HOSPITALS
20. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW
The hospital of St. Bartholomew was founded
at the same time as the priory by Rahere in the
reign of Henry I. (fn. 1) At first the priory and hospital seem to have been regarded as one institution, for the royal charter of 1133 was addressed
to Rahere, the prior, the canons, and the poor of
St. Bartholomew's Hospital; (fn. 2) but a separation
between them must have occurred quite early,
since the grants of Henry II (fn. 3) and Richard I (fn. 4)
were made to the church and canons, that is to
the priory, and there is evidence that by the beginning of the thirteenth century the hospital
was a distinct community (fn. 5) with possessions apart
from those of the superior house. (fn. 6)
It is probable, therefore, that Alfune, the first
proctor, was not concerned with the government
of the hospital, but devoted himself entirely to
finding the means of subsistence for the poor it
sheltered, a sufficiently hard task, seeing that
he begged food from door to door and in the
markets of the city. (fn. 7) The later proctors, however, occupied the position and had the duties of
masters, (fn. 8) and in the end took the name.
The rights of the priory over the hospital were
the cause of much controversy, and the difficulty
must have begun early, for the question was
argued before Richard, bishop of London, about
1197. (fn. 9) It was then decided that the proctor of
St. Bartholomew's should do solemn obedience to
the prior and should swear to minister faithfully
in the hospital and not to alienate the lands and
rents of the house without the consent of the
bishop, prior, and canons, nor to admit anyone to
a perpetual allowance of food or clothing without
the assent of the prior and canons; he must give
an account twice a year of receipts and expenses
in the presence of the bishop and the prior; the
proctor was to be chosen by the canons and the
brothers from the latter, or from another community if there were not a fit person in the hospital, but not from the priory; if unsuitable, he
was to be removed by common counsel of the
canons and brothers; chaplains were to be chosen
by the prior and proctor, and to be removed by
them if necessary; the brothers and sisters were
to receive the habit from the prior in the chapter
of canons and were to do obedience to the prior;
all the brothers and sisters were bound to take
part in the procession in the priory church on the
Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, Palm
Sunday, Easter Sunday, and Ascension Day.
These ordinances apparently gave little satisfaction to the hospital, for the agitation to obtain
more liberty led King John in 1204 (fn. 10) to declare
that he would treat attempts to free the hospital
from its subjection to the priory as attacks on
the crown, and in 1223 or 1224 Eustace, bishop
of London, at the request of both priory and
hospital, made other regulations, (fn. 11) which settled
the matter for a considerable period. They were
as follows:—The prior was not to refuse his
assent to the election of a master whom the
brothers declared suitable; if he should consider
the person elected unfit, the matter was to be
referred to the chapter of St. Paul's; the prior
was to give the master the habit in the chapter
of the hospital; the brothers appear to have been
excused from attendance at the priory church on
the four festivals, but two were to go on St. Bartholomew's Day, with two candles of 4 lb. weight;
the brothers were forbidden to erect an altar or
image of St. Bartholomew in the hospital, and
to have a bell tower or more than the two
bells they then had, and on Easter Eve they
were not to ring before the priory; they were
refused the cemetery they had asked from Pope
Benedict; the allowances of food and the share
in the anniversaries of the canons were to be
given as before by the priory to the members
of the hospital.
Henry III, in the early part of his reign at
any rate, appears to have taken an interest in the
hospital: in 1223 he committed the custody of
it to Maurice, a Templar, (fn. 12) until he could make
further provision for it; in 1225 he gave the
master four oaks for fuel, (fn. 13) and in 1229 six more; (fn. 14)
and in 1230 excused the brothers from the payment of a tallage on their land in Hatfield. (fn. 15)
Some idea of the hospital in 1316 can be gathered
from the injunction of Gilbert Segrave, bishop of
London, (fn. 16) who ordered that as the business of the
house could not be carried on by fewer than
seven brethren, of whom five were priests, there
should in future be that number of brethren (fn. 17)
and four sisters and not more; the difference in
rank between the priests and laybrothers should
be marked by their costume, the former wearing
closed and round mantles, the latter short tunics;
none should be allowed to buy their own clothing; the sisters should wear grey dresses which
were not to fall below the ankles. Inferences
may be drawn from certain of the ordinances:
the sisters seem as usual to have been treated unfairly in the matter of food, since provision was
made both as to quantity and quality; discipline
was not perfect, or it would not have been necessary to order the brothers and sisters to obey
the master, to forbid wordy warfare, and to provide for the punishment of manual violence; the
care of the sick poor was perhaps somewhat
neglected, since the bishop reminded the brothers
and sisters that they had entered the hospital to
minister to their fellow creatures, and enjoined
them to look after the sick in their turn as the
master directed; he also ordered the master to
visit the sick frequently and provide for their needs
according to the power of the house; a difficulty
which appears to have often arisen in the conduct
of hospitals is shown by the injunction to the
master to appoint a man of exemplary character
to be doorkeeper, who would allow no one to enter
the sisters' abode without leave of the master.
Two rolls were to be made of the income and
all goods falling to the hospital, of which the
master was to have one and the brethren the
other, so that they might know how affairs were
administered, and accounts were to be given every
quarter by those who received and dispensed the
revenues of the house.
Two years later, Bishop Gilbert's successor,
Richard, visited the hospital, (fn. 18) and found that its
resources had been much diminished through
excessive granting of corrodies, and forbade such
alienations in future except with the consent of
the diocesan. He noticed on this occasion that
immediate repairs were needed to the infirmary
and other buildings.
The management of the finance of the hospital
could have been no light task, for its endowments were not sufficient for its expenses and
needed to be supplemented by an annual collection in churches, (fn. 19) a source of income abundant
perhaps but inconstant because liable to be
diverted. (fn. 20) The house was excused from payment of fifteenths and tenths by Edward I and
Edward II because of its poverty, (fn. 21) and in 1341
the king ordered the subsidy not to be levied on
its goods, on the ground that if it had to meet
any further charges its alms must be diminished. (fn. 22)
Another attempt to tax its possessions was, however, made about ten years later, (fn. 23) when it was
probably less able to pay than ever, for in 1348
its debts amounted to £200 (fn. 24) and the Black
Death must have seriously affected the value of
its property both in London and in the country.
The master, brethren, and sisters accordingly
petitioned the king who, in 1352, declared them
exempt from aids and ordered proceedings against
them to be stopped. (fn. 25)
The foundation of chantries especially in the
thirteenth century must have been of considerable
benefit to the funds of the house: a chantry of
two priests established by William de Arundell
and Robert Newecomen in 1325 (fn. 26) was endowed
with 37 acres of land in the parishes of St. Giles
and St. Botolph without Aldersgate; the celebrated John Pulteney gave the brethren in 1330
a messuage and four shops in the parish of
St. Nicholas ad Macellas to maintain a chantry
in the church of St. Thomas the Apostle and
another in their own church; (fn. 27) and the hospital
received in this way, among other property, (fn. 28)
tenements in Holborn in 1339, (fn. 29) in the parish of
St. Sepulchre in 1346, (fn. 30) and in Watling Street
in 1379. (fn. 31)
The course of time had again made necessary
a readjustment of the relations between the
hospital and priory, (fn. 32) and Simon Sudbury, bishop
of London, with the consent of both parties
made a fresh arrangement on this subject in
1373. (fn. 33) He then ordained that the leave of the
prior must be obtained by the brethren before
they elected a master, that they should choose a
suitable person, a priest, or such as could be speedily
ordained, and that the prior was to present their
choice to the bishop; the new master was to
swear obedience to the prior and fealty to the
prior and convent; brothers and sisters were to
be admitted by the master on his own authority,
but were to take an oath of fealty to the prior
and convent within three days; the brethren and
the canons were to ask alms in the name of
their own house only, but if anything should be
given to the brothers for the priory they were in
duty bound to deliver it to the canons, who were
to do the same as regards the hospital; the
master was to correct the faults of the brethren
and sisters if he could, but the prior was to help
him if so requested; the master and brethren
had full power to make any grants of their property without consulting the prior who in future
was to have nothing to do with the hospital seal;
the ordinance of Bishop Eustace as to the offering in the priory church on St. Bartholomew's
Day was to remain in force, and his prohibition
to the brothers to erect an altar of St. Bartholomew within the hospital was repeated; but the
hospital might now have a bell-tower and bells
which could be rung on Easter eve at pleasure;
permission was also given to consecrate a cemetery in which might be buried all dying within
the bounds of the hospital as well as others, provided that such were not parishioners of St. Sepulchre's, or did not die within the limits of that
parish or of the priory; the master and brethren
were not henceforth to receive any allowance of
food from the priory, and the master was to keep
up the hospital of the sick. An appeal made in
1376 by three brothers and one of the sisters (fn. 34)
shows how difficult it is to arrive at a just conclusion in these matters. If the ordinances did not
exist the natural supposition would be that they
had been, as they said, wrongfully deprived for
three years of an allowance of food from the
priory through the collusion of the master,
whereas the allowance had been stopped by
authority of the bishop.
It is unfair perhaps to pronounce judgement on the house from isolated cases relating
to the conduct of individual inmates, such as
that of Simon Dowel who had procured his
election to the office of master by unlawful
means, and was deposed by the bishop's commissaries in consequence in 1322, (fn. 35) or that of an
apostate priest who at any rate repented and
desired to return in 1355 (fn. 36) ; it is impossible,
however, to avoid the feeling that the tone of a
house must have been deplorable when, as in
1375, the master, Richard de Sutton, was publicly
defamed for incontinence with one of the sisters
and had to confess himself guilty. (fn. 37) Whether
Sutton was afraid of the punishment that would
be inflicted, or really had grievances against the
bishop's commissaries, he appealed to the court of
Canterbury and involved the bishop of London
in a dispute with the archbishop over their respective jurisdictions. In the course of these
proceedings he was excommunicated, but the
punishment for his original offence is not recorded. He was not deposed, since he is mentioned eleven years later as resigning his post. (fn. 38)
The hospital was repaired by a bequest of
Richard Whittington in 1423, (fn. 39) and before 1458
the church seems either to have been rebuilt or
to have had a chapel added to it by Joan, Lady
Clinton, for in her will of that date she speaks
of 'my new church of the hospital of West
Smithfield.' (fn. 40) The rebuilding of the chapel of
St. Mary and St. Michael in the cemetery was
due to one of the royal clerks, Richard Sturgeon, (fn. 41)
who died in 1456. (fn. 42) Testimony to the good
work done in the hospital is afforded by the
king's pardon granted in 1464 to the master and
brethren for all acquisitions in mortmain made
by them without licence in consideration of the
relief there given to poor pilgrims, soldiers,
sailors, and others of all nations. (fn. 43)
There are indications that the brothers did not
fall behind their age in attention to learning:
John Mirfield used his experiences in the hospital
to write a book 'Breviarium Bartholomei' at the
end of the fourteenth century; (fn. 44) another brother
received leave from the pope in 1404 to study
theology for seven years at a university from
which he was not to be recalled without reasonable
cause, (fn. 45) while among the books presented by
John Wakeryng, the master, to the library in
1463, was a beautiful copy of the Bible, the
work of a member of the house named John
Coke. (fn. 46)
Wolsey was empowered by the brothers in
1516 (fn. 47) and 1524 (fn. 48) to choose a master for them.
In the first instance his choice fell upon one of
themselves, Richard Smith, in the second upon
Alexander Collins, prior of the Benedictine
house of Daventry, whom he gave leave to
change his order. When another vacancy seemed
likely to occur in 1528 the king hoped that
Wolsey would again secure the patronage (fn. 49) in
which he expected to share, but this time the
brothers asked the bishop of London to nominate,
and Edward Staple was chosen. (fn. 50) This continual
delegation of powers may have been a diplomatic
move to secure powerful interest and protection.
The pope in granting a dispensation in 1532 to
John Brereton, one of the king's chaplains, to
accept the hospital if it were offered to him, described the house as much in debt, its buildings
greatly in need of repair, and its property deteriorated in value, and he suggested that Brereton
as master might be able to relieve the hospital as
he was already amply provided with benefices. (fn. 51)
When Staple resigned his office it must have
been a foregone conclusion that it would be
given to Brereton, for he procured the king's
ratification (fn. 52) of the papal bull about three weeks
before he was appointed by Richard Gwent, to
whom the brothers had committed the nomination. (fn. 53) In the circumstances it was hardly likely
that any difficulty would be raised as to the acknowledgement of the royal supremacy, subscription to
which was duly made in June 1534 by Brereton
and three others. (fn. 54) Amid the general dissolution
Sir Richard Gresham's appeal for the continuance
of certain London hospitals (fn. 55) was successful
as regards St. Bartholomew's, which was reconstituted in 1544. (fn. 56) The hospital, which in 1532
had consisted of a master and eight brethren, (fn. 57)
was now to be composed of a master and four
chaplains, namely, vice-master, curate, hospitaller,
and visitor of the prisoners at Newgate, (fn. 58) and to
these were added as before sisters to care for the
sick. In 1547, however, another change took
place: the king gave the hospital to the City,
and it was then arranged that the vicar of the
church and a hospitaller should minister to the
spiritual needs of the sick inmates. (fn. 59)
Some of the property of the hospital was
granted with it, but the house needed to be refurnished, (fn. 60) and to a large extent to be re-endowed,
and the citizens made liberal donations to this
work. (fn. 61) The business of the house was entrusted
to twelve governors, of whom four were aldermen, who were chosen by the Lord Mayor and
held office for two years, six retiring every
year. (fn. 61a) Sick and wounded soldiers and sailors
found a refuge there both in 1627 (fn. 62) and in
1644, (fn. 63) when in consideration of its services in
this respect its lands were freed from assessment. (fn. 64) In the Dutch War of 1664 (fn. 65) and
during the war with France in 1705 (fn. 66) the
government again made use of the hospital.
An account of the City hospitals in 1667
estimates the number of persons relieved in that
year at 1,383, and those then in the hospital at
196. (fn. 67) Much of its income was derived from
property in London, so that it naturally was much
affected by the Fire, (fn. 68) and on this account the king
gave permission to the governors for a time to
turn the rooms in the Great Cloister into shops. (fn. 69)
Commissioners were appointed by William III
in August 1691 to visit St. Bartholomew's
among the royal foundations within the City, (fn. 70)
but the result of the visitation has not been
reported.
The religious side of the house, which still
had some degree of prominence in 1544, seems
to have become of less and less importance, and
is not touched upon at all in a description of the
hospital in 1800. (fn. 71)
In the Valor the revenues of the hospital
are represented as £371 13s. 2d. gross and
£305 6s. 5d. net. (fn. 72) Its possessions at that
time comprised rents and farms in London
valued at £292 4s. 6d. per annum; the manor
of Ducketts in Tottenham and Harringay which
had been made over to the house in 1460 by the
feoffees of John Sturgeon to endow a chantry; (fn. 73)
the manor or farm of Clitterhouse, (fn. 74) rents and
ferms in 'Alrichesbiri,' where the masters and
brothers had a holding in 1241; (fn. 75) Hackney
Marsh, Cudfield Marsh, Willesden and 'Lyme
hurst,' co. Middlesex; the manor of Fryern, (fn. 76)
rents and ferms from Hatfield, 'Bradokes,' Rainham and Downham, which the master had held
in 1326, (fn. 77) and from Burnham, Aveley, and
'Shernwood' Marsh, co. Essex; the ferm of
Wollaston, co. Northants, where the hospital
had property in 1275; (fn. 78) a rent in St. Albans,
co. Herts., and a small holding in co. Bucks.
St. Bartholomew's also owned the church of
Little Wakering, co. Essex, which had long
been appropriated to it; (fn. 79) the rectory of Hinton,
co. Somerset, and the patronage of the church of
Holy Cross, (fn. 80) an early foundation within its
precincts. Among the possessions of the hospital
in 1535 there is no mention of the manor of
'Stretle,' co. Cambridge, which had been given
to the master and brothers in 1370 to pray for
the good estate of Sir Walter Manny, knt., and
to keep his anniversary after death. (fn. 81)
Proctors and Masters of
St. Bartholomew's Hospital
Alfune (fn. 82)
Stephen (fn. 83)
William, occurs 1222–3 (fn. 84)
Hugh, occurs 1242–3 (fn. 85)
Bartholomew, occurs 1259 (fn. 86) and 1261 (fn. 87)
Adam de Rothingg, occurs 1308 (fn. 88)
Simon Dowel, elected 1321, (fn. 89) deposed 1322 (fn. 90)
William de Actone, appointed 1322 (fn. 91)
William le Rouse, appointed 1323, (fn. 92) occurs
1324 (fn. 93) and 1336 (fn. 94)
Laurence, occurs 1348 (fn. 95)
Stephen de Maydenheth (fn. 96)
Richard Sutton, occurs 1373, 1376, (fn. 97) resigned
1386 (fn. 98)
William Wakering, elected 1386, (fn. 99) occurs
1390 (fn. 100) and 1392 (fn. 101)
John Byry, died 1417 (fn. 102)
John Wakeryng, occurs 1444–5, (fn. 103) 1460, (fn. 104)
1463, (fn. 105) and 1464 (fn. 106)
William Knyght, occurs 1473, (fn. 107) died 1473 (fn. 108)
Thomas Creveker, occurs 1509, (fn. 109) died 1510 (fn. 110)
Robert Beyley, elected 1510, (fn. 111) died 1516 (fn. 112)
Richard Smith, LL.D., elected 1516, (fn. 113) died
1524 (fn. 114)
Alexander Collins, elected 1524, (fn. 115) died
1528 (fn. 116)
Edward Staple, elected 1528, (fn. 117) resigned
1532 (fn. 118)
John Brereton, LL.D., elected 1532, (fn. 119) occurs
1534 (fn. 120)
William Turges, S.T.B., appointed 1544 (fn. 121)
A seal of the twelfth century, (fn. 122) oval in shape,
represents St. Bartholomew with nimbus, lifting
his right hand in benediction, and holding a long
cross in his left. The saint is depicted halflength on the section of a church with roundheaded arches, and two circular side-towers.
Legend :—
SIGILL' CONVENTVS . ECC . . . . HOLO . 1 .
DE . LVDON
A counter seal of the twelfth century (fn. 123) shows
a church with central tower, a cross at each
gable end, and two tall round-headed arches in
the wall, standing on a ship of antique shape,
with curved prow at each end, terminating in a
bird's head, on the sea. In a field over the
tower is the inscription :—
NAVIS ECCL' IF
On the left a wavy star of six points, on the
right a crescent. Legend:—
SIGILL': PRIORIS: ECCLESIE: SBU;: BARTOLOMEI
A seal of the thirteenth or fourteenth century (fn. 124)
is a pointed oval, and bears a representation of
St. Bartholomew standing on a lion couchant
guardant. The saint holds a knife in his right
hand, a book in his left. Overhead is a trefoiled
canopy pinnacled and crocketed. On each side
in the field there is a tree on which is slung by
the strap a shield of arms—England. Legend :—
S'C . . . . E . HOSPITAL . . . SANCTI:
BARTH . 1 . LONDON
A counter seal of the thirteenth century, (fn. 125) in
shape a pointed oval, bears an impression of an
antique oval intaglio gem representing an eagle.
Legend:—
SI . . . . HOSPITAL' . S . BARTHOL .