Middlesbrough

The Ancient Parish of MIDDLESBROUGH

[Transcribed information mainly from the early 1820s]

"MIDDLESBROUGH, a parish in the wapentake and liberty of Langbargh; 5 miles ENE. of Stockton. There was an ancient chapel here, dedicated to St. Hilda, which was dependent on the church at Stainton; but, on the grant thereof to the Abbey of Whitby, confirmed by King Henry I. and by Thurstan, Archbishop of York, it was severed from the mother church, and made parochial. It was certified to the governors of the bounty of Queen Anne at £6., per annum, and has since had three augmentations, by lot, laid out in lands, which produce an income of about £40. a year: Thomas Hustler, of Acklam hall, Esq. is the patron, and nominates the curate. The chapel has been long in ruins, and nothing of it now remains the site, together with the chapel yard, which is still used occasionally as a burying place by the inhabitants, lies open, and uninclosed from the adjoining grounds. Population, 40.

Here was a cell subordinate to the abbey of Whitby. In 1120, Robert de Brus gave the church of St. Hilda, at Middlesburgh, with 2 caracutes, and 2 oxgangs of land at Newham, to the monks of St. Peter and St. Hilda, at Whitby. By the valuation taken 26, Henry VIII. its revenues amounted to 21L. 3s. 8d. per annum; and its site was granted 1546 to Thomas Reeve, Esq. --Dugdale. --Burton. --Tanner.

If the Dunum Aestuarium of Ptolemy, be the estuary of the Tees, Middlesburgh, on the Yorkshire coast, says Cade, may have been the Roman town."

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"LINTHORPE, in the parishes of Acklam and Middlesbrough, wapentake and liberty of Langbargh ; 1 mile SSW. of Middlesbrough, 7 miles NNW. of Stokesley. Population, 196."