A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



The third of the documents is the formal 

 ordination of the hospital by Nicholas Farn- 

 ham, Bishop of Durham, dated Northallerton, 

 27 October 1244. In this ordination he speaks 

 of his predecessor Philip as the founder, and 

 states that Philip and other Bishops of Durham 

 had bestowed ecclesiastical and secular gifts on 

 the hospital,'' but that owing to their deaths its 

 ordination had been delayed. He provided that 

 the hospital was to have a resident ' procurator,' 

 known as warden [custos). He was to have a 

 servant, three horses, and two attendants. There 

 were to be two ' honest ' chaplains with two 

 clerks, a baker and brewer with a servant, also 

 a cook with a servant, and five brothers, clerks 

 or laymen, in sound health {sani), who were to 

 have the habit and observe the rule of the brothers 

 of Kepier. One was to be porter and procurator 

 of the poor received each night, another butler 

 and keeper of the store, a third larderer and 

 gardener, the fourth granger, and the fifth in 

 charge of the infirm persons in bed. There were 

 also to be three sisters, with the habit and rule 

 of sisters ; two were to tend the infirm and see 

 to the needs of the house. Thirteen sick people 

 were to be maintained in small beds [/ectulis), 

 and humanely cared for till convalescent, or till 

 death overtook them. When a death occurred, 

 the vacancy was to be filled without delay. 

 Nothing is said as to the sex of the infirm. 

 Every night thirteen other poor folk were to be 

 received at the hospital, and were to have half 

 a loaf apiece with drink. If any was too feeble 

 to go away again, such person was to be provided 

 for at the hospice at the gate. The bread given 

 to the infirm and to the poor folk at the gate 

 was to be of such w ight that a quarter of corn 

 made ten score loaves. When the hospital became 

 richer the infirm and poor travellers were to 

 benefit. Finally, power was reserved to the 

 Bishops of Durham to visit the hospital and cor- 

 rect abuses. Nothing is known about the 

 hospital for more than a century." On 13 July 

 1379'" Archbishop Alexander Nevill held a 

 \isitation of the hospital in the chapel, by his 

 commissaries. The warden, John de Appelby, 

 appeared by his proctor George de Copman- 

 thorpe. He had been warden for a year 

 and more, and all that he had received for his 

 own use was but 2s., as he had spent all he 

 received in the erection of new buildings and the 

 repair of the old ones, both those of the hospital 

 itself and those of its tenants, and of the mills, 

 for all the buildings {domus), for the most part' 

 both of the hospital and outside were, at his 



''Bishop Philip granted certain mills to the 

 hospital ; Turner and Coxe, Ca/. Bod/. Chart. 601. 



" Pope Clement VI, 1342, issued a mandate to the 

 Archbishop of York to cause Margaret de Thorpe alias 

 Homer, to be received as sister in the Poor Hospital 

 of Northallerton ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 86. 



'^ York Archiepis. Reg. Alex. Nevill, fol. 93. 



becoming warden, almost ruinous owing to the 

 neglect of his predecessors. He had erected 

 seven new buildings and had covered with 

 shingles {cum tabulh dictls Chingill) a notable por- 

 tion of the Great House. Being admonished, 

 he exhibited a copy of a certain ordinance, which 

 said that there should be two priests in the 

 hospital, and he admitted that there was only 

 one ; also that there should be three sisters, 

 whereas there was but one sister professed. 

 However there was a second, Constance de Fen- 

 cotes, dwelling there in secular costume with the 

 warden, and he agreed that she should be professed. 

 There ought to be five brothers, clerks or laymen, 

 working in different offices, but there were none. 

 There ought to be thirteen infirm in beds, main- 

 tained out of the funds of the hospital, and it 

 appeared that there were only three. Being 

 asked why there were not more priests, brothers, 

 sisters, and infirm, the warden's proctor replied 

 that the hospital buildings, more particularly that 

 called the Frerehall, needed so much repair that 

 j^ioo would scarcely suffice for this, and more- 

 over, the hospital owed many outside debts, but 

 the warden intended to restore the ancient and 

 full number, and did not mean to receive him- 

 self any of the funds until the repairs were 

 finished and the ancient staff restored. 



Asked as to the outside debts, he replied that 

 Alice de Dighton had 5 marks annually by a 

 deed under the common seal of the hospital in 

 the time of John de Stokys, that the wife of 

 Richard Bricknall had 505., that Alice de Bug- 

 thorp had a corrody in the hospital, and received 

 the share of a sister, that John Perrotson and 

 John Whithone both had corrodies granted by 

 the same. 



The revenues of the hospital consisted, in the 

 first place, of two churches, which averaged yearly 

 £^0, but in the current year had scarcely 

 reached £-^0. There were rents and revenues 

 amounting, by estimation, to 28 marks ; and 3 

 carucates of land and meadow adjacent belonging 

 to the hospital which constituted the whole 

 hospital property. 



Joan, sister of the hospital, was examined, 

 and said they used to receive their liveries 

 {Itberationes) in their own chambers, but that now 

 they ate together in the hall. During the thirty 

 years she had been in the hospital so much care 

 had not been observed in its government as now, 

 and many of the parishioners said the same. 

 Finally, the commissaries decreed that for the main- 

 tenance of divine service in the ensuing year the 

 warden should find another chaplain, and that 

 he should increase the number of paupers as soon 

 as he conveniently could, and when the repairs 

 were finished he should maintain the full number 

 of chaplains, brothers, sisters, and infirm, accord- 

 ing to the ordinance, unless the revenues were 

 so insufficient that he might be reasonably 

 excused. 



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