corder, to be by them ordained and appointed for that purpose; and that they have the power and authority of hearing and determining in the said court of the recorder aforesaid, all and all sorts of actions, suits, quarrels, agreements, demands, real and personal, as well of debts amounting to, and not exceeding forty pounds, as of trespasses, detentions, conventions, deceptions, actions upon the case, and all other contracts, matters, causes, and demands whatsoever; and of entering and affirming in the court aforesaid, to the sum of forty pounds, and not upwards, concerning all other pleas, personal, real, and mixed, within the borough of Sunderland aforesaid, and the limits, bounds, and precincts of the same, in whatever manner rising or proceeding; and to serve process against the parties, defendants in the same complaints, suits, pleas, and demands, by summonses and distresses, if the parties shall have goods and chattels sufficient; and if the parties defending shall not be sufficient in their goods and chattels, that they then be made to appear by attachment of their bodies in the said court, to answer the pleas, suits, and complaints entered and affirmed against them, according to due form of law and the usage of the court aforesaid. And that the serjeants hereafter appointed, and each of them, shall do and execute all and singular summonses, distresses, attachments, and other precepts, to be issued by the recorder of the court, or his deputy, against the goods and chattels of every one of them within the said borough, according to the exigences of every warrant, precept, or process, directed or to be directed to the said serjeants, by the recorder aforesaid, or his deputy.

And that the aforesaid mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of the borough aforesaid, for the time being, by their serjeants, or one of them, in all and singular suits, pleas, complaints, actions and demands, moved or to be moved before the recorder or his deputy in the said court, may and have power to attach in their lands, tenements, possessions, revenues, and personal effects, within the jurisdiction of the court aforesaid, the persons that are defendants of the same suits, pleas, complaints, actions, and demands; and if these are not sufficient to attach and arrest them in their bodies, and to commit the said persons to prison under safe custody, within the borough aforesaid, and to detain them there so long as the law of the case demands and requires.

And that the same mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of the borough aforesaid, may have cognizance for ever of all pleas, below and amounting to the sum of forty pounds, in the court aforesaid, before the recorder for the time being, within the borough aforesaid, to be heard and determined according to due form of law and as the case demands and requires."

And that the recorder of the same mayor, aldermen, and commonalty for the time being, in the court aforesaid, to be holden before him, may have power and authority by himself, or his sufficient deputy, to punish and correct all and every of the officers and servants of that court, and all other persons whomsoever offending in the said court, for their contempt, neglect, or any other offence whatever committed or to be committed in the said court, by a reasonable fine or imprisonment of the body, or in any other lawful way and manner whatsoever. We further grant by these presents, for ourselves and our

successors, as far as in us lies, to the aforesaid mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of the borough aforesaid for the time being, and to their successors, all and every rents, profits, fines, amercements, and other pains and penalties whatsoever, in whatever manner accruing in the court aforesaid, to their own proper use and disposal for ever.

And for the better execution of the premises, and that our good pleasure in the premises may have the better and stronger effect, we will, and by these our letters patent, do, for us and our successors, as far as in us lies, assign, appoint, and actually nominate our beloved

WILLIAM BELASYSE,* KNIGHT,

to be the first and modern Mayor of the borough aforesaid, to abide and continue in the said office of the mayoralty of the borough aforesaid, until the Monday next after the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, now next ensuing, and from the said Monday, until another alderman of the borough aforesaid be duly elected and appointed; provided the said William shall so long live, and well behave himself in the same, by his corporal oath upon the holy evangelists, before entering upon the said office, that he will rightly, well, and faithfully execute the same, in the form which is hereinafter set forth.

And we further will, after the expiration of the said time, and the retirement of the said William from the said office of the mayoralty aforesaid, that the said William be an alderman of the borough aforesaid, during

* Sir William Belasyse, of Morton House, Knight, high sheriff of Durham from 1625 to 1640, died December 3rd, 1641, aged forty-eight, and was buried at Houghtonle-Spring. He married Margaret, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir George Selby, of Whitehouse, by whom he had six sons and five daughters.

his natural life, so long as he shall well behave himself in the same, to fill up the entire number of aldermen hereafter nominated, without any new election to be thereafter made in place of the alderman who shall happen to be chosen and appointed mayor of the borough aforesaid for the year next ensuing.

We also assign, nominate, and appoint, by these presents, for us and our successors, our beloved

WILLIAM LAMBTON, KNIGHT,

FRANCIS JAMES,† ESQUIRE,

THOMAS WHARTON, ESQUIRE,

Sir William Lambton, eldest son of Ralph Lambton, of Lambton, Esq., by Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Tempest, of Stanley, Esq., baptised 16th Nov., 1589; colonel of a regiment of foot, and captain of a troop of horse, in the service of Charles I. slain at Marston Moor, July 2, 1644. The Right Honourable George Frederick D'Arcy, Earl of Durham, is the sixth in lineal descent from the gallant captain, who was the great-great-great grandson of William Lambton, of Lambton, Esq., the occupier of the coal staith on the northern bank of the river Wear, alluded to at p. 296.

† Francis James, of Hetton-le-Hole, was the youngest son of William James, Bishop of Durham, by his third wife, Isabella, widow of Robert Atkinson, alderman of Newcastle; devisee and executor of Bishop James for lands in Hetton. He was twice married, first to and secondly to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William

Belasyse.

Thomas Wharton, born at Winston, in 1614, of Old Park, in the county of Durham, and of London, M. D., died in 1674, aged sixty, and was buried in the church of St. Michael, Bassishaw. He married Jane, daughter of William Asbridge, of London. From this marriage is descended William Lloyd Wharton, Esq., of Dryburn Lodge, near Durham; Mrs. Gray, wife of the Right Rev. Robert Gray, D. D., Lord Bishop of Capetown, daughter of Robert Wharton Myddleton, Esq., of Old Park, and niece of Richard Wharton, Esq., M. P. for the city of Durham, formerly of Offerton, and afterwards of Old Park; Anthony Ettrick, Esq., of High Barns; Mrs. Webb, wife of Edward Webb, Esq., solicitor, Bath; Mrs. Atcheson, of Bishopwearmouth, &c. Their grandmother, previous to her marriage with William Ettrick, Esq., of High Barns, on the 17th of January, 1752, was Miss Catherine Wharton, daughter of Robert Wharton, Esq., of Old Park.

RICHARD HEDWORTH,* ESQUIRE,

HEDWORTH.

Richard Hedworth was the eldest son of John Hedworth, of Chester Deanery, Esq., by his first wife Jane, daughter of William Brandling, of Felling, Esq. He died in 1680. His great-grandson, John Hedworth, who died in 1747, represented the county of Durham, in the parliaments of 1713, 1714, 1721, 1727, 1734, and 1741, (see p. 137.) The last named John Hedworth, Esq., commonly called Dean Hedworth, from his residence of the Deanery, near Chester-leStreet, left two daughters, Eleanor and Elizabeth, co-heiresses. Eleanor, married (17 Nov., 1746,)

Sir Richard Musgrave, Bart., of Hayton Castle, Cumberland, (who took the name of Hylton in compliance with the will of his uncle, John Hylton, Esq., of Hylton Castle.) He was the last of the Hylton family that possessed the castle and estate. He died, leaving an only daughter, Eleanor, who married William Jolliffe, Esq., M.P. for Petersfield, grandfather of Sir William George Hylton Jolliffe, Bart., of Merstham, Surrey, M.P., for Petersfield, co-heir and representative of the ancient family of Hylton, of Hylton Castle, who still possesses his great-grandmother, Miss Eleanor Hedworth's moiety or interest in her father's manor of Chester Deanery, &c. Sir W. G. H. Jolliffe's eldest son Captain Hylton Jolliffe, of the Coldstream Guards, died on the heights of Sebastopol, on the 4th October, 1854, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, leaving two daughters, Eleanor Agnes and Hilda. Sir William's present heir is Captain Hedworth Hylton Jolliffe, M.P. for Wells. Miss Elizabeth Hedworth married July 4, 1747, Sir Ralph Milbanke, Bart., of Halnaby Hall, Yorkshire, (great-grandson of Sir Mark Milbanke, a candidate for the representation of the county of Durham, in 1697, whose father Mark Milbanke, Esq., was mayor of Newcastle in 1658 and 1672, and married Dorothy, one of the wealthy daughters and co-heiresses of Ralph Cock, alderman of Newcastle, and familiarly called "Cock's canny hinnies,") Colonel of the North York Regiment of Militia (called the Black Cuffs), father of the late Sir Ralph Milbanke, Bart., of Seaham Hall, M.P. for the county of Durham, from 1790 to 1812, who was born at Chester Deanery, soon after the death of Mr. John Hedworth.