RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



consecrated Bishop of Exeter, and on 15 March 

 1464-5 was translated to York. He would 

 appear to have held the mastership during that 

 period, for there is an indenture dated 9 Novem- 

 ber 1465,*' between Edward IV and George, 

 Archbishop of York, master of the hospital of 

 St. Leonard of York, by which the king 

 restricted the right of the brethren to take wood 

 in the Forest of Galtres, and in compensation 

 for this granted the hospital all his water-mills 

 by York Castle called ' Castelmylnes.' *^ It was 

 during the mastership of Scrope, on 17 March 

 1 46 1, that Henry VI and his son Edward, with 

 the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, paid a visit 

 in state to the hospital, made their ofiFerings at 

 the high altar, and heard vespers.*' 



Not long before its dissolution the hospital 

 received from Henry VIII a grant of exemption 

 from the payment of all tenths and subsidies. 

 The grant, dated 12 November 15 15,*' is some- 

 what unusually effusive in its proclamation of 

 the king's religious devotion. It begins by a 

 record that St. Leonard's was of royal foundation 

 by the king's ancestors, who had richly endowed 

 it, but that these benefactions had been diminished 

 and alienated, and the church and other buildings 

 were fallen down and ruined. The king for 

 the help of the master and brothers, and on 

 account of the singular devotion which he had 

 towards the Holy and undivided Trinity, and 

 the most glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God, 

 and the glorious confessor St. Leonard, and that 

 the master and brothers might pray for the good 

 estate of himself, and of his most dear consort, 

 Katherine, Queen of England, while they lived, 

 and when deceased, for their souls, and those of 

 their forefathers, made the grant above named 

 to John Constable, the master, and the brothers 

 and their successors for ever. What particular 

 misfortune, if any, had just at this period over- 

 taken the hospital is not apparent. 



There is a paper,^' much decayed, relating to 

 the pensions allotted to the master, brethren, and 

 sisters of St. Leonard's on 16 July 1540. It 

 proceeds 'Firste the Mr. there Mr. Magnus 

 shall have the same howse and his dwellyng 

 therin during his lyffe, excepte such howses and 

 buyldinges therunto adioynyng as shall please 

 the kinges majestic to deface or pluck downe.' 

 He was also to have for 'life terme' the Grange 



« Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A. 706. 



« There is a lease (7 Oct. 1530) of their 'waiter 

 mylnes vnder the casteU of Yorke and one Wyndmyln 

 in Heslyngton ffeildes caUed Stnblowe myln ' for 

 twenty-one years at a yearly rent of /12 for the 

 water-mills, and 40J. for the windmiU from Thomas 

 Magnus and the brethren of St. Leonard's to Guy 

 Nelson of York, miller ; Convent. Leases, Yorb. 

 (r.K.O.), no. 1200. 



" Chartul. (Cott. MS. Nero, D. ill), fol. 21c. 

 Pat. 7 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 3. 



" Suppression P. (P.R.O.) iv, fol. 62 



of Beningbrough, and the parsonage of Newton, 

 the latter valued at ^^26 131. 4d., with the yearly 

 sum of ^73 6s. 8d. in satisfaction of his pension 

 of £100. Also for his fuel seventy loads of 

 wood and three * boulkes ' of turves. Four of 

 the brothers each received j^5 ; three * conductes ' 

 received £4. each, and four sisters £2 ^^- ^'^* 

 each. Then under ' Poor Bedfolkes [of] the 

 said late [hospital] ' is an imperfect entry : 

 'Itm the pore bedefolkes called eremites . , . 

 bedrydden and such as be verye old bodies 

 whose yerlie almes every one of th[em] whiche 

 wee have assigned to every . . . their lyfFes to 

 be paid by the . . . Schyre by vertue of a 

 warran . . . [the remainder is lost]. 



According to the Monasticon '" the full comple- 

 ment of the establishment of St. Leonard's com- 

 prised a master or warden, thirteen brethren, 

 four secular priests, eight sisters, thirty choristers, 

 two schoolmasters, 206 headmen, and six servi- 

 tors, but these numbers varied fi-om time to 

 time. The master, thirteen chaplain-brothers, and 

 eight sisters with a number of conversi, besides 

 the sick folk (or ' cremetts ' as they were fre- 

 quently called) appear to have formed the estab- 

 lishment in 1364." 



The revenues varied very much indeed, and 

 if returns are to be trusted the hospital had been 

 much impoverished by the i6th century, when 

 the Faior Ecclesiasticus only shows a clear income 

 of £2,o<) 25. 1 1 \d.,^^ or less than a third of that 

 in 1280, not even allowing for the enhanced 

 value of money. 



The hospital fell with the monasteries, and 

 was surrendered on i December 1540 by 

 Thomas Magnus.'^ 



Masters of St. Leonard's Hospital 



Robert, occurs 1148, 1156** 

 Suane, occurs 11 73,** c. 11 84-5 *' 

 Paulinus de Ledes," occurs 11 99,'* 1200" 

 John, occurs 1 203-4,*' 1204" 

 Ralph de Notyngham, appointed 1203,'^ oc- 

 curs 1 209 ^' 

 Hugh de Gaytington, occiu^ 12 17-41,** died 



c. 1245 



65 



" Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 607. 

 " Chan. Misc. bdle. 21, no. 4. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 17-18. 



'^ L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (2), 623. 



" Chartul. (Cott. MS. Nero, D. iii), fol. 36. 



"Ibid. "HarLChart. 83C,fol. 38. 



"C<z/.i>a/. 1334-8, p. 267. 



" Pipe R. I John, m. 4 d. 



» Easby Chartul. (Egerton MS. 2827), fol. 254*, 

 as a contemporary of Hamo, Abbot of Byland 



" Torh. Fines, John (Surt. Soc.), 81. 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 17. 



'' Hist. ofCh. of York (Rolls Ser.), iii. loe. 



° Chartul. foL 58. " ' > 



" Baildon, Mon. Votes, i, 245. 



^ See above for account of the appointment of this 

 master and his three predecessors. 



343 



