Early Stuart York, still reckoned the second city of England, had a population of around 10,000. Its archbishop, styled ‘primate of England’, supervised four northern dioceses, while the Council in the North, a small but permanent bureaucracy based at the King’s Manor, managed civil affairs north of the Trent. The city, chartered under Henry II, sent two citizens to the Model Parliament of 1295, who by custom sat next to the privy councillors and London citizens in the Commons.
Chartered by the Crown as Kingston-upon-Hull in 1299, the borough regularly returned MPs thereafter. A charter of incorporation in 1440 conferred jurisdiction independent of the East Riding. D. Hey, Yorks. from AD 1000, pp. 48-9; E. Gillett and K.A. MacMahon, Hist. Hull, 1-6, 24-5, 85-6; VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), i. 13-21, 39-40; Charters of Hull trans. J.R.
Beverley, the administrative and social centre of the East Riding, noted for its splendid minster, was a prosperous and ‘most respectable’ market town nine miles north of Hull, to which it was connected by road and a navigable canal creek. It had ‘no manufactures’ of significance, but the presence of four linen manufactories, a paint making business and an iron foundry presaged its slow development as a minor industrial town from the mid-1830s. There was also some small-scale boat and ship building.Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1822-3), pp. 592, 593; PP (1831-2), xl.
York, a cathedral city situated in a ‘rich and extensive valley’ on the River Ouse, at the junction of the three Yorkshire Ridings, was the capital of the North Riding and a county in its own right; the boundary extended beyond the city liberty to encompass an area some 30 miles in circumference, mainly to the south and west, which was known as the Ainsty. The city exuded an ‘air of great respectability’ and the streets were ‘embellished with many elegant public as well as private buildings’.
Ripon, a ‘very respectable and wealthy’ country town ‘celebrated for the manufacture of its sharp rowels’, remained a pocket borough until the Reform Act, providing a berth for some leading figures. Although it was governed by a self-elected corporation, which admitted resident and non-resident freemen, the parliamentary franchise had long been restricted to the occupiers of certain burgage properties, not exceeding 146 in number.
Pontefract, a market town situated near the confluence of the Rivers Aire and Calder, in the West Riding of the county 13 miles south-east of Leeds, had ‘never ... been noted’ as a centre of manufacturing, but a ‘considerable trade’ in malt was carried on there and it possessed an ‘excellent’ general trade, which was ‘much advanced by the highly respectable neighbourhood’. Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1828-9), 1041-2; PP (1835), xxv. 271. The borough was coextensive with the township, but it covered only about one third of the parish.
Scarborough, a ‘celebrated watering place’ with ‘handsome and spacious’ streets, was situated on the North Sea coast, in the North Riding of the county. It was reported in 1831 that, despite the decline of shipbuilding, the town had experienced considerable growth in recent years as a centre for ‘sea bathing and amusement’, particularly for ‘the middling classes from the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and the West Riding’.Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1828-9), 1061; PP (1831-2), xl. 160-1. The borough was coextensive with the parish.
Northallerton was an old market town situated in a valley by the River Wiske, ‘amidst lands highly cultivated’, in the North Riding of the county 32 miles north-west of York. Linen manufacturing was carried on ‘to a small extent’, but the town’s ‘main trade’ consisted of the provision of articles of consumption for the surrounding population. Pigot’s National Dir. (1828-9), 1032-3. The boundary was not clearly defined, but it covered only a small part of the parish; it was impossible in practice to distinguish the borough from the town.
Thirsk was a market town in the North Riding of the county, 23 miles north-west of York. Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1828-9), 1112. The borough boundary was ‘entirely unknown’ and was taken to encompass ‘merely that part of the town in which the burgage houses are found’. All but one of these properties, in which the franchise was vested, were owned by Sir Thomas Frankland† of nearby Thirkleby Park, whose family had had an interest in the borough since the Restoration. He appointed the bailiff, the returning officer for parliamentary elections.
Richmond, a ‘wealthy and substantial’ market town, was situated ‘in the midst of an agricultural district’ known as ‘Richmondshire’, at the entrance to Swaledale in the North Riding of the county, 44 miles north-west of York. It was reported in 1831 that the ‘higher class’ of the population was ‘composed in a great measure of persons ... wishing to live a retired life’; there were ‘no manufactures’. Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1828-9), 1049-50; PP (1831-2), xl. 157-8. The borough was coextensive with the parish.
