THE CATHOLIC REGISTER OF NUT HILL AND HEDON IN HOLDERNESS, EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE. TRANSCRIBED BY J. P. SMITH . EDITED AND HISTORICAL NOTES BY JAMES RAE BATERDEN . HISTORICAL NOTES .
Both Nut Hill, now usually spelt Nuthill, and Hedon , which lie about two miles apart , are in the south-west part of Holderness , in the southeast of the East Riding of Yorkshire. About a hundred square miles of mainly agricultural land is covered by this mission , a large portion of whichis not more than twenty feet above mean sea level, and much of not ten feet. Nuthill is mentioned in Domesday Book as Notele. Peter de Nuthill is named in an inquisition held at Burstwick, close by, in October 1338. It would seem never to have been anything but a few dwellings or homesteads . Hedon, though not mentioned in Domesday Book, was the most important port on the Humber for centuries , and had more than double the length of quayage for ships in the thirteenth century that Hull had even in 1775 ; but when John Leland visited there in the sixteenth century it was degenerating , and its entrance channel two miles in length was gradually silting up. A charter was granted to the town by Henry II and confirmed by John. In 1366 it elected a mayor and bailiffs, an honour it still holds , and it returned two members to Parliament until disfranchised in 1832. The town, consisting mainly of one long street, has for long been of little importance, and its population in 1921 was only 1,321 . It once contained four churches, but for long has only had one, the present St. Augustine's, the King of Holderness , " which has been described as the finest purely parish church in the whole of the East Riding. Catholics were fairly numerous about here during the Penal times. In 1676 they were returned as about 208 in the Deanery of Holderness , 217 in 1706, 236 in 1718 , and in 1780, shortly after this Register begins, the number returned was 418, half the total Catholic returns for the whole of the East Riding. Their numbers bulk large in the Nonjurors list under the Act of 1715, from gents and yeomen to the two brothers Meak of Hedon, Papists and glaziers , and one of them, Roger , with Anne his wife, is" included in a list of Papists in 1735. They appear always to have had the ministration of priests. The first priest of whose missionary labours in Nuthill and neighbourhood we have any record is the Rev. Joseph Metcalfe , alias Eglesfield , a native of Yorkshire, born probably at Nuthill about 1636. Educated at Douai, he came on the Mission about 1672. His residence was at first always at Nuthill with his parents and after their death with the widow of his elder brother. He is supposed to have been principally supported by Mr. Henry Constable of Burton Constable and his sister, uncle and aunt to Lord Dunbar, who had allowed his predecessor, Mr. Hodgson, 14 a year. He was a vertuous able man , exceeding prudent and very active." He died on the 28th of March 1729. Thomas and William Metcalfe, the sons of LeonardMetcalfeand Anne his wife, of Nuthill , Holderness , entered Douai 14 May 1735. Thomas Vide Dr. John Kirk, Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth " , Vol . 9, p. 109. Century (1909) , and C.R.S. " 325
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