CHAPTER II - The Priory of St. Mary Spital
The hospital or priory of the Blessed Virgin
Mary without Bishopsgate, sometimes
known as the new hospital without Bishopsgate, and later usually called St. Mary Spital, was
situated on the east side of Bishopsgate Street, near
the site of the City bars. It was founded by an
undated grant from Walter Brunus, citizen of
London, and his wife Roisia, of lands in Bishopsgate
Street, some of which are said by Walter
Brunus to have been given to him and his fellows
(et sociis meis) by Walter son of Eilred (filius
Eilredi), Alderman, for the purpose of the
foundation. (ref. 1) According to Dugdale, Walter
Brunus was co-founder with ’Walter FitzEilred’, William de Elie, John Bloundie and
Wymarke de Elbegate. (fn. a) Dugdale also says that
the foundation stone was laid on 14 June 1197 by
Walter, Archdeacon of London, during the
episcopate of William de S. Mariae Ecclesia. (ref. 2) The
period of this episcopate is, however, given as 1199
to 1221 (ref. 3) and a Walter does not occur as archdeacon before 1207. (fn. b)
Figure 1:
Stone capital found on the site of No. 38
The land granted by Walter and Roisia included
two pieces of land given by Walter son of
Eilred, one on the east side of Bishopsgate Street
containing 44 ells (ulna) fronting the king's highway
(Bishopsgate Street), and 117 ells on the east
side fronting Lolesworth field (which formed the
greater part of the later hamlet of Spitalfields), and
162 ells in depth west to east, (ref. 5) and the other on the
west side of Bishopsgate Street containing 13 ells
fronting the street, 16 ells on the west side, and a
depth of 78 ells. A further two and a half acres of
arable land conveyed to Walter Brunus by various
persons was granted by him: the description of the
constituent parts of this is not very clear but seems
to include a further 101 ells fronting Bishopsgate
Street and possibly a further 149 ells fronting
Lolesworth field. (ref. 2) If the ell is taken to be
forty-five inches (fn. c) this gives a total frontage on
Bishopsgate Street of about 544 feet and on
Lolesworth field of about 997 feet, with a depth
west to east at one point of about 607 feet. The
frontage on the east side of Bishopsgate Street
appears to be longer than the street frontage of the
precinct at the time of the Dissolution, and probably includes property that was always outside
the precinct. The property on the west side of the
street also appears never to have been within the
precinct.
The foundation of the house for canons regular
is said to have been confirmed by Walter Brunus
and Roisia in 1235, (ref. 6) when the church was rebuilt
further east so that its west door stood on the site
of the eastern part of the old church: Walter and
Roisia are said to have been buried before the altar
of the church. (ref. 7) Dugdale describes this confirmation as a re-foundation and dates from it the
appellation New Hospital. (ref. 8)
In the time of Prior Godfrey, who occurs in
1218, a composition was agreed between the prior
and canons of the hospital and the rector of St.
Botolph without Bishopsgate, John Witing,
whereby the hospital was to pay 10s. yearly in lieu
of all tithes and other parochial dues owed to the
parish of St. Botolph by the hospital for its
territoria … et curia, which is described as lying
between Berewardeslane on the south and the
parish of St. Leonard Shoreditch on the north, and
between the King's highway (Bishopsgate Street)
on the west and the Bishop of London's field
called Lolesworth on the east. (ref. 9) Probably
Berewardeslane was approximately on the line of
the present Bishopsgate end of Artillery Lane. At
the time of the Dissolution only part of the western
boundary of the precinct appears to have reached
Bishopsgate Street: as in the foundation charter,
land outside the precinct may be included.
The house belonged to the Augustinian order (ref. 10)
and contained both canons regular and lay brothers
and sisters: the brothers and sisters serving God
there are mentioned in the foundation charter. In
1303 the house contained twelve canons, five lay
brothers and seven sisters. (ref. 11) One of its chief purposes
was as a lying-in hospital. An order of
7 January 1341, relieving the temporalities of the
hospital from assessment for a ninth and fifteenth,
says it was founded to receive and entertain pilgrims
and the infirm who resorted thither until
they were healed, and pregnant women until their
delivery, and also to maintain the children of
women who died there in childbirth, until the age
of seven. (ref. 12) A confirmation by the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul's on 8 August 1279 of a grant
from the bishop to the hospital of a fountain called
Snekockeswelle in his field called Lolesworth,
with liberty to enclose it with a wall and bring the
water underground almost to the south corner of
the garden of the hospital, mentions that it was to
be led thence to the infirmary where the poor and
sick lay. (ref. 13) In 1303 the Archbishop of Canterbury
ordered that the lamps which used to hang between
the sick persons ’for their comfort’ should be again
maintained. (ref. 11)
Stow says that a chapel dedicated to SS. Edmund
and Mary (described as ’the blessed’ Mary in the
Ministers' Accounts and as St. Mary Magdalen by
Stow) was founded in the priory in about 1391 by
William Evesham, citizen and pepperer of London.
(ref. 14) It evidently existed in 1389 as between
that year and 1397 there are references among
papal letters to the priory by the title of St. Mary
de Altopassu; (ref. 15) this apparently signifying the
’hautpas’ or ’halpace’ which in 1542 gave the
chapel its alternative name of St. Mary called ’le
Hall Pace’. (fn. d)
In the early fourteenth century royal servants
(including a servant of Edward I's confessor, two
of Edward III's yeomen, and a Robert de la
Naperie maimed in the king's service) were sent
to be lodged in the hospital, (ref. 17) and in December
1315 John de Tany, a considerable landowner
and a benefactor to the hospital, died there. (ref. 18)
On 22 April 1391 a papal relaxation of five
years of penance was declared to penitents who
visited and gave alms for the support of the
monastery ’and those in the solemn hospital of the
Blessed Virgin founded within the said monastery
in which hospital very many poor widows, wards
(pupilli) and orphans are continually sustained’. (ref. 19)
A list of parish churches and monasteries in
London of about the mid-fifteenth century mentions ’Seynt Marye Spetylle. A poore pryery, and
a parysche chyrche in the same. And that pryory
kepythe ospytalyte for pore men. And sum susters
yn the same place to kepe the beddys for pore men
that come to that place’. (ref. 20) There are few early
references to the priory church as a parish church,
although in 1559 the former precinct is described
as a parish. (ref. 21)
Figure 2:
Extract from Wyngaerde's view of ? c. 1522–40,
showing St. Mary Spital Priory from the south
A distant impression of a church said to be that
of St. Mary Spital, shortly before the Dissolution,
is given in Wyngaerde's view of London (fig. 2),
to which the anterior date 1522 has been ascribed (ref. 22)
and which is presumably not later than 1540. At
the time of its dissolution in 1539 the fabric of
the church was apparently already in disrepair, as
in August 1538 the Lord Mayor, Sir Richard Gresham,
reported to Thomas Cromwell that on the previous
Wednesday afternoon ’the Rouffe and the
Leedes and allssoo the Roodeloffte’ of the church
had fallen down. (ref. 23) The infirmary had perhaps
been maintained more successfully. Gresham took
the opportunity to petition the King that three
London hospitals ’Seynt Maryes Spytell, Seynt
Bartholemews Spytell and Seint Thomas Spytell’
and ’the new abby of Tower hyll’ should be
henceforward governed by the Lord Mayor and
Aldermen, and testified to their usefulness to the
City by virtue of their endowment ’onely for the
releffe, comforte and helpyng of the poore and
Impotent people not beyng able to helpe theymselffes,
and not to the mayntenaunce of Chanons
preestes and monkes, to lyve in pleasure…’ (ref. 24)
Stow describes the house as ’an Hospitall of great
reliefe’ containing ’at the surrender thereof, nine
score beds well furnished for receipt of poore
people’. (ref. 25)
(fn. e)
By 6 July 1540 over twenty-five tons of lead (fn. f)
had been received by James Needham, surveyor of
the King's manors, from St. Mary Spital for the
repair of ’Westminster hall Rouff’, (ref. 26) but the sick
continued to occupy the hospital in December
1540, when a lease of the former priory excepted
’the buildings in which the infirm there lie for
term of their lives’. (ref. 27)
In 1535 the yearly income of the priory was
£562 14s. 6½d. gross and £504 12s. 11½d. net. (ref. 28)
In June 1534 the prior and eleven other members
of the house subscribed the acknowledgement
of the royal supremacy, (ref. 29) but the first pensions
assigned for payment after the Dissolution at
Christmas 1539 (ref. 30) were made only to the prior, the
president, five priests and two sisters. (fn. g)