A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



New Place near St. Nicholas' Church was con- 

 fiscated, and somewhat later became the pro- 

 perty of the corporation. Other tenements were 

 also transferred to the queen. 



Just before this ebullition of Durham's latent 

 sympathy a civic event of great significance took 

 place in the issue of the first charter of incor- 

 poration. Until 1565 the old mediaeval order 

 continued, bailiffs and their underlings being 

 appointed by the bishop. There is no particular 

 clue as to the motives of the grant. The reason 

 may have been that the bishop might ingratiate 

 himself with the inhabitants, at a time when 

 Pilkington's letters show that he was sorely in 

 need of friends. More probably the real circum- 

 stances have to be sought in the altered condi- 

 tions of life in the city. A new Durham rose 

 which knew nothing of the old pilgrim bands, 

 of the trade which they brought, of the great 

 Cuthbertine fairs and festivals, of the sanctuary 

 privileges. It may be supposed that the 

 mediaeval trade was largely in connection with 

 monastery, pilgrims and fairs. The city itself 

 was not populous,^^ and the wants of its in- 

 habitants were readily supplied by the members 

 of the trades gilds whose origin we have marked. 

 Durham no longer attracted great crowds all the 

 year round, and its fairs have left no clear record 

 in their perhaps attenuated survival. Probably 

 the only direct compensation for the great blow 

 the changes had dealt to the city's trade was the 

 commencement of the proverbial hospitality 

 shown by dean and prebendaries during resi- 

 dence. A chapter act indicates that certain 

 lands were annexed to the individual prebends 

 in augmentation of hospitality, and the enact- 

 ment goes to prove that one of the distinctive 

 ordinances of the Marian statutes^' was to be no 

 dead letter. It directs that the prebendaries 

 ' keep residence and hospitality.' One of the 

 earliest references to the custom belongs to the 

 reign of Charles I, when the ' Three Norwich 

 Soldiers,' whose charming diary still exists, 

 visited Durham, and were entertained in strict 

 accordance with the statute. It is probable 

 that such hospitality was not unequal in volume 

 to the entertainment of strangers by the monas- 

 tery, but what of the almoner's doles, the 

 corrodies, and the old customary subventions of 

 earlier dates f Apparently there are no Eliza- 

 bethan notices extant of such benefaction on any 

 large scale by dean and canons. It might on 

 reflection seem likely that no little bitterness 

 would exist among the keepers of lodging- 

 houses and taverns, who had been wont to 

 receive pilgrims into their houses, and amongst 

 the sellers of objects of piety who had to deplore 



" See below, pp. 42, 46. 



8' Stat. 16 in Hutchinson, Hist, and Antiq. of 

 Dur. ii, 163. 



the passing of their trade, and yet had the 

 mortification of seeing dean and canons lodged 

 more comfortably and luxuriously than their 

 monastic predecessors. It has been suggested 

 that a traditional jealousy between city and 

 cathedral is due to a condition of affairs which 

 made the chapter bless the new, and the towns- 

 men deplore the old. But, on any showing, the 

 trade of the city was precarious in the later 

 i6th century, and probably more precarious 

 than in later times. 



How far Bishop Pilkington was concerned to 

 improve the trade may be questioned, though 

 its need of patronage can scarcely be doubted. 

 The charter is dated 31 January 1565, shortly 

 after the bishop's appearance in the north and 

 before the Rebellion of the Earls, with its 

 attempted swing-back to older conditions. It 

 seems to be modelled upon the ordinary charter 

 of the time, which may be illustrated at Hartle- 

 pool and elsewhere. The subservience of the 

 corporation to the bishop is defined at every 

 point. The twelve assistants bore office during 

 good behaviour and for so long a period only as 

 the bishop should think fit. An oath was taken 

 in the bishop's presence or in that of his chan- 

 cellor, and the burgess undertook to keep his 

 lord's counsel. The rules, decrees and regula- 

 tions should be subject to the bishop's approval. 

 In fact, the bishop preserved a rigid control over 

 his corporation of Durham. The first alderman 

 was Christopher Surtees, who was probably of 

 the same family as Robert Surtees, the historian 

 of Durham, though not a direct ancestor.^* 

 The family furnished other aldermen or mayors 

 in later days. Christopher Surtees and his early 

 successors have left no record of their tenure of 

 office. They raised no voice of protest that has 

 left any echo from the rebellion of 1569. Pos- 

 sibly the magistrates were overawed, but more 

 probably the majority of the citizens desired the 

 old times and the old conditions back again. 



Pilkington was concerned not only for the 

 incorporation of the city but for the reformation 

 of manners therein. To this end he erected a 

 Consistory Court in 1573, which undertook to 

 survey the morality of city and diocese, and to 

 press pains and penalties for sins against the 

 public decency. He ordered his own procedure 

 and appointed Robert Swift, one of the Durham 

 prebendaries, as his official. Some of the acts 

 of this court survive, and these, together with 

 various contemporary references to church dis- 

 cipline, bear witness to the rigorous measures 

 which were employed in this connection. Such 

 a regime had been first commenced by the 

 visitors of 1559, acting under Royal Com- 

 mission.'* Pilkington pressed it forward, not 



'' Surtees, op. cit. iv, 168. 



'' Injunctions of Bp. Barnes (Surt. Soc), p. xvii. 



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