ANCROFT, a parish in ISLANDSHIRE, county palatine of DURHAM, though locally to the north of the county of Northumberland, adjoining Berwick upon Tweed, containing 1378 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Durham, endowed with £200 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £800 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The church, which is a very ancient edifice, was formerly a chapel of ease to the perpetual curacy of Holy Island. The village appears to have been formerly of much greater extent than it is at present, from numerous foundations of houses having been discovered in a field adjoining. A school-room has lately been erected, which is conducted on the Madras system. The parish contains the villages of Ancroft, Cheswick, and Greensis. There is a large brewery at Greensis, in the vicinity of which coal is obtained: there is also a colliery at Scremerston, which village was destroyed by the Scots in 1386. The estate belonged to the Earl of Derwentwater, on whose attainder it was forfeited to the Crown, and now constitutes part of the possessions of Greenwich hospital. Haggerston House was destroyed by fire in 1618, with the exception of one of the towers, still remaining, in which Edward II. received homage from Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, for the earldom of Lincoln, in 1311: it has been rebuilt, with considerable additions and embellishments, and is situated in a spacious park.