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

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

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

The place: WOMERSLEY.     Church dedication: ST. MARTIN.     Church type: Discharged Vicarage.

Area, 7,780 acres. Osgoldcross wapentake, L. D. -Population, 843 *1; Church-room, 350 *2; Net value, £258.

Patron and impropriator, Lord Hawke.

This Church anciently belonged to the Barons Newmarsh ; afterwards it came to John Lord Dacre, who gave it to the Nuns of Heveninges, in the diocese of Lincoln, and it was appropriated to that house, and a Vicarage ordained therein 3rd June, A.D. 1348.

After the Dissolution, the Crown granted the Advowson to Sir John Jackson.

The Church is valued, in Pope Nicholas's taxation, at £40, and the Vicarage, in the King's books, is valued at £6. 11s. 2d., after deducting for Synodals 5s., and Procurations 7s. 6d.; and in the Parliamentary Survey, vol. xviii. page 378, it is stated: " Vicarage, £15. Newsome Grange to be annexed to Burghwallis."

A Chantry is mentioned in the Valor Ecc.

" The Vicarage is endowed with all small tithes. Some books were given for the use of the Vicar, by Samuel Mellish, Esq., of Doncaster. Annual value above £25 per annum, except when rape or line are sown." Signed, " Thos. Tennant, Vicar." -Notitia Parochialis, No. 574.

Augmented, in 1721, with £200, to meet a benefaction of lands worth £200 from Mr. W. Barraclough, sen., and others.

Torre gives a list of the Vicars.

Inclosure Acts were passed 26th Geo. III. and 37th Geo. III. (Cridling Stubbs), 39th and 40th Geo. III., and 1st and 2nd Geo. IV.

There is a mortgage under Gilbert's Act of £539. 7s. 6d., which will cease in 1841.

22nd July 1796, faculty to new pew the Church.

12th November 1805, confirmation of allotments of pews.

The glebe house was returned in 1834 as unfit for residence.

The Register Books commence in 1564. Some of the early entries are defective.

Charities:
Middleton's gift. Rentcharge of 10s. per annum out of land in Holmfirth Field, in the parish of Ackworth, belonging, at the time of the Report, to Mr. John Barff, of Wakefield, for the benefit of poor widows. The origin of the charity is not known.

Elizabeth Copley's gift, by will, dated 12th April 1691. Interest of £10, to be paid amongst six poor men and women of Little Smeaton. The interest is paid by Lord Hawke.

Ann Jackson's gift, in 1675. Interest of £24 for teaching three of the poorest children of Little Smeaton to read well, and to have a Bible away with them on their departure from school, and which interest was converted in 1691, by the will of the Rev. Edmund Hough, into a rent-charge of 30s. per annum (now paid by Lord Hawke). An additional child to be taught as above. -Vide 18th Report, page 599.

Post town: Ferrybridge.

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References:
Nonae Roll, page 225. Torre's MS., page 647. Abp. Sharp's MS., vol. i. page 154. Bodleian MS., No. 5,101.

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Notes:
*1 Viz. Cridling Stubbs, 118 ; Little Smeaton, 2p; Walden Stubbs, 139; and Womersley, 364.

*2 In 1818, the return was 700.

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Other information:
COBBETOFT. -ST. NICHOLAS. -This Chapel, which anciently stood in the parish of Womersley, was founded by the charter of Adam de Novo Mer-cuto, patron thereof, which, on 5th Id. November, A.D. 1230, Walter, Archbishop of York took into his protection, and collated thereto Fr. Stephen, saving in all things the dignity of the Church of York, his pontifical rights, and right in the parish Church of Womersley. The Chapel is demolished.

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References:
Torre's MS., page 852.