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Ripley, Yorkshire, England. Further historical information.

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RIPLEY

RIPLEY, a market and parish-town, in the upper-division of Claro; (Ripley Castle, the seat Sir William Amcotts Ingilby, Bart.) 3¼ miles from Harrogate, 5 from Knaresborough, 7¾ from Ripon 9 from Pateley Bridge, 12 from Otley, 23 from York, 205 from London. Market, Monday. Fairs, Easter Monday, for horned cattle and sheep; August 25, for sheep, and 26 for horses and horned cattle. Principal Inn, Star. Pop. 251. The Church is a rectory, dedicated to All-Saints, in the deanry of Boroughbridge, diocese of Chester, value, £23. 8s. 9d. Patron, Sir William Amcotts Ingilby, Bart.

This is a small market-town, situated about half a mile south of the river Nidd, on an advantageous bank, and well wooded. The market has fallen into disuse. In the Church, are several monuments of the Ingilby family; and in the church yard is a very uncommon pedestal of an ancient Cross, with eight niches, intended, probably, for kneeling in.

Here is a free School, built and endowed by Catherine and Mary Ingilby, in 1702; of which Sir William Amcotts Ingilby, Bart. is Trustee. It is endowed with an estate at Sproatley, (E.R.) containing messuages or tenements, and about 153 A. I R. 24 P. subject to a payment of £12. 8s. 6d. for tithes. It was let under lease dated Sept. 1800, for thirty years, at the yearly rent of £40. to Thomas Hewitt and his wife, which sum he pays to the schoolmaster. Mr. Hewitt has under let it for £120. per ann. The School premises consist of a spacious School room, with a house and yard for the master, and a garden in front. The School is free for the whole parish, --Commis. Report.

Adjoining the town, on the west, is Ripley Castle, the seat of the ancient family of the Ingilbys; which from an inscription carved on the frieze of the wainscot, in one of the chambers of the tower, was built by Sir William Ingilby, Bart. in 1555. In the civil wars of Charles I. it was a garrison for the King, which surrendered to Cromwell a few days after the battle of Marston. It has been much enlarged of late years; and appears now a spacious and commodious Mansion, embattled only for ornament, except the lodge, and the great tower, which still retain their original traces of caption, strength, and security. In the Library is a valuable collection of books: and in the real Staircase, is an elegant venetian window; in the divisions of which on stained glass, are a series of escutcheons, displaying the principal quarterings, and intermarriages of the Ingilby family, since their settling at Ripley, during a course of 430 years.

Here are preserved, one of the two pigs of lead, found in 1731, on Hayshaw Moor; on these are inscribed, Imperatore Caesure Domitiano Augusto Consule Septimum, and on one side is the word Brig, signifying it had been cast in the country of the Brigantes.

The owners of Ripley have been in possession ever since the time of Richard II.; when Sir Thomas de Ingilby had it in right of his Lady, daughter of ---- Ripley, of this place. From one of his children, was descended, Sir William de Ingilby, Knight and Baronet, so created, May 17, 1642. The present Sir William is the sixth Baronet, and was High Sheriff of the county in 1820; and who has been very recently authorised by his Majesty, to use the name and arms of Amcotts, in addition to those of Ingilby. His father, the late Sir John, having married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Wharton Amcotts, Bart. --Hist. Knaresborough. --Pennant.

The gardens, which are extensive, and ornamented with greenhouses and hothouses, excelled by none in the north of England, are, by the liberality of the present Baronet, open for the public, inspection every Friday.
[Description(s) edited from various 19th century sources by Colin Hinson © 2013]