The policy of the King, enforced in many cases by the greed of his
agents and other members of the Court, could not leave the Hospital
unscathed, and not even the charitable deeds of the fraternity were
sufficient to save them from dispersion. The grief with which the
master, wardens and members of the fraternity assembled to ratify their
last official act in a corporate capacity may be conceived, and it is
possible to some faint extent to imagine the feelings of despair and of
bitter irony uppermost in the minds of the brethren and sisters when
they heard the words of the Deed of Surrender read aloud. In this
document the master, wardens, brethren and sisters of the fraternity
declared that they are “specially influenced at the present time by
divers causes and considerations to give and concede by this Charter to
the most excellent and invincible prince, our Lord Henry VIII, by the
Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith
and Supreme Head of the Church in England and Ireland,” their Church,
Hospital, and all other property and privileges. The affixing of their
Common Seal to this document concludes the chequered history of the
Convent of St. Mary Roncevall at Charing Cross (November 11, 1544).
Though the remaining members of the Community were deprived of their
offices and ejected from the home which they had so long possessed at
Charing Cross, their lot was not so hard as in the case of many others
driven into the world at this time. A pittance from their income was
left. There may be read in a book of payments of Edward VI, under the
heading “Pencions out of Monasteries” that the guardians of Roncevall
were allotted the munificent annual income of 6_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ Very
oddly in this document the larger sum of 8_l._ is entered and crossed
out in favour of the smaller amount mentioned. The amount of the pension
was measured with parsimonious exactness. Quarterly payments of 33
shillings and 4 pence are entered as being paid to the few surviving
members of the fraternity so late as at Christmas, the Annunciation,
Midsummer and Michaelmas, 1551 and 1552.
[Illustration:
FIG. 10.—The common seal of the Fraternity of St. Mary Roncevall.
FIG. 11.—From the imperfect impression attached to the Deed of
Surrender.
]