From the 1600s the prominent name in Hetton was the James family who included William James, a Bishop of Durham from 1606 to 1617. The historic manor of Hetton has an interesting link to the present Royal family and is one of two notable and very different connections that Hetton has to the family. The first connection begins in the 18th century (1746) when Hetton was sold by Spearman to Jean Lyon
, the Dowager Countess of Strathmore. Jean’s eldest son, John Lyon would become the 9th Earl and was also born at West Rainton (in 1737). Later John married Elizabeth Bowes a member of the great coal-owning family of Gibside (near Gateshead) and so established the Lyon-Bowes family dynasty – that later became Bowes-Lyon. He was the Great-Great-Great Grandfather of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, mother of Queen Elizabeth II. The dowager Countess gave Hetton to her younger son Thomas Lyon (brother of the 9th Earl) who was born at Hetton House in 1741. Thomas passed on Hetton to his own son John Lyon (died 1829) who was determined to find coal in the neighbourhood and was a key figure in the development of Hetton’s industrial history. There is still a Hetton House today that was connected with the estate of the Lyons family home of Hetton Hall that was demolished in 1923.
