Richmond, Yorkshire

1693. A geographical dictionary representing the present and ancient names by Edmund Bohun.

Richmond, a Town and County in Yorkshire; lying on the North West of that County, towards Lancashire; which bounds it on the West. It is a mountainous and desolate Place; yet produceth Grass in reasonable quantity. This County took its Name from Richmond; a Town built by Alane, Earl of Bretagne in France (the first Earl of this County, after the Conquest; Nephew to William the Conqueror;) upon the River Swale, over which it hath a Stone Bridge: thirty two Miles from York to the North-West, and twenty from the Sea to the South-West. The Town is indifferently well frequented, and populous. It was anciently walled, and fortified with a Castle by the said Alane, for the greater security of these Parts against the English: the Gates are still standing, but in the midst of the Town; its Situation being shifted. Before it was thus rebuilt, it was called Gilling. Oswy, King of Northumberland, was basely murthered here in 659; ever after reputed a Martyr. It is now a Corporation, represented by two Burgesses in the House of Commons; and containing two Parish Churches; in the Hundred of Gillingwest. Long. 18. 15. Lat. 55. 17. //Paris Meridian is used in the book This Earldom continued in that Family till 1171: when it came to Geofrey Plantagenet, the fourth Son of K. Henry II. (by the Marriage of Constance, Daughter of Conan, Duke of Bretagne.) In 1230. Peter de Dreux, was Earl of Richmond; one of whose Descendents (John de Montford) was created Duke of Richmond in 1330, the sixteenth Earl, and first Duke: to whom in 1342. succeeded John of Gaunt, afterwards Duke of Lancaster. The twenty second Earl of Richmond was Henry VII. King of England. The twenty third was Henry Fitz-Roy, a Natural Son of Henry VIII. The twenty fourth was Lewis Duke of Lenox, created Earl of Richmond by King James I. in 1613, and Duke of the same in 1623. Which Family ended in Charles, the fourth of that Line, who died without Issue, Ambassador in Denmark, in 1672. In 1675, Charles Lenox was created Duke of Richmond by Charles the Second, his Natural Father by the Dutchess of Portsmouth.