Kingston Upon Hull, Yorkshire Genealogy

EnglandYorkshireKingston upon Hull

Guide to Kingston upon Hull history, family history, and genealogy parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.


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History
Kingston Upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England It lies upon the River Hull at its junction with the River Humber estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea.

The valley of the River Hull has been inhabited since the early Neolithic period but there is little evidence of a substantial settlement in the area of the present city. The area was attractive to people because it gave access to a prosperous hinterland and navigable rivers but the site was poor, being remote, low-lying and with no fresh water. It was originally an outlying part of the hamlet of Myton, named Wyke. The name is thought to originate either from a Scandinavian word Vik meaning creek or from the Saxon Wic meaning dwelling place or refuge.

The River Hull was a good haven for shipping, whose trade included the export of wool from Meaux abbey. In 1293 the town was acquired from the abbey by King Edward I, who on 1 April 1299 granted it a royal charter that renamed the settlement King's town upon Hull or Kingston upon Hull. The charter is preserved in the archives of the Guildhall.

In 1440, a further charter incorporated the town and instituted local government consisting of a mayor, a sheriff and twelve aldermen.

In his Guide to Hull (1817), J. C. Craggs provides a colorful background to Edward's acquisition and naming of the town. He writes that the King and a hunting party started after a hare which "led them along the delightful banks of the River Hull to the hamlet of Wyke … [Edward], charmed with the scene before him, viewed with delight the advantageous situation of this hitherto neglected and obscure corner. He foresaw it might become a secure town, both to render the kingdom more secure against foreign invasion, and at the same time greatly to enforce its commerce". Pursuant to these thoughts, Craggs continues, Edward purchased the land from the Abbot of Meaux, had a manor hall built for himself, issued proclamations encouraging development within the town, and bestowed upon it the royal appellation, King's Town.

The port served as a base for Edward I during the First War of Scottish Independence and later developed into the foremost port on the east coast of England. It prospered by exporting wool and woolen cloth, and importing wine and timber. Hull also established a flourishing commerce with the Baltic ports as part of the Hanseatic League.

From its medieval beginnings, Hull's main trading links were with Scotland and northern Europe. Scandinavia, the Baltic and the Low Countries were all key trading areas for Hull's merchants. In addition, there was trade with France, Spain and Portugal. As sail power gave way to steam, Hull's trading links extended throughout the world. Docks were opened to serve the frozen meat trade of Australia, New Zealand and South America. Hull was also the center of a thriving inland and coastal trading network, serving the whole of the United Kingdom.

Sir William de la Pole was the town's first mayor. A prosperous merchant, de la Pole founded a family that became prominent in government. Another successful son of a Hull trading family was bishop John Alcock, who founded Jesus College, Cambridge and was a patron of the grammar school in Hull.

The town prospered during the 16th and early 17th centuries, and Hull's affluence at this time is preserved in the form of several well-maintained buildings from the period, including Wilberforce House, now a museum documenting the life of William Wilberforce, the major parliamentary instigator of bills to end the slave trade.

Throughout the second half of the 19th century and leading up to the First World War, the Port of Hull played a major role in the transmigration of Northern European settlers to the New World, with thousands of emigrants sailing to the city and stopping for administrative purposes before traveling on to Liverpool and then North America.

Whaling played a major role in the town's fortunes until the mid-19th century. Hull's prosperity peaked in the decades just before the First World War; it was during this time, in 1897, that city status was granted. After the decline of the whaling industry, emphasis shifted to deep-sea trawling until the Anglo-Icelandic Cod War of 1975–1976. The conditions set at the end of this dispute initiated Hull's economic decline.

The city's port and industrial facilities, coupled with its proximity to mainland Europe and ease of location being on a major estuary, led to extremely widespread damage by bombing raids during the Second World War; much of the city center was destroyed. Hull had 95% of its houses damaged or destroyed, making it the most severely bombed British city or town, apart from London, during the Second World War. More than 1,200 people died in air raids on the city and some 3,000 others were injured.

The worst of the bombing occurred in 1941. However little was known about this destruction by the rest of the country during the war, since most of the radio and newspaper reports did not reveal Hull by name but referred to it as "a North-East town" or "a northern coastal town".

Parishes
Parishes arose from Church of England divisions, and were originally purely ecclesiastical divisions. Over time they acquired civil administration powers.

The Highways Act 1555 made parishes responsible for the upkeep of roads. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses; the work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways.

The poor were looked after by the monasteries, until their dissolution by King Henry the Eighth. In 1572, magistrates were given power to 'survey the poor' and impose taxes for their relief. This system was made more formal by the Poor Law Act 1601, which made parishes responsible for administering the Poor Law; overseers were appointed to charge a rate to support the poor of the parish. The 19th century saw an increase in the responsibility of parishes, although the Poor Law powers were transferred to Poor Law Unions. The Public Health Act 1872 grouped parishes into Rural Sanitary Districts, based on the Poor Law Unions; these subsequently formed the basis for Rural Districts.

Parishes were run by vestries, meeting annually to appoint officials, and were generally identical to ecclesiastical parishes, although some townships in large parishes administered the Poor Law themselves; under the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882, all extra-parochial areas and townships that levied a separate rate became independent civil parishes.

Civil parishes in their modern sense date from the Local Government Act 1894, which abolished vestries; established elected parish councils in all rural parishes with more than 300 electors; grouped rural parishes into Rural Districts; and aligned parish boundaries with county and borough boundaries. Urban civil parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the Urban District, Municipal Borough or County Borough in which they were situated; many large towns contained a number of parishes, and these were usually merged into one. Parish councils were not formed in urban areas, and the only function of the parish was to elect guardians to Poor Law Unions; with the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence.

The Local Government Act 1972 retained civil parishes in rural areas, and many former Urban Districts and Municipal Boroughs that were being abolished, were replaced by new successor parishes; urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes became unparished areas.

Due to its royal connections, Kingston Upon Hull has a long history of connections with the established church; prior to the reforms of Henry VIII it was with the Catholic Church, and afterwards with the Church of England. The following link provides a list of all the Church of England parishes:


 * List of Kingston Upon Hull parishes

Non Conformists
The following other denominations and religions are also represented well in Hull:


 * Buddhism
 * Christians - Calvinists
 * Christians- Church of Scotland
 * Christians - Eastern Orthodoxy
 * Christians - Lutherans
 * Christians - Oriental Orthodoxy
 * Christians - Roman Catholics
 * Muslims
 * Sikhs
 * Taoists
 * Zoroastrians

Archives
Kingston Upon Hull City Hull History Center, Archives Section Worship St, Hull HU2 8BG, United Kingdom Telephone:+44 1482 317500.
 * Kingston Upon Hull city archives

Cemeteries
There are four major cemeteries within the boundaries of the city of Kingston Upon Hull. They follow:


 * Eastern Cemetery
 * Hedon Road Cemetery
 * Northern Cemetery
 * Western Cemetery

In addition there are the following cemeteries:


 * Delhi Street cemetery (Jewish), Kingston upon Hull
 * Marfleet cemetery (Jewish), Kingston upon Hull
 * Hull General Cemetery
 * Drypool and Southcoates cemetery

Civil Registration
Civil registration is the recording of births, marriages and deaths in England and began in 1837. Civil registration records were recorded at the local registration office and the National registration offices. If you cannot find the civil registration in one index, search the other index as they are different indexes.


 * - Kingston Upon Hull Registration Office
 * FreeBMD - National registration office index

Societies
There are a number of family history and genealogical societies for Yorkshire and East Yorkshire. The following are the websites of a number of them:

East Yorkshire Family History Society

Yorkshire Family History Societies

Roots society