Data from the 'Collectio Rerum Ecclesiasticarum' from the year 1842.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Data from the 'Collectio Rerum Ecclesiasticarum' from the year 1842.

The place: SEAMER.     Church dedication: ST. MARTIN.     Church type: Vicarage in charge.

Area, 5,150 acres. -Pickering Lythe wapentake. -Population, 981 *1; Church-room, 600 *2; Net value, £243. -There was a Church and a Priest at Seamer, at the time of the Norman conquest. The Manor of Seamer was parcel of the ancient possessions of the Percies, Earls of Northumberland, where they resided, and had a private Oratory for the exercise of their devotions.

And on the 15th October A.D. 1424, a Commission was granted to John Bishop of Dromore, to dedicate the Chapel with the altars therein erected, within the manor of Seamer, belonging to the Right Honourable Lord Henry, Earl of Northumberland.

5th Richard II., Henry Earl of Northumberland obtained a Charter for a yearly fair at Seamer, upon the feast of St. Martin in July.

This Church was given to the Abbey of Whitby, to which it was appropriated, and a Vicarage ordained therein, 7th Id. Dec., 1323. The Patronage after the Dissolution was in the Napier family ; afterwards in the Duke of Leeds, and since 1790 in the Denison family.

Patron and Impropriator, W. J. Denison, Esq.

The Church is valued in Pope Nicholas's taxation, at £56. 13s. 4d.; in the King's Books, the Vicarage is valued at £18. 16s. 4d. per annum; Synodals, 7s. 6d.; Procurations, 7s. 6d.; Deacon, 40s.

There was a Chantry founded in the Church of Seamer, to which Henry Lord Percy by his will, proved 20th March 1351, bequeathed £20.

There were two other Chantries in this Church.

Mr. Torre describes the monuments in the Church.

2nd April 1713, commission issued to Sir Arthur Caley, Baronet, Arthur Caley, Vicar of Brompton, Henry Docker, Vicar of Scarbrough, George Sheffield, Vicar of Hutton Bushell, and William Pierce, Vicar of West Heslerton, reciting that the steeple of the Parish Church of Seamer was then very ruinous and in great danger of falling, and thereby prejudicing the nave or body of the Church, insomuch as the parishioners could not without great apprehension of danger from the falling thereof (at least in windy and tempestuous weather) resort to their Parish Church, and authorizing them the said Commissioners, or any three of them, to take a personal view of the said steeple, and to certify the state thereof, before the 7th May next.

An Inclosure Act was passed 49th Geo. III.

The glebe house is fit for residence. The Register Books commence in 1588, deficient in 1671.

Parochial Charities. -No return.

Post town: Scarbrough.

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References:
Torre's MS., page 883. Abp. Sharp's MS., vol. ii. page 235. Bawdwen's Domesday Book (Semers), pages 70. 172. Burton's Monast. pages 70. 75. Nonae Rolls, page 240. Mon. Angl. vol. i. page 421.

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Notes:
*1 Viz. East Ayton, 360; Irton, 107 ; and Seamer, 514. In 1834, the Population was returned at 621.

*2 In 1818, the Church room (Seamer with East Ayton) was returned at 1000.