Ingram : The 17th Century
The ending of the Anglo-Scottish hostilities conflict on the border brought about by the Union of the Crowns and the accession of James I in 1603 served to throw into starker relief the other faultlines in Border society, notably the religious divisions between Protestant and Catholic, Puritan and high church. An example of highlighted by Watts (1975, 89), namely the difficulties faced by Richard Satherwaite, parson of Ingram and vicar of Whittingham, also provides an indication of the state that parish ministry had sunk to by the early 17th century. For many years Satherthwaite did not attempt to collect the tithe of corn due to him from Fawdon and Ingram for fear of antagonising the leading member of the local gentry, the crypto-Catholic, Sir Cuthbert Collingwood, who controlled the tithes.
Instead, ‘for quietude’s sake and his own safety’, he accepted a sum of £2 13s. 4d. a year in lieu of tithes. This prevailed until 1613, some years after Sir Cuthbert’s death, when Satherwaite finally attempted to collect the tithes at Fawdon and Ingram, only to be met with bitter opposition from Sir Cuthbert’s younger son, Cuthbert of Thrunton. The case was brought before the Council of the North but before the case could be decided Cuthbert took direct action.
The parson later informed the Lords of the Star Chamber that in the autumn of 1613 James and Robert Scott had destroyed a hundred cart loads of hay and sizeable quantities of tithe grain. In turn, Robert Collingwood, Sir Cuthbert’s grandson, presented counter-charges against Satherwaite in the Star Chamber to the effect that Satherwaite was a pluralist who had not preached a sermon for the last five years. He also declared to the court that the rector kept a ‘common ale house or tippling house in his parsonage.’ These accusations had little impact on Satherwaite’s fortunes, however, and he retained both his livings, valued at £200 pounds per annum, until his death in 1625.
A glebe terrier of 1663 provides some impression of the village in the mid 17th century. It indicates that the glebe lands were scattered in small parcels; i.e. butts, headlands or rigs in various parts of the town fields (NRO ZAL 6/7/1; reproduced by NCH XIV (1935), 460; see Selected Sources and Surveys no. 8). Five cottages (‘coat houses’) and associated ‘coat landes’ are mentioned, as well as a parsonage house with a close on the foreside of the house. This was not necessarily the full extent of the village at this date. The ‘corn mill with a house and a close called the mill lands’ in Fawdon township was probably situated at the present Ingram Mill.
