A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



In 1606 Matthew Pattison,'* the son of a burgess, 

 and either son or brother of John Pattison, 

 mercer, mayor in i6o8, presented a seal of fine 

 design to the corporation. The seal is an excellent 

 piece of mediaeval art representing a bishop 

 vested, mitred and holding his staff in his 

 left hand, raising his right hand in attitude of 

 blessing. He stands in a niche under a trefoil 

 arch with canopy rising to three spires between 

 which are the sun and moon. On either side of 

 the shafts of the niche is a shield of England 

 ensigned with a mitre, the rim of which is not 



The Seal of the City of Durham 



heightened with the coronet of the Palatinate. 

 Below the figure of the bishop are the arms of 

 the city. The legend is in Lombardic capitals : 



s' COMVNE CIVITAt' DVNELMIE. The gift of the 



seal probably coincided with a royal confir- 

 mation of Matthew's charter in February 

 1606. There is no evidence to show how or 

 why this confirmation was made by the king. 

 In the light of subsequent 

 events, it is possible that 

 some representation was 

 made by the city to the 

 king, and that he was not 

 unwilling to do the citizens 

 a favour notwithstanding 

 the fact that the action 

 was in derogation of the 

 bishop's authority. The 



CiTV OF Durham. 



Sable a cross argent 

 voided gules. 



seal is stiU in use as the 

 official seal of the cor- 

 poration. The arms of the 

 city of Durham given at 

 the visitation of 1615" and used for some time 

 later are as here shown. In the eighteenth 

 century it became usual to adopt the arms 

 of the see : azure, a cross of St. Edward or, 



" Perhaps the engraver of an excellent map of 

 Durham in British Museum (1595). It is of great im- 

 portance, being older than Speed's well-known map. 



*' The reference is Heralds' College C.32, fol. 4b. 



between three lioncels argent. This adopted 

 episcopal coat has been assumed by the city in 

 lieu of its own achievement, and has been 

 widely usurped by the county as well."* 



In the summer following the intrusive Letters 

 Patent of James I referred to above, Bishop 

 Matthew was transferred to York. For the second 

 time a Dean of Durham was appointed bishop. 

 The new prelate, William James, seems to have 

 been very much the college don. He was pro- 

 bably a better Ecclesiastical Commissioner 

 than dean or bishop. His tenure of office in the 

 deanery left little trace, but as bishop he came 

 into collision with the city at a point where the 

 new corporation were exceedingly sensitive. In 

 the mediaeval constitution of the city the chief 

 officer was the bishop's baihff. Until Pilkington's 

 charter this official, with the name of the bailiff 

 of the borough and city of Durham, had been 

 responsible to the bishop for collecting a variety 

 of dues, such as land-male, rents, tolls, profits, 

 fines and amerciaments of courts, fairs, and 

 markets. In effect he was, until the charter of 

 incorporation, the chief magistrate of the city. 

 More particularly there had been time out of 

 mind an ancient borough court which the bailiff 

 and his underling, the steward of the borough, 

 held in the Tolbooth. This building stood 

 at the side of the market-place, and consisted of 

 shops and stalls on the ground floor, surmounted 

 by an upper story containing a court-room of 

 some size, which was used for the borough court 

 and for other civic purposes. The building had 

 been rebuilt by Bishop Tunstall, and bore his 

 arms emblazoned upon it.*° 



Over the holding of the fortnightly court 

 and other privileges fierce strife arose between 

 Bishop James and the corporation. On the 

 natural interpretation of the charter of 1602 

 the mayor was the proper president of the 

 court under the new constitution. This, at all 

 events, was his own contention, and friction 

 had been of long standing on the subject,'" 

 but had only become acute at the time when 

 Bishop James was appointed. The bishop main- 

 tained that the mayor was usurping authority 

 over the court, and accordingly took upon himself 

 to revert to the old arrangement of holding the 

 court under the presidency of a bailiff to be 

 appointed. He nominated Edward Hutton as 



** The ofEcial Durham heraldry is somewhat com- 

 plicated. The best treatment of it is in the Herald 

 and Genealogist for 1872, where vnll be found an 

 excellent paper by Mr. W. H. Dyer Longstafle on 

 ' The Old Official Heraldry of Durham.' There is 

 also a more recent paper by Dr. J. T. Fowler in the 

 Durham University Journal ioT 1885, p. 108. 



"" Hist. Dunelm. Script. Ires (Surt. Soc), 155. 



'" So we gather from the Exchequer Deposition, 

 which is the chief source of information as to the 

 history of the strife. 



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