POCKLINGTON, a parish in the Wilton-Beacon division of the wapentake of HARTHILL, East riding of the county of YORK, comprising the market-town of Pocklington, the chapelry of Yapham, and the townships of Meltonby and Owsthorpe, and containing 2163 inhabitants, of which number, 1962 are in the town of Pocklington, 13 miles (E. by S.) from York, and 195 (N. by W.) from London. This town is small, and pleasantly situated in a level country, about two miles from the western edge of the Wolds, on a small stream which fallsinto the river Derwent: it consists principally of two streets. Races are held annually on the 2nd of May. About a mile distant is a navigable canal, recently completed, which communicates with the river, and furnishes the means of supplying the town and neighbourhood with coal, lime, manure, and'merchandise, and of conveying to different places corn, flour, timber, and other articles. The market is on Saturday; and fairs'are held March 7th, May 6th, August 5th, and November 8th: on the 9th of November is a statute fair for hiring servants. Petty sessions for the Wilton-Beacon division are held here. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Dean of York, rated in the king's books at £10. 1. 10., endowed with £1400 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £300 parliamentary grant. The church is dedicated to All Saints. There are places of worship for Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics. The free grammar .school was founded. in the 6th of Henry VIII., by John Dowman, L.L.D* under writ of the privy seal, for the instruction in classical literature of all children resorting to this town, the government being vested in an ancient guild, established by the founder, in the parochial church here. In the 5th of Edward VI., the appointment of the master was vested in the Master and Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge, and that of the usher, in the churchwardens of Pocklington; and the master and usher were incorporated, and authorised to receive all endowments of the said school, and also, with the vicar, curate, or churchwardens, to nominate to the vacancies in any of the five exhibitions established and endowed in St. John's College, Cambridge, .by the founder, for scholars from this school: .the endowments were augmented, in the 5th of Mary, by the conveyance of messuages, lands, and hereditaments from Thomas Dowman, the founder's nephew, and still further by a similar grant from the Rev. Thomas Mountfrith: the annual income is £ 1020. 9. 8., which sum the master retains for his own use, after deducting £200 for the salary of the usher; about seventeen b&ys are instructed on the foundation. The old school apartments and master's house were taken ,down in 1819, and new premises erected on the site by the master.. A National school, in which about seventy-five toys and sixty girls are educated, was erected, ait the sole expense of Robert Dennison, Esq., and is supported by voluntary contributions. In 1763, four human skeletons,, one of which was enclosed in a coffin, with an urn at the head, were dug up in Bafnsley field, near this town; several ancient characters were inscribed on the urn.