Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/32

 HISTORY OP BISHOP AUCKLAOT). 15 two days at 12d., 2s. Two barrels of pitch, 9s. " Flekes," 6<L Seven stone of " sye," 21d. 50 " bords," caUed nails, called great " spikyng," (ijd.), 100 nails (7d.) called " dowbyl spiking," 60 nails (5d.) called "thaknale," 60 nails (3^) called hechnale," 300 (greater hundred) nails (2s. 6d.) called "takenale," and 300 (greater) nails of wood, 7s. 7^d. For sawing 1^ rood of timber for the ship, at 3s. 4d., 4s. 2d. Carpenters for the new ship, 36 days at 7d., 21s. Other carpenters, at 6d. Two new  orez" (oars) for navigating the ship across the water and back again, 2s. Sum £6 5s. lOJd. 1470. Paid to John Robson, carpenter, for making two beds of *^ bord" at the *^ Denry,'' by my Lord's order, for the boys of Lord " Fezhu" (Fitzhugh) and Lord LoveU, 9d. Other expenses, such as carters, branch-wood cutters, watching the oxen and cart horses by night in " Newgatleyes," halters, girthwebs, and buckles, steel for spades, " hakes," and "p;jfkes," 60 new horse shoes at Id. each. Cost in all 115a O^d. Given to wife of Hugh Bixwyk a cow, in the stead of one belonging to the said Hu^, choked in the park of Aukland by the greyhounds of Alexander Lee, clerk. The records about tliis time mention the names of several characters who figured more particularly in the annals of our town. In 1463, license was granted by the Prior of Durham to Thomas Man, of Bishop Auckland, to go to the Holy Land upon a pilgrimage against the Turks, having previously, before the shrine of St. Cuthbert, branded him upon the right side of his naked breast with a hot iron, shaped like a cross. Who this "Man" was — of his birth or parentage — ^how he became fired with a zeal to go on such an errand — whether he ever reached the Holy Land, or returned covered with scars or decorations, to astonish the good people of Auckland with his adventures, neither history nor tradition hath left any record Another illustration of the manners and customs of those times may be gathered from the following entry in the account rolls of Bishop Dudley, 1480 : — 1480. Paid to Jak Syde, my Lord's whiffler [a fifer who went first in processions], in reward in the name of alms, for his maintenance this year, 3s. 4d. Paid 8s. 4d. for fetters, '* shakils," and other instruments of iron bou^t anew for binding and fixing the thieves in the gaol of Durham Castle. 1480-1. Paid to Thomas Cokfeld, waller, working upon the making of one chimney of stone within the manor-house of Aukland, 14 days at 6d. per day, with 7s. to his two servants at 3d., 14s. Paid to Robert Bycherdson and Thomas Byche for making a clay wall around the fish ponds within the said manor, and a '* flore" in a chamber there, 2s. 8d. Paid to John Pierson (38.), for working 12 st. of iron, at 3d. per St., along with 15s. to Thomas Hoppeland for making 30 rods of new paling for my Lord's park, at 6d. per rod, lis. 8d. Paid to Henry Newton for spreading molehills, 8d. In Bishop Sherwood's time (1489) we find the following interesting letter, addressed from Auckland Castle to Sir John Paston, of Paston, in Norfolk. " Documents like this," says Raine, " take us back to a period of great simplicity in matters of commerce The Bishop of Durham is in want of com, wine, and wax, and he states his necessities to a gentleman living upon the coast of Norfolk, soliciting an exchange of those articles for the coal and other things of the north." It is a literary curiosity both in style and orthography. We, therefore, transcribe it in full : — Letter fbom the Bishop of Dubham to Sib John Paston. Jhesus Chbistus. Ryght wortchipful Sire, and myne especial and of long tyme apprevyd trusty and f eythfiil frende, I in myne hertyeste wyse recommaunde me unto you. And for as myche as I hafe coles and othyrthyngs in these parties, and also ye hafe in those parties cornes wyne and wax, and, as I am enfourmyd, ye be noght evyl wyllyd to dele with me, no more than I am to dele with you, in utteryng and also in receyvyng of suche thyngs, the whiche myght be to the prof ete of us bothe, I ther fore send un to you, at thys tyme, thys berer, William Waltere, gentylman, usshere of my chamber, to comune with you herin ; so that by delyberation suche a wey may be takyn in thys byhalf e, as may be to the profete of either of us, and wherby our familiarite and frendeship may be encrescyd in tyme to cum ; whereonto for our old acqyntance to gedyr ye shal fynde me ful redy after my powere, by the grace of our Lorde, who ever kepe you and send ye myche worship and long prosperitie. Scribyllyd in the moste haste at my Castel or Manoir of Audand, the xxv^ day of Januaiy, 1489. Tour own trewe lufier and frende, John Dubbsme. In the receiver's rolls of Bishop Eichard Fox we find the following entry relative to the dispute already mentioned, between the Bishop of Durham and Lord Clifford : — Digitized by Google
 * waynscotez," 20s. lOd. 32 stone of iron, at 6^., 17s. 4d. Working the same into nails, ^, at 3|d., ds. 4d. 84