28 CHARTER, ST, LAWRENCE DE PONTEBOY. 



Oct. n , 1395, granted an indulgence ' ad sustentacionem pauperum 

 leprosorum Sancti Laurencii juxta Bodminiam.' Again, in Lacy^s 

 Eegister, vol. iii, fol. 125, March 5, 1435, is a similar indulgence 

 to S. Laurence." These appear to be the earliest notices of the 

 Hospital. No other record of its existence has come to my know- 

 ledge previously to that which is to he found on the certificates of 

 colleges, hospitals, chantries, free chapels, &c., in the counties of 

 England and Wales. An abridged copy of those relating to Corn- 

 wall and Devon is inserted in the Supplement to Dr. Oliver's 

 Monasticon of the Diocese of Exeter, p. 483, under the head of 

 " Chantry EoUs." The abstract, furnished at my request by my 

 friend Mr. Cole, then one of the assistant keepers of public re- 

 records at Carlton Ride, was supplied to Dr. OHver as a contribu- 

 tion to his important edition of the Monasticon of that diocese. 



The name of the founder in that report is left in blank, and that 

 blank has never been supplied. At the date of the report (about 

 37 Henry VIII), the charity is said to be for the maintenance of 

 " nineteen Lazare peple, tow hole men, tow hole women, and one 

 pryste, to mynystre unto them in a chappell adjoyning to the sayd 

 hospital not farre distant from the paryshe churche ; " the yearly 

 value of the possessions is there stated to be <£4. 14s. l^d., and 

 the value of the ornaments, jewels, plate, goods, and " catalls," to 

 be 30s. 



The next instrument is the above Charter of Elizabeth. It 

 recites the existence for a long time past of a great company of 

 lazar people by the name of " Prior, brethren, and sisters," at the 

 place called St. Lawrence de Pontboy, in the parish of " Bodman," 

 who had never theretofore been incorporated by the Queen or her 

 progenitors. The Charter then declares them to be a corporation 

 by the name of the Hospital or Almshouse of Elizabeth Queen of 

 England of St. Lawrence de "Ponteboy" in the parish of "Bod- 

 man." The number of lepers at the time of the charter is stated 

 to be 36. By the new incorporation, the style of the body is to be 

 *'the master or governor, brethren, and sisters" of the Hospital, 

 and there are to be in all forty persons ; — viz., 39 " poor men and 

 women, leprous people," and the master. The brethren are to be 

 elected by the general body, and the master by the brethren and 

 sisters. All the late possessions of the body specified therein are 

 granted to the new body, to have and to hold to them and their 



