Comparisons of the 1881 and 1901 censuses show that seven farm tenancies were transferred to different families and also throw light on marriages of members of Old Byland families.
Ann Wass married Lancelot Cossins in 1862, her brother Joseph Wass married Annie Hornby in 1879 and their daughter Sarah married John William Richardson Leckenby the son of William Leckenby and Ann nee Richardson. After Joseph Wass’s untimely death his widow Annie married John Lancelot Cossins who took the tenancy at Grange Farm. Robert Wood listed as a small farmer in 1901 had married Mary Jane Ellis the daughter of Thomas and Sarah in 1898. Sarah was Sarah Cole whose sister Jane married Stephen Lawn and another sister Mary Ann married Thomas Nicholson and their son Herbert and his family were living with the Lawns at the Board Inn in 1901. Robert Buckton living with his aunt Jane Freer at Ashberry was the son of her sister Elizabeth who married George Buckton in 1851. Mary Sigsworth the tenant at Weathercote Farm in 1881 was the widow of Barnabas and daughter of Marmaduke Taylor the tenant at Scawton Croft. Charles Wallinger listed in the 1881 census had a son Charles who married Ann York the daughter of William York who is mentioned below.
The census revealed that 5 cottages had disappeared by 1901 and seven families had ceased to live in the parish. The Kilvingtons, Wallingers and Wooleys were transients in the area who lived in Old Byland for less than twenty years but Isaac Hawkins who was living at Ashberry in 1881 was a member of the family who had lived in Rievaulx for 200 years and William York who was working as a carpenter in the village in 1881 was from a family who had lived in nearby Scawton for 220 years. George Cole left the village in 1890s but although the name of Cole had disappeared from the village Sarah Cole had married Thomas Ellis in 1865 and was at Mount Pleasant Farm in 1901.
