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



afflicted London* in the reign of that sovereign, reached to Les- 

 bury; and occasioned a considerable mortality in our village. 

 Those of its inhabitants who were infected with the dreadful 

 disease, were removed to tents, which were erected for their re- 

 ception in the neighbouring moor — there our pious, and vener- 

 able pastor attended them with great assiduity ; — he consoled 

 them with his prayers offered for them to the throne of grace ; 

 and assisted in procuring such medicines as their malady requir- 

 ed." (p. 154.) He has also some particulais about one of his 

 daughters and her husband, which are curious, and not gener- 

 ally known. " I have been industrious, he says, but in vain, to 

 find the spot where this venerable clergyman was buried. His 

 grand-daughter was buried in the northern extremity of the 

 church-yard, opposite to my parlour window ; and it is not im- 

 probable that this was the place of his interment. I had her 

 tomb-stone taken up, as I supposed that some inscription might 

 have sunk, through time ; but no letters were found. On the 

 top of it is the name of William Gair, who died on the 27th of 

 May, 1749. This man married the grand-daughter of Patrick 

 Makelwian. She kept a school in the house which is now the 

 poor-house of the parish of Lesbury. The best recollected char- 

 acteristic of her memory is, that she was a terror of a school- 

 mistress ; a female Busby in severity ; but not, I apprehend, in 

 learning. William Gair, her husband, was a carpenter; and 

 in one instance, he exercised his profession in a very remarkable 

 way. He made a coffin for himself, and another for his wife ; 

 which were lodged in his house many years before either of 

 them died." p. 152.] 



During the Commonwealth, a survey, usually called the 

 Oliverian Survey, was made of the Northumberland churches in 

 1650 ; regarding Lesbury it says : " That the parish of Lesburye 

 is a viccaridge, the late Bishop of Durham patron thereof, Mr 

 Patrick Macklewyen serveth the cure there, and the said vicca- 

 ridge is of the yearly value of thirty and five pounds ; that the 

 chapel! of Aemouth belongeth to the said parish, and it is fitt 

 that Shilbottle Towne, Whitt'al, and Woodhouse be united and 

 added to the said church of Lesbury."f 



William Coxe next appears as vicar in 1663, and he was suc- 

 ceeded on Jan. 11th, 1666, by John Falder, who at the same 

 time held the vicarage of Shilbottle; " a man of good learning 

 and unblameable life." The Rev. Will, Fenwick, A.M., follows 

 in 1673, and his name occurs in an agreement in 1688 ; he also 

 at the same time held Shilbottle. The Bev. James Forster was 

 inducted vicar in 1691 ; he also held Shilbottle ; he died in 1712, 

 [* The plague ravaged London in 1665.— Evelyn's Diary.] 

 f In 1661, August 14, Edward Shepherd, George Wardle, John Morrow, 

 Wm. Brown, were the old churchwardens ; Alex. Page, Edw. Wood, John 

 Murray, and William Armourer, were the new churchwardens. — Viiitation, 



