Palatinate of Durham Records

The collection is arranged in four major groups as described below, where the various accession dates of each class of material are also briefly noted.

PAL/1 Durham Court of Chancery Records - Inclosure records [From 1954/1955 accession unless otherwise stated] 

• PAL/1/1 Inclosure awards by Chancery decree - awards: PAL/1/1/1-26 Series of 26 items, chiefly inclosure awards by Chancery decree but also including an inclosure agreement, a wayleave award and a few bills of complaints and orders, 1617-1767, together with the inclosure award and plan under an Act of Parliament of 49 Geo III for Middlehope Moor, 1816, and an apportionment of tithe at Shotton, 1690.
• PAL/1/2 Inclosure awards by Chancery decree - volumes: PAL/1/2/1-4 Four volumes containing certified copies of the entries in the Durham Chancery registrar's entry books of decrees and orders (books K-N, nos.480-483: TNA DURH 4/8-11) concerning inclosure awards by Chancery decree and related documents, 1634-1686, 1716-1717. [1978 accession]
• PAL/1/3 Inclosure by Act of Parliament: PAL/1/3/1 Park and Forest of Weardale (Act 39 Geo III): volume containing draft award, 29 September 1815. PAL/1/3/2 Park and Forest of Weardale (Act 39 Geo III): award, 29 September 1815, with 11 plans. PAL/1/3/3 Gateshead Fell (Act 49 Geo III): award, 26 December 1822, with plans.

PAL/2 Durham Court of Chancery Records apart from Inclosure records (including some stray records from other palatine courts) [From 1954/1955 accession unless otherwise stated]

• PAL/2/1 Chancery registrar's records [ 1986/1987 accession ]: Bills of costs, 1701-1775.
• PAL/2/2 Cursitor's records [1986/1987 accession]: 7 packets of writs of Dedimus potestatem and warrants of attorney thereon for recoveries, ca.1710-1785. Miscellaneous documents, chiefly writs, ca.1714-1727 and 1760-1820, but also including abstract of the marriage settlement of George Rose of Gateshead, 1766.
• PAL/2/3 Causes and related material (pre-1878): Indexes of plaintiffs in the Court of Chancery, 1720-1742. 1 small tray and 2 boxes of pre-1880 cause papers arranged chronologically, 1708-1878 (with gaps).
• PAL/2/4 Causes and related material (1878 onwards): 11 cause books, 1878-1913; from 1881 onwards a series of numbers (running up to no.1024 at the end of the last book) was assigned to the first entry relating to a case in these books and was used as the means of reference to the related cause papers and other connected documents. 141 boxes of cause papers arranged numerically up no.1257 (going beyond the last cause book kept in Durham), 1880-1929. 13 boxes of draft orders, nos.4-1110, from the period 1880-1920. Receipts, nos.5-1086, from the period 1880-1920, and notifications and receipts into the court account, 1902-1917. Requests for sale or purchase of consols from the period 1880-1920. Certificates from the period 1880-1920.
• PAL/2/5 Miscellaneous books up to 1882: PAL/2/5/1 Court of Chancery enrolment book of solicitors' admissions, ca.1821-1882. PAL/2/5/2 Seal book, 1830-1837. PAL/2/5/3 Cash book, 1860-1864.
• PAL/2/6 Miscellaneous books etc., 1878-1918: PAL/2/6/1-4 Fee books (4 volumes), 1878-1911. PAL/2/6/5-15 Chancery registrar's rough minute books (11 volumes), 1879-1897, 1899 and 1901. PAL/2/6/16-19 Chancery registrar's minute books (4 volumes), 1882-1897. PAL/2/6/20-27 Letter books (8 volumes), 1886-1889, 1891-1901. PAL/2/6/28-30 Summons and warrant books (3 volumes), 1889-1915. PAL/2/6/31 Authorizations for postal payments, 1902-1918.
• PAL/2/7 Miscellanea: 5 boxes of unsorted and unlisted Court of Chancery miscellanea, also known to include some strays from other palatine courts, e.g. a few records of the Durham Court of Pleas.
• PAL/2/8 Material relating to Bishop Wood's Charity. [1977 accession]: Thomas Wood, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield 1671 - died 18 April 1692, by his will dated 11 November 1690 left money to trustees appointed by the Durham Court of Chancery for the relief and release of poor prisoners for debt in Durham gaol. In 1882 this was changed to a subscription to the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society at Durham. See also Publication note. Legal papers of actions in the Court of Chancery relating to Bishop Wood's Charity, 1779 (copy of order) to 1883. Deposited with these papers are various records of the charity, including: trustees' minute book, 1827-1859; correspondence, 1834-1874; annual accounts, 1896-1949 (with gaps); and miscellaneous material, ca.1883-1952.

PAL/3 Durham Court of Pleas Records (including some stray records from other palatine courts and elsewhere) [From 1986/1987 accession unless otherwise stated]

• PAL/3/1 Prothonotary's records: Praecipes for recoveries and draft recoveries (bundles 6-7, 9-10, 10A and 11-35), 1689-1833 (with 8 booklets compiled ca.1913-1914, after the transfer of these documents from the PRO to Gateshead Library in 1912, and containing numerical lists of the praecipes etc. in the above bundles, and in the missing bundles 1-5 and 8, together with details of the parties and places involved in each recovery; for the extant bundles, these lists etc. have been incorporated in the catalogue). 2 packets of draft recoveries (nos.427 and 429), ca.1770-1777 and 1824-1833. 12 packets (one empty) labelled "Long writs", not yet sorted but sampling suggests the dates are ca.1714-1828. 2 files of appearance pieces (nos. 560 and 566), 1812-1815 and 1832-1840.
• PAL/3/2 Articles of clerkship [ 1954/1955 accession ]: Affidavits for articles of clerkship, 1768-1792. Register of articles of clerkship, 1792-1875.
• PAL/3/3 Lists of justices etc., with some non-Palatinate material [2002 accession, formerly Phillipps MS 20285]: Lists of names of justices for the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge: the Commission of Pleas, 1800 and 1817-1818; the Commission of the Peace, 1800-1801, 1810-1811 and 1817-1818; the Commission of General Gaol Delivery, 1800; and the Commission of the Peace and the Commission of General Gaol Delivery, no date. List of fees paid by [Thomas Thurlow], Bishop of Durham, on doing homage to King George III, [February 1787], with attached receipt, 24 February 1787. List of disbursements by Edward Cotterell, [apparently re estate expenses], on account of Francis Canning, Esq, 1 March 1786-18 June 1788. Places mentioned include [Chipping] Campden and Charingworth, [Gloucestershire].

PAL/4 Volumes relating to the conduct of and fees levied in the palatine courts [From 1954/1955 accession] 

• PAL/4/1 Manuscript volume containing details of and agreements relating to the fees levied in the various palatine courts, ca.1810-1841 and n.d.. The volume also contains several loose and pasted in inserts on related topics. Bound in is a copy of a 56pp. printed pamphlet, Tables of fees to be taken by the cursitor of the Court of Chancery, and prothonotary of the Court of Pleas, at Durham; and the measure of costs in actions and proceedings in the court of Pleas, as the same were allowed and confirmed by that court, by an order dated the 21st day of November, 1775 (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1776).
• PAL/4/2 Volume containing another copy of Tables of fees to be taken ... the 21st day of November, 1775 (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1776), annotated in manuscript (inter alia with the name Henry Donkin) and bound with an 8pp. printed pamphlet, A table of the fees to be allowed upon taxation of costs in actions and proceedings in the Court of the Chancery of Durham, by a rule or order, made in open court, at a jury day, held at the City of Durham, in and for the said county, the seventh day of June in the year of our Lord, 1809 (Durham, 1809). The volume also includes several pages of manuscript notes re fees, fines and recoveries and the location of County Durham inclosure records, n.d. [ca. early 19th century].
• PAL/4/3 Manuscript volume entitled The practice of the court of Chancery of the county palatine of Durham. By a solicitor of that court , n.d. [ca.1805-1807]; (published anonymously under an almost identical title, Sunderland, 1807 - see Publication note).

The Palatinate or County Palatine of Durham consisted of the pre-1974 County Durham (sometimes referred to as the land between the rivers Tyne and Tees or "the Bishopric"), together with an area known as North Durham (made up of Holy Island and Islandshire, Norham and Norhamshire and Bedlington and Bedlingtonshire), which was a detached part of County Durham until it was transferred to Northumberland in 1844, plus Crayke in North Yorkshire, which also formed a detached part of County Durham until 1844, when it was transferred to Yorkshire. The ecclesiastical peculiars of Allerton and Allertonshire and Howden and Howdenshire in Yorkshire did not form part of the Palatinate, although they are sometimes wrongly described as such. The boundaries of the Palatinate differed from the boundaries of the diocese of Durham and from the boundaries of the Durham bishopric estates.

A palatinate is the territory of a count palatine, that is a magnate who has certain rights of local jurisdiction which, unusually, are exclusive of the royal courts. An English palatinate was an independent franchise with judicial and administrative systems which were modelled on the system of royal courts and government but which came under the control of the count palatine rather than of the crown (although in practice the power of the palatine courts in Durham was always limited by the paramountcy of the royal prerogative).

Durham, where the Palatinate was held by the Bishop of Durham (or by specially appointed royal officials during vacancies in the see) is generally regarded as the most ancient of the great English exempt jurisdictions (which also included the palatinates of Chester and Lancaster). No charter of its creation is known to exist, and the powers of its ruler seem to have been based on prescriptive rights and on the need for a powerful lord to be based in the border areas, able to exercise justice efficiently and effectively in times of frequent wars and skirmishes and poor communications. The survival of the independence of the Durham Palatinate long after those of Chester and Lancaster had been absorbed into the national system of government doubtless reflects not just its strategic importance as a buffer between England and Scotland and the remoteness of the region, but also the status and influence of Durham and its shrine of St Cuthbert.

The Palatinate's judicial institutions, modelled on those of the kingdom but formally independent of them, developed rapidly during the 13th century, although the term "palatinus" was not used until the late 13th century, during the episcopate of Anthony Bek (1284-1311). As well as running their own courts and appointing their own temporal chancellor and justices of the Peace the bishops also exercised within the Palatinate such regalian privileges as exacting mineral rights, enforcing forest jurisdiction, minting their own coins and granting charters for markets and fairs. The bishop also had the right to claim wrecks, royal fish, treasure trove, waif and stray and deodands, as well as the lands of convicted felons.

The bishops of Durham were at the height of their powers as counts palatine between 1300 and 1400, although even then certain of their claims to power were disputed by various kings. The Palatinate's independence lingered on because national government was weakened by long-running disputes during the 15th century, but it could not withstand unscathed the centralizing forces at work from the late 15th century onwards. By an Act of 1536 the bishop of Durham effectively lost his criminal jurisdiction and his judicial supremacy. The palatine courts remained as before, and continued to be organized separately from other courts, but they were now the king's courts, not the bishop's. Even after 1536, however, the bishop still retained his right to nominate justices of the peace for the Crown to appoint (and the bishop's nominations were generally accepted). The bishop and his temporal chancellor were themselves justices ex officio. The bishop also still retained his supremacy over civil jurisdiction and civil government in the Palatinate and was still automatically lord lieutenant of Durham. Until 1836 he also seems to have either himself continued to serve as custos rotulorum or else at certain periods to have appointed representatives to carry out the duties of this office on his behalf. He still kept his chancery and admiralty jurisdictions and continued to appoint various officials, e.g. the temporal chancellor, sheriff, under-sheriff, county clerk, gaoler, prothonotary, clerk of the peace etc.. He could still preside in some courts and was entitled to receive the fees from various judicial proceedings, as well as retaining rights over boroughs and guilds, remaining the chief feudal lord in the area and maintaining his financial administration. In 1646, during the Civil War, the Palatinate was abolished, but in 1660, at the Restoration, the palatine rights as they had existed in 1646 were restored to Bishop Cosin, who made deliberate efforts to revive the dignity of the Palatinate. However, the 1660 Statute of Tenures ended the bishop's rights as chief feudal lord in the Palatinate. Just before 1688 an attempt was made to abolish the Palatinate by Act of Parliament. This was strongly opposed in Durham, where the local courts were popular, and the attempt failed. At certain periods during the 18th century there was much criticism of the administration of the Palatinate, notably by Gilbert Spearman (see Publication note), although no particular attempt was made to abolish the system itself.

During the period of general reform in the 1830s the government suggested abolishing the Palatinate courts but this proposal met with so much local opposition that it was decided to reform them instead. By an Act of Parliament of 6 & & William IV [1836], c.19 the Durham palatine jurisdiction was separated from the bishopric of Durham and vested in the Crown as a franchise and royalty separate from the Crown, to be "exercised and enjoyed" by the king "as a separate franchise and royalty". The Palatinate's County Court was abolished but, following strong local pressure, led by Lord Londonderry, the separate Durham Court of Pleas and Durham Chancery Court were retained. Both these courts were, however, now under central rather than episcopal control, and the Crown appointed the custos rotulorum from 1836 onwards. Thus, with the loss of his civil jurisdiction and remaining regalian rights, the bishop of Durham in 1836 finally ceased to be a count palatine.

The courts and their records
For a more detailed account of the courts see TNA's online guide http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.asp and K. Emsley and C.M. Fraser, The courts of the County Palatine of Durham ... (see Publication note).

1. The Durham County Court: this descended from the medieval shire court attended by all the free men of the Palatinate under the presidency of the sheriff of Durham. It declined from the 14th century with the rise of Sessions of the Peace. From the 17th to the 19th centuries it continued as a court for small civil pleas under the county clerk, not the sheriff. The Palatinate County Court was abolished in 1836. No records of it are known to survive. From 1836 onwards Durham had a County Court identical to those for other counties. These in turn were abolished by the County Courts Act of 1846 and replaced by new courts; the records of the post-1846 Durham County Court are in Durham County Record Office (DCRO).

2. The Durham courts of common law: the Durham Court of Pleas and the Assizes. These mirrored the similar royal courts. Officers of the Palatinate seem to have regarded the Court of Pleas and the Assizes as two aspects of the same court. After the Court of Chancery the Court of Pleas was the most important Durham court. Its chief officer and custodian of its records was the prothonotary, sometimes called the clerk of the justices itinerant in the County Palatine of Durham. At first the Durham Court of Pleas dealt mainly with civil cases, many of them relating to debt, but by the 15th century it was also dealing with criminal cases, e.g. murder, riot, thefts and horse and sheep-stealing. In 1536 the Durham criminal jurisdiction was resumed by the Crown and thenceforth the Crown commissioned the justices of assize and gaol-delivery, whose business became predominantly criminal. The Palatinate Court of Pleas, now under the Crown, thereafter dealt mainly with civil cases, chiefly relating to debt and the recovery of property, but also with some criminal cases left over from the Assizes. Business often proceeded slowly. From 1690 until 1873 the court was in decline, with a growing number of appeals being made against its decisions. The Durham Court of Pleas was retained in 1836 but in 1873 was abolished as a separate court and merged in the Supreme Court. Most surviving records of the Durham Court of Pleas and Assizes are in TNA but some records of the Court of Pleas are in this collection.

3. Durham justices of the peace and Quarter Sessions. Justices of the peace in the Palatinate of Durham were commissioned by the bishop of Durham until 1536 and thereafter by the Crown (although see also under History and administration above). Records of the justices and of Quarter Sessions were in the custody of the clerk of the peace. They were kept separately from the main body of Palatinate records and were left in Durham in 1868 when most Palatinate Records were transferred to TNA (see Custodial history). The bulk of them are now in DCRO.

4. The Durham Chancery Court. This originally existed as a registry or secretariat, and at first also ruled on certain specific common law matters, but its work increasingly came to concentrate on equity as opposed to common law cases; equity is a distinct system of law, involving recourse to general principles of justice to correct or supplement the provisions of common or statute law. In the 17th and early 18th centuries numerous inclosures of common lands in the Palatinate were also carried out by decree of the Durham Chancery. The chief officer of the Durham Court of Chancery was the temporal chancellor of Durham (different from the spiritual chancellor, who headed the diocesan administration). The temporal chancellor was appointed by the bishop of Durham until 1836 and thereafter by the Crown. He presided in the Chancery Court and had custody of the Great Seal of the Palatinate, used for sealing all documents issuing from the Durham Chancery, as well as writs and mandates proceeding from the Durham Exchequer and the Durham Court of Pleas. The chancellor was usually a senior lawyer in the royal courts and most of the day-to-day work of the court was carried out by the Chancery registrar (or register), who was also appointed by the bishop until 1836. The secretarial/registry functions of the Durham Chancery were the responsibility of the clerk of the Chancery, later known as the cursitor, who was also an episcopal apointee until 1836. He ranked second to the chancellor and was usually responsible for the care of the Chancery records. He issued most Chancery writs and his remit covered matters such as inquisitions post mortem as well as enrolments of episcopal letters patent and close, charters, fines, recognizances, deeds etc.. His work diminished from the 17th century onwards and, although the office survived the changes of 1836, it was abolished by an Act of 1868. Until 1855 the Chancery Court sat in the bishop's exchequer in the Exchequer Building on Palace Green, Durham (currently part of Durham University Library). In 1855 it moved to a building in Owengate, Durham, which is currently part of Durham University Law Department (2010). The judge's bench from the court has been re-erected in the Durham Heritage Centre. By the 19th century the Durham Chancery Court heard few cases but it was retained in 1836, although it thereafter came under the Crown rather than the bishop. Its procedure was reformed by the Palatinate Court of Durham Act of 1889, which led to increased local use of the court. It survived until 1971, when it was merged with the Chancery division of the Supreme Court. The bulk of the records of the Durham Chancery, including all the medieval material, are in TNA. Many inclosure records and some later court records are here (See Custodial history and Immediate source of acquisition for more details).

5. Admiralty jurisdiction. Matters relating to the bishop of Durham's regalian rights as count palatine in respect of wreck, royal fish, regulation of ports and river commerce and cases arising from various naval and commercial activities were originally dealt with in the regular palatinate courts. In the mid-17th century, however, a separate Durham Vice-Admiralty court, based in Sunderland, developed. After the Restoration appeals from this court went to the royal court of Admiralty. The work of the Sunderland court seems to have ended with the creation by an Act of 1717 of the River Wear Commissioners, who held their own court. Few records of the bishop's court survive (but see Gibson Volumes under Related material - same repository).

Open for consultation.

The first four instalments of this material were deposited with the Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic of the University of Durham.

1954/1955 accession (circumstances of receipt undocumented) consisted of inclosure records and other material left in Durham when the bulk of the non-current Palatinate Records were transferred to London in 1868, and Durham Chancery Records, which were created in Durham after 1868.

28 October 1977 accession received from the Public Record Office.

23 March 1978 accession received from the Public Record Office.

5 & 12 December 1986 / 10 April 1987 accession transferred (with the permission of the Public Record Office) to the University of Durham via Tyne and Wear Archives Service from Gateshead Central Library, where they had been deposited in 1912 (along with a few other items not yet traced) by the Public Record Office. It had been scheduled for destruction by the Public Record Office in 1912 if no other repository had agreed to take it.

11 June 2002 accession (PAL/3/3, Misc. Acc. 2002/2003 52) deposited by the Director of Arts and Libraries, Gateshead MBC via Durham County Record Office, where the documents had been transferred on 22 February 2002.

• Catalogue
• Typescript and word-processed summary accession lists
• Unpublished typescript list (arranged by collection) of inclosure awards and plans in Durham University Library, with many manuscript alterations and additions.
• Draft manuscript list (arranged by place) of inclosure records in Durham University Library.
• MS Access database version of the extant praecipes and recoveries in PAL/3/1, including details of the parties and places involved in each recovery: this data has now been incorporated into the catalogue. The contents of the missing bundles 1-5 and 8 can be found listed within the eight booklets compiled ca.1913-1914 which are themselves now also part of PAL/3/1.

Hardy, T.D. (ed.), Registrum Palatinum dunelmense. The register of Richard Kellawe, Lord Palatine and Bishop of Durham, 1311-1316 (4 vols., London, 1873) [Covers both palatine and diocesan jurisdictions of the bishop.]

Microfilms of some of the Palatinate Records in TNA are held here (shelfmark XM/film Palatinate): DURH 3/2-5, abstracts of Durham inquisitions post mortem, 1318-1625 (with gaps); DURH 3/12-21, Durham halmote court rolls, 1348-1522; DURH 3/29-38, 42-52, 54-134, Durham Court of Chancery rolls, 1333-1854 (with gaps); DURH 3/136-140, Evenwood court rolls, 1406-1494; and DURH 13/222-225, 227-230, plea and gaol delivery rolls, Durham Assizes and Court of Pleas, 1377-1502 (with gaps).

National Archives, London (TNA): Palatinate of Durham Records. The bulk of the Palatinate of Durham Records are held (DURH 1 - DURH 27). TNA's online guide (http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.asp).

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The contents of the collection have not yet been fully appraised.

Following the submission in 1854 of a highly critical report by T. Duffus Hardy on the arrangements for the care of records in Durham, and of a further report in 1867, most of the Palatinate of Durham Records, together with some other series, were removed to London in 1868 and placed in the PRO, where they now remain. Some pre-1868 records, chiefly Durham Chancery Records, seem to have been left in Durham in error, and most or all of the latter probably ended up in the 1954/1955 deposit with University of Durham.

In 1868 current records of the Durham Court of Chancery, together with most of the inclosure records, were left in Durham for ease of consultation. The court subsequently continued to create records. Some post-1868 material was included in the 1954/1955 deposit with the University of Durham. Following the merger of the Durham Court of Chancery with the Chancery Division of the Supreme Court in 1971 the remaining records of Chancery proceedings held in Durham, together with some other inclosure awards deposited under Acts of Parliament with the Durham Chancery, were transferred by their new custodian, the Newcastle upon Tyne District Registry of the High Court, to the PRO (now The National Archives) in London. A Sessions of the Peace roll, 1628-1629, found in PAL/2/7, which was a stray from the Durham Quarter Sessions Records, was transferred from the University of Durham to Durham County Record Office, where the main series of these records is housed, on 18 July 2000, with the permission of the Public Record Office.

The 11 June 2002 accession (PAL/3/3, Misc. Acc. 2002/2003.52) is labelled Phillipps MS 20285. In 2002 Tyne and Wear Archives Service had no information from Gateshead Library Records about how this manuscript had reached Gateshead.

Add. MS 1063, agreement in Durham Court of Pleas, [1815]

Booth and Lazenby Papers.

Church Commission Deposit of Durham Bishopric Financial and Estate Records.

Durham Bishopric Halmote Court Records, especially DHC6/IV/1-58, copies of inclosure awards made by decree of the Durham Court of Chancery.

Durham Diocesan Records, especially DDR/EJ/OTH, Other courts (not Consistory).

Durham Land Tax Records.

Eden bundle 1/A27 includes an uncatalogued inspeximus of 10 December 6 pont Wolsey at Durham [1528] with an example of the Durham Palatinate Chancery seal.

Gibson Volumes.

Hogg MSS.

Mickleton and Spearman MSS.

Old University MSS.

SGD 14D and 26/1-2 Exemplifications of recovery in the Durham Court of Pleas (with seals), 1687, 1666 and 1675.

Smiths Gore Papers (land agents to the Church Commissioners).

History and administration of the Palatinate