The history of Easby Abbey, from the reign of Edward III. until the Dissolution, is intimately associated with that of the famous family of Scrope. Richard, son of Henry Scrope, Chancellor to Richard II., made a grant to the canons of Easby of an annual rent of £150, in return for which the house was to maintain ten canons, to provide masses for certain people, and to support twenty-two poor men at the abbey for ever. In 1535 the net revenue of Easby was given as £188, 16s. 2d. (the abbey coming consequently under the order for suppression of monasteries whose income was below £200), but owing to many deductions its value was little over £111. These deductions included some quaint provisions for furthering the spiritual as well as the material welfare of the beneficiaries. Once a week, according to Grange, there was distributed to four poor and indigent people as much meat and drink as came to the annual value of £2, 15s. 11d., this being for the benefit of the soul of John Romaine, Archdeacon of Richmond. One pauper also received every day, from the feast of All Souls to the feast of the Circumcision, a flagon of ale and one loaf of bread (the paysloffe or loaf of peace), the idea being doubtless to help some of the poor over the worst part of the winter. For this purpose the sum of £1, 6s. 8d. was disbursed yearly; £4 on the feast of St Agatha for providing the poor with corn and fish, and a similar sum in providing alms for the poor at the supper of the Lord. These charities must have been missed by the poor in the neighbourhood after the dissolution of the abbey in 1535, at which time the house and lands were leased by the Crown to Lord Scrope for an annual rent of £283, 13s. 1d. The direct male line of the Scropes came to an end with the death of Immanuel, eleventh Lord Bolton and first Earl of Sunderland, when the property passed through the marriage of a daughter to its present possessors, the Powletts. WHITBY (_Benedictine_) 657, Founded by Oswy, King of Northumbria, as a religious house for nuns--664, Great Council meets to discuss the date of Easter, and the question of the tonsure--787, Destroyed by the Danes--1067, Re-founded by William de Percy, who elects Reinfrid (a former monk of Evesham) abbot, and endows the monastery--Benedictine monks colonise here--1250-1316, The church, from being but a humble structure, grows during these years into the noble edifice which belongs to this settlement--1540, Dissolved. Annual revenue, £437, 2s.--1763, During a violent storm the south side of the nave blown down--1830, The tower falls.