Analecta Eboracensia. Some remaynes of the ancient City of York. Collected by a Citizen of York, Sir Thomas Widdrington, Knt. ... Edited and annotated by ... C. Caine, etc

Front matter

Two Hundred and Sixty-five copies only printed, of which this is No. /Cstf ■ ANALECTA EBORACENSIA : OR, SOME REMAYNES OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF YORK. collected by A CITIZEN OF YORK. Hnalecta Bboraceneia Some T^emaynes of the City of York. COLLECTED BY A CITIZEN OF YORK. Sir Thomas Widdrington. Knt. ; Recorder of York ; and Speaker of uJL House of Commons.] «PDitrsj atitr annotate*) BY THK Rev. CÆSAR CAINE, F.R.G.S. Author of Tie Martial Annals of tin City of York. LONDON : C. J. CLARK, 4, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C. PHILLIMORE AND CO., 36, ESSEX STREET, STRAND. I807. LONDON : PRINTED AT THE BEDFORD PRESS, 20 AND 21, BEDFORDBURY, W.C. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE Introductory Chapters by the Editor - - - - vii Dedication and Testimonials - - - - 3 I.— The Antiquity, Names, and several Conditions of the City of York - 15 II. — The Liberties, Rights, and Immunities of the City and Citizens - 52 III- — Customs, Prescriptions, and Usages of the City - - - 67 IV. -The City within the Walls, and the Gates, Bars, Wards and Walls thereof - - - - - -73 V. — Government of the City of York - - - - 7*8 VI. — Courts of Justice in the City of York - - - 90 VII. — The Rivers and Bridges in the City of York - - - 112 VIIJ.— The Suburbs of the City of York - - - - 121 IX. — The Bounds of the City of York - - - - 129 X.— The Ainsty of the City of York - - - - 131 XI. — The Churches ------ 159 XII. — Archbishops of York - - - - 175 XIII. — The Dean and Chapter of St. Peter's of York - - - 212 XIV. — The Hospital of St. Leonard, in York, and the Hospital of St. Nicholas - - - - - - 221 XV. — Lesser Hospitals in the City of York and Suburbs - - 235 XVI.— The Abbey of St. Mary, and other Religious Houses - - 238 XVII.— Davy Hall, or Lardinar's Hall - - - 249 XVIII,— The Castle of York - - - - - 261 XIX. — Parliaments, General Councils, and the General Courts of Justice held at York - - - - - - 268 XX.— Several Statutes and Acts of Parliament which concern the City of York - - - - - - - 275 XXI. — The Case of York and Kingston-upon-Hull - - - 280 XXIL— The Earl and the Dukes of York -' - - - 282 XXIII. — Persons of Fame for Greatness, Learning, or Otherwise, born in the City of York - - - - - - 285 XXIV.— The Names of the Benefactors of this City - - -294 Notes : The " Sad Complaint" is printed on p. x. The list of Mayors prepared by Widdrington is cancelled by him ; vide p. 84 It might be well to print it separately some time. b Contents.

VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. IN THE INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. The Arms of Sir Thomas Widdrington - - - - ix Drake's certificate ------- xm Facsimile of the Egerton MS. ----- xvl The Signature of Sir Thomas Widdrington - xv" Facsimile of the Bodleian MS. - xviii A letter by Sir Thomas Widdrington ----- xxxii PLATES. I. An ancient drawing of York - - - - -7 2. A Roman Altar - - - - - - 28 3. The Emperor Severus - - - - - 3° 4. St. Mary's Tower - - - - - - 97 5. Walter Malbysse - - - - - - 136 6. Healaugh Priory - - - - - - 136 7. Sinningthwaite Priory ------ 138 8. The Tomb of Ferdinando Fairfax - - - - - 138 9. The Minster : Saxon work - - - - - 159 10. The Minster : Saxon work ... - - 159 11. The Minster : Norman work ----- 160 12. The Minster : Norman work - 160 13. The West Door of the Minster ----- 163 14.

Chapter I

Some Account of Analecta Eboracensia. UAINT old Fuller, at the end of his section on York1 says : " Let me adde, I am informed that Sir Thomas Widdrington, a person accomplished, in all Arts, as well as in his own Profession of the Laws, hath made great Progress in his Exact Description of this City. Nor doe I more congratulate the happiness of York coming under so Able a Pen, then Condole my own Infelicity, whose unsuccessful attendance hitherto could not compass speech with this worthy knight. Sure I am, when this work is set forth, then indeed YORK SHALL BE, — what? A city most compleatly Illustrated in all the Antiquities and Remarkables thereof." These words were published in 1662, two years before the death of Sir Thomas Widdrington. The commendable hope expressed by Fuller, that Sir Thomas would publish the materials he had collected for the history of York, was not realised.

More than thirty years later, we find an historian lamenting that 1 Thomas Fuller, Worthies of England, 1662, p. 232. b2 Widdrington's history of York is still in manuscript, and likely to remain unpublished. Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden's Britannia} published in 1695, says: "This ancient and noble city might have had an agreeable light, if Sir Thomas Widdrington, a person accomplisht in all arts, as well as in his own profession of the laws, after he had wrote an entire history of it, had not upon some disgust prohibited the publication. The original2 manuscript is now in possession of Thomas Fairfax of Menston, Esquire." There is a most unaccountable error concerning this collection in Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell. It is there stated that Sir Thomas Widdrington published his Analecta Eboracensia in 1660.3 Analecta Eboracensia represents the first known attempt to preserve the memory of the historic events of the Northern Capital, and was completed nearly a century before Francis Drake, the great historian of York, published his Eboracum} Thomas Widdrington was a barrister of Gray's Inn, Holborn,5 his coat of arms being preserved in one of the compartments of the bay window of the Hall there.6 He was Recorder of York during the reign of the unfortunate Charles I and the Commonwealth, and represented that constituency in Parliament in 1654, 1656, and 1660.

He spent some years in collecting and arranging materials for his local history, and offered to the Mayor and Corporation, that in pub lishing the book, he would be pleased to dedicate it to the " Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, Common Council, and Citizens". It was generally felt that a man occupying a position so high and influential as that held by Sir Thomas might have attempted something of a more 1 P. 734- * Drake speaks of the Menston MS. as a copy. In Anecdotes of British Topography (1768), p. 547, and Gough, British Topography (1780), p. 418, the same statement appears. 3 Noble, M., Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell (pub. 1787), vol. i, p. 428. 4 Drake's work appeared in 1736. 6 He was admitted in 1618, and his elections were as follows :— Barrister 16— ; Ancient 1639 ; Bencher 1639 .' Lent Reader 1640 ; Serjeant 1641. 6 These arms are figured in Dugdale's Origs.

Jurid., p. 303, being copied, as in the present instance, from the window at Gray's Inn. '. IX material character for the advancement of the city, such as obtaining an Act of Parliament for the improvement of the navigation of the Ouse, etc. Nor can it be said that the people, greatly reduced as they were in resources by the events of the recent Civil War, had no just grounds for their complaints, especially considering that their The Arms of Sir Thomas Widdrington, Knt., copied from the Window at Gray's Inn, votes had contributed to secure for Widdrington his position in Parliament. The proposed dedication ' of the work, a draft of which was forwarded to the city authorities for approval, was received with coldness by those whom it was designed to honour, and not only with coldness, but even derision.

Hence the " disgust" of the author, and his prohibition of the publication spoken of by Bishop Gibson. 1 This dedication is given later, in the place assigned to it by Sir Thomas, vide p. 3. X The following reply,1 expressing despair concerning the state and prospects of the citizens, and concluding with a vehement sting, was sent to the learned and industrious author : — " Sir, — You have told us by the former discourse what the city was, and what our predecessors have been. We know not what this may have of honour in it : sure we are, it hath but little of comfort. The shoes of our predecessors are too big for our feet, and the ornaments which they had will not serve now to cover our nakedness, nor will their wealth feed us, who are not able to tell you what we are, unless it be this, that we are poor and miserable.

Our predecessors, if they could see us, would either disclaim us, or be ashamed of us. You have told us that this city was some time the metropolis of the Britons ; the Royal Court of the Roman Emperors, and a seat of justice anciently, and also in later times ; how is it now become unlike itself? The inhabitants have many of them forsaken it, and those who have not, she cannot maintain, whilst some cities are become so big with buildings, and numerous with inhabitants, as they can be hardly fed or governed. York is left alone, situate in a country plentiful for provisions, and stored, if the people had money to buy them. Trade is decayed, the river become unnavigable by reason of shelves. Leeds is nearer the manufactures, and Hull more com modious for the vending of them ; so York is, in each respect, furthest from the profit.

The body of York is so dismembered, that no person cares for the being the head of it ; the suburbs, which were the legs of the city, are cut off ; the late Court of Justice, which, indeed, was built upon the sand only, is sunk, and with it many considerable persons are swallowed up ; you cannot now see any confluence of suitors and people ; he that looks upon the city may see her paps dry, and her eyes bedewed with tears, refusing to be comforted, because all these are gone. Now, sir, for the Britons you mention ; we can neither derive pedigree nor wealth from them ; nor can we hear of any of their descendants, unless in Wales and Cornwall, or upon some mountain or hill in Cumberland ; and when we have found them, we fear that they will not own us for their kindred or relations ; we have lost our genealogy, and forgot the British dialect ; they tell us that our blood is not British, but Roman, Saxon, and Norman, which, or some of which, did expel these ancient Britons, and we might expect the same reception from the Roman, Norman, or Saxon, if we should appeal to any of them ; and we find by experience that it is not a long series, or beadroll of ancestors, and predecessors, but wealth and estate which set a value upon men and places.

As for our wealth, it is reduced to a narrow scantling ; if we look upon the fabric and materials of the city, we have lost the suburbs which were our skirts, our whole body is in weakness and distemper, our merchandize and trade, our nerves and sinews, are weakened and become very mean and inconsiderable : for the earls, dukes, archbishops, deans, prebends, and abbots of York, they are no homogeneal parts of our body, but only our garnishments, embroideries, and ornaments, and sometimes pricks and goads ; our present misery is, that we can hardly keep together our homogeneal and essential members, some of them using us, as Absalom's mule did him, either leaving of us, or refusing to act as magistrates amongst us, when our very Govern- 1 A copy of this reply is bound up with the MS. at the end, and entitled "A sad complaynt by the City of York to the Author". ment seems to hang by a weak, or upon some slender twig.

Now for all the monuments of our former state and glory we find no warmth or comfort from them ; but it seems to add to our unhappiness that our predecessors were so happy. Give us leave for conclusion to tell you that a good purse is more useful to us than a long story, which might enable us : — (i) To make our river more navigable ; (2) To re-edify the decayed parts of the city ; (3) To raise a stock to set up some manu facture in the city ; (4) To relieve our poor, into which number we may all of us fall if some timely course be not taken by which, through God's blessing, this tottering and wasted city may be upheld." This answer, we confess, with all our sympathy for the good Mayor and Citizens, goes beyond the characteristic frankness of the people of the North, and seems to revel in its bluntness, whilst manifesting little or nothing of the reputed hopefulness and optimism of the Northern character.

Sir Thomas felt the rebuff most keenly, and it is not to be wondered at that he prohibited the publication of his collection, though it represented researches extending over many years. As already stated, the original MS. was in the possession of Fairfax of Menston in 1695. It was at first the property of Thomas Lord Fairfax, the Parliamentary General,1 brother-in-law to Sir Thomas Widdrington. Doubtless it came into the possession of the Menston family at the death of Lord Fairfax in 167 1. At a later date it passed into the hands of a Mr. Richardson, an " apothecary", of London, who was a well-known book collector. From his hands it passed, by purchase, into the possession of Sir Robert Smith, of Suffolk,2 and contains on one of the end papers the arms of that gentleman. While in his hands it was introduced by Dr. Vernon,3 of St. George's, Bloomsbury, to Francis Drake, who was then engaged upon his Eboracum, and who had some time previously discovered another copy of this manuscript history among the records of the city.4 Drake used these manuscripts freely, and incorporated 1 Drake, Eboracum, Preface.

See also the notes appended to the other copies described farther on. 2 This baronetcy was created in 1714, and expired in 181 1. — Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies. 3 Inducted Feb. 23rd, 1731. — Geo. Clinch, Bloomsbury and St. Giles, p. 129. 4 Drake says he had previously tried to get access to the Menston manuscript, but had failed. It was kept at that time sub sigillo. Drake, in speaking of the Menston MS. of his day as a copy, says he only repeats what is a matter of common report. Is it not possible that, though the original MS. was at Menston in 1695, extracts from them into his own work. Drake's remarks are as follows : — " And now, since Sir Thomas Widdrington's name is on the carpet, I must own my obligation to that gentleman, who was the first that I know of who undertook to write in a particular way the history of this city.

This writer in all probability began to make his collections for his history in King Charles the First's time, when he was Recorder of York. For in a speech to that monarch, at his coming to the city, in the year 1639, he pays a strained compliment to the King of its being more honoured by his having been Duke of York, than by the residence and deaths of the Emperors, which shows that he had then read something of the antiquities of it. The civil wars intervening, in which our author could not be unconcerned, his history seems only to be finished in the halcyon days for his party that ensued. And it must be after the Restoration that he sent the city word he intended to print and dedicate his elaborate performance to them."1 Concerning the particular copy which belonged to Lord Fairfax, Drake says : " This is the very original which he himself (Sir Thomas Widdrington) intended for the Press" ; and again, he says, it is " the very book which he himself dressed up, and put the last hand to for the Press."2 Happily this manuscript is easily accessible, and to a careful reader the evidences of what has just been quoted from Drake are abundant.

Let one illustration suffice. On fol. 157 one or two lines are struck out. The author on further consideration has determined to let them stand, and has written on the top margin of the page, " Print what is here struck out". This copy ultimately became the property of Christopher Sykes, Esq., from whom it was purchased in April 1 881, by the Trustees of the British Museum, in which institution the volume is now preserved — Egerton MSS., 25"78. Upon one of the first pages of the work there is the follovvino inscription, written by Drake's own hand: — "This manuscript was the work of Sir Thomas Widdrington, Knight, and as I appre hend, for several reasons, which I have given in the preface yet in 1736 only a cosy remained there? Drake does not attempt to account for the vicissitudes of the original MS., after it left the library of Lord Thomas Fairfax until it appears in the possession of Mr. Richardson. 1 Drake, Eboracum Preface. 2 Drake mj to my Eboracum, is the original. — Francis Drake, August 14, 1736."

Not seldom has the regret been expressed that this valuable manuscript has not been published. The author of Eboracum wrote : " What remains is only to recommend it to the present proprietory of the other copies that they would print it ; since one of them is offered for sale, and since no injunction from the author obliges them now to the contrary." /kit facjLtW 6*i^ £ Ims <rff fir //c?nCS A£c/</k^c £~o?t_ /^ f~ fr &L&A/4/A/AL. <-^ Facsimile of Drake's Entry in Widdrington's Manuscript. Widdrington's method of work, in one respect at least, leaves nothing to be desired, and furnishes an example to all those giving attention to the study of historic subjects. For his information he goes, whenever possible, to original documents. Of course, as one of the pioneers in topographical work, he was compelled to take this course.

The Public Records (then in the Tower of London),1 the Archives of York Minster and the City Corporation, the ecclesiastical documents then lying in St. Mary's Tower (York), the evidences of 1 Many references will be found to the Charter Rolls, Patent Rolls, Close Rolls, Exchequer Rolls, Statute Rolls, etc. Yorkshire families — the Vavasours, the Fairfaxes, the Slingsbys and others— the Bodley MSS., the Cotton MSS., and other original sources, are laid under contribution for his work. It must be remembered also that, at the time Sir Thomas was making his collection, many of the works with which we are familiar had not been put into type, and could only be consulted by him in manuscript form. Domesday Book was unpublished. There were no Calendars to the Rolls except the imperfect manuscript ones.

Such documents as Testa de Nevill were only accessible in the same form. Hearne had not issued Leland's ftinerary. Robert of Gloucester, Fordun, and other writers were still unpublished. These and similar facts lend additional credit to the achievement of our author. Reference has been made to Drake's acknowledged indebtedness to Widdrington. Without detracting from Drake, and without giving to Widdrington praise which is not his due, it may be said that Widdrington's collection is the basis of Drake's masterpiece. I have read and compared the two books for years, and I have been con firmed in this opinion at almost every point. I have been surprised to find that sometimes Widdrington is more correct than Drake, though Drake had the opportunity of revising Widdrington's work. As an example of what I mean, I will refer to the quotations from the Charter Rolls on p. 55.

Drake transfers this list (with two additions) to his Eboracum, p. 211. On comparing the two lists, it will be found that Drake differs from Widdrington. In each instance it is Drake who is incorrect. Reference is made in the notes to other inaccuracies in Drake, e.g., Dr. Lister's account of a Roman altar, p. 28, note 2 ; the Fairfax pedigree, p. 149, note 2 ; the sites of the houses of the Augustine and Franciscan Friars, p. 246, note 3 ; the confusion of John Scotus with Alcuin, p. 290, note 1 ; the Fairfax epitaph, p. 304.1 These are only specimens from a considerable list which might be 1 Whilst referring to these errors, I will mention another matter to which the late Canon Raine directed my attention, viz., that there was no Mayor of York until the reign of Henry III (1216—72). I find a digest of the information given me by Canon Raine in his York (Historic Town Series), pp. 193-4.

He says (the italics being mine) : — presented. The time has arrived when a revised and extended edition of Drake's monumental work would be of immense ad vantage. I do not say that Sir Thomas is always correct. I have, indeed, repeatedly found it necessary to use the notes for the purpose of making corrections. But, again, it must be allowed that many of these faults are slips on the part of the amanuensis, and would have been corrected had the book passed into print during the lifetime of the author. The collection of Widdrington presents one grave fault — a lack of order and method in the arrangement of the chapters, and in the subject matter of the respective chapters. At first I suspected that the binder of the papers was in some measure answerable for this apparent confusion, so far as the order of the chapters is concerned ; but this is not the case.

I shall have need to refer to these faults again in the Preface to the present edition. There are, at least, three other copies of this manuscript besides the one I have reproduced. i. As already stated, Drake found a copy of Analecta Eboracensia among the City Records. This MS. was a " first draft", without the author's corrections. Drake says that this copy was endorsed as follows : — " This is the first draft out of his own papers. A second, my Lord Fairfax has by his delivery, with this note in the front, viz., that in the last and perfect copy he " King John, by deed dated March 25, 1200, confirmed to the citizens their Merchant Guild and their houses in England and Normandy, and their lastage, as freely as they had them in the time of Henry his grandfather, and as they are specified in the charters of Henry his father and Richard his brother.

When John granted this charter, York was still under the rule of a praepositus, or reeve ; the claim which Drake makes lo its having a mayor at an earlier period being quite unfounded. We learn from evidences preserved at Durham that whilst Robert Wallensis was sheriff of Yorkshire (1206- 11), Gerard, the bell-founder, was praepositus or reeve of the city, and that William Fairfax was holding that office about the same time. In 1217 we find a mayor in the place of the praepositus, and, no doubt, there were bailiffs as well. In that year the king orders the sheriff of Yorkshire to give to Hugh de Selby, mayor of York, the house which belonged to Leonard the Jew." This note should be read in connection with pp. 80-81 following. QJLrSQtjlLai^pvzfi x^^a^ryQri-rrr^A' "ft* oshu ■/tr^&^e^x>l^r^X^f-^^y>e6t\cr<yjh^yt ayyOTOffl-WT.

B»inw*|i*' trrJLtyi y.fyVdry, S^otlyn-ru^r, (^.^Iha^tai-rf ndmer e4-h/_r.ryJL-%-*yy*. dy*-ti"lfnrix±yirn#in tx, r-Jnlhni k&-e &***»-& e wHfcwbtof -jrom Vtzo 4v iX)/* .r)vym*yvynt Virttw -m arfyyn ntr %<^ $*$-■]»**> vLvWt*»&t a- L^S-^xpa^^hf -Xriryy^m /W^rtfm £«*«*■ //AMlynvyym ar (-J4i«(i«. SrrS c-yfh^m^-irrm (hc^ut^yru^h jUwW(jl, Amu, J* ;W*Wn**,U. fctft«.fc,# ffirtW.0" ,„l^J-JWi^M**£frt*^ft, p^ rnkfrth*^ »,.af ;m 2/rr^/ Jk^.jLfo Lw j_ . a^lyi $,„!,£ J<_ ... ji^^Qy^aU KapArH Xfir_H^~t^_jai/ynird-, f am. ito*. /**&*„, 7nstvt__%>ce^hyy'»^, (*p«irf l&s> A PAGE OF THE EGERTON MS. NOW PRINTED. (Size of the original writing, 10 inches by 5I inches. ) See p. 195. has expunged divers things in both the former, and made some small additions as were defective in both. This is a more imperfect copy than that which Sir Thomas Widdrington delivered to my Lord Fairfax, for it evidently appears that my lord's book was copied out of this.

And yet without question this is much more compleat then the last, because in the last he has expunged (it is his own word, but very improper for so learned a work) divers things in the former." This book is no longer among the Records of the City, but it, or a copy of it, is still extant in York. I regret that I have had extreme difficulty in viewing this manuscript : the owner, for good reasons of his own, being adverse to an examination of the volume. Signature of Sir Thomas Widdrington, Km. 2. There is a copy of this history at Oxford in the Bodleian Library.1 This has a bookplate of Thomas Beckwith,2 painter, of York. The titlepage (fol. o) is here presented in facsimile.3 The notes on this folio indicate, and the comparatively recent character of the penmanship confirms, that this is a copy of the York manuscript j'ust described.4 3.

Another copy was in the possession of Sir Robert Shaftoe (of Whitworth, Durham),5 who married a daughter of Sir Thomas 1 Gough, A Catalogue of Books relating to British Topography bequeat/ted to the Bodleian Library in I7Q7, p. 327. 2 For an account of this gentleman, see Davies, Walks through York, p. 238. 3 Vide p. xviii. 4 This MS. also contains a list of the Mayors, copied from a MS. belonging to Dr. T. White, of York. 6 For particulars concerning Sir Robert Shaftoe, see Notes on the family of Sir Thomas Widdrington, p. Ov ✓— ,f/& 0.^/G^ *f<$*lf (<&M fya.(Cf2^ l/ftk ju^b- /Zt£ awTfo fa&'c/u— »*/ Jfref Quad /£iu.*d fu&raJ JYte /a/tten cl/ fcttinS , -m,c £>r/Tia*7t *e*ritaf fvufrm^ 3 . y lrly»I C/^T rf ..'jL+.-yCf' uloCsfa) -/. --&» Co-f9 * " JtZ ~pt tfkrAfr,/ \rP.J '« »/v6, — '&*&' Iferrd jP.-3-fc.. &~7»t * <j#°Xy~ "> Jen. sfalL «*.*# J&lL, Y^i/yJ^ jdtpLl „ r- Ay 4.er) fouler PL. fto+P Orirui as4>-ffuLyA** us 0 fuel 9 yi,,6o^reeT (ttpy Jm> jKm ti&c* if 22rAtrrr,^s JY'wrmpMrt dot.Vte'vdp mva^re/ ' gr-tyrefa^ f*-i y*v,^Æe *ek*jeo^v /»//eeyc^-^ /}t*4 tot^-fefyd (m,r */"$.'.

J/i /t+'Pn £?£T~ jp *~, z&y> 5C^/J s~ 4 <&j i^""?. "i#a&- -No/* r~ #&&***./' ll,A t&t-*, M- £J~v-pJA<~r fgr> A s~ vrf^-jSi 9»«v 2z4-p' * faftf/i*-— *~3 >& J*?t,b Fn-aUr eDdifrum* fa? ~tr** t/a^.c/,1'* "' 6eff. Title-page of the Bodleian MS. It is evident that this is a comparatively recent copy of the unrevised first draft of Widdrington's work. Widdrington. No description of this copy has transpired, nor is its present possessor known to the lovers of Northern antiquities. Drake himself was not able to obtain access to this copy. I have evidence of other copies having been in existence. Some of these were probably copies made from other copies. But it will serve no practical purpose to carry these investigations further. The fact that we have the MS. corrected by the author himself renders all other copies comparatively unimportant.

Chapter II

Further Particulars of the Life of Sir Thomas Widdrington. AVING given this account of the manuscript of Sir Thomas Widdrington, it is needful to supply further particulars concerning the author himself. To have given these matters in the previous chapter would have overburdened it with irrelevant details. Sir Thomas Widdrington was descended from the Widdringtons of Widdrington Castle, an ancient North umbrian family. His paternal home was Cheeseburn Grange,1 in the parish of Stamfordham, Northumberland, a manor which once belonged to the Priory of Hexham. PEDIGREE. Preliminary Notes. The Widdringtons2 were settled at Widdrington Castle before the Norman Conquest. They are memorialized in the ballads of Chevy Chase and the Hermit of Warkworth. They were styled Lords of Widdrington as early as Henry I, though it was not till 19 Charles I that they were created Lord Widdrington of Blankney, co. Lincoln, which title expired in 1715.

For pedigrees see : — Burke, Extinct Baronetcies ; Landed Gentry. Banks, Dormant and Extinct Baronage. Hodgson, Northumberland. Foster, Visitation of Northumberland. Surtees, Durham. Genealogist, vol. i, p. 312. Harleian 1 This estate passed through the female line to Ralph Riddell, the present Lord of the Manor being E. F. Riddell, Esq. 2 Various ways of spelling the family name : Widderington, Witherington, Wdrington, Uddrington, Woderynton, Wodrington, Wytherington. Society, vol. xvi, p. 348 : vol. xvii, p. 349. Gentleman' s Magazine, 1853, vol. i, pp. 173, 280. Howitt, Visits to Celebrated Places, pp. 402-407. Archaeologia Aeliana, li series, vol. iii, p. 189. Soon after 1300, scions from the parent stock began to root and thrive in various parts of Northumberland, and the adjoining counties.

At the London Visitation in 1634, Rowland Widdrington, of London, entered his pedigree from his grandfather Thomas Widdrington, of Ashington, the father of Lewis Widdrington, of Cheeseburn Grange. This is printed in Harl. Soc. vol. xvii, p. 349, and is as follows. "Widdrington. Faringdon Wthin. Thomas Widdrington, of Ashington,— in Com. Northumberland. Lewes Widdrington, of Ches-==Katherine, daughter of William borne Grange, Com. North- Lawson, of Little Vsworth, of umberland. the Bishopdricke. i i i i. Thomas Widdrington, 2. Henry. 3. Rowland Widdrmg- Eldest son. ton, of London ; liueing a° 1634. __ . . _ 4. Rase. 5. Nicholas. Katherin. Ellen. Row. Widdrington." The Family of Sir Thomas Widdrington. Lewis Widdrington, of Cheeseburn'^pCatherine, daughter of William Lawson, Grange, Co. Northumberland, of Little Usworth.