It is first attested as
Horton in the
Domesday Book of 1086, with
in Ribblesdale being added already in the 13th century to distinguish it from
Horton, Lancashire. The place-name
Horton is a common one in England. It derives from
Old English horu 'dirt' and
tūn 'settlement, farm, estate', presumably meaning 'farm on muddy soil'. Horton in Ribblesdale was historically a part of
Ewcross wapentake in the
West Riding of Yorkshire. It became a parish town in the early 12th century when the church of
St. Oswald was established. This church was historically associated with the
Deanery of
Chester, and was part of the
Diocese of
York – though today it is part of the
Diocese of Leeds. The surviving parish records date back to 1556. In the 13th century the village and parish were ruled by rival monastic orders at
Jervaulx Abbey and
Fountains Abbey. Their dispute stemmed from a 1220 transfer of property here by William de Mowbray to the Fountains monks, which challenged the primacy of an earlier grant by
Henry III to Jervaulx's predecessors at Fors Abbey. Not until 1315 was this dispute firmly settled, when
Edward II confirmed the Abbot of Jervaulx as Lord of Horton in Ribblesdale. During the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, the monks' interests at Horton in Ribblesdale was attributed with an annual income of £32 and 5 shillings; and was given to the
Earl of Lennox. He, in turn, disposed of the manor lands about 1569 or 1570 to a syndicate consisting of John Lennard, Ralph Scrope, Ralph Rokebie, Sampson Lennard, William Forest, Robert Cloughe and Henry Dyxon. It seems the manor lands were eventually held solely by the family of John Lennard, the first named member of the syndicate. His daughter Lady Anne Lennard married Sir Leonard Bosville of Bradburne in
Kent and together they sold their interests at Horton in Ribblesdale during the reign of
Charles II to a partnership consisting of Lawrence Burton, Richard Wigglesworth and Francis Howson. In 1597 Horton in Ribblesdale, like so much of
northern England, was struck by plague. This is confirmed by the parish burial register, which lists 74 deaths that year compared to just 17 deaths during the preceding and succeeding years. Those lost to this pandemic amounted to roughly one-eighth of the parish's population. In 1725, local
squire John Armistead left an
endowment to establish a free
grammar school here. ==Governance==