Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/120

 mSTOBT OF BISHOP AUCKLAIO). 93 Blackett has left behind him two relics — ^hiB portrait, and a part of the old hooae in which he lived and preached. In the first of these he appears to have been stout and firmly built, and probably of good height His countenance is manly, accompanied with a happy mixture of the grave and the agreeable. He lived in the age of Bunyan, and wore the costume of that age. The gravity of his aspect is increased, together with the general venerableness of his appearance, by his holding his Bible in his hand.*^ As to the other relic, it is now an old bam, and is, indeed, an appropriate relic of the days of conventicles, when the religion of dissent was, truly, '^ the religion of bams." It lies a litUe more than three miles from Bishop Auckland, and may be advantageously seen in going northward, on the right hand, in passing the splendid railway viaduct over the Wear, and is the most easterly of the offices, attached still to the farm of Bitchbum, in the vale below. On entering this bam (says Douglass), a feiv years ago, with a friend, the writer found it had been originally a human habitation, llie old fire-place on the one side, and the building up of the old windows on the other, evinced this. Its dimensions are but small, not much exceeding 14 feet by 20. There was nothing within fine to look at : no beautiful choir, on lofty pillars, no lovely window of varied coloured glass, no admirable pictures of ancient patriarchs or apostles. No, nothing of all this ; and yet to the writer it was an enchanting spot ; and it was so as a relic of bygone days- the bygone days of the strug^^es of Nonconformity in this country. The vestiges of oppression frequently convey to the mind deeper and more intense feeling than the vestiges of mere grandeur. The vestiges of oppression are, in some measure, seen in the little lonely glen, where this relic stauds. But for the Act of Uniformity in 1662. and other Acts of a similar description in the reign of the profligate Charles H, the ministrations of the Nonconformists would not have needed to have been carried on under the lowly roof and confined walls of an ordinary farm-house. Hither, however, from the Isngs of bigotry and abused authority, under the guidance of Henry Blackett, and others, their cause meekly retired, quietly rested, and slowly, but gradually grew. Turning again to the Register for Baptisms, we cull the following : — 1732. — September 16. — Isabell, ye daughter of Sir Wm. Richardson, Bart., De Auckld., Epis. 1733.— May 13.— Mary, the daughter of Robert Stobbart, of Bitchboum. July 7. — Jane, the daughter of Ralph Hodshon, attomey-^t-law, of Bishop Aukland. 1734. — October 23. — ^Dorothy, the daughter of John Brown, a Quaker, of Woodhouses. 1736. — July 17. — James, son of Mark Hall, a Quaker, of Bishop Auckland. 1742. — December 29. — John, the son of Edward Clark, a seaman, of Deanry. 1746. — ^March 15. — ^Elizabeth, daughter of Wilfred Lowther, a soldier. March 19. — ^Maiy, the daughter of John Bradshaw, a soldier. April 7. — ^Wm. son of Thomas Birk, a soldier. April 23. — Eleanor, the daughter of James Fogg, a soldier. July 6. — ^Elizabeth, the daughter of Christopher Lee, Esqr., of Bishop Auckland. 1747. — September 17. — Barbary, the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Abraham Smith, of Bishop Auckland. November 2. — Wm., the son of Mr. Wm. Hodgson, attomey-at-law, of Bishop Auckland. 1750. — ^March 16. — ^Abraham, the son of the Reverend Mr. Abraham Smith, of Bishop Auckland. 1751. — ^May 27. — ^Margaret, William John, and Thomas (children of different ages), of Philip Palfrey, of Oaks Bow. Octeber 21. — ^Enoch, the son of Cornelius White (being an adult of 18 years of age), of Bishop Auckland. 1752. — May 25. — James, son of Captn. James Agnew, of Howlish. 1757. — June 3. — Martin Brown, adult, quaker before marriage. Bishop Auckland. 1758. — ^November 1. — Elizabeth, daughter of John Trotter^ a quaker, adult, Bp. Auckland. 1759.— March 18.— Sarah, daughter of Charles Winter, a soldier. November 4. — Sophia, daughter of William and Martha Dunn, a comedian, Bp. Auckland. 1760.— April 28.— Isabell, daughter of Thomas Carlton, a militiaman, Edderly. 1784. — April 24. — Mary Mongomery, daughter of Alexander Agnew, Captain of the Royal Navy, of Bishop Auckland. 1788. — October 21. — Thomas, son of the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas, Lord Bishop of Durham, and Ana, bii wife, Auckland Castle. The following are further selections from the Register for Burials : — 1728.— June 20.— George Medcalf, a Papist, De Auckld., Epis. 1731. — August 5. — Anne, ye dau^ter of Richard Robinson, a Roman, De Eldon. 1732.— May 5.— Margery Hall, Roman Catholick, De Auckld., Epis. 1733 — ^February 21. — Mr. Francis Johnson, Alderman of Newcastle-upon-Tme, De Auckld., Epii. April 5. — Susannah Watson, a Papist, of Bishop Aukland. 1734. — ^February 20. — ^The Rev. Mr Ezra Emmerson, schoolmaster, of Bishop Aukland. September 9. — Elizabeth Porter, a Papist, of Bishop Aukland. November 14. — ^Margaret, the wife of Thomas Carre, a Papist, of Bishop Aukland. 1738. — April 15.— Mr. Frauds Pewterer, of Buhop Auckland. Digitized by Google^