Part 1

# Memorials of old Durham ### By Unknown

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MEMORIALS OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND

General Editor: REV. P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S.

MEMORIALS OF OLD DURHAM

[Illustration]

[Illustration: DURHAM CATHEDRAL.

_From the Picture by J. M. W. Turner, R.A._]

MEMORIALS OF OLD DURHAM

EDITED BY HENRY R. LEIGHTON, F.R.HIST.S.

WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS

[Illustration: colophon]

LONDON GEORGE ALLEN & SONS, 44 & 45, RATHBONE PLACE, W. 1910

[_All Rights Reserved_]

TO THE

RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DURHAM, K.G., _Lord-Lieutenant of the County Palatine of Durham_,

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY

HIS KIND PERMISSION

PREFACE

The Palatinate of Durham possesses special claims to the attention of students of history. It alone amongst the English counties was for centuries ruled by Sovereign Bishops possessing their own peers, troops, mint, and legal courts. In every respect it was a miniature kingdom, in its constitution like only to the well-known Prince-Bishoprics of the Continent.

In the past the county has been favoured by a succession of historians, who have dealt more or less fully with its parochial history. More recently Dr. Lapsley and the contributors to the "Victoria History" have minutely examined the various phases of its early constitution. In the publications of the local archæological societies, the greater mansions and most of the more interesting churches have been dealt with in detail.

In view, therefore, of the now considerable accumulated literature upon the county, it has been a matter of no small difficulty to select subjects which should be helpful to the scholar as well as interesting to the general reader.

It has been endeavoured to make this volume serve a twofold purpose. Firstly, to awaken a greater interest in the past of this most historic district, and secondly, to serve as an introduction to the greater histories of the county. Some day, perhaps, we may hope to see an edition of Surtees’, revised to a recent date, and covering those portions of the county which he did not live to deal with.

Through the courtesy of the Earl of Durham we are enabled to reproduce for the first time the portrait of William James, sometime Bishop of Durham. Lord Strathmore has kindly enabled us to include the very interesting photograph of Streatlam Castle. Thanks are also due to Mrs. Greenwell, of Greenwell Ford, for the photograph of Fen Hall. Mr. J. Tavenor-Perry has supplied the sketches of the cathedral sanctuary knocker and the dun cow panel, besides the valuable measured drawings of Finchale Priory. The remaining sketches in pen and ink have been contributed by Mr. Wilfrid Leighton.

In conclusion, in addition to thanking the contributors of the various chapters for the care with which they have treated their subjects, thanks are due to the Rev. William Greenwell and to the Rev. Dr. Gee, who have both made useful suggestions.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Historical Introduction By the Rev. HENRY GEE, D.D., F.S.A. 1

Topography of Durham By Miss M. HOPE DODDS 24

Folk-lore of the County of Durham By Mrs. NEWTON W. APPERLEY 44

The Legends of Durham By Miss FLORENCE N. COCKBURN 65

Place-names in the Durham Dales By W. MORLEY EGGLESTONE 79

Durham Cathedral By the Rev. WILLIAM GREENWELL, M.A., etc. 108

Finchale Priory By J. TAVENOR-PERRY 130

Monkwearmouth and Jarrow By the Rev. DOUGLAS S. BOUTFLOWER, M.A. 146

The Parish Churches of Durham By WILFRID LEIGHTON 162

Monumental Inscriptions By EDWIN DODDS 182

The Castles and Halls of Durham By HENRY R. LEIGHTON 198

Durham Associations of John Wesley By the Rev. T. CYRIL DALE, B.A. 229

The Old Families of Durham By HENRY R. LEIGHTON 239

Index 257

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Durham Cathedral _Frontispiece_

(_From the picture by J. M. W. Turner, R.A._)

PAGE, OR FACING PAGE

Portrait of William James, Bishop of Durham, 1606-1617 6

(_From the painting at Lambton Castle_)

The Market-Cross at Darlington 25

An Old Tithe-barn at Durham 27

Bishop Pudsey’s Charter to the City of Durham, and Pope Alexander III.’s Confirmation thereof 30

(_From a copy made by Christopher Fawcett, of Newcastle, originally issued as one of the Allan Tracts_)

Jack Crawford’s Birth-place, Sunderland 35

The Palace, Bishop Auckland 38

(_From a drawing by W. Daniell, R.A._)

Barnard Castle 40

(_From a drawing by E. Dayes_)

Brancepeth Castle in 1777 42

(_From an old Print_)

The Palace Green, Durham 64

(_From an old Print_)

The Dun Cow Panel, Durham Cathedral 67

Hilton Castle from the North 70

Lambton Castle, 1835 74

(_From the picture by T. Allom_)

The Kepier Hospital 90

The Crypt, Durham Cathedral 112

The Sanctuary Knocker, Durham Cathedral 119

Durham Cathedral: The Western Towers from a window in the Monks’ Library 120

(_From a drawing by R. W. Billings, 1844_)

Piscina in Choir, Finchale Priory 135

Choir, Finchale Priory 137

The Church from the North-west, Finchale Priory 139

Plan of the Ruins of Finchale Priory 140

Front of the Chapter House, Finchale Priory 141

Crypt under Refectory, Finchale Priory 142

The Prior’s Lodging, Finchale Priory 143

Monkwearmouth Church 146

Old Stone, Monkwearmouth 148

Ornamental Stonework, Monkwearmouth Cathedral 153

Jarrow Church 154

(_From a photograph by G. Hastings_)

Early English Snakes, Monkwearmouth Church 157

Norton Church 172

Boldon Spire 176

Anglo-Saxon Stone at Chester-le-Street 184

Witton Castle in 1779 198

(_From a contemporary print by Bailey_)

Lumley Castle 202

Hilton Castle: West Front 206

Old Tower at Ravensworth Castle 210

The Cross at Ravensworth 212

Streatlam Castle 214

(_From a photograph by E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle_)

Raby Castle in 1783 218

(_From a contemporary Print_)

Gainford Hall 222

The Old Hall at Thorpe Thewles 223

Fen Hall 224

(_From a photograph by Mrs. Greenwell_)

A Corner of Washington Hall 225

The Doorway, West Rainton Hall 227

General John Lambton, 1710-1794 244

(_From the portrait by G. Romney at Lambton Castle_)

Hoppyland Park 248

Portrait of Sir George Bowes 254

(_From the painting at Streatlam Castle_)

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

BY THE REV. HENRY GEE, D.D., F.S.A., MASTER OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, DURHAM

In the older maps of England, that portion of the country which we call the county of Durham is generally described as "Episcopatus Dunelmensis," or the Bishopric of Durham, or simply the Bishopric. A further glance at the adjacent districts of Northumberland and Yorkshire shows that there are portions larger or smaller of those counties which are marked as integral parts of Durham. These members of the Bishopric are Norhamshire, Islandshire, and Bedlingtonshire in Northumberland, with the Manors of Northallerton, Howden, and Crayke, and certain lands adjacent to them in Yorkshire. These portions of the Bishopric were only cut off from it and merged in their own surrounding counties within the memory of persons still living. Indeed, the distinction between Bishopric folk and County folk--that is to say, people of Durham and people of Northumberland--is not yet quite forgotten, and looks back to a very interesting piece of English history that has to do with a state of things in the North of England which has now passed away.

Visitors who come to the city of Durham to-day and look on cathedral and castle have some vague idea of a time when the Bishop of Durham had "the power of life and death," as it is popularly called; but what this means, and what the peculiar constitution of the neighbourhood was, they do not, as a rule, understand. It may be worth while to try and get a clearer view of the Bishopric of Durham, and more especially of the main portion between Tyne and Tees, which forms the modern county. We to-day are so much accustomed to a strong central Government controlling the whole of England, that we find it hard to think of a time when certain districts had a large independence, and were ruled by a local Earl or by Bishop, rather than by the King in the capital. Yet there were such times both in England and upon the Continent. The district so ruled is known as a franchise or liberty, and the history of its independence, won, maintained, or lost, generally forms an attractive subject of study, with many exciting episodes in it. The assertion is certainly true of Durham; and although it is not possible to go into detail within the space of an introductory article like this, it may be possible to explain what the Bishopric was, and how it came to get its distinctive characteristics and its later modification.

The franchise of the Bishop of Durham may be most aptly understood if we try to regard all the members of it mentioned above as a little kingdom, of which Durham City was the capital. The Bishop of Durham was virtually the King of this little realm, and ruled it, not only as its spiritual head, but as its temporal head. As its spiritual head, he was in the position of any ordinary Bishop, and possessed exactly the same powers as other prelates. As its temporal head, he had a power which they generally did not possess. Dr. Freeman has explained his position in the following words: "The prelate of Durham became one and the more important of the only two English prelates whose worldly franchises invested them with some faint shadow of the sovereign powers enjoyed by the princely Churchmen of the Empire. The Bishop of Ely in his island, the Bishop of Durham in his hill-fortress, possessed powers which no other English ecclesiastic was allowed to share.... The external aspect of the city of itself suggests its peculiar character. Durham alone among English cities, with its highest point crowned, not only by the cathedral, but by the vast castle of the Prince-Bishop, recalls to mind those cities of the Empire--Lausanne, or Chur, or Sitten--where the priest, who bore alike the sword and the pastoral staff, looked down from his fortified height on a flock which he had to guard no less against worldly than against ghostly foes."[1] And this sovereignty was no nominal thing, for the Bishop came to have most of the institutions that we connect with the thought of a kingdom. He had his own courts of law, his own officers of state, his own assemblies, his own system of finance, his own coinage, and, to some extent, he had his own troops and his own ships. As we understand all this, we shall appreciate the significance of the lofty throne erected by Bishop Hatfield in Durham Cathedral. It was placed there in the flourishing days of the Bishop’s power, and is not merely the seat of a Bishop, but the throne of a King. So too, hard by, in the Bishop’s castle, as the chronicler tells us, there were two seats of royalty within the hall, one at either end. No doubt it was before the Bishop, sitting as Prince in one of these, that the great tenants of his franchise--the Barons of the Bishopric, as they were actually called--did homage in respect of their lands. Perhaps, when he sat in the other from time to time as Bishop, his clergy and others recognized his spiritual authority, or submitted themselves to his "godly admonitions."

The county of Durham has been marked out by nature, more or less distinctly, as separate from the neighbouring counties. The Tees on the south, and the Tyne on the north, with the Derwent running from the western fells to the Tyne, sufficiently differentiate it. In what follows we will keep mainly to the district represented by the modern county, leaving out of view the members outside to which reference has been made. Its history, until modern times, is largely ecclesiastical, owing to its peculiar constitution, in which the Bishop plays so important a part. It had, indeed, virtually no history until the Church became the great civilizer in Northumbria. Its prehistoric remains are few, if interesting. Its occupation by Brigantes, a Celtic tribe, is a large fact with no details. In the days when Romans made the North of Britain their own, there is still no history beyond the evidence of Roman roads, with camps at Binchester, Lanchester, and Ebchester. Certainly no Roman Christian remains have been found as yet; but when in the seventh century Christianity came to the Anglian invaders who settled in these parts after the departure of the Romans, the history of the English people was born within the confines of the modern county. Bede, the first of English scholars and writers, compiled his history in the monastery of Jarrow. He tells us all we know of the earliest Durham Christians--of Benedict Biscop and of Hilda, who, with himself, are the first three historic personages in the district. In one pregnant sentence he tells us how churches were built in different places, how the people flocked together to hear the Word, and how landed possessions were given by royal munificence to found monasteries. These monasteries became the centres of religion, civilization, and learning all over Northumbria; and, in particular, the monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth, twin foundations of Benedict Biscop, were the commencement of everything best worth having between Tyne and Tees.

Thus religion, art, and literature, were born in Durham. In the last years of the eighth century a terrible calamity fell upon the wider province, of which Durham was only a part, when the Danes raided Lindisfarne, where had been the starting-point of the Northumbrian Church. When the mother was thus spoiled and laid desolate, the daughters trembled for their safety, but they were left for awhile, not unassailed, yet not destroyed. In those days of disturbed peace further gifts of land were made to the Church, and in these we trace large slices of Durham handed over in the ninth century to the monks of Lindisfarne by those who had the power to give. And here we must notice that the great treasure of the monastery at Lindisfarne was the body of St. Cuthbert, the great Northumbrian saint, to whom the endowments named were most solemnly dedicated. They formed the nucleus of the Bishopric--the beginnings of the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert, which is only another name for the Bishopric. Repeated invasion of the Danes at last drove the monks out of Lindisfarne, and destroyed the Durham monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth. The Lindisfarne monks left their island, and bore away for safety’s sake the body of St. Cuthbert, and after various wanderings brought it back to rest within the fortified enclosure of Chester-le-Street, and so within the confines of Durham. Here the Danish conquerors confirmed previous gifts, and added others to them, until the lands of St. Cuthbert increased very widely, whilst Chester-le-Street became a centre of pilgrimage.

For 113 years Chester-le-Street was the Christian metropolis of the North, until the final fury of the Danes began to fall upon Northumbria. In 995 another exodus began, and the clergy bore off the body to Ripon, returning a few months later when the tempest seemed to have abated. Many legends cluster round this return, but in any case the fact is clear that the Bishop and his company took up their abode, not at Chester-le-Street, but on the rocky peninsula of Dun-holm, or Durham, which the River Wear nearly encircled. In this way the seat of ecclesiastical authority was changed for the second time, and Durham City now became the centre of the still-expanding Bishopric. Great prestige gathered round the Saxon cathedral in which the shrine of the saint was placed, for Kings and Princes vied with one another in doing honour to it. So Canute, walking to the spot with bare feet, gave fresh donations of Durham land and confirmed what others had bestowed.

But again dark days fell upon the North. To say nothing of Scottish encroachments upon the Bishopric, which were sustained in the eleventh century, the worst blow fell when the Norman Conquest took place. In no part of England was a more determined patriotism opposed to William than in Durham. Submission was nominal, and desperate efforts were made to keep Northumbria as a separate kingdom by placing Edgar Atheling upon an English throne in York. When the Conqueror made a Norman called Cumin his Viceroy in these parts, the men of Durham rose and murdered him within their city. It was an act that William never forgave and never forgot. He wrought such a deed of vengeance that the whole of the smiling district from York to Durham was turned into a wilderness. When he came to die he is represented to have said of this ruthless episode: "I fell on the English of the Northern counties like a ravening lion. I commanded their houses and corn, with all their tools and furniture, to be burnt without distinction, and large herds of cattle and beasts of burden to be butchered wherever they were found. It was thus I took revenge on multitudes of both sexes, by subjecting them to the calamity of a cruel famine; and by so doing, alas! became the barbarous murderer of many thousands, both young and old, of that fine race of people."

William placed foreigners in most positions of importance. To the See of Durham he appointed Walcher from Lorraine, and the new prelate came from his consecration at Winchester, escorted across the belt of depopulated, ravaged land, until he reached Durham. North of the Wear the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert was as yet largely untouched, but the men of Durham had no love for the foreigner, and no wish to regard him as their lord. Fortunately for him the Earl of Northumbria stood his friend, and built for him in 1072 the Norman castle overlooking

[Illustration: Portrait and Signature]

the Wear, which was destined to be the Bishop’s fortress for seven and a half centuries. Within that castle Walcher was safe, and, helped by the Earl, he ruled his recalcitrant flock, not always wisely, but with all his power, until an insurrection which he strove to quell cost him his life. He died, however, not as mere Bishop of Durham, but as Earl of Northumbria as well, for when Waltheof the Earl died, William appointed Walcher in his place. Thus in the hands of the first Bishop after the Conquest was held the double authority of Bishop and of Earl. Whatever may have been the powers of the prelate in the Bishopric until this time, it is certain that from this point he claims a double authority within the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert. As for Walcher, stern example was made of what resistance to the Bishop’s lawful authority would mean, when William laid waste the land that had escaped ten years before, and extended his ravages north of the Wear and towards the Tyne.

Just before the eleventh century expired, an event of considerable importance took place when Bishop Carileph began the great cathedral which still crowns the height above the Wear at Durham. About the same time an understanding was reached between the Earl of Northumbria and the Bishop, by which all the rights and the independence of the Bishopric seem to have been recognized and confirmed, so that henceforward the Bishop was the undisputed lord of the lands of St. Cuthbert.[2] When in 1104 the cathedral was sufficiently advanced to receive the body of the saint within its eastern apse, a great ceremony took place, which served to carry the prestige of Durham beyond anything it had yet reached. Henceforward the stream of pilgrims which had steadily flowed to the shrine, whether at Lindisfarne, or Chester-le-Street, or Durham, swelled in volume until the attractiveness of Durham exceeded that of any place of pilgrimage in England. Only when the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury drew to it so large a share of patronage from the end of the twelfth century did a serious rival manifest itself. Carileph had divided the territory of St. Cuthbert, reserving part for the Bishop, and part for the Benedictine monks whom he placed in the new cathedral. Thus the Bishop had his estates henceforward, and the monks had theirs. At first the portion belonging to the monastery seems to have been disappointingly poor, a fact very probably due to recent ravages whose brand was not yet effaced. By degrees, however, the lands of prior and convent improved, and the gifts of pilgrims made the monks prosperous.

The Bishop who presided when the body of St. Cuthbert was translated in 1104 was Ralph Flambard. He was not the character to allow the prestige of the Bishopric to decline. Under him the resources of the county were ably administered, and the organization of his dominions was carefully developed. By degrees the traces of the Norman harrying were obliterated. How fair a country Durham was in the early twelfth century we may discover from the poetry of a monk from the monastery who was called Lawrence, and wrote a description of events and localities connected with Durham. He speaks of its scenery, its excellent products, its fine breed of horses, its open-air amusements, to say nothing of indoor revels at Christmas. The twelfth century, with sparse population, open moor and plain, and increasing prosperity, is far away from the noise of anvil and forge, the smoke of endless coke ovens, the squalor of congested towns, as they exist in the county to-day. But the scene changed too soon. After the accession of Stephen in 1135 fierce dynastic feuds broke out, and the Scots joined in the anarchy of the time, attempting to annex the territory of St. Cuthbert to the Lowlands of Scotland. Durham suffered severely in the conflict, and a mock-bishop, supported by the Scots, actually held Durham Castle and City against the lawful prelate. At length more quiet days came, and in the reign of Henry II. Bishop Pudsey, the King’s own cousin, succeeded in resisting the centralizing efforts of the monarch, and although he had to bow to the imperious Henry on more than one occasion, he carried on in the main the liberties and rights of the Bishopric. A little later he was enabled to round off the Bishopric lands when he bought the wapentake of Sadberge from King Richard, the only important part of the county which had never yet been included in the territory of St. Cuthbert. From this time the Earl of Northumbria disappears, and at last there is no rival whatsoever to powers which had been steadily growing. The Bishopric is now complete in head and members, and the Bishop is virtual sovereign of it, whilst the King is supreme outside. At this stage we may freely call the Bishop’s dominions the Palatinate of Durham--a name which continues to be usual until the power so described is, in 1836, annexed to the Crown. The word "Palatinate" is a conventional legal title which the lawyers brought into fashion to describe a great franchise with its independent jurisdiction.[3]