146 Historic Notices of Haughton Castle. 



in their own proper domains."* 



Haughton appears under a variety of names in early deeds, as 

 Halvton, Haluton, Haluchton, etc., all referring to the original 

 Anglo-Saxon ton, the palisaded homestead first, afterwards the 

 village, on or near the low-lying ground, Norse haughland, by the 

 river. From ancient muniments, royal charters, and other docu- 

 ments still in the possession of Sir John Swinburne, Bart., the 

 lineal descendant of the probable builder of Haughton Castle, 

 and recorded for us by Hodgson (History of Northumberland, 

 vol. i., part iii. Eecords),t we find that Eanulf, or Eandulphus 

 Fitz Huctred (filius Huctredi), granted one-third of the vill of 

 Haluton to Eeginald Prath of Tyndale, esquire of William the 

 Lion, King of Scotland and Lord of the Liberty of Tyndale, with 

 his daughter in free marriage. The Praths or Pratts were Lords of 

 Knaresdale, in South Tjmedale, and the name still occurs in the 

 district to this day at Bardon Mill and elsewhere. King William, 

 in a deed dated at Maiden Castle (Edinburgh), October 4th, 1177, 

 confirmed this grant to Eeginald Prath and freed him at the same 

 time by an expressed exemption from all the drengage service 

 which the former owner Eanulf had been accustomed to do. 

 This drengage was a tenure said to have been peculiar to the 

 old Saxon, or rather Anglian, kingdom of Northumberland. 

 The person was free, but he held under servile conditions, which, 

 however, could be performed by members of his family, or by 

 substitute. Drcngaghan, from which it is said our English word 

 "drudge" is derived, was thus far above Bondagium the con- 

 dition of villeins.;]: The grant to Eeginald and his heirs was "pro 



*"The Sessions and Liberty of Tynedale," held at Wark, in the 13th 

 century, [Scottish, 1279, First Court ; — English, 1282-3, Second Court]. 

 By Edward Charlton, M.D.. Nat. Hist. Trans, of Northumberland and 

 Durham, New Series, vol. i., p. 168. See also "Feudal and Military Anti- 

 quities of Northumberland and the Scottish Borders." by the Her. C. H. 

 Hartshorne, M.A. ; chap, ii., pp. 74. 75. 



t Art, 1, pp. 1-25. 



+ See Spelman's " Glossarium," p 227(1626) sub rocibvA. "Drenches, 

 Drengns, Drengaginm ;"- " Sunt igitur Drenches, vassali quidam militares, 

 vel nt nostri forenses loquuntur, Tenentes per servitium militare"- where 

 r.he subject is fully discussed and illustrated. Compare also " History of Alu- 

 wick," by George Tate, F.G.S., vol. i.. pp. 93, 94. "The word [drengh] is 

 one of Danish origin, from dreogau, to do, to work : the Norwegian cabin- 

 boy is still called the rohiii-drriiijh • and we owe to it the English term 

 drudge, which is applied to one who performs the meanest kind of labour. 



