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County Durham
THE SCOTTISH ARMY IN SUNDERLAND
The Scottish Covenanting army, led by Alexander Leslie, first earl of Leven, had crossed the
border in January 1644. The marquis of Newcastle hurried north to oppose them, and there
were skirmishes near Corbridge and Prudhoe (Northumbs.) in February. The Covenanters
nevertheless managed to pass over the Tyne at Ebchester, near Derwentdale. They then
crossed the Wear at Chester New Bridge on 2 March 1644.1 Although the Royalists claimed
to have forced Leven’s army into Sunderland,2 the Scots had always intended to head there
for supplies as they knew the Tyne was still blockaded.3
The Scots army was at Harraton, by the Wear near Chester-le-Street, on Saturday 2 March.
They observed the Sabbath, allowing Royalist forces to quit the town before themselves
entering on 4 March.4 The Scots crossed the Wear in two divisions, at Hylton and at Ford,
three miles upstream from the town. They then made rendezvous and marched past
Bishopwearmouth church, taking Sunderland without opposition, to camp above the Wear
between Bishopwearmouth and Sunderland, on the west of the Pann Field. They dug in,
creating a fort with trenches and mounds on the three landward sides with the riverside itself
providing a natural defence, the steep bank leading to the Pann sand shoal. By 12 March,
Sunderland had been fortified and garrisoned.5
Provisions were sent to the Scots at Sunderland from London and Scotland under the orders
of the new military governor, Quartermaster Gen. Ludovick Leslie. A Scottish garrison, with
a separate governor, was also established at Monkwearmouth from 5 March until September
1644. The garrisons were well supplied with gunpowder, matches, musketballs, cannonballs,
mattocks and spades. The Scots had carried many weapons with them, and received 3,000
arms and 300 barrels of powder from parliament through Hartlepool in late February. Further
supplies came from Scotland with 30,000 matches, 10,000 musket balls and 10 cwt of powder
received from the Edinburgh public magazine on 18 March. Armed keel boats were evidently
at the Scots’ disposal as well, for on 12 June Edward Philpotts claimed 30 three-pound
cannonballs and 18 linen fuses for the ‘close keel.’ Cannons were also situated along the
riverbanks, taking on 7 September ‘50 powder, 75 musketballs and nine three-pound
cannonballs for the river.’6
The Scots army, amounting to only 18,000 foot and 3,500 horse in total, could leave only a
small garrison. As skirmishes could occur anywhere at anytime, the invaders had to be mobile
and on constant alert. The church towers at Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth became
vantage points to watch for approaching enemy troops. Meanwhile, the surrounding
countryside was troubled by foraging parties from all sides - Royalist, parliamentary and
Scottish armies all plundered the county.7 Forceful requisitioning was equally unpopular, as
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farmers disagreed with the army about the value of goods and livestock, but the practice
continued throughout 1644.8
The Scots Commissioners forbade ‘plundering, pillaging and burning of houses’ by their
troops, but had to apologise when ‘keels and their furniture’ were burnt. On 26 March the
Scots army complained to London that they needed cash as Co. Durham was ‘now a country
where there is nothing left to be sequestrated’ with only old men, women and children still
there.9
Cal.SP Dom. 1644, 39-40; Furgol, Regimental History, 408; C.S. Terry, ‘The Scottish Campaign in
Northumberland and Durham between January and June 1644’, Archaeol. Ael. 3rd ser., 21 (1899), 146-79.
1
2
Mercurius Beligicus (1685).
3
Meikle (ed.), Correspondence of the Scots Commissioners, 4; Cal. Ctte for Compounding, I, 781.
4
An Exact Relation of the Last Newes from the Quarters of His Excellency, the Lord Generall of the Scottish
Army. Dated from Sunderland March 12, 1643 [1644] (1644), 3-4; ‘The Late Proceedings of the Scottish Army
Certifying their passing over Tyne; with the particulars. Together with their possession of Sunderland, and their
advance after the enemy, who is fled to Durham (1644)’, Reprints of Rare Tracts & Imprints of Antient
Manuscripts. Historical, Vol. 2 (1844); ‘The Diary of Robert Douglas’, Historical Fragments Relative to
Scottish Affairs from 1635 to 1664 (1833), 52; E. Bowles, Manifest Truths, or an Inversion of Truths Manifest.
Containing a Narration of the Proceedings of the Scottish Army, and a Vindication of the Parliament and
Kingdom of England from the false and injurious aspersions cast on them by the Author of the said Manifest
(1646), 3.
5
NAS, PA11/2, f., 32v; A. Baharie, Tales & Sketches, chiefly of Sunderland and Neighbourhood, painted freely
with a full brush (1887), 36; Summers, Sunderland, 412n-414n.
6
NAS, PA11/1, ff., 158r, 159r; C.S. Terry (ed.), Papers relating to the Army of the Solemn League and
Covenant 1643-1647 (Scottish Hist. Soc., 1917), I. 109; Mercurius Aulicus (1644), 881-83; Bowles, Manifest
Truth, 3; P. Edwards, Dealing in Death. The arms trade and the British Civil Wars, 1638-52 (2000), 105; Furgol,
Regimental History, 113-114.
7
An Exact Relation, 4; ‘Late Proceedings of the Scottish Army’, 11-12; Cal.SP.Venice, 1643-7, 87.
8
Baharie, Tales & Sketches, 36, 39; Mitchell, History of Sunderland, 63.
9
NAS, PA11/2 fo. 33v; Meikle (ed.), Correspondence of the Scots Commissioners, 13; Mitchell, History of
Sunderland, 61-62.
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Scottish Army