A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



further received for his own use, from corrodies, 

 &c., which he sold, no less than ^1,171. Many 

 other grave irregularities as to the collection of 

 the thraves and other matters were reported 

 against Botheby. 



There were sixteen major and minor corrodies 

 granted in the time of Richard de Ravenser, 

 involving an annual payment of £j4. igs. I id., 

 but for these the hospital had duly received lands 

 and rents in York, besides money. Nicholas 

 Slake and his Jocum tenens had sold six corrodies 

 and twenty-two sacerdotal liveries in the in- 

 firmary of the poor folk, contrary to the ordin- 

 ance of the hospital, for ;^466 2s. 8^., which 

 was spent for the master and hospital. He had 

 given his cantarist the office of janitor, worth 

 lOOJ. a year, without anything received in 

 return for the hospital, and had otherwise 

 injured the hospital, and there was an annual 

 charge payable of ^^57 I2s. Unlike Ravenser 

 he had only received money, which was ex- 

 pended and gone, in return for the corrodies, 

 &c., sold by him. 



Robert Bayce, his successor, had sold two 

 great corrodies, and eight sacerdotal and * cre- 

 mettal ' liveries, contrary to the ordinance, for 

 jf 184 6s. 8d., in part for his own private use, 

 and the money had been spent, the hospital 

 having to pay ^^22 Js. 6d. a year in conse- 

 quence. 



William de Botheby had sold thirty-six corro- 

 dies, and had received ^^ 1,836 I2s., chiefly for 

 his own private use. He also sold forty-two 

 sacerdotal liveries in the infirmary of the poor 

 for ;^550 Js. for the use of the hospital and his 

 own private use. He received £'j^ 6s. 8d. for 

 two sisters who were admitted to their habit, 

 ;^20 of which went to his own use. A number 

 of other misappropriations were charged against 

 him in the report, and the hospital was found by 

 the commissioners to be under an annual obliga- 

 tion to pay no less than ;^23i 6s. S^d. for pen- 

 sions, liveries, and corrodies, &c., which he had 

 improperly sold. 



William de Feriby, who succeeded Botheby, 

 was little better. His brother got a corrody of 

 the value of loox. a year for life, and gave 

 nothing in return for it. The commissioners 

 found the annual obligation of the hospital for 

 corrodies, &c., to be ;^386 5j. io^</., and this 

 was more than ;^300 a year in excess of the 

 endowments of the hospital for such a purpose. 



The commissioners found that the hospital 

 owed ;^543 12s. gd., debts incurred by Slake, 

 Bayce, and especially by Botheby. They re- 

 ported that William de Waltham, the then 

 master, had bought up seven corrodies, &c., of 

 the annual charge to the hospital of ;f 32, and 

 that he was striving, as far as he could, to main- 

 tain the hospital to the glory of God. 



When appointing the commissioners, on 

 16 November 1399, the king granted his pro- 



tection for the master, William de Waltham, and 

 the brethren, and ordered that the payments of 

 corrodies should cease, except those to hermits 

 and poor persons residing in the hospital, until 

 the king should make ordinances for the estate 

 of the hospital.*" 



On 18 February 1399-1400 a commission 

 was issued to inquire into the collection of the 

 thraves,*^ at the request of the master and 

 brethren. The thraves were due from every 

 plough ploughing in the counties of York, Cum- 

 berland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, but the 

 report deals only with those in Yorkshire. It i$ 

 a long detailed account of the failure to pay the 

 thraves. The delinquents' names, what they 

 had withheld, and for how long a time, are fully 

 set out, and it is of interest to note that the 

 clergy were quite as remiss in their payments 

 as the laymen ; for instance, the Abbot of 

 St. Agatha (Easby) was seven years in arrear, 

 the Abbot of Coverham was four years in arrear, 

 the Abbot of Meaux no less than twenty years 

 in arrear ; and so in like manner the parochial 

 clergy and layfolk. The return is entered on a 

 skin 2 ft. 3 in. by i ft. 7 in., and contains a pro- 

 portionally long catalogue of defaulters. Many 

 disputes and troubles arose in regard to what 

 was a considerable burden on agriculture in 

 the demand for the thraves." Occasionally 

 agreements were entered into as to them, and 

 the collection of the thraves was farmed out to 

 local people as being, perhaps, the only way of 

 recovering this charge on the land. There is 

 an agreement, dated 8 June 1420,*' between 

 the master and brothers of St. Leonard's and the 

 Prioress and convent of Yedingham, ending a 

 dispute between the parties regarding the thraves 

 due from the nuns. 



The mastership had been held by two bishops 

 at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 

 next century. It was destined at a later period 

 to be held by an Archbishop of York together 

 with his see. On 14 January 1456 Henry VI 

 appointed George Nevill, clerk, to the mastership 

 vice William Scrope, resigned." In 1458 he was 



*" Ca/. Pat. 1 399-1401, p. 131. Much about 

 the same time (24 July 1400) the king granted pro- 

 tection for a ship called ' Clement,' which William de 

 Waltham, the master of St. Leonard's, had freighted 

 at London with divers victuals, &c., for his household 

 at St. Leonard's (ibid. 266). 



" Exch. K.R. Eccl. Com. iii, no. 43. 



" It was possibly dislike of this demand for thraves 

 which led to attacks en the hospital during the unrest 

 of 1382 (Cj/. Pat. I 381-5, pp. 137, 201), and the 

 same cause, accentuated by the misappropriation of 

 the hospital funds, led to rebellion in 1469 (see ' Politi- 

 cal Hist.'), so that in September of that year Ed- 

 ward IV promised to abolish the Petercorn, recom- 

 pensing the hospital in some other way (Cott. MS. 

 Nero, D. iii, fol. 215). 



" Convent. Leases, Yorks. (F.R.O.), no. 1209. 



" Cott. MS. Vesp. xiii, fol. 60. 



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