Six north country diaries - The MAN & Other Families

181
bells was about 16 j'ards. (All was restored to its former condition
by a carpenter of the town who drove the stones into tlieir antient
situation from a ladder on a scaffold at the top of the steeple.)^'*
1750. July. About 11 o'clock at night between the 24th and
25th a fire broke out in the Close in Newcastle, which burnt down the
Bridge-end coffee-house and some other houses before it was
extinguished the next day, the 25th. Mr. Bryson, the bookseller,
and Henry Eden, merchant, suffered considerably. Mr. Eden had
ensured a great deal.^^
1750. I saw a ball of fire on Sunday evening the 22 July, between
8 and 9 in the evening, in coming from Brancpath, of ye bigness
of a sky rocket, but without any tail, pass from the north to the
soutli and died away gradually.
1750. August 16. Mi-s. Wilkinson, relict of Francis Wilkinson,
formerly of Lincoln's Inn, esq., who was bom at Monkend, near Croft,
died at Baniingham in an advanced age. She was first married to
Acclom Milbank of Barningham, esq., whom she survived about 46
years. Mark Milbank, her only sou living. ^^
Sir Hedwoi-th Williamson appointed High Sheriff by the Lords of
the Regency. ^1
1750. Sept. 1. Died Mrs. Eliz. Bedford, second wife of Dr. John
Bed'ford, in child-bed. She was second daughter of Posthumous Smith
of Durham.