Notes of a country gentleman, Teesdale Mercury

Notes of a country gentleman

Apr 8, 2008

IN 1659, Christopher Sanderson, the diarist, bought Eggleston Hall and the Eggleston Estate from Tobias Eubank. He lived there as a country gentleman and a JP with his second wife, Margaret Webster, until her death in 1668 and then with his third wife, Catherine Fielding. 

Christopher had many children - 16 in total. Three of his sons attended Cambridge University and a number of his children had distinguished careers. However, despite Christopher Sanderson being a magistrate, some of his children were not always upright citizens. His eldest son, Cuthbert, was involved in a brawl in 1677 and 11 years later two of his sons, Robert and James spent a few days living rough and drinking. They were 13 and 14 years old at the time.

Christopher Sanderson's diary gives a tantalising glimpse into the life of a 17th century country gentleman. 

Naturally enough, he dwells much on the state of the weather and the effect it has on the yearly harvests. For instance, in 1674 he records that: "If great quantity of rye and other grain had not come in at Newcastle and Stockton, undoubtedly we had had great famine in Westmorland and Cumberland, Bishoprik, Northumberland, and the North Rideing of Yorkshire. Not many oats were reeped and got in to the barn before St Luke day, but most out then, and some barley to sheare after St Luke's day."  

St Luke's day is on October 18. It's interesting to see that the corn harvest was such an important part of farming in Teesdale 330 years ago. Two years later, in 1676, there was by Christopher's account quite a severe drought in Teesdale. 

He writes: "In all the wells about the market place in Barnard Castle at the 17th October, there was not water in them sufficient to serve for the steeping of their big for malt." 

Big is a type of barley used in the making of beer. Do you think that beer making was more important for the inhabitants of Barney than having water for drinking or washing? 

There may have been a shortage of water in 1676, but there was a good harvest that year. Christopher records: "All corn got in before September. Wheat 3s 6d a bushel: rye, big and barley 2s a bushel; oats 4s and 5s a load old measure."

Not all of Teesdale was cultivated. In the winter of 1673-4 Christopher recalls that: "There were above four hundred red deer in Teesdale-forest at Rood-day - (14th September) - but the winter following being such a great snow they were all lost to between forty and fifty."

Incidentally, Christopher Sanderson's diary should perhaps be better described as his notebook because he often writes down items some time after the event described and he doesn't write with any regularity. Years pass with no entries at all.

Apart from comments about crops and the weather, another favourite topic in the diary is sudden death. 

Sometimes, these events refer to members of Christopher's own family and, at other times, neighbours or even deaths occurring further afield. 

He records a horrific accident involving Mr Francis Tunstall's family, who lived at Wycliffe Hall. The accident happened on Sunday, November 12, 1676, when, ‘in a high chamber, over the dineing room there being about 23 persons at devotion, a dormer fell down and hert most of them all. Mrs Tunstall had her legges broken, and she died on the Saturday sennet at night afterwards'. 

The Tunstall family were Roman Catholics and it sounds as if this was a Mass that was taking place in the house. This was illegal, so it is likely that the service would be conducted out of public view - in this case up in the attic.

Another incident reported in the diary was the untimely death of the Parson of Romaldkirk, Alexander Hilton. Parson Hilton had just been inducted to the parsonage of Romaldkirk in October 1682. 

"He brought his wife first to Rumbald the 9 of November ... she got a fall, of horseback, after she was over Egleston bridg, going up the banke, and hurt her head. He fell sick the next day, at afternoon, and dyed there on Tuesday, being the 14 of November, 1682." 

So Alexander Hilton was only at Romaldkirk for one month. The diary gives no details about his wife's condition. It was Alexander Hilton's son that used to conduct illicit marriages in the middle of Barney Bridge. 

Very unusually for the time, Christopher also records a suicide. The lady who killed herself was described as the wife of Mr Robert Branthwaite, but I think he means Braithwaite. This poor lady could hardly have chosen a more dramatic way to end her life. 

She ‘did cast herself of Pendragon Castle and broake her back and some of her limbs, and within two days dyed'. Usually suicides were hushed up but I suppose that this was too public an act to hide.

Although Christopher did record in some detail a number of nasty accidents and sudden deaths, this was not his main interest. 

More than half of his diary consists of a register of the weather at Eggleston. I could be wrong, but I suspect that the weather remains a major preoccupation of many of the present occupiers of the dale. What do you think? 

I am not sure if the actual diary of Christopher Sanderson still survives. 

There were two transcripts made from copies of the original diary, both published in the early years of the 20th Century. 

If anyone knows where the original diary can be found, please get in touch.

First published in the Mercury, April 2, 2008