Named after the village of Sadberge, the wapentake covered land now in County Durham, north of the River Tees as far west as Barnard Castle and as far east as Hartlepool.
In 1139, Northumberland and its liberties were given to the kingdom of Scotland by England's King Stephen.
In 1189 Hugh de Puiset, the Bishop of Durham, purchased the manor and wapentake of Sadberge from Richard I for £11,000.
[3] Sadberge's institutions gradually merged with those of Durham, ending with its assizes, last held in 1576.
[3] By the 14th century its area was included within two of Durham's four "wards" (subdivisions akin to the hundreds of other English counties).