KIRK-LEATHAM, a parish in the eastern division
of the liberty of LANGBAURGH, North riding of
the county of YORK, comprising the townships of Kirk-
Leatham and Wilton, and containing 1091 inhabitants,
of which number, 686 are in the township of Kirk-
Leatham, 4 miles (N. N. W.) from Guilsborough. The
living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Cleveland, and diocese of York, rated in the king's
books at £13. 6. 8., endowed with £200 royal bounty,
and £ 1200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of
Henry Vansittart, Esq. The church is dedicated to St.
Cuthbert. A free grammar school was founded by means
of a bequest of £5000 from Sir W. Turner, lord mayor
of London in 1669, and erected, in 1709, by his nephew,
Cholmeley Turner, Esq.; the income is about £350 per
annum, of which a master receives a stipend of £ 100,
and an usher one of £ 50 per annum, but for a very
considerable length of time no scholars have been admitted,
the building being occupied in separate tenements,
rent-free, by poor families. Sir W. Turner likewise
erected and endowed a splendid hospital, for the
maintenance of forty poor people, viz., ten-men and ten
women, and an equal number of boys and girls. John
Turner, Esq., Serjeant at law, bequeathed a sum of money
for clothing each child on leaving the institution, which
is under the sole direction of Henry Vansittart, Esq., in
right of his wife; there are a chaplain, a master and a
mistress, a surgeon, and a nurse, who have handsome
salaries, and apartments in the hospital, the annual income
of which is about £1600. An elegant chapel
adorns the centre of the building, the roof being supported
by four light Ionic pillars; and from the centre
is suspended a chandelier of burnished gold;> over the
altar is one of the finest paintings on glass in the
world, representing the offerings of the Magi. A commodious
library is furnished with valuable works, and
in a handsome case is a likeness of Sir W. Turner in
wax, with the wig and band he used to wear: he was
buried in the chancel of the church among the poor
of the hospital, and a monument has been erected to
his memory at Lazenby in this parish. A chapel in
honour of the Virgin Mary, with a chantry or hospital,
was founded, in the reign of Edward I., by John de
Lythegraynes, and Alice his wife, for a master and six
chaplains; the revenue, at the dissolution, was valued
at £9. 6. 8.