Easby is a hamlet and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Richmondshire {{Infobox settlement , name = Richmondshire District , type = District , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_blank_emblem= Richmondshire arms.png , blank_emblem_type = Coat ...

district of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It is situated near

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

on the banks of the

River Swale The River Swale in Yorkshire, England, is a major tributary of the River Ure, which becomes the River Ouse, that empties into the North Sea via the Humber Estuary. The river gives its name to Swaledale, the valley through which it flows. ...

, approximately north west from the county town of

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increa ...

. The population taken by ONS was less than 100. Population information is included in the parish of Hudswell.

History

The hamlet is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 as '' Asebi'', whose lands belonged to

Count Alan of Brittany Alan Rufus, alternatively Alanus Rufus (Latin), Alan ar Rouz ( Breton), Alain le Roux ( French) or Alan the Red (c. 1040 – 1093), 1st Lord of Richmond, was a Breton nobleman, kinsman and companion of William the Conqueror (Duke William II o ...

. He had granted the lordship of the manor to ''Thor'' at the time of the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

, but it had passed to ''Enisant Mussard'', Constable of

Richmond Castle Richmond Castle in Richmond, North Yorkshire, England, stands in a commanding position above the River Swale, close to the centre of the town of Richmond. It was originally called Riche Mount, 'the strong hill'. The castle was constructed by Ala ...

, by 1086. There were seven households and five ploughlands at a taxable value of six geld units. The manor passed from Enisant to Roald de Richmond and then to descent of the lords of Constable Burton. The lands were held as demesne lordships by the Marmion and Fitz Hugh families into the 12th century, but eventually they were granted to the nearby Abbey who held them until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The Crown then granted the manor in 1537 to John, Lord Scrope of Bolton.

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

granted the manor to Edmund Boughtell upon his accession to the Crown, but this was reverted in 1557 to Ralph Gower. By 1579 though the manor was back in the possession of the Scrope family. It remained with them until sold to Bartholomew Burton in 1726 who also sold it onto the Rev William Smith of Melsonby who built Easby Hall. His heirs sold it to Robert Knowsley in 1786 who quickly sold it to Cuthbert Johnson. It eventually came into the possession of the Jaques family by 1816. The etymology of the name is derived from an

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

personal name, ''Esi'' and the suffix ''-by'' to mean ''Esi's farm''.

Geography and governance

The hamlet is a collection of dispersed dwellings on the banks of the

approximately south east of Richmond south of the B6271 road. The hamlet lies within the Richmond (Yorks) UK Parliament constituency. It also lies within the Catterick Bridge electoral division of the North Yorkshire County Council and the Brompton-on-Swale and Scorton ward of Richmondshire District Council.

Demography

The 2001 UK Census includes the parish of Easby into the larger area of Brompton-on-Swale. The 2011 Census showed the population as 197 for the Parish alone.

Religion

The Church of St Agatha was built at the beginning of the 12th century and underwent restoration work in 1869. Like the Abbey ruins and the gatehouse, it is also a Grade I listed building.

Notable buildings

Easby Abbey Easby Abbey, or the Abbey of St Agatha, is a ruined Premonstratensian abbey on the eastern bank of the River Swale on the outskirts of Richmond in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. The site is privately owned but maintained b ...

, which is in ruins, was one of many dissolved by Henry VIII as part of the

reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. The important Anglo-Saxon stone

Easby Cross The Easby Cross is an Anglo-Saxon sandstone standing cross from 800–820, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It originally came from Easby near Richmond in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, where a plaster replica i ...

of 800-820 is currently in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, but the church, from whose walls three of the four fragments were recovered in 1931, displays a plaster cast. The ruins are a Grade I listed building as is the Abbey Gatehouse.

Notable residents

*Rev William Smith (1653-1735), antiquarian and master of the jewel house in the reign of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

, was born in the hamlet. He was a graduate of University College, Oxford.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire