The New International Encyclopædia/Atkinson, John Christopher

ATKINSON, John Christopher ( 1814-1900). An English clergyman and antiquary. He was born at Goldhanger, in Essex, where his father was curate. In 1838 he graduated B.A. from Saint John's College, Cambridge, and three years later was ordained curate of Brockhampton in Herefordshire. In 1847 he became vicar of Danby, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, where he resided till his death. In 1887 he received from Durham University the degree of D.C.L.. and in 1891 he became a prebendary in York Cathedral. A delightful antiquary somewhat after the type of Gilbert White (q.v.), he is best known for his Forty Years in a Moorland Parish (1891). Among his other popular books are: The Walks, Talks, Travels, and Exploits of Two Schoolboys (1859); Play-Hours and Half-Holidays (1880); British Birds' Eggs and Nests (1861); and The Last of the Giant-Killers (1891). Among his learned works are: “A Glossary of the Dialect of the Hundred of Lonsdale,” in Transactions of the Philological Society (1867); A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect (1868) with Additions (1876); The History of Cleveland (incomplete, 1872-77). He also edited for the Surtees Society Cartularium Abbathiæ de Whiteby (1879); and Cartularium Abbathiæ Rievalle (1889).