Hedon, or Heydon (St. Augustine)
The government of the borough, by charter dated in the 14th of James I., is vested in a mayor, recorder, two bailiffs, and nine aldermen, assisted by a town-clerk, and other officers, with an indefinite number of burgesses: the mayor is annually elected from among the aldermen, and the bailiffs, who during their office are justices of the peace, from the burgesses; the late mayor acts as coroner. Hedon sent members to parliament in the 23rd of Edward I., but discontinued till the 1st of Edward VI., from which time it made regular returns, until it was disfranchised in the 2nd of William IV.; the right of election was vested in the burgesses generally, in number about 300, and the mayor was the returning officer. The corporation hold quarterly courts of session for offences not capital, and a court of record for the determination of pleas and the recovery of debts to any amount. The powers of the county debt-court of Hedon, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Patrington, and part of the districts of Skirlaugh and Sculcoates. The parish comprises 312 acres, which are chiefly pasture and garden-grounds attached to the houses of the place. The living is a rectory, in the patronage of the Archbishop of York; net income, £45. There were formerly three churches in the town: of those of St. Nicholas and St. James, only traces of the foundations are visible; the remaining church, dedicated to St. Augustine, is a venerable and spacious cruciform structure, in the early, with a lofty central tower in the later, English style. The front of the north transept is a remarkably fine specimen of early English, and in the south transept is a very beautiful window, though mutilated; many portions of the edifice display elegance of design and richness of detail, and parts of the exterior are of Norman character. Here are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans, and a Roman Catholic chapel. An hospital for lepers, dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre, was founded at Newton, near the town, in the reign of John, by Alan, son of Oubernus, for a master and several brethren and sisters; the revenue at the Dissolution was £13. 15. 10.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.