WHITBY, North Riding of Yorkshire, a market-town, parliamentary borough and sea-port, and the scat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of Whitby, is situated on both aides of the river Esk, where it falls Into the German Ocean, in 54' 29' N. lat., 0' 35' W. long., distant 45 miles N.E. from York, 236 miles N.N.W. from London by road, and 2401 miles by the Great Northern and York and North Midland rail ways. Tho population of the parliamentary borough in 1851 was 10,989. The borough returns one member to the Imperial Parliament The living is a perpetual curacy in the srchtleaconry of Cleveland and diocese of York. Whitby Poor-Law Union contains 22 parishes and towoahlps, with an area of 90,371 acres, and a population in 1851 of 21,592.
The larger and better part of tho town of Whitby stands on the left bank of the Esk. The two parts of the town are connected by a stone bridge of 3 arches, 172 feet long, with a swivel bridge to admit the pang, of vessels to the inner harbour. The inner harbour L formed in the river, and is capacious and secure, with dry docks for building and repairing vessels The harbour has 10 feet of water in ordinary neap-tides, and 15 feet and upwards in spring-tldes. The piers which protect the harbour run out into the German Ocean, the western pier for about 1000 feet, forming a fine promenade ; and two inner piers break the force of the waves in stormy weather. At the end of the west pier is a lighthouse. The ground on each side of the river rises rapidly, especially on the right or east side, where the town is con tinued southward in a narrow column of houses along the bank of the river. On the west side the streets have been carried over the crown of the hill. The streets are well paved, and are lighted with gas Whitby possesses a town-hall and a custom-house. The bath-house, a spacious and elegant structure on the quay, contains baths, a sub scription library, and the museum of the Whitby Literary and Philo sophical Society. The parish church stands on the Aummit of a cliff about 350 feet high, and a flight of 194 steps leads to It from the town below. The original structure, which is of Norman date, has been much altered and repaired at various periods. The other episcopal places of worship are—a chapel of ease, erected in 1788; and the churches of St. Michael and St.. John the Evangelist, both of modern erection, and in the early English style. There are chapels for
Wesleyan, Primitive, and Association Methodists, Independents, United Presbyterians, Quakers, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians. There are in the town National, British, and Infant schools; a sub scription library; a literary and philosophical society, with a museum; the Whitby Institute, with a reading-room; a mechanics institute; a news-room; a temperance-hall ; a savings bank ; a dispensary ; and a seamen's hospital. The market is held on Saturday. Fairs are held on August 25th and on Martinmas day. A cheese fair is held in October, and a cattle show in August A county court is held in the town.
Whitby seems to have arisen originally from the fouudatiou of an abbey by Oswy, king of Northumberland, in A.D. 658 ; but both abbey and town were utterly destroyed by the Danes about 867, and lay in ruins after the Norman conquest, when the abbey was rebuilt, and the town became a considerable fishing town. The ruins of the abbey are near the church, overlooking the sea at the height of 300 feet. The beautiful central tower fell in 1830; the existing remains consist of the choir, the north transept (nearly entire), and part of the west front The town rose into commercial importance towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the working of the alum-mines iu the neighbourhood was greatly extended, the harbour was improved, and ship-building was carried on. The alum formerly exported to the continent is now sent chiefly to London and other British ports. The foreign exports are inconsiderable : the chief imports are timber, and hemp and flax from the Baltic. The manufacture of ornaments from jet found in the cliffs in the neighbourhood of the town affords some employment Whitby is still a very considerable sea-port. The number and ton nage of vessels registered as belonging to the port on December 31st, 1854, were :--Sailing-veesels under 50 tons 51, tonnage 1720; above 50 tons 339, tonnage 60,3S6: steam-vessels under 50 tons 4, tonnage 879. The number and tonnage of sailing-vessels which entered and cleared at the port during 1854 were—inwards, 725, tonnage 35,375; out wards, 131, tonnage 7862.
Numerous interesting fossil remains have been found in the neigh bourhood of Whitby, many of -which are in the Whitby Museum. In 1841 an entire specimen of the Plesiosaurus Grandipinnis,15 feet 6 inches long, was found in the lies near Whitby.