RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



master could not deny the agreement or its 

 non-observance, and was ordered by the 

 court to pay damages and a fine, but was 

 afterwards pardoned the one because he had 

 sowed the land and the other on account of his 

 poverty. 



In 125 s Avelina wife of Geoffrey le Clerk 

 sued Walter, the warden of St. Mary Magdalene, 

 for withdrawing the corrody " granted to her 

 for life by a former warden, William Peverel.'* 

 Walter's plea was that the wardens, who were 

 removable by the patron, could not make any 

 valid charter without his consent. It was 

 proved, however, that Wilham and his prede- 

 cessors had let their lands as they chose, and 

 that masters of the hospital had often granted 

 corrodies similar to that given to Avelina, who 

 accordingly recovered hers. 



Avelina and her husband ** in 1 263 sold to 

 Robert, prior of the hospital, 40J. rent in Hert- 

 ford. 



As the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene was 

 in the hands of friars of the Holy Trinity in 

 1287,'' there can be no doubt that it was the 

 leper-house outside Hertford, of which brothers 

 of the Trinitarian order had taken possession 

 about 1261 " after removing the lepers.^* 



The hospital appears to have been under 

 the direction of the head of the friary at 

 Easton," and it is interesting to notice that 

 Prior Robert's attorney in 1263 was a certain 

 brother Robert de Eston. Houses under the 

 Maturine rule were always dedicated to the 

 Trinity,"* and after 1287 the hospital of St. 

 Mary Magdalene is heard of no more. As the 



'^ A brother's allowance and feed for a horse 

 during four months of the year. 



" Assize R. 320, m. 15. 



" Here called Geoffrey de Horemedwe (Feet ot 

 F. Herts. 47 Hen. Ill, no. 571). 



" Cal. Pat. 1282-91, p. 267. 



" Hun J. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 194. The lepers are 

 also mentioned in a rental of the monks of Hertford 

 (B.M. Chart. L.F.C. x [14]) as follows : 'from the 

 lepers of the hospital of Hertford Sd. viz. 4.J. for 

 J ac. of land given them by Ralph son of Chapman 

 which lies in Middelfeld and 4^/. for land in Middel- 

 feld given them by Reyner Holman.' 



" The revenue of Trinitarian houses was divided 

 into three parts and devoted to the support of the 

 friars, the relief of the poor and the redemption of 

 Christians taken captive by infidels (Dugdale, Mon. vi, 

 1558). The leper hospital was probably brought to 

 an end by financial straits, which are indicated in the 

 cases cited above. 



" Presumably Easton (co. Wilts.), where there 

 was a house of Trinitarians, though it is difficult to 

 understand such an arrangement when there was a 

 much nearer friary at Hounslow. 



«« Dugdale, loc. cit. 



hospital of Holy Trinity it was receiving a rent 

 of 105. from a water-mill in Hertingfordbury in 

 I3SS> 1360 " and 1383-4, «* and at the last date 

 is mentioned as holding a fair,** half the tolls 

 of which it paid to the king's bailiff of Hertford. 

 There was apparently still a community here in 

 1448, when the chamberlain and warden of ' the 

 hospital of the poor of the Trinity and St. 

 Thomas the Martyr ' at Hertford admitted 

 Walter Devereux and his wife Ann to the 

 benefits of the order and of masses in the 

 hospital.'* 



How much longer it lasted as a rehgious house 

 is uncertain. A bequest to ' the chapel of the 

 Trinity in Hertford ' in 1504" does not neces- 

 sarily imply that the friary was then no longer 

 in existence, though it probably came to an end 

 some years before the general Dissolution, for 

 it was described when granted to Anthony 

 Denny in 1540 as a ' messuage ' called le 

 Trynytie in Hertford formerly belonging to the 

 Crossed Friars in Mottenden.** 



Its property consisted of 10 acres of arable 

 land in the common fields, half an acre of 

 meadow and a close called ' le Freres Crofte ' in 

 Hertford, 10 acres in Dixwell, 4 acres in Hat- 

 field, and 6 acres of wood in Amwellbury,*'' 

 where 5 acres had been acquired in 1300 by the 

 friars of Easton.** 



Nothing is said of the rent in Roydon, co. 

 Essex, or of the land at Stanstead. 



Wardens of Hertford 



William Peverel, occurs before 1255 *' 

 Walter, occurs 1255 '" 

 Robert, occurs 1 263 ""■ 

 Wilham, occurs April 1287 '* 



«l Mins. Accts. bdle. 865, no. 17, 18. 



«2 Ibid. bdle. 53, no. 998. 



«' As the fair was held on the feast of St. Mary 

 Magdalene it was probably not of recent grant. 



6* Hisi. MSS. Cm. Rep. iii, App. 251. 



9' Will of Sir Robert Watson, clerk (P.C.C. 

 4 Holgrave). 



66 Pat. 32 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. I. Mottenden 

 in the parish of Headcorn (Kent) was the head house 

 in England of the Maturine brothers, here called 

 Crossed Friars because they wore a cross on their 

 gowns. The Trinitarians, of course, are not the same 

 as the Crossed or Crutched Friars, one of the four 

 great orders of Mendicant Friars. 



6' Ibid. 



68 Inq. a.q.d. 29 Edw. Ill, file 35, no. 10. 



69 Assize R. 320, m. 15. 



^"Ibid. , „ „- 



71 He is called prior (Feet of F. Herts. 47 Hen. Ul, 



no- 571)- , ,,r • 1. 



72 He is called minister, as the Maturine rule 



required {Cal. Pat. 1282-91, p. 267). 



453 



