242
THE PARISH OF ST. JOHN LEE.
rental of /. 235 a year. William Wilkinson paid £\2~j 10s. a year for Hal-
lington town and 800 acres of land ; James Yarrow and others paid ^"88 a
year for Hallington Newhouses and its lands ; George Wilson paid £20 a
year for the mill and the lands attached to it. Of the latter, the surveyor
says, ‘Hallington mill, in the month of June, 1716, did fall to the ground,
the axell tree, coggwheel, and other materials rushed down altogether, and
the under milstone broke in four pieces, 011 which the tenant, George
Wilkinson, in repairing the same, hath disbursed these sums following: Paid
Robt. Robson for wood, £8 9s. 6d.; for two milstones, ^10; iron and hoops,
for the axell tree, £\ 2s. 6d.; nales, 12s.; tarr and paper, 4s. gd.; rossell,
2s. 5d. ; Anthony and William Wilkinson, milwrights, for their work
and labour, £-] 3s. iod.; total, £27 15s.’ (The rent of mill and land was
£20.)' The tenants held their lands by parole from year to year, and the
fee farm rent of £7 13s. 4d. was (as it still is) paid to Colston’s almshouses
in Bristol. Arrangements were made to secure Hallington to the Errington
family, and it descended lineally to John Errington, who died in 1828, and
by his heirs at law, was sold to the trustees of the settled estates of Henry
Errington.2 The heirs and assignees of the estates are now (1897) offering
the Hallington farms for sale.3
Hallington mains or demesne was, in 1663, rated to Mr. Richard Wilson4
at £2,0 a year. In 1730 it was acquired by the family of Soulsbv, long
settled at Chollerton, Anick Grange, and in or near Hexham. Wallis
writing in 1769 says Ralph Soulsby’s house ‘is a neat modern structure of
white freestone .... before it is a grass area extending to the brink
of a deep gill, wherein is a small stream which falls a little below into
Erring burn.’5
The history of the family is shown in the following pedigree:
1 Forfeited Estates Papers, E 13. Some of the field names in 1717 were Whitefield, Hill Law, and
Weatherly Meed. - Cf. supra, p. 193.
3 The acreage and rentals of the Hallington farms, belonging to the Errington estates, are as follows:
Newhouses, 453 acres, ¿402; High farm, 337 acres, £231 ; South farm, 243 acres, £261 ; Mill farm, 62
acres, ¿62; North farm, 205 acres, .¿igS. Attached to the estate is a perpetual rent charge officio,
payable by the Newcastle and Gateshead W ater company. Newcastle Journal, June, 1896.
' 1694, 8th November. Administration of the personal estate of Richard Wilson of Hallington was
granted to Richard Wilson, the father. Raine, Test. Ebor.
5 Wallis, Northumberland, vol. ii. p. 114.