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York
Historical and geographical information
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Dates
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Contextual
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This webpage about the York has the following section headings:
- Farndale
family history and York
- York, overview
- Timeline of York history
- Links, texts
and books
The Farndales of York
The
York 1 Line were the descendants of
Johannis de Farndale (FAR00030), a saddler,
made Freeman of York in 1363. His son was Johannis de Farendale
(FAR0035),
freeman of York. John Fernedill (FAR0048A)
The
York Southcliffe Line
were the descendants of Alice Farndale (FAR00058).
Others
were Wylson, wyff of Farndayll
(FAR00065);
William Farndale (FAR00220A),
York (Bishop Wilton); Elias Farndale (FAR00224), York (Bishop
Wilton); William Farndale (FAR00281), York
(Bishop Wilton); Joseph Farndale (FAR00285);
Thomas Farndale (FAR00317);
John Farndale (FAR00324),
York (Bishop Wilton); John Farndale (FAR00365); Jane
Ann Farndale (FAR00371);
William Brown Farndale (FAR00384);
Mary Farndale (FAR00393);
Joseph Farndale (FAR00401);
Hannah Farndale (FAR00407);
Jane Farndale (FAR00422);
William Farndale (FAR00425);
William Farndale (FAR00435);
George Farndale (FAR00437);
Henry Farndale (FAR00446);
Mary Farndale (FAR00461);
Joseph Farndale (FAR00463);
Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00470);
Sarah Farndale (FAR00513);
Louisa Farndale (FAR00518);
Mary Emily Farndale (FAR00529);
William Edward Farndale (FAR00576);
Joseph Farndale (FAR00593);
Ellen Farndale (FAR00612);
Lily Farndale (FAR00635);
William Henry Farndale (FAR00655);
John William Farndale (FAR00663);
Florence Farndale (FAR00671);
Arthur Farndale (FAR00694);
Arthur E Farndale (FAR00706);
Ella Farndale (FAR00727);
Lily D Farndale (FAR00768);
John Farndale (FAR00805);
Lorna Farndale (FAR00927);
Denise A Farndale (FAR00949);
Lillian P Farndale (FAR00956);
John Leslie Farndale (FAR00979);
Lydia A Farndale (FAR00991);
John Anthony Farndale (FAR01021).
Joseph Farndale CBE KPM (FAR00463) became
Chief Constable of Margate, York and later of Bradford. He was Chief Constable
of York Police from 1897 to 1900.
York
York is a city in North Yorkshire,
located at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. It is
the county town of the historic county of Yorkshire.
York Timeline
For thousands of years before the Romans came to the
area, prehistoric folk hunted, farmed and lived in communities. They discovered
how to exploit stone, then bronze and later iron. The first metal objects were
made from copper, but by adding tin, they became much stronger.
Flint tools, the Yorkshire Museum
Pottery vessels for cremated remains
43 CE
The area of York was inhabited by a Celtic tribal
confederation, the Brigantes.
The Romans came to Britain, to stay, from 43 CE.
Initially the Romans didn’t venture north of the Humber and Don, but traded
with the Parisii, though the Brigantes
remained hostile.
Cartimandua was the Brigantes’
queen. Her position was threatened by an open revolt by her husband, Venutius. It may have been this revolt that provided a
purpose for Roman intervention.
Eboracum
71 CE
In 71 CE the new Roman Governor, Quintius Petillius Ceralius marched north
from Lincoln to occupy Brigantes and Parisii territory. The Ninth Legion erected a large camp
near where Malton (northeast of York) stands today.
Legionary Tile, 70 to 120 CE (Yorkshire Museum)
They found that the area of York was an ideal site for
a fort in a potentially neutral zone between the Brigantes
and the Parisii.
A larger military camp was constructed by the Romans
as Eboracum (modern day York) in 71 CE. The Romans built an earth-and-timber
fort on the north-east side of the Ouse, which formed the basis for York’s city
centre today. As this fortress grew in importance, a civilian settlement
developed on the opposite bank of the river.
Soldiers stationed in Eboracum came from across
Northern Europe, only a few could have come from Italy. The Ninth and the later
Sixth Legion had been stationed in Spain, Africa, Germany
and Pannonia before they came to Britain.
Urban settlements grew around the Roman fortifications
at Eboracum, Malton and Stamford. Eboracum became the Roman provincial capital.
The remains of the Roman Basilica can be seen in the undercroft of York Minster, and the remains of a bathhouse
in the cellar of the Roman Bath pub.
Roman coinage (The Yorkshire Museum)
The city was therefore founded by
the Romans as Eboracum in 71 CE. The civilian
settlement was just across a bridge, or reached by
ferry. Soldiers from the fortress could relax there and soldiers and officers
sometimes lived in residential properties or large private houses alongside the
civilian population.
The heart of the Roman fortress was the principia, the
Headquarters.
Roman troops were garrisoned at York for more than 300
years but little is known of the history of the city
during that period, partly because systematic and extensive excavation is
impossible and partly because the city is so infrequently mentioned in early
writings. Two events, however, were of sufficient importance in the history of
the empire to earn a mention by Roman writers. Between 208 and 211 the Emperor Severus was at York while he was conducting
campaigns against the Caledonians and in the latter year he died there.
Accounts of his death make some obscure references to York's topography and
mention a temple of Bellona and a domus palatina. It
was from York, moreover, that Severus dated a rescript of 5 May 210 headed Eboraci. Almost a century later, in 305, Constantius
Chlorus died in the city and Constantine was acclaimed there as his successor.
Both Severus and Constantius Chlorus were using York as a base for military expeditions and it was as the strategic centre of Roman
Britain that the fortress was most important. (A History of the County of York: the
City of York. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1961).
120 CE
In about 120 CE, the Ninth Legion was replaced there
by the Sixth Legion, and both the fort and the civilian settlement were rebuilt
in stone.
122 CE
Emperor Hadrian (of Spanish origin) visited the
settlement during his journey to build his border wall. Men from York’s Sixth
Legion built Hadrian’s Wall.
Skull of a man in his fifties buried between York and Calcaria (Tadcaster) (Yorkshire Museum). Skeleton of a wealthy lady found
close to the River Ouse, found accompanied by unusual
and expensive objects (Yorkshire Museum).
The cult God Mythras
207 CE
During his stay 207–211 CE, the Emperor Severus
proclaimed York capital of the province of Britannia Inferior, and it is likely
that it was he who granted York the privileges of a 'colonia' or city.
Emperor Septimius Severus (of Libyan origin), who was
leading campaigns against the Caledonians to the north, arrived in York with a
very large retinue of civil servants and soldiers, including the Praetorian
Guard. He also brought his wife, Julia Domna, and their sons Caracalla and
Geta. Severus died in York in February AD 211 and, after a bloody succession
squabble in Rome, Caracalla became emperor.
At this time, Eboracum was designated the capital of
Britannia Inferior, the province of northern Britain, and gained the highest status
that a city could have in the Roman empire, becoming a colonia.
Sandstone statute of Mars 300 to 400 CE (Nunnery Lane,
York, now at The Yorkshire Museum) Lucius Duccius
Rufinus, a 28 year old standard bearer from Viennes,
France (Mickelgate, York, now the Yorkshire Museum)
306 CE
Constantius
I died in 306 CE during his stay in York, and his son Constantine the Great was
proclaimed Emperor by the troops based in the fortress.
Constantius Chlorus (of Serbian origin) became the
second emperor to die in York on 25 July 306 CE. He had visited Britain several
times during his lifetime. He was accompanied at the time by his son,
Constantine, who eventually succeeded him. Constantine would have a profound
impact on the city and on global politics.
Constantius and Constantine (Yorkshire Museum)
The veteran soldier Caereslus
Augustinus had lost his wife. Flavia Augustina and his two children. This stone
carving (119 to 410 CE) seems to depict his idea of how they might have grown
up as a family, had they lived. (Yorkshire Museum)
Tombstone (200 to 300 CE) of Julia Velva. Her heir
Aurelius Mercurialis would gather at the tomb on the
anniversary of her death and would have believed she could take part.
(Yorkshire Museum).
313 CE
Constantine supported Christianity, and in 313 CE
issued an edict of religious tolerance.
314 CE
Eboracum had its first bishop, Eborius,
appointed.
In 314 CE a bishop from York attended the Council at
Arles to represent Christians from the province.
400 CE
While the Roman colonia and fortress were on high
ground, by 400 CE the town was victim to occasional flooding from the Rivers
Ouse and Foss, and the population reduced.
Fifth century
York declined in the post-Roman era,
and was taken and settled by the Angles in the 5th century. The
population shrank, trade declined, and buildings were abandoned.
Apart from … slight indications that the Germanic
invasions may not at first have been inimical to York, nothing is known of the
fate of the city in the 5th and 6th centuries. By the first decade of the 7th
century, and perhaps earlier, it lay within but not at the heart of the English
kingdom of Deira. (A
History of the County of York: the City of York.
Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1961).
However
cemeteries dating from this period show that Anglo-Saxons settled in the area
as early as the fifth century.
Eoforwic
Seventh century
From about 600 CE, York became
capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira. Its Anglo-Saxon name, Eoforwic, suggests that it was an important commercial
centre; all ‘-wic’ towns in the period being
important trading emporia. By the early seventh century, it was also a royal
base for the Northumbrian kings.
Reclamation of parts of the
town was initiated in the 7th century under King Edwin of Northumbria, and York
became his chief city. It was the capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira
and later the combined centre of Northumberland with the merging of Deira with
Bernicia. Its Anglo-Saxon name, Eoforwic, suggests
that it was an important commercial centre as the wic
towns were important trading centres. By the early seventh century, it was also
a royal base for the Northumbrian kings.
601 CE
When in 601 Gregory the Great sent the pallium to
Augustine he planned to divide Britain into two sees, one of which was to have
its centre at York. When the time was ripe the Bishop of York, like Augustine
in the southern province centred on London, was to ordain twelve bishops and
enjoy the rank of metropolitan. This apparently sudden reappearance of York in
the role of an internationally recognized metropolis has doubtless some
connexion with the facts of population and economics. The Roman roads alone would
have sufficed by this date to focus Northumbrian communications and commerce in
such a degree as to re-create at York the largest urban settlement in the
north. But these can scarcely have been the only reasons for the choice of
York. Gregory is unlikely to have been ignorant of the traditions of the city
deriving from its status in Roman times and, in particular,
he may have been reminded by his advisers that the city had been the
centre of a bishopric in the 4th century. Though many years were to elapse
before his plan took effect, we may regard the northern metropolitan see as the
most permanent legacy of Eboracum and so, like the papacy itself, a 'ghost of
empire'. (A History of the County of York: the City of York.
Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1961).
627 CE
After the Roman mission to re-establish Christianity
in Britain, Bishop Paulinus established his church in the city The first wooden
minster church was built in York. It was here that King Edwin was baptised in
627, according to the Venerable Bede.
So King Edwin, with all the nobles of his race and a
vast number of the common people, received the faith and regeneration by holy
baptism in the eleventh year of his reign, that is in the year of our Lord 627
and about 180 years after the coming of the English to Britain, He was baptised
at York on Easter Day, 12 April, in the church of St Peter the Apostle, which
he had hastily built from wood while he was a catechumen and under instruction
before he received baptism. He established an episcopal see for Paulinus, his
instructor and bishop, in the same city. (The Ecclesiastical History, Bede)
Edwin ordered the small wooden church be rebuilt in
stone; however, he was killed in 633, and the task of completing the stone
minster fell to his successor Oswald.
Eighth century
In the following century, Alcuin of York came to the
cathedral school of York. He had a long career as a teacher and scholar, first
at the school at York now known as St Peter's School, founded in 627 AD, and later as Charlemagne's leading advisor on
ecclesiastical and educational affairs.
793 CE
The earliest recorded Viking raid in Britain was the
attack on Lindisfarne in AD 793. At the time the Scandinavian raiders generally
picked largely undefended, wealthy targets such remote monasteries. The
Vikings quickly learned that ecclesiastical centres were good targets.
865 CE
The Viking Great Army first landed in East Anglia on
the east coast of England in 865 CE, but soon turned northwards.
866 CE
In 866 CE, Northumbria was in the
midst of internecine struggles when the Vikings raided and captured
York. As a thriving Anglo-Saxon metropolis and prosperous economic hub, York
was a clear target for the Vikings. Led by Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan,
Scandinavian forces attacked the town on All Saints' Day. Launching the assault
on a holy day proved an effective tactical move, most of York's leaders were in
the cathedral, leaving the town vulnerable to attack and unprepared for battle.
It is possible that its gates were open to let in people from the surrounding
countryside.
Jórvik
By the end of the ninth century, the Norsemen had established
themselves in York. And so Saxon Eoforwic became Jórvik.
It became the capital of Viking territory in Britain,
and at its peak boasted more than 10,000 inhabitants. This was a population
second only to London within Great Britain. Jorvik proved an important economic
and trade centre for the Vikings. The city was well connected through river
traffic along the Ouse, which linked via the North Sea to the Viking trade
networks that spanned much of the known world at that time. Artefacts from as
far away as Afghanistan have been found in York. There’s
also evidence from the Coppergate site of industrial
production: woodworking, crafting with copper, iron, silver, gold, even
glassmaking – and the raw materials came from far afield. Some were brought
across the Pennines; there was tin from Cornwall, and bones and antlers for
combs and pins from Greenland and Iceland.
Jorvik Museum (Photographs RMF)
Norse coinage was created at the Jorvik mint, while
archaeologists have found evidence of a variety of craft workshops around the
town's central Coppergate area. These demonstrate
that textile production, metalwork, carving, glasswork
and jewellery-making were all practised in Jorvik. Materials from as far afield
as the Persian Gulf have also been discovered, suggesting that the town was
part of an international trading network. Under Viking rule the city became a
major river port, part of the extensive Viking trading routes throughout
northern Europe.
926 CE
By AD 926, the Scandinavian kingdom of York was
brought under the overlordship of King Æthelstan. But
for the next few decades, it was fought over between the Anglo-Saxon kings and
the Viking kings of the Irish Uí Ímair dynasty.
954 CE
The last ruler of an independent Jórvík,
Eric Bloodaxe, was driven from the city in 954 CE by
King Eadred in his successful attempt to complete the unification of England.
York
was absorbed into the English kingdom – but it retained its Anglo-Scandinavian
culture and character. There are records of landholders with hybrid names, and
inscriptions around Yorkshire that are partly in Latin and partly in Old Norse.
1066
In 1066 the Danes, led by the Norwegian King Harold
Hardrada, sailed up the Ouse, with support from Tostig Godwinson and after the
Battle of Fulford, they seized York. King Harold of England then marched his
army north to York in four days to take the invaders by surprise. Live. Bridge.
The rebels were defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in which Harold
Hardrada and Tostig were killed. So far so good. The trouble of course was that
Harold then had to march his exhausted army south again, to confront the second
threat from William of Normandy, near Hastings, and in that episode, he didn’t
do so well.
1068
In 1068, two years after the Norman conquest of
England, the people of York rebelled. Initially they were successful, but upon
the arrival of William the Conqueror the rebellion was put down.
William at once built a wooden motte and bailey fortresses at the site of Clifford’s
Tower.
1069
In 1069, after another rebellion, the king built
another timbered castle across the River Ouse. The original
wooden castles were destroyed in 1069 by another rebellion supported by the
Danish King Sweyn II Estridsson.
The Norman response was to set fires that destroyed
swathes of York, including the Minster. William bribed the Danes to leave, then
stamped out local rebellion during the Harrying of the North. and rebuilt the City and the two castles as well as. The remains of the rebuilt castles, now in
stone, are visible on either side of the River Ouse.
York
1080
The first stone minster church was badly damaged by
fire in the uprising, and the Normans built a minster on a new site (parts of
which can be seen in the modern undercroft). Around
the year 1080, Archbishop Thomas started building the first Norman
Cathedral that in time became the current Minster.
1088
Religious communities were established, including the
hugely wealthy Benedictine monastery St Mary’s Abbey, the ruins of which are in
Museum Gardens. The original church on the site was
founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olaf. After the Norman Conquest the
church came into the possession of the Anglo-Breton magnate Alan Rufus who
granted the lands to Abbot Stephen and a group of monks from Whitby. The abbey
church was refounded in 1088 when the King, William
Rufus, visited York in January or February of that year and gave the monks
additional lands.
Within a few decades, as many as 40 parish churches
stood within York, giving an indication of its large population. York once more
became an important, bustling commercial city.
Twelfth century
In the 12th century York started to prosper. In
the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and became the
capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of
England
1190
Under the protection of its sheriff, York had a
substantial Jewish community. In 1190, Clifford’s Tower was the site
of an infamous massacre of its Jewish inhabitants, in which
at least 150 Jews died.
1212
The city, through its location on the River Ouse and its proximity to the Great North Road,
became a major trading centre. King John granted the city's
first charter in 1212, confirming trading rights in England and
Europe. The city was no longer controlled by a sheriff,
but headed by a mayor elected by the citizens.
During the later Middle Ages, York merchants imported
wine from France, cloth, wax, canvas, and oats from the Low Countries,
timber and furs from the Baltic and exported grain
to Gascony and grain and wool to the Low Countries.
The Shambles was originally a street for butchers, and
you can still see outdoor shelves and hooks on which meat was hung.
York became a major cloth manufacturing and trading
centre. Edward I further stimulated the city's economy by using the
city as a base for his war in Scotland.
1226
In 1226 work started on the construction of York’s
town walls.
1298
Royal government relocated to York during the Scottish
Wars.
Clifford’s Tower housed the royal treasury.
1381
The city was the location of significant unrest during
the so-called Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
1396
The city acquired an increasing degree of autonomy
from central government including the privileges granted by a charter
of Richard II in 1396. The timber-framed Merchant Adventurers’ Hall,
built in the mid-14th century, is a remnant of that era.
Fifteenth Century
York’s economy began to decline towards the later
Middle Ages. During the 15th century the city fathers attempted to maintain its
image, building a new guildhall and St Williams College (as accommodation for
the Minster’s Chantry priests), both of which still stand today.
1472
York Minster, the largest Gothic cathedral north of
the Alps, was finally completed in 1472.
Yet the cloth industry, the mainstay of the city’s
economy, had gradually moved to other parts of Yorkshire, Halifax, Wakefield,
Leeds, where trade was less strictly controlled and regulated. The population
fell, houses were abandoned.
1536
The city underwent a period of economic decline
during Tudor times. Under King Henry VIII, the Dissolution
of the Monasteries saw the end of York's many monastic houses,
including several orders of friars, the hospitals of St Nicholas and of St
Leonard, the largest such institution in the north of England.
This led to the Pilgrimage of Grace, an uprising
of northern Catholics in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire opposed to religious
reform. Henry VIII restored his authority by establishing the Council of
the North in York in the dissolved St Mary's Abbey. The city became a
trading and service centre during this period. The
reestablishment of the King’s Council in the North,
turned York again into a major administrative and judicial centre.
1561
Under Elizabeth I, the High Commission Court for the
Northern Province of York was established in 1561. The Council and Court
together brought government institutions to the city and, as
a consequence, attracted large numbers of people who needed to be fed,
housed and provided with the basics of daily living. This brought renewed trade
into the city, along with a gentry who demanded luxury goods.
Yorkshire cloth was once more in demand, along with
sheepskin, in part to support the quantity of parchment required for the documentation
by the Council and Court. By the end of the 16th century, York was bustling
once again, with more than 60 inns housing and feeding visitors and merchants.
1605
Guy Fawkes, who was born and educated in York, was a
member of a group of Roman Catholic restorationists that planned
the Gunpowder Plot. Its aim was to displace Protestant rule
by blowing up the Houses of Parliament while King James I, the entire Protestant, and even most
of the Catholic aristocracy and nobility were inside.
1642
During the Civil War, in 1642, Charles I fled London
and set up court in York for several months, making it effectively the national
capital. Even after his departure, it remained a
royalist stronghold, and was besieged and eventually captured by the
parliamentarians.
1644
In 1644, during the Civil War,
the Parliamentarians besieged York,
and many medieval houses outside the city walls were lost.
The barbican at Walmgate Bar was undermined
and explosives laid, but, the plot was discovered.
On the arrival of Prince Rupert, with an army of
15,000 men, the siege was lifted. The Parliamentarians retreated some
10 km from York with Rupert in pursuit, before turning on his army and
soundly defeating it at the Battle of Marston Moor. Of Rupert's
15,000 troops, no fewer than 4,000 were killed and 1,500 captured. The
siege was renewed; the city could not hold out for much longer,
and surrendered to Sir Thomas Fairfax on 15 July.
1660
Following the restoration of the monarchy in
1660, and the removal of the garrison from York in 1688, the city was dominated
by the gentry and merchants, although the clergy were still important.
Competition from Leeds and Hull,
together with silting of the River Ouse, resulted in
York losing its pre-eminent position as a trading centre but the city's role as
the social and cultural centre for wealthy northerners was on the rise.
York's many elegant townhouses, such as
the Lord Mayor's Mansion House and Fairfax House date from
this period, as do the Assembly Rooms, the Theatre Royal, and
the racecourse.
During this general time period,
the American city of New York and the colony that contained
it were renamed after the Duke of York (later King James II).
1839
The railway promoter George Hudson was
responsible for bringing the railway to York in 1839. Although Hudson's career
as a railway entrepreneur ended in disgrace and bankruptcy, his promotion of
York over Leeds, and of his own railway company (the York and North
Midland Railway), helped establish York as a major railway centre by the late
19th century.
The introduction of the railways established
engineering in the city.
At the turn of the 20th century, the railway
accommodated the headquarters and works of the North
Eastern Railway, which employed more than 5,500 people.
1862
The railway was instrumental in the expansion
of Rowntree's Cocoa Works. It was founded in 1862 by Henry Isaac Rowntree,
who was joined in 1869 by his brother the
philanthropist Joseph. Another chocolate manufacturer, Terry's
of York, was a major employer.
1900
By 1900, the railways and confectionery had become the
city's two major industries.
1942
In the Second World War, York was bombed as part
of the Baedeker Blitz. Although less affected by bombing than other
northern cities, several historic buildings were gutted
and restoration efforts continued into the 1960s.
Links, texts and books
Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the
County of York: the City of York, 1961.
Seebohm Rowntree, Poverty, A Study of Town Life, 1901
which studied poverty in York.