The growth of the village farms after the surrender of Byland abbey was due the hard work of several generations of farming families, a number of whose tenures in Old Byland lasted for over two hundred years and others for over a hundred years and this part of the history starts with the Storers/Storyes/Storrys who are one of the first families for whom there are any records. William Storer occupied Old Byland Grange or Storer’s Farm in 1556 and Mr Storye’s ground is marked on Christopher Saxton’s map of 1598 but as the Abbots of Byland had tenants some years before the Dissolution it is possible that they were at the Grange much earlier in the 16th century
Unfortunately the first entries in the Old Byland parish registers only date from 1648 and the baptisms of Katherine and Magdalen the daughters of Thomas Storye took place in 1654 and 1663 respectively and it is assumed that like Bryan and John Storye who joined him in a perambulation of the parish boundaries in 1650 he was a descendant of William. No record could be found of the baptism of Thomas Storye who married Mary Lumley in 1673 and had a son John [1674] and daughter Barbara [1675], another Thomas named junior in the registers had three daughters Elizabeth [1717], Frances [1721] and Mary [1723] and it is an indication of the family’s social status that his marriage to Ann Greenside took place at York Minster in 1716.
John Storye who took part in the 1650 perambulation had seven children, George [1654], Jane [1656], Ann [1659], Mary [1666], John [1668], Richard [1670] and Phillis [1673] and though he and Bryan must have been relations of Thomas they seem to have been a poorer branch of the family as he was taxed for a dwelling with three hearths in 1673, Bryan had a dwelling with one hearth and John was poor enough to have been granted an exemption. Neither were listed as tenants in 1677, 1700 or 1717 and in the absence of other evidence it is assumed that they worked as labourers on one of the farms. Elizabeth Storye for whom no baptism record could be found married John Abbot in 1712 when he was tenant of one of the larger farms.
Saxton’s map showed Mr Storye’s ground sited below Old Byland Grange and the use of the title Mr suggests that this branch of the family had middle class status which seems to have continued as the title of Mr was accorded to John Storye when he died in 1743 and it is assumed that he was the son of Thomas and in the absence of any tenancy records for the period between 1717 and 1772 it is assumed that he took the tenancy after the death of his father. He appears to have been the last member of the family to live in Old Byland but some had moved to Rievaulx where another John Storye had a daughter Rachel [1755] and Thomas had Ann [1757]. John died in Rievaulx in 1757 and Rachel married Richard Belt at Scawton church in 1781, they had a son in 1783 but she died of consumption at the age of 31 in 1786.
The sketchy nature of the parish registers and tenancy records make it impossible to provide a fuller picture of the Storye family but it can be seen that they were living at Old Byland Grange soon after the surrender of the abbey if not before, remained in Old Byland until 1743 and in the immediate locality until 1786 making their stay in the area one of at least 230 years covering the lordships of Sir William Pickering, Mary Lady Wotton, Sir Edward Hales and Lord Fauconberg. Although no connection could be traced between the Storyes of Old Byland and Thomas Storie who was the Rector of Scawton in 1575 it is possible that he was a member of the same family
