Parishes: Stockton-on-the-Forest

STOCKTON-ON-THE-FOREST

Stocthun, Stoketun (xi cent.); Stoketon (xii cent.); Stokton-on-the-Moor, Stockton by York (xiv cent.); Stokton-on-the-Forest (xix cent.).

The parish of Stockton-on-the-Forest lies to the east of the forest of Galtres, in which it was once included. Even at the present day 420 of the 3,268 acres which make up its area are woodland. Of the rest 1,525 acres are arable, where corn, potatoes and rye are grown, and 1,097 permanent grass. (fn. 1) The soil is sandy on a subsoil of Bunter Sandstone. The land lies generally about 50 ft. above ordnance datum, but rises to 75 ft. about Carlton Hill, Carlton Farm and Sandburn. An Act passed in 1813 for the inclosure of about 1,200 acres of open and common land in Stockton mentions ancient inclosures at Carlton. (fn. 2)

The most important road in the parish, the York and Malton highway, enters it from Heworth on the south-west and leads into Claxton, forming the boundary line between the north-east of Stockton and Sand Hutton. Here it runs through Sandburn Wood, part of the 'Sanbura' of Domesday Book. (fn. 3)

On the north side of the road a short distance to the east of the Four Alls Inn, and not far from Sandburn Mill, (fn. 4) is a stone cross in the form of a rough obelisk. The base, raised on one step, is apparently mediaeval, and the shaft is inscribed on three faces as follows: (I) 'EBOR. Monkward Stray. Mat. Walls o[f] Blakburn. John Beforth. Edgoforth. Pasture Masters 1677'; (2) 'This cross repaired in the year 1782 by Will^m Bamborough. John Dale. To^s. Gorwood. Ric^d Pearson. Pasture Masters'; (3) 'This Cross was blown down by the great wind on the 7th of Jany 1839 and replaced by her Grace the Duchess of Sutherland 1840.' It probably marks the bounds of one of the 'strays' or commons of the freemen of York.

To the west of Sandburn Wood are King's Moor and Stockton Common, from which there flows into Huntington a little stream, the 'Old Foss Beck,' probably the 'Fosse between Stockton and Huntington' crossed in 1622 by a 'common foote bridge.' (fn. 5) There is more woodland east and south-east of the common. Warthill station on the York, Market Weighton and Beverley branch of the North Eastern railway stands in this parish.

The village, which is of some size and consists of picturesque houses of the 18th century and later, stands in Stockton Lane, (fn. 6) which runs parallel to the main road to York. Stockton Hall, at the south end of the village, is a square red brick Georgian house. North of it is the school, and a Wesleyan chapel probably built between 1857 and 1872. The church stands at the south-eastern extremity of the village.

Manors

Three carucates in STOCKTON, waste at the time of the Domesday Survey, were then held by Count Alan. (fn. 7) In 1292 this land was held of Thomas de Normanvill, (fn. 8) possibly mesne lord between the subtenant and Peter de Mauley, to whose fee 2 carucates here belonged in 1303. (fn. 9) The overlordship of the manor of Stockton was ascribed to the Mauley heirs two centuries later, (fn. 10) but probably fell into abeyance not long afterwards.

The first tenant whose name survives is Thomas de Normanvill, who in 1208 received from Gode, widow of John de Hallenazhebie, the release of her right in the third of a carucate in Stockton (fn. 11); ten years later Thomas sued the master of the hospital of St. Leonard and Roger de Stapleton for his free tenement here. (fn. 12) He was impleading Bernard de Halnaby, perhaps a son of John and Gode, in 1219 for warranty of 3 carucates in this parish claimed by Roger de Stapleton. (fn. 13) Ralph de Normanvill, possibly his son, (fn. 14) brought an assize of novel disseisin of a Stockton tenement against Bernard de Halnaby and Roger de Stapleton in 1228. (fn. 15) This may be the Ralph de Normanvill who died in or before 1259, leaving two sons, of whom the elder, Thomas, was succeeded about 1283 by his brother Ralph, (fn. 16) but no record of the tenure of this family here from 1228 to 1292 survives.

The whole 3 carucates had been subinfeudated before 1292 (fn. 17) to Gaceus de Chaumont, Mayor of York in 1256, (fn. 18) who died seised. (fn. 19) John de Chaumont, his son and heir, was one year and a half old in 1292 (fn. 20); he held with other tenants in 1303, (fn. 21) and in 1316, the year of his death, was the only landowner returned for this parish. (fn. 22)

A John Chaumont filled many important offices in Yorkshire in the middle of the 14th century, (fn. 23) and a Sir John Chaumont, kt., died in about 1373, leaving as heir a minor who was committed by the king to the guardianship of Brian Stapleton. (fn. 24)

In 1388 or 1389 John's manor of Stockton-onthe-Moor was settled on his daughter Margaret and her husband William Mowbray, with remainder, should they die childless, to Elizabeth daughter of William's younger brother Alexander and her husband William Gascoigne and Elizabeth's issue. (fn. 25) This was probably before the birth of William and Margaret Mowbray's daughter Eleanor, afterwards wife of Thomas Ingleby, (fn. 26) lord of Ripley and of East Harlsey. Land in Stockton followed the descent of East Harlsey (q.v.) until 1564, when Sir William Ingleby and his wife Anne sold lands and tenements here to Anthony Bayock, (fn. 27) who nineteen years later, in conjunction with his own wife Alice and Thomas Elwood and his wife Anne, conveyed the manor of Stockton to George Stable, (fn. 28) with warranty against the heirs of Thomas. George and his wife Dorothy held lands in the parish in 1590. (fn. 29) Somewhat later the manor seems to have passed to the descendants of Lawrence Agar, a landowner here at his death in 1583. (fn. 30) His younger son John Agar of Stockton died in 1636 (fn. 31) and left a son of the same name. By his second wife, Isabel Gibson, this John was father of a third John Agar, lord of the manors of Stockton and Holtby in 1679. (fn. 32) Both were settled two years later on his younger son John, (fn. 33) and came eventually to one Thomas Agar, whose daughter Elizabeth married the Rev. Benjamin Wilson. (fn. 34) Through the marriage of her daughter Anne with Thomas Preston, Stockton and Holtby descended in 1786 to Benjamin Preston, who then assumed the name of Agar in compliance, it is said, with the wills of his great-aunts Margaret and Mary Agar. (fn. 35) Benjamin Agar, sole lord in 1793 and 1799, (fn. 36) was associated in 1813 with Elizabeth Ware, widow, who then held one-third of the manor. (fn. 37) Before 1857 he had been succeeded by his son John, whose trustees were lords from 1872 until 1901, when Miss Agar was lady of the manor. Between 1905 and 1909 Stockton passed to William Talbot Agar, whose son Mr. Charles Talbot Agar has been lord of the manor since his father's death in 1910. (fn. 38)

The heirs of John de Chaumont did not retain the whole of his lands here during the century after his death. In 1347 Maud widow of John Marmion (fn. 39) was declared to hold 2 carucates in Stockton once of Robert Marmion, (fn. 40) and the tenant of this land in 1428 was Sir William Fitz Hugh, husband of her great-granddaughter Elizabeth Marmion. (fn. 41)

Of the 6 waste carucates in Stockton on which the Domesday jurors reported 3 belonged to the canons of St. Peter, (fn. 42) and were afterwards included in the prebendal manor of Bugthorpe. (fn. 43) The heirs of the Nevills seem to have claimed some rights here at the beginning of the 16th century, when John Ingleby held messuages and a considerable amount of land of them and the treasurer of the church of St. Peter. (fn. 44)

Three carucates in this parish known as SANDBURN (Sanbura, xi cent.; Santburn, xii cent.) from 1086 were then in the possession of Ralph Paynel, but were claimed by the canons of York as having been theirs under the Confessor. (fn. 45) Before 1159 the canons had recovered part if not all the land and had granted it to Rievaulx Abbey, (fn. 46) to which tenements here of the annual value of £1 16s. still belonged in the 16th century. (fn. 47) It does not seem, however, that either religious community retained a firm hold of this property, which was, no doubt, of very small value. In 1270 Henry III granted to Thomas de Bolton, in compensation for his serjeanty, (fn. 48) the 'lawns' of Carlton and Sandburn in the forest of Galtres then valued at 40s. a year. He was allowed to surround them with a dike and a hedge so low that the deer could go in and out. (fn. 49) It was, no doubt, in consequence of this grant that both were soon afterwards brought under cultivation, their tithes being assigned by the archbishop in 1272 to the chapel of Stockton. (fn. 50) Sandburn descended with the manor of Hutton-on-the-Derwent (q.v.) from this time until its separation from Stittenham in the 17th century, (fn. 51) when it seems to have remained in the hands of the elder branch of the Gower family; it has followed the descent of the manor of Stittenham (q.v.) to the present day. (fn. 52)

Three geld carucates in CARLTON (Careltone, xi cent.; Carleton, Karleton, xiv cent.) belonging to the see of York in 1086 (fn. 53) were included in the king's gift to Thomas de Bolton and descended with Sandburn (fn. 54) until their acquisition in the 16th century by Lawrence Agar, who before his death in 1583 made a settlement of his grange of Carlton and the lands thereto belonging on himself, his wife Agnes and his younger son John. (fn. 55) In the possession of John Agar, who held after his mother's death in 1591, (fn. 56) they were probably united to the manor of Stockton (q.v.), with which they were held in 1813. (fn. 57)

Church

The church of the HOLY TRINITY is a modern building of white brick with stone dressings, consisting of nave and chancel with a tower on the north-west side surmounted by a slate-covered spire of some height. The church, which is in the 13th-century Gothic style, was rebuilt in 1895, and bears on the east gable a modern shield of Agar. The building which the present church replaced dated only from 1808, when the mediaeval structure was destroyed. There are numerous 18th and 19th-century tablets to members of the Agar family. The roof is slated, and the tower contains four bells, all cast in 1892.

The plate consists of a paten (London, 1709) inscribed 'This belongeth to Stockton Chappel, 1736,' a cup (York, 1654) inscribed 'The Gift of Mrs. Margrett Agar Daughter of Thomas Agar Esq^r 1735' with the Agar arms, a pewter flagon and some modern pieces.

The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms and burials 1653 to 1785, marriages 1653 to 1753 (this book is largely a transcript of vol. ii); (ii) mixed entries 1727 to 1782; (iii) marriages 1756 to 1808; (iv) baptisms and burials 1785 to 1808; (v) baptisms 1808 to 1812; (vi) burials 1808 to 1812; (vii) marriages 1809 to 1812.

Advowson

The church was a peculiar and a perpetual curacy in the gift of the prebendary of Bugthorpe (fn. 58) until it was transferred by the Act of 1840 to the Archbishop of York, the present patron. (fn. 59) In 1867 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners declared the church of the parish or parochial chapelry of Stockton-on-the-Forest to be a rectory. (fn. 60)

Charities

The sum of 4s. a year issuing out of a close called Stoneriggs was formerly paid; in respect thereof a blue serge gown used to be given every winter to a poor woman by the owner of a small piece of land in the parish known as Petticoat land.

Susanna Wilkinson, by deed dated 2 May 1826, gave an old schoolroom and a right of way and a sum of £400 consols for educational purposes, subject to the distribution of bread to the poor. By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 22 December 1905 the schoolroom with the right of way was authorized to be sold for £40.

The proceeds of sale were invested in £45 8s. 8d. consols. By the scheme a sum of £409 15s. 4d. consols has been set aside by the official trustees under the title of 'The Educational Foundation of Susanna Wilkinson,' to be applied upon the trusts of the deed, leaving a sum of £35 13s. 4d. consols for non-educational purposes, whereof the dividends on £20 consols is to be applied in the distribution of bread.

The Girton Choir Fund, founded by deed of 26 May 1906, by Samuel Girton. The trust fund consists of £53 6s. 6d. India 3 per cent. stock held by the official trustees, dividends to be applied for encouraging members of the choir of the parish church. (See parish of Warthill.)