YORK HISTORY CONTENTS:
Source=h:/!Genuki/RecordTranscriptions/ARY/YorkHistoryBaines.txt
A History of York
from Baine's Gazetteer (1823)
Part 2
EMINENT CHARACACTERS OF YORK
From all walks of life
York has produced several characters eminent in history, and
a still larger number eminent in the ages in which they lived.
Amongst the former of these may be mentioned CONSTANTINE THE GREAT,
the first Christian Emperor; FLACCUS ALBANUS, the pupil of Bede
and the mentor of Charlemagne; and WALTHEOF, Earl of Northumberland,
and son of the gallant Siward. Amongst the latter we find the
names of ROBERT FLOWER, the hermit of Knaresborough, usually called
St. Robert. born in 1190; JOHN LE ROMAINE, the thirty-eighth archbishop
of York, and the natural son of John Romaine, a priest and treasurer
of the cathedral ; JOHN WALDBY, and ROBERT his brother, two eminent
scholars, who flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century,
the former of whom was the forty-seventh archbishop of this province;
JOHN ERGHOM, a friar Eremite; and JOHN BATE, a friar Carmelite;
both profound expositors of the holy scriptures, and authors of
celebrity in the fifteenth century; VALENTINE FREES and his WIFE,
rendered memorable by having, according to Fox, died for religion
at the stake in the year 1531, and of whom Fuller says, that they
were, according to his recollection, the only man and his wife
ever thus married together in martyrdom; EDWARD FREES, the brother
of Valentine, born also at York, who, for having heretically painted
some passages of scripture on the borders of several pieces of
cloth, was committed to prison by John Stoaksley, Lord Bishop
of London, and there, according to Fox, was fed with manchet made
of sawdust, and kept in prison till the flesh of his wrists grew
over his irons, his reason having in the mean time so far forsaken
him that when brought for examination before his persecutor, he
said, "My Lord is a good man!" GEORGE TANKERFIELD, another
martyr, was born in York; Sir Thomas Widdrington says he was a
cook in London, and was, by Bishop Bonner, antichrist's great
cook, roasted and burnt to death. THOMAS MORTON, the son of a
mercer in York, born in the Pavement, in the year 1564, rose by
his merit successively to the bishopricks of Chester, Lichfield,
and Coventry, and lastly to Durham when he was a parish priest,
and rector of Marston, the plague raged in York with so much fury
that a number of infected persons were sent out of the city to
Hob-Moor, where tents were erected for their accommodation, on
which occasion this intrepid disciple of his divine master visited
them daily, and administered alike to their spiritual wants and
to their temporal necessities.
(Note: The writer of this prelate's life says, that he was
school fellow, at York, with Guy Faux, the famous popish
incendiary, who is said to have been born at Bishopthorp, and
educated in this city.)
HENRY SWINBURNE, an eminent doctor of civil law, was born at
York about the middle of the sixteenth century, and educated at
the Free Grammar School in this city. As his contemporary and
countryman. Gilpin, was called the apostle of the north, so Swinburne
was styled the northern advocate, the one being famous for his
learning in divinity, and the other in the civil law. Sir THOMAS
HERBERT, son of Mr. Thomas Herbert, merchant and alderman of York,
was born in this city in 1606, and educated here till he was admitted
a commoner of Jesus College, Oxford, in 1621. Having completed
his studies, he travelled for some years through Africa and Asia,
under the patronage of William Earl of Pembroke, his kinsman.
On his return home he waited on the Earl, and was invited to dine
with him the next day, but the Earl dying suddenly that very night
his hopes of preferment from that quarter were blasted, and he
again left England to visit various parts of Europe. Upon finishing
his travels he settled in his native country, and in the time
of the civil wars adhered to the cause of the Parliament. By the
persuasion of Philip Earl of Pembroke, he became one of the commissioners
to treat with the King's officers for the surrender of Oxford
to the Parliamentary army. Subsequently he was put upon the King
as one of his menial servants, along with others, in the place
of several of his own servants; while in this situation he became
a convert to the royal cause, and continued with his Majesty till
he was brought to the block. Charles II. immediately upon the
restoration, rewarded his faithful service to his father in the
two last years of his life by creating him a baronet in 1660,
which honour he enjoyed for upwards of twenty years, and died
at his house in York on the first of March, 1631. CHRISTOPHER
CARTWRIGHT, a profound scholar, stiled 'Vir eruditissimus', was
born at York, and is known to the learned world for his Annotations
on Genesis and Exodus. JOHN EARLE was born at York in 1601, and
admitted of Merton College, Oxford, in 1620. His younger years,
says Antony Wood, his biographer, were adorned with oratory, poetry,
and witty fancies, and his elder with quaint preaching and subtle
disputes. He rose successively from the Deanery of Westminster
to the Bishoprick of Worcester, and ultimately to that of London;
and dying at Oxford, in 1665, was buried near the high altar in
Merton College Church, in that city. MARMADUKE FOTHERGILL, born
in 1652, in the house called Percy's Inn, in the parish of St.
Dyon's, Walmgate, was a divine of great learning and piety, and
in ecclesiastical antiquity stood almost unrivalled. By his last
will he left a fine collection of books as a library to the parish
of Shipwith, of which he had been minister, on condition that
the parishioners should build a proper room for them at their
own cost; but this charge they parsimoniously refused to incur,
and the library was, by his widow, presented to the Dean and Chapter
of York, to swell the Minster collection. FRANCIS DRAKE the venerable
and learned historian of York, was the son of the Rev. Francis
Drake, rector of Hemsworth and vicar of Pontefract. Though not
born in this city, he settled here in early life, and practised
as a surgeon with considerable reputation.- Having married Mary,
the youngest daughter of John Woodyeare, Esq. of Crook-hill, he
devoted himself principally to his literary pursuits, and in the
year 1736 published his Eboracum, a work which will serve to confer
immortality on the history and antiquities of that city, and which
will, in its turn, hand down his name to the latest posterity.
In this brief but faithful history of ancient and modern York,
the contrast between the imperial city, the residence of Emperors
and of Kings, and the decayed capital of a northern county, forces
itself strongly upon the mind, and serves to exhibit the vicissitudes
to which the affairs of places, as well as of persons, are subject.
But York, though shorn of some of its brightest beams, though
three times rased to the ground by invaders,(First by the Saxons,
second by the Danes and third by the Normans) in remote periods,
and though deprived of its commerce by Hull, and of its manufactures
by Leeds, in more modern times, is still an interesting and venerable
city; of which it may be said, in the lines of Sir Thomas Widdrington:-
York's not so great as Old York was of yore,
Yet York it is though wasted to the core:
It's not that York which Ebrank built of old;
Nor yet that York which was of Roman mould;
York was the third time burnt, and what you see
Are York's small ashes of antiquity.
Data transcribed from:
Baines Gazetteer 1823
Scan, OCR and html software by Colin Hinson.
Checking and correction by Richard Tetley.
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