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ITS

CHAP. II.

THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO GRIMSBY.PRIMITIVE NAME. WHENCE DERIVED. THE HISTORY OF GRYME FULLY CONSIDERED.-GRIMSBY ESTABLISHED AS A MARITIME TOWN, BEFORE HIS TIME, PROVED FROM EXISTING RECORDS.

In the neighbourhood of Grimsby, these monuments are sufficiently numerous and characteristic, to bear us back to a remote period. They hold a character of great importance, as they conduce to invest this port with marks of a very high antiquity.

I should conjecture, from the nature of these remains, that Grimsby was very early peopled by the aborigines of this island; and was systematically erected into an important settlement in times far remote, and before the existence of accredited history. Its first population has been sought for in Saxon or Danish times; but history and tradition both concur in giving it an origin far antecedent to the first invasion of those spoilers; for the Abus, or Humber, was the anchoring place for their vessels, and it was at Grimsby Old Haven, already formed into a

commodious harbour for shipping, that their incursions into the dominions of the Coritani commenced. We are furnished with historical evidence, that the Danish invasions began at this port, which was, at that period, the chief inlet to the whole of the Midland counties; for Ingulphus informs us, that the Danes usually landed their marauding troops near Grymsby; and Peter Langtoft says, the Danes, under Swaine, their King, landed at Grymsby, and "stroied and wasted" both Lyndeseie and the City of Lincoln.* To repel the bold and ceaseless attempts of these marauders, fortifications were erected by the inhabitants, vestiges of which remain to the present day. Grimsby was the key into this large and populous district, and was consequently a place of considerable importance. And hence its name; for Grym is a pure British word, signifying Great or Powerful; and as the first invaders of Britain, invariably found their approaches at this avenue contested with great bravery and perseverance, they attached to it the usual appellative Bye, an undoubted corruption of the British word Bod, a habitation; and called the place Grymsby, or the residence of a powerful and valiant people.†

It is scarcely determinable, at this remote period, how far the legend of Gryme the fisherman may

* Chron. p.42.

+ Strype in his life of Whitgift, says, that the ancient name of Grymsby was Grimundsby, but I know of no authority to confirm this opinion.

be credited. It is ridiculed by Camden as an old wife's fable; while Leland gives us a memoir of this identical personage, whose name should hence appear to be of some importance as connected with the early history of the town. He is said to have come originally from Souldburg; and entering the Humber in a single vessel of small dimensions, he landed at Grimsby old haven, which, extending inland, met, in its course, another arm of the sea, and together they formed a small island, surrounded on all sides by bogs and swamps, which were wholly covered with water at spring tides. At this time Gryme was miserably poor, and almost destitute of the common necessaries of life; for Leland represents this "poor Fisschar" as being so very needy, that he was not "able to kepe his Sunne Cuaran for poverty."* Here, on a rising ground, he built his house, and from hence he commenced a very lucrative traffic with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Other merchants having, in process of time, settled near him, invited by the commercial advantages offered by this excellent harbour; they jointly constructed convenient appendages for extensive trade, and the town soon rose into considerable importance, governed by Gryme himself, who had now amassed great riches, and lived in his own town, like a petty prince, on his hereditary dominions. His sovereignty, however, could not

*Collect. vol. 2, p. 511.

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