Robert Surtees (1779-1834)

A poet, historian and antiquary born in Durham, February 1779. He devoted himself to the study of local history and other antiquarian matters, and his intellectual passion culminated in the publication of The History of Durham (1816-40). After his death, the Surtees Society was founded in 1834 to carry out his mission as a topographer of his local region. He also had a gift for ballad writing, and some of his ballads such as “The Raid of Featherstonehaugh” and “Barthram’s Dirge”, were published in Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (3 vols, 1802-3). (Y. Y.)