SESSIONS OF TIIE LIBERTY OF TYNEIULE. 169 



paid sixpence annually for a dam across the water there. After 

 the forfeiture of Tindale by John Baliol the manor was, in 1297, 

 bestowed by Edward I on the Bishop of Durham. Within the 

 last few years, two most important documents have been dis- 

 covered in the Record Office, relating to the proceedings of the 

 judges at the Royal Courts of the Franchise of Tindale held at 

 Wark in the thirteenth century. One of these is of the date of 

 1279, under the rule of Alexander III, of Scotland, and the 

 other in 1282-3, when the Libeify of Tindale had returned under 

 the English Crown. In the first Court, 1279, there presided 

 Thomas Randolph, Symon Eraser, Hugo de Peresby, and David 

 of Torthorald, all justices itinerant of Alexander III, King of 

 Scotland. In the Court held at Easter, 1293, we find English 

 judges sitting, all well-known names in Northumberland — Walter 

 de Cambo, Guiscard de Charron, and Hugo Galun. The record 

 of the sitting of this Court was called the Iter or Journey, as the 

 judges were termed the Justices Itinerant. The first Iter of 

 Wark has already been printed in the Newcastle volume of the 

 Transactions of the Archaeological Institute ; but besides being in 

 Latin, the work is one accessible to few but members of that 

 society. The second or English Iter of 1293 has only recently 

 been found, and the only copy of it exists in MSS. in our hands, 

 and will shortly be published in the Newcastle Antiquarian So- 

 ciety's Transactions. These records, as has been w r ell observed by 

 the late Rev. C. Hartshorne, "represent the condition of the inha- 

 bitants of Tindale at the period with vivid colouring, and are most 

 valuable histories of the district, since they exhibit the tenures of 

 land which were then common, the names of proprietors and ten- 

 ants, names, in numerous instances, still prevalent — the terms of 

 their occupancy, the nature of vassalage, the rights of the Crown, 

 and its powers of fine and amercement, its prerogative of mercy, 

 the well-regulated mode of trial by an assize, and the establish- 

 ment of a jury." The great family of the Swinburne's held in 

 the thirteenth century the lands of Chollerton, which they now 

 possess, as well as those of Haughton and Humshaugh. William 

 de Swynborne was treasurer to Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 

 and in high favour with that Que^n. Another powerful family 



