But the immunities of this church of Durham were shortened by the statute 27 Henry VIII., and the lordly absolute power of this bishopric conferred upon the king. Afterwards, temp. Edw. VI. the lands and whole title of the bishopric of Durham was by act of parliament conferred upon that king, which act was repealed 1 Queen Mary, when the dissolved bishopric and the royalties of it were in a measure revived and restored as it now stands.
In this parish is that famous and well-known spring of water called Holy-well (so named the inhabitants say, for that the virtues of this water was first discovered on Allhallows-day). The same stands in a dark cavern of the sea-cliff rocks, beneath full sea-mark on spring-tides; from the top of which cavern falls down or distils continually drops of water, from the white, blue, red, and green veins of those rocks. And accordingly, in the place where those drops of water fall, it swells to a lump of considerable bigness, and there petrifies to the hardness of ice, glass, or freestone, of the several colours aforesaid, according to the nature of those veins in the rock from whence it proceeds, and is of a hard brittle nature, apt to break like glass.
The virtues of this water are very great. It is incredible what numbers in summer season frequent this place and waters from counties far distant.
Chynowen, now Chynoweth, id est, New-house, was the voke-lands of a considerable manor, under which jurisdiction this parish was taxed, 20 Will. I. 1087, from which place was denominated an old British family of gentlemen, now in possession thereof, surnamed De Chynoweth; which (were not comparisons odious) I would, for antiquity, rank with or before the tribe of any other family extant in this province; though I do not understand their estate, or post in the public service of their country, was ever above
the degree of a juryman of the parish of Chynoweth (now Cuthbert), or that of a hundred constable; for, if tradition may be credited, some of this blood were possessed of those very lands before the Norman Conquest, and then at length, after the manner of the French, writ de Chynoweth.
The present possesser, John Chynoweth, Gent. giveth for his arms, Sable, on a fess Or, three eagles’ heads erased Gules.
Carynas, or Carrynas, id est, dead carrions, in this parish, it seems, was so denominated from the lodging of such dead bodies of bullocks, horses, or sheep, as died of age, poverty, or sickness, and were either on trees, or in carrion pools, laid up here for hunters or their dogs. It is the dwelling of John Davis, Gent. that married Lannar, alias Vincent; his father Hoblyn, of Penhall; his grandfather.
TONKIN.
By the register of this parish (which is very ancient) it appears that in the year 1569 there was a great plague here, by which died, from the 20th of August to the 10th of November, seventy people, and it then abating, from the 25th of December to the 23d of February fifteen more; which is the more considerable, for that in the parish at present, in its flourishing condition, there are not above three hundred and fifty souls; and so healthy is the place in general, that I have been assured by Mr. Bradford, the present Minister, there was not a single burial from the 12th of September, 1699, to the 18th of October, 1700, the year following.
The Holy Well, if it may properly be so called, (it being nothing but a little water dropping out of the cliff under Kelsey, in a small cove made by the sea, to be come at only when the tide is out,) has been much frequented of late, and several strange cures attributed to it. It is a water that petrifies of itself, as may be seen by the incrustations