RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



townsmen as to the appointment, the archbishop 

 (whom they dared not at that time gainsay) in- 

 tervened and instituted one Ralph Wilford as 

 warden ; and that at the next voidance, the see 

 of York being vacant, the king intervened and 

 instituted Malcolm de Harley ^'^^ as warden ; and 

 so up to that time the election and institution 

 had continued without any right or sanction of 

 the community of the town. The jury of this 

 commission further returned that the hospital 

 was originally so endowed in lands and chattels, 

 granted to a master, two chaplains, the brethren 

 and sisters and the poor of the house, that all 

 was to be held in common ; that the charters 

 and writings were in possession of the master 

 and could not be inspected, so that they knew 

 not whether any had been abstracted or not ; 

 that the goods were not then sufficient for alms, 

 as used to be the case, because Henry de Calver- 

 ton, Robert Ker, and Thomas de Cancia, as 

 ' masters, had deteriorated and wasted the pro- 

 perty, converting it to their own uses ; that 

 there used to be two priests celebrating divine 

 service there, but that there was then no priest 

 save the master ; that the rule ordained by Arch- 

 bishop Gray and written on a missal had for 

 long time been missing, having been maliciously 

 cut out by a warden, but that the leaf had recently 

 by divine grace been found and could be produced 

 before the archbishop ; that the hospital was so 

 completely destroyed and annihilated that with- 

 out the divine grace and the counsel and assist- 

 ance of the archbishop, they knew not how it 

 could be relieved ; and finally that there used to 

 be a hospital seal.^'' 



Matthew de Halifax died in 1329 ; but Arch- 

 bishop Melton's choice of a successor brought 

 about no improvement. 



In November 1332 Master John Lambok of 

 Nottingham, parson of the church of Elkesley, 

 master of the hospital of St. John Baptist, Not- 

 tingham, on going beyond the seas, had protec- 

 tion and also letters nominating Bartholomew 

 de Cotgrave and John de Shirewode his attorneys 

 in England for two years.'^" 



The hospital probably saw little or nothing of 

 this pluralist. Whilst absent from England he 

 obtained a dispensation at the court of Rome to 

 cover all his pluralities. 



In October 1333 Pope John XXII allowed 

 John Lambok, M.A., skilled in civil and canon 

 law, to hold the canonry of Wilton and prebend 

 of Chalk, notwithstanding that he was rector of 

 Elkesley in the diocese of York, and also 

 warden of the house of St. John Baptist, 

 Nottingham.^^^ 



118b Yoi Malcolm de Harley, the king's clerk, see 

 Ca/. Close, izji-ii, passim. 



'" Nott. Bor. Rec. i, 90-4 ; Stapleton, Relig. Inst, 

 of Old Noll. 30-3. . 



"» Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 11. 



"■ Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 398. 



Licence was granted to the master, brethren, 

 and chaplains in 1350 to acquire land and rent 

 in mortmain, not held in chief, to the value of 

 j^io yearly .'^^ There is, however, no informa- 

 tion as to any benefactors availing themselves of 

 this sanction. 



Archdeacon John de Nottingham, who was 

 warden of this hospital at the opening of the 

 15th century, was an outrageous pluralist. In 

 1402 Pope Boniface IX collated him to the pro- 

 vision of canonries of York, Salisbury, Lincoln, 

 Beverley, Ripon, and Southwell, with reservation 

 of a prebend in each ; and this notwithstand- 

 ing that he already held the archdeaconry of Not- 

 tingham, canonries with prebends in Chichester 

 and Lichfield and in the chapel royal, Tettenhall, 

 as well as the parish church of Cottingham and 

 the wardenship of the hospitals of St. John's 

 Nottingham and of St. Mary Magdalen 

 Ripon.123 



Grant for life of the wardenship was made by 

 Henry VII in 1424, with the advice and assent 

 of the council, to John Tamworth, clerk. ^^ 



In February 1 43 1-2 an action was brought 

 by the warden, Roger Hunt, against Thomas 

 Taylor, clerk, of the school of Nottingham, for 

 rent of houses the property of the hospital. A 

 verdict was given for the plaintifF.^^^ 



For an aid granted to the king in January 

 1503-4, St. John's Hospital is assessed at the 

 small annual value of ^^5 6j. 815^.^^^ 



The Valor Eccksiasticus of 1 5 34 gives a like 

 assessment, but the clear annual value was only 

 ;^4 135. 4^., as a pension of 135. 4 J. had to be 

 paid to the priory of Lenton.^^ 



Leland, who visited Nottingham about 1540, 

 entered in his journal : — ' S. John Hospitall 

 almoste downe, without the towne.' ^'^ 



The commissioners appointed by Henry VIII 

 in 1545 to arrange for the transference to the 

 Crown of colleges, chantries, and hospitals, 

 apparently found no master, chaplain, or poor at 

 St. John's Nottingham. They reported that 

 one Roger Oker farmed it, who stated on oath 

 that he knew nothing as to the time or the 

 intent for which it was founded. On 12 October 

 1540 Oker had made an indenture by which he 

 was to pay yearly to the master the sum of 

 £6 9^. 4(/. The commissioners add further 

 evidence as to the master's mean and pilfering 

 conduct : — 



Abought iij or iiij yere paste, att the commaunde- 

 mente of oon Henrye Whitinge then Mr. of the same 

 hospitall, the said Roger Oker did take of all the 



'" Pat. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. i. 

 '" Cal. of Papal Letters, v, 492-3. 

 '" Pat. 2 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 5 ; 3 Hen. VI, pt. i, 

 m. 14. 



'"iVflW. Bor. Rec. ii, 128. 



'« Ibid. iii. 



"' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 157. 



"' Leland, Itin. viii, 24. 



171 



