RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



accustomed to offer. In Walter's lifetime, 

 the hospital received other bequests. For 

 instance, about 1250, the prior and convent 

 of the Cluniac house of Bromholm, Norfolk, 

 granted ' to God and the Brethren of the 

 Hospital of St. John Baptist at Basingstoke ' 

 6s. Sd. of annual rent in Basing, to maintain 

 a lamp to burn day and night before the rood 

 in their chapel. 



The muniments at Merton College afford 

 information with regard to an early corrody 

 at the hospital. An agreement, circa 1240 

 50, was made between Thomas le Forester 

 and the warden and brethren of the hospital, 

 whereby Thomas granted them all the tene- 

 ments in Basingstoke held by him of the chief 

 lord, on their paying him yearly during his 

 life eight quarters of wheat, two of maslin, 

 and two of barley in equal portions at 

 Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter and St. John 

 Baptist's Day ; two loads of oats on the feast 

 of the Purification ; 6s. 8d. at Michaelmas ; 

 and also to find him a fit and competent place 

 to live in within the hospital, namely the 

 upper room (solarium) on the north side of the 

 hall. Also if Joan his wife should survive 

 him, the warden and brethren were to pay her 

 yearly a moiety of the grain. 1 It does not 

 seem clear from this whether or not Joan was 

 an inmate of the house as well as her husband; 

 but in all probability this was the case. 

 Many of the deeds pertaining to this hospital, 

 from 1240 to 1270, speak of ' the warden, 

 brethren, and sisters.' 



The instrument whereby Henry III. took 

 the house under his special protection and 

 made it a royal hospital was dated in 1262 ; 

 and in 1268 the chapel was exempted from 

 episcopal control by the papal legate, Cardinal 

 Ottobon. The college at Oxford was 

 specially enjoined, by each of its successive 

 codes of statutes, dated respectively 1264, 

 1270 and 1274, to maintain and encourage 

 the Basingstoke hospital, and special provision 

 was made for the members of the college 

 having the privilege of residing there if need 

 should arise. Henry III. also granted the 

 hospital perpetual exemption from taxation 

 and payment of subsidies. When the taxers 

 and collectors of the tenths and fifteenths for 

 Hampshire infringed these rights in 1336, 

 the Crown, on complaint, at once interfered, 

 and letters were addressed to the county 



1 Hiit. of Basingstoke, p. 598. This agreement 

 is not only sealed by all the parties to it, but also 

 with the seal of Walter de Merton, the founder. 

 The extracts relative to this hospital from the 

 Merton muniments occupy pp. 593-650 of the 

 appendix to the history. 



II 



officials, citing the perpetual freedom from all 

 secular service and exaction granted by 

 Henry III. and ordering the immediate 

 restitution to the wardens of all that they had 

 levied.* 



Walter de Merton died on 27 October, 

 1277. To this hospital he bequeathed the 

 large sum of 450 marks, as well as 100 marks 

 towards providing a chaplain to celebrate 

 divine service for ever in its chapel. In 

 February, 1284, licence was granted to Peter 

 de Abingdon, warden of Merton College, to 

 convey to the master and brethren of the 

 Basingstoke Hospital one messuage, 150 acres 

 of land, 6 acres of meadow, and 4 of pasture 

 with appurtenances in Basingstoke, and 16 

 acres of land in Iwode. 3 This purchase of 

 property at Basingstoke and Iwode for the 

 hospital was no doubt done in accordance 

 with the terms of the will, wherein it was 

 provided that if land was not bought within 

 four years after his death with the 450 marks, 

 the college was to take the money and pay to 

 the hospital in its stead an annual pension of 

 20.* The 100 marks for the chaplain was 

 intended for the endowment of the definite 

 chantry founded within the hospital chapel, 

 and sanctioned by a charter of Henry III. in 



1253- 



The Hundred Rolls of the beginning of 



the reign of Edward I. furnish the name of 

 the hospital's warden in 1273-4, when the 

 jury returned that Henry Cardeyf, the warden 

 of St. John's Hospital, had encroached on the 

 king's highway to the extent of 10 perches 

 in length and 3 feet in breadth. 5 



In 1336 Edward III. confirmed to the 

 warden of Merton College the mastership of 

 the hospital, to be held for ever in right of 

 his office. 8 However in May, 1344, Edward 

 III. (probably through some blunder of a 

 Crown official) granted the wardenship to John 

 de Hamelton, then vacant, alleging it was 

 of the king's donation. The warden and 

 scholars of Merton College naturally resisted 

 this obvious infringement of their rights, with 

 the result that the appointment was cancelled 

 in the following July, the Crown admitting its 

 error and removing John de Hamelton from 

 the wardenship. 



In 1379 the college began the unhappy 

 principle of leasing the hospital. It was in 

 the first instance leased for a yearly rental of 

 575. to John Underwood and his wife for 



3 Close, 10 Edward III. m. 29. 



3 Pat. 12 Edw. I. m. 16. 



4 Hobhouse's Life of Walter de Merton, p. 48. 

 8 Hundred Rolls (Rec. Com.), ii. 222. 



Woodward's Hist, of Hants, iii. 226. 

 209 27 



