UPSALL is a village and township in south Kilvington parish, 4 miles north-east from Thirsk. Upsall Castle, a modern mansion, occupies the site of the ancient castle of the Scopes of Upsall and Masham, who for nearly two centuries held this estate and occupied a prominent position in the country; on the death of Geoffrey le Scrope, 9th baron, in 1517, the barony fell into abeyance between his three sisters, and so continues among their numerous representatives; in the time of James I. Upsall was owned by Joseph Constable, second son of Sir John Constable, of Burton Constable, whose son John succeeded him, and being a firm supporter of the Royal cause, fled into Holland, where he died in exile, when the lordly castle of the Scropes fell into ruins, through the absence of the owner; but this family has a more lasting memorial in the mention of Lord scroop of Masham, by Shakespeare, “Henry V.” Act. ii. Scene 3: in 1768 the estate was purchased by Dr. John Turton, of Brasted Park, Kent, physician in ordinary to George III. who left his estate to Edmund, youngest son of the Rev. William Peters, who assumed the name and arms of Turton, and was sometime M.P. for Hedon, in the East Riding; he married Marianne, only daughter and heiress of Robert Bell, of Kildale, and was succeeded (1857) by his son, the late Edmund Henry Turton, 3rd Dragoon Guards, who married Lady Cecilia, eldest daughter of Joseph, 5th Earl of Milltown; upon the death of Mr. E. H. Turton, in July, 1896, the estates descended to his son, Edmund Russborough Turton esq. D.L., J.P. In 1876 the late Mr. E. H. Turton erected the present mansion, a handsome building in the Gothic style, with carved oak dados, a noble flight of stairs with carved balusters, and some oak chimney-pieces in the dining saloon; the entrance hall is supported by columns of polished red granite with carved caps and bases, supporting a waggon-shaped roof of York oak; a beautifully carved chimney-piece of Caen stone, illustrating two of AEsop’s fables, from the Great Exhibition of 1862, adorns the billiard-room, whilst some of the masterpieces of the Rev. William Peters R.A. mentioned above and an artist of note, hang on the walls, including a painting of the ancient castle taken by him in 1786; the “Rialto at Venice,” by Francesco Guardi, an original full-length portrait of the Earl of Mansfield, by David Martin, and a contemporary portrait of Sir John Constable; in the court yard has long stood a glacial boulder of red granite, supposed to be an ancient Scandinavian altar untouched by tool, as ordered in the xx Chapter of Exodus, 25 verse. The building of the first castle, a quadrangular structure with angle towers, and now used for farm purposes, is connected with a legend called the “Three Crocks of Gold.” The masons’ marks are still visible on all the blockers of the ancient fabric, and were the subject of a paper read by Mr. Godwin at the Royal Institute of Architects, in March, 1869. Attached to the castle is a museum, in which there is a fine collection of authenticated British birds, amongst which are rare specimens of the roller, hoopoe, golden oriel, forktailed petrel &c.; during the excavations for the building of the modern castle several muskets, many coins of copper and tin, and an ancient Roman amphora were found in a field near the village and are here preserved. Here is a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1887. E. R. Turton esq. is lord of the manor and the only landowner. There is no church. The acreage is 1,287; rateable value, £1,165; the population in 1911 was 119.