East Riding of Yorkshire with the Town and County of Kingston-upon-Hull

The East Riding of Yorkshire was divided during the First Civil War but thanks to the early activism of the Hotham family, the parliamentarians controlled the important garrison fortress and port town of Hull. Details of the parliamentarian military administration of Hull in the war’s early years is covered by Andrew Hopper (ed.), The Papers of the Hothams, Governors of Hull during the Civil War (Camden Society, 5^th series, 39, 2011).

Unfortunately, the East Riding’s records are limited to one Quarter Sessions order book covering 1647 to 1651, and one petition submitted to the Mayor of Hull in 1643. With no Quarter Sessions records surviving for post 1660, this leaves us with nothing for royalist claimants, and limits our knowledge to a snapshot of parliamentarian claimants in the early years of the pension scheme. The two royalist claimants shown on the map were resident in the East Riding but received their pensions in the North Riding, as that is where they took up arms. Their payments have therefore not been included in the statistical tables. The East Riding order book does provide names of 109 soldiers and 22 widows, with most of their home localities identified. Their concentration in the eastern half of the Riding is striking, especially in the wapentake of Holderness east of the River Hull. Only during the second siege of Hull (September to October 1643) when the royalists overran nearly all the East Riding, would this region have been under undisputed royalist control. Further clusters occur in the Riding’s central parishes that comprised the estates of the Hotham family, along with more claimants around the important parliamentarian garrison towns of Beverley and Hull.

Gratuities paid in the East Riding of Yorkshire with the Town and County of Kingston-upon-Hull

	Min	Max	Mean	Median	Mode	TOTAL
Maimed Soldiers	1s.	£2	12s. 2d.	10s.	10s.	£30 18s. 6d.
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	1s.	£2	12s. 2d.	10s.	10s.	£30 18s. 6d.
War Widows	5s.	£1	11s. 7d.	10s.	10s.	£9 5s.
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	5s.	£1	11s. 7d.	10s.	10s.	£9 5s.
Other Dependents	0	0	0	0	0	0
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	0	0	0	0	0	0
ALL	1s.	£2	12s.	10s.	10s.	£40 3s. 6d.
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	1s.	£2	12s.	10s.	10s.	£40 3s. 6d.

Pensions paid in the East Riding of Yorkshire

	Min	Max	Mean	Median	Mode
Maimed Soldiers	4s.	£12	£2 15s. 8d.	£2	£2
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	4s.	£12	£2 15s. 8d.	£2	£2
War Widows	16s.	£4	£2 2s. 9d	£2	£2
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	16s.	£4	£2 2s. 9d	£2	£2
Other Dependents	0	0	0	0	0
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	0	0	0	0	0
ALL	4s.	£12	£2 14s. 8d.	£2	£2
Royalists	0	0	0	0	0
Parliamentarians	4s.	£12	£2 14s. 8d.	£2	£2

The mean pensions awarded to maimed soldiers and war widows were both quite high and this is likely because we only have records for the early period of 1647 to 1651, while the claimants were still in relatively small numbers. The county would have had difficulties sustaining this generosity if larger numbers of royalists sought relief after 1660. Widows formed only 17% of claimants, while their mean pension was only worth 77% of the mean pension awarded to soldiers, although their mean gratuity was only seven pence less.

Further Reading

Andrew Hopper (ed.), The Papers of the Hothams, Governors of Hull during the Civil War (Camden Society, 5th series, 39, 2011).

Jack Binns, Yorkshire in the Civil Wars: Origins, Impact and Outcome (Pickering: Blackthorn Press, 2004).