THORNTON. 



where \r as the principal seat* for nearly a cen- 

 tury of the ancient family of the Cholmleys of 

 Whitby, and Housham. Here resided Sir Richard, 

 " the great blaek knight of the north," and here was 

 born in ]600, the celebrated Sir Hugh Cholmley, a 

 distinguished character daring the Commonwealth, 

 and governor of Scarborough castle. Nothing now 

 remains but inequalities in the surface, to indicate 

 \yhere this once splendid mansion formerly stood. 

 The Cholnaleys had also a seat at Wilton,f in the 

 same parish; where at the east end of the present 



* They had previously resided at Kingthorp, near 

 Pickering; but left it about the year 1525, whea they 

 purchased the estateat Roxby, of which the family of the 

 Hastings appear to have been the former proprietors, see 

 the pedigree of the Babthorpes in Burton's Monasticon, 

 p. 437 ; where Sir John Hastings, of Roxby, Kt. is men- 

 tioned as having married into that ancient family, about 

 the year 1480, by his union with Isabel, daughter of Sir 

 Ralph Babthorpe, of Hemingbrough. See also Leland's 

 Itenerary, who observes, " Cholmley had much of Hast- 

 inges' (a knight) lands." 



f In the parish Register of Ellerburne, occurs the 

 following curious notice, relative to a fatal murrain, 

 which afflicted the whole district; but was felt with the 

 greatest severity at Wilton* 



" In the year 1748, a distemper amongst horned cat. 

 tie, (believed to be infectious) carried off more than a 

 third part, and not quite half the horned cattle in this 

 parish, It broke out in January, and raged above six 

 months; no human skill being able to stop its rapid pro- 

 gress. It has prevailed above five years in this kingdom, 

 and several places abroad much longer; In the town* 

 hip of Wilton, it was more fatal, and of longer conti- 

 nuance, they lost upwards of two thirds of their cattle* 

 Oswald Langwith, then curate of Ellerburne, and Wil- 

 ton, willing to transmit so signal a visitation from the 

 hand of God to future ages, made this memorial in the 

 year 1750. the Rev. John Samuel Hill, being vicar. 

 Tt 



