...... In that year lord Wm. Howard held the lordship of Morpeth as husband of Elizabeth, sister and co-heiress of lord Dacre; but the rights of the co-heiress were contested by Francis Dacre, her uncle. Lord William was in possession, and his constable, Edward Grey, held the castle for him; but through their attachment to an ancient and splendid name, Dacre had many friends and sympathisers among the burgesses. The meanest sort of the most parte of the inhabitants of the said towne of Morpethe who did owe sewte and service unto the same did not onlye refuse to macke there appearance and do the services unto them apperteynenge, as before time they were accustomed to do at the lyke courtes there holden for the said Lord William Howarde, but affirmed that yf there were any courte there to be howlden for the said Mr. Fraunces Dacars. ... they wolde make there apperaunce there and in no where els.' Sir John Forster, the Lord Warden of the Marches, was called upon to preserve order by the constable, Mr. Edward Grey (who happened to be his nephew), and the narrative insinuates that he displayed partiality through this kinship, and that he had in his possession parcell of the lands in controversie of the yerely value of one hundred markes at the least, by the graunt of the said lord William.' . . . . . 'Immediatly then did sundry troopes of horsemen come to the town by dossens, scores, and sence xxx in companyes, all of Mr. Graye's freinds of the borders, and soone after the Lord Warden came in with a great companye and rode to the castell, and there lodged with Mr. Gray the said constable,' . . . ‘Yn the morning by day was lyght, the streat over agynst Mr. Dacre's lodging was sett all along with men of the Borders weaponed with swords, daggs, pikes, and the lyke upon the baksyde of the sayd lodging to the nomber in all of about 100 persons and Mr. Gray and others with him walking before them carying theyr walk so far as the howse reached wheryn Mr. Dacre lodged, and so turned agayne still so contynuyng untyll 3 of clocke at afternoone when Mr. Dacre came away.' One of the bailiffs of the town supported the authority of lord William, the other bayliffe, all the aldermen and the burgesses upon the ring of the bell came to the Moote Hall, and beyng called dyd flatly say they wold neyther sitt yn court, appere, or make awnswer but yn Mr. Dacre's name and accordyng to the order of theyr town, and therupon departed.' ... Lord William's officers caused the mace to be taken from the town's serjeant in the presence and with the countenance of the Warden and when they cowld not make a Jury, they, of theyr own awthorytye, withowt and contrary the order of the town, did create vj new fremen . . . and yett, for all the evill hast cold not make up the nomber of xij persons had they not supplied ther want with one who had not longe before that tyme had bene a Lord of Mysrule, and one other that was the common Hayward [the other account says 'nowtherd'] of the Towne.' Mr. Dacre, outnumbered and outmanoeuvred, left the town, and in his memorial to queen Elizabeth of his wrongs and sufferings we have preserved to us this scene of a sixteenth century drama. After many years of legal conflict the possession of the estates was confirmed to the co-heiresses, and lord William, by a politic course of good sense and liberality, attached his refractory and disaffected burgesses to himself and his house. His was the gift of the great mace to the corporation. In 1580 he re-granted the 25 25 See Arch. Ael. vol. xiii. p. 201, for an account of the Morpeth mace. AND COURT BARON OF MORPETH. 75 Clifton field of 1,500 acres to be held by the burgesses at a low rent, and in 1606 lett to them the farm of tolls. 'Memorandum that I Willm Howard have granted to the Bailliffs of the Burrowe of Morpethe the towle within the foresaid Burrowe for the sum of Twenty shillings for ane whole yeare and that the overplus of the said towle shall be employed by the said Bailliffs to the benayfitt of the foresaid Burrowe and to be declared upon their accounts. In witnes wherof I have sett my hand the syxt daie of September in the yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord James by the grace of God of England, France, and Ireland the fourste and of Scotlande the . . . Anno dom 1606 'WILLM HOWARD.' By such prudent conduct he conciliated his opponents and so endeared himself to his friends that, in 1610, we find from an entry in their books that the Tanners' company bestowed upon him 'a present of wyne and sugar,' which cost them 1s. 6d, APPENDIX. After our hartie comendacions upon intelligence gyven us by . . . officers as well of y' sute for the occupacon of pcell of the demean of Morpeth called Clifton feild conteyng xv acres, as also of the value thereof we are well contented for the better maintenance of y' estate, and the rather also at the request of our verrie good ffrende the Lord Warden, that ye shall have the same in lease from Michaelmas next for the terme of fyve yeares then next ensuing employing yt to tillage or pasture to yr best comodities at yr choise and pleasure fr the yearlie rent of one hundred Poundes being much lesse then yt is worth and close upon y' yearlie payemt of the usuall rent you shall have and enjoy th use and profits of such meadowes and haye boundes in the said Clifton feilde as y [predecessors] held in the late L. Dacres tyme And if y" shall dislike or not so will accept the lease of the said Clifton Feild as we have ment wh' great favour to delyver yt unto you we will then upon yr answeare received wch we furthwth expect of you, deliver the said Clifton Feilde over to others to our better comoditie, and never the lesse to . . . you in forme before said to enjoye that yor said meadow and thus we bid you farewell. From London the xiiijth of June 1580 y' loving ffrends Arundell Concord. cum origin. Northumb. William Howarde Decimo quarto die menfs Octob. Anno R.R. Receaved of the fermars of my land of Clifton feeld and William Howard yth Seal } V.-A NEW ALTAR FROM WALLSEND DEDICATED TO JUPITER. BY F. HAVERFIELD, M.A., F.S.A. [Read on the 25th May, 1892; since added to.] THE inscription discussed in the following note was found in May, 1892, in the newly-made Wallsend allotments ground, in garden 20 belonging to Mr. A. Arnott. This site, which is technically in Walker, though close to the Wallsend boundary, has only lately come under cultivation, and appears worthy of archaeologists' attention, as it has already yielded, besides the altar here to be noticed, a figure of Mercury with a fragmentary inscription beginning D(eo) Mercurio), and various carved and worked stones.1 The altar now under notice is of local freestone, 35 in. high by 16 in. wide and deep; the letters in the first line are 2 in. high, in the last 11⁄2 in., in the other lines 1-14 in. I am indebted to Mr. R. Blair, F.S.A., for a squeeze of the stone, which I have also examined myself. Descriptions have appeared in print in the Newcastle Daily Journal of May 17th, 1892, in the Westdeutsches Korrespondenzblatt, xi. par. 57, in the Proceedings of the London Society of Antiquaries (xiv. (1892) p. 171), and in those of this Society (v. 164, 166). The stone itself, I understand, remains in the possession of Mr. Arnott. The reading, which appears to be beyond doubt, is:-I(ovi) Optimo) Maximo) | Coh(ors) iiii Lin | gonum eq(uitata), | cui attendit | Iulius) Honor | atus (centurio) leg(ionis) ii | Augustae) | votum) solvit) libens) merito). There are several points of interest in this inscription: 1. The altar was dedicated by the Fourth Cohort of Lingones, a regiment of auxiliaries of which we have some other mentions. We know from military discharges (privilegia militum) of January A.D. 103 and of A.D. 1462 that it was in Britain at those two dates. We have a statement in the Notitia Dignitatum, the British portion of which 1 Proc. v. pp. 166, 187. 2 C.I.L. vii. 1193; Eph. v. p. 96, vii. No. 1117. |