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Abstract
The early eighteenth century is an important and interesting, though often overlooked, era in Whitby’s history. The little known case of members of two prominent Whitby families, Linskill and Yeoman, is used here to shed new light on the town and its maritime history in the first two decades of the century and shows that there is good evidence to reappraise these decades. The document is of importance as a local source for the period because it illustrates that the War of Spanish Succession or Queen Anne’s War had an impact on the townspeople, even though Whitby was far removed from the centre of operations.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Gill Cookson and Graham Storey for reading earlier drafts and for their comments and further research suggestions. I am very grateful to the Mulgrave Community Research Project, who supported my original research at TNA in 2012, and the Northallerton & District Local History Society Latin Group, who transcribed and translated the case document HCA15/29 for me.
Notes
1 Estimated by Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 520. In 1816, Young undertook a census of all the families in the town, calling it his own ‘Domesday’, which totalled 2,419 with a population of 10,203; the summary is published by area on pp. 515–6. Charlton gave an estimate of 1,500 at the dissolution (1539) and 2,268 families in 1776, when he surveyed them. Charlton, History of Whitby, 344. W[hitby] L[iterary and] P[hilosophical] S[ociety], Map Collection, John Wooler, Plan and Prospect of the said Town and Harbour (c. 1740).
2 Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 497, quoting Richard Blome, Britannia (London, 1673), 251.
3 Charlton, History of Whitby, 337.
4 Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 498.
5 Ibid., 497.
6 Charlton, History of Whitby, 338.
7 Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 498.
8 Blome, Britannia, 251, wrote in 1673 ‘[h]ere was an Abbey of good account, which is as yet scarcely demolished’.
9 Charlton, History of Whitby, 323.
10 Jones, “A Maritime History of the Port of Whitby,” 17.
11 Gaskin, Old Seaport of Whitby, 338.
12 Blome, Britannia, 251.
13 Charlton, History of Whitby, 327.
14 Ibid., 328.
15 Blome, Britannia, 251, Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 532, his italics. Between 1702 and 1710, the Port Books list overseas cargoes to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Norway, Sweden, Oporto, Lisbon, Portugal, Spain, Barcelona, Gibraltar, and coastwise cargoes to London, Newcastle, Sunderland and Hull. See Jones, “Maritime History,” 337, quoting T[he] N[ational] A[rchives], E/190.
16 Charlton, History of Whitby, 328.
17 Charlton, History of Whitby, 327–9; Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 532–3; David T. Pybus, Piers at Whitby, 16–7.
18 Davis, English Shipping Industry, 63, quoting Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1625–6, 532; 1626–7, 500. These papers are Trinity House certificates and list the following entries for Whitby-built ships: 30 August 1626, Margaret of Queensferry, tonnage 110; 9 February 1627/8 Pelican of Newcastle, 170; 16 May 1627, Love’s Increase of Lynn, 110. The location of the shipyards has not been confirmed but further research into wills dating to the period may shed some light on the site of the yards.
19 Young, History of Whitby, 549; Weatherill, Ancient Port of Whitby, 26; in 1720, four Whitby-built colliers with their masters are named sailing to Amsterdam and Hamburg, TNA Exchequer, King's Remembrancer, Port Books E190/224/6, 224/8.
20 TNA Research Guides, Registration of Merchant Ships. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/registration-merchant-ships/ accessed 17 June 2016.
21 Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 545.
22 Jones, “Maritime History,” 82.
23 Ibid., 43 quoting John Brand, The History and Antiquity of the Town and County of the Town of Newcastle on Tyne (London, 1789), 677, who in turn quotes ‘An abstract of shipps ussing the coals trade to Newcastle, anno 1705’ (Trinity House, Newcastle).
24 Camden’s Britannia, 766: ‘This Whitby hath a very fair and commodious Haven. There are about sixty Ships of 80 Tuns or more belonging to the Town.’
25 Blome, Britannia, 251.
26 WLPS, Burnett MSS collection, will of Thomas Clarke in 1715, PB2465; Thomas ffotherley selling parts of the ketch Oake to Robert Duck in 1681/2, PB2680; Davis, Rise of the English Shipping Industry, 82–3.
27 Jones, “Maritime History,” 82.
28 JNef, Rise of the British Coal Industry, vol. 1, 390–1, and vol. 2, 95.
29 Defoe, Tour through England and Wales, vol. 2, 249.
30 Jones, “Maritime History,” 44; in 1789 William and Jane was registered in Newcastle, see Weatherill, Ancient Port of Whitby, 86.
31 Nef, Rise of the British Coal Industry, vol. 2, 95–6; see also vols. 1, 174 and 2, 411–2 for Whitby as a centre for ship-building.
32 Jones, “Maritime History,” 353, quoting Bank and Korst, Tabeller over Skibsfart, 210–70.
33 Davis, Rise of the English Shipping Industry, 213.
34 Nef, Rise of the British Coal Industry, vol. 2, 411–2.
35 WLPS, Archive collection MS 0130.
36 Hull History Centre, Society of Friends (Quakers), Pickering and Hull Monthly Meeting: Whitby minutes, U DQR/11/2, 162.
37 Weatherill, Ancient Port of Whitby, 393.
38 Ibid., 394–5.
39 Ibid., 393.
40 Young, History of Whitby, vol. 2, 625.
41 Charlton, History of Whitby, 326.
42 Rodger, Command of the Ocean, 156–60.
43 Owen, War at Sea , 56. ‘In those days the word “convoy” stood for the man-of-war that accompanied or convoyed the merchant shipping under her charge. Only rarely did Queen Anne’s subjects speak of the ship or the fleet under protection as a ‘convoy.’”
44 Nef, Rise of the British Coal Industry, vol. 1, 79–80, 113n.
45 Owen, War at Sea, 57.
46 Ibid., 58.
47 British Library, Proclamations: Anne to George II 1703–1744. See A Proclamation, for Encouraging Seamen and Landmen to Enter themselves on Board Her Majesties Ships of War. [11 January 1703/4]. A Proclamation, for the more Effectual Putting in Execution a Law, Intituled, An Act for Raising Recruits for the Land-Forces and Marines, and for Dispensing with Part of the Act for the Encouragement and Encrease of Shipping Navigation, during the present War. [21 December 1704]. A proclamation requiring all mariners and seamen to repair on board the fleet by a limited time. [24 December 1704]. A Proclamation for apprehending and securing all stragling and seafaring men sending them to the fleet. [20 January 1704/5], h.4.
48 Rodger, Command of the Ocean, 201–15.
49 Lamb, Historic Storms, 59–72.
50 British Library, Proclamations, h.4.
51 TNA, State Papers, SP 44/240f.3 12 July 1703.
52 TNA, Privy Council and Privy Council Office PC 1/1f.146 20 May 1702 (two Ordnance representations about its inability to supply stores to Weymouth and Whitby, respectively).
53 TNA, PC 1/1/230 February 1703, “Order to the Mayor of Whitby to Aid the Impressment of Seamen.”
54 TNA, State Papers, SP 44/104, f. 314, f. 380 2 December 1703.
55 Registers of Danby-in-Cleveland, 59.
56 Charlton, History of Whitby, 332.
57 TNA, High Court of Admiralty, Instance papers, HCA15/29; the accompanying maps were separated in the 1920s and catalogued under MPI 1/255. They consist of three sheets with text and two maps drawn by John Friend of ‘East Lain, Redderif’ [Rotherhithe], in the cause Re Joseph Linskill [mis-catalogued as Linstill], master of the Elizabeth v Daniel and John Yeoman of the ship Anne and Rose of Whitby. One sheet is in Latin and the other two in English, of which one is a cropped sheet with a short note. The case is filed under Anne and Rose. For background and description of such records see the TNA Research Guide, High Court of Admiralty http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/research-guides/high-court-admiralty.pdf (accessed March 17, 2015).
58 Presumably a London law-firm on Furnival Street, near the Inns of Court.
59 Curiously, they appear to be dated 29 June and 5 June 1707. Even if these are the dates that the maps were drawn, why in 1707, unless this is a misreading for 1704?
60 Nef, Rise of the British Coal Industry, vol. 1, facing p. 19, map: ‘The Coal Fields of Great Britain and the Areas Supplied by them at the End of the Seventeenth Century’.
61 A New List of all the Ships and Vessels, 7.
62 Owen, War at Sea, 62–3.
63 TNA, SP29/332 f. 3, 1 January 1673.
64 The complaint about losses was a recurring theme. During the Dutch wars in the seventeenth century, merchants published: A list of several ships belonging to English merchants, taken by French privateers, since December, one thousand six hundred seventy and three. Also a brief account touching what applications hath been made for redress, etc. (Amsterdam, 1677).
65 Owen, War at Sea, 69–70, and Appendix F, 284–5.
66 E.g. 1706–7, Hull History Centre, U DQR/11/2, 206–7; Ventress, Great Convincement, 49–51.
67 Hull History Centre, U DQR/11/2, 84 [284] on 15th of the second Month 1714.
68 Cowie, “The Yeomans,” 31–9. I am grateful to Barbara Cowie for a transcript of the will.
69 Breckon, Whitby Parish Registers, 105.
70 Charlton, History of Whitby, 332.