"Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located 27 miles (43 km) south-east of York's centre and 15 miles (24 km) north-west of City of Hull."
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Beverley was first granted a market charter in 1128 and a number of markets were held weekly. This structure is in 'Saturday Market' and as the name suggests is where a market operated on a Saturday; and still does today. Originally Medieval markets were marked with a cross set up to inspire honesty amongst the traders.
As time went on and the size of markets grew the simple cross tended to be replaced by covered structures with open sides where traders could stand in comfort. Although these days markets tend to be formed of covered market stalls, the Market Cross is still considered to be an important reminder of the town's historic past.
At the top of the structure are the arms of The town of Beverley, Queen Anne who was monarch in 1714 when the cross was erected, Sir Charles Hotham and Sir Michael Warton. The last two people paid for the cross to be erected and were both Members of Parliament for Beveley.
Sir Michael Warton the person
Family and Education
b. c.1648, 1st s. of Michael Warton. educ. Cheam g.s. Surr.; St. John’s, Camb. matric. 17 Feb. 1665, aged 16; G. Inn 1667. unm. Kntd. 30 June 1666; suc. fa. 1688.1
Offices Held
J.p. Yorks. (E. Riding) 1670-81, 1689-d., dep. lt. 1670-Apr. 1688, Oct. 1688-d., commr. for assessment 1673-80, 1689-90.2
Ld. of Admiralty 1689-90.
Biography
Warton was knighted during his father’s lifetime while still in his ’teens. He was returned for Boroughbridge at a by-election in 1675 as a country candidate with the assistance of a local landowner. An inactive Member of the Cavalier Parliament, he was appointed to only three committees, of little importance. He was teller for two unsuccessful motions, one in his first session for adjourning the House to avoid reviving the differences with the Lords and the other in the summer of 1678 for setting up an inquiry into the corruption of Members. Shaftesbury marked him ‘thrice worthy’.
Warton lost his seat to a court supporter, Sir Thomas Mauleverer, in 1679, but he was returned for Hull in the autumn. He played no part in the second Exclusion Parliament, but he was re-elected unopposed in 1681, and in the Oxford Parliament he was named to the committee of elections and privileges. A more determined opponent of the Court than his father, he was struck off the commission of the peace in the same year, and in 1685 he secured only 32 votes at Hull and came bottom of the poll.
Warton helped to secure Hull for William of Orange during the Revolution. He succeeded to his father’s seat at Beverley in 1689, but in the Convention he was again appointed only to the elections committee. A lord of the Admiralty under the new regime, he relinquished office with William Sacheverell, and was listed as a supporter of the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. He consolidated his interest at Beverley by distributing £6,000 in his lifetime to local charities, including £1,000 to the hospital founded by his father, and continued to represent the borough as a court Whig in nine more Parliaments. He died on 25 Mar. 1725, the last of his family, and was buried in Beverley Minster."
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The coat of arms
The arms are a gold shield with a blue chevron in the middle. On top of the chevron is a gold martlet between two broad arrow heads. A Martlet is a heraldic charge depicting a stylized bird similar to that of a house martin or swallow, though missing legs.
A broad arrow is a type of arrow with a typically flat barbed head nad is known as a pheon in heraldry.