See here his Dust shut up whose Generous mind
No stop before in Honours path could find.
Truth Faith and Justice, and a Loyall Heart
In him Showd Nature, which in most is Art.
In the same church of Houghton-le-Spring there is the following epitaph: "Here Lyes interr’d the Body of Nicolas Conyers Esqʳ. High Sheriff of this County Chiefe of yᵉ Family of Conyers of the House of Boulby in Yorkshire. He dyed at South Biddick Mar: 27 A.D. 1689 his age 57." Below is his crest.
At Houghton Hall Robert Hutton, a zealous Puritan and a Captain in Cromwell’s army, was buried in his own orchard, where his altar-tomb is inscribed: "HIC JACET ROBERTVS HVTTON ARMIGER QVI OBIIT AVG. DIE NONO 1681 ET MORIENDO VIVIT."
In the Galilee Chapel at the west end of Durham Cathedral there is a stone on the floor inscribed:
JOHN BRIMLEIS BODY HERE DOTH LY,
WHO PRAY SED GOD WITH HAND AND VOICE;
BY MUSICKES HEAVENLY HARMONIE
DULL MINDS HE MAID IN GOD REJOICE.
HIS SOUL INTO THE HEAVENS IS LYFT
TO PRAISE HIM STILL THAT GAVE THE GYFT.
This Brimley was master of the Song School at Durham Cathedral.
That mighty builder, Hugh Pudsey, who was Bishop of Durham from 1153 to 1195, seems to have had a fellow-worker who pleased him in the person of Christian the Mason, whose grave-cover is at Pittington. One wonders whether it was after Christian had built for the Bishop the stout fortifications of Durham Castle, or whether it was when he had finished the beautiful Galilee Chapel of the cathedral, that Pudsey gave him, as we know he did, forty acres in the moor at South Sherburn, besides other lands, "quit of all rent whilst he should remain in the service of the bishop." Pudsey’s own tomb in Durham Cathedral is broken and dispoiled, but Christian the Mason’s grave-cover at Pittington can still be read:
✠NOMEN ABENS CRISTI TVMVLO TVMVLATVR IN ISTO
✠QVI TVMVLVM CERNIT COMMENDET CVM PRECE CRISTO,
which may be interpreted: "One having the name of Christ is buried here. Let him who beholds the grave commend himself with prayer to Christ."
In the churchyard of St. Hild’s at Hartlepool, about 6 feet from the east wall of the modern chancel, there is an old altar-tomb covered with a very large slab of bluish stone. If it has ever been inscribed the lettering is now utterly weathered off, but it has the lion of Bruce on the uprights at the sides still faintly visible. This is the resting-place of the fathers of Robert Bruce. They owned Hart and Hartlepool for many generations before Robert Bruce claimed the crown of Scotland in 1306. His lands in the county of Durham were then seized and given to the Cliffords. In Easington Church there is an effigy of a lady in thirteenth-century costume, which probably represents Isabella, first wife of John Fitz-Marmaduke. She was the daughter of Robert de Brus of Skelton, and the sister of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland.