202 Mr. J. C. Langlantls on Old Bewick. 



any of that popular excitement which attended the dissolution 

 of the smaller houses. The members were pensioned, and 

 the assent of the nobility and gentry purchased by a share of 

 the spoil. The lower classes bitterly lamented the advan- 

 tages of which they were deprived. Durham was preserved 

 for ecclesiastical purposes ; and Tynemouth was regarded as 

 an alien — a cell of S. Alban's. 



The surrender of the priory is dated 12th January, 1539 ; 

 these surrenders are all in one form, and there is reason to 

 believe that although the signatures of the monks purport 

 to be attached, they were not subscribed by themselves. 

 The joint assent could only be manifested by the common 

 seal. The king's agents thought to give] stringency, as 

 against the members themselves, by this private consent. 

 To the prior and his fellow sufferers a trifling allowance for 

 life was granted out of their own property. In 1551, 

 Dudley, earl of Warwick, created duke of Northumberland, 

 obtained from Edward VI. a grant of the possessions of 

 the priory, yielding out of the demesne lands to the king 

 £15 15s. 6d. yearly, subject to a lease to Sir Thomas Hilton. 



In the' account of Sir Thomas Hilton, knight, the farmer 

 of the demesne lands, late in the possession of the priory, 

 with divers tithes and other commodities, is this — 



Bewyle — Eents of tenants — Hobert Collingwood the Bailiff 

 there, renders account of xx s. for an yearly rent of assize of 

 Thomas Legh, Doctor of Laws, master of the Hospital of Burton 

 Lazars, for their lordship or lands of Harop, and of xiij s. and 

 iiij d. for a fee farm rent of Outhbert Ogle Clerk, due to the king 

 for lands and tenements in Eglingham which he lately purchased. 

 And of xxij £ — s. viij d, for rents of farms and 29 copyhold ten- 

 ants in husbandr}^, holding lands, messuages, cottages, meadows, 

 feedings and pastures (Bewyke Magna township) demised to 

 them by the late Prior of Tynemouth by copy of Court roll, in 

 the various parcels and at different rents including £xxj. — s viijd. 

 for the farm of a Water Corn Mill, then in the tenure of Eobert 

 Collingwood. For the rent of a close called "Le Awney"* 

 containing two acres of pasture, he answers not, because it is 

 occupied by the Bailiff as part of his fee — as in the time of the 

 Prior of Tynemouth, nor for the rent of a dovecote within the 

 site of the manor, also occupied by the Bailiff, nor for any 

 profit accruing from the fai'm of the Stone Tower there, because 

 it is kept entirely for the defence of the inhabitants of the Lord- 

 ship in time of war. — He also answers for New Bewyke township 



* The field still bears the name of the Atom Close. 



