Hi David et al, There are (were) two types of counties - the counties as we know them now, and the "counties corporate". A county corporate is a place invested with particular priviledges by charter or Royal grant. Hull is (was) one of these, but there were lots of them around the country - to quote from an 1868 gazetteer: EXETER, a city, seaport, municipal, and parliamentary borough, being the county town of the county of Devon, and a shire of itself, but locally situated in the hundred of Wonford, South Devon. HULL, (or Kingston upon Hull) a municipal and parliamentary borough and seaport and a county in itself, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. "Shire" means the same as county (either type). These counties would be described as above or "of its own jurisdiction", but each would be in the relevant county - e.g. Devon or the East Riding of Yorkshire for the two above. There is no Chapman code for any of these corporate counties (incidently, there is no Chapman code for York and the Ainsty wapentake which causes all sorts of problems). David: I don't know how you got to the History of Hull without going through the Hull parish page, but if you have a look at the Hull parish page by going to: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ then to "Towns and parishes" then to "East Riding" then to "Hull" you will find the paragraph I was referring to. On the East Riding parishes page you will also find links to Kirk Ella, North Ferriby, Hessle etc. with descriptions for each from the 1823 gazetteer and directories. If you go to "Maps" on the main Genuki Yorkshire page, you will find a link to the map of the wapentakes. This includes all the wapentakes for Yorkshire and also shows Hull. The (much more) detailed map shows nearly all of the places in Yorkshire and identifies each of the parishes (including Sunk Island<g>). If you use Parloc please be sure that you know what you are getting from this, particularly for Yorkshire. The parishes given in Parloc are not from one particular date, and no distinction is made in a lot of cases between ecclesiastical (i.e. those with parish records) and civil parishes (those with no parish records unless they had the same name and were co-extensive with the ecclesiastical parish). If you are not aware of this, you may well start looking for parish records that don't exist. It is for this reason that the Genuki pages are set up in the period before civil parishes came into being and that they deal with the 600+ Ancient parishes. Although I say it myself, you will get much better results from the "nearby places" arrow at the top of each of these parish pages (or the "Where is it in Yorkshire" pages) than you will from Parloc when dealing with places in Yorkshire. Best wishes, Colin Hinson In the village of Blunham in Bedfordshire U.K. Webmaster for the Genuki Yorkshire pages: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ Rare Books on CD: http://www.blunham.demon.co.uk/CDroms/ Baine's & Bulmers directories, History of Craven, Heywood/Northowram, National gazetteer of G.B & Ireland, Whelan's York & NRY Hunter's Hallamshire (Sheffield), Yorkshire: Past and Present Poulson's Holderness, Turner's Brighouse, etc etc >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hello, How confusing our county system can be, even for people who live here in the UK, let alone those who live elsewhere in the world! I must admit that I had never heard of Hullshire, or of Hull being a county. A "Google" search for Hullshire led me to a website about the history of the village of Kirk Ella, at: http://www.homestead.com/kirkellaandwestella/Kirkhistory.html which includes the following: "We find that 'Kirk-Elley' as the village was referred to in 1440, together with other local villages formed the County of Hullshire...." What seems strange is that (as far as I know) there is no Chapman code for Hullshire, and it doesn't appear as a county on the 1881 Census, on the website of the Association of British Counties, on the "ParLoc" program, or indeed on any other source listing UK counties which I have seen. I am certainly not saying that Colin is wrong, but I just wonder if the word "county", when used in phrases like "City and County of" means something different to what it does when used to describe places such as Essex, Worcestershire or Cornwall. Was it perhaps an early version of what we now refer to as unitary authorities? There is a downloadable map at: http://www.budd.karoo.net/Eriding.jpg It is dated 1884, and entitled "Map of the East Riding of Yorkshire. Shewing the Boundaries of Holderness & Hullshire." That title, plus the fact the words "East Riding" on the map itself extend over the parts shown as "Holdernesss" and "Hullshire" would seem to indicate that Hullshire and Holderness were parts (subdivisions?) of the East Riding of Yorkshire. Just a small point, which I only mention hopefully to avoid further confusion - Colin wrote: "The same Genuki page also tells you that Hull (or Hullshire) is a county." If we are both talking about the same page (Part 1 of "A History of Hull") then the words about Hullshire/Hull being a county, are, like the whole page, quoted from "A History of Kingston on Hull" from Bulmer's Gazetteer, dated 1892. I am fairly certain that there is no longer a county called "Hullshire". Thanks, Colin, for pointing out where Sunk Island is - I have now also seen it on the downlowdable map I mentioned above. David Lamb (Paignton, Devon, UK)