Pre-history
Persons from the 7th Century
Persons from the Middle Ages
Some lesser mortals from the Middle Ages
Prior Thomas de Melsonby
Local Rhyme
Booklets

Persons of the 7th century

Aethelfrith - last pagan king of Bernicia which he united with Deira; father of Ebba; known to the Britons as the Twister; died 616.

Aidan - came from Iona and established a monastery on Lindisfarne; became the first Abbot then Bishop there; died 651.

Bede (673-735) - was born near Sunderland and received his education locally at Monkwearmouth and then at Jarrow. He was hardly ever outside these monasteries and was dependent on others for their reports of happenings. These were incorporated in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, his most important work, although he thought his 25 commentaries on the bible more important. Other books came from his pen. He built a complicated sundial. By making measurements from this he showed that the then dates for the equinoxes were wrong and that the year was not exactly 365 days. He worked out how to measure the phase of the moon from the tides. His method of counting was described in a chapter of one of his books. By using both hands with their fingers he could count up to 9,999. His remains lie marked within the Galilee Chapel at the west end of Durham Cathedral.

Cuthbert - as a boy from the Lammermuirs entered the monastery at Mailros; near the end of his life reluctantly became a Bishop; died 687AD at his hermitage on the Inner Farne; the Lindisfarne Gospels were dedicated to him; became the patron saint of S.E. Scotland and N.E. England; the Normans built the massive Durham Cathedral to house his shrine.

Ebba - only acknowledged daughter of Aethelfrith; abbess of a short-lived monastery at urbs Coludi.

Eddius (Stephanus) - wrote the Life of Wilfrid around 710-720 at the request of Wilfrid's successor Bishop Acca at Hexham and their abbot. He wrote as if he had accompanied Wilfrid to Rome and returned with him to Ripon. By careful analysis of Eddius' written work, it is possible to have a clearer picture of Wilfrid as a man with his faults rather than with Bede's Cuthbert who is smothered in superlatives.

Edwin - son of the defeated king of Deira; later won back the kingdom by killing Aethelfrith; converted to Christianity by the Roman missionary Paulinus; killed by the pagan Penda of Mercia 632AD; his name may be commemorated in the place-name Edinburgh.

Egfrith - succeded his father Oswy as King; at first married to Etheldreda then later to Iurminburg; [the change of wife corresponds to the decline of royal favours on Bishop Wilfrid].

Etheldreda - daughter of an East Anglian king, at one time queen to Egfrith of Northumbria; under the influence of Wilfrid became a nun training at Ebba's monastery; established the religious site on which today stands Ely Cathedral.

Oswald - son of Aethelfrith; rescued Northumbria from the devastations of Penda; had the Irish Church restore Christianity to his kingdom; killed by Penda 642AD.

Oswy - successor and brother of Oswald; decided in favour of the Roman Church for Northumbria 664AD; died 671AD.

Wilfrid - early in his life visited the church in Rome; on returning to Northumbria he persuaded the Church to fall in line with that on the Continent; had a tempestuous career including missionary work in southern Britain and on the Continent; his name is associated with the Hexham and Ripon Churches and at both places the crypt of his stone churches can usually be visited.
[it is said that Wilfrid had some relics of St Andrew in the crypt at Hexham. These he had brought back from Rome. After Wilfrid's time, at a period of instability at Hexham, they were taken to the land of the Picts for safety. Later they became a focus of national identity for medievel Scotland at the shrine in St Andrews.]

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