T8 Mr Tate on Longhoughton, &c. 



was kept up as a place of refuge ; Clarkson in his survey 

 says — " The chirch and steple is the great strength that the 

 poor tenants have to drawe to in tyme of warre ; wherfor it 

 is ever neadfoull the same be for that and other causes kepid 

 in good reperations." 



Magna Houghton, or Longhoughton, with its church and 

 numerous body of small proprietors, was a place of no little 

 importance in the middle ages. A weekly market was held 

 opposite to the church, and tradition points out the spot 

 where the market cross stood, round which every corpse was 

 carried before being buried in the church yard. After being 

 lost for many years, it was discovered buried up in a smug- 

 gler's grave, and this weather beaten relic now crowns the 

 east wall of the church. 



These few notes I have strung together, as a prelude to 

 some curious extracts from the register of Longhoughton 

 Church, when it was kept by the Rev. George Doncan, who 

 was Vicar from the year 1696 to 1719. He had been pre- 

 viously curate of Alnwick parish ; where he was so highly 

 esteemed by the Common Council of that borough, that they 

 used their influence with the Duke of Somerset, to obtain 

 for him the Vicarage of Longhoughton. This register throws 

 light on "the opinions and character of the Vicar himself; for 

 as he records births, deaths, and marriages, he frequently 

 draws the characters of the persons who are buried, married, 

 or who have children christened. Of some of his parishioners 

 he speaks favourably ; but generally his pictures are dark 

 and unlovely. Forgetful of the charitable maxim, " de mor- 

 tuis nil nisi honum •,^'' he spares neither the dead nor the 

 living. Evidently he was dogmatic, of strong opinions, and 

 cynical, warmly attached to his own church, but with little 

 kindly regard to those who differed from him. As one hun- 

 dred and thirty-four years have passed away since the last 

 entry was made by this eccentric man, and as moreover, 

 almost all the families that are chronicled by him are now 

 extinct in the parish, we may, without offending any one's 

 feelings, cull a few of the peculiar records in this register. 



Thus does it commence — " Longhoughton. This register 

 begins from the year in which I entered the ministry of this 

 parish, which was Anno Domini 1696." The characters 

 given by him are enclosed in brackets, sometimes expressed 

 in Latin, and sometimes in English ; and as we shall see the 

 phraseology is exceedingly strong. 



In the earlier records, only a few individuals are charac- 



