"1745. George Dodsworth.

"1706 Papists 9. L S. D.

"The Chappell of Goteland. 1716 4 0 0

"Being distant above 8 miles from the Parish Church
was by Dean Scot A.D. 1635 allowed the privilege of
Sepulture for the inhab. Saveing to the Mother
Church all its dues 1706 Certifyd by ye (indistinct) to
the Dean to be worth 4 0 0 Arising out of
Surplice Fees and Voluntary Contribution William
Prowde, Curate 1722 Jonathan Robinson, Curate."

[Illustration: The Maypole on Sinnington Green. The centre of many village
festivities in the past centuries.]

The country folk were in much the same state in regard to their morals and
superstitions as in the Georgian Era described in the next chapter, but it
is of great interest to know that efforts towards improvement were being
made as early as the year 1708. The following account given by Calvert of
an attempt to stop the May dance at Sinnington would show either that
these picturesque amusements were not so harmless as they appear at this
distance, or else that the "Broad Brims" were unduly severe on the
innocent pleasures of the time. The account is taken by Calvert "from one
Nares book."

[Illustration: An inverted stone coffin of much earlier date used as a
seventeenth century gravestone at Wykeham Abbey.]

"In the year 1708 there did come a great company of Broad Brims for to
stop the May Dance about the pole at Sinnington, and others acting by
concert did the like at Helmsley, Kirby Moorside and Slingsby, singing and
praying they gat them round about the garland pole whilst yet the may
Queen was not yet come but when those with flute and drum and dancers came
near to crown the Queen the Broad Brims did pray and sing psalms and would
not give way while at the finish up there was like for to be a sad end to
the day but some of the Sinnington Bucks did join hands in a long chain
and thus swept them clean from the pole. At Slingsby there was a great
dordum of a fight, but for a great while the Broad Brims have set their
faces against all manner of our enjoyment."

Fine examples of the carved oak cabinets, chests, and other pieces of
furniture of this period still survive in some of the houses of Pickering.
The cabinets generally bear the date and the initials of the maker, and
the I.B. to be seen on some of the finest pieces from this district are
the initials of John Boyes of Pickering, whose work belongs chiefly to the
time of William and Mary.

CH