Otley Yorkshire Family History Guide

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Otley is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Yorkshire. Denton is a chapelry of Otley.

Other places in the parish include: Newell with Clifton, Newall with Clifton, Menstone, Menston, Little Timble, Lindley near Otley, Lindley, Hawksworth, Esholt, and Bramhope.

Alternative names:

Riding: West Riding

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1562
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1602

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish Registers

The Parish Registers of Otley 1562 to 1752

The Parish Registers of Otley co. York Part 1 1562 to 1672. Transcribed and indexed by William Brigg, B.A. Part 1 of 2 Publisher: The Yorkshire Parish Register Society Date of publication: 1908 – This book is a free download from Parishmouse

The Parish Registers of Otley co. York Part 2 Baptisms April 1672 to June 1753. Marriages April 1672 to June 1750. Burials April 1672 to March 1751-2. Transcribed and indexed by William Brigg, B.A. Publisher: The Yorkshire Parish Register Society Date of publication: 1912 – This book is a free download from Parishmouse

Paver’s Marriage Licences

It would appear that a good many licences were never used. So genealogists should exercise a little care in their acceptance of the licenses.

1630 John Thompson, Otley, and Ann Whittaker, Haworth—either place.

1630 George Burnett and Ann Laycock, Otley—there. 

Source: The Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series Vol XL for the Year 1908; Edited by John WM. Clay, F.S.A., Vice-President of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society; Printed for the Society 1909.

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

OTLEY, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Wharfe, and on the Leeds and Ilkley railway, at the NW foot of the Chevin, amid delightful environs, 10 miles NW of Leeds. It was known, at Domesday, as Othelai, signifying “the field of Otho; ” probably took that name from some Danish local magnate, long before the Norman conquest; sent, for some time, two members to parliament, but ceased to send them on account of poverty.

It is now a well-built place, with houses all of stone; enjoys a good supply of water, from works extended in 1867; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and has a head post-office, a railway-station, a banking office, three chief inns, a court-house, a police station, a church, six dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a literary and philosophical society, a mechanics’ institute, a grammar-school, a national school, and charities £82.

The church includes a Saxon or early Norman N doorway; is of various dates, but chiefly of the time of Henry VI.; exhibits effects of many repairs; was restored in 1869, at a cost of about £2,400; comprises nave, three aisles, transept, and chancel, with a tower; and contains a massive stone font, a piscina, and numerous ancient monuments to the families of Fairfax, Fawkes, Vavasour, Palmes, and Pulleyn. The church-yard also contains several interesting tombs, together with a monument of Caen stone, representing a tunnel, and placed over the remains of more than thirty men who lost their lives at the making of a railway tunnel through the Chevin.

The Independent chapel is a large plain stone edifice; and, about 1859, was considerably enlarged. The other dissenting chapels are Baptist, Wesleyan, P. Methodist, New Connexion Methodist, and Christian Brethren. The Roman Catholic chapel was built in 1851, at the expense of T. Constable, Esq.; and is a handsome stone edifice, in the pointed style.

The mechanics’ hall was founded in 1869, is in the Italian style, and includes a large concert-room. The grammar-school stands at Clap-gate; was founded, in 1611, by Thomas Cave; and has £27 a year from endowment. A weekly market is held on Friday; a cattle fair is held one very alternate Friday; general fairs are held on Easter Wednesday, the second and fourth Wednesdays after Easter, Whit Wednesday, and the Monday after 2 Aug.; hiring fairs are held on the Friday before and the Friday after Old Martinmas-day; and worsted-spinning, worsted-weaving, and machine-making are carried on. Pop. in 1851, 4,522; in 1861, 4,458. Houses, 954.

The township comprises 2,233 acres. Real property, £14,968; of which £109 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 4,751; in 1861, 4,714. Houses, 1,007. The manor was given, by Athelstan, to the archbishops of York, and still remains in their possession. An archiepiscopal palace long stood at the head of Kirkgate, but has completely disappeared. The Manor House, a handsome edifice, now occupies the site of the palace, and is the seat of T. Constable, Esq.

The Chevin, at the S E of the town, is a range of bold cliffs, with picturesque appearance; commands a brilliant view of Wharfedale; has been deprived of much of its old bold character, partly by the quarrying of its rocks, and partly by the growth of trees; and is said to have furnished blocks of stone to form the foundations of the Houses of Parliament.

The parish contains also the townships of Baildon, Hawksworth, Menstone, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Denton, Esholt, Bramhope, Poole, Lindley, Farnley, Newall-with-Clifton, and Little Timble. Acres, 22,799. Real property, £53,990; of which £124 are in quarries, and £65 in mines. Pop. in 1851, 12,385; in 1861, 13,040. Houses, 2,757. Features in other parts of the parish than O. township are noticed in the articles on the several townships.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £300. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. Only a section of the parish containing a pop. of 5,080 is now assigned to the parish church; and the rest is cut into the chapelries of Baildon, Bramhope, Burley-with-Menstone, Denton, Esholt-with-Hawksworth, Farnley, and Poole.

The sub-district contains only the Otley townships of Otley, Baildon, Hawksworth, Menstone, Burley-in-Wharfedale, and Denton; but includes also the parish of Weston, the Ilkley townships of Ilkley and Middleton, and the Guiseley townships of Rawden and Carlton-Acres, 28,756. Pop. in 1851, 14,800; in 1861, 15,997. Houses, 3,263.

The district comprehends also the sub-district of Harewood, containing the parish of Addle, and the Harewood townships of Harewood, Wike, Wigton, Weeton, and Dunkeswick. Acres of the district, 43,254. Poor-rates in 1863, £4,766. Pop. in 1851, 17,572; in 1861, 18,669. Houses, 3,813. Marriages in 1863, 119; births, 572, of which 35 were illegitimate; deaths, 408, of which 146 were at ages under 5 years, and 15 at ages above 85. The district was originally more extensive than now; so that the returns of statistics of earlier date than those already given, treat it as having had a pop. of 28,644 in 1851. Marriages in the ten years1851-60, 2,221; births, 9,592; deaths, 6,288.

The places of worship, in 1851, were 19 of the Church of England, with 6,567 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 1,215 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 420 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 250 s.; 1 of Moravians, with 300 s.; 34 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 7,046 s.; 1 of New Connexion Methodists, with 200 s.; 8 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,165 s.; 1 of the Wesleyan Association, with 354 s.; 1 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 212 s.; 4 undefined, with 320 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 170 s.

The schools were 35 public day-schools, with 2,540 scholars; 49 private day-schools, with 1,325 s.; 57 Sunday schools, with 5,111 s.; and 5 evening schools for adults, with 141 s. The workhouse is in Carlton; and, at the census of 1861, had 76 inmates.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Maps

Vision of Britain historical maps

Administration

  • County: Yorkshire
  • Civil Registration District: Otley
  • Probate Court: Exchequer and Prerogative Courts of the Archbishop of York
  • Diocese: Post-1835 – Ripon, Pre-1836 – York
  • Rural Deanery: Pontefract
  • Poor Law Union: Carlton Gilbert Union
  • Hundred: Claro; Skyrack
  • Province: York