STOCKTON WARD 



BISHOP MIDDLEHAM 



£zo a year.'' About 1384, when it was held by the 

 tenants in common, the rent was only ^^13 6s. %J. 

 The extent of a villein tenement in Cornforth — 

 namely, 2 oxgangs — was the same as that in Middle- 

 ham. There were twenty such tenements, according 

 to the 14th-century survey.'^ Most of the villein 

 tenants then held two tenements or one and a half. 

 In addition to the obligations of the Middleham 

 bond-tenants they were bound to do carriage for the 

 bishop and his steward. They paid a sum of zo/. in 

 cornage. The kiln and bake-house of the vill were 

 held in common, like the corn-mill.'" The fulling-mill 

 of Cornforth, which is mentioned in 1358 and 1361,^** 

 was ruinous about 1384.'-'' References to Cornforth 

 in the bishop's halmote rolls are concerned chiefly 

 with leases of the mill or grants of copyhold land.'"'' 

 The whole vill was leased to Robert Crounde and 

 others in February 1459-60.' The Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners, in whom the episcopal lands are 

 vested, are the chief landowners at the present day. 



There were several freeholds in Cornforth in the 

 14th century." A free tenement of a messuage and 

 60 acres, held at a rent of 22;., belonged to Roger de 

 Washington, who was succeeded in or before 1370 

 by his son William.' Roger son of William Usher, who 

 held this freehold about 1 384, was apparently identical 

 with Roger son of William de Washington, who 

 had land in Middleham at the same date.* Roger 

 Usher died seised of both the Cornforth and Middle- 

 ham land in 1420.^ His son and heir John died 

 two years later, his heir being his sister Alice." The 

 freehold is nut mentioned again till it appears in the 

 possession of William Shawe, who did homage for 

 land in Cornforth in 1577 or 1578.' 



William Shawe died in 1587* seised of this and 

 another small freehold.' His son and heir Thomas, 

 who died in 1590, was succeeded by his brother 

 John,'*' tenant at his death in or before 163 I " of a 

 capital messuage, three other messuages, and 160 acres 

 of arable land, meadow and pasture.'^ John left three 

 daughters and co-heirs, Elizabeth, Alice, and Anne, 

 who married respectively William Eden, George 

 Guye, and William Emerson." William Emerson 

 and Anne made a grant of 120 acres of arable 

 land here with meadow and pasture to Thomas 

 Richardson in 1632.'^'* To Alice and her husband 

 George Guye livery was granted in 1633,'^ and in 

 the same year they had licence to alienate land in 



Cornforth to Rich,ird Slinger and William Stoddart." 

 The estate was found split up into thirds about ten 

 years later, and was never reunited. The tenants in 

 1644 were William Eden of Whitton, husband of 

 Elizabeth Shawe, Mrs. Howard, and Matthew Smith. '* 

 Brandon House, which seems to have been the capital 

 messuage of the Shawes,'^ came into the hands of the 

 Woodhouse family," and was subsequently purchased 

 first by the Whites and then by the Haswells." 

 In 1684 the freeholders were Robert Cooper, 

 Robert Haswell, William Hutchinson, Thomas 

 Waugh, Robert Hutchinson, William Woodhouse, 

 William Wilkinson, Thomas Garthorne, and Thomas 

 Hutchinson.-" The Haswells and Garthornes held 

 land here till the middle of the 19th century.^' 



The township of GJRMONDSirjrMUOR must 

 be identified with the ' place called t'ia Garmundi' 

 from which King Cnut walked barefoot to the shrine 

 of St. Cuthbert.-' About 1183 the bishop held 4 

 oxgangs here by purchase and 5 by escheat of Ralph 

 Haget.-^ The first holding was lying waste.-* Very 

 shortly after the survey of 1 1 83 Bishop Pudsey granted 

 the whole vill as part of the endowment of his hospital 

 for lepers at Sherburn.^' The brethren and sisters were 

 to pay to Ralph son of Paul of York and his heirs 

 4 marks a year as an equivalent of service from a third 

 part of the vilL^*^ Ralph son of Paul also granted 

 them a charter.-' In 1204 the master of the hospital 

 released to the rector of Middleham all claims on the 

 tithe of Garmondsway.2* Free warren in the demesne 

 lands of the hospital here and elsewhere was granted 

 by Bishop Fordham in 1384.-^ In 1580 Ralph 

 Lever, then master, protested against the assessment 

 of Garmondsway as temporal land of the hospital. 

 He described it as ancient demesne of the house, 

 ' always employed with a stocke of cattell for the main- 

 tenance thereof,' '" and was successful in having the 

 .assessment altered. The township still forms part of 

 the endowment of the hospital. 



A carucate of land in R^ISBV (Raceby, xii cent.) 

 was granted with Garmondsway to the hospital by 

 Bishop Pudsey, who had purchased it from Bare, 

 its first cultivator." This land was burdened with 

 a rent-charge of I 5/. to the lord of Great Kelloe, 5/. 

 of which were released to the hospital by Alexander 

 de Kellaw in the 13th century.'^ 



About 1 1 83 the bishop had 1 7 oxgangs in MJINS- 

 FORTH (Maynesford, xii cent.) which had come into 



« Boldon Bk. (Surt. Soc), App. p. 

 xxviii ; Hatfield's Surv. (Surt. Soc), 186. 



96 Cf. Middleh,im. 



^^ Hatfield'! Surt'. (Surt. Soc), 18+-6. 



•' Dur. Rec cl. 3, no. 12, fol. 205 d., 

 282. 



99 Half (Id's Surij. (Surt. Soc), 192. 



'"" Dur. Rcc. cl. 3, no. 12-17. 



1 Ibid. no. 16, fol. 56 d. 



9 A freehold of 1 8 acres apparently es- 

 cheated in the 1 4th century and was granted 

 to the tenants of all the vill to hold in 

 common (Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 2; ; 

 Rtg. Palat. Dumlm. [Rolls Ser.], iv, 307 j 

 Hatfield's Sur'v. [Surt. Soc], 184). 



9 Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 87 d. 



* Hatfield's Siirv. (Surt. Soc), 1 80, i 84. 



* Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 210. 

 « Ibid. fol. 217 d. 



' Def>. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. i, 97. 

 9 Dur. Rec cl. 3, file 191, no. i 27. 

 ' For the early history of the second 

 holding, which belonged to the K.elUw 



and Forcer families, see HatJIeld'i Surz: 

 (Surt. Soc), 1 84 ; De/>. Keeper's Rep. 

 xxxiii, 114; Dur. Rec. cl. 3, files 166, 

 no. 31; 177, no. 7. The holding is gener- 

 ally described in the inquisitions on its 

 early tenants as one capital messuage, two 

 other messuages, 9! acres of land, 2 J acres 

 of meadow and i acre of meadow in Turs- 

 dale (Dur. Rec cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 180 d., 

 267), and it is so extended in the inquisi- 

 tion on William Shawe. The 'one mes- 

 suage and 40 teres* given in file 177, 

 no. ", may include pasture. 



'" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, file 192, no. 131. 



" The exact date of his death is illegible, 

 but the inquisition was taken on 14 Jan. 

 163 1-2. 



" Dur. Rec cl. 3, file 186, no. 72. 



'9 Ibid. cl. 1 2, no. 4 (2) ; cl. 3, R. 107, 

 no. 86. 



"3 Ibid. cl. 12, no. 4 (2). 



" Ibid. cl. 3, R. 107, no. 86. 



" Ibid. no. 87. 



207 



" Rec. Com. far Comp. (Surt. Soc), 8 



33- 



" Dur. Rcc cl. 3, file 186, no. 72. 



'* Surtees, op. cit. iii, 15. NichoU* 

 Woodhouse compounded for his estate 

 here in 1649 {Ree. Com, for Comp. [Surt. 

 Soc], 385). 



'9 Surtees, loc cit, 



»» Ibid. 



9* Ibid. \ Fordyce, op. cil. I, 399. 



" Simeon of Dur. Opera (Rolls Ser.), 

 i, 90. 



'9 r.C.H. Dur. I, 330. 



'< Ibid. 



99 Allan, Coll. rel. to Sherhum Hospital. 

 The date of the foundation is generally 

 said to be 1 18 1, but it was evidently later 

 than Boldon Book. 



9* Allan, op. cit. 



9' Ibid. 9S ibij. 



99 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, .\pp. i, 329. 



^ AettofP.C. 1580-1, p. 351. 



9' Allan, op. cit. 9i i(,ij. 



