242 An Account of Lesbury Parish, by Geo. Tate, F.G.S. 



in an agreement made in 1529 between the merchants and bur- 

 gesses of Alnwick, and the surveyor of the Earl of Northumber- 

 land, the former covenant to make a weir or haven in Ailemouth, 

 on condition, that the Earl would supply sufficient wood for the 

 purpose, and that the Earl's tenants carry the wood. 



In the Royal Survey of 1569, by Hall and Humberston, the 

 account of Alnmouth is of interest. Nearly all the property con- 

 sisted of free burgage tenements paying small quit rents, two 

 only were copyholds ; one, ten acres of land lying in the fields of 

 Lesbury, held by Eoger Harrison, according to the custom of 

 Cockermouth, at a rent of 10s ; the other, one tenement and sixty 

 acres of land and meadow of the vill and fields of Alnmouth, held 

 by George Clark, at the rent of 60s. There were 61 burgages, 

 two of them of considerable extent. Eichard Midlum held one 

 tenement and burgages at the rent of 1 9s ; he died at Alnmouth, 

 in 1582, and in accordance with his will was buried in Alnmouth 

 church. He was descended from Loretta del Boteric, daughter 

 of Galfrid de Goswick ; and she held property in Alnmouth prior 

 to 1396. Her daughter and heir married John de Midelham, 

 and from them- in succession came Thomas de Midelham, who 

 died before 1433 ; and John de Midelham. Thomas Midelham, 

 who followed, was born at Wooperton, baptised at Bewick 

 chapel, and died in 1582 ;* besides his property in Alnmouth he 

 had other estates ; his farmhold of Glanton he sold to Roger 

 Procter, of Shawdon, for 40 marks ; to his son, John, he left one 

 farmhold at Groswick ; another to his daughter Isabella, and 

 housesteads to his other daughters ; and all the residue of his 

 lands, including those of Alnmouth, to his grandson, George 

 Mydlam ; who married Barbara, daughter of John Carr, of Les- 

 bury, Esq., and died in 1586. Agnes, daughter and heir of 

 George Midlam, who was two years old in 1587, married 

 Ephraim, the second son of Francis Armorer, of Belford, Esq., 

 and they had two children, a daughter Margaret, and Ephraim, 



[ * In 1504, " Thomas Medelam, of Ailmouth, gentleman," gave up to the 

 Prior and Convent of Durham, his right of patronage of the Chantry of the 

 Blessed Virgin and St. Margaret, in the parish church of Holy Island, which 

 he affirmed his predecessors, owners of the estate of Goswick, had always 

 held. — Eaine's North Durham, p. 148. Mr Tate's information about this 

 family is derived from the History of North Durham, pp. 182, 183, where 

 there is a pedigree, See also in addition, p. 185. In 1624, the daughters of 

 William Swinhoe, late of Ailemouth, are mentioned. Ibid. p. 158, note.] 



