Georgian Society for East Yorkshire

Fifty years ago I came across a bundle of letters, in the Anderson family papers in Lincolnshire Archives Office, written by William Burton, son of the builder of Hotham Hall to Dorothy Anderson, second daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson Bt, of Kilnwick Percy Hall. The Burton’s were newcomers to landed society, but the Andersons had been long established in ... (read more...)

Two elements make up the Society’s name: ‘Georgian’ and East Yorkshire’. Tobias Smollett’s novels are set in the Georgian age as William Hogarth illustrated it: earthy, crowded, human, real. George Orwell thought Smollett Scotland’s best novelist. Try Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphry Clinker. Walter Scott’s most convincing novels are those set nearest his own time and in landscape he ... (read more...)

George Atkinson (1800-49) was organist at St Mary’s Lowgate in Hull from 1820 to 1849. He was the son of William Atkinson who advertised himself as a “music master” in Bishop Lane Hull in 1806 and later mover to 42 Whitefriargate. George was a pupil of S.S. Wesley, Ferdinand Reis and Beethoven. He taught piano and sold music at ... (read more...)

I have at home a tiny bound copy of “Church Services” from 1856 which has at the back “A New Version of the Psalms of David fitted to the tunes used in churches by N Brady, DD and N. Tate, Esq.”. This metrical Psalter first appeared in 1696, not entirely supplanting the 1562 Sternhold and Hopkins, referred to as ... (read more...)

And now for the people. Oh dear- the people! Aspiring singers were encouraged to add trills and other graces at their own discretion (or lack of it), instructed by such as Arnold’s “Compleat Psalmodist” (1750) and various peripatetic tutors who would travel from village to village giving classes. The practice was exported to America, as bemoaned by Rev T ... (read more...)

To keep us going during this difficult ‘lockdown’ period, Stephen gave us an interesting reading list (literature of the Georgian period) – see the entry for 28 March 2020. This prompted me to consider my own early encounters with Georgian literature. Literature of our period was not much favoured in schools of the 1950s/1960s (I suspect even less so ... (read more...)

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice 16-year-old Lydia Bennet writes the following note to the woman who had been acting as her chaperone: ‘You will laugh when you know where I am gone, and I cannot help laughing myself at your surprise tomorrow morning, as soon as I am missed. I am going to Gretna Green, and if you ... (read more...)

One of the a number of well-known artists to come from our region, John Ward was born in Hull in 1798. His father, Abraham Ward, was a master mariner and painter. John was educated, and became an apprentice house painter. He was listed as a house and ship painter in his own right by 1826, when he was listed ... (read more...)

By Jane Payne. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen must be in want of a re-interpretation. So there’s the proto-feminist Jane, the anti-slavery Jane, the anti-capitalist Jane, the Freudian Jane, the Andrew Davies wet shirt Jane. There’s Jane Marple Austen: a country house or village location, characters deceiving one another, clues parading before the clever reader, ... (read more...)

For almost half her life the diarist Anne Lister, ‘Gentleman Jack’ of the hit TV series, lived in the East Riding. Anne was the daughter of Captain Jeremy Lister of Halifax and Rebecca Battle, daughter of a successful Hull grocer William Battle who lived at Welton Hall. Jeremy and Rebecca were married at Welton on 2 August 1788. They ... (read more...)

William Mason was born in Hull in 1724. He was educated at Hull Grammar School, and later went to St John's College, Cambridge. His poem "Musaeus, a Monody on the Death of Mr. Pope" was published in 1747. Mason makes poets from history, such as Chaucer and Spenser, mourn Alexander Pope's death in imitations of their own styles. The ... (read more...)

Beverley saw a great musical scene during the eighteenth century, with many musicians living in the town. From the 1750s, subscription concerts were held in the Assembly Rooms in North Bar Within. Private concerts were also common, one possibly being mentioned in 1762 at which airs from the Messiah were performed by a visiting singer from Newcastle. The town ... (read more...)