31. HOSPITALS OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE AND ST. JOHN BAPTIST, ELY (fn. 1)
The Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene at Ely
probably owed its foundation to the same 12thcentury movement for the care of lepers as the
Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene at Sturbridge.
The accounts of the revenues of the bishopric
during the vacancy of the see in 1171-2, after the
death of Bishop Niel, show that the 'hospital of
Ely' was receiving regular alms of £8 8s. out of the
issues of the episcopal manors. (fn. 2) About 1225 the
Bishop of Ely, to whom the valuable rectory of
Littleport had been apportioned when the property
of Ely was divided between bishop and priory,
gave the church of Littleport to the Hospital of
St. Mary Magdalene. Hugh Northwold (bishop
from 1229 to 1254), seeing that St. Mary Magdalene was endowed beyond its needs (and probably that the urgent need which it had been
founded to meet was past), united it with another
hospital, that of St. John Baptist, which had been
founded in close connexion with the Cathedral
Priory.
The earliest reference to the Hospital of St.
John is in an undated charter, (fn. 3) witnessed by
Salomon the Goldsmith among others, by which
John de Beverand gave land in the fields of Ely
to the hospital in support of a chantry chaplain to
minister there for its benefactors. The land was
held of the almoner of the priory at a rent of 6d.
Another piece of land given to the hospital, possibly before the union, was 3½ acres in Downham
held by the brethren of the Hospital of St. John of
Ely in 1251, which in 1222 had been held by a
tenant who was bound to do certain work on
Aldreth causeway and in the vineyard, and to
lodge the bishop's messengers. After the union of
the hospitals Littleport Church (fn. 4) was appropriated
to the master; a vicarage was endowed there at
£6 13s. 4d. which had fallen to £5 by 1291 and
was reduced in 1414, by order of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, to £4. The master and his vicar
at Littleport were always exempt from the payment of tenths. The buildings of both hospitals
may have remained in use, but the existing fragments, which have been tentatively identified as
belonging to the chapels of St. Mary Magdalene
and of St. John respectively, (fn. 5) are all, perhaps,
remains of the latter hospital; nothing is left of an
earlier date than the beginning of the 13th century.
For the community housed in the hospital, which
stood about 570 yards west of the cathedral,
Bishop Hugh Northwold drew up a simple rule
on collegiate lines. (fn. 6) The chaplains and brethren
were to sleep together in one dormitory and eat
together in one refectory; they were to wear a
clerical closed gown or cassock, not strictly a religious habit, and were put under obedience to the
Sacrist of Ely as the bishop's deputy, in all things
touching the hospital. The sacrist must see to it
that all their rents and profits were spent on the
maintenance of the brethren and on the poor,
taking nothing for himself. The whole number
of the community was not to exceed thirteen, and
every chaplain or brother admitted was to be
appointed by the bishop, or by the sacrist acting for
him. No real property was to be sold or granted
away without the consent of bishop and sacrist.
The sacrist might punish offenders, clerical or lay,
with any penalty short of expulsion, and in him
the chapel of St. John Baptist and its disposal were
vested. The chaplains were to be sworn not to
take any offerings from parishioners, nor to divert
legacies from the parish church, in whose cemetery
the poor who died in the hospital were to be buried;
the chaplains and brethren were, however, to be
buried in the graveyard of the hospital.
In 1319 the master and brethren had licence to
acquire land to the value of 10 marks a year. (fn. 7)
Mary Bassingbourn gave them, in 1323, a messuage in 'Patiz lane' adjoining the hospital, for her
soul and the souls of her two husbands, Humphrey
and John [de Lisle] and that her anniversary
might be kept by the annual distribution of a farthing's worth of bread to each of 144 poor people
at the hospital's expense; (fn. 8) she was received into the
confraternity, and in 1327 her name appears
together with other benefactors, as licensed to
give lands, houses, and rents in Ely and Downham
to the total value of 28s. 4d. (fn. 9) The master and
brethren also obtained licence in 1358 to acquire,
in completion of the 10 marks, 14 messuages,
3 shops, and ploughland and fen in the neighbourhood, free fishing in Stanmere and the moiety of
a weir at Benwick, all of the value of 48s. 8½d. (fn. 10)
Later they exceeded their licence, and in 1376
forfeited a messuage, 5 acres, and 3 roods in
Haddenham, which was granted to the king's
squire, Thomas Hauteyn, 'because they acquired
the same in mortmain by Richard Tyd and Robert
Hykelynton, brethren of the house, without
the King's license.' (fn. 11) In 1383 they had another
licence up to £10 a year, (fn. 12) and in 1392 were buying property in Ely and Downham to the extent
of £5. (fn. 13)
The early statutes of the hospital were revised
and expanded by Bishop Fordham in 1303. (fn. 14) The
brethren, clerical and lay, were to eat and sleep
together, if space permitted, or if not the clerks
should sleep in one building and the laymen in
another, and the master was to dine in the refectory. All were to be present at the divine offices
and the lay brethren were to say for matins 20
Paternosters and Aves, and for grace before and
after dinner a Paternoster. All were to wear
clothes of the same colour and cut and not to go
out without such costume. The usual orders were
given for silence, avoidance of taverns and evil
amusements, and so forth, with a curious order
that all should be shaved together, none separately.
There was to be a separate house for the infirm,
who should be attended by one or two of the
brethren, and remnants of food from the common
table were to be distributed to the poor, without
favour. It is noteworthy that whereas Bishop
Northwold had limited the brethren to thirteen,
Fordham had to insist that the full number of
thirteen should be kept up, for which he declared
that the endowment was ample.
Although these rules state that admission to the
hospital is to rest solely with the sacrist, the actual
procedure was for the master and brethren to
present a candidate to the bishop, who admitted
him and instructed the sacrist to install him. (fn. 15)
Sixteen such admissions are recorded in the bishops'
registers between 1342 and 1402, (fn. 16) of whom
ten were certainly clerks at the time of their
admission.
At a visitation of the hospital by Hugh de Seton
in July 1345 orders were given that the church
long since built in honour of St. John the Baptist
and St. Mary Magdalene should at once be consecrated, and that a burial ground for the brethren
and sick poor should also be consecrated. (fn. 17) It does
not appear whether this was necessary from negligence in the past, or from reconstruction of the
building, or from some ceremonial desecration as
happened in 1349, when the brethren were
licensed to have their cemetery, polluted by bloodshed, reconciled by any Catholic bishop. (fn. 18) The
Clerical Poll Tax of 1379 names John Cardinal
as master and five brethren, (fn. 19) presumably all
clerks; whether there were still lay brethren does
not appear. John Cardinal, who had been admitted to the fraternity as a deacon in 1350, (fn. 20) is
probably the John son of Geoffrey Cardinal of
Downham, a villein tenant of Bishop Montacute,
who manumitted him and bestowed the first tonsure on him in 1340. (fn. 21) He resigned the mastership in February 1391 and was assigned the use of
a chamber and an allowance of food, &c., for
himself and his servant. (fn. 22)
John Fordham, Bishop of Ely, in 1425 bequeathed £5 to 'the house of St. John in our
city of Ely'. (fn. 23) By 1454 the hospital had by the
neglect and maladministration of its masters fallen
into poverty and ruin. Bishop Bourchier then
bestowed it upon William, Bishop of Dunkeld; (fn. 24)
and similarly Bishop Gray in 1458 collated his
domestic chaplain, Robert Norman, to the mastership. (fn. 25) Any efforts that they made to improve
matters were fruitless, and by 1500 the hospital
seems to have become a sinecure free chapel. (fn. 26) As
such it should have fallen to the Crown under the
Act of 1547, but it was apparently overlooked
until early in Elizabeth's reign. The Queen in
1562 arranged that it should be granted, through
the agency of Edward Leeds the titular master or
warden, to the college of Clare Hall, Cambridge,
to endow ten scholarships, the presentation to two
of which was given to the Bishop of Ely. (fn. 27) The
property was then worth about £28 15s. (fn. 28)
Roger, occurs 1295, (fn. 30)
1299 (fn. 31)
John de Walcote, occurs 1340, (fn. 32)
resigned
1344
John de Cotone, admitted 12 Apr. 1344
John Cardinal, occurs 1379, 1384, resigned
1391
Thomas de Brampton, admitted 14 Feb. 1391
William [Gunwardby], Bishop of Dunkeld,
collated 4 Apr. 1454
Robert Norman, M.A., collated 9 Oct. 1458
Thomas Rowfote, died before July 1478
James Frost, collated 8 July 1478
John Fyssher, collated 15 May 1500
William Graunt, Bishop of Pavada, occurs
1513
John Holt, Bishop of Lydda, in commendam
17 Apr. 1528; occurs 1531, 1538
Robert Blyth, Bishop of Down, collated 7 Jan.
1541, occurs 1544
Richard Wilkes, S.T.B. collated 5 Oct. 1547,
occurs 1555
Edward Leeds, surrendered 1562.
32. HOSPITAL OF LONGSTOW
Walter the Chaplain, vicar of Longstow,
acquired from Aubrey de Stowe land, on 2 acres
of which he founded an almshouse in honour of
the Blessed Virgin Mary for the support of poor
persons, and established there a community of
maidens (ordinem puellarum) who wore robes of
russet. (fn. 33) This was probably not long before 1250,
when 'the Sisters of Stowe' were holding 12 acres,
worth 10s. (fn. 34) In 1274 the holding of the Hospital
of St. Mary was said to be 10 acres; (fn. 35) and in the
same year the Master of the Hospital of Longstow
brought an action against Stephen son of Baldwin
concerning land in the parish. (fn. 36) The 'Sisters of the
Chapel of Stowe' in 1279 held a messuage and
14 acres from John de Caxton, (fn. 37) and 3 roods of land
in alms of Martin le Freman, (fn. 38) as well as the 2 acres
on which their house stood. (fn. 39) In February 1338,
the poor sisters were granted exemption from
payment of the subsidy (fn. 40) and in 1352 directions
were again given to the Exchequer that they
should not be taxed. (fn. 41)