An Account of Lesbury Parish, by Geo. Tate, F.G.S. 2. r >7 



officer of the customs at Embleton, in the port of Berwick." 

 There were also casualties on land. Nov. 3, 1777, the stackyard 

 of Foxton Hall, near Alnmouth, was burned down, not without 

 suspicions of incendiarism ; upwards of 20 stacks of corn, mostly 

 wheat, being destroyed in the conflagration.* During a hurri- 

 cane, 9th Jan., 1839, half of the houses in the town were un- 

 roofed, f Among modern improvements, we find that on April 

 24, 1857, an elegant bridge on the Aln, at Alnmouth, erected at 

 a cost of £1,900, was opened for traffic .J At Foxton Hall, 

 which he rented from the Duke of Northumberland, resided 

 during his latter years, Mr Thomas Bennett, a man who held a 

 high position as a land agent, and who, for 39 years, had the 

 management of the Duke of Bedford's estates, and in this responsi- 

 ble situation earned the title of being " one of the best men of 

 Bedfordshire." Mr Bennett was the son of a wine merchant in 

 the then little old borough of Morpeth, being born there in 1803. 

 In early life he became a farm pupil with "William Jobson, of 

 Chillingham Newton, who was one of the earliest improvers of 

 Shorthorns. After remaining with Mr Jobson for some years, 

 Mr Bennett became the tenant of Hebburn Bell. John, Duke of 

 Bedford, happened at that time to be on a visit to Lord Grey, at 

 Howick, whither he had gone for the express purpose of seeing 

 the farming of Tweedside. His Grace expressed a wish to have 

 a report of what he had seen, and Mr John Grey, of Milfield, 

 acceded to the request. From the circumstance of the Duke's 

 visit may be dated the removal of Mr Bennett to Woburn ; for 

 his Grace was impressed with what he saw of Tweedside arrange- 

 ments, and requested Mr Grey to recommend to him a gentleman 

 who would undertake the Bedfordshire agency, and he recom- 

 mended Mr Bennett. Mr Bennett had, for some years, the 

 management of the Thorney and Wansworth estates, as well as 

 Dorsetshire, in conjunction with his work in Beds and Bucks. 

 He retired in 1868, and was succeeded by Mr Christopher 

 Stephenson, the present agent. Mr Bennett died at Foxton Hall, 

 on the 1 1th, aged 73 years, and was buried at Lesbury, on the 

 15th January, 1877. Mr Bennett enjoyed a substantial pension, 

 granted by the late Duke of Bedford, to the day of his death. 

 Mr Bennett was a man of large views in the management of the 



* Table-Book, vol. ii., p. 254. 

 t Ibid. vol. v., p. 103. % Latimer's Local Kecords, p. 396. 



