A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



was done, for in 1647 the castle was 'ruinous and in 

 great decay,' the moat was partly filled up, the orchards 

 anJ gardens within the moat destroyed and the park 

 had been disparked. The castle demesnes included a 

 ' meadow or park ' and Smithy Hill and orchard, both 

 'under the castle wall,' and other fields and inclosures, 

 about 370 acres in all, including the Great Summer 

 Field and the Winter Field." The castle is said to 

 have been destroyed in 1652 in accordance with an 

 order of the House of Commons, and the site is now 

 known by the names of certain streets — Castlegate, 

 Tower Street and Moat Street. A small portion 

 called a barn remained till the middle of last century,^' 

 and portions of the old wall may still be seen in 

 Castlegate. A the.itre has been built on part of the site. 

 The date of the formation of the 

 BOROUGH borough of STOCKTON is not known, 

 and no ch.irter exists. Its sharply 

 defined limits, originally it would seem including only 

 the houses on both sides of the High Street and the 

 tofts of land on which they stood,^** indicate a com- 

 paratively late formation. The borough did not exist 

 at the time of Bishop Pudsey's survey of I 184, Stock- 

 ton being then apparently an agricultural manor. 

 In 1197 it was tallaged as a ' villata,' " but in 

 1283 when the bishopric, during a vacancy, was in 

 the king's hands, the tallage of the borough of Stock- 

 ton as well as of the bondmen was .iccounted for 

 at the royal exchequer.^" In 1307 the borough was 

 again in the king's hands,'^ also in 1311.^' On the 

 former occasion the rent of the borough for three 

 terms was 23/. and for two terms i is. 312'.*' In 1310 

 Bishop Bek granted a market and fair to the town, 

 without, however, mentioning the burgesses.'^ 



The earliest indication of the constitution of the 

 borough is obtained from an account of the customs of 

 Newcastle sent to the Mayor, bailiff and burgesses of 

 Stockton for their guidance by the Mayor and bailiffs 

 of Newcastle in 1344. This may be taken to show 

 that Stockton, like Hartlepool, claimed the same 

 customs as Newcastle. Briefly the customs mentioned 

 were these '' : — 



1. Merclinndise arriving at Newcastle was to be sold by the 

 merchants between sunrise and sunset. 2, A burgess if a *host* 

 was not to buy of his guest if a stranger. 5. No burgess was to 

 buy before the goods were technically * in port,' i.e., until after a 

 plank had been laid to the ship. 4. A merchant who was not a 

 burgess could buy only of a burgess. 5. The mayor and sounder 

 part of the commonalty could make orders for the good of the 

 town. 6. A burgess, and a burgess's son, miglit have mill and 

 oven and measure. 8. A burgess might grind corn where he 

 pleased. 10. A burgess might bequeath purchased lands freely. 

 The other rules concerned the sale of fish and herring and of bad 

 provisions, prohibited forestalling, and asserted the usual freedom 

 for a serf who had resided in the borough for a year without 

 being claimed. 



The second of these clauses suggests the existence in 



Stockton of a company of host men corresponding to 

 that of Newcastle, but no other evidence on the subject 

 has been found. The next document which throws 

 light on the history of the borough is Bishop Hatfield's 

 survey made about 1382.^'' From this it appears that 

 there were two classes of burgesses, both paying a rent 

 to the bishop and owing suit at the borough court held 

 every three weeks. The first class consisted of the 

 burgesses actually living in the borough, the other of 

 burgesses outside the borough with an interest in a 

 burgage tenement. There were forty-six such tene- 

 ments, the normal rent being 6d. or 8c/. Most of the 

 out-tenants had only a quarter of a burg.ige each, while 

 several of the in-tenants had one or two. The bur- 

 gesses were free of toll throughout the bishopric except 

 in the wapentake of Sadberge. All the profits of the 

 borough, including tolls, perquisites of court, fines for 

 alienations, forfeitures, the toll called ' towirst ' and the 

 burgage rents, were let for ^5 6s. Si/, to Richard 

 Maunce ' and his fellows.' Richard Maunce was a 

 burgess, but it does not appear that he was acting on 

 behalf of his fellow-burgesses, who never, so far as is 

 known, farmed the borough in common. Several 

 leases to individuals occur in the 14th and early 15th 

 century, the earliest on record being that of 1358, 

 when Walter Denand and Henry Het leased the 

 borough for a rent of j[^.^^ The rent in 141 9 was 

 £4 6s. Srf'.'^ Later the normal practice was for the 

 borough to be held by an officer of the bishop called 

 ' bailirt" of the borough.' He was also ' keeper of the 

 manor,' and received a fee of £6 13/. ^d.''^ In the 

 time of Bishop Shirwode (1484-94) a detailed account 

 was given of the receipts from the borough. They 

 amounted nominally to £6 os. 6d., but there were 

 ' decayed rents ' of 6s. %(/., the farm was 1 1 ■^s. \d., 

 perquisites of court came to 5/. 4a'., and fines of various 

 burgesses to 103/. jil.^'^ The bailiff of the borough 

 paid 60/. in 1493-4.*^^ To judge from the practice 

 of the igth century it was the custom for the bishop's 

 bailiff to attend at the borough court already men- 

 tioned, in which the mayor presided and the burgesses 

 were ' the jurors.' *- 



In 1602 the Mayor and burgesses of Stockton peti- 

 tioned Bishop Matthew for a renewal of the grant of 

 market and fair, and received in return a charter 

 recognizing them as the municipal body under that 

 style.''' There is no charter of incorporation from 

 the Crown. 



About 1620 the Corporation put forward a claim 

 to the dues paid by ships coming into port. The 

 bishop, however, proved his right to these dues called 

 anchorage and plankage ; they had been paid to him 

 in the time of Henry VI, and the staith at which 

 ships discharged, then in decay, was in the outer court 

 of the bishop's castle.''' The bishop then gave a lease 



**' Surtecs, op. cit. iii, 172. 



^^ There is a view in Brewster, Paroch. 

 Hist, of StQcktori-upon-Tees, 22. 



*■■ "There are plans of 1724 in Rich- 

 mond's Lociil Records and of 1796 in 

 Brewster's Hist, oj Stockton, 



<'■' Madox, Hist, of Exchcq. i, 714; 

 Surtees states that the bailiff of the 

 borough was also keeper of the castle and 

 that the earliest known was Thomas de 

 Middleham in 1259 (op. cit. iii, 171). 

 'John called the bailiff of Stockton' 

 occurs about 1300, but the borough is 

 not named (Egerton Chart. 530). 



*" Pipe R. 1 1 Edw. I, m. 2. 

 ^' Pari. R. (Rcc. Com.), i, 205. 

 '•- Reg. Palat. Dundm. (Rolls Ser.), 

 iv, 89. 



■'' BolJoii Bk. (Surt. Soc), p. xxxviii. 



^^ Brewster, op. cit. 27. 



^■' Ibid. 28 et seq. 



^^ Hatfield's Surv. (Surt. Soc), 164, 



.67- 



■'" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 12, fol. 206 d. ; 

 see also ibid, no, 14, fol. 19. 



^' Ibid. p. 1075. 



^' Dep. Keeper's Rep. rxxvi, App. 

 38, 143; xl, App. 484; Brewster, op. 



354 



cit. 24. Two bailiffs of the borough 

 occur in 1475 {Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxv, 

 104). 



^" Eccl. Com. Dur. Rec. no. 220199. 



°' Ibid. no. 220197, '°'' 2'- 



^-' Dur. Rec. cl. 5, no. 6, ni. 22 (6) ; 

 Manic. Corp. Com. Rep. (1835), App. 

 pt. iii, 1729. 



" Brewster, op. cit. 51. The list of 

 mayors collected by Ritson, and communi- 

 cated to Brewster, begins in 1495 with 

 Robert Burdon (ibid. p. 81). 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 1;, no. fi, m. 22 ; cf. 

 m. 43. 



