A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



as for instance at Easington, where the Scots were quartered in April. Other 

 details of the connected circumstances were collected by one of the Durham 

 minor canons.*" 



With the return of a Scottish army after Marston Moor the bishopric 

 was again in trouble. Garrisons were placed at Hartlepool and Stockton ; 

 Gateshead was seized and the siege of Newcastle began.'''" The Scottish 

 grip of the county was complete, and was not relaxed until 1647. During 

 these years the bishopric was subject, not only to the Long Parliament, but 

 to the Scottish Commissioners who were on the spot.*'' Exaction and poverty 

 were again the fortune of the miserable inhabitants.*'* For the direction of 

 secular affairs a standing committee was appointed, by whose negotiation 

 with Parliament the whole personnel of the county was altered.*" As for 

 church affairs a meeting of the parliamentary party was summoned in Durham 

 and itinerating preachers were sent down at their solicitation.*'* Parliament 

 appointed to livings in some cases at all events, but these were probably 

 benefices in the gift of the bishop or dean and chapter.*'^ The Committee 

 for Plundered Ministers in London appointed sequestrators to deal with the 

 church property of ' delinquents.' *" They have left a record of their doings 

 for the diocese of Durham from which we can watch their operations.*'* They 

 made inventories of recusants' lands and issued warrants to seize them, to 

 demise, let, collect, and gather the glebe, tithes, rents, and averages ' for the 

 use of the commonwealth.' The churches were no doubt purged from all 

 ' monuments of idolatry ' in accordance with the contemporary order sent 

 round in that behalf in 1644.*^° In their previous occupation of the county 

 the Presbyterian Scots had no doubt anticipated that ordinance so far as Durham 

 was concerned.*^' In 1645 Presbyterianism was completely victorious when 

 the Prayer Book was abolished, the Directory substituted, and the Presbyterian 

 Classes carried out for the whole county. *^^ These arrangements survive.*-' 

 Sir H. Vane certifies the division of county Durham into six different classical 

 Presbyteries, with a list of the persons nominated for each ; he further certifies 

 that of the many other churches in the county divers are destitute of any 

 ministers, while the ministers in others are some so weak and others so 



<" D. and C. of Dur., Hunter MSS. 



"* Mr. Terry's paper in Arch. Ad. 21 is again a careful reconstruction of dates and movements. For 

 the revival of royalist sympathy between the departure of the Scottish army to York in April, 1644, and its 

 return in July, see S.P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 502, No. 20 ; 'Northumberland, Westmorland, and Durham lie 

 under the present pressure of the enemy ' (Royalists). 



"' Some friction apparently existed between the two authorities. S.P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 506, 

 No. 15. 



'" 'Almost ruined,' ibid. vol. 503, No. 60 ; 'oppressed by insupportable burdens,' vol. 503, No. 65. 



'" Ibid. vol. 506, No. 38 ; vol. 507, No. 57 ; vol. 510, No. 40. 



*'° Porlliind MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii), App. i, 181 ; cf. Com. Journ. iii, 593. 



'" Parliament appointed to Biihopwearmouth, Stanhope, Gateshead, Houghton-le-Spring, and eight 

 other benefices in Durham between 1643 and 1 648. 



"' For this committee see W. A. Shaw, Hist. Ch. of Engl. 1 640-1 660, ii, 178 and 185. 



*" D. and C. of Dur. Hunter MSS. Surtees, Hist. Dur. has put in several references to this book, e.g. 

 Dalton-le-Dale, i, 3; Kelloe, i, 69 ; EgglesclifFe, iii, 201. A plague in this year (1644) accentuated the 

 misery. It is mentioned in the registers of St. Oswald's, Durham, EgglesclifFe, Whorlton, &c. 



"" Transcribed in Houghton-Ie-Spring Vestry Book (Surtees Soc. Publ. Ixxxiv, 322). 



"' St. Oswald's Vestry Book, ibid. 191, speaks of repairing 'the fount stone broken by the Scots.' 



**- The Whitworth Parish Register notes that the use of the Prayer Book was suspended from 27 July, 

 1645, until 12 May, 1660. 



*-'' Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii), App. i, 325. The paper is fully described by W. A. 

 Shaw, op. cit. ii, 367. 



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