Amble and Hauxley. By J. C. Hodgson. 113 



Algernon, Earl of Northumberland. A stall fishery in Coquet 

 water-mouth was in 1766 acquired by the Earl from MrZacharias 

 Tyzack, and another fishery was purchased from Mr Smith of 

 Togston. 



In the Eecord Office remain the papers connected with a 

 ChHUcery suit begun in 1735, about the Hauxley white fishery, 

 when Robert Widdrington claimed that time out of miud he and 

 his ancestors had enjoyed exclusive rights to the white and 

 lobster fishery from the [old] mouth of the Coquet to Bondicar 

 burn. Matthew Kirton, William Cresswell, Oliver Carr, 

 and Eadcliffe admitted Widdringtou's right, but denied his 

 exclusive right to fisli, and alleged that they too had fished 

 time out of mind. Widdrington also claimed to keep as many 

 boats as he saw fit, and to ground them on the shore whether his 

 own freehold or not ; also exclusive right to bait. The affidavits 

 disclose the following information : — that the Duke of Somerset 

 owned the salmon fishery, and his right was unchallenged : that 

 the common landing place for boats was on widow Clark's lands : 

 that Cresswell and Kirton had employed foreign or strange 

 fishermen to catch the lob8ter8(apparently for the London market.) 

 The defendants answered that there were several freeholders 

 whose lands are contiguous and adjoining to the sea, and that 

 each has a right of fishery in the seas over against his estate : 

 that the lands of Kirton, Clark, Carr, and KadcliflPe — 

 were so contiguous to the sea ; that defendant Cresswell's 

 lands were half a-mile distant; and that Widdringtou's were 

 divided from the sea by a link or coney- warren belonging to Ealph 

 RadclifPe : that within ten years, the last past, a certain ship had 

 stranded on the Bondicar liberty, being then the estate of Thos. 

 Carr, deceased ; that Widdrington had demanded and obtained 

 a payment of 68 8d®'' from the master of the ship for groundage, ' 

 which — on coming to his ears — Carr demanded and recovered from 

 Widdrington. That Widdrington was alleged to be steward or 

 manager for all such lobsters as were caught by the fishermen for 

 one John Cooper of London, fishmonger : tliat seven or eight 

 years before he had seized the nets of one of Cresswell's fisher- 

 men, who was fishing for lobsters on the main sea opposite 

 Hauxley ; was indicted at next Quarter Sessions at Morpeth, 

 when he submitted and paid his fees. That Wm. Cresswell had 

 in his employ 26 cobles to fish for lobsters upon the main seas 

 ^^ John Widdrington was a lawyer by profession. 

 V 



