ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

The parliamentary borough of Sunderland comprises the parish of Sunderland; the townships of Bishopwearmouth and Bishopwearmouth Panns, in Bishopwearmouth parish; and the townships of Monkwearmouth, Monkwearmouth Shore, and Southwick, in Monkwearmouth parish. The municipal borough is rather less, consisting of the parish of Sunderland, the townships of Monkwearmouth, Monkwearmouth Shore, Bishopwearmouth Panns, and part of Bishopwearmouth. The population of the parliamentary borough in 1851 was 67,394; of the municipal borough, 63,897.

The following extracts, made by Hutchinson and Surtees, from the parochial registers may be deemed curious and interesting. Very scanty conclusions, however, can be drawn as to the increase of the population, as it is evident that the very early registers do not contain one-half of the births or burials.

STATE OF THE POPULATION.

BISHOPWEARMOUTH

MONKWEARMOUTH.

AND SUNDERLAND.

YEARS.

Bptisms. Mriages. Burials. Bptisms. Mriages, Burials,

[blocks in formation]

* Parish registers were first introduced by an order of Thomas

In the year 1681, says Hutchinson, there were 83 burials in Bishopwearmouth, which, being multiplied by 30 (the average number which hath been found on general calculations of deaths in this county), would make the number of souls in Wearmouth and Sunderland 2,490. The number of burials in Bishopwearmouth in the year 1781 was 153, and in Sunderland 382, which on the like calculation will give 16,050, to which if we add 4,890 for Monkwearmouth, the whole number of souls will be 20,940, By the above account, it appears the increase of population in one century was not less than 18,450 souls.†

These calculations, although curious in themselves, afford only an approximation to the numbers of the people. The returns ordered by government in 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851, however, furnish the most satisfactory information on the subject, by which it will be seen that the population of Sunderland and the parishes of Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth has advanced from 26,511, in 1801, to 71,004 persons in 1851, being an increase of about 267-8 per cent.

Lord Cromwell, 1538; but they did not come generally into use until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who issued injunctions concerning them in the 1st, 7th, and 39th years of her reign. Oliver Cromwell was particularly careful of parish registers; and a person was elected in each parish for the express purpose of keeping them, for which, and other innovations, a writer in the Elwick register makes the following entry :-" Mem. that maryinge by justices, election of registers by the parishioners, and the use off ruling elders, first came into fashion in the times of rebellion, under that monster of nature and 'bloudy Tyrant,' Oliver Cromwell."-Sharp's Chronicon Mirabile, p. 15.

+ History of Durham, ii., 525.

HISTORY

OF THE

PARISH, PORT; & BOROUGH OF SUNDERLAND.

CHAPTER I.

CONJECTURES RESPECTING THE ROMAN ORIGIN OF SUNDERLAND. ROMAN REMAINS FOUND AT SUNDERLAND AND IN

THE IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURHOOD. VEDRA, OR VADRE,

THE ANCIENT NAME OF THE RIVER WEAR.

EARLIEST

NOTICES OF SUNDERLAND, THE BIRTH-PLACE OF VENERABLE BEDA. REMARKS ON THE DERIVATION OF THE

NAME SUNDERLAND.

HE county of Durham, on the coast of which Sun

derland is situated, formed, previous to the Roman conquest, a part of the British principality inhabited by the Brigantes, who are described by Tacitus as the most numerous tribe in Britain, and Ptolemy the illustrious Greek geographer, whose work was published about the year 120, speaks of their territory as extending from sea to sea, and containing nine towns or cities-Epiacum, Vinnovium, Caturractonium, Calatum, Isurium, Rigodunum, Olicana, Eboracum, and Camunlodunum-considerably more than the number assigned to any other state. Those towns seem to have occupied what are now the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, the West and North Ridings of Yorkshire, Durham, and perhaps a small portion of Northumberland. The position of "Isurium" was Aldborough, of "Eboracum"

York, of "Cataractonium" Catterick, and of " Vinnovium" Binchester, near Bishop Auckland. "Isurium," or Isu-Brigantum, is said by Richard of Cirencester, whose authority in this respect is, however, of very doubtful value, to have been the ancient capital of the tribe; and even under the Roman government, although inferior to Eboracum, it must, from existing remains, have been a place of considerable importance. "Olicana" has been assigned to Ilkley, in the West Riding of York. Horsley identifies "Calatum" and "Camunlodunum" with "Galacum" and "Campodunum" of the Itinerary of Antoninus (a work supposed to have been compiled about the year 320), and places the former at Appleby, and the latter at Gretland, near Halifax. "Epiacum," he conjectures to be identical with Hexham (although others assign it to Lanchester or Chester-le-Street); and he gives his suffrage for placing the remaining town of "Rigodunum" at Warrington.

We have no authentic record of any town existing at the mouth of the Wear previously to nor at the time of the Roman invasion, but as Horsley justly observes when speaking of the Roman stations in Britain," most of these are very well chosen for strength, as well as prospect. There is nothing that the Romans seem to have had a greater regard to, than the convenience of a river, and perhaps too the additional strength it afforded." "I remember," he adds, " as I pursued one of Antonine's 'itinera' for a good way in a journey to London, I was pleased to see the justness and truth of these observations. I seldom passed a river, where the military way also crossed it, but I found a station upon it, if the river was considerable, and not too near another. And for the

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »