Headstones at St. Peter's Church, Sunderland

Local records; or, Historical register of remarkable events which have occurred in Northumberland and Durham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, commencing with the year 1833 to the end of 1866

1839, June 13

The body of a man was found in the river Wear, at Sunderland, attached by a rope to a large stone. the skull was fractured into numberless pieces; and the body was naked, save a flannel shirt and stockings.

The body was removed to the workhouse at Monkwearmouth, where it was identified by two of the crew of the Phoenix, of Stettin, as that of their captain, Johann Friedrich Berckholtz, who was about 55 years of age.

No doubt being held as to the deceased having met his death unfairly, instant search was made, and the cabin was found to bear evident marks of the deed. Subsequent investigation led to the committal of Jacob Friedrich Ehlert, the mate of the ship, and Daniel Muller, aged 19, the cabin boy, and they both confessed being accomplices in the murder, but mutually charged each other with the deed.

From the statement of the boy, who was admitted a witness to the crown, it appeared that on the night of the 11th, the mate, after giving him some spirits, induced him to go into the cabin where captain slept, and while he (the boy) held a lantern, the mate struck the unfortunate master three heavy blows on the head with a hammer, by which death was caused immediately.

They then got into a boat and rowed near to the bridge, dragging theory body after them, and the mate having produced a stone, he tied it to the body, and let both sink into the middle of the stream.

There were several circumstances in the boy's story corroborated by the crew and others concerned in the matter.

The jury found Ehlert guity, and he was executed at Durham on the 16th August, persisting in his innocence to the last. He was native of Barth-Pomerania.

St. Paul's Church, Jarrow

It is probably the most historically famous English church.

In order to honour the union of the Celtic Druid Church and the Roman Church, in the year 674, King Ecgfrid (Alchfrid), son of King Osuiu (Oswin) had given a gift to this new Brotherhood of seventy “hides or families” of land (60-120 acres) at the mouth of the River Wear on which to build the monastery.

This is when the Anglo-Saxon brotherhood had established the first monastery of the blessed St. Peter, the chief of the apostles to be built after he was declared rock of the Catholic Church in 666.

Shortly thereafter in 681, a sister monastery would be added and dedicated to the blessed St. Paul.

St. Bede tells us “that mutual peace and concord, mutual and perpetual affection and kindness, should be continued between the two places; so that, (for the sake of illustration,) just as the body may not be severed from the head by which it breathes, nor may the head forget the body, without which it has no life,—in like manner no one should attempt in any way to disturb the union between these two monasteries.” And St. Ceolfrid had said this of the occasion, “St. Benedict Biscop completed and ruled the monastery of St. Paul’s seven years and afterwards ably governed…….the single monastery of St. Peter and Paul in its two separate localities.”

In order to properly build churches that would last the test of time and also to lavishly decorate these buildings, Biscop had travelled to Gaul (modern day France) in order to hire stone masons and window glaziers. These craftsman were said to be Merovingian.

They were known for their opus gallicum (Latin for “Gallic work”). This was a technique where precise holes were created in stone masonry for the insertion of wooden infrastructure. These building techniques were used  extensively in church architecture. Both Bede and Biscop were actually the Irish and English kin of these Merovingians from France.