The year 1475 marks the official commencement of the last stage of the
existence of the Hospital. In that year a royal charter of Edward IV
records the “foundation of a fraternity or perpetual gild of a master,
two wardens and the brethren and sisters who may wish to be of the same
in the Chapel of St. Mary Rounsidevall by Charyng Crosse, and of a
perpetual chantry of one chaplain to celebrate divine service at the
High Altar in the said chapel.” In 1478 a grant in mortmain is recorded
to the Master, Wardens, Brethren and Sisters of the Fraternity of the
said Chapel or Hospital, and of its property, revenues and privileges,
for the sustenance of the chaplain and two additional clergy who now
seem to have been required for the services of the chapel, and of “the
poor people flocking to the Hospital.”
In the years following, the affairs of the Hospital seem to have been
administered with energy and prudence, for we have records in 1494, 1495
and 1496 of legal proceedings concerning the property and privileges of
the Hospital, in which the master and wardens vigorously upheld their
position and successfully defended their rights. The litigation, which
seems to have gone on intermittently chiefly for the recovery of the
ancient possessions of the Hospital, appears to have been brought to a
conclusion in the year 1510, when, in the Mastership of Laurence Long,
the fraternity paid the sum of 20_s._ into the hanaper for the
confirmation of the various charters granted to the fraternity by the
King.
Again there seems to have been a period of comparative calm and, no
doubt, of successful performance of the duties of the Hospital. The
fraternity may have even thought that the storm which burst over the
Church in the time of Henry VIII would leave them unharmed on account of
the fulfilment of their useful functions in the community, for so late
as the year 1542, while William Jenyns was Master, a record can be read
giving evidence of their continuing interest and careful management of
their affairs. In this year they obtained certain property and a wharf
in the parish of St. Margaret, in respect of rents to be paid from a
tenement called the “Shippe” and certain lands in the Parish of St.
Clement Danes without Temple Bar. This, however, is the last deed
recorded of the ancient community, with the exception of the final act
which was very soon to take place.