Editing Osbaldwick (section)

==Religion==
The [[Church of England]] [[parish church]] dedicated to St Thomas originally dates from the 12th century. Windows in the north wall date from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The church has been reordered and extended on a number of occasions, notably in 1877 by [[John Oldrid Scott]]<ref>{{cite web|title=About the Parish|url=http://www.osbaldwickandmurtonchurches.org.uk/parish/st_thomas/index.htm|website=The Parish of Osbaldwick with Merton}}</ref> and by later architects in both 1967 and 2005.

The Rev. William Ball Wright, noted genealogist and one of the first [[United Society|SPG]] [[Anglican Church in Japan|Anglican missionaries to Japan]], served as vicar of the parish from 1903 to 1912.<ref>{{cite news|title=Lost Clergymen: Mystery of 400 Clerics, Missing Yorks Vicar|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NZH19130405.2.143.22|volume=L|issue=15269|newspaper=The New Zealand Herald|date=5 April 1913}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rev. W.B. Wright of Tokyo|url=http://www.19thcenturyphotos.com/Rev-W.B.-Wright-of-Tokyo-123334.htm|website=The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography}}</ref>

A window in the church is a memorial to former Sheriff and Lord Mayor of York, James Barber.<ref name="Bulmers"/> It is the burial place of the Roman Catholic nun [[Mary Ward (nun)|Mary Ward]], who founded the Institute of the [[Blessed Virgin Mary]], also known as the [[Sisters of Loreto]]. The Church registers show that a Dorothy Paston Bedingfield, a superior of the order, was also buried here.<ref name="History"/>