Sir Henry le Spring (died before 1311), also referred to as Lord Henry Spring, was an English knight and landowner in northern England.
He was born into the Anglo-Norman Le Spring family, who held large estates in the County Palatine of Durham and Northumberland. [1] He was the son of another Sir Henry le Spring, a knight, by an unknown wife. He served as a squire to Sir John Coilet of Barmelston. Henry le Spring was knighted himself after having fought for Henry III at the Battle of Lewes in 1264. [2] He became Lord of the Manor of Houghton, near the present-day City of Sunderland, after it was granted to him by Robert Fitzgerald, Lord of Raby. [3] The estates surrounding the town had been in the possession of the Spring family since shortly after the Norman Conquest, and a result it became known as Houghton-le-Spring. He served as Knight of the Shire for the Northumberland constituency at least once.
Henry Spring married Albreda, the daughter and heiress of Robert Bernard. [4] One of his sons, Sir John Spring, was murdered in his manor house at Houghton in 1313 by Robert Lascelles, the husband of his lover. [5] Henry's daughter, Mary, married Sir Roland de Bellasise, who had fought with him at Lewes. Henry's wife was recorded as being a widow by 1311.
He is buried in the Church of St Michael and All Angel in Houghton-le-Spring, where he has an elaborate effigy alongside his son-in-law.
Earl of Durham is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1833 for the Whig politician and colonial official John Lambton, 1st Baron Durham. Known as "Radical Jack", he played a leading role in the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832. As Governor General of British North America, he was the author of the famous Report on the Affairs of British North America, known in Canada as the Durham Report. He had already been created Baron Durham, of the City of Durham and of Lambton Castle in the County Palatine of Durham, in 1828. He was created Viscount Lambton at the same time that he was raised to the earldom. These titles are also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Baron Ravensworth, of Ravensworth Castle in the County Palatine of Durham and of Eslington Park in the County of Northumberland, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Houghton-le-Spring is a town in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England which has its recorded origins in Norman times. Historically in County Durham, it is now administered as part of the Tyne and Wear county.
Raby Castle is a medieval castle located near Staindrop in County Durham, England, among 200 acres (810,000 m2) of deer park. It was built by John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby, between approximately 1367 and 1390. Cecily Neville, the mother of the Kings Edward IV and Richard III, was born here. After Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, led the failed Rising of the North in favour of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1569 Raby Castle was taken into royal custody. Sir Henry Vane the Elder purchased Raby Castle in 1626 and neighbouring Barnard Castle from the Crown, and the Earls of Darlington and Dukes of Cleveland added a Gothic-style entrance hall and octagonal drawing room. From 1833 to 1891 they were the Dukes of Cleveland and they retain the title of Lord Barnard. Extensive alterations were carried out in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is famed for both its size and its art, including works by old masters and portraits. After 1733 it was frequented from his young age of eleven by the poet Christopher Smart, who eloped briefly at the age of thirteen with Anne Vane, daughter of Henry Vane, who succeeded to the Barnard title. It is a Grade I listed building and open to the public on a seasonal basis.
Castleside is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated a short distance to the south-west of Consett. Castleside is covered by the civil parish of Healeyfield.The village centre is located on the main A68 road which runs between Edinburgh and Darlington and the village crossroads allow easy access to Consett, the North Pennines and Stanhope. To the northeast lie other small villages called Moorside and The Grove.
Embleton is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sedgefield, in the County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of Durham, in England, as well as the site of a medieval village and manor. It is situated 3 miles (5 km) east of Sedgefield and 4 miles (6 km) west of Hartlepool. In 1961 the parish had a population of 80. The township was historically named "Elmdene", supposedly derived from the site's proximity to a woodland of elm trees which, at an earlier time, flourished in the bordering dene. A single farmstead now occupies the site which lies adjacent to the ruins of a small church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Robert Surtees was a celebrated English historian and antiquary of his native County Durham.
The Ogle family were prominent landed gentry in Northumberland, England. The earliest appearances of the family name were written Hoggel, Oggehill, Ogille and Oghill.
The Tempest family was an English recusant family that originated in western Yorkshire in the 12th century.
Henry Bagshaw D.D. (1632–1709), was an English divine.
Captain Sir Thomas Liddell, 1st Baronet (1578–1652) was an English politician, a member of the Liddell family which monopolized the local government of the North of England during the 16th and 17th centuries. He was one of the leading supporters of the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
John Fenwick was a Member of Parliament from Northumberland, killed serving in the Royalist army during the First English Civil War.
English county histories, in other words historical and topographical works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: most focused on recording the ownership of estates and the descent of lordships of manors, thus the genealogies of county families, heraldry and other antiquarian material. In the introduction to one typical early work of this style, The Antiquities of Warwickshire published in 1656, the author William Dugdale writes:
I offer unto you my noble countriemen, as the most proper persons to whom it can be presented wherein you will see very much of your worthy ancestors, to whose memory I have erected it as a monumentall pillar and to shew in what honour they lived in those flourishing ages past. In this kind, or not much different, have divers persons in forrein parts very learnedly written; some whereof I have noted in my preface: and I could wish that there were more that would adventure in the like manner for the rest of the counties of this nation, considering how acceptable those are, which others have already performed
Ralph Fitzwilliam, or Ralph, son of William de Grimthorpe, Lord of Greystoke, was a feudal baron with extensive landholdings in the North of England, representative of a manorial lordship seated where Grimthorpe Hill rises to commanding views a mile to the north of Pocklington in the Yorkshire Wolds. He gave sustained military service and leadership through the Scottish and Welsh campaigns of Edward I and was summoned to parliament from 1295 to 1315. His marriage in c. 1282 brought him other manors including Morpeth in Northumberland and its appurtenances. In 1297 he was enfeoffed as tenant-in-chief of the entire barony of Greystoke, seated at Greystoke in Cumberland but with Yorkshire estates, through his matrilineal Greystok descent. He entered upon these in his own right in 1306. Having served in the retinue of Aymer de Valence, during the first decade of Edward II's reign he remained dependable as a military leader and royal lieutenant in the defence administration of the northern counties and Scottish marches. His descendants adopted the Greystoke name, and their inheritance continued in the male line until the end of the 15th century.
The Court of the County of Durham was a court that exercised jurisdiction within the County Palatine of Durham. It was abolished, subject to certain savings, on 5 July 1836.
Robert Brandling (1575–1636) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622.
Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield, County Durham is a building of historical significance and is a Grade II listed building on the English Heritage Register. A major part of it was built in the late 1700s but it is possible that some of it dates from about 1634. It was the residence for many notable people for two centuries. It is now a hotel which provides accommodation and restaurant services and caters for special events particularly weddings.
The Lilburns are a family originating in Northumberland, United Kingdom, and were members of the country's lesser gentry throughout the Late Middle Ages up until the 17th century. The family name Lilburn derives from the original home of the family, Lilburn, Northumberland.
Luke Hutton was an English criminal and reputed author.
Dalden Tower or Dawden Tower was a manor house and later a pele tower in the village of Dalton-le-Dale, County Durham. Only ruins survive today.