Historic Notices of Haughton Castle. 147 



bono servicio quod ipse me fecit," but the King reserves the pay- 

 ment of a sparrow-hawk or sixpence (sex denarios) atWerc in Tyn- 

 dal. To John, son of Reginald Prath,Williara the Lion confirmed 

 the grant made to his father, also giving an express exemption 

 from the former drengage service, for which one sparrow-hawk 

 of the first year, soarhawk (Nisum Soruni) had to be rendered 

 at the same place, Wark, which was then the important capital 

 of the Royal Liberty. Ranulph de Halvton, who assumed the 

 local name, seems to have succeeded his brother John in the pro- 

 perty, for we find that he made an agreement, undated, but 

 executed in the time of Henry II., that is, before a.d. 1189, with 

 William de Swyneburne respecting a ferry-boat to be maintained 

 at their joint cost across the river (super aquam de Tyna) from 

 Selburhalv in Ranulph's lands of Halvton and Swyneburne's 

 lands of Chollerton, still in possession of the Swinburn family, 

 called Scothalv (now Shotto). It is singular that the only public 

 ferry-boat remaining on the North Tyne still plies regularly to 

 the present hour on the same spot ; and it has probably done so 

 uninterruptedly for the long period of 700 years. 



"We are now introduced to a new page of the history of the 

 vill of Haughton and to a change of ownership which this joint 

 agreement foreshadowed, and to the era of the construction of 

 the castle itself. For between 1236 and 1245, during the 

 Shrievalty of Sir Hugo de Bolbeck, Reginald Prath, knight, 

 son of Ranulph, grandson of the first Reginald and the daughter 

 of Ranulf Fitz Huctred, whom we found early in possession of 

 the domain, sold his lands (totam terrain meam de Haluton), 

 with other possessions, to a personage of considerable power and 

 influence in that day, another "William de Swyneburn. Th e 

 grant specifies that the estate was to be holden of him and his 

 heirs of "Cnaresdale" by the payment of a pair of gilt spurs, 

 or twelve pence, at Pentecost yearly by the new owner, one of 

 the Capheaton branch of the family. There were other tran- 

 sactions between the parties : — in 1251, a loan of three marks of 

 silver is made from "William de Swyneburn to Reginald Prath, 

 knight ; and in 1256 the latter binds himself by an obligation to 



Yetlington, Callaly, and the half of Whittingham were held under this 

 tenure. Such lands were not subject to military service, but to tallages 

 (crown revenue paid by the King's own demesnes and of boroughs and 

 towns) ; to heriots (payments in lieu of the best chattel on the death of the 

 tenant) ; and merchets (fines for liberty to give a daughter in marriage.)" 



