| Date | Event | | 1/8/1242 | In August 1242, Edmund de Lacy, later lord of Pontefract, and John de Warenne, heir to the earldom of Surrey and Sandal Castle, both in royal custody due to the ‘premature’ deaths of their fathers, were granted a gift of two deer by Henry III. This was indicative of their esteem within the royal household. |
| 7/8/1241 | On 7th August 1241, an order was made to the Constable of Pontefract to ‘cause the foals in the stud formerly of John de Lacy, formerly earl of Lincoln, which ought to be sold in this season, to be removed and sold by the view and testimony of law-worthy men, and to cause the monies arising therefrom to be kept safely until the king orders him otherwise. He is also to cause the old oxen to be taken away from the king’s plough-teams by the view of the same, causing them to be fattened in the king’s larder, and he is to place younger oxen in their stead from the vaccaries (a place for keeping cattle) formerly of the aforesaid earl.’ |
| 7/8/1244 | On 7th August 1244, whilst the Honour of Pontefract was in the control of the king during Edmund de Lacy’s minority, Henry III gave his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, 50 head of deer from Pontefract Park to stock his park at Knaresborough. |
| 9/8/1217 | On 9th August 1217, after John de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, had sworn fealty to Henry III and had been pardoned by his minority government for his support of the barons’ rebellion (refer their defeat at Lincoln in May 1217), his lands were returned to him. |
| 12/8/1295 | On 12th August 1295, the Calendar of the Charter Rolls records:
‘Inspeximus and confirmation of the following charters: —A charter, of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, constable of Chester, lord of Ros and of Roweynnok, dated at Pontefract, A.D. 1283, transferring the abbot and monks of Stanlaw to Whalley.’ |
| 18/8/1257 | On 18th August 1257, Sir Edmund de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was granted the right to hold a weekly market and annual fair at Tanshelf, Pontefract. |
| 23/8/1271 | On 23rd August 1271, Edmund de Lacy, son of Sir Henry de Lacy, 9th Earl of Lincoln and lord of Pontefract, was born at Denbigh. A contract of marriage to Maud de Chaworth was signed in 1287 (she was five years old and the marriage was never consummated) but Edmund drowned in a well at Denbigh Castle sometime before 30th December 1291. Edmund’s brother John fell to his death from a tower at Pontefract Castle sometime before 1311, leaving their surviving sister, Alice, to become countess of Lincoln in her own right on her father’s death. |
| 23/8/1273 | On 23rd August 1273, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, gave the Chapel of St Nicholas in Pontefract to the Abbey of St John in Pontefract. |
| 29/8/1212 | On 29th August 1212, King John was at Pontefract and is reputed to have met Peter of Pontefract (or Wakefield), a hermit blessed with the gift of prophecy. Peter had foretold that by Ascension Day, 23rd May 1213, John’s crown would pass to another. Peter was imprisoned at Corfe Castle under the ‘care’ of William Harcourt. The following year, on Ascension Day, John set up his tent in a field at Ewell, feasted and openly displayed his good health and status. |
| Date | Event | | 3/8/1394 | On 3rd August 1394, Anne of Bohemia, queen to Richard II, was buried at Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, John of Gaunt turned up late to the funeral causing a furious Richard to ‘smite him in the face and draw blood’. Following this, John prudently headed north to Pontefract Castle. |
| 5/8/1318 | On 5th August 1318, Edward II met Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, on a bridge over the River Soar near Loughborough to confirm the Treaty of Leake requiring the king to observe the Ordinances of 1311. Edward gave Lancaster a kiss of peace and pardoned him for all misdemeanours. |
| 6/8/1307 | Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and later lord of Pontefract, witnessed Piers Gaveston’s return from exile and creation as Earl of Cornwall by Edward II on 6th August 1307 at Dumfries. This was one of Edward’s first acts on becoming king on the death of his father on 7th July that year. Thomas was with the royal party on three occasions later in the month, and after a visit to Pickering he came south with Edward through Nottinghamshire and Northampton to Langley. Throughout the late winter and early spring of 1308, he was apparently at Westminster, and during the autumn he followed the king to Chertsey, Byfleet, and then back to London. |
| 8/8/1315 | On 8th August 1315, Thomas of Lancaster, lord of Pontefract, was made Lieutenant and Chief Captain of The King’s Army (Edward II) between Trent and Roxburgh. His position was to last until 20th November 1316. |
| 8/8/1383 | On 8th August 1383, Henry Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, made his way with his army to Gravelines after failing to capture Ypres and/or engage the French king Charles VI in battle. Despenser had gained support from Pope Urban VI in Rome for a crusade against supporters of the ‘alternative’ Pope, Clement VII, in Avignon, and the Clementist Count of Flanders was considered a legitimate target for Despenser. John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, (overlooked by Parliament to lead the crusade) was at Pontefract when he learned of Despenser’s imploding venture and summarily mustered his men to sail from the Isle of Thanet to Flanders to try and salvage the crusaders. Despenser returned home humiliated and Gaunt negotiated with Philip of Burgundy, Charles VI’s uncle, to try and repair the damage. |
| 8/8/1398 | On 8th August 1398, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, was made Constable of the Principality of Wales and Constable of the Principality of Chester. |
| 9/8/1310 | On 9th August 1310, Edward II was at Pontefract and gave its Dominican friars 13s 4d (£408 in today's money) for one day’s food. |
| 9/8/1318 | 1318 would see a brief lull in the enmity between Earl Thomas of Lancaster and his cousin Edward II sealed by the Treaty of Leake on the 9th August 1318. The hatred had come to a head in 1312 when Thomas had organised the execution of Piers Gaveston, the king's favourite. |
| 9/8/1322 | On 9th August 1322, Edward II gave the following instruction from Alnwick:
‘To Robert de GaldesViy, keeper of certain lands that belonged to Hugh de Cuilly in co. Leicester. Order to deliver to Joan, late the wife of the said Hugh, 16 messuages, a mill, and 16 virgates of land in Gaylene- Morton, and to restore the issues thereof, as the king learns by inquisition taken by Robert de Stok and Roger Hillary that Joan was dowered of the above at the door of the church of Morton by William Trussell, her first husband, when he married her, and that she was seised thereof for thirty-two years and more after his death, and that Thomas le Rous, sheriff of that county, seized the tenements into the king's hands on 20 March, in the 15th year of the king's reign, because the said Hugh was the constable of Thomas, late earl of Lancaster, of his castle of Kenilworth, Hugh having now died in the king's prison of Pontefract castle.’ |
| 9/8/1345 | On 9th August 1345, Henry of Grosmont, nephew of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, who was now, due to his father’s poor health, virtually Earl of Lancaster, Leicester and Derby and Steward of England, landed at Bordeaux. In just over two weeks, he achieved a great victory at Bergerac and on 21st October defeated a French force at Auberoche a month after his father’s death. |
| 15/8/1309 | By mid-August 1309, Piers Gaveston was back with Edward II following a recent banishment. Gaveston was publicly, if reluctantly, acknowledged by the nobles in Parliament; it is significant that Thomas of Lancaster who had not been involved in the campaign to banish Gaveston had now become disaffected by this time. Gaveston, with his position with Edward secure again, began to give the nobles derisive nicknames :Henry de Lacy of Pontefract Castle was ‘Burst-Belly’ and Thomas Earl of Lancaster, later of Pontefract Castle, was nicknamed ‘Churl’. |
| 15/8/1316 | On 15th August 1316, Edward II and Queen Isabella’s second son, John, was born at the Palace of Eltham in Kent. Although Isabella asked her uncle, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, to stand as her son’s sponsor (godfather), he did not attend the baptism. Having attended the christening of his friend the Earl of Warwick’s son and heir, Thomas Beauchamp in February 1314, this was another insult perpetrated against the king by Thomas. |
| 15/8/1381 | On 15th August 1381, at a banquet, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, challenged Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, to a duel as soon as he returned to London. Northumberland had not allowed him to enter his castles in the North-East in June whilst Gaunt was being sought by London mobs. Northumberland apologised and an official ceremony of reconciliation was effected. |
| 16/8/1312 | On account of the rapidly deteriorating situation between Edward II and many of his nobles on 24th July 1312, letters close had ordered the shire levies to be held in immediate readiness. Now, on 16th August 1312, writs were sent to certain sheriffs and other officials, charging them to bring their forces to London on 27th August: the day on which Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, and the Earls of Hereford and Warwick had been summoned to come to Westminster. |
| 20/8/1370 | In mid-August 1370, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, landed at Bordeaux with around one thousand men to assist his brother, the Black Prince, in its defence. Gaunt marched to Cognac where he met his younger brother, Edmund of Langley and the seriously-ill Black Prince. In attempting to reassert control in Aquitaine, the two elder brothers: offered to redistribute lands of defecting lords to those who had remained faithful to the English; pardoned deserters if they returned; mooted the notion of Gaunt becoming Lieutenant in Aquitaine because of the Black Prince’s precarious state of health. |
| 23/8/1352 | On 23rd August 1352, Edward III gave permission for Henry of Grosmont, nephew of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, and now himself Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Leicester and Derby and Steward of England, ‘to excuse himself in respect of things wickedly laid to his charge by the duke of Brunswyk’ and to go to France with an escort of sixty knights and an earl. In Cologne Cathedral, Henry had accused Otto, Duke of Brunswick, of being complicit in an ambush upon him by Westphalian knights in early 1352 and that this had been known by King John II of France. He had also challenged Otto to a duel which he accepted and which was to be held at the Pré-aux-Clercs. At the last minute, King John intervened declaring that Henry’s accusation had been misreported to Otto. A banquet for the two ‘contestants’ was held with Henry accepting a gift of the relic the Crown of Thorns in Sainte-Chapelle. |
| 24/8/1323 | On 24th August 1323, William Melton, Archbishop of York, noted to the Archdeacon of York that despite his monitions, the worship of Thomas of Lancaster as a saint had continued in the church of Pontefract and elsewhere: ‘nay, even the homicides and other deaths and great dangers, which have occurred and are likely to be repeated among the crowds who assemble, do not prevent the demonstrations.’ |
| 24/8/1394 | On 24th August 1394, following his late attendance at Queen Anne’s funeral (wife of Richard II), on 3rd August, John of Gaunt was at Pontefract with his grieving family. His own wife Constance had died in March, whilst both Queen Anne and Mary de Bohun, the first wife of the future Henry IV, and thus his daughter-in-law, had recently died. |
| 25/8/1394 | Whilst still at Pontefract, John of Gaunt heard that people at the court were questioning his loyalty to King Richard II. Knowing Richard was distraught and angry, John wrote him a letter, on the 25th August 1394, from Pontefract, protesting his loyalty. This apparently reassured the king as by September, Richard had made John the Duke of Aquitaine. |
| 26/8/1346 | On 26th August 1346, Edward III won a decisive victory at the Battle of Crécy in his campaign to claim the throne of France. Thomas of Lancaster, one of the illegitimate sons of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, executed in 1322, was also at the battle and was knighted by Edward. |
| 29/8/1350 | On 29th August 1350, Henry, 4th Earl of Lancaster, lord of Pontefract, commanding one of the ships of the English fleet, helped Edward, Prince of Wales’ grappled ship during the Battle of Winchelsea against a Castilian fleet. The prince’s younger brother, John of Gaunt, was also on board the stricken vessel. Of the forty-seven larger Castilian ships (to the English fifty), between fourteen and twenty-six were captured with several sunk. Reputedly, only two English vessels were sunk. |
| 30/8/1372 | On 30th August 1372, Edward III made his grandson (son of Prince Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince), Richard of Bordeaux (later Richard II), guardian of the kingdom as he prepared to leave from Sandwich on his flagship, Grace de Dieu, on campaign for France. To reinforce a treaty, John of Gaunt (Edward III's fourth, and second surviving, son and lord of Pontefract Castle) had been forced to give up his earldom of Richmond to the Duke of Brittany and was informed by his father that, in the event of Prince Edward’s death, then Richard of Bordeaux would be heir to the throne, not John. |
| Date | Event | | 3/8/1403 | On 3rd August 1403, Henry IV arrived at Pontefract Castle from Nottingham after the Battle of Shrewsbury on 21st July at which Henry Percy (Hotspur) had been killed and Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester (Hotspur’s uncle) and Sir Richard Vernon and Sir Richard Venables beheaded. Henry was pursuing Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland (Hotspur’s father), for his complicity in the Percy family’s revolt and his mustering an army against him at Tadcaster. |
| 6/8/1403 | On 6th August 1403, Henry IV departed Pontefract Castle for York awaiting the arrival of the Earl of Northumberland and for his complete submission to Henry after the Percy rebellion. The Earl’s son’s head (Henry Hotspur) had been placed over one of York city’s gates after defeat at the Battle of Shrewsbury. |
| 7/8/1405 | On 7th August 1405, Henry IV issued a writ from Pontefract to the Constable of Hereford, directing him to raise a force to defend against Charles VI’s French invasion (led by Marshal Jean de Rieux and Jean de Hanguest, lord of Hugueville) in support of Owen Glendower. The combined forces had burned the towns of Haverfordwest, Tenby and Carmarthen and were within ten miles of Worcester when Henry arrived there. This fifth Welsh campaign by Henry was, like its predecessors, short and inconclusive. |
| 9/8/1484 | On 9th August 1484, Pontefract’s first mayor, John Hill, was confirmed by Parliament. He was the only man to have been Mayor of Pontefract three times. Richard III's charter to Pontefract borough, incorporating this role, was confirmed at Westminster on this date and witnessed by two Archbishops (Bourchier and Rotherham), the Bishops of Lincoln (Russell), Bath and Wells (Stillington) and London (Kemp), the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, the Sheriff of London, Sir Thomas Stanley,, Sir John Wade and the Keeper of the Privy Seal (John Gunthorpe). |
| 13/8/1403 | On 13th August 1403, Henry IV arrived at Pontefract with his prisoner, the Earl of Northumberland, travelling from York in a day. After being pardoned, the Earl was later killed at the Battle of Bramham Moor (19th February 1408) and his body dismembered and exhibited around the country at Berwick, Lincoln, Newcastle and York with his head impaled on a pike on London Bridge. |
| 15/8/1403 | On 15th August 1403, Henry IV, having accepted the Earl of Northumberland’s submission at York, made him seal documents at Pontefract commanding his officers to surrender all his castles and all the knights and esquires in Northumberland county to swear an oath of loyalty to Henry. On this day, Henry also commanded his sheriffs to raise forces to meet him at Worcester on the 3rd September for a fourth Welsh campaign in order to quell Owen Glendower’s rebellion. |
| 15/8/1417 | On 15th August 1417, Joan Waterton, daughter of Robert Waterton, Constable of Pontefract Castle (and also Constable at Tickhill Castle and Castle Donnington), was married to Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles, at St Oswald’s church, Methley with a young Richard Plantagenet (Duke of York and lord of Sandal Castle) as a guest. Lionel later became stepfather to Lady Margaret Beaufort and step-grandfather to Henry VII. |
| 18/8/1483 | On 18th August 1483, only two months after his coronation and on his ‘royal progress’, Richard III wrote to seventy-one knights and gentlemen when he stopped at Leicester on his way to York, instructing them to meet him at Pontefract Castle on the 27th of that month. Some commentators believe that Richard’s four months’ absence from London, starting merely a week or so after his coronation, was a major error and allowed the fomentation of rebellion. |
| 19/8/1407 | On 19th August 1407, Henry IV arrived at Pontefract Castle from Nottingham on his journey through the north travelling between his castles and pilgrimage sites. Henry’s wishes to lead French and Welsh campaigns that year were stymied by his increasing frailty and political and financial obstacles. |
| 24/8/1460 | On 24th August 1460, after the Yorkist nobles Salisbury, Warwick and the Earl of March were victorious at the Battle of Northampton, they returned to London. The remaining Lancastrians were gathering in the north and so the Yorkist lords sought to crush them. On 24th August, a commission, headed by the Yorkist lords, was charged with arresting fifteen men who were said to be uttering falsehoods to arouse discord. On the same day, the Earl of Northumberland was ordered to surrender Pontefract and Wressle Castles. |
| 24/8/1469 | On 24th July 1469, the Yorkist forces had been defeated at the Battle of Edgcote by those of Robin of Redesdale and the Earl of Warwick. Warwick, feeling frozen-out by his long-time friend, Edward IV, had now switched sides to the Lancastrian cause. Edward, captured by Warwick’s brother George Neville at Olney, was placed in confinement at Warwick and Middleham, before being moved to Pontefract Castle. On 24th August 1469, whilst Edward was still a prisoner at Pontefract, Margaret Beaufort met with Edward’s brother, George Duke of Clarence, an ally of Warwick, to discuss how her son’s lands - Henry Tudor - would be returned to him. Margaret was desperate to use the ongoing situation to obtain the best possible outcome for Henry Tudor. On his release from Pontefract, Edward would swiftly gain revenge on the Lancastrian forces, the result of which would see Warwick flee into exile. The next two years would see this section of the Wars of the Roses reach a climax with Henry VI briefly restored, Edward IV in exile before his eventual victory at the climactic battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. Henry VI would either die or be murdered on the orders of Edward on the 21st May 1471. |
| 24/8/1483 | Following his coronation on 6th July 1483, King Richard III, in his progress through his kingdom, entered Yorkshire. On 24th August, he reached Pontefract having summoned to meet him seventy one knights and gentlemen of the North. The purpose of this meeting was to enquire into the state of local affairs and to provide direction in administering justice as he had to the Lords in London. On the same day, Prince Edward was reunited with his parents at Pontefract. While at Pontefract (some sources say the official appointment was made at Nottingham Castle on this date but this is questionable), Prince Edward was pronounced Prince of Wales (with a later ceremony in York) and Earl of Chester. |
| 26/8/1483 | Whilst at Pontefract on 26th August 1483, Richard III restored the landed endowment of the Dominican Friary of St Richard. He chastised his late brother for having taken ownership of it when it should have been used to provide masses for the soul of Richard Duke of York, who was buried there till 1476. |
| 27/8/1483 | On 27th August 1483, Richard III, whilst at Pontefract Castle with his wife, issued a signed warrant conferring on the Duke of Buckingham his share of the Bohun inheritance (lands resulting from the marriage of Eleanor de Bohun and Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III, in 1376). |
| 28/8/1483 | On 28th August 1483, Richard III, whilst at Pontefract Castle with his wife, appointed the Duke of Buckingham to take part, together with the Duke of Norfolk and others, in commissions of oyer and terminer (inquiries into all treasons, felonies and misdemeanours in the specified counties) in London and the counties of Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Middlesex, Oxford, Berkshire, Essex and Hertford. |
| 31/8/1407 | On Henry VI’s accession on 31st August 1422, Robert Waterton was re-appointed to his offices of Constable at Pontefract and Tickhill Castles. |
| Date | Event | | 1/8/1513 | By 1st August 1513, an English army of Henry VIII, under Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey, had arrived at Pontefract Castle setting up camp and recruiting additional troops prior to the impending Battle of Flodden Field on 9th September against James IV of Scotland. Surrey had sent Sir William Bullmer to round up a troop of mounted archers to patrol the border region. On 3rd August, Bullmer’s one thousand archers ambushed a Scots’ raiding party at Millfield of between seven to eight thousand men, led by the Earl of Home, sustaining only sixty men lost to the Scots’ five hundred slain and four hundred taken prisoner. James IV was killed at Flodden Field (the last monarch from the British Isles to die in battle) along with eleven to twelve thousand of his compatriots with twelve hundred captured in less than two hours. The English lost about four thousand men with 120 taken prisoner. |
| 23/8/1541 |  King Henry VIII stayed at Pontefract Castle for several days in August 1541, whilst he was on a ‘northern progress’ seeking to ‘pacify’ the northern counties after the disturbances of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Leaving the Queen, Catherine Howard, at the castle on the 23rd August the king went to Wressle Castle and Hull, arriving at York on the 15th September, on his way back to Windsor. It was not until 1st November 1541 that the king became aware of the queen's alleged misconduct with one of her old lovers (Thomas Culpeper, a distant cousin) at Pontefract Castle and earlier in the Spring of that year. Catherine was interrogated by Archbishop Cranmer and a delegation of councillors at Winchester Palace on 7th November and formally stripped of her royal title on 15th November (but her marriage to Henry was never formally annulled). A True Bill was found against her by the Justices of Doncaster on Tuesday 24th November. The Grand Jury at Doncaster condemned the Queen and after a bill of attainder was passed by Parliament on 7th February 1542, she was executed at the Tower of London on 13th February 1542.
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| 24/8/1578 | On 24th August 1578, John Taylor, who dubbed himself ‘The Water Poet’ was born. He visited Pontefract in 1622, describing the castle as then ‘a strong, faire and ancient edifice’ having been restored and edified by the Prince of Wales, later Charles I. Ten years later, three military men journeying for pleasure through twenty-six counties found, at Pontefract ‘a high, stately, famous and princely impregnable castle…..having seven famous towers…ample enough to receive as many princes.’ Charles I was at Pontefract in 1625. |
| 25/8/1513 | On 25th August 1513, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and 2nd Duke of Norfolk, reached Pontefract on his progress north where he heard about the Scottish invasion under James IV. James had invaded as part of the ‘Auld Alliance’ with France in an attempt to get Henry VIII to desist from his own invasion of France. Despite his age (he was nearly seventy), he would hasten to Newcastle the following day. |
| 25/8/1541 | On 25th August 1541, Francis Dereham - a Tudor courtier - arrived at Pontefract Castle having been thrown out of the household of Agnes Howard, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Dereham arrived at Pontefract seeking employment within Queen Catherine's household, and he was later made the Queen's Private Secretary and then a Gentleman Usher of the Queen's chamber. The significance of this appointment is that Dereham had begun sexual relations with Catherine when she was fifteen, whilst living in the household of the Dowager Duchess in Norfolk House, Lambeth. There was no obvious vacancy within her household, but after speaking with Dereham in her private quarters at Pontefract, Catherine introduced him to the rest of her staff. Rumours of a pre-contract of marriage between Dereham and Catherine would have invalidated Catherine's future marriage to King Henry VIII. On December 1st 1541, Dereham and Thomas Culpeper were arraigned at Guildhall for treason and were executed on December 10th 1541 - Dereham being hanged, drawn and quartered, Culpeper's sentenced commuted to beheading. |
| 27/8/1541 | On 27th August 1541, Francis Dereham was appointed Queen Catherine’s (Howard) Private Secretary at Pontefract Castle; an act that was to have severe repercussions for them both. |
| 29/8/1541 | At the trial of Thomas Culpeper, which began on December 1st 1541, an indictment was made that Queen Catherine had ' on 29th August 1541, with Henry VIII, at Pomfret, and at other times and places before and after with Thomas Culpeper, late of London, one of the gentlemen of the king's privy chamber, falsely and traitorously held illicit meeting and conference to incite the said Culpeper to have carnal intercourse with her; and insinuated to him that she loved him above the king and all others. Similarly the said Culpeper incited the Queen.' |
| Date | Event | | 8/8/1649 | The will of executed Colonel John Morris, last Governor of Pontefract Castle, dated 8th August 1649 included: ‘…I give and bequeath in manner following, vizt. All my Lands, tenements and hereditaments which now I have, or of right ought to have, I give and bequeath to Robert Marris, my eldest sonne…….that he shall pay to his Brother Castilion, and to his sister, Marye, the Sume of Three hundred pounds a piece of good and lawfull money of England. And if it happen that my now wife shall have another child, Then my mind and Will is that my said Sonne, Robert, shall pay unto Castilion and Mary…but two hundred pounds a piece; And other two hundred pounds to that Child which shall please God, my Wife shall bring forth…..my Will is that the Third part thereof shall be unto my Wife, Marjory (Jur) Morris and the residue equallie to be divided amongst my said youngest Children……….And if the Bond of Mr Ridges be recovered, That then my Brother Edward, my Sister Elizabeth, my Sister Anne, and my Cosen Anne Burbridge, shall have out of the same bond Twentie pounds a piece…’ |
| 10/8/1618 | On 10th August 1618, Ben Jonson, poet and dramatist, visited Pontefract on his accompanied walk from London to Edinburgh. After feasting on venison with the Pontefract Aldermen, on walking back to his lodgings, he was mobbed by ‘dancing giants’ (this may have been arranged to welcome Johnson though it may just have been that his arrival coincided with feast day of St Lawrence) . Processional giants, built on wicker frames and covered with cloth were sometimes carried in medieval English towns and cities in midsummer festivities and often represented religious figures. It is suggested that these giants were stored at the castle. Over four hundred years later, in September 2021, artists Matthew Rosier and James Bulley created the Pontefract Giants’ immersive experience’ at the castle exploring the history of the site. |
| 15/8/1645 | On 15th August 1645, Royalist Colonel Sir Richard Lowther, ex-Governor of Pontefract Castle, who had surrendered it only three weeks before, died of consumption at Newark. |
| 16/8/1649 | On 16th August 1649, Colonel John Morris, who in June 1648 had taken control of Pontefract Castle from Parliamentary forces, with men pretending to deliver mattresses and bedding, was put on trial at York, indicted under the Treason Act 1351 for ‘levying war against the late king and the parliament.’ Morris, like Charles I, questioned the authority of the judging body: ‘My lords, under correction, I conceive this court hath not the power to try me in this case; I being a martial man, I ought to be tried by a council of war.’ |
| 17/8/1654 | On 17th August 1654, John Evelyn FRS, writer, gardener and diarist whose works encompassed art, culture and politics including the execution of Charles I, rise and death of Oliver Cromwell and the Great Plague and later Great Fire of London, visited Pontefract. He noted: ‘the castle, famous for many sieges both of late and ancient times, and the death of that unhappy King murdered in it (Richard II), was now demolishing by the rebels: it stands on a mount and makes a goodly show at a distance. The Queen has a house here, and there are many fair seats near it, especially Mr Pierrepont’s, built at the foot of a hill out of the castle ruins. We all alighted in the highway to drink at a crystal spring, which they call Robin Hood’s Well; near it, is a stone chair, and an iron ladle to drink out of, chained to the seat.’ (The reference is to the one-time Robin Hood’s Well just south of Barnsdale). |
| 21/8/1649 | A letter from Cornet John Baynes (now kept in the British Museum) dated from York 21st August 1649 stated: ‘ Morris and Blackburn were near escaping last night; they had got over the Castle wall, but were taken ere they got over the moat. Tomorrow they are to be executed with about thirty other prisoners’. Albeit Morris’ execution actually took place on 23rd August there could have been a delay in the expectation of a reprieve or because Morris’ fellow escapee, Blackburn, broke his leg during the escape attempt. |
| 23/8/1648 | On 23rd August 1648, Oliver Cromwell wrote to the Honourable Committee at York: ‘ GENTLEMEN
I have intelligence even now come into my hands, That Duke Hamilton with a weary Body of Horse is drawing towards Pontefract where probably he may lodge himself, and rest his Horse: - as not daring to continue in those Countries whence we have driven him; the Country-people rising in such numbers, and stopping his passage at every bridge.
Major-General Lambert, with a very considerable force, pursues him at the heels. I desire that you would get together what force you can, to put a stop to any further designs they may have; and so be ready to join with Major-General Lambert, if there shall be need. I am marching Northward with the greatest part of the Army; where I shall be glad to hear from you. I rest your very affectionate friend and servant.’
Hamilton led a large force from Scotland into England in support of Charles I on 8th July 1648. He was defeated by Cromwell at Preston 17th-19th August and captured two days after Cromwell’s letter above, suffering beheading on 9th March the following year. |
| 23/8/1649 | Colonel John Morris, who in June 1648 had taken control of the castle with men pretending to deliver mattresses and bedding, was hanged, drawn and quartered, as a traitor by Parliament, at York on 23rd August 1649, having been on-the-run for ten days. He was buried, at his request at Wentworth near the grave of Lord Strafford who had been executed on Tower Hill in May 1641. |
| 25/8/1645 | Around St Bartholomew’s Day, on 25th August 1645, the rump of the Long Parliament which had begun in 1640, passed an ordinance meaning a year’s imprisonment would befall anyone using the Book of Common Prayer at any time, including private or family prayers. Up to eight thousand Church of England clergy were expelled from their homes including Dr Bradley, Rector of Ackworth, near Pontefract. |
| 26/8/1648 | Historian, George Fox, noted that on 26th August 1648: ‘ ..the governor of … castle (Pontefract) agreed with the mayor and aldermen of the town about the corn, “that the castle should have a seventh part, and the townsmen to bring it near to the castle” and the governor imposed upon the town to quarter 1000 men, or pat for each four-pence per day. He was compelled to levy this heavy charge; for although the horse had been sent away on the 3rd July with sir Philip Monckton and other commanders into Lincolnshire, where they were routed by the forces of col. Rossiter, and had sustained a great loss; yet, such great numbers flocked to him, that he could not provide for them so well as he could when the horse attended him, as they assisted him greatly in procuring provisions and gathering contributions.’ |
| 29/8/1637 | On 29th August 1637, Sir Thomas Yarborough, High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1673 and MP for Pontefract 1685-86 was baptised in Snaith, Yorkshire. He had been born on the 19th of the month and died on 8th January 1709. He was also Receiver of Rents and Revenues for Queen Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. |
| 31/8/1624 | On 31st August 1624, James I of England issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of Pontefract prohibiting them from conveniently grinding their corn at the mills at Pontefract to the detriment of the revenue derived from the royal mills at Knottingley. In 1623, the Duchy of Lancaster had complained about this practice of by-passing the Royal Duchy Mills (formerly the ancient Soke Mills). |
| Date | Event | | 1/8/1797 | In summer 1797, (most probably late July, early August), Joseph Mallord William Turner sketched ‘Pontefract: The South Side of All Saints’ Church, with the Porch and South Transept 1797’ during his stay in Yorkshire as a guest of landowner Walter Ramsden Fawkes at Otley. The church, in the shadow of Pontefract castle, had been severely damaged in 1645 (its Tower being used as a lookout), hit by cannonballs. |
| 9/8/1726 | On 9th August 1726, Volume III of Daniel Defoe’s travelogue A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain: Divided into Circuits or Journies was released (and later on 13th October 1738, the second, revised edition), having been published in three volumes between 1724 and 1727. Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe in 1719), novelist and pamphleteer wrote about Sandal and Pontefract:
‘From Wakefield, we went to see the ancient Town of Pontefract. …. In Pontefract, and the Castle, much Blood has been spilt, in different Ages. Here, Henry (sic), the great Earl of Lancaster, who was Lord of the Castle, and whose Ancestors had beautified, inlarged, and fortified it, was beheaded by his Nephew, King Edward II with three or four more of the English Barons. Here Richard II was murder’d, and, if History may be credited, in a most cruel manner: and here Antony Earl of Rivers, and Sir Richard Gray, the former Uncle, and the other Brother-in-law to King Edward V were beheaded by King Richard III. In the late Civil Wars, a small Party of brave Fellows took this Castle by Surprize for the King, and desperately defended it to the last Extremity; but being at length obliged to yield, five of them attempted to break thro’ the Besiegers Camp, three of whom perished in the Attempt.
The Town is large and well built, but much smaller than it has been. The Castle lies in Ruins, though not demolished…..in the year 1735, the old (market) Cross was pulled down, and a handsome Dome, supported by a Colonnade of Doric Pillars (the charge whereof was defrayed by a Legacy left by one Dupere, an Inhabitant of the Town) was erected for that Purpose. The Ruins of The Castle shew it to have been a Noble Pile. A round Tower, yet standing, is intire, in or near which, the Tradition is, King Richard II was slain. Adjoining to this Tower are Winding airs, which descend into several Vaults, and subterraneous Passages.’ |
| 14/8/1705 | On 14th August 1705, Joseph Taylor recorded in his book ‘A Journey to Edenborough in Scotland’: ‘we lay at Pontefract, [8 miles. Expen. £l. 8s. 6d.] a pretty Market Town. It sends two Members to parliament, and is very famous for Liquorish, which grows in great abundance almost in every place, The people make black and white Cakes of it, which they send to London and all over England, being very good for colds, Here we saw that old Castle, memorable for the Murder of Richard the 2nd, And also for the brave defence it made in the Civill Warrs, but it's now onely a heap of ruines ; and the walls enclose a Garden or plantation of Liquorish, amongst the ruines …’ |
| 20/8/1732 |  On 20th August 1732, Solomon Dupier died. Dupier had been a member of the Spanish garrison at Gibraltar in the early 18th century and is believed to have colluded with English forces when they launched a successful attack on the Rock in 1704 and afterwards moved to England, settling in Pontefract. Some years after his arrival in Pontefract his wife and three daughters contracted smallpox and he vowed that if they recovered, he would build a covered market cross in Pontefract to protect the women who came in to the town on Saturday mornings to sell their dairy produce. Albeit all four did survive it is believed that all were blinded. Dupier left money in his will to his widow to erect a Buttercross in fulfilment of his vow; £150 (nearly £24,000 today) was to be given to the building of a market cross to be completed within two years of the death of his wife. The Buttercross was built in 1734 with a flat roof which was replaced by the present hipped roof in 1763 at a cost of £46-3-10d (£6,500 today). In 1776, John Nutt brought his wife to the cross and sold her to a Mr Ryder for 5 shillings (£29 today). In 1815, another wife was auctioned for 11 shillings (£34 today). Then, it was accepted that a wife could be sold to another man with the sale constituting a legal divorce; in one instance, a woman produced a receipt in court for her sale to prove she was not committing adultery |
| 21/8/1783 | On 21st August 1783, John Gully, an English prize-fighter, horse-race owner (won The Derby in 1832, 1846 and 1854, St Leger in 1832, 2,000 Guineas in 1844 and 1854) and politician was born. He was MP for Pontefract from 1832-37. He was portrayed by boxer, Henry Cooper, in the 1975 film, Royal Flash. |
| Date | Event | | 2/8/1819 | On 2nd August 1819, Thomas Armitage an American clergyman was born at Pontefract. He died on January 21st 1896. He was an important influence in the Baptist Church in New York City, and the prime mover in the establishment of the American Bible Union in 1850 being president of that body from 1856 to 1875. Among his works were’ Jesus, His Self- Introspection’ and ‘History of the Baptists' (1887). |
| 11/8/1885 | On 11th August 1885, author Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton died at Vichy, France. From 1837 to 1863, he represented Pontefract in Parliament as a Conservative and latterly as an Independent Liberal, championing oppressed nationalities, liberty of conscience and the rights of women. He helped to secure the passage of a bill for the establishment of reformatories. He was the author of several volumes of poetry and travels, among them: ‘Memorial of a Tour in Greece’ (1833); ‘Poems of Many Years (1838)’; ‘Palm Leaves (1844)’; ‘Good Night and Good Morning’ (1859); and ‘Monographs, Personal and Social’ (1873). |
| 14/8/1805 | On 14th August 1805, when England feared a Napoleonic invasion, Colonel Walter Stanhope, commander of 600 Yorkshiremen known as the Staincross Volunteers was informed by clergyman and magistrate Mr Dixon from Woolley that the beacon at Pontefract was lighted. Dixon was giving orders for lighting the one standing upon Woolly Edge, a wild, bleak height which dominated the surrounding country for many miles. Instructions had previously been given by the General of the district that upon the lighting of this beacon the regiment was to march to Pontefract immediately, and Stanhope realised that not a moment was to be lost.
They commenced their march to Pontefract, in orderly fashion, with their Captain at their head, and they had already got to Hemsworth, a distance of about twelve miles, when they were overtaken by a messenger bearing the following note: —
To Colonel Stanhope.
Dear Sir,
I have sent a Servant to the Beacon at Pomfret this Morning as I could learn nothing here, and find that the Pomfret Beacon was not lighted & that the Woolly People were deceived by the burning of a Brick Kiln placed near the Beacon. You are sure I am truly sorry to have occasioned you all the Trouble you have had.
I remain, dear Sir,
Very truly yours
Jer. Dixon.
Although summoned on a false alarm, the troops received an ovation at Hemsworth, where the populace collected to cheer them and they were feted and offered the loan of waggons for their return journey. The readiness of these sturdy Yorkshiremen to devote themselves to the defence of their county, with such excellent leadership which could produce such a prompt muster and perfect organisation, roused popular enthusiasm, while the news sped through the country and the March of the Staincross Volunteers became famous. Stanhope recorded in his journal: ‘A most gallant muster, the whole Regiment turned out; ate at Hemsworth, got home to tea.’ |
| 15/8/1872 | On 15th August 1872, the Pontefract by-election was the first UK Parliamentary election held by secret ballot. Hugh Childers was re-elected following his appointment as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The ballot box seal was made with a liquorice stamp from Frank Dunhill’s factory showing a representation of the castle gates with a raven on the top bar. The castle lodge emblem is reputed to date from 1612. |
| 19/8/1898 | On 19th August 1898, ‘The Globe’ reported: ‘The recent complaint of correspondents to the weekly paper about the lack of information afforded to visitors to Pontefract Castle will find an echo in the mind of many a traveller in our country.’ |
King Henry VIII stayed at Pontefract Castle for several days in August 1541, whilst he was on a ‘northern progress’ seeking to ‘pacify’ the northern counties after the disturbances of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Leaving the Queen, Catherine Howard, at the castle on the 23rd August the king went to Wressle Castle and Hull, arriving at York on the 15th September, on his way back to Windsor. It was not until 1st November 1541 that the king became aware of the queen's alleged misconduct with one of her old lovers (Thomas Culpeper, a distant cousin) at Pontefract Castle and earlier in the Spring of that year. Catherine was interrogated by Archbishop Cranmer and a delegation of councillors at Winchester Palace on 7th November and formally stripped of her royal title on 15th November (but her marriage to Henry was never formally annulled). A True Bill was found against her by the Justices of Doncaster on Tuesday 24th November. The Grand Jury at Doncaster condemned the Queen and after a bill of attainder was passed by Parliament on 7th February 1542, she was executed at the Tower of London on 13th February 1542.