The sort of material available for comparative estimate of the population of the North Riding between the 13th and 16th centuries is totally lacking for County Durham. The County was exempted from national taxation and it is not until the Hearth Tax assessments of the 1660’s that the Palatinate was brought fully into the national system, at the end of a long period of demographic change and social upheaval. In a survey of parishes and chapelries taken for the Privy Council in 1563, the Parish of Bishopwearmouth was in Easington Ward and included six townships: Bishopwearmouth, Burdon, Ford, Ryhope, Silksworth and Tunstall. The survey recorded 190 households. From the registers of Bishopwearmouth St. Michael's church which commenced in 1567, I have tried to identify individuals that may have resided in the parish in 1570. These are listed below in surname alphabetical order together with their abode where known. Remember, this is not an official census and should not be quoted as a source proving that somebody lived here, but it does provide a compilation of residence data from other sources that may be helpful.

Among the 190 households within the six townships recorded in the 1563 survey were the individuals working in the salt pans situated near Bishopwearmouth. The salt pans (later to be known as the township of Wearmouth Panns) were no doubt included within the township of Bishopwearmouth, formerly South Wearmouth. The Blakiston family resided in Farn(e)ton Hall which from John Speede’s 1610 map of Durham is located south west of Silksworth, and presumably was considered part thereof. Thomas Blakiston was the curate of Monkwearmouth in 1565.

The following is an analysis of 785 individuals; 367 of whom are of unknown abode; 103 who were (possibly) residing in Sunderland, and a further 14 from areas around Sunderland’s environs.

If from the total count of 785 we subtract 117 (103+14) and assume that two-thirds of the 367 ‘Others’ (no-abode) were residing within the confines of Bishopwearmouth parish, and one-third in Sunderland, we arrive at a population for Bishopwearmouth of 541 which roughly equates to just under 3 persons per household.

Also in the 1563 survey in the Chester Ward, under East Division, there were 90 households in the parish of Monkwearmouth, which included the townships of Monkwearmouth Shore, Fulwell, Hylton and Southwick. (Unfortunately, due to a fire in 1790, in the church of St Peters, the early registers of the parish were lost and with them went valuable information that would have identified the individuals to support the statistics.)