ministers, and tenants, and requiring all others to whom it may appertain, to be aiding and assisting to the said John Rand, in the due and lawful execution of the said office as doth or shall appertain. In Witness whereof, I have made these my Letters Patent during my will and pleasure only to endure. Given at my manor of BishopAuckland, the sixth day of July, in the years of the reign of our Sovereign Lord James, by the grace of God King of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., of England, France, and Ireland, the seventh ; and of Scotland, the two and fortieth; and of my consecration, the third. Anno Domini 1609." * On the 26th September, 1609, a presentment was made in the borough court (of Admiralty) of Sunderland, concerning royal wrecks and anchorage there.† In 1615, there was a general muster of all the men fit to bear arms within the bishopric between the ages of 16 and 60, upon Spenny-moor, near Whitworth. The whole number of men who appeared at this array was 8,320. The parish of Bishopwearmouth (then including Sunderland) furnished 196, and Monkwearmouth 87.‡ Richard Neile, Bishop of Durham, by letters patent, dated at Durham Castle, 11th October, 1622, (the twentieth year of the reign of King James I.), renewed to John Rand, of Sunderland-by-the-Sea, yeoman, the patent of Water Bailiff,§ granted by his predecessor Bishop James, which had expired with that prelate in 1617, from want From the Bishop of Durham's Auditor's Office, Exchequer, Durham. + Surtees. From the Bishop of Durham's Auditor's Office, Exchequer, Durham. RR of its being confirmed by the Dean and Chapter of Durham, necessary to give Mr. Rand a life interest to his office. In 1626, Richard Bartlett was water bailiff of Sunderland under the bishop, but his patent is supposed to be lost. In 1628, Nicholas Whitfield (probably mayor of Durham in 1621 and 1630) was water-bailiff of Sunderland, and he deputed William Caldwell therein; and then that office was granted, with the duties of anchorage, beaconage, &c., by lease from the Bishops of Durham successively ever since, and are still held and enjoyed by lease renewed.* BELASYSE. On the 2nd January, 1630, the fifth year of the reign of King Charles I., Bishop John Howson granted a lease to Sir William Belasyse, knight, of Morden, in the county of Durham, (afterwards of Morton House, near Houghton-le-Spring, and Mayor of Sunderland), and Thomas Layton, of Bishop Auckland, in the same county, gentleman, of "All that his waste and vacant grounds, soil, and land, lying and being betwixt the high and low water marks of the rivers of Tyne and Teese, and of all other navigable rivers that ebb and flow within the county palatine of Durham, and in Bedlingtonshire, belonging to the bishoprick of Durham aforesaid, and all houses, buildings, fishgarths, staiths, and ballast shores, erected and builded upon any of the said waste and vacant ground adjoining upon any of the said rivers navigable, over which the water doth ebb and flow, or hath ebbed and flowed, be Spearman's Enquiry, p. 31. twixt the high water-mark and the low water-mark of the said rivers, or any of them which are gained and straitened by any such building or erection, and all the soil and ground so covered by the ebbing and flowing of the said rivers, with all and singular liberties, privileges, conveniences, commodities, and advantages thereunto belonging, and of right appertaining. To hold the same premises unto the said Sir William Belasyse and Thomas Layton, their executors, administrators, and assigns, for the term of twenty-one years, at and under the yearly rent of forty shillings." On the 5th November, 1670, the twenty-second year STAPYLTON. of the reign of King Charles II., Bishop Cosin granted a lease of the same premises (leased by Bishop John Howson to Sir William Belasyse and Mr. Thomas Layton) "to Sir Gilbert Gerrard, of the parish of Saint Martinin-the-Fields, in the county of Middlesex, knight and barronett [his son-in law], and Miles Stapylton, of the city of Durham, Esquire, for the term of three lives, at the yearly rent of forty shillings."* The ownership of the wastes or beaches of the river Wear is now (1858) as follows:-In the township of Monkwearmouth Shore, Sir Hedworth Williamson, Bart., is proprietor of the beaches down to the ancient lowwater mark, previous to the diversion of the channel at the mouth of the river, described at pp. 44, 45, 60-70. In the townships of Monkwearmouth, Southwick, Hylton, and other townships on the north bank of the river, up From the Bishop of Durham's Auditor's Office, Exchequer, Durham, to Chester New Bridge, near Lumley and Lambton Parks--the western limit of spring tides, the beaches or foreshores from low-water mark to the utmost extent that the tide was ever known to extend itself and flow towards the north--are the property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, as successors of the Bishops of Durham, in right of the royal liberties of the county palatine of Durham. In the parish of Sunderland the beaches are freehold (enfranchised leasehold), copyhold, and leasehold. In the townships of Bishopwearmouth Panns, Bishopwearmouth, and Ford, the foreshores of the river, between the low-water mark and the ancient high-water mark of the tide, are copyhold of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' manor of Houghton. In the townships west of Ford, up to Chester New Bridge, all the beaches within the flow of the tide belong to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who are likewise the owners of the soil of the bed of the river, between its low-water marks from Sunderland bar on the east to Chester New Bridge on the west. The Earl of Durham, as lessee of the ancient port of Sunderland, under the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, is entitled to the royal rights of anchorage, beaconage, and plankage upon the bed of the river, and upon all its beaches, wastes, or foreshores, between the high and lowwater marks, entirely independent of persons who may possess other rights thereon. In consequence of these royal privileges extending over and covering the whole of the river within the flow of the tide, or wherever the tide has ebbed and flowed, no enclosures, encroachments, or quaying, of its wastes, beaches or foreshores can be legally made without the consent of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and their lessee the Earl of Durham. It has been observed at p. 307, the appointment of Commissioners of the river Wear was formerly vested in the bishops of Durham. In pursuance and execution of this royal power, the following order for the assembling of a jury was issued in 1633 :- "Dunelm.-By vertue of his Majestie's commission of sewers, to us and others directed for sewers, the surveyinge of the river of Weere, from the barr or lowe water marke of the same river, in the Port or Haven of Sunderland-by-the-Sea, unto the new bridge, neer Lumley Parke, in the countie of Durham, and the reforming of newsances in the same. These are therefore, according to the tenor of the said commission, in his Majestie's name, to will and require you to summon and warne xxiiii able and sufficient men within your balywicke, as well within the liberties as without, by whom the truth may be best knowne; to be, and personally appear before us, and our associats, at Sunderland-by-the-Sea aforesayd, at the house of William Wycliffe, Gent. upon Thursday, the xxii day of August instant, betwixt the howers of eight and eleaven of the said day, then to enquire of all such offences as are severally and respectively doun and commited upon the said river of Weere, to the hurt and annoyance of the said river, which are inquirable by the sayd commission, whereof fayle ye not, as you will answer the contrary. Gyven under our hands and seales, this xiiii day of August, 1633. THOMAS DURESME.* • Thomas Morton Bishop of Durham, 1632-1659. |
