Place:Kepwick, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia Kepwick (#19 on map) is now a civil parish and a village in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England, on the North York Moors and near the A19 road. The population according to the 2011 UK census was fewer than 100 and, whilst the details are included in the neighbouring civil parish of Nether Silton (not on map); North Yorkshire County Council estimated the population to be about 90 in 2015. The village is mentioned twice in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it was located in the Allerton Hundred. At the time of the Norman invasion [1066] the manor was split among Orm, son of Gamil, Arnketil and Gillemicel. Afterwards some of the land remained with the Crown but some was granted to Hugh, son of Baldric as the main tenant. Until the 13th century the lands were granted to the Mowbray family, who installed mesne lordships to the Nevill and Malbiche families. The manor then passed to Nicholas de Punchardon, who in turn sold to Ingram Knout around 1316. After the Knout family ran into financial trouble, Margaret Knout married into the Lepton family to retain some of the land, with other parts being owned by the Bransby family at the start of the 15th century. When the Lepton family also ran into financial problems, they sold their land to Thomas, Lord Fauconberg of Newburgh in 1640 and his family retained this land until 1808. Remnants of the quarrying of limestone, sandstone and ironstone can be seen on the hills to the east of the village as well as the line of the tramway that connected them to the lime kilns. The tramway was not used after 1890. The remains of those Lime Kilns to the west of the village are designated a scheduled ancient monument. There a chapel dedicated to St Margaret was built around 1300 but it disappeared at the time of the reformation [around 1540]. A private chapel was built in 1894 by the local landowner where Wesleyans held services. This has since passed into private hands. Prior to the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974, Kepwick was part of Thirsk Rural District in North Riding of Yorkshire, England. Historically, it was a township in the ancient and ecclesiastical parish of Leake (not on map) in the Allerton Wapentake.

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to the North Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire are held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office, Malpas Road, Northallerton, North Yorkshire DL7 8TB
• Family history societies covering the area include the Ryedale Family History Group, the Family History Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society (based in the City of York), and the Cleveland, North Yorkshire & South Durham Family History Society (for the Cleveland and Teesside area and the western part of North Yorkshire, commonly known as the "Yorkshire Downs"). A more complete list may be found under the Federation of Family History Societies.
• A History of the County of Yorkshire from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914 and 1923 (Volume 1: the western part of the North Riding including Richmond and Volume 2: the eastern part of the North Riding including Scarborough and Whitby). A History of the County of York: the City of York is also helpful for the many North Riding parishes that were absorbed into the city during the 19th and 20th centuries.

This is by far the most complete history of the parishes of the North Riding to be found online. The volumes are divided into sections by wapentake (early divisions of the county) and the parishes within each wapentake follow in alphabetical order. The links above open to the indexes covering all the wapentakes in the volume.

• GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ancient or ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each ancient parish there is a list of the settlements (townships and chapelries) within it and brief description of each. Many of these secondary settlements became civil parishes during the latter half of the 19th century.

These notes are based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration era. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and the submitter is very firm about his copyright, but this should not stop anyone from reading the material.

• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Yorkshire North Riding, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions which also include historical population and area statistics. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.
• Map of the North Riding divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of North Riding divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Another provider of maps is the National Library of Scotland. In this index the Scottish provision precedes the English one, but the choice of maps for England is still quite vast.
• Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.
• In March 2018 Ancestry announced that its file entitled "Yorkshire, England: Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1873" has been expanded to include another 94 parishes (across the three ridings) and expected it to be expanded further during the year. The entries are taken from previously printed parish registers.