By Hugh Stephenson, Honorary Secretary of the Boulmer Branch, and a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne.

THERE are thirty-four houses in the village of Boulmer. Nine are occupied by Stephensons and nine by Stantons.

There are twenty-three men, two of them being the signalmen, from among whom the Life-boat is manned. Ten of them are Stephensons and seven are Stantons. Of the remaining six, only three are not connected with either of the two families.

Both families are very old. The Stantons are the older of the two, being of Saxon origin. The Stephensons are of Norse descent, and in the Parish Registers the name often appears as Steanson. Only two miles to the north is an old Norse settlement Ho-vik, now called Howick; and it is noticeable, even at the present day, that the family is above the average in stamina and physique. In fact, a number of Stephensons who visited the Fisheries Exhibition some years ago attracted considerable attention by reason of their size.

Since the families are so old, I should like to preface the record of their Lifeboat services during the past hundred years by some account of Boulmer itself. The origin of the name, which is pronounced locally Boomer, is given as Bull's Mere or Bow Mere, but the second is more probably right, and has come from the shape of the water in the haven which is enclosed by the reefs of rocks in the shape of a bow. The haven itself is known as the Mer-Mouth, pronounced locally as Marmoothe.

Boulmer lies midway between the Tyne and the Tweed in the red segment of the Coquet Island Light, It is considered by mariners as one of the most dangerous points on the Northumbrian coast, and in the days of sailing-ships its shore was continually strewn with wreckage. It is on record that in 1785 twenty-six, vessels were wrecked in the six miles between Coquet Island and Boulmer, besides those that had foundered. Then, in 1825, the year after the founding of the Institution itself, a Life-boat was stationed at Boulmer. Sixteen years later, the placing of the light on Coquet Island, and still later the installation of the fog-signal, did much to diminish the number of wrecks, but it remains a dangerous coast in spite of what has been done to direct and wain shipping.

Border Raids.

In the early days Boulmer had other dangers to face besides the sea. The village of Longhoughton, which lies a mile and a half inland, was the original home of the fishing industry, each fishing- boat with its crew of four having allotted to it a certain amount of land to cultivate, and each boat paying so much to the viear. This village was gathered round the Church with its fortified towei, which was the place of refuge for all its inhabitants in those sudden and frequent raids which for centuries made life so exciting and dangerous in all this border-country. It was probably after the union of the-Crowns in 1603, that conditions became sufficiently safe for the people to move away from their fortified towers and for the fishermen to live on the coast. They first moved to Seaton, a little to the south of Boulmer, and later to Boulmer itself, with its more commodious haven, but in 1624, more than twenty years after the union, a plan of it shows only one house.

Pishing is still the industry of Boulmer, and the fishing season is divided into three periods—crab and lobster in the spring, salmon in the summer, and white fish in the " back end " until the crabbing begins again.

The herring industry is long since dead.

So also is the burning of sea-weed, known, after it was dried, as kelp. It was burnt either in brick-kilns or shallow trenches. From the ashes, sodium carbonate, potash and iodine were obtained.

The two kinds of laminaria were the most valuable sea-weed. They grew below low-water mark, and after heavy storms was harvest-time. There is still a kelp-house at Boulmer, but it is now used as a store for fish, and the word kelp means nothing to the new generation.

Dead, too, alas ! is the more lucrative smuggling. For many generations " Boomer and its gin " were famous all over the borderland. The ruined refuge tower on Coquet Island and the cells of its vanished monks were the favourite rendezvous for the " free traders," of whom Isaac Addison (the name will appear again when we come to the Life-boat Crew) was the great hero, and many tales are told of his dexterity and effrontery. There were rhymes, too, about Bouhnet's gin.

Jimmy Turner of Ford Didna' think it a sin To saddle his horse on Sundays To ride to Bomaer lor gin.

And Blind WuII Bawmer of Jethart, His grips no guid to come in, He felled a' the gangers of Jethart When coming frae Boomer wi' gin, Jethart, it may be mentioned, is the famous Jedburgh, and a Jethart stave was used in border warfare.

Like other fishing villages, Boulmer has its tradition of wealth coming to a household in a single night, and stories are still told round the winter fireside of the wreck of the Priscitta and of Queen Mary's treasure ship in 1565, when £2000 came as his share to the Lord of the Manor.

Old Superstitions.

Those days are long since gone.

Vanished with them is the old superstition that it was sacrilege to attempt to save a drowning sailor, because that was to rob the sea of its appointed toll of victims. For a century Boulmer men (and women too) have given to the Life-boat Service the daring, energy, and knowledge of the sea which in earlier times were turned to other uses.

The first Coxswain of the Life-boat was James Addison—his sister married a Stephenson—but the succeeding four Coxswains have all been Stephensons. Bartholomew Stephenson succeeded Addison, retiring in 1866.

He had then served in the Life-boat for 40 years. He was awarded the Institution's Silver Medal in recognition of his long services. Penment Stephenson succeeded Bartholomew, and was Coxswain for 32 years, retiring in 1898. He in turn was succeeded by William Stephenson, who married his daughter, and who was Coxswain for 24| years, retiring in 19 2 2. William was awarded the Institution's Silver Medal in 1913 for one of the finest services of the Boulmer Life-boats, the rescue of twenty-five of the crew of thirty of the steam trawler, Tadorne of Boulogne.

The trawler had gone ashore in a fog.

She lay surrounded by rocks, with her decks awash, heavy seas rolling over her, and the crew in the rigging so numbed with the cold that they could do little to help themselves (two, in fact, had already died of exposure) even when the Life-boat had got alongside the wreck. The French Government presented William Stephenson with a Gold Medal, and the Societe des Hospitaliers Sauveteurs Bretons with its medal, in gratitude for this service. When he retired after 32 years' service in all he was awarded a pension and the Coxswain's Certificate of Service.

The Work of a Coxswain's Wife.

Mrs. Stephenson, who died in 1923 at the age of sixty-five, a Coxswain's wife and a Coxswain's daughter, had for fifty years taken her share in the work of the Station, both in caring for the shipwrecked who were brought ashore and m the sterner work of launching. Only two years before her death, on a bitter winter's day, she was in the sea for two hours with the other launchers struggling to get the boat afloat, to the help of the Craster motor fishing-boat Mayflower.

But her worst experience was when the Life-boat carriage was washed away after the Boat had been launched, while the Boat herself had to ride at anchor all night, for the sea and tide were so high that she could not have made the shore, even had she tried, and the wind was so fierce that hei Crew could not use the oars. When day broke, Mrs. Stephenson, whose father and husband were both in the Life-boat, saw part of the carriage sticking out of the sea, and thought that it was a piece of the wrecked Boat and that all her Crew had perished.

The present Coxswain is Robert Stephonson, nephew of Penment Stephenson. On his appointment in 1922 he had been Second Coxswain for six years. The Bowman, Edward Stephenson, is his cousin, and he has a nephew and a second cousin among the Crew.

There are three other Stephensons in the Crew who are brothers. Their father has just retired, and a fourth brother is. one of the signalmen.

Another member of the Crew is their uncle, and another is their cousin, making the total of Stephensons up to ten; while of the six Life-boatmen whose names are neither Stephenson nor Stanton, one is a Stephenson on his mother's side, and another is brotherin- law to one of the Stephensons in the Crew.

The Second Coxswain is Barty Stanton, and one of the Crew is his brother.

There are two other brothers in the Crew, both Stantons, and two other members of it are their nephews. The seventh Stanton in the present Crew has a brother who has just retired, and one of the six who are neither Stephenson nor Stanton is the son-in-law of one of the Stantons in the Crew.

Such is the Life-boat record of these two old Northumbrian families, which ioi centuries have earned their livelihood on this dangerous coast, and though there has been no actual loss of life, there is no doubt that the lives both of men and women have been shortened by the hardship'and exposure of Life-boat service..