Pickering, Yorkshire Family History Guide
Pickering is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Yorkshire. Ellerburne is a chapelry of Pickering.
Other places in the parish include: Newton, Kingthorpe, Marishes, and The Marishes.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St. Peter
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1559
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1600
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
PICKERING, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a wapentake, in N. R. Yorkshire.
The town stands on the side of a hill, at a rivulet or “beck” of its own name, adjacent to the Molton and Whitby railway, 26 miles N E by N of York; is fabled to have got its name from the recovery of a lost ring of a British king 270 years before the Christian era; dates from very ancient times; made some figure in connexion with an ancient castle; sent members to parliament in the time of Edward I.; serves as a centre for visiting some very fine surrounding scenery; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and has a post-office under York, a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, three chief inns, a church, five dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £78 a year, alms-houses, and a workhouse.
The castle stood on an eminence at the extremity of the town; appears first on record in the time of Henry III.; is believed to have succeeded a much more ancient fortalice; was the first prison of Richard II.; was visited by Richard III.; was besieged, captured, and dismantled, by the parliamentarians, in the time of Charles I.; and has left extensive and interesting ruins, occupying about three acres, and commanding fine views.
The church is chiefly of the 14th century; includes some remains of Norman architecture; was extensively restored in 1861; consists of nave, aisles, transept, and chancel, with tower and lofty spire; and contains a piscina, three sedilia with sculptured canopies, and two fine old monuments.
A weekly market is held on Monday; fairs are held on the Monday before 14 Feb., the Monday before13 May, 25 Sept., and the Monday before 23 Nov.; and large quantities of brooms are made. Pop. of the town in 1851, 2, 511; in 1861, 2, 640. Houses, 588. The township comprises 14, 280 acres. Real property, £11, 266; of which £52 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 3, 112; in 1861, 3, 399. Houses, 728.
The manor belonged, in the time of Edward the Confessor, to Morcar, Earl of Northumberland; went, at the Norman conquest, to the Crown; passed, through various hands, to John of Gaunt; and was afterwards annexed to the duchy of Lancaster.
The parish contains also the townships of Kingthorpe, Marishes, and Goathland, and the chapelry of Newton. Acres, 31, 785. Real property, £17, 630. Pop. in 1851, 4, 161; in 1861, 4, 501. Houses, 943. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value, £230. Patron, the Archbishop of York. The p. curacies of Goathland and Newton are separate benefices.
The sub-district excludes Goathland township, but includes four townships of Middleton. Acres, 26, 920. Pop., 4, 701. Houses, 983.
The district comprehendsalso the sub-district of Lastingham, containing threetownships of Lastingham parish, three of Middleton, and the extra-parochial tract of Turnhill; the sub-district of Sinnington, containing two townships of Sinnington parish and two of Kirkby-Misperton; the sub-district of Allerston, containing the parishes of Allerston, Ebberston, Ellerburn, and Thornton-Dale; and the sub-district of Lockton, containing the parish of Levisham and the chapelry of Lockton. Acres, 88,062. Poor-rates in 1863, £2, 689. Pop. in 1851, 9, 978; in 1861, 10, 549. Houses, 2, 189. Marriages in 1863, 115; births, 395, of which 58 were illegitimate; deaths, 258, of which 96 were at ages under 5 years, and 6 at ages above85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 822; births, 3, 280; deaths, 1, 906. The places of worship, in 1851, were 14 of the Church of England, with 3, 346 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 400 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 224s.; 17 of Wesleyans, with 2, 222 s.; and 10 of Primitive Methodists, with 1, 463 s. The schools were 17 public day-schools, with 588 scholars; 36 private day-schools, with 480 s.; and 26 Sunday schools, with 1, 311 s. The wapentake contains fifteen parishes, and parts of twoothers; and is called Pickering Lythe. Acres, 150, 539. Pop. in 1851, 18, 221; in 1861, 17, 866. Houses, 3, 672.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
PICKERING (St. Peter), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in Pickering lythe, N. riding of York; containing, with the chapelries of Goadland and Newton, and the townships of Kingthorpe and Marishes, 3901 inhabitants, of whom 2992 are in the town, 26 miles (N. N. E.) from York, and 222 (N. by W.) from London.
The origin of this place is said to be very remote, being dated by tradition 270 years before the commencement of the Christian era, and ascribed to Peridurus, a British king, who was interred here, on the brow of a hill called Rawcliff. According to local tradition, also, its name is derived from the circumstance of a ring having been lost by the founder whilst washing in the river Costa, and subsequently found in the belly of a pike.
An ancient castle, of great strength, which occupied an eminence near the northern extremity of the place, was the prison of Richard II. after his deposition, and previously to his removal to Pontefract, where he was murdered. During the great civil war this fortress was dismantled by the parliamentary forces.
The town is long and straggling, and situated on a declivity, at the bottom of which, and through part of the town, flows a stream named Pickering beck. The castle hill commands a fine view of the fertile vale of Pickering, and on one side is a mountainous district called Black or Blake Moor, which extends to a considerable distance, and furnishes materials for making brooms.
On the river Costa, which rises at Keldhead, and on the Old Beck stream, are several flour-mills. The Whitby and Pickering railway, twentyfour miles long, was opened in 1838, and has since been extended from Pickering to the York and Scarborough line near Malton.
The market is on Monday; and fairs are held on the Mondays before February 14th and May 13th, on September 25th, the Monday before November 23rd, and the second Monday in all the other months, principally for cattle.
Pickering was formerly of more importance than it is at present, and was the chief town in the district; in the 23rd of Edward I. it sent members to parliament. It is still the head of an honour in the duchy of Lancaster having jurisdiction throughout the lythe and wapentake, which are co-extensive, including two market-towns and forty-six townships. A manorial court, for all actions under 40s. arising within the honour, takes place on Monday in the first whole week after Easter-Monday, and on the first Monday after Old Michaelmas-day, at the court-house in the castle.
The township comprises 12,152 acres, of which 4500 are common or waste land. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the patronage of the Dean of York, valued in the king’s books at £8. 3. 9.; net income, £158. The great tithes have been commuted for £1181; the vicarial glebe consists of 38 acres. The church is an ancient and spacious edifice, with a lofty spire. At Newton is a chapel of ease, and at Goadland a separate incumbency.
There are places of worship in the parish for the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyans. The free school is supported by the interest of various endowments, amounting to about £80, with some small legacies.
The union of Pickering comprises twenty-eight parishes or places, and contains a population of 10,251. On Pickering Moor are vestiges of two Roman encampments of great strength, and there are several others between the barrows and the town, as well as on the western moors.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Yorkshire
- Civil Registration District: Pickering
- Probate Court: Court of the Peculiar of the Dean of York
- Diocese: York
- Rural Deanery: Riddal
- Poor Law Union: Pickering
- Hundred: Pickering Lythe
- Province: York