ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



county of Durham, but the whole of Northumberland, save Hexhamshire, 

 subject to York, and one or two stray districts in Yorkshire and in Cumber- 

 land. North Durham had been stripped from the bishopric, though not 

 from the see, in 1844.^*' Hexhamshire was added to the see in 1836, on 

 the recommendation of the second report of the commissioners, and a new 

 archdeaconry of Lindisfarne was carved out of Northumberland in 1842. 

 A change more momentous than anything that had taken place in the history 

 of the diocese was carried through by Bishop Lightfoot when the division 

 first suggested in the reign of Edward VI was effected/'* This question had 

 been constantly revived, and indeed was especially brought up by the Town 

 Council of Newcastle in 1854, who desired to see it carried out, since 'the 

 effective administration of the diocese had become impossible.' ^*" Dropped 

 for the moment, however, it reappeared despite the objection constantly 

 reiterated that the division would still further lower the prestige of the 

 diocese. The nucleus of the endowment fund was given by Mr. T. Hedley 

 in 1877, and the design was completed in 1881.^" Only second in impor- 

 tance to this diminution of the see was the institution of a new archdeaconry 

 of Auckland, preceded by a rearrangement of rural deaneries. '^^ From time 

 immemorial the archdeaconry of Durham had been co-extensive with the 

 county. ^'^ Partly in it and partly in the rest of the old see was the old 

 peculiar jurisdiction known as the OfHcialty of the Archdeaconry.^'** It 

 consisted of all those parishes which by ancient grant had been placed under 

 the supervision of the prior and later of the dean. This curious exempt 

 jurisdiction, consisting of thirty-nine parishes, was abolished in 1882. The 

 ancient seven rural deaneries in the county were increased to eleven in 1880. 



'^' Stat. 7 and 8 Vic. cap. 6 1. 



'*' The whole story is best told by Bishop Lightfoot in his Charge of 1882. 



"» Ibid. 8. "• Ibid. 10. "' Ibid. 15. 



'" For its history cf. ibid. 16-19. 



"' See the Schedule, ibid. 103. 



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