ORTON, a parish in the ward and county of CUMBERLAND, comprising the townships of Baldwin- Holme and Orton, and containing 442 inhabitants, of which number, 208 are in the township of Orton, 5 miles (W. by S.) from Carlisle. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle, rated in the king's books at £9, and in the patronage of Sir Wastell Brisco, Bart. Near the church is the schoolhouse, endowed, in 1785, by Thomas Pattinson, with the interest of £100, for teaching ten children. A market, once held here, has been long disused. Orton was anciently of greater importance than it is now, many Roman remains having been discovered in the neighbourhood. The whole parish was formerly encompassed by a rampart and ditch, and at each extremity of two lanes, running northward and eastward from the village, is an intrenchment for the defence of the road, across which an iron chain was fixed, to guard against sudden attacks from the moss-troopers during the border warfare. A remarkably neat sandal was found some years since in digging peat. Coal is found in the parish. William Nicholson, a learned divine and antiquary, was born here in 1655; he died in 1727.