zanced for securing £200 and interest to Mary Westol, of Monkwearmouth Shore, widow, and Robert Ingram Shafto, of Bishopwearmouth, gentleman, their respective executors, administrators, or assigns, in the parts or shares following (that is to say), £120 to the said Mary Westol, and the remaining sum of £80 to the said R. I. Shafto, and subject thereto, in trust for the said John Hardcastle, his heirs, sequels in right, and assigns.

By surrender dated Dec. 1, 1819, the said John Hardcastle surrendered to William Oswald, of Deptford, Kent, Esq., all the same premises as in the surrender of Feb. 24, 1815, and by the same description. To have to the said William Oswald, and his sequels in right, according to the custom of the court, rendering &c. And he was thereupon admitted tenant. Defeazanced subject to the £200 and interest to the said W. Oswald, and subject thereto, in trust for the said John Hardcastle, his heirs, sequels in right, and assigns for ever.

April 20, 1820, the said Anthony Snowball, John Price, of Monkwearmouth Shore, labourer, and Mary Price, his wife (late Mary Westol, widow), and the said Robert Ingram Shafto, surrendered to the said William Oswald, all the same premises as in the surrender of Dec. 1, 1819, and by the same description. To have to the said William Oswald, and his sequels in right, according to the custom of the court, rendering, &c. And he was thereupon admitted tenant. Defeazanced for securing to the said William Oswald the sum of £200 theretofore secured to the said Mary Westol and R. I. Shafto, as a transfer, and subject thereto, in trust for the said John Hardcastle, his heirs and assigns for ever.

June 30, 1828, Thomas Oswald, of Lewisham, Kent,

Esq., eldest son and heir-at-law of William Oswald, deceased, was admitted to all the same premises, and by the same description, which the said William Oswald had in right whilst he lived. To have to the said Thomas Oswald, and his sequels in right, according to the custom of the court, rendering, &c And he was thereupon admitted tenant.

July 1, 1828, the said John Hardcastle and Thomas Oswald surrendered to Philip Laing, of Deptford House, Bishopwearmouth, shipbuilder, all the same premises and by the same description. To have to the said Philip Laing, and his sequels in right, according to the custom of the court, rendering, &c. And he was thereupon admitted tenant. Defeazanced in trust for securing, raising, and paying, to the person or persons entitled to the prin cipal sum of £200 heretofore owing by the said surrender of April 20, 1820, with the interest attending the same, and subject thereto, the premises comprised in the above-written surrender were declared to be in trust for the said Thomas Oswald, his heirs, sequels in right, and assigns for ever, who had purchased the said premises of the said John Hardcastle for £490, and which said surrender was so made to the said Philip Laing and his sequels in right, in consideration of £170 paid by the said Thomas Oswald to the said John Hardcastle, and of the sum of £120 so due from the said J. Hardcastle to the said Thomas Oswald, which said two sums of £170 and £120 make, together with the sum of £200 remaining secured on the said premises, the sum of £490.

April 20, 1848, by the second of two surrenders, the said Thomas Oswald and Philip Laing surrendered to Richard Rhodes, of Greenwich, Kent, Esq., all the same

premises as in the surrender of July 1, 1828, and by the same description. To have to the said Richard Rhodes and his sequels in right, according to the custom of the court, rendering, &c. And he was thereupon admitted tenant. Defeazanced in pursuance of a covenant contained in a certain indenture, bearing even date with the said surrenders, and made between the said Thomas Oswald of the one part, and the said Richard Rhodes of the other part, and subject to the proviso or condition therein contained for the redemption of the same premises on payment by the said Thomas Oswald, his executors, administrators, or assigns, unto the said Richard Rhodes, his executors, administrators, or assigns, of the sum of £500 and interest.

On the 2nd December, 1839, the late Bishop of Durham (the Right Rev. Dr. Maltby), described in the lease as lord of the manor of Houghton, and Mr. Oswald leased part of this copyhold to the Durham and Sunderland Railway Company, for 99 years, at the yearly rent of ninety-one pounds, one pound payable to the Bishop, and the remaining ninety pounds to Mr. Oswald; this lease was abandoned by the successors of the Railway Company, by virtue of a clause in it, when the coal staiths, which covered this copyhold, were removed from the Low Quay, after the opening of the Sunderland Dock. During the continuance of the Railway Company's lease, the yearly rent of five pounds was paid by them to the commissioners under the Sunderland Improvement Act, for the liberty of covering the public carriage road and footpath at Hardcastle's Quay with their coal staith. Mr. Oswald, in 1852, again, with the concurrence of Bishop Maltby, in the same manner and form, leased the

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whole of his copyhold to the Rev. James Everett, late a Wesleyan Minister, at a reduced yearly rental.

888

Pursuant to the following notice, an adjourned halDAVISON. mote court was held in the county court room (formerly the School of Industry, and subsequently the Assembly Hall), Upper Sans Street, for the first and only time in this borough, on Thursday and Friday, the 23rd and 24th days of October, 1851, before Joseph Davison, Esq., of Hallgarth

Street, Durham, deputy of Alexander Atherton Park, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, steward of the manor.

Manor of Houghton,

IN THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN,-That an adjourned HALMOTE COURT of the Right Rev. Father in God, Edward Lord Bishop of Durham, Lord of the said manor of Houghton, is appointed to be holden at the County Court Room, in Sans Street, Bishopwearmouth, within the said Manor, on Thursday, the twenty-third day of October instant, at Ten of the Clock in the Forenoon of the same day, and all Copyholders and others, who owe Suit and Service at the said Court, are required to be and appear at the time above mentioned, to perform the same as anciently they have done, upon pain of amerciament. JOSEPH DAVISON,

Deputy Steward of the said Manor.

Exchequer Office, Durham, 8th October, 1851."

The court was well attended by the members of the legal profession, including Messrs. Robert Smart, Joseph John Wright, John Kidson, George Smith Ranson, Robert Brown, William Allison, Anthony John Moore, Joseph Young, William Moore, Thomas Thompson, James Septimus Robinson, John Hutchinson, &c., &c.

Mr. George Whitfield, Greeve of Wearmouth, opened the Court by the following proclamation

Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!

"All persons who owe suit and service, or have anything to do at this Halmote Court of the Right Rev. Father in God, Edward Lord Bishop of Durham, holden here this day, for his manor of Houghton, before Joseph Davison, Esq., deputy steward, let them come forth and they shall be heard."

Mr. Ranson, solicitor, then came forward and stated. that Mr. J. J. Wright and himself had been appointed at a meeting of legal gentlemen, held last night, to attend the Halmote Court for the purpose of looking after and watching over the interests of the copyholders. He would like, therefore, to know, before any business was proceeded with, what course was meant to be pursued in that court. The deputy-steward stated, in reply, that all information would be given in the remarks he was about to make. Mr. Davison then proceeded as follows:

"Previous to calling the names of the copyholders of the manor of Houghton, who have their copyholds in Sunderland, Bishopwearmouth, and Bishopwearmouth Panns, I beg to state that this adjourned Court of this manor has been held for their convenience, and that the Court now holding is called the Halmote or Copyhold Court, and is the court of the lord of the manor, where