RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



goods. Abbot Godfrey visited in person, found 

 the statements true, and at once deposed the 

 master. Thereupon Hugh applied to Bishop 

 Ualderby, and obtained letters of supplication from 

 him and from the archdeacon of Stow and Sir 

 John de Scaleby. On their entreaty, and on 

 Hu2;h's promise of amendment — taking oath under 

 seal to submit to such reformation in the affairs 

 of the hospital as the abbot should award — the 

 old master was readmitted on Easter Eve. The 

 abbot thereupon decreed that all the income, 

 whether revenue or offerings, should be divided 

 into three parts ; one for a chantry priest to cele- 

 brate in the chapel, and perform all other necessary 

 offices for the sick and poor strangers, and to buy 

 lights, vestments, and other ornaments, which 

 office Hugh was himself to perform ; the second 

 part for Robert Wodefoul, to provide necessaries 

 for the sick and poor ; and the third part for the 

 support of the master's household. The lamps 

 and lights were to be maintained ; the relics 

 recovered ; the chapel and all rooms to be kept 

 clean and sweet. On any breach of these 

 articles another master to be at once ap- 

 pointed.! 



Bishop Burghersh in 1323, and again in 1336, 

 granted indulgences to those assisting in the 

 maintenance of this hospital. 2 



Bishop Gray made an order in 1434 as to rights 

 of burial in the hospital cemetery.^ 



The masters of this house were not presented 

 to the bishop for institution, but were directly 

 collated by the abbots of Peterborough. On 

 14 February, 1445, Robert Wymbysh had con- 

 ferred on him 'the full wardenship and govern- 

 ment of the hospital of the blessed St. John the 

 Baptist and St. Thomas the Martyr, unto our 

 collation and appointments belonging,' by Abbot 

 Richard Ashton. Wymbysh had for some time 

 acted as coadjutor to John Combe, the aged 

 master, who then resigned on a pension.* On 

 12 February, 1448, John Westgate was collated 

 by the same abbot to the mastership. ^ 



In the course of the fifteenth century thishospital 

 seems to have ceased its benefits, and at the last 

 only the chapel or church remained as a benefice 

 for the master or chaplain. The Valor of 1 535 

 mentions the Free Chapel of St. Thomas the 

 Martyr on the bridge, and states the annual value 

 as £■] 1 5J. U.^ 



The commissioners of 2 Edward VI. gave the 

 income of ' Seinte John baptist Free Chappell 

 apon Stameforde Bridge' as ;^9 165. 5</., adding 

 tiie following : — 



' Memorandum : that sythe the survey taken 

 by vertu of the Commyssyon, one John Stodderd 



1 Cott. MSS. Vesp. E. xxii. fF. 51-3. 

 * Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Burghersh, ff. 124, 

 344b. 



3 Ibid. Memo, of Gray, i. f. 156b. 

 •* Peck, Annals of Stamford, xiv. 19. 

 5 Ibid. xiv. 2 I. 

 « Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), iv. 143. 



hathe brought before the kinges Majesties Com- 

 myssyoners Dyvers Evydences proving the same 

 to be an hospitall. And requyrethe that the Cer- 

 tificate made before the Commyssyoners may be 

 Frustrated and avoyded ; but forasmuche as yt 

 hathe not byn used as an hospitall in releving the 

 pore, but the Revenues and profiyttes thereof 

 hathe byn convertyd only to the use of Thomas 

 Stodderd, son of the seyd John, being an infant 

 of the age of 13 or 14 years. Towards his exhi- 

 bicion at Schole as yt is seyd. The Commys- 

 syoners hathe Commyttyd the Determynacion 

 thereof to this honorable Courte.' 7 



38. THE HOUSE OF ST. SEPULCHRE, 



STAMFORD 



In the general confirmation grant of Richard I. 

 to the abbey of Peterborough, of 5 December, 

 1 189, among the possessions on the Northamp- 

 tonshire side of Stamford there is mentioned their 

 right to the patronage of a religious house called 

 St. Sepulchre's. 



'As for S. Pulchers,' wrote Mr. Peck in 1723, 

 * where it was situate, any further than that it 

 stood on the south side of the river, I am not 

 able to fix ; and likewise as much to seek about 

 the founder. By the name, however, it appears 

 that it was an house of canons regular, of the 

 order of the holy sepulcher, whose business was 

 here to receive and entertain all such pilgrims 

 and knights of the holy sepulcher as passed 

 by out of the north, on their journey towards 

 Jerusalem.' s 



Dr. Tanner thought that in this respect 

 Mr. Peck was in error, and conjectured that ' the 

 house was rather an hospital than a priory.'' In 

 the confirmation charter to Peterborough by 

 Henry III. in 1227, 'the house' of St. Sepulchre 

 is again named, and placed in the charter between 

 the ' hospital ' of St. John and St. Thomas, and 

 the ' hospital ' of St. Giles.i" 



We have not been able to find any later men- 

 tion of this house ; it was probably but a small 

 establishment, and became absorbed by the great 

 abbey. 



39. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, 



TOWCESTER 



A leper hospital dedicated to St. Leonard was 

 founded at an early date on the outskirts of 

 Towcester, by the north bridge. Simon de 

 Pateshull, sheriff of the county, rendered account 

 in the year 1200 of 40/., the gift of the king to 

 leprous brethren (fratres leprosi) of Towcester.^^ 



An early thirteenth-century deed of Robert, 

 son of Roger Forester, conveyed to Lawrence, 



7 Chant. Cert. No. xxxv. 



8 Peck, Antiquities of Stamford, vi. 2, 3. 

 5 Tanner, Notitia, Line. Ixxiii. 12. 



10 Charter R. 11 Hen. III. pt. 1, m. 19. 



11 Pipe R. 2 John. 



165 



