RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



In 1362 William de Raby, an apostate friar 

 of the house, was seeking to be reconciled to his 

 order.^' Chantries were founded in their church 

 by Sir Thomas Button, kt., in 1379 and by 

 Sir John Bold, kt., in 1422.^* In 1504 Gilbert 

 Southworth of Croft bequeathed his body 



to be buryed in the cemetare of the churche of 

 Jhesus belongyng to the bredren of Seinte Austen." 



The house was probably surrendered in iSSg,'*" 

 and the crown on i8 June, 1540, sold it with 

 the friaries of Preston and Lancaster to Thomas 



Holcroft, esquire of the body to the king, for 



;^I26 lOi.'^ 



Priors of Warrington 



Henry,'' occurs 1334 



John of Crouseley," occurs 1368 



William Eltonhead,'* occurs 1379 



Geoffrey Banaster,'' S.T.P., appointed 1404 



Nicholas Spynk,'^ occurs 24 June, 1422 



Stephen Leet,'' occurs 1432 



— Slawright,'' occurs 1520 



HOSPITALS 



17. HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY 

 MAGDALEN, PRESTON 



The precise date of the foundation of this 

 leper hospital does not appear. It is first 

 mentioned in letters of protection granted by 

 Henry II after 1177.^ Its position does not 

 seem to be known exactly, but is supposed to 

 have been near the present church of St. 

 Walburge.' The patronage of the hospital 

 always belonged to the lords of the honour of 

 Lancaster,*" and it possessed a free chapel, i. e. 

 exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary. 

 This was the only free chapel in the county. 

 The hospital consisted of a warden and leper 

 brethren and sisters, but the number of the 

 inmates and the rule by which they lived are 

 unknown.' From the fourteenth century at 

 latest the wardens seem to have been often, if 

 not always, pluralists and non-residents. A 

 chaplain served the chapel. While the pes- 

 tilence was raging in the autumn of 1349 the 

 chaplaincy was vacant for eight weeks, during 

 which period the oflFerings in the chapel were 

 asserted to have been no less than £'^2.* In 

 1355 Duke Henry of Lancaster, the patron, 

 procured from the pope a relaxation of one year 

 and forty days' penance for penitents visiting the 

 chapel on the principal feasts of the year and 



" Cal. Pap. Letters, iv, 34. 



** Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1593 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New 

 Ser.), V, 129. 



" Lanes. Chantries (Chat. Soc), 65. 



'» L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (l), 348, 413, 494. 



"Ibid. XV, 831 (43). 



'' Coram Rege R. 297, m. 123 ,^. 



"^ Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, fol. 15, 20. 



** Dugdale, Mon. vi, I 593. 



" Beamont, f^^ ofMakerfield, 18. He was already 

 a friar of the house in 1371 ; Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, 

 fol. 26. 



^° Trans. Hist. Sac. (Newr Ser.), v, 129. 



" Baines, Hist, of Lanes, iv, 404. The well-known 

 Friar Penketh (d. 1487), was a brother of the house 

 {pict. Nat. Biog. xliv, 302). 



' Lanes. Pipe R. 333. 



those of St. Mary Magdalen and St. Thomas 

 of Canterbury.' During one of these pilgrim- 

 ages, on the feast of the Invention of the Cross 

 (3 May) 1358, certain riotous persons, among 

 whom was the schoolmaster of Preston, invaded 

 the chapel, and some of them were kept prisoners 

 there for the whole of the day following.' 



A few years later the right of the warden 

 and brethren to the offerings made in the chapel 

 seems to have been disputed, for Pope Urban V 

 in March, 1364, ordered the archbishop of 

 York to summon the rector of the parish and 

 others concerned, and if the facts were as repre- 

 sented to him to allow the warden and brethren 

 to receive to their use the voluntary offerings, 

 ' wherein the revenues of the hospital chiefly 

 consist.' ' A century later, in 1465, a royal 

 injunction forbad the dean and chapter of the 

 College of Leicester, the appropriators of the 

 parish church, to persist in taking tithe from the 

 incumbent of the ' Free chapel of St. Mary 

 Magdalene ' on the ground belonging to the 

 chapel.* By this time the hospital had appar- 

 ently fallen into disuse, and presentations were 

 now made not to the wardenship but to the 

 practically sinecure incumbency of the free 

 chapel. The chapel itself was allowed to fall into 

 decay. Thomas Barlow, the last incumbent, 

 leased the chapel and its lands about 1525 to 



' For a suggestion that Count Stephen of Blois may 

 have been its founder see ibid. 



'* The brethren of the lepers complained to the king 

 in 1 2 5 8-9 that whereas they should have a warden of 

 the king's appointment the men of Preston had asserted 

 a right of patronage and had taken the brethren's 

 goods ; Close, 43 Hen. Ill, m. 2. 



' ' Canons and brethren ' are once mentioned 

 (Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L. 2091), but this may be 

 a slip. Grants are usually made by or to ' the leper 

 brethren' or 'the leper brothers and sisters.' 



* Eng/. Hist. Rev. v, 526. This is probably a gross 

 exaggeration. 



' Cal. Pap. Pet. i, 271. 



* Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 439. 

 ' Ca/. Pap. Letters, iv, 90. 



' Fishwick, Hist, of the Parish of Preston, 195. 



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