Tenants are mentioned as holding property in “Smiddiehill” and “Hungate Greene,” and the entry given below is interesting on account of the mention of the market cross that has completely disappeared.

“Jane Moone widdow holdes one Messuage and one parcell of waste ground in Pickering neare to the Market Crosse and was admitted Tennant thereof by John Sym, now deputie Steward, by Copie dated the 22d of November 1659:  And paid ffine for per Admittance ... 0 8 1”

Many of the small houses of Pickering must have been built at this time.  One near the castle gateway has a stone in the gable end bearing the initials E.C.W., and the date 1646, another with a thatched roof on the south side of Eastgate, dated 1677, is now fast going to ruin.  The roofs were no doubt at that time chiefly covered with thatch, and the whole town must have been extremely picturesque.  The stocks, the shambles, and the market cross stood in the centre of the town, and there were none of the unpleasant features that modern ideas, unchecked by a sense of fitness and proportion, bring in their wake.

The castle, we have seen, was in a far more perfect state than at the present time, but the church must have appeared much as it does to-day.  The circular wooden pulpit is Georgian, and thus the one that preceded it has disappeared.  Two of the three bells that still hang in the tower bear the date 1638.  The treble bell is inscribed “Praise the Lord,” and sounds the note G sharp.  The middle bell gives F sharp and the inscription is “Soli deo gloria.”  Hanging in the bellcote of the schools adjoining the church is the small bell dated 1632 that was removed from the Bruce Chapel in 1857 when the schools were built.  Before that date children were taught in the Bruce Chapel.

In Archbishop Sharp’s manuscripts (page 106) preserved at Bishopthorpe there is a detailed account of the parish of Pickering.  It is dated 1706, and is given under the heading of “Dean of York’s Peculiars.”  There are numerous abbreviations, but the meaning is plain in most instances.

“Pickering Vic.  St Peter and St Paul.

“1706.  No Papist.

“A[nno] R[egni] Edw.  I. 13.  The Manor, Castle, Forest of Pickering were given to Edmund E. of Lancaster and so became thenceforward part of that Dutchy.  The Church of Pickering was by Hen.  I. given to the Deanery of York, w^th the soke thereof and all the chappells and tithes belonging.  It is let at the rent of 100 li.

“The Vicarage consists of a house &c.  And the tithe Hay of Garths w^ch may yield 7 or 8 Load in a year to the vicar, and all the small tithes of the Parish.  Besides an augmentation of 20 li p an. made since the Restauration.

“This is a large parish in which are 2 Chappells neither of them endowed as the minister Mr Newton tells me, but he allows 5th to a neighboring minister to serve the one and the other he goes to himself.  This vicarage, of the D^ns Collation is val in my B at 28 li.  It is I hope worth 60 li [not above 40 K.B. 8. 3. 9.  T 16-40b.] The Deans Tenant pays 20 li of it.