Having diligently amassed virtually all the primary source available to him at the beginning of the 18th century (s.p.b.) Abraham (s.p.b.) catalogued the information year by year chronologically. He records that the first record of the area called Myton was in 1150 and Wyke in 1174 but he gives no indication that a trading settlement of sorts existed there when in 1297 Edward I first came to Wyke, allegedly when chasing a hare, saw the potential of the site, purchased it from The Abbot of Meaux and granted the site its first Royal Charter in 1299. By 1359, 60 years later (possibly three generations given medieval life expectancy) Hull was able to meet Edward III’s demand for 16 ships and 466 seamen to help fight his war against the French – a meteoric rise to big port status and population increase. In the meantime ‘High Ways’ had been constructed linking Wyke (Kingston upon Hull) to Hessle, Anlaby, Beverley, Cottingham and Holderness; with these having to cross the River Hull flood plain it is likely that they were built-up as causeways, standing above the surrounding land, a fact that can still be sensed on the road to Beverley through Dunswell and Woodmansey. Also, the building of a large chapel of ease had begun, starting, unusually, with the transepts and the base of a crossing tower (not the one seen today), some streets were paved, a regular ferry to Barton had been established and, on the orders of Edward II, a town ditch and strong walls were under construction.
All these were damaged by a great flood from the Estuary in the year 1360.
Kingston upon Hull was not only promoted as a well-sited trading settlement but also as a northern defence against a possible Scottish invasion. The French and the Scots being England’s two natural enemies in the late Middle Ages.