29. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST AND ST. JOHN EVANGELIST, NORTHAMPTON
The exact date of the foundation of this
hospital, as well as the name of the founder, is
uncertain. Edward I. in 1307 granted to the
brethren of the hospital of St. John, Northampton an exemplification of a charter of Henry II.,
whereby they were licensed to hold whatever
they had acquired or should acquire by gifts,
purchase, or in frankalmoign. (fn. 1) It seems probable
that the actual date of the foundation was about
1140. An inquisition in 1327 names Walter,
archdeacon of Northampton, as the founder of
this hospital for the reception and maintenance
of the infirm. (fn. 2) This is probably a clerical error
for 'William,' as there was no archdeacon of
Northampton of the name of Walter about that
period. Leland gives William St. Clare, archdeacon of Northampton, as the founder. (fn. 3) His
name first occurs in 1144, but the date of his
actual appointment as archdeacon is not known;
he died in 1168. (fn. 4)
The Taxation of 1291 has one reference to
this hospital stating that a pension of £2 was
received from the rectory of Helmdon, held by
the master of St. John's. (fn. 5) The pope in 1278
directed the collectors of the Holy Land tenth
in England not to suffer the monks and brethren
of the hospital for the poor of St. John, Northampton, to be molested, according to the general
exemption of payment of such tenths granted by
Pope Gregory X. to lazar houses, houses of God,
and poor hospitals. (fn. 6)
The brethren received frequent licences to
acquire land during the fourteenth century. In
March, 1299, William de Brampton obtained a
grant permitting him to alienate to the hospital
lands and rents to the annual value of 100s. in
Hartwell, Quinton, Courteenhall, and Piddington. (fn. 7) In 1330 William de Horkesle and Emma
his wife obtained a licence to grant a messuage
in Northampton which was held of the king by
a service of 2s. yearly towards the farm of the
town payable by the bailiffs to the master and
brethren of the hospital of St. John to find a
chaplain to celebrate daily in the church of the
said hospital for the souls of the faithful departed. (fn. 8) A chantry for the souls of William
and Emma was formally ordained in the church
by the bishop of Lincoln in 1339. (fn. 9) In the
following year another chantry for the soul of
John de Duglington was ordained at an altar on
the west side of the lady-chapel 'next the
organs.' (fn. 10) Robert de Clendon, clerk, obtained
permission in 1337 to grant a messuage and
thirty-six acres of land in Piddington to the
brethren to provide two wax lights to burn
before the altar of the Blessed Virgin in their
church on festival days whilst divine service was
being celebrated, for the souls of him and his
ancestors. (fn. 11)
The church of the hospital, towards the rebuilding of which in 1309 Bishop Dalderby
licensed the brethren to beg alms, as well as for
the maintenance of the poor flocking to the
hospital, (fn. 12) seems to have been one of considerable
size for an institution of this kind, as the
diocesan in 1310 issued a licence for the dedication of four altars therein. (fn. 13) A burying ground,
a very important part of a large hospital, was
apportioned to the house in early days; according to one of the borough documents a vacant
piece of land was conveyed to the brothers of
St. John for enlarging their cemetery in 1286. (fn. 14)
On two occasions Edward II. exercised the royal
prerogative of imposing pensioners as on a house
of the king's foundation or patronage. In 1314
Ela Druel was sent to the master and brethren
to receive the allowance of a brother in their
house, (fn. 15) and in 1325 they were enjoined to
admit into their hospital and provide necessary
food and clothing for William of the Hall, who
had long served the king and his father, and was
now wholly unable to work more. (fn. 16) In the same
year the diocesan issued a mandate desiring the
master and brethren to receive William, son of
Walter Piddington, into their house as a brother. (fn. 17)
Various debts are recorded about this time.
In July of the year 1325 John of Upton,
master of the hospital, in conjunction with
Thomas de Chellesfeld of London, and Richard of
Ofton, dyer of London, acknowledged a debt of
£100 due to Adam de Salesbury of London,
and in the following August the master acknowledged another debt of 25 marks due to a
merchant of Florence. (fn. 18) In 1334 the brethren
appear as debtors to the amount of £16 10s. to
the executors of the will of the late parson
of Kislingbury, the enrolment of the debt being
subsequently cancelled on payment. (fn. 19)
Towards the close of the century the condition of the hospital gave rise to complaint, and
on 1 March, 1381-2, the bishop appointed a
commission for the administration of the goods
and temporalities of the house, having found at a
recent visitation that the inmates were neglecting
previous injunctions; that they were voluptuous
both in food and clothing; and were dissipating
the property of the hospital instead of providing
for the poor and needy. (fn. 20) The master, John of
Grafton, obtained a licence in 1387 on payment of
a fine of £10 in the hanaper to acquire in mortmain
lands and tenements of the yearly value of £10
in aid of the maintenance of poor people living
upon alms of the hospital. (fn. 21) On John's death, in
1389, the bishop appointed Nicholas Goldsmith
of Northampton to the custody of the hospital
during the vacancy. (fn. 22)
Injunctions were issued by Bishop Bokyngham
in 1345 for the regulation of the house, to the
effect that there was to be silence kept in the
church and dormitory and also in refectory when
there were no guests; the dress should be uniform, of one colour, and with a black cross on it;
the brethren were never to leave the hospital
save in the habit; there was to be a weekly
chapter, when all sins and excesses should be
confessed and redressed without respect of
persons; brethren sent out to beg should give a
full account of all money or contributions in
kind within three days of their return; the constitutions of Bishop Grossetête should be read three
times a year, and no novice was to be accepted
unless he excelled in reading and was otherwise
suitable. (fn. 23)
The means of the hospital lessened in the
fifteenth century, and in 1433 Bishop Gray dispensed the brethren from the obligation of
finding a secular priest to celebrate, as their
funds were impoverished, and licensed one of the
brethren to officiate in his place. (fn. 24)
Early in the sixteenth century Anne Wake,
widow of William Wake of Hartwell, by her
will dated 1504, left her body to be buried in
the chapel of Our Lady in the hospital of St.
John of Northampton. (fn. 25)
On 20 August, 1534, five signatures were
appended to the deed acknowledging the king's
supremacy, those of Richard Birdsall, the master,
John Calcot, John Nyccolls, John Atkynson, and
Edmund Curtes. (fn. 26) The clear annual value of
the house according to the Valor of 1535 was
declared at £57 19s. 6¼d.; (fn. 27) the return shows that
at that time a certain number of aged poor, three
men and five women, were maintained in the
hospital, and were in receipt of 2d. a day. A
certificate of this hospital, in 1546, describes it as
founded to maintain a master, two priests, and
eight poor people, and to exercise hospitality.
The church of the hospital is stated to be no
parish church, but only for the company there
dwelling. (fn. 28)
An elaborate charter of Charles I. granted in
1631 purports to cite the original foundation
deed, from which it appears that the practice of
the sixteenth century (continued up to recent
times) of using the funds for a master, for two
co-brethren or chaplains, and eight resident alms
men or alms women, was not part of the original
scheme, which was to afford temporary entertainment and refreshment for the infirm poor, and
for orphans who should be ministered to by resident brethren, whilst the languidi vel leprosi
were excepted as likely to prove a permanent
charge upon the establishment.
It was placed from the first under the immediate patronage of the bishop of Lincoln. Grave
charges of mismanagement and monopolization
of the funds by non-resident masters were made
in pre-Reformation days, and this evil materially
increased when the town, on the formation of
the diocese of Peterborough, ceased to have any
connexion with Lincoln. From that date the
mastership of St. John's, Northampton, came to
be regarded as a lucrative sinecure in the gift of
the bishop of London. The evil first came to a
head when Bishop Cooper, in 1573, presented
Arthur Wake, M.A., to the mastership. Wake
resided in the Channel Islands, and refused to
return to England, notwithstanding the vigorous
protests of various justices of the county and
important townsmen who stated in a petition to
the Privy Council, in 1584, that 'hardly the
xxth part of the revenues were given to the
reliefe of any impotent aged or feeble persons.'
This is not the place to enter into the grievous
post-Reformation abuses of this ancient charitable
foundation, and of the constant litigation in connexion therewith, which continued down to the
death of Richard Pretyman, one of the sons of
Bishop Pretyman, the pluralist, who held the
sinecure mastership from 1814 until his death
in 1866. (fn. 29)
The master's house and garden together with
the chapel were sold in 1870 to the Bedford and
Northampton Railway Company, by whom the
chapel was sold to Mr. Mullinger, who transferred it to the use of the Roman Catholic congregation. The hospital itself was refounded in
1876 at Weston Favell as a convalescent hospital,
which at present accommodates 41 inmates. A
chapel has also been erected, and a portion of the
funds set aside to provide a weekly pension of
5 shillings for 8 'out-pensioners' over the age of
60. The master now discharges the duties of
the two co-brethren. (fn. 30)
The hospital, save in a few special charters,
appears simply as St. John's; occasionally it was
described as dedicated to St. John Baptist, and
more rarely as dedicated to St. John the Evangelist. But the correct dedication is the very unusual one of the conjunction of these two saints.
Sherborne Hospital and the parish church of
Groombridge, Kent, are the only other dedications
to the two SS. John of which we are aware.
Masters Of St. John The Baptist And St.
John The Evangelist, Northampton
Warner, (fn. 31)
temp. Henry III.
John of Oxyndon, (fn. 32)
temp. Henry III.
Richard, (fn. 33) occurs 1245
Richard, (fn. 34) occurs 1280
William of Cottesbrok, (fn. 35) resigned 1291
Richard of Helmdon, (fn. 36) appointed 1291, died
1323
John of Upton, (fn. 37) appointed 1323
William of Piddington, (fn. 38) occurs 1334
John of Boketon, (fn. 39) died 1349
John of Whatton, (fn. 40) appointed 1349, died 1376
John of Grafton, (fn. 41) appointed 1376, died 1389
Thomas Aldyngton, (fn. 42) appointed 1389
Edmund Buckingham, (fn. 43) died 1406
Henry Pilton, (fn. 44) appointed 1406
William Rote, occurs 1455
Richard Cole, (fn. 45) resigned 1475
Richard Sherd, (fn. 46) appointed 1475, resigned
1498
Thomas Parmenter, (fn. 47) appointed 1498, resigned
1514
William Atkynson, M.A., (fn. 48) appointed 1514
Thomas Freeman, appointed 1524
John Aras, (fn. 49) resigned 1530
Richard Birdsall, (fn. 50) appointed 1530, resigned
1544
Arthur Lowe, LL.B., (fn. 51) appointed 1544, resigned 1569
Arthur Wake, M.A., (fn. 52) appointed 1569, deprived 1573
Robert Condall, (fn. 53) appointed 1574
William Wake, (fn. 54) occurs 1625, resigned 1638
William Boswell, (fn. 55) occurs 1630
George Wake, D.D., (fn. 56) appointed 1638, died
1682
John Skelton, M.A., (fn. 57) appointed 1682, died
1704
Joseph Gardiner, M.A., (fn. 58) appointed 1704,
died 1732
Anthony Reynolds, M.A., (fn. 59) occurs 1733, died
1751
John Kerrick, M.D., (fn. 60) appointed 1752, died
1762
Robert Dowbiggin, B.A., (fn. 61) appointed 1762
George Hubbard, (fn. 62) appointed 1795
Richard Pretyman, B.A., (fn. 63) appointed 1814,
died 1866
Nathaniel Thomas Hughes, M.A., (fn. 64) appointed
1871
Pointed oval seal taken from a cast at the
British Museum. The impression, which is a
fine one, represents on the right St. John the
Baptist, partially covered with his raiment of
camel's hair, holding a staff in the right hand,
and pointing to the Agnus Dei on a plaque with
the left hand; on the left St. John the Evangelist turned to the right holding a book in his
right hand. Over the head of the former the
inscription, B A C T I; over the head of the latter,
10 Ew A . Between the saints a slender shaft
supporting two round-headed arches, and an early
roof and turret with lines representing thatch.
In base a crescent, enclosing an estoile of eight
points.
Legend in Lombardic capitals runs: SIGILT
HOSPITALIS . . . IŌHIS BAPTISTE ET .
S . . .I . EWANG . DE . NORHAMH .
The seal which has been used since the time
of Charles I. is oval, bearing a badly executed
figure of St. John the Baptist seated, partly
draped, his left hand resting on a lamb to which
he points with his right hand; resting upon his
right shoulder is a cross, above his head clouds
and rays of light, in the distance on the left a
tree.
Legend: SIGILL HOSPITAL STI JOHANNIS
BAPTISTÆ IN VILLA NORTHAMPTON EX FUND
CAR REG 1630.