Crayke, Yorkshire Family History Guide

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Crayke is an Ancient Parish originally in the county of Durham until 1844 then in the county of Yorkshire.

Alternative names: Craike

Parish church: St. Cuthbert

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1558
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1704

Nonconformists include: Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Crayke Parish Registers

Bishops Transcripts

Explore the Bishops’ Transcripts for the Diocese of Durham (1639–1919) – This collection offers parish register copies submitted annually to the Bishop, covering baptisms, marriages, and burials across Durham, Northumberland, and parts of Yorkshire and Cumberland. Ideal for tracing ancestors when original registers are missing or incomplete.

Crayke Bishops Transcripts 1704-1835

Parish History

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

CRAIKE, or Crayke (St. Cuthbert), a parish, in the union of Easingwould, W. division of the wapentake of Bulmer, N. riding of York, 3 miles (E. by N.) from Easingwould; containing 579 inhabitants.

Egfrid, King of Northumbria, in 685 gave this place, with land extending three miles round it, to St. Cuthbert; and a monastery is mentioned by Simeon of Durham as existing here, at the time of the Danish invasion in 883, when the bones of St. Cuthbert were brought to Craike, villam vocabulo Crecam, for refuge. Etha, a hermit, who lived here at an earlier period, is noticed as a famous saint by the same authority.

The parish comprises by measurement 2756 acres, about three-fifths of which are arable, and the remainder pasture, with the exception of 10 acres of plantation.

Above the village, on an eminence, stand the ruins of Craike Castle, probably built by Bishop Pudsey in Stephen’s reign, now converted into a farmhouse: the estate, which was in the hands of the bishops of Lindisfarne first, and of Durham after the removal of the see, from the time of St. Cuthbert to the prelacy of Bishop Van Mildert, was sold by the latter, by virtue of an act of parliament. The ruined castle is a picturesque object to the country around, and commands a view which is only bounded by the horizon of the plain of York, and extending to the Wolds of the East riding, and the hills of Craven on either side.

The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £10, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Ripon: the tithes have been commuted for £678, and the glebe comprises 52 acres, with a good residence. The church is a neat edifice of the fifteenth century, with a tower. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Maps

Vision of Britain Historical Maps – includes topographic maps, boundary maps and land use maps

Administration

  • County: Yorkshire
  • Civil Registration District: Easingwold
  • Probate Court: Pre-1837 – Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory) with the Peculiar of Crayke, Post-1836 – Court of the Archdeaconry of Cleveland
  • Diocese: York
  • Rural Deanery: Bulmer
  • Poor Law Union: Easingwold
  • Hundred: Bulmer
  • Province: York