Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hinderwell, Thomas
HINDERWELL, THOMAS (1744–1825), historian, eldest son of Thomas Hinderwell, a retired master-mariner and shipowner, of Scarborough, was born at Scarborough on 17 Nov. 1744. He received his early education in his native town and at Coxwold grammar school, near Helmsley, and while still young entered the merchant service, in which he remained till about 1775. In 1778 Hinderwell was elected a member of the corporation of Scarborough, and afterwards took a very active part in promoting the general interests of the port. In 1781 he was elected to the mayoralty of the borough, which office he also filled in 1784, 1790, and 1800. In 1816 he retired from the corporation. For a period of upwards of forty years Hinderwell was a staunch supporter of the Amicable Society, which in 1784 elected him as its president. He also rendered great assistance in the formation of the Scarborough Auxiliary Bible Society. He did much to establish the lifeboat; and when the claim of Henry Greathead [q. v.] to remuneration for this invention was referred to a committee of the House of Commons, Hinderwell's evidence was highly complimented by the Right Hon. George Rose, and is said to have carried great weight. Hinderwell died at his residence in Scarborough on 22 Oct. 1825, and was buried beneath a plain marble slab in the ground attached to St. Mary's Church, near the grammar school.
Hinderwell is chiefly known by his ‘History of Scarborough,’ of which the first edition appeared at York in 1798, 4to. A second edition, considerably augmented and improved, was published at London in 1811, with a dedication to his friend William Wilberforce, then M.P. for the county of York; a third edition was published at Scarborough in 1832. Bigland, in his ‘Beauties of England,’ calls Hinderwell's ‘History of Scarborough’ ‘one of the most accurate and interesting works relating to this or any other part of England.’ He also wrote ‘Authentic Narratives of Affecting Shipwrecks,’ 1799; ‘Address to the Public on the Sabbath,’ 1800; ‘Remarks on the Times,’ 1809; ‘Lines descriptive of Scarborough,’ 1823.
[Brief Memoir of T. Hinderwell, by B. Evans, prefixed to the third edition of the History of Scarborough, 1832; Bigland's Beauties of England.]