Pontefract, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Yorkshire Yorkshire Parishes K-R  West Riding  Pontefract

Parish History
PONTEFRACT (St.Giles), a borough, markettown, and parish, in the Upper division of the wapentake of Osgoldcross, W. riding of York; comprising the townships of Carleton, East Hardwick, Monkhill, Pontefract, and Tanshelf, and the chapelry of Knottingley; and containing 9851 inhabitants, of whom 4669 are in the borough, 23 miles (S.S. W.) from York, and 177½ (N. N. W.) from London. This place, which appears to have risen from the ruins of Legeolium, a Roman station in the vicinity, now Castleford, was by the Saxons called Kirkby, and after the Conquest obtained the name of Pontfrete, according to some, from Pontfrete in Normandy, whence sprang the Lacys, lords of Pontefract. But by others it is stated to have been called Pontfract from the demolition of abridge over the river Aire in 1070, by the Northumbrian insurgents, of whom William I., with a formidable army, was in pursuit; by which act the king was detained at this place for many days, till one of his Norman knights discovered a ford across the river at Castleford, over which he passed with his army. Though not itself a Roman station, it was probably in some way connected with Legeolium; the Watling-street passed through the park, near the town, and vestiges of a Roman camp were distinctly traceable previously to the recent inclosure of the waste lands. During the time of the Saxons, to whom some historians attribute the building of the town, a chief named Alric erected a castle here, which, having been demolished or suffered to fall into decay, was repaired, or more probably rebuilt, by Ilbertde Lacy, to whom, at the period of the Conquest, William granted the honour and manor of Pontefract.

In the reign of Edward II. the castle, then in the possession of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who had revolted against the king on account of his partiality to Piers Gaveston, was besieged and taken by the royal forces; and the earl being soon after made prisoner by Andrew de Harcla, at Boroughbridge, was brought to Pontefract, where he was beheaded on a hill in sight of his own castle, and several of the barons who had joined his party were hanged. The earl was canonized after his death; and a chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas, was erected in honour of his memory, on the spot where hehad suffered decapitation. His descendant, the renowned John of Gaunt, retired to this castle in the reign of Richard II., and fortified it against the king; but a reconciliation taking place, through the medium of Joan, the king's mother, no further hostilities ensued. Henry de Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, then an exile in France, exasperated by the king's attempt to deprive him of the duchy of Lancaster and honour of Pontefract, to which he had succeeded by the death of his father, John of Gaunt, landed at Ravenspur, near the mouth of the Humber, in this county; and being joined by the Lords Willoughby, Ross, D'Arcy, Beaumont, and other persons of distinction, a considerable force was raised, and the conspiracy terminated in the capture of the king, and the exaltation of the duke to the throne by the title of Henry IV. Richard, after his deposition, was for some time confined in this castle, where he was inhumanly put to death. Henry frequently resided in it; he held a parliament here after the battle of Shrewsbury, and in 1404 signed at Pontefract the truce between England and Scotland. Scroop, Archbishop of York, having raised an insurrection, in which he was joined by the Earl of Northumberland, for the dethronement of the king, was by treachery made prisoner, and, being brought hither, was sentenced to death, in 1405. In1406, the young prince, subsequently James I. of Scotland, who had been taken on his voyage to France, was imprisoned in the castle; and after the battle of Agincourt, in the reign of Henry V., the Duke of Orleans and several French noblemen of the highest rank, were confined here.

During the war between the houses of York and Lancaster, the castle was the place of confinement ofnumerous noblemen, and several were put to death within its walls. Earl Rivers, who was kept a prisoner here by the Duke of Gloucester, whose designs he had ineffectually attempted to oppose, was at length put to death in the castle, together with Sir Richard Grey and Sir Thomas Vaughan. In 1461, Edward IV., with an army of 40,000 men, fixed his head-quarters at Pontefract, whence he marched against the Lancastrians at Towton. After the union of the houses of York and Lancaster in the person of Henry VII., that monarch visited the castle, in the second year of his reign. It was honoured also by visits from Henry VIII., in 1540; from James I., in 1603 and 1617, on his way to Scotland; and from Charles I., in 1625. In the rebellion called the Pilgrimage of Grace, in the reign of Henry, it was surrendered by Thomas, Lord D'Arcy, to the troops under the command of Aske.

At the commencement of the civil war, the castle was garrisoned for the king, and in 1644 was closely invested by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had taken possession of the town for the parliament. The Royalists maintained a spirited defence under a heavy cannonade, which continued several days; and held out till the arrival of a detachment of 2000 men, under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, who, after a severe conflict with the parliamentarians in Chequer-field, in which he was assisted by sallies from the castle, at length obliged them to raise the siege. On the departure of Sir Marmaduke, the republicans again obtained possession of the town, and throwing up intrenchments for a blockade, renewed thei refforts to reduce the castle. The garrison, under Governor Lowther, fought with obstinate intrepidity, and did considerable execution by frequent sallies; but being in want of provisions, and unable, from the blockade of the town, to procure supplies, it capitulated on honourable terms. After the castle had been for a short time in the hands of the parliamentarians, it was retaken by Col. Morrice and a small band of determined royalists, disguised as peasants carrying in provisions, who entered it without being suspected, and, having a reinforcement at hand, secured Col. Cotterell, the governor, and his men, in the dungeons. The castle was afterwards invested by Cromwell in person; but the royalists maintained their post, and it was not till the execution of the king that they surrendered the fortress, which the parliament soon ordered to be dismantled. Of this castle, so memorable for its connexion with the most interesting periods of English history, and which consisted of numerous massive towers, connected by walls of prodigious strength, and occupying the summit of an isolated rock, only a small circular tower now remains.

The town is pleasantly situated on dry and elevated ground, near the confluence of the rivers Aire and Calder. The streets are spacious and well paved; the houses, mostly of brick, are commodious and well built, and the town is supplied with excellent water from springs. Gas-works were erected in 1832, at an expense of upwards of £4000, the greater portion of which was raised by means of shares of £10 each, and the remainder borrowed on interest; the two gasometers are capable of containing 5000 cubic feet of gas. There are two subscription reading-rooms: the theatre, a small building erected by subscription, has been converted into a British school. At a short distance from the town, a neat monument was erected in 1818, in commemoration of the battle of Waterloo. The environs abound with interesting and diversified scenery; the gardens and nursery-grounds produce abundance of fruit and vegetables for the supply of the adjacent markets, and are famous for a superior kind of liquorice, which is cultivated extensively, and manufactured into cakes. The town has an excellent local trade, arising from the populousness and respectability of the neighbourhood. The Aire and Calder canal affords a conveyance from the ports of Hull and Goole to Ferrybridge, from which place there is direct land-carriage to Pontefract; the Wakefield and Goole railway runs by the town, and the York and North-Midland railway has a station within two miles, at Castleford. The market, which is well supplied with corn and provisions of every kind, is on Saturday. The market-place is spacious: in the centre of it was formerly a cross in honour of St. Oswald, around which, for a certain distance, extended the privilege of freedom from arrest, and the area was for aconsiderable time kept unpaved, as a memorial of thatright; the cross was removed in 1734, and a neat market-house, ornamented with pillars of the Doricorder, erected in pursuance of the will of Mr. Solomon Dupier, by his widow. Fairs are held on the first Saturday in December, May 5th, Oct. 5th, and the Saturday before Palm-Sunday; also every fortnight, on the Saturday next after the fairs of York.

Pontefract, which had enjoyed various privileges under charters of the lords of the honour and manor, was first incorporated by royal charter in the reign of Richard III., which was confirmed by Henry VII. and Edward VI., and by James I. in the 4th year of his reign. The charter was enlarged in the 29th of Charles II., and a new one was granted by James II. in the first of his reign. The government is now vested in a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors, under the act 5th and 6th of William IV., cap.76; the municipal borough is co-extensive with the township of Pontefract, and the number of magistrates is eight. The town exercised the elective franchise in the 23rd and 26th of Edward I., and the privilege was revived by James I. in 1621, since which time it has regularly returned two members to parliament: the mayor is returning officer. The recorder holds a court of quarter-sessions; and a court of record for the borough occurs every three weeks, for the recovery of debts to any amount. Petty-sessions are held every alternate Saturday in the West-riding court-house, and the borough magistrates meet every Monday in the town-hall; the general quarter-sessions for the riding are held here at Easter. The county debt-court of Pontefract, established in 1847, has jurisdiction over the registration-district of Pontefract. The town-hall is a neat building, erected at the joint expense of the county and the corporation; the lower part, surrounded by an open corridor, forms a prison, and above is the hall, which is conveniently arranged for the borough courts,and occasionally used as an assembly-room: the front of the building is ornamented with pilasters of the Doricorder, surmounted by a cornice. The court-house, erected at the expense of the county, is a handsome structure of freestone, in the Grecian style, and of the Ionic order.

The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £13. 6. 8., and in the patronage of the Crown, in right of the duchy of Lancaster; net income, £313; impropriator, the Earl of Harewood. The old parochial church, dedicated to All Saints, now a district church, was nearly demolished in the parliamentary war, and is still partly in ruins, but the north and south transepts and the tower were restored in 1831, at an expense of £4300, raised by subscription: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Crown, endowed with £200 per annum, arising from lands bequeathed by Mr.Fothergill. The church of St. Giles, rendered parochialby an act of parliament passed in the 29th of GeorgeIII., is a neat edifice, of which the old tower was taken down and rebuilt; it is situated on elevated ground in the market-place, and forms a conspicuous feature in the view of the town. The collegiate chapel dedicated to St. Clement, within the precincts of the castle; and the free chapel of St. Thomas, erected on the spot where the Earl of Lancaster was beheaded, have long since disappeared. At Knottingley, East Knottingley, and East Hardwick, are separate incumbencies. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans, and a RomanCatholic chapel. A free grammar school was founded,and endowed with a house and garden, and £50 per annum from the revenues of the duchy of Lancaster, inthe 2nd year of the reign of Edward VI.; and the endowment was augmented in the reign of Elizabeth. Having fallen into decay, the institution was refounded, on petition of the inhabitants, 32nd of George III.

The college and hospital of St. Nicholas was originally founded by an abbot of the monastery of St. Oswald, in the county of York, for a reader and thirteen persons,and was endowed with an income of £23. 13. 4., payable out of the revenue of the duchy of Lancaster. It was vested in the corporation of the borough by James I.,and was rebuilt, or largely repaired, by means of a sum of £100 bequeathed by Mr. Thomas Sayle. The endowment, by subsequent donations, has been increased to £36 per annum. Knolles, or the Trinity, alms house was founded in the reign of Richard II., by Sir Robert Knolles, and endowed with an annual sum, also payable from the revenue of the duchy, with the moiety of anestate in Whitechapel, London, devised by Mr. John Mercer, and other property, producing a yearly income of more than £108. The premises comprise rooms for seven aged men and nine women. Perfect's hospital was built at the joint expense of the corporation and the town, and endowed by Mr. William Perfect with land, which, with other donations, produces £40 per annum; the premises comprise three dwellings, each for an aged man and his wife. The Bede House, of which the origin is unknown, is maintained by the overseers. The building called Thwaites' hospital was bequeathed for the residence of four aged unmarried women, by Richard Thwaites, in 1620. Cowper's hospital was founded in1668, by Robert Cowper, and has been rebuilt at the expense of the parish, for four aged widows. Two alms houses, built respectively by Mr. Matthew and Mr. Robert Franks, in 1737, and containing each apartments for two aged widows, have endowments of £11. 10. and £17. 10. per annum. Watkinson's hospital was founded in 1765,by Edward Watkinson, M.D., who endowed it with estates producing £87. 14.; the premises contain apartments for eight aged men and women. George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, gave in trust to the corporation £200 per annum, to be employed in loans to tradesmen; and there are numerous bequests for distribution among thepoor generally.

Among the various monastic institutions that existedhere, was a Cluniac priory, founded in the reign of William Rufus by Robert de Lacy, and dedicated to St.John the Evangelist; the revenue at the Dissolution was £472. 16. 1. A convent of Carmelites was established in the year 1257, by Edmund Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. A convent of Dominican or Black friars was instituted in 1266, by Simon Pyper, in a place now called Friar-Wood; at the Dissolution it consisted of a prior, seven brethren, and a novice. There was also an hospital for Lazars, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, of uncertain foundation, to which, in 1286, Archbishop Romain was a benefactor, and of which the site is supposed to be occupied by Franks' hospital. An hospital for a chaplain and eight poor brethren, established in the reign of Edward III., by William La Tabourere, is by some identified with the Bede House. On the 25th of March, 1822, as two labourers were trenching the land for liquorice, in a field called Paper-Mill Field, near St.Thomas' Hill, one of them struck his spade against a stone coffin, which weighed about a ton and a half, and which, on examination, was found to contain the skeleton of a man, with the head between the legs, in good preservation. These were supposed to be the decapitated remains of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who suffered on the 22nd of March, 1322, exactly 500 years previously.The coffin and its contents were removed into the grounds of R. P. Milnes, Esq., of Frystone Hall, where they now remain, inclosed within a palisade. Near a windmill occupying the site of St. Thomas' chapel, great quantities of beautifully carved stones were dug up in 1841, whichwere removed by the Earl of Mexborough, as owner ofthe soil: from the sculpture of the stones, the building to which they belonged seems to have been of pointed architecture. Thomas de Castleford, a monkish historian, was a brother of the Dominican convent. Dr.Bramhall, who after the Restoration was made primate of Ireland, was a native of Pontefract; and Dr. Johnson,a physician and eminent antiquary, resided in the town. It gives the title of Earl to the family of Fermor, who are styled Earls of Pomfret.

From: Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 586-593. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51218 Date accessed: 06 October 2011.

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This ancient parish was created before 1813. Church of England records began in 1842.

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