As no rent rolls have survived for the years between 1772 and 1846 we have to rely on the parish registers to trace the last of the Halliday family in Old Byland who were Christopher the son of John who was born at Reins in 1747, married Margaret Brown in 1778 and had two children George [1779] and James [1799]. Christopher took the tenancy of the farm when his father died in 1781 and held it until his own death in 1832 at the age of 87 and he was the last member of the family to live in Old Byland endng a period of at least 200 years when the name of Halliday was known in the parish.
KEMP
Although the Kemp family were in the village for a shorter period than others recorded in this brief history they are included as their stay in Old Byland started in 1707 when Guy Kemp was Rector of Old Byland and his daughter Edith was baptised at Sand Hutton though the event was recorded in the Old Byland parish registers. Guy had married Margaret Hebden at Hedon in 1706 and their next daughter Margaret was also baptised at Sand Hutton in 1710. Guy and Margaret then had twins William and Ann born in Old Byland in 1713 and three other children, Thomas [1716], Mary [1718] and Elizabeth [1722].
Guy Kemp died in 1725, his widow lived until 1769 and their son William became a shoemaker and eventually the parish clerk. He had eight children, Edith [1738],William [1739], Thomas [1741],John [1745], twins George and James [1749], Jeremiah [1751] and Jane [1764]. Thomas married Ann Lumley in 1772 and they left Old Byland, John followed in his father’s footsteps, became a shoemaker, married Mary Colley in 1767 and fathered ten children, Thomas [1768], Elizabeth [1769], William [1770], John [1774], James [1776], George [1778], Mary [1780], Joseph [1783] Jeremiah [1786] and another Thomas [1788].
Most of the children left the village as they grew older and the last member of the family to live in Old Byland was Jeremiah who married Ann Hutcheson of Osmotherley in 1810, had 33 acres in 1846 when he was living at a cottage on the site of the present-day Green Lea. Five years later the 1851 census recorded him as a farmer of 65 with 25 acres and as he died in 1856 a year before his widow Ann the descendants of the Old Byland rector of 1707 lived in the village for 150 years.
COLE
John Cole was tenant of a medium size farm in 1677 and as no Coles were paying hearth tax in 1673 it is assumed that John arrived in the village between those dates and he married Elizabeth Buttery in 1678 and was the father of Mary [1692], Benjamin [1694] and Dorothy [1697]. A Thomas Cole married Anne Wildon in 1702, their daughter Margaret was baptised in 1703 and they may have had a son Benjamin baptised in 1718 the same year that Benjamin son of John married Elizabeth Freer the daughter of the tenant of Ashberry Farm and John Cole born in 1720 may have been their son.
Benjamin born in 1718 married Elizabeth Fowel in 1751, they had three children Benjamin [1752], Thomas [1756] and Robert [1760] and Benjamin had a farm of 59 acres in 1772. Benjamin born 1752 married Esther Ewbanks in 1779, they had five children John [1780], William [1783], Edward [1784], Esther [1787] and Tommy [1794].
