SYMEON of Durham was the author of two works of great importance in English history, especially in that of northern England, viz., the Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae and the Historia Regum. Very little is known of his life. There is no record of the date of his birth or death. He was at Jarrow about 1080, before the monastic community moved thence to Durham (1083). He probably did not become a professed monk till some time after that event. In 1104 he was present at the opening of the coffin and the examination of the remains of St Cuthbert. Between 1104 and 1108 he composed his History of the Church of Durham, bringing it down to the death of William of St Carilef (1096). Many years later he compiled his Historia Regum, which is a chronicle of Northumbrian affairs from the date at which Bede stops (731). He was also probably the author of a letter De Archiepiscopis Eboraci, but not of the treatise De Miraculis et Translationibus sometimes attributed to him. Selden, in his introduction to Twysden’s Decem Scriptores, attributes the Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae to Turgot, prior of that church; but Mr Arnold, in the preface to his edition of Symeon’s works, successfully disproves Selden’s assertions. This work is original and of great value; the Historia Regum, on the other hand, is a compilation from various sources, brought down by Symeon to 1121 or 1129. Both works were continued by other hands.

See Twysden, Decem Scriptores, and prefaces to Symeon’s works, by Mr Hodgson Hinde (Surtees Society edition, 1868) and by Mr T. Arnold (Rolls Series edition, 1882-85)....