"MAIL" HISTORICAL MEMS.

CITY OF HULL AND DISTRICT.

Pocklington has a complicated history. As a township it comprises 2,520 acres and population rather more than one person to the acre. The ecclesiastical parish is nearly twice as large.

* * *
It was one of the royal manors of the Saxon Kings belonging to the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, and held by the successive Earls of Northumbria on behalf of the King.

* * *
The last Saxon Earl holding this post, Morcar, held Pocklington as the representative of King Edward the Confessor until the Normans came.

* * *
It was wrested from him and taken possession of by William the Conqueror long before Morcar died (in the reign of William Rufus), after a long captivity due to his irreconcilable character.

* * *
Morcar had had a church —an Anglo- Saxon church—two mills, and 13 carucates of culture in this manor of his, corresponding pretty nearly with the size of the present township.

* * *
But, when William I. acquired it, it became much wasted in the wars consequent upon the risings the Northern Saxons, which the King put down with relentless severity, consequently the geld, which had yielded to Edward the Confessor. £56 a year, had decreased, in 1086, to £8 only for King William. The church would doubtless have suffered much in the war waste, for churches were then the stronghold of the vils and, probably, because it was ruinous, Archbishop Gerard York obtained a grant of it, before his death and burial in York Minster, in 1108.

* * *
From that time the Canons of St. Peter of York probably undertook, between them, the cure of the parish, until, in 1252, a regular stipend for a vicar was ordained.

* * *
If any portion of the church of to-day belong to Archbishop Gerard's time it is the font, and the rude carvings on the nave capitals belong to a period little later.

* * *
It has been written that, about 1300, the manor was held by Stephen de Albemarle, and that, by his influence, Pocklington obtained its character for weekly market and other liberties.

* * *
The Albemarles of Holderness had died out before that date —Stephen himself long before.

* * *
It is true, however, that the Honor of Albemarle had by- 1300 descended to the de Ross family, and they passed the Manor of Pocklington, by a fine, to Henry Percy, between 1300 and 1304.

* * *
But when the Albemarle line failed, the Manor would, no doubt, lapse temporarily to the King, and it was probably then, that Edward I. granted its charter.

* * *
Edward I. gave the manor to Meaux Abbey—some solatium for his taking from them their town of Wyke-upon-Hull to make it King's Town-on-Hull.

* * *
Archbishop Corbridge's register shows conclusively that Meaux Abbey exchanged the Manor of Pocklington with Henry Percy, for the living of Nafferton.

* * *
That Henry Percy, it would seem, must have been he, who married Eleanor, daughter John Fitz Alan, 6th Earl Arundel, the lady whose beautiful tomb is one of the gems of Beverley Minster.

* * *
And it was he, Henry Percy, or his son Henry, who, at Neville's Cross in 1346 completely defeated and captured David Bruce.

* * *
But, before that happened, Henry Percy, in 1335, had, by a fine, passed Pocklington Manor to Henry Percy, jun., the identity of whom is difficult elucidate.

* * *
We may assume, however, it was his son, and that the Manor descended from Henry to Henry Percy in succession, till it came into possession Henry Hotspur, born in 1364, and married to Elizabeth Mortemer, an alliance which led Hotspur into his subsequent troubles.

* * *
Elizabeth's father was captured by the Welshmen, Owen Glendover, and Henry IV., refusing the Percies permission to ransom the prisoner, roused the family into antagonism with their king.

* * *
Hotspur made alliance with Glendover. and marched south join him. but Henry IV.. too quick for his impetuous and rebellious subject, forestalled the junction of the two forces at Shrewsbury in 1403. and defeated and slew Percy.

* * *
At his death. Hotspur held, jointly with Elizabeth his wife, the Manor of Pocklington (Inquisition 1405) and it continued in possession of the- Percies.

* * *
The fascinating story of the great Percies, holding, from the accession of William II., the important post of Earl of Northumberland, a post which centuries of previous Norman and Saxon history had gradually grouped into the great Barony of Alnwick, the watch tower on the dangerous Scotch border, is full of interest for the student of early England. Constant inroads of the Scotch frequently necessitated the rapid mobilisation of their retainers, whose extraordinary devotion to their Earls roused them to a ready response and a prompt rendezvous in any cause their masters undertook, even to the unmaking of an English King of the Percy's own creation, and, apparently, whether the Earl's cause was justified or not.

* * *
The influence and power they exercised was enormous, as we trace them down the long epochs of time, always with the caput of their Barony at Alnwick, but residing in their palatial halls, at first at Spofforth, within easy reach of the gaieties of the York winter; later, being attracted to the older Minster town of Beverley: building in its vicinity at Leconfield their great castle, and another at Wressle, ordinated to exactitude, even to the meals and prayers of their entourage, the great "Household Book of the High and Mighty Prince. Lord Percy", we are filled with wonder the regal state and great responsibility of their position. One incident alone in their history was sufficiently dramatic to inspire the second play of Shakespeare's " Henry IV."

We must continue Pocklington's history in a second paper*

* Unfortunately, I have not been able to find this - A.S.