RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



by the alms of those entering or leaving the town 

 on whose outskirts they were planted. 



Protection was granted by Edward III for 

 two years, in June, 1331, to the master and 

 brethren of the hospital of St. Mary and 

 St. Nicholas (sic), Gorleston, and their mes- 

 sengers collecting alms, as the house had not 

 sufficient means of subsistence. 1 



The house is mentioned in a will of 1372, 

 and again in 1379, when Simon Atte Gap, of 

 Great Yarmouth, bequeathed a legacy of 6s. 8d. 

 towards its maintenance. 2 



Part of its small possessions were held of the 

 manor of Gapton by the tenure of a yearly pair 

 of gloves. In the receipts of Gapton Hall court 

 roll for 1643 ' s entered : 



Received of Humphrey Prince, gent, for one acre 

 called Glove Acre, a payer of gloves, of him for the 

 house, late the hospital of St. James (sic) in South- 

 towne, Geth by the way of Yarmouth 



Some of its lands are now in possession of 

 Magdalen College, Oxford ; they were known 

 as ' Spytelyng in Gorleston.' 4 



55 AND 56. THE LEPER HOSPITALS 

 OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN AND 

 ST. JAMES, IPSWICH 



The first known mention of the leper hos- 

 pital of St. Mary Magdalen, Ipswich, occurs in 

 1199, when King John granted it a fair on the 

 feast of St. James the Apostle. 5 This grant 

 was confirmed and extended by Henry VI in 

 1430, when the fair was authorized to be held 

 on the land of this house, on both the day and 

 the morrow of St. James's festival. 6 



There was also a leper hospital of St. James 

 in this town, which was united to the hospital 

 of St. Mary Magdalen in the fourteenth century, 

 and held by a common master. The joint 

 mastership of the two hospitals was in the gift of 

 the bishop, and to it was usually annexed the 

 church of St. Helen with the chapel of St. Ed- 

 mund. There are many collations to this joint 

 benefice in the diocesan registers. 



In October, 1324, the custody of the ad- 

 ministration of the goods of the leper hospital of 

 St. James, then vacant, was committed to the 

 custody of the (rural) dean of Carlford, according 

 to ancient custom, so that he might answer for 

 the time being for the receipts and expenditure 

 of the house. 7 



1 Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34. 

 1 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff. \, 37. 



3 Gapton Ct. R. cited by Suckling, ibid. 



4 Hist.MSS. Com. Ref>. iv, 461, 463. 



5 Chart. R. I John, pt. ii, No. 91. 



6 Add. Chart. 10104. 



* Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 117. The dues are those of 

 appointment. 



MASTERS OF THE LEPER HOSPITALS OF ST. MARY 



MAGDALEN AND ST. JAMES, IPSWICH 

 Alexander, 8 1336 



William Olde de Debenham, 9 1351 

 John May de Multon, 10 1361 

 Thomas de Claxtone, 11 1367 

 John de Blakenham, 12 1369 

 Stephen Ingram, 13 1385, reappointed 1390" 

 William de Cotsmore, 16 1399 

 William Tanner, 16 1409 

 Robert Markys, 17 resigned 1464 

 Robert Lang, 18 1464 

 Thomas Bullok, 19 1468 

 Thomas Eyton, 20 1472 



57. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, 

 IPSWICH 



There was a third leper hospital of early foun- 

 dation at Ipswich that of St. Leonard, in the 

 parish of St. Peter, near the old church of 

 St. Augustine, 21 probably but slenderly endowed, 

 and relying chiefly on the alms of travellers. A 

 commission appointed in 1520 to define the 

 bounds of the town of Ipswich began its report 

 in these terms : 



' From the bull stake on the Cornhill in the said 

 burgh of Yepiswiche unto the close of the hos- 

 pitall of Seynt Leonard, & from thens . . .' - 



It escaped suppression under Henry VIII and 

 Edward VI. In 1583 Henry Bury was ap- 

 pointed 'Master of the hospital and Sick House 

 of St. Leonard,' vacant by the death of Philip 

 Apprice. At the same time Henry Lawrey, 

 beadle of the hospital, had ^i 6*. 8d. added to 

 his salary for his great pains. 



In 1606 ' the preaching place' in the hospital 

 was ordered to be restored and the head of the 

 pulpit ceiled. 23 



58 AND 59. THE HOSPITALS OF 

 ORFORD 



There seem to have been two hospitals at 

 Orford in honour respectively of St. Leonard and 

 St. John Baptist, the former in all probability for 

 lepers. We have only met with a single record 

 reference to each. 



The master and brethren of the hospital of 

 St. Leonard, Orford, obtained the royal licence 

 to seek alms in October, I32O. 24 



8 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 88. 9 Ibid, iv, I 34. 



10 Ibid, v, 53. " Ibid, v, 76. Ibid, v, 86. 



13 Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 17. 



14 Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40. 



15 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 252. 16 Ibid, vii, 23. 

 17 Ibid, xi, 145. "Ibid. 

 "Ibid, xi, 170. "Ibid, xi, 184. 

 " Taylor, Index Man. 1 1 6. 



" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 232. 

 " Add. MS. 19094, fol. 144. 

 * 4 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 16. 



139 



