A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



137. THE HOSPITAL OF 

 ST. LEONARD, LOWCROSS 



Most of what is known about this hospital is 

 contained in a series of some sixty deeds in the 

 Guisborough Chartulary.^' It would appear to 

 have been founded by a member of a family 

 which took its name from Hutton near Guis- 

 borough, as Richard son of Hugh de Hotona 

 confirmed to the lepers of Lowcross 2 acres in 

 Hutton, where the hospital had anciently stood ;'" 

 and John ' dominus de Hoton ' remitted to the 

 Prior and convent of Guisborough his right of 

 nominating a leper to the hospital.^' 



From the charter, already mentioned, ot 

 Richard son of Hugh de Hotona it is evident 

 that the hospital originally was situated at 

 Hutton, but from other charters ^^ in which it is 

 described as the hospital of St. Leonard 'quod 

 est inter Hotonam (Hutton) et Bernaldby ' 

 (Barnaby), it looks as if it had been moved, and 

 it was then known as the hospital of Lowcross, 

 which lies between Hutton and Barnaby. 

 Between 121 8 and 1234 the neighbouring 

 hospital of St. Laurence at Upsall appears to 

 have been suppressed. At any rate, most of its 

 lands were then transferred to the hospital of 

 Lowcross," and this possibly synchronizes with 

 the removal of the hospital to Lowcross. 



A difficulty is presented by the identification 

 on the Ordnance Survey at Hutton, and not at 

 Lowcross, of a site marked ' Lepers Hospital,' 

 and Graves writing of Hutton in i 808 says : ' A 

 part of the buildings which stood in a solitary 

 situation, shut in by rising grounds overhung 

 with deep and solemn woods, has been converted 

 into a farm-house, with stables and other out- 

 offices, in which some mutilated arches of doors 

 and windows are still remaining.' '* It is obvious 

 that he refers to the site marked on the Ordnance 

 Survey. Possibly this was the original site. 



The hospital is called in two of the charters 

 the ' Hospital of the Sick Men of Bernaldby ' ^^ 

 (Barnaby), a natural alternative to that of Low- 

 cross, as it is evident from a charter of Gregory 

 the son of Walter de Bernaldby that the hospital, 

 which had a cemetery attached to it, though in 

 Lowcross, stood on the confines of Barnaby.'^ 

 Elsewhere it is called the ' Hospital of the Sick 

 persons of St. Leonard of the parish of St. Mary 

 of Guisborough.' '' The inmates were of both 



" Guisborough Chartul. (Surt. See.), i, 171-96. The 

 deeds are mostly anterior to c. 1250. 



"Ibid. 171. "Ibid. 193. 



"Ibid. 181. "Ibid. 190. 



" Graves, Hist, of Cleveland, 433. 



" Guisborough Chartul. (Surt. Soc), i, 173, 184-5, 



'- Ibid. 177, no. 345, in which land in Barnaby 

 given to the hospital of St. Leonard of Low- 

 cross IS described as lying on the east of the hospital, 

 and other land by the cemetery on the west of the 

 hospital. "Ibid. 175. 



sexes : ' rratres et sorores, sani et ieprosi, de 

 ecclesia et de domo S. Leonardi de Loucros,''* 

 as they style themselves in one case. The 

 hospital must have been fairly well endowed, from 

 the numerous gifts mentioned in the charters. 

 These included property in Barnaby, Hutton, 

 Lowcross, Kirkleatham, Upsall, Moorsholm, and 

 other neighbouring villages. There was a 

 church '' as well as a cemetery at the hospital. 

 The hospital was governed by a master until it 

 was given to Guisborough Priory by William de 

 Bernaldeby,^" whose gift was confirmed by Peter 

 the son of Peter de Brus." It would seem that 

 the hospital had been taken over by the priory 

 before 1275, as in that year the jurors of the 

 wapentake said that the brewers and bakers of 

 Guisborough used to give alms of ale and bread 

 to the lepers of Lowcross at their pleasure, but 

 the Prior of Guisborough now compelled them 

 to pay \d. every week when they baked or 

 brewed, and these alms he farmed out for i mark 

 or 20i.^ After the hospital became dependent 

 on Guisborough the almoner of the priory 

 became its custos or rector, and the hospital 

 wholly disappears from view.'" It is last men- 

 tioned in 1339,^* but there is no reason to 

 suppose that it was suppressed before the Dis- 

 solution, though it seems to have been absorbed 

 in the priory. 



138-140. THE MALTON HOSPITALS 



The priory of Malton, instead of its canons 

 taking charge of nuns, had three hospitals for the 

 poor attached to it.^° 



The Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, 

 Broughton. — This one of the three hospitals 

 was founded by Eustace Fitz John, the founder 

 of the priory, at or about the same time as the 

 monastery." Henry Latimer gave a toft in 

 Broughton to provide firing for the poor in the 

 hospital.**^ The office of cuitoi appears to 

 have been in the king's gift, at least it is so 

 stated in 1399, when the king appointed 

 Thomas Scawby chaplain.*' 



Wheelgate Hospital. — Another of these 

 hospitals was in Malton itself, in Wheelgate.'" 

 The Cross Keys Inn stands on the site of the 

 hospital, and a crypt still remains. 



''Ibid. 195. ''Ibid. 195, 187. "Ibid. 190. 

 *' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi (2), 781. 

 " Hund. R. {Rec. Com.), i, 1 29. 

 " Guisborough Chartul. i, p. xxi. " Ibid. 



" Graham, St. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gil- 

 ber tines, 37. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi (2), 780. 

 "^ Cott. MS. Claud. D. xi, fol. 242. 

 " Pat. 22 Ric. II, m. 23. 

 " Graham, op. cit. 213. 



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