A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



APPENDIX 



ECCLESUSTICJL DIHSIONS OF THE COUNTr 



At the time of the Conquest the whole of Yorkshire formed part of the diocese of York. 

 The date of its subdivision into archdeaconries is uncertain. Durandus the archdeacon is 

 among the witnesses of the deed by which the first Norman archbishop confirmed the 

 privileges of the church of Durham,^ and was present at the consecration of Anseim by 

 Thomas I.^ Conan the archdeacon appears as witness in 1088 to a deed executed by 

 Stephen, Earl of Brittany and Richmond.' It seems highly probable that Durandus was Arch- 

 deacon of the church of York, and that Conan may have been archdeacon of the district 

 within the jurisdiction of Earl Stephen, and therefore the first recorded Archdeacon of Rich- 

 mond. William son of Durandus is the first possible Archdeacon of East Riding, about 1 1 30 ; * 

 and an archdeacon with apparent jurisdiction over Cleveland occurs much about the same 

 period.' During the 1 2th century, at any rate, the territorial limits of the archdeaconries were 

 recognized. The agreement between Roger and Hugh Pudsey as to the jurisdiction of St. Cuth- 

 bert in Yorkshire mentions the archdeaconries of John son of Letold, of Geoffrey, and of the 

 treasurer.* The first of these was clearly the archdeaconry of Cleveland, and included the 

 churches of St. Cuthbert not only in the North Riding but also in the wapentake of Ouse and 

 Derwent, which was included in Cleveland Archdeaconry until so recently as 1896.' The second 

 was the archdeaconry of York ; the third the archdeaconry of East Riding, which continued an 

 appanage of the office of the treasurer until the time of Archbishop Gray. A document, probably 

 of rather later date, definitely mentions the archdeaconries of ' Austreing ' and ' Westreing ;' and, 

 during the quarrels of Geoffrey with the chapter, the various archdeacons, especially those of York, 

 Cleveland, and Richmond, played a principal part. Before the end of the I2th century, then, four 

 archdeaconries had been formed in Yorkshire, corresponding very nearly to the main civil divisions of 

 the county, the three Ridings and Richmondshire. The archdeaconry of Richmond, however, 

 included a vast tract of country in Lancashire, Westmorland, and South Cumberland, in addition 

 to its portion of Yorkshire. 



The rural deaneries apparently came gradually into existence about the same time, with 

 boundaries conditioned to some extent by those of the wapentakes. The territorial area of 

 the deaneries is by no means usually defined where the de.ins are mentioned. For instance, 

 in one charter of Rievaulx Abbey of the 12th century, we find the signature of ' Engelramnus, 

 decanus de Ridale et Pikeringalith ' ; and it is not unlikely that ' Walterus, decanus de Bulemer ' 

 may be another territorial designation.' But the ordinary style is represented by ' Robertus, 

 decanus de Helmeslac,' which implies simply that the rural dean of the district was parson of, 

 or lived at, Helmsley.'" From the signature of Engelramnus it is evident that one rural deanery 

 could include more than one wapentake ; and in the arrangement of deaneries which we can 

 fairly state as existing by the middle of the 13th century there was by no means strict attention 

 to the actual boundaries of the civil divisions. The deaneries of the East Riding corresponded 

 with some exactness to the wapentakes whose names they bore, but certain wapentakes seem from 

 an early date to have been entirely merged in deaneries bearing other names. Thus the deanery 

 of Ainsty included, in addition to the Ainsty, the wapentakes of Barkston Ash, the greater part 

 of Skyrack, and that part of Claro Wapentake south of the Wharfe, that part north of the Wharfe 

 -being in Boroughbridge Deanery. The wapentake of Birdforth was divided between three 

 deaneries, Hallikeld and Osgoldcross each between two. 



' Printed in Hist. Ch. fork (Rolls Ser.), iii, 17 seq. The authenticity of this document may be ques- 

 tioned ; but, even if it is a forgery, the names of the witnesses must have some historical basis. 



' Stubbs, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), ii, 359 ; See Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. (ed. Hardy), iii, 130. 



' Le Neve, op. cit. iii, 135. • Ibid. 141. 



' See Atkinson, Rievaulx Chartul. (Surt. Soc), 50 note, as to the uncertainty of the chronology of the 

 early Archdeacons of Cleveland. 



' Printed in Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 79 seq. 



' John son of Letold signs the agreement as ' archidiaconus ecclesie Ebor.' 



» Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 75 (Reg. Mag. Alb. iii, fol. 3, 4). 



' Rievaulx Chartul. (Surt. Soc), 174. 



"Ibid. 82. Cf. 49, 'Walterus decanus de Rudestein,' i.e. Rudston in Dickering Wapentake; Coll. 

 Topog. et Gen. 1S38, v, 104 ; 'Galfridus decanus de Forsett,' &c. ' Rogerus decanus de Katerich ' (Rievaulx 

 Chartul. S; seq.) does not imply the existence of the deanery of Catterick under that name at this time : 

 I^ogw, parson of Catterick, vi^as probably dean of a district corresponding to the later deanery of that name. 



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