CITY OF DURHAM 



wooden county house was a court room for the 

 judges of assize, which was built over the 

 bishop's stables. Cosin made great changes in 

 these buildings some eighty years afterwards. 



There are several references to ' decays in the 

 bishopric ' ^' in contemporary documents, and 

 mention is made in one paper under date 1593 

 of decays in bishopric houses,^* but there is no 

 special mention of Durham itself in this con- 

 nexion, though a story is preserved of the poor 

 accommodation found by a queen's messenger 

 who visited the city in 1594.*° A note of 1589 

 speaks of wanton damage to Neville's Cross 

 during the night.*" 



With Elizabeth's last year we reach a landmark 

 of considerable local importance in the charter 

 of Bishop Matthew, which superseded the 

 earlier charter of Pilkington. He was one of the 

 few men in high office in the bishopric who really 

 knew Durham before his elevation. He had been 

 dean for thirteen years, and in that position "* 

 exercised wide influence as High Commissioner 

 and member of the Council of the North. To 

 this intimate knowledge of the place and its needs 

 we may attribute the new grant. Attention has 

 been already drawn to the bondage of the city to 

 the bishop's will : dummodo episcopus non contra- 

 dixerit had been its keynote, at least three times 

 repeated in Pilkington's charter. There had been 

 no increase in the trade and well-being of Dur- 

 ham, and the troubles of the last decade of 

 the sixteenth century had greatly exhausted 

 the resources of the district. Bishop Matthew's 

 charter was an honest attempt to improve 

 matters by giving the corporation greater inde- 

 pendence, so increasing their energy and self- 

 respect. Complaints had been made in recent 

 years that the grants of various bishops were 

 somewhat nebulous. Probably Pudsey's charter, 

 still preserved at that time in the city archives, 

 had been vaguely cited and misunderstood, as 

 has been its fate in still more recent days.'- 

 The bishop now granted a mayor to be elected 

 annually with twelve aldermen appointed during 

 their good behaviour, and without the obnoxious 

 provision of submission to the bishop's pleasure. 

 There was to be a common council of twenty- 

 four annually elected out of the twelve chief 

 crafts or gilds which by this time had received 

 incorporation. Thus in the order of the charter 

 two were elected by the mercers, grocers, haber- 

 dashers, ironmongers and salterers ; two by 



" e.g. Cal. Border Papers,u, 323 ; S. P. Dom. Eliz. 

 cclix, no. 3. 



68 S. P. Dom. Eliz. Add. xxxii, no. 83. 



6' Cal. Border Papers, i, 931. 



'"//rcA. Jel. xiii, 215. Cf. Rius 0/ Dur. (Surt. 

 See), 28. 



«i r.C.H. Dur. ii, 38. 



*^ S. P. Dom.'Jas. I, no. 72. 



3 33 



the drapers and tailors ; two by the skinners and 

 glovers ; two by the tanners ; two by the 

 weavers ; two by the dyers and fullers ; two by 

 the cordwainers ; two by the saddlers ; two by 

 the butchers ; two by the smiths ; two by the 

 carpenters and joiners ; two by the free-masons 

 and rough-hewers. Thus the common council 

 consisted of thirty-six persons, a number 

 which was maintained.*^ Much is made of the 

 authority given to make laws and ordinances 

 for the city, but it is provided that these are not 

 to be repugnant to any statutes of the realm. 

 Fuller grant of fees is made than under the 

 earlier charter, and hberties and customs held 

 by charter or prescriptive right were confirmed. 

 The very amplitude of the privileges confirmed 

 led to dispute in a future that was not very 

 distant. It was not difficult to press a good many 

 claims under cover of 'custom and prescriptive 

 right.' For the present, however, there was no 

 friction, and the improved administration of the 

 city was soon seen when another visitation of the 

 plague came, but with inconsiderable damage, 

 owing to the excellent measures taken by the 

 corporation to prevent the spread of infection.** 



With the accession of the house of Stuart 

 greater prosperity came to Durham. The Tudors 

 had never been its friends, and never visited the 

 city with the exception of the memorable stay 

 of Princess Margaret.*^ In 1603 her great- 

 grandson James VI of Scotland and I of England 

 passed through on his way to the south, and 

 from this point, for nearly half a century, several 

 royal visits were paid, which had the effect of 

 directing some attention to the place, and were 

 certainly appreciated by the inhabitants. An 

 interesting account of the king's progress sur- 

 vives. He entered by Framwellgate Bridge and 

 was met in the market-place by the corporation 

 in all the glory of their new livery, with the 

 Mayor of Durham, James Farrales, at their head. 

 Reference was made to ' so great a sorrow as 

 had lately possessed them all,' and this is as likely 

 to refer to the still recent visitation of the plague 

 as to the late queen's death. The cavalcade 

 then passed up Saddlergate and into the castle, 

 where the bishop received his Majesty attended 

 by a hundred gentlemen in tawny liveries. An 

 act of clemency marked the occasion, the king 

 signing a royal warrant for the release of certain 

 prisoners in the gaol. 



Events of considerable civic interest took 

 place in Durham during the next few years. 



*' For further details of this Charter see below, 

 p. 56. It is set out in full in Hutchinson, op. cit. 

 ii, 29 etc. or 23 etc. 



** Surtees, op. cit. iv, 160. See their regulation in 

 Mickleton MS. xci, fin. 



** See above, p. 27, and V.C.H. Dur. ii, 28; NichoU's 

 Progresses oj Queen Elizabeth, iii, App. 



