A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



60 acres of wood in Huntingdonshire, ' Over- 

 dene ' in Beds, and the manor of Barford by 

 Newnham called Veysis, also a messuage called 

 le Swan on the Hope, 60 acres of land and 

 10 acres of meadow in Higham Ferrers and 

 Newenton, Northamptonshire.^ Sir Robert 

 Chicheley, a brother of the archbishop, Lord 

 Mayor of London in 1411 and 1 42 1, left by his 

 will several houses in the parish of St. Antholin 

 to the college of Higham Ferrers ; he died in 

 1440.* 



The college made formal acknowledgement 

 of the king's supremacy on 31 August, 1534. 

 The deed was signed by William Fauntleroy, 

 Thomas Frear, Robert Goldson, Thomas Gamon, 

 Thomas Mylys, and Thomas Pyck.* According 

 to the Valor of 1535, Gilt)ert Gulson was 

 entered as master ; in another part of the return, 

 however, he is rightly given as Robert Gulson 

 (Goldson). His stipend was ;^30 ; that of 

 Thomas Frear, the vice-warden, £i(i \()s. 2d. ; 

 Nicholas Stere, the grammar-school master, 

 ;^2i III. 3^/. ; Thomas Gamon, chaplain, 

 £1^ Ijs. lid.; Thomas Pykkell, chaplain, 

 £1^ ijs. lid.; Roger Browne, chaplain^ 

 £12 lis- 2d. ; and Hugo Garfett, ;^I3 lis. ^d.* 

 The annual sum of £i() i^s. ^d. was paid at 

 the rate of id. a day to thirteen poor persons 

 daily praying for the soul of Henry Chicheley, the 

 founder. The barber's annual fee for shaving 

 the bedesmen was 6s. Sd., the oil for the lamp 

 burning at night in their dormitory cost 5;., and 

 other incidental expenses brought the expenditure 

 for these pensioners to ;^23 igs. id. The clear 

 annual value of the college was ^^93 is. ()\d.^ 



The college was ' surrendered ' to Henry VIII. 

 on 18 July, 1542. The surrender deed was 

 signed by Robert Goldson, Thomas Frere, and 

 Thomas Graive.^ On 7 August of the same 

 year the whole of the college property was granted 

 to Robert Dacres, a member of the king's coun- 

 cil.7 There was, however, a rent charge re- 

 served on the property of the dissolved college 

 for the maintenance of the pensioners of the bede- 

 house. In 1665 this rent charge was £2^. 

 John Willis, bedesman, was then commonly 

 called the prior in respect of his seniority, but he 

 had not been formally elected to that office, and 

 received the same allowance as the rest.* 



The bedehouse founded at Higham Ferrers by 

 Chicheley, in a building, though long disused for 

 its original purpose, still standing to the south of 

 the parish church and away from the college, 



1 Ibid. 12 Hen. VI. pt. I, m. 14; 13 Hen. VI. 

 pt. I, m. 20. 



2 J. Cole, Hist, of Higham Ferrers (1838), p. 173. 



3 L. and P. Hen. Fill. vii. 1121 (65). 



* These sums include not only stipends but money 

 for obits and daily distributions. 



6 Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 307-9. 



6 L. and P. Hen. VII. xvii. 509. 



7 Ibid. 714 (8). 



* Lambeth MS. 951. 



was a part of the college foundation, and under 

 the superior control of the master and his brethren, 

 and is therefore not separately considered under 

 the head of hospitals. In the bedehouse resided 

 twelve poor men, with one woman to wait on 

 them. One of them, sober and wise, was chosen 

 to be their governor, and called the prior ; any 

 withstanding him was to be expelled. Every 

 man chosen had to be ' sworne on a book that 

 hath the Gospel in it ' before the warden or sub- 

 warden that he would be true to the house and 

 help to maintain it. Each of them received, as 

 has been already mentioned, a penny a day. 

 Pensioners were not to be under fifty years of 

 age, and were under obligation to pray daily for 

 the king, the founder, and their benefactors. 

 They need not rise till seven in the summer and 

 eight in the winter, when they should go to 

 church, returning at nine ' to take such meat as 

 God had sent them.' Each on being admitted 

 to the house should bring with him a bedstead, a 

 mattress, bolster and pillow, two pairs of sheets, 

 a blanket, and a coverlet ; also a brass pot of two 

 gallons, a brass pan and pewter dish, and a s.aucer. 

 Immorality entailed expulsion, and after the fourth 

 warning brawling and disorder were similarly 

 punished. There should be a box with a hole 

 in the lid placed in the centre of the dormitory 

 for well-disposed people 'to put in their charity' ; 

 the box should have two locks and two keys, the 

 warden of the college to keep one and the prior 

 of the bedehouse the other, and should be opened 

 once a year, on St. Thomas's Day, when the con- 

 tents should be equally divided among the in- 

 mates. Certain brethren were appointed at par- 

 ticular seasons to ' go abroad to gather up the 

 devotions of the brotherhood.' At two o'clock 

 in the afternoon the brethren went to the church 

 and remained there till four, when they came 

 home to supper. At six o'clock the bell at the 

 west end of the hospital was rung for half an 

 hour to call all the brethren together, and then 

 every man knelt at his chamber door [i.e. the 

 cubicles opening out of the hall), and there prayed 

 for the king's majesty and all their well-wishers 

 until seven, and at eight they went to bed. It 

 was ordained that only those who were ' clean 

 men of their bodies, without blotches, blains, or 

 boils,' should be admitted, and if anyone con- 

 tracted a disease noisome to the others he should 

 go to his friends until cured. Every inmate 

 might visit his friends for a week in the year and 

 receive his daily wage, but if he tarried longer 

 the daily penny was to be forfeited. Every 

 Friday a barber attended to shave and dress their 

 heads. A lamp was to be kept burning in the 

 midst of the dormitory during the winter from 

 six to eight, and then to be extinguished. Each 

 brother on his admission, if he possessed no gown 

 of his own, should have the best gown of his 

 deceased predecessor, for which he should pay 

 3J. 4a'., together with ^d. for the brethren to 

 make merry withal, bd. for oatmeal and salt, 2d. 



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