Receivers of Howden

The Receivers of Howden and the origin of ‘The Ashes’

As well as the County Palatine of Durham, in which the the Bishop was both the spiritual and temporal ruler, he had considerable holdings in other parts of the country, especially Yorkshire. Of these, the most important was Howdenshire, centred on the two large parishes of Howden and Eastrington, It also included land to the west between the Ouse and Derwent, and to the east some villages in the Wolds . The bishop's status here was complex. Howdenshire (and Allertonshire, the lesser of the two Yorkshire estates) was in the diocese of York, not Durham. To complicate things further, the ecclesiastical functions were the responsibilty of the Prior of Durham, the head of Durham cathedral. The Bisop's main role was that of landlord.

As with any great lord with widely scattered estates, an official was appointed to oversee the finances of the district - the receiver. As the name suggests, his job was to receive the rents and other dues of the area. He did not collect them - this was the responsibilty of the bailiffs, of whom there were four. The head bailiff, often an absentee, was in charge of the three 'riding' bailiffs - one for each of the three divisions of Howdenshire. The bailiffs were responsible for ensuring that everything that was due was collected, although there was some latitude for rents to be reduced - for example, if the land had flooded, or if the tenant had performed a serice such as repairing banks. Any such reductions had to be recorded - otherwise the bailiff liable for any shortfall, and had to sign an indemnity accordingly. Bishop Langley (1406-37) had the bailiff of Darlington imprisoned for defaulting on his accounts, and after he died in jail his property was seized to pay the debt.

The receiver was more fortunate - the terms of his appointment stated…

"granting that neither [the receiver] nor his deputy should be charged for revenues of the lordship other than those happening to come into their hands, but that they be discharged on the account and quit in perpetuity by producing on his account the names of the bishop's debtors of the said lordship, without proceedings by the bishop or his executors".

The receiver was well paid, having a salary of £10 a year - the same as Durham's chief justice of assize, or the sheriff. He also had a chamber in the manor house and some land - the 'receiverclose' - for his horses. His work was varied, involving managing income and expenditure, and (in Howdenshire) acting as clerk of the works.

There was more to the receivers work than simply receiving the rents collected by the bailiffs, as not all the bishops land was rented out. Some arable land was kept in demesne to provide food for the manor and fodder for the horses. Timber was another useful product. Oak was used for building work, renewing staithes, and fencing parks and enclosures. Oak was too valuable to sell, but Ash trees were grown for sale, and was much in demand - there are several records in the bishops Durham court of men charged with cutting down and stealing his ash trees. There was also the strangely named 'dodd rent' which seems to be grain from reclaimed land, and 'hensilver' paid in lieu of the 348 hens due from the bishops tenants each year. Finally there were the various tolls and charges the bishop could levy on traders, and income from his court. Not all types of income are shown each year - below is an example from the late 15C when Nicholas Leventhorp was receiver.

HOWDEN ACCOUNT: INCOME 1478/9

Rents £364-1-5

Other Tenants £ 27-0-10

New rents £ 2-16-3

Works £ 4-8-9

Hens £ 3-14-7

Rents of fishing £ 12-19-84

Farm of demesne lands and sale of grazing £ 20-19-4

Sale of grain 18-9

Rent of 'dodd'. £ 33-14-2

Rent from shops in Howden £ 1-11-8

Annual increment 8-1

Tolls on merchants and fairs £ 2-13-4

Profits of the courts £ 23-7-7

Goods and chattels of felons £ 4-0-9

Divers parts of meadows £ 23-4-9

Total £527-2-9

As well as receiving the income from the bailiffs, the receiver was responsible for paying the salaries of the various manor officials - among them the steward, the caretaker of the Bishop's manor house, the forester, the three bailiffs and the custodian of Wheel Hall, the bishops other house in the area. There were also repairs to be paid for, banks, dykes, fences, mills and staithes needed maintaining and the men working on them would be paid daily. Finally all the day-to-day running costs of the manor - paper, ink, candles, bed and table linen and so on - had to be deducted. After all these costs, the balance would be remitted to the bishop. If he was staying at the manor house, he could be paid directly. If not, it would be sent to wherever the bishop was staying - London, Wheel Hall, Durham - or paid to the receiver-general, who at the time of the account above was John Kelyng, also the bishop's chancellor.

The amounts handed over were considerable - the figure below are from the same year as the income above

HOWDEN ACCOUNT; PAYMENTS

To the lord at London, part of arrears £ 29-4-8

To the lord , by the hand of Master Alexander Lye, clerk £ 77-9-2

To the lord , for the fee of Guy Fairfax , Richard Pygot, serjeant at law,

& Thomas Middleton £ 3-6-6

To the lord , by the hand of Alexander Lye £ 72-0-0 181.10. 4

To the lord , 21 March, 19 Edward I V £ 105-0-0

Total £ 286-10-4

After Nicholas Leventhorp, the next receiver was Walter Cawood. He had been clerk of the works in Durham in 1480, and briefly parker (custodian) of the park and castle at Gateshead. He was appointed receiver in March 1483, and held the post until around 1495. Some of his account books survive, and give us a good idea of the work the receiver had to do, as can be seen from some sample entries...

· shops under the tollbooth and Howden dyehouse: 12 entries, 6 shops on the north side, 6 on the east side, 1 on the south and 2 more on the north and the dye house let for life, sum 35s

· 347 hens at Christmas, sold for 2d each, sum 74s. 8d.

· decay of mills 8 entries, six windmills at reduced rent or out of action, also one fulling mill [water] and Howden horse mill, sum £8 18s. decay of fisheries 2 fisheries in the Ouse and fishing rooms at Saltmarsh and 1 fishery at Welton broken down by [Corporation] of the City of York, sum 112s. 8d.

· the Receiver's expenses riding round on business, expenses of the 2 sheriff's tourns, the sub-bailiff distraining animals in the bailiwicks of Waldesyde and Howden and riding to Wyghton [Market Weighton], to men of Skelton for salting two sturgeon for the Bishop and another man buying wine for the Bishop in Kingston upon Hull, sum 115s. 10d.

· purchase of linen and harden cloth: linen bought for sheets, tablecloths and napkins for the manor house stock, harden cloth bought for mattress covers, 48 stone of broken fleeces bought to stuff them, payment for bleaching the cloth and making up 40 mattresses, sum £10 17s. 9d. payments of cash to the Bishop: 3 entries, £74 paid in London, £220 by hand of Robert Whetley and £41 14s. 4d. for the 7 barrels of red wine from Hull, sum £335 13s. 4d.

Although he couldn't know it, his most important record for posterity was this

• the rent of Treton ... now in the lord's hand and planted with ash trees

which should finally solve the question as to how and when The Ashes acquired its name.

Sources - almost all the information this article is based on can be found in the archives of Durham Cathedral deposited with the University of Durham, and searchable online at http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/search.

The references to the jailing of the bailiff of Darlington and the salary of the receiver are from 'Thomas Langley and the Bishopric of Durham 1406-1437' by R L Storey.

The accounts of Nicholas Leventhorp are from Grainger, Peter N. (1975) The revenues and financial administration of the bishopric of Durham 1457-79. Masters thesis, Durham University. Available online at http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10445

Graham Wilton