(origin: Local) From the city of Hull, in Yorkshire, England, which comes from the Teutonic or Saxon Hulen or Heulen, to howl, from the noise the river Hull makes when it meets there with the sea. Hull is an old word for a hill; Hull, Welsh, a rough, uneven place. The city of Hull was anciently famous for its good government, whence arose this old saying, called the Beggars' and Vagrants' Litany: "From Hell, Hull, and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us!" From Hull, because of the severe chastisement they met with there, and from Halifax, for a law there instantly beheading with an engine, without any legal proceedings, those who were taken in the act of stealing cloth--either being probably more terrible than Hell itself.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.