A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



son of Simon Ters, an acre of land in the south 

 field of Towcester, between the land of Baldwin 

 and the lepers' hospital of St. Leonard.' Another 

 deed of 1286, giving boundaries, mentions the 

 court of the hospital of Towcester.^ 



In 1384 letters patent were granted by 

 Richard II. in ratification of the estate of John 

 Forster, clerk in the chapel of St. Leonard, 

 Towcester.^ In 1387 John Forster resigned, 

 and the mastership of the hospital, with the 

 chapel of St. Leonard's, was granted for life to 

 William de Horbury, king's clerk.* In the fol- 

 lowing year the mastership was granted to 

 Nicholas Boteway, a clerk of the chapel within 

 the royal household ; these last patents state that 

 the wardenship was then in the king's gift by 

 reason of his custody of the land, and heir of 

 John de Hastings, earl of Pembroke.' 



The date of the decay of this hospital is not 

 known, but it was probably before 1447,35 there 

 is no mention of it in the bequests made by 

 Archdeacon Sponne in his will of that year. 



Masters of St. Leonard's Towcester 



John Forster,* resigned 1387. 

 William de Horbury,^ appointed 1387. 

 Nicholas Boteway,* appointed 1388. 



40. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, 

 THRAPSTON 



The existence of a lazar-house at Thrapston 

 was unknown to Dugdale and Tanner, as well 



as to the county historians. The knowledge of 

 it comes solely from the forest pleas and other 

 forest documents of the Public Record Office. 

 It was part of the old Norman forest law that 

 an inquest should be held on any unauthorized 

 slain deer or venison that might be found, and 

 the flesh sent to the nearest hospital for lepers, a 

 proof in itself of the common character of the 

 disease, and of the multiplicity of lazar-houses. 



On the morning of the Sunday after the Epi- 

 phany, 1246, one Maurice de Meht was passing 

 through Sudborough with Sir Robert Passelewe,* 

 justice of the forest, when he saw three men 

 carrying a sack. Suspecting them, he followed 

 with his bow stretched, when the men threw away 

 the sack and fled. In the sack was a flayed doe 

 and the snare with which it had been caught. 

 Maurice went into the church of Sudborough 

 and made known what had happened to the 

 whole township. On the morrow an inquest 

 was held before the verderers and foresters of 

 Rockingham, with the result, inter alia, ' that 

 the flesh of the doe was given to the lepers of 

 Thrapston."" Again, in 1248, four limbs of a 

 deer were found in a ditch near Boughton by a 

 forester, and as a result of the inquest all this 

 venison was sent to the lepers of Thrapston.^^ In 

 a third case, in 1305, when a freshly-killed deer 

 was found by the roadside, pierced with two 

 arrows, in the township of Wadenhoe, the flesh 

 was sent 'to the lepers of St. Leonard's, Thrapston, 

 being the nearest Spital.' ^^ 



COLLEGES 



41. THE COLLEGE OF COTTER- 

 STOCK 



The retired village of Cotterstock is remark- 

 able as having been the seat of one of the 

 largest — probably the largest — colleges of private 

 foundation, of a chantry character, throughout the 

 kingdom. 



John GifFord, clerk, rector of the church of 

 Cotterstock, resigned the living in 131 7, and 

 being then possessed of considerable means, 

 farmed the manor or rectory, and eventually 

 purchased them. He was one of numerous 

 instances of servants of the crown to whom was 

 granted a variety of benefices, and he eventually 

 became a considerable pluralist. In May, 13 13, 

 he was attached to the service of Queen Isabella, 

 and in that capacity obtained letters of protection 

 to accompany her across the seas ; a passport for 



1 Fermor Evidences, cited by Baker, Hist, of North- 

 ants, ii. 320. 2 Ji3i(j_ 

 3 Pat. 8 Ric. II. pt. I, m. 24. 

 * Ibid. II Rich. II. pt. I, m. 23. 

 5 Ibid. 1 1 Ric. II. pt. 2, m. 4. 

 « Pat. II Ric. II. pt. l,ni. 20. 7 Ibid, 

 s Ibid. 1 1 Rich. II. pt. 2, m. 4. 



similar reasons was granted him in February, 

 1 3 14.'' He gained the special favour of the 

 queen, and soon afterwards became steward of 

 her lands beyond Trent, a position of consider- 

 ble importance. This office he held until 1 330, 

 when the queen dowager having resigned to the 

 king all her castles, boroughs, honours, hundreds, 

 manors, and lands beyond Trent, John 

 Gifford became steward and surveyor of the 

 same under the crown, and was henceforth 

 known as a king's clerk. He was deputy justice 

 of South Wales, 133 1-2, and afterwards for a 

 time justice, and held a variety of other crown 

 appointments. 



In 1332 he was appointed to the prebend of 

 Grindale, as a canon of York, where he 

 occasionally resided, and about the same date he 

 was also given the Wells prebend of St. 

 Decuman, and the Salisbury prebend of Yat- 



8 The clerk whom the king in vain tried to force 

 Bishop GrossetSte to institute to the rectory of St. 

 Peter's, Northampton. 



10 Turner, Select Pleas of the Forest {1899), 84. 



11 Ibid. 89. 12 Forest Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 79. 

 13 Pat. 6 Edw. II. pt. 2, m. 9 ; 7 Edw. II. pt. 2, 



m. 22. 



166 



