STOCKTON WARD 



HARTLEPOOL 



In 1720 an order for viewing cattle stinted (i.e. 

 allowed to graze) upon the moor, similar to that for 

 horses, was made by the common council. Every 

 common burgess and burgess' widow had a right to 

 stint one horse and one cow on the common pasture."' 

 In 1834 the Municipal Commissioners found that 

 'each freeman being a resident householder has a 

 right of pasturage on the town moor for one cow 

 throughout the whole year and for one horse from 

 May Day to Martinmas.' The cattle depastured 

 must be their own property. The privilege is esti- 

 mated as being worth about ^^lo a year.'** While 

 the corporation was in abeyance from 1834 to 1841 

 many encroachments were made upon the common 

 fields. The aldermen nominated in the charter of 

 1841 were declared to have the privileges of freemen, 

 a discovery which caused much indignation among 

 the older freemen, but it had the good result that the 

 new corporation was directly interested in the settle- 

 ment of the problem of the town fields and therefore 

 accomplished it.°' 



By an action brought in 1841 against one of the 

 encroachers on common land they established their 

 right, and on 2 I May I 846 a committee w'as appointed 

 by the corporation to deal with the question of the 

 freemen's lands.'''" On 28 July 1847 the committee 

 presented a report, which, after stating the privileges 

 of the freemen, continued : — • 



This privilege of paiture has been much curtailed — the 

 pasturage of large tracts of lands called chares (being narrow 

 strips of land leading to the Moor and Farwell Field) and 

 formerly containing the richest and most luxuriant herbage, has 

 been destroyed by persons owning the adjacent property throwing 

 down the fence walls, and opening out and fronting their houses 

 thereon ; thus improving their own property at the expence of 

 the corporation, the freemen, and intiirectly of tire inhabitants 

 at large. The parties thus offending are a very numerous 

 body, and excuse their encroachments by saying that they were 

 made during the abeyance of the corporation between the years 

 1833 and 1841. 



The committee recommended : — 



That the Town Moor and the Farwell Field with all their 

 appurtenances should, for ever hereafter, be put under the 

 control of the municipal body, by whatever name it is to be 

 designated for the use of the town ; and held in common with 

 all other corporate property, to be appropriated in the best 

 manner for realising a revenue for the town, with a due regard 

 to the health, comfort and convenience of the inhabitants. 

 That every freeman and widow of a freeman whilst resident in 

 the borough of Hartlepool shall receive from the revenues of 

 the corporation an annuity of ^12 lor. secured by forgoing 

 every claim and privilege. . . . That all persons having inchoate 

 rights of freedom, as apprentices and the eldest sons of freemen, 

 shall be entitled to the same annuity as freemen .... on their 

 attaining the age of 21, all annuities to last only during 

 residence and to cease with the death of freemen and their 

 widows.' 



The committee also recommended that an applica- 

 tion should be made for an Act of Parliament to put 

 these resolutions into force, but owing to mutual 

 jealousy the governing body had much difficulty in 

 acting with the freemen, who were apt to raise their 



demands for compensation. In consequence of these 

 difficulties the Act was not obtained until 185 1. It 

 provided that the freemen should appoint a Pastures 

 Committee to manage the common lands while still in 

 the hands of the freemen, and to negotiate with the 

 corporation for the extinction of the freemen's privi- 

 leges. When the freemen had received full compen- 

 sation and the land had passed into the hands of the 

 corporation, the latter were authorized to build on 

 the Farwell Field and to turn the chares into streets. 

 The Town Moor was to be kept as a public 

 recreation ground, and not more than 3 acres of it 

 might be used for building sites. ^ Accordingly it is 

 the public recreation ground at the present day. 



The town possesses the matrices of three ancient 

 seals — the obverse and reverse of the common seal 

 and the mayor's seal. The first bears a hart at bay 

 in a pool with a hound on its back, a rebus upon the 

 name of Hartlepool ; the inscription is ' S. Com- 

 munitatis dc Hcrterpol.' The second bears in the 

 centre St. Hilda with a priest on each side of her 

 standing at an altar ; on each altar is a chalice, and 

 over each descends a pelican liolding a nimbed host 

 in its beak ; over these a sun and a moon ; the whole 

 under a canopy like a church with central tower and 

 low spire. The inscription is ' Subveniat Famul. 

 nobil. Hilda suis.' These designs are probably of 

 the early 13th century. The third seal is rather 

 later. It bears St. Hilda with a bishop on each side 

 of her, all standing on a lodged hart and under a 

 canopy of three gables. The inscription is ' Sigillium 

 Officii Maioris de Hertilpol.' All three are of brass.' 



The corporation also owns two maces and a loving 

 cup, presented by Henry Earl of Darlington, mayor 

 in 1818, and a chain presented by Alderman Grooves 

 in 1879. 



Markets were held in the 15 th century on both 

 Tuesday and Friday.^ The charter of Elizabeth fixed 

 Tuesday as the market day.' It was changed before 

 1720 to Monday and again between 1808 and 18 16 

 to Saturday.'" A corn market on Saturdays was 

 established in 1851. In 1866 a market was provided 

 by the corporation, but in 1883 it was discontinued 

 under the Hartlepool Borough Extension Act as it 

 had been carried on at a loss. The single yearly 

 fair, lasting for a fortnight, established in 1593' 

 became in course of time four fairs of one day each on 

 14 May, 2 1 August, 9 October and 27 November. 

 These fairs were much frequented by clothiers in 

 the 1 8th century, but were little attended at the 

 beginning of the next century." 



In a fishing town and trading centre like 

 Hartlepool shipbuilding must have been one of the 

 industries from early times. In 1299 the master of 

 the ' Navis Dei ' of Hartlepool was employed by the 

 king to carry victuals in his ships to the garrisons of 

 Stirling and Edinburgh.*-^ Merchant ships were often 



"' Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, 106. 



•* Munic. Corp. Com. Rtp. 1 83;, 

 Northern Circuit, Hartlepool, p. 1533. 



" Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, Supp.-7i. 



>»» Ibid. 71-2. 



' Ibid. 73-4. 



' Ibid. App. p. xiv et seq. ; Local and 

 Personal Acts, 14 and 15 Vict. cap. xvi, 

 printed in ibid. Supp. 



' Proc. Soc. Ani:q. NeiL'castle (New 

 Scr,), X, 370 ; Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, 

 II, 106; cf. Anct. Corrtsp. xviii, 85, for 



a petition of the mayor and commonalty, 

 1 326, with seal. 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Hen. IV, no. 37. 



* Sharp, Hiit. of Hat tlepool, App. p. viii. 



' Cox and Hall, Mag. Brit. (1720), i, 

 610; Carlisle, Topog. Diet.; Gorton, 

 Topog. Diet. ; Sharp, Hiit, of Hartlepool, 

 73 n., 121, i6(j n. 



' There were f.urs on St. Lawrence's 

 Day and the Feast of the Invention of 

 the Holy Cross in 1403 (Chan. Inq. p.m. 

 4 Hen. IV, no. 37). 



275 



* Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, 169 n. ; 

 Carlisle, op. cit. ; Gorton, op. cic. 



^a fVarJrohe Accounts of EJ'w. I (Soc. 

 of Ant.), 271 ; See Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, 

 p. 455. Hartlepool was a port for 

 Norway in the 13th century (Doc. Itlustr. 

 of Hist, of Scotland, ed. Stevenson, i, 133, 

 138, 145). In 12-5 the Bishop of 

 Orkney stayed there and astonished the 

 inhabitants with stories of the wonders of 

 Iceland, natural and supernatural [Chron. 

 de Lantrcost, 97). 



