Yorkshire Almanac The Royal Navy seeks recruits among the seamen of Sculcoates, Cottingham and Little Weighton (ER)

28 November 1796: The Royal Navy seeks recruits among the seamen of Sculcoates, Cottingham and Little Weighton (ER)

James Duffield Harding (1798–1863), Fishermen’s Houses at Sculcoates near Hull, Yorkshire (Harding 1827).

Horace Baker Browne. 1912. The Story of the East Riding of Yorkshire. London: A. Brown and Sons. H.B. Browne appears to have been white-haired but alive in 1949 (see The Story of Whitby Museum), but I have found no trace thereafter. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

RECRUITING FOR THE NAVY.

WANTED.

For the parishes of Sculcoates, Cottingham, and Little Weighton, A few able-bodied SEAMEN or LANDMEN to serve in His Majesty’s Navy during the present War ONLY…. The Families and Friends of Volunteers will receive Monthly Pay, and the Volunteers themselves will have a bountiful supply of Cloathing, Beef, Grog, Flip, and Strong Beer, also a certainty of Prize Money, as the men entered for this service will be sent to capture the rich Spanish Galleons, and in consequence will return loaded with Dollars and Honour, to spend their Days in Peace and Plenty.

May the constitution of England endure for ever, and

the Parishioners of Sculcoates, Cottingham and

Little Weighton live to see it.

Hull, November 28th, 1796.

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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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17 July 1815: John Dunhill and William Bewell stand trial for their lives shortly after Waterloo, accused of the riotous demolition of a press-gang pub at 41, Humber Street, Hull

11 July 1787: Advertisement for The Commercial and Mathematical Academy, Hull

24 August 1921: The British-built United States Navy R.38 airship collapses, explodes, and crashes into the Humber at Hull, killing 44 of the 49 crew

26 May 1335: Edward III imposes foreign exchange controls at Hull and various other ports to stop bad (Flemish) money driving out good

10 August 1756: Leeds “gentlemen” burn an effigy of Admiral John Byng, scapegoat for the Whig government’s failure to save Minorca (and the Mediterranean theatre) from the French during the Seven Years’ War

25 September 1779: The Rev. William Whytehead writes from Hornsea to his cousin four miles away with news of the Battle of Flamborough Head

23 January 1640: Andrew Marvell’s father drowns in the Humber at Hull

18 January 1966: Barbara Castle (Lab.) swings the Hull North by-election with a bridge over the Humber, convincing Harold Wilson that he has the momentum to win a general election

29 September 1704: Deeds, conveyances, and wills in the West Riding must henceforth be publicly registered in Wakefield to be considered valid

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Titles of this act, the succeeding one in 1707, also applicable to the West Riding, and similar legislation passed for the North and East Ridings, taken from the consolidating act of 1884:

2 & 3 Anne, c. 4. An Act for the publick registring of all deeds, conveyances, and wills that shall be made of any honors, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments within the west riding of the county of York after the nine-and-twentieth day of September one thousand seven hundred and four.
6 Anne, c. 20. An Act for inrollments of bargains and sales within the west riding of the county of York in the register office there lately provided, and for making the said register more effectual.
6 Anne, c. 62. An Act for the publick registring of all deeds, conveyances, wills, and other incumbrances that shall be made of or that may affect any honors, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments within the east riding of the county of York or the town and county of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull after the nine-and-twentieth day of September one thousand seven hundred and eight, and for the rendring the register in the west riding more complete.
8 Geo. II. c. 6. An Act for the publick registring of all deeds, conveyances, wills, and other incumbrances that shall be made of or that may affect any honors, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments within the north riding of the county of York after the nine-and-twentieth day of September one thousand seven hundred and thirty-six.

(HMG 1884)

The act apparently says that Wakefield was chosen as “the nearest market town to the centre or middle of the said West Riding” (Wakefield Town Council 1864).

The West Riding Registry of Deeds was not the oldest, “the Bedford Level registry … having been established after the Bedford Level Corporation charter of 1637 and the act of parliament of 1649, and recognised as a registry, if not before, at any rate in 1663, when the governor and company were constituted commissioners of sewers for the Level.”

Elections were held, and “competition for the appointment was very keen, for the registrar took all fees after paying the modest administrative expenses, which were very small in proportion to the gross receipts,” although, election expenses may have approached or exceeded income.

In 1817 it is reported that “a considerable part of the hall was literally crowded with beauty and fashion, which contributed not a little to enliven and adorn the scene.” In 1842,

During the whole of the morning of the first day, the officers had experienced great difficulty in resisting the pressure of votes endeavouring to reach the poll-booths, and at about half-past two the force became so great as to break down the barriers which had been erected, and the body of voters borne along by those behind were driven forward to the tables, which were upset and broken in all directions. The election was now carried on amid a scene of violence seldom surpassed (Tate 1944).

I haven’t yet read Jean Howell’s Deeds registration in England: a complete failure? (Howell 1999/07).

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