April 2005

Parish History

In the last two months, this Parish History has been describing the sinking of coal mines in the area of Houghton-le-Spring, and elsewhere in the North-East of England. It has been seen that, from a very early stage, such enterprises required a great deal of capital; and that, as few men in this area possessed much spare money to invest, much of the capital had come from the Church - either from Durham Cathedral, or from the Benedictine abbeys and priories within the Diocese of Durham.

Bishop Thomas Hatfield, who held the See of Durham from 1345 to 1381, had, during the first five years of his episcopate, seen his lands devastated first by the Scottish invasion that culminated in the Battle of Neville's Cross, and then through the Black Death. During the next thirty years, therefore, he concentrated his energies on making good the damage that had been caused by these disasters, and also on beginning new enterprises which he hoped would bring prosperity to the people of his lands. Prominent amongst these new enterprises were the coal pits and drifts which were being sunk beside the Tyne and beside the Wear.

If it is to be successful, investment and innovation will always require accurate information, which will allow the entrepreneur to engage in those enterprises which will prosper, and to avoid any unwise speculation. However, Bishop Hatfield did not have a great deal of up-to-date information at hand. As far as we know, no proper survey of the wealth and resources of the Prince-Bishopric had been undertaken since the time of Bishop Puiset, who had commissioned the Boldon Book in 1183, two centuries previously.

Hatfield saw the need for bringing this information up to date, and therefore in 1377 he commissioned a new survey to be made of all his lands. It was to be a much more detailed survey than was Bishop Puiset's, and it would take four years to complete, being finally ready just before the Bishop's death in 1381. It was in fact a census, and, parish by parish, it named every individual (or rather every family) within the Palatinate, and also, in the case of the peasantry, tried to establish their status : that is, whether they were bond or free, and if they were unfree, what duties and service they owed to the lord of their manor. One motivation in drawing it up was obviously to halt the flight of serfs from their manors, a drift which seems to have been going on steadily since the time of the Black Death.

If Thomas Hatfield, on his death-bed, had examined the entries for Houghton- le-Spring, what would he have found ? Well, he would have discovered that he himself was both Lord of Houghton manor and Patron of Houghton church - but no doubt he knew that already. He would have found no entry concerning the Bellasis family, and that surprises us, as they had been resident at Morton House in what is now Fencehouses during the Thirteenth Century, and they would be there again in the Fifteenth Century ? Where were they hiding at this time? Were the Bishop's census-takers simply inefficient?

There was a man called William Stevenson who held some land at Morton in Houghton Parish. Was he anything to do with the Bellasis family ? We just don't know.

The biggest land-owner in the parish was a lady called Isabella, the daughter of John Cornhall and the wife of Robert Washington. If Robert was the son of William, the Lord of Washington manor, then it might be possible that William was trying to extend, by means of a fortunate marriage, his lands to embrace estates on the South bank of the Wear. Perhaps he envisaged his family becoming as great lords as the Hiltons of Hilton Castle or the Lumleys of Lumley Castle. He was not to know that one of his descendants would be the founder of a mighty "empire" on the far side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Anyway, the Washingtons never achieved much on this side of the ocean. The Bellasis family somehow returned to Houghton, and the Wearside empire of the Washingtons was never heard of again.

On the inside front cover of he Signpost, the reader may find, on the left-hand column of page 2, a list of people who could be of help in various ways. Of the surnames listed there, Henderson and Hodgson are atronymics (the sons of Henry and Hodge - short for Roger - respectively), while Bennison could be either the son of Benjamin, or a Christian name in itself (meaning a blessing). Lumley is the name of a neighbouring village, though the bearer of that name might well be descended from Lord Lumley, who takes his title from the village. Elsey and Pickersgill are also the names of villages (in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire). Peebles is the name of a Scottish town. Przywala is a vaguer type of place-name, probably meaning near-the-marsh.

Wallis, meaning Welsh, is an ethnic name rather than a place-name. Lemmon is a nickname, and has nothing to do with bitter fruit, but rather the opposite : it is an old word for dear or darling, highly appropriate for a lay pastor. Wassail is probably also a nickname for one who frequented ale-houses, where wassail was drunk and celebrated (though it could mean Welsh Hall, which would seem to indicate a connection between the Rector and the Associate Priest). Turnbull, the surname of a notorious family of border rievers, may suggest that the first leader of the band claimed to be so strong that he could turn a bull over on its back. Patronymics, place-names, nick-names : but no occupational names among this list.

The names of the workers will be found at the bottom of page 3. We have already met Elsey, while Bridge and Clifford are also place names, though they refer to local features rather than the names of towns. But there are real workers here. Foster is probably a contracted form of Forester, though there are other possible origins. The original Bond was of very low status, being a slave, a bondman, but the original Wright was a skilled workman, as in shipwright or wheelwright. Finally, Christer, the name of the printer, could be a variant of Christian, probably used first as a Christian name.

Bishop Hatfield's surveyors listed the ordinary people of Houghton-le-Spring under forty two surnames, and the complete list is given here. It would be interesting to compare this list with a comparable modern list, such as the Church electoral roll or a school roll.

ANNOTSON FERY
MORETON AYRE
GALFRISTON PAUL
BAINES GALLOWAY
PAYNE BAINTON
GARDINER PORTER
BAKER GEOFFREYSON
PRIOR BOLDON
HARDING ROSE
BRIGHAM HETHERWICK
SEATON CARLIOL
HICKS SEAWRIGHT
CARTER HUDSON
SMITH CHAPMAN
HUGHESON STOTT
COLBY IRISH
TAYLOR DOUBER
KING TYNEMOUTH
FABER MILBY
WALKER FERRERS
MILNER WEBSTER

Dick Toy

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