ONE OF THE PROCTORS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS OF YORK. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1840. ΤΟ HIS GRACE EDWARD, LORD ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, PRIMATE OF ENGLAND, AND METROPOLITAN. MY LORD, THIS attempt to collect notices of Churches and Chapels within the county of York, over the principal portion of which, your Grace has, for upwards of thirty years, by Divine Providence, so beneficially presided as Prelate of that important branch of the true Apostolic Church of Christ, established in these Dominions, during which period, the means of religious instruction afforded by the building of Churches in populous districts previously destitute, the providing for a settled Ministry therein, and the establishing of schools for the education of the children of the poor in sound religious principles, have been extended in a degree unexampled since the first introduction of Christianity among our Saxon ancestors, is most respectfully dedicated to your Lordship, by Your Grace's Obliged and most Obedient Servant, York, 30th December, 1839. GEO. LAWTON. PREFACE. THE parochial antiquities of the extensive county of York have not hitherto received that notice which their importance seems justly to deserve; and whilst the ancient monastic institutions of the county have been minutely described in the elaborate works of Dugdale, Tanner, and Burton, the interesting details of many of its existing parochial divisions are either to be sought for amongst the manuscripts deposited in Cathedral, University, or National libraries, or lie dispersed in a variety of voluminous, scarce, and expensive publications. It was the intention of Dr. Burton, the learned author of the Monasticon Eboracense, to have supplied this important desideratum in ecclesiastical topography, by giving a full account of every Parish Church in the county'. Such design, however, it is much to be regretted, was never carried into execution. The materials for the ecclesiastical history of the county are extremely voluminous; many documents of considerable importance have, within the last few years, been published under the authority of the Record Commissioners, sundry important returns have been printed by order of the House of Commons, and many interesting Reports have been made by the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the Public Charities, while very valuable information still remains in manuscript, in the libraries at Lambeth, Bishopthorpe, York Minster, Oxford, and the British Museum, as also in the hands of private individuals. The collections now submitted to the public were originally compiled, and the arrangements made, with reference solely to the Diocese of York as it existed in 1834, when the Author issued his prospectus; and a considerable portion of the work had actually proceeded through the press, before the important event of the foundation of the See of Ripon had occurred. That event, added to circumstances of a private nature, occasioned a suspension of the work for a considerable period, and, ultimately, led to the adoption of a plan by which the Archdeaconry of Nottingham, which now forms part of the Diocese of Lincoln, is omitted2, and, in lieu thereof, that portion of the county of York is noticed which, previous to the erection of the See of Ripon, constituted part of the Diocese of Chester, so that, in 1 Burton's Monasticon. Introduction. 2 The substituted notices relative to the Richmondshire portion of the Diocese of Ripon, are unavoidably more confined than those relative to the Diocese of York, as the author had concluded his researches in Lambeth, previous to the above arrangement being adopted. |