Parishes: Thirkleby

THIRKLEBY

Turchileby (xi cent.); Thurkilby, Turkylby, Turkelby-under-Wynstan, Thurkelby near Whitstan (xiii cent.); Thurcelby (xiv cent.); Thirtleby (xvii cent.).

The parish of Thirkleby includes Osgodby. The ground rises from about 100 ft. above the ordnance datum to the north-west, where, towards the Hambleton Hills, it reaches an elevation of over 400 ft. The upper soil is clay on a subsoil chiefly of Keuper Marls and lower lias, but there is alluvium in the vicinity of Thirkleby Beck. The area is rather over 2,689 acres, of which 1,100 are arable land, 1,376 pasture and 104½ woods and plantations.

The inhabitants are mainly engaged in agriculture, the chief crops being wheat, barley and oats. The nearest station is Sessay, on the main line of the North Eastern railway, 3 miles distant.

The main road from Thirsk enters the parish from the north-west, touches Thirkleby Park at its western corner and then strikes out south-east to Easingwold, while the Low Lane branches to Coxwold, skirting the southern side of the park. From it the Long Causeway runs north and forms the eastern side of the park, which extends to 200 acres. Within it is the church of All Saints and close by is the site of the ancient Thirkleby Hall built in the time of Elizabeth and itself probably the successor of the capital messuage which Roger Burton held here in 1308. (fn. 1) The modern hall, the residence of Sir Ralph W. Frankland Payne-Gallwey, bart., was built on higher ground to the north by Sir Thomas Frankland from designs by Wyatt in 1780–5. The mansion, which is in the dignified classical style of the period, stands in a park of 200 acres, and is backed by the Home Woods. The village stands on the Long Causeway at a point where it turns east to the ford, while the Mill Lane leads north to the mill mentioned in the 16th century and to the vicarage. The capital messuage called the Parsonage House is mentioned in 1545 and belonged to Newburgh. (fn. 2)

Little Thirkleby lies on the east side of the beck along a lane which eventually joins the Low Road to Coxwold below Arden Bridge. No early mention of this bridge has been found, but Thirkleby Bridge on the Easingwold road is probably the successor of a bridge mentioned in the 13th century. (fn. 3) Edward I was at Thirkleby on 5 October 1304. (fn. 4)

Osgodby, which consists of three farms, is in the north of the parish.

Osgodby Hall was originally Jacobean, but it was considerably altered and refronted in the 18th century, and is now a rectangular structure of some size, with two wings projecting to the rear. The front, to the west, is two stories high with 18thcentury windows and facing. The porch, placed centrally, is, however, Jacobean and is built of rusticated work, with an arched doorway, side pilasters, moulded imposts and a panelled key. On either side within are semicircular domed recesses and the porch is finished with a flat cornice. The northern end of the house retains its early form and is here built of red brick, with stone quoins, having a massive chimney stack and moulded stone string-courses. Of the two rear wings the southern is entirely of 18thcentury date, but the northern is original, and, although much patched, retains its plinth and string-courses. The interior of the house contains a fine broad staircase of the early 17th century, with heavy turned balusters and square newels surmounted by balls. In the northern room on the ground floor is a handsome panelled Jacobean overmantel in oak, extending to the ceiling and enriched with Ionic pilasters. Two of the first-floor rooms retain their panelling. In front of the house is a raised terrace with a broad flight of steps opposite the porch. The terrace walk termina es at two square-headed doorways, with raised keys and cornices, piercing the side walls of the garden. The latter are of faced stone with a heavy weathered coping ramped up on either side of the piers of the entrance gateway. The garden is square and the gate is flanked by handsome piers with pilasters on the outer face and large stone balls on the coping. To the north of the house stands a rectangular orientated building, said to have been once the chapel, but now used as a cow-house. It stands on a plinth, but the openings are all modern, and at the west end is a bellcote resting on stone buttresses and containing one bell.

Among the place-names are Hall Flatt, Wheate Rigge, Over and Nether Riddings and Halynges. (fn. 5)

Manors

At the time of the Domesday Survey the 8 carucates of THIRKLEBY were included in the large manor previously held by Copsi at Coxwold. (fn. 6) In 1086 it belonged to Hugh son of Baldric. The overlordship came into the hands of the Mowbrays and followed the descent of the manor of Thirsk (q.v.) until at least the end of the 16th century. (fn. 7) Robert de Bussy or Buscy held a mesne lordship and some demesne land here (fn. 8) and granted land in the vill to the abbey of Byland apparently at the end of the 12th century. His son and heir was William de Buscy. (fn. 9) Oliver de Buscy, who was the mesne lord of Thirkleby in 1284–5, seems to have been the son of William. (fn. 10) In 1308 the manor was held of William de Buscy, the son and heir of Oliver, (fn. 11) and it was probably his daughter and heir Lucy who quitclaimed her right in the manor to her uncle, John de Buscy of Lavyngton, in 1348. (fn. 12) Some twenty years later Alice Buscy impleaded Sir Thomas Ughtred and Katharine his wife for the manor. (fn. 13) The name of Robert Buscy occurs as one of the holders of a small amount of land in Thirkleby in 1428. (fn. 14)

The earliest known tenants in Thirkleby were the Meynells. Robert de Meynell held lands here, (fn. 15) and was succeeded by Gilbert, who gave lands at the close of the 12th century to Byland Abbey. (fn. 16) Gilbert was succeeded by Stephen, whose name occurs in connexion with land here in 1224 (fn. 17) and 1237. (fn. 18) Walter de Meynell was party to a fine as to land here in 1240. (fn. 19)

Robert de Meynell gave 1 carucate of land here to his niece Cecily as dower on her marriage with Walter son of Thomas de Thirkleby. (fn. 20) Walter may possibly have left co-heirs, for in 1272 John de Staveley and Sybil (fn. 21) his wife granted messuages and lands in Thirkleby to Roger de Burton, lord of West Harlsey, (fn. 22) whose wife Joan had herself perhaps added to Roger's possessions here. (fn. 23) Thirkleby followed the descent of the manor of West Harlsey in Osmotherley (q.v.) until its forfeiture by Sir Roger de Burton. This manor, like West Harlsey (q.v.), was recovered by Anthony son of Sir Roger, but before 1428 it had been divided among various tenants, being apparently the land held at that date by Edmund Darell, Peter de Mylton, William Dayvill, Robert Wicham, Thomas (?) de Topcliffe and others. (fn. 24) From this date Thirkleby was evidently divided into two principal holdings, which have followed separate descents until the present day.

The larger part, which was afterwards known as GREAT THIRKLEBY and represented the manor, was the land held by William Buscy and forfeited by him for his part in the rising of 1322. (fn. 25) It was acquired from the Crown in 1361 by Sir Thomas Ughtred, kt., who obtained a grant of free warren in his demesne lands in Thirkleby in 1363. (fn. 26) In 1383 he quitclaimed the manor to Sir Roger Fulthorpe, kt., 'except 2s. 3½d. rent and the rent of one pair of spurs and one pair of gloves and one root of ginger in the said manor.' (fn. 27) Sir Roger Fulthorpe forfeited the manor to the king, but it was sold by the Crown to his son Sir William Fulthorpe, kt., in 1389 on condition that Sir William or his heirs paid £40 a year to Roger for life. (fn. 28) Sir William Fulthorpe was seised of the manor in 1404, (fn. 29) and in 1428 a William Fulthorpe was returned as a tenant in Thirkleby. (fn. 30) Thomas Fulthorpe died seised of the manor in 1478 and was succeeded by a son William. (fn. 31) A William Fulthorpe held the manor in 1535 and at his death in February 1550–1, (fn. 32) and was succeeded by his son John, (fn. 33) who was afterwards attainted for his share in the Insurrection of the North.

In 1570–1 the manor of Great Thirkleby was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Ambrose Earl of Warwick, who returned it to her in the following year, but obtained a regrant of it in 1576. (fn. 34) The earl at once alienated it to William Frankland, a wealthy member of the Clothworkers' Company, from whom it passed to his nephew Hugh Frankland. (fn. 35) Hugh made a settlement of it just before his death in 1606. (fn. 36) He was succeeded by William Frankland, who died seised of the manor in 1640 and left a son and heir Henry, (fn. 37) who had been knighted by Wentworth, Lord Deputy of Ireland, at Dublin in 1636. (fn. 38) William Frankland, eldest son of Henry, was created a baronet in 1660, (fn. 39) and joined with his father in a settlement of the manor in the following year. (fn. 40) Sir William died in 1697, when it passed to his son Thomas, who married Elizabeth daughter of Sir John Russell of Chippenham. On his death in 1726 his son Thomas succeeded to the baronetcy and estates of which he made a settlement in 1735. (fn. 41) Sir Thomas died without male issue in 1747, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth, who married John Morley Trevor of Glynde, co. Sussex, and Dinah, who married George Henry third Earl of Lichfield. Sir Thomas married, secondly, Sarah Moseley (fn. 42) and made three wills in her favour, the last giving her all his estates absolutely. His successor in the baronetcy upset this last will, but the Court pronounced in favour of the second, which gave the widow a life interest in Thirkleby. She died in 1783, having survived her husband's successor in the baronetcy, Sir Charles Henry Frankland, who died in 1768. (fn. 43) The baronetcy passed to his brother Thomas, then Vice-Admiral of the Red. He inherited the estate of Thirkleby in 1783 and died in the following year, his successor being his second but eldest surviving son Thomas. On his death at Thirkleby in 1831 the baronetcy and estates passed to his only surviving son Robert, who in 1837 assumed the name of Frankland-Russell on the bequeathal of the Chequers Court, Bucks., estate by his cousin Sir Robert Greenhill-Russell. Sir Robert died without male issue in 1849, and Thirkleby, after the death of his widow in 1871, passed to his daughter and co-heir Emily Anne Lady Payne Gallwey, who took the name of Payne-Frankland in 1882 (fn. 44) and is now lady of the manor.

The second holding in Thirkleby, afterwards known as LITTLE THIRKLEBY, was formed from the third of the manor given in dower to Isabel wife of Roger Burton. (fn. 45) Isabel seems to have married Sir Walter de Fauconberg as her second husband and in 1361 they obtained a confirmation of her rights. Shortly afterward Hugh [? de Stapleton] of Myton received a grant of two parts of the lands here and the reversion of Isabel's portion. (fn. 46) Hugh appears never to have come into possession of the two-thirds, but he quitclaimed the reversion of Isabel's share to Marmaduke Darell in 1363, (fn. 47) and from that date it has followed the descent of Sessay (q.v.), Viscount Downe being the present lord of the manor.

Before the Conquest 3 carucates at OSGODBY (Ausgotbei, xi cent.; Augodeby, xii cent.; Osegoteby, xiii cent.) were included in the 'manor' of Coxwold and in 1086 were held by Hugh son of Baldric. (fn. 48) Land which probably represented the whole of Osgodby was acquired by the abbey of Byland from Gilbert de Meynell in the latter part of the 12th century, (fn. 49) and this, afterwards known as Osgodby Grange, belonged to the abbey at the Dissolution (fn. 50) and was granted to the Archbishop of York in 1543. (fn. 51) It was sold by the trustees for the sale of church lands in 1649, but appears to have been restored at the accession of Charles II. (fn. 52) In the 17th century the Grange was demised to members of the family known as 'the Askwiths (Ayscoughs) of Osgodby,' (fn. 53) who, however, had no freehold here, though they made it their dwelling-place.

Church

The church of ALL SAINTS consists of a chancel, south chapel, north vestry, nave with narrow aisles, a porch at the west end of the north aisle and a north-west tower with an octagonal stone spire. The present building, which is of limestone and in the style of the 14th century, was erected in 1851, at the cost of the widow of Sir Robert Frankland-Russell, as a tribute to his memory. The building which it replaces was built in 1722 by Sir Thomas, the third baronet.

On the floor at the west end of the nave are three slabs. One is to Judith daughter of John Burgoyne of Sutton, Bedfordshire, and wife of William Ayscough of Osgodby in this parish, who died in 1688. Over it is a shield of Ayscough impaling Burgoyne. The second has a shield with Ayscough impaling Thornton and an inscription to William Ayscough, who died in 1676. The third has lost its brass inscription. On the south wall of the nave are two large marble tablets to Sir William Frankland, who died in 1697, and Arabella his wife, daughter of the Hon. Henry Bellasis, who died in 1687. She was sister to the first Earl Fauconberg, son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell It is to be noted that Sir William was nephew of Earl Fauconberg and his wife niece of the countess. There are other later and modern monuments and slabs, notably a fine group by Flaxman to the memory of the four children of Sir Thomas, the sixth baronet; two of these children were painted by Hoppner in his well-known picture 'The Sisters.'

There are three bells cast by Taylor & Co. in 1851.

The plate consists of a silver cup of the normal Elizabethan type, a cover paten with the York mark for 1617, a paten, probably silver, but without marks and having a plated stem, and a very fine pair of flagons with rich repoussé ornament, bearing the London mark of 1646. The dolphin embowed of the Franklands of Thirkleby is worked into the ornament of the barrels.

The registers begin in 1611.

Advowson

The church of Thirkleby, which in 1145 was granted by Roger de Mowbray to the priory of Newburgh, was only a chapel dependent on the church of Coxwold. (fn. 54) In or before 1269 a vicarage was ordained. (fn. 55) After the Dissolution the rectory and advowson were in 1545 granted by Henry VIII, in exchange, to the see of York, (fn. 56) to which they still belong.

Land in the fields of Little Thirkleby and other land lying in the fields of Great Thirkleby, called the 'Lady Hedeland,' was given towards the finding of lights in the church. (fn. 57)

Charities

The Poor's Land consists of 4 a. 3 r. of land at Bagby (purchased in 1692 with £62 10s. parish poor stock, let at £8 a year) and 5 acres in Easingwold (purchased with other charitable donations, particulars of which are unknown), let at £6 15s. a year. The official trustees also hold £56 11s. 10d. consols arising from sale of timber. The rents and dividends are applied, after payment of 10s. for a sermon on Christmas Day, in gifts of money to the poor varying in amount.