Kingston Upon Hull - A Busy Seaport Center

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In 1798, about a year after John had begun his blacksmithing apprenticeship with his father, Edward Jewitt moved his family to Hull in order to take advantage of the work available in the busy harbor town.  Ideally situated just inland from the coast of the North Sea, it was well known as an important hub for the merchant trading and fishing & whaling industries going back to at least the 13th century.  Here is how John tells it:
 
About a year after I had commenced this apprenticeship, my father finding that he could carry on his business to more advantage in Hull, removed thither with his family.  An event of no little importance to me, as it in a great measure influenced my destiny.  Hull being one of the best ports in England, and a place of great trade, my father had there full employment for his numerous workmen, particularly in vessel work.  This naturally leading me to an acquaintance with the sailors on board some of the ships, the many remarkable stories they told me of their voyages and adventures, and of the manners and customs of the nations they had seen, excited a strong wish in me to visit foreign countries.
 
Kingston Upon Hull was only about 70 miles North of Boston and incidentally, only about 40 miles from Grimsby.  Like Grimsby, today's city of Hull apparently suffers from an image problem, but as Lonely Planet guidebook kindly puts it: "the city has a gritty appeal for those who appreciate Britain's industrial past."  Other less polite commentators have mocked Hull's official designation as "UK City of Culture 2017."  But the city with its museums and as home of England's "other poet laureate," Phillip Larkin, has its appeal to ambitious independent artists who are renovating abandoned old buildings and turning them into studios... carrying on the tradition of ambitious craftsmen of the early 19th century who were drawn to Hull -- like John R. Jewitt and his father.