RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Southampton and reeve of the town in 1185. 

 According to an inquisition held in 1229, 

 Gervase le Riche conferred the wardenship on 

 his brother Roger. 1 The earliest charter now 

 extant is a confirmation of the year 1197, 

 by Richard I., of the considerable properties 

 granted to the hospital by the founder, and 

 renewed in 1198 owing to the former royal 

 seal having been lost. 2 These gifts included 

 a rent of two marks on the house known as 

 West Hall, in which Gervase lived ; eight 

 houses and various plots of land in the town 

 and suburb ; a house and land at Portsmouth ; 

 his estate at Gussage in Dorsetshire, and lands 

 in the Isle of Wight. 3 Shortly afterwards 

 William de Chelegrave granted the whole 

 land at Hickley, at an annual rent of five 

 shillings, and by the annual service of a pair 

 of gilt spurs and a pound of cumin ; and 

 William de Redvers, Earl of Devon, granted 

 rights of pasturage and fuel, save for six weeks 

 each year, over the land of ' Werole,' in the 

 Isle of Wight, at a rent of two shillings, pay- 

 ing immediately, through Vincent, the warden, 

 ten marks, and a pair of gilt spurs to Baldwin, 

 the earl's son. 4 



About 1209, Roger son of Mark con- 

 firmed to the hospital, for the support of the 

 priests, brethren and sisters therein, and for 

 the aid of the poor thither resorting, his father's 

 gift of the whole land of 'Werole,' at a rental 

 of six pence in lieu of service. 6 



Amongst the other muniments of the house 

 preserved at Queen's College, Oxford, are 

 charters of special protection from both John 

 and Henry III. 



Warden Robert de Knowell died about 

 Christmas, 1285, whereupon Queen Eleanor, 

 the king's mother, who held Southampton in 

 dower for life, took possession of the hospital 

 through her bailiff?, and conferred the warden- 

 ship on Robert le Stock. The Bishop of 

 Winchester had however, shortly before this 

 date, made good against the town his claim to 

 the advowson in the Court of King's Bench. 

 On hearing of the queen's action, the bishop, 

 through the sheriff", ejected Warden Robert, 

 and appointed in his place, on 3 January, 

 1286, John le Flemang. A few months later 

 Warden John resigned, and on n July, 1287, 

 the bishop issued his mandate for the induction 

 of Richard de Multon. 8 This dispute was 

 brought to trial at Westminster in Hilary 



1 Rolls ofParRament (Rec. Com.), i. 19. 



2 Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 45 1-2. 



3 Davies' Hist, of Southampton, p. 3 20. 



4 Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 453-4. 

 6 Ibid. p. 452. 



8 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, ff. 4, 5. 



term, 1290, before Gilbert de Thornton and 

 John de Mettingham, the king's justices. 

 The pleadings are extant, and are of consider- 

 able length and interest. The judgment was 

 against the bishop, who had to pay 20 

 damages, and Robert le Stock, alias le 

 Aumoner, was reinstated. 7 



The bishop, though defeated on technical 

 grounds, was able to make out a good case. 

 He was able to show from episcopal registers, 

 now lost, that Bishop Peter des Roches (1205 

 44) appointed Warin, a canon of St. Denis, 

 as warden, in succession to Vincent ; that 

 Bishop William de Raleigh (1244-60) 

 appointed John Chilbaton, one of his chaplains, 

 and afterwards Nicholas Rokeland; that Bishop 

 John Gervais appointed William Chernbyne 

 in 1262, and afterwards Robert de Knowell. 

 Warden Bluntesdon, a favourite of the king, 

 seems to have been the first non-resident 

 warden. The scandal of giving the chief 

 emoluments of hospitals founded for the poor 

 and infirm to men who rarely, if ever, visited 

 the house over which they were supposed to 

 preside, became, alas! the rule and not the 

 exception. At God's House this procedure 

 began about a century after its foundation, 

 and was ever afterwards maintained. In 1 297, 

 when the see of Salisbury was vacant, the king 

 gave Bluntesdon the archdeaconry of Dorset, 

 which he held with this wardenship, as well 

 as with other preferments, until his death in 

 1316. 



In 1343 the king granted the custody of 

 God's House to the recent foundation of 

 Queen Philippa and Robert de Eglesfield 

 at Oxford, the provost and scholars of 

 Queen's Hall. By this charter the house 

 with all its appurtenances and rights passed 

 entirely to the hall or college, with the provi- 

 sion that the provost and scholars should 

 sustain all that was required by the original 

 foundation, and should use the surplus (if any) 

 to provide a habitation for any of their scholars 

 who might be afflicted with any incurable or 

 chronic illness. The hall was to enter into 

 possession immediately on the death or resigna- 

 tion of Robert de Eglesfield, the queen's 

 chaplain, who then held the wardenship. 

 After this date the wardens of God's House 

 are identical with the provosts of Queen's 

 Hall, Oxford. In 1347 the king repeated his 

 former charter, stating therein that in conse- 

 quence of so much of the hospital having been 

 burnt by foreign invaders (1338), when its 

 records were destroyed, relief for its depressed 

 condition caused him to remit to the hospital 



7 Rolls of Parliament (Rec. Com.), i. 1 8-20 ; 

 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, ff. 191, 192. 



203 



