The oldest stained glass in Hull Minster is now displayed in the South Choir Aisle, in the arch between de la Pole tomb and the Broadley chapel. Its origins are unclear. In 1872, John Symons wrote that these pieces of mediæval and 16-17C glass had “been re-set in a window in one of the chantry chapels” in a recent restoration (Hullinia, p. 65). This must mean the refurbishment of 1868. The chantry chapel served as the clergy vestry. But where did the glass come from?
The mediæval stained glass windows were badly damaged in 1548, in an act of Protestant iconoclasm (image-breaking). According to Abraham de la Pryme’s A Short Description and Account of the Two Churches of The Holy Trinity & St Mary’s in Kingston upon Hull, the great East Window “was both in the woodwork & stonework so mightily decay’d about the year 1575” that it fell down. William Gee paid for its rebuilding and repair. The following year, he did the same for “the two Great windows beneath the steeple on the south side”, and for two more the year after. Several other aldermen and the Companies of Weavers and of Tailors restored other windows in the late 1570s.
The windows as de la Pryme saw them (c 1700), then, were those created by the 1570s repairs, but with some damage from the Civil War. They contained many shields representing the mayors and aldermen who funded the work. Much of the older pictorial glass had been destroyed. De la Pryme does not describe the St Julian panel, or tell us where it was.
In de la Pryme’s time, the two 15C shields showing the arms of the Earls of Northumberland (Percy quartered with Lucy) and the impaled (marriage) arms of Hebburn and Strother were in the East Window of the North Choir Aisle (p. 91). The same window also held the arms of the Merchants of the Staple and of the Swan family, and also some older images of swans with old-fashioned crowns: the Bohun Swan, used by the House of Lancaster under Henry IV in the early 15C.
The Northumberland arms probably date from after 1416, when the Percys were restored to their titles. (They had been forfeited for treason in 1405.) The blue lions on a gold background represent the Percy family; the silver fish – pikes or luces – on red represent the Lucy family. In 1381, Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, married as his second wife Maud de Lucy (c 1343-98). She was the heiress of her brother Sir Anthony de Lucy, and widow of the Earl of Angus. She had no children, and her inheritance was settled on her husband and his heirs on condition that they quartered the Lucy arms with those of Percy. Maud was buried in St Bees, beside her brother Anthony, who had been killed on crusade at Kaunas in Lithuania. (He is the famous St Bees mummy!)
When a coat of arms has a visual pun on the name, like the ‘luce’ fish for Lucy, this is called a ‘rebus’, or ‘canting arms’. Other examples to look for in the Minster are a bear for the Barnards, rams’ heads for the Ramsdens, and lambs for the Lamberts.
The panel showing the marriage arms of Strother and Hebburn is probably c 1450. The Strother eagles have faded and lost colour: they are meant to be green. The Hebburn cups should be black, but this is hard to show in stained glass (light cannot shine through it), so are coloured dark blue. These arms belong to two Newcastle families, and represent the second marriage of Agnes Hebburn to John Strother in the 1420s. After he died, she married for a third time, and came to Hull as the second wife of prominent merchant John Bedford. He endowed a chantry at the altar of St James when he died. It was to commemorate him and both his wives. The shield may come from a window associated with it. This probably showed coats of arms for John, his first wife Elizabeth, and for Agnes and her two previous husbands.
There is also an old shield that shows the arms of Hull: the three golden crowns on a blue background.
The arms of Sir Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford (c 1527-85), encircled by the Order of the Garter, were in the East Window (p. 103). He would have known Hull from his service as Governor of Berwick and Warden of the East Marches 1564-67. Does this shield date from that time, or was it made ten years later, in the 1570s restoration? Did Lord Bedford contribute to the repair of the window, or did Gee include his arms to try to attract his patronage? In de la Pryme’s day, 6 of the 8 quarters on the shield – which represent the Earl’s ancestors – were complete: only the middle 2 on the lower half were missing. Now only 3 remain (Russell, Muschamp and Semark), the rest being filled in randomly with coloured glass.
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An intriguing panel is made up of fragments. There are pieces of an Order of the Garter, from another coat of arms; a crown, some scrollwork, and two faces. De la Pryme described mediæval glass depicting a bishop: might the surprised-looking man in vestments at the bottom left be all that remains of him? He also described glass showing St Catherine with her wheel, but she is probably not the woman at centre-left. With her black hood, she may be a widowed donor, who perhaps once knelt before the saints to whom she dedicated a window.
The painted glass with heraldic roses and sunbursts into which these panels are set was probably made for the 1868-70 restoration, when they were placed in the vestry. It may have been designed by Burlison & Grylls, who designed the crossing vault at the same time, in Gothic Revival style.
Further reading:
- Abraham de la Pryme, A short description and account of the town churches of Holy Trinity and St. Mary, in Kingston upon Hull, with many other things relating thereto: and the description of the town of Kingston upon Hull, with the history and antiquities of all the forms places that either formerly have been, or at present are, therein (MS, c 1700). Special Collection in Hull Local Studies Library, Hull History Centre L SP/91.
- Rev John Tickell, The History of the Town and County of Kingston upon Hull (Hull, 1798)
- John Symons, Hullinia (Hull & London, 1872)
- Rev C V Collier & Rev H Lawrance, "Ancient Heraldry in the Deanery of Harthill", Yorkshire Archæological Journal, vol 26 (1922), pp 93-118
