Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/18

HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLAND. " Things once done and past, are not left for Invention, but the Judgement of after Ages, and Theft (without a Paradox) in Writers of Histories is plain dealing, and an Argument of Trueth. Only it is Ingenuity in the Historian and satisfaction to the Header, to conf esse from whom he tooke his Stone upon trust.** — ^Bobebt Hbog. CHAPTER L IT seems probable from the fact of Bishop Auckland having been originally called North Auckland, or, as it is termed in the old records, " North Aclet/' that a town or village existed at this place prior to its becoming the residence of the Bishops of Durham ; but to what extent, or by whonl inhabited, tradition and history are alike silent : though to that circumstance, its rise into anything like the shape and size of a town may be mainly attributed. At what particular time,. or by whom the territories of the Aucklands were originally given to the See of Durham, we have no exact record- Camden says (quoting an old book, of which he does not give the title) that " King Alfred and Guthrum, the Dane, whom he set over the Northumbrians, gave all the lands between the river Were and Tine to St. Cuthbert, and to those that should minister in his church, for ever, by which they might have suflficient to live upon, and not be forced to struggle with want and necessity." At that time the whole County of Durham was styled by the old Monkish writers " The land and patrimony of St Cuthbert ;" and it seems most likely, if we may judge from its subsequent history, that the lands upon which Auckland now stands formed a part of that grant About the year 1000, those lands, along with Binchester, Escomb, Newton, &c., with many other Episcopal possessions, were conceded for a time by Bishop Aldhune (who, in strictness of speech, was the first Bishop of Durham) to the Earl of Northumberland, to enable him to wage war against the Scots, and they were for some time afterwards withheld from the See. We next hear of them about the year 1020, as constituting a portion of the extensive territorial gifts conferred once more upon the See of Durham by King Canute the Dane, and from that time the whole of the lands of the. modem Aucklands have belonged to the Bishops of Durham or their grantees ; and the probability is that it became the site of one of their numerous residences at its restoration to the See at the above-named period, Eadmund then being Bishop, and the second who'fiUed the See ; Aldhune, as already stated,rbeing the first, the seat of the episcopacy having been removed from Chester-le-Street to Durham under his auspices. In 1085, Bishop William de Carileph confirmed to his convent of Durham the Church of Tynemouth, and amongst the witnesses upon that solemn occasion there occurs the name and place of residence of one " Ulthred the priest of Alcleat," which proves, at least, the existence of some church or religious foundation at or near Auckland ; and again, at a later period, in a charter of William de Merley, Lord of Morpeth, dated 1129, we have as one of the witnesses, " Meldred de Aclet" Its chapel is also mentioned in a judicial proceeding in 1271, and many other incidental notices, such as the dates of charters and other documents, during what may be called the dark period of its history, prove it to have been a favourite residence of the See, even in those early times. Digitized by Google—