SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



vicar of one place,^ or the son of the vicar of the other place.' A curious 

 case is that of William of Norton, the vicar of Dalton, in the roll of 1375. 

 Like his fellow clergy elsewhere he eked out his stipend by farming. He 

 had a house and forty acres of land on a fifteen years' lease. In 1373 he died, 

 and Richard of Wolviston, his successor in the living, took over the lease. 

 However, William had been a careless farmer and the holding had deteriorated 

 to the extent of 6oj-. Richard thereupon impounded various animals belong- 

 ing to the late tenant to make good the depreciation, but they were carried 

 off by their late owner's son.' 



On a small scale the chaplain copied the incumbent's way of life, but 

 his ' wife ' was more open to attack and was presented by the jury for ' leyr ' 

 or incontinence if he or she became unpopular. It does not appear that even 

 the chaplains were vicious or immoral either before or after the Black Death, 

 although they may have been as inferior intellectually and spiritually as the 

 vicars were to their predecessors before that calamity. When we learn that 

 Margareta Calverd was twice fined for ' leyr ' with the chaplain of Monk 

 Hesleden within two years,* we take it that she was probably his ancilla, or 

 housekeeper, as we know Christiana, who was similarly punished, was house- 

 keeper to the chaplain of Wallsend.'' Why the chaplain or his ' wife ' should 

 be unpopular is not very clear, but at least one chaplain was reproved by the 

 halmote for being unneighbourly,* and the vicar of Pittington was in 1296 

 fined for refusing to allow the men of the neighbouring hamlet of Moorsley 

 to remain in church.^ 



It has been said that there was a peasant priesthood in mediaeval 

 Durham. Of this we have many proofs quite apart from the fact that they 

 lived as peasant farmers. Naturally the peasantry were eager to place their 

 sons in the ministry of the church, as it provided one of the few careers where 

 ability rather than birth told. Moreover the tonsure freed the son of a serf 

 from servitude, and it is well known how the Constitutions of Clarendon 

 forbade a villein to be ordained without the consent of his lord. It is curious, 

 therefore, to be told that Sir John of Cassop, chaplain of Shadforth, a victim 

 of the Black Death, was a nativus or serf of the bishop.^ However, the 

 bishop was, as a rule, seen in a kindly light. In Bishop Kellaw's Register 

 we find that in 13 13 he allowed Walter of Heighington, one of his born 

 bondmen, to receive holy orders and freed him from his servitude.' Walter 

 is said to have been a student of Merton Hall at Oxford. We find that the 

 prior and convent also sent students to Oxford, probably to Durham Hall, 

 which was founded in 1290 by the prior and convent. Payments and 

 expenses with reference to these Oxford students are constantly recurring in 

 the Durham Account Rolls. One of these students, Uthred, seems to have 

 had a distinguished career in the fourteenth century. We read that he 

 studied theology at Oxford^" and afterwards became sub-prior of Durham'^ 

 and prior of Finchale.^' 



One of the most pleasing things in the fourteenth century is the eager- 

 ness shown by everyone to obtain education. There are many instances^' in 



^ Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii.), 13. ' Ibid. 126. 



' Ibid. 129. * Ibid. 61, 74. ' Ibid. 27. « Ibid. 130. ' Ibid. 4. 



' Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 13. » Reg. Pal. Dun. (Rolls Ser.), i, 197. 



" Dur. Acct. R. (Surtees Soc. xcix-ciii), 124. " Ibid. 596. " Ibid. 



" Reg. Pal. Dun. (Rolls Ser.), i, 102, 114, 155, &c. 

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