Building upon the history of Durham written by his friend Robert Surtees (1779-1834), in 1852, James Raine published this history of ‘north Durham’ a series of historic exclaves in Northumberland. Until 1844, County Durham had owned three main exclaves in Northumberland, Bedlingtonshire (the parish of Bedlington), Norhamshire (the parish of Norham) and Islandshire (mainly around Lindisfarne but with its own exclave parishes elsewhere along the coast) as well as the Farne Islands. These territories had historically been part of Durham as the successor to the Anglo-Saxon bishopric of Lindisfarne but they had also been useful for the Bishop of Durham to defend northern England from Scottish incursions prior to the 1603 Union of the Crowns. They were transferred to Northumberland in order to simplify civil matters such as elections.