Halsham was part of an estate centred in Patrington which had been granted by King Cnut to the Archbishop in 1033; 7 carucates or so were held in 1086 as a berewick of the archbishop’s manor in Patrington. By the mid thirteenth century most of the Archbishop’s estate had been granted to the Forz family or its predecessors as counts of Aumale. The Constable family (founder, Ulbert, the constable under William le Gros, count of Aumale) had an estate in Halsham by the late 12th c., when Robert Constable mortgaged the vill. Drew de Bevrere also had a small estate. Some land was given to Thornton Abbey by Robert Constable by 1190 (VCH V, 32).
There is no mention of the church until 1207, when the advowson was in dispute between Robert Constable and St John’s college, Beverley. It had been given to the college by Robert Constable's uncle, and the canons won the dispute (VCH V, 37).