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1539 - Act for Dissolution of the Great
Monasteries and Abbeys.
The free rent of the burgesses in Skelton is given as 3s : 7d. 1540 - Guisborough Priory was pulled down. 1542 - In Skelton well over half the taxpayers assessed for the Lay Subsidy paid at the lowest rate - on goods valued at less than one Pound [240 pennies]. Lay Subsidy was a taxation system based in rural areas of a fifteenth part of a person's moveable goods including crops. In towns it was a tenth. 1545 - After the dissolution of the monasteries the church at Skelton was granted to the see of York and the Archbishop is still patron of the 'living', [controls appointment of local vicar, his payment, vicarage etc]. |
| 1546 - A domestic chapel in Skelton castle is mentioned in
Yorks Chant
Survey.
1547 - Death of Henry VIII and accession of Edward VI. |
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It is unlikely that Skelton villagers saw many
unemployed vagrants at
this time, as from 1531 they had been sentenced to a whipping and from
this year branded with a 'V' on their faces. A repeat offence justified
a hanging.
1549 - Act passed to forbid the Catholic Mass. 1553 - Death of Edward VI and accession of Mary. 1555 - The Highways Act made the parishes responsible for the highways and the churchwardens and parishioners had to elect two surveyors of the highways, whose duty it was to specify four days every year when the inhabitants had to supply the necessary materials and work eight hours daily on road repairs, under pain of fine for default. |
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1556 - Death of John Lord Conyers of
Skelton Castle. He was the son William Conyers, who had inherited in
1490. The estate was divided between John's three daughters; Anne, the
wife of Anthony Kempe, Katharine wife of John Atherton and Elizabeth
wife of Thomas Darcy. There is a record of fraction between the
husbands of the 3 daughters regarding their shares and it is believed
they deliberately allowed the Castle to fall into disrepair.
'The goodly chapel, one of the jewels of this Kingdom, rudely went to the ground, with the fair hall and large towers; so that now scarcely are the ruins of a chapel to be seen' 1558 Death of Mary and accession of Elizabeth I. |
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1559 - The Act of Supremacy and Uniformity
excluded from any office all who would not conform the the established
protestant religion and anyone failing to attend his parish church was
to be fined one shilling, a large sum then for ordinary people.
1569 - The Rising of the Earls. Catholicism was strong
in the north and the efforts to suppress it led to rebellion. 1570 - Reprisals against the rebels of 1569 began and
600 rebel commoners were hanged in local towns. |
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1573 - Records in the church register begin. They are retained from this date and are kept in the new church. 1576 - A Poor Law authorised counties to establish houses of correction for vagrants; and set out the "Punishment of the Mother and reputed Father of a Bastard" 1577 - Skelton Estate was "bought" by Robert Trotter. 1587 16th February. The Trotters were granted heraldic Arms. "A Chief Ermine with a Lion Azure [De Brus] over all." |
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To what extent the religious strife of the previous decade
brought
about this change of ownership is not known, but
it is likely Catholic supporters of the Rising of 1569 were
dispossessed.
1586 - Mobilisation in response to war threats from Spain began and Langbaurgh had to provide 350 men on the same basis as county rates. Severe famine in most of Britain. 1588 - Spanish Armada. 1601 The Poor Relief Act of this year placed
responsibility for local affairs upon the 'vestry', a committee of
the leading figures of a parish who ran the daily business of the area. 1603 - Death of Elizabeth I and accession of James VI of Scotland as James I. |