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trial, the sheriff of Northumberland, or the reeve* of Warnemuth shall take distress thereof at Warnemuth.

"We also have granted for the amendment of the same borough, that all shall be quit of yeresgive † and of scotale, so that no one, our sheriff, or any other bailiff, shall take scotale within the said borough; but if the customs were unjustly levied in time of war, let them be altogether quashed.

"And whosoever shall come to the borough of Warnemuth with his merchandize, of whatever place they be, whether strangers or others, shall come, stay, and depart, in our safe peace, rendering the right and due customs, and we forbid that none other shall cause them hindrance.

"Wherefore we will and strictly command for us and our heirs, that our aforesaid burgesses of Warnemuth and their heirs for ever, may have and hold all their liberties and acquittances aforesaid; together with all other liberties and free customs which the burgesses of Newcastleupon-Tyne had in the times of our ancestors, when they

Reeve, greeve, or bailiff (see page 215, note). As will be noticed hereafter, Sun. derland was for centuries governed by a bailiff.

† Yeresgyve. This word occurs in a great variety of spellings: “Jeresgiene, jeresgeue, gersuma, jeresumma, gyeresgyver, gressume, zeresgen," &c., all signifying the same thing. Brady says it means a bribe or reward given to the king's or other officers for connivance, and being favourable in their office, but properly an income, or fine paid for the entrance upon some place, office, or estate. According to Blount, who derives it from the Saxon gærsuma, sumptus, premium, it signifies first, an income, secondly, a fine for a fault, and lastly, is taken for an exaction or demand.

Scotale, from scot, a gathering or shot, and ale, in the known signification. Scotales were abuses put upon the king's people by his officers, who invited them to drink ale, and then made a collection, to the end they should not vex or inform against them for the crimes they had committed, or should commit.—Brady on Boroughs.

better and more freely had them, well and in peace, fully and wholly in all places and things as is aforesaid.

"Witnesses: P. Bishop of Hereford; R. de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford; Roger de Bygod; Marshall, Earl of Norfolk; John de Plesshey; William de Cantilupe; Ralph Fitz Nicholas; Philip Bassett; Bertram de Greol; Robert de Mucegros; Poulin Peyrer, &c., &c.

"Given under our hand at Woodstock, the twentysixth day of April," [in the year 1247.]

On the trial of the cause at the Carlisle assizes, before Mr. Justice Edward Vaughan Williams and a special jury, (referred to in page 223) Mr. Thomas Edlyne Tomlins, of Barnards Inn, London, who had practised for many years as a record agent, produced the above charter on behalf of the defendants, from the record office, in the Tower of London. Mr. Tomlins stated, on his examination, that he found "Durham" attached to both Warnemuth and Wearmouth in the calendar of the records in the Tower.

This charter was granted by the weak-minded Henry III., during the episcopacy of Bishop Nicholas de Farnham, who reluctantly accepted the see of Durham, in 1241, and obtained leave from the pope eight years before his death, at Stockton, in 1257, to resign it. He was buried in the chapter-house at Durham. Henry probably had presumed upon the peaceable character of this bishop when he violated his palatinate rights by granting this charter. Walter de Kirkham, Dean of York, a monk, and the founder of Kirkham Abbey, was elected successor to Bishop Farnham, December 5, 1249.

We meet with an indulgence granted by Bishop Kirkham, in the eighth year of his pontificate, for twenty days, to all those who would assist, either with money or labour, in the building and repairing his third part of Tyne Bridge, which being originally built of wood, was burnt in the year 1248, and was at this time built with stone. This prelate died August 16, 1260, and was also buried in the chapter-house at Durham.

CHAPTER V.

THE PRIORY OF FINCHALE AND VARIOUS OTHER RELIGIOUS HOUSES HELD PROPERTY IN SUNDERLAND. ANCIENT CHANTRY OF SAINT MARY IN SUNDERLAND. ORIGIN OF THE NEW TOWN OF SUNDERLAND. DESTRUCTION OF THE FURNITURE, FITTINGS, AND EFFECTS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL.

DURING the period of the Roman Catholic supremacy in England, it was the custom of pious and benevolent persons to give or bequeath certain rents, houses, or lands for the endowment and maintenance of certain religious houses, guilds, or chantries, wherein

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Amongst other kindred establishments in the neighbourhood holding property in Sunderland at the time alluded to was Finchale* Priory, as appears by the following charters:†

Commonly called Fenkle, Finkle, or Finkley Abbey. About three miles north of Durham, in a secluded spot, on the northern side of the Wear, in the parish of

+ Translated from the volume entitled "The charters of Endowment, Inventories, and Account Rolls, of the Priory of Finchale, in the County of Durham,” published by the Surtees Society, in 1837.

I. "To all the faithful in Christ to whom the present writing shall come, Ettok de Clowcroft greeting in the Lord! Know ye that I renounce and quit claim, in my free widowhood, to Peter de Newton, all right and claim which I have, or may have, in one burgage with its appurtenances, in the town of Sunderland-namely, that burgage which Saint Oswald, are the ruins of Finchale Priory; they are beautifully situated in a low vale bordering on the river, which flows in a circular direction beneath the cliffs of Cocken, and cover an extensive plot of ground, but are so much dilapidated, that the original appropriation of their respective parts can only be traced with difficulty, and several portions of the walls are hid beneath a profusion of ivy,

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Which now with rude luxuriance bends

Its tangled foliage through the cloister'd space,

O'er the green windows' mouldering height ascends,
And fondly clasps it with a last embrace."

The remains of the Priory, in conjunction with the opposite cliffs of Cocken (the property of William Standish Standish, Esq., of Cocken Hall,) rising with amazing grandeur, compose a peculiarly fine and interesting scene. During the summer months, frequent excursions are made to this delightful place, which never fails to afford a high gratification to those who love the wild, the grand, and the sublime. No situation could have been found better adapted to monastic seclusion than the site of these ruins, which is well calculated to impress the superstitious mind with feelings of religious enthusiasm. Finchale appears to have been of some note in the Saxon era, a synod, according to the Saxon Chronicle, having been held there in 788, and another, according to Leland, in 810; it is likewise famous for having been the scene of the austerities of Saint Godric, who, during the long period of sixty years, led a hermit's life in this sylvan solitude. A somewhat quaint and curious version of the life of Godric is thus given by Robert Hegge: "St. Godric in his younger days was a pedlar, and carried his moveable shop upon his back, from fair to fair. Afterwards, to make a better fortune, he ventured into Flanders, Denmark, and Scotland, and by the way used to visit the Holy Island, much delighted to hear the monks tell stories of Saint Cuthbert, which so deeply affected him, that he would needs, in heat of devotion, undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; and again after his return into England, by the advice of Saint Cuthbert in a dream, he repaired to the holy sepulchre, and washing his feet in Jordan, there left his shoes, vowing to go barefoot all the days of his life after. At his second return, he was admonished by Saint Cuthbert in his sleep, to build him an anchorage at Finchale, near Durham, where he lived in that heat of devotion, that he used to stand praying up to the neck in the river, which ran by his cell, which holy custom so angered the devil, that once he stole away his clothes, as they lay on the bank. But Godric

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