RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



All archidiaconal rights of visitation were 

 ceded to the hospital, so that no archdeacon 

 of Surrey nor his official could exercise any 

 kind of jurisdiction over any persons, regular 

 or secular, within the hospital in any causes, 

 civil or criminal. The brethren or their 

 commissary had sole cognizance of all such 

 matters, and also had the proving of the wills 

 of persons dying within their precincts. For 

 these concessions the house paid an annual 

 pension of 51. 4</. to the archdeacons of 

 Surrey at Easter. Nevertheless the hospital 

 was not strictly a peculiar, for the bishop 

 claimed and exercised powers of visitation.* 



The following are the chief grants to the 

 hospital in the earlier part of the thirteenth 

 century cited in the chartulary : Alice de 

 Chalvedon, widow, granted circa 1235 all 

 her lands in Chaldon ; in consideration 

 whereof Adam de Merton and the brethren 

 agreed to find her a suitable bed within the 

 hospital for life, with all reasonable neces- 

 saries such as would suffice for two sisters of 

 the house, and to her maid as to one of the 

 maids of the house ; she was also to have 

 5i. (>d. a year for her clothing and fuel, but 

 to demand nothing else.^ Everard de Cater- 

 ham gave lands and 2s. rent at Caterham ; ^ 

 John de Marlow, clerk, gave mills and osier 

 beds at Marlow, in Buckinghamshire,* and 

 Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford, and his 

 son, Gilbert de Clare, lands worth ;£20 a 

 year and quit rents in the manor of Marlow.^ 



A commission was issued in November 

 1276 to inquire into the complaint of the 

 brethren of the hospital, that Ralph le 

 Aumoner and many others, claiming author- 

 ity from Nicholas, Bishop of Winchester, 

 and asserting that the custody of the hospital 

 belonged to the bishop, entered without 

 leave of the brethren, and consumed and 

 wasted the possessions, victuals and other 

 goods of the hospital.' 



There was a considerable dispute at the 

 time of the election of Richard de Hulmo as 

 master in 1295, the bishop claiming the sole 

 appointment, but eventually he compromised 

 matters by nominating the choice of the 

 brethren.'' 



In 1299 Isaac the Jew conveyed a house 

 to the hospital, and that this grant might 



» Stowe MS. 942, ff. s, 6, 330. 



2 Ibid. ff. 292-3. 



3 Ibid. f. 309. 



» Ibid. ff. 313-14. 

 » Ibid. 315 f. etc. 



6 Pat. 4 Edw. I. m. 3d. There is no entry per- 

 taining to the hospital in the taxation rolls of 1 29 1. 



7 Winton Epis. Reg., Pontissera, f. 52 ; Stowe 

 MS. 942 f. 106. 



II 



hold good, instead of a seal, he subscribed his 

 name in Hebrew characters according to the 

 Jewish custom.^ On 18 April 1305 licence 

 was granted to the master and brethren 

 to acquire in mortmain 8 acres of land in 

 Charlton by Greenwich from Robert de la 

 Wyke ; 4 acres of land in Combe and 

 Greenwich from Ranulph, vicar of Green- 

 wich ; and I \ acres of land in the latter 

 places from John and William, sons of William 

 le Flemyng, all for the maintenance of the 

 poor and infirm within the house.* 



Licence upon fine was obtained in June 

 1309 for the alienation in mortmain to the 

 master and brethren of this hospital of yearly 

 rents to the value of 281. 2\d. in Beddington 

 and Bandon, the gift of Walter de Dynesle, 

 clerk, and of a messuage in Southwark, the 

 gift of William de Hameldon, chaplain.*" 



In the following year there was a large 

 bequest under similar licence, by Simon de 

 Stowe, of a messuage and various plots of 

 land in Beddington, Bandon, Mitcham, South- 

 wark and Newton for the sustenance of the 

 poor in the hospital;" and again in 1311, 

 by Walter de Huntingfield, of a mill, a mes- 

 suage, 4 tofts, 63 acres of land, 3 acres of 

 meadow and bsP of rents. In 1 31 3 there 

 was a further bequest by Dulcia le Drapere 

 of a messuage and 8 acres of land in Bedd- 

 ington." 



Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and 

 Hertford, granted in 13 14 to the master and 

 brethren of the hospital the advowson of the 

 church of Blechingley in exchange for all 

 lands and tenements which they held in the 

 towns of Beddington, Bandon, Woodcote, 

 Mitcham and Croydon, and for the mills 

 that they held in the parish of Marlow, Bucks. 

 In the following year they obtained licence 

 to appropriate the church of Blechingley.'* 



In June 1 32 1 Stephen de Bykleswade, 

 master, and the brethren and sisters, in con- 

 sideration of the great benefits they had re- 

 ceived from Henry de Bluntesdon, almoner to 

 the late King Edward, ordered a daily mass 

 at the Lady Altar for the said king and for 

 Henry and his parents and benefactors.*^ 



In February 1323 Bishop Asserio, after 

 visitation, gravely admonished the master of 

 the hospital as to the irregular lives led by 



8 Stowe MS. 942, f. 106. 



" Pat. 33 Edw. I. pt. i. m. 6. 

 i» Ibid. 2 Edw. II. pt. ii. m. 43. 

 n Ibid. 4 Edw. II. pt. i. m. 22. 

 12 Ibid. 4 Edw. II. pt. ii. m. 18. 

 " Ibid. 6 Edw. II. pt. ii. m. 4. 

 1* Ibid. 8 Edw. II. pt. ii. m. 13. 

 IE Winton. Epis. Reg., Reynolds, f. 352, m. 6b. 

 121 16 



