STOCKTON WARD 



GREATHAM 



his wife and the issue of William." Leo was dead 

 in the next year, when four messuages and a croft 

 called the Ladygarth were assigned to his widow 

 Alice as her dower." William Claxton married as 

 his second wife Isabel, daughter and heir of William 

 Menevill and lady of Horden " (q-v). He seems to 

 have been lying ill at Bordeaux in October 1379 

 when he bequeathed 1 8 marks for three years to an 

 Augustinian William de Bridlington for prayers for 

 the benefit of his soul ; ''" he died in or before i 380.'° 

 Isabel retained a life interest by a settlement, and 

 survived her husband forty years ;" their son William 

 Claxton then succeeded." He died in 143 i, his son 

 Robert being his heir." A settlement of the manor 

 on Robert and Ann his wife was maJc in 14.42." 

 He lived till about 1483," and left four daughters 

 and co-heirs : Margaret wife of Sir William Embleton, 

 Joan wife of John Cartington, Elizabeth wife of 

 Richard Conyers, and Felicia wife of Ralph 

 Widdrington." By a partition of his property Sir 

 William Embleton and Margaret came into pos- 

 session of Claxton, which followed the descent of 

 William's manors of Embleton and Twisdale into the 

 hands of Bertram Bulmer." Bertram Bulmer with 

 Isabel his wife and William Bulmer his son conveyed 

 half the manor and lands here to Sir Thomas Riddell 

 in 1626 and in the same year they leased a cottage 

 and some 80 acres of land to Richard and Robert 

 Johnson for 100 years.'^ In 1 63 1 Bertram 

 alienated the manor to Richard Johnson the elder, 

 licence for the alienation of one half of the manor 

 being obtained from the Bishop in 1632.''' It was 

 never again held as a whole by any lord. The Johnson 

 family retained their interest, but nothing is Icnown of 

 their pedigree. In 1684 George Johnson, Matthew 

 Johnson, Willi.im Johnson, Robert Johnson, and 

 another William were freeholders." Robert Gibson, 

 another freeholder of that date, was probably the 

 heir of Anthony and William Gibson to whom 

 William Gibson, senior, granted land here in 1638."* 

 In 1740 William and Anthony Gibson conveyed half 

 of a messuage, 40 acres of arable, 40 of meadow, and 

 30 of pasture to Ralph Ward. He, with Isabel his 

 wife and Anthony his son and heir, conveyed two 

 messuages and land here to George Johnson in 

 February 1691-2.'"' This may, however, have been 

 for the purposes of a trust, for in 1 75 1 William Strat- 



forth and Elizabeth his wife conveyed two messuages 

 and 300 acres here to William Graham.'" At the 

 beginning of the 19th century William Byers had an 

 estate." The principal landowners at the present day 

 are J. Holborn, W. Robinson, Robert Henry Drj'den 

 and Joseph Atkinson. 



The land of Kepier Hospital in Claxton followed 

 the descent of the manor of Kepier into the possession 

 of the family of Heath." 



The church of ST. JOHN BAPTIST 

 CHURCH consists of a chancel 27 ft. 9 in. by I 7 ft. 

 4 in., with north organ-chamber and 

 south vestry, clearstoricd nave of five bays 56 ft. by 

 20 ft., north and south aisles 7 ft. 6 in. wide, north 

 porch, and west tower i 2 ft. square, all these measure- 

 ments being internal. 



With the exception of the nave arcades the present 

 structure is entirely modern, the old church having 

 been taken down and rebuilt in 1792-3," when a 

 tower was added at the west end. Hutchinson, 

 writing a few years before the rebuilding, describes 

 the structure of his time as consisting of a nave with 

 north and south aisles, arcades of three pillars sup- 

 porting light pointed arches, and a chancel opening 

 under a wide round arch springing from hexagonal 

 pilasters."' The 18th-century church was largely 

 built with the old materials and its cost partly borne 

 by the proceeds of the sale of the lead of the old roof.'* 

 The lower part of the nave walls may be ancient. 

 There was a gallery at the west end supported by 

 iron pillars. In 1855 the church was considerably 

 altered, the nave being extended eastward a bay, 

 necessitating the destruction of the chancel arch, and 

 a new chancel erected. The clearstory w.is added in 

 1869 and the organ-chamber and vestry in 1881. In 

 1908 the west tower was taken down, and a new 

 tower built in the year following. 



The structure taken down in 1792, the piers and 

 arches of which remain, dated from about 1180-90, 

 but fragments of earlier work found during the 

 demolition of the 18th-century tower point to there 

 having been an older church on the site. A portion 

 of a pre-Conquest cross-head with interlacing ornament 

 and part of a cross-shaft or grave slab with early 

 Norman carving were embedded in the masonry of 

 the tower. Three others, two of early Norman type 

 and one possibly part of a pre-Conquest cross, were 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, R. 30, m. 4 d., with 

 successive remainders ia default to 

 younger sons Thomas and John in tail. 



•* Surtees, op. cit. iii, 142. 



" Obit. R. offfm. Ehchtstir and John 

 Burnby (Surt. Soc.), io8 ; Arch. Act. 

 (Scr. 3), vii, 337. 



*9a Egerton Ch.irt. 575. His squire 

 was Laurence de Burntolt. William de 

 Lowther and John de Walworth were 

 among those present. 



'^ Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 100 d. 



" Ibid. fol. 201 d. 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. fol. 256 d. 



" De^. Krcfcr's Rep. xliv, 349 ; Dur. 

 Rec. cl. 3, R. 43, no. i. 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, file 167, no. 32. 



^ Def>. Kceftr's Rep. xxivi, 5. 



" Ibid, xliv, 381 ; xxxvii, 67, 85, 161. 

 Elizabeth, daughter of William Embleton, 

 with her second husband Anthony Preston 

 settled lands here in 1547 on herself for 

 life with remainder to Cuthbert and 



Anthony Bulmer her sons for life with 

 remainder to Francis Bulmer her son 

 and heir (Dur. Rec. cl. 12, no. i [i]). 



"» Dur. Rec. d. 12, no. 4 (2) bii. 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 11, no. 4 (2) ; cl. 3, 

 R. 107, no. 12. Two messuages, four 

 tofts, three cottages, 62 acres of land, 

 122 acres of meadow, 377 acres of pasture 

 were to be included in the conveyance. Cf, 

 ibid. cl. 14, no. 4 (2). This amounts to 

 well over a half of the township of Clax- 

 ton. It seems probable that Bertram was 

 alienating his whole estate, and that the 

 bishop was giving him licence only for 

 the moiety held of him. The other half 

 was then, strictly speaking, held of the 

 Crown. Two further conveyances of 

 land in Claxton were made by the Bulmers 

 to Richard Johnson in 1631 (ibid.). 



" Surtees, op. cit. iii, 142. 



"a Dur. Rec. cl. 3, R. 109, no. 10. 



^"> Ibid. cl. 12, no. 13 (4); no. 26 



■» Dur. Rec. cl. 12, no. 28 (4). 



'' Surtees, loc. cit. 



" L. and P. Hen. ml, xx(i), 60 ; 

 g. 282 (14); Dep. Keeper'i Rep. xxxvii, 

 82. 



'' A drawing of the old building dated 

 1792, in the possession of the vicar, shows 

 it to have had a west bellcote containing 

 two bells, and flat-pitched roofs to nave 

 and chancel. In March 1792 it was 

 stated to have been in a 'ruinous and 

 decayed condition ' (Churchwardens' Ac- 

 counts). 



" Hutchinsnn, op. cit. 90-91. The 

 responds of the chancel arch were prob- 

 ably semi-octagonal. Fordyce describes 

 the chancel arch as elliptical (Wii(. 0/ Co. 

 FdUt. of Dur. ii, 300). There is a rough 

 plan of the seating dated 1716 in the 

 churchwardens' book. The 'dogwhipper's 

 seat ' is indicated against the pier opposite 

 the south doorway. 



"' The sale of the lead realized ^180. 

 The chancel was rebuilt by John William 

 Egerton, master of the hospital. 



