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Hedon in York County England History and GeographyHEDON, or HEYDON, a borough, market town, and parish, possessing separate jurisdiction, but locally in the middle division of the wapentake of Holderness, East riding of the county of YORK, 44 miles (E.S.E.) from York, and 179 (N. by E.) from London, containing 902 inhabitants. This town is reputed to have been anciently a very considerable sea-port. A charter was given to the burgesses of Hedon by King Athelstan; and in 1199, King John granted to Baldwin, Earl of Albemarle and Holderness, and to his wife Hawis, free burgage here, by the same tenure, and with the same privileges as at York and Lincoln. Hedon has possessed but little commercial or maritime importance since the foundation of the port of Hull by King Edward I. In the year 1656, a great part of the town was consumed by fire, after which it was rebuilt in a more handsome and substantial manner. It is pleasantly situated in a level, fertile, and well-cultivated country, within a mile and a half of the Humber, and consists chiefly of one street, in the middle of which is the market-place. The members of the Holderness Agricultural Society hold their meetings here, and possess a valuable and select library of the best works that have been written on agriculture, and on subjects connected with it. Assemblies are regularly held during the season. The old haven has long since been choked up, but a canal, cut from the Humber, extends to within a quarter of a mile of the town, only navigable however for small craft. The market is on Saturday; and the fairs, which are considerable, are on August 2nd and September 22nd, for horses, &c., November 17th and December 6th, for cattle, &c., and every second Monday from Shrovetide to Midsummer, for cattle and sheep. The government of the borough, by charter dated in the 14th of James I., is vested in a mayor, recorder, two bailiffs, and nine aldermen, assisted by a town clerk, coroner, and other officers, with an indefinite number of burgesses: the mayor is annually elected from among the aldermen, and the bailiffs, who during their office are justices of the peace, from the burgesses; the late mayor acts as coroner. The freedom of the borough is inherited by birth, acquired by servitude, or obtained by gift from the corporation, who by their charter hold quarterly courts of session for offences not capital; and a court of record for the determination of pleas, and the recovery of debts to any amount: the court for the wapentake of Holderness is also held here, for the recovery of debts under 40s. The town-hall is a small edifice, in which one apartment is appropriated as a place of confinement for prisoners, the corporation being bound by their charter to provide a hall and prison within the town for the lords of the manor of Holderness; but no criminal or debtor has been confined there for many years. The borough first sent members to parliament in the 23d of Edward I., but discontinued till the 1st of Edward VI., since which time it has made regular returns. The right of election is vested in the burgesses generally, the number of whom is about three hundred: the mayor is the returning officer. The living is a perpetual curacy annexed to the vicarage of Preston, endowed with £200 parliamentary grant, and in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Archbishop of York. There were formerly three churches in the town; of those of St. Nicholas and St. James only traces of the foundations are visible: the remaining church, dedicated to St. Augustine, is a venerable and spacious cruciform structure in the early, with a lofty central tower in the later, style of English architecture; the front of the north transept is a remarkably fine specimen of the early English, and in the south transept is a very beautiful window, though much mutilated; many portions of this edifice display much elegance of design, and richness of detail. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists, and a Roman Catholic chapel. A school for boys, and another for girls, the children of burgesses, are supported by the contributions of the members for the borough, and by other donations. Almshouses for poor and infirm burgesses and their widows were erected, and are supported, by the corporation; and there are various charitable bequests for the relief of the poor. An hospital, dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre, was founded at Newton, in this parish, in the reign of John, by Alan, son of Oubernus, for a master and several brethren, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was £13. 15. 10. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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