John Yorke was a 15th century Scarborough fisherman. He was prosperous enough to make a will, at a time when most folk didn't. His widow Alice proved the will in 1468. The document was brief. He asked to be buried inside St Mary's Parish Church, perhaps in what was to be known as "the fisherman's aisle". His best gown went to the church as the necessary funeral gift. John gave ten shillings to the Friars in the town and four pounds for a chaplain to pray for his soul. His house was tenanted from William Whale, a burgess whose ancestors had been mariners here a hundred years earlier. Alice kept the tenancy.
Sixty four years later, in 1532, another fisherman made the journey up the hill for burial in the same Parish Church. He paid his church dues, including two shillings for any tithes he had forgotten to pay in his lifetime. His widow Joan received most of what he had to leave, but his individual bequests were rather different. The friars weren't mentioned and within a few years would be abolished. No one was asked to pray for his soul. Instead, he gave daughter Alice six silver spoons. Daughters Ellen and Kateryne each received a bed. Daughter Joan inherited a piece of silver. He had helped them make good marriages. The sons Richard and Robert each received one quarter share of a ship called the "Bartholomew". He had made them ship owners. This was success.
