BRANXTON, a parish in the western division of
GLENDALE ward, county of NORTHUMBERLAND, 9
miles (N. W.) from Wooler, containing 253 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Northumberland,
and diocese of Durham, rated in the lung's
books at £3. 6. 8., endowed with £400 private benefaction,
and £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage
of the Dean and Chapter of Durham. In June 1524,
a skirmish took place between Lord Fowberry, at the
head of one hundred cavalry, and a party of Scottish
infantry, who, in number about five hundred, crossed
the Tweed, for the purpose of plundering traders resorting
to Berwick fair, but they were driven back with
considerable loss. In Branxton West-field, about'half
a mile north-west of the village, stands an unhewn
pillar of basalt, commemorative of the battle of Flodden,
which was fought in the adjoining parish of Ford,
in 1513. The Rev. Percival Stockdale, a miscellaneous
writer of considerable merit, but of eccentric habits,
was bom here, in 1733, during the incumbency of his
father.