RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



chaplains, and for the residence and relief of 

 leprous persons ; the patronage was vested in 

 the lords of Hodsock.*' 



Pope Honorius III in 1226 issued a bull 

 promising the protection of the Holy See to the 

 possessions and liberties conferred on this lazar- 

 house by the Prior and Convent of BIyth and by 

 William de Cressy its pious founder.*' 



Henry III, in a letter dated at Nev/ark 

 5 January 1230, took under his protection the 

 brethren of this leper hospital and their possessions, 

 bidding all his faithful subjects to defend them, 

 and commending them to their alms and support, 

 as they wrould have recompense from God and 

 from him.*' 



Edward II in 1316 licensed Hugh de Cressy 

 to alienate the large amount of seven messuages 

 and 4 bovates of land in Blyth and Hodsock 

 to three chaplains, who were to celebrate daily 

 in the chapel of St. John the Evangelist of this 

 hospital.** 



Edmund de Cressy, the brother of Hugh, 

 executed an instrument at Hodsock at Michael- 

 mas 1320 by which he granted to William de 

 Howelle and Philip de Ilkeston, chaplains, the 

 hospital of Hodsock, with all its lands and 

 appurtenances, together with goods and chattels 

 to the value of 20 marks. The chaplains under- 

 took to conduct divine service in the chapel, to 

 find lights, to keep the buildings in proper repair, 

 and on their ceasing to officiate to leave behind 

 them goods to the value of 20 marks. They 

 were not to be allowed to appropriate to them- 

 selves any of the revenues ; but they were to be 

 allowed to take any person into the hospital, 

 spiritual or lay, at their discretion, with the view 

 of improving its income, that is to receive them 

 as paying guests. Philip de Ilkeston was to pay 

 as a subsidy on his entry to office 4 marks. 

 The bursar was to render his account yearly 

 before the bailiff of Cressy, who reserved to 

 himself the right of appointing a third chaplain, 

 when the rent of a messuage near the gate of the 

 hospital's cemetery would admit of it.*^ 



A deed on somewhat similar lines — in Norman 

 French — records the appointment of Robert de 

 Russyn as chaplain of this hospital by Sir John 

 Cressy, in 1374.^° 



Sir John Clifton, who died in 1403, had 

 obtained the Hodsock estate, with the patronage 

 of the hospital, by marriage with Katharine sister 

 and co-heiress of Sir Hugh Cressy. Katharine his 

 widow married for her second husband Ralph 

 Mackarel ; on his death in 1436 he was entered as 

 seised of the hospital of St. John the Evangelist, 

 Blyth.*^ 



"Raine, Hist, of Blyth, 148. 



"Dugdale, Mon. iv, 624. 



•' Pat. 14 Hen. Ill, m. 7. 



** Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 1 8, 



*' BIyth Chart, fol. 77-8. 



"Ibid. fol. 102. 



•^Inq. p.m. 14 Hen. VI, no. tl. 



About ten years later, namely on 2 1 July 1 446, 

 an indulgence of 100 days was granted by the 

 Archbishop of York to all penitents contributing 

 ' to the erection and new construction of a 

 certain house or hospital in Blyth, for receiving 

 and lodging poor strangers and pregnant women.' 

 Canon Raine, the historian of Blyth, considers 

 that this entry in the episcopal registers refers to 

 a re-establishment of the decayed hospital of St. 

 John, its leprous inmates having disappeared.*' 



The will of Sir Gervase Clifton, great-grand- 

 son of Sir John Clifton, first lord of Hodsock of 

 that name, dated 27 April 1491, contains the 

 following references to this hospital : * To John 

 London and his wiff an annuytie of xxj. of my 

 lands inSterop ; for the house which hedwelleth 

 in belongeth unto the spitell of Blith of my fadir 

 gift. As for all such landes and tenementes as is 

 in Blith of my fadir purchase they belongen unto 

 the spitell of Blith of my said fadir gift, and hit 

 is my will yat the said spitell have theyme ; and 

 require my here also yat he make a sufficient 

 graunte unto the preste of the said spitell of all 

 such landes and tenementes with th'appurtenance 

 as I have purchased in Blith aforesaid in aug- 

 mentacion of the said preste of ye said spitell 

 lyvelode there.' *' 



The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1534 shows that the 

 property had sadly deteriorated. Silvanus Clifton 

 was master, and the income of the hospital, which 

 he seems to have regarded as solely his, was 

 £8 I4^»° 



When the Survey of Colleges, Chantries, 

 Hospitals, &c., was taken by the commissioners 

 of Henry VIII in 1545-6, preparatory to their 

 overthrow, Robert Cressy was priest of ' the 

 Spittell of Blyth,' saying mass thrice a week 

 ' by the commandement of the Lorde of Hodsock,' 

 as appeared by the gift thereof made to him 

 five years before by Sir Gervase Clifton. The 

 clear value was then £2i 14J. There were no 

 church goods 'otherwise than one vestment and 

 one altar cloth of no valewe and a bell of small 

 valewe.' " Robert Cressy also held the vicarage 

 of Blyth. 



This hospital, in its much reduced state, 

 escaped confiscation under the action of both 

 Henry VIII and Edward VI. 



Sir Gervase Clifton, made baronet by James I 

 in 161 1, in his will dated October 1662 

 described himself as patron of the house or hos- 

 pital of St. John the Evangelist without Blyth, 

 and Robert Thirlby as * maister or rector of the 

 sayd house and brethren.' ^^ 



As late as 1703 there is record of one Thomas 

 Ousely being master of this hospital. About 

 1 8 10 the master's house, known as Blyth Spital, 



*' Raine, Hist, of Blyth, 149. 



« Ibid. 141. 



"^ Valor Eccl. (Rec Com.), v, 177. 



"Coll. and Chant. Cert. Notts, xlii, 18. 



"Raine, Hist, of Blyth, 143. 



165 



