ORDE OF NEWBEGGIN
The grander branches of the family with Northumberland origins appear to have chosen to retain/add an e to Ord. They all claim connection with the early Ordes, although it is only the pedigree researched by Allyn and Tracey Ord that is bold enough to trace an unbroken line from 1116 to 1500.
It is possible that the John Ord, referred to under the heading of Fenham, who was High Sheriff of Newcastle in 1536, was an early member of this branch of Ord(e)s, although Raine thought it unlikely and not even Allyn and Tracey have been able to make the connection yet.
Raine says that John de Orde held in 1413 a one-sixth part of the Orde manor ( from Thomas Langton)and other properties incldg Jesmond, and that his son and heir William born 1387 to 1407 ( died 1441) bought the Newbeggin estate in a state of some dereliction from William Grey in 1423 . Wester and Easter Newbeggin are ancient hamlets and parts of the township of Horncliffe close to the Tweed in the parish of Norham.
In the early 1500’s the Newbeggin Ordes included brothers George b. 1495( heir to Newbeggin), Bartram who became a merchant in Newcastle and Christopher who owned lands at Ord. Newcastle was where the lead and coal mined at Ord and other localities were sold and the family clearly had strong connections there.
In 1542 George settled a capital messuage at Ord on his second son George for life and it seems that he sold the Jesmond estate about the same time. His first son and heir was John b. 1520 who appears in the 1560 Survey of North Durham as ‘Johannes Ourd armiger tenet libere’ at Newbeggin. His second son who married Ursula Collingwood, owned land at Ord and was involved in a number of recorded disputes with his neighbours ( Pedigree of East Ord and Berwick )
This family of Ord/e held the estate until 1606 when, Raine says, it was sold by John Orde. Confusingly the purchaser was John Orde a relative and, almost certainly says Raine, the son of John Orde a Berwick alderman and nephew of Cuthbert Orde of Longridge ( See Pedigree of Longridge later). It may well be that it is Raine himself who is confused. West Newbeggin is definitely shown as having been transferred from George ( b.1534 of Newbeggin and also of Longridge) to John in 1605/6 but it seems that this was a transfer before death by father to son, and may help explain why son John was not mentioned in the 8th February 1611/2 will of George.
This John b. abt 1556 was an Alderman of Berwick and later Mayor three times. He bought Beale in 1588, he and his son William sold West Ord to Thomas Orde in 1620, he was also ‘of Felkington’ in 1610 and 1621 and also bought Weetwood in 1619. His brothers included George ‘junior’ and Cuthbert both of Longridge ( See Pedigree of Longridge later ) and William who bought Sturton Grange in 1617 ( See Pedigree of Sturton Grange later )
John died in 1639 and by his 1630 will left his estates at Grindon, Newbeggin, Felkington and elsewhere to his son William b. 1588. William was a Royalist. He was High Sheriff for Northumberland in 1638 and was obliged to compound for his estates after the Civil War ended in defeat for the King.
His heir by his first wife, Margaret Selby, was William b. 1615. This William did not marry. He sold Beale in 1652 and in 1679 entailed his Grindon estate to his nephews. The first entail to nephew Francis b. 1650 failed due to his early death and the Grindon estate fell to Thomas b.1656 ‘ of Felkington’ ( See Pedigree of Grindon and Nunnykirk ).
The remaining estates fell to the son of Francis, William b. 1681 who was MP for Berwick, High Sheriff in 1711 and who built Sandybank. When he died without male heir the remaining assets and estates were divided between his married daughters; Ann Ogle had Felkington, Sandybank and land at Norham, Isabella Fenwick had land at Norham and Mary Kettleby had East Ord and Newbeggin Each had about 1000 acres.So ended the Newbeggin line.
The new lines of Orde began with Thomas of Felkington and through his sons John b. 1702 and Thomas b. 1704 the Ordes became ever more succesful ( See Pedigrees of Grindon and Nunnykirk, Weetwood and Shafto Orde, Orde-Powlett and Campbell-Orde.
ORDES OF ORD/E, EAST ORD, WEST ORD AND BERWICK
The manor and lands of Ord were owned at the begining of the 13th century by Henry de Orde. In or about 1207/1217 the rash actions of Henry cost him his rights to those lands and his assets at Ord. His crime was to cut off the hand of one of the King’s foresters who was found hunting at Ord. There was no love lost between the King and the Bishops, and Ulecotes, who was guardian of the See during a vacancy, lent Henry 100 silver marks, probably to help compensate the King and expedite Henry’s release rom jail. In exchange Henry was obliged to transfer property rights including the Pool salmon fishery on the Tweed. The next Bishop, on appoinment in 1224 let the same rights to one Grenlause. Many years of legal actions followed as Henry attempted to get his assets restored, successors of Ulecotes attemted to claim the rights for themselves and Greenlause sought to protect his investments. In 1230 Pope Gregory appointed a Commission in an unsuccesful attempt to resolve the position.The matter was not settled until 1278 when a judicial review ruled that the properties were legally now owned by the Bishop.Thereafter Ord was held for some time by the Bishops in sixths.
The lands or at least some land at Ord was restored to the Ord/es but how and when we do not know. In 1362 however on his death Simon de Orde was possssed of the whole of the village of Ord. An Inquisition Post Mortem recorded that he died without male issue and that his estate was inherited by two married daughters and the son of a deceased married daughter.
This contradicts the belief of one authority who has written that Ord was held by the Ord/es until 1422 when it was sold when William de Orde bought the Newbiggin property from William Gray. ( see Orde of Newbiggin later)
The Newbiggin pedigree shows that John de Orde held one sixth of Ord ( from Thomas Langton) on his death in 1413, and that his descendant George Orde settled lands at Ord on his son in 1542.
The 1560 Elizabethan survey records the village of ‘Ourde’ as comprising 14 small farmsteads but no tower and no ‘house of strength’. Johannes Orde is said to be a tenant (ten libere diners at ten ibid cum pertin ). Other tenants include Rolandus Burrell, Will Manners and ’Vidua’ Maners. In the Survey Johannes Orde is shown as ‘ten alteram medictat’ at Felkington, Johannes Ourde as ‘armiger tenet libere totam villam’ at Newbiggin and Johannes Ourd is ‘tenet vnum cotagium‘ at Norham and there are Ord/es at, inter alia, Longridge, ‘Horckley’ Tweedmouth and Berwick
A rent roll for 1631 for Ord shows tenancies in the names of John Orde,Thomas Ord and Christopher Ord and also John Ord ‘for lands late Burrells and Nicholas Manners’
The lands of Ord were mined for coal and lead in the 1500s and many disputes arose between landowners/tenants. In 1532 and in 1536 ‘George Urde of Horkley’ ( presumably Horncliffe) was involved in disputes with fellow tenants Manners, Langton and Burrell. In 1586 ‘Xpofer Ourde’ a Burgess of Berwick brought a complaint about mining spoil on the fields of Ord. A commission was appointed to adjudicate ( George Orde of Longridge was a member) between theparties, Christopher Ord, Murton and Burrell, and ruled that only two pits ( these were drift mines ; deep mining was not possible until the 19th century ) be allowed to operate on the fields of Ord and that they would be restricted to five hewers and three men above ground each.
The Christopher mentioned here was probably the son of the George Orde who aquired Ord lands in 1542. Christopher died in 1619 and his heir Thomas died without male issue in 1639. One of his daughters and co-heiress Dorothy married
Henry Orde of West Ord in 1646. Their marriage settlement is in the Wallington Papers. Thus, although many of the East Ordes had settled in Berwick and Tweedmouth, the main East Orde estates were merged with the West Orde line.
The West Ord property had previously been known as ‘ The Birks’. It was originally owned by John Orde of Berwick and was developed by his son Thomas b. 1525 died 1623. Henry, his grandson, changed the name to West Ord at about the time of his marriage to Dorothy as if to emphasise the merging of the two estates.
The village previously known as Ord was then to become known as East Ord ( or sometimes, because the family had by then adopted the e, as East Orde)
Later Ralph Orde, who owned the whole of West and East Ord, died in 1688 without male issue. His unmarried daughter Elizabeth had two illegitimate children by Sir William Blackett. The male child died in 1719. Sir William had no male heir and his natural daughter Elizabeth Orde was made his heir, on the condition that she married his cousin Sir Walter Calverley, and that he Sir Walter change his name to Blackett.
Sir Walter and Elizabeth had only one child who died in 1752 and on Sir Walters death all his estates including Wallington and West and East Ord passed, via his sisters marriage, into the Trevellyan family.
In 1769 West Ord comprising 309 acres was let out to Archibald on a 21 year lease at £130 ayear and the salmon fisheries at High and Low Bells were let for 9 years at £330 a year. The estates were sold by the Trevellyans to George Grey in 1788.
Another branch of the family ( see Newbiggin) also owned lands and part of the manor at East Ord, but these fell to Kettleby who married Mary Orde in 1748 and he later sold the land to Bejamin Grieve. The Grieves are believed to have built the Georgian mansion known as Ord House at East Ord. ( This property now stands in the middle of a caravan park)
Middle Ord was described in 1769 as a newly built farmhouse and outbuildings standing in 394 acres. It was part of the property that fell to Sir Walter Blackett.. It was let to Anderson in 1762 for 21 years at £180 a year and was sold by Trevellyan in 1785
Although the West Ord branch of Ord/es died out in 1688, the East Ords continued successfully in and around Berwick and Tweedmouth, some of them serving as Burgesses of Berwick. Others found their way south during the 17th and 18th centuries to places including Morpeth and Newcastle