HISTORY OF HOWDEN.

Howden

Is a Market Town of considerable antiquity, and of local importance. It is the capital of the district called Howdenshire, a Wapontake of the East Riding of Yorkshire, and was so antecedently to the conquest. In Doomsday-Book it is written Hoveden, and it is there stated that King Edward had the manor, but that now the Bishop of Durham has it.

It is situated on the north side of the Ouse, in a fruitful district, and much of it is in a high state of cultivation. The parish is an extensive one, including several Townships, and a considerable population, but the Wapontake is one of the smallest in the East Riding.

It is probable that its early inhabitants would generally be of Danish extraction, from its close and constant connexion with Denmark. However, Schleswig and Holstein, doubtless furnished us with many

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names of places, the ordinary terminations of which are common with these two provinces and the south part of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Anterior to the reign of Edward the Confessor, the Manor and Church of Howden appear to have been wrested from the Monastery of Peterborough, in consequence of the non-payment of the tax called Danegelt, by that monastery. Thus, being in King's hands after the battle of Hastings, the conqueror gave the Manor, also the Church with its members and appurtenances to William Karilepho, Bishop of Durham.

This prelate shortly afterwards gave the Church and its appurtenances to the Monastery and Monks of Durham, the Manor he retained for himself and his successors. The gift to the Monks was subsequently confirmed by a rule of Pope Gregory.

Doomsday-book gives the following description of the Manor, at the time of the survey:

"Terra Epi. Dunelmensis. In Hoveden fifteen Caracutes with the berewicks. Hidon (Hive) one Car. Dunesthorpe (Owesthorpe) one Car. and a half. Portiton one Car. and three Oxg. Chevede (Cavil) two Car. and two Oxg. Estricton one Car. Chelpin three Car. and two Oxg. Bellebi (Belby) three Car. and two Oxg. Lucusfled (Yokefleet). half a Car. Cotes (Cotness) half a Car. Saltemersc six Car. Laxinton one Car. Scilton three Car. and two Oxg. Bernebelt (Barnhill) one Car. Torp one Car, and a half. Cledington six Car. Aschilebi one Car. Barnebi one Car. Babetorp two Oxg."

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"There are to be taxed in all, fifty-one Car. six Oxg. and there may be therein thirty ploughs. King Edward had this Manor. The Bishop of Durham now has in the Demesne one plough and sixty-five villanes and twenty-three bordars having sixteen ploughs and three sokemen with two ploughs. In the Manor is a Church and a Priest. Wood pasture three miles long and one broad, The whole Manor six miles long and two broad. Value in King Edward's time forty pounds, at present twelve pounds. All these berewicks are waste."

We have here the old orthography of several of the places within the Manor, and their relative values, as also its extent, and how much of it was reclaimed and cultivated. The reduction of its value from forty pounds in King Edward's time to twelve pounds, at the time of the survey, tells a fearful tale of the ravages which the country had undergone.

The various risings of the Saxon population had so exasperated the Conqueror, that in several districts, it is said, his merciless rage had not left a single human creature, and in Howden Manor, a few years had reduced the value of the Bishop's lands to about one-fourth of their previous rental.

William Rufus having accused William, then Bishop of Durham, of siding with the rebellious Barons, ravaged Howden, Welton, and other places belonging to that see in Yorkshire, and seized the possessions into his own hands. These he granted out to his favourites, Odo, Count of Campania, and

Alan, Count of Richmond. Henry the First afterwards restored them to Ralph the then Bishop.

The Bishop of Durham held all pleas within his liberty of Howdenshire, which he by law might hold in his County Palatine of Durham, pleas of the crown only excepted. The Bishops claimed to have the return of writs and other franchises, as also pleas of law, warrants and other liberties and privileges.

The Manor and its appurtenances appear to have been demised on various occasions, to meet the pressing pecuniary wants of several of the Bishops who held it from time to time.-Bishop Lewis Beaumont made it over to certain foreigners, alienigeni, for ten years. Some of the Bishops appear to have appointed Justices of the Peace for Howdenshire.

The Manor has at various times been the subject of forfeiture, of grant, and of re-grant, nevertheless always coming back to the See of Durham. It was in lay hands during the commonwealth, again attached to the See at the restoration. Here it continued till the Bishoprick of Ripon was formed and constituted in 1836, from which time it became an integral part of that See. At what value it was so handed over is only known to those who were parties to similar bargains, which have created no small dissatisfaction and suspicion in the public mind. It is now nearly eight centuries since it was originally given to the See of Durham.

During the civil wars, Thomas Morton was then See The Hutton Correspondence. Surtees scriity pp 271.2.3.4.5-6.4.

Bishop of Durham, who suffered much, as well in person as in purse.-In May, 1646, after the dissolution of the See, Parliament voted him eight hundred pounds per annum. This he had great difficulty in getting paid, and was ultimately so reduced as to become private tutor in the family of Sir Christopher Yelverton. By this family, especially by the learned Sir Henry Yelverton, who had been his pupil, he was kindly supported till his death.

By an ordinance of the Lords and Commons of the same year, the Manor of Howden, and the possessions of the Bishoprick were vested in trustees for sale, for the benefit of the nation. In July, 1650, these trustees sold the Manor of Howden to William Underwood and Thomas Coghill, for five thousand one hundred and ninety two pounds fifteen shillings.

The Manor includes the two extensive Commons of Bishopsoil and Wallingfen, the former containing two thousand six hundred and twenty-two acres, the latter about five thousand acres. The Bishopsoil act of Parliament was passed in 1767, and the Wallingfen act in 1777. An annual rent of sixpence per acre was reserved to the Bishop of Durham as lord of the Manor, with the mines and minerals under the whole of the land awarded.

The rights of pasturage over this wide space was claimed by all the parishes and townships abutting thereon, or having right of pasturage upon it,

ratione tenurœ.