29. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, FOREBRIDGE, STAFFORD
The hospital of St. John the Baptist, Stafford, lay
in Forebridge, a southern suburb of the town within
Castle Church parish. It was probably founded by
one of the Stafford family, to which the patronage
belonged until the 16th century. (fn. 1) The hospital is
first mentioned in 1208 when Hugh, son of Ralph,
granted 40 acres of land in Castle Church to Eudes,
Prior of the Hospital of St. John at Stafford. The
hospital seems then to have been run by a religious
brotherhood, for Hugh gave the land in return for
the prayers of the prior and brethren. (fn. 2)
Other benefactions during the 13th century were
evidently few and consisted for the most part of
properties situated in Castle Church parish; none of
these seems to have been of any great value and
many were the subject of litigation. (fn. 3) It is thus not
surprising that by the close of the 13th century
poverty had almost brought the hospital to an end.
In 1300 its endowments, together with those of the
Hospital of the Holy Sepulchre, Radford, (fn. 4) were said
to be worth only £5 a year, and the brethren and
sisters of the two hospitals had apparently left
because of the poverty of their houses. Edmund de
Stafford, patron of both hospitals, wished to grant
them to the Trinitarian friars of Thelsford (Warws.),
probably because of that order's special responsibilities towards the poor. (fn. 5) A jury, summoned to an
inquisition ad quod damnum, found that Edmund's
proposal would be to the detriment only of the Prior
of St. John's and the Warden of St. Sepulchre's.
There seems, however, to have been some resistance
to the plan. The first sign of this is probably to be
seen in the holding of a second inquisition in 1301.
It was then found that the prior and warden had not
been bound to keep hospitality but had done so only
of their own free will, and that they had in fact been
driven from their houses by poverty.
The findings of the second inquisition were
doubtless convenient for the patron's plans, and St.
John's Hospital seems for a time to have been
subjected to the friars of Thelsford. In 1304 John
de Haseleye, claiming to be master of the hospital,
sued Edmund de Stafford and Brother Simon of
Thelsford (fn. 6) among others for disseising him of a
messuage, a carucate of land, and 40s. rent in the
suburb of Stafford. Edmund, however, claimed that
John had been deposed from the mastership by the
ordinary and one Richard had then been admitted
at his presentation; Richard too had been deposed
and Roger was now master. A jury found that John
had never been master and fined him for a false
claim. (fn. 7) How long the hospital remained subject to
Thelsford, however, is not known. The assessment
of the Prior of St. John's, Forebridge, for the
subsidy of 1327 (fn. 8) and an assize of novel disseisin
brought against the prior in 1343-4 (fn. 9) suggest that
the house was again independent. A confirmation
of the possessions of Thelsford Priory, granted by
the Crown in 1329, makes no mention of any
Staffordshire property. (fn. 10)
In 1352 Ralph, Earl of Stafford, was licensed by
the Crown to grant to the master and brethren of the
hospital rents in Stafford to the value of £5 for the
support of a chaplain who was to celebrate daily in
the hospital chapel. (fn. 11) The earl's son-in-law, Sir
John de Ferrers, seems to have granted the hospital
two messuages in Stafford. (fn. 12) In 1438-9 Humphrey,
Earl of Buckingham, gave the hospital arable land
in the Green Field near Rowley and the herbage of
certain land near Stafford Pool in exchange for rents
and other land. (fn. 13) The obit in St. Mary's, Stafford,
founded in 1469-70 by William Moore, William
Dentith (then master of the hospital), and John
Cradock, may have been appropriated to the mastership of St. John's Hospital from its foundation. (fn. 14)
In the later 15th century the hospital, though
poorly endowed, was still an effective eleemosynary
foundation. (fn. 15) During Dentith's mastership three
almsmen (one of them with his wife) were lodged in
the hospital and fed every day from the master's
table. Dentith himself supplemented the slender
revenues of the hospital by collecting alms: many
years later his former servant reported that he 'did
use commonly, when gentlemen came to the town,
to go to them and gather their alms for the . . . poor
people'. The almspeople, had their own seats in the
chapel, every seat having 'a great pair of beads
hanging'. The chapel, however, was not used only
by the almspeople but evidently by the public also,
for christenings and burials took place there. Mass
was said daily during the masterships of Dentith
and Colwich.
During the minority (1483-99) of Edward, Duke
of Buckingham, the mastership of the hospital was
bestowed by the Crown on pluralists and absentees, (fn. 16)
and it was probably during these years that its
revenues ceased to be used for the poor. (fn. 17) This was
certainly the state of affairs during the mastership
of Richard Egerton, who was appointed by Buckingham. (fn. 18) Egerton was an absentee, (fn. 19) and in 1511 he
leased the hospital and its revenues to his nephew
and niece, Randle Egerton of Betley and Ellen
Bassett of Lichfield, for £6 13s. 4d. a year. (fn. 20) The
public services, however, seem to have been
maintained, presumably because they were a source
of profit: (fn. 21) in the 1530s there were many burials at
the hospital, and Egerton paid a friar 4 nobles
(£1 6s. 8d.) a year to sing mass there once a week. (fn. 22)
In 1535 the patron, Lord Stafford, sued Egerton
for misusing the hospital 'contrary to the foundation'. (fn. 23) Stafford alleged that the hospital chapel
was in ruins, with only the walls still standing, and
that the graveyard had been ruined by swine. He
also stated that the master's house, 'which I think
cost 200 marks', was so decayed 'that I know no man
of any reputation that will dwell therein'; the houses
where the almspeople had once been lodged were
occupied by 'very unthrifty persons which may not
be suffered to dwell in other places'. Finally Stafford
complained about Egerton's non-residence. On the
same day that his bill was presented in Chancery,
Stafford wrote to Cromwell (fn. 24) asking him to use his
influence to secure 'some speedy reformation' of the
hospital. These allegations seem well founded: a
carpenter and a tiler, appointed to survey the
buildings of the hospital, certified that £40 'would
not re-edify it in such condition as it was in Colwich's days'. The result of the suit is not known,
but it seems probable that some repairs were carried
out, and some decree may have been made concerning the finances and charitable responsibilities of
the hospital. (fn. 25)
On Buckingham's attainder in 1521 the patronage
of the hospital passed to the Crown. (fn. 26) By 1524 it
had been restored to Buckingham's son, Henry
(later Lord Stafford), who in that year granted the
next presentation to Mary, Queen Dowager of
France, and her husband Charles, Duke of Suffolk. (fn. 27)
The grant was possibly an attempt by Stafford to
secure political goodwill in influential circles. This
motive seems likely to have inspired a later grant
made to Thomas Wriothesley and two others, (fn. 28) for
Wriothesley, who was on friendly terms with Lord
Stafford, (fn. 29) was a channel of communication with
Cromwell. (fn. 30) Wriothesley's son William succeeded
Egerton as master and like him seems to have been
an absentee. (fn. 31)
In 1521 the hospital was valued at £10 a year. (fn. 32)
In 1535 its annual income was £10 10s. a year; a
fee of 10s. was paid to the bailiff, William Hethe, the
rest of the income apparently being enjoyed by the
master. (fn. 33) The chantry commissioners of 1546 gave
the net income as £9 16s. 10d., of which £2 was paid
to the master as his salary and £6 12s. 6d. was used
for the poor. It seems likely, however, that the
commissioners had been given a false account of the
hospital's charitable activity rather than that Lord
Stafford had secured any enduring reformation. In
May 1548 the commissioners reported that the
hospital possessed 5 ounces of plate, parcel gilt,
ornaments worth 3s. 6d., and 2 bells in the chapel, (fn. 34)
and that its net income was £10 0s. 2d. They also
stated, however, that no poor had been maintained
in the hospital for a long time. In June the commissioners reported that the whole of the net income,
then given as £8 12s. 2d., was paid to the incumbent.
Although the chantry commissioners considered that
Stafford was one of the four towns in the county
'where most need is to have hospitals for relief of
the poor', the hospital was suppressed at this time,
the master receiving a pension of £6. (fn. 35)
In 1550 Edward VI granted the possessions of
the suppressed hospital to the burgesses of Stafford
as part of the endowment of a free grammar school. (fn. 36)
This grant, however, seems to have been frustrated
by Lord Stafford's attempts, temporarily successful,
to revive the hospital of which he had been patron.
Stafford was evidently supported in his efforts by
the tenants of the former hospital lands, for in 1552
the burgesses sued William Tully and others, (fn. 37)
whom they described as their tenants-at-will in the
property of the former hospital. They alleged that
for the 18 months since the royal grant the tenants
had detained rents and profits to the clear yearly
value of some £10, though they had paid these to
the Crown after the hospital's suppression. (fn. 38) The
tenants, however, maintained that the king had had
seisin of the hospital property only 'by the unlawful
exaction of His Majesty's officers and ministers', as
foundations for the poor had been excepted from
dissolution by the Act of 1547. (fn. 39) The burgesses
rested their case on the royal grant of 1550 and on
their allegation that the hospital was not an
eleemosynary foundation (fn. 40) but simply a free chapel
for a priest to celebrate mass for the founder's soul
and say divine service on holy days for the inhabitants of Forebridge. The burgesses would admit
only that three or four people had long been 'lodged
in certain little cottages adjoining to the said chapel
and had their lodgings there freely and were relieved
of the charitable alms partly of the said priest and
partly of the inhabitants of the said borough and of
others resorting to the same and were not found of
the revenues belonging to the said chapel'. They
added that the chapel's annual income, although
recently increased from £6 13s. 4d. to £9 4s. 10d., (fn. 41)
was plainly insufficient for the support of poor people
in addition to a priest.
The burgesses were unsuccessful in their plea for
in 1556 Thomas Chedulton was presented to the
mastership of the hospital by Lord Stafford. (fn. 42) In
1560, however, Chedulton was deprived of the
mastership, (fn. 43) and although he evidently maintained
his claim to it for some years (fn. 44) this was the end of
the hospital. At the same time the burgesses compensated Lord Stafford for his loss of the patronage
by granting him the right to appoint the master of
the grammar school. (fn. 45) A compromise also seems to
have been reached over the lands of the former
hospital; these were granted in fee to Lord Stafford
by the burgesses for an annual rent of £9 14s. (fn. 46)
The master's house, and presumably the chapel
which stood next to it, were still held of Lord
Stafford by Thomas Chedulton in 1584. (fn. 47) He died
in 1589, (fn. 48) but what was described as the Free Chapel
of St. John the Baptist, with all its lands and
tenements, had been granted by the Crown in the
previous year to Edward Wymarke of London. In
1592 a similar grant was made to William Tipper
and Robert Dawe. These grants were probably
made simply in order to compel Lord Stafford to pay
for the confirmation of his title to the property, (fn. 49)
and in 1592 Stafford sold the chapel and its site to
Richard Foxe, a Stafford gentleman. (fn. 50) By 1611 the
house and chapel, with some other properties
formerly belonging to the hospital, had passed to the
Cradock family. (fn. 51) In 1638 house and chapel were
both still standing, being included in a sale of lands
by George Cradock as 'one messuage . . . called St.
John's House . . . and one chapel called St. John's
Chapel'. (fn. 52)
The site of the hospital has been supposed to be
that of the White Lion Inn at the junction of
Lichfield Road and White Lion Street, (fn. 53) some 320
yards from the Green Bridge over the Sow. Leland,
however, described the hospital as 'a free chapel on
the Green at Stafford hard by Sow river'. (fn. 54) Leland's
words, 15th-century descriptions of the site, (fn. 55) and a
17th-century rental of grammar-school lands (fn. 56) all
suggest a site near the Green Bridge, on the west (fn. 57) side
of the present Bridge Street and perhaps including
the site of the present 'Grapes'. (fn. 58) The building
shown on the seal of the hospital (see below) may be
an approximate representation of the chapel as it was
when the matrix was cut.
Priors or Masters
Eudes, occurs 1208. (fn. 59)
William, occurs 1248. (fn. 60)
Peter, occurs 1270 and 1283. (fn. 61)
John de Haseleye, probably master 1295, deposed
by 1296-7. (fn. 62)
Richard, deposed by 1296-7. (fn. 63)
Roger de Baggeworth, occurs 1296-7 and 1304. (fn. 64)
John, occurs 1352-3 and 1370. (fn. 65)
David Fissher, resigned 1397. (fn. 66)
William Marche, presented 1397. (fn. 67)
William Draper, resigned 1409. (fn. 68)
Elias of Woore, instituted 1409, died 1418. (fn. 69)
Robert Wright, collated 1419, occurs 1438-9. (fn. 70)
Simon, occurs 1442-3. (fn. 71)
William Dentith, presented 1459, occurs 14751476. (fn. 72)
Richard Colwich, died 1485. (fn. 73)
Master Edmund Chaderton, presented 1485. (fn. 74)
John Menwaryng, presented 1485, occurs 14971498. (fn. 75)
Master John Brown, presented 1486. (fn. 76)
Master John Denbye, resigned 1502. (fn. 77)
Richard Egerton, M.A., occurs 1511 and 1535. (fn. 78)
William Wriothesley, probably master in 1538,
master at the suppression in 1548. (fn. 79)
Master Thomas Chedulton, presented 1556,
deprived 1560. (fn. 80)
The seal of the hospital is circular with a diameter
of 21/8 ins. (fn. 81) It depicts what is evidently a cruciform
building of the 13th century. Above the door of the
west front is a window of three lancets beneath a
trefoil. What appears to be a low wall surrounds the
church. Legend, lombardic:
SIGILLUM HOSPITALIS SANCTI IOHANNIS
BAPTISTE DE STAFFORDIA