Newcastle-upon-Tyne--History.

three volumes, large folio (445 x 275mm.), approximately 650 pages plus blanks, text mostly written on rectos only, the later leaves of volume 3 being on smaller paper (28 leaves therefore having had their margins extended, and a further 13 being mounted, one of which is of a later date), in a single eighteenth century hand with some corrections, paginated, some additional leaves tipped in including 20 leaves from Henry Bourne's History of Newcastle (1736), in gilt tooled vellum on boards by Waters of Newcastle, border composed of floral rolls and tools, lettering in central compartment, spine with six compartments, three gilt tooled, three with gilt lettering on morocco labels, about 1780, tears to a few leaves, some repaired, lower cover of vol.2 splitting at joint 

James Murray, surgeon at Newcastle Dispensary (d. 1833); after his death presented by his niece Miss Pattison to the local historian John Hodgson (see Raine, II, p. 316); Lord Wardington, bookplate

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; James Murray, Sermons for Asses, with a 'biographical sketch' (London, 1819); James Raine, A Memoir of Rev. John Hodgson (London, 1857), 2 volumes

"It is difficult in writing the History of Towns and cities at any great distance from their origin to distinguish truth from falsehood in the first accounts of their rise & progress; for almost all preceeding writers have for the sake of adding grandeur & solemnity to their works mingled the most specious stories of Antiquity with their accounts of political society. In the dark ages of superstition, when Legends and fables were imposed upon the vulgar for true History, by the clergy, who pretended to be in the possession of all the secrets of political bodies, the Annales of those times are so blended with pious frauds & absurdities, that it is difficult to discover truth from the specious falsehoods Guilded over by the varnish of designing politicians."

So begins this detailed history of the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, written towards the end of the eighteenth century and apparently unpublished. It begins (the first volume being that labelled "Volume II") with a historical and topographical survey of the city and outlying areas, followed by an account of customs and privileges of the city and the system of local government. The bulk of the work, however, is taken up by a chronological history with annual entries (beginning with a note of the Mayor and Bailiffs of the city) running from 1251 to 1775. This begins on p.189 of the first volume and continues through both subsequent volumes. The local affairs discussed, which often derive from Bourne, range from the activities of Medieval Prince Bishops of Durham to the building of a new Tyne bridge in the 1770s. However, much of the narrative is dominated by national events and it provides a chronicle history of England from a distinctive radical Whig perspective (using Stow, Rapin, and other sources).

This history is believed to be the work of the noted local Independent minister James Murray (1732-82) - not to be confused with a  surgeon of the same name who owned the manuscript at a later date. Although his authorship has not been established with certainty, the caustic wit and radical politics evident in the history are strongly reminiscent of Murray, who believed that "no man could be a real Christian, who was not a warm and zealous friend to civil and religious liberty" (Sermons for Asses, Biographical Sketch, p. iv). Volume III includes a caustic assessment of Charles I and a summary dismissal of the Divine Right of Kings ("...[i]t is scarcely possible for any Man in his right senses to believe, that the Almighty made all the Rest of Mankind to be Slaves to a Few..."). 

Although written in a fine legible hand, there are clear signs that this is a working manuscript. There are many deletions and corrections to the text; footnotes are often interleaved and on occasion omitted; the organisational structure is not fully worked out; and there are occasional lapses in grammar, despite the high quality of the prose.