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1660 - Restoration of the monarchy,
Charles II.
1662 - The Act of Settlement of this year attempted to prevent anyone from settling elsewhere than their place of birth. Privileged people were excepted and it was intended mainly to prevent paupers moving to be maintained by a parish other than their own. Removal orders were made returning people to their own parish right up to the 1840s. Money was sent from one parish to another to pay for upkeep and funerals etc of paupers. The priest, or "Vicar of Bray, Sir" from this time until 1688, at Skelton All Saints Church was Christopher Thornton. An act was passed in this year "for preventing mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons called Quakers, and others refusing to take oaths." The act declared it "altogether unlawful and contrary to the word of God" to refuse to take an oath, or to persuade another person to refuse to do so. It further made it an offense for more than five persons,"commonly called Quakers," "to assemble in any place under pretense of joining in a religious worship not authorized by the laws of this realm." |
 Escaping from the plague |
1665 - During this year, the year of the great Plague, people coming from London to the North riding were quarantined in their homes with their families for 40 days to guard against the spread of infection, by the order of the Justices. It was also ruled that clergymen should not be charged on their revenues beyond the limit set by Act of Parliament, viz: "every spiritual person shall pay to the King one yearely rent or pension of the tenth part of his living." It was made a punishable offence to build a cottage without "laying four acres of land to it." |
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1666 A great drought during August
September which contributed to the Great Fire of London in this year. 1670 - October 3rd at Malton Quarter Sessions - "That John Tooes of Skelton in Cleveland having been bound to the good behaviour and to appear at the Sessions to answere for alluring and entycing' mens wifes and on other complaints is to find good sureties for his good behavious and to appear at next sessions".
1681 - Among the plate held by Skelton church is a cup made by Marmaduke Best of York and inscribed:- 'the gift of Madame Jane Thwenge of Kilton to the Church of Brotton 1681'. The alum works at Hagg, Skelton were re-opened by Edward Trotter and were worked until 1720. |
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On a mural monument in Egglescliffe church, Yarm:- "Here lyeth the body of Mary y pious and most patient and dearly loving and the dearly beloved wife of Edward Trotter late of Skelton Castle in Cleveland, now of Aslaby in this Par. She had issue 3 Sons and 11 Daughters, of whom she was a careful and indulgent mother, & left this life for a better in y 46th year of her age, on the 17th Nove' in y year of our Lord 1681" It was an indictable offence for any village in the North Riding not to have the stocks and a "cucking stool". The latter has been confused with a "ducking stool" and may have been used for this purpose in some parts. A 1906 Parish Magazine states that the stocks stood on Cross Green, Skelton "within living memory". Like the stocks the cucking stool was a form of punishment by humiliation. Victims were fastened in it where they could be seen and derided in |
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various ways for "going
to the toilet" in public.
Apparently the name comes from the old Norse word "cucken", meaning to defecate and some Northerners still use the word
"cack" in this way.
1683 - The ice held from November this year to the February of the next. A sheep was roasted on the frozen River Tees, according to folklore. |
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1685 - Death of Charles II and accession
of his brother James II.
1687 - Tobias Hoopes of Skelton is one of four leading Quakers of the area who buy a room in a house in Westgate, Guisborough for a meeting place. George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, visited Cleveland in 1651 and prior to the Act of Toleration of 1689 the Quakers were forced to meet in secret in private houses. The paved track over the moors from Charltons to Commondale is called the Quakers Trod and people from local villages are said to have walked to Commondale for these illegal meetings. It is an ancient trackway, used by people for centuries and possibly dating back to the times when bronze age people took their dead up to their Sun god to cremate and bury in a pile of stones. 1688 - Flight of James II and accession of William and
Mary. 1689 -The new priest at Skelton Church from this year until 1727 was Matthew Waters. 1693 - The Quarter Sessions for the North Riding sitting at Richmond orders to Chief Constables regarding vagrants. 1. The Constable to give notice to all housekeepers in his Constabulary, not to relieve vagrants begging out of their parish, but to take or report them to him for punishment. 2. The Constable to give notice to all poor in his Constabulary not to wander or beg out of their parish under pain of punishment. |
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3. The Constable to give notice to the Overseers of the
Poor to see that their impotent and aged poor are relieved,
and that there is sufficient stock of flax, hemp, wool, etc., for
setting to work such as can work but cannot find employment.
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6. The Constable shall take all begging vagrants to the
Justice of the Peace for punishment, or shall have them whipped and
sent by testimonial under his own hand and seal wth those of the
Minister of the parish, to the place of their birth or last legal
settlement, testifying the time and place when and where last punished,
the destination, and the time allowed for the journey.
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