9. Crown Court

During the reign of the Prince Bishops, the Bishop ran courts and appointed justices of the peace. Despite various changes and reforms they “were at the height of their powers as counts palatine between 1300 and 1400” however, despite an “Act of 1536 the bishop of Durham effectively lost his criminal jurisdiction and his judicial supremacy” the palatine courts “remained as before, and continued to be organized separately from other courts, but they were now the king’s courts, not the bishop’s”. After 1536, however, the bishop still retained his right to nominate justices of the peace for the Crown to appoint (and the bishop’s nominations were generally accepted).

"Until 1836 he still kept his chancery and admiralty jurisdictions and continued to appoint various officials, e.g. the temporal chancellor, sheriff, under-sheriff, county clerk, gaoler, prothonotary, and clerk of the peace. He could still preside in some courts and was entitled to receive the fees from various judicial proceedings, as well as retaining rights over boroughs and guilds, remaining the chief feudal lord in the area and maintaining his financial administration.”

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During the period of general reform in the 1830s the government suggested abolishing the Palatinate courts, but this was met with much resistance and it was decided to reform instead. The Palatinate’s County Court was abolished but,

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“following strong local pressure, led by Lord Londonderry, the separate Durham Court of Pleas and Durham Chancery Court were retained. Both these courts were, however, now under central rather than episcopal control, and the Crown appointed the custos rotulorum from 1836 onwards. Thus, with the loss of his civil jurisdiction and remaining regalian rights, the bishop of Durham in 1836 finally ceased to be a count palatine”.[10]

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The Executions

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From medieval times until 1816 executions took place at Dryburn, at the site of Dryburn hospital. From 1816, in front of the Court, now known as the Crown Court public executions took place until 1865. In 1816 John Grieg was hanged here for the murder of Elizabeth Stonehouse. The last public execution here took place in March 1865, when Matthew Atkinson was executed for murder of his wife. He survived the first drop, as the rope broke, was revived and then re-hung with a new rope. The executioner, Askern, was not selected again by the Sherriff of County Durham and was replaced by Calcraft[11].

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[10] See: www.dur.ac.uk/library/asc/collection_information/cldload/?collno=112

[11] See: www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/durham.html

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The above photo, “Crown Courts and Gaol” is copyright (c) 2008 Reading Tom and made available under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 license