32. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, NOTTINGHAM
The Nottingham leper hospital of St. Leonard
was certainly in existence as early as the reign of
Henry II (1154-89). Henry III, when at Nottingham in 1231, instructed Brian de Lisle to
allow the leprous brethren of St. Leonard's to
have a cart to collect dead wood in Bestwood, as
they had done in the times of the king's ancestors; and when this grant was renewed in 1226
it is expressly stated that it was confirmatory of
like grants made by Henry II and by John. (fn. 146)
This house, which stood outside the walls on
the north side of the town, is mentioned in a
grant to St. John's Hospital c. 1230, wherein
half an acre of land is described as abutting upon
the hospital of St. Leonard. (fn. 147) Another 13thcentury grant to St. John's describes a parcel of
land as lying between the land of St. Leonard
and that of the church of St. Mary. (fn. 148)
In a charter of the year 1339 there is reference to an acre of arable land at Snapedale, Nottingham, 'abutting upon the dovecote of the
house of St. Leonard.' (fn. 149) This in itself is sufficient to prove that the house was at this time endowed with a fair amount of land, otherwise a
dovecote would not have been sanctioned.
An interesting record of 1341-2 tells us that
the Prior of Lenton then pleaded that his tithe
income from St. Mary's parish was diminished
owing to the fact that 60 acres of land pertaining
to St. Leonard's Hospital was lying barren and
uncultivated, and that the adjoining chapel of St.
Michael had been recently destroyed. (fn. 150)
In 1358 William Chaundeler, keeper or warden of the hospital of St. Leonard, was charged
with making an encroachment of half an acre
in the king's demesnes, within the court of the
town of Notttingham. (fn. 151)
Until we get to the time of Henry VIII the
town records, strange to say, are entirely silent
with regard to this leper hospital, except by
way of occasionally making a bare mention of
it in reciting boundaries of property. (fn. 152)
Amid the enrolment of grants at the local
court in 1335 to William de Amyas of Nottingham, a piece of land lying in the field of Nottingham is described as abutting upon the land
of the hospital of St. Michael. (fn. 153) The house of
St. Michael is also mentioned as a land boundary
in an enrolment of grant to John Taunesley in
1416. (fn. 154) These entries have given rise to some
confusion; but, from the position of this house,
it becomes quite clear that in both cases the real
reference is to St. Leonard's Hospital; the closeness of the old chapel of St. Michael gave rise to
this error in title. (fn. 155)
An important document of 1521 throws much
light on the functions formerly discharged by this
hospital, though at the date when it was drawn
up it is highly improbable that there were any
lepers in the town of Nottingham, so that the
warden of St. Leonard's held a sinecure office.
By this document the mayor, burgesses, and
community confirmed to Thomas Gibbonson,
chaplain, the hospital house of St. Leonard,
vacant by the death of John Alestre, the late
warden, with all lands, tenements, rents, &c., thereto belonging, for his whole life, subject to the
charge of sustaining and housing the lepers born
of the liberty of the town of Nottingham, supplying each of them for three weeks with a
bushel of wheat and pease and one piece of
cloth of the value of 2s., according to the original form and foundation of the hospital; it
was also provided that the warden was to be allowed to have yearly three cart-loads of firewood
to burn in his chamber. (fn. 156)
In 1534 the mayor and burgesses appointed
William Lewes, chaplain, to the wardenship of
St. Leonard's. (fn. 157)
The Valor Ecclesiasticus of this same year has
no reference to this hospital, although it enters
the income received by the warden, William
Lewes, from the chantry of St. Mary, which he
also held. (fn. 158) Nor is this hospital named in the
certificates of the commissioners of either Henry
VIII or Edward VI.
The possessions of St. Leonard's appear to have
remained with the corporation, and there is some
slight proof of a small continuance of a charitable
foundation in an entry in the chamberlain's accounts as late as 1571-2. (fn. 159) This reference to
'a lasar of the Spytell House' has been somewhat absurdly twisted to mean that leprosy still
continued at Nottingham in Elizabeth's days,
and that the sufferers were provided for at the
town's expense. All that it necessarily implies
was that there was an almsman living at the old
hospital. Thus at Northampton the borough retained the old leper hospital of St. Leonard and
placed an almsman there, who received 2s. a
year, a suit of clothes, and a load of firewood;
he was called the 'lazer' or the 'lazerman' as
late as the 18th century. (fn. 160)
Wardens of St. Leonard's
William Chaundeler, occurs 1358 (fn. 161)
John Alestre, died 1521
Thomas Gibbonson, appointed 1521 (fn. 162)
William Lewes, appointed 1534 (fn. 163)