Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

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The name of Mr Sissison does not appear in any published list of Vicars of Hedon, but his name frequently appears in the register as Minister of Hedon. It would seem that the punishment of excommunication was resorted to at this time. There is a record in the register that

On Feby ye 21st, 1713, Elizabeth Hodgson and Wm. Reeston were legally excommunicated in ye Parish Ch. of Hedon for the bearing of a bastard child and his being the reputed father of it, and for contempt, etc. Signed, R. Sissison, Minr.

And again on 8 January, 1715, Ann Jackson was excommunicated legally

for bearing a bastard child and not finding a father for it… On ye same day Elizabeth Bradley was excommunicated for bearing a bastard child, and for contempt, etc., by R. Sissison, Minister. Memm. Bradley has done penance and is absolved.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Hull & East Yorkshire History Calendar has seen sources which I have not:

On 12th July 1714, Elizabeth Hodgson, a single woman of Hedon, was sentenced at Hedon Quarter Sessions to be stripped to the waist and whipped with birch or willows from the Town Hall to Harrison Lane and from there to the jail and to remain in jail at hard labour until ‘sufficient security’ was found for her good behaviour. Her crime was to give birth to her 4th illegitimate child. There is no record of any punishment for the father. An Act of 1792 forbade whipping females for any reason whatsoever.

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Tags

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• Excommunication (3) W/G ·
• Flagellation (6) W/G ·
• Hedon (6) W/G ·
• Legitimacy (family law) (8) W/G ·
• Richard Sissison (1) W/G ·
• St Augustine’s Church, Hedon (1) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Hull & East Yorkshire History Calendar has seen sources which I have not:

On 12th July 1714, Elizabeth Hodgson, a single woman of Hedon, was sentenced at Hedon Quarter Sessions to be stripped to the waist and whipped with birch or willows from the Town Hall to Harrison Lane and from there to the jail and to remain in jail at hard labour until ‘sufficient security’ was found for her good behaviour. Her crime was to give birth to her 4th illegitimate child. There is no record of any punishment for the father. An Act of 1792 forbade whipping females for any reason whatsoever.

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Similar

27 July 1822: An inquest at York finds that John Furnel of the Queen’s Regiment of Foot died of flogging and resulting illness

19 October 1775: Mayor Joseph Outram lays the first stone of Hull’s first dock and customs quay, dooming the town’s walls and commencing its great expansion

9 October 1647: The Puritan Adam Eyre is in two minds about flogging his maid

13 February 1669: Oliver Heywood’s sons set off from Northowram to Heath Grammar School, Halifax, without having learned their Latin

18 May 1734: The epitaph on the tombstone of the prolific William Strutton of Patrington, buried this day

5 August 1685: John Thompson, an ex-excommunicant, is abandoned in Leeds parish churchyard

22 September 1674: A shotgun wedding ends in tragedy for young Mr Robinson of Sowerby

2 October 1800: Part of an obituary to Harry Rowe, Punch and Judy man, trumpeter at the Battle of Culloden and the York assizes, who died today, old and ill, in the York poorhouse

21 December 1852: Sarah Slater (19) insists that Alfred Waddington (21) had no moral right to threaten her and behead their toddler

18 September 1904: Henry Ross of Sheffield kidnaps neighbour Jenny Whitnear’s youngest son and flees to New Jersey, but 30 years later everyone will have questions to answer

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Via Chris Hobbs, who documents the collapse of the case when sent by the committal hearing to the Leeds Assizes.

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