The name Ord is said to derive from the Gaelic word for 'hammer' or 'point'. Jamieson was of the opinion that the name derived from 'ordugur' meaning a steep sloping bank, and points out that some very early documents spell the name as Ordr or Ourdr. Evidence of this derivation is found in the Scottish Highlands where the 'Ord of Caithness' is a large area of moor and hill oveerlooking Ord Point, a headland north of Helmsdale in the Grampian region. The nearby town of Muir of Ord, 11 miles north of Inverness, is the home of the Glen Ord whisky distillery and of buildings such as Ord House and the Ord Arms. Other local features include the Ord Lairg, the chambered cairns of Ord North and Ord South and the Upper Ord stone circles.
This geographical explanation appears to have credibility; there is a relatively high concentration of Ords along the Moray Firth coastline in Banffshire, a former small but ancient counnty north of Aberdeen, now part of Grampian. Andrew de Ord was granted lands around Banff and Oldtown by King Robert the Bruce in 1327, which he exchanged for the manor of Finlochty in 1568. Thomas Ord of Finlochty Castle ( now a ruin ) began the development of the village as a fishing centre in 1716. The records of the parishes of eastern Banffshire abound with Ords. A William Ord died in Ardath in 1588, but there are a great many Ord references throughout the 17th century and beyond
According to experts at Burkes the first recorded instance of the name Ord was found not in the Highlands but in Peeblesshire, south of Edinburgh. During the reign or King John Balliol an Adam of Horde is recorded in 1296. Here in the borderlands, we find a large and important group of Ord(e)s particularly in the region in and around Berwick , Just west of Berwick on the river Tweed, are the villages of East Ord, West Ord and Middle Ord which were in the ownership of the Ord(e) family until the 14thC. Ord House is now found in the middle of a country and caravan park.
It is with these and other English Ords that this site is concerned. There are no obvious hammers or points in this region. Perhaps the name was imported from the Highlands.But there is a strong Scandanavian history in the area. There were many Viking raids, incursions and invasions on this coastline of Northumberland from the 9thC. The Danes were not finally expelled from Britain until 1042, after the death of Canute in 1025. I would prefer to believe that the name Ord is not necessarily locational, but that it may derive from the Danish or Viking legacy.
The expulsion of the Danes did not bring peace to the region; there followed several centuries of trouble with the Scots and the borders lived in great turmoil.The Normans constantly attempted to settle the region. A large new castle was built to protect the old Roman port to the east of Hadrians Wall and ‘Newcastle’ developed to become , by 1300, a thriving and wealthy major seaport, attracting increasing population to feed its economy from all over Northumberland but particularly from the volatile borderlands
EARLY ORDS
The earliest Ord(e) is referred to by Raine as Henry de Orde who in 1116 or 1166 held the ‘vill of Orde freely paying 4 marks per annum’. It surely is no coincidence that the settlement of Ord/Orde stands on a ridge on the top of a steep sloping bank beside the River Tweed. This area (which since 1844 has been part of Northumberland) was once known as North Durham and was divided into thecounties of Norhamshire , Islandshire and Bedlingtonshire and also abounds with Ord/Ordes. Documents show that Elwaldus de Orde in the 12th century gave land to the Hospital at Tweedmouth and erected a cross, known unsurprisingly, as Elwald’s Cross, in the fields of Ord/e.
His son Adam de Orde ( ? any connection with the Banffshire Andrew ?) confirmed his fathers gift in 1223. Adams son Henry gave a salmon fishery at Poole on the Tweed to the monks of Durham ( this was not entirely altruistic - see later the story of Henry’s indiscretion ) and it was he who created the Ord/e arms of ‘Sable, three salmon in pale Argent’.
Later documents give us Peter de Orde ‘ of Buckton’ born perhaps in 1294 who married Eleanor Riddell and his son Simon who according to an ‘Inquisition Post Mortem’ was the Lord of the whole of Orde in 1363 and ‘of Buckton’. Riddell was a prominent local family with strong Newcastle connections. Elizabeth Ord(e) their daughter married into the wealthy Forster family of Buckton.
Other very early Ord/es mentioned in historical documents include William de Orde, son of Walter de Orde, who donated some 20 acres of land at Ord to ‘God and St Cuthbert, of Holy Island’, and John Orde and John Ourd who were respectively appointed in 1496 and 1520, Eschaetor for the two North Durham counties of Noramshire and Islandshire.( These may have been two different spellings for the same person)
It seems that the death of Simon in 1363 effectively ended the Ordes undisputed ownership of the whole of the Manor of Ord. Various Ordes have owned bits of Ord since then, including John who in 1423 held one sixth of Ord from Langton.
Other properties owned by the Ordes in these early days include Jesmond (1340-1500s), Abberwick, Weldon, Throcklawe, Billingdene, Karterbruster, Allerden (1349-1567), Murton (until 1251), Shotton, Caldnewton, Ellingham etc.
There were in the Middle Ages very few educated people and few teachers.. Many of the Gentry of the period could do no more than write their names and ordinary folk were generally illiterate. There are problems therefore with the spellings adopted for placenames and surnames; clerks attempted to write down what they heard and there was little or no consistency of spelling. The surname Ord is found in these early days written as Ord, Orde, Ourd, Ourde, Owrde and Hoorde and others. The villages of Ord appear on modern maps as Ord but in a similar way early spellings were inconsistent and Orde and Ourd appear often.
The pedigrees of the various illustrious branches of Ord have uniformally adopted Orde as the spelling of the surname but the underlying evidence for this is inconsistent and unconvincing. I give one example - Elizabeth Orde of West Orde as per the pedigree was famous for conceiving an illegitimate daughter by Sir William Blackett (see later for details) but her 1713 will ( PCC online)shows her as Elizabeth Ord of West Ord.
Throughout this paper I have tried to give the spelling which occurs in the original documents or which has been adopted by the particular branch of Ord(e) involved
There are many gaps in my story and I have not as yet established the direct connection between these early Ord/es and the many later Ord/es mentioned in this history, although as Raine points out there can be little doubt that the great majority of later Ords, Ourds, Ordes etc descend from some connection with these early beginnings. And see the work done by Allyn and Tracey Ord of Utah whose pedigrees do link from 1116 to the 20th century
THE COUNTIES OF NORTH DURHAM
The Bishops of Durham, starting with Saint Cuthbert, reigned over their territory like princes, and the Crown had little sway particularly in the three northernmost counties of North Durham.
The Bishops effectively owned Durham, collecting tithes, rents and royalties, appointing Sheriffs, Justices, Eschaetors, Bailiffs, Constables, Coroners and Foresters and holding courts and Inquisitions Post Mortem. We owe much of our knowledge of our North Durham ancestors to the records they maintained .
From time to time various Bishops leased out their rights in certain areas; in 1500 Bishop Fox leased the rights of the Castle and Royalties of Norham to Sir Richard Cholmley for 5 years at £80 a year and similarly Cardinal Wolsey when he was Bishop of Durham leased in 1521 the Norham rights to the Dacres for £120 a year.
These bishoply rights were not lost until 1559, when under Elizabeth 1, an Act of Parliament deprived the Bishops of the profits of the land.
In 1560 Elizabeth commissioned a Survey of her newly won assets and that document provides much valuable information as to the inhabitants of North Durham at that time.
The three counties were not assimilated into Northumberland until the 19th century.
The economy of the three counties was largely dependant on fishing ( particularly salmon fishing on the Tweed ) and agriculture. But as the world developed and trade increased landowners were able to exploit the natural resources of their lands. In North Durham these were coal and lead, mined and shipped through the burgeoning port of Newcastle to the south and abroad. By 1400 even though sheep and wool were in decline, Newcastle had become the second most important city in England outside London.
The borderlands had been blighted for centuries by Danish invasions, the Black Death and seemingly neverending wars with the Scots. Harvests were unreliable and often nonexistent if ravished by Scottish incursions. The Scots were not finally subdued until the Battle of Flodden in 1513.
It is not surprising that many sought the relative peace and prosperity that was to be found south of Hadrians Wall and the Tyne in Northumberland and particularly in Newcastle where great fortunes could be made very quickly,