The first historical notice of the place occurs in the narrative of Simeon of Durham, who says that Eda or Edwine, a Northumbrian chief who had exchanged his helmet for a cowl, having died in 801, was buried in the Monastery of Gainford, in the church.*

Of this foundation there is no further mention in any of our ancient historians, nor any trace or tradition on the spot; and our knowledge of its existence is derived solely from this accidental remark. It was, doubtless, a humble structure-perhaps of woodand like many more monastic institutions formed previous to the Norman Conquest, of a temporary nature, and with no settled or certain foundation. Whether the monastery continued long in existence or not, a more valuable and permanent establishment arose soon after the date of this circumstance, for Egred (bishop of Lindisfarne 821-845) and owner of extensive possessions in this district, chose Gainford as the spot whereon to erect a church,† and as it is also said a vill; which, with the appurtenances-extending, in one direction from the Tees to the Wear, and in the other from the Deorstreet to a certain mountain westward-he gave to the church of St. Cuthbert, together with lands on the Yorkshire side of the Tees, three miles towards the south and six to the west; also the two vills of Ilecliff and Wigecliff which he had built; and Billingham in Hartness.

The mode of expression which Simeon has adopted, and the imperfect ideas we can now form of the original distribution and constitution of parishes, leave us in uncertainty as to the extent

* Anno DCCCJ. Edwine qui et Eda dictus est, quondam dux Northanhymbrorum, tunc vero per gratiam salvatoris mundi abbas in Dei servitio roboratus velut miles emeritus diem clausit ultimum in conspectu fratrum xviij. Kal. Febr. Sepultus est quoque in monasterio suo quod appellatur ad Gegenforda honorifice in ecclesia.-Sim. Dun, de gest. X. Scriptores p. 117. -Lel. Coll., iii., 352.

+ Postea idem sanctus Episcopus Egred ædificavit ecclesiam apud villam quæ vocatur Gegaignford, et dedit eam sancto Cuthberto, et quicquid ad eam pertinet, á flumine Tese usque ad Wheor, et á via que vocatur DEORESTRETE usque ad montem versus occidentem. Et ultra fluvium Tesa tria milliaria versus austrum; et sex versus occidentem. Et idem Episcopus ædificavit duas villas, Ileclif et Wigeclif ultra Tese, et Billingham in Heorterneyse, et dedit eas sancto Cuthberto.-Hist. S. Cuthberto, &c. X Scrip. vol. i., p. 69.

Præterea memoratus Ecgredus episcopus ædificans ecclesiam in loco qui dicitur Geineforde, donavit eam sancto Cuthberto, &c.-Sim. Dun. de Gest. Reg. Angl. X. Scrip., vol. i., p. 139. -Lel. Coll. iii., 181.

Ecclesiamque quam construxerat in Geneford, et quicquid ad eam pertinet à flu. Teisa usque ad Weor flu: S. Cuthberto contulit, &c.-Lel. Coll., ii., 329.

Egredus, &c., vir natu nobilis, et operum efficacia strenuus, qui patris Cuthberti ecclesiam amplius prædecessoribus suis rerum ac terrarum largitionibus locupletare studuerat et honorare.............Ecclesiam et villam quam ædificaverat in loco qui Geinford appellatur, et quicquid ad eam pertinet á flumine Teisa usque Weor, sancto confessori Cuthberto contulit. Duas quoque villas Eleclif et Wigeclif, sed et Billingham in Heorternesse, quarum ipse conditor fuerat locis superioribus quæ prædicto confessori, donaverat perpetuo possidendas adjecit. -Sim. Dun. Hist. Dun. Eccl., Lib. 2, Cap. v., X. Script. p. 13.

Ecclesiam et villam, quam ædificavit in loco qui Genford appellatur, et quicquid ad eam pertinet á flu. Tesa usque Weor confessori Cuthberto contulit, &c.-Lel. Coll., ii., 372.

B 2

and nature of these appurtenances. The Deorŝtreet is certainly the Roman Watling-street then used by the Saxons, as it is still by us, as one of the great lines of communication with the north and south parts of the island; but where the mountain is seems more difficult to ascertain. It was, at least, on the west or north-west side of the parish of Middleton in Teesdale, which is known to have been severed from that of Gainford; but the whole country, for many miles around, is a series of mountains-no one of which seems now so remarkble or different from another as to be styled the mountain. In the extent of country comprehended, supposing it as much as the terms can possibly convey, there is nothing, indeed, very surprising -several of the Saxon parishes in the north of England still containing fifty, sixty, seventy, or even one hundred thousand acres ;* nor in the history of the parishes that now occupy a portion of it, to shew that it was absolutely impossible that the church of Gainford —for to it we think the appurtenances are assigned—should not have exercised ecclesiastical or parochial jurisdiction within these prescribed limits; yet, as the boundaries of Saxon parishes are generally known to have been, and remain, co-extensive with those of the manor for whose spiritual benefit they were formed; and we have as much reason as the nature of the subject will allow for supposing those of the Barony or Franchise of Gainford not only to have been so, prior to its acquisition by the Baliols, but also of different and much less extent than those of the district described-it may be the more probable supposition that Egred, who was a man of noble birth, or some Eorl his ancestor, had received a district not less than the present parish, and that of Middleton, from the grant of a Northumbrian king; and that, after he had built and endowed a church therein, formed a parish, re-granted certain divisions, and was elevated to the episcopal office, he devised—either from piety, lack of near relatives, or inability to transmit them hereditarily—the seignorial appurtenances, the demesne, and remaining ungranted lands; with such estates as had been given to the church, both originally by the founder, within, and subsequently by other benefactors without the boundary of the manor, and lying scattered between it and the Wear, to that establishment which had the greatest claim on his generosity.

But, whatever were the benefits which the church received, it did not long enjoy them; for among the twenty-four villas which were mortgaged in the time of Bishop Aldune (998-1018) to the Earl of Northumberland, were Gainford, Whorlton, Sledwish, Marwood,

* The parishes of Gainford and Middleton now contain, together, 62,780 acres; Romalkirk, on the Yorkshire side of the Tees, opposite to Middleton, 54,760; Bradford, in Yorkshire, has 76,996; Halifax, 75,740; Ripon, 48,980; and Whalley, in Lancashire, 108,140.

Stainton, Streatlam, Cleatlam, Langton, Piercebridge, and Morton; and these lands, comprising nearly the whole of the present parish, Simeon, who from his orthography of places seems to have been writing with the Saxon records of the Church before him, says, succeeding Earls would never restore.* Mr. Surteest supposed that Uchtred, who was the Earl during the greatest part of Aldune's episcopate, and married that prelate's daughter, might have obtained them from him as part of their marriage portion; Hutchinson,§ that they were temporarily alienated in times of public calamity, as an aid for prosecuting the wars; but the authority of Sir Francis Palgrave|| favours the opinion that they were præstita, or lon-lands, which, on the expiration of their term they refused to surrender, and from which they could not be expelled. This idea, too, is supported by the practise of letting lands, especially those of the church, in those days; and further confirmed by the peculiar expression of the historian-" præstitit comitibus." It seems, too, a large tract here had been granted some time before, as præstita, by bishop Cuthred, to one Edred, a murderer and adulterer, who had sought the protection of St. Cuthbert, and who occupied and tilled it three years.¶ Cade** tells us Canute restored Gainford to the church, but in this I imagine he is mistaken; for in that case the church would not have had to seek its restoration from Uchtred's successors. On the Danish monarch's memorable pilgrimage to the holy shrine, then late translated to Durham, he offered there, Staindrop, Shotton, Raby, Ingleton, and Wackerfield+t-places now forming the greater part of the parish of Staindrop; but nothing is said by Simeon and others, who relate the circumstance, of the restoration of Gainford; and we know nothing of its history until we find it in the crown in the time of William Rufus, who about 1093, granted to Guy Baliol, an adherent of the Norman Conqueror, the forests of Teesdale and Marwood, together with the lordships of Middleton in Teesdale and Gainford, with all the royalties, liberties, and immunities, thereunto appertaining.

* Sunt autem nonnullæ terrarum possessiones quas Aldhunus Episcopus sui temporis comitibus Northanhymbrorum dum necessitatem paterentur ad tempus quidem præstitit, sed violentia comitum qui eis successerunt pene omnes eas a dominio ecclesiæ alienavit, quarum quædam hic nominatim ponuntur: Gegenforde, quam superius Ecgredum Episcopum condidisse, &c. Cueornington (Whorlton) Sliddieuesse, Bereford, Stredford, Lyrtingtun, Marawuda, Stantun, Stretlea, Cletlinga, Langadun, Mortun, Perse-brige, &c. &c.

SIM. DUN., HIST. DUN. 1. iii., c. 4. x Script., p. 29. Vid. et LEL. COLL. v. ii., p 377. + Hist. of Dur., v. i., 11. Sim. Dun., Hist. de Uchtredo, Com. North., x Scrip., p. 80.

? Hist. Dur. v. i., 98. || English Commonwealth, v. 2., p. ccclxiii, and ccv.

¶ Hist. S. Cuth. X. Scrip., p. 74.—Ibi tribus annis mansit, cum pace colens terram, sibi a Cutheardo episcopo, et à congregatione præstitam, &c. Again it is said-Has omnes villas, præstitit episcopus Elfredo, ut sibi et congregationi fidelis esset et de his plenum servitium redderet.-X. Scrip. p. 73.

**Letter to Gough, in Arch., vol. x., p. 54. Scrip. p. 34; et Lel. Coll. vol. ii. p. 331 and 378.

++ Sim. Dun. Hist. Dun., Lib. iii., c. 8. X.

At this time, therefore, the manor of Gainford appears as one extensive enfranchised seigniory, either by creation as I have previously supposed early in the Saxon times, or while it was in the crown. When however Bernard Baliol, preferring the elevated and more inaccessible situation of Marwood, to that of the original caput baroniæ at Gainford, built a castle there, a large portion of it was severed to form the Honour of Barnardcastle, as it still remains.

Whether this important manor had come into the hands of Canute on the defection of the Earl of Northumberland, and remained until the time of this grant in the crown, or had been seized by the Norman Conqueror from a successor or descendant of the Earl who had originally obtained it from the church-a circumstance not improbable, for Cospatric, son of Algitha, daughter of Earl Uchtred, who did possess it, obtained livery of the Earldom from the Conqueror, on payment of a large sum of money,* and held it until 1072, when he was deposed—it is somewhat remarkable that it was not immediately conferred on some Norman adventurer, more especially, since, independently of its value, its position afforded facilities for the erection of such a fortress, as was afterwards found necessary to restrain the turbulence of the northern subjects.

By an inquisition, taken at Newcastle, 21st Edward I., 1293, for the county of Northumberland, under the statute of Quo Warranto, it was found that, among the nobles and others who held divers liberties within the liberties of the bishop of Durham, (an expression by which nothing more can be intended than that they were geographically situated in that part of the country commonly called Durham; for Gainford was, at least then, and long after, said in inquisitions and legal documents, to be annexed to and parcel of Northumberland) Agnes de Valencia, widow of Hugh Baliol, had at "Geneford," gallows and infangenetheof; or, the privilege of judging thieves taken within her liberty, the chattels of felons convicted in her court, and free-warren in all her lands.† Mr. Hutchinson, forgetting the grant of Rufus, says that Gainford became the estate of the Baliols, by Hugh marrying Agnes de Valencia; but she merely

* Cospatricius filius Maldredi filii Crinani, Willielmum Regem adiens, multa emptum pecunia adeptus est Comitatum Northymbrensium. Nam ex materno sanguine attinebat ad eum honor illius Comitatus. Erat enim ex matre Algitha, filia Uchtredi Comitis, quam habuit ex Algiva filia Agelredi Regis. Hanc Algitham pater dedit in conjugium Maldredo filio Crinani.-SIM. DUN., de GEST. REG. ANG., et de Uchtredo Com. Northd. X. Script. pp. 204 and 80.

+ Diversi magnates et alii infra prædictas libertates prædicti episcopi utuntur diversis libertatibus, &c. &c., videlicet, prior Dunelm, &c. &c.

Item Agnes de Valencia habet furcas et infangenethef apud Geneford in libertate prædicti Episcopi et capit catalla felonum dampnatorum in curia sua, &c., et habet warrenam in terris suis.-PLACITA DE QUO WARR. ABBREV., p. 604 b.

There is an exemplification of this record, granted at the request of Bishop Langley, in Rymer's Fœdera, vol. viii., p. 572, from the Patent Rolls, 10 H. iv., p. 1., m. 5.; and a copy in Rot. Parl., vol. i., p. 118, from Ryley's Placita, p. 168.

held it in dower, and was perhaps in possession two years after the date of the inquisition, when John Baliol, king of Scotland, the younger brother and heir of Hugh, withdrew his allegiance from the king of England.*

On this event, bishop Beck seized the manors of Gainford and Barnardcastle, as forfeitures within his Palatinate.† Godwin‡ says he built or repaired a castle at Gainford, by which we may understand an embattled manor house, rather than a fortress intended for serious defence. There are no acknowledged remains of this structure existting; but some countenance is given to the statement by the massy groundworks of a vast but undefined building, now to be traced in a garth behind Cradock's Hall at the west end of the village.

The bishop's claim to these large and valuable possessions seems to have been considered more valid then, than it was in after times; and he held them undisturbed until the king, irritated by his continued arrogance, insolence, and pride, and wishing to curb a power which in such hands might be productive of inconvenience and disorder, seized in 1306, for a second time, the whole of the Palatinate; and though he afterwards restored it, it was with the dismemberment of Gainford and Barnardcastle, which were selected from that ample territory, either because they were supposed to have been unjustly acquired, or too important and valuable to be retained.

Both manors appear to have remained in the king's hand until 1310, 35th Edward I., when they were granted to Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,§ whose heirs continued to hold them in defiance of all interruption and opposition from the Bishop and others—as will be more conveniently and fully detailed in the history of Barnardcastle-until the time of Anne, younger daughter of Richard Beauchamp, fifth Earl of Warwick, widow of Richard Neville Earl of Warwick, the King maker, and coheiress of her niece Anne, only daughter and heiress of Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick, who was deprived of them and her other vast possessions, by act of parliament, 14th Edward IV., 1475. These estates, with Middleham, Sheriff-hutton and others in the north, were then assigned to her daughter Anne, wife of Richard, Duke of Gloucester; after whose decease, and that of her sister Isabel wife of George Duke of Clarence, the Countess of Warwick had all her possessions re-granted,|| 3rd Henry VII., 1488; but merely in order that she might alienate them to the King, and his heirs male, which she did, by a special feoffment, dated 13th December in that year.¶

Some time in the next century they are said to have come into

* Dugdale's Baron. p. 229, e Cartular War. Com. fo. 172.

+ Lel. Col., vol. ii., p. 392, and vol. 1, 291. De Præs., 658.

Rotul. Chart., eod. an., n. 54.

Rotul. Parl., vol. vi., p. 391.

Dug. Baron., i. 307.