Roger Beckwith and Family
See also: Masham Church, Acton (Aketon), Clint, Aldborough, Scruton Co. YKS, Cold Ingleby, Jenings (Jennings), Bolton, Swale (Swaile)

Beckwith of Acton

Beckwith, Fairfax, Inman

The tithes, which had belonged to the living in Saxon times, were taken possession of by Ralph de Paganell, one of William the Conqueror's barons, who handed them over to the Abbey of Marmontre, in Touraine, and this church was thenceforth served by the canons of the priory of Holy Trinity, York, which was a cell to that abbey. At the Dissolution these tithes were granted to Sir Leonard Beckwith, and were ultimately bought, in 1556, by Sir William Fairfax, Knight, of Steeton. In this family they remained as private property till they came into the hands of the great Lord Fairfax, who gave them to his domestic chaplain, Thomas Strellon - a non-conforming minister - on condition of his finding "a preaching minister to officiate at Bilbrough." Lord Fairfax, by his will, left these tithes in trust for ever with his family for a preaching minister.