A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Protection was given by the king in May 1316 ' 

 and December 1325 * to the keeper or warden 

 of this house. 



In 1343, at the request of John Darcy le fitz, 

 Edward III gave the chaplains of the hospital 

 licence to acquire in mortmain land and rent 

 to the yearly value of ^^lo ' ; and in part satis- 

 faction of this amount they received in 1350 

 100s. rent from land in Great and Little Chishall 

 (co. Camb.),*^" in 1353 messuages and land in 

 Buntingford, Barkway, Hormead, Braughing, 

 Buckland, Wyddial and Alswick in Layston 

 worth i6s. a year,'^ and in 1366 75 acres and lOJ. 

 rent in Great and Little Hormead, Braughing 

 and Buntingford.^ 



This house is sometimes called the ' poor ' 

 hospital of St. Mary,^ no doubt with truth, since 

 only the brothers' pressing need could have 

 caused their arrangement in 1405 with a certain 

 Ralph Cokkyng." For 50 marks they made over 

 to Ralph for sixty years land in Little Hormead 

 and elsewhere valued at 5 marks a year. It was 

 understood that Ralph was to settle land in 

 Royston worth 40^. a year on the hospital, but 

 he never did so. Thirty years later it was 

 alleged that damage to the extent of more than 

 50 marks had been done to the hospital's 

 property by Ralph's son and successor. The 

 hospital or free chapel,^* as it had now become, 

 is not mentioned again until August 1589, when 

 it was granted by the Crown to WiUiam Tipper 

 and Robert Dawe.^* 



Masters or Wardens " of St. Mary Biccinc, 

 Anstey 



John, occurs 1287^* 



John de Boclonde, occurs August 1308 " 



Richard, occurs 1368'"' 



Nicholas Mokkyng, occurs January 1401 -' 



and c. 1405 ^ 

 Thomas Whightfeld, occurs c. 1435^ 



' Ca/. Pal. I 31 3-17, p. 462. 



' Ibid. I 324-7, p. 202. 



» Ibid. 1 343-5, p. 155. 



" Ibid. 1348-50, p. 569. 



" Ibid. 1350-4, p. 423. 



" Pat. 40 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 9. 



" Cal. Pal. 13 + 3-5, p. 155 ; 1348-50, P- 569- 



" Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 39, no. 24. 



'^ In 1 40 1 it is called a chapel or college. 



" Pat. 31 Eliz. pt. V, m. 37. 



'" The master in the Lay Subs. R. of 1291 (bdle. 

 120, no. 2) is called 'prior.' 



18 Assize R. 325, m. 2. 



" Sharpe, op. cit. 95. 



*> Dugdale, Mon. vi, 762. 



'1 Cal. Pat. I 399-1401, p. 363. He was also a 

 prebendary of the collegiate church of Llandewybreny 

 in the diocese of St. Davids. 



-- Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 39, no. 24. 



33 Ibid. 



22. HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST, 

 BERKHAMPSTEAD 



The earliest mention of this hospital occurs 

 in a charter of Geoffrey Fitz Piers Earl of 

 Esse.x," which shows that the custody of the 

 house had already been committed by him to 

 the brothers of St. Thomas the Martyr of Aeon. 



On I March 1216-17 Queen Isabel for the soul 

 of King John gave the hospital to the canons 

 of Aeon,** but whether this was a confirmation 

 of Fitz Piers'sdeedoranamphfieationis not clear. 

 The queen added that the hospital had of her 

 gift tithes of all her mills in the sokes of Berk- 

 hampstead and Hemel Hempstead, 15 acres of 

 land in ' Selidone ' and all the dike work with 

 herbage between the fish-pond and the hospital, 

 the whole length of the fish-pond, viz., from the 

 road called Water Lane to the church of 

 St. James, the land late of Roger the Cordwainer, 

 and another piece next the hospital, 15 cartloads 

 of fuel in the ' hay ' of Berkhampstead and 

 25 loads in the wood of ' Brennendon,' perhaps 

 Bovingdon in Hemel Hempstead, leave to feed 

 20 pigs in the said ' hay ' and wood, and pan- 

 nage and pasture for the hospital's cattle in 

 the common pastures of Berkhampstead. As 

 Isabel confirmed to the hospital whatever it had 

 already acquired in her fee of Berkhampstead 

 and in Hemel Hempstead, these gifts were 

 possibly fresh endowment. It will be noticed 

 that the hospital had, or by this charter acquired, 

 rights in the property lying between its site and 

 the chapel of St. James, the proximity of which 

 appears to have led to an interchange of the 

 names of th'' two foundations. Thus Chauncy *' 

 speaks of the hospital of St. James so called 

 from St. James's Well,*' while the spring itself 

 has for some time now been known as St. John's 

 Well. The hospital chapel was rebuilt in 1331 

 and was consecrated at the end of that year or 

 the beginning of the next.** 



** Inspeximus and confirmation July 1325 {Cal. 

 Pat. 1324-7, p. 128). 



^' Inspeximus and confirmation 10 Dec. 1318 

 {Cal. Chart. R. 1300-26, p. 399). A hospital of 

 Berkhampstead was confirmed to the canons of Aeon 

 by Pope Honorius 7 July in the fourth year of his 

 rule, probably Honorius III in 1220 (Cott. MS. 

 Tib. C V, fol. 271). 



2« Hist. Antiq. of Herts. 587. 



3^ Cobb {Hist, and Antiq. of Berkhamstead, 72) 

 marked this spot as the site of one of the hospitals, 

 pointing to the names ' Spital Mead ' and ' the Spital 

 trees ' in proof, but he thought the hospital th.it 

 of St. John the Evangelist. The nearness of tl.e 

 hospital of St. John Baptist to the old parochial chapel 

 makes the connexion of both with the brotherhood of 

 St. John Baptist seem more probable. See V.C.H. 

 Herts, ii, 163, 172. 



-* The Bishop of Lincoln's commission to Peter 

 Bishop of ' Corbavia ' to consecrate is dated 8 kal. 

 Jan. 1 33 1 (Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Burghersh, 

 fol. 239). 



458 



