A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



quaint and interesting view of an ordinary service and a residence dinner is 

 given in 1634 by three Norwich soldiers who came to church and were 

 entertained by Dean Hunt.'" As for the king's visit, church discipline seems 

 to have been tightened by the countenance it gave to the party now in the 

 ascendant, and evidence survives of much activity in the next two or three 



years. 



Shadows, however, soon fell. The year 1636 saw a severe visitation of 

 the plague.'^^ Throughout the bishopric the royal exactions which were 

 being forced upon the people were particularly galling, whilst throughout 

 England popular resentment was rising rapidly.^*' The first note of the 

 coming storm was sounded in Durham at the end of 1637, when the old 

 bishop was directed by the Privy Council to look to his train-bands, for the 

 Scots were signing the Covenant.''" Then came a year of suspense, until the 

 bishop at the close of 1638 was ordered to make special musters over and 

 above the ordinary train-bands.'" For the first time in its history it was 

 owned that the city could no longer be held against Scottish artillery,"^ so 

 that Newcastle was chosen for the military head quarters in the coming 

 bishop's war. Again Charles passed through Durham,'^' and Morton at the 

 cathedral preached on the text, ' Let every soul be subject to the higher 

 powers.'''* The first bishop's war fizzled out in the summer of 1639 in the 

 pacification of Berwick, but in the spring of 1640 the temporary peace was 

 again disturbed. There was now widespread sympathy with the Scots,''' but 

 Morton rallied the bishopric forces on Elvet Moor, and consecrated the band 

 on the eve of their march to Newcastle. The shock of battle with the 

 crusading Scots took place in August, 1640, at Newburn-on-Tyne, and 

 resulted in a Scottish victory followed by the occupation of Newcastle. 

 Intense interest was taken at Durham in the course of events. One 

 prebendary wrote to report the unwise speeches current in the town."* 

 The fugitive English army rushed south through Durham. The flight 

 of the army was followed by the general exodus of all the church party 

 in Durham, who had little hope of good treatment from the covenanting 

 Scots.'". The bishop fled,"' and the new Dean Balcanqual fled too, as did 

 most, if not all, of the prebendaries. 



As for the city of Durham [says one who saw], it then became a most depopulated 

 place, not one shop for four days after the fight open ; not one house in ten that had either 

 man, woman, or child in it, not one bit of bread to be got for money, for the king's army 



^' Quoted by Surtees, Hist. Dur. iv, i66, Addenda. The full narrative has been edited by L. G. 

 Wickham Legg, 'A relation of a short survey of 26 counties.' 



^ Surtees Soc. Publ. ii, 122, 123 ; ibid, iv, 69, 142. 



"' Ship-money and carriage of timber were the chief complaints. S. P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 317, Nos. 37 

 and 96 ; ibid. vol. 369, No. 47 ; ibid. vol. 385, No. 22 ; vol. 387, No. I 3 ; vol. 401, No. 60. 



''" S. P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 398, No. 46. 



'" Ibid. vol. 404, No. 61 ; cf 99, which makes it clear that Durham was meant at first to be, at all 

 events, head quarters for the bishopric. '" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1638-9, p. 325. 



^^ For the various visits of Charles to Newcastle, and for an excellent rauml of the history about this 

 time, see Mr. Terry's paper, Ani. Ael. xxi. 



^'* The learned Royalist sermon was printed, A sermon preached before the kin^s majesty, 1639. 



^'' This sympathy in the bishopric is frequently cause of complaint in the State Papers ; cf vol. 420, 

 No. 121 (drinking to the covenant in a Durham tavern), and passim. 



"« Ca/. S.P. Dom. 1640, p. 347. 



'" Rushworth, Co//. 1239, cf S.P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 466, No. 67. 



'™ The bishop went to Stockton, thence to Helmsley {Be/voir MSS. Hist. MSB. Com. Rep. xii, 523), 

 and later to London. For his fortunes see Diet. Nat. Biog. 



48 



