A HISTORY OF DORSET 



The Valor of 1535, which gives the hospital 

 as the priory of Blessed Mary Magdalen of 

 Bridport, states that it was worth £b^ and tliat 

 Henry Danyell was prior there" ; by the chantry 

 commissioners it was valued at ^t 8j. 4^., and 

 again at £"] is. ^.d., and they reported that it had 

 among its possessions 'one chalice of 6 oz.,' two 

 pairs of old vestments, two candlesticks worth 

 Sd., and two bells worth 20s. ; the house was 

 certified 



to be ordeyned for the relief of lepers and lazar 

 men and to one priest to sny mass before them, the 

 profits thereof the priest hath for his stipend, the 

 poor men live by alms of the town." 



The last incumbent, Robert Blakewell, received 

 a pension of ^^6." In the third year of his reign 

 Edward VI granted the hospital and lands 

 belonging to it to Sir Michael Stanhope and 

 John Bellow, and in the same year they came 

 into the possession of Giles Kelway." Urtder 

 the name of the Magdalen Charity the hospital 

 still exists as an almshouse for eight poor 

 women. 



Masters 



John Brode, occurs 1444'^ 

 Henry Danyell, occurs 1535 " 

 Robert Blakewell, last incumbent ^* 



21. HOSPITAL OF LONG BLAND- 

 FORD 



Hutchins states that there was here a hospital 

 for lepers, mentioned in an old deed of the date 

 of 10 Edward I." Nothing further is known of 

 its existence, but local tradition preserves its 

 memory in a farmhouse w thin the parish of 

 Langton or Langton Long Blandford, known as 

 St. Leonard's Farm. 



22. HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY AND 

 THE HOLY SPIRIT, LYiME 



Beyond one reference we know nothing of 

 a hospital for lepers founded here. In 1336 

 Bishop Robert Wyville of Salisbury granted an 

 indulgence for the repair of the fabric and bell- 



tower, 



20 



" rahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 232. 



" Chant. Cert. 16, Nos. 51, 62. 



" Pensions to Religious in Dorset, Add. MS. 1 9047, 

 fol. 8 d. 



'* Hutchins, op. cit. (ed. 3), ii, 206. '* Ibid. 1 6. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 232. 



"Add. MSS. 19047, fol. id. 



" Hist, of Dorset, i, 98. 



^' Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, i, fol. 40 d. Hutchins, 

 Tanner, and Dugdale state that this hospital is valued 

 in the chantry certificate of Edward \' I at 38/. iid., 

 but further evidence is wanting to establish identity 



23. HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN THE 

 BAPTIST, BRIDPORT 



Though the date of its foundation cannot be 

 exactly stated it is evident, from its mention 

 in various deeds of the time of Henry III 

 belonging to the corporation of Bridport, that 

 the hospital here, like that of Allington, was 

 already in existence in the earlier half of the 

 thirteenth century.-^ Among these documents 

 is a charter, dated 1240, which recites that 

 Helias de Wroccheshel, for the good of his soul 

 and those of his ancestors and successors, has 

 granted and confirmed to the house of the 

 Blessed John the Baptist in Bridport within the 

 east bridge, and to the brethren and sisters 

 serving God there, leave to graze ten oxen, four 

 yearling cows, one hog, one steer, and fifty sheep 

 in the whole of his pasture land at Walditch, 

 except in his meadows in fence-time [in tempore 

 defencionii), as well as sufficient fencing from 

 his wood to inclose their land in Wal- 

 ditch.^' Another deed sets forth an agreement, 

 made on Christmas Day, 1 271, whereby John, 

 son of William Telle of Bridport, leased to Sir 

 William, prior of the hospital of St. John, a cer- 

 tain croft situated between the land of St. John 

 and the way leading to the mill of Richard 

 Killing, together with a house, curtilage, and 

 croft bounded by the curtilage which lately 

 belonged to Osbert Baldwyn.*' The benefactors 

 of the hospital were numerous, and included 

 Mabel, the daughter of Edward Hux, who, in 

 her widowhood, gave to God and the brethren 

 and sisters serving God in the hospital of St. John, 

 Bridport, I J acres of land in Portmannefeld for 

 the soul of Richard her late husband ; "'' 

 Richard Hux, who, by charter undated but 

 belonging to the time of Edward I, engaged 

 himself to pay 1 2d. yearly to Roger de Rydeclive, 

 warden of the hospital and his successors, from 

 his tenement in the South Street of Bridport ; ^' 

 Christine de Stikelane, who, by her will, dated 

 in 1268, left various small sums to the religious 

 foundations of her town, bequeathed 'xiif^. to the 

 "church" of the Blessed John.'^^ 



Little is recorded of this hospital beyond what 

 is contained in these and similar charters. It 

 appears to have been in the patronage of the 

 bailiffi and commonalty of Bridport, who, by 

 an indenture dated on Sunday after the Feast of 



between this hospital for lepers and the seri'ice of the 

 Blessed Man,-, for which the sum of 38/. lid. was 

 applied towards the finding of a clerke and children,' 

 the only entry under Lyme Regis in the said chantry 

 certificate. Chant. Cert. 16, No. 71. 



" Rec. of Corp. of Bridport (Hist. MSS. Com.), 

 Rep. vi, App. 475-99. " Ibid. 4S2. 



" Given by Hutchins from the same source. Hist. 

 of Dorset, ii, 19. 



" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 4-9. 



" Ibid. 484-j. 



" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 19, note a. 



100 



