RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



pulled down the chapel and hospital built a small 

 tenement on the site, called the Spittle or Lazar- 

 house, which was occupied by a single poor man, 

 termed the lazarman, rent-free. He received a 

 weekly allowance of two shillings, together with 

 a suit of clothes and load of firewood once a 

 year. The lazarman appears in the town accounts 

 as late as 1740.^ 



Wardens of St. Leonard,^ Northampton 



John of Tuttebery, instituted 1282 



Ralph of Norton, instituted 1282-3 



Roger 



Adam of Gyngs instituted, 1293, died 1305 



William of Coton,* instituted 1305 



Robert of Duston, instituted 1326 



John le Waydour,* occurs 1 330 



Robert Hert of Sautre, instituted 1358 



John of Thrapston, instituted 1368 



John GrifFyn of Oxundon, instituted 1397 



William Rodston ^ 



Richard Howet of Wymyngton, instituted 



.'395 

 Nicholas Nycoll of Northampton, instituted 



1397 

 John Attewode, instituted 1398 



John Mersh, instituted 1402 



William Reynald, instituted 1 405 



John Littester of Tykhyll, instituted 1406 



William Reynald, instituted 1407 



John Sherman, instituted 1408 



Thomas Gamull, instituted 1410 



Richard Barkar, instituted 141 5 



The pointed oval seal of the hospital, though 

 of much interest, is a late and poorly-executed 

 example of about 1450. It represents St. Leonard 

 standing in a canopied niche, with a pastoral staff 

 in his left hand, and a chain fetter in his right. 

 Below the figure is a barbican gateway sur- 

 mounted by a crown. The gateway probably 

 represents the town gate on the south bridge, 

 close to the hospital, while the crown denotes its 

 royal foundation.* 



Legend in small black letters runs : 



S . COE . DOMVS . SCI . LEONARDI . IVXTA . 

 NORHAMPTON 



1 A large number of curious references to the 

 lazarman in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 

 taken from the town accounts, are given by Dr. Cox 

 in the Rec. Borough of Northampton, ii. 332-3. 



2 A list of masters or wardens up to 141 5 is taken 

 from the Lincoln registers, and cited by Bridges, Hist. 

 cfNorthants, i. 363-4. 



3 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Dalderby, f. lo8d. 

 ■* Assize Roll, 635, m. 68d. 



» The Patent Rolls under 5 Februan,-, 1389-90, 

 give the appointment of William Rythyn. Pat. 

 13 Ric. II. pt. ii. m. 14. 



* The seal is engr.aved on plate vi. vol. ii. Rec. 

 Borough of Northampton, and described on p. 333. 



2 16 



31. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. THOMAS, 

 NORTHAMPTON. 



The hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr is 

 usually said to have been founded about 1450 bv 

 the burgesses of Northampton. The authority 

 for this statement is Leland, who wrote, in 

 1538: — 'S. Thomas Hospital is withoute the 

 Toune, and joinuth hard to the West (? South) 

 Gate. It was erected within lesse then a hun- 

 derith yeres paste, and induid with sum Landes, 

 al by the Citizens of Northampton.' ^ 



It seems, however, quite possible that this 

 was but the augmentation and rebuilding on a 

 larger and more definite scale of an older found- 

 ation. St. Thomas a Becket was canonized in 

 1 1 73; a special chapel in his honour was soon 

 afterwards built at Northampton, which was 

 confirmed to the priory of St. Andrew by 

 Bishop Hugh of Lincoln (i 209-1 235). There 

 was also a fraternity of St. Thomas the Martyr 

 in the town in the reign of Henry III. ^ 



From the middle of the fifteenth century 

 the house was under the charge of the mayor 

 and burgesses as trustees. It was founded for 

 the support of twelve poor persons (men or 

 women), who should receive a weekly allowance, 

 with clothing, firing, and washing. The cor- 

 poration records show that the earlier manage- 

 ment was vested in two masters, or wardens. 

 One of them was elected each year, his period 

 of office being two years, during the first of 

 which he was termed minor or junior master, 

 and during the second senior master. 



This arrangement was afterwards modified, 

 and in Elizabethan days it became customary to 

 choose one of the aldermen to be alderman of 

 the house, in addition to the two masters. At 

 the October meeting of the assembly in 1604 

 it was resolved that : — ' Mr. Thomas Humfrey 

 be alderman of the almeshouses or hospitall of 

 St. Thomas, and that Mr. Hughe Coles shall 

 contynue and be one of the masters of the said 

 almeshouses or hospitall for one yeare next 

 ensueing to wit thelder m.ister, and that Mr. 

 Abraham Ventris shalbe thother master for twoe 

 years next also ensueing to wit the first yeare 

 the younger master, and the second yeare thelder 

 master, the saide masters to be accomptable 

 either of them respectivelie, as hath been 

 accustomed. ' 



Instead of a chaplain, as in pre-Reformation 

 days, the inmates had to be content with the 

 ministrations of a miserably-paid layman. Mr. 

 William Browne, schoolmaster, who re.ad daily 

 prayers to the poor folk in St. Thomas's hospitall, 



7 Leland, Itinerary (Heame ed.) i. 10. 



* Rec. of Borough of Northampton, ii. 341. The 

 chapel of St. Thomas named in the thirteenth century 

 may have been the chapel of that name on the south 

 bridge. Ibid. 432. 

 [ 21 



