Old Virginia and Her Neighbours, Vol. 1 (of 2)

by John Fiske

After 1536 the militia force of Durham, like that of other counties, was commanded by an officer known as lord lieutenant. Formerly the command of the militia and collecting and disbursing of revenue were concentrated in the hands of the high sheriff, who continued to be nominally the superior officer over the lord lieutenant and receiver-general, while his actual duties were restricted, like those of sheriffs in other counties, to enforcing the decisions of the courts. But whereas all other sheriffs were crown officers, the high sheriff of Durham was accountable only to the bishop.

Chancellor of temporalities.

The halmote.

The seneschal.

The bishop's council.

The only officer of higher dignity than the high sheriff was the chancellor of temporalities, who exercised a twofold function. He was the bishop's chief minister and head of the civil government, and he presided over the bishop's high court of chancery. Below this high tribunal there were two kinds of courts. The one was like the ordinary courts of quarter sessions, composed of justices of the peace, save that these justices were appointed by the bishop and punished breaches not of the king's peace but of the bishop's peace. The other kind of court was one that could be held in any manor of the bishopric. It was the manorial court or "halmote," the most interesting of these ancient institutions of Durham. The business of the halmote courts was to adjust all questions relating to the tenure of land, rights or easements in land, and such other matters as intimately concerned the little agricultural community of tenants of the manor. They could also issue injunctions and inflict sundry penalties. These courts were held by the seneschal, an officer charged with the general supervision of manors, but all the tenants of the manor in question could attend the halmote, and could speak and vote there, so that it was like a town-meeting. When we add that it could enact by-laws, thus combining legislative with judicial functions, we see its ancestry disclosed. This halmote in Durham was a descendant of the ancient folkmote or primary assembly which our forefathers brought into Britain from their earlier home in the wilds of northern Germany. In this assembly the people of Durham preserved their self-government in matters of local concern. But the circumstances in which the palatinate grew up seem to have retarded the development of representative government. There was no shire-mote in Durham, attended by selected men from every manor or parish or township, as in the other counties of England. Instead of laws enacted by such a representative body, there were ordinances passed by the bishop in his council, which was composed of the principal magistrates already mentioned, and of such noblemen or other prominent persons as might choose to come or such as might be invited by the bishop. It thus resembled in miniature a witenagemote or house of lords. The bishops of Durham seem to have been in general responsive to public opinion in their little world, and it does not appear that the people fared worse than they would have done with a representative assembly. The bishop was not an autocrat, but a member of a great ecclesiastical body, and if he made himself unpopular it was quite possible to take steps that would lead to his removal.

National representation.

Limitations upon autonomy.

The lack of representative institutions in Durham, coupled with its semi-independence, long retarded its participation in the work of national legislation. The bishop, of course, sat in the House of Lords, but not until the reign of Charles II. was this county palatine represented in the House of Commons. The change was inaugurated by Cromwell, under whose protectorship the palatine privileges were taken away, and Durham, reduced to the likeness of other counties, elected its members of Parliament. In 1660 the restored monarchy undid this change and replaced the bishop, although with his palatinate privileges slightly shorn. In 1675 Durham began to be regularly represented in the House of Commons, but that date was subsequent to the founding of the Maryland palatinate. At the time when Lord Baltimore's charter was issued, the bonds of connection between Durham and the rest of England were three: 1. the bishop was a tenant in capite of the crown, besides being an officer of the Church and a member of the House of Lords; 2. the county regularly paid its share of the national taxes; and 3. cases in litigation between the bishop and his subjects could be appealed to the Court of Exchequer in London. Saving these important limitations, Durham was independent. The only way in which the king could act within its limits was by addressing the bishop, who by way of climax to his many attributes of sovereignty was endowed with the powers of coining money, chartering towns, and exercising admiralty jurisdiction over his seacoast.