Hotham, East Riding of Yorkshire
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St Oswalds Church, Main Street. |
Hotham is a small village located in the
East Riding of Yorkshire,
England. The village has good road links with the cities of
Kingston Upon Hull,
York and
Leeds. The M62 motorway is only a few miles from Hotham allowing easy access to the rest of the country.
The village has around 100 houses, is home to the Hotham Arms public house and has a village hall. Other amenities are found in the neighbouring villages of North Cave and South Cave. The village is under the
York postcode and the local authority is the
East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
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A view of the Main Street |
Hotham was once the land of Sir John Hotham, the first Baronet, Governor of Hull, and son John Hotham, often referred to as Captain Hotham. Sir John Hotham was knighted by
King James I and was a
Member of Parliament.
In 1641, the Royalist army left an arsenal in the nearby city of Hull. Sir John Hotham was invested with the full authority of both Houses of Parliament to retain the arsenal regardless of circumstance. King Charles wrote to Sir John informing him of his intentions to join his son
James, Duke of York who was residing in Hull. After holding a meeting in Ye Olde White Hart Inn on April 23,
1642 it was decided by majority vote that the gates of the City would be closed to the King. The King was furious and Sir John was dubbed a traitor. A siege on Hull by the King lasted for three weeks and although Sir John escaped to his manor at Scorborough he was arrested and taken to the
Tower of London. The House of Commons ordered that money, plots of land and the goods belonging to Sir John were seized. In December
1644 he was tried and condemned to execution. Sir John's son, Captain Hotham was also deemed guilty and executed. The estate was left to Captain Hotham's only also called John, aged 13. Like his grandfather John became an MP for the local town of
Beverley and went into exile in
1684 after the exclusion crisis. The returned with
William of Orange in
1688 and was appointed the Governor of Hull in
1689. He died that year after becoming ill with a "chill" while travelling from Hull to Beverley. The Hotham family's estate is now in the nearby village of South Dalton.
A railway line which is now disused once connected Hull, Beverley and York. The line was built by the York and North Midland Railway. The first passenger train ran from York to Market Weighton where the railway stopped on 3rd October 1847. It was another 17 years before the rest of the line, from Market Weighton to Beverley, was completed. Lord Hotham, who owned much of the farmland between Market Weighton and Beverley, was reluctant to have a railway built across his estate on the Yorkshire Wolds. He finally agreed to let the railway through - on the condition that he was provided with his personal station, at Kiplingcotes and that no trains ran on Sundays. The first through train from Hull to York ran on 1st May
1865.
*
Village Link, North Cave, Hotham & Everthorpe Newsletter*
Driffield and Wolds Genealogy*
Charles Hotham - A life in letters*
British Civil Wars Biography
