Church Commission Deposit of Durham Bishopric Estate Records: Financial and Audit Records 1659-1856

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Introduction

	Collecting and Accounting for Bishop's Copyhold and Freehold Rents after the Commonwealth
	Contents
	Arrangement
	Related material (internal)
	Related material (elsewhere)

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Catalogue

• Financial and Audit Records 1659-1856
• Receiver Generals' Accounts 1659-1854
• Arrears 1660-1803
• Books of Transumpt 1659-1800
• Transumpts. Receiver General's Balance Sheets 1687-1798
• General Accounts of Thomas Davison 1826-1856
• Leases and Patents Granted and Auditor's Fees therefrom 1727-1852
• Tyne Bridge Papers 1771-c.1780
• Summons to Audit 1601-1789
• Land Tax 1742-1817
• Bonds c.1623-c.1770
• Receipts 1662-c.1800
• Poor Relief: Durham City parishes c.1760-1770
• Miscellaneous Accounts c.1642-c.1815
• Financial Miscellanea c.1660-1858
• Allerton and Allertonshire: Receiver Generals' Accounts 1662-1811
• Allerton and Allertonshire: Financial Miscellanea 1661-19th century
• Howden and Howdenshire: Receiver General's Accounts
• Howden and Howdenshire: Arrears 1660-1724
• Howden and Howdenshire: Transumpts Receiver General's Balance Sheets 1660-1771
• Howden and Howdenshire: Staithe Books
• Howden and Howdenshire: Bills, Receipts, Bonds c.1660-c.1812
• Howden and Howdenshire: Financial Miscellanea c.1660-c.1811

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Collecting and Accounting for Bishop's Copyhold and Freehold Rents after the Commonwealth

The rentals of wards and townships in the Halmote Court deposit are the returns made by the various collectors and bailiffs to the Auditor's Office where they were filed. There are many gaps and most of the series come to an end about 1800 (An Account of Copyhold and Freehold Rents after this date was kept in a series of Rental Registers, which also kept a record of Arrears). They contain the names and rents of all the copyholders and of freeholders who owed rents to the Bishop, showing which tenants were in arrears. The freeholders are usually singled out from the copyholders. The money collected was then handed over to the Clerk of Great Receipt (otherwise known as the Receiver or Receiver General). Using these rentals and other sources, including leasehold rentals, the Auditor compiled a Book of General Transumpt, an Arrears Book, and a Transumpt Sheet.
The series of Post-Commonwealth General Transumpt Books runs from 1660 to 1800 and is almost complete. The books are usually headed:
"The Account of.... Temporal Chancellor of the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge and Receiver General of the Exchequer at Durham of all Sums of Money received by.... Clerk of the Great Receipt of the Exchequer aforesaid of the several Coroners, Bailiffs, Collectors, Farmers and other officers for one whole year Ending at the Feast of St. Martin the Bishop in Winter ..."
The different townships and areas are set out according to wards: Darlington coming first. then Chester, Easington and Stockton. In each township the Collector's charge (i.e. the total sum due) for freehold, customary and copyhold rents is given first, and underneath is the sum due for leaseholds. The two sums were added together and the total appears in the left hand margin. In the early books a record was also kept of perquisites in the Halmote Courts. There is a list of persons in arrear, with the sums concerned. Unless otherwise stated this always seems to apply to the free or copyhold rents, and not to the leaseholds, although some of the early books include a list of Leasehold in arrear. The arrears were deducted from the total copyhold charge and the Collector was given an acquittance for the remainder.
The Books of General Transumpt also contain notes of receipts due under the following headings:
Coalmines, Quarries and Brickworks, the Office of Moorman or Moormaster, Foreign Receipts, Chantry Lands, Ecclesiastical Pensions and Old Escheats.
The early books note the individual items from which the total charge of each section is calculated and include a section for rents on Gateshead Bridge.
The Auditor had to make three copies of an Arrears Book, one for the Bishop, one for himself and one for the office. The names of all tenats in arrears are listed, whether they were freeholders, copyholders or leaseholders. The leaseholders are distinguished in some way from the others, usually by the words "by demise". The lists show the amount due from each tenant for the year concerned, the number of years they have been in arrears and the total amount due. At the end of the Arrears Book the two sets of figures, arrears for the current year and total arrears are added up. Theoretically the names of tenants who paid their arrears during the following year were scratched out. Where more than one Arrears Book for the year has been preserved, however, it can be seen that crossings out may occur in one book, but not necessarily in the others. Like the series of Rentals and the General Transumpt Books, the Arrears Books come to an end soon after 1800.
The Transumpt Sheets are balance sheets showing the income and expenditure of the Exchequer, beginning with "the Auditor's Charge", that is the rents due from each township, taken from the sums in the left hand margins of the General Transumpt Books. To this was added the amount collected in arrears by the Exchequer Bailiff, the composition money for Weardale lot ore, rents for Frankland Demesnes, fines for trees cut on copyhold lands, amercements on copyholders collected by the Exchequer Bailiffs, compositions on writs, fines and forfeitures at Quarter Sessions and at the Assizes, and alientation fines. Salaries paid to the officials of the Exchequer were deducted, as were the costs of collecting the above income, taxes and allowances to the Exchequer Bailiff and other collectors, arrears for the current year, and payments made for the use of the Bishop.
During the time that George Kirkby was Clerk of the Great Receipt (from 1662 or 1663 to 1686 or 1687) a regular account was kept in the Transumpt Books (Nos. 195749-195772) of the expenses as well as the receipts of the Exchequer. Expenses were entered under the following headings:
Fees and Regards - a list of salaries paid to officials from the Temporal Chancellor down to the Collectors and Bailiffs, each official being mentioned by name;
Annuities;
Expenses of the Exchequer;
Expenses at the time of Audit;
Decayed Rents.
[The General Transumpt for 1660/1661 (220030) also contains accounts of expenses; and those for 1662/1663 (195748) and 1691/92 (195778) have the list of Fees and Regards only.]
After this date those whose duty it was to collect the rents appear to have become more and more negligent. An attempt was made to remedy the situation during the time that Francis Pewterer was Auditor (1720-1737) as a note on the first page of the General Transumpt for 1730/31 (195816) shows:
"Excerpt' ex libris Decretorum in officio Registrarii in Cancellario fol. 350.
Upon Informacion given by Mr. Attorney General and my Lord Bishop's Auditor of the Hindrance of the perfect setting the Accounts and Rolls of his Lordships Revenue arising by Perquisites and Issues of his Courts here, occasioned by the negligence of the several Officers in not returning Duplicates unto the said Auditors Office of all such Perquisits, Extracts and Issues as formerly and antiently they did when the same were Extracted unto the Sheriffe to be levyed, for remedy thereof it is in the presence of most of the Officers herein concerned in open Court ordered that all and every Officer belonging to any Court or Office whatsoever within this County, wherein any such Issues arise as Prothonotary, Clerk of the Crown, Clerk of the Peace, County Clerk, Clerk of the Halmots etc. shal befor Xmas next faithfuly return into the said Auditors Office a Duplicate or Particular of all Issues, Amerciaments or Estreats whatsoever at any time happen'd in their respective Offices since the time of the Restictucion of the said Lord Bishop to his Temporalities, and that for the time to come They and every of them shal yearly return the like Duplicate thither without fail or Excuse, And Mr. Auditor to see the same drawn up into Rolls, as formerly the same has been."
However the arrears continued to build up until. in the early 1740's. the Bishop decided to bring a suit against some of the Copyholders and Freeholders. By this time there was some doubt as to whether the Bishop would be able to prove his right to the rents since the officials who had previously collected them were all dead and the only evidence that could be produced were the records in the Auditor's Office and in the Chancery. The case was submitted to D. (Sir Dudley ?) Ryder. who gave his Opinion. 18 May 1745, that this evidence would be good in a court of law even though viva voce evidence could not be obtained. It seems that agreement was then reached between the parties (Church Commission No. 221522. This document also contains a copy of the Bishop's Case submitted to Counsel.).
A copy of the Case Query and Opinion is entered on the fly leaf of the General Transumpt for 1743/44 (195828). Since the Case details the procedure for collecting the rents and keeping an account of them it deserves to be quoted in full.
The Case:
The Bishop of Durham, as Palatine, hath many Royal Priviledges. Particularly from antient times, he hath an Exchequer for the defence of his Estate, & an Auditors Office where all the Writings concerning his Revenue are kept, under the Care of a Sworn Officer for life; a Receiver of all the Rents collected by other Officers of different Denominations, an Exchequer Bayliff to look after the Arrears etc. And his annual Accounts are made up after the manner of those in the Royal Exchequer, for which he hath an Audit, & the Officers either by Payment of the Rents, or Return of Arrears, then Receive a Quietus.
The Revenues of the Bishop, beside his Lease Rents, consist partly in Copyhold Rents, & partly in Free or Quit Rents.
The Copyhold rents are not expressed in the Copy of Court Rolls, but being collected for the most part by a Tenant chosen annually by the other tenants of the Mannor (as a Grieve is in other Counties) he makes a Rentall of the Rent of every Copyholder, & delivers it in at the End of the Year, with the Names of those that are in Arrear, & the Summ over against the Name, to the Auditor, who enters the same in a Book called the Transumpt book & files up the Rentals in his Office, and sends the Collector with the Money to be paid to the Receiver, who makes up his Account with the Auditor, & both of them with the Bishop every year.
The Copyholds are of Inheritance. & the Surrenders & Admissions are carefully preserved in the Office of the Clerk of the Halmot Courts And there is no way of ascertaining the Rents of the Copyholders but by the Rentals in the Auditors Office. The free Rents are Collected by another Officer (who by antient usage collects also some few Copyhold Rents) called the Coroner appointed also by the Bishop for Life with proper Sallaries who in like manner returns yearly his Rent-roll & the Arrears to the Auditor & these Rolls are or ought to be kept regularly in his Office.
After the end of the year the Auditor draws up three Books of Arrears One for the Bishop one for himself & a third for the Office & as any of the Arrears are afterwards received they are scratcht out by a line drawn under them or crost in the Margin of the Office Book of Arrears
There are also books in the Chancery of the Bishop wherein Inquisitions post mortem are transcribed for some Hundreds of Years successively & the Free Rents of many of the Estates held from the Bishop are particularly expressed.
But it happens thro the Unskilfulness or negligence of some late Bishops, & the carelesness, to say no worse, of some of their Officers, many of these Rents have been suffered to run on uncollected: some of them so long ago as from the year 1708, & others from the year 1698, And within this tract of time, all the old Officers are dead, that is to say, the Auditor, the Receiver, the Coroners, (of which there are four) & the old Collectors, but their Books, & many of their Rolls & Rentals remain in the Office.
The Bishop hath been advised to begin a Suit against some of the Copyholders & Freeholders that have been longest in Arrear, in order to prevent the loss of the rest.
But he finds a want of living witnesses, to prove the payment of these rents And it is doubted by the Lawyers in the Country, & who accordingly encourage their Clients to stand out & refuse payment, whether the Rentals, Arrear books, & Transumpts in the Auditors Office are of themselves conclusive Evidence of the Bishop's right, so as by them he may recover his Arrears - whether they be so, in the case of the Church which is always in Minority; or in the Case of any Bishop, & especially of the Bishop of Durham, as the preservation of his Revenue is circumstanc'd as above, otherwise a good part of his Revenue must be irrecoverably lost, & what remains be subject to the partiality of Officers, & Negligence of the Bishop.

A general review of all the rents due to the Bishop and regular deductions from them, including Howdenshire and Allertonshire was made in 1750 (Church Commission No. 54033). Leaseholders are mentioned by name with their rents and conditions of tenure. The total copyhold or freehold charges for each township are given with information about the collector and his terms of appointment, together with other information relevant to the collection of rents.

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Contents

The second list of financial and audit records (a first up to 1649 is available) of material from the Church Commission Palatinate of Durham and Bishopric estates deposit.
This section of the Church Commission Durham Bishopric estates material consists of twenty-two parts:

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Accession details

Deposited by the Church Commission in February 1956.

Arrangement

Sorted into twenty-two categories. The numbers given in brackets were allocated by the Church Commission.

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Related material (internal)

Catalogues The following catalogues are available for this collection:
The first group of handlists contains the material in the 1956 deposit that was removed from the main sequence and organised into generic groups: The following (large) list contains about 10,000 items deposited in 1956 but not transferred into any of the above categories:
List of Deeds etc in 1956 deposit of Church Commission Durham Bishopric Estates material
There is a schedule of the 1981 deposit, largely of property related documents.

Related material (elsewhere)

Church of England Record Centre, London The Church Commissioners for England retain current documents in the collection.

Catalogue

Financial and Audit Records 1659-1856