BOLTON-ABBEY, a chapelry in that part of the
parish of SKIPTON which is in the eastern division
of the wapentake of STAINCLIFFE-and-EWCROSS, West
riding of the county of YORK, 6 miles (E. N.E.) from
Skipton, containing 127 inhabitants. The living is a
perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of the East riding,
and diocese of York, endowed with £400 private benefaction,
and £1800 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of the Vicar of Pocklington. The chapel,
dedicated to St. Mary and St. Cuthbert, was formed out
of the nave of the conventual church belonging to a
priory originally founded at Embsay, by William de
Meschines, and his wife Cecilia, in 1121, for canons
Regular of the order of St. Augustine, and removed
hither, thirty-three years afterwards, by their daughter
Adeliza, who was married to William Fitz-Duncan. In
the 26th of Henry VIII., the revenue was valued at
£302. 9. 3., and the society was dissolved in 1540. The
ruins, which are extensive, are surrounded by scenery
celebrated for its surpassing beauty, being composed of
a variety of picturesque objects, so arranged as to constitute
an almost perfect landscape. Here was also an
establishment of Carmelite friars, founded by the Earl
of Albemarle, or, according to some, by Lord Gray of
Codnor. The Hon. Robert Boyle, in 1697, established
a free grammar school, and endowed it with certain
houses, lands, and a rent-charge of £ 20: the annual
income, amounting to about £100, is, by consent of
the master (the perpetual curate), paid to an usher for
teaching the scholars: the premises comprise a house
and garden in the occupation of the master, and a
detached school-room, which is open to all children
of the chapelry; the present number, about twenty,
receive only an English education, though the school is
free for instruction in the classics.