Pedro on 25 Nov 2006  •  Link

THE HISTORY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

"Coals to Newcastle" - the phrase indicates the dominating importance of the coal trade to the town. By the end of the fourteenth century the "sea cole" trade to London and other ports had been established, although coal mining had begun much earlier. Newcastle's chartered control of the river meant that even coal mined outside the town boundaries was shipped through its port, greatly increasing revenue. Between 1565 and 1625 the coal trade increased twelve fold, a growth which saved Newcastle from the slump which affected other towns as the wool trade declined.
There was a brief halt to the town's continuing rise during the Civil War. Royalist Newcastle was besieged for three months in 1644 and fell to the Earl of Leven's Scottish army. (It was from this defence that Newcastle was said to have been granted its motto by Charles I: "Fortiter Defendit Triumphans" (Triumphing by a bold defence). Critical damage was done to the coal trade during the Civil War, but prosperity was regained remarkably quickly after Restoration. According to Hearth Tax Returns of 1663-65 Newcastle was the fourth largest provincial town in terms of the population, after Norwich, York and Bristol.
From the late seventeenth century, other trades and industries joined coal as producers of wealth, whether or not the factories were actually in Newcastle - iron, slat and glass for example. The town became a regional centre: a commercial infrastructure was developed which was not present in other north- east towns: an Assay Office from 1702, Carr's Bank (probably the first outside London) in 1755.

http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/N…

Terry Foreman on 13 Nov 2011  •  Link

Newcastle upon Tyne (often shortened to Newcastle) is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne. The city developed in the area that was the location of the Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, though it owes its name to the castle built in 1080, by Robert II, Duke of Normandy, the eldest son of William the Conqueror. The city grew as an important centre for the wool trade and it later became a major coal mining area. The port developed in the 16th century and, along with the shipyards lower down the river, was amongst the world's largest shipbuilding and ship-repairing centres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newc…

San Diego Sarah on 18 Jul 2023  •  Link

Off the mouth of the River Tyne is located the Dogger Bank, as important in British history as any of the sandbars Pepys mentions as sheltering the Navy off the coast of Kent, Sussex and Essex. But the Second Anglo-Dutch War didn't come this far up the coast.

The name Dogger Bank was first recorded in the mid-17th century. It is probably derived from the word "dogger" used for a 2-masted boat of the type that trawled for fish in the area in medieval times. The area has similar names in Dutch, German, and Danish, which shows its international appeal.

The bank extends over about 17,600 sq. kilometres (6,800 sq. mi.), and is about 260 x 100 kilometres (160 x 60 mi.) in extent. The water depth ranges from 15 - 36 metres (50 - 120 ft.), about 20 metres (65 ft.) shallower than the surrounding sea.
More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog…

Kentish ports from Gravesend to New Romney engaged in fishing. Before the Dissolution, the religious houses consumed vast quantities of fish, and there was always a ready market for it.

Around the south coast a large variety of fish were caught. In 1350 Daniel Rough, the Town Clerk of Romney, wrote a list of the taxes which were payable on goods bought or sold in the town, and it includes cod, porpoise, herring, sprats, crabs, salmon, haddock, lampreys, mackerel, conger, shrimps, whiting, tench and eels.

So long as the main fishing grounds were near the coast, or at least not farther off than the Dogger Bank, the Kent fishing industry remained prosperous, ...

EXCERPTED FROM “Industries in the 15th to 18th Centuries“ [in Kent]
https://www.wilcuma.org.uk/the-hi…

San Diego Sarah on 16 Apr 2024  •  Link

Number of voters: c 1,250 in 1710

Date Candidate
11 Apr. 1660 ROBERT ELLISON
WILLIAM CALVERLEY
29 Aug. 1660 SIR FRANCIS ANDERSON vice Calverley, deceased
10 Apr. 1661 SIR FRANCIS ANDERSON
SIR JOHN MARLAY
Sir Robert Slingsby, Bt.
3 Dec. 1673 WILLIAM BLACKETT vice Marlay, deceased

The corporation of Newcastle consisted of the mayor, the recorder and the sheriff, who acted as returning officer, 10 aldermen and a common council of 24.
Both the corporation and the Members of Parliament were elected by the freemen, although the indirect method used in municipal elections favored control by the merchant oligarchy. All the successful candidates at this time came from this class, and all except William Calverley were in trade.

Newcastle’s Members were active in defending the interests of the local merchant adventurers and the hostmen, or coal exporters, on whose trade the prosperity of the town depended. Consequently the payment of parliamentary wages continued until 1685.

At the 1660 general election, Robert Ellison, a Presbyterian, was returned with Calverley, an obscure lawyer who took out his freedom on the occasion.

The Restoration was greeted with a loyal address expressing the hope that Charles II might prove ‘the instrument to unite a divided church, compose a distracted kingdom, and ease an oppressed people’.

A new writ was ordered on 23 July after Calverley’s death; but the by-election was not held until the franchise had been restored to Sir John Marlay, hero of the Scottish siege in 1644, and 9 other Royalists.
The new Member was a Cavalier officer, Sir Francis Anderson, whose election set the political tone for the rest of the period.
A further royalist success followed at the municipal elections on 1 Oct., when they wrested control from the close-knit group that had governed Newcastle during the Interregnum.

Anderson stood for reelection in 1661 with Marlay, although the latter had been compromised during the Protectorate.
The Duke of York recommended another Cavalier, Sir Robert Slingsby, the comptroller of the navy, who was connected with the Northumberland gentry by marriage, and considered it both easy and proper for the principal officers ‘to labour to get into the Parliament’.
The labor had to be performed by deputy, as Slingsby was in London on election day and never even took out his freedom.
Anderson and Marlay were returned by ‘the greater part of the burgesses’, and when George Liddell, a royalist conspirator, petitioned on 15 May, he alleged no electoral irregularities but only Marlay’s betrayal in 1658. The Commons spent the whole morning on the affair, then rejected the petition, and Liddell took no further action.

On Marlay’s death in 1673 he was succeeded by William Blackett, a prominent coal-owner, who was re-elected with Anderson at the first election of 1679. ...

FROM https://www.historyofparliamenton…