Ripon, North Yorkshire: History in Old Images

Historic Book

Extracts from “The Tourist’s Guide; Being a Concise History and Description of Ripon, Studley Royal, Fountains Abbey, Markenfield, Brimham Rocks, Hackfall and Newby Hall, Etc” Printed and Sold by John Lewis Linney

Published 1837

Page 14-15

Gent says , in 1547 there was a great plague at Ripon , and in 1589 , there died in Stammergate of a strange ague 59 persons .

In 1604 , the plague raging at York, the Lord President’s court was adjourned to Ripon . In this year also the civil constitution of the town was changed ; James the first , by his charter dated June 24th , incorporated it under the government of a Mayor and twelve Aldermen , assisted by twenty – four common Councillors .

In 1617 , on the 16th of August , the king being on his journey to Scotland , stayed all night at Ripon , and lodged at the house of Mr. George Dawson in Low Skellgate , where , after being addressed by Thomas Procter , Esq . , the recorder , in a speech adapted to the occasion , he was presented by the Mayor in the name of the corporation with a gilt bowl and a pair of Ripon spurs of the value of five pounds , “which gave such contentment to his Majesty , that his highness did wear the same at his departure from the said town , the day following . “

The plague again visited Ripon in 1625 , when so much did the country people dread approaching the town , that their children were baptized on the common pasture . From its commencement on the 2nd of June , 1625 , to the 4th of May , 1626 , when it ceased , there died in all 96 persons , whose names and places of abode are entered separately in the parish register .

In the spring of the year 1633 , King Charles the first passed through Ripon on his way to Edinburgh, where he was crowned on the 18th of July following .

Three or four years after this , we find that an information was exhibited in the Star Chamber against John Bramhall , ( who had been Sub – Dean of Ripon , and was afterwards Archbishop of Armagh , ) for being present at Ripon when one Mr. Palmes had made some reflecting discourse upon his Majesty , and neither reproving nor informing against him , the words appear to have been that ” he feared a Scotch mist was come over their town , ” because the king had altered his lodgings from Ripon , where he first intended them , to Sir Richard Graham’s of Norton Conyers , about four miles from the town .

Pages 17-18

In March , 1643 , Sir Thomas Mauleverer with a detachment of the Parliamentary army , took possession of and garrisoned the town of Ripon . Not satisfied with exercising many cruelties towards the inhabitants , they entered the Minster , broke its painted windows , and defaced several of the monuments .

” But ” says Gent , writing ninety years afterwards, in his usual quaint style, ” they were soon attacked by a detachment of Royalists from Skipton Castle , then governed by that glorious sufferer for Royalty , Sir John Mallory of Studley Royal , assisted by several Rippon Champions , whose duty and allegiance were unalterable , who coming upon the rebels by surprise in the Market Place , where they had kept their main guard , made them feel the sharpness of their swords by a better fate than they deserved.”

In February 1647 , Charles the first with his guards passed through Ripon , on his way from the Scottish army to Holmby House in Northamptonshire .

 In 1657 , the protector Cromwell by his letters patent , granted to the town of Ripon the privilege of holding a fair every alternate week , in addition to those previously granted by Henry the first and Stephen , and one by King Henry the fifth.

Page 31

The glory of Wilfrid was now at its full meridian: the clergy at their decease , often bequeathed to him considerable property , and the children of the nobility were placed under his guardianship , with whom he received large donations ; by these and other means he acquired enormous wealth , which led and enabled him to aspire to , and equal the magnificence of those continental courts , which he had visited in his travels ; he was attended wherever he went by a large retinue of of servants , and sometimes architects and singers ; we are told also that he was served in golden vessels .

It is probable that the display of this pomp at his monastery at Ripon, where he entertained Egfrid and his whole court in 678, drew upon him the jealousy of the king, who in the same year, when Theodore made his visitation of Northumberland, complained that instead of edifying the people, Wilfrid brought a great scandal on religion by his pride and arrogance.

Pages 46-47

By an act of Parliament for the carrying into effect the reports of the church Commissioners , relative to the redistribution of Dioceses , Episcopal revenues , & c . , which passed the 13th of August , 1836 , Kipon was created an Episcopal See , subject to the metropolitan jurisdiction of York , to consist of that part of the county of York , now in the Diocese of Chester , the Deanery of Craven , and all such parts of the Deaneries of Ainsty and Pontefract , in the Diocese of York , as lie to the westward of the Liberty of the Ainsty and the Wapentakes of Barkstone Ash , Osgoldcross , and Staincross ; Craven was then constituted an Archdeaconry of the See of Ripon .

By this act the Collegiate Church was made a cathedral , and the town of Ripon became a City .

The Rev. Charles Thomas Longley , D. D. , headmaster of Harrow school , was appointed first Bishop of Ripon , and was consecrated at York , on the 6th of November , 1836 ; he has the patronage of the Arch deaconry , Chancellorship and Registrar .