CITY OF DURHAM 



Uses. It was found by the commission that 

 only j^9 remained out of £1^00, of which sum 

 the mayor and aldermen were required to ac- 

 count for ;^400. The bishop was further offended 

 ' with that crying sin of robbing the poor, and 

 perceiving their pride in government to be in- 

 tollerable,' and being also informed that the grant 

 of the mayoralty contained many things preju- 

 dicial to the jurisdiction of the courts incident 

 to the county Palatine, desired a conference 

 with the corporation. This they refused, and 

 a suit in the Court of Exchequer ensued, which 

 resulted in a decree in favour of the bishop. 

 Since that decree (161 1) the bishop had by his 

 bailiff governed the city and retained possession 

 of all the revenues and rights. Although fre- 

 quently petitioned, the bishop had refused to 

 renew the grant of the mayoralty. 



With regard to the early courts of the borough, 

 we learn from the dispute of 1609 that the 

 ordinary borough courts were held at the 

 Tolbooth once a fortnight on Tuesday, and that 

 the head borough court, the ' plena curia burgi ' 

 of the 14th-century deeds, was held twice 

 yearly at Easter and Michaelmas. At the latter 

 court, which corresponded to the ' curia 

 capitalis ' of the convent boroughs held three 

 times a year, the grassmen and trade searchers 

 were sworn, the bishop's burgesses did suit, 

 and the titles of heirs and purchasers of burgages 

 were presented and recorded, before such heirs 

 and purchasers were admitted as burgesses. 

 There seems to have been conflicting evidence as 

 to whether the burgesses owed suit at the 

 sheriff's tourn held twice yearly at the Moot- 

 haU on Palace Green, the explanation apparently 

 being that the suit claimed to be due was for 

 the rights of common on Framwellgate Moor, 

 which was parcel of the various burgages and 

 not in respect of holdings in the borough. 



With the increasing control over the borough 

 by the gilds the time of the court was largely 

 taken up with their affairs and the enforcement 

 of their regulations. The Tolbooth had now 

 become the Guildhall,^* although there is evi- 

 dence that as early as 1434 it bore that name.*' 

 To enforce the orders of the court there were 

 stocks, a pillory and a ' duck pool.' 



Owing to the disappearance of the borough 

 records it is difficult to trace the subsequent 

 history of the courts. Some of their local 

 government duties were transferred to the 



•' That the gilds met in the Tolbooth in the 17th 

 century, see Mickleton MS. xxiii, Il9d; xxxii, Il8d. 



*' Durh. Trcas. Almoners' Rental. After the 

 Reformation the Earl of Westmorland built a house 

 called the New Place on the site of the present 

 Town Hall. The Mayor's Chamber, which adjoins 

 the Town Hall, occupies the site of the old Gild 

 Hall. 



vestry,** until the passing of the Paving Acts 

 brought the special Commissioners into exist- 

 ence. In 1835 ^^^ Municipal Corporation 

 Commissioners reported that the Durham 

 Corporation exercised no jurisdiction either 

 criminal or civil, but that a manor court of 

 very limited jurisdiction was held within the 

 city.*' 



The OLD BOROUGH or CROSSGJTE 

 included that part of Durham lying on the north 

 or left bank of the Wear south of Framwellgate. 

 It was divided from the latter district by the 

 Milburn, a small stream rising in Flass Bog 

 and now covered over most of its length by the 

 modern North Road. From Elvet Barony it 

 was divided by the small stream running parallel 

 to Potters Bank. 



The Old Borough comprised South Street, 

 Crossgate and Allergate (formerly Alvertongate), 

 a considerable area of arable ground known as 

 Bellasys,"* whilst the pasture area extended over 

 Crossgate Moor and over the adjoining Elvet 

 Moor, until the latter moor was divided off 

 from the former. 



The evidence for a settlement in Elvet before 

 995 has been mentioned already ; the origin'* 

 of the Crossgate settlement may be found in the 

 junction of the roads from the west and south, 

 which meet where the church of St. Margaret 

 now stands, just above the ford over the Wear, 

 whereby travellers from the west proceeded on 

 their way to Wearmouth and the Raintons. The 

 first reference to the borough here is in 1141, 

 when, during the Cumin incident, it is mentioned 

 as follows : ' partem quoque burgi quae ad 

 monachorum jus pertinebat igni tradiderunt.''^ 

 As the borough of Elvet is of later foundation, 

 this must refer to the Old Borough. It is sug- 

 gested that the Old Borough is the original 

 trading centre at Durham, and that the Bishop's 

 Borough was only founded after the division of 

 the estates between the bishop and the convent ; 

 a division which gave the Old Borough to the 

 convent and left the bishop without any area 



** Longstaffe MS. ix. In 1646 Easter vestries of 

 St. Nicholas, two pant-wardens, four collectors, two 

 bridgemasters, two grassmen and two drivers were 

 elected. ** Municif. Corp. Rep. p. 1515. 



'* In the Sacrist Rental for 1500 (Durh. Treas.) 

 there is a detailed hst of the arable holdings in 

 Bellasys belonging to the various burgages. 



"^ The history of Crossgate in Durh. Treas. 

 Cart, iv, f. 90, see Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Surt. 

 Soc), 192, is untrustworthy ; it is part of a case 

 relating to Bearpark Moor prepared with the object 

 of showing that the Old Borough had no existence in 

 the time of Richard I, and that the tenants therefore 

 had no rights on Bearpark Moor, the coronation of 

 Richard being the period of limitation of actions. 

 Pollock and Maitland, Hist, oj Engl. Law, ii, 81. 



'* Simeon 0/ Durh. (Rolls Scr.), i, 159. 



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