Owstwick is a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
, England, in an area known as
Holderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common wit ...
. It is approximately east of
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...
city centre and north-west of
Withernsea
Withernsea is a seaside resort and civil parish in Holderness, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Its white inland lighthouse, rising around above Hull Road, now houses a museum to 1950s actress Kay Kendall, who was born in the town.
The Pr ...
. It lies to the west of the
B1242 road
B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Gr ...
. The hamlet forms part of the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Roos
Roos is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated east from Kingston upon Hull city centre and north-west from Withernsea, and on the B1242 road.
History
The de Ros family originated from the villa ...
.
History
During the
Saxon period Owstwick had its own
thane
Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven taluk ...
, called Hoste (later corrupted to Owst). The ''
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
'' lists the settlement name as "Hostewic" and "Ostewic", under the
manors and
lords of
Kilnsea
Kilnsea is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately south of the village of Easington, on the north bank of the Humber Estuary.
The hamlet forms part of the civil parish ...
and
Hilston, and in the
Hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
of
Holderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common wit ...
. At the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
the lords of Holderness, and therefore Owstwick, were
Earl Morcar and Murdoch of Hilston. Owstwick was a small settlement of about 5 households, with 45
villagers, 6 freemen, one priest and a church. There were 44
ploughlands and a meadow of 12 acres. In 1086 lordship was transferred to
Drogo of la BeuvriËre, who also became
Tenant-in-chief
In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...
to King
William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
. ''Domesday'' records that in
Edward the Confessor's time the combined manor of Hilston with parts of Owstwick was valued at fifty-five shillings.
[Poulson, George; ''The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness in the East-Riding of the County of York'' (1841), Volume 2, pp.79, 103]
The ''Dictionary of British Place Names'' gives the derivation of Owstwick as "eastern outlying farm" from the
Old Scandinavian 'austr' and the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
'wic'.
Owstwick in 1812 had a population of 106. There were 18 families in 18 houses, with 17 farmers and one trader. By 1823 population had increased to 139, including four farmers and a Tuesday carrier to Hull; occupation numbers had not changed by 1851, although population had dropped to 103.
[Sheahan, J. J.; Whelan, T.; (1857), ''History and topography of the City of York, the East Riding of Yorkshire, and a portion of the West Riding'' Volume 2, pp.360, 373, 376. Reprinted Books LLC (2012) .]
In 1818, in the part of Owstwick that was in Roos, inhabitants numbered 59. A parliamentary report of the following year stated that in the parish there were three schools, in each of which 30 children were taught, about two thirds of whom belonged to the parish. There was a Sunday School where 30 boys and 25 girls were taught. The report stated that: "the greater part of the poorer classes are without the means of education, and very desirous of possessing them."
In the 1830s Owstwick became part of a group of twenty-seven parishes and townships under the
Patrington
Patrington is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness, south-east of Hedon, south-east of Kingston upon Hull and south-west of Withernsea on the A1033. Along with Winestead, it w ...
Union, which provided for a
Union workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
at Patrington, opened in 1838 for the accommodation of 150
paupers
Pauperism (Lat. ''pauper'', poor) is poverty or generally the state of being poor, or particularly the condition of being a "pauper", i.e. receiving relief administered under the English Poor Laws. From this, pauperism can also be more generally ...
. Owstwick's yearly saving on poor-relief costs by being part of the Union system was estimated at the time as £1,000, this being similar for all parishes contributing.
A Tithe Commission under the 1836
Tithe Commutation Act recorded Owstwick
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
as consisting of , largely within the parish of Roos, with 452 acres in the parish of
Garton. By 1841, although Owstwick was called a 'manor', no
manorial rights
Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes forti ...
then existed. In 1780 principal parish landowners had been
Sir Christopher Sykes and Admiral Storr; by 1841 they were
Sir Tatton Sykes, Admiral Mitford, and Joseph Storr.
[
In 1882 the number of inhabitants had dropped to 80, of whom six were farmers. A Society of Friends' burial ground still existed, although their meeting house had been converted to a cottage.][White, William, ''White's General and Commercial Directory of Hull'' (1882), p.338] In 1913 Sir Tatton Sykes of Sledmere House
Sledmere House is a Grade I listed Georgian country house, containing Chippendale, Sheraton and French furnishings and many fine pictures, set within a park designed by Capability Brown. It is located in the village of Sledmere, between Driff ...
was lord of the manor and principal landowner. Inhabitants in 1911 numbered 114, with four farmers, and children attending school at Garton.
Quakers
Owstwick was a centre for Quaker faith in the 17th and 18th centuries. The religious dissenter George Fox was released from Scarborough Castle
Scarborough Castle is a former medieval Royal fortress situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the North Sea and Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. The site of the castle, encompassing the Iron Age settlement, Roman signal station, an A ...
in 1666, and finding the Quaker movement languishing decided on a nationwide review of the religion and Quaker meetings. In 1669 the review reached Yorkshire, and Owstwick. Monthly meetings, previously based on larger areas, were broken down into smaller units, one being Owstwick, as part of a formalised pyramidic restructure.
The oldest record of Quaker activity at Owstwick is in 1654. A 1671 will by a Robert Raven stipulated a wish to be buried in Owstwick burial ground. A Thomas Smith, buried at Owstwick and 78 years when he died in 1749, had been born to Quaker parents. A member of the Owstwick Quaker community was Marmaduke Storr, a "man of substance" who became a Quaker in 1652, one of the earliest converts. He was an opponent of John Harwood of North Frodingham and Harwood's dispute with George Fox over Fox's authority, a dispute that descended into personal insult. Fox was a visitor to Storr's house in 1665, a house which became the centre for Quaker Monthly Meetings. By the middle of the 19th-century the Meeting House was in disrepair, and no indication was evident of its date of erection, however, the burial ground was still occasionally used by followers.[
Following the appointment of ]Thomas Herring
Thomas Herring (169323 March 1757) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1747 to 1757.
Early life and education
He was the son of John Herring, rector of Walsoken in Norfolk, who had previously been vicar of Foxton, near Cambridge, and his wife, ...
as Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...
in 1743, he wrote to diocese clergy, asking to be informed of dissenting families in their parishes. Reports back included those of the Owstwick Meeting House and families with Quaker sympathies.
Owst
According to the 1856 and 1857 ''History and topography of the City of York,'' the Owst family name leads directly to the original Saxon thanes who gave their name to the village. The name reappears in records in 1349, during the reign of Edward III, with a Robert Owst who had possessions in Hedon
Hedon is a town and civil parish in Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately east of Hull city centre. It lies to the north of the A1033 road at the crossroads of the B1240 and B1362 roads.
It is ...
, and whose descendant branches "have lived in Holderness for centuries", and held lands in Nunkeeling, Welwick
Welwick is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately south of the town of Withernsea and south-east of the village of Patrington on the B1445 road from P ...
and Halsham. An Owst (died 1489), was Prior of Nunkeeling Priory
Nunkeeling Priory was a priory of Benedictine nuns in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England founded by Agnes de Arches or de Catfoss in 1152 . It was dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and to St. Helen. The priory became well known and nearby Keel ...
. A Thomas Owst lived at Halsham in 1575, his descendants surviving there until 1836 when the last Thomas Owst left—he also held freehold property in Owstwick. The Owst family were Roman Catholic and lived under difficulties in the 18th century. In ''The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness'', Poulson quotes a 1745 certificate given to Thomas Owst, which describes him as a popish
The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodo ...
recusant
Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.
The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...
, by Act of Parliament unable to travel farther than five miles from place of abode. The certificate signed by the Deputy Lieutenant was a licence allowing him to travel to Drax to visit his ill wife, under conditions including a stipulated return date.[
]
Governance
Owstwick forms part of the civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of Roos
Roos is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated east from Kingston upon Hull city centre and north-west from Withernsea, and on the B1242 road.
History
The de Ros family originated from the villa ...
and is represented locally by Roos Parish Council while at county level is in the South East Holderness ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council
East Riding of Yorkshire Council is the local authority of the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government serv ...
. At a parliamentary level it is part of the Beverley and Holderness constituency which is represented by Graham Stuart of the Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
.
References
*
External links
*
{{authority control
Villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire
Holderness