A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



post-stage communication with Durham at this 

 time has been preserved by Surtees.'* Regular 

 stage coaches did not yet run, though there is 

 a notice of a much earlier attempt to arrange 

 some kind of service.^' 



A note of 1696 referring to the new coinage 

 speaks of the difficulty of obtaining ' current 

 money ' in Durham, a difficulty which is re- 

 ferred to in local correspondence on more 

 than one occasion. The recall of tokens in 1672 

 had been presumably compensated by the issue 

 of halfpence and farthings, but the * current 

 money ' of the quotation means crowns, half- 

 crowns, and shillings.'* In 1691 Durham had 

 its own baronet in the person of John Duch, one 

 of the Aldermen in Crewe's charter of 1685 

 and Mayor in 1680, whose romantic career has 

 always been a matter of interest to the citizens.^' 

 He, at all events, was able to amass a considerable 

 fortune in the city, and it seems probable that 

 trade was improving as time passed. A bene- 

 faction by George Baker which became operative 

 in 1699 was devoted to establishing a woollen 

 manufactory and did good service for a long 

 period of years.''" Wood's charity was an im- 

 portant help for prisoners." 



Crewe's chief connection with the city of 

 Durham probably took place after the Revolu- 

 tion. He was not trusted by William and Mary, 

 and when in 1691 he became Baron Crewe, on 

 his brother's death, it was natural for him to 

 live much in the retirement of Stene, Auckland, 

 or Durham. His second marriage in 1700 to 

 Dorothy Forster of Bamburgh probably 

 tended to keep him in the north. The trium- 

 phal entry of the bishop and his bride into 

 Durham'- provoked great interest, and for the 

 next year or two there is evidence of his enter- 

 taining the city gilds at the castle.''^ There 

 is, however, no proof of any Jacobite sympathy 

 in Durham at the time with a solitary exception.''* 

 Mr. Smith of Barn Hall was titular Bishop of 

 Durham in connection with the non-juring 

 cause ;''^ the late dean was a non-juror;''* Mr. 

 Cock, vicar of St. Oswald's, founder of the 

 library there,'" and benefactor to the parish, 

 was also deprived as a non-juror. Otherwise the 

 local non-jurors are far to seek. The rising of 

 1715 awoke no response in Durham. No local 



** Surtees, op. cit. iv, 160. 



*' Burney Newspapers 52, I Apr. 1658. 



^ Surtees, op. cit. iv, 161. At least sixteen local 

 sets of tokens are known. 



»» Ibid. 53, 129. *• Ibid. 30. '»» Ibid. 



*2 Bee's Diary, Six North Country Diaries (Surt. 

 See), 60. 



*' Surtees, op. cit. iv, 21, 22. 



** Six North Country Diaries (Surt. Soc), 200. 



« Ibid. 



4« r.C.H. Dur. ii, 60. 



*' Surtees, loc. cit. 



contingent was raised.'" When the body of 

 Lord Derwentwater was brought from London 

 to Northumberland it rested at White Smocks,*' 

 an inn on the direct road from Darlington to 

 Newcastle. Local tradition preserved the 

 memory of the fact, which as late as 191 2 was 

 recounted by a Durham resident aged ninety- 

 three, who had it from his grandfather as a 

 matter of personal remembrance. 



The outstanding event of the i8th century 

 is the industrial revolution, but that did not 

 make itself felt until the reign of George IH. 

 The city of Durham did not, apparently, 

 increase much if at all in population until the 

 revolution began to manifest itself. If in 1635 

 the inhabitants numbered about 2,000,^" such 

 hints as we get through the earlier part of the 

 1 8th century cannot be adduced in proof of any 

 rapid increase. A visitor in 1780 describes 

 Durham as ' not populous,' whereas ' Sunderland 

 is a very populous place.' *' Yet from the point 

 of view of wealth there had probably been dis- 

 tinct progress. Means had improved after the 

 Restoration and money derived from the Church 

 was spent in the place. The Restoration 

 prebendaries were inclined to lavish hospitality 

 and at the end of 1662 a Chapter Act was 

 drawn up to forbid any extreme ' either of 

 parsimony or profuseness.'** Dean GrenviUe 

 records abundant hospitality in 1687.^' Such 

 a complaint as that which described the 

 city in 1617 as a ' cell of earth ' ^ is not heard 

 seventy years later. The residence of well-to-do 

 and often aristocratic prebendaries with their 

 families brought considerable gain to the 

 tradesmen. A local suit of Queen Anne's 

 reign goes to show that fancy trades were de- 

 veloping. The old gild of drapers and 

 tailors, which had the monopoly of the interests 

 they represented, roused themselves in 1705 'to 

 put off the manty-makers.' Accordingly next 

 year they sued four defendants otherwise 

 unknown for that they being ' foreigners ' did 

 infringe the liberties of the citizens, threatening 

 not only to continue but to introduce others 

 into the city, thus drawing away the greatest 

 part of the trade. The defendants incidentally 

 stated that ' mantoes is a forreigne invencion 

 and brought from beyond sea and not used in 

 England till about the year 1670.' One 

 deponent had lived with the Clerk of the 

 Spicery to Charles II and remembered the 



'•* Richardson, Jcct. of the Rebellions. 



*' Now Western Lodge. 



60 See below, p. 46. 



^1 Cf. Surtees, op. cit. iv, 165, -with Hunter MSS. 

 xxii. 



52 See V.C.H. Dur. ii, 67. 



*' (Surt. Soc), Granville, Remains, 139. 



5* From the verses of the apprentice to James I, 

 above, p. 37. 



42 



