Mary Mitford

The manor of Hunmanby, which was held by barony, was given by the Conqueror to Gilbert de Gant, his relative by marriage. This Gilbert was also lord of Swaledale, and received extensive grants of lands in other parts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Bucks, Herts, &c., which had been filched from their English owners. Hunmanby remained in the possession of the Gants till the reign of Edward III., after which the manor passed, probably by the marriage of co-heiresses, in tripartite division known as Ross, Lennox, and Rossmore, to different families. Sometime in the 17th century the undivided manor, and a large portion of the soil, came into the possession of the Osbaldestons. Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Osbaldeston, Knight, married into the ancient family of Mitford, of Mitford Castle, Northumberland, and subsequently her great-grandson, Bertram Mitford, Esq., inherited the Osbaldeston estates. He thereupon assumed the additional surname of Osbaldeston before Mitford. He married his relative, Frances, daughter of Capt. Mitford. R.N., and died without issue in 1841. He was succeeded by his brother, the late Admiral Robert Mitford, who died in 1870, leaving an only daughter; but this entail being limited to the nearer male issue, the estate reverted to his cousin Lieut.Col. John Philip Osbaldeston Mitford, the present owner.

HUNMANBY HALL, the manorial residence of the Osbaldestons, is a red brick mansion, surrounded by gardens and woodlands. The entrance is through a Gothic archway, erected in 1829, in imitation of a monastic ruin. The residence of the earlier owners stood on an eminence now called Castle Hill, where traces of an ancient fortress are still visible