Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, England. Further historical information.

BOLTON ABBEY

BOLTON ABBEY, in the parish of Skipton, east-division and liberty of Staincliffe; (a seat of the Duke of Devonshire), 5¾ miles NE. of Skipton, 10 from Keighley, 11½ from Pateley Bridge, 12 from Otley, 16 from Harrogate. Pop. 127. The Church is a perpetual curacy, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Cuthbert, in the deanry of Craven, value, p.r. *£46. 1s. 11d. Patron, the Duke of Devonshire.

This priory was founded in the year 1120, for Canons regular, of the order of St. Austin, by William Meschines, and Cecilia de Romelle, his wife, Baroness of Skipton, and sister to the noble youth who lost his life in crossing a place called "The Strid", about a mile from hence, which is the cleft of a rock, in the bed of a river; and through which the river, in summer time, entirely passes, Strid, so called from a feat often exercised by persons of more agility than prudence, who stride from brink to brink, regardless of the destruction which waits a faultering step. It was in stepping over this gulph, leading a greyhound, the animal not making its effort in the passage, at the same time with its master, checked the footstep of the unhappy youth, and precipitated him into the torrent. Bolton Hall was formerly a picture of this young gentleman, with the greyhound standing near him. This Priory was dissolved the 11th of June, 1540; and in 1543, was granted to Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumberland; in which family it remained, till 1635; when Elizabeth, the daughter and sole heiress of Henry, the last Earl of Cumberland, marrying Richard, the first Earl of Burlington, carried the demesnes into that family; whose daughter, Charlotte, sole heiress, married in 1748, the Duke of Devonshire.

Here is a Free School founded about 1698, or 1700, by the Hon. Robert Boyle, who endowed the same with an annual rent charge of £20. Besides this there are some rents, which in the whole, amount to £99. 7s. 6d. The School is for Latin and Greek; and for the poor people, English, writing, and arithmetic, on paying one shilling per quarter.