A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



of the minor unions jusiified their existence as 

 social clubs rather than as serious commercial 

 organizations. Thus the cordwainers ' paid for 

 the minstrcll ' i8^. in 1568, in 1575 ' to William 

 Weddrell our mynstrcU ' iSd., in 1578 ' to the 

 waytts ' zs. In 1588 the drapers and tailors 

 have an item ' gyven to the mynstrall at our 

 dinner p. ^d.'' There are entries, too, of 

 special benefactions to deserving and necessitous 

 persons, and occasionally a payment for some 

 public festivity, as, for instance, in 1599, when 

 one company 'paid for y* tar barrels I2(/.,' no 

 doubt at a time of thanksgiving for the passing of 

 the plague. 



But the most enduring excitement in Durham 

 during the last years of the i6th century was the 

 constant search for Jesuits and seminary priests, 

 to which allusion has already been made.''* The 

 prison in the north gate of the castle above 

 Saddler Street was often fuU of recusants, not to 

 mention the debtors who were constantly there. 

 The first recorded benefaction for the latter was 

 made in 1572 by John Franklyn of Cochen Hall, 

 who bequeathed a small annual sum to the 

 prisoners and other poor people of the city.''* 

 In the Armada year there was some stir in 

 Durham in connection with the probability of a 

 Spanish descent upon the coast, and prepara- 

 tions were made, apparently, to defend the city 

 against any sudden incursion,^" but the pikes 

 and the corselets were never used in battle array. 

 A visit from Bothvvcll in 1593 seems to have 

 caused little interest.^! 



The long reign ebbed out miserably. There 

 were several visitations of plague, with no evi- 

 dence of any activity on the part of the new 

 corporation in preventive measures. A severe 

 outbreak in 1589 had been preceded two years 

 earlier by a failure of the crops, which brought 

 prices up to famine pitch, as the parish registers 

 attest with much detail." As in the days of the 

 Judges, such scarcity was aggravated by marau- 

 ders. The Scots, who had been comparatively 

 still for many a long year, made frequent incur- 

 sions into the bishopric if not into Durham 

 itself. A letter of 1595 from the Secretary of 

 the Council of the North says : ' Raids, incur- 

 sions and frays [arc] more common into the 

 Bishopric than heretofore on the Border.'*' In 

 1598 the keeper of the gaol at Durham described 

 in much detail the robberies perpetrated by the 

 Scots. But locally all these troubles and 

 rumours of mischief paled before the terrible 



«8 V.C.H. Dur. ii, 38-9. 

 ^' Surtees, op. cit. iv, 29. 

 so Cal. Border Papers, i, 610. 

 " Ibid. 874. 



S2 Registers of St. Nicholas, St. Oswald and St. 

 Giles, sub anno ; cf . Surtees, op. cit. iv, 6. 

 ■*3 Cal. Border Papers, ii, 103. 



plague of 1598, which broke out again in the 

 autumn of the next year. This pestilence was 

 long remembered for its appalling mortality, 

 nor did the gloom it occasioned lift for some 

 years. It may be said to have disorganized the 

 city and neighbourhood. The St. Nicholas 

 register records of 1597 : ' In this year was the 

 great Visitation in the Cittie of Durham.' The 

 summer assizes were postponed because of its 

 violence. It first broke out in Elvet, and there 

 was soon a general flight of all who could leave. 

 The poor had booths and huts made upon the 

 moors outside Durham, but they died off rapidly, 

 so that, as one account says : ' poor Durham 

 this year was almost undone.' The gaol did not 

 escape, and twenty-four prisoners were carried 

 out for burial from it. In addition to these 400 

 died in Elvet, 100 in St. Nicholas, 200 in St. 

 Margaret's, 60 in St. Giles', 60 in the North 

 Bailey; and Durham was not alone in the dis- 

 aster, for the disease spread to many of the towns 

 and villages in the neighbourhood. 



The one bright spot in a time of terrible gloom 

 was the institution of Smith's Charity in 1598. 

 This eventually became the main conduit into 

 which the minor city charities were brought. 

 Henry Smith, to whom reference has already 

 been made,'^ was a prominent citizen. He had 

 married the daughter of John Heath the elder, 

 of Kepier, and was doubly identified with the 

 city. By his will he left real and personal estate 

 of some value to the city of Durham, ' chiefly 

 that some good trade may be devised for the 

 setting of youth and other idle persons to work 

 as shall be thought most convenient whereby 

 some profits may appear to the benefit of this 

 city, and relief of those that are past work and 

 have lived honestly upon their trade.' Before 

 long, as we shall see, this benefaction became the 

 means of promoting the cloth trade in Durham, 

 and after many vicissitudes, frequent inquiries, 

 and several new schemes, the charity still exists 

 as an important factor in the charitable funds 

 of the city.*5 



The Elizabethan period was not marked by 

 much building in Durham. A return of 1564 

 had noted the decay of Elvet and Shincliffe 

 Bridges. Elvet Bridge was newly built in 1574. 

 In 1588 the county house was erected on Palace 

 Green.** This building was of wood, and was 

 used by the justices for the dispatch of business. 

 A legend over the door of an upper room for the 

 jurors contained the words ' God preserve our 

 gracious Queen Elizabeth the founder hereof 

 25 July 1588.' Separated by a passage from the 



*■' See above, p. 31. 



** Surtees has collected an account of Smith's 

 Charity (op. cit. iv, 26), and modern summaries are 

 given by Carlton in his Dur. Charities. 



*6 Mickleton MS. xxxvi, fol. 317. 



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