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



The old name was W olden, from the Anglo-Saxon Weald, 

 woodland, of which the present name is a corruption. 

 Richard de Emeldon, who died in 1333, besides other pos- 

 sessions, held land in Walden which passed to John de Stri- 

 velyn, who had married Jane, his third daughter.* Through 

 other marriages, Strivelyn was connected with the families 

 of Middleton and Swinhoe ; and, when he died, many of 

 his possessions " including one tenement and the third part 

 of a tenement and forty acres of land and meadow in Wolden 

 (Wooden) on socage tenure," became, through a settlement, 

 the property of John Middleton and his wife Christiana ; 

 and these estates were in the possession of Christiana in 1421. 



The family of Thompson held Wooden for more than half- 

 a-century. According to the court rolls the heirs of John 

 Thompson had lands in Wooden in 1656 ; Mr. Henry Thomp- 

 son is in 1663 rated for it at the value of £60 ; in 1693, the 

 heirs of John Thompson and William Brown, Esq., were 

 owners o± Wooden ; and in 1704 it was held by Thomas 

 Thompson and William Browne, Esq. Ralph Lazenby of 

 Hexham, voted for it at the election of members for the 

 county, in 1722 ; and John Gill, living in Edinburgh, voted 

 for it in 1774. 



[At the Alnwick Sessions of 1682, "Mrs. Margaret Bell 

 and her son Mr. Samuel Bel], of Wooden, were presented to 

 be dissenters. — soe reputed."-!*] 



BILTOK 



Bilton vill or township, on the south-west part of 

 Lesbury parish, has an area of 138a. 25 perches; viz. — 

 land, 1337 - 641a., public roads, 16'250a., railway, 22'685a., 

 water, 5'576a. 



It was held in the thirteenth century on military tenure, 

 from William de Vescy, by Herveus de Bilton, by service of 

 one fee of ancient feoffment, (that is before the day of the 

 death of Henry I., AD. 1135). It was held in 1289, by 

 Henry de Bilton,| by service of one fee and an yearly rent 

 13s. 4d., being then worth £13 yearly ; and in 1346, by 



[* By an Inquisition of 1364, Christiana, wife of Sir "William de Plumpton, 

 but first married to Kichard de Emeldon, had held besides many other 

 places, " "Woldon, Alnemouth, Lathebury." Hodgson, vol. i , pt. iii , p. 82.] 

 f Hist, of Alnwick, ii, p. 160. 



[J "William de Bilton, along with Michael Haukhille, signs a charter of 

 Eustace de Vescy, to Alnwick Abbey.— Hist, of AlnwicK, vol. i., Appendix, 

 p.x.] 



