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"SAXTON, a parish in the W.R. of Yorkshire."
"TOWTON, in the parish of Saxton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the S. E. of Tadcaster, famous for that battle bet. the forces of the houses of York and Lancaster, so fatal to the latter, on Palm-Sunday, 1461; both armies consisted of 100,000 men, and 36,000 fell, of whom 9 were noblemen, besides many knights and esquires. This engagement, which was the more cruel, because fathers killed their sons, and sons their fathers, and brothers gave each other no quarter, was so obstinate, that it lasted ten hours. The ploughmen sometimes turn up arrow-heads, spear-heads, broken javelins, &c. in the field."
[Transcribed by Mel Lockie © from
Stephen Whatley's England's Gazetteer, 1750]