ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME.

IT has been usual, in topographical works of this nature, to devote a few pages to the consideration of the etymology of the name of the place to be described ; and though these investigations often lead to no certain result, still I have been inclined to follow the prevailing practice, more in compliance with custom, than with the presumption that I have been able, in this particular case, to elicit any original information, or that I have established any satisfactory conclusion.

In Domesday Book this town is called Alvertune, Aluertune, and Alreton. Simeon of Durham, who flourished about the year 1100, calls it Alvertona; and Peter de Langtoft, or his translator, Alverton, which it is generally called in all other ancient records that mention it. This gave Gale reason to believe that it took its name from the great King Alfred, and was originally called Alveredtune, which was afterwards softened into Alvertun, and Allerton.*

However, as the abundance of Allertons in the county of York, beside that of which we are now treating, being at least eight, viz. :-Allerton Mauleverer, Chapel Allerton, Moor Allerton, Allerton-Bywater, Allerton Grange, Allerton Gledhow, Allerton near Bradford, and Allerton Lee, (beside Allerton, in Somerset, Notts, Salop, Stafford, and Lancashire,) renders it impossible to conceive that they were all founded and named after that monarch, it must appear much more reasonable to suppose that the name is a mere incident to the situation of each place, or owing to some other circumstance common to all.

It is probable that the particular spot or adjacent country has formerly abounded in Alders; a tree of which one species is said to affect a dry and elevated situation, and the other is a "most faithful lover of watery and boggy places; crassique paludibus alni Nas

*Gale's historical account of the borough of North Allerton, printed in Nichol's Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, No. 2, pt. 2, 1781.

cuntur. The latter sort is now called, in Yorkshire, Ellers; hence Ellerbeck, a hamlet on the Codbeck, about four miles east of North Allerton; hence also the Ellerburns, Ellerbies, Ellerkers, and Ellertons in different parts of the county. Thoresby observes, nothing being more familiar in former ages than for towns and territories to receive names from the sort of wood with which they abounded; an observation which might be supported by almost innumerable instances."

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Lambarde gives us the name in Saxon characters Ealferton, as Camden about the same time, and Skinner after him gave it Ealfertun. It is much to be regretted that neither the one nor the other of these writers have made us acquainted with his authority, which cannot be the Saxon chronicle, as the name does not occur in it.

The distinction of North, which this town obtained above five hundred years ago, is chiefly, if not wholly, owing to Allerton Mauleverer, situated about twentyfive miles south, near the London road, between Boroughbridge and Wetherby, formerly the estate of an ancient family of that name, which resided there for more than five hundred years, but became extinct upon the death of Sir Richard Mauleverer, the fifth baronet. The estate after passing from the Mauleverers to Lord Arundel, the Viscount Galway, the Duke of York, and Colonel Thomas Thornton, was purchased by Charles, Lord Stourton, in 1805.

FAMILIES NAMED AFTER THE TOWN.

RESIDENCE or birth at North Allerton, of course, gave names to families. Stephen de North Alverton, was in 1295 vicar of Marsk, near Redcar; Dr. Roger de Northalverton, in 1311 was vicar of Skipwith, in Howdenshire. (Burton's M.S.) In 1338, in the episcopacy of Bishop Bury, Talbot de Northalverton, by his deed granted to John, the son of Adam de Menevyll and Agnes his wife, and their heirs, a rent charge out

of the lands in Great Haswell, which John, the son of Henry de Kellaw, by his deed, gave to Lucie de Hessewell, and which John had of the gift of Thomas, son of Ralph Beaufour and Eupheme his wife, by fine in the court of Bishop Beaumont. This instrument shews us a race of ancient proprietors.* Among the names of the pilgrims from England to Rome in April 1507, in the records of the English college at Rome, is that of Thomas de Northalderton dioc: Eborac.

Jukel

Matthew de Allerton gave land in North Allerton to the abbey of Byland. William de Alverton gave the Austin Frier's land in this town, 14 Edw. III. In 1282 Warinus de Alverton was presented by the master and brethren of the hospital of St. James, juxta Northalverton, to the vicarage of North Ottrington. William de Allerton was the 14th abbot of Fountains. de Alverton, was amerced lxvjl. & xiijs. & iiijd. for intercommoning with the King's enemies. † Richard de Allerton was an executor to the will of Matilda, wife of John de Smeton, (proved xiij Mar. mecccii.) which contains the following legacy,-"Item lego Matilda uxori Ricardi de Allerton barker j cellam, quam dedit michi vir meus." The names of Hugo diaconus de Alvertona, Robertus de Alvertone, Johannes de Aluertone, Thomas de Aluertona, Nicholaus de Aluertona, and Rogerus de Alvertona, are recorded in the Liber Vitæ Ecclesiæ Dunelmensis §, as benefactors to the cathedral church; and John de Alverton in 1378 and 1381, as feretrar, or shrine keeper of St. Cuthbert. We also find Richard de Allerton one of the bailiffs of York temp. Edw. II.; and John Alverton temp. Edw. III. But as the name occurs

Omnibus hoc scriptum visur' vel auditur'. Talbotus de Northalverton capell's salt'm in d'no cum nup' Joh'nes fil. Henrici de Kellawe p' cartam suam dedisset Lucie de Hessewell omnes terras & tenement' in Magna Hessewell quæ idem Joh'nes h'uit de dono Thomæ fil. Radulphi Beaufour & Eufeme ux'is ejus p' finem in cur. d' ni Lodywye nup' ep'i Dun. H'end, &c. reddendo, &c. noveritis, &c. His testibus Rob'to de Lambeton, Walt'o de Lodeworth, Joh. Harpyon, Walt'o de Hawyck, Jordano de M'ley, & aliis dat. ap. Hessewell, &c.1338.-See Hutchinson.

Mag. Rot. 21. H. 2. Rot 11. a. Everwickse.
Testamenta Ebor. vol. 1. Surtees Society.

This beautiful book richly covered with gold and silver, was laid on the high altar, and contained the names of all the benefactors towards St. Cuthbert's church. The names were generally written with gold and silver ink, and it was the hope and the prayer, that the same names might at last find a place in the Book of Life,' in which those are enrolled who shall be faithful unto death.

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more frequently further south, they may have sprung

from other Allertons.

THE WATERS OF THE PARISH.

THE parish is watered by small streams which are thus described by Leland,-"There cummith a very little Bek thorough the toune of Northalverton as from east to west, and is communely caullid Sunnebek. A little by north without Alverton toun is a bridge of one arch of stone, thorough the which cummith a bygger broke than Sunnebek, and rising partely out of**** cummeth towards the west, and passith thorough the meadows bytwixt the Castelle Hilles and the Bishope's Palace, and thereabout receyvith Sunnebek into it, and within halfe a mile lower goith into Wisk." The name of this "bygger broke" is Willow-beck.

Hollinshed says the Wiske "rysyng between twoo parkes above Swanby in one place, and south-east of Mount Grace Abbey in another; and after the confluence, which is about Siddlebridge, goeth on betweene the Rughtons to Appleton, the Smetons, Byrtby, Hutton Coniers, Danby Wyc, Yafford, Warlaby, and taketh in there a ryll from Brunton; by Alluerton it proceedeth to Otterington, to Newby, Kyrby Wiske, Newsom, and Blackenbury, there meeteth with the Swale."

The different species of fish found in the Wiske, &c., are the barbut, gadius lota; dace, leuciscus vulgarus ; trout, salmo fario; chub, leuciscus cephalus; gudgeon, gobio fluviatilis; minnow, phoxinus; miller's thumb, cottus gobio; pike, esox Lucius; common eel, murena anguilla.

North Allerton, by whom her honour is increas'd,
Whose liberties include a country at the least,

To grace the wandering Wiske, then well upon her way,
Which by her countenance thinks to carry all away;
Then having her receiv'd, Swale bonny Codbeck brings,
And Willow-beck with her two pretty revellings.

The North Riding.

Drayton's Poly-olbion.

Annals from the Earliest Period to the Battle of the Standard.

T

HE accounts usually given of the aboriginal inhabitants of this island are so well known, that it is quite unnecessary to repeat them here; of course with their authenticity we have little to do in a treatise of this kind, as that is matter belonging more properly to the national history, than to a monograph on an isolated town; though even if we were to confine ourselves to information derived from Cæsar, I think we should hardly find sufficient to warrant the common conclusion that the Britons were semi-savages; and Strabo's account of the Druid who visited Delos in his time, indicates a person of at least some little civilization, if not of considerable polish.

The northern portion of the island, viz., the territory north of a line drawn from Liverpool to Hull, and in Saxon times termed Northumbria, was occupied by the powerful tribe of the Brigantes, whose capital was Isurium Brigantium, now only a small village called Aldburgh, near Boroughbridge. Camulodunum, a city of the same people is mentioned by Antonius, Ptolemy, Pliny, and Tacitus, and was supposed by Sir Thomas Savile to be identical with North Allerton; this idea he communicated to Camden in a letter,* adding, that the Bishop of Durham had a charter, in which, "Patria de Camuloduno, continens iij leucas in latitudine, atque xv. in longitudine, ab Edwino Northanhumbrorum rege episcopus Dunelmensibus conceditur ;" and that the see of Durham under this very charter enjoyed the

Illustrorum virorum epistolæ, &c., 1691, p. 9.