A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



an estate here with a rental of £61 16/. which was 

 sequestered and let to William Chilton.*' Chilton 

 possibly purchased it, for Robert Chilton, sen., and 

 Robert Chilton, jun., were among the freeholders in 

 1684..'^ William Chilton had land here and in 

 Seaton Carcvv in 1731.'^ No manorial rights in 

 Dalton Piercy are mentioned after 1569, when the 

 manor appears to have been reckoned a member of 

 Brancepeth. 



The early history of the manor of HART is not 

 distinguishable from that of the whole district of 

 HJRTNESS (Heorternesse, ix cent. ; Heortternisse, 

 xi cent. ; Hertenes, xii cent. ; Herternesse, xiii cent. ; 

 Herternes, xiv cent. ; Hcrtnes, xvi cent.). The 

 boundaries of this district are not exactly known, but 

 it seems to have included BiUingham in the 9th 

 centurj'. In the 12th century Hartness extended 

 into the parishes of Hart and Stranton, and the town- 

 ship of Thorp Bulmer, and later that of Elton. 

 Hartness lay within the wapentake of Sadberge, but the 

 services for this district were not mentioned in the 

 grant of the wapentake to Bishop Hugh Pudsey in 

 I 190.^^ Consequently the position of the district with 

 respect to the county was uncertain, and the in- 

 habitants until quite a late period maintained that 

 they were not within the county of Durham.'"'" 



The churches of Fiartness and Tynemouth are 

 said to have been spoiled by the Danes in the year 

 800.^' Bishop Ecgred, who lived c. 830-46, gave to 

 St. Cuthbert's church his vill of BiUingham (q.v.) in 

 Hartness.''^ Regenwald the Dane invaded Durham 

 c. 923, and gave to one of his followers, Scula, lands 

 which extended from Eden to BiUingham — that is, 

 perhaps, the district of Hartness.'*^ When Malcolm 

 of Scotland invaded England in 1070 he occupied 

 Hartness and thence ravaged the lands of St. 

 Cuthbert.60 



Hart and Hartness became part of the Brus fee 

 by about liig."' Robert de Brus I died about 

 1 141 and was buried at Guisborough.*'' 



Between 1 1 46 and 11 51 a list of the vills in 

 Hartness, with the amount of demesne land in each, 

 was drawn up. In H.art there were 141 i acres of 

 demesne, and 108 acres which Roger de Camera 

 held of the demesne. The other vills mentioned 

 are Thorp (Bulmer), Elwick, Dalton (Piercy), 

 Stranton, Tunstall, Seaton (Carew) and Owton.'^ 



Robert de Brus had two sons, Adam, his heir, and 

 Robert, his second son, to whom he gave his lordship 

 of Annandale in Scotland. In the battle of the 



♦' Royalist Comp, P. Dtir. and Northumh. 

 (Surt. Soc), 25, 37, no. 



*' Surtees, op. cit. iii, 98. A Robert 

 Chilton WIS tenant at Dalton Piercy in 

 1569 (Exch. Misc. Bks. xxxvii, fol. 313), 

 and this Robert Chilton in 1607 (Ld. 

 Rev. Misc. Bks. cxcli, fol. 35, 71). 



'^ Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 23, fol. 4. 



*^ Surtees, op. cit i, cxxviii ; Dur. 

 Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 24 d. ; cl. 3, R. 92, 

 m. 16 d. ; Rig. Palat. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), 

 iii, 46 ; iv, 121 ; see Lansd. MS. 902, 

 fol. Zl^h et 8cq. 



<sa Cf. Pari. R. (Rec. Com.) iv, 430 ; 

 Exch. Dep. Mich. 28-29 Eliz. no. 13. 



'" Matthew Paris, Chran. Maj. (Rolls 

 Ser.), i, 367, 530. 



*' Simeon of Dur. Opera (Rolls Ser.), 

 i. 53. 



" Ibid. 209. 



'° Ibid, ii, 190, 



irgent a lion 



"-^ Dugdale, Moti. vi, 267 ; Guiihro' 

 Chartul. (Surt. Soc), paaim, 



^* Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 267, obit, of 

 Robert de Brus, 1 141 ; cf. Sim. of Dur. 

 (Rolls Ser.), ii, 312 (who gives 1142). 



" Guiihro' Chartul. (Surt. Soc), ii, 323. 



" Dugdale, loc. cit. 



*' Guiihro' Chartul. (Surt. Soc), ii, 

 322-4 ; Great R. of the Pipe 2-4 Hen. II 

 (Rec. Com.), 178. 



^* The date given by Simeon of Dur- 

 ham (ii 3ii). Cf. for the date of death the 

 FunJatorum Historia of Gisbrough Priory, 

 which gives it as 1167 (Dugdale, Mon, 

 vi, 267), but is an untrustworthy source ; 

 also a charter of the Archbishop of York 

 confirming a grant by Adam de Brus and 

 Ivetta his wife of the church of Thorp 

 [Hist, of Church of York [Rolls Ser. J, iii, 

 76), which seems from the witnesses to 

 be later than 1143, but vhich may not 



Standard (11 38) Robert the elder and Adam his 

 son fought on the English side, but Robert the 

 younger (called Le Meschin) was with the Scots 

 and was taken prisoner. King Stephen, however, 

 gave him into his father's custody. According to 

 tradition he complained on this occasion that he 

 could not get wheaten bread 

 in Annandale, whereupon his 

 father gave him the lordship of 

 Hart and Hartness in Durham 

 to be held of the elder branch 

 of the family, the lords of 

 Skelton in Yorkshire. ''= This 

 story is probably not authentic, 

 though it is certain that Hart 

 was held of the elder by the 

 younger line, who largely en- 

 dowed the monastery of Guis- 

 borough with property there." 



The overlordship of Hart was inherited by Robert's 

 eldest son, Adam, lord of Skelton, who married 

 Ivetta, daughter of William de Arches, and died in 

 1 143.** He was succeeded by his son Adam, who 

 married Agnes daughter of Stephen Earl of Albemarle. 

 The date of his death is uncertain, but it was before 

 the end of I 198, when his son Peter paid a fine for 

 his father's lands. '^ 



In 1200 it was agreed between William de Brus 

 of Hart (see below) and Peter de Brus, lord of 

 Skelton, that William should hold the manors of 

 Hart, Stranton, and Hartlepool of Peter for the 

 service of two knight's fees.'''^ Peter son of Peter de 

 Brus of Skelton,''' while the manor w.is in his hands 

 as guardian of Robert de Brus, a minor, disputed 

 the Bishop of Durham's right to wreck upon the 

 shores of Hartness, but lost his case (1228-37).°^ 

 After the death of the last Peter de Brus, lord o{ 

 Skelton in 1272,*-^ the overlordship was claimed by 

 the representatives of his sister Lucy, wife of Marma- 

 duke de Thweng, to whom the fee in Hartness was 

 assigned in 1281, and also by Walter de Fauconberg, 

 who married Agnes the eldest sister and co-heir, who 

 succeeded to Skelton. The king, in asserting the 

 rights of these claimants to the custody of the manor 

 after the death of Robert de Cliftbrd in I 3 14, came 

 into conflict with the Bishop of Durham.^' 



Robert de Brus II, lord of Hart, otherwise called 

 Robert le Meschin, married Euphemia, and died 

 about 1194."^ His son, Robert de Brus III,''^ had 

 died before 1 191,'^'''^ and Robert II was succeeded by 



be contemporary with the grants it con- 

 firms. 



*' Farrer, Early Torhhire Chaiteri, ii, I2. 



<» Feet of F. Northumb. Trin. i John. 



^* Dugdale, op. cit. 



« Reg. Palat. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 

 46-8, 60 ; see also Sadberge and Hartle- 

 pool. 



'-a Excerpia e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), 

 ii, 582 ; Cat. Inj. p.m. Hen. Ill, 265. 



^^ Reg. Palat. Dunelm. ii, 1050, 1059 ; 

 iv, 121, 129 ; Assize R. 225, m. i d, j Cal, 

 Close, 1279-88, p. 1071. 



^ Farrer, Early Yorkshire Charters, i-, 6 ; 

 Guisho' Chartul. (Surtees Soc), ii, 327 n. ; 

 Cal. Doe. Scotland, i, 32, 34, 35, 37-8, 39 

 (entries from the Pipe Rolls). 



** Cal. Dae. Scotland, i, 29, 107. 



"a This is assuming that the references 

 to Robert de Brus down to I 1 94 are to 

 Robert dc Brus the father and that Robert 



256 



