ST. ANN'S CHAPEL. The exact date of the foundation of St Ann's Chapel, like that of St Andrew's, is not recorded. Baine says — " It owes its origin, in all probability, to the gathering together of the people under the walls of the Castle." Bishop Ruthall, writing to Wolsey, says — " For three hundred persons some day is but a small number, and of these days have I many, besides sixty or eighty beggars at the gate." Therefore, St Ann's, no doubt, was intended as a " chapel of ease," for the purpose of preventing the overcrowding of the Bishop's own chapel, keeping the congregation more select, and providing accommodation for the old and infirm, and those who were unable to attend the Parish Church of St. Andrew's. Hutchinson says — "This chapel was of great antiquity, and dedicated to St Anne, appertaining to the guild instituted in the Church of St Andrew's, in which chapel the guild was held to the time of Edward VL" In 1391, during Bishop Skirlaw's episcopate, William Foster,* John Challoner, and othera, " took of my Lord a piece of waste ground, at the east end of the Chapel of St Anne (at that time called St Anne's Green), fifty feet in breadth, and extending in length from the comer of the burial ground to the banks of the Wear, in order to enlarge the chapel and churchyard aforesaid." In 1424, a license from Cardinal Langley, recites that the inhabitants of North Auckland had rebuilt a chapel in honour of St Anne, and he gives them permission to have in it masses and other services on holydays, limiting the attendance on Sundays to the sick and infirm, and, in other ways, providing against detriment to the mother ChurcL Again, from the Copyhold Book of 1452, we find the chapel was enlarged, the procurators taking of my Lord for that purpose a piece of ground ten ells in breadth, and twenty ells in length, in the Market-placa From an old grant of this structure to the Governors of the Grammar School of King James, by Bishop Morton, in 1638, we learn that this place had become a ruin, and was not then used as a place for Divine worship, and that it had been in the possession of difierent laymen for some tima The old document runs thus : — To all Christian people to whom these presents shall come, Thomas, by the grace of God, Bishop of Durham, sends greeting in the Lord for ever. Know ye that I, the aforesaid Thomas, Bishop, &c., for divers good causes and considerations me moving, have given, granted, enfeoffed, and confirmed, and by these presents do give, grant, enfeoff, and confirm, unto Lindley Wren, of Binchester, in the County of Durham, Esquire ; William Darcy, of Witton-upon- Wear, in the County aforesaid, Esquire ; Francis Wren, of Henknowle, in the County aforesaid, Gentleman ; Richard Lylbum, of Thickley, in the County aforesaid, Gentleman ; Anthony Trotter, of Bishop Auckland, in the County aforesaid. Gentleman ; John Calverly, of the City of Durham, in the County aforesaid, Gentleman ; Henry Bayles, Oswald Glover, and Richard Comforth, of Bishop Auckland aforesaid, in the County aforesaid, Gentlemen, Gk>vemors of the Goods, Possessions, and Revenues of the Free Grammar School of King James, in the Town of North Auckland, otherwise Bishop Auckland, in the County of Durham, and their successors for ever, All that Ecclesiastical house now built, late the ruinous Chapel or Guild of St. Ann, Anglice, the Chapel or Guild of St. Ann, situate and standing in the Market-place of the Town of Bishop Auckland, otherwise North Auckland, in the County of Durham ; and all those cottages to the same house adjoining, and the whole soil and foundation of the same house, with all profits, commodities, ways, and easements to the said chapel, formerly belonging and appertaining in as ample manner and form as lK>rd James, late King of England, granted the same Chapel or Guild (inter alia) to George Ward and Robert Morgan, by his letters patent, bearing date the 1 0th day of October, in the fifth year of his reign, and in the like ample manner and form as the said George Ward and Robert Morgan granted the aforesaid Chapel or Guild (inter alia) to John Richardson, of the City of
- C3pyh. B. 17 Skirlaw p. 39. HaliL x Aas. 1391.* Will. Fonter et als. oep &c. nnam placeam de vast Dni ad oriental oapnd
capcIL See. Axme &a F. Dadley p. 12. 1476. Halm, xv^ JaL Demigs. De Ohristophero Preeton Aldeitnanno Glide See Anne ftc. i peda terr. de vaato Dni jac ex parte ocddentali de Seynt Anne Chare. G. Sherwood 1488 xv JaL x'rofoms Preston AldenL Gilde. S. Anno in ville de Ankland Copyhold books d. p. 607. Hal. ap. Aackland 19 Ooi 1452. Dimisio de Rob. Pelton et Rob. Chaloner Droenratoribns capeL S. Anne pro qoad. p'cell terre que cont latitad. x ulnas et in longitad xxviij nln. pro capella predicta soro bargi de Anckland, &a B. K. p. 89. Haln. ap. Ankland, ko, x Oct. 1508.— Ad hac car. Venit Rich. Hoton arm. Alderman. Gaild. S, Anne in Aackland et cepit de Dno ij ootag. cam gardino &a j toftam Tastam fta et nn oot cam gardino &a mana dni He'nd eid. Ric'o Aldermanno et sncc. Boia Aldermannis deo glide injare &a Digitized by Google
