Church Commission Deposit of Durham Bishopric Estate Records: Enrolment Books

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Introduction

	Contents
	Arrangement
	Related material (internal)
	Related material (elsewhere)

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Catalogue

• Registers of Leases and Patents.
• Enrolment books of patents of appointment, 1661-1855
• Notitia Books, and Enrolment Books of Leases
• Chester Ward and Bedlington
• Darlington Ward
• Easington Ward
• Stockton Ward
• Yorkshire
• Mines and Quarries

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Contents

This list contains the following types of document:
Enrolment Books.
a: Registers of Leases and Patents.
Not only copies of leases granted by the Bishops of Durham but also copies of letters patent of appointments to offices issued by them. They partially duplicate some of the material in the PRO, Durham 3/29 - 134.
b: Notitia Books.
A companion series to the above registers, but arranged topographically. Giving brief particulars of the leases relating to each leasehold property, these books are of most value for 18th and 19th centuries, although some earlier material appears.

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Accession details

Deposited by the Church Commission in February 1956.

Arrangement

Arranged by document type, and then in chronological order. The books are shelved in numerical order.

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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.
Durham Bishopric Halmote Court Misc Books M.9 [Chester Ward]; M.10 [Darlington Ward]; M.11 [Easington Ward]; M.12 [Stockton Ward]; M.13 [Durham City] are Halmote Notitia Books that contain extensive references to the Notitia Books listed above.

Related material (elsewhere)

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

Handlist

Registers of Leases and Patents. For other mainly Bishopric patents see Halmote Court Misc. Book M.64.

Enrolment books of patents of appointment, 1661-1855
Notitia Books, and Enrolment Books of Leases Notitia Books c.1600-c.1850, CCB V, and other "notitia". The list of volumes called Notitia Books in numerical order 54001 - 54027 is misleading as not all these volumes are Notitia Books, (some are lease registers) and there are other volumes like Notitia Books in other places in the Church Commission Deposit.
There is a problem in terminology here, the term notitia and Notitia Books being used for various plans and also for volumes related to leaseholdings. The main Notitia Books concerned here are those books which do for leasehold land what the call books do for copyhold land - they list, in one place or page per property, a series of parties participating in transactions on a list of dates, thereby directing the reader to the full texts of these transactions in other volumes. The Notitia Books give more detail about the leasehold properties than the call books do, because they are concerned with rents which were more recently economic rents than were the reserved mediaeval rents of the copyholds. Also Notitia Books record the fines taken for the renewal of leases and information relevant to the value of the property to be taken into consideration when calculating what fine to set for the next lease renewal.
Before describing the main body of the Notitia Books among 54001 - 54027 and the others elsewhere, a word is necessary about their antecedents. Basically Notitia Books are lists of leaseholds made in a particular way. Lists of leased properties occur in other forms among lists of other tenures in more general lists or surveys of Durham Bishopric Estates. The development of Notitia Books runs with the development of leasehold tenure.
Notitia Books do not survive from the period when the first leases by indenture were granted. It was only after some time, when an inconveniently large number of leases and counterparts had been made for each property, that an easy and convenient system of reference to each leasehold (on the lines of the call books, for the customary tenants of the halmote court, which started in their early form in the earlier seventeenth century) was worked out and brought into use. The leaseholds were only once, experimentally, given reference numbers in the way the copyholdings were after the system was abandoned of simply scoring out a copyholder's name in the list and writing another beside it before the introduction of call copyhold numbers. These leasehold reference numbers were not long used. As with copyholds, divisions and amalgamations caused difficulties with it.
Leases by indenture arrived on Durham Bishopric estates gradually during the sixteenth century, customary tenants, with low rents, fighting a rearguard action before the Council of the North etc. Before and after leases by indenture arrived, premises were let for terms of years either by charter or through the Halmote Court. Many of the early leaseholds were properties like mills. From the 1560's the Bishops stopped maintaining these buildings and leased them out, the lessee to do maintenance. The series of lease registers (full texts of leases) begins rather raggedly in the sixteenth century with other documents and notes about leases admixed. Alongside them and starting a bit earlier, there are notes of early lease enrolments and abstracts in CCB boxes 20, 21, 175, 210 and 211 and CCB 1981, 216818 and 216820. The information there goes, in some cases, earlier than surviving counterpart leases.
Surveys were made in vacancies between bishops and for other reasons, of all or parts of the Durham Bishopric estates in Durham and Yorkshire, but the first general ones since Hatfield c.1382 were made by the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1647. Bishop John Cosin's (Restoration) survey of 1662 (Dean & Chapter Library, Sharp 167) was annotated by him and others with notes of renewals of leases, but not of fines paid for them. Durham Dean & Chapter Library's volume Sharp 113 is virtually a copy of Sharp 167 with the annotations up to 1703. Bishop Crewe's "valor" of c.1718 continues in the same way (CCB 216814). There may have been other similar volumes - see Cosin's Survey, p.25 "1700 Renewed to ... Peas ... vide other book". There was need for a more systematic approach.
The Notitia Book 54001 was apparently the first. It states on f. cxiii that it was begun in May 1752 and changes in the handwriting of certain lists in the volume support this date. However, it is retrospective as well as inclusive of various memoranda. There are a few references back to the late sixteenth century and to the Parliamentary surveys as well as to more recent pre-1752 business. The first fine it records in each case is usually the fine paid for the last renewal annotated into the 1662 Cosin's Survey (original in Durham Dean & Chapter Library, copy in ASC). Entries continue until c.1814 and the book (54001) includes County Durham, Bedlington and mines and quarries but not all the Yorkshire estates, as pages 614-634 relating to Howdenshire were removed when property in Howdenshire was transferred to the new Bishopric of Ripon in 1836. There are, however, later Yorkshire Notitia Books including Howden.
This first Notitia Book 54001 has two indices, the first brief index by place referring to the more detailed second index, which lists the individual properties at each place and the page or pages for each property, its lessees and its rent. (CCB 1981 216815 is part of another index to it.) From 54001 cross-references may be made to other Notitia Books.
A basic entry in 54001 consists usually of one page per property with entries added over the years. The heading at the top of the page describes the property. At the foot of the page are listed the years in which the leases were made or renewed, the lives and the number of years for which this was done, the fine paid for this and the lessee's name. In the centre of the page are notes about the property to be taken into consideration for lease renewal and other administration.
Book 54001 is a cumbersome volume and later entries were entered into about a dozen new separate volumes for the four wards, plus three Yorkshire volumes and one for mines and quarries. One volume for mines and quarries is missing (54023).
References in 54001 to "the new notitia book" or to "vol. 1 (2, 3, etc.) p. " refer to the later series 54003 (Chester Ward & Bedlington), 54007 (Darlington Ward), 54012 (Easington), 54017 (Stockton), 54019 Howdenshire and Northallerton, not Crayke) and 54024 (mines and quarries including Crayke) which are unindexed.
These volumes, 54003, 54007, 54012, 54017, 54019 & 54024 continue the entries in 54001 which they refer to as "the old notitia book". In these, at the top of each page in red reference, "No.50" etc. These numbers are the nearest thing to a call number these leaseholds have but the experiment did not last. They are not numbered quite consecutively, being added to an existing system. The system of reference by Ward and township served well as there were fewer leaseholds than copyholds to manage. These numbers are cited in later notitia books and the Accounts of Leases renewed and granted in CCB Box 133, item 37 (216810, 1808-41) etc.
There is a second series of Notitia Books continuing the entries in the earlier ones and referring back to them. This series was begun c.1790 and is indexed at the back of each volume, giving the names of tenants in the 1790s. This series comprises 54002 (Chester & Bedlington), 54006 (Darlington), 54011 (Easington), 54016 (Stockton), 54019a (Yorkshire including Crayke). The one for mines is missing. There is also CCB 1981 321795 a Notitia Book for Howdenshire, Allertonshire & Crayke which overlaps in function with the Notitia Books received from the Halmote Court Office (and now part of the Durham Halmote Court collection) (DHC M.9-12) as it includes plans and reports.
These Halmote Court Notitia Books (M.9 Chester Ward, M.10 Darlington, M.11 Easington, M.12 Stockton) contain detailed plans and valuations or reports on Durham Bishopric estate leaseholds and their tenants from about 1813. Again there is a page or more to each property and references back to the “old notitia” meaning here usually the second series but if not, then look earlier. The page numbers in this series are referred to on the 6" O.S. and 25" O.S. annotated series of plans from the Halmote Court Office. These maps are a good point to start tracing the history of a leasehold property back through the Halmote Court Notitia Books, then through the newer, then older, Church Commission Notitia Books, then Crewe's valor, Cosin's survey, the Parliamentary surveys and the lease registers and various early lease lists.
Two separate sets of detailed plans relate to the leaseholds in these Notitia Books, quite apart from those within their pages.
The first one, “Sundry Notitia” DHC9/V 1788-1862 came from the Halmote Court Office. These are small paper plans of individual properties leased out by the Bishop and also Durham Dean & Chapter. Their annotations relate them to other documents in CCB and DHC. They are arranged by township and are described elsewhere in this HUB index They are folded and boxed and are listed in Halmote Court List V, Subsidiary Manorial Documents, pp.91-98 in 43 bundles, Howden, Kirby Sigston, Northallerton, Osmotherly, Romanby, Hetton-le-Hole, Lynesack, Middridge, Ryhope, Auckland, Bedlington, Billingham, Bishop Middleham, Burdon, Byers Green, Cowpen, Dalton, Dunston (Gateshead), Durham St. Oswald, Easington, Rainton East & West, Edmondbyers, Ferryhill, Framwellgate, Gateshead, Greatham, Harton, Heighington, Hedworth, Heworth, Kyo, Littlethorpe, Littletown, Merrington, Monkton, Monkwearmouth, Muggleswick, Newbottle, Newton Bewley, Bedburn, Plawsworth, Ryton, Shincliffe, Shotton, Stanhope, Waldridge, Wallsend, Westoe, Wingate, Witton Gilbert and Wolviston.
The other are the "Notitia Plans" received from the Church Commissioners in 1981. They are very similar and are kept flat in planfile drawers, ref. CCB MN. They are listed in CCB Schedule 1981, pp.649-656. They are arranged in Chester Ward under Bedlington, Boldon, Chester-le-Street, Ebchester, Esh, Eighton Banks, Gateshead and Kyo; for Darlington Ward under Bedburn, Blackwell, Bondgate in Auckland, Butterknowle, Coatham, Coundon, Darlington, Evenwood, Heighington, Lynesack and Softley, Killerby, Ricknell, Stanhope, Weardale, West Auckland, Whessoe and Wolsingham; for Easington Ward under Bishopwearmouth, Burdon East, Cassop, Durham, Easington, Houghton, Newbottle, Quarrington, Shadforth, Sherburn, Shotton, Sunderland and Tunstall; Stockton Ward under Bishop Middleham, Norton, Sedgefield and Stockton and for Yorkshire under Kirby Sigston, Brompton, Northallerton and Osmotherley. Many of these plans, late 18th and early 19th century, are by the well-known local surveyor and estate administrator Arthur Mowbray.
There are many annotations on the pages of these notitia volumes. Many are very informal but most are cross-references to other volumes, so it is well worth checking other extant volumes if the cross-reference is not found in the most obvious place. Here are some explanations:
1. The red reference numbers at the page tops in 54003, 54007, 54012, 54017, 54019 & 54024 work thus. In the other CCB Notitia, for example, Chester 54002 on page 79 it says at the foot "Carried to p.39 New Book (54003)" written boldly in red ink. To the left of these words in a different hand, large, faintly and in pencil is written "178." followed by a pencil tick. If we turn to 54003 p.39, there is the same property with "No 178" written in red ink, top left.
2. For years the two Darlington volumes 54006 and 54007 had the numbers on the spines exchanged from the numbers inside. This caused confusion, so for references to one check both. 54006 is the one with the index and 54007 has the red numbers.
3. References in 54001 to "vols.1-6" have been identified as referring to later Notitia Books by Ward (unindexed) as follows:
4. "Old Deeds" plus a number, refers to the Bishop's copies of leases made to his lessees, his counterparts signed and sealed by the lessees. Ask to see these by giving bundle and number. The bundle number is found by checking the old deed number in the CC numerical index to see on which page in the 1956 CC schedule the old deed number occurs. The page number is the same as the bundle number and on that page appear further dates and names of parties. The counterparts are often endorsed with references to lease registers and other matters. The deeds received from the Church Commissioners in 1981 are stored mainly in numerical order.
5. Six digit (or similar) numbers, if found not to be numbers of relevant old deeds, may refer to the correspondence files of the Church Commissioners which used to be at 50 North Bailey, the old Halmote Office which the Church Commissioners used later. There are in the search room at ASC card indices, as mentioned in 4. to show on which page (if at all) long numbers appear in the schedules which came with the deposits of Church Commission Durham Bishopric estate deeds. There is also a list of the numbers of surviving files (made by John Clifford 1984).
6. Leases for lives or years. Some leases were for the lives of three people whose names and ages are given. This information is a help to genealogists. Other leases were for years, commonly 21 years but other lengths occur. There were advantages and disadvantages in both types of lease and legislation about them. It was usual to renew a lease for lives when one of the three died and ones for years, every few years, often 7, even though the leases were far from expiring. This spread the payment of the renewal fine and avoided the payment at once of a large fine. It was permissible to have a life in a lease replaced even if that person had not died but had moved away or had gone to America etc.
7. Exceptions and reservations can occur in leases and can cover many things, e.g. timber, mines, quarries, wayleave, rights to make staithes, as appropriate to the particular property. A reservation could be part of the rent which was to be paid to someone else.
8. Improved value or valued at. From time to time the Bishop's land agent would have properties inspected in order to adjust the fine on the next renewal. Change of use could occur. If the value had improved the fine would go up, if not then possibly it would go down. Some of these reports survive in the series DHC M.9.-12 and M.76 and the separate CCB Surveys of mines and quarries. Some of these improved values are quoted on the authority of someone, for example, CCB 54001 p.62 Weardale, Long Lee. The descriptions of property in leases tended to be the same for generations and were obviously obsolete. One example is Bedlington windmill, still so described in leases after its conversion to an iron works. Continuity of description produced a firm series of title deeds, useful for legal purposes if not for the historian of the physical history of a property.
9. Decays. If a property had decreased in value, e.g. Chester mill lost business to premises with access to the new railway, then some financial inducement might be noted as necessary to obtain a new tenant. Some decays were of property which had become derelict.
10. Allotments. Leaseholds with common grazing etc. rights might receive a share of land at the Inclosure of the common grazing etc. (just as the copyholds did). This would increase the value of the property.
11. Encroachment. Land enclosed from common or waste without landlord's permission.
12. Half a tenement or moiety. This did not mean literally half the land or buildings, but a right to half the profits of them.
13. Four feasts. The dates on which rent was often paid, the quarter days, Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer Day (24 June), Michaelmas (29 September) and Christmas Day (25 December). Dates of rent-paying were different in the Yorkshire properties.
14. A fat goose or capon at Martinmas (11 November) or a fat lamb at Pentecost (Whitsuntide). This addition to the older cash rents was a survival of mediaeval payments in kind such as the Neville buck due to the Prior of Durham. In practice often it was commuted to a payment of an extra due of three shillings or so. Some ancient rents and dues were saved to the landlord even after 1922. The compensation agreements for their extinguishment are in DHC M.50 and go up to c.1950 (freehold and copyhold).
15. Assignment and alienation. Processes by which a lessee sold or otherwise transferred his lease to someone else. This could need the landlord's permission and a payment to him for a licence to proceed.
16. Tithes. These were usually payable by the lessee or his sub-tenant. The amount was sometimes deducted from the fine the year the fine was paid, meaning the landlord paid it then. Tithes in kind, where not already commuted, were commuted in 1836 for a cash payment related to the value of the crops on the land.
17. Coroners charge. This comprises the free rents, the collection of which was the responsibility of the Bishop's coroner or each ward. Sometimes collections of rents from leases was added to his work. Many leases specified that the rents were to be paid directly to the Bishop's Exchequer in Durham.
18. Enfranchised. This means converted from a leasehold or a copyhold to a freehold after a compensatory payment to the landlord. This was done after the 1799 Land Tax Redemption Act and other Acts up to c.1925. Once enfranchised the property no longer belonged to the Bishop and reference to it disappears from his estate records, except for the short series of "post-1925 transactions" in ASC from the Halmote Court Office, DHC1/VIII. There are examples in the CCB 1981 deposit of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, or their succeeding Church Commissioners, buying back, as freehold, land which had once been part of the Durham Bishopric estates but which had been lost to the Bishop's control through the evolution of various tenures. Sometimes these lands have title deeds showing what became of it after it slipped from episcopal control.
19. de novo. This phrase indicates a new grant and the start of records about it. New grants were usually of the lord's waste. Sometimes grants were made of the lord's waste to people who were not commoners on it, a depletion of a village grazing resource.
20. Services. In practice these were often commuted for a cash payment. At Chester-le-Street the tenure of one cavil of land carried the service of the provision of one team of six oxen for the carriage of the goods of the Bishop or King from Newcastle to Durham.
21. 36 beastgates, cattle gates, moor gates, pasture gates usually means grazing for 36 cattle. Sometimes two pasture gates might be required for one horse. A stint is different, being grazing for a particular group of beasts, a mixture by number of cattle, sheep, horses and perhaps geese. What comprised a stint varied from grazing ground to grazing ground and over the years. Agistment was payment for grazing by head and variety of animal.
22. Land tax. A governmental tax which landlords had their lessees and sub-tenants pay as a usual condition in leases. There is a table giving its annual variation and its redemption in 54001 after the second index and about 4ff before Alta Foresta begins.
23. Assessments. The ones referred to are probably those for poor relief and were paid by lessees or sub-tenants. Church cesses were separate and enforced through the Bishop's Consistory Court.
24. There are references not yet understood, for example, "Reported Vol: H.2. fo.740" or "Vol: H.1. fo.25" or "Col: H. fo.33". This suggests there are or were three volumes of "Reports" on Durham Bishopric leaseholds. Volume H.2 has at least 957 folia. These volumes have not been identified among volumes received in ASC from the Halmote Office or the Church Commissioners from London. Perhaps they are in the Church of England Record Centre in Bermondsey. Staff of the C.C. at Milbank failed to identify them. Progress in sorting may have been made since then.
For period prior to No. 54001, see the following volumes in the 1981 Church Commission deposit:
216814. A Valor ecclesiasticus - survey and renewals book 1690's onwards.
216815. An index to 54001 (from A - G only).