A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



bad to worse. Each succeeding master was 

 no better than the last. The hospital became 

 the perquisite of the master and was farmed 

 for his own profit. 1 Nor did that official cease 

 to forward his own interests. In 1336 the 

 royal tax gatherers were forbidden to assess the 

 goods of the hospital, as it had been founded 

 by the king's progenitors, and was so slenderly 

 endowed that there was scarcely a sufficiency 

 for the maintenance of the master and brethren 

 and other poor persons who resorted there. 8 



The condition of the hospital became a 

 public scandal, and reports on its dilapidation 

 and mismanagement were laid before the 

 Bishop of Carlisle and the Crown. The 

 king prohibited the bishop from visitation, no 

 doubt on the representation of Thomas de 

 Goldyngton, the master, as irregular and in- 

 convenient in institutions of royal founda- 

 tion or patronage. 3 Commissions of inquiry 

 into the misrule of the hospital became the 

 order of the day. In 1335 an inquisition 

 ad quod damnum found that the rules had not 

 been observed as they ought to have been 

 for thirty-six years and more, because the 

 said place was burned and totally destroyed, 

 first by the Earl of Buchan's war and after- 

 wards several times by the Scots, so that the 

 constitution had not been and as yet could 

 not be observed. 4 Matters dragged on till 

 the summer of 1340, when a visitation of 

 the hospital was made by a commission con- 

 sisting of the bishop and prior of Carlisle, 

 Robert Parvyng, and Robert de Eglesfeld, 

 parson of Burgh under Stainmore. The 

 whole history and management of the institu- 

 tion was probed to the bottom and a sweeping 

 report on its condition, as already detailed, 

 was made. The master was ordered to appear 

 before the king in his chancery at West- 

 minster, the common seal was taken from 

 him, and the corrody holders were delivered 

 to the custody of the prior of Carlisle. 8 



The internal condition of the hospital was 



1 Pat. 1 5 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 49. 



2 Close, 10 Edw. III. m. 14. 



3 Carl. Epis. Reg., Kirkby, f. 329. 



Inq. a.q.d. 9 Edw. III. No. 6; Pat. 9 Edw. III. 

 pt. ii. m. I4d. The hospital was burnt in 1337 

 by the Scots (Chron. de Lanercost, 292). 



" Pat. 15 Edw. III. pt. i. mm. 49, 48. 

 To the researches made in 1340 and to the ex- 

 emplification of the results of the inquiry on this 

 patent roll we are indebted for much of what we 

 know of the history of this hospital. The roll has 

 been printed in full by Dr. Henry Barnes of Car- 

 lisle (Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Arch. Sue. x. 114- 

 23), and an excellent summary has been given in 

 the Calendar prepared by Mr. R. F. Isaacson of 

 the Public Record Office. To this inquiry, no 



again an anxiety to the authorities in 1380. 

 It was the duty of Simon, Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury, to visit it, but as he was unable 

 through urgent business to do so personally, 

 he commissioned the prior of Wetheral, Hugh 

 de Westbrook, and Adam, parson of Bolton, 

 to undertake the inquiry. The terms of 

 reference extended to divers defects in respect 

 of its houses, books, vestments and other 

 ornaments, the diminution of its chaplains, 

 the alienation and waste of its lands, and 

 quarrels among its ministers. 8 As a new 

 master was appointed a few months after- 

 wards, it may be taken that a reformation had 

 been effected by the visitation. The hospital 

 lingered on as an independent institution till 

 1477, when Edward IV. transferred it with 

 all its lands, tenements, rights, liberties, fran- 

 chises, commodities, and emoluments to the 

 priory of Carlisle, the grant to take effect on 

 the death or cession of the master. For this 

 concession the priory was obliged to find a canon 

 who was a priest, to be called the king's chaplain, 

 to celebrate masses and other divine services 

 in the monastery for the good estate of the 

 king and his consort Elizabeth, Queen of 

 England, and their children, and for their 

 souls after death. 7 It should be remembered 

 that the change in the constitution of the 

 hospital did not impair the right of those who 

 had a legal interest in its endowments. The 

 Dacres continued to exercise the privilege of 

 presentation of poor men to corrodies as the 

 lords of Burgh had done since the days of 

 Hugh de Morvill. On the death of Hum- 

 phrey Lord Dacre in 1484, the nomination 

 to a corrody in the hospital of St. Nicholas, 

 Carlisle, at that time worth 13*. 4^. a year, 

 was reckoned among the Dacre possessions in 

 right of the barony of Burgh-by-Sands. 8 



One feature of the endowments of the 

 hospital deserves a special mention inasmuch 

 as it appears to have been a common appur- 

 tenance of leper houses, that is, a thrave of 

 corn was due from time immemorial from 

 every ploughland in the county of Cumber- 

 land. In 1358 a jury reported a long list of 

 defaulters in various parishes who had de- 

 tained their contributions for the past eight 

 years. These dues ought to have been de- 

 livered in the autumn of each year to the 

 bailiff of the hospital. 9 Bishop Appleby was 

 obliged to denounce the practice in 1371. The 



doubt, we owe the record of the two ancient deeds 

 in the register of Bishop Kirkby. 



6 Pat. 3 Ric. II. pt. ii. m. 2od. 



7 Ibid. 17 Edw. IV. pt. i. m. 16. 



8 Cal. of Inq. p.m. Henry VII. i. 157. 



8 Inq. p.m. 31 Edw. III. pt. ii. No. 53. 



202 



