PARISH OF SKELTON. "Skelton, beneath the jocund Muses' bower, HALL STEVENSON. SKELTON, Scheltun, or Skelltun (from skell, a brook or rivulet, and tun, a town or village), the seat of John Thomas Wharton, Esq., is a place of great antiquity, situated three miles and a half north-east from Gisborough, its western boundary. It appears in Domesday as "Skelton to be taxed 13 car. and 7 ploughs. Uctred had there 1 manor. Richard now has it of Earl Hugh. In the demesne 1 plough and 12 villanes, with 3 ploughs and 20 acres of meadow. Wood-pasture 2 miles long and 12 quarentens' broad. The whole manor 5 miles long and 2 broad. Value in King Edward's time, 40s.; at present (temp. William the Norman), 16s." This small, obscure, and insignificant village will for ever stand renowned, not only in the history of Cleveland, but in that of the empire and of the world, as the birth-place of a lofty and illustrious line of nobles, and the ancient cradle and the nursery of warriors, princes, and kings. From this little nook of Cleveland sprang mighty monarchs, queens, high chancellors, archbishops, earls, barons, ambassadors, and knights, and, above all, one brilliant and immortal name, ROBERT BRUCE, the great Scottish patriot, who, when liberty lay vanquished and prostrate in the dust, and the genius of national freedom had fled shivering from her native hills, bravely stood forth, its latest and noblest champion, and, in defiance of England's proudest chivalry, achieved for Scotland a glorious independence, and for himself imperishable fame. "At the name of Bruce every sensitive mind must glow with ardour; for no name, perhaps, has stronger claims on our respect or veneration, or shines more brightly on all great national points in the records of former times. In this illustrious line, the king, more distinguished by his virtues than his crown-the undaunted hero-the The quarentena, called quadragenaria in the Exeter Domesday, was the forty long, or furlong; from the French quarente, forty—a measure of 40 perches of 20 feet. The mention of it occurs frequently in our ancient laws. 2 This family, since its establishment in England, has produced two kings of Scotland, one king of Ireland; earls of Huntingdon, Carrick, Ross, Elgin, Kincardine, and Ailesbury; viscounts Bruce; barons of Gower, Brember, Brecknock, Abergavenny, Skelton, Annandale, Bruce, and Kinloss; lord high chancellors of Scotland; baronets; archbishops, bishops; masters of the rolls; judges, privy counsellors, ambassadors, envoys, knights of the Garter, Bath, St. Andrew, and St. Michael; one queen of Scotland; princesses of Wales and Hornes; duchesses of Chandos, Rutland, and Richmond; countesses of Atholl, Mar, Ross, Sutherland, Cardigan, Perth, Devonshire, Hereford, and Airlie; baronesses Percy, Beauchamp, Mortimer, Maltravers, Sayes, Bothwell, Brechin, and Cardross. |