Howdenshire and the York Peculiars

An announcement from origins.net about a comprehensive index to over 25,000 wills and other probate documents proved in the 54 Peculiar Courts of the Province of York between 1383 and 1857 came my way yesterday. Even better is the availability of many of those original probate documents online. See here.

Browsing the list of places included I found somewhere I'd not heard of before, Howdenshire.  We think of shire meaning country, but in this case it's a wapentake, a subdivision of East Yorkshire. The Howdenshire History website is a mine of information including a page dedicated to migrants to Canada. The names mentioned include: Bletcher, Bowler, Fearn, Hairsine, Hewson, Horsley, Imeson, Lee, Newcombe, Nutbrown, Pickering, Proctor, Stephenson, Thornton