TOPCLIFFE, a parish, in the North riding of the
county of YORK, comprising the townships
of Catton, Dalton, Elmer with Crakehall, Skipton, and
Topcliffe, in the wapentake of BIRDFORTH, and the
chapelry of Dishforth, and the townships of Asenby,
Baldersby, Marton le Moor, and Rainton with Newby,
in the wapentake of HALLIKELD, North riding of the
county of YORK, and containing 2540 inhabitants, of
which number, 659 are in the township of Topcliffe,
which extends within the liberty of St. Peter of York,
East riding, 5 miles (S.S.W.) from Thirsk. The living
is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Cleveland, and diocese
of York, rated in the king's books at £19. 19. 2.,
and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of York.
The church, dedicated to St. Columb, is of high antiquity.
There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists,
John Hartforth, in 1588, gave land and money
in support of a free grammar school, which, with the
subsequent smaller bequests of William Robinson an'd
Henry Roper, produce £70 a year, for the instruction
of thirty boys. Here are slight vestiges of the ancient
baronial mansion of the Percy family, called Maiden
Bower, in which Henry, the fourth Earl of Northumberland,
was murdered by the populace, in 1520, for
enforcing a tax imposed in the reign of Henry VII.;
and in which Thomas, the fifth earl, who was beheaded
at York, in 1572, had previously formed a conspiracy
against .Queen Elizabeth- Charles I. was confined in
it, and the sum of £200,000, for giving him up to
the parliament, was here paid to the Scottish commissioners.