THE SMALLER FOUNDATIONS
Among the Houses mentioned by Arnold FitzThedmar are two or three not
considered in the above enumeration. There are the Houses of St. Anne
by the Tower Hill, St. James in the Temple, St. James in the Wall, St.
Stephen’s at Westminster, St. Thomas’ Chapel of the Bridge, St. James
in the Field, St. Mary Magdalen Guildhall, St. Mary Rouncevall, and St.
Ursula in the Poultry. There are one or two others which shall here be
briefly mentioned.
Concerning many of these Houses, so little is known that the list
becomes merely a catalogue. The position of these smaller Houses in the
City in some respects corresponded to that of the humbler Dissenting
Chapels of the present day. That is to say, although at the time there
could be no thought of separation or of schism, the poor folk found
themselves more at home in the smaller Houses. With them they had their
Craft Fraternities; their priests were not the great Ecclesiastical
Lords of the stately Abbeys and priories, but of humbler guise, men
accessible to themselves.
THE ORDER OF PENITENCE OR FRATRES DE SACCÂ
The Order of Penitence grew out of the teaching of Francis of Assisi
very early in his career. It was brought under rule by the Bull
“Significatum est,” dated December 16, 1221, but it is said to have
existed before this date.
Among other things, the order actually forbade the carrying of arms.
They anticipated the Quakers, they anticipated the Peace Society, they
were many centuries in advance of mankind. Like the Quakers, they did
not understand that the very existence of a people under the conditions
of the time—and of our time as well—rests upon force and strength of
arms.
The great innovation designed by the Third Order was concord; this
fraternity was a union of peace, and it attempted to bring before
astonished Europe a new truce of God.
The second essential obligation of the Brothers of Penitence appears
to have been that of reducing their wants as far as possible, and
while preserving their fortunes, to distribute to the poor, at proper
intervals, such portions of the revenue as remained after contenting
themselves with the strict necessaries of life.
To carry on with contentment and uprightness the duties of their
calling; to seek a holy inspiration for the slightest actions of life;
to find in the infinitely little and ephemeral events of existence, the
things apparently the most commonplace, the handiwork of the Almighty;
to keep pure from debasing deeds, words, thoughts, ambitions, and
interests, to use things as if not possessing them, like the servants
in the parable who knew that they would have to give an account of the
talents confided to them; to close their hearts to hatred; to open them
wide to pity; to give their aid to the old, the poor, the infirm, the
diseased, the outcast and the abandoned: such were the other essential
duties of this most excellent Order of Penitence.
The letter to all Christians in which these thoughts break forth is
a living souvenir of St. Francis’s teachings to the Tertiaries. To
represent these latter to ourselves in a perfectly concrete form, we
may resort to the legend of St. Lucchesio, whom tradition makes the
first Brother of Penitence.
And the history of the first Brother of Penitence may be thus condensed
into a short narrative:—
A native of a little city of Tuscany, he quitted it to avoid its
political enmities, and established himself at Poggibonsi, not far
from Sienna, where he continued to trade in grain. Already rich, it
was not difficult for him to buy up all the wheat, and, selling it in
a time of scarcity, realise enormous profits. But he was disturbed
in conscience: he was convinced—it is exactly like the report of a
Salvation Army meeting—by the preaching of Francis of Assisi: he was
enabled to see himself from the outside—which is indeed the beginning
of all repentance and conviction: he resolved to bestow the whole of
his superfluous wealth upon the poor, and to keep nothing at all but
his house with a small garden and one ass. From that time he was to
be seen devoting himself to the cultivation of his ground and the
conversion of his house into a sort of free hostelry, which was filled
with the poor and the sick. He not only welcomed them, but he sought
them out, even to the malaria-infested Maremma, often returning with a
sick man astride on his back and preceded by his ass bearing a similar
burden. The resources of the garden were necessarily limited: when
there was no other way, Lucchesio took a wallet and went from door to
door asking alms, but most of the time this was needless, for his poor
guests, seeing him so diligent and so good, were better satisfied with
a few poor vegetables from the garden, shared with him, than with the
most copious repast. In the presence of their benefactor, so joyful
in his destitution, they forgot, it is said, their own poverty—one
reads with doubt this statement,—and the habitual murmurs of the poor,
half-starved and diseased creatures were transformed into outbursts
of admiration and gratitude. Conversion had not killed in him all
family ties: Donna Bona his wife, became his fellow-labourer, and
when in 1260 he saw her gradually fading away, his grief was too deep
to be endured. “You know, dear companion,” he said to her when she had
received the last sacraments, “how much we have loved one another while
we could serve God together: why should we not remain united until
we depart to the ineffable joy? Wait for me. I also will receive the
sacraments, and go to heaven with you.”
[Illustration: FLAGELLANTS
Facsimile of a Miniature in the Cité de Dieu (MS. of 15th century in
St. Genevieve Library, Paris).]
So he spoke, and called back the priest to administer them to him.
Then after holding the hands of his dying consort, comforting her with
gentle words, when he saw that her soul was gone, he made over her the
sign of the cross, stretched himself beside her, and calling with love
upon Jesus, Mary, and St. Francis, he fell asleep for eternity.
The Order, therefore, known as Penitentiarii or Fratres de Saccâ
Order, consisted of both men and women: the latter were _Sorores de
Pœnitentia_. They might be married, in which case conjugal abstinence
was enjoined on certain days; but they could not marry after
admission; they might individually or collectively hold property. They
came over in the year 1257, and they remained until 1307, when their
Order was dissolved. They had for their House the old Jewish Synagogue
of Old Jewry, and apparently were always quite a small fraternity.
Beside their London House there were seven Houses of the Order in
England, viz. at Lynn, whose Prior was the head of the Order; at
Canterbury, Cambridge, Norwich, Worcester, Lincoln, and Leicester.
Their House, on the suppression in 1307, was handed over to Robert
FitzWalter: it was the same house which afterward belonged to Robert
Large, to whom Caxton was apprenticed; it stood at the north-east
corner of the Old Jewry.
ST. JAMES ON THE WALL
If one stands in the south-west part of St. Giles’ churchyard,
Cripplegate, one can observe the bastion of the old stone wall which
still exists there. Within this bastion, in the corner of the wall
at the end of Monkwell Street, was formerly a small religious House,
a cell of Garendon Abbey called St. James’s in the Wall; it was
originally a Hermitage, and it was placed in the corner no doubt for
the same reason that the Greyfriars’ was placed in the next corner
going westward, as in a place unoccupied and out of the way of business.
The founder of the Hermitage is said to have been Henry the Third.
Wilkinson (_Londina Illustrata_) thinks that it was founded as a
Chantry Chapel endowed for a single priest; but the Hermit appears at
a very early period. There is a deed quoted by Wilkinson, dated 1253,
which mentions the Chapel. In 1275 it is found that the guardian of
the place was the Mayor of London. He was appointed by the King for
a curious reason—viz. to prevent the spoliation of the place and the
robbery of the chalices, vestments, etc., on the decease of the Hermit.
The custody of the Hermitage, a few years later, was transferred to
the Constable of the Tower, Anthony Beck, afterwards Bishop of Durham.
In 1299 the care of the cell was given to the Abbey of Garendon in
Leicestershire, I know not why. Newcourt relates an anecdote of the
Hermit of 1311, which illustrates the jealousy always felt by parish
priests of Hermits and others who intruded into their office:—
“I find, that in the year 1311 (Ralph de Baldock, being then Bp.
of London), and Thomas de Wyreford, an Hermit of this Cell (a
presumptuous, troublesome Man, it seems) took upon him to hear
Confessions of People of the neighbouring Parishes, to enjoyn Penances,
to grant Indulgences for 500 Days to such as frequented his Hermitage,
and the like, having no lawful Authority so to do. For which Offences
he was judicially proceeded against by the Bishop, and pronounc’d
Guilty, and to be a Transgressor of the Canons; whereupon he was
admonish’d to make Satisfaction for the same, within 15 days, and
inhibited to do the like, as also were the People warn’d not to follow,
or to be seduc’d by him, under Pain of Excommunication.” (Newcourt,
vol. i.)
In 1315 the custody of the place was committed to one Walter Kemesey:
in 1343 William de Lyons was the Hermit. In 1347 the Abbey of Garendon
sent two chaplains here to pray for the soul of the Earl of Pembroke,
who was killed in a tournament on the day of his third marriage, and of
his widow, who retired from the world, and devoted herself to acts of
piety and charity.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF OLD LAMBE’S CHAPEL, MONKWELL STREET
Looking towards the Founder’s Monument and the Master’s Seat at the
east end.
_Londina Illustrata_, vol. i.]
In 1543 the site of the Hermitage was granted by Henry the Eighth to
William Lambe, citizen and clothworker, one of the gentlemen of the
King’s-house here.
The Fire seems to have damaged, but not destroyed, this Chapel. It was
rebuilt with considerable alterations, and continued to be used as a
church until its demolition in 1825, when a crypt of great interest was
found below. It is described in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of May 1825
by Mr. A. J. Kempe.
“He there states that the recent demolition of the upper part of
Lambe’s Chapel for the purpose of rebuilding it gave access to the
curious vault occupying the space beneath. After descending ten or
twelve narrow steps, a low vaulted chamber was entered, 26 feet long
from east to west, and 20 feet broad; having in it originally nine
short round columns, six of which were remaining, supporting the
groined roof of the apartment. The capitals of these columns were
Saxon, ornamented with leaves and volutes at the angles, and the
capitals of the four corner pillars were placed diagonally to the
square of the building. Some of the intersecting stone ribs springing
from the columns were plain, and others were adorned with zigzag,
twisted, and other ancient mouldings; specimens of which, with one of
the pillars, and a plan of the directions of the arches, are given
on the right hand of the lower part of the present Engraving of old
Lambe’s Chapel. On the other side of the corresponding part of the same
Plate is a Section of the ornamented mouldings from one of the arches;
and leaning against the wall, in the Interior View at the top of the
Plate, is represented a Ground-plan of the Crypt, with the Outside
of the Chapel. The material of which this Crypt was constructed was
freestone, of a reddish colour, the surface being very considerably
decomposed; and several modern brick walls intersected the building.”
(_Londina Illustrata_, vol. i.)
THE ROLLS HOUSE
The very curious and interesting history of the “Rolls House” was told
for the first time, as regards its original objects, by Mr. W. P. W.
Phillimore, Editor of the _London and Middlesex Note-Book_, 1896. I
refer the reader to that paper for fuller details. In this place the
leading facts only are taken.
Newcourt, after relating the origin of the House, says that the number
of converts decayed when the Jews were banished in 1290; therefore the
House in 1377 was given to William Burstall, Keeper of the Rolls: that,
nevertheless, “such of the Jews as have in this Realm been converted to
Christianity have been relieved there.” It will be seen that this bald
statement conveys a very erroneous idea of the place and its history.
In 1232 Henry the Third made an annual grant of 700 marks for the
maintenance of those Jews who had been converted to Christianity, for
finding them a home and for building them a church. This sum was to be
paid out of the Exchequer until the House should possess property of
its own equivalent. At the same time the King founded a similar House
at Oxford. The number of converts became comparatively large: in 1256
the King’s almoner provided cloth for 150 robes for the converts; in
1257, 171 tunics for Easter and 164 for Pentecost; in 1265 the House
was enlarged; in 1267 a third chaplain was added; in 1275 the chapel
was enlarged; in 1280 King Edward sanctioned certain rules for the
government of the House, especially ordering that the inmates should
work at their own handicraft, and if they were able to earn their
own living, they should not be allowed to draw the allowance made
to all. He also granted to the converts half the value of all their
possessions, the whole of which belonged by right to himself; with the
chevage or head tax of all the Jews in England. This chevage for 1281
amounted to £14: 14: 9, which, at 3d. a head, means only 1179 Jews in
all England—a figure which by no means agrees with the number of those
who were banished in 1290.
The revenues of the House for this year were a little over £50, in
addition to which they had the annual grant from the Exchequer of £53:
6: 8.
[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF THE SOUTH SIDE OF OLD LAMBE’S CHAPEL
Drawn from the Court of the Alms Houses. This building was taken down
in 1825.
_Londina Illustrata_, vol. i.]
In 1290 the number of converts had gone down to 80. The original
occupants of the House must by this time have died and their children
have become merged in the general population. The absence of any
traditional caste or class, such as that of the _Cagots_ in the South
of France, is a proof that this absorption into the general population
was complete.
In that year the converts petitioned the King for a Keeper who would
look after their interests. It is noted that during the next hundred
years many of the Keepers of the Domus Conversorum were also Keepers of
the Rolls.
However, the King answered the petition by fixing the allowance for the
House at £202: 0: 4, out of which the Fabric was to be kept up, the
Master, Chaplains, and Clerk were to be paid, and the converts were to
receive weekly allowances. On the death of a convert the amount of the
grant was to be decreased. It was evidently supposed that the converts
would die off. This, however, did not take place. On the other hand,
though the numbers rapidly decreased, the House was never without new
converts. Mr. Phillimore does not say where these converts came from:
if there were no Jews left in England there could be no converts made
in this country.
In 1308 the converts complained that their allowances were not paid.
The King ordered an inquiry. It was found that out of all the inmates
in 1290, 34 were dead, twelve had left the House, and 56 were still
living there. The King thereupon granted a reduced payment of £123: 10:
6.
In 1330-1 there were 8 men and 13 women converts.
In 1334 there were 7 men and 13 women.
In 1337-8 there were 13 men and as many women.
In 1350 there were 2 men and 2 women.
In 1351 Henry de Ingleby had only 1 convert under his care.
In 1371 William de Burstall, who was Keeper of the Rolls, was made
Keeper of the Domus Conversorum: there were then two converts. In 1377,
on learning that William de Burstall had repaired the dilapidated
buildings, Edward the Third provided that the two offices should be
held together.
In 1386 payments were asked for the Keeper, one chaplain, one clerk,
and three converts.
It is very curious to find that the supply of converts continued; only
once did they wholly cease; there was sometimes only one; then three,
four, eight, five, two, and so on. Where, I repeat, did they come from?
One woman was named Elizabeth Portugall—evidently a Portuguese Jewess;
another was called Elizabeth Baptista; another was “Kateryn Wheteley,”
sometime called Aysa Rudeywa; another, Mary Coke, alias “Omell Fayll
Isya.”
Thomas Cromwell was made Keeper in 1534. In his term of office he
held a Court of Law at the House: yet it was not without converts. In
1550, when John Beaumont became keeper, he had but one convert, the
above-named Mary Coke.
When Mary Coke died in 1551 (?), there followed a period of 26 years
when there were no converts at all. In 1578 Yehoude Mende appears
followed by Fortuna Massa, Philip Ferdinando and Elizabeth Ferdinando.
In 1606-7 there were four converts. And then the allowances cease.
One Paul Jacob petitioned King James to grant him assistance, but he
was not received into the Domus. That part of its history was closed.
In 1708 we hear that the buildings were much dilapidated: in 1717 the
Rolls House was built upon the site of the Domus. And the Chapel was
used as a muniment room for depositing the rolls of Chancery, until
their removal to the Public Record Office.
CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN AND ALL SAINTS GUILDHALL
The foundation of a college dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen is said
by Stow to have taken place in 1299. It appears to have been so much
enriched seventy years later by Adam Francis and Henry de Frowick as
to have become a new Foundation. A third benefactor, Peter Fantore,
died before his intentions were carried out. It was endowed for five
chaplains who were to pray for the souls of the Founders, their wives,
and their children, King Edward the Third, and all departed Kings,
Mayors, Wardens, Sheriffs, and Chamberlains of the City. In the year
1430, the buildings, having become ruinous, were pulled down and others
erected on the south side of them. In 1450 the parish clerks obtained
leave to have a Guild dedicated to St. Nicholas in the Chapel, with two
chaplains and seven almspeople.
At the Dissolution the College had a Warden, seven chaplains, three
clerks, and four choristers. The Chapel was given to the Mayor and
Aldermen, for whom services were held in it on certain occasions.
In the year 1785 the Chapel was made into a Court of Requests, and so
remained until the year 1820, when it was taken down.
THE CHAPEL AND COLLEGE OF LEADENHALL
This very ancient market was the property of the City as early as the
first quarter of the fourteenth century. The College was founded by
Simon Eyre, draper and Mayor, in 1445, when he also built a granary.
It was to consist of a Warden, five secular priests, six clerks,
and two choristers to sing mass daily: there were also to be three
schoolmasters with an usher; one master, to wit, with an usher, for
grammar; one for writing; and one for singing; the masters were to have
a yearly stipend of £10; every other priest £8; every clerk £5: 6: 8;
and every chorister £3: 6: 8. Stow says that the conditions of the will
were not carried out as regards the services in the Chapel and the free
school.
But, in 1466, a Fraternity of the Holy Trinity was founded in
connection with the Chapel by three priests. It consisted of 60
priests with other brothers and sisters. They performed divine service
every market day in the afternoon, and once a year they had a solemn
service with a procession of all the Fraternity. The property of this
Fraternity amounted to £7: 10s. yearly.
The chapel escaped the Great Fire. It was pulled down in 1812.
Wilkinson thus describes it:—
“This Chapel projected eastward from the exterior of the eastern
cloisters of Leadenhall, from which it was entered by a large arched
doorway, having the arms of the founder over the centre; and on each
side of the interior arch was a perforated Gothic screen, of exquisite
workmanship. The building was oblong, and was divided on the exterior
sides into four parts, by buttresses reaching nearly to the roof, and
separating as many large windows of the depressed pointed arch form,
each parted into three lights, by stone mullions with cinquefoil
arches; the window at the eastern end being considerably larger than
the other, and containing five lights. On the outside the Chapel was
almost completely enclosed by a case of wooden sheds, which reached
nearly to the bases of the windows. It was covered with rafters and
tiling of the coarsest modern workmanship, instead of the ancient roof,
which had been pointed, and was supported within by carved brackets
of chestnut wood, resting on corbels let into the walls against the
buttresses: but of those brackets, only the scrolls and one fragment
remained when the building was destroyed. Within the Chapel, at the
south-west corner, was a small oaken door curiously studded and
panelled, opening into a square apartment, which had probably been the
sacristy; against the walls of which Mr. John Thomas Smith discovered
some slight remains of painted figures. One of these exhibited the
cheek, ear, and side of a head, with long yellow hair, flowing over
blue and red drapery; the whole very much resembling the paintings
discovered in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, executed in the reign
of Edward III. Those at Leadenhall, however, were neither embossed nor
gilded; but were outlined and shaded with red ochre.” (Wilkinson, vol.
ii.)
THE NUNNERY OF KILBURN
This small House, a cell to the Abbey of Westminster, is, in history,
chiefly an account of the jealousies of the Bishop of London and the
Abbot of Westminster as to the Episcopal jurisdiction.
Its history is curious. One Godwyn, a recluse, built a hermitage at
Kilburn on some land belonging to himself. He conveyed the land to the
Abbey of Westminster, by whom a small convent was built on the spot for
three ladies, maids of honour to Matilda, Queen of Henry the First.
Godwyn became Warden for life, and the Abbey made provision for the
maintenance of the nuns.
On the foundation of the nunnery, Gilbert, the Bishop of London,
exempted it from his own jurisdiction. This exemption was questioned
by Roger le Noir, Bishop in 1229. In 1231 a composition was entered
into between the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s on the one side and the
Abbot of Westminster on the other.
[Illustration: NORTH-EAST VIEW OF THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY TRINITY,
LEADENHALL, IN THE PARISH OF ST. PETER UPON CORNHILL, LONDON
_Londina Illustrata_, published 1825 by R. Wilkinson, No. 125 Fenchurch
Street.]
“By virtue of this agreement the bishop for the time being was to
have access to the cell of Kilburn, to be received with procession,
to preach, hear confessions, and enjoin penances; but without being
entitled to any claim for procurations. It was also conceded that the
secular priest, or warden, who was set over the house by the abbat,
should, upon his appointment, be presented to the Bishop and pay
canonical obedience to him, but to be removable by the abbat alone.
That the prioress of the house, though appointed by the abbat and his
successors, should be under obedience to the bishop, saving in all
things the canonical reverence and subjection which she owed of old
to the abbat. That, however, the entire ordering or regulation of
the house, concerning matters and persons within its precinct, with
the correction of excesses and reformation of its abuses, and the
institution or destitution of the prioress and nuns, should belong
to the abbat and his successors for ever; provided, that in case any
matters requiring persons abiding there, should be neglected by him for
the space of a month after warning having been given to him (or in his
absence to the Prior) by the bishop, then, upon clear evidence of such
neglect of reformation, it should be lawful for the bishop himself to
proceed toward correcting and reforming them in such manner as ‘prout
secundum Deum viderit expedire.’ It was further ordained that no monk
but the abbat (or in vacancy, absence, or illness, the prior) should
go near the nuns to hear their confessions and enjoin penance. That
the bishop should, when requested by the abbat, perform the office of
blessing or consecrating the nuns, but that no other bishop should be
in future introduced or admitted at Kilburn to perform any episcopal
ceremony. Finally, that neither the bishop nor his chapter should, by
reason of this composition, challenge any jurisdiction or subjection
over the abbat and monks of Westminster, nor in anything derogate
from the rights of the aforesaid nuns, or their cell.” (_London and
Middlesex Notes_, pp. 422-423.)
The House received a good many benefactions, but always remained a
small Foundation. The revenues, when it was dissolved, amounted to
sums variously stated between £74: 7: 11 and £121: 14s. The inventory
of all the goods belonging to the nunnery of Kilburn, the 11th day of
May, 28th of Henry the Eighth, seems to show that the House was well
and completely furnished. It contained a Hall; five chambers for the
ladies of the House: Kitchen, Buttery, Pantry, Larder, Brew-house,
Bake-house, Cellar; three chambers for the Chaplain and the Husbandmen;
the Confession chamber; and the church.
No remains are now to be seen of this House. The last Prioress was Anne
Browne.
THE NUNNERY OF STRATFORD-LE-BOW
This Priory was in the Parish of Bromley, but so near to the hamlet of
Stratford-le-Bow that it was commonly called after it. The House has
been sometimes confused with a Convent of White Monks in the Parish of
West Ham, called the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne.
The nunnery, dedicated to St. Leonard, is said to have been founded
by William, Bishop of London, in the reign of William the Conqueror.
It was always a small house. We read of certain donations and
benefactions—lands at Haseling field; the Church of Northim, afterwards
called Norton Mandeville; gifts by Henry the Second; the Manor of
Bromley; lands held by Idonea Cricket in the reign of Edward the First,
by the service of holding the King’s napkin at the Coronation.
Here was buried Elizabeth, sister of Queen Philippa, and daughter of
William, Earl of Hainault.
At the Dissolution there were a Prioress and nine nuns. The revenues
of the House were estimated, according to Dugdale, at £108: 1: 11-1/2,
and according to Speed at £121: 16s. At this time the maintenance of a
chantry priest being £5 or £6 a year, the ten nuns would require about
£50 for their maintenance, leaving £70 for the House and the service.
Sibilla Kirke, the last prioress, received a pension of £15 a year. She
was still living in 1553.
The site of the Priory, the advowson of the Church, and the Manor of
Bromley, were given to Sir Ralph Saddler. The Chapel is now the Parish
Church of Bow.
ST. AUGUSTINE’S PAPEY
The history of this interesting house, previously almost unknown, was
rescued by the late Rev. Thomas Hugo, who read a paper on the subject
before the _London and Middlesex Archæological Society_ (vol. v.).
It was founded in 1442 by four priests of London, viz. Thomas Symmeson,
Rector of All Hallows in the Wall; William Cleve, Priest of the Charity
of St. John the Baptist in the Church of St. Mary Aldermary; William
Barneby, a Chantry Priest in St. Paul’s Cathedral; and John Stafford,
Priest in London. The Foundation was a Hospital or College for aged and
impotent Priests. The Churches of the time were filled with Chantry
Priests, each of whom had to live upon the very small endowment of a
Chantry—generally £6 or £7 a year, sometimes less—in return for a Mass
said every day for the soul of the Founder. When age fell upon these
men, and they could no longer perform the one simple duty of their
life, what could they do? How could they live? We cannot believe that
an old and impotent Priest was ever suffered to starve. At the same
time, until the charity of the Papey was founded, the lot of many must
have been precarious and dependent and most miserable.
The Papey was situated within the wall just at the north end of the
street now called “St. Mary Axe.” In the _Collections of a London
Citizen_ (Camden Society) it is written “Pappy Chyrche in the walle
be twyne Aldgate and Bevysse Markes. And hit ys a grete Fraternyte of
prestys and other segular men. And there were founde of almys certayne
prestys both blynde and lame that be empotent: and they have day masse
and xiiij a weke, barber, and launder, and one to dresse and provyde
for hyr mete and drynke.” They also had allowance of bread and coal,
with one aged man and his wife to keep the house clean.
The Church and parish of St. Augustine had recently been incorporated
with that of All Hallows in the Wall. It was therefore a disused church
which was first placed at the service of these poor priests. The Rector
of All Hallows, in addition, gave over to their use a certain messuage
with a garden which had been given to All Hallows by a late citizen.
The community, so formed, was to be in honour of St. Charity and St.
John the Evangelist. This name, however, was never given to the house
by the people, who called it still St. Augustine, qualified by the
words De Papey—_i.e._ of the _papes_ or fathers who lived there. The
Foundation was poor; but it possessed a house at Baynard’s Castle, six
cottages and two messuages in Pavyn Alley; there was also the messuage
in Bevis Marks given them by the Rector of All Hallows. This is all the
property that can be proved to belong to them. Those of the members
who could walk and sing sometimes attended the funerals of great
persons, and in this way added something to the slender revenues of the
House. At the time of the foundation there were twenty-four brethren
and fifteen sisters—it does not appear how the sisters were elected or
for what cause.
The history of the House is not marked, so far as I know, by a single
event. It lasted for 106 years, being suppressed by the Act of 2 Ed.
VI. for the suppression of all chantries, hospitals, and similar
foundations. The value of the land and property of the Foundation was
returned at £23: 11: 8. William Nevill purchased the House for £102.
There were then six old priests but no sisters. These, one records
with satisfaction, were all provided with small pensions: the Master
receiving sixty-six shillings and eightpence a year, a little over
twopence-farthing a day, and the brethren forty shillings, a little
under 1-1/3d. a day. The church was pulled down, and an Apothecary set
up his shop on the site, the Churchyard was converted into a garden,
and the Priests’ House became a private residence. Thus was thrown down
and destroyed a Foundation which might have continued doing good work
unto the present day. There is not, in fact, among all the numerous
charities, foundations, and endowments belonging to the Church, a
single House at the present day which at all corresponds with this
ancient Foundation of St. Augustine Papey.
The late foundation of the House, at a time when bequests to the
religious House had begun to fall off before they ceased altogether,
sufficiently accounts for its poverty. One or two bequests only, and
these apparently of small account, are on record. (See Appendix X.).
WHITTINGTON COLLEGE
The College of St. Spirit and St. Mary, founded by Whittington,
whose intention was carried out by his executors, was for a Master,
four Fellows, Clerks, Choristers, etc., together with an Almshouse.
Fortunately the Almshouse was separated by the executors from the
College, so that it was spared when the College was suppressed. The
following is a portion of the original ordinances of the Charity drawn
up by the executors:—
“The fervent Desire and best Intention of a prudent, wyse and
devout man that be to cast before and make seure the State and
thende of the short liffe with Dedys of Mercy and Pite: and namely
to provyde for such pouer Persons which grevous Penuere and cruel
Fortune have oppressed, and be not of power to gete their lyving
either by Craft or by any other bodily Labour: whereby that at the
day of the last Jugement, he may take his part with hem that shal be
saved. This considering the foresaid worthy and notable Merchaunt
Richard Whittington, the which while he leved had ryght liberal and
large hands to the Needy and Poure People, charged streitly, in his
Death-bed, us his foresaid Executors, to ordeyne a House of Almes
after his Deth, for perpetual sustentacion of such poure people as
is tofore rehersed: and therupon fully he declared his Wyll unto us.
And we wylling after our power to fullfil thentent of his commendable
Wille and holesome Dessre in this part, as we be bound.
First, Yfounded by us, with sufficient Authorite, in the Church of
Seint Mighells, in the Royolle of London: where the foresaid Richard
and Dame Alice his Wife be biried, a commendable College of certain
Prestes and Clerkis; to do there every day divine Service for the
aforesaid Richard and Alice.
We have founded also, after the Wille abovesaid, a House of Almes
for XIII pouere folk successively for evermore; to dwell and to be
susteined in the same House. Which house is situated and edified upon
a certain Soyl that we bought therefore, late in the Parish of Seinte
Mighel abovesaid: that is to say, Bytweene the foresaid Church and the
Wall that closeth in the voyd place, behind the heigh Auter of the
same Church in the Southside, and our great Tenement, that was late
the House of the aforesaid Richard Whyttington in the Northside. And
it stretcheth fro the dwelling place of the Master and the Prestis of
the College abovesaid. The which also we did late to be now added in
the Eastside unto a great voyd place of our Land. The which by the
help of God we purpose to do be hallowed Lawfully for a Churchyard to
the same Church within short time in the Westside.” (Stow, i. bk. iii.
pp. 3-4.)
And the ordinances for the poor folk are as follows:—
“To be twelve pouer Folks alonely of Men or Women togiddre; after
the sad Discretition and good Conscience of the Overseers underwrit,
and Conservators of the same House, to be provided and admitted.
The which every day, when due and convenient time is, shal pray for
evermore, for al the now being alive, and also for the bypast, to
God; Whose names of great Specialty been expressed in these Statutes
underwrit.
To be one _Principal_, which shal pass al other in power and
Reverence, and be called TUTOR. The Office and Charge of him shal be
the goods of the Almes-house, which shal come to his hands, well and
truly to minister. The Goods dissevered to gather again togidre; to
the Use of the Almes-house: And at the Husbandry of the same house,
in as much as he may goodly oversee, dispose and ordain; inforcing
himself to edifie and nourish Charity and Peace among his Felawes.
The Poor folks unto the said _Tutor_ evermore shal obey.
The thirteen poor folke to be hable in Conversation, and honest in
Living.
The same House to be called for ever _God’s House_, or Almes house, or
the Hospital of _Richard Whyttington_.
The L. Maior to be overseer of the said Almeshouse: and the Keepers
of the Commonalty of the Craft of Mercers to be called for evermore
_Conservators_ of the foresaid House.
The Tutor to have a Place by himself, that is to say, a Cell or little
House, with a Chimney and a Prevy, and other Necessaries. In the
which he shall Lyegge and rest. And that he may aloon and by himself,
without Let of any other Persoon intend to the Contemplation of God,
if he woll.
Every Tutour and poor folk every day first whan they rise fro their
Bedds, kneeling upon their knees, sey a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria,
with special and herty recommendacion-making of the foresaid Richard
Whyttington and Alice, to God, and our Blessed Lady Maidyn MARY. And
other times of the day, whan he may be best and most commody have
leisure thereto, for the Staat of al the Souls abovesaid, Say three
or two Sauters of our Lady at the least: that is to say, threies
seaven Ave Marias, with XV pater nosters, and three Credes. But if he
be letted with febleness, or any other reasonable cawse, One in the
day at the least, in case it may be: that is to say, after the Messe,
or when Complyn is don, they come togidder within the College about
the Tomb of the aforesaid Rich. Whyttington and Alice, and they that
can sey, shal sey for the Soules of the seid Richard and Alice, and
for the Soules of al Christen people, this Psalm de Profundis with
the Versicles and Oriosons that longeth thereto. And they that can
shal sey three Pater nosters, three Ave Marias, and oon Crede. And
after this doon, the Tutour, or oon of the eldest men of theym that
sey openly in English, God have mercy on our Founders Souls and al
Chrysten. And they that stond about shal aunswer and say, Amen.
That they be bound to dwell and abide continewally in the seid Almes
house, and bounds thereof: And that every day, booth at meet and
sopier, they eet and be fed within the said Almes house. And while
they be at meet, or soupier, they absteyn thanne from veyn and
ydel words. And if they wol any thyng talk, that it be honest and
profitable.
That the Overclothyng of the Tutour and pouer folk be derk and brown
of colour; and not staring ne blaising; and of esy prised, according
to their Degree.” (Stow, i. bk. iii. pp. 4-5.)
The Almshouse, removed from its former place behind the church of St.
Michael Royal, is still in existence at Highgate.
We may pass rapidly through the few remaining small Houses.
DENTON’S HOSPITAL is entered as one of them, but it never existed
except in the intention of the Founder, Robert de Denton. He obtained,
in 1369, the Royal license to found a Hospital for distracted priests
and others, but could not carry out his intentions, and instead founded
a chantry at the House of St. Katherine by the Tower.
Of CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL I find nothing but a tradition that one of
the Kings, being annoyed by the presence of the patients so near the
Court, ordered their removal to Bethlehem Hospital.
ST. MICHAEL, CROOKED LANE. This College was founded by Sir William
Walworth, who united certain Chantries and added lands and certain
houses, and so formed a College for the support of a Master and nine
priests.
BARKING COLLEGE was attached to the Church of All Hallows, Barking.
Richard the First founded and endowed here a Chapel to the Virgin.
John, Earl of Worcester, added a Brotherhood with a Master and Brethren
endowed from the alien Houses of Tooting, Bow, and Okeburn. Richard
the Third rebuilt the Chapel and founded a college with a Dean and six
Fellows. It was dissolved by Edward the Sixth, the buildings pulled
down, and the ground converted into a garden.
HOLME’S COLLEGE OF ST. PAUL’S was founded by Roger Holme, Chancellor of
St. Paul’s, in 1395, as a college of seven Priests, whose services were
held in the Chapel of the Holy Ghost. The College buildings stood in
the parish of St. Gregory, south of the Cathedral Precinct.
LANCASTER COLLEGE was founded by Henry the Fourth and the executors of
John of Gaunt in connection with the Cathedral: the College buildings
were also in the Parish of St. Gregory.
Another College in connection with the Cathedral was that of the MINOR
CANONS, founded by Richard the Second. They had houses adjoining the
Precinct and a Common Hall within the Precinct.
The College of ST. LAWRENCE POULTENEY, in connection with that church,
consisted of a Master or Warden, thirteen priests, clerks, and
choristers.
In Dowgate stood a small college of Priests called JESUS COMMONS: Stow
says that it was a “House well furnished with Brass, Pewter, Napery,
Plate, etc., besides a fair Library well stored with books: all which
of old time were given to a number of priests that should keep Commons
there.” Evidently a quiet and peaceful College, not unlike All Souls,
Oxford.
ST. JAMES’ IN THE FIELDS, a hospital founded from time immemorial, for
leprous virgins of the City, was suppressed by Henry the Eighth. St.
James’s Palace stands upon its site.
ST. MARY ROUNCEVALL or RUNCEVALL, at Charing Cross, a hospital,
suppressed as an alien House by Henry the Fifth, was refounded as
a Brotherhood by Edward the Fourth, provided with new statutes for
a Master, Wardens, Brethren, and Sisters by Henry the Seventh, and
suppressed again by Edward the Sixth. Northumberland House, with its
gardens, used to occupy exactly the Precinct of St. Mary Rouncevall. It
was built, as Northampton House, in the year 1614.
Beside this House was a modest Hermitage, named after ST. CATHERINE,
founded by Edward the First (see also Appendix XI.).