RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



named it in their will. It was further ordained 

 that in the body of the house adjoining the 

 chapel of the Holy Trinity there should be three 

 rows of beds wherein the poor or travellers who 

 were invalids might lie for the more convenient 

 hearing of mass and prayers. The provost or 

 chaplain to rule the house should be a clerk or 

 layman of good report, to be appointed during 

 his lifetime by Henry of Northampton, with the 

 counsel and consent of the priory, and after his 

 death by the abbot of Sulby and his successors, 

 also with the consent of the priory. The provost 

 should take a prescribed oath on his appointment, 

 and the like oath should be taken by two secular 

 chaplains. There were also to be six lay brothers 

 in the house to wait on the poor and sick, so that 

 the number of officials should be nine. The 

 provost and chaplain should wear habits entirely 

 of black without any badge or ornament. The 

 hospital was never to be united to any other 

 house, or assigned to any private person, and the 

 rents and profits should be applied solely to its 

 benefit. In augmentation of the foundation the 

 prior and convent of St. Andrew granted two 

 virgates of land, a messuage and croft and common 

 of pasture, which Helias held of their fee in 

 Kingsthorpe.i 



Bishop Grosset^te (1235-1254) drew up sta- 

 tutes for the regulation of this hospital. The 

 titles or headings of these statutes are given in a 

 MS. in the Cambridge University Library.^ From 

 this it appears that the master was expected to 

 eat and sleep with the brethren and attend at the 

 canonical hours ; that there were sisters as well 

 as brethren of the hospital, who fed apart ; that 

 the sisters and brethren had nothing of their own ; 

 that the lay brethren in place of mattins said 

 twenty Our Fathers and twenty Hail Marys, and 

 at the other hours seven of each ; that old gar- 

 ments were to be given to the poor, and also the 

 remnants of the table. There was to be silence 

 in chapel, refectory, cloisters, and dormitory, and 

 also reading at meals. The hospitality of the 

 house was to be observed, and the infirm duly 

 attended. There was to be a weekly chapter, 

 and the seal of the house should be kept under 

 three keys. 



An important award, made in 1233 by Augus- 

 tine, abbot of Lavendon, and John of North- 

 ampton, arbitrators in a controversy between the 

 prior of St. Andrew's and Philip, son of Robert 

 of Northampton, concerning the advowson of 

 the hospital of St. David, laid down that the 

 prior should have the right of patronage of the 



1 Cott. MS. Vesp. E xvii. f. 29b, given in full in 

 Dugdale under St. Andrew's, Northampton, Mon. v. 

 192. A somewhat different version from that in the 

 chartulary may be found in the Camb. Univ. Library, 

 Dd. X. xxviii. f. 79a. 



* DJ. X. xxviii. f. 80. See paper, mainly architec- 

 tural, on this hospital by Mr. C. Markham, Assoc. 

 Arch. Soc. Re/>. xxiv. 164-170. 



mastership, but that Philip should present two 

 of the brethren of the hospital, one lay and one 

 clerical, so that the number be not increased.* In 

 131 1 Philip le Megre of Northampton released 

 to the master and brethren his inherited right of 

 presenting two brethren to the hospital.* The 

 masters were for the most part presented by the 

 priory of St. Andrew. 



In 1265 William, son of Henry St. John of 

 Boughton, released to the master and brethren 

 all his right in three loaves of bread which he 

 received weekly from the hospital in considera- 

 tion of his release of land in Boughton.^ John 

 Greiby, the master, and the brethren of the 

 hospital of the Holy Trinity near Kingsthorpe, 

 demised in 1422 to John Man, John Egle, and 

 John Hamme, all bakers of Northampton, their 

 two watermills at Abington, with fishing and 

 pasture, for their lives, at a yearly rental of twelve 

 quarters of wheat and 65. 81^.; the grantees were 

 not to cut any willows growing there without 

 leave, but they might cut off ' stoceynges and 

 shredynges ' as often as they pleased.* In 

 145 1 the same master and brethren granted to 

 William Preston, chaplain, a house called * the 

 parlour' within the hospital, with two rooms 

 above the parlour, a kitchen by the hall-steps, 

 and a garden, with admission into the brother- 

 hood, and also an annuity of seven marks for his 

 assistance in celebrating mass. William Preston 

 agreed to celebrate three obits yearly in the hos- 

 pital for the souls of John Stotesbury, Robert 

 Greyby and Isabel his wife, and Nicholas Gryffon.'' 



The Survey of 1535 gives the clear annual 

 value of the hospital at ^^24 6s. There were 

 at that time only two poor brethren in the 

 house, who received jointly the sum of 65;. a 

 year, and prayed for the soul of King John, who 

 was represented as their founder. s A large 

 number of deeds and evidences at the Public 

 Record Office pertaining to this hospital relate 

 chiefly to lands at Boughton, Bletsoe, East Had- 

 don, and Wollaston, and mills at Abington. 

 The hospital was more usually known by the 

 title of Holy Trinity, but the older name of 

 St. David or St. Dewes was used also ; eighty 

 out of this collection of deeds style the hospital 

 Holy Trinity, nine St. David, and four St. Dewes, 

 whilst one gives it as the hospital of St. David or 

 Holy Trinity, and another as St. David and the 

 Holy Trinity. 



The last but one of the masters of this hos- 

 pital, Hugh Zulley, was appointed by Philip and 

 Mary, 5 July, 1557. ^^ ^^* styled maghter 

 she custos, and the house 'domum sive hospitale 

 Sancti David juxta Kingisthorpe alias dictum 

 Saynt Dewes.'* William Richardson, the last 

 master, was presented by Sir Henry Norrys and 



3 Ca!. And. D. C. 2280. ■♦ Ibid. 2396. 



6 Ibid. 1915. « Ibid. 3510. 'Ibid. 1102. 



8 Fakr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 332. 

 ' Rymer, Faedera, xv. 467-8. 



155 



