A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



and rendered 6s. %d. Agnes Cupper held a shop 

 under the Tolbooth, and rendered los. a year. 

 Thomas Plumer held a place under the moat, 

 once John Chester's and rendered 6d. a year. 

 Thomas Smith held a tenement formerly the said 

 John Chester's and rendered \zd. a year. There 

 is in the same place a tenement, formerly John 

 Maidenstan's in the Bailey of Durham. He 

 rendered at the Feast of St. Cuthbert in Septem- 

 ber one pound of cumine. ' He does not know 

 where it lies, so let inquiry be made.' There 

 was in the same place a house formerly Ede 

 Barbon's, which was then waste and out of 

 occupation. Ralph Shotton held a garden 

 under the Castle Moat formerly William Ward's 

 which had usually paid 2J., then only lid. Thomas 

 Bulman held a garden under the moat rendering 

 lid. Thomas Walworth held a garden there 

 and rendered izd. Joan Clerk held a garden 

 there and rendered lid. Llias Harper held a 

 garden near the said Joan's, formerly William 

 Orchard's, towards the Wear which had usually 

 paid lid. a year. Isabella Fenrother held a 

 garden on the waste reclaimed near Kingsgate 

 on the south side, rendering 6d. John P.Jman, 

 chaplain, held two gardens there, each 

 rendering 4^/. Roger Wright held a garden 

 formerly Matilda Raven's, usual rent of which 

 was lid. There is there a garden lying between 

 the garden of Matilda Raven and the garden of 

 Richard Ic B. . . garth. John Kay, chaplain, 

 held a vcnell formerly Theodore Coxside's in 

 Saddlergate, rent 2d. Margery, who was wife 

 of Hugh Corbridge, held a place of ground near 

 her own house under the Castle Moat, containing 

 30 ft. in breadth, and in length 38 ft. and 

 rendered zd. a year.*' 



The document seems to be a return of all 

 rents let out to farm in Durham itself by the 

 bishop. As has been seen in Boldon Book, the 

 city was even then at farm, and in the 14th cen- 

 tury the grants of one or other section of the 

 bishop's property are not infrequent. Thus in 

 1386 Fordham in a deed enrolled granted to John 

 Le\vyn, Walter Cokyn, Roger Aspour, Henry 

 Sherburn ' the borough ' of Durham to farm 

 with all rents, services, etc. appurtenant thereto 

 for the term of six years. A year later Thomas 

 Tudhoe, and John Custson surrendered the farm 

 of ' the vill ' of Durham to Ralph de Eure the 

 steward thereof who demised the same to others 

 in turn. It is by no means improbable that the 

 valoT quoted above refers to the steward's state- 

 ment of particulars in connexion with the 

 demise here named. The details are in some 

 respects a help to forming a picture of Durham 



*' The valor is numbered Ministers' Accounts 

 R. 220196 and is preserved among the Palatinate 

 Records in the custody of the Ecclesiastical Com- 

 mission. It was first used by Dr. Lapsley, but has 

 only recently been transcribed in full. 



in 1388. The castle was in good repair, as of 

 course it would be after Hatfield's work upon it.™ 

 St. Mary, in the South Bailey, was already a parish 

 church. Around the Palace Green were two 

 sets of buildings. On the west side were the 

 earlier exchequer and chancery courts, the court 

 of justice, the old gaol, and certain buildings of 

 store. The old gaol had been recently super- 

 seded, and as the document speaks of extensive 

 work on the new gaol it is probably safe to say 

 that Fordham, or more probably Hatfield, built 

 the new fabric. All these houses were official 

 and produced no rent. On the east side stood 

 the mint, to which we shall recur. On the same 

 side, as we know, though the document does not 

 say so, was the inn of the Archdeacon of North- 

 umberland, and beside it were other houses. 

 Apparently a careful distinction is drawn be- 

 tween the Bailey, the North Bailey, and the South 

 Bailey. There is no difficulty as to the last two, 

 but Margaret Corbridge's house and garden may 

 suggest that the Bailey was the space behind 

 Owengate and below the castle mound. If so 

 her garden may perhaps still be identified as the 

 garden inclosed and still in that position. The 

 rector of the North Bailey church seems still to 

 have lived outside the north gate, as a previous 

 reference in 131 1 makes clear. There were 

 houses and gardens below the moat, both on the 

 FramweUgate side and round towards Saddler- 

 gate. There were several gardens below the 

 Bailey wall, and between it and the river. 

 Finally there were two instances of quaint 

 mediaeval tenure, but nothing is here said of 

 Castle- Ward and other duties. 



Attention must be drawn to the mint. The 

 valor places it on the east side of Palace Green. 

 It was under the management of a Florentine, 

 but it was not long in his hands. Seven years 

 later ' William Ward took from the lord a house 

 or a place in the Castle of Durham called 

 Moneyer's house together with another room 

 beyond the gate called Owengate, to hold until 

 some moneyer should come who wishes to make 

 money in the same.'" This suggests that the 

 moneyer had a residence, perhaps, on the north 

 side of Owengate, whilst his mint proper was on 

 the south side of that street. This not only 

 works in with local tradition " but is supported 

 by a document of 1455 which leases ' on the 

 east of the Place of Durham ' and ' South of 

 an ortus {sic) called Coneyorgarth ' a parcel of 

 the lord's waste." Obviously the Coneyorgarth 

 or Mintersgarth was on the south of Owengate. 

 References to the mint in the 15th century are 

 pretty frequent. In 1460 one Norwell of 



'" Hist. Dunelm. Script. Ires (Surt. Soc ), 138. 

 1 Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 13, fol. 152. (Skirlaw's 

 7th year). 



" Cf. Surtees, Hist, and Antiq. of Dur. iv, 3S. 

 " Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 15, fol. 720. 



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