A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



their lives jointly and separately, or for forty 

 years as a term. In 1395 it was leased for 

 twenty-five years to John Carter, vicar of 

 Basingstoke, who was to reside there with his 

 own servants, and to receive once a year one 

 of the Merton fellows, with his servant and 

 three horses for a day and two nights. At 

 his entrance the vicar received a missal and 

 breviary, a chalice, vestments, and apparel 

 for the altar, all of which he was to answer 

 for at the end of the term. 



Soon after this, attention was drawn to the 

 highly unsatisfactory state of the hospital, and 

 Henry IV. ordered an inquisition as to its 

 actual state. The statement of the jury, 

 sworn at Basingstoke on 30 November, 1401, 

 was to the effect that the hospital was founded 

 to maintain a chaplain, a clerk and two poor 

 people, as well as the poor and sick scholars 

 of Merton College ; that during the past six 

 years there had been no clerk nor the two 

 poor people maintained there, and this by 

 default of the warden of Merton, who was 

 ex qfficio warden of the hospital ; that the 

 clear yearly value of the hospital was $ 6s., 

 and that the profits and issues had been and 

 still were received by the warden. On the 

 delivery of this verdict, the revenues of the 

 hospital were seized by the Crown in order 

 to secure the fulfilment of its rights and bur- 

 dens ; they were not restored until 1405. 



In 1434 the college again leased the 

 hospital, the holder of the lease being bound 

 to reside there with his servants, to provide a 

 chaplain to celebrate in the chapel, if he was 

 unwilling or unable to celebrate there himself ; 

 to keep the houses and enclosures in repair ; 

 to reserve fit chambers {cameras honestai) for 

 the two poor people or others sent there 

 according to the statutes on account of sick- 

 ness ; to allow any thus sent to serve the 

 chapel if they wished, and if there are several 

 priests sent they are to have portions of the 

 stipend allowed ; not to cut down trees or 

 make waste save that which is required for 

 repairs, for fences and for fuel ; and to enter- 

 tain the bursar or another member of the 

 college at his own expense each year for a day 

 and two nights. The college was to pay 

 40*. towards the building of the great barn and 

 for the repairs of the house within three years, 

 and after the three years 1 31. 4^. 



A lease for seven years made in 1455, at a 

 yearly rent of 1 31. ^.d., provided that in case of 

 the re-building of the mansus hospitalis, lately 

 destroyed by fire, the rent of it was to be 

 added to the 131. ^d. A lease of 1479 has 

 endorsed upon it an inventory of the chapel 

 goods. They included a missal, chalice, 

 corporal and two cases, two dalmatics, one 



green and the other blue, an albe and an amice, 

 three altar cloths, two cruets, a brass vessel 

 for holy water and a brass handled sprinkler, 

 and a blue coloured stole. 



The 20*. yearly stipend due to the chaplain 

 out of the farm of St. John's was claimed by 

 the Crown in 1551, the office of the chaplain 

 being probably of the nature of a chantry 

 priest. Merton College opposed, and by a 

 Chancery decree of November in that year, 

 the college was exonerated from the yearly 

 payment of this sum to the Crown. The 

 leases of the hospital throughout the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries, down to one 

 entered into with Elizabeth Knight at 4. 

 rental, for twenty-one years, in 1695, all 

 provide for maintenance of the chapel ; but 

 no lease after 1543 says anything about a 

 chaplain. 



William Sherwin, fellow of Merton, 

 visited the hospital on 16 June, 1697, and 

 reported at length to the college, chiefly as to 

 their lands and woods, which he valued as at 

 least worth 80 per annum. As to the 

 fabric he says : 



The house is but low, ordinary and mean, but 

 it is kept in tenantable repair and that is all, 

 though there has lately been some money laid out 

 upon it. The place reserved for such fellows as 

 are distract is separate from the chief house, is 

 extremely dark and fit for none but persons in that 

 condition. There is a sort of chapel near, in 

 which formerly there was preaching once a month 

 and the tenant paying the curate, and was on that 

 account exempted from all tithes. It would be a 

 mighty improvement to our estate, and the tenant 

 would be glad to pay a curate could the custom 

 be revived, but I am afraid it has been disused too 

 long. 



In letters written by Dr. Warton (son of 

 the vicar of Basingstoke), poet laureate and an 

 antiquary, to the bursar of Merton College in 

 1772 and 1773, it is stated that part of the 

 chapel of Walter de Merton's hospital still 

 remained, built of flint, with one or two 

 stout-mullioned Gothic windows built up ; it 

 had a semicircular ceiling of boards in small 

 panels, with the founder's arms on little 

 shields at some of the intersections. The 

 dimensions given are extraordinarily small, 

 namely ' about twelve feet long and five 

 broad within the walls' but it must be 

 remembered that at its best this was a very 

 small foundation, merely two resident poor 

 brothers in addition to chaplain and clerk. 

 When Dr. Warton wrote, the little chapel 

 was divided into two floors, a bedroom above, 

 with a kitchen ; it is described as standing on 

 the banks of the Lodon, about 200 yards 

 north-east of the church, 



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