A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



there are fords near Neasham village called High 

 Wath and Low Wath. 



The soil is various, with clay in some places. Two- 

 thirds of the land, i.e., about 2,600 acres, were arable 

 seventy years ago,' but now the agricultural land is 

 divided into 1,015 •''crcs of arable, 2,270 of perma- 

 nent grass and 279 of woods and plantations.* Barley 

 is grown, also potatoes and turnips and fruit. Bricks 

 used to be made near Croft and draining-tiles at 

 Skipbridge. There was formerly some weaving of 

 linen cloth, and the red sandstone in the river bed 

 was worked.' 



An old subscription pack, the Hurworth Foxhounds, 

 has kennels about a mile north of the village.' There 

 are rifle targets in Neasham. 



There is a village hall and reading room, built in 

 1864. 



The Tees being liable to sudden and violent floods, 

 there used to be a man appointed to 'warn the 

 water,' i.e., to give the inhabitants lower down the 

 river notice when a flood had reached Neasham.' 



The history of the parish has been quite uneventful. 

 Of the families holding manors in the parish in the 

 1 3th and following centuries only the Chartenays are 

 known to have resided here.' Neasham was probably 

 the place where Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, 

 in her bridal journey to Scotland in July 1 504, 

 paused on her way from Northallerton to Darling- 

 ton : ' She was met by Sir Ralph Bowes and Sir 

 William .Aylton, well appointed, with a fair company 

 arrayed in their liveries, to the number of forty 

 horses, well appointed and well horsed. In the said 

 place of [Neasham] was the said queen received with 

 the abbess and religious with the cross, without the 

 gate ; and the bishop of Durham gave her the cross 

 for to kiss.''" At the Dissolution the 100 acres of 

 demesne lands of the priory lay scattered among the 

 common fields ; the house had a grange at Little 

 Burdon, a tenement and a cottage or messuage in 

 Neasham, while close by the gate of the house stood 

 nine cottages, probably for the labourers.'"^ Among 

 Neasham place-names in the 1 7th century were 

 Haire close, Tan flatts, Middleton Mouth and Little 

 Ox closes.""' 



Six Hurworth men joined the Northern rising of 

 1569, and one of them was executed." The pro- 

 testation of 1 64 1 was signed here." 



The chief celebrity is William Emerson, a mathema- 

 tician. He was the son of Dudley Emerson, a school- 

 master, and was born at Hurworth in 1 70 1 . Educated 

 at Newcastle and York, he afterwards took pupils at 

 Hurworth, and then devoted himself to mathematics. 

 He died at Hurworth in 1782 and has a monument 



in the church. His wife died two years later ; there 

 were no children of the marriage." 



A parish council elected in each of the townships 

 of Hurworth and Neasham regulates local affairs. 



Names of certain portions of the 16th-century 

 common fields have been preserved, for among the 

 lands assigned to the maintenance of the church 

 lights were buttes in the Greendike within the 

 Castle field, buttes in Crakehall Dike, an acre in 

 Goslinge Myres and an acre in Skiton." 



The Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists 

 have chapels at Hurworth, and the former have another 

 at Hurworth Place (Croft), built in 1870. 



There was a school at Hurworth before 1770, 

 when it was refounded. 



HURirORTH, which was in the 

 MANORS wapentake of Sadberge,"^ was held in 

 the 1 2th century in thegnage with 

 Hepple in Coquetdale, Northumberland." The 

 earliest thegn of Hepple whose name is known is 

 Waldef, whose daughters held land, apparently of their 

 father's gift, in Hurworth and Neasham.'" Waldef's 

 son William was the tenant in 1 161." He was 

 succeeded before 1 177 by his son, another William," 

 who left three daughters and co-heirs. Of these 

 Elizabeth married William Bardulf, who in 1200 

 paid 30 marks to hold the Northumberland lands 

 for one knight's fee instead of in thegnage." Hur- 

 worth continued to be held by a money rent. Accord- 

 ing to the 14th-century inquisitions the tenants 

 also owed the service of custody of the gaol at 

 Sadberge.'" 



In 1206 the king authorized the marriage of Eliza- 

 beth widow of William Bardulf with Ivo Tailbois, 

 who was chamberlain of Robert de V'ipont." Ivo 

 and Elizabeth and Elizabeth's sisters held the thegnage 

 lands in Hurworth in i 2 i 2 for a rent of 60/." The 

 sisters married Richard de Chartenay and Roger de 

 Butemont respectively, who performed their service 

 by the hands of Ivo." The name of Elizabeth wife 

 of Ivo Tailbois occurs in I 21 1 and Ivo in I 21 3." 

 In 1218-19 it W.1S found that the marriage of the 

 widow of Ivo Tailbois was in the king's donation and 

 that she had married Nicholas de Farendon." 

 Shortly afterwards it was stated that Robert Tailbois 

 ought to be in the king's wardship, but his mother 

 held the land and haJ made fine for his custody." In 

 1229 Roger de Butemont claimed in Hepple against 

 Nicholas de Farendon, Elizabeth his wife, Richard 

 de Chartenay and Maud his wife." About 1235 

 Nicholas de Farendon and Elizabeth held the lord- 

 ship of Hepple in her right." Roger de Butemont 

 held a third part of Hepple of Nicholas and Elizabeth, 



* Lewis, Tofog. Diet. 



* Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



* Lewis, op. cit. 



' y.C.H. Dur. ii, 398. There were 

 otter hounds for a time (ibid. 403). 



* Mackenzie and Ross, yie'zv of Co. 

 Dur. ii, 41. 



' See below. 



'» Leland, Co!!, iv, 275. The name 

 is misspelt Hejtham. 



">' Harl. R. D 36. 



"""Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 436, 

 no. 3. 



"Sharp, Mem. of Rihellion of 1569, 

 251. Robert Browne of ' Nysham,' gent., 

 was indicted (ibid. 229). 



'" Hilt. MSS. Rep. V, App. 125. 



*^ Diet, Nat. Biog. j Fordyce, op. cit. 

 499. 



'* Aug. Office Particulars for Leases, 

 61e 34, no. 59 ; Pat. zz £liz. pt. vii, 

 m.4. 



'^a Rent, and Surv. (Gen. Ser.), 1012, 



" Pipe R. 6 John, m. 4. 



'* See below. 



" Pipe R. 7 Hen. //(Pipe R. Soc), 24. 



1* Ibid. 23 Hen. II, 84; 25 Hen. II, 

 28 ; Gt. R. of tie Pipe, i Ric. I (Rec. 

 Com.), 241. 



>= ReJBi. ofExe/i. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 563 ; 

 Rot. de Ohlaiii et Ftn. (Rec. Com.), 61 ; 

 Rot. Cane. (Rec. Com.), 57 ; Testa de 

 Nevil! {Rec. Com.), 395. 



*" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 76, 92. 



286 



" Rot. Lit. Claui. (Rec. Com.), i, 71. 



" Teiia de NeviU, loc. cit. They are 

 here described as the heirs of Walter 

 Fitz Gilbert, evidently a confusion due to 

 the fact that Walter Fitz Gilbert's barony 

 of Bohun had fallen to co-heiresses at 

 about the same time, 



" Ibid. 



'* Bo!don Bk. (Surt. Soc), pp. xv, xx. 



'^ Teita de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 391 : 

 Ca!. Doc. re!, to Scot!, i, 128. 



« Testa de NeviH, loc. cit. 



>' Ca!. Pat. 1225-32, p. 283. Roger 

 was constable of Tonnay, near Rochefort 

 {Ca!. Close, 1227-31, pp. 428-9). 



>» Testa de Neviil (Rec. Com.), 384, 

 389. 



