East Witton, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Yorkshire  North Riding  East Witton



Parish History
East Witton is an Ancient Parish in the county of Yorkshire. Other places in the parish include: Birks and Colsterdale, Colsterdale, Cover Bridge, Coverbridge, East Witton Within, Ulshaw Bridge, Jerveaux Abbey, Kilgrim Bridge, Masham Moor, Newstead, and East Witton Without. WITTON, EAST, a parish, in the union of Leyburn, wapentake of Hang-West, N. riding of York,10 miles (W. by S.) from Bedale; containing 624 inhabitants, of whom 327 are in Witton Within, and 297in Witton Without. This parish comprises 7730 acres,of which 4280 are in the former division. The surface is diversified with hills and dales; and from a hill called Witton Fell, within a mile and a half of the village,is obtained one of the most picturesque and extensive views in the county. A considerable portion of the southern part of the parish is lofty and hilly moor, but the remainder good arable, meadow, and pasture, with some woodland and plantations. The substratum contains coal and lead, the former indifferent, and the latter very superior; freestone is also abundant, of good quality for grindstones. The village is on the road from Leyburn to Ripon, near the confluence of the rivers Cover and Ure, and consists chiefly of one long and wide street of neatly-built houses.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £5. 3. 6½., and has a net income of £93, of which £5 are paid out of abbey lands by the Marquess of Ailesbury, who is patron and impropriator; the remainder arises from glebe purchased by private donations and with Queen Anne's Bounty. The church is a handsome structure in the later English style, for the erection of which the walls of the ancient church, dedicated to St.Ella, were taken down to furnish materials. It was completed in 1812, at the expense of the marquess, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the accession of George III., and is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist. The old churchyard is still retained as a place of sepulture. About a mile east of the village, romantically situated in Wensley dale, are the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, founded for monks of the Cistercian order by Akarius, in the 12th century, and of which the revenue at the Dissolution was returned at £455. 10. 5.These interesting remains have lately been cleared from the briars and rubbish by which they were concealed;the transepts and choir of the church, and the chapter house, are now plainly apparent, and in tolerable preservation. Several of the tombs and stone coffins have been brought to light, and the tessellated pavement of the nave was also discovered, in a seemingly perfect state, but on exposure to the air, it rapidly crumbled into dust.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 636-639. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51420 Date accessed: 09 May 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

This ancient parish (AP) was created before 1813. Church of England records began in 1670.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, nonconformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Leyburn Poor Law Union, Yorkshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Yorkshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.