Rotha Mary Clay

“Hospitals ... founded as well by the noble kings of this realm and lords and ladies both spiritual and temporal as by others of divers estates, in aid and merit of the souls of the said founders.”

(Parliament of Leicester.)

AS our period covers about six centuries, some rough sub­div­i­sion is nec­es­sary, but each cent­ury can show pat­rons of royal birth, bene­vo­lent bish­ops and barons, as well as char­i­table com­moners. The roll-call is long, and includes many note­worthy names.

FIRST PERIOD (BEFORE 1066)

First, there is the shadowy band of Saxon benefactors. Athelstan, on his return from the victory of Brunanburh (937), helped to found St. Peter’s hospital, York, giving not only the site, but a considerable endowment. (See p. 185.) Among other founders was a certain noble and devoted knight named Acehorne, lord of Flixton in the time of the most Christian king Athelstan, who provided a refuge for wayfarers in Holderness. Two Saxon bishops are named as builders of houses for the poor. To St. Oswald (Bishop of Worcester, died 992) is attributed the foundation of the hospital called after him; but the earliest documentary reference to it is by Gervase of Canterbury (circa 1200). St. Wulstan (died 1094) p071 provided the wayfarers’ hostel at Worcester which continued to bear his name. Wulstan, last of the Saxon founders, forms a fitting link with Lanfranc, foremost of those Norman “spiritual lords” who were to build hospitals on a scale hitherto unknown in England.

SECOND PERIOD (1066–1272)

Lanfranc erected the hospitals of St. John, Canterbury, and St. Nicholas, Harbledown; these charities remain to this day as memorials of the archbishop. His friend Bishop Gundulf of Rochester founded a lazar-house near that city. In Queen Maud, wife of Henry I, the bishop found a ready disciple. Her mother, Margaret of Scotland, had trained her to love the poor and minister to them. St. Margaret’s special care had been for pilgrims, for whom she had provided a hospital at Queen’s-ferry, Edinburgh. The “holy Queen Maud,” as we have seen, served lepers with enthusiasm, and she established a home near London for them. (Fig. 10.) Henry I caught something of his lady’s spirit. “The house of St. Bartholomew [Oxford] was founded by our lord old King Henry, who married the good queene Maud; and it was assigned for the receiving and susteyning of infirme leprose folk,” says Wood, quoting a thirteenth-century Inquisition. Henry endowed his friend Gundulf’s foundation at Rochester, and probably also “the king’s hospital” near Lincoln, which had possibly been begun by Bishop Remigius; that of Colchester was built by his steward p072 Eudo at his command, and was accounted of the king’s foundation. Matilda, daughter of Henry and Maud, left a benefaction to lepers at York.

King Stephen reconstructed St. Peter’s hospital, York, after a great fire. (Cf. Pl. XXIV, XXV.) His wife, Matilda of Boulogne, founded St. Katharine’s, London, which continues to this day under the patronage of the queens-consort. Henry II made considerable bequests for the benefit of lazars, but it is characteristic that his hospital building was in Anjou. Richard I endowed Bishop Glanvill’s foundation at Strood. King John is thought to have founded hospitals near Lancaster, Newbury and Bristol. He is sometimes regarded as the conspicuous patron of lepers. Doubtless this may be partly attributed to the fact that at the outset of his reign the Church secured privileges to outcasts by the Council of Westminster (1200). There seems, however, to be some ground for his charitable reputation. Bale, in his drama Kynge Johan, makes England say concerning this king:—

“Never prynce was there that made to poore peoples use

So many masendewes, hospytals and spyttle howses,

As your grace hath done yet sens the worlde began.”

······

“Gracyouse prouysyon for sore, sycke, halte and lame

He made in hys tyme, he made both in towne and cytie,

Grauntynge great lyberties for mayntenaunce of the same,

By markettes and fayers in places of notable name.

Great monymentes are in Yppeswych, Donwych and Berye,

Whych noteth hym to be a man of notable mercye.”57

Indeed, as the Suffolk satirist knew by local tradition, King John did grant the privilege of a fair to the lepers of Ipswich. p073

Henry III erected houses of charity at Woodstock, Dunwich and Ospringe, as well as homes for Jews in London and Oxford. He refounded St. John’s in the latter city, and laid the first stone himself; he seems also to have rebuilt St. John’s, Cambridge, and St. James’, Westminster. The king loved Gloucester—the place of his coronation—and he re-established St. Bartholomew’s, improving the buildings (Pl. VI) and endowment. The new hospitals of Dover and Basingstoke were committed to his care by their founders. Of Henry III’s charities only that of St. James’, Westminster, was for lepers; but St. Louis, who was with him while on crusade, told Joinville that on Holy Thursday (i.e. Maundy Thursday) the king of England “now with us” washes the feet of lepers and then kisses them. The ministry of the good queen Maud was thus carried on to the fifth generation.

If history tells how Maud cared for lepers and provided for them in St. Giles’, London, tradition relates that Adela of Louvain, the second wife of Henry I, was herself a leper, and that she built St. Giles’, Wilton. A Chantry Certificate reports that “Adulyce sometym quene of Englande” was the founder. The present inmates of the almshouse are naturally not a little puzzled by the modern inscription Hospitium S. Egidii Adelicia Reg. Hen. Fund. The local legend was formerly to be seen over the chapel door in a more intelligible and interesting form:—

“This hospitall of St. Giles was re-edified (1624) by John Towgood, maior of Wilton, and his brethren, adopted patrons thereof, by the gift of Queen Adelicia, wife unto King Henry p074 the First. This Adelicia was a leper. She had a windowe and dore from her lodgeing into the chancell of the chapel, whence she heard prayer. She lieth buried under a marble gravestone.”

Although in truth the widowed queen made a happy marriage with William d’Albini, and, when she died, was buried in an abbey in Flanders, she did endow a hospital at that royal manor—maybe to shelter one of her ladies, whose affliction might give rise to the tale of “the leprosy queen” and her ghost. When a person of rank became a leper, the terrible fact was not disclosed when concealment was possible. This is illustrated by another Wiltshire tradition—that of the endowment of the lazar-house at Maiden Bradley by one of the heiresses of Manser Bisset, dapifer of Henry II. The story is as old as Leland’s day; and Camden says that she “being herselfe a maiden infected with the leprosie, founded an house heere for maidens that were lepers, and endowed the same with her owne Patrimonie and Livetide.” Margaret Bisset was certainly free from all taint of leprosy in 1237, when she sought and gained permission to visit Eleanor of Brittany, the king’s cousin. She was well known at court at this time, and a Patent Roll entry of 1242 records that:—“At the petition of Margery Byset, the king has granted to the house of St. Matthew [sic], Bradeleg, and the infirm sisters thereof, for ever, five marks yearly ... which he had before granted to the said Margery for life.” Another contemporary deed (among the Sarum Documents) may support the legend of the leper-lady. It sets forth how Margaret Bisset desired to lead a celibate and contemplative life; and therefore left her lands to the leper-hospital of Maiden Bradley on condition that she herself was maintained there. p075

Many famous churchmen, statesmen and warriors were hospital builders. Among the episcopal founders who figured prominently in public affairs were the following. Ranulf Flambard—“the most infamous prince of publicans” under William Rufus—founded Kepier hospital, Durham. The warlike Henry de Blois, half-brother of Stephen, erected St. Cross near Winchester. Hugh de Puiset, being, as Camden says, “very indulgently compassionate to Lepres,” gathered them into his asylum at Sherburn, but it is hinted that his bounty was not altogether honestly come by. Again, “the high-souled abbot” Sampson—he who dared to oppose Prince John and also visited Richard in captivity—was the founder of St. Saviour’s, at Bury St. Edmunds.

Even in the troublous days of Stephen there were barons who were tender towards the afflicted. William le Gros, lord of Holderness, was one of these. He was the founder of St. Mary Magdalene’s, Newton-by-Hedon, for a charter speaks of “the infirm whom William, Earl of Albemarle, placed there.” The Chartulary of Whitby relates how the earl—“a mighty man and of great prowess and power”—was wasting the eastern parts of Yorkshire. Nevertheless he “was a lover of the poor and especially of lepers and was accustomed to distribute freely to them large alms.” Abbot Benedict therefore bethought him of a plan whereby he might save the threatened cow-pastures of the abbey from devastation: he permitted the cattle belonging to the Whitby hospital to join the herds of the convent; consequently the earl was merciful to that place on account of the lepers, and the herds fed together henceforth undisturbed.

Another charitable lord was Ranulf de p076 Glanvill—“justiciary of the realm of England and the king’s eye”—who with his wife Berta founded a leper-hospital at West Somerton upon land granted to him by Henry II. His nephew Gilbert de Glanvill built St. Mary’s, Strood, near his cathedral city of Rochester (circa 1193); the loyal bishop declaring in his charter that it was founded amongst other things “for the reformation of Christianity in the Holy Land and for the liberation of Richard the illustrious king of England.” After the royal captive had been freed, he endowed his faithful friend’s foundation with seven hundred acres of land. Among the leading men of the day who built hospitals were Geoffrey Fitz-Peter and William Briwere, Peter des Roches and Hubert de Burgh, together with Hugh and Joceline of Wells. Yet another distinguished bishop of this period must be p077 mentioned, namely, Walter de Suffield, who was very liberal to the poor, especially in his city of Norwich. During his lifetime he established St. Giles’ and drew up its statutes. He directed that as often as any bishop of the See went by, he should enter and give his blessing to the sick, and that the occasion should be marked by special bounty. His will shows a most tender solicitude for the welfare of the house, which he commended to his successor and his executors.

Benefactors included not only men eminent in church and state, but “others of divers estates,” clerical and lay commoners. Foremost of these stands Rahere, born of low lineage, but court-minstrel and afterwards priest. In obedience to a vision, he determined to undertake the foundation of a hospital. He sought help from the Bishop of London, by whose influence he obtained from Henry I the site of St. Bartholomew’s, Smithfield. While many founders are forgotten, men delight to honour Rahere. The chronicler, who had talked with those who remembered him, records how he sympathized with the tribulation of the wretched, how he recognized their need, supported them patiently, and finally helped them on their way. Rahere’s character is delightfully portrayed in the Book of the Foundation:—

“whoose prouyd puryte of soule, bryght maners with honeste probyte, experte diligence yn dyuyne seruyce, prudent besynes yn temperalle mynystracyun, in hym were gretely to prayse and commendable.”

Other clerical founders include William, Dean of Chichester (St. Mary’s), Walter the Archdeacon (St. John’s, Northampton), Peter the chaplain (Lynn), Guarin the p078 chaplain (Cricklade), Walter, Vicar of Long Stow, etc. Hugh the hermit was reckoned the founder of Cockersand hospital, which grew into an abbey:—

“Be it noted that the monastery was furst founded by Hugh Garthe, an heremyt of great perfection, and by such charitable almes as [he] dyd gather in the countre he founded an hospitall.”

The leading townsfolk of England have long proved themselves generous. Gervase of Southampton is in the forefront of a line of merchant-princes and civic rulers who have also been benefactors of the needy. Gervase “le Riche” was evidently a capitalist, and it is recorded that he lent moneys to Prince John. His responsible office was that of portreeve; it may be that while exercising it, he witnessed sick pilgrims disembark and was moved to help them. Certainly, about the year 1185, Gervase built God’s House (Pl. VII) beside the quay, and his brother Roger became the first warden. Leland’s version is as follows:—

“Thys Hospitale was foundyd by 2 Marchauntes beyng Bretherne [whereof] the one was caullyd Ge[rvasius] the other Protasius.... These 2 Brethern, as I there lernid, dwellyd yn the very Place wher the Hospitale is now.... These 2 Brethern for Goddes sake cause[d] their House to be turnid to an Hospitale for poore Folkes, and endowed it with sum Landes.”

Among other citizen-founders of this period may be named Walter and Roesia Brune, founders of St. Mary’s, Bishopsgate, London; Hildebrand le Mercer, of Norwich; and William Prodom and John Long, of Exeter. p079

THIRD PERIOD (1272–1540)

Few royal builders or benefactors can be named at this time. Edward I, who, from various motives, set his face like a flint against the Jews, was a beneficent patron to those who were prepared to submit to Baptism; and he reorganized and endowed his father’s House of Converts. His charity, however, was of a somewhat belligerent character and partook of the nature of a crusade. He was always extremely harsh towards the unconverted Jew; his early training as champion of the Cross in the Holy Land helped to make him zealous in ridding his own kingdom of unbelievers. But before finally expelling them, he did his best for their conversion, enlisting the help of the trained and eloquent Dominican brethren. Edward with justice ordained that as by custom the goods of the converts became the king’s, he should henceforth “provide healthfully for their maintenance”; and he granted them a moiety of their property when they became, by Baptism, “sons and faithful members of the Church.” The chevage, or Jewish poll-tax, and certain other Jewish payments, were appropriated to the Domus Conversorum, over £200 being paid annually from the Exchequer. Edward took an interest in “the king’s converts” and drew up careful regulations for them. Eleanor, his consort, was a benefactor of the royal hospital near the Tower, and she was also by tradition the founder of St. John’s, Gorleston.

The unhappy Richard II desired in his will that five or six thousand marks should be devoted to the maintenance of lepers at Westminster and Bermondsey.58 p080 The reference to “the chaplains celebrating before them for us” seems to imply that the king was the patron if not the founder; possibly one house was that of Knightsbridge. The will of Henry VII provided for the erection of three great charitable institutions. He was at least liberal in this, that he began in his lifetime the conversion of his palace of Savoy into a noble hospital. (Pl. XIV.) Its completion at the cost of 10,000 marks was the only part of his plan carried out, and of the 40,000 marks designed to be similarly expended at York and Coventry, nothing more is heard.

The great lords of this period who were founders are led by two distinguished kinsmen and counsellors of Edward III—each a Henry of Lancaster and Steward of England. The father, when he was becoming blind, erected St. Mary’s at Leicester for fifty poor (1330), and his son doubled the foundation. Richard, Earl of Arundel—the victor of Sluys—began to found the Maison Dieu, Arundel, in 1380, but he was executed on a charge of treason; and the work ceased until his son, having obtained fresh letters-patent from Henry V (1423), set himself to complete the design. Several notable veterans of the French campaign may be mentioned as hospital builders, namely, Michael de la Pole (Kingston-upon-Hull), Sir Robert Knolles (Pontefract), Walter, Lord Hungerford (Heytesbury) and William de la Pole (Ewelme); when the latter became unpopular and was executed as a traitor, his wife Alice—called on her tomb fundatrix—completed the building and endowment of God’s House. (Pl. XVII.)

Although the benevolence of bishops now chiefly took the form of educational institutions, some well-known prelates p081 erected hospitals. Bubwith—Treasurer of England under Henry IV—planned St. Saviour’s, Wells, but it was not begun in his lifetime. Beaufort—Lord Chancellor and Cardinal—refounded St. Cross, but, owing to the York and Lancaster struggle, the design was not fully carried out. His rival Chichele—the faithful Primate of Henry V—built not only All Souls, Oxford, but the bede-house at Higham Ferrers. There is a tradition that while keeping the sheep by the riverside he was met by William of Wykeham, who recognized his talents and provided for his education. He afterwards desired to found a college in the place where he was baptized, and of this the almshouse formed part. William Smyth—founder of Brasenose—restored St. John’s during his short episcopate at Lichfield. When translated to Lincoln, he turned his attention to St. John’s, Banbury, and bequeathed £100 towards erecting and repairing its buildings, in addition to £60 already bestowed upon it. “This man,” says Fuller, “wheresoever he went, may be followed by the perfume of Charity he left behind him.”

It was undoubtedly townsfolk who were the principal founders of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The name of many an old merchant-prince is still a household word in his native place, where some institution remains as a noble record of his bounty. St. John’s, Winchester, for example, was erected by an alderman, John Devenish, its revenues being increased by another of the family and by a later mayor; and the memory of benefactors was kept fresh by a “love-feast and merry meeting” on the Sunday after Midsummer Day. William Elsyng established a large almshouse near Cripplegate. He was a mercer of influential position, being given a licence to travel in the p082 king’s service beyond seas with Henry of Lancaster; and it may have been this nobleman’s charitable work in Leicester that inspired the foundation known as “Our Lady of Elsyngspital.”

A more famous London mercer, Richard Whittington, proved himself the “model merchant of the Middle Ages”; Lysons records his manifold beneficent deeds. Although he did not live long enough to carry out all his schemes, his executors completed them, and in particular, the almshouse attached to St. Michael Royal. In a deed drawn up after his death (1423) and now preserved in the Mercers’ Hall, is a fine pen-and-ink sketch which depicts the passing of this “father of the poor.” (Pl. IX.) John Carpenter and other friends stand round the sick man; nor are we left in doubt as to the significance of the group at the foot of the bed—evidently twelve bedemen, led by one who holds a rosary in token of his intercessory office—it being recorded in the document that:—

“the foresayde worthy and notable merchaunt, Richard Whittington, the which while he leued had ryght liberal and large hands to the needy and poure people, charged streitly on his death bed us his foresayde executors to ordeyne a house of almes, after his death ... and thereupon fully he declared his will unto us.”59

The same benefactor not only repaired St. Bartholomew’s, but added a refuge for women to St. Thomas’, Southwark, as is set forth by William Gregory, one of Whittington’s successors in the mayoralty:—

“And that nobyl marchaunt Rycharde Whytyngdon, made a new chamby[r] with viij beddys for yong weme[n] that hadde done a-mysse in truste of a good mendement. And he p083 commaundyd that alle the thyngys that ben don in that chambyr shulde be kepte secrete with owte forthe, yn payne of lesynge of hyr leuynge; for he wolde not shame no yonge women in noo wyse, for hyt myght be cause of hyr lettyng of hyr maryage.”

“Verily,” we exclaim with Lysons, “there seems to be no end to the good deeds of this good man.”

Nor were other places without their public-spirited townsmen. Unlike “Dick” Whittington who died childless, Thomas Ellis left twenty-three sons and daughters: nevertheless this large-hearted draper provided an almshouse for his poorer neighbours in Sandwich.

The wealth of William Browne of Stamford and of Roger Thornton of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was proverbial when Leland visited those industrial centres and saw the charities which they had established. Browne, founder of the bede-house (Fig. 5), “was a Marchant of a very wonderful Richeness.” Thornton, a very poor man, reported to have been a pedlar, who rose to be nine times mayor, was remembered as “the richest Marchaunt that ever was dwelling in Newcastelle.” While in this way many that were rich made offerings of their abundance, there were those, too, who gave of their penury. Such was “Adam Rypp, of Whittlsey, a poor man, who began to build a Poor’s Hospital there, but had not sufficient means to finish it.” His work was commended to the faithful by briefs from Bishop Fordham of Ely (1391–4).

Many benefactors as­soc­iat­ed them­selves so close­ly with their bed­emen that they de­sired to be buried within the precincts of the hos­pi­tal. Robert de Meulan, one of the p084 Conqueror’s lords, is said to have founded and en­dowed Brack­ley hos­pi­tal, where his heart was em­balmed. His des­cen­dant, Roger, Earl of Win­chester, a con­si­der­able bene­fac­tor in the time of Henry III, “ordered a measure to be made for corn in the shape of a coffin, and gave dir­ec­tions that it should be placed on the right side of the shrine, in which the heart of Margaret his mother lay in­tombed,” pro­viding that it should be filled thrice in a year for ever for the use of the hos­pi­tal.60 The chapel p085 con­tin­ued to be a fav­ou­rite place of in­ter­ment, for Leland says:—“There ly buryed in Tumbes dyvers Noble Men and Women.” Bishop Suffield directed that if he should die away from Norwich—as he afterwards did—his heart should be placed near the altar in the church of St. Giles’ hospital. The blind and aged Henry of Lancaster and Leicester was buried in his hospital church, the royal family and a great company being present (1345); and there likewise his son was laid. Few founders’ tombs remain undisturbed in a spot still hallowed by divine worship, but some have happily escaped destruction. Rahere has an honoured place at St. Bartholomew’s. The mailed effigy of Sir Henry de Sandwich—lord warden of the Cinque Ports—remains in the humbler St. Bartholomew’s near Sandwich. The fine alabaster monument of Alice, Duchess of Suffolk, is in perfect preservation at Ewelme. The rebuilt chapel of Trinity Hospital, Bristol, retains a monumental brass of the founder (Fig. 12) and his wife.