royal jurisdiction, both civil and military, by land and sea. For the exercise thereof, the Bishops had their proper courts of all sorts held in their name, and by their authority; their Chancery, Exchequer, and Court of Pleas, as well as of the Crown, as of the County; and all other pleas and assizes, certifications whatsoever; and all offices belonging to them, as Chancellors, Justices, HighSheriff, Coroners, Escheator, and other ministers; as well such as Kings have been wont to have elsewhere in the said kingdom, as such as the said Kings have been wont to depute according to the exigency of emergent cases, or for the special execution of acts of Parliament. Thus by themselves, and their officers, they did justice to all persons in all cases, without the King, or any of his officers, interfering ordinarily in any thing. The King's writs did not run in this county, but were directed to the Bishop; or, in the vacancy of the See, to the Chancellor of the Palatinate.

"When Henry the Second sent his Justices of Assize hither, on an extraordinary occasion of murder and robbery, he declared by his Charter, that he did it by licence of the Bishop, and pro hac vice only; and that it should not be drawn into custom, either in his time, or in the time of his heirs, not being done but upon absolute necessity; and that he should nevertheless have the land of St. Cuthbert to enjoy its liberties and ancient customs as amply as ever. By virtue of these privileges, there issued out of the Bishop's courts all sorts of writs, original, judicial, and common; writs of proclamation, &c. As all writs went out in his name, he had a register of writs of as much authority as that in the King's courts; and all recognizances entered upon his close rolls in his Chancery, and made to him, or in his name, were as valid in this county, as those made to the King out of it. But now, the Act twenty-seventh Henry the Eighth, for the re-continuing of certain liberties taken from the Crown, directs, that all writs, indictments, and all manner of process in Counties Palatine, shall be made only in the King's name; and since that time all the difference in the style of proceedings in this county from others is, that the teste of the writ is in the name of the Bishop, according to the direc tions of that act. Still he is perpetual Justice of Peace within

his territories, (and can sit only as such,) and is also perpetual Chancellor, because the chief acts of the exempt jurisdiction used to run through his court. All the officers of the courts, even the Judges of Assize themselves, have still their ancient salaries, or something analogous, from the Bishop; and all the standing officers of the courts are constituted by his patents. When he comes in person to any of the courts of judicature, he sits chief in them, those of assize not excepted; and even when judgment of blood is given, though the Canons forbid any clergyman to be present, the Bishops of Durham did, and may, sit in their purple robes on the sentence of death, whence is used to be said, solum Dunelmense stola jus dicit et ense.

If

"All dues, amercements, and forfeited recognizances, in the courts of the Palatinate, and all deodands, belong to the Bishop. any forfeits are made, either of war, or by treason, outlawry, or felony, even though the soil be the King's, they fall to the Bishop here, as to the King in other places: and though the first great wound which the Palatinate received, was given on the alie nation of Barnard Castle, and Hartlepool, on the forfeitures of Baliol and Bruce, yet the Bishop's right was declared to them on full hearing; and though the possession of them could not be retrieved, they still resort to the courts of Durham as other parts of the county do.

"Lands were held under the Bishop perforinsecum servitium; which is defined by Bracton to be a badge of regal right, and was a service only belonging to the Crown: the tenure in capite was common under a subject. The former occcurs very often in the records; indeed, all the tenures of land here originate from the Bishop as lord paramount in chief. Hence he grants charters for erecting boroughs and incorporations, markets and fairs, inclosing forests, chases, and warrens; licences to embattle castles, build chapels, found chantries and hospitals; and dispensations, with the statute of Mortmain. All inclosed estates, as well as moors, or wastes, to which no title can be made, escheat to him. Ho grants the custody of ideots and lunatics; and had the custody of minors while the custom of wards and liveries subsisted. Be

sides

sides the dependence of leasehold or copyhold tenants on him, if any freeholders alienated their land without his licence, they were obliged to sue out his patent of pardon; and all money paid for such licences belongs to him.

"In the article of military power, the Bishop of Durham had anciently his Thanes, and afterwards his Barons, who held of him by Knights' service, as the rest of the Haliwerk folk held of them by inferior tenures. On alarms, be convened them as a Parliament, with advice for them to assist with their persons, dependants, and money, for the public service at home and abroad; and all levies of men and money were made by the Bishop's commission, or by writs in his name out of the Chancery at Durham: for he had power both to coin money, and levy taxes, and raise and arm soldiers, in the Bishopric, from sixteen to sixty years old. According as he found their strength, he had power to march against the Scots, or to conclude a truce with them. One of the Bishops built a strong castle in his territory, on the border, to defend it against them; though no other person could have done this without his leave, nor the greatest person in the Palatinate embattle his mansion. As the people depended on him in these matters, they were free from every body else: and when the Lord Warden of the Marches would have summoned some of the Bishop's men to his court, a letter was sent from the King to forbid him, under pain of forfeiting 1000l. But now the militia of this county has been long on the same footing with the rest of the kingdom, under the Lord Lieutenant; the ouly difference here is, that that office has generally, though not always, been borne by the Bishop.

“The admiralty jurisdiction in this county belongs also to the Bishop, who holds the proper court by his Judges; and appoints by his patents, a Vice-Admiral, Register, and Marshal, or WaterBailiff, and other officers: and has all the privileges, forfeitures, and profits, incident to this power, as royal fishes, sea' wrecks, duties for ships arriving in his ports, anchorage, beaconage, wharfage, moorage, butterage, ulnage, &c. To him also belongs the conservancy of waters within his district; in pursuance of which, he used to issue commissions for rohibiting, limiting or reducing

weirs, or other erections in prejudice of his rivers. All ships of war were arrayed within the county Palatine by his commission, and writs to his Sheriff: and when the King issued out writs from his admiralty to the Sheriffs of other maritime counties, he addressed a particular letter to the Bishop here for his concurrence, who gave commissions to his own Sheriff, with express command, that nothing should be done by the King's commissions without bim. It is but lately that any instances have been known of the admiralty being separated from the Bishopric; and it is now restored, though with some diminution in the honor.

"The great privileges of this Bishopric in temporal jurisdiction, lead one to imagine that its spiritual immunities were equally extraordinary. After Paulinus departed from York, the Bishops who restored Christianity in Northumberland, placed their See at Lindisfarne, though not with the title of Metropolitan, yet with all the ecclesiastical power that was then in those counties. This occasioned a great veneration for their successors among the Saxons, besides the particular reverence paid to St. Cuthbert. When the See was established at Durham, in the time of the Conqueror, Thomas, the elder Archbishop of York, having been miraculously recovered of a fever at the shrine of the Saint, granted to this Church several immunities relating to jurisdiction, visitations, &c. which being confirmed by the King and Parliament, and the Pope, and by several succeeding Kings, could never be recalled, notwithstanding many struggles and contests."

The figure of Durham is triangular: on its eastern side, from the mouth of the river Tees to Tynemouth, it is bounded by the German Ocean: on the north, it is separated from Northumberland, by the rivers Tyne and Derwent, and some artificial boundaries on the west, it is divided from Cumberland and Westmore land by the Crook-burn, and the Tees; the latter river forms the whole of its south-east and southern boundary. The greatest extent of the county, from Shields on the north, to Sockburne on the south, is about thirty-six miles; its greatest length, from the peninsula

Gough's Camden, Vol. III. p 109.

peninsula of Hartlepool on the east, to the mouth of the Crook-burn on the west, at the point of union of Durham, Cumberland and Westmoreland, is about forty-five miles; and its circumference is nearly 180. Its superficial area includes about 610,000 acres, containing one city, 120 parishes, ten market-towns, 28,366 houses, and 160,361 inhabitants. It is divided into four wards, all deriving their names from places which are now of inferior consideration. The representatives are four, viz. two for the county, and two for the city. Durham pays three parts of the land-tax, and provides 400 men for the militia: the whole county is included within the See.

The general aspect of this county is hilly and mountainous; and particularly the western angle, which is a bleak, naked, and barreu region, crossed by the ridge of hills termed the English Appennines; though they do not in this part rise to any considerable height. From the eastern side of this ridge issue numerous streams, which flow towards the sea; and lesser ranges of hills, branching off from this district, spread in various directions over the whole county. The eastern and central parts of Durham include some beautiful and fertile vallies; and are pleasantly varied with hill and dale, alternately appropriated to the growth of corn, and of pasturage.

The soils are various. "Near the river Tees, and in some spots bordering the other rivers and brooks in this county, the soil is loamy, or a rich clay: at a further distance from these rivers and brooks, the soil is of a poorer nature, commonly termed watershaken, with here and there spots of gravel interspersed; but these are of small extent, the middle of none of them being half a mile from clay. The hills between the sea, and an imaginary line drawn from Barnard Castle on the Tees, to Alans-ford on the Derwent, are for the most part covered with a dry loam, the fertility of which varies in proportion to its depth: from this line westward, the summits as well as the sides of the hills are moorish wastes,"*

In