KIRKBY-RAVENSWORTH, a parish in the western division of the wapentake of GILLING, North riding of the county of YORK, 4 miles (N. N. W.) from Richmond, comprising the townships of Gayles, Kirkby on the Hill, New Forest, Newsham, Ravensworth, Whashton, and a portion of Dalton, and containing 1685 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, endowed with £400 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Chester, as impropriator of the rectory, which is rated in the king's books at £25. 5. 2. The church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Felix, is a handsome edifice, built, in 1397, on the supposed site of a more ancient one erected by the Saxons. Near it are the grammar school, and hospital of St. John the Baptist, founded, in 1556, by Dr. Dakyn, then rector, who endowed them with lands, &c., at East Coulton, now producing about £1300 per annum. The school is free for all who apply for instruction in the classics; the master receives a salary of £200, and the usher about £70 per annum. The hospital is for the reception and maintenance of twenty-four aged persons of both sexes, who must either be natives of the parish, or resident for ten years within it. The government of the whole is vested in two wardens, elected biennially by ballot, who, with the master of the school, and the inmates of the hospital, form a body corporate, and have a common seal. Here are extensive remains of a castle built by Bodin, ancestor of the Fitz-Hughs.