Prior’s House, Hexham (also known as Hexham Abbey, Abbey House, or Hexham Priory) was purchased by Sir William Blackett

Unlike his father and grandfather, Sir Edward Blackett, 6th

Around 1774 Sir Edward Blackett, 4th Bt., came to live for part of the year at Thorpe Lea House,

Anderson Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, situated within the city walls near the ruins of a Franciscan Friary, was built in the 16th century by Robert Anderson, and was also subsequently known as Newe House and then Grey Friars.

Situated on the outskirts of Hunwick, near Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, it was described by Brigadier General H. Conyers Surtees in his “Parish Histories” 1923 [i] as follows:

Situated in a beautiful location on the north side of a loop of the River Tees, near Darlington, Sockburn Hall has extensive grounds in which part of a pre-Norman Chapel still stands.

In 1725, five years after Diana Blackett became mistress of Bretton Hall, her first cousin 1 x removed, also Diana Blackett, (1704-1737), daughter of William Blackett and grand-daughter of

At Bretton Hall near Wakefield, known so well,
Sir William Wentworth Blackett did once dwell:
That mansion was his home; there with his bride,
In pomp and splendour, he once did reside
Yet, in the midst of all that he possessed,
A rambling mind disturbed Sir William’s breast;
His lady and his home he left behind,
Says he, “The end of this wide world I’ll find;
The Earth’s extensive, but you may depend on’t,
Before ere I return I’ll find the end on’t.”
So he embarked on board a ship, we find,