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

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

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

The place: SNAITH.     Church dedication: ST. MARY.     Church type: Peculiar. Perpetual and unaugmented Curacy.

Area, 34,810 acres. Osgoldcross wapentake, L. D. -Population, 8530 *1; Church-room, 800 *2; Net value, £479.

Patron and impropriator, N. E. Yarburgh, Esq.

The Church and soke of Snaith were by Gerald Archbishop of York granted to the Abbey of Selby, but in 7th John, Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester, obtained of the King a grant in fee of the manor and soke of Snaith. It now belongs to Sir Thomas Yarburgh, who finds a Clerk to serve the Cure thereof, but who is visitable by the Archbishop, and accordingly pays. Procurations, 7s. 6d.

The Church of Snaith was valued, in Pope Nicholas's taxation, at £153. 6s. 8d. per annum.

Apud Selby in festo Ap. Petre et Paule, A.D. 1285. The Abbot and Convent decreed, in order that the Church of Snaith might be better served for the future, that there should be therein two Chaplains to minister in the said Church, by whom the poor should be more fully visited, and at due hours ecclesiastical rites conferred upon the parishioners.

In Snaith was a cell of the Abbey of Selby.

4 Kal. September, A.D. 1304. Whereas a controversy between the Abbot of Selby and Nicholas Frambaud, Rector of the Church of Athelingflete, arose in the King's Court touching certain tithes of Whitgift and Reedness, then the same was determined after this manner, viz.: by decree of Thomas Corbridge, Archbishop of York, that this Church of Snaith, being appropriated to the Abbey of Selby, should have parochial rights in the manors and towns of Ouseflete, Whitgift, Redness, Swineflete, and Esketofts.

14th May, A.D. 1340, William Archbishop of York, by sentence, pronounced that the Abbot and Convent of Selby might, at their will and pleasure, place and remove two of their monks in the Church of Snaith, to be continually resident, and by a secular priest, by them to be substituted and displaced as aforesaid, to hear the confessions of the parishioners, and to administer baptism to children, and so perpetually to serve without any ordination of a Vicar.

8th October, A.D. 1393, 15th Ric. II., the Duke of Lancaster having claimed that this Church was within the liberties of the Duchy, the Abbot and Convent, in chapter assembled, granted to the parishioners for ever, that this Church of Snaith do keep and preserve their ancient custom of the soke, with a salvo jure to the Abbot and his successors.

14th March, A.D. 1409, the Chancellor of the Archbishop of York made a decree defining the jurisdiction of the Abbot and Convent in Snaith, Selby, Fryston, Hilton, Hamilton, Thorpe, Brayton, and Acaster. The decree is very special and curious. -Vide Torre's MS., page 1,382.

Two Chantries are named in the Valor Ecc.

In the Parliamentary Survey, vol. xviii. page 363, it is stated : " Hensall, Heck, Balne, and half of Whitley. A Church to be erected at the west end of Heck, and these towns to be made a parish."

Inclosure Acts were passed 25th Geo. II. and 12th Geo. III. (Pollington) ; 13th Geo. III. c. 85 (for inclosing and draining Gowdale); 13th Geo. III. (Snaith); 13th Geo. III. (Cowick); 58th Geo. (Hensall) ; and 1st and 2nd Geo. IV.

Robert Ballard left 15s. per annum to the minister.

The glebe house is fit for residence.

The Register Books commence in 1568. Charities. - Snaith Free Grammar School, founded by Nicholas Waller, gent., by deed of settlement in 1741.

Endowment : £30 per annum, charged upon lands belonging to Mr. Nicholas Yarburgh. The schoolmaster is appointed by Mr. Yarburgh. No free instruction, except the rudiments of Latin, but the terms are very moderate.

Hospital, founded by said Nicholas Waller, for six aged widowers, who have £20 per annum divided amongst them, and also 18s. for coals. The charity is not in practice confined to widowers, but given to persons having large families.

Holling's and Stadlock's Charities. Rent of 23a. of land, two-thirds to the poor of Cowick, and one-third to the poor of Snaith.

Robert Balland's charity, by will, 1st May 1693. Rent-charge of 16s. to the poor of Cowick, 15s. to the minister, and £4. 12s. to the poor of Snaith.

Poor's Land. Rent of three roods.

John Lord Downe's charity. Rentcharge of £1. 13s. 4d. at Christmas to the poor.

Dorothy Williams's charity. Interest of £200 consols, at the time of the Report standing in the name of the Rev. Edward Bracken as surviving trustee, to be laid out in the purchase of bread or corn for the poor at Christmas. The Commissioners, however, reported that the dividends were laid out in coals.

Johnson's charity. Rent of seven acres of land, purchased with £60 left by Mr. Johnson, late servant to Lord Downe, to be laid out in bread, two-thirds to Cowick, and one-third to Snaith.

Martin Headley's charity. £1 per annum to the poor, given in money.

Yarburgh's gift. Interest of £25. This is now lost, in consequence of the insolvency of the person in whose hands the principal was placed.

Lord Downe's Cowick charity. £2. 10s. per annum.

Gowdale Poor's Land. Rents of nine acres of land, and also two cottages and one rood of land.

Lost Charities. -Ellis's gift. £20 given in 1674 by the heirs of Thomas Ellis. This, in 1786, was in the hands of a Mr. Fisher.

Sotheron's gift (no date). £1 per annum, mentioned in the return made in 1786.

Hook Charities, vide Goole. -Vide 12th Report, page 658.

A post town.

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References:
Nonae Roll, page 226. Torre's MS. (Peculiars), page 1,382. Abp. Sharp's MS., vol. i. page 153. Mon. Ang., vol. iii. page 493.

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Notes:
*1 Viz. Armin, 567; Balne, 343; Carlton, 808; Cowick, 928; Goole, 1,671 ; Gowdale, 260; Henshall, 250; Heck, 236; Hooke, 650; Pollington, 482; Rawcliffe, 1,450; and Snaith, 885. In 1834, the Population was returned at 3,000, which probably excludes the Chapelries.

*2 In 1818, returned at 1,600.