John Douglas of Newcastle
John Douglas, (bef 1689 - aft 1708) seemingly arrived in
Northumberland from Scotland. He was initially employed as an
agricultural worker in Matfen. He afterwards removed to Newcastle,
and obtained the situation of clerk to Mr. Oley (1), an attorney. Mr
Oley must have been a major influence, as John named his son after
him.
By the 1670s, he was closely associated with Newcastle's
company of Hostmen, intimately connected with coal mining, a
profession his son, Robert, was to pursue. John Douglas owned
the pit at Kenton. In 1674, he was an Under Sheriff (or Sheriff
Clerk) for Newcastle. He was described as a hostman when he was
admitted, in 1675, to the Freedom of Newcastle, and four years later
he was appointed clerk of the company.
In 1682, he was chosen
to act for the city's Merchant Adventurers in a dispute concerning
the rights of Newcastle's drapers. The following year, he was
admitted to Barnard's Inn, indicating he may by then have been a
solicitor.
We next learn that John became an advocate. He was
admitted to Gray's Inn on 26 Apr 1702, at the same time as his son,
Oley. Later, he was Town Clerk of Newcastle, 27 Sep 1699 - 13 Apr
1709, resigning in favour of his son, Joshua, who held the position
between 13 Apr 1709 and 4 Oct 1742. This position provided John with
lucrative opportunities. He was involved in the introduction of the
town's water supply.
We possess an unrecorded chapter in
connexion with the water supply of old Newcastle. Before the
arrangement between William Grey, author of the ^^Chorographia," and
the Corporation in 1647, there can be no doubt that the Newcastle
people drew their main supply from wells. The conduit in Pandon Bank
would continue to supply the wants of the town in a great measure,
but towards the end of the century this was found totally inadequate
to meet the growing needs of the consumers. At that time one of the
leading men in Newcastle was John Douglas, a solicitor, who
subsequently became town clerk. During his visits to London, Douglas
became acquainted with William Yarnold, a water engineer, whom he
invited to Newcastle with a view to ascertaining if means could be
devised for increasing the supply. Yarnold came up to the north in
the summer of 1697, and the same year he made a, proposal to the
Mayor and burgesses ** to supply the inhabitants with good and
wholesome water by bringing it in main pipes and trunks through the
open streets, to the intent that from the said pipes by smaller
branches the said water might be carried into all and every the
dwelling houses or places whre the owners or occupiers thereof
should be willing to take in and pay for the same.'* Yarnold secured
all the available springs inside and outside the walls, and erected
cisterns on columns in different parts of the town, and into these
he forced the water with an engine. The agreement between Yarnold
and the Corporation is dated nth Oct., 1697.
Three years later
the contractor admitted his friend Douglas, and fourteen other
principal townsmen, into partnership, reserving to himself, however,
the entire profits connected with the laying down of new branches
and the sale of brass cocks, bosses, lead piping, and *' sowder.''
Being unable to personally superintend the undertaking, Yarnold
deputed his friend Douglas to manage for him, and he in turn
appointed Lionel Moore his deputy. Thus matters progressed till the
year 1707, when Yarnold again visited Newcastle and quarrelled with
his head agent, with whom he had a costly and protracted action at
law.
He became embroilled, 27 April 1710, in a court case
concerning failure to pay over to William Yarnold of London, gent,
money due to him for branch pipes.
As an attorney, he made a
large fortune and purchased a number of estates and properties. He
purchased Matfen from the Carnaby family, a branch of the Fenwick
family, between 1680 and 1702 as well as acquiring Clarewood in 1686
and Great Whittington the following year. Matfen (West), for
which he paid £950 in August 1680, was a township and well built
village; it contained 1,905 acres. By November 1702 he laid
out a total of £15605 in the purchase of land in that area.
In 1695, he
purchased Halton Shields and Halton Tower, a pele tower close to Hadrian’s Wall, north
of Corbridge, Northumberland. In the late 17th century, John Douglas
added the eastern two storey block, this made the castle irregular
in plan. In 1757, Halton passed to the Blackett family when Anne
Douglas, John's grand daughter, married Sir Edward Blackett.
The lands in Newton were purchased in 1700 by John Douglas of
Newcastle from John Hunter, of Newton, and his sons Thomas and
Robert, and from Ralph Scurfield, son and heir of Ralph Scurfield of
Newcastle ; the consideration paid to the Hunters was £460, and that
to Scurfield £I50. Two years afterwards Douglas sold the lands so
acquired to Henry Collinson of Aydon Castle.
Aydon Castle, part of the Aydon estate, was sold by the
Collinsons to John Douglas. It is one of the finest and most
unaltered examples of a 13th-century English manor house.
Aydon Castle township, situated one mile and a half north-east of
Corbridge, contained 893 acres
Various Douglas properties at Henshaw, Northumberland, seem to have
passed to the Claverings through Martha Douglas, who married Sir
Thomas, and may have been acquired by her grandfather, John.
John Douglas appears as one of the most prominent of the late
17th-century 'Improvers' in Northumberland, enclosing open land and
improving the quality of the fields. At Clarewood and East Maften,
the central villages were replaced with a number of dispersed
farmsteads, each situated within its own farm of small enclosed
fields.
John Douglas gave £146 17s. 2d towards a Chapel of Ease in Corbridge
church, which was rebuilt in 1706.
He married Alice , 'his master's heiress', daughter of Michael
Hutchison of Lofthouse, Leeds, with whom he had issue (at least)
seven daughters as well as a similar number of sons.
Of his sons:
Joshua succeeded him as Newcastle Town Clerk. His daughter,
Martha married Sir Thoams Clavering. Named after him,
Clavering Place, near the Turnbull warehouse behind Newcastle
Central Station, belonged to Sir Thomas Clavering of Axwell, near
Blaydon, after he married the daughter of Newcastle town clerk
Joshua Douglas. The impressive Clavering House dates from around
1784.
Oley became MP for Morpeth, and then
attempted to become MP for Northumberland, but failed, consuming
considerable Douglas funds in the process.
Robert was also involved in coal mining, and in a salt works in Blyth. He was reduced
'to beggary' when properties he owned in Newcastle were destroyed by
fire in 1738.
Archibald may also be a
son, and if so, thenJohn may also be a son. He was
'killed in the Scottish skirmishes'.
One of his daughters was Elizabeth, who married
first Sir William Douglas, 12th of
Cavers, but left no
family. She later married Sir Andrew Hume of Kimmerghame, son of
the 1st Earl of Marchmont. They has issue.
Like his date of birth, John Douglas' date death is unknown, but he
was alive on 12 Apr 1709. A will made in 1722, and proved in 1723
may be his.
 |
| Sir Edward Blackett, MP, 4th Baronet of Newcastle (1719
- 1804) and his wife, Anne, daughter of Oley Douglas |
Notes:
1. Mr Oley's daughter married, in early 1718,
Mary Harris, (died 1784) daughter of Richard Harris, a 'wealthy
African trader'.
2. A John Douglas was a coroner in Newcastle 28 September 1674 - 14 April 1685 (or sheriff, under-sheriff or
coroners clerk)
3. Described thus: John Douglas of Westgate,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and East Matfen and Halton, Northumberland
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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