Yorkshire CD books
Old and rare Yorkshire books as pdf file downloads
The History of Richmondshire, volume 2
by The Rev. Thomas Dunham Whitaker
download version
produced by Yorkshire CD books ©
We have now cleared all of our CDroms and so we now do downloads only.
Note that downloads are set up manually and therefore will not be instant.
Payment can be made either by a PayPal account, or with a Credit Card via PayPal
in your own currency, or by Sterling Cheque drawn on a UK bank.
Please see the ordering and payment information page
for details on methods of payment.
For
sample pages, please see the links to the Acrobat (pdf) files given below.
The data in this downloadable pdf is computer searchable.
The full title of this volume is "An History of Richmondshire in the North Riding of the County of York, together with those parts of the Everwicschire of Domesday which form the wapentakes of Lonsdale, Ewecross, and Amunderness in the counties of York, Lancaster and Westmoreland"
The book is written in the same excellent style as his "History of Craven". This very large and valuable book contains well over 500 pages, including numerous large pedigrees, along with many, many names, and some wonderful etchings. The following places are dealt with, along with others within the various parishes: Bedale, Catterick, Hornby, Patrick, Brompton, Kirkby Fleetham, Scruton, Thornton Watlass, Well, Masham, Halikeld, Burneston, Pickhill, Kirklington, West Tanfield, Wath, Cundall & Leckby, Kirkby Hill, Lancaster, Halton, Claughton, Melling, Hornby township, Tatham, Tunstall, Kirkby Lonsdale, Whittington, Bolton upon Sands, Warton, Heysham, Cockerham, Kendale, Bentham, Clapham, Thornton on Lonsdale, Sedbergh, Furness, Dalton, Furness Abbey, Aldingham, Ulverston, Hawkshead, Urswick, Penington, Kirkby Irelith, Colton, Preston in Amunderness, Kirkham, Goosnargh, Lytham, Poulton, Bispham, St. Michael upon Wyre, and Ribchester.
In order to give you an idea of the information in the book the following items are available here on line:
For more information on Historic Richmondshire, please see our CDrom versions of Edmund Bogg's Richmondshire, Harry Speight's Romantic Richmondshire and Plantagenet Harrison's History of Richmondshire. The latter book covers the same area as volume 1 of Whitaker's Richmondshire.
The above Acrobat files were extracted from the main pdf file and shows the quality of the images. You will need at least version 5 of Acrobat to open this file, and be aware that these are large files. If you do not have an up to date version of Acrobat Reader, please go to the Adobe web-site to obtain a free version of Acrobat Reader.
A review of the book:
Dr T. D. Whitaker wrote a number of major topographical works on both his home county of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Beautifully illustrated by J.M.W. Turner R.A., amongst others, this was Whitaker’s last work, and, ultimately published some two years after his death, it is unclear whether he had actually finished this work. “The History of Richmondshire,” Vol. II was described by W. Hylton Longstaffe, a fellow historian (as quoted in the Gentleman’s Magazine of August 1852), as follows: "the most magnificent work in topography that has been, or perhaps will be, published in England; but not withstanding its costly paper and its splendid landscapes by Turner, it is far from being the best." This criticism seems, at least in part, to be based on the errors in some of the pedigrees that appear in the book. It should be noted that this was recognized, as, at the time of publication in 1823, an attempt to address this issue appears in the extensive errata section.
Not withstanding such criticism, this book provides a source of invaluable information for those whose ancestors came from, or who have a general interest in, the wakentape of Hang East part of Richmondshire and the wakentakes of Lonsdale, Ewecross and Amunderness in the counties of York, Lancaster and Westmoreland. It is full of historical information about the areas covered by the book as well as providing a rich source of genealogical tidbits. There are pedigrees of a number of families, varying from bare bones to extensive, lists of vicars, details of monumental inscriptions, illustrations of funeral monuments and snapshots of population numbers in 1811.
Angela Booth, Australia, February 2008
If you would prefer the real book(s), please contact The Idle Booksellers through their website.
Page last updated at 14.25 on Monday, 25 March 2024, ©2010
(This page will not be updated again unless the information on it is found to be incorrect).
For the latest update date for the site, please see our Home Page.
