336 High Buston. By J. C. Hodgson. 



The Wilkinsons were probably descended from Thos. Wilke- 

 son of Nether Buston, wbo by his will dated 1587, proved 1588, 

 desired his body to be buried within the parish church of Wark- 

 worth : to his wife Agnes he gave the third part of his goods : 

 to his second son Robert the interest and tenant right of his 

 farmhold : to his daughter Dorothy ' 5 shepe,' mentions his third 

 and fourth sons Geo. and Thomas : to his eldest son "William he 

 devises ' one cow and a boull of malt.' The latter evidently 

 already farmed elsewhere : he may have, by marriage or other- 

 wise, become possessed of a High Buston copyhold,'" and thus 

 the forelder of the long line of Wilkinsons, who farmed here 

 until 1863, and whose history has been already given in the 

 account of Low Buston, in which township, as well as in those 

 of Wark worth and Alnmouth, they were freeholders. 



THE FEEEHOLDERS' MOIETY. 



Buston's Portion. 



Tradition has ascribed the settlement of this ancient family 

 here to the gratitude of King John to the bystander who used 

 his local knowledge, and helped to extricate him from the bog 

 on Alnwick Moor (later called St. Margaret's Well) and through 

 which the king ordered every Alnwick freeman to pass, before 

 taking upon him the full benefits of his freelege. 



In the Muster Roll we have seen men of this surname in both 

 the townships, and in 1567 Clarkson records that Thomas Buston 

 held an eighth part of the township. 



In 1622 Roger Buston of Overbuston, yeoman, made his will 

 (proved at Durham 1623) and directed his body to be buried 

 within the parish church of Warkworth : he devised to Elizabeth 

 Buston, his youngest daughter, 3 oxen : to his daughter Annas 

 Buston, 2 stirkes. " I will that my granddaughter El. Robinson 

 have a gimmer, and her sister Ann Robinson another, and her 

 sister Margaret Robinson another gimmer :" wife Margaret 

 and son Roger, executors, Inventory, £22 8s. In 1638-9 Roger 

 Buston of Buston, gent., occurs in the list of Freeholders in 



^ " Leases of lands which by some unknown process had been trans- 

 muted from copyholds into farmholds, granted by the Duke of Somerset; 

 to the Wilkinsons of Buston reserved payment of rent hens." — Tate's 

 Alnwick, vol. i., p. 267. 



