Ainstable with Ruckroft Parish, 1848

AINSTABLE, with Ruckroft (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Penrith, Leath ward, E. division of Cumberland, 4½ miles (N.N.W.) from KirkOswald, and 10 miles (N. by E.) from Penrith; comprising 4,177a. 18p., and containing 501 inhabitants. This parish, which is bounded on the west by the river Eden, and on the east and south by the Croglin, abounds with beautiful scenery, particularly in the vale of Croglin, and in the vicinity of Nunnery, the seat of Major Aglionby, who has erected a spacious and elegant mansion on the site of a Benedictine convent founded here by William II., the revenue of which at the Dissolution was £18. 18. 8. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 8. 2.; net income, £225; patron and impropriator, Major Aglionby. The vicarial tithes and all moduses were commuted for land under an inclosure act in 1818. The nave of the church was rebuilt in 1816, and the chancel soon afterwards. Near the parsonage-house is a chalybeate spring. John Leake, M.D., founder of the Westminster Lying-in Hospital, and author of some esteemed medical works, was born here, in 1729.

Extract from: A Topographical Dictionary of England comprising the several counties, cities, boroughs, corporate and market towns, parishes, and townships..... 7th Edition, by Samuel Lewis, London, 1848.