ANTIQUITIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. SS9 



ground ; three miles from Wark-worth, and four from Alnivick. 

 It is a fmall, well built town. The principal export is corn, kept 

 in large granaries, the largeft, perhaps, in the county ; the im- 

 port, JVbrwrtr-timber, and goods from London, Holland, and other 

 places. On a hill, clofe by the fea, is the ruin of a church, 

 which has been in the form of a crofs. The church-yard is ilill 

 ufed as a burial-ground ; on the eaft fide of which, bones of a 

 very uncommon fize have been warned out by the fea. The tide 

 flows about a mile up the river, to the village of Lesbury, where 

 is now the parilh-church. The river is eafily crofled on horfe- 

 back at ebb-tides. A new mip, of near 300 tons, was built and 

 launched at this port on Wednefday, 1 3th March, 1765-, fuppofed 

 to have been the firft ever built at it. 



A little beyond the turnpike-gate above mentioned, is the an- 

 tient town of 



Alnivick, which at the conqueft was the barony of a young lady, 

 the daughter of a noble Saxon, William Tyfon, ilain in the defence 

 of the liberties of his country, and of his fovereign, K. Harold, at 

 the battle of Hajlings (a). The victorious Norman, K. William I, 

 difpofed of her in marriage, with this barony, and her baronial 

 inheritance of Malt on, in York/hire, to one of his favourite lords, 

 fvo de Vefcy (bj. His daughter and heir, Beatrix, was given in 

 marriage by K. Henryl, with both thefe baronies, to Eujlace Fitz- 

 John ; father of William, grandfather of Eujlace, great grand- 

 father of William, and great, great grandfather of John de Vefcy-; 

 who fucceflively held the barony of Alnvuick of the king in 

 capite by the fervice of xvm knights fees of the old feoffment (c): 



The 



i . * 



(a) Dugd. Monaft. Angl. vol. ii. p. 592. (b) Ibid. 



'; 



(c) Eujiachius de Vefcy tenet in capite c'e Domino Rege Baroniam de Alnewick, per fervi- 

 cium xviii feod. milit. et prseterea tenet Bodill et Splnle/ion; fcilicet duas vilhs et molendi- 



nuai- 



