GCSE Source Work: The Georgian Period

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Victoria Harmer

Question 2A

        Maister house is one of Hull’s biggest Georgian residences and was built over 250 years ago. The Maister’s were merchants from Kent and were probably attracted to Hull by the prospect of sharing profitable north European trade. The move from Kent to Hull was the key to their fame and fortune. The building had to be replaced in 1743 because of a tragic fire but the new building is far superior. This essay it to try and establish when and who started the fire from 7 different sources.

        To try and discover this I am going to start by beginning with source 1. Source 1 is from ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine, for 1743’. This is a primary source and the magazine was probably aimed at upper class males in those days. The source says that the fire was on the 13th April and some people have unhappily lost their lives. It says the deaths were Henry Maister whom had a seat in Parliament, his wife and two children. This source is quite useful as it has given us a date and deaths of the fire but on the other hand no specific times or details are given. This source is not very reliable because we don’t know this magazine or the writer and whether it is fact or not. This source does not give any indication as to who/what started the fire.

         Source 2 is from ‘York Courant, for 19th April 1743’. This is also a primary source from York and at that time York was not considered local like it is today. The source is reporting from the 15th April and says at about 12 o’ clock on Tuesday night Mrs Maister, a young child and two maidservants were killed but Mr Maister and the rest of the family escaped, this contradicts source 1 therefore which one is reliable.  Without reading any other sources I do not know what date the last Tuesday was from the 15th April. This source is not very reliable as it is written from York and what they are writing won’t be first hand. Although it does say the fire was on the Tuesday it could have been on the Wednesday because of the time that is given. This source also has nothing included to suggest who/what started the fire.

        Source 3 is different from source 1 and 2 as it is suggesting who started the fire. The source is written by G. Hadley and is from the ‘New and Complete History of the Town of Kingston Upon Hull’, 1788, quoted in ‘The Maisters of Hull’. It is a secondary source and is not as reliable. First the writer blames the fire on a ‘scotch joiner’ and then the writer contradicts himself by saying it probably wasn’t the Scot but he was just taking advantage by stealing. This writer may have been biased to Scottish people and blamed a ‘scotch joiner’ as a way of putting a bad name to them as well as this the writer may have exaggerated or made up the accusation to sell more copies of the book. The source does not mention the date of the fire or deaths, this source is very unreliable.

        Source 4 is written by J. Tickell and from ‘The history of the county and town of Kingston Upon Hull, 1798’. This is a secondary source and does not give any information as to who/what started the fire or when the fire started. The deaths which are mentioned are the mother and child of the Maister family, although the mother did escape but she went back to save her child and was killed herself as well. The source is exaggerated for example, ‘prevailing over her strong principle of preservation’. This may have been done because the writer was making it a good read for the readers of the book. As the source is exaggerated and it is a secondary source it makes it quite unreliable.

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        Source 5 is the shortest but of the most significant and factual. It is from the St. Mary’s Parish Register. The source says that on April 15th the remains of two women servants of Henry Maister were buried. This information is not fiction and is very reliable. In those days bodies were buried quite quickly as they would start to smell and science was not as advanced as it is today, therefore the fire cannot have been very long before the date given. Although the source is very useful is does not give any other details as to who started the ...

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