Rochester : Land Tenure
The tenurial history of the site during the 18th - early 19th centuries has to be teased out from less detailed sources such as the lists of voting freeholders in the Northumberland Poll Books, which provide some clues as to land ownership.
Table 5 : Freeholder Lists
| 1698 |
John Hall William Hall |
| 1710 |
John Hall of Rochester, for Rochester Roger Hall of Rochester, for Rochester James Hall of Rochester, " " William Hall of Dykehead, for Dykehead |
| 1715 |
Reynold Hall of Newbegin, for Rochester John Hall of Rochester, " " Roger Hall of Woodlaw, " " William Hall of Dykehead, for Dykehead |
| 1722 |
John Hall of Rodchester, for Rodchester John Buckham, juror, of Dykehead, for Dykehead Ralph Anderson, juror, of Birdhope Craig, for Dykehead Antony Brown, juror, of Saughenside, for Dykehead |
| 1734 | Roger Hall of Rochester, for Rochester |
| 1747 | No freeholders listed for Rochester |
| 1762 |
(Militia List) John Hall of Rochester William Hall of (Low ?) Rochester |
| 1774 |
Ralph Hedley of Woodhill, for Hillock John Hall of Rochester, for Rochester John Corbett of Low Rochester, for Low Rochester Robert Hall of Low Rochester, for " " George Laing of Dykehead, for Dykehead Thomas Heron of Dykehead, " " |
| 1826 |
Robert Brown of North Shields, for houses at Rochester William John Grey of Rochester, for Rochester George Hall of Rochester, for Rochester William Wilson of Rochester, for Rochester Joseph Edmundson of Callaly Mains, for Dykehead |
The freeholder lists do not of course provide a complete picture, but much useful information can be extracted if they are used in conjunction with other sources such as the parish registers and some holdings can be traced through the period with a degree of confidence. Moreover, they do occasionally preserve a distinction between (High) Rochester and Low Rochester.
For Rochester as a whole it is only towards the end of this period that copious documentation becomes available with tithe map of 1840 (DT 164.2), the Rochester Common award and map of 1866 (QRA 44.1) and the 1863 copy rate (NRO 542.59), which set out and map land ownership, farm tenancies with the acreages of the respective holdings, tithe commutation payments, quit rents to the lord of the manor, the Duke of Northumberland, copy rates and rentals and all such like.
Prior to this a good deal of material is available for Petty Knowes and the fields between High and Low Rochester, starting with an 'Award on Umpirage' of 1703 by Gabriel Reed relating to a dispute between Robert Hall of Newcastle and William Coxon of Woolaw over Petty Knowes (PSAN2 9, 1899-1900: 196-197). Documents amongst the Coleman Deeds (PSAN3, 9, 1919-1920: 58) trace the eventual passage by, marriage and inheritance, of Robert Hall's Petty Knowes property to Ann Grey of Newcastle. Grey participated along with John Corbett and the Reverend Caleb Dixon in the division of the hitherto unenclosed land between High Rochester, Low Rochester and Petty Knowes in 179.
The latter document also includes reference to an earlier agreement of 1755 leasing the use of land in this area to the incumbent minister of Birdhope Craig chapel. The minister's rights to use the two new fields immediately south of the fort, which lay in Caleb Dixon's portion, were safeguarded by the 1791 award until the expiry of the 60 year lease. Despite passing through various hands and one temporary subdivison after 1791 the three holdings delineated by that award were still intact in 1866.
The 18th century ownership pattern on the other sides of the fort is less clear, but is likely there were three main holdings, Hillock, Dykehead and one embracing the land immediately north and west of High Rochester. This was certainly the arrangement in 1840, when Rochester Peel, in the hands of Augustus Caesar Forster of Campville near Holystone, was the only estate centred on a farm within the fort.
One might tentatively suggest that the freehold of John Hall in 1762 represented an earlier phase of the Rochester Peel estate and, still more audaciously, trace that freehold right back to the tenement of Roger Hall in the 1604 and 1618 surveys. Much of the fort interior, the open square or green, was still held in common in 1866 (QRA 44.1) and it was by exercising his rights as lord of the manor that the Duke of Northumberland was able to sponsor a programme of excavation there in 1852-53.