Seaham Parish, 1890

SEAHAM is a parish, situated on the coast, on the road from Sunderland to Stockton, about 5 miles south of Sunderland; it comprises part of the township of Seaham, in the Houghton-le-Spring division of the county, Easington ward and union, Seaham Harbour petty sessional division and county court district, in the rural deanery of Houghton-le-Spring and archdeaconry and diocese of Durham. The railway from Sunderland to Seaham Harbour passes through it. The church of St. Mary is a building of stone of the early part of the 12th century, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 2 bells: in the church is a very ancient stone coffin, bearing the inscription “hic jacet Ricardus Miles de Iheland :” there are 200 sittings. The register dates from the year 1646. The living is a rectorial vicarage, the vicar holding the great tithes and being bound to keep the chancel in repair; tithe rent-charge £429, net yearly value £285, including 232 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Marquess of Londonderry, and held since 1859 by the Rev. Angus Bethune M.A. of King’s College, Aberdeen. Martin’s and Bryce’s charity in this parish consists of the interest of £10 left to the poor. Lord Byron, the poet, was married January 2, 1815, at Seaham Hall, then called Seaham House, to Anna Isabella, only child of Sir Ralph Milbanke Noel bart. and Baroness Wentworth, and his autograph is to be seen in the Seaham register. Seaham Hall, a large mansion of stone, pleasantly situated at a short distance from the church, is the seat of the Marquess of Londonderry K.G., P.C. lord of the manor and chief landowner. The soil is clayey; the subsoil clay and limestone. The whole of the land in the township of Seaham is under tillage or plantation. The acreage of the whole township of Seaham (including New Seaham) is 2,244; rateable value, £14,090; the population of the township of Seaham in 1881 was 2,989, of which 334 are attached to the mother church.