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THE PIONEERS Who were the people who started Freemasonry in Hull in the 18 th century? In 1743 there was a theatre in Lowgate called the New Theatre and a theatre company from York owned by Thomas Keragan, whose son was a Mason, played there each winter season. It was next door to a public house called the Cock and Barneby where cock fighting took place occasionally [Middleton]. Both structures were swept away in 1785 when the new Methodist, George Yard Chapel was built. The opening sermon was appropriately from Haggai, chapter 2, verse 9, “ The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of hosts” John Wesley himself preached there in 1788. In later days it was demolished to make way for the Queens Hall Methodist Mission built in 1905 and in due course it too was demolished to build the law courts in Alfred Gelder Street [The author remembers learning to play the cornet in the old George Yard Chapel school rooms in 1950 shortly before their demolition]. By 1768, Tate Wilkinson the manager of the Keragan, or York travelling players, built a theatre in Finkle Street, and put on plays there which were popular particularly in winter. The old venue was used by the Rev. Rutherford to conduct religious services in the stalls for the sinners, and the boxes for those that liked to sit in high places. Wilkinson and Rutherford liked to share an odd bottle or so of wine and thought highly of each other. Tate Wilkinson and Baker, the previous manager were keen Masons and many in the theatre company were travelling Masons too, so there is little doubt that they would attend lodges when and where they could. Wilkinson said “If I had held my pen but half as well as I have held my bottle” suggests that the Masonic meetings were well lubricated with alcohol. There was a Masonic link with York via the theatre circuit [Tate Wilkinson]. The first recorded meeting of Freemasons in Hull in modern times was on 20th. August 1759. It was at a new inn without Myton Gates, that is to say outside the town walls, called The Cock and Crown. [Z490 1128 1758 and AB 25 57 1759. Documents DDHV/26/5, 6 and 8. April 1757] This meeting was held a week before the birth of William Wilberforce in the nearby High St, [Hague]. The area was also known as the Shoulder of Mutton, due to the shape cut out by the roads as the area was developed. There was an ancient footpath out to the west from the town and of course several mills; the Myton mill being, close by to the west. In 1823, a small altar stone had been dug up whilst developing Tan House Lane in this area. Dr. Alderson obtained it [Richardson]. Where it is now and what was its significance is not recorded. The inn possessed a billiard room, a bowling green and a cockpit. The cockpit had barns and stables, cock runs and loft attached. There was a view out to the River Humber and onto gardens, pasture land and three more windmills. A distance of two or three hundred yards outside the Town walls, it seemed rather a pleasant venue for the new organisation [See contemporary maps]. [Thew’s Plan 1784 small relevant section thereof] Such a venue was one which would be frequented by gentlemen, merchants, tradesmen and others gathered for the cocking. The cocking season started on Shrove Tuesday and was advertised as the fighting and throwing of cocks, in the York Courant [The Hull Courant was founded this year, 1759, as Hull’s first newspaper]. Most of the matches were fought midweek, in the spring and summer, near to Feast days and Saint Days. Hull was not a major player in the circuit of cockfighting venues in the earlier 18 th century. Matches against Barton on Humber and Beverley were fought, but York, Leeds, Beverley and Wakefield were the major players and had suitable racecourses nearby which also helped. [Middleton] Horse racing did take place on Wold Carr but was presumably only of a minor nature. Hull recorded six or so matches annually whereas Beverley would have more than twenty five. Big money changed hands on these occasions and the main or odd battle would involve 21 or other odd number of pairs of cocks, all specially bred and trained for the matches. The winner of the greater number of battles was the winner of the Main or Odd. On occasion a Welsh Main [the last cock standing] was fought as an eliminating contest starting with say 16 pairs. The 8 winners would then fight and so on, until the last two cocks fought for the final victory. One hundred guineas might well be the prize money for the Main and there would be many side bets. The birds would have exotic names like” Ginger Pile “or less flatteringly”Shitwig Red”. They would wear expensive silver spurs [1.25 to 2.5 inches long at 10/6d a pair,] and blinkers sometimes [Robinson]. The tenant landlord of the Cock and Crown was Richard Scott who had run a successful cockpit in a less salubrious part of the town in Fish Street for many years [Kernan]. He leased these new facilities from a Robert Foster. Robert Foster was a tanner who owned a residence in Kirkella, now the home of the Hull Golf Club. Foster became bankrupt in 1758 and died in 1761. His assignees sold the Kirkella property and the property on and around the Cock and Crown. At this time Henry Etherington was the Mayor. It is unlikely that Hull, in this lower league of cockfighting, was a profitable venue from the Landlord’s point of view. The first Masonic meetings were at the Cock and Crown because a Mr. George Caddy, already a Mason, lived virtually next door and would know the amenities this new inn had to offer. The new lodge took its name from the name of the inn and was given a number by Grand Lodge, being no 252 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of England. At one time Masonry had been controlled in the north by York Grand Lodge but this had become moribund by 1717, and the role was assumed by four London lodges forming jointly the “Grand Lodge of England.” Some lodges would not owe allegiance to this Authority, considering it illegitimate. These included Scottish and Irish lodges who had their own organisations and others from various parts of England. These latter became organised and had their own” Grand Lodge” by 1751, curiously enough set up initially in a tavern, the Turks Head [see later]. Those that supported the London lead were called” Moderns” and those that opposed it were called “Antients “or “Ancients”. The latter claimed to follow the old ways of Masonry, unlike the revisionist London “Moderns Grand Lodge”, which was actually set up earlier, in 1725. The first members of the Cock and Crown Lodge were, or included, William Brown, John Caddy and George Caddy, Thomas Stainton and William Spencer, a doctor. The first medical connexion came with Dr. Spencer whose father had been the one time Governor of Hull Gaol. Initially Spencer was a doctor in Hull before going to a practice in York. He became a senior figure in York Masonry and presided at the opening of the Minerva Lodge in Hull in 1783. Of this group little is known, except about Dr. Spencer and the Caddys who were merchants in High St. Mr. Frodsham, a strolling player, was a member. Frodsham is recorded in Tate Wilkinson’s memoirs. Some of Keragan’s actors and their manager Mr. Baker therefore were probably founder members of the Cock and Crown Lodge such as Oram, Leng, Granger, Crisp, Penner, Fitzmaurice and Binns. This new lodge was styled a “Moderns” lodge and thus owed allegiance to London. George and John Caddy, with three other members from Hull, became sponsoring members when the strolling players, or comedians, founded their own lodge in York, at the Punchbowl Inn i.e. the Punchbowl Lodge [No 259], in Feb. 1761. This too was a Moderns lodge. The Worshipful Master was the above Bridge Frodsham who later died in Hull in 1768. The York members i.e. strolling players, provided the candles at their own expense for the Hull Lodge for several years. The Punchbowl Lodge was struck off by Grand Lodge on the same day as the Hull lodges in January 1768 [see later]. Some of the early members of the Punchbowl Lodge, when on tour in Hull, probably retained links with remnants of the Hull Masons between 1768 and 1781 when the Rodney Lodge was formed and helped to keep Hull Masonry alive, as did those Hull Masons who travelled to York and kept in touch with Freemasonry there. The Punchbowl Inn still exists in Stone gate, York, having survived the ravages of time and several fires. [Punchbowl, Stonegate, York, 2009, Author’s collection] Two years after starting at the Cock and Crown, this first Hull lodge No 252, [Moderns] left and set up at the Black Bull, a more commodious and prestigious venue at No 1 Mytongate, next to the site of the old Gaol. [Hargrave] The Black Bull was a coaching inn and much larger than the previous one. The move coincided with the collapse of the lodge at the George, No 78 [Ancients], which was set up on 3 rd.September 1759, shortly after the one at the Cock and Crown. It is intriguing to wonder why at the time of the removal of the Cock and Crown Lodge, another Modern’s lodge was started on the opposite side of the road at the KingsHead. The Black Bull was a old hostelry possibly dating from 1690. .According to G J Monson Fitz John in [Quaint Signs of Olde Inns,] when a new landlord appeared in 1751 he came from the Rising Sun on the other side of the River Hull so he added it to the former sign board hence the Black Bull and Sun or at a later time, the Bull and Sun [Hayton]. [Old Billhead, Author’s collection] The inn had its own commodious brew house and extensive stables. It had 14 bedrooms and so was properly equipped to be a coaching inn. It acted as a meeting place for public functions, entertainment and even bankruptcy hearings. It was at the centre of the coaching trade and pursued carrier trade in the pre railway era. The inn holder, John Morris was a Freemason. He moved to the Cross Keys, Market Place, one of the premier inns in Hull, in 1805. In 1796 he had exhibited a giant of over 9ft. tall to attract his patrons! Morris was replaced by John Banks, previously of the Blue Bell Inn, Market Place. The Rodney Lodge and its Chapter used to meet at the Bull and Sun for a time [see later]. This inn declined in the railway era and it was eventually redesigned and the stables sold off. It finished up as the Tivoli tavern in 1895. In later years boxing matches and jazz sessions took place there. One occupant describes the barrels in the cellars being on stands, as flooding in the Old Town was commonplace. He further mentions the old kitchen was used for cock fighting [Hayton]. The Tivoli tavern was finally demolished in April 1975. A picture of the Tivoli shortly before demolition can be seen in Last Orders Please ref. at: http://www.yorkshirehistory.com/pubs_J_m.htm There was never any evidence that the Cock and Crown inn ever had any of the profitable coaching or carrier trade, though two of the neighbouring houses did, as there were coaches to Beverley advertised by neighbour Butterwick and another neighbour, a carrier, T. Crawford, ran a service to and from York. It is possible that the cockpit continued to function until 1816 and if so, it being thirsty work, it is assumed that the inn stayed open as well. The inn never featured in any lists or directories in this rapidly expanding area of the town. It is not to be supposed that the gamblers had signed the pledge, in spite of having a well known preacher Rev. George Lambert, living only a few houses from the inn, at No 11 Castle Street. Public houses and inns went bankrupt very easily due to oversupply of outlets and economic fluctuations. The price of beer increased greatly between 1780 and 1800 due to poor harvests. It is possible that in a time of increasing respectability and reform of behaviour that the inn chose to keep a lower profile. Certainly the mayor Joseph Sykes and Corporation were in 1778 very opposed to skittles and cock fighting. The Bench Books for that date read ”All persons who sell ale in this town and keep and encourage cockpits or skittle grounds that their licences will not be renewed at the next ale house sessions unless they immediately desist keeping and encouraging the same”. Riotous behaviour was not unknown as fights could be fixed. Perhaps the newly fledged Masons had sought more respectability. In 1776, a very impassioned plea to stop the cruelty of cockfighting was made in the press “Cruel children pulling the wings off flies with indifference and hard heartedness might pull off the wing of a bird or the tail of a cat, throw stones at horses or cut the teats off a cow and later become cruel adults. They might even love their dogs more than their mothers and no great wonder if they did.” and “St. Peter denied his master and the crowing cock was held to be a sign of repentance by some. The poor cock therefore did not deserve to die by cruel people tying it to a stake and then throwing cudgels at it till every bone in its body was broken. This cruelty was a Christian abomination” [Humanus]. Perhaps these sentiments had earlier caused an exodus to the Bull and Sun. Myton was perhaps not under the scrutiny of the Corporation as much as the town, being out with the town walls at this time, but it is likely that the sport was driven under ground. Perhaps that is why the Cock and Crown does not feature in the written record. The cockpit is occasionally mentioned, but not its activities, until 1817. Bull baiting was recorded in Myton in 1823 and to this day badger baiting and similar pursuits are still illegally practised in remote venues, though not in Myton of course. Eventually the site of the Cock and Crown was bought by a Benjamin Hickson, a ship-owner and businessman. This became no 7 Castle Street. The property next door No 8 belonged to a Bethel Boyes, Hanoverian Consul and businessman, and a tea importer. It was a profitable business with millions of pounds worth being imported legally and illegally into England. Much was adulterated on the way with substances such as iron filings, or elderberry leaf additives by the importer and middlemen. Even Earl Grey tea got its flavour from a little adulteration. The English were drinking 2.5 pounds per head of tea per annum in 1801 even though it was expensive. Pictures by Hogarth [another Mason] showed the tea caddy in his paintings, as a mark of distinction and wealth in the 1700s. As the duty was lowered in 1784 the consumption of tea increased greatly. It is hard to imagine a cockpit in such commercial surroundings. The site of the cockpit eventually became a mustard mill owned by Mathew Trigg, in 1816. It was in Cockpit Yard. Mathew Trigg became a member of Council of the newly formed Hull Literary and Philosophical Society in 1822. By 1817, property in this area was acquired by the Dock Company to build the new Junction Dock [Princes Dock] which opened in 1829. In Later years the Dock Company office was placed here and in 1831, a new pub, the Junction Dock Tavern was built on the same site. Traces of earlier days lingered and Cockpit Alley and Yard were on Hull maps for some years, running between Castle Street and St. Johns Street, as was Smith’s Place, where a neighbour Miss Smith, had resided at No13 [Battle1822]. Eventually the Junction Dock tavern was replaced by the Earl de Grey pub [named after Lord Goderich who inherited the title of Earl de Grey and Ripon and who became an honorary Mason of the Humber Lodge in 1863]. [Pub sign, Earl de Grey, Castle Street, Hull, 2009, Author’s collection] The pub exists to this day but no longer serves any customers. Next door to the west, the Boyes’ premises became a beer shop and eventually the Regatta Pub was built there. Sadly now the rural nature of the area has been replaced with a major roadway. It can truly be said that the site where Masonry first spread its wings had some interesting antecedents from mustard mills, stables, cockpit, dock offices and public houses. Now there is a shopping centre on water and opposite, a marina and a hotel. All that reminds us of those days is the Holy Trinity Graveyard opposite. Even the four windmills have gone. [Current location situation of the Earl de Grey, 2009, Author’s collection] Dr. Barry Hovell M.B. Ch.B. F.F.A.R.C.S. ©2009 Introduction: Freemasonry and Acknowledgements
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