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 between the Tees and the Tweed, and to have within it the several liberties of Durham, Sadberg and Bedlington south of the Coquet, and Norham beyond the Coquet, all subject to the bishop of Durham; the liberty of Hexham belonging to the archbishop of York; that of Tynedale to the king of Scotland; that of Emildon to the earl of Lancaster; and that of Redesdale to Gilbert de Umfraville, earl of Angus. These franchises were all held exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction of the shire. By statute of 1495–1496 the lordship of Tynedale was annexed to Northumberland on account of flagrant abuses of the liberties of the franchise; the liberty of Hexham was annexed to Northumberland in 1572; Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlingtonshire continued to form detached portions of Durham until 1844, when they were incorporated with Northumberland. The division into wards existed at least as early as 1295, the Hundred Roll of that year giving the wards of Coquetdale, Bamburgh, Glendale and Tynedale.

The shire-court for Northumberland was held at different times at Newcastle, Alnwick and Morpeth, until by statute of 1549 it was ordered that the court should thenceforth be held in the town and castle of Alnwick, and under the same statute the sheriffs of Northumberland, who had lately been in the habit of appropriating the issues of the county to their private use, were required to hereafter deliver in their accounts to the Exchequer in the same manner as the sheriffs of other counties. The assizes were held at Newcastle, and the itinerant justices, on their approach to the county, were met by the king of Scotland, the archbishop of York, the bishop of Durham and the prior of Tynemouth, who pleaded their liberties either at a well called Chille near Gateshead, if the justices were proceeding from York, or, if from Cumberland, at Fourstanes. In these franchises the king’s writ did not run, and their owners performed the office of sheriff and coroner. Among other Northumbrian landowners claiming privileged jurisdiction in 1293 was Robert de Quonla, who claimed that he and his men were quit of the suits of the shire and wapentake; the prior of St Mary of Carlisle claimed to exclude the king’s bailiffs from executing their office in his fee of Corbridge, and that he and his men were quit of the suits of the shire and wapentake. The burgesses of Newcastle claimed return of writs in their borough, and Edmund, the brother of Edward I., claimed return of writs and exemptions from the sheriff’s jurisdiction in his manor of Stamford. Newcastle was made a county by itself by Henry IV. in 1400, and has jurisdiction in admiralty cases. Ecclesiastically the county was in the diocese of Durham, and in 1291 formed the archdeaconry of Northumberland, comprising the deaneries of Newcastle, Corbridge, Bamburgh and Alnwick. In 1535 the archdeaconry included the additional deanery of Morpeth. The archdeaconry of Lindisfarne was formed in 1845, and subdivided into the rural deaneries of Alnwick, Bamburgh, Morpeth, Norham and Rothbury; the archdeaconry of Northumberland then including the deaneries of Bellingham, Corbridge, Hexham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1882 Northumberland was formed into a separate diocese with its see at Newcastle, the archdeaconries and deaneries being unaltered. In 1885 the additional deaneries of Tynemouth and Bedlington were formed in the archdeaconry of Northumberland, and in 1900 the deanery of Glendale in the archdeaconry of Lindisfarne.

Pre-eminent among the great families connected with Northumberland is that of (q.v.). Ford and Chipchase were seats of the Heron family. The Widdringtons were established at Widdrington in the reign of Henry I. and frequently filled the office of sheriff of the county. The barony of Prudhoe was granted by Henry I. to the Umfravilles, who also held the castles of Otterburn and Harbottle and the franchise of Redesdale. From the Ridleys of Willimoteswyke was descended Bishop Ridley, who was martyred in 1555. Aydon Castle was part of the barony of Hugh Baliol. The Radcliffes, who held Dilston and Cartington in the 15th century and afterwards acquired the extensive barony of Langley, became very powerful in Northumberland after the decline of the Percies, and were devoted adherents of the Stuart cause.

From the Norman Conquest until the union of England and Scotland under James I., Northumberland was the scene of perpetual inroads and devastations by the Scots. Norham, Alnwick and Wark were captured by David of Scotland in the wars of Stephen’s reign, and in 1290 it was at Norham Castle that Edward I. decided the question of the Scottish succession in favour of John Baliol. In 1295 Robert de Ros and the earls of Athol and Menteith ravaged Redesdale, Coquetdale and Tynedale. In 1314 the county was ravaged by Robert Bruce, and in 1382 by special enactment the earl of Northumberland was ordered to remain on his estates in order to protect the county from the Scots. In 1388 Henry Percy was taken prisoner and 1500 of his men slain at the battle of Otterburn, immortalized in the ballad of “Chevy Chase.” Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanborough were garrisoned for the Lancastrian cause in 1462, but after the Yorkist victories of Hexham and Hedgley Moor in 1464, Alnwick and Dunstanborough surrendered, and Bamburgh was taken by storm. In 1513 the king of Scotland was slain in the battle of Flodden Field on Branxton Moor. During the Civil War of the 17th century Newcastle was garrisoned for the king by the earl of Newcastle, but in 1644 it was captured by the Scots under the earl of Leven, and in 1646 Charles was led there a captive under the charge of David Leslie. Many of the chief Northumberland families were ruined in the rebellion of 1715.

The early industrial development of Northumberland was much impeded by the constant ravages of internal and border warfare, and in 1376 the commonalty of Northumberland begged consideration for their sheriff, who, although charged £106 for the profits of the county, through death and devastation by the Scots could only raise £53, 3s. 4d. Again Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.), who passed through the county disguised as a merchant in 1436, leaves a picture of its barbarous and desolate condition, and as late as the 17th century, Camden, the antiquarian, describes the lands as rough and unfit for cultivation. The mineral resources, however, appear to have been exploited to some extent from remote times. It is certain that coal was used by the Romans in Northumberland, and some coal ornaments found at Angerton have been attributed to the 7th century. In a 13th-century grant to Newminster Abbey a road for the conveyance of sea-coal from the shore about Blyth is mentioned, and the Blyth coal-field was worked throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The coal trade on the Tyne did not exist to any extent before the 13th century, but from that period it developed rapidly, and Newcastle acquired the monopoly of the river shipping and coal-trade. Lead was exported from Newcastle in the 12th century, probably from Hexhamshire, the lead mines of which were very prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. In a charter from Richard I. to Bishop Pudsey creating him earl of Northumberland, mines of silver and iron are mentioned, and in 1240 the monks of Newminster had an iron forge at Stretton. A salt-pan is mentioned at Warkworth in the 12th century; in the 13th century the salt industry flourished at the mouth of the river Blyth, and in the 15th century formed the principal occupation of the inhabitants of North and South Shields. In the reign of Elizabeth glasshouses were set up at Newcastle by foreign refugees, and the industry spread rapidly along the Tyne. Tanning, both of leather and of nets, was largely practised in the 13th century, and the salmon fisheries in the Tyne were famous in the reign of Henry I.

The county of Northumberland was represented by two members in the parliament of 1290, and in 1295 Bamburgh, Corbridge and Newcastle-upon-Tyne each returned two members. From 1297, however, Newcastle was the only borough represented, until in 1524 Berwick acquired representation and returned two members. Morpeth returned two members from 1553. Under the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned four members in two divisions; Berwick and Newcastle were represented by two members each, and Morpeth and Tynemouth by one member each. Under the act of 1885 the county now returns four members in four divisions.