450 Lesbury Parish, by the late George Tate, F.G.S. 



Of the value of Lesbury church in the olden times, there 

 are a few notices in the public records. 



When Pope Innocent IV. made in 1254, a taxation on Eccle- 

 siastical property, Lescebury with its chapels was estimated at 

 £100 yearly ; about 1291 the value is put down at £70 yearly.* 

 InKellaw's register about 1312, Lescebury rectory with its chapels 

 of Alnewyk, Houghton, and Alnemouth are valued at £105 4s., 

 and the vicarage at £10 4s. ; and in 1341, when a royal tax was 

 collected, the church of Letybery, with the chapels Howton, 

 Alnwick, and Alnemouth, with the vicarage of Letybery and the 

 ninth of corn, wool, and lambs, of the parish of Letybery were 

 assessed at £76 13s. 4d. ; and so assigned to Lord de Percy, by 

 the Bishop of Durham and Ealph de Neville, f 



After the Reformation, the corn tithes of the townships of 

 Lesbury, Hawkhill, and Bilton, were, according to a paper survey 

 made JUec. 23rd, 1539, let to Sir Cuthbert Katclif, knight, and 

 were declared worth £12 6s 3d., by the year. The tithe fish 

 coming by the cobles, going upon the sea at Alnmouth, were 

 worth yearly £6 13s 4d; and the tithe fish of salmon got in the 

 Ale water, were worth 10s. ; and both were let to Ratcliff. The 

 Minister's Accounts of the 31st and 32nd of Henry VIII., notice 

 eight tenements in Lesbury, belonging to the Abbey, yielding 

 an yearly rental of 35s 4d. Two parts of the fishing from 

 the west end of Alnemouth Church to Alnwick Mills, and from 

 the aforesaid church to the sea, were demised for 40 years, at 

 53s 4d. yearly, to George Carr of Lesburie, and Eliz. Hereford 

 of Barne Yards. Out of the Church of Lesbury, 12s were payable 

 yearly to the Archdeacon of Northumberland. These rentals 

 were little more than nominal, for they were far below the real 

 value of the property, which, however, still belonged to the crown, 

 till 1634, when Charles I. granted to Francis Morrice and Francis 

 Phillips, the tithes of grain, parcel of the rectory of Lesbury, 

 arising in the towns of Lesbury, Hawkhill, and Bilton, at the 

 rent of £12 6s 8d yearly, which was paid to the crown till 1652, 

 when the fee-farm rents of the- district were sold to John tweet- 

 ing, citizen and stationer, London. Belonging also to Alnwick 

 Abbey, were eight tenements in Lesbury, one each held by the 

 following; — John Slegge, at an yearly rent of 7s., William Wat- 

 son, at 3s. 4d., John Legge, at 2s., Robert Shepherde, at 7s., 

 William Grey, at 7s., Thomas Thompson, at 2s., John Watson, 

 at 5s., Robert Harrison, at 2s. At Alnmouth were two tene- 

 ments, one held by Robert Pigdon, at a rent ol 10d., and the 



* Taxatio,Jan. 13th, 1291. 

 [f Nonarum Inquisitiones, temp. Edw. iii — Temp. Elizabeth, 1577, Vicar- 

 age Lesburie £8 2s 1 0d, (£26 alias £40 added in the middle of the 17th century.) 

 — Barnes Originalia.— In 1535, Lesbury Vicarage, valued at £6 2s 10d., the 

 tenths 6s 3£d —Dickson's Alnmouth, p. 38.— In 1547, the Archdeacon's fee 

 from Lesbury was 13s 4d. — Ibid. p. 44.] 



