A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



because they are all dead ' ^ is one entry on the bishop's rolls, and in another 

 place we are told that only one tenant was left at Rowley.* These were 

 only small vills it is true, but there was desolation everywhere both in east 

 and west. In the three vills of Shields, Harton, and Westoe forty-one 

 tenants fell victims, while at Jarrow sixteen and at Wallsend and Willington 

 the same number died. At Southwick. eight and at Monkwearmouth eleven 

 of the prior's tenants died, whilst across the river at Bishopwearmouth ' a very 

 large number of the houses were fallen in ruins for want of tenants,'^ and the 

 firmar of the rising burg of Sunderland had to ask. for an abatement of 

 four marks on his year's rent.* By 1380 the firm had fallen from the £^ 

 of Boldon Book to £1 12s. 8^/.' A careful tabulation of the lettings of 

 land during 1350 would supply an approximately* accurate list of the 

 number of tenants who died in the bishop's vills, but two instances may 

 suffice. In the eastern district sixteen new tenants took land at East Boldon 

 and six at West Boldon,^ while at Bedburn (with which were grouped Ham- 

 sterley and Wodingfield) there were twenty-three lettings.* 



In the winter and spring of 1349-50 no attempt was made in some 

 vills to sow the land. The bailiff of Middleham could not let all the agist- 

 ment of the lowlands because men feared the plague would recur,' and for 

 the same reason the bailiff at Coatham could let neither pasture nor meadows.^" 

 To make things worse the neifs of the Palatinate who had survived the Black 

 Death began to show signs of insubordination where they did not actually 

 take to flight. In the Chester Ward matters came to a head. Certain of 

 the neifs of Boldon and district, nine in number, appeared before William de 

 Kirkeby, the coroner, in the early spring of 1350, and announced through 

 their leader, Thomas Short of Boldon, that they wished to flee from the land 

 of the lord bishop and take land elsewhere. Then, as the manuscript quaintly 

 puts it — 



upon this they paid nothing from the term of St. Cuthbert in March last past (i.e. 20 March, 

 1350). And from this wickedness and from malice aforethought they gave in the iron shoes 

 of their ploughs to the lord at Auckland on Thursday next before the feast of Pentecost 

 (13 May). For which cause they were arrested and imprisoned at Durham till Saturday in 

 the vigil of Trinity (22 May). 



The steward, Sir Thomas Gray, seems to have become alarmed at the out- 

 look, and possibly the daring of the neifs had been cooled by imprisonment. 

 At any rate Sir WiUiam Westle, the Receiver, arranged terms for the rebels. 

 They were to receive their freedom on finding sureties for the payment of 

 a proportion of their arrears to be fixed by the Receiver, and they were each 

 allowed to be sureties for the others that they would not repeat the exploit." 

 Thomas Short did not keep his promise in the spirit, for he appears later as 

 aiding and abetting the flight of a kinsman in the winter of 1352-3,^^ but 

 in the letter he did, and was for many years a juror of Boldon." 



In the June of 1350 Sir Thomas Gray held the bishop's summer hal- 

 motes and saw for himself the devastation of the land. He was at Chester 



' Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 18. ' Ibid. fol. 42. 



' Ibid. fol. 80. ' Ibid. fol. 24. li. ' B/>. Hatfield's Surv. (Surtees xxxii), 137. 



^ It is clear, however, from later entries under Boldon that all the vacant holdings were not taken up, 

 e.g. Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 35^. 



' Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 10. ^ Ibid. fol. 20. ' Bf. Hatfield's Surv. (Surtees xxxii), 237. 



" Ibid. 245. " Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 34 J. " Ibid. fol. 79 d. " Ibid. fol. 65 d 



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