Beverley is one of the most considerable towns of the East riding: the period when it was built cannot be ascertained with precision, but the church, or Minster, as it is called, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was founded in 126. It was afterwards destroyed by the Pagans, and again erected by John of Beverley, the fifth archbishop of York. About a century and a half later, this structure was again destroyed by the Danes, who murdered a number of the monks, the canons and the nuns; but Athelstan, king of England, raised another church on the same spot.