A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



them in internal matters such as managing the Poor Law. Already, in 

 1644, the reeve, or greeve, had become a mere collector of the lord's rents, 

 or agent for the repair of bridges and highways. 1 



The state of the county during the Civil War was very bad. Every- 

 where we find the same tale of falling rents and decaying estates. The two 

 mills of Wolviston and Wynyard only brought in a rent of 28 in 1644, and 

 a few years earlier the rent was 42. 2 This was not the worst case, nor is it 

 uncommon to find an entry like that under Kelloe, where the tenants of one 

 holding offered 60 rent instead of the usual i 16, and showed billeting and 

 sesses which exceeded the rent for the previous year. 8 The tenants of Kepier 

 complained that the horses of the troopers had trodden down all the crop they 

 had not eaten. 4 Even the County Committee was moved with pity at last, 

 and in May, 1 647, reported to the Central Committee in London 6 that the 

 land was exhausted with great and sad oppressions, and that their credit 

 had been exhausted in procuring supplies for the different armies, and in 

 other expenses. After explaining that the royal and episcopal lands were all 

 sold, and that the dean and chapter's lands were overcharged with stipends, 

 they add : 



The cry of the county is ' What, shall we still pay sesses and have none in the House 

 for us to grant them ? Shall we be ready to perform service for the state and bear unequal 

 burdens and still be without the state's protection ? No laws can be executed for recovering 

 debts but in a poor County Court under 40;. No bargain or estate of lands here confirmed 

 because fines cannot be acknowledged. No thieves, murderers, robbers or felons punished 

 here because no assize is held in this county ; the number of prisoners increases and the gaols 

 are so thronged that the country is hardly able to maintain them and they themselves cry for 

 help. The sufferings of this county have been above those of any other and no repara- 

 tion . . . even for the ^26,000 disbursed to the Scots in their first expedition six or seven 

 years ago.' 



The commissioners at times give us curious peeps at the home life 

 of the delinquents, and the inventories of their household possessions must 

 be referred to. Dr. Joseph Naylor, parson of Sedgefield, was as usual a 

 farmer, and his stock consisted of five kine, five oxen, one bull worth 

 ^14 13^-. 4</.; four sheep hoggs and five ewes, 1. In his parlour two 

 chairs and stools 14^. 6</., two little tables and livery cupboards, 13^.; one 

 old ' sute of rawde stuff hangers,' los. ; in the chamber above the 

 parlour one pair of tongs, 6d. ; one bedstead with feather bed and 

 furniture, i ; six chairs and two stools, js. ; one 'sute of rawde stuff 

 hangers,' i os. In the chamber over the hall one trundle bed with furniture, 

 5-r.; one little bed with furniture, 6s. In Mrs. Naylor's chamber one 

 trundle bed with furniture, i os. ; one little table and three chairs, 5 s. In the 

 high chamber one bedstead with feather bed and furniture, 6s.', one cupboard 

 and a flock bed, 5 IQJ. In the kitchen one dripping-pan, one frying-pan, 

 one pair of iron racks, three spetts, one brass pot, one kettle, thirty pieces of 

 pewter with some other implements, i IDS. In the milkhouse one churn, 

 twelve milkbowls, 2 skeels, 3 cheesefatts, one dozen and a half of trenchers 

 with some other small implements, 4*. Sum total 23 6j. 6 It is somewhat 

 startling to find that the worthy parson had no books of any kind. Other 

 inventories of laymen, chiefly Papists, follow, but actual ' furniture ' was far 



1 Royalist Comp. (Surtees Soc. cxi), 1 8, zo. ' Ibid. 15. * Ibid. 31. 



4 Ibid. 212-21. * Ibid. 40-1. 8 Ibid. 25. 



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