COVERHAM, a parish in the western division of
the wapentake of HANG, North riding of the county of
YORK, if mile (S. W. by W.) from Middleham, comprising
the townships of Agelthorpe, Caldbridge, Carlton,
Carlton-Highdale, Melmerby, and West Scrafton, and
containing 1170 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual
curacy, in the archdeaconry of Richmond, and diocese
of Chester, endowed with £800 private b'enefaction,
£400 royal bounty, and £1200 parliamentary grant,
and in the patronage of the Rev. S. Hardcastle. The
church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The river
Cover runs near this village, over which there is a
bridge of one arch, and near it are the remains of a
priory of White canons, founded in the thirteenth century,
at Swainby, in the parish of Pickhall, and removed
hither soon afterwards: its revenue, in the 26th
of Henry VIII., was valued at £207. 14. 8. A school,
in which between twenty and thirty children are educated,
is endowed with a bequest of a messuage and
lands by John Constantino, in 1724, producing £23 per
annum.