A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



The principal events in the history of the place 

 are noticed in the accounts of the manors and the 

 church. The Protestation of 164.1 was signed hcre.^ 



The Wesleyans and the Primitive Methodists had 

 preaching rooms in Long Newton in 1833*; the 

 present Wesleyan chapel dates from 1 90 1. The 

 Wilson Church Institute was built in 1887. 



LONG NEirrON was probably early 

 MANORS a member of the barony held by the 

 Balliol family. The service for it was 

 claimed by the Bishop of Durham because it belonged 

 to the wapentake of Sadberge. In 1 231 John de 

 Balliol came to an agreement with the bishop 

 by which he was in future to hold it as to one 

 moiety by the fourth part of a knight's fee and as to 

 the other moiety by a rent of ;^io.' This diJ not 

 end the disputes, for in 1254 some of Balliol's men 

 seized the church of Long Newton and were excom- 

 municated and arrested ; in return some of the 

 bishop's men were seized and imprisoned in Barnard 

 Castle.^ Long Newton and Newsham were given 

 by the younger John de Balliol to Bishop Antony 

 Bek shortly before his forfeiture' in 1295. The 

 vill of Long Newton was then worth £l^.o ji. i !</., 

 including j^io a year which had been granted to 

 Alan de Tccsdale.'" There were some tenants by 

 knight's service.il Two ploughlands had been held 

 by William de Falderley by grant of Devorgil de 

 Balliol ; after William's death about i 299 Bishop Bek 

 gave them to Ralph son of William (afterwards de 

 Greystock), who gave an annuity of ^^5 a year 

 therefrom to Gilbert Hansard.'- The reeve of 

 Long Newton is mentioned in 1307, and the vill is 

 accounted for in the bishop's roll of the following 

 year.'' Before 131 5, however, it must have been 

 claimed successfully by the Earl of Warwick, holder 

 of the barony of Balliol, who died seised of it in i 3 i 5. 

 His free tenants were Walter Cyrzei, holding by 

 the twelfth part of a knight's fee, suit of court and 

 5/. ^d. rent ; Peter Cyrzei by the twelfth part of a 

 fee, suit and 6s. %d. ; Thomas del Spens by the 

 twenty-fourth part of a fee, suit and 6s. Sd. ; John 

 de Bermeton by the twenty-fourth part of a fee, suit, 

 2/. and 1 lb. of pepper rent ; Margery de Croft by 

 the twenty-fourth part of a fee, suit and 1 3/. 4/ ; 

 Thomas de Denton by suit and 81/. ; Beatrice de 

 Berwick by suit and i6<j'. rent.''' 



The heir being only a year old the estates re- 

 mained long in wardship. The minister's accounts 

 of 1318 show that /18 8/. 6J. was received from 

 the tenants of 17 oxgangs of land held in demesne, 

 ;^8 from the windmill at Long Newton and the 

 water-mill at Newsham in EgglesclitFe, 26s. i id. 

 from demesne meadows, 57/. id. from free tenants, 

 £2^ 5/. 9./ from the twenty bond tenants for 43 

 oxgangs of land, i acre and the common oven, and 



43/. ^d. from sixteen cottars ; a certain custom of 

 brewing rendered 6s. Sd., the perquisites of courts, 

 59/. ^d., I lb. of pepper and i lb. of cummin, i 3 J/ — 

 £61 8s. I i^d. in all." The windmill needed repairs, 

 and Elizabeth de Umfravill, Countess of Angus, who 

 had £^0 a year from Long Newton, '° was liable for 

 half. In 1324-5 the free tenants paid 40/. at 

 Martinmas and 6s. lld. at Pentecost; Caldecote, 

 which was rented at 1 3/. ^d. and was perhaps the 

 holding of Margery de Croft, was waste. The 

 pound of pepper from John de Bermeton was worth 

 li^d. The bond tenants paid ^^15 o/. ^d. ; other 

 rents are recorded, and also the cottars' names. 

 The poverty of the tenants by reason of the 

 destruction caused by the Scots accounted for various 

 declines in the receipts ; there was nothing from the 

 bracinage. Perquisites of courts yielded 4/." 



The holding continued to descend in the same way 

 as Barnard Castle and the other members of Gainford. 

 In 1384 the bishop had j^io from the Earl of 

 Warwick in Long Newton, the old rent of half the 

 vill, and 70/. from lands of John de Balliol,'" perhaps 

 in Newsham. After the final forfeiture by Edward 

 Earl of Warwick in 1499'' it was held by the Crown, 

 being gr.inted out at various times ; for example, to 

 Dudley in the time of Edward VI,™ and by Edmund 

 Nevill ' otherwise Earl of Westmorland ' to Robert 

 Carr Earl of Somerset in 1 614.-' It was also included 

 in the grant to Charles Prince of Wales. -^ 



A Crown receiver's roll of 1552 shows that the 

 nominal rents of Long Newton were £^2 los.6^d., 

 and of Cirkland j^l I 11;. lid., but the 'decays' 

 amounted to as much as ^27 19/. j^d. No courts 

 had been held during the year.-' 



Court Rolls of the time of James I are preserved 

 in the Public Record Office.^-' 



In 1628 the lordship of Barnard Castle, &c., was 

 sold by the Crown to Edward Ditchfield and others, 

 the sale including the rents of assize of the free 

 tenants and all lands in Long Newton.^' This 

 estate was no doubt acquired with the rest by Sir 

 Henry Vane the elder.-'' He seems to have given it 

 to Sir George Vane, his second son, who made it 

 his seat and when recording his pedigree described 

 himself as 'of Long Newton ' in 1666.-' He had 

 been knighted by Charles I in 1640,^* and married 

 Elizabeth daughter and heir of Sir Lionel Maddison 

 of Rogerley. He was Sheriff of Durham in 1645,^^ 

 and treasurer of the committee of the county. 

 He died in 1679, and was buried at Long 

 Newton.'" His eldest surviving son Lionel, 

 who in January 1 680-1 married Catherine 

 Fletcher," succeeded, and about 17 10 was followed 

 by his son George. At the death of George in 

 1750 the estates descended to a son Lionel, 

 who died unmarried in 1793.'^ His brother, 



^ Hilt. MSS. Com. Refi. v, App. 125. 



* Mackenzie and Ross, ^ii'w of co, 

 fatal, of Dur. ii, 62. 



' Surtees, Ilitt. and Anti(j. of co. Palat. 

 of Dur. iii, 212, quoting a copy in the 

 Hunter MSS. 



* Rot. Lit. Claus. 39 Hen. HI, pt. i, 

 m. 7 i. 



' Rtg. Palai. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 799. 

 I" Ibid. 



" Ibid. 801 ; Peter de'Tyre2'(Cyreze) 

 and others. 



" Ibid, ii, 800 ; iii, 31. 



'^ Bohion Bk. (Surt. Soc), p. xxxiii. 



" Cal. !,ij. p.m. (Edw. II), V, 406, 

 412. 



'■• Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bile. 835, 

 no. 2. 



"= Cal. Pal. 1313-17, p. 567. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 835, no. 4. 



"> Haljicld's Surv. (Surt. Soc), 198. 



^^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xvi, 7. 



*" Pat. 4 Edw. VI, pt. vii ; 7 Edw. VI, 

 pt. viii. 



" Dur. Rec. d. 2, no. 2 (3). 



'- Pat. 14 Jas. I, pt. XX. 



300 



»' Harl. R. (B.M.), D 36, m. 13. 



" Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 171, 

 no. 7. 



^ Pat. 4 Chas. I, pt. xxxiii. 



" See Cal. S. P. Dom. 1636-7, p. 108. 



" Foster, Dur. Fisii, Pcd. 315. 



" Shaw, Kis. of Engl, ii, 208. 



'' P.R.O. List of Sheriff:, 42. 



*'^ Surtees, op. cit. iii, 214. 



^' Foster, loc. cit. ; Hisi. MSS. Com. 

 Rep. xii, App. vii, 396. 



" Pedigree in Surtees, op. cit. iii, 214 ; 

 Musgrave, Ohit. (Harl. Soc). 



