions of a leet, except 
 under the authorisation of the crown. 
 
 It is remarkable that the court is not called a court-baron in 
 
Of the Manor of Tnpcoates-with-Myton. 155 
 
 express terms until the manor came into the hands of the mayor 
 and aldermen of Hull, although in the time of John de la Pole, duke 
 of Suffolk, it is termed " curia magna," which is one designation 
 of a court-baron. With this exception it is simply called "curia," 
 even when Henry VIII. was lord of the manor, until the steward 
 acting for the mayor and aldermen named it expressly " the 
 court-baron of the mayor and burgesses," probably with a view of 
 magnifying the position and authority of the then Corporation. 
 Again the term " leet " is not used until the middle of the 15th 
 century, when the widowed Duchess Alice was lady of the manor, 
 whilst the correlative expression " view of frank-pledge " does not 
 appear in the title of the court until the lordship of Duke John, 
 nor afterwards until the manor was in the hands of Henry VIII. 
 It is not difficult to determine the precise nature of the court 
 in question. One would suppose that in fact or in theory it would 
 be considered a court-baron, because the existence of such a court 
 was essential to the district being recognized as a manor, whilst 
 if Myton were recognized as a manor (which would follow easily 
 enough from always calling it one), the common law gave the 
 lord the inherent and inalienable right*of holding a court-baron. 
 From the earliest roll which has survived it is clear that freehold 
 tenants attended the court to perform fealty for their holdings ; 
 and in the time of Duke John the roll contains a list of " sectatores 
 curia," followers of the court, who were certainly suitors of a 
 court-baron, because so termed from the writ " Secta ad curiam," 
 used to compel the performance of a tenant's suit of court where 
 it was an express condition of his grant. Moreover there are 
 always two freehold tenants at least mentioned, although at the 
 time of Beckwith's survey there seems to have been but one, and 
 we find them fined at almost every court for non-attendance ; but 
 it is, of course, impossible to say from the mere fact of their being 
 so fined, whether their attendance was due as suitors of a court- 
 baron by condition of tenure, or suitors of a court-leet by reason 
 of resiancy or abode, which was termed suit-real as distinct from 
 suit-service. It must, however, have been in the latter capacity 
 that they were defaulters, because it was impossible for Sir 
 
156 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 William to hold a proper court-baron, since, as already explained, 
 he could not create suitors by tenure to constitute one ; and as, 
 moreover, it is quite clear that the manor court never met as a 
 real court-baron, where the freeholders were judges as well as 
 suitors, but was always presided over by the steward as judge, 
 the only sound conclusion we can come to is that the court was 
 not a court-baron, strictly so termed, but an inferior or customary 
 court-baron, such as in most manors the court-baron proper was 
 then degenerating into : and hence again we find Myton to be 
 no true manor, even after Sir William had built his Manor-House 
 at Tupcoates. 
 
 A court-baron not being a court of record, neither the lord nor 
 his steward could fine or imprison, and, as we have said, the 
 suitors were themselves the judges. A court-leet could enforce 
 its authority in either way through the steward, who, as indifferent 
 between the lord and the law, was its judge ; and it was also a 
 court of record. It is clear from the earlier- rolls that Sir 
 William's court was essentially a court-leet, though not so termed 
 originally. It was presided over by the steward, who, moreover, 
 is termed " seneschalhis," which particularly implies one who 
 dispenses justice ; all offences against its rules or customs were 
 punished by fine (though I find no evidence of imprisonment, 
 except in stocks) ; and its proceedings were duly and regularly 
 recorded, and preserved with so much care that some have 
 survived the chances and changes of five hundred years. Indeed 
 the authority of the lord over the township as exercised through 
 this court was somewhat extensive. Without his license no man 
 could hunt, shoot or fish therein, nor even keep sporting dogs ; 
 stocks and a pinfold existed for the control of vagrant human 
 beings or cattle ; whilst in the 17th century we find fines inflicted 
 for such moral offences as keeping a gaming-house, and showing 
 hospitality to tramps ( 87 ). It is this jurisdiction of the court 
 which leads to the assumption that it was founded under some 
 royal authority, because a court-leet was not a manorial court as 
 
 (87) In 1668 a resident was fined for keeping " domum Judosum illicitum" without Myton- 
 gate ; in. 1673 John Wolfe was fined " quia ho*pitavit in domu sua vaganles et mendicantes.' 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 157 
 
 of right, but a privilege purchased of the crown by the owners of 
 large estates, in order that their tenants might have justice 
 rendered to them in minor affairs at their own doors. Such a 
 court might be appendant to a vill, or even a single messuage, as 
 well as to a manor. 
 
 It will be convenient now to give a brief abstract of the ancient 
 rolls on which the foregoing remarks are chiefly based, so that any 
 reader who feels sufficient interest in the subject to consider thein, 
 may sit in judgment upon the conclusions I have ventured to 
 draw. 
 
 The oldest roll extant gives us the germ of the expression 
 " the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton " in the words describing 
 the place where the court was holden, although they ought to be 
 read " at the Manor-House of Tupcoates of Myton," i.e., at the 
 Manor-House situate at Tupcoates within Myton lordship. The 
 roll is headed " Cur' dom' Mich'is de la Pole militis fil' dom' 
 Mich' is de la Pole imp' com' Suff' tent' apud man' in de 
 Tuppcoatcs de Myton," and is dated 14th Eichard II. (1390-1391); 
 the first-named Michael de la Pole being the son of the disgraced 
 chancellor, and the fact of his lordship of the manor proving that 
 he had received restitution of the family estates, to that extent 
 at least, immediately after his petition noticed at page 110 ante. 
 The roll relates that Robert Byrd, manifestly a freeholder, " came 
 here into court and did fealty to the lord, to hold of the lord in fee 
 one bovate of land in Myton, paying rent for the same 18s. 4d. 
 by half-yearly payments." Another tenant came into court to 
 take formal seisin from the steward of "a messuage and two 
 places of land," which had been demised to him without the lord's 
 license, and in consequence taken back into the lord's hand. 
 
 The same roll contains a striking instance of the steward's 
 judicial capacity. It states that John Sparowe, who held to him 
 and his heirs of the lord in bondage a messuage and half a bovate 
 of land in Myton, was dead, whereupon the lord had resumed 
 possession of the holding ; after which Johanna, the lawful widow 
 of the defunct John, came into court and sought to be admitted 
 tenant of the property. But because the matter was one of which 
 
158 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 the steward was ignorant (" sed qu' incognitu' Seneschallo "), he 
 had summoned a jury and held an inquest, and so ascertained that 
 the house and land had descended by right of heirship to Beatrice, 
 wife of Thomas Flecher, and he had accordingly admitted her, 
 " to hold the same in bondage according to the custom of the 
 manor." 
 
 Another roll during the same lordship briefly describes the 
 court as held " apud Twpcotes in My ton." It is one which 
 seems to me to show that surrenders were at first oral, and to 
 give the origin of fines. It is dated 19th Eichard II. (1395-1396). 
 The steward records that John de Eooston " came here into 
 court, and rendered up into the hands of the lord a toft called ' le 
 Clopethous' in Myton, to the use of John Mountenay, Beatrice 
 his wife, and John their son ; whereupon came the same John 
 and Beatrice and John their son and took of the lord the said 
 toft, to hold to them for their lives and the life of the survivor of 
 them according to the custom of the manor ( 88 ) ; and they gave 
 to the lord for a fine for license to enter ij 3 ." 
 
 The next in order of date is a fragmentary roll dated 20th 
 April, 36th Henry VI. (1458), and interesting amongst other 
 things because it expressly calls the court a leet. It is headed 
 " Cur' 011' leta Alicie ducisse Suffolchie tent' apud Tupcotes in 
 Myton." It relates that Thomas Blackstone " came into court 
 and yielded up into the hands of the lady of the manor a certain 
 meadow-place called ' Mylnhyll,' with common of pasture in 
 Myton Carr for twelve sheep ("bidenf "), two cows, and one horse, 
 to the use of Thomas Etton, who came into court and took the 
 same of the lady, to hold to him and his heirs according to the 
 custom of the manor, paying for the same 4s. 4d. annually : and 
 he gave to the lady a fine for the right to enter 20d." 
 
 This roll also refers to a court held at Tupcoates on the 3rd 
 April, 26th Henry VI. (1448), for Sir William de la Pole, 
 
 (88) This may mean that they were as tenants to be subjeot to the regulations and 
 customs of the manor, or that life-tenancies were a custom of the manor. No such custom 
 prevails in Tupcoates-with-Myton now-a-days; although in many manors it is still 
 customary for the copyhold tenants to be admitted for life only. Their tenure is practically 
 as secure as a fee-simple, but each successor in the title is admitted only for life. 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 159 
 
 " marchionis et comitis Stiff' " — he was created marquis in 1444 ; 
 and gives us particulars of the ill-doings of a certain hermit who 
 dwelt in Myton within the hermitage there ; a place which 
 appears to have retained that distinctive name many years after it 
 must have ceased to shelter any veritable hermit. It would seem 
 from this offender's name that he had once followed amongst men 
 the useful avocation of a pavior ; and from his offence that the dire 
 causes which had driven him into solitude and bitterness of soul 
 had somewhat blunted his finer susceptibilities. It was 
 " presented" that William "Weyll, otherwise called William Paver, 
 a hermit (" heremita ") had cut down wood of her ladyship's 
 within the hermitage (" heremitag' "), to the extent of thirty-seven 
 ash trees of value, and two cart loads of underwood (" subbosci ") 
 of value. No comment is made upon this felonious act, nor any 
 fine imposed ; the simple record for all time of the recluse's direful 
 deed being apparently deemed punishment enough. 
 
 The roll closes with a list of persons fined for various breaches 
 of the regulations or bye-laws of the manor. The items afford us 
 some insight into the condition and life of Myton, and are of the 
 same class of offence as is constantly being punished in this way 
 century after century so long as the court of the manor retained 
 its authority. Eichard Hanson was fined 2s. for non-repair of 
 the causeway (" via ") within " le Whyethorsyng " (White 
 Horse Ing) ; the townspeople of Hull ("villata de Hull") 
 6s 8d. for not repairing " le Whyetcluett " between Myton 
 Carr and Wold Carr ( 89 ); and John Wright for failure to 
 clean a certain sewer called "le Cluwe" at " Alldhull." The 
 jurors further presented that certain preaching friars of Hull 
 (probably Dominicans) had taken away turves from Myton Carr, 
 viz., each of them one cart load ; that a gate at Myton was out of 
 repair to their lady's loss ; that a sewer at " Medykcryk " was in 
 bad condition ; that certain people of " Ferybe " had pastured 
 five horses and three hundred sheep upon Myton Carr to the great 
 loss of her ladyship and her tenants ; that William Mason had 
 placed (illegible) on the highway (" alta via") near Tupcoates, and 
 
 (89) The town was bound to repair this. See p. 143 ante. 
 
160 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 had obstructed it to the injury of the king's lieges ; and that John 
 Haryson had carted dead horses on to the roads within the 
 lordship and so obstructed them. 
 
 Some faint clue to the probable site of Tupcoates and the 
 Manor-House is afforded by the above roll. The obstruction by 
 William Mason of the "alta via" near Tupcoates is stated to be to 
 the injury not merely of the lady of the manor or of her tenants, 
 but of the king's lieges, from which I gather that it was a main 
 road to some adjacent hamlet, used by others than the tenants of 
 Myton or the townspeople of Hull having business within the 
 lordship, so that its obstruction was a greater public inconvenience 
 than, for instance, John Haryson had caused with his dead 
 horses. This would seem to point to the ancient road to Anlaby, 
 and suggest that Tupcoates adjoined upon, whilst the Manor- 
 House may have fronted to, that highway. 
 
 The next roll is headed " Cur' cum let' d'm' Joh's due' Suff' 
 tent' ajmd Tupcoates in Myton die m'cur' p'x' post festu' S'c'i 
 Mich'is Arch' a" r' r' Ediaardi quarto vicesimo" (1480). It 
 opens with the finding of a jury upon an Inquisition into the 
 internal condition of the lordship, their presentments being mostly 
 of wrongful or excessive pasturings upon Myton Carr, the 
 offenders being amerced by the jury and fined by the steward as 
 per margin. Thomas Dower and John Smyth were fined for 
 sporting in the manor without the lord's permission, and carrying 
 away birds and fishes ; whilst William Eland and others, 
 apparently freeholders, were fined for not attending the court to 
 do service, but query whether suit-service or suit-real. 
 
 At another court held at Tupcoates for Duke John on the 
 25th October, 21st Edward IV. (1481), Stephen Banaster was 
 fined for keeping a mangy horse (" equu' scabidu' ") upon Myton 
 Carr, and was ordered to remove it within six days under pain 
 of forfeiture. John Smith was admitted tenant of two cottages 
 and a close of land called " Chapelclose " for 20 years at 50s. 
 rent, and he was to repair the cottages and close with their walls 
 and ditches. William Lathum was admitted to a berchary called 
 " le Lordcote " and a close called "le Sevenstanges " in Myton, 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 1 6 1 
 
 to be held at the lord's will at 34s. rent. And it was presented 
 that a certain common sewer called " Grangewike " was 
 obstructed ; and that two gates at Myton and Tupcoates were 
 defective. 
 
 As any port is good in a storm, so any hint is useful in one's 
 ardent desire to account for the extraordinary expression, 
 " Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton." The mention at the close of 
 the last roll of the defective gates at Tupcoates and Myton seems 
 to suggest that the former was beginning to be no longer regarded 
 as a portion of the latter, but rather as a distinct, separate district, 
 not independent, however, but associated, Tupcoates with Myton. 
 
 At a court held the following year it was again presented that 
 the sewer called Grangewike was defective, and one gate at Myton 
 out of repair, and that these facts ought to be reported to the 
 lord's council. 
 
 The next roll is remarkable in several ways. It is that of the 
 last court held for Duke John, for he died shortly afterwards, and 
 the name of his royal wife is associated with his own as co-owner 
 of the manor. In its title the court is expressly alleged to be 
 their court-baron and view-of-frank pledge ; an open claim to the 
 fullest possible manorial jurisdiction which infers some special 
 grant or confirmation from the crown, although their eldest-born 
 had but lately perished in arms against his sovereign, and all the 
 family property, including this manor, been declared forfeit to the 
 crown on the duke's decease. The roll is headed " Tupcotte in 
 Myton. Cur' magna cum visu' Francipleg' d'm' Joh'is due' 
 Sujf et Elizab't' uxor' sue tent' ib'm die jovis vj die mensis 
 Octobris anno r' r' Henrici 7 post conquest' AngV vij. : " and I 
 can only ascribe to the terms of some express authority from the 
 crown the association of the duchess with her husband in the 
 court, coupled with its enlarged title. The proceedings open with 
 a list of names under the heading " Sectator' Cur'," and as these 
 " followers of the court " do not appear in any previous roll, their 
 presence raises a strong presumption that the manor court had 
 not before been an indisputable court-baron ; that now, owing to 
 
1 62 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 the suggested royal grant, it had become one, and being such must 
 have scctatorcs, or suitors by tenure, who had accordingly been 
 discovered or invented for the purpose. Amongst the present- 
 ments a sewer is mentioned as adjoining •' Madynhyll; " and 
 John Cloughton, " boucher," was fined for breaking open the 
 manor pinfold and thence removing three sheep. 
 
 The name " Maidenhill" survived to very recent times as the 
 designation of four closes of meadow-land, containing about 40 
 acres, late belonging to the Broadley family, and lying at the 
 extreme west end of Myton, as shewn in the plan of the lordship 
 post. Of curiously irregular outline on their eastern side, these 
 closes ran from the south side of the Anlaby-road across the Hessle- 
 road to the " Groves " or "Growths " on the Humber-bank, and are 
 partly shewn to the left of so much of Myton Carr as lies south of 
 the Anlaby-road in the plan of the inclosure also post. Until the 
 recent extension of the borough their western edge formed part of 
 the western boundary of the town and county of the town of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, their own western boundary being the 
 Galley Clough drain mentioned in note 83 ante, and which was 
 doubtless the sewer alluded to in the presentment. 
 
 Amongst these early rolls, which are all of parchment, is a 
 paper fragment, temp. Henry VIII., much damaged and partly 
 illegible. The heading is gone, and the contents may be either 
 the finding of a jury upon an inquiry into the regulations and 
 customs of the manor, or rules for its internal management, in 
 the nature of bye-laws, made by the freeholders assembled as a 
 court-baron, this being one of the functions of that court. This 
 fragment is of interest as a specimen of the orthography of the 
 period, and as illustrating the great importance attached to the 
 duty of defending the lordship against the waters of the Humber. 
 It is also curious in its exhibition of some authority on the part 
 of the lord of the manor over the governing body of the adjacent 
 town of Hull, with their correlative obligation to construct and 
 maintain roads and bridges for ingress and egress from and into 
 Myton. The document appears to relate to " the lordshyppe of 
 Myton," without mention of Tupcoates, and provides, amongst 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 163 
 
 other things, " y' every tenaint shall dyke his sedyke so far has 
 his grownde goes for awodyng the sawtt water, from the Gale 
 Clowe " — which I take to be the mouth of Galley Clough drain — 
 " to ye Lyme Cale gott sawarle " — evidently some defence against 
 the Humber at the ancient limit of Myton eastwards, the old 
 embouchure of the river Hull, the after-time Limekiln drain. 
 Another provision is that " the mare and burgesses shall maike 
 and mayntain on and upon ther cherges iiij brydges with the 
 parcell of byeway lyeng at the bridge by Myton mylne, with all the 
 cawses" (i.e., causeways) "and brydges with iiij gates from the 
 wyndmyle by Hull to the yette by the [illegible] towerds 
 Analybbe, after the custome and mandaunt ; and the iiij gates to 
 be don in hast, and the penfolld to be don, and a paire of stokes." 
 Further that " no man shall putt any cattell in Myton Cares 
 butt onely thay that have gaites ( 90 ) in the same, and they shall 
 putt no mor butt according to his stint " ( 91 ). 
 
 There are several rolls relating to the period of Sir William 
 Sydney's lordship of the manor, but in these the older designation 
 of the court is revived, the words " magna " and " visits 
 Franciplegii" being omitted. The first commences "Cur' cu' 
 let' Willi' Sydney mil'tis tent' apud Tupcotes in Myton die lune 
 videlic't xxviij die Julij anno regni regis Henr' viij post Conq'm 
 AngV viij" " (1516). It comprises presentments that the ditch 
 between " Myton brigg" and " Topcotes end " was in bad con- 
 dition, and ought to be repaired by the lord ; also that the 
 t Lyme Kylne cloe " was not sufficiently fenced, whereby certain 
 beasts of the tenants had been lost. The handwriting of this roll 
 is exceedingly mean and very difficult to decipher. Another roll 
 of Sydney's time is margined " Tupcotes ad Myton" (1536). 
 
 One roll survives of the period when Henry VIII. was lord of 
 the manor after his re-purchase from Sir William Sydney. It is 
 the first to bear the " cum Myton," which has been used ever 
 
 (90) The variation in the spelling of " gate " as the closure of an entrance, and " gate " 
 (as it used to be invariably written) as a right in a common pasture, is a remarkable accuracy 
 in the scribe's orthography. 
 
 (91) In a deed of 1C5G in the possession of Colonel Broadley, of Welton, and relating to 
 rights of pasturage in Myton Carr, I And reference to the " old stint " and the " new stint," 
 the latter allowing only 60 sheep where the former had allowed 00. 
 
164 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 since, and revives the then purely formal title, " view of frank- 
 pledge." It is headed " Tupcotes cxC Myton. Curia d'm' Begis 
 cu' vis' Franc' Plegg' tent' ib'm xxiv die Aprilis anno regni 
 regis nunc Hen' viij post Conquest' AngV xxxv." (1543). The 
 proceedings recorded are much the same as mentioned in previous 
 rolls ; but certain ordinances are laid down as customs of the 
 manor, and amongst others, that no man should hunt or fish within 
 the lordship except by license of the lord or his steward, and that 
 no one should keep any " unlawful " dogs {i.e. sporting dogs) 
 within Myton under a penalty of 3s. 4d. for each dog. 
 
 The full force of the word " cum " — " together with " — that is 
 Tupcoates together with Myton, confirms my view that some 
 confusion had arisen as to the two being distinct estates, yet so 
 inseparably connected as to pass together, and to form, indeed, 
 one manor. In this way alone can I find any reasonable origin 
 for the compound name which heads this division of the subject. 
 It also confirms my impression that Myton was never a true 
 manor ; since the manorial virtue appears to have been attributed 
 to Tupcoates, the association of which with Myton was necessary 
 to constitute that lordship a manor, or rather an integral portion 
 of a manor. This confused notion had been the slow growth of 
 time. It began with Sir William de la Pole's building a Manor- 
 House in the inclosure known as Tupcoates, establishing there a 
 court, and through it inaugurating a manorial autonomy. 
 Tupcoates was originally but a four-acre close and cottage within 
 and parcel of Myton lordship, and the mere erection of a Manor- 
 House there would not have given it the importance it afterwards 
 assumed as the heart of the manor, had it not been for the con- 
 siderations I have before suggested, namely, that a new court and 
 with it a new form of government was established at Tupcoates, 
 the land around it treated as demesne, and granted out to a class 
 of tenants somewhat answering to the villeins of regular manors, 
 and so a manorial aspect given to the entire township. But as 
 to Tupcoates it owed the origin of this system, so to Tupcoates, 
 as an inherent attribute of the Manor-House in that enclosure, 
 the system became popularly supposed to belong, until we find in 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 165 
 
 Beckwith's survey mention of the " maners of Tupcotes with 
 Myton," as if they were two lordships, and finally the expression 
 Tupcoates " together with " Myton. It is curious, however, that 
 this term is applied to the copyhold portion only ; and freehold 
 properties within Myton are still described, as they have been for 
 centuries past, as situate in " the lordship of Myton," never in 
 " the lordship of Tupcoates-with-Myton." 
 
 As may be imagined, Beckwith's survey, a striking piece of 
 conscientious work, gives a very full rental of the manor, under 
 the heading " Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton." Mention is first 
 made of one freehold tenant, Sir John Eyland or Eland, the 
 worthy knight who enjoyed the rare honor of receiving a king's 
 vote upon the occasion of his election to the civic chair, one of 
 whose holdings in Myton, " a close called Herneclose," suggests 
 that four or five centuries ago the heron was a denizen of the 
 district. Another, "a closse lying in Myton Carre," raises in 
 one's mind a very strong suspicion that the doughty alderman had 
 shrewdly enclosed a portion of the common pasture, thus securing 
 for self what, in a sense, "was meant for mankind ; " a form of 
 robbery which had reduced Myton Carr to half its pristine size 
 when it came to be inclosed in 1771. 
 
 Twenty-one copyholders are then named, and details given of 
 the sizes and natures of their properties, with the amounts of 
 their rents ; the total amount of rents of assize paid by them 
 annually being £26 10s. 8d. They are stated to hold to them 
 and their heirs " after the custome of the maner by copye of 
 courte rolle; " and besides them, it is recorded that " certayne 
 men of Hasill holdeth by copye of courte rolle a close of pasture 
 called Mansfeld Dale, and payeth for it by yere 33s. 4d." The 
 particulars of some of their holdings are very interesting. 
 Grangewyk is mentioned as a close of pasture land containing 13 
 acres, held at the annual quit rent of 44s. Anne Pyndar, 
 " wydowe," is stated to hold " a wynde millne w* the syte of the 
 same, and pasture for ij kye, oon horse, and xij shepe in Myton 
 Carre ; " Sir John Eland " a close nyghe the lyme kylne ; " John 
 Henryson " a shepecote and comon of pasture for cc shepe," at 
 
1 66 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 the small rent of 2s. ; Margaret Goldsmith two closes lying against 
 Humber-bank, containing 20 acres ; Eobert Taylor " a toft and a 
 lytill toft in Myton, and a close nexte the pinfolld ; " and John 
 Ditwell a close called " Gallas tree croft.' Next are given four 
 " Ten'nts for terme of yeres," paying in the aggregate £11 9s. 2d. 
 yearly, one of whom, William Stedinson, is said to pay 12s. a 
 year for his holding, " besyde suyt of courte." This must have 
 been suit-real by reason of resiancy, not suit-service by condition 
 of grant ; or if it were the latter, it was a vain attempt to create 
 a sectator curia, out of a non-freeholder. William Eogerson held 
 for term of years a close with a sheepcote called " Estyng " (East 
 Ing), containing 24 acres, and another close of equal size called 
 " Humbre Feld," at the total rent of £8 13s. 4d. 
 
 Then follow " Ten'nts att will," numbering twenty-six, besides 
 " dyverse ten'nts " who are stated to hold a close of pasture in 
 Myton called " the Medowe Closse or Westyng," containing 36 
 acres, " and payeth for it and the etage of the same £7 18s. 4d." 
 There is no further information given as to the condition of these 
 tenures than is comprised in the brief statement that so-and-so 
 " holdeth att will." They might have been only nominally 
 tenancies at the lord's will, like some modern copyholds, or 
 actually held on such insubstantial terms ; but I rather gather 
 from the nature of the holdings and the rents paid for them that 
 they were, as a matter of fact, tenancies from year to year by 
 parol, as distinguished from the copyholders who held indefeasibly 
 under their court-copies, and the tenants for years who held 
 under deed like modern lessees. The words " at will " have, I am 
 persuaded, " this extent, no more ; " and are not at all to be 
 regarded as denoting the survival within Myton of villeinage in a 
 modified form, or as affording any evidence that villeinage ever 
 existed in the lordship. 
 
 Amongst these holdings "at will" mention is made of "a 
 close of pasture called ' Tupcotes,' containing by estimation 4 
 acres," as let to John Henrison at 20s. a year. If this be the 
 same Tupcotes as that in which the Manor-House stood, it is 
 curious that it should be let as a meadow at 5s. an acre ; but I 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 167 
 
 am not aware of any other Tupcotes, and the quantity given so 
 closely approximates to that stated in the Lansdowne MSS., at 
 page 152 ante ("four acres by estimation" in the one case, and 
 " about six acres " in the other), as almost to amount to proof 
 positive that this Tupcotes is the only and original close of that 
 name. Yet if it were so, and were let as a meadow, what had 
 become of the Manor-House ? And it is very remarkable in this 
 connection that Beckwith's survey, so careful and detailed in 
 every respect, makes no mention whatever of a Manor-House at 
 Tupcoates, or anywhere else within Myton, excepting so far as 
 one is implied by his words, " there is a court and letekept ther." 
 The uncertainty expressed at page 44 ante as to Sevenstangs 
 is completely dissipated by this survey, read in connection with 
 the Inquisition taken by John de Sutton in 1329 (see p. 78 ante). 
 In the latter document this ancient inclosure appears as a piece 
 of meadow containing 12 acres, and situate in "Wold Ings ; but in 
 Beckwith's survey the quantity is given as 7 acres, which 
 certainly harmonises better with the name, and satisfies us that 
 the field was originally called from its size, the stang, no doubt, 
 being an extinct, and perhaps purely local, land-measure roughly 
 equivalent to an acre. The association here of Sevenstangs, still 
 a meadow, with Maidenhill closes would imply that the three 
 were easily worked together and were consequently contiguous ; 
 and as we learn from De Sutton's Inquisition that Sevenstangs 
 was situate in Wold Ings, it must have lain immediately to the 
 westward of Maidenhill closes, whose precise position we know, 
 and therefore just outside what became (through causes I have 
 not inquired into) the western limit of Myton lordship. As a 
 result it must at some time have been lost to the manor. To this 
 out-lying position, as well as to its being a very ancient inclosure 
 forming no part of the common lands of the vill, I attribute its 
 especial mention in Maud Camin's charter. It is worth noting as 
 evidence of the increase in value of this particular grass land that 
 in 1329 as a twelve-acre field it was worth 20s. a year ; in 1538 
 as a seven-acre field it let with 6 more acres for 106s. 8d. Part 
 
1 68 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 of such increased value must, however, be ascribed to the decline 
 in the purchasing power of money. 
 
 White Horse Ing appears again (see p. 159 ante) as " two closes 
 of meadow called ' Whithorsyng,' containing 20 acres ; " one 
 John Hewett is mentioned as holding two closes called "Heron 
 closes " containing 10 acres ; Eobert Wilcock, described as 
 " gent.," held a close called the " NewCarr," containing the very 
 considerable area of 200 acres, and for which be paid a rent 
 of £30 13s. id. ; and he was also tenant of a " tenement there 
 called ' the Heremytage ' with a gardyne." 
 
 The total rents paid by the tenants at will amounted to £73 ; 
 and Beckwith returns the gross annual value of the manor as 
 £112 15s. 7d. The aggregate acreage of Tupcoates-with-Myton 
 (which is the same as saying the aggregate acreage at this period 
 of Myton) is given as 869 acres, inclusive of the great common 
 pasture containing 300 acres known as Myton Carr ; a total area 
 much in excess of the united quantities of King's-fee and Aton-fee, 
 even reckoning 15 acres of arable land and 10 acres of meadow to 
 each bovate. Making, however, due allowance for the varying 
 size of the acre, for the roughly-computed measurements of 
 ancient times, for common pastures, for gains from the Humber, 
 and for tofts, crofts, and other inclosures not included in the 
 area of the common lands of the township, little discrepancy will 
 be found ; and without much risk of error, we may regard Myton 
 in its fullest acceptance as comprising somewhere about 900 acres. 
 This is practically the quantity contained within the area bounded 
 east by the docks, north by Spring Bank and Prospect-street, 
 south by the Humber, and west by Walton-street prolonged to 
 Dock Avenue and by the latter continued to the river. 
 
 A very interesting part of Beckwith's report remains to be 
 quoted. At the close of the long parchment roll in which it is 
 comprised, he summarises some further features of his survey 
 under the title " Com'oditees and other P'fytes belongyng to Sir 
 William Sydney, knight." And here, in reference to Myton, he 
 says : — 
 
 " Also there is a court and lete kept ther. 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 169 
 
 " Also there is a pastur called Myton Carre, conteynyng by 
 estymacon three hundred acres and more, wherein there is twoo 
 freeholders that have comon in the same, And also other copie 
 holders, whiche copie holders have their copies made syns Kyng 
 Henry the Syxt daies ; And afore that tyme there were no copie 
 holders as it is sayd. And if theis copie holders and twoo free- 
 holders had no comon ther, the saide Carre might be letten for 
 fourty mark by yere or better." 
 
 Consideration of this survey and report, which I had not seen 
 when page 129 ante was written, satisfies me that there is no valid 
 ground for questioning, as I have done in note 72, the practical 
 accuracy of Mayor Eiddell's certificate after the death of Edmund 
 de la Pole. The " thousand acres " of land he there speaks of 
 are still inexplainable, unless he gives that quantity as a round 
 total of the items following; but his "three hundred acres of 
 meadow and pasture " undoubtedly refer to Myton Carr, whilst 
 the " two hundred acres of pasture and meadow lying together " 
 at Tupcoates as evidently mean what Beckwith calls the New 
 Carr. Viewed in this light, the certificate in question confirms 
 what I suggest followed the removal of the Manor-House to 
 Tupcoates, and further accounts for that insignificant close 
 obtaining so much importance as to have its name incorporated 
 in the title of the manor. According to Eiddell, Tupcoates was 
 then a mansion to which appertained a hundred acres of arable 
 land and two hundred acres of meadow ; and we can quite 
 conceive that this area, with its Manor-House, arable land and 
 pasturage, really looked like another manor, carved out of the 
 lordship of Myton, it is true, but having an independent 
 individuality. Hence the necessity for speaking of both when 
 alluding to the whole manor, and saying "Tupcoates with 
 Myton" — that is, after time had given a respectable antiquity to 
 the former. Indeed Mayor Eiddell seems to have thought it 
 necessary to say explicitly that this area, known as Tupcoates, 
 was in fact a member and portion of the lordship of Myton. The 
 pasturage of Tupcoates appears to have been regarded as forming 
 another carr, but evidently no attempt was made to treat it as a 
 
170 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton, 
 
 common pasture, since at the time of Beckwith's survey, it was 
 all let to one tenant. In fact it was practically retained in the 
 lord's own hands as it was only let " at will." 
 
 The earliest roll extant of the mayor and burgesses of Hull, as 
 lords of the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton, is dated 16th April, 
 1649. It is headed " Tupcoates cum Myton. Visus Franci Plegii 
 cum Cur' Baron' Mayor' et Burgens' ville de Kingston sup' Hull 
 d'nor' eiusd'm manerii ; " and in these terms probably followed a 
 stereotyped form. If so, I gather that the first steward of the 
 new lords, naturally desiring to magnify their office and authority, 
 had ifery liberally interpreted King Edward's charter as not 
 only conferring upon them the court, but exalting it, when given, 
 into a manorial court of the fullest possible nature. This roll is 
 further peculiar because it contains the expression, here first met 
 with, " the lordship of Tupcoates-with-Myton," when alluding 
 to some property as being within that " lordship." But the 
 phrase soon expired ; and time quickly avenged this momentary 
 slight upon ancient Myton. 
 
 The loose rolls which follow this until the close of the 17th 
 century, contain much curious and interesting historical and 
 topographical matter in reference to Myton. Frequent allusion is 
 made to "Tupcoates corner," " angulus de le Tupcoates," 
 wherever that may have been, and there was evidently a water- 
 course of some sort near it, for Jane Cawood, widow, was fined in 
 1670 for not keeping the bridge there in repair. At every court 
 sundry luckless wights were fined ; mostly for pasturing cattle 
 beyond their stint (a frequent weakness, this !), leaving open the 
 gates of the common pasture, neglecting to attend the court, or 
 failing to repair or cleanse their gates, footpaths, bridges, or 
 drains. The records still continue to be kept in Latin ; but it is 
 very amusing to find the scribe occasionally inserting in brackets 
 the English equivalent of a Latin phrase, little foreseeing that two 
 centuries later his English would be more perplexing to an English 
 reader than the Latin he interprets. For instance, in 1671 
 Alderman Wm. Bamsden was fined £3 10s. for an offence thus 
 entered: "pro 11011 escoriando fossu' su' (Anglice, decking his 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 171 
 
 dyk)." Now without the explanatory Latin, what should we 
 understand " decking " a dike to he? In another instance the 
 interpretation is much clearer ; as when in 1674 John Hildyard 
 was fined "quia 11011 reparavit jettam nam (Anglice, his jetty)." 
 There is abundant material in these rolls for the addition of a 
 most interesting chapter to our local annals ; hut the difficulties 
 in one's way are prohibitive. The documents being in the custody 
 of the Corporation, the first step must be to obtain the consent 
 of the Property Committee to inspect them. I must acknowledge 
 with thanks to the members of it (whose names I gratefully 
 mention below) ( 92 ) that the committee have never refused me 
 this permission ; but at the same time one has to ask a favour 
 (which is not often a pleasant thing to do), and delay is occasioned. 
 Then, as the documents are (properly enough) at the Town Hall, 
 they must be inspected there under supervision (so as to guard 
 against one's unscrupulous dishonesty) and during office hours, 
 which gives one an uneasy sense that one is intruding and 
 interfering with work. In this way most of the deeds, rolls and 
 documents alluded to in the previous pages have had to be 
 examined, deciphered, translated, and copied during such time 
 as, by the courtesy of my partner, I have been able to extract 
 from business hours, and to the utter sacrifice of the usual summer 
 holiday. I suppose that to ask to be allowed to take a document 
 home, so as to have a night over it, would horrify the official 
 addressed beyond measure, and cause one to be regarded with the 
 darkest suspicion for ever afterwards. I have not ventured on 
 the experiment. I did apply for leave to fac-simile, through 
 Messrs. Goddard & Son, a deed between Eichard and William de 
 la Pole, which I thought would make a good illustration and 
 prove interesting to such as deigned to read this volume ; but as 
 the town-clerk made it a condition that I should enter into a bond 
 to pay £100 if the document were at all damaged, I would not 
 take the risk. And yet this was a deed of no earthly value except 
 to the historian or antiquary, and one probably not looked at once 
 
 (92) The Property Committee, without whose consent these pages could not have been 
 written, consists of :— Aldermen Leak, Stuart, S. Wootlhouse, and J. T. Woodhouse, and 
 Councillors Hall, Gillett, Lambert, Palmer, T. H. Richardson, and Wheatley. 
 
172 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 in a century. I recognize, of course, the responsibility of the 
 officials of the Corporation, and of that august body also, to 
 conserve the records of the town to the utmost of their power, 
 and their right to exercise such caution, and place such 
 restrictions, in giving access to them as they may deem it their 
 duty to do. Nor do I desire for a moment to appear ungrateful 
 for the kindness and courtesy I have personally received, whilst 
 writing these notes, from the mayor, Dr. Sherburn, the Property 
 Committee, the town-clerk, Mr. Hill Dawe, and Mr Wildridge, 
 all of whom I cordially thank. But I do venture to think 
 (privately, to myself) that to any responsible ratepayer, known to 
 be engaged in historial investigation, somewhat greater facilities 
 might be extended by favour of that centre of all authority in 
 such case, the Town Council at large, whose decree would at 
 once absolve all their officers from a responsibility hateful to the 
 official mind. At any rate I say emphatically that under existing 
 circumstances the compilation of such a work as Mr. Frost's 
 " Notices" would have been impossible. Liberavi animam meam ! 
 
 The author of the collections known as " Warburton's," 
 already mentioned (Lansdowne MSS. 894), and who probably 
 wrote during the early part of the last century, evidently regarded 
 Tupcoates and Myton as distinct manors. What he says of them 
 is worth quoting, although I do not know his authority for the 
 merit he ascribes to Sydney. 
 
 " S r Will. Sidney," he writes, " was the first that Improvent 
 these 2. They consist partly of Copiehold, partly of Land by 
 Indenture. But when that these two Mannours were come to the 
 Mayor and Burgesses by Grant of K.E. 6, they granted the most 
 part of them in Fee Farm, reserving the Old Ancient Bents, 
 whereupon they soon received £249 lis. 4d., and in Fines of the 
 Copyholds £22 8s. 9d., amounting to the summe of £272 Os. Id. 
 
 " King Edw. 6 upon the 20th of February in the 6th year of 
 his Beign ( 93 ) granted £50 p' ann' out towards the perpetual 
 
 (98) This was the date of the Seed in which Edward VI. agreed to give the castle and 
 blockhouses to the mayor and burgesses, and declared that the same should thenoeforth 
 form part of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull. A full transcript of this indenture will be 
 found in Poulson's " Holderness," vol. ii., p. 848. 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 173 
 
 repair of the Castle, Blockhouses, Jettys, and Waterworks out of 
 the Mannor of Myton \v h was then worth £97 a year. 
 
 " Which Manor, with Tupcots and all other Appurtenances, 
 the said King did afterwards give to the Mayor and Burgesses for 
 ever, reserving the yearly Fee Farm of £81 10s. Id. out of the 
 same for Ever. 
 
 " There hath been at Tupcots," &c, &c. 
 
 The last relic of the Anglo-Saxon township and Norman vill 
 of Myton vanished in 1771, with the inclosure of what was left of 
 the ancient common pasture called Myton Carr. It was the 
 common pasture of the lordship of Myton, and of the later so- 
 termed manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton, but it had a greater 
 antiquity than either of these latter phrases ; and when it 
 disappeared as a common pasture, it was the evanishment of the 
 last lingering fragment of the A.S. tun, which centuries ago was 
 founded by our remote ancestors at Hull mouth. The inclosure 
 award bears date the 17th day of April, 1773, and is under the 
 hands and seals of John Outram, of Kilham in the county of York, 
 gentleman, and Peter Nevill, of Benningholme Grange in the same 
 county, gentleman, the two commissioners appointed for the 
 " dividing, setting-out, alloting, and inclosing" Myton Carr by 
 an Act of the 11th Geo. III. From the date of Beckwith's 
 survey, when the carr comprised 300 acres " and more," it had 
 steadily decreased in size, owing to inclosures by adjoining owners 
 and by those holding cattle and sheep " gates " within it — 
 appropriations the original unlawfulness of which the lapse of 
 time had cured — until at the period of its final inclosure it con- 
 tained but 170 acres statute measure. The award is accompanied 
 and explained as customary by a map, of which a reproduction 
 on a smaller scale, made by Messrs. Goddard & Son, faces this 
 page. Reference to this map will show within a red boundary 
 line what was left of the carr at the time, and the allotments 
 made to the various holders of property within the manor who 
 were entitled to rights of pasturage, or " gates," upon it. The 
 initial "c" placed against the quantity comprised in any 
 allotment means that such particular lot was to be held as copy- 
 
174 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 hold of the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton ; the initial "f" 
 denotes that the allotment was freehold. Through the carr from 
 east to west runs the Anlahy-road ; on the west the carr is 
 bounded by Galley Clough drain, save on the south side of the 
 road, where Maidenhill closes lie between the pasture and the 
 water-course. Westward again lie Wold Carr and Wold Ings 
 (once upon a time constituting with Myton Carr part of the 
 undivided common pastures of Myton, Anlaby, Swanland, and 
 Ferriby) ( 9 *) ; and in the latter of these, just at the western edge 
 of Maidenhill closes, once was situate the meadow forming Maud 
 Camin's " patrimony of Sevenstanghes." Near the east end of 
 the carr, running northwards from the Anlaby-road, is a lane to 
 which the commissioners gave the attractive name of Pesthouse- 
 lane (the afterwards College-street, then Elm Tree-avenue, and 
 finally Park-street), and which is described in the award as a 
 private road (twenty feet of assize in breadth, exclusive of the 
 ditches) for the use of the owners and occupiers of the adjoining 
 allotments, and leading from the said turnpike-road northwards 
 to and from a gate opening into ancient inclosed land of the 
 lordship of Myton, then the property of the Trinity House. At 
 the same end of the carr, but running southwards from the 
 Anlaby-road, is another private road awarded by the com- 
 missioners and by them termed Pinfold-lane, probably because 
 just where the pinfold stood it turned almost at right angles, so 
 as to lead direct to that useful institution from either end. It is 
 described as thirty feet of assize in breadth, and extending from 
 the north end of Love-lane (the modern Cogan-street) westwards 
 along ancient inclosure of the lordship of Myton to a bridge at 
 the east end of Patrick Ground-lane (which very curiously appears 
 in the plan as " Pattington "-lane), thence northwards along the 
 east side of ancient inclosure and the west side of other ancient 
 inclosure to and from the said turnpike-road. For a reason 
 which will shortly appear the upper or northern part of this lane 
 subsequently became designated Gallows-lane, the lower or eastern 
 
 (94) At page Gl ante for "Anlaby, Hessle, Swanland. and Kirkella," lead "Anlaby, 
 Swanland, and Ferriby." 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 175 
 
 portion only being called Pinfold-lane. These are now respectively 
 known as Great Thornton-street and Waverley-street. 
 
 It will be observed that the well-known Corporation Field in 
 Park-street is given to them by this award, and contains an area 
 of 3a. 3r. 18p. The Act recited that the mayor and burgesses, as 
 " lords of the manor of My ton " (it is noteworthy that the 
 hybrid term " Tupcoates-with-Myton " is ignored by the Act and 
 award), were seised of the soil of the said common pasture, and 
 required the commissioners to allot to them such parcel of the 
 carr as should be equal in value to 5 acres thereof according to 
 the average value of the whole. The commissioners accordingly 
 awarded them this allotment, declaring that it was equal in value 
 to 5 acres according to the average worth of the whole pasture, 
 and was in lieu of and full compensation for their estate and 
 interest in its soil, " as lords of the said manor of Myton." 
 
 A further, grim allotment is made to the mayor and burgesses, 
 as "lords of the manor of Myton, otherwise Tupcoates-with- 
 Myton," of 30 perches of land, bounded north and west by Pinfold- 
 lane and south and east by ancient inclosure, "for a Gallows to 
 stand upon," and to be erected and maintained at the town's 
 cost. Upon this piece of land the remains of the gallows-tree 
 were standing within living memory, but it was last put to its 
 dread use in 1778. In the town's first charter (27th Edward I.) 
 it was provided that a gallows might be erected without the new 
 borough on the king's ground, so that the authorities of the town 
 might give judgment of infangthef and outfangthef, that is have 
 power of capital punishment for felonies committed within the 
 liberty by any man, or without the liberty by any native of it. 
 This privilege appears to have belonged to the town down to the 
 date of the inclosure ; the gallows within Myton not being the 
 prerogative or appliance of the lord of the manor, but of the town 
 of Kingston-upon-Hull. The last common land within Myton 
 being now about to be inclosed, the commissioners doubtless felt 
 bound to leave a portion of it available as an execution-ground ; 
 but I cannot understand why the award was made to the mayor 
 and burgesses as lords of the manor, for it was certainly in right 
 
176 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 of the town, not in right of the manor, that they enjoyed the high 
 privilege of keeping a gallows. 
 
 An allotment of 5$,. Or. 5p. will be observed as made to the 
 vicar of Holy Trinity parish, the Eevd. Arthur Robinson. He 
 was entitled to one moiety of the great and small tithes of Myton 
 Carr ; and the Act directed that such an allotment should be 
 made to him as in the commissioners' judgment was equal in 
 value to the annual rent of the whole pasture at Is. 6d. an acre. 
 Accordingly the above quantity was awarded to him and his 
 successors in office for ever. 
 
 In concluding this section a few words may be said upon the 
 subject of the two highroads from Hull to Anlaby and Hessle 
 respectively, which run through the manor of Myton. 
 
 It is probable that even in Anglo-Saxon times there would be 
 something in the way of a rough road or beaten track from 
 Anlaby to Myton, and that the same would follow much the 
 direct course of the present road. Between Hessle and Myton 
 communication would no doubt be maintained along the bank of 
 the Humber ; but as all three were berewicks of one manor there 
 must have been some sort of traffic from each to the others. 
 These not being public roads, nor their repair any one's business, 
 would be little suited in after time to serve the convenience or 
 necessities of a growing town ; and accordingly we find the 
 inhabitants of Hull petitioning King Edward (through Richard 
 Oysel their warden), very shortly after receiving their first charter, 
 that public highways might be ordained in like manner as had 
 been done in other towns of royal foundation, because the 
 existing roads were so unsafe and incommodious that no one 
 could approach or leave the town with horses or carts. Upon 
 this petition a commission, dated 10th August, 1302, was issued 
 to William de Carleton and Galfrid de Hotham, authorising them 
 to set out roads leading to and from Hull, and, if necessary, to 
 inquire by juries how such might be made most advantageously, 
 and who, if any one, would be damnified thereby. According to 
 Frost three inquisitions were taken at Hull the following year 
 under this commission ; and as a result, three main roads were 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 177 
 
 laid out, one leading direct to Beverley, another to Anlaby, and 
 a third into Holderness. These he describes as " three great 
 roads now in use ; " Gent, too, speaks of the same highways as 
 " very probably those that remain to this time ; " and Hadley 
 and Tickell agree. But as regards two of these, the roads to 
 Anlaby and Beverley, this conclusion seems questionable, at 
 least so far as their present eastern terminations are concerned, 
 and for reasons of which the reader can judge. Frost tells us 
 that the first two, the roads in question, are described in the 
 inquisitions as commencing from the mid-stream of the river 
 Hull, thence passing along Aldgate (through the Beverley Gate 
 of the town) to the Milnecroft ( 95 ), and there separating, each 
 branching off to its respective destination : and the place of 
 departure, the Milnecroft, he places in his sketch-plan of Hull in 
 the 14th century at a point which would now be the north-west 
 angle of Carr-lane and Chariot-street. If, then, these ancient 
 roads were laid out as described, and are in all respects still 
 existing, it would follow that the Anlaby and Beverley-roads were 
 one from Beverley Gate to the point of departure mentioned, and 
 that Chariot-street, Carlisle-street, and Prospect-street are 
 portions of the old highway to Beverley. It is the former of 
 these conclusions which may be disputed, on three grounds. 
 First, the gate alleged to be the point of issue of these two roads 
 from the town was always known as "Beverley" Gate, surely 
 because it was the termination of the highroad from Beverley ; 
 whereas had it been the end of both the western highways to the 
 town, no doubt Anlaby would have had the preference in 
 naming the gate. Secondly, the present road from the west end 
 of St. John-street to Park-street (which latter street was in 
 part the eastern edge of Myton Carr) has always been called Carr- 
 
 (95) The mill standing within this croft is mentioned in B.B. 2 fo. 92, as sold in 1810 by 
 Arnold de Gretford and Katherine, his wife, to Thomas de Fishlake. Its description 
 certainly seems to corroborate Frost's statement that the roads to Beverley and Anlaby 
 branched off at that point, yet is not inconsistent with the views of the present writer. The 
 words used are " all that windmill with two selions (an uncertain quantity not exceeding 
 half-an-acre, or a ridge) of land lying therewith between land of Sir Richard de la Pole on 
 the west, the way leading to Beverley on the east, a head abutting (" capud buUat") on the 
 way leading to Anlaby on the south, and another head abutting on land of Sir Richard de 
 la Pole on the north." 
 
178 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 lane, that is to say the -narrow roadway leading to My ton common 
 pasture, where probably it anciently terminated, and from which 
 point the commissioners carried it on to Anlaby at the date we 
 are alluding to. Thirdly, when the Anlaby Turnpike-road was 
 constructed in 1741 the then existing Anlaby-road commenced at 
 Myton Gate, and from thence ran northwards to the east end of 
 Carr-lane, which somewhat round-about course must, one would 
 suppose, have been its original one ; for there could have been no 
 reason why the direct and simple entrance into the town from this 
 road through Beverley Gate should have been discontinued, if it 
 had ever existed. 
 
 The present Anlaby-road was constructed as a turnpike one 
 under the authority of the statute 18 Geo. II., cap. IV., 
 which recited that the road leading from the gate of the town of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull called Myton Gate, through a certain lane 
 called Tanhouse-lane (now Waterhouse-lane), and from thence by 
 the Water-House (which stood on the east side of Engine-street) 
 to and through the town of Anlaby in the county of the town of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, to the end of the middle lane of Anlaby, was. 
 become so ruinous that coaches and waggons and other carriages 
 could not pass without great danger ; and then appointed trustees, 
 of whom the master of the Charterhouse for the time being was 
 to be one, to erect turnpikes, take tolls, and construct and 
 maintain a proper roadway. 
 
 The reproduction facing this page of Bower's accurate and 
 interesting plan of Hull in 1791, exactly fifty years after this 
 turnpike-road was made, illustrates the above contention, in 
 addition to showing more clearly the course of the Anlaby-road 
 as indicated by the Act. 
 
 The Hessle-road is a much more modern highway, being not 
 yet three quarters of a century old. Prior to that time so much 
 of the present Hessle-road as runs westwards from Waverley- 
 street (then called Pinfold-lane) to something west of the modern 
 Coltman-street, was a lane called Patrick Ground-lane (frequently 
 alluded to in the early rolls of the manor of Tupcoates-with- Myton) 
 which originally terminated in the fields, but which, sometime 
 
Of the Manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton. 179 
 
 before 1825, had been continued to Hessle by a road known as 
 Ings-road. Patrick Ground-lane was reached from the town by 
 two routes ; one along the Humber-bank, across Limekiln-creek, 
 through Love-lane (the southern part of Cogan-street) and Pinfold- 
 lane; and the other from Mytongate, through Castle-street, Great 
 Passage-street, and the upper part of Cogan-street, then known 
 as Garden Cottage-row. But on the 10th June, 1825, an Act 
 was passed for making and maintaining a turnpike-road from Hull 
 to Hessle, which recited that the making of a turnpike-road to 
 commence at or near Love-lane in the lordship of My ton, in the 
 county of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, and to extend west- 
 ward along Patrick Ground-lane, and from thence in a line to and 
 along the Hessle-road (formerly called Ings-road) to and through 
 the town of Hessle, by a street there called Blacksmith's-street, 
 and from thence to the east end of Ferriby, would be a great 
 public advantage and convenience ; and then provided for the 
 appointment of trustees, and the construction and maintenance 
 of the road by means of loans and tolls. In subsequent Acts the 
 Hessle Turnpike-road was stated to commence at the new entrance 
 gates into Brazil-gardens, a place of public amusement which had 
 an entrance and lodge on the north side of the Hessle-road a few 
 yards west of the present Coltman-street. 
 
V. 
 
 OF THE CHANGE IN THE COURSE 
 OF THE RIVER HULL. 
 
V. 
 
 OF THE CHANGE IN THE COURSE 
 OF THE RIVER HULL. 
 
 UEING the progress of the 13th century a remarkable 
 
 change took place in the course of so much of the 
 lower Hull as runs south of Sculcoates. Deserting 
 its ancient bed, which gradually silted up, that portion of the 
 stream found its way to the Humber through a new channel, the 
 present one, now known as the Old Harbour, and having its 
 embouchure about half-a-mile further east. The frequent refer- 
 ences made in the Bench Books to " Oldehull," " Alldhull," and 
 the like, as a feature of the locality west of the town, would 
 sufficiently establish this, did not the Liber Melse expressly state 
 the fact. Speaking of the " reliquam partem del Wylc," Abbot 
 Burton describes it as anciently inclosed on the south by Humber 
 and old Hull, the latter then separating the wapentakes of 
 Holderness and Harthill. "But (he proceeds) in process of 
 time new Hull grew to the east of Wyk, whilst the old river 
 became so warped up as to be scarcely worth calling a sewer ; 
 so that now new Hull, a great river which was formerly called 
 Sayercryk, is the boundary between Holderness and Harthill." 
 
 The only local historian who has made any attempt to enquire 
 into the original course of this part of the river, or ascertain how 
 it obtained its present channel, is the late Mr. Charles Frost, 
 the most painstaking and the ablest investigator into our past 
 annals whom we possess. So careless and slipshod was the 
 method of research employed by his predecessors in the work, 
 that, until he devoted attention to the subject, the old river was 
 represented as flowing to the east, instead of the west, of the 
 modern one. Its present bed, the Old Harbour, was also stated 
 
184 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 to have been in former days simply a sewer cut by Saerius (or 
 Saer) de Sutton to drain his Sutton marshes. The first error 
 Frost promptly corrected ; but to the second he fell a victim. 
 On this latter point he appears to have left the safer ground of 
 his own judgment for a dubious acceptance of the hasty con- 
 clusions of his predecessors. Gent, blindly followed by Hadley and 
 Tickell, originated the idea that Sayercryk meant Saer's drain, 
 and ergo that Saer de Sutton made it. Frost remarks upon this 
 — but his use of the word "plausible" is significant — that " the 
 account given by our historians is rendered more plausible from 
 the circumstance of similar ditches having been made through 
 the common pasture of Myton by William de Stuteville and 
 Benedict de Sculcotes, for the purpose of taking off their water 
 from the low grounds of Cottingham, during the reign of King 
 John, when one of the Sutton family of the name of Saer was 
 living." Here Frost must have nodded, even as did Homer. 
 The mere assertion that since new Hull was anciently known as 
 Sayercryk, it was evidently a sewer constructed by Saer de 
 Sutton, too easily obtained his acquiescence as a plausible 
 theory, because he found that about the probable time of such an 
 operation on the part of dead and gone Saer, two other land- 
 owners did actually cut drains from corresponding points to the 
 Humber. Yet this very circumstance appears to be in itself a 
 strong counter-argument ; for whilst the drainage works of 
 De Stuteville and De Sculcotes are duly chronicled in the Liber 
 Melse, not a word is said there about what would have surely 
 been a most notable thing, if Saer de Sutton had dug so mighty 
 a sewer that it subsequently became the channel of a great river. 
 No such explanation of the old name of new Hull is given by 
 Abbot Burton ; nor does he, indeed, suggest any at all. Moreover 
 King John's charter given to Meaux abbey in 1205 shews us 
 that Sutton marsh then belonged to the monks and not to the 
 De Suttons ; whilst the improvements effected in the " water- 
 course called Sayercryk " by Edward the First, who removed 
 from it certain obstructions to the flow of the stream placed by 
 persons claiming rights of fishery and otherwise in its waters, are 
 
Of the Change in the Course of the River Hull. 185 
 
 inconsistent with the theory that it was previously a private 
 drain. Again there would be vested rights in the old channel of 
 the river which Saer de Sutton would hardly have been allowed 
 to imperil by making a cutting capable of diverting the stream : 
 added to which considerations, a glance at the map seems con- 
 vincing that if Saer de Sutton had desired to drain the upper lands 
 of Sutton (for the marshes belonged to the abbey), it would not 
 have been along the present course of the river that he would 
 have carried his drain. 
 
 The word " creek " (A.S. crecca) imports an arm or inlet of a 
 
 harbour, where merchandise may be landed from the sea. As it 
 
 has been said, " when you are out of the main Sea within the 
 
 Haven, look how many landing Places you have, so many Creeks 
 
 may be said to belong to that Haven." It is obvious that in this 
 
 way the deserted bed of the lower Hull came in after time to be 
 
 designated " Limekiln-creek," because within it were laden and 
 
 discharged the stones and lime required and produced by the 
 
 kilns there. Such a name would never have been attached to a 
 
 mere drain ; and its use in the term " Sayercryk " irresistibly 
 
 suggests the truer explanation of an inlet from the Humber ; such 
 
 an inlet, in fact, as we at once understand to-day by the use of 
 
 the term "creek." Sayercryk, as its name clearly enough implies, 
 
 must have been originally a small arm of the Humber; tidal, 
 
 of course, but kept clear and free from warping either by springs 
 
 at its head or, more probably, by some drain discharging into it 
 
 much as the Sutton main drain does into the modern river. 
 
 Of the first half of the name, " Sayer," two origins may be 
 suggested. It may be a corrupted form of the A.S. word scees, 
 thus scees-crecca, sea-creek ; an etymon not far-fetched when we 
 recollect that Leland speaks of the broad Humber as " Humber- 
 Se," and that the Archbishop of York in certain Quo Warranto 
 proceedings in 1293 claimed that the river Hull was a small arm 
 of the sea ; or remember how frequently in the records of Myton 
 its defences against inundation are termed sea-dike and sea-wall. 
 Or it may have really owed its name to Saer de Sutton, 
 as " Saer's creek," because he may have dug the drain suggested 
 
1 86 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 above as a means of keeping the creek open. It must have warped 
 up with Humber mud in the course of time had not a waterway 
 been kept clear by some stream from above ; and although no 
 such event is recorded in the Liber Melse, it is not only possible, 
 but extremely likely, that some lord of Sutton found in the creek 
 an easy outlet for his drains, saving all the cost and labour of 
 carrying them to the Humber. We may readily allow that Saer 
 de Sutton was the very lord of the manor who took this obvious 
 advantage of the existence of the creek ; and that whereas it had 
 previously been nameless amongst men, it was thenceforward 
 known as " Saer's creek " from his apparent appropriation of it 
 as part of Sutton drainage. To this extent we may accept " the 
 account given by our historians" as roughly correct, without 
 admitting for a moment that Saer de Sutton actually excavated 
 the present bed of the lower Hull. Again, as an alternative, the 
 name may have arisen from some special rights or authority 
 claimed in the creek by Saer de Sutton as lord of the adjacent 
 manor of Sutton. Frost tells us that he claimed by inheritance, 
 through a long line of ancestors, the fisheries on both sides of 
 the old Hull ; for many years he was custodian of the port of 
 Hull ; and whether or not the creek in question was any part of 
 the port, he may have insisted on an exclusive right to land goods 
 there toll-free as appurtenant to his lordship of Sutton. If such 
 a state of things ever existed, the origin and propriety of the 
 name " Sayeroryk " are obvious. 
 
 Of the time when this change in the course of the river 
 occurred we have no certain knowledge, nor how it was brought 
 about. Mr Frost found scarcely room to doubt that it happened 
 soon after the middle of the 13th century, and he attributed it to 
 the effect of the great flood in 1256, when the sea overflowed the 
 whole eastern coast of England, the waters extending locally as 
 far inland as Cottingham. " At all events (he writes) it is certain 
 that the change took place long anterior to Myton and Wyke 
 becoming the property of Edward I., as sufficient time must have 
 subsequently elapsed for the town to have followed, as it did, the 
 scene of its trade." 
 
Of the Change in the Course of the River Hull. 187 
 
 We must feel a little difficulty in accepting the date assigned 
 by this able antiquary to the change. He is himself scarcely 
 consistent in describing an event which he thinks happened circa 
 1256, as " long anterior " to Edward's acquisition of Myton and 
 Wyk in 1293, not forty years afterwards ; and as the Liber Melse 
 appears to support his second statement, that the change had 
 happened some time before the king's purchase of the district, we 
 must carry its actual occurrence back to the early part of the 
 century at least, even if not anterior to that. Moreover the 
 phenomenon seems from the account given by Abbot Burton to 
 have been a gradual one rather than the result of a sudden 
 catastrophe He speaks of new Hull as "growing," whilst old 
 Hull was as gradually being warped up, the two channels 
 remaining open together (and forming a delta) year after year, 
 until the older contracted into the dimensions of a mere sewer. 
 One would almost gather from Burton's account that old Hull 
 was in existence as a water-course when he wrote at the close of 
 the 14th century ; but if so, it is curious that no trace of it appears 
 in the old plan of Hull (Cotton MSS. Aug. 1 vol. 1 fo. 80) which 
 is given as the frontispiece to Frost's " Notices," and which he 
 ascribes to circa 1350. 
 
 It is obvious at a glance that whatever may have been the 
 course of the old river, the stream found in Sayercreek a much 
 shorter, straighter, and more convenient outlet to the Humber. 
 It would also appear from the use of the words " indies crescebat" 
 in Abbot Burton's account of the occurrence, that the waters of 
 the Hull found their way into Sayercreek through a channel 
 narrow at first but gradually widening (however formed 
 originally), whilst as this grew, the same causes closed or 
 obstructed that end of the older bed so as to daily lessen the 
 volume of water descending by it to the Humber. Indeed it could 
 only have been by the loss of the scour from above that the old 
 channel became silted up. The mud-laden tide of Humber at 
 every flow would run up the ancient channel of the Hull, 
 depositing ere it ebbed a layer of sediment, which unremoved by 
 a flow of water downwards, would deepen and widen to the 
 
1 88 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 gradual contraction of the waterway. What purpose the old 
 river-bed answered when it had thus ceased to be a channel of the 
 Hull, and why it was found advisable in after years to repair it, 
 is difficult to imagine, unless it were utilised as a sewer for the 
 removal of the surface water from the adjoining meadows and 
 closes of Myton. 
 
 At the time of Edward the First's acquisition of Myton and 
 Wyk it appears that Sayercreek was a water-course, that is had 
 a flow of water through it from above to the Humber. It must 
 by this time have become the main one of the two channels of 
 lower Hull, as upon it, and not the older one, King Edward fixed 
 for the haven of his royal town and port. We are told that he 
 widened and deepened the bed of the creek ; cleared it of the 
 hurdles, posts, and other hindrances to navigation which the De 
 Suttons and others had placed there in exercise of more or less 
 well-founded rights of fishery, landing goods, &c ; and generally 
 "ameliorated " it so as to make it a harbour for large vessels. 
 
 Such was the origin of the modern port of Kingston-upon-Hull. 
 It has been hitherto alleged to have commenced its important and 
 far-reaching existence as a mere drain; but the reader must 
 judge how far the legend of so humble a beginning is correct. 
 Like the adjacent lordship of Myton, although at a much earlier 
 date, this port became in time the property of the town, given to 
 it by Kichard II. for the growth and encouragement of its trade, 
 and the advantage of its merchants and burgesses. The royal 
 charter to this effect is a grant "as much as in us lies, to our 
 well-beloved mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of Kingston-upon- 
 Hull," that they, their heirs and successors, " V cant portum 
 subtus eandem villam, dudum vocat' Sayercryk jam vocatum 
 Hull, in p'p'm annexum mile p'd'c'e, et lib' tat' cjusdcm a 
 Sculcotegote usque medium cursum aque de Humbre ; Ita q'd 
 ips' possint et quil't eor' possit edificare domos, kaias, et stathas 
 infra eandem aquam, in emendacionem, defensionem, salvacionem, et 
 augmentacionem ville p'd'c'e, sive impeticione n'ri vel hercd' n'stror' 
 aut ministror' nostror' quor' cumq'." 
 
 Of the course followed by the old river it is only possible to 
 
Of the Change in the Course of the River Hull. 1 89 
 
 speculate ; yet it is interesting to inquire whether it has absolutely 
 vanished from our ken, or left, as one would like to believe, some 
 yet evident traces of its existence. 
 
 In Mr. Frost's own sketch-plan of Hull at the commencement 
 of the 14th century, which it must always be remembered is a 
 purely theoretical production, though valuable as a concise 
 epitome of the results of his careful and accurate research, he 
 shows in dotted lines a probable course of the old river. It is 
 purely arbitrary, but satisfactory so far as it complies with the 
 only data we have on the subject, viz., that at or through 
 Sculcoates Gote the old river branched off westwards from the 
 present one, and that it emptied itself into the Humber through 
 what was afterwards known as Limekiln-creek. There is no 
 precise evidence on this latter point, so far as the present writer 
 can ascertain, yet the fact is very positively stated both by Frost 
 and Sheahan, whose assertions seem to be confirmed by the silent 
 testimony of the records of Myton and Tupcoates. The old river 
 Hull was certainly the eastern boundary of the berewick and vill 
 of Myton ; and in after times we find the clough at the mouth of 
 the Limekiln sewer or creek regarded as the eastern end of what 
 may be termed the sea-board of Myton. It is clear from the 
 document quoted at page 163 ante that it was the duty of the 
 tenants in Myton lordship to keep out the waters of the Humber 
 from Galley Clough drain on the west to Limekiln drain on the 
 east, evidently the western and eastern bounds of the manor ; 
 whilst it is equally inferable that from the latter point eastward 
 to the walls of the town it was the task of the governing body of 
 Kingston-upon-Hull to prevent inundations. Assuming these 
 inferences to be correct, they almost amount to proof that Lime- 
 kiln-creek was a fragment of the old river which anciently formed 
 the eastern limit of Myton. 
 
 Another theory as to the original course of lower Hull may be 
 hazarded. The northern boundary of Myton was in part the 
 neighbouring manor of Sculcoates. Assuming that the southern 
 edge of the parish of Sculcoates practically represents the southern 
 limit of the Anglo-Saxon lordship, it will be seen that such limit 
 
190 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 from the river Hull to St. John-street is of a most curious and 
 peculiar irregularity. Starting from the right bank of the Hull 
 just south of the Charterhouse, the boundary line is carried west- 
 ward to the limits of God's House, and there falls abruptly and 
 almost perpendicularly south into the middle of the east end of the 
 Queen's Dock. Going westward thence it follows the line of the 
 old north wall to the western end of the dock, whence by another 
 most perplexing irregularity, passing along the back of the Eoyal 
 Institution (to the north of the old bowling green), it gains 
 Prospect-street, and so proceeds westward along that thoroughfare 
 and Spring Bank to Princess-avenue. Now there must have 
 existed in ancient times some obvious reasons for this devious 
 boundary line. It is reasonable to suppose that in their 
 early settlements in the neighbourhood the Engles found in the 
 natural features of the ground the boundaries of their various 
 tuns. Dr. Green remarks on this point that, "as in many of our 
 modern settlements, where population and property have hardly 
 come into being, the boundary line could only be drawn from one 
 natural object to another; " and further, " for the most part the 
 boundary track runs naturally enough from one feature of the 
 ground to another, from the ' marked oak,' along the ' marked 
 eaves,' by the 'border brook,' and over the hero's burial-mound," 
 &c. We can hardly conceive that the ancient boundaries between 
 Myton and the adjoining lordships on the north would be 
 imaginary lines drawn through open fields. One may fairly 
 suppose that in this flat country, with so few distinguishing 
 natural features, water-courses of some sort, brooks, drains, or 
 rivers would constitute the necessary lines of demarcation, the 
 devious windings of a stream alone seeming to account satisfactorily 
 for the extraordinary boundary line in question. It would not, 
 therefore, be unreasonable to ascribe its erratic course to the 
 ancient channel of the Hull in part, and to some tributary rivulet 
 in other part. Yet it is clear that we cannot account in this way 
 for that position of the modern boundary of Sculcoates which runs 
 from the Charterhouse to the Queen's Dock. On the west or 
 Sculcoates side of that line once lay the "messuage with its 
 
Of the Change in the Course of the River Hull. 191 
 
 appurtenances containing seven acres of land — lately parcel of the 
 manor of Myton," in which Sir Michael de la Pole founded the 
 Carthusian priory. The site of this monastery covered, according 
 to Hollar's excellent plan of Hull, a square area which includes 
 portions of the modern Sykes-street, Mason-street, and Bourne- 
 street, with the land between, all of which are now in Sculcoates 
 parish, whereas their site in 1378 was undoubtedly part of the 
 lordship of Myton. But to have been under any circumstances 
 a portion of that lordship, this ground must anciently have lain 
 east of the old river Hull, and so have formed part of the 
 accretion of territory which Myton received after the alteration in 
 the course of the river ; in a word it must have originally been 
 part of what Abbot Burton calls the " reliqttam partem del Wyk." 
 Hence the old river must have flowed north, west, and south of 
 this area, and cannot have followed the present boundary line of 
 Sculcoates from the Charterhouse to the dock. This conclusion, 
 which is irresistible on examination of the subject, was also come 
 to by Frost, whose imaginary course of the old river is shaped 
 accordingly. But how the existing boundary line alluded to 
 (south of Charterhouse-lane and along St. Mary's burial ground) 
 became fixed, and when, is a nut for local antiquaries to crack. 
 
 Seeking then to solve the problem of the original course of the 
 Hull, consistently with the data of Sculcoates Gote ( 96 ) and 
 Limekiln-creek, yet upon some intelligible grounds, it may be 
 surmised that, prior to the change, the channel curved to the west 
 through the ancient waterway known later as Sculcoates Gote, and 
 lying north of the present Charterhouse buildings, then again to 
 the south somewhere about Grotto Square, and so to what is now 
 the centre of the Queen's Dock, thence westward again along a 
 part of the site subsequently chosen by our ancestors for their 
 northern wall, to a point somewhere about the centre of modern 
 Engine-street. From thence by a small exercise of the imagina- 
 tion (if such a faculty may have place in the sober regions of 
 history), we can carry the channel into Limekiln- creek through 
 
 (96) Spelman defines Oors, Gort, or Ouort, as a confined place in a river made for the 
 catching of fish, otherwise called a weir ; Dugdale as a sluice, ditch, or gutter, from the A.S. 
 geOtan, to pour, to gush. 
 
192 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 Waterhouse-lane and Commercial-road ; seeing in the curved 
 outlines of those thoroughfares the record of its ancient existence 
 made by the vanished river upon the map of modern Hull. At any 
 rate a glance at such map will demonstrate at least the reasonableness 
 of this theory ; which is, however, submitted as a pure suggestion, 
 perhaps influenced by a futile desire to see still existing some 
 trace of the old river, to discover that, though dead, it yet speaketh, 
 to find however faint an outline of its " footprints on the sands 
 of time." 
 
 The change in the course of the river Hull is germane to the 
 subject matter of these pages because it effected a material 
 alteration in the size of My ton, for one thing bringing Aton-fee 
 within the confines of the lordship. These notes, consequently, 
 cannot be better brought to a conclusion than by a few words on 
 the limits of the manor before and after that event ; words which 
 the reader will kindly consider as correcting "anything to the 
 contrary hereinbefore contained." 
 
 On page ii ante the ancient boundaries of My ton are suggested. 
 They may, however, be given here more definitely as the 
 result of further investigation. On the east flowed the old river 
 Hull, which at that time may well have followed the course 
 above conjectured. On the north, from the right bank of 
 Hull westwards, lay the lordship of Sculcoates (so named after 
 its Anglo-Saxon proprietor, Skule, son of Tostig), and the low 
 grounds of the manor of Cottingham ; both, probably, divided in 
 part from Myton by some brook or water-course which preceded 
 the afterward Julian ditch. Southward rolled the Humber ; 
 whilst to the west the common pastures of the township merged 
 into those of Anlaby, Swanland, and Ferriby. The original 
 settlement of the Engles would no doubt be located about Hull 
 mouth, in the little area subsequently known as le Wyk ; and in 
 the immediate vicinity of this would be the pristine ten bovates 
 of arable land, which existed as an actual fact or a legal expression 
 to comparatively modern times. West of the Wyk and 
 plough lands the rest of the township, within the confines just 
 mentioned, consisted of open common lands, pasture and meadow, 
 
Of the Change in the Course of the River Hull. 193 
 
 moor and marsh, to be in later years gradually "ameliorated" 
 by drainage and inclosure, until the last fragment of them was 
 divided and allotted in 1771 when Myton Carr was inclosed. 
 
 It is almost certain that the carr originally filled the whole 
 western area of the township from the borders of the lordships of 
 Sculcoates and Cottingham to the Humber, north and south of 
 the road to Anlaby. To the west of it was the common pasture 
 of Swanland, afterwards known as Wold Carr, and that of 
 Ferriby, subsequently styled Wold Ings, separated from each 
 other by the road to Anlaby as appears in the inclosure map ante, 
 but undivided from Myton Carr. This state of things naturally 
 led to abuses ; and as mentioned at page 61 ante, the Liber Melse 
 relates how the men of Swanland invaded Myton common, seizing 
 and carrying off the abbey sheep, until on complaint and payment 
 of 15 marks, Eustace de Vesci placed a boundary between them. 
 Probably this would take the almost inevitable form of a ditch ; 
 so that to the early part of the 13th century we may ascribe the 
 water-course which separated Myton Carr from the Wold Carr 
 and Wold Ings, and which appears on the Ordnance survey as 
 Galley Clough drain. This appears to have become regarded as 
 the western limit of Myton lordship (as it afterwards did part of the 
 western boundary of the borough); although there were once 
 "members appertaining to the manor of Myton " lying westward 
 even of this. Sevenstangs meadow was situate within Wold Ings ; 
 where also was another meadow belonging to Myton, so nearly 
 resembling Sevenstangs in size, and in situation west of the lordship, 
 as to compel a conclusion that they were one and the same field, did 
 not Beckwith's report mention them separately. In that document 
 the former close appears amongst the tenancies from year to year 
 as in the occupation of Thomas Hewett ; the latter being 
 mentioned as " a close of pasture called Mansfield Dale," held 
 under copy of court roll by " certayne men of Hasill." This 
 close appears on the court rolls of Tupcoates-with-Myton in 1659, 
 when it was surrendered by a William Watson of Swanland as 
 "seven acres of pasture in the Wold Ings, in a place there 
 
194 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 commonly called Mansfield-dale, otherwise Mowenfield-dale, and 
 commonly reputed to be the fourth part of one dale." It is 
 mentioned again, so lately as 1778, as " the undivided fourth 
 part of a dale of meadow called Mansfield-dale, containing seven 
 acres and one steng, in Wold Ings within this manor." 
 
 The plan at the commencement of this section is an attempt 
 by the writer to delineate the ancient lordship of Myton as it 
 existed about the middle of the 12th century, when Maud Camin 
 sold it to the monks of Meaux Abbey. The old river Hull is 
 depicted as the eastern boundary, as was the fact, but the course 
 given to it is necessarily conjectural, and simply in accordance 
 with the theory put forward in these notes. For a northern 
 boundary of the township it has been assumed that an ancient 
 stream then existed, flowing from the springs at Anlaby into the 
 river Hull, and following in its eastern portion the present 
 boundary line of Sculcoates parish so as to account for the curious 
 turn that line makes to the back of the Boyal Institution, where 
 seventy years ago it surrounded a bowling-green. If not from 
 Anlaby, such a water-course might certainly have issued from the 
 springs in Derringham Ings ; nor is it unreasonable to suppose 
 that some natural streamlet suggested the idea and course of the 
 new ditch which the jurors recommended to be made in 3 Henry 
 IV. (see p. 143 ante), and which is alluded to in B.B. 2 (2 Henry 
 V.) as " aque cursus que currit de la Sprynghened in campis de 
 Anlaghby p' Darhyngham dyk ( 97 ) usque villat' de Eyngeston 
 sup' Hull." 
 
 Eastward of the river Hull appears the area which Abbot 
 Burton called the " reliquam partem del Wyk," also known as 
 " Wyk de Hulderness," itself bounded on the east by Sayercryk. 
 This inlet has been drawn as extending northwards to the point 
 where Sutton main drain now enters the present river, on the 
 assumption that in this respect the modern drain follows the 
 course of the ancient one ; and if this be correct, it will be seen 
 how closely Sayercryk approached the old river, and how small 
 
 (97) The words " Darliyngham dyk" unmistakeably refer to a previous ditch 01 that 
 name, through which the new stream ran. 
 
Of the Change in the Course of the River Hull. 195 
 
 an obstacle opposed itself to their junction. Within this area 
 stood, with all its potentialities, the town of Wyk-upon-Hull, the 
 name of which Edward the First changed into that of King's 
 town-upon-Hull ; and in the northern part of the peninsula lay 
 the lands which afterwards became the fee of the Atons. The 
 walls of Kingston-upon-Hull, raised in 1322, are indicated upon 
 the plan by a dotted line ; and by the northern one the lands 
 of the Aton family were divided into those within the town and 
 those without, the latter becoming upon the change in the course 
 of the river part of Myton, and constituting the Aton-fee so often 
 mentioned in section III. With this understanding there seems 
 no longer to be any difficulty in regard to the deed set out on 
 pp. 82 and 83 ante, which manifestly referred to lands of the 
 Atons both within and without the town, before the acquisition 
 of " Aton-fee " by Sir Eichard de la Pole. 
 
 The southern boundary of the vill is Leland's " Humber Se ; " 
 whilst on the west its common pastures merge into those of 
 Swanland and Ferriby. For convenience a boundary line is 
 drawn as separating them, although no such existed until the 
 next century ; but a road from Myton to Anlaby was no doubt as 
 old as the two settlements. West of this imaginary boundary 
 line are placed Sevenstangs and Mansfield-dale, drawn roughly to 
 scale ; the position of the former being probably correct, that of 
 the latter purely conjectural. 
 
 The site of Tupcoates cottage and its four acres of land is 
 given as just eastward of where to-day Park-street joins the 
 Anlaby-road. The latter was apparently the alta via near 
 Tupcoates mentioned at p. 160 ante ; whilst the frequent reference 
 in the court rolls of Tupcoates-with-Myton to "Tupcoates corner" 
 suggests a junction of two roads. A further clue to the situation 
 of Tupcoates is, moreover, afforded by the mention on the rolls in 
 1659 of the " angulus de Tupcoates p'pe domu' pestifera," which, 
 taken in conjunction with the name given by the commissioners 
 in 1771 to the road which they awarded at the north-east end of 
 Myton Carr, " Pesthouse-lane," warrants the position assigned 
 in the plan. And, of course, if near the junction of these two 
 
196 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 thoroughfares, Tupcoates must have lain to the east because 
 Myton Carr lay to the west. 
 
 The position of the chapel of Myton is placed in accordance 
 with the identification of its site in note 35 on page 61 ante, and 
 is only reliable so far as the latter is correct. The locality of the 
 salt-pits is arbitrary merely ; whilst the portion of the plan 
 marked as the original ten bovates of Myton, is given on the 
 assumption that the common plough lands of the township 
 would lie in the immediate vicinity of the hamlet for convenience 
 of culture. 
 
 Grangewyk, where the monks erected their grange, probably 
 under Michael their eighth abbot, will be noticed on the left bank 
 of the Hull, just outside where the gate of the town called Myton- 
 gate afterwards stood. A close of land of this name, and doubtless 
 the same one, is frequently mentioned in the court-rolls of 
 Tupcoates-with-Myton as a close of 14 acres, " commonly called 
 Grangewike or Mount Close, and lying near to Myton Gates," the 
 plural form of the last word being always used. This clue, 
 coupled with the fact that the close in question was situate on the 
 east side of old Hull, is the justification for its position on the plan ; 
 but where it is shown only for reference since it was, of course, 
 no part of Myton as sold by Maud Camin. 
 
 But the change in the course of the river appears to have 
 considerably enlarged the lordship in legal and popular estimation, 
 especially after the erection of its walls had decided the limits of 
 the town of Kingston-upon-Hull. On reference to the sketch- 
 plan it will be immediately obvious that by the removal of the 
 river south of Sculcoates Gote into Sayercreek, several acres of 
 land (namely those sh6wn upon the plan as lying between the 
 town's walls and the old river), which previously were on the east 
 of the Hull and portion of the " remaining part of Wyk," became 
 transferred, so to speak, to the west side of the river, and needed 
 allocating afresh. No part of Kingston-upon-Hull, nor any 
 portion of Sculcoates, neither did they belong to the ancient 
 lordship of Myton. Yet as regards so much of this no-man's-land 
 as lay north of the town, it is incontestable, both from the 
 
Of the Change in the Course of the River Hull. 1 97 
 
 existence of " Aton-fee " as a component part of My ton, and the 
 terms of Sir Michael de la Pole's charter of foundation of the 
 Carthusian priory, that it was considered as added to and included 
 in the lordship of Myton ; excepting, perhaps, whatever fraction 
 of the whole was understood by the expression " the liberty of 
 Trippett." Approximately the addition thus made to the area 
 of the lordship, and the whole or part of which formed the 
 Aton-fee of the previous pages, was (including Trippett) 
 such portion of the modern town as is bounded on the south 
 by a line drawn through the Queen's Dock to the river Hull, 
 on the east by the section of the river between that line and a little 
 north of the Charterhouse hospital, on the north by a line drawn 
 from that point to about the entrance of Grotto Square, and on the 
 west by a line descending thence into the centre of the dock. This 
 it must be allowed is inconsistent with the present boundary of 
 Sculcoates parish ; but some future enquirer may ascertain for us 
 why it is so. 
 
 It is not so clear that the area west of the town was also con- 
 sidered as added to Myton. The 14 acres of Grangewyk of course 
 still formed part of the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton, as they 
 did until enfranchised in recent times ; but the frequent mention 
 in the Bench Books of lands of the mayor and aldermen on the 
 western outskirts of the town, would rather imply that this 
 portion (excepting Grangewyk) was reputed to belong to Kingston- 
 upon-Hull, perhaps because of an acknowledged necessity on the 
 part of the town to own the soil on its west margin in order to 
 guard against inundations from that side. Apparently, too, some 
 causes connected with the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton were 
 in operation, since the writer is not aware of any copyhold 
 property of that manor (other than Grangewyk Close) on the east 
 of Waterhouse-lane or Commercial-road, although copyholds 
 exist up to the very west edge of the former street. The same 
 remark applies to the north part of the town, where also no copy- 
 hold property is found ; but in both cases the statement is only 
 made upon a general knowledge of the subject, and not as the 
 result of an exhaustive search of the court-rolls of the manor, 
 
198 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 which probably the Corporation would not allow. If true, it is 
 curious to find that whilst the land north of the town's walls, 
 which lay between them and Sculcoates, was considered part of 
 the " manor of Myton," neither it nor any portion of the new 
 land west of the town became part of the copyhold portion of 
 Tupcoates-with- Myton. In short, no part of what is now known 
 as the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton is found outside the ancient 
 limits of Myton, assuming the course here suggested as that of the 
 old river to be correct. And no doubt the fact that no copyhold 
 property, other than Grangewyk, existed east of Waterhouse-lane 
 or Commercial-road (if well-founded) is almost conclusive that 
 those thoroughfares represent the course of the river which 
 anciently formed the eastern boundary of the township of Myton. 
 It may be finally observed that in Bower's plan of Hull a 
 portion of the land lying between the west wall of the town and 
 what has been suggested in these notes as the ancient course of 
 the river, is marked "Corporation," which somewhat strengthens 
 the inference drawn in the preceding paragraph ; but as against 
 this, some weight on the other side must be attached to the lease 
 of land under the west walls of Hull, made by Earl Michael de la 
 Pole to the mayor and bailiffs in 1408 (see p. 119 ante). It seems 
 more probable that the earl owned this land as part of his lordship 
 of Myton than that he purchased it from those to whom he 
 subsequently leased it ; whilst further, the terms of the demise 
 imply a liability on his part to take such precautions as were 
 necessary to preserve the town from floods on that side. This 
 liability, again, implies an authority over the contiguous lands. 
 
CORRIGENDA ET 
 ADDENDA. 
 
Corrigenda et Addenda. 
 
 Page 
 
 36. On further consideration, and especially having regard to the 
 
 comparatively short lapse of time between the Domesday 
 survey and Maud Camin's grant, the erection of the aula 
 should be ascribed to an earlier period. See p. 148. 
 
 37. The aula was probably destroyed as suggested at p. 148, or 
 
 perhaps earlier by the Danes. 
 
 38. For a better explanation as to Kirkby's Inquest see p. 122. 
 
 41. Note 28. With this read the further definition of forin. 
 
 serv. at page 56. 
 
 42. As to " Sevenstanghes " see also pp. 167 and 174, and 
 
 further in these Corrigenda. 
 
 43. Line 11 : for "eighty" years read " about one hundred and 
 
 eighty." See p. 95. 
 ,, Line 29 : this quantity may be explained on the assumption 
 that the lordship had already been enlarged by the change 
 in the course of the river Hull. See further in these 
 Corrigenda. 
 
 44. As to the actual boundaries of Myton see p. 192. 
 
 ,, Line 31 : but it must also be remembered that any Anglo- 
 Saxon mill or mills in Myton might have been destroyed 
 by the Danes or Normans. 
 
 45. Line 25 : for " three acres " read " three bovates." 
 48. As to the erection of the aula see p. 148. 
 
 51. Line 13 : the word " Wye " will, however, equally bear the 
 meaning of villula or hamlet without affecting the force of 
 Maud Camin's grant. The wyk of Myton may have been 
 the village of Myton, in the sense of the immediate site of 
 the original settlement, the more thickly populated part of 
 the vill, just as well as the harbour of Myton. In the 
 word " Grange wyk " the second syllable clearly means 
 an inclosure; and the " Wye de Mitune" may signify the 
 
202 Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton. 
 
 Paqb 
 
 inclosed portion of Myton, wherein the bulk of the 
 inhabitants dwelt. 
 
 61. Line 3 : for " Hessle, Swanland, and Kirkella," read 
 
 " Swanland and Ferriby." 
 
 62. It appears that this grange did not " fall into ruins," but 
 
 was pulled down by Sir William de la Pole. See p. 151. 
 74. As to King Edward's Manor-House see p. 149. 
 80. For the deed of partition of the manor see p. 139. 
 82. For an explanation removing the difficulty expressed here as 
 
 to FitzHugh's deed, see p. 195. 
 85. Note 48 : for "permitted — to do so" read "permitted — 
 
 to make the requisite research." 
 
 89. Line 13 : for a removal of this obscurity see pp. 122, 195, 197, 
 
 and the sketch-plan at the commencement of Part V. 
 
 90. Fuller consideration has removed any difficulty in delimiting 
 
 "the district which a few centuries ago was known as 
 Myton ; " and the sketch-plan already mentioned may be 
 taken as giving the area and outlines of ancient Myton with 
 reasonable accuracy. See also pp. 192 and 196. 
 
 91. Line 20 : also pp. 92 and 93. It is clear that it was Aton-fee 
 
 which was held of De Mowbray ; and the mill mentioned 
 here must have been that which stood on the north of the 
 town. 
 
 106. Line 18: for "impossible now to say" may be read 
 
 " hereafter explained." iUon-fee undoubtedly became added 
 to the area of the lordship as a result of the change in the 
 course of the river Hull. See pp. 123 and 195. 
 
 107. The statement that King Edward acquired all the district 
 
 comprised within the topographical term " Myton," is 
 corrected at p. 123. 
 ,, Line 33 : this statement that the ten bovates were in 
 demesne is confirmatory of the views expressed at page 152, 
 and also, to some extent, of the position of Tupcoates on 
 the sketch-plan. 
 109. It would seem from the terms of this lease that some 30 acres 
 of meadow in Wold Ings, the common pasture of Ferriby, 
 
Corrigenda et Addenda. 203 
 
 Page 
 
 were appendant to the lordship at this time. See p. 193, 
 and sketch-plan. 
 113. ) The names "Aldgate" and " Aldburghstathe " are Anglo- 
 114.) Saxon and suggestive of a considerable antiquity. Sheahan 
 says of the former that it is supposed to have been the 
 boundary between the ancient parishes of Hessle and 
 Ferriby. Now unless the whole story of the alteration in 
 the bed of the river Hull is a myth, " which is absurd," it 
 is undeniable that before such alteration both were in the 
 " reliquam partem del Wyk," the peninsula between old 
 Hull and Sayercreek. But if so, to where and from whence 
 was Aldgate a road, and by whom and for what was 
 Aldburghstathe used? This is one of the problems of 
 which the history of this district is full. Possibly the two 
 imply a much earlier date for the change in the course of 
 the river than Frost suspected, or the present writer has 
 ventured to suggest. Otherwise it is not easy to account 
 for an "old way" and an " old town staith " in Kingston- 
 upon-Hull. Frost gives only 37 years between the diversion 
 of the waters of the Hull into Sayercreek and the change 
 of Wyk into Kingston-upon-Hull. 
 
 121. Lines 32, 33, &c. : the assertion " prior to Maud Camin's 
 
 charter " is based on the assumption that her deed has 
 been correctly read as giving the arable land of Myton in 
 her day at 14 bovates, to make which quantity intelligible 
 we must assume that the original ten bovates had already 
 been added to by four at least. As this accretion could 
 only have come about from the change in the course of the 
 Hull, either (a) her deed has been misread in this respect, 
 or (b) a still earlier date must (and perhaps rightly) be 
 ascribed to the change in question. 
 
 122. Kirkby's Inquest must have related to Aton-fee only. 
 124. Line 29 : for " Sir William " read " Sir John." 
 129. Note 72 : Eiddell's certificate is justified at p. 169. 
 
 133. Line 3 : on the inclosure of Myton Carr an allotment was 
 made to the vicar of Holy Trinity in lieu of the tithes of 
 
204 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 Page 
 
 the carr. Where and what Myton West Ing was cannot 
 now be certainly ascertained, nor why it was tithable to 
 St. Mary's church. Probably it was some meadow land 
 lying north of the then carr ; but inasmuch as it was outside 
 the town, it could hardly be within St. Mary's parish. 
 
 144. This is quoted from an extract, not from the original ; and 
 according to Frost this mill was accounted for in Edward 
 de Ebor's, not Oysel's, return. See p. 70 of his " Notices." 
 
 149. It is possible that Myton grange was built after the river 
 Hull had been diverted into Sayercreek, and stood on the 
 west side of the town of Wyk-upon-Hull. Indeed it is 
 not unlikely that this was the case, having regard 
 to what has been said before in these Corrigenda as to the 
 date of the change. 
 
 151. Line 12: for "49" read "69." 
 ,, Line 31 : the site of Tupcoates cottage and inclosure on the 
 sketch-plan of Myton is probably correct. See p. 195. 
 
 153. Note 86 : there can be no doubt that after the gift of Myton 
 
 lordship (or the manor of Tupcoates-with-Myton) to the 
 town of Hull, the mayor and aldermen granted out much 
 of its soil in free socage, at an annual rent, making suit of 
 court an express condition or incident of the tenure. See 
 the quotation from Warburton at p. 172, and with it read 
 the excerpt from the court-rolls about Alderman Peck's 
 mill at p. 102. 
 
 154. The first mention of the straw appears on the court-rolls in 
 
 1775, where the memorandum of a surrender is set out 
 verbatim and expressly states that the surrender had been 
 made by a straw " according to the custom of the manor." 
 
 159. Line 35 : for "(illegible)" read "bricks," it being with 
 them that Mason obstructed the highway, as appears from 
 a separate record kept by the steward of these amercements. 
 
 162. Line 10 : it was intended when these words were written to 
 present as an illustration a reproduction of a large and 
 excellent plan of the lordship of Myton in modern times, 
 
Corrigenda et Addenda. 205 
 
 Page 
 
 belonging to Mr. Geo. Fryer, C.S.I., of Hull ; but it could 
 not be satisfactorily reduced. 
 
 167. Line 12 : this paragraph should have been preceded by the 
 statement (without which it is not sufficiently intelligible) 
 that Beckwith mentions amongst the " ten'nts at will " 
 one, Thomas Hewett, as holding at the annual rent of 
 106s. 8d. a " closse of pastur called 'Seven Stagnes,' 
 conteynyng vij acres, and twoo other closses called 
 ' Maydenhyll,' conteynyng vj acres." 
 ,, Line 19 : there is reason to doubt this conclusion as to the 
 stang. The word appears in Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary 
 as a rod, pole, or perch ; a measure of land ; a long bar or 
 pole ; from the A.S. stang, steng. It was not, therefore, a 
 purely local term, nor could its size at all approximate to 
 an acre. And yet Sevenstangs (which could only be so- 
 called from its size) is stated in De Sutton's survey to 
 contain 12 acres (see p. 78), and in Beckwith's certificate 
 to contain 7 acres. It will be observed that Mansfield- 
 dale contained an area of 7 acres and "1 steng" (see 
 p. 194) ; and in a deed of 1739 relating to land at Ferriby, 
 I find part of the property conveyed described as " all 
 those 9 acres and 3 stengs and a half of meadow lying in 
 Would Ings in the parish of North Ferriby." From all 
 which considerations it would appear that there can be no 
 (apparent) connection between the name of Sevenstangs 
 and the quantity of seven acres. 
 
 170. Line 36: in a later roll " escoriando" is more intelligibly 
 translated as ' ' (Ang' — bottom-scowering) . ' ' Other instances 
 may be given of this odd habit of occasionally explaining 
 in the text the Latin words used by the scribe. Thus 
 " agualicxdum ligneum {AngV — wooden trough) ; " 
 " cataracta (AngV — vocat' Limekiln Clough);" and another 
 Latin phrase is given as " (Anglice — annoying the spring 
 water with soap-suds)," in a case where some reckless 
 matron was fined for emptying her wash-tub into the spring 
 ditch near the site of the present Eoyal Infirmary. 
 
206 Notes Relative to the Manor of My ton. 
 
 Page 
 
 183. The century here stated as that in which this change 
 
 occurred is given on Frost's authority. The sketch-plan of 
 ancient Myton is also based on his opinion that the 
 alteration did not take place till long after the time of Maud 
 Camin's grant. But there are some indications, as stated 
 before in these Corrigenda, that the change may have been 
 of much earlier date than Frost supposed. 
 
 184. Line 24 : so much of this counter-argument as rests upon 
 
 the mere fact that the drainage operations of De Stuteville 
 and De Sculcotes were chronicled in the Liber Melse, may 
 be discounted by the reflection that it was perhaps the 
 occupation by them during the progress of their works of 
 the common pasture of Myton, which suggested the entry 
 of the matter in the abbey records. 
 198. It is curious that in 1655 the court-rolls mention a 
 messuage and garth in Mytongate in Kingston-upon-Hull 
 as held of " the lords of this manor; " whilst on several 
 occasions during the 18th century the court is stated to 
 have been held at the sign of the Black Boy in High- street 
 within the manor. We can only understand these state- 
 ments, which attribute an entirely fictitious extent to the 
 manor, on the ground of some confusion between the offices 
 of the mayor and aldermen as such and as the lords of 
 Tupcoates-with-My ton . 
 
 «M» 
 
NOTE. 
 
 A very interesting clue to the situation of the ancient her- 
 mitage of Myton, of Sevenstangs, and of Maidenhill Closes, is 
 afforded by a description of the three contained in a release dated 
 the 15th day of October, 1698, and discovered after this volume 
 was finished. It is evident from this form of conveyance that 
 the three properties were of freehold tenure, which confirms 
 beyond question the writer's surmise at p. 166 that the tenants 
 at will mentioned in Beckwith's report were not copyholders in 
 bondage but ordinary tenants from year to year of freehold 
 portions of the lordship. It would appear from the description 
 in question that the hermitage stood somewhere in the south- 
 west corner of Myton, and in what a few centuries ago would be 
 a remote and lonely part of the manor. It is also inferable that 
 in ancient times theAown gallows stood on the Humber bank at 
 the extreme tini ii il iii ' i n Timit of Myton, so as readily to give its 
 grim name to the clough at the river end of Eustace de Vesci's 
 boundary watercourse, subsequently called Galley Clough (an 
 obvious contraction of Gallow's Clough) drain. It is also clqar 
 from this deed that the Sevenstangs of later times lay -wwsb of 
 this sewer and, consequently, wholly within Myton ; and an 
 explanation of the substantial difference between the twelve 
 acres given as its contents in John de Sutton's inquest (p. 78) 
 and the seven acres certified by Beckwith (page 205) may lie in 
 the fact that of its pristine area five acres lay in Wold Ings 
 proper and seven acres in Myton proper, the former portion 
 gradually losing its separate identity, and becoming merged in 
 the Ings. A point discussed at p. 204 is also cleared up by this 
 deed, from which it appears that Myton Ings lay south not 
 north of Myton Carr ; and the West Ing would of course be the 
 
208 Note. 
 
 meadow nearer to the Wold Ings of Ferriby. The description 
 alluded to runs as follows : — 
 
 " All that close or ground called the Armitage close whereon 
 the howse called the Armitage howse late stood, with two little 
 closes called Pighills to the same adjoineing, And those three 
 other closes or pastures neere adjoineing alsoe, whereof one is 
 called Seaven Stengs, now or late divided into severall parts, 
 another called Coate close, And the third called Maiden Hills, as 
 the same closes and grounds lye together within the Lordshipp of 
 Myton, al's Tupcoates cic' Myton in the saide county of the towne 
 of Kingston-upon-Hull on south side or south part of Myton 
 Carre, extending in lenth from the s'd com'on called Myton 
 Carr on the north part unto a certaine p'cell of ground called a 
 floate Pighill and the greate groaves lying upon Humber at the 
 south p'te, and abutting towards the west upon the com'on sewer 
 running to Gallowclow, And towards the east in p'te upon Myton 
 Carre and in other parts upon the grounds called Myton Inges 
 and Pattricke groundes, And alsoe com'on of pasture for two 
 hundred sheepe called two hundred sheepegates in Myton Carre." 
 
 Eeferences will be found to Sevenstangs (which has been 
 accidentally omitted from the Index) on the pages following, 
 viz. : an inclosure mentioned by Maud Camin, 42 ; situate in 
 Wold Ings, 78 ; a sheep-pasture, 94 ; its situation discussed, 
 167, 174, 195; etymology of name, 205. 
 
postscript™. 
 
 As it is not likely that a second edition of this work will ever 
 be issued, the writer wishes to send out with it the following 
 observations which have occurred to him since publication, and 
 which throw light upon points discussed in Section III. as 
 difficult of comprehension. As to the ancient Aula of Myton. 
 Mr. C. H. Pearson remarks in his " Historical Maps of England " 
 that " the manor before the Conquest was a property with a 
 court of justice for those who lived on it ; " and again, " the hall 
 was not indispensable to a manor if its owner had one elsewhere." 
 It would therefore seem a most reasonable and suitable theory 
 to assume that Myton had passed through the stage of self- 
 governing township into an estate under a feudal lord (see p. 12), 
 who had had a Mote-Hall thereon. Subsequently the estate or 
 manor of Myton had been acquired, like Hessle, Anlaby, &c, by 
 the owner of the township of Ferriby (either Lady Algitha, or 
 some predecessor in title), who had thrown the whole into one 
 great manor, reducing Myton, Hessle, and Anlaby, &c, to 
 berewicks, the head-quarters and Court-House being fixed at 
 Ferriby, so that the out-lying Aula (such as that at Myton) had 
 been allowed to fall into decay. I prefer this view to that 
 expressed on p. 148. 
 
 Page 82. — Fitz Hugh's deed. This deed may have been 
 simply a link in the chain of title prior to the acquisition of 
 " Aton-fee " by Sir Bichard de la Pole. There is no doubt he took 
 that portion of Myton by purchase ; very probably from this same 
 Hugh le Taverner. This removes all difficulty in the matter. 
 
 Page 91. — On thorough consideration it is clear that Sir Eichard 
 de la Pole did not acquire his brother William's moiety of the 
 lordship of Myton, nor ever owned more than the portion he took 
 in severalty under their deed of partition (see p. 139) ; but which, 
 of course, he added to by his purchase of Aton-fee. Thus the 
 
Postscriptum. 
 
 words of the jury, quoted on p. 87, about the release of William's 
 interest to Eichard, must be read as referring only to the 
 partition, and simply meaning that of the five bovates of which 
 Sir Eichard died seised, he died solely seised. Understood thus 
 the matter becomes clear at once. The five bovates held by Sir 
 Eichard of the king were his specific moiety of King's-fee ; and 
 what he held under De Mowbray was what he had purchased, 
 viz., Aton-fee, which originally had been portion of the fee of 
 De Stuteville (see p. 106). What the writer urges on p. 92 was 
 written under a reading of this Inquisition (evidently erroneous) 
 as implying that Sir William de la Pole had sold his half of the 
 manor to his brother. 
 
 Page 93. — Deed of William de la Pole, junr. This deed very 
 clearly is a disposition of all the local property which the grantor 
 had inherited from his father. It will be seen, on careful perusal, 
 to relate to the five bovates (or moiety of King's-fee) and other 
 portions of the lordship of Myton which Sir Eichard had taken 
 under the deed of partition, plies Aton-fee and whatever else Sir 
 Eichard had acquired by purchase. Thus the five bovates of 
 arable land in Myton, the windmill on Humber side, Crooked- 
 cotedale, and Sevenstangs, he took under the partition ; and all 
 that the deed describes as "of the fee of Aton," with the windmill 
 on the north of the town, he had acquired by purchase. This 
 appears beyond question when this deed and the deed of partition 
 are read together. Again, there is no necessity to see in this 
 deed a mortgage, or anything other than an absolute disposition 
 of the property. Taken in this light it amply accounts for the 
 subsequent ownership of all Myton lordship by the younger branch 
 of the family. What Sir Eichard had owned, his heir immediately 
 sold, and Sir William subsequently bought : and this grant may 
 simply be one of the prior title deeds to that portion of the 
 property. The writer has till now failed to appreciate the full 
 suggestiveness of the reference in this deed to the buildings and 
 dovecotes erected on Tupcoates close. This is really an un- 
 mistakable indication that the manorial buildings at Tupcoates 
 were originally erected by Sir Richard de la Pole, and not by 
 
Postscriptum. 
 
 Sir William. There was nothing unusual in this. The brothers 
 having divided the lordship betwixt them, each was entitled to 
 have his own Manor-House. The existing Manor-House, the 
 monks' grange, was allocated by the deed of partition to Sir 
 William, being clearly what is described in that deed as " the site 
 of the manor of Myton, with the houses, &c, thereon." Sir 
 Eichard, therefore, erected one for his moiety of the manor at 
 Tupcoates. What led him to choose that site ? Very probably 
 because Tupcoates close (though degenerated into a mere sheep- 
 fold) was the site of the ancient Aula of Myton, " the toft 
 in ivhich the Hall once stood " of Maud Camin's charter. 
 
 Pages 151 and 69. — The Liber Melse is too general and mis- 
 leading where it states that Sir William de la Pole removed the 
 manor buildings from Grangewyk and rebuilt them at Tupcoates. 
 Assuredly what Sir William did, when he had acquired the 
 ownership of the whole lordship, was to adopt Sir Eichard's 
 Manor-House at Tupcoates as that for the entire manor, thus 
 depriving the grange of any manorial character, and marking the 
 new order of things by enlarging the buildings at Tupcoates out 
 of the materials of the abandoned grange. This promotion of 
 Tupcoates from its junior rank of Manor-House for half the 
 lordship to the senior position of Manor-House for all Myton, vice 
 the grange deposed, throws additional light on the expression 
 " Tupcoates-with-Myton." 
 
 Page 152. — The writer's surmises as to why Sir William 
 selected Tupcoates are rendered unnecessary by what has been 
 said in this postscriptum. 
 
 As to the existence of villeinage in Myton. Mr. C. H. Pearson 
 remarks : " In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire there were no slaves 
 at the time of the Domesday Survey. The socmen, who may be 
 called a yeomanry or free peasantry, belong especially to the 
 north and east counties." 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Note. — The figures in parentheses refer to the notes, the others to the pages. 
 
 Acreage of My ton, 168. 
 
 Aldburghstaithe, mentioned, 114 ; and 
 see Corrigenda p. 203. 
 
 Aldgate, ancient street, 113 ; also 
 portion of ancient highways, 177 ; 
 and see Corrigenda p. 203. 
 
 Algitha, Anglo-Saxon lady of Myton, 
 her descent, and possessions, 33. 
 
 Anlaby, foundation of, 19 ; berewick 
 of Ferriby, 32 ; also mentioned as 
 a manor, (22) 32. 
 
 Anlaby Carr, 142. 
 
 Anlaby Boad, raised against floods, 
 142 ; of ancient date 176, original 
 course from Hull, 178. 
 
 Anlaby Turnpike Eoad constructed, 
 178. 
 
 Apprentice-at-law, counsel to Earl 
 Michael de la Pole, 117, definition 
 of, (64) 117. 
 
 Archery Butts, see Butts. 
 
 Area of Myton, anciently, 32 ; dis- 
 cussed, 43, 44 ; reference to original 
 area, 73, 80 ; increase of, 90 ; 
 referred to in ancient fine (53) 91 ; 
 further discussed, 106 ; as certified 
 by Mayor Biddell, 129 ; extent of 
 in acres, 168 ; more fully defined, 
 192. 
 
 Assize, rents of, belonging to De la 
 Pole family in Hull, also defined, 
 112. 
 
 Aton, Sir Gilbert de, part of Myton of 
 his fee, and deed relating to, 82 ; 
 his lineage, 84 ; hold all the fee of 
 De Vesci in Myton (50)89 ; referred 
 to, 122. 
 
 A ton-fee referred to as part of Myton 
 in the Inquisition after the death 
 of Sir Richd. d. 1. Pole, 88 ; dis- 
 cussed, 89 ; referred to in deed of 
 Wm. d. 1. Pole, junr., 93, remark 
 thereon, 98 ; holden of Sir John 
 de Mowbray, 106 ; mentioned in a 
 deed of Earl Michael d. 1. Pole, 
 118 ; discussed, 121 ; added to 
 Myton lordship by Sir Bichd. d. 1. 
 Pole, 123 ; brought within Myton 
 by change in course of river, 192 ; 
 
 Augmentations Court of established, 
 (76) 131. 
 
 Aula, Mote-Hall of Myton, 36, 37 ; 
 referred to in Maud Camin's 
 charter, 38 ; its situation discussed, 
 47, 74 ; when built, 148 ; and see 
 Corrigenda p. 201. 
 
 Beckwith Leonard, his certificate as to 
 
 Hull and Myton, 131 ; biographical 
 
 particulars of, (75) 131 ; his report 
 
 as to Tupeoates-with-Myton, 165. 
 Benhale, Edmund de, grant of Myton 
 
 to by Wm. d. 1. Pole, jnnr., 95. 
 Benneyr, Bobert de, 53, 54. 
 Bercharies in Myton, 76, 83, 160. 
 Berewick, Myton mentioned as one in 
 
 Domesday Book, 32 ; definition of, 
 
 147. 
 Board, contrasted with Table, (17) 23 
 Bolton, Bobert de, (63) 117. 
 Bondage, enormous rent of a cottage 
 
 in b. in Myton, 89. 
 Bond tenants in Myton, 88. 
 Borough English custom of, 9. 
 Boundaries of Myton lordship of old, 
 
 44 ; to-day, 168 ; ancient more 
 
 fully defined, 192. 
 Bovate of land described, 33. 
 Brazil Gardens, commencement of 
 
 Hessle Boad, 179. 
 Breton de Buggethorp, Ralph, 54. 
 Bricks, obstruction of highway in 
 
 Myton by, 159. 
 Brickyard of the De la Poles in 
 
 Myton, 77, 114. 
 Bryge-bot as an incident of tenure, 
 
 (27) 41. 
 Burgage, remarkable grant of free b. 
 
 to the citizens of Wyk, 137. 
 Burg-bot as an incident of tenure, 
 
 (27) 41. 
 Butts for archery in Myton, 113. 
 
 Camin, Maud, or Matilda, inheritrix 
 of Myton, 33 ; her grant of it by 
 charter to the monks of Meaux 
 Abbey, 38. 
 
 Camyn, Lambert, 54. 
 
 Carr-lane, ancient road to Myton Carr, 
 177-8. 
 
 Carthusian Priory in Myton, reference 
 
2IO 
 
 General Index. 
 
 to its history in the Liber Melsc, 
 47 ; founded in 1378, (66) 119 ; 
 position of its site in modern Hull, 
 191. 
 Carucate of land, quantity of, 32. 
 Certificates as to Myton, see Beckwith, 
 
 also Kiddell. 
 Charters as used by the Normans, 102. 
 Charterhouse Hospital founded in 
 
 Myton, (6(3) 119. 
 Children, sale of, amongst the Saxons, 
 
 (3) 8. 
 decking a dyke in Myton, 170. 
 Colthorp's Chantry, sale of lands in 
 
 Myton to, 119. 
 Commercial Road, part of course of 
 
 old river Hull, 192. 
 Compotus, Waley's, of the Hull and 
 Myton properties of the De la 
 Poles, 111. 
 Compotus of Wm. de Wroteham as to 
 
 port of Hull, 137. 
 Copyhold tenants of Tupcoates-with- 
 Myton temp.. Hen. VIII., 165, 169. 
 Copyhold tenure, its origin, 7, 10 ; 
 transfer of copyhold property how 
 conducted, 154. 
 Corporation Field, allotment of, 175. 
 Cottage in bondage in Myton, 88. 
 Cottages in the township, 91. 
 Cotarii, rents of in Myton, 143. 
 Cote, definition of, 150. 
 Cottingham, drainage through Myton, 
 184 ; a northern boundary of 
 Myton, 192. 
 Court Baron of a manor, 6 ; essential 
 to a legal manor, 155 ; its powers, 
 156. 
 Court Leet of do., 6 ; established at 
 Tupcoates by Sir Wm. d. 1. Pole, 
 and its authority, 156. 
 Court of Myton, alleged ancient, 74, 
 
 75, 148. 
 Court Hall manor in Hull (Suffolk 
 
 Palace), 110, also (59; same page. 
 Court of Tupcoates-with-My ton estab- 
 lished by Sir Wm. d. 1. Pole, 154 ; 
 its nature and powers, 156 ; ex- 
 pressly mentioned in Beckwith's 
 certificate, 168 ; titles of this court 
 at various periods, 157, 158, 160, 
 161, 163, 164, 170. 
 Court Polls, see Tupcoates-with- 
 My ton. 
 Creek, definition of, 185. 
 Croft, definition of, (26) 41. 
 Crown, past grants of to subjects 
 discussed, 116. 
 
 Customary Court of a manor, 6. 
 
 Deeds relating to Myton : grant by 
 Maud Camin, 38 ; grant of manor 
 to brothers Be la Pole, 78 ; their 
 agreement to divide the manor, 81 ; 
 grant by Robert FitzHugh of lands 
 of the fee of Aton, 82 ; release to 
 the brothers De la Pole of the 
 king's rent-charge, 86 ; grant of 
 lands in Myton by Wm. d. 1. Pole, 
 juur., 93 ; remarks thereon 96 et 
 seq ; release by Wm. d. 1. Pole, 
 junr., of a tenement in Myton, 102 ; 
 lease of the whole or part of the 
 lordship by Sir Michael d. 1. Pole, 
 109 ; grant by his successor 
 relating to Aton-feo, 118 ; deed of 
 the prior and convent of St. 
 Michael's relating to the Colthorp 
 chantry, 119 ; leaso for 100 years 
 of land in My^on to mayor, &c, of 
 Hull, 119 ; grants by Sir Wm. d. 1. 
 Pole, duke of Suffolk, relating to 
 the manor of Myton and King's- 
 fee, 124 ; grant of the lordship to 
 Sir Wm. Sydney, 130; to the town 
 of Hull, 133 ; grant of free burgage 
 to the inhabitants of Wyk by 
 Archbp. Gray, 137 ; deed of 
 partition of the lordship between 
 the brothers De la Pole, 139. 
 Beed Poll defined, (54) 93. 
 Deirans, tribe of Engles, first enter 
 the Humber, 17 ; early kingdom 
 of, 18. 
 De la Pole (lords of Myton) — Richd. 
 and Wm. petition Edward III. for 
 a grant of the manor, 77 ; inquisi- 
 tion in consequence, 77 ; grant of 
 the manor to them, 78 ; divide the 
 lordship between them, 80 ; notice 
 of prior deed, 81 ; deed of partition, 
 139 ; their release from the crown's 
 rent-charge, 86 ; death of Sir 
 Richard d. 1. P. solely seised of 
 the lordship and Inquis. p. m„ 87 ; 
 remarks on the inquisition 88 et 
 seq ; Aton -fee added to Myton 
 lordship by him, 123 ; death of Sir 
 Wm. d. 1. P. solely seised of the 
 lordship, 104 ; Inquis. p. m., 105 ; 
 court established by him at Tup- 
 coates, see Court of Tupcoates. 
 William, jdnk., grant affecting 
 Myton, 93 ; discussed, 96 et seq; 
 his seal, 103 ; death and Inquis. 
 p. m., 104. 
 
General Index. 
 
 211 
 
 Dame Katherine, fined for 
 entering into possession of My ton 
 without the royal license, her 
 death, and Inquis. p. m., 108. 
 
 Sir Michael (the first), his 
 succession, career, death, and 
 Inquii.p. m., 108; lease of Myton 
 by him to John do Hedersete et 
 al., 109. 
 
 Sir Michael (the second), his 
 inheritance, 109 ; his petition for 
 his rights in regard to Myton, 
 110 ; evidence of immediate 
 restitution, 107 ; Compotus of 
 his Hull and Myton properties, 
 111 ; grant of Aton-fee to Eobt. 
 de Bolton et at, 118 ; lease to the 
 mayor, &c, of land in Myton, 
 119 ; his death and Inquis. p. m., 
 120; title of his court at Tup- 
 coates, 157. 
 
 Sin Michael (the third), his 
 death and Inquis. p. m., 120 ; his 
 fatherless daughters robbed of 
 their inheritance, 124. 
 
 •Dame Katherine (widow of 
 the second earl), her death, and 
 Inquis. p. m., 123. 
 
 Sir William (afterwards duke 
 of Suffolk), inherits, 124 ; grants 
 by him relating to Myton and 
 King's-fee, 124-5 ; his death, 
 and Inquis. p. m., 125. 
 
 Alice (dowager duchess), title 
 of her court at Tupcoates, 158. 
 
 John (second duke), his politic 
 marriage and restoration in 
 blood, 126 ; his Hull and Myton 
 rental, 126-7 ; death and attain- 
 der of his heir, 127 ; his death, 
 128 ; title of his court at Tup- 
 coates, 161. 
 
 Edmund (fifth earl), " londes 
 in Mitton " restored to him, 
 128 ; his death, and inquisition 
 as to his Hull and Myton proper- 
 ties, 128 ; last of his line to be 
 lord of Myton, 129. 
 Demesne lands described, 4 ; King's- 
 fee in Myton of this nature, 105 ; 
 probably so constituted by Sir Wm. 
 d. 1. Pole, senr., 152. See also 
 Corrigenda p. 202. 
 Ditches in Myton as defences against 
 inundation, 141 ; attacks on by the 
 Usflete family, 142 ; new one to be 
 made through Myton Carr, 142 ; 
 
 Julian ditch, 143 ; regulations as 
 to in Tupcoates-with-Myton, 163. 
 
 Domesday Book, reference to Myton 
 in, 32. 
 
 Drains, occupation of common pasture 
 of Myton for drainage purposes by 
 Wm. de Stuteville et al., (34) 61 ; 
 supposed construction of Old 
 Harbour as one by Saer de Sutton, 
 and remarks thereon, 184 et seq. 
 ! Dugdale's " Imbanking and Drain- 
 ing," 141. 
 
 Dymelton, John de, lessee of Myton, 
 109. 
 
 i East Ing of Myton, 166 
 
 Ebor, Edward de, warden of Hull and 
 Myton, 70 ; extract from his 
 accounts, 143. 
 
 Edina, Eddiva, or Edith, A.S. lady of 
 Myton, see Algitha. 
 
 Edward I. acquires Myton and Wyk, 
 67 ; changes name of latter to 
 Kingston, 69; purchaser of King's- 
 fee only, 123, (85) 149. 
 
 Edward II. appoints Sir R. de 
 Hastang, warden of Hull and 
 Myton, 70 ; his Manor-House at 
 Myton, 74, 149 ; " ameliorates " 
 Sayercreek, 184, 188. 
 
 Edward III. grants Myton to the 
 brothers De la Pole, 78 ; his letters- 
 mandatory to the townspeople of 
 Hull in reference to their fee- 
 farm rent, 85 ; releases Myton rent- 
 charge, 86. 
 
 Edward VI., grants Tupcoates-with- 
 Myton to the town of Hull, 133. 
 
 Eland, Sir John, freeholder of Myton, 
 his close in Myton Carr, 165. 
 
 Elizabeth (Queen), her exemplification 
 of Beckwith's certificate, 131. 
 
 Engine-street, site of waterworks, 178. 
 
 Engles, first enter the Humber, 17 ; 
 original settlers at Hull mouth, 
 19, 192. 
 
 Escheat, incident of feudal tenure, 13. 
 
 Fee Farm of Hull created, 71 ; letters- 
 mandatory of Edward III. relating 
 to, 85. 
 
 Ferriby, a manor at the time of Domes- 
 day Book, 32 ; common pastures 
 contiguous to those of Myton, 192 ; 
 judgment in favour of prior of in 
 regard to moor and marsh lands 
 in Myton, 90; trespass of people 
 of upon Myton Carr, 159. 
 
212 
 
 General Index 
 
 Fine, mode of legal assurance, defined 
 (53), 91 ; origin of as an incident 
 of copyhold tenure, 153 ; inflicted 
 for divers offences within Tup- 
 coates-with-Myton, 156, 159, 100, 
 170, 171 ; and see Corripenda p. 205. 
 FitzDien, Hull family of repute, 85. 
 FitzHugh, Robert, deed of relating to 
 lands in Myton of the fee of Aton, 
 82 ; discussed, 81 ; difficulty as to 
 removed, 19. 
 Flinton, Roger de, 54. 
 Followers, or suitors, of a court-baron, 
 (86) 153 ; of the court at Tupcoates, 
 155, 161. 
 Forinsecum Servitium, defined, (28) 
 
 41, 56. 
 Fortibus, Aveline de (36) 67. 
 Frankalmoigne, a feudal tenure, (27)41. 
 Frankpledge, view of, an ancient 
 jurisdiction, 6 ; the court at Tup- 
 coates so called, 155, 161, 164, 170. 
 Freehold tenants of Myton as suitors 
 of the court at Tupcoates, 155, 165. 
 Friars, Dominican, wrongfully remove 
 
 turf from Myton Carr, 159. 
 Frost's "Notices" quoted; plans of 
 Hull, 27 ; Maud Gamin's charter, 
 38, 42 ; the ancient aula of Myton, 
 47 ; town of Myton, 50 ; Meaux 
 register, 53 ; court of Myton, 74 ; 
 pedigree of the De la Poles, 104 ; 
 new tilery, (62) 114 ; old roads to 
 Anlaby and Beverley, 176 ; change 
 in the course of the Hull, 183 ; as 
 to Sayercryk, 184 ; date of the 
 change in the river, 186 ; its 
 ancient course, 189. 
 Fyrd, incident of ancient tenure, (27) 
 
 41. 
 Galley Clough Drain, an ancient 
 water-course, ! 83) 143; boundary 
 of Maidenhill closes, 162 ; a limit 
 of Myton, 163 ; probably con- 
 structed by Eustace de Vesci, 19. 
 Gallows, allotment to mayor and 
 
 burgesses for site of, 175. 
 Gallows-Lane, former name of Gt. 
 
 Thornton-street, 174. 
 Gaming within Myton, fined, (87) 156. 
 Godiva Lady, ancestress of Algitha,34. 
 Gote defined, (96) 191. 
 Grange of Myton, its site, 46 ; theory 
 as to its character, 48; papal bulls 
 relating to, 49 ; probable period of 
 erection, 65 ; its situation, 74, 
 149 ; removed to Tupcoates, 46, 69, 
 151 ; a grange defined, 148. 
 
 Grangewyk, the inclosure in which 
 Myton grange once stood, 46, 69 ; 
 a close of pasture land at time of 
 Beckwith's survey, 165 ; site of, 48, 
 196 ; a portion of the copyholds of 
 Tupcoates-with-Myton, 19 ; name 
 of a sewer in Myton, 161. 
 
 Gray, Archbishop, his grant of free 
 burgage to Wyk, 137. 
 
 Green Dr., quotations from his 
 " Making of England," the Anglo- 
 Saxon tun, 20, 22 ; its usual 
 boundaries, 190. 
 
 Hall, ancient one in Myton, see Aula. 
 Hastang, Robert de, warden of Hull 
 and Myton, 70, 72 ; his public 
 services, (40) 73; unroofs a messuage 
 in Myton, 76 ; releases his interest 
 in the manor to the brothers De la 
 Pole, 81. 
 Hedersete, John de, lessee of Myton, 
 
 109. 
 Helleward, Walter, 85. 
 Henry VIII., his grant of Myton to 
 Sir Wm. Sydney, 130 ; resumes 
 possession of the lordship, 131 ; 
 his assumption of the title Fidei 
 Defensor, (78) 132 ; title of his court 
 at Tupcoates, 164. 
 Hermit of Myton, his ill-doings, 159. 
 Hermitage of Myton, 159, 168. 
 Herons, probable denizens of Myton. 
 
 165. 
 Heron Closes, meadows in Myton, 168. 
 Hessle, berewick of Ferriby manor, 
 32 ; also mentioned as a manor, 
 (22) 32 ; dispute between vicar of 
 and Meaux Abbey as to the tithes 
 of Myton, 59, 61 ; turnpike-road to 
 constructed, 179. 
 Holderness, origin of name, (12) 17. 
 Holy Trinity, vicar of, his award in 
 
 lieu of the tithes of Myton, 176. 
 Hull River, change in its course, and 
 new Hull of old called Sayercryk, 
 46 ; account of the change given 
 by the Liber Melse, 46, 183, 187 
 change followed by the houses 
 forming Wyk, 51 ; supposed period 
 of the change, 186, and see 
 Corrigenda p. 203 ; course of the old 
 river according to Frost, 189; alter- 
 native theory, 191; My ton enlarged 
 by the change, 196. 
 Humbercote, a berchary in Myton, 76. 
 Humbercroft, a close in Myton, 109. 
 Humber Field, another close, 166. 
 
General Index. 
 
 213 
 
 Imparcamentum defined, (55) 95. 
 
 Inclosure of Myton Carr, 173 ; re- 
 marks on plan of, 174. 
 
 Income of De la Poles from Hull and 
 Myton property, 11G. 
 
 Indenture defined, 93. 
 
 Inquest, see Kirkby. 
 
 Inquisition into state of Myton, 75 ; 
 do. and first mention of Tupcoates, 
 76 ; taken by John do Sutton prior 
 to the grant of the lordship to Rd. 
 and Wm. d. 1. Pole, 77 ; ad quod 
 damnum relating to Myton, 143 ; 
 Eiddell's inquiry after the execu- 
 tion of Edmund d. 1. Pole, 128 ; as 
 to heirship of hereditaments in 
 Tupcoates-with-Myton, 158. 
 
 Inquisitions Post Mortem — Rd. d. 1. 
 Pole, 73, 87 ; same discussed, 88 et 
 seq ; Wm. d. 1. Pole, junr., 104 ; 
 Wm. d. 1. Pole, senr., 105 ; same 
 discussed, 105 et seq ; Katherine 
 d. 1. Pole, 108 ; Michael d. 1. Pole, 
 108 j Mich. d. 1. Pole, 120, 121 ; 
 Katherine d. 1. Pole, 123 ; Wm. d. 
 1. Pole (duke of S.), 125 ; Edmund 
 d. 1. Pole, 128. 
 
 Inundations, Myton subject to, and 
 precautions against, 141 et. seq. 
 
 Janus Anglorum, reference to Selden's, 
 102. 
 
 Kingston-upon-Hull,contemporaneous 
 with rilla de Myton, 49 ; remarks 
 thereon, 50 et seq ; purchase of its 
 site by Edward I., 67; origin of 
 name, 69 ; first wardens of, 70 ; 
 reference to the charter of 1331, 
 71 ; fee-farm rent of granted to the 
 brothers De la Pole, 85 ; the Suffolk 
 palace there, 110 ; streets of in 1402, 
 112 ; created a manor, and rents of 
 assize in, 112 ; grant of Tupcoates- 
 with-Myton to mayor and bur- 
 gesses, 133 ; curious chapter in the 
 history of, 137 ; grant to mayor, 
 &c, of the port under the town, 
 called Hull, 188. 
 
 King's Fee, after-name of the original 
 10 bovates of Myton, 90, 106, 121. 
 
 Kirkby's Inquest as to Myton, dis- 
 cussed, 38 ; 89 ; 122 ; and see 
 Corrigenda p. 203. 
 
 Kirkella, origin of name (13) 18. 
 
 Kylhom or Kilham, Sir Richard de, 
 first master of the Charterhouse 
 hospital, 112. 
 
 Latin phrases in Tupcoates court-rolls 
 with steward's translations, 170 ; 
 and see also Corrigenda p. 205. 
 
 Lease, of all or part of Myton by Sir 
 Michael de la Pole, 109 ; of land in 
 Myton to mayor, &c, of Hull, by 
 the second Sir Mich. d. 1. Pole, 119. 
 
 Leland quoted as to ancient tilery in 
 Myton, 77. 
 
 Letters Mandatory from Edw.III. as 
 to the fee-farm rent of Hull, 85. 
 
 Liber Melse, its account of their acquisi- 
 tion of Myton and Wyk, and of the 
 Carthusian priory, 45 et seq ; its 
 further history of Myton, H8et seq; 
 its account of the sale of Myton, 
 &c, to Edw. I., 67 et seq ; as to the 
 removal of their grange to Tup- 
 coates, 151 ; as to the change in the 
 course of the river Hull, 46, 183. 
 
 Life, tenancies for in Tupcoates-with- 
 Myton, 158. 
 
 Limekiln Creek, mentioned in charter 
 of Edwd. VI., 134; sea wall at 
 mouth of, 163 ; suggested origin of 
 name, 185 ; a fragment of the 
 old Hull, 189. 
 
 Limekiln Clough, unfenced and dan- 
 gerous, 163. 
 
 Limits of Myton, as an Anglo-S. tun, 
 44 ; difficulties of fixing same, 90 ; 
 modern representatives of, 168 ; 
 given more precisely, 192 ; and see 
 also Corrigenda p. 202. 
 
 Lichfield, Robert de, mayor of Hull, 85. 
 
 Lyle-street, projected into Myton, 52 ; 
 former name of Mytongate, (41) 
 
 76 ; period of change of name, 120. 
 Lyndeby, manor or vill of, a moiety 
 
 acquired by Sir Wm. d. 1. Pole, (44) 
 
 77 ; exchanged for Myton, 79 ; 
 annual value of, (46) 80. 
 
 Love Lane (now Cogan-street), 174,179. 
 
 Manor (an estate), origin of the insti- 
 tution, 3 ; nature of a manor, 4 ; 
 derivation of the term, 5 ; courts of, 
 6 ; villein tenants of, 9 ; further 
 creation of prevented by statute, 
 12 ; Scandinavian manors, (12) 17 ; 
 Myton not a true manor, 49, 75, 
 147, 148, 156 ; further definition of, 
 136. 
 
 Manor (a large building), instances of 
 this use of the term, (30) 46, 105, 
 108, 109, 110, 125, (84) 149. 
 
 Manor House, Edw. II. said to have 
 erected ono in Myton, 73 ; its rapid 
 
214 
 
 General Index. 
 
 decay, 75 ; remarks on this Manor 
 House, 149 ; one erected at Tup- 
 coates by Sir Wm. d. 1. Pole, 151 ; 
 Warburton's reference to, 152. 
 
 Maidenhill closes, their situation, 162, 
 167, 174 ; and see also Corrigenda 
 p. 205. 
 
 Mansfield-dale, a meadow in Wold 
 Ings copyhold of Tupcoates-with- 
 Myton, 165 ; its situation, 19. 
 
 Mark system, or village commune, ex- 
 plained, (15) 21. 
 
 Marriage, feudal right of, 13. 
 
 Mayor and burgesses of Hull, grant to 
 of Tupcoates-with-Myton, 133 ; title 
 of their court, 170 ; allotment to of 
 Corporation Field, 175. 
 
 Melsa, Robert de, husband of Maud 
 Camin, 53. 
 
 Meaux Abbey, its acquisition of My ton 
 and Wyk, 45 ; register of its pos- 
 sessions there, 53 ; dispute with 
 vicar of Hessle as to tithes of My ton, 
 59, 61 ; unfortunate lease of Myton 
 to the clean of York, G3 ; sale of 
 Myton, &c, to Edward I., 67 ; 
 situation of its grange discussed, 
 47 ; grange demolished by Sir Wm. 
 d. 1. Pole, 151. 
 
 Messuage defined, (42) 76. 
 
 Mills, of great antiquity in England, 
 26 ; many shewn in old plans of 
 Hull, 27 ; mention of a windmill in 
 Myton, 78, 80, 88 ; remarks thereon, 
 92 ; further mention of same, 105, 
 108, 125 ; mention of two windmills 
 inMyton,93; remarks thereon, 101; 
 the two again mentioned in the 
 lease to Hedersete et al., 109, 110 ; 
 ancient watermill in Myton, 144 ; 
 sale of the mill in Myton rnilnecroft, 
 (95) 177. 
 
 Milnecrof t, an inclosure in Myton, 114 ; 
 its situation, 177. 
 
 Mortemer, Ralph de, first Norman 
 lord of Myton, 35 ; perhaps built 
 Myton chapel; (35) 61. - 
 
 Mortmain, statute of, (39) 69. 
 
 Mowbray, Sir John de, feudal lord of 
 Myton, 88; remarks thereon, 91,106. 
 
 My, as the first syllable of Myton, its 
 signification, 25 et eeq. 
 
 Myton, origin of the name, 20 ; its 
 first appearance in history, 31 ; its 
 Anglo-Saxon lady, 33; devastated 
 by the Conqueror, 35 ; granted by 
 Maud Camin to the monks of 
 Meaux Abbey, 38 ; considered by 
 
 Frost a lost town, 50 ; also by the 
 editor of the YorkshireTopographical 
 Journal, (53) 91 ; its wyk or har- 
 bour, 51 ; ancient chapel of, (35) 
 61 ; its value before the sale to King 
 Edward, 66 ; sale of to King Edw., 
 67 ; granted to the brothers De la 
 Pole, and its then value, 78 ; re- 
 marks on its diminished value, 79 ; 
 stated to be in Holderness, (45) 79 ; 
 divided between Rd. and Wm. d. 1. 
 Pole, 80, 139 ; its value temp Duke 
 John d. 1. Tole, 127 ; forfeited to the 
 crown, 127; Riddell's certificate 
 as to, 128 ; granted to Sir Wm. 
 Sydney, 130; resumed by the crown, 
 and Beckwith's certificate as to, 
 131 ; the then value of the lordship, 
 132 ; granted to the mayor and 
 burgesses of Hull, 133 ; apparent 
 great decline in value at that time, 
 and remarks thereon, 134 ; the 
 name superseded by that of Tup- 
 coates-with-Myton, 135 ; yet ad- 
 hered to on the inclosure of Myton 
 Carr, 175 ; Myton never a manor 
 according to strict legal definition, 
 see Manor ; see also Area, and 
 Limits. 
 
 Myton Carr, the common pasture of 
 Myton, first mentioned, 78 ; ex- 
 pressly included in the charter of 
 Edwd. VI., 134; ditch to be cut 
 through, 142 ; gates and "stint" 
 in, 1G3 and (90) (91) ; its contents 
 at the time of Beckwith's survey, 
 and referred to in Riddell's certifi- 
 cate, 169 ; its final inclosure, 173. 
 
 Myton Gate, see Lyle-street. 
 
 Nativi, the legal term for villeins, 98. 
 New Carr, a large close in Myton, 168 ; 
 
 referred to in Riddell's certificate, 
 
 169. 
 
 Ottringham, endowment of a chantry 
 in, part of the price for Myton and 
 Wyk, 67. 
 
 Oustmersk, name of a place or district 
 near Hull, 93 ; its nature and 
 situation, 97 ; mentioned, 118, 125. 
 
 Oxgang, what, 33. 
 
 Oysel, Richard, warden of Hull, 70; 
 accounted for rent of a watermill 
 in Myton, 143. 
 
 Parish defined, 13d. 
 Partition of Myton between the 
 brothers De la Pole, 80, 139. 
 
General Index. 
 
 215 
 
 Patrick Ground Lane, now part of 
 Hessle-road, 174, 178: 
 
 Pease family, their mill in Hull, 101. 
 
 Peck, Aldn., reference to his mill in 
 Myton, 102. 
 
 Pest House in Myton referred to, 195. 
 
 Pesthouse Lane, now Park-street, 
 awarded, 174. 
 
 Pinfold Lane awarded, 174 ; now 
 Waverley-street, 175, 178. 
 
 Plans of Hull, windmills a striking 
 feature in old ones, 27, 28. 
 
 Pole Street in Myton referred to, 102. 
 
 Port of Hull, Wroteham's Compotus as 
 to, 137 ; Saer de Sutton custodian 
 of, 180 ; granted to mayor and 
 burgesses by Richd. II., 188. 
 
 Pound, Adam, citizen of Hull, 102. 
 
 Priory of St. Michael's in Myton built, 
 (00) 119; erected within Myton, 
 but its site now included in Scul- 
 coates parish, 191. 
 
 Property Committee, their permission 
 necessary for access to town's re- 
 cords, 171 ; list of, (92) 171. 
 
 Quality the, origin of expression, 25. 
 Quia Emptores, statute of, 12. 
 
 Eecords of the town, difficulties of 
 access to, 171. 
 
 Rental of Do la Pole family in Hull 
 and Myton, 111 ; of Duke John 
 d. 1. Pole, 120. 
 
 Rents of Assize defined, and remarks 
 on those owned by the De la Poles 
 in Hull, 112 ; of cottagers in 
 Myton, 143. 
 
 Removal of Myton grange to Tup- 
 coates, 40, 69, 151. 
 
 Resiancy , a ground of suit of court, 155. 
 
 Riddell, Mayor, his certificate as to 
 the Myton, &c, property of Ed- 
 mund de la Pole, 128; criticised 
 (72) ; justified, 109. 
 
 River Hull, see Hull River. 
 
 Salthouse, a " place " so-called re- 
 ferred to, 114. 
 
 Salt Pits, an ancient feature of Myton, 
 39. 
 
 Sandale, Robert de, destroyed Tap- 
 coates cottage, 76. 
 
 Sayercryk (Sayercreek), ancient name 
 of the modern lower Hull, 46; 
 hitherto said to have been originally 
 a drain, and remarks on this state- 
 ment, 184 ; suggested derivation of 
 
 name, 185 ; a water-course temp, 
 Edw. I., and known as "Hull" 
 temp. Rich. II., 188 ; eastern 
 boundary of the reliquam partem 
 del Wyk, 194. 
 
 Sculcoates, Benedict de, one of the 
 early proprietors of the reliq. part, 
 del Wyk, and his drainage opera- 
 tions, 46 ; Frost's conclusion on the 
 latter, 184; and see Corrigenda p.206. 
 
 Sculcoates Gote, portion of the old 
 Hull, 189, 191. 
 
 Sculcoates Parish, remarks and theory 
 on modern boundary of, 189 el seq ; 
 derivation of name, 192 ; now in- 
 cludes what was formerly part of 
 Myton lordship, 197. 
 
 Scutage, what, 56. 
 
 Sectatores Curiae, suitors of a court- 
 baron, 155, 161. 
 
 Servitium Regale, what, 66. 
 
 Sheriff of Hull, remarks on the office 
 of, (77) 132. 
 
 Steward of Tupcoates-with-Myton, 
 originally a judicial officer, 156 ; 
 instance of this, 157 ; his Latinity, 
 170, and see Corrigenda p. 205. 
 
 Stint, the rule for stocking Myton 
 Carr, (91) 163. 
 
 Straw used symbolically in Tupcoates- 
 with-Myton on surrender, 153, and 
 see Corrigenda p. 204. 
 
 Stut, Robert and others, witnesses to 
 a deed, 82. 
 
 Suffolk Palace mentioned, 109 ; called 
 "the manor of Courthall," 110; 
 and subsequently "the HallGarth," 
 (79) 133. 
 
 Suit of Court, an incident of feudal 
 tenure, (80) 153 ; by reason of 
 resiancy, 155. 
 
 Surnames, local, denoting occupation, 
 114. 
 
 Surrender, as a mode of transferring 
 copyhold property, described, 154. 
 
 Sutton, John de, his inquiry into the 
 value of Myton temp. Edwd. HI.,77. 
 
 Sutton, Saer de, reputed constructor 
 of Sayercreek, 184 ; another theory 
 as to this, 185 ; custodian of the 
 port of Hull, 186. 
 
 Sutton, William de, one of the early 
 proprietors of the reliq. part, del 
 Wyk, 45, 48. 
 
 Swanland, origin of name, 19 ; men of 
 steal sheep from Myton Carr, 61 
 a western boundary of Myton, 192, 
 195. 
 
2l6 
 
 General Index. 
 
 Sward Land in Myton purchased for 
 Sir Mich. d. 1. Pole, 118. 
 
 Sydney, Sir William, biographical 
 particulars, (73) 129 ; grant of 
 Myton to, 130 ; title of his court, 163. 
 
 Table contrasted with Board, (17) 23. 
 
 Tanhouse Lano, now Watorhouse- 
 lane, part of the old road to Anlaby, 
 178 ; perhaps marked part of the 
 course of the old Hull, 192. 
 
 Taverner, Walter le, bailiff of Hull, 84. 
 
 Tenant, what in the feudal system, 
 (9) 13. 
 
 Tenants at will of Tupcoates-with- 
 Myton, 16G. 
 
 Tenure, of a messuage at Wyk as an 
 instance of feudal tenancies, 13 ; 
 of Myton, feudally, discussed, 38, 
 57, 91, 98, 100, 107, 122, (85) 149. 
 
 Tilery in Myton, a brickyard of the 
 De la Poles, 77; leased to Hedersete 
 et a!., 109 ; afterwards an archery- 
 ground, 113. 
 
 Tithes of Myton claimed in the 12th 
 century by the vicar of Hessle, 59 ; 
 the dispute settled, 02 ; of one 
 meadow in Myton paid to St. 
 Mary 's church, 133 ; of Myton Carr, 
 an allotment in lieu upon its in- 
 closure, 176. 
 
 Toft defined, (25) 40. 
 
 Trinoda Necessitas, what, (27) 41. 
 
 Tun, Anglo-Saxon township, Prof. 
 Stubbs' definition of, 20 ; its 
 domestic economy described by Dr. 
 Green , 22 ; its usual boundaries, 190. 
 
 Tupcoates, originally a cottage des- 
 troyed by Bobert de Sandale, 76 ; 
 origin of the name, 150 ; removal 
 of the manor buildings there by 
 Sir Wm. d. 1. Pole, 46, 69, 151 ; let 
 as a close from year to year, 166 ; 
 site of Tupcoates cottage, 195, and 
 see Corrigenda p. 204 ; Warburton's 
 reference to Tupcoates close, 152. 
 
 Tupcoates Corner, a recognized feature 
 in the lordship of Myton, 170, 195. 
 
 Tupcoates-with-Myton, manor of, 
 Beckwith's reference to, 132 ; notes 
 on, 174 et seq ; origin of this ex- 
 pression, 161, 164 ; nature of the 
 manorial court of, 155 ; titles of this 
 court upon various early rolls, 157, 
 158, 160, 161, 163, 164, 170 ; total 
 acreage of, 168 ; granted to the 
 mayor and burgesses of Hull, 133, 
 135 ; its then value, 134 ; transfers 
 
 of property in originally oral ami 
 by a straw, 153 ; first mention of 
 the straw on the rolls Corrigenda p. 
 204 ; Warburton's account of, 172 ; 
 by-laws of temp. Hen. VIII., 162 ; 
 fines for offences against the cus- 
 toms of the manor, 156, 159, 160 ; 
 life tenancies in, 158 ; Grangewyk 
 copyhold of, 197 ; limits of its copy- 
 hold area, 197 ; no part of such are 
 found outside the ancient limits of 
 Myton, 202. Cockt Bolls of, testi- 
 mony of early ones as to villeinage 
 in Myton, 99 ; sequence of, 153 ; 
 abstract of earlier ones, 156 et seq. 
 
 Usfleto family, their attacks on the 
 water defences of Myton, 142. 
 
 Vagrants, relieving of in Myton illegal, 
 (87) 156. 
 
 Vesci, Eustace de, places a boundary 
 between S wanland and Myton com- 
 mon pastures, 61 ; its probable 
 nature, 193. William de V., feudal 
 lord of a tenement in Wyk, 13 ; 
 also of part of the fee of Myton 
 (Aton-fee), 38, (50) 89, 122. 
 
 Villa, or Vill, derivation of, (5) 9 ; 
 Myton described as a, (32) 50 ; re- 
 marks on the meaning of the term 
 in that connection, 52, 91 ; defini- 
 of, 136. 
 
 Villain, origin of epithet, (5) 9. 
 
 Villeins, their oath of fealty, (4) 8 ; of 
 two kinds, 9 ; how liberated, 9, (8) 
 10 ; first mention of in connection 
 with Myton, 93 ; remarks thereon, 
 98 etseq ; probably none in Myton, 
 141, 143. 
 
 Villeinage, a feature of the manorial 
 system, 7 et seq. 
 
 Wagha, a measure of weight, (65} 118. 
 Wake, Sir Thomas, Lord de Liddell, 
 
 witness to a deed, 94. 
 Waldinges (Wold Ings) meadows 
 
 within, part of Myton lordship, 78, 
 
 109, 193. 
 Waleys, John, his Compotus of the 
 
 Myton, &c, properties of Sir Mich. 
 
 d. 1. Pole, 111 et seq. 
 Warburton MSS. quoted as to Tup- 
 coates Manor-House, 152 ; as to 
 
 Myton generally, 172. 
 Wardship, a profitable incident of 
 
 feudal tenure, 13. 
 Warren defined, (37) 67. 
 
General Index. 
 
 217 
 
 Water House, site of, 178. 
 
 Waterhouse Lane, formerly part of 
 the road to Anlaby, 178 ; perhaps 
 marks part of the course of the old 
 Hull, 192. 
 
 Water Mill, the mill of Domesday 
 Book, 27 ; one in Myton, 144. 
 
 Waverley Street, once Pinfold-lane, 
 175. 
 
 West Ing of Myton, a meadow tithable 
 to St. Mary's church, 133, see also 
 Corrigenda p. 203 ; its acreage, 166. 
 
 Weston-le-Clay, grant of j>art of Myton 
 to a resident in, 93. 
 
 Whyetcluett, a sluice in Myton re- 
 parable by the town of Hull, 159. 
 
 Wirfd Mills, not known in England 
 until after the Conquest, 27 ; see 
 Mills. 
 
 Wold Carr, a western boundary of 
 Myton Carr, 193 ; of Myton lord- 
 ship, 195. 
 
 Wold Ings, included Sevenstangs, 78 ; 
 a portion of once appendant to the 
 lordship of Myton, 109, 193. 
 
 Wreck defined, and perhaps a franchise 
 of the lords of Myton, 100. 
 
 Wroteham, William de, his Compotus 
 in reference to the port of Hull, 137. 
 
 Wyk of Holderness, 57. 
 
 Wyk of Myton, sold by Maud Camin 
 to the monks of Meaux Abbey, 38 ; 
 account of the transaction in the 
 Liber Melse, 45 ; a trading place of 
 great antiquity, 51 ; made a dis- 
 tinct hamlet by the change in the 
 course of the river, 51 ; grant of a 
 fair there, 63 ; sold to Edward I., 
 67: its name changed to Kingston- 
 upon-Hull, 69. Wye of Myton, the 
 harbour not hamlet of the lordship, 
 51 ; but see Corrigenda p. 201. 
 
 Wyk-upon-Hull, feudal tenure of a 
 messuage there, 13 ; grant of free 
 burgage to the inhabitants of, 137. 
 
 Wyk, " the remaining part of," site of 
 the abbey grange not of the ancient 
 aula, 47 ; subsequently the site of 
 Wyk-upon-Hull, afterwards Kings- 
 ton-upon-Hull, 52 ; was situate 
 east of the old river Hull, 194 ; site 
 of Aton-fee, 195, 197. 
 
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 Babington, H. N., 14 Parliament Street, Hull. 
 
 Barrett, H. G. Ernest, 7 Adelaide Terrace, Anlaby Road, Hull. 
 
 Bilson, John, Heesle. 
 
 Boulter, Rev. W. C, Malvern Link, Malvern. 
 
 Brailsford, Joseph, Endcliffe, Sheffield. 
 
 Brown, John, Savile Street, Hull. 
 
 Brown, Walter, Savile Street, Hull. 
 
 Burton, Alfred, Ack Lane, Cheadle, Hulme, near Stockport. 
 
220 List of Subscribers. 
 
 Cox, Rev. J. Charles, LL.D., F.S.A., Barton le Street Rectory, 
 
 Malton, Yorks. 
 Curtin, Richard, 10 Dansom Lane, Hull. 
 
 Downing, William, Alton, near Birmingham. 
 Dnesbury, J. A., Postmaster, Hull. 
 Dunn, Joshua, Howden. 
 
 Fewster, Councillor C. E., Sykes Street, Hull. 
 
 Galloway, F. C, 493 Manchester Road, Bradford, Yorks. 
 
 Graham, C. C, 165 Beverley Road, Hull. 
 
 Grant, G. F., Linden House, Linnreus Street, Hull. 
 
 Hainsworth, Lewis, 120 Bowling Old Lane, Bradford. 
 Henson, John Rossell, M.A., St. Mary's Chambers, Hull. 
 Hull Literary Club. 
 
 Jackson, Thomas, Fountain Street, Hull. 
 James, Philip, Postmaster, Brough, Yorks. 
 Jones, Rev. Harry, Prebendary of St. Paul's, 8 York Gate, 
 Regent's Park, London, N.W. 
 
 Lambert, Rev. J. M., Newland Vicarage, Hull. 
 Laverack, E., 7 Land of Green Ginger, Hull. 
 Lewis, E. S., Editor Hull Daily Mail, Whitefriargate, Hull. 
 Lyth, R. T. C, York City and County Bank, Limited, Goole. 
 
 Middlemiss, R., 12 Linnaeus Street, Hull. 
 
 Montgomery, W. A., Scale Lane, Hull. 
 
 Moor, William, 1 Cavendish Street, Great Grimsby. 
 
 Nicholson, J., " Thomas Stratten " Sohool, Hull. 
 
 Page, W. G. B., 77 Spring Street, Hull. 
 
 Perris, Rev. H. W., Linnaeus Street, Hull. 
 
 Pickering, R. S., Editor Hull News, Whitefriargate, Hull. 
 
 Randall, Joseph, Bank Chambers, George Street, Sheffield. 
 Roberts, T. Meredith, Linnaeus Street, Hull. 
 Robinson, J., Dock Office Row, Hull. 
 
 Spender, J. A., M.A., Editor Eastern Morning News, White- 
 friargate, Hull. 
 
 Travis-Cook, J., 7 Adelaide Terrace, Anlaby Road, Hull. 
 Tutin, J. R,, Bookseller, Hull (3 copies). 
 
 Walton, Thomas, 10 Charlotte Street, Hull. 
 
 Walton, F. F., 10 Charlotte Street, Hull. 
 
 Watson, James, Hedon. 
 
 White, Edmund E., Hull. 
 
 Wildridge, T. Tindall, Beverley. 
 
 Winter, Robert Henry, St. Mary's Chambers, Lowgate, Hull. 
 
IN THE. PRESS. READY EARLY IN 1891. 
 
 Demy 8vo, Cloth ; Large Paper, Demy 4to, Cloth ; a limited number 
 of the latter will be upon hand-made paper. 
 
 AN IMPORTANT WORK, entitled 
 
 2000 YEARS OF GILD LIFE, 
 
 By Rev. J. M. LAMBERT, LL.B., B.A. 
 
 ¥HIS work will give the result of a careful study of the history and 
 constitution of ancient gilds from the earliest period to the 18th century, 
 thus occupying a place hitherto unfilled in our literature. From the 14th 
 century the subject will be illustrated by original and hitherto unpublished 
 documents, which have been recently discovered, relating to more than 30 of 
 the ancient gilds and trading companies of Kingston-upon-Hull, and which are 
 of great local as well as general interest. Special attention has been paid by 
 the author to the place occupied by these gilds in economic history, as com- 
 pared with the industrial problems of the present day, and also to the relation 
 of the gild system to the municipal constitution. A chapter has also been 
 added on the connection of the same system with the early Christian church. 
 
 The March number of the Antiquary says : The Rev. Dr. Lambert, Chair- 
 man of the Hull School Board, is preparing for early publication, a work on the 
 Hull Gilds. . . . These Ordinances, lately brought to light, will form an unique 
 picture of the internal organization of provincial Trade Gilds, and by com- 
 parison with those in use elsewhere, much light will be thrown on the nature 
 of these societies throughout the kingdom. A bibliography of works relating 
 to the subject will be included, and numerous illustrations will add to the 
 interest of the volume. 
 
 Detailed Prospectus will shortly be issued, and may le had upon application 
 to the Publishers. 
 
 IN THE PRESS. READY EARLY IN 1891. 
 
 Demy 8vo, Cloth ; Large Paper, Royal 4to, Cloth ; a limited number 
 of the latter will be upon hand-made paper, 
 
 THE LOST TOWNS AND CHURCHES OF THE 
 YORKSHIRE COAST. 
 
 ¥HIS work, by the Rev. J. R. Boyle, F.S.A., will be uniform with " The 
 Lost Towns of the Humber," and form a companion volume. It will 
 contain illustrations of Owthorne Church in ruins, Kilnsea Church, and 
 Kilnsea Cross (now at Hedon), the latter from a drawing by F. S. Smith. 
 Abundance of new and hitherto unpublished information of a most interesting 
 nature will be found in this volume. 
 
 Detailed Prospectus will shortly be issued, and may be had upon application 
 to the Publishers. 
 
 HULL: A. BROWN & SONS, Publishers, SavUe Street. 
 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Limited. 
 December, 1R90. 
 
Holy Trinity Church, Hull : a Guide and Description. 
 
 By J. R. BOYLE, f.s.a., 
 Author op " The Lost Towns of the Humbeb." 
 
 ¥HE need of a Descriptive and intelligent Guide-Book to the noble and com- 
 manding Church of Holy Trinity, Hull, has been frequently expressed 
 by the numerous visitors to the town. Mr. Boyle, who is well known for his 
 keen and vigorous research into historical subjects that he takes under hand, has 
 now supplied this requirement, and produced a little volume which cannot fail 
 to be of value. Architecturally the Church is of great interest, and much 
 important matter forms part of its history. 
 
 CONTENTS: 
 THE CHAPEL OF MYTON— THE PRESENT CHURCH— EARLY BRICKWORK— THE 
 PLAN— THE EXTERIOR— THE TOWER— THE INTERIOR:— The Transepts— The 
 Choir — The Chantry Chapels— The Nave — Ancient Woodwork— Monuments— The 
 Font — Stained Glass Windows. 
 WITH 3 ILLUSTRATIONS :— 1, The Exterior— 2, The Chancel— 3, The Naye. 
 
 Price 16mo, Paper Cover net Is Od 
 
 ,. Foolscap 4to (Large Paper), Bound In Ornamental Cloth 2s 6d 
 
 In One Pamphlet, price Sixpence, 8vo. 
 
 TWO BEVERLEY CHURCHES, 
 
 Being Papers read before the Beitish Association at their visit to Beverley, 
 
 September 11th, 1890. 
 
 By WILLIAM STEPHENSON, m.e.c.s. 
 
 By JOHN BILSON, a.b.i.b.a. 
 
 Both Papers are ably written, and make a valuable addition to East Riding Literature." — 
 ^ Hull Examiner, 
 
 Price 2s net. 
 
 Recollections of Hull during 1 Half-a- Century. 
 
 By the Rev. JAMES SIBREE. 
 WHIS does not pretend to be a history ; it is simply Recollections of Hull in 
 
 * the palmy days of the Greenland Fishery, unreformed Corporations, 
 Preachers, Churches, Notable Characters, etc. This gossipy volume will be 
 read by the visitor with much interest. 
 
 Price 3s 6d net, demy 8vo ; large paper, royal 4to, 7s. 
 
 THE LOST TOWNS OF THE HUMBER. 
 
 By the Rev. J. R. BOYLE. 
 WfHIS throws a new light on a little-known subject, and corrects not a few 
 
 * errors of previous writers on this theme. The author has drawn materials 
 from manuscripts in the Public Record Office and the British Museum. 
 
 Price 5s net, demy 8vo. 
 
 PARISH REGISTERS OF ROOS (Vol. I) 
 
 Transcrib*d by the Rev. Canon MACHELL. 
 
 This volume contains some curious entries, and is interesting to the Antiquary 
 
 F'cap 8vo, cloth, price Is. 6d. 
 
 The Speech of Holderness and East Yorkshire. 
 
 By W. H. THOMPSON. 
 #JF the many branches of Science of Language, that of Dialects is one of the 
 V most interesting. The present contribution deals entirely with a local 
 field, and gives the Saxon element, the Norse Features, old English Words, 
 Shakespearian Words, and curious Dialectic Forms, etc., etc. 
 
 " Accept my best thanks for your ' Speech of Holderness.' It is carefully put together, and 
 I hope you will continue your work." — F. Max Muller. 
 
 HULL: A. BROWN^&~sdNS, Savlle Street. 
 
 London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Limited. 
 
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