Starbotton is a small village currently of about 70 houses, and with a resident population of only around 50-70 people, since many of the houses are holiday homes. It is situated in Upper Wharfedale, alongside the river, 2 miles north of Kettlewell and 2 miles south of Buckden.
This One Place Study aims to cover the period approximately 1500-1750, being broadly the Early Modern Period. However, the lack of parish registers throughout the seventeenth century means other records will have to be found to get around this. It aims to identify the people in the community, the individual named fields, closes, etc, and the networks between these people and others through for example connections with the parish, the manor, the market town, marriages, etc.
This was registered with the Society for One Place Studies on 30th September 2023. My own work had been in progress for some years before this, but mostly focused on my family, the Simondsons (various spellings) of Starbotton and their connections, rather than the community as a whole.
In view of the non-survival of parish registers for the period before 1698/ 1700 the main focus of the study will be to locate alternative record sources, and to find creative ways of using them together to try to reconstruct the community.
My blog posts so far about this One Place Study
Starbotton (a video blog filmed ‘on location’!) 19 July 2024
Using Wills to identify community networks 17 October 2023
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The following is an in-progress list of information about juridictions and available records for Starbotton. It serves as an aide-memoire and a ToDo List.
Jurisdictions
County: West Riding of Yorkshire
Since 1974 this area is in the county of North Yorkshire, and this impacts on the whereabouts of records, which can be confusing.
Parish: Kettlewell; Diocese and Province of York
Parish registers are lodged with North Yorkshire County Record Office at Northallerton. Christenings and Burials are available from 1698, and marriages from 1700. See Guide 2.
Bishop’s Transcripts are lodged at the Diocesan Archives at Borthwick Institute for Archives. There is some coverage of the seventeenth century BMBs, from 1600, but it is patchy. Digital images of these records are available on FindMyPast.
FindMyPast also includes links to marriage licence documentation (for purchase).
Probate: Exchequer and Prerogative Courts of the Archbishop of York
Indexes of available Wills and related documentation (Inventories, Bonds, etc) are on FindMyPast, with links to purchase from Borthwick.
Rural Deanery: Craven
“The deanery of Craven consists of the parishes of Mitton, Slaidburne, Gisburne, Bolton juxta Bowland, Long Preston, Giggleswick, Horton, Bracewell, Bernoldswick, Thornton, Marton, Bingley, Kighley, Kildwick, Skipton, Carlton, Broughton, Gargrave, Kirkby Malghdale, Ilkley, Addingham, Burnsal, Linton, Arncliffe, and Kettlewell.
Of these the two first belong to the fee of Lacy, and connect the subject of this work with the history of Whalley, of which it is intended as a continuation; the nine following belong to Ribblesdale,as they are situated either on the banks of that river, or upon streams which fall
into it. The second nine are contiguous to the Are; and the remaining six adjoin to the Wharf. The parish of Skipton alone stretches from the Are to the Wharf…”
From: History of Craven
Township: Kettlewell with Starbotton
To Do: Ascertain origins of this joint township.
Wapentake: Staincliff and Ewcross
(Staincliff East) This is important for the arrangements of certain records, like the Hearth Tax.
Manor: Starbotton or Buckden with Starbotton
The TNA Manorial Documents Register is confusing on this. The manor is listed as Buckden with Starbotton. However, Chancery Court records suggest these were two separate manors. This is to be explored.
* To Do: Investigate if this is connected to the Honour of Skipton?
* To Do: Investigate the descent of the Manor of Starbotton.
Conservation Area: Yorkshire Dales National Park
Starbotton is one of 32 Conservation Areas within the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Information about the National Park is here. There are links to the individual Conservation Area Appraisal booklets for each one, including Buckden and Kettlewell.
Information about Starbotton’s Conservation Area Appraisal is here.
Market Day charters/ licences * To Do: Ascertain where the weekly market was held, and by what permissions.
Maps
1831 Buckden and Starbotton enclosure map: available at North Yorks CRO (Refs PR/HBB 11/1 and MIC 1539/37 & 117)
“BUCKDEN and STARBOTTON 1831
Stinted pastures 2888ac, common field lands, dales and waste ground 181ac in Buckden and Starbotton
Act 56 Geo III c.66 (Private, not printed) 1816
Award 22 Dec 1831 MIC 602 & 1539/36
m Original NYCRO PR/HBB 11/1
m Original WYCRO WRRD B 42
Commissioner: Alexander Calvert, Richmond
m & a Maps MIC 1539/37 & 117
(i) A plan of the division of Buckden pastures and open fields
(ii) A plan of the division of Starbotton pastures and open fields. [Tinted as above: shews buildings in Starbotton village]
Bound into back of original PR/HBB 11/1
Surveyor: Thomas Bradley, Richmond
Scale 8 chains to 1 inch.” As listed in North Yorkshire CRO Guide 4.
1847 Starbotton Tithe Map: available at North Yorks CRO (Refs T and MIC 1801/41-49) and also online at TheGenealogist. See North Yorkshire CRO listing in their Guide 3.
Archives
Borthwick Institute for Archives University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD
Telephone: 01904 321166. Email: borthwick-institute@york.ac.uk
The National Archives Bessant Dr, Richmond TW9 4DU. Email: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
North Yorks County Record Office Malpas Road, Northallerton, North Yorks, DL7 8TB. Telephone: 01609 777585. Email: archives@northyorks.gov.uk
North Yorkshire County Library at Skipton High Street, Skipton, BD23 1JX. Telephone: 01609 534548. Email: skipton.library@northyorks.gov.uk
West Yorkshire Archive Service Kirklees: (Located in: Piazza Shopping Centre)
Address: 16A Victoria Ln, Huddersfield HD1 2QF. Telephone: 0113 535 0150 Email: kirklees@wyjs.org.uk
Yorkshire Archaeological Society Stringer House, 34, Lupton Street, Hunslet, Leeds LS10 2QW. Telephone: 0113 245 7910 (Answerphone). Email: Office@yahs.org.uk
Record Sets
Cause Papers those for the Diocese of York are available online here, and searchable.
Civil War Petitions for Kettlewell: Here.
Hearth Tax Lady Day 1672 is available online, courtesy of the Centre for Hearth Tax Research: Here. All originals are at TNA. The majority of the surviving documents are from 1662-1666 and 1669-1674 when the tax was administered directly by royal officials rather than private tax collectors. (TNA Guide: Taxation Before 1689)
Manorial – location as above. However, also check manorial holdings for Kettlewell, since according to TNA MDR listings, most of surviving manorial records relate to the Minister of the church, therefore may also include Starbotton residents. May also include Kettlewell residents who are part of the kinship and friendship networks of Starbotton residents. The documents known to be available for ‘Buckden with Starbotton’ are:
1545-1591: court rolls: lodged with Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society
1606-1698: court rolls, with other manors: ) Lodged with West Yorks Archives
1701-1769: court roll ) Leeds is given, but staff there
1716-1822: call book ) say these records are at Huddersfield.
Parish Records, BTs, Marriage Licences – locations as above (Jurisdictions) Records survive as following:
Parish: Baptisms: 1698-1854 Marriages: 1699-1705, 1724-1739, 1744-1940 Burials: 1698-1883
BTs: 1600, 1602, 1631, 1632, 1634-1636, 1638, 1639, 1661-1669, 1671-1673,1675, 1678, 1682-1684, 1688, 1689, 1692-1698, 1700-1711, 1713-1835
* To Do: Ascertain survival of any parish records other than registers. According to the Churchwardens’ Accounts of England & Wales database, churchwardens’ accounts for Kettlewell survive only for 1789-1850, which is too late for this study. Do other parish records survive, and are they at North Yorks CRO?
Probate – One of my goals is to use Probate documents to identify people within family and network settings but also to try to locate specific holdings (by name, as stated in Wills) within families.
Protestation Returns – * To Do: Locate whereabouts, if survived..
Quarter Sessions – * To Do: Ascertain the geographical location for these (Skipton?) and where these are now kept.
Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group – reports for most of the ancient buildings in Starbotton. (I have these.)
Reading
Online sources:
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority: Conservation Area Appraisals in the Yorkshire Dales National Park: Starbotton Adopted Document
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority: Conservation Area Appraisals in the Yorkshire Dales National Park: Kettlewell Adopted Document
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority: Conservation Area Appraisals in the Yorkshire Dales National Park: Buckden Adopted Document
Yorkshire Dales Online: Guide to Upper Wharfedale
Tom Coulthard, Professor of Physical Geography: doctoral thesis, chapter 5, re Cam Gill Beck, above Starbotton, Upper Wharfedale. Downloadable from Prof Coulthard’s website.
Yorkshire in the Civil War (Wilcuma)
Historic England – several buildings in the hamlet have Grade II Listed status.
May F Pickles: Agrarian Society & Wealth in Mid-Wharfedale, 1664-1743
Books:
Bogg, Edmund: Higher Wharfeland : the dale of romance, from Ormscliffe to Cam Fell (1904)
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith), 1863-1935: A picturesque history of Yorkshire, being an account of the history, topography, and antiquities of the cities, towns and villages of the county of York, founded on personal observations made during many journeys through the Three Ridings
Whittaker’s History of Craven : The history and antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, 3rd edition, 1878, Ed. A W Morant. Leeds & London. Copyright owned by Skipton Castle.
Ella Pontefract & Marie Hartley: Wharfedale, originally published 1938. (1988) Smith Settle Ltd, Otley.
English Ancestors 