69 Rev. R. W. Bosanquet, A.M., on Rock Hall. 



and there fought for king Charles the 2nd for ten years after 

 the Restoration ; yet it appears that he had subsequently a 

 permanent residence here of 35 years, from 1670 to 1705, 

 in the course of which, so active a man may well be supposed 

 to have employed himself in building and planting and other 

 domestic works ; as, indeed, either he or some other of the 

 family must have done in the course of that century, other- 

 wise the very old trees which my father was obliged to cut 

 down, to the number of nearly 1000, I believe, mostly ash- 

 trees, when he first came down, and which were even then 

 too old for good use, as well as those pretty numerous old 

 trees which still remain, could never have been planted. 

 They certainly were not planted in the course of the last 

 century, for the place was a desert. 



A word or two may be added here upon the more recent 

 history of the mansion, i. e., since the death of Col. Salkeld 

 in 1705. He was succeeded by the family of Proctor, then 

 of Shawdon. John Proctor was the head of the family ; and 

 he appears to have carried out a marriage in 1695 between 

 his own eldest son Thomas, and Elizabeth the grand-daughter 

 of Col. Salkeld ; at which time it also appears that the Proc- 

 tors nearly or quite bought out Col. Salkeld's interest in the 

 Rock estate, excepting so far as his possession of the mansion 

 and a provision for himself during his life were concerned ; 

 and they also got power to settle the estate upon themselves 

 in tail male, in the place of Shawdon, which they then no 

 doubt released. Thomas Proctor had nine children ; he 

 states himself to have greatly improved the estate, viz. , from 

 £330, which was its annual value in 1695, to above £600 

 annual value in 1715, the time at which the act was applied 

 for. (See the Act of Parliament).* However, he seems very 



* Amongst the papers connected with the Rock estates there is the copy of an 

 Act of Parliament " to enahle Thomas Proctor of Rock, in the County of North- 

 umberland, Esqr., to raise the sum of four thousand pounds for payment of his 

 dehts and making provision for his younger children," in the preamble of which 

 it is recited that " in the year 1695, in consideration of a marriage then lately 

 had and solemnized between Thomas Proctor, and Elizabeth grand-daughter of 

 the said John Salkeld, and of the sum of two thousand pounds, advanced and 

 paid by the said John Proctor to or for the said John Salkeld, and other con- 

 siderations therein mentioned. * * * John Salkeld, late of Rock, in the 

 County of Northumberland, isqr , John Proctor, late of Shawdon, in the said 

 county, gentleman, Martin Fenwick of Eglinghara, in the said county, gentle- 

 man, and Elizabeth his wife, did grant and convey unto John Clennel and 



John Story, gentlemen," the Mansion and Estate of hock for different temporary 

 uses, the result of which wou'd be the entailing of the whole on the heirs male of 

 Thomas Proctor and Thomas Fenwick. 



