Description

Admin History:

Among the ancient rights claimed by Hull Corporation in it's capacity as owner of the port was that of weighing lead and collecting the dues arising as a result. The port was granted to the corporation by a charter of 1382 and in the first account roll thereafter, circa 1387-97, there is a credit for the profits of the weigh-house (C BRF/2/343). Between 1448 and 1450, (C BRF/2/363 and 364) the name was changed to Wool House reflecting the most important commodity weighed at the time. By the seventeenth century when lead seems to have been the only cargo subject to this procedure, the income was still known as Wool House dues.

The Wool House was finally closed at the Michaelmas of 1774. It is clear from the final accounts (C WW/232) that the first fixed dues were no longer sufficient to cover the expenses and the last act of the corporation in respect of the woolhouse was to reimburse its last master for the losses he incurred after nearly ten years of uneconomic working.

Apart from the main record, the accounts audited annually by the corporation, very few records have survived. Only for brief period 1672-1677 does the History Centre have anything like a complete set of records. This is sufficient to show how the Wool House operated and explains the significance of the sparser records of earlier and later periods.

Most of the lead reaching Hull was from the Derbyshire mines, although there was a negligible quantity from North Yorkshire, via York. In these records the first mention of the lead is on it's arrival at Stockwith or Gainsborough on the Trent. There it was placed on river craft for conveyance to Hull, where on arrival it came under the control of the Hull merchants, acting partly on their own account and, to a greater extent, as agents on behalf of the Derbyshire merchants

Description:

Records relating to the weighing of lead on transshipment or sale in the port of Hull: Accounts, 1647 (some gaps), 1672-1771; ticket books, 1672-77; ledgers, 1655-1711 (with gaps); warrant books, 1672-75; weigh books, 1672-75; day books, 1672-77; shipping books, 1672-77; porters' notes, 1744-1764; weigh house accounts, 1561-1563, 1631-1633.