Explanatory Preface.

In presenting a new edition (1822) of this Work to the Public, in consequence
of additional matter, it becomes necessary for the Editor to give some
introductory explanation of the present plan, and of the abbreviations made use
of in the work, and of the additional information to be expected by the reader.

   The whole of the work has been re-written and carefully examined, and the
greatest part of the County visited by the editor. -After the names of the
places, are the following abbreviations, viz.:- ham. for hamlet, s.h for single
house, f.h. for farm house, scatt. hs. for scattered houses, p.h. for public
house, cotts. for cottages, pointing out at once what the place is; and the
"the seat" &c. follows, it implies only a single house.  Wherever a Gentleman's
Seat is adjoining to, or within a town or village, it is given after the
wapentake; all places not having any of the above abbreviations following, are
to be considered as towns or villages. -Some few places are denominated
townships or parishes, as Abbotside, High and Low, and Ellerburn, there being
no villages of the names, but only certain districts so called.

   In giving the township, in which each hamlet or single house, &c. is situated
it may be proper to observe that they are given according as they pay Poor's
Rates, with some few exceptions. - This part which may be considered the most
valuable, as additional matter, and what has never been attempted before, will
be found of the greatest utility in all public offices.

  In the next part we have to notice the abbreviations, &c. respecting the value
of the church livings, which are as follow, viz.:- the value in the King's books
is marked "+" when discharged from the payment of first fruits; -p.r. is for
parliamentary return; - the marks before the values returned to parliament, will
be seen in the note below. -All livings, except such as are stated to the
contrary, are within the diocese of York. - The Patrons of the livings have been
corrected by a correspondence with the resident clergy.  The value in the King's
books, whether Rectories or Vicarages, &c. is taken from Bacon's Thesaurus; but
wherever a difference was found in the return made to parliament, by the
incumbent of that time, the latter  has been taken, conceiving such return most
likely to be correct at the present time.

   With respect to the authorities for historical and biographical notices,
introduced by way of relieving the work from the dull, dry, tedium of detail, we
have nothing to add, having made a point of giving the authorities at the end of
each article, not solely for showing the source of information, but, that the
reader, who might want a more enlarged account, may know where to refer to
without much consultation, - such authorities only, as may be relied on, have
invariably been selected with some trifling exceptions.

  The informations relative to public hospitals, &c. without authorities, have
been furnished us by residents, comparing the same with the returns of such
institutions made to parliament, in 1786.

   Certain liberties, for the sake of abbreviations, having been omitted in the
text of this work, which appeared in the last edition; it becomes necessary to
inform the reader, that such liberties omitted, are Langbarugh, Pickering-Lythe,
Whitby-Strand, and Allertonshire which are co-extensive with their respective
wapentakes.  The liberty of Richmondshire extends over the five wapentakes of
Hang-East and West, Gilling-East and West and Hallikeld, except where St Peter,
or any other similar liberty interferes, which is invariably noted.

    The Ainsty, which was, in the last Edition, separated from the three Ridings
is in this, embodied with the West-Riding, having the word "Ainsty" inserted
after the name of each place, thereby rendering the references less.

   Having briefly explained the several abbreviations, &c. in the work, it now
only remains for the Editor to return his most grateful thanks to the resident
Clergy of the County, and other Gentlymen, for their communications, and to the
Chief Constables and other public Officers, by whose assistance and information,
this work has been rendered much more correct than it otherwise would have been.
The voluntary contributions to this laborious work being few, the Editor cannot
so far suffer himself to be guilty of ingratitude, as to pass them by
un-noticed; therefore to the author of a letter, signed "Clericus," from the
East Riding, and to another, signed "An Antiquary" from Brampton, his best
thanks are due, not alone for the matter, but also for the manner in which each
was conveyed.  And, to the very Rev. the Dean of Ripon he has to express his
obligations, for the use of several papers belonging to this archdeaconry; as
well as for his readiness, at all time, in furnishing him with information,
which might in the least tend to improve or render the work correct.

  He now consigns the Book to its fate, assuring the reader that neither time
nor expense has been spared, in rendering the work as accurate as the nature of
the subject will admit of.

                RIPON, NOV. 1, 1822

         ----------------------------------

  This "*" before the value, denotes that the statement is taken from the
account of the names of the livings not exceeding the value of 150L per annum,
certified to the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, by the Archbishops and
bishops, and ordered to be printed by the House of Lords, 7th June, 1810.

   This "!" before the value, denotes that the living has increased in value
since the year 1810, which appears in comparison of the value returned in 1810
to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, with that returned by the Bishops in
1815, to the Privy Council.

  This "+" before the value, denotes that the living has decreased in value
since 1810, although it has received augmentation since that time.  The
authority for this is the same as in the preceeding case.  (I know the sign
should have been a "-", but its too late now -CH.)
            --------------------------------

Notes written 13.6.1995:

  In the actual book, values (with only 3 exceptions) are given thus:

       136l. 13s. 4d.  where the small "l" is in italics.

  As the small "l" following the pounds value is easily mistaken for a figure
one "1", all these characters have been converted to an upper case "L" to
avoid confusion, thus the above value will be shown as:

       136L. 13s. 4d.

 My reason for not using a pound sign "œ" is that the character is not
universally displayed as such, in particular in HTML documents.

For those who were not around at the time (i.e. pre 1971)

     One pound = 20 shillings (s)
     One shilling = 12 pence  (d)
   hence  240 pence     = 1 pound.      (L)

   also  One Guinea     = 21 shillings (still used for bying race horses!)

Note also that fractional values in the book are given in quarters and halves,
e.g. 1 over 4, 1 over 2, and 3 over 4 but to make things easier for me, these
are converted into 0.5, 0.25, & 0.75 in both currency values and mileage values.

                    Colin Hinson.