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"It is lawful for any burgess to have his oven and handmill, saving the right of the lord bishop.

lads, across which one of them is mounted, beating an old kettle or pan with a stick. He at the same repeats a speech, or what they term a nominy, which, for the sake of detailing the whole ceremony, is here subjoined :—

"With a ran, tan, tan,

On my old tin can,

Heigh tinkle, how tinkle,

Heigh tinkle tang.

'Tis not for my fault nor thy fault

That I Ride the stang

But for Mrs.

and her good-man.

She bang'd him, she bang'd him,

For spending a penny when he stood in need.

She up with a three-footed stool;

She struck him so hard, and she cut so deep,

Till the blood ran down like a new stuck sheep!"

This doggerel is varied as circumstances may require, and is always accompanied by what is called "rough music," that is frying-pans, kettles, bull's horns, marrow-bones, cleavers, and other equally melodious instruments. Several instances occur of riding the stang in Sunderland, amongst the most remarkable are the following:--At the close of the first American war, the sailors of Sunderland, being relieved from the fear of impressment, got liberty to go on shore. Having been supplied with the names of those persons who had informed against them and others to the press-gang, on the 13th February, 1783, they assembled in a great body, and went to the houses of the informers, some of whom had left their homes. Those they found were mounted on a stang and carried through the principal streets, exposed to the insults and assaults of an enraged populace, the women in particular bedaubed them plentifully with dirt, &c. Some constables interposing, had their staves taken from them, and themselves beat. About six o'clock in the evening their numbers had so increased, that the drummers of the North York Regiment of Militia (the Black Cuffs) quartered in the town, beat to arms, the regiment paraded the streets, and the mob dispersed; but the next morning they assembled in greater numbers, and were proceeding to extremities, when the military again appearing with two magistrates at their head, the whole dispersed. Amongst the informers stanged at this time, was Jonathan Coates, of Arras's Lane, Sunderland, commonly known as "Jotty Coates," who, after undergoing severe punishment on the stang, reached his home nearly dead. During the night he heard a noise which he supposed to be the infuriated populace coming for him again, when he crawled into a narrow dog-leap between Arras's and Baines's lanes, where he died. The popular fury ran so high that his relatives durst not

"If any one fall into forfeiture to the bailiff touching bread or beer, the bailiff alone can allow him to escape;

attempt to bury him in daylight, and his body lay in his house until late in the evening of the twentieth, when Mrs. Jane Johnson, of the Old Bull and Dog, 42, High Street, (grandmother of the editor of this History,) prevailed upon some soldiers belonging to the North York Militia, quartered at her house, to carry the corpse by the way of the "Back Lonin" to Sunderland church-yard, where it was interred without any funeral ceremony. The register of burials in Sunderland church thus records the interment :-" Jonathan Coates, February 20th, 1783." Such was "the informer's fate." The Newcastle Courant, for August 3rd, 1793, informs us that at the assizes at Durham, in the preceding week, "Thomas Jameson, Matthew Marrington, George Ball, Joseph Rowntree, Simon Emmerson, Robert Parkin, and Francis Wardell, for violently assaulting Nicholas Lowes, of Bishopwearmouth, and carrying him on a stang, were sentenced to be imprisoned two years in Durham gaol, and find sureties for their good behaviour for three years." These persons were all of them keelmen in Sunderland and Bishopwearmouth, and were well known to many of the old inhabitants of the bcrough. This riding of the stang, arose out of a strike, when the keelmen moored their keels opposite to Pallion Flatt, and purposely entangled their anchors and cables to obstruct and blockade the river; the keelmen considered that this was so effectually done, that it could not be cleared. Robert Hayton, Esq., coal-fitter, (afterwards major commandant of the Sunderland Loyal Volunteers), the magistrates, constables, two companies of foot soldiers, and a party of Enniskillen Dragoons quartered in Sunderland, proceeded to Pallion Flatt, and succeeded in cutting out a keel belonging to William Wilson, Esq., coal-fitter, (father of Miss Mary Ann Wilson, of Green Terrace, Bishopwearmouth), out of the hundreds which blockaded the river. The keelmen afterwards regained possession of this keel, and hauled it up with cables upon dry land, at Ayre's Quay Salt Grass. Nicholas Lowes, a keelman, who resided in a house at the south east corner of Wearmouth Green, gave information of the chief actors in this affair to the coal fitters, for which offence the keelmen broke the windows of his house and carried him through the town on a stang. The keelmen, before named, were arrested and committed to Durham gaol by Sir Ralph Milbanke, Bart., of Seaham Hall, (father of Lady Noel Byron), William Ettrick, Esq., of High Barns, and other magistrates. The justices held their meetings then at the George Inn, High Street, in front of which the Foot soldiers were drawn up preparatory to the prisoners being sent to Durham gaol. The keelmen threatened to attack the foot soldiers with their keel-sets and rescue the prisoners. This state of things was ended by the Enniskilleners arriving in front of the George Inn, with their drawn swords glittering in the sun; the prisoners were then placed in carriages and driven off, escorted by the Dragoons and Foot. On their arrival near the site of the Register Buildings, High Street, Bishopwearmouth, the escort was assailed by a volley of stones from the keelmen behind the

if he fall the second time, he may allow him to escape; but if he fall the third time, let justice be administered to him by the common consent of the burgesses.

"A burgess may bring in his corn from the country when he pleases, except at a time of prohibition or embargo.

"A burgess may give or sell his land to whom he pleases, without the voice or consent of his heir, if he bought it with his own money.

"Every burgess is at liberty to buy timber and firewood equally with the burgesses of Durham.

"They may enjoy their common pasturage,* as was

low wall, which then fenced off the Pann field from the High Street. A stone violently struck one of the Enniskilleners, when the black horses reared upon their hind legs with their front ones placed upon the wall. The Dragoons fired their pistols at the keelmen, the gate of the field was forced, and the Dragoons pursued them to the banks of the river, where they escaped from their pursuers. The prisoners were then quietly taken to Durham; the result of their trial is given above. For many years after this occurence, which was popularly called the "Black Horse Stick," the keelmen were taunted by the inhabitants "That they would bring the Black Horse to them."

The common pasturage here mentioned, in all probability means the People's Patrimony-Sunderland Town Moor, then the soil and freehold of the Bishop of Durham as lord of the manor, or borough of Sunderland. The adjoining copyhold or customary lands in the township of Bishopwearmouth, on the south and west sides of the Town Moor, held by Messrs. Richard Laurence Pemberton, Charles Richard Robinson, Christopher Bramwell, and William Robinson, the North Eastern Railway-late the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway Com. pany, and the Sunderland Dock Company, as the copyhold tenants of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in their manor of Houghton, still stands enrolled on the books of the manor in the halmote court office, in the exchequer, Durham, under their ancient name, previous to the enclosure and division of the extensive moors and wastes in Bishopwearmouth, in the year 1649, of the Hall Moor or the Great Field. After the enclosure of about 40 acres, part of this moor was known as the Moor Farm, now the property of Messrs. Richard Laurence Pemberton, Charles Richard Robinson, and Christopher Bramwell, and from it Moor Street, Bishopwearmouth, derives its name. The house and other buildings attached to this farm, were in Coronation Street, then called the 'Back Lane or Back Lonin'. The property of Messrs. Bowmaker, Mr. John Harrison, Mr. Robert Burlinson,

originally granted to them, and which we have caused to be perambulated.

BRUS.

"We shall hold the same customs [or tythe]* arising from fish being sold at the Wear, as Robert de Brus held from his people at Hartlepool.

our successors.

"We will, therefore, and more firmly determine, that they have and hold the beforementioned customs and privileges freely, quietly, and honourably, from us and

Witnesses-German the Prior; Burchard the Archdeacon;

Mr. R. Todd, &c., now occupy their site. Entered by a gate, through these farm buildings, passed "Jackey Bomacker's Lonin'," now Hendon Road, then a private carriage road, for the exclusive use of the bishop's tenants, leading to Middle Hendon, and the windmill belonging to Mr. John Bowmaker, son of Mr. Alexander Bowmaker, known as "Alick the Miller," and so called by the Rev. John Wesley in his Journal, of whom Mr. Bowmaker was a follower. This windmill which was built by Mr. Alexander Bowmaker in the year 1756, upon a lease for 99 years at the yearly rent of one guinea, was pulled down in 1841, and houses erected on its site, stood on the opposite side of Hendon Road to the borough steam-mill now belonging his great-grandsons, Messrs. Edward and William Bowmaker. From "Jackey Bomacker's Lonin," nearly upon a line with the south side of Nicholson Street, branched another private carriage road called 'Cutty throats Lonin”, which passed through the site of Smyrna Chapel, and formed a junction with the Borough Road at Upper Sans Street.

* From time out of mind, the rectors of Bishopwearmouth have been entitled to half-a-crown yearly from every coble or boat employed in fishing, not only in their own parish, but also in that of Sunderland. This custom, or tithe, was commonly called the "coble teen " During his incumbency, the Rev. Henry Egerton, A.M. (the princely rector of Bishopwearmouth from 1776 to 1795, who was rigidly tena cious of his rectorial rights, and profuse in his liberality, and who, in his style of living, was, from his large private fortune, unequalled by any of his predecessors or successors), gave a sumptuous dinner annually to all the men and boys engaged in fishing, upon the day appointed for the payment of the "coble teen," the expenses of which considerably exceeded his receipts. The collection of the "coble teen" was discontinued during the incumbency of the Rev. Robert Gray, D.D., rector of Bishopwearmouth from 1805 to 1827 (afterwards lord bishop of Bristol), and probably will never again be collected, from the trifling amount due from it.

Symeon the Treasurer; Master Richard of Colding

HYLTON.

ham; Master Stephen of Lincoln; Master Bernard; Henry the Marshall; Arnald, Adam, and Symon, chaplains; Gilbert de Lee; Philip the sheriff; Jordan Escoland; Alexander de Hylton; Gaufrid the son of Richard; Roger de Epplingden."

On the trial of the cause at Carlisle assizes, August 8th, 1851, before Mr. Justice Sir Edward Vaughan Williams and a special jury, between the Master and Brethren of the Trinity House, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, plaintiffs, and William Orton Bradley, Esq., of Sunderland, and another, defendants, respecting the claim made (and subsequently upon very doubtful evidence established) by the plaintiffs to primage dues, at the port of Sunderland; Mr. Edward Peele, managing clerk in the office of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, produced the enrollment or confirmation of the above charter, by the prior and monks of the monastery of Durham, from the muniments or records of their successors, the Dean and Chapter, on behalf of the defendants in the cause; in proof of the ancient royal power of the Bishops of Durham, within their palatinate.

This charter was well calculated to foster the infant commerce of the port and borough, by releasing the burgesses from several of the most oppressive parts of the feudal law; by facilitating the transfer of property, providing for the speedy administration of justice, and protecting the feudal slave or stranger who had settled within

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