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MEMORIALS
OF
NORTH TYNDALE,
AND ITS
I
FOUR
SURNAMES.
BT
EDW. CHARLTON, M.D., D.C.L.
SECOND EDITION.
Sir Robert Bowes, in bis report upon the state of the Borders in 1550, tells us that “the
countreye of N orth Tynedaill, which is more plenished with wild and misdemeaned people, may
make of men upon horsbak and upon foote about six hundred. They stand most by fewer
surnames, whereof the Charfetons be the chiefe. And in all services or charge impressed uppon
that countrey the Charlton.,, and such as be under their rule, be rated for the one-half of that
countrey, the Robsons for a quarter, and the Dodds and Mylbornes for another quarter. Of
every surname there be certayne families or graves (graynes) of which there be certeyne
hedesmen that leadeth and answereth all for the rest.”
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE :
PRINTED BY J. M. CARR, STEAM PRINTING WORKS, 21, LOW FRIAR STREET,
1871,
��TO THE
PRESENT “ HEDESMAN OF THE FOREMOST GRAYNE/'
WILLIAM HENRY CHARLTON,
OF HESLEYSIDE,
THESE NOTES ON NORTH TYNEDALE ARE OFFERED BY
HIS AFFECTIONATE BROTHER,
EDWARD CHARLTON, M.D.
�The compiling of the following pages has been, a relaxa
tion from the severer duties of a laborious profession.
They
are only brief sketches of what might be a more extended and
perfect work.
The early condition of Tynedale may not
admit of much more illustration; but, could the whole of the
two Iters of Wark be given to the public, and, along with
these, could there but be printed the wondrous stores of
Border Correspondence of the sixteenth century, one half of
which is still buried in the Record Office, they would, together,
form a volume which, though a large one, would not, we trust,
be unacceptable to the public.—E. C.
7, Eldon Square,
July 23rd, 1870.
�\
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
The former limited issue of this pamphlet having been
rapidly exhausted, we have pleasure in presenting the present
edition in a considerably extended form.
We have obtained a
number of letters from the stores in the Record Office, relative
to North Tynedale; and though some of these need not be
published in this little work entire, there are others so racy,
and couched in such curious language, that we have not
hesitated to embody them in these pages.
7, Eldon Square,
June lit, 1871.
��MEMORIALS OF NORTH TYNDALE
AND ITS FOUR SURNAMES.
The earliest sketch of this once little known, and. seldom visited
district, may be composed from the study of the remains of primaeval
occupation yet visible on its open moors, or ensconced in its natural
woods. Cultivation has done little here; the land lies too high for
the growth of corn with success; while stock feeding, the almost
universal pursuit among the farmers, preserves, for the antiquary, the
original features of the country. The plough has obliterated the
traces of our ancestors, in the more fertile districts of England; but
here, in the yet unchanged ground of the North Tyne, the hill forts,
the dykes, the camps, and even the resting-places of the dead, have
been maintained uninjured. The whole district of the North Tyne
abounds in traces of early occupation. Whether the land was first
occupied by a Celtic people, or the Celts were only the conquerors and
supplanters of a still earlier race, we leave to abler pens, and to future
investigators; but all along the course of the North Tyne, from
Chollerford to Kielder, there are hill forts, camps, dykes, and cairns,
attesting the former existence of a considerable population. Probably,
in the earliest times, each small district was under the rule of some
petty chieftain, who, as a matter of course, was at war, or had a
grievance against his neighbour. Hence arose many of the isolated
hill forts, the strongholds at the Countess Park, the hill fort at the
top of the Garret Holt (Caer yt Holt). Each chieftain tried to secure
his worldy goods, his cattle, his wives, and his children, from the
sudden incursions of his neighbouring foe. Each family had, probably,
some feud, which, like the vendetta of Corsica in our times, was
handed down from father to son. Of the weapons of these warriors,
few, indeed, have come down to us. Some stone axes; and, probably
of later date, a few elegant chisels, or axes, of bronze, have been
�8
discovered in the district. The burial mounds, or cairns, have afforded
some rude, cord-marked or thong-marked urns, sometimes with por
tions of jet necklaces and beads; and, in one instance, on the
demolition of a cairn at Ridsdale, there was found a necklace of
pure gold beads, which is now preserved in the Newcastle Museum.
Four or five years ago, a gold armlet was discovered near Bellingham,
but, under the pressure of the absurd laws regarding treasure trove,
it was consigned to the melting pot. Such are the faint traces of
British occupation; and, in North Tyne proper, the mighty Roman
host has left scarcely an abiding mark, while the neighbouring valley
of Redesdale presents Roman signs in abundance. The Roman
armies seem to have passed by North Tynedale altogether; and history
tells us nothing of this valley till centuries after the Romans had
retired from Great Britain. A single fragment of a cross, now
preserved in the Newcastle Museum of Antiquaries, shews that, as
early as the seventh or eighth century, Christianity was fully
established here. The fragment alluded to, was found a little above
the present church of Falstone, on a spot marked with “Ruins” , in
Armstrong’s map, of 1769. The inscription on this fragment is
written in two different modes, but in the same language, in Roman
uncial letters on the one side, in Anglo-Saxon Runes on the other.
Both inscriptions have suffered terribly from time and illusage, but
they are evidently alike in signification, and the letters that are
obliterated on the one side, are, in most cases, to be made out on
the other. They have been cut on a monumental cross, and run as
follow :—
“ Eomaer set this (cross) up for his
Uncle, Hroethbert. Pray for his soul.”
It is probable that the old Anglo-Saxon runes used in Pagan times,
were, at the date of the erection of this cross, fast disappearing before
the influence of the Latin Christianity introduced by St. Augustine
and his followers; and hence, both the old form of writing, and the
new, have been perpetuated on this solitary fragment. Hrcethbert
is equivalent to the Robert of our day, and the descendants
of Robert would be Robertsons, or Robsons, which now, as of old,
is the chief surname about Falstone. We think we have evidence
here of the Robsons some twelve hundred years ago, in the very
�district where, till lately, they held sway. Whether old Hrcethbert
was the ancestor of the wight-riding Rohsons of the old play
—11 Honest men, save doing a little shifting for their living”—
we will not say.
The Charltons and the Milburns are both
Anglo-Saxon names, bnt the Charltons do not appear till after
the Conquest, and the Milburns are not heard of till several centuries
later. Of the fourth surname—that of Dodd—distinct records even
of the orign of the name are given to us by a right early writer—
Reginald of Durham, w’ho flourished about the year 1150. Here we
have, indeed, almost the first distinct historic traces of North Tynedale
story. Reginald tells us, that when the Danes burst upon Lindisfarne,
in the seventh century, the monks bore off, into the mountains, the
body of St. Cuthbert. From place to place they transported it, till
their number, by famine and desolation, was reduced to four. And
one of these was Eilaf; and he, and his companions, were exhausted
by hunger, and they had no food, save the salted head of a horse and a
single cheese. And Eilaf longed for this cheese, till so great was his
desire thereof, that he hid it, and began to eat thereof. And at noon
the bearers of St. Cuthbert’s body rested in a desert place, and sought
to make their midday meal ‘ and, behold, the cheese on which they
had relied was missing. Then the brethren prayed that the thief
might be changed into a fox, and so there issued straightway from
the wood a fox, vzith the identical cheese in his jaws, which the animal
vainly tried to devour, and as vainly to get rid of, and much laughter
did this cause unto the brethren ; and it was noted, that Eilaf, who
had stolen the cheese, was absent. And they knew that he now
writhed before them in the shape of a fox; and they having been
sufficiently amused, did pray to God, and to St. Cuthbert, to restore
to him his human shape: and, from that day, all the race of Eilaf
bore the name of Tod (Dodd), which, in the mother tongue, signifies
a fox. In the same writer we find the first mention of Bellingham
and Wark, then, as now, the two principal villages in North Tyne.
Reginald relates this story, as having occurred in his own time, or little
before it. We may, therefore, conclude it to have occurred about the
period of the Norman Conquest. There was a man named Sproich,
who was appointed by the almoner of Durham to repair the bridges in
the North Tyne, and he was dwelling at Bainlengham (Bellingham), in
�Tiiidale, with his wife and his only daughter, Eda Brown. And, asan only
child, they loved to see her dressed in rich and fine garments, though
they were poor themselves. And Eda, like many of her sex, delayed
the finishing of her fine garment, “ indumentum de fustico tincto,”
(a brown dyed stuff); and she was working at it on the mom of St.
Laurence’s feast, and her mother rebuked her, saying, she should cease
to work, and prepare to go to church. But Eda was obstinate, and
replied she would work to what hour she liked, but would finish her
gown. And, as she spoke, her left hand, which held the costly stuff,
contracted thereupon, so that she could not move the fingers to open
the hand, nor could they, by force, draw away the cloth they grasped.
And all human aid being vain, they betook themselves to the little
church of St. Cuthbert, the Glorious Confessor; and, as they went
thither, they caused the sufferer to drink of the Well of St. Cuthbert.
*
And, during the whole of that night, the parents and the girl lay
prostrate in prayer in the church, and when it was about the small hours
of the morning, the figure of the saint arose at the altar, and, descending
into the aisle, touched the contracted hand of the sufferer. The girl,
terrified by the apparition, shrieked out, and her mother (anima ducta
foeminea), “just like a woman,” seized her daughter’s hand between
her own palms, and the miracle was left but half completed, for,
though the cloth dropped from her closed fingers, she could not yet
open her hand. Thus they continued till the morning, when the
priest, at mass, having read the Gospel, ordered all in the church to
make a novena of nine Our Fathers for the recovery of the maiden.
And, behold, she immediately recovered, and joyfully held up her
healed hand in the church. And, of this miracle, there are at this
day witnesses. All the men, women, boys, and girls, of the said
village of Bellingham, and the priest himself—whose name is Samuel
—vouches for it, and Sproich, her father, never speaks of it without
tears. And it came to pass, that the said girl was about to be
married, and the steward of the Earl (of Badenoch ?) demanded a
heavy fine from the parents, and when they refused to pay, he entered
their dwelling, and took from thence tlieir cow, and drove her to
Wark, and placed her there in the stable of one Elsi, a man of his
* This well still exists in the churchyard, and is called “ Cuddy’s Well ” to
this day.—E. C.
�11
following. And Sproich invoked the aid of St. Cuthbert against the
spoliation, and Eilaf, the bailiff, sneered thereat, and said he knew
not the man. And, behold, while he sate at supper at Wark, there
came a mighty flash of lightning, and consumed the building; but
the cow escaped unhurt, and, bellowing loudly, took her way back to
Bellingham. Walter, of Flanders, lived a little before that time at
Bellingham, and, “ being a man of evil mind, he one day took forcible
possession of an axe in Sproich’s house, and sneered at the power of
St. Cuthbert, whose aid Sproich invoked on the spot; and. behold, at
the first stroke of his work, the axe head flew from the shaft, and,
striking him on the head, bore him to the ground.” Another miracle
is recorded of a man having lost his axe, while working at the bridge,
at the Bridge Ford, and recovering it through the aid of St. Cuthbert.
The Bridge Ford is nearly a mile below Bellingham; the river here
is shallow, and divided by an island, but no traces of the bridge now
remain.
Another hundred years pass away, and we are then presented
with a vigorous contemporary portrait of men and manners in North
Tynedale towards the close of the thirteenth century.
It is well known that the present boundaries between England and
Scotland have not existed from the earliest times. North Tynedale
was twice after the Conquest under the Scottish yoke. Cumberland,
and a part of Northumberland, including North Tynedale, down to at
least Chollerford Bridge, were ceded by King Stephen to David King
of Scotland, but were resumed by Henry II., in the third year of his
reign. Shortly after, however, Tynedale was again granted to
William the Lion, in 1159, to be held under homage only, and Jura
Regalia were enjoyed there by the Scottish sovereigns. In North
Tynedale, therefore, the Scottish courts were regularly held, and,
fortunately, among the records still preserved in London, there has
been discovered a full “Roll” of the Justices itinerant of King
Alexander III. of Scotland, of the pleas held at Wark, in Tynedale,
in the thirty-first year of that monarch’s reign, or in 1279. This was
the same King Alexander, who, in 1263, defeated Hakon, the old
King of Norway, at the battle of Largs, in Ayrshire; and possibly
some of the stout soldiers of the North Tyne crossed swords with the
Norseman on that eventful day, just as their ancestors, five centuries
�12
before, had resisted the invading Danes on their own Eastern shores.
Of the Scottish records, only this single one has been preserved. It
is a long document, in Latin, occupying no less than sixty closelyprinted pages, in the only case where it has been printed, viz., in the
Newcastle Volume of the Transactions of the Archseological Institute.
The now quiet little village of Wark was, in Saxon times, probably
the capital of Tynedale j at all events, it was so shortly after the
Conquest, and continued to be so regarded during the Scottish occu
pation. When Tynedale came under English rule once more, Wark
still was the capital of the district. Here, upon the Mote Hill (the
hill of meeting), were held the Courts of the Liberties of Tynedale,
and, of the proceedings of these courts, there have fortunately been
preserved the two precious records illustrative of the early history of
North Tyne. One of these documents has been already printed, as
before stated; the other is still in manuscript in the Record Office,
but a full authentic copy has been made, and which is now in
possession of the Society of Antiquaries of this town. It is the
Record of the Session of the Liberties of Tynedale, held at
Wark, in the reign of King Edward I., at the Easter term, in
1293.
Tynedale was now once more under English rule, and
has so continued to the present day. In these two documents
we have a most lively picture of the manners and customs of
those remote times. We are presented with the names of the holders
of land, and of their tenants, many of which names are found in the
district at the present day. The Swinburnes held the lands at
Chollerton which they now possess; the Charltons owned the lands
at Hesleyside, but still resided at their old family seat at Charlton,
on the opposite side of the river; the Robsons and Dodds are fre
quently mentioned, but of the Milburns we hardly find a trace, though
a Milburn is mentioned as residing at Longhorsely in 1322. These
are the four graynes, or clans, which ruled in North Tynedale three
centuries later. One powerful family has entirely disappeared from
the district, their name alone surviving in the chief town of Tynedale
—viz., the De Bellinghams. They seem to have ruled with great
power, as officers of the Scottish King Alexander III., over much
of the country around Bellingham, subject, however, to the
higher powers of the Cornyns, who seem to have been the lords
�13
paramount, and who are known to have possessed Tarset and Dala
Castles higher up the Tyne.
William de Bellingham was sheriff of Tynedale at this time, 1279.
He was, likewise, Forester of Tynedale, under the King of Scotland.
His son Richard married the heiress of Burneshead in Westmore
land, and his descendants resided long at the old mansion of Levens
Hall, near Kendal. Becoming impoverished, they sold Levens to
the Grahams, in 1689, and are now represented, by Sir Alan E. Bel
lingham, of Castle Bellingham, in Ireland. Within the last hundred
years money was paid to the representatives of the Bellinghams, as
quit rents for lands at the Haining, in North Tynedale. Alan de
Bellingham left only two daughters, heiresses, one of whom was married
to Sir Roland Bellasis, of Bellasis, in the County of Durham. In these
two most important documents, the name of the Charltons, who after
wards rose to be the leading family in the district, first appears. In
the second Iter, 1293, Adam de Charlton proves that he held, at
Charlton, the same lands that had been possessed by his grandfather
William de Charlton. Adam de Charlton was married and in
possession of Charlton in 1279 ; and allowing thirty years for a
generation, William de Charlton’s tenure of Charlton is carried
back nearly to the commencement’ of the 13th century. Adam de
Charlton died in 1303, when his son William was twenty-two years
of age ■ and we here give the “Inquisito post mortem” of the former,
a document which, a few years ago, was discovered among the records
in the Tower of London.
Inq.
p. m.
31 Edw : I. No. 180.
(Public Record Office.)
Inquisitio de terris et tenementis quæ fuerunt Adæ de Charlton in
Tynedale, die quo obiit, facta apud Beddyncham die Sabbati próxima
post festum Sancti Johannis ante Portam Latinam, anno regni Regis
Edwardi tricésimo primo, per sacramentum Hutred de Brerygg,
Johannes Cornehyrd, Willielmi filii Ed,’ &c.
Qui dicunt, super sacramentum suum, quod Adam de Charleton
tenuit manerium de Charlton, in dominico suo ut de feodo, die quo
obiit, per servitium vicesimæ partis unius feodi militis, de manerio de
�14
Tirset in Tyndale, quod est in manu domini regis per forisfacturam
Johannes Cornyn de Badenagh.
Et dicunt quod est ibidem quoddam capitale messuagium, quod valet
per annum xiid. Item sunt ibidem quadraginta acra terrse arabalis in
dominico, quarum quselibet acra valet per annum viiid. Item sunt ibi
septem acrae prati, quarum quaelibet acra valet per annum iiss. Item
est ibi quidem boscus, qui valeret per annum iiiiss. in venditione
subbosci, si emptor inveniretur. Item est ibi quoddam molendinum
aquaticum, quod valet per annum xiiiss. iiiid. Item sunt ibi sexaginta
acrae terrae husbandorum, quarum quaelibet acra valet per annum xiid.
Item est ibi quoddam mansio in le Hunteland, quae vocatur le Scele,
quae valet per annum iiiis.
Summa omnium particularum in hac inquisitone contentarum viu.
iiis.
Dicunt etiam quod Willielmus, filius praedicti Ad®, est propinquior
haeres ejusdem, et dicunt quod erit aetatis viginti et duorum annorum
ad festum Sancti Laurentii proximo futurum,
Adam de Charlton, who deceased on the Saturday before the 6th of
May, 1303, is the same individual who figures in the Iter of Wark in
1279, as the successful opponent of William de Bellingham relative to
two hundred acres of land and meadow at Hesleyside.
The mode of spelling Bellingham, Beddyncham, shows that the
“ gh” was pronounced soft, as at present, and accords with the singular
orthography “Bellinjham” in the Iter of Wark.
Hutred or Huchtred—an old Saxon or Danish name—is found
taking his name from Brerygg, now Brieridge, a farm adjoining the
grounds at Hesleyside.
The name Cornehyrde is curious; it may have been misspelt for
Cowhyrde, but perhaps there were guardians of the corn as well as of
the cattle in those days.
It will be observed that William is here given as the son of Ed’ or
Edie, as the common abbreviation of Adam—even at this day.
The wood of Charlton, through which the Border Counties Railway
passes, still exists, and is probably not much changed.
The mill that Adam de Charlton held is no doubt the old picturesque
�15
mill opposite to Charlton, now called Hesleyside Mill, or Walk Mill,
and till lately the residence of a well known character, old James
Turnbull.
The mansion in the Huntland was no doubt the Alder Shield, now
called the Auld-Man-Shield on the hill behind Hesleyside. The
Huntlands of Tindale are often spoken of in ancient deeds and grants.
A large proportion of these lands are Huntlands to this day, as far as
regards grouse and black game, but goodly flocks of cheviot sheep
have replaced the red deer and the roe that formerly tenanted these
wastes.
All these properties, with the exception of Charlton, which was sold
about a hundred years ago, are still in the hands of the family of
Charlton.
The judges of the Scottish Crown, who sat at Wark in this year
(1279), the only one of which a record has been preserved, were
Thomas Randolph, Symon Freser, or Fraser, Hugh de Peresby, and
David de Torthoralde.
The Iter itself is, of course, drawn in the rather cramped law Latin
of the time; and this perhaps will serve as our excuse for making a
few brief extracts and notes on its more remarkable details ; and our
local acquaintance with the district has been of no small aid in
identifying many localities here alluded to. It is possible that
some of the details, may be more personally interesting to ourselves
than to others ; but we wish to convey an accurate picture of North
Tynedale as it was nearly six hundred years ago. What a fund of
curious information is laid bare to us by this fragmentary record of
a single year’s judicial proceedings at the old Mote Hill, at Wark 1
We learn who were the chief oppressors of the people. We see the
deference paid to the office of coroner and to the decisions of twelve
jurymen in doubtful oases. The Swinburne holds the lands now
possessed by his representative; while of another powerful family,
the De Bellinghams, not a trace now remains in the town that bears
their name. It is strange, too, to find how hereditary is the love of
the chase in some families—how that Robert Homel or Humble was
fined for fishing salmon in close time, when no doubt he was as little
able to resist the temptation of securing the lordly fish as his de
scendants of that name at the present day.
�16
The names of the sheriffs after the last Iter were William de Bel
lingham, John de Swynburne, and John de Warewyke; and of the coro
ners, John de Schutelington, Gilbert de Grendon, and Odoard de
Ridely. Amongst the names of the jurors of Tynedale we find the
following :>—William de Schepelaw (Shipley), Thomas de Thirlwall,
Matthew de Whitfield, and Thomas Bell; while John de Maughan
is a juror of Newbrough, and Roger Colstan (Coulson), and Richard
Homel are inmates of the Prison at Wark. Parties are constantly
designated as living on the Wall. Thus, Adam the son of Robert of
the Wall (filius Roberti de Muro), Huchtred of the Wall and Hugh
of the Wall, all claim possession of certain lands near Haltwhistle
and the Wall town.
We shall now briefly notice some of the various pleas brought
against sundry parties for forcible dispossession of land, &c.
William de Swynburne first claims our attention. He was treasurer
to Margaret, Queen of Scotland ; for a letter in his favour from that
queen is still extant, recommending our beloved in Christ, William
de Swynburne, our treasurer, to the favourable notice of William de
Merton, Chancellor of England.
In 1263, William de Swynburne paid 10s., for rent of land in Old
Halgton, Halgton, Halgton Strothers, and Halgton (now Haughton,
near Humshaugh). He was evidently a powerful chieftain, and greatly
involved in disputes with his weaker neighbours, whose lands he seems
to have been disposed to lay claim to at all seasons. We fear that
John de Tecket, and Joan his wife acted but foolishly when they
brought a complaint before the justices at Wark, that William de
Swinburne had wrongfully dispossessed them of their free pasturage in
Haughton Strother and in Nunewicke, belonging to their free tene
ment in Simondburn. And William de Swinburne, more learned,
doubtless, in the bye paths of the law, calls the attention of the court
that their writ is incorrect in form (viciosum est, et peccat in forma),
which the said John and J oan could not gainsay ; wherefore they take
nothing by their complaint, and remain at the mercy of the Court pro
falso clamore. A similar action, relating to Haughton, is brought by
John Mowbray for pasturage appertaining to his free tenement in
Hounshale (Humshaugh)—but with no better success. Symon the
Palmer, too, must needs try his hand against the Swinburne in the
�matter of those same pastures ; but he fails like the rest. Again :—
William de Swinburne is summoned by Christiana, widow of Hugh
de Nunnewike (Nunwick), to obtain her dower of 26 acres of land in
Nunwick; but this is soon amicably arranged. Shortly after, John
de West Denton appears by his bailiff, William de Swethope, against
William de Swinburne, for the unlawfully dispossessing him of 39
acres of land in Haughton. But the Swinburne’s good fortune
follows him, and he proves that he, through John de Swinburne, had
been enfeoffed of the said lands by John of West Denton; and so
gains his cause. William de Tynedale acknowledges a debt to the said
William de Swinburne of 100 shillings, 20 shillings of which he pays
down at once; and he further covenants to pay a half at Pentecost,
and the other half of the remainder at the Feast of St. Martin ; and
should he fail, the bailiff of the barony is to take the same out of his
lands and cattle. Such are the scenes on which appears one of the
direct ancestors of the late venerable President of the Antiquarian
Society of Newcastle. We see how he acquired lands, and with what
success he defended his claims.
Let us turn now to another of the magnates of Tynedale in those
days—to a family of which the name alone remains to indicate its
former dignity. The De Bellinghams are now represented by an Irish
baronet. They are said to have acquired the Levens Estate, near
Kendal, about 1582 ; but it is not certain ht what period they parted
with the last acre of their lands at Bellingham. They retained some
interest in the district to a very late period, as we find it recorded that
William de Bellingham inhabited the fortified bastel house at
Hawyke, near Kirkwhelpington, in the year 1522. The site of their
fortalice was on the east side of the Hareshaw Burn, where an artificial
mound is still visible, and is at no great distance from the mill which
the De Bellinghams held of the Scottish king, paying for the latterin 1263,
the enormous rent of ten pounds sterling. It may be that the chan
try chapel of St. Catherine in the very curious old stone-roofed church
of Bellingham, was founded by this powerful family; for William De
Bellingham was, with John de Swineburne and John de Warewyke,
a sheriff of the regality. To judge from the records of this single
Iter, William de Bellingham seems to have passed his life in perpetual
feud with his neighbours:—and that, not only with the lesser
�landholders, but with the most powerful of all—the great ecclesiastical
dignitaries of Hexham and of Jedburgh. He retracted his complaint
against the Prior of Hexham for trespass, but of his “ differences ”
with Nicholas de Prenderlathe, Abbot of Jedworth, we find the fullest
and most ample details. The Abbot of Jedworth, or more probably
one of his predecessors, had received from the Scottish king the rmht
O
o
of pasturage, and a tenement in Euelingjam (now Ealingham)_ a
farm about two miles from Bellingham. There appears to have been
a mill on this property at that time; for it is more than once referred to.
We have ascertained that it stood on the very small runner that comes
down the valley directly south of Ealingham 1 and perhaps it was only
one of those curious little mills which once existed in this country, and
are still to be seen attached to almost every farm in Shetland and Ork
ney. The mills on the Tyne, however, were of much greater importance,
In 1263, not less than 177 a year was paid as rent for the Mill at
Wark; and in the same year 10s. was disbursed for the repair's of the
said mill, by altering the course of the Warksburn. The orign of the
dispute between the abbot and William de Bellingham was one
that is frequent enough in North Tyne at the present day—viz., a
complaint of injury received through the fences of the opposite party
on the adjacent land being kept in bad repair. William de Belling
ham held at that time the lands and pasture of Hesleyside, which
adjoin to Ealingham, and' both now belong to one proprietor. The
abbot makes complaint that De Bellingham keeps his ditches and
hedges (fossas et liayas) of Hesleyside in such bad repair, that the
flocks and cattle of the said abbot, pasturing at Euelingham, are liable
to stray on to the lands at Hesleyside, and they are captured and
impounded at Bellingham from day to day, to the damage of the said
abbot of 207 sterling. De Bellingham replies that the hedges and
ditches before the issuing of the writ and since the summer have been as
well kept up as they ought to be at those times. The parties agree, De
Bellingham taking the initiative. As a counter plea, De Bellingham
summons the abbot to show cause why he (De Bellingham) should not
be entitled to free pasturage for two mares with their foals, for two
years, in the abbot’s parks at Euelingham; for William De Bellingham
asserts he was in seisin of the said common in the time of King
Henry, the father of the Lord Edward, now King of England; and
�19
also in the time of the Lord Alexander, now King of Scotland ■ and
that the said abbot deprived him illegally of the said common. De
Bellingham may have been a good swordsman and leader of a fray,
but he was no match in a point of law with the abbot of Jedworth.
It was responded on the part of the Church that it had been neglected
to specify, in the narration, at what time of the year he claimed to
have the right of pasturage; nor had he named the period of the
year for sending the animals into the abbot’s parks. So William De
Bellingham lost his plea, and remained at the mercy of the crown,
pro falso clamore. The amercement was remitted. Another plea
set up by De Bellingham against his foe, was, that the abbot of
Jedworth had unjustly detained a chirograph charter, which he had
handed to his predecessor for inspection. The abbot defends himself
by alleging that there is no specification of the date and place of
delivery of the written document; and that even if this were
remedied, the said Nicholas, his predecessor, was still alive, and that
an action would lie against him. De Bellingham- loses this plea
twice or thrice, the abbot loses his about the insufficient hedges as
often; and wearied out, the parties conclude matters by a fine as
follows :—
“ This is the final agreement made between the Abbot of Jeddeworthe
on the one part, and William de Bellingham on the other part, before
Thomas Randolph and his fellows, justices itinerant at Werke in Tyndale,
on the morrow of the Epiphany, in the 31st year of the reign of King
Alexander, upon divers contentions there between them moved—viz., on
the part of the abbot as regards the repairs of the ditches and hedges of
the said William in Heselyside, and also regarding the common of pasture at
Hesilyside belonging to the free tenement of the said abbot in Euelingham;
and on the part of the said William, respecting the annual rent of thirteen
bolls of flour and four shillings in silver ; and also regarding the pasturage
of two mares -with their foals of two years in the parks of the said abbot in
Euelingham. And that the said William, for himself and his heirs in per
petuity, agrees that he and his heirs shall well and sufficiently, according
to the custom of the country, close and repair his ditches and hedges of
Heselyside, from the Mabamsburne towards the east, to Strikeliscloyche
(Stirkscleugh), and from Strikelscloyche to the Tyne, under the inspection
of two lawful men of Belingham, two of Euelingham, two of Shutlington
(Shitlington), and two of Charleton ; and that the said men shall inspect
the said hedges and enclosures every year, in the week of Pentecost. And
whensoever the same men, or the major part, of them, shall decree repara
tions to be made in the same hedges and enclosures, these shall immediately
be done by the said William and his heirs, in the following week, without
delay, according to the order of the said men, or the major part of them.—
And the said William, for himself and for his heirs in perpetuity, grants
to the said abbot and to his successors, and to their tenants of Euelingham,
�common of pasture of Ilesilyside within the said hedges in the open time
of the year, for all his flocks, and without the hedges at all times of the
year, as appertaining unto his free tenement in Euelingliam. But still
that his flocks shall lie each night on the east side of Strikelscloyche (Stirkscleugh.”
De Bellingham also gives up all claim for the annual rent of thirteen
bolls of flour and four shillings of silver ; as likewise to pasturage in
Euelingham for two mares and their foals. And it is agreed likewise
that the chirographs that have passed between Nicholas, once Abbot of
Jedworth, and predecessor of the present abbot, and the said William,
shall remain in full force. “ And for this remise and quitclaim, the said
abbot hath released and quitclaimed to' the said William the common
of pasture he possessed for forty mares with their foals of two years in
Belingeliam, Wardlaw, and Grenacris, reserving to the said abbot and his
successors common of pastures in the said vills for forty cows with their
calves of one year, according to the tenor of the charter granted by Alan,
the son of Wollin, and grandfather of the said William, to the church of
Blessed Mary at Jeddeworthe, and to the canons therein serving God.”
At this time, Adam, son of William de Bellingham, held an ox-gang
of land and 20 acres of meadow in Charlton. The possession of the
Hesleyside pastures does not seem to have brought tranquillity to the
rapacious De Bellinghams; for their claims were disputed by other
parties—viz., by John de Shutelington and Adam de Charleton, both
of whom complain that William de Bellingham had unjustly deprived
them of 200 acres of land and meadow at Hesleyside, to which they
had free access, with all their cattle, after the grass and hay had been
carried home (post blada et f&na asportata). Adam de Charleton
asserts that the said pasturage appertains to his free tenement in Little
Charleton. William de Bellingham replies that the said tenement of
Shutelington was formerly free forest of our lord the king, and that
the king approved a certain portion of the said pasture, and bestowed
it on the said William. And that, with regard to Adam de Charleton,
he never had been seised of the said common pasturage since the king
had demised the said tenement to the said William. The jury, how
ever, to their great honour, decide against the claim of De Bellingham,
and that the claims of John de Shitlington and Adam de Charleton
are good, as their writs state. Perhaps this is the earliest mention of
the family of Charlton obtaining lands in Hesleyside—which they have
continued to hold to the present day. The old fortalice, at Hesleyside,
was standing within the memory of persons yet living, as was also the
peel at Charlton. Lastly, William de Bellingham is summoned to
answer to the king by what titles he claims to own two parts of the
�21
manor of Bellingham, which belonged to the ancient demesne of our
lord the king. De Bellingham replies that all his ancestors had held
the two parts of the manor in question, with all their appurtenances,
from time immemorial under the predecessors of our lord the King of
Scotland, by the service of being the foresters of the King of Scotland
throughout all his forest of Tynedale, but declines to litigate with the
king, and submits the plea to his grace.
Such is an imperfect outline of one year’s proceedings at Wark
Courts in the matter of the families of Swinburne and De Bellingham;
but there are other minor cases of curious interest. Thus, in a plea
between Bartholomew de Prat and Robert de Insula (or De Lisle), oi
Chipchase, relative to rights of pasturage in Knaresdale, it was found
that the plaintiff’s grandfather had the right of pasturing his flocks as
far as Tymberschaweburne, and as much beyond the said Tymberschaweburne as the flocks could return from in a single day, so as they
might not pass a night beyond that burne.
The felonies and acts of violence occupy a smaller space in the Wark
Iter than might have been presumed from the supposed lawless state
of the country.
John of Hawelton and Thomas de Thirlwall do not seem to have
confined their raids to Scotland j for, on the Sunday before the Feast
of St. James, in the 18th year of Alexander, King of Scotland, they
had plundered the good town of Wark of 30 oxen, each of the value
of 10s.; 18 cows, each worth half a mark ; one bull, worth half a
mark ; and 15 other cattle, each of the value of 5s.; besides 200 sheep,
both wethers and ewes, each valued at twelve pence; and that the
said John of Hawelton drove them to his park at Swyinescholes
(Sewingshields), and there unjustly detains them against the peace of
our lord the king.
The townships in which robberies and housebreakings occur were
bound to pursue the thieves immediately with hue and cry; and
numerous entries occur where such townships are placed at the mercy
of the crown for neglect of this their duty. Thus :—‘‘ Certain un
known malefactors broke into the house of Agnes, the wife of William
Pulayn, and bound the said Agnes, and Evo ba, her daughter, and
thereupon carried away all their goods. Nor is any one suspected
�22
beyond the aforesaid malefactors. And the township of Haltwhistle,
which did not arrest them, is “ in misericordia.” ’
Thomas Russell, of Playnmellor, slew Robert the son of Auger of
Collanwood (Coanwood), in the town of Haltwhistle j and afterwards
he fled to the church and abjured the kingdom.
The canny Scots occasionally made a raid over the border, even to
the detriment of their then countrymen of Tynedale. Alexander, of
Lothian, Arthur of Galwichia (Galloway), David of Clidesdale, and
Hugh the Carpenter, broke into the house of William de Fenwike in
Symundeburne, and bound the said William, and carried off his cattle.
There should have been honour among those of the same calling.
Occasionally, the reivers used singular means to avoid pursuit.
Thus, when certain unknown malefactors broke into the house of
Robert Unthank, in Melkridge, in South Tyne, they shut up Alicia
his daughter in a chest (in quddam a/rchd incluserunt),
The clergy were not always free from the general failing of taking
liberties with other men’s property.
Thus, Beatrix of Quitfield (Whitfield), summoned Thomas the
Archdeacon of Northumberland, Master Hugo of Wodehalle, John de
Burton, and Thomas of Haydene, chaplain, for robbery and receipt of
felony, &c. And the said Master Hugo and all the others appeared,
excepting Thomas the Archdeacon ; but the testimony of the said
Beatrix was not admitted, as it was proved by the bishop’s letters
patent that she was excommunicate. The accused, moreover, pleaded
that they were clerks, and would not, therefore, answer to the court.
Again :—Symon the clerk, and Richard Alpendache, clerk, broke
open the house of John the Fuller. Richard Alpendache was taken
and imprisoned at Wark ; but afterwards, at the assize, was delivered
over to the bishop as a clerk. William, the clerk of Whitfield, flies
the country foi’ stealing of one cow and other evil deeds.
There seems to have been some strange names in Tynedale in those
days. May they not have been byenames bestowed on the parties ?
Adam Aydrunken accidentally upset a boat in the water of Tyne, so
that he drowned thereby Beatrice his wife.
*
* The same name occurs in 1 Sur. 269, 273. One of the most amusing illustra
tions of names in the record is at p. lvi., where the jury find that he who in a writ
was styled Wysman, was rightly called Seliman.
�23
At Newbrough, there seems to have been a family bearing the
repulsive name of Unkutheman (unco’ man). Cecilia, the wife of
John Unkutheman, of Newbrough, destroyed herself, when pregnant,
m her own chamber with a certain razor. The holders of this unlucky
name appear to have been unfortunate. William Unkutheman and
Elwald de Aldenestone were making a certain dam or fence (sepem),
in the water of Tyne. And the said William was striking upon a
certain stake with a certain mallet to drive it into the ground, when
the head of the mallet flew off, and striking Elwald upon the head,
deprived him of life. Poor William Unkutheman was taken up and
imprisoned for the homicide ; but a verdict of accidental death was
returned, “ et concessa est ei pax ” (and peace was conceded to him),
says the record.
Bates the son of William (Williamson), Gilbert Trutte, son of Adam
with the Nose (Adam cum Naso), are fled for breaking into the house
of Emma of Whitchester.
Sometimes the coroner, who seems to have been of much greater
authority in those days, made short work of a thief j as when a certain
unknown malefactor stole four geese in the town of Newbrough, and
was taken in the act; and by order of Hugo de Ferewithescheles, the
coroner, his ear was cut off.
At Bellingham, and further up Tyne, they seem to have dispensed
with the coroner on these occasions altogether. Thus, Emma of
Waynhoppe (Wenhope, near Kidder) was taken for theft at Belling
ham, and there decapitated. And it was proved by twelve jurors that
the townships of Bellingham, Euelingham, and................. decapitated
her without the coroner.
“ Wherefore they are at the mercy of the
crown.”
Again :—The hamlets of Dunclif (Donkley), Thorneyburne, and
Tarsethope, are amerced in 20<<?. for decapitating a thief without the
coroner.
All accidents, too, are presented by the coroner at the assize
Matilda of Sadberg (near Wark) was found frozen to death at
Poltadan. William Slipertoppe (Silvertop) was cutting down a
certain tree in the wood of Chirdene, and the tree fell and killed him.
Agnes, the wife of John Cupe, was killed by a portion of the millstone
in the mill at Wark, while getting some corn ground there, But US
�the mill was the property of our lord the King, no deodand was called
for.
Huchtred of Linacres had to pay half a mark for refusing to feed
the king’s dogs.
Roger Graunge and William Bene are presented for having fished
in the lake of Hugh of Grendon (Grindon Lough), by the order of
William the Terrier (Terrarius), of Hexham, and against the will of
the said Hugh. And the Prior of Hexham is ordered to produce his
said canon.
Alexander, the miller of Wark, Richard and Gilbert, the millers of
Euelingham, John, son of John de Nithesdale, and Robert Homel
(Humble), have fished at the forbidden times and against assize.
False appraisement of cattle and goods of felons are constantly
noted, and the parties heavily fined.
It is presented by twelve jurors that Allan of Irwin (Irvine ?) hath
so beaten Gerard of Hesilyside that he was thought to have killed
him, and he immediately fled. But the said Gerard still lives; so
Alan may return if he will, but his cattle are confiscated for his flight,
and are valued at 4s. for which the bailiff will answer.
In 1293, matters do not seem to have greatly mended. Margery,
the widow of Adam Davidson, claims land in Shitlington, wrongfully
seized by William de Swinburne, clerk. The indictment is invalid,
for the offender is William de Whytefield, and not the priest. At
this time, Hetherington, near Wark, seems to have been a village of
tolerable size. It is now only a single farm house.
Robert de Bellingham and William de Bellingham, claim lands in
Shitlington, and a right of common there. Their claim is resisted by
John de Shitlington. William de Bellingham claims common right
as a tenant of the Kings of Scotland, and Robert de Bellingham as
tenant of the mill, at Bellingham ; and they produce two charters of
the Scottish King to prove it. John de Shitlington denys that the
Scottish King has now any authority in Tynedale, and wins his
cause.
John de Swynburne is summoned to show cause why he claims
baronial rights and honours in Humshaugh and Haughton. He pro
�25
duces a charter from the King, Edward I., dated the 5th year of that
monarch’s reign, and his claim is instantly allowed.
Thomas and Nicholas, of the mill, at Bellingham, bring an action
against Robert de Bellingham, for lands and tenements held by
Gunnoca of the mill, their grandmother, but they fail to establish their
claim.
Adam Teseman is summoned by Adam Polet, of Wark, for having
struck him on the head, to the effusion of blood. Teseman shews
that Polet intruded himself rudely into his house, and allows that he
kicked him out of his dwelling, but avers he did it not with undue
violence.
Robert de Brameham, brings an action against Richard, the provost
of Waiwick, for having imprisoned him at Waiwick, for three days,
without just cause. It appears that Brameham was passing through
the village of Wai wick, when a dog ran at him, and he drew an arrow
at the dog to save himself, whereupon there rushed out a certain
Alan Messor, with others, and seizing him, they shut him up in prison
for three days and three nights; and for this he claims ten pounds
damages. The jury, however, award him only ten marks.
John, the Chaplain of Newcastle, complains that five of his cows,
valued at thirty shillings, were seized by John de Tecket, and by
Richard le Multergreve. They reply that the said cows were feeding
in the King’s Park, at Wark, for more than a year, unclaimed, and
then they were seized as waifs. The parson replies that he had often
asked for his cows, but could not get them ; but for all that he loses
his cause.
William of Halton complains that David Rannulphson came to his
dwelling at Sewingshields, and carried off the locks, and bars and
bolts of his door, “ tarn in Hamis et Haspis et ligulis ”—and took
away a certain cow’s skin, and finding a measure of wine in the house
(dolium) they made free therewith. He fails, however, in his plea.
Having finished the law pleas, the Judges next proceed to consider
the coroners’ report. William de Bellingham, Robert de Blumville,
Robert de Bellingham, and Matthew de Whytefield, were coroners
for Tynedale. They report on all cases of sudden death, or of death
by violence, in their district.
We have first an evil deed of a Robson. Thomas Robson broke, at
�26
night, into the house Of Ralph Bond, at Newbrough; and Ralph
Bond, arising from his bed, seized his sword, and struck at random in
the dark, about his house, and inflicted on Thomas Robson two
wounds in his thigh, from the effect of which he directly died. The
other burglars escaped, and are not known.
William, the parson of Rothbury, was smothered in a moss hole near
Haltwhistle. No impossible death there, even at the present day.
Michael Lyteskyle (skyte ?) and William Brown, of Bellingham,
Roger of Shitlington, David of the Huntlawe, William Hunter of
Bellingham, Robert the miller of the same, John the Fleschhewer
(flesher or butcher), John Dodd, and others, were indicted for robbery
and murder, at Ninebanks, in South Tyne. Some of the robbers fled,
others are taken, and forfeit all their goods.
Two cases of homicide, with an axe, are reported from Tarsethope
and Hawkhope. And again, we have a murder by a Robson. William
Robson killed Alicia, the daughter of Bernard the miller, and imme.
diately thereafter fled, but in his flight was captured, and taken before
William de Bellingham, the coroner, and thereupon was beheaded.
And the townships of Hunteland, Chirdon, Tarsethope, and Charlton
did not appear in full force at the execution, for which they are
blamed.
John Proudfoot, of Bellingham, struck Richard the miller of that
place with an axe on the head, so that he died five days after.
Proudfoot fled the country, but his goods were seized, and they were
worth 37s. 9<7.
Two cases are mentioned where children are scalded to death. In
both it is said they fell “ in quodam cacabo pleno aqua calida.” And
the value of the vessel was xiid.
Thomas Rome and Juliana, the wife of Robert the miller, fell off a
horse into the Erringburn, and were drowned.
Robert, son of Adam of Whitfield, was killed by a fall of earth or
stone, when digging coals, “ fodendo carbones oppressus fuit sub
terra.”
Nearly a dozen persons are returned as having perished from cold
on the moors, between Haltwhistle and Bellingham.
John Makam, of Keilder, dropped down dead in the market at
Bellingham.
�27
Thomas Scott, of Simonburn, wounded his wife Emma with an axe,
so that she died four days after.
Adam of Thorngrafton, struck Uchtred Lytelskyte (?) with a knife
in the belly, at Wark, so that he died the next morning.
The list of those who had fled the country to avoid punishment for
theft or homicide, is long and curious. In it we find some singular
names, such as Thomas Spalefot, John Dulpin-the-drit, Elyas Blessedblod, Alicia Wyldebarn, William Titmouse.
William, the parson of Corbridge, was taken for a burglary in the
house of Hugh of Burton, and was committed to prison at Wark, and
convicted at the Assize. But as the bishop of the diocese had no
“ attornatus ” there to claim his clerk, the said William was remitted
to prison, from which he afterwards escaped, and fled to the church
at Simonburn, where he was kept till he was claimed by Lambert,
vicar of Warden, and taken to the prison of the Bishop of Durham,
where he soon after died.
Adam Stokoe and Maurice Skot, are captured for the death of
Adam Thompson, in the open market at Bellingham. Stokoe is
acquitted, and Scott acknowledges the deed, but says he was forced
thereto by William de Bellingham, the coroner, who, by many blows,
and much ill-treatment, and by the threat of instant death unless he
complied, constrained him to decapitate the said Adam Thompson,
who had been convicted, by the coroner, of the murder of Emma of
Caphope.
The salmon laws, for the preservation of this noble fish, were
tolerably strict at this date. In 1268, it was presented at the Assize
that a great destruction took place in the waters of the country, of the
salmon, as they ascended the rivers to spawn. It was, therefore,
provided that, from the feast of St. Michael (29th Sept.), to that of
St. Andrew (30th Nov.) no net be drawn or put into the weirs or
pools, and that no one fish in the Tyne, the Wansbeck, or the Coquet,
with nets “ stirkeldis ” (torch fires'?), or any other engines during that
time. And that from the 1st of May, to the 24th of June, no net is
to be used, unless its meshes are large enough for the smelts
(Salmunculi) to get through.
Two more centuries pass away now ere the curtain again rises on
the fair vale of North Tynedale. The Herons had now replaced the
�De Insulas, at Chipchase, the Widdringtons were in power about
Haughton. During this interval, we find William Charlton established
at Hesleyside; and in 1343, Edward Charlton holds the same. About
the end of the fourteenth century, the tower of Hesleyside, the only
towel' above Chipchase, was, probably constructed. Perhaps it was
built by Edward Charlton, who owned Hesleyside, in 1343. One of
the Charltons was at Agincourt, in the suit of Lord de Grey. That
Tynedale was, however, not perfectly quiet during these two centuries
is evident, from the “ Monitio contra famosos latrones de Tynedale.”
In 1512, orders were issued from the Bishop of Durham, for the
capture of certain men, who acted in contumacy towards the Bishop
of Durham’s authority, even after the greater excommunication had
been fulminated against them. Among these were some of the Dods,
Patrick, of Ealingham, Hunter, of Espleywood, and Peter, of the
Greenhalgh.
In the letter of the Bishop of Durham, regarding the famous
thieves of Tynedale and Reedsdale, the name of the Milburns first
appears. In the records of Durham there is preserved an admonition
or monitio against these malefactors. It is a long document, written
in verbose Latin, and gives no very favourable picture of the condition
of Tynedale and Reedsdale at this period, 1498. Not only are the
majority of the inhabitants thieves and resetters of stolen goods, but
the great men of these valleys do protect and hide the thieves from
justice, both for clanship’s sake, and for the benefit of partaking of
their robberies. Nay, the priests of that country are most evil, they
keep their concubines, they are irregular, suspended, excommunicated,
and interdicted clergy, ignorant almost entirely of letters, so that for
ten years they cannot read the words of the mass, as we have proved
by examinations of them, “Uti quibusdam eorum opponentiis expertisumus.” And some are not ordained at all, but merely counterfeits
of priests, and they dare to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice in profane
and ruined places, with vestments torn, ragged, and most filthy,
unworthy of divine worship, as though a contempt of God. And the
said chaplains administer the sacraments to these said thieves, without
compelling them to restitution, and bury them in consecrated ground,
against the laws of the Church.”
The document is imperfect, five leaves are wanting, containing the
�29
names of those interdicted ; but the letter testimonial of Richard,
Bishop of Durham, given in the castle of Norham, on the 25th of
September, 1498, releases from the sentence of excommunication
Sandy Charelton, Crysty Milborne, Howy Milborne, Atkin Milborne,
son of William Milborne, La wry Robeson, Davey Robeson, Sandy
Robeson, Gilly Dod, o' ye Crake (Craig), alias of Smalemoutb
(Smalesmouth), George Dod, Roaly Dod, Barmy Dod, Sandy Dod, of
the Shawe, George Marshall, and Sandy Hunter, on condition of their
abstaining from all theft for the future. And, moreover, that after
the 26th,. of September of the said year, they shall not wear a jacke, or
a knapescall (helmet), they shall not ride a horse of the value of
more than 6s. and viiid., except it be against the Scots or the King’s
enemies. Nor shall they enter a church, or place consecrated to God,
with any weapons exceeding the length of one cubit.”
Was the Sandy Charleton named in these letters the same who, in
1518, is named as Alexander Charleton, of Shotlyington Hall, and who
struck Alexander Elliott (Illot) with a dagger in the left side, below
the arm, whereof Elliott immediately died ? And this ill deed was
done at Espleywood, near Earegirslawg, in Tynedale, on the Eeast of
St. James the Apostle, 1517.
The Elliotts were of Scottish surname, and perhaps the homicide
resulted from a national quarrel. They are recorded in a Cotton M.S.
as being at feud with the Fenwykes of Northumberland, as were the
Armstrongs of Liddesdale with the Robsons of North Tyne ; and Sir
Thos. Musgrave reports that they are “ grown soe to seeke blood, that
they will make a quarrel for the dethe of their grandfather, and then
wyll kyll anie of the name.” We learn from the same report the very
route taken by the Scottish invaders, Elliotts and Armstrongs, &c.,
when they rode a foray into England. “ When Liddisdaill people
make any invacions to the Fenwickes they goe without Bewcastell 10
or 12 miles, and goe by the Perl-fell withoute the Horse Head, near
Keldar, and soe along above Cheapchase. When they goe to the water
of Tyne, they goe by Kyrsoppe Head, and without the Gell Crage,
and by Tarnbek and Bugells Gar, and soe along by the Spye Crage
and the Lamepert, and come that way.”
In the early part of the sixteenth century, Sir Ralph Fenwyke, of
Wallington, was keeper of Tynedale, and he was sheriff of North
�umberland, in 1515, when Edward Charlton of Hesleyside becamJ
bond in £40 for Peter Lambert of Fourstanes, as appears from a
document in the possession of the late John Fenwick Esq., of
N e wcastle-upon-Tyne.
During the reign of Henry VIII. there was almost constant war
upon the Borders, even when the monarchs of England and Scotland
were at seeming peace with one another. It was a war of reprisals,
of constant inroads from one side or the other, and was conducted in
the most merciless fashion.
The inhabitants of Tynedale and Redesdale were evidently little
to be trusted by the neighbours on the East, as well as by their
Scottish foes on the West. These two rivers were closely watched
every night along a line, extending from Haltwhistle in South Tyne,
down to the junction of the Tynes at Warden, and from thence up
the North Tyne to Chipchace. From Chipchace Ford, the line was
carried by Throckrington, Sweethope, and Whelpington to the Coquet
Two watches were appointed to each ford. North Tyndale was con
sidered as beginning at the Nook on the South side of the river, and
at Reedsmouth on the North bank, and extending from thence up to
the Bellyng, beyond which there were then, it is said, no habitations.
In Sir Robert Bowes’ survey of 1542, we have the following descrip
tion of this district:—“ All the said country of Tyndall is of the
parish of Symondburne, and there standeth the parish church of the
same; albeit, they have a chapel at Bellingeam, two or three miles
west from Symondburne aforesaid, to the which chapel the inhabitants
of Tyndaill resort, for the most part, to their divine service, and
there have all sacraments and sacramentals ministered unto them.
And there is another chapel also in the said dale, three miles above
Bellingeam, at a place called the Faw Stone, used for private masses
sometimes.
“ At Bellingeam aforesaid, there is a little town, where all the
inhabitants of Tindaill do meet and assemble at divers times, when
they have any matter or causes in common to treat of among them
selves. And in that town of Bellingeam dwell diverse victuallers,
which prepare and ordayne bread, ale, and other victuals for the said
Tyndaills.
“The houses, buildings, and habitations of the said country
�31
of Tyndaill are much set on either side of the river of North Tyne,
and upon other little brooks and runnels descending into the said
river; in strong places by nature of the grounds, and of such
strengths naturally fortified, as well by reason of mosses and morasses,
which, with great difficulty, may be passed on horseback, as of banks
and cleughs of wood, wherein of olden time, for the more strength,
great trees have been felled and laid athwart the ways and passages,
that in divers places it be only passable by such as know the said evil
ways and passages, and it will be hard for strangers having no know
ledge thereof to pass thereby in any order, and specially on horseback.
In which natural strength and fortifications of such places, almost
inaccessable, the said Tyndaills do much rejoice and embolden them
selves, and when they be afraid, do rather trust in the strength of
such places without their houses, than to the surety and defence of
their houses. And, yet, surely the headsmen of them have very
strong houses, whereof, for the most part, the outer sides or walls be
made of great swair oak trees, strongly bound and joined together
with great tenons of the same, so thick morticed, that it will be very
hard, without great force and labour, to break or cast down any of
the said houses. The timber, as well as the said walls and roofs, be
so great, and covered for the most part with turf and earth, so that
they will not easily burn or be set on fire.
“ There be also, for the most part, a great number of the said
Tindaills houses set so together in one quarter, that a fray or outcry
made in one house may warn all the residue, and upon any fray or
scrimmage made within any part of the said country of Tyndaill,
forthwith the fray and outcry is so raised and set forth in such wise
by all that heareth it, both men and women, that the country will be
shortly thereby warned and assembled to know the cause thereof.
And for the more part if it be for a quarrel or matter of any one of
them against a true man pursuing after his goods spoiled or stolen,
they will all take one part, and maintain such a cause as if it were
their common matter, so that now, for dread of this, almost no man
darq follow his goods, stolen or spoiled, into the said country of
Tindaill.”
Sir Robt. Bowes observes subsequently that, although there is much
arable and pasture land in Tyndale, yet that the country is much
�32
overpopulated, and not cultivated at all, “ whereby' the young and
active people, for lack of living, be constrained to steal or spoil con
tinually, either in England or Scotland, for maintaining of their
lives.”
In his second report of 1550, he continues in the same strain :—
“ That country of North Tyndall is much given to theft, and must be
kept continually in dread of justice. The Tyndalls be so much
inclined to wildness and disorder, and yet the Kings’ Majesty hath no
house of his own within the said country, apt or convenient for the
ordering and correction thereof, save that George Heron, now
keeper of Tyndale, uses his own house of Chipchace for that
purpose, which is a very convenient place for the same. If the
Kings Majesty’s Castle of Langley were repaired, it would well serve
for that purpose. And likewise would the Tower of Hexham serve
if it were made something stronger, and had a house made adjoining
thereto, sufficient for a keeper of Tyndale to dwell in, for when the Lord
Dacre, that died, was keeper of Tyndale, there were certain prisoners
rescued forth of that Tower by night by Tyndale men, by reason that
the Tower standeth alone without the Town, and every man may
come to the door of the prison and talk with the prisoners at all
times.
“ The country of North Tyndall, which is more plenished with
wild and misdemeaned people, may make of men upon horseback and
foot about six hundred, whereof there be commonly about two
hundred able horsemen to ride with their keeper unto any service in
Scotland.
l' Of every surname there be sundry families or graynes, as they
call them, of which there be certain headsmen, that leadeth and answereth all for the rest. And do lay pledges for them when need
requireth, and there be some among them that have never stolen
themselves which they call true men. And yet such will have rascals
to steal for them, either on horseback or on foot, whom they do|resett
or at least receive part of the stolen goods ; or at least make all the
means they may for the deliverance of such thieves. If any of them
chance to be taken, either by composition with the party that owned
the stolen goods, whereby to stop his pursuit, or else to labour with the
officers by all means that they can to acquit and discharge such thieves
�33
from just correction. There be very few able men in all that country
of North Tynedale, but either they have been used to steale in
England or in Scotland. And if any true men of England get know
ledge of the theft or thieves that steal his goods in Tynedale or in
Redesdale, he had much rather take a part of his goods again in
composition than to pursue the extremity by the law against the
thief. For if the thief be of any great surname or kindred, and be
lawfully executed by order of justice, the rest of his kin or surname
bear as much malice, which they call deadly feud, against such as follow
the law against their cousin the' thief, as though he had unlawfully
killed him with a sword.”
Such is the picture drawn by an able hand of the state of North
Tynedale in the middle of the sixteenth century. We make no
apology for reproducing this report here. It has, indeed, been printed
at full length by Hodgson in his wondrous, but, alas, fragmentary
“ History of Northumberland.” But that book, by reason of its
rarity and great price, is inaccessible to many of our readers.
As early as the year 1514 we find from a hitherto unpublished
letter of William and Christopher Dacre to Lord Dacre, the then
Keeper of Tynedale, that this part of the country in no ways belied
its evil fame.
W. and C. Dacre to Lord Dacre, 27th Feb., 1514.
My Lorde, your small frendes of Northumbreland is coming home
eight days bygone, making great exclamación in the contrey, saying
that your Lordship muste make restitución to all maner of parties
complenand owder of the waistlands Tindale, or Redesdale, sens
Branxton Field, butonely that Sr Willm Heron shuld discharge youe
for Redesdale sens the tyme of his entry. My Lord, Tindale in no
maner of wise wold com nowder afore me nor Sir Rauff Fenwyk, for
no maner promesse surance writing ne seall that we did offre them,
but that they ar sworne to gidre ilk one to take oder parte, and as it
is supposed all by the councell of Sir John Heron of Chipches, for
ther was at him Criste Milburne, Jame Dodd, Thomas Charlton of
Carroteth, with odres of Tindale, and has putt the most parte of ther
goodes away. My Lorde, we had daies appointed by them, a fyve or
sex, alwaies trusting to haif, gotten them in by policye, and so they
c
�have drave us from daye to daye, saying they were warned to kepe
them furth, for if they com in ther muste twelf of them be taken and
twelf of the waistland and all to be sent upp to London and there to
be justified, and also that they had knowledge that they must haif a
new officer, and your Lordship to go furth. Wherupon they did
sende us there annswere in writing by Edward Charlton and William
Charlton of Lehall, noon of them comyng to us that daye but onely
they two, and so they all refused to com saufeng thies two personnes,
whiche writing I do sende your Lordship herin closed. And so I
perceiving that the said Edward wold not bring in thoes personnes
that was in his band, but drave us on by colorable maner, and so I
did arreste him, and did send him to the Toure whiche Was upon
Thursdaye, the 16 daye of Fehr., and ther remaynes in Irunes to
your Lordship pleaser be knowein. Also upon the Sondaye afture I
did arreste Thomas Erington called Thomas Peepe, John Erington,
the Angell his son, and Gib. Erington of Greneriche, and did sende
them to the Toure, and there remaynes in I runes in likewise to forder
your said pleaser be knowen.
And upon Tewsdaye last past them of Tindale was gedred, and was
fullye purposed to haif comen to Hexham and to haif broken the
Toure. Notwithstanding I haif so provided for the sure custodie of
the said personns that it is no perill, for I haif sex of your servauntes
lieing in the chamber above the persone (prison), and a watche man
on the Toure top, and also has caused thirtye personnes of Hexham
towne to watcbe nightlye at the iiij quarters of the towne, and so I
truste with grace of God it is out of jeopardie.
My Lorde, I haif sent worde to my broder, Sir Phillip, to be sure
of such plegies and prisoners as remaynes at Morpeth, whiche is
surelye keped and sure watche nightlye for the sure custodie of them,
and so I truste they ar out of jeoperdie.
And as for such plegies and personnes as reinaynes her they shalbe
surely keped in like manner.
My Lorde, now in the light of this mone we shall make roodes, as
well of them of Tindale as the Waistland, of such as will not com
afore us according to your commandment by your writing sent to us
and deliverd by Cristofer Legh.
My Lord, ye shall understand how many personnes is attached
�35
that was named in your billes, and in what person they do remayne
in to your forder pleaser, be knowen by a bill herin closed, and within
shorte space we truste to gett moo that is in your billes.
My Lord, Jak Musgrave tuke Jame Nowble, called Yallow Hare,
and kept him in Bewcastell ij dayes, and has latten him go at the
desire of Clement Nixson. And so upon Thursdaye next corny ng it is
appointed that all thinabitantes of the Waistland shalbe afore us at
Askertone by ther consent, and there to appere, and thoes that does
not appere the plege of that surname to remayne her unto such tyme
the oder of the surname bring in thoes that does not appere, besides
the plegies that remaynes her for good reull of the contrey.
My Lorde, Afor (as for) Rynyane of Erington, whiche is in your
bill, he is gone up to London with my Lord of Northum breland as
his servaunt, and if you would haif him ye may haif him there, for he
was gone to my Lord of Northumbreland er your writing com to us.
And thus the Holye Trinite preserve your good Lordship to your
hertes mooste desire and comforte. At Carlisle this Monday, the
penulte day of Fsbruarii.
Your Son and Servand,
WILLIAM DACRE.
CRYSTOFER DACRE.
[addressed.]
To my Lord Dacre is good
Lordship be this delivered.
Lord Dacre seems to have had no sinecure as Keeper of Tyndale
and Redesdale, if we may judge from a letter, in his own handwriting,
which we have obtained from the Record Office. It is true that this
letter refers chiefly to the misdeeds of the Redesdale men, of whom Sir
Robert Bowes says, “they are less bold, and hardly so misbehaved as
the men of Tyndale.” On this occasion, however, the “ Hieland men of
Rvddesdaile ” seem to have thoroughly emulated the daring of their
brother reivers of North Tyne.
We have, indeed, good proof that n -arly a century before this time
the Redesdale men were given to making free with their neighbours’
goods. In Raine’s “ North Durham ” there is an interesting letter
printed at p. IV. of the General History, addressed from Durham on
�36
the 13th day of November, 1446, apologizing to John Heron of
Chipchase, for that the servants of the then Bishop of Durham had
rescued certain, cattle driven off by the Redesdale men, without previous
application to John Heron as keeper of that part of the country.
Lord Dacre’s lettei’ of 1518 shows that in 80 years little improve
ment had taken place in the condition of the country :—
Thomas, Lord Dacre, to Wolsey, 23rd December [1518]?
My Lord, pleas it your Grace to wete I have received the King,
our Soverein Lordes moost honorable letters by thandes of this berer
White messenger, being date at Greenewiche, the xxv. daye of
Novembre last past, and to me delivered there the xxi. daye of
Decembre instante, wherby I pereive that his highnes is infourmed
that diverse and many haynous murdors, robries, and ryottes ar com
mitted and done within this co untie of Northumbreland, and other
parties therunto adjoining, to the disturbaunce of the peas and
inquietacion of the King our Soverein Lorde’s subjectes inhabitauntes
therof. And of many unlawfull assembles maid by thinhabitantes of
Tindale and Riddesdale, so that they rebelliously shuld have reskued
and takin fro my servauntes certain malifactors by me takin and
delivered to them to be brought to ward. And also slain diverse of
my said servauntes having charge in the conducting of the said
prisoners, wherunto the kinge’s said highnes cann not geve assured
credence till his highness be advertised of the certainte therof.
Wherfor his said highnes has commandit me to make certificate of
and upon the playn troughe (truth) in all the premisses, and to
endeybor me effectually by politique meanes for the repressing of siche
insolent demeanor of the highlandes men, so that upone baldness of the
same haynous dedes they be not incouraged to procede ferther. For
tho kinge’s said highnes is enfourmed that they ar now unite to gidres
and determynet to contenue in ther perverse purpose whiche must be
repressed at the begennyng, orels (or else) it will growe to greater
inconvenientes. And for that purpos the kinge’s said highnes is moche
desirerous not oonly to knowe the certainte of ther demeanors, but
also myne opinyon what I think best to be done therin to thintent
that if the premisses be trew his highness may provide further aide
and assistaunce for me as the case shall require. And ferther his
�37
highe commandment is that I shall take especiall regarde to the
punysshment of ryottes, felonyes, and mayntenors of receptours
which dayly sley and rob the pore comonaltie of these partes. And as it
affirmed som gentilmen shuld be the doers, and som the receivers and
manteners of the said detestable actes. And as it is supposed lak of
dew punysshment, and not executing of the king our said soverain
lorde’s lawes is thoccasion of all thes enormities, whiche if it so were
is the kinge’s comandment to be forsene and remedied. .
My Lorde, pleas it your Grace to be advertised of the reull and
ordre of this the kinge's Countie of Northumbreland, considering it
lieth so nighe ad’yinyng the marchies of Scotland, I trust it be not
ferr out of frame, but oonly in certain poyntes wherof at my last being
above I gaf your Grace a bill of enformacion of the names of them
that was the maynteners. And now I have made your Grace an
oder bill of the same herin closed. And if the same persons were sent
for by privey seall tappere (to appear) in the Starred Chambre, and
the same maturs laid unto their chargies, I trust it shuld doo much
good and also pruffit to the kinge’s highness be reason of their fynes.
And if any of them be not of verey troughe, I am contented to
bere there coostes and chargies that so can be proved contrary afore
your Grace.
And as unto the Highelandes men of Riddesdale trough it was that
I had arrested x. persons of the moost principall and erraunte chefes
emonges them, and them had in the castell of Harbottell by the space
of ij dayes, and sent for the gaoler and the baillifs of the shire with
others of my Tennauntes, all to the number of lxxx. persons, on
horsebak, and sent the said chiefs with my householde servauntes to
Rothbury Gate, vi. miles from Harbottell, to make deliverance of
them there, trusting to me that all peril was past, seing that my
householde servauntes was betwene them and the said Highelandes.
And yet that notwithstanding the said Highelandes men of Riddesdale
had suche espiell and kepit them self secrete and close. And at a
strayt pathe mett my said tennantes, and killed my ballif of Morpeth
and other six persones his neighbors, and took the gaoler and other iiij
persons with hym and had them into Scotland wher as yet the said
gaoller and some oder with hym sittes in preson, wherof I have made
compleynte to the Wardain, and so to the lordes of Scotland, and
�trustes to have remedie therof. Ther is fled into Scotland to the
nombre of xxij of the principal persons and the residue ar fledd in other
parties whei’ as yet they ar nott knowen of. And diverse other
persons that cam to the same effrey I have takin in upon suyrties of
ther good abering. And this is the verey troughe of the matier.
And as for any insurreccions or banding ther is none, nor yet lykly
to be, wherby the kinge’s said highnes shalbe putt to no chargies for
subdueing therof. And I trust the kinge’s said highnes and your
Grace shall here tell that siche diligence shalbe made for the punysshment therof as may be. And yet by fortune the moost principall
man, called Thomas Pott, that the said Insurrección was made for,
was kepit still with my self for examinacion of his robberyes, who is
putt to execucion foi’ the same. And the blessed Trinite preserve
your Grace. At Harbottell, the xxiij day of Decembre.
Yours with hyes serves,
THOMAS DACRE.
[addressed.]
To my Lord Cardinalle’s Grace.
In 1523 the Bishop of Carlisle writes as follows to Cardinal
Wolsey :—
“ Ther is more thefte, more extorcyon by Englis theffs (thieves)
than there is by all the Scotts of Scotland. Ther is noo man which
is nott in a hold strong that hathe or maye have any cattell or move
able in suretie through the bishopryke, and from the bishopryke till
we com within viii. myles of Carlisle, all Northumberland likewise,
Exhamshire which loongeth (belongeth) to your Grace worste of all,
for in Exham selfe every markett day ther is four score or a hundred
strong theffs, and the poore men and gentilemen also seethe them
whiche did robbe them and ther goddys (goods) and dare nother complayn of them by name, nor saye one word to them. They take all
ther cattell and horse, ther corne as they carrye yt to sow, or to the
mylle to gryne (grind), and at ther houses they bedd them delyver
what they will have, or they shall be fyred and bornt.”
In 1523, a tremendous raid was made into Scotland from all parts
of the marches, at the suggestion of the English King. The Earl of
Northamberland, writing to the King, promises to lett slippe
�39
secretlie them of Tindaill and Riddisdaill for th’annoyance of Scotland
—God sende them all good spede ! ” *
In September, 1523, the Earl of Surrey executed sharp justice on
the Tindale men, and amoug those hanged on this occasion was
Jamie Dodd of the Burnmouth in Tarsett, “ the most named theif
of all others.” Probably he was the Jame Dodd mentioned in the
letter of Wm. and Christopher Dacre.
Earl of Surrey to the King, 2nd Sept. 1523.
Plesith it your highnes too be advertised that of late I have caused
six arrand thevys too be attached, twoo of Tyndale, twoo of Ridsdale,
and twoo of other places of Northumbreland, for offences lately
cornytted, and have by your lawes put theym to execution, one ot
them was named Jamy Dod of the Burnemouthe the mooste named
theif of all others, and iiij of thoders were very talle men. At this
same tyme were in likewise attached twoo other thevys of my Lorde
Dacre’s tennantes of Gilesland. And being put in a prison nere unto
where they were taken, iiijxx. of their kynnysmen and frendes of my
Lord Dacre’s tennantes came yesterdaye in the mornyng and brake
the hous and hurte dyvers men and toke away the thevys. The
contre roose upon theym, and toke one of theym that helped too
reskewe theym whome I nowe have in my custody.! And my Lorde
Dacre with all diligence is retourned into his contre too attache a
good nembre of thoffenders, and too send theym to me whome if I
maye have I truste soo to ordre theym that others shalbe afferd too
cornyt like offences againste your Grace. Mooste humble beseching
your Grace too loke upon this poure contre which by the contynnell
murders and theftes comytted and doon by Tyndale and Ridsdale men
and others of Northumbreland and other contres under my Lord
Dacre’s rewle was nere brought too uttir confusion.
And that it may like your Grace if I maye by your high poure
bring this contre to any good ordre tappointe one too have the rule
here aftir me as may contynue the same.
And aftir my poore opinion under your Grace’s high correccion if
* Sir Ralph Fenwick led the men of Tynedale, and Sir William Heron the men
of Redesdale, on this foray into Teviotdale.
! This probably refers to the breaking of Morpeth Gaol, and the captuie of
Henry Yarrow by William Swinburne.
�40
your pleasure bee to have me retourne to your Highnes soon aftir
Michelmas. As I truste your Grace woll have uie too doo it were
convenyente, not onely incontynente tappointe him but alsoo too send
hym hither, considering that it is nowe not fully one moneth too
Michelmas. And if he were here with me a good season before my
departure he shuld the better serve your Grace when £ were goon
eftsonys mooste humble beseching your Highnes too tendre the
premysses, and to advertise me of your gracious pleasure. Herein
written at Newcastell the ijde daye of Septembre.
Your most humble Subject and Servant,
T. SURREY.
[addressed.]
To the Kinge’s mooste noble Grace.
Memorandum. That Nicholas Thornton of Witton took Hodde
Hall, a Riddesdale man, in Northumbreland, when he was riding in
Steling (stealing).
Md. That John Browne of Windyates, Ran.ff Brown dwelling
besides Witton, tenauntes to the said Nicholas Thornton, and Berte
Shawdon, and one man called the gared Taillour, household servauntes
to the said Nicholas, was taken by the Ogles when they all iiij was in
Steling in Northumbreland.
Med. That Sir William Lisle took one John Hall, and Rauff Hall,
Lioll Hall, Riddesdale men, and let them goo.
Med. Also that one Kyssop, servaunt to the said Sir William, was
taken by the Ogles when he was in Steling.
Med. That Hoge Fenwik, of Attercops, kepith and receptith Wille
Aynseley Scott, viij dayes togidres, every moneth.
Item. Thom Brown of the Cotewalles stole the Priour of Tynmouth’s
horse, and his brodre was kepit in prison onto the said horse was
yeven again.
Item. That Thomas Foster Marshall, of Berwick, took William
Cokson, of Ellisden, and one oder Riddesdale men.
Med. That William Swinburn of Captheton took Henry Yurreyof
Tyndall when he was at the breking of Morpeth Castell.
Thomas Langton, of Langle, took certain Tindale men steling, and
let them goo.
On the 3rd of October, 1523, Surrey writes from Newcastle to
�41
Wolsey—“I have also knowledge by men of the contre, bnt not as
yett by the captaynes, that Sir Rauf Fenwyke on hys quarter, and
Sir William Heron on hys quarter, have made two very good roodes,
and have gotten muche insight gear, catall, horse, and prisoners, and
here returned withoute los.” And King James V. of Scotland, writing
to Henry VIII., complains that “ the greatest of all attemptes that
was done against our legys (lieges) during the hele war has been
committed upon our middle marchies be certaine zoure legys, of the
surnames of Doddis, Charltonis, and Mylbornis, under the care of
Schir Rauf Fenwik, who, on the 6th daye of this instant monthe, has
cummin within the groundes of Tevydaill, reft and spoilzid sundrie
gudis, murdyrit five men, and utheris left in perill of deid.”—(4 State
Papers, 666.
On this occasion Sir Ralph Fenwick led a willing army against the
hereditary foe ; but, as has happened to other great leaders, his then
supporters were soon after arrayed against him. Not ten months
after this great and most successful inroad, he was once more in Tynedale on another errand, seeking to apprehend one William Ridley, an
outlaw, and probably a fugitive from the South Tyne. He had with
*
him on this occasion a force of 80 horseman, and appears to have
taken up his quarters in the tower of Tarsett Hall. His presence
there does not seem to have been agreeable to the Tindale men, who
energetically espoused the cause of Ridley. “ William Charlton, of
Bellingham, having 200 of the seyde inhabitants of Tyndail reteigned,
bound, and bodilye sworne uppon a booke to him alwaies to take hys
parte, hering of the sayd Sir Rauff being ther, assembled parte of theim
diligenteley, and freshley set upon the said Sir Rauff, and not onely
put him from hys purpose af attackinge the sayd Ridley, but alsoe
chased the sayd Sir Rauff out of Tyndaill, to his great reproache.”
The insult offered to the King’s majesty, in the person of Sir Ralph
Fenwick, was speedily avenged bv Thomas Lord Dacre, who seized
the person of William Chari eton, and also took, at the Bridal of
Colwell, Roger Charleton, his Brother, and Thomas Charleton of the
Careteth, “ by whom all the in habitaunts were governed, led, and
ready at their commaundment.” He describes these three as pledgeWilliam Ridley was concerned in the murder of Nicholas Rea.therstonhA.Hgh
I
�42
breakers and receivers of the stolen goods procured by the other
marauders, and advises that they shall be forthwith judged and
executed. Immediately after the seizure of these three “ hedesman,”
Lord Dacre commanded the inhabitants of Tyndale to meet him the
next Sunday in Bellingham Church, The Robsons, however, one of
the surnames, held out and would not give pledges, whereupon Lord
Dacre sent out a party that night, seized four of that surname, and
among these Robert Robson, the fourth hedesmen, whom he at once,
and for the terrifying of the others, Justified, or executed, on
the spot.
Lord Dacre had been up to this time in no great favour at Court,
as it was rumoured that he was too indulgent to the Borderers. He
accordingly wrote a long letter of defence to Wolsey on the 25th
April, 1524:—
Dacre to Wolsey, 25th April, 1524.
[extract.]
My Lorde, pleas it your Grace, I received your two severall lettres,
the one dated at Grenewiche the last day of Marcii, and the oder at
your place besides W^estmynster the vj day of this instant monethe of
Aprill, by the contynne wherof I do perceive the manyfolde doctrines
and advertisementes that your Grace doth geve me, as well for con
servation of the Borders, punnyshement of malefactors, contynuall
annoysaunce to our ennymyes, as also for the apprehending of viij.
personnes sent in a cedull within your seid lettres. And albeit that
Sir Willm Heron and Sir Rauf Fenwik, Knightes, be admytted by
the Kinge’s Highnes to be Kepers of Tyndale and Redesdale, no
reasonable annswer or lawfull excuse maid by me for vj. of the seid
personnes inhabiting within Tyndale can be accepted by youi Grace.
But I to be chargied, and they to ay de me for thattaching of theim,
the like wherof hath not hertofore bene sene. Notheless seing this
busy tyme of warr, and that Tyndale is sq, far from me, or fro any
lande or dwelling place that I have or used to dwell in as Herbottell,
and others wherby I cannot with subdein roodes or jorney com
closly upon theim, Eke as ther officers might, yete if it be my chaunce
and fortune to git any of theim (for the whiche I shal bothe sendie
and laubor by all the laufull and honest meanes that I can possible),
�43
I shall attache theim, without it be thay com to common tristes for
good ordor and reformación wele of the realme and use of the marchies
as wardeins hertofore haith bene accustumed, whiche if they so do
must nedes departe again fre, thoughe they had slaine my broder or
frende. And in caace I can gitt noon of theim, yete I shall so do that
my good will and mynde shalbe knawen not deflective what tyme as
I shall ever afore your Grace.
Notwithstanding the contrary surmyses maide to your Grace of the
state of the countrey, assuring your Grace it is in as good ordor, and
rather better, now then it was in at the departure of my said Lorde
Treasaurer. And no robories commytted within his tyme then hath
bene commytted sens my entre, as I wol abyde by. For after the
insurrection of thinhabitantes of Tindale, maide upon the said Sir
Rauff Fenwik their bailif, afore or my Lorde Treasaurer departed no
punyshement or correction being maide for the same. My said Lorde
Treasaurer departed and no way tooke with theim, but oonly that my
seid lorde had communicacion with a parte of Tyndale. And therupon
drew a booke of articles, signed with his hande, taking abstinence
with theim, touching their good demeanor and abering to be kept to a
certein daye, which booke he left with me. And I do rakyn, under
correction of your Grace, if I kepe Tyndale in as good ordor and better
then I founde it in, and, according to the tenor of the seid booke, I
shulde serve no blame. And for proyf of the same, I beseche your
Grace to auctorise siche as shall best pleas your Grace by commission
to make due serche and examynation whidder the premissies of the
countrey Tindale, and attemptates with exploytes done be trew or not,
to thintent the Kinge’s said Highnes and your Grace, may be surely
ascertained therof wherunto ye wol geve credence, thoughe your Grace
take my writing concemyng the same lately as frustrate.
Yours with his serves,
THOMAS DACRE.
[addressed.]
To my Lorde Legate’s Grace.
Wolsey approved highly of Dacre’s activity about the Charltons,
and desired they might be executed at once :—
�Wolsey to Dacre, 11
June, 1524.
[extract.]
And to the residue of the contentes of your said ires depending most
upon the matiers of justice. The Kinge’s Highness moche alloweth
and commendeth your demeanor, not only in apprehending first of
William Charleton, of Bellingham; Roger Charleton, his brother,
Thomas Charleton, of Careteth, with your opinyion for putting the said
William to execucion, for the reasons and consideracions specified in
your said lettres, but also willeth you that, considering the demerites
of the said Roger and Thomas Charleton, ye abiding the tyme
of the sessions, whiche myzt geve a comfort to them and other malefactours, shal see aswel them as suche other as ye may apprehende
and shalbe founde culpable in like offences, to be immediately, and
withoute tracte of tyme, executed according to the ordre of justice,
and their demerites, to the fereful example of other whiche elles myzt
attempt and presume to commytte like offences, which thing don, I
assure you shal be a great furtherance to the good ordre and restfulnes
of those parties. And, therfore, it is not to be doubted but ye wol
regarde it accordingly. Sembably the Kinge’s Highnes being right
wel contented with the execucion don upon Robert Robson, wol that
ye in likewise procede againste the residue of the iiij of the surname
of Robsons, whom ye have in warde for like offences, not abyding
the commyng of the justices of assize, in avoiding the inconvenientes
before specified.
And as touching Sir Nicholas Ridley, in as moche as he, contrary
to your speciall commandement, hath put Henrison, being an errant
thiefe and felon, to libertie, at his own hande without auctorite, and
that William Ridley, being hiskynnesman and a like malefactor, who
is now fled in to Scotland, was, bifore his departure, supported by
the said Sir Nicholas. Albeit that any person shal make sute for the
pardon of the same Sir Nicholas, yet, ye may be sure, the Kinge’s
Grace is resolved and determyned not to graunte or passe the same,
but that as egal justice shalbe administred unto hym if he have so
desired, and that it be not don for any particuler displeasure, as
shulde be upon other malefactors. And, therfore, ye, showing the
same on the Kinge’s behalf to the said Sir Nicholas, may take suche
�45
ordre with hym, that by his meanes, and for the better declaración of
hymself, the said Willyam Ridley may be taken. Wherin if he be
remysse, seing as ye write he may do it, it shal be a more apparant
evident to his own condempnacion. For it is not convenient that
the Kinge’s Grace shulde write unto suche a malefactor, being pri
soner. But that if he trust upon any favor or mercy, he shal so
declare and use himself, otherwise that he may do som thing towardes
the deservyng of the same. And by this meanes, keping him stil in
warde, withoute putting him to any libertie, bayle, or maynprise, ye
shal best fynd the way to attayn the said William Ridley, and he,
nevertheless, to be ordred for his rightful punishement, as ye shal se
to stande with equite and justice.
Fynally, to thintent ye may be the more duely obeyed in exercising
your office in the west marches, I wol sende you by the next post the
Kinge’s commission, conformable to the divice and minute accustomed,
whiche ye sente unto me in that behalfe. Praying you that, according
to the special trust and confidence that the kinge’s highness and I
have in you, ye wol contynue and preserve in this good trayn and
disposición for the quiete ordering of that countrey. Ascertaynyng
you, it is thought by the Kinge’s Highnes, that fynding a multitude
of malefactors, if they shulde amounte to the nombre of xl., whiche
have deserved execucion of dethe, ye shulde not lett ne deferre, by
auctorite of your wardeynship and justice of peax, to porge those
parties of them, and to ordre them, according to justice, withoute
abiding the tyme of sessions or otherwise, wherby ye shal bring the
people there in to such terre and drede, that they shal not dare thus
presumptuously and contemptuously offende the Kinge’s lawes, to the
hinderance and, in manner, destruction of those parties. And, conse
quently, taking pledges of the other parties as ye have don in Tyndale,
and attaching suche malefactors as wol not fynde like pledges whom
the Kinge’s pleasure is ye shal, in that cace punnyshe or put to
execucion, according to the qualities of their demerites. Ye shal
reduce those countreys to as good and peasible ordre as any other
parte of the Kinge’s realme, to your great honor, and to the Kinge’s
singler contentación. And for my parte, I shall in your good doing
the more tenderly and entierly favor and love you, being moche the
gladder to helpe further and advaunce any thing that may be to your
�weale, honor, or profite, like as (persisting after this sort and fashion)
ye shal fynde the experience of the same accordingly. Thus fare ye
hartely wel. At my place besides Westminstre, the xjth day of .Tune,
Your lovyng frende,
T. CARLIS EBORX.
Lord Dacre lost no time in obeying these injunctions, as appears
from the following letter :—
Dacre to Wolsey, 8 July, 1524.
My Lord, pleas it your Grace, to wete, that, according to youre
commandment to me, geven in youre lettre dated at Westminstre, the
xj. daye of Junii last paste, this daye I have kept a Session, and have
put to execution of de he Willm Charlton, of Bellingeham, in
*
Tyndale, and Roger Charlton his broder. As for Thomas Charlton,
of Caryteth, he is this daye acquite and clened of the matier that was
laid ageinst hym, albeit, I have so provided that he is newly indicted
of an oder felony, wherupon (God willing) he shall be reigned within
brief tyme, and in likewise put to execution as the oder two be. Also,
there ar two of the Robsons, whiche were taken with Robert Robson,
of Byndmyrehill [Bimmerhill] casten, and this daye put to execution,
and the thrid Robson is acquite and clened.
And besides thes,
there is one named Percyvell Grene, who was as disordred an
erraunt theif and treitor as any cowthe be, and for many and diverse
felonies by hym committed, fled out of this realme and tooke the
benefice of Scotland, of whome my Lord Treasurer can enforme your
Grace which Grene (for the said treason) is casten and put to execu
tion, and so j ugied to hyng in an irne chayne unto suche tyme as his
bones and synewes rott in sonder. Also (over and besides the said
persons), there ar othre thre thiefes in likewise put to execution this
same daye. And so in all there be-viij. casten and executed. And yete,
I have oders which were not brought furth at this tyme, and as it
shall pleas God to sende us moo, they shall have like ordre according
to their demerites and by thordor of Justice.
And furthre, I shall endevor me, to the beste of all my power, to
accomplish the King, our Soverain Lorde’s, high commandmente and
pleasur, and your Grace is in thadministration of justice and keping
�47
of thees countreys in good and quiete ordre, which., I truste at this
tyme, be in metely good trayn. Trusting to God they shall alwey
increas to better, with good following upon, and keping of Wardein
Cortes and Sessions, which, God willing, shall not be slakked.
Pleas it also, your Grace, upon Tewisdaye, the vth daye of this
month, I sent my broder Sir Philippe Dacre, Knight, into Scotland,
accumpanied with Sir Rauf Fenwyk, Kny‘-, Leonard Musgrave,
Edward Aglyonby, and John Tempest, capteins of a parte of the
Kinge’s garrysons lyeng here, upon his marchees and oders of the
countrey men being in the hole, to the nombre of on M. men, who
rode to their purpose, and brent a grete towne, called Smalholme, iiij.
myles above Kelso, which was not brent of many yeres agoo, and not
only seased miche catall, but also wan miche bagage, and so retorned
homewardes. And in their said retomyng, the Scottes of Tevidale
(proposeing to have maid a jorney. into this realme) did espie or ooste
in their said home commyng. And so the said Tevidale men being
retorned of their purpose foresaid, and accumpanied with the marshe
men (being to geder in the hole nombre mm men) lighted and lay
closely in our men is waye. And so when our men did se the said
Scottes, they in likewise lighted, and with a good and fresh courage
set upon the same Scottes and put them to the flighte, and thereupon
lap on horsbak againe, and chaced the said Scottes, and slew about
xxx persons of them, and took nigh upon cccth, and wan thre
standerdes, notwithstanding that by good fortune a parte of the said
Scottes kept themselfes to geders, and (when our men were skaled in
the said chace) set upon the hynderende of our said chace, and there
slew John Heron the bastard and other vj persons, and took the said
Sir Rauf Fenwyk and Leonard Musgrave, and about xx persons with
theim prisoners, and reskued a parte of Scottes prisoners. Albeit,
thorow the grace of God and by good fortune, our said men being in
the chace (not knowing of the chance hapned behinde theim unto
tyme the crye rose) retorned and left that chace, and not onely chaced
the said Scottes that sett upon the hynder end of our men, but also
slew and took parte of theim, and kept and wan the feild clere
without any further doubte, and so cam home without any more
hurte or damage, which I assure your Grace was a fare fortune, seying
that of trouthe the Scottes were two for one. And fynally, for
�conclusion herein, our men being commen home, have clerely brought
away upon cc persons, and the Scottes had clerely away the said Sir
Rauf Fenwyk and Leonard Musgrave, and about xx persons prisoners
with theim. And over this, Andrew Ker, being Ward ein of the
Middill Marchies of Scotland, and Marke Ker, his uncle, as sore and
evill hurte, insomiche no man trusteth that they shal lyve, and many
other Scottes are evill hurte. And I assure your Grace that this is
the trouthe of the matier.
As for newes of Scotland, surely I have none of effecte, but the
Scottes do persevere and entende to stik at the promisse which they
have made to the Due of Albany, and (as they say) woll in no wise
flyt frome it. As knoweth the Holy Trinite, who ever preserve your
Grace. At Morpath, the viijth night of Julii.
Yours, with hys serves,
THOMAS DACRE.
[addressed.]
To my Lord Legate’s Grace.
Indorsed—“ Reddit viij. July.
On the 23rd July, Norfolk tells Dacre that the execution of the
Charltons and Robsons are better taken by the King and Council
than anything he has done, and has extinguished the rumour that he
favoured evil doers.
In June, 1524, Lord Dacre commanded Sir Ralph Fenwick to issue
the following proclamation at Bellingham Kirk, “ at the messe tyme
on Sondaie —Copie of a Proclamación.
Thomas, Lord of Dacre and Gilleslande, Wardein of all the
diarchies of Englande foranempt Scotl ande, and RaufFenwik, Knight,
Bailif of Tyndale, chargies and commandes all and evry thinhabitantes
of Tyndale, betwene thages of lx. and xvj., personally tappere afore us
at the courte of Wark, in Tyndale, which shal holde on Friday, the
fast of the Nativitie of Sainct John Baptist first comyng, that is to
say, the xxiiij. daye of this monethe of Junii, for good reull of the
countrey. And that all personnes that has founde no suerties as
yete, that they com in and speke with us there to thintent if they
�49
Woll finde sure tie by plegies for good reull to be kept that they be
accepted and takin as other good and wele disposed men of Tindale is.
And if we and they agre not, and that they woll or cannot finde
sureties for good reull, they to depart frely againe without let or
disturbaunce. And if ther be any person that pleges are laid for
which e standes in any doubte or feres to com in, we wol they com
neie the towne and send to us for assourance, whiche they shall have
graunted fre to com and goo for all thinges, saving good reull to be
kept. And that no person be absent at their perilles. At Sawarde,
the xvj. daye of June, the xvj. yere of our Soverain Lorde’s reigne,
King Henry the Eight, undre my seale and signe manuall.
Sir Ralph had, therefore, soon been released after his captivity by
the Scots.
In March, 1524, the Tynedale men and Scots combined, made a
terrible foray on their own countrymen. William Franklin writes
from Durham to Cardinal Wolsey >—
“ Please yr most honorable Grace to understand upon Tuesday last,
the xxviiith of Marche, the Hyland theeves with banyshed men, to the
numbre of foure hundred men, accompanyed with many Scotts, came
to Ingoo and Kirkheton, in Northumberland, and overrane the
countrey too within eight myles of Newcastell, when they slew seven
menne out of hande, and hurte dyvers moo in perell of dethe, setting
fyer on the saide townes, and drove away all the goodes and cattail
lying in ther way. The saidde theeves be nowe in such comforte and
audacitie, bye reson, it is bruted (bruited) here, bye the Lord Dacre’s
freends, that he shall have the hooll (whole) governaunce of the
countreye, that theye bee much more ryotouse than ever they wer
by fore.”
Within a month after this inroad, in April, 1524, the arm of the •
church was had recourse to, to arrest the disorders of Tyndale; for
Cardinal Wolsey then caused an interdict to be laid on all the
churches of Tyndale, though Redesdale, as being then tolerably quiet,
was exempt from censure. On the Scottish side, the Archbishop of
Glasgow published, at the same time, an interdict and excommunica
tion against the outlaws of Liddesdale, couched in the strongest
possible language. The document may be read at full length in
V State Papers, 417, but we forbear to reproduce it as it is in the
X
�Scottish tongue, and would lose much of its force by translation.
We only give a short extract of this very lengthy proclamation. The
worthy Archbishop does not spare his lawless countrymen. “ All
the malesouns and waresouns that ever gat warldlie creatur sen the
begynning of the warlde to this hour mot licht apon yaim (them). I
curse thair heid, and all ye haris of thair heid; I curse thair face,
thair een, thair mouth, their neise, thair toung, thair teith, thair
craig, thair schulderis, thair breist, thair hert, thair stomok, thair bak,
thair wame, thair armes, thair leggis, thair handes, thair feit, and
everilk part of thair body, fra the top of thair heid to the soill of
thair feit, before and behind, within and withoute.”
But the
Borderers seem to have reverenced neither church nor King, for
Willm. Frankelyn, writing to Wolsey in 1524, tells the Cardinal—
“ After the receipts of your Grace’s sayd letter we caused all the
chyrches of Tindaill to be interdicted, which the theves there
temerariousiy disobeyed, and caused a Scots frere (friar), the sayd
interdiction not withstanding, to mynistre them theyre communion of
his facion, and one Ector Charlton, one of their capeteynes, resaved
the parsonnes dewties and served them all of wyne.” He adds “ The
saying of Sir Edward Todd, priest,” concerning the order of Tynedale
men on Good Friday last past, viz., “that on that day Hector
Charlton declared in his presence, and that of Sir John Aide, priest,
that he, Hector, did no thing sithen the departure of the Lord Dacre,
his master, but that it was his pleasure and commandment; that
Hector kept company with Gerard his brother and other felons of
Tynedale, to espy bourdes that he may cause the Lord Dacre laugh
when he comes home ; that Hector, with Henry Pluck and Nicolas,
took the Blessed Sacrament forth from the sepulchre in Bellingheam
Church, and one firkin of wyne and 800 breads, and carried the same
into a place called Tarsett Hall, but next day brought them back to
Bellingham, where they got a Scotch friar to give the Sacrament to
a number of evil disposed people.”
The tradition of the country tells us that this was Hector
Charlton of the Boure, on Chirdon Bum, the ancestor of the late
Charlton of Reedsmouth. Proclamation was made at Bellingham
and elsewhere against giving food to the outlaws, and for
kepying of thare wyffes and servantes from marketsand most of
�51
the outlaws seemed disposed to come to terms, stating that if their
own lives and those of their pledges given into the hands of the
sheriffs were respected and made safe, they would then submit to the
King. “ Thys aunser dyd all the theves of Tindaill give except
Gerard Charlton, and one Ector Charlton, two great capeteynes
amongst them, which Ector said that he was servaunte to the Lord
Dacres, and that he never wolde submyte himself to the tyme he
shold se the sayd Lord Dacre.”
The severity of Lord Dacre’s rule in North Tynedale, raised
against him a host of enemies. Amongst these, no doubt, were the
“ surnames ” which had suffered so severely from his energy in Tyndale;
and when he was tried at Westminster Hall, in 1536, his patronage
of Hector Charlton of the Boure was brought in accusation against
him. A copy of the articles of accusation is still extant in the possession
of Sir John Swinburne, of Capheaton, and has been printed by
Hodgson, Pt. 3, Vol. I.—Art. XIV. “ Item, in proof of favour borne
by the said Lord Dacre to thieves consorting there in their mis
demeanour, two thieves were taken in Gilsland, beside Lanercost, with
the ‘maynore’ of certain cattle by them feloniously stolen and delivered
to the order of the said Lord Dacre, which at the request, of Hector
*
Charleton, one of the greatest thieves in those parts, familiarly and
daily conversant with the said Lord Dacre, the said thieves, were by
the said Lord Dacre delivered to the said Charleton to be ordered at
his pleasure, which Hector Charleton did ransome the said thieves,
and suffered them to go at large for twenty nobles of money, which
thieves and their friends have delivered and paid the same sum to the
said Charleton with goods stolen from the King’s true subjects.”
Lord Dacre, in his answer to this accusation, replies, that the two
men after being long in prison were found not guilty, and that there
upon he delivered them to William Charlton and Hector Charleton,
“ and whett thaie dyd with them, the sayd lorde knowithe not.” The
date of these articles of accusation is not accurately known, probably
they were drawn up some years before Lord Dacre’s trial, in 1536.
We are not able to fix the exact date of another exploit of the
Tyndale men, referred to in the XVIth article of accusation, whereby
it seems that one Cokes Chari eton had been taken and confined in Lord
Dacre’s castle of Morpeth, but was rescued by a party of the Tyndale
�52
men, no doubt of his own “ grayne,” who “ brak the oastell of Morpeth
on the nyghte, and the prisone wher the sayd theff with two felons
were and took hym out.” It was, probably, on this occasion that
William Swinburne, of Capheaton, retook Henry Yarrow, of Tyndale,
one of the escaped felons.
In 1525, Sir Ralph Fenwick was again roughly handled in North
Tyndale. Early in the year, he was left in Tarsett Castle with 100
men to keep rule in the country. Similar garrisons were placed at
Chipchase and Hesleyside, as appears by the following letter of Eure
to Wolsey, dated May 16 th :—
Sir William Bulmer and Sir William Eure to Cardinal Wolsey,
\§th May, 1525.
Pleas it your grace to be advertysed. We dyd wryt a letter untoe
Master Magnus, in Scotland, toe move the Counsell of Scotland that
thei shulde nott ayd nor assist the Kynge’s rebelles of Tyndall within
Scotland. And he hath mayd us answer, thatt he wyll so doo.
And foi' his advice concernying the abstynence of werr, and if he had
eny knowlege their of. And how at we and owr deputyez shulde use
our selfes their in, and so, by his advise, their is abstynence taken for
xv. daez. At the last day of trew, as was thought by our deputyez,
the Scottes was helye mynded, and with greatt company, and our
deputyez was enformed thay entended to have doyne thayme sum
displeasor. Wheruppon thay have shewed untoe us thatt they have
called uppon the gentilmen of the countrye, and of the commitye of
the saym, as use and custom hathe beyn. And thai wyll nott ryse
with thayme, so thatt thai er nott able in nombre to meytt the Scottes,
wherfor, we suppos, thatt the countrye thynkes thatt we be nott
able persons to rewll thayme, besechying your Grace to tak no dis"
pleasor with us, tho we, accordyng to owr othez and trewths untoe
the Kynge’s highenes and your Grace, discharge owr selfes toe
ascertaign your Grace the trewthe. We thynk thatt itt is necessary
yf it myght stand with the pleasor off the Kynge’s highenes and
your Grace, thatt thei wer sum noble man sent intoe this countrye,
and loeth we wer seyng, your Grace is so good untoe us as ye be,
thatt we shulde nott serve the Kynge’s highenes and your Grace as
we shulde doe. For and if we shulde call of the countrye, we thynk
�thatt thei wyll nott serve us. And as it shall pleas your Grace,
heir in we beseche yow, thatt we may know your pleasor how as we
shall ordre ourselfes, and if we shuld have eny more spekyng with the
Scottes, if thai require uppon us or of owr deputyez as thai dyd the
last tyme, whether we shall take eny further abstynence or nott.
Also, we beseche your Grace, that we may know your pleasor
whether thatt suche ordre as we have taken for Tyndall shall contynew
or nay, which ordre is this—We have left Sir Rauf Fenwic, and on
hundreth men with hym, att Tercett Hall. And att Chipchaice, a
gentelman and fyftye men with hym ; and att Heslesyd, on other
gentelmen and fyfty men with hym, so thatt their remaneth styll in
their garrysons att the Kynge’s charge two hundreth men.
Sens the tyme thei war layd, the Tyndaill men nor the Scottes
theiffs hath nott rydyn nor doyn no great harme, whatt thei will do
if the garryson be discharged we know nott. And, except the con
trary commandement com frome your Grace, we entend to discharge
the garryson uppon Setterday, the xxvijth day of May.
And the Armystronges of Liddersdaill, and the theiffes of Ewysdaill, is joned with the Kynge’s rebelles of Tyndaill, and is commyn
untoe thaym, and kepeth all company to gedders which is thowght
shall mak mony dispoilles of the Kynge’s subjectes, assoyn as the
garryson shalbe discharged. And thus we be enformed, as our Lord
knoweth, who, preserve youi’ Grace. Frome Segisfelde, the xvjth day
of May, by your humble servandes.
W. BULMER.
WYLLM EURE.
[addressed.]
To my Lord Cardinall, his good Grace,
hast post hast.
On the last day of May he was attacked there by the Scots and
Tynedale men. “400 Scots, with the rebelles of Tynedale, came to
Tarsett Hall and Hesleyside, where the Kynge’s garrisons lay, and
there took 55 horses and prisoners, and kylled and brount. And on
the 13th June, came 600 Scotsmen, with the rebelles of Tendale, and
took forty men and forty horses, and brount and kylled divers men.”
�I
54
I
J
■
Eure and Fenwick upon this made a raid upon Tyndale, on the 7th
of July, and the untoward result of this inroad is detailed in the .
following letter.
Sir William Eure to Wolsey, Sth July, 1525.
Pleas your Grace, I wentt unto Tendale, the vij. day of July, and
Sir Rauffe, of Fenwyk, wentt uppe to syde of Tyen waters, and I of
the tothers syde. And he desyryd me that I wolde latte hym have
iiij”- of my nayrcharys [mine archers]. And I putte my unckyll
Hewystes [Eustace?] to hym, and iiijxx- hayrcharys, and John, of
Hogyll [Ogle], and fyfte sperys. I bruntt thayr Chellis, and toke
frome thayme all that was in the sayde Schellys, and thayr cattell, of
that syde of the waters that I was of. And where Sir Rauffe, of
Fenwyk, was, the thevys sett upon hym at astrate, and thayr hathe
tayken my unckyll and ten of my servandes, and sclewe one. I
sende unto the bysshoppryche of Duresme to my fryndys, that was
nexte jonyng unto Hexham, to company me att the said jomay and
thayr come to me iij0- of thayme. And, pleas your Grace, the gentyll
men of the cuntre hadde lever have the favor of the thevys then to
tayke any of thayme. I besyche your Grace that I may knawe your
plesor howe I schall euse me in theys partys. I contenew the garryson
men in waygis to I knawe your gracios plesor thayrin, and remayns
here my selffe at Hexham. I schalbe gladde to euse me acordyng to
your commandmentt, to the best of my pore, as long as I leyffe, as
knaweth God, who preserve your Grace. Wrytten, at Hexham, the
viij. day of July.
- Your Servandes, att command,
WYLLM EURE.
[addressed.]
To my Lorde Cardinall’s Grace,
This be delyvered.
We believe it was in the month of June, 1525, that Tarsett Castle
was burnt and destroyed by the united forces of the Scottish side,
joined by the men of Tynedale.
In 1528, William Charlton, of Shotlyngton, and Archibald Dodd,
with two Scotsmen—Harry Noble and Roger Armestrong—rode a
�foray into the Bishoprick of Durham. The two Englishmen Were
here acting in union with their hereditary foe, and the inroad upon
the county of Durham can only be characterized as a thorough act of
treachery. It confirms the saying of a writer of the day, that these
Border thieves would be Englishmen when they will, and Scotsmen
when it suited them best. In all probability Noble and Armestrong
were “broken men” outlawed from Liddesdale for acts of violence,
who had taken refuge among their foes. The party, nine in all,
entered the county of Durham on Monday, January 21, 1528, and
advancing to the neighbourhood of Woolsingham, seized the parson of
Muggleswick, and bore him off a prisoner. On their return they
broke into three houses at Penhamside or Penwoodside, and robbed
and spoiled the “ gear ” therein. The country rose in pursuit.
Edward Horsley, the bailiff of Hexham, led the fray.
“ The water
of Tyne was that night one great flode, so that the sayd theves couth
not passe the same at no fordes, but were driven of necessitie to a
brygg® within a lordship of myne called Aydon Brygge, which by my
commaundment was barred, chayned, and lokked faste, so that the
sayd theves couth not passe with their horses over the same, but were
constrained to leave their horses behynde them, and flee away a foote.
And upon the same a servaunte of myne, called Thomas Errington,
ruler of my tenantes in those quarters, persewed after theyme with a
sleueth hounde, to the which pursuitte of theyme, after the scrye in
aid, came to theyme one William Charlton with dyverse other
inhabitants of Tyndaill to helpe to put down those rebellious persons,
which forwardness in oppressing mallifactors hath not been sene aforetyme in Tyndaill men.” (Northd. to Wolsey, 1528). William
Charlton, of Shotlyngton, or Shitlington Hall, was slain in the pursuit
by Thomas Errington. James or Harry e Noble shared the same fate,
and Roger Armstrong and Archie Dodd were taken and executed.
William Charlton’s body was hung in chains at Hexham, James
Noble’s on Haydon Bridge, and the others were treated in the same
way at Newcastle and Alnwick. The other five outlaws escaped.
The old hall at Shitlington was standing till within the last few years.
Six “ Tyndaile theiffis ” were hanged at Alnwick in April of this
year. The severity of this chastisement seems to have produced
tranquillity on the Borders for some years. In 1535, the Earl of
�56
Northumberland met the “ hedesmen ” of the surnames of Tynda,ill,
at Hexham, and took bonds for their good behaviour, and that of
their retainers. These bonds are still extant. In 1536, however, the
restless spirit of the Borderers was again inciting to acts of violence.
Sir William Eure writes to the Cardinal, on the 26th of July of that
year, from Hexham—“The rebels of Tyndale make some ‘besyness’
in Tyndale wher ther dwellings was, and in no place els they melle
or dois hurt; ther abydings is 'in a place called Lushburn Howies
(Lewisburn), a marvellous stronge grounde of woodes and waters.
They begyn to be weary of their troubles, and maks offers, ther lyves
safed, to submytt them to the Kyng’s pleasur. I thynk yf Sir Rauffe
Fenwyke, havynge the Kyng’s garryson in conducte at hys owne
appointment, had done hys dewtye, the said rebelles at thys time had
made large proffers of submission.” Sir William Eure was probably
no friend to Lord Dacre, for along with this letter he sends the testi
mony of Edward Charlton, of Tyndale, which goes to prove that Dacre
was wont to give private warning to the Bells, to shift for themselves
whenever he made an inroad on the Tyndale outlaws. This was just
before Lord Dacre’s trial; and, after the trial, it would seem from a
letter of Norfolk to Cromwell that he had sounded Lord Dacre about his
again taking charge of Tyndale, but it was so much against Dacre’s
mind that, as Norfolk says, “ he had rather lose one fynger of every
hand than to meddle therwith.”
In 1535, Eure writes to Wolsey, on the 26th July, from Hexham
—“I send you a bill of the saying of Edward Charlton. Edward, of
Charlton, hearde Sande Corbell (Corbett?) say, as they rode to Tendall,
that my Lord Dacre had ordered Sir Chris. Dacre to warn John Bell,
of Bowesbank, and John Bell, of Clowes, Geyll Hob, and Peter
Tweddell, and two of Stapletons, to shift, as they were complained of
by the gentlemen of the bishoprick, especially with the Baron of
Helton. Chr. Dacre gave warning to Bell’s wife, that if they went
to the rebelles of Tynedale, it should be the worse for them. Lang
Jim Harmstraw said openly at Carlisle, when he was sitting at drink,
that Sir Wm. Eure and Sir Ralph Fenwick should have other things
to think of than lying in the garrison there. None should bear rule
there except Lord Dacre. John, of Charlton, said openly that Sir
Christopher Daker would give them warning, or be rayd of them.”
�57
We now come to the matter of the murder of Roger Fenwick,
keeper of Tyndale, or, as he is elsewhere called, one of the bailiffs of
Tyndale. It is difficult to arrive at the truth regarding this case;
but in a letter dated 7 April, Newcastle, 1537, John of Charleton,
Rynny Charlton, and John Dodde, are named as the murderers of
Roger a Fenwick, late keeper of Tyndaill, “and are recepted, ayded,
and assisted now within the realmes of Scotland, but most of all by
the Abbat of Jedworth.” The Abbot of Jedworth, according to the
Iter of Wark, held, in 1279, extensive possessions in north Tynedale,
and especially at Ealingham, one of the holdings of the Charltons.
Edward and Cuthbert de Charlton seem also to have been mixed up
in this transaction, and above all, John Heron, son of John Heron, of
Chipchase. The accusation against John Heron seems to have rested
on the testimony of a single individual, Gerrard or Jerrye Charlton of
the Hawe-hill, otherwise called Jerrye Topping, who was subsequently
taken by Sir Raynold Carnaby, and thrown into Wark worth Castle.
He seems to have given private information against John Heron to
Norfolk, and the latter made ready to ride upon Tyndale if the King
of Scots would do the same upon Liddesdale. Also that “ he would
do hys best to put order for Tyndale with usyng all the policies I can
t’apprehend Edwarde and Cutberte of Charleton and John Heron’s
sonne, which John I require your good lordshippe may be secretly con
veyed hither, and so delyvered to th’officers of my house to be by
them conveyed to me to Newcastle, to be ordered according to justice
I wolde he sholde be hear on the 20th daie of Sept, and conveyed with
a hode on hys hedde, and so secretly kept by the waye that no man
sholde knowe him unto hys delyveraunce; which wolde be also in the
nyght, bycause I have many pledges of Tyndale and Ryddesdale here.
For and it were knowen he were here, I shold neyther take hys soring
nor others that I would have. And if it be not known in the ‘ flete ’
whither he should go, but conveyed in the nyght, the better.” John
Heron hereupon fled into Scotland, and was present at the meeting of
Lord Wharton and Lord Maxwell at the Baittinge Buske on the 6th
of Nov. 1538, when Wharton being apprised of his presence, laid an
ambush to take him prisoner, but was dissuaded from his purpose by
Lord Maxwell, who feared that such an act would be an occassion of
strife. After all, John Heron was probably guiltless of the blood cP
�68
Roger Fenwick, The matter engaged the attention of the PrivyCouncil long after this date. In 1542, the Council reports that the
accusation against John Heron rests on only one person, Jerrye
Charlton, who is known to be a thief and a common malefactor, and
wjwse father had been punished by the Carnabys for his offences.
“ We consider with it the malice that is betwene the same Camabys
and John Heron, with the favour that is between the Camabys and
Wharton, and that it may be that Charlton being brother to one of
your rebels and outlaws for the death of Roger Fenwick, knowing
this displeasure to be between the Carnabys, Wharton, and John
Heron, hath throwen out this bone as it were to please the Warden,
and thereby at length to labour the restitution of his brother the
outlawe.” (5 State Papers, 202.)
The Robsons were, likewise, at feud with the Grahams, or Graemes,
in the Netherby district. There is a North Tynedale tradition, that
the Robsons once made a foray into Liddesdale, to harry the Grahams,
and drove off a flock of their sheep down into North Tyne. Unfor
tunately, the sheep proved to be scabbed, and communicated the disease
to the other sheep of the Robsons. Upon this, the latter made a
second raid into Liddesdale, and took seven of the most substantial of
the Graemes they could lay hands upon, and hanged them forthwith,
with the warning, that “ the neist tyme gentleman cam to tak their
schepe, they war no to be scabbit! ”
John Heron was actively concerned in the pilgrimage of grace, or
rising in the north in favour of the old religion, in the autumn of
1536; and a most curious document has recently been found, regarding,
his conduct towards Carnaby on this occassion. It is printed in the
first volume of the “ Priory of Hexham,” recently published by the
Surtees Society. Heron was an ardent follower of Sir Thomas Percy,
the leader of one of the armies in the pilgrimage of grace. The
Percies hated Sir Raynold Carnaby, because it was thought to be by
his influence that the Percy estates were diverted from Sir Thomas
Percy, the next heir in proper descent. Sir Ingram Percy besieged
the house of Adderstone, near Bambrough, in the belief that Sir
Raynold Carnaby was in it, and he swore to Thomas Foster then,
that “by Goddes hart” he would be revenged of Sir Raynald Carnaby.
And when Thomas Forster desyred to knows what offence the said Sir
�Raynold had done unto him, and wherein he had offended hym, he
saide, “ Sir Raynold Carnaby hath beyn the distruction of all our
blode, for be his meanes, the king shal be my lordes heyr.”
It is well known, that the Canons of Hexham resisted, by force of
arms, the Commissioners who came to take possession of their
monastery. These commissioners were Lyonell Gray, Robert Col
lingwood, William Grene, and James Rockeby. On arriving at
Hexham, they found the gates of the monastery closed, and the
battlements lined with armed men. Among them was a canon, the
master of Ovingham, a cell of the Hexham house, and he stood on
the walls in full armour, with a bowe bent with arrowes, and to the
summons of the Commissioners, the stout churchman answered,—
“ We be twenty brethren in this house, and we shall die all, or that
you shall have this house.” The Commissioners were foiled in their
errand, and for a brief space the Monastery of Hexham was saved.
John Heron was most anxious to raise the men of Tynedale and
Redesdale for the Pilgrimage of Grace, and by the paper recently
printed by the Surtees Society, it is evident that he wished to com
promise the Carnabys in the same rising—for rebellion we certainly
do not call it, any more then we should speak of the rising, of 1745,
by such a name.
John Heron accordingly called on William Carnaby, at Halton
Castle, near Corbridge, on Sunday, the 15th of October, 1536. The
canons of Hexham had held their monastery, by force of apns, from
the 28th of September to the 15th of October, and Heron advised
Carnaby to remain quiet (knowing him to be of the King’s party),
and he would do his best to bring about an accommodation. Upon
this, Carnaby—the father of Sir Raynold Carnaby—opened his heart
to Heron, who, directly after, rode back to Hexham, apparently to
promote this favourable issue. He, however, on his arrival did
nothing of the kind, but prevailed on the monks to grant certain
fees, under the seal of theii- convent, to certain men of Tynedale,
such as he should appoint, to about forty shillings yearly ; and said,
that he doubted not but by the help of his son-in-law, Cuthbert
Charlton—who had married his daughter—and of one Edward
Charlton, his uncle, with such other friends as they would make, but
all the whole country of Tynedale would live and die in the quarrel.
�60
The canons agreed, but did not then seal the documents, because they
desired John Heron to take a message to William Carnaby, before
they should join themselves with thieves, which they would be loth
to do if they might otherwise save their lives. The message was
to desire William Carnaby to prevail with his son, Sir Raynold, who
had brought down the King’s letters, that he would intercede for their
lives with the King, on condition of their giving up the abbey. Heron
returned to Halton, but gave none of this message to Carnaby, while
he sent word secretly to the Tynedale men to attend and meet their
keeper, Roger Fenwick, at Chollerford, upon forfeit of a noble for
each man that was absent. The next morning, he returned to Hex
ham, and told the canons, that the only answer he had got was that
Sir Raynold Carnaby was determined to’ have the heads of four of
the canons, and four of the men of Hexhamshire, to send up to the
King, and other favour they would not get. “ Whiche when they
hard, said, better it was to defend theyre lyves as long as they myght,
than wilfully to kill theyme selfes, and so prepared theyme selfes and
Tyndal men to make them as strong as they coulde.” Heron had
thus gained a day for raising the men of Tynedale, having sent word
to them overnight. He then came back to Carnaby’s house, at Halton,
to dinner, and sate down quietly, saying, “ It is a good sight to see a •
man eat when he is hungry,” and so passed the time till dinner was
half done. And, as he was at dinner, one Archie Robson, of Tyne
dale, came to one John Robson, his cousin, and told him all how
Tynedale men were gathered, and by what warning. John Heron
then called Carnaby into another chamber, and told him that the
canons of Hexham were prepared for the worst, and that they would be
at his house straight away, and that the Tynedale men were partakers
with them. Carnaby was evidently now in a terrible fright, and said
his friend John Heron had given him very short warning, to know of
such a purpose, and not to declare it till he had half dined ! . Heron ad
vised him to fly immediately to his own Tower of Chipchase, for, if he
remained at Halton, all the goods in the world would not save his life. .
His design seems to have been to compromise Carnaby, and to frighten
him out of Halton, so that he might lay hands on Sir Raynold
Carnaby’s goods and plate, which he knew were in the house. So
*
poor William Carnaby took horse, and rode off with John Heron
�61
towards Chipchase. In. the meantime, the men of Hexhamshire, who
had risen in defence of the canons, and the Tynedale men, who had
joined them after the preceding night’s warning, were at St. John Lee,
close to Hexham. A servant of Sir Raynold Carnaby’s was riding
past St. John Lee, and fell in with the Tynedale men, and guessing
their intention, he spoke them fair, got away, and dashed off at full
speed towards Halton, to warn the inmates and to assist at the
defence of the tower, where his master’s money and plate were. By
a chance, he fell in with Heron and William Carnaby on their way to
Chipchase, no doubt somewhere on Stagshaw-bank. Signing to
William Carnaby to come near him, he whispered in his ear—“ That
traitor thief that rideth with you hath betrayed you, and it will cost
you your life yet.” He then advised him to speak fair to Heron,
and to beg him to keep in the rear, to turn back those of his own
friends who might pursue Carnaby, and that the said servant would
guide him to Chipchase. Heron fell into the snare, he turned back,
and Carnaby, putting spurs to his horse, dashed off towards Langley
Castle, where he arrived in safety. John Heron then returned to
Halton, and demanded of Carnaby’s wife if her son, Sir Raynold, had
any money. She answered yes, and delivered to him the casket,
with such money as Sir Raynold had. And when he had got the
casket into his hands, one Arthur Errington, kinsman of Sir Raynold
Carnaby’s took it from him by force, and, together with seven Tyne
dale men, who had promised to take his part, rode away as fast as
their horses would bear them. And John Heron seeing that his pur
pose was void, that the casket was out of his hands, made after them
with all the speed he might, and put a handkerchief as a pennon upon
his spear point, and followed after the casket, all to the intent that
the rest of them that was broken in the foray and were seizing the
goods, should have recovered the casket for him. He, however, could
not overtake Errington, and that night rode home to Chipchase.
Another letter has just come to light, regarding Heron’s relatives,
Edward and Cuthbert Charlton. It seems that the King had granted,
by letters patent, certain annuities to these two Tynedale leaders,
whereupon the Council for the Marches writes to his Majesty that
these two men were the chief stirrers up of the country, to its great
wasting and decay, and that the granting of annuities to them would
�only encourage the others to further misdeeds. They aver that these
two were unwilling to take oath to observe the peace before the keepers
of Tynedale, and that they had sworn to support the cause of the
canons of Hexham against the King, and were retained for that pur
pose by a yearly fee of twenty nobles a-piece, as the Council was
credibly informed by Roger Fenwick, the keeper of Tynedale. The
Council thereupon demand that the Charltons should be arrested, and
punished according to their demerits, and that a garrison of three
hundred soldiers should be laid in Tynedale. Two months after this,
Roger Fenwick was murdered, and John Heron and the Charltons
were suspected of the homicide. A letter of the Tynedale men is
preserved, and has just been printed by the Surtees Society. It is
signed by five of the Charltons, four of the Robsons, two of the
Dodds, and one of the Milburns. Among these is John Robson, of
the Falstone; Charlton, of the Bower; and Rynion Charlton, who,
in 1537, was charged with the murder of Roger Fenwick. In June,
1538, Edward and Cuthbert Charlton came both in to Sir Reginald
Carnaby, “ and under assurans, and they spak veray reasonably, and
said they wold be glad to mend with the forst of their countrey, and
what way were taken with the rest they wold not fale to followe the
same. I perceyve by Edward Charlton, and Cuthbert, there is
somewhat that stykkes in their stomakkes, whatsoever they say, for
they are always in a dreddure, and fere for ther lyves.” Carnaby
then goes on to say, that Edward Charlton offers his son as a pledge,
and that he will send him to me at Hexham, “ for there is no mo of
his name sofiyshent that woll pledge for him, but aether himself or
his son, or one Henry Charlton, his son in law; for there is dyvers
of the Charltons that was in his band that dare not nowe pledge for
hym. He wold be glad to lay in one of his tenantes, and that
me thynk is not mete.”
Sir Raynold Carnaby, who is here mentioned, was the second son
of William Carnaby, Esq., of Halton, and was married to Dorothy,
sister of Sir John Forster, warden of the Middle Marches. He
appears, with Widdrington, to have been appointed deputy keeper of
Tynedale, but neither appointment seems to have been much to the
satisfaction of the Earl of Norfolk. Writing, in 1537, to Cromwell,
he says of his two deputy keepers—“All the contres under my
�63
commission be as well ordred as I would wish, save only Tyndale
and Ryddesdale, wich be under the governaunce of Wedrington and
Carnaby, and they so far oute of frame that perforce I must ride
those parûtes. Wedrington wolde fayn doe well, but surely it is not
in hym. Carnaby is so fered of his person that he dothe nothing but
kepe the house. Men doe moch doubte of hys hardiness, having yet
showed no parte of manhode sithe his first coming hither. I wolde
they were bothe in Paradise.” (5 State Papers, 104.)
Carnaby had, it seems, taken pledge of the Tynedale men, and had
forwarded these pledges to York, to exchange them for others
previously there. Tunstall says—“ Here lyeth for Tyndall at this
time two of the most actyve men of all Tynedale ; one ys called John
Robson of the Falsestayn, who promised my Lorde of Norfolke, as I
understand, that he wolde doe much against the rebelles, th’odir ys
Gibbe of Charleton, who made lyke promise as I hear say. But
nowe, when tyme is to do it, they lye here as plegges (pledges) sent
hyther by Sir Raynold Carnaby’s letters to change and lowse th’oder
for a seson, as hath been alwaie accustomeyd. I founde a faute with
the bringer of them, servaunte to Maister Carnaby, that his msister
sent these two who of all other been most mete to have been at home
to résisté the rebelles, who answered me that yf those, and other mo
of the hedes of them, were out of the country yt sholde be better
rewlyed ; by which aunser it semyed to me that hys maister trusted
not these men.” (Tunstall to Cromwell, 5 State Papers, 122.)
Carnaby promised to do his best against the outlaws of Tynedale
after the full of the moon, when it was thought they would be busy,
and we presume it was in executing this promise that he was
surprised and captured by the Tyndale men. We have no details of
when or where he was taken ; but Eure, writing in July, 1538, to
King Henry VIII., speaks of the “ wilful attemptate of the
inhabitaunts of Tyndale, and the takyn of ther keper, Sir Raynold
Carnaby.” The whole letter is devoted to this important matter, no
doubt a most serious offence in the eyes of the King. “We have
travailed,” says Eure, “ by all our dexterities with the Tin dales, for
the delyverance of the sayd Sir Raynold and others taken with hym.
Albeit they, wanting grace and obstenatly persisting in the mayntenaunce of their evill dedes, have resolutely aunswered that they will
�64
not departe with the sayd Sir Raynold nor any of the other taken at
that tyme for any persuasins or fere of danger that may followe. And
unless they all have their pardonnes, as welle theye that slewe Roger
Fenwick as those that attempted to take Sir Raynold Carnabye, they
wyll in no wyse restore the sayd Sir Raynold nor any taken in hys
companye, and that they wyll not tryste nor meate with any man in
Northumberland to that they see William Carnaby and Lewis Ogle.
Over this, one Jerard Charlton, called Topping, presumptuously sayd
that he had given oon aunswer at Harbittell which he thought might
serve us, and it should serve us, which aunswer was as is above
declared.” Eure further declares that he and his friends have used
every means to obtain the release of Sir Raynold Carnaby, both by
the offer of large sums of money to his keepers and to others who
might influence the parties detaining him. Sir Raynold Carnaby,
however, does not seem to have been long a prisoner ; for soon after
we learn that his deliverance was effected, and that he had the satis
faction of capturing, and conveying to Warkworth, Jerard Charlton,
who had given to Eure the insolent answer above recorded. Nearly
about the same time, however, about thirty of his retainers were
taken by the Armstrongs at the Busy Gap, on the Roman Wall, and
were carried off into Liddesdale. William Ratcliffe, who apparently
had married Carnaby’s widowed mother, writes about this mishap as
follows :—“ To my son, Sir Renald Carnaby, Knt., these delivered.
You shall percieve that on St. James’ Even, the 24th of July, came
Liddesdale men to the Barony of Langley, to the number of six score,
and laid them at the ‘ Busie Yappe,’ and sent forth 7 men and seized
6 oxen. At 6 o’clock in the morning, the scrye rose through the
country, and them that was next went forward in all haste. Richard
Carnabye and Gilbert was in Hayden Brygge the same time, and
tooke with them all that was ready, and that was upon a 26 men,
and because there was so few men that seized the cattle they tarried
not of the Constable, but thought to have rescued or he had
convoyed, and made speed forwarde that they mought, and rescued
the cattail, and chased the drivers to the bushments (ambushes), and
or our men wist the Scots brake upon them, and. took them all, both
horse and man, saving two persons ; so the Scot s rode in all haste
with their prisoners. Had they tarried half-ai 1-hour longer, the
�65
Constable, with others, was coming with all speed they mought, and
would have been a party to the Scots, the which, if you and them
Scots had met, would, I trust, have been spoken to London, but the
Scots had better hap than so, and that I repent. The Scots have
killed a proper man at the same time of the Barony of Langley, one
Alexander Peerson. Son : if there be no remedy for Liddisdale, the
country is in a schreved state, and true men that is oppressed for fear
of their lyves, and lossing of their goods, say plainly they will leave
the countrye.” With a view to put down these disorders, Eure,
Widdrington, Sir Cuthbert Radcliffe, and Robert Collingwood drew
up most stringent rules for the suppression of ill doings in Tynedale.
These articles are printed at full length in 5 State Papers, 133, and
recommend that all the inhabitants of Tyndale shall be removed to
the inner parts of the realm, except those who took part in the
murder of Roger Fenwick or the seizure of Sir Raynold Carnaby,
and that all who remain in Tynedale after a certain date from the
issuing of this order shall be deemed rebels and outlaws to the King.
Inroads were to be simultaneously then made by the wardens of the
different marches upon the rebels, and no person was to relieve them
or sell them anything in the market towns. Strong garrisons were
to be left in various places in Tyndale, as in Chipchase, Swinburne,
Gunnerton, Simonburn, and Haughton.
In 1542 William Charlton, of Hesleyside, is reported by Sir Robert
Bowes and Sir Ralph Ellerker as possessing the only tower in the
country of Tyndale.
*
The limits of Tyndale did not therefore come
below the Nook on the south side, and the confluence of the Reed and
North Tyne on the north side, of the latter river. William Charlton
was in 1552 appointed a commissioner for the enclosure of the Middle
Marches, and in 1554 he executed the deed of agreement with William
Charlton of Lee-hall, of which we are enabled to produce a copy. We
do not know in what degree of relationship William Charlton of Lee-hall
stood to Charlton of Hesleyside, but in all probability they were
cousins, and were in dispute, not only about the boundaries between
the Lee-hall property and that of Hesleyside, but also about the manor
* The Tower of Hesleyside, which stood at the west end of the present mansion,
was pulled down at the end of the last century, during the minority of the late
owner of Hesleyside. It closely resembled the towers at Cockle Park and Halton.
E
�and house of Hesleyside itself. This dispute was settled by arbitration
on the 27th of February, 1553, the arbitrators being George Fenwick
of Harbottle and Brinkburn, a commissioner for the enclosure of
the Middle Marches, in 1552; John Shaftoe, of Bavyngton; John
Hall, of Otterburn, another of the commissioners in 1552, keeper of
Redesdale in 1 Eliz., having fifty light horsemen of his name, and
named in 1586 as one who could give information about the Borders;
Thomas Featherstonhaugh, a gentlemen of the Middle Marches in
1550; Percival Shaftoe, of Ingoe ; and Thomas Hall, of Munkridge.
Their award, setting out boundaries which still exist, is now exhibited,
and is as follows :—
Thys indenture mayd at the Leehall within Tyndall, the xxvii. day of the monethe
of February, and in the viith year and reyaghn of our Soverayn Lord Edward the
Syxt, by the Grace of God Kyng of England, France, and Ireland, defendor of the
faith, and in earthe of the Churche of England and alsoo of Ireland the supreme
head immediately under God, Betwixt Wyll’m Charlton of Hesleysyd, within the
liberties of Tyndall, gent., of the on party, and Wyll’m Charlton of the Leehall
within the said liberties, gent., upon the other party, Witnessz that wher thear
was a travers sewt and controversye betwixt the parties aforsayd for and concemynge the howsse and manor of Heslesyd, the howse of the Leehall, with all the
purtenances to them belongyng or in any maner of wyse appurtenyng, either party
beying bound unto other by obligación in the somme of ccZi. as by the same dothe
mor planlye appear, for to abyd the order, award, arbitrement, and end of Georg
Fenyk of Brenkburn, gent., John Shafto of Bavyngton, esquyer, John Hall of
Otterborn, the yonger, gent., Thomas Fatherstonhaughe, of Haydenbrig, gent.,
Percevell Shafto of Inngho, gent., and Thomas Hall of the Munkkarage, gent.,
arbiters, indyfferently elected and chosen as well by the on party as the other, who
hath ordred, judged, demyd, and awarded that Wyll’m Charlton of the Leehall
shall have and enjoye to hym, his ares, executors, and assyghnees, for ever mor,
without any encombrawnc, chaleng, trowble, vexaycion, or perturbacyon of the
sayd Wyll’am Charlton of Heslesyd, hys ares, or assyghners, or of any in hys
name or hys ares name, all the plac and manor of the Leehall, with all maner
of growndes erable and unerable, medos, woodes, pastures, commones, hedgys,
dyches, with all other easmentes, comodites, and purtenancys, beying lyeing
and conteynyng within the limites and bowndes folowyng, that ys to say,
bownying and begynning at a gray stone in a clowghe syd under a plac
called the Crowkhyl, and so forth north-est unto the dych of the Rydynghy’ll clos,
and so up northe as the dyche thereof is casten, and then turnyng at a grey ston
lying in the Rydynghyll clos dyche, and so forth streght north west unto the end
of Tawnton hyl dyche, then northe unto the end of the sayd dyche, and from the
dyche northward streght ower unto the ryver of north Tyne, the sayd W’m Charlton
of the Leehall, hys ares and assyghners doying therfor all maner of dewties
and services unto the cheff lord dew and accustomed. And further, that the
sayd W’m. of the Leehall shall give and grant unto the sayd W’m Charlton of
Heslesyd, and his ares, all his ryght, title, clame, and chaleng of the howse and
manor of Heslesyd and of all the inheritanc that is or hath been therto belongyng.
And also all his tenant ryght as well of the Kyng’s landes of the Lemallyng, that
is to say, of the Crowkhyll, the Anthonhyll, the Hyghe clos, the Bridgford, as of
other, with all other that he hath or had ever any interest, title, clame, or chaleng
unto withoute any trowble, chaleng, vexacyon, or perturbacyon therof, to be had or
mayd in any wyse (except befor excepted) from the sayd Wm. Charlton of the
Leehall, his ares and assghnz, unto the sayd Wyll’m. Charlton of Heslesyd, his
ares and assighnez for evermor. And that the sayd W’m Charlton of the Leehall
�67
shall delyver unto the sayd W’m Charlton of Heslesyd all maner of writinges,
evydenc, and prescripcions that he hath belongyng or appertenyng unto the ineritanc
of Heslesyd, or of any land or tenement, part or parcell therof, immediately
F &t the sealyng of this presentes befor and in the presenc of the sayd arbiteres, and
for tru performanc of the same to be truly observed and keped in every article and
behalff as is befor mencyoned, eyther parti to other enterchaungeably hath sette
their sealies with the sealles of the sayd arbiters the day and year abovesayd. Witnesz, Hob Hall of Raylees, Percivell Clennell, Clemet Hall of the Ralees, Heue
Charlton of the Hallhyll, John Wylkyson of Hetheryngton, Rawff Charlton of the
Leehall, Oswyn Charlton of Elyngham, John Charlton of the Blaklow, Edde Mylborne of the Dunsted, Anthon Mylbome of Roses bowr, Xpe Charlton of Newton.
*
[Four seals broken away]
[In dorio.J Also we awarde that Wyll’m Charlton of the Leehawl shall have fre
passag at all tymes wyth all hys cattelles somer and wynter to pastur upon the
Kyngs grownd, such lyk as other the Kynges tenants doth therr, and also fre
lycenc to passe and repasse throwghe the Kynges grownd for getting of his eldyng,
and this to belong to the Leehall. Also we awarde that Wyll’m Charlton off
Hesleysd shall lett unto Wyll’m Charlton of the Leehall halffe the Leykhyl......
his farme payeng doyng hys-dewtie with firmers by yer v s.—Willm. Charlton, of
Hesilsidd.
George Fenwick
John Schaftow.
John Hall.
P’cyvell
Shaftoo. John Hall, [sic in both parts.]
By the privilege of passing through the King’s grounds, the Lee-hall
property became extended in a narrow slip up to Kingswood, and so
continues to this day. William Charlton, of Lee-hall, died in 1561,
and we produce the probate of his will, running as follows :—
Jh’us In the name of God, Amen, the yeare of our Lord God 1561 I Wyll’m
Charlton of the Leehall holl in mynde and memorye and seyke in my body.
Fyrst I bequeathe may sawll to Almyghtye God my only maker and redeamer, my
bodye to be buryed in the churche of Saynct Cuthbert in Bell’inham, with my
mortuaire dew and accustomed to be paid. Item, I geve to Dorathye my wyf the halff
of the myln and maynes dependynge or belongynge to the Leehall, with meadowes,
inures, and pastors or any other thinges belonginge to the foresayd Leehall, and my
sonne Wyll’m to content hym with the other half. I make my wyff and Wyll’m
my sonne of this my last wyll and testament my full executores. Also I wyll that
my mayster George Heron and John Hibson, with my brother Nicholas Crawhall,
vicar of Hawttwysle, to be supervisors, and if they refusse ytt than I wyll that
Uswen Charlton, and Wyll’m Charlton of Bellingham, and John Robson. Lyonell
Mylborne to take in hand & to se that my wyff and my sonne take no wronge, but
to maynteayn them in their right as far as they may. Wryten the last day of Aprill
by theiss wytness & recordes—Ussen Charlton, John Robson, Lyonell Mylborne,
Christofor Borne, Sande Eliot, Chuthbert Eliot, Leonard Stauper, with other mo,
and Wyll’m Holede, sone to John Holde, and Wyll’m Bell, curat of Bellingham.
[Memorandum of probate at Corbridge by the said executors, before Wyll’m Garnett,
Commissary in Northumberland, of James [Pilkington] Bishop of Durham,
17 June, 1561. Seal, pointed oval, the royal arms crowned.............. sta...............
OLESIASTICAS.]
* In 1568 the heirs of Gabriel Hall had lands in four places in Redesdale, Randal
Hall had land at Raylees.—Edward Charlton, of the Hawe-hill, a headsman of
Tindale, gave bonds to Sir John Forster at Chipchase in 1559. (Sadler’s State
Papers.)—John Wylkinson of Hetherington was bailiff of Tindale in 1559.—John
Charlton of the Blakelaw was a headsman and bond-giver in 1559,
�In 1556, Roger Heron, brother to George Heron, of Chipchase,
was taken prisoner by some of the Elliotts and Crosiers, of Liddesdale,
while riding towards his brother’s house in the dusk of the evening.
In 1559, Sir John Forster received the office of keeper of Tyndale
from Marmaduke Slingsby. The latter had appointed a day for the
headsmen of Tyndale to appear at Hexham, and to give bonds for good
conduct, but this summons was disregarded. Sir John Forster seems
to have had more influence.
“When I demandyd to have such
delyvered in to my handes as were nomynate in the sedult (schedule),
that you sent me in your last letter, of the which nombre I have
received in the preson of Hexham, ix persons presoners. Ande
Jarrye Charleton of the Hawehill—he is delyvered home upon
bande.” (1 Sadler’s State Papers, 613.) Sir John Forster sum
moned the “ hedesmen” to meet him at Ohipchase the next Sunday,
and on that day the greater part, if not all, appeared, and gave
bonds for keeping the peace, &c. We have fortunately, in Sadler’s
State Papers, a list of those summoned by Slingsby, and we may
conclude that the same men, with others, obeyed Sir John Forster’s
summons to Chipchase. This list is curious, as it gives the names
of many who appear in the documents before us. It is as follows :—
“Charlton of Hesleyside; Jasper Charlton of Hawsose, [Hawkhope
Hill] ; John Charlton of Blacklawe, or his son; Edward Charlton
of the Hall Hill; Hector Charlton of the Boure; William Charlton
of Lee Hall; Edward Charlton of Lordner Burn, [Lanner Burn] ■
Wylliam Charlton of Bellingham ; . . . . Charlton of Dunterley;
Symont Robson of Langhaugh ; Andrewe Robson of the Bellynge ;
Hobb Robson of the Fawstone [Falstone] ; John Mylborne of Roses
Bowere; Edward Mylborne of Dunterde ; Mychell Dodde of the
Yerehaugh; . . . . Dodde hys sonne ; Jamy Dodde of Roughsyde;
.... Hunter; . . . . Hunter; Christofer Hogge ; Willie Hogge;
Matthew Nysson.
[Addressed] To my loving friends John
Wylkynson and Wyllie lanson, balyves of Tyndall, gyv theys and
yourselfes that same daie.”
On the same papei' is a memorandum in the handwriting of Sir
John Forster :—That Jone Hall of Otterburn, Launcelot Tysley of
Gosforth, William Charlton of the Leyehall, John Hall of Brayneshaugh, William Charlton of the Bellingham, and Clement Hall of Burd-
�69
cheppes (Birdhope), is joyntelie and severally bounde to the right
hon’ble th’Earle of Northumberland and Francis Slyngsbye, keper of
Tindall, in c. and xl1' for the personal appearance of Jarret Charlton
of the Howehill at Newcastle the xvth daye of January next cornynge.
The bonde is taken to the Queen’s use. His appearance is in Robert
Young’s house in the Newcastell.” (p. 615.)
In 1565, August 5th, Rowland Forster writes from Wark to the
Earl of Bedford, Governor of Berwick :—“ The Laird of Hakupe
(Hawkhope), whose name was Charltoun, and who dwelt in Tynedale,
was slaine on Friday last in Jedwart Forest in stealinge. Ane tuik
him on the heid and dang out all his harnes.” (Original in Record
Office). Jasper Charlton’s daughter and heiress married George
Gibson, of Stonecroft.
In spite of Sir John Foster’s activity the Borders continued to be
a scene of rapine andconfusion. George Heron, of Chipchase, writes
in this year to Sir John Forster—“ The Liddesdaille menne are
disorderlie, and are aided by the menne of Tyndaill and Ryddesdaill.
Lyddesdaill is myndit to mayk misorder and to do the evel that they
can in these quarters. I knowe theye cannot doe it withoute the helpe
of some, both of Tyndaill and Ryddisdaill, as they have had even now
this last Fryday at night, when they dyd tak up Swethope. For one
parte off them went away thorow Tendall with the prysoners, and
another thorow Ryddesdail with the nowt. And theves off Tyndaill
that wis goyng estellying [a stealing] into Scotland, found the Scotts,
with the nowt lying in the shells [shielings] at Uttenshope, in
Ryddesdaill att fyers, and had gotten, meate bothe for horse and
man at som of Ryddisdaill. And when the theves off Tyndaill
perceved the Scotts were at rest, they stale the nowt, from the Scotts,
and in the morning when the Scotts mest the nowt they dyd com
into Reddisdayll again, to boro a dog to folio, and then theye got
knowledge whyche of Tynedaill had the nowt.” (p. 627.)
Towards the end of the same year, we find that several of the Tyndale
men were in the goal at Hexham. How they escaped from thence
the following letter shows.—“ Nicholas Eryngton to Sir John
Forster, Hexham, xviith daye of December, 1559. Plesyth ytyoure
mastershyppe to be advertysed that George Herone, of Chypchace, dyd
sende Edward Charlton, Harrye Charleton of the Larnerbume, and
�one John. Charlton of Thornybourne in Tyndall the sayd George Herone
sent theys said three prisoners into Hexham, to the Queene’s Majestie’s
gavel [goal] there. This yt is chansyd that the xvth daye of this
instaynt, the gaveler and all the reste of presoners, be what meanes I
canne not tell, nor no other that can be knowen of sertentye, but that
the saide three Charltons and Thos. Mylborne (alias Thome Headman),
with xi Scotts pledges, that was comandyt to ward for surety of John
Eryntoun is goyn the said nyght, and all the dorrys left opyn, savyn
the outter doore, which is the newe house doyr that Mr. Slyngsbye
buildit, whayr the gaveller laye nyghtlye for the safe guard of the
sayd presoners, as I thoughte was most surest.”
The gaoler of Hexham was perhaps a reclaimed outlaw himself, and
the ties of flesh and blood proved too strong for him.
The calendars of State Papers of the early part of Elizabeth’s reign,
do not give us much information regarding this portion of the Borders.
In 1586, however, a long and grievous list of outrages committed
by the Elliotts and others, of Liddesdale, was forwarded to London.
These complaints chiefly refer to raids into Redesdale, and injury done
to the property of those of the surnames of Hall and Read. John
Hall, of Otterburn, and Edward Charlton, of Hesleside, are named in
this document among those who can give information “ If they be
sworne or strictly examined.”
In 1593, a furious raid was made into Tyndale by the Liddesdale
men, headed by William Elliott, of Lawreston, the Laird of Manger
ton, and William Armstrong, of Kymonth (Kinmont Willie). There
is a long correspondence on this subject in the Public Record Office,
but, unfortunately, the details of the assault and inroad are nowhere
given. Still, the foray must have been of a most serious character
to produce so much angry correspondence. Sir Robert Bowes, then
an old man, was at that time in Edinburgh, and he seems to have
experienced the greatest difficulty in obtaining an interview with the
King (afterwards James I. of England), to represent the grievance.
The King excuses himself from seeing Sir Robert, on the plea that
“ he is muche grieved with payne in one of his teeth drawing, thereby
greate swellinge in his face, and a troublesome lompe in his mouthe.”
We have obtained copies of the whole of this correspondence, but it
is not of sufficient interest to warrant its insertion here.
�71
Ten. oi' eleven years later North Tyndale was again a scene of blood
shed and ruthless rapine at the hands of the Laird of Buccleuch, Sir
Walter Scott. Buccleugh, as he is generally termed, seems to have
made repeated inroads into North Tyne, and to have directed his attacks
chiefly against the surname of Charlton, partly on the score of
ancient grievances existing between them, and partly in consequence
of recent and ample reprisals made by them in Scotland, Buccleugh
was in Tyndale, in 1594, on a similar errand, but he then burned only
one house against his will, though he “ laid fyre to two to gitt
entrance.” (Original in Record Office). One great raid was made on
the 17th, of April, 1597, when he burnt ten houses in Tyndale, and
took the lives of thirty-five persons. (Raine, [p. 43] bill against
Buccleuch). Two letters, are in print (Transactions of Border Club,
pp. 14 and 16) which throw considerable light on these outrages. The
first is from Sir John Carey, Marshall of Berwick-upon-Tweed to Lord
Burghley, and dated Berwick, June 13, 1595, wherein he says :—“I
did synce by my letter of the 29 of Maye certifye your honnor of
Buckcleughe, howe he came into the Myddle Marches to a
place called Grenehugh (Greenhaugh), a wyddowes house in Tyndalle,
where he sought for certen of the Charletons; and not fynding
them he burned the house and all the corne in it and all that
was therein, and so went hys way ; he had in his company, as it is
reported, very nere three hundred men, and within eight days after
ward he came in agayne to a place called the Bowte hill, and killed
foure of the Charletons, very able and sufficient men and went his
waye, threatning he would shortly have more of their lives.”
In a second letter, dated Berwick, July 2, 1595, Carey refers again
to this subject:—“ In your honour’s letter you write in a postscript
that you would gladly understande the quarrell that Buccleughe had
against the Charletons, and that the Sesforde had against the Stories,
which would be too long and tedious to sett down at large ; but for
that your honour requyresyt, I will as briefly as I can sett it downe.
First the quarell Bucclughe hath to the Chareltons is said to be this :
Your honour knowes long synce you heard of a great rode that the
Scottes, as Will Harkottes and his fellowes, made upon Tynedale and
Ridsdale, wherein they took up the whole country, and did very neare
beggar them for ever. Bucclughe and the rest of the Scottes having
�72
made some bragges and crackes, as the country durst scarse take any
thing of their own, but the Charletons being the sufficientest and
ablest men uppon the Borders, did not only take theire own goodes
agayne, but also so hartned and perswaded theire neyghbors to take
theires, and not to be afraide, which hath ever synce stuck in
Bucclughe’s stomach, and this is the quarell for taking theire own.
Mary ! he makes another quarell that long synce, in a warr tyme, the
Tyndale men should goe into hys countrye, and there they tooke his
grandfather and killed divers of his countrye, and that they tooke
awaye hys grandfathers sworde, and would never lett him have yt
synce : this, saith he, is the quarell.”
The Tynedale outrages, by Buccleugh, were followed by a more
peaceful time. James, of Scotland, succeeded to Elizabeth, the two
kingdoms were united, and it was no longer the interest of the re
spective sovereigns to stir up one side of the Borders against the other,
In 1605 final articles were agreed upon between the English and
Scottish Commissioners for the pacification and disarmament of the
Borders. All who were noblemen or gentlemen and unsuspected of
felony or of theft were allowed to retain their arms, but all the
common people were ordered to put away all armour and weapons, as
well offensive as defensive, as jacks, spears, lances, swords, daggers,
steel-caps, hagbuts, pistols, plate, sleeves, and the rest, upon pain of
imprisonment.
In May, 1607, Edward Charlton, of Hesleyside, was commissioned
to select and raise one hundred men from the outlaws of Tynedale
and Redesdale, for service in Ireland.
The Scots and English, however, had not as yet wholly learned to
live in peace. In 1611 an inroad was made from the Scottish
side, of which we have fortunately obtained the full particulars from
hitherto unpublished documeuts in the Record Office. We do not,
however, know the cause of the deadly feud, but the subjoined docu
ments show the truculent conduct of the Scottish reivers. Leaplish
is high up the North Tyne, directly south of Mounces.
The, Earl of Cumberland to Lord Salisbury, %8th May, 1611.
My verie honorable good Lord,—This xxviijlh of Maie, at vij. at
night, I receaved letters from Sir William Fenwicke, one of the
�Deputie Commissioners for the1 middle shyers. The copies whereof
I have herewith sent to your honorable Lordshipp, wherein is certyfied
a cruell and disloyall outrage, nowe late comitted and executed by a
companie of those bordering Scottes, men of the ill Clann oi' Surnames,
upon an Englishman, some myles within England. I shall not neede
wryte more of the informacons that are yet come to me of this matter,
in that I send to your Lordshipp the true copies thereof, as I have
receaved them under Sir William Eenwicke his hands. And because
they are Skottish men, dwellinge within Scotland, and came thence to
effecte this wicked deed, I have writt to my Lord Chancelor of Scot
land and his associates, to take some present course for the appre
hending of the offenders, untill his Majestie shall give further order
for the redresse hereof. Soe have I writt to Sir Will"1- Fenwicke
and others, the Commissioners of our syde, to certifye to my Lord
Chancelor the true informacons of the facte, and the names of the
persons offendinge. This, I thought, for the present was fittinge. I
shall now intreat your Lordshipp, as you shall thinke good to
acquainte his Majestie herewith, as I may be advertysed from your
Lordshipp what his Majestie’s pleasure is, I shall further doe herein
which I will not faile to execute to the uttermoste of my power, soe
longe as I shall live. In the meane tyme, I shall take order with the
Commissioners of our syde, to be verie watchfull and carefull for the
apprehendinge of anie suspected, and knowe of those if they shalbe
fownd to lurke on our bounders or liberties. I trust I shall not neede
to trouble your Lordshipp further at this tyme. And soe, with my
hartiest comendacons to your good Lordshipp, I leave you as myself
to Godes proteccon. Londsbrough, this 28th of Maie.
Your Lordshipp’s verie lovinge and assured
Friend-, ever to command,
FR. CUMBRELAND.
[addressed.]
To the Right Honorable,
my singuler good Lord,
The Earle of Salisburie,
Lord High Treasurer of England.
�Sir William Fenwick to the FarI of Cumberland, 26 th May, 1611.
Right Honorable and my verie good Lorde,
My humble dutie remembred. I am sorie I have cause to
informe your Honor of the moste horrible and greevous outrage that
ever hath beene donne in my tyme within these partes, either before
his Majestie’s entrance into this kingdome or since. Upon the 25th of
this instant May, Roberte Ellett, of Readhugh, his brother William,
with manie more of their name and friends all Scotchmen, Lancelote
Armestrong, of Whithaugh (called the yonge Larde), Alexander
Arm estrong, of the Roane, his brother, with manie of their frendes
being Scotchmen, in all, about the number of three score and tenne
persons, fiftee of them upon horsebacke, and the rest footemen, all
furnished either with long peeces, pistoletts, or launces, came to
Lyonell Robson’s howse, in Leapelish, six myles within English
grownde, and there cut downe his dwelling howse with axes which
they braught with them. And with their peeces killed one Lyonell
Robson, of the Smaleburne, and a woman called Elizabeth Yearowe,
of Stannisburne, and shott and hurt dyvers more, both men and
women, with the shottes of their peeces. Whereof that youi' Honor
may be better satisfyed, I have sent a list of the names of the parties
slaine, those that are hurte, and such as were shott through the
clothes, yet escaped ; and lykewyse, the names of soe manie of the
principall offendors, as in this shorte tyme I could get notice of.
No we, your Honor is acquainted with the informacon I have
receaved, which, I thought fitt in my dutie, to make knowne to your
Honor, being Lord Lieutennant and Lord Commissioner for the
Middle Shyres, by whose meanes I must onely hope this greevous
offence may receave exemplarie punishment, that the lyke may never
hereafter be donne by anie of his Majestie’s subjectes. Soe leaving
this cause to your Honor’s good consideracon, I humbly take my
leave.
From Bellingham, in Tiviedale (Tyndale), this 26th of
Maie, 1611.
Your Honor’s humbly to be comanded,
WILLM. FENWICKE.
�75
(Inclosure to Sir W. Fenwick’s letter of 26th May, 1611.)
A List of the names of such as are slaine and hurt, according as they
are seene and viewed.
Lyoll Robson, of the Small Burne, shott in at the harte with a
single bullott, and slaine.
Elizabeth Yearowe, of Stannishburne, shott with twoe bullettes
through both her thighes, the right thygh broken asunder with the
shott, and slaine.
Walter Robson, of the olde syde, hathe his left arme broke asunder
in twoe places with twoe bullettes.
Thomas Robson, of Yearowe Hall, shott with one quarter shott in
the fillettes of his backe, an other quarter shott in his haunch, and
another great bullott shott through his Breeches, and mist his
skinne.
Mane Robson, wyfe to James Robson, called Blackehead, is shott
with fyve haile shott in her breastes.
Elizabeth Robson, wyfe to Jeffray Robson, beinge great with chylde,
is hurte verie sore in the head with the stroke of a peece.
Rinyon Robson, of the Bellinge, is shott with a bullett and an
arrowe out of a long peece, and hurt in the handes.
Roberte Charleton, of Bought hill; Francis Robson, of Stannish
burne ; William Robson, of Yearowe Hall; Henrie Robson, of Well
Haugh ; Anthonie Robson, of Crosse Hills; Rinyon Robson of
Fasteane ; James Charleton, of the Bough Hill; and John Dod, of
the Ryding, are all shott with bullettes through their clothes, but
not hurte.
WILLIAM FENWICKE.
A List of the names of the Offendors, being all Scottishmen.
Roberte Eliott, of the Red Hugh.
William Eliott, brother of the said Roberte.
Roberte Eliott, of Copshawe, and his brother Frauncis.
Roberte Eliott, of Dunnlebaire, and his twoe brothers, Gawen and
William.
William Elliott, called Rinyons Willee.
Roberte Eliott, called Martin’s Hob, of Pricking haugh.
�Christofer Eliott, sonne to Roberto, of Pricking haugh.
Lancelot Armestronge, of Whithaugh, called the yonge larde.
Alexander Armestronge, of the Roane, brother to the said
Lancellot Armestronge.
Francis Armestronge, of Whithaugh, and his sonne Lancellot
Armestronge.
Roberte Forster, called the yonge Larde of Fowle Shieldes.
William Eliott, of Pricking Haugh.
John Shiele, Arch. Roger, John Eliott (called blacke John), and
Roberte Eliott, of the Parke, men to Roberte Eliott, of the Red
Hugh.
Arch. Eliott, of Burnemouth, man to William Eliott, brother to
the said Roberte Eliott, of Red Hugh, with dyvers others yet
unknown, to the number of lxx. in all.
WILLIAM FENWICKE.
It has been before stated that the Robsons were at feud with the
Elliotts and Armstrongs, perhaps it was revenge, taken on hereditary
grounds of complaint alone. We find no more documents regarding
this outrage, noi’ do we know that any tradition of the event has
come down to our time. In 1628, Jane Robson, wife of Matthew
Robson, of Leaplish, was indicted at the Newcastle Assizes for
the feloniously slaying of Mabell Robson, wife of George Robson, of
Leaplish, his brother-in-lawe, by sorcery or witchcraft; Jane Robson
escaped, however, with her life.
In 1618, the following list of noted thieves infesting South Tyne
and the borders was forwarded to the Government:—
Certeyne persons inhabiting and resorting uppon and to the water
of Tine, in Tindall, bordering and adjoyning uppon Cumberland, most
of them reputed great theeves, Owtputters, or Receitors, being very
infestious to their Neighbours, whereof the Comissioners in North
umberland cannot take so perfect notice as they that dailie taste and
feele the smart of their badd demeanor.
Richard Musgrave, of Barrowe.
John Musgrave, his brother.
Knowne theeves.
Robert Musgrave, of the Holehouse.
WilEam Musgrave, his brother.
�77
Raph Smith, a vagrant person, and lyveth by filching and picking,
under pretext of fouling with a setting dogg.
Thomas Parker was banished into Ireland, and is retorned, wee
knowe not by what warrant.
Launcellott Parker, his brother, much suspected emong his
Neighbours.
Christopher Bell, of the Peth, a comon horse coper, and thought to
be a great Conveyor of stolen horses.
Nicoll Havelock, in the parish of Hawtwisell, a day lie Receitor of
Theeves and stolen horses.
Hugh Nixon, of the Howsteedes, nere the wall, reputed generally to
be a theefe, and a Comon Receitor of theeves and stolen goodes.
James Foster, of the Wall, who, for his infinite nomber of Fellonies,
could not have escaped the hand of Justice so often as he hath
done, if hee had not found extraordinary favor of some in good
reputacon in the Country.
William Walleis, late of Bellister, sence of Crackenthorp, in West
moreland, being accused of stealing of Cattell, in August last,
fledd for the same, and being sence apprehended and comitted to
Kendall Gaole, in Westmoreland, by Sir John Dalston, was,
without his consent, presently bailed by Mr. Richard Rigg,
another Justice in that Countrie, sence the Proclamacon divulged
to the contrary. And if this first offence of contempt in this
nature escape unpunished, it wilbe a precedent to others
to adventure the like, wherby his Majeste’s Commanndementes
wilbe undutifullv contemned, and this poore Countrey much
prejudiced.
N.B.—The document from which the above is an Extract (as
desired in your letter), is headed, “ A Breife Survay and Certificate
of disordered persons in the Countie aforesaid,” <fcc. (Cumbria), tabu
lated thus :—
The dwelling place.
| The Offese ™»e and hi. | The proof of the Offence.
In 1619, Lord Walden writes, that he cannot persuade honest
people to live in Tynedale, for that the people there already dwelling
�are lawless, and hold their land independent of all treason and felony.
The Border habits of misrule could not be changed in a year or two.
(Vide “Archeologia JEliana,” p. 158, vol. I.)
In 1626, the two sons of Ellen Charleton, of the Bower, in
Chirdon Burn, were arraigned at the Newcastle Assizes for horse
stealing. They seem, from the mother’s petition, to have been tried
separately on some charges, and together upon another. The New
castle Calendar, of that year, has been fortunately preserved and
printed in the “ Archeologia ^Eliana,” vol. I., p. 158, Ito. series.
“No. 15.—John Charleton, of the Bower, for suspecion of the
felonious stealing of three kine, the goodes of Thomas Fenwick, of
Lesbury. And for suspecion of divers other felonyes, and being
offered to be apprehended for the sayd felonyes fledd. And also for
suspecion of the stealeing of one graye gelding, upon which he rode
at his apprehension.
Committed by Sir Francis Brandling, and Cuthberte Hearone
and Ralph Carnaby, Esqs., 14th March, 1628.
“The said John, a fugitive and notorious theife, for the felonious
stealeing of one black mare and thirtene shepe, forth of the growndes
of Little Swinburne, the goodes of Thomas Midleton, of Belsoe, Esqr.
“ The said John, for suspecion of divers felonyes, and charged with
the felonious stealeing of two oxen, the goodes of Nicholas Errington,
of Keepwick, and three young beastes, the goodes of Richard Wilson,
of Houghton, and also the felonious stealeing of one horse, the goodes
of Gawen Bell, of Errington.”
No. 30.—“Ellen Charleton, of the Bower, charged with the
felonious stealeinge of a black mare and twenty-three (?) sheepe, the
goodes of Thomas Midleton, Esqr.”
Committed by Thomas Midleton, 13 July, 1629.
In 1629, the two sons of Ellen Charlton, of the Bower (she was
probably a widow), were in trouble, for the theft of two mares and
three cows, and were condemned to die. The poor mother prays
earnestly for their pardon, and, soon after, we find from another
paper in the Record Office, that they were reprieved and pardoned.
But the pardon, though made out, was not forwarded, and the anxious
mother petitions again, and begs it may be speedily sent, for that her
sons’ lives are in great danger, since the pardon had not arrived.
�79
though it had been announced to her. Alas ! her fears proved too
true ; her sons were executed, and, a year afterwards, the widow again
petitions for pardon for herself (we suppose as particeps criminis) and
for restitution of her goods.—It is a sad story. There was evidently
a “ circumlocution office” then, as now, in London,
*
Petition of EUen Charlton to the King, ‘¿Ath Sept., 1630.
To the King’s most excellent MatieThe humble peticon of Ellen
Charlton, of Bower, in the County of Northumberland, widdowe.
Humbly sheweth, That, by the violence of heavy prosecutors, your
peticoner hath two sonnes (viz.), John Charleton and Thomas Charle.
ton, whoe att severall assizes, holden att Newcastle, the one aboute
4 yeares since, another three yeares sithence, and the last above a
yeare since, are cast for pretended theft of two Mares and three
Cowes, and your peticioner though absent, not yet tryed, is in the
dainger of question for an accessary.
The premisses considered, and for that the Judges of that Circuict
did soe pitty the cause as they tooke your Suppliante’s Sonnes into
reprive, Your Petr now humbly beseecheth Yor Majesty, that since
the question of the factes was within the compasse of Your Majeste’s
gratious Perdon for the birth of the blessed Prince, your Petr and her
said Sonnes humbly intreate Your Majesty to be soe gratiously
pleased to give order they may be soe happy as to enjoy that your
gratious Pardon.
And as in duty bound they will ever pray for Your
Majeste’s long and prosperous Raigne.
At the Court att Hampton Court, 24 September, 1630.
It is his Majeste’s pleasure to be certified by the Judges of Assize,
before whom the parties were tryed, how the case standeth with the
peticoner and her sonnes, and whether or not they conceave them
capable of the grace and favour desired. And then his Majestie will
further shew his Royall pleasure.
THO : AYLESBURY.
* We give here the whole documents at length, as they have never before
been printed.
�80
At Hampton Courte, 28° Octobris, 1630.
Your Majesty having seene the Certificatt of Mr. Justice Davenporte, hereunto annexed, whereby it appeareth that the offences
committed by the peticoner and her two sonnes, John Charleton and
Thomas Charleton, were done before the birthe of the Prince his
highness, and not expressly excepted out of his Maj estye’s intended
pardonne, is nowe graciously pleased to pardon the said Ellon
Charleton, and her said two sonnes, the offences menconed in t.his
Peticon and Certificatt. The peticoner and her two sonnes putting
in sufficiente security for their good behaviours hereafter. And his
Maj estye’s Attorney Generali is to prepaire a pardon accordingly
readdy for his Maj estye’s Royall Signature.
SYDNEY MOUNTAGU.
[Indorsed.]
Ellen Charlton—a pardon,
for stealing a Mare.
According to the significacon of his Majestie’s gracious pleasure,
under the peticon of Ellen Charleton, widdowe, hereunto annexed, I
doe hereby, in all humblenes, certifie unto His Highnes, That att the
last Assizes, holden att Newcastle, for the Countie of Northumber
land, the eight and twentieth daie of July now last past, John
Charleton and Thomas Charleton, in the peticon menconed, had their
tryalls before me (then sitting there upon the Gaole), for the severall
felonyes following, viz‘ : John Charleton and Thomas Charleton, upon
one Indictment of them both for the stealing of a Mare, on the eight
and twentieth daie of March, in the third yeare of his Majestie’s
Raigne. And John Charleton was soly tryed upon two other
Indictments for the stealing of certaine kine (being, to my remem
brance three in the whole), on the fourth daie of November, in the
fourth yeare of his Highnes Raigne. And Thomas Charleton was
alsoe tryed alone upon one other Indictment, for the stealing of one
other Mare, upon the foure and twentieth daie of December, in the
third yeare of his Highnes Raigne. And, thereto, the same John
Charleton and Thomas Charleton, upon full evidence, in my opinion,
were justly and duly, upon those tryalls, found guiltie according to
�81
the same Indictmentes. Nor did I perceive any violent or undue
prosecucon against them or either of them in any wise, for which
causes, and for that in respect of those convictions for the stealing of
the Mares, which offences for stealing of horses or mares are too
usuall in those partes, and very much there compleyned of. They, the
said John Charleton and Thomas Charleton, were utterly excluded by
lawe from any benefitt of clergy. I proceeded to sentence of Death
against them, according to the lawe. And, nevertheles, in respect
the same offences, for which they were soe convicted and attainted,
were done before the happie birth daie of the Prince (whom Almightie
God ever blesse), and were not in there severall qualities expresly
excepted out of such his Majestie’s gratious pardon, as was granted
att or upon his Highnes coronacon. Therefore, in all due obedience
to his Highnes good pleasure, in such behalfe signified to be observed
in and through the whole Circuit, and for noe other cause or respect,
I stayed there present execucon, and have left them as persons
attainted in safe custodie in the Gaole there, to be disposed of, as it
shall seem good in his Majestie’s Royall wisedome. Nor doe I know
or was privy of any other conviction of them, or either of them, in
the peticon menconed. And, as concerning the peticoner Ellen
Charlton, the state of her case is unknowne to mee, for that, in respect
of her not appearance att the last Assizes, there was then noe
publique evidence given before mee against her. All which is in all
humblenes, hereby certified to his sacred Majestie.
By me, his Majestie’s most humble subject and servante.
HUMFRAY DAVENPORT.
Serj eantes Inn, Fleet Street,
9th of October, 1630.
Petition of Ellen Cha/rleton to the King, 15 November, 1630.
To the Hinge’s most Excellent Majestie.
The humble peticon of Ellen Charleton, widowe,
Humbly sheweth,
That the peticoner having two sonnes, both of them Indicted, con
victed, and cast att severall Assises, holden att Newcastle, for
F
�82
pretended theft of two mares and three cowes, and your peticoner,
though absent, not tryed, in danger to bee questioned for an accessary,
in September last, peticôned your royall (sic), that since the same
factes were within the Compassé of your Majestie’s gratious pardon, for
the birth of your royall sonne, Prince Charles, the joye and hope of
theis Kingdomes (whom God longe preserve), the peticoner and her
sonnes might enjoy the benefitt thereof. Whereupon your Majestie
the order to bee Certified, by the Judges of Assise, before whom
gave parties were tryed, howe the case stood with the peticoner and
her said sonnes, and whither or not they conceaved them capeable of
the grace and favor desired. Accordingly, Certificate was made, and
Your Majestie having seene the Certificate of Mr. Justice Davenport,
whereby it appeared that the offences committed by the peticoner and
her sonnes were done before the Birth of the Prince his Highnes, and
not expressly excepted out of your Majestie’s intended Pardon, was
gratiouslv pleased to pardon the peticoner and her two sonnes their
said offences, The peticoner and her sonnes putting in sufficient
securitie for their good behaviour thereafter, And your Attorney
Generali was to prepare a pardon accordingly, ready for Your
Majestie’s royall Signature, as by the peticon, Certificate and severall
references maie appeare. For effecting whereof your Majestie’s said
Attorney Generali directed his Warrant to the Clerkes of Assise for
the Indictmentes of your peticoner and her said sonnes, but albeit
Your Majeste’s gratious intencon and royall pleasure signified, yet
the said Clerkes not onely refuse to deliver the said Indictmentes,
but alsoe they and others seeke, as farr as in them lyes, to procure
warrant (contradictory to Your Majeste’s royall pleasure, so signified
for the execucôn of her sonnes) and intend to prosecute the peticoner
to the outlawry thereby, to gett to themselves that little shee hath, to
her utter undoeing for ever, notwithstanding your royall grace and
favor extended, unies Your Majestie be further gratiously pleased to
give speciall command and direction therein.
In tender comiseracôn whereof, Shee most humbly beseecheth
Your Majestie (for confirmacon of your former royall Grace and
favour extended upon the Birth of Your Majestie s said Royall
Sonne, Prince Charles) to bee gratiously pleased to graunt your royall
warrant, directed to the said Mr. Justice Davenport, thereby requiring
�83
him that hee graunt no order or direction for the execution of her
said sonnes, but that hee give command that the Indictmentes against
the peticoner and her said sonnes maye be delivered forth with, to the
intent Mr. Attorney Generali maye prepare a Pardon for them readye
for Your royall signature, and soe they enjoy the benefitt thereof,
according to Your Majestie’s gratious intencon.
And (as in dutie bound) the peticoner shall daily praie for Your
Majestie.
At the Court at Whitehall, 15° Novembris, 1630.
His Majestie’s pleasure is that the right HonbIe the Lord Keeper
doe informe himselfe whether these Delinquents be the same against
whom the countrey have made particular complainte as notorious
offendors, And if his Lordshippe shall finde them not to be such, then
his Majestie is graciously pleased to pardon them. And his Lord
shippe is to give order to the Judges that execution be staied, and
that a pardon be drawen uppe for them for his Majestie’s royall
signature.
RA : FREMAN.
May it please your Lordshipp.
According to his Majeste’s pleasure, signifyed by your Lordshipp’s
letter, dated this presente day, wee humbly certify your Lordshipp
that John Charleton, alias Barr, and Thomas Charleton, of the County
of Northumberland, menconed in the inclosed peticon, are notorious
offendors, amongest others whome the Justices of Peace and Inhabitantes of that country peticoned against, foi' which two offendors
amongest others) wee have received his Majeste’s direction, under his
signature, for execution to be donne upon them. In obedience of
which his Majeste’s comannd, wee have accordingly, by our lettres,
gyven direction to the Sheriffe of the County of Northumberland for
the due performance thereof. And so presenting our service, wee
humbly take our leave, and rest,
At Your Lordshipp’s command,
THO : TREVOR.
xviij. Novembr : 1630.
HUMFRAY DAVENPORT.
[addressed.]
To the right hoble or singuler good Lord Thomas Lord Coventry, Lord
Keeper of the Great Seale.
�■According to his Majestie’s commandment, I have informed myself
from the Judges of the last Northerne Circuit, concerning the pgtrs
two Sonnes, the Delinquents mencond in her peticon, and his Maj.
reference, and have receaved Certificat therein from the said Judges,
as by their lettres hereunto annexed appeereth. Humbly leaving the
same to His Majeste’s good pleasure.
THO: COVENTRYE, C.
Petition of Ellen Charlton to the King, 7 th January, 1630-1.
To the Hinge’s most Excellent Majestie,
The humble petición of Ellin Charlton, a poore distressed widdowe.
Humblie sheweth unto your Majestie,
That, whereas your poore peticoner hath formerlye petitioned to
yonr Majestie for a pardon for her two sonns, who, uppon wrongfull
accusacion, were condemned and lost theire lives. A_nd, whereas your
poore peticoner (Mother to 6 poor fatherles children at hoame) for
enterteyninge her said two sonns (shee knoweing noe misbehaviour or
misdemeanor by them) is in daunger of her life.
And she beinge nowe in a most woefull and lamentable estate, «
even readie to lanquishe thorowe greafe and discontent, havinge
laboured theise 20 weekes for her said childrens’ lives and not pre
valed. But thorowe long suite hath both spent all her means, and,
without a quick dispatch, and your Majeste’s gracious assistance and
helpe therein, shee is in daunger of starvinge, and her six poore
fatherles children at hoame ready to perrishe thorowe want of main
tenance and releafe.
In tender commisseracon and pittie of your woefull peticoner’s
estate, may it please Your Majestie, even for Christe’s sake, to grant
her Your Highnes gratious pardon for her owne life for all thinges
whatsoever by past. That your peticoner may pass quietlie to
succoure and releave her poore fatherles children, and (as in dutie
bound) shee shall dalie pray for your Highnes.
May it please your good Lordship
*
I have, accordinge to Your Lordshipp’s commaundement, perused
the petition of Ellin Charleton, widdowe, and if the suggestions therof
�85
be true, that she is only in daunger for receaving her children, not
knowing ther offences, she is very capable of his Majestye’s gratious
pardon; and if her offence extended further, that she did receave and
interteyn her owne sonns, knowing ther offences, soe as she did not
receave what they had stollen, nor incourage them to steale, I incline
farr to favor a Mother in such a case.
But I humbly submitt it to Your Lordship’s great wisedome, and
his Majestye’s gratious pleasure, when he shall be moved therein.
Your lordship’s most humble servant,
7 January, 1630.
RO : HEATH.
Tn the great civil war, the Tynedale men took the part of the
Royalists. Sir Edward Charlton, of Hesleyside, was created a
baronet in 1645, on having raised a troop of horse for King
Charles I. The patent of creation is still at Hesleyside. When
the Roundheads triumphed, the Cavaliers’ estates were confiscated,
and Sir Edward lost his lands among the rest. Besides the property
still retained by the family, he held many farms in Warksburn, which
were gradually alienated during the last century. In 1666, after the
Restoration, Sir Edward Charlton was in high favour. It was proposed
at appoint him Governor of Hartlepool; but, by a letter yet
unpublished, in the Record Office, we learn that objections were
raised to this appointment, “ lest it might bring in Popery,” as Sir
Edward’s family had never changed their religious belief.
On the 24th of July, 1666, Sir Edward Charlton rode into Newcastle,
with one hundred stout young men, of Tynedale, all armed
and well appointed, and intended to serve under the Duke of York
in his foot regiment. As the mustermaster did not appear in time,
Sir Edward gave them all money to procure quarters and provisions.
In 1667, we learn, from the depositions in York Castle, published by
the Surtees Society, a curious history of robberies committed in
Tynedale, by horse and cattle thieves from Cumberland. In all their
evil doings they seem to have been aided and abetted by one William
Oglethorpe, of Cumberland, a gentleman of property, but a companion
of thieves, who evidently felt themselves honoured by his company.
These Cumberland robbers broke into the house of Christopher
Wannope, in that county, and Oglethorpe was to have been of the
�86
party, but did not come. He had, however, assisted at several bur
glaries before, “ for that a house was broken about Kirk Oswald, and
in making their attempt, one of the company had a stone thrown at
him by one of the house, as he was goeing upp the ladder, which-feld
him to the ground. Upon which they left the house, and tooke the
corps, and carried him to Bewcastle, and there buried him. And
soe the said partyes smothered it unto the dead man’s friends, and
said he had been sicke a weeke before.”
From the deposition of Anne Armestrang, a companion of these
Cumberland thieves, we learn that Archie Litle stole a blunt-taled
nagg, out of Cumberland, which he carried to George Moore, of Long
Witton, in Northumberland. “ That tyme Moore helped Litle to a
booty to carry back. They first attempted to steale a white maire
with a foie, about Wooler, but were chased from her. The next night
they stole five great beastes from Long Witton, and hurried with them
towards Bewcastle. They drove the beastes by Wascow Shield, to
the house of Thomas Scott, of the Doddbogg (in North Tyne), where
Scott would not let them come unto the house, because there was a
fox thatcher there, but carried them to a sheyld harde bye his house,
*
where he made them a fire, and got them meate. After two hours,
they went out a mile further, to John Rackas Shield, where they
part two beasts among Mr. Charleton’s, of the bower, and stayed
there all day. The next night being Sunday, they drive their beastes
to Mongo Noble’s save two that tyred, and were left at Doddbogg.”
The informant then went to John Martin’s, of the Riding, and stole
some clothes, which she left at Edward Charlton’s, of the Newton,
near Bellingham, for the said Charlton advised her to put on man’s
clothes, which she did, and left her woman’s clothes at the Newton,
and with them two old pieces of gold, three gold rings, a silver bodkin,
and a green petticoat with silver lace—all of which she had stolen from
Barwith house. And when on her return, she demanded these things
from Charlton, of the Newton, he would give her none, but threatened
to deliver them to a justice of the peace, if she demanded them.”
The “profession” of cattle stealing seems to have existed in North
* Probably a misspelling for foxcatcher, retained by the farmers for the sake of
preserving their lambs.
�87
Tynedale till far into the last century. In 1624, Adie Usher, of Liddesdale, was tried and executed on the Borough Moor of Edinburgh, for
cattle thefts committed in North Tynedale. He had, with his son
then hardly sixteen years of age, driven sheep, cattle, and goats from
Sewingscheles, Emmetshaugh, Leaplish, and Hesleyside. William
Heron, of Chipchase, and William Charlton, of Hesleyside, were the
prosecutors. Usher’s son was pardoned on account of his youth.
Nearly a century later, in 1701, we have the confession of David
Weir, in Edinburgh, revealing the extistence of an organized gang of
horse stealers on both sides of the Borders, Francis Moraley, of
Moralee, in Gofton Burn, seems to have been the ringleader, but the
horses stolen from Northumberland were sold at Edinburgh, and
further north, while the Scottish horses found an easy maket in
Northumberland. Closely connected with these horse thieves was
Charlton, of Lee Hall in North Tyne. Charlton, and Hall, of
Monk ridge, seem to have been both county keepers, or heads of the
police in their own district. Hall had prosecuted some of the horse
thieves in his immediate neighbourhood, and hence there seems to
have been a general combination of the freebooters to ruin him by
making Reedsdale the scene of their depredation. To this they were
evidently prompted by Charlton, of Lee Hall. The whole confession
of David Weir may be seen in the appendix to Sir Walter Scott’s
Border Antiquities.
The Armstrongs, of Grandyknowes, close to Houseteads, were a
most notorious race. Probably they were originally from the Scottish
border—
“ But their misdeids they were so great,
They banished them to the English syde.”
Nicholas Armstrong, about the year 1700, accused Wm. Lowes, of
Crow Hall/in'South Tyne, of having instigated two of Armstrong’s
brothers—William and Thomas—to cut out the tongue of William
Turner, of Cringledykes. Turner’s tongue was, however, not so
entirely destroyed but that he was able to tell, in full court, the whole
story. He said that William and Thomas Armstrong went up to
him while he was trying to catch a horse on the common, and at first
threatened to shoot him, but afterwards cut out his tongue, and with
it his right ear and part of his cheek. Lowes denied the cliaige of
�instigating the deed, and retorted that Charleton, of Lee Hall, knew
more of the affair than he chose to tell. It seems that Lowes had
underbid Charleton for the office of county keeper, in 1705 and 1706,
hence the jealousy between the two, while the Armstrong’s attacked
Turner, to revenge themselves for his giving information against them
in a horse stealing case.
Charlton, of Lee Hall, seems to have been a most turbulent
character.
His feuds with Lowes, of Willimoteswick, the
county keeper of South Tynedale, are still, remembered in Tynedale. Charlton seem to have been as bold as Lowes was timid.
They had constant encounters, but Lowes, for a long time, escaped
his rival. Once his life was saved by an old woman closing a gate
after he had passed, with Charlton in hot pursuit, and the delay enabled
him to reach his stronghold at Willemoteswick. Again they met
and fought at Bellingham, and Lowes’ horse was killed by a stab
made at his rider by Charlton, Lowes escaping by jumping on the
back of a horse standing near. A fragment of the old ballad made
on this occasion is yet preserved :—
Oh, had Lee Hall but been a man,
As he was niver nane,
He wad have stricken the rider,
And letten the horse alean.
At length Lowes was taken prisoner in a fight near Sewingshields,
and Charlton is said to have chained him to the grate of his kitchen
fire, at Lee Hall. He is said to have been rescued afterwards by
Frank Stokoe, of Chesterwood.
Then came another change of scene. The cavaliers who had
triumphed in the Restoration, fell into disfavour at the Revolution of
1688, at least, all those who adhered to the fortunes of the Stuarts.
The Catholic cavaliers, about all, became liable to constant suspicion
and with a good reason too, for there were constant plots to restore the
fallen dynasty. In 1687, there were seven Catholic gentlemen of
Northumberland on the commission of the peace, and among them
was Edward Charlton, of Hesleyside. He was, probably, put off the
commission of the peace on the accession of William III. j and in
1689, as we find frojp the depositions in York Castle, he was suspected
for treason, in consequence of a letter from him having been
�seized on its way to Albert Hodgson, a well-know “ Papist” and
cavalier in Newcastle. He was then accused of spreading false
intelligence regarding the landing of King James, the newly-deposed
monarch, in Scotland, but he escaped by denying all knowledge of
the dangerous letter. The epistle is delightfully phonetic in its
orthography.
“ Mr. Hodgson,—My brother Jake is not yet corned home, but this
week we expect him. As sonne as he comse I will sind mony for
the hatte. As for news we heare that six thusand of K. J. forsis
sartainly landed at Kintir, in the Hylands. They prist all bots and
vissils (boats and vessels) in K. J. name to goe back to Ireland for
more forsis, and they are gon, and the rist following fast. Allso there
master who sartanly lands in Skotland. Fortty thusand Frinch
landed in Ireland.” The letter concludes with a commission to Mr.
Hodgson, who, probably, was a general merchant in Newcastle.
“ Pray sind me too botells of your vere hist Rinnis, and two botells
of whit wine, the bist you have. The clarred (claret) was so bad as
we weare forst to sind for better, but I emadgen you had noo better.”
The old squire of Hesleyside drank Rhenish and claret in those days,
for the poisoned wines of Spain had not then been forced upon the
English palate.
In the same year, a fearful murder seems to have been committed
on Gunnerton Fell. The murdered man was discovered by one
of the Shaftoes of Gunnerton. He deposes that “ on the 10th
of May, 1689, goeing out into Gunnerton Moore, a gunning,
very early yesterday morning, upon the breake of day, at a place
called Stone Gapps, in Gunnerton Moores, he sees two gray
maires, both sadled and bridled, and the one of their bridles tyed to
the other’s stirrup-iron. And seeing none neare the said maires, he
brought them to the common pinfold of Gunnerton, and putt them
therein. After which, he called his brother, William Shaftoe, and
told him they would goe and see if they could see the owners of the
said maires. And riding on the said moore to a place called Whitley
Knoake, being further on the moore, and higher than ordinary, they
hollowed there to know if any would answer them. And going
northward on the said hill, they heard the voice of a man crying out,
‘ Helpe, for Christ Jesus’ sake,’ and wished hee had but a man to
�90
speake to him before he dyed. Whereupon this informant and his
brother goes northward to a burne side, and he spoke over the burne,
and asked him what the matter was, and what he wanted, who
replyed hee wanted nothing but a man to speake with him before he
dyed, for he was a dyeing man. And this informer, asking how or
by whome, he said there was a rogue had shott and murdered him.
This informant asked him if he knew him that did soe, and he said,
Yes, he knew him well enough. And askin him what they called
him, hee answered, ‘ Roger.’ This informer asked him if he knew
his surname; he said noe, but one Mr. Errington, of the Linnells,
knew him well enough, hee being once the said Mr. Errington’s servant.
And this informant and his brother rode through the burne
and went to the place where he was lying waltering in his owne
blood. This informant asked if the rogue had gott any money from
him, and he said he had got two guinnies, one silver watch, one
crowne piece of silver, three or four shillings, his crivitt (cravat) and
sleeves. This informant asking him if he had not a hatt, he said,
Noe ; but hee had a velvett capp, which the rogue had gone with.
This informant asked him if he had noe spurrs, and he said, ‘ 0 deare,
and is hee gone with my spurrs to !’; and, findeing a piece of a
pistoll stocke, hee saide, ‘ Oh dear ! he had two pistolls.’ And this
informant, searching among the hather, found the stocke and locke of
another pistoll, and asked him how the rogue came by the pistolles,
who replyed, Mr. Errington lent him them before they came away.
And askeing him how hee came to be soe farr out of the way, hee
said they were goeing to the Highlands, to see the rogue’s mother.
And the maires were both his owne, and he lent the rogue one to ride
on, and now hee’s gone with them bothe. The rogue pretended him
self to be sleepy and weary, and had a desire they should light and
rest themselves a litle; and when they came and lay downe, the de
ceased lying on his belly, with his head upon his arme, never feareing
anything, the said Roger shott in att his back, between his shoulders.
And, after he had shott him, he fell upon him, beating and cutting of
his head in several places with the pistolls. And he prayed him, for
Christ’s sake, nott to beat or cutt his head with the pistolls, and he
would quitt him all that he bad in the world freely, but the rogue
said he would not; of which shott and wounds the said deceased dyed.”
�We learn no more of this sad murder, except that the murdered
man was a gentleman of Yorkshire, of the name of Braidclyffe, of
Farrburne. It is possible that he may have been travelling on some
Jacobite errand; for the Erringtons, of the Linnells, were disaffected
to the then government. It is curious to note, that Mr. Shaftoe, the
informant, went out a gunning on the moors of Gunnerton, early on
a May morning. It was the practice, even to the end of the last
century, to shoot the old moorcocks in the pairing season, when they
are much more easy of approach. In Norway, and in Germany, the
practice prevails to the present day.
With the death of Anne, and the accession of the House of Hano
ver, the hopes of the Jacobites revived. The “ Wee German lairdie ”
was most unpopular in England j nor did he ever become reconciled
to our English fashions. The North Tyne gentry were almost to a
man, Jacobites j and the influence of the Earl of Derwentwater, who
owned the manor of Hareshaw, no doubt drew many to the standard
raised by that unfortunate nobleman. Of the North Tynedale men,
one of the leaders was Captain Hunter, of the Highfield, a man of
no good character, and a noted horse thief. But another well
known character at that time, in Tynedale, now appears on the
scene viz., William Charlton, of the Bower and Reedsmouth,
generally spoken of by the soubriquet of “Bowrie.” This was
not the first time that Bowrie had been in trouble with the
Government.
On the 21st of February, 1709, he quarrelled with Henry
Widdrington of Buteland (?) about a horse as there was a horse
,
*
* In these times the penal statute, by which no papist was allowed to possess a
horse of the value of more than five pounds, was strictly enforced. In 1745, Sir
William Middleton, of Belsay, seized the horses at Hesleyside ; and in the Leadbitter family there is a tradition of the devices resorted to to preserve a valuable
horse belonging to the then owner of Warden. The horse was first hid in the
wood that borders Homer’s lane, but having been heard to neigh when a picket of
soldiers was riding by, it was thought dangerous to leave him there. He was
accordingly brought back to Warden, and was lifted by cords up into the loft
above the cart-horse stable, and there a chamber was built round him of trusses of
hay and straw. His neighing here would, of course, attract no attention, unless
the soldiers were actually in the stable. A few days after, while the house at
Warden was closely watched by bailiffs from Hexham, the inmates were unable to
get to the loft to give the horse water, and the poor animal consequently became
�race that day on the Doddheaps, close to Bellingham. They adjourned
to a small hollow south of the Doddheaps called Reedswood Scroggs,
and which we can remember well as having been pointed out to us
many years ago. The ash trees in that fatal hollow had not then
been cut down ; indeed, they were standing till within a few years,
and served to mark the spot. Here the combatants fought, and
Bowrie slew his opponent. He is said by one tradition to have been
taken “ red.handed,” as William Laidley (aw of Emblehope, who
witnessed^the fight, hastened to the Doddheaps, and alarmed the
people, who seized the offender.
*
We are inclined, however, to believe
extremely restless, stamping furiously on the floor of the loft. One of the
Charltons, whose descendant still lives in Hexham, resolved to rescue the animal.
While his friends led the bailiffs round to the back of the stable, to which they had
been attracted by the noise, Charlton lowered the horse down through the trap
door, and jumping on his back, urged him at full speed across the haugh to the
Tyne. It was a heavy flood, with much floating ice, but he dashed bravely in, and
had nearly reached the opposite bank when the bailiffs became aware of his flight,
but none dared to follow him ; and he never drew bridle till he reached the friendly
shelter of Nafferton, which was at that time occupied by the Leadbitters.
* The information of William Laidley, or Laidlaw, of Emblehope, regarding
this case, is still preserved among the Allgood papers. It is dated February 28th,
1709.
“ The said informant, upon his oath, saith, that on Tuesday, the 21st day of
February, he was travelling upon the highway leading from Bellingham to
Reedswood, together with one James Laidley, brother to the informant, and, in a
wood sailed Reedswood Scroggs, near the highway, he hard a noise at a small
distance from the highway, but did not know the meaning of it, but proceeding a
little further, he saw a man running from a place where some men’s cloathes were
lying in said wood, towards Reedswood, and he perceived that he had either a hat
and a periwigg, or a periwig only, in his hand ; and so came to a place where a man
was lying, and took him in his armes, though the informant did not see the man who
was lying on the ground, till the other man lifted him up, and asked him where he
was hurt. But the man who was lying on the ground did return no answer ;
whereupon the other man returned to the place whence he brought the hatt and
periwigg, and brought from thence a coat, and asked him if he would have on his
coat, but again there was no answer. Then did the other man call to the
informant to come near, and, coming near, he saw that the man lying on the ground
was Mr. Henry Widdrington, but he did not know the other ; but he had blood
upon his face, and he saw him take up a long sword, which was lying near the said
Henry Witherington, and put it into his scabbard, and gird it about him. And
he then desired the informant to send his brother to the Doddheaps to tell the
people, who were at a horse-race there, and to lift up Henry Witherington,
and put on his coat. But this informant, looking at Mr. Witherington, said
that he was dead, whereupon the said man ran to his horse, which was tyed to
�93
that Bowrie escaped on horseback, and that same night reached the
residence of Nicholas Leadbitter, of Warden and Wharmley. He
was concealed in the house at Wharmley, and walked the floor all
the night in his heavy boots, to the surprise, and no doubt somewhat
to the annoyance, of his host and his family. He subsequently
obtained the pardon of Queen Anne, under the great seal, for this
chance medley. Widdrington’s body was buried before Charlton’s
pew door in Bellingham Church, under the inscription, now hidden
by pew-work
“ The Burial Place of Henry Widrington of Butland,
Gentleman, who was killed by Mr. William Charlton of Reedsmouth,
February 23rd [21st 1], in the Year of our Lord, 1711.” (1709 or
17101] It is said that on this account Bowrie would never again
enter the sacred edifice It therefore seems that Bowrie was
probably a protestant, or at least had temporarily conformed, and
this is the more probable, as we find in Patten’s History of the
Rebellion that his name is not entered as a papist. On the other
hand, he is not designated a protestant, as are the other “ rebels ; ”
so we may fairly conclude that Bowrie had no religion at all. His
brother Edward is said by Patten to have recently become a papist,
having married a person of that persuasion. However, we find that
Bowrie’s lands are registered as a catholic’s under the penal statutes
in 1723. Be this as it may, Bowrie left no legitimate issue, and the
children of Edward Charleton, his younger brother, succeeded to the
estates. Edward Charleton had married the relict of Errington, of
Waiwick Grange, originally a Miss Dalton, of Thurnham, and Bowrie
is said to have been anxious that his illegitimate daughters should be
brought up under hei- care. She demurred, under the plea that they
were protestants and she catholic, but Bowrie told her to make them
what she liked. These ladies afterwards lived long in Hexham, and
are remembered by persons yet living. They continued staunch
Jacobites to the very last. On the first relaxation of the penal laws,
about 1780, King George III. was for the first time prayed for
a tree hard bye, and mounted, and called to informant to attend to the dying
man. Whereupon the said man rode away towards Reedswood, and informant
went up to the Doddheaps to inform the people, and shouted to them to come,
and they came to the place where the said Witherington was lying, and informant
saw a wound upon his left breast, and some of the company said it was done by
"VVilliam Charlton, of Reedsmouth, whom he did not know by sight.’
�teg
Baa
t
94
publicly in the catholic chapels in England. The instant his name
was mentioned, the Miss Charletons rose from their seat and moved
out of the chapel, and this they continued to do all their lives. We
know not who were the friends by whose intercession Bowrie
obtained his pardon from Queen Anne. It is probable that the
occurrence was regarded in the light of a mere brawl ; and tradition
gives us, as one of the circumstances strongly urged in his favour,
that, after Widdrington had fallen, he threw his own cloak over the
dying man before he rode away from the scene.
We next hear of Bowrie as engaged in the rising of 171
5
*,
but the
details of his exploits on that occasion have not come down to us.
He behaved, it is said, bravely at Preston, but we do not know when
he was relieved. In 1745, Bowrie was imprisoned as one suspected
of favouring the Stuarts. It is said that this was done by his own
friends to keep him out of mischief, for he must then have been well
advanced in years. Bowrie no doubt felt his imprisonment keenly,
and did his best to obtain his release. He seems to have applied to
Collingwood, of Chirton, for this purpose, and we produce that
gentleman’s autograph answer, regretting his inability to do anything
for him.
SB
i
Dear Sir —I reca the favour of yours with no small concern, and am very
sensible how uneasy your confinement must make you. I should be glad
if it were in my power to put an end to it by admitting you to bail, and
hoped the transmitting above such informations against you as had come to
my knowledge, together with your own examination, might have procured
leave to bail you ; but, instead of that, the Duke of Newcastle told us in
his answer that it was not proper to admit you to bail. I own I thought
that answer cruel, unless it were occasioned by some further charge against
you, which you must be the best judge whether probable or not. As you
stand committed by the Mayor of Newcastle, the Bench of Northumberland
cannot aid you, and as the Mayor is acquainted with the Duke of New
castle’s directions, I am apt to think he will not act contrary to them. I
will, however, communicate your letter to him, and do you all the service
I am able, but am afraid that you must apply to the Duke of Newcastle
for leave for the Mayor to bail you before that step can be taken.
This is the true state of your case, which I thought it not improper to
make you acquainted with, that you might be apprized I want power more
than inclination to relieve you ; for as I wish and hope you will prove
innocent, I hereby sympathize with you in your suffering, and am, as I
always have been—Dear Sir—your real friend and humble servt.,
Ed. Collingwood.—Chirton, June (?) 12, 1746.
From this time we do not learn much of him, save what has come
down by tradition of his rough and roystcring disposition. In 1736,
�95
James Tone, steward at Hesleyside, writing to Edward Charleton of
Heslevside, who had then, on the death of his father, succeeded to
that property, speaks thus of Bowrie. We have preserved the
remarkable orthography of the letter :—
“ Bowrry Charlton wass all wayes vearry a-Bousiffe and scornfull man
to my Master—and would a made him foudelled and sould him deare
Bargains and abused him when he had done.”
No doubt the old squire was rough and rude, and fond of his cups.
Among the articles preserved by his descendants is a Venice glass,
with a rose and oak leaf engraven on the bowl. Between these
is a single star, to which, when the King’s health was given, the
loyal Jacobite placed his lips, and drank his Majesty’s health “under
the rose.”* Another glass, of which but very few now remain, has
Prince Charles’s head and bust, with the motto, “ Audentior Ibo.”
Another huge Venice glass has on it the inscription, “ Pero, (dog)
take your advantage]' which may, however, have been only a drink ■
ing word of the old squire’s. No doubt Bowrie, after his release,
continued to cherish the memory of the Stuarts, and perhaps to plot
a little in their favour when an opportunity occurred. Nothing was
more likely than that he and his family should love to collect
memorials of the Stuarts, and there is preserved a mull, dated 1745,
with the inscription, “ 0 Charlie, ye’ve been lang a cummin 1” a pair
of the well-known Jacobite silk garters, woven probably at Lyons,
with the inscription, “ come let us with one heart agree—to pray
that god may bless p. c.and a pincushion, bearing the names of
the victims of 1746 on the Jacobite side.b We suspect these pin
cushions to have been likewise made at Lyons, or somewhere abroad.
Another relic connected with these times is a letter written
evidently by a conspirator, and couched in the most ambiguous terms.
The original is directed to Mr. William Bell, supervisor, .Hexham ;
but there can be little or no doubt but that it was intended for no
* The star is exactly under a large full-blown rose, which doubtless symbolises
the claimant of the crown himself. There are two buds, greater and lesser, on the
same branch, perhaps intended for Prince Charles, and the Cardinal of York.
+ Of white satin, with blue tassels at the corners. The inscriptions are printed
from copper-plates, and the names run in circles round a centre, in which is a
I
I'
�such servant of King George, as the individual addressed in the
letter itself is termed Dr. Cambray. This was no doubt a nom de
guerre, and we have no means of knowing who was the Pontifex
Maximus. Nor do we believe that Wylam is the real place spoken
of as the place of meeting appointed.
Dr Cambray,—I had yours, and nothing could give me greater pleasure
than to hear that our generous and worthy friend Bowrie is still able to
bend a Bicker. Long may he live to teem a Cog, and (while he disdains
the little superficial formalitys of our modern Gentry or those that would
be thought such) to receive his friends with the old undisguised and
Gentlemanlike hearty welcome.
The proposal he made concerning Carmichael is of a piece with the
general tenour of his benevolent sentiments towards the honest or indigent
part of mankind.
When he takes his flight from among your Northumbrian mountains
towards the Elysian fields, he’ll scarcely leave a fellow. Nor am I so
partial to the Calidonian hills, as to believe they ever produced a man of
more honr and honesty.
Carmichael is a good honest lad, but infected with that damned Scots
disease never to spare his [property ?], or his purse where friendship or
necessity calls. Notwithstanding, he has three callants will receive no
arguments instead of a dinner, and the good wife, a yell [?] Kid ip^'ii&F'
Killting ; so that if the affair could be carried on, I would wfflingly
contribute my mite, but I want courage to beg for a Countryman.
double rose displayed, and the inscription round it,
(Martyred for king and country, 1746.)
f
(
■
I
mart
—- : FOR : K: & cou : 1746
Inner Ring.—Earl Kilmarnock. Earl Derwentwater. Ld. Lovat. Ld.
Balmorino.
Second Ring. —T. Deacon. Syddale.
T. Chadwicke. G. Fletcher.
J. Berwick. Ja. Bradshaw. J. Dawson.
Third Ring.—P. Taylor. P. Lindsey. A. Kennedy. J. McGregor.
A. Parker. P. Keir. L. Read. The Revd. T. Coppock. T. Park.
A. Blyde.
Outer Ring.—J. McGenis. J. Thompson Murray. Mayrie. Stevenson.
McDonald. Dempsey. Connolly. Endsworth. Sparks. Horn.
D.
Morgan. Esqr. C. Gordon. McKenzie. J. McClain.
Inner Ring.—Col. Townley.
Sir. L. Wederburn.
Sir A. Primrose.
F. Buchannan, Esqr. I. Hamilton, Esqr.
Second Ring.—M. Deliard. C. Gordon. Cap. McDonald. Cap. Wood.
Cap. Leith. Cap. Hamilton. Dan. M. Daniel.
Third Ring.—I. Wallis. Henderson. I McNaughton. I. Roebothom.
H. Cameron. I. Inness. I. Harvie. D. Fraizer. B. Mayson. Donald
M’Donald.
Outer Ring.—The Revd. R. Lyon. Rol. Clavering. G. Reid. Eaton.
Heys. Brady.
Ogilvie. Roper.
Brand.
Swan.
Holt.
Hunter
Mitchel. Nicholson. Matthews. Hunt.
�If you see Bowrie, offer him my warmest good wishes, which extends to
the tenth generation after him. Accept the same for the bairns, especially
Bessy Bell, for I have had none to talk nonsense to since she left me. Tell
her Madam Badrons has a pair of bonnie bairns, and swears revenge on her
for diserting her office, as she was formerly nurse. Make my compliments
to her Ladyship with all the havings you have, and believe me to be with
paternal as well as pastoral affection, Dr Cambray, Yours while—
Pont. Max.—From the face of the Deep Waters, July 17th, 1750.
P.S. I almost dayly see men from South and North intirely strangers
to the habitation of the Young Goodman of Bellnagih ; only they tell me
his father alone knows where he is, assures them he is well, and desires
they may be content and ask no more questions. Tom, of Lubeck, is here
from Loud : and greets you kindly in the covenant ; he intends to kiss
your hands at Wylam Sunday comes a week, where I must attend the
conclave, but if he’s diverted by his friends I shall give you notice.
Mention the honest Bp. to Bowrie ; he was once his guest upon the
Bellingham tramp. [Address.]—To Mr. Wm. Bell, Supervisor, Hexham.
The character of Bowrie here given is, in all probability, a tolerably
correct one. The writer hints at his somewhat rough and unpolished
manners, but bears testimony to his good heart. The allusion to the
“ Young Goodman of Bellnagih ” is evidently meant for the Young
K^i^pBr^ice Charles, by the old Stuart soubriquet of the “ Gudeman of
■Ballengeich.” It would have been curious indeed if we could have
gyj ''7. obtained a report of what was discussed at the conclave, at Wylam,
— butno short-hand writer was present at these secret meetings to take
down the dangerous words uttered, or the treasonable toasts drank,
by the Jacobite squires of Northumberland.
Of the “grayne” of the Milburns but little has been recorded in
print, while North Tynedale has retained some interesting traditions
of this bold family. Many will still remember a fine specimen of the
North Tynedale man, Muckle Jock Milburn, of Bellingham, a man
of gigantic size and strength, and endowed with a corresponding
power of lungs. Muckle Jock held many traditions of the old border
days, which alas ! have, for the most part, died with him. He told
us that he remembered more than once clearing Bellingham fail’ with
the Tarset and Tarretburn men at his back, to the old Border cry of
Tarset and Tarret burn
Hard------- and heather bred
Yet—Yet—Yet.
He was a descendant of the Milburns, of the Combe, in Tarset. Indeed,
he claimed Barty of the Comb, the subject of the following anecdote,
as his direct ancestor. Barty was a celebrated swordsman, as well as
of prodigious strength. He appears to have lived about the end of
G
|
’Xj’
�98
the seventeenth century. Barty’s dwelling was very near to the
Scottish border, and, therefore, was sadly exposed to the inroads of
the Scottish reivers, who still retained, long after the union of
England and Scotland, the habit of making raids for cattle on the
English side.
*
Barty’s ally was a stout yeoman, called Corbit Jack,
or Hodge Corby, whose peel stood a little farther up the burn, and
is still in tolerable preservation. There is a slight attempt at a
moat around it, and on a stone in the low doorway, there are three
rude crosses incised. One morning, when Barty arose, his sheep
were all missing, they had been driven off by Scottish thieves,
during the night. He immediately summoned Corbit Jack, and ai-ming
themselves, they followed the track of the sheep over the hill, down the
Blackhopeburn, into Reedwater, and thence across the border north
of the Carter, into Scotland. Here they lost the trace altogether, and
they seem to have been unprovided with a “ sleuth hound ” to track
the thieves. Barty, however, insisted that they should not return
emptyhanded, and, after a short council, they decided that the Leatham
wethers were the best, and accordingly they drove off a goodly
selection of these, and commenced their retreat. The loss was soon
perceived by the Scottish men, who immediately despatched two of
their best swordsman to recever the booty. They overtook Barty
and Corbit Jack at Chattleliope Spout, and insisted that the wethers
should be delivered up. Barty was willing to return half the flock,
but he would not go back “ toom-handed” to the Comb. The two
Scots being picked men, would not hear of a compromise, and the
fight began directly, in the long heather above the waterfall. Barty
called out “ Let the better man turn to me !” and the Scot, after a
few passes, ran his broadsword into Barty’s thigh. He, of the Combe,
jumped round, and wrenched the sword, so that it broke, and at the
same moment he was attacked from behind by the other Scot, who
had already slain his comrade, Corbit J ack. Barty made one tremen
dous back-handed blow, caught the second Scot in the neck, and—as
he expressed it—“ garred his heid spang alang the heather like an
* Roger Robson, alias Hodge Billy, of Sundaysight, near the Combe, was
indicted at the assizes, in 1629, for stealing a dun mare belonging to Lionel
Shipley.
..
�99
inion.” His first assailant tried to make off, but was cut down ere
he had run many yards. Barty took both swords, lifted his dead
companion on his back, and, in spite of his own wound, drove the
sheep safely over the height down to the Comb, and deposited Corbit
Jack’s body at his own door.
Another of the Milburns quarrelled one day, in Bellingham, with
a Borderer, and it was, of course, decided to settle their differences
with the sword. As they stripped to their shirts, in the streets,
Milburn paused, and shouted to his wife, who was in the assembled
crowd, “ Wife, bring me out a clean sark : it sail niver be said that
the bluid of the Milburns ran down upon foul linen!”
Muckle Jock himself was no bad hand at repartee. He often
accompanied Mr. William Brandling, of Low Gosforth, on his shoot
ing excursions on Hareshaw.
On one occasion, the Rev. Ralph
Brandling, of Gosforth, was of the party, and he, unaccustomed to
Jock’s freedom of speech, roundly rebuked him with sundry most uncanonical imprecations. Jock heard all quietly, for lie cared for
curses as little as he did for blows; but, at the end, he observed,
“ Hech, man, they maun hae been unco scant o’ timmer when
they my’ed thee a pillar of the kirk !” Jock was often up at
Mounces, when the Swinburne family were staying there in the
Autumn. On one occasion, the late Sir John Swinburne entrusted to
him a packet, containing letters of great importance, to take over the
Border to Newcastleton, to the post. In those days, the post only
came up North Tyne as far as Bellingham, and that but twice a week.
Weeks passed away, and the letters did not reach their destination.
Jock was asked if he had posted them at Newcastleton. “ That did
I no,” replied the stout Borderer ; “ I just gied the packet to Archie,
wha gied it till anither man, wha said he kenned a man wad be
gannin sune to the post!”
On a very rainy day, Jock was sent with a message to Falstone,
and to keep him dry, they offered him the coachman’s heavy box coat.
Jock performed his errand, but returned dripping wet, and without
the coat. “Ijuist leavit it at the Fausestayne,” said he, “it was
better to be drooned than smoored !”
Jock was a keen sportsman, and particularly fond of greyhound
coursing. Even when past his eightieth year, he could find a sitting
�100
hare better than most men in the country. One day, when at
Reedsmouth, he exclaimed to the late G. Gibson, Esq., “ Mr. Gibson,
it’s a varrra long time sin ye gied me a hare.” 11 Oh,” said the
squire, 11 you shall have a hare, Jock, at once ; ” and turning to his
servant, Robert Riddell, he said, “ Robert, take the gun, and Jock
will soon find you a hare.” “ Hout, maister,” replied Jock, “ you
need na fash wi’ the gun, the hare’s lying i’ the dyke ; I just felled
her as I cam’ down the pastur’, but I wad na lift her till I’d gotten
your leave.”
No small indignation was felt among the peaceful borderers at the
head of the North Tyne, at the publication of Macaulay’s wonderful
picture of their rude habits. It will be recollected that he painted
the people of the Keeldar district as having been little better than
savages within the memory of man. The late Sir John Swinburne
was especially indignant. In a letter we received from him upon the
subject, written long after he had passed his ninetieth year, he said,
“I have been a landholder at the head of North Tyne for nearly
three-quarters of a century, and, in my youth, I knew many old men
who could remember the rising in 1715. After that fatal expedition,
the Tynedale men were disarmed, and the country has remained ex
ceedingly quiet to the present day. I am quite certain that Macaulay’s
sketch is wondrously overdrawn, if not absolutely false, in every
particular.” We, ourselves, took some pains, shortly after the appear
ance of Macaulay’s work, to trace this marvellous story. From
Macaulay, we traced it back to the late Sir David Smyth, and to the
former Duke of Northumberland, Hugh Percy, who died in 1847.
By that nobleman it was communicated to Sir Walter Scott. What
chance had any story in such hands? It seems to have originated
from a short note in the first Duke of Northumberland’s manuscript x
journal of his first visit to Keeldar, to the effect that the shepherds
there were exceedingly shy, and laid down on the heather to watch
his performances with the gun. He adds, that they seem wild,
marvellously shy and uncultivated.
Perhaps the poor fellows
remembered the demeanour of the proud Duke of Somerset, when he
ruled in that district. Sir David Smyth’s notes on Keeldar improved
the story a little ; he added a few lines about the wild dances of the
men and women, and upon this Scott built his story, to which
�101
Macaulay put the finishing touches. The Duke’s note book never
mentions the dances or the song, the chorus of which was “ Orsina,
orsina, orsina!” What language was it that they spoke ? All the
depositions taken a century before are in good plain English, with
a dash of the Scottish tongue.
North Tynedale, and Reedsdale, are now what they have been for
the last hundred and fifty years—quiet pastoral vales, peopled by an
intelligent, handsome, and strongly-built race, as free from crime and
vice as any part of the British dominions
The Swinburnes and the
Charltons hold the lands they held in the thirteenth century ; the
Robsons are rife about Falstone; the Dodds are yet numerous on the
Border, and the Milburns are by no means extinct. May it be long
ere these goodly names cease to be found in the district.
THE END.
�NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE :
PRINTED BY J. 31. CARR, STEAM PRINTING WORKS, LOW I RIAR STREET.
���
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Victorian Blogging
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Memorials of North Tyndale and its four surnames
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Edition: 2nd ed.
Place of publication: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Collation: 101 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Charlton, Edward
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J.M. Carr, printers
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1871
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G5573
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Northumberland
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Conway Tracts
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Tynedale
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Text
PRICE ONE PENNY.
JL F L H .A
FOR
S O CIA LISM:
BY
J . L. MAHON.
Delivered in
the course
AMONGST
THE
of a
MINERS
Socialist Campaign
ON
STRIKE
IN
Northumberland, 1877.
“ AS LONG AS OUB CIVILIZATION IS BASED UPON PROPERTY OUR BICHES
WILL LEAVE US SICK, THEBE WILL BE BITTERNESS IN OUB LAUGHTER AND
OUB WINE WILL BURN IN OUB MOUTH.
ONLY THAT GOOD PROFITS WHICH
WE CAN TASTE WITH ALL DOORS OPEN AND WHICH SERVES ALL MEN.”—
Emerson
Published at the “ Commonweal” Office :
13, Farringdon Road, London, E.C
J. Beall, Printer, Stationer, &c., St. Andrew’s Street.
1887.
�“ I ask you to think with me that the worst which can
happen to us is to endure tamely the evils which we see, that
no trouble or turmoil is so bad as that; that the necessary
destruction which reconstruction bears with it must be taken
calmly ; that everywhere—in State, in Church, in the house
hold—we must be resolute to endure no tyranny, accept no
lie, quail before no fear, although they may come before us
disguised as piety, duty, or affection, as useful opportunity and
good nature, as prudence or kindness.”—William Morris.
“ The ivorld in a commercial society belongs to the
capitalists, the share of oiunership which each man pos
sesses being his capital.
In order that wealth may be
produced .... toorkmen and horses must till the
land; the sun must shine and the rain must fall upon the
field, when the seed will sprout and grow; bees must per
form the operation necessary to the fertilization of the
flower, when the fruit will form and swell; birds must
join in the work by destroying the noxious insects which
would otherwise destroy the harvest; and so on. When all
is done some of the agents claim a share of the product;
the men and cattle must be fed; the birds make good their
right to share the wealth which their labour, as much as
that of the men and horses, has produced; and even the
earth demands a part as seed for the next crop. After
all the deductions are made, which the harshness of nature
renders necessary, the balance belongs to the capitalist.
To him it is a matter of indifference what natural agents
are instrumental in the production of his wealth, and the
labour of men does not, in his estimation, differ generically
from that of birds or horses, and is more important only
because the men are the phenomena over xohich he has most
control........................... He groups together all the agents
(including the workmen) that have co-operated in the pro
duction of his wealth as elements of the efficiency of his
capital, and measures the result of all their energies by the
rate of profit he obtains.’'—Communal and Commercial
Economy.—JOHN CARRUTHERS.
�A PLEA FOR SOCIALISM
Fellow- Workmen,
I am sure that an appeal to you for a fair hearing is
unnecessary. Socialism no longer meets with the jeers and
abuse that assailed it, from workmen as well as others, only
a few years ago. Discontent is just now so deep and general
amongst the working-class, and the exponents of Socialism
have worked so hard and enthusiastically in their cause that
a respectful and sympathetic hearing is given them by people
of all kinds all over the country. But, having cast off your
prejudice see also that you put away all misunderstandings.
Socialists are often accused of holding opinions which they
are constantly preaching against, of wishing to bring about
things which they are even now trying to abolish. It is said
they wish to make an equal division of all wealth, bring all
men to one dull level, put every man’s affairs at the mercy of
State officials, make the sober support the drunken and the
industrious work for the thriftless, stamp out individuality,
abolish all incentive to invention, and to bring about these
things by hanging every man with a decent coat on his back.
Everything that malignity, jealousy, and sheer stupidity
could string together has been said against the Socialists.
Well, we don’t grumble. We know the way all great reform
ers since the time of Christ have been received ; kicks and
cuffs, and good chances of crucifiction or hanging in the end.
But we take it all as a compliment to the goodness and
usefulness of our principles.
Ike need for Socialism. The chief cause of the great spread
of Socialism of late is the dissatisfaction felt by all classes
with things as they are and the evident uselessness of all other
proposed remedies. England yearly grows richer, yet her
working-men and women are practically as bad off as ever
''
�A Plea
for
Socialism.
they were. Our power of making goods gets greater every
year, but we have not yet found a way of supplying the wants
of those who make them. Food, clothes, houses and all the
needs of life and happiness are here at our hand in abundance,
at our hand also is the means of making ten times more than
we have, and yet the workers who make these things are living
in wretchedness, squalor, and semi-starvation. Many boast
of the power, fame, and grandeur of the British Empire, but
few notice that in the lowest depths of social life, in the shims
and the back streets, is an ever growing mass of people with
out hope in life, for life to them means a fierce scramble ever
getting fiercer; a miserable subsistence ever getting more
miserable. These people have no respect for Society, for
Society has no respect for them. “ Law and order’' is to them
only a fancy name for the power that keeps them in the mire.
They hate the law and they hate society, and their hatred is
just. They are too many to be ignored, too strong to be
despised, too much wronged to bear good will to those in
power. Their ranks are recruited from the working-class
every year : and some prolonged depression of trade may see
them powerful enough to put Law at defiance ; as indeed they
were during the early months of 1886. Civilization ! Pro
gress ! National Greatness !—mockery and humbug while
those who make the wealth are ever in want and in fear of
want, and those who neither toil nor spin live in luxury.
People feel the evil of all this and they see nothing in the
ordinary proposals to undo it. The Socialists have, as is
generally admitted, brought forward the most consistent and
satisfactory criticism of the present system of society, and
from the same line of thought the real remedy must likewise
come.
Toryism, Liberalism, and Radicalism. Out of all our party
fighting we don’t seem to get much benefit. The working
class are gradually losing faith in the political parties of all
shades. Toryism is a dead horse—not even worth a kiok.
Tliberalism has always meant, and Liberals have always worked
for, the interests of trade and commerce, under the idea, no
doubt, that the welfare of the people could best be served in
that way. But every day makes it plainer that the whole
object of modern commerce is to enslave and cheat the
people. That trade is carried on solely for the profit of the
�Political Parties.
5
capitalists, whose chief aim is to increase profits by decreasing
wages. The Liberals have posed as the friends of the people
on questions of merely political importance. But on any
question affecting the “ rights” of property—such as the
factory acts, or adulteration acts—-some of the best Liberals
were the workmen’s worst enemies. It is now plain to most
workmen that there is nothing to choose between Liberals and
Tories, but that the bitter opposition of both may be expected.
Then what of the Radical party ? But where is it I Wander
ing about after a dozen leaders, chasing fifty fads, but having
no policy to give to the people which will excite their
enthusiasm or better their condition. A more hazy, indefinite,
muddled-up party never existed than the latter day Radicals.
Their chief function has been to blacken the boots of the
Whigs, and except that now and then we hear a little murmur
ing, their function has been well fulfilled. The days of
popularity for the Liberal party are now over. They are on
the high road to perdition ; in going there they will kick the
Tories in front of them, and drag most of the Radicals, as
usual, at their coat tails.
The Socialists spend a good
deal of energy in trying to win over the Radical workmen,
and this energy is well spent. In the Liberal agitations hither
to the Whig Dukes and cotton Lords have given the money
while the Radical workmen have furnished the enthusiasm.
The Socialist cause will gain by detaching these enthusiasts
from the false friends of the people and using their powers
for a better purpose. The reason why I attack Liberalism
and Radicalism more than Toryism is because many people
believe in them, while no one believes in Toryism at all.
The official Tories believe least of all in their own principles,
for when in office they masquerade in Liberal garments—
which shows at once their duplicity and their depraved taste.
In my opinion both political parties are humbugs, and the
only difference between the Liberals and the Tories is that
the Liberals are the most ingenious humbugs of the two.
Labour Representation. Great things were expected if we
got workmen into Parliament but very little has been realized.
There are plenty of rich men in the House of Commons who
are far more outspoken and independent than the Labour
members. We, as workmen, ought to be thoroughly ashamed
of the way we are represented. A few limpid lisping weak-
�6
A Plea
for
Socialism.
lings, who always truckle to the party chiefs, who never yet
distinguished themselves by standing out sturdily for the
interests of labour—who indeed have either forgotten or never
knew what the interests of labour mean. A poor spiritless
lot are they ! The best of them seem to have mistaken their
business. They are grubbing away at “ Employers’ Liability
Acts” as if legislation of that kind would by itself achieve
much for the workers. In the Parliament of 1886 we had
twelve Labour M.P.’s
Our twelve apostles ! At that time
the unemployed were rioting, so keen and widespread was
their distress, all over the country. But our apostles did not
like to disturb the arrangements of the Liberal Government.
Labour was in bad straits : but, for a whole session its
apostles sat sucking their thumbs and said never a word. In
Northumberland during the strike, which began in February,
1887, the suffering and distress was very keen. The men
were trying to resist an attempt to reduce wages which were
already at starvation point. Surely the Labour M.P.’s might
have used their position as members of Parliament to draw
attention to the state of their constituents : had Northumber
land been a county in Ireland, the House of Commons would
have been ringing with the tale of the miners’ wrongs. No
better illustration of the miserable incompetency of the
labour M.P.’s could be brought forward. Had they possessed
the least spark of vigour and sturdiness, the country would
not have been in darkness as to the condition of their con
stituents.
•
■
'
If Labourers are to be sent to
Parliament why make them middle-class men by paying them
from T6 to £10 per week ? A workman in Parliament ought
to get the wages of a London artisan and be enabled to live
in the same standard of comfort. He should go there to work
and not be ashamed of the object of his mission. Instead of
that his first move is to ape the costume and manners of the
cultured drones amongst whom he sits. The whole spirit and
object of mere “Labour representation” is mistaken. The no
tion that having “ labourers” in Parliament will do much good
is a very silly and artificial one. Working-men are no better
than other men, and middle-class men are no worse. It is
some definate principle or ideal that must be taken up by the
working-class before it can achieve anything. The Labour
Representation movement has nothing definate in it. It
�The root
of the difficulty.
7
simply wants to get workmen into Parliament—not to do any
thing in particular, just to loaf about, and look dignified, and
turn lick-spittles to the Liberal party when occasion demands.
This vague, hazy, scatter-brained policy will never do any
service or any credit to the working-class. Representatives
of this kind will be only half supported by workmen and de
spised by upper class politicians. Let us resolve on a definate purpose and push that forward. Use Parliament as a
platform if you will, but educate the people tp a clear under
standing of what your aim and their aim should be. When
you have cleared away some of the ignorance of the people—
and that is the real obstacle to their progress—then a strong
fighting party can be organized and there will be every chance
of winning : at present with no particular object and no en
deavour to find one, with nothing but a muddled-up notion of
doing something, sometime, somehow; failure and ignominy
are certain.
The root of the difficulty. Now, in my opinion the error
of the various political parties I have referred to is that they
skim over the surface of these great problems. They are
afraid or unable to go to the root of the matter and point
out the cause of poverty. It is a paltry superficial kind of
reasoning which tells us that the industrious are well-to-do,
and the idle and thriftless poverty-stricken. I have no wish
to gloss over the failings of working people, or to excuse their
sins on the plea that the rich sin also and more heavily. But
I think there is something mean and hypocritical about those
who continually denounce the faults of the poor while they
leave the rich man’s crimes unassailed. Let us denounce
intemperance, idleness, thriftlessness wherever we may find
*
it; but let us be unsparingly impartial: let neither fame nor
rank save the wrong-doer from the reprobation of his fellows.
The faults of the rich do not excuse the faults of the poor,
but they are often the cause of them. It is luxury that makes
penury necessary. It is waste on one hand that entails
scrimping and starving on the other. It is the legalised lazi
ness amongst the rich that sets the example of loafing and
* It is strange to see how this term, thrift, is misused. Thrift means
making the best use of what you have. It does not mean selfish grabbing of
all you can get, nor a crazy hoarding of things you can never use. Still less
does it mean (as some sentimental moralists would have us believe) cowardly
contentment with less than you are entitled to.
�8
A Plea
for
Socialism.
flunkeyism to the poor. It is because the rich man shirks his
share of the world’s work that the poor man is overworked.
And what is the cause of nine-tenths of the vice and callous
ness of the working-men ? The long, dreary, and depressing
toil they have to endure when in employment; the feverish
anxiety about to-morrow’s food, and the future of their child
ren when in the ranks of the unemployed. To most workmen
life is an uninteresting past, a joyless present, and a hopeless
future. The root of the great social question is that modern
society treats the workmen as machines and the capitalists as
lords of civilization. In a civilized society the capitalist
is master of the land and minerals which no man made ;
of the machinery which includes within it the toil and
skill of countless generations; of the vast stores of wealth
which all (except the capitalists) have helped to accumu
late ; in short all the resources of civilization—which,
without exception, are the produce of work—belong to
one class. The only thing the capitalist, as such, does
is to keep a firm grip of these things and never spend
five shillings without a reasonable certainty of getting
ten, fifteen, or twenty in return. Civilization is a huge
arrangement for heaping up profit, and whatsoever will not
bring profit to the holder of capital is prohibited by the laws
of trade and commerce ; it is stigmatized as a thing that
“won’t pay” (no matter how much good it may do) and
banished from the business of life, and the world is thought
lucky if some philanthropist or faddiBt take it up instead.
Are we Slaves ? The pet delusion of the British working
man is that he is free. How he came by this delusion, and
why he sticks to it, I don’t know. It is interesting to notice
that the British workman’s “patriotism” and fondness for
proclaiming his independence varies with the rate of his
wages and the security of his employment. At £2 per week
he is sure that he is not a slave, and “never, never” will
be ; at £1 he is doubtful about the reality of his freedom ; at
12s. he curses the British Empire and says, wisely, though
not elegantly, that his freedom is a fraud. Now, what is a
slave ? One who is compelled to work for somebody
else.
In this, the real sense, the working-class of every
civilised country are slaves. They work and all the result
goes to the capitalist and upper class ; they get back a few
�The old slavery
and the new.
9
shillings to keep them alive, for that is all their wages
amount to. They are forced to work for the upper class,
while the upper class does nothing for them, and therefore
they are slaves. If the miner produces coal for the money
lord, and the money-lord does nothing for the miner, then
surely the miner is a slave. Every man who lives without
doing useful work is enslaving some other people. It is
work that keeps society going. Every man who eats bread,
lives in a house, or burns coal is using the fruits of labour.
Unless he renders some useful service to the baker, the
builder, or the miner he is stealing from them and making
them his slaves. A civilised society includes two main
classes:—Workers and idlers, producers and thieves, slaves
and slave-owners. The workers do everything for themselves,
and support the other class besides. The upper class do
nothing for themselves, and nothing for any-body else, so they
are thieves and slave drivers. Not that they are individually
conscious of stealing or oppressing, or should be individually
punished for it. But the harm done is the same whether
they are conscious or not. Besides, every sensible man
ought to think of where his dinner comes from, and to reflect
that somebody must have earned it; and that if he did not
earn it he must have stolen it.
The old slavery and the new. It is true that one man
cannot call another his property as he would a horse or a
dog, but does this make any essential difference ? The
reason why men were once owned like cattle was simply
that their labour might be used for their master’s benefit.
Well, if their labour is still taken from them, even without
the institution of private property in human flesh and blood,
the result is the same. The capitalist does not to-day own
the workman, but he owns the means by which only the
workman can live ; and he says to him, “ You cannot labour
without using the land and the capital; these things are
under my control, and I shall only allow you to use them on
condition that you take a bare living out of the produce of
your own labour, and that you hand over to me all the
balance over and above that.” The capitalist manages to
■enforce these terms. Nine-tenths of the modern workmen
are mere slaves, getting enough each pay-day to keep them
in bread till the next. In one respect they are worse off
�10
A Plea
for
Socialism.
than the olden slaves. When the employer has no further
need for their services, he turns them adrift in the streets
to find a crust as best they can; in olden times the slave
owner, out of self-interest, always took care to feed and
clothe his human property. In spite of all our boasting
of freedom the position of the civilised workman may be
summed up thus : He is allowed to earn his own living
only when his labour will also yield a profit to supply the
middle and upper classes with a living for nothing ; he gets
only a small part of what he earns ; he is dependent upon
others for the chance of working at all; and when he cannot
be made an instrument of profit-grinding he is cast amongst
the unemployed, and from thence too often he drifts to the
gaol, the workhouse, or the lunatic asylum.
The Slave Market and the Labour Market.
A closer
examination of the old and the new slavery will show still
stronger points of resemblance. In olden times there was a
slave market, to which men were driven in gangs, goaded on
by the lash of the slave driver. When they got there, they
were sold at auction, like cattle, to the highest bidder. Now
there is a labour market, at which human labour is bought
and sold like other goods. The people have no alternative
but to go and sell their labour, and they go obediently and
docilely, and as long as the system lasts they must do so.
Brute force is discarded, but the force of circumstances work
to the capitalists’ interests instead. The slave driver’s whip
is only to be found in the museum, but the whip of hunger
does the same work, and it bites as cruelly. But what is the
difference when they get to the market ? In olden times
they were put up to auction and knocked down to the highest
bidder ; now they are compelled to compete against each
other and are knocked down to the lowest bidder. From
this competition for employment a strange and horrid light
is thrown on the working of the capitalist system. The
master takes advantage of the men’s misfortunes, and uses
the unemployed to force down the wages of those in work.
In short, slavery is still the basis of our social organisation.
Our chains ud to be ugly black iron ; we saw them and
e
*
abhorred them. Now they are finely polished and painted,
and we think them ornaments and hug them ; but they are
as strong as ever, and when the times of distress come we
�Conquer
the cupboard.
11
feel them gnawing and chafing us. We cannot be free
while able, useful, and willing workmen starve in a land
made wealthy by their own labour. Our freedom is an
elaborate and ingenious hypocrisy while thousands are
denied the chance to earn their bread in their own country;
and while the whole working-class is only allowed to labour
on condition that it will hand over the largest part of the
result to the idle, useless, and vicious upper class.
Conquer the Cupboard. The powei’ lies in the hands of
the moneyed class, because they have the land and the
capital completely in their control. The workers dare not
till the soil of their own country, although thousands of acres
of it are lying waste, unless they can produce a heavy rent
for the landlord as well as a living for themselves. The
factories also are closed and the machinery stopped in many
districts. Here comes the narrow selfishness of the present
system. The men who own the land and capital do not wish
to use it themselves, and indeed could not. They simply
have the power to prevent others from using these things,
and they use that power to extort enormous profits from the
workers. Let us compare society to an ordinary household.
Imagine a family in which the father and several sons were
the bread-winners, and the mother and several daughters
housekeepers. Suppose they have a cupboard in which the
food and other means of life are stored. This cupboard
should be under the care of the housewife. But let us
imagine that a stranger, who has done nothing to help in the
work of the household, forces his way in, fixes a patent
lock to the cupboard, and says to the household, “ In future
this part of the house shall be under my charge. I shall
always be ready to open it when you have anything to
put in, but when you want any supplies I shall dole out
just as much as I think is good for you. While you are
filling the cupboard you shall get enough to keep you, and
enable you to go on working, but no more. When the cup
board is full you must stop working, and eating too, and you
will be known as ‘ tramps ’ and the ‘ unemployed.’ ” Now,
this family might fancy itself free ; it might meet in the
back-parlour and sing paeans in praise of the grand system it
lived under; it might also pass Bills and give each of its
members a vote, or a dozen votes ; but as long as the
�12
A Plea
fok
Socialism.
stranger held the key of that cupboard he would be master
of the situation, and the inmates one and all would be mere
slaves of his. This is a fair simile of what England and
every other civilised land is to-day. The workmen are filling
the cupboard of the country, but the key is held by men who
do none of the labour. While filling it they get a subsistence
wage—seldom more—and when it is filled to overflowing
there is a glut (a trade depression), and the men who filled
the cupboard must go hungry and homeless because it is too
full. Yes, this is why we starve in the midst of abundance,
and the first duty of the working-class is to make good its
claim to the fruits of its labour : it must conquer the cup
board.
The Socialist proposal is to take the land and capital
from the private individuals who now unrighteously own
them, and put them under the control of the community,
and use them for the benefit of the workers. Capital must
be the handmaid of labour, not its master. The resources
of civilization must be used to benefit the people, not to
grind profit out of them, as now. The aim of society must
be to so dispose of the labour and resources of the com
munity as to secure a fair living to all who labour for it.
Socialism is based on the principle that as all society is
maintained by labour, all should do a fair share of it. The
bread we eat, the houses we live in, and the coals we burn
are all produced by labour. If we use these things, we
ought to produce them, or do some useful service to those
who do. If we use these things, and live in idleness, we
are stealing them. All we eat and drink and wear is made
by labour, and if we eat without labouring we are stealing
from some one else who has laboured. We should all do
our fair share of the world’s work ! No man is too good
to toil for his living; no man is so bad that he should be
cheated out of his living when he has toiled for it.
The Defence of Property.
Whenever this doctrine of
Socialism is stated a certain class of people cry out “ Confis
cation !” “ You want to take men’s savings from them !”
“You want the drunken and thrtftless kept at the expense of
the industrious and careful I” All these parrot cries totally
ignore the fact that to-day the thriftless are living on the
�Property
and
Co-operation.
18
industrious, and that the whole string of evils they charge us
with trying to bring about are here already, and we are
trying to abolish them. When we attack the capitalists our
opponents never defend the proper culprit: they bring up
the workman with £100 saved, and try to turn prejudice
against us by alledging that this would be confiscated. But
the difference between a large capitalist and a workman with
a savings bank account is very great and quite clear. The
workman has earned his small capital; the other has not.
Of course the taking of interest is wrong, no matter to what
extent it may be carried. It must, also, be borne in mind
that in dispossessing the landlord and capitalist we are not
taking from them anything that they wish to use. We simply
deprive them of the power of making others work for them.
It is curious to notice how strong the blind greed for property
is in the minds of those who have only a little. It is not the
Baring or the Rothschild who is most bitter against Socialism.
The kind of man who is fiercest in defence of the rights of
property is the small shopkeeper who, perhaps, is £100 in
debt. The silly scramble of modern days has frightfully
narrowed mens’ notions of the real aim and pleasures of life.
If the rich were to-morrow deprived of all the property they
wrongfully hold, and set to work under decent circumstances
for their living, it would be the best thing that ever happened
to them. The true nobility a man can attain is by making
himself useful to his fellows, and this distinction would be
placed within reach of everybody by Socialism.
The Co-operative Movement. 'The easiest line of thought
towards Socialism is by considering what the Co-operative
movement has done. Had anyone suggested thirty years
ago that this movement would accomplish the revolution that
it has in such a space of time, and by such humble agents,
he would have been laughed at as a fool, or jeered at as an
Utopian—just as Socialists are laughed and jeered at now.
But by steady patient work a great change has been brought
about, the petty shopkeeping class has been greatly lessened,
an enormous amount of labour saved, and the process of
distribution greatly simplified. But still the biggest part of
the work has been left untouched. Distributive co-operation
shows the workman the best and wisest way to spend his
wages—once he has got them. Important as this is, the
�14
A Plea
for
Socialism.
question of how to get a just wage, or any wage at all, is still
more important ; but co-operation at present cannot touch
this question. Here Socialism steps in to finish what Co
operation began. Indeed Socialism is but the full and
genuine development of co-operation. We have introdoced
Co-operation to the shop and the store ; now we must extend
it to the mine, the factory, and the farm.
Is it practicable ? Great difficulties lie in the way of
Socialism, and much hard earnest work will be needed to
bring it about. These difficulties are not due to Socialism
being very Utopian, or very incomprehensible. Socialism is
merely the application of common sense and justice to social
order, but justice and common sense are strange and un
known in these days, when veiled fraud and oppression reign
supreme. Socialism would be simpler and easier to work, so
far as the mere industrial arrangements are concerned, than
the present system. Indeed we should try to make
society as simple in its mechanism and our own lives as
unpretentious as may be. The greatest curse of the present
system is its unnecessary complexity of organisation, and the
conflicting interests which Economists pretend are in har
mony. The first step towards Socialism is to make
Socialists ; to get together a great organisation of all who
accept the principle. Different schools of Socialists may
suggest different ways of realising the new society, but
their differing in that respect is a hopeful sign, as it
shows diversity and even some originality of thought. All
Socialists agree that the principles of competition and
monopoly now holding sway should be done away with, and
superseded by a general and thorough-going co-operation.
In fact we want a nation in which there are neither
masters nor servants, but where all are fellow-workers. A
solid combination of the Socialist movement could bring
a tremendous power to bear on the politics of this country.
That power should be used, not so much in bringing to pass
petty measures, as in forcing the hand of the upper class.
The futility of compromise. There is a class of wellintentioned reformers who are puzzling themselves to find
a way of benefiting the poor without interfering with the
rich. It is self-evident that this is a fruitless endeavour.
�The
future of
Socialism.
15
The robbery of the poor by the rich is the first aim of
capitalist production.It may be wrong
for the poor to
rob the rich ; it maynearly be as wrong for the rich to
rob each other; but for the rich to rob the poor is the
most abominable of all systems. There can be no peace
between the two classes. The poor must cast off the
leeches which are draining the life’s blood from them.
The rich are really parasites on the workers. The dis
tinctions of class must be abolished, for they only mean
the right of the rich to rob and the duty of the poor to
submit. But, although no peace can be between them, a
peaceable settlement might be effected. The rich should
be told by the toilers, “ Now, you have lived a long time
at our expense, and we find that it is bad for both of
us—it wearies you with elegant and enforced idleness, and
it burdens us with overwork. We don’t want to hurt you
for your past misdeeds, because for the most part you
were unconscious of the evil you were doing, but you
must do different in future. Those of you who are
entirely useless, and most of you are, so we fear, we will
keep in moderate comfort. We will give work to those
of you who are able and willing to do it (and that is
more than you gave us') ; a training to those who are
willing and not able ; and the gaol or the lunatic asylum
to those who are able and not willing.” These are the
only terms on which this antagonism can be settled. It
is nearly 2,000 years since St. Paul said, “ He that will
not work, neither shall he eatand surely it is time we
put the principle into operation.
The future of the Socialist party. Everything points to the
rapid growth of the Socialist party in this country. It lays
definite principles before the people, and though these, as
they require some independent thought and enthusiasm, may
take some time to win acceptance, they make a deep and
lasting impression where they do take hold. As time goes on
and the difficulty and hardships which the present system im
poses on the workers are more keenly felt, they will find out
how shallow and ineffective is the hand-to-mouth policy of the
ordinary politician. Times are coming when plain honest
words and upright action will be needed to save the country
from the horrors of a revolt of miserable and desperate people.
�16
A Plea
for
Socialism.
That revolution will come upon us, there can be no doubt.
Its shadow is already cast over us. Socialists do not wish to
make or to carrse a revolution: they only wish to point out
that revolution, bred of the misery and inherent injustice of
the present system, is inevitable. If the people are left un
organised and ignorant, revolution may well seem a terror to
all men. But we look to the coming change. We are pre
paring to. meet it with a combined and intelligent people, a
people wise enough to know their rights, strong enough to
enforce them, and disciplined enough to guard them. We
are carrying a message of hope to the poor, of comfort to the
outcast, of joy to the desolate. We bid them lay aside
despair, to take courage, and gather strength, for the time is
at hand when, with enlightenment and determination, they
may end for ever the folly, and crime, and misery in which
their lives are now spent, and realise a noble, fraternal, social
life, with labour, leisure, and liberty for all; a life in which
we shall have
“ Man without a master, and earth without a strife,
And every soul rejoicing in the sweet and bitter of life.”
Single copies of this
address on receipt
sale or distribution
50 copies 3/-; one
THE
pamphlet will be sent to any
of threehalf-pence. Parcels for
at cheaper rates : ioo copies, 5/-;
dozen copies post free 1/-
“COMMONWEAL, ”
Official Journal of the Socialist League.
A thorough-going weekly labour paper : contains a re
view of the labour struggle and Socialist movement
throughout the world; criticism on current political
events; revolutionary poetry; review of books on the
labour question ; and articles on science, art, history,
and political economy in their bearing on labour
questions.
ONE PENNY WEEKLY.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
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A plea for socialism : delivered in the course of a socialist campaign amongst the miners on strike in Northumberland, 1877
Creator
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Mahon, J. L.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Advertisement for the "Commonweal", the Official Journal of the Socialist League, on end page. Printed by J. Beale, St. Andrew's Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Publisher
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The "Commonweal"
Date
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1887
Identifier
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T467
Subject
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Socialism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (A plea for socialism : delivered in the course of a socialist campaign amongst the miners on strike in Northumberland, 1877), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Addresses
Miners
Northumberland
Socialism
Speeches