Knaresborough Yorkshire Family History Guide
Knaresborough is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Yorkshire.
Other places in the parish include: Ferrensby, Beech Hill, and Scriven with Tentergate.
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1561
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1670
Nonconformists include: Â Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Reform.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
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Parish History
Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales 1895
Knaresborough, a market and union town, a township, and a parish in the W.R. Yorkshire.
The town stands on the side of a rocky hill, on the left bank of the river Nidd, 3 miles ENE of Harrogate, and 16 W by N of York. It is a picturesque place; “it may boldly challenge any town in Yorkshire, except Richmond, to match its river, rocks, wood, castles, and houses piled up the sides of the cliff;” and it commands rich and beautiful views over a large tract of fine country, to York Minster, the Wolds, Garrowby Hill, the Hambleton Hills, and the Brimham rocks and moors.
A tract around it, chiefly westward, and measuring about 20 miles by 8, was anciently covered with wood, and known as Knaresborough forest. The ancient Britons probably had a settlement on the town’s site; and the Romans certainly had some station or outpost here, for Roman coins and other Roman relics have been found.
A rampart and a deep fosse appear to have been around the place from an early period, and are still traceable; and these may have been formed either by the ancient Britons or by the Romans. A crown manor lay connected with it in the Saxon times, and this was severely devastated by the Conqueror in 1070, and afterwards given by him to Serlo de Burgh, Baron of Tonsburg in Normandy.
A strong and large castle was built by De Burgh, on a commanding eminence overhanging the Nidd, at the SW side of the town, passed with the manor to the Estotevilles, Richard Plantagenet, Piers Gavestone, John of Gaunt, and the Duchy of Lancaster; was the retreat for about a year of the murderers of Thomas à Becket, was also for some time the prison of the dethroned Richard II., made a stand in the Civil War for Charles I., was taken by Fairfax in 1644, and was dismantled by order of Parliament in 1646.
It occupied an area of nearly 2¼ acres, and was flanked by eleven towers; but it is now reduced to inconsiderable ruins, in several detached portions, many of them mere shapeless masses.
The principal tower still stands, appears to have been built or at least restored about the time of Edward III.; is supposed by some antiquaries to have a Saxon base and some Norman superstructure; consists of a dungeon below ground, and three storeys above; contains in the second storey what was called the King’s Chamber, probably from being Richard II.’s place of confinement, and had in that storey a rich traceried window, 15 feet by 10, which was destroyed by lightning in 1806. Remains of a gateway, in Early English, are on the SE side, and some meagre ruins of a chapel, probably Norman, were discovered in 1786.
A priory was founded about half a mile down the river from the castle in the 13th century by Robert Flower, a famous monk from Morpeth Abbey; was rebuilt and endowed, in the time of Henry III., by Richard Plantagenet; was given at the dissolution to Francis, Earl of Shrewsbury, and the site of it is now occupied by a modern mansion called the Abbey House.
St Robert’s chapel, southward of the castle, and sculptured out of the solid rock, is ascribed to the same monk who founded the priory; measures 10½ feet in length, 9 feet in width, and 7½ feet in height; shows on one side of the entrance an uncouth figure of a Knight Templar cut in the rock, and has a roof and an altar neatly adorned with Gothic ornaments.
A hermitage, made of petrifactions and other curiosities, is above St Robert’s chapel; an ornamental excavation called Fort Montague, a modern work of two men for sixteen years, is still further up; several ancient excavations in the rock, the principal one of which bears the name of Rock House, are near the chapel; and a hermitage called St Robert’s Cave, said to have been the usual residence of the famous monk, but more memorable as the scene of the murder of Daniel Clarke in 1745 by Eugene Aram, detailed in Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton’s well-known novel, is about a mile further down the river.
Fine views, both near and distant, with rich variety of foreground and combination, are obtained from the castle, Fort Montague, and numerous other spots on the flanks of the valley. Several walks also are charming, and possess many features of interest, but most of all the Long Walk, on the right bank of the river.
The Dropping Well here is a particular attraction. This is a spring rising from a limestone rock, discharging about 20 gallons per minute, dispersing itself over the rock’s top, and sending down thence many little trickling rills. The water is strongly impregnated with lime, and plentifully deposits this, in a petrifying manner, on substances immersed in it or overflown by it. The rock is finely decked with foliage and flowers, and articles which have been petrified by the water are sold on the spot. Mother Shipton, the Yorkshire sybil, is traditionally said to have been born at the foot of this rock.
A spring, called the Knaresborough Spa, is at Starbeck, about midway between Knaresborough and Harrogate, possesses sulphureous and chalybeate properties, materially different from those of the Harrogate spas; and has an establishment with baths, waiting-rooms, and all requisite appliances for the comfort of visitors.
The town is well-built, consists chiefly of stone houses, presents a pleasing appearance, and includes a spacious market-place. Two bridges, called the High and the Low, span the Nidd, and they were repaired and enlarged, the former in 1773, the latter in 1779. A market-cross formerly stood near the end of High Street, but has been removed.
The Court-house in Castle Gate was built in 1838, is a large stone structure, and contains apartments for court business, and four cells for prisoners. The Literary Institution in Market Place dates from 1843, and contains a well-supplied reading-room and a well-selected library.
St John’s Church is a spacious building, the most prominent in the town, comprises nave, aisles, transept, chancel, and two mortuary chapels, with central tower and small spire, is mainly Later English, but partly Early English and Decorated, underwent important alterations and improvements in 1861, was thoroughly repaired and reseated in 1872, and contains several ancient and interesting monuments of the Slingsbys.
Holy Trinity Church was built principally in 1856, but not completed till 1864, is in the Decorated English style, with tower and spire.
The Congregational chapel was built in 1865, at a cost of £2000, is cruciform, in the Decorated English. style, with tower and slender spire 90 feet high, and contains-420 sittings. There are also Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and Roman Catholic chapels.
The grammar school was. founded in 1616, and has, 620 a year from endowment. Richardson’s Free School, for boys and girls, was established in 1765, and has a good endowment. The Dispensary in Castle Yard was erected in 1853, as a memorial to a former vicar, the Rev. A. Cheap, and is supported partly by endowment and partly by subscription.
The town has a head post office, a railway station, three banks, and several inns, is a seat of petty sessions and county courts and a polling-place, and publishes a weekly newspaper. A weekly market, for corn and provisions, is held on Wednesday; a cattle market is held on every alternate Wednesday, and fairs are held on the Wednesdays after 13 Jan., 12 March, 5 May, 11 Oct., and 10 Dec.
A considerable manufacture is carried on in hearth rugs, door mats, and similar articles, and a large manufactory was formerly carried on in linens, chiefly sheetings, towellings, huckaback, and diapers, but has greatly declined.
The town sent two members to Parliament from 1553 till 1867. It was then reduced to one only, and in 1885 its representation was merged in that of the county.
The township comprises 2997 acres; population, 4770.
The parish contains also the township of Scriven-with-Tentergate, and comprises 4756 acres. Population of civil parish, 5385; of the ecclesiastical parish of St John, 3583; of Holy Trinity, 1837. The manor is held from Her Majesty the Queen by the Duke of Devonshire. The rocks include magnesian-limestone and a bed of strontian.
The livings of St John and Holy Trinity are vicarages in the diocese of Ripon; gross value of St John’s, £449 with residence; of Holy Trinity, £300. Patron of St John’s, the Bishop of Ripon; of Holy Trinity, the Vicar of Knaresborough.
John Metcalf, a man of much talent and enterprise, commonly called Blind Jack of Knaresborongh, who lost his sight when four years old, and died in 1810 at the age of ninety-three, was a native of the town.
Source: The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales 1895 by Brabner, John Henry Fryden
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Yorkshire
- Civil Registration District: Knaresborough
- Probate Court: Court of the Peculiar of the Honour of Knaresborough, Court of the Peculiar of the Prebend of Knaresborough, Exchequer and Prerogative Courts of the Archbishop of York, Court of the Archdeaconry of Richmond Eastern
- Deaneries – Boroughbridge
- Diocese: Post-1835 – Ripon, Pre-1836 – York
- Rural Deanery: Boroughbridge
- Poor Law Union: Knaresborough
- Hundred: Claro
- Province: York