47 
THE CHALONERS, LORDS OF THE MANOR 
OF ST. BEES. 
By WILLIAM JACKSON, F.S.A. 
(Read at Whitehaven, March st, 1881. ) 
It has been surmised by a great poet, in words familiar to you all, 
that in many a parish churchyard lie the bones of men, who, if the 
call had but come to them, were capable of being the Hampdens 
or Miltons of their time. I will neither assert nor deny the truth 
of this statement ; but I will say that there are few parishes that 
have not, in some manner, and at some time, been directly 
connected with some important actor, or event, in the history of 
England. _ I will illustrate this from our own neighbourhood. The 
first husband of the last heiress of Moresby Hall, Sir Francis 
Weston, died on the scaffold for his share in the guilt of Anne 
Boleyn, if, indeed, she were guilty of the charges brought against 
her. Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, father of Lady Jane Grey, 
was attainted for treason against Queen Mary, and his manor of 
Harrington was forfeited to the crown. Egremont Castle belonged 
to many who were not only conspicuous but famous in their time, 
and it is therefore not exceptional that Saint Bees should have its 
connecting links with the great stream of our national history ; but 
it is exceptional that they should be of so very remarkable a 
character. 
The first is, the establishment on a shore ravaged and heathen- 
ised by the Vikings of the North, of a Christian centre through 
