SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



Only a few of these by-laws can be referred to here, but attention must 

 be called to the intermittent character of the chapter's halmote in the six- 

 teenth century. These by-laws are curiously like those at Barnard Castle, 

 and were probably common to the whole county in a large degree. 



There were to be yearly four honest men set down for ale-conners and 

 bread-weighers, and if they be negligent in their said office and work, and do 

 not once every week, or fourteen days at the most, look to the assize of bread 

 and drink, then upon information in the court for every such neglect they 

 shall fine to the lords 3J. 4^. If ale or bread dealers refuse to amend their 

 ways when warned, they were to be fined i 3^. \d. Akin to this regulation 

 was one forbidding clothes to be washed near the wells. More tyrannical 

 was the order that if any fisher man or woman refuse to come to neighbour- 

 hood for any good service for the commonwealth, &c., after being warned by 

 the lord's bailiff or constable to come, they shall pay 3J-. i^d. to the lords. If 

 anyone abused the bailiff or constable or other officer by words or deeds, they 

 being about their lawful business, he shall pay 3J. 4^. If any of the jury 

 report what they have done as a jury, and disclose it to any but their fellows, 

 they shall pay hs. %d. Under a similar penalty all were ordered to aid the 

 bailiff and constable in arresting breaches of the peace. No ale-house keeper 

 might sell ' ale or beare ' during divine service, or keep guests more than ten 

 days without reporting it to the constables and churchwardens. No house- 

 holder to take in lodgers or sub-tenants without entering into a bond with the 

 churchwardens that they should not become chargeable to the parish, or they 

 shall fine i os. for every month they keep them, the money ' to be entered to 

 the churchwardens and overseers of the poor pro tempore.' 



Of course there are many regulations governing the local salt and ship- 

 ping industry. The owners of the ferry boats were forbidden to bring in 

 possible paupers, and they were also ordered to keep the boat ready for use at 

 any time, as they refused to allow private boatmen to ferry over passengers. 

 The local miller for careless grinding or handling of grain, and the local 

 butcher for ' blowing meat,' were both threatened with penalties. No butcher 

 might kill a bull unless it had been first baited for the amusement of the 

 people. More modern and reasonable were regulations forbidding a man or 

 woman to hire their services to two masters, or those which forbade the 

 tenantry to encroach upon the High Street by building 'stairs, cottages, shops, 

 " two foles porches," coaleholes, or any other walls or buildings into the said 

 street.'^ 



These by-laws present a curious confusion of village government by the 

 old manorial officials and the vestry system of justices, churchwardens, and 

 overseers established by the Tudors. The last records of the bishop's courts 

 show us the reeve and jury all but dethroned as the village governors, and by 

 the time of the Commonwealth the constable appears as the chief executive 

 officer of the village. The Commissioners for Compounding sent their orders 

 through him.^ There was a high constable in each ward, and a constable in 

 each constabulary.^ As the years went on we see the justice of the peace 

 and the churchwardens and overseers sharing the village government among 



' I am indebted to R. Blair, esq. F.S.A. for transcripts of this and several other rolls, the originals of 

 which could not be found in the Durham Treasury. 



' Royalist Comp. (Surtees Soc. cxi). ' Ibid. 25. 



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