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



Alnmouth, and along the coast, by the incessant firing of guns at 

 sea ; and fears were entertained of a landing being made by the 

 French. It was ascertained, however, that an engagement was 

 going on between two French privateers, one of 18 and the other 

 of 24 6-pounder guns, and the Content, a man-of-war of 20 guns, 

 commanded by Captain Roy ; which was in company with a 

 Grreenlandman, mounted with 14 six and four-pound guns. The 

 Greenlander took no part in the battle, but ran in close to the 

 shore. After a sharp engagement, which was visible to people 

 congregated on the shore, and lasted for two hours, the Content 

 beat off the Frenchmen, and compelled them to flee with all the 

 sail they could make. While the engagement was in progress, 

 two mounted cannons and a covered waggon were sent from Aln- 

 wick Castle to Alnmouth, accompanied by numbers of patriots 

 determined with all their might to resist the landing of the 

 French. An express was sent to Morpeth for the Huntingdon 

 Militia, who immediately beat to arms ; but another express 

 arrived with an account of the flight of the Frenchmen. One 

 man was killed belonging to the Content and two were wounded. 

 If the Greenlander had joined in the fray, it is supposed the 

 French privateers would have been captured.* [On the 23rd 

 September, Paul Jones appeared on the coast of Northumberland, 

 to the great alarm of the inhabitants. He lingered a whole day 

 on the coast. At 6 o'clock he appeared off Alnmouth, and at 8 

 took a brig. He then continued his course south, f Paul Jones, 

 when off Alnmouth, fired a cannon shot at the old church then 

 standing, but missed, the ball grazing on a small field east of 

 Wooden Hall. It struck the ground and rose three times, and 

 rent the east end of the hall from bottom to top. The ball is in 

 the possession of Roger Buston, Esq., of Buston, and weighs 

 68lbs.]+ 



Alnmouth Chapel was, in 1145, a dependency on Lesbury 

 Church, and dedicated to St. Waleric ; but that its history reaches 

 further back into Saxon times is proved by the discovery, in 

 1789, near to the ruins of the chapel, of the shaft of a Saxon 

 cross. It is but a fragment, 2 feet 10 inches in height, consist- 

 ing of two slabs of sandstone, covered with incised inscriptions, 

 and sculptues in low relief. One face represents the crucifixion, 



* Syke's Local Eecords, p. 316. Table-Book, ii., p. 261. 

 [ t Newcastle Journal, Sep. 25, 1779.] [ J Alnwick Mercury, Feb. 2, 1863.] 



