REMEMBERING KING JOHN - THE RULER WITH A SPECIAL AFFECTION FOR GRIMSBY

                                                                            

The main man - King John was unpopular in most of his kingdom but admired in  Grimsby

GRIMSBY will fly its borough flag  over the town hall tomorrow (Thursday) to mark the 820th anniversary of the issuing and sealing of its first Royal Charter in 1201.

This was granted by King John who witnessed the sealing not in Grimsby which he had visited in January of that year, but (for some bizarre reason) at Clipstone in Nottinghamshire. 

History has not been kind to King John, but he was popular with his subjects in Grimsby because he granted the important trading town a degree of local governance - a highly radical initiative at the time. 

The Royal Charter paved the way for Grimsby to govern itself and set its own taxes - 14 years before the landmark Magna Carta document was signed, passing such control to other areas of the country. At that time, Grimsby had been one of only seven areas in England to have this responsibility.

Oversight of the town's affairs was granted to the “burgesses” - local people who became ‘Free Men’. 

Today the organisation called ‘The Enrolled Freemen of Grimsby’ is a registered charity with more than 1,000 men and women who are the direct descendants of those original burgesses, by birth, marriage or apprenticeships (apprenticeships, in those times, were usually boys who signed up with a ‘master’ for around seven years, qualifying as ‘journeymen’). 

Four days later, on March 15, 1201, King John granted a second charter allowing Grimsby to hold an annual 15-day fair from May 25.                              

All the fun of the annual May fair - a highlight of the social calendar in Victorian times

The burgesses were also allowed to set up markets and today’s Freeman Street Market is owned by the Enrolled Freemen of Grimsby. 

Both that market and Grimsby’s Top Town Market, which is managed by Engie on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council, are operated under the provisions of the Charter.

Grimsby’s first charter was lost many years ago, but 14 other Royal Charters and Letters Patent remain in storage in Grimsby.

Says Cllr Callum Procter, NELC's cabinet member for Economic Growth, Housing and Tourism, said: “Our past will always shape our future and that is why heritage is so important. 

"We are working hard to reinvigorate the town’s urban areas and that includes a variety of cultural and arts projects which will offer reminders of that past.

“The anniversary of Grimsby’s first Charter is something we should be extremely proud of, and I, personally, should like to see March 11 become an annual day on our town’s calendar in the future.” 

The research above was supplied courtesy of Richard Bellamy and NELC's communication department. 

More information on the Enrolled Freemen of Grimsby is at:

 http://www.enrolledfreemenofgrimsby.org/

* King John is famously said to have lost his treasure in saltmarsh while crossing The Wash between Norfolk and Lincolnshire while the tide was rising. But is this story historically accurate? Had he previously secreted some of it in Grimsby? Is some of it buried in some local family's back garden? The mystery is explored in Sucked Down by The Whirlpool-The Quest for King John's Long-lost Treasure available as an e-book on Kindle or in print form from online retailers such as Amazon and Ebay.