OSMOTHERLEY, a parish in the wapentake of ALLERTONSHIRE, North riding of the county of YORK, comprising the townships of Ellerbeck, West Harsley, Osmotherley, and Thimbleby, and containing 1087 inhabitants, of which number, 755 are in the township of Osmotherley, 7 miles (E.N.E.) from North Allertou. The livingjs a discharged vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Court of the Bishop of Durham for Al- Icrton and Allertonshire, rated in the king's books at £8. 10., endowed with £600 royal bounty, and £1000 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Durham. The church is dedicated to St. Peter. Here are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics. There are extensive quarries of freestone in the parish, and mills for spinning small cordage. Two small endowments were bequeathed by the Rev. Mr. Nicholson, in 1757, and by Daniel Tyerman, in 17S6, for teaching poor children. A Carthusian priory was founded here, about 1306, by Thomas, Duke of Surrey, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was valued at £ 323. At West Harley are the remains of a castle, the tower of which having been much damaged by;a thunder-storm, was, a few years since, taken down.