Samuel Tufnell

Samuel Tufnell - Who acquired The Priory at Nun Monkton after the death of his uncle George Paylor

An interesting portrait of Samuel Tufnell, an early Georgian country gentleman. This portrait comes with a copy of the book "Samuel Tufnell of Langleys 1682-1758; the Life and Times of an Essex Squire" by Francis W. Steer.
"At Great Waltham in the centre of Essex is the mellow brick mansion of Langleys where, over the dining room fireplace hangs the portrait of a grave-faced boy in a red coat. Two miles away, at Pleshey - a place known to all readers of Shakespeare - is a massive marble monument with the bust of an old man who died full of years and achievements.
The boy and the man are one. The portrait and the bust are both of Samuel Tufnell who bought Langleys and made it into the stately home we see today.
As a landowner, he took no small part in the affairs of the county of his adoption; he served his country too in positions requiring tact and shrewd judgement.
The object of this book is to give a picture of the life and times of a country gentleman during the first half of the eighteenth century, the period of William of Orange, Queen Anne, and the first two Georges."
So begins this illuminating insight into a way of life long gone, which with the portrait, makes us feel we really know the man and his times.
The portrait itself is a good, honest, no-nonsense image of the sitter...he looks directly and frankly at the viewer. The unknown artist was clearly influenced by the work of Joseph Highmore (1692 – 1780), an artist very fashionable with the gentry at this time.
The frame is a good example of 18th century carved giltwood.
SIZE: 36 x 30.5 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: Sir Robert Wilmot Horton.
Yorkshire Private Collection.
Verso, Victorian Gothic script label: "Painting of Samuel Tufnell, esquire, of Langleys, married Elizabeth, daughter of George Cressener. The property of Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton; Artist J. Highmore."
(It has been suggested by a member of the family that this may not be Samuel Tufnell, but his grandson, also called Samuel Tufnell, who married the daughter of Wilmot-Horton).
See image 5 for Langleys as it is today.

Reformation village and estate

Reformation village and estate

Though Nun Monkton village remained a single estate until the 1930s, it changed hands several times after the Protestant Reformation. Its first owner was John Neville, the 3rd Baron Latimer and the second husband of Katherine Parr the last wife of Henry VIII. Latimer, who had been granted in 1538, bequeathed it and lands in Hammerton to his daughter at his death in 1543. During the later 17th century and the first half of the 18th century, it was owned by the Payler (or Paylor) family.

On 2 July 1644 the Battle of Marston Moor, one of the largest battles ever fought on English soil, took place in fields some miles to the south-west of the village. Royalist troops under Prince Rupert crossed the Ouse between Beningbrough and Nun Monkton and proceeded on to Skipbridge where they crossed the Nidd and joined battle with the Parliamentarian army. Because of its proximity to the battlefield, Nun Monkton must have been directly affected but there seem to be no traditions, though older villagers in the late twentieth century reported claims that fallen soldiers were buried around St. Mary's Church.

In 1748 the estate and those in surrounding villages passed to William Tufnell Jolliffe upon the death of his uncle Nathaniel Payler. A painting dated to 1773 shows Squire William Tufnell with his son on horseback amid a pack of hounds, looking across from the Moor Monkton bank of the Nidd at Nun Monkton Priory and Church. Despite the passage of 237 years, the view is relatively unchanged today. An elaborate early nineteenth century monument to the Tufnell family is today in the sacristy on the north side of the church. Before 1871 it was in the old sanctuary of the church and seems to have been somewhat damaged during while being moved.

George IV while Prince of Wales, is believed to have had lunch at the Priory during a visit to Yorkshire.^[2]

In the 1840s one visitor to the village would have been the novelist Anne Brontë, and her brother Branwell. During her time as a governess to the Robinson family at Thorpe Green, Little Ouseburn, Brontë taught the children of the rector of Nun Monkton.^[3][4][5]

In 1860, Isaac Crawhall, a Durham-born gentleman, bought Nun Monkton from the Tufnell family and his family owned the estate and lived at the Priory until it was bought by the Whitworth family in the 1920s. Crawhall was responsible for the redesigning of the church and the building of the new roof and chancel between 1871 and 1875.

A painting of villagers standing outside St.Mary's church by the landscape artist John Henry Leonard was sold at Christies in January 2009. It appears to date from the 1860s and may have been commissioned by Isaac Crawhall.

Nun Monkton was visited in the summer of 1898 by the future Provost of Eton and ghost story writer, M.R.James on a boat trip from York during a meeting of Convocation. James was enchanted by the Priory house and gardens and its chinoiserie summer house near the river. He wrote in a letter: "At Nun Monkton a beautiful house adjoins the church — Queen Anne with a sweet garden and leaden statues and a summerhouse." Nun Monkton later appears to have provided some of the background for his gruesome ghost story "The Ash Tree", though in the story the house is situated in Suffolk.

The largest secular building in Nun Monkton and architecturally by far the finest after the church, is the hall or manor house formally known as the Priory,^[6] and used as a location in the television series A Touch of Frost in an episode entitled "Endangered Species". Observant viewers who know the location will note that when Jack Frost (played by David Jason) drives up to The Priory it shows the gate to the left of the cattle grid, over which a temporary wall was erected for the TV programme. In the grounds of the Priory is Avenue Cottage, an 18th-century grade II listed building.^[7]

Taken from Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nun_Monkton 

George Paylor & Lady Maria Carey

GEORGE:

LADY MARIA CAREY: Mary, Lady Carey
Mary, Lady CareyIntroductionMary, Lady Carey (née Jackson), was author of a series of largely autobiographical poems and meditations, which exist in two manuscripts: one her reportedly autograph manuscript, in private hands (*CaM 1); the other in a later formal copy now in the Bodleian (CaM 2). Although selections

Memorial in the Tower of London George Payler Esq. - Master surveyor of the ordinance and his wife Lady Maria Carey.

2 of their children Eldest son Samuel & youngest daughter Maria are buried there. 
In the reign of Charles 1st

Nun Monkton

Lady Mary (Maria) Carey

Lady Mary Carey was born c.1609, heir to Sir John Jackson of Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland. Her first husband was Pelham Carey , a younger son of Sir Henry Carey, fourth Lord Hunsdon and first earl of Dover, and Judith Pelham. They married at Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, on 24 June 1630. Pelham had died by 8 June 1643, when Mary married her second husband, George Payler (d. c.1678) at Berwick. She kept the title and name from her first marriage. Payler was a parliamentarian, serving as paymaster of the Berwick garrison from 1639-1642, and later as an officer of the ordnance and armoury in the Tower of London. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1652, appointed a naval commissioner in 1654, and MP for Berwick in 1659. Mary accompanied her second husband in garrisons across the country. She was well travelled, writing in her autobiographical conversion narrative that, by the time she was 45, she had " liv'd in Berwick, London, Kent, Hunsdon, Edinburgh, Thistleworth, Hackney, Tottridge, Greenwich, Bethnal Green, Clapham, York, [Nun] Monkton, St James's, Newington, Covent Garden, & dear St Katherine's" . It appears that the couple retired to the Payler estates at Nun Monkton, Yorkshire, after the Restoration.

They had seven children, only two-Bethia (1652/3-1671) and Nathaniel (1654/5-c.1680)-surviving infancy. Both parents composed elegies on their fourth child, Robert (d.1650). Mary in addition wrote memorial verses for Peregrine (d. 1652), their fifth child, and an eighth, miscarried child in 1657. Her 'Dialogue betwixt the Soul, and the Body' is a conversion narrative, giving an account of her reprobate adolescence, her illness aged 18, and subsequent salvation. It details 21 assurances of grace and election. This faith was a source of great consolation for the deaths of her children. In addition, she had a supportive family: she writes "I had tenderly loving Parents, good Husbands, the last is so, & good was it for me, that I was Wife to the first; God hath given me lovely Children, Sons, & Daughters, 5 in God's Bosom, 2 yet with me; 'tis best for me, & them, that those that died, died; 'tis best for me, & them, that those that live, live" . Both Bethia and Nathaniel, however, predeceased her. Bethia married James Darcy of Sedbury, Yorkshire, and died aged 18. Nathaniel attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1670 and Gray's Inn in 1671, and had a son, Nathaniel (d. 1748). The Maria Anna Payler, of Nun Monkton, Yorkshire, who married George Cressner (d. 1722) of London, is likely his daughter. His mother was granted probate of his will on 3 December 1680. When her husband died, Mary became administrator of his estates. Her own date of death is unknown.

Lady Maria (Mary) Carey Meditations and writing

Bodleian Library: MS Rawlinson D. 1308

Lady Carey's Meditations, & Poetry, ... As also the late Thomas Lord Fairfax's Relation of his Actions in the late Civil Wars. Together With his Grace the Duke of Buckingham's Verses upon the Memory of the late Thomas Lord Fairfax

Language: English

Context and purpose

This is a presentation manuscript compiling the mid-seventeenth-century works of Lady Mary Carey and Lord Thomas Fairfax, copied by Charles Hutton in 1681. Lady Carey's original autograph manuscript is now in private hands; Fairfax's original manuscript is now at the Bodleian Library, Fairfax MS 36. It is arranged in two sections: the first comprising Carey's conversion narrative, her meditations, her poetry, and one elegy authored by her husband, George Payler; the second comprising Fairfax's memoirs of the civil wars, and Buckingham's elegy on Fairfax. Both authors had Yorkshire connections. The earliest of Carey's texts is dated 1649; the latest 1657 (all these dates agree with the autograph manuscript). The manuscript, therefore, presents exemplary female and male models of piety and parliamentarianism. Its copying at a later date for this purpose is significant in terms of the negotiation of private and public with regard to women's writing in the period. Ostensibly private texts authored by Carey-elegies on the deaths of children, records of religious experience-are read and adopted for the public construction of female spirituality and political ideology.

The manuscript is copied in Hutton's hand throughout; corrections are remarkably rare. His writing and presentation imitates contemporary print, to the extent of consistently using long 's' throughout. The poems by Carey and Payler are highlighted by the scribe: they are copied vertically, from the bottom of the page to the top. He makes a point of authenticity, signalling that his text of Fairfax is "from his owne Hand this being a true Copy of it" (p. 28 [fol. 131v])-these memoirs were not to be published in print until 1699.

Physical description

The manuscript is an octavo, of 172 folios (not 166 fols., as the Bodleian Catalogue states-see Foliation, below), in contemporary binding. The pages are gilt-edged. There are few blank leaves: at fol. 1v (verso of the titlepage); fol. 164r (between the end of Fairfax's memoirs and the beginning of Buckingham's elegy); and at fols. 167r-172v (to the end of the manuscript). Pagination begins three times: at the beginning of Carey's dedicatory letter to her husband; at the beginning of Carey's works; at the beginning of Fairfax's works.

The manuscript is ruled in the same black ink as that which transcribes the texts: double-ruled lines parallel to the spine (forming the left margin); then double-ruled lines across the top and bottom of the pages.

The manuscript is transcribed throughout by Charles Hutton.

Form:

Octavo

Support:

Paper of a single stock throughout.

Watermark: Strasburg Lily. Very similar, although perhaps not exactly identical, to Churchill, 401, 1625.

Extent: 172 folios181115
Layout:

All the pages are ruled in the same black ink as the texts: double-ruled lines parallel to the spine (forming the left margin); then double-ruled lines across the top and bottom of the pages. The exceptions occur at the beginning and end of the manuscript, fols. 1v and 172r-v. Catchwords occur at the bottom of each page.

The Payler/Carey poems are highlighted by being copied vertically, from the bottom to the top of the pages.

Hands:

Charles Hutton transcribed the entire manuscript, with the exception of three short insertions into the Buckingham elegy in a later hand. Hutton's handwriting in this manuscript imitates print; rounded, squat letters, with consistent use of long 's'. Hutton uses square brackets, converted to round brackets in this catalogue entry. Generally, Hutton makes no corrections, but at p. 104 [fol. 58v], l.10, an ilegible cancellation has been replaced with " reclaimed me" above the line; and at p. 168 [fol. 90v], "o these spirituall mercies" has been struck through and replaced with "oh! these 6 speciall mercies".

Binding:

The binding is contemporary, hard-backed. Both sides of the cover are etched in gilt: tracing a rectangle along the edges; and then imprinting another rectangular panel in the centre, with decoration at each of its four points. The spine is now broken. The pages themselves are gilt-edged.

Cover measurements are: 186.5mm x 120mm. The spine is 28mm.

Foliation:

The manuscript is paginated by the scribe, Hutton, in three sections. The first section-Carey's dedicatory letter to her husband-is paginated 1-10. The second section-Carey's works-is paginated 1-222. The third section-Fairfax's works and Buckingham's elegy on Fairfax-is paginated 1-108. These three paginations are consecutive and completely accurate. Neither the titlepage folio nor the final folio of the manuscript are paginated.

The manuscript is unfoliated. Accordingly, this cataloguer has inserted the correct folio references in square brackets, following the pagination as given in the manuscript.

Additions:

The inside pastedown bears a number of shelfmarks: '(14037)'; 'Ms Rawl Misc. 1244'; then '1244' was struck through and replaced with '1185'; then '1185' was struck through and replaced with 'D. 1308'. Finally, the current shelfmark, 'Ms. Rawl. D. 1308' is written underneath these.

Provenance

There is no information available in the Bodleian Library about the manuscript's provenance or acquisition. However, it is most likely that Hutton copied it from Carey's (and Fairfax's) autograph originals. Francis Meynell, in his 1918 edition of Carey, records how he found the autograph manuscript: "A manuscript Note Book of the time of the Commonwealth, written in very charming characters, bound in contemporary covers of blue velvet, was lately found by Ev. M. in the sixpenny pile of a bookstall". This autograph manuscript, which belonged to Dame Alice Meynell in 1988, is currently owned by Germaine Greer. Fairfax's original manuscript is currently at the Bodleian Library, Fairfax MS 36.

Administrative information

Catalogued from the original manuscript on 16 March 2005 by Marie-Louise Coolahan.
Manuscript viewed on 14-15 March 2005.
Autograph manuscript viewed in 2001 by Faith Lanum.

Availability of surrogates

The manuscript is available on microfilm. A select edition of Carey's works (from the autograph manuscript) was published in 1918: Francis Meynell, , Meditations from the Note Book of Mary Carey, 1649-1657, London, Francis Meynell, 1918. All four poems are printed, from the autograph manuscript, in Germaine Greer, Jeslyn Medoff, Melinda Sansome and Susan Hastings, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse, London, Virago, 1988, pp. 155-162. Fairfax's memoirs were first published in an edition by Brian Fairfax: Short Memorials of Thomas Lord Fairfax. Written by Himself, London, 1699. The text is also available in Antiquarian Repertory, 3, 1808; and Charles Firth, Stuart Tracts 1603-1693: An English Garner, 1896.

Manuscript description Item 1 (Title page), [fol. 1r-v] Charles Hutton (Scribe) Herein is contained my Lady Carey's Meditations, & Poetry, from the first to the 222:th Page. As also the late Thomas Lord Fairfax's Relation of his Actions in the late Civill Wars. Together With his Grace the Duke of Buckingham's Verses upon the Memory of the late Thomas Lord Fairfax abovesaid from the 222:th Page to the end. Written by Charles Hutton. Anno Domini 1681 [The first folio is unpaginated. Fol. 1r is the manuscript's titlepage. Fol. 1v is blank, and unruled.] Item 2 (Prose, Dedication, Letter), pp. 1-10 [fols. 2r-6v] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) To my most loving, and dearly beloved Husband, George Payler, Esq. My Dear, The occasion of my writing this following Dialogue, was my apprehending I should die on my fourth Child ... even the Father of Mercies into whose sweet Embraces I recommend thee, remaining most good, and dear Husband, Thy much oblig'd, and most affectionate Wife MARY CAREY. [This letter is dated 17 October 1653 .] Item 3 (Prose, Dialogue, Religious writing), pp. 1-176[fols. 7r-94v] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) February, 11:th 1649 A Dialogue betwixt the Soul, and the Body Soul. My Sister, why art thou so sore cast down? ... Honour ascribed from all in Earth, & in Heaven, especially from my Soul, & Body for now, & ever, world without end; Amen. Mary Carey Item 4 (Notes), p. 176 [fol. 94v] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) May, 14:th 1652. I have now buried four Sons, & a Daughter; God hath my all of Children, I have his all (beloved Christ) a sweet Change; in greatest Sorrows, content, & happy: Mary Carey [This is the full text of the item.] Item 5 (Verse, Elegy), p. 177 [fol. 95r] George Payler (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) Written by my dear Husband at the Death of our 4:th (at that time) only Child, Robert Payler Dear Wife, let's learn to get that Skill ... To love Christ Jesus, & to loath our Sin 12 lines [ Dated and attributed at bottom: "Covent=Garden, Dec: 8:th 1650 George Payler". This poem is copied vertically, from the bottom to the top of the page; each couplet is numbered. This poem is printed from the autograph manuscript in Germaine Greer, Jeslyn Medoff, Melinda Sansome and Susan Hastings, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse, London, Virago, 1988 , p. 157. ] Item 6 (Verse, Elegy), p. 178 [fol. 95v] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) Written by me at the same time on the Death of my 4:th, & only Child, Robert Payler My Lord hath called for my Son ... Enough my Lord; now let me die 12 lines [ Dated and attributed at bottom: "Covent-Garden, Dec: 10:th 1650. Mary Carey". This poem is copied vertically, from the bottom to the top of the page; each couplet is numbered. This poem is printed from the autograph manuscript in Germaine Greer, Jeslyn Medoff, Melinda Sansome and Susan Hastings, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse, London, Virago, 1988 , pp. 156-157. ] Item 7 (Verse, Elegy), p. 179 [fol. 96r] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) Written by me at the Death of my 4:th Son, & 5:th Child Peregrine Payler I thought my All was given before ... Thy Hand-Maid's pleas'd, completely happy still 10 lines [ Dated and attributed at bottom: "Grove-Street, May, 12:th 1652. Mary Carey". This poem is copied vertically, from the bottom to the top of the page; each couplet is numbered. This poem is printed from the autograph manuscript in Germaine Greer, Jeslyn Medoff, Melinda Sansome and Susan Hastings, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse, London, Virago, 1988 , pp. 157-158. ] Item 8 (Prose, Meditation), pp. 180-196 [fols. 96v-104v] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) A Meditation, or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, & Holy Ghost God the Father pitied me when I was lost, & lov'd me when I was loathsome by Sin; Ezech: 16.5. Psalme, 51.4. ... In all these Wars I was safe in Garrisons, & was not strait'ned, nor plundered, nor separated from my dear Relations. Item 9 (Prose, Meditation), pp. 197-207 [fols. 105r-110r] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) A Meditation, or Commemoration of the Love of Christ Christ lov'd me so dearly, that he left the Joys of his Kingdome, the Praises of his Angels, the Presence of his Father, & willingly undertook the painful Work of my Redemption ... I pronounce my self truly, & everlastingly blessed, & happy in my dearest Lord Jesus Item 10 (Prose, Meditation), pp. 208-214 [fols. 110v-113v] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) A Meditation, or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost God the Holy Spirit made me the Object of his Love, and sanctifying-Grace ... but the Holy Ghost; the blessed Messenger of God the Father to me, & from me to the Father (through Christ) from God the Father back to me again, who resolves my Doubts Item 11 (Verse, Elegy), pp. 215-222 [fols. 114r-117v] Mary Carey (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) Upon the Sight of my abortive Birth the 31:th of December 1657 What Birth is this? a poor despised Creature? ... Amend it, Lord, & keep it still with thee 92 lines [ Dated and attributed at bottom: "January, 12:th 1657. saith Maria Carey always in Christ happy". This poem is copied vertically, from the bottom to the top of the page; each couplet is numbered. This poem is printed from the autograph manuscript in Germaine Greer, Jeslyn Medoff, Melinda Sansome and Susan Hastings, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse, London, Virago, 1988 , pp. 158-161. ] Item 12 (Prose, Memoir), pp. 1-27 [fols. 118r-131r] Thomas Fairfax (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) Short Memorials of some things to be cleared during my Command in the Army Now when the Lord is visiting the Nation for the Transgressions of their Ways ... yet the Purposes, & Determinations of God, shall have happy Effects, to his Glory, & the Comfort of his People [This is Fairfax's defence of his military command in the South during the late 1640s.] Item 13 (Title page), p. 28 [fol. 131v] Charles Hutton (Scribe) The second Part of the Relation of the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax's Actions in the Northern Wars from his own Hand this being a true Copy of it [Hutton follows the order of the original manuscript (Bodleian Library, Fairfax MS 36). When first published in 1699, Brian Fairfax reversed the order, providing this chronologically earlier account first.] Item 14 (Prose, Memoir), pp. 29-92 [fols. 132r-163v] Thomas Fairfax (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) A short Memorial of the Northern Actions, during the war there; from the year 1642, till 1644 I did not think to have taken up my Pen any more, to have written on this Subject ... seeing that which now is, in the Days to come shall all be forgotten. Ecclesiastes; 2.16. FINIS [p. 93 [fol. 164r] is blank except for ruling.] Item 15 (Verse, Elegy), pp. 94-98 [fols. 164v-166v] Duke of Buckingham (Author) Charles Hutton (Scribe) His Grace the Duke of Buckingham's Verses upon the Memory of the late Thomas Lord Fairfax Under this Stone doth lie ... A Man as great in War, as just in Peace as he 61 lines [ There are three corrections-of one or two words-inserted in a much later hand. See also Bodleian MSS Don. b. 8, p. xxxi; Douce 357, fol. 117; Lat. misc. c. 19, p. 377 (Crum U35). Printed in Poems on Affairs of State, , London, 1697, ; Brian Fairfax, Short Memorials of Thomas Lord Fairfax. Written by Himself, London, 1699, . ] [pp. 99-108 [fols. 167r-171v] are blank except for ruling.] [fol. [172] is blank, unruled and unpaginated.] Administrative information Catalogued from the original manuscript on 16 March 2005 by Marie-Louise Coolahan. Manuscript viewed on 14-15 March 2005. Autograph manuscript viewed in 2001 by Faith Lanum. Availability of surrogates The manuscript is available on microfilm. A select edition of Carey's works (from the autograph manuscript) was published in 1918: Francis Meynell, , Meditations from the Note Book of Mary Carey, 1649-1657, London, Francis Meynell, 1918. All four poems are printed, from the autograph manuscript, in Germaine Greer, Jeslyn Medoff, Melinda Sansome and Susan Hastings, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse, London, Virago, 1988, pp. 155-162. Fairfax's memoirs were first published in an edition by Brian Fairfax: Short Memorials of Thomas Lord Fairfax. Written by Himself, London, 1699. The text is also available in Antiquarian Repertory, 3, 1808; and Charles Firth, Stuart Tracts 1603-1693: An English Garner, 1896.

The Tower of London

The Priory Nun Monkton

The Priory Nun Monkton was taken from THE HISTORY OF NUN MONKTON. See page 4-5

THE PRIORY

 After the Dissolution, the plate belonging to the Priory and. all valuables were carried off to London. The Conventual buildings were destroyed and the material sold. Two years later, in 1538, the estate with all its appurtances was sold to John Neville on very reasonable terms ( a yearly payment of £14—18—8 to King Henry VIII) Specially mentioned in this transaction were the rights to the ferry. This seems to be the first mention that has been made in any records of the ferry, but it must have been widely used to have it specially mentioned in the deeds. John Neville erected a house but we do not know if he lived here. His second wife was Catherine Parr of Kendall, and on the death of her husband John Neville (Lord Latimer) she married King Henry VIII and survived him. The Priory stayed in the Latimer family and Lord Latimer’s granddaughter married Henry, 8th Earl of Northumberland who then lived at Spofforth Castle. In 1585 this earl was accused of plotting with Mary Queen of Scots against Queen Elizabeth 1. He was imprisioned in the Tower of London but committed suicide. His widow then married Francis Fitton and the Nun Monkton estate then passed to that family. After this the estate changed hands many times — John Carvile - Marjoribanks (1644) Paylors (1650—1748) Samual Jollyfe Tuffnell 1786. In 1789 George IV, then Prince of Wales, lunched at the Priory after York Races. The Butler Family followed (brother of the Earl of Kilkenny whose eldest son became Viscount Mountgarret). Then the Brown family (he was a Proctor at York Minster) and in 1860 it was bought by Isaac Crawhall, Esq., who was succeeded by his son George and later by Walter - nephew of George. The Priory was sold in 1928 to Captain C. Whitworth and again in 1946 to Lieut. Col. George Aykroyd. The Paylors must have rebuilt the house. The present building was built in the time of William and Mary and was designed by a Dutch architect. It was built of hand made bricks. There was a maze in the garden and 90 acres of pasture land attached to the estate. A special feature of the grounds was the collection of lead statues which are unique and very valuable. They are supposed to be the work of a Dutch sculptor named Andrew Carne in approx. 1688. There is a very peculiarly carved stone in the wilderness also attributed to Dutch workmen. — 5 — On it are the arms of the Paylor family and many scenes depicting village life. There is an old legend that there was a tunnel passing from the priory under the River Nidd and to Red House which was used at the time of the battle of Marston Moor, but this has never been found. The battle of Marston Moor was fought in July 1644 between Cavaliers led by Prince Rupert and Roundheads led by Oliver Cromwell. The Roundheads were victorious and the Royalists fled, many of them over to Nun Monkton, Thorpe and Ouseburn. Nun Monkton was Royalist. A pike man seriously wounded wandered to the priory and later died there. His full equipment consisting of pot helmet, gorgel, breast and back plates and tassets with sword and 15 ft pike is now in the Kirk Museum at York. Strangely, this armour was presented to the museum by a London gentleman but it had been in the possession of the Marjoriebank family who owned the priory at the time of the civil war. Overlooking the church yard there is a ‘tithe barn’ which is in an excellent state of preservation and a little further along there is the site of the nuns fish pond now only a beck. Also there is the ‘Nuns Walk’ an avenue of trees which led from the priory grounds to the park, but which is not now used as such.