records of the Bishop of Durham's administration of the palatinate of Durham

The Palatinate or County Palatine of Durham consisted of the pre-1974 County Durham (sometimes referred to as the land between the rivers Tyne and Tees or "the Bishopric"), together with an area known as North Durham (made up of Holy Island and Islandshire, Norham and Norhamshire and Bedlington and Bedlingtonshire), which was a detached part of County Durham until it was transferred to Northumberland in 1844, plus Crayke in North Yorkshire, which also formed a detached part of County Durham until 1844, when it was transferred to Yorkshire. The ecclesiastical peculiars of Allerton and Allertonshire and Howden and Howdenshire in Yorkshire did not form part of the Palatinate, although they are sometimes wrongly described as such. The boundaries of the Palatinate differed from the boundaries of the diocese of Durham and from the boundaries of the Durham bishopric estates.

A palatinate is the territory of a count palatine, that is a magnate who has certain rights of local jurisdiction which, unusually, are exclusive of the royal courts. An English palatinate was an independent franchise with judicial and administrative systems which were modelled on the system of royal courts and government but which came under the control of the count palatine rather than of the crown (although in practice the power of the palatine courts in Durham was always limited by the paramountcy of the royal prerogative).

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