A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



in Durham history was erected in the shape 

 of a Piazza, which took the place of the old 

 market-cross of 1617. 



The year of Egerton's charter is the main 

 dividing line in the history of Durham in the 

 l8th century, as the events of 1640 and 1660 

 are landmarks in the previous hundred years. 

 Taking our stand at this point, we may look 

 back for a moment to notice other events and 

 characteristics not hitherto mentioned. The city 

 was not populous. There are no sufficient data 

 for very precise statistics. A traveller passing 

 through in 1780 lays stress on the fact that 

 ' this place is very large, but not populous.' " 

 In 1732 there were 440 householders in the most 

 densely populated parish, that of St. Nicholas. 

 In the parish of St. Giles there were 120 house- 

 holders in 1753." No other estimate of the 

 period seems to be available. A hundred years 

 before this there had been 514 householders 

 in Elvet, the Baileys, Crossgate, Framwellgate, 

 Gillygate, and St. Nicholas. That may be held, 

 perhaps, to represent a total population of from 

 two to three thousand in 1635. The numbers 

 for St. Nicholas are 177 at that date, as against 

 440 in 1732 ; for St. Giles 73, as against 120 

 in 1753. At this rate it may be surmised that 

 towards the middle of the i8th century the 

 proportional increase since 1635 would bring 

 the sum total up to some point between four 

 and five thousand.'* 



Communication with this small city was pro- 

 bably not very good. We have seen the attempt 

 to link it up with the outside world by 

 waterways, and the condition of the high 

 roads alleged as one reason for carrying out 

 the scheme. Regular communication with 

 Durham by stage coach, instead of by the 

 ordinary means of posting, was first planned in 

 1658.'* In October 1712 a great step forward 



the cathedral and college, the chapehy of St. Margaret, 

 the borough of Framwellgate, the parishes of St. 

 Oswald and St. Giles as constituents of the City of 

 Durham and Framwellgate. (Hutchinson, op. cit. 66.) 

 It may also be noted that recorder, town clerk, 

 Serjeants at mace, and constables were all specifically 

 mentioned in Egerton's charter. There had been 

 recorders and town clerks at intervals, if not con- 

 tinuously, since 1603 (see Hutchinson, op. cit. 70-1), 

 but not by virtue of any clause contained in previous 

 charters, though Serjeants had been specified therein. 

 Another incidental point in Egerton's grant is the 

 transfer of Mayor's day to the anniversary of its 

 bestowal, viz., the Monday next after the Feast of 

 St. Michael the Archangel. 



'8 See V.C.H. Dur. ii, 67. 



" Surtees, op. cit. iv, 165 ; see above, p. 42. 



'* The calculation is, of course, rather guesswork. 

 The muster in 1615 gave 560 men between sixteen 

 and sixty for all the parts enumerated above, save 

 the College and South Bailey. 



" Burney Newspapers 52, April i. 



was taken when in the Newcastle Courant it 

 was announced : ' Edinburgh, Berwick, New- 

 castle, Durham and London stage-coach begins 

 on Monday the 13th October 1712.'*** It was 

 added that the proposed stage-coach ' performs 

 the whole journey in thirteen days without 

 any stoppage (if God permit), having eighty 

 able horses to perform the whole stage.'** The 

 fare from Edinburgh to London was ^^4 los.^^ 

 No local record has been traced to give an ac- 

 count of the fortunes of the coach. Probably 

 it did well, but there was not sufficient demand 

 yet for more local inter-communication. In 

 1748 a coach from Sunderland to Durham, 

 and from Durham to Newcastle, was put on 

 the road, but the roads were bad, and the scheme 

 did not pay. A post-chaise took the place of the 

 coach, but this fared no better, and was given 

 up.*^ As late as 1772 a posting journey from 

 London to Durham occupied a week.** Travel- 

 ling was not yet safe. Coaches were robbed 

 now and again,** and Faas or Faws, as they 

 were called, that is gipsies and perhaps high- 

 waymen, were still known to lurk in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the highway.** External events 

 were duly celebrated at Durham and anniver- 

 saries were kept punctiliously. In the midst 

 of the unrest caused by the Jacobite Rebellion 

 of 1745 Gunpowder Plot was remembered, 

 and volleys were fired in the market-place.*' 

 The king's birthday was observed, and on 

 occasion even a hogshead of wine was broached 

 for the people. The birth of Prince George 

 in 1762, afterwards George IV, was the occasion 

 of a great demonstration, and the city was 

 brilliantly illuminated.** In 1770, when Wilkes 

 was set free, the church bells were rung at 

 intervals through the day.** 



Visits to Durham naturally increased in 

 number. We have various accounts of short 

 visits paid, as recorded in private correspondence 

 such as the journey of Lord Harley in 1725. He 

 describes the place and a meeting with Rudd the 

 Librarian and Master of Durham School, who 

 was then occupied upon his index.®" Twenty 

 years later Lady Oxford passed through Dur- 

 ham, and put up at the Red Lion " in the North 

 Bailey, 'an exceeding good and clean inn.' 

 Incidentally she says that the cathedral ' is 



**• Burney Newspapers 52, April I. 



*i Ibid. 



*2 Table Book quoting the Courant, sub anno. 



*' Ibid, quoting Ettrick's Diary. 



** Cosin's Corresp. (Surt. Soc), 342. 



*« Table Book, 1762. *« Ibid, passim. 



*' Richardson's Ace. of the Rebellions, 17. 



** Table Book, 1753 and 1762. 



*' Ibid, sub anno. 



'o MSS. of Duke of Portland (Hist. MSS. Com.), vii, 



74- 



M Now Hatfield HaU. 



46 



