Storeys
 of
 Old

From The Newcastle Daily Journal-

"Sir, - Having read with much pleasure the interesting articles on this line - especially interesting to me, as I am intimately acquainted with every foot of the ground- I regret to see that among lesser places of antiquity and importance mentioned, the writer omits to notice the village of Beanley, one-and-a-half miles east of Hedgley Station, which, although now through the decrepitude of age reduced to a mere farm hamlet, was in the stirring days of Border warfare, a place of much importance and size, as being what was called 'Inborough and Outborough' between the rival kingdoms of England and Scotland. Cospatric, Earl of Dunbar, also had his residence here, some vestiges of the foundations of which may still be seen in a field to the immediate west of the old farmhouse. Beanley is one of the largest tillage farms in this district of gigantic holdings, and is in the occupation of Mr. Ralph Story, whose ancestors have occupied it since the time of the Commonweath, and probably before. - I am, &c.,

"A. S. MOFFAT."

"Sir, - As a native of the Borderland through which the Alnwick and Cornhill Railway passes, I have been much interested in the descriptive articles which have appeared in your columns-not least in Mr. Moffat's notice of Beanley in yesterday's issue. Mr. Moffat remarks that Mr. Ralph Storey's ancestors have occupied his farm since the Commonwealth, and probably before. May I confirm this by stating that some time ago I met, in some Scottish antiquarian journal, or volume of records, with a copy of a roll-call of feudatories summoned by the Percy of that day to take to the field against the Scotch, just before the battle of Flodden, A.D. 1513? Among the names of the sturdy Northumbrians who answered to the roll-call is that of Ralph Storey, yeoman. I have since endeavoured. without success, to re-discover the record, and shall be very grateful to any antiquarian student who may be able to supply the reference, which would prove the occupancy of a large farm for about 400 years by the same family, under the same landlords. Would that there were many more Percies and Ralph Storeys among us. - I am, &c.,
"Durham, May 1st."

"H. B. TRISTRAM.

NOTE. - Canon Tristram afterwards declared that the copy of the above roll-call was found by him in the library of Sir Walter Elliot, of Wolflee, and that he had tried to re-discover the volume in that library, but had been unsuccessful. - J. MOFFAT.

Canon Tristram is also reported to have stated that whilst staying with Mr. Askew, of Pallinsburn, he fell in with an ancient history, which stated that the Manor of Beanley once belonged to the Storey family and that they were obliged to sell to the Percy family to obtain the necessary funds to raise men to resist the inroads of the Scotch in those troublous times. - A. S. MOFFAT.

The late Arthur Storey Moffat (born June 12th, 1810 - died December 2nd, 1886), eldest brother of the present Ralph Storey Storey, of Beanley (who assumed the name of Storey), was the eldest son of Mary Storey, who married Andrew Ker Moffat, of Beanley, South Side. She was sister to Ralph Story, the last of his line direct, who died 26th Nov., 1859, unmarried.

He devoted much of his time to the study of scientific agriculture, and was well known in the north country in his younger days as a keen sportsman. He contributed many articles on sport and agricultural chemistry to "The Field" and "The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle," and was the author of "The Secrets of Angling," "Reminiscences of Otter Hunting," "Agricultural Essays," &c.

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