Amhle and Hauxley. By J. C. Hodgson. 119 



have stamped hard hedds, and could bring it to no perfection, and 

 thereupon I put them in a place called the Cokett Jland, and 

 there was the space of twenty days and more, and yet could not 

 bring it to no perfection that was good, and having made thereof 

 to the value of ten pounds, I took the same and threw it away, 

 and caused them to swear on a book that they should never use 

 that art again, and so they and I departed and had never more 

 to doo."»<» 



A Civil War Tract, after relating other doings of the Scots in 

 Northumberland, says "they have taken the isle of Cocket, and 

 the garrison thereof, with 70 commanders and other common 

 soldiers, 7 peeces of ordnance, and all their ammunition, and 

 have placed a garrison of their own men thereon."'"^ 



Possibly about this time the island became the property 

 of the Widdringtons. 



The following curious account of some of the old inhabitants 

 of, or dwellers in the island, is from a French source. 



" Les Tryon etaient allies aux Coquet, barons de la Roche de Gainipa, 

 etc., en Gnienne, qui se disaient, eux, venus, de I'ile de Coquet sur la c6te 

 de Northumberland. De Coqukt : d'azur h un chevron d'or accompagne 

 en pointe d'nn coq. de meme, crete et barbe de gueules, et un chef consn 

 de gueulea, charge de deux etoiles d'argent."'"^ 



In 1730 the isle was uninhabited, though there were remains 

 of houses and the tower : there was a seam of coal near 

 the clay, a yard and a-half thick. A coin of the Emperor 

 Valerian had not long before been found.^"^ 



In 1747 Bowen'*^ writes "Coquet Island lies at the Mouth of 

 the River of that Name, where was anciently a castle with a 

 Monastery : but both have been long demolished, and here are 

 no Habitations but Hutts for the Diggers of Sea-coal,'"^ of 



^"^ State Papers quoted in Richardson's Rare Newcastle Tracts, No. 4. 



"" A true Relation of the Scots' taking of Cocket Island, 1644, London, 

 printed for Andrew Coe according to order : reprinted in Richardson's 

 ' Newcastle Tracts.' 



'"■^ Les Ecossais en France, etc., par. Francisque Michel, Londres, 1862, 

 p. 457 ; a reference given to the writer by Dr Hardy. 



'"•^ Materials for the History of Northd., by Rev. John Horsley, p. 27. 



'"* Complete System of Geography. By Emmanuel Bowen, London, 

 1747, Vol. I., p. 207. 



'"* Leland says "The Isle of Coqaet standeth upon a very good 

 vayne of secoles, and at the ebbe, men digge in the shore by the 

 olives and find very good." Itinerary, Vol. vi., p. 67- 



