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No. IV.
CATHOLIC REGISTERS OF THE SECULAR MISSION OF HEXHAM AT COCKSHAW , NORTHUMBERLAND, 1753 ΤΟ 1832 . FROM A COPY MADE BY THE LATE JAMES CANON STARK, LENT BY THE REV. THOMAS HARTLEY. EDITED BY JAMES RAE BATERDEN. HISTORICAL NOTES BY JAMES RAE BATERDEN .
Hexham was served by secular priests before the advent of Franciscans or Dominicans, though the evidence is somewhat indefinite. Amongst the various sums of money bequeathed for the upkeep of Catholicism in Hexham and neighbourhood , and of which it is almost impossible to give a correct account, the largest was £ 400 from " the Earl of Derwentwater." This would almost certainly be either the first Earl , who died in 1696, or the second Earl , who died in 1705. Local tradition says that Catholics first met for worship in a thatched cottage near the Ladle Well in Cockshaw loaning, which belonged to a branch of the Leadbitter family; at a later date they are said to have worshipped in the " second house from the foot of Holy Island, prob” ably the old half - timbered house with the inscription KTE 1657. Amongst the names of early secular priests who have served about here we find that of William Gascoigne. He may have been the " William Gascoigne alias Meynell, son of William Gascoigne of Hilton in the diocese of York " ( near Yarm) , who went to Douai from Lisbon in June 1651 , and left after being ordained in July 1653. He was possibly the " Mr. Gascoigne " given in a list of priests 14 Dec. 1666, found amongst the Derwentwater papers , and he was possibly connected with Dilston . * All we know about him for certain is that he was buried in Hexham 23 Dec. 1690 , " Mr. Gascoigne, a Popish priest. " Rev. John Girlington , born at Thurland , Lancs . , is given in a list secular 1697 priests serving in the Bishopric of Durham in Aug. , of when he was stationed at Sledwick Hall on the Tees , a house then owned by the Withams of Cliffe. He is stated to be " of 12 years standing from Lisbon, where he was ordained at the English College, and sent to England 2 April 1684. Dr. Kirk, in his Biographies of English Catholics , 1700-1800 , places him at Dilston and Hexham in 1705 , and says he remained in that neighbourhood for some time. He is no doubt the " Mr. Girlington " frequently referred to in letters from Dilston Castle , and , unfortunately, not very favourably reported on , although he appears to have been in the service of the Derwentwater family for more than twenty years . The only reference we find to his name in the Cockshaw annals is the name written in one of the registers of priests who served here, and that must have been about the period
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* Another William Gascoigne , of Yorkshire , took the college oath at Douai 4 June 1653, and about this time a branch of the Gascoigne family were living at Harbottle, Northumberland .